November 28th Part 2 - I took my

this morning. sigh.

I have a paper due today on the subject of bait and switch advertising.  Simple enough concept, I just had to answer five questions and make sure the questions and responses took up at least 4 pages.

I was working on it last night and again this morning, and was comfortable that I'd given complete, accurate, and well thoughtout responses - but the darn  paper was too short - barely three pages

So today I worked on it some more - found a few more references, added a bit more detail, but I still just couldn't get enough content to meet the minimum page length - arghh.

Thinking maybe I could cheat by justifying text (that always adds a bit of length), I started to reformat the thing...and then realized that I'd been writing in uber-small font size.

Once I changed to the required Times New Roman size 12 - I had four and a half pages of information - so today's struggle was totally unnecessary.

But its finished and submitted, and I am now rewarding myself with Martha Stewart's version of a Dark and Stormy. because I didn't have any diet ginger beer..in fact I don't know if such a thing exists.

Hope all of you are having a nice end to your holiday or nonholiday weekend.

November 28th - The painting is DONE

for the moment at least......two coats of primer and two of paint later....

Time to get cleaned up and head out for some fresh air.....a homeowner's wor is never done....

November 27th - Happy Caturday

So it's not a cat, but I thought it was cute.....

How exciting is this - we still have an entire weekend ahead of us.  Cold and windy here, but the sun is finally shining so I hope to get out and about a bit.  Hope eeryone has a wonderful weekend.

November 26th - Black Friday indeed....

Yes, this morning began drizzly and dreary.  At least that's what I saw at 7 am - I don't know what those midnight or three am shoppers experienced.

Me, I was up because I had a repairman scheduled to arrive between eight and noon to replace my faucet.  They called me about eight fifteen to say he was on his way  - and I guess he arrived about quarter to ten.

Not the same guy as before but still a very nice and competent plumber.  He really liked  my house and the neighborhood - seems he'd lived across the river back in the eighties, so he knew a lot about the area.  But like most people, he didn't know this street existed.

He appreciated company as he liked to chat while he worked, and although I probably could have saved money and replaced the faucet myself - considering it took an expert about an hour to get it all finished - most of that time spent rather contorted under the sink -I'm just as glad I splurged and paid to have it done.

So now I have hot as well as cold water which makes handwashing greasy pans much simpler....I only hope the oven repair goes as well.

The repairman left about 11 am, and I decided to go see if my hairdresser was working.  For some reason my hair is growing really fast, and so even just six weeks between appointments is too long.  Although I had to park at the far end of the lot, all the shoppers were at Best Buy - the Hair Cuttery wasn't busy at all.

While she worked on me she told me about how for the first time she'd gone shopping at midnight at Walmart where she broke a nail struggling over bargain towel.  At least I "think" that's what she said - her english isn't the greatest and my vietnamese is nonexistent.

If I was to come into a lot of money, I think the first thing I'd do is hire her to blowdry my hair every morning, because I always leave there feeling good.


So then I had to head over to the liquor store because I was out of rum....and that just cannot happen.


The winetasting wasn't anything exciting, but of course I took a few samples anyhow....which must be what gave me the idea to try a bit of shopping.....that, and the fact that I found a prime parking space right in front of Target.

Athough the store wasn't very crowded - it looked as if a bomb had gone off in a couple of departments, so I imagine it must have been quite an experience a few hours earlier.  I was really only in there to pick up some shoe inserts (I'd read an article suggesting they might help with my knee pain) and a loaf of bread.....but as I was wandering through the grocery section (ours has fresh fruit and vegetables and meats)...I came across a nice sirloin steak already on sale for 4 dollars a lb and then marked an additional 3 dollars off because it was close to the sell by date.   It ended up costing me 1.63.

So I guess I did end up finding a Black Friday bargain after all.

Hope all of you had a great day......and even if you didn't - the good news is that we get two more shots at it before it's Monday again :)

November 25th - Thanksgiving Thirteen

If you know me, then you know that I don't do family Thanksgiving.  Christmas is the big family holiday, though not really "big" because there aren't very many of us.

There's a lot of  reasons that Thanksgiving just never really worked for me, one of which being that I'm not much for turkey.  Instead I look at the holiday as four days of me time....which generally includes at least one home improvement project.   Sometimes I go ahead and cook a turkey....and then I make lots and lots of white chili with the leftovers.

This year I'll be grilling a steak (since the oven isn't fixed yet)....and save the turkey for another day....but that's for later because I'm just not hungry yet...and thats fine because this is my day :).

The project is painting the dark wood paneling in my kitchen.  I normally don't like to cover over wood, but this stuff is stained beyond restoration..and it's already so dark that trying to stain it darker is really not an option.

So far, I have two coats of primer on.  I"ll wait until the plumber is done tomorrow before I start painting the finish color - semigloss white like the cabinets.

But that's just to let you know what I've been up to today......What I really wanted to do is come up with a Thursday Thirteen - and of course today IS the day to be thankful...so that's what you are going to get.

Mind you I am thankful for my friends and my family and our armed forces and all the other things that we should be thankful for.....but for today, I'm going to go with the smaller things....each of which reinforces my belief that you get back what you put out into the world....

1.  I got a special achievement award at work which equates to cash - and even after taxes it would be enough to pay for a Caribbean cruise - or maybe carpet for the master suite - or a lot of other splurges that it is fun to imagine.

2.  And almost (but not quite) as important as the cash is the knowledge that they really do see the effort I put into my job and appreciate my work.

3.  I also had my annual review which was very good....and for the first time ever there were no suggestions of ways I could improve anything, let alone the dreaded "communication skills".

4.  I found some foam knee pads (I'd used them for installing carpet a few years ago) and they really helped with all the kneeling I had to do to get the wainscoting primed today.

5.  I am grateful that when things break I generally have either the knowledge to fix them myself, or the money to hire the work done - or sometimes I have both which gives me the luxury of choice.

6.  I am grateful that I was out and about to get to see  that incredibly beautiful moon hanging low in the sky earlier this week.

7.  I am happy that my knee seems to be improving bit by bit, and that it's reminded me not to put off my dreams to "someday", but to grab every opportunity I can while I can.

8.  I am grateful that Ollies Bargain Outlet had Warm Delights on sale so that when that chocolate craving hit hard last night - I had it covered

9.  I am very grateful that my Dad is alive and in good enough health that I don't have to take care of him....which is not to say I would resent it if I had to - just that I am happy he's still quite independent.

10.  I am glad that I am happy with how that painting project is coming out because there is no way to "undo" what I've been doing.

11.  I'm glad that I have a good instructor for this semester's class because it makes things so much easier.

12.  I'm happy that my lumpy Pumpkin is sitting by my feet waiting impatiently for it to be dinnertime....a year ago I was quite concerned that he wouldn't live to the new year.

13.  And I'm grateful that my company gives us Friday off....and that I don't have to travel or cook or watch football or do anything except exactly what I want to do for the next three days :)

Hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday if you are in the US and planning for a marvelous weekend wherever you are....

PS:  Carol - hope you arrived safely and I miss you..

November 24th - Lesson Learned.......

I know this looks like a faucet.....to be exact, it is a Moen Renzo faucet.

But it is also a life lesson, which I'll explain shortly.

Let me start by apologizing for my absence.....I've been a bit hormonal and didn't feel like sharing the rollercoaster ride with anyone.  In an attempt to improve my mood, I did some housecleaning to improve the view of my home, some shopping to improve the contents of my wardrobe, and spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.  I had breakfast at Ikea with a good friend.....visited my Dad, bought some Thanksgiving supplies,  finished my homework for school, and then all of a sudden it was Monday again, and then Tuesday, and now we're into Wednesday and not a peep from me - bad Em.

Anyhow.......I think I'd mentioned that I had a repairman coming to look at my oven....and another one coming to look at the leak under the sink.  Both of those nice gentlemen showed up yesterday.....they both showed up at the end of the 4 hour window of noon to four pm.....and neither one could fix the problem in a single visit.

The oven probably would have been fixable except that somehow they got the wrong information on the ticket....and beyond that, they sent him to my old house first-go figure.  He asked about the symptoms (There is no temperature control - when you turn it on, it goes to uber hot), diagnosed it as a thermostat which he doesn't carry.......so he'll be back on the 7th to install the new part, assuming it arrives next week.  Fortunately, this is only costing me 60 dollars under my home warranty.

That does mean no turkey dinner tomorrow......but since I happened to have a couple of lovely T-bone steaks in the freazer, it's all good....no, I can't bake pies or bread but I shouldn't be eating that stuff anyhow.  Fortunately I'd decided to leave the frozen bird in the freezer until I was sure I had a way to cook it.

Then we move on to plumbing guy.  This is the third different contractor that has come out under my home warranty.  He wasn't quite as amusing as the last, but he was certainly competent enough.  It turns out that the leak is from my kitchen faucet, which is barely more than a year old, sigh.  Faucets aren't covered under my warranty.  However he did take the opportunity to replace my drainpipes from the dishwasher to the wall so I will no longer have to worry about the connection shaking loose and leaking the way it does now.  He quoted me a price of 150.00 to remove and replace the faucet (if he bought a faucet for me it would be another 300.00).....I thought about it for a moment and decided to pay and have the work done.

Granted, I'm pretty good at these things and I probably could replace the faucet myself.....but we're talking about laying on my back in the not very big sink cabinet.....and dealing with a single hole faucet - something I haven't had to work with before.   So  I figured it was worth the luxury of having someone else do it right .

I mentioned that the faucet which broke is barely more than a year old.  It's an offbrand that Lowes sells......in fact if you're a Multiply friend you might remember me blogging about deciding on a faucet when I was having my sink/countertop replaced last year.  I didn't worry about it being an offbrand because of the "Lifetime Warranty".

And there folks, is the lesson learned.  Yes, it's a lifetime warranty.  All I have to do is take the faucet out and send it, along with the proof of purchase, back to the factory where they will repair or replace it forever.

Except that there's no way I can live without a kitchen sink for a few days let alone a few weeks while I wait for it to be repaired or replaced.

So, like the vast majority of people who bought what my plumber refers to as "a piece of crap" I had to go out last night and buy another faucet so that on Friday I will once again have hot and cold running water from my kitchen sink.

I suppose I could have bought exactly what I already have - and then sent the bad one back for repair - and then once I got the replacement, return it to Lowes......but that seems unethical besides which karma would probably kick my ass by having the replacement break in a year.

Instead, I took the plumber's advise and bought Moen.

In the future , I will think before I let "lifetime warranty" convince me to try an off-brand home improvement product - no matter how pretty it might be.

November 18 - People are strange.....

So tonight Neighbor Steve called and we went out to Ollies and then headed over to Arundel Mills mall so he could buy a few things from Bass Pro.  His older son (the one who watches my furkids) and his girlfriend came along and we had a great time walking around the mall.

I came across the "giant gerbil balls" sitting in a wading pool in the middle of the walkway and it truly was one of the oddest things I've ever seen.  Since the ones being used were in motion - I could only get a good shot of the empty one.

But as aways YouTube has a clip for that.


Granted I don't have small kids in my life - and maybe that's why I just don't "get" this...

What do you think?

November 17th - If it's not one thing it's another....

I arrive home tonight and notice some water on the kitchen floor....quite a bit, in fact. So I grab a couple of towels and wipe it up - open the sink cabinet doors to make sure everything looks ok and proceed to feed and water the cats - puzzling a bit about what would have caused the puddles.

Then I head downstairs to wash the wet towels and theres no longer any mystery  - Water is dripping from the joists down the wall, all over the washer and dryer and the stuffs probably half an inch deep over most of the floor.

So, the first thing I do is turn the water to the house off completely.

And right here folks - let me tell you that I don't care if you own your home, if you rent, if you are a woman with a houseful of competent men that do these things for you.....no matter who you are you need to know.

1.  How to shut off the water to your home.
2.  How to shut off the power to your home.

There's some other things you really should know as well - but these are the really important ones.  Water can do a LOT of damage in very little time...and electricity - that is not something you want to be messing with....if you've got an appliance or a light or anything else arcing or smoking  - turn off all the power until you figure out what's going on.

Same deal with water dripping/pouring out/whatever.  Turn off ALL the water to give you time to think.

In this case, I was just not up to dealing with another problem (I mean, I already have an oven that I can't use till at least next Tuesday IF the repair guy can fix it on the first visit)....so what I did was figure out that there were individual shutoff valves for the kitchen sink in the basement - I turned them off - and then turned the house water back on - and since nothing started leaking I knew the problem was associated with the sink.

Then I left the house for a bit to visit my dad and use some Kohls cash that I'd accumulated.  Shopping always relaxes me, and I came back home ready to do battle with the flood.

Thank heavens for my shop vac...If you don't have one you should....there's no floor drain in my basement and trying to sweep water out the back door is only moderately effective.

The bottom line is that there is a leak associated with the hot water line going to my faucet (or possibly a problem with the faucet itself - there's not much room under there to see what's going on - and I decided quickly that I want to pay the 60 dollar service charge and let the plumber come and fix it (that home warranty of mine comes in handy again).   All of the stuff under there is barely more than a year old but I've had a problem with the drainpipe connection coming loose at times - so maybe I can get that fixed as well.

Once again - there's a silver lining :).

Seriously though - make sure you know how to turn your water, electricity, and gas (if you have it) off at the source.

November 16th - Red sky at night, sailors delight

...thats what I was thinking as I drove home from bowling tonight. 

Except that it was nine thirty, and the sun had set around five pm - so the pink and purple sky I was looking at came from the lights of suburbia bouncing off the clouds.  And it's steadiy drizzling so it is definitely not delightful sailing weather.

That got me thinking about how much we've changed the world around us in a relatively short time.  I drive home on Tuesdays on I-495 (we refer to it as the Beltway)....a highway that actually younger than I am with the first section opening in 1961.  Then I turn off onto I-95 which goes from Florida to Maine, I think...and I've driven just about all of it one time or another.

And I remember when our section of I-95 was opened back in the 1970s - there was pretty much farmland and a couple of small towns along the route between Washington and Baltimore......and now there are housing developments all along the route - many of them backing right up to the highway.

I live a bit more than a mile from the highway myself but if I listen I can hear the traffic....and of course its never really dark around here anymore because of the streetlights and the businesses and such.

Mind you, I'm not wishing we would go back to the "good old days" which really weren't that good for a lot of people....women had limited opportunities besides birthing babies, plenty of folks died a lot sooner than should have because we didn't have nearly the medical knowledge that we have today....and my particular passion - travel, was difficult and expensive.

And although I might not have a jet black sky with stars twinkling above, we've become smart enough to protect some places that do.  Granted we probably don't do all that we could, or from some people's perspective not all that we shoud....but we've come a long way since those European explorers destroyed Mayan books and carved graffiti into the pillars of Egyptian temples.....now we recognize the importance of everyone's past - not just our own.

There really isn't a point to this rambling, except maybe to give mankind credit for at least trying to honor and learn from our past.

November 15th -If life is a highway,

then you have to expect the occasional bump in the road.  I already mentioned that I'd knocked a cup of coffee onto my keyboard and the replacement often refuses to type the letters M or L, sigh.

But that's OK, because it makes me slow down and proofread better - and if I really get frustrated I've got a laptop I can use instead (or I might even find out that the keyboard is working again now that it's dried out).

Last night, however, I turned on the oven and when the smoke detector went off I discovered that the thermostat is broken and no what temperature I set it to - it goes to 600 degrees and stays there (at least that's what the oven thermometer is telling me).

On the bright side, I renewed my home warranty, so I should be able to get it fixed for a 60 dollar service call - and we still have a week and a half till Thanksgiving so worst case I'll just have my turkey a bit late (its safely in the freezer).

But this Mary Sunshine attitude didn't just appear by itself....I walked into the house quite frustrated over the oven, and that Purple Heart didn't come to pick up the donation boxes I'd dragged out front, and that the music for this session of aerobics is heavy on the Miley Cyrus and Lady GaGa - neither of which I care for.

I opened the door to the wine cabinet and reached for a glass.  Thats when I noticed the pair of etched glasses right in the front.  Amy made them for me as a hostess gift when they came to visit this spring.....and  I smiled to remember what a marvelous time I had with them and how much I'm looking forward to coming out and visiting them back...I mean - they have a hot tub and kayaks and they like me.

So sure there may be a few bumps in the road once in a while - but still....

If life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long.  (preferably in a kickass sportscar)....

November 14th - Right here, right now

there is no other place I'd rather be.

I can't take credit for that thought - it comes from Jesus Jones (quite appropriate for a Sunday, isn't it?)



Anyhow, if you've ever been sitting somewhere and felt totally and completely in tune with everything around you and just known you were where you were supposed to be....then you know how I felt last night.  And that feeling has stayed with me and colored today a lovely pink - much like the rosebud that surprised me this morning.

I'm hoping that the warm temperatures continue so that the little thing has a chance to flower. 

But whatever it does, I know that I'm flowering......I've reconnected with the joy that comes from a job well done.

After considering everyone's advice about the leaves I decided to take the middle road and mow everything but not worry about the bag, my mower is a mulching one.

Goodbye mower - see you in the spring.........

Which reminds me - I was talking about my sense of accomplishment - here is how my yard looked when I moved in last June.

Slightly different angle but the same trees.

I had a coupon for 15% off at Ollies - which is a local version of Big Lots and a wonderful place to wander through.....like a flea market but of good stuff.  The good stuff I found this time was a stainess steel landscape lighting set that includes a couple of spotlights so I can highlight the base of that giant pine as well as have some better lighting around my garden and hot tub area. I paid 25 dollars for it :).

I also found this kit to put wheels on my wheelbarrow.  I know, it comes with a wheel, lol - but these wheels turn it into a three wheel cart which is easier to push than having to hold it up and just use that one big wheel.  It looks like this and it cost me all of six bucks.  The box said it could be finished in 10 minutes, it took me a bit longer - but I got it done and it looks just like the picture.  (Kinda wish I looked like the picture, but that's a different blog).

All that and I also managed to get my paper done for class (yes ANOTHER paper - seems like we have one every two weeks.  This one became a last minute problem because I spilled coffee on my keyboard last night and it quit working....so I had to buy a replacement.  I went with a wireless set on sale at Best Buy and it was a mistake.  For whatever reason the L and M keys tend to stick, so I have to keep going back and making sure a letter didn't get left out (it just happened there, sigh).

So as nice as it is to have a wireless keyboard - I do NOT recommend the Logitech S520.

And if you do notice missing letters in my posts - just fil in the banks :).

November 13th - Caturday

I'm sure that's what I'd hear if my furkids went outside.  If there is a downside to having a forest out back, it's the falling leaves.,  First the giant white pine drops some of its needles, leaving a carpet of sharp brown things that track everywhere.......then the magnolia follows suit and with some assistance from the breeze, the neighbors trees join in and I end up with the picture above (sans lol cat).

Now, I don't really mind the leaves, so it would be fine with me to just leave them (pun not intended). I wondered whether or not I actually needed to rake, and I'd like to say that thanks to the internet - I have my answer.

But I don't - it seems there are two schools of thought.  One is that there is no problem - the grass will go dormant and the leaves will decay.  The second is that when rain falls, the leaves will turn into a gooey thick blanket that will kill the grass beneath it.

My neighbor uses his lawn tractor to cut his yard and he either lets the blades chop up the leaves or he has a bag attachment....in any case every few days I come home and notice the leaves are gone....and he's been kind enough to mow my front lawn as well.

So I think perhaps I'll just take the mower out one more time, put the bag attachment on, and cut the back grass one more time....then I can rake whatever is left towards the bottom of the hill.  Supposed to be a pretty weekend - more like early October than mid November.

What do you folks do with your leaves?

November 11th, 2010 - Thursday Thirteen

Sadly, there are a lot of ignorant people out there....fortunately none of them are my friends :).  This week, I kept running across random acts of inconsideration (is that even a word?)....and so I'm dedicating my Thursday Thirteen to ignorant things that I witnessed this week.

I'm actually hoping I can't get to 13 - but lets see....

1.  Tonight I parked at Kohls and opened my door to see two used dental floss picks lying next to the car.  Who picks their teeth in a parking lot - let alone toss their used stuff onto the pavement?

2.  Yesterday I was crossing another parking lot in a crosswalk no less - and a car actually sped up to try to get by me rather than stop.  I'm really glad I was wheeling a shopping cart or he might have gone ahead and hit me.

3.  Which brings up the whole leaving your shopping cart in a parking space thing.  If you were able to wheel the damn thing TO your car - you certainly are capable of wheeling it back - or into a cart corrall - or something other than leave it.

4.  And handicapped spot users are actually the worst.  They keep leaving carts in the striped zone next to their spaces.  Again I say, you got the thing to your car - you certainly can take it back.  I would have thought that those folks with "handicapped" issues would be more considerate - not less.

5.  At bowling the other night - we actually had someone who bowled while holding their cellphone to one ear.  I'm glad he wasn't on my team because I think that's just plain rude.  You owe it to the rest of the folks you are bowling with to give your full concentration to your game.  Imagine if football players took calls in the middle of a game. "Sorry about that  - I couldn't block because my daughter was on the line".

6.  Dumping trash on the side of the road.  There's a wooded buffer between the river and the road that leads out of my community and for whatever reason it seems to be the dumping ground for chairs and tires and whatever people don't want.  And the stuff just sits there until some kind community group makes a project of picking up the rubbish.

7.  Not cleaning up after your dog.  This week, I was out walking and of course there are lots of people walking their pets.  I actually saw one woman bend down with a bag and pretend to scoop the poop...but as soon as I went by she put the empty bag back in her pocket and left the crap on the grass.

8.  People who let their small children "drive" shopping carts unsupervised.  I'm tired of getting run into.....especially in checkout lines where the kid keeps pushing the cart forward until it stops in my back over and over again.

9.  Usually happens while mom or dad (or both) have their cellphone stuck to their ears, which is another thing that I think is rude.  Cashiers are human beings, and the least you can do is hang up the phone long enough to interact with them politely rather than make them get louder and louder until you finally notice they are asking you a question.

10.  Tossing cigarette butts out the car window and/or on the ground.  Come on people - you smoke, you should have an ashtray.  I can't tell you how many times I have to clean up cigarette butts left outside my house....and none of my friends smoke - so its clearly just random passersby.

11. Not completely flushing a public toilet.  How difficult is it to turn around and make sure what your deposit has left the bowl?  I wish those same people would leave cash envelopes half deposited in the night slot at the bank ;).

12.  Parking in a no parking zone when there isn't enough room for traffic to clear.  For whatever reason, folks seem to think it's OK to park there long enough to use the bank machine/pick up their dry cleaning/run in the liquor store.  But what it means is that a two-way lane becomes one way and traffic gets stuck trying to get around Mr Inconsiderate. Including the police officer who chose to drive by rather than stop and ticket the fool.

13.  I'm going to leave this one for you.....tell me what inconsiderate act you saw this week.........

November 10th - Wednesday Wonderings

I wonder about a lot of things in the course of a day....but most of the time I get distracted by something else and forget what I was wondering about.  And that's what happened to me when I sat down to write this blog.  Fortunately, one of my wonderings managed to stay with me this week.

Sunday night I happened to catch part of the National Geographic series Great Migrations.  I'd become interested in the show after hearing  a radio interview with one of the producers, and the bits that I saw lived up to the billing of a "major television event" - the photography was awesome.

My wondering focuses on the Monarch butterflies. Now, I understand that they need to travel south because they can't live through a northern winter. And I understand that their instincts send them to the same place that their ancestors have been going for uncountable generations.

What I find so strange is that these butterflies generally have a lifespan of between two and six weeks - but they do spend most of that time mating, so I guess it's not all bad.

This also means that only about the 4th generation of Monarchs migrates each fall - and the same ones return in the spring where they lay eggs and die....which starts the cycle over.

I don't wonder how they figure out when to go or where to go.....what I wonder about is if they have any sort of awareness of what they are doing....and in all the thousands of years that they've existed - haven't any of them thought - Wait a second.....why should I bother flying north - it's quite nice down here in Mexico.

I guess I feel a bit sorry for them - it seems like such a cruel life.

Of course, they still don't have it as tough as the baby sea turtles where only one in a thousand hatchlings make it to the sea alive.

I wonder why some animals seem to be able to learn and improve their lives....while some just seem to do the same stuff over and over and over again forever.

And now I'll leave you with a neat video of the Monarchs from that Nat Geo webpage.

November 8th - What a drag it is getting old....

40 with 11 years more experience.

Really though, I need to be honest with you guys - I am having a difficult time with the whole aging thing. Last year was easy - probably in large part because I was on a cruise ship preparing to swim with stingrays and climb Mayan temples.

This year, it's more about mood swings, weight gain, a bad knee, and eyesight that's still good enough to be horrified by all the new wrinkles I see in the mirror. And just to reinforce the whole gloom and doom mood, this weekend's mail included an offer to participate in a clinical trial for a new depression medication.

Did they key in on my birthday the way that AARP did and decide I must be depressed because I'm old? Perhaps someone at work thought I must be "off my meds" and recommended me. Or maybe it's just one of those random bulk mailers.

I can smile (well at least raise the corners of my lips a bit) now because I'm slowly finding my way back up into the sunshine, thanks to the amazing people I am lucky enough to have in my life.

First off, I get a whole slew of birthday greetings on Facebook...and I didn't think I'd even listed my birthday there - go figure. Then one of my friends mentioned my joie de vivre (if you don't read French that would be my love of life - not my big butt)....and another said I was one of their heros. I read a blog about how I'd introduced another friend to the wonder of having a hot tub and how much she was enjoying hers (even if she does have some issues with frostbite). And just now, I got a birthday call from my friend John in Australia - how cool is that.....

My son came over yesterday and helped make a big dent in the huge brushpile out back. Best of all he got the area cleared well enough that I can start tossing branches down across the creek rather than having to lug them up the ridiculously steep hill.

My dad was going to buy me a gas trimmer but instead he gave me money to buy exactly what I wanted......and so by this weekend I'll be taming the wilderness with a lot more power.

I even have enough money left to buy myself this concrete vibrator....

Someone please assure me that Harbor Freight hasn't really started selling marital aids.

Hmmm....looks like I'm only maturing in a physical sense, eh?

November 7, 2010 - Sunday Stuff

My mother and my grandmother were both prolific knitters....and my mother crocheted as well....so birthdays and Christmas always included sweaters and vests and mittens and sometimes afghans.

In hindsight it was pretty amazing that my mom could do these things since she was legally blind...I remember her using a magnifying glass to read the instructions and counting her stitches by feeling them. And she didn't stick to the easy patterns - she'd keep multiple yarns on her needle to make patterned ski sweaters.

Sadly, I didn't really appreciate her skill......I didn't want to be different with "homemade" sweaters and such - I wanted to be like all the other kids wearing machine made ones. As I got older, I'd like to say that I became more appreciative, but actually it was more that the fashion style of the 70s worked a bit better with crocheted vests and the like.

Mom eventually stopped knitting, so my son never went through the homemade sweater thing (though I bet he would have handled it with more grace than I did - he's good like that). When she died, there was a lot of stuff put away, yarn and needles and patterns and such - I donated what was worth saving and tossed the rest because I never have had the patience for projects that took more time than maybe a potholder.

The last mom/grandma made apparel bit the dust many years ago and I don't believe the whole crocheting/knitting thing had crossed my mind since.

But today I was in one of those home furnishings outlet places just to get some exercise and some ideas and I came across some granny square afghans made in China and on sale for fifty dollars each. They weren't made particularly well made (being the daughter/granddaughter of crafty women means you notice the details). But I found myself thinking that it would be really nice to have an afghan in the reds that I love so much.

So maybe I am my mother's daughter after all.....

Today in History - November 7th, 1991 Magic Johnson

announces that he is HIV-positive. Nineteen years later he's still here and healthy and doing great things off the court just as he did on it....


Magic Johnson's website

On this day - November 6th, 1528

Cabeza de Vaca discovers Texas.....

On this day, the Spanish conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is shipwrecked on a low sandy island off the coast of Texas. Starving, dehydrated, and desperate, he is the first European to set foot on the soil of the future Lone Star state...

Happy Caturday to all.......

November 5, 2010 - Something Old and Something New

The something old is my Blogger account - seems like I've had it for several years but haven't ever used it.

Which would also make it the something new - I'm going to follow Amy and see if I can figure out how to blog over here (though I will cross post to Multiply) and I certainly won't abandon my friends there.

So we'll see how this goes. I think that Multiply is rather like Facebook in that the intent is to aid the interaction of people who already know each other in some way. And I'd really like to continue to widen my horizons by meeting new people and reading new blogs. Maybe Blogger will let me do that - its worth a try

Tonight would normally be "weekend wine" night, but although I went to the wine store - I didn't taste anything outstanding to review. I did buy a bottle of Valpolicella Ripasso that I'll try and report on sometime this weekend.

And the reason I didn't do much "wining" is because it was bowling night again. I shot pretty well - finished with a 547 set (3 games), but more importantly our team won every game....so we should be moving up in the standings a bit.

I've seen that a few areas of the country had some snow - yikes.....we haven't even had a hard frost yet.

In fact, most of the leaves are still on the trees...there's at least one more lawnmowing in my future...and the forecasters are telling us temps as high as 70 next week once this cold front passes through.

OK - I was hoping I could come up with something interesting and witty for this first Blogger blog attempt - but it's just not happening. I think it's time for me to pour myself a glass of wine and head out to the hot tub to seek out some inspiration.