| Week One: |
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Boy, July was an interesting month. I was really sick; but had a lot of fun times. ROFL For example, to end the month, I was really, really barfy-sick on Friday morning; but by Saturday I felt good enough for Jim's birthday lunch/pool party. Go figure!? and Thank Goodness!  |
Before checking out the pictures from the party though,
check out the last minute addition to July.
When you're done, click back to return here. |
Jim's Two-Party Birthday Party |
One year, I didn't get a cake, and the next year everyone made up by giving me eight cakes! This year, Jim got two cakes, and two parties!    |
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Party One: the Luncheon Party |
| First we all met up at DO's for sloppy joes, 'tater salad, and birthday cake and ice cream - but not just the one regular birthday cake that DO got for Jim, because Linda baked Jim up a delicious carrot cake (Jim's fav!). |
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| We even made up some more of those mini-burger cookies and remembered to use green-tinted coconut for lettuce this time. |
| Jim and I hadn't been able to get DO a birthday gift until the weekend, so we presented her with this new oven mitt and apron before Jim's shindig. |
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On the deck waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive, we chatted with DO and Mike P. As you can see, Mike is a little camera-shy. |
| The birthday boy was tired of having his picture took and snapped one of me as I snapped one of him. |
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| Of course, DO had her digital camera out too, and took pictures of Jim and I taking those pictures of each other. LOL |
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| The gang gets the lunch together and is about to ice that carrot cake. |
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| Kerrie, Linda and Kayla pose for a family-shot. (You can see by her swimsuit that Linda is ready for phase two of this party. LOL) |
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| Jim and Ritchie duke it out on the couch. Ritchie must have been trying to give Jim his 49 whacks! LOL |
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While waiting on the cake and ice cream, Kerrie and I talked about the Yellowstone volcano and why space exploration is a worthy cause of the American dollar. |
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Party Two: the Pool Party |
After we all got stuffed on sandwiches and cake, we loaded up into cars and headed over to Jim's for phase two of the party - the WET part.
As everyone got into the pool, we realized we had one problem. All the beach balls had been beat to death, so Linda and I decided to go shopping for some more real quick at a local dollar store. Did I say quick? That store didn't have any! Neither did the next or the next! Linda was determined to find beach balls and so was I after 45 minutes of driving around in 92 degree heat! Finally we found some - at a pool store, of course! LOL I waded past the hot tub sale in the parking lot, and past the clerks setting up Christmas displays in the store, to finally find a few beach balls left in the back. I didn't care about the cost ($12 for 4 wasn't too bad), I just wanted to get to the water! |
| Three of the beach balls were identical but one was large. Or maybe I should say, EXTRA large! And it's not quite round either, so it was quite fun with everyone in the pool trying to keep it up (it was heavy too!) |
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It took a lot of pumping from Jim
to fill this ball up to DO's demands. LOL |
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Although I'm still enjoying summer, as I said I've been sick a bunch lately. It's really gotten me down too. Of course, being short on cash hasn't made any of this any better. The end of last month was especially bad. I had been off and on sick all month, and with no money. Then, on a morning that I had been in the bathroom not once, but four times barfing, a client that had been postponing paying me requested to postpone the payment a little longer. I should also mention that it was Jim's birthday and I had been trying to get a party and a present ready for him on time. After crying for a while, writing some hateful emails - that I never sent - and being comforted by Jim, I pushed on ahead with my life. Happily, the client came through for me and Jim's birthday party worked out well. And luckily, I've kept the wolves at bay for another month. However, I'm sure the end of August will bring around more utility shut-offs, grief and anguish; but that's weeks away. (Hey! I told you that between being so sick and poor, I was really down. It's hard to even pretend to be optimistic, so I've given up trying.) |
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Not only did DO get sunflowers from feeding the birds (you did look at the additional pictures I added to last month, right?); but she's got squirrels now too!
MouseOver below for a CloseUp |
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| More Squirrel-y MouseOver CloseUps |
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Feline Pets |
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Sheagra is still hanging in there and boy, is she old now. She's a whopping
19 1/2 years old.  Her favorite place is lying anywhere on my desk, and usually ON my mouse, or on top of my hand using the mouse.  |
| Baba has gotten a lot more friendly with me Lately, probably because she's been seeing me a lot more, since nearly every lunch I spend with Jim before he goes to work. |
MouseOver CloseUp |
Here she is lying on my towel and stuff again. In the other picture, she's up on top of Jim's TV entertainment center. |
| Cats do seem to love the weird places to crash. Sheagra dangles her head over the edge of my desk and sleeps (several times I've been terribly afraid that she was dead until I saw her shallow breaths!) and here's what Jim encountered coming in from the pool one afternoon. Nami dangling into Darth's sunroof. |
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| Of course, it IS still Summer, and things are still growing around here. Over at Jim's, his driveway is lined in beautiful cosmos. They've grown so tall that they nearly hide Darth when he's out of the garage. LOL |
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Back of my house,
the cosmos are doing well also. |
| You can see the morning glories twirling up the birdhouse/cam pole way back there in the background. By the way, see the red house next door? Richard and Angie are looking to buy it! It'll be nice if I get neighbors in that I already know and love! |
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The FIRST morning glory blooming |
| Whatever this plant is, it sure is HUGE this year, and I've been pulling baby versions of it up from all over my front and back yard. |
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WooHoo! I've got yellow gladiolas growing again this year. |
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| I make sure to spend the days that I do feel good, doing a lot of good things. This weekend, Jim and I took a trip to visit Carolynn. Our visits with her are always nice, and she always gets some free computer help. And with the problems that woman has had with her internet connection, she needs help. ROFL |
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Both of us feeling good for a change. Since her surgery, Carolynn says that she's been feeling oh so much better. |
| As we move into August, Canton celebrates the annual Football Hall of Fame Festival. Ballooning events, food festivals, ribs cook-off, a parade and fireworks come to town for a week of Summer fun.
MouseOver the hot air balloon, that soared over DO's house, for a close up. |
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Although none of us really much cares about the Hall of Fame stuff, I guess these pictures are from our "Hall of Fame" pool party. ROFL
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| one side of the pool arms for the fight, |
while the other side HIDES! |
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The Hall of Fame Festival brings a lot to the city of Canton during this week. While at the pool I got pictures of these planes flying overhead, doing aerial maneuvers over the
festival. MouseOver to see the planes better! (You'll have to find the small dots (the planes in this picture) to get the
MouseOver!) |
| MouseOver CloseUps of the blimp as it circled around the Hall of Fame, off of I-77. |
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After circling the Thurmon Munson field by the Football Hall of Fame, and downtown Canton, the blimp headed our way and flew right over us, as we were in the pool. MouseOver this picture to see the blimp much closer as it approached us. Then
MouseOver the picture below to see how the blimp looked to us from in the pool. It was very amazing!
(Large MouseOver CloseUp) |
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Of course, I even got a movie of the blimp as it sailed over our heads and headed north. Click the picture for the movie. |
The blimp continues back to it's home base in Akron, OH
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| Instead of a large fireworks display at the Fourth of July, Canton says the big boom-booms for the
Festival. For several years now, I've gone with DO to a nearby KFC, where we've had excellent seats for the show, and a quick get-away back to our houses. Jim caught this picture of us while we were waiting for them to start; but DO remembered her digital camera and she caught Jim as he was flashing us again. LOL |
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Linda, Kerrie, and Kayle joined us. Kayle, who is about to have a birthday, posed for a couple of pictures. |
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There's my honey, Jim, setting up his camera for the fireworks.  |
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Click here to see all the Fireworks!
200 Pictures! |
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Recently while researching at the Stark County website, I came across this
aerial view of my house (the house on the corner). It was taken in 2003. You can see my car out front, junk from the school construction on the other corner, and even my neighbors as they moved in that day!! Speaking of which, their landlord had to evict them and with a little luck  , my new neighbors just might be Richard, Angie, Ritchie, and Becca. Keep your fingers crossed! I'd rather have neighbors that I love than the crackheads that have lived there.  |
| Although these incoming clouds mean that I was going to have to get out of the pool, I do get to see a lot of beautiful weather most afternoons. This view was too nice to not get a picture of it. |
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Oops! Almost forgot this webcam picture. That's Jim and I wearing our "Magic 3D Fireworks" glasses that we got on our trip to Kings Island last month. |
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Week Four: |
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As we move into the fourth week of this month, I'm happy to report that I haven't thrown up in nearly 10 days  (in the last three months, I've probably NOT barfed about 15 days!); but now I've developed severe sinus problems (probably to some pollen out there blowing around at the end of Summer). You know I already mentioned that as the end of this month approached I knew things would be getting worse again. LOL |
I'm not certain really what to think about this summer this year. On one hand, I had so much fun. I got to go the zoo, canoeing, watched my flowers all grow up and bloom, went to Kings Island, had a TON of pool parties, and had a lot of fun with all my friends (DO and all her brood, Tara and her family), and most important of all, I had wonderful times with Jim . As every day goes by, I remember more and more what it's like to have someone to love and that loves me. It makes every wonderful thing better, and every bad thing not nearly so bad. |
But on the other hand, many things went terribly wrong.  My car is still growing older and falling apart now; along with my health, it seems. My blood work bounced down and back up, while I started out nearly every morning hanging over the
toilet, retching till it hurt. Yeah, it was nice to lie by the pool so much, but most days that's about all I felt like doing after that kind of a morning ritual.  As the summer progressed, I developed a sinus allergy to something, insomnia, and of course, my poverty didn't abate. DO has loaned me some to keep the power on; but I fear that I'll be losing my cable soon.  Wouldn't you know it by the time I felt better and had gotten a few car repairs, I don't have enough money to gas up my car to go do any work. I can hardly wait for Winter and the bigger heating bill. |
| Summer isn't totally over yet, and things are still blooming in my yard. The morning glories has wound their way nearly to the birdhouse, and the cosmos just keep on blooming. |
MouseOver CloseUp |
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I also got one stalk of red gladiolas to go along with the yellow ones.
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As my last entry in this month, I'll try to brighten things up just a bit. (Jim told me, after proofing this month's update, that I sounded like I was at death's door or something. It ain't that bad. I was just really down on the days I wrote up this month's blog.) So here's some good news :
Viral Load is down to 202
T-cells are up to 205
and I've only barfed once in the last 14 days!
(45 minutes before I had a doctor's appointment. )
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