Sunday morning from the beautiful Rio Grande Valley....

Greetings...sorry about the little poke there...we are watching the weather channel and boy it sure is nasty up north! Several of the residents here cannot get home(mostly the Iowan's and the Cannuks.) The Minnesota folks ususally state til the end of March and they may be staying longer as well. My butt isn't leaving until its 50 in Springfield so that means we won't be trekking north til mid-April.

We were sitting relaxing in the patio/driveway area. Grandpa decided to clip his toenails. I have tried to be kind when describing my aversion to toenails, and his, at 90 are pretty gross.
Well, he's sitting there clipping away and one shoots off into my HAIR! Man, I let out a screech and Pepe jumped about 6 feet in the air I kid you not. I stood up and frantically started to shake my head and put my hands thru my hair. It fell out. Oh Lord. Now this may seem funny, but it certainly wasn't funny to ME. Paulie almost fell out of his chair. OK, laughing boy, I'll deal with you later.... What if it had gone in my water glass and I didn't see it go there? I know that I would have retched all over the place. Next time I leave the area when he clips or he clips in his own room!

Saturday morning we went to the park pancake breakfast. I am now officially done with pancakes til next year.

Paul went to play cards, grandpa took Pepe to get his butt checked at the vet's(he's been doing the butt scoot on the floor so we know what that means....) and I decided I felt pretty good, felt I could drive so I decided to go to the outlet mall in Mercedes, the town just east of us. No problems getting there...still feel fine. Arrive at 9:10 am thinking I will beat the crowds going early. Boy, what a dunce I am...the stupid mall opens at 10. Great. I go to the Starbucks which is open and indulge in a cappuccino. I return some phone calls and finally get Jen on the phone. We talk for quite a while, catching up on what's been going on in our lives. She certainly leads an exciting life...single, has great job, beautiful house, etc. She did surprise me by telling me she got a dog! I never thought she was a pet person. It should be interesting to hear how this works. Its a little girl taco dog. Must be cute. Not much to see at the mall. The clothes are for 15 year olds in size 0 so that leaves me pretty much outta the loop. I did buy one of the tasty carmel apples from the candy shop for lunch. Yum. So, my day consisted of 1/2 pancake, a $4 coffee and a $3 carmel apple. Geesh.

Not much else happening on Saturday...we stayed in and watched the crap offered on the boobtube. Too bad we didn't get some movies at the video store.

Grandpa is feeling a bit under the weather...sore throat and runny nose. Paul is watching some movie about terrorists. I am writing my update and surfing the net. The closer it comes to us leaving the more nervous about all the stuff we have to do. Still pondering what if anything we need to do in the kitchen. I know kitchens sell houses. New counter tops will cost about $550 not installed. We have already purchased a new white stove top a simple electric counter top drop in. I would think if we retouched up the cabinet paint, and the walls where dear departed Oscar like to put his paws on the wall, decluttered my fat chefs a bit and the new counter tops would make this kitchen more updated. I hate to spend money to just sell but that is what it takes. We are gonna lose our butts on this house. However, we did understand this when we put the addition on...it was invest the money in the house to take care of grandma or throw the money to the nursing home...we chose to keep her home. We knew we couldn't recoup the addition cost, but I'll be dammed if I'll let some smoozing real estate agent tell me the neighborhood comps bring down the value of our property. This is a unique house that has to be marketed without comps ...noway do you compare my place and list it less than the bi-level next door...sure both have 4 bedrooms but that is where the comparison ends. She sold next door for more than the realtor says ours is worth. Crap, the appraiser we called said it was worth 10 grand more and the bank appraiser said 25 grand more. OK so how do you sell the highest price property in the neighborhood? I'm surely open to discussion!

Well, I am going to have some lunch and pick up the baby sweater I am knitting for Mother.

Will post more later if something exciting happens!!!

hugs

dee