Another visitor

We almost never get visitors, so it's pretty amazing that we have had two in the last couple of months.  Our friend Natalie dropped by to visit in July because she wanted to catch up with us.  Bubba immediately jumped in her lap and made friends.

Yesterday Susan, who used to own the bookstore Logos, where I volunteered for awhile, stopped by.  Bubba made friends with her too.,  She wasn't really here to catch up, like Natalie was (though we did catch up).  She is a cousin of my BFF, Char and had been to visit her earlier this week.  While there, she saw a copy of "Juice and Crackers," the book Char wrote about her life, and she wanted to read it.

Char was going to lend her her copy, but mentioned that I also had a copy, so Susan decided to borrow my copy.  I'm glad she made that suggestion because I haven't seen her since I left Logos several years ago and it was good to get caught up on her life and the life of her husband.  

I had hoped we would remain friends after she and her husband sold the book store, but this was the first time I've heard from her, so I'm glad I had a book to lend to her!

She will undoubtedly appreciate the earlier chapters of the book more than I did, because it talks about all of her relatives and who lived with whom.  She probably won't get as much out of the book from the 1960s onward, which is when I became part of Char's life.  I loved the book when I read it...and was surprised to learn that the chapter about our famous pumpkin pies was actually taken from Funny the World rather than written by Char herself.

We've been friends for more than 60 years and thinking back on it, it's amazing the experiences we have had together.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

Susan and Bubba

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Sunday Stealing - The Last

 

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves.

Stolen from SwapBot

1. the last song you heard

It was something on America's Got Talent, but I don't know the name.

2. the last food you ate

Cheerios with banana

3. the last drink you had

Coffee

4. the last line in a book/newspaper or magazine you read

"They sure needed to learn to slow down and take it easy, smell the flowers and enjoy life in a small town."

5. the last movie you saw

The last movie I saw in the theater was 80 for Brady on my 80th birthday in February.

6. the last tv-show you watched
The first episode of Amazing Race and the finale of Master Chef

7. the last news you read about your hometown

This from "Next Door" - Turkey Killer Hit and Run

To the white Toyota 4 Runner driver who plowed through the turkeys at 7 AM on COVELL : what a major a-hole low life move . It’s a hospital and elderly crossing area There used to be a blind man that would cross in that same location. It was with intent and you traumatized a bunch of kids on their way to school. good job for your complete lack of humanity. PS it’s a misdemeanor crime (malicious mischief ) under Ca animal law. I hope someone got your license plate.

8. the last photo you took with your phone , with a little explanation

This is the audience in the church for a memorial service we attended.

9. the last video you watched on youtube

A video about the birth of twin elephants.

10. the last thing you bought in the supermarket

I can't remember the last time I was in the supermarket (Ned does all our shopping)

11. the last time you were on an airplane

It must have been when we flew home from Venice in 2015.

12. the last long drive in a car

To Santa Barbara in July

13. the last telephone conversation you had

With Jeri, a week or so ago.

14. the last letter you wrote

To a woman who is going to be a new pen pal

15. the last concert you attended

It wasn't so much a "concert" as an open mic night where lots of people performed, including my son and one of his friends

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

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Saturday 9

 

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer questions, however, and here are today's questions!

Saturday 9: On a Clear Day (1970)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here

1) Is today a clear day where you are?
It is beautiful.  Sunny, only in the low 80s, clear. 

2) Streisand sings that today she's "astounded." What has recently shocked or greatly surprised you?
We are about to shut down the government, but the Republicans are trying to impeach Biden, without any evidence whatever.

3) Streisand's voice astounded people from an early age. She began performing in New York clubs when she was only 18, too young to order a drink in the establishments where she sang. Do you remember the first adult beverage you ordered at a restaurant or bar?
It was probably beer.  My friend and I shared a false ID so we could buy beer before we were 21.  When we turned 21 it was great fun to go and legally get a beer.

4) Barbra has discussed the importance of her Jewish faith in her life and has enlisted the guidance of Reform, Conservative and and Orthodox rabbis as she explored her religion's complexities. Do you enjoy discussing religion?
Not really, other than to say I'm a "recovering Catholic."

5) Taylor Swift just passed Barbra Streisand as the woman with the most #1 albums (12). What's the last album you purchased?
I haven't purchased any albums or CDs in many years. 

6) The lyrics to "On a Clear Day" were written by Alan Jay Lerner. He attended Choate, a private boarding school in CT, at the same time as John F. Kennedy. While JFK was in the White House, Lerner had two major Broadway hits -- Camelot and My Fair Lady -- running concurrently. Obviously those two Choate alumni did very well. Have you been to any of your class reunions? Have you been surprised, pleasantly or less so, by how any of your classmates turned out?
I went to the 50th reunion of my high school class. A friend of mine was the first black cosmetician licensed in the United States.

7) The music was written by Burton Lane. In the 1930s, Lane worked for MGM Studios in Hollywood. After he heard Judy Garland perform at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles, he brought her to the attention of his studio bosses and the rest, as they say, is history. Lane and Garland later worked together when Judy was an established star. He wrote the song, "How About You?" for her to sing in Babes on Broadway and received an Oscar nomination. Judy's best known movie has to be The Wizard of Oz. How many times have you seen it?
Oh lord, I don't know.  Not as many times as I've seen Garland in A Star Is Born (probably 100 times)

8) In 1970, Glenn Frey formed the Eagles. What's your favorite Eagles song?
I don't know the Eagles.

9) Random question: Which would upset you more, being trapped in an elevator or stranded atop a mountain in a ski lift?.
Ski lift.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

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DISH

 A couple of months ago, there was a dispute between NBC and DISH, which has resulted in DISH subscribers no longer being able to get any shows on NBC.  (Fortunately this happens during a writer's strike when there aren't that many shows on anyway).  Several years ago I believe it was CBS and DISH that had a dispute and we lost those shows, but Ned got an external antenna, so we can watch TV, not through DISH, but through our external antenna.  One problem is that you can't record anything so if you don't want to watch something at the time that it's on, you won't be able to see it.

As a result of  this, I wanted to watch the debate last night, but NBC was showing the finale of America's Got Talent and since I couldn't record that and watch the debate live, I recorded the debate and watched AGT.  It was on from 9 to 11 and I was ready to sleep at 10, but if I wanted to see who won, I had to stay awake until 11.  (I was pleased with the result.  The top 3 acts were my top 3, so I would have been happy with whichever of them won.)

When the show was over, I was going to just start watching the debate...and then discovered that I didn't record the debate after all.  What I recorded was MSNBC's analysis of the debate, and I watched that a bit.  From what I watched in the analysis, I suspect I was lucky that I didn't actually record the debate itself.  I got a good picture of it without having to actually sit through it.

It's amazing how 7 people who want to be the presidential nominee refuse to mention the current leader, who refuses to come to debates, but who is leading by some 60%.  Nothing about his 91 felony arrests or the fact that that day a judge just ruled against his company and it is in the process of being shut down.  They don't mention anything negative about #45, but talk about stupid things like curtains at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in New York and who is sleeping with teachers.  Surely important topics for a presidential campaign!

The sad thing about these non-debate debates is that it is almost certain that #45 will be the candidate again.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

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Memorial Service

 We went to such a wonderful memorial service.

It was for "the psychiatrist" (whom readers of this blog will remember), who died September 30.

I don't know what the capacity of the church is, or how many chairs they put in the lobby for those who could not get into the church, but it was overflowing.

It was a lovely service, with memories and music.  It would take too long to describe why Cap was so special, but four psychiatrists spoke of his profession, members of the family spoke of his relationship with the family, and people spoke of his contributions to the community.  He held several high ranking positions in the psychiatric community, traveled with his family to national parks, the Galapagos, to see the gorillas in Uganda, and many other places.  He was doctor at the 1960 Squaw valley Olympics and a member of the Doctors Ski Patrol at Sugar Bowl for fifty years.  He swam with a team across Lake Tahoe and ran eight marathons, including the Boston Marathon.

He was a musician and played the banjo with the Putah Creek Crawdads, was treasurer of the Yolo County Credit Union, raised cairn terriers, and that's just an inkling.  Since 3 or the Crawdads have died, they couldn't play at the memorial, but they did play a piece from their CD.  

Following the formal part of the program, people were invited to speak and one woman talked about how she had been asked to do a favor for a friend, and she transcribed a tape for Cap...that led to her transcribing for him for 18 years.  She happened to be sitting behind us and when she came back to her seat, I called her over and told her I had done his transcription for thirty years.

The whole thing was just wonderful.  If I could have half the nice things about me that were said about Cap, I would be amazed.  "His was the definition of a life well-lived," his obituary says.

I think that I saw everybody in Davis that I think of as a "friend."

Before we went to the memorial, Ned harvested the rest of the apples on the tree that he could reach.  We put them in two bags and after the memorial, we dropped them off at STEAC (Short Term Emergency Aid Committee) so they could be distributed to people who get meals given to them.  I saved enough apples that I could make one more apple pie and we had  that for dessert.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

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Sunday Stealing

 

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves.

Stolen from SwapBot

 1. what you did you do today?
We went to an amazing memorial service for a man I worked for for 30 years.  If I could have just half the nice things said about me at my memorial service, I'd be very proud.

 2.  What are the must-sees in your area?
The UC Davis campus has some neat things.  There aren't a lot of other scenic things in this small town.

 3. What is your favourite quote?

loving and losing: different by only one letter and a million degrees of pain -- Jessica Katoff

 4. What was the last thing you cooked or ate? 
We had good food at the memorial.  Special was bri on a slice of baguette with an apple on top.

 5. What is something you learned from your grandparents?

My father's mother made an appetizer that I make occasionally.

 6. What makes you happy?

Watching how my children enjoy each other.

 7. What is your best travel memory?

So many wonderful memories, but I think one of my favorite is the trip we took to England and Ireland with all five kids, spending my father's life savings.  We had a magnificent time.

 8. What’s the weather like today?

Beautiful today.  High of 82, which is definitely an improvement from a high of 103.

 9. Share an interesting fact that you’ve learned

Which Dr. Seuss character was featured on the author's license plate?

Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, cruised the streets of California in a stylish gray Cadillac adorned with a fitting custom license plate that read "GRINCH." According to a 1979 Washington Post article, Geisel had to wait several years to secure his own character’s name on his license plate because the custom plate was already registered to someone else in California. However, as fate would have it, the Dr. Seuss fan eventually relocated to Iowa City and relinquished his cherished "GRINCH" plate, along with a note of apology to Dr. Seuss.

 10. What is your favourite book, movie or band!

Book:  Steineck's "East of Eden" Movie: Judy Garland's version of A Star Is Born. Band: Lawsuit, of course.

 11.  Write your favorite poem or haiku?

I don't have a favorite poem, but I love the haikus my daughter writes about biking in Boston.  We call them "bi-kus."

 12. What is a local festival or tradition from your area?

Picnic day is essentially open house at UC Davis.  Get up early to watch the parade, then go to campus to watch dachshund races, stick your hand in the stomach of a real cow, see all sorts of displays from all the departments. Check out all the egghead statues around campus, by Robert Arneson

 13. What was the best thing you learned in school?

Conversational French.

Saturday 9

 Welcome to Saturday 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

Saturday 9: Answer the Phone (2001)

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) This song likens a relationship to a roller coaster ride. When did you most recently visit an amusement park?
I don't think I've been to an amusement park since Disneyland in 2000.

2) Lead singer Mark McGrath reasons that his girl should answer the phone because he knows she's home. That was decades ago, when most homes still had landlines. Where were you when you took your last call? Were you at home?
We have a land line and a cell phone.  We never answer the land line because it's always somebody trying to sell us something.  I think the last call I took on my cell phone (I get very few calls) was a few days ago when my daughter called.  For some reason I get calls in Chinese on my cell phone.  I don't answer those!

3) He remembers the glow of her face when he gave her a rose. Have you recently given or received a gift of flowers or a plant?
Walt bought me beautiful roses for Mother's Day.  Tom and Jeri each sent flowers for Mother's Day.

4) Sugar Ray's debut CD was called Lemonade and Brownies. Crazy Sam admits she'd prefer milk with her brownie. What about you? Does the combination of lemonade and brownies sound good to you?
Absolutely not!!!  The brownie would make the lemonade taste terrible.  I had a brownie this afternoon and had a glass of water with it.

5) In 2005, Mark McGrath was a guest judge on American Idol. At one time, Idol was the dominant singing competition show. Today, in addition to American Idol, viewers can also watch The Voice and America's Got Talent. Are you a fan of any or all of these shows?
I watched American Idol for a few years, never watched The Voice and I am a fan of AGT.  (Who do you think is going to win this week?)

6) Sugar Ray is a famous name in boxing circles. Sugar Ray Robinson and  Sugar Ray Leonard were both world championships. Are you a boxing fan?
No.  My father was a huge boxing fan and his uncle was almost champion feather weight, but lost the last fight.  I never could understand why it's so much  fun watching people beat each other up.

7) In 2001, when this song was popular, the Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened to the public after more than a decade of renovations. Have you ever been to Italy? If yes, where did you go? If not, is a trip to Italy on your wish list?
Yes, I've been to Italy...and I saw the Leaning Tower.  We were on 2 tours that went lots of places.

8) Also in 2001, Liverpool's Speke Airport was renamed John Lennon Airport. Liverpool's is the first airport in the United Kingdom to be named after an individual. Tell us about something in your hometown that is named after someone.
The intermediate school is named after my daughter's teacher.  The theater at the high school is named for the late teacher of the Jazz Choir.  There is an alley downtown that is named for a popular UPS driver.  The Health Services building is named for Helen Thomson, who is a friend, and who was state assemblywoman for 6 years.

9) Random Question: Is the screen on your cell phone cracked?
No.  I'm curious to know how this question came to be asked.  Is YOUR cell phone cracked?

Canine Paralysis

 

I heard a great term today:  "canine paralysis"

Medically speaking, it's a dog who has trouble walking.  There are lots of pictures of dogs attached to wheels. I remember when the SPCA here had a puppy with no back legs (or was it front legs?) that they ended up taking to a place where he was fitted with wheels and could move around...though he managed to move around without legs.

But for me, the term "canine paralysis" refers to my inability to do pretty much anything because of Bubba being in my lap all the time.

When we first got him, he took to Marta and anywhere Marta went he went with her.  She was definitely his favorite person, but as he's now been here a year he has come to love all of us,  if not equally, at least close to how much he loves Marta.

I was disappointed in his early months with us because he seemed to prefer anybody's lap but mine.  He would jump in my lap and then within minutes jump down again.  I decided it was because I was so fat that my lap wasn't big enough for him.

But he's gotten over that.  He now loves being in my lap.  He sleeps upstairs with Ned and Marta at night and comes down with Ned in the morning.  I am usually asleep in the recliner and this body comes flying through the air and lands on my chest.  He settles in for as long as I'll let him,  The problem is that he takes up my whole chest and if I want to like check email, I can't quite get my cell phone into a position where I can actually read it...to say nothing of being unable to play my favorite solitaire game.

He has gotten to where he understands "I have to get up now" and he immediately leaps off my lap and then follows me around, looking at me and at the chair until I get my coffee and go to sit down and then he's in my lap again.  

If I do anything out of the chair, he will go into the living room and get in his bed and then...he has the most acute hearing of any dog I've known...if I get up and start to walk into the family room, he's immediately in my chair waiting for me to sit down.

He keeps me from snacking too much because I don't want to get up and disturb him.  LOL.

When Walt comes downstairs he gets his coffee and goes into the living room the read the paper.  Bubba can't get in his lap, but he gets on the couch right next to him so he can put his head on the arm of the couch and touch Walt's arm.  But when Walt heads upstairs, Bubba is back in my lap again.

There are times, I have to admit, that I'm not happy with how much he loves being in my lap.  There are times when as I am starting to sit in my recliner and he is already leaping into my lap, I just want to throw him off because I'd like a little bit of alone time.  But naturally I don't do that because I don't want to disturb him.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

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Strawberries

Well, just before I went to the doctor, I put the hearing aid in again...and it worked.  It was working when we got to Kaiser, but the woman who was checking it believed my tales of a non-working hearing aid and she replaced the insides of the aid and...it worked!  Today it is working.  It's amazing how much better with two hearing aids.

On our way home from Kaiser, we stopped at the strawberry stand on the outskirts of Davis.  This is a small farm run by an Oriental couple and they sell every summer (except during COVID).  They have the very best strawberries and I convinced Ned to stop and buy 3 baskets.

This farm has huge strawberries at the start of the summer, and now, toward the end, they have much smaller strawberries that are so incredibly flavorful and sweet.  Supermarket strawberries pale in comparison.

Ned suggested we have strawberry shortcake for dessert, so I cut up 2 of the 3 baskets of strawberries and made some shortcake.  The strawberries are so sweet, I only added a little sugar, enough to get them to make syrup.  I hadn't had "real" strawberry shortcake (home made shortcake, real whipped cream) in a long time and it was delicious

We have one more basket of strawberries to finish.  I may be tempted to go back and get 3 more baskets, but probably not....we don't need to have two nights of shortcake in one summer.  Besides, I still have apples for one more apple pie!

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

Strawberries with my

Cheerios for breakfast

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Going to the doctor

I remember the sickest Jeri ever got.  She was a toddler.  It was only a flu or something, but when her temperature went up to 106 and she was very lethargic, I rushed her off to the emergency room.  It took them a long time to call us and then we were in the exam room for awhile before the doctor came in.  We had waited so long that her temperature was normal and she was climbing all over the furniture in the exam room. The doctor looked at me like I was one of those mothers who took their kid to the doctor for everything.  But it truly was 106!

Today I have an appointment about my hearing aid.  I had an appointment a few weeks ago because I couldn't hear out of the left hearing aid.  They checked and said it was fine and showed me what I needed to do to change the input of noise.  I went home with a working hearing aid.  After I got home, it stopped working and Ned managed to get it working again.

But several weeks ago, it stopped working all together.  I couldn't get it to work, nor could Ned.  Before I made another call to the doctor's office, I made sure it really wasn't working.  I tried using it every day for several days and couldn't get any sound out of it.  It took three weeks or something before they could give me an appointment and in that time I just stopped using the left hearing aid and was doing OK with just the right.  But I would periodically try putting the left one in again and still no sound.

So today is my appointment and I put the hearing in last night and it worked.  Worked the way it's supposed to.  I could make the sound louder or softer.  I was kind of upset.  What was I going to tell the person at the doctor's office..."really...it didn't work."  All I could think of was Jeri's 106 body temperature.

I was  relieved when I put the hearing aid in this morning and it didn't work again.  I wonder if it will be working when we get to the doctor's office.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

This is what Lacie and her friends did
at her birthday party

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Old Ladies

Sunday is my day to do a lot of non-pen pal writing.  I start by answering as many entries in Sunday Stealing (figuring people are more likely to continue participating if they get comments).  Today I also wrote to Lacie for her birthday.  And if I have Compassion letters to write, I write those.

I also write some letters for Letters Against Isolation, the group that writes letters to isolated and lonely seniors in rest homes, nursing homes, and receiving Meals on Wheels.  I usually write four letters a week, sent anonymously.  I talk about the squirrels, the dog, memories from when I was growing up and whatever else seems appropriate when I sit down to write.

You get addresses from the Letters Against Isolation website.  The group was started by two girls in high school who visited their grandmother in a rest home and it has grown to this amazing organization which sends out thousands of letters every week.  Many letters are written by young people who may write a hundred letters a week (the rules say you can't send more than 200).  But I only write 4 because that's how many I can send in one envelope with one stamp!

I always think about what I might like to receive, if I were lonely and/or isolated.  Today they were asking for letters for Judy, who is going to celebrate her 80th birthday in October.  80???  I'm 80!  It was strange to think of writing to this "old lady"...who is my age.  Younger, actually!!  It does put my age in perspective.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

Lacie made her own birthday cake

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Sunday Stealing

 

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves.

Stolen from Pinterest

1. What is your favorite book?
John Steinbeck's "East of Eden."

2. Are you afraid of the dark?
Not at all.

3. Are you mean?
I hope not!

4. Is cheating ever OK?
I should say no, but if I think about it I can probably come up with a few instances where it's OK.

5. Can you keep white shoes white?
I haven't worn white shoes in decades.  I wear black Birkenstocks.

6. Are you currently bored?
Heck no.

7. Would you change your name?
I am noticing very early signs of dementia, mostly forgetting names.  If I changed my name, I wouldn't have a clue who I am.

8. Do you like the subway?
I ride it when I have to, but I don't particularly like it.

9. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?
Jeri

10. Dumbest lie you’ve ever told?
We told our kids their ears would fall off if they didn't eat their vegetables.  (They didn't believe us, but a kid we were babysitting was very upset and asked his mother is this was true)

11. Do you sleep with your door open or closed?
I sleep in the living room and in the family room...no doors.

12. Favorite month?
October...the summer heat is gone, the leaves on the trees are beautiful and the coming season will be winter.

13. Dark, milk, or white chocolate?
Milk, definitely.

14. Tea or coffee?
Peet's French Roast.

15. Night or day?
Probably night.

Saturday 9

 Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer the questions, however, and here are today's questions!

Saturday 9: Got My Mind Set On You (1987)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, George Harrison tells us he's willing to devote his money, patience and time to his girlfriend. Of those three things, which can you most easily spare?
Interesting question.  Probably patience. 

2) This song had long been a favorite of George's. He first heard it in 1963 when visiting his sister in United States. He couldn't get the tune out of his mind and bought the record by James Ray. Do you have an earworm -- a song that, once you hear it, keeps repeating in your head?
Lots.  Pretty much any song that I hear that I know becomes an earworm. 

3) Months later, in February 1964, the Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. 73 million viewers saw them, and an astonishing 45.3% of the TV sets in America were tuned in to the show. In addition to the Beatles, Ed Sullivan used his show to introduce Elvis, The Rolling Stones and The Jackson 5. The Ed Sullivan Show ran for 23 years and reruns are now shown in syndication. Have you ever seen it?
We watched it every week when I was growing up.

4) While most of the best loved and most recognized Beatles songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it was George who penned "Something." Frank Sinatra called that song "the greatest love song of the last 50 years." What's your favorite love song?
John Denver's "For You."

5) This praise represented a big change for Frank, who predicted in 1964 that the Beatles would be "of no lasting importance." Tell us about something you have changed your mind about.
Growing up I hated mushrooms.  Now I love them.

6) Tom Petty, who went on to have more than 25 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, credits George Harrison as a major influence on his music. Tell us about someone who influenced your professional life.
It was a woman who ran a typing service.  She also did medical transcription.  One day she threw a tape at me and a medical dictionary and told me to transcribe the tape.  I had NO knowledge of medical terminology and had to practically look up every word.  But ultimately I became a medical transcriptionist and that definitely changed my life.  I remember she told me that when I could spell cholecystectomy without looking it up, I could call myself a transcriptionist.  I ended up being the fill-in transcriptionist for every medical office in town and ultimately was hired as the full time transcriptionist for an ob/gyn office, for which I worked for 12 years, ultimately becoming the medical office manager.  

7) In 1987, when George's recording of "I Got My Mind Set on You" was popular, a squirrel unexpectedly made headlines. The furry fellow closed down the Nasdaq Stock Exchange when he chewed through a phone line. Do you often see squirrels where you live?
I frequently talk about the squirrels in our back yard.  We feed them every day and it drives the dog nuts.

 

8) Also in 1987, third generation race car driver Marco Andretti was born. Naturally the skills required by a race car driver are unique. For example, while we know he can control a car at upwards of 230 mph at Indy, we have no idea if Marco Andretti is good at parallel parking in front of the local post office. How about you? Do you struggle with parallel parking?
Well, I don't drive any more, but I was always very good at parallel parking.  My father would not let me get a drivers' license until I could parallel park on the steep hill in front of our flat, in a standard transmission car.

9) Random question: When you woke up this morning, were you ready to face the day? Or do you wish you could have rolled over and snoozed a little longer?
Lately, I've been sleeping pretty well.  It was nearly 8 when I woke up this morning, which was wonderful.  I was definitely ready to face the day.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

 I haven't read much lately, so I've been trying to get some reading in.  i had started "The Day Diana Died" and once I got far enough into it, I couldn't put it down.  The more I read of the royal family, the more I realize how terribly dysfunctional they are (when Charles was little, his mother would be gone on a trip but when she returned, she would not hug him--she would shake his hand).

Elizabeth's disregard for how upset the rest of the world was about Diana's death makes me think of  Downton Abbey's Violet who asks "what's a week end?"

But the book is a very thorough examination of everything that happened in the weeks leading up to the accident, an investigation of all the people involved, and a detailed description of the accident and Diana's injuries (she did not die at the scene, but died in the hospital).

After finishing that book, I decided I needed to read something light and so read "Raspberry Truffle Murder," by Wendy Meadows, a book which a pen pal sent me as a gift.  As I said in my review on Goodreads, I hope she didn't buy it for me.  It was perhaps the most unbelievable book I've ever read.  I finished it in a couple of hours, but it was painful.

Temu

 We can't get our NBC tv station any more.  It says "Cox and Hearst retransmission impasse moves to blackout stage.  WISN-TV, other Hearst TV stations fade to black on DirecTV after talks fail on programming fees."  Whatever that means.  A TV version of the writers strike, I guess!

But that means no Today Show, no America's Got Talent (which is showing its finals now).  It means that I've started watching Good Morning, America in the morning.  I was amused this morning to discover that GMA has discovered Temu.

Temu has become my obsession, though I'm backing off now because I probably have more stickers than I can use in the rest of my life.  But Temu has gone from being mostly stickers, to selling just about everything else, cheap and GMA featured a lot of things this morning, including a scalp massager for 39 cents and a tiny refrigerator on sale for $69 (original price $111)

The things they showed were as varied as the stickers I've been buying this past year.  Temu must be a Chinese company and now that they have gotten so much traffic, they are branching out to things other than stickers.  My stickers used to come in a Temu bag and be delivered overnight.  The things I got today came a week after ordering, and not from Temu, but from some other company and a strange bag.  I kind of feel like I helped get Temu off the ground as a business!

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

Lester at the JFK library

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Another apple pie

 I've written before about one of my favorite memories of my mother, sitting at the kitchen table, peeling apples for an apple pie  I was always amazed that she could peel a whole apple without breaking the skin.  And I hate peeling apples as a result because I just can't do it.

However, the other day I found a video about how to peel an apple.  In truth her way wastes a lot of usable apple, but we are drowning in apples so that wasn't a concern.  She did the peeling with a potato peeler, but that didn't work for me.  I tried the new way with a knife today and it works!  By the time I was peeling the last apples, I was peeling them without breaking the skin.

I missed my mother so much.  Throughout her life, it seems that when she made an apple pie, I would take her picture...and then snitch slices of apple that she had cut out of the bowl.  When Ned took my picture and then took a slice of apple, I wanted to laugh about it with my mother.  I hope somehow she knows.

And I seem to be getting my pie mojo back.  The pie looks beautiful and I know it will  taste better than the last one I did, where I didn't peel the apples.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

Lester

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Sunday Stealing

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves.

Stolen from Magical Journal Prompts

1. What’s the best beach or lake day you can remember?
We didn't spend much time at the beach, but the first memory that came to mind was a beach at the Russian River, when the kids were little and our dog, Seymour, was so afraid of the water she tried to climb a tree that had fallen over.

2. Describe your ideal picnic lunch
Fried chicken, my father's potato salad, stuffed eggs, grapes and probably cookies.

3. What flowers are in your bouquet?
Roses and daisies.

4. Silly ways to pass the time during a snowstorm
I've never been in a snow storm, but reading, playing card games, and listening to music.

5. The most beautiful house you’ve ever visited.

I can't think of one that stands out.  We occasionally went to houses that were open for inspection and some of them were beautiful.  Of the houses I can think of today, it would probably be Tom's house in Santa Barbara.

6. Best place you ever dined.
I love The Dead Fish in Concord, which has wonderful crab.

7. How many layers to your ice cream sandwich
I never thought about "layers" in an ice cream sandwich.  Just one, I assume!

8. Pretty things which are faux patent leather

I can't think of anything patent leather, other than shoes.  I'm not big on patent leather, I guess.

9. What is the best way to eat chocolate.

Depends on the chocolate.  If it's my favorite, See's California Brittle, scrape the chocolate covering off the brittle with my teeth and then chew the brittle.  If it's normal chocolate, let it melt in my mouth first.

10. Describe your unicorn’s special magic
I don't have a unicorn, so no magic.

11. All the fruits in your fruit salad

Pineapple, banana, strawberries, kiwi, orange, grapes

12. Describe the soil, grass, trees, flowers and rocks in your magical forest.

Thick green grass, fruit trees, a garden full of tomato plants, and an abundance of flowers...also a gardener taking care of it all.

13. The lyrics which move you the most are:

For Good, from Wicked

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you

14. What are the best sauces in the world?
Wow...so many sauces.  I like bordelaise, alfredo, any sauce made with wine, mushrooms and butter, and bottled Baby Ray's BBQ sauce

15. Write a haiku about nature

Waves crashing on shore

The sound and the smell of salt

I love the ocean

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

Another new child,

for whom I am correspondent

He's from Ghana

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Saturday 9

 

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

Cheeseburger in Paradise (1978)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

From the archives; Repeated in memory of Jimmy Buffett, who died on September 1.

1) In this song, Jimmy Buffett briefly attempts a healthier diet, which included sunflower seeds, carrot juice, zucchini and bulgur wheat. Do you pay attention to your daily consumption of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, etc.?
I don't do it as much as I should.  Ned does a good job keeping us healthy at dinnertime.

2) Jimmy sings that he'd like French fries with his burger. Do you prefer to dip your fries or drizzle the ketchup over them?
I actually prefer my fries plain.

3) Which cheese would make yours a cheeseburger in paradise: American, cheddar, Swiss, bleu, Muenster, or Monterrey Jack?
Swiss, definitely. 

4) Buffett fans call themselves Parrotheads. Concert attire for a well-dressed Parrothead often includes a Hawaiian shirt and a foam fin hat. What will you be wearing tonight?
Same thing I'm wearing now.  PJ bottoms (which look like slacks...but they are light weight) and a t-shirt. 

5) For someone with such an easygoing and laidback vibe, Jimmy is a very busy man. His business ventures include liquors, restaurants and hotels. He's also published eight books. All this in addition to making music! On a scale of 1 to 10 -- with 1 being lazy and 10 being highly motivated -- how would you rate yourself this morning?
If you could things I do on the computer, like Sat 9 and Sun Stealing, writing letters, and working on the journal I'm doing right now, probably a 5.

6) Jimmy has some very famous fans. Paul McCartney asked him to play at one of his parties, and Barack Obama invited him to perform at a fundraiser. If you could invite anyone -- anyone at all! -- to play at your party, who would you ask?
Steve Schalchlin, of course!

7) Jimmy was born on Christmas Day. Does your birthday fall on a major holiday? If yes, do you mind "sharing" your special day?
No.  If it did, I wouldn't mind sharing my spacial say.

8) In 1978, the year this song was popular, the Susan B. Anthony Dollar was first minted. The initial design was not a hit with the public because vending machines could not accept it. What's the last thing you bought from a vending machine?
Wow.  I can't even think.  It was probably something at a rest stop on the way to Santa Barbara, but not recently.

9) Random question -- If today's your birthday, your zodiac sign is Virgo. When did you last check your horoscope?
I never check my horoscope.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

My new sponsored child,
from Brasil

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Happy Birthday

I've always loved this photo of my mother that Jeri took.  I believe it was the last picture taken of her before we moved her to Atria in Davis.

Today she would be 104.  I don't know why, but I've just been missing her the last few days.  I'm remembering how she would go through periods where she missed her mother, who died when I was probably in my 20s, or late teens. 

There are days when I feel I have nobody to talk with and would dearly love to pick up the phone and call her.  I'm imagining heaven today, with a card game going on among my mother and her sisters...or my cousins...or my sister.  I feel left out.

Happy birthday, Momma. 

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

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Wordle n stuff

A group of us -- me, Jeri and Phil, Walt's sister and her husband, his brother and his wife -- play Wordle each day and text our scores to each other. We don't usually post the figure of our play but this morning I was sad that it took me 6 tries to solve the puzzle.  Then Jeri posted her figure.  It took her 6 tries to get it too and it was interesting that our figures looked pretty identical, except for the starting word.

I love doing Wordle.  I generally go to sleep at 10 p.m. and wake up automatically around midnight, when the new Wordle is up and don't go back to sleep until I've solved it.  (Walt's sister says she sometimes takes all day to solve...I can't possibly put it down until I've solved it!  But then my normal score is 4 and hers is 3, so maybe I should take more time working on it!)

My pen pal Jeremy says he is no good with words, but he plays "Worldle" and "Globle" because he's so good with geography.  I'm terrible at geography and would do very badly with those games.

Likewise, Steve (Schalchlin) plays Connections, another NY Times game where you create 4 groups of  4 from a box of 16 words.  Jeri has played that too and is pretty good at it.  I'm terrible because I can't see the second use for some of the words and can't get a group together, so I stick with Wordle.

* * *

We had warning from PG&E yesterday that our power would be out from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.  The year that Ned moved in here, he recommended that we get a generator because he expected the power would go off in the summertime.  It didn't that summer, but when winter storms came about, it did and he was able to power the important things in the house -- the refrigerator, the TV and the bidet.  I'm surprised at how many times we have used the generator and so we had no concerns about the power being out yesterday.  He got us all set up and then the PG&E turned the power back on again after an hour, so we didn't really need the generator, but how nice to have it!  And not being able to use the computer was great because I didn't need to feel guilty for sitting in my recliner just watching TV in the morning!

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

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