Colorful tree

From the museum

Well, we are at the end of November. Weather-wise we were quite spoiled. That sentence almost sounds like the beginning of a tongue-twister. I think the cold weather is coming.

I found out that the debit to my checking account was legitimate and was mine. My daughter had purchased a gift at a kiosk in the middle of our mall. Strange that it would show up on my online banking with the description of a mall in Moline IL. Kind of threw me off and since I didn't recall buying it, I was a bit alarmed. I found the receipt and all is well. Whew.

My Thanksgiving was busy and happy. Lots of people to see, lots of hugs and too much food. I was not caught with the "I am so tired" after effect of the day and was able to help clean up and play games with the younger set. On Friday I fixed my feast for my crew. Nothing huge, but quite adequate. My nephew fixed my back door latch. The dogs' leash had caught it one day and with that boxer on the other end, I can't tell you the amount of force that snapped that latch and broke it. He is one strong canine.

Even I am up and about too early for the dogs. They looked at me with one eye opened and promptly went back to sleep. I got up an hour ago. I will be leashing them all and taking them out (one at a time). If I take them out together they distract each other and do not do their business. Except for Sable. I can take her out with or without any of them. The boxer goes last because I have to walk him. And walk him. And walk him. If he is really hungry, he goes quickly and pulls me back to the house.

I have to tell you I have been really spoiled with the mild November temperatures. I will need to really bundle up in December when I walk him. I still don't have a coat for the big fella. He is short haired and he gets cold.

This week is a wash. I work full time and every day this week. I have an event scheduled every evening this week except for Wednesday. I am going to try to fix a big home-cooked meal that night because I know we will be eating out every other night. My daughter only works this morning and all day Friday so she can take care of the dogs in the evenings. I might blow tonight's event off and do some much-needed shopping before a get together on Saturday.

Just thinking about this make my chest tighten up.

I think I'll go walk the dog and get some cold, brisk air on my face.

Ciao.

Shopping

Another ornament from the tree display

Black Friday. There are reasons I don't go out shopping on Black Friday. First and foremost I despise shopping. Most of the time. The reasons are:

Limited money (some years I have more than others, but certainly not THIS year)

Tired feet, aching back

The smells of perfumes and sprays give me a headache

The noise of stores and shoppers gives me a headache

The lights give me a headache

I am very picky and can rarely find anything I want

I hate stores that block merchandise with boxes of stock to be put on the shelves or those little cardboard setups - I've been known to knock over these displays to get to the item on the shelf

On a similar note I hate stores with tiny little walk-ways between clothes racks and my purse drags half the clothes along with me, thus pulling me down slower and slower until I have to come to a complete stop and rip my purse from the clinging sleeves

I get bored easily and hate to search for anything

I hate it when I can't find what I am looking for

I hate it when shoppers do not put the merchandise back on the same rack so that the size or color I want is over in the pajamas or bras where it has no business being

I hate it how they have ten of every item in every size but MINE!

I hate "bargains" and just want to pay the price on the tag (I hate hassles)

I don't like crowds (who does?)

I don't like rude people (and there are plenty out there in shopping land)

I hate how shopping turns me into one of these rude people

I hate it how the clerk who I ask for assistance never knows the answer(s) to my question(s)

I hate it when a sales person tries to sell me something else other than what I want

I hate it when I can't find a sales person when I need one

I REALLY, REALLY hate it when a bunch of them are milling around just talking when there are customers who obviously need help

I hate it when a sales person bugs me when I don't need one

I hate it when a check out person does not speak to me or acts annoyed that I am shopping and taking up their time

I can never find the right credit card or the change in the bottom of my purse

I never check the sales ads until after I bought the item and return home, then I am ticked off because I probably paid too much for the thing

I usually pick the one item that never has a price tag and they have to call someone or go search for a similar item

I always pick the wrong check-out line (ALWAYS!)

I hate it when the grocery store is out of the brand of food that I want

I hate it when a grocery store advertises an item on sale and when I get there the space for that item is completely empty - or they place the item on an end cap instead of it's usual place where I am certain to miss it

I have to unload all the crap when I get home, it can be as exhausting as shopping all over again!

Notice that I did not put parking in the list. I really don't mind walking to and from my car. It is refreshing if it is cool outside because I get really hot in stores. I DO despise those idiotic people who park in the handicap spaces and are NOT handicapped. I know the handicap is not always apparent, but there are the few that do abuse this parking space and I always wish that they have to work 30 days with handicapped people to see how hard it really is to get around.

I also realize that I make a great candidate for on-line shopping. On Wednesday while looking at my checking account balance on line, I noticed a purchase in a mall in Illinois. Since I had not been to that mall that day (let alone the state of Illinois), I was a bit concerned. I called my bank and they said they would put a "pending" notice on the debit, but I am still a bit concerned. Needless to say, I am going to be checking it again and often. It was less than $15 (thank goodness) but what if it had been $150 or more? I am not looking forward to any hassles that are created with this error.

No snow, but a snowman

Sitting atop a tree at the museum

Alas, we have no snow yet here in eastern Ohio. Not any that I have seen, anyway. Maybe this week-end I'll see a few flakes. Not that I am courting snow. Oh, no. I don't want to start the shovelling, yet. Not me.

It is this time of the morning that I am most relaxed. The dogs were all taken outside about an hour ago. They have eaten and are all sleeping peacefully. The cats have been fed and have retreated to their respective corners. The coffee is made and I am reading e-mails and blogs. I don't have to go to work. I have until ten or so before I need to really do anything.

My daughter starts a new job. It isn't really her first. She had a quick stint as a telemarketer when she was 15. Say what you will about the pain of enduring that ordeal, but she learned a lot at that job. She knows more about credit cards than I do. Well, almost. Anyway, she has been picked to work at a very popular nation-wide (perhaps world-wide) toy store. You know the one I am speaking of.

My greatest concern about this is the distance she needs to travel to get to work. I'll just have to grit my teeth and bear it. She needs a job. And, even if it is only seasonal, she needs the experience of having a job to get another one. Well, she is excited to say the least.

This will put a damper on the help with taking the dogs out, but I will manage.

My plate will be full over the next few days, so I want to wish you and yours a happy, healthy and fun-filled Thanksgiving. Some of you are sick and out right now, and I hope that you are soon out of the hospital and home in time for the Christmas and New Year.

May each and every one of you have laughter this week-end (in abundance), food (in moderation) and peace (in your hearts).

Making more memories

Warther's Museum 2009

On Saturday I met family and we toured the beautifully decorated trees at Warther's museum. A couple of the family had not been before and they were just as entranced by his carvings and work as they were by the trees. The trees did not disappoint.

I fell in love with a beautifully lit blue one. Head to toe in blue lights, tinsel, garland and balls. It had not been sold yet. $750. Sorry. My budget doesn't even come close to allowing such a luxury and besides, can you imagine what my pets would do to such a beautifully decorated tree? Oh, the horror!

We all went out to eat at Texas Road House and again were not disappointed. Then we did a little shopping at the nearby mall. My heel spur is really acting up. I am getting shooting pains down into the inside of the heel. Not the middle. More toward the inside of the heel.

I took it easy on Sunday. Even though it was rather nice outside and I could have cleaned out the garage or patio, I stayed inside. My daughter's boyfriend is still mowing my grass for me and he did that yesterday. I got to clean the bathroom drain out. Lovely. Little Chong was very curious as to what I was doing. He was the only one. He kept coming into the bathroom and there I was sitting on the floor and working under the sink. It was as if he was asking me "Did you fall down? Do you need help?" It was comical. Until I realized that my wooden spoon was missing. I use the spoon's handle wrapped in paper towels to clean the drain out. Yep. He stole it and it was chewed up beyond rescue. Cheech threw up later and I finally got all the wooden splinter pieces picked up off the living room carpet. Thieving little devils, they are!

My office was scheduled to work only Monday and Tuesday of this week so I took vacation days. I have a follow up doctor's appointment this morning and then I will go to the grocery store and buy the items that can be stored for four days before the feast.

I will go again on Wednesday to get the fresher items. I am fixing all the meal for me and my crew probably on Friday and will be going to the family feast on Thursday. For that get together I am making my usual cheese ball and tray. I am taking a vegetable tray with dip, some olives and pickles and maybe devilled eggs. I asked my daughter's boyfriend to ask his mom if she had time would she make me some homemade noodles for Thursday. I hope she only says yes if she has the time. She also works full time. My family are not noodle eaters but I thought the other day, 'we never have noodles' and I figured I might take a batch. We'll see how they go over.

For the movie department we watched "My Sister's Keeper". It was good. I am not a fan of C Diaz. I do like the way she looked worn and haggard in the movie - it fit her role. I got a little confused as they tossed the viewer back and forth in time. I did not see much chemistry between C Diaz and J Patric and I swear I saw him pull back from her kiss in disgust at the beach scene. I almost watched the movie again (fast forwarding to that part) to see if it was my imagination or not, but didn't really care. I am beginning to warm up a bit to A Baldwin. He played his part well, I thought. And J Cusak was great as the judge. My daughter just could not believe that A Baldwin in this movie was the husband in Beetle Juice. I got a chuckle out of that.

We also watched "Next Day Air." Skip this one! The two chuckles we got in the entire movie did not make up for the foul language and blood scenes. This is NOT comedy. The only ones worth watching were M Def and Y Deliz. M Def didn't have more than a dozen words in the movie and that is where we did our chuckling.

On the "old movie" chart I watched "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte." So many times you hear old movies mentioned but have you ever really watched them? I caught this one the other morning at about six a.m. In the old time movie fashion, it was quite good.

My memory treasures

If memories were a treasure
I'd be rich beyond my dreams
I'd have lots of gold and jewelry
In great abundance it would seem
Well, when opening my memory chest
I don't have to go far
For memories ARE my treasure
Sweet riches that, they are

My dogs are tired!

I've been baking most of the evening and standing on that hard tiled kitchen floor. I've been baking cranberry nut bread for a festival lunch tomorrow. My dogs are tired! The pups and the bigger dogs are tired, too. They are all sleeping. Time for me to find my pillow! When I lay down and all is still I will really feel the foot pain then. Thump, thump, thump!

Puppy chew toys

Yes, flash drives still work after a puppy has chewed on them. Remember the one that went through the wash and dryer cycle? It worked too but I have no idea what happened to that one. This one is a little "out of shape" and the cap fits kind of funny but it still works!

The lights are on but....

And the fan works, too!

My friend returned yesterday and re-did the fan/light and all works well now. Too well in fact. I am freezing because I love running the fan. I need to flip the switch so it spins the other way and sends heat down. No, not yet. The lights are a lot brighter than my chandelier ones and now I can see how dirty my keyboard is. Yeecchh!

I was futzing around yesterday after my friend left and not feeling much like doing anything when my sister called. (The sister whose kitchen clock I clocknapped.) I had also taken some colorful glass ornaments out of her utility room window but I didn't think she would notice that.

Of course she had NOT read her e-mail to get the ransom message. As it turns out she jumped her son for knocking the glass things off into the recycle bin and they must have been thrown out and she didn't miss her clock at all! She was laughing but mad because now she had to apologize to her son for losing her glass things. Whoops!

Anyway, she wanted company going to a bag and bead show. I said "Sure". I was wasting my day away. I went. She bought a ring and I bought a handbag. I've been looking for a new one. Mine has been broken for about 2 months and I just could not find one I liked in the stores. It is a 'coach" knock-off. I didn't even know what a 'coach' was until last evening. Big deal. I like the purse, I buy it. I'm not one to care about who makes it. Never was. Never will be.

I also want to comment on a couple of movies I watched over the past week or so. One was 'The Spitfire Grill'. It was okay. I would have written it differently. Imagine my surprise when I looked it up online to find out that the musical is written the way I would have. It it more realistic and makes more sense, except for who wins the essay contest. That would certainly not be legal.

Another movie the kids ordered on Pay-per-view. "The Ugly Truth". Kind of raunchy like most movies nowadays. I guess that is what the kids laugh at. Yikes.

"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" was okay. After reading up on it, I expected to see (and hear) more from this real life gang leader that the director had to have in the movie. Even though he had no acting experience. I'm not exactly certain which character he was but you didn't hear much from them. Victor is his real name.

Not sure if I have watched any others that I did not mention. I've been really out walking dogs and enjoying this unusually warm weather we are having here in eastern Ohio. No complaints at all except I am afraid that we are going to wake up one morning and it is going to be bitter cold and there was not time to ease into winter. It will just come up and smack us in the face like a 2 by 4. Ouch.

Ransom

I clocknapped this clock today

This morning one sister and I had a training session on how to re-hydrate and conserve old paper documentation. The society we joined has started the difficult task of preserving county documents from the 1800's to 1917. Interesting stuff.

She and I travel over an hour to get to the county where we grew up. On the way back she and I both had to use the bathroom. We have another sister who lives about half way. She was working and her family was not home when we stopped to use her facilities. Being the rascals that we are (or being the rascal that I am) I stole her kitchen clock right off her wall.

When I got home I took a picture of it (said I had broken it's leg to show I was serious) - it isn't really broken. I then e-mailed it to her and demanded a million dollars to be sent to me by Black Friday.

Of course I will return it when I see her on Thanksgiving, but that is 12 days without her kitchen clock. Do you think she will be angry with me? LOL!

I hope not. It's all fun.

11:11

To those of you lost, to those of you here, to those of you there. We salute you.

Ceiling Fan

The fan is up . The fan works. The lights don't.

Wow, it's November

Some property for sale near my house

Wow. November already. I voted on Tuesday for what my vote was worth. I lost most of what I voted for. Ah, well. I don't like gambling. I don't care if I ever go into a casino, but a lot of family likes it. I voted no mostly so they won't lose their shirts.

My sister (in prison) is in limbo. Waiting for the VA to decide if they are going to pay for any rehabilitation for her or not. The problem is she lost all her college class time she was taking in the reformatory. I don't think she will be able to continue that if the VA sends her to Chillicothe. Whatever. One of her "boyfriends" started this, he will have to finish it.

The pups are chewing up everything. Cha - Ching! Even medication. Fortunately, no bad results. They are starting to get into things they have never touched before. We have to really start to think before we leave the house. I am going to go through tomorrow and do some puppy-proofing.

I worked on a friend's Internet connection today. She wanted to install my ceiling fan for me. She got far enough to take the light down and had to stop. She needed to ask somebody for some advice. Sigh. I told her this was not as easy as 1-2-3 like hers was. But, she insisted that she could do it easily. Okay.

I am meeting sisters tonight for dinner. I hope I have enough stuff up and out of the way so the pups won't get into things. They are getting under and around things and dragging cords out. Two fans bit the dust. My nephew is re-cording one fan and my friend (ceiling fan) took the other and said she can fix that one with electrical tape. Well, I just hate to tell them it will only be a matter of time before the pups chew through any new or fixed cord they put on the fans.

I watched an older movie. "Midnight Run" with R DeNiro and C Grodin. It was a bit boring at times but I watched it all the way through. I really enjoy D Farina and J Ashton. I also like to look back and see if this movie was made before or after a popular one that I saw them in.

Let's get out there and...

Back at it

Back to work and back to finding e-mail worms.

The kennel is up

My daughter and I put it together

Many, many years ago I figured out that if I waited for a man to do what I needed done, then it was probably never going to happen. My daughter and I got fed up Friday and did it ourselves. It got dark on us, but we managed. It ain't fancy, but it is up and it holds the dogs. They are already digging holes near the door of the unit.

Not one trick or treater. Not one. Of course my light was burned out on my front porch, so that could have had something to do with it. Again, I will have to change it. No magic man is going to mysteriously appear with a fresh light bulb in his hand. (Grin).

So, I walked the dogs and had to run a little girl down to give her a candy bar. She was afraid of the dogs but her dad helped me to hold them back so I could get my little kit kat bar into her trick or treat bag. My coat pocket was full of fun size candy bars but there were no more kids to be found. Drat.

Sigh. It's back to work tomorrow. I have heard rumors that my co-worker did not get approved for disability so she might be back in the office when I return. I am not looking forward to listening to her whining about her pain all over again. It has been a wonderful 4 months without her around.

Two movies. Duplicity and Knowing. Ugh to both of them. I love T Wilkinson and P Giamatti. I despise C Owens. He really gives me the creeps. I can barely tolerate Julia. My daughter told me I wouldn't like the ending to Knowing. I said "Just as long as N Cage dies in the end". I got my wish. I wouldn't watch either of them again. Ever.

Edit: Please note that the remarks about men are made with tongue in cheek. It is only because of my recent surgery that I cannot do the things I usually am able to do and have asked for assistance. I am not good at this and I have a very hard time waiting for somebody to show up and say "Here I come to save the day!" I have made my bed and I love it. I live exactly the way I want to live. If I can't do it, I'll damn well hire someone who can.