everything is happening the weekend of the 20th

It's like everyone got together and talked about it and decided the best weekend to do everything was that weekend. One of the youth told me she has a band concert coming up and I said as long as it's not the weekend of the 20th, I can come. If it's that weekend, I'm going to scream. She laughed and then said, yup. It's the 20th.

I screamed. Not very loud (ask Bill how loud I can scream), maybe it was more of a groan...

Let me tell you what else is going on that weekend:

• it's our Quota District Conference (hosted by my own Grand Rapids club)
• there's a luncheon I was invited to on Saturday
• one of my good friends from college is getting married in Maryland
• the oldest flower girl from our wedding is graduating from high school, in Savannah
• it's our Pastor's birthday (click here to read more) and I will be baking a cake for him

I think that's all. I know why some of these people chose this weekend, it's between Mother's Day and Memorial Day, it's after the Kentucky Derby (who knew that was such a big deal?) and more importantly around here, it's after the Tulip Festival.

But we can only choose one thing and we already committed to it years ago. I am very excited and will not likely be blogging about it because I will not have my computer!! That's another story.

You've been warned and it's still (only!) two weeks away.

Reach out and touch someone

Remember that phrase? I think most of my readers were alive when that was AT&T's slogan. I used that idea for a devotion. But I had more to say that didn't relate to the devotion, so I thought I'd finish my thoughts here.

I'm the person who, if you say let's get together, will not only agree but then call or email you and send you dates. I enjoy spending time with others (and as an extrovert, am renewed by it) and will take the opportunity to do so. I do not ignore your suggestion or blow it off.

I think this has made it so that some of my friends don't feel the need to call me. If I haven't heard from you in awhile, I reach out to make the connection. I don't think that's a bad thing, I just think that's who I am. I love my friends and I care about them. I enjoy talking to them and if that means I'm the one who calls to catch up, then that's how it happens (otherwise, I have a few friends that I would never talk to again).

There is one person who must have a sixth sense. That is Leah. Whenever I think, "gee, I haven't heard from Leah in a long time, I should give her a call" and then I mentally schedule it, she will call me. It happens more times than not. In fact it has happened every time. Now it will never happen again, since I mentioned it here. I don't even know if she reads my blog?

I often wonder if I am like this because we have some [extended] family members who go m.i.a. and we don't hear from them for a long time (this happened when I was younger and still happens now). Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, we get a phone call and it's like nothing happened and three years didn't just go by without talking. I like to keep in touch with people. Family and friends. But I need to face it, I'm better at keeping in touch with my friends than I am my family. And by that I mean my extended family. I love them all. Why is it that I don't keep in touch with them?

Maybe because when I send a letter or call, it's not returned. And just like RSVP etiquette, I require some acknowledgement that you received my communication.

So reach out and touch someone or at least reach back when they reach out to you.

the not so "itsy bitsy spider"

This morning, I was getting ready to go run my weekly errands. Since Bill also had to get ready (this is unusual these days since we both work from home), I took my make-up and went to the powder room (it's located off the kitchen, it sounds much more glorious than it really is).

I have a sixth sense, if you will, when there is a spider nearby. I had that feeling when I went into the powder room. I searched the walls, ceiling and baseboard but saw nothing. I had just reached into my make-up bag to pull out my eyeshadow when something caught my eye.

The spider was crawling on the faucet. I may have screeched. Bill had just stepped into the shower, there was no getting him to take care of this now. It was up to me.

As I looked around for something (anything) with which to kill the spider from a minimum four foot distance, there was nothing. Then I spied the full glass of water Bill had brought down from his nightstand. This will work, I thought.

I grabbed it and dumped it directly on the spider. It washed down into the sink and as the water drained the spider circled around. Go down the drain, I pleaded.

It did not go down the drain. Nor did it drown. That spider must be related to the one the song was written about, because he climbed back up the water spout. Then he climbed into the overflow drain. He is not the cute spider as drawn in children books of Nursery Rhymes. He's leggy and blonde. Not cute, fuzzy or black.

As far as I know he's still there. The rain does not wash the spider out. And I will never use that bathroom again.

(editor's note: for those of you who think I'm cruel, if I can rescue the bug, I do. I blogged about it somewhere, but can't find the post to link to it. I'll look again later)

Bill's post

I am dedicating this post to my dear husband mostly because he suggested it. He told me to grab the camera and take a picture of his office.

Here it is.

Do you notice anything?

F.S.S. He too has Flat-Surface Syndrome. Only I can help.


No I can't. Who am I kidding? I just cleaned off my desk last week and it's already accumulated three separate piles. I give up. (Notice I do not have any photos of my desk...)

Here's to F.S.S. and to no known website that can cure it. Pile it on, and then clean it off.

This little piggy...

I love the smell of bacon. It is wonderful.

It's Sunday, so that means Bill's Big Sunday Breakfast. The bacon was perfect. He couldn't have made it any better. It was crispy, and golden brown (in that pork sort of way). Mmmm bacon...

Pork, the other white meat, was one of my favorite ad campaigns. Of course it didn't hurt that it used Aaron Copeland's "Appalachian Spring" one of my favorite musical pieces of all time. And then I met Bill. He can make the best pork chop ever. We are trying our hardest to keep all the American Pig Farmer's in business.

I have also always loved ribs.

I don't want to try pig snout. Sorry, I draw the line somewhere. And I am not a fan of jello. I wasn't a fan of jello before I found out that pigs' hooves are used to make gelatin and I didn't become a fan after finding out that fact.

So minus the gross parts of the animal, I love all the meat found in a swine.

Now I'm hungry. Go figure.