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Showing posts from June, 2008

Oh, man, talk about contrast

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Two weekends ago traveling in Ireland One weekend ago camping in Arizona This past weekend in Memphis. These last two pictures are of my dear sweet mother-in-law. I put them here as a reminder -- whoever your mother is, she won't be here, healthy and laughing forever. Please call your mother and let her know you love her. Forgive her for whatever you think she did to offend you and move on with your life with peace of mind and love in your heart. My only regret for my mother-in-law is that I didn't get to know her longer--before she got so sick. The little time I did spend with her was a great delight. Even in this frail condition, she is a delight to be around. "Hi, Mom, how you doin'?" "Hey, baaaybee, Iii'm jesss fiiiine. How you doin'?" and later "I love you baaaybee." Her heavy southern accent draws out words of love. I love her dearly. This trip was a reminder that Tarzan and I need to enjoy my mother more while she is still hea

Unbelievable--I want one.

Painting with a computer brush

ABC Tag

ABC Tag A-Attached or Single?-Attached B-Best Friend- My daughter Cake or Pie?- Cake--Texas Sheet Cake D-Day of choice?- If this means day of the week, Friday. If this means the one day I would love to live my whole life through--the day Tarzan put his arms around me for the first time and made me fall in love with him forever. E-Essential item?- Computer F-Favorite color?-Red G-Gummy bears or worms? Bears H-Hometown?- USA I-Favorite Indulgence? Ice Cream J-January or July?- January K-Kids?-Brian, Tori, Celia, Leisa, Langston, Landau, Warren, Rachel L-Life isn't complete without?- A good Laugh and a song M-Marriage Date?-April 10, 1999 N-Number of Bro & Sis?-1 brother 1 sisters O-Oranges or Apples?- Oranges P-Phobias and Fears?- Fear of being unloved Q-Quote?- During the sacrament, a 3 year old sitting on my lap says right out loud "Mom, are you thinking about Jesus?" R-Reason to smile?- Tarzan S-Season of choice?- Spring T-Tag Ten People?- I pick any ten who have no

Camping with Tarzan

Before we were married, Tarzan invited me to go camping. He was retired and I was still working so the plan was this. Tarzan would get everything ready, I would go to work and when I got off work, we would leave for the mountains. After work, I hurried home, changed cloths and drove to Tarzan's house. I knocked on the door and after several, long minutes he answered. He was sitting in the dark with his computer in a bazillion pieces. He simply said, "Oh, is it 5:00 o'clock?" He had done NOTHING to get ready to go camping. He threw a hammock in the Jeep. We drove together to my house and I got a few blankets and a pan to cook with and off we went. I must have been in love... When we got up north, Tarzan stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken to get dinner. Hmmmmm, not what I had thought dinner at a camp site would be. Then, I suggested we might want to stop at a grocery store before heading into the woods in case he didn't catch enough fish for breakfast. He was a lit

May 29th--Dublin and Home

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We left this B&B with a new plan. When Tarzan got ready for bed the night before, he was wearing a nitro patch. It turns out that the driving has been a great strain on him. He has been worried about his blood pressure and heart the whole week. So, the new plan is this—we will drive straight to Dublin, park the car, pay for an extra day at the hotel and hire a taxi for every trip we want to take. We had a beautiful drive on major highways and stopped in Naas for lunch in a pub. The pub was full of people taking their lunch break from work. That tells you how good it is, the locals go there. I had a yummy tuna melt, Rachel had a wonderful curry chicken pita and Tarzan had a lousy beef stroganoff. In Dublin, we were able to get a room for an extra night in the hotel even nicer than the first one. After getting all of our stuff into the hotel, we had the taxi pick us up and take us to the Guiness factory. That was the one thing Rachel really wanted to do. When we got there she realize

May 28, 2008--Cork and Tipperary and Kilkenny

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I haven’t said much about the driving, but now I have to say something about that. There are no road signs or if there are signs they are wrong or not giving the information we need. Also, they do not have house numbers in Ireland unless you are in a new subdivision or I noticed some of the row houses in Dublin have numbers on the doors. So, everything was confusing. Somehow, the GPS system was able to find every place we asked for. However, driving down a road the width of a car with traffic going two-ways and bushes, shrubs, trees and sometimes rock walls on the edge of the road—so to pull over to the left (driving on the wrong side of the road) the car was continuously scraped. I was grateful we had bought the extra insurance! There is no way to describe here the hilarity of the situation with me dodging the branches hitting the front window, and then scraping down my side of the car. Me occasionally saying, “You’re driving on the wrong side of the road;” Tarzan hyperventilating, tr

May 27, 2008, Waterford

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Caroline served us a full Irish breakfast in the morning. We loaded up and headed out to visit the Waterford Crystal Factory. Tarzan was so impressed. He had never seen glass blowing before. He comment was that from now on he will have a greater appreciation for crystal. Our guide was so lame. He looked like Pee Wee Herman and didn’t talk to us. We all got on a bus, drove to the appropriate place and he got off the bus without a word. There were two retired men in our group from Belgium. They didn’t speak English very well so they turned to Tarzan and asked “what do we do?” Tarzan replied, “I don’t know, I guess we follow him.” So, everyone got off while Pee Wee Herman stood there looking stupid. As we went through the men from Belgium were so interested they kept stopping and talking to the blowers, cutters and etchers. These men all get paid by the piece, so we were not supposed to disturb them, but the Belgium guys were so cute that the workers all stopped and talked to them. Tarzan

May 26, 2008 Wicklow and Wexford

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I woke up at 9:00 a.m. totally rested after 13-hours of sleep. I hopped into the shower lathered up my hair for a much needed shampoo when ---------------Poof-------------- the power went off and took the water with it. Thank goodness I had rinsed the shampoo out and we had all showered the night before. What a mess. Remember, we were on the eleventh floor and I went right out and got on the elevator (like an idiot). Thank goodness the elevator had a backup generator, but you could not get out of the outside door without a key because the electric eye wasn’t working. I lucked out and a girl was there to open it. Turns out there was work going on in the road and they cut a power line to the hotel. I finger dried my hair and then had mostly flat hair all day. I am so grateful I got a good haircut before I left. We were too late for breakfast, so we headed out to Wicklow. We had a list of places to visit but when we got into town we were hungry so we checked the Garmin for places to eat t

May 25, 2008 Dublin, Ireland

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We arrived in Dublin at 8:00 a.m., got our rented car and then drove around in the parking lot for 10 minutes looking for the lost car rental agreement. Tarzan said he put it on top of the suitcases while he pulled the car out. The wind was blowing like a son-of-a-gun so we figured it had blown away. After the third time around the yard, I offered to get out and look. When I got out of the car—guess what? I was sitting on it. We all got our first laugh of the trip. Tarzan drove on the wrong side of the road once trying to get to the hotel—yikes! Then he drove down the line between 2 lanes once and had a parade of honking horns behind him. Rachel and I were very good and did not yell at him once. Our room was not ready so we ate again! More heavy breakfast food—ugh! I finally took some antacids and felt fine in about 15 minutes. Then we went out to the car and took a nap. They let us check in a little early and our room was very nice. It was an apartment on the eleventh floor of a hotel

May 24, 2008, Ireland trip

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I am going to blog my journal for the trip, so my next few blogs will be about this wonderful trip I just took to Ireland. If you get a chance, go. Phoenix, Arizona I woke up at 1:00 a.m. and remembered my hair dryer was not packed. I woke up at 2:00 a.m. to see what time it was. Got up at 4:15 a.m. At the airport at 6:00 a.m. We got in the international check in line. It was pleasantly short. Gary called us up to the U.S. Airways counter. We handed over our passports and tickets and Gary began to search the computer. Soon, he said, “I think you are flying United not U.S. Airways.” We all groaned. The tickets clearly stated “US.” Gary asked us to be patient and said he would be right back. I turned to Tarzan and said “The fiasco continues.” Tarzan Replied, “No, the adventure begins.” Don’t you just love him? Oh, I didn’t tell you that yesterday—the day before we were leaving, we realized our names on the airline tickets did not match the names on our passports! We waiting with our brea