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! 

Morning Train (1981) 

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

1) In this song, Sheena Easton sings about her lover, who takes a train to and from work each day. When is the last time you took public transportation? Where did you go?
A couple of years ago, when I was still volunteering at the used book store.  Walt usually picked me up after work, but when he wasn't able to, I took the local bus home.

2) His workday begins at 9 and ends at 5. Do your days stick to a predictable schedule?
For someone who is retired, my days are surprisingly predictable, ending with dinner at exactly 6 p.m. (the time Ned serves dinner) followed by an evening watching TV and then sleep between 9 and 10.

3) In the evening she sings that they may go to a movie, a restaurant or slow dancing ... whatever she wants. Which of those would you choose?
Probably a restaurant.  We almost never go to restaurants, but did yesterday and it was great!

4) As a little girl, Sheena Easton performed at family gatherings, not just because she was talented but because she could be a bit of a ham. When you were a kid, were more often shy or outgoing?
Always shy.

5) In the late 1980s she was the spokeswoman for Bally's health clubs. Do you have a gym membership?
I believe we do.  We did many years ago and I think Walt still pays into it, but neither of us has been to the gym in many years.

6) In 1987 she played Sonny Crockett's love interest on Miami Vice. Were you a fan of the show?
Never saw it.

7) This weekend is a good reason to have a picnic or barbecue. The best-selling barbecue sauce flavors are sweet, spicy, and smoky. What's your favorite?
Sweet Baby Ray's.

8) Labor Day weekend may offer a golden opportunity for napping and sleeping in. Do you snore?
I don't know.  I sleep alone and nobody has ever told me I snore...but I might.

9) Labor Day traditionally marks the beginning of the fall. Will you be adding any new fall clothes to your wardrobe? 
I just ordered a Kamala Harris t-shirt.

Whew!

 When Ned left for his week=long vacation, he told me it was my job to finish the puzzle we've been working on forever.  It's a dog park puzzle and there are tons of little  things in it and somehow it has taken us forever to get it done.  His telling me to "finish it" was a joke, we both knew.

However, I've spent a lot of time on the puzzle and as of last night I was pretty close to finishing it.  I figured I'd leave the rest for Ned to finish.

But I woke up and decided to complete one corner of the puzzle and then over the next few hours, I'd stop working on it and then "just do a few more pieces," and a few hours before Ned and Marta got here, I finished the puzzle.  So glad it's done...and so eager to start another puzzle that is NOT a dog park puzzle!

The interesting thing about this puzzle is that it comes with two pictures...one is an 8-1/2 x 11 and another is poster size, which helps quite a bit finding the pieces.  BUT the poster size is quite different from the actual puzzle!  There are people and things in the poster that aren't in the puzzle.  I've never found that in a puzzle before.

dinner out!!!

 Ned was so good when he and Marta went away for a week's vacation.  He left all sorts of food that it will be easy to cook and did lots of other things around the house to make it easy, left phone numbers of his friends in town in case we needed something.  He also asked Tom and Jeri to call during the week to make sure we are OK.  And he reminded Walt to take me out to dinner one night.

I've been hankering for a hamburger and remembered how wonderful the mushroom burgers were at Burgers and Brew, so we went there last night.  I ordered the mushroom burger with onions and a side of beer battered onion rings.  Oh my word was it good!

I don't generally eat a lot for dinner, and this meal was so large I have enough left over for dinner tonight.

I was a little disappointed that Walt didn't order  the lamb burger...I was tempted to order that instead of the mushroom burger and figured if he ordered it I could at least taste it, but he managed to get them to leave off the onions on the mushroom burger and he had one too.

We almost never go out for a meal and  this was just wonderful!

Reading

Jeri and I finished the book we were reading, "The Elephant Keeper" and had our final discussion about it.  I was eager to have her call because the ending of the book was just strange and neither of us could figure out exactly what was going on.  I read several reviews on GoodReads and nobody else could figure out what was going on.  But I liked the book and now we have started a new one, by Fern Michaels, this one a mystery so it will be quite different from "The Elephant Keeper." 

I had a nice chat with Tom this week too.  I don't really talk with Tom all that often and don't really have much in common with him -- I thought -- but as we talked I found out that he is a big reader.  I knew his wife and the girls were both readers, but had no idea Tom reads.  He listens to audio books when he is biking and he has been going through all the classics, books like "Wuthering Heights," "East of Eden," books by Hemingway and  the Russians (we laughed about how all the Russian characters have two names).  It was a delight to chat with him about reading.  I thought only two of my kids -- Jeri and David -- were readers.

My zoo

 When we first started seeing squirrels in the yard, we fed them peanuts in the shell.  I would toss some peanuts out onto the patio and they would eat them, but the blue jays would also fly down and steal some away.  I was happy when Ned built a shelf in the bush next to the house, where we can put walnuts for the squirrels and where the birds apparently don't see them.

We have been feeding squirrels walnuts on this little shelf for a couple of years and I've been surprised that I almost never see blue jays any more,

Now we have a new squirrel, who started out as a baby, just having left the nest, and was learning how things go.  He was afraid if I came out to put nuts on the shelf, so I tossed a few nuts onto the patio.  In literally seconds, the blue jays were there eating them.  It's like they have been sitting in the trees watching for years hoping I'll toss nuts out again.

We also have a rat who runs by the back door and around the trunk of the tree with the nuts, looking to see if any nuts have fallen onto the ground.  Bubba pretty much leaves the squirrels alone, but he's started chasing the rat and barking forever because the rat hides on the ground, under things, rather than in a tree like the squirrels do.

Yesterday, the squirrel was begging for nuts and I took a handful and put them on the shelf.  As he does, he got scared and ran to another bush, but almost immediately the blue jays were in the tree eating the nuts.  All these years and the birds haven't noticed and now they are flying into the bush and eating the nuts again,  PLUS, the rat, whom I have never seen climb the tree, has figured out that there are nuts and he has started climbing the tree to get the nuts.

Today, I put out a handful of nuts and the birds were there right away, but the squirrel scared them and started eating the nuts when the rat also climbed up and I'm not sure who got the nuts, the squirrel or the rat.

I'm not happy having the rat around.  I don't mind having rat.  I don't want to kill him, but I'm afraid that he will be easy for Bubba to catch and I don't want Bubba catching a rat.  I'm also afraid that he will figure out how to get in the house via the dog door.  Ned catches mice at the place where he works and moves them out to the greenery nearby.  I'm hoping that when he gets home he'll be able to set up a trap that will catch the rat and that he can move him somewhere far away from houses.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

Damiana

I was able to make a second loan thru Kiva...concentrating on coffee this time!

Damiana's story

Damiana is 49 years old and lives with her son in the village of El Laurel, located in San Ignacio, Cajamarca, Peru. She has been farming coffee here for 20 years, which she sells at her local co-op.

Damiana has been with Norandino for 8 years and will use this loan to pay for labor to do manual weeding and to buy manure for her coffee plantation. 

Zorey

I've forgotten about Kiva, where I used to donate to people for many years.  Today, I'm donating to Zorey.  How can I not help someone who wants to have coffee with customers?

Zorey's story

The Coffee Boutique emerged from my genuine desire to elevate my business and blend my passion for coffee and pastries with the sale of jewelry and accessories. My name is Zorey from Añasco, Puerto Rico, and this is my story. In 2020, during the pandemic, I lost my job. Faced with uncertainty, frustration, and fear, I had to find the courage to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. During the lockdown, I saw that the most viable way to generate income and improve my family's quality of life was by leveraging social media for sales. One of my passions has always been jewelry making, and that's how my great adventure began. I reinvented myself and started seeing very positive results. Along the way, my family, friends, and neighbors began to support me and believe in my potential.

Since then, I have dedicated myself to sell jewelry and woman accessories, but now it's time to grow and combine my passions. This led me to transform ZK Jewelry & More into The Coffee Boutique. Now, we have a physical space where customers can pick up their orders, meet me, and enjoy coffee and others complements. I cherish the time I spend with my loved ones and friends, which is why I developed this space that allows me to merge my two passions into one concept. I envisioned a cozy place where women can come to relieve stress and recharge their batteries with other women—mothers, daughters, professionals, or anyone seeking peace. I first dreamed it, wrote it down, believed it, and declared it. Thus, my little corner of happiness, "The Coffee Boutique," was born. This place is designed for families but focused on women, offering a perfect spot for brunch with friends who can enjoy fine pastries, or can simply savor a great cup of coffee, where we also presented the opportunity for shopping in our jewelry and accessories area. We are located on Road #2, Intersection 417 in the Guanabano neighborhood in Aguada. On Saturday, June 15, we had our soft opening. We listened to our customers and identified areas for improvement regarding equipment and machinery that will allow us to provide a more efficient service and meet current and projected demand. My team and I felt the warm reception of our concept reaffirming our committed to continuing offering quality and excellence to achieve the success of this great dream.