You Turkeys

Look at the camera! My crew on Saturday night. Still waiting for six to show up.

Tribbles and Martians

I finished reading "The Martian Child." I watched the movie a while back. It was really neat to discover that the author wrote a Star Trek episode titled "The Trouble With Tribbles." My Mom's favorite episode. Mine, too. It wasn't just the furry little critters. It was the comedy of the actors and their banter between the Klingons and one another.

I put that book down and immediately picked up "What Was She Thinking?" by Zoe Heller. My daughter wants to read "Atonement" by Ian McEwan. It is on my library hold list. It states that I am number 19. I requested the movie "Grace is Gone" last week and it said I was number 9. I received a notice the next day that it was ready to be picked up. So, I don't think she will need to wait all that long.

Shades of gray

Messing with emboss again.

The ice was a mess for a few days. Everybody was sliding and falling. Holding onto what ever they could find. Concrete was the worst. Solid wet ice covered almost every inch of it.

Family got together last night. 17 of us. Foggy on the way home. We almost hit 3 deer slowly crossing the road. Every year I have at least one close call with them.

Snow dog

Sable is looking for a spot to... well... to...oh, you know. That is my lilac bush behind her to the left and the corner of my neighbor's duplex on the right. I have the sweetest two elderly ladies living in a duplex on one side of my house and a younger couple on the other side. Also, very nice folks.

The snow photos were taken a week ago. On a day off from work because of the snow and the icy road conditions. When I ventured off the porch I wrapped my old camera in a plastic baggie so that the wet falling snow wouldn't get onto it. The pictures didn't come out so well. This one was taken from my back porch with the baggie off of the camera.

My nephew is coming in this week-end for his birthday. He has requested my pineapple/pudding cake. It is his usual request. We are meeting family for a dinner get together tomorrow night. We drive about 40 miles southeast for this establishment. It is a dive, but the food is supposed to be good. We shall see. And, yes that is "dive" not drive.

I've had my head buried in bandwidth issues at work and my head buried in a book at home. My daughter is off doing her own thing (I wish that thing was a job, but hey..). Picked up the plates for her car yesterday. I walked into the BMV and the lady called me right up to the counter. I didn't have to take a number or anything. What luck is that? I see a new set of workers here. Younger crowd, a little softer. They don't get benefits. Maybe that is why they are such sour people. I used to dread the license plate bureau. Even Seinfeld made a show about how rude these folks are. It must be an insane job.

Listening to music at work is kind of neat. When bandwidth is high and I am trying to figure out if this is a normal spike in traffic or if there might be some kind of attack/loop on a network, I have in the background the Eagles with "Take it to the Limit."

If I do find a problem and I fix it I can listen to "Another One Bites the Dust."

Oh, this is fun. I could go on all day with similarities between songs and technology.

And, another one's gone ... and another one's gone. Yeah!

Movie books

I have this fascination with reading the books from some of the movies that I have seen. I hate it when there is no book. All three books above, I have seen the movie. I finished "Skipping Christmas" which you may know it better as "Christmas With the Kranks." Can you believe it is written by John Grisham? I am in the middle of "Sideways" by Rex Pickett. I've seen the movie with Paul Giamatti. Next up will be "The Martian Child". Seen the movie.

I watched "Grace is Gone". I remember seeing the previews and then the movie just disappeared. I didn't see it in my video store. I got it from my library. Very sad story, but no book to read. It must be written as just a screen play. Drat.

I caught most of "Bobby" written by Emilio Estevez.

Just found another one I want to read. "Absolute Power." Loved the movie.

The field is endless, I tell you. And now with libraries set up so that you can virtually get any book because they let you reserve them online from home and they borrow it from a sister library if they don't carry it or it is signed out and e-mail you to come and pick it up at your nearest library. Amazing.

Others:

Seen the movie, might read the book:

A Prayer for Owen Meany ( Simon Birch)
The Terminal Man (The Terminal)
Catch Me If You Can - I actually went to a seminar of Abagnale's in 1979.
Apollo 13
Pay it Forward
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood (sister read it)
The Milagro Beanfield War
Fried Green Tomatoes
Single White Female
White Oleander
What's Love Got To Do With It
Dolores Claiborne
Primal Fear
Jackie Brown
The Horse Whisperer
What Dreams May Come
Laws of Attraction
Runaway Jury
The Snow Walker
Man on Fire
The Notebook
The Constant Gardener
The Illusionist
Atonement
I Am Legend
Jumper

Seen the movie, have read the book:

The Painted Veil
Out of Africa (Letters from Africa)
Brideshead Revisited
The World According to Garp
The Outsiders
The Color Purple
A Cry in the Dark
Postcards From the Edge
Prince of Tides
White Fang
Of Mice and Men
Pelican Brief
The Client
Little Women
Bridges of Madison County
A Time to Kill
Contact
Primary Colors
Crazy in Alabama
A Beautiful Mind
The Mothman Prophecies
Cheaper By the Dozen
Brokeback Mountain
Memoirs of a Geisha
Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio
The Devil Wears Prada
Charlie Wilson's War
21 (Bringing Down the House)

Read the book, might see the movie:

Alive
Angie, I Says
The Rainmaker
Angela's Ashes

Follow up

It is a little unnerving to follow a loved one when they are still pretty new at driving. Not one of my favorite things to do.

My paper decided that they would not renew their contract with the establishment that provided the regular comics, puzzle, cryptoquip and other entertainment stuff. I promptly e-mailed them that I would be cancelling my subscription. I could read all that other fluff (I mean stuff) on line.

They e-mailed me back to say that they have reconsidered and thanked me for my e-mail. My beloved comics, puzzle etc.. will return promptly.

Yeah. (Peruby sticks out her chest). You got that right! You better listen to me.

Okay. Okay. It was a mass mailing e-mail and I was one of hundreds that complained.

Snow stop

The snow finally stopped. We have lots of ice. Shiny, hard and very slippery. This is a photo of one of my city's little side streets. I travel this way a lot.

For the first time in my 48.5 years I almost shunned the Steelers. I admire the way the Cardinals gave a good fight. I was dismayed at the poor conduct by one Steeler player in particular. If you watched the game, you probably know who I am speaking of.

But when it came right down to the nitty gritty I couldn't help but root for my team. It is my family's favored team. We grew up closer to Pittsburgh than Cleveland or Cincinnati. They never cease to amaze me with their ability to pull it off at the very last minute.

My favorite commercial was when the guy threw the snow globe (excuse me, his crystal ball) into the vending machine to get free snacks. (Didn't care for the second half of the commercial).

Sunday morning bismuth

Heartburn city. Was it the rich food I ate at the party? It isn't from drinking. I had a ginger ale. Was it the phone call from my sister who is located here? A swig of the pink stuff and so far so good.

Thankfully I don't have to take it for the other reason. Just heartburn, and more and more frequently as I age. I recall having slight heartburn in the 80's after a bout of pleurisy. I recall having it lightly when I was expecting. Neither of those two incidents compare with what I have had for the past four years or so. Mostly I get the pain when I skip a meal or wait too long between meals. Misery.

When I was a teen, I recall my Mom and sister giving me a magnesium/aluminum product and bismuth for (what was then undiagnosed as migraine) for when I was sick. The medicine had an averse affect on my illness and left me feeling much worse. I vowed never to taste the pink stuff again. Until this heartburn hit me. Now, the pink stuff is my best friend.

Reading more on heartburn, I came across this symptom to watch for:

Inhalation of stomach contents while sleeping.

What the hell does that mean? It certainly does not sound good. The sentence itself almost sent me back to the bismuth. Gross. I imagine they mean when the stomach acid backs up into your esophagus. Not fun.

I was planning on making nacho dip for the game this evening. My daughter loves the stuff. It is a sausage/hamburger mix with a melted processed cheese product and green Chile peppers with diced tomatoes. Very good but very rich.

It is supposed to get above 40 degrees (Fahrenheit) today. What a mess this is going to be. It will melt a bunch of piled up snow and then freeze again overnight. The roads are still bumpy from the ice. Very much a washboard effect as you drive over them. What will the morning bring for the school buses?

Tasty little pizzas

I've been making these for so long I can't recall where I first saw them. Perhaps my niece made them one time. They are tasty little (quick) pizzas.

When I have a crew in the house, this one goes over well. I take a package of split muffins (such as Thomas') and break them open and lay them out on a cookie sheet (open side up). I spoon a large tablespoon full of pizza sauce over each one. I've tried various different sauces. For now, I like a brand that is made close to home. Mid's (made in Navarre, Ohio).

I sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over each mini-pizza and add toppings. Pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, black olives, mild pepper rings. Anything goes.

What I really like about this recipe is that if you have children, each one can make (or design) their own little pizza (or pizzas because you can't eat just one). They can put what toppings on that they like.

I bake mine at 350 for ten or fifteen, but you can experiment to see what setting works best for you. You may like to broil them. I have found out that it is sometimes better to go easy on the sauce. Too thick and the pizza muffin tends to get mushy.

I am finishing up the last day of January planning on what to take to a get together tonight. I have taken my cheese ball/tray so often I sometimes just get sick and tired of it. I dread the thought of seeing friends say "What? No cheese ball?" tonight when I walk in the door. Sigh. I want to make fried rice and take it. We'll see how it goes.

And, it's free!

Here is the photo from yesterday before I used the "emboss" feature from Irfanview. I just discovered that the program now has a "red eye reduction" feature. Maybe it always did have it, I don't know. There are plug-ins with this program, I know I downloaded some at one time, could be I had to register my e-mail to get them, I can't recall, but still it cost nothing.

You can add text to the image also. You can send a photo via e-mail (you have to do a little bit of setting up your default email information to do this).

I use this program to re-size my photos. It does it quickly. You can change the size from pixels to inches (or cm) so that you can print out a custom fit CD cover or 2x3 photo.

You get the exif info and more. The only fault I find with the program is that you can only "undo" once. There may be a place to change that and I just haven't found it yet. But,it is one gem of a program. Even though it's been free for 10 years, you never know. Grab this puppy and download it before they start charging.

Embossed

Here is another photo that I messed with. I use a free program called "Irfanview". I've used it for years. You can download it from the homepage or from download.com. I cropped the original photo, converted it to a grayscale image, sharpened it, and chose to emboss it. I then enhanced the contrast and turned it to a negative image. I may have embossed it again. I just click and play and click and if I don't like it, I start over.

To get the picture frame around the image I used my Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album. That one I purchased with my computer. I think I paid $30, but that was six years ago. It looks to be about $40 now.

The schools in the valley have closed again for tomorrow. I did venture out to run some errands today. I am a bit surprised that the roads are still in such a sad state. Everyone is talking about it. "Where is ODOT?" they are asking. The ice on the roads have formed hard bumps and I feel like I am driving on blocks of concrete.

Details

While attending a meeting for the Genealogy Society a few months back, one presenter suggested that we do not forget to scan the backs of our old family photographs. I liked this idea as it captures some of my Mom's handwriting. In the example above this is how she wrote in 1954.

We have ice here in the valley today. All schools are closed.

Gray

It's just a cold, gray day here in Ohio.

I'm too busy for my blog

Too busy...said Right Said Fred. Here is sister 1949. Her daughter wants to have a party for her sixtieth this year and has asked me for some photos form the old family album. The above photo is from 1961 where she is 12 or so. I don't know what is going on with that hair-do. She always had thick and wavy hair. Maybe it was wild and unmanageable this day.

I've told people how I used to get my hair rolled up the night before picture day at school and had to sleep on big (almost) soup-can rollers. You would have to sleep on your face because it was so uncomfortable. After a night of little sleep, and roller marks on half of your head, you wound up with some wild, dented hair. Perfect for a school picture day. NOT!

I spent over six hours today getting a virus off of a relatives computer who had not purchased anti-virus software. After the virus removal, she went home with anti-virus loaded on it today. Huge kudos to malwarebytes anti-malware program.

Work has been keeping me busy, too. I've been trying to figure out where all the traffic is coming from in a school district. I think I have nailed it. One machine appears to be communicating with hypster's site.

A janitor's story

I never met a janitor I didn't like. Really. Today I drove to my daughter's school. I parked next to a little burgundy sedan with a "Child on Board" yellow sign hanging from the back window. I also noticed a sticker on the lower back corner of the back windshield.

I leaned in to read it. It was metallic red, white and blue. It read "Obama '08." Oh, a supporter, I thought. I took a second look. Bold red letters beneath the '08 it read "Janitor." Huh.

Maybe they mean he is set to mop up someone else's mess.

One bored kitty

Mr. Tibbs does not look very enthusiastic. Either he is bored or he is tolerating something I may be doing to him. Such as taking his picture and flashing a bright light in his eyes.

Let's see. We had 5 days off and we watched a couple of movies. Totally skip "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead" - oh, good grief. I can't find much that I liked about this movie at all. If I were a man, I would have liked seeing a naked Tomei. Being that I am not, Hoffman did nothing for me. Hawke was a sap.

My daughter chose "Wanted". If you like to see blood, and McAvoy being beaten to a pulp, this is the movie for you.

I guess the best of the 3 is "Ghost Town." I have always liked Kinnear and so far I like Leoni. That other guy, Ricky something - funny in a corny sort of way.

11 days left in the most miserable month of the year.

I'll show you mine

Everyone else is showing theirs, so I thought I would show you mine. This is today here in Ohio. I've seen worse. I've seen 20 below and I've seen 30 below with a windchill of 60 below. That's the time our kitchen registered 8 degrees on the refrigerator thermometer. Yep. I took the thermometer out of our refrigerator and set it on our kitchen counter.

My Mom and I lived in a huge old house. In the 60's it had been home to a huge family. Us. Year by year they slowly moved away until it was the youngest child and her Mom. I was 23. I had moved away once but returned. I was not working. I was in a two year funk in life. Floating. It was a very introspective time in my life. I wrote a lot of poetry, read a lot of art books that sort of thing.

My elder siblings just wanted me to stay home and take care of "Mom".

The house was not well insulated. The wind came right through the walls. We put plastic up on the windows every winter, but the kitchen window had been left bare that year. This is the same window that had enough space to let the trumpet vine creep into the house and bloom a bright orange cone-shaped flower inside our kitchen. During the summer of course. So you can imagine the air that was able to get into our kitchen.

The kitchen was full of dirty dishes because our water pipes kept freezing. One sister kept getting her husband and one of our brothers to thaw the pipes out. Every night they would freeze again. The water we would leave running would freeze in a solid line from the faucet to the porcelain. The furnace quit every night. She would also get somebody in there who would get the furnace to run (but again at night... it stopped). In all fairness though - this furnace was installed in 1968 and my Mom passed in 2000. 32 years and it was still running (barely). An oil furnace.

But really. What fodder for a poet, huh? An artist has to be miserable to write. I pulled myself out of my reverie and got on with life. All apologies to my siblings but I was not going to stay at home and take care of Mom.

When a boyfriend and I moved to Virginia (he had a job already) it was the fall of 1985. I sat at home and froze. I was too scared to light the propane heater. The landlord next door would light it for me a couple of times but even he jumped when the thing took off. He had a heart problem and I never asked him again. I dealt with it until I found work and moved us to a decent apartment. It was in this little house in Virginia that I wondered if I was always going to be living in a place that was cold. Was there nothing that could heat a home properly? Was I destined to live every winter freezing?

Fast forward six years. I was living with my brother and I stayed in an unheated bedroom. Cold again. I was really getting discouraged about this. We moved into a huge farmhouse with free gas. My cold days were over. So I thought. The "pancake" that controlled the gas coming into the house had a habit of shutting down when the temperature rose too quickly or dropped - or something. The heat would shut off. The furnace and hot water heater would need to be re lit. Aw, hell no! This was old stuff. Scared the bejesus out of me. It would happen about 8 times a year. When I was home alone, I tried. Really I did. It was just too daunting a task for me. I would freeze until my brother came home. He scoffed at this.

Then my daughter and I moved into our little apartment across town. Electric heat. No gas whatsoever. Yea! I can recall a couple of times being cold. The floorboard heaters were old and they would smell. Not very good for a gal who gets migraines. I had an extra little electric heater and the place was small enough. We were on the end, though and it got cold and damp from time to time.

Now, I am in my own home. I am responsible for the furnace, gas, electric. I sit here in short sleeves and thin pants. It is a little too warm for me because my daughter complains about the cold. I would probably drop it another degree or two if it were just me. It is cool in the kitchen and downstairs. It is super warm in the bathroom and in the bedrooms. The living room area is comfortable. I get the furnace checked twice a year. It is not one that needs to be lit, ever. If the hot water heater goes out, then yes - the pilot light will need to be lit. I have never had to do it. I hope I never do.

Whether it be a landlord, brother or boyfriend - I froze. Now, the heating is up to me. I am warm I am happy. I am comfortable.

Now, about that shovelling....

What else?

The weather. I didn't get the day off on Wednesday, but all schools closed today and are closed tomorrow. Frigid temps and snow. Photo above was taken by my sister at her house. (Ohio).

I had to drive 70 miles south yesterday for a meeting. I got caught in a nasty snowstorm. Driving back home I was travelling west on I-70 and 8 semi trucks passed me at one incident. One after the other. Watching them in the blowing snow ahead of me it looked as if they were feuding. The trucks. I considered pulling off the interstate at the next exit and driving on a back road to I-77, because something just told me there was going to be an accident. I just got a feeling.

When I saw the next exit, I thought 'Aw, hell no.' The snow was piling up deep and fast. Sure enough another mile up the road, 5 miles before I took the exit ramp for 77 North I came to a complete halt. Me and another hundred vehicles or so.

Inching along for 40 minutes I saw six accidents involving about 8 vehicles. The last one I saw was a semi truck with a red car smashed into the back of it. I have no idea if it was one of the trucks that passed me or not.

Folks were driving like insane jerks. The passing lane on the Interstate was covered in snow. I stayed in the right lane with a lot of other folks. We weren't going very fast but we were moving and we made it home safe and sound.

My Favorites

Firefox calls them Bookmarks. Explorer calls them Favorites. Well, in my "favorites" it is school closings. Oh, yeah!

Brighten that smile

Had the teeth cleaned today. I hate having that done. Long before I had dental insurance and I didn't ever go to the dentist (except for when I was in pain) I never had them cleaned. Since my present job I've had it done every six months for years. It is easier now because I take better care of them. The fluoride treatment just gags me. Today it was easier. I just set my mind to it.

In the waiting room I chatted with an older lady. She wore plum purple pants and a light blue jacket. She tied an orange, red and yellow silk scarf over her white/gray hair. She was waiting for her son to pick her up. She said that she recently had to change to this dentist because he was closer. Since there were 3 dentists in the office, I asked her which one. She named the same one I have and then she said "The girl did all the work. The man didn't do anything at all. What a setup he has!" She looked kind of surprised.

She added, "It wasn't cheap, either. One hundred and seven dollars!" She said her medicare didn't cover dental work. I told her my Mom had long ago had all her teeth pulled out and I never knew her to have teeth. She said an older Aunt of hers was that way.

My Mom ate everything, too. She even ate peanuts. She gummed them to death. We did get her dentures in the 80's but the gums had hardened by then. She stopped going to the dentist when our dad accused her of having an affair with the dentist. He was a genuine a-hole. I won't elaborate.

My gums itch a little bit after their cleaning. I want to get my toothbrush and scrub away but that will cause bleeding and they will hurt like the dickens the next time I go to brush them, so I won't.

And I have a very painful stye in my eye. There is no redness so it must be inside. It itches and hurts. I need to go and put a warm compress on it now. I am so glad today is over.

Here she is

My daughter's new (to her) car sits in our drive way. This photo was taken from my kitchen window. What looks like smoke under the front of the car is actually spots on my window. I told you I was deficient in the house cleaning area, and I can prove it. Not that I want to and trust me, you don't want to see it. Huh. I guess deficient is a word.

I have not been very active lately in answering e-mails and posting. This is normal for me when I am in the process of making a big decision such as the purchase of a vehicle. I probably put more into this process than when I am purchasing one for myself. Because it is for my daughter and that responsibility weighs very heavy with me. The decision consumes almost all of my thought processes. I am very relieved it is over and done with.

The choice. My daughter has always wanted a Celica. I've been looking at cars for about a year for her. We narrowed it down to what she likes and what I like and what we can afford. Did I go over my budget? Yes. I am hoping I made the right decision in the fact that I got a newer model and lower mileage. It may last longer.

The features. My oh my. I'll zoom in on the funny one. The salesman had one other guy on this lot. The gopher guy. Between the two of them it was comical. We looked at the car on Thursday. This was actually a very hasty decision. The first car (we saw on Saturday) had sold on Wednesday and we changed our course to check this one out.

We drove it back to our home town and had our mechanic check it out. All was good except a broken antennae and hinge on the gas cap cover and one oil leak. There was a little device on the windshield of the car. I asked the salesman at our mechanic's shop what it was. He said it looked like one of those devices that gets satellite radio. Well, we knew that service is a monthly fee so we dismissed it.

Back to the car lot. Salesman said he will take care of everything our mechanic had listed and we could pick it up tomorrow. On Friday I made the arrangements with the bank, insurance company, all that good stuff. There was a snow storm coming, but the roads were good after I got off work and we were on our way. Good grief did the roads get bad the farther north we went. Interstate traffic was crawling at 30 mph.

I wanted to get the car and get back home asap. My daughter did not want to drive her car yet, so she was going to drive my car (old reliable) back while I drove hers. Inside the office the salesman told his gopher guy to go out and start the car to get it warmed up for us. This incident is important because of what we found. It was a good find, though.

My daughter had not driven in heavy snow before. We left the car lot and started our long 40 mile drive home. Over an hour. Interstate still crawling. It was bad. Rush hour traffic. I was so worried about my daughter that I barely paid attention to the Celica I was driving. It drove like a dream. My daughter drove very well. We made it home and parked both cars.

The funny part. It was dark out when we got home. My daughter was checking out the key remote and locking the car, etc.. She said "I wonder what this button does." She pressed it and the Celica fired right up.

I am wondering if the salesman knew this when he told the gopher to go and start the car. Where he was sitting at his desk, we could see the car through a big picture window. All he had to do was turn around and press a button. I'm not calling him to ask him if he knew. It was not advertised as a feature of the car. We may never know if he knew, but now we know what that little device is on the windshield.

Slices

More layers and some slices. Tuesday I was much better - migraine was gone. Wednesday relapsed into a stress headache or tired, I don't know. Went to bed too early, awoke this morning too early. I caught an old movie. I kept thinking to myself 'That looks like Jack Lemmon'. It was. 1956 "You Can't Run Away From It." It was Jim Backus that helped me to nail down the movie. Once I have someone I can recognize, I can find the movie on www.imdb.com.

This will make for a long day today. I hope the snow is done for today because my daughter and I are taking a potential vehicle to our mechanic and are having it checked over before we decide to buy it. The car is located 40 miles north of us. We have to pick it up, drive it back here to our home town, have it looked at and get advice on it, then drive it back to the dealer by 7 p.m. Sigh. Long day. Especially if I have to drive in snow with a vehicle I have never driven before. Fun stuff.

I am already sleepy. Grrr. (rolls eyes).

More layers

I feel I have created something a little bit Claude Lorrain with a twist of John Constable while adding a splash of Theodore Rousseau and Asher Durand. Sigh. I love landscape paintings.

Add another 24 hours to that migraine medley. I was able to work today but I was not in a good mood for most of the day. I caved in and took yet another med tablet and rested after work and feel pretty good, now.

Mitigated Migraine

It is better now, but what a wasted 30 hours. Ugh.

Hair

We picked up my daughter's senior pics yesterday. Since they are copyright protected I won't show any. This is one of my photos from years ago. She has altered her appearance so much from this shot I don't think she is recognizable. Maybe by the eyes.

Coming from some one who has had brown eyes all their life, I am envious of the lighter color eye.

Did I spend too much? Yes. In my own defense I have no photo from 30 years ago when I was a senior. I wanted her to have something when she is 50 years old that she can say "Here I am as a senior in high school." Whatever. I am going to enjoy them.

Now we need to purchase a car and plan her graduation party. She wants the car, but not the party.

Starting the New Year, I am trying to remember the past. I have experienced 48 beginnings of a New Year. I suppose I can recall about 38 of them give or take. I don't know if I have a favorite that comes to mind. There are certainly a couple I would like to forget. I do recall when I was younger they used to play the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" on New Year's Eve. Jonathan Winters was always a favorite of mine.

Another New Year I was travelling from Ohio back to Virginia after a 10-day visit with family and friends to discover the electric company had turned off our electricity. By mistake, I might add. That was a heck of a thing after a 10-hour drive. Spent that eve by candlelight. I am not certain if I called the emergency number or just waited until the next day. I really don't remember what we did for food. I did lose an entire turkey in the freezer. The power must have been out for days.

I remember parties. Parties and parties. I had a sister-in-law that had great parties for about 10 years straight. One of my sister's had great parties for about 5 years and then another sister took over and we spent them there for five years straight. Others were spent at a favorite bar. I have never hosted a drinking party on New Years. A few of mine were non drinking for my crew who do not drink. It has been years since I have had any alcohol during that night.

One involved a little white worm at the bottom of a tall bottle from Mexico. Yeah. We won't go there.

Still there

She is still up there atop our tree. We have not taken her down, yet. Probably not today, either. We have some running to do. I need to get the shop vac out of the garage to handle all the pine needles. One year I tried to clean them up with my regular house sweeper. Disaster. I've learned.

We stumbled on a pretty good movie yesterday that we had never heard of before. "The Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins. It is about an Indian motorcycle, not a human being or Native American. We thought it was pretty good. Based on a true story about a guy from New Zealand breaking the fastest land speed world record. I thought it was amusing.

We also watched "Eagle Eye". Noisy and action packed.

After celebrating Wednesday night and fixing food most of the day Thursday, I ended up sick with a cold last evening. I took sinus medicine and rested. I must have sneezed a gazillion times. It seems to have passed except for some pressure today around the eyebrows. I hate it when a cold goes on for days.

Trouble

These two can wreak havoc in your life. Proceed with caution.

The past is the past. I fear them but I am still not even remotely interested in them anymore. And that is a good thing. I can put them on a shelf and never think about them. Today, anyway.

I have been having trouble sleeping. For some weird reason. I am not drinking caffeine late in the day. I just feel I have to explain because I. Fell. Asleep. During. TSO! I am so ashamed. I found the show very boring. I am sorry. I did. Just snatches where my head fell forward and woke me up. I had maybe 4 hours of sleep the night before the show. I forgot my camera. Maybe I would have stayed awake if I had it. I did bring binoculars but they were the tinted kind for outside daylight. Rats.

The laser show was a disaster to my eyes, yet I left with no trace of a headache. I would not recommend it for migraine sufferers, though. At times it was a constant strobe light display.

I have a lot of work to do, so Happy New Year to all ! Time is marching on and getting old is not for sissies. I have to buck up, endure the aches and pains and get some work done. Our doctor thinks that my daughter may have an allergy to our live tree. The cats, too. She said a lot of live trees cause allergy symptoms during the holidays and they mysteriously go away after the holiday. Huh. Figures.

Too Tall

My angel had to lean way over the front of our tree this year in order to fit. I was too lazy to take the tree back out of the stand and cut more off. The needles are starting to fall off and it has stopped drinking water. Won't be long, now. I will probably take it down this week-end.

I made my daughter a doctor appointment this morning. Stiff neck on and off for over two weeks. Prior to Christmas it seems like all other things get put on hold. The event itself is so demanding I can hardly think of anything else. While at work yesterday I felt that I should get her in to have her checked out.

The cats' eyes have all cleared up. Four of them are sneezing. I am not real happy about that. I am trying different arrangements for Moose. She won't go downstairs to use the litter box anymore. At this time I am unsure as to why. I am reading about some ideas and reasons on-line and while I am off from work the next few days we are trying them out. I took her to the vet's office once a couple of months ago. The reason at the time was because she was fighting with all the other cats. This was before her litter problem. It could be stress. The vet didn't offer much help in this area.

I will pick up my daughter's senior pictures on Friday. We go to see the orchestra today. I get to drive in Cleveland. This is why I chose the afternoon show. Sara should help, though. She is my new GPS. I wasn't expecting her. She was a very nice surprise.

I have a lot of stress in deciding what car to purchase for my daughter. I want safety and reliable. She wants sporty and fun. I suppose this is completely normal. I want a good used Honda Accord, she wants a little sporty Toytota Celica. I have checked. Celica's are reliable. I don't know about how safe they are. I really just need to get it done and over with. So I can stop fretting on the decision and start fretting when she isn't at home and I hear sirens in the distance. You know you do it. Every time you hear a siren you think of your loved one. Well, maybe not so much anymore since I live very close to a hospital. I hear a lot of sirens. I've become quite used to them. I have to say that I don't hear them all that much.

Well, said daughter has just made a request for cinnamon toast. I am off to the kitchen. My coffee cup is empty, anyway.

Sooo-prize!

This tyke was in his glory last night. It was his grandparent's 40th anniversary. My sister watches him about 3 times a week and they adore one another. He didn't spend much time with her, though. She was visiting. We were placed in the Gentleman's lounge of a country club. Pool table, bar, appetizers, desserts. He ran all over the place having a blast.

My daughter is 17 and she says she can't stand kids. This little fellow adores her and follows her everywhere. He calls her a variation of her name that he has made up for himself and it is funny. For some strange reason he calls her Pem-G. Nothing near her name. It is actually a combination of my name and the P is what he hears from her name, I am guessing. He is very verbose.

My nieces/nephews (children of the honored guests) supplied the entire shin dig. Free bar and food. Nobody abused the bar. In fact the poor bar tenders sat and watched the football game for lack of people drinking.

I was able to visit with folks from upper state New York who turned out to be a sheer delight.

My sister said she was surprised. She said there were a few strange details that she picked up on. One was her daughter asked her for her address book weeks before the event. That piqued her curiosity. Another was when she was visiting my house, she noticed my calendar on my refrigerator had marked on it "40th Anniversary" for the 27th, and on Christmas day she was speaking of their anniversary and I asked "Oh, what year is this for you?" She said she thought that was strange I asked since she had seen it marked on my calendar as the 40th. Ooops. I went overboard playing dumb.

Even so, it was all good.

Eeeek-zaaaww-sted

My sister has a frozen pond right in front of her house. If you believe that I have some ocean front property in Ohio I'd like to sell ya. LOL! I took this picture from atop my car trying to keep the shaking to a minimum. My camera is a handheld, I didn't bring my tripod and I was freezing.

Like the title of my post says, I am exhausted. Depleted. I have an event tonight, then I can rest tomorrow. Work on Monday. TSO on Tuesday and then 5 days of beautiful rest! The days of rest are a joke. My house is in shambles. Complete and utter shambles. I have already mentioned that I am a complete failure at housekeeping. Big deal. It is long past the tolerance level even for me. I have been able to keep up with the kitchen, though. That is a relief. I fixed a turkey dinner yesterday for the family that stays with me over the holidays.They pulled out last night for the northwest part of the state, hopefully with full tummies.

I took some time last evening to watch a movie. I chose The Savages. I like both Linney and Hoffman. I first noticed him in Twister and Linney in Primal Fear. Both movies were from 1996. That's interesting. Though I have to mention I did see Linney in Dave. That was always one of my favorite movies. I wasn't overly impressed with the movie, so-so. I did like the acting, though.

The holidays were a blessed event for me. I was able to visit with most of my family. One brother could not make it, he was sick. Ended up going to the ER Christmas day and is diagnosed with bronchitis. I am going to give him a call today and check in on him. Of course my sister is indisposed. She is usually out of the picture around the holidays. It was encouraging last year to see her sober through Christmas and New Years. That was a positive sign. She was trying to straighten up for her son who had open heart surgery in March. They delayed putting her away until after the surgery, but there was that huge mistake made by the anesthesiologist and the surgery got pushed back a few weeks and the judge wouldn't budge any more. You can read more about it from my March 5, 2008 post titled "Detours and Bumps."

The event tonight is a 40th anniversary. I was 8 years old when my oldest sister married. It was a huge event for my family. She said years later "Don't ever plan a wedding around a major holiday!" Her stress level must have been through the roof. She was more or less supporting the family along with my older brother. My dad was indisposed for most of his life. I'll never forget the time I asked my Mom "Why did you marry him if he was a drunk?" She laughed and said he wasn't like that in the early years. Of course I was the last child (youngest of 8) so I only saw the drunk dad. I never observed him working or driving or taking care of the family. That wasn't to say he was a bad person. He was wonderful to me and some of the children. He had his favorites. He worked a wonderful garden, could fry up a wonderful country meal and many other things. He did some very wonderful things for me.

The holidays can be very stressful for the alcoholic. They are always feeling like they don't measure up. They observe folks around them buying, wrapping, planning and laughing and are wondering how it is that they don't feel or act the same. They may have spare time on their hands with days off from work. That is disastrous for the alcoholic. Spare time. Something in their upbringing or childhood or in their genetic make-up made it so that they really don't know what to do with themselves if they find time on their hands. Or, they choose to neglect things they should be doing for imbibing. They feel lost. Drinking has a goal. To obliterate the feelings. Whether they be painful memories of love or feelings of inadequacy.

Whoa, I am going a little deeper here than I had planned. It is rainy but warmer here in my neck of Ohio. I had loved ones travelling, so I'll take the rain. I scored a GPS this holiday so finding my way around Cleveland on Tuesday and to the party tonight should be easier. I'll use map quest for the timing and to get a general idea of where I am going, but I think everyone should have a navigation device in their vehicle. I hate that I don't need glasses to drive, but need them to read. That makes it difficult to see the device sometimes, but text to speech is a must-have.

Merry Christmas

Here's hoping you get everything you wished for this holiday season!

I flipped my skirt

After observing this feline activity, I flipped my tree skirt over. Somebody, I won't name names Mr. Tibbs, was found chewing on the buttons. I could not have him swallowing any so the skirt was flipped over and will be discarded after this year. My cats are a pain sometimes, but I wish them no harm. Now my daughter on the other hand...

I had an 'almost' super time with family last evening. We had 17 show up for a family holiday get together. My evening was dampened by the fact that I gave the bar tender (we believe is the owner of the establishment) a fifty dollar bill for my mixed drink, my nephew's soda pop and my daughter's hot chocolate. The bartender mumbled "Out of twenty" when he took my fifty. I kept calling after him "That was a fifty!" until he finally snapped at me, "I know!" Feeling that I offended him I dropped it.

As soon as he took the money, my great niece came running across the restaurant for me to hold her. I am her favorite for now. I picked her up and was gushing over her when the bartender laid my change on the bar. My family filled up the horse shoe bar so I was not concerned about the money and I was wrapped up with family arriving and when I scooped up my change to go and sit at our reserved table, I notice that he had given me change for a twenty. I called him on it. He shrugged it off and snapped "I put your change right there."

To make a long story short I will analyze his conduct about the issue. If he were on the up and up he would have come over and gone over my drink order and explained to me what change he had given me. He would have said something to the effect that if his drawer came up over $30 or so he would call me. He did not. He avoided me like the plague.

This put a little bit of a damper on the meal. I was not going to ruin it for the other 16 people in my family and make a scene or leave. The food was awful. Just awful. I was glad to get out of that establishment and I have an entire year to decide if I am going to grace them with my presence next year. Since I make the arrangements I am going to look elsewhere for our get together next year. We chose this restaurant because of a more central location for all of us to drive to.

It is the season for love and peace and I am forgiving him and moving on.

We had a distant relative pass away and the calling hours are today. It is a 200 mile journey and the eldest children are going to the calling hours. They are the ones who remember them the most. I considered going, but I am just too far behind this holiday season. I was really looking forward to today and hopefully playing catch up. Cleaning and baking.

I have perhaps three more gifts to buy before the big day. I think I can do it.

Now that my daughter has her drivers license I can stay home more often instead of taxiing her here and there. I find that I can clean house better when she is not here. I have not had this opportunity much, or maybe I just notice it more with her being independently mobile now. It wasn't like she didn't go anywhere without me before. Heavens no. I just seem to appreciate it more now that she can go when SHE wants to go. We are already arguing over the use of the car. 24 hours after she got her license she was calling me and snapping "I need the car in half an hour!" I have to laugh. Teenagers.

I also told her I want a dollar for each time she says "Get me my own car!" when we spat about using the car. I'll be rich, I tell you. Rich!

No holes

Our tree has no holes in it. It is very full and very tall. My daughter must be a minimalist. I would expect it would happen sooner or later. My Mom was a pack rat. I am a pack rat. My daughter is determined to break the habit. She did much better on the lights than I do. My work tends to look like a kindergartner's finger painting. She put about six ornaments on the tree. Me? I'd put every single one I could find on the tree. We don't put ice sickles on because of the cats. We are not big on tinsel.

At least it is done. I was having one of those super bad days on Thursday. I got to a school to update them to fiber. I call a couple of weeks in advance. I ask the school technician to pick a day that is good for them. For the school. What day can I take the Internet down? It may go smoothly, sometimes there is a glitch and it take a bit longer. You never can tell with technology. Like traffic.

I arrive at 8:30 to set up and take the network down at nine a.m. He asks "Can this be done by 10:30?" I'm thinking to myself. 'No. He didn't just say that!' Yes, he did. He jinxed it. I sighed. The last time I switched a school over was probably August or September. I had not touched the fiber switches in four months. One problem after another cropped up. If something could go wrong, something did go wrong. Ugh!

At eleven a.m. one of the elementary buildings were scheduled to visit with Santa. Didn't happen. Nope. I was traumatized. People kept calling the technician. "Are we doing this thing or what?" "Is it back up, yet?" Groan. To make matters worse my home office won't answer their phones. They want everything submitted in a help desk ticket. Well, when you don't have the Internet that's kind of hard to do. It was embarrassing to say the least when I couldn't even reach my own people for help. Yeah, that went over well.

Thirteen years. Same old, same old. Issues with communication. Two problems were their end and one was my end. We finally got things rolling at noon. Just in time for the Santa video session to end. The children had to settle for an elf video at two o'clock later that afternoon.

Me? I got a major migraine headache. I went home and took the rest of the day off sick. It was six p.m. before I felt human again.

My co-workers keep telling me "This isn't major surgery. No body is going to die if we don't get the Internet back up." But, still. I care. I want the customer inconvenienced the least amount of time as possible. I feel responsible. I take my work seriously even if it isn't major surgery, it is important to me.

Sigh. I have (had) a box of chocolate covered cherries. Why do I bring them into the house? They have to be the clear liquid ones. I almost make myself sick on them. You would think with my migraine problem I would avoid them. I will have them bought and half eaten before it even occurs to me "Oh, yeah. These could exacerbate your headaches." Idiot.

How we display our cards

Well, this year anyway. Sometimes I tape them around the door or around the archway between the living room and the kitchen. I have placed them high enough so that the guys in the family don't hit their heads on them. One year I put them too low. Hopefully the cats will leave them alone.

Celestial bodies

Using the night mode trick in black and white this time. I found some interesting shapes emerged from my tree lights. Some are even a little suggestive? And, I will stop right there.

Neat

It was neat to see what the picture would come out when I did this. I put my camera into night mode where the shutter stays open longer and took a picture of my tree. I think my camera takes this picture with the shutter open for 10 seconds. I move the camera in slow circles while it is in that 10 second phase of shooting the photo.

Tree and tacky and a rock star

The tree is finally up. It is done being my garage air freshener. It is a monster. If I had to do over again, I would trim the scraggly branches off the bottom and cut it off more at the stump. It was a chore to get it up and in the stand, so this will do. It will be rough getting the lights on all the way at the top. It tickles the ceiling. I was gone all day yesterday, but my daughter was home. I was hoping she would decorate it, but she cleaned instead. That is okay by me. I must dig out the lights and decorations today. This is the tree part.

Now, for the tacky. I am still shaking my head. Never in my 48 years. My sister (1944) couldn't believe the tackiness either. She and I went to a luncheon yesterday. Out of town. We had sent in our reservation weeks ago. We paid $12.50 at the door. We sat with a group of folks my sister went to school with. The lunch group totaled 40 in all.

Most of the folks here are my sister's age. I started to go with her to the meetings because it has to do with genealogy and to help with the technical parts of the workshops. Digital photography for example.

One couple came from the north, just to meet up with my sister and a few of her school mates. They had not seen one another in 46 years since graduation. This is where the rock star part comes in, and I will get back to that.

Our table was the last to get up and get into the food line. There were about nine people behind me in line when I looked at the food. 3 chicken breasts left and one steak floating in gravy. Hmmm. The two folks ahead of me passed the meat up. I did also. I was getting my salad when the president of the group found out the meat ran out.

Get this.

She put her chicken back into the pan. She said "I didn't touch it. You can trust me." She then gathered chickens and steaks from folks who had not "touched" theirs yet. Prior to the meal, the group was instructed that they could take one chicken and one steak each . I guess they took that to mean it was required to take one of each, I don't know.

Is that just unreal?

I booked it out of the line and muttered to myself "I am NOT taking food off of other people's plate." I was shaking my head in disbelief. I sat down and ate my vegetarian lunch. The rest of the meal consisted of salad, green beans, noodles, corn pudding and a roll. My sister was so wrapped up into talking with her friends she was totally unaware of what went on around her. She had passed the meat up also. I told her on the drive home what had transpired.

She was in complete shock. They took food off of people's plates and put it back? I nodded. She had been talking to the people in line with her and was oblivious.

Never in my life have I witnessed such vulgarity at a luncheon. The proper thing to do would have been to give a refund to the folks at my table and apologize. This is the society where I won a membership for a year. The next meeting is in March. I have until then to get over this and decide if I want to continue to meet with this group. It is over a 50 mile drive for me to attend. It has to do with the genealogy from the county I grew up in. I don't know. I was doing it for my sister and to get more involved in things that interest me. I'll have to think about it.

I have six lunch/dinner functions to attend this month for the holidays. I am certainly not going to miss one piece of chicken. It is a story to tell and laugh about at future functions, so I guess it makes for good fodder. That will make it all worthwhile.

Now, back to the rock star. The fellow that my sister went to school with is a Presbyterian preacher. The entire family is musical. One of his two sons is a member of the rock music group Isis. I didn't know this until the drive home. I am not familiar with the group but I have heard of them.

Wee one

What does a person with five tiny yorkies get? A tinier dog, of course. A tiny teacup chihuahua dog. I think I spelled that right. This is my brother's dog.

My daughter had a blast playing with this wee one back in March 2006. She didn't grow much. The dog, that is. My daughter grew and her hair got shorter.

This makes post number 1,400 for me. Woot! I'd celebrate, but I am going to bed. This Ohio weather today is flippin' nuts and I have half a headache. I haven't taken any medicine and I don't want to so I am banking on sleep to take care of it. Hope, hope, hope. I hate waking up with a headache.

Some winter days

In Ohio, in early December, when there was no snow.

This was taken last week on a drive to a school many miles away from home. I have no idea whose home it is. Just something I see on the ride. It was the middle of deer hunting and I saw lots of hunters out and about that day.

I don't know about you, but the Christmas specials and movies just don't seem the same since cable plays the same ones over and over again and videos and DVDs let you watch them any time you want. They have lost that "special" significance. Yawn.

This reminds me of a childhood trauma. Small trauma. But, to an eight year old it was pretty significant. Picture it. The year is 1968. It would be almost 10 years before VHS tapes were available to the public and another five before most homes were able to afford units to play them. Cable stations that currently play holiday movies over and over were also unheard of.

My oldest sister (1944) was getting married on the 27th of December. A friend of the family held her wedding shower on a cold winter night in early December. I was in the wedding and I was to attend the shower. The friend's children were grown and gone. The television sat in the corner of the room that held the crowd of ladies from around town. We ate little cucumber sandwiches and my sister unwrapped her gifts.

It just happened to be the one, the only night in a long year of 365 days that the one little television station would play the favorite classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." I looked longingly at that dark television screen many times during that shower knowing it would be another 365.. no, make that 366 days (1968 was a leap year!) before I would be able to watch my beloved Rudolph again! Horrors! That is a long time to an 8 year old.

I see that the movie only came out in 1964. Given the circumstances, I may have watched it once or twice before the year I didn't get to watch it. It was something I looked forward to. Sigh. I wonder how many times I have actually watched the movie. My daughter never got excited about the movie because we could watch it on Halloween or Thanksgiving 100 times over because we had it on video tape. It just isn't the same. Kids these days have no idea.

Window dressing

The curtains have been washed and re-hung. The lights are on. They are just waiting for the tree. We moved the furniture around yesterday. Before we went to get the tree. It used to be that my daughter and I would walk the few blocks to purchase the tree and carry it home through the snow. You know, like families do up on Walton Mountain or something like that.

Last year my brother happened to be there and drove my tree to my porch. This year I really thought I could do it. Forgetting that moving the furniture around gave my lower back a good thumping over. I would have made it, but we got stupid and decided to take the dog. She was so excited by all the people she was almost unmanageable.

Walking home we were freezing. My daughter had the top of the tree and I had the trunk and the dog. It was cold. We must have looked pathetic because my neighbor stopped with his bright and shiny new red truck and put the tree in the back and drove it to my back porch. We were halfway home. I thanked him and put the tree in the garage for safe keeping overnight. My Mom had a tree stolen right off her porch before.

We will cut the trunk today and get it into water. We may get it decorated by tonight, I don't know. My daughter wants to practice backing into the orange cones today so that she can be ready to take her driving test. Ugh. It's going to be cold. Then she is meeting some new guy at the mall. She is so excited about this, she is over at her computer dancing to her hip hop. She said she wants music today, but not Christmas. I've been playing the holiday music for a few days, now.

I've got a real cat problem. Not poor Titten who got both eyes infected. We took her to the doctor and they gave us drops to put in three times a day. She is getting better and fortunately no other cat seems to be affected yet. No, this is a more serious problem.

Moose has always been picked on by the other cats. I try to let them work it out for themselves. My big male cat, Casper won't let her go downstairs. So, she ends up going to the bathroom upstairs. This is not acceptable. I tried taking her downstairs myself but she ran back upstairs as soon as I put her down. She is always scared. She has the long fur but barely weighs five pounds. She is so light when I pick her up. She is the one that vomits, too. Not very often, though.

Sigh. I don't want to get rid of any of them. I will not get rid of Casper. He is my baby. I am torn. This bathroom problem started happening this week. She is using my nice pink area rug in the bathroom. This last time there was blood in her stool.

I may get a litter box, food and water dish and begin putting Moose in the back bedroom by herself during the night. We do pick Casper up and put him in the backroom for some "time out" when he picks on her. He chases her. The other cats have started to pick on her too. What to do, what to do. I've talked to the vet when this happened before. We talked about shaving her to get ride of the mats still embedded in her coat. Maybe she is in pain. Maybe there is something wrong with her that the other cats sense and they don't want to be infected. Maybe animals know this stuff.

The paper is full of "free kittens" for Christmas. We have a cat shelter. The last time I was there it smelled so bad I couldn't stay for more than 10 minutes. They have dozens of cats. I don't want it to come to that. I will try the separation technique until the first of the year and then deal with it. This may be the reason she was put out by the people who owned her before. She was already fixed when she came to our back door. My daughter snuck her into the basement without my knowledge.

Well, it's time to go and get that tree up.

Kind of scary

If I were a kid, I think this would just scare me.

Taken from Tis the Season 2 years ago.

Last Year's stash

A display from the museum in 2007.

22 years

Way back in 1986. The picture on the wall behind the group is my grandmother holding my father and his twin brother dated 1915. The lady on the left is my father's sister (born 1901). The lady on the right is my sister (1954) and her son.

Summer drive

A drive from July 2007. Warmer days are just around the bend. Given six months or so.

Poor baby

She goes to the doctor tomorrow. I have to go and clean it, now. She doesn't like that. Not one bit.