Observations from my Coffee Table

I don't usually weigh in on controversial issues so I'm not going to defend the current Paula Deen situation. I don't know the woman so I don't know her morals or her character. I've never seen her cooking shows. I briefly saw her on a couple of talk shows during her pre-troubled times. I have some of her cookware and I really like them.

I don't agree with racial or sexual slurs on either side (no matter which side of the board a person is on). But hold the bus, I want to weigh in on the whole plantation worker issue. First of all, I doubt she forced anyone to work for her.  If she had insisted on all white servers, she would have been hauled to court just as quickly. But that's beside the point. My point is if we're going to take issue with the whole plantation issue then why hasn't  "Hooters" been shut down for exploiting women and making them dress a certain way?

That being said if this woman has used her power to bully or make people feel inferior, then by all means, make her answer for it and make amends. But good Lord, don't crucify her! After all, I'm sure there were a lot of people and companies making A LOT of money using her name.

As for her brother....well....he doesn't sound like a very desirable fellow. From what I've heard, he was the one doing the offensive things. But I notice very little of the media attention has been given to him. I find that VERY odd!

Stressed and Feeling Good

I know the older I get, the slower I get. But come on! I thought things were suppose to slow down in the golden years. LOL! Honestly, most days I like a busy schedule. And then there are those other days.......

I won't go on and on about my work schedule. Because let's face it, no one cares to hear about other people's hectic work schedules or job stresses. Oh yeah, they say they do. But they really don't. So don't go there. I guarantee you if you're the type who wants to share something other than a funny story about your job, your captive audience will listen for all of 2 minutes. Then they will go into a blank-stare mode. At which time they will start planning their day. While you're going on and on about the problems and stresses of your job, they are planning their evening meal and organizing their daily planner in their minds. The only people to offer you their undivided attention about anything work related would be your co-workers. Then you have to watch how detailed you are. Because even a co-worker will start clock watching. Besides, job related subjects are just a boring read.

Right now, we are in the process of planning Chatty's October 26th wedding. She and her fiancé (whom for future reference will be referred to as Chatster) are looking for their first home. Anyone who has looked at the housing market in the last 3 years knows it has sucked for awhile. Or at least it has in our area.

Yes, it definitely has been a buyers market. In mine and Mr. Chat's case, that is not always a good thing. When we were looking at possible home purchases for ourselves, all of the HOT deals were gone before we could get our house listed. Then we have the problem that if we sell ours, we won't be able to find the property we want to buy. Rent? Yes, we could rent until we found "THE HOUSE". But I would have to be guaranteed renting wouldn't be for longer than 6 months. It's a guarantee that can't be made. In the last umpteen years, there have been only a handful of homes and properties that Mr. Chat and I have been interested in. On the other hand....by the time Chatty and Chatster find a property they like, there's already a contract on it. Plus market prices are rising a little bit at a time. Which is a good thing for the economy. Not so much for newlyweds.

 

On the upside.....the wedding planning is on schedule.....so far. The church and reception venue are booked. We have secured the minister, the florist, the photographer, the DJ, the sound equipment and the caterers. Chatster's mom makes wedding cakes. She and Chatty are in the process of picking the cake design and the flavors. My sister-in-law is a butcher and she cooks and prepares meat. She is doing the beef.  My niece is a graphic designer. I have bought the cardstock and program paper. She and Chatty will design the invitations and programs. The unity cross is bought and stored away. The guest book and accompanying  supplies have been delivered. Chatty's Maid of Honor (and her boyfriend) have worked really hard on something very special for the dance floor. Chatty has her gown, veil, shoes and garters. Except for the flower girl, all of the bridesmaids/maid of honor have their dresses ordered. I  feel like everything is on track. I know a month before the wedding there will be SOOOOO much more to do and a lot I have forgotten. But until then, I will sit here smugly drinking my coffee and feeling on top of the game.

The Day My World Went Black

How are all of my Blogger friends doing this beautiful Spring morning? I've been peeking in on all of you. Some of you are great at keeping us up-to-date and current on news and life events. Then there are those of you who are as guilty as I am about laying down on the job and being a slacker. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Work on that, will you?

 How am I doing, you ask? In a word...... BUSY! As I mentioned in an earlier post, Chatty became engaged back in November. Folks, I guess it really is official because they're still engaged. They have set the date for October 26 OF THIS YEAR. Yes, they've been engaged since November but they only set the date 2 weeks ago. So you can imagine how busy it is at the Chat household. Mr. Chat and I had a very simple ceremony when we married so all of this planning and detailed stuff is new to me. Chatty will not be having a huge or elaborate wedding. I think around 300 guests will be invited. There will be dinner and dancing afterward. So, yeah to me that's quite the shin-dig to plan for. Of course.... anything over 6 people is a big hoopla to me.

I interrupt this program to bring you the following message: We were having TV reception problems. Mr. Chat bought a new box for the antenna. Yes, I said antenna. It's my fault that we are still prehistoric. I refuse to pay for TV programming. To me, that's wasteful. But I will allow Mr. Chat to pay for internet service. I figure with internet we get more bang for our buck...the World Wide Web, Blogger, Facebook, Kindle Fire and YouTube. What more could you ask for?.....Anyway, I digress.....As I said, he bought a box for the antenna. Our TV would work for a while then it would get really distorted. He was very frustrated by the whole thing. Meanwhile, I still had my computer to keep me entertained. He finally found the problem. The connection to the box was broken. He replaced the part and VIOLA!....he was a happy camper again. Meanwhile, the TV in Chatty's room needed to be re-set. She decided she wanted to move it to another location. There were so many wires that it became entangled. Instead of trying to follow the wire, he tugged on it, she tugged on it and they finally figured out which wire was causing the problem. Fast forward a couple of weeks. MY COMPUTER crashed. We're talking black screen. It would not let me set it back to last known working state or open in safe mode. I was not about to spend money taking it to a technician to be repaired. So I did what any novice that knows nothing about the technical behind-the-scenes workings of a computer does. I tried to fix it myself. I set it back to factory settings and re-activated all original programs. And you know what? It worked! It had a few glitches but it worked for what I needed. I was quite proud of myself. Almost cocky. It saved me money and kept me from having a complete melt down. Do you know how helpful it is to have a computer at your fingertips for planning a wedding? It saves a lot of wasted time and trips trying to locate services or products.

One night I was surfing for bargains on Bridesmaids dresses. Chatty pulled a chair up next to me. She propped her foot up on the computer tower. That's when it happened. Everything went black!!!! Same as it did 3 or 4 weeks before. The only difference was I could not get the power on. That's when I found it. The power cord had been loosened from the back of the unit. I guess it had been making enough connection to work those few weeks. But when Chatty set her foot on it, it jarred it enough to make the cord completely disengage. I didn't want to and I didn't have time to go through all of the steps as before. But it wouldn't respond to anything else. So I set it back to factory settings. I performed the diagnostic tests that it recommended. FAILED! Errors in several parts of the computer. Oh no! Shot! GGGGRRRRRRR!!!! I had every kind of jerk, tick, and shake a woman could have. Whatever!!! Many a women planned weddings long before the internet was invented. I decided to put on my big girl panties and get on with life.

Chatty and I spent the weekend running from stores to stores that were located an hour away from our house. We came home empty handed and exhausted. We've been using her Kindle Fire to look up sites that might be helpful. But I gotta tell ya, the Kindle Fire is great for her entertainment. But I'm not real impressed with using it for major things. But we were muddling along.

Last night, Mr. Chat came home with a new laptop for me. Whoop-Whoop!!!! Now I'm a happy camper, too. So happy that I'm not thinking about the fact that we could have used that money for the wedding and all of the little unknown extra expenses that will come our way. I have access to the outside world again. Isn't Mr. Chat a sweetheart? There are some days that we growl and bicker with each other. Some people would wonder what we're still doing being married after all these years. But then there are the times when we go above and beyond the call of duty that  makes me know that I would marry him all over again.

I will leave all of you fine people for now. I have to play with my new toy for awhile. I think I have Windows 8 somewhat figured out. It's a lot different than Windows XP. So if you don't see me for awhile, you'll know that I hit a wrong app or button and my world went black again!

Help!!!!

HELP! I had a small computer crash. In order to save myself a few $$$s, I decided to fix it myself. One thing led to another....I ended up doing a system recovery. Ooops..I had never backed up my system. Which meant that my computer went back to the 2007 brand new version of itself.

I lost everything. I'm not computer literate so this has been quite a challenge. I spent the whole weekend restoring security and setting up my email stuff. (But I've lost all email addresses).

My problem is....I can see all of you on my dashboard, but I can't read your posts. I mean I can some of your writing but when I click in to read the full article all I get is your pretty backgrounds but no words come through. What is really baffling is 1 person on my blogger list comes through but all the rest of you stay hidden. I can't even see my own blog.

Does anyone have any suggestions or quick fixes????? HELP!!!!!

Blowing Through

Well, I'm back. It's been awhile, hasn't it? I knew it would be. Let me give you a quick run down on what's been going on in my life.

For 10 weeks I juggled 2 part-time jobs with a full-time job. Do you know what I learned from that?-----I learned that I am NOT as young as I use to be. Whew! That sure took the wind out of my sails. Picture crossing Mario Andretti with an Accountant AND Jerry Lewis. That's what it felt like for the entire 10 weeks. Nuff said!

Those 10 weeks felt like 6 months. But eventually they were over. To say the least, I was exhausted. All I asked for was just a couple of days with nothing pressing to do. I needed some time to gather my thoughts and get my housework caught up. I had been doing the very basic house cleaning. If I could get a couple of hours with no interruptions, I needed to dig in deeper. Do you think I was allowed even a day? NO! The holidays were breathing down my neck. I was overwhelmed at the thought of Christmas shopping. But we had to get through Thanksgiving first. It gets even better! The day before Thanksgiving, Chatty's boyfriend informed me that he was going to propose to her--- and did he have my blessing?! Do you know what my first thought was??? I think it was something like, "Go away! That's my baby you're talking about!!" But I really like him so it could be much worse. Mr. Chat and I gave him our blessings. By the way, she said YES. They haven't set a date. I think they're trying to let me get use to the idea  get some things planned before the actual date is set.

The holidays are over now. Thank God!!! Last week, I finally had 2 days....(Count them. Fingers up, 1....2). TWO days to myself. The first day started like it does every morning. I sat down in front of the computer with a fresh cup of coffee. I checked my email, MSN News and FaceBook. I always finish my morning ritual by opening Blogger and reading what all of you have been up to. Just as I was going to close out and start my day, I decided to check out the Homes For Sale website. WOW!!!! I found THE perfect house. It was newly listed that morning. It had everything we were looking for. It was in a great location. The price was incredibly low for all this house and property had to offer. I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe it was a misprint. I saved the site to show to Mr. Chat when he got home from work. I decided to check my email again before closing out. A new email came in from our Real Estate Agent. She said she thought she found the perfect house for us. It was the same house I had found 10 minutes earlier. I thought it must be a sign from God. We hadn't been in contact with our realtor for almost a year. We had shelved the idea of moving. We all met later that evening to tour the house. I fell in love with it. The agent kept pushing us to make an offer. I told her that we couldn't possibly buy a house until we sold ours. Did I mention that we have not put our house on the market, yet? She informed me that I had absolutely NO time for that. The next day, Mr. Chat and I went to talk to the banker. The banker was more than happy to get us deeper in debt. That evening, my co-worker called me. I had to take a break from all personal business and pick up my paperwork. I was working on a tight deadline. About midway through my work project, our agent called to tell us that we had possible buyers for our house. Did I mention that we don't have our house listed for sale? I, again, thought it must be a sign from God. But wait! They want to see my house.....NOW?  Hmmmm...(This is the part where I sound like a spoiled child who wants everything their way). I told her that I couldn't possibly show my house for a couple of days. Wasn't she aware that I was deep into W-2s AND taxes AND end of the month AND end of the year, for goodness sake????? She then asked if I had pictures that I could send?..... WHAT???.... Yes, let me put on pearls while I glide around my perfectly clean home and snap a few photos. In all honesty, two of my rooms looked like a paper factory exploded in them. I had no time to clean them much less take pictures. I begged for 2 Days. I could almost feel the air turn to ice when I asked that question. But I had work to do so I just let the chips fall where they may. 2 days came and went. My year end paperwork was finished and filed. My house was spotless. I was waltzing around the yard and inside the house snapping pictures. I think I was even humming. (But darn! I forgot to put on my pearls). I did, however have my cell phone with me. It didn't even aggravate me at the fact that I had to stop snapping pictures and humming to look at a text message that was stubbornly beeping in my pocket. It was my Realtor. YAY!!! I thought of how pleased she would be when I told her that I had 30 pictures for her. Her text said, "The house you wanted is in contract". Her next text said, "I still want pictures of your house for the perspective buyers". I didn't even hesitate. Nope, I didn't even bat an eye. My response text to her was "If we have no house to buy, we're not interested in selling ours." Needless to say, it was a couple of days before she text me again. Surprisingly, she is not mad at me. We're still on speaking terms. She still wants to be our agent. So all is well.

Now I'm going to get a hot cup of coffee with a tablespoon of French Vanilla Cappacino added. Then I'm going to put my feet up and wait for the next big whirlwind to blow through.

How is your day going?