Rain,Thai food, and new friends

Tonight I braved the weather and went to a local restaurant downtown. If anyone who doesn't live in Spartanburg SC want a nice quiet place to have a good meal downtown while visiting the area, then I highly recommend the Monsoon Noodle house. If you do live here and haven't been yet, don't wait as long as I did to try this great little eatery. I had a Thai dish with some hot jasmine tea to drink, and it was a perfect meal for a rainy October evening. The setting was clean and spacious, the service was prompt and the food presentation was attractive. In fact I commented on how pretty my food looked when it arrived.

Why did I go out tonight? Two reasons. I was long overdue a self induced treat. I got to have a meal, with nary a family member in sight, at some place I'd never tried before. It's been a long time since I've done that. I do need to that more often. I found it quite relaxing.

Second was a meet up with other folks who do what I do here in my fair city. Blog. We were a small yet eclectic group. Our topic of conversation ranged from politics, family, to photography, to knitting, to books, to business. One thing was obvious, at least to me. We all seemed to care about one thing in common, making this place we call home better then how we find it now. This is a great place we live, but as in many things it can be better. It was great to share ideas and stories about that very thing.

I look forward to another opportunity to meet with more Spartanburg residents in such a venue, and to take myself out for an evening at a new place to eat. There apparently are some great ones downtown.

The List

I've got a list of all the things I need to get done around here. This list does not include the usual everyday type of chores, that I struggle to finish and fail at. No this list is in addition to the normal list that includes laundry, cleaning the bathroom and determining what is that funky smell the kids are complaining about in the fridge. This list is stuff like, Take things to Goodwill, mail a package, find the number for the heating and air guy, make time to get my tires rotated, do six weeks of script editing for our church's children's drama. Just stuff that takes time. I'd also like to find time to get back on my exercise bike, as I have fallen completely off the "get into shape" wagon, oh, and come up with something to write about for my column.

And yet what am I doing right now? Drinking cooling coffee while I wait for my breakfast to cook (nuked cheese and sausage grits...yum) and blogging, while I put on my make-up. All that accomplishes is proving that I can multi-task while sitting on my heiny.

Just don't take my complaining to seriously. I'd far rather have lots to do then little. I get bored quite easily, so having things lined up to accomplish helps stave off that "oh no, nothing to do, what do I do now" feeling. Instead I prefer the "oh no, I got so much to do, what do I do now?" feeling. Yes, I know I am a bit odd.

So, off I go. I think I'll at least move the bag of charitable stuff from my bedroom to the trunk of my car this morning. It will join the rest of stuff that is already there. Maybe, I'll manage to finally get my trunk emptied this week, maybe.

das gut, O'leary, merci, gov'ner!

My church does a wonderful children's service during the school year. It has lively music, silly drama, and object lessons. This will be my third season being involved with this little venture. I admit it is a lot of fun, and I have a great group of people I get to work with. Yes, I am a drama nerd.

I am currently learning a script for an upcoming service and I am in big trouble with this. You see, my character has a monologue. Memorization is work for me, as I promptly forget all my lines once the task is done. However this script has an added difficulty level. Within the space of about three minutes, my character will be speaking in four distinct yet different accents, German, Irish, French, and Cockney. Sigh. I do one accent well, Southeastern American, or Southern. I've tried out my "accents" out on my kids. They laugh and scoff. The older one then reads the same lines with proper accenting in place.

I've tried to play u-tube videos of movie clips, no help so far. I've gone to websites that give tips on how to speak with a certain accent. I still struggle. It doesn't help that Irish and Cockney have some strong similarities. French? Forget it. The best I can do with German is switch W for V. It will all likely sound like some poor southern woman trying to speak with non southern accent and failing.

My best hope is to learn the lines and just mangle through the accents as best as I can. Thank goodness these scripts lean heavily on humor to help get the point across. Comedy I can do. I wonder if I can work a prat fall into my routine?

Just a piece of tile..ssssss

My daughter has had to borrow my car this week, as hers is having transmission issues. Somehow my right rear tire, managed to pick up with what we thought might be a piece of tile. That little triangle of porcelain, or whatever it is, that made a nice hole in the tire. In fact when Ashley got out of the car, she could hear a distinctive hissing sound as air escaped from tire's new orifice. Sigh, that meant that I was either going to hope my luck improved and I could get the tire repaired, or dig into my wallet and buy new tires.

Going on the advice of my husband and hoping not to have to buy a new tire, I went to Dixie Tire on Asheville Highway here in Spartanburg. One of the things you notice right away is a big jar sitting on the counter. In that jar is a collection of things these guys had taken out of tires. The items ranged from the expected screws and nails to a sizable piece of rebarb and at least two deer antlers. My little chunk of tile, although an inch long looked puny in comparison.

I was pointed to the coffee and the waiting room. My granddaughter, who I had to bring along, decided that the place was rather boring and promptly settled down for a nap. Within 30 minutes, my tire was fixed, and back on my car. The price for the repair was quite reasonable, and I went back home a happy camper.

I just hope it goes as easy for my daughter's Neon. We'll find out soon, but I'm betting that we won't get off near as easy.

I'll have some pollen please, with a side order of ragweed

As nice as summer is, I am very glad that fall is in the air. Oh, wait, Fall is my favorite season. Spring falls into second place. Summer is the worst! I just don't like being hot and sweaty. Getting a tan is a waste of time for me too. I don't tan, I just turn into a nice shade of fuchsia that fades into my normal bleached whale hue. Winter would be great if it didn't get cold. I like shivering about as much as I like being hot and sweaty. So I pick Fall as my favorite season

I love the crispness in the air you feel with fall. I love the leaves as they change colors. Fall comes just in the nick of time for me fashion wise, as by the time it gets here, I'm utterly sick of my summer clothes. However Fall brings with it something that that doesn't agree with me at all. Ragweed, and all those other lovely pollinating weeds, plus the mold and mildew that falling and decaying leaves are sure to breed. Of course I'm allergic, very much so. SO much in fact that I get shots and take two prescription medications to help alleviate the symptoms. However even all that medical help is not quite enough at times. Like now when my sinuses are alternating between being completely blocked up and running like a raging river.

Thankfully such episodes as I am experiencing now don't last all that long, but boy can it make me grumpy. So all who know me and I'm not my usual perky self, just be patient with me and remember that ragweed has exceeded its maximum capacity in my head. Just point me to a Claritan and a cup of coffee and I should be much nicer tomorrow.

And then I saw her face

I have living with me a considerable source of distraction. She's small, can't walk without holding onto something and only has two teeth. I am of course describing my 10 month old granddaughter. While her mommy and daddy plan a wedding, take classes at USC-Upstate and hold down part time jobs, little Helene' Grace, often finds herself left home with me, her Nana, as Nana attempts to get something, anything done around the house.

Now while I'm at work, I am able to get my clients taken care of, keep my station organized, and do other duties required of my job, and go back home, satisfied that I've managed a day of accomplishment.

My granddaughter, to her credit is a good baby. She has a sunny disposition, entertains herself easily, and usually only cries when she's sleepy. Then she fights the urge for a nap with every fiber of her little chubby being. However she's a busy little girl. Here is a list of all she can accomplish in the space of about 20 minutes.

1. Pull all the books off her bookshelf...again. (1.5 minutes)
2. strew all her toys with pauses for playing with them. (5 minutes)
3. Chase a cat, catch the kitten who is her best friend and partner in crime. (2-3 minutes)
4. Play with her musical toys, dance to the music (five minutes)
5. Crawl around seeing what else she can discover, stopping to examine before moving on. (five minutes)
6. Find any small object left on the floor, give it a taste test. (2 minutes)

It is no small wonder, that when she is in my care, I get little done other then maybe some laundry and picking up what she has left in her wake. For example, she once managed to open up a box of wipes and pull out 34 of them (of course we counted!) in the space of 1.5 minutes. We had left the box on the floor, after a quick, "grab and change, release" diapering job.



Of course one look at that happy little face, so proud of her accomplishment easily prevented her mommy or I from scolding her. We were too busy laughing at her as she gleefully waved two of her purloined wipes.

Laundry time is play time for her. To her its a game. We usually fold clothes while sitting on the couch, making little sorted piles. Her mission is to tear down those piles. The last time she did this, her persistence reached a new high. I repeatedly told her "no" She ignored me. I moved the piles, she reached for them even harder, I lightly smacked her hand and pulled it away from the pile, again telling her no. Not dissuaded, she tried again, and this time I smacked her little well padded bottom, repeating the word NO. Then I saw her face. There wasn't a single tear, but it was as if she was saying, "I'm sorry Nana, I'll be good now." I'm such a sucker for such adorable remorseful, so I gave her a big hug and a kiss.

She loves our cell phones and immediately goes into pose mode, whenever we point it in her direction. She knows she's getting her picture taken, the little ham. We try to get her to talk to Daddy or Pappy but she just grins for all she's worth.

Her fascination with electronics is not limited to cell phones. TV interests her only when music is playing, or like just know when she heard someone squeal on an advertisement and she squealed back an echo. Her other big fascination is with our computers. Why? Because they have buttons just asking for little fingers to push. More then once she hit the bright blue button on my tower, sending my system into shut down mode. The last time she did that, I was in the middle of something, so I gave her a rather sharp "NO!" Then I saw her face, eyes big, little lip stuck out, knowing full well that she had done something Nana didn't like. So I scooped her up and gave her a big hug. Yes, I know. You don't have to remind me.

This week, my Nana duties have been upgraded as her Mommy had a health issue that required surgery. Ashley is in recovery mode and is unable to care for her daughter nearly as much as she would like. Daddy's school and work duties limit how much he can help, although he has been here as much as possible. The rest of the family is helping as much as they can, but the lion's share of baby duty has been falling to me.

Last night I was tired, wanting to go to bed early. I have kept forgetting how much energy caring for little ones can be, and was ready for some baby free time. So I was sitting in the rocker contemplating how I could rope my younger daughter into helping her look after the baby for a while so I could at least put on pajamas and brush my teeth. Then Helene came over, pulled herself up, and then I saw her face.


I knew my bedtime routine would just have to wait, I had more important things to do, like play with that little cutie a bit more.

Got gas?

So it's been a busy week, if one watches the news. Naturally the recent storms have made headlines. My own family watched Ike's passing with great interest. First because my oldest lives near downtown Houston, and second because he works for one of the local stations. We got to view local coverage from the online feed. We also were quite surprised by the effect this storm had on the gas markets.

It didn't really make much sense to me when I learned that so many gas stations were not only raising the prices, but were selling out of fuel. While I understand the need to temporarily shut down oil platforms, refineries and pipelines in the face of some really bad weather, to see a major panic attack set in because of it took me by complete surprise. Who started this unnecessary and expensive panic? Who knows, but once started, even the media who kept reporting about fuel price risings and shortages at the pump, possibly fueling the panic,(no pun intended) couldn't get people to listen to the sound advice of "don't panic this is temporary and a wise precaution. Things will be up and running in a few days".

Thankfully any damage to our fuel infrastructure in the Houston area was minimal at best, and that entity will be back in full swing, likely as soon as the power is all back on. Apparently the panic was merely that, panic brought on by people already nervous about the economy of our energy infrastructure.

The arguments from capital hill, and the campaign trails don't do much to help people feel any better about the future of our energy sources. There is a lot of arguments about whether or not to drill in Alaska and offshore, there are debates about the greenhouse effect, there are some tax incentives for buying energy efficient appliances or hybrid cars, and there are some rumblings about alternative energy down the road, all while the urging of further taxing oil companies. I see from those sources a lot of talk, and very little positive action.

While I am not a completely avid environmentalist I do firmly believe that we need sound sensible solutions for conservation and energy usage, as well as to find cleaner and renewable sources of energy. We already recycle here at our home, burn those high efficiency light bulbs, use energy star rated appliances and electronics, keep our thermostats at warmer, or cooler settings depending on the season, and keep our vehicles in optimal condition so they use gas more effeicently. The only reason we haven't jumped onto the hybrid car bandwagon is the cost. I just don't see how a $400 a month car payment is going to offset the price I pay at the pump. Our cars are older but paid for. Going into debt to save a few dollars at the gas pump to me makes no financial sense.

Which is why a television ad intrigued me. I'm sure some of you have seen the ads that T. Boone Pickens has been airing lately. I got curious and went to the website http://www.pickensplan.com/index.php and immediately saw that here was someone who had decided not to wait on the government to fix things, and was instead taking positive steps to do so himself. It's suggesting among other things a shift to wind power to help free up natural gas for vehicles and other energy uses. It does urge more oil drilling but recognizes that as a short term solution. The site is non-partisian and doesn't support any political candidate. It instead is a grassroots effort for change in the energy sector.The website is a good source of information, contains a petition we can send to congress to urge them to take actual positive action, web groups, forums, and news. Yes, I signed right up.

While there is news in our area about using old landfills to turn methane to electricity, and negotiations for a new nuclear plant there is much we as individuals can do. If a new nuclear plant is built, and that is a big if, seeing how the last plant went online about 20 years ago, construction will take quite awhile. And to me it is merely a short term answer. They still haven't solved the waste problem which needs to be done. While smart cars and hybrids are flying off the car lots that sell them, they don't have a large impact in our local economy or energy infrastructure. While we have a decent mass transit system in Spartanburg, it is still underused, and doesn't affect most of us who live outside the city limits. We of this beautiful are I now call home need to step up to the plate and do more.

Does Mr. Boone have THE solution? Well I think that he is offering at least a couple of them, and I do agree that it is us, the people of this country that can make things happen. I also agree that it is time to remind our congress men and women that they are to be representing our interests, not the other way around.