Yesterday's good deed:
Last night at the grocery after I paid for my things I saw a neighbor and said hello. He's the husband of Fern's Girl Scout troop leader. (He's also the local rock star, but that's another story.) After a brief exchange I learn he's got over $100 of groceries in his cart and no wallet in his pocket. (He forgot he had replaced his wallet with a screwdriver earlier in the day while working in the house.) So I whip out my checkbook and make out another check to the store.

If you're counting, that's three money-related good deeds I've done in the last couple of weeks. What have you done?

Keyboard test: pop off all the keys on your keyboard and clean under there. (Yuck!) Now, put them back. Do you know where they all go? Did you lose any under your chair? I did OK except those four below the shift key on the right side. And my space key still sticks. ARG!

I drive a minivan. Am I automatically a "soccer mom?" Someone referred to me as one and I balked at the idea. My kids don't play soccer, therefore I'm not a soccer mom, Right?

Today I spent a lot of money on a new sewing machine. No, sorry, scratch that. It's not a sewing machine, the owner's manual calls it a "sewing computer." (Did not come with a sewing mouse, in case you wanted to know.) And another thing, it wasn't new, it was experienced. I was able to get a medium-end used machine for a better price than that of the next lower model brand new.

Experienced. I get a chuckle out of that word. I guess it's the new word for "used." One of the golf mentors at work has a bag of experienced golf balls available for us novices to use. Do they perform better than inexperienced balls?

What other "experienced" things have you experienced?

I, like other bloggers, have a list of other blogs I check and read on a regular basis. I must be caught in a time warp because many of my favorites haven't had new posts in a long time. Where is everybody? Don't tell me I missed the airline sale to someplace warm and sunny. Dernit.

Do you want the good news first or the bad?

The good news is I had a nice birthday on Thursday. CG and my husband conspired about tickets to Movin' Out. He got a pair for Fern and me and CG bought a pair for her daughter and her. The four of us should have a great time. I also got earrings (two pair), mall a gift card, books (all three of a trilogy) and rachet wrenches. Nice haul. Dinner was great, crab legs, yum. Pleasant evening.


The bad news is Petey died last night. Fern's first parakeet. We're not sure what he died of, but the pet shop owner said he had some kind of face mite. I don't if there were other factors or not. He was strong until the end flying around like crazy until yesterday. Rest in peace, Pete.

My dad is becoming a blogger. He's been taking photos most of his life and recently switched over to digital. I love to look at his work but since I don't get to visit that often I've been encouraging him to post them. When he has enough up I'm going to shop his work around. There is a lovely cafe/gallery in Annapolis in which he should show his work. It's far easier to give out a blog address to the cafe owner than to try to get Dad to bring over a portfolio.

Click over on "dad's photos" in the margin, or just click here. Enjoy!

I'm so stressed about the house I'm not sleeping well.

When the painters were here they moved everything to the centers of each room. This process unearthed loads of stuff. junk. debris. crap. The walls are so pretty now I don't want to just put the old stuff back exactly where it came from. I took probably a dozen things off the mantle before painting and now there is a vase and a pair of candlesticks. I don't want to put anything else back up there.

I spent the better part of the weekend putting the family room kitchen back in order. The hearth has been cleaned and vacuumed. I bought a new lamp for the top of the new bookshelf. We have an eight foot cookbook shelf in our kitchen. The painters put all the books and the other school papers that were up there in 3 large bins. Fern and I dusted the books off and put them back up. I purged the collection and marked a large box for give-away. All the loose recipes, school papers, IEP's and report cards are now arranged neatly in metal magazine files. You can actually get something without it falling on your head. When my husband came back from his trip, he just noticed the box of books in the hall.

I'm supposed to be working on a Christmas quilt, but I've lost my enthusiasm about it. This house has zapped the life out of me.

I'm noticing a new level of maturity in my autistic son. On Friday night I dropped him off at Xtreem Teens at the community center. This was not a Special Pop event (activities designed for people with disabilities), but one for regular kids. The activity was tie-dying a shirt and he said he wanted to go. He made it clear he didn't want me hanging around and he could be there in the group by himself.

Then later when I picked him up, I drove through McD's and got him some french fries. His sister asked him for one and he gave her one without complaint. And then another. I was stunned. He was sharing near-sacred fries with his sister?

wow.

Another shot of Times Square from last month.

Yesterday I found a bank check for $5500 on the sidewalk. Today I found a debit card on the floor in a hallway here at work. I knew both owners and their valuables have been returned.

Ever have days like these?

Wonder what I'll find tomorrow, maybe a large bag of $10's and $20's.....

Do you suffer from reality show depression? You know what I mean, you get hooked on a show, you're there every week, same time, same channel. The contestants dwindle to three or four people. Then they crown a winner and the next week at the usual time slot there is a huge void in your life. No show to tune in to. You get attached to these people, you love the way they dis their other house/tribe/team mates. They excel in challenges. You have them in the office pool. Then *poof* it's over.

I've been watching Project Runway, Bachelor Rome, Survivor, Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef.

What do you watch? Who are you rooting for? Why do the bimbos on Bachelor really care if this guy is a prince? Do British women have princess fixations, or is just us Americans since we don't have our own royality?

Dastardly halloween candy.

Rrrrrr.

I tried to get the gym here at work to start the "Maintain - Not Gain" program before Halloween, but "studies have shown if the program lasts too long it will lose participation." I told them that might be true, but people also need help with candy season. I don't over eat at Christmas and New Year's, just Halloween. I can pass on extra stuffing and pumpkin pie. I can pass on warm rolls and melting butter. I can pass on gravy made from scratch from turkey drippings. I have a hard time passing by an Almond Joy or Butterfinger.

Now I'm hungry.

Sheesh.

I got a new polarizer filter for my camera and this is my first shot with it. I love the depth of the blue you get with one.

These are the square milk cartons I wrote about. Weird, huh?

This was one of the shots I took throught the sun roof of CG's van driving down 7th Ave through Times/Duffy Squares.