S.L.A.C.K.E.R.S. (Sassy Ladies Aboard Canoes Keeping Everyone’s Rebellious Secrets)

Last Friday me & five of my girlfriends went on a float trip at Ozark Outdoors on the Courtouis River outside of Leasburg. We go every year and call it our skip day as we all take off work (by calling in sick) because we don’t want to go on Saturday or Sunday since the rivers are packed on weekends. Used to be we didn’t mind going on weekends because there were plenty of guys, but it seems the guys keep getting younger and it’s just not worth having to deal with the crowds. Besides, only one of us (and I’m not naming names) is a cougar. Also, we don’t really want to work too hard so we go for the shortest trip available. That way we can float at a leisurely pace without having to paddle too much because, after all, our arms might get sore. So we’re at the counter renting our canoes, telling the girl that we want to do a 4-mile float when she sort of glances over at the other girl working and gives her a look. Then she asks if we might consider going on a 5 mile float. We looked at each other and started whining because we didn’t understand why she was asking us this – can’t she see that we don’t want to be tortured? After discussing, we turned around to ask if maybe they have a one mile we could go on. When the other girl leaned over and whispered to us that they just dropped 200 Japanese boys in the river and maybe we would want them a mile ahead of us, we understood, and although we were a little worried about going five miles, we agreed.

We hauled our coolers, chairs and dry containers down to the beach where everything was loaded onto the bus for the trip up-river. We were the only six on the bus and the guy (Tim) had to give us the usual “rules” speech before heading out. We already know all the rules – no glass, no beer-bongs, no shots, no beads, no flashing, etc., etc., etc., - been there, done that, learned lessons and know how to get away with the rules we want to bend. Since I’m a bottle beer drinker, I was very proud of myself that I didn’t bring glass bottles this year, I brought aluminum bottles. Actually, I was bragging and gloating to my friends that I wouldn’t have to hide them and everyone knows that aluminum bottles stay colder than glass bottles. So Tim drives us up-river, talking & flirting the whole five miles. Those country boys go for anything that walks! I was going to have Pat in my canoe, so we loaded it up and got everything situated. I decided to have my first beer since the work was done and I was pretty hot & thirsty. So I grab one of the awesome aluminum bottles out of my cooler, eagerly anticipating my first drink of ice-cold Bud Select. All of a sudden it hit me! Woops – I forgot that aluminum bottles don’t have twist-off caps. I was devastated. I needed a bottle opener and nobody had one. How could I go on a float trip with no beer? Of course we had shots, but I could not imagine floating down the river for hours without a beer. Some of my friends had beer but they had cans and after all the gloating I had done over my aluminum bottles, I didn’t want to mooch off of them. I begged Tim to find me a bottle opener but unfortunately, he didn’t have one and we were on a gravel bar with nothing around. Tim proceeded to show me how to hold the bottle cap against the canoe & hit it downward to pop the cap off – only he couldn’t even do it! Besides that, I didn't want to bruise my hand! Next, he came up with a pocket knife and it took a while, but he finally pried the cap off. In the meantime, Debbie was able to get one off by using the chair mechanism; the only problem was that she lost half the beer in the process. So I had Tim pry off 4 more caps and stuck the opened bottles back into my cooler.

We pushed off & proceeded to have a great day floating down the river, catching a lot of rays, swimming, drinking, laughing and having a great time. We only saw a few fishermen and families along the way so there was no pressure to look like we knew what we were doing. We managed to complete the trip with nobody tipping and (besides a few bruises) getting hurt. We paddled a little more than we wanted but we made it.

One of the girls suggested that next year we just rent the canoes and float around by the gravel bar at the take-out point.

Don't you wish you had one?

I've been gathering pink stuff to decorate and/or use as storage in my anticipated new scrapbook room. I don't want to sound cheap (but maybe I am), but in order to save money I've been haunting Goodwill stores in search of pink accessories. So far I've found 3 wood boxes covered in a pink-striped fabric, a couple of pink vases, a small pink pail for holding scissors and a couple of small wicker shelves.

I was at the Goodwill store near my house a couple of weeks ago when I heard them announce that all furniture was 50% off. Considering that Jim's son just moved out and is in need of a few pieces, I decided to take a look. There were a couple of kitchen sets but nothing I thought would fit Matt's taste, in other words, nothing with Cardinals, Rams or Blues colors and/or logos. As I was perusing the furniture I happened upon a couple of church pews marked $100 each. They weren't very fancy or anything but they were about 8 feet long, solid wood, very heavy & sturdy. One was in perfect shape and the other had some paint drips on the seat and paint smears on the end. Years ago, I don't even remember where, I saw a church pew in someone's house but it was beautifully carved and I loved it. When I saw the pews my mind started working on where I could use one. The basement, of course!

I went home and talked to Jim and he agreed to go take a look on our way out for the evening. When we got back to the Goodwill store and I took Jim back to see the pews, there was already a sign on the "perfect" one that it was sold. Damn! Well, Jim agreed that for $50 we could even use it outside so I proceeded to the checkout and bought it. We went back the next day to pick it up and I had a plan to hurry to the back of the store & try switching the sold signs so my name was on the "perfect" one. Unfortunately, it had already been picked up so my plan was foiled. Jim & I struggled and finally got the pew downstairs and it fit perfectly on the wall next to the pool table. As we were moving it I noticed there's a missile holder on the back and a hunk of gum under the seat. Perfect!

We had a birthday dinner for Jim the other night and when I told Angie & Brian to go downstairs and see what I got, Patrick said that he had already seen it and it scared him. When A & B came back up, Brian said, "Now I know you're crazy!" What, me? What's so crazy about it? I can't figure it out. To me, it's just a unique way to have extra seating. And it will come in handy for the Christmas games.

Anyway, I just wanted to brag a little and make everyone jealous.

And the struggle begins.....

I was talking to Janet a week or so ago, telling her about the anticipated scrapbook room and the one thing I was concerned about. I told her that when Jim put up the temporary wall, he also put up 2 doors, one to separate one bedroom from another and the other to separate the bedroom from the bathroom. I told Janet that I thought the only problem I’d have with Jim was taking down the door that separates the bedroom from the bathroom. The reason I have a problem with this door is that there are 3 doors in a very tight area and it drives me nuts all these doors banging against each other. Originally, there was a door leading from the family room area into the “scrapbook” room and a door for the bathroom.

Last night I was downstairs making my Cricut key as instructed by Barb when Jim came down. He walked into the other rooms, looked around a little and proceeded to tell me that he would not take the door that separates the bedroom from the bathroom. Do I know this guy or what? I told him I didn’t want to talk about it at that time because we were not going to agree. When he started to say something else, I just cut him off and said that the door wasn’t there when we moved in and I wanted it back to the way it was originally and that having 3 doors in such a tight area drives me crazy! His protest was that when anyone would go to use the bathroom they’d see my scrapbook room. I told him I didn’t care. I’m sure this is not the end of our “door” battle….

Giving in is so hard to do.....

I’m finally going to get my scrapbook room because we had two kids move out recently. Angie moved in with Brian (after asking my permission) a few weeks ago and Matt bought a condo and moved out this past week. Originally, I thought I would use Matt’s bedroom for my scrapbook room because it’s right next to my bedroom, there’s a pocket door separating the two and it also has a nice view out to the woods in back of the house. After thinking about it for a while, I changed my mind and decided I wanted “my” room downstairs in the lower level because it is much larger and more private. Jim had built a temporary wall when we first moved in to make two bedrooms so he will have to take that down first. He'll also have to move Johnny's bedroom furniture up to Angie's bedroom until we find a house suitable for Johnny to buy at which time he'll take the furniture. I figured we would use Angie’s & Matt’s upstairs rooms for guest rooms and of course the ideas started forming in my mind on how to decorate the rooms. I’ve been getting kind of excited and look forward to working on these rooms. Angie’s will not need to be painted but Matt’s will so I’ve been picturing different colors and anticipating the start of a new project.

Jim & I were looking around in Matt’s room the other night when I said that we’d need to paint. That’s when he informed me - maybe so, maybe not. When I asked what he meant, he said that it was going to be “his” room. When I objected and told him that he already had the garage (just like my big sister told me to say) he said that it wasn’t really his garage because I’m the only one that parks in it. I couldn’t really argue with that. Now he’s gloating and trying to be mysterious about what he’s going to do with "his" room. He knows it’s killing me not to have control over a redecorating project. Whatever, I guess I’m conceding Matt’s room to Jim but I’ll be sure that my scrapbook room gets started first!

It's been a very busy summer so far. Mom's operation & recovery consumed the months of May & June. Then we started hunting for a condo for Matt Miller and a house for Johnny. We were successful in finding a great deal on a condo for Matt and after a lot of painting and a few repairs he's ready to move in this week. We haven't had as good of luck with finding a DECENT house for Johnny. We've been looking at one foreclosed home after another and if you've never experienced it, let me tell you, it's shocking to see how people can live. Total trash! We realize that there will be a lot of work involved when buying a foreclosed home, but most of the places we've seen would need to be totally gutted. And every basement has been leaky - and we all remember my experiences with a leaky basement - a nightmare! Whenever our realtor sends over a new listing, we try to go see it right away because it's very competitive and if you find something that's halfway decent, you better be prepared to make an offer immediately. I've been telling Johnny not to get discouraged because I read in the Kiplinger Letter that the $8,000 or 10% purchase price incentive from the federal government will most likely be extended for another year.
I just got back yesterday from a visit with Barb in Nashville. Janet & I drove through torrential downpours Wednesday night and even though I haven't been down there for about five years, I had a sense of deja vu because I remember driving to Nashville many times in rain storms and even a snowstorm once. It was great to be back in big sister's neck of the woods and see how she's redecorated her house. She gave us a tour Thursday and she saved her "favorite" room for last. Needless to say, we ended up spending about 2 hours in her scrapbooking room looking at stuff, getting lessons and talking. The weather wasn't so great so we didn't spend any time at the pool on Thursday. We did get some pool time in Friday and decided to surprise Barb's friends and crash their pool party, too. It was fun. We did some scrapbooking at her dining room table because she didn't think her scrapbooking room would be comfortable for us since she has so much stuff and little room for working. Throughout the weekend we kept track of how many times we had to run upstairs to her scrapbooking room to get things. Between the three of us we climbed those stairs 42 (or so) times. Oh well, I guess we got some exercise! We also had fun playing Barb's new (antique) game Park and Shop. She said she remembered playing it at the Beckman's when she was a kid (hence the antiqueness) and it was always her favorite. Since I won both games (which really came down to the wire both times) I have to say it's my favorite game, too. Makes me feel a little better after all the times Barb creamed me in Scrabble! When I got home yesterday, my car was pretty dirty with bug guts from the trip. I had to take it in to the dealer this morning because there was a recall for something and when they got done they brought it out totally clean. They washed it! I was one happy camper.
The rest of the summer is going to be busy with a shower, bachelorette party, two weddings and a scrapbook retreat. Barb, Janet & me also have a cousins scrapbook retreat in October at Kentucky Lake. We went last year with cousin Judy and worked feverishly. I thought it was great because Barb had all the layouts planned and we finished a complete scrapbook. The only problem this year is that I've heard that the only "cousin" may not go. Come on Judy, please, please come along with us. We really enjoyed your company last year. Besides, if you don't come along we'll have to change the name to "cousinless scrapbook retreat".