Arrrgh!!!

Last week I received a package from my youngest sister. It contained a movie, an article that she wanted me to read, and some recipes. That package was the jumping off point for several thoughts I want to blog about.

Today's thoughts are on the subject of how I communicate with my siblings.

Mother returned from Key West on Wednesday evening. She told us that her plane would be arriving at 7:00, so I assumed that we would see her about 9:00 at night. My SUV was showing the "Service Engine Soon" light, so I had taken it in to be checked, and we went to pick it up Wednesday evening. Of course, we were gone when the travelers returned. :-(

Tonight is the annual Souper Supper for my quilting bee. The bee meets the first Friday of each month, and in February we have the tradition of having a meal together. I'm making soups and roasted garlic with toasted French bread slices and baked Feta cheese. The rest of the ladies are bringing bread, salad, crudités, fruit, and dessert. It's a pleasure to "break bread" with friends.

I am building up a head of steam over the health insurance system in the U.S. I suspect that there will be several entries on this subject in the near future, and it's likely to be an ongoing subject.

No.....not the era of "I Like Ike," or any of dozens of other possibilities, but rather.....the temperature today. I don't know just how warm it got, but when I was out running errands it felt absolutely BALMY!

It was supposed to get to 54 degrees F. today. I suspect it might have gotten even warmer. It was a sparkling, sunny, warm day that drew people out in droves. The girls collecting carts in the grocery parking lot left their coats inside and walked with a bounce in their steps. Car windows were rolled down, and people were out walking.

Isn't 55 an odd temperature? In the fall, when our season is closing down, and we're headed for winter, 55 feels chilly and our bones ache. We wear coats and look for gloves and mufflers, and shift over to heavier clothing. We complain about dripping noses when we have to go out to rake up the leaves.

But in February, when it hits 55, we're out there stripping off our coats, and lifting our faces to the sun. Snow was melting, and patches of grass appeared here and there today.

This is Mother Nature's annual joke around this time of year. She sends us a couple of days of warm weather to remind us what we're missing. People watch the groundhogs, in the hope that winter will end soon, but you know.....it never does.

We have six weeks of chilly weather left before we see warmer temperatures on a regular basis. But, OH! how lovely it is to be reminded that it's coming.

...but not quite.

Cosmo almost got me to buy their magazine. There was an astounding blurb on the cover that was almost successful. But I resisted.

I was rounding the corner into the checkout lane at the grocery store, and noticed the magazines in the racks on the end cap. While I waited to get to the conveyor, I noticed a blurb on the cover.

"His Butt!"

Yup.....I almost bought the magazine. The article purported to tell you about your relationship based on your guy's butt. If you read the fine print, it suggested you GRASP.....or maybe it was "fondle" said butt....and then they would tell you based on his reaction what kind of relationship you have.

Who needs a magazine to tell them THAT??

I've been reading Ronni's blog, and Cop Car's Beat, and they have shared a music meme from Jeanne at Cook Sister. Ronni's answers are in the comments below Jeanne's entry.

I thought I'd toss my two cents into the mix, and then I discovered it was more difficult than it looks on the surface. My early training is in music education. I like almost all kinds of music, so it makes it horribly difficult to limit my answers. Still....I'll give it a try

1. Total amount of music files on your computer?
I think there is one.....just one. A good friend sent me a blues song he felt I needed to hear, and it's still on the computer. I'll have to see if I can find it.

If I could learn how to do it, I would download songs with the word "Lady" in the title or the body of the song, and then I might have 15-20 more songs on the computer....at least until I transfered them to a CD.

2. Last CD you bought?
I bought four of Diana Krall's CD's at the same time. Listen to "Cry Me A River" from "The Look of Love."

The newest CD was a Christmas gift: Nora Jones: "Feels Like Home."

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
Josh Groban's CD "Closer," the entire CD.

4. Five songs you often listen to or which mean a lot to you?
This is where it gets really tough. It's almost impossible for me to limit this to five. ANYTHING by Rogers and Hammerstein, or Rogers and Hart, George Gershwin, or Cole Porter. Rosemary Clooney has a songbook of Rogers and Hart that I've worn out. The music from "Out of Africa."

Festival Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich......or almost anything by him.
Celebration Overture by Paul Creston. Mannin Veen by Ralph Vaughan Williams. ANYTHING Sousa. I'm fond of Grieg and Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, and Tower Brass, and Beethoven's works for piano.

I like Stan Getz, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, David Sanborn, most of Dave Brubeck's work. I ADORE "Standards in Silhouette" by Stan Kenton. Judy Roberts, especially "My Attorney, Bernie."

"Romanza" by Andrea Bocelli, and most of the music on the soundtrack from "What Women Want," and dozens and dozens of other things that I will regret I didn't mention, like big band, and swing, and......you get the picture.

I can work when popular music is playing, but classical music inevitably draws my attention away from what I'm doing. I get to listening to the shape of the phrase, and to the conductor's interpretation and loose track of what I'm supposed to be doing. When I have the house to myself, I crank up the Bose and fill the rooms with sound.

5. Who are you going to pass this on to and why?
Rather than send this on to specific bloggers, I'd like to invite you to enter your answers in the comments here, or post the meme on your own blog.

Arrrrrrrrrrr!! I be BLACK MORGAN CASH.....
Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Don't you need to know your pirate name? A friend sent me this link, so I could learn mine, and now you can learn yours, too!

One of the things one needs to keep in mind when one writes a blog, is the fact that it is a PUBLIC journal. Anyone can stop by to see what you've had to say. It's common to see a blogger comment on their standing at Google for a specific word or subject.

Yet, a number of people have forgotten that blogs are public, and have lost their jobs.

My first response, when I heard the promo on ABC nightly news, was "What about the right to free speech?" I waited to hear the story.

Are you one of those people who will always go to the phone book if you don't know the number of a person you want to call? Or, are you likely to just punch in 411 to let the phone company do the looking for you?

I have to admit that I was ticked when they started charging for information. Most of the time I'll go look up a number, but there are times when I weigh the value of my time, and go for the assistance.

I've discovered that there are several ways to check for phone numbers on-line for FREE, so today I tried one of them. I'm happy to report that it's quick, and easy, and most of the time, successful. I tried www.WhitePages.com today. I pulled up both business and personal phone numbers without any trouble. In several cases, I missed on the town, but the service checked surrounding areas for the number. Tomorrow, or the next time I need to look up a number, I'll try SuperPages.com.

I remember trying the Yellow Pages at AOL when I was first on-line, without much success. I tended to avoid them after that, thinking that they amounted to advertising, and didn't cover the area as thoroughly as I would have liked.

You all know that I'm not into electronic gadgetry, but I just discovered that both Google and UpSNAP have free directory assistance that responds to text messaged requests sent from mobile phones. How cool is that!? If I ever replace the dinosaur of a cell phone that resides in the black hole of my purse, I'll have to get one with text messaging!

I'll have to see what my cell phone company charges me when I dial 411. It may be convenient to call 411 when you are on a cell phone and you don't have anything to write with, but you need to factor in just what they charge for the service. Since I rarely use my phone, and never use up my allotted minutes, to have to pay several dollars more a month for information on top of the basic monthly fee is just giving money away.

I know....it's time to look for one of those phone deals where you only pay for the minutes you use. You're right. Does anyone have a service they'd like to recommend?

My sister sent me an article she had torn from a magazine. I suspect the magazine could be Oprah, given that there is an O in the upper corner of each page. If you'd like to go see the original article, look for the December, 2004 issue. The article is called "You Have The Right To Remain Silent."

There have to be a LOT of women who have crossed being a "Borgata Babe" off their list as the goal of their life today. The Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in New Jersey announced that the women and men who work as cocktail waitresses and bartenders will now be limited to a weight gain of 7% of their total weight. Should they exceed that amount, they will either be put on a 90 day unpaid leave while they try to loose the weight, or they will be fired. Pregnant women, or those who have a medical condition will be given consideration, but will be required to wear a different costume.

Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union has filed a grievance, but should this come before a judge, I doubt, in today's economic climate, that they will win their case. Representatives for Borgata have stated that the look of the "Borgata Babes" is part of the marketing plan that has brought them considerable success over their competition. The Borgata chain was careful to include the male employees in the new requirements, to forestall claims of discrimination.

Sex sells. Too bad the requirement to keep a sexy shape is likely to harm Borgata's employees as they deal with the stress of maintaining weight. Insurance statistics show that it's normal to gain weight as you mature. Women in their thirties, who might be beautiful, and are certainly capable of doing the work required of cocktail waitressing, will have to starve themselves to avoid natural weight gain. Perhaps this could be looked at from the point of view of age discrimination.

Borgata is likely to get what they want, but I can tell you they won't ever get my dollars.

Nothing is certain but death and taxes.

This week, I've been gathering information for my 2004 taxes. My CPA has sent me a planner with a list of questions to answer. Now it's my job to pull together the information from various sources.

I have a storage box under my desk. When I have a receipt, a paid bill or a deposit slip from the bank, I toss it into the box. In a good year, I might sift through the box once or twice, organizing the contents. And there are times when I ignore it for the entire year, and go through it in time for taxes. The documents for our taxes have come in earlier than usual, so it's time to get busy and go through the box.

I sat on the floor with the box on Wednesday night and did my first shuffle. The papers were divided into several stacks: banking, paid bills, insurance, services, major purchases, mementos, and trash. Today, I worked on organizing some of the stacks. Once I've culled information for taxes from the stacks of papers, I'll pull things from the Quicken program on the computer. Doctors, medicine, charitable giving, dues...all sorts of things will show up there.

It's amazing what we learn from this activity. I have to do a little research, but I'll be able to figure out whether Dear Husband spends more to sail, or I spend more to quilt. (Want to take any bets??) I'll be able to determine how much of our net is spent on books or magazines, and what portion of our income goes to food, housing, vehicles or clothing.

I suspect that our household spends less on clothing, and more on food than the average household. I'm sure we spend more on books and magazines, but oddly, less on music and DVDs. I wonder if tax time encourages people to look into their budgets and make adjustments for the coming year? I'm sure I plan to cut back on chocolate purchases this year.

I hope you are all farther along than I am. I think I'm going to be at this for a while.

Every now and then it's a good idea to look through your freezer and refrigerator and plan meals that will let you use up food that you've been storing. I've been good about this all week. We've had home cooked dinners, complete with entrée, salad and two veggies, and occasionally I've added a starch or soup to the mix.

All that cooking got to me. Tonight we went out to dinner.

This time of year I have a mental countdown going on. Dear Husband puts the Arr!! into the water close to May 15th, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done to the boat before he takes it back to water. I know I have a limited amount of time before he will be so tied up with the boat that I won't have help on the grounds.

I'm trying something new this year in the way of seed starting.

I was surfing through blogs tonight. I've been tied up with the organization of our taxes this week and haven't had the chance to visit. Jim, at Parkway Rest Stop, was talking about his aversion to seafood. He dislikes it all, but the part that caught my attention was the raw stuff.

EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

Elegant Mother has been under the weather this week. Both she and I have had a very minor stomach upset, but what is minor to me, is a bit more debilitating in an 88 year old. We went to breakfast with our exercise group, to celebrate the birthdays in February on Wednesday, and that evening she was ill. I knew that this bug was worth noting when she canceled her hair appointment on Thursday morning.

Since bad things generally run in threes, I wonder what is likely to happen next. Today I voiced the question "Where is the cat?" I hadn't seen him for several hours and usually he's a yo-yo. "Owwwwwwwt! I wanna go OWWT!" "IN! Lemme IN!" This goes on all morning long.

So, I was rather surprised that I hadn't seen him for several hours. It was chilly out, and Ed's getting to be a cat who likes his creature comforts. I asked Elegant Mother if she had seen the cat. No. That left Dear Husband, who said he had let the cat out early, and let him back in shortly thereafter.

I started looking in all the favorite snooze spots and found him under the table that holds the computer in the living room. He was still there a couple of hours later, so I called to him. He rose partway, and hung there, as if trying to decide whether he could make it the rest of the way. He wouldn't look at me, and finally settled back down on the carpet.

I got down on my hands and knees, and gently ran my hand over him. He didn't seem to have anything broken. He let me touch him without offering to bite or crying out. I let him rest through the afternoon, and then got him to eat some cat chow. Just a few moments ago he lapped up some water, so I'm hoping it will be safe to let him sleep through the night.

I have no idea what's causing the problem. I'm not even sure what the problem is! It could be that he has been hurt in a fight, or that he's eaten a bad mouse. I suppose he could have been poisoned, or perhaps he's got a cat version of the flu. My stepson just looked him over, and we agree that he doesn't seem to need a flying trip to the emergency vet, so the game plan is to let him rest, and check him out in the morning.

It's really difficult when a pet becomes ill. You want to do your best for them, but they can't tell you what's going on. I hope he feels better in the morning.