travelling phoneless....

 Today I was the one 'who let the dogs out.'  Both my son-in-law and daughter were working long hours, so they asked me to let the grand-dogs out about noon.  I'm happy to do this because I hate to think of those three sad-eyed canines sitting around all afternoon with their little legs crossed.  There was no problem with getting there or letting the dogs out, but while there I realized that, gasp!, I had left my phone at my FFs house.  A side note here, I think it's a little unsettling (or maybe a lot) to see how dependent we've become on having our phones always with us.  I'm just as guilty as anyone else. As soon as I realized it was missing, I tried to figure out how to get my phone.  I didn't have time to go back and get it before my lunch date with a girlfriend, and I couldn't call my FF because my daughter doesn't have a land line, so I decided I could get along without it for one afternoon, and I did. I had one slightly frustrating moment when I wanted to check the time while waiting in the restaurant.  There was no clock on the wall, I wasn't wearing a watch, and, of course, no phone.  

What I didn't know was that, while I was getting through the afternoon phoneless, my considerate FF had discovered my phone at his house, driven with it to my daughter's house, and missed me by about five minutes.  Meanwhile, my son-in-law saw my FF lurking around the front of their house on the camera, thought the skulker looked a little familiar and called my phone to check it out.  They then had a delightful little text chat about how silly I was to forget my phone.  Right! Like it never happened to them.   

Christmas gifting....

 I realized today that my Christmas gift giving practices have really changed over the years.  In olden days, when my grandchildren were much younger, I would take each of them individually on a "shopping spree" after Christmas, and after they had seen what the other grandparents had given them and knew what they still wanted.  The rules were that we would shop wherever they chose. I would treat them to lunch sometime during the day, they had a set amount of money to spend, and I would never rush a decision or tell them to hurry up. I regretted that policy once when one of my granddaughters opted to spend five long hours in an antiques mall, but a deal is a deal. I have three granddaughters and one grandson.  Over the years the grandson led me to places like Chucky Cheese to eat pizza and play games and Home Depot to buy a soldering iron or other similar equipment, while the granddaughters loved the mall where shopping evolved over the years from Build a Bear to Claire's Boutique to Victoria's Secret, and sometimes beyond to the Good Will store. But almost always, I'm happy to say, one of our stops would be a book store. Fun times indeed.  Then, just as the grands seemed to be aging out of the shopping sprees, the pandemic struck and suddenly all of the shopping was on line.  Now, they are off to college or busy with their jobs and on line shopping has become the norm.  They send me lists, with links so I know just how to order things, I buy the gifts and, depending on what the holiday schedule looks like, either have them shipped to my apartment so I can wrap and present them (which is still the most fun) or simply have the gifts shipped directly to them.  We still have fun when we all get together but it's not the same as those shopping sprees.  And shopping has gotten too easy.  I found myself thinking today that I will just buy gifts for everyone on line, have them shipped, and avoid the mall and post office or UPS store altogether.  And then a happy memory flashed through my mind, as memories sometimes do.  What I'm doing now is not so very different than when I was a child and my brothers and I would pour over the wonderful big fat Sears Christmas catalog, mark the gifts we wanted and hand over the catalog to our parents who ordered gifts from our list.  Different technology but the same basic idea, so now I'm not feeling guilty at all.  

some fun facts...

 My FF and I spent some time this evening looking over the requirements for getting a marriage license in Allen County.  You can start the process on line, which is handy.  Since we're both in our 70s, we were interested to learn that we can get married even if we're first cousins (which we're not) if we're both over 65 (which we are.)  We were also interested to learn that we will be asked the birth places and current addresses of our parents.  They want to know about previous marriages, with 20 spaces provided.  Some people have obviously led more exciting lives than I have.  It seems that a blood test is no longer required.  That's fine with me.  They also want to know what our level of education is, our ethnic and racial origin, and how many dependent children we have.  And, of course, what my name will be?  Ah, there's the question. Stay tuned.  

taking a risk...

 Today, once again according to my west coast brother, is "National Dice Day" and that reminds me of gambling.  I like to gamble.  I like to play games in general. What I don't like is loosing.  I don't mean loosing games like Gin Rummy and Scrabble (although I do prefer to win), but I really don't like to loose money.  I enjoy Las Vegas, although I haven't been there for several years, and I will probably do a little gambling if the cruise ship I'm going on later this month has a casino.  What I don't like, as I mentioned before, is loosing. So I tend to bet very conservatively.  I typically set a limit like $50 (the cost of a meal and a show) and when it's gone it's gone.  Sometimes I get lucky and win, but you will never hear of me winning fabulous amounts of money.  I just don't bet enough.  A friend of mine swears that if you double your bet every time you loose, you will eventually win back all your money, but I can't bring myself to do that. I do like Black Jack and I will play the slots a little bit, but the slots are not as much fun as they used to be.  There are sound effects of course, but instead of copious coins pouring out of the machine it spits out a slip of paper that tells you how much you've won.  Yawn. Some years ago, when the coins were real, my husband and I were strolling through a Las Vegas casino (no idea which one, although the Golden Nugget was always one of my favorites) when we decided to drop some nickels in a machine.  For some reason the machine wouldn't take our nickels.  They kept dropping through the machine and into the tray.  We kept trying and laughing (we may have had a drink or two) until the lady at the next slot machine informed us scathingly that we had been putting our nickels in a five dollar machine.  We slunk away sheepishl, but we didn't loose any money.

Hooray for potlucks....

 Potluck Dinner or Carry-in Dinner or Covered Dish Supper, they all mean the same thing, and it is a marvelous invention.  My west coast brother informed me that today is "National Green Bean Casserole Day" and also "National Apple Pie Day." He then went on to inform me that they were having a potluck after church.  I'm guessing he may have gotten lucky and enjoyed both beans and pie, but I'm not jealous.  I hosted my own little carry-in lunch for some friends this afternoon and our spread was quite delicious - pulled pork sandwiches, two lavish relish trays, a fruit salad, cake, and possibly the world's best homemade caramels.  Not bad for seven people. But when I think about who in my lifetime has produced the best potluck dinners, the clear winner is the little church (about 60 members) in rural southeastern Ohio that we attended when we lived there.  I can bake a decent pie, so I could contribute, but the other ladies of that church really outdid themselves. Excellent fried chicken, ham, salads, soups, and an infinite variety of casseroles made those suppers not to be missed events.  They were so popular that on election days, they offered up all their specialities to sold out crowds at lunch and dinner.  It was the church's big moneymaker and also got out the vote.  I was a little disappointed to learn, when we moved back to Fort Wayne, that the large church we joined didn't do carry-in dinners very often.  They had a cook on staff to prepare dinners.  Recently, we have done some carrying in there, but it usually only involves desserts (not all bad).  Coincidentally, I brought an apple pie to the last such event.  I must stop writing now, I'm starting to drool on my keyboard.  

Unique combinations....

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "Earmuff Day," Popcorn Day," and "Rhubarb Vodka Day."  My first reaction was "What a weird combination."  I can see popcorn and earmuffs together if I was at an outside cold weather event like ice skating and wanted some refreshment that might warm me up like popcorn with, maybe, hot chocolate, not vodka!  I am not a fan of vodka in any weather, in case you hadn't guessed, but rhubarb vodka sounds particularly disgusting, even though I do like rhubarb (but in pies, not drinks).  On the other hand, but somewhat related, theme wise, I just received a text from my son describing his day with his family at a festival called Kristkindlemarkt in Carmel, Indiana during which they sampled "hot mulled wine, hot cherry beer, big soft pretzels and warm candied almonds."  Now I don't know about you but that list sounds way, way better to me than rhubarb vodka.  It's just a shame I don't have any of the above handy.  I guess I'll make do with my usual cup of tea.  

the great flood...

 On Tuesday, the water in our entire apartment building was turned off all day so a new hot water system could be installed. All seemed to have gone well since then.  Any time I have turned on a hot tap hot water has come out.  But today an email was sent to everyone telling us to turn on all of our hot water taps for 30 minutes to help get the air out of the lines.  So, being a conscientious tenant, I turned on all five faucets in my apartment, two in each bathroom and one in the kitchen, and let them run for a half hour while I ate supper.  Then I went around and turned everything off.  You would be amazed at how hot and steamy a bathroom can become in 30 minutes.  I was. I went to my bathroom last and it was just as hot and steamy as the guest bathroom.  It also held another surprise.  I had forgotten, when I turned on the faucets full blast (as Instructed) how slowly my bathroom sink drains. Surprise!  When I opened the door. the sink was doing a Niagara Falls imitation.  So I baled water out of the sink, sopped up all the water on the floor, tossed the floating box of Kleenex, dried everything else on the counter, and finally got things back in order.  It was an unexpected mess but on the upside, I have company coming on Sunday and my bathroom counter and floor are shiny clean now.