The Best Laid Plans Often Go Astray, Awry, Away or Off Course..

I had great intentions for today.  I WaS going to clean my house and car and plan and organize food for the coming week.  You obviously have not seen my bedroom and the slow disintegration of order in the rest of the house and there will be no pictures of it either to accompany this posting.  If you had seen the house and you are a female, you WOulD understand!  After all, we didn't go on a daycation and I should have had time.  I even got a head start on the cleaning last night.  I did some rug shampooing on an ever increasing large section of carpet, where someone shuffles back and forth in his shoes when I'm not home to remind him to take his shoes off for the 539,913, 604, 233rd time and has managed to start changing the color of the carpet from light to a sight.  I washed, dryed, folded and put away three loads of clothes.  Joe did clothes last night and I'm still trying to correctly find and match socks, find missing clothes and that was on the agenda for today also.

I started the day by doing some vacuuming and a little straightening up before taking my car for an oil change.  Can you believe the price of just changing your oil?! Almost $33.00 and that's with a coupon, no new oil or air filter, an alleged cracked serpentine chain or belt, a blown on rear light/blinker and this could all be fixed for the amazing price of $220.00!!!  I don't think so.  Not today.  I'll take the car to my handy-dandy I can trust him mechanic sometime next week.  Then I picked up some items at the West side Walmart, since it was close by, stopped by to visit Marla who'd just gotten back into town and has a terrible cough.  While there I got a phone call from Joe telling me that the man with "I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up" was at the house and I was needed ASAP.  When I arrived home, I found out that Mr. IFAICGU had been in my bedroom, yes the bedroom that NOboDY should ever have seen with mortal eyes!!!  They were looking for a phone jack and plug for the new machine.  I was so furious, upset, and just couldn't believe he'd seen the room from bedroom hell!  And, there was my underwear lying right by the door.  Don't tell me he didn't see that along with my hanging bras!  The man probably left our home and drove straight to therapy!  But hey, Joe now has an emergency lifeline beeper. 

By now it was almost 1:00 p.m. and becoming almost too late for lunch so I took my sweetie to lunch.  Then we had to stop by the Eastside Walmart for med refills and dog food BEForE taking Joe to get a haircut and beard trim.  A couple of times during the day, Joe had asked if we could go to the top of Casper Mountain.  I asked him why since we'd been up there a couple of months ago.  He said he wanted to go again and see the valley below before he lost anymore of his sight.  How could I refuse that, I ask you?  So, I wound up driving him ALL over Casper Mountain and all around the bottom of the mountain.  Then, and only then did I finally get to come home and collapsed on the couch for a few minutes.  By now it was after 7:00 p.m. way past normal dinner time so then it was on to fixing dinner.

This is where we pulled off so that Joe could take a look at 
Casper and the surrounding area on this beautiful clear day.

I have run out of speed and run out of energy.  WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DAY!!!  Can we start all over, PLEASE!?  I have virtually accomplished NOthing of what I wanted/needed to do.  The bedroom from hell looks just as bad, but I suppose when I enter its dark confines tonight, I won't be able to notice the lack of improvement. 

So, let's see, no meal planning done...check.  No found clothes and matching socks...check.  No clean sheets on the bed...check.  No washed bathroom rugs and cleaned bathroom...check.  No cleaned car...check.  No blogging....only thing one.  Hmmm, the results - one entirely, unplanned and completely unraveled day.  But, while up on the mountain I stopped the car one time, told Joe to "look".  He said "where?"  I said "turn your head and look out your window."   There was a doe standing so close to him that she could have given Joe a kiss.  (Unfortunately, no camera ready this time).  And, this was after seeing two little spotted fawns earlier on the other side of the road.  This was what made having all my best laid plans go totally crazy worthwhile.  It was seeing Joe's smiling face looking eyeball to eyeball with that doe.  The sheer pleasure it brought him was priceless.  It's a moment that will forever be ingrained in my mind even without a picture.  It was the experience of having all the car windows open and the sunroof open and pulling off the side of the road on the top of a dirt road and just taking in the view with Joe that was something I will always remember.

All-in-all it was a wonderful non-daycation day.  I did gets lots of things done even though I'm still sooooo far behind on what I wanted/needed to do.  Joe's tucked in bed after giving him his nightly meds and ready to watch some DVR shows that are several weeks old.  Don't know how long that'll last because ahhh, the bed is looking pretty good about now!  (In the dark, of course)!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Note:  Never popped the popcorn and only made it through one show.
----------------------------------------------------------------
From Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse, 1786. It tells of how he, while ploughing a field, upturned a mouse's nest. The resulting poem is an apology to the mouse:

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren't alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.

National Lobster Day

Lobster is considered a delicacy all over the world, especially in the United States. This explains why lobster fishing is a $1.8 billion industry in Maine alone. In fact, New England is known for its lobster. The crustaceans were so plentiful in the 1800's that New Englanders could simply walk down the shores of beaches to find lobsters for dinner. Indentured servants were fed lobster so often that one community in Massachusetts instated a law prohibiting lobster dinners from being served more than three times a week. Nowadays, many of us, including myself, would gladly enjoy this seafood seven days a week!

Back in November of 2006, I had to fly to Boston for about 4 days to do some trainings.  Since I was going to be gone so long and I found an inexpensive ticket to have Joe fly there, I took him along with me.  It was almost like a paid vacation for the both of us since my rental car, hotel and food was paid for and all we had to pay for was the ticket and Joe's food.

Since I had almost a full day from one training to another, we took off one day exploring.  Since I'd never been to Maine that was our objective.  (If we'd had one extra hour I would have made it to Vermont and had the entire northeast visited).  I always tried to eat local food so that meant I was going to eat me some lobster!

We stopped at the rest area in Maine.  It was so nice on that November day that we were even driving with the sunroof open on the rental car.

Well, it was cool enough to wear sweaters and wool caps.

We drove along the coast of Maine, but finding a restaurant open during the winter season was really difficult. Most everything was closed and there was not even any fast food restaurants where we drove. We were beginning to think we would never find an open restaurant, but we finally did. It was the Maine Diner and I spent every bit of my company food money on everything lobster that I could order. We had lobster macaroni and cheese, lobster pie, lobster roll, etc. And, everything I ate was FANTASTIC!

The menu describes the hot lobster roll as FANTASTIC! The menu is correct. It is a Connecticut-style roll, nothing but sweet, lobster meat falling out of a grilled weiner bun. You cannot eat it with your hands, because the bun is soaked with butter.

This was the Lobster Pie.  I got an individual ceramic dish which contained whole big portions of lobster tail, claw, knuckle meat-drenched in butter, topped with a mixture of breadcrumbs and tomalley. What is tomalley? It's the liver of the lobster, which turns green when boiled and is considered a delicacy. Yes, this was unbelievably delicious.

The furtherest north we could drive to was Kennebunkport.  This is where the first President Bush and Barbara used to vacation while he served in the presidency.  These are pictures either in Kennebunkport or on the outskirts of the quaint little town. 

I also discovered a very old cemetery, but unfortunately could not explore it since time was quickly passing and I needed to get back to Boston.

Cowboy Joe's Job

Saturday morning we all got up to help at a Team Penning Competition. The rules of Team Penning are...Cattle are numbered in groups of three and are herded down on one end of an arena. Teams of three riders cross a start line as the announcer calls out a number. The team separates the three cattle from the herd, pushes them to the other end of the arena and gets them into a small square pen. The team with the fastest time wins.

We were all assigned various jobs by Sherry who had organized this event. Joe was assigned as the official gatekeeper. He was to open and close the gate when the horses went in and out. He wanted a cowboy hat to wear since this was a "real" cowboy event. The night before we left, I went by Dollar Tree and bought him a hat. Granted it was a child's felt cowboy hat for a Halloween costume, but it was a cowboy hat.

Here is Joe modeling his hat which he has attached to his head with a shoestring. He said he reminded himself of Gabby Hayes, but doesn't he look cute?!

At the end of the day, Joe tried to give his hat away to some little kids, but even they wouldn't take his hat.