Since this is, after all, the WHINE Bar, I am taking a moment to whine. This is my personal opinion and I’m not going to make any apologies to anyone. If you don’t agree with what I have to say or it makes you angry, feel free to move on somewhere else. Thank-you.

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How ALL business phones SHOULD be answered:

Good morning! Welcome to the United States of America.

Press “1″ for English.

Press “2″ to disconnect until you learn to speak English.

And remember … only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you …

Jesus Christ

and the American Soldier.

One died for your soul … the other for your freedom.

Think about it …

It seems to be doing okay on this new med. I bought a new BP monitor thing that you place around your wrist. AFTER I spent $80 on the thing ( !!! ) I found out that the ones that take the reading from your wrist aren’t always very accurate. They have a tendency to show a HIGHER reading than what your BP really is. That’s 80 bucks down the drain! Anyway, I go back to the doctor Friday and we’ll see what the true reading is.

I’m supposed to be tracking my blood pressure several times/day for the next week … this morning it was still high about 3 hours after taking my new medicine … 168/108 … I’ve been resting most of the day, laying on my left side which is supposed to be good for helping your blood pressure go down.

Foot … okay.

Blood pressure … not okay. Start new medication tomorrow.

Monday - Wash Day: Lord, help me wash away all my selfishness and vanity so I may serve you with perfect humility through the week ahead.

Tuesday - Ironing Day: Dear Lord, help me iron out all the wrinkles of prejudice I have collected through the years so that I may see the beauty in others.

Wednesday - Mending Day: O God, help me mend my ways so I will not set a bad example for others.

Thursday - Cleaning Day: Lord Jesus, help me to dust out all the many faults I have been hiding in the secret corners of my heart.

Friday - Shopping Day: Lord, give me the grace to shop wisely so I may purchase eternal happiness for myself and all others in need of love.

Saturday - Cooking Day: Help me, Jesus, to brew a big kettle of brotherly love and serve it with clean, sweet bread of human kindness.

Sunday - The Lord’s Day: God, I have prepared my house for You. Please come into my heart so I may spend the day and the rest of my life in your presence.

Well it’s been a week now since I fell and hurt my ankle. But it’s doing much better. I’ve been “babying” it just in case something more is wrong that didn’t show up in the x-ray. That happens sometimes, you know. I definitely don’t want to end up damaging it more than necessary!

But if it’s not one thing, it’s another. Just about the time my foot started feeling better, I got a darn cold! I’ve been taking medicine round the clock and while my cough and stuffy nose feel better, the cold has decided to settle in my vocal chords … so now I have laryngitis! Arrrrggg!

Well I mentioned in a previous post that I hurt my ankle/foot at rehearsal Sunday afternoon. I went to the doctor Monday morning and he sent me for an x-ray. The x-ray only showed soft tissue damage and swelling but no fracture. My doctor told me, however, that if I am still having pain and swelling by Monday of next week, I need to come back in and let him do an MRI. X-rays don’t always show stress fractures or hairline fractures. My doctor prescribed an anti-inflammatory for me to take for the swelling and that is helping a lot. But my foot is now the most awful looking shades of black, blue, purple with a little bit of yellow beginning to show. The coloring is not only on my toes but on both sides of my heel. It looks like I haven’t washed it in days! It also hurts around my toes and on the underside of my foot by my toes. So in the meantime I am “babying” my foot. Pray that it heals and there is no fracture. I’ve been down that road before (with my left foot) and it’s not something I’d like to repeat!

Anyway, so I can gross everybody out … here’s a picture!

Here are a few pictures from last night and the “variety show” we did. Unfortunately, nobody took pictures of the actual performance but it was videotaped so I hope to get a copy of that. And during rehearsal, I stepped off the stage and hurt my ankle and foot really bad. As a matter of fact, I have a doctor appointment in a half hour. I think not only did I sprain and tear ligaments but I may have even cracked a bone in my foot. I hope not, but from the way it looks and feels, I’m afraid that’s the case. Anyway, I put ice on it, wrapped it with an ace bandage, took prescription strength motrin, and sat with my foot propped up for about 2 hours until the actual show began. By the time I had to hobble out on stage, my foot didn’t hurt. I managed to have my 3 minutes and 13 seconds of “fame” and nobody in the audience knew any different. So … here are some pictures like I promised:

This is a picture of me and the girls … Tara, Michelle, Nena

Here we are practicing (before I hurt my foot):

And let’s not forget one of our former Presidents who showed up to play the saxophone …

Tomorrow I will make history. I will perform as Aretha Franklin in a variety show our church is putting on. What? You don’t believe me? I can read your mind right now. You’re thinking “but she’s a white girl” … uh, your point is ?????

Yes, I will, for a brief 3 minutes and 13 seconds, be the Queen of Soul. And fortunately I don’t have to do anything except lip-sync her famous song “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”.

I even have 3 backup singers. They’ve worked out a little “dance” routine to do along with the “sock-it-to-me-sock-it-to-me” background vocals. I ordered wigs for all of us … Motown Diva Wigs from an online store. And last weekend we went resale shop shopping and found dresses for them … $10 each … and believe me, they look good! Uh huh!

It’s going to be so much fun! It will be videotaped but I’m going to make sure I also get some digital pictures of us. Maybe I’ll post them here …

Okay … the trial is over so now I can tell you a little about it. First of all, the Judge took pity on us I guess because Wednesday morning he went ahead and decided to enter a judgment on the case himself. (He ruled in favor of the Defendant.) That meant we were released to go home. The gist of the trial was that three former employees were suing their former employer for overtime they claimed he did not pay them for. These guys were salaried, which by most standards means you do not get paid for overtime. Apparently they had filed a grievance with the EEOC and the EEOC had told them they really didn’t have enough for a case. So they hired private attorneys, which is your perogative when the EEOC turns you down.

The bottom line was that since they were salaried, they were not required to punch a time clock nor were they required to fill out a time sheet of any type. Therefore, they had no evidence of any overtime they worked. Basically it was their word vs. the employer’s word. It was pretty much a cut and dried decision as far as I was concerned and I would have voted the same way the Judge ruled had we been allowed to deliberate. I felt a little sorry for the guys and I’m sure they did … at least on occasion … work more than 40 hours a week. Whether they “averaged” working 20 hours/week above and beyond 40 hours was a questionable claim as far as I was concerned, especially with no proof. So there was only one way to rule … in favor of the employer.

Anyway, it was a change from my normal routine which was good. But I am VERY tired because it was different from what I was accustomed to!

So this makes 5 juries I have served on … 4 in criminal court and now 1 in Federal court. I hope they will delete my name off the list and give someone else the opportunity to do their “civic duty”!

I’m serving on a jury in downtown Houston … Federal Court, no less!   While I can’t talk specifics about the case itself I will say this much … it’s both interesting and boring.  Does that make sense?  I’ll tell ya’ll more when it’s over … until then, have a wonderful week.  Hope I get to talk to you before the end of it!  Ha!

Wow! Not only is this Super Bowl Sunday, but I had a pleasant surprise this afternoon. The phone rang and it was a friend of mine (and Mike’s) that we knew since high school. It had been quite a few years since we’d touched base … I’m guessing probably about 10 years … and she was calling to say “hi” and find out how we were doing. Amazingly, I was just thinking about her and her husband a few days ago when I was in the car. That song by Jimmy Buffet, “Margaritaville,” was playing on the radio and it reminded me of back in the day (as the kids say now) when she and her husband would come over to our house. He would bring his guitar and he’d play the song and we’d all sing. And of course, there were margaritas to drink.

It seems hard to believe that their oldest girls, twins, are 32 years old now! One is married and the other one is in the Air Force. Then their youngest daughter, who is 25, is a professional dancer, having danced and performed with well-known dance companies throughout the world.

My how time flies! We spent about an hour on the phone getting caught up on life and various other things. And it’s interesting to me how even though many years passed between “chats,” a long-time close relationship still can be rekindled … as if you only spoke to each other yesterday. Amazing! Anyway, all these years we’ve lived within an hour’s drive of each other. It’s a shame we don’t see each other more often. So she and I decided we’re going to make sure we get together whenever we can.

I’m looking forward to it!

And now on another note …. GO COLTS!!!