The ABC’s of Blogging

The ABC’s of Blogging


Saw this on several blogs including Disco Diva and Adrienne’s Little World blog among them. So here goes…


A) Attached or single: Single but attached to The Guy.


B) Best Friend: Minnie and My Sister

C)Cake or Pie: Cake

D)Day of Choice: Wednesday because it is hump day.

E)Essential Item: My Phone

F)Favorite Color: Purple

G)Gummy Bears or Worms: Gummy Bears

H)Hometown: Montgomery

I)Favorite Indulgence: Full Spa treatment

J)January or July: Neither. Either too cold or too hot.

K)Kids: None and there will be none.

L)Life isn’t complete without: Peace

M)Marriage Date: N/A

N)Number of brothers/sisters: I have one sister and one brother

O)Oranges or Apples: Apples (Granny Smith) I love cuties too! (This year’s season wasn’t great)

P)Phobias: Driving over a bridge with water underneath.

Q)Quotes: “The only lasting truth is change.” Octavia Butler

R)Reason’s to Smile: Family

S)Season of Choice: Spring/Fall

T)Tag 5 people: Have at it…

U)Unknown fact about me: I can’t swim…

V) Vegetable: Spinach

W) Worst Habit: My OCD type compulsions.

X) X ray or ultrasound: X-ray

Y) Your favorite foods: Ice Cream

Z)Zodiac sign: Typical Virgo

While Everyone Is Worried About Paula Deen...

The Supreme Court of the United States struck down an important aspect of the Voter's Rights Act and within two hours, Texas' Attorney General has suppressed minority voters.   So far this week, SCOTUS is really showing the party lines.

My heart has been heavy all day.  My sister says folks are talking about the decision and I said not as hard or as vocally as they did about Paula Deen and her Southern ways. Not saying she was right, but when I think about the shenanigans that are about to take place in the next election I can barely breathe.  Every trickery that was tried in the last election will actually become easier now and for me, ladies and gentlemen, this not only scares me, but I see how we are slowly but surely going back to the 60s. 

So keep worrying about things that don't matter or affect you...

And I will be back with happy posts later, but right now I need to marinate on my dwindling rights.

Randoms About Road Trips with Family

• When your family says to you to help save on money we should rent a van and drive to your niece’s graduation, do yourself a favor and practice ways of controlling your facial expressions. This will come in handy when they do stupid crap during the trip.

• When you plan to hit the highway at 8 pm, tell your habitually late cousin we are leaving at 5 pm, because if you don’t, you will arrive at her house while she is taking her bath. This will keep you from walking in the house saying, “We are not on colored people time, and we are going to be on time! Let’s go! We got too far to go for you to be soaking in the tub when we are to hit the road in 25 minutes.”

• Why do some of your folks have two suitcases? We are only going for 3 days. Sighing. Do you know how much storage space there is in a Toyota Sienna?

• All drivers do not drive the same. Some will jerk you across the highway as you travel, the entire time.

• My cousins in Atlanta live in Tennessee because it still takes an hour to get to their house once you get to Atlanta.

• Why is everyone in the van sleep except me, the driver and my cousin AJ who just got to Atlanta from Jackson, MS at the same time we arrived at JT’s to pick him up? I worked. What is everyone else’s excuse? Damn, shame.

• Troopers in South Carolina pull drivers over for driving the speed limit in the middle lane.

• There are a lot of 18-wheelers on the road at night, a lot. We could count the cars we passed.

• Why does coffee keep some folks awake while driving, but the same person will have bubble guts a couple hours after drinking it normally? Psychosomatic?

• The GPS on my phone and everyone else’s phone was accurate the entire trip. Yes!

• Gas is higher in other states and lower in other states, usually the states where we didn’t need to stop for gas.

• Driving 55 mph will lose time gained by the previous drivers even if it is only for 45 minutes.

• My family loves Shoney’s and can find one anywhere. Sighing…

• AJ’s travel music is ratchet. Just like I like it. The nastier the better. The other passengers were sleep so why did the wake up talking about the cussing in the music. My response, “Go back to sleep.”

• I snap after being up 24 hours. I am mean and moody.

• Taking sleeping pills and Dramamine at the same time will knock your ass out within 10 minutes.

• I do not like to eat and drink while traveling because my uncle didn’t like to stop for you to use the bathroom and I am opposed to using the bathroom outside or in a jar. Don’t laugh. He was serious about that and has forever kept me mindful of what I eat or drink before and while I am traveling.

• I still do not like Virginia Beach. The scars of the past are still painful.

• My brother looked like Panama Jack and his dad.

• My niece Caitlyn was so busy during this graduating period.

• Four people in a room is fine if one of your cousins isn’t letting out silent bombs and acting like she didn’t. For the record, those smell worse than loud ones. OMG!

• Why do we always have trouble at check-in and check-out in hotels? We prepaid, which guaranteed us our rooms, but they had no record we had done it, thank goodness we all decided to bring our copies of the confirmations. And why did we have to prove we had already paid for them at check-out? Makes me tired.

• My family doesn’t understand my coffee need and cheap as Maxwell House will not do it.

• I prefer my workout rooms to be cool not hot.

• PF Chang’s is nice, but when I ask for my check, please get it to me post haste, not 30 minutes later. A sleep deprived person will act a nut.

• I automatically flirt with men. I can’t help it. It is the smile and dimples.

• I missed The Guy so much I kept sending him pictures of myself. I am vain. Dang thought ya’ll understood that.

• Applebee’s as a Karaoke and dance club was really cool. Although I refuse to do line dances it was great watching others do it and have the time of their lives.

• JT and Caitlyn know how to party. I am worried about their college careers now.

• I really wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory, but not enough time.

• I didn’t take the picture of my sister, brother and I from the stepmother’s house. I looked at the frame and was like the frame is cheap. Seriously, I was over it when I saw the frame. Someone slap me.

• As it was storming in VA, I kept thinking I hope this wasn’t a warning from my mama. I do believe she approved me going to VA this time.

• My motion sickness is getting worse. I was okay going but coming back not so good. The feeling of needed to throw up because you are moving in a vehicle is crazy.

• No tennis shoes and white socks with your Capri pants, please and thank you.

• I didn’t cry in VA. I almost got taken out during the stepmother’s speech, but I got my life and was like oh no!

• Caitlyn cannot drive me anywhere. At all.

• Lala ate the cookies I baked, she would eat the food I gave her, but if I touched her. OMG! She would scream like a banshee. But she still knows how to make it rain with money. I taught her that.

• My family knows how to party and turn a place complete up and out! Ask Applebee’s!

• Traffic during a road trip is nerve wrecking. I know my nerves were torn up.

• I couldn’t wait to get home and take a bath because showers don’t make me feel clean.

• The only thing I purchased in VA besides liquor and snacks was Aveda’s Hydrating Mask. We walked right past a salon with Aveda products and I stopped and scared the poor folks with knowing exactly what I wanted and was in an out in 2 minutes.

• When we are stuck in traffic and you haven’t driven on mile but you keep asking are we there yet and you are a grown ass adult, is annoying.

• The trip really wasn’t bad at all, however, due to my motion sickness and my nerves I will limit my road trips to 5 hours max.

• As a family we did the dang thing. We had a great time together and we all returned with no one being hurt along the way!

• Pssst? I am saving my duckies because I am flying to the next family vacay spot.
 

• I don't want to have hot flashes.

My Gardening Joys and Woes...

Taken on 6/10/13

Prior to this last graduation trip, I started worrying incessantly about how I was going to water my plants while I was gone. My folks were like have my cousin do it since she would be checking the house for me. And I seriously thought about it, but as the time got closer I really didn’t want to put that on someone else to do, especially someone who only has one plant and it sits under her car port in the same pot it came in two years ago, I am just saying. She doesn’t have plants so why burden her with my menagerie and I have a mess of a raised garden and my containers are less this year but I have 6 pots of flowers and herbs.

Portulaca (Moss Roses) 5/30/13

Marigolds 5/30/13

Zucchini Blossom 5/30/13 (When will I ever get Zucchini?)

Cucumber flower 5/30/13

The Jungle 5/30/13

Zinnias are in the blue green pot 5/30/13

Sunflowers 5/30/13

Zinnias 6/30/13 taken with my Samsung III

So as I started to really stress about the garden situation a week before departure, I googled, ‘watering gardens while on vacation’. And what do you know? I found a great article stating all I needed was a timer, soaker hoses and connectors. So off I went to Home Depot the Saturday before I left on vacation. And in a matter of 10 minutes I had what I needed and was headed to garner snacks for the trip. Of course, I couldn’t install the hoses and timer because it decided to rain that Saturday afternoon. Sighing… However, I woke early Sunday morning and for an hour I attached the hoses and threaded the soaker hoses through my jungle of a garden. Then I realized the one thing the Article didn’t say was I needed a timer in which I could set the times for the watering. I wanted to scream, damn! So I hurriedly dressed and headed to Home Depot to return the egg timer like timer I purchased the day before and get the digital programmable timer I really needed. I also got another connect to add to my existing water faucet to keep the seepage down, which worked by the way. So I hurried home and put on the new timer and guess what? It decided to rain again. STFU! So I couldn’t test the timer that day either.

Timer, soaker hose on the left hose pipe with soaker hose on the right

My crude contraption

Weaving this soaker hose in and out hurt my back...badly!

On Monday before I left that Tuesday, I did a trial run with the contraption. I even moved my containers and a table closer to the water hose so I wouldn’t have to purchase another soaker hose. I set the timer for every 8 hours starting at 8 in the morning and to run for 30 minutes. And when I came home Monday, I had a nice puddle in my backyard where the soaker hose was closest to the house. Ugh! But my raised garden looked great. So I adjusted the timer and changed it to 20 minutes. And Tuesday I was like I hope this thing works because seriously, my time is up. When I got home Tuesday, I realized I had mistakenly turned the timer off while adjusting the time, sighing! But I just prayed over it and hoped it would work for the days I would be gone.

I got home after midnight on Saturday and the first thing I did after I unlocked my front door was run and look at my garden, in the dark. I noticed right off the back my Sunflowers were in deep damn trouble. The containers plants looked fine from my vantage point and the garden was still an overgrown jungle. Sighing in relief, I got my bags in the house and hurriedly ran outside to water the sunflowers.

You would think after all the trouble I went through for the garden I would get up early the next morning and water my plants. Nope, said the timer is still on and I am tired I will look at the plants when I wake up later in the day. Well…that was a colossal mistake. My damn container plants look like they had been in the desert and looked like my Zinnias weren’t going to make it. Man, I was in tears. So in the scorching heat and doing a plant no-no, I water my plants right then and there. Devastated is the best word to describe how I felt. My timer’s battery was low and it wouldn’t allow the water to flow and undoubtedly had stop working after Friday morning. FML!

I learned a few things from this situation, one plants are resilient as you will see from the pictures. I can’t use dollar store batteries in timers and expect them to work accordingly. Finally, next time I get one of those sprinklers and set the timer and all the plants can get watered as it goes back and forth. Don’t get me wrong the soaker hoses did their job and did a mighty fine one, but I have too many plants to just use them and frankly you must put your soaker hoses down before you garden becomes an uncontrollable jungle.

Garden woes…only last temporarily as you see the fruit of your efforts.

My 6/17/13 first harvest!

Still recovering from lack of water, but they are getting tall.

Recovery...6/21/13

See my cucumbers...

The Jungle as it looks on 6/21/13

Graduation Part 2 - The Finale

Yes, I did work out.

On Thursday morning, I woke up with a scratchy throat and I was like, uh oh! Seemingly, my cousin’s hot flashes were in overdrive so she cut the air down, mind you it was on 73, which to me is comfortable. But I woke up to it being on 65, really? And as everyone in the room was sleeping soundly, I got up and got dressed and went and worked out. At 6:30, east coast time, I was on the Elliptical for 15 minutes and got on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Got it in and I was sweating not only from the exertion, but the damn room was hot as hell. I would have done weights too, but seriously the heat was about to take me out. But my throat was no longer scratchy.


When I got back to the room, folks were like you got up and worked out? Yeah. Then I took a shower and got back into bed. But ya’ll I needed coffee so damn bad it was ridiculous. While the folks went shopping, I was like bring me back a venti mocha nonfat no whip. I was serious, but why or why could them not find a Starbucks. Ugh! I had to get a Cherry coke for some caffeine and it was not hitting the spot.

3 pics of me...trying to be creative

We were going to the barbecue for my niece at 3, so I was able to rest, work on book club stuff and just relax, because we had been running since we left Montgomery. So we headed to my sister’s stepmom’s house for fried fish and barbecue. Of course the graduate wasn’t there. Seriously, when they graduate they think they are grown and if you are the guest of honor, shouldn’t you be there to great your guests? Also, this would be the first time for me to meet my brother’s girlfriend. Sighing…I had to remind him I don’t call my sister’s husband by name and I am harder than my sister is on folks.

Because I was looking exceptionally cute, this one was taken for the guy...

The Graduation Cake...The drama involved...

The food was good and after we ate they decided to open cards and presents. My sister got my niece Dr. Seuss’ The Places You'll Go and that is such a wonderful book to give to high school graduates. We all were able to sign the book and offer thoughts for the future. Hunny Bunny, my nine year old niece, wrote the most profound statement in the book relating to Stars Wars and such. I wish I had taken a picture of the wording. Amazing. I even got a gift of pictures and it was sweet. My sister’s stepmom and Daurice were a crying mess. But I had my life and was not going out like that. Imma G. Plus, I cried looking at the prom pictures.

During the storm...and no lights

Why do I like this picture so much?  She is giving the stank face for real!

She was saying cheese so I could take her picture.

The Graduate, Caitlyn reading my book club newsletter which was about Her!

As we were still going through gifts and speech giving, the lights went out. Now mind you, The Guy told me that morning to stay dry because VA was going to get some bad weather. Well, after the lights went out it got windy and dark. Then the rain came. My goodness. We were able to keep ourselves entertained by talking and telling jokes. Best time ever!

Yes, I met the girlfriend. She called me Ms. Cashana, really? Anyway, I didn’t get to talk with her, because that is what I really wanted to do. I had questions that I needed answers to. And I wanted to let her know some things as well. But alas, she fled the scene when the weather started to act up because she lives in Portsmouth.

See the Applebee's menu...I am so for real.  They are getting it in!

Kay singing Aretha Franklin

My sister singing and doing the most

They dancing...in Applebee's

Tell me they ain't having the time of their life...

Yes, she took a picture with me.  Maybe she likes me a little bit...from a far.

On tap for the evening, was Karaoke. Yes, to my two readers, Karaoke. And it was at Applebee’s. I am not joking. We went to Applebee’s to do Karaoke and we turned the place out. Alabama turned Applebee’s into a night club with folks ranging from 1 to 65 years old. What? Lala was having the time of her life. Hunny Bunny was doing the wobble and she doesn’t dance much, but she was doing it! Caitlyn and her friends sang, my sister sang, AJ sang, JT rapped, my cousin sang and we all backed them up with dancing and singing. It was a blast. I will never forget how much fun as a family we could have. We shut the place down as we were the last folks to leave. The Applebee’s workers wanted us to come back next week, but Alabama had left the building.

Finally, we left Friday morning about 10 am and it was an uneventful ride back. Only thing was I had planned to drive from Charlotte to Georgia, but I my dreaded motion sickness kicked in and that was a no-go. This is why I didn’t put up a fuss at Captain D’s, where they chose to eat our only meal on the road. I haven’t eaten at Captain D’s in a decade or more. That is not real fish folks. It took me 15 minutes to order something that wasn’t going to make me hurl. Plain baked potato and 6 little shrimp. JT was like, “Who chose this place? I haven’t eaten here in years.” We weren’t happy. And thank goodness for the Sprite and later the Ginger ale. Yeah, my motion sickness was on fire. We got stuck in Charlotte’s traffic and when we were 30 minutes outside of Atlanta we got in more traffic caused by an accident and literally we went 6 miles in one hour. Talking about frustrated and I was co-pilot so I had to deal with short stops and shit, but AJ held it down. Once we dropped off AJ and JT, we still had an over 2 hour ride to Montgomery. I took advantage of the middle row because I was over the whole road trip thing. I got to my house after midnight. It was weird to see all the businesses closed; I guess I am rarely out that late.

Kay, Caitlyn - The Graduate and me!  I need a DSLR really I do.

This trip was a real blessing. To see my niece graduate with honors and to have come into her own was amazing. My family, man we are so good together. We do the dang thang. As much as we could have gotten on each other’s nerves, we didn’t. Seeing my sister and brother and all of us together for something wonderful is always a blessing. And now I can relax.

My garden survived, but my poor sunflowers and Zinnia’s took a beating, but they are looking much better now. I will post about my angst regarding my garden next. And best believe I have some randoms about road trips. Get ready!

Gail, me and Kay.  I don't know what Kay was doing, but I turn up when pictures are being taken.  What?  I am vain.

Graduation Part 2 - Part 2

My middle niece, Hunny Bunny.  Who hates to wear dresses, is wearing this dress.  I told her she looked gorgeous and she had no problems posing for pictures. She really is gorgeous!

We stayed at Candlewood Suites in Virginia Beach, which was close to the mall and eateries. The hotel rooms are equipped with refrigerators and stoves and microwaves, so for my folks this was wonderful. Because believe it or not my cousin and his wife cooked breakfast every morning we were there. Go them. I was on vacation and cooking wasn’t on my agenda. Really.


My nieces came to pick up JT and of course my sister was calling and my brother was calling. I was trying to take a shower and get dressed. My brother actually came by the hotel and took us to PF Chang’s were we had lunch with the graduate. Luckily the restaurant was only 5 minutes away but um, my brother had us going through the cuts to get to it. But we made it. Since this was my first time eating at PF Chang’s I was anxious to see if it lives up to its hype. My niece had a host of folks there to honor her graduation. Side note: we got our Graduation tickets at lunch, because no ticket no entrance. Really. My niece needed initially 27 tickets and she hustled with the help of her friends and garnered 32. That is what’s up, but seriously did they need to do tickets. Damn! Lunch was fun, but the lack of sleep was killing several of us and if I had to say there was a down side to the meal, it was waiting on our tickets. Seriously, I didn’t want a damn fortune cookie (I didn’t even take one); I wanted my ticket so we could get back to the hotel and get some sleep. And it took the waitress 30 minutes to do that. Ugh! I was able to lie down for an hour or so, but no real sleep.

This look is to ignore me, because really I am supposed to be in Alabama...LOL!

Hunny Bunny trying to show me how to use chopsticks.  



My meal consisted of appetizers.  Lettuce wraps w/chicken

Blurry picture of my steamed dumplings, very good!

Dynamite Shrimp...tastes like Bang, Bang shrimp, but good though!

The graduation was at the convention center not far from the hotel, but we had a walk to get to the entrance, but we weren’t late and we got there just in time. The ceremony lasted, 1 hour. I am so glad my niece told them I wasn’t about the 3 hour graduation ceremony. Just kidding. In my head I hoped she let them know. However, getting out of that convention center was CRAZY! We got out and were like let’s go to the area no one was in and guess who we found, the graduate. So let the impromptu photo shoot start. For the record, Lala was still not about dealing with me. At all!

Needed to get a picture before the graduation...Vanity.

Posted this on FB...

Lala smiling at my cousin, but please don't touch her.  Geez...

The Graduate

My sister's little family.  Hunny Bunny, Caitlyn, Lala and my sister

JT and Caitlyn ---AKA---Cupcake Bandits

JT, Caitlyn and AJ

Kay, Caitlyn and me...

Daurice and Caitlyn

Caitlyn and Drew

The Graduate and her mom and baby sister...

This is my favorite picure of the graduation.  Hunny Bunny and me.

My family. My Brother, Christopher, Hunny Bunny, Caitlyn, my sister and me.  Lala is behind my big head.

We headed back to the hotel after a stop at the 7 Eleven, we don’t have any in Montgomery. I needed some fruit, snacks and some liquor and not necessarily in that order. And because we stayed at the Candlewood Suites, were all had hamburgers at the hotel to munch on. Yes!

Ratchet...

I was so exhausted and after showering and eating, I was in the bed sleep!

Randoms from Graduation:

*  My love for steamed dumplings is immense.

*  Lala looked at me when we walked into PF Chang’s like, “What the hell? I thought they 
    were in Alabama, why is she here.” It was so funny to see her face.

*  My graduating niece loves shoes as much as I do. Her heels for graduation were the  
    business.

*  My brother’s gift to my niece was such a beautiful and thoughtful expression of his love 
    for her.

*  My brother is good looking, but better nobody try to holler at him in front of me.

*  My family is amazing together.

*  No tears because I am a G. I cried the week before when I got the Prom pictures.

To be continued…