Last night we went to the Elk's club for Chicken Fried Steak. Really good stuff...salad bar, mashed potatoes, a huge meat patty, good cream gravy and a nice ear of corn. Last night, she brought me GREEN BEANS....OMG... the fat ones, with the humongous seeds in 'em. Ick.Ick Ick. I know, you all think I am nuts. I detest green beans...and peas. Blame my ornery father. He made me sit at the table and tried to get me to eat these cold, congealed veggies (from a can btw...eeeew) that I flatly refused to put near my mouth. One night I sat until my bedtime of 8:30 with those crappy beans on my plate. I wasn't gonna eat them and he wasn't gonna let me get away until I ate the suckers. Nope. Beat me, slap me, yell at me. I ain't eating no canned green beans with the fat seeds. Never. I won. My mother-in-law Catherine, tried for 20 years to get me to eat either peas or fat green beans. She would make beans with some sort of "sauce" from tomato soup! God, is there no justice in this world...ruining a perfectly good can of tomato soup...for FAT GREEN BEANS? She failed. My mother tried that nasty green bean casserole ("These are NOT green beans with the fat seeds, they are french cut skinny beans, and are delicious with mushroom soup in them." )Jeez, that was even worse! Green beans with fungus soup on them? Are you kidding me? Our friend Bev invited us to dinner and made a delicious hamburger and veggie soup. It had beans and fat green beans in it. When we passed our dishes over to her to help clean the tables, Bev says "Hey, who picked out all the peas and beans?" Every eye in the room turned to me. Of course, I got a lecture and to prove a point she put my bowl on the floor and her dog, Misty, gobbled up the peas and fat beans. This proves nothing to ME. Misty is a dog for cripes sake, she eats cat shit if she can find it, and licks other dogs asses. 'Nough said.

I just talked to Zack. He is at work at the putt-putt place in St. Louis Union Station. He attended a "job fair" at SIUE yesterday. He said there were long lines for instant interviews, and the layout of the fair was really poorly done. He said he talked to everyone that didn't have a line. Like Decatur. They were quite interested in him and the one principle of a high school said he would call Zack personally to interview him. OK, I guess Decatur is a possiblity. Like Zack says...a job is a JOB.

Paul went off to Mexico today to have his teeth cleaned. He and I have wanted to do that and just never go around to it. So here it is, 103 degrees in the shade, and gufus wants me to walk around Mexico in the heat. Sure. Be my guest. I will stay here and work on getting stuff together for our journey to Branson.

I cannot wait to get the hell outta here. I have been in one spot way way too long...
Plus, I need to talk to someone under the age of 80...

hugs

dennise