Funky Friday

Well, one of the little fishies decided to swim away during the night. I hope that he has gone on to a better place. So far only one has gone missing and hopefully the others will remain where they are. I'll just have to get another one to take its place. UPDATE! at 1:00 p - another of the fish has escaped, and the third one looks like he is trying to make the break too. Hmm...I need more fish, plus overnight drying time.

That just means that I need to find a better way to have them "stay put". I may have to breakdown and go into Ben Franklin in search of a better topcoat/sealant.

On a positive note, the three little guys in the upstairs bath are all hanging out just fine and dandy. UPDATE: 9 p.m. - Another fish is looking to escape, this time from upstairs bathroom. I definitely need more fish and resin to seal them. That should fix the problem. Hopefully! Otherwise, I'll just have to give up on having fish in the toliet bowls. {Pout, pout}

While outside on the deck with my morning coffee, I tried and experiment using Dean's binoculars and my camera. By holding the lens of the camera up to viewing end of the binoculars I was able to get this photo of a squirrel out at our bird feeder. Now normally if I try to take something like this it is very small and very grainy. I do believe that it turned out nicely - now it was the best of about 15 shots. So take a lot and you may get one that is good.

In other news, it is the dreaded grocery shopping day. Such extreme fun or should I say sport. Racing through the aisles attempting to get out of the store with everything that we need and still not break the bank.

Well...it turned out to be an exciting time at the grocery store. Sean helped out a disabled gentleman in the store. It turns out that for his help the man gave him two packages of unopened "mint" condition 16-year old baseball cards. It was such an unexpected gesture. Of course, we both were shocked! Sean thanked him profusely.

He could hardly wait until he could open up the packages to see what was inside, but he was able to hold off until we got into the car to see what was inside. One of the packages had a Sammy Sosa card. There are a bunch of other cards, but none that I recognized immediately. Who knows? We were speaking with Beth, an acquaintance of mine, who informed Sean that her brother paid for his college education with baseball cards. This set Sean's mine to racing and us back home almost as quickly as we had arrived. He wanted to put his cards away for the future.

This afternoon's swimming lessons with Elda & the kids, didn't quite go as planned, but Abby did make some progress. We used the kiddie pool and she was much more comfortable getting into the water. She even laid back in the water and kicked water at Sam. Following the lessons, I left Sean to spend the night with Walter. Big Time Fun. I can see Playstation competitions going on all the way to bedtime.

Exciting news! I purchased gas this evening for $2.69 a gallon at Wawa's over near Walter's house. What was more amazing is that when I went into the apartments it was $2.71, so the price dropped $0.02, while we were swimming. Another great thing is I found out my gas mileage in the Camry is now 21.5 mpg. Yippee! It sure beats the 13-14 mpg that the van was getting.

Dean & I went out to dinner at Applebee's for dinner. They had a really nice three-course meal for under $10. I thought it was great - a salad, beef & chicken enchiladas, plus key lime pie for dessert. Yum!

NEWSLETTER GLEANINGS:

Thought for the Day: "Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble." Arabic parable

This one reminded me a whole lot of the game of "gossip" that we played back when I was in school that demonstrated just how a simple thing can change so dramatically.

Good Communication

MEMO From: Headquarters To: General Managers
Next Thursday at 10:30 Halleys Comet will appear over this area. This is an event which occurs only once every 75 years. Notify all directors and have them arrange for all employees to assemble on the Company lawn and inform them of the occurrence of this phenomenon. If it rains, cancel the dayÂ’s observation and assemble in the auditorium to see a film about the comet.
MEMO From: General Manager To: Managers
By order of the Executive Vice President, next Thursday at 10:30 , Halleys Comet will appear over the Company lawn. If it rains, cancel the day’s work and report to the auditorium with all employees where we will show films: a phenomenal event which occurs every 75 years.
MEMO From: Manager To: All Department Chiefs
By order of the phenomenal Vice President, at 10:30 next Thursday, Halleys Comet will appear in the auditorium. In case of rain over the Company lawn, the Executive Vice President will give another order, something which occurs only every 75 years.
MEMO From: Department Chief To: Section Chiefs
Next Thursday at 10:30 the Executive Vice President will appear in the auditorium with Halleys Comet, something which occurs every 75 years. If it rains, the Executive Vice President will cancel the comet and order us all out to our phenomenal Company lawn.
MEMO From: Section Chief To: All
When it rains next Thursday at 10:30 over the Company lawn, the phenomenal 75 year old Executive Vice President will cancel all work and appear before all employees in the auditorium accompanied by Bill Halley and his Comets. - Author Unknown