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.