I've been responsible for two doozies in the last couple of years. Both times I was trying to call my neighbor. I suppose it would help if I said "hello" and made small talk before I started saying things, but I'm more of a "stream of consciousness" conversationalist. The first of these was a couple summers ago at the height of Japanese Beetle season. I'd been out handpicking the buggers and drowning them in soapy water. I tried to rope the neighbor kids into helping me a la Tom Sawyer, and when that failed, I tried to make a game of it, "Let's have a contest to see who can drown the most Japanese Beetles! The rules are that I can only catch them in my garden, but you can catch them in your mom's garden and in mine!" The monkeys (my neighbor's pet name for her kids) didn't bite at that either, so I just went about my business with the beetles. The next day, I was pleasantly surprised to see a pile of dead beetles on my back patio. I assumed it was the kids next door, so I called to thank them. When their mom answered I said "Your monkeys have been busy!" "Pardon me?" "Your monkeys! They went on a killing spree over here! I have a whole stack of corpses on my back patio! I'm thrilled!" "Excuse me?" (long pause...) "I dialed 849-XXXX instead of 850-XXXX, didn't I!" (Our village (yes, we live in one too) only has two prefixes.) "Yes." "I'm so sorry! Nevermind what I said about the bodies!" When I hung up, it took me ten minutes to stop laughing enough to call my neighbor and tell her what I'd done. Recently I called her on inauguration day. She had worked on the campaign and I knew she'd be very emotional about it... but she'd have to keep it on the down-low because she was at her parents' house, and they are staunch Republicans. In an effort to give her an opportunity to let off a little happy steam, I decided to call her on her husband's cell phone. She answered and I said "So are you crying tears of joy?" and she said "Yes I am! It's been a great day! Who is this?" "It's Michelle." "Michelle who?" "Oh crap! Apparently, it's Michelle-the-total-stranger-who-can't-dial-numbers-correctly. I'm just calling to check in on your emotional well-being. I'm happy to hear you're having a great day!" When I finally hung up the phone, I realized I'd managed to chat for over three minutes with a total stranger. Neither of us mentioned why she was happy, which sort of made it even better, because for all I know, she had just received a promotion, or found out she was pregnant (or not!) or any of the millions of other things that can make a person beam with joy. It was a funny conversation that tickled me. And it tickled my neighbor too when I finally managed to dial her number correctly.

In my last house outside a little village in our county, I was very shocked to learn I had to "wait" for a private line. This was in the mid 80s. For several months I was once again on a party line blast from the past. One can hardly find a pay phone anywhere around here anymore because of the abundance of mobile phones. That was one of the reasons I ended up biting the bullet and getting one. I hate them and still have months and months of paid up minutes waiting to use. My parent's house still have the old, heavy rotary dial phones. Like Andie, that spoilt me forever because when I talk into a mobile, or even one of those lightweight land line phones, I feel like I am talking into the air. I hate the chintzy things too. LOL. Can you tell I am phone challenged? I still think people wearing those little do-dads over their ear and talking into the air look like borgs. I also hate to get behind them in the market, as they evidently walk down the isles connected through their air-wave umbilicus to someone in their house and that person is going through their pantries looking to see if the household is out of whatever item the borg is standing in front of. I don't remember ever having to talk to operators, save when making long distance calls or collect calls when away from home or at a phone booth before credit card calls were invented. The phone I miss the most was my ericaphon. sic sic sic. The rotary dial was at the base, and one picked the whole unit up and talked into a showerhead. rofl.

Sorry guys- something's got buried in my e-mail. I was going to check this weekend. May 10th is lovely. Carol just came by to make sure we were still alive. My phone number is 301-421-0284. And I'll see where Larry's e-mails went. Looking forward to seeing you. Now I will read the thread and see if you all are for that date- any date was going to be ok for us. And we are alive and well. May 10th it is.

I found this through a google search. It looks like they are in Iowa and not Jasper, Indiana as listed on their website. Strange that they don't have a phone number. This would make me reticent to purchase from them. Masterbrands is a huge company and a phone number should not be a big deal. Omega Cabinetry, MasterBrand Cabinets Find a Location (319) 236-2256View Additional Phone Numbers1205 Peters Dr, Waterloo, IA 50703-9691http://www.omegacabinetry.comView Additional Web Addresses