Did You Know?

When you switch to the new Blogger, your email address disappears and you show up in the email copy of the comments as "soandso@anonymous blogger" (or something like that) instead of "soandso@your email.com". That's fine if you don't want me to have your email address but I have most of yours already.

In order to reply, I have to find your email address, erase the "anonymous" in the "reply" part of the email, and copy and paste the email address in.

To fix it (if you want to).

Go into your Profile
It gives you options - check the show email address box
Save changes.

Your email address will never show up in the comments; only in the email copy.

I just fixed mine. Didn't know it needed fixing until a couple of friends mentioned it. Thanks to friend Emma at Fueled by Coffee for the heads up. It would never have occurred to me to look in the Profile.

It's around 10 on Sunday morning and it's raining with more expected. The girls are all lazing around except for Rochelle who is really lazing around. She's still asleep. So is Ray. Rebecca is about to make blueberry chocolate muffins (from a box). She tried blueberry yesterday and somehow ended up with far too much liquid. I suggested converting them to pancakes but we finally settled for adding a little self-rising flour. They turned out fine - just a little "wetter" than your usual muffin. I'm quite creative when if comes to salvaging cooking disasters. I've had lots of practice. This time around I made sure she understood the fractions.

Yesterday, she managed to use 3 wire whisks, one egg beater, and two bowls for one package of muffin mix. Today, I set out the utensils for her under pretext of "helping".

And me? I'm doing laundry including two pair of filthy shoes that somehow have to be in shape for school tomorrow. I bought a couple more pair of slipper socks for Elcie. Her feet are almost healed and I want to keep them that way until I can figure out a shoe that won't rub the tops of her toes raw.

My friend, Wandering Dave, has started his cross country journey. He traveled from here (Merced, CA) to Lodi (without getting stuck but did have a slight, no injury accident when another car sideswiped him), then to Auburn, and by now should be in Reno. (He is, I just checked). From there he'll head to the Pacific Northwest and then I think Alberta. I know he'd welcome comments on the blog which will lead you to his Forum, Podcast, etc. He and his son put a lot of time and effort into setting it up.

Yesterday was beautiful and some of our fruit trees have now joined the almonds in blooming (along with several magnolias). I never knew the magnolia grew this far north until I moved here. They're all over town. Our daffodils should be poking their heads up soon and spring will be here. I took Elcie and Rebecca shopping with me while Rochelle was at the park with friends and then to the cafe for a treat.

My online friend Diane and I were just reminiscing about barbecue. I'd fixed some for dinner last night and there's plenty left over for today. It got me to wondering about a hole in the wall place in Jonesboro, AR where I lived for several years in the 70's. It had the best barbecue I've ever tasted. We used to buy it by the pint (or quart sometimes) along with the buns and coleslaw to go with. We put the coleslaw on top of the "loose meat" pork barbecue. I don't know if anyone outside of Arkansas does that but it's good. It works on a Reuben, why not on barbecue? Diane and her sisters, Donna and Cecil, still live very close to there and I asked them if it was still around. It is and it's expanded to several locations. Good for them. I like to see a family business succeed in the midst of all the franchises. It's possible to drive from one end of the country to the other these days, never leave the freeway and never stop in a privately owned restaurant. I think we lost something that can never be replaced. Or maybe I'm getting old and cranky. I don't long for the days of the washboard, believe me, but I miss the Burma Shave signs. Anyone except me remember them? Four signs, always poetry of sorts, with Burma Shave on the final sign. The kids of my generation were easily amused on car trips and we loved them.

Train approaching
Whistle squealing
Pause, avoid that rundown feeling
Burma Shave

or

Spring Is Here
The Grass Has Riz
Where Last Year's Careless Drivers Is.
Burma Shave.

Aren't you glad those are the only two I still remember?

For any of you who don't know Diane, she writes a family blog full of cooking, pictures, and lots of love. She has to be one of the kindest, gentlest, people I've met online and I've met many wonderful people. She'll be a first time granny soon. Her sisters are great too and both are bloggers. I won't post all the links but if you get to Diane's blog, I'm pretty sure she has links to the others.

Arkansas had a series of tornados over the last couple of days. I know her family is okay and I hope so is everyone else. It's tornado alley there. I remember well, having been in one of them in 1973.

I think Rebecca may have forgotten the muffins. Perhaps I should either find her or check to see if smoke is billowing from the kitchen?

She arrived in the kitchen just as I was opening the oven door and was appalled that I thought she'd forget. Silly me. They still need about five more minutes but they smell wonderful. Nothing worse than an appalled Rebecca.

Carol is about the same but hasn't been readmitted to the hospital which means her fever is either gone or low enough to not be a worry. We weren't sure what would happen. Ray's doing okay, no more falls so far.

The muffins are safely out of the oven and look delicious.

Anyhow, I promised Elcie a game of cards. She's doing crossword puzzles while tapping her fingers on the table and saying "are you done yet". I guess I'm done, at least for now.

Thanks for all the comments and the love. It should be a quiet day if I can get away from Elcie and the card table. Perhaps I can get around to catching up with my friends.

Take care everyone.