Saturday, February 28, 2015

Frustration

I think I have figured out the setting of "don't track my own traffic". It works fine as long as I use one computer only.  But if I switch back and forth between this pc and my MacBook, it negates that setting.  So all the "Morgantown" in the listing over there ----> is from me.  Drat.  I can't figure out how to delete all the Morgantown listings.

I saw a topic recently from a woman with a particular recipe for something yummy, who was asked for the recipe.  She didn't want to share, as it is her "specialty" for family gathers.  I understand completely.  But my story is a little different.

When we lived in San Francisco, most of our social events were pot luck; everyone brought something to share.  It always kinda irked me at how many people brought the bare minimum (chips) or dessert items, because there was nothing substantial to eat.  One particular event, I didn't have time to fix anything at all, but damned if I was going to cop out with chips.  So I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and bought two big buckets of fried chicken, transferred it to my own pan, and brought it.  There was this one M.D. who had probably never eaten fast food of any kind, who just raved about my chicken and how he wanted my "recipe".  Even weeks later he asked for the recipe, and I couldn't tell him where I got it, because it would have made him look foolish, so for years he bugged me for the recipe.  I don't live there anymore, and I wonder if he ever tried KFC on his own.  Probably not.  But I get a little giggle every time I buy it now to eat. Must have been those 11 herbs and spices.

Thought for the day:  (in honor of Mr. Spock) "Keep calm and phasers on STUN."


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Flowers

Here is a photo of the flowers I got for Valentines Day, 10 days ago.  They were from WalMart, and have lasted and even bloomed (the stargazer lilies) since then.  DH took the photo, aren't they lovely?

Bumper sticker for the day:  "I tried cooking with wine, but after four glasses I forgot why I was in the kitchen."

P.S.  I can't get the list of readers over there ----> to stop counting me as a visitor.  It didn't do that before...  oh well.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Where's that damn groundhog??

I am freezing.  We have the furnace on, and we are running six space heaters, and still I sit here all bundled up in a fuzzy throw.  I predict this will be a short post.

I remember a time when I wanted snow.  I grew up in Miami, FL, where they have to shovel sunshine off their driveways.  From there I moved to SC, and I remember lots of rain but only one snowfall. Then I lived in Memphis TN, where any snow in the air was rare enough for everyone to down tools and go for a look.  And lastly, we lived in San Francisco, where you drove to Tahoe, on the far side of Donner Pass, to get snow to play in.  And I remember wanting to live someplace where it actually snowed outside my door.  Oh what foolishness!  I didn't listen to the Florida snowbirds who would try to explain about living in snow country, where you must work and drive everywhere in the worst of weather.  Not sitting at home with your feet to a fireplace sipping hot chocolate.  So I am officially done with snow, ice, 40 mph wind and bundling up just to get the mail.  Do you hear?  ! DONE !

I have almost spent all of my birthday money, and fun it has been.  I didn't spend all of it on yarn, just part of it.  I don't know where else I can put more yarn, but I am thinking about it.  I bought two shirts, and I am in a similar state with clothes as I am with yarn.

Unfinished post, had to retrieve it from the history listings, draft doesn't work.  Will finish tomorrow



I just hate it when the computer just freezes up or (worse yet) shuts down an application for no visible reason.  Usually I don't lose much, but when it comes to a post nearly finished, I'd like to throw the thing out the window.

The shoer was due to come today (it is Saturday the 21st now) to see to the horses' feet, but it is currently snowing hard and there is a forecast for 5 to 8 inches of snow just for today.  Maybe more overnight.  This in addition to the 4 inches already on the ground.  This winter is really getting to me.  I don't like going out when there is snow/ice everywhere because I am afraid of falling (again).  But as a result, this house is getting smaller and smaller every day.  Not much to choose between.

Thought for the day:  "Some people are like slinkies.  They're not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs."




Saturday, February 14, 2015

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  We are not going out or doing anything special except staying home and keeping warm.  N did bring me a huge bunch of cut flowers which I love.  Too bad I don't know how to arrange them, other than cutting off the bottom and plunking them in water with the packet of "flower food" that comes with them.  Still they are very pretty.  And the cats are (so far) leaving them alone.  I still have a few left from my birthday, in a cute little vase.  I should check if the VoTech classes include flower arranging.  Along with auto mechanics and pre-pre-nursing students.

The new washing machine is sloshing away, but I turned off the annoying chimes/tune that signaled when the load was done.  I still don't trust it, after the old machine bombed out, so I sit here at the keyboard just across the hall from it, and keep an ear on what is happening with each load.  Eventually I will get more confident of it.  The water was shut down for a while yesterday, and there is still air in the lines which go "pfft pftt" at each faucet, it sounds like a watery explosion, until the air is finally purged.  I'm just glad that I wasn't mid-shower when it went down. 

The knitting has slowed down this week, in deference to nap times.  Even when I try to stay awake all day, it doesn't help me sleep any better that night, and I am even more sleepy the next day.  Once I get started on a piece, I usually get involved enough to finish or nearly so, but right now I have frogged the one mitten I finished, it was too weird to fit an actual human hand.  (frogged = ripped out (rip it rip it rip it))  I did another swatch to check my gauge, and I don't know what I did the first time, because this one measures completely different.  Ah well, guess it is just as well that I don't have to earn a living doing this.

Thought for the day:  "Just because I'm awake doesn't mean I'm ready to do things."




Monday, February 09, 2015

Creeping right along


Sheeesh.  This past day has been a day of catching one stink bug after another.  One landed on my shoulder!  It is so creepy I am sleeping with the light on, and the cat with a proven ability to suss out any stink bug, is sleeping with me.  It isn't enough.  This is because the high today was 61, where the low on last Thursday was one degree.  The bugs love this warm weather, they are very active when they find their way in; when it is cold they seek warm places like lightbulbs, and the kitchen (ick!).  Either way the weird fluctuations in temperature are driving the bugs indoors.

On to a topic of less creepiness~
I have been going through my fountain pens and cleaning any one that is stubbornly dry.  I managed to get ink on my favorite jeans.  They are a faded (but new) red, so of course I couldn't have been wearing blue jeans where the spot of ink would be invisible, oh no.  Rats.  Indelible too.  But the pen writes very well now.

When I was working, I kept a large flowerpot filled with pens on my desk.  Probably 200 pens.  A lot of them were advertising ones that you get for free at various businesses, nothing special.  The rest were any one that wrote especially smoothly, but obviously I couldn't write with all of them, so whenever someone needed a pen, maybe a red ink one, they were welcome to take whatever I had.  I would get kidded a lot about them.  Now that I am home pretty much all the time, the pens that came home with me, languish now there is no one with which to share them.  I also kept a candy jar in the outer office and refilled it regularly for every one to enjoy.  Now I buy "treats" and although they get eaten with surprising speed, it doesn't feel the same.  Retirement changes a lot of things, things I never thought it would.  But still I am thankful I did retire, even though I was a mere 55 at the time.

I took the day off knitting to tidy up my knitting place, and put away the yarn I bought.  Yes, I know, I have yarn I haven't even touched in several years, but it gives me a lot of pleasure to get new yarn.  Anyway, I got it all squared away, sat down to admire it, and there beside the light was a stink bug.  I grabbed for it with a tissue and it evaded me, and the ensuing search took about an hour before it was dispatched with prejudice.  A swimming lesson for the bug.  But searching for the thing messed up my careful organization, and so tomorrow I will be re-re-arranging stuff.

But I did get the bathroom cleaned ~ N scrubbed the shower, bless him, it kills my knees to do it.  I hate to nag about it, but I also hate soapy and toothpaste-y stuff, and thus the 
need to do this regularly.  Years ago, before retirement, I had for many years had a cleaning service that came every two weeks to dust, vacuum, scrub, change sheets, do windows, and so on.  There would generally be 3 or so of them, and they would fly through it all, and because they came all the time, the house never got dirty.  I cancelled it when I was home full time, but now I am thinking of having them come and do a "spring" cleaning just to catch it up.  I'll have to think about it.  Whether the job would be worth the hassle.

One of the things in the master bath is this gigantic whirlpool tub, easily 6 feet long inside.  We had it put in when we built the bathroom, thinking it would be a big help in keeping me pain-free.  I have read that homeowners no longer put these in a new bath, because they turn out to not be used very much.  But I use ours a lot, candles (electric), music, bubble bath.  I guess the "youngsters" don't have time to relax this way ~ their loss.

Thought for the day:   "A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it."