The official drink of Nebraska?!

Ah, what could be better than a nice cold glass of Kool-Aid on a hot summer day. I loved Kool-Aid as a kid. Hey, it had sugar in it, what more could I want out of life?

I read somewhere that Kool-Aid really is the official drink of Nebraska. Why? Well, the man that invented it grew up in Nebraska and made it our powdered pal in Hastings, Nebraska. Edwin Perkins actually started out with a liquid concentrate that he called Fruit Smack. The 4 oz bottles were costly to ship and breakage was an issue so in 1927 he created away to remove the water and that is when it became known as Kool-Aid. It came in 6 delicious flavors, strawberry, cherry, lemon-lime, grape, orange, and raspberry. It sold for 10 cents a package but during the depression they lowered the price to 5 cents so that it would be more affordable and a real treat for more people. What is the wonderful thing about Kool-Aid? Well, not only can you drink it, but you can use it to dye things. Check out the colors you can get from different flavors. I've always like Cherry, grape and strawberry-lemonade. What are your favorites?

The Steinauer bank was robbed!? What next!

I found this article in the
Lincoln Journal Star on Friday, January 20, 2006:
When it came to robbing a bank in this one-horse town, an all-terrain vehicle was all this robber needed to make his escape.According to Nebraska State Patrol spokeswoman Deb Collins: About 12:45 p.m. Friday, a man, brandishing a pistol, walked into the Bank of Steinauer in Steinauer and demanded cash. He fled eastbound on a dark-colored ATV with an undisclosed amount of cash.The man wore dark clothes, a dark cap and gloves.Steinauer, a village of about 70, is located 65 miles southeast of Lincoln.The FBI, Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office and Nebraska State Patrol are investigating.

You know, I spent a lot of time in little Steinauer over the years. There isn't much there. A big Catholic church where a friend got married a number of years ago, a K of C Hall that most people rent out for wedding dances, the little bank and the bar. I spend most of my time in the hall or the bar...or both on the same night. When my Aunt told me the bank was robbed I about croaked. You really don't expect a bank in a little town like that to get robbed. It's kind of mind blowing. Atleast nobody got hurt and with any luck they will nail the guy that did it. I guess this means people will start locking their doors to their houses and cars.

Its been a long day. I went with Nancy and Sam to pick up the new Honda Accord but first we had to stop by the optical place and Sam ended up getting his eyes checked and then glasses. I told him I thought he needed an eye check-up....Ah, ha, sometimes I am right. We picked up the car, I helped Cliff retrieve some documents and print them out. Raine and Chris called and they were headed over to pick me up. They called again, they were a little confused and slightly lost, but the finally arrived and we headed to Riverhead and a day of outlet shopping. Raine bought a lovely Coach bag, the one I found for her. It's is lovely, just lovely. I bought lots of presents and two Willow Tree Angels for myself. We headed for home in the hope that we could have that yummy chicken at the mall, however we soon realized it would be closed by the time we arrived so we stopped at Target. After Raine and Chris stocked up on some fun stuff, we headed east instead of west, turned around, and preceded home. We enjoyed a meal at the Cheesecake Factory and Raine and Chris dropped me off at home a few minutes ago. Now its time for me to get some sleep and do a movie marathon tomorrow.

Goldielocks his and the six bears

Your name + Ray = You are kinda dumb

I always see this truck around town with the classic "Ray-Ray" on the tail gate. Today I was lucky enough to have it parked just a little ahead of me while I was stopped at a red light and I had my camera handy. It makes me think of Pop every time I see it. You see, my Pops created the Ray rule of stupidity. He knew this guy named Ray who was a little, well for a lack of a nicer way of phrasing it, he was a ding bat. So, Ray became known as Ray-Ray...for unexplained reasons. Maybe because he was so dingy that you had to say his name twice so he would understand you were talking to him. Who knows! Well, his little rule of adding Ray to your name kind of caught on. My Brother-in-law became know as Dewey-Ray and it fits him. If I did something really stupid, he'd try calling me Annette-Ray, but he would pay for it in the end...oh yeah, he would! The funny part of this is that the two people that Pop hangs out with the most are his Brother and his Nephew. They are hunting and fishing buddies. Anyway, Lonnie and Zachary happen to have the same middle name. What is that name? Oh yeah, its Ray....lol, works for me.

I need help.

I just got my box of popcorn balls yesterday and I have already ate 6 of them. I have a huge problem with these yummy things. I'm a popcorn ball junkie. This is all I have left. I really need to go easy on them until I can get to Raine's apartment and grab some of balls that my Parents sent her. I have a funny feeling she got more anyway, dang it! Don't worry, I have the key to their Apt, I'll just slip in, sniff them out and scoot out before she knows what happened. I hope the cats don't give me away.

Sam's latest work is in progress

Sam is full of talent. He's extremely intelligent and very creative. Maybe not in the same ways that I am creative but the kid has more musical talent in his little finger than I have in my whole body. He wrote a piece last year that his select choir at his school sang. It was lovely. He has also copy righted a few pieces that he wrote himself. Right now he is busy creating an entire Concerto. He has a computer program that he uses to record his notes on and them he can play sections of it all at once. Just when I hear a section of it and I think it is great, he adds to it and it just gets better. Seriously, it is a fun piece and I can hardly wait to hear what the final cut sounds like. I think he wants to see if the orchestra at school will play it when he is done. I'm sure they will, its that wonderful.

I had a terrible nights sleep. I did nothing but toss and turn all night. I finally got up and watched some TV for a few hours because I was getting really upset. I was so tired but my mind was going a million miles a minute and I the few times I did drift of I awoke from strange nightmares. It was just terrible. Now my head is pounding and I am tired but I have things to do. My plan is to go to bed early tonight. It's not likely that that will happen but it just sounds so nice, I had to put it in writing. Later Gators!

Yep, and that is why....

You should be on the safe side and use your Timex indiglo watch like cousin Kip does. 

And that's the truth...

I use to ask my Dad why he would never buy Mom a dishwasher. His stock answer was always the same..."Why should I, she already has two." By two he meant me and my sister. Years later I bought Mom a framed print that said, "I never heard of a man getting shot while he was doing the dishes." She still has it hanging up in the kitchen. For the record, my Pop did do the dishes once and my Mom almost fell over. She came home one day when she had to work and he didn't, to a strainer full of clean dishes. I know, I know! Shocker! Well, you'll probably never see that happen again in our lifetime, so don't expect it. It's just nice to know that he actually knows how. I mean, he knew how to cook and he was very good at it. We just never let him do it because he dirtied every dish in the house and then we had to clean up after him. I still never figured out how he could use that many dishes. Thank goodness that Mom finally has a real dishwasher and not Pops idea of a dishwasher: Moms two hands.

Remember Mutual of Omaha Insurance?

OK, off the subject a little bit, but does anyone remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom? You know the TV show starring, zoologist Marlin Perkins? We use to watch that show when I was a kid. I think it was on just before Walt Disney's show on Sundays...but then again, my memory could be off...that was a long time ago.

Are you from a small town?

Those who grew up in small towns will laugh when they read this. Those who didn't will be in disbelief. Name of small town: Tecumseh, Nebraska.


1) You can name everyone you graduated with. Yes
2) You know what 4-H means yes...duh, Head, Heart, Hands, and Health.
3) You went to parties at a pasture, barn, gravel pit, or in the middle of a dirt road. On Monday you could always tell who was at the party because of the scratches on their legs from running through the woods when the party was busted. (See #6.) Oh yeah!
4) You used to "drag" Main. yes, but tehcnically it was Broadway and Clay Street, you drove a big loop, then around the square.
5)You said the "F" word and your parents knew within the hour. probably but I didn't say that in front of adults...I was pretended to be a good girl.
6) You scheduled parties around the schedules of different police officers, because you knew which ones would bust you and which ones wouldn't. Yep, I knew people that did that and if you gave then a beer or invited them, they would leave you alone.
7) You could never buy cigarettes because all the store clerks knew how old you were (and if you were old enough, they'd tell your parents anyhow. Yeah, but I never smoked and you could always find a small town where they would sell them to you.
8) When you did find somebody old enough and brave enough to buy cigarettes, you still had to go out into the country and drive on back roads to smoke them. I didn't smoke but I know it happened.
9) You knew which section of the ditch you would find the beer your buyer dropped off. Oh yeah, but sometimes they would just had it to you through the windows somewhere.
10) It was cool to date somebody from the neighboring town. I don't know about cool...but it happend a lot.
11) The whole school went to the same party after graduation. Sometimes, sometimes not, it really depended on how close the class was. Ours wasn't that close for a class of 29 kids. I went to Jamie's party.
12) You didn't give directions by street names but rather by references. Turn by Nelson's house, go 2 blocks to Anderson's, and it's four houses left of the track field. Oh yeah...I still do.
13) The golf course had only 9 holes. we had a golf corse but I couldn't tell you how many holes it had....but I can name several people that got it on, if you know what I mean...out on one of the holes.
14) You couldn't help but date a friend's ex-boyfriend/girlfriend. Yeah, that is true for the most part.
15) Your car stayed filthy because of the dirt roads, and you will never own a dark vehicle for this reason. yeah, but if you lived in town, you had a clean car about half the time. We did have a do-it-yourself carwash.
16) The town next to you was considered "trashy" or "snooty," but was actually just like your town I don't remeber anything like that. There were issues with some other schools but that was because of big mouths and little brains.
17) You referred to anyone with a house newer than 1965 as the "rich people. no, that is kind of stupid.
18) The people in the "big city" dressed funny, and then you picked up the trend 2 years later Uh, I don't know about that. Nebraska has its own special kind of fashion statement going on.
19) Anyone you wanted could be found at the local gas station or the town bar Yep, that is basically true.
20) You saw at least one friend a week driving a tractor through town or one of your friends driving a grain truck to school occasionally not my friends....and I never saw anyone drive a grain truck to school....never ever. We were rural but not that hick.
21) The gym teacher suggested you haul hay for the summer to get stronger No, I was very strong already....but that would do the job. He did get annoyed with me because I wouldn't go out for track.
22) Directions were given using THE stop light as a reference yeah, we only had one.
23) When you decided to walk somewhere for exercise, 5 people would pull over and ask if you wanted a ride Yep, that happened a lot
24) Your teachers called you by your older siblings' names. I was the oldest. I was compaired to a few of my older Uncles, one in particular and my Mom verbally kicked my teachers ass over that.
25) Your teachers remembered when they taught your parents. My aunt and Uncles, yes
26) You could charge at any local store or write checks without any ID probably but we never did
27) The closest McDonalds was 25 miles away (or more) yep, Beatrice
28) The closest mall was over an hour away. 30 Minutes for the tiny pathetic Beatrice mall but Lincoln was only an hour or so away.
29) It was normal to see an old man riding through town on a riding lawn mower. Hello! Grandpa, Uncle Jim....My Father...the list goes on and on Luckily I was not around the time my father rode a mule he was training through the middle of town.
30) You've pee'd in a cornfield and dirt roads, you name it. Beer runs right through you, once you go the first time, you go all the time.
31) Most people went by a nickname Yeah, I did.

How to embarrass my Sister....lesson #1

It's a true story. It's a little vulgar but its true. All I have to do is say one little sentence to stop her in her tracks and have her sputter out an excuse so quickly, it will make your head spin. This is what I say: "Oh yeah, well, you shit on my turtle!" Technically, she did poop on my turtle. The turtle, however, was a stuffed animal, not a real live turtle. In her defense, she was still in diapers and she had diarrhea. She sat on the stuffed turtle and her little diaper leaked. Mom had to toss my poor turtle out. Yeah, he was in pretty bad shape.
She gets so irritated with me when I blurt out that phrase. In my defense, I only use it when I am cornered and she is attacking me in the company of strangers. It's not often that I can stop my Sister in her tracks. She is a spit-fire, I'm the object of her flame. In the last 10 years or so I have learned to be a bit more smart-mouthed and I can usually protect myself, as a kid it was a different story. I was pretty much helpless, or pathetic, depending on how you look at it. Then it happened, she was verbally bashing in my skull and in a moment of genius I nailed her to the wall. I don't remember the exact phrase I used, but I stopped her in her tracks. She was speechless, probably because I had never been quick enough to spar with her before. I think it was more a matter of me being kind hearted that quick whitted. Enough was enough. After standing there, speechless for a little bit, my sister gave me props for my smart mouthed comment. A real first for me. That was just the beginning of the fun. Now, I'm not saying that I am always up to speed. I have to be in the right mood, the right frame of mind and I usually don't say half the things that I am thinking. You should be very happy to hear that.

Been there, done that...

...moving on to something else. Believe it or not, but I'm feeling quite somber today. I'm not sure where that came from but it hit me like a ton of bricks. At this very minute, I'm not feeling very jovial. Nope, not at all. Not to fear, for this too shall pass. Give me a couple hours to stew on things and then I'll be back to my good old, silly self. I just woke up feeling super tired today, which is strange because I fell asleep reading last night around 9PM, woke up snoring at 11PM, shut off the lights and crashed until my alarm went off at 6:15AM. Now that I think about it, maybe my problem is that I got a little too much sleep. NAH, I doubt it. It's never bothered me before.
I noticed that Tami was online last night. Her comments made me smile. There must have been something in the air, because I see Lucas was back too. I sense trouble on the horizon.
In a few hours, I'll be saying goodbye to the Mazda...thank goodness...and on Saturday we will be saying hello to a Honda. No automatic for us, nope, we are not so lazy that we can't do the shifting for ourselves. Actually, I prefer a manual drive, it reminds me of my teenage years, many, MANY moons ago. What are we going to do with a quiet running station car? Boy, it will be strange not hearing that loud, piercing sound coming from compressor. People won't be turning to see where the hell that sound is coming from. I'm not sure we will be able to get by with the lack of attention. I guess we will have to adjust.
Well, I'm off to take my medicine. I'll be glad when that stuff is gone.

This thing makes me feel dizzy or maybe its just my medication.

I get a lot of forwards, many of them I read and delete, a few I send on. this is one of the good ones. I deleted the "forward to 10 people" crap and cut it down to the good stuff. These are worth thinking about, I think.

Read each one carefully and think About it a second or two:

1. I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.

2. No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is, won't make you cry.

3. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

4. A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

5. The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.

6. Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.

7. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

8. Don't waste your time on a man/woman, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.

9. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.

10. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.

11. There's always going to be people that hurt you so what you have to do is keep on trusting and just be more careful about who you trust next time around.

12. Make yourself a better person and know who you are before you try and know someone else and expect them to know you.

13. Don't try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.

REMEMBER: WHATEVER HAPPENS, HAPPENS FOR A REASON.

You know those catalogs that are nothing but t-shirts with crazy captions? I love them. They are so cleaver, eye catching, often slightly evil and they crack me up. Like this shirt...it's wicked and that is its charm.

You know someone had a good laugh when they did the lettering.

Redneck Wednesday

I ran across this and thought....how true., how true. My week has not been so great, Kip has been going through some tough stuff too. It must be in the air. You really just have to keep pushing along. Life is what you make of it. I figure I'm not going to be one of those people that make a huge difference in anyone's life. I'm the kind of person that affects people in little ways, a simple gesture, a laugh or prank here or there....they all add up, don't they. I'm not perfect, and I'm kind of glad that I'm not, people would loath me. Yeah, I think being a klutzy goofball is a much better way to live my life.

Sometimes its easier said than done...

Especially when that person eats your Chicken Noodle Soup. The kind that you bought because you like it and not the kind that they buy. That is what happens when you are not feeling well and you go to bed early...that person eats your soup behind your back. Think good thoughts, think good thoughts, think good thoughts.....but she ate my soup and there were three cans of that other crap in there! Stop it! Think good thoughts, think good thoughts, think good thoughts. I'll let you know if it works. I'll keep trying.

Would you like me to handle your tool...I, I, I mean, would you like me to hand you a tool? 

The old homestead...

My Mother wants me to do a little research and find out exactly where this house stood and take a picture of the area. I don't mind the idea of doing the research but I don't want to hang in Bushwick, along the tracks, looking for the right spot. Anyway, here is what we know about it so far:

The Duryee family homestead, Bushwick LI, New York built c 1681 by Joose Duryee, was destroyed in 1903 to make room for improvement on the Pennsylvania Rail Road. The sketch is a copy of one which appeared in the New York Sun, January 4,1903. 

I KNEW there was something shifty about him!

 

Ah, popcorn balls.....Mmmmmm

I'm getting a box full of my Pop's famous popcorn balls in the mail....oh yeah, life is GOOD! Click the link above for the best recipe ever...EVER! Raine will be happy to know that she is also getting a box of them. That means that I will have to come over for a visit this weekend. My Mom called this morning to tell me that she couldn't find their recipe for them. She thought it was in a box yet from their move. Luckily, I had a copy of it and I actually knew where it was. Of course, at that point, I would have ripped the house apart looking for it. They are that good.

I ended up rushing over to Bellmore to meet the Leaches for a noon showing of Rumor Has It. We had the entire theatre to ourselves. Then we went back to their house in RVC. Jim and I went to the 3PM showing of Capote at the Malverne theatre while Jean went shopping for a ceiling medallion for her new light in the foyer. I really enjoyed Capote and think Philip Seymour Hoffman has a good chance to win a major award for his portrayal of Truman Capote. Time will tell.

I watched and assisted Jim in putting up the new light in the foyer and we ordered Chinese food. We ate it while watching our favorite Sunday shows. Desperate housewives and Gray's Anatomy. Then I headed home. There is no school tomorrow. Ho hum. Later gators.