Out, out, demons of stupidity

4:37pm: So, true
This is so funny.



http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-walt-babyboomers-blurb,0,1036393.blurb

3:04pm: Another fun thing
Once you get into the mountains, move your cursor around.

http://www.electricoyster.com/electric3d/index.html

12:14pm: Interesting quiz
> > http://games.toast.net/independence/

10:30am: Cool Morphing
Check this out. It is really neat.

Women in films.


http://glumbert.com/media/womenfilm

9:44am: Interesting Development
J is off to an "experienced riders" course in Tucson. He will spend about 6 hours outside on a riding course (I think there is an hour or so of discussion as well). He has to take his own bike. The interesting part is that today's weather is rain, wind, and 50's. It has been raining at the house since about 5. It had quit for about 30 minutes or so and the sun actually seemed to be considering shining. However, as soon as he took the bike out of the garage to leave, it began again. Fortunately, it isn't doing the downpours that happen in the summer but he will be quite wet before he makes it the 30 miles into Davis-Monthan AFB (where the course is held). He has lots of layers of wool and fleece so hopefully won't freeze. One of us will post something tonight after he gets back (anticipated to be 7 ish since there aren't any food breaks during the course and he will eat dinner "on the road" home.)

In other news, I ran for the Unit board (Bridge Unit 356 which is Tucson area) since Green Valley really didn't have a representative on the board (we have about 400 or the 1000 members of the Unit). I won?? Not sure that I'm happy about it but we did need representation. I know that I will be expected to play in the Unit Games (once a month in Tucson) and that these Games usually follow a board meeting so at least I won't have to go up multiple times a month. What else it might entail I don't know.

Looking forward to having all the folks around for the holidays. Not looking forward to decorations, presents, etc. Can I just sorta forget about a tree? Nah, I didn't think so.

Oh, well, I know where the Grinch is stored, so he will come forth.

Oh, my, it is really raining now! Hope it is following him and not overtaking him.

I picked a mood that matched the weather. :-)

1:35pm: Tooting my own horn!
I started playing duplicate bridge Jan. 4, 2004. It is now 300 points later and I'm a life master. Yippee for me.

I started the year with just over 200 points but went to a Regional tournament in Butte in July and got 12 Gold and another 13 red. After Butte, we went to Nashville where I took a bridge teacher accreditation course and played some bridge. Got 3 more gold and 7 red. In October, I played in a regional here in Tucson where I got another 38 points (16 of them gold). I got the last points I needed for life master on Friday.

I'm happy. Getting my life master in less than 4 years is pretty good.

12:06pm: Been a while
since I last posted. Have decided that anything I was going to post was just a whine so, I'm not going to post.

5:30pm: Early Mother's Day
John, Mom and I went out to Red Lobster today as an early Mother's day outing. By going today, we didn't have to contend with the usual crowds and inflated prices. I actually had Lobster. I decided to splurge. It was quite enjoyable and we had a lovely time. Nothing more from the home front.

10:39am: Home safely
Got here about 10:00. Tired - didn't sleep at the airport last night.

I'm sure he'll post something moderately soon.

10:16pm: In LA
It is 10:15 Wednesday night. They have made it to the Southwest Airline check in desk in LA. Should be on an early flight tomorrow morning. Slowly but surely they are making there way back to Tucson.

1:02pm: Here's an update.
An update on our first day in Bangkok.

Buck is doing OK without oxygen at sea level. The heat and humidity
are limiting his outdoor activity to travel in a car or taxi. He is
alright with this as a limitation. Buck is cheerful and positive.

We are dealing with a room that is too cold on what appears to be the
warmest air conditioning setting. For now, we are turning it off when
the room gets too cold and back on when it has become too warm.
Hopefully, there will be someone with better english on the concierge
desk on Monday.

Also, I screwed up and misinterpreted an outlet adapter as also doing
the voltage shifting and blew a fuse in Buck's nebulizer, so I will be
out for electronics (need a radio shack type store, but the place
where I got the power strip/surge protector that he wanted may have
them) after breakfast. It is currently about 1:30 a.m., and I slept
too much earlier and am still not adjusted to local time; I'll go back
to bed after sending this and browsing a bit on the computer.

Came in about 11:30 AZ time.

8:00pm: Got an email at 6:25 Arizona time. They are in Bangkok and have had some sleep. Obviously, John has gotten the computer up and running somewhere.

8:13pm: Trip update
They made it to LA without incident. Won't hear from them again until Bangkok sometime tomorrow.

6:12pm: Ticked
It is snowing in my yard!!!!! This is NOT a happy post.

12:45pm: My Birthday
Ok, it was one of the biggies (60 - argh!!!!!!!) Grandma took John and me out for lunch. In reality, I took her since I was the driver (the IH (idiot husband)) isn't yet up to driving that far with only one hand. Lunch was nice, we went to the Golden Corral so it was something different that what she/we get here in Green Valley. Everyone enjoyed it. I decided since it was my birthday, that I got 2 desserts (red velvet cake and a brownie). After lunch we went over to the 99 cent store. She found several things she wanted. All in all, I think Grandma had a good time on my birthday. Glad of it.

Anyway, it was a nice day.

4:22pm: It's been awhile.
I haven't written much of late since most of what I had to say was about bridge. I still have stuff to say about bridge but will only say that I had a good time at the tournament last weekend until about 10:15 on Sat. night when I picked the message to call my husband at this unknown number and that it was urgent. I had figured that maybe something had happened to Grandma but nooooooo.....it was my "idiot husband" (this is his new name by the way) that had gotten into trouble. He dumped the bike because he was going too fast around a blind curve and couldn't get around a coyote in the road. He has yet to figure out that 64 year old reflexes are NOT the same as 24 year old reflexes (which were not the greatest even then). He fractured his left shoulder blade, 3rd rib on the left, bruised his lung, had a concussion and road rashed the right side of his face. Hopefully, this will slow him down and make him think a bit. Also, I hope this will encourage him to get a cell phone of some sort.

I was supposed to go to a tournament in El Paso the first week in Oct. but we have cancelled that due in part to his accident. He can't lift anything for at least 2 months (like Grandma's wheelchair)and I'm not too thrilled with him trying to drive with only one arm usable (how do you steer with the left arm while drinking coffee with the right one if the left arm doesn't move very well). Oh, well, this too will pass.

On the bright side, at least one of the kids (and his spouse) (Scrubbo and Alibee) seems to be planning on coming for Thanksgiving. It isn't my year for Christmas :-( but maybe some of the others can come for Turkey Day. I'm not all that particular, I don't have to have dinner on "the DAY". I could do Thanksgiving dinner on Friday or Saturday if I had some family showing up. Maybe some of the others could make it too. That would be neat.

That's it from me.

12:43am: I knew I had kept this..
Written in the summer of about 1985 (give or take a year) by Brandon

A Princely Dilemma

Once upon a time, in a land very far, far, far fetched, a kingdom had a young prince named, yes, you guessed it, Maynard. His room was a disgusting, filthy, pathetic mess. The king would not let Maynard have princess Banana Split's hand until he vanquished the spreading refuse from his chambers.

"My boy, there comes a time in every man's life when he must be bold, brave, and daring and clean up his room," said the wizened old king.

The prince, of course, didn't believe a work of it, but politely replied:

"Yes, your majesty, it is a feat I will throw my body and soul into accomplishing! I will not rest until I have defeated the vile scum that resides in my royal bedchambers!" ("You old windbag," he muttered under his breath.)

And so the prince of old drew forth his shining sword of power, named "Hoover" and cleaned the pus from the festering wound of his room. Soon not a dust-dragon dared show hide nor hair.

So young prince Maynard won his prize, but forsook his princess Banana Split for a young servant girl named Hot Fudge Sunday (sic).

The End.

I think he was about 11 when he wrote this little essay.

4:44pm: Water update
On Thursday, water at the entry to the subdivision ran for 4 hours and used 1200+ gal of water.
On Saturday, the water again went for 1200+ gal so I assume it ran for 4 hours.
On Sunday, we used another 1200+ gal of water. Totally outrageous. The area being "watered" is
both sides of the entry for about 100 feet on either side with about 20 feet in depth. I'm pretty sure that I'm being generous with the measurements but that gives us about 4000 sq feet
of watering. This is NOT grass so only the plants within this area are being watered and some of the plants are actually cactus. Total waste. I am wondering if it will run again on Tues so that it is 4 times a week. I'm suspecting it is.

Arg!!!

Actually, my mood should be changed from cranky to happy. Had a nice Mother's Day. Received calls/cards from the kids. Yea!

10:41am: We have been having water issues with the HOA water usage. We are watering (drip system) just the main
entry to the subdivision and the usage is 12,000 + gallons per month (our whole house uses only about 6K
month). According to the landscapers, they only water a couple of hours 2 times a weak. According
to the water co. there is absolutely nothing wrong with the meter or the line to the meter. So, this
morning, trusting that J2 remembered correctly and the water would come on about 7 am, I was at the entry about
10 of 7 with the plan of monitoring the watering. (The meter reading at 7 am yesterday and 7 am today was
the same and according the the meter, we have used 17,000 gallons of water since April 24 - that's a LOT
of water.) The watering began at 7:50 (he was only off by an hour!!!!) and is still running at 10:30 (he has
relieved me for a while.) The jerk that is head of the HOA landscaping committee stopped by (about 10) on his way
out and wanted to know what I was doing. When I told him, he got all upset that this was a landscaping
issue and I (the treasurer) was leaving him out of the loop. I told him I was NOT in a good mood so to back
off. If he didn't like what I was doing, get out of the car and monitor it himself. He declined and did back
off but asked how much water we had used this morning. This AFTER I had told him we were running about 5 gal/min
and the water had been on since 8 (idiot - he really had no idea what 5 gal/min meant!!!!). Oh, well, I have
vented a bit so maybe I won't bite off any other heads today (or then maybe not).

2:08pm: Still around
It has bee quite a while since I posted. Basically, nothing and everything happened since my last posting (October!!!!).

Teeth - I have 16 caps and 2 implants. Am in the process of getting another implant. In June, I will get the remaining teeth on the left of my mouth capped/recapped. Then in November or so, I will get the rest of the teeth capped/recapped. Argh!!!!!! The cost is outrageous.

Bridge - Things are still going ok. I have had a "dry" spell of late. Haven't been winning a lot. No bottom of the barrel either so I guess I'm more low middle than anything else. I had a real problem with a partner at the last Tucson tournament. He basically told me if a fair amount of detail how every bid I made and every card I played was wrong. I was virtually second guessing every bid/play. I didn't play very well as a result (surprise, surprise). I have dropped him as a partner. The next week, he told a couple friends that he thought I was a great person and a good player. He also told me I should be proud of myself for playing at 50% (this is a decent %) since I was playing at a higher level (I have 120 points, he has 980 so we were playing at his level not mine. If I'm so good, why did he ream me a new one at every opportunity. I know that I'm not an awful player. I am actually fairly good especially for my experience level. So anyway, I shan't be playing with him again. I went to Mesa with a friend and we had a pretty good tournament up there. We were hoping for gold points but only got red. However, red is better than no points at all. I am currently teaching a bit of a bridge help session/course with another friend. I think it is going ok. I am in the process of putting the notes onto the web. Who knows, I might do this again sometime.

House - Back in November, I told the flooring people how much I hated the wood floor. They ended up having multiple people show up to look at the floor and try to explain to me how come the floor looks like crap after only 3 years. Basically, what we found out was the the stupid floor is designed to be kept in 35-45% humidity. Would you like to explain to me WHY anyone would sell flooring requiring that much humidity in Arizona?? The fact that there are dozens of spots that the glue as let go so when you tap on them they sound hollow (some are large enough that the floor gives when you step on it) and that there are places where the finish is already gone and there are gouges from who knows what, they are doing some repair. Right now, the guy is filling the hollow spots with glue. He is supposed to replace a number of boards that have damage (some from termites and others from moving a chair!!). It has taken 5 months to get something going with this. He has been here for 3 days and will be back tomorrow. I don't know when he will get done but I have stuff I want to do and don't want to be stuck in the house. Bah humbug

Life in general - We are going to California for a boy/girl shower for Brandon and Alison. I have done most of the shopping I wanted to do for that but still have a thing or two to do. That's why I want the floor guy to be done!! I have gotten an not disgusting dress for the wedding and have reserved the villa for various folks. I think that we have J3, Julie, Jakob, Caroline, Krista, Tina, J2 and me all staying at the Villa. Derek may be joining us for a night as well. Who knows? I'm planning on taking along the air mattresses and some bedding. It should be an interesting time for all.


I guess that's about it for now.

5:38pm: The saga continues..
I got a call the afternoon (remember that I was in the Dentist's office this morning getting 3 caps reglued) from the Dentist telling me that they need to make new impressions. Seems as though they have fired the current lab and are now going to use a different lab (actually a very good one in Montana) to do my caps. I am supposed to show up tomorrow morning at 8 for a 3 hour visit. Hopefully, it won't take the full 3 hours to make the new impressions. But since the first visit was to be 5 hours and turned into 9 1/2 this make take the 3. John had to cancel stuff for the computer club in order to handle some stuff that I couldn't cancel. I had BETTER be done in time to play bridge at 1:00.

We left messages with the "bug man" about the termites. No call back from him as yet.

I am looking for "Bubba's Bait Shoppe" so I can select a variety of worms to eat.


Mood is resigned. Couldn't find that one.

6:25am: What more?
I had to go back to the dentist yesterday to get one of the caps replaced. It popped out. He bonded that cap to the one next to it to make sure it was going to stay in. Result..today I have to go in and have both caps glued back in. And to improve on things, another one popped out during the light flossing I'm supposed to do twice a day and went down the drain. At 11:00 last night, J was taking the sink apart to get the cap. Lovely morning in store.

It the teeth mess wasn't enough, we found termites in the dining room. Oh, joy, oh, joy, of fabjous day!!!!!!!@#$%$%^&*)(*&#$%^(*&^

11:12pm: Iron Woman
Check out one of the "little old ladies" that I play bridge with.

Her name is Jan Miller
http://liveupdate.ironmanlive.com/ppv/athlete.php?rid=60&bib=221

8:11pm: Been a while
Ok, so it's been a while since I posted stuff. I have been enjoying the bike. Am getting more than 80 mile to the gallon during the break in period at least. Don't know if it will continue.

Bridge is still moving along nicely. I will most likely reach my goal of getting past the 100 point level this year. (Got 46 points last year and have already gotten 52 this year.) I'm also in line to get first in both the Mini-McKenney and the Ace of Clubs awards again this year (got them both for my level last year).

Christmas is coming. Hopefully, all the kids (along with spice (plural of spouse), kids, fiancee and significant others) will be showing up this year. So far, I only have confirmed dates with one group. Others to follow soon I hope. I will again be giving livestock (http://www.heifer.org) as the major gift to all the kids, etc. Have been scouting out the used book stores for "stocking" stuffers. Hope everyone else keeps it simple and inexpensive as well.

The biggest "present" will have to be my smile. I ended up having to have the back molars on both sides of my lower set of teeth removed and at the same time had some gum surgery (almost $5000). I had loosened them because I eat with them. (Actually, it seems that I have very powerful jaw muscles and tend to grit my teeth which over time loosened the teeth.) I will now be going back to have implants(about $3000) so that I can replace those teeth (about $2000). While examining me, the periodontist noted that I had worn most of the enamel off my top teeth and should "tend" to them. I saw my regular dentist last Wed. and got the news that not only should I really have 8 teeth on the top capped but I should have the matching ones on the bottom done as well. AND... when we put in the replacement teeth (likely in June) (remember the implants from above), I should "fix up" all the other teeth that are already capped (10+ years ago). So..we are talking 28 teeth to be capped/re-capped at about 1000 per tooth in addition to the $10,000 already mentioned above. Needless to say, all gifts for the foreseeable future are going to be represented by a smile. ARG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I get to spend about 5 hours in the dentist chair on Tues while he grinds down and puts temp caps on 16 teeth. This is NOT going to be fun.

1:45pm: I passed!!!!!!
I was so bummed by failing the driving test for the Motorcycle course that I basically went into some sort of funk. I basically told J that he could have the bike that I wasn't going to put myself through this again. I also lost massive amounts of confidence in even my car driving skills. It is a good thing that I had to drive to Phoenix the day after I flunked the driving test. I do have somewhat of an excuse since I watched a girl drop her bike just a couple of minutes before I was due on the same course and it was raining quite a bit and I was definitely cold. Oh, well, enough whining.

I retook the test today (3 Sundays later) and passed. I really don't think I passed with "flying colors" but I did pass and missed less than half of what I was allowed to miss and still pass. So, bottom line....I PASSED.....

The bridge tournament in Phoenix was ok. I was hoping to get some Gold points but only came away with Red. To get the Gold, we needed to do good in a Knock Out. The couple we were playing with had an awful tournament so we lost the first match in each of the 3 different knock outs we tried, so no points. However, Mary (the woman I was playing with from here in Green Valley) and I did ok in pairs and in a 199 Swiss team event so came home with 9.7 Red points. Those points along with what I had from playing locally in Aug. puts me over 90. Yea! I know most of you don't know what this means and don't care even if you do know but that's ok. I PASSED my motorcycle test.

I had some oral surgery on Wed after I got back from Phoenix and am healing nicely. You would think that with a week of nothing much more than soup (broth mostly) and Jello I would lose some weight. Not true....bah humbug.

Thats about it from me.

Oh, just in case you haven't been to J's LJ, he had a bad case of envy and now has a used Honda Rebel. His is black. Mine is white.