What a Day!

Have you ever had a day where a year's worth of events all happens in one morning?

This morning, I was exercising in the park and came across a friend who walks with me sometimes. She had recently lost her husband of 50 years to a long-term disease. I had not seen her for weeks, but she came today -- we walked and cried. It was so very sad.

While online, a good friend IMs me that he has heart problems and is going through the full battery of tests - scary, but I am glad he seems to have caught the problem early. It will curtail much of the charity work he does, alas. He is a very hard worker for charities - a true saint.

Then my youngest brother calls. We ordered stylized license plates about the same time and his had just come in the mail. After that, my husband brought in our own mail and there were our new plates! (See ROOTS.)

Next, I tried out a just-released flash creation program. I was excited - only to find that the program is too buggy to be useful - much frustration over the lost time in discovering this. I had such high hopes and wrote a full report to the program author. I think the bug is easily fixed, though.

Then, the son of a dear coworker who had just passed away, told us that he wanted to keep his mother's genealogy website alive, but needed an expert in the same field to accept e-mail questions which arise (French-Canadian genealogy). We've been working on finding someone to take it over. So sweet of him to want to do this.

In the middle of all this, my cell phone dings with a new text message -- MY DAUGHTER IS PREGNANT! I sit in a stunned but happy coma, unable to do anything. When my wits settle down, I try to call my daughter so I can scream in joy, deafening her to all future sounds, but her cell phone is just out of range and even though she answers, I only get static. Argh! But then, maybe it is better to wait until I stop feeling this need to make my daughter go deaf, so I called my own mom instead. She has heard me scream for many decades and is used to it.

I am going to be a Grandma! Needless to say, my husband and I have been calling each other "Grandma" and "Grandpa" ever since. Not only that, but my parents will be great grandparents for the first time.

However, looking back over this day, I think I have aged 10 years in just a few hours - and it is still afternoon!

[Addendum: The evening to this day was even more dramatic. My husband and I ate at a salad buffet restaurant that we had not visited in eons. A couple of hours later, I got sick and spent most of the night in the bathroom and doing laundry - I should have figured I would not get a peaceful evening to this kind of day.]

Make Your Own Road Sign

This is fun - just type in the words and a highway sign is created. Alternately, you can make a wedding chapel sign.

(P.S. In my ever-going complaints about products being packaged in a way to fool us, my husband opened a bottle of vitamins this morning and it was HALF FULL! What a waste of plastic - to make a bottle too big for the product. The only reason I can imagine a bottle being half full is just to mislead consumers. This really stinks.)

Make a Doll of Yourself (or Anyone)

My friend, EyeQ, made a doll of me. You can make one, too, at eLouai's Candybar Doll Maker. I love the moon and blue sky. Heck, I love all of this, especially the cute little white kitty at the bottom left of this image.

This site is so much fun. EyeQ always has wonderful links to share.

Grocery Gripes

I just got back from the grocery store and I have a few gripes. I was looking at the "ALL" brand of washing detergent. The large bottle costs MORE per ounce than the smaller bottle! What gives? Doesn't the company save money by being able to use less bottles? Isn't this supposed to be cheaper per ounce because it costs the company less to produce per ounce? What happened to a quantity discount?

I had grabbed the larger bottle, but I put it back. The same with Charmin toilet paper. They are pushing their new "mega roll." It even involves using a new toilet paper holder insert that they include. Okay, it sounded interesting, but the big rolls cost MORE PER SHEET than the smaller rolls! This seems like such a ripoff. Aren't we saving the company production costs by purchasing in quantity? Shouldn't it be cheaper per sheet?

And I am still griped about 15-oz or even 14.34-oz cans of pumpkin, tomato sauce, etc. Old family recipes call for 16-oz cans. These smaller cans seem like a ripoff. Argh!

Create a Montage with Google

Oh my gosh, this is SO fun! Thanks to a posting on Becka's Simply Cute blog, I tried this link to create Google Montage (scroll down the page and click on "Launch Project."

You don't need to have any photos on hand - this will search Google images using any keywords you specify and create a nice montage. I managed to come up with one that displayed all of my own photos using the words, muddy, bamablog and textamerica (no quotes).

Here's a smaller version of the image. To see the full-sized version, click on the image to go to my photo blog, then select "original image" on the page that comes up.

Frito Haystacks Photo Posted

As promised to Bonnie, who posted on the previous page, here's a photo of our delectable lunch --> Frito Haystacks.

I hope none of our friends were hurt in Hurricane Rita's aftermath. We had tornado sirens going off this afternoon and had to stay alert. Fortunately, nothing happened to our city.

My Niece - the Movie Star

I was playing with my cat when he got so cute that I whipped out my camera and put it in movie mode.

After seeing the resulting Oscar-winning flick, my niece and my sister made a sequel.

We must be related to Steven Spielberg somewhere along the line.

Your Own Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

Did you ever want to be famous? Here's a site that will present you with your own Hollywood Walk of Fame Star. Scroll down the page to see the box where you can insert your name.

I always knew this blog would be famous someday.

(P.S. My prayers and concern go out to all the Rita refugees and those who have been suffering from the recent weather.)