I opened up a pretty good discussion topic on my Xanga site today by posting my thoughts on some of the TV talk shows that are on during the daytime. So I thought I’d do the same here on the Whine Bar. Maybe some of you out there who just happen to “stumble” upon this website will comment. If not, at least it has allowed me the chance to get on my soapbox for awhile. After all, this is the WHINE Bar.

Okay, since I work part time I sometimes turn on the TV during the day and channel check. Well, not too long ago I was channel surfing and I found the Maury Povich show. So I decided to watch it. There was this girl on there who was trying to find out who the daddy of her baby was. Maury’s show offered to do DNA testing to help her discover this. But the thing that really got me mad was that this particular day I was watching, it was the girl’s 13th time to be on the show. Yep. Thirteen times, 13 men giving their DNA, and she still couldn’t find her baby’s daddy! Hello! Am I the only person on this planet who finds this disgusting? What’s so bad is that it’s a pretty sure bet she’s on welfare which means I’m supporting her (and you are too if you work!) while she’s out there having sex with every Tom, Dick and Harry and making God knows how many more babies who’s daddy’s she won’t know!

I get so sick and tired of the liberal media preaching to me that I should be TOLERANT. Let people have unprotected sex with however many partners they want to. I’m supposed to accept alternative lifestyles and alternative sexual preferences. What ever happened to the mindset of “one man, one woman, one lifetime”? I would ask the liberal media this: Are YOU tolerant of the fact that I hold a differing viewpoint? (I think their answer would have to be NO. ) I’m expected to accept their philosophies and ideas but mine don’t count.

Yeah, right …

… to trust that You know what is best in all situations. Amen!

I got my Christmas present from my son a bit early. He bought me a new computer! Not a new monitor and keyboard and all that, but the “box” (as Mike calls it) that contains all the programs. The one I’d been using was the old one Erica had before Chase built her a spanking, brand new one for graduation in May. The old one was slow processing information in spite of the fact that we have the fastest internet connection speed available. So this one Chase got me for Christmas is really fast. It’s like the difference between driving a Chevy and a Ferrari! Ha! Thank you, Chase.

So … did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? Like always, I ate way too much. But it was nice to be with family. I’m sure my sister will agree with me on this next statement … while it was wonderful to have our mother with us on Thanksgiving day, it was very apparent (at least to me) of how much her mind has deteriorated since last Thanksgiving. I see it in little bits when I go visit her but seeing her around what was once a familiar environment with familiar faces and seeing how little of it she was really aware of, was difficult to watch. For the first time since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she didn’t recognize Chase … or at least she couldn’t remember his name. But I think she enjoyed the food because she ate a lot and she doesn’t eat much anymore. I know she doesn’t remember being with family … but we remember being with her, and that’s all that counts, isn’t it?

I think we just “rounded a bend” in the Alzheimer’s road and I believe we are on the last leg of that trip, however long it may take.

Year 2004

Year 2005

My mother. She will be 93 in January.

Me and my mother.

Erica, Granny and me.

My sister, Glenda.

My neice, Donna, and her husband, Gilbert. They will soon be grandparents for the first time!

My son, Chase.

My daughter, Erica.

Chase’s new addition to his household … Mocha. She’s 6 weeks old!

My cat, Jasmine, and Mocha … so you can see how tiny Mocha is.

Hope you all are having a great day!! Mike

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYBODY!

This is a picture of Mike’s Mississippi family. His cousin, Suzanne; her children Priscilla and Jacob; and his Aunt Margaret (far right). The other person in the picture is his mom.

This is a picture of the bride, Sara Henehan Morea, and the little flower girl.

This is a picture of me (with my eyes closed!!), Erica, and Mike

I promised you more “drama” from our weekend in Mississippi, so here goes. For starters, we never met Jared’s parents even though they were in the same room with us during the wedding and reception. Actually, being at the wedding and reception was almost like being at 2 different events instead of just one happy event. From what I was told, his parents are a bit unusual in that they like to control things. Like I mentioned in the post right below this one, they have a HUGE house … but all their children and children’s spouses (and kids) live either in the house with them or in a house on the same road. As a matter of fact, even the grandparents live on the same road.

So at the rehearsal Friday night, Jared’s family stayed to themselves basically. They really didn’t even acknowledge that we existed to be honest with you. But we had a good time anyway. And while they were “polite” and “sweet” toward Doug and Carole during the rehearsal and all that followed, that was soon to change. Erica talked to Sara when we were on our way home and Sara said as soon as Erica was gone, Jared’s mother (…sorry, I don’t even know her name …) started in nagging at Jared and her. His mother is still upset that Sara and Jared aren’t going to live with them now that they’re married. (Of course, we all know that newlyweds just LOVE to live with their parents … yeah, right.)

Anyway, this just goes to prove what I’ve told Erica all along … when you marry someone, you don’t just marry that person. You marry the entire family. If a mother-in-law or whomever is difficult before you’re married, it’s not going to be any different when you get married. It may even get worse. I just feel so bad for Sara and Jared because his parents are like they are. Thank goodness Jared is man enough to stand up to them from the git-go.

Well we got back about 6 pm this evening. It was a fast trip and I’m tired. But it was nice to get to spend some time with Doug and Carole and see how beautiful their daughter Sara looked in her wedding dress! She was the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen.

And the trip was not without drama … yes, drama seems to follow me wherever I go. For starters, it was taxing on my patience to spend 9 hours in the car with Mike and his mom. Not so much Mike as with his mom. You know, sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from losing your mind. We were about 2 hours away from our destination (Kosciusko, Mississippi) and we were traveling on a highway called the Natchez Trace. We’d been driving down it for about 45 minutes when Beth told us she had a question and that it was probably a stupid question but she was going to ask it anyway. (I almost told her that there was no such thing as a stupid question…but I’m glad I waited.) So she asked us … now remember, we’ve been OFF THE INTERSTATE 45 minutes by now, okay … so she says: “Where did the freeway go?” Mike and I just looked at each other and tried so hard not to laugh out loud. It’s like she’d been pondering that question for 45 minutes and couldn’t seem to grasp that we had left the interstate and taken the scenic route. Never mind all the signs, etc. Sheeeeshhh! I know the woman has dementia and possibly early Alzheimer’s, but good grief! She can ask some of the dumbest questions! So I’m glad I waited and didn’t tell her there was no such thing as a stupid question because she would have made a liar out of me. (hee hee hee) But that’s not all of the drama. Yes, Mike and his mother butted heads like they always do … but Erica had the REAL drama going on. Oh yeah. This might be a long story so sit back and relax. Okay, here’s what happened.

Erica was in Mississippi a week before the wedding. She met all of Sara and Jared’s friends and they all hung out together. The entire wedding party was staying at Jared’s parents house … they have 7 bedrooms or something around that number … big house and all that. Well, one guy, Eddie was his name, decided Erica was (as the young’uns say) hot. So he flirts with her, etc. The bunch of them went to Hooters to hang out awhile and a guy named Jacob (another groomsman) started flirting with Erica and Eddie got really mad. I guess he thought he had “dibs” on Erica or something.

A few days later, Eddie comes into the bedroom where Erica’s staying and tries to get in bed with her. She kicks his a** out of the room with a few choice words (That’s my girl! Go Erica!) and promptly tells Sara what had happened. Well Sara told her mom and dad when they went to see them. And long story short, by the time we got there on Friday night, we heard all about it….not only from Sara’s parents but from Sara’s older sister Kathleen.

So after the wedding reception Saturday, we’re sitting at the table with Doug and Carole (Sara’s parents) and talking about what Eddie did. Mike and Doug decide they’re going to have a “chat” with Eddie after the reception is over. Erica begs her dad and Doug not to say anything to Eddie because she’s afraid he’ll cause a big scene and upset Sara and Jared’s wedding day. So the men promise Erica they’ll keep quiet. HOWEVER … Doug’s brother Ron, had other ideas. And after the reception, he had the little “chat” with Eddie.

But that’s not the end of it … the wedding party goes back to Jared’s parents house to hang out after the wedding and reception. Soon thereafter, Eddie storms in and he’s really cussing and upset because Ron gave him the talking to. He causes nothing but chaos and upsets everybody. So Erica calls me on the cell phone (we’re on our way to the hotel) and asks if Mike or Doug said something to Eddie. I assured her they didn’t. Anyway … Eddie never apologized to Erica … but that’s okay. And Erica spent the rest of the weekend with Jacob and some of the other people she’d met.

But on the positive side of all this, Erica is thinking about moving and going to Mississippi State University where Sara and Jared go to college. Jacob and a few of the other kids she met go there as well. We told her it was her decision if she wanted to go and that we’d support whatever she decided. Frankly, I think it would be good for her to get away and go to school. Sara and Jared will be living in the same town that Mississippi State is in so she’d have people nearby. And we have family all around that part of Mississippi, too. It wouldn’t be like she was away somewhere where she didn’t know anybody at all.

And that’s the nutshell of our weekend … there’s more I can write about later. I have a LOT to tell you about Jared’s parents. Stay tuned. You’ll want to hear this.

The weather here FINALLY turned cold. Now it feels like Thanksgiving is near. Yesterday morning when I got up, it was 84 degrees. By bedtime last night, it had dropped to 58. This morning when I got up, it was about 46. A bit windy all day, but still near perfect as far as I’m concerned.

We’ll be traveling to a wedding this weekend so I might not have time to post here. In case I don’t, ya’ll have a great weekend. Talk to you when I get back.

I remember a man I used to work for (back in the day) when I worked for Shell Chemical in downtown Houston. He was nearing retirement age and he and his wife decided to sell their home in Houston and move to California. They lived in a very upscale neighborhood and had been in their home for 25 or 30 years. It was paid for so they felt they’d come out of the moving deal looking pretty good financially. Well, he contacted a real estate agent in California, told him what they wanted, told him how much they were going to be able to sell their home for here, etc … and he got the biggest shock of his life when the agent told him, “Ha! You’ll be lucky to buy a garage in California with what you’re going to get for your house in Houston!” I’ll never forget that story. So I totally know what you mean about how expensive it is to live in California … and that was back in 1976.

Anyway, Mike and I have been in this house for 10 years now. Fortunately, Mike is very good at managing our money so even though we financed the house for 30 years (to keep the payments low), he paid an extra $300/month toward the principle from the very beginning. So we’ve paid down our mortgage enough that considering our home is worth more now than it was 10 years ago, we should come out of the deal with around $40-$50K clear money.

As far as land goes, we’ve looked at several different areas. The main thing we have to keep in mind is that since Mike offices out of the house, and he has a distinct “territory” he covers, we have to stay reasonably within that area. Personally, I’d love to live in the San Antonio or New Braunfels area but the company already has a guy living in that area so we can’t move that direction even though San Antonio is in his territory. So we’ve looked at property in a small town called Plantersville and also in Magnolia. But we didn’t really find anything that grabbed our interest so we looked a little more northwest toward Navasota. Personally, I like the Navasota area because it has small, rolling hills, and frankly I’m sick and tired of living in a flat, coastal area. But Mike also said we might consider looking more westerly … there’s a small town called Sealy and there’s also one called Columbus. So who knows? If we decide on a particular area we want to seriously look at, I might take you up on the offer of putting us in contact with someone to look for us.

We also have some land north of the Houston area in a small town called Cleveland … about 4 acres, give or take. It belongs to Mike’s mom but since Mike has guardianship of her, I guess you could say it’s Mike’s. Anyway, we don’t want to live there because of a number of reasons, mainly being that Mike’s step-brother and his family live there and … well, it’s a long story. So Mike wants to sell that small piece of property and use that money to purchase and/or build something for his mother to live in on whatever property we end up buying.

So we have a lot of things to think about and do before we actually sell and move. The outside of our home needs to be repainted and there are some minor “cosmetic” type things we want to do to the inside. Those things won’t necessarily get us more money for the house but they will make it more marketable and it will sell faster.

When we bought our house we just bought the house and the acre it sits on, from a almost relative of Mary’s. We didn’t buy the other 2 – 1 acre parcels behind us…we should have back when we moved in 20 years ago a 1 acre parcel was around 20,000 now you can’t touch one for under 250,000 they are both still open ground so if I find some more $ somewhere maybe I will buy them ( HA! yea right) . I guess thats good to know that our acre is worth a lot, but the prices are crazy here! I want to pack up and move back to the big T, but we can’t until my youngest is thru with high school. What area are you looking for to buy land? I have met some nice people in the real estate biz from Texas, maybe I can have them scout out something perfect for you guys. They are always calling me with something new for sale. I usually tell them what I am looking for and the price I will pay and they go to it. I wish it were like that here, it used to be. Now prices are so out of hand that a fixer upper house 2 bedroom is going for 400,000. You know if you ever want to move to the desert..lol… I bought land in Marfa, Texas in the middle of nowhere when I first started buying land. I still have it, I should have sold it but I just can’t part with it, its the old west! So if you ever want to go on an adventure to the desert I will send you the map, I wanted to go this last summer to find the parcels but we were to busy to go, that silly thing called work keeps getting in the way!

Well, our house is about 25 years old and it’s what is called a “tract home,” meaning several things. One … our house is in a subdivision which means very little yard space although our particular house sits on a part of the street that curves so our back yard is larger than most. Second … there are only about 5 different floor plans in our neighborhood but many different “front elevations” to choose from. We have 3 bedrooms and 2 baths … single story … and the family that owned the house before us took in part of the attached garage and made an extra bedroom so I guess you could say we have 4 bedrooms. Anyway, this worked out good since Mike offices out of the house and uses that 4th bedroom as his office. The total house size is right at 1,600 square foot. Our layout is what I’d call “open” for the main part of the house, ie, the living, dining room, and kitchen. We don’t have a formal living room or dining room. Our “great room” is about 22 x 22 … with a fireplace in the corner, which we never use because since it never gets really cold enough here, it’s too much of a hassle to deal with it!

Anyway … when we sell the house and move, we want to move to some property … not a whole lot but maybe somewhere between 2 to 5 acres, depending on what we find and how much it costs. Mike wants a to build a separate building where his office will be located so he can “leave the office” and “come home.” That building will probably be a 3 or 4 car garage that in addition to having his office in it, may have a small apartment in it as well. [We have to consider the fact that his mother (81 years old) lives with us and is in good enough health that she may live another 10 or 12 years, if not more.]

So … we have a lot of ideas and plans but still have to find that parcel of land we want … and we’ll know it when we see it.

The addition is on the back of our house, so you are looking at our new back doors. They had to raise the foundation up 3 feet to be even with the old part of the house. The add on is 807 sq feet and that whole area use to be a patio and built in bbq. The other pic is one of two places they broke thru from the old house into the add on that was our bedroom but now its a slightly smaller room since they have framed for a wall in there. The pictures don’t show all of the inside rooms. We added a master bedroom and another bedroom 2 bathrooms and a laundry room, also the house now connects to what used to be a detached garage, so I don’t have to go out in the rain to go into the garage anymore. EVERYTHING is old in our house so everytime they go to change something, it breaks…..oh well I will be broke but everything will be new!

Well, I might have to get Chase to add the UPLOAD key to your menu. Come to think of it, I didn’t even have it on mine until I asked Chase how I could post pictures … so maybe that’s why yours doesn’t have it. I’ll email him and see what he says and let you know.

I think maybe thats why I haven’t been able to post a pic, I looked for an upload button to push, but on my screen I don’t see it. I copied my screen shot that I see when I post maybe I’m missing something. Here is the screen I see…..well that didn’t work like I thought it would, but this is all I see and up at the top it just says dashboard-write-manage-users-logout and then all that is below

Whine Bar (View site »)
Dashboard Write Manage Users Logout (Mike)
Write Post Your Drafts: Post # 652.

Write Post
Title
Categories Dream Log

General

Hurricane Katrina

Mentoring Journal

Private Thoughts

Word Play

Post
Quicktags:

TrackBack a URI: (Separate multiple URIs with spaces.)

WordPress bookmarklet
You can drag the following link to your links bar or add it to your bookmarks and when you “Press it” it will open up a popup window with information and a link to the site you’re currently browsing so you can make a quick post about it. Try it out:

Press it – Whine Bar

One-click bookmarklet:
click here

1.5 — Support Forums
0.08 seconds

This is a drawing of a house plan I found when I was searching around today. I wish I could get the picture bigger but the posting messes up when I try. Anyway, although the square footage is smaller than what we’re looking for, I liked the overall layout of the house. It’s unusual and that caught my attention. I also like that the living room, dining room and kitchen basically form a circle and that there’s a fireplace in the middle. Mike and I visited some folks once (a long time ago) who had a similar floorplan for their house and it was one of the neatest houses I’ve ever been in. We also want a plan where the master bedroom is separate from the other bedrooms, and this one has that, too.

Since the next house we build will most likely be our last, we’ve been giving a lot of thought to design, especially when it comes to being handicap accessible. You never know what’s going to happen so we want to make sure the doorways are wide enough for a wheelchair, etc. I’ve also seen those tubs that you step into … not like a garden tub … the ones I’m talking about are about 3 feet high all around and actually have a door that you open and walk into. You close the door and it seals like a refrigerator door … that way the water doesn’t run out. It’s got a built in chair to sit on and you fill the tub and relax. It’s supposed to be really good for older people who have trouble sitting in a normal bathtub. (I actually have some literature on it somewhere around here.) Anyway, I know this type of tub is quite a bit more expensive than a regular one, but as Mike and I get older, it’s something I think we need to consider. And I would rather spend any extra $$$ we have on equipping the house for our old age rather than on decorative things.

First: You have to have the picture saved on your computer’s hard drive.

Second: Once you do that, log in to the Whine Bar and go to “UPLOAD” at the top of the screen.

Third: Click on UPLOAD. Click on BROWSE and go to the place on your computer where you filed the picture. Follow the prompts and it will upload the picture and show you a file name that begins with something similar to this ( img ). It will have a long file name.

Fourth: Highlight it, and click on CTRL + C (which will copy it). Then click on WRITE like you would normally do, and when you get to the box where you type your post, click on CTRL + V (which will paste it). Then type whatever you want to explain the picture.

VERY IMPORTANT: The picture you upload needs to be within a certain size. If the file is too large, it won’t upload (it will let you know that.) I usually resize my pictures before I upload them and make sure they’re not too awfully big.

Hope it works ’cause I’m anxious to see all this work you’ve been stressing out over!