Regulate This!

Well, folks - THIS is a dual tank propane regulator

It looks much like the one on our RV. See that innocent black knob on the bottom. NEVER TOUCH THAT BUTTON. Do you see a sign on it that says "Don't Touch"? Do you see it painted red with a circle and a line through it? It's just sitting there innocently saying, "Unscrew me and pull the pin out and look at me." We did that when after refilling the bottles with propane, we still could not get the gas to work. It ruins the regulator, as in we had no gas for the weekend at the lake in the RV and had to eat microwave popcorn all weekend. No Saturday morning lake breakfast with bacon and hash browns and scrambled eggs and biscuits. No Saturday night steaks and baked potatoes. The weekend was still fun though but HOT. Very hot.

Jim took a bike ride with Norman running - 3 miles - and near the end Norm just took off through the woods toward the lake, Jim rode back worrying that Norman may have had heat stroke or something. I got in the car and Jim rode his bike and we looked all over for him. Found him back at the site underneath the RV....smiling and very wet. There's nothing like a dog smiling.

Ruffinism for the day: "Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat."

Summer Heat

I can't get over how hot it is this early in the summer. For the last couple of days there has been a heat advisory for the Ark-La-Tex. The guage on my rearview mirror read 100+ on the way home yesterday afternoon. The heat pulsates against your skin making you feel like you're in a 350 degree oven (preheated.) Jim and I went and signed loan papers for our annual "pay as you go Clifton college plan" and I started sweating like lawn worker at the credit union...or was that nerves? I feel for the people who put more than one kid through college or have yet to experience turning your life savings and earnings over to "higher learning."

After the past couple of unsettling weeks, Jim and I are finally headed back to the lake this weekend. Can't wait to get away. Have alread stockpiled videos (Gran Torino and Confessions of a Shopaholic) and am reading a very good novel that I bought a year ago but never had time to read and it is a super novel.


I just finished Dennis Lehane's latest novel, it was super...historical fiction but great. He wrote Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone. Good writer. This would make a great movie too.

I never did share pictures of Memorial Day weekend at the lake. Guess what I was doing and thinking?

Wasn't thinking much at all, just clicking and enjoying.

Above is another pic of our Hotel Sonesta.

By the way, I wonder who won the College World Series last night!

GEAUX TIGERS!

Ben Michael

I met him once at a Phi Kappa Psi Rush event. Jim and I were helping at a Rush event...that was 4 years ago. I did not know him but I understand he was a straight up man, giving, loving, funny, a bear of a guy. He died last Monday, June 15, 2009, around 3:30 p.m. in a one vehicle car accident just North of Alexandria. His vehicle rolled in the median, an inferior vehicle. He shattered so many lives unwillingly, involuntarily...he was so very young. He did not die in Iraq, but he had a fullfilling life helping the young. He guided young people, whether they were in poverty or pledge brothers or rush pledges. His name is Benjamin Patrick Michael. He was a roommate of my son, Clif...and this has been the saddest weekend of his life. Clif has never lost anyone his own age. Big Albo, his only living granddad died when Clif was young but Big Albo was in his 80s.

Ben's funeral was packed with more than 300 people. All of his fraternity brothers were there whether in spirit or physical. Clif was a pallbearer for the first time in his life and it hurt terribly. Megan was there to help and so were Jim and I. Visitation was heartwrenching and his dad and his family and his mom and her family were crushed. It was the saddest funeral I have ever been to in my life. My dad died when I was 15 and they left the casket open defying the direct orders from Nancy so we were devasted but no parent should ever have to bury a child. Two young men who grew up with him and were Clif's brothers eulogized him beautifully, along with his pastor but the most moving part of Saturday was at the burial site when over 100 fraternity brothers surrounded his LSU laden casket and his entire family arm-in-arm, singing, praying, singing their farewell and doing their goodbye ritual to Ben. It broke my heart.

Clif and Megan left for Baton Rouge this morning. He and Jonathan have to pack up Ben's room this week and take it to Ben's dad.
Life has come full stop for Clif at the moment. Please pray for Ben's family and for Clif and JM to endure this hard week. They also have to find a new roommate, which may be impossible.

Ruffinism for the day: Only the good die young - Billy Joel sang it, I don't know who to credit...my heart is sad.

Calli's Party

We gave Calli a party last Saturday, she's engaged to be married in August. I never had a party when I was getting married. I had showers. I wanted presents, the more the better. I wanted all of the presents I could get. I had 3 showers and got many presents. I did not want a party. But here are some pictures of the beautiful bride to be and all the ladies that DID NOT bring presents:

The bride to be.

Hostesses 'cept me.

Four generations of the H family.

Good party (without presents). Great food. And then of course the Saturday nap.

Dis-Order

I've been out of it lately. Too lazy to blog. Too lazy to cook. Too lazy to sew or crochet. Just too lazy period. I need a B-12 shot or something. Here it is June 10 and I just went out on the patio yesterday afternoon to finish planting the pots (about 20) that I cleaned out two months ago and readied for the new plants that I bought a month ago, which all died because I left them in their original containers and didn't water them.... So, this is what I did yesterday. I went and pulled a bunch of lantana runners off of Mrs. Bickham's bushes (she's my neighbor across the street - and by afternoon she's in the back of the house watching Oprah) and stuck a lantana runner down in each pot. I didn't have the energy to place the pots around the patio so I've saved that for today or tomorrow. They're all still sitting on the patio table and chairs with their little lantana sprigs sticking out of them. Oh happy day...

A couple of years ago, Mrs. Bickham gave me a lady banks rose that I planted in the flower bed around the patio. It has since grown 5 huge stalks growing straight up in the air (Jack could possibly climb them...as in beanstalk). And for two years I've been meaning to run some flower wire from pillar to post to get it to spread. So I did that yesterday too. Took me about 2 minutes and I have thought about doing it for two years...what does that say? I tried to wrap the stalks around the wire but they didn't want to stay so I got some clothespins and made it mandatory.

I have red tipped photinia bushes that I clipped to grow as patio bushes a few years back. Now they look more like flamingos than bushes. I truly do not have a green thumb.

And on one side of the patio, I kept having trouble getting anything to grow between one of the photinias and a cape jasmine...so I bought a pot of english ivy and let it spill over the sides until now it's taken over a good 10 foot expanse and is encroaching on the pots on the left side of the patio. So I just let the ivy take over those pots (less pots to plant) and now is threatening the white wrought iron patio furniture we inherited from Jim's mom and dad. Actually I think a snake may be making his home there but I'm getting the weed eater out this afternoon to give it a little haircut. Bring it on snake...I'm ready.

Ahhh summer. It's here.

By the way, I got fired last week. Not the first time Mr. G has fired me. Got two days off out of it. Wonder if I can get fired around the fourth of July again.

Quote for the day: You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt.