Maura Grace

I opened a window (all morning long) in our house for the first time this year!  Oh my! it feels and smells so refreshing! I thought of not telling you why I openened the wondow but it's too funny to keep it to myself...Chap celebrated his birthday all night at Macho Monday and his breath smelled so bad I was unable to sleep. The cure to many bad smells is an open window.

Today is Chap's official 26th Birthday!  I am so so so happy he was born!  We celebrated as a group yesterday at Arnold's Family Fun Center.  It was actually a joint party because Nate Kula turned 26 last Wednesday. There was eleven of us total and we ate horrible food and had amazing fun! We raced go carts, played lazar tag, bumper cars, and crazy cars. We all had so much fun together, like always, but mine and Chap's favorite part was the bumper cars because all of us turned it into a game of "get the hat".  Our friends never fail when it comes to playing around there is always some game invented on the fly that has the whole group laughing and having the best of times.  We really do have the greatest friends ever, and when I am around them I feel that the experience of heaven on earth is real!

I updated my bio under the "about me" tab on my website.  You should take a look, I think you'll like it. 

I enjoyed writing it because it gave me a chance to reflect on my childhood.  I know I have told you this before but I had so much fun growing up in Florida!  It was a perfect playground all year long.  Some of my favorite memories were out-fishing Dad a few times, our family jumping in the swimming pool after church with all of our church cloths on, taking that black cat home from the barn and watching it have babies, catching butterflies to bring into our screened porch, finding tree frogs and throwing them in the swimming pool, finding those lizard eggs and picking them up and they hatch in my hands, watching the sea otter do tricks in the pond, finding really gnarly soft shell turtles, pulling Buffy around in the wagon hitched to my bike, learning how to jog and golf with Dad, having my big sister lead the Halloween parade on her horse, and going on a three feet deep mud walk!

I'm not sure how much trouble it was to switch our pool water from chlorine to fresh water or salt water (i forget exactly) but I thank you so much!  I couldn't have done half the things I did if we had chlorine in the pool.  Like those tree frogs would have died and our eyes, hair, and skin would have suffered big time. To this day I have a hard time with chlorine pools because you spoiled me so! 

You always said I had the ability to manipulate any system, and we both know that can be good and bad. 

Well I have a small confession.  First I want to say, as I continue to mature I leave my bad manners at home but I still have a tendency to test "the system" whatever it may be, and then leave it alone even if I figured out a loop hole.  For example, yesterday I was driving home from work and had to stop in center city to pick something up at Chestnut and 15th st. The parking is awful at 6:45pm on a weekday and it's all meter parking.  The only parking spot available was for motorcycles and skooters... It was raining and freezing cold I didn't feel any motorcycles would be crusing around in this weather so I parked.  There was plenty of room for my car and I had an idea.  I knew I would get a ticket even if I paid the meter because the sign specified "for motorcycles" So I remembered that I had an old ticket in the car from months previous so I placed my old ticket in my windshield wipper and went shopping.  I came back and the other cars around me all had tickets and I took my decoy ticket from my windshield and checked to make sure it wasn't a new one and it was not!  The metermaid over looked my car thinking it was already ticketed for the violation.  I felt a bit sleezy but also cleaver.  I don't plan on doing it again because I think it's too risky but I thought it was worthy for a short story.

These past few weeks I have been making myself luch at home and when I do I sit at the table and read the "1003 Household Hints" book you gave me for Christmas.  It is so old I feel like I am breaking it with each page I turn but it's really great info like:

#113 Keep lemons fresh longer in a tightly closed jar of water in the refridgerator. 

and I especially love this one because it dates the book pretty well

#124 Picnic sandwitches will stay fresh twice as long if, after wrapping them, you seal the edges of the wax paper with a hot iron.

Overall it's really great hints to help beat the high cost of living (copywright 1948).  I imagine what was common sence at one time is now sorta lost information, and with that said I am getting alot out of it. I keep visualizing Grandma in the kitchen using the leftover mashed potatos and frying them up into patties or storing the bacon grease like it was gold.