Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday, brought to you by the great blog French Lique, Texas

Oh it's hot hot hot

We're headed for the 90's again today here in southwestern Ohio. My goodness, summer has it fast and hard here. I reset our central air up two degrees - to 78 - in an effort to keep our electric bill at least in the realm of possibility. I've switched over to cooking summer meals now - lighter, less oven meals, less stove top when possible. Tonight is BBQ chicken cooked on the grill, homemade coleslaw and 3 Bean Salad. Last week I had a craving for good BBQ chicken, pre-cooked the chicken and then discovered it just started to pour rain outside when I was ready to take it out to the grill, so I ended up baking it in the oven instead. The next night we had plenty of chicken for a second meal, so I put that out on the grill to reheat - and it was some of the best BBQ chicken I've ever made! I guess having the chicken sit in the BBQ sauce all night in the fridge is the key. If anyone has a great BBQ chicken recipe, please share! The ongoing saga of EX-SIL is not so on-going at the moment. After all the broo-ha-ha over his stubborn threats to appear at my daughter's house last Sunday, he never showed. Go figure. Made me realize that I am giving this guy WAY too much power over how my day is going -- I spent the entire day fretting about what was going on at Mary's house, when I should have just been enjoying myself. Even Jeff was a bit snippy that day, and anyone who knows him knows he is never, ever that way with me. It was all raw nerves and worry, so I understood where he was coming from. A little good news, though. Mary brought me a copy of her divorce papers last night and son of a gun, they include a COURT ORDER that Ex-Sil is NOT to come near my house or Mary's house under any circumstances. It also has a COURT ORDER that he is under no conditions be allowed to visit Mr. B -- and stated firmly that he is MENTALLY UNFIT. Yay! These are better than Protective Orders -- the only way they can be rescinded is if Ex-Sil takes Mary to Court to get it changed. More good news, despite not being allowed ANY type of visitation (including county supervised), he must pay half of all Mr. B's medical expenses, must pay $2000 for my car that he totalled, and must re-pay Mary ALL of the medical expenses incurred when Mr. B was in Shriner's Burns Hospital. Now, granted, the chances of Mary seeing any of this are zero, but until all those moneys are paid back, he can't get any of the Court Orders changed. See where I'm going with this? Of course, it would help if Ex-Sil could comprehend the wording of the Divorce papers... but still... I think I've mentioned that Jeff now works from home full time. Every time I mention that to one of my friends, I have to laugh at their negative reaction. I love having my husband home all the time, though I admit that I don't see him much more now than when he was going to the office every day! He is in his office upstairs by 8am, and, except for wandering down to get a cup of coffee or lunch, I don't see him again until 5:30pm or so. But if I just want to chit chat or stop by for a quick smooch, he's right there - I love it! And I have to tell you, my husband has a fairly stressful job (one of those jobs full of deadlines and meetings and more meetings and bigger deadlines), and - are you ready for this? - when he wants to DE-stress, he cleans. That's right, I said it - HE CLEANS! I'll be sitting downstairs and suddenly hear water running upstairs, and there he is - cleaning the bathrooms! LOL The other day I suddenly heard the vaccuum running! Now these cleaning marathons are quick - 15 minutes or so. But that man can make a dent in the housework in 15 minutes, let me tell you! I've pretty much lost about one-half of the housework I was doing because, with the exception of changing the bed linens (and never say never), he pretty much takes care of all the cleaning of the upstairs -- four roooms and two bathrooms. Oh yeah, I'm good with this working from home thing! ...and YES! OF COURSE! My husband looks EXACTLY like that photo! (Well, in my mind, anyway...)

Treasure Hunting with Mr. B

Jeff loved his Father's Day present, as I was pretty sure he would. Yesterday we took Mr. B out on his first "treasure hunt". Despite not knowing how to use the new GPS, we did manage to find our first "treasure"! The little metal can was tucked way up underneath the cannon, but Jeff found it. What fun! When we opened the can, there was a log to sign, and a few trinkets. These trinkets are there for the geocacher to take - but in return, you leave a little something too. Jeff had some antique streetcar tokens, so we left one of those. I'm going to run out today and pick up a photo album, and start Mr. B's "Treasure Hunt book". I'll put the time, date and place of each "treasure" and a photo of him at the treasure site. I think it might be something he'd enjoy having years down the line!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to everyone. For those of you, like me, who no longer have your Dad with you, just take a few minutes to remember and give him a mental hug. My dad's been gone for (!) 31 years, and I still miss him every single day. So, this is the weekend where EX-SIL will make his first appearance. He's out of the apre-prison half-way house and on the loose once again. God help us all. He's harassed my daughter in every way possible, and now thinks he should be able to visit Mr. B on Father's Day. If it weren't so scarey, it might just be funny. Is there a human being alive who "gets it" LESS than this man? The courts say he can't go anywhere near Mr. B, but he emails my daughter that he wants to visit. He signed a legal document saying my daughter no longer has any of his "stuff," yet gives Mary a list of "stuff" he wants to come and get on Sunday. My daughter is playing it smart -- has boxed up everything and anything that belonged to EX-SIL and will have it outside in the driveway with his name on it, and a sign on her door telling him not to bother knocking, and a big guy in her house for safety's sake. Mr. B will be with us the entire day. Personally, I think this is the week we will be visited by EX-SIL. He's not going to get any satisfaction of getting Mary riled up with his threatened visit on Sunday, so I think this is the week he will come here in frustration. Not to worry, Jeff is home with me every day. There will be no answering the door, there will just be dialing 911. Of course, it may not happen at all, but I'm mentally prepared if it does. On the other hand, EX-SIL has been out of the half-way house (half way to what? I can tell you, I assume it's probably half-way back to jail for this guy), for 10 days now and already has himself a new relationship. Please, let God be looking down on the two of them and NOT bless them with a baby. I do not want to see another child go through what Mr. B went through. On to better thoughts.... Father's Day! My kids and I have gone in on Jeff's present for Father's Day, and I know he'll be pleased. We bought him a hand-help GPS (vs the kind you put in your car) because he has wanted to do some geocaching for awhile now, but our car GPS doesn't have the features he needs. (Don't worry - he never reads my blog, so I'm not giving away any secret!) Don't know what geocaching is? Go here to find out more. It's a bit like modern day treasuring hunting. It was amazing to find out there are more than 500 geocaching sites within 20 miles of where we live. It will be fun. It will get us out of the house, get us out walking, and it's something we can take Mr. B with us to enjoy. I know Jeff is going to love his gift! I believe this is the first time the three of us have gone in on one gift! Our weather is hot and humid. Yesterday we hit 96 degrees. UGH! Of course, it's hard to complain about the heat, when I spent all winter complaining about the cold. You can only complain about so much, ya know? LOL Apparently, I need to pick ONE season to dislike, and let the rest slide. No photos today. I am still getting used to my new computer and have yet to upload any new photos. Today I did buy an 8 gig SD Memory Card to move all my photos off my old computer. Mary will inherit the old computer and I'd like to get rid of it ASAP. My "office" used to be our dining room. Our dining room is now in what used to be our formal living room. I have decided to reclaim the room being used for my office, but I'm not sure yet what it will become. I love our dining room being at the front of the house now - and the room is so much bigger than the room intended for the dining room. I'm thinking a library might be nice -- two comfy chairs, bookcases (which are already in there), maybe a stereo (NO TV!)... not sure yet. I'm off to cook dinner. I made a pot roast yesterday, so today I will make beef fajitas with the leftover roast, onions, green peppers and some lovely mozzarrella cheese. That and a green salad will be dinner tonight. Nice quick meal for a hot summer night (in the air conditioning)...