Doctors

I had my annual medical exam this week.  "exam" is perhaps an inaccurate term.  My "exam" was by phone.  Kaiser has an app that you download and it brings up a chat with you and your doctor (my doctor is always late when I see her in the office, and she was 20 minutes late to the video exam too!)

I started out giving her my blood sugar and blood pressure readings, and current weight (which, to my surprise, is 20 lbs lighter than a year ago.  She asked a few questions and Ned had a question to ask her, and then she told me to go to  the lab for tests and to get an eye exam and that was it.  

Not exactly what I expect of an annual "exam."  But then there really is nothing different that I feel about me than my last exam (which was also by phone).

I'm glad Ned was able to sit in on the exam.  My doctor is from Bangladesh and has a heavy accent which I have a hard time understanding sometimes.  Having a face mask on didn't help!  But Ned is able to translate for me.

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

Bri's first birthday.
She will be 16 tomorrow.

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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 Swap Bot

         

1. Do you believe in the unknown and Mystics?
Well, of course I believe in the unknown...there is so much in life I know nothing about!  As for mystics. I don't know.  Most of them seem to be good actors.

2. How do you tell time? Do you use a watch or your phone and why?
I stopped wearing a watch years ago when Ned said he didn't wear a watch and I realized I didn't need one.  I have my phone, if I need to know the time, or clocks in the house.

3. How do you stay cool in the summer?
I stay in the house, which has wonderful air conditioning.

4. Egg yolk or white?
Both

5. What is your current on-repeat song?
The Jardiance commercial.  

6. What is your favorite sound in the world?
waves crashing on the shore
the sound of Ned making coffee while I'm waking up

7. What's the must-have-items in your bag?
I almost never carry a bag, but when I do it has what passes for my wallet, my cell phone, some tissues, and a brush.  That's about all.

8. When you're dressing up, which one you put on first: pants or tops?
Pants

9. what is the one thing you wish you could take back?
Whatever I did that made my friend Peggy ghost me.

10. what is your pet peeve?
The sound of Donald Trump's voice

11. have you ever been ashamed after buying something frivolous? what?
I've never been ashamed of buying anything, but I frequently buy frivolous things that look better in advertisements than they do when they come.  There are some things I've purchased because I saw a YouTube video of someone who used it in an art project and then never even open it, like a jar of Gesso, which I bought a year ago.

12. what dessert would you eat even if you were beyond full?
Pumpkin pie.

13. sweet or spicy?
Surprisingly, spicy.  Many sweet things seem to be too sweet these days. (though that doesn't mean I won't eat them!)

14. Which website do you visit most often?
Facebook

15. Which countries/states have you visited and which one did you like the most?
I've visited 40 states and Washington DC, and have only lived in California, which is my favorite state, though I have enjoyed visiting friends in the state of Washington.

I've visited 25 countries - Canada, Mexico, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria. Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Australia, Russia, Ukraine, China, Finland, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Spain, Monaco,  and Turkey.  

I love England and Ireland.  And surprisingly, I loved the parts of Russia that we took a boat cruise through, though I certainly wouldn't visit now.  While I loved the South of France, I don't care if I ever go back to Paris again.

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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!

Saturday 9: Two Easter Sunday Sweethearts (1954)

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

1) This song is about a couple dressed in their "Sunday Best." Will you be getting dressed up this weekend?
Nope.  Nowhere to go!

2) The happy couple is walking up the street arm-in-arm. Have you recently seen a couple holding hands or walking arm-in-arm in public? 
Haven't been out in public, so no.

3) This week's featured artist, Vera Lynn, was a beloved English singer who is affectionately remembered for her tireless work entertaining the troops during WWII. She famously sang "There'll Always Be an England" during outdoor concerts in Egypt, India, and Burma, even as battles raged nearby. What is your favorite patriotic song?
"Stars and Stripes Forever"

 4) Though she became a celebrity at 19, Vera continued to live with her parents until she married at age 21. How old were you when you left home for good?
I was 18, when I moved from San Francisco to Berkeley to start UC.  Never moved back home again. 

 Now, here are some questions in honor of this weekend's holiday ...

5) More than 1.5 million Cadbury Creme Eggs are produced every day. Do you enjoy Cadbury Eggs all year around, only at Easter, or not at all?
I love Cadbury eggs and if I ate them, would eat them all year around, but I don't eat candy much any more, so haven't had any in years.

 6) Pretzels are considered a delicious Easter snack in Germany. Do you more often crave salty treats or sweet ones?
These days, my cravings are for salty things (nuts, chips, crackers), but not pretzels, which I don't really like.  I like sweets, but when I let myself have some, I find they are too sweet

7) We've been talking a lot about sweets this morning. The only holiday that generates more candy sales is Halloween. When do you eat more candy: Easter or Halloween?
Halloween because we don't buy candy for Easter and so buy for trick or treat, and usually have a lot left over.

8) Easter is considered the season of rebirth. What makes you feel refreshed or rejuvenated?
More than 2 hours of sleep!

9)  This year, April Fool's Day happens to follow Easter Sunday. Do you expect to fall victim to any pranks?
No, because other than Walt (who doesn't prank) I won't see anybody on April 1 (Ned and Marta are away for the weekend)

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Palm Royale

 I'm down to just a couple of letters I need to answer, and I've been procrastinating, reading a lot of Facebook, getting ideas to make ATCs, and watching Palm Royale.

I've seen Carol Burnett interviewed a few times about her role in Palm Royale.  Fortunately I was prepared for her being in a coma for the first three episodes.  She hasn't awakened yet (where I am in the series), but I understand she's a real mean person.

So far I'm feeling so-so about the series.  It's really just a soap opera about people I so far don't like much.  Anything is worth watching if Carol Burnett is involved, so we'll see how much she is actually a part of the plot once she wakes up.

I loved her on Colbert telling him about being in a coma for 3 episodes and how she'd wake up in the morning, rush to the studio, put on make up, and  then get back into bed!

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Girls in Hawaii

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Let's Brag

 My latest SwapBot project is to brag about at least 10 things in your life.  I sat down to write a list and decided to share it here.  The rules say "Do not mention what you are bragging about then turn it into a negative comment."

1. Proud of being married for 58 years (59 in June)

2. Gave birth to 5 children naturally...no drugs...and breastfed all 5 until at least a year and a couple for longer.

3. Was a La Leche League leader for about 7 years.  Wrote and published the state newsletter.

4. Learned cake decorating and started a cake decorating business, working from home, when there was no real “bakery” in town other than Safeway.  Made some cakes I am very proud of!

5.  Co-author of 2 books about The Lamplighters, a Gilbert & Sullivan theater in San Francisco.  I am proud of being in the Library of Congress twice.

6. Proud of my friendship with the musical director of The Lamplighters.  When he died, I was responsible for cleaning out his house.  

7. Proud of learning medical transcription and working as a medical transcriptionist for 20 years.

8. Proud of being a theater critic for 12 years, and writing other columns thru the years.

9. Proud that I have a close friendship with my adult children. 

10. Proud of hosting some 70 foreigners from 14 different countries, visiting this country to learn English (and proud of picking up conversational Portuguese from all the Brasilians living here)

11. Proud of my daily on-line journal, now in its 24th year (more than 8,500 entries)

12. Proud of sponsoring many kids around the world through Compassion, Int’l since 2008.

13. Proud of fostering some 100 dogs for the SPCA (and adopting 3 of them)

14. Proud of writing to more than 50 pen pals.

15. Proud of letting my head be shaved to raise money for research on child cancer.

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A new hobby

 It appears that I have become part of the ATC (Artist Trading Card) community.  I've posted pictures of a few cards I've made and have received comments from people who want to trade for them.  I guess I'm getting better at it.

I find I'm looking at everything with an eye for how it could be used on an ATC.  I got a letter from someone with a nice design on it and turned it into an ATC which was traded almost instantly.

This is another one made from a post card that someone sent me.  I love it and someone asked if I would be willing to trade, but so far I like it too much to send it to someone else.

So I now have fancy tags to put on the back of my ATCs saying who made them, and I've collected small cards and envelopes to mail them in (rather than the business size envelopes I mail letters in), and I ordered something called "premium card sleeves," which are plastic sleeves designed for people to save their baseball cards, but which are perfect for ATCs.

Now I just have to make more ATCs so I have enough to actually trade with someone.  At the moment I only have about a dozen, or less, available to trade.

I'm also having fun printing address labels for pen pals.  One pen pal who read that I had made a Biden return address label for myself asked if I would make her two sheets of Biden labels, so I did.  Then I made myself a new label with this design.

I love it, but I have to be careful when I use it.  I know very little about most pen pals' political views, so for most of them I use ordinary return address labels, but if I know how they feel about politics, I will love to use these.

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

This is the most popular ATC, so far.

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Criminal Minds

 I've reached a bad place.  Every day after lunch, I settle in, turn on a rerun of Criminal Minds, and fall asleep for an hour to 2 hours.  I've been doing this for months, and have been working through the 15 seasons of the show.

But two days ago, I watched the last episode of the series.  Now what am I going to do?  Watch the whole thing over again? ("watch" is kind of an improper word since I usually only watch a few minutes of the beginning of an episode and the final few minutes of the end of the next episode).

Out of curiosity, I did a search and discovered that the 15 seasons of NCIS are on Netflix -- like Criminal Minds it is without commercials.  I watched Episode 1 of Season 1 today.  I've seen it before several times, but it's nice to start the whole 15 seasons again.  I knew that this episode took place on Air Force One, but I was surprised at how many references to the movie Air Force One are made throughout the hour.  We've watched the movie so many times that when it was time to set up our internet connection, Ned named it "Air Force One."

So I guess I'm OK for naps now for the next 15 seasons of NCIS.

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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 Swap Bot

         

1. If you could witness any event from history, what would it be?
It would be nice to be at the birth of Jesus.

2. What do you think about conspiracy theories?
They are mostly interesting, but have most been proven false...though it would be nice to know what really happened on November 22, 1963.

3. Do you like cartoons? Do you have /had a favorite one?
I don't generally read cartoons, but I enjoy Peanuts.

4. What did you most dislike in school times?
In grammar school, math classes and recess.

5. What sounds are in your opinion relaxing? The sound of the sea? Traffic? Vacuum cleaner? Combine harvester on the field? Some kind of music? Birds singing? ...
I love the sound of the ocean.

6. What was the last thing you read?
A book called "Saving Sadie" by Joal Derse Dauer

7. What is one thing that has stumped you so hard you won't ever forget it?
Trump cultists.

8. What are you interested in that most people aren’t?
Gilbert & Sullivan

9. What’s something you really resent paying for?
postage stamps!  (I don't mind buying stamps but it seems like the cost goes up every few months and I send SO MUCH mail!)

10. If you could choose a different time period and place to be born, when and where would it be?
I don't know...I've always been happy to have been raised in the 1950s.

11. What's one question you would ask Superman?
Now that phone booths are being removed, where do you change into your costume?

12. What's your favorite smell? What's your least favorite smell?
I love the smell of puppy breath and brewing coffee.  I smelled Durian once and that was enough!

13. How do you feel about cars becoming fully autonomous and having no steering wheel, breaks, or accelerators?
I would be very uncomfortable riding in one.

14. What are your favorite books and authors?
John Steinbeck is my favorite author and "East of Eden" his favorite of mine.
I also love all of Harlan Coben's books, Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series, and anything Bill Bryson writes is fun to read.
David Gerrold is my favorite sci fi author.

15. Have you had a reading or palm reading done?
No, never, but it's interesting that I learned my mother's mother read palms at fairs when her kids were young.

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

I love my new shirt

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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 the questions, however, and here are today's questions!

Saturday 9: If You've Got the Money (1950)

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

1) In this week's song, Lefty Frizzell is eager to go out on the town and hit all the night spots. What are your plans for the weekend?
No plans for the weekend.

2) He tells his girl he'd rather ride in her Cadillac than his old car. Back in the 1950s, Caddys were quite the status symbol. Lefty bought a white one with the profits from this record. Elvis also had a fondness for Cadillacs and preferred pink. Have you ever owned a Cadillac?
Nope.

3) Lefty was a big deal in Big Spring, TX. He was a popular attraction at local bars, a favorite among oil workers who liked to unwind by listening to live music. How do you relax after a tough day?
I rarely have a "tough day," but I relax in my recliner and frequently fall asleep watching TV.

4) This was Lefty's first hit. He wrote "If You've Got the Money" and recorded a demo for producer Jim Beck to play for established singers. When no one else wanted to record it, Beck decided to give Lefty a shot. The result was a million seller that spent 22 weeks on the country charts. Tell us about someone who took a chance on you.
The entertainment editor of the newspaper knew me from my doing publicity for community theaters and when he needed a new theater critic, he decided to offer me the job.  I had no training and really only knew musical theater, but I decided I'd give it a try.  Must have worked out because I reviewed for 12 years until COVID ended theater for a year or so.  They I retired.

5) After this record became a hit, success came quickly to Lefty, perhaps too fast. He signed conflicting contracts with promoters and managers which resulted in lawsuits. Have you recently consulted a lawyer or had a document notarized?
Nope.

6) This song hit number one on the country charts twice: first this version and then in 1976 by Willie Nelson. Do you have a favorite Willie Nelson song?
I'm not a big Willie Nelson fan, but I do enjoy "On the Road Again."

7) In 1950, when this song was popular, Americans began using credit cards. Do you pay with a credit card to get rewards? If yes, what rewards are you accumulating (cash back, airline miles, etc.)? 
I use my rewards for cash back to pay the credit card bill.

8) Also in 1950, Sears Roebuck and Co. acknowledged a major spike in catalog sales and took the unusual move of devoting the cover of their Spring/Summer catalog to their "satisfaction guarantee." This was meant to allay the fear of customers uncomfortable with ordering by mail instead of buying in person. 74 years later, Amazon delivers more than 3 million packages every day. Would you rather check out a product yourself in a store, or do you prefer the convenience of ordering from home?
Since I no longer drive so can't get to stores to "shop" without a driver, I order everything from home.

9) Random question -- You're singing along with the car radio to your favorite song when you reach your destination. Do you wait until your song is over to get out of the car?
Definitely wait until the song is over.  

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

what the curls in the back of my head
look like after washing.

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Letters

 Yesterday was a busy letter writing day.  I had a huge stack of things that had come through the mail over the past couple of weeks.  Some were letters from long time pen pals and others were shorter letters from people who saw my name and address on InCoWriMo, the web site where people sign up and promise to write a letter a day in the month of February.

I've been on InCoWriMo before and never noticed much mail, but this time in my bio I said that I was a "retired theater critic" and every single InCoWriMo person who wrote wanted to know how I got to be a critic and what it was like.  I suppose I should have had an answer that I could copy to every letter, but I answered each letter individually.  I had a huge stack of mail to be put out for the mail carrier in the morning.

Then this morning I had a several SwapBot projects that had to be done, which included writing a lot of post cards.  it was fun to write the "Something Local to You PC" where you were supposed to send out post cards of your town.  Well, Davis has crappy postcards.  In fact, I don't remember ever seeing a post card of Davis in a long time, but I had a postcard MADE that I felt should have been made years ago.

Now isn't that a great post card??  These statues were made by Robert Arneson, a professor at the university and there are seven spots around the campus where you can find heads.  (I have also seen heads in San Francisco, but smaller).    I had 10 post cards made and have sent 3.  I will only send for special occasions.  And if I run out, I will have more made.  They were definitely reasonably priced.  I will love sending them to Postcrossing partners.

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Washi

It's almost impossible to keep my office neat.  I have so many things that I save.  I have about 40 plastic boxes for stickers, two shoe boxes for postcards to be mailed, two or three plastic boxes for paper stuff that I can use on journals or ATCs, a folder for all my return address labels, a lunch box for all of my stamps to trade, but there is always stuff that has no place to go that gets piled up until I go through it, throw away a lot and organized the piles left.

My problem is I don't do enough crafting!  If I spent all day making ATCs and journals, I would use up a lot of this but I also have stacks of letters to answer, and that takes time.  And I don't have any reason to make ATCs or journals.

One thing I have a lot of, in addition to stickers, is washi tape.  I have two big box of washi tape that I organized a long time ago, but I keep buying more washi tape and I have smaller boxes all over the place with washi tape in them.

I went looking on Amazon to buy another large storage box and I found this neat thing.  It's a box with three levels in it.  Each level has 10 slots for 5 washi tape rolls each, so that's 150 rolls of washi tape.  I got all the little boxes of washi emptied and in this new storage box and it's great.  All of the "holiday" (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, St. Patrick's Day) washi is together in one level.  All of my animal washi tapes are together, which is great -- I use those the most.  And all the rest are on the final level.  So I got rid of a lot of the smaller boxes which fall down whenever a pile of "stuff" gets too high.  I'm very pleased with it.

Note to self:  do not buy any more washi!!!

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The puzzle

Well, the company that makes the Lefties puzzle is very good.  they said if I send them a picture of the puzzle (thank goodness I took a picture after it was completed) and the bar code from the box they would send another puzzle, either a replacement Lefties, or another one.  I had Ned go through the catalog and he chose 2 that he'd like to work, so we'll see what they send.

Quiet day today.  I did some writing, including the messages about the puzzle, did a lot of stuff on Facebook, worked a bit on the new puzzle (all donuts!) and ordered new slipper socks.

When I couldn't sleep last night, I was looking thru Facebook and found a 20 year old Brasilian girl who needed to be sponsored thru Compassion.  Her program will only go for a year, so I decided to sponsor her.  She's Brasilian, after all.

When I see pictures of kids who need sponsors, I can always tell which ones are Brasilian because they all have one or two hands on their hips.  Strange.  Whenever I see a picture like that and check, it's always a Brasilian.

I wasn't going to sponsor any more new kids, but this one is only for a year, and I decided that I could handle it.

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

I made a new ATC yesterday.

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St. Patrick's Day

It's St. Patrick's Day.  I got up early to put on a green shirt (My Schitt's Creek shirt) and made a loaf of Irish soda bread.  Ned has corned beef cooking in the sous vide.  

When I got on Facebook, it had a link to pictures from 2023 on this date.  I'm wearing the same shirt and there is a picture of the dinner  table with Irish soda bread and corned beef. 

I guess there's no point in taking new pictures this year!

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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 Friday Five 

1. What ONE thing would you change about your life? How would your life be different?
If I would eat better and exercise more, my life would definitely be different...but I'm not likely to/

2.  What is the hardest thing you have ever done? Why was it hard for you? What did you learn?

The hardest  thing was burying our two sons, one in 1996 and one in 1999.  It's obvious why it was hard for me.  And I learned that I don't want to bury any more children!

3. Write about the most glorious moment in your life so far.

I don't know that I would think of any moments in my life "glorious," other than the birth of each of my children, but the most glorious period in my life would be the years I worked with The Lamplighters in San Francisco.

4. Write about a moment you felt brave.

When I went to Australia by myself.  I had never traveled alone before.  (Of course when I got to Australia I had a friend to stay with but it definitely felt strange traveling alone)

5. What made you happy today?
It always makes me happy to see the squirrels on our patio.  Today there were two of them, one in the tree and one on the ground, both eating walnuts.

6. What did you dislike most about growing up?

The first time I realized I was "grown up" was the first time I got the flu and had to stay in bed and there was nobody to bring me orange juice or fresh Kleenex.

7. Write about five activities you love the most and why you love them.

* Watching TV for entertainment

* Spending time on the Internet, for socialization
* Eating in a restaurant.  We rarely do it and I love it.
* Working jigsaw puzzles with Ned, just for fun
* Feeding the squirrels because they are so cute.

8. Do you have an embarrassing moment that still makes you cringe?

I told this recently either on Saturday 9 or Sunday Stealing, but it was when I was in grammar school and went alone to a park.  I tore the back seam of my pants and had to walk home 5 blocks with torn pants.  I ran into a guy from school who always teased me.  He was in his upstairs apartment and I don't know that he saw my pants, but I was very embarrassed.

9. What has been your best trip so far?

Oh so many!  Perhaps our very first river cruise on a small boat in England.  We went with Mike and Char and there were a total of 7 passengers.  It took us 5 days to get from London to Oxford and 40 minutes by train to get from Oxford back to London.

10. What traits (physical or personal) do people notice when they meet you for the first time?

I have no clue what people think, but I always think the first thing they notice is my weight.

11.  Is social media a blessing or a curse?

It depends on how you use it.  For me it's a blessing because since I don't really leave the house it has become my social outlet.

12. What is your greatest hope for your future? What steps can you take to make it happen?

That I die in my sleep.  Not sure how I can make that happen!

13.  What did you struggle most with today?

I made Irish soda bread and it's been so long since I've made anything in the kitchen, I found I had to sit down several times to rest my back before finishing.

14.  Name the biggest priority in your life right now
I always try to comment on everybody who has posted to Sunday Stealing, so I have that to do today.

15. What are 5 things you wish others knew about you.
* I'm very shy
* I am not comfortable in most large parties
* I am not organized at all (most people seem to think I am)
* I love it when people drop by to visit, since I can't drive any more and can't go visit anyone.

* I miss "girl talk."
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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!

 

Saturday 9: Charlie Mops (2007)

Not familiar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1. This week's song is about a legend, Charlie Mops, the man who invented beer. Tell us about something you enjoy so much you could sing about it with the same enthusiasm the Salt Sea Pirates sing of beer.
Probably San Francisco.

2.  The lyrics tell us beer goes well with breakfast, dinner and snacks. Think about what you dined on yesterday. What beverages did you have with your breakfast, your dinner, and your between-meal snack?
Breakfast oatmeal with coffee, lunch cottage cheese with fruit and water, dinner pasta casserole, salad and water.  Snacks were either mandarin oranges or banana.

3."Charlie Mops" was chosen because it's an Irish drinking song and Sunday is St. Patrick's Day. Do you expect to raise a glass in honor of the day?
Only a glass of water.  I don't drink alcohol much any more.

4. Beer is not the only beverage often dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. In 1970, McDonald's introduced the Shamrock Shake, a milkshake made with a minty green syrup. If we were to go out for shakes right now, what flavor would you order?
Vanilla malt.

5. Legend has it that wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns, who can be mischievous pranksters. Is there anyone you would like to avoid today?
Nope.  Just staying in the house and not seeing anybody that doesn't live here.

6. For all our talk of green, it was not the original color of St. Patrick's Day. Through most of the 18th century, blue was worn across England and Ireland to honor St. Patrick. The Irish switched to green to express their independence from the English. Which color do wear more often: blue or green?
I have very little green, so mostly I wear blue.

7. Today St. Patrick's Day is observed all over the world. In Tokyo, it's not a single day but a weekend celebration. When you think of Japan, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
Crowds!!!

8. One of the biggest parades each year in Buenos Aires is for St. Patrick's Day. Have you ever participated in a parade?
I've marched in a couple of gay pride parades in San Francisco.

9. Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA, crowns a Miss St. Patrick's Day. Tell us about an event you recall from your college days.
I remember working at the Newman Center, and being in the parking lot when JFK was driven by on his way to give a speech and he waved to me.

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

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typing

My high school wouldn't let people learn typing until their junior year, so I wanted to learn, but had to wait.  Sister Anne was my teacher and we became friends and remained friends until her death many years later.  We sat at tables with big black typewriters that had no letters on them.

I loved typing and quickly became the fastest, most accurate typist in the class. In fact, I could type faster than the fastest typist in the SECOND year of typing.   I was the first one allowed to use the new electric typewriter that the school got. When I wanted to take Typing 2 they wouldn't let me because I already knew more than they would teach in that class. 

I've always typed fast and pretty accurate.  I once was waiting for Walt at his office and while waiting, I sat down at a typewriter and typed something and everyone came over to see me because they'd never heard anybody type so fast.  My fastest speed was 132 words per minute with two errors.

My jobs have always been typing and I loved it.  I love sitting here at this computer and typing letters.  I have to type letters because if I try to write, my hand can't keep up with my brain.  I pretty much type as I compose and my typed letters are so much more interesting.

But lately something has happened.  I can't type for shit.  My words run together.  There is usually a space after the t in any word that starts with t.  I mix letters and sometimes type words that aren't in my head.

Lately, the way I compose things is to write a paragraph and then go back and correct all the mistakes and then type the next paragraph. Even doing that, putting the document through the spell checker still finds mistakes I missed.

I was writing a letter this morning and was telling someone how it came to be that Ned and Marta are now living with us.  This is how I typed part of the paragraph.

He realized that we wre gettingolderand would need more help so he and his wifetook the money they were saving to buy a houseand instead remodeled the ujpstairs of our empty nestinto anapartmentfort hem

EVERYTHING I type these days looks like that.  Funny thing is that I can't seem to slow down.  I still type faster than most people, but it takes twice as long  to complete anything because I have to correct so many errors. 

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

Bubba is better than Polly was
but we still need pads.

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The Post Office

 I knew the post office had lots of difficult things to deliver, but how the letter I got today got to me I just don't know.  This is the address on the front of the envelope.

But it was delivered.  The envelope had no return address, which I guess is OK because while the letter itself was interesting and on some lovely scrapbook paper, I don't have a clue who the writer is.

I got another recently.  The letter was  typed (thank goodness) but I can't read the signature, and it looks nothing like what's written as the return address.  But I also can't read the return address.

I decided that I will answer the letter and then paste the return address from the envelope as the address on MY letter....and then see if it gets delivered.

My father worked the mail for 30 years. No wonder he had such a bad temper!

* * * * *

I've been watching the eagle nest at Big Bear Valley, which apparently everyone is watching to see if the 3 eggs will hatch.

But apparently they have decided that they probably aren't going to open now...they are too old.  They don't know why, but sad.

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

My father, very young
(when he was dating my mother)

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Judy and Liza

Awww.  Ned and Clyde played both Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli on their radio show today.  It's nice when you have children who have radio shows!  I do have to make one minor correction, however.  Clyde, who played "Over the Rainbow" and dedicated it to me, said Judy Garland won an Oscar for playing Dorothy.  Actually, she won a special children's Oscar (smaller than the normal).  As far as I know, she is the only child to ever receive a children's Oscar.  I remember Mickey Rooney presented it to her.

Feeling better today, thank goodness.  I'm making my way through the letters to be answered.  I don't know how many I've written today, but so far about 6.  I've also started reading Rachel Maddow's book, "Prequel," about the rise of fascism in this country.  She said on her program this week that when she was writing it, she had no idea it would be so contemporary.

Watching all the news about the upcoming election and I am terrified that Trump is going to be reelected. His cult doesn't care about any of his lies or his crimes or anything else and they are just convinced that he's the right man for the job.  I read today that he is firing some 60 people who work for him so he can hire people who are essentially "Trumpers" so he's already getting ready for being elected.  And interviews with Trumpers say that if he is NOT reelected, there will be violence.

Where is the country I have known all of my life? 

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

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So much for that

 A month or so ago I decided it was time to get my hearing aids checked.  It was driving me crazy that the sound would go soft and then normal and that I kept getting messages.  I called the hearing aid department and was told the first available appointment was in a month.  I made the appointment and have been counting down the days when I could see the hearing aid specialist.

The appointment was to be today.  But this morning I had a touch of diarrhea.  And then I had more diarrhea, and then every time I sat down at my desk, I had to rush to the bathroom.  I had to change my Depends twice.  And I realized that it was probably not a good idea to have to drive to Vacaville to go the appointment, so I cancelled it.  I left my number so they could call back and set up a new appointment, I haven't heard back yet.

In the meantime, with all the trips to the bathroom, I eventually started to feel kind of weak and the only thing I wanted to do was just sit and maybe nap.  And when I woke up, I felt much better and there were no symptoms of diarrhea.

But while I was napping, the mail arrived.  I signed up for InCoWriMo this year.  That is a web site where you pledge to write a letter a day for the month of February and you leave your address in case people want to write to you.  I've done this before and never noticed that more than one or two people wrote to me.

Well, this year, a lot of people have written.  And my regular penpals have been very good about writing, so I now find that I have a huge pile of mail that needs to be answered.  I really didn't feel like writing today, so tomorrow is going to have to be a busy letter writing day.

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

I really have to write!

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The Oscars

The Oscars were first broadcast on television in 1953, which was the year my family got its first television set. My mother (and thus me too) was always interested in Hollywood and movie stars so we watched the Oscars.  I remember that they had the nominated actors sitting on something that looked like a big cake, as it slowly moved around.

I loved the show and have watched it every year since -- that makes 50 years!  In the last few years it's been kind of silly to watch it, since I don't go to movies and don't recognize most of the nominees, or the presenters.  But I still enjoy it.  I also watch the red carpet.  This year t here was a pre-show red carpet where they took the audience into the theater so you could see what it was like inside. Pretty amazing the bar, and food court, and all the things that the stars could enjoy.

This year's format was different for the awards to actor/actress and supporting actor/actress.  Five former winners of that award stood on stage and each talked about one of the nominees.  I thought this was going to make the show go on forEVer, but it was actually very nice and so nice for the nominees to hear such good things about themselves.

I also like watching  the real red carpet, not to see what my favorite stars are wearing (since I have no favorite stars), but I do enjoy seeing the gowns.  Nobody dresses like Cher used to, but there were some pretty interesting looks.  I wondered how Sandra Huller was able to sit in a chair without poking the people on either side of her.

I was so thrilled the DaVine Joy Andrews won the Oscar for her performance in The Holdovers.  Her acceptance was the most tearful of  the night.

I didn't think too much of America Ferrera's dress, which was attractive, until I saw someone on TV explain that it had taken over 400 hours to make and was a chain link by Versace.

Then, of course there was this look which was beautiful.

But I have to admit that my favorite was the sleeves on this dress.

I hadn't heard of the movie Poor Ones but it got so much notice (and so many awards) that I looked it up and found it on line, so since the awards was over by 7:30 I settled in to watch the movie.  I have to admit that I turned it off halfway through.  I didn't like any of the characters and couldn't figure out where it as going, and hated all the sex in it.  But I could definitely see why Emma Stone won the Oscar over Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon.  I did feel sorry for Gladstone, though, since everyone expected her to win.  Must have killed her when they called Emma Stone's name.

Best part of the Oscars was when Jimmy Kimmel (the host) read the review that Trump had posted about how bad his performance was. 

“Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars,” Trump wrote. “His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be.” In response, Kimmel joked: “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

 So it's over for another year.

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PHOTO OF  THE DAY

Osage singers from Killers of the Flower Moon, who performed
one of the nominated musical numbers.

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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 Friday Five

1) What is your favorite thing about winter?

I love it when it’s dark and cold (not too cold) and I love it when it rains.  Of course here we don’t get snow and the coldest maybe 30 and we don’t get enough rain to have a problem with flooding.

2) What is your favorite winter sport?

I don’t DO winter sports myself, but in the winter Olympics, I like the downhill skiing events best.  Oh...and curling.

3) What is the best winter treat?

I can’t think of a treat that is specifically “winter.”  Hot chocolate would be a great winter treat, but since I can't drink it, I don't fix it for myself.

4) What is the earliest time in the year it ever snowed where you live?

It doesn’t snow here.

5) What is the best way to stay warm in the winter?

Wearing a sweat shirt.  Curling up in a recliner under a heated blanket.

6) What are your favorite things that are paper?

The paper I type letters on.  Also the pages of books, though I mostly read on the Kindle nowadays.

7) What are your favorite things that are cotton?

T-shirts.

8) What are your favorite things that are leather?

My Birkenstocks

9) What are your favorite things that are floral?

The irises that grow in our front yard.

10) What are your favorite things that are wood?

Some jigsaw puzzles

11) If you think your house is haunted, what should you do?

I’m convinced my two sons are in the house, because I feel them from time to time, poking me.  And I hear them when there is no one in the house but me.  So I’m just glad to know they are here.

12) When should you investigate a strange noise in your basement?

No basement.

13) How do you know if an abandoned building is safe to visit?

I don’t, so I wouldn’t visit it unless someone invited me to.

14) How do you decide whether to solve a problem as a team, or split up and go it alone?

Depends on what the problem is.  Nine time out of ten, I’d rather go it alone.

15) Where do you store your knives and where would you look if one was missing?

We have magnetic strips that attach to the refrigerator and the knives are attached to that.  If one is missing, it’s probably in the dishwasher.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

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