August 2003 Archives

Weather permitting, Janine will be up this way with the kids to get a real live view of Mars at about 10PM or so. It is wet and overcast right now but that does not totally eliminate the possibility of a clear sky tonight. I think I’m rested up enough for it and I would like to get a better and longer glimpse of it, myself. Fingers are crossed for good conditions. I’ll put the telescope outside in a few hours so it will be acclimated to the outside temperature.

Bobette and Mark are coming over right now to fix us a shrimp pasta dish.

Joey and I are off to Destin for the holiday to stay with John and Kathy Laneri in their condo. We hope to escape all of the bad weather headed towards New Orleans. We'll be back Monday night. Work for both of us on Tuesday morning. Joey is gearing up for duck season- teal season opens in two weeks. I'm trying to settle back into work. It's been a hard three weeks so far! This new class is a bit trying. They wear me out.

I was glad to see some entries from the Minnesota cousins. Congratulations to both Mary and Jessy, by the way! I'm sorry to hear that Jessy is having so many difficulties. I know she'll be glad when it's all over. Everybody have a great holiday!

I hope you feel better Mama!

If you’ve been reading the CrabAppleLane Blog (And why haven’t you?), you’ll know I’ve been somewhat “busy” lately. That stuff is over for me until later in the month when a whole different kind of “busy” will grip me. However, we now have many contributors and that should keep this thing sustained. Hope everyone else is enjoying it as much as I am.

We’re totally water-logged in Bush. Even one inch of rain has nowhere to go around here and that’s about all we got over the last 24 hours. The place is still soaked.

As Defending Champion of Ya Boys Civil War Fantasy Football League, I was presented an unexpected and truly obnoxious trophy last night (Lower right). Makes me almost not want to defend. Needless to say, that is not where it will be displayed. That spot was for the picture only.

Today is Phil's birthday. He got a new shirt & the new Warren Zevon cd. He didn't want anything but I had already gotten him the shirt when he said not to buy anything. Besides, what kind of birthday is that? He is 35 today. His special breakfast this morning was a deluxe big breakfast from McDonald's. We have no special plans today since he's working at 3pm and we also have Jacob home with us. It's no fun to go to lunch with that boy!

I would like to do something fun today. I'm tired of staying home. I feel compelled to clean or do laundry or some other productive thing if I'm at home and I'm tired of doing those things! Well, y'all have a good day.

Just wanted to see something new posted here. Tired of seeing peeeuuuu when I check to see if anyone has blogged on.

I went to the library today. Had a new librarian that had a sense of humor. That was different.

I got a book titled "Blood Washes Blood" which is a departure from my kind of book, if there is such a thing. It is a true accounting of a mafia family in Sicily. It is supposed to be the history of the mafia or something. I will let you all know. Someone from the book club I belong to has been trying to get us to read it. Well, he tried anyway for many meetings and gave up. He is of Sicilian descent and a psychiatrist. It will please him to know somebody finally read it. He has been passionate about the story. It may turn out to be good. I hate to rub it in that I have time to read.

Y'all have a great day.

I have recently learned the utility company wants to put up a sewerage treatment facility on the lot next door. I searched for two years for the ideal location for us to move to 5 years ago; not in a subdivision or neighborhood with group issues. This will comletely spoil the feeling I have of being in paradise. The noise of generators and the smell of treated waste, not to mention where it will all discharge. Can you feel my pain? I can go to the council meeting next Tuesday to express my concerns I was told by the engineer yesterday. He told me off the record, and he said he would deny he told me anything, that I have legitimate concerns and need to be emphatic with the council. No problem there. I worry about showing too much emotion and expressing myself like a lunatic if I completely allow my convictions to show. I have left a msg. for my councilman too. I am going to go before the planning and zoning commission on t.v., channel 10, Tues.

I did like "A Walk in the Woods", but recall that towards the middle or end it got tedious. I just wanted to see it through, see if he completed the trail. I never force myself to read anything. It is either a story that grips me or not. I read the latest Harry Potter and loved it. I also read "The Laughing Sutra" by Mark Salzman and loved that too. My book club read another Salzman book last year, "Lying Awake", that was very good. I am in a book club that meets about every 4-6 weeks and have read many interesting books, and some bad ones too, in the past year and a half or so. We share a salmon dinner every time. Everyone kicks in $4 for the salmon and wine and brings a covered complimentary dish, bread, or dessert. It is always a most stimulating and satisfying evening. Michael is not a reader, nor much on conversation, actually, so it is a can't miss event for me. The feast is always excellent too.

On with the day...

Anyone have plans for the Labor Day weekend? I have plans Friday night (The other fantasy football event) but the rest of my weekend is free. I hope to get out and look at Mars Saturday and Sunday nights and maybe take in a few movies. I’m also going to try to finish this book I’ve been reading for about a month now. It is quite readable but I just haven’t had the time. By the way, Janine and Scott, I had no trouble whatsoever putting this one down. I found it preachy and not at all funny. Different strokes, I suppose. I enjoy reading when I find a good book. I just don’t find that many. Certainly not any as good as Dracula or The Berkut. I’ve never re-read a book in my life. If I ever do, one of those two will be the first. Mom and I still talk about The Berkut now and again.

Hi all! I've been enjoying your blog's for the past week or so. This is a great way to keep connected.

We haven't started school yet, both boys start on Tuesday, 9/2. Brian has freshman orientation tonight (9th grade) and Danny meets his teacher at 4:00 today. He's worried about 4th grade. I think he has multiplication-itis.

My goal for the winter is to get Mom online. She has been resisting sofar. I've passed the blog information on to Beth, Mike and Joan.

That's it for now. I'll poke my head in now and then. You never know when I'll appear....

I just ate the leftover piece of redfish that I brought home with me from yesterday with a baked potato. I am having redfish tonight also. Or, it could be sheep-head. I brought home some uncooked fish for A&M's dinner last night, but didn't have the energy to fix it so it will be our main course tonight. That's 3 days and nights in a row for fresh fish. I may finally get burnt out on fish for a while. We'll see. I'd like to fix it like Katie did or maybe I'll blacken it. That really was a feast. I loved that soup that Katie brought. I will have to try to make that. I just won't tell Michael that there's cream of mushroom in it. I couldn't tell and I still ate it after knowing that. I don't usually care for the stuff either.

We still don't know about Julia and chorus.

And, Mom, in reference to your comment about your memorizing every thing about your life, Robbie more than likely didn't tell anyone about wanting to play trumpet and trying to check on doing so. Right, Robbie? You were a very private person way back when.

This was such a nice day. It was spent at Elizabeth's with Janine, Katie, Angela, Christina and a lot of little people. Everyone (except me) brought something to put on the table and it all tasted GOOD. The fellows went to Robbie's for the Fantasy Football draft. They are all pretty serious about this -- I know Kevin and Daddy are -- but they had a nice all-male afternoon as well. Elizabeth and Scott have put up a backyard two-story playhouse that is absolutely stunning. The children love it. Elizabeth made the exterior brick and stucco with paint and sponge, painted a climbing vine all around, painted flowers of many colors in an around-the house flower garden - it's just hard to describe. The interior is also beautifully decorated with painted pictures, clock, calendar, curtains. I wish everyone could see it! I guess that's all for now. Janine, I enjoyed your entry. I don't remember Robbie's trumpet story. Does he mean he wasn't the type the director was looking for and so was turned down at tryouts? I don't remember that.

He didn't look passionate about his choice and said he didn't know what to put. I told him the trumpet is as good a choice as any. Did y'all read Robbie's comment to me about him not getting picked to play trumpet way back when because of something the director was looking for that would make a good trumpet player? I wonder why. I think Aaron is similar in characteristics as Robbie was in the 5th grade.

Julia will find out today, we think, if she made chorus. There are only 40 slots. She said all the girls in her class tried out, and one boy, that makes about 13 kids trying out from just her class alone. There are about 8 3rd grade classes and the chorus is only open to 3rd graders. She has some competition. It won't matter in the scheme of things.

Okay, I should get off-line and see if Robbie wants to meet for coffee or maybe I should just stay home and get some work done.

I have two deadlines. I have been writing a monthly forecast for www.sttammany.com that is due when the sun changes signs - currently going into Virgo in a couple of days. The other one is a monthly article I have been writing for Tambalaya, "The Astrology Corner". My deadline for that every month is the 25th. I want to write about Mars being so influential these days because of it's proximity to Earth.

If I don't write in the next couple of days, I wish you each a wonderful weekend. See most of you Sunday. I am baking a cake and some bread for our gathering.

I have the day off today but it doesn’t feel like it. I think I’ve got more real work to do today than I would on a normal work day. Meeting Patsy somewhere later for lunch. Originally planned for Isabella’s, she now wants to go somewhere else. Hopefully meeting Janine somewhere afterwards but that hasn’t been decided yet.

Also, hopefully, Mom will regale us with good news from the doctor today.

It was hard, but I did it. I learned a 5 minute monologue in two days and performed in front of a stony-faced director. She said it was charming. My friend, Noelle, arrived early for her audition, so she was sitting front and center with a smile on her face the whole time. I am totally psyched about honing my acting skills. Shoot, I haven't had an acting class since high school. Thanks for the support, y'all.

Julia auditioned for her school chorus on Tuesday. She had to sing "Happy Birthday" and repeat notes after the director in front of her classmates. She had more nerve than we previously suspected. Hmmm. We will hear about her making it today or tomorrow. How can she not be in it? She sings on key and has a sweet voice.

Aaron is auditioning today for his school's band. He listed clarinet and trumpet as his instruments of choice. One will be assigned to him, though I don't know how anyone assesses musical skill in one who has never held either instrument, but I don't see how they can turn him away. That makes three of us, three days in a row, trying to measure up for someone.

I love my new Explorer.

The more I think of this bone-chilling entry, the less I know what to think of it. Judge for yourself. By the way, this entry is from tequila mockingbird’s blog. Hers is one of the ones My Family Blog thinks is “worth a look”.

I am making up a web page for tips and tricks to blogging here. It will be a compilation of techniques I’ve developed (Mostly by necessity because I have experienced almost everything the other bloggers here have experienced) over the course of the last few months. When it’s done, I’ll add a link on the side for it.

I don't know if we've talked this subject to death or if there's anything more to add, but maybe a chronology is in order. On Thursday morning I felt a soreness in my abdomen when I leaned against the kitchen sink. Later that day I made a comment to Daddy that I thought I had a hernia. Next morning, the area was red so I called the Primary Care Physician as soon as his office opened at 9:00. Usually this doctor will give an appointment four-six weeks later, but a spot was found for me that morning at 10:30. Maybe because I mentioned I had developed a hernia? Dr. Morgan took ten minutes with me, confirmed my diagnosis, and called the surgeon, Dr. DeCorte, who set up a "come right now" appointment for me. He also was a ten-minute man. He told me to head for Doctor's Hospital, do not stop on the way and do not eat or drink. Surgery was scheduled for 3:00. I called Daddy and he was taken by surprise to say the least! He evidently never considered I could be right. Well, anyway, surgery was unventual and it looks like recovery is uneventful as well. I will see Dr. DeCorte on Friday and I just know he'll tell me that I am doing fine and I can get out of bed now and resume a careful life. I won't mention that I drove Liezel to the beauty parlor yesterday!! Thank you all for your concern. Once again I have been made aware of how lucky I am to have all of you in my life.

Break a leg Janine! So this is how you do it. This is my first time writing. I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments. I'm looking forward to coming home this Sunday. My life here generally consists of time between visits home. I'm very homesick and have not quite settled in here. Patsy, we are planning to get together at Lizzie's for lunch on Sunday while the men do their draft thing. I believe it's potluck and we are looking at 1pm. I'm not sure what the menu is, this was Katie's idea. If Katie reads this, please let us know what you've decided and then tell me what you want me to bring!!

Michael and I bought a 1996 Explorer yesterday. It is in great shape inside and out. We all love it. It is so much more practical for us than the truck was. Now we have 4 doors to get in and out of, instead of two. Plus, we reduced our debt by a chunk. That's always nice.

Robbie, I am sorry to have missed your call yesterday. Michael and I had to drive to Kenner to do the transaction with the truck and then we spent the afternoon taking care of business, going to lunch at MiMamacita's, and cleaning out our new wheels. I scrubbed the rugs with detergent and a brush and Michael wiped down the console and interior of the doors with ArmorAll. I will call you today or you can call me when you have a lull.

I am learning some lines today for an audition and interview by the director of the Northstar theater tonight. She will be conducting adult theater workshops this fall. I am totally psyched about it. The monologue I am learning is a hoot. I hope I can pull it off. Wish me a broken leg!

Mars is making a very close approach to Earth in the coming days leading up to and including the Labor Day weekend. I'm hoping for good weather for this event. The moon will not be a problem and Mars, always a naked eye object, will be noticeably brighter than ever. With a telescope of even moderate size, the polar caps should be clearly visible as well. I plan to dust off my moderately-sized telescope and go out into the night on many of those nights. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, folks. Don't let it get by you. Join me if you like.

I’ve invited everyone in the Ferrara, Tompkins, and Bye families to My Family Blog. At least, to everyone I had an email address for. The one I had for Nancy was not current and it came back to me. I am depending on other family members to pass this along to the rest of the family members.

The title does not mean “My” in the sense that it belongs to Rob Ferrara. It means “My” in the sense that it belongs to the person participating.

Due to the shear size of these families, posting accounts (For now anyway) will be limited to actual members of the families. Posting accounts are free to any family member who asks. In-laws and everyone else are encouraged to comment, however.

Blogs are marvelous resources. It can be a repository of memories, a virtual meeting place, a way to keep in touch, a forum for announcements, a picture album, etc, etc.......... The only limit is our imaginations.

If you have any questions or need help getting started, contact me anytime.

My fabulous nephews, Jackson and Jacob.

According to Christina, “Jackson was so excited he could hardly stand it! He told Phil when he
woke up that it was fun to be 5 years old!”

Get well soon, Mom!

Love,

Robbie

So, we finally got the first day of school over with. Amen. I also finally got through the first day of forms. You would think that the information I provided last year and the years before could carry over. Once again, I had to answer questions that I wonder why they need that information at all. Mostly at Julia's school; things like birth certificate number and what the parents occupation is and last grade completed by them. I am a little self-conscious about not having a college degree and feel even worse about my smart husband having only a high school education. Would a teacher look at Julia and not expect much from her by our answers to those questions? If she turned in a paper half done would her teacher just say "I see. Why don't you do a nice coloring while all the other students finish their papers."? The religious preference question is Optional to answer, but then why ask it. And one last question that makes me wonder, why do they need the children's social security numbers. Is everything they do going to follow them through life? If one of them runs for office, heaven forbid!, will journalists or biographers track down their records from grade school and publicize them. I worry about things like that. Aaron got a handful of "F" papers last year. I hope if/when they are broadcast to the world, we can add that 4th grade is a hard year for everyone.

Really, why would the school need Julia's birth certificate number? Also, on her forms, again, were the questions of what her birth weight was and how many weeks gestation was she born. Every year I answer that and wonder what information about a student that provides that a parent or guardian couldn't have said another way. Elizabeth and I commiserated about these questions yesterday and one slot that annoyed her was "Mothers Maiden Name". She wanted to know why they needed to know that. Were they going to be looking up our records too and needed to know all of our aliases?

Also in question, what year I moved here and from what city. Only in Mandeville would that question be on a form. I wonder how many true Mandevillians there are.

Just one of those things, I guess...

Well hello everybody. After days of fiddling around, my computer finally permitted me to enter. At first I just couldn't get the hang of it, but then I think I was okay but just not good enough. So now I'm here with nothing to say. There may be a better effort tomorrow. We'll see.

Back to school traffic nothing special this morning. I expect the real crush will come on Monday.

A message exchange I had with Kim Novak a couple of days ago reminded me of another exchange I had some years ago with another friend. Rick Reynolds and I have known each other most of our lives. He was going out with a girl named Debbie for many years. They finally married. The repercussions were not realized at the time. Debbie and I knew each other but really had not had occasion to talk. One day she calls me at work for Rick just out of the blue and says, “Rob, this is Debbie Reynolds.” Whatever she said after that was lost on me because I simply could not absorb that statement. She ended up having to repeat everything.

If you tried to get on early this morning, the server was down. It is OK now, though. Also, I added a login link to this page. If you're having trouble logging in, please call me or email me. Or, if you want, let me know what username and password you would like to use.

I am having the worst time posting a message. this will be the 4th time I am typing this minutiae and I wonder why I am bothering now. It wasn't that interesting the first time. I just would love to master this and show support for the endeavor. Here goes...

I rode my bike into town yesterday, approx. 4-5 miles. Streets are not bike-friendly anymore or I'd do that regularly for the exercise. I feel too vulnerable riding the trace alone. Whatever happened to sidewalks?

I went to Gran's Attic, a thrift store, and bought two pairs of shorts, two dresses, two pairs of shoes, a pair of pants, and a blouse; all for $18.03. The blouse makes me look pregnant, the shorts are a little tight and one pair is a little dated, one of the dresses is a mu-mu, but I am swiftly becoming a mu-mu kind of girl, and the material is so pretty - linen with ivy vines all over it. The shoes are in excellent condition; one pair of Capezios and one pair was made in Spain and are absolutely beautiful. I love them and I believe I can keep my toes and still wear them. I packed all that into my backsack and rode off into the sunset on my bike, carefully staying out of ditches. I think I did pretty well.

Hollywood Homicide is for me; violence, language, humor, and Harrison Baby!!

When you make a new entry, remember to "save" before you exit.

Surgery for the fashion-minded!

Since Kevin is in town, or is he?, maybe you can go get a new car for your birthday. Yeah, go buy yourself a new car. It's your birthday. Go, girl!!!!

We need a girls night out. We never got one this year. I am tired of staying home. The only movies I ever get to see are kid movies. "Freaky Friday" was good, that's true, but I want a little language and some violence; not this weekend, though.

Michael and I got an impromptu date over the weekend. We spent it at WalMart, of course. It was very romantic spending $188.

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Back to school today for some.

A couple of messages asks what this blog is about and how do we use it or what is it used for.

Answer: It’s about nothing. It’s about everything. Maybe a couple of eggs over easy.

Just post whatever strikes your fancy. Strike up a conversation. Have fun. Be bold. Be whimsical. Just do it.

One of my variegated gingers. Took this photo this morning. It is happy in the new big pot I put it in. It outgrew its original container in no time and I waited too long to transplant it. It took a good couple of weeks to get to this state of foliage. This supposedly tropical plant wilts in the Bush heat. Closeup of one of the leaves here.

Welcome aboard, Janine. And, minutiae is welcome here.

Just tinkering with some of the features here. Supposedly, I can reference any blog who links to these blogs with the trackback feature. It works fine in two of the three blogs. Can't seem to get it to work in this one.

This is a test.

Can you guys think of anyone who would want and who should have a posting account here? I've emailed everyone in the family. Only a handful have taken me up on it and only one has posted anything. And that's fine because I expected it to be slow going in the beginning. This is new and quite daunting to some.

And now, I must go do the lawn.

Update: OK, it works now.

Anyone have weekend plans? It looks to be sunny and hot but otherwise a decent weekend. I have yard work tomorrow morning and then I have to go get a brake tag but I hope to have the rest of the weekend free. Maybe pizza at Isabella’s Saturday night!

Joey and I have some great pictures from Wyoming. Yellowstone was a lot of fun, but we enjoyed hiking in the Grand Tetons more. No bear sightings, to our disappoinment, but we saw moose, elk, bison, bald eagles, osprey, baby beavers, and lots of chipmunks. We went white water rafting and horseback riding. The weather was sunny and HOT. It was a dry heat so it didn't bother us too much. Joey suffered with hayfever while we were there because all of the wildflowers were in bloom. I return to school on Monday, August 11. Boo hoo. Back to a routine.

Nothing to say? Don’t know where or how to start? Still looking for ideas for a post? Just wade in. Here’s a decent sample post from the CrabAppleLane blog. The comments are from jana. She has a great site.

Angela has been added to the list of poster accounts. Still trying to get Sue, Janine, Katie, and Elizabeth. Dave doesn’t have a computer at present. Not sure if this is his kind of thing anyway.

Currently, five people have “posting” accounts on this blog but anyone reading it can comment.

Sam, Ginnie, Rob, Patsy, and Christina have posting accounts and more are welcome. Drop me a line.

Would love to have the Claytons, Mangunos, Ericksons, Soules, and Hunters onboard as well. Please apprise them of the site.

Ultimately, I’d like the Tompkins and Byes invited, too, but I think it best that we get it started so that they have an idea of what we’re doing. Actually, what are we doing?

Above all, have fun.

Update: Interesting webloggers meet. Both linked to my site.

Since Mom passed up the chance to place the first entry, I’ll do it.

What is this “blog” about? It is about anything we want it to be about. “Blog” is short for “web log”.

Tell us about the movie/concert/trip you just got back from. We’ll comment on it. Or not.

Comments are welcome and appreciated.

Link to sites you think are interesting.

Tell us tall tales.

Tell us how your day went.

Upload images
as popups or embedded in the message. (Less than 75k, please).

Whatever strikes your fancy.

Be bold. Experiment. You can’t break anything.

If you’re still not sure, email me.