Last night, I got an email from my mother (sent to her entire email list) about a mysterious red van with out of state plates that had been trying to entice middle school age boys into their vehicle.   Luckily both of the boys approached got a creepy feeling and ran.

Unfortunately, this is not an urban legend.

I heard the story yesterday at soccer practice, one of the former players little brothers was one of the boys approached and his mom had told a few of the parents about it that day.

When my son got in the car I asked him if he knew that his friends brother was almost abducted and he said sure.  I got a text message about it.

This morning we were talking about it again and I asked him, exactly when did you get a text message?

“two days ago, right after it happened”

My son had known to be on the look out for a red van for two days.  His mom, even being pretty tech savvy didn’t get the memo until a full day later.  If parents employed the same tools our kids did, the chance of catching those bozos would have greatly increased.  Instead, many of us relied on good ole chatting by the car and/or email which doesn’t follow everyone where ever they go like the cell phone.

I am still impressed that the message has gotten around our community with out it being out in the open for the bad guys to even know that we knew to be looking for them.

Around here, when someone asks “Where you from?” (and that is how they say it in this area-even the metropolitan south).  They are really askin’ “You from around here?”  and that means has your family lived in this area for the past 70 years at least or are you from some where else, may as well be another planet if you didn’t grow up here.  I have  a feeling it is like that in most southern small towns.

It could be argued that Louisville and the surrounding areas are not “REALLY” the south, but we do have some of those quirky behaviors.

I will say we are getting better or maybe we were forced to change because we did such a good job with our local schools people who move in the area with their jobs aren’t from ’round here and if they had a choice wouldn’t have picked HERE, but they don’t and because our school system rocks, so here they are.  Some of them like it and stick around and I guess after about 15 years (instead of the standard 100) they are from ’round here.

But something that I have only discovered in Kentucky and is even listed on those “You know you are from {insert area here} when lists”-our “Where you from” goes one step further.  Where did you go to school and honey, we don’t mean college.  Not because most of us didn’t head off to university, we did, we just can glean more information off your high school.   And out here, I can tell not only about where you grew up but MAYBE even how old you may or may not be because until the early 90’s there was only one high school out here, now there are 3.

If this question gets favorable results or someone says, I didn’t grow up HERE, but my mom and dad met in college and moved back here, you get to say “Oh really, who’ is your daddy? or your mama?” and chances are that your daddy and their daddy played basketball or football together and you recognize the name like it were your own.  In some unfortunate cases you discover that their mama and your daddy dated and your mama isn’t a big fan of their mama, in which case, you really don’t run off and call your mama and daddy to tell them who you just met in the parking lot of Kroger.

Just keep that one to yourself.

I have discovered that I do this with my son’s friends, just like my daddy used to do it with mine, because you see, my daddy grew up here and my mama did not.  I would have friends come over and my dad would say “Claypot…well, I don’t know any claypots, where you from?” and they would reply well my dad isn’t from around here but my mama was….

“Awww, what’s your mama’s name?”
“Jones, sir”
“Sally Jones?”
“Yes sir.”
“Oh, I know your mama, she used to be a cheerleader and was the nicest thing, how’s she doin’?”
IF he knew them, but if he didn’t he would say…
“Sally Jones, aw yes, she used to come over to my house to eat chicken…’(and then he would say shit, under his breath) he would die laughing!  I can honestly tell you that I was in my mid-20’s before I understood that my dad was telling these kids that their parents ate chicken poo at his house.

I have promised my son that I will not use the eating chicken line, but I will and do ask the other questions everytime a new kid comes over.  Because some traditions are just worth preserving-child embarassment!

So, where you from?  where did you go to school?

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Check out more writing and poetry on this topic @ Sunday Scribblings

So I could post I made a HUGE milestone…below 180…
As of yesterday AM- I weighed 179.8! 
I was so happy I knocked the power out-over 600,000 people in Kentucky are without electricty because I hit a small personal goal.

I am with out power.  I don’t have internet. 
At last check it was 47 in my house.

I am now at the Fairfield Inn, Downtown Louisville.

The dogs are in the kennel where they can be warm too.

Check out all the pictures of local damage (many from my own yard and house) HERE.

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Happy Holidays from my neighborhood to yours.

Doesn’t this just rock?

especially in my neighborhood!

In the coming days, spouselet and I hope to have a video of our neighbors house for all to enjoy.

Our neighbor works on this project all year long and every year it gets a little bigger. The first year he had one song, then two and this year there are three.

You can’t tell from the picture but he has a count down to Christmas clock. He has also installed a screen and Santa walks in the front window checking his list all night long. He has the music programed on a station so you can hear it as you sit in your car.

We think it is an amazing project and a bonus to our community.

Not everyone agrees.

Last year some jack-leg shot out the count down clock. I hope he got coal in HIS stocking.

I am also pretty impressed with my blackberry’s ability to take images at night.
wow.

Do you have a beloved Grizwold in your neighborhood?

Today I ran by the Red Pepper for my favorite sandwich (and found out that with out mayo it is less than 500 calories-so yay) and Joe, the owner asked what happened to my voice.

Because apparently I TALK alot when I am in there too!

So, he gave me this awesome Lemon Ginger Tea to bring home and make so I will feel better. GAVE TO ME. Didn’t charge me one bloody nickel-just go home, try this.

He said he makes all his employees drink this stuff when they are under the weather and it works! I can tell you this, I don’t know about getting better, but I do know it is Yummy!

Have I mentioned in the past 3 weeks that I LOVE The Red Pepper?
Well I do.

Them’s good people.
The food’s good too!

This morning the dogs and I went on our walk to the “other” cemetery. It is directly across the street from the Confederate one, however, this one is referred to as “black” on the links that mention the sites.

When I was a child this cemetery was so over grown if it weren’t for the brick entrance with the chain across the road, you would have never known anything was in all that brush. Sometime in the past 20 years people have gone in and cleaned up. There is a definite difference to the “energy” between the two places.

This one, much more colorful-there are flowers (even if they are plastic) on several of the graves. The stones are not as elaborate; many of them are just metal markers with long since faded card inserts. The image above is the “fanciest” and who ever is buried under all that color was mighty loved. There isn’t a marker, just the brick wall and a garden stone with a quote (and all the flowers)..

The personality in this place is evident everywhere you look. This one defined by cedar fencing and a small garden edging. I am not sure if the man buried there is really tall or they just had that much “fence”.

Everyone always asks me who is in charge of upkeep on this cemetery-as if I am the official caretaker knower-er in this area.

I don’t know.
I do know that this side of the street is much more creative than the other side.

OH, now I know why I like this one more.
(some days I am just slow I tell ya)

It reminds me of my mama’s family grave yard in Tennessee. Many of her relatives didn’t have the money to get fancy stones and they used what they had. One of her relatives is buried under a roof. I kid you not. i wish I had a picture of that. Two pieces of galvanized roofing and a triangle of lattice made up his monument. Much love there too.

OOOO. I almost promised no more cemetery stories for awhile, because there aren’t any in walkin’ distance, but there ARE.

Until next time my pretties.

One of the places I have been taking the dogs to roam is the Pewee Valley Confederate Cemetery. Part of the cemetary is dedicated to men who were residents of the Pewee Valley Confederate Home and many of them were Civil War Veterans.

Now there are more civilian graves, than veterans.

One of my favorites. Mainly because I have seen similar monuments at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, but this one, is right down the road.

I have lived in this area MOST of my life and as a child my sister and I would bring the girls who came to our house to spend the night up here. They would get all freaked out-so much easier to walk up the street than spend all night tellin’ ghost stories! And trust me when you are 12…you can freak out many a friend just by walking around the circle.

Yes, we were evil.
We were 12!

I have walked by these stones for years. But only yesterday, did I realize the date span on this one.

Precious Baby.
So simple. So beautiful.

Many of these graves are over 100 years old. But recently, they have expanded the grounds and more sites are open. My son has a friend who’s mother is there.
I “visit” her several times a week.

I love a cemetery. Probably because I grew up with two of them very near where I live. I will post about the other one another day.

What about you?
Fasinated or Feared?

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Here is another link I found on the Confederate Home-information I didn’t know. Cool.

Today, I really was the girl in the middle! I had lunch with my mom and my sister-I am not the oldest OR the youngest-how perfect.

We went to Sisters Tea Parlor & Boutique!

I am not normally a fan of pink, but for a tea room, it works.

I am a fan of hot tea. (mine was some kind of chai-and very tasty) Even a bigger fan of hot tea that tastes good with OUT sugar or honey! I am also a HUGE fan of ginger snaps. Ever had a ginger snap with lemon curd? Well, you should. The cottled cream wasn’t bad either-I just love tart!

Aren’t the dishes and presentation of everything just precious?

The food was incredible-finger sandwiches, scones and deserts…to yummy.

We could have dressed up if we wanted-they have a room full of hats, furs and shiney jewelry…I can see little girls going totally nutso over this place.

Check out more pictures on Flickr.

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If you follow me on Twitter, then you know that today the office took all the October birthday’s out to lunch, which, included me (that upcoming 40 thing you know). There were 3 of us who were celebrating this time and I let someone else pick the restaurant. I am not going to name names, but this place is named after a cheese that Wisconsin made famous.

The experience was less than stellar. First, we called to get reservations for a table of 12. They don’t “do” reservations.

OK.
Fine.

I showed up a little early to request a table for 12.

We don’t have a table for 12.
They can seat us in two 6 top booths, back to back.

Yeah, whatever.
I leaned over the hostess station and pointed to three 4 tops that we could move together and asked if there was a reason why we couldn’t sit there??

The reply from the oh so helpful manager was “because there are people sitting there!”
There are at this moment, but I am here early and they might be done. That would be the best place for us to sit.

(for future reference when ever someone is being THAT bullheaded about my business. I will go somewhere else and tell all sorts of people about the love that I got at a particular restaurant named after a cheese from Wisconsin.)

When 5 of the party arrived a female manager, not the bullheaded one, sat us at a table for 8 near a booth for 4. OH GEE Thanks! that is so much better than TWO tables of 6.

Luckily, our server was a professional and he moved the tables to they were facing the same direction and we could all talk. And I will say that he was a bright spot in the day-the food was OK. I have never been a huge fan of this place named after a cheese from Wisconsin-so maybe I am a bit to harsh. But, our server did rock.

After lunch, I headed to the YMCA to work off all the garbage I just ate and listened to a podcast from Andy Stanley @ Northpoint Church (in Atlanta). His name keeps coming up all over the place, so I thought I would check him out. Funny how God works. The first message I listened to was from August 11, 2008 and it was on a Christian’s Work Ethic (taking care of business part 1).

It was incredible for me to see the difference between the way that most everyone at the cheese place just “got through” their day (with the exception of our server) and to listen to the story Mr. Stanley told about a Porta-can worker and how he did his job, because he worked for the Lord (and not that particular waste managment company). Usually examples in life are not in such a stark contrast.

Or maybe I just haven’t been paying attention.

Today, I was blessed by my co-workers, my server and Andy Stanley and his podcast from 3 months ago!

How were you blessed today?