Counting down the days.

Pardon me while I borrow and change up a little the words in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes:

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.

A time to work, and a time to work the next job,

a time to clean and time to be messy (so I can just clean again!),

a time to wash dishes and a time to put them away,

a time to get up early and a time to........well, mostly just get up early,

A time to do laundry again and again and again.............

A time to dust and a time to walk around and make more dust,

And then.............

THERE'S A TIME TO GO ON A CRUISE!!!!!********+++++++++:) :) :) :)   This is me doing the happy dance because on Sunday around 4 p.m. I'll be sailing out of Galveston to visit the beautiful and sunny (I hope!) islands of the Bahamas and Key West!  Yep, my fun father of 94 short years is treating me, my sister Suzi, and my brother Dave to a Caribbean Cruise on the Carnival Conquest cruise ship!  Don't worry, there will be the equivalent of inviting you over, sitting you down, and boring you with vacation slides as I'll be posting pictures when I get back.  I know!!  You'll be waiting with bated breath for those but you'll just have to be patient.  

Until then.......BON VOYAGE!!

Done, done, and done!

One of the best things about having weather like we had last week is that it makes days like these seem just perfect.

I got my little garden in the back yard all turned and tilled, and planted potatoes, spinach, and onions.  I've planted potatoes once before when I had a plot in the community garden around the corner and they were SO delicious.  The only problem was that I didn't have very many.  So I'm hoping these will be as good and I think I have better knowledge so maybe there will be more.

What I would like to be doing is preparing a pen for chickens.   But, alas, city codes do not permit me to raise them in my part of town.  I'm trying not to be jealous as my brother, Kelly, is happily dreaming of and preparing for his new batch of baby chicks.  But as a consolation, I'm hoping he'll let me name at least one of them and maybe even beg a few eggs from him.  Hey, Kelly, I'll even save a carton or two to collect them in!

Spring is definitely in the air.  It's just too bad that it's still a couple of months away!

One down!

Well, our first country and western dance class was a success!  And really fun, by the way.  At least for me.  Bob probably wouldn't admit it but I'm pretty sure he actually enjoyed himself also. 

There were twelve other couples there and several of the men seemed just like Bob, kind of a man's man, if you will, so I was relieved. 

Our instructor, I'll call him John, was great, much better than the guy last year.  We went much slower which is always a good thing when you're old and out of practice.  And there was an assistant this time, a woman, I'll call her Jane.  That was better because it gave me someone to watch and learn from.  

Toward the end of the class, in the middle of a song, I took a 10-7 (figure it out!) and when I got back, after scanning the room for my lonely and uncomfortable husband, I spotted Jane and him out tripping the light fantastic together!  Well, well, well, when the cat's away......... 

So I think we may actually stick this one out!  Move over, Fred and Ginger!!! 

My talented daughter!

I just had to show off Kaylee's handiwork.  These are some headbands that she's crocheted in the last few days and I just love the flowers and the colors.  I'd like to say that the apple doesn't  fall far from the tree but I don't have a clue how to crochet.  But I may get her to teach me!

Dancing?? Bob?? Surely not!

Don't you think this looks just like Bob and me?  Well, it will starting next week!  As of Monday we will be the official students of a community college country and western dance class.  This was the picture in the college course catalog and they just looked they were having fun so after not even having to beg, Bob gave the thumbs up so we're enrolled. 

Actually, Bob, Bobby and his girlfriend, Jennifer, and I took a similar class from a city program last year and it didn't work out too well.  Bobby was home between college and basic training so he didn't get to finish the class and we weren't crazy about the teacher or the progress so we stopped that one. 

So here's our second chance!  The only problem is that the class doesn't start till 8:30 p.m., isn't finished till 10:00 p.m.,  and our bedtime is about 9:30 p.m.  Hmmmm!!  Guess we'll have to take a nap!  Now I really am feeling about as old as our friends above.  But if they can do it then so can we!!   

No pie? Oh my!!

Recently I've attempted to start a small, no...tiny, no...minuscule little pie baking business so a friend called a couple of weeks ago to hire me to bake a chocolate one for her husband's birthday.  I promptly put it on my calendar and then promptly forgot to look back at my calendar!!!  Oooops!!  His birthday was today!  It completely slipped my mind until this morning when after my crosswalk I sat down at my computer to waste some time till I had to be at my second job.

I'm not sure what brought his birthday and the forgotten pie to mind but there it was, front and center.  I immediately called my friend to BEG her forgiveness but as I was talking to her I realized I had at least 20 minutes till I had to be at my next job so I told her never mind, that I was going to make that pie!  And I did!!!!  I called my second job and told them I'd be a little late and went after it with a vengeance.  Thirty five minutes!!  That's how long it took to get from a made-from-scratch crust to the huge and beautifully browned meringue.  

My friend's husband is, of course, also my friend and, as it happens, also my dentist.  His office is, thankfully, just down the street from my house so I boxed that sucker up, delivered it with instructions to refrigerate it, and raced back to my (again, thankfully) somewhat flexible job.  But actually, as it turns out, I was exactly only two minutes late to pick up my first passenger.  Whew!!  

 I can almost hear my mom say, "Jeanne, you were just flying by the seat of your pants!"  Yep, I sure was!  But it worked!      

  

Ahhh! Jury Duty!

Okay, call me crazy (it's okay, I'm aware of the problem!) but I find myself fantasizing about jury duty.  I had to report last Tuesday and it worked perfectly because the first day of my second job's work week starts on Tuesday.  So I took off work to start my new distraction from the everyday humdrum routine of life. 

They only kept me that first day for about thirty minutes, long enough to watch the humorous but informative video about my duty as a citizen and long enough for them to tell me to come back the next day at the same time.  Yay!  Another day off work!  Don't get me wrong!  I love my job driving people around but who doesn't enjoy an unexpected day off now and then?  And here I was with not one, but two days off.  How cool is that?  And I get paid for it to boot!  Granted, the first day was only worth $6 but the next day was a whopping $40!!  Hey, that's almost as much as I make when I drive so don't be quick to knock it!

So I went back the next day to go through the process of finding out if I would be the lucky one out of six to serve on a jury deciding whether or not an ordinary looking, about my age, guy was guilty of abusing his ex-wife.  Well, you guessed it--I wasn't picked.  Darn it!  I was a little disappointed at first because I thought the whole experience might be kind of interesting.  But it didn't take long for me to figure out that now that I wasn't one of the "lucky" ones, I'd have another day off to do whatever I wanted to do!  

Well, THEN, apparently they at work assumed I would check in if I wasn't chosen but I didn't know that so I didn't get scheduled for the next and last day of my work week!  Woo hoo!!  A whole week off of work!  Now that's what I call a gift!  

And now you know why I find myself every once in awhile just daydreaming about my lovely jury duty experience.