I didn't take a picture and I'm sorry now.
When Ned was at Costco, he saw a box of shrimp with sauce and bought it for Walt and me. It was wonderful. First time I've had all the shrimp I wanted...and leftovers for lunch the next day!!
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
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| My father made the stable when I was a kid. After all t he figures broke, Jeri made these new ones. I always feel very special when this goes up. |
Throughout the evening, we all worked on getting it decorated. I started by putting n the memorial "ornaments," two dog collars (I can't even remember now which dogs they are from!), the black leather jacket for David and the smiley face necklace from Paul that I was going to put in his grave but instead use as a Christmas decoration. Ned put on our first "memorial" ornament, which is our dog Seymour's tennis ball, which I made into a round ornament.
Then throughout the evening, everybody worked at getting some ornaments on the tree, so that by the time Survivor was over, we had a decorated tree.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
I'm turning into a regular social butterfly.
We went out for dinner on the day after Thanksgiving, I had lunch out this morning and we're going to lunch at Fenton's on Friday.
Actually my lunch with Kathleen was supposed to happen last week, but she had to cancel, so we met at the Black Bear Diner this afternoon. We have stopped sitting in the comfortable booth we have sat in for years because neither of us can get out of the booth any more, but we have a nice table with a view out to the street. I'm never sure why Kathleen orders lunch because she rarely eats anything and takes it home in a box. I, on the other hand, eat everything, though I have to admit that my eggs Benedict today wasn't as good as I expected. I think I'll go for something else next time.
We stayed for over an hour and a half, covering everything from #45 to our kids to holidays to television and everything else we could think of. At one point I thought that the problem with being the hermit I have become is that I have forgotten how to do chit chat. But Kathleen has a busy life and was able to keep t he conversation going, and the long we chatted, the more my "chit chat" vibes came back and I was able to participate on my own.
As we got up to leave, me with my walker and her with her cane, I realized what old ladies we have become. Both of us bent over, walking slowly to the parking lot and then trying to get my walker in her car (which has two other walkers in it already). I'm wondering how many more lunches like this we are going to be able to have.
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Plans are starting to be made for Christmas. Ned got up our little artificial tree today and I guess we will get it decorated in the next couple of days. He also brought out the wrapping paper so I can start wrapping gifts and get them off of my floor. Sure wish the gift I am most excited about will be delivered soon!
I've thought about making Christmas cookies, but have been trying to figure out who I will give them to and realize that I will probably eat most of them, so just as well I don't do that, though it doesn't seem like "Christmas" without my making Christmas cookies.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
I forgot to time myself when I made the advent calendar puzzle yesterday. It took 16 minutes for the first puzzle I timed...and only nine minutes for today's. I have to admit I'm having great fun with it, but feeling bad that I seem to be doing it all and not giving Ned a chance to do one.
I was going to get letters written today, but I "accidentally" discovered a folder that had a photo on it that I have been looking for. The folder not only had that photo but 300 folders of photos and I have spent pretty much the whole afternoon going back and looking at photos. My whole life in this one folder.
There were wonderful pictures of my cousin Peach's daughter's wedding, to a guy she later divorced, and then two more guys after that!
There were pictures from every year of cousins day, starting with March 2007
There were lots of pictures of Walt's mother's funeral.
Lunch with my mother on my 69th birthday
A great picture of Walt trying to give our dog Mutt a bath in 1967
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It must be December.
I watched Elf and Miracle on 34th street (the original) last night. Now I'm looking for White Christmas. There aren't a lot of movies that I watch each December. I enjoyed Christmas Princess that I watched a couple of years ago because it had Sam Heughan in it.
There are so many Christmas Story movies around, not only the original story in many forms with many actors playing Scrooge, but plots based on the Dickens story. There is always a "bah humbug" character (I think my favorite was Maureen O'Hara), an employee who is being harassed, a little kid in trouble and various ways of converting the bah humbug character. Some of those movies are good, some are downright terrible. But it's interesting to see how they manage to use the basic Dickens plot to create a new story.
My Christmas shopping is finished. I knew I was going to do everything on line and ordered fairly early to avoid December mail problems (I'm getting pen pal letters that are taking a week or more to be delivered!). I'm pleased with the things I've ordered, one thing especially I am so excited to have opened. I won't say for whom but it's my favorite gift this year. There are only a couple of things I've ordered that haven't been delivered yet, so I'm done. I can start wrapping!
I usually have my Christmas letter out by right after Thanksgiving, but I didn't get it written until late (hard to write a letter when there is so little to write about) and Jeri is putting it in pdf format for me, so it probably won't be mailed for a week or so. I have to find my Christmas list.
I've sent the annual Jacqui Lawson advent calendar to the girls, which I do every year, and I am working the advent calendar puzzle Jeri sent, which is fun, though it only takes 15-20 minutes to work each day's puzzle, so we don't have the whole day to look at pieces and try to fit them together.
I have sent off two of the journals I was working on and am now doing a "guided journal" where there is a list of what should be on each of 30 pages. The Photo of the Day is one of my most interesting artistic creations. I found some grass paper and someone had sent me some green ribbon, so I decided to make this picture, using stickers for the flowers. I'm really tickled with it. (trying to get ribbon glued to paper is an interesting project.)
Ned is getting ready to get our artificial tree set up. It is small and won't take up much room, but it will give the house more of a "Christmas" feel.
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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: Rollin' Stone (1958)
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
1) The title comes from the proverb, "a rolling stone gathers no moss." What do you suppose that proverb is trying to teach us?
I suppose if you move from place to place, you will never get many friends or possessions.
2) The lyrics warn us not to be lazy stay-at-homes but to go out and learn about the world around us. Tell us about a place you haven't visited yet but would like to.
I have always wanted to visit an African country where I can see wild animals in their homes. Too late for that now.
3) Karen and Cubby were Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club, a TV show which ran from 1955 to 1959. Then, from 1962 to 1967, local TV stations reran it in syndication. In 1989, there was a Mickey Mouse Club reboot, which launched the careers of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilara. So The Mickey Mouse Club has entertained generations of kids. What shows did you enjoy as a child?
I did watch The Mickey Mouse Club, also Lassie and Howdy Doody, RinTinTin, Time for Beany, and Romper Room (which I was on once).
4) Karen was Karen Pendleton, among the youngest of the original Mousketeers. Producers discovered her at a local dancing school. Have you ever taken dance lessons?
I desperately wanted to take ballet when they started teaching it at my grammar school, but my mother told me I was too fat. I did take one semester of social dancing at UC Berkeley and enjoyed that.
5) When The Mickey Mouse Club ended, Karen left show business. She went to public school, graduated, got married, and had a daughter. When she was in her 30s, she was involved in a car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Still, she went back to college, earning first her Bachelor's and then Master's degrees in psychology. Have you considered continuing your education? What subject would you pursue?
I have, over the years, thought about continuing college (dropped out after a year), but definitely not in a long time. I was a French major and it would be nice to major in that again, though I can't think of a single reason why I would need to major in French!
6) Cubby is Cubby O'Brien, a drum prodigy who began playing professionally when he was just 8 years old. After the Mickey Mouse Club he went on to The Lawerence Welk Show. As he entered his teens, he prioritized school over TV. He later returned to television as musician on The Carol Burnett Show. He also performed in concert behind The Carpenters. Do you have a favorite Carpenters song?
I don't think I have a "favorite." I've enjoyed them whenever I hear them and am most familiar with their Christmas music. She was an amazing vocalist. Such a terrible shame that she died so young.
7) In 1958, when kids were watching the original Mickey Mouse Club during the day, adults were watching Westerns. The most popular TV shows of that year included Gunsmoke, Wagon Train and The Rifleman. Have you ever fantasized about life as a cowboy/cowgirl?
I never fantasized about being a COWGIRL, but I fantasized for years about doing something with horses.
8) Also in 1958, Dwight Eisenhower became the first President to appear on color TV. Not many Americans saw him in color, though. It wasn't until 1972 that color TVs outsold black-and-white sets. Did you ever own a black-and-white TV?
We got our first set in 1953...I don't think there were color TVs then. Walt and I never got a color TV until a f ew years after we were married (in 1965). I don't remember which year, but I know all the kids first watched TV on a b/w set.
9) Random question -- Did you pass your driver's license test on the first try?
Yes! My father was more strict with me than they were at the DMV. I got my license in San Francisco and they didn't have me drive on a single hill, which was really stupid! (We lived on a steep hill and my father made me learn how to parallel park, in a stick shift, on the hill before I could get my license)
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
I found this picture yesterday and wanted to post it. How long ago was that??? I'm slowly trying to re-learn everything I used to know...
