Do you hear a chorus of angels?

Yes I do, I hear angels singing.



Just your garden variety, drug store kind of chocolate. In a jar. In copious amounts.



Because I have found out I do better if it's simply in the house. I eat less of it than if I make a special trip to find something sweet.



At least that's my story and ... you know the rest of it.

Maxine Monday

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I've had better days

Last week it was a kidney stone. Now it's the flu. Fever, aches, the requisite purging of bodily fluids and such.

Went to work this morning feeling like something was off - not quite in touch with anything specific though. Until I went to the bathroom and lost the tea I had before I got there. That's a first for me, something I hope never to repeat. When you are in the throes of sickness - home is where you want to be, not in a stall puking into one of those little waxy bags (clean thank God) they line the napkin container with.

So I went back home.

Ibuprophen is my friend, it has helped the aches quite a bit. Crackers are not quite yummy - but so far have stayed where they were put and 7-Up - my hero.

Still - after sleeping uncomfortably off and on all day I am tired and headache-y and my stomach is protesting that I have put things in it - and that I haven't put things in it. We have some wonderful grapes and cherries in the fridge but I don't dare.

Must lay down again. The cats like it when I am sick. I don't have the energy to tell them to go away so they pile on me, outline my body on the bed or couch. I will leave you with this video - shamelessly stolen from Peace of my Mind because it is my life. Except I'm a girl. And I have more than one cat.

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So this is the question -

~ Click the pics to make them bigger ~

I got married a million years ago. Okay, 1981. I got divorced in 1995. Officially. Two days after I got married my mother-in-law took my wedding dress to a dry cleaners and had it cleaned and preserved. I am not sure exactly what they do when they preserve a dress, but it came back sealed in a big white box, inside a heavy plastic bag having endured whatever hocus pocus we paid to have done to it. Never to be opened. To open it would break the seal and maybe the white would turn yellow and the lace would turn to dust. I don't know. But I have never opened it.


The dress has traveled with me and lived in attics and closets and garages. At some point it occurred to me that having never opened the box I can only assume it really is my dress. What if there was a mix-up and I got someone else's dress? Hell, what if it isn't even a wedding dress? Could be almost anything I guess. Well, no matter. I'm not opening it.


My daughter says she won't want to wear the dress, and I have no emotional attachment to it beyond that. What do you do with an old wedding dress you don't have a use for anymore? I am thinking about selling it. But I'm thinking about selling it - in the box - unopened still. Probably on eBay. What do you think? Will anyone buy a teeny tiny wedding dress that's been preserved inside a box for over 25 years - on the basis of a few pictures and a description? With the caveat that I cannot guarantee what's in there?


I thought it would be fun that way, kind of like buying the mystery box - taking a chance on size and condition and style. Because I really don't have any good pictures of the dress. It was my wedding dress and I have pictures from my wedding but looking through them I realize I don't have many that showcase the dress very well. It wasn't a very fancy dress, I didn't have a train and chose not to wear a veil. I wore my hair the way I wore it every day back then, in a nice 80's curly perm. Didn't wear a lot of makeup but goodness knows I had pantyhose on! Who WOULDN'T wear pantyhose when it was an 85 degree June day in 1981??? No pantyhose? I don't think so. Wouldn't have been right.


People buy grilled cheese sandwiches with religious icons toasted into the side, people sell (and someone buys) their wisdom teeth. My favorite - someone sold the naming rights to their as yet unborn baby for $15,000.00. Of course this little girl will have to go through life with the moniker of Golden Palace Benedetto, but hey - there are always nicknames!


It's a size 8 by the way. Not that that's accurate. At the time I usually wore a size 5 or maybe a 7 in a dress, you can see I was a tiny little thing. Back then. Sigh-h-h.


So should I try it? Anybody have any suggestions to liven up the description - to spice up the sale? I'm open to ideas!


**Edited to add - That's my father in the pictures by the way, in case there was any doubt about the age and or creepiness of the man I married.

Nothin'

Yeah so I got nothin'. The kidney stone has quieted down and hasn't bothered me for a whole day and a half. My daughter and I worked on cleaning out the garage yesterday, today the garbage guys took away about 10 bags of garbage, a slew of empty boxes and the junk guy scored an old exercise bike and computer. Last week we put out a comparable amount and we still aren't done.

Not my favorite activity. I'm trying to convince Dani that there aren't only 2 choices. She thinks it should either be - garbage, or garage sale. She doesn't think we should keep any of the stuff that's stored in the garage. She wanted to get rid of my turkey platter! I mean - I know it only gets used once a year, maybe, but I'm not getting rid of it.

I did part with 2 vacuum cleaners last week, there was a TV out there and next week it will probably be an old computer monitor as well as whatever we bag. Yes, we have junk. But we also gave about 5 full bags of clothes to the YWCA and will probably give them just as much again if not more.

I still have an old seat from a horse drawn fire truck from .. uh .. whenever fire trucks were pulled by horses. Have no idea what to do with it - I figure someone out there would be interested in it. My old jeans from the 80's, not so much.

Had a nice 4 day weekend and spent 2 days nursing the kidney stone, 1 day doing nothing and 1 day being relatively productive. Not a good average. And now tomorrow I go back to work and I hardly got anything done around here. At least - relatively speaking.

Yeah, like I said - I got nothin'. I guess that's not so bad when you consider how much time any of us really gets to do nothin'.