On the menu

My sister likes to have lasagna on Christmas day with ham. No turkey. Her husband does not like turkey. Who doesn't like turkey? Eh... no matter. I fixed a turkey on Sunday.

Anyways, she asked me to bring a vegetable lasagna. It is funny because her daughter is vegetarian but made the sausage lasagna. LOL! And she told me that her daughter was making the dried beef cheese ball this year so I did not need to bring one. Wow! Mix it up!

I sautéed the zucchini and yellow squash in olive oil and garlic for a wee bit before placing them in the lasagna for baking. I did not have any of this dish. I ate the sausage version which was exquisite.

By the way, do you know how to get the symbols to post? Such as the small e above with the accent over it? There is a table called extended ASCII character set. ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange. There is a code chart and then there is an "extended" code chart. Here is the IBM DOS extended chart. This chart will not work if you are using a Mac. Sorry. Here is a page you can try for Mac.

Anyway, find the character you want to use. We use Dec (decimal) so the Dec number for the small e with the accent coming from the right top corner down is number 130. According to this IBM DOS chart. You can use Notepad or any text program to practice this. Using your Alt key and holding it, type 130 on  your numeric keypad. Must be the number pad (not the numbers above the letters). When you release the Alt key, the symbol (character should appear).

How about this one? Hold the Alt key and type 146 on your numeric keypad.

Æ

Better still, just start with 1 and go down the line. 

☺☻♥  ♦  ♣  ♠  •  ◘  ○  ◙   ♂   ♀     ♪    ♫    ☼    ►

1   2  3  4  5  6  7  8   9 10  11   12   13  14   15   16

Are we having fun, yet?

Years ago, when I worked in DOS (before Windows) I used to create "hidden" folders on my hard drives. I can still make them. They are making it harder to get to DOS, but you can still create an invisible folder (sort of) in Windows.

Go to your desktop and create a New Folder. When you re-name the folder just hold the Alt key down and type 255. This is a blank. Press enter and you have a folder with no name. Sounds a bit Neil Young-ish, doesn't it?

You can even perform a search for this folder. Just chose Search files and folders (depending on the version of Windows you are using) from the Start button, choose the Search command, choose files and folders and in the area where you type "all or part of the file name" just hold the Alt key and type 255 from your numeric keypad. Release all keys and click the "search" option.

Eh, I could go on all day.

Exhausted

I don't recall being this tired after any holiday. I am whipped. I fixed a turkey dinner today for my crew and they are all out visiting tonight leaving me home alone. Well, I have the critters - but it is quiet. I am enjoying my new electronics. My sinus sting a little and my head hurts a little. Neither require medication at this point. I will walk the dogs one more time and then crash. I work tomorrow and then I have six days off. I am certain I will sleep most of Tuesday. That is the plan.

We be good this year!

We're having a white Christmas here in this neck of Ohio. Hope all of yours is blessed and beautiful. The photo above? I think my puppies were amazed that I was cleaning. They were not exactly sure what to make of it all. LOL!

Where's the beef?

I made this chuck roast yesterday after reading about CheerstoHappy's version from her December 16th. post. Hers looked so good and I had a hankerin' for something rich and saucy. My meal looks a little lost in this dish (I have requested that Santa bring me a heavy duty dutch oven). It was delicious. I left the chuck roast in the crock pot on low all day. When I came home, I added onion, potatoes and carrots and moved it to this baking dish and baked it in the oven at 350 for an hour. The aroma was enough to make you swoon. I get to experience the effects of the smells because I go outside to walk the dogs and when I returned the smell hit me head on.

The down side to this is if a pet has had an accident. That smell can knock you off your feet, too.

Woke up late this morning (for me) and have a cottony feeling inside my head and feel as if I am on the verge of a headache. I am getting pain around the eyes and back on the left side of the head. The coffee is making me sick to my stomach (also a sign of an impending headache). I am so thankful for my medication. I have experienced migraines since I was twelve years old. Before that I had severe headaches. I believe this is from sleeping in my Mom's room from 8 to 11 years old. Every morning I was awoken about 4 or 5 a.m. when she lit her first cigarette. The smoke was heavy in the bedroom and just wafted over to me. I hate cigarette smoke to this day. At 12 I moved into my sisters' bedroom.

Well, I am baking today. I managed puppy chow last evening and started the peanut butter blossoms. I will finish those today. I hope to make cranberry nut bread (cannot find the recipe) and with any luck I can knock out another batch of chocolate chip or M&M cookies. Then I will start the food for tonight. We are having creamed chicken sandwiches (requested by my niece for every Christmas eve), BBQ ham sandwiches (for me), meatball appetizers, and a cheese ball/tray with meat and crackers.

I'll take pictures if I can find my camera's battery charger. Well, you should know me by now. I lose everything!

Daughter's hand crafted tree for a centerpiece. This is about all the decorating I have accomplished. I am in the "one step forward, two steps back" phase. I am trying to muster up some ambition to get started on something this morning. Baking... decorating... anything. Actually, I  kind of want to crawl back into bed. At least I don't work today or tomorrow.

Dreams

Playing with the lights. We watched "Inception" last week.Strange. It was well acted and well played, I liked the characters, but I want a movie that makes me laugh these days. It kind of reminded me of DiCaprio's movie "Shutter Island".  Must be his thing these days.

A quickie...

I know. I think it should be "Cheech and Chong wish all of you..."   not wishes... sorry! This is all I have.. too busy.

And so this is Christmas

Another shot from the museum.

What does Christmas mean to you?

What priority defines your holiday?

1. Religious belief

2. Getting/giving presents

3. Seeing/being with family

4. Just getting through it all (a.k.a. 'I hate it and everything it represents') Hurry and just get it over with!

5. Time off from work/school

6. Making money (some people do)

7. A reason to shop

8. A reason to eat more

9. Decorating/making crafts/baking (being creative or creating something)

10. A reason to drink more

Why would somebody contemplate suicide during the holiday season?

1. Lonely (cannot relate to others and they don't understand why)

2. Unreasonable expectations that cannot be met (no money or energy required to "give")

3. Cannot stand to see such cheer when feeling so low and miserable

4. Confused that they don't feel the cheer or "get it" - there must be something wrong with me

5. Failure to meet personal goals (I will never be able to do it all or give enough)

When you find yourself feeling blue around the holidays, does anything in particular cheer you up? Or, what do you do to get yourself in the spirit of things?

1. Listening to Christmas carols/music

2. Shopping

3. Baking

4. Watching holiday movies

5. Seeing family/friends

6. Decorating

7. Wrapping gifts

8. Sending/receiving cards in the mail

9. Eating

10. Drinking

11. Driving or walking around looking at lights/displays

12. Going to holiday functions/festivals

13. Reading meaningful Christmas stories (The Gift of the Magi, etc...)

14. Reminiscing about past holidays and great memories (opening a box of nostalgic ornaments)

15. Nothing, I just like to lay low and do as little as possible to get this nightmare over with

Holiday dinner

We had 27 show up out of the expected 33 on Saturday night. 2 canceled at the last minute, 3 just did not show and 1 worked over. 2 of the 3 that did not show were children so they are not responsible. They went with "other" parents. Out of the 2 cancellations, one was a child. The one who worked over could not be helped - she is a crisis worker. Deals with suicides and psychotic patients, etc... So, that leaves 2 adults that left me in the lurch. I am so glad I did not have to pre-pay for the number of people attending. That has happened to me before where I got stiffed with paying for two meals that were not eaten.

They loved the Christmas carol game. About 4 people won all the tickets. One nephew just kept shouting out "Jingle Bells" for every song figuring he would get it sooner or later. When the "DTTS" (Dashing through the snow) came up - he didn't guess his usual 'Jingle Bells' and missed it altogether. LOL! I had to hum a few of the tunes before they got some of them.

Some did get a group picture, I'll have to go to facebook to download them. I did not place my camera in the mix for the poor girl taking all the group shots. She was a cousin of my niece and she got stuck taking the photos when we wanted all the family in them.We kicked ourselves for not getting the original 8 children in a shot. We are rarely all together anymore.

The restaurant was nice, the food was good. I had lemon butter cod that can still make my mouth water. The waitresses were awesome. We were assigned two this year. They place us in a back room all to ourselves. This was our fourth annual holiday dinner. I did not have to drive. I imbibed in 2 Amaretto sours. And, they were sour! My salivary glands still shrink up when I think about them.

I may get ingredients to make the Kahlua/YooHoo/half & half drink. I may even get brave and add chocolate milk to it. I don't know, though. I don't want to tempt the 20 year olds and the sister who is out of prison this year. I need to try to keep a dry atmosphere around here. So,  I will just drink YooHoo. Sigh. Oh, well. 

Well, I'm off to run some errands. Then maybe bake a little bit? Maybe?

Lit tree

Only the lights. Still. Nothing else. I have been giving it water like crazy. The kids are responsible for decorations this year. Sigh. I like how this cell phone feature "Polaroid" makes the photo look 30 years old. I think my camera is in the trunk of my car. I took pictures at our big family dinner on the 11th, and have pictures but have forgotten to get the camera out each time. Wait. I unloaded groceries on Sunday. I would have picked up the camera if it were in the trunk. Then, where is it? Aw, jeez. Now I have to go look for it.

I have the week off from work for vacation. There are about 3 problems that I am still trying to take care of remotely from home. They concern the filter. I may try one more thing and then let everything go until I return to the office on the 20th.

The filter may die by then.

Do you have children in school? If you did,  how would you feel about their Internet usage and the filter? Would you be upset if they could play games or access facebook in the classroom? How about reading/writing blogs while in the classroom?  Porn is easy. It is blocked with NO exceptions. Proxies are blocked with NO exceptions. 

Youtube, facebook, games, shopping, gambling - a lot of other categories are left up to the district. The thorn in my side (this month) is a middle school has three games housed on their web page. We are required to categorize all our school web pages as "education" and all my districts allow this category to pass. If they did not, it would be kind of difficult for them. But, this lets those 3 games show up under the category "education" and all the schools in my organization's network can access the 3 games. I have only one district complaining (but they are relentless). I am working with my filter company (they are located on the west coast and I am on the east) but their resolution has not worked. I may have misunderstood and set it up incorrectly.

I have never heard of a parent wanting a list of blocked categories for their district. I have wanted to go to districts and hold a meeting with the parents to explain how the filter works in the districts but I wonder if any parent is even interested. 

Do they think that this technology is without errors?

Santa Baby

Did some arts and crafts with friends a week or so ago. We all sat around a big ping pong table. Most of them used glitter pens and markers. I used up all the white felt and stole all the white cotton balls.

By the way, my least favorite holiday song is "Santa Baby". Hate it. I despise the lyrics and it totally goes against my nature. Oooh! Buy me this! Buy me that! I only love you if you give me material things! A ring, yes a ring! Boo boo be do! (retching).

I am not feeling any better at all. I think I am getting worse. Have the big dinner party tonight.33 is the latest count. My daughter's boyfriend will drive (deer on a dark county road at night) and I'll let the 20 year old eyes take care of the spotting. I'll be snug in the back seat with no worries. I might drink some of the bourbon that Tabor suggested. If I can keep it down.

I am not used to riding in the back. It is a forty minute drive. I'll hope for the best.

The adult game we are playing goes like this. I took construction paper and cut it in half - long ways. I put the first letters of the first line of a Christmas song on each one. I have about 40 of them.

For example, the song "Away in a Manger" looks like this on the card:  AIAM. They have to guess the song. Not so easy. Here are some, can you guess them?

1.  TFNTADS

2.  STNWTTLL

3.  DTTS

4.  DTHWBOH

5.  GGROBAR

6.  OLTOB

7.  SNHN

8.  HTHAS

9.  JTTW

10.  GTIOTM

11.  FTSWAJHS

12.  HYAMLC

13.  IDOAWC

14. OCAYF

15. WWYAMC

Have you seen the tissue box...

The tissue box... the tissue box! Have you seen the tissue box, that lives on Derry lane?

Groan

I shuffle around with a box of tissues in one hand, a tube of anti-bacterial wipes in the other and a bag of cough drops in the other. Wait. Put the a/b wipes under my arm. Even though I have not grown another arm, I do feel like my head has swollen to the size of a hot air balloon, though.

Right now it is the sore nose, scratchy and sore throat and sinus pressure. I've been calling off sick from work. I have a week of vacation next week. I am not getting things done to prepare for vacation. Wonderful. Just great. Then there is the nagging cough that will not let  you sleep. Groan.

I have been eating popcicles and drinking ginger ale and water.  Anything to try to stop this hacking cough. You can only eat so many cough drops before you start to feel really sick. Let me doze in front of the t.v. in my big chair. That is the only place I am comfortable.

I don't need this right now

Nature has a way of slowing us down if we won't do it ourselves. I really don't need this in my life right now. I'll be off from work today snuggled in blankets and pillows and my pests of course. I did not type "pets" on purpose. I get cold, I get hot. I cough, I sneeze. Bring on the tissues, chicken noodle soup, the ginger ale and the cough drops. And the acetaminophen. It doesn't touch the headaches but it does help relieve other symptoms. Ugh. Until tomorrow.

Nice

The boxer wrapped himself up in the sheet. He stopped to pose for me while I snapped this picture.

I looked back over the month and realized I have not posted a photo of any pets recently. I looked back in my archive and found this one. I read where the boxers are the clowns of the dog breeds. I have to say I can find that very believable. He is a ham and a half. My daughter says he is stupid. He has been with  us for over a year and still when I go to let him in the back door he stands with his nose in the wrong side of the door. I say "Slade, it opens over here."  Nope. He never gets it.

I don't believe he is stupid. He IS however, a huge marshmallow. While walking him down the alley tonight (it was dark and I did not have him on his leash) he came running back towards me as fast as he could with a tiny little white dog chasing him. It was the funniest thing I had seen in a long time. Stupid? Nah. Silly? Yes.

Warmth

This is a photo taken during my tour of the Warthers' Museum Christmas tree display. I noticed a lot more of the displays added features other than the tree this year. I don't show the tree in this photograph, but the entire display is included when you purchase the tree. We peeked under the tablecloth. It was a mock plywood table under there. :)

I have not been posting much. I don't feel very well this morning and I have been doing a lot of planning. My family has over 30 showing up for a dinner at a restaurant on Saturday evening. This is possibly our fourth annual Christmas get together. Maybe five? I'll have to check back in my blog. This is the most we have ever had show (if they all show and the weather co-operates). I plan activities for adults and children. The restaurant puts us in their back room. We grow every year as more and more family members say to themselves "I'm not missing this year!" We get some extra children in now and then and that is fine by me. 

Sadly, two members will be absent this year (not because of death). Some relationships do not work out. I'll have my camera. I'll have my cell phone also for pics. My daughter cannot find her camera. Hmmm... apple falling... and the tree...

Oh, yeah. It's Pearl Harbor day. Or "Attack on Pearl Harbor" day. What is it? - 69 years ago? Not many people even think of the day anymore. I was reading up on it yesterday in wikipedia. Very interesting. I have not seen the movie. I may catch it someday on television. Growing up I didn't hear many details. Just that Japan attacked us out of the blue. Since I did not know the story behind their provocation I just thought "What the hell? Who did they think they were?"  There is motive behind everything, usually greed. The tension had been building for years.

War kind of reminds me of the old Westerns on TV. You see all the cowboys sitting or standing around in the saloon. A brawl breaks out. A few guys start swinging punches and pieces of the tables and chairs go flying. Some cowboys continue to lean against the bar minding their own business. It isn't their fight, they do not want to get involved. Then a beer bottle or a piece of table leg hits them in the back of the head. Hey! Now, it's getting personal! Then they enter the fight. And it goes on and on and on.

WWBD

A blast (of snow) from the past.

I am not pictured in the photo above. I would have been 3  years old. I was probably inside eating playing with my brothers' trucks.

The photo is taken either by my Mom or sister 1944. Brother 1942 was off in the AF during this time. I think. I don't know.

He and sister 1944 are having computer problems.

You get an update or do something or the power goes out and your computer needs to/ or has to restart. You get  a black screen with one line of text. Windows cannot start because the blah.dll file is missing or corrupt. What do you do?

WWBD? What would Bill do (as in Bill Gates)? I know what Bill wants you to do. He wants to you run out and purchase the latest and greatest version of Window available. Preferably the Ultimate Professional edition of his OS and install it and begin using it.

My brother came close to hauling it off to the nearest repair center. He does not have very much patience (although he is very thorough and diligent).

After finding the installation disk I was finally able to walk him through installing a new version of XP onto his spare hard drive we purchased a month or two ago.  We would have repaired the Windows that was on drive C: but he did not recall his Admin password. Oops. After we installed a new version of XP on the D: drive my sister found the folder with the lost password. Figures. Heh, heh. Murphy's law and all.

We get that installed and I advise him to call the cable provider to have them set him up with Internet access. They can give  him all the numbers he needs to plug in, etc.. I also warned him about the time it would take the system to update that version of XP (four years of updates can take a while) once he does get back on-line.

The tech with the cable company says that he needs a new driver and a new cable and he will have to go to the nearest (insert greedy cable company name here) center and purchase them before he can get him access to the Internet. They probably did that when they first set him up... but who knows where that update is, now. What cracks me up is they told him he now needs an Ethernet cable to the cable modem (which I thought he was using)... whatever.. I guess he connects USB to the modem? Yikes.

Anyway, I was walking him through trying to access Word/Excel files and the phone kept cutting out. They have cable/Internet/telephone all through the (insert greedy cable company name here). My sister (who lives with him) let him use her cell phone and he told me he had enough of computer troubleshooting and was going to give it a rest after he called (insert greedy cable company name here) and got the phones and cable television working again.

Wow. What really scared me was how lost they were w/out the Internet. I would be lost, but I have four computers and two cell phones in the house that can access the Internet. I also have four machines at work, plus access to a lab of 25 computers that can access the Internet.

What do we do if the Internet goes away? Or collapses? Or the traffic gets so bogged down we can't move? When mine goes out I revert to reading the newspaper, etc... I know this subject has been beaten to death, but seriously what would YOU do if you lost your Internet access? And it wasn't coming back anytime soon.

My sister drove to Akron (her daughter's house) to check her e-mail (she needed a count for cookies she was baking for a Christmas lunch) and to take my daughter's dog out, also. E-Mail was not the only reason. :)

I had set her up with e-mail on her daughters' PC when she stayed there after her daughter's surgery. She did not know how to access her e-mail anywhere else but at home. My brother had set her up so that all she had to do was to click an icon and it opened Outlook Express and she went from there. Imagine me showing her (insert greedy cable company name here)'s webmail and trying to explain to her how Outlook pulls e-mail off the cable company's mail server and places it on the PC hard drive at her house. So that when she goes to her daughter's house and accesses her e-mail she can no longer see her messages. Where did they go? She did get it though after I drew pictures. Seriously. I do that for everybody when I explain things. I think it helps.

Now, I am trying to explain that to my brother when I suggested that once he does set her back up with her e-mail to not set up Outlook Express because she is always going places. To visit family, motels, libraries and she checks her e-mails at their computers. He is not getting it. Of course he has a lot on his plate right now. And I was not there to draw pictures. ;)

I told him tomorrow. Tomorrow I could work with them some more. Between Thanksgiving and New Years I do not have a lot of time. I am late already. I am supposed to have about a dozen things done this morning to get ready for today and I have not done a one. Sigh.

Remember this game?

Remember this game? Here is a list of what you are supposed to be able to find in the game.

Here is the snowflake:

Oh, and you know what? Thank the stars for noodles and mashed potatoes. Seriously! If it were not for them, I would just walk around pouring salt onto a stick of butter and eat it. I'd probably have to eat like 5 sticks or more before I even began to feel full. That's where the noodles and potatoes come in. Whew. Get full much quicker. Aw, comfort food. I need a little comfort. Ten years ago was the fateful accident that took my Mom from me and my siblings. She did not pass until the 3rd, but it was a freaking nightmare.

Pumpkin Trifle

The reason I walked into a Wallet Mart for the second time in what has it been, two or three  years? Wait. I take that back. I have been to the one in Cosh0cton. I like theirs better than ours. Anyway, I wanted a Trifle dish. I needed a Trifle dish. I was not paying $34 at Elder Beerm@n for one.

Wallet Mart had them for @ seven dollars. That was all I bought. I walked in. Got the dish and walked out. Well, I paid for it of course. And, it was made in America. YAY! EB probably couldn't even claim that.

I didn't think to get a picture before somebody dug into it.  Anyway, I have a ways to go. I am a bit sloppy. Of course I won't mention that I was drinking a glass of wine when I assembled it. Whoops. I just mentioned it. Too late!

The recipe my co-worker gave me called for gingerbread cake and butterscotch pudding. Not my favorites. Yuck. I substituted yellow cake mix and cheesecake pudding. Yum!

There are many recipes on-line. I used yellow cake mix, cheesecake pudding, cool whip, canned pumpkin and various spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and pumpkin spice. I did not have ginger or cloves. It turned out great. It is better if refrigerated for an hour or longer before serving.

And somebody please, please tell me it is not December 1st. I can't bear it. I am not ready. I am not near ready. Tell me it is a dream. I have the first party on Saturday. I am NOT ready. Suck it up, Peruby! You better GIT ready!

Peace tonight

Here is our moon a few days back (photo touched up).

Headache tonight. Tired. Not much to write about. Fixed a big dinner Sunday and am still tired from cleaning up afterwards. Work was long after five days away.  After a few days with a house full of fun, I am alone (with the critters of course) and having a very peaceful, quiet evening. Pewuby vewy sweepy.

Yum, Yum!

One ball turned out picture perfect and the other one came out like soup! They were both made the exact same time, let the cream cheese sit out the exact same amount of time and let them set up in the refrigerator the same amount of time. The ONLY thing that MAY have been the difference is the amount of time I spent mixing the cream cheese with the Kraft Old English cheese. Hmmm. I thought as much.

Anyway, they were both very good. This year I almost ran out of crackers. I took 2 boxes of Club crackers (they are the best for NOT falling apart while you spread cheese on them) and we almost ran out. Ritz and Townhouse crackers taste wonderful but are known to crumble when pressed upon.

Nostalgia

My daughter works part time at a Gaming store. (Her dream job). She has another (more serious) part time job but this one is "fun". So she says. She picked something out for me from the store. It is so cute. Sigh. Pac-Man. This game caused me WAY too much stress. I was not able to enjoy them because I would get all worked up and anxious. Video games. Not MY cup of tea. I will, however, take the cute little paraphernalia associated with it.

Our Thanksgiving feast was fantastic. The food was glorious and I think my sister had a record number of folks show up. It is kind of nice because we get some extended family members in the mix as well. Out of the original eight children, only one brother (1957) didn't show. Sister 1956 said he is SO negative. She sees him often and he is just grumpy these days. He did get a new little Yorkie so he is probably busy playing papa to the new baby. Good for him. As in it is "good" for him. Probably therapeutic.

We finished the day by playing one of my favorite games, Tripoley (by Cadaco). We play the Michigan Rummy version. It was how I was shown to play when I was first introduced to the game. We always start out a little bit rocky, forgetting the rules until about the fourth round in. Then all falls into place and we are cruising along, drafting new players each year. It looks daunting, but once you get the hang of it - it is smooth sailing. We play with nickles. No big loss of money because most of the players are in their 30's and starting families.

I arrived home late. My dogs were neglected but I tried to make up for it on Friday. I spent the day with them and roasted my own turkey breast with a few of the trimmings. Their mouths were watering, but they only got dry doggie biscuits. A wee bit of the turkey will be doled out sparingly to them as a treat. 

I have a huge ham to bake for Sunday when some company will be arriving from out of town. My sister (1954) has a daughter who is very, very ill. She is autistic and her seizures have taken a serious turn. Her neck muscles may be permanently damaged. The Akron hospital will be trying new treatments. The girl is 18. Our family has not had much contact with her. My sister and the girl's father had a bad breakup. He finally won total custody of the child and she has remained with him ever since. I will learn more after Sunday.

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.