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Yesterday was my granddaughters eighth birthday. Happy Birthday Jas! It is so hard to believe she is eight already. By all rights she should still be in diapers, toddling around with a teddy bear clutched in her arms. Before I know it she will be asking for a car for her birthday.

Jas had a small birthday party at home. Yes, there was some trampoline jumping which I was involved in, but those pictures will NEVER be posted on the Internet. NEVER! I did learn that trampoline jumping is major fun though.


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Last Thursday night Jas spent the night with me so I could take her to the movies on Friday as a pre-birthday treat. So in typical “Gwanma” fashion I took her to Baskin Robbins on Thursday night for dessert. I bought her the kiddie cone with gummy worms on the side. The kiddie cone has always been more than enough for Jas, as she is a little petite thing. After she ate her kiddie come she wanted another! I purchased the second kiddie cone and she ate all of that one too. My little Jas has graduated to an adult cone I think.

On Friday morning we went on the webcam so she could open the presents her Auntie Brooklyn had sent from Germany, while Auntie Brooklyn watched on the webcam. One of the presents was a beautiful pink bracelet, which Jas hasn’t taken off since she opened it. Auntie Brooklyn’s presents from Germany were a big hit. After the presents we rushed off to the cinema to catch the first showing of Wall-e. What a cute movie. We loved it!


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The movie was mainly about robots falling in love. Wall-e and his cockroach friend (who won’t die) are the only inhabitants left on Earth, as everyone else left for a four year voyage in the Universe 700 years earlier. Clips are shown from older musicals to show humanity before Earth was abandoned. Wall-E, his crush EVE, and all the other robots involved can say little than their name, however, we understand exactly what they mean throughout. It was a fabulous movie. Go see it!

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Flower or weed? That is the question. I don't know the answer to be quite honest with you, but it's pretty so I'm keeping it in my garden. I have a sneaky suspicion that it might be a weed though. Does anyone know?

It seems that snakes like the plant, whatever it is. Because we have found a baby snake by this plant twice in the same week. Did I mention I am deathly afraid of snakes? (Just ask my daughter ... ahem ...)

Meanwhile summer stretches on as does the heat and the Midwest storms. Because of all the standing water the Midwest is suddenly plagued with millions and billions of mosquitoes which have recently hatched. Does anyone know the lifespan of a mosquito? I hope it is short. Because these buggers are nasty, biting ones. The hubster got bit by one right between his eyebrows and it has turned into a huge red bump and looks like someone smacked him in the face with a brick. I swear I didn't. Okay, maybe I did. (just kidding)

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I suppose I should be grateful. I don’t live in a mobile home, thus my home isn’t floating out of the neighborhood the way the mobile homes are on the south side of Indy. And although my street is flooded, I can still drive my car down it without getting wet. And my ice cream isn’t melting because I have electricity (for now). So yes, I should be grateful. But late yesterday afternoon when the daily storm rolled in and my neighbors tree was struck by lightening, resulting in a huge tree limb landing on my storage shed and knocking out my electric, I have to say I wasn’t so grateful. In fact I said a four-letter word very loudly. VERY loudly! The electric company was called as was the fire department (the tree was smoking). Actually the tree wasn’t the only thing smoking; those firemen were smoking hot! It was all I could do to not slip in the puddle of drool emanating from my agape mouth. I had not only one firetruck full of hot firemen, but TWO firetrucks. There were about 10 hot firemen in my back yard. Unfortunately the hubby was in the back yard too. Oh well, maybe the hubby will be stuck at the grocery when the next storm hits and the firemen have to come. Within an hour the electric company arrived and fixed the live wire that the tree limb knocked down. They left the tree limb on the wires and my storage shed though. Apparently there is another department that handles that and since they are still busy on the south side of the city from the weekends storms, it could be a week or more before they get to us. In the meantime we have no idea if our storage shed room and fence are damaged from the huge tree limb. It will fall under our neighbors home owners insurance if our shed is indeed damaged. But here is the rude thing. The two guys that live behind us clearly saw that part of their tree is laying on our storage shed and fence but they haven’t had the decency to come over and say anything. The hubby saw them out on their back patio this afternoon and went outside to talk over the fence at them. But they saw him coming and ran in the house like scared rabbits. He wasn’t acting in a mean way; he had a friendly smile on his face. I guess they don’t want to me man enough and own up to their responsibilities. If our shed and or fence is damaged they aren’t going to have a choice.

Oh, and the really screwed up part about the tree limb falling? The storage shed is the absolute worst place for it to fall because most of our belongings are still packed up inside the storage shed. Although we are in Indiana to stay, and halted the sale of our house, we haven’t gotten around to unpacking yet. Maybe we should do that before the next natural disaster hits.

Have you heard? Indiana is flooded! Yes, our landlocked state is now under water. Last month we had the earthquake, now this month we have the floods. It’s always been my dream to have waterfront property. Now, thanks to Mother Nature, I have waterfront property today.



Could be worse (or better), as I could be one of those people living on the South side of Indy in a certain mobile home park. They went to bed last night in their trailer only to wake up this morning as their trailer turned into a houseboat. Great for those that always wanted to live on a houseboat. Sucks for those who prefer dry land. Not to make fun of people’s miseries (although I am good at that) but the news helicopter was hovering over these two young woman who were standing atop the last dry patch of earth around the trailer park. A 2-foot square piece of grass. They are standing there with their animals in a garbage can, waiting for help. This news helicopter keeps hovering over them, filming them and their perils. Then one of the girls looks up at the helicopter and says (I read her lips) “help us for God’s sake!” The news crew continues to merely hover, filming the action. The girls gets pissed at the lack of help and turn to the helicopter and very clearly one of them throws up her hands in a certain gesture and says “f**k you, go away if you aren’t going to help us. Assholes!” Well, maybe they were saying “vacuum”. But whether they were saying vacuum or f**k you, it was clear, they were pissed! I guess I would be too if my life was in jeopardy and a helicopter, which could bring me to safety, merely used me as a news story and wouldn’t help.

But my favorite news story from the trailer park today was the fat woman. The woman and her chunky male counterpart were so fat that the military hummer couldn’t take them to safety. A fire truck had to be dispatched for them to sit on the back of since they were too large to fit inside of it. It was a hook and ladder truck too. A big fire truck. Gotta love their spirit though. They saw the news crews filming from the helicopter and they waved as they swung their feet back and forth in the flood waters, enjoying the ride. That’s what I’m going to do when the fire truck comes to rescue my fat butt from the trailer. I am going to sit back, kick my feet in the water and enjoy the ride.