Look, Mom... an alien has invaded our backyard!

"Look, Mom... it is an alien who has come to visit us...."  Naw... it is really Princess trying to kiss the camera...

But the tree is gone - or at least most of it is... LOL... Paul got his chainsaw back from the shop and without any prodding from me the other night, asked if I wanted to 'cut some wood'...
(which really means he cut down the trunk as I cleaned up the small branches, raked, swept up the twigs, etc....)  :)   Works for me!

I have a pile of sawdust around the base of it the dogs are loving to dig through and Paul's chainsaw is back to the shop for they put on the wrong chain (OMG)... Don't ask me how he managed to get it all down with the wrong chain, but he did!... And there must be 1/4 of a cord of wood piled up for burning later in the fireplace as well!... What a deal!

Paul was up on that huge ladder (the same one we used to paint the outside of the house with) and 'topped' all the large branches off of it until we had just the main trunk left behind...  By that point, both of us were already bushed~!!!... That was a LOT of work already... Between his chainsaw and my 'handy-dandy' Black & Decker portable saw, we had already cleaned up all the branches and had a second recycle barrel full of stuff that couldn't easily been burnt!

I love this photo - it's that look of 'Sooo... now what do I do' that I know so well from Paul... LOL... I have seen it hundreds of times in almost 13 years as I've drawn him into some of my projects~!!!...

Once he finally figured out what he was going to do next, he got on it and the sawdust was REALLY flying~!!!













And I love this photo too... I can just hear Paul saying, "ENOUGH already" - one of his common expressions!... I think (?) by this time he was already annoyed by the number of photos I was taking, but this is recording our own personal history, ya know?

Once he really got after it, the tree was truly dead all the way down through the trunk (so I feel redeemed on my judgment call about the project... WHEW~!!!)...  For once one of my hair-brained ideas and projects didn't blow up on my face!

And, by this time of the evening, I had to switch on the camera flash to take a photo... So you can tell just how long it took both of us to get this tree down to the ground and cleaned up...

Yesterday morning, it was a reality check when I went outside for the first time... It truly is like when you first get a new, radical haircut and pass by a mirror accidentially... The visual makes you do a double take and then you realize that you got a haircut, ya know?... The backyard looked a bit naked and exposed to be truthful...

But, I already had another umbrella bought and sitting on the patio table along with the umbrella stand in the floor of my truck, so I was prepared...

A few years ago, the city removed a HUGE tree from the street below and that provided a lot of shade to the back yard along with the shade this apricot tree provided when it was still alive... Between the two of them, we never had a lot of thick grass below and around the apricot tree, but we always had a lot of shade... Once the city tree came down, I immediately noticed how much the back of the house 'baked' in the hot afternoon sun... And as the number of apricot leaves diminished each year, the back yard continued to bake even more...

However, I do love umbrellas... The nice big, wide ones about 7' or more across... I can control the amount of sun an area gets (or not) even if it means keeping tabs on how much wind we have on any given day... I tend to do that anyway because I really try to avoid turning on the AC all the time to keep the bills down... And where the house sits on the side of the ridge, if I am paying attention and opening and closing the right windows, doors, etc. I can get a great breeze moving throughout the house on practically 90% of the time in hot weather...

I tend to take my breaks throughout the day in the backyard - it has become my sanctuary of sorts... Especially as the evening winds down, the dogs engage in a game of 'catch me' and I enjoy this part of my life immensely... My only regret (and it is a VERY small one) is that when I went from the laptop to the desktop computer, I lost the freedom of working out back there... But this is indeed a small price to pay for a huge amount of serenity IMHO...

Anyway, I guess we could be singing, "Ding... dong... the tree is down... The dead tree, the dead tree is down" now... It was an amazing amount of hard work and months of me thinking about this needing to be done... Now to work on getting a thick lawn of great grass to enjoy in its place!

As Always,
The Lady

Cajun Red *ss Over Telemarketers.... gRRRRRRR

Mornin, Mornin... I am not someone that you want to step on my last nerve... I have the patience of Job in most cases, but even I have my limits... One of the few benefits we have noticed since the bundling of stuff with Time Warner is caller ID on the phone... And after almost breaking my neck several times to catch the phone, I have just about had it with the telemarketers!

In March, some of the calls started with, "Hello, this is Janey and President Obama's..."... I dutifully listened to the end to see if there was a 'press 1 to remove yourself from our list' and there wasn't... Eventually I would wait until the end then leave a hateful message on their system, telling them I wanted OFF their automated calling system... 

Then I realized if I said a curse word in my message, it immediately disconnected... If someone had me on video, running for the phone from the backyard after turning off the hose, picking up the phone and saying "*&$% +&^", it might not be that lady-like but probably humorous to see (except I didn't think it was very funny)... 

This morning I opened caller ID and wrote down all the names, phone numbers and dates of calls since 3/11... Then I used phoneowner.info to see if others had complained (and added a few of my own too!)...

We've been on the 'Do Not Call' list since it was announced years ago... So the more I read this morning, the more annoyed I got... 

Took some time out of my day, but I spent the time to file complaints on all of the telemarketers that have been calling us since the middle of March (when we switched over to Time Warner incidentally!... Ironic, huh?.... )... You can file complaints online at the Federal Communications Commission website HERE...

Needless to say, I have the sheet of the phone call numbers I have logged and printed out my complaints from the FCC... Just what I need... Another piece of paper and file folder... Geesh!

Switching gears somewhat - right around my birthday in February, Paul and I switched out duties... He's been paying the bills and I've done the year-end taxes which has been a MAJOR PITA for a few years now... 

How he does things and how I do them (paperwork wise is as different as water and ice)... Every tax time has been at least a week of questions, irritation, annoyances and discord... So this year I suggested I take over paying the bills and he take over a few of my 'mundane chores'... Namely, laundry of the 'flats' (blankees from adoption), mowing the yard and picking up the doggie poop... At the time, I figured it was a pretty fair exchange... 

And so did Paul... Until he started doing just the flats laundry... Forget about the other two... Even though it is 'not my job,' if I see something is falling behind, I'll get some of it done just so it is not piled up on someone else...

So for about 6 weeks now, I've been handling the incoming mail, paying the bills, balancing bank statements (OMG - what a concept!), etc... And I have a small, crappy shredder by my desk... When we redid Paul's office, he got a new shredder that stands on the floor... And because he makes me paranoid about identity theft, I have been trucking back to his office several times a day, shredding up paper and mail... 

Two days ago, I started going through a stack of papers that had been sitting in a box and realized most of them could now be shredded up... After a few trips to his shredder, I said "Forget this" and rolled his shredder into the kitchen where I shredded (and emptied the bin 6 times!!!)... 

I asked Paul that night why he had such a big and nice shredder when he no longer handles all of this incoming paper and I have such a crappy one... He said there wasn't any specific reason and that if I wanted to swap out, it was OK with him - that I could keep the new one... LOL... I don't think he expected me to immediately agree from the look on his face... Normally everyone around here is used to me just 'making do' with things, but once he offered, it didn't take me but a second to warm up to the idea!... ... He might need to start thinking before he speaks now... Who knows what else I might ask for!

I'm still in my 'spring clean-up and out' mode... Every day I hammer away at getting rid of this and that... Cleaning stuff out, organizing it, throwing crap away, etc... Sans the dead apricot tree from last Sunday (which is totally coming down this Sunday come heck or high water!)... I keep chipping away at stuff... Where does it all come from?... Just not the daily incoming paper and mail, but all of the rest of the crap?...

For a few weeks now I have seriously been considering going and getting a document scanner and start moving this paper and files into digital storage... We have a 4-drawer lateral file that I have to clean out periodically and with the rescue now, it seems that paper and files are like bunnies - they keep breeding more of themselves!

So much for the paperless environment the computer people promised us, huh?...

Yeah, right....


As Always,
The Lady

Why do I continue to write?

Afternoon... First chance I've had to actually sit and think without headed in a gazillon directions today...

Now just WHERE did I sit that roll of tickets down?... I've been looking for them most of the day off and on!... LOL...)... I had an unopened roll of tickets yesterday as I was cleaning things out around the house... I remember having them in my hands and then something happened (can't remember what) and I got distracted taking care of that... I know I just sat them down somewhere, but I can't find them for the life of me... Geesh!

I KNOW I didn't 'put them away' because I would have made a mental note of where I put them... It is SO easy to get distracted around here some days - a barking dog, the phone rings, have a load of laundry to change, you name it!

I used to do it to my glasses, but eventually got tired of hunting them down!

Some days I wonder why I bother to keep writing the Press... It is the same as talking to an unknown and faceless therapist, more or less... My husband says he is more aware of what is going on inside me just by reading the Press... He might learn even more by not having on that damned TV... LOL.... 

I've been doing this kind of 'auto-writing' since I was a teenager... I like to go back periodically and read some of the OLD journals... I had some wild and crazy thoughts back then... I am amazed at some of the TRIVIAL things I felt were so important... And I get saddened by the realization that in some cases, not much in this world had changed... 

And there is something about writing down things you have been feeling and thinking about... My foster mom used to always say that once you wrote it down, you took it off of the 'brain list' you were consistently compiling inside of your head... She's probably very right for there were few things ever that she was wrong about!

Some days I get on a tangent and can't seem to shake off a topic or pattern of thoughts... Yesterday, I put in a call to a friend of mine I mentioned a few weeks back - she's got various forms of cancer going on, and she pops into my thoughts a lot...

And I am always running against the clock... 'Gotta get this done today'... 'Gotta make sure I call so-and-so'... I turn around, the day is halfway over and I am still only 25% down my today's list!... Geezie, peezie.... Does that darn clock speed up on me some days?

I tend to look more closely at life and people in my life for some reason... I'm not so sure that I am objective observer, but I sure do seem to think some very strange thoughts some days... And some of the thoughts are VERY intense... I don't just worry about this or that... I WORRY~!!!... I don't seem to have the capacity to love just a little bit, but all-encompassing, deep, intense love... Same goes for hate and irritation as well... sigh...

But at least when I auto-write it is a one-way thing... For the most part... Some people are pretty good about writing back to me, especially when I hit a nerve on a particular topic...  I know that I will not use the proper grammar or tense in sentences, so I'm always a bit taken back by people who continue to read my rambles... But at least I feel a bit of a release by putting it into text and out of me!...

Off to continue to look for that roll of tickets~!!!

As Always,
The Lady

"I'm 63 and I'm tired" by Robert A. Hall

This was sent to me in an email and after reading through it, I could not have said it any better!

"I'm 63 and I'm Tired" (by Robert A. Hall - read his blog HERE)

I'm 63.   Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs (but job-hunting every day), I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years.  I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am.  Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired.  Very tired.

I'm tired of  being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic.  I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes."  Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help.  But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble, help them with their own money.

I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers.  In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the  economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the  crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela.

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives  and daughters for their family "honor;" of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers;" of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery;" of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls, all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.

I think it's very cool that we have a black president, and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.  I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual, and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.
 
I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that thinks Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama, with three years as senator, as potentially the best president ever.  Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue.  I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures," we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.
 
I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate.  My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs.  We also own a three-bedroom condo, where our daughter and granddaughter live.  Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.

I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime.  What's next?  Calling drug dealers "Undocumented Pharmacists?"  And, no, I'm not against Hispanics.  Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion.  I'm willing to fast-track for citizenship any Hispanic person who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record, and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.  Those are the citizens we need.
 
I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military.  They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad-mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet.  Do our troops sometimes misbehave?  Sure.  Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close.  So here's the deal.  I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq,or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia,because the girls were Christian.  Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue, and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan.  And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship.  I live in Illinois , where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years.  Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's Cabinet.

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught.  I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.
 
Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor.  The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor."  The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.
 
I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions.  I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.
 
Yes, I'm damn tired.  But I'm also glad to be 63.  Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making.  I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.

Thinking always gets me into trouble... LOL

Mornin, Mornin... I was thinking again the past few days... Ut oh... That can be dangerous~!!!... They have caulking that goes from pink to white when it is ready - why can't they do the same thing to hair dye?... 

Think about it... Us old ladies need to wear our glasses to see if it is ready to be washed out and yet?   That means you either have to look through the glasses folded up or take a chance of ruining your eye pieces from the hair dye if you actually put them on~!!!... 

Ya know?  If they can get a stick thingie to pop out of a turkey when it is done and caulking to change color, then the manufacturers can come up with a better way of letting you know the hair dye is done too!..

IMHO it just makes sense... LOL...

And why do they name things so oddly?... Take for example toilet paper and paper towels - you know what they are just by the pure name they give it... But how much plastic is in plastic surgery?... Ever wondered that?... Granted, some people do look like they have had plastic inserted into their skin after wards, but I mean - REALLY~~~!!!... Name something as it really is... Instead of something odd that a person who has English as their second language can understand!

I went shopping for under britches last week... Desiree's generation now calls them 'granny panties'... Has anyone strolled down the woman's under britches aisle lately?... I thought more than once when the package I picked out was called "briefs"... Brief I don't need - coverage I do!... I have bought three packages in the past few months that once I got home and tried them on, I threw out because they didn't fit on me like they looked on the model on the front of the package...

Give me a break~!!!... I'd rather see reality in packaging and then I know what I am going to be buying... Is it a conspiracy?... Sell me something you think I will like after you've doctored up the packaging, but put something entirely different inside?...

And talking about under britches - let's talk about the men's side of this... Since when are boxer shorts really shorts a boxer will wear any more?... Has anyone seen the boxers on TV recently?... Those things look more like culottes now that anything else!... If you want me to sit and watch two men brutalizing each other, give me some thigh skin, people... Not droopy drawers like the basketball players wear now...

Men's shorts have been going downhill for quite some time... I remember my first husband looked REALLY good in his shorts for it showed off his thigh and calf... Most men have good looking thighs and if the shorts drop below their knees in length, it is like eating cake without the icing~!!!.... Not good... LOL...

I realize the older we get, the more we have to fight gravity, but please~!!!... Paul has a great set of legs but because he's not a very tall man, most shorts on him drop below the knee (and he does wear them on his hips like you are supposed to)... Put the same shorts on a man who wears them below his hips (like the fashion is now) and I am SO tempted to go up to the guy, grab a hunk of material on each side and just PULL DOWN~!!!

I think when I am old enough the judge would feel sorry for me, I might just try this one day and hope I don't go to jail... Think it would work???...

As Always,

The Lady

(hope I put a smile on your face today!) 

Fundraising effort: Chi-Weaters

I wanted to announce a fundraiser for the rescue - Chi-Weaters - for those of us who love this breed and have a difficult time finding the proper fitting sweater for them... 100% of the profits of this endeavor go directly to the saving of dogs dying in our local shelter... We volunteers not only donate our time to knit these Chi-Weaters, but the yarn as well~!!!

The idea was born after trying to find sweaters that would fit Abby after she became a tri-pede... Every commercially made T-shirt and sweater simply slid right off her shoulders, so we went 'to the needles' to come up with the perfect pattern... After MANY attempts and numerous pieces that were pulled apart, we finally found the right way to make sweaters for Chihuahuas that would fit their wide chests but still be small enough at the neckline... 

I'm lucky to have such willing models to show off our Chi-Weaters... Each one is made individually and by hand, one Chi-Weater at a time - so they are unique and different for those who want their Chihuahuas to strut and be individualized among the many!

Please forward this link around and network... We continue to add items to the website as each new one is made!  Thank you!

P.S. Scudderbutts allows us to do basically anything to him!  He was a banana for Halloween, Santa for Christmas, etc... I couldn't resist this photo of him as I was sliding the Chi-Weater over his head!   What a ham!

Overweight women are NOT lazy... At least I'm not!

Mornin, Mornin... WOW... There were tons of emails in my box after the last blog posting from you all... Think I hit a nerve on this topic... Mostly from women, but a few from men... Many remarking about the perception of women who are overweight, but again?... Some who recommended this diet or that one... One I am seriously thinking about trying is this one... The amount of dark green stuff needed might play heck with my Factor V problems, but you never know...

Many people commented on the belief that women who are overweight are lazy... Some commented that men don't carry this same misconception - true, True, TRUE~!!!... Statistics and studies point out that executives in top Fortune 500 companies are not discriminated against if they happen to be older AND overweight... In fact, it is almost expected... Younger successful men are perceived to be 'up and comers' if they are watching their health and weight, but the older guys?... Their obesity is overlooked... They are viewed as 'strong like oaks'... Hmmm.... Reverse discrimination at its finest!

I don't think anyone that knows me would ever think of me as being lazy... If anything, I can outwork and out-go both of my family members, hands down... I am SO determined to get something done once I have started it that I will practically work myself into the ground to get it finished... I tend to push myself beyond the pain warning signs that start going off inside of me, believing if I just put one more effort I will get it finished, ya know?...

Yesterday was a good example of my 'hardheadedness' or determined nature (as I prefer to think of it)...  I have watched the apricot tree in the back for a few years now... It has ALWAYS been a PITA in regards to the pool, for it was planted too close and in the fall, dumps most of its leaves into the water for me to clean out (or Paul to clean out of the basket before it hits the filtration system)...

It has also completely ruined any chance of grass underneath of it not only because of the shade it creates (when it has them) but because of the massive amount of water it would steal from the surrounding areas... I gave up having grass within 6' of the base and put Desiree's old futon mattress up on a pallet for the dogs to sunbathe on each day... If you can't have grass close to the tree, you might as well use that space for something else, ya know?

Three years ago, only half of the tree came back... It was the year Paul was messing with the sprinkler system and we had had a few floods out back there... I'm not sure exactly what is going on with that aspect of the back yard, but I think (?) the roots of the tree are too close to a sprinkler head and he can't replace it, so the sprinkler system is turned off to avoid floods...

The next year, even less of the leaves on the tree came in once spring arrived... Of course, the side of the tree I would have wanted the leaves to be on was completely barren... The side by the pool was the one with the leaves...

And last year, only two big branches has leaves... Again, the wrong side of the yard and they fell into the pool when fall arrived...

So for two months I have watched other trees in the area bud and start their leaves... Nothing on the apricot tree... I kept walking up and snapping off branches to see if the sap was working its way back up into the branches... Eventually I decided the tree had finally just died and it was time for it to go bye-bye...

For a few weeks I have sat and looked at that tree, trying to determine how I would get it down... Two calls to professionals and one estimate ($500 plus $100 per 1/2 cord to haul away the wood)... Basically he told me to figure $1,000+ and he couldn't get out until the middle of April...

The second professional told me it would be weeks before he could get out to give us an estimate as they were in their 'prime season and a cutting down a single tree was not cost-efficient to do right now'... I asked how they would get it down without it going into the pool and he said they take it down, branch by branch....

One of the neighbors up the hill had a tree taken down last week... So I watched them do it through my kitchen window... The more I watched them, the more I kept thinking I could do this myself... Problem is, I have to watch going up on ladders around here when no one is home in the event I fall... And anything sharp?  I also have to be careful someone is around in the event I cut myself for I could easily bleed out with the blood thinners by the time I drove myself the four blocks to ER...

Desiree said she was going to be home yesterday, and after listening to the wind howling throughout Saturday night and worrying was the tree going to crash into the house, I decided 'Today is the day that tree is going to come down - or at least get started!'...

Turns out, Desiree had plans that developed during the day, so she was gone but Paul was around the house... After dragging the 10' ladder out into the backyard along with the recycling bin, I started pulling down the small branches and breaking them up for the recycle bin...

Well, I eventually ran out of room in the recycling bin, but I got the tree taken down half way... Some branches I got down, but had to put on the other side of the fence until the bin is emptied tomorrow on trash day... 

Once I get the small branches down, I am hoping Paul gets his chain saw back from the store with the needed tune-up, and he can get the big branches down and the wood cut into pieces that are suitable for the fireplace next winter...

As I'm pulling one branch down after another with nothing more than my SMALL rechargeable saw, I'm thinking about this whole process in a macro-perspective... Nothing in my life has ever seemed to be to overcome (with the exception of my illness).... I might be scared or a bit doubtful to take on something, but courage and hardheadedness always kicks in... I believe I can do it and so I do, ya know?... I've never been afraid to start cutting a piece of fabric, nor to try out a new idea to solve a problem... It might not work, but that potential outcome has never stopped me from trying...

I consistently show Desiree how to do this or that around the house... I hope that my willingness to take on all challenges that come my way rubs off on her... I hope she never believes that she has to have a man around to do these chores or tasks... But I do hope she has more patience than I do about waiting for days (weeks, months, years) for things to get done once you've asked someone else for their help... I keep trying to improve this defect in myself, but it seems my time schedule is never the same as anyone else's... Once I decide I want something done, I'm on it... I am sure I drive Paul crazy about this, but I do try and give him a heads up that I am trying to get something done...

The fine line between what a woman can do and is expected to do is slowly fading... We women know that we can do just about anything, even if we don't have the physical strength men have... I may have had to bring that tree done, small branch by small branch and then up the ladder again to bring down a bigger one they were connected to... But I have no doubts that were the chain saw working yesterday, I would have had that entire tree down to the point I was finished with the project...

Once the tree is gone to about 2.5' off the ground, I will make it into a umbrella holder so that I can control how much sun is on that area and how much is not...

I want to get another small tree out of the backyard - it is a miniature Palestinian lime tree that Paul has been growing for years... The tree has LONG spines on it that never fail to nick me at least once during mowing... And there must be barbs on the spines, because it not only cuts you, it stings and tears at the flesh...

The little birds love it, but it has caused me to lose far too much blood along the way... I can understand Paul's affection for it, but I am hoping he moves it to the front yard so I don't have to deal with it as much... 

And then?... I would like to plant an orange tree and a lemon tree - more towards the center of the backyard than the two are now, but not too close to the back brick wall...  I see a few of these growing around the area and with our climate, they stay with leaves almost the entire year...

I'm not so sure this will be a wise choice, but it is in draft format right now... I would be just as happy with umbrellas and thick grass, but the trees do add shade to an area that 'bakes' in the summer time... And with something back there, it keeps that side of the house cooler too...

Anyway, this just goes to show you that overweight women are not lazy for sure... Not by a long shot!

As Always,

The Lady