IT'S OFFICIAL, GAGA IS A PUSHOVER

Due to circumstances beyond my control (which have turned out to have a bit of silver lining), I am getting to spend a lot more time with Charley lately. Twice in the past week, I've taken her for the day to visit, run errands, go shopping & have lunch. She even told Daddy to show me how to fasten the car seat straps "because Gaga has trouble with it". She's right, Gaga does have trouble with it sometimes, but I'm improving.

It seems that we really enjoy our time together & Charley has figured out that Gaga is a total pushover when it comes to buying her stuff. When we did my dad's shopping together last week I bought her a few little things - a tiny doll with long blue hair, some pom-poms (on the clearance table) that fell apart two days later & a little plastic Olaf whose head opens up to reveal a small sucker. I've spent days looking for more little suckers to refill it - finally found them so now she is good to go. And, just a side note, that kid can spot Frozen stuff from way across the store!

I've been on a mission to make a CD to play in my car with Charley's favorite songs. Her three biggies are "All About That Bass", "Shake It Off" & "Let It Go". I'd downloaded "Let It Go" to my iPod last year to learn the words. But it seems that iPods are now technological dinosaurs & downloading one song without signing up for a continual service is not easy. Everything now involves the "Music Cloud" & if you are older than 16, you have no idea what or where it is. Plus I hadn't used my iTunes account since I bought my new computer. I spent hours the other night & I'm not real sure how I did it, but I finally had a CD with those three songs & several other catchy girl songs on it! Hooray, Gaga!

Yesterday I took her for the day & put the CD on as soon as we got in the car. That little girl knows every word to those three songs & she just belts them out as she sings along! Her enthusiasm really is contagious. We played them at least 5 or 6 times in our travels. I have to figure out a way to get a video of her singing along.

One of our stops was at Kohl's where I had a $5 off reward & a 30% discount coupon. My intention was to let her pick a couple of long tops that she likes & maybe a pair of leggings. When she spotted the fancy Disney dresses, all bets were off. Please, please, please, Gaga! She HAD to have one! Gaga did the math - $35 originally, on sale for $21, less $5, then 30% off made it $11.20 - how could I deny her a beautiful dress that she loved?

The blue Cinderella one looked lovely but it was a size too large & there weren't any smaller ones. She also thought the purple Sofia one was gorgeous. We went to the fitting room & tried them both on. The Cinderella one was indeed too big & didn't fit right, but the Sofia one was beautiful. We both liked it best so I said, "Okay, Gaga will buy it for you." Being a pushover has the most incredible rewards when you see the pure joy in an almost four year old's eyes!

As we walked to the register in the front of the store carrying her Sofia dress, the loudspeaker began playing "Shake It Off". Charley started singing along with Taylor Swift & I joined her:

"The players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off"

We got several smiles from other shoppers as we walked hand in hand down the aisle singing & dancing away. Oh, did I mention we were wearing our matching giant spider glow-in-the-dark necklaces that Gaga bought, too? 

REST IN PEACE, YOGI

Late last night, I heard the news that baseball great, Yogi Berra, had passed away at 90 years of age. It elicited a sad, prolonged, "Awwww," from my lips.

Most of his baseball success was as the catcher for the New York Yankees. Now, I've never been a Yankees fan -  in fact, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers - they are the teams I love to hate the most! However, I was most definitely a Yogi Berra fan, not just for his baseball but for his wit & wisdom off the field.

His baseball statistics were pretty amazing for a 5'7", 185 pound catcher. In today's world that is considered tiny & he'd have a tough time even getting a chance in the major leagues. Yogi played 19 years as a catcher & part time outfielder. He has 10 World Series rings & 3 MVP awards to his credit. His lifetime batting average was .285 - pretty damn good!

But his mental process was legendary & had everyone scratching their heads as their minds tried to make sense of his words. There was even a word coined to describe his strange but thought-provoking statements - "Yogi-isms".

Here are a few of my favorites:

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"

"Ninety percent of the game is half mental."

"It's deja vu all over again."

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."

"Better make it six, I can't eat eight," when asked if he wanted his pizza cut in 6 or 8 slices.

And, of course, the one that virtually everyone has quoted at some point in their lives, "It ain't over, 'til it's over."

Well, Yogi, it's over. I know he had a brilliant baseball career, a wonderful personal life (married to Carmen for 65 years until her death last year) & my guess is that he knew EXACTLY what he was saying with all those seemingly crazy quotes.

Rest in Peace, Yogi - baseball & the world will miss you!

DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!

Feel free to substitute a word that begins with "F" & ends with "K" in the title if you are like me & can't stand big ass spiders!

The low tire pressure light came on in my car yesterday. It's a great invention but then you know the tires are low & have to deal with it immediately. I hate trying to use those stupid machines at a gas station to fill the tires. I can never get the hose to stay out so you try to stand on it leaving enough room to maneuver the end onto the stem. Then you must check it with a tire gauge since the ones on the air hose never work - or so I'm told.

Once you've wrestled the air hose into submission, lost a cap or two under the car & have fingers that resemble those of your mechanic with all the road dirt & grease, if you are lucky, you have properly inflated tires. Since it seems to be such an ordeal for me, I usually choose to do it at home. We have a electric tire inflater that at least makes all of the above issues a bit more manageable. Plus you aren't under the gun because the damn machine will turn off in three minutes.

Okay, that's the set up - I go out to the garage this morning to check all the tires & sure enough a couple are several pounds low. As I stand up from my left rear tire, I come face to face with a Black Widow spider! She was about 1-1/2 inches long, shiny black with a bright red spot & sitting in a web in the corner of the garage. "Damn it!", I yelled (among other things) as I jumped backward into my car.

With my heart pounding I took a minute to figure out how to kill it. For the record I HATE killing spiders but I hate live ones roaming my house & garage more. And also for the record, I do believe that men should have to kill the spiders. But my man was out volunteering at the Railroad Museum today so I was on my own.

I found the bug spray & sprayed the shit out of that nasty thing. It barely moved so I figured it must be dying. I took the shovel to scoop it out of the web & take it out front, far away from me. The damn thing started running all over. I tried in vain to smash it with the shovel but other tools & things prevented me from getting a direct hit. Of course, I am swearing a blue streak that would rival any longshoreman. Finally I stunned it enough to where I could get it on the end of the shovel - I held the extreme end of the handle - & took it out to the front lawn.

When I set it down, it gained it's second wind & started running all over again. Now, I had a clear shot & smashed it about ten times with the shovel. Finally it looked like it was immobilized. And it was at least 8 - 10 feet from where I was working on my tires. I glanced around to make sure that no one was looking. They'd have thought I was a crazy woman for sure.

My next order of business was to calm down & let my heart rate return to some semblance of normal - it must have been beating 200 times a minute. Damn, damn, damn, I hate spiders! It is now half an hour later, my tires are at the recommended pressure, there is one less Black Widow living in the garage & my body is just about back to its normal functioning.

I have heard that hair spray will immobilize a spider so you can kill it but I didn't think of that in the heat of the moment. I just wanted poison & something hard & long to hit it with. Still not sure why in the overall scheme of things a pretty tiny spider can instill such fear in a full grown woman - but from my conversations with friends, male & female, I know I am not alone!