Shutdown OVER

The shutdown is OVER!

There is no agreement for a wall.

All I know is... Don't nobody better mess with Ms. Nancy. Hell no. She is not to be messed with. And she stood her ground. Go Ms. Nancy.

But I like this cartoon:

Yes, that may be the only wall we see. And rightfully so.

Martin Luther King Day 2019

Today is MLK day. And it's a national holiday.

Years ago, people fought to deny him a holiday. But you can't deny an American icon, a man who lead such a pivotal part of American History.

If he'd not been assassinated, he would have been 90 years old today.

Alas, that's not the case. We have the memory of him and all he did.

This day, I do not volunteer, but I take time to remember and pontificate.

And to simply enjoy the day.

TWELVE Thursday Thoughts

Twelve Thoughts! On a Thursday!


1. I started this on Tuesday, wishing it was Thursday. And now it is Thursday. Soooo happy about THAT! The weekend is nigh. I can feel it!

2. The dayum gub'ment shutdown is STILL full in effect. LAWD. And they got the nerve to call people back in to work without pay. Stop it!!

3. We are hostages. Sister Callie Jo has the hostage face I have right now.

4. All I know is that they better figure it all out before a doggone plane fall out the sky. That is all.

5. What is interesting is that I am working and still getting a paycheck. And I am fine with that. Wasn't expecting it, though. And we have to figure out special timesheets and they BETTER be correct. You should see us up here filling those things out, like we are trying to solve a crossword puzzle.

6. But one of our directors was up here in my cubicle area visiting (and partaking of our group candy) and she was hollering out loud "What happens if your group runs out of money?"

7. As I watched her chew hard on miniature snicker bars, I thought I would have to rebuke her in the name of Jesus. Ain't nobody got time for that.

8. Do you notice that the CDC is not furloughed? You have not heard one peep out of the CDC peoples. Doesn't surprise me one bit. A disease is not going to stop just because there is a furlough.

9. This has been such a wonderful day. I got two surprises I wasn't expecting. Had me saying "Look at God." Glory!

10. This hasn't been the best eating day for me. So tonight I will have some type of salad for dinner.

11. Happy 55th Birthday First Lady Michelle Obama!!

Black cracketh not. No it does not. That is what "be best" looks like. And you know folk are JEALOUS, because they are always trying to say she is really a man. She is not. She is a beautiful woman. Amen.

12. Happy Birthday Betty White!

97 years young. She is one of my favorite actresses. And my heart jumps whenever she is trending in them twitter streets, because I think they may be announcing that she has passed away.But she didn't. I think she will make it to 100 and beyond!!!


That's it for twelve Thursday Thoughts!!

A Special Visitor

So a special visitor stopped by my house on Sunday afternoon.

And he donned some interesting shoes.

"Dude, your shoes don't match," I said.
Of course he didn't pay attention to me. He took them off continued laughing and playing.

My special visitor was my nephew Justin. And my sister said his shoes, his mismatched shoes, are the new style.

I'm good with that. I was just happy to see him. With so much going on right now, it's rare to see him these days.

But he is growing up! He is growing up so fast.

And he loves to pose for pictures.

(And as you can see, he loves to drool, too).

And he has the best coats.

Kentucky found it at the Thrift store. She probably paid $5 for it. That's a deal.

Justin is always snazzy. On the cheap!

It was good to see him. He has all the energy in the world. I remember looking at him wondering "Does he take naps?"

I guess he does. But not really when he's with me. I can only wish I had his level of energy.

But it was so good to see him.

Even if I am worn out from chasing him to and fro.

A Special Birthday Memoir- Grandma

Today is January 14, 2019. It is the day before Martin Luther King's January 15 birthday.

And January 14, 2019 was also my grandmother's birthday. She was born January 19, 1929.

She passed in June of last year. If she would have lived, she would have been 90 years old today.

It is a blessing to live to be 89 years old. I know we all would hope to live that long.

I must admit I miss her so much. For so many years, I would call her up early on her birthday and wish her a happy birthday. I always remembered because she is one day older than Martin Luther King would have been if he was alive.

And we always played a game. I was born when she was 40 years old. So she would always break down my age based on hers.

I could not call her today, for she is no longer here. And if felt so strange.

My blog is some 13 years old. I am happy for that because I have so many pictures here. And it was nice to go back and pick out some old pictures of my grandmother.

It was nice to take time to remember her.


Grandma with her first great-grandson Champ.

Grandma with her walking stick, for just in case she needed to smack a dog upside the head.

I'd attended my paternal aunt's funeral near her home one Saturday, and I surprised her with a visit. She was sitting on her front porch cracking walnuts.

Grandma standing on her front porch. I was trying to leave, and she always watches me get in the car and drive up the street.

Grandma with two of her great-grandson's, the Milk and Cookies crew, Shawn and Tristan, aka Milk and Cookies Jr. and Milk and Cookies 3.0.

Grandma with her great-granddaughter Mya. She bugged me until I drove her over to see her.

My grandmother and grandfather, and my mother and auntie. This was back in the 50s, around the time of the Korean conflict.

Grandma on her front porch. I'd arrived to take her to one of her doctor's appointment.

Grandma with Milk and Cookies some 12 years ago. We'd gone to Red Lobster to have lunch, and to see him in action on his very first job. He was 16 or 17 at the time.

A visit with Grandma some 6 years ago after she'd been in the hospital.

A picture of Grandma at her oldest niece Virginia's funeral. Grandma loved a good funeral.

Grandma holding my sister Kentucky's baby. He was definitely a preemie here. And grandma was so happy to hold another great-grandson.

A picture of Grandma from the 70s. She was looking so serious.

And finally, Grandma's shock at seeing Milk and Cookies tattoo. That was a hilarious day.

These are but a few of so many memories that I have of my grandmother. But it was so nice to go back and relive all these wonderful memories.

I only wish I could sit and talk with her one more time.

I miss her so so much.

Rest in peace, Grandma.

Ten Thursday Thoughts

I wrote this first as Ten Tuesday thoughts, then I realized it wasn't Tuesday. Then I got happy! Because the weekend is one day away. GLORY.


1. Whew wee... this has been a mentally taxing week. Why? Because there are only 10 people working in the whole building. Talk about eerie. I miss the busyness of the cubicle area. I miss the conversations and laughter of my coworkers.


2. With that said, I am ready for this daggone gub'ment shutdown to be over. I cannot believe that congress is allowing this.

3. Thank goodness for Nancy Pelosi and the women of congress, because most of the male members are Ken dolls. (If you don't understand what that means, go buy a Ken doll and pull his pants down. What do you see? That is all.)

4. Interestingly enough, I have to work during this shutdown. I may or may not get a paycheck. Who knows. I will not allow myself to be stressed, because...

5. The Lord takes care of me. That is all.

6. I had my appraisal hearing. I think it went well. They need to visit my property and measure my house, something like that. Information is wrong in the county system. So, I will wait around with that. Hey, as long as they lower my property taxes, I'm good.

7. I have to make sure that I keep up on my water intake, as I do not want to end up back in the hospital again. So I bring water to work.

8. Look at that glass bottle of water. That is some spring water from Italy. There is nothing like water out of a glass bottle. This particular bottled water has NO aftertaste. So that makes me want to drink it even more.

9. But lo and behold, look what's over behind all of that bottled water. Hmm.

Soda! Pomegranate soda! Ugh. I would love to drink it, but it ain't water. It's been sitting off in the back of my cubicle for 6 months, though. I will just leave it there until I can share it with someone.
10. I am coming to work earlier since the shutdown began. I do not like being one of four or five people in the building after dark. It feels good to get home in the evening while it's still daylight! I may have to keep this schedule.

That's it for Thursday thoughts!

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: A Good Christmas

My nephew Justin is at that strange age where he may or may not know that it was Christmas. But he knew he had a lot of new toys.

And he played so hard that he fell asleep, right there on the floor, in the midst of his toys.

Then he had to get sharp so he could go visit his grandparents.

That's what I call a good Christmas.

Monday Madness

Monday...

And I am sitting up here at my good gub'ment job working... with no paycheck.

Bustas.

They better figure this out quick.

It is a GHOSTTOWN in this place. Oh my!! I think I have seen 10 people all day. All day.

I am not sure how this is going to work out. I might as well be off. And I am waiting for chemicals. And there is no one, it seems, to give me my chemicals IF they have been delivered. Stockroom personnel is not here, apparently. I thought they would have one person down there. I may have to break into the room down there or something.

So now I am stuck. And I have a new hostage face. Mitch's face says it best.

Annoyed hostage.

A hostage that's pondering and plotting something.

LOL.

Not funny, though. It is mad annoying. And I, like anyone else, don't like the unknown... especially when it comes to finances. NO.

But it is what it is. My prayer this morning was, "Lord, you know what is going on. Thank you for being consistent in taking care of me and my life.'

But for now, I am thankful for a new day.

Our beloved King, I mean, our beloved President speaks tonight at 9pm eastern time. I will not be watching, because I just... can't. I have always watched presidential addresses, no matter who the president was, but I can't with this president. The language level is on some grade school level. I just can't. I will watch tomorrow.

My House. I got my house appraised. And the first thing everyone says when I say that is "You're moving?"

Nope. But I am appealing my property taxes. They are OUTRAGEOUS. I have the monies sitting to the side, earmarked for it. I have a hearing, and if they deny my appeal, then oh well. But with a professional appraisal, that may not be the case. And they did overestimate my house values. They some BUSTAS. That is all.

We will see how it goes. I was annoyed that I had to clean my house way up. Turns out it wasn't all that bad. I think that for an appraisal, one needs to paint and all this craziness. Not the case if I'm not selling. I must admit that at least I got my yearly decluttering done. I even swept out the garage real good and got rid of a lot of junk that was out there. So I am happy about that.

Song of the Week. TWO songs that I like ALOT. Both by Justin, aka Big K.R.I.T. (I like saying Justin because that is my youngest nephew's name). I will post one now, and save the other for later. This one is titled "Energy".



That is a good song. It is in regular rotation on my playlist.

There is much more I would like to post about. But lunchtime is almost over. I will definitely be posting this week.

First Friday Freestyles

It is the first Friday of the New Year.

I feel like I should be doing something special today. But it is cold outside. And it is raining. And that means I am not gonna be running these mean streets today.

Now I can handle the cold. I can even handle the rain. But both together? No ma'am. No sir.

Tomorrow will be much nicer. Sunshine for three days straight. But the bad news is that this is the end of "Staycation". I have to go to work on Monday, even in the midst of a gubment shutdown.

So I am still being held hostage. But I am a hostage that moves around and possibly gets a paycheck.

I still have the hostage look on my face, though.

You know, I just want it to be over, where everything goes back to normal. I do not want to go back to work with 10 people being in the building versus some 200 people in the building, the normal amount. It is just terrible. And I have been passively looking at the news, which needs to stop. Sometimes we just need a break, where we replace the emotionally draining craziness of the news with something positive. And I think that will be my goal this weekend. That will be my goal this SUNNY weekend.

I have much to do. I need a new battery for Pam the Protégé. The battery is dead. Oh yes, I tried to jump her off.

I jumped her and let here idle for some 20 minutes. I turned her off... and she would not crank back up. Alas, I need a new battery. It would be good to take that dead battery out, take it to the auto parts store, switch out for a new battery, and bring it back home. But I do not know right off hand where my tools are to do this. (I am sure they are around. I just rarely use tools, and I am not sure where I should look first).

My sister called the other day and said, "Lisa, batteries are expensive now. I thought they were $59.99. What happened?"

"It is called inflation, girl," I responded. "Pam's battery is $110, and Lucy Jr.'s battery is over $200. You and I are thinking of 1999 prices, because we rarely buy batteries."

Inflation is something else, ain't it?
I am thankful that I can go get a new battery. I just hope that is the only issue. Most likely it is.

I can purchase a slab of ribs from my favorite rib spot for $28. I found this out when I went to get a couple of slabs of ribs for a family gathering on my father's side a couple of months ago. I asked the cashier why they were so expensive?

"The last time I bought a slab, they were $14.95."

"How long ago was that?" she asked as she rang up my order.

"The year 1992."

*blink blink*

Both she and I had a GREAT laugh behind that one. That was funny.

Yes, the prices of those ribs have gone up in the last 26 years. Go figure.

What is interesting is that we do not notice these things. It is so SUBTLE. And that's the way it has to be done.

Song of the week. My favorite song is by one of my neighborhood rappers JID. *throws up eastside Atlanta gang signs*. The song is titled "Off the Zoinkys".

Sorry, I could not track down a clean version. OH WELL.



That song is probably the most interesting appeal of "Just Say No" to drugs that I have heard in awhile. I love the production and beat structure too. Good song. Lay off the xans and lean and the cigarettes, ya'll. Mind needs to be clear, because we are a long way from Decatur, ya'll.

Right on.

And you know I like to go look up the samples. This song samples "I'm so Grateful" by the Crowns of Glory.



This song makes me see how FAR urban gospel music has come. This song is not shined up. It definitely sounds like something my Grandma would have listened to back in the day. Good song, though! They did snatch a lot for the sample.

That is it for freestyle Fridays!

I think on this cold rainy Friday I will take a lesson from Big Mitch.

Lay out for the rest of the day.

Big Mitch knows how to relax and lay out, even if he's showing all his bizness. He does not care.

Sounds like a good plan, though. I have much reading to do, and I will be up early on Saturday morning so that I can get out and run the streets on a sunny day!

In other words, I'm gonna have a good weekend. You have a good one too.

On purpose!

Twelve Thursday Thoughts: The Hostage Edition (Humph)

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO YA!!

Welcome BACK to Thursday Thoughts....

And yes, you read that title right. 'Tis the HOSTAGE EDITION.

And this is how I am looking right now.

Frickin' annoyed about being held hostage.

So here we go.

1. Yes, this is the Hostage Edition. Why? Because over 800,000 government employees are being held hostage by this GUB'MENT SHUTDOWN.

2. I have worked for our beloved gub'ment for over 20 years. That is a long long time. Yes, this is considered a job for life at times, but then you have this monkey wrench called the Gub'ment shutdown. Sigh. And this is the third one this year.

3. I hear that I am not affected about it, since I am paid differently than other gub'ment employees. So I should get a check every other Friday.

4. But one of my coworkers, who was in our current group during out last shutdown (I was not), said 'Sure, they say that, but they messed everything up. We still didn't get paid!"

5. Humph.

6. So I have had to come up with a plan. It will be the same one I had during the 2013 shutdown: cut myself a living expenses check once a week. That works well enough.

7. Everybody gets reimbursed after this is over, and it comes along with a sad sack apology along the lines of "We are so sorry you had to go through this."

8. Humph.

9. In other news, I had to have my house appraised yesterday. Yo, I did not want to come out of my pocket with the money for that. During a shutdown, extra ish like that is magnified. I could have used those monies for something else. But I have to appeal my taxes and it is best to go before the appeals board next week with a good thorough professional appraisal in hand rather than my Good Book of Cuss. ("Ya'll some bustas, trying to charge me all this money for property taxes. #%^&@!!!!)

10. I also got my hospital bill in the mail. The total charges were around $21,000. Now they know they didn't do that much over 6 days. I needed some concierge and limousine service for all that. THANK GOD FOR INSURANCE. And thank goodness for my health savings account. I saw a ton of money getting dumped into my regular bank account from that, and I thought "Oh my, the hospital bills must be hitting my account." So I just used that money to pay the hospital bill, which was a few percent.

11. The last time I was in the hospital was 17 years ago. The bill was $18,000. I was charged $100. And I remember being upset about that, because it messed with my budget. Sigh. Thank God for insurance. And thank goodness for growth. I am older and wiser now. I will not moan and groan about any bill I have to pay. I just thank God in advance that a way will be made... because I have ALWAYS seen a way made.

12. I am still on vacation. 2 weeks of "staycation" to be precise. I go back to work on Monday. Yes, I have to work, even if the gub'ment is shut down. My car will most likely be the only car in the parking lot. And that is alright. (Although I have been joking/threatening that I will park my car and then catch an Uber back home, lol).  I still have the hostage face, but I know that everything will be alright soon.

That is it for 12 Thursday Thoughts! I managed to get a lot of information in there, didn't I?

And that is good after not posting much. Hopefully I will do better! This was really good for my mental :)