Elizabeth's Blog

My saga began in December ‘04 when my purse was stolen from inside my car while it was parked in my driveway. We live in the sleepy suburbs and I never locked my car (ok, ok, lesson learned.) After realizing I hadn’t simply left it on top of the car and sped away, spewing the contents across the neighborhood, we reported the theft to the police. Joke was on the thief, of course, because I had about $0.57 in my purse… hardly worth his/her effort.

So a few days later, a little girl shows up at my doorstep with my driver’s license and a few credit cards & insurance cards, and she says she found them on the street. Nice. So I thanked her and sent her on her merry way.

That night I get a call from my YMCA that they too are in possession of some of the contents of my wallet, that someone had found them on the street and turned them in (I work at the Y on Saturdays, thus my staff ID was also in my purse).

So bit by bit I’m getting my stuff back, but still a few credit cards were missing and my SS card, and a few other cards as well – we cancel all the credit cards of course and notify our bank to keep an eye out for any funny business.

Fast forward to yesterday. Another good samaritan calls to say that the my purse and its remaining contents was discovered by her son in a nearby creek. Thankfully the SS card was neatly preserved between 2 credit cards and came out unscathed. (Don’t know if you’ve ever had to get one replaced, but it’s a major pain in the rump). The purse was a bit dirty, as it had been sitting in a creek during winter for 3 1/2 months, but otherwise completely functional.

And I’m quite thankful to all who helped me retrieve my purse and its contents… but I find it interesting that the one thing that still remains missing was my favorite tube of lipstick. Mary Kay Cinnamon Twist. Now we know the true motive for the robbery. If you see someone looking guilty, but with fabulous lips, will you let me know?

I’m happy to report that my webhost has installed rails for me, so now I can finally stop playing with my local installation and maybe do something real. I’ve got a few ideas- a new blog, a classified-type listing, and a few others. Of course that is assuming I can carve out a few minutes in my day to turn my ideas into reality. I’ve got some other projects on my plate that will take precedence, but soon I’ll be on my way.

Some might call it the home of Country Music or the home of the Grand Ole Opry. Me, I call it the place where weird shit happens.

My parents lived there for 6 years (their “out of body experience” so they call it). They lived through several weird things, such as the woman and her lover who conspired to kill her husband in order to get the insurance money… so she can further her Christian singing career. Or “the fantasy man”, Raymond Mitchell, who would call up women and try and convince them to have sex with him under the pretense that he was their husband/lover/boyfriend… One woman said she had sex with “Fantasy Man” twice a week for two months in 1992 because she thought he was her boyfriend, and only realized it wasn’t him when her blindfold slipped off. It seems like stories like those happen more often there than anyplace else.

Case in point… this story that appeared today, which tells of a woman who allowed her lover to live in their closet for a month before the husband found out. (!) The husband only caught him when he heard someone snoring and checked it out (!!). The husband told her to get him out of there while he calmly went for a walk (!!!). When he comes back, the lover bludgeons him to death with a shotgun (!!!!). Oh, and by the way, woman and her husband owned a company that did background checks for job applicants and apartment rentals. (!!!!!). It’s just so wrong on so many levels.

We have a newfie puppy, Cosmo, that’s a little over a year (he and my youngest child are 4 days apart). These are wonderful dogs- so gentle and loving. But also very big and very oblivious to the fact that they are very big. Cosmo is weighing in at about 110 lbs these days, and there’s just something endearing about watching a dog that big come lumbering at you full force to give you a puppy kiss, or watching him clumsily chase his own tail, or that he gets scared of the vacuum cleaner. You forget that he’s still pretty puppy-like even though when he stands on his hind legs he comes eye-to-eye with my husband, and rests his paws on my husbands’ shoulders. (And he’s still got some growing to do.)

Newfies are such great dogs because they are super-friendly, but also super-scary to people who don’t know better. And one resonating “WOOF!” is enough to scare away any would-be bad guys. And it’s funny that in the neighborhood, we’re the “ones with that big dog!".

Heh, looks like I got a regular gig writing a news roundup-type thing at PHPBuilder. So if you come across any news-worthy, PHP-related items, drop me a line.