Posted By Jb on August 23, 2010
I’m moving my blog and changing the name.
or
Out of my Mind and Onto the Page
or
http://outofmymindontothepage.wordpress.com/
Whatever you do…don’t forget to bookmark me 
! I’ll probably be taking down this site in about a month. I’ve transferred everything over (hopefully), so you can still read it all there!
Posted By Jb on August 23, 2010
Don’t forget about :
Posted By Jb on August 22, 2010
I just finished this:
Knitted Sunnet Bag
Knitted Sunnet Bag
My sister designed the original, which has handles. (I wanted a drawstring and backpack straps instead). If you want to see the original and/or are interested in purchasing the pattern, Go Here!
P.S. The bag is a lot bigger than it looks in the picture!
Posted By Jb on August 21, 2010
Move over Neptune! Betcha didn’t know that my husband creates waterfalls from his bare hands!
Where it all begins!
A closer look...
See it now?
And look what he can do with just his thumb!
BTW…this is just one reason why it’s fun to hang out with my husband. He’s always seeing things from a cool perspective!
Posted By Jb on August 20, 2010
"Scenic" Overlook
possibly represent this:
"Scenic"
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The Big Fat Liars!
Dear Curtis/Palmer Hydroelectric Company:
Thank you so much for duping my husband and I into walking down this trail to view this scene. I’m not exactly sure why you would want any of the public to take a gander at this eyesore, but I guess that’s your business.
Might I suggest, from purely a public relations standpoint that you might want to make a couple of changes to this project.
First, make a new sign that omits the word “overlook”. Replace it with the word “trail”, because the trail actually wasn’t too bad (except the powerlines, but let’s concentrate on other things first).
Next, grow trees in front of this overlook…just eliminate the overlook idea. Take out the guard rail.
Last, do whatever you can to direct people to take the trail to the right, thus avoiding the “scenic” overlook. A little arrow perhaps.
I’m just sayin’.
Sincerely,
An irked member of the public
Posted By Jb on August 17, 2010
I think this guy’s wife was our cashier at the grocery store today:
It was really difficult not to laugh.
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Last week, when I was at the grocery store, my cashier was this young peppy guy:
Hi! Did you find everything you need?”
“Yes, thank you”.
“Did you find yourself?”
(Chuckle)…
…then he starts singing a song ”finding myself in the ice cream isle”…
***
Wegman’s has the BEST employees! So entertaining!
Posted By Jb on August 16, 2010
Just a little potluck today!
***HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY MOM AND DAD! (I think this is number 48, but don’t quote me on that, ’cause I can barely keep track of what day it is today!).
***I’ve noticed that my husband won’t say the word “yoga” when it is something that he is doing. He calls it “stretching.”
***Finally, the library noticed that there are problems with one of the local branches! I can’t tell you the number of times that we have returned items to that particular branch and then have them try to charge us for not returning it. H-ha! Vindicated! At last!
***I’m pretty sure the only thing holding up that gladiola is the spider web!
A close up:
***Another simple solution that took years to be realized:
The dust pan doesn’t clip onto the broom so I would set it down in one room, sweep several rooms, and then have to travel back in time to remember where I set down the dang dustpan, by which time the dogs had walked through the dust pile!
The solution:
Genius.
***Been doing major cleaning, sorting and purging the last few days. Today, in one of the drawers, I found a remote to the car that we had completely forgotten existed. It has a button that honks the car (like an alarm). I received great amusement with my long lost toy…that no one else knew I had found.
My son was outside, so I honked the horn from inside the house.
He looked at the car funny and walked toward it.
I honked it again.
Then he starts yelling to his dad (in the garage at the back of the house) that the car is honking.
The horn is off at this point, so my husband says, “our car doesn’t honk on it’s own”.
But he starts walking towards the car. He gets in and I honk the horn.
He sends my son into the house to get the keys so he can try to figure out why the horn was honking.
I stick my head out the door and say, “what are you guys doing out there?”.
When they responded they were trying to figure out why the car is acting weird, I say to them, “could it be because I just found this?”, as I hold up the remote.
Snicker.
Sometimes I crack myself up. (And at those times, it doesn’t even matter that no one else thinks this is so damn funny!)
I miss “June Cleaver Nirvana” with her Potluck, but she said we could start our own anytime. So here’s mine. Hope she comes to visit!
Don’t forget about :
Posted By Jb on August 15, 2010
The books have been piling up on my desk with the overzealous idea of posting about them. They were all going to have a separate post. Ha! Not as if anyone cares that much what I’ve been reading. So here’s the abbreviated version of the idea…because you should care what I’m reading! What if I were to become corrupted from reading all these things without any feedback from you…GASP!
Let me just start by saying I am a big sucker for historical fiction about royalty, particularly queens (not of the drag variety)…and I also am easily drawn in by novels marked for Young Adults. If you want to psycho-analyze why that is…go ahead. But it’s probably just because they are an easy read. Larger print, larger margins, short duration, relatively uncomplicated plot lines. They are a perfect breather in between the more intense books.
The Bad Queen by Carolyn Meyer. (Ok, I’ll admit it. It actually said “Teen” instead of “Young Adult”). I read this book after reading a review of it on one of my favorite sites (Read it Here) . The book is about Marie Antoinette. I believe I may have read another book about Marie Antoinette before, but this one might have been better (forgive me, it’s been a long time). This book was told from Marie Antoinette’s point of view. It gave some idea how she became the type of queen who seemed oblivious to the effect of her extravagance on her subjects. Incidentally, this author claims that Marie Antoinette never did say those infamous words attributed to her, “Let them eat cake”. I’m not really sure how the author can claim that, but her mentioning of it probably is reflected in her style of writing.
Just two random things I found interesting in the book:
Those gigantic contraptions the women wore on their hips were called panniers (at least in this book). You probably find that an incredibly boring detail…unless you are a bicyclist…that’s what the bags are called that bicyclists carry on the sides of their bikes. Talk about saddlebags on your butt!!!
I found it fascinating that when Marie Antoinette was sent off to be married that before she entered her new country, she was required to leave EVERYTHING behind…including the clothes on her back. She had to strip down in front of an audience at the borders of the country. Then she was dressed in the new wardrobe. The audience was there to ensure that she was not bringing anything with her.
Her Highness’ First Murder by Peg Herring. I was a little surprised that this was not labeled young adult because it read like one. This certainly wasn’t my favorite of the historical fiction books that I’ve ever read, but I should probably mention that I don’t care for mysteries to begin with. In fact, this is probably the only mystery that I’ve ever finished reading (or got through more than three chapters of, if you must know). It came off a little like a medieval Nancy Drew. So, if you like that sort of thing, you might enjoy this book. It remains to be seen if I will be sucked into another book in this series.
Duchessina by Carolyn Meyer. I decided to read another book by this author since that is the genre that I like. This one is about Catherine de’ Medici. She was married to King Henri II. I enjoyed this book because it showed what some of the arranged marriages were really like (no fairy tales here). I don’t know much about Catherine de’Medici, but apparently in her later years she gained a bad reputation. This book focuses mostly on the years prior to that. It becomes apparent, once again, how it was that royalty could become so tainted.
Now for books out of that genre (and age-range 
):
Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen. It’s a memoir of how and why a young girl became promiscuous. This would be a good book for parents of teens (both girls and boys) to read. The book was probably cathartic for the author, who is now a psychotherapist, and it is an enlightening book for anyone else who works their way through it. When I was in my teens and early twenties I had quite a few friends who fell into the category of being “loose” (that being one of the nicer terms), so I heard a lot of these same kinds of ideas that this author puts out there (sorry, no pun intended).
Even though the author reveals a lot and touches on the reasons behind her behavior, I still got the impression that she is protecting her parents and went easy on them in the blame department. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s a bad thing. But it leaves you wondering if she has told herself the whole story…and if she has…is she protecting her parents because she has reconciled with them? I kind of felt like there was more of the story that needed to be told.
I think, in the end, though, she really did drive home the point that having sex with someone will not make them love you. That was probably the intention of the book. As for why parents would benefit from reading this book? I think that the book encourages parents to be diligent in their relationships with their children…no matter how tough it gets to communicate with them.
Here’s the Deal, Don’t Touch Me by Howie Mandel. It’s been awhile since I’ve read a biography of a celebrity. I’ve always thought Howie Mandel was hysterical in his hidden videos. And I’d heard about his germ-a-phobia and I always like stories that involve the human psyche. So, when I saw the book on display at the library, I figured, “what the heck, why not?”
If you are at all offended by foul language and dirty stories, you might want to refrain from reading this book. The book starts out with a story about Howard Stern, so that might give you an idea right there. But it’s a very relevant story, so you might just want to stick with it. At first, when I read that particular beginning, I thought, “well, I’m pretty sure I’d have been freaked out too…I think most people would be”, but as the book progresses, you can see that Howie Mandel does suffer from a debilitating disorder. It’s pretty amazing to watch him function on television after having read this book.
I liked that he ‘fessed up to a couple of things that he was truly ashamed of doing. Takes guts. I won’t give it away. Wouldn’t want to ruin a good read for you (and it would take too long and it would probably be plagiarized). So go read it for yourself. It’s a pretty quick read. And I think, as celebrity biographies go, it was pretty good. Interesting at least.
So, I think that covers most of the books I’ve finished recently. There’s one more, but I think I’ll save that for it’s own post…after I read it again. Oh, and don’t be surprised if I end up posting about all the books that didn’t get finished! Don’t ask me why I would do that to you! It’s just an urge I have, okay?!
Posted By Jb on August 13, 2010
I’ve decided to try to transfer some of our bike journals and pictures over to my blog. There’s a lot. Wish me luck. And be sure to check back once in a while for the continuing stories.
Bike Trip 2002
This was our first trip on the quad (4-person) bicycle. We all journaled as much as I could force make happen. The spelling of the kids is unedited (with some translations in parenthesis). They were 7 and 8 years old at the time.
Installment #4
June 29, 2002 Saturday
Jb: Left Dr. Al’s at 8:50. Spent pretty much the whole day walking up hills. Stopped for ice cream and met up with Richard. Helpful, nice, old man. He kept hanging around and even following us around…even out to the state park. He gave us directions and bought us coke, ice and cake treats. Must be lonely. Must’ve been after 5:00 by the time we got into the campsite. We ate salad, tomatoes, blueberries, and bagels for dinner. Too late to go over swimming. I went to bed early. DH took the kids up to the shower and then they played in the tent while he showered. Woman next door is temporarily living here with her adult mentally disabled child.
DH: Day 4 walked 26 miles Horrible hills. 3Mph for most of the day. Hot, dry. Richard befriended us. Bought us cakes, soda and ice. Followed us around. Fire dept. Campground neighbor helpful. Bearded son watched boys play.
YS: We ate ice crem (cream) than we meat (met) richered (Richard). Me and my Dab (dad) played cicball (kickball). We have a 4 prsin (person) Bike.
OS: Gilbert Lake It cost $15.75 It was haard to get her (here). Stad (stayed) at 77 place. We hav Coke a Cola. We’ll do 10m. We meet Ricerd. It was sooooooooooooo Mush.
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If your comments don’t show up right away, don’t worry, it might take me a few days to get to them…busy schedule this week. I still look forward to your comments, though, so don’t be shy !
Posted By Jb on August 11, 2010
I’ve decided to try to transfer some of our bike journals and pictures over to my blog. There’s a lot. Wish me luck. And be sure to check back once in a while for the continuing stories.
Bike Trip 2002
This was our first trip on the quad (4-person) bicycle. We all journaled as much as I could force make happen. The spelling of the kids is unedited (with some translations in parenthesis). They were 7 and 8 years old at the time.
Installment #3
June 28, 2002 Friday
Jb: Gram called Cortland Standard. Reporters came. Mike took the day off work. Left around 8:15. It was raining when we left – used ponchos. Much easier riding today – first 25 miles were quick. Very long uphill before N……. …but also very long gradual downhill. Stopped in C……… and ate near the supermarket. Watched people ride bikes (and cars) through huge mud puddles. Wonder if that is the town’s entertainment. DH mailed his jacket home (Mike gave him another one)…it cost almost as much as mailing 14 lbs! People didn’t seem very friendly here. 50 miles total. Reached N…… where a woman on the road directed us (the non-hill way) to the City Hall. A woman took our picture and was VERY helpful in helping us find a place to stay. She directed us to Al and Marilyn. He is an orthopedic surgeon (into canoeing). She used to be a stewardess on the railroad. They had a train in the living room. Very accomodating. We walked to the Tops and had salad and pizza and picked up stuff for breakfast.
DH: Day 3 48 miles. Light rain-gradually got warmer. Reporter at Gram’s. C………. food. Bike through water. Grumpy people. Mailed jacket. Rested in grassy area. Gradual climb all day then coasted last 10 into N…….. Top speed 45 mph, also 44 today. Dr. Al and Marilyn’s house. Pizza salad and soda at Tops. Butt rashes from heat. Tent. City hall folks tried to help and were friendly. Woman wanted our picture and then found us the doctor and lead us. Great lawn for baseball. 2 cats. Train inside. Adirondack chairs. Bathroom in Dr. office. Mosquitos. Mike followed us.
YS: We ate coces (cookies). We read knok knok joks. We rode in the ran (rain).
OS: Dr. Al’s house It was free Thare was a traen (train). It was nice of them. A dog that is nosy (noisy). The morning a roupoter (reporter) came and tok (took) notes about us and the bike.
Check out the color of those shirts! As if we weren’t visible enough on a purple, 4-person bike!
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If your comments don’t show up right away, don’t worry, it might take me a few days to get to them…busy schedule this week. I still look forward to your comments, though, so don’t be shy !
