The joys of home ownership . . .

It hasn't rained much this summer. Or, should I say not at all. Then came a rain of 5 inches in an hour during our house party for 100 people. But, it was in the master bath so no unmanageable crisis. The tarp guys came on Sun as well as the ServPro guys. Our insurance company representative, USAA, said no problem. We didn't believe them, but they said so. What they meant was there was no problem in denying our claim. I saw a wonderful billboard about USAA, "Serving America's Military." I wanted to spray paint it to add "A little less each year." It took the adjustor 12 days to come look at the damage, which of course got worse every day and we had two more hellacious storms. But, at day 12, of course, it didn't look like storm damage. YOYO. You're On Your Own. USAA'a motto. Not to worry though. We didn't have anything else to spend $9000 on. USAA says they're passionate about their service. I'm passionate about there lack of it. It's just as well. If they'd have paid the claim, they would have cancelled our insurance.

Enough already

There I was minding my own business driving to the clinic for my allergy shot. A billboard caught my eye. It was an add for a maternity store. It said, "Knocked up or not, we have clothes for you." If that's not the most tasteless bit of advertising I've seen lately! I'm still irritated. But the drive was saved by a bumper sticker that I thought was great. My husband was nonplussed. (I had to look up nonplussed to check it's meaning, and I'm using it in the more modern way; in other words, he wasn't impressed.) It said "Since guns don't kill people, do pencils misspell words?" I like that. I don't think I remember the exact wording, but you get the point.

I am not of this world . . . .

It all started innocently enough. I was driving across town to get my monthly allergy shot, and I made my traditional stop at Sonic for a large Diet Dr Pepper. I had surreptitiously purchased an "Us" magazine and was going to take a few minutes to skim through it before I headed to the clinic. (No, I do not read the trashy Enquirer, etc although we do get the Star in our Sunday paper). I found out that Padma Lakshmi's pregnant; that Lady Gaga's tour is off; 25 things about Selena Gomez that no one knows. I also found out that I have never heard of these people. And more, I don't care. Where's the news about people I've heard of ( or about whom I've heard, if you care about dangling prepositions). Elizabeth Taylor? Cher? Air Supply? OK, I do know about Nicole Richie and Jennifer Garner, and Penelope Cruz, so I'm not a complete idiot. What is the world coming to? Or for better or for worse - why have I become my mother?