Thursday - June 30, 2011 CATS & TOYS

"Hello, my name is Chicky and I want to help update this blog."

Several months ago, we bought the cat condo that you can see in the left of this picture. You can also see that it was looking a little shabby in this picture since the cats likes to sharpen their claws on the fabric covering the poles. Of course, Chicky could care less as you can see in this picture.

Charlotte & Chicky taking it easy and catching a few rays by the window. Notice that they aren't on the cat condo. Also notice some of their toys on the table in front of Charlotte. You talk about spoiled cats!

Since the old cat condo was showing signs of wear, Terry got on the Internet and starting shopping for a new one. She liked the one shown in this picture and it only cost about $100!

The new condo arrived and of course it had to be assembled. There were about 40 pieces and the instructions were in German! I don't speak German and the assembly looked complicated. Good grief! Thank God there were a few pictures in the instruction sheets.

Chicky liked the box that the pieces came in and wasn't the slightest bit interested in the condo assembly process. After a few false starts, I finally figured out how to put everything together.

Chicky decided that she liked the condo, especially the mouse that hangs from one of the platforms. At first, Charlotte wasn't interested and I think she was actually afraid of the thing.

"Hey, this is pretty nice!"

Charlotte finally decided to give the 'hammock' a try and you can see from her expression that she decided that she liked it. She's a little big for this portion of the condo but this is definitely "her spot" while Chicky prefers to be up high.

I had one more picture that I wanted to end this with but I can't seem to upload it. I better quit while I'm ahead and try to post this thing as is. I will send another blog update with a bunch of pictures of my garden and flowers-- but not tonight! Two updates in one day are enough and it is getting late.

Thursday - June 30, 2011

I tried to send these pictures and a few others last night but I couldn't get my blog to behave. Maybe I was trying to send too many pictures at one time. If this works, I will send some more pictures and comments today.

As I'm sure at least some of you know, the University of South Carolina won the College World Series championship for the second consecutive time on Tuesday. Very few people believed they could win last year and no one even imagined that that they could do it again this year!

I don't usually follow college baseball very closely (I'm a big St. Louis Cardinals fan) but I have been watching USC play this year. They are a fantastic team and I have become a devoted fan! The play- offs and the series were incredible and the team and coaches have become hero's here in South Carolina. I wonder if any of you from outside the state had a chance to watch any of the games?

I had to have a tee shirt and went out and bough one first thing yesterday morning! I had Terry take the pictures on the left that show the fans welcoming the team back home last night. I almost went went down to the party myself but I had a meeting and had to settle for watching the celebration on TV.

I continue to work out 3 days a week and have upped my program to a two mile fast walk followed by about 30-40 minutes on the machines and then an hour of water aerobics. I've been feeling great and have been building up my muscles. I weigh about 170 and the shirt I am wearing is a medium. I don't think I have been in this good of shape since high school.

Enough for now. If this goes out as planned, I will send another in a few hours.

Sunday June 26, 2011

I'm trying some new ways to update my blog and I'm not sure how well this will work. My last post was somewhat of a mess and I couldn't really control what pictures were going where. Hopefully, this will be a little better.

I wanted to start with another picture of Mrs. Mimm's birthday lunch. She is the one on my left. We had the lunch at a Babtist Church that serves lunch every day and the food was great! We had soup, salad, chicken fried steak, ribs, fried chicken, mac & cheese, varius cooked greens and other vegatibles plus peach cobler, bananna pudding and pie. I think the entire meal cost around $10.00 and ice tea & coffee was also included. As you can see from the picture, the dining room seats a lot of people. I plan to go back!

I also wanted to include a few more pictures of the garage sale we had on June 11. I don't know how many people showed up but we sure tied up traffic on our road for several hours! It was a lot of work but we got rid of a bunch of stuff and even made some money.

Not only did we have stuff all over the garage, but the sale also spilled out into the driveway.

We didn't know most of the people who stopped by but everyone seemed to have a good time.

There were a ton of books for sale and most of them were priced from $.50 - $1.00. There were a bunch of cook books even though Terry & I gave the local library over 100 cook books last year for one of their sales. I had all of my mother's cook books plus my collection. I hated to give them up but I really didn't need them and they were just taking up space. We did keep the ones that we still use plus some that I wasn't ready to part with. We still have a ton of other books including books by several of my favorite authors that I am still collecting.

A friend of mine that trains service dogs saw my last email and said she was sorry that she had missed our sale. Had I thought about it, I could have donated a bunch of stuff to her charatible organization since she has auctions now and then to raise money. Sorry, Jen, I will remember you the next time we have a sale or want to get rid of some stuff.

This is a picture of Sewell & Barbara Gelberd who did a ton of work on our garage sale and also added some of their things to the sale. Sewell is also helping me sell some other stuff on eBay and we plan to bring some other pieces to an auction. Sewell is a wiz on eBay and he also knows the auction world. I've been to a few with him and really enjoyed the experience.

This is what was left after the sale. Sewell arranged for the Kidney Foundation to pick everything up and now we can put our cars back in the garage. Again, Jen, I should have thought of you before making arrangements with the Kidney Foundation to pick up this stuff.

I have some other pictures to post and another update from the last week or so but I think I stop this here before I screw it up and loose it. So far, this new way of writing my blog has been much easier and quicker than what I was doing before and if I can send it I will try to write another update today.

Before I forget it again, take a look at the banner on the right side of my blog on the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. My daughter, Tana, has participated in this event for the last two years and last year she dedicated her walk to my cure for cancer. Her and her team, "Bandidits for Boobies" raised over $19,000 for this great cause and Tana is planning to collect money and walk again this year. However, she needs at least $1,000 to qualify for the walk and she is not quite there yet. Soooo, if you will, please donate to the cause by clicking on the banner and using your credit card. They have made it very simple. Please also read what Tana has written about her walk last year. I'm proud of her!

Sunday - June 20, 2011 - Father's Day

Miss Mimm's 86th Birthday Lunch.

I can't believe it! I just put together a long blog update and I lost it before I could send it out. And this was such a good day up until now. Well, I guess I will just have to start again and see how much I can remember.

I think I started out by saying that I have had a great week and weekend. Friday was my 72nd birthday and I have been cancer free for over 14 months. I feel good, both physically and mentally, and I am looking forward to celebrating many more birthdays. I have also be alcohol free for over a year and a half and my outlook on life has changed. I am a much happier person than I have been in a long time and I have a more positive positive outlook on life in general. I am still very worried about the economy of this country and the world and I am not at all happy with our government. I continue to speak my mind on these subjects and although I'm not sure if I can do any good, I think we all need to at least try.

I have been exercising hard three days a week at the gym/pool I belong to and today I got a little more exercise in today at my pool here at the house. I still have a little congestion in my lungs and I am taking some medication to clear it up. I will see my doctor tomorrow and hopefully he can get me completely well. Meanwhile, I am building muscle and keeping my weight around 170 pounds. I'm in better shape than I've been in years and Terry says that I will outlive everyone. I sure hope not!

We have been busy since returning from our trip to New York. I will try to attach some pictures as I go so I don't loose everything like I did in the blog I wrote earlier. I may just post this thing in pieces--

A few weeks ago my gym/pool group had a luncheon for one of our members who had just turned 96 years old! She still lives alone and takes the bus to the gym. What an inspiration she is to all of us. Attached is one of the pictures I took at her party.

A week ago Saturday, we had a huge garage sale. A friend of ours and his wife helped us sort through and price a bunch of stuff we accumulated over the years that we needed to get rid of. It took us about two weeks to get everything ready and we scheduled the sale from 8:00 - 2:00. People started arriving before 7:00 AM and I wasn't able to close the garage door until 4:00! Our friends also had added a bunch of their stuff and we sold a lot of what we had put out. We're going to auction some of what's left and give the rest to charity. We still have a bunch of other more valuable things like copper, brass, pictures and some jewelery that my friend is helping me sell on eBay. Terry says that our house is still cluttered and I don't think she will be really happy until the walls are bare and the closets are empty! I am attaching some photos of the sale and they will probably go to the top of this blog instead of here where I want them. This computer is really beginning to tee me off!

Sunday - June 20, 2011 -

Shots from NY

Look, it looks like a real beer!

Terry's mom Helen, who just turned 80

Thursday - May 26, 2011

Apparently, most of you didn't get my last blog update that I tried to send out on May 16, the day that Terry and I flew to New York. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but my daughter, Tana, fixed the problem. I hope you will be able to open this update and also see the one I tried to send on May16.

New York was cold and wet but we still had a good time. The birthday party for Terry's stepmother was fantastic and I met a bunch of people that I haven't seen in 18 years. Wow, I didn't realize it had been that long since my last visit the New York! I took a bunch of pictures and will send some along with my next update. Meanwhile, I think I mentioined that we bought a new car---. Check out the above picture ...... This isn't it!