Feeling sheepish???

 My west coast brother and my excellent sister-in-law raise sheep and goats on their hillside farm out west.  I think it's because of their lifestyle that he suggested I read two books about sheep.

A recent movie "The Sheep Detectives" is based on these two books. I will, I think, try to see the movie sometime after I finish the books.  

The books "Three Bags Full" and "Big Bad Wool" were written by a German author Leoni Swann and translated into English by Amy Bojang.  The first one takes place in Ireland.  I have always enjoyed reading 'cozy mysteries' and you can't get much cozier than cuddling up with fluffly fictional sheep.  Real life sheep can tend to be smelly and sometimes nasty, but we're talking fiction here.

Having sheep dectectives try to solve a murder (with a few people here and there along the way) is a fun twist on traditional murder mysteries. They have unusual skills, like a keen sense of smell, to help them in their detecting. All of the sheep have names of course.  My favorite is Miss Maple, a wise old sheep who figures things out.  Shades of Miss Marple?

If you're looking for a uniquely entertaining read, I recomment these books.  

Trying something new...

 I do not like to talk about my physical ailments in this blog.  I actually have very few to talk about anyway.  However today I experienced a new treatment for my knee pain that I want to share.

I noticed on our most recent vacation that after moderatly long walks my knees, especially my right knee would be hurting.  Not excruciating you understand, but enough to be bothersome.  Because I don't want the pain to get worse I tried a new treatment (new to me anyway) called Softwave.

I had my first treatment today and was surprised at how it worked.  I had expected the treatment to be pain free but it wasn't.  However my knees felt really good when it was over.  I will be going back for a series of eight treatments which should keep my knees pain free for a long time to come.   This brochure explains the process better than I can.  

The company doing this in Fort Wayne is "Integrative Health." You can get more information by Googling 'Integrative Health Fort Wayne.'  Happy hiking everyone.

Follow up...

We won!!  We Won!! I am happy to report that the soccer game we attended last night was every bit as exciting as the one we watched on TV today and the outcome was more satisfying because Fort Wayne won with a score of 3-0.  The new soccer stadium was everything a soccer stadium should be.  There was even a 'pep squad.'  At least that's what we called them when I was in highschool.  Of course back then it was the basketball players we were cheering, but last night's chant of "We want another one, just like the other one." sounded very, very familiar.  Very enjoyable indeed.  

This afternoon my wonder spouse (who is responsible for getting me interested in soccer) and I watched the final match of the FIFA World Cup competition.  Spain vs Argentina.  

If you haven't heard, Spain won 1-0 with their only goal scored at the very end of the game.  Argentina was not able to score due to some really excellent saves by Spain's goalkeeper.  

I felt like I was in a win-win situation watching this game.  My favorite city in the world is Barcelona (pronounced Barthelona if you're interested) which is in Spain, so of course I was inclined to cheer for Spain.  On the other hand Lionel Messi who was playing for Argentina (a country I have visited and like) at one time played soccer for Barcelona, and he is an amazing player, well worth cheering for and so I did.  

From now on, for the next few months at least, I think our soccer watching will be focused on (FWFC) the Fort Wayne Football Club. Sometimes on TV and sometimes in person.  I'm especially looking forward to the in person games, and not just for the big salty pretzels with cheese sauce which were very good indeed. 

Getting ready...

Woops, it looks like I forgot to blog yesterday.  In my defense I have a nasty summer cold so I'm not thinking too clearly.  But on to happier things. 

My spouse and I have been watching the FIFA soccer games on TV and enjoying them very much but this evening we will be going to a real live soccer game at the newly completed soccer stadium here in Fort Wayne.  Happily the smoke that was in the air yesterday from the Canadian wild fires has drifted away and it looks like we will have clear skies for the game.  It always helps, when watching soccer, if you can actually see the ball.

This evening the FWFC (Fort Wayne Football Club) will be playing the Greenville Triumph from South Carolina.  I have a feeling that this game may not be quite as intense as a FIFA game, but we shall see.

But I'm laughing at myself this morning because getting ready for this expedition is beginning to feel like packing for one of our trips. 

First of all we have discovered that there are rules to be followed. 

1. Any bags brought in must be clear plastic.

        Not a problem, I'll wear my 'vest of many pockets' and not carry         a bag.

2.  We cannot bring seats of the type that are often used to soften sitting on bleachers. 

    However, it is ok to bring blankets.  Since the temperature will be     well over 80 degrees for the entire evening, I had not considered        bringing a blanket.  But I will now, and will fold it to create                comfortable seating for my spouse and myself.

3.  This is not their rule, but we will also be bringing insect repellent.

4.  We must remember to take our phones which contain our prepaid      parking permit. 

5.  We probably should bring along water and sunglasses although         our seats will be facing east, I'm told.

6.  The head pastor at my church, who has organized this whole event      will be waiting by the entrance to hand out our tickets for the             actual game.

I'm sure that, once we are in and seated, a good time will be had by all.  As long as the rain holds off.  They are predicting possible thunder storms this evening.  My wonder spouse says that they will play in the rain as long as there is no lightning.  Perhaps I'll wear my nifty 'rain jacket of many pockets' instead of my vest.  

A little comercial here  - my vest and rain jacket are from SCOTT and I highly recommend them for anyone who travels a lot or simply doesn't like to carry a purse. 

Look for my follow up blog tomorrow.

Snakes and other things

 First of all, and most importantly, today is my wonder spouse's birthday.  He is now my age, at least for the next five months.  I have gifted him with a fizzy water maker.  When we travel on cruises we are always asked if we want 'still' or 'sparkling' water with our meals.  I always say still and my spouse always says sparkling (aka fizzy).  I am delighted to report that the fizzy water maker works and, with all that was included in the box, he should have an abundance of sparkling water for at least two years. 

On another topic, my west coast brother has informed me that today is "World Snake Day" and "Guinea Pig Appreciation Day."  We agreed that a large snake might really appreciate a guinea pig for a snack.

Thinking about snakes reminds me of what my mother taught me long ago.  She insisted that snakes are not slimy to touch but are instead dry and leathery.  I know this is true unless the snake you encounter is a water moccasin that has just slithered out of some swampy place.  Although, realistically, if you are confronted by a water moccasin, wondering what it feels like should be the least of your concerns.  If it flashes its white gums at you, that is not a smile. They won't kill you but their bite can make you pretty miserable. 

But back to the nice snakes.  According to my mother, her grandmother, my great grandmother, kept two large Black Snakes in her dirt-floored basement.  They assured that she had no problem with mice.  I know that cats can provide the same service, and they are definitely more cuddly, but snakes don't gift their favorite human with the remains of their catch. 

But speaking of cuddly snakes, my daughter and her then boyfriend bought a snake, a small Boa Constrictor, when they were in college.  When summer came, his mother absolutely refused to have a snake in her house so Charlotte came to live with me.  She lived in a large glass terrarium and my daughter kept her fed and watered, so she was really no problem.  Ocassionally we would take her out of her big glass box to stretch her scales.  I discovered that, after she had crawled around a bit, she was very happy to curl up on my lap for a little snooze.  Who knew that snakes like to cuddle? 

SMILE!!!

Today I went to see my dentist, actually to be seen, since for most of the visit my mouth was wide open and my eyes half shut and blurry since I had taken my glasses off.  

After the technician ushered me into a room and got me settled into a big reclining chair, she asked if there was anything she could do for me.  I told her I would like to watch the soccer game.  They were not able to accomidate that wish but the appointment went rather quickly so I did get home in time to watch most of the game between England and Argentina.  England got the first goal but Argentina won.  

But back to the dental work.  I was fitted with a new mouthpiece to prevent me from grinding my teeth and clenching my jaw.  My first one fit very tightly and broke when I removed it one morning while we were on our cruise.  This one fits more comfortably and will work much better I think.  My dentist (the grandson of the dentist I started going to in1982 when we moved back to Fort Wayne) also replaced the crown I popped off three weeks ago while eating a Milk Dud.  I will avoid caramel treats from now on. All in all a very successful visit.  Now I am going to bed to "test drive" my new mouth piece.  Good night.

stirring things up...

 Once again my west coast brother comes through for me.  He has informed me that today is "Shark Awareness Day" and also "Pandemonium Day."  The two do seem to go together.  When sharks are sighted off shore in an area where people are swimming it does seem to cause some pandemonium as people scramble to get out of the water.  

My brother asked if we had seen sharks on our trip and I was able to reassure him that the only sharks we saw up close were in a huge open air aquarium.  We were able to walk down to a level where we could look eye to eye with the sharks and other sea creatures.  We admired them as they looked curiously back at us.  While they swam in circles and figure eights and other interesting patterns, it did not really feel like pandemonium.  It was much too serene for that.

We did see one interesting bit of action though.  As I mentioned the tank was open on top, allowing sunshine, and sometimes other things, to come in.  While we were admiring the sharks at the lower level, a duck dived into the water, plunged all the way to the bottom of the pool, then shot right back up and out again.  Not exactly pandemonium but definitely startling. 

If, by chance, you have been dealing with sharks today or involved in some other type of pandemonium, chidren are home for the summer after all, here's a happy thought.  Today is also "National Mac and Cheese Day."  I know from personal experience that children love this. When my grandchildren spent summer days with me a friend of theirs who lived down the road really enjoyed coming to my house for macaroni and cheese for lunch.  I'll admit it was made from a mix (thank you Kraft).  I found out later that his mom only fed him "healthy food."  I'm glad I was able to broaden his horizons. 

Breakfast anyone??

 My west coast brother has informed me that Krispy Kreme was founded in 1937.  That makes the company older than me, so of course I decided to explore a little more. Nice to know it's still around.

Krispy Kreme opened its doors on July 13, 1937

Vernon Rudolph bought a secret yeast raised doughnut recipe from a New Orleans French chef, rented a building in what is now historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and began selling its Krispy Kreme doughnuts on July 13, 1937 to local grocery stores. The delicious scents of cooking doughnuts drifted into the streets, and passersby stopped to ask if they could buy hot doughnuts. So he cut a hole in an outside wall and started selling Original Glazed doughnuts directly to customers on the sidewalk.

Improving the doughnut making process through innovations

By now there was a small chain of stores, mostly family owned. They all used the Kripsy Kreme recipe, but each store made its doughnuts from scratch. For Rudolph and Krispy Kreme, the results were always good, but not consistent enough. So Krispy Kreme built a mix plant and developed a distribution system that delivered the perfect dry doughnuts mix to each Krispy Kreme store. Then Rudolph and his equipment engineers invented and built Krispy Kreme’s own doughnut making equipment. From the 1950s on, they focused on improving
and automating the doughnut making process.

So now you know.  If you want to learn more about Krispy Kreme's history you can Google it.  On the other hand, if you're just feeling hungry right now, Krispy Kreme donuts are available in your local grocery store.  And, if you cut one in half before you eat it, all of the calories will leak out, or so I've been told. 

picking up..

 There are friends with whom, after a long silence, you can pick up a conversation and carry on as if no time at all has elapsed.  

I had that kind of fun conversation today with a friend whom I've know since college.  She lives in Texas now, while I'm in Indiana, so it's not surprising that we don't see each other often, and we each have our own busy lives so the contacts are very infrequent. 

Today is her birthday so I called her, thinking I might leave a message if she was out celebrating with family and friends.  However, she was at home, the dinner being scheduled for later in the afternoon, and so we had time for a good long talk.

Afterwards I got to thinking about how our conversations have changed over the years.  First they were about who was dating whom.  I actually dated her future husband before I met my first husband.  Confusing, but we all stayed friends.  That was college.  Then comparing notes on our first years of teaching.  Later the conversations revolved around what our children were doing,  later still the grandchildren.  

Today I won points for having a great grandchild.  She doesn't see any on the horizon.  On the other hand, she won points for having more doctors.  She's wearing a pacemaker these days.  

I had to laugh at how the topics of our conversations have changed.  Who would have thought, 60 years ago, that we would ever be comparing our ailments.  Have we, gasp, grown old?  

just curious...

Earlier this week I spent over $100 buying birthday cards for family members and friends who have July birthdays.  Both of my brothers, for example, were born in July.  Also my spouse, his son, two friends and two daughters-in-law.  And there are more.

What makes me curious is why July?  I could understand lots of birthdays in September for example because of people celebrating all the December holidays exuberantly.  But what was going on in October?  Halloween doesn't seem like a romantic holiday to me.

Perhaps in the olden days, when we were a much more agrarian society, by October the harvest would be in, nights were growing longer and colder and there was no TV to watch.  But, old as I am, I am still young enough that I and all of my friends and family were born in the 20th or 21st century.  So what was going on in October?

Statistically August has the most baby births in the US with July and October close behind, but September contains the most common birthdays with September 9 being the most popular birthday.  My son was born on September 13.  Missed it by that much. Ah well. 

Still wondering what was going on in October...

Keeping our cool...

 A couple of weeks ago, not long after we returned from vacation, our refrigerator developed the nasty habit of leaking water on the floor every night while we were sleeping.  We would walk into the kitchen each morning to find a puddle of water, the width of the refrigerator and extending out about four inches from its front.  We would wipe it up - we started to keep an old towel handy for just that purpose - and wonder what the problem was.  Obviously something was wrong with our fridge.  We began to shop for a new one.  We found several that looked pretty good.  

As we were trying to decide which model to buy, my spouse dug out the service manual for our current one, wanting to double check sizes, etc.  We were surprised when we realized that our current fridge is only nine years old.  I've lived in this house for less than three years so I really had no idea about its age.  I knew we hadn't replaced it when we had the kitchen remodeled because it was working just fine, and, since it was black, it matched our other appliances. 

Anyway, when we realized it was only nine years old, we started thinking seriously about having it repaired, rather than replacing it.  The refrigerator repairman came today.  He discovered that we were right in our guess that the water puddle had something to do with the automatic defrosting that modern refrigerators go through every night to prevent frost build up in the freezer.  

It turned out that while we were on our month long vacation, various elements inside the freezer had frozen and not thawed, I don't know why.  But the result was water on the floor instead of contained and evaporated inside the fridge.  

The repairman came today, spent an hour making all necessary repairs, and charged us $175.00.  Soooo much cheaper than a new refrigerator.  

The moral of this story is that you don't always have to buy new.

An Abundance of Cookies

 My west coast brother has informed me that today is "National Sugar Cookie Day."  I didn't know that there was a special day for sugar cookies but they certainly deserve it.  While not as renowned as chocolate chip cookies, they deserve to be celebrated because they do have a deliciousness all their own.

I learned this through a diligent investment of time and energy one summer when I was 12 years old.  A girlfriend, Sandy, who live 'down the road' and I were both in 4H, and we decided to try for a ribbon that year in "demonstrations." I can't remember if that was the actual name of the catagory but the challenge was to demonstrate to the judges some aspect of food preparation.  We decided to bake sugar cookies. 

I suspect that our mothers may have guided this choice because the ingredients were relatively inexpensive.  Except fot the vanilla which my mother bought from the "Jewel T Man."  All summer long we praticed baking sugar cookies.  We would alternated homes.  We each had a ten year old brother, and they were absolutely delighted to test taste our cookies. Over and over again. 

If they had been the judges I think we would have won purple ribbons and gone on to the regional competition.  As it was, we won red ribbons.  Ah well, wisely I think, neither of us went on to become professional bakers.  We did remain friends though, all our lives.

This blog is in memory of my baking buddy Sandy, who died last week.  I hope you're enjoying sugar cookies in heaven.

a blog book??

 You may wonder at this and I'm not quite sure what made me do it, but I have just finished printing out all of the blogs that I wrote during our recent cruise.  The blogs are, of course, all saved on my computer, but e-things have a way of disappearing, or at least becoming 'lost' to me.

Also, the third grader who I tutored for the last two years gave me a lovely journal as a parting gift and I have decided that it will make a very good scrapbook. This is the cover of the journal.

It makes me smile every time I read it, so what better place to preserve my trip memories?  I hope that sometime later this summer I'll be able to share this with my young friend.  He loves maps so I will try to print out a few to include. Scotch tape and scissors, here I come.

it just seems right...

 Today, according to my west coast brother, is "World Chocolate Day." I can certainly understand why this would be a world wide day to celebrate rather than just a national or even international event.  Chocolate is universal after all.  I personally celebrated with an entirely chocolate supper - a chocolate soda made with chocolate ice cream.  Soooo good!

Some weeks ago, my wonder spouse and I decided that ice cream treats (or in his case a yogurt treat) from Zesto's would make an excellent occasional supper.  Especially on days like today whe we had had a fairly substantial lunch.  We feel it is our civic duty to support Zesto's as much as possible during the summer months, since their income is so seasonal.

Evidently there are many other civic minded people out there because the line at the drive through is always quite lengthy, especially around supper time.

I do find it interesting that, after only a chocolate ice cream soda for supper, I don't feel hungry until breakfast.  Evidently chocolate really is a wonder food.  Sweet dreams everyone.

What? Again?

 Well here we are at the beginning of another FIFA soccer game involving the US team.  This one finds the US team in what I expect will be a tough contest with Belgium.  We shall see.  At least my spouse and I will see as we settle into comfortable seats to watch tonight's game.  We have never considered ourselves particularly interested in sports be we are finding soccer oddly interesting, especially when the USA team is involved.  

Personally, I have always enjoyed sports more when I feel strongly on the side of one team.  I was never a cheerleader in highschool but I was part of the Pep Squad.  We would cheer our team on at home games and (after long bus rides) at away games.  These were always basketball games by the way.  We didn't have a football team until my senior year and girls sports, aside from cheer leading, were simply not a thing in our small rural school. 

My brother John (see yesterday's blog) played football his freshman year.  He was 6'6" tall and broad shouldered and the coach was very happy to have him on the team.  However, after one year John decided that football was not for him - too much chance of getting hurt, so he contented himself with being in the band.  He played trombone. 

The coach understood John's decision but complained that he couldn't find anyone to fill John's size 16 shoes.  I guess they were part of the uniform and belonged to the school.  But that's enough about high school sports, I have a soccer game to watch. 

Remembering John

Today would have been my brother John's 79th birthday.  He died in January 2020 of Covid, before we even knew what that was.  He is not to be confused with my west coast brother who is my baby brother.  

My brother John was two and a half years younger than I was and for many of our childhood years we lived in the country and were each others only playmates most days, unless we were in school.  Because I was the oldest I got to write the "scripts" for most of our adventures. It was the Roy Rogers / Dale Evans era, so much of our play involved cowboys.  On his 8th birthday John got his dearest wish, a set of two cap pistols with a belt and holsters. 

Fast forward to high school.  I was the college bound nerd, while John was the popular one, with his friends at least. He got called to the principal's office for one infraction or another at least once a week.  The only time I got called to the office the whole classroom laughed because they we so used to hearing John's name called.  Turned out I had won a scholarship.  

John got married to his first wife for the first time right out of highschool.  He fathered a child, got divorced, got drafted and sent to Viet Nam.  That was a lot of growing up fast. When he came home he remarried his wife and they tried very hard to make a go of it, for their daughter's sake, but some marriages just don't work.  I did get a very dear niece out of it though.

John held many jobs over the years and discovered that he had a real gift for selling cars.  He worked his way up to managing a dealership.

He married again and he and his second wife were married for several years until that marriage also ended, although they stayed friends long after. 

During his ensuing bachelor days, which happened to coincide with my 18 years as a widow, we took a few long driving trips together and had a wonderful time rebuilding our childhood bonds. 

And then (God does work in mysterious ways.) John got involved in leading activities in his church and, with lots of ongoing study, ultimately became a Methodist minister.  He served two churches and was very popular with his parisioners.  Although when I went to his church one Sunday one of his flock, on finding out who I was, told me I had his "deepest sympathy."  John's great personality always came through.

Rest in peace dear brother. Happy birthday. I love you, I miss you and I always will.

The glorious 4th!!!

 Happy Independance Day everyone.  When my west coast brother texted me earlier today, he posed this question. "If, when Yankee Doodle went to town, a-ridin' on a pony, he did indeed stick a feather in his cap and call it macaroni, was he calling the cap, the feather or his pony macaroni? And why would he call any of those things macaroni?"

Of course this made me curious so I did a little research and here's what I found. 

Macaroni archaic definition:

Definition: (noun) a man whose principal interest in life is to be fashionable (archaic)

Example: Sir Edward Malfreney was a perfect macaroni, with sparkling shoe buckles and a powdered wig so high he could hardly walk upright through doorways.

Quote:

“Yankee Doodle went to town,
Riding on a pony,
He stuck a feather in his cap,
And called it macaroni.”

- Revolutionary War era song

As the definition states, a macaroni was a dandy. Rich, young, eighteenth-century Englishmen traveled to Europe and brought back continental fashions, often extreme ones. And they formed their own society, called the Macaroni Club, whose existence was first recorded in 1764. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the name of the people came from the name of the club, not the other way around. (And yes, they also brought back continental food, so the name of the club was related to the then “exotic” Italian pasta.)

So back to the holiday, the reference in Yankee Doodle is ironic. Such decadent clothing was both impractical and hard to come by during the War of Independence, and the British were ridiculing colonials for their provincial fashion sense. 

So now you know.  And now that the melody is no doubt firmly set in your mind, feel free to sing, whistle or hum it all day long.  

It's puzzling???

 I may have mentioned in a previous blog that my wonder spouse and I really enjoy putting together jigsaw puzzles.  We have completed two 2,000 piece puzzles but we really prefer the 1,000 and 500 piece ones.

Our puzzle table is in our finished basement under a bright light. A really good work space.  Since it's lovely and cool in the basement on a hot summer day it's a perfect place to spend time when our "must do" jobs are finished.

What makes me think that we may be reaching "obession" level with this hobby is the fact that we have started preserving and framing our masterpieces.  At this time we have seven completed puzzles preserved and hanging on our basement walls. It's very easy with thin sticky backed sheets of plastic that you can spread on the backs of puzzles to hold all the pieces permanently together.  Then we frame them in inexpensive poster frames from Michael's and hang them up.

This is our most recently finished puzzle.  (Sorry about the reflection in the picture.) Only partly because we are running out of wall space in the basement, we have decide to hang this one on our bedroom wall.  It is a very bright and cheerful picture.

But I recently got to thinking - what on earth are our children going to do with all these puzzles when we die.  We're not getting any younger you know.  I suppose we could will them to our kids and grandkids (one each).  That would take care of 14 puzzles.

Or we can just leave them hanging on the walls and let someone else worry about it.  Enough musing.  My spouse is waiting for me to join him in the basement.

Half time...

This will be a very short blog.  My wonder spouse and I are too busy watching FIFA World Cup soccer to think about our regular routine. I really do enjoy watching soccer, it goes so much faster that American football. 

It does bring back a funny memory though.  When my grandson was five years old and his little sister was three, they were playing beginning soccer for very young players.  The scene firmly fixed in my mind is my grandson racing up and down the field (not sure if he ever actually kicked the ball) while my granddaughter quietly sat in the middle of it all picking dandelions.  

What can I say? Not all of us are meant to be athletes.