New Year’s Wishes ~~

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your cardiologist, your gastro-enterologist, your urologist, your proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your plumber and the I.R.S.

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs and your stocks not fall; and may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol, your white blood count and your mortgage interest not rise.

May New Year's Eve find you seated around the table, together with your beloved family and cherished friends. May you find the food better, the environment quieter, the cost much cheaper, and the pleasure more fulfilling than anything else you might ordinarily do that night.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them. May someone love you enough to forgive your faults, be blind to your blemishes, and tell the world about your virtues.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish dinner, may the commercials on TV not be louder than the program you have been watching, and may your check book and your budget balance - and include generous amounts for charity.

May you remember to say "I love you" at least once a day to your spouse, your child, your parent, your siblings; but not to your secretary, your nurse, your masseuse, your hairdresser or your tennis instructor.

And may we live in a world at peace and with the awareness of God's love in every sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every baby's smile, every lover's kiss, and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart.

(courtesy of Image Source Page: http://llerrah.com/newyearwishes.htm)

I am so happy to have all of you in my life. You are a loved extended family, and in my case, my only family so that makes the love even greater.  Here’s hoping that 2011 will be a year of prosperity and abundance in all facets of our lives.

                     ~~~~~~                   ~~~~~~

XOXOXO

“And Now For Our Latest Weather, Meteorologist (insert name here) Reporting” ~~

Yesterday’s weather forecasters were so funny, but I don’t think they meant to be.  In the course of an hour, the first one said, “Oh, it looks like a blizzard is going to pound our city.”  About 15 minutes later on his next report, he said, “Well, folks, I don’t think we’ll see more than a couple of inches of the white stuff, so no worry after all.”  On his next appearance, he said, “The satellite programs are now showing that the storm is going to miss us completely, but the coastline will see some snow.”  This morning’s paper ran this very short blurb, “I blew it, yes, I blew it.”

It started snowing a little after 2pm yesterday and has never stopped. The news says we’re at almost a visibility of 0, but I can see up the street, into my back yard, my neighbors, and even the squirrel that’s running the cable wire. Maybe that newscaster is the same person doing the weather from yesterday.  Well, he’s having fun so we’ll leave him alone.  I will mention that yesterday before the snow even dropped the first flake, our governor declared a state of emergency. I am still laughing. Watching all the affiliates of major stations on our local system is like watching a game of Can You Top This.

Now the snow is coming down fast and furiously and it’s very beautiful, but the newest report is calling for another 6 inches of the stuff today. In this latest report, the weatherman said, “Did you know that historically we only see a white Christmas here every 20 years or so”, only to be followed up by his cohort saying in the same breath, “Well, if you recall, last year at Christmas we had over 30 inches of snow”, and the first weatherman could only reply, “Oh yeah, that’s right. Well, there goes that theory.” I tell you, the news has been a joy to watch today and I’ve gotten some great chuckles.  I’m giving today’s prize to guy #2.

The little birds are struggling hard to find food today.  I could see them under the Leland Cypress scratching away at the snow for a glimpse of a seed or two.  I went outside on my back porch and took a big platter of seed and a couple of saucers of water for them.  One of them must have been a lookout and sounded the announcement to the rest because about 5 minutes later, my porch was swamped with all sorts of birds.  Darn shame I couldn’t get a photo of them without them flying away. I tried and tried but they always saw that camera.  It’s ok. They have food now and Sam and Lucy have something to watch to occupy their time.  They were sick of the TV weathermen anyway.

.

 

XOXOXO

A Most Unforgettable Dinner Party ~~

You have to know I would have a Christmas story for you, and it is completely true and authentic as all the rest of my family stories have been. It was my neighbor, Laura,  today that reminded me of this and said, “Jen, you really must blog this” so here I am and here’s the story:

Once upon a time, there was a Christmas when I was in my later teens and my mother decided to do her one and only dinner party.  It wasn’t even a large dinner party, but when you read what happened, you’ll understand why she said, “Never again”, and stuck by that.

So many of Mom’s friends had hosted these wonderful, and sometimes even lavish Christmas dinners for their friends. As the years went by, Mom got a case of the guilts and knew she really had to do the same. Mom had never had any kind of party at the house and so, understandably, she was very nervous.  She decided to make it a very, small dinner party for 8, and if it worked, she’d make it larger the following year.  She made lists, she planned, she made invitations, she plotted out the menu so that there would be no mistakes, and she made our family recipe for the best darn eggnog in the entire world.  Invitations were mailed and everyone rsvp’d with a yes.  Mom was smiling and thinking, “This is working out so easily; yes, I can do this”.

The night of the party arrived and Mom was looking like an absolute dream as she greeted the guests and showed them into the living room. She had set up a beautiful table with lots of gorgeous Christmassy bites to eat and a giant punch bowl full of the essence of nog to die for.  Our pets had been secured in another room so as not to sit up and beg for morsels. Everyone remarked how beautiful the house looked and how beautiful Mom was.  She was beaming. The guests all made their way to the eggnog and settled themselves into the sofas and chairs and conversation was sparkling. Mom was glowing and checking the progress of her giant standing rib roast and all the side dishes she’d done from scratch.  Yes, everything was timed perfectly.  Her last trip to the kitchen was to pull the roast out of the oven, platter it and set it on the dining room table to rest for the next 10 minutes before carving.  The dining room was bathed in candlelight and all of Mom’s best dishes were gleaming in readiness for the feast.  She went back to the kitchen to assemble the last of the meal and asked me to get something she needed from upstairs.  As I was getting ready to bring this back down to her, I heard this blood curdling yell and I almost fell down the steps trying to get to Mom.  There she was in the dining room, eyes almost rolling back into her head, as our cat had broken out of the secured room, smelled the roast, climbed a cabinet, and flown in mid-air to land right on top of that roast on the table.  He was growling, hissing, and fighting that piece of beef for all he was worth.  We saw him roll off the table with the roast still in his grip as the guests all ran to the room.  It was pure pandemonium!  The roast was ruined and Mom told Dad to head to the store and find something, ANYTHING, to feed everyone.  Off he went and returned with 2 packages of …….get ready…..hot dogs!  Mom was dying a thousand deaths but had no more choices.  Now, at this point, the guests are so good natured that they are laughing and saying they’ll never forget this evening, but, that wasn’t even to be the end.  Mom cooked the hot dogs and yes, put them on a platter in the hopes they’d look like a roast.  Everyone got their plates loaded with anything they could find and were still laughing over the situation, when all of a sudden, our Irish Setter comes barreling around the corner, into the dining room and skids right into the wall. The poor dog gave out a YELP and headed for the kitchen where once again he couldn’t make the corner and fell into a cabinet. He jumped up and ran towards the living room and smack dab into the TV and toppled it to the floor.  As we all ran to the living room, there was our dog, a crumpled mess in the Christmas tree and drunk on his hind end. It seems that while we were in the dining room, old Rusty had broken free after the cat did and he’d made his way around the living room drinking up all the eggnog.  Well, everyone stood there with their mouths open and in shock at this sight, but the next sound just topped the cake.  It was the retching sound of a dog getting ready to give all that eggnog back.  There is nothing to do but end this story here as all the guests decided it was a very good time to call it a night.  As for Mom?  There was never, ever another party in this house.  As for the dog? I never saw a worse hangover.  As for the cat? The next day, he still had pieces of that roast hidden in the oddest places and you could hear the faint, rumbling sound of growling if you happened near his territory.  

  

                                             

Just Who Is Mr. Doppler?

As I look out my window and see the snow melting away, I hear the news on TV making their newest predictions for the upcoming week.  At first I found myself getting so excited until I heard the entire thing.  The announcer said something like this:  “Yes, it’s a little warmer today and even a little warmer tomorrow, but folks, don’t get too comfortable because we are in for yet another cold front and more snow!  Our Doppler radar is showing the march east of our next batch of winter weather and it’s due here on Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day!  Yes, we have the distinct possibility of a white Christmas!  Now let’s track this for the week (and his voice picks up speed).  Monday, a bit warmer than today with highs around 40. Tuesday, highs approaching 40 again and clear skies.  Wednesday the temps drop a few degrees but still clear.  Thursday, the clouds begin to build and roll in and the high will be around 38. For Friday, more cloud cover is forecast, and dropping temperatures and a chance of snow that carries on into Saturday, Christmas day. Yes, we have the chance of a white Christmas!  Chances for snow both days is……30%.”  I am thinking, what’s wrong with this picture?  Why even bother to get hopes up for a white Christmas with a 30% chance of snow?  That’s a 70% of no snow!  Which holds the greater weight? Shoot, my excited anticipation was for naught.  Well, one thing I can do is drive out this evening and see if I can get some night shots of a few of the houses on my street.  I’ve never tried night shots so I don’t know what will happen, but I’m going to try it.  Cross your fingers for me.  If it works, the next part of this entry will be the pictures.  Now to sit and wait for the dark..…..

_________________

Darn the dark.  I tried and tried. I even tried the video camera. Nothing. I know there’s a trick to taking pictures in the dark but I don’t know what they are.  The darn snow was all slushy, too. I should have stayed in and looked for great night photos from Photobucket -- just kidding.  You’d know those pictures weren’t mine right away because they’d be too good!  So, here’s one without the snow and one with the slushy mess.  Tomorrow I’m going to look for that camera manual and maybe it will tell me what to do.

_________________

Good thing I put up that little video about the Spirit of Christmas to remind myself, because this sure isn’t doing it for me.  If one of you knows the trick to a setting for nighttime shots, please tell me.

I may not be around to be first to comment on your newest entries because I have a couple of things to get ready.  There’s a dinner Tuesday night and then another on Wednesday night.  The one on Wednesday is a big affair done by a couple down the street every year.  It is super good fun and includes a cocktail party and then a huge dinner.  Because there are so many people, everyone chips in and brings a dish or two and also adds to the wine to help out. The hostess is doing some big standing rib roasts, shrimp, and other things. The rest of us are doing vegetables, salads, and desserts.  Can’t wait; they are the greatest couple. So, I’ll be in and out and run by as soon as I can to see what you’re up to. I really hate getting behind, don’t you?  Now it’s 7:30 and time to round up some dinner and some snugglin’ time with Sam & Lucy.  I’ll sign off with this photo of the 2 of them in their regular sleeping positions:

                  

…and, yes, they really are asleep in that last photo.

This last photo has nothing to do with anything.  It’s for Marge and she’ll know what it is.  **waving to Marge**:

 Nothing like the old friends, is there, Marge

XOXOXO

Christmas Spirit ~~

I saw this tonight and it touched me.  It needs no written words, it’s just something that bears repeating for our hearts.

                                                                  

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT                                  

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow ~~

No, I have no news whatsoever. I am just enjoying today for what it is, a Snow Day.  It is still as exciting to me as when I was a kid and school was either closed or we went home early due to that wonderful winter word, snow.

This morning I got up extra early just to watch the beginning of the snow falling and at 9:15 it started. Gorgeous. The report says 6” but I have my doubts since our loved but almost always wrong forecasters probably won’t be any different this time. That’s ok, this is wonderful just as it is.  I made my plans in advance yesterday, headed to the store (not for bread and milk, oh pleasssseee) and stocked up on cat food just in case I was really snowed in for days. Hey, I can do without but I’d never make the “kids” do without. The grocery store was packed as expected. When it snows, I have this craving for chili cheese dip, lots of jalapenos, oh yummm, so I planned to buy the ingredients for that, the cat food as already said, and then regular stuff that falls into the category of good-for-you. Yes, I believe in being prepared. I lugged home the loot and stored it away, got out a container from the freezer of that unbelievably good turkey soup I’d made, and waited for today. I swear, it was like being a kid and waiting for Christmas Eve and the sound of hooves on the roof.  I barely slept a wink and got up at the crack of dawn. My dreams were realized and I was grinnin’ ear to ear. Breakfast was early and coffee, too.  Then when 1:00 rolled around, I was really craving that chili cheese dip. Unreal.  I forgot to buy the ingredients. At this moment as I type, I still feel like the world has come to an early end, but I’ll get over it.  The scent of that soup is wafting up the steps and I’m heading down to scoop up a bowl – still, it’s not the dip, darn it.

I took a few shots of the outside as the snow was coming down, and I made a little vid of the front, but as usual, my vids go all over the place.  I made one of the birds in the back yard, too, but good lord, I must have hit the button at the wrong moment a dozen times and never got a complete vid….deleted the crummy thing.  Anyway, here’s my day, including a new picture of Sam since I hadn’t updated one of him for a bit and a new one of me, too, for what it’s worth ;)  As usual, click to enlarge if you’d like.  I really didn’t have much to say today, it was more a snow feeling than anything.

     

  

Here’s hoping if you have snow, you’re enjoying it just as much

Here’s the little vid. It’s not even close to what it should be, but gosh, when you get a whim and the snow is just that minute coming down, tell me, just how do you go about making a perfectly done vid?  It’s shakey as usual and disjointed, too, but I don’t care.  It will always remind me of today, and today will never come again.

XOXOXO

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words ~~

First, let me say right up front, there will be no photos on this entry, not a one. Why? Because this story is not only true but…let me tell you what happened.

There is a gal that’s been a dear friend of mine since elementary school, and being that I’m 63, that’s a long, long time. She is smart, she is beautiful, she is loving and honest, and she adores pets, especially cats.  Her very grown daughter lives in NY and travels so much that she hasn’t had enough time to spend with her sweet cat, so she called my friend (her mother) and asked if she would be willing to take the cat.  My friend without any hesitation said of course!  The cat traveled 1400 miles to his new home and was delighted to be with a human that was home all the time just for him (at least that’s how the cat saw it). My friend was just as delighted and couldn’t wait to call me and tell me all about him. Then she started taking pictures just like any new mom would do -- pictures of the cat walking, eating, sleeping, blurred pictures, and sharp pictures. When she told me about how he had taken to sleeping in the bathroom sink, that wasn’t so much of a surprise to me since I’d had any number of cats that loved it.  She said she’d taken this great close up shot of him in the sink and for me to notice how much he looked like my Lucy and so she emailed the photo to me.  I looked at it and yes indeed, he did look like my Lucy. I didn’t think any more about that picture until today. I wondered if the markings on his face were like Lucy’s, so I opened the photo on my desktop and clicked once to enlarge it.  I looked at his face, I squinted, I pulled back and looked, and leaned in and looked again.  As I was trying to find a particular “look” about him, all of a sudden my eyeballs went ZOINGGGGGGG!  What was this? What made me say OMG out loud?  What had all along appeared to be a shadow in the corner third of the picture was my friend, in the altogether from the belly button to the middle of her thighs, taking that picture with her camera phone right in front of the mirror. Well, I started laughing so hard I almost choked!  Immediately I called her and asked her to look at that photo. She said what was she supposed to be looking for and I said, “Don’t you see it? Don’t you see something terribly wrong with this picture?” She said no and then added, “Let me click on it. I’m looking at the thumbnail”.  The next thing I heard was a scream and an OH MY GODDDDDDDDD!  I could hardly breathe for laughing by now.  She asked how she could have ever missed that and then in this terrible rushed voice said, “Hold on a minute!”  Barely an instant went by and she said, “Oh thank goodness! I just deleted it off my Face Book!”  Will I ever get off this floor from laughing so hard. Ohhhh, my sides are killin’ me!

Now I know I shouldn’t be telling on her like that, but I never showed the photo, and I never said her name, so how could anyone pass up a story like that!?  Priceless. Just priceless.

Going, GOing, GONE! ~~

I am still amazed at what happened last night!  I got into this auction on bidmacs knowing I never win anything. Bidmacs is very different from an eBay auction.  With eBay as you know, most (not all) products are used or if new, the prices really aren’t that far off of retail.  Bidmacs only deals with brand new items, still in the manufacturers packaging, and still with all warranty info inside the box so that you can register whatever the item is that you won.  Here’s how the bidding works. You first have to buy a package of “bids” and there are a number of packages you can choose from.  Then once you have your package, that number of bids shows on your page to let you know how many times you can click on “bid now” for a particular item up for sale. Each bid is 1 CENT and raises the bid by a penny only.  These are called penny auctions. Once you get a good feel for them, you can win brand new items dirt cheap. The idea behind it is to win the bid by being the last to bid as the clock hits 0. Should someone click bid now at 1 sec left or anything above that, then the clock returns to 20 seconds to go.  Since each bid only ups the price by 1 penny, this bidding can go on a longgggg time. 

Last night, in one of my regular sleepless times with a what-can-I-do-with-myself-now mode, I logged on to Bidmacs and saw this laptop up for grabs. I thought since I had bids left to work with, I’d go ahead and have some fun. Holy cow, I won! I sat there with my mouth hanging open when I saw the red flag go up saying Bidding Closed, Won by JennyD.  I just couldn’t believe my eyes!  I never win anything.  But this is the most amazing part of all:  It is an HP ProBook 4420s with a retail of $600, and I won it with a bid of……..Ta-Dahhhhh, drum roll, $27.13.  Hewlett Packard mails it to you themselves and there’s not even any shipping and handling.  Incredible.  Here’s what it looks like:

                                            

Now this isn’t even the end of the story.  I went to the page to pay my $27.13 and finished with that.  Then I went back to the main page to see what else was up for bidding (yes, completely awake by now).  Bidding was going strong on about 12-15 items at a time, even including LCD big TV’s.  I saw someone win a 42” LCD TV for under $10.  And remember, everything is brand new, not refurbished.  Well, all of a sudden I saw this other little laptop thing called a Lenovo IdeaPad.  I googled it and found out it’s like a little regular laptop of only 10 inches, but it does something else, too.  If you want to turn it into a reader such as a Kindle or a Nook, the top swivels around and then slides over top of the keypad so that you are now only seeing the screen.  You can read a book vertically, or with the flip of a wrist, change to horizontally and immediately the entire format of that book goes to horizontal with you!  I swear, what will they think of next!   Here’s what that little gizmo looks like:

                                              

                                              

See how it will swivel and then change to a pad?  I think that’s ingenious.  So the bidding is going on and I’m starting to salivate. Holy cow, I won again!  Now this little thing doesn’t retail for as much as the HP, but still, the retail was $250.  My winning bid and what I had to pay for it was….drum roll again….$10.61 !  It even comes bundled with Windows 7 and a bunch of other stuff. Wow.  And I just want it as a reader, lol.   What a night of miracles it was.  Two big wins for a total of $37.74  

I am still shaking my head in wonder and I haven’t closed my mouth YET.  Both will be here in about 2 weeks and then all I have to do is find someone to show me how to use a laptop, LOL.   I’ve never used one in my life!  I’m so excited

That is my news for now. It’s 10:35am and I need to get a move-on for the day and get back to reality. It sure was good catching up with everyone and hearing what’s been going on.  I’ll be making Carole’s chicken recipe this weekend IF I can fit through the kitchen door after all of Beth’s Christmas goodies. What great friends, eh? 

XOXOXO

Quick Note ~~

I haven't been around for the last week not because anything is wrong but because I've just been preoccupied getting things in order and ready for Christmas (early as it is). There were some notes on my last entry asking if everything was ok, and yes, you sweethearts, you, all is fine. I plan on making the rounds little by little, day by day, and by this weekend should be caught up with each of you. Getting behind in a blog walk is awful! I miss you, can't wait to catch up, and will see you soon :D

XOXOXO

In The Beginning ~~

I’m passing on this little crazy tidbit because of Beth.  She jogged my memory of my first PC and I knew if I didn’t write about that, I’d forget.

My first PC was 15 years ago, with Windows 95 to start, and back then it was almost $2000 for a bundled package.  I can’t even remember the brand except that it started with either a B or a G.  Watch it be neither.  I placed that order and was so excited I actually had chills.  I counted the days until it arrived and when that day came, oooooo boyyyyy, I felt like I was on top of the world.  I opened all the boxes and there were a lot.  I spread all the parts on the floor and got out the diagram and started putting it all together.  “Hey, not too hard”, I thought.  Then it was ready and I was all smiles.  For a moment I stood back and admired my handiwork and my new found extreme pleasure of knowing that I, too, was going to be a part of this great web of the world. With an excited deep breath, I sat down in my new office chair at my new desk and was completely all a’twitter.  Then it hit me. The smile turned upside down. I squinted. I felt a major panic hit me.  I had no idea how to turn it on and it didn’t say how to do that in the instructions.  Completely dumfounded, I sat there and tried to figure it out.  Nothing, not a clue.  So I picked up the phone and dialed the company and never felt more the fool when I said, “Hello, I know this is probably a silly call, but I just got this computer and it’s ready to go, except that I don’t know how to turn it on. Could you tell me how, please?”  The guy on the other end actually said to me, “Is this a joke? Did Bill put you up to this?”  And then he starts laughing and calls out to Bill.  I could hear them both, and guess who felt like a bigger fool than I did, HA.  So, he told me where that button was (in front of my nose, for heaven’s sake), I pushed it, and the lights came on!  Heaven!  Then, I started pushing keys and shouldn’t have done that. All these pop-ups (I didn’t even know what they were back then) showed on my screen and I started clicking on those, too. The next thing I knew, I had a trillion porn sites grabbing my entire existence!  If I thought I was in a panic before, well that was nothin’ compared to what was happening now. I couldn’t even breathe, I was heart attack bound, and I couldn’t get the darn stuff off my screen as it kept multiplying like crazy.  I dialed the company back.  Oh yeah, had to do it.  This person explained to me how to shut my darn PC off.  Oh, it just gets worse. It wouldn’t shut off by the regular avenue, so I had to push that button again.  The next thing I hear is the person asking me if I have an antivirus program.  A what?  Machines get sick?  Here I am, the first day with a computer, and within 10 minutes I find out that it is now infected with viruses and I have no antivirus program.  I unplugged everything and took the tower into a shop I found in the yellow pages (I still use the same company). At first I thought I’d have to take ALL the parts to them, but they explained it was the tower that is actually a computer.  Off I go and they fixed it by the next day, I brought it home, rehooked everything, and then took a breath and tried again.  THIS time, here’s what happened:

I knew there were great games online and I wanted to play pong, so I did a search, clicked on one of the results, and landed in this strange pong game site.  The game looked like a cave and there was a button that said click here if you want to play. I did. That ball started flying faster than I could even see!  I lost the game to a robot within 10 seconds. All of a sudden, I saw this typed message to me and it asked if I wanted to play. Omg, where am I.  I didn’t know how to answer so I thought (really I did) that someone must be looking at me at that very moment.  Out loud I said, “Sure!”  And then I sat and sat.  The message started again, and it said, “Do you want to play or not”.  Uh oh, talking out loud must not be the answer, so I frantically started looking for a way to communicate.  A message started again, and this time, it said, “I think you must be brand new to computers and don’t know what to do. Do you see the little area under the cave? Click into that line and type an answer, then we can talk”.  It was there! The space to type was there!  My fingers were flying. It turned out that this person was a girl named Kerrie in California and she taught me the game.  We batted that ball back and forth for hours and hours.  She won game after game that day, and at the end of every game she would type, GG.   I couldn’t figure out what that was.  Finally I won 1 game, and again she typed GG with an exclamation point behind it.  I was so thrilled that I won and so positive that she was good naturedly laughing about the whole thing, that I thought GG must mean “giggling”!  I typed GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG across the whole bloody screen.  Who knew it meant Good Game?  Can you even imagine later on when someone would type, “gg, p”.  I certainly had a lot to learn.  Oh, and if you’ve never played a team game online, “gg, p” means “good game, partner”.  It did NOT mean “good game and now you can take a break and go pee”.

______

This is for Carole (Ramblingon) just because I thought it was cute of Sam and Lucy and Carole’s Miss Kitt has been so beautifully hatted:

                                            

And so, I am leaving you now to take a well deserved long nap.  I spent the entire night and today installing a gazillion batteries and setting up the front porch and the entire downstairs and half of the upstairs.  I am pooped.  GG all 

XOXOXO

I’m Seeing Red ~~

Just as I think I have a handle on making a header, I fall apart.  Now’s it’s the background that’s driving me crazy and I’m sure I’m going to do change after change.  It’s all so red now that if a bull saw it, he’d charge the screen.  Well, this is a work in progress and I’ll fix it by Christmas (maybe).

I’ve decided to do a little Christmas decorating this year, which is a step up in my mood with Mom not here anymore.  Better little steps than no steps at all, right?  Anyway, I’ve fallen totally in love with all these new gizmos of decor that do not have to be plugged in. No more cords!  The first purchase was window candles, then I went wild over swags, and then over string lights.  I have plans for all of it, but I never thought at all about the batteries until this morning as I was walking from room to room and counting first the windows for the candles – 20 windows to deck and that’s 2-AA’s in each.  40 batteries.  Then the swags, as I gulped at the thought of my checkbook dwindling, at 4 swags using 3-C’s, so that’s 12-C batteries.  Then on to the string lights which use 3-D’s.  I’m only using 2 of those strings on some plants in the living room, so that 6-D’s to buy.  I’ll bet these batteries end up more expensive than the amount of increase I would have seen in the electric bill with cords!  But still, any woman will tell you that all those cords twisting around everything is enough to make you want to pull the plug on the whole house.  Not men, though. They don’t care if cords are swinging through the air, hanging from the ceiling, and draped over every piece of furniture in the room.  I take that back. Don’t drape cords over the favorite chair OR the remote.  There, I feel better. No cords.

Here’s what the swags look like. No batteries yet, so none are lit with those little clear lights. Still, you get the idea.  And one of these photos also shows my mistletoe in crystal.  Yeah, sure, nobody will be under it except for 2 fur balls and myself but I like it and when the light hits all those facets, it’s terrific. Please DO click to enlarge:

 

 

 

 

Now, niftiest thing about these swags, candles, and string lights, is that they are programmable. YES!  You set the time you want them on and the time you want them to turn off.  I have been told by my neighbor (who has the same) that ONE set of batteries in each will last even more than the entire Christmas season.  See? I just gave myself another reason of why I’m going to buy out the store in batteries.  It’s all worth it!

Last, but not least, I am going to treat Beth, yes, our Beth in Illinois, bless her heart, to a horrible, awful vid I made for her last night, with none other than Lucy, the talking cat.  Hey, I promised Lucy so what else can I do?  Beth, FORGIVE MEEEE!  (As bad as this is, you have to agree that you can tell Lucy is actually paying attention)

                                           

 

XOXOXO

Lettuce Alone (pardon the pun) ~~

The stories about my mother could fill a book, and here’s a short one for today, but this one involves one of my dear pets. His name was Rocky, and he was an English parakeet.  The English variety is much larger than the American, and not that the American is any slouch in smartness, but the English is astoundingly bright. First, before I get into the story, let me show you the difference in size of these 2 birds. and the blue one is only to show the color of my Rocky who was a brilliant turquoise:

                                                

I spent many a month working on Rocky’s vocabulary and his understanding of everything in the household.  That first little sentence of, “Pretty birdddd”, took 6 months and sounded like a cross between a human voice and a whistle. But when Rocky realized that he’d actually spoken, well, that boy started a race on words and sentences that couldn’t be matched.  Every single day, there were more and more complete sentences, demands, questions, kisses, and then the culmination of his talent, imitations.  He could imitate me, my father, or my mother perfectly, and this is where the story begins.

Rocky was always allowed the run, or should I say fly, of the house. He loved my Cocker Spaniel, Winnie, and my big yellow cat, who never, ever tried to hurt him. One day, Rocky was zipping around the house as usual when he saw Mom in the kitchen washing dishes. He landed on a chair at the kitchen table which was directly behind Mom and so she couldn’t see him and had no idea he was even there.  So Mom was washing, rinsing, and humming a tune, when all of a sudden this voice said in a polite way, “I want some lettuce”.  Without missing a beat, Mom replied, “I’m sorry, TC (my dad’s name), but my hands are all wet. I’ll get it in a few minutes”.  With that, the voice gets more belligerent and says louder, “I SAID I want some lettuce!”.  My mother blew a gasket at the tone of voice and said very loudly back, “And I said I’d get it later. If you want it so much now, then get it yourself! Gosh!”  The next sound we heard was the sound of a bird laughing like crazy in my father’s voice. Mom was now even more put out and starts a sentence, “What in the world is the matter……” as she turns to see none other than my beloved Rocky bobbing his head up and down in such self satisfaction.  My father and I heard the entire conversation from the living room and it took everything we had not to make a sound and double over in convulsive laughter.  We always said that Rocky was one smart cookie of a bird and really knew the value of a good joke.  I should have put him on stage in Vegas.

Later, gators  XOXOXO

Your Mother Was Home When You Left, Your Right ~~

Ahhhh, shades of old memories of army days and Christmases past.  I’m not even talking about the days of Vietnam where my own friends served and many died, but instead, of one particular serviceman and one particular Christmas during the Korean War.  Here’s what happened:

We had a long time family friend, Ashby, that was the distributor for literally all the new records in the rock and roll era across America.  Now the neat thing was, he'd bring me giant boxes upon boxes of records (78's and then 45's when they came into play) that hadn't even made it to the radio stations yet and so I had all of them before they were ever played.  But the amazing thing was, Ashby KNEW all these artists, including Elvis. When Elvis went into the service, Ashby still kept in touch with him.  A Christmas came along and Ashby called Elvis and asked for a "real" photo and letter just for me for Christmas.  Would you believe, I got not only the HUGE Christmas card, but inside that was an 8x10 personal photo signed to me from him and then a 2 page letter in his own handwriting telling me what he did each day in the service and then wishing me a Merry Christmas and telling me to let Ashby know he followed through on his promise.  Wow.  My grandmother, who was the biggest fan he ever had would have keeled over at that very moment had she seen all that, and here I was just a so-so fan.  (She made me go to every single movie he ever made and most were the pits but she thought he was the greatest so that’s how our Saturdays were spent). Anyway, into the drawer the letter, the card, and the signed photo went and many years later I found out just how much they would be worth, so off I ran to dig through all the drawers in the house. I couldn't find it, not a trace.  I went to Mom and said, “Do you remember that Christmas card and letter and picture I got from Elvis when I was 10?”  She said of course she did, so I asked where it was, and she said, “Oh, I threw it all out. I didn’t think you were interested in it.”  I froze.  Then I showed her the estimates of it’s worth and then SHE froze.  And so, there went the lottery and the dream mansion in the sky.  She did however save all the “cute” little cards from her best friend in case she decided to frame any of them.  Wow. Go figure. Mom certainly had her moments , God bless her.  And that’s my pre-Christmas story for the day

XOXOXO   Sound off, 1, 2…Sound off, 3, 4 ~~

                                  

                                                 Merry Christmas, Jenny

                                        “KA-Ching, down the tubes”

I’m So Excited…And I Just Can’t Hide It…~~

I tell you, it doesn’t take much to get me all excited.  Nooooo, not like that!  I mean when I finally figure out something on this blog that I couldn’t get a handle on for the life of me before.  You know I visit all of you all the time, and when I’m there, I see all of these great, great layouts and header/banners, and even little gizmos that drive me crazy with desire…and I haven’t been able to figure out how to do the simplest of things – until last week and then, ta-daaaaaaa, today! I’m like a proud mama with a newborn.  Just look at that header. Woohooooo.  It’s my little car that I’d made and used on WLS but had no idea how to install it over here. I fiddled and fiddled until I thought I was going explode today and then, it worked!  I have Beth to thank for this. She put up a brand new header today that is just gorgeous and it had the site name on the side.  So I went there and they had a little place to click that gave instructions for the simple minded like myself.  What a find!  Now I can do headers and that means I can use all the ones I made myself for WLS.  All I have to do is resize them and bingo, done.

Next, I found this terrific little animation to go with it.  See the swirling Fall leaves?  Is that adorable or what?  Listen, I know this is a girl thing, so guys need not put in their 2 cents worth.  Lol, I’m just so darn happy!

You remember when I lost all of IE7, my webcam, and that VIA Raid thing? Well, “R” called me and we were talking about the whole mess. He said for me to shut down again and leave the computer off overnight and let the magic happen on it’s own.  So I did, and the next morning, 2 days ago, I fired her up and holy smoke, everything was back and working perfectly, except for that VIA thing. That’s just gone.  I looked up all the info I could find on that and apparently it keeps multiple drives all separate and clean running.  Well, I have 3 hard drives and they’re doing fine without the program. Still, it seemed to be a toss up whether the program was imperative or not.  Half said yes and half said no. I’ll wait it out.  What’s that old saying (that actually referred to commas but will do here; I just needed to clarify that just in case): “When in doubt, leave it out”.

I wish I’d taken a picture of my turkey. It was more beautiful than straight out of a magazine, and the taste? Ooooo, yowzahhhh!  It was only a small turkey of 10 lbs but that sucker is going to make a TON of soup and I can’t wait. My freezer is going to overflow with turkey/noodle, turkey/vegetable, turkey/rice, turkey/dumplings, turkey sandwiches, and then probably turkey to the neighbors and extra turkey to Sam & Lucy – can’t leave them out.  Man, that’s a lot of turkey. What was I thinking?

Signing out; I’m actually hungry, so I guess you know what that means

XOXOXO

Full of Blessings ~~

…and so here we are, another year has flown by, and Thanksgiving is just 2 days away.  Our mouths water at the thought of a juicy, tender turkey, the scrumptious stuffing, that green bean casserole that has become a staple, the mashed potatoes, and I could go on and on right through the pies.  It’s all so darn yummy and amazing that after days of preparation, the entire meal is consumed in about 30 minutes – and that’s including all the conversation. Thanksgiving is fun, no doubt about it.  Relatives you don’t get to see so often are all at the same table, and then there are those that have a dinner for friends that are too far from their relatives or have no family left.  A thoughtful time.  A sharing time.  A time to remember openly that it is Thanks-Giving.

                                                                   

…and so here I am, thinking back over the last year and how it was (and is) so hard being the last of my family, and how I miss Mom, but don’t feel sorry for me.  I am missing her, yes, but I am so very lucky.  I have friends in town that I love, and I have friends in YOU that I love.  Each of you has been so supportive and a listening ear when I needed it, and each of you has muddled through my less than professional blogs and photos and yet still took the time to post such nice comments. Don’t think that’s a little thing to me; it’s a big thing and it warms my heart.  Over the years, first on WLS and now here on BlogSpot, and even bookmarking and following others on word press, we have remained family and add to that table all the time.  Pity the people that do not blog and certainly never use a messenger service or anything else that the internet offers to get to know others so far away from themselves, as they don’t know what they’re missing and they don’t understand the concept of our “other family”.  They are missing so, so much. You are all blessings to me in every way, every day.  In my inventive mind, I can see this giant round table (because I like round the best), and around that table is every one of us with little monitors and keyboards, all linked in this world by the touch of a button and by the smiles sent through a universe of words.  I could not be more fortunate and I give thanks openly this Thanksgiving Day for each of you and how you have truly touched my life.  I love you, my around-the-world family.

                                                                

XOXOXO for always ~~

Books ‘aBillion ~~

Finishing up with my problems with IE, it’s dead and won’t even open at all to drop an error message on me.  I don’t care. I am now using Firefox and Chrome and tickled to death with both.  So IE, just keep to yourself and stay off my doorstep.

Fall is coming to an early close here.  Due to the drought all summer, we had a very, very early changing of the leaves and just as fast, they are dropping.  My favorite season, and all too short, I ran outside yesterday right before the grass was being cut and the leaves being bagged, and snapped just a few little last pictures of the back of my back yard.  Click to enlarge.

Who spilled the paint bucket?  The birds will have a heavy grocery cart of holly berries this year.  My hollies are huge and loaded for them.

This is just to show how giant my Leland Cypress trees are. See them next to the double feeder?  That’s the same feeder and tree that my olympic trampoline squirrel uses, and that feeder is very high.  I have to stand on tip toes to reach the loop to bring them down to fill.  I’m not a gnome but maybe close.  I’m 5’3”.

Happy little birds getting ready to bathe.  See that thing in the middle?  That’s a Water Wiggler and vibrates so that the water is always moving.  It keep mosquitoes from landing and hatching eggs, plus the birds are really drawn to it. Sometimes the entire birdbath is so covered with birds that you can’t see anything but the pedestal.

Let the baths begin.  They aren’t squashed, they’re just flapping their wings in the water.  I gave some thought to doing a little vid of them bathing, but….well, you know how bad my vids are, even worse than my photos!

Ok, next subject is BOOKS.  Some of us have been talking about them for a few days, and I agree with Arlene that there’s nothing like holding a real book in your hands, however….now we have Kindles and all the clones.  Really not bad at all. But check this out.  This is a free Kindle for your desktop!  Now if you don’t mind sitting at your desk and reading, or if you can pull up a comfortable chair, this is one nifty gadget, plus there are bunches of free kindle book sites where you do a quick download and then drag it into your new little kindle.  I LOVE mine.  On a lazy day I can sit at  my desk and read my book while I’m blog walking or writing at the same time.  That little gadget even folds a page for you so that you’ll never lose your place.  Add to that, that you can customize the color of the pages and the fonts for your own relaxed experience.  I took 4 pictures of what this looks like on your monitor.   Remember, it’s free and the download is at Amazon under free desktop kindle.  As usual, click to enlarge:

That is what the little icon looks like on your desktop

This is what it looks like when you have clicked to open it and it is initializing.  Cute, huh?

Once opened, all the books you have downloaded will show.  I am reading Anna Karenina by Tolstoy at the moment. That is on the top row, 4th over. See the little blue dots below it?  That shows how far I’ve gotten on the read (it’s a VERY long book). At the top are all the clickable spots to change the layout, colors, fonts, everything.

This is the page I’m on for Anna Karenina.  See the bookmarked bent page top right?  When you open the book, it automatically goes to where you left off and had clicked “bookmark”.  To turn the page, or even go back pages, just click to the right or left of the page.  If reading only forward, click anywhere and the page turns.  I tell you, I just love my little desktop Kindle.

IF you decide to download one for yourself, Amazon also has free kindle books to load into it.  Get them;  get all of them as there is no limit.  Once you do that, from time to time Amazon adds more free ones along with those for sale.  Then, to get even more (and there are thousands), go to this site:  http://www.feedbooks.com  and you can browse through old classics, new books and independent authors.  If you enlarged my shot of the books, you’ll see one called The Cyberotica Box.  I know what it sounds like, but it’s not what you think.  What a great story!  (Penelope, it’s exactly your style!)You must download that from feedbooks!

So that’s my story for today along with a little review.  Time for lunch and my favorite soap (I only watch one) and then out for errands.  Gorgeous day out now with lots of sun, my clean cut yard, and a darn renegade squirrel trying to tear down the feeder.  Time to bang on the window :D

XOXOXO