The bridal shower was lovely today. As the adorable bride-to-be opened each gift, the lady giving the gift had to give words of wisdom about marriage. My favorite was an older lady who said with a big grin, Never cook a whole package of butter beans at one time just for the two of you. That advice, my friends, brought down the house.

Young love is so sweet. The bride CAN'T BELIEVE she gets to marry her groom. She was an effervescent fountain of unjaded energy. There is such happiness and hope and promise for this couple. It was all very life-affirming.

AND before the shower I found myself at Macy's. Not quite sure how this happened because my alarm went off at 8:00, which was a No-Go. Then it went off again at 9:00. So I got up and got ready and drove across town, fought the sale crowds, scooped up a small Fiestaware square casserole. Then I had to stand behind a lady at check-out who was having trouble with her transaction. The clerk left in mid-stream to go help a man in a red shirt, leaving us stranded. My time is ticking, Macy's. THEN the nice young man who told me everything would be on sale Friday breezed up to the other register and merrily called out, Anyone ready to check out (there are now multiple people in line behind me)? I merrily called back, I AM! I'm telling you, this young man is going places. He has old-fashioned, cheerful, service-oriented personality. Yes, he had personality. I should write a letter of commendation.

So I got to the appointed place to pick up a couple of ladies for the shower right at 10:30. This was the new me. But the main point is, I used my $10 off coupon. And Macy's was all the better for it. Oh, pooh, I forgot to use the 3 bucks left on a gift card.

After my charming little trip to Venice yesterday, I've decided that I was born to visit with my friends and not clean under the stove.

Well, that's all she wrote. Oh, thrilled to report a wonderful answer to my friend's prayer request. Thanks for praying. Still needs prayer, but so far it's pretty much a miracle.

Some lady yelled at Mystery Monkey for picking fruit off her tree. Can you beat that? That poor sour woman had better watch out or she might get rotten oranges heaved in her general direction.

Easy Breezy KEM

Sing it with me:

It's a happy DAY!
And I thank God for the weather!
It's a happy DAY!
And I'm livin' it for my Lord.

It's a happy DAY!
And things are gonna get better.
Livin' each day
In the promises of God's Word.

DTD has known me to burst out of the blue singing this song. I get "The Look" when I do.

Did you have a happy day with happy weather? Did your day get better while you lived in the promises of God's Word?

I went to see my friend in Venice. The one from 27.25 years ago. I just LOVE her. And her twin, who does not live in Venice. The one from 26.75 years ago. Lolly has three exceptionally friendly dogs. I especially loved the black pug, two years old, he had a thick bubble gum pink tongue that was created to lick non-stop those interesting things called humans, especially visiting humans . . . me. The three dogs followed us all over the house when Lolly gave me a tour of her home. They lined up and stopped on the stair landing at our feet and listened carefully to the explanation of all family members in the portrait. Upstairs they were locked out of the kids' space, which was a rec room and four bedrooms. When we opened the door again, there they were, ready to reboard the tour bus. It was hilarious. The black pug could walk under the tall black mutt, with several inches to spare. Oh, and the black mutt was a dog Lolly's twin, Rebekah, rescued from going to the pound. Rebekah said, Lolly, you need to take this dog, you live in the country. Hey, what are twin sisters for? It's a great dog anyway. Aaaahhhh, WONDERFUL DAY.

Had to go to Macy's to buy a wedding shower gift. I was there on Monday and the young guy told me, On Friday everything is going to be on sale. I said, I'll see ya on Friday.

He wasn't kidding. On Monday the sheets set was $75 and today it was $30. Of course, as my Dollar Store buddy loves to say, No good deed goes unpunished. I wore a pale purple top today, it's really a sporty top but can pass for a lunch top, it has detail and nice material and gathers in half circles down the sides (ha, ha, I'm no good at describing sewing). So, I wore it to Lunch with Lolly in Venice. Then I continued on to Macy's. I'm holding this package of sheets while looking around some more. I mean, don't we always have to look around some more? Then next thing I know, while rummaging through Martha Stewart's pale blue spatulas with measurement conversions printed on the rubber, ONLY Martha, the stiff plastic corners of the stiff plastic wrap around the sheets, caught on the stitching of my gathers of half circles down the side of my pale purple top and it yanked out the stitching. So now I have a soft fuzzy tuft of purple hanging there checking out the world. Nice decoration . . . NOT! Pooh, I've worn this top all of twice. Time to fish around for the snag remover. We certainly seem to need a lot of things in this life if a snag remover is included in the repertoire.

But this was not enough to deter me from my gloriously happy day. Not even overcooking the hamburgers for dinner. I'm so mellow.

I had things to write about tonight, but search me where they went. Oh yeah, my Dollar Store vintage gift bag. It was literally vintage. When I opened it up, hoping sheets would fit inside, guess what? The inside of the bag was corroded. Yeah. Like something wet got inside and mildewed (that spelling looks suspicious) the paper. And after I worked so hard fishing for the bag with the fewest wrinkles and worn corners. I'm afraid to touch it. And it had the cutest organza ribbon handles, too. Now I have to see if I have suitable bridal shower gift wrap in my gift wrap box. I think I have some white embossed paper, hope there's enough. Then I'll take that pale blue spatula and the cherry wood spoon and criss-cross them on top. Wish me luck, I'm a dunce at this kind of stuff.

Then I sent Mike to the store for a shower card and he got a His and Hers card. Hmmm. He was really going to the for a refreshing beverage, so I employed him to get the card, because like I said, the Dollar Store ones were too tacky this time. When he got home from the store and was settling into his Rays baseball game, he knocked his refreshing bottle of beverage all over the floor. When Jazz and I came in from our walk I smelled grout cleaner, which can only mean one thing . . . Jazz wet on the floor. I thought Mike found wet 'cause I was gone so long today. But it was refreshing beverage instead. I'm beginning to think my day was not getting better. TOMORROW will be better. I mean, my day started off so great, there was no improving it. So, in reality, the day did not worsen because it isn't fair to compare little bad things to pretty much perfection.

You know what, when I write sentences as I just did, that make NO sense, then I say, Bye-bye, Blog, catch ya tomorrow! You should be used to this by now.

Guess what? There is a new kind of little moth in my house. It looks like a tiny greenish yellow, very pale, heart shaped leaf. I've seen these leaves before . . . I think. Everything is coming up pale today.

I'm staring at my ZWIPES cleaning cloths and sponges and what have you. They are still parked in front of the computer spring, SPRING??, I mean, SCREEN, poised for action. They want to know when the gun is going to fire. I want to know that, too.

Oh crumb, my day just tanked. I just sat down to drink a refreshing beverage and read the paper. There, just sittin' around taunting me, was the Macy's flyer with a $10 off coupon smack on the front page for all home items. Wonder what would happen if I returned my stuff and rebought it with the coupon. But that ain't a gonna happen 'cause I have to be at the shower at 11 AM, picking up some ladies at 10:40. Well, maybe I shall be forced to go buy some Fiestaware, which is 40% off plus $10 off coupon only until 1:00 PM tomorrow . . . or something savage like that. But it will still have to be before the shower, 'cause a brunch shower is not over in an hour, see? Do you see why shopping makes me violently ill? All these tricks, I'm not tricky enough to pounce.

See, I need to go beddy-bye. KEM

The other TJMaxx does not have the white voile dress with white fabric circles on it.

Shopping makes me violently ill.

Please say a prayer for a very urgent prayer request for my very dear friend.

Okay, KEM has nothing to say tonight, so Laura Ingalls Wilder shall do the talking. She says:

It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature. ~LIW

KEM here likes how LIW makes use of the word "things," too. Thingys. Thing is a funny word. Let it roll around your tongue for a few seconds.

I don't think chasing down a white voile dress with white fabric thingys on it falls into LIW'S idea of worthwhile living. Mainly because I would have nowhere to wear it anyway. At least I only spent less than 1/2 hour in TJMaxx tonight, on the way home from choir, which was not out of the way, at least. But I'm shopped out for the next couple of months.

Have a day trip to Venice tomorrow, so better scat.

Fundamental KEM

Hello. When I took Jinny to TJMaxx today I suddenly scooped up 5 things, because they presented themselves to me. Like Talbot's sweaters and other junk. But I didn't try anything on until I got home. Tonight I returned all 5 of them, hehe. I said to the cashier, I'm sorry these didn't work out. She said, No problem (thank goodness she didn't ask why they didn't work out). You gotta love TJMaxx.

Then, since I was there and everything, I tried on 8 more things in the dressing room. Hello, Calvin Klein has a white dress straight off the back of Audrey Hepburn. It was STUNNING, a little sleeveless light cotton dress with white cloth circle thingys ("thingys" is such a great word, it's my crutch) all over it, it was fitted through the bust and waist and then fluffed out down to the knees, I mean it was full. The neckline was a "V" in the front and back. It made you look like you had a figure, I mean a good one, like the old time movie stars. Maybe that was the stars' trick, they wore clothes that had some structure and shape, held you together and had proportion, accentuated the proper areas and also feminine and modest. It was GORGEOUS, I'm telling you.

So why didn't I get it for $50? Because when I stuck my fingers under the dress at the top of the shoulders there was more room under one finger on the right side than the left. It was probably me, my Scoliosis, I'm a crooked skeletal mess. But that was that, it felt looser on the one side, so I hung it back up and I must be CRAZY to pass on a dress like that. I could picture myself dancing with Fred Astaire in that dress, like Audrey did with him in Funny Face. Besides, I have nowhere to wear a dress like that. I should have invented someplace to wear a dress like that. Good grief, you just don't see dresses like this. Yep, I'm crazy. It's a dress you would wear to an afternoon tea party on the lawn of some great New York estate, like the Larrabees', like in Sabrina. Boy, I love that movie.

Adult ADD, that's what I have.

I scooped my mom up to go see the puppet show, The Man Who Planted Trees (exciting title). The dog in it was hilarious. I could have done without all the scenes that didn't have the dog. Thankfully, there were a lot of dog scenes. Cute, cute, cute. And how refreshing, good, clean humor. These two men from Scotland who do the show are touring North America through June. I think you can see about it at http://www.statetheater.com/

Well, I'm sure I'll have visions of white voile dresses floating in my head tonight. But first, going to eat 1.5 leftover pancakes. There would be more leftover pancakes, except I was greedy last night. Walking 30 minutes a day is really making me gain weight. Jazzi, too. Jazz has fleas. I mean, FLEAS. She's had one or two in the past, but this is uncharted territory. It must be because of the freezing cold winter. I'm sure we'll be blaming everything on the freezing cold winter.

DTD just waltzed in to sign her income taxes. It took her two seconds and she said it was a colossal waste of time (to come over here just for that, her mere signature). And out she waltzed. I have to say, income taxes ARE a big waste of time, the paperwork, that is. The least the government could do is issue a flat tax. Well, that's how I feel about it.

Tomorrow I have to waste my time getting my hair colored. The older I get the less patience I have for this kind of stuff. I've decided my priorities are out of whack in the extreme. Wonder what I'm going to do about that. I'm teetering on something B-I-G.

I'm very upset that CDW is so busy with crunch time for her daughter's wedding that she can hardly email me for the time being. Rats and SUPER RATS!!! This will last another 2.5 months. Well, I understand, of course, it's THE WEDDING, it's just MOST unfortunate. Not the wedding of course, that will be so loverly. Not getting my daily dose of CDW is what's unfortunate, this is where I'm having serious withdrawal symptoms. CDW is rays of sunshine for the weary, KEM. Rats, rats, rats. Well, when I attend the wedding, all will be blissful again.

Our bathroom floor is pine. In one piece of wood the grain forms a picture that looks just like Mystery Monkey. It looks just like Mystery Monkey whether you look at it right side up or turn yourself around and look at it upside down. A two-way monkey picture. Maybe I should pry it up and sell it on eBay. Well, why not? People are snapping up the monkey t-shirts like there's no tomorrow.

There is now posted a song about the Mystery Monkey on Facebook. Some great video footage of him eating a carrot on someone's patio and other stuff during the song. He's a gentleman, too.

Oh, and in a separate photo you see 4 wildlife officers lined up and standing in front of their wildlife vehicle. Behind the truck Mystery Monkey sits on a Tow Away sign drinking a Coke. It was photo shopped but very funny.

Krooked KEM

$.33 peds are not disposable after all, they are great and did not inch on down the heel, not at all. I am so happy I didn't buy the pack of two pair athletic peds at Talbot's for $12 the other day. GOOD GRIEF. Back to the Dollar Store to buy more of these swell peds.

Forgot to mention yesterday that all the ZWIPES-Makes-Normal-Cloth-Towels-Obsolete CLOTHS are orange, except the furniture one is cream. I will say, they are cheery. Even the WOW! Shammy is orange, I can dry Jazzi with it after her bath, 'cause WOW! holds many times it's weight in water, as do ZWIPES, 8 times it's own weight in water. Don't you forget it.

Tomorrow (which I guess is today) I might go to this puppet show that's supposed to be hilarious. It's about a shepherd who plants a forest. It's a children's program, but that never stopped me. Even the newspaper critic laughed his head off. Yes, this is a good idea, it's only one hour and $10. I saved so much at the dollar store, I can afford it.

I read, again, where the hardest part of any job is getting started. I guess that is sort of true, it is for me, anyway. Just go plug in the vacuum, me tells meself. BTW, my new vacuum is very satisfactory and I've long forgotten my old partner against the crime of dirt. I'm so shallow.

The Mystery Monkey is very concerned that he is going to be captured, wildlife people are really after him. You know, when ordinary people video the monkey and state his location, that is not good for the monkey's freedom. Freedom is his main thing. He doesn't want to wind up in a 4 X 4 cage.

I blogged myself out last night, so this is it for now . . . Toodles, KEM

Today I woke up feeling refreshed, not tired. Can we please bag this morning and let it out every day?

I helped Jinny today and of course we discussed Mystery Monkey, who was caught on video the other day creeping cautiously across a lawn and helping himself to seeds in a bird feeder. He had to lift the lid off the feeder, no prob for Smarty Pants, and he grabbed handfuls of seed. He made two appearances. The poor thing is hungry. This is all fine and dandy. Jinny couldn't figure out which neighbor filmed this, which of course ended up on the TV news all day, showing the film and all. Jinny knows all her neighbors in Driftwood well.

So why couldn't she figure out which yard it was? BECAUSE that spunky monkey had traveled to a whole different neighborhood, MILES away, at the very southern tip of St. Petersburg, that's why. He has been there before, too. So this is where he was filmed, in the Pink Streets. I couldn't believe it, how does this monkey do this? What a total character. He's all finesse. No wonder he now has 70,000 world-wide fans. Poor Charlie Crist, our governor. He only has 37,000 Facebook fans. Mystery Monkey for Governor!, ha, ha! Mystery Monkey for President!!! At least if his policies went sour he could disappear and no one would ever find him again. No chance. (I hope I'm not being too sacrilegious and uncouth.)

Somehow in my travels today I wound up in the Dollar Store. I was first introduced to the Dollar Store when a very good family friend took me there on my birthday a few years ago, 7.66 years ago, to be exact. She had raved about the Dollar Store and felt my life would be utterly lacking if I did not know what I was missing. Did that make any cents?, ha, ha. And she was absolutely right, it was one of my most fun birthdays EVER. I think she gave me $25 to spend. We spent forever with a small "f" in there. We are gushers, and we flooded the place with Ooohs and Aaahs that afternoon. Every item was more spectacular than the last . . . and, Gasp!, hand on chest, only ONE DOLLAR!

By the time we checked out I had a buggy full. Her $25 gift was long gone. I dug around in my purse for cash to make up the dif and came up virtually empty (that's a big fault of mine, I'm somehow allergic to carrying cold, hard cash). At that time the store didn't take credit cards. So, do you know how much I spent at the Dollar Store that day??? FIFTY-SEVEN BUCKS!!!! When I told people the story they were incredulous, How could ANYONE spend FIFTY-SEVEN BUCKS at the DOLLAR STORE, for crying out loud????

You know what, I have no idea how that could happen. But it happened, easy, and my friend had to cough up (shiver, I'm so inelegant tonight, and my friend is so VERY elegant) the additional $32. What's interesting about that, besides the obvious, is that this same friend has a story about my granny, how Granny invited all her friends to luncheon at the Maas Brothers Department Store Elegant Upstairs Restaurant where it was all open to the downstairs and you could look out over the balcony rail and view the shoe department below. And when the waiter brought the check, Granny didn't have any money in her purse. The orange doesn't fall far from the tree.

Back to my Dollar Store story. Then my elegant friend and inelegant I crossed the parking lot to the nearest ATM so I could immediately reimburse her. I insisted. Well, that ATM was not my bank, so I got to pay their "THIS IS NOT YOUR BANK" fee. Well, whatever, I mean, I just got the bargain of my life at the Dollar Store, FIFTY-SEVEN items for only THIRTY TWO dollars. Whew, I thought I was smarter than Bill Gates.

Well, today I was out running errands and then it hit me, the Dollar Store is right here. It also hit me that I had two Dollar Store gift cards burning a hole through my new loud purse. Gift cards are tricky. You have to actually spend them. One card had $4.67 on it and the other one had $19.00. Wow, I was almost back at square one, almost $25 to spend. Fun, fun.

So, up and down the aisles I roam. At first I take no cart. I think to moiself, I shall browse the whole Dollar Store and then I shall go back and scoop up all the dollar items I picked out (they're all dollar items, you know). Well, 5 "give me-give me" trinkets later, I realized, This is not going to work. So I started dropping things in a basket. Here, my friends, is a list of what $25 will do for you at the Dollar Store:

VOILA! bridal shower gift bag, drawings of vintage brides, pale yellow, adorable.

Goody 6 Pack Bobby Slides for moi.

Goody 6 Pack Bobby Slides for DTD.

Goody Stage Three Smooth Finish Pack of Two Hairbrushes, small one for moi, large one for DTD. What we will do without Stages One and Two, I don't know. But rest assured, Stage Three Finish (funny word) on dry hair takes out the static. You are left with Smooth hair. Of course I will be utilizing Stage Three brush on my wet head, I have no doubts. Wet head must require Stage One, I assume. Hope I don't get electrocuted. Anyway, the promise is, Three Steps To Fabulous Hair. Listen, I could use some fabulous hair. I'm in some pictures from the boarding school 75th celebration. They went up on Facebook, Uggy ugh. Somehow, my hair didn't show up at the 75th. I have no head hair in these pictures. You think I'm kidding. Think again. My granny didn't like her picture taken, and I don't either. Granny scowled in most of her pictures, all three of them. No one takes my picture, I don't even know how to do it anymore. I get all weirded out. Hair that's seen Stage Three might help.

Ladies No Show Sports Socks, 3 Pair (the heel had better not slide down to the toe, although for $.33 a pair, I'm not sure what I should be expecting, eh?).

Box of 40 Doggy Clean-Up Bags, Fragranced.

Box of 40 Doggy Clean-Up Bags, Fragranced. I stock.

Natural Wood Clothespins, 36 Count. Don't really need 'em, but, hey, they were purty, and I had almost $25 to spend.

WOW! AS SEEN ON TV www.theoriginalshammy.com GERMAN DESIGN and GUARANTEED TO WORK! Aren't they kind?

ZWIPES Super-Cleaning MicroFiber Polishing Cloth for Furniture, Model 321, 90,000 fibers per square inch. (I believed that??)

ZWIPES Super-Cleaning NEW! MicroFiber Fluffy Cloth, Model 882. And I thought I had lived a full life.

ZWIPES NEW! (Suckers like moi keep the NEW! in ZWIPES) MicroFiber Folding Super Duster, FEEL the Cleaning Power, Model 326.

ZWIPES (I'm not kidding) Super-Cleaning MicroScrubber Dual-Purpose Cleaning SPONGE, ZWIPES Makes Normal Sponges OBSOLETE, model 343.

As you can see, I am missing ZWIPES Models 1-320, 322-325, 327-342 and 344-881. My arsenal of Advanced Microfiber Cleaning Technology is hardly complete. I will require an additional $877 to spend at the Dollar Store in order to possess the full inventory of ZWIPES, Models 1 - 882, so I can thoroughly clean house the modern way. (Notice, please, I am out playing games instead of at home, actually cleaning.)

O-Cel-O no scratch* scrub sponge, clean with style!

Tablecloth, 100% Vinyl, Vintage Blue Checks and Flowers Pattern (we all grew up with it, except in red). This is so I don't have to send my boring white tablecloths to the cleaners and waste $14. $1 vs. $14 X many times a year, do the math. I hope it fits my table, I can never remember my dining room table size, can you remember yours? I go by how many the table seats. I can't even remember my New Balance tennis shoe size, which, btw, doesn't run true to size, even after how many times have I bought them?, how, pray tell, am I supposed to remember my table dimensions? HUH??

Westcott Since 1872 2-Eraser Pack, Softer and Ergonomic Latex Free.

Scotch 3M Permanent Double Sided Tape. Heh, heh, heh, MADE IN THE USA. Someone pass the smelling salts.

Scotch 3M Transparent Tape, 2-Pack. MADE IN THE USA. Hoo-ray for the Red, White and Blue!

Am I almost to 25?, I'm EXHAUSTED!!!

Reynolds Wrappers Pre-Cut Pop-Up Foil Sheets, 25 Sheets (too bad I all ready have two boxes of these hiding in cabinet in laundry room).

New York Style Risotto CHIPS, Parmesan & roasted garlic. I'm going to dive into those if I ever FINISH THIS BLOG!!!!

Old Fashioned Foods SHARP CHEDDAR Cheese Snack Spread. It's spreadable.

AND LAST BUT FAR FROM LEAST, sitting on a table full of bread products, Nature's Own Whitewheat Sliced Enriched Buns. With No High Fructose Corn Syrup, news to moi. Stamped on the package is Best If Used By AUG 18. I wonder what year they are talking about. When I pointed this date out to the young boy cashier, his words of wisdom were to eat the buns in July and then promptly sue Nature's Own. Hmmm, April, May, June, July. If I consume these buns on August 18, I expect 10 days later, on my birthday, that you can place a cake on the lid of my coffin. The party must go on. That was my granny's attitude. Heck, she didn't even want a funeral because why should her friends miss their hair appointments . . . for THAT?

I'm going back to count the items, they had better add up to 25!

Oh grief, it's only 22. Okay, so I bought a 1 inch 3 ring binder, made with durable plastic and round rings and everything.

Ta-da! I bought two packs of 3 pack Binder Clips. Val-Toad told me binder clips are the only way to go for securing your opened bags of potato chips and things. I found gorgeous (well, okay, very cute) binder clips in orange and purple flowers, with green leaves. Can you believe it??

I hope you all appreciate that I just rummaged through my goopy kitchen garbage can in order to reconstruct my shopping spree and deliver this blog, fresh to you. I hope it changes your life . . . for the better. I mean, if you aren't out there right now stuffing your buggies with Stage Three Hairbrushes, ZWIPES Galore and Aug. 18 Hamburger Buns, then I just plain give up.

So, with tax, after gift cards, I owed the Suing Boy $2.28. I think. I was too busy processing his buns advice to go figure. At least I had the cash on me, whew! Well, 25 dollar do-dads for $2.28 is MY KIND of shopping.

On my way to spread my spreadable cheese spread on New York Style Chips actually headquartered in New York, hope they didn't really come from China ten years ago,
KEM

When I was growing up there were two little girls (from two different families) in the neighborhood that spent a lot of time at our house and doing things/going places with us. My sister and I adored them like they were our little sisters.

So one Sunday afternoon one of these little girls, Blythe, tripped down the sidewalk to our house and hollered up at the window for Laura and me to come out and play. But Laura and I were not allowed to come out and play, for what reason, I do not recall. So I do think our mother told Blythe to go home, because Blythe was insistent. And Blythe was not invited in this time, which was unusual.

This did not sit well with Blythe, who was probably not much more than 5 years old at the time. And she was ADORABLE. Very petite with dark brown silky hair, a little curl, and HUGE dark brown eyes, those eyes would get you every time. She had the eyelashes normally reserved for little boys, extra long and enviable. Her cute little lips were sometimes sealed tight, giving the impression her wheels were spinning.

Oh, they were spinning that afternoon. Everything got quiet, and I'm sure we all thought she had left the property and that was that.

But that was not that. That was not that by a long shot. Imagine this, if you will. My dad loves his cars and is very particular about them. He keeps them perfectly and notices any new tiny ding right off -- sometimes he has been known to stand in the driveway when you pull in and give the car the old eagle eye.

So now he comes merrily out of the house and sees the car in the driveway as usual. But what is this??? HARK!, something unusual on the side of the car. He goes for closer inspection and now those eagle eyes are bulging from their sockets in a disbelief that seared to his very core. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WHAT ON EARTH???

Blythe had taken a rock and scratched her name in the across the two car doors. In HUGE 8" letters. B -L-Y (backwards)-T-h (backwards)-E. The car was a medium brown color and so the scratches showed up white, whatever that was beneath the top coat. I can still see it to this day, it may as well have been etched on my brain. The lettering was good, actually, had that kindergarten flavor, a little uneven of course. At least the rock edge she used was thin, the letters were delicate, almost like her instrument of dastardly deed was a pen. And she had accomplished this so quietly, so slyly, so deliberately.

Of course she had removed herself from the scene of the crime, but there was little doubt who was the culprit.

Well, I would just be crazy to have been in Blythe's mind while she was doing that. It was totally the perfect revenge, punishing the Garretts for spoiling her afternoon. She would show us! How she thought of something so clever, I don't know but I give her a lot of credit. But she had to know she was about to do something frightfully naughty, she had to sit under that cloud for the duration of the entire art project and beyond . . . but she went ahead and did it anyway, she would worry about retribution at a later date. You have to admire that kind of unadulterated spunk.

Oh, I can just picture her sitting on her cute little legs carving her name, singularly focused, concentrating on a precise execution. Children are the fun of the world, they truly are. Blythe is wonderful and now has a 5 year old daughter herself. Who is VERY smart and adorable, in fact, the spittin' image of Blythe. Once Blythe picked up Claire from pre-K and in the car Claire right away announced matter-of-factly, Mom, I got a dot today. Blythe said, Oh, honey, that's wonderful, tell me about a dot. Claire answers, without missing a beat, Mom, It's not good.

Hope Claire doesn't read this and get any brilliant ideas. At any rate, Blythe got the job done that day. My dad barely recovered, but life goes on, and it did, with BLY(backwards)Th(backwards)E on the side of the car and all, we never fixed it. Talk about a car with personality :) And I'll bet Laura and I were always allowed to go out and play after that fateful afternoon.

Bis Sis KEM