I love whistling.

It’s such a happy sound! 🙂

My grandpa used to whistle all the time and I’m fairly sure my love of hearing someone whistle stems from this. At a former job, my friend Betty would whistle. I loved to hear her and told her that it reminded me of my grandpa.

I love to whistle myself and I catch myself doing it often. And the reason I catch myself, and stop,  is that I’m terribly afraid it will give me lip lines, like a smoker, and that some day my beloved lipstick will start crawling right up those lines.

So, it seems,  I’m just going to have to wait to catch someone else else whistling to enjoy their happy tune.

A couple of months ago, I learned that there was a wine called Whitesnake Zinfandel. I checked it out and knew that I had to have some!

Back in the 80’s, Whitesnake was my second favorite hair band. RATT, of course was the first. But I love love love Whitesnake’s music and have seen them in concert many times.

I remember when we lived in Chicago. My car was broken into and the thief took the stereo, discarding the Whitesnake cassette on the floor. Horrors! Not that my car was broken into and my stereo was stolen. The thief had bad taste in music!

We can’t order wine in Oklahoma and have it shipped in from out of state. After checking with two different liquor stores, I learned that they could not obtain this wine for me either.

I had a bright idea! I’m going to Chicago in July, I’ll have it shipped there. My stepmom Tish, who also loves wine, has a birthday and I’ll send her some and collect my bottle next month.

I ordered the wine on June 12. Tish’s birthday is June 20 so I figured that would be more than enough time for her to receive it on time. Happy birthday!

On June 14, I received UPS notifcation that the wine had been shipped. To Oklahoma.

I called the winery and left a message and also emailed them to let them know they cannot send it here and I was really hoping Tish would have this wine for her birthday. I received an email back saying she was very sorry, order entry error on her part but she would ship it via 2 day delivery so it should arrive in Chicago by the June 17.

June 20 rolls around, I call Tish to ask her if she had received her birthday present and she said no. I emailed Nicole again and asked if I could have a UPS tracking number for the shipment that went to IL since I hadn’t received one and Tish hadn’t received the wine.

I got this this morning:

Not only did they not send it out when they said they would, they sent it to the wrong address. Tish does not live in #106. I’m not even sure there IS a #106 in the building. Fortunately, she is the building attorney and has lived there for almost 40 years so I feel confident she will get the wine.

Wow. What a lot of hoops to jump through just to try a bottle of wine. I am looking forward to trying it and I hope it’s as good as Whitesnake’s music!

*****Update 1:00 p.m. June 23*****

Just received an email from Nicole that she learned belatedly that the shipping department had run out of Whitesnake wine and she had to run a bottle down to them. I ordered and paid for three bottles. I do hope we will get the three bottles, one of which will be mine. I’m starting to lose hope. ::sigh::

I noticed today that the sky was looking really purple-y and took a photo. As I was uploading the photo to twitter, the tornado siren went off.

I am terrified of that. So I hastily unplugged my computer, grabbed my phone and BBtheWonderdog and raced down stairs and dove into the shower. I was SO happy that Boo Boo laid down right next to me. Nevermind that I had a death grip on his collar.

On my way into the bathroom, I flipped on the radio which is set to the local radio station. They were telling every one to take cover. They said to make sure you have shoes on.

I looked down: flip flops.

Shoes?

I never thought of that.

The announcer went on to say that if there is a tornado and you are climbing out of the debris, you are going to want to make sure you have shoes on.

I’m not the kind of person who wears shoes. Not even in the wintertime. I just don’t like them and would rather be barefooted. But it makes a lot of sense.

So I sat there in the bathroom for about 5 minutes, praying, while the dangerous weather passed by, fast and furious.

I can’t imagine that I will have shoes on my feet the next time I hear a tornado siren and I will not be sure to grab them but I’m really happy that my prayer for protection was heard this time. 🙂

I sincerely doubt they have tornadoes in Riyadh. Boo Boo and I are ready to go, David. Hurry up before we make our way there via tornado.

We usually have to go to the dump at least once a year. Somewhere around the middle of the year, the stuff that grows around the Big House (which I call psuedo bushes) needs to be trimmed. I chop it all down, load it into Ishmael (another story) and haul it to the dump.

In the past I’ve gone to the dump by myself since usually during growing/mowing season, David is elsewhere. I will tell you that it makes me feel very self-sufficient to drive up to the top of Garbage Mountain, empty the truck and drive back down. It’s also stinky. Very stinky.

Minutes before we left to take David to the airport the last time, we found that one of the windows in the big house had blown out in the storm the night before.

Well it was a two person job to get it into the truck bed and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get it out of there myself.  So I cut down the psuedo bushes and loaded them on top of the window in the bed of the truck. Then I asked Geoff if he could help me unload it at the dump. He said yes.

The scariest part of going to the dump, is driving up to the top of Garbage Mountain. It’s basically a one lane road. There are always garbage trucks and other vehicles unloading at the top. I’m always worried I’ll encounter one on the way to the top, or (even scarier) on the way down when I’m on the outside. But, oddly, I never have.

When you get to the top, the vista is garbage-y. And stinky. Very stinky.

Geoff backed the truck up and we began to unload.

With two of us, the job was finished in no time at all. Which is good because, while I’m pretty good at not breathing and still functioning, the dump takes a little longer than I can hold my breath and so I had to smell that stinky place.

Something I’ve never understood is how the guys who work up there can sit on their equipment and EAT in that stench. This trip, there were a couple of Asplundh trucks. They were just sitting there and looked like they were taking a break. I know I could find some much nicer (and more fragrant) places to take my break!

In any case, while I’m pretty self-sufficient and can do the dump alone if I have to, I’m really blessed that Geoff will help me with stuff like that. Thanks, Geoff!

Have you ever seen those roasted chickens at the grocery store by the check out lines? They are usually dried out looking (when I see them) and I know they are probably loaded with yucky stuff (salt, chemicals). Add to that the fact that they cost more than twice as much as a raw whole chicken, it just isn’t a good option for me who likes healthy and cheap.

Here’s a great, simple recipe for roasted chicken. You can throw it into the crock pot in the a.m. and it’s awesomely juicy and fall apart tasty by the time you get home for dinner.

First make 3 or 4 balls of aluminum foil and place them on the bottom of your slow cooker.

Placing the chicken on the balls, keeps it raised up out of the juices and gives it a more “roasted” consistancy.

Next, place the chicken on top of the aluminum balls.

Season with your choice of seasonings.

I like using basil, oregano and garlic powder. But Mrs. Dash or any other season that you like will work fine.

Cook on low all day long. It will be falling off the bone juicy by the time you are ready to eat it. The bonus is that it will also be healthy and cost around half of what the dried out one in the store costs. Nom!

P.S. The roasted carrots on the plate? FABULOUS! I’ll have to post that recipe soon. 🙂 Enjoy!

I’m finally a Real Housewife! Catch my guest blog over at The RHOK today about winning.

The above is artwork on a napkin drawn by my friend, Marty Coleman, also known as The Napkin Dad.

I’m really blessed to know someone like Marty. He’s smart, talented and compassionate. And I met him on twitter. So we can add that as another of the many reasons why I love twitter.

Tornadoes. I’m really scared of them. One of the things that scared me most about moving to Oklahoma was the prevalence of tornadoes. But, in reality, the only tornado I’ve ever seen in real life is the one that was in my rear view mirror as I was driving north on US 19 in Pinellas Park, Florida several years ago.  Thankfully, it moved out of my mirror and wasn’t chasing me up the highway.

When the tornado siren sounds here in Bartlesville, as David is running into the yard like a true Okie to look at the sky, I’m diving into the shower or under my desk.

It’s always been a toss up for me. Which is scarier: tornadoes or spiders? And I really can’t decide. The scariest ends up being what I’m faced with at that moment.

Life’s tornadoes is what Marty drew this napkin about and he said I inspired part of the commentary. He wrote about the life tornado that I’ve been experiencing for the past couple of months – not a weather event at all.

But people like Marty give me hope that there are truly nice and decent people amongst the people I know and those people give me strength to continue to pursue relationships with others and not just become a hermit.  Which, on some days, would be very easy for me to do.

I have met so many truly wonderful people via twitter and I count Marty amongst my friends. In real life. 🙂

Yep. 32 years. And that’s a very long time. Thank you to my Leo for being such a stubborn guy with a BIG love of even BIGGER challenges. Happy Anniversary! I love you with all of my heart and then some!

Lauri 🙂