Yes or No

I'm a big movie fan. Along with my basic cable package, I also have all of the premium movie channels…from HBO to Cinemax and everything in between.

In addition, I've always rented movies from Blockbuster. Sometimes you just can't wait for it to get to cable!

Well, a few weeks ago when I was at the library here in town I noticed that they have quite the selection of new DVDs. And they're free!

Last night I watched 'Yes Man' starring Jim Carrey. No, I'm not going to do a Siskel and Eibert on you (smile)! Suffice it to say I liked the movie. It was entertaining. It made me laugh out loud lots of times.

It also made me think.

The gist of the movie was that this guy (Jim Carrey) always said no to life’s opportunities. As a result, he missed out on all sorts of opportunities.

I've always been a 'no thank you' kind of person myself. The first words out of my mouth when asked about almost anything (do you want to… would you like a… how about…) are no thank you.

Why? I'm not totally sure. Possibly it's because when I say yes then I'm locked in to 'whatever'. Whereas if I say no, well, that gives me time to evaluate the question and decide if I'm interested. It buys me some time.

And more often than not, I'm not interested. Or I don't want to be bothered. Why? Partly it's because I'm a solitary creature. A loner. I like hanging out with me. I get along well with me. And that's probably a result of being an only child. I grew up alone, spent most of my time alone and learned how to amuse myself.

None of that's bad or wrong.

But after watching that movie and giving it some thought, I've decided to try saying yes a bit more. Okay, not like Jim Carrey did. There's no way in the world I'd say yes to everything! But every once in awhile sure couldn't hurt.

You be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

I Want Candy!

Do you like candy? I love candy. Any and all sweets are on my all-time list of favorite things to eat. Candy, ice cream, cake, pie, oh my (smile).

Yesterday I went to Doc Sweets Candy Company in Clawson, Michigan. I had read a newspaper article about the store when it first opened a couple of years ago and I'd been trying to get there ever since.

It's not like Clawson is a gazillion miles from here or anything, but it's just far enough off my typical beaten path that it took me a couple of years to make the move. Turned out to be a really nice ride.

I'd like to give you their website so you can peruse all of the sweet stuff but they don't have one. I think it's a shame because I'm betting their sales would dramatically increase if folks could shop them online and then have it shipped. Here's their email, for what it's worth: docsweetscandy@yahoo.com

They have just about every type/brand of candy that's ever been produced. Things you ate as a child but haven't seen in years? Doc Sweets has them. Five thousand square feet with over 2,500 items for sale. $18.00 lighter, I left with a heaping bag of sugary goodness.

Last night I had to think about what I wanted for a snack--ice cream with Sanders topping? Candy? The candy won out. Two Clark Bars later…(smile).

On a less sweet note, yesterday Detroit had their mayoral election and Dave Bing, the former basketball player, won. Bing has never held public office ever so I'm not sure how it's going to work out for him or the city.

On a more positive note, Ken Cockrel (the former president of the Detroit City Council who became the interim mayor after Kwame Kilpatrick went to jail) goes back to being Council president now. That means that Monica Conyers (the wife of Congressman John Conyers), who was the Council president while Cockrel was mayor, goes back to being just a plain old Council member.

During Ms. Monica’s run as Council president all sorts of crazy, unprofessional things occurred. Cockrel has his work cut out for him trying to repair all of the bridges Monica burned.

Cobo Hall, a huge building where concerts, conventions and trade shows have always been held--most notably the North American Automobile Show--is in pitiful disrepair. No clue as to why the city leaders permitted this to happen but they did. It appears as if no maintenance has been done to the building in years.

Cobo Hall brings a great deal of yearly revenue to Detroit, both from events held there and the extra business it brings to the city by convention goers.

State leaders in Lansing, MI's capitol, came up with a plan to save Cobo and Ms. Monica vetoed it. She insists that federal stimulus money can be used to fix Cobo. Granholm, Michigan’s governor says that it cannot.

It's gotten to the point where, unless a miracle occurs, I think Rock Financial Showplace, a smaller convention venue in Novi, Michigan, is going to be added on to so that they can host the automobile show and just about everything else Cobo once hosted and Detroit made money off of.

Detroit will have another mayoral election in November. A very long story. Hopefully before then the feds will have swooped in and arrested numerous Council members for illegal payoffs, etc. from a sludge deal. It's been said that the feds have been investigating this for quite a while and are close to issuing warrants. With any luck at all Ms. Monica, Martha (of Martha and the Vandellas) and Barbara Rose Collins will be in the pokey before Thanksgiving.

Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Copping Some ZZZZZZZZ's

Tallulah and her new camera---I did tell you she bought a new camera, right? No? Oh sorry. I don't remember the name brand but it's a monster of a camera, does everything even better than her old one did. For what it cost she says it's her last camera (smile).

Anyway, she was at the Detroit Zoo yesterday and she emailed me some of the photos she took.

Here's the polar bear. I envy him his comfy pose (smile).




Here's the gorilla. He doesn't exactly look happy, does he? Of course how happy would we look if we were locked up, huh?





Here are some bald eagles:




And last but not least, the King of the Jungle--the lion!




When was the last time you were at the zoo? Me, it's been more than a few years. It's a nice place to visit on a sunny, breezy, yet cool day. The fresh air is wonderful, the exercise is therapeutic and the animals are interesting, yet sort of sad to see.

Today has been a great day weatherwise, sunny and near 70. I have most of the windows open and Kathleen is sound asleep, the result of overdosing on all that fresh air (smile).

Wish I could chat more with you but I'm way behind on household chores, plus I want to get outside on the patio and enjoy some of that sun.

I hope you're having a good day.

Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Saturday May 2 - Tallulah Arrives!

Tallulah made it to my house around 2pm yesterday (Friday). It was really good to see her again. Okay, so it's not like we don't keep in touch much because we do. We email numerous times daily and she calls me two or three times a week. And yes, she does the calling because she has free long distance via her cable TV phone service. Me, I use calling cards. I ditched conventional long distance services a few years ago when I realized that even though I had a great rate, the monthly fed and local taxes on the long distance--whether I used it or not—were crazy.

Bless her heart, Tallulah never comes calling empty handed. She had a huge box filled to the brim with goodies for HSM, as well as her kidlets and me.

I got books and magazines and yarn. And I would have had a brand new jacket but don't you know, it was the same one I'd just bought for myself. Tallulah has marvelous taste (smile).

So the new jacket went to HSM, along with books, art supplies, etc and, while we were at HSM's house, Tallulah showed me her Facebook page on HSM's computer.

From there it was to eat. Hopes Fish and Chips in Livonia. Come to find out, when Tallulah was growing up, her family celebrated special occasions there. My Mom and I used to go there too. Anyway, we had the house special--fish and chips--and it was really good.

If you ever go to Hopes Fish and Chips it'll be for the food, not the decor. Why do I say that? Because the place is caught in a time warp. It's (still) decorated like it's 1952 (the year it opened). When you walk in it's as if you stumbled into a local spot waaaay up in northern Michigan.

From there it was shopping.

There's a huge Chinese grocery store in Farmington that I've driven past a gazillion times but never stopped at. Well, Tallulah and I stopped and it was so much fun looking around. Okay, half the stuff I had no clue what it was or for, but it was really interesting. The things I did recognize, well, they were a heck of a lot cheaper there than at the regular grocery store. Now that I've broken the ice and visited once, I'll be going back to make purchases.

We also stopped at Bargain Books. Unfortunately, and I do mean unfortunately, they had no dollar magazines. But. I found a couple of heavily marked down books on crochet so that was a good thing.

By the time Tallulah dropped me off at the house I was one tired puppy (smile). I slept like a log all night long.

Hope you had as good a day as I did. And that today is even better for you.


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

A Different Sort of Friday

Well, today is most definitely a different sort of Friday in many different ways.

First off, I went to sign in to write the blog and 'they' kept telling me my password was incorrect. Huh? I've been using the same password on just about everything I have to have a password for since forever. Must have been a glitch because on the fourth try it worked. I hate when glitches occur, they always get my stomach to hurting because, well, computers are still foreign to me.

Then, Tallulah, my friend from Marquette, Michigan, started driving downstate yesterday afternoon. Yes, I know, who in their right mind begins a long trip in the afternoon unless they have small children that they want to sleep for the bulk of the ride or work got in the way of leaving early. Me, I'm always on the road by 8am. But that's not the way Tallulah rolls (smile).

Apparently she pulled out of her drive way around 11:30 am and made a pit stop at the casino because they were giving away ten dollars worth of free t0kens. Okay. She rolled the free ten into thirty dollars and then she got back on the highway. Somewhere along the way it began raining and it rained all the way downstate. I don't know about you, but I hate driving in the rain on the interstate. She got about 70 minutes from here, Birch Run, when she gave up and rented a motel room. Why? The fog was so thick she couldn't hardly see and she'd passed three rollover accidents. That was about 9pm.

The original plan had her staying the night at my house so we could get an early start on visiting and shopping, but I sure don't blame her for aborting that plan. I've driven in Killer Fog before and it is no fun, not to mention extremely dangerous. White knuckle driving is not pleasurable.

I spoke with her this morning and she was going to stop at the outlet mall in Birch Run (a mere 2 or 3 minute ride from her hotel) and purchase a set of speaker stands for her Bose sound system, run in to the store where she buys her blue jeans (they're on sale for $5.99 a pair), then hit the Best Buy in Novi (the next town over from my town) to pick up the camera she'd bought online. Then my house. I decided I'd come 'talk' to you while I waited for all that to happen.

All the rain we've been having for too many days to keep count of has left everything green and lovely around here. Even the grass seed I threw down is sprouting. Hahaha on the birds, this year they apparently didn't eat it all (smile).

A funny one for you; The other day I went to lunch with HSM and her children. We went to a Chinese Buffet. I'd been there before with Tallulah, but it was HSM's first time. On the ride over we'd been talking about the Swine Flu. Sorry, H1N1. Anyway, she'd said she wasn't concerned about it. I mean, what are you going to do--panic? A good point. You ask God to keep you and yours safe and healthy, wash your hands, keep your fingers away from your nose, ears, eyes and mouth, etc. and that's it. I agreed with her.

So we get in the Buffet and, no joke, everybody eating lunch was Mexican. We were the only non-Mexicans aside from the staff. We were all good with it. We don't believe that Mexicans are to be avoided at all costs, unlike the conservative radio djays. We're eating, all is well, and then one of the Mexican patrons sneezed. And HSM went pale (smile).

But you know what? Aside from praying and taking whatever precautions you can--the frequent hand washing, keeping your fingers away from your orifices, eating a healthy diet, getting enough rest--that's it. What are you going to do--become a hermit until the flu runs its course?

Now me, when I finish using the computer here at the library, my first stop is going to be the bathroom so I can wash my hands. And then I'm getting on with my day.

Hope you have a good one. Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com