Scaredy Cat

Jim left yesterday a little after 5PM to go over to pick up Meagan at college & go to a concert with her in Illinois so I was home alone. Whenever I will be downstairs working in my scrapbook room I ALWAYS make sure all the doors are locked, the garage doors are down and any windows that anyone could get in are closed & locked. So I worked downstairs for a couple of hours and then came up to watch the season premier of Desperate Housewives & Brothers & Sisters. Everything was fine for the first hour. During Brothers & Sisters, I heard a door slam upstairs. Oh, oh! I knew it had to be the wind because there were windows open in my bedroom and Jim's man room but I can really freak myself out. I tried to ignore my over-active imagination and reminded myself that the doors had been locked. After a little while I went out on the deck and that's when I saw the light on through the master bathroom window upstairs. I told myself that Jim had left a light on up there and tried to talk myself down. I went back inside, grabbed the biggest butcher knife we have & my cell phone before going upstairs. I just knew I had to check otherwise I'd be nervous when I went up to go to bed. I discovered that I was right and the door slammed because of the wind tunnel. I also discovered that I was right as Jim left our closet door open and the light was on. So everything's cool, I finish watching my shows, go upstairs & get ready for bed. I read for a while and then turned off the light. It was very windy and my curtains kept billowing in and I debated closing the windows but was too lazy. Right when I was dozing off, I heard a bang from downstairs. It freaked me out but there was no way I was going down there. I convinced myself it was something that blew off a windowsill somewhere & went to sleep. This morning I looked but couldn't see anything that had blown over. Luckily, Jim will be home tonight.....

The Weekend

Last weekend was the first time in a long time that Jim & I didn't have plans and boy was it nice to be at home for a change. Friday night we picked up some furniture I had lent to Akiko Ito, an employee JCI hired from Tokyo three years ago. When she came to the U.S., she was staying at the Homewood Suites before moving into an apartment and she didn't have anything but her clothes. It happened to be the same time Jim & I were moving so I offered some things because I felt sorry for her. Now her contract is up and she's moving back to Tokyo next month so she's ready to get rid of everything. She brought bags of clothes & miscellaneous stuff into the office to give to everyone, and, as she's very tiny (size 0), the only things I got was an umbrella & a purse. So Jim & I go over to her apartment and, sure enough when she opened the front door & we stepped in, I saw the slippers (2 pairs) sitting there. I kicked off my sandals & put a pair on while Jim ignored them & walked right past. She asked us to have a seat & served us some miniature cupcakes & fresh fruit cups she had prepared. We weren't really planning on staying but we were polite & ate the stuff & chit chatted for a little before I said - Okay, let's see what we have. Akiko took us into the first bedroom where the futon was and I knew it had been Johnny's and we actually need it for an extra bed. Then she takes us into the second bedroom where there was a desk & chair she said was mine. Jim & I looked at each other in puzzlement because neither one of us remembered them. I asked Akiko if she was sure they were mine and she said yes. So we loaded the stuff up and hightailed it outta there. On the way home we discussed the desk and tried to rack our brains and figure out whose it was. Jim said it was pretty sad that we couldn't remember something from three years ago.

Saturday at about 5:00 we decided to go down to Main Street as there was a Harley Davidson deal going on and Jim was antsy. So we get down there, park the car and start walking up Main Street where they had the streets blocked off for pedestrians only. There were a lot of bikers there, a stage with a band set up & drink carts on the sidewalks. Jim commented that it was like we were back in New Orleans but it wasn't even close! Most of the shops weren't even open. We don't get it. Wouldn't you think they'd want to make money? It amazes me that whenever we go down there, the shops are never open. I guess they have banker's hours. Anyway, we stuck out like a sore thump as we weren't dressed properly so we didn't stay long.

Sunday we did stuff around the house & yard. Jim power-washed the house because there was mold growing on the side. I painted the outside of the doors going out onto the deck because there was bare wood where spots had pealed. Unfortunately, I had taken a shower in the morning before going to Home Depot & Dierbergs and I got all sweaty outside from working & barbecuing so I had to take another shower before dinner. After we ate, we went back outside for some reason or another and I began doing some weeding and started getting sweaty again so I told Jim that I had to go inside because I refused to take 3 showers in one day! The weekend rounded out with me relaxing while Jim took Meagan back to college. Not a rip-roaring weekend, but very nice & quiet for a change. I just wish we could remember where that darn desk came from!

Labor Day Weekend

Jim & I, Ron & Janet met the Smith family in Bloomington, IN for the weekend and I was going to write a big long story about our adventurous Labor Day holiday but decided to just point out a few observations instead.

1. Jim can be a real bullhead, so it's not just us Zimmermanns.
2. Janet would sometimes like to smack the sh-- out of Jim.
3. Devon is now taller than me even when I have my shoes on and she's barefoot.
4. Ronnie gets a good breakfast, when Ronnie wants a good breakfast.
5. Joyce is a loyal sister who will defend me to the end.
6. Madison is still shorter than me, but her legs are just as long as mine.
7. Scott is a funny, funny guy.
And finally,
8. I'm not a very good co-captain.

My "Girlie" Room

The scrapbook room is finished and Debbie came over last night for the big reveal and she loved it! Jim did a good job in taking the temporary wall down and he even surprised me (at Barb's suggestion) while I was gone for the weekend by taking the extra door out. I figure I spent around $300 for all the accessories, storage items, table, chair, lamps & window coverings. We already had the furniture & shelving units. Oh, make that $350 because I bought an Ott light yesterday. Thanks Barb, for all your help!

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.