I'm writing this blog while waiting for little goblins and princesses to come to our door. This is a short experimental blog to make sure I can blog while we are on our trip.
I'm told I won't be able to blog every day but that's ok. If I can touch base every once in a while and maybe send pictures of camels or pyramids I'll be satisfied.
Meanwhile, happy Halloween everyone.
My west coast brother has informed me that today is "Checklist Day," "Buy a Donut Day," "Pumpkin Bread Day," "National Candy Corn Day" and, last but nor least, "Sugar Addiction Awareness Day." You will notice that the middle three 'days' listed all involve some amount of sugar ingestion, which makes me think that perhaps SAAD should come well before the Halloween candy eating spree begins, or after, to allow us to kick the habit.
My spouse and I have quite a bit of self control but we both admit to having snitched a few little candy bars from the Halloween bucket in the foyer. Thank goodness it will all be gone by tomorrow evening.
On the other hand "Checklist Day" is very appropriate since we have spent almost all day packing and checking things off our lists in preparation for our trip. We did take a little time out to get our RSV shots. One thing off our list.
But while it works for me, I am also wondering about the timing of this special day. We all know who 'makes a list and checks it twice' so why aren't we celebrating "Checklist Day" in December?
Although now that I think about it, I have recently seen Christmas decorations in some local stores.
Start making your lists.
My spouse and I have been working hard to have everything packed, and all necessary tasks done before we leave on our vacation next Monday. We don't want to put anything off until the last minute.
We have made our lists, decided what goes in which suitcases, tried to focus on things that really need to be done. As mentioned yesterday, we have all the money issues figured out. The laundry is done. We have had our flu shots and tomorrow we are getting our RSV shots. I have finished paperwork for a church committee and will sign a related paper on Sunday. We are both getting haircuts tomorrow and I have a mani/pedi scheduled for Friday.
We have made arrangements for my daughter to take us to the airport for our departing flight and for my son to pick us up when we return. My wonder spouse has spent lots and lots of computer time making sure our tickets and other paperwork is in order.
I wish I could wiggle my nose like Samantha the witch and all of my clothes would fold themselves and hop into the suitcase. Alas, I don't have that power, but slowly and surely, the clothes I plan to take are getting into the suitcase. The same for my spouse's packing.
And, possibly most important for our peace of mind we have, by working on it every day for an hour or so, finished the worst, most fiendish puzzle ever, with vast numbers of similarly colored and shaped pieces that almost but not quite fit.
Have you ever gone shopping for money? My spouse and I did just that this morning.
First the reason - we are leaving soon for a trip to Egypt. We are very excited about this, and really looking forward to it. It will be a Viking trip so we know it will be well managed. We will be staying in nice hotels for part of the time and cruising on the Nile for the rest of it. Doesn't that sound exotic?
In carefully reading and rereading all the pre-trip information provided we discovered that we will need visas to enter Egypt. But no problem, Viking associates will be at the Cairo airport to meet us and take us through the process. We can get our visas right there at the airport. However, the visas will cost us $25 each (a reasonable amount) and it must be paid in cash with US money no older than five years old. That means the bills must be marked Series 2021 (the most recent series number on US bills).
So today we went money shopping. Happily, there was no line at our branch bank and we had two tellers involved in the search for new money. They did have a lot of old money on hand, but very little new. Obviously, we were taking out more than $50 for the trip, but we really needed $50 in new money. We finally ended up getting it all in fives, but they are new fives, so the Egyptian authorities should be satisfied.
We have, wisely I think, set aside that $50 in an envelope so we don't accidentally spend any of it. More on this story when we get home.
Today is "National Black Cat Day." I discovered this for myself. I think my west coast brother failed to mention this special day to me for fear it would make his cat Ace, who is not black, jealous. That's ok Ace. You get all the other special cat days.
I'm wondering if Black Cats are celebrated five days before Halloween so they feel more special? Halloween itself is too crowded, but black cats are certainly an integral part of the festivities. I think that every Halloween card I sent out this year had a black cat on it somewhere.
My spouse and I have a black cat. Well, it's not actually our cat, but it certainly is black, and makes itself at home in our back yard frequently (almost daily). It likes to hide under the big evergreen and watch the birds at the bird feeders. It never actually goes after the birds, just watches. It appears to be extremely well fed so we don't feel any compulsion to feed it.
When I was a child I had a black cat. I named her Midnight. That was when we lived in the country and had a multiplicity of barn cats to tame and play with. Since then I've had several other cats in my life but Midnight was the only all black one. I think if I ever had another black cat I would name her Licorice. Happy day, all you black cats out there.
Over the years I have purchased many, many things to help support various schools. Fundraisers selling candy bars, popcorn, cookies and wrapping paper come to mind. One of the most memorable items I ever purchased was detergent. When my grandson was in high school marching band they sold detergent as a money maker. Not just little squeeze bottles of dish soap, mind you. What they were selling were 10 gallon tubs of detergent, two types, laundry and dishes.
At the time of the sale I was living in a tenth floor apartment. We had elevators of course, but I made sure that my grandson understood that he, or his dad, would have to lug those huge heavy tubs up to my apartment and into a storage closet. They did.
During the time that I lived in the apartment (8 years) I used up all of the laundry detergent but the dish soap tub (for hand washing dishes) came with me when I moved in with my wonder spouse two years ago. We are still pumping liquid soap out of that tub to refill our bathroom and kitchen soap dispensers.
In short, those tubs of detergent were a very good purchase.
Now, about a more recent purchase. A few weeks ago during our after church coffee hour I happened to sit down at a table with a young mother and her nine year old son named Teddy. He had with him a catalog of goodies and an order form for his school's fund raiser. I wanted to order something but the cookies didn't look very appealing to me. Toward the last pages of the brochure I found pretzels for sale. I thought they wouldn't be too fattening so I ordered one box of pretzel nuggets and one box of large traditional pretzels. Teddy and his mom brought the pretzels to church today. She had emailed me ahead of time so I had my check ready. I hadn't realized when I placed my order that the pretzels would come partially cooked and frozen.
This evening, following the directions on the box, my spouse heated four large pretzels (two for each of us) in our convection oven. He brushed melted butter on them, as directed. Then, after they were heated through, we sprinkled two of them with sea salt, included in the packages, and two with cinnamon sugar, also included.
We each enjoyed one salty and one sweet treat and they were delicious. This may be my favorite school fund raiser purchase ever. Maybe not as economical as the detergent but much tastier. I hope little Teddy is selling pretzels again next year. Everyone knows that calories consumed while eating for a good cause don't count.
My west coast brother tells me that today is "Hug a Sheep Day." Since he and his spouse raise sheep as well as goats, that's really not a difficulty for them. Of course getting sheep to stand still long enough to be hugged might be a bit of a problem. Lucky for all involved today is also "World Pasta Day."
If luring them to your side with pasta doesn't work, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't, it's also "National Greasy Food Day." I really don't know if sheep like greasy food but their wool is oily to the touch because of the lanolin so I would think they do like greasy food. Maybe I could ask my brother to test them with bacon or sausage.
One more thought about sheep. When I was a toddler the first stuffed toy I remember having was a stuffed sheep called Lambkins. Interestingly, it was covered in light blue leather, not wooly at all. That is the only sheep I have ever hugged or ever plan to.
But I am planning to eat some greasy pizza for supper. I like mine made with olive oil instead of tomato paste. Slippery but delicious.
