Debbie Does . . . Dobson?

This is the story. Bennie got me a Foodsaver for Christmas. I've been wanting one for a long time, but they are kind of expensive. So I was delighted with it. I read the little booklets that came with it and tried to learn about it before trying to use it. Then last Sunday I was finally ready to try it out. One last thing. There was an instructional DVD that came with it, so I was going to watch it too. Bennie was watching something on TV so I went to the computer and put in the DVD to watch in here. Instead of Foodsaver stuff, "Debbie Does Dallas" stuff came up. Suffice it to say I was surprised. However when we tried the DVD in the TV it was the Foodsaver stuff. So Monday I called Foodsaver. The "supervisor" I talked to said that it had happened to someone else too, and they were investigating it. She got my name and number and said they would call back. Oh, and she apologized profusely. I emailed Quentin to see if maybe I could sue, but he pretty much shot me down about that. Anyway, I am using and enjoying my Foodsaver (just maybe not as much as Debbie did).

Cool Song

DECORATION DAY
It’s Decoration Day.
And I’ve a mind to roll a stone on his grave.
But what would he say.
“Keeping me down, boy, won’t keep me away”.

It’s Decoration Day.
And I knew the Hill Boys would put us away,
but my Daddy wasn’t afraid.
He said “We’ll fight till the last Lawson’s last living day”

I never knew how it all got started
a problem with Holland before we were born
and I don’t know the name of that boy we tied down
and beat till he just couldn’t walk anymore.
But I know the caliber in Daddy’s chest
and I know what Holland Hill drives.
The state let him go, but I guess it was best
cause nobody needs all us Lawsons alive.

Daddy said one of the boys had come by
the Lumber Man’s favorite son.
He said, “Beat him real good but don’t dare let him die
and if you see Holland Hill run.
Now I said, “they ain’t give us trouble no more
that we ain’t brought down on ourselves”
But a chain on my back and my ear to the floor
and I’ll send all the Hill Boys to hell.

It’s Decoration Day
and I’ve got a family in Mobile Bay
and they’ve never seen my Daddy’s grave.
But that don’t bother me, it ain’t marked anyway.
Cause I got dead brothers in Lauderdale south
and I got dead brothers in east Tennessee.
My Daddy got shot right in front of his house
he had noone to fall on but me.

It’s Decoration Day
and I’ve got a mind to go spit on his grave.
If I was a Hill, I’d have put him away
and I’d fight till the last Lawson’s last living day.
I’d fight till the last Lawson’s last living day.
I’d fight till the last Lawson’s last living day.

A Movie Review

Quentin and I went to the movies last week to see No Country for Old Men. This was highly recommended by Chris (my middle son, who I used to call Justin). Anyway I can't really make up my mind whether I liked it or not. It was the BEST acting but the WORST story. I even had to look away from the screen a time or two because of the violence - which was the reason it was rated R I'm sure, as there was no nudity and very little bad language. I usually don't watch R rated movies because of the explicit sexual content, but this had none, so I guess I thought it was okay. Tommy Lee Jones was at his usual best as the sheriff. He was kind of the narrator as well. Even then he was good, when you couldn't watch him but just heard him. He is a great storyteller. Of course the writing was good too. And Josh Brolin was great too. I honestly didn't know who he was until the end when the credits rolled. I knew I recognized him, but he was such a totally different character than what I had seen him play (Mr. Sterling - the TV show about the senator). And then there was the DARK SIDE. I hated, absolutely hated the bad guy. I guess he was a good actor, but he was scary and really gave me the creeps. And I hated his hair. And what was he using? I don't want to give anything away, but I'll just tell you that he killed people with air. So, do I recommend this movie? I can't honestly say. Maybe some of you will comment with some better insight. But I did have fun spending some time with Quentin.

My Favorite Books

Coming this summer!

http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/trailer/me60638658/

Disappointed

Remember those old horror movies where it took forever to see the monster, and then sometimes they never even showed it at all, and you were left feeling disappointed. That is the way I felt after watching "Don't Forget the Lyrics" this week. If you haven't seen this, they have different contestants sing parts of songs, and if they get it right they will advance up the list winning more and more money each time. There are I think 8 categories they have to pass through to get to the big ONE MILLION DOLLAR song. This is hard because they have to get the lyrics absolutely correct. So far no one has won the million dollars. AND no one has even gotten close, until this week. So I've been wondering about the million dollar song and how they would do this, what the song would be, how many words they would have to sing, etc. So this week the woman got all the way to the top, winning $500,000, and the next step was the million dollar one. AND THEN, before they showed the song, Wayne Brady, the host of the show, explained that she would not know the artist, the category, how many words, anything at all about the song, except that it was a #1 hit, and there would be no helps (she has three to start with but has to use them all before the last song), AND if she chose to go with it (before seeing what it was) and lost, she would be all the way down to $25,000 to take home. So, of course she says she will take the $500,000 and go home - who wouldn't, right? So now we'll NEVER get to see the million dollar song, because who would be that dumb to give up a sure $500,000 for a maybe and not very likely million?

Who is San Diego's Favorite Quarterback?

No, not Phillip Rivers. It's PEYTON MANNING. I watched the Chargers/Colts game last night and this morning. It was so cool. I really wanted the Colts to lose - to anybody, after they beat the Panthers, plus Phillip Rivers is an NC State graduate, so I was for them. So during the game Peyton Manning - America's sweetheart QB - threw for SIX interceptions. SD started off with a kickoff return for a TD. Then they returned a punt for one. Anyway they racked up 23 points to the Colts' 0 points. But then after the second half the Colts came storming back and came to within 2 points at 21-23. They had a chance to tie it after their last touchdown and went for 2 points, but failed. Then later with a little over a minute left in the game the Colts had another chance to win with a field goal, but missed. Then, last play of the game PM threw his SIXTH interception, and the game was over, 23-21. It was a fun game to watch.

Life's Little Lifts

Every once in a while we get these little lifts. I'll tell you about one of mine. I hate my hair right now. I'm trying to let it grow longer, and my bangs are driving me crazy. They are just at that length - long enough to be in my eyes but not long enough to pull back. And the back of my hair is just different lengths and sticks out all the time. I'm trying to let it grow out some and then start cutting it to eventually get it all one length. So, in the meantime I just feel that it looks awful all the time. Then last Friday Bennie and I went to Winston to do some shopping. We were at Kohl's, and at one point this lady was behind me and said, "Your hair is a beautiful color." I turned back and smiled and said thanks. That is not really a big deal to me. All my life people have commented on my hair color. I always say thanks, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it. So I didn't really think much about this lady, but then she said something else - "And it is cut really nice too". At that I almost said to her "WHAT??", because, like I said, it looks terrible, but she was just smiling and had really given me a compliment, so I again said thanks. As I was wondering what she saw in my hair, it really just gave me a little lift, and I suddenly felt better.

Well, maybe I'll tell you about another time something made me feel good about myself - this happened in high school. My senior year I was in a government class, and we were going to have a mock court to learn about legal proceedings. I was sick one day, and the next day when I went back I learned that I was a judge in this court, actually a co-judge along with a friend of mine, Cathy Robson. So we had the court, which I don't really remember much about, but a few months later, during the summer, Cathy and I were doing something together, and she started talking about the court. She said, "Wasn't that neat the way everyone picked us for judges." Well, I didn't remember being actually picked, and then she reminded me that I hadn't been to school that day. What had happened was - the teacher told the class to choose a classmate for judge, someone they thought a lot of, that they knew they could trust, and would make good decisions. As it turned out Cathy and I had tied, and that is why we had become co-judges. At the time I thought that the teacher had just assigned us to do that, I didn't know anything about the class choosing. So when I heard that it really made me feel good. And also a little sad, because I didn't know about this at the time, and that summer was kind of late to be finding out. I didn't really have low self esteem in high school, but I think it would have been higher than it was if I had known this.

Anyway, I still think my hair looks awful, but not as much as before.

The New Shows

Okay, I thought maybe it was time to review the new TV shows this fall. There are a few I've tried but didn't like - K-Ville, Chuck, Dirty Sexy Money (which I'm glad I didn't like because I don't like the title), and I accidentally saw part of Kid Nation which was terrible. So, the shows I do like:

Cane - This is a great show, probably my favorite of all the new ones. It has a great cast. I love Jimmy Smits and Hector Elizondo (from Pretty Woman), but Ken Howard is a hoot. He was the basketball coach on The Gray Shadow, I think was the name. Anyway, this is one of those shows where the main character is actually a bad guy, but you're still rooting for him.

Reaper - I really tried not to like this one, because I'm watching way too much TV, but I just can't help myself. It is such a cute show. This is one where you can tune in on any episode.

Bionic Woman - So far so good, but I can see it either getting boring or getting better. We'll see what happens.

Back to You - This is one of the best sitcoms I've seen in a while. And I really like Kelsey Grammar.

Women's Murder Club - This was a latecomer, so I've only seen one, but it has great potential. Angie Harmon is a police detective, and the first episode was really interesting.

So I guess this is it. I'm still watching ER, Shark, House, Supernatural, Men in Trees, and Criminal Minds. And then of course there is Y&R every day. I feel like I need to quit my job just so I'll have time to watch everything.

A Few More Pictures

These are a few more pictures from VA Beach. This is King Neptune. It is really cool and bigger than it looks in the picture.

One day we rode up to Yorktown and Jamestown.

Just on the boardwalk watching the sand sculpting.

Handsome guy.

You might need to click on this picture. There are two dolphins in the water. We saw dolphins every day. They would just be swimming up the coast, jumping up out of the water.

This is the sunrise from our room.

We were getting ready to go on the dolphin-watching cruise. There were SO MANY. You could actually lean over the front of the boat (bow?) and see them in the water swimming along with the boat.

I thought this was interesting. If you look really close (click on the picture) you can see this guy on the beach who looks like a toy or something on top of the castle. It was a fun week!

Playing in the Sand

These are some pictures of the sand sculpting. This is how they started, getting these round or rectangular molds full of sand and water, letting it set and get hard, then taking off the mold. They started on Wednesday and had to be done by Friday. They were all timed, taking breaks at the same time, etc. This was a big contest and these people came from all over the world to compete. This guy is Peter. He is just starting.

Then he had some bad luck. It fell, and he had to start over.

And again, it was timed, and he had lost a whole day, but he did pretty good.

This is Matthew.

He's actually making the holes here with a white tube, just putting wet sand around the tube, then he pulled it out.

Some kind of religious thing with Moses in front and the ark in back.

This is Damon Farmer. He actually has a website. He was posing for me. He is just starting here. What will it be?

This is Rich. This one actually ended up being mine and Bennie's favorite.

And these are the rest, pretty much finished. We had to leave before they were completely done, but, you get the picture.

And th-th-th-that's all folks!

Dancing with the . . .

Not stars. I am almost ashamed to even write this blog, but, well, I've started watching Dancing with the Stars this year. I've never watched it before, but I was curious. This year Marie Osmond and Wayne Newton are two of the dancers, and I wanted to see them. Marie gave somewhat of a PG13 show last night, which kind of surprised me. But she has a lot of "presence" on the stage and seems really comfortable. But Wayne Newton. My gosh. Have you seen this guy? He looks really weird. I guess he's had a lot of plastic surgery done. But he CAN'T DANCE - not a lick, as Thelma Lou says. But so far he has stayed in. So, watch it next week. I think it comes on Monday night. Probably my favorite is the boxer. I think his name is Floyd Mayweather. Anyway, he's like a little boy up there, cute as a button. And also Kelly from 90210 is in it. She's pretty good too.

Our Week in the Sun

We got back from VA Beach two days ago, and I still feel behind on everything. I did manage to get all the laundry done by last night (with Bennie's help), and I read all 63 emails. But TV. That's another story. I set our recorder to record all my usual shows as well as some new shows I wanted to try watching to see if I liked them. And of course this was season premiere week. So, and this is awful, I have about 25 hours of TV to watch. AND they are all coming back on this week too.

Okay, as for the beach. We had a GREAT time. The weather was perfect!. The sky was a crystal clear blue most of the time with a few wisps of clouds once in a while. On Thursday it sprinkled for about five minutes, barely getting us wet, then it stopped. We rode our bikes a lot and walked all over the place. I bought a body board and "rode the waves" a few times. After the last time I felt like I had been beat up by the ocean. But it was fun. And I ate. All the foods I try not to eat, like fried foods, pizza, ice cream, etc. On Tuesday we went to Yorktown and Jamestown. On Thursday we took the dolphin-watching cruise. I loved that. We saw a BUNCH of dolphins! They would get right next to the boat and swim along with us, jumping up out of the water now and then. It was cool. And the jets were flying all over the place. And we watched all the big ships going and coming.

Also every year VA Beach has a "Neptune Festival", and on Wednesday there were around 12-15 people building sand castles, or sand sculptures I guess. This was amazing to watch. It took them three days to finish, and we actually had to leave before they were done, but you could see what it would look like for the most part. I took a bunch of pictures and will try to post them next time.

And then yesterday Bennie and I went to the Dixie Classic Fair. I love the fair! We brought home some maple flavored cotton candy. It was a good week, well except for today when the Panthers lost to Tampa Bay. Oh well.

Just a Piece

I heard just a piece of a conversation yesterday as I was walking by the US Cellular stand in the Mayberry Mall. There was a guy with his son looking at a particular cell phone.

1st Salesgirl: "You can get that cheaper on the internet."

2nd Salesgirl: "Don't tell him that!"

Customer: "I thought they were free anyway with the plan."

1st Salesgirl: "Oh yeah."

Monster Mouse

Another mouse in the house story.

Since we have the occasional mouse come in I just always keep those small black glue traps around. I have two in the laundry room against opposite walls, and I check them every morning. For months there has been no change. Then last Saturday I walked in to do some laundry and I looked down at the trap, but it wasn't there. So I looked at the other one, AND IT WASN'T THERE EITHER. They were both just gone. So, I went back and asked Bennie if he had moved them for some reason, and no, he hadn't. So we went back to look for them. One was lying on its side up between the freezer and ironing board, and the other one was inside the little closest that has our air compresser - both still intact and still with the dollop of peanut butter in the middle. So, that was just strange. So, thinking that maybe they were just old and not sticky anymore I threw them away and got new glue traps. I put new peanut butter on them and placed them back in the same places. I also put one in our closet just for good measure and one under our bed against the wall. So then yesterday morning, first thing, I go look at the traps. As I was walking into the laundry room I saw a strange site. Where the trap had been there was now just an area of tiny black particles, about a foot in diameter. As I looked around for the trap I saw it lying a couple feet away with a big chunk of the plastic gone. Stranger and stranger. This time, though, some of the peanut butter had been eaten. And then this morning when I opened our closet door, the trap in there was gone. When I looked around I found it about three feet away - perfectly intact, PB and everything. Today we are getting WOODEN TRAPS, and just for good measure a larger one for rats. I just shiver thinking that it might actually be a huge rat. Who knows what is going on at this point.

Morning Neighborhood Drama (Thanks, Michael Vick)

This morning started off pretty usual. I got up, got dressed, ran my 20 minutes (and walked 10) on the treadmill, then I went out on the front porch to sit on the swing and cool off for a few minutes. As I opened the door there was a stray dog on our front porch. His tail was wagging, so I figured he was okay. Actually I had seen this dog a couple other times in the last two days, just hanging around. He wasn't wearing a collar, and I didn't know who he belonged to. But, as I said, his tail was wagging. So I went on out to sit on the swing. Now this was a big dog (later I learned it was part pit bull and part chow). As I walked over to the swing I noticed the kid from next door was out with his dalmation, who is a house dog, but they bring him out to walk him and let him "use the yard". I was sort of talking to this boy, who is about 12 maybe, and was asking him if he knew anything about this other dog who was on my porch. He didn't, and then the stray dog left my porch and ran over to him and his dog. He started playing with the dalmation, kind of wrestling at first. Then it became something more. The boy was trying to shoo him away from his dog, which seemed to aggravate the situation. AND THEN the stray starts growling loudly and starts actually attacking this dalmation. I couldn't believe it when I saw him take the dalmation's head in his mouth - his whole head! I was just frozen watching this play out. And the boy was trying his best to get them apart the whole time. So then the mom comes out yelling and trying to get them apart, but no luck. THEN the dad comes out - with a 45. So he starts shooting. He shot the back of the stray, and it finally let go of the dalmation. So the mom, the kid, and the dad get the dalmation in the house, and the stray runs off. I went in to get Bennie, and we both came out on the porch, but then here comes the stray back to our porch. So now I'm kind of scared of this dog. So Bennie called the animal control people, who btw waited for a couple of hours before actually coming out. Then I went over to tell our neighbor that we had called and to see if they were okay. He told me that his wife and son had left to take the dog to the animal hospital, and his arm had two long scratches on it from the dog. So, to make a pretty long story somewhat shorter, I went on in to take a shower. When I came out the neighbor had shot the dog, who wouldn't die. So he went and traded the 45 for a 22 rifle and shot it again a few times, this time killing it.

So Bennie and I had to leave for Winston, but when we got back our neighbor was out with the dalmation (who had a big gash in his neck but was otherwise okay) walking him down the road, and he came into our driveway and told us the rest of the story. The animal control guy finally got there, but someone from the newspaper got there first, and she was asking demanding questions like why it took so long for the animal control people to respond. Anyway, the guy said that for the last month they have had a lot of instances with these kinds of dogs being set loose, fallout from the MV fiasco. Apparently this dog had been trained to fight, and the AC guy actually praised our neighbor for killing it.

Summer TV

I thought I'd review some of my favorite summer TV shows. And it is strange that I have been watching so many of them because always in the past summer TV has just been reruns and boring fillers. Last year I watched America's Got Talent, but I think that was about it. So this year . . .

Mad Men – I LOVE this show. It is set in the early 60's and has the look and feel of the time. Bennie watched five minutes of it with me the other day and proclaimed that it was one of the most depressing shows he'd ever seen. Well, he just saw a bad part of it. The main guy, Don Draper, is a cad, but he's the BEST LOOKING CAD I've ever seen. And everybody chain smokes on this show. If you don't want to watch it, just watch the opening credits. It is just like the old spy shows from back then.

Greek – I started watching this show because the main character is Kelsey Grammar's daughter. Then I got hooked. It is one of those bubble gum college aged angst shows, but I like it.

Side Order of Life – I've gotten hooked on this one too. I started watching because Brandon from 90210 was in it, but I don't really like him. What I like, and what I'm waiting for is, the main character dialed a wrong number and started talking to this guy, and now they call each other a lot but haven't yet met. So she has now broken up with "Brandon", and I want to see what happens when she and mystery guy meet.

Don't Forget the Lyrics/Singing Bee – I'm grouping these two shows because they have the same premise – singing karaoke style. I thought that I was pretty good with singing along with the radio, but you have to sing the EXACT lyrics or you're out. I happen to like DFTL better that SB, I think because of Wayne Brady. He's cool. And I like their format better.

Burn Notice – I think I've already mentioned this one in another blog. It's probably my second favorite. You can come in on this one at any time. It reminds me of A-Team, but better.

Psych – I had forgotten, but I watched this last year too. Come to think of it, this is probably tied for second with BN. It is a quirky show about a fake psychic who solves crimes. The way he does it is just that he is very observant. It is a really funny show. Plus I like Corbin Bernsen, who plays his dad.

America's Got Talent – This show is almost over for the year, but it was a good ride. I like the ventriloquist the best. I hope he wins next week.

Last Comic Standing – I also really like this show. I started watching just for the comedy routines, but I've gotten into it. The comedy is great. My favorite (and one that I showed to Bennie and Quentin) was Dante, who is a great impersonator, but he is already kicked off. Oh well.

So, this is how I've spent my summer vacation. Almost time for the new fall shows!

Just Another Day

I thought I'd tell a story. Quentin was home this weekend, and yesterday morning he was leaving to go back to Greensboro. So before I left for church I was helping him get up some food and stuff to take with him. Then I laid out some hamburger for my and Bennie's lunch, and went on to church. So about two hours later I was standing in the lobby between meetings talking with Bennie and someone else when President Cozzens came out of his office and came up to me and Bennie. He said that Quentin was on the phone and needed to talk to one of us. Well, that kind of scared me. So I went into his office and picked up the phone, saying hello. Then Quentin said, "Mom, I think something pretty bad has happened." Well, now I'm freaked out even more, because I knew he was on his way to Greensboro, so all I could think of was WRECK. So I asked if he was okay, what had happened, you know the usual. Then he said, "Were you going to have spaghetti for lunch?" WHAT? I said something like I didn't know and what was he talking about. Then he proceeded to tell me that he had seen me lay out the hamburger, but then he took all my spaghetti noodles and sauce with him and was afraid I had planned to use it. So like I said, just another day. Although my hair got a little bit whiter yesterday.

Not Guilty - Yet

Am I the only person in the world who still believes MV might be innocent?? At least they should let him play football until they prove otherwise.

Optimus Prime, et. al.

OP is the one that I remember from when my boys were little and played with transformers. And I thought he was a good guy. Megatron also sounded familiar, but I don't remember liking him as well. Yesterday me and Quentin went to see this movie. I really enjoyed it! It was a fun movie. It had a lot of parts that reminded me of other movies, especially Independence Day and Wargames. And when it was over, I mentioned to Quentin that they set it up for a sequel.

This morning I made a pound cake. The boy scouts from church are having a BBQ dinner tonight and needed people to make cakes, so I signed up to make one. I let it cook for 90 minutes ( 1 1/2 hours), thinking that was long enough. Well, it wasn't. When I went to turn it over on the plate it fell in and all this liquid cake (batter I guess) started pouring out from the middle. So, quick thinker that I am, I stuffed it all back into the tube pan, and put it back in the oven for another hour - just to make sure. This time it cooked. Except it looks terrible. It will probably taste good though. So anyway, I made a plum cake to take to church (which turned out great!), and I guess Bennie and Quentin will just have to eat the raggedy cake.

And I got a really good deal yesterday. I love good deals. We're having company for lunch tomorrow, and I thought about getting a ham. Well, this week in the flyers there was a spiral sliced ham on sale at Galaxy for 98 cents a pound, but the flyer said it was frozen. So, yesterday I went to Wal-Mart, which lets you have the sale prices of other places. I found a great spiral sliced ham (not frozen though) for $1.96 a pound. So I got it for half price!

And lastly, there is a new TV show that I really like. It's called "Burn Notice". You should check it out. It comes on Thursday nights on USA. Also, did anyone see "America's Got Talent" this past week? Did you see the magician who cut the guy in half? That was so cool! I have no idea how he did that.

Diana's Concert

I've just finished watching this concert. It was on last Sunday, and I recorded all six hours. It started off really good with Elton John singing my favorite song of his - "Your Song". Then the princes - William and Harry, who were really cute - came out and welcomed everyone, then introduced their mother's "favorite band", Duran Duran. That is when the concert started going downhill. They only sang one song I had heard of, and I didn't like it. After that was a succession of bands and singers and dancers. There were a lot of hip-hop/rap singers, and needless to say I fast forwarded it through all of that. There were several British bands I had never heard of, but I did like a band called Take That (I think that was the name). Tom Jones was there, but again, he didn't sing anything I knew. Then they went through several broadway songs by ALW, who showed up too. And that was good. And then FINALLY someone good came on - rockin' Rod, who started off with Maggie May. It ended with Elton John again, but there were some technical delays, and he was cut off just as he was getting started. I should have recorded the next show, but I didn't. And guess who got the biggest applause of anybody (other than the princes I guess)? David Beckham, who just came out to introduce someone. So, overall the concert was pretty much of a disappointment to me. The only other highlights were when the camera would go to William and Harry with their friends, and they would be clapping or dancing along with the music. I think I would give this concert a 2 on a scale of 1-10 with Live Aid being a 10.