TGIF... IT'S DINNER WITH MOM AND DAD

Today is Friday! That means dinner at my parents. Mom has already called to give me the run down on tonight's menu. Boiled buttered potatoes, greens, fried apples, and dad will probably go to Big Johns and get fried fish. Yea.

I'm cleaning house so I won't have to do anything but mow, weed, and laundry tomorrow. You just can't do everything on Saturdays.

Caity and I added an alley to our route. We met the city employees behind the old police station filling up their gas tanks. One of them was whistling while pumping the gas. Of course Caity thought he was talking to her. He wasn't. He did not appear to be a dog lover either. She has a good sense about people. Once she decided he was not talking to her, she went to his buddy and got a full rub and pat session from him. I told him, "She'll be your best friend for life now." He responded, "Yep, that's the way they are." Obviously, he was the dog lover of the bunch. So off we went, with Caity happily smelling every single trash can on our new route.

People have stated I do not give enough face time to Ziggy on here. So here is a funny Zig moment. The other day at approximately 8 p.m. which is when Zig begins his campaign to be fed, I put his new Blue Buffalo cat food in his dish. He has always been a finicky eater. Usually Caity would eat her food, and then walk over to Ziggy's dish to eat his left overs. Caity is quite the greedy gut. Now, I feed Ziggy at night, after I put greedy gut in her crate for the night. So after consuming his favorite cat food, I catch him licking the rim and inside of his food bowl. LOL. I knew right then, that was the end of the picky eater named Ziggy. Bingo, I finally hit upon the perfect cat food.

Received a VIP e-mail from my favorite author's website stating that a picture I submitted of Caity and "Baby" was going to be posted on her site under the "Reader's Pet" section. Yippy-te-I-yay. Every week since I submitted it, I have been checking the site to see if she would get posted. Finally she has. She and about ten other pets will be posted online for about 4 days. So be sure to go to www.evanovich.com on Monday, August 2, 2010 and see my little doggie.

I finally got my dairy barn on my Farmville page. Joy, joy. I am having a blast with Farmville and finding new friends for neighbors to boot. I love my farm. It is quite quaint. Check out my chic house, that is if you are a Farmvillian. I wish I could crawl through my computer screen and live there. Now for a New England barn, two stone fences, a covered bridge, more land, one new cool truck that is coming out in red, oh la la etc.

My dad is the best father in the whole wide world. That's all I'm going to say about it. But, I guess everyone reading this feels the same way about their dad. So I'll rephrase it and say, including present company's fathers. How's that for being politically correct? Ha.

Right now I am craving my mom's fried apples. She offered me some to take home, but I wanted to appear polite, and didn't accept. Now I am sad, and hungry. Next time I'm going to be a hoss hog and take a gob home. Appearances be pootied.

People better leave Sarah Palin alone, we all make up our own words. My family has it's own vocabulary of words that work just for us, and we understand each other completely.

I'm getting sleepy, so I am going to close and post. Remember, COME TO THE PURPLE DOOR WITH FLOWERCHIC again, where we'll discuss the virtues of fried apples in greater detail and view life through the viewfinder of a cored out apple.

FLOWERCHIC

WHOOSE BABY? TIPP'N THE SCALES, FREE NEWS, AND GOING TO THE MARKET

Been some time since I last blogged about me and the "kids." Lots going in the distraction department. In the end, it all pans out good, by the grace of God. As I type, Ziggy is on the bed giving himself a bath for the umpteenth time, and Caity is laying on her pink rug, beside the computer desk tending to "baby." Baby is Caity's best friend in the whole wide world next to me, Ziggy, and Lynette A.K.A. Barbernista. To describe baby as colorful is an understatement. She is a orange, rubber monster that has purple painted toenails. If you step on Baby, Caity whines as though in pain. If you hide Baby, she searches by sniffing her distinct smell till she finds her. If you pick Baby up, Caity will follow you to the end of the earth.

Stepped on the scales today, and it read that I've lost a few pounds. Noticed my clothes were slightly loose, which is always a good thing. Sometimes it's just too hot to cook or eat. I have been craving fruit. Saturday is grocery day. I think I'll go to the farmer's market with Linda and Mom. Kirchhoffs will there also. Linda loads up on their foccia bread. I like the artichoke, black olive, and parmesan cheese foccia bread. Yum. Me, I'm thinking seriously about peaches, okra, corn, red and green tomatoes & eggplant. What makes a steamy, hot day all better, than 2 scoops from the Ice Cream Factory on the River Place? Butter Pecan! Calorie count? Priceless.

So far today, Caity has eaten the bottom of the trash I had bagged up to take out, attempted to eat a sticky back note, that has a phone extension number I need written on it, and when Ziggy's back was turned with his tail hanging down the side of the bed, she bypassed an opportunity to bite his tail, which she loves to try to do. She thought about, then changed her mind, and Ziggy was never the wiser.

The Metropolis Paper turned up in my mail box today. Don't know who put it there, but I enjoyed reading it. I subscribe to "Blessings N Coupons" and I now have two or three other sources I use before going shopping. Today's paper had the Walgreens flyer inside. Boy were there a lot of bargains advertised. My plan is to print coupons out Thursday night. Sometimes, "the Linda shuttle" carries mom and me to do grocery shopping on Fridays after dinner. If it is scheduled to go, I'll be ready with them in my purse. Then Saturday, I'll go to Dollar General, then Walgreens, who has a gallon and a half worth of milk for $3, plus the some other items using coupons. I find that I save a good piece of dough using coupons. I only buy what I am really interested in buying, otherwise it does not pay off for me. I need to shop to stock my pantry, it is getting barren from dipping and dabbling.

I guess I'll go put on a pot of pinto beans and rice for supper. Add a glass of regular ice tea and I found some strawberry bread I bid on at church in my freezer. I may skillet toast it and have a cup of coffee tonight.

I really am looking forward to going to the market this weekend. Always gotta have something to look forward to in this life. Just came in from taking Caity out. On the way out, she stopped by my old fashioned, English, pink rose bush to stick her nose up against to smell the posies. Gotta remember to do that every so often too.

COME TO THE PURPLE DOOR WITH FLOWERCHIC next time, and I promise we'll learn the steps to the firefly dance and smell the posies together.

FLOWERCHIC

PORK RINDS, BOOKS, AND NEW WORDS

My mom called me up to invite me over for pork rinds earlier. They were good as ever. Afterwards she, dad, and I ate popsicles, then bananas. With the exception of Linda, we're banana lovers. Mom found these popsicles at Aldis that she buys mostly for my dad. He absolutely loves these popsicles. She recently bought a new freezer that is not self defrosting. She said she was being fugal at the time. However, she would rethink that decision if she had a chance to make it over again. She used to store the popsicles in the new freezer, but daddy kept going in there for popsicles every other 5 minutes, and frosting up her shelves. So she moved them to the other freezer. He gave her a dirty look for telling off on him.

Linda is the purse goddess of the family. I tried to walk out the door, on my way to the library with her new purse, and she almost did not recognize it on my arm. But she did, and cried, "police," so I had to set it back where I found it. Bummer.

I went to the library today and found four new books to read. Three of them were Harlan Coben books. The titles are, "The Woods," "Long Lost," and "Hold Tight." My friend and barbernista, Lynette recommended Harlan Coben on her wall. Lynette is a self-proclaimed bibliophile. Ha, I typed it without spell check nabbing me on it as misspelled. Did you notice the noun, barbernista? Note, it is not a real word. So don't waste your time hunting down your dictionary. But if Sarah Palin, Barak Obama, George W. Bush can get away with it, then so can I. Has anyone besides me noticed that every republican interviewed on television, since that little mishap was brought to light, uses the refudiate word now? I've been creating my own words long before the three of them, but it was because somewhere down the line, I stopped being able spell correctly. The more I write, the more I use the dictionary and thesaurus.

Oh, the other book I found was by an author named Jennifer Weiner, and the book is, "Best Friends Forever."

Played a little Farmville with Linda today. And other than that, nothing too eventful. The pets did not do anything extraordinary today. Silvia, the beta fish is about half out of water, so its probably time to change out her glass house soon. Hummm...that's it.

COME TO THE PURPLE DOOR WITH FLOWERCHIC soon, and we'll dance the Congo line to the music of life together. Stay safe.

FLOWERCHIC

BEST MEAL EVER AND GEMS TO TREASURE

The other day I threw together the best meal. My mom had given me a quart jar of canned green beans, I had a small bag of mixed pasta, where there was a little bit of this and a little bit of that of different shapes and sizes of pasta that on their own, each made barely enough for one serving. I found a can of stewed tomatoes, one yellow squash, potatoes, about two servings of broccoli, smoke jowl, and I had two pork chops, but I decided I wanted an all veggie meal. Then I had a box of chamomile tea that I brewed, and made me a big quart jar of iced tea. I love to pull together a hodgepodge of items from my freezer, pantry, and refrigerator and see what I can create for a meal. The smoke jowl, green beans, onion, garlic, red pepper, S&P went into one pot, with potatoes added later. The yellow squash got sliced and added to it the frozen broccoli, garlic, onion, EVO, chicken bouillon cube, and cooked pasta with the stewed tomatoes added later. For dinner I had green beans and potatoes with good old smoke jowl, tender as can be, a sweet potato cornbread muffin, squash and broccoli pasta, and a quart jar of chamomile iced tea. After I plated my meal and prayed over it, I thought this is a meal my grandmother would have made for me down in brownfield IL. My mom said they never wasted anything, and used everything.

Speaking of dinner, I ate over at my mom and dad's house Friday. While I was there, Linda permed mom's hair so she would look pretty for the annual BBQ in Brownfield, IL, which is in Pope County. They go every year and visit with old friends. It is a 100 year old event that they celebrate year after year on the small church grounds that my mother had belonged to when she was a small child. They have their own cemetery there, where the old timers come in a view the headstones of past love ones. My great grandfather and great uncles used to work along side the Crim family, which has carried down the tradition from generation to generation. They hold the tricks of the trade, and the secret recipe for the sauce, and the cooking of the meat. When they sell out of BBQ, people cry. I remember the year they were making that movie down in Karnak IL called the U.S. Marshalls staring Wesley Snipes and Tommy Lee Jones. The movie crew saw the flyers or heard about the BBQ and bought out the BBQ before mom and dad and people who come from far away could get any. Oh, Lord. People were upset. We missed seeing the flyers out this year, they are usually posted on the light posts, and store windows all over town. I guess they have done away with that. Mom last month had to get out her calendar and count up to the 4th Saturday in July to mark it on her calendar. Same time, same place for generations. They'll sit out there in the hot sun most of the day, and come back with a glow that comes from riding down the back roads of Brownfield, good tasting BBQ, that you can get only once a year, and a bag full of pork skins to go into the oven. Later in the day, mom will call Linda and me over for some oven cooked pork rinds, fresh. We have had the fresh pork rind dinners every since I was a kid, and I look forward to it. One year Jimmy ran out, and daddy was mad as stink, and stewed about it for days. The following year, he got mom up early so he could get down there for his fresh pork skins.

Caity got her walk in as promised. It had been two days, so she started out straining on her leash walking at a pretty brisk pace. I asked, "Caity, what's the big hurry!" She conveyed, "It's been two whole days since I visited this alley, and there is no telling what all has gone on without my knowings!" She led the way to her old haunts and wanted to branch off down a new alley, but I axed that until I can drive down there and see if there are any dogs. In the country there are porch dogs and under the trailer dogs lurking to bite your ankles and give a good chase. In Metropolis, there are alley dogs. People who don't want their dogs messing their yards up, chain them just inside their backyard by the alley, dog house and all, so they can enjoy their full yards. When you go walking down the alley, these dog jump out at you. Bless their heart they don't get any socialization that way, which defeats the purpose of owning a dog. I guess they see it as the dog gets fed and watered, and the owner gets protection of their property. When the dog needs exercise they unchain the dog and let it run loose for exercise. The dog comes home and they chain it back up. Sad to watch. These are not run down houses either.

Caity is a rescue dog. Before I got her she was given to a shelter by a breeder who bought her to breed believing she was to be a small Yorkshire Terrier. But she turned out a Silky Terrier. She was not placed at a no kill shelter and her time was running out. So, a rescue shelter came and got her. I was searching the Internet for a small Yorkie female. I was in the process of adopting one, but she tested positive for heart worms, and was pulled from the adoption list for treatment. So, Jill who I was working with, said she had a friend who had just rescued a Yorkie and asked if I would be interested in adopting her dog or I could wait till the dog named Sally finished her treatments and tested negative. Sally was show quality beautiful and full of energy, but I did not want to wait. I e-mailed Jill to send me pictures of then named Melissa, who did not know her name even. She was filthy dirty, hair matted on her back leg, had not had her hair cut in a while, and Jill said she still stunk after her first bath given by her rescue friend. She was the saddest looking dog I had ever seen. Her little eyes showed no happiness and she kept her mouth shut, no tongue hanging out. I e-mailed Jill back I would take her "as is" sight unseen other than the one picture, and offered a fair price to Jill, who accepted. I drove down to Dyersburg TN with Linda and picked her up. Linda saw me carry her out and said, "That is one big Yorkie." Yorkies and Silkies get mixed up a lot at birth by inexperienced breeders. When I brought Caity home, she was meaner than a snake & hated Ziggy. I wanted to give up on her more than once in the beginning, but I had prayed for, and over Caity, the little dog with sad eyes, who was so unkept. With a firm hand and lots, and lots, of love, and training she is a sweet, loving, bright, and trainable dog, and the most sought after little dog. Caity loves Ziggy to the brink of driving him crazy sometimes. Before going to a breeder, please check out the animal rescues, and animal shelters first. You never know what gem you might discover.

I thought I had nothing to talk about today. But I proved myself wrong. COME TO THE PURPLE DOOR WITH FLOWERCHIC again soon! There is sure to be something here to tickle your fancy. Stay blessed.

FLOWERCHIC

THE BEAST HAS BEEN CONQUERED

The lawn has been mowed! Woohoo! I mowed yesterday evening. Now I owe Caity an evening walk. She let me know I was neglecting my duty. I kept trying to get her turn into the walkway towards the front steps, after having already visited her "special spot" for the night, and she kept straining against her leash toward our normal route. I stated over and over, "no, Caity, not tonight I have to mow the yard, 'home, home.'" The more I gently tugged on her leash, the stronger she responded by straining in the other direction. She can be a very strong willed for a little dog. Finally she relented. To make amends, I am considering taking her to the park and letting her run some. I'll be her BFF again.

I attempted to blog late last night, but I had computer problems and was not able to connect to the Internet. I had to call tech support to get me back in. You know how you can ask someone if they know how to play the piano, and they say something like, "Not really, or not well enough to brag, or something diminishing like." Then they sit down at the piano and all of a sudden, they pull off a dramatic first note hand stance of Fre'de'ric Chopin, or Sergei Rachmaninoff, or better yet, a git up and dance Little Richard rendition. There you stand with you mouth gaping open thinking, "Boy, I thought you said you couldn't play!" Well, so began my phone call with Verizon tech support. The guy helping me started off saying, "Mam, (as we phonically spell and pronounce it in southern Illinois) I'll try and help you, but I am not technically trained on Apple computers." I'm thinking, oh great...he is going to waste my time...maybe I should tell him not to worry about it, and I'll call back in the morning. But, I really wanted to get online to do this blog and really didn't want to wait. So the encourager that I am, I say, "Oh I'm sure you'll do just fine lets give it a shot!" He proceeded to walk me through the steps of finding the buttons and menus I needed to change or add information to in order for me to get back online, without missing a beat from memory of when he last owned a Mac. The only mishap we had was a "foodie" miscommunication issue. He kept telling me to look for an icon at the top of the screen that looked like a pizza slice (of course I envisioned a slice of Pizza Hut super supreme) but I was looking on my keyboard for a button with an icon that looked like a slice of pizza, which on an Apple is the volume button. Finally, we got on the correct screen. We were searching high and low for that pizza icon! Smile.

My sister Linda is cracking me up as we do the "sister thing" with Farmville. I'm the business major, so of course I approach everything that has to do with money very analytically. She runs a clinic office in her profession, so she does too. She started Farmville a couple of years ago, but very shortly after, decided she was not interested in playing the "silly virtual game." I too thought it was a "silly virtual game" and had decided not to play also, because it was so addictive to some of my friends that no longer e-mailed or made comments on fb anymore, due to their new addiction. So I start playing Farmville. Of course once she hears this bit of news, she begins the head movement from side to side, with the I told you so tilt to her lip, while pressing them sealed tightly together, that older sisters give their much younger sisters when making unwise decisions. The other day, we were strategising which plants we should plant and talking about which plants we did, and did not like to eat in real life. She really loves broccoli and I love asparagus. But neither of us had the points to plant our favorite veggies yet. So I'm rattling on and on about my favorite vegetables I like to eat, which are many, because I love my veggies. After a while I notice I am carrying on a one on one conversation with myself. So, I call her on it, "Are you listening to me?" "What? Shush....yes...hang on a minute" She is running the stats on her desk calculator of what we should plant next. I just LOL! Our worst fear has manifested. We're no better than Job!

Thats all to my daily blog. Hope you had fun visiting and maybe sharing a laugh or two with me. Come To The Purple Door With Flowerchic again, and we'll laugh and ponder the quagmire of life together!

FLOWERCHIC

IT'S A HOT ONE TODAY

Well today was a hot one. Now that my lawn mower is fixed I was looking forward to mowing. When I took Caity out this morning my plan was to feed her and head outside to mow, but it was too hot. So I announced to the kids that I would mow later. When I took Caity out again, it started raining. Rats! So later I thought, hey it's not rained yet, I will mow a few swipes until it does. It proceeded to thunder. I moved the plants so they could get rained on and no major rain still.

Speaking of equipment, I think I am equipment challenged! Every time I start to mow, that darn mower either won't start with a full tank of gas or keeps stopping on me, then I tried the weed eater, cause if I am nothing else in this world, I am determined. However it did not work either. Happens all the time! Bless my daddy's heart, he has the patience of Job, but I believe I am starting to wear on him. That would be a shame, he's the best, I'd hate to loose him as a friend! But if his equipment don't stop falling apart on my watch, I might have to adopt.

Caity and Ziggy have had at least two love feast apiece today. Each one tries to outdo the other during these sessions. Not sure who won. They are so openly jealous of each other, especially Caity. If she see Ziggy heading my way with his tail in the air, (a sign of true happiness) she cuts him off at the pass and gets to me first. I have to tell her, "Caity, I saw that get down."

I had to miss Wednesday night service, and I am bummed out. Wednesday night services at HHC are fun nights. We get deeper teaching, and we hang out afterwards. As I said earlier, if I am nothing else in this world I am determined. So I will be there, or be square come Wednesday.

I've done the unimaginable, I was able to get my sister to accept me as a Farmville neighbor. That was almost as exciting as winning the free picnic table on there! See, I am always after her to do "sister stuff" with me. Most of the time I fail. She and I are very different and very alike. So it requires that we not be different at the same time, I come up with an activity. But this time the moon must have been aligned just right with the stars because I prevailed. We are having a blast. And yes, I do remember those who have not excepted yet. Farmville is not for everyone. We are both fugal. So we are not into pets, especially dogs, they are expensive at that market. They need to lower their prices on pets. And cats, they birth kittens too. Nope, another mouth to feed. There will be not animals of Dianne's farm.

Its time to take Miss Caity out one last time before her bed time. So I'm signing off for another day. Be sure to COME TO THE PURPLE DOOR WITH FLOWERCHC another day to visit.

FLOWERCHIC

A CRAZY DAY...OUT AND ABOUT WITH CAITY

Whew...what a day! There is nothing like powering thru a crazy day and still maintaining your sanity. I won't go into my crazy day too much, in fear of scaring you all off. This being my very first blog and all.

I started my day taking my little dog Caity out early this morning around 6 o'clock, and we walked our usual route, except I decided we both needed to enjoy the world around us. We took it nice and slow. Caity sniffed every single trash can down the alley. We turned the corner heading west down 10th Street. She watched cars go by on their way to work. She tried to chase a bird, but soon remembered she was attached to a leash. She sniffed the grass, saw a butterfly, a guy out walking across the street waved hi to us, which happens to us quite a bit. Meaning people seem to enjoy watching Caity. I think it is the way she carries herself when we are out walking. She is such a happy, bouncy little thing, it's kind of contagious.

Whenever Caity is out uummm taking care of business in her special spot, people actually stop their cars. I'm like, "A little privacy please." Caity just looks up at me with a pained look that say, "Mom, make them go away!" Then I think to myself, Caity, they just think you're special." O.K. as a true pet owner, I actually speak these words to her. I admit it. Sometimes my sister Linda will interrupt my relaying to her our Dianne/Caity conversations, to tell me, "Now Dianne, did Caity really say and understand all that?" Which only irritates Caity and I because, of course we understand each other. Anyone who has a pet in their home, who is a part of the family, knows this to be a proven, scientific fact!

Anyhoo, I digress. Next, we go by a business that Caity especially enjoys, because it has a broken glass pane at the bottom of the door. You know, the really thick glass, not like the kind in most homes. She is fascinated by that door. She always looks inside, and the way she prances, and sniff around, I can tell there is something quite exciting scurrying around in there. Of course, I'll never know, since it is at small dog eye level. The top half of the door is blackened off, so I can't see whats going on inside. I always walk away feeling that if she and I ever did go inside, and it was dark, where we needed a flash light, that it would be our very own Caity and Dianne Nancy Drew moment. There would be rats scurrying around, squeaking, then there would be a loud thud...are you with me? Of course we would be fearless and venture onward. Although, our story line differs just a tinsy bit. I would have my stun buddy with me and a taser, and a pocket knife, accompanied by sometimes "crazy dog Caity.' After a while both our Nancy Drew moment wanes and we carry on with our walk.

After that, devotions, morning java, breakfast for the kiddies and me. Farmville, I'll have to share that later, broken lawn mower, a check on the tomatoes, and artichoke. Oh need to water them as well as flower plants tomorrow.

Ah, the rest I won't get in to. I am a pretty positive person, so there won't be much doom a gloom here. I like to laugh too much. My greatest hope is that I will never bore you.

If you get a chance come back to the purple door and visit me, Flowerchic! That's all one word. Spell check does not like my name.