Well, you can tell summer is here....

As anyone who has been in Ocean City in early June knows we are beseiged by June Bugs (high school seniors who don't have the sense God gave a billy goat), so by this time, the end of June, we are exhausted from having to put up with their nonsense...even those of us who won't rent to them have to put up with their crap...but this week most of them have gone back under the rock they crawled out from and we are now dealing with normal people...well, perhaps normal isn't the correct word either. I'm seeing many of my regulars who are on vacation and so I'm thrilled to see stitchers here. Vernon, on the other hand, saw something this week that set him back a bit. He was going up to the house to lay down for his every night siesta so he can work the late shift. He goes up after dinner so it's still light out, around 6:30 - 7:00 p.m. He comes around the building and standing stark naked, yes... nude.... people, taking a shower at the outdoor shower we have for tenants to wash off the sand from the beach was a Mexican adult male as if nothing was unusual. Vernon said, "Hey, put your clothes on and get the hell off the property." That would indicate to the normal person that perhaps they were doing something wrong. But this guy, of course could barely speak or understand English and couldn't figure out what the problem was. Vernon tried explaining that we have families on this property and no one wants to see his "junk" and in this country we don't strip down outside in front of God and the world to take showers, especially when you aren't suppose to be on the property in the first place. He had driven in to town with his family for the day and apparently wanted to take a shower before going home. Honestly people....does this only happen in Ocean City or are the Mexicans taking showers in your yard too? And this wasn't even a holiday weekend when we usually have to watch out for this kind of thing. I'm certainly getting too old to put up with this kind of nonsense. Well, I'm a bit tired this week so I don't know if I can take much more anyway. Mary's step daughter, Ana-age 6, is down for a couple of weeks and she and Solomon (who is usually in daycare) have been at the hotel everyday. Now for those grandmothers who don't get to see their grandchildren everyday I know this sounds like heaven, however...I do get to see my grandchildren everyday and so I have a slightly different take on having them in the office with me. They love to "help" me! I get to work and the first thing I encounter are Solomon and Ana and the first words out of their mouth each morning is "Can I help you work today." Mary and Brian have tried saying I'm not feeling well and they should leave me alone, but when they ask if I feel sick what am I going to do, lie? Well no I'm not. I've tried giving them little jobs and while Solomon does my check stamping quite well, apparently Ana wasn't paying attention and I got the hell out of Dodge only to return to find that she had stamped them wrong. (I just dropped the deposit off at the bank with a smile and told them I'd pick it up later.) I'm sure they think it's time for the girls to relieve me of duty as they probably think I stamped the darn checks myself. Anyway, yesterday I gave up and said, "Let's do something today. Nana's going to do something with you away from the hotel." I was thinking the amusement park but Mary informed me the parks don't open until late in the afternoon. So Coco's Palace was mentioned. I had no idea what that was but I figured it beat having them hanging on me in the office so we got them in the car and I headed to Salisbury with Ana talking a steady stream the entire way. Good news was...with the air conditioning running and the radio on I couldn't hear half of what she said. So 40 minutes later I pulled into Coco's Palace which is a kid's paradise of bouncy houses. So I paid and off they went and I sat at the table and read someone's travel magazine. Unfortunately all they had to eat was trash at Coco's, but at that point I didn't give a damn...I was sitting in air conditioning and all I had to do was smile periodically in their direction, get them crap to eat and hand them dollars for the air hockey table. 3 1/2 hours later they had eaten enough crap to kill a normal kid and I had loaded them with sugar and I had to get back for work so we loaded up and were heading home. Aside from answering the same question a 100 times, "Did the ice cream man come yet," while we were there (They wanted Sponge Bob ice cream pops and the Palace was out of them but told them the ice cream man was due there anytime....someone should have told the ice cream man that). But trust me we had enough junk we really didn't need anything else and they took something else in the end anyway so it wasn't like they didn't get any ice cream. So I delivered them to Mary and Brian full of junk food and sugar. Yes, I did my job and I did it well. So today I arrive and we're eating lunch and Solomon turns to Mary and says, "Mommy, I think Nana's taking us to the rides today." Mary looks at me and says,"Oh, Mom I'm so sorry..you don't have to do that..I'll take them." "No I said, I'll take them...what time does the park open?" Thank God it didn't open until 3:00 so I said, "Well, that won't give us any time because I have to be at work at 4:00, so I'll take you to Walmart and you can get some new toys." I really do need medical attention people, this was the dumbest idea I ever had. No...wait a minute..telling them we'd stop for ice cream was without a doubt the dumbest. After about 1 1/2 hours in Walmart we emerge with toys in hand and I thought..."well that wasn't so bad...the kids were pretty good...Ana was a little annoying at times but we got through it. So we stop for ice cream on what is the hottest day of the year and Ana gets her double scoop in a cone (against my better judgement) and Solomon announces he doesn't want any. I was going to let them eat the ice cream in the car on the way home, but seeing how it was melting I decided we'd sit there and eat it. Honestly Ana took one little lick at a time...it was unbearable to watch and it was dripping all over hells green acre. My frustration was growing and I finally said, "Ana, you have got to eat that faster because you are now wearing most of it as it's melted all over you." She informed me she can't eat it fast because she gets brain freeze, and then began eating slower if that is even possible. By now I was having a melt down and Solomon announced he wanted ice cream. So I got his in a cup and he started to pout and announced he wanted a cone. So back to the window I went...at this point the girl behind the counter was looking at me like perhaps she should call for medical attention for me. I got a cone and put the ice cream in the cup in the cone and Solomon decides he doesn't want it. By now my melt down is almost complete and there is Ana with ice cream on her legs, her nose, her shirt, her skirt and all over her hands and mouth, but still taking little tiny licks of the melting mess. Poor Solomon was about to melt so I told him to get in the car and then told Ana she couldn't get in the car until she finished eating and she better hurry up because I was about done. I had had it...and she perhaps sensed my mood and announced she was done. I poured water over any area of her body that I thought might touch my car seats and finally arrived home. I took one look at Mary and told her to remind me of this day the next time I thought it was a good idea to take them shopping at Walmart. But with their new toys they were happy for the rest of the afternoon (what little there was left of it) and I had an hour to sit at my desk and shuffle papers by myself. Yes the plan worked...well perhaps not as I had envisioned but at least I had some alone time. And then it was off to Salty Yarns...ahhh, air conditioned bliss. We got our new Leigh Designs hand painted needlepoint canvases in. While they are indeed beautiful...perhaps it would help next time if I checked out the price. When I realized the larger ones would sell for close to $300 I looked at Renee and said, "What the hell was I thinking." I'm now envisioning where I want to put these at my house as I'm sure I'll be stitching them for me. I really do need a keeper people. I should not be allowed at the Nashville Market on my own...wait a minute...Sara was there. I tried blaming her for the Leigh Designs, but she reminded me that she bought the exact same canvases 2 years in a row from her (she didn't realize we didn't sell them the first year) so in Nashville she said she wasn't even going into Leigh's with me. Ooops...I guess I'm at fault and can't find anyone to blame. I hate it when that happens. Well, the rain has stopped and people are coming in so I'll end here. I hope your day went better than mine. Have a great evening.

The sun has been shining...the temps are cool...it's a good day in the neighborhood

Despite yelling and screaming high school seniors, life is pretty good at this point in Salty Yarns, and Ocean City. I've gone 3 weeks without having a major medical issue....I've lost 15 pounds in the last 2 months....my diabetes is under control and the levels have dropped drastically so much so that I don't have to go back to the doctor's for 3 months now (that's dropped from every 3 days, to once a week, to every 2 weeks) so I'm thrilled. In fact if I can get my ACL # down 2 more points I'll no longer be a type 2 diabetic....yeah for my team! Of course I have to now maintain the course, plus drop more poundage, but I'm on the right track...yeah!!! I'm also fitting in clothes I haven't worn in a while so I've got a whole new wardrobe. Things in town are noisy and the high school seniors are no less annoying, but we're half way through it and we still haven't maimed any of them, although Vernon did spray one who was peeing on the property, but that didn't threaten the kids life....just got him a little wet which seemed O.K., since he was getting our property wet. This morning it is deadly quiet since all the little assholes are now asleep after yelling and screaming the entire night. Lord, help us that these are the future of the United States. We are in serious trouble here, although with what our current representatives are doing I have to wonder if it could be any worse. Honestly, it's an embarrassment to us that we are represented in Washington by these complete jackasses. Well, I can tell you now, they don't represent me or my opinion...does that mean I don't have to pay taxes? That would be sweet, but from the notices on my desk from IRS I don't think that's possible. I don't know why I spend my time filling out and filing forms since they are constantly writing and threatening me if I don't send them duplicates of things I've already sent them. And my taxes pay these people? Well, don't get me started on that. I'm not pleased to report that the people in town obviously didn't read my tips on dressing last year as they are making the same mistakes. So before coming to Ocean City do yourself a favor. Check your clothes...and remember...just because you can fit in it doesn't mean you should wear it. Also ladies, if you are in your 40's, I dare say 30's or above....don't wear your daughter's clothes. Again, just because you can fit in it doesn't mean it's appropriate. There is no one sadder than a 40 year old woman dressing in a teenager's outfit. You look silly...I wouldn't lie to you. Dress appropriately. And really, don't ask too much of spandex. A woman walked by the other day in a spandex skirt and really people...it was stretched so tightly I thought it would explode. And it rode up...because it was so tight....her cheeks were threatening to make an appearance (and I don't mean on her face). I was embarrassed for her and wondered why her friends didn't mention to her that she should donate that skirt to the nearest trashcan. That's another thing...give your friends a test to see if they will tell you when you look silly in an outfit. If they don't think you do or perfer you to look stupid so they look better...get new friends. Women need to be honest with each other. If your skirt is tucked in your underwear...we need to let each other know not let that woman walk outside to be humiliated. Now I have to say, last year a woman came in with bird crap dripping down her back, and I mean major bird crap. It must have been from a condor...I've never seen so much on one person. Anyway, after I noticed it I thought I should tell her, and yet, I couldn't find the right words so that she wouldn't be humiliated. I'm embarrassed that I let her go outside where others would be making fun of her. However, should she come in again this year...well I'm pulling her aside and handing her a paper towel. I'd want someone to do it for me, so now I'm going to do it for others. I won't however, tell you if you are dressing inappropriately. Then you will hear me just making noises and shaking my head while rolling my eyes. If you come in and see me doing this, check your outfit to make sure it isn't you I'm doing it to. While this crowd is definitely not "Salty Yarns" people, we've had a few old friends stop in while in town and they are always good to see again. With our move of yarns we've had a good response to our new and improved yarn department. And the girls in the shop are knitting up a storm. Even Renee who swore Crochet was her thing...hasn't crocheted a thing in over a year...she's a knitting fool. We also have 2 college girls who knit on staff part time and it's always great to see young people taking up the habit. I've been stitching up a storm as birthdays for others are flying by. I'm determined to stitch for others since everyone is always so wonderful to me stitching me gifts, etc. I've really enjoyed it even though June is a pressure month with Candi, Renee and Connie all celebrating this month. Candi had a double celebration as John finally asked her to marry him. Yes, our Candi is now engaged and he gave her a beautiful ring. We're all so excited. So I stitched the new Shepherd's Bush, Hold Hope, (Candi's favorite company) design for the beautiful box it's suppose to be put in and presented that to her along with a Pandora charm for her Trollbead bracelet. I stitched it thinking it would represent her holding hope for an engagement ring, so when I found out she got it before her birthday I decided instead of stitching the words Hold Hope I'd put the date and both their names on it so it would be a memory of their engagement. I loved stitching it (as I always do Shepherd's Bush designs) and the white box that goes with the design was so easy to use...putting the design in it. Usually I struggle with finishing but this was a no brainer even I managed to do. Winning project. Now I'm struggling with Renee's birthday gift. It's a good thing I have a couple of weeks almost to complete it. I'll need every day of it. Now that I'm feeling well, and I'm getting back to a normal routine I'm working on the catalog on the web site and I'll get more pictures to you. I still have to show you what Renee, Pat, Stasi Burhman and Debbie stitched for my birthday...beautiful. But in the meantime, I have to get to the bank before things start bouncing. So I'll just say have a great day....hope it's sunny and bright where you live. I hope you find plenty of time to stitch today.

Oops....I made a boo boo

Call me delusional, or just plain stupid, but in the last blog I thanked Sandy Grignon and Tracy Doverspike for my "Fun Girl" goblet...oops, it should have been Thank You to Tracy Doverspike and Pat Podziomek for the painting and the goblet. I am so sorry Pat, please blame it on my age and my inability to do 2 things at the same time. I was closing out the retreat files and at the same time trying to thank everyone....clearly I'm too old for this. But it doesn't make the gift any less meaningful to me. And my orange juice still tastes great in the glass so I thank you Pat and Tracy once again for a great remembrance of spring retreat. I hope the rest of you are staying cool and dry in this unbearable heat. We were hovering around 90 today and that's just too hot for me. I'm staying cool though by never leaving the air conditioning. I've stayed at the hotel since I got sick so I really am only outside for a few seconds as I run to my room. But tomorrow night I start my night shift in Salty Yarns and I am planning to return home since the boys replaced my air conditioner and I should be cool and dry there. So if you are in town, stop on by...I'll be sitting behind the counter stitching or playing on the computer, or perhaps even ordering more stuff...you know I love to do that.

Good Golly, What's Next?

Well, my intentions have gone to hell in a breadbasket yet once again, but I really do have a great excuse. As many of you know, this winter/spring has been my road to hell with medical issues. Now let me preface this with while I am obese, yes I've always admitted it, I've had a pretty smooth ride up until now. No major problems due to my fat issue. However, time is no longer on my side and this year I've had to start dealing with the crap of it! When I thought I had a sciatic nerve problem and ended up at the emergency room, it turned out the sciatic nerve problem was shingles taking a wild ride on my sciatic nerve. Luckily for me, a couple of weeks on the old pain killers and I was fine. However, since I didn't believe the doctor's at the medical center (nothing hurt to the touch) I went to my doctor who hadn't seen me since 2009. Therefore he wanted to know how my blood sugar was doing, etc., so I went in for blood tests. I knew this was going to be bad news as it was around Easter and I had finished off a bag of Chocolate covered peanut butter eggs. Well, the news was so bad I thought they were going to put me in the hospital, however, I promised to be good, go back on my meds and go back to his office every 3 days. Now when Spring Retreat hit I was doing alright...my numbers had come down...we weren't singing the Alleluia chorous yet, but we were on the way. I lost a few pounds and while that is a thimble of water out of the ocean it was a good sign. Shiela and Trudy gave me lots of info on diet and diabetic stuff while at the Spring Retreat and I knew I was going to beat this thing. Spring Retreat was such fun, but a flurry of activity and by the end I was a little run down and no longer the fun girl, regardless of the beautiful wine glass hand painted by Tracy Doverspike and Sandy Grignon who welcomed me into their "Fun Girl" group by presenting me with the goblet. You know, my diet soda tastes so much better in that glass! Anyway, that event was followed in 2 weeks by the Delaware Guild Retreat. By then I thought I was coming down with a cold (do you see where I'm going with this?), so I started taking my trusty NyQuil capsules. After 2 nights of popping those and feeling no better I thought I had perhaps the flu of some kind. Monday, May 30th, thank God we had someone who could take my schedule in the gift shop and I went home to lay on the sofa and veg out. Meanwhile Lauren Sauer's class was looming and I wasn't quite done (My goal of finishing last February definitely didn't happen) and I thought I'd take a nap, work on the class piece and pop more NyQuil. However, by Monday night I was contemplating a trip to the emergency room. The problem was I left my car at the hotel due to parking issues over a holiday weekend and I left my phone at the hotel. So as I laying on the sofa thinking, "oops, I'm too sick to walk back to the hotel, and no phone (I gave up my line land when Verizon accidently shut it off instead of my internet when I asked them disconnect it since their service was lousy) to call anyone for help...I'm apparently up the creek without a paddle." By Tuesday morning I knew I was in serious trouble and crawled out to the porch at 8:30 a.m. and flung my body into my new Mother's Day chair and just laid there waiting for Mary to come down the steps to work. I thankfully heard her door open and here she came with the children. One look at me and she knew there was a problem so my saying,"Mary I need help" really didn't have to be said. So everyone sprung into action and Sara was here quickly with my car to take me to my doctor who had been alerted that I was on my way. Needless to say I got right in and apparently it wasn't a cold but Bronchitis. I was thrilled we had put a name to it and thought, O.K., a little medication and I'm on my way. I moved into the hotel so Sara wouldn't have to run back and forth between my place and the hotel taking care of me and after a couple of days I was able to work on my class piece but Sara had gotten behind and she couldn't work on hers. So now I felt I had to get both finished...oh my! Working together Sara and I were able to attend the class and work on finishing our "Glastonbury Garden" and it was a delight. However, I'm hacking my way through the day which is not only annoying to me but anyone who is around me (can you imagine being in a class with someone hacking away). By the end of the day I'm exhausted from it and have been going to bed early and I've been told I'm not going to be done with the hacking for some time to come, so now I'm depressed about that. But optimistic that I'll eventually get over it. And the good news...on the Monday I came home from work to lay on the sofa I really didn't feel well enough to eat (that tells you how sick I was) and I was actually too sick to take on liquids as well which meant I also went off all my meds because I couldn't get them down. I didn't take on food or liquids for 2 days and in doing that managed to lose 10 pounds. So now I'm down about 30 or so pounds from January and that is a good thing. So anyway, that's whats going on down here. As I said we had Lauren's class this past weekend. Dana came down from New Jersey to join us and she really added some new fun to the group. Thanks Dana for taking the time...we love ya! The usual group was here, Debbie, Stacy, Bernadette, Beverlie, Jennifer, Linda, Candi, Sara and this year I joined the group. If you want a fabulous project...take this class. We learned so many new techniques and it was really not that hard and we came away with our dimensional pockets stitched together, our pin cube finished and one flat pocket attached. The class was easy going, Lauren helped everyone so no one fell behind and it was a joy to do. I cannot wait to get it finished. Debbie remained here after everyone else went home and she worked on hers all night. It's fun because Lauren is still here and sits with us in the lobby on Sunday nights each year and continues to help you do your finishing. I was in such pathetic shape by the end of each class Lauren took pity and would finish stitching whatever piece I happened to be working on. But this class comes very highly recommended. But make sure you take the class where it's going to be a pre-stitch because that way you are well on your way to having a finished piece before the class is over. Today we go back to normal as all classes and retreats are over until August. Sara and I are on our way to Michael's graduation today from 4th grade (who's brilliant idea was it to hold a 2 hour graduation from 4th grade?) I'm telling you this is a true act of grandmother love because I don't want to sit through 10 minutes of this, let alone 2 hours. I'm never going to get over this. When I was in school they ended school with the teachers giving you the "bum rush" out of the room yelling "Have a great summer!...here's your reading list...your teacher next year will be Mrs. !@!@$ and we were out the door. I have to say what 4th grader wouldn't prefer that as opposed to sitting for 2 hours. And then he doesn't get to come home...the ceremony is at 9:30 a.m. and he still has to finish out the day at school. Apparently they are partying the day away. And then...he still has school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! Can you believe this? They have a different party every day. I'm telling you this is insane. I realize you have to be in school so many days a year, but to party...people...let the little people go home and go on the beach or where ever. I really can't say enough on this issue. It is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. I don't think Michael should have to participate, however, Sara has asked that I keep out of it so while I've expressed my opinion to anyone to will listen, I've tried to refrain from saying anything to Michael. He seems to be thrilled they are partying each day. So What the hell do I know? As for me...well, I'm going to be hacking through the event and praying they ask me to leave for the health of everyone in the room. (perhaps that was God's plan for me after all!) Have a great week people and in case you are in town....we are going on summer hours on Friday and I will be sitting in the shop at night from 4-9:45)