Rambling Again Today

I didn't have much to talk about today so I'll just ramble with some things that I've noted recently.

At Sundance this year some talent agency executives were "treated" to bawdy shows. Most of them were stymied and disgusted with what had been planned for their "entertainment." The acts were so lewd I can't print them here as I don't use those types of words in my daily activities, but let me just say they were lewd and disgusting. Probably some of those men and women brought their kids there for fun, vacation and skiing. Now, these acts were there for all to see. Again, I have to ask: what is our world coming to? That's despicable and low-life in my opinion. Is that the way the world has drifted—so far from morality to degeneracy? I fear for the young people being born and brought up today. Our church leaders have told us civilization is now worse than in the biblical day of old. I hesitate to mention the times because that might draw the p*rv*ts here and I won't do that. Don't tell me the times are changing; good morals don't change. Sickening in my opinion!
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Then I read in the news where the Japanese Minister said to just let old people die as they're taking up room and food from other people. I simply find some statements hard to believe; this is one of them. Hubs said we should just let him, the Japanese Minister, die in a few years then. Disgusting. People are put on this earth for a purpose. Let's let God decide when their time is up, not the government.
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Then there is a comic book character that some are saying might be gay. It's a comic book character!!!! What in the world are they talking about? Just stymies me. I am not homophobic; I'm a logical down-to-earth woman. It's a comic book character, people!
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 I had a blogger tell me that Europeans know more than one language. Well, some Americans do, too. I'm familiar with several languages as I took them in high school and college; but I don't speak them well enough to converse a great deal. But if you know one foreign language you can read some books and understand them. Some words are easily recognized in other languages. My heritage is Dutch, German, Mexican, French but I am an American through and through. English is from Germanic languages and not the Latin or Romantic languages. But all languages are similar in writing except the Greek or Cyrillic alphabets.
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Something extraordinary is happening to me. I've light ash-brown hair all of my adult life. Oh, I've bleached it a couple of times, mainly in my twenties but I stopped after a few years. I loved the look of gray hair or a champagne beige, still do. I started getting a few gray hairs just above my forehead in my middle sixties on my right side. (If you look at my sidebar you'll see me in various hair shades through the years. The one of me in 1984 with the apple on my cheek (done by one of the men in my tech forums) looks dark but that's because it's a passport photo. It wasn't really that dark but still a light ash-brown.

Well, lately, my gray hair is coming in at its natural color! I absolutely love gray hair and wanted it all to go gray but it never has, just that small section on my right side. Even hubs thinks the gray is going. My friend has the most gorgeous gray hair and she's 15 years younger than me. I've always admired her hair. But has anyone heard of gray hair reversing itself? It has stymied me.
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If hubs had this, I might enjoy camping. But then again, nah, I'd still have to go to the woods.

Or even this! Love the ruffles and decor.

A round table in a camper? I've never seen that before.

This looks like a party place. How sweet.

All dressed up in pink.

Red and bright pink with polka dots.

Now this is elegance with a footstool and 2 "couches" to relax on.

This one looks pretty dang big!

I dearly love red and white checks mixed with a toile like this room. Any kid or teenager would love it.

Pretty little vintage tins and pot.

Another homeowner with an overhead pot holder. I like what she's done with it though better than mine. I may have to redecorate it soon.

Just real eye candy for ya.

Yum!

This looks so Christmas-y I had to show you its cuteness.

Our Albertsons pharmacy looks nothing like this cute one in France.

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Tidbit:
Switzerland's sick are hospitalized longer than any other country's: 9+ days on average.
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It's Near That Time Of Year Again

It's near summer and already I'm getting the heebie/jeebies. You who have read me for any length of time know what that means: camping season! I hate it!

Now, last year when we brought the camp trailer over from the storage place and it had gotten ruined by mildew from the rain somehow getting under the tarp or the weather had deteriorated the tarp, it was just about a total loss. Okay, okay, so I was jumping up and down with impish glee and, perhaps, wishing hubs would just trash it or sell it as-is just to be able to get rid of it. But nooooo, he decided to order a new canvas covering to the tune of $800.00 and fix the wood inside the metal shell, picking the rotted wood out small piece by small piece. Does this man never run out of energy?! Sigh. Then came the painting part. He still needs new decals but we'll forgo them for a while I suppose. He's a-hankering to get 'er out in th' wilds of Idaho. Pffffft!

Well, I may take a 2-night trip with him, but the older I get the harder it is to sleep on those 3" foam mattresses with my hips. I know some of you understand. And also, some of you think I'm nuts. Why would I want to leave the comfort of my air-conditioned home with my computer, thick foam queen-size bed, refrigerator, TOILET to go to a camp site with 90° weather, skunks, bears, no phone, have our food in soggy water because the ice only lasts two days and he usually drags me along on a 3 or 4 day trip, sit on a folding chair, not be able to read past 8 pm because it gets dark early in the mountains? If this appeals to you, you need serious psycho-counseling.

Last summer our daughter and her hubby bought an RV. They said we could use it if we wanted or come down to California and go with them to the coast or lake. I could have popped her for encouraging her father even more. Plus she's decorated it all in Hello Kitty! Need. I. Say. More? Hmmmm? I knew you'd understand.
 
With that being said, below are some cute caravans for your perusal. If I could have one in my back yard and never go anywhere in it, that would be fine with me. We could "play" camping and come into the house when I get tired of it.

Why did God invent camping trailers? Actually, I think this is one of satan's tricks to make wives miserable. Yeah, that's it.
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Another gorgeous porch in red and white stripes.

An efficiency apartment or loft done extremely well and beautiful.

A beautiful porch overlooking a beautiful ocean.

The next few photos are trailers or caravans depending on where you live. Actually, I prefer caravans because it sounds a bit more elegant than trailers.

Isn't this adorable in red?

This looks like something out of the 50s and so adorable.

The owner of this caravan is a gal after my own heart. She's bold with color and accessories. Who would have thought antlers in a froufrou setting? Love it! Perhaps her hubs needed something signifying a man lives there too. ;-) Hubs would understand this.

Another red one with aqua walls.

One of my favorite ones with all the different fabrics in it.

Can't you just see this in a shabby home? Darling.

Fields of hydrangeas.

This is a home in Russia with an indoor pool and waterfall.

The colors may blind you but it's certainly cute.

I'm not fond of the smell of lavender but it's still gorgeous growing in fields or around a home garden. We have huge lavender fields just down the road a bit from us. All the seniors want their photos taken in it for their senior year photo.

Is this glam and glitz to the extreme or what?!

Another gorgeous porch for you to see.

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Tidbit:
Studies show that your favorite foods are likely foods your mother ate when you were in her womb.
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Another Camp Out In the Sawtooth Mountains

Before I begin you have to see the most recent picture of Miss Caroline, our new great granddaughter. Yesssss, I'm just like most grandmothers who have to brag, but I won't bore you with a lot of pictures. She's looking at the fish in their backyard pond here. She looks like me: wrinkled and can't sit up straight!
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We were off again to the wilds of Idaho camping! This is how I looked as we were getting ready for the camp out.

Let me tell you the story. Please! It's cathartic and therapeutic...for ME, trust me!

I keep telling Love Bunny I hate camping anymore so why does he want to take me or better yet, drag me along. I make no bones about NOT wanting to go. Whimper, whimper.

Let's just say here that my body "doesn't function well" out in the woods. Do you get my drift here? We have a flushing portable toilet that really is a dream when camping outdoors. I'm not a woman who can "go over a hole in the ground" and proved that in Puerto Vallarta Mismaloya beach one year. I had Love Bunny hold a towel around me while I changed into my bathing suit in the parking lot of the beach because the bathrooms (using the term ever so facetiously here!) were literally a hole in the ground and the stall had only 3 sides to it out in the open. Anyone walking by could see me! Couldn't do it. And, yes, you can get out of pants and a shirt into a bathing suit with a beach towel wrapped around you in the parking lot MODESTLY. Trust me, I did it!

Anyway, he accused me of stopping up the portable flush toilet. Now, how in the world can you use too much toilet paper out in the woods? He told me to use less paper. Chicks, it IS what it IS. I can't help it if I have to use more than Mr. Macho! Go munch on some tree bark, Mr. Outdoors!

And this is what I looked like when we got home.

No, that's not the ending. I'll tell you the story.

We arrived just in time for lunch. He wanted a ham and cheese sandwich. I forgot the cheese. He grumbled slightly but adjusted quickly.

I planned us a menu for 3 dinners. Breakfast and lunches were going to be easy. Dinners: Hamburger Helper with salad and veggie, hamburgers on buns with corn on cob and steak with potatoes and salad. Dinners were flexible however as to which we would eat on each night. So the first night I wanted hamburgers on buns.

He: Where are the angus hamburgers?

She: I don't know, either the fridge in the popup trailer or one of the two coolers.

He: I can't find them.

She: Okay, let me look.

She: Well, where are they? I can't find them so go ahead and use the half pound of regular hamburger for HH salisbury steak dinner.

He: That burger isn't here either.

She: Okay, what about steak then?

He: I can't find that either.

Mumble, mumble, grumble

She: I guess I thought you had put the meat into the coolers or fridge.

You can see where this is going, can't you? Both of us forgot the main dish: MEAT! So we had cheese/broccoli rice with 1/2 ear of corn on cob and a salad.

He: did you bring the salad dressing for the salad?

She: do I look stupid or what?

He: looking at me with a snide remark poised on the edges of his lips.

She: DON'T EVEN SAY IT!!!!

We had extra food stored in the camper so we had cheesy/broccoli rice friday night. We also had some freeze dried chili mac and freeze dried meat sauce with spaghetti in our food storage kit. I told him to take me up to that tiny little restaurant about 15 miles up the road and buy me a dinner. Okay, it was sunday and we don't shop or eat out on sunday unless traveling. So we broke sabbath for us but there was NO WAY I was eating USMC MREs. I had a brownie he's had for 25 years maybe and it was horrible—like a soda cracker thick covered with chocolate. Soldiers love them in the field but I'm not a soldier and almost choked on it. It's like a very flat cracker with nuts in it and about 3 x 3 inches square.

So when we came out of the mountains I had a Subway sandwich and Coldstone Creamery ice cream. It was heaven.

I also forgot my hiking shoes. I travel in my pink Crocs so I can slip them on and off easily but they are NOT for walking up and down the mountain trails. I did however get 3 books read, 4 magazines that gave me several ideas on what I'm going to do for this house. I didn't cook, clean a dish, make a bed, lift a finger. He has always promised me he would cook, plan, wash up everything and I could just relax. I was dying I was so bored. Plus, again, it was in the upper 80s and rather hot and I hate heat. I love cold so I slept well at night. We think it was in the 50s and very pleasant sleeping. But I'm truly happy to be home.

Oooooh, and what did I take for me? Moisturizer, tooth brush and toothpaste, 3 underpants, 3 tops and 2 pants. No brush, comb, makeup, dryer, shampoo, mascara. I "finger-combed" my hair each morning. If I can do this YOU can do this. Of course in the Food Mart at Horseshoe Bend, people gave me a wide berth in the store.
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If I Could Live In A Rose Garden

Edit: I just noticed that on the first few pix it looks like I had the "proportionate" button on my PhotoShop "unchecked" and the pix look distorted and thin and elongated. Wish I could capture that look on this bod, chicks!! I'll try to be more careful from now on, promise!! AND I'll post pix of "Love Bunny's new T O Y, tomorrow along with the finished wall. Now, understand it'll take me a while to hang things again. I want to study a scheme for putting things on the wall before I dive in haphazardly hammering in new nails! Oooooh, and I love all the tips people have been giving me on the "growing" of all my plants. I truly need all the help I and hubs can get.
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Hubs and I spent the day trying to stay out of our contractor's way but we don't do a very good job of it. Well, hubs does; I don't! He's through today with the walls - texture is on and it looks really lovely. He has to come back on tuesday to put in the stainless steel sink I purchased a couple of months ago. (His name is Bob Robinson and he lives in Nampa, Idaho if anyone wants any remodel work done I think he'd be thrilled if you gave him a call. He's very reasonable.) Anyway, I've stepped in his "mud" on the paper he puts down on the carpet with my bare feet and tracked it all over the place, stuck my finger in his mud, and I've also brushed against his texturing and he's had to redo it once. But all in all, I think I've pretty much stayed outta his way! He, on the other hand, might just disagree. ;-)

But hubs wants to buy a pop-up trailer and has wanted one for a couple of years, diligently searching ebay and Craigslist for one. He found one today and we went to look at it. We offered a price to his wife because he was out getting their dog mated. :-) Dogs must really love this one!! Anyway, he came home, called hubs and accepted his offer. Now, I told him if we got a trailer I was taking over and "shabby chic-ing" it up. I don't think he has a problem with that really. His aim in life is to make me happy! But it's a hunk of change I tell you to buy a small pop-up trailer. I'm truly not that much into camping any more. It's not that I don't like getting out in the woods once in a while - like once a year or every other year - just fine for me! It just takes a lot outta me to get things ready, plus I have to be away from my computer for a few days and to tell ya the truth, my little cherubs, that scares the heck outta me and almost makes me shutter!! Truly, when Smokey the Bear puts in wireless and the U.S. Forest Service can run tech support with the cable/ISP company then I'll give it more thought! Until then, pass that router please and keep your hands off my browser! But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Soooooooo.........sigh........another decorating project for a "trailer"!! Whoopydippydoooo......... Mom never warned me about these kind of situations! Aaaaaaacckkkkk!!!!

Then we went to Greenhurst Nursery over on Happy Valley Road - don't ya just love that address??!!! I picked up a hibiscus and a beautiful english vintage tea roses bush with the most luscious smell. I've pictured it below with a caption telling you which one. Love Bunny/hubs has already dug the hole and put the hibiscus in it and also is in the process - prior to receiving the call that the aforementioned trailer was HIS - of digging out a forsythia bush to put in the new rose bush. He just HAD to rush over to Middleton to pay the guy and pick up his new trailer! Now, you and I would say it could wait till monday, right?? Nuuuuuuuu, hubs has to waste a gallon of gas in the gas guzzler Montero to run over and pick it up. After all, ya never know when aliens from outer space just might decide to invade this planet and set their beady little eyes on that exact trailer he just purchased to transport back to their home planet and disassemble it to find out what in the world this civilization is doing with these tiny little "houses" with canvas tops rolling along on wheels, right?!?!?! Sheeeeeesh.....

With all the wallboard dust it's another night of eating out. Last night Applebee's and tonight Qdoba's for mexican salad.

This is what he cut and pulled out for the hibiscus. I didn't like it anyway.

Hibiscus is on left.

Just some summer roses blooming.

Aren't these just lovely?!?!?!

The new rose called "Medallion". It is a very pale pink with a bright sort of pale yellow center and kind of ruffley petals. Very lovely!!

The hydrangea is getting bigger and the bougainvillea is growing in just a week!!