A Piece of The Pie

A friend of mine, Joe, recently did a blog about how sexy Tupperware was. I thought the bowls were really nice that he showed on his blog, but imagine my surprise when I went to the Tupperware site and found the above items. Let me say I love them to and if anyone wants to buy these towels and things and send them to me I'd love you forever. However that isn't expected. I just thought they were a great addition to the Tupperware line. It did lead me to thinking though. Companies that use to specialize in products are now expanding. It seems like they all want a piece of the "American" pie. Or perhaps it is that in order to survive they have to cater to the "One-Stop" shopping theory. I believe I have mentioned this theory once before. Companies are finding that to keep customers coming back they have to more and more offer variety and quality.

Now when I say everyone is doing it I mean everyone. These items on the left are a few of the things you can now find when shopping with Avon. There are some Avon products I dearly love. For instance the NATURALS collection of lotions and body sprays, especially "Cucumber & Melon" or "Banana & Coconut" scented lotions. Now in case you are wondering, no you can't buy the dog with Avon, but you can however buy a variety of pet products including the rain jacket this dog is wearing. Avon also has a complete set of bowls and a variety of gifts, footwear and health care products. OH, yes they do also sell Bibles.

To top off competing with multiple products you can also order these products on-line and have them shipped to your door if you do not wish to host a party or go to your local Avon dealer. My Avon lady I liked moved to Florida, but I simply go to her web site and I still use her today. I tried local ladies, but none of them measured up. So technology and time have come together to give you more and to get it to you more easily. Don't be surprised to hear that Tupperware is selling a clothes line some day. I know I wouldn't be surprised at all. You can check Avon out at http://www.avon.com/ and you can check Tupperware out at http://order.tupperware.com/coe/app/home.

Pretzel People & Bath Room Stalls?

Great pretzel batman! I think I'm stuck. Sound familiar at all? I mean I don't know anything about men's bathrooms, but I think most women out there can tell you that the women's restrooms leave a lot to be desired for most part. Most of the time you go into a bathroom at a store or gas station and you have to be a contortionist to get in and out. I mean who designed these things? A lot of them you have to straddle the toilet to get the door open or closed. To say the least it is not the most graceful thing to do. And guys so you know women have a lot more worries in the rest room then you could imagine. I mean we all carry purses and most of the time there is no place to put that. For fear of germs we don't sit on the commode so if there are no seat covers we have to hover in air to get the job done. So try to get a visual here guys. After fighting our way into a stall and praying it has a lock on the door that works we have to put the purse around our necks then hover in the air. Then when done straddle that seat long enough to get the door open and try to make a graceful exit. What a vision of loveliness don't you think? Great news ladies! If you haven't been to the new Walmarts on Lima & DuPont I highly recommend it for lots of reasons. I mean not only is it a pleasant atmosphere with lots of room everywhere, but the person who designed the bathroom actually had a brain. Yes no more contortionist acts. Can you imagine my glee as I walked in there and found there was room for everything. A place to put the purse, seat covers and a door that you can open with plenty of room! I know I was so excited I almost peed my pants. Thankfully I was in the right place. I guess the simplest of things impress me, but it really was a vision of loveliness. Sigh.. Check it out.

The Rite Drink for Me...

So if like most people you are watching your sugar, sodium, carbs and everything else then you can sit back and be happy that there is something you can get use to drinking, enjoy and per my doctor drink as much of it as you want without incurring any harm. That is unless you shake the bottle and point it towards your eye to remove the cap as in the bottle label warning. Do people really do that? They have a variety of flavors. Red Raspberry is my favorite! And I say getting use to because almost everything we eat and drink in life requires that we acquire a taste for it. I remember when I decided I wanted to get rid of all that sugar from regular pop and drink diet. That was way back in 1985 and 1986. Yes a whole year for me to get use to the flavor of a soda I dearly love now. Diet Pepsi. Of course Diet Pepsi causes me gestation problems so I have to settle for Diet Coke. I like it to though so it really isn't that hard. I would take a sixteen ounce bottle back then and nurse the bottle from sunrise to sunset. I would sneak a regular one every now and again. But I finally got to where I loved it. Same was true of coffee. I use to hate coffee, but one winter I worked at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo and it got really cold out and the only hot liquid was coffee. By the end of that winter I loved loved loved coffee. Anyway... next time you're in the store why not stock up on a little Diet Rite soda and let me know what you think.

*Christmas 2004*

OK, so today was an extremely stressful day for me. So I came home and started looking through old photo's and playing with my photo editing software that my friend Joe recommended to me. While looking through my photo's I came across this photograph I took the week of Christmas in 2004. I remember this well. I was wondering what the heck was going on. You see where I live we don't get semi trucks and we definitely don't get them with truck beds on them. So I watched this poor guy out there for quiet a while. I wasn't sure at first exactly what he was doing. He had a tank shirt on like you'd wear in summer and he was out running from front to back of his truck. That winter it was extremely cold and as you can see it did snow. So finally I went out to talk to this poor guy. Seems he was from sunny California and he had taken this load at the last minute for someone to make some extra holiday cash. He had never been to Indiana or for that matter anywhere in this region and he had no idea it would be cold. He had not brought anything with him but short sleeves. He had actually gotten lost and turned onto our street by mistake. Then trying to take the corner where my house sits, you guessed it he got stuck in snow and couldn't get the truck out. This guy was out there with a book trying to shovel snow away from the tires. He didn't have a shovel. I didn't stay out long a few of my male neighbors came out with shovels and a jacket for the guy and tried to help get him out. He ended up having to call his company though and get professional help at getting out of this predicament. I wasn't worried. I have a huge yard so he wasn't near my house, but I felt extremely bad for this guy. Moral of this story is simply that I was thinking my day was bad. Can you imagine being this guy? Guess I'll say thank you for my blessings and when things don't quiet go my way I'll try to remember they could always be worse.

Extremely Loud Music - Doesn't make you Cool!

OK, so after getting side tracked and going to Home Depot to buy a rug that I got a sudden compulsion to go buy, I stopped in at Meijers North to buy a couple of items for my mother. Coming out of the store I'm immediately aware of this blaring music. I mean it sounded like I was standing with my ear against a speaker. I absolutely hate when people do that. What on this green earth would make anyone think that everyone wants to hear their freaking music as much as they do? Now I would have understood if it had just been loud enough to hear and make out, but this was extremely loud and annoying and let me tell you it was not good music! To top it off the person blaring this music was a man who looked like he was probably pushing sixty. Not that age is a bad thing I'm no spring chicken, but you at least usually expect this behavior out of adolescent children that somehow under some misguided notion thinks this loud music makes them cool. Let me see if I can address that. It doesn't make one look cool. It simply cuts down on the life of your hearing abilities, annoys people around you, makes you look like a complete idiot and I'm guessing cuts down on the life of your speakers. But please if someone has a compelling reason why I should be able to hear your music when you are at least three rows out at the front door of Meijers and feel pain because it's so loud. Please feel free to enlighten me. After all it's only my opinion.

When It Rains, It Pours...

So is it just me or has anyone else noticed that when something goes wrong, it happens in three's? I mean normally if the washer breaks, a couple of other events follow shortly there after. Then there are days that are just "those" type of days. Now I'm not having one of those yet, knock on wood, however, a friend of mine is it appears. His clutch went out on his car which for him is going to be a costly endeavor and probably an aggrevating one. What it did for me though was send me back in time to a memory of a day where I got a call from this same friend. A memory probably twelve to fifteen years old. It was a day when yet another car had a problem and he needed assistance. I remember the location where I went to get him. It was out past Saint Joe Hospital. I believe the car was blue, but I couldn't swear to that. The memory is faint, but obviously it wanted to be remembered. Mostly I just want him to realize that after the rain the sun always comes out. Perhaps this is an opportunity rather than a problem. He always did like buying cars. Either way, I know when it rains it seems to pour, but for me it brought back a memory of times gone by and perhaps ones yet to come.

Another One Bites the Dust? Uh, Economy That Is

Ok.. so last Saturday my parents wanted to go to Ponderosa to eat. Not really my favorite place but they seemed to enjoy it so I agreed. We get there and there is the not so unfamiliar sign on the door advising us that they are closed for business.

Now this lovely sign informs us that they are grateful for our patronage over the years and they would appreciate it if we would visit their Auburn location. I'm thinking not with these gas prices. (Although I did see gas for under $4 a gallon today). Unfortunately the Coliseum business world is not really doing that well these days.

It hasn't been that long ago that another familiar restaurant Don Pablos also closed it's doors.
It's almost heart wrenching to see the weeds growing up, the grounds unkept and a once vibrant restaurant empty and giving way to decay.

Restaurants are not the only ones suffering from this less than wonderful economy that we have going. I know, can you believe it after President Bush telling us over and over how wonderful our economy is he finally admitted that wait, stop the presses, it may not be that wonderful. I say go figure.

The building above use to be a very nice hobby shop (when people could afford hobbies) that my nephew and my brother loved to go into. Now it's sat empty for months with few if any reminders that the layouts inside once thrilled children and adults alike.

And who could forget about K's Merchandise? I loved going in that store. It gave people like me who didn't love going to the mall a store we could go to and get a mall flavor without all the hassle of going from store to store. A lot of what they had can't even be found in the mall. It was refreshing, but in this modern day of I need to make one stop, it just couldn't compete.

Now I understand that coliseum business's are not the only ones hurting. The economy is less than wonderful everywhere. This is why I believe this election coming up is an extremely important one. We can not afford another four years of the economy heading in the same direction. I will not preach my politics though or try to persuade you to vote my way. I would only ask that you research history of economics and presidential elections so that you can make an educated vote come this November. I would ask that you listen with your heart, your mind and your research on the candidates. Mostly I would ask that you vote. It is extremely important that we not sit back and say well I can't decide which I like so I'm not voting. It's also important that we stand united and voice our concerns. One voice can be heard. After all every bill that has become a law started with one voice crying out alone in the night until someone finally heard them. I'm afraid for Fort Wayne. I'm afraid it won't be here in the future. It can't afford a long economic drought, although if you research it's history you'll find this is not a first time our wonderful city has seen this type of economic frustration. I believe in our city. So I only hope we can soon stop seeing the multitude of signs for empty buildings, dreams that were lost and restaurants where memories were made with signs of closure on their door.

----------------------Bee's Be Gone.-----------------

OK.. so tonight didn't exactly go as I planned. While unloading my dryer this evening I noticed a bee (yellow jacket to be exact) flying around my ceiling light in my bathroom. Now I have a strict policy never to kill anything (other than mosquito's) intentionally if I do not have to. So I went out of my bathroom and got a cup and a piece of cardboard to catch the bee to put it outside.

When I came back to my surprise there were three of them at my light and then I looked and there were five. This was just odd but I knew I'd never catch them all without getting stung so I started killing them even though I really didn't want to. I flushed them and looked and there were five more and these bees seemed angry. I killed several more, flushed and went on with this pattern several times. One flew in my hair. I freaked out like any red blooded American girl would do. I went out of the bathroom and closed the door to keep them in and also did something else any girl would do, went next door and got my daddy. He killed dozens of them but they just kept coming. Finally we found where they were coming from. The little buggers had burrowed a hole in my bathroom ceiling on the very edge. It was so small it was practically impossible to see. So my dad went outside and found the nest under the over-hang on my bathroom. I on the other hand took some cardboard and tape and taped over the whole until I can get it fixed and killed the remaining bees that were in my bathroom. This little endeavor took two hours believe it or not. All in all though my dad got stung once and I got stung once. Didn't hurt for long though thanks to something my mother told me. I took a bar of IVORY soap, dry not wet and rubbed over the sting. It took the sting right out of it and it didn't swell. You can also hold a penny against them too. That works for me also, but since I was in the bathroom the soap was right there. Hopefully the bees are gone for now.

Kelli's Donor Drive

If you or anyone you know have dealt with the suicide of a friend , family member or loved one then you understand how difficult it is to comprehend how this horrible event comes to be. We would appreciate any and all support for this cause. If even one person is helped, then that is one less family grieving and wondering why. One less child thinking it is their fault, or even one less wife or parent wondering where they went wrong. My 1st husband committed suicide after being married for 3 months and 5 days and it had an effect on everyone who knew him, our family, my children. There is blame and guilt all around. I have had two of my close friends that have lost a sister way too soon for this same reason. Its heart wrenching. I am not walking for anyone in particular, just anyone who needs help . Its the least i can do.

I appreciate all your help. Please visit the donor page and join the walk if you like.

Kelli Gunder

http://afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=579&participantID=7715

**** BASIL *****

.................................. May 1988 - June 21, 2008............................

Basil wasn't like any other ordinary cat. I know people say that, but anyone who knew this cat loved him. I had several people tell me they didn't like cats, but this one was the exception to the rule.

When I got Basil in August of 1989 I wasn't really looking to get a cat. I had a puppy, mini schnauzer, named Snickers. A friend of mine was looking to get a completely white cat. He didn't want any other colors anywhere on it. He asked me if I would go with him to the SPCA to look and I did. Basil was there. Something about him drew me to him. I knew the first minute I saw him I had to take him home. Upon speaking with the lady there she told us the story of how Basil had come to be there. Someone had wrapped chains around him and fixed him to the mailboxes outside the SPCA. He was a few weeks old at the time from what they could tell. He had struggled trying to get loose and had done a lot of damage to his insides, mainly his spleen. Even though he was a kitten the SPCA took him to a vet and they fought to save his life. Basil had grown up in the SPCA facility and they pretty much let him have the run of the place in that he never met a person or an animal that he didn't like and didn't get along with. This lady warned me that although they had run every test they could think of and could not find anything wrong with Basil he wasn't gaining weight. He was very skinny and he had boughts with anemia. She said he may not live long. I had made up my mind though and he deserved to be loved no matter how long he had. At that time they checked my home and approved me. If memory serves at that time it was $40 to adopt and I had to take the cat for a year to Allen Vet so they could monitor his progress.


Within the first week of Basil being with me he began to gain weight. By the time I took him back to the vet he was up to 9 pounds. I loved that he was doing so well... so well in fact that I'll share a story of him with you.

Remember that puppy I told you about. He was about 9 months old when Basil came to stay with us and I kept him locked up in the laundry room when I was at work so that he wouldn't get into trouble. Well, he would bark and whine like dogs do because he didn't want to be in there. I was also afraid the new cat wouldn't like the dog chewing on him while I was at work. One day I came home from work to find the puppy loose in the house and my favorite coffee table only had one of the 4 legs left. The puppy had chewed right through the wooden legs on the others. I couldn't figure it out. It began to be a pattern no matter what the dog would escape. One day I was taking a shower and heard the dog barking and whining and I thought well I guess he doesn't need to be in the laundry room just because I'm taking a shower. I got out to go let him out of the laundry room and you'll never guess what I saw. Basil was standing on my stove, which was right next to the door of the laundry room, and he had one paw on top and one paw on the bottom of the door knob and you guessed it.. he turned it like a pro and out came the puppy. I bought a baby gate shortly there after. That dog and Basil were unseperable until Snickers died during surgery on July 5, 2001.

Basil was amazing in every aspect of the word. He loved to give kisses and I never heard him growl once in the almost 19 years he and I spent together. Another amazing thing was that I never had him to a vet for anything other than a checkup in all the time I had him. He was never sick a day and they thought he wouldn't live. Amazingly he was still active as he could be and still played with the dog I have now. The day he died he was playing and had given me kisses before going to lay down. The pictures were taken this past year. He looked healthy and was very active. I knew he was old and he died as I suspected he would, in his sleep. I thank God for all the wonderful years and for letting him stay with me so long. The SPCA didn't think he'd live a year... He almost made it 19. He was a little over 20 years old at the time of his passing and I thought in honor of his gentle soul I'd share his story with you today.

"Ghost Rider?"

I've always thought of myself as fairly open minded; however, I as of yet to convince myself ghosts do or do not exist. I've had my share of run ins with the totally unexplainable up to and including seeing a woman in white at the end of a driveway that was there one minute and gone the next. I also had a music box that would play with no one near it and stop if I asked it to. So for me to say that ghost don't exist is something I can't do. I do believe that seeing is believing though and as a fellow member of human kind it's a hard concept to grasp without seeing someone I know and know to be deceased. So with this in mind let me tell you of my most recent encounter.

A couple of nights ago while driving home down I69, around 12:30 A.M. actually, I was the only car around with the exception of a few cars that were so far ahead of me I could barely make out their tail lights. I had the radio on and was listening to a late night talk radio program. All of a sudden I heard what sounded like a motorcycle when someone is gunning the motor. I looked behind me to see where the motorcycle was but try as I might I could not see one. I turned the radio off thinking it might be on the radio, but the noise continued. It appeared to be coming from right beside my car; however, I still saw no motorcycle. The noise stopped around the Illinois road turn off so I assumed I must just not have seen the motorcycle and it must have turned off, but shortly after I heard the noise again. I looked in vain to see the motorcycle. I rolled down my window and I swear I heard someone laugh and the motorcylcle sounded as if someone reved the motor and took off ahead of me. The noise had the same noise as if someone on a motorcycle was taking off. It got fainter and fainter like they were leaving me behind. I never saw a rider, nor a cycle; but I'm thinking it really was there somehow, someway. Ghost rider having a little fun perhaps? Maybe or maybe not... I'll leave you to your own conclusions.

Feel free to share your supernatural experience. I'd love to hear about them.

Grandpa Boxers and Granny Panties... Oh My

Don't ask me why, but driving to work today out of the blue it crossed my mind that if women wear comfortable underwear they are called "granny panties"; however, I have never heard anyone refer to any underwear that men wear as 'grandpa' underwear. Seems to me that boxers should be called Grandpa Boxers. I mean the whole reason that the granny panties are called so is because they are not flattering and often cover up much of the person that is wearing them. I suppose it's also because mostly older women are known to wear them, but come on ladies unless we have a hot date we all wear them. So to me Boxers are of the same premise. I mean not that a man looks bad in boxers, but if I'm given a choice of seeing a man in boxers or a man in briefs. I'd have to say I'm a briefs woman. So upon getting home tonight and trying to decide if I should really write about such a strange topic I googled Boxers and Briefs. To my surprise there was quiet a variety of different categories that this took me to. I found a website that sells underwear that go for as much as $140 (www.hisroom.com) for boxers, which actually are quiet nice. I also found several references to a family game. I think the most compelling one to me though was a website for a club named Boxers-N-Briefs (www.boxersnbriefs.com). It's a male strip club in Centreville Illinois. It states that they do not discriminate and they welcome people of all races, color and sex. I'm thinking this is some place I may have to check out. How about you? Anyone interested in a good show?

PS.. the briefs above can be purchased at JCPennies in case you were wondering.

Be Still My Heart...

OK.. Stop the presses.. Am I breathing yet? I thought today was going to be another boring day filled with meetings. Walking to the cafeteria to get ice water I swear if I'd have had gum in my mouth I would have swallowed it!

I was walking down the long (and I mean long) corridor to the cafeteria and looked up and instantly stopped in my tracks. I'm sure my mouth was probably open and I could not for the life of me stop starring. Right in front of me just a few feet coming towards me was the most gorgeous man I think I've ever seen in my life. (Yes in Fort Wayne) Greek Gods have nothing on this man. If I could have snapped a picture with my phone without being obvious I would have. I'm also sure he noticed and you know what it didn't bother me; however, I did find myself thinking mentally "feet start walking".

So I guess now I have a reason to roam the halls a little more during the early hours of my shift? Sigh. Finally I think I have something at work to look forward to.

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet.. But Maybe the Economy

Tuesday evening before going into work to work a little overtime I stopped into the new Dollar Tree located in the plaza at the intersection of Lima and Dupont roads. In this store a conversation was struck up with a postman who was also in there shopping. I don't know his name, never got it; however we were discussing the economy and technology and it's affects on the local post offices. Seems that the mail that goes through the United States Postal services has somewhat deteriorated over the past year. Economy is probably one of the major reasons for this; however, it also has to do with the fact that people are more and more paying their bills on line and having companies email them their bills rather than mail it. It also has to do with new ways that people can stop the junk mail from coming to their homes. The very things we are doing to make our lives a little more pleasant may be putting our postal service workers at risk of unemployment. When the mail is light at your home, your postman doesn't necessarily get as much work as what is required to make the numbers look good somewhere up the working food chain. This of course causes them to rethink "routes" and whether or not all the bodies are needed. From what this postman said they even want to find a way to do away with Saturday delivery, but they have not found a way to do this without upsetting the business that they so desperately need to keep the flow of cash running. As if this isn't enough new technologies of machines that can read our mail and sort it and bundle it are also causing job cuts. And to top it all off.. when the mail loads get light, your stamp costs go up to cover the cost that the post office has. Along with the price of gas going up impacting it as well. I guess that means it's all just one vicious cycle. Either way I have family and friends that work in the postal industry, but rarely talk business with them so I found my conversation with this man enlightening and found myself thinking junk mail can come and I'll just throw it away. Far be it from me to help slow the mail that once was stopped by nothing.

The email that prompted me to blog... Sent to friends on July 7, 2008

You know life does get busy and you do change with every year that you grow older... nothing will make you realize this more than cleaning out the cupboards and the refrigerator. I rarely use either anymore since I live next door to my mom and dad and I work a shift that rarely leaves me at home during a time of opportune snacking. With this in mind I decided since I was off today and the doctors found nothing in my head (we knew that somehow didn't we?) that I would clean out the cabinets and refrigerator. It really is an exercise in "when did I everlike that?" I found salad dressing that expired in April of 2002... hum..I found what appeared to have once been cookies in my cupboards and a variety of other things.. leading me to ask.. Does Kahlua expire if in the refrigerator? When did I buy Kahlua? And if you've ever wondered if peanut butter can go bad in the refrigerator.. .I found in the very back of my refrigerator black peanut butter from 2003.. so I would have to say ---YES...

Anyone have an answer for that Kahlua question?

A Soap Opera Life It Is Not...

And I say thank God for that! Today as I was watching a soap I've watched all my life, "Days of Our Lives", I got to thinking about how much it seems people today try to mimick the lives of soap opera characters and TV stars. Let me tell you thinking has always been a dangerous place for my mind to be. What is it about these characters that make us want to be them? Soaps in paticular I can't see the desire to be these people. I know we rarely see them work and that is a perk; however, they sleep with everyone, are in in constant turmoil and rarely seem like they are happy for more than perhaps an episode or two. Now they do have some perks as in they never seem not to find a way out of the trouble they are in and they always seem to have money to do whatever they want. This is fantasy though and real life just doesn't work that way. Relationships in life whether they be friendship, work related or love take a lot of hard work. There are some saving grace TV characters though that might just be worth mimicking. I'm thinking I'd like to be Samantha on Bewitched, as long as I didn't have to kiss Darrin that is.

So tell me what characters on TV would you like to trade lives with for a day?

Technology is Not Exactly My Friend

What a fast paced time we live in. Everyone constantly on the go and always available via their cellphones that do everything but go to work for them and cook their dinners. Sometimes I think that invention is just right around the corner. The thought of that scares me to death. I really am stuck in a timezone somewhere outside of reality. A friend of mine commented to me not too long ago that he didn't believe he knew anyone who didn't have a DVD player. Me? I have one, got it a few months back. I haven't used it very much though I think I might like it once I get use to it. And what of this blogging thing? I knew it existed and I knew people were doing it.. I just never thought I'd attempt to try it. You see I actually miss the days where people couldn't find you on a telephone that you carry in your pocket. I'm also old enough to remember when kids played outside, neighbors knew each other and VCR's were a luxury in most homes. I remember enjoying those times very much. So perhaps that is why I don't take to technology as quickly as others. You see it's not that I don't know about technology, I've just chosen not to go there that quickly. Why not you may ask. I think it's because I know once you've left that magical path or road you were on the odds are you may never travel it again. I'm a romantic at heart and a bit nastalgic. So I will share some thoughts and welcome some comments and perhaps even learn how this wonderful world of blogging connects me to others in a brand new way, but don't be suprised if this not really old in age has an old soul with a love for times gone and memories that may or may not forever be in my mind.