I'm back

Many comments between the Carnival and the silly computer cleaning poem. Thanks to all.

We have two new visitors. PI lives in the United Kingdom, didn't give her age (not that I would expect her to), but from reading her blog, she and I are of the same generation. Good, another granny. She has just begun blogging and is writing about her life growing up during WW II. I remember some of it as well but it was very different and much more frightening on her side of the Atlantic.

Midori is originally (I think) from the British Isles and now lives in Japan. She has an adorable 8 month old son and lots of photos.

Welcome to both of you.

I went back through the posts because I couldn't remember if I mentioned Janice, my almost next door neighbor from Madera, CA, about 30 miles south of Merced. I remember saying this at some point but better to introduce her twice than not at all. She's already on the blog roll.

Rebecca made it back to school today and seems to be over the worst of the strep throat. She had a miserable week. She hasn't lost the dark circles under her eyes but she's no longer writing notes to us. She can talk. We may catch up her classwork by June or so.

We all made it to church yesterday and Jack in the Box afterward. First treat for the girls in a while and they didn't know about it until we pulled into the parking lot. Treat for me as well. It's not gourmet cuisine but I will never believe a french fry from time to time will ruin them. At least their meals come with applesauce and we all know catsup is a vegetable.

I spent Sunday from early afternoon to almost nine at night working on the Carnival. Of course there were a few breaks - life does go on. I started out ready to throw a rock through the monitor and ended up enjoying it. If nothing else, xpatriatedtexan and I have become extremely well acquainted. I'm sure he felt like throwing a rock through his monitor as well but is too much the gentleman to say so. It was indeed a collaboration.

And - I have finally learned to place a link in the middle of a sentence. It was my first experience with the dreaded html. On the first couple of articles it took me two or three tries to get the code right. By around six o'clock I hardly had to look at my cheat sheet. Now, if I can still remember how to do it tomorrow ...

I forgot to mention we were without hot water for the weekend. Our bathtub faucet sprung a horrid leak and the landlord's son couldn't finish up on Friday. Naturally, it's always the hot, never the cold, that's the culprit. We heated water for dishes and extremely shallow, quick baths. Brrr but at least we could stand to be in the same room with one another.

This morning the "real" plumber showed up early. Our tub is probably at least forty years old with pipes to match. He had to run all over town finding the right parts. Once he did, he had it fixed and back together in an hour. We all celebrated with hot baths and shampoos. Oh, and homemade clam chowder. It was a foggy, dank day and comfort food was called for once again.

Andrea suggests we post one blessing a day and sometimes I forget. Hot water is a blessing.

This afternoon, about 40 or so of us met with our Congressional Representative, Dennis Cardoza, to talk about issues concerning both the District and the nation. I wrote a separate post on isamericaburning. Our one hour meeting turned into two at his suggestion and we covered all the items we had given him in advance plus a few we hadn't.

We're a Democratic District (barely) in the heart of the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, surrounded by Republicans. He's a reasonable, moderate Democrat (no flaming liberal could be elected here, at least not yet), good on social issues and civil rights, and we agree on most issues. It's not necessary to agree on all.

At least we're doing something instead of sitting "whinging" to each other. I think that word came from madcap but I'm not sure. Remember, I'm the one who thought Tina was asking about computers when it was Granny Fiddler and also the one who can't remember if she introduced Janice. I'm stealing it for my own, no matter where it came from.

Not much about girls today. Probably because they all had a good day. You usually hear more about the not so good.

It's getting late and I'm beginning to fade. Talk to all of you later. Spell check still doesn't recognize "blog". I should start calling it a jou**al.