Friday, April 28, 2006
A Recipe For Health
I've been, once again, working on genealogy and in going through some old family letters and such from my grandma, I found the following recipe:
"1 qt. vinegar
shells of 1 doz eggs
simmer in a pot vessell with a light lid down to about a pint.
put in 2 big onions, cook till tender then strain through a cloth.
cook in sugar or honey to thick syrup
a teaspoonful every few hours as needed."
You know what this recipe is for?
Bleeding in the lungs.
No joke. That's the header of the recipe. "For Bleeding at the Lungs." I'm thinking that the eggshells alone would contribute to my lungs bleeding!! Gack!
And!!! My new post dedicated to the courtship of my great-grandparents is finally up & running!! Check out the inagural post here!!
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"1 qt. vinegar
shells of 1 doz eggs
simmer in a pot vessell with a light lid down to about a pint.
put in 2 big onions, cook till tender then strain through a cloth.
cook in sugar or honey to thick syrup
a teaspoonful every few hours as needed."
You know what this recipe is for?
Bleeding in the lungs.
No joke. That's the header of the recipe. "For Bleeding at the Lungs." I'm thinking that the eggshells alone would contribute to my lungs bleeding!! Gack!
And!!! My new post dedicated to the courtship of my great-grandparents is finally up & running!! Check out the inagural post here!!
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// posted by Heather @ 5:51 PM 
Monday, April 24, 2006
Marooned
Yesterday was another windy day here in Colorado Springs. It seems that this past 6 months or so have been windier than I can ever remember. And I mean gusty, blow-your-pet-away winds, too. A few months ago, during one of these big wind storms, a fishing dock at Quail Lake, across from where I work and the lake that Prescilla & I trot around, was blown into the middle of the lake. It sat there for about a week before someone hauled it back into shore and taped it up with the yellow "CAUTION" tape.
About a month ago when it started to get warm, the yellow tape was taken off and people started using the dock once again to fish. Today was no exception.
Quail Lake was packed with fishers, walkers, bikers & joggers due to the warm weather. The gusty winds didn't seem to deter them a bit. Prescilla & I were on our first jaunt around the lake when she noticed that one of the fishing docks, full of people (4 adults and 2 kids, it looked like) were in the middle of the lake. She was wondering how they got out there and I suggested that possibly the wind had blown them out there while they were fishing.
"No, I don't think the wind is that strong," she said. "But I don't see a boat or anything around them." We kept an eye on them while we walked by and around for the 2nd lap. We were on the south side of the lake when we saw that a fire truck and a volunteer fire truck had pulled up on the north side, where we were headed. It appeared that I had been right, that the wind had indeed blown them into the middle of the lake and stranded them.
One of the firefighters swam into the lake and attached a thick yellow rope to the dock and a couple more firefighters up at the truck were pulling them in slowly. Imagine how heavy that would be!! There was the big fire engine, the volunteer truck and 2 cops. As we walked by (it was the closest I had ever been to a fire truck that wasn't barreling down the street and it was pretty cool!!), another fire truck, this one marked "HEAVY RESCUE" came around the corner.
"Well, this is definitely something those people can tell all their friends," I laughed. "How they were marooned out on Quail Lake and had to be rescued!"
"And everyone will know about it," Prescilla said, pointing to the 5&30 News truck that was pulling up as we crossed the street. It was the most action Quail Lake had seen since Christopher Abeyta disappeared years & years ago and they drained it looking for him. At least there was no tragedy there today. Just some wind-stranded fishers!
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About a month ago when it started to get warm, the yellow tape was taken off and people started using the dock once again to fish. Today was no exception.
Quail Lake was packed with fishers, walkers, bikers & joggers due to the warm weather. The gusty winds didn't seem to deter them a bit. Prescilla & I were on our first jaunt around the lake when she noticed that one of the fishing docks, full of people (4 adults and 2 kids, it looked like) were in the middle of the lake. She was wondering how they got out there and I suggested that possibly the wind had blown them out there while they were fishing.
"No, I don't think the wind is that strong," she said. "But I don't see a boat or anything around them." We kept an eye on them while we walked by and around for the 2nd lap. We were on the south side of the lake when we saw that a fire truck and a volunteer fire truck had pulled up on the north side, where we were headed. It appeared that I had been right, that the wind had indeed blown them into the middle of the lake and stranded them.
One of the firefighters swam into the lake and attached a thick yellow rope to the dock and a couple more firefighters up at the truck were pulling them in slowly. Imagine how heavy that would be!! There was the big fire engine, the volunteer truck and 2 cops. As we walked by (it was the closest I had ever been to a fire truck that wasn't barreling down the street and it was pretty cool!!), another fire truck, this one marked "HEAVY RESCUE" came around the corner.
"Well, this is definitely something those people can tell all their friends," I laughed. "How they were marooned out on Quail Lake and had to be rescued!"
"And everyone will know about it," Prescilla said, pointing to the 5&30 News truck that was pulling up as we crossed the street. It was the most action Quail Lake had seen since Christopher Abeyta disappeared years & years ago and they drained it looking for him. At least there was no tragedy there today. Just some wind-stranded fishers!
Labels: stories
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// posted by Heather @ 12:42 PM
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Back & Blank
I'm back from my vacation and it was really uneventful. The most uneventful vacation I've ever had. So that means that I have nothing to post. Nothing at all. It's really kind of sad. I'll be working this week in getting my great grandparents' courtship letters in chronological order and be posting them on my Anton & Olga blog soon so that's something that I'm looking forward to.
Until then, I hope everyone had a great weekend.
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Until then, I hope everyone had a great weekend.
Labels: Nada
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// posted by Heather @ 2:04 PM
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Vacation Time
I'm in Grand Junction right now, visting with Grandma and my cousin Shelly. I've never had a chance to ever really sit down and talk to Shelly but now since she lives with Grandma, I've got the chance. She stayed up til 1am last night talking with Dad & I and before that we played games all evening (I lost at Oh Heck! and lost 3 out of 5 games of Gimme 5) - she's a lot of fun.
The trip over was good until we hit Debeque Canyon and then the wind started! The windspeed was clocked at 42 mph and I haven't heard what the highest gust was but the wind almost knocked the Vue into the Colorado River! And it didn't die down when we got into Jct, either. It ripped shingles off of Grandma's neighbor's house and broke Grandma's wind chimes and mailbox! About 8pm last night it finally died down.
I ran to Target last night for pj's - - I had forgotten to back anything to sleep in and I had to share a bed with Grandma so I figured I better have SOMETHING!! I got the cutest shirt while I was in there - - the color is listed as Brick Heather and it has a silhouette of the state of Kansas on it with a pig on it. On the pig it says 1982 and then at the top it says "Kansas State Fair." At the bottom it says "Go hog wild!" What's so great about this shirt is that I've been reading the courtship letters of my great grandparents and they were from Kansas so I figure this shirt ties in with all that Kansas Fun! Ha!
Speaking of, I'll be starting a new blog here shortly where I'm going to be posting the old letters. They were written between 1915-1917 and they're incredibly interesting! I'll get that up when I get home. In the meantime, have a great Tuedsay!
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The trip over was good until we hit Debeque Canyon and then the wind started! The windspeed was clocked at 42 mph and I haven't heard what the highest gust was but the wind almost knocked the Vue into the Colorado River! And it didn't die down when we got into Jct, either. It ripped shingles off of Grandma's neighbor's house and broke Grandma's wind chimes and mailbox! About 8pm last night it finally died down.
I ran to Target last night for pj's - - I had forgotten to back anything to sleep in and I had to share a bed with Grandma so I figured I better have SOMETHING!! I got the cutest shirt while I was in there - - the color is listed as Brick Heather and it has a silhouette of the state of Kansas on it with a pig on it. On the pig it says 1982 and then at the top it says "Kansas State Fair." At the bottom it says "Go hog wild!" What's so great about this shirt is that I've been reading the courtship letters of my great grandparents and they were from Kansas so I figure this shirt ties in with all that Kansas Fun! Ha!
Speaking of, I'll be starting a new blog here shortly where I'm going to be posting the old letters. They were written between 1915-1917 and they're incredibly interesting! I'll get that up when I get home. In the meantime, have a great Tuedsay!
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// posted by Heather @ 10:43 AM
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Magic Christian Music
I was surfing through blogs today, being bored, and stumbled across this post. It made me so happy I almost cried! It's nice to see when other people agree with me, especially about something as important to me as Badfinger & Pete Ham!!
Since Cliff did his review on Magic Christian Music, I'm going to steal that idea and talk about Pete's first posthumous CD, 7 Park Avenue. I remember when this was slated to come out I saw a review of it in People Magazine and about fell over! I couldn't believe that anyone at People Magazine knew who Pete was nevertheless felt this release was important enough to print a review. It was a favorable one as well.
I grabbed a buddy of mine the morning of it's release and ran to Best Buy on our morning break. There was one copy and it was mine - MIIINNNE!!!! We got back to work and I immediately busted out the CD player and popped it in. As soon as "Catherine Cares" started I was in tears. I love Pete's voice and to hear it so clear and in raw form (most of the tracks were demos he recorded alone on a reel machine with the drums or extra guitars added years later) practically broke my heart. "Coppertone Blues" quickly became my favorite song by him EVER followed closely by "Leaving On A Midnight Train" and the demo version of (my bloggy namesake) "Matted Spam."
Pete's 2nd solo cd came out a year or two later and one of the tracks which I can never remember the name of (shame on me, I call myself a Pete Ham fan...) had him talking at the beginning, saying he was "gonna have another cigarette." I don't think I ever actually listened to the song for a month because I couldn't get over hearing Pete's speaking voice.
So!! There's my copycat post for the day! :-) I know I've said this before but if you've never listened to Badfinger - GO LISTEN!! But not to "Come & Get It" - - although this is a great little tune, Paul McCartney wrote it, making it the only song to be recorded by Badfinger that was not written by a member of the band. To get the full Badfinger experience, listen to something like "We're For The Dark" from the No Dice album or "Lost Inside Your Love" which is my favorite non-Pete-penned BF song!!
Have a great weekend!
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I grabbed a buddy of mine the morning of it's release and ran to Best Buy on our morning break. There was one copy and it was mine - MIIINNNE!!!! We got back to work and I immediately busted out the CD player and popped it in. As soon as "Catherine Cares" started I was in tears. I love Pete's voice and to hear it so clear and in raw form (most of the tracks were demos he recorded alone on a reel machine with the drums or extra guitars added years later) practically broke my heart. "Coppertone Blues" quickly became my favorite song by him EVER followed closely by "Leaving On A Midnight Train" and the demo version of (my bloggy namesake) "Matted Spam."
Pete's 2nd solo cd came out a year or two later and one of the tracks which I can never remember the name of (shame on me, I call myself a Pete Ham fan...) had him talking at the beginning, saying he was "gonna have another cigarette." I don't think I ever actually listened to the song for a month because I couldn't get over hearing Pete's speaking voice.
So!! There's my copycat post for the day! :-) I know I've said this before but if you've never listened to Badfinger - GO LISTEN!! But not to "Come & Get It" - - although this is a great little tune, Paul McCartney wrote it, making it the only song to be recorded by Badfinger that was not written by a member of the band. To get the full Badfinger experience, listen to something like "We're For The Dark" from the No Dice album or "Lost Inside Your Love" which is my favorite non-Pete-penned BF song!!
Have a great weekend!
Labels: Music
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// posted by Heather @ 5:18 PM
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Wax On, Wax Off
Sometime last year at work we were told that if we met a certain monetary goal in the budget by the end of the year, there would be a plant-wide bonus.
Morale was high.
A few months ago we learned that the bonus was for fab only because our section "didn't participate in the last shutdown." We were told to continue working through the shutdown because we had a number of high priority products to get out the door - it's not like we had a choice.
Morale was low.
A few weeks ago, they started remodeling the hallway in our building. Obviously, this was what they spent the money on rather than give us a bonus. They painted the walls and ripped up the carpet, replacing it with fancy marble-esque tile.
The problems with the tile are many-fold.
#1) It's harder to clean now for the cleaning people. Rather than run a vacuum over it they have to sweep and mop.
#2) When it rains or snows, the floors will become wet & slippery. I mentioned this to Collin and he gave me great advice: "Move slow and stay low."
#3) We have a large number of people who work strictly in the office area and are required to dress nice which means a lot of the women are wearing heels. I foresee many twisted ankles in our future.
#4) It now needs to be maintained to keep it's sparkling brillance and therefore an outside waxing company is brought in. That brings me to the whole point of my rant today, ladies & gentlemen. The waxing people. It's two people, a man & a woman. The man is young and short and the woman is tall and mountainously huge. We're pretty sure they're married and the image is like Jack Spratt & his wife. Anyway, they were waxing the floor tonight but they started at 8:15pm which is when breaks start. They blocked off the WHOLE HALLWAY to wax, effectively trapping all of us inside our floor. A number of us, including me, tried to go out the back door off of my floor to get to a bathroom and were told by the surly man, "Floor's closed." That's a quote. I asked him "So...no one can go to the bathroom at all?" "10 minutes," he barked. Trust me, I really had to go so he got The Look. And not only were both bathrooms blocked but so were the only two entances/exits in the building! You have to wonder who's bright idea that was! There were alot of pretty mad people on my floor last night!
That's my rant for the day. Hope you all have a fine Wednesday.
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Morale was high.
A few months ago we learned that the bonus was for fab only because our section "didn't participate in the last shutdown." We were told to continue working through the shutdown because we had a number of high priority products to get out the door - it's not like we had a choice.
Morale was low.
A few weeks ago, they started remodeling the hallway in our building. Obviously, this was what they spent the money on rather than give us a bonus. They painted the walls and ripped up the carpet, replacing it with fancy marble-esque tile.
The problems with the tile are many-fold.
#1) It's harder to clean now for the cleaning people. Rather than run a vacuum over it they have to sweep and mop.
#2) When it rains or snows, the floors will become wet & slippery. I mentioned this to Collin and he gave me great advice: "Move slow and stay low."
#3) We have a large number of people who work strictly in the office area and are required to dress nice which means a lot of the women are wearing heels. I foresee many twisted ankles in our future.
#4) It now needs to be maintained to keep it's sparkling brillance and therefore an outside waxing company is brought in. That brings me to the whole point of my rant today, ladies & gentlemen. The waxing people. It's two people, a man & a woman. The man is young and short and the woman is tall and mountainously huge. We're pretty sure they're married and the image is like Jack Spratt & his wife. Anyway, they were waxing the floor tonight but they started at 8:15pm which is when breaks start. They blocked off the WHOLE HALLWAY to wax, effectively trapping all of us inside our floor. A number of us, including me, tried to go out the back door off of my floor to get to a bathroom and were told by the surly man, "Floor's closed." That's a quote. I asked him "So...no one can go to the bathroom at all?" "10 minutes," he barked. Trust me, I really had to go so he got The Look. And not only were both bathrooms blocked but so were the only two entances/exits in the building! You have to wonder who's bright idea that was! There were alot of pretty mad people on my floor last night!
That's my rant for the day. Hope you all have a fine Wednesday.
Labels: work
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// posted by Heather @ 8:39 AM
Monday, April 10, 2006
A Variety of Things
Happy Monday. Hope everyone's weekends went swimmingly. Here's an amalgam of things spinning around in my brain today....
"I'm not a guppy!" On October 3rd, my dreams are finally coming true!!! Disney is FINALLY re-releasing The Little Mermaid as a Limited Edition 2 Disc Set on DVD!! Yayayayayayayayay!!!! See, when they first released it years ago, I didn't have a DVD player so I didn't buy it. By the time I had one, Disney had pulled it. I've waited a long long time for this!
"I'm not Nick Fisher!" This weekend, Collin and I went to see Lucky Number Slevin. It was a highly enjoyable flick - Josh Hartnett, I think, played the role of his career and as always, Bruce Willis & Morgan Freeman were outstanding. If you like crime movies, this is a definite must-see!!
"I'm not old enough to know that!!" Another gem from Mom's birthday Game Night: During a game of Catch Phrase Mom was trying to get Justin to say the word 'pollution' and he just wasn't coming up with it so Mom said, "Give a hoot, don't..." Justin replied with, "Shoot?"
"I'm not crazy! I think!" Last night at work, Collin called me and we talked for a bit. When we said goodbye, I actully waved at the phone!! Gack! My brain...she is melting....meeellllltiiiinigggg.....
That's about all for now. And remember, "Give a hoot, don't shoot!"
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"I'm not a guppy!" On October 3rd, my dreams are finally coming true!!! Disney is FINALLY re-releasing The Little Mermaid as a Limited Edition 2 Disc Set on DVD!! Yayayayayayayayay!!!! See, when they first released it years ago, I didn't have a DVD player so I didn't buy it. By the time I had one, Disney had pulled it. I've waited a long long time for this!
"I'm not Nick Fisher!" This weekend, Collin and I went to see Lucky Number Slevin. It was a highly enjoyable flick - Josh Hartnett, I think, played the role of his career and as always, Bruce Willis & Morgan Freeman were outstanding. If you like crime movies, this is a definite must-see!!
"I'm not old enough to know that!!" Another gem from Mom's birthday Game Night: During a game of Catch Phrase Mom was trying to get Justin to say the word 'pollution' and he just wasn't coming up with it so Mom said, "Give a hoot, don't..." Justin replied with, "Shoot?"
"I'm not crazy! I think!" Last night at work, Collin called me and we talked for a bit. When we said goodbye, I actully waved at the phone!! Gack! My brain...she is melting....meeellllltiiiinigggg.....
That's about all for now. And remember, "Give a hoot, don't shoot!"
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// posted by Heather @ 3:10 PM
Friday, April 07, 2006
An Afternoon In My Car
Every Thursday it's my job to pick Collin's son Justin up from school. I usually get there a good half an hour early so I don't have to fight for a parking spot so that means a lot of idle time for Jordyn & me. This particular Thursday I happened to bring the camera...
Smile & look cute, Jordyn!! Awww...
"Wait!! I can look cuter!! See?"
Jordyn absconded with my camera and - eeyeew! - there I am!! Do not focus on me, check out the awesome seat covers I got from Shanon for Christmas: purple, soft and decorated with Amy Brown art! Way cool!!!
Aha! The punishment for taking a picture of me! I wrapped her up in her coat and tied the arms behind her back so she couldn't move, a trick I learned from her father. Don't worry, it was all in fun and she wasn't really trapped.
And finally the boy arrives after a long day of learnin' stuff.
Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all have a fine weekend!
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Smile & look cute, Jordyn!! Awww...
"Wait!! I can look cuter!! See?"
Jordyn absconded with my camera and - eeyeew! - there I am!! Do not focus on me, check out the awesome seat covers I got from Shanon for Christmas: purple, soft and decorated with Amy Brown art! Way cool!!!
Aha! The punishment for taking a picture of me! I wrapped her up in her coat and tied the arms behind her back so she couldn't move, a trick I learned from her father. Don't worry, it was all in fun and she wasn't really trapped.
And finally the boy arrives after a long day of learnin' stuff.
Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all have a fine weekend!
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// posted by Heather @ 4:41 AM
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Le Sex - My Weekend Part Deux
My mother's birthday was Friday so Collin & the kids and I went over to my parents' house to help her celebrate. We played her favorite games, On A Roll and Catch Phrase. There were only 4 of us playing Catch Phrase - - I was partnered with Collin and my Mom & Justin, who just turned 13 a couple weeks earlier, were partners. It was a bit harder for Justin to give and get clues because of his age - - there were some words or phrases that he wasn't familiar with.
He got the disc and looked at Mom and said, "Okay, an Orc..."
Mom immediately started spouting off words: "Mork, alien, Robin Williams, planet, Mork from Ork..."
"No...no...Orc," he re-emphasized. I thought he was leaning towards a Lord Of The Rings orc, trying to get her to say goblin or something of that nature. Justin sighed at my Mom's blank look and said, "Like...Orca?"
"Whale!!"
"Kind of...with a 'y' at the end."
"Orky?"
"Yes!!" And the disc passed to me. Now, I'm thinking, "Orky? What the hell is an orky?" I opened up the disc to see the previous word and started laughing so hard they had to stop the timer. I was crying I was laughing so hard. When I told everyone else what the word really was, they too joined in the mirth. Except Justin, of course. He had no idea why we were laughing. The word?
Orgy.
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He got the disc and looked at Mom and said, "Okay, an Orc..."
Mom immediately started spouting off words: "Mork, alien, Robin Williams, planet, Mork from Ork..."
"No...no...Orc," he re-emphasized. I thought he was leaning towards a Lord Of The Rings orc, trying to get her to say goblin or something of that nature. Justin sighed at my Mom's blank look and said, "Like...Orca?"
"Whale!!"
"Kind of...with a 'y' at the end."
"Orky?"
"Yes!!" And the disc passed to me. Now, I'm thinking, "Orky? What the hell is an orky?" I opened up the disc to see the previous word and started laughing so hard they had to stop the timer. I was crying I was laughing so hard. When I told everyone else what the word really was, they too joined in the mirth. Except Justin, of course. He had no idea why we were laughing. The word?
Orgy.
Labels: Conversations, Funny
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// posted by Heather @ 9:12 PM
Monday, April 03, 2006
My Weekend, Part Uno
For only a 3 day weekend, I had a lot of stuff going on. In fact, I've decided to break everything down and give you my weekend story in 3 installments. Great fun for YOU! Here we go with Part 1:
I went shopping with Shanon & Elena on Thursday. I had decided to drive so I unlocked the car so Shanon could put the carseat in then went to throw my garbage in the dumpster. Normally, I would have had my keys in my purse but since I had just used them, they were in my right hand. I remember thinking that I better be careful and not accidentally throw them in the dumpster!
I opened the huge lid and noticed that the garbage men had been there that morning - the thing was completely empty. I tossed the bag over and then felt the horrible feeling of my keys being yanked from my hand. There was nothing I could do - BAM! The bag & my keys hit the bottom of the dumpster. "Shit!!" I yelled then kept repeating it as I stalked across the parking lot. "Did you throw your keys in the dumpster," Shanon asked. "Yes!"
"I thought so. All I heard was 'CLUNK!' then "Shit!!!" We started laughing at my predicament as I searched through my trunk for something to pull the keys back up with. I grabbed a squeegee and we headed over. Luckilly there was a hole in the garbage bag that allowed me to slip the sponge part into it and pull the bag up. The keys stayed attached the whole way up for easy retrieval!
I have a key chain that Collin bought for me at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. It's the room tag, name plate & skeleton key from the hotel in The Shining. The skeleton key's teeth had gotten stuck on the bag and that's why they were yanked out of my grip! Thank goodness I was able to get them back easily! The thought of having to dumpster dive to get my keys back was not appealing!!!
Coming tomorrow - "A Teenager Learns About Sex." See you tomorrow!!
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I went shopping with Shanon & Elena on Thursday. I had decided to drive so I unlocked the car so Shanon could put the carseat in then went to throw my garbage in the dumpster. Normally, I would have had my keys in my purse but since I had just used them, they were in my right hand. I remember thinking that I better be careful and not accidentally throw them in the dumpster!
I opened the huge lid and noticed that the garbage men had been there that morning - the thing was completely empty. I tossed the bag over and then felt the horrible feeling of my keys being yanked from my hand. There was nothing I could do - BAM! The bag & my keys hit the bottom of the dumpster. "Shit!!" I yelled then kept repeating it as I stalked across the parking lot. "Did you throw your keys in the dumpster," Shanon asked. "Yes!"
"I thought so. All I heard was 'CLUNK!' then "Shit!!!" We started laughing at my predicament as I searched through my trunk for something to pull the keys back up with. I grabbed a squeegee and we headed over. Luckilly there was a hole in the garbage bag that allowed me to slip the sponge part into it and pull the bag up. The keys stayed attached the whole way up for easy retrieval!
I have a key chain that Collin bought for me at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. It's the room tag, name plate & skeleton key from the hotel in The Shining. The skeleton key's teeth had gotten stuck on the bag and that's why they were yanked out of my grip! Thank goodness I was able to get them back easily! The thought of having to dumpster dive to get my keys back was not appealing!!!
Coming tomorrow - "A Teenager Learns About Sex." See you tomorrow!!
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// posted by Heather @ 10:26 PM
