Computer Crash

To any visitors I have left. My friend is trying to fix it again. I'll be back with pictures, etc. when I can.

Okay - it's letting me edit again.

Here are the pictures of the trip. If you can't see them (hi Naomi) let me know and I'll try it with email. You can click and enlarge a little but they're still small.

Visit With Girls Today

Everything went well, they loved their presents, had Valentines, candy, and an artificial rose in a vase for me. Lots of hugs all around.

Rebecca is now taller than I. Or I'm shrinking. Or both.

I'll be back but I wanted to get the pictures up. I know they're tiny, but if you left click on the first image (or maybe any of them), it will bring up the entire collage.

Ray - Looking Good - February 2008

I did this to test my Picasa 2. Not a bad picture though. It's almost a smile.

I changed my previous caption when one of my visitors thought he had died. Once I read what I'd written, I can see where she got that idea.

I had said Ray - February 2008.



See previous post for Valentine greeting.

Happy Valentine' s Day.

Yes, I know I'm a day early for most of you. For my many friends on the other side of the date line, however, I'm right on time.

P. S.

Hey there Alice and thanks for signing the guest book.

You moved to Worcester?

Key Lime Pie (ala Jennifer)

My online friend, Jennifer Graf Groneberg, is one busy lady.

She has three young sons, including a set of twins. The older twin (middle child) was diagnosed with Down Syndrome and much of her beautiful writing, both on her personal blog and at Parent Dish, concerns her life with her children. She has the loveliest spirit and reading her posts fills me with joy.

While doing all that, she's recently moved to an older style house, complete with a Chambers stove. We've had some interesting email conversations back and forth about the stove since I used to cook on one many years ago. Rachel Ray's stove is a Chambers.

Anyhow, one of her recent posts included a recipe for Key Lime Pie. With her permission, I'm sharing it here (see the link to her blog in the first paragraph). I liked this recipe because it's simple and even I don't think I could mess it up.

Note: The link to her blog is her name. I should have been more specific.

In other news, I picked up some presents for the girls today in the hopes of seeing them this Thursday. Elcie will have books on Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, and Marian Anderson. Rochelle has two decks of cards and a book of magic trick to play with them. For Rebecca, I found a nice origami kit. I know she can do the cranes and hope she'll enjoy learning more. And they'll have a small box of Godiva chocolate to pass around to all for Valentine's Day.

We're having lovely, sunny, weather except for some early morning fog. Ray & I defrosted and inventories our outside (because there is no room in the house) freezer after I came home from a little grocery shopping, coffee drinking, etc. It was long overdue but the weather was just too cold and wet to get out there and become even colder and wetter. Didn't take long with two of us and now I have an idea what's in there. I'm making a spread sheet of the contents and will keep up with it, I promise.

I have a couple of "joke" posts under this one for any who haven't seen them.

Thanks for the comments. I've finally caught up with all of you I think although I may have been a lurker on a few. My computer is running beautifully and now I know why some things weren't working before. It was on its last legs.

Take care everyone.

Any Other Senior Citizens Out There?

Thanks to my friends Worried American and Gadfly for this one.

I'll be back later with a yummy recipe. If I don't forget, that is.

Joke Time

This is especially for my Australian friends but I hope the rest of you will enjoy it as well.

Not Exactly a Scam But --

My online friend, Foster Abba, had a frightening encounter with a pair of door to door salespersons the other day. You can read about it by following the above to her "home school" blog.

These days, we can't open our mail, we must beware of text messaging and our phones, and, for heaven's sake, let's not answer your door unless we know who's on the other side. I'm not fond of dealing with traveling salespersons but this is the first time I'd realized they could be dangerous as well as pesky.

I made connections with friend Dave and his 100 year old friend for coffee this afternoon. He's (Dave, not the 100 year old friend) back safe and sound, if a little exhausted, after his year long travels around the USA and the lower part of Canada. While I was out, Ray decided to mow the lawn. He said he did a little, rested, did a little more, etc. He did a lovely job (electric mower - I would have thrown a huge fit if he'd done it any other way). Now he's talking about planting a rose bush for me and I've been thinking about setting out a few bulbs. I'm no gardener but possibly I can keep from killing a daffodil or two. I might even think about a cherry tomato plant. We love them. Right now, all I have growing is mint.

The girls talked to their mom last night. They were disappointed about missing our meeting but are already excited about next week. I'll have pictures for them of the house, us, and some of their old friends as well as some Valentine's Day treats.

Hope all of you are enjoying your weekend.

Car 54, Where Are You?

When I was finally able to access my email, the message in the title, sent by one of my newer online friends, was awaiting me. For those of you who don't know, "Car 54", was an American situation comedy (in black and white). Lucy and I are truly dating ourselves (although maybe she caught up with it in reruns somewhere). She sent it and I knew exactly what she was referring to.

Anyhow, "Car 54" (aka granny) was bemoaning the loss of my hard drive which crashed (long story) early yesterday morning. John, a friend of mine who I met through Free Cycle here, came over, replaced it with a spare that he had, and while he was at it presented me with a new monitor along with installing a good firewall and anti-spyware program.

That's the short version of my absence lately. The whole computer thing was a little more complicated but bottom line - no hard drive until a couple of hours ago.

What would we do without our friends?

I'm almost afraid to check Bloglines to see how many posts are stacked up. Maybe tomorrow I can get to some of them. There are a few I'll check tonight though.

I was supposed to see the girls today but arrived to find the visit had been postponed until next week. Darn it but I'll have something to look forward to until next Thursday.

For those of you interested in what I've been serving for dinner, yesterday was lasagna (invited son Tim in exchange for his putting together two bookcases) and today was leftovers from yesterday. (I did actually cook breakfast today but much of yesterday and part of today was spent trying to figure out what was wrong with this infernal machine. My friend finally took my tower home with him and that was when he discovered the hard drive was fried.) Tomorrow, who knows but I'm thinking about some kind of easy chicken and noodle thing. Maybe teriyaki with the special noodles?

Oh yes, and I have all our books, videos, etc. now neatly arranged on the shelves and my tiny computer/music/reading/tv room is in much better order. It was beginning to resemble a closet.

Anyhow, this is brief. It's late, I was up very early, and I'm "tard" as friend Diane would say.

Please keep the folks in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama in your thoughts and prayers. I've experienced tornado devastation firsthand and it's terrifying. Other parts of the country are having a rough go with their weather as well - excessive snow, flooding, etc.

Thanks to everyone for the comments. Take care and have a good weekend.