How's Your Spelling?

Your Spelling is Perfect

You got 10/10 correct. Your spelling is excellent. You also have a great memory and eye for detail.

How's Your Spelling?

I admit I guessed at one of the words and I was glad it was multiple choice - I didn't have to actually spell them. I always have problems with the word mispellmisspell.

Thanks to "J" at Thinking About for this one.

We have our first rosebud on one of the climbers. Had to transplant the small bush; I don't think it was getting enough sun underneath my window. I hope we got to it in time. It was looking rather forlorn. The tomato plants are growing - I'm still waiting for the first tomato.

The Easter dinner went off without a hitch except I cooked far too much food, even allowing for the amount my son can put away all by himself. Tomorrow I'll make spread/salad out of some of the ham and freeze the rest until later.

To those who left comments about the "menu" and the amount of work, much of the food came from boxes and cans this time rather than scratch. I didn't have the time, energy, or ingredients on hand to do a lot of last minute preparation. My sweet potato casserole is better than Betty Crocker's (even after I doctored it up) but it was okay. The music did help although I decided Beethoven (Emperor Concerto) might be a little much.

Tim and I met for coffee earlier today; his treat since he wasn't working. I came home to a phone call from the Social Worker. She was in the area with the girls. They stopped by for a few minutes so I was able to give them some of the things they'd asked about. It was so good to see them and I think it was good for them to see Ray and our little house. We keep telling them we're fine but better they could see for themselves. It was one of the best surprises we've had in a long time.

Our weather continues to be lovely. The forecast calls for rain this weekend but that's normal for March and April. We're far more fortunate than much of the country which is still digging out from blizzards and floods.

Bloglines is still acting up and so is Blogger, at least for me. I think I've gotten around to most of you but it's difficult to tell who has new posts and who doesn't. Blogger is being stubborn about comments sometimes but at least I can keep up with what you're doing.

For anyone out there who is also a Facebook friend. I'm not ignoring you. I lost my password in the great computer crash. I'll get a new one - just keep forgetting to do it. Meantime, thanks for thinking of me with the Superpokes, etc.

Other than that, not much is new. I'm waiting for baseball season to start. The American League played their first game today from Tokyo (started at 3:00 a.m. our time) but the Giants don't open until next Monday.

Take care everyone and thanks for the visits.

The Best Laid Plans, etc.

My friend emailed me last night that he and his family have the flu. No barbecue for us. Hope they're feeling better soon. It's much more of a bummer for them than for us.

Here's the comment I left for Diane on her Sunday Dinner post:

Our plans fell through (friends have the flu) so I'm scrambling to get a late dinner on the table. Luckily I have a canned ham and boxes and cans of stuff since I have no time to prepare much from scratch, do laundry, mop the floor, take a shower, - whew!! Oh, and put on clean clothes - that might be appropriate. I invited Tim - he's working but he'll come by around six.

So - ham, sweet potato casserole, scalloped potatoes au gratin, deviled eggs, Bush's baked beans, three bean salad, honey glazed carrots, sourdough bread, and banana pudding.

I didn't even have to go the store.

Wish me luck - I'm going to need it.

Ray just left for church and I'm taking ten minutes to sit down while the eggs are cooling. I put on a CD - Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 and Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor. If that doesn't keep me enthused, I'll switch over to Beethoven - or perhaps Sousa marches.

Happy Easter everyone.

Happy Easter

I've been a social butterfly this week. The weather has been lovely and, except for the remnants of a cold, we're both feeling well.

Both my coffee dates are back in town (or were). Wandering Dave returned (as I think I mentioned before) from his year long odyssey through the USA and lower Canada. Janet came safely home from Israel. We met on Tuesday morning and things seem more normal with both of them around. Now Janet has left again to watch whales off Baja. We had lunch (Thai food and quite good) the day she left to fly south. She'll be in something that looks like an oversized rowboat in a lagoon and roughing it at a camp site the rest of the time. I do admire her energy.

Tim and I played cards with our friends on Wednesday and I took part in a candlelit vigil that same evening. Yesterday I did a little shopping (we were almost out of fresh fruit) and stopped off for coffee before heading back home to cook Ray his beloved liver and onions.

And, speaking of liver, I've been cooking it for years even though it's about number 3 on my list of least favorites. This time, I googled recipes and found one which suggested soaking the nasty stuff in milk for about an hour before cooking to remove any bitterness. It works and even I enjoyed it. Much simpler than blanching it before cooking which I'd always done.

The girls are doing well. Rebecca read off her grades to me. She passed everything.

I can't remember if I mentioned it but no cooking for me tomorrow. We're invited to a barbecue in the afternoon with the friend who fixed my computer and his wife, . They have a toddler and we'll be watching him hunt eggs. This is the first time in years we haven't had an egg coloring party at my house. It's been a year of firsts I could have done without. We're adjusting of course but it's still a little hard sometimes so it will be fun to watch Trenton discover the Easter Bunny.

Before I forget, a friend of mine (Ilona Peltz) has started a new blog (she already has several and I don't know how she keeps up). She'll have a grand opening this Monday (tomorrow) and has asked her friends to let everyone know.

It's called Mid-Century Modern Moms and is written by her and several other women around the age of fifty who are or have been raising older kids. She's one of the funnier writers around. They've already put together a few posts in anticipation of opening day. Here is their first, an introduction.

Bloglines is being stupid again. It highlights when there is no new post. I finally marked them all as read and now I'm starting over. Sometimes of course it goes the other direction and doesn't highlight at all. I suppose I should switch to google reader. I've heard good things about it.

I have an absolutely lazy day today. Maybe I can catch up with most of you.

I seem to be ending almost every post by saying something about the weather. Our mid-west is experiencing heavy flooding and some of it may be affecting our blogging friends back there. Please keep them all in your thoughts.

Thanks for the visits and take care everyone.

Oops - I Forgot to Give This a Title Yesterday

My friend Janet and I had lunch with our mutual friend and coffee date Wandering Dave at the senior gracious living facility where he resides. He's part of a Writing Club here and he'd invited the whole club along with me and Janet to hear and see his travelogue. It was fun, especially this takeoff of "My Generation" which led off his presentation.

Here's the original from the WHO

(if you don't like the WHO, you can skip this but the senior version might make more sense if you hear the original.)

And here's what Dave played for us. I was one of the younger attendees and it was great fun watching the reaction of the other guests. Proves we're not old until we think we are.

You Tube was being contrary so I hope the links work. If not, let me know.

We had raisin pie for desert. It was wonderful. Tasted like it had a layer of custard in the middle or maybe very light cheesecake. I'll see if I can find something like it online. If it sounds familiar to anyone, I'd enjoy the recipe.

Later on, Jim, Melissa, and Tim came over for an hour or so and played cards. Jim will go back to Southern California tomorrow. Right now it looks like his tour of duty will end in June and he may be job hunting. Who knows though what will happen between now and then. Certainly not I.

Elcie turned 15 on March 9. How do they grow up so fast. Happy Birthday (belated) to our Elcie.

Ray has been mentioning how much he'd like some roses around the yard so a couple of days ago I purchased two climbing bushes; one a medium pink, one bronze, and a shrub with small white roses. Also bought compost, rose feed and aphid stuff, an edger, and a digging implement. He planted the roses the same afternoon. Two are along our fence and the shrub is under my kitchen window. They don't look like much yet but I have high hopes. The other plants seem to be thriving (I don't get too close) and I'm looking forward to tomatoes and cucumbers later on.

That's about it from the San Joaquin valley for now. We've had lovely weather but it's supposed to drop down almost 20 degrees by weekend with the possibility of rain. Perhaps that will be the last gasp of winter and March will leave like a lamb.

Glad you enjoyed the blogging meme. My 72% was a little high. I misinterpreted one of the questions. I do not have five or more blogs. Diane holds the record so far with our regular visitors I think but I have a new visitor from Wisconsin (hi John) who scored higher yet.

Thanks for the visits and thanks as well to all who stopped by to visit my friend John on his new blog. I'm still trying to catch up with reading. Blogger has been giving me fits with access and this computer has a few minor glitches; especially with the script on the page running slower than my fingers. Disconcerting to say the least.

And I've been a little busy lately. Nothing major but the days seem to go by quickly and I'm not the insomniac I once was.

Take care everyone.

Am I Addicted?

According to this, there's no hope.

72%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Welcome New Blogger

You've heard me talk about my friend John, the one who keeps bailing me out with my computer?

I introduced him to the wonderful world of blogging and now he's started his own blog which will be full of computer tips. I'm sure he'd enjoy it if you'd drop in and say howdy.

In other news, I purchased 1 cherry tomato plant, 1 Roma tomato plant, 1 cucumber plant, and one Alyssium. I will never touch them again; not even to pick a tomato. Ray planted them on Monday; I'm staying as far away from them as possible. He was a landscaper/gardener in his distant past so the plants are probably safe around him. I, on the other hand, am the kiss of death. His next goal is a rosebush; probably along our fence.

The weather here is lovely. I played cards with Tim and our friends this afternoon and granddaughter Samantha joined us for a while It's always a pleasant surprise to run into our Sam. She's 18 now, working, and attending Community College.

Anyhow, I came home to Ray cooking dinner for the two of us. Another pleasant surprise. Every day he seems to feel better. He seldom needs his oxygen during the day although that may change with more pollen in the air. He smiles and jokes which he hadn't done much of the past few years.

Thanks for the comments and emails and take care everyone.

What a Week!!

First I fried my entire computer and yesterday I killed my cell phone. However, it's spotless. Dead but clean. I tossed my clothes in the washer and forgot to check my pockets. Guess what was in there. My friend John (the computer genius) was able to dry the phone and get it running but meantime the LCD melted. It doesn't help that there is no longer a screen.

Update: It doesn't actually work. It will ring and people can here me but I can't hear them. I do have a landline now; the number is at the bottom of my emails. If you want it, let me know.)

I'll replace the cell today. I'm not comfortable leaving unless Ray has a way to contact me (or I him for that matter).

I have a draft with pictures of Tim's and my trip to see Jesus Christ Superstar but Blogger isn't letting me edit at the moment. (Update - I was able to edit and the post should be a couple of posts down after my "crashed" post. I didn't add much - just hit post before something else went wrong.) The pictures are there and I'll try again later. Meantime, I'll just say we had a wonderful time. Loved the production. We cut our trip a little short because of the expected bad weather. Skipped San Francisco and came straight back on last Saturday morning. I just had a bad feeling about being caught downtown in the city with high winds and flood warnings. Tim thinks I'm a wimp but he was okay about me asking to change our train tickets and come straight back.

Anyhow, the computer. It must have been some kind of surge. It tripped the breaker in this room and when I tried to turn the computer back on, I had nothing. It destroyed the tower and everything that goes with it and even the mouse. Fortunately, my friend John came through for me once again with a tower he had at home. He took everything with him yesterday and brought it back today. I had to buy a new hard disc but other than that everything is working. I still have to fix a few things but not much.

I had it plugged into a good surge protector so I don't understand it at all.

He said he was going to leave a comment about the dust inside the tower. In my defense, I didn't know I could open it to clean it. Now I know. Okay John, now you don't have to tell everyone what a slob I am. I did it for you.

In other news, there isn't much. I've talked to the girls several times. They're doing well. I'm not sure when we'll have another visit but hopefully soon.

We've had some beautiful spring days but are expecting rain today or tomorrow. I'm going to run out in a little while and try to do a little shopping.

Oh, Ray is now able to mow the yard - a little at a time but it gets done. The yellow flowers (weeds) I was talking about in an earlier post are mustard according to a friend of mine and they're everywhere. He mowed some of them down but I bet they'll be back.

Our fruit and almond trees are blossoming. I had a picture for you but it's on the post I couldn't edit along with the pictures of our trip. We have one main street here that has the flowering trees for several blocks. Beautiful and the first sign of spring.

Merced is having a bicycle race today. It's evidently quite well known - people come from all over the world to participate and much of downtown is blocked off.

Don't know if I mentioned son Jim may be back on the Iraq list. His wife and I are crossing our fingers.

Thanks to all for the comments and well wishes. I didn't have any computer access before Wednesday (when I was at a friend's house) so not much I could do about the silence. I know many of you were worried and if I'd been thinking I would have had Tim write something.

I must have 500 posts to read from all of you so if I don't comment, please know I'm at least trying to read. I'll be back with pictures when I figure out what I'm doing.

We're Back!!!

My friend is here right now putting it all back together.

Talk to you later.