Steak night!!

Yes, for real this time!! Hilltop is open tonight and we will be there!!! I have been missing my steak and mushrooms! I grilled some steaks last night (usually I get Walter to do that) and they just really weren't that good, so I'm really looking forward to tonight!

I had a realization this morning about Leon (the neighbor) calling about taking the garbage out. My best thoughts come to me during my long soaks in the bathtub, and this morning it hit me! When I did go to take the garbage out (and I made Leon sweat it out - he called at 8am & I intentionally didn't take it out until 10am!!) this was our conversation:

Leon: "girl, you better get that garbage out!"

Me: "yeah, I got it."

Leon: "I know you & Walt (somehow EVERYONE in the neighborhood calls him WALT) got those 3 cans to put out."

Me: "uh huh."

Leon: "Did I wake you up when I called?"
Me: "yeah, you did."
Leon: "Oh, well I didn't even know if you were home or not." (that's cause I hide the car in the garage so he DOESN'T know)
Me: "uh huh."
Leon: "Is your boy still here?" (he has a name and we call him CAMERON)
Me: "yeah, he's leaving with his dad in a little while though." (have to tell him if something is happening or he'll come investigate when Neil drives up.)
Leon: "He came over to get my key because you locked him out of the house yesterday."
Me: "Actually, Walter locked him out, but thanks for letting him in."

So, then i'm thinking about it this morning because I know that I need to say something to Leon, but in a nice way because he is a nice man who really means well. And it hit me. He didn't know (or think) I was home. He was calling CAMERON to tell him to take the garbage out!!!!!! If that is the case, I will tell the man that he better NEVER think he is going to mind my business and tell my son what to do. It's one thing to aggravate me, but he has no place and is WAY beyond his boundaries if he is going to even think about telling my son to do something. Cameron does take the garbage out when he's here, so I guess that got him thinking that he was slacking on his duties. We'll have to have a little talk pretty soon! Yikes!

So anyway, I went to Walmart this morning and picked up a few things. My diet is really easy for me to stick to if I have those things I can eat handy - like the pre-cooked bacon, which I was out of. I also like to have veggies handy to snack on, so I got some of those too. I decided to allow myself my beloved glass of wine at night after doing some google searching about it. Atkins says not to drink any alcohol, but wine does not have carbs in it. It seems that the concern is about causing cravings for sweets due to insulin levels fluctuating after drinking alcohol, but I can resist the junk food and want to give it a try. I still can't force myself to go to the health club that we ARE PAYING FOR, but i'm working on it. It's so easy to go once you're going regularly, but once you stop, man it's hard to go back!

Cathy & I booked our flights to New York yesterday!!! It was a bit more than I thought due to taxes and fees, plus we are going Friday and they are going Thursday, and their flight is a little bit less. I get 10 days off per year (plus I have 5 that I have rolled over from last year), but only 2 can be used for personal days, and I don't want to use my only 2 personal days all at once like that. Plus, if JP's trial should really happen in December, I will need 5 (maybe more) days off to attend that. And that may seem odd to only get 2 personal days, but I only work 182 days a year (have 183 off), get off work at 2:30, and don't work in the summer, so I have plenty of time to do personal things without missing work. But anyway, the tickets for Walter & I together were $800, but we don't have to pay for a place to stay, rental car, food or anything while we're there.

Speaking of JP, he called last week and while we were talking, the phone cut off. It is very expensive to call ($5 for the first minute, then $1 a minute after that for a total of 20 minutes, then the phone will disconnect.) He had only been talking several minutes, then the phone cut off. He didn't call back and I figured it was because of the cost to call back and we'd talked about the main thing he'd called about. Then I noticed on the jail's website the next day that he'd been moved to a different "tank." Then the worrying started! They move the inmates around a good bit, but with the phone cutting off and him not calling back and then being moved, it worried me. He's had seizures before and in a different building (there are about 5 jail buildings on a block in downtown Houston) I know that the 7th floor is a medical floor, but wasn't sure about his building, where he's been moved to the 7th floor. So, I called and finally got someone to help me and they made some calls and determined that in his building, the 7th floor is not a medical floor. So then i'm worried that someone hung the phone up and he got in a fight or something. My only option is to wait it out, which is very hard when your child is in a system like this. If I were in Houston, I would be able to go there and check on him, but I'm not, and my sister & her kids aren't really interested in visiting (of course, 1 of her kids is actually IN the jail now too), so I wait it out, which I've learned to do fairly well. I did send a letter letting him know that I noticed he was moved and asked him to call when he can. Well, yesterday I got a letter from him letting me know that he was moved and it was because someone hung the phone up while he was talking and that he said something but handled it the right way, did not get written up or in trouble, and the guards thought it was best to move him to prevent any other problems. Wow. It's nice to hear that he did the right thing AND that the guards actually knew about it, cared about preventing a problem, and did something about it. They don't normally really give a darn about anyone and they don't see the inmates as people, and they are. People have died on the floor while inmates have pleaded with guards to check on someone who is sick or having seizures or something. All of the inmates are someone's kids, parents, sisters, brothers, friends, etc. and although people make bad choices, not all inmates are bad people. JP said he is happy where he is now and feels that he can stay out of trouble through the time waiting until the trial date in December.

On a lighter note, some people enjoyed hearing the stories about my funny cat, Nadda, who is named that because he's "Nadda our cat" after I stole him from the "bad cat neighbors" a couple of years ago. He is terrified of people, except me, but is probably the sweetest cat I've ever seen. He snuggles on my pillow with me at night, but only after Walter is asleep! Nadda actually waits for us to turn the light out before he will get on the bed. He will let Walter pet him if he feeds him pudding, but that's another story (this was taken with my new IPhone that I haven't quite mastered yet):

Anyway, I showed a picture the other day of Nadda's latest antic, which was taking Walter's shoe and putting it in the cat toy box. Nadda always takes my things and leaves them in his food bowl, water bowl, and sometimes the toilet. Well, this morning, he picked up a pair of Walter's socks and took them into the bathroom and dropped them in the toilet!! He really cracks me up. His ultimate plan is to fish them out of there, but I put a stop to that game!!

I learned how to create the super cool links to my previous posts from Mama Kat and I'm so amused by it! I can usually figure these things out on my own, but could not figure out the links for anything!!! Thank you Mama Kat!! I plan to use these way more than people probably would like!!!!!

I am going to go sit on my awesome screened porch and enjoy the rain!! Have a great Thursday!!