Arrrgh!!!

As I traveled to my sister's in Indiana, I had a portable tape recorder with me. When something caught my eye, I made note of it. The drive was interesting.

Faces in trucks with neatly trimmed white beards. A LOT of guys in the rural area have decided that beards are "in," and it seems a lot of them happen to have white hair! There were one or two I would have liked to stop and chat with! *G*

Tonight, my quiilting bee meets. I'm just about ready for them. I have some of my Halloween decorations up, and candy corn to put out as treats. There are candles to be lit, and dishes to ready for dessert.

I really need to cut out some pieces for a pumpkin applique that I started the last time we met. THEY would have finished it that night....and I'm still futzing around with it a month later. I love the look of applique, I just don't like to do it, and all but one of this group are experts at applique! Just my luck.

The only problem is, I can't keep my head up. I was working in the office until almost one o'clock last night, and now the need to catch up on my sleep is overwhelming. If I get up and move around, I bet I can catch my second wind.

Blue Witch wrote at length last Friday about changes in the retirement rules in the UK ("More pensions" Friday, September 24). Once again, I have great empathy with her subject matter, especially since Dear Husband and I are much closer to that point in our lives.

I had so much to say to her about it, that I felt it would be more appropriate to write it here, and link to her comments.

For the past ten years or so, we have been receiving notices from the Social Security Administration telling how much we had paid into the system, and how much we would be likely to receive a month should we retire at 62, or perhaps 65. In the past couple of years they are now telling us what we would receive should we choose to wait to retire at 70!

The government never intended Social Security to be a complete retirement package. They have always talked up 401k retirement plans, and savings, and any prudent person has investments to augment those. Unfortunately, the stock market wiped out a lot of those investment gains, and those who were in for the long haul, are running out of time when it comes to rebuilding those funds.

At the same time, the Federal Government is realizing that the Baby Boomers are nearing retirement age, and they are beginning to worry that there won't be enough money to pay their claims. Their response: encourage them to work longer!

So....these notices show you how much MORE you would earn if you worked until you were 70. They don't tell you that you HAVE to work that long, but the graphics showing what you would earn at 62, 65 and 70 are pretty convincing.

There are several catches to this line of thinking. First, it's one thing to assume that I might continue to do paper work until I am 70. As long as I get my sleep, and I can see my monitor (Thank you for LARGE FONTS!!!), I could keep working. However, Dear Husband is an officer in a construction company. He is NOT going to be able to deal with the extremes of heat that Northern Illinois throws at us much longer. He might choose to take a job that pays a lot less than his present job, in order to stay inside more. So, Catch #1 is the physical ability to continue at your job.

The statistics the SSA sends us assume that we will continue to earn as much, or more, from now until we retire. It doesn't, perhaps can't, take into consideration changes in employment (Catch #2). And, in our experience, those our age who change jobs, tend not to move up in salary. We have friends our age who would be happy for a run of the mill job, let alone one with a golden parachute.

And....Catch #3....I seriously doubt that by the time I retire there will be one red cent left in the treasury to pay my Social Security. My Federal government sees fit to GIVE half a billion a week to five countries who are at the top of the list as recipients of our foreign aid: Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan and Columbia. I have NO idea how much more we pay to the rest of the world. It's a shame we are being taxed to support a world that doesn't like us, rather than providing health care for our own poor.

So, we're pretty uncomfortable about the idea of retiring. It will come one day, but I suspect it won't be soon, and it might be a lot later than we'd like.

Blue Witch....good luck revising your plans. I'd really like to know SOMEONE who retired by fifty!

I find it difficult to believe that in this day and age, books might be banned at the library. Last week, as I was traveling, I heard a discussion on the subject of banned books. Today is the last day of "Banned Book Week," so evidently there are still people out there who fear the printed word.

I visited the American Library Association site that lists the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books and checked out the list of books which have been banned from schools, school libraries and public libraries from 1990-2000. I found the names of famous authors on this list: Sendak, L'Engle, Auel, Dahl, Morrison, Blume, Twain, Angelou, Rowling, Atwood and more.

It appears there are trends in the subject matter of the challenged books. Anything having to do with sex, in any form, is frequently challenged. "Where's Waldo?" was challenged because in the Beach Scene, one mean little kid is about to throw a bucket of water on a sunbathing woman who has untied the top of her bikini. Books having anything to do with witchcraft or the occult have been challenged, most notably those by J.K. Rowling.

We had Chicken Dijon on Friday night. It turned out to be a wonderful recipe. Some clever cook decided to brush chicken breasts with Dijon mustard before coating them with breadcrumbs seasoned with Italian seasoning, Parmesan and black pepper. They were pan fried, but I think they could have been baked, and would have been just as juicy.

At any rate....we come to what I've been pondering this morning. Why do grocers package three half chicken breasts to a package? Doesn't that number seem odd to you?

We have four people who might be eating dinner, definitely three, with a possible fourth. So, when I buy chicken breasts, I have to buy two packages and then I have a whole chicken breast left over.

Yes, I COULD freeze that chicken for the next time I have to buy it, but it ticks me off that someone has decided that three is the magic number. I'm sure that there's a marketing principal at work, and I mind that I have no choice in the matter.

Why couldn't they package them in pairs as well as in threes? I know, I know...they're making more money selling them that way, but it really ticks me off. I'm tempted to go to the kind of market where I can buy them individually!

Wake up, grocers of America! Pay attention here! We want more control over the number of chicken breasts per package!!

This is the month when I do all sorts of tests. In October, I have an annual physical. They do a CBC and all sorts of attendant tests. I get a mammogram, and I check in with the dermatologist, the neurologist and either the dentist or the periodontist. It's a busy time, trying to get the appointments scheduled, and still see to my mother's needs and work.

Right now, I feel like a pin cushion!

Despite the holes, I think that it's good to have an annual checkup. If your parents have passed health concerns on to you, it never hurts to know where you stand, and get the jump on anything that might go wrong.

So....if you haven't made your appointments, do it NOW! Especially those mammograms, ladies! I know they are a wretched test, but it could save your life. So, buck up! Make the call.

I've been casting about, wondering what I wanted to write about. There's a lot on my mind, but most of it is trivial nest making, and it isn't the thing to inspire great posts.

I have to tip my hat to billy who can make a blog entry out of not having the time to blog. I teased him about his absence in the blog world lately, and I got a lovely letter, and then found he had blogged about visiting my blog. *G* I can use all the help I can get in terms of links, but he was linking to a blog that has been too darned quiet lately.

So...first, I want to say to billy.....I totally understand, hon. We all have other things that demand our time, and most of them rank higher in importance than our blogs (unfortunately). I'm sorry I made you feel bad with my comments. More to the point, I should have said I missed you, but I understood. (I'm still waiting for Dr. D's comment on your comment about packaging.)

Secondly, I want to THANK billy, for giving me something to write about in my blog! lol I have unabashedly stolen his idea and repeated it here. *G*
Maybe things will pick up here when gardening season ends. No....what am I thinking. We'll be headlong into the holidays by then! Well...maybe in the new year I'll find time to write.

Until then....be patient with me.

Isn't there a song in "My Fair Lady" that starts out that way? ...where Eliza's father is getting married and he's celebrating before he has to go to the church?

Well, in a few more hours it will be my birthday. I expect this one to pass quietly; this is not a milestone birthday. I generally don't care to go clothing shopping, but I may take some time to pick up some new clothes for this fall.
Dear Husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and beyond a few new quilting books, I didn't have any suggestions.

It's supposed to be rainy off and on tomorrow. The storm is on its way in now. I don't mind the rain, but I wish I had made better use of the good weather to get some yard work done. If the rain keeps everyone out of the stores while I shop, so much the better!

Soooooo....I'll just be off quietly celebrating over here.....

The time has come for the Arr!! to be hauled out for the season. Dear Husband is going to spend the night on the boat so that he can get an early start on Saturday morning. He wants to be at the front of the line at the crane, where they un-step the mast. Then, he can motor down the Chicago River to the boat yard, where the boat will be craned out onto the trailer.

Normally, boating season goes to October 15th, but we asked Dear Husband to join us on a visit to my sister and her family in Indiana next weekend. The boat yard announced the day the crane would be set to take down masts, so he didn't have a lot of choice about when the boat would come home. If he misses the crane on Saturday, he'll have to join a flotilla of sailboats going down river, which is a lot more work.

Flotillas gather so that they can all go through the bridges at the same time. The City of Chicago used to open a bridge for any sailboat that wanted to pass, but a number of years ago, Mayor Daley changed that practice. Now, the river fills up with sailboats waiting for the bridges to open. It can be dangerous when the river is clogged with small boats. They are obligated to yield the right of way to commercial vessels and government vessels. You have to give way to tour boats, tugs, and fire-fighting boats. So, if DH has the option to motor down the river ahead of the pack, that's his preference.

Saturday afternoon, he'll make it back to our corner of the world, and he will very carefully back the Arr!! up our driveway, and settle her in the north 40. He'll have to back up close to 300 feet, with a gentle bend about half way. Right at that spot, there are trees on either side of the drive. It's quite a process, getting it settled for the winter.

Over the next month he'll unload the perishables, and anything that won't winter over well on the boat. The bilges will have been emptied, and he'll pour a couple of gallons of cheap vodka in to winterize them. Maybe by Thanksgiving, I'll see him again. Home is the sailor, home from the sea.

Welcome home, Arr!!

It's an absolutely spectacular day! One of those perfect Fall days where the sky is a clear blue, and it's cool, but not cold. The sun warms you when you walk or work and everything feels RIGHT!

I dragged my mother to the Farmers Market this morning. I wanted to pick up gourds and pumpkins and corn to use as decorations, and we needed to drop a gift off. The man who sharpens knives refuses to let my mother pay for his services. He flirts with her as he pumps the treadle for his wheel, and she loves the attention. And this year, he sharpened my pruners and knives and wouldn't let ME pay him. So, I chose two bottles of my favorite wine, and wrapped them up, and added two jars of Mother's home made chili sauce. This will be the last time she sees him this year. He wanted the chance to wish her well for the winter, so I'm glad we went.

I stopped at McDonald's and got Mother settled with a cup of coffee while I went next door to have the car washed. Then, we went to a local nursery to pick up a bale of straw and play with their nine week old Australian cattle dog. What a sweet pup!

I plan to use the rest of the day to get some outside chores done. I want to repot a couple of things, and get a few last minute plants into the ground. It's a good day for it.

So, I hope you're having a wonderful weekend, too! Catch ya later!

We had an exceptional visit today with Cop Car and her Hunky Husband, Bogie's parents, and WichiDude's in-laws.

Cop Car called on Friday when they made it into the Chicago area, and we agreed that we would meet at one of our favorite restaurants for brunch. I gave them directions, and we discussed how much time they were likely to need, and we rang off. What we didn't think to do was to describe ourselves so that we would be able to recognize each other in a busy waiting area!

It didn't matter. I called HH's phone to see if I could catch them, and as I was turning around, here was Cop Car, ready to give me a hug, should I be the right person. We had a lovely meal, chatting and getting to know each other. I was told that I was unkind to walk her past two tables of dessert on the way back to our table. *G* After the meal, Cop Car rode home with us, and HH took our map, so he could join us later.

Not only did she bring me two red bud trees, but she graciously allowed me to show her just about every quilt in the house! That takes patience, and we swapped stories as I put out quilt after quilt. She's seen the almost-completed top that I talked about at the end of January. I'm working on the borders now, so it should be ready to be quilted soon.

Cop Car brought us gifts, among them a jar of Bogie's salsa. I was teasing about that at Bogie's blog, but we're glad to have it. We bird watched, and she tried to hear our chickadee's song, so that she could tell us what kind it was, but the birds were quiet just then.

We chatted away the afternoon, and then went to dinner at an Italian place. I have to be reminded now and then to let others have a chance to talk, so it was a good thing that dinner tasted great. Thanks for dinner, Cop Car and HH! We called it a night just about the time I started complaining about the political debates. They needed to find their way back to the motel for an early start in the morning.

Guys, I had a lovely time. You helped me stretch my birthday celebration over several days, and I really enjoyed your visit. We'll have to make a serious effort to head out your way so we can visit again.

Saturday, I did my morning errands, and then started some chores at home. I was pruning the dahlias along the front walk when Dear Husband drove up the driveway.

Remember....it was the day the Arr!! was to return home for the winter. I could hear the stakes rattle on the truck as he made his way up the drive. When I could see the nose of the truck, I knew something was wrong. I should have been seeing the rear of the boat, backing up the drive.

As he drew even with me, I asked if he was missing something. He nodded and went to park the truck. I was afraid he was going to tell me that the boat was sitting along the side of the tollway. (Scary thought.)

The Arr!! made it down the river, but it seems that our boatyard was not lifting boats out at that site on Saturday. They are building a new boatyard, and everyone was working at the new yard. So, the Arr!! is tied to a dock at the boatyard off the Chicago River. Dear Husband will have to go back in midweek to pick her up and bring her home.

Although the Arr!! is not my favorite entity, I'm glad to know that she wasn't sunk or rear ended by a semi-trailer. We'll have to celebrate her return later this week.

Yummmmmmmmm!!!!

I'm having lunch, and I need to thank Cop Car and HH for it! Usually the term "leftovers" has a terrible connotation to it, but that's not the case today. I'm eating Country Rigatoni. I was served so much last night that I brought at least half of it home, and I'm happy to tell you that this is one of those dishes that's even better the second day!

Thank you, both for a great dinner, and even better company!

I never talk about politics. I feel that you could elect any of the people who have run in the past few years, and they would, for the most part, be carbon copies of each other. I'm not sure why we even have a two party system. No candidate wants to make a statement that could loose him votes, so there's very little discussion or debate of solid issues. I'm astonished that the present candidates have agreed to have four debates. I'd like to see the list of requirements that had to be met before the debates could take place.

If you could create the candidate of your choice, what issues would he have to address? Here's a list of some topics that matter to voters:

Our presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia etc.
Homeland Security
The Economy
Affordable Health Insurance
Social Security
Pro Choice or Pro Life
Gay rights
Prayer in School, "God" in courtrooms and on money

What issues must your candidate support? Recently I heard a man say that he'd like the candidates to explain why we spend half a billion a week to support five other nations, when his family of six had NO health insurance.

Supporters of the war in Iraq have various reasons for us continuing to be a presence. Some want to see a democratic government installed, and others want to be sure that they can get the oil they need for business. Some want to prevent Iraq from being a stronghold for terrorism, and others want to free those who have been terrorized by their own government. For whatever reason, this is a HOT issue.

We will always be a nation divided on the subject of abortion. I fail to understand how someone Pro-Life can justify killing doctors who perform abortions. While I doubt that I would have ever been able to have an abortion, I strongly believe that a woman should have the right to determine what happens within her body. And, having said that, I'd work to prevent women from using abortion as birth control. I know, I'm conflicted on this issue, but I think of myself as Pro-Choice.

Gay Rights is another hot button. I'd like to know just how many gay people there are in the U.S. Either there is a lot of them, or they have just become very vocal about their treatment by the government, and I can't blame them wr wanting change. I don't understand how the government can refuse them the same services and benefits that heterosexual couples have. The constitution doesn't support the rules the government has put in place.

The DJ I listen to in the morning said that Homeland Security is most important. He feels that you have to be alive for any of the others to matter, so he ranks that as his most important choice.

I'm still trying to decide. I'd like to take bits and pieces of all the Presidents who have served during my life, and some who served before I was born and roll them together into the perfect candidate. I want someone who is honest, moral, strong in the face of adversity, a great diplomat, and good at foreign affairs. He or she would have to find a way to care for the poor in our own country, to educate anyone who wanted to go to school, and make health care affordable. He'd have to find a way to keep us safe from terrorists, without closing us off from the rest of the world. And he would have to resist the pull of power. "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton.

Unfortunately, the paragon of virtue I just described doesn't exist, so I have to choose from lesser candidates, and it means that I'll have to sift through the issues and decide which of them are most important to me. It's going to be another tough election.

Our exceptional Fall weather has broken at long last. We've been enjoying the color change and moderate temperatures for the past few days, and finally we are going to see some rainy weather.

The sky is gray and cloudy. We're not quite to the "overcast" stage yet, but they tell us it's coming.

I refuse to complain. We need the rain, and some of us need the solitude that a rainy day brings. If my mother could have her way, it would be 78 and sunny all the time. I like the occasional stormy day that draws the world in, and slows it down, and I like the snap of a cool Fall day.

I'm savoring the green just outside my office window. The magnolia has just begun it's change to a buttery yellow. You can see the lighter color interspersed amid the deeper green. The forsythia is still going strong, but the poison ivy climbing the tree further down the lawn has gone yellow.

We have a beautiful maple tree that we are loosing. The bark is split up the trunk, and either it has suffered from a lack of water, or from an infestation. It still has one branch showing it's fiery Fall plumage. This will be it's last Fall.

I hope that where ever you are, you are enjoying these days as much as I am. It's lovely out there.

Earlier, I told you that my birthday celebration had been very low-keyed. It was, but what I didn't know then was that it would go on for five days! *G*

Friday, the eighth, was my birthday. Since Dear Husband had to be away, I chose to have a lazy day. I left the office early and went shopping for some new sweaters. Since we didn't have to worry about a big dinner, Mother and I had BLT's and then I sewed on my quilt, and watched a movie and organized some shelves, and I talked with my sisters, as, one by one, they called to wish me a Happy Birthday. I know that sounds like a pretty poor celebration to most of you, but it was what I wanted to do!

Saturday, was more of the same, with a trip to the Farmer's Market thrown in. We got some yard work done, and had Minestrone for dinner. I missed exercise on Friday, so one of my exercise buddies called and sang "Happy Birthday!"

Sunday, Cop Car and HH came to visit, and we chatted the entire day away!

Monday, I had to go back to work, and it felt like business as usual, but there was one last HURRAH coming.

Tuesday, we have a standing date for dinner with one of my nieces and her two boys. We fix a more complex meal than usual, and sit at the table, and practice our manners and talk about the news of the week.

Yesterday, we'd returned late from an appointment and I had to rush to get a turkey breast ready to cook. At that, dinner wouldn't be much later than usual, around six. They arrived an hour early, complete with a bouquet of flowers, a yellow cake iced with chocolate fudge frosting (YUUUUUMMM!!!), and the most wonderful card I think I've ever received. It had a list of things an Aunt is...or an Aunt does. We talked about how difficult it was to find cards that said the right thing, and my niece told me that had she not found this card, she would have written all those same words down on her own. I'm so fortunate to have this girl in my life!

So, I've stretched my birthday out for five days, made new friends, visited with family, and had a lovely time. Thank you, to all who participated!

This is a view of the garden at our front door. The sidewalk is brick, and the verbena and ornamental grass must love the heat it retains, because this year they are trying to meet in the middle.

It won't be long before this will all be taken by frost, and I'll have to cut it back for the winter. The mats of verbena will last the longest. Lilies have already gone.

In the center of the picture, if you look closely, there are dahlias. We have Victoria Blue salvia, chrysanthemums, lavender, several kinds of ornamental grass, a Palace Purple huchera, one poor dying rose, LOADS of iris, coreopsis, vinca, day lilies and several other things I've planted that I can't identify! This garden is at it's best in late May, but it's not too shabby this Fall.

Closer to the door, there are a dozen pots of plants. I've encouraged my mother to take over the container gardening, so that she can keep her hand in as a gardener. I have a pot of herbs, and she has filled the rest with Million bells, snapdragons, coleus, sweet potato vines, small mums, petunias, straw flowers, geraniums and a dozen other plants.

Variety is the spice of life! We may not be elegantely coordinated, but we certainly enjoy the variety.

We're going traveling again. Dear Husband, and my Mother and I, will recreate my trip from three weeks ago. We're going to visit my youngest sister and her family for the weekend. Niece #1 is a freshman this year. Her high school marching band is in a competition on Saturday, and we hope to see them perform. Niece #2 turns fourteen in a few days, so we have a birthday celebration, as well.

We'll be off through the newly harvested fields, taking the back route to central Indiana. Luckily, #2 son is cat and house sitting, or the trip could be really odd. I can just see the cat pacing back and forth meoowing lemmie "OOOOwwwwwwwwwt." At least #2 son is better mannered!

I'll be back to catch up on blogs and find out what you've all been doing, later this weekend. I hope you have great weather!

Did I get it right? The title? I think that's Italian for "Soup."

At any rate, it seems that soup is on my mind. It could be that our chilly Fall days have something to do with that. Too bad it's supposed to be almost 70 by Friday, because I'm doing soup this week, anyway.

When I went to do the meal plans for this week, I decided that we needed to do a crock pot of "Pasta e fagioli." I have one of the recipes that strives to imitate the Pasta and Bean soup that Olive Garden serves. It's a great soup, but it makes enough soup for about forty people. I plan on palming some off on family. I could probably freeze half of it, but this is one soup I like served fresh.

Then, I was surfing for more recipes that are diabetic friendly, and came across "Spicy Seafood and Chicken Gumbo with Rice." This recipe is supposedly for just six servings, but it has a pound of shrimp, 4 oz of crab meat, 1 cup of cooked chicken and a pound of okra, among other things. I think there will be six very big servings, but I'm going to follow the recipe exactly, the first time. We'll have it for dinner (checking my watch)...today.

And, I've been meaning to make butternut squash soup for several weeks. The recipe I saved from a newspaper, years ago, has a roasted red pepper coulis that is swirled through the finished soup. I'm looking forward to trying this one, and I hope it becomes one of the staple soups in my repertoire.

My oldest sister and I were having lunch together for the first time in ages. They had "Navy Bean Soup" on the menu, and she ordered it, thinking it would be like my version. Unfortunately, it was a tomato-veggie soup with white beans. She was not impressed. I promised her that I would make a pot of it for her. I need a ham bone, or ham hocks, a pound of navy beans, onion, celery, a potato, bay leaf, thyme, a quart or two of water..... Maybe I better get started.

I have one more soup recipe to find. It seems to me that it would be a good idea to have a hot vegetable beef soup on hand on really cold days when Dear Husband gets home from battling the weather and work. It would tide him over until I can get dinner on the table, and it would give him one more serving of veggies. I want to find one that has a great beef broth, and a LOT of veggies in it. The heat alone should help to revive him, but I want him to enjoy the taste, too. If you have a great veggie soup recipe, let me know, won't you?

Well, we made it home safely. The weekend with my youngest sister and her family was a pleasure.

Friday, about 11:00, Mother, Dear Husband and I had lunch at Chili's and then started our drive to Central Indiana. We took a variation on the route that we've been using for the last 15 years or so, and were there half an hour earlier. The fields are not completely stripped clean, but the harvest is pretty far along. My mother enjoyed the view, and marveled again, and again, over the distance between the farm houses in that part of the world.

Friday evening we had a quiet night with the family. Sis made chili and we'd stopped at a local bakery and bought them out so that we would have "bread and butter" gifts. (Pun intended. *G*) We tried the cheese bread, a loaf of cinnamon bread and cinnamon buns for breakfast, a raspberry creme kuchen, and three pots of jam. (Note....we did NOT eat all of that! Some of it was shared with friends and some was frozen.) My sis made a carrot cake, so DH could have one piece, and not have to take the entire cake home. (That was part of his birthday present.) We gave Daughter #2 her birthday gift, so that she could share it with her friends. October is a busy birthday month for us.

Saturday, we had brunch at home and then went to see both of the girls in the Class C District Marching Band Competition. I have a lot to share on that in a later post, but I'm happy to say that their band is going on to the State competition this coming weekend.

It was a bitterly cold day. We took extra coats, gloves, a blanket, and cushions to sit on. The kids, especially the color guards, were inadequately covered, and it was windy, and starting to rain by the time the contest was over. They get a lot of credit for toughing it out under difficult circumstances.

The kids went with the band to dinner, and the adults had dinner out, too, NOT with the band!

Sunday morning, we had breakfast, and then packed up for the return trip home. I figured my sis and her husband had enough to do, so we didn't linger.
On the trip home, we fine-tuned the route once again, and made it home in four hours, despite a 15 minute delay at a McDonald's, getting iced tea. (We ran afoul of the church crowd.)

It was a good thing we came home early. Dear Husband put me to work right away. I had to type two proposals and do all the attendant paperwork. We had scheduled a visit on Monday with the CPA's assistant, so I was chained to the desk for the day. I needed to go to exercise, but there wasn't time for everything that needed to be done. I even put off grocery shopping!

I'm glad we went, and I'm glad we're back safely. I really enjoy this annual outting.

Last Friday I had my annual physical. Generally, I do a battery of tests once a year, and do my darndest to keep away from the doctor the rest of the year. I still have a couple of things to get checked out, and the dreaded mammogram to do, but the results have been reasonably good. The blood tests have come back better than I expected, and that's been heartening. I'm still waiting for the doc to realize that she forgot to ask me to pee in a cup!

For the first time, I complained about some hip troubles, and the doctor suggested that I need to so some floor stretching exercises. I like that approach. I'd rather start with the do it yourself solutions, instead of having pills pushed at me.

The old computer.

For the last six months or so, I've had two computers sitting on my desk in the living room. We kept the old office computer as a backup when we switched from Gateway to Dell. The Gateway runs on Windows 95 and is a dinosaur compared to the one I use now. I plan to save some of the files to disk, and then move them to the new personal computer. Then I can clear off the clutter where I work in the living room. It will be nice to have the wires out of the way. A little elf told me that there are devices that you can use to corral all the cords, to keep them tidy. That sounds like a great item for my Christmas wish list.

I left the computer running the other night, when I went to sit with DH and watch a TV program. The new computer fan really makes a racket, so I'm thinking about what I could use to create a short screen that would block some of the noise. I don't want to box the computer in, or it will overheat, but maybe I can redirect some of the noise. Maybe I can cover a square of rigid insulation with fabric, or a quilt pattern that would fit in with the rest of the decor.

Tomorrow, October 26th, is Dear Husband's birthday. I won't go shouting out his age, but I can tell you than neither of us are spring chickens any more. (Now, THERE'S and idea for a blog. What the heck is a "spring chicken?")

My niece and her boys come to dinner on Tuesdays, and then we play UNO and have dessert. Tomorrow, dessert will be one of Dear Husband's beloved pies. He doesn't care for cake, so we traditionally do birthday pie. His pie of choice would be lemon meringue or coconut cream or banana cream. My niece is providing the dessert, so she will choose the kind of pie.

Some time in the next week to ten days, we'll go out to dinner to celebrate, but Tuesday, we'll celebrate with family. UNO anyone??

Yeah....I bet you thought I was going to talk about my exercise class. Heck, NO!

On Sunday, I got waaaay too much exercise visiting the Antiques Market with my oldest sister. She was here about 6:45 in the morning. I'm guessing, because I was still getting ready at that point. I came running out of the bedroom at 7:00 to find her chatting with Mother, waiting on me. Luckily, she wasn't bothered by the short wait.

She drove, and we took off for the Market. We made such good time that we were there about 15 minutes early, but they let us in anyway. It was nippy to start. I bought hot apple cider for both of us to sip, and gave her my gloves to use until the sun warmed up a bit. The day turned out to be glorious, and we shopped so well and long that we had to make two trips back to the car to leave packages and layers of clothing that were no longer needed.

I bought TWO quilts. One will be a gift, and the other is for me. I found a depression era quilt that is a variation of the Boston Commons. I have to look up the variation name. This one is square rather than rectangular, and other than a little sun fading in the corner, it's in good shape.

I found a medium sized wooden bowl that appealed to me. I found sets of crochetted and embroidered pillowcases to give as gifts, and to use on my own bed. I found a bone china cup and saucer, and tea napkins to give as a Christmas present, and a delicate cup and saucer for myself.

Mostly, I just enjoyed spending the day with my sister. We're both busy women, and it's not easy to make the time to go off and do things together. Luckily for me, she doesn't take being busy as an adequate excuse for not doing fun things, so when I mentioned the Market's last session for the year, she wrote it into her calendar.

What pleases me the most is that we are going to be together again this coming weekend, along with my youngest sister. It should be a great weekend! I plan to window shop, to point out all the great places to eat, and fight to get a word in edgewise!

And THIS time.....I plan to take my Ibuprophen with me! *G*

Dear Redeaglespirit1,

You're SO RIGHT!!! For a long time I've fussed about not being able to blog every day. I bought a small tape recorder so that I could tape ideas when I was somewhere I couldn't write them down. I thought that if the ideas were available, I would be able to post at least something small every day.

Welll...it looks like that's just not my style. Usually I make the time to post on the weekends, but one of my stepsons was working on our computers this weekend, and then I was away on Sunday, and by the time late Sunday evening rolled around, it just wasn't going to happen. Actually, I would have been happy to go to bed without dinner on Sunday, I was so worn out from spending the day with my sister.

So, here it is, Monday, past my bedtime, and I finally made the time to blog. I must be in good company, if you went a week without posting. *S* I know you all understand about the rest of our lives occasionally getting in the way. This week I have to start putting the gardens to bed for the winter, so I expect to be away again. Btw....go visit Bogie....and see all the stuff SHE has to do to get ready for winter! Maybe you could laugh at her pun about putting the gardens to bed. (I ignored her.)

I'll save up a week of comments and be back. I want to tell you about "Lucifer's Hammer" and pumpkin carving, and scarecrows, and Halloween. And I know that other things will come to me over the weekend.

Have a great week!