I would like to know how to make the side bar (to the right) of my blog MINE. For example, I see some bloggers have favorite bloggers...how do I list mine? Some even have email addresses, how do I get that? Thanks

My dining room is fairly finished as well as the other projects I listed here.  Link I went out and started cutting sod yesterday.  Sounds easy, and its not brain surgery but it is labor intensive when done with a flat shovel.  I am expanding my flower beds and extending them down two sides of the house. I edge out a 25 x 25 square of sod at a time with the straight edged shovel.  I get the shovel underneath the piece of sod and use a back and forth motion to cut t...

I have blogged on JU for just over a year.  Sometimes I write about personal things, sometimes the past, sometimes fiction, sometimes whatever. While I am always eager and so thankful people read, I am certainly not in the top 10, or even the top 20, heh.  So while I know a few people read me, I never realized until today how powerful JU and the net can be. I wrote STEP MONSTER . Link some time ago, and in it I mention a friend, named Drachel, a couple times.  I l...

San Chino calls it stream of conscious writing.  This is my everyday version. Here I am minding everybody’s business and nothing is happening.   People say it’s an exciting world, but in suburbia excitement is outlawed.   Yes, by the majority.   This is America after all.   Ribbons.   Not regular ribbons, or even ribbons in a little girl’s hair.   Th e magnetic ones.   Low rider pants big in da hood?   Magnetic ribbons are i...

I have a killer headache today.   I just finished the book “Magic Time” by Marc Scott Zicree and Barbara Hambley.   It was published around 2001 and is the first of the trilogy.   The beginning was so disjointed and slow I almost stopped reading it, but it finally picked up after the first several chapters.   Basically, the US government worked a project called the “Source.”   The source gets free and sucks up all the power including electricit...

I took the boys to the water park today.   It’s in the 90’s here and there are only two places fit for mankind:   inside sitting in the air conditioning or somewhere with lots of cool clear water.   We arrived around noon.   It was our first time at this particular water park, my ten year old read the rules out loud to his brother and me.   They were the typical no running, pushing, be safe kind of common sense rules.   I blew up my three year...

My son started sixth grade this year.   In our area, sixth grade is the first year of middle school/junior high.   Last night was the “parents only” open house.   Actually, it involved parents, all the other siblings, but not the actual middle school attendee in tow.   It was hot.   Our schools are old and have no air conditioning.   They are literally falling apart.   We already pay huge property taxes, but they go for things like brick...

Today I met Melissa.   I was in my garage sanding the trash table find by hand ( http://lifehappens.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=155909 ) and mumbling under my breath.   It was about 86 degrees and 80 percent humidity.   Once I stripped the piece, I found the stains.   Deep stains that no amount of sanding will erase, thus the grumbling.     A short young woman with red hair pinned atop a sweating head approached my garage.   She was...

All day I work and do things with the kids and think of hundreds of things to write an article about.   Then I sit down to do it and…nadda.   Cleaned house today.   It was actually raining when I woke up, and rainy days are house cleaning days.   The cable guy came, tracked mud across my carpet, thank you very much.   My high speed internet is not connected correctly, or wasn’t, he fixed it.   (Something about it not being grounded and a bad s...

Today blue skies birthed seventy degrees after days of chilly weather.   I took my four year old to our favorite park.   We like to go during the day when all the “big” kids are at school.   When we arrived, there were about twenty parents, and probably thirty children.   It is a large park with two major areas of primary colored plastic play equipment and a sand pit in the middle.   It wasn’t crowded.   There are several blue rubber co...

I know my life is getting busier by the number of days a week I wear make up.   Hunter is playing tennis on a doubles team.   I like tennis and am so glad he is not playing soccer this year. I hate watching a bunch of 11-12 year olds play soccer.   Or actually watching them kick the ball out of bounds (or whatever it’s called) every other hit.   Gah, I’d rather watch paint dry, it’s less frustrating.   My 4 year old is not a tennis fan.   I...

Here are a few shots of some birds who come to feed in our yard.  Today, with all the snow, the red ones really stand out.  (Of course I couldn't get any closer without them flying away.)    

What is the deal with little girls?   My 11 year old plays basketball.   He is on one of about twenty teams.   They alternate playing games at each of our five elementary schools.   The basketball floor is standard size, just.   And there is nowhere for parents to sit except a filthy little stage which overlooks the basketball court by about four feet.   There are no chairs or risers, and often a lot of theatre props litter the small stage. &n...

Christmas is over.   The tree is put away.   The only things left are the wreaths on the windows.   I cleaned house today.   Scrubbed toilets, polished mirrors.   And I wondered.   What would I do with all the extra time if I ever hired a maid?   How did women in medieval times keep their castles clean?   I know the servants or slaves did the work, but did they ever roll up their sleeves and muck the rushes off the floor?   Did they ta...

All men wait on death.   If this seems a little off...consider it lack of sleep, hit and miss hospital food, and too much caffeine.   Thursday I went to see my uncle.  Friday I went back to stay.  He's in the hospital with the M.R.S.A. staph infection, C-Diff infection in his colon, and total renal failure.  His kidneys stopped working 10 days ago.  The creatin levels are climbing, as of yesterday they were at 6.9.(0.5-1.5 being normal.) He r...