Shaping Up

I found these in the floor of my closet the other day. They were just sitting there neglected and gathering dust.

Raise your hand if you think these will help me get into shape for my 45th high school reunion next month. I don't see any hands. Maybe I should have started months ago.

A few weeks ago LBeau attended a safety meeting at work. The topic for the day was exercise and weight control. Sometimes they broaden the definition of safety.

Anyway, see if you can come up with the three reasons most women want to lose weight and get into shape. I'll give you a hint. A class reunion is one of them, so now you only have to come up with two more. I'll post the answer later today.

Sorry, there's no prize for the first one with the correct answer, unless you want my cute little PINK hand weights.

Happy Pink Saturday everyone. Be sure to visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for more Pink Saturday posts.

Just Weighing In

So just what am I doing with these two scales sitting in my bathroom, and why do I need two?

The scales on the right are the ones I've had for years and years and years. They have served me well, but LBeau has always been convinced that they weighed light. He just knew that I weighed five pounds more than the scales say that I weigh.

A couple of weeks ago the scales on the left appeared in the Bed Bath & Beyond ad at a very good price. LBeau spotted them, and casually mentioned that it might be a good idea to purchase some new scales. I thought, "What the heck. At least we'll have something new to replace the old, dirty scales."

The next time I was close to Bed Bath & Beyond, I bought the new scales. I even had a $5.00 off coupon, which was better than the standard 20% off coupon, since the scales were only $19.95 to begin with. I brought them home, put them in the bathroom, and put the old scales in LBeau's closet.

"You got the scales," he exclaimed, when he first saw them. "So what did you weigh?"

"The same thing I weighed on the old scales."

And what do you know—he weighed the same thing he weighed on the old scales as well. So that was the end of it, I thought, and I really liked the large dial on the new scales anyway. Wrong. A few days later the old scales reappeared right beside the new scales.

"I just want to make sure the new ones are weighing me right," LBeau explained.

So this will go on for a while; after all, this is the man who steps on and off the scales several times in a row "just to make sure." Pretty soon I'll be able to make the old ones disappear. In the meantime, just in case you were wondering, it doesn't make you weigh any less or any more to use two pair of scales.

I Am So Jealous

Tomorrow I am taking a friend to have cataract surgery.  Is it wrong to be jealous of someone who is about to have surgery?

She will have one eye done tomorrow and the second eye done next week.  The surgeon will implant a lens that will allow her to see without glasses or contacts.  LBeau had the same surgery done a few years ago.  Although he wears glasses most of the time because he needs them for reading and as an engineer he does lots of close work, he can still get up in the night to go to the bathroom and see where he's aiming.

I have worn glasses since I was in first grade and contacts since 1959.  I started with the old hard plastic lenses, and I still wear the rigid gas perm lenses.  I would love just once to be able to get up in the middle of the night, look at the clock, and be able to read it.

I suppose I could have lasik, and believe me, I've considered it.  But there is the cost involved.  Insurance pays for cataract surgery.

And although I am grateful that I can wear contact lenses instead of glasses, except for reading of course, I would love to be able to just do away with all of that.

So again I ask, is it wrong to be jealous of someone who is about to have surgery?

The Road to Little Rock (and Beyond)

I am late with my Sunday Favorites post this week.  Don’t ask me where the time went; I don’t have a good excuse.  However, reading THIS POST about the upcoming college football season reminded me of one of my own posts from last October and that we will soon be taking the Road to Little Rock and on to Fayetteville for the Arkansas-Georgia game on September 19.  I can’t wait.

Be sure to visit Chari at Happy to Design where you’ll find more Sunday Favorites for your reading pleasure.

A Sunday Favorite

Ben has a new painting over his fireplace. Titled "The Road to Little Rock," it was painted by Laurie Anne Johnson, a friend from Birmingham. The painting depicts a portion of U.S. Highway 78 in Mississippi, which connects Birmingham to Memphis and is a major portion of the route to Little Rock and beyond.

 

The first time I ever traveled U.S. 78 was in July of 1988. LBeau had taken a job with Rust Engineering, and Hunter and I were going with him to Birmingham to help him settle in. The boys and I would stay in Texarkana to sell the house before moving.

 

We had driven to Newport to leave Brent and Ben with Mema Martha. Meanwhile, my car was having issues, so we left it in Newport to be worked on and borrowed Mema's car. Somewhere in Mississippi I was driving Mema's Oldsmobile and following LBeau and Hunter, who were in LBeau's car. It was raining, and all of a sudden I found myself barreling sideways down the median.

 

Fortunately, I was able to get the car under control before running into the west-bound lane, but we vowed at that point that we would find another road to Arkansas. And for years, we would take I-65 north to Cullman, Alabama, and angle over to U.S. 72, which would take us to Memphis, where we could pick up I-40 into Arkansas.

 

Finally, Mississippi upgraded U.S. 78 to interstate standards, and once again it became our road home. Over the years, we have altered portions of our route as Alabama has upgraded sections of U.S. 78, which will become I-22 once those upgrades are completed. We now by-pass Jasper, Winfield, Guin, Gu-Win and Hamilton, Alabama. Most of our stops come in Mississippi in either Fulton, Tupelo, New Albany, Holly Springs or Olive Branch.

 

Halfway between New Albany and Holly Springs is the exit for Potts Camp, Mississippi. While we have never been to Potts Camp, it holds special significance on the road to Little Rock. A few years ago our friends Nick and J.R. were traveling back to Arkansas after a trip to Birmingham for a Razorback game. At the Potts Camp exit, they suddenly found themselves doing a 360 and ended up plowing up a portion of the highway median.

 

Since then, every time we successfully negotiate that portion of the highway, I send Nick a text message that simply says, "Potts Camp."

 

This weekend we took the road to Little Rock for a party for Ben and Claire. Back in 1988 we didn't have cell phones and text messaging, but this weekend I was able to send the "Potts Camp" text twice.

Pink Is Pink Is Pink

About the time LBeau and I started out on our nightly walk last Sunday, he pointed to our neighbor's crape myrtle tree and said, "That crape myrtle is not the same color pink as our crape myrtles."

Now keep in mind that we've been walking this same route for the past eight years, and he's just now noticing that crape myrtles come in different shades of pink. I've often said that LBeau is slow to notice when I've made decorating changes, but eight years has got to be a record.

I was patient, however, and just said, "If you'll pay attention while we're walking, you'll see lots of shades of pink crape myrtles."

We have three crape myrtles in our front yard. Here's one of them.

It's a shade or two lighter than Wayne's crape myrtles across the street.

The house directly across the street boasts a pale pink crape myrtle.

And the one next door that LBeau noticed after all these years has a touch of purple in the pink.

I almost forgot that Beverly asked us for our thoughts on commenting on blogs, so I am going to append that to this post.  I have the Feedjit widget on my blog, so I can see where visitors are coming from.  I have noticed that I get tons of visitors that don’t leave comments.  I think some people probably want to remain anonymous and others just don’t want to take the time to comment.

I try to visit everyone who comments on my blog, and whenever I visit I leave a comment because I know they mean a lot to the blogger.  With time constraints in my daily schedule, this usually means I don’t get around to as many blogs as I would like, but I do the best I can.  Whenever I visit blogs through one of the meme links, I try to start with the most recently linked blogs since I know that the ones linked the earliest will already have gotten lots of visitors.

I have my blog set so that comments do not require word verification, but I also have had it set so that the comments are in a separate window.  I have changed that now so that the comment box is directly below the post.  This might encourage more comments since visitors don’t have to click on a link to make a comment.

So on this Pink Saturday, be sure to take a good look at all the shades of PINK that color your world. And also pay a visit to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for more pink inspiration.  When you do visit a blog, try to leave a comment.

Finding a Bargain or Two

Today I'm joining Leigh over at Bloggeritaville for Thrifty Thursday.  Be sure to check out the bargains that other thrifty bloggers have discovered.

About a month ago my niece Mandy was singing the praises of Alice.com on Facebook.  Her comment drew lots of praise from her 20-something mom friends, so I decided to check Alice out.  If you've never heard of this website, Alice basically claims to have better pricing than the discount stores on stuff that you use every day—cleaning supplies, health and beauty aids, laundry products, and they don't charge shipping or sales tax.

It wouldn't hurt to see what Alice was all about.  I set up my free account and then began the process of selecting my products and making note of the prices.  With this information, I decided to find out if Alice really was a better bargain.

I started out at Walgreens in Lee Branch on Highway 280.  I buy a lot of stuff at Walgreens.  They often put their vitamins on sale at two for one, and sales tax is only 5%.  I guess Walgreens sits on a parcel of land that was not snatched up by Hoover when they took in the rest of Lee Branch, so you pay only Shelby County sales tax.

As I began the process of price comparison, I noticed that not only were Walgreen's prices sometimes better than Alice's prices, but they were running some pretty good specials as well.  I needed bath soap, so that went into my cart, but I decided to take advantage of some other deals as well.

Perhaps the best kept secret of the Lee Branch Walgreens is Lou.  Lou often runs the register at the beauty counter, and she keeps a stash of coupons that she has filed alphabetically.  If you're ever shopping there when Lou is working, it pays to check out at that register.  Lou was in that day, so I headed to her register.  I felt like I had won the lottery.  Lou had $1 off coupons for everything in my buggy.

When all was said and done, I paid a little over $18 for all of this, and I had accumulated $5 in register rewards to use the next time I visited Walgreens.

I would have spent over $25 for the same stuff by ordering from Alice.  Sometimes it pays to shop close to home.

A Couple of Updates

Last week I wrote about Cycles Gladiator wine, which has been banned in Alabama because the label features a drawing of a nude nymph.  Well, I am happy to report that my post boosted sales in Houston, Arkansas and Georgia.

My friend Nick in Houston called from the liquor store to get the name of the wine.  While I was on the phone with him he located it, and I know he purchased at least one bottle.

Meanwhile, my sister-in-law Susie sent pictures from the closest liquor store to Conway, Arkansas.  You can't buy any liquor in Conway because it's in a dry county, but she and my brother made a run to the nearest store just across the county line in Pulaski County.

Susie's friend Carter sent the first picture.  Over in Georgia, they are capitalizing on the "Banned in Bama" theme.  You can read my original post HERE.

While I'm updating, I need to mention the interesting email I got from Pam Boyd, the daughter of Dorothy Viola Southern.  Some of you may have read THIS POST from a couple of weeks ago about Dorothy's obituary that ran in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.  Pam thanked me for my interest and said that she had written the obituary.  She also mentioned that she has written a comedy screen play about her mother that has gotten some interest in L.A.  After exchanging several emails with Pam, she sent me a copy of  "Baggage Claim."  I am looking forward to reading it.

I told Pam that I had gotten a lot of hits on my blog from people googling her mother's name.  Pam said that her mother had dementia and had lost contact with a lot of her friends and acquaintances.  So if any of you arrive here after googling "Dorothy Viola Southern" and you would like to contact her daughter, just email me (there's a link to my email address on my sidebar), and I'll put you in touch with Pam.