It is Sunday, March 29 and there are only 7 days until Easter.  Get those eggs dyed and get set for the egg hunt.  I am never sure what weapon to use for an egg hunt.  Any suggestions?  Let’s take a moment to remember the birthdays of Johann Spangenberg, Cy Young and Eric Idle.  On this day in 1638 the first white settlement in Delaware was established by Swedish Lutherans, in 1867 Congress approved the Lincoln Memorial and in 1971 1^st Lt. William Calley, Jr. was found guilty in the My Lai massacre.  Today is Delaware Swedish Colony Day in Delaware (who’d a thought), Commemoration Day/Memorial Day in Madagascar and tomorrow is Seward’s Day in Alaska.

For those of you who may be wondering what Seward’s Day is, I am pleased to be able to give you a short explanation.  Seward’s Day commemorates the signing of the Alaska Purchase treaty on March 30, 1867.  It is named after then-Secretary of State William H Seward who negotiated the purchase from Russia.  With this purchase the US added 586,412 square miles of new territory.  The US paid Russia $7.2 million for Alaska.  So now you know.  I am sure you will all rest easier having been able to add this nugget to your list of generally useless information.

I have mentioned in the past my problems with inanimate objects.  I sometimes feel that they are not as inanimate as we would believe.  For example, the other evening I was collecting the trash upstairs in our house.  I had a bag to empty it into and was in our bedroom getting ready to dump the can.  I had the bag in place, it was open and ready, and just as I started to dump it, the edge of the bag folded over closing the bag up and causing the trash to spill all over the floor.  As far as I could tell, there was no reason for the bag to close.  There was no breeze, I did not move it, I did not hit it with the trash can.  If it had closed a second sooner, I would have been able to stop, reopen the bag and dump the trash.

But N-O-O-O-O-o-o-o!  It closed at just the right time so that all the stuff went on the floor.  I then had to spend the next several minutes picking the stuff up and throwing it into the bag.  The chore was made just a little more difficult by the fact that the lovely Elaine feels that you have to rip paper into small pieces before throwing it away.  The only benefit was that the experience gave me the opportunity to work on my swearing and my muttering under my breath.  I could almost hear the bag laughing at me.

I also had a run-in with another inanimate object that continues to make me crazy – plastic wrap.   I cannot figure out the story with this stuff.  I was trying to wrap up some brownies I was taking to a party and I pulled out a piece of plastic wrap.  As soon as I tore it off, it stuck to itself and I spent some time getting it spread out so I could use it.  Every time I moved it, it would fold over and stick to itself again.  After some more practice swearing and several attempts to get it to a point where it was usable, I was able to get it draped over the brownies.  Now, when I wanted it to stick to itself so that the brownies were covered properly, it would not!  It’s almost like there are only so many times plastic wrap will stick to itself and I used them all up trying to get it to lay flat.  I ended up having to use tape to hold it in place.

As I mentioned earlier, I was wrapping the brownies for a party.  The party we were going to was for a group of people that I used to work with.  These were great people and I have missed seeing them every day.  I got over it in time, but they were good people and they were fun to work with.  One of the weird things about this is that I have only seen the one woman twice since I left the credit union and both times she has been pregnant.  Fortunately, she is far enough along that they could not blame it directly on me.  I congratulated her, but did point out that they know what causes that now.  She gave me the look.  Either the lovely Elaine gives classes on “the look” or it is just an innate skill that women develop over time.

It was a great evening.  We sat around and swapped old stories and laughed.  We filled each other in on what has been happening since I left the credit union.  Some of the others have also left because our department was closed down and moved to North Carolina.  It’s really too bad that they let these people get away.  They were good individuals who knew their job and knew how to do it right.  I will say this – after listening to the stories some of the ones who still work there told, I am glad I am not there anymore.  I am confident that I would have spoken my mind about some of the stuff that has been done and ended up being let go anyway.  I don’t tolerate stupid too well.

Our fact this week tells us that in Kentucky, 50% of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.  These are the same people who will later ask, ”If we get divorced, are you still my uncle?”

One other quick thing and then I will let you go.  I continue to see that people from other countries occasionally read my ramblings.  If you are one of those people, I would really like to know how you came across my blog.  Please leave a comment to let me know.  And to the rest of you, feel free to tell  others about the blog.  I am sure they will find it mildly amusing, too.  Thanks!