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!!!

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67% of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69% of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3 of the citizenry just ain’t happy and want a change.

I suggest we sit back and count our blessings for all we have. If we don’t, what we have will be taken away. Then we will have to explain to future generations why we squandered such blessing and abundance. If we are not careful this generation will be known as the “‘greediest and most ungrateful generation.” A far cry from the proud Americans of the ”greatest generation” who left us an untarnished legacy.

‘Nuff said!

What an interesting day it was!  I had just returned from lunch (I take mine early, like at 11:00 each day).  It was just a little after 12:00 noon.  I’m sitting at my desk when I hear a familiar but unwelcome sound … the alarm sirens around the chemical plants begin to blare.

[People who live in my area of Texas, near the chemical plants and refineries, know that there are SPECIFIC days and times that the sirens are tested.  All the plants and refineries do this at a pre-set time.  It never changes unless it's an emergency.]

And when we hear the alarms go off, everything comes to a standstill.  Everywhere in the city.  The noise in the office dies down.  The school children in the schools get quiet as mice.  We strain our ears to make sure that we’re hearing what we think we are hearing.  At the same time we’re listening intently, our minds quickly beginning to process what day it is and what time it is.  “Is it Saturday at noon?”  “Nope.  It’s Thursday at noon.”

The alarms are loud enough to be heard inside buildings and homes even if the a/c is running and a TV set is on.  So we listen.  Sometimes … but not often, mind you … the area towns do a “drill” where they blare the alarms.  But most of the time when that is scheduled, we know about it before hand.
So here I sit in my office … the alarm is steadily blaring for a good 10 minutes.  This is no “drill” and this is no “regular test.”   That can mean only one thing … a chemical release has occurred nearby.

I immediately call the C.A.E.R. line (Community Area Emergency Response, pronounced like the word “care”) number where messages are posted informing area businesses if they need to do what is called “shelter-in.”  Which, by the way, means you stay inside the building, turn off the a/c or heat, make sure all windows and doors are closed completely and sometimes even place damp towels around the bottoms of doors going to the outside.

The C.A.E.R. line, however, hasn’t had time to post a message.  So we err on the side of caution and shelter-in.  Today happens to be one of the days that the Mother’s Day Out kiddos are here.  So the teachers down the hall have about 50 or 60 little kids ranging in age from 18 months to 4 years old that they have to contain.  But they do a good job and by the time we get the automated call telling us to shelter-in, we’ve been sheltered-in for about 25 minutes.

Then the phones begin ringing … parents are calling asking if their children are safe.  I want to say in my most sarcastic voice, “No, we sent them all outside!” but I don’t.  Instead, I reassure them that all is well and that their precious little one is happily watching The Little Mermaid movie.

So finally, after about an hour or so we hear another alarm go off … the “all clear” which means everything is back to normal.

Whatever normal is … so how was YOUR day?

Yesterday was my mother’s 94th birthday … Erica and I drove to Giddings to have a little birthday “party” with her.  My sister was there as well as my cousin Michelle and her mom, my Aunt Gladys.  Here are a few pictures from today:

The Cake

The birthday girl and her cake

The birthday girl and her baby sister enjoying cake

My sister, me, Erica, and my Aunt Gladys (the baby sister)

My sister and my cousin Michelle

(The answers are printed below, but don’t you cheat!)
 
1.   After the Lone Ranger saved the day and rode off into the sunset, the grateful citizens would ask, Who was that masked man? Invariably, someone would answer, I don’t know, but he left this behind. What did he leave behind?________________. 
 
2. When the Beatles first came to the U.S. in early 1964, we all watched them on The _______________ Show. 
 
3. “Get your kicks, ___________________.” 
 
4. “The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed___________________.” 
 
5.   “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, ________________” 
 
6. After the Twist, The Mashed Potato, and the Watusi, we “danced” under a stick that was lowered as low as we could go in a dance called the “_____________.” 
 
7.  “N_E_S_T_L_E_S”, Nestle’s makes the very best……. _______________.” 
 
8.   Satchm o was America ‘s “Ambassador of Goodwill.” Our parents shared this great jazz trumpet player with us. His name was _________________. 
 
9. What takes a licking and keeps on ticking?  _______________.

11. Red Skelton’s hobo character was named __________________ and Red always ended his television show by saying, “Good Night, and “________ ________”.
 
11. Some Americans who protested the Vietnam War did so by burning their______________.
 
12. The cute little car with the engine in the back and the trunk in the front was called the VW . What other names did it go by? ____________ & _______________.
 
13. In 1971, singer Don MacLean sang a song about, “the day the music died. “This was a tribute to  ___________________.
 
14. We can remember the first satellite placed into orbit. The Russians did it. It was called ___________________.
 
15. One of the big fads of the late 50′s and 60′s was a large plastic ring that we twirled around our waist. It was called the  ________________. ! 
 
 
Before you check the answers to the one or two you forgot you knew think back to where you were and what you were doing when these things were the happenings of the day.  It too should bring some warm thoughts of back when you wanted to be older and now you’ve made it.
 
 

ANSWERS:
 

01. The Lone Ranger left behind a silver bullet.
02. The Ed Sullivan Show
03. On Route 66
04. To protect the innocent.
05. The Lion Sleeps Tonight
06. The limbo
07. Chocolate
08. Louis Armstrong
09. The Timex watch
10. Freddy, The Freeloader,and “Good Night,and may God Bless.”
11. Draft cards (Bras were also  burned.)
12. Beetle or Bug
13. Buddy Holly
14. Sputnik
15. Hoola-hoop
 
Send this to your “old” friends. It will drive them crazy! And, keep them busy and let them forget their aches and pains for a few minutes.

With all the political hullabaloo going on these days, this is all I have to say about it …

… ’nuff said, don’t ya think?

This is how I want to eat breakfast when we retire and move to our property …

http://www.metacafe.com/w/316898/

Here are a couple of pictures of the newest addition to our family.  (My niece … Joey’s grandmother … is holding him in one of the pictures.)

He’s a handsome looking baby, don’t ya think?  Looks really great to only be a few hours old!

Yipeee!  My great-nephew and his wife just had a 9 pound 2 ounce baby boy yesterday.  They named him Joey.  That makes me a great-great aunt and my sister a great grandmother!  Woo hoo!  Hopefully I’ll have some pics soon that I can post here.  It’s great to hear good news for a change!

I just received a phone call a few hours ago from a friend of Erica’s who told me that a guy they graduated with, who was serving in Iraq, was shot in the back of the neck by a sniper and is now a quadriplegic (spelling??).  Apparently he was leading his platoon  down a road when he was shot.  This happened sometime around Thanksgiving.  He is back in Houston now … I’m guessing at Veteran’s Hospital.  I don’t want to mention his name on this forum for privacy reasons but please say a prayer for him and his family.  Even though you don’t know his name, God does.

Well … the first week of 2007 is pretty much over. I think most people were probably back to their regular work schedules this week. I know I was. Last week was nice because after being off Monday and Tuesday for Christmas, we only worked half-days the rest of the week. But this week we went back to our normal routine. I’m a little tired but not tired as I thought I would be.

I know this is the time of year when everybody makes “New Year’s Resolutions” about how they’re going to change their life during 2007. Too bad most of the time our good intentions only last a month, at the most. I know I need to lose weight and I want to terribly! I know I need to exercise. I’ve tried and failed countless times at these resolutions. Yes, there are a lot of things I need to do.

But I’ve been giving this a great deal of thought and I’ve decided that for 2007, my only resolution is going to be that I am going to try to live my life in a way that will please God. I’m not saying I’m going to live a perfect life, because nobody can, especially me. I’m not saying that I’m going to make decisions that are always right and never wrong. That’ll never happen in this lifetime. But what I am saying is that I want the way I look at life, people, and circumstances I face, to come from a perspective that God would have. As much as it is possible, I want to live in peace with everybody I know. I want to genuinely care about people who I think aren’t as “lovable” as others. By doing this, hopefully my life will be much more pleasant and those around me will enjoy being around me, too.

Yep … that’s what I want my New Year’s Resolution to be this year.

http://773472256.slide.com/p/0/New+Year_27s+Eve+2006?referrer=emcd

Click on the above link (or copy and paste it into your url) and see a few pictures I put together of our church’s new year’s eve party.  It wasn’t any big deal, really, just a family time at the bowling alley.  We’ve rented it out for the past few years because it’s a safe place for all of our families to get together and see the new year arrive.

Click on this link to see a beautiful powerpoint presentation.

< http://www.passionup.com/fun/fun4528.htm?e=louiseungro@hotmail.com&f=froggiemad1@cox.net&h=bb08c6204ace9eec&mp=1&confirm=1>

Well 2006 is quickly drawing to a close and that always makes me stop and think about the year.  The older I get the more melancholy I get.  I look back on things that happened and people I met and sometimes wish I could have a “do-over” as we kids used to say.  But then there are some things I wouldn’t change.

So I’m curious … leave me a “comment” on this post and tell me the good and the bad of what happened to you in 2006.  And is there anything you would do-over if you could, and why?

I’ll be waiting …

Our Tuesday night ladies group ate dinner at Joe’s in Kemah tonight … it was our after-Christmas party.  Here’s a slideshow I put together.  Click on this link and watch it.

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