This Interruption brought to you by Facebook

I said I'd never do it, but I did. I signed up for Facebook. And that, along with a few other things, have prevented me from getting back to this blog. It's not like I ever post anything on Facebook though. Mainly I just lurk out there, reading posts from my friends, and playing games like Farkle and Yacht. And unfortunately, I figured out that I am pretty good at the Facebook poker. (But I'm smart enough to know that if I were actually in a room with someone playing poker, they'd know exactly what was in my hand.).

All my lurking on Facebook though, brought me to the picture that you see above. It is a picture of my Dad that I had never seen before. He is sitting on the back steps of the house he and my Mom built, and I don't mean that they had it built. He built it. They moved there in 1986, and he is sitting where the deck will be, so I would imagine this was taken sometime very close to the Fall of 1986. He looks so happy.

Finding this photo was worth joining Facebook. I am the Lucky Girl.

Before Meets After....

My brother Keith organized a work weekend at my Mom's farm this weekend. I am so tired, and I know everyone else is too. But, we got a lot done. After all was said and done we were able to: remove storm windows, paint, caulk, clean, and replace the storm windows; power wash the house, garage, lawn furniture, deck, and Red's barn; remove rust from the barn door and porch railing; paint the barn and barn door; tear down the shed under the apple trees; put round-up on all needed areas; clean out the barn loft; repair the roof of the barn and re-shingle; paint the porch roof; organize the desk area in the kitchen with some new filing cabinets; organize the computer desk; and do general cleaning inside...i.e., dust, vacuum, clean bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, and the bar area in the kitchen.

It is a really good thing that we had about 20 hard-workers at the house. Everyone did a great job with everything. I'm especially glad that my nieces have brought some great men into the family who went up and down ladders and up on the barn roof with joy. They must really love those girls.

And, the little shed (pictured above) is no more. It has suffered the destructive nature of the groundhog family, who burrowed into the ground and actually buried a bicycle. Lots of stuff was in that shed. My Dad used to keep it all pretty cleaned up inside, but lack of use took its toll on everything. We pulled out lots of junk, and memories.

Labor Day Weekend 2009

This has been a great weekend, and we still have one day left. A lot of stuff has gotten done around my house and my best boy Trevor and I have had a lot of fun too. Trevor has been staying with me on Labor Day weekend for the last 4 years. We always are happy that we have an "extra day" to do something special.

His first Labor Day with me, Trevor and I went to his first "real race" at the Indianapolis Speedrome. The Speedrome is a local track and home to Figure 8 racing. You can sometimes see it on the Speed Channel on cable. You all watch that channel don't you? Me too. The next year, we started riding our bikes at the canal downtown. It is a pretty safe place to ride your bike, because there is no danger of traffic. You just have to watch out for going in the water.

This year, we did another "new" activity for Trevor. With my new found interest in golf, I decided to try to get him hooked too. I got him a junior set of clubs at Play It Again Sports, and we went to the Golf Dome. He loved it! And, he was very good too. Most of his shots were straight down the middle, and he even hit the red target (see photo above). His only question was why I didn't buy the large bucket of golf balls.

It is also tradition for us to go to the Indianapolis Indians last game of the season, where there is a big fireworks show. This year, the fireworks were the best we've seen yet.

All this was mixed in with cleaning the basement and a closet in preparation for a garage sale next weekend. I think I found plenty of stuff to put in the sale, and got a closet cleaned out and shelves put up in the basement in the process.

The First Round

Today was the day...my first 9 holes on a real golf course. It was GREAT! I had so much fun. I shot a 51, which I have heard is pretty good for the first timer. I did hit a couple of good shots, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I almost can't wait to go again to see if I actually can get better. Is tomorrow to soon? :-)

And then...I went back to work. It actually was a good end to a stressful week. I made my boss laugh a lot this afternoon, which was good for everyone. Lately, it has come to my attention that I am quite the comedian. My brother called me at work about two weeks ago and he said, "I hate to call you at work. I never know if you are in some big meeting, or in the middle of telling a joke." I never realized I was that funny. Maybe my boss just laughs at everything.

Amid all the pretty good golf shots, there was one that I would like to highlight. In fact, I don't know that anyone has ever made this shot at the Orchard Golf Center. I am at least one of the very few who has made a shot into the open garage door of the maintenance shack. I was not aiming for it, but maybe somewhere in my subconscious I knew it would be the funniest shot of the day.

Tiger, the wing-man

Tonight, Tiger and I went out to dinner with my nephew Johnny. We went to Plump's Last Shot, a bar in Broad Ripple where you can take your dog and sit on the deck. Plump's is in an old house and is owned by the family of Bobby Plump, basketball player from Milan, Indiana who made the winning shot for the 1954 Indiana State High School basketball championships (as depicted in the movie Hoosiers).

Very nice weather tonight in Indy and the deck at Plump's was full of people and dogs. But you know my Tiger, he is a looker. No less than 10 very pretty girls came up and asked Johnny if they could pet his dog. I'm sure if I wasn't there, he would have ended up sitting at a table with a bunch of them. Even he agreed.

I always tried to get my nephew David to take Tiger to the dog park to see if he could meet a girl, but he would never do it. I just don't think he realized the power of the Lucky Dog.

The Last Dose

Tomorrow morning will be my last dose of the awful medicine for poison Ivy. Poison Ivy makes me crazy, and this medicine makes me just slightly less crazy. The whole ordeal has been 3 weeks, but it really seems like longer. I've been through several tubes of Zanfel, some Cortaid poison Ivy wash, and 2 rounds of this medicine.

The medicine has side effects. I've gained 12 pounds, had a low blood sugar episode, and had lots of energy. The energy has helped some, because I've been super productive at work, but really still not worth it.

My Mom cut an article out of the paper for me about Poison Ivy and a holistic remedy that you take in March and April before the leaves even come out. I'm going to have to research that a little more to see if that will work for me. I may be willing to try. I will be willing to get someone else to trim around the house next year. I will also be sure that the June roundup step is never again skipped.

I'm hoping I never have poison ivy again. But, as you know, hope is not a plan. I need a plan.

My Life as a Drummer...

Tonight was a very special night. I have always dreamed of being a drummer and really figured that you readers would find out that little known fact by reading some sort of "quiz about me" on Facebook or something. But here I am blurting it out, because I had so much fun tonight pretending to be a drummer!

Tonight I cooked for some friends at their house. I made Calzone, and there are pictures now on the host's website. It was pretty good eats. Chris at the Goose hooked me up with some amazing meats, and I always get my sauce from the Goose too. Very good dinner, followed by a fiery dessert!

After dinner, the hosts broke out the Wii, where they have the "Rock Band" set. I got to be drummer! It was hard, but they say for a beginner I did okay. I kept wanting to do an Elvis song or something. But, I don't think any of those will ever make it on a Wii or any other brand of game. I had a great time. I know that I am no drummer, but it was fun pretending for a night.

Unfortunately, this was probably one of those "one night only" performances. So if you missed it, I guess you are out of luck.