Every week for Wine & Cheese Wednesday I have decided to devote a blog to whining.  Despite being a really happy, positive person, I do have things that annoy me at times.  I never let anything grate on my nerves for long but thought it would be fun to vent them periodically in my blogs.  I also feel that good things, the cheese in life, should be acknowledged as well.  I’m even going to throw in a bit of dessert, a piece of virtual chocolate, something that made me laugh or smile  just a bit more than normal.

4th Glass of Wine

Nasty Nincompoops!

You pull into the local discount department store, drive up and down the aisles until you find a parking place.  Put up the windows, leaving them down just a bit because it is a hot day, remove your seat belt because you are always safety conscious, shut off the car, open the door, and step out..right  into a disposable diaper.  Not a clean, fresh one that fell out of some sweet little mommy’s diaper bag.  Oh no, this is a nasty, dirty, poopy filled one.  Someone changed their child on the seat of their car  and then deposited the smelly thing on the ground.

What the heck is wrong with people???  The parking lot is NOT a trash can!  If you are on the way IN to the store, change junior and carry the smelly item to the trash receptacles located by every entrance and exit to the building. IF by chance there is not one, take it  into the restroom and deposit it in the ones located in there.  Should you be leaving the store when your little bundle of happiness decides to down load in his diaper, take it home and throw it away.  OR you could drive to the front of the store and toss  it in a trash can.  But please stop leaving these in the parking lot!

Butt-Heads!!

I have owned a number of cars, and test driven or rode in dozens of others.  To my knowledge every car on the market comes  equipped with an ashtray at NO extra charge.  I have nothing against those individuals that smoke, or those that do so when operating their vehicles.  My sister is a smoker, I say go for it if $7 a pack doesn’t bother you it is your money spend it anyway you please.  However I DO take issue with smokers that toss their butts out of the window.  What the devil is wrong with the ashtray inside of your car?  Why must you litter the rest of the world with those nasty things?  And don’t tell me they aren’t, you wouldn’t let your toddler play in the ashes and butts, you’d tell them, “NO that is dirty!!”.  Well no kidding Mr./Mrs. Scholar Of The Obvious, so why are you throwing those DIRTY things out of the window??? USE YOUR ASHTRAYS!!  OH it’s full? Well please, don’t do what the flaming, wrap around butt-heads do, and dump it in the street or next to junior’s poopy diaper in the parking lot of the local store.  Try a trash can!

Jaywalking Wildlife

Is there a game warden around that we can file  a complaint?  I have one to log regarding local wildlife.  Now,  we cannot hunt without a license and there are more rules and regulations than we can shake a stick at when it comes to endangered  species and what can and cannot be done with nuisance animals.  We humans are expected to follow those rules  and laws, and yet the wildlife are not required to follow the rules!  WHY do we bother posting deer or geese crossing signs  if the little buggers won’t USE the appropriate crossings???  Nearly every morning on the way to work I pass through an area where geese rule the streets.  They cross from one side over to the other where the pond is, all their little offspring in a line, holding up traffic.  Sometimes they cause accidents because mama goose is NOT doing her part to teach her little babies to look both ways before crossing the street.  Oh heck no, that brazen beaked waddle bottom just steps right out into the traffic with no regard for the many vehicles traveling along at 40 m.p.h. that must screech to a stop to avoid slaughtering the entire feathered family.  Please, can we educate  these  creatures that there is a marked place for them to cross????

*****DISCLAIMER***** – JUST kidding about the geese….sort of.

A Serving Of Cheese

Peppermint Patty

I  have no idea what our neighbor’s real name is, to me she will always be Peppermint Patty.  My grandmother on my dad’s side grew peppermint next to her garage.  She and gramps used to harvest it through the summer, drying it on newspaper covered tables in the basement and storing it in those large pickle jars.  Grandma made the best mint iced tea you could  find! Many family members  transplanted mint  to their gardens but over the years  we’ve  lost our supply.  Last night while sitting outside with our evening coffee, the neighbor next door asked us Divas if we used mint for anything.  Growing in her flower bed on the side of her house is a bunch of peppermint!  She doesn’t use it so she said to take all we want and even transplant some if we’d like.   We are SO excited, we just love lightly sweetened mint tea and now we can do like the grands and prepare a bunch for winter!

Pavement Picasso’s

For the 4th of July, Sunday, we had the extended family over to cook out.  One of my brothers came with his 5 year old twin daughters.  My son and his girlfriend came and brought her 5 year  old  daughter who just happens to go to preschool with my nieces.  After we rescued the cats from being terrorized by little girls chasing them around, the  young ladies were a bit bored.   My 16yo niece, Jeanne,  had  one of her bedroom walls painted with chalkboard paint so friends can leave messages and artwork on the wall of her room.  She went and got the bag of multi-colored sidewalk chalk  and brought it outside.  We showed the girl’s our neighbor’s blacktop driveway and the artwork began.   They even got me out there for a bit with them drawing pictures.  The little artists had me laughing and enjoying drawing on the ground.  It is fun sometimes to be a kid again!

Firecrackers In Your Jammies

Sunday evening we gals in the Diva Den got ready for bed and then sat  on the driveway in our pajamas watching multiple impressive fireworks displays around the neighborhood.  Our guests had all gone home and it was just us girls having one last beer and taking in the panorama of colors in the night sky.  No matter the lemons life has tossed my way lately,  the lemonade of  being there with 4 very special women in my family was the sweetest lemonade of love I could ask for,  only my baby girl being there would have improved the flavor!

DESSERT