another step forward...

 My FF thinks I should blog about our Scrabble game this evening because he won, but I feel compelled to point out that he only beat me by three points.  We were tied when we each had one tile left.  He was able to use his to make seven points, I only achieved four, hence the three point win.  Ah well, it's only a game.  On another brighter note, we met with the pastor and organist who will be handling our wedding in January.  So now we know how the whole service will go, and have heard our choice of music played.  It was a fun morning and I'm looking forward to the event more than ever.  Now there are just a few tiny details to think about like my dress, the restaurant, flowers, cupcakes, the pre-nup, condensing two households and moving, selling, tossing a lot of my stuff, and, oh yes, getting the license.  There's probably more, but at least the service is set.  Now I can relax. Ha ha ha ha!

tough choices

 My west coast brother informs me that today is "National Chocolates Day," "National Lemon Cream Pie Day," and, are you ready for this? "National Rice Cakes Day."  Now, I don't know about you, but when I decide to celebrate a special food day I naturally choose the healthiest option.  Looking at these three choices, I immediately eliminated the rice cakes, I mean, face it, there's nothing there.  And I should know. I ate my share of rice cakes in my dieting days.  But those days are behind me.  The last time I went to my GP for a check up, he told me that my weight was just fine.  He didn't say it out loud but I could sense the rest of the sentence "for your age."  But never mind, now I just concentrate on eating healthy food, so I thought hard.  Lemon cream pie, obviously full of fruit and dairy, or chocolate, which everyone knows, is one of the basic food groups.  Especially dark chocolate, which happens to be my favorite.  Decisions, decisions.  Fortunately for me, today's choice was easy.  I have no lemons but, as it happens, my FF makes excellent dark chocolate fudge.  He made some for Thanksgiving and there were still a few pieces left today.  The operative word here is 'were.'  They are a sweet memory now, but we can rest assured that we did eat healthy today.

it's really official now...

 I've taken two giant steps toward marital bliss today.  It turns out there are lots of things to think about before a wedding, even a very small, family only wedding.  First, it turns out if you want to shop for a wedding dress, even one for a 70 something bride, you should make an appointment at a bridal shop, or maybe several.  So I went on line, it's easier than trying to get a live person on the phone, and set an appointment to look at dresses.  And here's the fun part.  I was able to set a time when my daughter, my FF's daughter-in-law and, hopefully, my daughter-in-law will all be able to join me for the event and let me know their opinions and advice (which I may or may not listen to).

The second giant step was to announce to a meeting of my church's Elders that I'm getting married, and get their approval to use the little chapel in our church for my wedding.  Approval was unanimous, which is good since we had already reserved the chapel.

So, two items down, about seventy-eleven to go.   

Christmas is upon us...

 In case you haven't heard, Christmas is on its way, 29 days if you're counting.  I'm awed by the homeowners in my FF's neighborhood who switched from lavish Halloween decor to equally lavish Christmas displays in a day.  They were wise to do that, as it turns out, because it's considerably colder outside now than it was even a week ago, though yesterday's snow did add a nice festive touch.  The winner in this neighborhood so far, for sheer size if nothing else, is the family who put up an inflatable Santa that stands taller than their two story house.  He will not be making it down any chimneys. As for me, my tree is up, lights strung and about half of the ornaments on.  This year I have put it up at my FF's house where it fits quite nicely in the living room and where I have many more ornaments to choose from.  So now all I have to do is buy several gifts, and wrap them of course, mail out my Christmas poems (yes I still do that the old fashioned way), And, while I'm at it, buy a wedding dress, find a restaurant, pick out flowers and cake (thankfully I have help with those things) finalize music, ceremony details and our pre-nup. and pack a suitcase with two dressy and several smart casual outfits.  Why pack a suitcase? Because this Christmas, in a major break with tradition for me, my FF and I are going with some of his family on a Caribbean cruise over the Christmas holiday.  A blissful week of sightseeing and over-eating before we have to finish up all of the last minute details of our mid-January wedding.  Presuming of course that I survive the zip line.

let them eat cake...

 My west coast brother has informed me that today is "National Cake Day" and also, in a bizarre twist, "Anti Obesity Day."  Wow! Talk about a mixed message.  Happily, I did not struggle with the conundrum for too long.  My FF and I have now finished off the last pieces of carrot cake.  Obviously carrot cake is good for you, having vegetables and dairy and eggs in it.  The maple cream cheese (more dairy) frosting just helped it slide down a little more easily,  So it's practically health food, right?  We will contemplate being against obesity tomorrow, if we have time. I may need to bake another cake.

chuga chuga chuga, toot toot!!

 I enjoyed a flashback to childhood today, and what better time for that than during the Holiday season?  When I was four years old my six year old boyfriend, who lived down the block, had a wonderful model train set up in the basement of his family home.  Looking back, I'm pretty sure his dad had a hand in the layout and design of the display, but all I knew was that when Tommy (yes that name does run through my life story) pressed certain levers and buttons, miniature very realistic looking trains ran around and around tracks, over and under bridges, and through cunning little villages.  Lights flashed, whistles blew, and it was all quite marvelous.  Perhaps I've mentioned before that I am easily entertained.  But fast forward to today.  My FF and I went to the model train exhibit at Science Central.  It was fun. I enjoyed watching the dozen or so kids on the floor arranging and rearranging yards of track and running their trains all around.  It was even more fun watching the "big boys" running their electric trains around two large tables of tracks.  In the center of one set up was a little Christmas tree with a train running around the base.  You may have had a set up like that around your tree once upon a time.  I did enjoy watching the trains running on their tracks, but I do think it was more exciting watching from eye level, all those years ago.  

PS In case you're wondering, Tommy and I drifted apart.  He grew up to be 5'2" to my 5'10" so it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway, but when I was five I received my first proposal, with a real ring (a blue plastic one from a Cracker Jack box) from the boy who lived across the street.  It's hard to fight a proposal like that.  Alas, the following year my family moved away from Fort Wayne, so that romance was also cut short.  

and yet more food..

 The time has come that I must admit I am just about finished with feasting.  After a traditional Thanksgiving feast at my son's house yesterday we had another gathering involving food with my FF's family this evening.  Side note here, after deciding that GPF wasn't appropriate, I've decided to go with FF as a new acronym for my fiancé.  In the world of texting FF stands for Friends Forever, which is appropriate, but in my mind it will stand for Fine Fiancé.  But I digress.  I am happy to report that the carrot cake I baked, based on my sister-in-law's secret recipe, was delicious and very well received.  Thanks to the new mixer I gave to my FF as an early Christmas present, when his died a few days ago, the prep was much easier than I expected.  Instead of needing to beat the batter by hand when it got very thick, I was able to use the dough hook attachments that did a great job of mixing the dough.  Also, the cake was deliciously enhanced by cream cheese frosting.  My FF, who is allergic to corn in all forms including corn syrup, discovered an amazing cream cheese frosting recipe using maple syrup.  It was the perfect finish for that perfect cake and a perfectly filling two days,  Now it's back to eating healthy, at least for a month.  But, on the other hand, carrots are good for you.  Perhaps I should have one more piece before I waddle off to bed.

it's time for a change

 First of all I hope that everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving celebration.  We certainly did.  Everything was delicious but the pecan pie (made with maple syrup instead of corn syrup) was outstanding. And everyone liked my sweet potatoes, so that was good.  However, it came up during the mealtime conversation that the acronym GPF that I've been using for my Game Playing Fiancé has other meanings.  It seems that my son and granddaughter did a search while reading a recent blog and discovered two alternate possibilities.  It appears that I should have also done some research.  It turns out that GPF stands for a Gasoline Particulate Filter, not too bad, but doesn't really make sense in my blogs.  The other meaning that showed up is Gallons Per Flush and that just won't do at all.  I may just have to refer to him as him, but I'll work on this problem and get back to you.  

food on my mind...

 It shouldn't surprise anyone that, on the day before Thanksgiving, my mind is still on food.  First, I'm happy to report that the second batch of fudge came out just fine and quite a bit of it will be going to my son's house for our feast tomorrow, along with my family famous sweet potato casserole which is prepped and waiting in the refrigerator to be baked tomorrow morning.  I love food that can be prepared ahead of time. But I'm not the only one thinking about food.  During a text conversation among myself and four of my friends (we usually share Wordle results) someone posed the question "What's your favorite Thanksgiving food."  Answers involved a lot of pies - chocolate, pumpkin, peanut butter and lemon meringue.  But it wasn't only pies.  Someone mentioned creamed onions which I have never had, and another listed traditional onion/celery dressing.  I mentioned my sweet potatoes, which are good if I do say so myself, basically a sweet potato custard topped with nuts and brown sugar.  A friend of mine used to say that it's like eating candy but it's ok because it's a vegetable so it must be good for you.  I also mentioned my mother-in-law's gravy which was always excellent.  Interestingly, she was not a great cook and always said she would rather do dishes, which made her a very uncritical MIL.  But she did make excellent gravy, so on holidays I would hold back the giblets for her to use and she would stir up a rich creamy gravy with no lumps ever except for the bits of meat.  I was always delighted to let her make the gravy but never learned from her example.  Happily, it's not my problem any more.  Two years ago my children and their spouses decided that I shouldn't have to host Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners anymore (maybe they think I'm too old and I'm fine with that) so all I do is show up with my sweet potatoes  (and fudge and a fiance this year) and relax and enjoy the day.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Oh fudge...

 This has not been my GPF's best day.  I won't even mention how much I beat him by in Gin Rummy.  His speciality in the kitchen is making fudge.  He uses his mother's recipe and it is delicious.  But today, half way through the preparation, his trusty old hand held mixer died.  I stirred while he went next door to borrow a neighbor's mixer.  We're not sure what went wrong but this time the fudge didn't harden and we were left with two pans full of soft gooey semi-liquid fudge.  However things have turned out ok.  Being of the lemonade out of lemons mindset, we decided to try the fudge sauce on vanilla ice cream.  Delicious!! It may be my new favorite way to eat fudge.  Now, of course, he will be making another batch of fudge tomorrow because he has promised to bring it to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.  I hope this batch turns out ok, but, you know, if it's the kind of fudge you eat with a spoon (with ice cream) we'll just have to adjust.

What's in a name?

 My west coast brother has informed me that today is "National Absurdity Day" and "Name Your PC Day."  My first thought when I read that was that naming your PC is an absurdity.  But then, I started to wonder "Why not?"  i, and I suspect others, name other inanimate objects.  Ships and boats are always named.  People frequently have pet names for their cars, mine is named Blue.  In fact, when I bought my Fiat, my attention was drawn to a large wall display in the showroom of pictures people had submitted of themselves with their car and telling the name of the car.  So now I have started to think of names for my PC.  After all, I probably spend more time with it than any other inanimate object except my car.  Personal Computer is correct of course, but seems a little formal.  Laptop is really more of a descriptor than a name.  How about Pearl?  The cover is pearly gray after all.  Or Topper or Sonny or Apple (no wait, that one's taken).  That's it, I can't think of any more.  Come on Pearl, it's almost time for bed.

feast and famine...

 At lunch time today my GPF and I enjoyed the annual Thanksgiving dinner prepared by the members of the Korean congregation of our church.  It was delicious as usual.  It is hosted by the Korean congregation in honor of the American soldiers who served in the Korean war.  Not too many of them left these days, but there were a few in attendance today.  The meal consisted of all the typical Thanksgiving fare including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and salad plus bulgogi, kimchi, sticky rice, noodle salad (my favorite) and a grand assortment of desserts provided by the English speaking congregation.  Needless to say we did not go away hungry.  That was the feast part of the day.  This evening, after a very light supper, my GPF and I decided to play a game of scrabble.  He has learned to play from me so I wish I could take a little credit for his win tonight, but alas he has learned much too well.  He started the game by using all of his tiles for his first word, earning him fifty extra points then went on to score over fifty points with each of his  next two words.  At the end of three turns he had 160 points to my 58.  I knew I was in trouble when all I seemed to be able to draw were tiles worth one point each.  That's the famine in my title.  The final score was 356 to 289.  we ran out of tiles before I could complete my comeback.  My only teeny bit of satisfaction is that he was stuck with his 'Q' at the end of the game.  

A side note here, if you are scrabble players, there is a nifty program you can download on your phone called 'Scrabble Word Checker.'  It makes looking up words very quick and easy.  

Christmas tree plans

 

I have some plans for my Christmas tree this year.  As you can see, my GPF and I actually got it put together today, and in place in his living room.  A new location for a good old tree.  It may seem to you that I'm rushing things but here is phase one of my plan.  We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with Paul's family on Friday, the day I traditionally put up my tree.  Sometime this week I will put the lights on it, and here's the fun part, on Friday I will have all of our boxes of ornaments on display and invite everyone to help decorate the tree.  I really hope to get quite a bit of it done this way, giving us the chance to enjoy it for most of December.  Then, on New Years Day, we'll be having an open house party for everyone who can come from both of our families. At that party I will invite everyone to take the ornaments from the tree that they would like to add to their own collections, hopefully things that have great sentimental value for them, like my grandson's tiny little superman figures, for example.    I will even have boxes available to make it easy for them to carry away their treasures.   That's my plan.  I will report on progress from time to time.  

it's joke time

My west coast brother has come through again.  Today is "National Farm Joke Day" and he has even provided some jokes:  What do you call a cow with three legs? Lean beef.  What do you call a cow with one leg? Steak.  You notice these jokes are both about cows.  My west coast brother actually is a farmer.  Granted it's a small farm but he does have goats and sheep and chickens and two cats, so I wondered why only cow jokes?  Maybe his animals just don't seem that funny to him, but I decided to help him out with a couple of goat jokes:  Why are goats from France more musical than American goats?   Because they have French horns.  What do you call a goat swimming really fast in a lake?  A motor goat.  So ok, maybe goat jokes aren't the best, but I bet you smiled just a little.  

wedding bells..

 The word is out among my friends that my GPP and I are getting married.  I may need to refer to him as my GPF now (game playing fiance) We are discovering that, at our age, (we are both closer to 70 than 60) getting married is not a simple process.  It seemed simple the first time around, when I was 23, but that was a long time ago and I may have forgotten a few details.  I'm pretty sure, though, that it didn't involve revising wills and powers of attorney, and living wills, and of course a prenuptial agreement.  And we certainly didn't have to consider our grandchildren's college schedules when setting the date.  On the other hand we didn't have an adorable little granddaughter to act as flower girl and he does now.  We are facing some decisions such as do we live in his five bedroom house or my two bedroom apartment??  Tough choice.  I promise not to regale you with wedding info from here to January but it will sneak into this blog from time to time.  Today, for instance, we ordered our wedding bands - simple but elegant.  Now that was fun!

Read a book...

 Today, according to my west coast brother, is "National Young Readers' Day."  I cannot begin to express how important it is for children to read.  If you can read, really read, you can accomplish just about anything.  I'm happy to say that I have spent a lot of time reading to children; first my brothers, then my children, then my grandchildren.  With every generation I have happy memories.  I remember, for example, reading "Lassie Come Home" to my west coast brother, when he was six and I was sixteen.  When we got to the end we both burst out crying (happy tears of relief of course).  My son would listen contentedly to any story I would read to him, "The Saggy Baggy Elephant" was an early favorite although he pronounced it "Ag Bag Efnant."  My daughter, on the other hand, would only sit still for books that involved counting or little flaps that opened.  She liked action books.  When it came to the grands, I remembers starting to read "Little House in the Big Woods" (first of my all time favorite series) and being shocked by the graphic descriptions of killing animals and butchering them.  I don't remember being bothered by it at all when I first read it.  But better by far than reading to any child is the moment when they are excited to read something to you.  Right now the second grader I'm tutoring is just beginning to be able to sound out words and understand what he's reading.  It's a giant step forward. 

a congenial group...

Once a month, usually on the second Monday, groups of diners who are members of our church, gather in small groups at various restaurants around town to enjoy good food and lively conversation.  Presbyterians can eat and talk with the best of them. Most of the groups go to the same restaurant every month but our downtown group is more adventurous.  We go to a different place each time.  There are a lot of choices in and near downtown.  This evening, for example, we went to Shigs in Pit on Fairfield and next month we will go to the Viet Nam restaurant across the street.  There are usually six to eight of us which makes for easy round table conversation.  The food is always good.  Mediocre restaurants tend not to survive in Fort Wayne.  The conversation is even better.  This evening, for example our topics ranged from some tricky real estate ownership laws to recently attended weddings to how pre-nups should be written to social security issues to unusual burial choices that people have made.  It sounds like a strange mix when I write it down but it involved lots of laughs and some expressions of concern.  We are a caring group.  Our pastor's sermon this morning focused on building community, and we certainly did our best.  

antiques and comfort food....

 This afternoon I took my GPP and his brother, who is very interested in antique cars, to visit a friend of mine who has an amazing, museum quality collection of antique steam engines, farm machinery and so much more.  The items in his collection date back as far as the 1860s.  I had estimated about two hours for the visit, because how long can it take to look at two large barns full of gigantic, and smaller antiques.  Three and a half hours later, our host was still pulling out items for us to look at.  Some of these were smaller items like wrenches, corn huskers (evidently people will pay big bucks for these) and other little hand held cast iron tools.  One piece that I really enjoyed was an antique electric toaster, circa 1920, made in France and sporting the niftiest little upright rotating racks to hold the toast.  It was a lovely little gadget.  But thinking of toast brings me to the second half of the afternoon's adventure.  We finally left the museum which one of the guys said reminded him of the Henry Ford Museum, at about 5:45pm.  It was getting dark of course, so it felt later, and we were all hungry, so we headed for a nearby Cracker Barrell Restaurant.  You will probably agree that Cracker Barrell offers the ultimate in comfort food.  I had batter fried fish with green beans, corn muffins (yes, plural) and baked apples. So good.  Remember I said comfort food, not health food.  You can go other places for that.  I did manage to get all through their charming shop without buying candy or anything else. Healthy for my wallet at least.

an excellent performance...

 Orion Rapp performed exquisitely on the oboe this evening at the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.  His solos in a Concerto in A minor for Oboe & Strings were wonderful. But the high point of the evening for me was his encore.  He played (on piano this time) and sang an original song, dedicated to his girlfriend actor/director Shelby Lewis.  He then called her up on stage, got down on one knee and proposed.  Our seats were too far away to hear what was said but, judging by the body language, she accepted.  I have known this couple for several years (they used to live down the hall from me), they are super nice people, and I am so happy for them.  And, let's face it, much as I enjoy the Philharmonic, this was the most fun I've had there in years.  

an oldie but a goodie..

 Arena Dinner Theater put on an excellent performance of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" this evening.  It's a classic and of course I knew the ending, but it was such fun to watch; lots of humor, quick action, excellent dialog. It was a really good show.  And the food was good too.  All of the actors did a fine job but Scott Rumage, as Hercules Poirot, or Her-ku-lees Pie-rot as one of the other characters called him, really gave an outstanding performance.  I would say you should see this show, and there are two more performances, but alas they are sold out.  

this made me laugh

My west coast brother has informed me that today is ".Geriatric Tooth Fairy Day." I'm intrigued by this but not quite sure how it works.  Does the GTF find your dentures if you misplace them?  When I popped a crown off while eating a Tootsie Roll, should I have put it under my pillow with the hopes that the GTF would leave a check (or cash) sufficient to pay the bill for having it reattached? A friend of mine has told me the story of an unfortunate denture related incident.  In the years between her first and second marriage, she had a first date with a guy who brought her home after their dinner date and passed out on the couch.  I suspect a little too much to drink.  Before he totally passed out he took his dentures out and laid them on the end table.   She went into the kitchen for some water and heard a crunching, slobbery kind of noise, and ran back to the living room just in time to rescue the dentures from her curious dog. (Where was the GTF then?)   They didn't look too bad (her description) so she laid them back on the table, and settled down with a good book.  Eventually, he woke up, popped the teeth in his mouth, and left.  Evidently they felt ok, or he was too numb to notice.  There was no second date.  

Now that's punny...

My west coast brother has informed me that today is "Abet and Aid Punsters Day."  I've been told that 'a pun is the lowest form of humor.' But I think they're funny.  For example "I made a paper airplane but it wouldn't fly...Turns our you can't make them out of stationary." 

By definition, a pun is a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of words.  Here's another one..."I'm going to stand outside.  If anyone asks where I am, tell them I'm outstanding." and one more..."What did the grape say when it got crushed? Nothing, it just let out a little wine."  Here's another one. "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." and my all time favorite  "I want to be cremated when I die.  It's my last chance for a smoking hot body."  These may not have made you laugh out loud, but if they made you smile a little, my work here is done.

on line shopping...

 First I think all of us will agree that online shopping is dangerous, not so much to your health as to your credit card.  It's so easy to sit in your pajamas and fluffy bathrobe (yes, I'm speaking from personal experience here) and scroll through pages and pages of available items.  It actually reminds me (and here I am really telling my age) of spending hours paging through the big fat original Sears catalogs.  The Christmas catalog was the best.  And speaking of Christmas, and shopping, that's why I'm currently indulging in online shopping. This year I am going on a Caribbean cruise at Christmas time, and part of the information provided tells me that there will be two dressy evening events and five smart casual suppers.  Smart casual I think I can handle; capris, nice tops and some flashy jewelry or scarves.  Dressy is a little tougher.  I do actually own a few very dressy outfits, but only because I haven't thrown them away since I retired from the working world and occasional very nice parties.  They will not do, having aged out of their usefulness. So I'm looking at dressy dresses.  There are many to choose from, happily, and even some in styles that will suit me.  I do have some limitations - no short skirts or short sleeves and a-line skirts are good.  And here's a fun fact.  You can find a nice selection of dressy dresses under the categories of 'mother of the groom' or 'mother of the bride.'  Now I must get back to  shopping.  Such a chore, but it must be done.  

How many years ago?

 I tutored my big-boy second grader again today. The same person as my little first grader last year, but he grew a few inches over the summer and has his two front teeth so he does look older.  Today as he came in he announced that he's interested in dinosaurs now.  Last year it was sharks.  He then went on to tell me that he thinks dinosaurs went extinct at least five years ago.  I told him that I thought it was quite a bit longer, so he guessed fifty years.  The concept of millions went right over his head, but I must admit I have a hard time with millions of years myself.  We then had quite a discussion about asteroids and how they might have killed all the dinosaurs.  I need to find a good book about dinosaurs.  After our reading and math work I allowed him to draw a picture (he much prefers this to playing games) and his picture showed a large dinosaur trying to snatch an airplane out of the sky while the airplane was trying to rescue two people hanging from it.  High adventure indeed.  After class, I texted my son, who deals in things scientific, and told him what my student had said and he replied that technically the child was right.  The dinosaurs did become extinct at least five years ago.  

Guy Fawkes Day

Today, November 5, is celebrated throughout the British Isles and other countries with a British link in history, as Guy Fawkes Day.  You can Google the entire history of the attempt, in the early 1600s, to blow up Parliament and kill the king.  My west coast brother made me aware of this celebration/commemoration while speculating as to why a bunch of dissatisfied citizens wanted to blow up the House of Commons.  My brother thought that it might have been because they were irritated with their representatives for not being able to agree on whether or not to adopt daylight savings time.  That sounded reasonable to me, but I discovered with a little reading that it was the Catholics revolting against King James (the one of Bible fame) for some restrictions placed on them. The event is actually a celebration of the defeat of the rebellion.  Guy Fawkes was one of many rebels caught and executed.  Not sure why he got the dubious honor of having the event named after him.  You will have to read the history more thoroughly to find that answer.  But evidently the whole thing involves lots of bonfires and burnings in effigy of poor Guy.  What a way to be remembered.

tock tick...

 Tonight's the night.  It's time to turn our clocks back one hour.  I will do it, obviously, because I don't want to be an hour early for church tomorrow morning, and so will you I'm sure, but I do think we're the victims of a little bit of false advertising.  I keep hearing the news and weather people say we will get an extra hour of sleep. Really?  An extra hour yes, but of sleep?  It doesn't seem to work that way for me.  By the time I turn my clocks back (I do still have four that need to be done manually) and, once I'm in bed, realize that I can read or watch TV a little bit longer, I seldom gain more than fifteen minute of extra sleep.  But I will enjoy a little bit more daylight in the morning.  Of course, once morning comes, I have one more hurdle to clear, resetting my car clock.  It's really fairly simple, but since I only do it twice a year, I need to relearn the process each time.  I do have one friend who resolutely refuses to reset her car clock.  She figures it's correct for half the year and that's good enough.  I'm not much better though.  I do reset all of my clocks but my accuracy isn't always the best.  My car clock and bedside table clock have both been five  minutes fast for the last six months.  I will try to do better this time.  Of course that will mean taking more time so maybe only ten minutes extra sleep.  I'd better start now.  Enjoy your extra hour, however you spend it.  

a recipe for you...

 My west coast brother has informed me that today is 'National Sandwich Day' and 'World Jellyfish Day.'  Now, I do not recommend a peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich, although I do really like peanut butter and pickle sandwiches (sweet or dill or sandwich pickles, they all work).  But seriously, I would like to share with you one of my favorite sandwiches - toasted cheese ala GPP.  He makes his toasted cheese sandwiches with cheese, of course, and other goodies like bacon bits or ham or chopped onions (or all of these) but what makes his sandwiches really good is that instead of spreading the outside of the bread with butter he uses mayonnaise, then fries them.  If you already do this, good for you; if not, I highly recommend it.  And here's another bit of personal information.  As a child I thought I really didn't like toasted cheese sandwiches.  It wasn't until I grew up and discovered that they don't have to be served with tomato soup (my least favorite soup in the world) or even better, stewed tomatoes (you don't want that recipe), as was done almost every Friday in our elementary school cafeteria that I found that I actually liked the sandwiches. Happy sandwich day everyone.

SMILE!!!

 I'm happy to report that my coronation this morning went well.  I'm pretty sure that's what it's called when a crown is reattached to a tooth,  This was the crown that I popped off while eating a Tootsie Roll on Halloween afternoon. Interestingly, the dentist told me that mine was the fourth Tootsie Roll related repair he had done since Halloween.  Those things should come with a warning.  He also said that the week after Halloween is generally a booming week for dentists.  No real surprise there.  His parting word of advice was "Avoid the sticky candy and eat only DeBrand's chocolates.  They melt in your mouth and won't stick to your teeth."  Well, if the same professional who tells me to brush and floss tells me to eat fine chocolate, who am I to argue?

Love Languages

We had an interesting presentation and discussion this evening at a meeting of a service group I belong to.  It was primarily about caring for someone with dementia but one question that came up can, I think, apply to anyone.  We were presented with a list of five "Love Languages" and asked to think about which two are most important to us.  It was pointed out that just because something is high on our love language list, it might not be for someone else.  Here's the list:

1. Words of affection  2. Quality Time  3. Gifts (receiving)                  4. Acts of Service  5. Physical Touch 

When I looked at the list, I realized that #5 physical touch is very important to me.  I love to be hugged.  But not everyone does.  A young person I know never wants to be hugged, but she does like gifts. My second pick is #2 quality time (and yes I do include game playing, even when I loose, in that category).  

So now I'm wondering.  What about the people I love.  Can I assume that they love what I love or should I try to discover their love language favorites?  Or do you love people because they love what you love?  This could get complicated.

So here's my challenge to you and myself.  Choose your own two favorite love languages, then try to guess what someone you love would choose.  After you have your guesses in mind, ask them what their choices might be.  You may be surprised.