My 11 year old niece is interested in starting in on some horseback riding lessons over the summer so I have started to look around for some items she will need in order to get started, like some footwear for riding horses in case a horse stomps on her foot and of course she will need to buy breeches to wear in order to protect her legs as well. Too many times I got off a horse and couldn’t walk for days due to not wearing the right clothing that you are supposed to wear. Riding horses isn’t cheap, there is a lot involved, but I’m willing to help as much as I can, in fact I think I have some stuff down in the basement that she might be able to use as well. I just hope they are all dry rotted from age, it’s been a while, sigh……

I’m just not a happy camper today.

Having things to keep our kids busy and off the streets has always been issue everywhere I have ever been and this would be a good positive step in providing just that for a variety of kids. Maybe I’ll write a Letter To The Editor about it and see what type of reaction I get from it.

I really can’t say that I blame them one bit. When I get to be their age I won’t want to have to deal with the rugged life out here either. Of course if I were to suddenly come into some money so that I could hire a gazillion people to take care of the harder physical labor things that would be different. But I certainly can see the appeal of going south for the winter and back up here for the summer. We do have beautiful summers up here. Ron and Mary told us that they are going to go back to Florida next fall and look at buying some Port Saint Lucie real estate for their winter place. They will be looking for a gated community, and are thinking about a retirement village of condominiums that will have lawn care service done for them as part of their condominium annual fees. That sounds good to me!

So in my quest to find him a good birthday present this year I have managed to find a really nice looking framed poster by KC Haxton of a cool classic car with the famous Route 66 Road Sign in front of it at the Z Galleries website that is known for the chic furniture and decorative accessories.

Anyway she is concerned about her aging skin issues and announced that she is scheduled for series of botox Melbourne Australia style. I can’t believe that she has finally gone ahead and decided to get this done. She has been talking about this for years, but has been waiting for the right time, and I guess that time has come now.

I asked her if they were also going to try their botox for her migraines that she has been experiencing more and more since moving half way across the world. I understand that botox can do wonders for certain types of migraines. Now I will just await her reply hopefully in the morning’s email that I always check before heading out to work.

Everyone jokes about how bad reality shows are but I can’t seem to stop watching them. The stranger the better! Obviously I’m not the only one since networks continue to produce them. However, I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon lately. Rather than getting more creative with premises in many cases, networks like I watch on my Direct TV are taking the shows already on and giving them a gender twist. Hook Line & Sister on TLC is a perfect example. The ever popular ice fishing show takes on a whole new look when presented from a woman’s point of view! Being from the southeast, I make no claim to have any understanding of Alaskan fishing. But even as a woman I was not only surprised that there are women who do this for a living but that they would go on tv to show the experience warts and all. Okay maybe not that surprised but surprised that women who would take on a gender bending role as such would need to show it on tv. Needless to say, it does make for interesting television viewing.

I can tell you first hand that I wasn’t all that interested in switching insurance companies. I have been with my agent for over 20 years, I actually worked for him for a short time when he first started his agency, so I felt a loyalty to him, big time. But times are hard and money is an issue, so I took a chance and looked around and was surprised to find that I could be paying a whole lot less, $50 a month, with another carrier. It was hard calling my agent and letting him know that I had decided to switch insurance companies, but he was very understanding and told me that I have to do what I have to do in order to get by in today’s economic crisis. He also told me that he appreciated me calling him directly to inform him of my decision instead of calling the 800 number and canceling my long standing policy with the Regional office. It wasn’t an easy call to make but I’m glad that I did.

The one good thing that comes out of this is that many times I end up wearing girls shoes and they tend to be a bit cheaper then women’s shoes. Right now is a good time to buy girls flip flops, dirt cheap since summer is way over and winter is right around the corner. I just picked up several pairs of girls flip flops on clearance for $1.50 a piece, the same ones in women’s sizes were going for $2.50, so I was happy for having small feet right then I can tell you that!

The only thing worse than having smaller than average feet would be having larger than average feet. I can’t see any thing good coming out of that situation, but not having to deal with that I really wouldn’t know. They say that will all bad there is good and with all good there is bad!

I’ve been talking with my sister and brother and they both seem to think that some time in October would be a good time to take the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge. That leaves plenty of time to get it all planned out and organized. We haven’t done anything like this is such a long time and I really miss spending time with all of them. If we go in October it will not interfere with all of the holiday plans and all the issues that go along with the holidays. So I am going to go ahead and get online and get the ball rolling.