Albino Peacock

I'm told this is a rare occurance in nature. It is really beautiful!

My New Watch

I have one watch which is silver but sometimes I like to wear gold so I asked for a gold watch for my birthday and this is the new watch my husband ordered for me.

It has Rolex on the face of it but it is of the $100-$150 variety of Rolex (fake) instead of the $2500-$10,000 (real) variety but it is pretty. My other gold watch was of the $10 variety purchased on our first family cruise 6 years ago and I could not coax it to run anymore - not with new batteries or anything.

It doesn't take a lot to excite a woman of my age and getting a new watch makes a day special!

The Good News ----And The Bad News

THE GOOD NEWS:

Last week, my son Kirk, finally got rid of his loathsome Treo and got a fabulous new cell phone!

THE BAD NEWS:

This week, he lost it.

THE GOOD NEWS:

He knows where he lost it.

THE BAD NEWS:

He lost it somewhere between Atlanta, Georgia and Tuscan, Arizona.

Hillary Was Number 1 for Me !

Someone sent me a test which I took in order to see which candidate best suited my political views. I already knew which candidate(s) I support but it was nice to see that my views coincided with all the candidates I like. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama were my top two (well, actually somebody named Dennis Kucinich ranked above them but of the viable candidates, Hillary and Barak were number 1 and 2) and all the Democrats scored higher than any Republicans with my last one being Fred Thompson. There was only one catagory that I agreed with his position on and at the moment I can't think of what that one thing was.

If you want to take this little test, here is the link: http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460.

Try it - it's fun!

The Golden Globe BUST !

I am usually a pretty big fan of awards shows - you know, the Oscars, the Emmys, the CMA Awards, etc. so when I tuned in to watch the Golden Globes show the other night I was expecting to be entertained ----- WRONG !!! It should never have been aired ! I watched about - hum, let's see, 1 minute and 45 seconds of it and was already bored out of my gourd, so I proceeded to watch some other inane TV show and that lasted about 2 minutes and 45 seconds before I was bored.

I am so ready for the writer's strike to be over. If it is not settled soon, I will probably just toss my TV out the window and spend all my spare time working crossword puzzles!

Movie Review

This past weekend I went to see The Great Debaters starring Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker. It is based on a true story about a small college in Marshall, Texas, called Wiley College that had an unbelievably talented and knowledgeable teacher who inspired his students to achieve more than anyone ever dreamed they could. The story was riveting, the acting superb and the message was one we should all never forget.

Martin Luther King once said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." The movie embodied that truth and I left the theatre thinking that I had just seen one of the best movies of all time. I highly recommend it!!

Key West, Florida

A co-worker of mine spent part of her holidays in Key West, Florida, and in addition to sporting a new tattoo when she came back to work, she also brought some beautiful photographs she made while there.

This is a picture made by my co-worker of a typical Key West sunset. It is claimed that the most beautiful sunsets in the world are there and I can attest to that! I have been to Key West four times, three times by boat and one time by car. When I lived in South Florida, it was just a nice little day trip by boat and a nice long weekend trip by car and every time I went there I had a wonderful time!

Some of the things I enjoyed most were the trip to the Ernest Hemingway house, walking up and down Duval Street, riding motor scooters all around town, the Key Lime Inn where we stayed and one of my personal favorite memories was the day our whole family sat at a little
garden cafe and drank beer out of tiny bottles in little ice buckets! Wow! What memories this little family of mine has amassed over the years!

I think it is about time we all took another trip to beautiful Key West !

The Amazing World of Techies

I purchased some new software today. I needed to upgrade my Quickbooks at work to a newer and more advanced version. The old version did not have the capability I needed to do some "stuff" my boss wanted. Well, I could have told her to go jump in the lake since my boss is my daughter but I decided to try to accomodate her wishes and install the upgrades myself. OMG ! That was a disaster!

I followed the simple instructions to the letter only to jam my computer into complete uselessness!! It would not move! Even control alt delete just sat there and stared back at me!!! There is a computer wizard in our office who used to be the business manager for a major company and as a last resort I solicited her support! Good thing she didn't have any appointments this afternoon because it took her three hours on the phone to India to get the thing installed! The first two techies who tried to help - she had to ask for different ones because she was repeating every word approximately 17 times to get them to understand Alabamian - and you can imagine what it was like to understand whatever language they were speaking.

Finally, my co-worker requested another techie and after asking for the same information over again as she had given to the previous two, she was ready to start over with the "head honcho"!

He confirmed that the software was installed properly but it would not transfer my information from the other version I had on my computer so the bookkeeping records for the last three years were somewhere in cyberspace and could not be found!

I want to make it clear that I love techies - my son-in-law is the best one in the world but he was at work and I couldn't talk to him and besides he had told me that Quickbooks is not his forte so we spent literally all afternoon in utter frustration!!! Knowing that middle of the month checks have to be written tomorrow I was pretty much freaking out when the fellow in India said if we would give him permission to go into our system, he could transfer all the data to the new program. At that point, I would have given him permission to get into my personal bank account, my health records, my school records, my credit card numbers , and would have given him my date of birth and social security number just to get some relief from the mess I was in.

Three hours and ungodly frustrating trials later, I got it all working properly. Now I just have to figure out to work the new system!

I know one thing - techies don't get paid enough!!!! In fact, a couple of them in India probably turned in their resignations after today.

Matt Lauer Calls Foy Union

For those of you who are Auburn fans, check this out! For those of you who aren't - oh yeah, you probably aren't reading my blog anyway. www.thecornernews.com/index.php/news/comment/today-show-calls-foy/

My Pet Peeve

I work in a 10-person office. One of my jobs is to answer the phone and frequently someone will call and say, "Someone just called me from this number!"

I go through my list of questions: "Are you working with someone at a real estate company?"
"Do you know who might have called you?" "Do you want me to name the people who work here to see if you recognize any names?" The more questions I ask, the more peeved I get! What if it were someone from Wal-Mart who called? They have 1.8 million employees - could have been any one of them. Do you want them to see if they can figure out who called you ?

I want to say, "If someone called you and it was important, they would have left you a message, you numbskull! Is that all some people have to do - look at their phones for missed calls and try to track them down?

Okay - I'm glad I got that off my chest!

Some Days Are Special

I have an extended family member who lives in an assisted living facility and since I visit her a couple of times a week I have grown to know most of the other residents who live there. I talk with all of them and most have something to say in return but one lady in particular rarely speaks. I have actually wondered if she had the ability to speak but I continued to greet her each time I visited.

Today, I went to pick up my family member and as I was signing the registration book, I felt a tap on my shoulder and the quiet lady asked me if I wanted to come look at something in her room? She showed me a quilt that she had made by hand. It was squares of each of the 50 states. Each square had a state embroidered on it with the name of the the state, the number of the state and the date it became a state, all stitched by hand. Included in each square was the state bird and state flower all embroidered by hand. Each square was sewn to strips of cloth and they were perfectly lined and perfectly square. There were literally millions of hand stitches all done to perfection.

In my estimation, it would have taken her years and years to complete such a project and it is unbelieveably beautiful! She told me her husband was sick and bedridden for many years before his death and she occupied her time working on the quilt.

Today, I left there with a lighter step, a song in my heart, and a promise to bring my camera next time I come so I can take pictures of her quilt. She thanked me and smiled.

Some days are just special!

My Beautiful Granddaughter

Kristen participated in the Fort Payne High School Calendar Girl contest Saturday night. She was absolutely gorgeous and she placed in the top 10 in her class. Of course, to all of her family she has always been beautiful in more ways than one!

In addition to being beautiful, she is also smart, talented, and sweet. We are so proud of you, Kristen, and we are blessed to have you as our granddaughter. Congratulations!

As Time Goes By . . . .

In the school year 1991-1992, Mikko Hollo from Finland lived with our family as an exchange student. Grandson Will was 1 and 2 years old during that year and we took a picture of Will, Susan, Mikko and Amy.

Last week, Mikko came back for a visit and we took the same picture. Of course, it was a little harder for Will to sit in Susan's lap but we had a blast trying to recreate the picture.

Now THIS is a CAKE !

Someone spent a lot of hours on this but it is actually a cake! (Click on picture for a closer look at detail. ) I'm dressed in orange and blue as I write this and am heading to the plains for a weekend of tailgating and watching the Tigers with my family.

Life is good! WAR EAGLE!

Worth Remembering

The really lucky people are not necessarily the ones that have the best of everything -
They are the ones who make the most of whatever life throws at them.

Fun Times in Athens !

This weekend I went to Athens, Georgia, to watch Hunter and Will play in an SJGT golf tournament. It was held at the University of Georgia golf course and I have never seen so much red and black in my life! Even the bathroom at the course was red and black! I have to admit that even though I am definitely NOT a Georgia football fan, the little UGA bulldogs on each tee box were absolutely adorable!

Anyway, Will was tied for the lead the first day but didn't do quite as well the second day and ended up in 4th place! Will is now ranked #5 in point standings in Southeast Junior Golf stats. Hunter had a good day the first day but not so good the second day but Hunter never lets it get him down. He is always the same in attitude no matter what his score and that is such a good quality to have. (Will will be signing with Auburn University and Hunter will be signing with Troy State University the third week in November.)

The course has really suffered due to the drought in Athens but all in all, the weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful time! Traveling with two 17-year-old boys who are funny, have a great positive attitude and are polite and well-mannered is just a good thing to do. Thanks, kids, for giving a Grandmom a great weekend!

ANDRUW JONES LEAVING BRAVES

For those of us who have made our living in nursing, social work, teaching, etc. with our paltry salaries of $25,000 - $30,000 per year, it is really hard to have sympathy for a guy whose contract was not renewed when he asked for $20 million a year!

I don't care how many Gold Gloves you have - you are not worth it !!

Some "greats" are just "greater" than other "greats"!

It's always "GREAT TO BE AN AUBURN TIGER" but sometimes the feeling of pride looms larger than at other times. Such was the case yesterday when the unranked Tigers took on #4 Florida in Florida. No one believed Auburn could win - especially all the sports commentators. Most had Florida a three-touchdown favorite and some had it even more than that!

Florida Coach Urban Meyer had never lost a game in Florida and was pretty sure his team would have no trouble putting Auburn away in short order. Florida was also hoping for another shot at a national title this year. Supposedly, they have a #1 quarterback (Tebow) who is touted as one of the top best three in the nation.

Auburn's team has young players and a quarterback who had a rough start this year and by all calculations and all common sense, Auburn was supposed to lose and lose big! The only thing wrong is that apparently, nobody told the Auburn players that! And apparently Coach Tuberville gave his "Little Engine that Could" speech just at the right time and Auburn came on the field ready to win!

We had to beat Florida and also beat the referees - for instance, when a Florida player had the ball in his hand and got hit and then Auburn was penalized for hitting him because he didn't have time to call for a "fair catch"! That was preposterous!

Our freshman kicker had to end up kicking a field goal twice due to a little trickery on the part of Florida's desperate coach but all in all, we played hard and deserved to win! Our young defense just about shut down Florida in the first half and kept Tebow from showing off his stuff.

My hat is off to you, Tigers! You gave your fans a great game! Thanks and WAR EAGLE!

The VFW Fair Begins!

The DeKalb County VFW Fair has won 1st Place honors for Best County Fair in Alabama for years and last night I attended the opening night of this year's event.

There are the typical carnival rides, and judging of displays with ribbons being awarded for flower arranging, home-canned and home-baked foods, hand work and needle work of all varieties, agricultural products and much, much more!

Being a farmer's daughter and having participated in showing farm annimals at various events, I am always most attracted to that segment of the fair.

My favorite part of last night's visit to the fair was when a little 8-year-old boy (the son of one of my former customers) ran up to me, grabbed me by the arm and insisted that I go look at his prize-winning chicken !

Life is good at the Fair!

BOOM DAYS IN FORT PAYNE

Saturday my home town celebrated its heritage by celebrating the Boom Days in Fort Payne. These were the years from about 1880 to 1893 when the population swelled from 450 to thousands as northern investors came to Fort Payne to invest in the Fort Payne Coal and Iron Company. They built beautiful homes, a huge hotel, and the now famous opera house. As the iron ore fizzled, the investors went back up north but many of the things they left behind are still a large part of our community.

There were people dressed in period costumes, horse and buggys, a smelting display, broom makers, furniture makers, as well as area artisans of all kinds displaying their work.

Fort Payne was honored to host the Gees Bend Quilters. These are ladies whose quilts are world renowned and have such a rich heritage as children and grandchildren of the original quilters carry on the tradition of making gorgeous quilts. I would have bought one but they are pretty pricey but well worth the money. The workmanship on them is unbelievable.

Another interesting display was the folk art work of the late Howard Finster. Again, I would have loved to have purchased something but his work has gotten a little out of my price range. I have a couple of signed prints by him and thankfully, I bought them a long time ago while I could still afford it. Maybe my children and grandchildren can enjoy them for a long time to come.

Finally, Fort Payne celebrated our home town boys Alabama by dedicating a beautiful park in their honor. It is across from Union Park in downtown Fort Payne and has walking trails and will have a beautiful bronze sculpture of the guys when it is completed.

Thanks, Fort Payne, for such a great celebration!