An Older and Wiser Friday Fave Five

Well, "older" maybe but certainly not wiser.  Got your attention though, didn't I?  Wish I could say that since my birthday yesterday I was suddenly a highly enlightened, wondrously wise woman but alas, I'm still just me.  Thank goodness that God loves me anyway and isn't finished with me yet, as that children's song goes.  So let's take a look back at my week, shall we?  Not too surprisingly, my Fave Five will be centered around being a "birthday kid."

1.  My birthday started out with a good chuckle when I opened this card from my sister-in-law.  I don't know where she finds such gems but I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it.  Here's what it said inside the card:

2.  Speaking of my sister-in-law, I got another laugh when she texted me to remember to open her birthday present.  You see, I had brought back two gifts with me when I returned from Michigan.  However, I had thought that both gifts were for my hubby for HIS birthday.  Somehow, the card on the one box had fallen off in my car and went partly under the driver's seat.  So on the Commander's birthday, he had opened the first gift from Rose and we admired the shirt and tie.  Then I gave him the second box and remarked to him, "Say, if you don't want that luggage tag, I'll take it."  Rose had tied a lovely apple green luggage tag to the ribbon and that's one of my favorite colors.  Well, the Commander said he'd think about it.  He opened the box and then there was silence as he looked at the contents.  He looked up at me and said, "Umm, I don't think this is for me."

I peeked inside and there sat a lovely apple green purse.  Yup, I realized that the box was probably MY birthday present.  So we closed the box up and it had been sitting in our spare bedroom waiting for yesterday.  Several weeks after the Commander's birthday, I noticed something white jutting out from under my driver's seat in the car.  When I pulled it out, I saw that it was a card addressed to me.  Mystery solved!  That's why we hadn't realized that the second box was my gift.

 
3.  Skyping with Jason, Laura, and Mika - The phone rang early Thursday morning and it was my family in Indonesia.  It was so nice to be able to chat with them and see how Mika continues to grow.  She has become quite the wiggleworm.  I wonder how long it will be before she starts to "locomote" herself around?  She's a little over 7 months old now.    Gosh, I just ache to give her a hug.

 4.  We celebrated my birthday at a great Thai restaurant.  I ordered Singapore noodles with chicken and wow, was it ever good.  I decided that I'd try something different besides Pad Thai and I'm glad that I ventured into new territory.  Yummy!

5.  A special bead for my Pandora bracelet - The Commander gave me this little bead to add to my Pandora bracelet.  I think it is a lovely addition.  I think he is so relieved that I have this bracelet because now he doesn't have to wonder what to get me on special occasions.  He can always get me another bead to add to my bracelet.  Men!  You gotta love 'em.

If you'd like to join us in listing your Fave Fives for this Friday, visit Susanne's blog at Living to Tell the Story.

A Birthday Treatise on Frosting

I LOVE frosting!  It is one of my culinary passions.  I'm very picky about my frosting, too.  I guess that is why, when our daughter got married, she sent me to the cake baker to sample cake and icing since she said it obviously was more important to me than it was to her.  Ouch!  She was SO right, though.  By the way, the cake at her reception was fantastic.  Well, I guess it was.  I was too busy concentrating on the frosting, which was scrumptious.

Last year, on my birthday, I left it up to the Commander to see that I got a great slice of birthday cake.  Big mistake.  I ended up with a paltry cupcake from Barnes and Noble which was horrible.  So this year I decided to get my own birthday cake.

"I see that you were sampling your birthday cake a little early," my husband remarked yesterday.

"Well, I had to make sure that the frosting was up to par," I replied.  "It's not all that great.  I might have to go find another cake."

Did you know that frosting on cakes began as a practice in the 1600s?  It was more a glaze back then.  In the 1800s, frosting evolved into what we are more familiar with today.  Frosting can be used to add artistic embellishments to cake and also to add an additional sweet, creamy layer on the cake itself.

There is buttercream frosting made from butter, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla (one of my favorites), cooked or boiled frosting, whipped cream frosting (bah, humbug), and royal frosting. Then again, let us not forget cream-cheese frosting and peanut butter frosting, variations of buttercream frosting.  There is also marzipan, an almond paste type of icing which can be used to sculpt lovely flowers and other objects but which I find to be rather tasteless and fondant, where you add glycerin among other things to your frosting ingredients.  Ganache can be an icing made from chocolate and cream.  Forget using low-fat ingredients when making frosting.  This is one area where low-fat just doesn't translate into a satisfactory product.  I've always had a weakness for "lard frosting" although people look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them that.  They don't know what I'm talking about.  This is the type of frosting my grandmother always made, using lard as the shortening in her frosting, instead of butter.  Did you know that many commercial bakeries use lard also as the shortening for their icing?  Of course, when I say "lard", she might have been using Crisco by the time I was born so who knows?

Well, enough about frosting.  My day DID start out extra special with a call from my sister-in-law followed by a Skype call with Jason, Laura and little Mika out in Indonesia.

Mika is a little over 7 months old now.  I love watching her on Skype and talking to her.  She even has some teeth.  And my, is she a cute little wiggle worm.  It won't be long before she is tearing all over the place, I'm thinking.  It was so funny today because when she'd get fussy, they'd pick her up and turn her upside down and then I'd see her face looking at me upside down in the computer.  She'd be giggling away.  I wish I'd had my camera to record it all but I couldn't type, talk, and take pictures at the same time.

Facebook has been a real delight, too with all sorts of lovely birthday wishes from friends around the country.

I also got to eat lunch with my mom today.  We had our usual time of reading together and when I asked her if she knew why this day was extra special, she wasn't too sure until I told her the date.  Then she perked up and said, "Why, it's your birthday."

We had a lovely lunch together at the nursing home, having a good laugh when they forgot we were in the little private dining room and I had to stick my head out the door and corral someone to bring our food when I noticed that everyone in the main dining room was getting their desserts and we hadn't even had our main dish yet.  I guess the staff had closed the door to our little room to give us some privacy and then had forgotten we were in there.  Ha!

When I took Mom back to her room, one of the nurses came in and said, "Your mom has been like this all day."

"Like what," I asked.

"All peppy and perky," she answered.

"Ah, well that's because it's my birthday," I laughed.  And truly, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present from Mom.

It's an Ill Wind

 

                                                                                                                                  Photo courtesy of Photos8.com

It was June 8, 1953.  I was sitting on my mother's lap in the basement as we listened to the wind howling outside.  Every so often a loud crack of thunder would startle me and I'd bury my face in my mother's shirt as she hugged me tightly.  I was 4 years old, too young to really understand everything that was to happen but old enough to remember the event clearly 56 years later and certainly old enough that it forever created in me a VERY healthy respect for strong storms.

We were lucky that day.  We escaped the fury of that storm with just an hour of temporary discomfort sitting in the basement.  The folks one town away from us weren't so lucky.  An F5 tornado cut a 4-mile long path of destruction through the town of Beecher, Michigan and the surrounding area, bypassing our town by just a few miles.  When it was over, 116 people were dead and 844 people were injured.

The news reports were filled with images that resembled a war zone.  Houses leveled, people wandering with dazed looks on their faces, trees and power lines down everywhere.  Slowly stories began to filter through.  One that I'll never forget was a story I heard where a father grabbed his child with one arm and grabbed a telephone pole with his other arm, trying to hang on.  He kept his grip but watched in horror as his child was torn from his grasp by the wind.  The child was one of the fatalities.

All this came back to me yesterday when my daughter called and told us about driving home from their company picnic in a terrible storm.  Trees were down all along their route and the wind was whipping branches back and forth effortlessly.  At one point, they had to drive over a big branch in the road and at another point, a tree was down and across the road but leaning on something on the other side so cars were able to drive UNDER the tree to continue on.  That's what they did.  I shuddered to think of it.  If it had been me, I would have headed for some place that was open and gone inside for shelter.

I did that once several years ago.  A freak storm came up suddenly as I was driving home.  The wind came out of nowhere from the side and almost blew the car over and then the rain started, pummeling the car and making it almost impossible to see.  I was scared out of my wits.  I was near a small hospital and I pulled into their parking lot.  Maybe I should have stayed in my car but all I could think of was getting into a building and down into a basement.  I threw open the door (well, it blew open and out of my hands as soon as I tried to open it) and dashed into the building.  About 20 pairs of eyes looked up at me startled.  I must have been a sight ---dripping wet, wild-eyed, and gasping out, "Storm!"  I had dashed right into a waiting room.  I managed to calm down enough to mumble something about just waiting there until things calmed down and that's just what I did.  I sat my wet self down and watched the wind and rain play havoc outside.  What I REALLY wanted to do was herd everyone down to the lowest level but no one seemed too perturbed so I tried to get a grip and restore myself to some semblance of control.  It's amazing how our past imprints itself on our present, isn't it?

I was so glad to hear that my daughter and husband made it back home safely.  Her biotech facility is completely without power, at least it was as of last night.  When she had called the power company to get an estimate on when power might be expected to be restored, they told her two weeks.  Yikes!  I hope they get it back sooner because there are a lot of projects that will be ruined if it takes that long.  But projects can be redone.

Today the sky is blue and I'm listening to the birds sing.  My memories of 1953 are ready to be tucked back into a safe recess, hopefully not to emerge again until the next storm clouds gather and a warning siren sounds.




 

What's a Fave Friday Without Food?

And here we are again, at the end of another week.  I used to think that summers only flew by when you were still in school but now I know better.  It happens to us at all stages of life.  I can't believe that it is almost the end of July.  Yet here it is again, time for another Friday's Fave Five.  This week's Fave Five are mainly going to revolve around food (what else?) with just a hint of fiber thrown in for good measure.  So shall we get started?

1.  Sticky Buns from the Farmer's Market - I've gotten in the habit lately of heading over to the local farmer's market on Fridays.  I usually get a few mini sticky buns but today they were all sold out.  So I had to buy a BIG sticky bun cake.  Yummy!  Of course, I didn't eat the whole thing but it sure was a feast for the eyes.

2.  Little Cheesers from the Amish stand - Speaking of "feast", I always have to include a stop at the little Amish stand on my way out of the Farmer's Market to get a few "little cheesers."  These are pretzel dough wrapped around mini-sausages wrapped in cheese.  Oh, boy!  Are they ever good.  In my defense, I only ate 3 of these and saved the rest of them for the Commander.

3.  Gourmet coffee from a local distributor - the Commander loves this flavor for the coffee that he takes into work in the mornings.  I love the smell of it brewing, too.  The little store that I used to purchase this at stopped carrying it so I was delighted to find it now available at the Farmer's Market.

4.  Spoiled food in this heat is no fun.  Thank goodness that we discovered that our freezer was no longer working when we did, even if I wasn't able to salvage the food before it had thawed.  However, our garage now is starting to smell like rotting food as the stuff sits in our garbage cans waiting to go out in the trash on Monday evening.  In the meantime, I'm parking my car in the driveway so that it doesn't smell like garbage.

5.  I finally finished my first woven project.    When we last saw the scarf I was weaving, it looked like this.  I 've since finished weaving it and taken it off the little Cricket loom.  Now it looks like this.

It's pretty amateurish but I figure a person has to start somewhere otherwise there is no room for improvement.  I would imagine that the more I weave, the better my edges will become and the more consistent my weaving will be.

Well, that's it for my Fave Five.  To join in the fun, go to Susanne's blog at Living to Tell the Story and follow the link to post your own Friday's Fave Five.

Mystery of the Sounds of Falling Ice

Two days ago, while watching TV downstairs, I heard a strange sound.  It sounded like falling ice cubes.  You know the sound.....it's the sound your automatic icemaker makes when a new batch of ice falls into the holder.  It sounded like it was coming from the unfinished part of our basement but we don't have a refrigerator down there.  Hmmm!

I had the Commander investigate.  He poked his head into the unfinished side and didn't see anything amiss.  He went upstairs and looked around.  Nothing!  So down he came and we continued to watch our show.  I still heard that sound a few times and then nothing.

Last evening, as we were preparing to head upstairs to bed, the Commander went to get some English muffins out of the freezer to take upstairs.

"Dee, were you drying something on top of the freezer?" he called.

I walked over.  "No. Why?" I asked.

"When I opened the freezer, a lot of water ran down onto the floor," he replied.

I opened the freezer top and water started to pour down the back of the freezer.  "Holy cow," I cried.  "I think the freezer has gone belly up."

We grabbed old work towels that I keep on hand and started putting them around the freezer to sop up the mess.  Wouldn't you know?  Just two weekends ago, I had been remarking to my daughter and son-in-law about this very freezer that we'd gotten at an auction back around 1992.  It had been old then but for $50 it was ours and it had served us well and was still doing fine in 2010.  I guess I jinxed it.

Apparently, the sounds of falling ice I thought I had heard was ice buildup falling down inside the freezer as the temperature slowly warmed up inside it.  Now I had big chunks of ice to carry to our basement bathroom.

Luckily, we didn't have a lot of food stored in the freezer downstairs so I only had to take 4 big plastic bags full of food to the trash cans.  My muscles got a work-out today.

After everything was out, I grabbed some more towels and tried to soak up the remaining water that was standing in the bottom of the freezer.   Ugh!  Now I just have to let it dry out, wash a bunch of towels, wash some food containers, and let the concrete floor dry out.

And through all this, there is one thought that keeps nagging at me.  The afternoon before we heard the "mystery sounds," the Commander had brought up a frozen pizza for me to bake.  When I opened the box, the pizza hadn't felt very frozen.  I had wondered at the time why that was but since it was a new brand of pizza, I thought perhaps this was the way it was supposed to be.  Silly me!  I had fleetingly thought of going downstairs to check the freezer but didn't follow through on that thought.  I certainly should have.  We would have caught it a day sooner if I had.  However, I have to say that this freezer certainly gave us many years of faithful service.  Rest in peace, my old friend.

What a Diet!

                                                                      "Photo courtesy Photos8.com"

I was over at the Sleep Apnea clinic today for a regular appointment and somehow we got off on the subject of diets.  I think we made the transition when my doctor asked me if I'd had any changes to my health since my last visit.

"Nope," I replied.  "I just got my annual physical results and everything looks fine.  And I've been keeping the weight off."


"You've lost quite a bit, haven't you," she asked.


"Well, yes but lately I've just been maintaining, which is fine by me because with all the traveling I've been doing, I consider 'maintaining' to be a real victory," I answered.


"What diet plan have you been on," she asked.


Wrong question!  You see, I attend TOPS, Take Off Pounds Sensibly but I don't exactly follow the "sensibly" part.  My philosophy this go-round has been to just eat in a manner that I thought I could continue to follow long-term.  For me, that has meant that I mainly eat desserts.

                                                                                                                         "Photo courtesy Photos8.com"

 "Desserts?" she said, incredulously.

 "Yes, well, I have this big sweet tooth and so I usually just go for the desserts but not a LOT of dessert.  For example, for lunch I might have the top off of a slab of cake and that's all," I explained.

"You don't eat the cake?"

"No, I figure that the cake is just empty calories and I really only like the frosting so I eat the frosting with just a bit of the cake.  Same thing with Hostess Cupcakes.  I cut the tops off and only eat the tops," I told her.

"Oh, my gosh," she said and started to laugh.  "I've got to tell my daughter this.  She's working on her Ph.D in Nutrition and she's not going to believe this.  I don't even like frosting.  One bite is usually enough for me."

"Hey, you are the type of person I always try to sit by when I'm at a function that is serving cake," I continued.  "I look for someone who is scraping their frosting off and only eating their cake then I offer to exchange the bottom of my cake for their frosting."

She couldn't stop laughing.

"What do you eat for breakfast?" she asked.

"Breakfast is usually only a bowl of oatmeal.  And supper is a normal meal but I eat small portions and no dessert.  It's just lunch that is my time for the sweets."

                                                             "Photo courtesy Photos8.com".

"And you want to hear the funniest part?" I asked.  "I won a trophy this year for having lost the most weight in our division.  When our TOPS leader gave it to me, the other folks in the group started asking me what I did to lose the weight.  He just looked at me and started shaking his head.  'Don't tell them, Dee!' he said.  But I told them anyway."

"What did you tell them," my doctor asked.

"I told them that I only eat sweets," I replied.  

We both laughed.  

"What can I say?" she asked.  "You're doing fine.  Come back in 6 months."

As she walked me to the door, she said, "I can't wait to tell my daughter about this."  She was still chuckling as she walked back down the hall.

Learning a New Language

I am trying to learn some Bahasa Indonesia in preparation for visiting our son and family.  "Trying" is the operative word.  My goodness, I used to be quite good at learning languages but this one has me flummoxed.  I learned Spanish in high school.  Became fairly fluent in German while stationed in Germany.  Actually became pretty fluent in French while we lived in Morocco.  But I've never attempted a language like this one.

Perhaps it's the fact that the other languages I've tackled all had some words in them that were similar to English words.  After all, many of our words have their roots in the Romance languages and certainly in German.  The vocabulary wasn't coming at me totally out of the blue, so to speak.  When in doubt, I could sometimes guess based on visual clues or oral clues.  However, when it comes to Bahasa Indonesia, there isn't anything in it that is remotely familiar.

I have, however, found a wonderful resource for studying the language.  Learning Indonesian is a website that has online lessons that you can listen to on your computer or download and listen to in the form of podcasts.  The lessons are short and they aren't overwhelming.

The website is also linked to another website called "Quizlet" which lets you print up flash cards for each lesson.  You don't have to prepare these flash cards yourself.  The folks at Learning Indonesian have already done the work for you.  How great is that?  I've explored around the Quizlet site a bit and it is a great resource for many different fields of study.  For example, I just took a quick quiz on state capitals (failed miserably).  No matter what you are studying, this website has flash card sets that will help you.  

I've got awhile before I plan to head over to Jakarta so I'm hoping that I'll have a few words learned by then. In the meantime, Sampai Nanti!

Friday - Some Feet, Fiber, and Fun

Can't believe that it is already Friday.  I missed Friday's Fave Five last week when the week just got away from me but this week, I'm determined to do better.  I thought I'd recap the week with (what else?) a little fiber-related news, some "feet-related" highlights, and end with some "just plain fun."  Shall we get started?

1. I've been enjoying the sensation of "walking on air" thanks to some new insoles.  My podiatrist recommended these Spenco insoles to me and I have to say that they have really made a difference in how the soles of my feet feel after a long day.  I guess it's a hereditary thing but I have no layer of fat on the bottom of my feet so when I walk, the pressure is right on the bones.  That ends up, over time, giving you the sensation that you are walking on stones.  Very unpleasant.  It's quite nice to have a little additional padding for my poor old feet.

2.  I'm going to be taking a knitting class in September from this author.  Her book on "mosaic knitting" arrived this week and this will be the type of knitting that she will be teaching in her class.  I think it will be quite interesting to learn this new technique plus it will be fun to have a book for her to autograph.

3.  The "Tour de Fleece" is underway and I filled this bobbin today.  Our spinning guild met today and I was able to finish filling this bobbin and begin another one.  The plan is to fill two bobbins and then do a 2-ply yarn from it.  I love the colors.

4

 4.  I picked out yarn to make another Wrap Me Up Shawl.  My local yarn shop is offering a class for this shawl next month.  I already started the shawl in Noro yarn, accented with solid yarn but the pattern is so addicting.  It is made up of many small sections, each a different stitch pattern.  You want to keep knitting on it because it's so much fun to watch the shawl evolve. 

So even though I'm on the 6th block of the shawl, I already was thinking of other color combinations I could work up and that's why I have another grouping of yarn waiting in the wings.

5.  Finally, I thought you might enjoy this country-western song that I heard the other day on the radio.   It's "International Harvester" by Craig Morgan.  I was thinking of it today and chuckling as I was driving out in the countryside between the fields on my way to our guild meeting.  I was running late and I caught myself thinking, "Boy, I hope I don't get behind a tractor."    Enjoy!


If you'd like to participate in Friday Fave Fives, visit Susanne's blog at Living to Tell the Story and read how you can join the fun.

Time for a New Driver's License Photo

Groan!  It's that time again.  Time to get my driver's license renewed and a new picture taken.  I always dread this ritual every four years.  Today was no exception.  I made it across the river and over to the DMV  in one piece but the first thing I did wrong was turn up an aisle to park going the wrong direction -- and this right in front of the entrance into the Dept. of Motor Vehicles building.  Great start, Dee!

I walked into the photo center and up to the counter.  Wow, there were no other people waiting so there was hope that this would go quickly.

"Press the green button over there and take a number," the lady at the counter commanded.

OK, I looked around for the other folks all waiting with their numbers and still didn't see any but I dutifully pushed the button and got my number - 235.

"235", I heard called from behind one of the partitions in the room.  I must have looked puzzled because the lady gave me further instructions.

"Follow the blue footprints painted on the floor."

I looked down.  Sure enough, there were trails of different colored footprints winding around the partitions.  I followed the blue ones to a cubicle where a clerk sat.  He glanced at me and cleared his throat, jerked his head in the direction of the floor and turned his back on me.  Sheesh, apparently, the blue footprints continued to the other side of his cubicle.  I tramped around the little corner.

"Number?" he said, at least looking at me this time.

"Um, 235," I answered and handed him the slip of paper.  He looked at me and cleared his throat again.  Oh, there was a little basket on the counter of his partition that said, "Put number here."  Well, so far I wasn't doing too good  following procedures.

Then I had to answer a series of questions on a computer monitor - what language did I speak, was I registered to vote, did I want to register as something else, did I want to be an organ donor?  I cleared those hurdles successfully and it was time to have the dreaded picture taken.  One quick snap, it was over, and I was good to go for another four years.

As I was leaving the room, I noticed that the lady I had first talked to had snagged another applicant.
"Put your chin down," she ordered the poor fellow.  "No, down further," she said and she prepared to snap his picture.  I shuddered.  This was the lady that I usually got when it was time for pictures and she had a talent for making you tilt your head so far down that you ended up with triple chins.  Thank goodness that I had the BLUE footprints today.

I got back in the car and started out of the parking lot, this time going in the direction of the arrows.  I was behind an elderly gentleman and his wife.  "Ike and Eva" were taking it slow as they circled the parking lot.  Any slower and we could have planted petunias on our way out.  I know their names because it was on their license plate.  But when we got to the stop sign, "Ike" sailed right through it without stopping.   I wanted to yell out my window, "Hey, Ike!  Did you forget to do something?"  I contained myself.

We both headed for the interstate through the side streets of the city.  Just as we got the green arrow to turn, a big semi-truck pulled out of a parking lot and blocked all four lanes going and coming of the road we both needed to turn onto.  "Gosh, I hate cities," I thought.

Finally I got back across the river and over to my side where at least I was familiar with where things were.  As I headed over to the bagel shop to pick up some lunch, I noticed a police helicopter circling back and forth overhead.   "Hmmm," I wondered.  "What in the world is going on now?"

I parked, got my bagel and came back out and got in the car.  As I started down the road, I noticed that there were a lot of police cars parked in the bank parking lot just down the street.  Hey, hey!  Looks like there had been a bank robbery just before I got the urge for a bagel.  And I thought all the excitement was on the East Shore!

I'll tell you what.....any place with more than 300 people in it is pushing the edges of my comfort zone.  Give me a sleepy little farm town any day where the most excitement you have is when someone's cows get loose.

Move Over, Teeny Boppers!

    

                                                      "Photo courtesy Photos8.com"
OK, I've joined the hordes of pre-teens and teenagers who are reading the "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer.  You know the one, the books about vampires and werewolves set amidst high school drama.  In my defense, I held out for a long time.  Oh, I had several of the films in my Netflix queue but I hadn't watched them yet.  Then the other week I got my Nook from Barnes and Noble.

It was while I was browsing through the store, electronically speaking, that I thought I'd read a few pages of "Twilight" to see what all the buzz was about.  I have to tell you, it didn't take long for me to be drawn into the story.  I've always had a soft spot for tales of somewhat benign vampires, ever since my days in high school and college watching the "Dark Shadows" TV series.  I was enthralled with Barnabas Collins back in those days.  He was a reluctant vampire who loved a young governess in a spooky New England town full of kooks, ghosts, witches, etc.  The show was a daily soap opera and I'd race home to see what would happen next.  Once I got to college, I joined the throngs of girls in our TV rec room in the dorm in the late afternoons where we all sat watching the story unfold.  So you see, it is only natural that I'd feel an affinity to this type of story.

In actuality, the first book in the series is rather refreshing.  I haven't stumbled across any pornography or gratuitous violence yet, thank goodness.  The story so far has been one filled with situations that I could readily identify with when thinking back to my days as a teenager feeling like I never quite "fit in" with those around me (talking now about the non-supernatural parts of the storyline).  I can't identify with juggling between parents because of divorce but I suspect there are many kids out there who can.  So for now, just about 1/4th through the first book, I can say that I'm enjoying it.  And I just got an email from Netflix that told me the first Twilight movie has worked its way up to the head of my queue and is now in the mail.  It will be interesting to see how the movie compares to the book.

Fresca and Mini-Me

Well, the time finally arrived for us to go down to visit with Laura and Jason and meet our new grand-pup.  We also took Fresca, the Wonder Dog down to meet little Sadie Ann for the first time.  Sadie has been wanting another little friend to play with, according to Laura, and has been pestering the cat no end but to no avail.  So we thought that perhaps Fresca could give Sadie some playtime.

Poor Sadie!  About the only thing that she and Fresca have in common is the fact that they both love to eat.  Apart from that, Fresca showed NO inclination to play with this adorable little puppy.  From the moment Fresca arrived and we let her loose in their fenced backyard, she just roamed around, sniffing everything and "marking" the trees (again and again) but when Sadie finally got up the courage to come over and check Fresca out, our dog completely ignored her.

As the day progressed, Sadie got braver and started following Fresca around, occasionally sneaking a sniff here and there but when Fresca would turn around, Sadie would plop down and roll over on her side and "play dead."  Obviously this is NOT a dominant dog.  Fresca would take one look and just walk off.

Now Sadie is a real "love bug" and if you sat down, she would come racing over to get on your lap to give you kisses.  "Grandpa" found this out when he sat on the couch.  He's not much for doggy kisses so they had a little heart to heart talk.

She decided to give Grandpa a little space but she still had to try to have the upper hand, so to speak.  Well, that was a little too much for Fresca the Wonder Dog to take and so Fresca decided to claim a lap for herself as well.

I guess Fresca decided that if Sadie could try to worm her way into the Commander's heart than perhaps Fresca could lay claim to Sadie's "Daddy's" lap.

I decided that I'd better sit down so I could entice Fresca away, which worked and soon Sadie was over by her papa and attempting to imitate his stance.  How cute is that?

But Fresca had made her way over to sit on Laura's lap and that was a little too much for Miss Sadie, who decided that she'd better go investigate who was laying claim to her "Mommy."

Eventually they got tired of the lap game and Sadie fell asleep on a pillow and had to be carried off to bed while Fresca got to stay up with the grownups.

We also celebrated the Commander's birthday while we were down there.  I hadn't checked with Laura to see what they were going to be getting him.

So imagine my surprise when he opened his gift and pulled out the EXACT same gift that I had hidden in my closet to give him tomorrow on his actual birthday.  Oh, dear!  Luckily I have another present in the mail.  I can't remember though where I bought MY set and I didn't keep the receipt.  "That will larn me", as my mom says.

When I looked around and saw everyone falling asleep on the couch, I figured it was time to head on home.  We packed up Fresca and made the drive back to PA.  I guess Sadie will have to look elsewhere for a playmate.  Apparently, Fresca considers herself too grownup for such nonsense.  Dogs, you gotta love 'em.

Ouch!

Do you ever have days when you are just a tad discombobulated?  It's felt like I'm going in a million directions the last few days.  I've been working away on listing auction items on my end from the several tubs of my mom's things that my brother had left here last Thanksgiving.  Now MY guestroom looks like a mailroom.  Ugh!

Then I've been trying to get caught up on where I need to be for a sweater class that I had today.  I missed the first class when I was in Michigan and had thought I'd just catch up on my own while I was out at my brother's but I ended up being so busy there that I had no time for knitting.  So I was trying to cram a lot of knitting into a few days and long story short, I was behind when I arrived at class today.  Luckily, I wasn't the only one behind so I didn't feel so bad.  We have an unexpected hiatus from class next week so I will hopefully be caught up in time for our next class.

Our Mystery Book Club meets this coming Wednesday so I have a book I need to finish before then.  I have plenty of clothes to steam and housework to do but I have been distracted by installing Google Chrome and have been trying to learn the ins and outs of that new browsing system.    Perhaps I should blame it on the heat wave we've been experiencing here in the East.  For much of the past week, we suffered through temps in the high 90's, even reaching 100 degrees for several days.  That's enough to stifle anyone's ambition.

But the frosting on the cake was the other day when I went to visit my mother in the nursing home.  As I approached the door to the dementia ward, I noticed one of the residents was right on the other side of the doorway, peering out of the window.  Now I had a bit of a problem.  I needed to go through that door but I had to make sure that the lady on the other side did NOT go out the door.  I buzzed myself through and made sure to keep my body between the resident and the gap in the door even though the lady tried to push past me and managed to get a grip on the edge of the door.

Well, now I was faced with another problem.  I couldn't exactly slam the door on her fingers.  I tried to kindly tell her that I needed to shut the door and that she needed to stay on the wing.  She wasn't buying it.  So I ended up having to gently pry her fingers off the door frame so I could shut the door.  Mission accomplished. That's when the real fun began.  The little elderly lady took her cane and started whacking me on the shins with it.  OK, enough of that!  I took her cane away from her, held it in one hand and put her arm through mine and started to walk her down the hall.

"I like your cane," I said, hoping to distract her.  She was giving me an earful about the injustice of not being allowed to go out the door.  OK, time for another tactic.

"Have you met my mother?" I asked.  "She's right here in this room."

"S___ of a  B____", she said and proceeded to continue to cuss like a sailor.

"I guess you haven't," I responded.  "Well, here's your cane.  I have to leave you now," I said and ducked quickly into Mom's room before she could hit me again with it.

Man, what a day!   First time I've been assaulted by a senior citizen.  A heat wave seems rather tame in comparison.    And that's what I've been up to this week.

Getting to Know My Nook

I broke down and bought a Nook at Barnes and Noble the other day.  Just couldn't pass up on the $149 price for the Wi-Fi only version.  What a deal, eh?  I have a Kindle already and I love it but I always feel a bit guilty about bringing it into the B & N when we have our Mystery Book Club meetings.  So now I can download our mystery books on the Nook and take it into the bookstore with no qualms whatsoever.

I've only had it for a few days so this is by no means a comprehensive review.  I've taken it to B & N three times now and worked with it at home so I'm basing my comments on this.  First of all, Barnes and Noble is making a real effort to create a sense of "community" for their Nook owners.  I noticed that our B & N now has a Nook group that meets once a month to discuss what they are reading, the things they are enjoying on their Nook, and given the chance to "loan" their e-books to each other, if they so desire.  The Nook also has a feature called "The Daily" that you can open each day to view special announcements, reviews, and offers just for Nook owners.  I don't know how often they update it because I had read my "Daily" on Monday and when I opened it up today (Wednesday), all I saw was a notice that there were no new items."  Hmmm, you would think that something called "Daily" would have something new in it on a DAILY basis.

I have to admit that I'm a little spoiled with my Kindle since I can shop for and download purchases anywhere that there is 3G coverage but with my Nook, I have to wait until I'm in a Wi-Fi hotspot.  I hadn't thought this would be a problem.  However, I'm finding that there are times when I'm at home and I'd like to go up to B & N and get something on my Nook.  Would it have been worth spending $30 more dollars for that privilege?  On hindsight, yeah, probably.

The Nook has a prominent display in our local B & N bookstore and they also had a nice selection of covers for it.  I purchased the Tupper cover which has this nice quote (the front of the cover is the first picture above).  There were other covers that were "designer" covers but I really couldn't see spending over $100 for some Kate Spade cover.  Get real, folks.  I'm buying my Nook for the books.  If there's a cheap cover in my favorite green, that's a bonus.  This cover was $29 and it fits the bill nicely.

When you register your Nook, they apparently throw in some free books for you since three "classics" showed up in my library along with 2 samples without me doing anything.  One of the features that I really thought I would like was the ability to read any e-book in the store for 1 hour per day (I think that is per title) and then, if you so chose, you could keep going in every day and continue reading the same book for free - one hour per day.  Don't know how feasible that is but guess if you go to the bookstore a lot, it would be fun.  I think it's more valuable to entice the reader to purchase the book at the end of their reading session.  For example, today I was reading "Twilight" in-store and decided to purchase it.  (Don't groan - I'm trying to purchase books for the Nook that I know the Commander would have no interest in.  Books he would like, I'll put on my Kindle so he can read it on his Kindle, too.  And besides, I was raised on "Dark Shadows" in high school and college.)  On the other hand, you can download samples just as you can with the Kindle.  I downloaded 22 pages of a Charles Todd mystery and started to read that and realized shortly that it was a book I had already read.  I'm glad I started with the sample because it saved me $9.99.  It should be mentioned here that not all the e-books available from Barnes and Noble can be "read in-store."  I'm guessing this has something to do with publisher agreements.

The e-ink readability of the Nook is just as nice as that of the Kindle.  I do agree that the screen refresh rate seems slower with the Nook but I didn't find it terribly frustrating.  What I DID find rather distracting was having the colored navigation portion of the screen "blacking out" on me.  It does this to conserve battery power.  But maybe because I was trying out different features, I kept having to awaken it, which got annoying.  I also noticed that the battery was going down faster than on my Kindle.

I took the "Quick Tour" of the Nook both with the little booklet that comes with it and online and didn't have any big problems navigating around.  I will say that I keep wanting to "select" things by just touching them but with the Nook, you have to touch the circle icon.  I'm just too spoiled with my iPhone technology.  I also could NOT get the "swipe" feature to work.  Supposedly, when the bottom portion of the Nook is blacked out, you are able to change pages by swiping your finger left to right or vice versa in the blacked out section.  It didn't work for me no matter how hard or softly I tried to "swipe."  Next time I'm over there with my Nook and see a clerk at the demo counter, I might ask them to show me what I'm doing wrong.

I like the ability to see the covers of your books down in the bottom portion.  It's just a cool feature.  There are several other things that the Nook can do which I haven't put to the test yet.  With the latest software update, you are supposed to be able to jump to different pages in a book.  My Nook also has a Web browser but I haven't tried that yet AND it has Chess and Sudoku on it.  I'm looking forward to playing Sudoku with it though I suspect I'll be spoiled by my iPhone version as well with it's nice tutorials and "hints" features.

Putting the Nook to sleep and waking it up is easy - just a push down on the top button.  You have a choice of screensavers, including authors, quotes, and nature backgrounds.  I believe you can also install some of your own pictures on it to use as screensavers.

The Nook holds up to 1500 books - a fantastic amount for any reader.  I tend to have 4-8 on my e-readers at a time and then I send them back up to Amazon.  Don't know if you can do this up at Barnes and Noble.

I mentioned "lending" books to others.  The rub is that you can "lend" one of your purchased e-books to another Nook but it's only for 14 days and while the other person has it, you can't access it yourself.  With my Kindle, I can have 5 electronic devices registered to my account and we can all be reading the same book, if we so desire on them.  Hence, I can download a book to my Kindle and also put it on my iPhone and the Commander can download it to his Kindle also, since it is also registered to my account.  Great feature!

That's all I've explored with the Nook so far.  I'd say that the Nook is fine if you are near a Barnes and Noble and enjoy visiting it often.  But if not, I'd say the Kindle still wins in the battle of the e-Readers.