Bread

I went a little hog wild with the cranberries. I was getting 'into" the mixing up the cranberry nut bread and I figured I would add extra cranberries. I then thought - well, I'd better add more sugar. The result came out a little tart for my taste. It is still good, but next time Peruby "stick to the recipe!"

Here they are. Ready to roll.

I got the little mini-loaf pans with little plastic lids this year. Ready for people to just load them up and take them home.

I don't like baking cookies, but I will bake this bread any day.

I truly wish each and every one of you a day fit for a king. A feast of all feasts with good company and sweet memories. Joy and harmony (not easy with family sometimes) and lots of laughter. It's the laughter that I remember. We joke and tease each other with no mercy. 

I think fondly of a friend who goes down to the shelter in a nearby city and helps to serve the free meal offered to the homeless and needy. She has done this for years before heading to her own family feast.

I think sadly of the folks who are alone today. I hope their past memories help them through today. I can't even imagine what that would be like.

I have many, many thanks this year. More than last year, and more than the year before that. Next year, I will have even more. Life is so precious. Family is so precious. We do not know what the future holds and we do not know who will be with us next year and who will not be. Sigh.

Is it real or is it memorex?

Found and scanned this old photo in. Do you believe that? Not true. It was actually just taken on Saturday the 20th and I used the "antiquing" feature from the free photo program I downloaded. Photoscape.

It actually looks like this:

It was taken in the Amish country when we stopped here to get some apples. 

Speaking of apples, do you eat the entire apple? I mean core and all? Some folks do. I don't. Golden Delicious are my favorite. With salt.

Here is what my sister purchased. She was SO nice and left them at my house for me to enjoy. Ah, gee.... thanks a LOT!

Chocolate! Speaking now of chocolate, my daughter's beau made the remark "For two women living in this house, there sure isn't very much chocolate."  I looked at him incredulously. "D'oh! That's just the point! We EAT it all before it has a chance to sit around waiting for somebody else to find it!"  I then laughed and showed him a secret stash that my sister had brought. Ah, sisters. I neglected to tell him that I actually hide all the chocolate for myself. My daughter quipped "I don't like chocolate."  Hmmm. What is wrong with that girl?

I hope to have a busy and productive day. I'd better get started as it is almost eleven and I have been up since six. I want to make cranberry bread again! I'll post more pictures if I do.

We's a gonna need a intervention folks

Kittens on my sisters' porch

I awoke early this morning. About 4:30. I got dressed and proceeded outside with the first dog. Ah, rain. That would explain everybody having a headache for the past 24 hours. My daughter, her boyfriend and I, all had headaches yesterday. All day.

I then took the next dog out and then the two larger ones.  At this time of the morning, I can take them without  a leash. As long as I do the pups one at a time. With the rain, the boxer does not want to dally around. 

I take the big dogs a little farther down the alley to an empty lot. Coming back, in the dark at the end of my alley - I saw them. Little black shadows walking in the rain. A big one and five little tiny ones. Oh, God. A mother cat and her kittens and WHY oh WHY was she moving them in the rain?!

Well, this might explain the crying cat that a lady told me she was hearing. Out walking the boxer Saturday a lady who lives a block or so away stopped me to tell me about this crying cat she kept hearing. She also more or less told me that she was deaf in one ear and couldn't hear out of the other. Seriously. She mentioned it three times that she could not hear out of one ear and had only 30% hearing capability out of the other. So I had to wonder...how was it she heard this meowing (crying) cat?

Back to the alley. I wrestled with myself. My mind went several directions. They saw me and the mama cat quickly darted into the bush across the alley. It took a few seconds but all of her babies soon followed. I knew I had to get the dogs in.

You can interject your own phrase or name here, but this is mostly what I read/hear:  stupid, hoarder, bleeding heart, idiot, crazy, you have a problem, you can't save them all, just shoot me now. You know the old routine. I let my heart rule my actions.

I got both of the big dogs inside. Last evening I had fixed tuna noodle casserole for dinner. I placed a big chunk of that on an old plastic dish and back out into the dark I went. I walked to the end of the alley. Would they still be close by? I saw the larger one moving. She certainly wasn't starving.

She was as fat and round as a big.... WAIT! That's NO cat! That's a possum! Instant relief, folks! Instant! I sighed. The fat possum waddled away, her babies long hidden. I dumped the tuna off at the end of the hedge line and back inside my cozy, warm kitchen I went. I may have even chuckled to myself out of giddy relief.

Yep. It was close. The disease is still there lurking. Waiting for the next opportunity. God help us all.

More than just trees

There are more things to look at in the museum than trees. I always like to get a few shots of the trains that are on display while taking pictures of the trees. I left this photo in a very large format. If your browser allows you to view it in a large format. If not, instructions are at the bottom of this post.

I was reading my paper yesterday and under a section called '30 seconds' where people call in to whine post their opinion somebody remarked that somebody was stepping on the tree skirts while trying to get pictures of the trains at the museum. They went on to say that the trains are there all year long and to respect the trees because somebody purchased them and they are sure that buyer did not want their merchandise stepped on. God, I hope that was not me.

I wonder if I got caught up in the moment and stepped on a tree skirt. Well, I got the point. I will be much more careful when taking pics. If it was me (and it probably was). Not many people take pictures. I do every year. Nobody else had a camera the evening that I was there.  Now granted, the display was on-going for two weeks, but yet I wonder. Smack myself in the back of the head.

Now, to look at the fine detail. Yes, the carver used ivory but it was not illegal back then. If you use Firefox and you are having problems seeing the image in a large format,  (and you must choose this view style BEFORE you click on the photo to look at it) - Go to the View pull-down menu,  click on Page style, and choose "No Style". It will get ugly, but scroll to look for the photo and click on the photo.

In Explorer (mine appears to be a bit messed up right now) there is a view option under one of the pull-down menus with the option of Style and "no style" and "default style".  You may have to choose "no style" to see the photo in it's large format. Either browser gets kind of ugly, but you can always go back to the default style or Basic Page style.

This is fun!

You know. Sick computer/geek ticket that I am. If you have a blog here, chances are you may have a google login account.

If you do, you can get an e-mail alert each time somebody "googles" your name.  Or any other phrase, word etc... that you can think of.

This works if you have a unique name. DO NOT set this up if you have the name of J!m Sm!th or any other well-known and extremely popular name.

I set this up over a year ago for my name and I got one hit on it (except for when I was testing) and it was my daughter who had searched my name. She is probably one of three people who can and does spell it correctly. :)

I also have it set up for my blog name and my blog's nickname "Peruby".  This of course gets me a few alerts for "Peru" but it is not a perfect system. I just delete about six or seven hits a week that are not exactly "Peruby" and let it go at that. I also get a few variations of my name and I delete them too. It is still pretty interesting. 

Usually I will get a hit on my blog name when I comment on another blog. Google picks this up and sends me an alert to the e-mail account of my choice. I find it interesting.

To set this up, log into your Google account.

Choose Account Settings

If this is your first time setting up an alert, you will see the option "Try Something new"

Choose Alerts

In the Search Items: type in the search word/phrase/name you wish to be notified about.

Enter the e-mail address you want the alerts sent to.

It is fairly certain that if somebody searches that name/phrase etc.. on the web, you will get an alert since most folks use the Google search engine.

I don't believe I messed with the settings. I think I left them all at the default.

Have fun. I am.

I mentioned in a previous post that I have no less than 4 e-mail accounts. Actually, I have six. I do not check all of them every day. I do check 4 every day. I actually have all 4 of my accounts sent to my phone where I can glance and scroll through my messages. Usually at the end of the day, I will go through my 3 personal accounts and clear them out/ move the messages to other folders, etc..

I have other accounts usually for testing purposes. My work account will not troubleshoot well if my organization is having problems outside of our network. Sometimes I don't want to use any account with my real name on it (hence peruby).  I also like to use a generic account when I am on-line and a site forces me to enter a valid e-mail, then they will send the code to that account before I can actually set up on that site. This works for me so that I can have any junk e-mail sent to this generic account. Usually, I can filter messages or block messages in my generic account. Mostly it is just delete, delete, delete.

Cause you know they got those web crawly things that harvest e-mail accounts and some sites actually gather your data/info and sell it to junk mail organizations. Sigh. 

Welcome to 50!

Another from the museum

Okay. I've been 50 for nearly six months, now. The other morning as I checked my e-mail messages (I have no less than 4 e-mail accounts - don't ask), I saw that my electric bill was very close to 4  times higher than normal. WTF?! My "normal" electric bill is $70 a month. 

I was concerned to say the least. The only thing I could think of that changed in the last month was that my daughter, her boyfriend and his cousin set up the downstairs basement into a gaming room. Complete with 3 X-boxes, 3 TVs, electric guitars, etc.. Sometimes they play into the wee hours of the night and all the lights are on for hours at a time.

Still. That seemed a bit excessive to me. My niece lived with me for over 3 years (using the basement as her bedroom area) and my electric bill was not affected. She didn't leave lights on, but was known to leave curling irons on etc...

I've had a couple of nephews stay with me for a few months at a time - still no great increase in electric. I have a gas furnace and a gas water heater.

One time my dryer ran all night (timer broke) and that barely caused a blip on my electric bill. So, what was causing this excessive amount?

I sent my daughter a text message.  I made sure to tell her that I was not mad, just concerned and we would have to figure out what was making the bill so high.

Of course she became defensive at first - blamed the heater in the downstairs bathroom. I told her that we ran the heater every winter and it has never been an issue before. I told her that perhaps my refrigerator was dying. This was all in text format.

I looked at the bill online again to see what the exact date range was. That's when I saw it. Last months' bill. At first I thought that I paid it late and it was not registering on the bill. Nope. I had not paid it AT ALL! WTF!? This is the first time I have ever done this! 

Oh, my. Now, I have to tell my daughter. But first I had to figure out why I didn't pay it. I had switched all utilities to on-line payments two months ago. I guess it just didn't register or I didn't get one in an e-mail from that utility. Nope. Just checked. I got a notice alright. I just moved it to the utilities folder and promptly forgot about it. I guess.

You would think that somebody who works with and on computers every day would be a bit more aware of on-line banking and bill paying. Not so! I do SO much on-line it figures that some things go by the wayside.

I actually was probably one of the last members of the family to begin on-line payments.  What is up with that? Well, I'll tell you. Since I work with computers and am very generous by nature, I left my wireless router wide open for anybody to use. Almost everyone who visits me has an iPhone or iPad that needs a connection to the Internet. I didn't lock it down with security. Bah, I said. Back then the router was in the basement and the signal died as soon as one walked out my door. Eventually I moved the router upstairs and while enrolling my daughter into college, I thought "It's time to lock it down."  And, I did.

Over the past two years, I have been allowing myself to relax and do a bit more on-line than I used to. It is because I know and read about all the horror stories of stolen identities etc... and I know HOW they happen and it has just taken me a while to trust this stuff.

And between you and me - I actually LIKE the process of writing checks and paying the bills. I KNOW, right?! Who in the world LIKES to pay bills?!  Sigh. I'll rephrase that. If I have the money in the bank, I LIKE the PROCESS of writing checks. I just do. Maybe I should have gone into accounting.

Back to the electric bill. As I looked over the past 12 months, I realize that "normal" has crept up to over $100 a month - to $170 a month. Huh. This past month was actually ONLY $80. It has not been that low since the spring. Stupid A/C and hot flashes!

I decided this warranted an actual phone call instead of a text. I called. My daughter answered. I started with "Now, don't be mad! I'm only  human!"  I was laughing the entire time.  And, I told her what I had done. She yelled "MOM! I've been going nuts running around unplugging everything!" Whoops.

Ah, well. At least I know she will work with me if we ever DO have a problem with utilities. When I related the story to an older and dear friend she quipped "Oh, yeah. You're fifty alright!"  And I always thought the electric company had to worry about the 20-year-old age group not paying their bills.

I made it to the museum

I can't believe it is almost 10:30. I have to walk the dogs yet, brush my teeth and go to bed. I am so "brain" tired. I did a lot of computer work this evening. Catching up on e-mails, blog reading, web page updates. Where does the time go? I am so tired I am dizzy and cannot think straight. I still have about 15 blogs yet to catch up on. I hate it when I can't read them. It is like missing the paper for a day.

There are so many things I wanted to post about. One story involved "welcome to the 50's" or "stuck in the 50's" or something like that. "You know you're getting old when...."   remember Mad magazine's page on this? Eh, I'll tell the story another time. If  I can remember to. I also wanted to continue the survey I did of my co-workers' favorite actor except do the actress this time. Then the band/singer. Oh, my. I am even more dizzy than before.

I made it to the museum last evening. It was spur of the moment. I was invited and I jumped at the chance. It is so hard to vote for a "people's choice" tree. I like the pink one, but my bathroom is all pink and rosy and I am sick of it. I massacred the photo and boxed it and slapped it on here.
 

Then I just got brain dead. And, I am out of here.

Must try

I only have this week-end to see the beautiful display of trees at the museum.  I've missed it before and I have wanted to kick myself. Saturday has been filled up. That leaves one evening or Sunday. Sometimes on Sunday some of the trees are already gone.

Extremely tired this evening. Maybe it's the rain.

bruciare

Let's just call it what it is. A big pan of heart burn.
Sigh. Just pass the Rolaids.

The Torch

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

It is no longer Veteran's day, but I have not forgotten. I try to take some time and read the poem again or the story about the physician who wrote the poem. I did take the time today.

Oh, and it is my 1800th post. Whoop! 

More from the office gals

This is what I reach for if I happen to eat the onions in my salad at lunchtime.

A little more from the survey the gals took. 

Favorite actor. (In order of the gals at the table - not in order of favorites).

1. Pierce Brosnan

2. Jim Carrey

3. Sean Connery

4. Tom Berrenger

5. Robert DeNiro

6. Elvis Presley

7. Jack Nicholson

8. Nicholas Cage

Movies: James Bond/Liar Liar/Bond again/The Substitue/Analyze This/Blue Hawaii/Somethings Gotta Give/The Sorcerer's Apprentice

If you look in the right areas you can guess which one was mine.

Honorable Mentions:

Harrison Ford

Mel Gibson

Robert Redford

James Garner

Richard Gere

Tom Hanks

Johnny Depp

At the office and away

The ladies in the building where I work at started a monthly night out for the gals. I hosted last night's get together and I could not think of anything to do with them or have for them.

The host is not at all obligated to do anything but pick the restaurant and get the tally of gals coming and show up. An hour before the event it hit me.

A "get to know you" questionnaire. Who is your favorite actor and why? Who is your favorite actress and why? Who is your favorite male/female singer. What song did you like?

Oh, it was hilarious. We had 8 gals show up. Our list includes over 20, but life does get busy.

I had no idea we would have this great of a time talking about movies, music and books.

The funniest was of the group of the ladies that liked Elvis - that age group, one of them was into heavy metal. We were shocked! She liked Ozzie Osbourne. She named a few others I don't recall, but it was quite the surprise.

I had 3 pages of questions (about 20) and we barely got through the first page. I know a little bit more about the women I see every day and what they like. It was great!

Oh, the food sucked. They burned my seafood and I had to get a re-do on some of my dish. The hot sauce made me sweat and started a hot flash and that (with the excitement and laughing) brought on a royal headache. I used to work in a grill restaurant and I could tell they had the grease too hot - or they forgot about it - or both.

I came  home to a basement full of kids playing video games. (Why do I still say kids? They are in their early 20's except for my daughter who is still 19).  They were hungry. I ordered the pizza and wings and gave them the coupon and money and told them when to go pick it up. We have 3 pizza joints within walking distance of my back door. Easy peasy.

The dogs were in heaven with all the company. And I am certain they were drooling in hopes that somebody would let a chunk of sausage or pepperoni fall off of their piece of pizza. Me? I read my e-mails and went to bed. Didn't hear a thing until I woke up at five.

Sister 1944 posted a remark on Facebook about brother 1957. She told his lady friend/wife/ex-wife to post a picture of our brother, she forgot what he looked like. Coming across as "he never comes to any get togethers."  Sister 1956 mentioned to me that brother 1957 was a little bit upset by it. I said "Oh, he needs to lighten up."

Brother 1957's lady friend stated that she didn't know how to post photos, yet.

So, my daughter and I found the funniest looking monkey photo on the web and I posted on Facebook : I said "here. I found a picture of brother 1957. I'll post it."  And I slapped that monkey up there. Hee, hee. Take that brother. I don't let my brothers and sisters get miffed at me. I'll be right in their face saying "lighten up! I love you!"  Then I give them a big hug. It is completely futile to get upset with me.

Pecans

Pea cans or Pea kawns. However you say it, I've never been a fan. I rolled the new cheese ball in this nut rather than my usual walnuts. I doubt I'll make this cheese ball again, unless I want to try to improve my experience until I like it. Because I liked my cousins' results. But maybe that was because somebody else made it. You know, it always tastes better when somebody else makes it.

The kids wanted to watch "Grown Ups" last night. There were a couple of funny spots and a couple of uncomfortable ones. I felt overall the movie was "dis-jointed". If that can explain a movie. I feel as if each main character (the five men) were all trying to out-do each other and it came across as messy, sloppy and dis-jointed.

There was no rhythm to the movie. No flow. It jammed bits and pieces of the story in here and there. And they were very rude. I don't find being rude at the expense of somebody else funny. Not at all. Making fun of their age, or the birth defect is crass and immature. 

And yet again, Sandler does a fine job teaching his daughters that women are objects. I would have thought that Ms. Hayek was smarter than this. Guess not.

Hug a vet today!  One of my daytime fantasies is to be at an airport when a plane full of military folks walk through and I (along with everybody else in the airport) stand up and give them an ovation that they will remember all of their lives. Sigh. I'm never in an airport anymore. Maybe someday I can fly by plane again.

Where did they go?

I have had a mystery that has puzzled me for years. Where do people go if you have missed their call and you try to call them back within seconds? Do they throw the phone over the hill in anger because nobody answered? Do they drop the phone and run like hell? Where do they go?

It happened the other day to me. I was driving and my cell phone rang. I glanced to see it was a very good friend calling. I wanted to tell her I would call her later in the week when I had time to chat.

I drove another 100 feet and pulled the car over. I dialed her number - no answer. Where did she go in 30 to 50 seconds? Did she scream and throw the phone out the window? What?

I don't get it. I have not remembered to call her back since. Now it is past 9:00 and I don't want to call in case she is in bed.

I understand that some phones do not return a busy signal. My work phone doesn't. To the caller it just rings and rings and rings. Work phone. Go figure. No answering machine picks up either. I just tell my co-workers if it just rings and rings, I am probably on the line talking to somebody else. If I am away from my desk and I don't answer the phone, the machine will pick up fine. When I am not actually on the phone.

Wait. Maybe the callers are messing with me. Laughing at the ringing telephone at the other end. "Don't answer my call, will you?! See how it feels?!" Creepy.

The new cheezeball

Here are the ingredients. I didn't like it. My Pampered Chef chopper melted in the dishwasher. It is supposed to be dishwasher safe. Well, the clear plastic part did. The rest of it is fine, I just can't chop up and down with it anymore. I use it just like a four-bladed knife. The sliced beef did not chop up well. I have not seen my blender since we moved to this house in March 2002. What is up with that? Who knows.

Wait. Is that Tylenol in there? Oh, yeah. Time change. Remember? Headache city. Even going this way with the extra hour. Any change in my routine causes a headache. I love to travel but I may just have to stop it. Most of you know that I am an avid Advil fan, but I like to mix it up from time to time.

The cheese ball ended up too salty for my taste. Maybe I'll rinse the beef next time (if there is a next time). My regular cheese ball is so popular, I may just stick with it. If it ain't broke...

The movie. Sigh. It was not super  fantastic and it was not super bad. Secretariat. I had a hard time reminding myself that this was Diane Lane on the screen and NOT Mary Tyler Moore. My God, she looked just like a young MTM! I suppose it was the hairstyle. 

The best was John Malkovich. I thought he did a fantastic job. I usually don't like him in movies because he plays the evil guy, but I liked his quirkiness in this one.

Spice of Life

I made a quick run out to the Am!sh country yesterday to stock up on some goodies for the upcoming holidays. I may give some as gifts and I may use them for get togethers. I purchased about five of each of the jars shown above. The hot pepper jelly is not near as hot as I'd like it to be, but that may work for some folks who don't like it all that hot. There is sweet & hot mustard and hot relish mustard and peanut butter spread (which I don't happen to like, but many do) and the various mustards I use with my cheese and meat tray for folks to dip their trail bologna into.

And, I stock up on cream cheese when it is on sale. I don't purchase too far ahead because I do not like it after I have frozen it. It just does not work well in the recipes after it has been frozen.

And, cheese. I purchased about five blocks of cheese. Farmer, butter, jumpin' jack, baby Swiss and mild Colby. I am just hoping that the cheese can last until the Thanksgiving holiday at least. (wink, wink).

As usual the store was packed full. It is a small store and very crowded. There are bulk candies and bulk flour, noodles and other baking goods. Spices galore. All in huge amounts. I also try not to purchase too much of a spice at one time because I feel it also goes stale.

I made plans to see Secretariat today. I hope it is worth it. After, I am going to sister 1949's house. She fell and broke her wrist. Sister 1944 is meeting me there. We are going to do dishes etc... to help out. 

I saw a few snow flurries while out walking the dogs yesterday early morning. They were pretty to look at while under the street lights but I know the havoc they will bring. Bittersweet feelings. My boxer's sweater is too hard to get on him. It fits too tight. While at the boarding place he chewed through his harness. I just got him a collar this time. He doesn't care for it, but he will have to adjust. He tries to move away from the leash leaning on him as I walk him so he ends up walking sideways most of the time. It is kind of funny.

Well, I used my extra hour today in my sleep, so I better get a shower and get crackin'. Making a new cheese ball today with dried beef, green onions, cream cheese.... I'll get my camera out and take pics. The above pic was taken with my phone and I am not real good at it yet. I did download some retro camera features that I am playing with. Here is one looking at the skyline sitting in my car  from across the store. I think I used the "toy camera" feature for this one.

A Broken Shortcut

General shortcut

Do you know what to do  if a shortcut on your desktop is broken? What I mean is, if you double-click the shortcut and you get a message similar to "can't find...path has moved..." something along those lines.

I had an episode yesterday where the network guy at a school called me to say that the school Treasurer was not able to access the "name of the software that enables her to work with the state database".

I worked with him to troubleshoot over the phone and all it was- was a broken shortcut.

I talked him through the steps of how to go to Start, All Programs, Name of the Software, and begin the program that way.

I also walked him through how to right-mouse-click on the Name of the Software from the menu and send a shortcut to the desktop. (After deleting the broken one).

I was just a little bit perplexed that the guy they have hired to work on their school district network was not aware that this is what needed to be done if a shortcut did not work. A regular end user, I can understand. But the tech guy?!

Above are the steps I would take to put the Solitaire game shortcut onto my desktop. The Games menu with Hearts, Internet Backgammon, etc... is where I used the right-mouse-click option once I hovered over Solitaire to get the Options menu. Then back to the left mouse button when I  hovered the mouse over "Send To" option. It gets a little tricky for new users to try and figure out when to use the right mouse button and when to use the left mouse button. And sorry, but the directions here are for XP only. Not Vista or Windows 7.

You can usually tell it is a shortcut because it has the little white square with the black curved arrow in it. Although, there are exceptions. I once had a little program I found that actually removes that white box with the black arrow. What kind of TIME did I have on my hands back then?!

And,  hell! I didn't even KNOW there was such a thing as Internet Checkers!

She walked away

..... from this.

Photo courtesy of my brother. I don't have any details other than she was 18 and she walked away. That in itself is something miraculous.

The eyes have it

Just peeking in.... nothing to see here.... move along.

A seed company

First and foremost. My wonderful cousins in WV were the best hosts anybody could ever ask for. I love them, I appreciate them letting us stay there and I really cannot express enough how great they are. They are funny, kind, generous, and more.

I would never do anything or say anything in their home that was inappropriate or anything to hurt their feelings.

That being said - I like to keep politics and religion out of family get-togethers. And, perhaps sports.

My cousins are very religious. They are beautiful people. They shine a light on themselves and everybody around them. I cannot say enough good things about them.

While staying with them this past week-end, my sisters and I made a trip to Wallet Mart for an item I neglected to pack. I got in the check out line. There was a gentleman before me with about five small items. Before him was a very nice dressed lady in heels. It appears as if she just came from church, since it was Sunday early afternoon.

She was really having a hard time with the cashier. I overheard a gift card, a bank card, a credit card and there were many "start overs" and "re-dos".  I sighed and after exchanging "knowing" glances with the gentleman ahead of me, I pulled a magazine off the rack and began leafing through it. May as well make the best of an inconvenient situation.

I saw pumpkin pie and before I even thought that I might be slowing the cashier down, I piped up "Have you guys had a shortage of canned pumpkin around here?"

Here are two articles about the pumpkin shortage:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39379122/ns/business-consumer_news/

http://www.cantonrep.com/carousel/x2084589094/Shortage-of-canned-pumpkin-said-to-be-over-but-grocers-arent-sure

The cashier said "We used to, but it seems to be okay, now."

The nicely-dressed church lady piped up "You can expect a LOT more shortages now that Obama has bought up the seed companies."

I paused. I pretty much say nothing to this. I spoke directly and mater-of-factly, "I voted for Obama."

She paused and smirked. "Sorry about your luck."

I let it go with nothing more being said. I observed the lady struggle to get her gray gourds into her cart and march off. It appeared to me that this was not a happy woman. I said "I hope I don't ever become like her" or something to that effect.

The gentleman in front of me said "What, stupid?"

I let that go, too.

When I got back to where I could research things, I wanted to know why she was blaming Obama for a shortage of seeds or was it produce?

Mostly, I could only find that Obama invested in "seed companies" as in "start-up" companies to boost the economy. Please tell me she did not mean that type of "seed".

I researched further.  Perhaps she was speaking of Monsanto. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto

Where Obama has re-appointed Michael R. Taylor to the FDA. Taylor seems to be a proponent of Monsanto, but this would have been back in 2009. Not very recent news.

Then I stumbled across the Seed Bill 2010. Ahh. I reckon this is what she was speaking of.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/79995/seed-bill-render-farmer-helpless.html

http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/2010/06/seed-bill-2010-brace-up-to-make-seed.html

Well, honey. Maybe my LUCK will hold out.

Whoa! I completely forgot the "cousin" aspect to this story. When we returned to my cousins' house and we were eating one of  the many wonderful meals offered to us, one sister blurted out that I had gotten into it with a lady at Wallet Mart about Obama. My cousins' sweet wife (who is absolutely the dearest, most generous person I have ever met) said "I hope you are not a fan."

Again, I said just matter-of-factly (without embellishment) "I voted for him."  And, we left it at that. It was a bit awkward for a few minutes. I felt that I had insulted them in their home and I most certainly did not ever intend to do that. She did not bat an eye. She was still as sweet as ever. Whew. Politics really stink.

On a side note - I better get my butt out there and vote today! This is my last day of vacation. :(

Back in time

Been away for a few days visiting relatives (dead and alive) in West Virginia. We had wonderful weather and wonderful visits. 

One cousin had her grandchildren visiting. One very amicable (and chatty) first grade boy captured my curiosity. We chatted back and forth. I asked him some questions about what he dressed up for at Halloween, he answered.

I told him what I did when I went to work and his sweet and innocent six-year-old reply?

"Women work?"

My sisters and I cracked up at that one.

Grrrrr

I can see why a lot of people name their black dogs "Bear".

Witchy Woman

Here is one from the festival at the beginning of the month.

I posted this one in a very large format. How can you tell how much storage space you have left on your blog site? Go to google.com and log in. Choose Settings. Choose Google Account Settings. Choose Picasa web album - Settings . Choose storage. This should tell you how much storage space you have left to post pictures on your blog. There is a limit, you know. I have read bloggers who had to create new blogs because they ran out.

I just tested it. I took 3 of my largest pictures and set them to upload to this blog. I then watched my storage settings (as shown above) and refreshed after each picture loaded and I watched it increase. Now, this is where it gets tricky. You can delete the post, but the pictures still stay on the Picasa and still use up your storage space. How do I get rid of those three pictures since it was only a test posting?

Anywhere in settings, look at the top tabs. You should see one that says "My Photos". Choose that tab. You may have to hunt and peck, mine were at the very end of course. You can delete them here. Just make sure you don't delete any that you actually used in a blog post.

There. I'm done.

Twins

My father is on the left in the dark jacket.
I have no idea when this photo may have been taken.
If I had to guess, I'd say late 30's?

The Waiting Game

I went hog wild with the photo above. Just one of those mornings where I wanted to dabble and splash around like a child in a mud puddle and make the biggest splash marks I could.

I watched a movie a week or so ago called "The Crying Game".  I had heard of it before. I guess it won an Oscar. Whatever. It held my interest.

I play a game at work called "The Waiting Game".  This will sound jaded, but it gets me through the job cycle. A couple of years ago I wrote a post about "The Alarmist", but I am thinking "instigator" may be the more appropriate term for this individual character.

Some people just like to stir up trouble.

It goes on and on. And, I play "the waiting game".  I poke here and I prod there. I call this person and I research this issue. It is the same old, same old.

It is indeed a true "waiting game".

What?

Here is Slade guarding his chewy bone. The boxer has a much more difficult time with chew bones than the other dogs (with long snouts). He cannot maneuver or pick his up as quickly and easily as they can. He did get it stolen from him and I got it back for him.

We put up a baby gate on the steps going down into the basement. The bars were too close together for the cats, so I proceeded to get myself a hacksaw. I have one but it was huge (I bought it to cut the bottoms off my Christmas trees and to cut up shrubbery). This one was smaller and did the trick. Cats can come and go, dogs cannot. No more "P.U.P." in the basement!

The kids cleaned and scrubbed the carpets. They are making it into a video gaming place for them. YAY! Did I say kids? The "kids" are planning a trip to New Jersey at the end of the month. The same time I am planning to go to WV to visit relatives. Dogs will have to go to the vet's office for boarding. I have other family coming in that week-end. I said "Have fun, I won't be here and neither will the dogs! Feed the cats!"

Visitor

A visitor to my house. Luminous light courtesy of altered photo program. I also altered the face so that the identity could remain private. Does anyone else think it odd that this is a Halloween costume?

Amish Valley

Here is the back parking lot of the restaurant we ate at. The food. You have to come to Amish country to believe the food that is served there. It is just 30 minutes from me and I take it for granted. Shame.

This photo has been distorted. The parking lot is not sinking.

Across from the fleat market

Amish country was booming today. This photo is what I captured across from where I parked. The leaves must have hit their peak last week-end because it was just kind of dull. So I messed with the photo in my free program Photo Scape. I messed with it too much, but I'm just playin'.

I purchased hot pepper jelly. What a joke! It wasn't hot at all! I purchased a sweater for the Boxer. We feel bad for him because all the other dogs have long, thick hair and he does not.

Here is another:

Happy Dance - maybe?

I did not take this photo. I lifted it from my nieces' facebook page.

Am I happy it is Friday? Why, yes I am. I usually drag through the work week. Every body's working for the week-end. Loverboy? Was that who sang that song? Can't wait for Friday.

But I have a little, tiny secret. I am kind of ashamed of it. I am very "into" work right now. I have a couple of puzzles and I can't wait to get to the office and tackle them. I keep it on the down low because I get to do this "interesting" stuff when a problem occurs. How sick is that? A district has to be in trouble or have a problem before I get to do my job. Well, mostly.

But then again, my brother is a fireman/EMT. He gets a charge when there is a road accident. I KNOW! See? I'm not so sick. I know a lot of volunteer firemen. They love the excitement that a fire brings. Hey, which reminds me. We had five or six fires in the vicinity (covering a few close counties as well) in one night last night. All set by arson. All businesses. All in the middle of the night so there were no lives lost.

Better

Sable circa 2003

She ain't as spry as she was when we first got her, but she is doing much better. Her doctor gave her an anti-biotic for the hot spot on her cheek and an anti-inflammatory for her stiff back legs.  I will start her back on the glucosamine soft chews. I think the medicine has affected her hearing because she won't listen to me when we are out and about. Either that or she feels better than she has in a long time, so she is wandering more and not giving a hoot about keeping up with me and the boxer.

Yeah, she's a real pistol. The anti-biotics will stop, but the anti-inflam. - I am to give her that on an as-needed basis. The doc only gave me a few days supply until I am sure it will work for Sable then I can order more. If it didn't work, she wanted to try something else. I think it works. I am thinking of asking the doctor if I can take it, too. Kidding. I'm kidding!

Although I am cheating and drink a 5-hour energy drink in the afternoon at work. It has made a huge difference in my evening at home. I actually cleaned both my kitchen and dining room ceiling fans last night. My sinks got a good scrubbing with baking soda.  All my laundry is caught up. All the kitty litter boxes are clean. For the third night in a row I did not turn the television on. I ran out and got my hair cut. I know, I know. It's caffeine, but so far I can still sleep. Well, maybe not. I still get the early morning insomnia now and again  -  but I was getting that anyway before I started with the energy drinks. Sigh. I know I can't keep taking them, but for now - I'll take them.

It has been great weather for walking the dogs. With Sable feeling better, I don't worry about her dragging behind us. It was sad this morning. It was dark when I took her and the boxer for a walk. I don't leash her. I carry one with me in case I need it, but she pretty much just ambles about. She became separated from us. I usually go so far, then stop and wait for her to catch up. She didn't show. I started back the way I came. I could see her (she is black and it is dark) barely. I could tell she was confused. She did not know where we went. I think she was scared because when she saw me she was so happy and relieved. It was very sad.

And, what in the hell happened to posting on Tuesday and Wednesday? Stupid caffeine.

Doggie update

This is Chong

Everything is pretty much the same with the hounds. Except Sable seems to be a little stiffer lately. I made an appointment with the veterinarian tomorrow (if I can get her into my car). The last time she was checked out, they said it was probably arthritis. I hate for her to be in pain. She likes to lay in front of the back door and we have to make her move each time we go in and out. A pain, for sure. Once I caught her tail in the door - I know that hurt. There isn't much room to move her, because the basement steps are right there and I don't want to end up pushing her down the steps. Good grief! In order to get her out of the front of the door, I have to pull her into the kitchen. Not real easy to do - she weighed 96 lbs. the last time we had her checked.

While walking her on Saturday, she stumbled a couple of times.  I took her with me to my brother's house. She did okay. I know they fed her some people food when I wasn't looking.

I just remembered I used to give her PhyCox soft chews with glucosamine in it. That works but it takes time. I will pick up some of that tomorrow (if the vet says okay). Then I will go back to ordering it online. I had to stop for a while, but things are picking up and I should be able to start again.

I was able to get her outside and walking this evening. My daughter said she wouldn't go out at lunch for her. I usually don't have a problem. I actually "walk" them. My daughter just stands out in the yard with them and Sable knows this. I love my puppies and I want to do what is best for them, but this stupid economy certainly did make it hard for a while. Grrr!

The "out of gas" story

My brother (1942) and I went to shop yesterday for an extra internal hard drive for his computer. He has  a 160 GB and it was getting full. He deleted stuff and cleaned it up, but thought he should still add one. That's where I come in. I went to his house, we opened up the PC, gave it a good cleaning. I made sure there was a cable for the extra drive - power, yes. Cable for data - no. His was SATA (like mine) and I just did mine (wait, how many times? LOL!).

Leaving the store and in the parking lot a nice young lady asked me "Can I ask you a question?"  Besides the fact that she just did, I said "Yes."  She began, "I ran out of gas...." and pointed across the parking lot. I snorted (or something to that effect) and shook my head. "No way!" I said.

She said "Oh, okay."  As I walked away I told my brother   "I'm not falling for THAT one!"

In the car I explained to him that just this past month both our brother 1953 and his wife's niece were ripped off by somebody claiming to have run out of gas. They both gave the guy money (his wife and kids were still in the car out on the freeway, for goodness sake!) and never saw it again. The stories are much more complex, but you get the idea.

Then they told me there were crack addicts walking around (the city my brother lives in) the parking lots telling the woeful store of running out of gas, so they could score some drug money. When we got home and told our sister 1944, she said "That's a shame. Those people are ruining it for people who actually do need help."

Well, I told my story on facebook and wouldn't you know... a friend of mine said "That was my cousin, and she really DID run out of gas!"  I apologized and told her why I did what I did. I also told her (and my sister) it was strange because this girl did not look like a drug addict (but who am I to  know what one looks like?). She had nice hair and clothes and she looked healthy.

So I have learned a lesson. I should at least listen to the person before I make such a harsh judgement again. I should have said "I have my cell phone, can I call somebody for you?"  I know better than to hand my phone over to them. 

I also was a bit perplexed by the way she started her story. My reasoning was (before I discovered that she was my friend's cousin) was that 1. - who does not have a cell phone with them? (I know some folks don't but it is rare).  2. If I ran out of gas, I would not ask people if I could ask them a question, I would just blurt out - "Can you help me?" or "Do you have a cell phone, can you call somebody for me?"  - my first words out of my mouth would be "I ran out of gas".  Of course I probably would have stopped her right there, but if you need assistance, I don't know - I don't think  you start out with "Can I ask you a question?"  That is more like starting a conversation about "Is this restaurant any good, or do you know the directions to somewhere?" Or even worse - 'Who are you voting for and can I give you my opinion on the candidates?' Yikes.

So, next time (if there is a next time) I will listen first and let my instincts tell me if that person in need  IS on the up and up. I still remember Tabor's story about the nice looking lady in the drug store.

And a quick recap on yesterday's post about facebook in the classroom, here is a page that I thought has some pretty good pointers.  http://www.heppell.net/facebook_in_school/.

In the classroom

One school is having a problem blocking facebook. A number of schools in our area want to use facebook. Do you use facebook? Do you think it is a good tool to use in a classroom? Most schools are combining several classes now into one building. If facebook is allowed for 7th and 8th grade students, it may be available for 5th and 6th (or even younger) also.

Sometimes the way a network in the school is setup, is so that all students have access to the same sites. There is a way to break them down so that a certain range can view facebook, and a certain range cannot. But, you need a savvy tech person to do that.

Some schools do not have that. Some are so overwhelmed that they find it easier to just say "no" to facebook than to tweak the network to control it. And, who in the school district makes the decision as to whether a site is blocked or not? Do you know who does this in your school district? Do you think there is a committee that sits down and decides this? Think again. Mostly it is one person. If that person does not understand or use facebook themselves, forget it. If there are enough teachers who want to use the program, they can take it to the Administration and it can be overruled, I guess.

I have heard this conversation many times over the past 15 years I have worked in technology in the schools. The tech person in a district gets very little respect or empathy from the Administration. This in turn causes the tech person to have a chip on their shoulder. They get to feeling overwhelmed. Very few Administration personnel understand technology or what it entails to run a network. Many think that the tech person just sits around and plays on the computer all day. They do not have a clue what he or she does and what knowledge and trial and error it takes to accomplish the job. The tech becomes burnt out and angry over time and when a decision such as "should we allow facebook in the classroom" comes up, the tech says "No! It is too much of a hassle and my plate is too full as it is!" End of story. Period.

The teacher. Does your child have a tech savvy teacher or does your child have a teacher who never turns the computer on in the classroom? I had one superintendent (still working in the school district) that told me the only technological device he uses is the remote control on his television at home. He told an employee that he didn't care about technology, he was only putting his 3 more years in to pad his retirement.  Ouch.  I feel really sorry for anybody who has a child in this school district.

Unimaginable

Some time ago - back in the early 80's - during my idle time where I read, stayed home and studied about art, poetry and whatnot; I caught a show on PBS (one of the 3 channels we were able to receive). It was about the mythological character Medea.

This was the first time that the idea of a mother killing her own child or children caught my attention and brought it to a grinding halt. I may have heard stories before that time, but didn't grasp the meaning of it. That story sunk in.

The 'why' and 'how could she' and many other questions went through my mind back then and as more and more stories appear in the news, they still go through my mind.

Which brings me to the reason for this post. Just a few miles away, a young mother fatally shot her two children before turning the gun on herself.

It appears as if she had been planning it for a while.

It boggles my mind. She was depressed and under stress? Yes, I would think she was.

Stranger still: both Medea and this lady studied a form of witchcraft.

Festival Dance

I had to upload the video to YouTube first, and then embed it here. You really can't hear my brother over the singing (chanting?) of the participants. One year it was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit and I watched them dance. This year they didn't seem so miserable. Beautiful.

Festival 2

I had to zoom to get the photo of these two. I did get more of them, but in a movie format. This dance is just awesome. They invite the crowd to come in and participate. A few did. I did not make it back out on Sunday. Both sisters canceled. They ended up closing the festival early because of poor attendance.

This couple had me in awe. They kept right up with the dancing. Once I check the sound of the video, I will try to get it posted. I am not certain what is said on the video, yet. I'll have to use my backup computer. The sound card in my big one seems to have bit the dust. I blame it on sister 1954 and her making me listen to Lady Ga-gag.

The festival

From the fall festival this year. The best I can tell (from Google) is that this type of pipe is a Great Highland perhaps? I see her every year and I should talk to her (when she is not busy playing, of course).

We walked. Then we ate. Then we walked some more. Then we ate some more. Rinse, repeat. I thought I would burst. My sister and I would not have eaten so much, but she had her son with her and he was like "Next!" at every food tent. I didn't complain, but my tummy did a little.

My other sister just called and cancelled on me today. I guess that is a good thing (for my tummy). The weather has been cold and rainy (yesterday it was cool and cloudy). The ground will be a muddy mess (I know from past experience) and it will be quite miserable. I still have one sister who has not checked in. I may be going, yet.

They want the damn year!

If you ever see this game (www.finditgames.com) turn and run the other way as fast and hard as you can. I thought my arm was going to fall off.

It is a clear plastic cylindrical tube with hidden objects in the confetti-like plastic. I guess the ultimate elusive find is the penny. I was SO obsessed with finding everything that I took pictures. The penny was not as elusive to me as the stupid candy cane.

I got pictures of a wee bit of Abe Lincoln's head. I went to their site and it taunts you with "So, you THINK you found the penny? Click here..." I clicked and they want the freaking year! WTF?! I was livid. I may need to take Advil for the next ten consecutive days for my sore arm from shaking that damn toy for so long and they want the freaking year of the penny!

Can't I just send a picture of Abe's do?

Back Home

A photo of my Mom & Dad and I am thinking - sister 1954. Since the photo is dated 1955. Depending on when the film was developed - it could be my brother 1953.

They would try to visit "back home" once a year to see the family. My Mom didn't have much family left at that time (raised by grandparents) but my Dad had plenty. This photo was taken at my Aunts house in Wild Wonderful WV.

I researched a bit on what was happening in 1955. I was not born, yet. My Mom was a big Cleveland Indians fan - they were pretty popular during that time. My dad was a huge western watcher - Gunsmoke started that year. I doubt that they had a television (maybe) - but I know they had a radio (to listen to the ball games).

I have a full week-end ahead and of course I get a bout of early morning insomnia this morning. I awoke at 3:30. I finally just gave up and got up at 4:30. Old Sable wouldn't even go out at that time of morning. Boxer and Cheech have been sick the past two days with vomiting. Not a lot, just a little.

I made two huge pans of lasagna. I don't put the ricotta cheese in mine, just plenty of shredded mozzarella. I do add sausage. I just remembered that I used to make the pepperoni lasagna and it would come out tasting like pizza. Yum. I'll have to do that again someday soon.