Catching up after a 10 day blur!

How is it that sometimes our lives seem to be on SLOW motion, then other times the days, weeks, months BLUR past so FAST your left spinning? These last 10 days somehow got away from me. (My daughters beautiful tie dye roses...I thought they were so pretty and quite amazing)

 If I recall the last time I posted I was dealing with my pool nightmare.

SCROLL DOWN IF YOU ARE NOT AT ALL INTERESTED IN MY POOL NIGHTMARE,
 Every summer I have a time with that stupid thing, and every year I curse, complain, cry, stress, sweat, spend and worry about that stupid pool. And every year there has always been some reason for the cursing, crying, complaining, stressing, sweating and worrying that comes along with it. This year has been no exception.
I was thrilled to see that for the first time this year the water was CRYSTAL clear, meaning for the first time one could actually see to the very bottom of the deep end. Leaves and other debris was clearly littering the bottom of the pool, but I could see it and WHAT AN EASY QUICK FIX TO MY POOL BUT A QUICK VACUUM...things are NEVER that EASY.
Even more thrilled was I when the pool vac proved to have the sucking power (which it never has) of a starving vampire...and off I went SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK...STOP!!!! NO more water flow...I tried everything.... clearly the suck sucked tooo much suck and something got STUCK!!!! (say that several times in a row). The last time that happened it cost something like $500- and this crazy pool guy came to the house on his Harley nearly every day til he got his money. I don't have an extra $500- and I am pretty sure that Harley driving pool man is NOT about to come back to my place and do ANY more work on my stupid pool.
I PANIC, I PRAY!!! I try this, I try that...still NOTHING...I SEARCH youtube and I am shown a few demo's, I try ..nothing. Eventually I give up for the day..water no longer crystal clear, bottom a mucky mess and one very big problem with my skimmer line..Hubby comes home from work I show youtube video and we purchase a simple $12- bladder item from the True Value and guess what...ALL FIXED!!  If you are at all interested it looks like this and hooks to your hose.

All Fixed and pool is ready to rock. In fact we all spent some time swimming over the last 10 days after that.
FAST FORWARD-

Tammy and her kids came over one afternoon and we all took a dip in the pool and after, watched Friday the 13th movies on the patio in the sun. I LOVE horror on a nice sunny day. Did you know that Kevin Beacon was in the original one? This was him just before he was stabbed in the throat...

We had a great time..no one was scared at all.

Earlier we had hit up a garage sale and I scored this amazing Tinker Bell chair for only $.75 cents.
I plan on sitting on her at the Mom's and Kids camp trip in a few weeks.

Fathers day was spent at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino. (view from Bubbe's window at the hotel)

Marks mother had arranged a trip to stay and play. Mark loves the casino and we all love the buffet so we met up with his mom for a PIG out lunch.

 Mark and his mother enjoyed the slots the boys and I watched the movie Bad Words. Forty something Jason Bateman enters the national spelling bee and ruthlessly kicks the butts of these poor unfortunate kids at spelling.
The movie was silly, but funny. The boys enjoyed it and there were some funny parts. In hind sight I would not have payed the $17- plus paid to order it in the room, but it kept us busy and no one wanted to swim in the pool this trip. Mark won some money and Bubbe enjoyed herself, it was a good day.

Nick came over on Monday and gave our dining room an easy face lift by installing my new garage sale light fixture find. It looks GREAT!
Monday evening Gavin checked off one of his Summer Bucket list items, having a pie thrown in his face.

I did this once when I was a kid too. Gavin got lucky he had whipped cream...mine was shaving cream. Monday was my last bible study at Sandy's. We actually have two more in the Transformation series, but I stupidly volunteered to work last evening and next Monday...Sometimes I can be so forgetful. The series, I am told is on youtube so I can at least finish on my own.
Tuesday and Wednesday I spent attending an all day training's on HEPATITIS! Thrilling hun? I would think I had enough learning on this deadly liver disease, but I am taking another training on July 2nd all day as well. ALL three days are different if you can believe that.
What was really awesome about my Tuesday was I was asked to come in for a job interview on July 1st. I actually had planned to spend the summer not working and was about to resign fully from my per-diem job and focus on my health, but this opportunity was one of those where you really cannot turn away from. I really have to at least exploring the idea and take the interview. Long Story short..it has been one of those supernatural intervention things that I was not expecting and would be a fool to not look at it. Of course I don't have the job, but I am excited for the opportunity to prove myself. More on that later.  
Friday morning was Gavin's school field days. This has been a yearly event that I try to attend. I reminded him that he will only have one more year of Elementary school...when do they go so fast?

 I just love the look on his face in this picture...

After field days, I met up with my lovely friends Mindy, Mary and Cricket for lunch and Mom camp planning. We are all stoked about camping but our two camp virgins are a little concerned. We should have a GREAT time.

Friday evening I was at Sandy's for consultant Club. We made some beautiful layouts, cards and photo frame.
Saturday was Mark's Birthday and we celebrated with a little FISHING.
We found a nice area off the Oswego River in Phoenix, NY.
Let me inform you right off that none of us are avid fishermen, or even really once in a while fishermen. More like four times  (two times with the boy scouts) in Gavin's 11 years of life fishermen. Fishing was actually the boy's idea. Mark did all the work from preparing the fishing poles, finding a place to fish and even buying and loading the bait.

 While the boys fished, I took nature shots.

 Can you see the goose family???

 This snake was in the water just with his head sticking out. He stayed there for quite some time barely moving, then suddenly he dip and slipped and voila he caught himself breakfast. The snake was the only one who caught a fish in our little group that day.

I was amazed a few weeks ago to see a snake in the water...but now to see one catch a fish with his mouth. Nature is truly amazing!
Having little luck, we decided to move closer to the canal.  The Oswego River open's to the once Erie Canal and this area canal lock (I had been here before last year on the other side of the canal). We found a nice spot right on the canal.

Although we didn't catch any fish in the canal either, this was a nice area for the boys to practice casting their lines as there were no weeds, rocks or trees getting caught. They both did over extend their cast and caught their hooks on the other side a few times however.

View of the geese on the other side of the canal.
I did a little fishing at this area myself. We all saw bubbles and even some fish, but they were not taking our bait. Although something did weasel my worm off the hook at one point. Sneaky little fish.
What I enjoyed the most about fishing in this area was watching the boats come through the lock.

Every time there was a boat about to come through, the canal water would begin to rush through towards us. I would watch my bauble drift father down stream as the waves would come crashing. Then it would all stop and it would be still and silent. Next you would hear the clang clang clang of the warning bells and the dropping down of the do NOT cross barriers preventing drivers from crossing the about to be non-accessible bridge.

Then the large bridge would lift up allowing the boats to make their way through. I wish I caught a few pictures of the boats coming through as well as the water rushing down. (Sorry). Mark declined my retirement suggestion of living on the water on one of those big boats. He is simply not interested in that lifestyle. Oh well.
As the boys continued to enjoy fishing, my patience wore thin and I was soon off exploring the area.

 I took this shot off a deck overlooking the river. This deck was in some sorry shape with entire wooden boards missing from it. I would have stayed and enjoyed the views, but I was a bit frightened the wood might break below me and I would go sailing in these rushing waters to my death.

 I would have loved to look for some of these animals, but I was standing on the deck of doom.

Last time I visited the canal I was on the other side of the canal.
When I approached this area there were five boats docked here and I slipped in to the bathroom. When I exited this was all that was left. They were all one their way through the lock at the other end.
The day could not have been more beautiful, but we were all getting bummed by the lack of fish being caught.

 We were right near the Phoenix OTB (I wonder if Mark planned it that way) and it was lunch time so we had lunch at OTB. After all it was Marks birthday. Mark bet a few horses while we all scratched some winning tickets. All three of us won some money. The total winnings paid for lunch and the boys each had $10- a piece to spend on junk for themselves.
I spent the afternoon setting up our tents to do a check on the poles etc and air them out. I found one of our tents was missing a vital pole, but the other two were fine.

 I love our big tent....

Tammy and Allie came over and we all went swimming that afternoon. After dinner we wished Mark a Happier Birthday with cake.

The boys decided to have a sleep out in the tents and fixed the inside all up with air mattress, laptops and electricity!

Now that is the way to camp.
Sunday was another long one. Church in the morning, soup at Wegmans with Tammy after that and  a little grocery shopping before I was home swimming and relaxing at home. Sunday night I was off to Destiny Mall for another FREE won tickets to Funny Bone with the girls. I keep winning, what can I say.
I didn't take as many pictures this time, and really what else can I say about Funny Bone that I haven't said already three times over, except the comics just continue to be FUNNY!!! Each time I go I nearly piss myself laughing so hard.

 Doreen, Renee, me and Tammy!

Our appetizer dinner. YUMMY
This trip include Renee (Happy Birthday) Tammy and Doreen. We all had a blast, but one of the funniest parts of the evening was Renee got locked in the bathroom and could not get out. I always have fun with these gals regardless, but the comedy was out of control. The featured comic was Brett Ernst. He was hilarious. He has been on Showtime and a few other shows. Really funny guy.

Here's a clip I took from youtube. Great night with good friends a few laughs and I got home in time to watch the repeated viewing of the season primer of True Blood. (WHERE IS ERIC????).
Monday was one long long DAY! I had Vera House in the morning and Inpatient in the evening. I left the house around 830am and got home to bed around 1am. LONG DAY! Today we are enjoying a rainy afternoon watching movies on HBO. I have my medical follow up at 430 and then we are all meeting for Mark's Birthday dinner at TGI Fridays to celebrate. I have work a few more times this week..but I am hoping the next ten days do not FLASH by as quickly as these last TEN did!!!
TTFN