A Turtle of a day

Going to go get some ice cream down on the corner. No we don't need it, shouldn't have it but going to go get it. Its called Turtle Treasure.....Good old fashioned vanilla ice cream laced with chunks and thin pieces of chocolate and then the smallest of chocolate turtles with caramel in the center all throughout the ice cream. YUMMY. I mean you have to get a magnifying glass out to see (at least I have to) that its really shaped like a turtle! I mean you can see the detailed outline of the shell and all, its really cool how they do it but man, it is really tasty too!
Like I said its surely the last thing we need, but Frankie got a bit of rotten news today and well when life feeds you lemons....YOU GO GET ICE CREAM!

Fire

Even though most nights I don't sleep well and awake in the early morning hours, I sure would have rather awakened this morning for a different reason. Our neighbors home burned this morning. I awoke to Frank yelling that the Farmer's home was on fire. I have known these people since I was.....well my whole life. These are two of the best people I know. They are in their 80's. As I got to the front door I just could not believe my eyes. The fire was so high up and so huge I just could not believe it. Most that it was on fire but also as I have never witnessed a house fire. You see them on the movies, in the news and in the papers, but I have never seen one right in front of me that was also one that was occupied by friends. I just could not tell you what it was like. It was just horrible. We made sure that they were safe and went about trying to figure out the best thing to do for them at that moment. Its been a long day.
Farmer built that home by himself that I know of about 35 years ago. He cut the wood and built each room with that wood he cut and each room I believe was of different types of wood. One room in particular I remember was of cedar. The stairs were of red oak and white oak. Very beautiful. I remember he made specifically a large frame that mounted on the dining room wall for his wife for her to place her pictures of their family and friends. It may not sound like much but it was their home for over 35 years and I am saddened today that its gone. Thank God they got out in time and that should be all that matters.
It is all that matters.
But I only wish I had the means to help them rebuild. They had no insurance. If anyone stops by to read my post today please say a special prayer for my neighbors. I and they would appreciate it.

A Fishin Story

This is what Frank was doing when we went fishing last week.
I can explain.





Finally after a lousy year of not going fishing at all....we took a day and went last week. We really just went to the park on town so I could check out the beach. My knees are so bad still, I was thinking that walking in the water on the beach might just help me some. I mean really, what could it hurt???? Anyhow the beach was under water and we really could not even tell where it was......but just being near the water we both caught the fishing fever and decided to make sure we went the next day. We went the the docks at Paynetown instead, as we knew it would be easier on my knees and I took my lucky fishing chair too. It was so nice and we had the docks to ourselves as no one else was there, which is really odd as there is always at least one other fisherman there, so after a few minutes we thought it was maybe because everyone else had already been there and caught all the fish. But it didn't take too long when the fish started biting. And I wound up catching around 50 myself! I was beginning to think I had lost my fishin mojo...but its still there and after all the good size crappie I also landed a nice 13 inch crappie as well! (I have proof on the cell phone camera, but it was too lousy a shot to post)
Frank did catch a few...but I have to say once again I blew him away with my over the limit catch...not to toot my own horn or anything.... :)



But for the pic explanation.....This is the same dock that Frank lost his new pole 2 summers back when a LARGE fish, we never saw it, but knew it was huge as his pole was bent almost in half and finally he lost his grip after several minutes, and the pole went in with the fish still on (we were sure of it) as he managed to grab it as it hit the water but only to lose his grip again.........so each time we have went back to that dock he reminisces over that lost catch. And we even have tried to drag that area several times in hopes of retrieving our pole. So I think he was daydreaming a bit about the nice Big Fishing Story we both could have had to tell from the docks that day.



Who knows maybe the big fish is still attached?



OH and in case any fish enthusiast's are wondering.....It was a complete "catch and release" day.

I love this pic!

Cake

Yesterday started out as an early day as I had a doctor appointment in town at 7:30am and so of course with an hour and a half drive ahead of us we had a real early wake up call! Things went ok but, I had to have extra tests done and it went longer than the usual hour visit. We got to visit J for a few minutes and then off towards home as the dogs were surely hungry and needing to go out. After being home a few we decided to head out for our once in a while road trip to Illinois for a Mega ticket. (still hoping for the ship to come it with a dollar ticket!) On the way back we decided to make it a full trip and visit Sam's as well but on the way there we remembered we had not eaten so Frank decided to take me to Panera's for a nice hot bowl of soup! Yum.
Ok so it was a good time to go as the lunch rush was gone and it was too early for dinner and the soup was fresh and hot and it was so cold yesterday it went down great. So good also was the free sample offered to us on the way out, some kind of Apple Pastry that was yummy and enough that I didn't need to buy anything else! Frank however had already decided to get us a Pineapple Upside down Cake for the ride home. The lady was nice enough to put it into a plastic covered dish and even gave us 2 forks! wow. Nice lady.
As I said we were going to go by Sam's on the way back home and got into the car and drove that way. Frank took a couple of bites and then handed it to me as he needed to pull into traffic, and of course you know you should never eat and drive. :) ( safety tip #1)
I decided to use my fork and cut the cake into pieces for Frank to be able to eat easier while driving as I was actually full from my free sample. If you have ever eaten at Panera's and gotten one of these scrumptious cakes you will know that it has a full pineapple on top. And with the stinking plastic fork, I could not get that sucker to cut into at all and in the process I managed to crumble a whole half of that cake into a million crumbles. At that moment we came to a stoplight and Frank was like so ready for another piece of cake...I just handed the whole dish to him and said its all yours.....he laughed for a minute at how I managed to crumble the cake but said too while cramming his face that it all went down the same...so good. About then the light changed and he said, "Oh do you want a bite? Here hold this." And with that I really don't much know what happened but to say that in one swift moment I felt what seemed like a million bits of cake hit me like a brick......several even hit my forehead and fell thru my glasses landing on my eyelashes....at first I could see nothing and then through my right eye I saw nothing but pieces of cake all over me, my lap, the car seat, the car floor over the dash into the radio you name it there was cake on it. I had on an all black sweat suit and the interior of the car is all black. It looked like it and me was decorated in polka dots. Within a second I was not for sure what to do, and then, Frank and I both started laughing hysterically. I mean we laughed and laughed so hard I can't believe we didn't get into an accident....let alone pee our pants. Something you should not be doing while driving. (safety tip #2)
Frank was in the lane to go to Sam's but then jerked over and said he didn't think we needed to go there just then, all the while laughing...and just kept driving with me looking like Popeye and some weird woman with food all over her! We finally found a place to stop and just before stopping Frank said, "I wonder though, where that big piece of cake went? About that time I looked down and just on top of my shoe on my toe area was a large intact piece of cake. I said there it is! He looked at it and said, "wow its all there!" I am like, "Are you going to eat it?" He said, "Are you kidding me..Of course I am."
And he did.

I guess the moral of this story is.......................................



You can SPILL your cake, and eat it too!

Snow

Ok so after a week or more of 70 plus and somedays 80 degree weather its snowing today! Yes, I said snow. I love the snow. I can't tell you how much I love the snow.








But it was 80 degrees the other day.

4-5-2000

Just missing my friend today. Does not seem like its been 7 years. But yet seems like a lifetime since I heard her voice or laugh or seen that smile. Did not ever think I would be here without her. Did not want to ever think that. I miss her something terrible. I cannot imagine what Barbara and Joe or Cazeo and Nic are feeling or have felt, I only know I have a piece of me that is gone..... for now. Awaiting the day to be goofy again..........

Bridge

Would you be scared to drive across this bridge...................?


The Millau viaduct is part of the new E11 expressway connecting Paris and Barcelona and features the highest bridge piers ever constructed. The tallest is 240 meters (787 feet) high and the overall height will be an impressive 336 meters (1102 feet), making this the highest bridge in the world. I would have a hard time with this bridge, I know that I could not drive over. But it is simply, Beautiful!