Betty's Blog

Tattoos I got my first tattoo when I turned 50. I thought that occasion merited some kind of commemoration! A beautiful Blue Bird of Happiness and cascading hearts with the sign for Scorpio at the bottom. It is on the outside of my left calf. A few years later, I wanted another one and the tattoo artist was able to copy a picture out of a children's book. It shows Thumbelina being rescued by the Sparrow. That one is on the inside of my right calf. Then, I got my last one a few years after that on my left forearm. It is two calla lilies with leaves and a black bow at the bottom by my wrist. It is in memory of my father and my grandfather who were both morticians. My grandfather died six months before I was born. They both also sold furniture! One thing that I had planned was that if someone came in my store that I thought might be offended by my tattoos, I could turn the right side of my body towards them and they would not be able to see any of my tattoos! I am ...

May 2013 Mustard or ketchup on your hot dog? I use both. Mustard or ketchup on your hamburger? I use ketchup mixed with Spin Blend... http://www.reference.com/motif/health/spin-blend-salad-dressing Sugar and/or cream and/or milk in your coffee and/or tea? (that's a lot of and/or's!) I use Stevia and maybe a little milk in my chai tea. Salt & pepper on just about everything else. Ranch dressing on carrots. Brown sugar, butter and milk on my hot cereal. Butter AND peanut butter on my sandwich. Spin Blend on a BLT. Lots of butter on a steak! Grated Parmesan on noodles. But my husband takes the cake for offbeat combos... Pancake syrup on large curd cottage cheese!!! Stay hungry!

April 2013 Twice I have had customers ask me that if they abuse the furniture they are thinking about buying from me would I guarantee that it wouldn't break?!!! The first time it happened, the customer wanted to buy a recliner that I would GUARANTEE the footrest against breakage even if his children sat, stood, or jumped from it! The second time it happened, a different customer wanted to buy a set of kitchen chairs that I would GUARANTEE would not break even when he rocked back on just two legs which was something he liked to do every day! I had to tell both of them that I can not guarantee any furniture against deliberate abuse! I still can't believe that I was asked those questions! Can you?

Eating My Words OMG... will wonders never cease??? 63 years old and I just had my first taste of yogurt. yoplait triple berry torte. i hate to admit how tasty it is! dammit. i could have been eating it all these years! just goes to show you should NEVER say "I hate ____." because you just may have to eat those words some day when you get smart enough to actually try ____. pass the salt.

Phone, phones, phones! My parents grew up at a time when telephones were something new. My mom's family lived in the country and they had a "party line". Other people on your line could pick up their phone and listen in on your conversation. And you didn't have a "number". You had a number of rings! Like two longs and a short or whatever. Keeping secrets was almost impossible! When I was a kid, my folks had one phone. It was big and black and it sat on the "telephone table" (which had a little matching chair) by the back hallway. If you wanted to know where the fire engine just went, you dialed "O" for Operator and the lady in the little brick building that was three blocks away would answer and tell you where the fire was. Yes, I said "dial". There were no pushbuttons and it took a LONG time to dial a number like 507-899-9989 because you had to wait each time for the dial to return to the zero before dialing the nex...

Restroom Rage! Why? Why? Why? Why? Why is it that there are always the same number of restrooms for men as there are for women??? Every woman knows that there should be TWICE as many for women as there are for men. We have to stand in line for ages, it seems, and there is NEVER a line for the men's room! It's elementary, my dear Watson. Women have clothing to remove and a typical restroom visit takes at least ten minutes. Men have a zipper to undo and they are in and out in less than five. YOU do the math!

Time I am not a morning person. I have actually unloaded furniture from one of my company's semis at midnight rather than have to be at the store at 7:00 am the next morning. And yet, if I absolutely have to be up early, I can do it. And I even enjoy being up early... the birds, the freshness of the day, etc. But I would still rather be in bed! When I opened my store in 1995, I used to open at 9:00 am. That lasted about a week and a half before I realized that was not working for me. So I moved my open time to 10:00 am. However, I was always late getting it open! I'd get there at 10:15 or 10:27. Then, the manager of the grocery store across the street advised me to just make my opening time 10:30 since I wasn't getting there any sooner than that, anyway. So, I did. Now, I'm lucky to get there before 10:45 am! Sigh.