New Discoveries in 2015

2015's three big technology finds for me:

1. "The Skimm" - delivered to my email inbox Monday-Friday (unless it's a holiday). It headlines the news from around the country/world and links are included if I want more indepth reading. (It keeps me current on current events.)

2. Podcasts - loving them. I wrote about them here.

3. Netflix and Amazon Prime - Young Sweetie (our daughter) and Wonderful Husband are members and I reap the benefits. I can watch documentaries, original programming, and can receive free two day shipping. Score!

Do you have any new discoveries from 2015?

I'm linking to Emily P. Freeman and What We've Learned in 2015.

A New Favorite

Podcasts!

I'm listening to a podcast called "Start-up" hosted by Alex Blumberg (from "This American Life").

And he finally defined for me what I like about podcasts.

They are about storytelling.

Then I think Really? It's like listening to the old radio shows before television took over as entertainment in the home.

But it's simplified entertainment. No busy-ness for my computer-tired eyes. The stories must be descriptive enough to help me visualize with "my mind's eye." (Less eye strain you see.)

Creative enough to capture my attention, hold it, and reveal some sort of information that I hadn't before known. Information I walk away with and it's made me think or re-think my opinion, educates and/or entertains me.

Here are a few I subscribe to:


http://sortaawesomemegan.tumblr.com/



http://www.kathilipp.com/podcast/



http://jamieivey.com/category/podcast-2/



http://knoxandjamie.com/

I hope you'll listen to a couple episodes and get back to me with what you think about podcasts.

I love the portability listening on my iphone because one day I cleaned out my closet and dresser drawers and when all was said and done, it didn't seem like a huge chore. It was a win-win that day!

(By the way, my 3 year old granddaughter asked me, "Grammy, are you listening to your codpasts?" I just loved that!)

And please share...do you already listen to podcasts and if so, would you recommend any to me?

The Groundhog

Current Event:

Today Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow which means his prediction is six more weeks of winter.

Really Phil? Six more weeks?

The National Climatic Data Center has put Phil's forecasts to the test and found them sorely lacking, declaring the groundhog has "no predictive skill."

Really? The groundhog has no predictive skill?

Stop this merry-go-round! I want to get off!

Bottom line: If it's cold, I'll wear a coat. If it's warm, I won't.

Do you believe the groundhog?

No Calorie Donuts

I went to the grocery store and saw these scrumptious looking pre-St. Patrick's Day donuts:

Just looking at them made me experience a sugar high and no I didn't purchase any.

I sent the picture to my St. Patrick's Day born daughter though.

A sweet gift with no messy calories to regret!

Happy Halloween

I can't help myself.

Here are my cute daughter and granddaughter.

Youngest Sweetie is a hatching chick.

The sleepy look.

She's mesmerized by the camera's flashing red light.

Not a big fan of her head covering....
hence it's on the floor.

A little attitude-ish yet so much fun for us!

Happy First Halloween Youngest Sweetie!

Thanks for the great memories!

Truly Moving

On Wednesday I was talking with my co-workers about how Youngest Sweetie is now moving.

The days of placing our granddaughter in the middle of a blanket, leaving the room, and coming back to her in the middle of the blanket are now over.

Everyone looked a bit surprised and asked, "How old is she now?"

"Six months," I replied.

Later I called our daughter, Young Sweetie, and left a voicemail saying that I thought they looked a bit incredulous like I was exaggerating.....or should I say lying?!?

She sent me this video to save my truthful reputation.

I have a very good daughter!

Youngest Sweetie is six months and five days old in this video.

I love her commando-style crawl.

Watch out world....she's moving now! Truly!


**********
Unrelated side note/thoughts:
My favorite word for the week "Ubiquitous." (Thanks Anne Lamott!)
Wonderful Husband's favorite word last night while watching Person of Interest: "Peripheral."

Do you have a favorite word this week?

A Balloon Mystery

I took a day off from work last Friday. I jammed-packed it full of morning activities, the only time-sensitive commitment was breakfast at 8:30.

I pulled away from our driveway at 7:58 and went to CVS and Giant before breakfast at Perkins with Charlotte and Kaye. A Belguim waffle and an hour and a half later, I went to Poor Richards (interesting shop where I found an outdoor Easter flag), picked up a loaf of sourdough bread at a bakery, a few groceries at Genuardis and then home to get the ice cream in the freezer.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled into our driveway and tied to our mailbox are two balloons.

One looks like a basketball, the other is a blue star.

Am I a basketball star and no one told me?

I don't think so!

I ran inside with my purchases and zoomed off again to Geerlings (a local nursery to purchase a gift card for a co-worker who's birthday was coming up) and then the last stop was None Such Farm.

Once again pulling into the driveway, I wonder about the balloons.

I check the mailbox to see if there is a card from the balloon bandit fairy.

Nope.

I check the front door.

No card or note.

I checked our home phone and my cell phone for messages.

Nothing.

I decided to take a picture (for evidence) since Wonderful Husband was gone for a weekend golf trip and....

cue spooky music

....the balloons were gone!

Well, sort of.

They were actually tangled in our neighbors' tree!

Exhibit A

They can thank me later, but probably won't since the balloons are pretty high up in their tree, and even with my "mad" basketball skills, I can't reach them. Ha!

My conclusion?

If you tie balloons on a mailbox, tie them on securely.

I am a share-er. (Passing on my balloon gift to our neighbors :)

Thank you balloon bandit, you made me smile.

And lastly,

the balloon mystery continues...

Have you ever received a surprise gift that makes absolutely no sense?

Hello Old Friend(s)

Spring must be just around the corner because our latest new crop of ladybugs invaded our master bathroom this past week.

This is an annual occurrence in our life. And one I look forward to with great anticipation.

We've lived in our home for 16 years and every spring "the ladies" come to visit.

She was walking around Wonderful Husband's sink this morning when I snapped her picture. (I think she was smiling :)

When Wonderful Husband was walking out the door I asked him if he saw the lady? He said that she was on his faucet handle and he was very careful while brushing his teeth.

Thank goodness for double sinks!

Hello Spring....welcome back old friends!

Do you have annual visits from "friends?"

Valentine's Day 2012

I've written about Valentine's Day before here. What we've learned over the years. OK, I mean me. Things like he can't read my mind, etc.

Wonderful Husband gave me flowers, candy and a card. I must have been very good this year. Ha!

Wait a minute! Can you see the card?

Here it is closer up....

Now don't get me wrong. The sentiment/words are lovely.

But.....

GLITTER?

On the outside and the inside?

EEKS!

Oh he got me good. Even adding at the bottom of the card "and lots of glitter."

Later he told me he almost chose another card but when he saw the glittered one...he knew that was the one for me!

So let me end with this....

THE GLITTER WAR IS ON!

insert evil laugh here


P.S. Since my (adult) kids read my blog, let me state for the record: If you kids read this as a challenge and give me glitter-filled cards....you will be grounded. And yes, I realize you don't live under our roof any more. But I am still your mom.

imagine evil glittered mom eye here

So my question is...who invented glitter? The same person who invented high heeled shoes?

I Can't Make This Stuff Up

I normally live a boring life. I pay the bills in our family and I am quite good at "living within my means."

Last Sunday after church and grocery shopping, I decided to scoop up the bills that had arrived during the past week and pay them online.

I went into the study and looked at the water bill....

(As a bit of a history lesson, our previous water bill which arrives quarterly was $221.26.)

Here is what our water bill from October 1 - December 31 looked like:

Need a closer look?

Really?

$9,769.32????

OK.
So our township made a whopping mistake.
I did call and they sent a corrected bill.
Much better.

Yet even our local government seems to have a sense of humor when on the left side of the bill, I read the message.....

That's right people!

Conserve water.

I can't make this stuff up!

Have you had a mistake on a bill that almost made your blood pressure fly through the roof? Please share.

Back To School

Happiness is a Back To School commercial.

Target, I think you are brilliant!

Every time I hear this commercial, I stop what I'm doing to watch it.

Thank you Target for 32 seconds of happiness!

Does anyone remember a Staples commercial that had the song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" with two young kids and a dad that was riding a shopping cart through the store?

Loved that one too.

Spinach Salad

with Hot Bacon Dressing.


Happiness on a plate...

Years ago I received a small recipe booklet from my mother-in-law. It has 14 recipes and this salad dressing is our favorite. When I try a recipe I always write a comment so I'll remember if it was a hit or miss, or if I would tweak it with different ingredients, cooking time, etc.

On this page I had written Perfect!

We've had some very warm days in Pennsylvania and they have kind of killed my appetite. I don't even think about heating up the oven to cook because just the thought makes me kind of nauseous.

We had not eaten Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing in years and because of the scorching temperatures I finally wandered outside of my usual rotation meals, found the little booklet, and Wonderful Husband and I enjoyed our dinner.

For your taste of inspiration, I introduce you to Pennsylvania Dutch Recipes by Nancy C. Berzinec (c) 1987 Wellspring. York, Pennsylvania.

Hot Bacon Dressing

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

6 slices bacon
4 tablespoons bacon drippings
1/4 cup vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 egg

croutons (optional)
sliced (or crumbled) hard-cooked eggs (optional)

Cook bacon, remove from frying pan and set aside.
Measure out bacon drippings, and return four tablespoons of the drippings to the frying pan.
Add vinegar and water, and set aside.
Combine sugar, salt, cornstarch and egg, and stir into vinegar mixture.
Cook slowly over medium heat until smooth.
Wash and dry greens. Roughly tear greens into a salad bowl.
Sprinkle with crumbled bacon, croutons and eggs, and pour warm dressing over all.

Yum.

A few tips:
I serve this spinach salad in individual servings. Sprinkle with bacon and hard boiled egg and I use the dressing very sparingly.
It is very sweet and I don't like soggy salad.
I'm a drizzler and Wonderful Husband is a pour-er.
We both enjoyed our salad, our way.
I am usually a big fan of croutons on salad but have determined that the crunch of the bacon is good enough for me on this one.
Lastly, let the dressing cool a bit before putting on the salad.

Enjoy!

Bonus Note:
Wonderful Husband did the dishes after dinner. He lives up to his blog nickname again! Booyah!

Are Wild Animals Crazy?

I live in a suburban neighborhood about 25 miles outside of Philadelphia. We are fortunate because our neighborhood has open grassy fields and green, leafy, mature trees surrounding it and you would think that the wild animals would have plenty of "real estate" to build their homes and just have to battle each other for survival instead of our suburban lawnmowers, sprinklers, and cars pulling in and out of driveways.

Our backyard neighbors have a vegetable garden on both sides of their deck. They built a framed fence structure that has chicken wire to keep out pesky animals. They are growing corn, tomatoes, zucchini, and tons of other stuff that I have no clue about since I'm not Mrs. Kravitz. (Remember her from "Bewitched"?)

Our neighbors also have two large white dogs that roam their fenced in backyard and no one walks by their house or in front of ours without the dogs sounding barking the alarm. I love the dogs since they are free entertainment for me. (All fun and no responsiblity.)

The other night Wonderful Husband and I visited with our neighbors through their wrought iron fence and heard that a rabbit had been building a nest in their fenced-in garden. The rabbit was spotted with a large amount of grass sticking out from her mouth since she wanted to line the hole she'd dug near one of their zucchini plants.

And the first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "How crazy is that? With all the open fields around here, the mother decides to have her bunnies in your garden where you have two enormous dogs patrolling your property?"

My neighbor pointed out that the dogs would have "busted through the fencing" to get at the mother rabbit once they discovered her too.

I started thinking about Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor's garden. Remember his adventures?

Yet maybe the mother rabbit was crazy smart trying to build her nest in a fenced-in area with free "groceries" readily available.

Hmmmmm....what do you think? 

Crazy or crazy smart?

Photo credit to our daughter (Young Sweetie) who took this picture with her cell phone.
Thank you Young Sweetie!

Perfect

For years I have joked with my kids about how I am perfect.

After all, I'm their mom and I wouldn't exaggerate or anything. Ha!

I mean they've lived with me for years. They've seen me lose my temper, lose my car keys, (half-way) lose my mind, and watched me walk into a room and try to remember what I'm looking for or what I wanted to say. (And let me just point out, it was going to be brilliant and inspiring.)

A couple years ago (maybe more) I was out and about with our daughter and pulled the van in to a gas station for a fill-up. I was in the process of sticking my head out the window to see if the van was positioned close to the gas pump and the attendant walked up so I asked, "Is this good?"

And he said, "You're perfect."

I whipped my head around to look at my daughter and said, "Did you hear what he said?!?"

Picture her eyes that were already rolling....

"He said I am perfect!"

He had made my day, month, ok years, since I've always looked my husband or kids in their eyes and pointed out that the "gas station guy" said I am perfect.

Yes, I'm known for "beating a dead horse" with pointing out that I am perfect.

Fast forward to my follow-up meeting with my orthodontist yesterday. The previous appointment had involved a lot of pictures, panoramic x-rays, taking a mold of my teeth and of course his visual assessment of my crooked teeth, etc.

To begin this appointment of the Recommended Orthodontic Treatment, I was told (multiple times) that I "have PERFECT skeletal jaw alignment."

Did you notice the word PERFECT up there?

I'll wait if you wish to re-read it.

I'll even bask in my excitement a bit more.

Ok. Moving on...

Braces are in my future. Think about it, I just turned 50 years old and I will have braces.

But when I left the orthodonist's office, I couldn't wait to call my family to tell them...

I AM PERFECT!

I couldn't see their faces, but I know their eyes were rolling and they were thinking...

Here we go again.

Telephone Anyone?

Two thoughts for today.....

Since when do telephones have meetings?

And....

if they are having a party....

why wasn't I invited?

Snow Thoughts

For the second time this week, we've had a weather event.

Picnic anyone?

Tuesday morning we woke up to about 4 inches of snow encased in a layer of ice. Wonderful Husband and I geared up and I was naive enough to think it would be easy going like the last fluffy snow where I didn't even break a sweat.

Wrong.

It was
heavy,
icy,
and slippery.

We finished the job though and since the temperature finally rose above freezing, the wetness left on the driveway evaporated while we were at work.

Good job!

Now it's Friday morning.

View from the back of our house.

View from the front of our house.

Another weather event.
Snow.
4 or 5 inches.
Not fluffy.
Heavy, stick-to-the-shovel-type of work.

I cleared off the front porch and walkway. Wonderful husband shoveled snow from behind my van so he could pull it out of the garage and reach the snowblower.

We've finished the job again but now I'm wondering....

Are we not shoveling properly so God wants us to have more practice in snow removal?

I miss my "kids" being home since they were the best snow shovelers ever!
Which really means that I didn't have to do it. :)

Any snow stories you want to share?

She Is a Keeper

I had a lovely conversation with my niece-in-law yesterday.

When the working members of my family got home last night (by the way, I'm the only non-employed in our family) I was telling them how our Wonderful Nephew had picked quite a Wonderful Wife.

Our daughter, Young Sweetie said, "Yes. In fact, if they ever divorce. We'll keep her and kick him out of the family." lol

High praise indeed.

She is a keeper!

Truth vs. Advertising

FIOS is coming to our neighborhood.

I don't care.

But for those who do care, FIOS is a bundled communications service (internet, telephone, and television) operating over a fiber-optic communications network....blah, blah, blah.

These signs started showing up a couple weeks ago. Can you read the print that tells me that they are upgrading my service from the ground up? (This is not my vehicle in this picture. Although I think it's kinda cool.)

Men dug 5 waist-deep holes in my front yard today. I was exhausted just looking out the window occasionally and watching their progress.

Before they left for the night, they filled in the holes and left this thing sticking up from hole number 5, the wonderful orange cone, and the piece of equipment in front of my neighbor's house.

I'll let you know when there is anything beneficial to note from their "upgrading my service."

So far I don't think the lawn is very happy.

A Good Question

The other night our son asked, "What happens to your blogger name if you move out of PA?"

ACKKKKKKK!

Maybe I should have thought about that.

Conspiracy Theory

One definition for conspiracy is: an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot.

Back in my younger days, I read a book called "Captains and the Kings," by Taylor Caldwell, published in 1983. It's the first time I remember being exposed and believing in a conspiracy theory. I think someone said it was "loosely based" on the Kennedy family, poor immigrant from Ireland, coming to the U.S., wants one of his sons to become the first Catholic president. Yup, I could see the similarities as I read it.

Anyway, part of the book had to do with a secret group of high-powered men who basically met together to plan what countries would have wars, strong economies, economic downturns, etc.

CONSPIRACY!!! (Da-du-dummmm)

I started watching the show "V" on ABC back in the fall or winter. (I can never get all these multiple TV seasons straight anymore.) For those of you not familiar with the show, "V" stands for Visitors. They arrive (actually hovering) over major cities in the world and basically tell everyone they want to be our friends. But They Lie! They want to take over my planet Earth and get this...some Visitors have been living among us all this time! YIKES!

It was driving me crazy (short drive :) because I kept trying to guess who were the Visitors who had been on Earth for years just waiting for the rest of their crew to arrive. (By the way, to add to my level of anxiety confusion some of the Visitors already in our communities, were Good People Visitors. And after a couple shows I began thinking everyone on the show was a Bad Visitor!!! I was wrong of course but everyone sure did look suspicious.

CONSPIRACY!!!

The show took a break. I did too. It came back on. I haven't watched it since. Too stressful for me.

Click to read what The Meanest Mom wrote in her post about No TV Week/School District on Strike. It's a must read! Then come back...I'll wait...

CONSPIRACY!!!

You know I don't believe in coincidences! I chalk it up to another Evil Plot which I'm adding to my List of Conspiracy Theories. Watch out World...I'm keeping my eye(s) on you!

Now I'm going to walk away from my computer very slowly...backwards....