Many, Many More Monday Musings

Happy Monday to you! And Happy "Ides of June" to you...well, a bit past the actual "Ides," but the sentiments are there.

<--Loved this photo.

New week...new video...no new 24 episode or wings. We'll have to satisfy ourselves with a good James Bond flick tonight. James Bond...Jack Bauer. Same initials at least. *Sigh!*

A belated Happy Father's Day to all those dads out there. We had a nice day, going to church and then out to lunch at Pizza Hut with my family. We all enjoy the pizza/salad buffet they offer on Sundays.

I received a SPAM e-mail this morning that caught my attention before I deleted it. "Grass Seeds on Steroids" was on the subject line. What? you say. Apparently, you can order this "Turbo-Charged" grass seed from a place online. And it's guaranteed to grow anywhere, anytime of year. (That's the sort of challenge my hubby would enjoy testing out...and, oh, the places he would try to get it to grow....) Order now, and it's BOGO. Tempting? Nah. Funny? Yep!

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We found out that Edward has decided not to get married. Apparently kissing -- esp. on the lips -- grosses him out. Hmmm... Wonder who helped him with that opinion.

And, speaking of marriage, the guest speaker at church yesterday was the pastor of counseling at our old church. He did our premarital counseling. He talked about how often young couples blush when he gets to the topic of sex in the counseling sessions. Emily was very curious about this afterwards. She wondered why people blushed...and if we did. We explained that because it's such a private subject, people often feel shy of talking about it personally. She wanted to know if people actually wanted to do "that" (read: have sex) after they were married. We said yes. "Did you, Daddy? And, of course, you did...right, Mommy?" Ummm...!! Am I blushing?

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Just saw that the Veggie Tales creators have come out with another new Veggietunes CD. This one is Bob and Larry singing songs from the '70s. Sounds like fun! I'm sure it will conjure up some "groovy" memories, huh?

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5 THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT
• celebrating each day
• head-high hedges
• a Dairy Queen run after lunch
• Snickerdoodle cookies
• bats swooping in the summer night sky

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True story: When I was about 10, my family bought an old house. I'm talking o-ld. It dated all the way back to 1769. My parents had shortlived dreams about restoring it but, in the end, decided to just make it livable for us.

During one of the construction periods, my dad opened up some of the old plaster walls so that he could drywall them instead. He hadn't quite finished the project when he had to go away on a trip.

It was Summertime, and I was spending the night at a friend's house, my sister Shelly was away at camp, and Mom and my other sister Sandy were home...alone.

Sitting in the living room, reading and doing some cross-stitch, the two ladies startled when something dark swooped past them. The screaming started just after the "something dark" whizzed past them again.

Mom wasted no time pulling Sandy from the house, catching Sandy's stitchery in the door as she did so.

After finding no nearby neighbors home, Mom and Sandy drove -- like the proverbial "bat out of Hell" -- up the road and down the lane of our adopted grandmother, Esther "Tick" Scheffey.

Now widowed and in her 70s, she lived alone on the farm across from our house. Since it was summer, she often had her friend, Anna, come stay with her. That night was no exception, only since it was quite hot out even after the sun had gone down, the ladies were sitting out on Esther's back porch in just their underwear. (It was deep in the country...110 acres.)

Imagine their surprise at seeing the cloud of dust that was my mom's car, flying down the lane. (At first Anna thought it might be some strange men...to which Tick replied, "Well, there's one for you and one for me.")

After hearing my mom's tearful retelling of their encounter with the flying thing, the elderly ladies were more than willing to come to the rescue. Donning some clothes and a broom, they headed back to the old house to rid it of the dark-shadow menace.

Tick headed into the house, while my mom, sister, and Anna stood outside and cheered her on. She opened a back window and chased the creature from the house. The cheering turned to screaming as the ladies dove inside, realizing the dark, shadowy creature was now outside, on their side of the world.

It turned out to be a bat...probably flying for its life from the screaming occupants of the house.

The story brought a good laugh to all the ladies...although my mom and sister ended up spending the night at Tick's house.