Traveling companions

My daughter and her boyfriend, who now live in SC, spent the Christmas week in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. at his parent's house (temp 70 degrees). They drove down last Friday with the cat and dog in tow. She said it was a pretty uneventful trip. The dog is used to traveling by car and plane. The kitten isn't even one yr old yet, but he didn't seem to mind; after all - he had his best friend, the dog, with him. When they arrived they realized that the 2 older cats that already lived there, were out to kill the new arrivals that had invaded their territory. So, the whole family has spent the entire week keeping the older cats away from the kitten and dog. So far there has only been one major encounter and since "Mom" was able to intervene, the kitten survived.

One thing in the "newbies" favor: one of the older cats decided to climb atop an unstable stack of Christmas presents and all crashed to the floor, leaving the cat limping badly. A trip to the emergency vet ensued and the older cat had xrays where they discovered a bone had broken away from the joint. One cat down and out of commission for awhile.

Don't know how this story will end, since I believe my daughter is staying through New Year's day, but now "my grandkids"?? only have one adversary to deal with. Hopefully all will arrive home safely and intact.

. . . . to be continued.

Stress

So many things have happened in my life in the past 6 months, I can't even begin to explain.
So I won't. Explanations are not needed here; they can go on and on and tend to be very boring for the listener. I will say, though, that for all the stress my life has brought me, I've lost about 15 lbs. without even trying! That's part of the good news.

The bad news is, I chose to give up ALL my dogs - sold some, had one put to sleep and gave the rest away. This was not an easy decision, believe me! (hence the stress) The one I had put down was 14 yrs old and had major stomach problems: it was time. I'd had him since he was a puppy when I found him wandering the streets of Whiteland. He had a very good life with me, as did all my dogs.

More good news: After three months with no dogs - I've got 3 of my dogs back and may get one more back, eventually. I'm fine with this decision. I read once that a person who "hoards" animals was mentally unstable and that kind of scared me. Me, mentally unstable? Although, no one has ever said that to me, I began to think that maybe people did see me that way. Personally, I don't think I was hoarding dogs but I was living my life just to serve my dogs. It seemed like all I did was buy dog food and pay vet bills and clean up after them all. (In the past 15 months at any given time, I've had anywhere from 9 to 13 dogs.)
Overwhelmed? Yes. Crazy? I don't think so.
I just love animals and wish I could give all the homeless ones, a home.

He's just smiling

This is one of my 6 month old pups and everytime he does not want to go out or he gets into trouble and knows I'm gonna yell at him, he will roll over onto his back and look up at me with this face and "that grin". No other dog I've had has ever done this. I'm thinking, there were 5 pups in this litter and he is the only one that grins like that. The light from the camera makes his eyes glow and someone told me, "that dog looks possessed".

I know that pups lose their baby teeth usually between 4-7 months old and I wondered if these were his permanent or baby teeth. So I look into his mouth and lo-and-behold all his adult teeth are in, but the problem is - NONE of his baby teeth have fallen out yet! He has two complete sets of teeth, one behind the other, just like a shark. Poor thing, has eight K-9 teeth and he has trouble closing his mouth. None of the baby teeth seem to be very loose either. I'll give it another couple of weeks to see if they start coming out on their own, otherwise it'll be a trip to the vet. Meanwhile, I'll be living with my puppy that smiles.

A Trip To Spain

Had the pleasure of visiting Spain for 8 days in the mid 70’s. We stayed along the Costa del Sol in the city of Marbella (SW of Malaga). From the Mediterranean Sea shore we could just make out the Rock of Gibraltar. It was too cold to go swimming in the sea or the pool and looking back on my pictures most of us were wearing long sleeves or jackets. I’m thinking it was Sept. or Nov. that we were there. It was a company sponsored trip so there were about 15 couples and we all knew each other and two of the couples were our very best friends, which made the trip that much more special and enjoyable.

The shopping was very unique in the small towns. Due to the buildings and houses being very close together and the streets being so narrow, you couldn't tell a place of business from a residence until you opened the door! Where there were no sidewalks, the doors to the businesses and residences opened directly into the street. I, myself, opened several doors to residences until I figured out that the public should only go into the "open" doors. Usually the doors to restaurants and taverns remained open during the day and it was not unusual to see a donkey or two tethered right outside the door. Sometimes a donkey had to be pushed aside in order to enter an open door. A lot of the streets were cobblestone or broken bricks or packed earth and they were closed to motorized vehicles because of the walking tourist business. Donkeys, horses and bicycles were allowed.

Very few locals spoke English, and if they did it was very broken English and it was a hoot trying to negotiate a sale price on items of interest in these shops. At one point, on the way to the Alhambra Castle, we decided to stop at a very small town and look around. We all kind of went in different directions and I ended up by myself in a little ceramics shop. I found what I wanted and proceeded to pay for it. The two people in the shop could speak no English whatsoever and I spoke no Spanish. So I took out all my Spanish money and held it out to them and they picked out what they needed (or wanted)! I had no idea what any of the money meant or how much it was worth. I was treating it like “play money”. My husband had gone to the bank earlier in Marbella and exchanged US money for Spanish money, then gave me some. So if I got ripped off in this little town it was of my own stupidity. But thank god they didn’t take it all.

We had rented a small car to drive up the Sierra Nevada mountains to Granada, Spain to tour the Alhambra Palace - and by small car….I mean small car. We were only able to get 4 people in it (barely). The high mountain roads in this area were very narrow and scary. We laid on the horn every time we approached a curve and kept the horn going until we were on a straightaway again. Other drivers on the road were doing the same. There were very little, if any, guardrails on these curves and the drop offs were tremendous. We actually saw wrecked cars at the bottom of some of these drop offs and ravines. Anyhow, a few hours and several “heart attacks” later, we arrived at the Alhambra and it was a sight to behold. It’s huge and some of the columns and walls inside are hand carved with intricate detailing. It was beautiful.

Just a little history here:
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella lived here at the time Christopher Columbus cameto them in 1492 for permission and money to sail to the “new world”.

On the way back down the mountains, we stopped at another small town in the hopes of finding something to eat. We were starved but it seemed like the town was deserted! Drove around for awhile, knocked on a few doors and finally found a policeman who could barely speak English. We made it known that we were hungry. I won't go into detail, but this whole communication process was hysterical. Anyhow, the policeman kept saying fuutbal, fuutbal! He took us over to a small building with a locked door and knocked. A man hung out the upstairs window and the policeman speaking in rapid Spanish conversed with the man. The man upstairs kept shaking his head "no". Finally the policeman convinced him to come down and open up. We did not know what was happening; were we being arrested because we were hungry? We all went inside and discovered it was a small restaurant. It had been closed for the day, along with the entire town, because "football" was on TV. Evidently when football is on TV there, it's a holiday! The man and his wife reluctantly cooked us a meal and we were on our way.

We did a lot of sightseeing along the Costa del Sol in our small car and sometimes we’d be driving along and see a run down old castle out in a cow pasture. We’d park alongside the road, climb a fence and go check it out –with our cameras of course. Our entire group also went on a few organized tours of local castles, which was a lot of fun. I didn’t realize how many castles were in Spain, but I guess that’s what the rich land barons lived in back in the medieval times.

Another tour our group took was on a hydrofoil-boat from Marbella, Spain across the Straits of Gibraltar to Tangiers, Morocco in Northern Africa. For some reason, I declined this trip because a few others had said they were going to rent some horses and ride up into the hills for the day. Horses? Oh yeah, I’m there! I actually passed up a trip to N. Africa to ride a horse! I had a great day riding that horse, the weather was beautiful and at the time I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate to do . . . at that time! Looking back, I cannot for the life of me wonder why I chose a horse over a once in a lifetime trip to Africa. It was only a day trip – but still!!!

Plus, those that went to Tangiers got to ride camels!!!! OMG! I am stupid!

Bull fighting is big in Spain and being the animal lover that I am, I did not want to watch this sport. However, realizing what I had passed up in Tangier, I decided to go with the thought that I would watch it, loathe it and never again go to a bullfight, but I needed to see for myself what it was all about and how it was done. For all those animal lovers out there – Don’t Go!

I saw 7 bulls killed that day and it was not pleasant. They have a couple different ways to finish off the bull and I will not go into detail, it is too gruesome. Believe me, the bulls don’t stand a chance; it is a one-way ticket for them. After watching the first bull get killed the only thing I wanted to see was a matador get gored. It was on the last or next to last bull of the day and sure enough a matador was caught by one of the bulls horns and tossed up into the air several times before he ever touched ground again. OLE! That also was a gruesome and scary sight and the matador had to be carried off on a stretcher. But the bull? Oh yeah, he was killed. It wasn’t a fair fight.

Toward the end of our stay in Spain I went shopping with the intention of buying an oil painting from a local artist. The biggest shopping attractions for most of our group were leather products, silver and oil paintings. I had gone through many shops in the week we spent there and so far I hadn’t found any oil painting that said “buy me”, until the next to last day of our vacation. We happened upon a great little street that was full of artist displays and there was not one, but two paintings that I just HAD to have. One was of the faces of 4 older Tangier men wearing turbans, blended together through their beards. The other painting was of a gypsy mother and son sitting on a street curb looking desolate. Finally the artist came out to see if we needed help and he spoke perfect English. Come to find out, he’s from California and graduated from UCLA. Imagine that! So much for a local artist. We bought both paintings and learned that he had painted the mother & son and it hung in his own house for several years, but after a while it depressed him too much. His wife did the other painting and she has had showings in NYC. These oils were not framed and I had to roll them up and carry them home on the plane with me. The problem was the mother & son was 4’ x 4’, the Tangier men was somewhat smaller. It was a job making sure they weren’t destroyed on the trip home. I had them framed here at home and I still have both paintings today, and yes the mother and son are depressing, so I hang it for a year then take it down for a year.

Say what?

Well Duh……
(On September 17, 1994, Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995.) Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever,"
-- Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest .

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." --Mariah Carey




"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
-- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign .





"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body"
-- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky, basketball forward .




"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country"
--Mayor Marion Barry, Washington , DC .



"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers.
We are the president."
-- Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents.

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it." --A congressional candidate in Texas .

"Half this game is ninety percent mental."
--Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." --Al Gore, Vice President
and "We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur."

-- Al Gore, VP

"I love California . I practically grew up in Phoenix ." -- Dan Quayle

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need ?"
--Lee Iacocca

"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football.

A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."
--Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.

"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people."
-- Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instrutor .

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." -- Bill Clinton, President

"Traditionally, most of Australia 's imports come from overseas." --Keppel Enderbery

"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances." --Department of Social Services, Greenville , South Carolina

"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record." --Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman

Feeling smarter yet?

UFO ?

UFO Museum
Roswell, New Mexico

Although differences of opinion exist on the specifics, there is a tentative consensus among researchers that an extraterrestrial space vehicle crashed on a ranch located about 60 miles north of Roswell, New Mexico, during the time period July 2–4, 1947.

This is one of the most controversial UFO stories of our time. If you don't believe it, try researching Roswell, NM. or Area 51.

The following is a true story and my personal “close encounter”:

It was during the early 70’s, but let me make this perfectly clear - none of us drank alcohol, smoked or did drugs of any kind.

I've only seen one UFO in my life, so far, and to my credit the 5 people I was with, saw it too. It was in the early 70's, after midnight and somewhere in Utah, I think Utah but could've been NV or CO. Wherever it was, the country was flat and deserted desert land. Six of us were driving back to Indiana from Las Vegas and we had no hotel reservations anywhere. We all had decided to drive until we tire, then find a roadside motel for the night. For hours we had been traveling on a lonely (and I mean real lonely) stretch of highway. About every hour or so we might see a car going the opposite direction, but not once all night had anything passed us. That's about it. No houses. Trees were few and far between. No sign of civilization for miles and miles at a time. We could vaguely make out the silhouette of mountains in the far, far distance.

The car we were in was a Chrysler station wagon (two seats facing front, one seat facing back) and the couple in the seat facing the rear saw it first. They alerted the rest of us, including Jack, the driver who apparently had fallen asleep while driving because he hadn't seen anything.

The couple in the back seat said, "hey man, something is coming up on us really fast, we’ve been watching it for awhile, but now it’s getting closer and going faster". At which point we all turned to look behind us. Sure enough one huge light was approaching at an unusually fast speed. Because of the flatness of the land and highway we were able to watch even though it was still quite a distance away. That light was approaching at such a fast rate that we knew it would overtake us in a matter of minutes. We were all talking at once trying to figure this out and the consensus was that it must be a semi with a headlight out and he was haulin’ A! Jack had been traveling around 90 mph most of the night and it was unrealistic to think that anything could catch up with us unless we had stopped, which we had not. How could this “semi” possibly catch up with us?

Then as fast as it approached, it begin to retreat back the way it had come. It was almost out of sight, when it suddenly started moving forward again at an amazing speed. It came closer and closer and all we could see was this one bright light. The six of us were no longer talking, only watching. There really were no words to describe how we felt at that moment, and at no time did Jack slow down, he kept up the same pace, 90 mph. The light followed us along the roadway, but as it got closer to us the second time we could tell that the light was too high above the ground to be a semi or any vehicle that traveled the roads, for that matter. Then it did the reverse, again. It began to retreat away from us, as if it was moving backwards and we were the only ones moving forward. Now, however, as the light retreated in the distance behind us, it stayed at this higher level then it had the first time. It did the approach/retreat thing about 3 more times, then followed us steadily at a not to far distance for another 10 minutes, then disappeared completely.

We were shocked, stunned, bewildered – scared!

We did not report this. We weren’t sure of what we saw. There was no way to back up our story. But six people DID witness this occurrence, and I was one of them.

The Plan

Robin Williams wearing a shirt that says "I love! New York" in Arabic.

I believe the following originated sometime in 2003 by someone other than Robin Williams. The internet says it's urban legend and somehow Robin's name got attached to it, but it didn't come from him.

As I read this, I could imagine Robin Williams saying it, the way only he can, and it does sound like something he would create.

Either way, it's funny, interesting, controversial, stimulating, divisive and thought provoking.

He says:

"I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan."

1) The US will apologize to the world for our interference in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein and the rest of those 'good ole boys', we will never interfere again.

2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world starting with Germany, South Korea, the middle East, and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are. They're illegal!!! France will welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days, unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5) ) No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere." They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH...learn it...or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan?

"The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying

'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.'

She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling,

'you want a piece of me?' "

More castles and mansions

The Alhambra Palace

I had the privilege of going through several castles in southern Spain, the most notable being the Alhambra Palace in Granada (built between the 9th and 13th century, depending on your resources, and restored and updated in the 14th century). This castle is quite elaborately built, but the architect is unknown. The detailing of the ornamental mosaic inside the main building is quite remarkable and beautiful. The ornamented walls, archways and columns are really something to see. Also, within the building structures are courtyards, reflecting pool, gardens and fountains.

In 1492 the Alhambra became the home of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, who as you may recall, gave Christopher Columbus money and permission to sail to the new world.

Biltmore Estate

Another mansion/castle that I toured was a little closer to home in Asheville, NC. called the Biltmore Mansion on the Biltmore Estate. This was fun to go through because it was all furnished and was actually about 6-7 different levels because there are 2 basement levels. There is even a full size olympic swimming pool under the house. We were not allowed to tour the entire house, but what we did see was pretty grand. Then we drove a couple miles around the estate to the Biltmore winery and had a very social and relaxing wine tasting. The wine was really good.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Bavaria, Germany

One of the most photographed castles in the world is in the Bavarian Alps in Germany, built in 1869 by Kind Ludwig ll. Neuschwanstein Castle served as the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. Neuschwanstein appears prominently in television and several films.

My sister and her husband visited Bavaria, Germany many years ago and was able to photograph this castle from afar.

I have never visited this castle, nor have I ever been to Germany, but maybe someday. . . . .

The Count's Castle

Bran Castle in Transylvania

This castle is for sale.

An heir of Romania's former royal family put "Dracula's Castle" in Transylvania up for sale Monday, hoping to secure a buyer who will respect "the property and its history," a U.S.-based investment company said.

For all you horror movie buffs, here's your chance. This castle supposedly belonged to Prince Vlad the Impaler, better known as Count Dracula. However, several articles about it say that Vlad only slept here once.

Bran Castle was built in the 14th century on a cliff near Brasov in Romania.

Now, if only I had the money . . . . . . .

Cloned meat

I received the following in an email today and I don't think I agree with it. Do you?

"The big meat companies of the Midwest

is now trying to join the FDA so that they can

sell their cloned meat (beef, pork, chicken, etc.)

and not have to use the word cloned on the

label or ingredients’ list.

This is real scary because we do not know the effects

this will have on us,
our children, or our children’s children.

The FDA is one of the most corrupt institutions this
country has today."

They left off one major aspect of their "opinion" - the facts. Some facts. Any facts. One fact of how this cloned meat could hurt us. I need facts. Maybe the information is out there and I haven't read enough to find these "facts". For all I know (and the public as well) I could already be eating cloned meat. If the FDA is so corrupt, why should I believe that they are stopping cloned meat from being processed.
Someone please tell me why cloned meat would be any different than the original animal meat.

I believe there is some corruption in almost any organization - big or small. If you don't believe that then you are blind, my friend. And unless I have some facts, I say "what's wrong with eating cloned meat?"

And that's MY opinion! Prove me wrong.

The Preakness

Just had to post this for us horse lovers. June 9, 2007, the third leg of the Triple Crown, The Preakness, was run and although there will be no Triple Crown winner this year . . . . the Preakness was won by a filly named Rags-To-Riches. It is the first time in 102 years that a filly has won this race. The Preakness is 1 1/2 miles and that's a grueling distance for a 3 year old, especially a filly, but her trainer says this filly can gallop all day with little effort. She didn't run in the other 2 legs of the Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby and The Belmont). If she had, could we possibly have had a Triple Crown winner? We'll never know.

I watched the race on TV and when the gates opened for the 7 horses running, this filly who was number 7 and on the outside, literally stumbled out of the gate. At that moment, I thought she was done for. How could she recover from that stumble against these 3 year old colts? Well, she did. Coming into the home stretch she moved right up to the front and it was a 4-way tie for a few seconds. Then the favorite, Curlin, ran away from the pack and headed for home. Rags was right behind him and the 2 of them dueled for the lead, with Rags gaining on him the closer they got to the finish line. I had goose bumps and was yelling at the TV. I wanted her to win so bad, and she did.!!! You would have thought I was the owner. Heck, I didn't even know they were running a filly until I turned on the TV. After they crossed the finish line, the camera panned back and you could see that Curlin and Rags were WAY ahead of the rest of the pack.

So here's a tribute to the big filly that did it. Congratulations.

I'm glad I didn't miss this race. It was thrilling.

New York City

My daughter and I decided to "do" NYC in July 2005. We coordinated our flights - hers from Florida, mine from Indiana - and we met up at La Guardia. I arrived first on my flight (can't remember what airlines) she was arriving an hour later at the terminal next to mine. So I got my luggage and walked to her terminal to meet up with her then we took a cab to our hotel. My daughter had made reservations over the internet and not knowing anything about NYC she could only go by maps and what she read. The taxi took us to the Red Roof Inn in "Little Korea". Oh my! We weren't sure about this when we arrived, but it worked out very well and the hotel was nice. We were only about 2 blocks from Macy's and wouldn't you know it, in the 4 days we were there, we visited Macy's at least 5 times.

On Saturday night we went to Little Italy and they were having some sort of festival, but we later learned that they did this every Saturday night in the summer - they closed off the streets to cars and allowed pedestrians only. All the restaurants and shops utilized this street space to expand their business for the night. We stopped at a little pizza place and sat at a table in the street and watched the crowds and believe me, it was very crowded. We weren't in a buying mood, but when I passed this little T-shirt shop I had to get this shirt that said "fuggedaboudit". Hey! I was in Little Italy NYC where they filmed parts of the Sopranos and I had to have this shirt. OK? Then my daughter (who watches the Sopranos - I don't) wanted to find some building or something that she knew was on the show and it was right here in Little Italy. Well, we left the crowds behind and started walking further into the Little Italy territory. She had us walking down some pretty deserted streets and it was around 10 or 11 p.m. I am very surprised we didn't get mugged - or worse. Finally we came to a street that actually had some traffic and I hailed a cab. I just wanted to fuggedaboudit and get the heck outta there.

While we were in NYC we visited some dinosaur museum and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, St Patricks Cathedral, Statue of Liberty, took a carriage ride in Central Park, then walked through Central Park, saw the apartment building where John Lennon lived and was killed, went by the Trump Tower, Madison Square Garden, Times Square, visited the World Trade Center Memorial and saw the huge hole in the ground where they stood. Went to the SoHo area one afternoon and had lunch outside. Rode the subway numerous times, even bought a 3-day pass, because we knew we would use it & it was good for the bus, too. We made at least 3 trips to the Empire State Building but it was so crowded and the lines were so long each time, we decided to come back later; we never did go up to the top of that building, but we tried! We never went to a Broadway Play or even an off Broadway Play.

I have NEVER walked so much in a 4-day period as I did when we went to NYC. My daughter did not believe in slowing down for anything. Consequently, when I got back home one of my toenails had turned black and the toes on my other foot were numb for about a week. Seriously! I kept complaining about my feet the whole time were were in NYC, but it did no good, it only made my daughter mad that I complained so much. The last day we were there, we "needed" (yeah right, needed) to go to Macy's one more time and I said I cannot walk another step. So when we got out to the street I hailed a cab, we got in and I said take us to Macy's.

The cab driver told us, "Get out! Macy's is just around the corner! You can walk!"

How rude.

The last night we were there we decided to splurge a little. I looked in the phone book for restaurants that were in the Park Ave area. I wanted to dine like the rich people. We decided on Vong Restaurant which specialized in Taiwan food. When the cab took us there he stopped at what looked like an office building with no lights inside or out. He insisted that this was the Vong Restaurant. There was some small lights by the door, so I thought if this wasn't it we were close enough to a main street that we could get another cab outta here. We went in and had the best meal of our lives. The restaurant was very upscale (and expensive) and our waiter was fantastic and also said that celebrities often dined here because it was secluded. Both my daughter and I had our cameras with us and our waiter took our pictures . . . . . See above.

Not too much went wrong as in my other vacations (except my feet) and we really had a good time in spite of my constant complaining. My daughter is a fun person to be with. She absolutely loved NYC and would like to live there someday. Not me!

It's a nice place to visit, but. . . . .

Doggone Good Vacation

If anyone is a Dye-hard golf nut, I'm sure you've heard of Pete Dye. He has designed golf courses all over the world, and is quite famous for doing so. This story is not about golf.
I hate golf. This story is about his son Perry Dye, kinda....

Perry Dye's dad (Pete, remember) owned a very large house (small mansion) on Lake Maxinkuckee in Northern Indiana, home of the famous Culver Military Academy. Perry worked with my first husband selling real estate and although we were not that close to Perry, we did socialize with him and his wife occasionally. Perry was having a big 4th of July blow-out at his dad's house in Culver and had invited us, along with about 10-12 other couples, up there for a 4-day weekend. Great! Not only did Perry invite a lot of people for the long weekend, he told everyone to also bring their DOGS! What? Dogs? I had to call Perry on this one.

"Perry, gosh, I have 3 dogs and I don't know which one to bring, and then I'd have to have someone watch the other two while I was gone. So, I'll just not bring my dogs, ok?"
Perry was having none of this: "Bring 'em all," he told me, "everybody's bringing their dogs."

On the way up there we were wondering how many dog fights we'd have to contend with and is anyone going to be able to walk barefoot along the beach? I mean, really! That's a lot of dog poop. We arrived in the afternoon, most of the others did too, and Perry was assessing the dog situation and who got what bedrooms. There were about 7-8 bedrooms in the house (scratching my head, trying to remember back that far) and only 2 or 3 bathrooms, if I remember correctly, but that never seemed to be a problem the entire weekend.

I had the most dogs, a few couples had 2 dogs - most had just 1 dog, so my husband and I got a downstairs bedroom all to ourselves. Some of the other couples had to share. To say that the first day there was utter chaos is an understatement. We had dogs running everywhere, barking, sniffing, jumping and doing what dogs do. By the end of that first day we decided that it would be ridiculous to try to leash these dogs or tie them up away from each other so the general consensus was to.....let 'em go. We wanted to enjoy our weekend and not have to worry about walking dogs or where to put them all. This was gonna be interesting to say the least.

In the kitchen, Perry had designed a huge poster that hung on the wall. This poster had every meal listed - 3 meals a day for 4 days - and names were assigned to each meal as to who would cook that meal and who would clean up afterwards. He also had other duties for each day including "pooper scooper" duties and planned activities. The second day was to be a hog roast and the last day was going to be a dog show. He had thought of everything. He gave every couple 2 brand new white beach towels with the Steak 'n Shake logo, that his dad got for free (it's all in who you know, folks). I still have one of those beach towels and I forbid anyone to use it. Don't know what happened to the other.

By the second day, everyone was getting used to the "open door policy" that we had established the first day, after all it was July and really hot out. All doors were to remain open at all times so that the dogs could come and go at will. Even though the house was owned by a rich famous guy, there was no A/C - just fans. Believe it or not there were no dog fights and we had all sizes and breeds of dogs. Those listed on the roster to prepare the hog roast were out early in the morning; they dug a hole in the back yard close to the beach and that's where they were gonna roast the hog. It cooked all day and smelled so good. By evening everybodys mouth was watering. I was neither listed to cook nor clean that day, so my day was spent out on the dock and the beach soaking in the rays, and drinking. I had more comments on my dogs then anyone else because they followed me everywhere. They literally would not let me out of their sight at anytime. I would go to the end of the dock, jump off, swim out a ways and when I looked back there were 3 little poodles swimming single file after me. People on the dock were pointing and laughing. When everyone else went swimming, their dogs just lay there and waited for them to return. Not mine! Someone had brought a bloodhound named John Henry and at any given time of the day or night, you would find John Henry asleep on the couch in the living room in front of the fan; probably the smartest dog there. Anytime anyone would walk through the living room they'd say (in a low deep voice) "John Henry" and would be lucky if they could get him to open even one eye. We were all amazed at how well behaved the 15 (or so) dogs were and how they stayed close to home. They could have taken off down the beach, but none did.
The hog roast was a success. Absolutely delicious. After that huge meal we all just sat around in little groups and talked, drank, played cards, reminisced about the weekend so far, passed out or just went to bed.

I was one of the first ones to awake on the morning after the hog roast. My shriek brought almost everyone immediately to the kitchen. Words cannot describe what disaster had struck!
Not only were there dog prints on top of the counters and tables, but the refrigerator was open and everything that HAD been in the fridge or on the counter was now gone - eaten! The kitchen was in such disarray that you could not walk safely through it. The floor was greasy and slippery. There were sacks, bags, dishes & containers - all on the floor and all empty. Even the leftover roasted hog, which was going to be a meal for this day - gone! I guess that's what we get for drinking & eating too much and sleeping so soundly. The dogs had a heyday in there and no one heard them! It must have been "John Henry" (the smart one) that opened the refrigerator door. So he really could move off that couch if he wanted to....hmmm. Again I must say, words could not describe it. You just had to be there. It took all morning to get that kitchen back in order, while the dogs slept it off. As we were cleaning up we were thinking about revoking the open door policy but then decided - what the heck! The damage had been done and there's only one day left, forget it.

The last day we all were exhausted, to say the least. So the dog show was a half-hearted effort, but fun just the same. Most of us lounged around the beach and generally relaxed. My husband took off for home the day before (which is a whole other unpleasant story) so I rode back with some friends.
All in all it was one of the most fun vacations I'd ever had. And if Perry ever reads this, I'm sorry but I forgot your wife's name. I think it was either Ann or Susy. It was so long ago.

Hawaii

Talking to Golden Horse has brought back memories of my Hawaiian vacation in the 70's. My first husband was a realtor with one of the big realty companies of Indiana and they had a competition each year to win a free trip. The competition was to sell $1million of real estate each year. That's not much by today's standards, but this was the 70's and only a few realtors were able to achieve this goal. We lived in Carmel, IN at the time and that's when Carmel was the big boom town of the state, if not the whole US. This particular year the free trip was to Hawaii because that's where the National Real Estate Convention was held that year. (Each year it's held in a different place.) We were lucky because our best friend Dick worked for the same realtor and he also won the trip. Yea! Dick and Micky would be going with us. We flew over on a 747 and it seemed like THE longest flight.

(Just a note: the entire 7 days that all 4 of us were there, we suffered jet lag BIG TIME and it didn't seem to bother anyone else from Indiana we were up by 6:00 am and ready for bed by 9:00 pm. We tried, we really tried to break that schedule but couldn't.)

There were other couples from the same realty company that were along on the trip plus the plane was packed with realtors from different companies. I think the entire flight took 12 hrs. with a brief stop over in San Francisco. When we arrived at our hotel we were really tired, but walking through the lobby we saw a bar that was partially opened to the outside. So before we took our suitcases up, we decided to stop in and have a mai tai. The waiter said they would not serve more then 2 mai tai's in one sitting. No problem. We just wanted to try one before going to our room. An hour later, after 1 mai tai each, we could barely stand, let alone walk. Pretty much had to hold on to one another to get to the elevator. I don't know if it was the sea air, the long flight, the excitement of being in Hawaii or what, but I don't think any of us had another mai tai for several days. Our hotel was right across the street from Waikiki Beach, so the next day we spent at the beach and doing a little shopping that was right next to our hotel and took in a movie in which we all promptly fell asleep.
This was our first mistake:
We waited until 2 days after we arrived before we decided to rent a car. The men took off right after breakfast and us girls stayed pool side. The men didn't return until early afternoon with a little good news and a little bad news. The bad news was...there was a real estate convention with about 20,000 realtors in town! There were no more rental cars! They had to go all the way into Honolulu where they finally found a dune buggy for rent. Yes, we drove around in a dune buggy for a week. I've got pictures! The good news was we had a dune buggy! How fun would this be to tool around the island with such a fun car. Oh yeah. The next day we went sightseeing. Just took off driving and stopped for anything we saw that looked interesting. Took pictures and were on our way again. We weren't gone too long when we came to this lookout point high above the ocean. I think it was near Diamondhead, at least we were headed in that direction. Little did we know at the time that we wouldn't make it as far as Diamondhead that day. We parked at the lookout, beside a bunch of other cars and made our way to the edge. It was breathtaking. We stayed there quite awhile just taking it all in and taking pictures, too. Finally we headed back to our dune buggy, when we realized .......
we had made our 2nd big mistake.
Our purses had been stolen! If you know anything about dune buggys, you gotta know the doors don't open (at least not on this one) you have to climb over and there is no top and no side or back windows, only bars. So of course our purses were stolen! Somehow we got the police to come out, finally, and after we told them our story, their first words were, "more stupid tourists", which made Micky mad. She didn't care about the money, she wanted her kids pictures back! I didn't much care about the money either, I had travelers checks and very little cash, but I felt so shocked and violated that someone would actually steal our purses. We were all SO naive. We had to go to ..... you guessed it: Hawaii 5-O to fill out a police report.

The next day we just wanted to go to a beach with no crowds. We drove for quite awhile and found a beach with beach house and only a few cars parked in the lot. Us girls already had on our suits, so we headed to the ocean, the men went in to change. Micky and I sat right at the edge of the water with just our feet and legs in. There was a guy several yards from us setting up a tripod right at the edge of the water. It was so nice to just sit and relax after our harrowing experience from the day before. When out of nowhere this huge wave came up and towered over us then crashed to the ground right on top of us, smashing us to the sand. I had never seen a wave go big (9'-10') come up right to the edge before crashing. The undertow was tremendous and drug us into the ocean for several feet. Finally we gained control and were able to stand (barely) and make our way to shore, coughing and sputtering, our suits were weighted down with sand. The guy with the tripod? He was ok, but the tripod was destroyed. Speechless, Micky and I retreated back to some picnic tables and waited for the guys. We saw one more of those waves come in before the guys showed up and we could see the enormous amount of sand in those waves and realized we were lucky to be alive. When they came out, they were all smiling and ready to go for a swim. Dick yelled out that he saw this sign over by the cars that said this beach was for locals only. No tourist allowed. Then before we could say anything they head right to the edge of the water almost exactly where we had been sitting and we yelled out for them to not sit there that the waves were too big. Dick just said all the waves in Hawaii are big and they were laughing and talking as the next wave crashed to shore. When we could once again see them out in the water they were yelling for a towel. A towel? It seems the wave had ripped the swim trunks right off my husband. We had made our.....
3rd mistake, going to a beach for locals only.

The next night our company's famed leader, who was staying in a suite at the top of the Rainbow Towers right on Waikiki Beach had invited all of us (about 30) to his suite for a cocktail party. We had spent the day at another windy beach and watched surfers all day. To say that our hair was full of sand and windblown was an understatement. We were sunburned, windburned and sand encrusted. We lost track of time and were late getting back to our hotel. We still had to bathe, wash hair, dress in long formal gowns, and call a taxi or limo to take us to the Rainbow Towers. Back then it was a very plush and ritzy place. Which brings us to our.....
4th mistake...getting back too late to reserve a taxi or limo. Did we forget that there are 20,000 realtors on Oahu? There were no available taxi's or limos. We had to take the buggy.
Have you ever tried to climb into or out of a dune buggy in a long gown and high heels? Well it ain't a pretty sight! The most embarrassing thing was being in line with all the limos and fancy cars and having to climb out of that buggy so the valet could park it for you. We made it to the party stayed a short while and then had to leave because it was past our bedtime!!!

One night we were just strolling down the sidewalk in the Waikiki area along with hundreds of other tourists and I just happened to glance out of the corner of my eye and thought I recognized someone. I did a double take and sure enough it was my dad. He was doing the same thing to me and we caught each others eye. It was too weird for words, because I had not seen my dad in probably 5-6 years and then to run into him in Hawaii. Too weird. He was on his honeymoon with wife #5.
The rest of the vacation consisted mostly of shopping, pool side and the beach across the street.

Forgot to mention that about 3 days after our purses were stolen, Hawaii 5-0 called to say they had our purses sans money of course. Seems the thief had stuck our purses in a mail box. Micky's pictures were intact. She was happy.

For me, Hawaii was quite an adventure, and I wouldn't have done it any other way, mistakes and all.

puppies on the way

My poodle is in labor. It started early this morning, so I'll probably be busy all day. When she had her first litter, just a mere 6 months ago, I had to hold her hand (paw) the whole time (she's spoiled and she was scared). I didn't plan on her having any more pups, at least not this soon. It was an accident and I didn't realize she was in heat again already, waited too long to get the male fixed. These pups are purebred AKC with a championship pedigree. I still have 2 pups left from the first litter. If you know of anyone who would like a black minature poodle, please let me know. I am overrun with dogs. I have 6 now and who knows how many more are on their way.

Memories

Remember drive-in movies? Does anyone remember the drive-in on St Rd 135 just N of Smith Valley Rd and the Greenwood drive-in on Hwy 31 just S of Smith Valley Rd?

Memories.....
I had just bought my first car, a red Corvair (remember Corvairs), and my sister and I went to the Meridian drive-in to see "Psycho". It was a warm summer night so we had our windows rolled down. At one point in the movie (can't remember which point - must have old-timers disease), my sister and I both jumped at the same time and the drink my sister had in her hand (which was full) went flying out the window crashing to the ground with a big splash. What a reaction! I laughed at her so hard I almost peed my pants. Of course this kept her from realizing that I had just about jumped through the window myself. I cannot remember the rest of that night or if we even stayed for the second movie, if there was one, but I'll never forget that drink going out the window.

Speaking of cars (and memories) does anyone remember Mr. Larry Cline the basketball coach?
Whatever happened to him? Anyhow, he was my driver's ed. teacher in summer school and I think I was the only one he ever yelled at while driving. That fall when school resumed one of the teachers had us write a paper on what we did over summer break. One girl, and I won't mention any names, but her initials were BB, wrote her whole paper about me in driver's ed class. She changed my name (slightly) to protect my innocence, but everyone in class knew it was me and I was so embarrassed. Evidently BB didn't change my name good enough, but I had no hard feelings. It is something I laugh about even today. Does anyone remember that? Did anyone else ever have Mr. Cline for driver's ed?