...being a kid...

This is my family at the front door, before we left.









And, believe it or not, this "party" sign was still hanging on the wall of the room up in the attic that was "my" room to party in when I was a teenager!! Kim & I painted that ourselves! (I never had the guts to actually have a party up there, but, be that as it may...

And, this is the kind of workmanship you'll just never find anywhere now...I don't know, but I really doubt that any homebuilders build intricate cabinets & drawers in any house they build. The door to this room is neat, it's like the back door of a house or something, and the whole top half of the door is glass!

What were some of the most favorite games & stuff you played when you were little? I always loved Monopoly...cuz I was good at it (maybe cuz I was always the banker...you think?). This was just a perfect house for playing board games with your friends...the rooms downstairs were big, and if you got tired of playing, it didn't matter if you all got up and did something else, as long as it wasn't in the middle of the room. I liked most board games, like, Life, PayDay, stuff like that. But my first favorite was 'Trouble'. You know, had the thing in the middle that you popped to roll the dice. I still think that was just about the most ingenious thing ever invented...something that rolls the dice, but the dice aren't free to lose (as little kids are wont to do...). Mom and I played card games too. She was always picking up fun things like that! One fun one was 'Rack'O. Another one was called 'Authors'...it had authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, etc...the point was to match all the books with their authors. That's what made me 'precocious', I guess! lol! Mom had taught me how to read & write when I was about 3, and that was the coolest thing in the world! I remember there was an algebra textbook in our library at home, and Dad teaching me that in 4th grade, but, no matter how it was tried to teach, math just sucked! And reading and writing was just fun! Art was, ummmm, well, Mom tried to get me into drawing and stuff, but...she failed on that. Sorry, Mom! But I still do think there is nothing better than a book! My homeroom teacher when I was in the 6th grade always ended each homeroom period by telling everyone on the way out of the room "Read For Pleasure!" He was a neat old man. I had a ninth grade teacher that said every day when we were leaving "Walk with Light!" That's just neat stuff to remember, most people have at least one or two teachers that were cool like that!
Oh, I talked to my cousin Boo the other day, and we were on the phone for a long time...but before we hung up, I had to call her the "quadro-mom" (well, she does have 4 kids!).
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Citigroup credit...

Well, these are all pictures of the front stairs. And the half-bath down here. These were the best stairs in the world for playing on! (shhhhh). No, seriously, this is where I learned the true meaning of the Slinky! (you know, subliminal, and Zen, and all that...).
That globe in the left front of one of the pictures, I'm pretty sure Mom & Dad left that when they sold this house. I used to look at that all the time when I was little...sometimes, in the evenings, when we were sitting around watching tv (you know, 70's shows; All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, Good Times,

Sanford & Son, Little House On The Prairie, Welcome Back Kotter. These shows are always on TVLand overnight, which is why I'm always up watching tv all night! And a good reason to have cable tv!
Anyway, the wallpaper is the same, the carpet is different, our old chandeliers are still hanging there...they left a lot of things the same, but they made some changes...IMO, they changed what needed to be changed, and left a lot of good stuff alone! I don't live there, but I still think of it as 'my' house!
Actually, Pat, one of my good 'blogging buddies' was down for the day last week, and we went past that house and it had a paper on the door, & that might've been a foreclosure thingy, we didn't walk up & see it close up. I know that the man that bought it from Mom & Dad died after we went over & took pictures & met the man and his "ladyfriend" that lived there. Believe it or not, they bought this house from Mom & Dad for $60,000! That was in the early to mid-80's, when the economy sucked just as bad as it does now. Mom & Dad didn't have to move, they just wanted to, and had their next house picked out (a one-story!). It's a nice house, just...different, ya know? But I think he left the house to his daughter, and I know nothing about her, nor do I want to. I'm just very glad that I thought about that house so much back in 2003, I looked his name up and called to ask if I could come over & see the house again...we set it up, and it did just happen to coincide with 20 years from the day I moved out!
I was just thinking today (pondering, I guess some would call it...)...as a child, when you were growing up, did you EVER need a friggin commercial on tv to tell you to go out & play??? If you were like me & my friends, your mom had to call you to come in & eat, or "It's time to come in, the streetlights just came on!" And you'd say "But I want to catch lightning bugs! Pleeeezzz??" Stop & think about it. Could this possibly have anything to do with the fact that there are so many overweight kids? Hmmm. Ridiculous.
I wanted to mention my Sears credit card. I had called them 2 months ago, trying to get my interest rate lowered, cuz I've never had late payments, or anything, that card is here for emergencies (you know, if my refrigerator dies or something [snark]) only, but their interest rate is like 28%. So I called and talked to people all the way up to the lady that said she was the highest I could get. All of them refused to do anything because "You're not behind in your payments". WTF??? So now, it's a BAD thing to think ahead and be proactive when you see a problem up ahead? Who makes these rules? I must be one of many, because when I got my Sears bill this month, there was a big reduction in the %, and the payment was $200 less than what it had been, and a bunch of explanatory pages about that Citibank South Dakota had (just out of the kindness of their little black hearts, I'm sure) lowered the interest rates. It's really a good thing, because I had decided that I just wasn't going to pay my bill, if that's what it'd take...I'd just pay it to my savings account instead, so there! One black heart meets another...but, since they did that, I paid it last night.
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

yay!! it was sunny today!! (but we'll get a couple inches of snow tomorrow...)

This top picture is the kitchen of the house I grew up in (from now on, I'll just refer to it as 351!). I took all these pictures on Apr 8, 2003; that's 20 years to the day from when I moved out & got married when I was pregnant with Tif, a few weeks before I graduated from high school. I always tried to tell her "yes you WERE there at my graduation!"
Anyway, if I close my eyes, I can see Mom giving Tif a bath in that kitchen sink, like she always did! I don't know if this happens with all grandmas, but I know that every time I'd tell Mom I was coming over with Tif for a while, she'd make me bring all of Tif's dirrty clothes, and Tif, and she'd throw a load of clothes in

the washer, and grab Tif, and pop her in the sink to give her a bath!! And no, we were not filthy slobs! Mom just loved babies, and she was the best grandma!

The next picture is up on the third floor (the attic). That floor had about 6 or 7 rooms in it, and most of them were kinda creepy & scary...I never went up there by myself before I was 12! But that window was in the room I moved up into when I was about 15, and Kim & I decided I needed my own stained glass window up there...and it's still there after 30 years!

Then there's Mom's closet door, where she put my height and the dates on...& that's still there too!! Too cool!

I'm dealing with a lot of bullshit stuff right now. My super heavy-duty battery powered wheelechair isn't working right now. And thank God, right now it's not totally necessary, because I had called the United Seating & Mobility company (where I got it 2 years ago...I think that was the last thing Kev waited for me to get before he moved on!), and they had somebody here Jan 21 to check it out, said it needs a new motor & a new battery...said they'd call when they got stuff together (ins, etc). Well, I gave them a week & started calling. I've been talking to one woman at the Columbus office, and I know her name & extension # there...but, who knows. I do know that she told me yesterday she had talked to my dr's office & the nurse there was SO nice. But, this afternoon I called the nurse & talked to her myself (at least I know her name!), and yes, she's very nice, but said nobody called to get a letter of medical necessity for me (you know, cuz everybody wants a wheelchair just for the fun of it? woohoo...demolition derby, anybody?) So I gave her United Mobility's name & the lady's name & phone # & extension #...then I called one of the women at Anthem BC/BS in Columbus that I've worked with for years (she gives health insurance companies something to be proud of! Seriously! I always hear people bitching about rude insurance people, but she's not one of them!). And she said no, they hadn't heard anything from United, nothing! I asked if I'm gonna be a pain in the ass if I call & check Monday, and she said "Honey, you call me back every day until we find out what's the holdup on this, it's not a problem, I'm here to help you!" OMG...I LOVE that woman!

So, that's what's up here...I'm just glad I'm in for the weekend, it's so frickin' cold out, and gonna be sleet, rain, snow, etc all weekend

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

~~~~~~~~~~ Oh, I forgot to say..."2XXX Libby Lane, was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct while intoxicated."

That was in the local paper tonight...I TOLD you I'm famous! Truly, that street is named after me...G was an engineer at the company that designed & built that development when I was still little & cute!

gray, yukky day outside!

This was my room when I was really little, when I grew up (you know, when I was 12 or 13!), I moved to my older brothers' room that they shared (it was a huge house from the outside, but it only had 3 bedrooms...but they were big bedrooms!). This what used to be the backyard, for some reason, they're making it into a parking area!

This is the bedroom I moved to, that was my brothers' before they moved out.

And this was Mom & Dad's room, it goes all the way across the upstairs front.

It might've been raining earlier too. Either way...it's just f*n UGLY outside!! But I'm gonna ignore that, I'm looking through my pix of my old house that I grew up in (lived there from 1966 to 1983), and think about when life was easy, and I didn't have any responsibilities, except do what Mommy & Daddy said...easy when you're in grade school...became progressively harder as I turned 12+!

We went down to the Smokey Mountains a lot. I only have 'snatches' of memories from back then. I remember that every time we went to a motel, I begged for one with a pool, cuz I loved to swim! Once, I remember we were staying in a cabin in, maybe West Virginia (beautiful state!), and looking out the kitchen window, & seeing a big bear standing up on its back legs, leaning on the passenger side window, trying to look in there! We have a picture of it somewhere, I just don't know where.

I also remember one time we went to Oglebay Resort in Weat Virginia, which was a whole lot of fun, even 35 years ago! That was the first time I ever rode a horse, and I loved it! But, turned out, I was allergic to horses, so I spent the rest of the afternoon sneezing, blowing my nose, whining (I was sick on my vacation, for heaven's sake!). And I was about 7 or 8!

Oh, by the way...the stained glass window is on the landing of the front stairs of that house. I'll put a couple more pix up on my next post.

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Sunday the 15th of the worst weekend of the year...

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of my mom dying...it's also my 19th wedding anniversary...(hope you enjoy it with Jen, pig) which means I'll always remember that because of what happened with my mom. Hmmmm....sucks, doesn't it? Oh well...live & learn, right?

Okay...on to something funny (no, this whole story isn't funny!). I heard the reporters on Fox news yesterday talking about a photojournalist that took pictures of the plane that wrecked in the flight from Newark to Buffalo. I'm so sorry for all the people involved. Anyway...the photographer's name was Harry Scull! Say that with your eyes closed! Oh, holy shit, can you even imagine the hell he must've gone through as a child?

I'm not watching any news today, I'm watching "Parking Wars" on A & E! I love this show, it's all about the trouble when you get your car ticketed, or booted, or towed in Philadelphia. I never want to park anywhere in Philly! Next is "The Exterminators"...that's good too, but gross!

Oh well...I'll get back to vacations soon...

DrAgS...LibbY!

the country's going down the frickin' drain...

We were promised a new era of hope & change...yeah, I know, Obama's only been president for 3 weeks...he doesn't seem as if it's all easy happy sunshine...
And why? It should be, after all, it's a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, a socialist, oops, a Democratic president. What's up with all the problems finding people to nominate to cabinet posts? Sure, Republicans have run into problems putting people in them too, but I hardly think they've tried and failed with so many in so few days! And look at the trouble with the Commerce Secretary position. First it was going to be the New Mexico governor...then he dropped out because of 'legal problems'. Well, okay, then they had the brilliant idea to be "bipartisan", and approached Judd Gregg, a senator from New Hampshire,who is anything but a taxer & spender! They thought he was going to take it, and all their problems were solved...until about 5:15 this afternoon...then he said he wanted out before he tried to go any further, and all I could do is think "Smart Guy!!" He said that he and this administration weren't enough in step for him to do this! Which is true, and I'm so glad he realized it in time! I didn't like the way the census bureau was going to be moved into the White House, the census is not supposed to be democrat OR republican, it just IS! It's supposed to be non-political, and yeah, I know, it's probably not been like that as much as it should, but, holy God! The Democrats are acting like little kids whose teacher left the room for a minute! And Rahm Emmanuel doesn't inspire a whole lot of trust in a whole helluva lot of people. Oh, and by the way, if Judd Gregg would've taken that commerce secretary position, well, that would've just opened up a blank senate seat for the governor of New Hampshire to seat (a la Blagojevich?). and, being that the governor is a democrat...which would totally give democrats a filibuster-proof senate! Stop the country...I want off. Only problem is, I have a daughter that's going to inherit this, and I'm ashamed of that...
And when Obama was campaigning, he promised that everything was going to be open and everybody would have 5 days to look at anything before he signed it into law...but he's signed things into law already, and nobody had a chance to see it. It was supposed to be posted on the web first, so we could ALL see it first. I guess there's a big difference between campaigning & governing...
Hmmmm....

more fun memories...

...and since these are the only good things I see about Valentine's Day this year...and for the forseeable future...



anyway, I just hafta touch on this bit of politics again...Tinothy Geithner (again!), I think he's going to be the last downfall for this economy. First of all, I don't think he's the "financial genius" he's being touted as. Yeah, he was the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York...so what? Ummmm....well, look at what Obama said last night, and a lot of people are saying today, that these money problems all started during the Bush administration. Timothy Geithner was in charge of the MONEY in the country from 2003 until he got the treasury of the secretary position. So, what made him all of a sudden be the best person to put in charge of the country's money, not just Wall Street?? The fact that he was smart enough to not pay his income tax?? Huh...the last I heard, that doesn't take brains, just cunning!! Because I've known some really stupid people who've gotten away with not paying taxes...but they get away with it because they're just inherently sneaky-ass people...not because they're smart, for God's sake! I've pretty much lost any kind of hope I had for this president. He said he was all about change & hope & all that...the only change I'm seeing is the economy going down the toilet faster & faster. I'm kinda even thinking that tax cuts can't even help now, because, holy shit...you need to have a job to notice any more money on your check every week or two! And I'm hearing about the $7,000 tax deduction if you buy a car. Number one...what bank is going to loan ANYBODY money for a car right now? Number two...if a person has a job at this point, pretty much, they're not looking to spend any extra money right now! How depressing. I guess it's probably a good thing I don't know any more about money. The only thing I know for sure is that the only people I've ever heard say "I hate money!" were the people who have plenty of it! Huh...I LOVE money. And, yeah, I know the root of all evil is that...but at least I'm not lying, which is, I think right there beside it!

Hey, let's talk about old vacations. When I was little, we always went on vacation for a couple of weeks in the summer. Usually it was getting in the car (I got the whole backseat to myself, to share with all my library books!), and driving to, well, wherever Mom & Dad had planned for us. I remember a lot of places, Mount Rushmore was neat! And Wyoming...but that's the farthest west I can remember...most of where we went was on the east half of the US. Mom told me once that we went to New York City, but I definitely don't remember that! I do remember a lot of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell, Virginia, Williamsburg, et al.
Among many others...I just had amazing vacations. Hell, I had an amazing childhood!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

February...even more hated than November...

Yup...This is the "after effect" of the beautiful snow we had. Well, I guess you have to take the bad if you get the good, no matter how sucky it is, right? It's been really warm this weekend, like lower 40's...and Monday and the rest of the week are going to be high 40's/low 50's!! Which is good...but it's gonna be ugly and rainy
for the next couple days...
Speaking of which...did everyone hear about the 138 people who were ice fishing this weekend on Lake Erie, and the 8-mile ice floe they were on broke off and they were on it? Holy crap. I know the police chief of Oak Harbor (neat little town...I used to take Tif up there in the summers when she was 10 or 11, just to swim and chase seagulls and everything...there and Port Clinton!) said they were idiots for going out on the ice now, and I pretty much have to agree with that. Come on! Ice fishing must be a really neat thing to do, but...even I know that you shouldn't go out on a lake that looks frozen over...on the warmest weekend Ohio has had in months!! Sheesh...
Wow, I haven't thought about Port Clinton in a long time!That town was just a good time! Of course, I only went in the summer, it might just be cold and miserable in the winter, like the rest of Ohio is?
When I had a job at the first grocery store I worked at (actually, that was my first job I'd ever had), Tif was about 18 months old, and I ended up getting a vacation the year after I was hired (was still just a cashier, learning to do the books for the store too...you know, the more you learn at a job, the more hours they'll give you! Even if you never wanted to be a bookkeeper,when you're 19 and making $3.50 an hour, part time,with a little baby at home, if that's what you have to do for more hours...). My friend Kelly and I decided to take that week and go up to Port Clinton for the week, and I left Tif with Mom and Dad. So we went to Port Clinton, and got a cheap motel room in a motel on their little beach (& I AM talking cheap! Like, maybe $20 a night?). But we weren't going to be sitting around in the room anyway. We had a lot of fun that week! Went out drinking at the bars, and partying with the cute guys we met up there, took one day and went to Cedar Point amusement park...that was the BEST! Because I had gone there at least once every summer since I was like, 2 or 3! And until this time, I never realized how much the drive up there took out of you! It's about a 3 hour drive from here, which isn't horrible, but still. But from Port Clinton, it was maybe 20 minutes, and after a whole day at Cedar Point, we got back to the motel room, and took showers, changed our clothes, and we were ready to go out partying that night! I met a really cute guy that night (he was also a Kevin...weird...), and he was staying in his family's cabin up there, and talked us (well, me) into skinny dipping in the lake with him. So we went, and while I was standing in the water, I pointed to what I thought was a smokestack, and asked "What's that?" He said, oh, that's Davis-Bessie. That would be the nuclear plant...!!
Okay, my pizza and salad just got here, so I need to eat...hopefully, I'll have more interesting stuff to talk about when I come back!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

...rabbit, rabbit...

Rabbit, rabbit...or, maybe in honor of it being February 2...I should say, 'groundhog, groundhog!' Naahhh...Punxatawney Phil saw his shadow today, so that means 6 more weeks of winter. hmmm...actually, just look at your calendar...of course there's six more weeks of winter!! I'm just hoping for a "strawberry spring"...you know, when spring comes all of a sudden, it seems like overnight! I've had my snow, & cold weather for the year, January's over, I'm done with winter weather...mostly because I truly can't get out of here...there's 4-6 inches of snow on my yard, which is actually my stone 'driveway' in the summer, and I can't even get my scooter out to the street where the city bus could pick me up! And I will not ask any of the little kids that shovel sidewalks to get that! This much snow absolutely needs a snowblower, which I don't have. And I'm checking to see if I can find anyone with one! Bro, of course, has one, but it's out at his house in the country, about 15 miles from here...that does me no good...but, I'll get one here this week...and then, when the snow & cold is gone for this winter, my ass is gonna be at Wal Mart or somewhere, buying one of those little snowblower thingys!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tom Daschle...well, what is there to say there? Holy shit! The Dems totally ripped the ass off of Bush's people while they were in office...and, now that they hold ALL the power in DC, WTF are they doing?? They are openly putting people in cabinet positions that, well, I know I don't trust, obviously, though, they're stupid enough to! Tom Daschle is only getting the health and human services position.../snark/, but the head of the treasury department, Timothy Geithner, was already confirmed, and HE, of all people, should know better!! Do we really, as Americans, even deserve the fucking right to expect our friends, neighbors, husbands, wives, coworkers to tell us the truth about ANYTHING?? Crap...this used to be a good, honorable country. And I've already had all my trust taken from me by my x, after 17 years, well...who can you trust now? At least I know better now than to trust ANYBODY! Speaking of getting fucked over...what would've been my 19th wedding anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks, so if I have extra attitude for a while, that'll be my reason. thanks Kevin & Jen! Obviously, I'm not an evil person, or I'd put her email address in here...but I'm not EVIL, no matter what anyone says! I'm just snarky & smartass, but, there's lots of us like that here!

So, any thoughts out there about the woman who just had 8 babies, on top of the 6 she already had? And these were not just 'unexpected', or anything, she had eight embryos implanted ON PURPOSE!! And she's single, lives with her parents, and is now unemployed (her last job was in a fertility clinic...shocking, huh?). She lives in a two-bedroom house that her mom & dad bought for her a few years ago, because she didn't have money to buy her own (for God's sake!), and had her first 6 kids to raise by herself, one of whom has autism!! and two of whom are two year old twins! This is a woman who 'just loves kids'! For some fortunate reason, all 8 lived, and are breathing on their own...but the medical costs for these babies is unbelievable! They'll have to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for at least a month at a cost of one thousand dollars per day, per baby! So who gets that bill? Uh-huh..the state of California....who can't even afford to pay people's income tax refunds! Jeez...incredible...and here I was always careful to never get pregnant again, after I had Tif. Why? Well, stupid reason, but...I couldn't afford it!! Well, to be honest, I really didn't want any more too...but, still!

Okay, that's it from here...I tivo'd Glenn Beck's show on Fox, so I want to watch that...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

~~~~~~~~~~~addendum~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bro shoveling out my driveway was the noise I woke up to at 8:45 this morning! I love him, did I ever tell you that? I did get up and go to the front door to tell him thanks, but he said it was no problem, it was a pleasure to be able to do something like that for me! Where are husbands like that? I even got to tell him happy birthday, cuz today is his 55th!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seven randoms from Kimmy's blog...again...

Now, this is winter!! And, I guess there's an inch or two of ice under this, but, since I don't drive...


Well, Tom was here the day before this hit, and was taking me out to the bank, so I could get cash for the pizza deliveries I knew I'd want for the weekend, and to Certified to get choc milk & orange juice...(& cigarettes! you know, the necessities!)...anyway, I was in my manual wheelchair on the deck

while he came back inside to get something I'd forgotten, and I'm sure all he heard was the loud "Wahh-HOOOO!! as I rolled myself over to the start of the first downhill slant of the ramp, and then let go, and went sliding down the first 'hill', into the big pile of snow at the turn to go down the second 'hill'!

That was almost as much fun as a rollercoaster!!

Today Tif & her husband came over to pick up a pair of her old snow pants, cuz they were going over to the Mad River place, he was going to teach her how to "snow board"! That's gonna be fun! She just called & said the Columbus news station was there with their cameras filming everybody, so I'll be seeing Tif in her neon green & black jacket on the news tonight!! Neat!

Okay...after all that...I'm taking Kimmy's next quiz on her blog (she's the BEST!). You have to tell 7 random things about yourself. Well, I think I'm going to do the same thing she did, I'll just say 7 random things from my childhood.

1. When it was this snowy outside, those were the Sundays I loved to go to Grandma's! Because there was a HUGE hill in the back of Grandma's house, and we all knew how much fun it was to roll down that in the summer, but, in the winter, OMG!! If you couldn't find a 'sled' anywhere, you used whatever you could find to slide down on, whether it was a broken-down car hood from behind the barn (this is a farm way out in the country), or a big ol' tractor tire that we scrunched up in the middle of, and everybody tried to ROLL you down the hill! That's why the snow was necessary...soft landing, you know?

2. And if you "sledded" too far, and went too slow, you'd end up in the 'crick' down at the bottom of the hill, and if it wasn't frozen solid, you ended up wet & cold & crying, & stormed your little 'haughty' butt in the house, to sit against a radiator, and get warm, & fussed over by all the grown-ups inside & eat Grandma's homemade cookies (I liked the macaroon ones best!)

3. When I was in 8th grade is when I started getting some self-confidence & all my smartass-ness started then...and that's when Kim & I became 'BFF' (well, it had a good 30 year run, anyway...). She didn't exactly cause it, but she sure as hell didn't discourage it, either! It was what started me being a total smartass...when you see your friend pee her pants laughing because of what you said, how could you NOT go with that??

4. There was one guy that picked on us so bad in middle school (I think he started the whole feud!), that we had to make it our personal mission to 'get him back' every day. People loved to be in a class that we were all in (art & history!)...oh, did I forget to mention, he was very fat. Very fat. In today's language, I'm sure he'dve been obese. Like Fat Albert-type, if he stood near you and lifted his stomach up, and you were unfortunate enough to be under it, I'm sure you'dve ended up looking like a pancake (or a slinky!). He always was pissed at the world, and now that I have a brain, I understnd why, but at the time, we just thought he was a crab! He always called Kim "watermouth". When a teacher asked him why he called her that, he said "'Cause her mouth is always running!" lol!

5. So once in art class, we were ironing something on shirts, and we were unfortunate enough to be sitting at one of the big long tables on stools across from him. All the irons were plugged into outlets above the tables. And Randy got up to go get something, and Kim looked around 'furtively', and unplugged Randy's iron. He came back and sat down and was sittin' there, ironing away. Everybody else in the class was holding their shirts up and showing off their handiwork, and still Randy's sitting there ironing furiously, as if his life depended on it! Until he got really mad, and threw the iron on the floor...and that's kinda when he realized that his iron had been unplugged. And that's when the fight started...

6. My house was the one everybody wanted to come to after school, especially in grade school! Cuz my mom was the quintessential 'room mother', she was always the room mother for every class I was in, and she was just damn good at it! This was in the early 1970's, and a lot of other people's mom's were just starting to go get jobs and stuff, but my mom was what she always wanted to be; a good mom, good wife, stay at home, make dinner every night, play with her kids, I even remember seeing my mom darn socks!! How many people have EVER seen that done??

7. I was so spoiled that I went to the YMCA 3 times a week for a couple of years to take swimming lessons (which was something I ended up getting really good at!). I remember one of the first times I was there to swim, there was a 'viewing room' where all the moms sat in & watched down at the pool while their kid was swimming, and mom told me once that a little boy asked his mom "why didn't that one little boy's color come off in the water?" Remember, this was late 60's/early 70's, and this is a pretty small town, and black people weren't around very much. Still, even I wasn't that stupid at age 6! C'mon!

And I'm turning it over to all of you to maybe tag yourselves!!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

my mind is STILL all over the place!

This is one of Truman's 'kitty-porn' pictures (yes, there really is a website called that, and yes, many cats 'pose' for it!)...problem is...there's no money in it! Yes, I would 'prostitute' Truman out, okay?


And this is Tif, years ago, when she was getting ready to go out 'clubbing' with her friends!









The three self-evident truths in life that I've been misguided enough to forget over the last 5 years...





1. Never date an insecure man. They are the ones who will cheat because
boosting their little deflated ego is more important than really hurting someone.

2. Abuse of trust is more a violation than physical abuse.

3.When someone doesn't see if from your perspective - it's because they are not interested in seeing it from your perspective.


Yeah...these are really important things to remember...always!



I've been thinking about EVERYTHING lately! There's just a ton of stuff going on in my life...and in the politics realm, which I usually don't blog about here, but I'm breaking my own rule for a couple of things...


First of all...who could EVER not have an opinion about Blagojevich?? What a fuckin' idiot this guy is!! To me, it's no wonder that his approval rating in Illinois, where he IS the elected governor, and he'll NEVER let you forget it, is at 7%!! My God, George W Bush was really low, but it never got even close to that!! In my opinion, that's why Blago is skipping his own impeachment hearings, and is in Manhattan, hitting all the national shows he can, because obviously nobody in Illinois likes him, but "hey...maybe if I get my message out to the country, people will like me SOMEWHERE and maybe they'll call their senators, and..." holy crap, how humiliating this whole thing must be for President Obama, and the whole state of Illinois!! If it keeps up, it'll be the whole United States!


The other political thing I'm pissed off is that Timothy Geithner was confirmed as the US Treasury Secretary today...if this economy needed one more kick in the ass to get it rolling downhill, they picked the right guy. After all, who better to put in charge of the treasury than a guy who didn't pay taxes for 4 years!! Where are our US senators' heads?? Or, as Mary, my friend from Chicago likes to say is my favorite quote..."Off with their heads!!" Seriously...how could anybody feel that he is the best person for the job?



Okay...I'm done with my political rant (for now, anyway...LOL).


My "good and great" friend, KimmyK , sent me questions to answer...actually, I volunteered for them, knowing that I might hate myself in the morning (hasn't EVERYBODY done something like that at some point in their life?). So, here goes...

1. Where did the "BoUnCeS!! Libby!" come from?

Well, I guess it come from the fact that I'm a huge, huge tigger fan, always have been, always will be! Anyone who still plays 'Pooh sticks' in the hundred acre woods NOW, and has the hardcover book "The Tao Of Pooh" and "The Te Of Piglet" proudly in their books, well, there's obviously no hope for me to be a mature person...but, damn, I'll be a fun grandma someday!


2. Have you ever owned a dog? If so, what was his name?

I've had a number of dogs, starting with the dalmatian puppy Kevin's brother gave us for Christmas one year when Tif was about 7 or 8...he was okay for awhile, til he got big (75 lbs big! and was as tall as me, could put his front paws on my shoulders!) & fierce, and started biting anyone that did anything he didn't like! When he bit Tif, he was out...but we couldn't find anyone to take him, even for free! (well, they'd take him, but they'd always call the next day asking us to pick him up, he bit someone or growled at someone or was hiding under the car out in the backyard, and they couldn't get him out, even with a food bribe!). And, we were nice, always picked him back up, even when we gave up & took him to the animal shelter, we told them to call us if it ever got to the point they'd have to put him to sleep, we did NOT want that to happen! They called a few days later, & said he was too fierce to be put up for adoption by them, he was still trying to bite everybody there! So...we always picked him back up (but he was never allowed around my beautiful baby girl again!).......anyway, we finally found a couple in Columbus that wanted him...and that was it for Amadeus here!! (yeah, that was his name). Talk about a long road to nowhere, huh? Our last dog was a ourebred beagle, Buffy, who was a great dog, but...we just weren't 'dog people', so when she was a few years old, I put an ad in the paper "free to the RIGHT home!", and people had to come here & meet her, and I/we got to see how Buffy felt about them before we sent her home with them...kinda like an open adoption?

3. What's the biggest misconception about MS that you deal with?

Wow...nobody's ever asked me that! I guess it'd be that the disease is just a disease that always is on the way downhill...and nothing could be further from the truth. Yeah, there's bad days...sometimes so bad that you just feel like it'd just be better for you & everyone if you'd never woke up that day. But a lot of times there's days that are better than anyone could imagine, not usually physically, but mentally. You have absolutely no idea how great it feels to wake up in the morning and KNOW how blessed you are to still be able to stand up and walk (even if it's with a walker with wheels!) to the kitchen, and the bathroom, and even go outside on your scooter if it's not too COLD and too snowy! Plus, if I don't go anywhere, there's always good books to read (or reread!), or Fox news channel, or stuff to learn about on here, or all the friends I've met all over the world that I wouldn't know if I didn't have ms!! You have no idea how much good comes out in people who get this disease in the beginning of their adult life! Shit, there's just too much to say about this question!

4. We all know that Stephen King is your favorite author, which book is your favorite?

Damn, Kimmy! I still have to go back to the first one I read, The Stand. My mom bought that for me to read when I was in the 8th grade, and stayed home from school with the flu. Does everybody get the irony here??

5. The root of all evil is.....?

...wow...damn...just...wow...still thinkin'...yeah, I guess I have to go with an appropriate response here...GREED!
Yeah, that doesn't go with the woman who just linked to capitalistpig.com, but I'm not really talking money here, just people in general who see something that somebody else has & decides they can just take it...or somebody else is doing what they think they should be doing, and they just go and do it, without even thinking about the tears & broken hearts & devastated lives they leave behind. I think more people pray for karma to bite the people in the ass because of greed than anything.
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions. (please make sure I have your email cause that helps when trying to actually email someone)3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. Be sure you link back to the original post.4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.Didja get all that?

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

..lots of stuff to think about,,,& my gorgeous baby girl i had 25 + years ago.....

Okay...I'm comparing my old pictures of me with Tif's at approximately the same age and she did look a lot like me! Except I couldn't afford a lot of the expensive stuff for Tif to wear that I used to get. However, when Tif was a baby, Mom & Dad bought a lot of good clothes for her...Tif & I still think that she was 'the favorite granddaughter', even

though she was the second of four granddaughters (simply cuz Bro just would NOT stop having kids! lol!).

And the envelope from a letter to Santa was in with the stuff that Bro & his son brought over the other day!

Speaking of people who have lots of kids...

I hooked up with a friend from 8th grade on Facebook...she and her husband got married right after college, and they have eleven kids!! Wow!! They have ten daughters and one son somewhere in the middle!! Can you imagine the hell that poor boy is going through all his life??? hahahaha! Two of the girls are in college already, and the third will go in a few months...wow, again. The bills for their education will be astronomical, not to mention their weddings!! I always have remembered her as a "kind" friend, because she was, well, rich, and went out of her way to be nice to people like me, who weren't in her

"social class". I was kinda a "hood" & a troublemaker & a smartass. I know...what a shocker, huh? But, hey, I always got A's...that was just how it was...

And I still love that picture of me & Tif when she was about 10 months old, & I was 19 or 20, and had just taken Tif & left my first husband!

Oh, geez, I forgot to say! Tif was here the other day, and was telling me about the Christmas party in Columbus she and her husband won tickets to. They met Katie Perry (I Kissed A Girl) and Nick LaShea (Jessica Simpson's ex). I don't know what the party was for. I do know Nick's from, like, Cincinnati or Dayton or something. Well, so was Jerry Springer, too...ergghh...

I was calling around to a bunch of banks today, just to find oout what cd's are paying right now and I got a whole 'myriad' of interest rates, anywhere from .25% to 1.75%! Holy crap! How could they change that much?? But I AM starting to understand this stuff though, the difference between an I bond & a T bond, and a cd...So..one of these days, I'll work on Wall Street.....(smirk!). Naw, this is just stuff I should have learned in high school!

Did anyone watch the new tv show "Lie To Me" on Fox last week? That's going to be a good show! I like a lot of shows lately, like that one, House, The Mentalist, Fringe, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, Cold Case, damn, there's just tons of good stuff! Actually, thinking about it, I'm not into all the action stuff, but, give me anything that makes me think, and I'm happy!

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Who is this adorable little angel??

...aaaawwwwwww...a future movie star... (lol!)

Bro & his son showed up the other day with some special stuff from Mom & Dad's for me! #1 thing was the church pew! It was a real church pew from the church in her little "village" up by Tiffin that she was a member at all her life, I went there with her sometimes and when the church got down to just a few members (less then 10), they were

emptying it out, so Bro was helping them, and got Mom a pew from there. That church is also where I had Tif baptized! And #2 & 3 things were a 'formal' type picture from when I was 3...I even remember the studio downtown where it was taken! I remember walking down there with Mom, and I totally remember that ball I was holding in the picture! I remember it, because I was SO disappointed that I didn't get to take it home with me! And the dress...well, Bro brought that over too!! I cannot believe she still had that dress!! How special is that?? So, can everybody see where I get my love of antiques from? And why I love hanging out with Tom at the antique store downtown (which is actually two doors away from the building this studio was in when it was there!). And why his house feels so 'homey' to me, because it's all furnished with antiques?

I've been thinking a lot about psychology stuff lately, because I'd really love to go to college and get a degree in that. I've been told by a lot of people here that I'm actually the type of person that grants for the disabled are meant for, so I'm looking into all that! My next step is to call out to OSUM here, I'm doing that this week. Because I SO don't want to be dependant on social security disability only for the rest of my life!

I'm in the middle of a good book I got last week, it's called "The Power Of Body Language" by Tonya Reiman. I got into this because she's on Bill O'Reilly's show all the time, and she is REALLy good at this stuff! Like, she was saying that it's a physiological fact that when you're lying, your face itches, because the pores in your face open a little...interesting, for a personal reason, I have SEEN this happen! I think if your face itches all night when you're asleep, maybe it means you're living a lie!

And I also would like any opinions on this psychological question, if you would? There are two different types of women or men who have sex with married people. One is just doing it for "fun", which is also wrong, but, there are also those who set their sights on having this one married person for themselves, and the one who is left, well, too bad for them...I think the devil reserves a special corner in hell for these people...just my opinion...yeah, I'm jaded.

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

global warming? bite me~!!

Yeah...this is "my man"...and, yes, he is truly irresistable!! I DARE you to say no to him! Especially when it's like this outside, and all Truman wants is to cuddle under the blankets in your bed with you!

...life's good, this weekend...Actually, I just woke up again (it's 2:08 am! Sunday) and The Truman Show is on! This is an awesome movie, and if you've never seen it, I highly recommend it! I think that's actually where Tif came up with Truman's name! It's a movie from 1998, but since we never went to the movies, just saw them on videos that we rented, that must have been when we saw it, in 2000, we adopted Tru in May 2000! We loved that movie!

Global warming? Maybe somewhere...but certainly not HERE! This is the coldest weather central Ohio has had in five years! To me, that says it's colder here now...but, I dunno, I'm not a scientist.

Actually, it's now tolerable...ever since Thursday night, it's been getting colder & colder...we had a 'wind chill warning' Friday morning...not just a wind chill advisory, which we get a lot in the winter, but a wind chill warning! My furnace has been running nonstop since then! I'd be screwed if my electric went out! Because, not only has my heat been set at 74 (as usual!), but I've had my disc heater on sitting on my walker about 4 feet away from my bed! I've been in my bed under the covers almost 100% of the time since Friday, with trips to the bathroom & kitchen thrown in! So I've done nothing all weekend but sleep & eat & watch tv! And think, which can be a dangerous thing...

Like, what's 44? Just a fuckin' number...except to some people, it's more than that...sometimes it's, like an email address, or an age, or geez, how many people you may have sex with this year...actually, I've found that what makes you look "old" is the fact that you try to hang out with people a lot younger!

Like, I thought Barack Obama was wanting "change". But here all of a sudden, we're paying God-knows-how-many-billions for his inauguration! WTF?? Yeah, I suspended my partisanship to give our new president a new try...but, now, he's slapped me in the face with it! In my not-so-humble opinion, he's taking horrible advantage of the taxpayers for this! We're in the worst financial & jobs crisis of our lifetimes! As taxpayers, we're already paying more tax dollars than I can count for "bailouts". Yes, it is a historic election...but Barack ought to remember that it's also a historically bad time in our financial life and no jobs, etc!! I'd think much more of him (Democrat or Republican) if he took his oath of office privately, without all the pomp & circumstance!

Yeah...that "tweaks me" just a tad...

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

"your brain MUST be left at the door if you take this job"

...I got an, ummm, 'interesting' phone call this afternoon. Answered it, and the guy on the other end was trying to sell me a lawn service!! It was Tru-Green Chemlawn, and I came so close to laughing in his ear!!! I'm sitting here with about 3 or 4 inches of snow on my yard (I have a yard, not a lawn...old people have lawns...I have a child-friendly yard, you shouldn't be scared to walk on grass!)! I had to ask Tom to come over and shovel off my ramp and a path out to the street (over the grass, mind you!), so I could get the bus to my appointment this afternoon! Now....see why I laughed my ass off at that phone call???

Since I didn't take my camera out today, I'm stuck (so are you) looking at my old(er) pix on here! The top is me & Kim, in 9th grade...the next is Truman, my spoiled cat, with his toybox (yes, I bought him a real toybox at a pet store the first Christmas I had him!)! And the last one is me and Tif in 1984 or 5!

Finally, finally, we're getting real snow!! There's about 3 or 4 inches on the ground right now, and it's probably going to be snowing all night, and the temp is only going to be highs in, well, right now it's 13F, tomorrow's high will be 17F, Thursday's high will be -1F!! I love this weather...as long as I can be inside my 74 degree house, watching it out the window!! I just got off the phone with Tom. Was telling him I feel awful for the cat I had him kick out of the basement last week. Now it's gonna freeze, and it will be MY fault! And that truly sucks! No matter what anyone else might think, I'm kind-hearted (& I love cats!)! He said, "What was all that saying you wanted it out, & please make sure it can't get back in & all that??" Are you sure you're not bipolar, too?" Hahh...it was that "too" at the end that got me!! I got huffy and threatened to take my scooter out & look for it...he said to make sure I take my cell phone too, in case I need to call the police to get me out of a drift! (he does live about 10 miles out of town...). But still...and no, I'm not leaving...it's cold outside, fakkrissakes!! Besides, if something happened to me, Truman would be on his own!

I watched the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" Sunday, and somebody in the movie said that "sarcasm is the last refuge of losers..". Hmm...guess I and most of my friends are fucked, huh?

BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

discovering an unknown lurker in my basement!!

Yeah, here I go again...but, damn, it was the perfect day, and quite memorable!









...and this is the "2-holed outhouse"...but one of the kids wouldn't sit on the second seat in there..."Dad! It's embarrassing!! hahahahaha!!

Yup...a child's dream backyard...the wood thing in the background is a pirate ship they built together a few years ago.

Well, I'm really disappointed that we didn't get the snow we were supposed to get this weekend! Tom called me today around noon...I stayed home this weekend on purpose because we were supposed to get 5 or 6 inches of snow!! Did we? Hell, no! Just a little snow, then freezing drizzle, then tonight, it's going to freeze it all again, so it's just all ice!! When Tom called, all I did was bitch & whine & piss & moan about how I'm sick of guys lying to me about how many inches I'll get...and, yes, he had a good comeback, but I won't take myself down to his level to repeat it here (that kinda tells you it was pretty good, doesn't it?).

Oh, I hafta tell everybody about my basement lurker, who scared the crap out of me a few days ago when I opened the basement door to look down there after I heard something.

I was smelling cat pee for the whole day before, and I had cleaned Truman's box that night, but that wasn't exactly what it was...if you're a cat person, you probably already know where this is goin'. Truman's been extra-clingy the last couple days, I think he knew what was going on! Well, that day, I was wondering if there was a problem with the drains down there, since there was back in October. I can't go down the basement steps or anything (I fell down them once years ago, luckily Kev still lived here then, & we were still in love, so he carried me up...)...anyway I opened the door in the kitchen to take a look (or a smell), and as soon as I pushed the door open, I saw a great big dark shape at the top of the steps! Then it went down a couple steps and I was able to see it...it was a big dark cat! My first thought was that Truman had gotten down there somehow, so I said loudly & sternly, "Truman"! Then I remembered that, as I had walked into the kitchen, he was beside me and had swung off to the right to go hit his personal poop palace out in the laundry room. Holy shit...that's when I screamed and slammed the door again! And locked it too. Is that overdoing it? I called Tom to ask him to stop over after work before he went home, so he could look down there and make sure it was gone and couldn't get back in. He stopped by, and there was a window down there that had been partly busted out a long time ago. Tom made sure the cat was gone, then fixed the window up, and said what I smelled was the fact that this was a male cat & he'd been coming here and spraying inside the basement, right by the kitchen door!! So he took some bleach & some Pine-Sol down, and now my life is calm again! But it still isn't snowing.
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Wednesday...

Wow...this is so fun, I'm sidetracked from making my playlists on here...look at why! Here and here and here, and, oh, and how 'bout this?? Holy crap...I forgot how much in love with Lou Gramm I was!! For God's sake, his was the very first picture I put up on the wall of the back room in the very first produce department I was the manager of!! Of course, it was right after my first divorce...back when Tif was only a year old, and I was the ripe old age of 20...this was his picture from Playgirl magazine. And I only put up the tasteful top half of him!! I guess that's where my love of long hair & guitars came from! Well, I was a big fan of this song too, but, obviously, there's no long hair or hot guy involved here.

I forgot to say anything about my New Year's Eve! We didn't party or anything, Tom & jr & I drove down to the First Night Columbus celebration. It's a bunch of places in downtown Columbus that are open & have something going on, like COSI (center of science & industry...fascinating place!), and a few of the places downtown had bands, jazz bands & stuff. We had a pancake & sausage dinner at one of the hotels downtown that was doing this, and then we went back outside cuz we wanted to see what was going on, but not much was. Because, of course, it was so bitterly cold out!! Really, it was below 10 degrees, and windy as hell! Wind chill was way below zero! We walked around for a few minutes, then going back to a bridge over the Scioto River, we met a new year's eve parade of about 1 or 2 hundred people walking through town, escorted by the police! So...us being us...I was on my scooter, they were walking, we went out and joined the parade of people that were walking, clapping, yelling "Happy New Year!", just acting like complete happy fools, ya know? And then we got back to the center of Columbus in time to watch the lighted ball on the thing that's like Times Square's drop, get/give New Year's kisses & hugs, & turn and hurry the hell back to the car and get in it so we didn't freeze to death!!

Also...I saw my ms doctor again Monday, and talked about how sick as hell I am of getting shots, and Tom was trying to get me off all my medicine, which is NEVER going to happen! Once I started having grand mal seizures, I'm never going to not take my one Lamictal anti-seizure med again! Even though I only have had a seizure when I've had some kind of infection (bladder, kidney, or sinus!), it doesn't matter. I live alone, and, luckily, someone's been here every time to call 911, cuz I'm totally unconscious when that happens! Besides getting that gone over, I got weighed again, and, guess what!! I'm back up to 100 lbs!! Yippee!! And, yes, she got me talked into getting back on the Rebif shots 3 times a week. That really sucks, but, I guess I should, since I've taken interferon by a shot at least once a week for 14 years, and I'm still able to walk with my walker. I still don't know for sure if that's because of the interferon or not, but...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!

Sunday, January 4, 2009!

Christmas at Bro's again...this dog is Bro & wife's, I think her name is Abbie




And this dog is my oldest niece's...her name is Winnie (the dog, not my niece!)...I guess she's just like me, always cold, that's why she's wearing a shirt!!

And this is a shot that hasn't been taken in years, me & my 2 big brothers!!

That was so cool! Bro & I actually look so much alike that when I had my last produce management job here in town, I was out on the floor doing an order or something, and a woman across the aisle (a big aisle, like 30 feet across it!), said loudly to another woman "I think that's Libby, D's little sister!". I turned & looked, and she looked vaguely familiar, & I said yeah I am! Turned out that she was one of Bro's friends from high school that used to hang out with all of his friends at our house when I was little! (remember, he was 11 when I was born!). That's why I like this town, I guess, it's "mine"...
So...I've been watching the shows about The Seven Deadly Sins on the History Channel. It's really neat! I think I have one; sloth. But, they've found that a surgical stimulation of "area 25" in the brain lifts depression & gets rid of laziness, in people that antidepressants like Prozac don't work. Hmmmm....nahhhhh...Cymbalta is fine for me, I'd rather not have anybody poking around in my brain with a wire, thankyouverymuch. Besides, I'm not "slothful" unless it's winter! I guess I'd qualify for the seasonal affective disorder, if anything. And I really could do with just a touch of "gluttony", since I'm still around 90 lbs! But that's my New Year's Resolution, to GAIN weight! I am going to get my 20 lbs back in the next few months! So, how backward is this? How many other people are making the resolution to gain weight this year? lol. Well, I don't have greed, or envy...anger, now, yeah, that one comes and goes, depending on who I'm thinking about! Actually, wouldn't "lust" fit into that category too? Geez...maybe this is something to contemplate another day...
I was awake last night sitting here watching what used to be the channel that had crimes & stuff, ya know. Anyway, at 4 am an infomercial came on for a Time/Life collection of songs from the late 70's & 80's, and I had to stay up & watch that! I'd almost buy it, but I already have most of those songs on the computer, I just need to get off my lazy "slothful" ass, and make playlists!! But does everybody remember "Babe" by Styx?? And all the REO Speedwagon songs?? "I can't fight this feelin' anymore, I've forgotten what I started fightin for..." etc. They are the songs of my life! Late 70's, early 80's...every song they had on reminded me of what guy I was with at the time, even Meatloaf's songs! And Billy Squier, and even The Who, Rush...auuuggghhhhh! I remember when REO was here & played at the Popcorn Festival. We used to have good groups like that play, and it's a free concert on a stage at a main corner downtown. One of the last was Gloria Estefan. Now they just don't seem to be that good of groups anymore. I'm still thinking about the playlist I'm gonna make for this...Heart...Bob Seger...Boston...Cat Stevens...Yes...Fine Young Cannibals...Journey...Murray Head...Rod Stewart...Foreigner...alright, enough!
Anyway, that's a start...