365-2 | Peaches Prattlings

{August 7, 2014} A joke for a buck…seems fair

We were walking down Main Street tonight and saw a sign in front of two guys, who looked slightly homeless. There was a sign that said “$.50 good joke, $1 for a bad joke.

Well, you know which one i picked! partly because i was curious and partly to help the guys out, I don’t think either of them had jobs or home for that matter.

There are a lot of homeless in the world and a lot have taken residence in the towns where I live. It really is sad that there is a homeless problem out there, the bigger problem is that we can’t be civilized enough to fix it.

I love the different signs that say “Why lie, I’m going to buy alcohol”, at least that person is honest. There is so much more I want to tell you., but I’m exhausted and tapped out at the moment, so I apologize for the very brief posting.

In conclusion [ha ha]. I told them a very cute joke, didn’t really get me any where!

{August 6, 2014} Taffy

Taffy is a funny thing.

We like the way it looks, smells and tastes, most of the time. It’s nostalgic; takes us back to a simpler time and no matter what, it makes you think of the beach, well, it makes me think of the beach.

It’s sticky and messy and gets in your teeth and sticks to the roof of your mouth so you can’t talk, but no matter what, you’re going to eat it, well, as long as you don’t have braces, dentures or any other ailment to keep you from eating “real food”.

Are you thinking of the beach right now? I am!

{August 5, 2014} Trader Joe’s vs Whole Foods – What did that cost?

I love both of these supermarkets but such a difference between the costs!

I remember discovering Trader Joe’s for the first time, a real neighborhood market, nice neighborhood feel, great selection, fantastic prices and this was when Two Buck Chuck was still two bucks! And when they built one in Boulder, how excited was I, I wouldn’t have to drive 45 minutes like I did in Atlanta. Here in Ann Arbor, 4 miles, how happy am I!

I also remember the day I discovered Whole Foods years ago and then I quickly turned around and walked out the door! How expensive, yet wonderful this place is! Fresh foods, salads, healthy stuff, what’s not to love?

Since I’m on the road I get a certain amount that I can spend on food per day and what I like to do is purchase food to have in my room for the week and I love some of the fresh salads that Whole Foods have to offer, specifically some vegan salads.

Yesterday, I went to both stores to get some groceries for the week. Here’s the huge difference…I spent $39 at Trader Joe’s and got two bags worth of stuff [see the picture on the right] and then I went to Whole Foods, spent $32 and got half a bag of stuff [see the picture on the left].

How does that work? Just one of life’s great mysteries.

20140804_152256 20140804_150621

{August 5, 2014} Today I got a letter!

I got my first letter from camp and I am over the moon!

I don’t know if you remember me talking about getting EJS ready for summer camp last week. One of the things we did to get her ready was print out letters she could ‘fill in the blanks’ and send, we added mailing and return address labels to envelopes and included stamps she could add. We all did letters: her parents, me, my dad, La La.

We weren’t sure if we would get a letter, but we were all hopeful! And it paid off!

Before I left Boston, I wrote her a letter and mailed it. Today, I wrote her a letter to send and when I took it to the front desk to ask them to mail it, Debra asked if anyone had given me my letter. No, they hadn’t! She said it was addressed to someone named “Auntie J S”, that’s me! I got a letter from camp! You know how excited i get and so you can imagine how much I squealed!

I cracked up because she was using a yellow highlighter and let me tell you, it’s easier to read in the picture than when I had it in my hand! I am tickled pink [or yellow] that I got a letter from camp! I hope that I get another, but if I don’t…I got a letter from camp!!!

Signed…a happy auntie!!!

{August 4, 2014} Guardians of the Galaxy

If I just say “Go see this movie” would that be enough? Ok, so I’ll tell you more.

First, a great cast! Chris Pratt was fantastic and cheesy and sexy and goofy as the reluctant hero, Peter Quill or ‘Starlord”, Zoe Saldana, as Gamora, she kicked arse, yeah, that’s it. Question: what color will she be in her next movie? Dave Bautista, the wrestler was terrific as Drax, very colorful. Rounding out our group are Rocket, a genetically modified raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel voicing Groot, the giant tree who had a wide vocabulary of “I am Groot” yeah, that’s it, but it was all in the inflection, very funny.

Some of the other good guys; Glenn Close as Nova Prime, John C Reilly as Corpsman Dey, he was a very funny cop.

Benicio Del Toro is “The Collector”, who you might remember from the end of Thor, not good or bad and Michael Rooker was Yondu Udonta, a blue dude with awful teeth, but with the coolest arrow that he could command with a whistle, I want that arrow!

Now, moving on to the bad dudes. Lee Pace was Ronan he was blue with purple eyes and a mean s.o.b.! Djimon Hounsou was Korath, one of Ronan’s guard, Karen Gillan, from Dr Who was Nebula, she was blue and really bad, trained to be a killer, along side Gamora, but so very different!

I’ll tell you about some memorable moments in the movie. One that wasn’t fun was in the very beginning, there is a mom in the hospital dying, but luckily for the sensitive, hint hint, the scene lasted only about five minutes. The movie had some great 1980s references and if you grew up in the ’80s and how great is a soundtrack that did not have anything that came out after 1988? If you remember Avatar, I’m going to say there was an Ewah moment, not going to expand on that, just let me know if you get the reference. There were some great fight scenes and how literal can you be? Oh, very.

Are you hooked on a feeling? You will be!

Stan Lee makes an appearance, not a speaking role, but he’s there and of course, you need to stay after the credits. Don’t expect any revealing moments to give you insight into the next Marvel movie, but you have to stay, it’s goofy.

It’s funny, silly, clever, goofy, exciting, great adventure, fighting, thievery, gambling, womanizing, crazies, revenge, torture, outer space, what more could you want?

Let’s just say…while I was watching this movie I was ready to walk out of the theater and get the DVD! How’s that for an endorsement!? Go see it!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2015381/

{August 2, 2014} I ran 3.1 miles!!! My day…

OMG! Minus 30 seconds for stopping for color application and a water break, I ran the entire 3.1 [5k] miles!!!

Today started way too early! I fell asleep between 12 and 1 and at 3:45 woke up with a start and didn’t go back to sleep! What? I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I stayed awake and left by 6:30 and got downtown in no time, found a place to park and headed to the start. Today was The Color Run, http://thecolorrun.com/, I did it year in Atlanta with SDL, Miss A, CKM and CTS, so much fun and color! “the happiest 5k on earth!”

I went running with MH a few weeks ago and he gave me pointers about running, telling me there are 5 speeds and 1 is as slow as you can go without it being a walk, but can keep momentum for longer distance, especially when you’re first starting. So, I employed his advice and stayed at a 1 when we started and I ran the entire 5k, as I mentioned above, minus 30 seconds! I couldn’t believe it! I actually ran the entire way! It is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, as I’ve told you before and today I did it! It gives me so much home for other runs and the half marathons I’ve signed up for!

Now, I’m not getting ahead of myself, I am going to keep working on it, every day do as much as I can and maybe that is 3 miles and then work my way up to more. Look out world, here i come!

“Hey JJ, you just ran 3.1 miles start to finish, what are you going to do next?” “I’m going to the movies!” I went home, showered and then took myself to see Guardians of the Galaxy, review coming tomorrow [let me just say AWESOME!].

I bought the tickets early and then headed over to the mall, Old Navy had jeans on sale for $19, you can’t beat that and what beats that? Finding 3 pairs of jeans on the sale rack for about $4!!! I spent $13 for 3 pairs of jeans! What? I also went to Verizon to talk about the crappy battery on my phone, so they gave me a new one, wahoo! Then a little more window shopping and headed home to apply heat and ice to my back.

Why am I applying heat and ice to my back you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. The other day, my sciatica, which hit me about 2 years ago when I was in Boston and let me tell you, that was some flight back to Atlanta. I had therapy for about a week, applied Bio-freeze and eventually it went away. Well, my back has started to ache over the last week or two and when I got back to Ann Arbor from Boston, hmmm do I sense a theme here? It hit me hard. I’ve been taking Alieve and transitioning from heat to ice for the last week. It’s been on and off since I got back to Denver and today, I did the run, no problem, but when I was showering I moved the wrong way and wrenched my back, hence the ice and heat.

Aside from the ouch with my back, an AMAZING DAY! I ran 3.1 miles, a great deal on jeans and saw an awesome movie! What could be better! How was your day?

{August 1, 2014} After thoughts

I may have already talked about this, but as I don’t remember, I’m going to talk about it tonight/again! Thanks for humoring me!

Almost every time I write a blog post, I think I’ve said all I want to, but there are times that I know I don’t say it all, only because I have written enough or I think you might not be interested. Oh, trust me, I have a lot to say, as you have learned by hanging with me over the last few years, but sometimes I don’t want to go to far or maybe I’m too tired to finish. To that point, there have been a few times I was so tired that I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of blogging, those times I just have to wrap it up and hit the hay!

But…there are many times when I finish my post and I think of something an hour, sometimes even a few minutes after I hit post and I think “crud, I wanted to say something else, something more” and there have been times I have thought about doing a follow up and then I find something else to talk about.

Oh, i just had an idea! Go back through my posts and make one post that references them and tell you what else I wanted to say. Yeah, not going to happen! Maybe I’ll do that going forward, but as I said, at the moment, not going to happen!

Ooh, I hope I’m done when I hit publish!

{July 31, 2014} Time zones

Time zones are so tricky, math is not fun!

So, you have the Eastern Time Zone, Mountain Time, Central and Pacific. I grew up in Eastern and lived in that time zone until a little over a year ago and that’s what I base my time on and do the math against. But believe me, it gets so confusing!

Mountain, where I am in Denver, is two hours behind, Central is an hour and Pacific is three, you confused yet? I had a call today with my counselor, she is Pacific, three hours behind and I called her from Denver, 2 hours behind, but one hour ahead of her. How about them apples! I had the hardest time figuring out when we could talk!

Another tough one is when you’re in a certain location and want to watch a specific tv show, but forget that you’re in central and the times are off. Watch something recorded, that helps!

Right now, I’m sitting in Denver and writing my post at 10:34, but for everyone back in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Boston and NY, it’s 12:34, help! When I first moved to Colorado, I kept my east coast hours, so I worked 7a-3pm, think I ever felt like I was playing hooky at the end of the day, yup!

How about the extreme time differences, as in Hawaii being 5 hours behind Eastern or other countries like France being 6 hours ahead! I remember being in Paris for New Years Eve one year and was wishing people a Happy New Year at 6pm in NYC and Atlanta, GA! Ha ha!

Well, time zones are confusing, but wherever you are and whatever you are doing in your time zone, I hope you’re having a good time!

{July 29, 2014} TSA pre-check, wahoo! Metal detector, what?

I applied for TSA pre-check a few weeks ago and this morning, looked and I got it!

I love that I would get it randomly, but now, I have it all the time and it cost me $85 for five years, how can you go wrong!

The thing that gets me now with traveling is since they got the X-ray scanners, they still have the metal detectors and you never know which one you’re going to have to go through until you get up there. That determines what I am going to have to remove.

You would also think that since this is pre-check and I don’t have to remove laptop, shoes, etc, I wouldn’t have to worry about my belt or jewelry. Not so. Today, first “official” pre-check and I had to remove my belt, bracelet, ankle weights. When I go through the scanner and not pre-check, I don’t have to do any of that!

Just tell me when I’m walking through security what it’s going to be! Let’s see what happens on my next flight!

{July 29, 2014} Only 3 of us in the house, rest, right? Not even!

So, GES and ACS took EJS to summer camp yesterday, well at least up in the area and drop off was 10:30 this morning, leaving dad, MGS and I together last night and today.

The day started way too early when i heard MGS coming into the room, I was in the master bedroom, to go potty because it was too far to go to her potty down the hall. That was about 6:22am, fun.

I took a shower while dad got her breakfast, pamcakes [sound it out, you’ll get it] then it was a battle to get dressed, well for her, not me! We found that if you challenge her, tell her you’re going to beat her at something, she is all over it! The last race was can she get dressed before i finish tying my shoes, guess who won! Whatever it takes!

Say goodbye to Papa and off to school. The weather reports said possible showers, well, it showered, it rained, it poured! Not too horribly on the way to school where drop off was perfect, except she didn’t want to push me out of the room, “You can go now” was the theme of the day as EJS told her parents after they finished unpacking her in her new bunk.

As I headed back towards the house and to meet dad for brunch, it was awful! Cats and dogs! It was coming down in sheets and sideways! There were huge puddles and trying to get around them was almost impossible! Look at the pictures I took! Cars submerged! It took me 1.5 hours to go 15 miles! what should have taken 30 minutes took 1.5 hours!!!

Back in the area, met dad for brunch, then home. I did a few loads of laundry, dish-washer, made the beds, tidied up a little and headed out the door to pick up MGS a little early.

Oh yea, somewhere in there, I was going to tell you I got work done, for my job!

I went to a few stores then picked up MGS and continued our rousing game of ‘I Spy’ from earlier and it took no time getting home! We played some games, watched videos and enjoyed ourselves.

After a while, GES and ACS came home and we all gathered to go to an Irish Pub! LOVE. After dinner, home for bath, stories, games and nighty night! While GES was putting MGS to bed, ACS and I went down to the basement to build the futon GES found on a local site.

Next it was hanging with my sister, then go across the street for some conversations with CF and her two oldest, M&J. Then back here so i could write to you!

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What was I thinking?