Wednesday Hodgepodge

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1. What are your plans for Easter Day/weekend?

My cousin, her boy friend and some of his family are coming and I am cooking a Ham. I expect to look like an Oompa Loompa the day after.

2. Besides Jesus, what one person from The Bible would you most like to meet and why?

Job. I have had so many challenges in my life, and reading the book of Job often helped me to realize that I have not been challenged nearly as much.

3. What is one modern day convenience you didn’t have as a child that was easy to live without?

A garbage disposal. We have one now, and although I love having it, it certainly isn’t a must have in this world.

4. Are you more right brained or left brained? (I took the quiz at Joyce’s site and this is what it said.)

Left Brain Right Brain
47% 53%

Now this is weird. I’m really both. Well, thank goodness. After a closed head injury 25 years ago, it’s nice to see the two sides working so well together.

5. What is something you intended to do today but didn’t? Why?

Well, as I write it is only 9:30 AM on Tuesday, so I haven’t had a chance to mess up yet. I hope I will have a good day of getting it all done. It may be that I don’t get my seeds planted.

6. Cadbury Creme Eggs or Reeses peanut butter?

peppermint bark

Neither. I am really a dark chocolate person, so my real addiction is sold only at Christmas. Peppermint Bark.

7. Who was your favorite cartoon character when you were a child?

flintstones_main_image
Jetsons 2 CartoonChip and Dale

I loved the Flintstones, The Jetsons and Chip and Dale.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Joanne took her first field trip home. She also wanted to have some PF Chang and when the local restaurant heard they arranged quite a party for her and even picked up the bill! She got to hold her cat, Joey and see her home! It did help her morale, but she also realized how much work she needs to do to get in shape for her discharge in a few weeks.

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Ice-Out Declared On Lake Winnipesaukee

Happy Wednesday!

What I Did This Passed Weekend

Miss Marple 2

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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On Saturday, i thought I was going to get a lot done. I brought down all the laundry, changed the sheets, etc, but somehow lost momentum and ended the day feeling lazy and quiet. I made a meatloaf and Hubby’s favorite mashed potatoes and then we sat down and enjoyed two episodes of “From Lark Rise to Candleford”, before I fell asleep.

I woke on Sunday to the gloom and rain of the day. I made coffee, strong and hot, and then settled in to read the newspaper. Eventually Hubby got up and the day began. The sun came out, it warmed up and turned into quite a lovely day.

Now, I’d thought that Sunday would be the lazy day, but today I actually had a lot of energy and I wrote three letters (by hand, which is not easy for my slightly arthritic fingers)  and paid bills. I also fulfilled Anneliese’s greatest wish of the day…I took her on a one mile walk. She was very good and we had a really great time, except when she saw that one squirrel, she just wanted it so badly! Thankfully she was on a leash so, all was well.

Hubby and I also worked cleaning out the formal dining room. In a house this big your formal rooms often equal rooms that you sort of dump “store” things in. Today we not only worked to organize, but we dusted and cleaned as well.

Friday I made a great new recipe for a slow cooked pork roast. I’ll share it tomorrow. All I can say is..EASY &…YUM!!!

Have a great Monday everyone!

2515 Posts

I was putting together this post when I realized that I have written 2515 posts as of today! I’ve done this in 6 years with over 101,838 comments! I have posted every day, with the exception of when I had emergency surgery, and shared the good, the bad, and the wonderful with you all. I started on May 11, with all of two readers. My sister and my cousin. I wrote a short post about my darling Shubi. At that time she was the center of my life, and Greta and Fritz were her little ones. It was a short post because I knew nothing about blogging, but it is there.

So why am I bringing it up now? I suppose because it kind of blew my mind that I have been doing this so long and have written so much! I never knew I had so much to say!

My family, however, would tell you that I have never had trouble talking.

When I was very young and married for the first time, living on my own with my new husband, I had been away from home for a long time. One weekend I managed a trip back to see my grandparents and parents, and I arrived at tea time.

As we sat at the dining room table sipping tea and munching cookies, I was telling them about my adventures as a newlywed, and at one point (after about half an hour) I stopped to sip my cold tea and my grandmother laughed!

“What did I say?” I asked.

“Nothing, and everything” she said “The table sure has been quiet since you left! We’ve missed your chattering!”

Grandma is probably laughing up there in Heaven. I finally have my place where I can chatter, about something or nothing at all.

Nice to have a little place in this world I can call mine!

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-In Easter

And…here we go!

1. For me, it was love at first sight when my daughters were born. Truth be told I loved them from the moment I knew they were in there!

2. I just bought my Easter Ham at my local supermarket.

3. Behind the sound of the wind in the trees, I heard the first Loon of the season.

4. Paint beautiful pictures is something I always wanted to do.

5. When it was over, my life was never to be the same.

6. Even when I lived in a country where I did not speak the language well, I never felt alone.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to a fire in the hearth, as we are trying to use up this seasons wood, tomorrow my plans include a nice walk around the neighborhood and watching From Lark Rise to Candleford and Sunday, I want to work in my office. Now that Hubby is done with our taxes I want to put things away!

Thursday Thirteen

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I’m borrowing from San this week for my Thursday Thirteen! Thanks San!

1. Current Book(s):That’s tough. Still “The Time Travelers Wife” as I am just not reading right now.

2. Current Play-list: A bunch of late ’70’s and early ’80’s rock music.

3. Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: A nice rich Brandy. Just a little…

4. Current Color: Wearing a lot of blue, however I wore bright red the other night and felt quite glamorous in it!

5. Current Drink: Besides my guilty pleasure, Diet Rite Cola!

6. Current Food: Tuna Wrap Melts!

7. Current Favorite Show: Mike and Molly. As a person who has fought their weight for a long time I love this show. It pays attention and depicts these two lovely people so tenderly. At times Hollywood treats people with weight problems as being stupid or like clowns. Mike and Molly are real people, (well their characters are) who meet fall in love, yet can really appreciate a good cannoli!

8. Current Wish-list: Just a vacation, sometime, someplace. I feel tired.

9. Current Needs: To continue to do well at Weight Watchers.

10. Current Bane(s) of my Existence: Dogs who are trying to push me out of bed at night!

11. Current Celebrity (Girl) Crush: Melissa McCarthy! She is so great as Molly.

12. Current Outfit: Jeans, sweater, Merrell slip-ons.

13. Current Excitement: I know that spring is on the way, even if it it colder than heck here today! Easter is just around the corner and then summer!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

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1. Would you rather talk to everyone at a crowded party for a short time or have a significant conversation with two people?

We were just at a party this past weekend. I had two or three nice conversations, but then there wasn’t time for more, so I guess I am the significant conversation type of person.

2. What objects do you remember from your parent’s living room?

Hubby and I were talking about this the other day. I was telling him about the big old TV we had and the remote control they had. ME! Back in the day, there were no remote controls. You wanted the TV on, you had to turn it on by hand! You want to change the channel? Yep, by hand! So, I use to hover/sit right down in front, so that I could pop up and change the channel.

3. Do you hog the bed? Steal the covers? Snore?

Well, yes. But then, I have three dackels who pin me down in bed and I really do need the space. I’m not sure if I snore, perhaps when I have a cold. I am not a blanket hog. I have oversized blankets so that everyone gets their covers!

4. Speaking of Easter dinner….what is your favorite way to cook/eat lamb? Or does just the thought of that make you squeamish? If you’re not cooking lamb what will be your entree du jour on Easter Sunday?

I love Gyros. But not the ones here in the states. The ones made overseas, on a spit, where they slice off the meat as they need it.

Gyros

They serve it up with Tzatziki sauce! Yum! Unfortunately here in the USA, the department of health, says it’s unsanitary to cook this way. (Sillyness!) So, I always have Gyros when I am overseas.

Easter will find us cooking a ham and possibly either a chicken or turkey. I will use a brown sugar glaze on the ham, and the turkey/chicken, will be cooked by roasting it ala Julia Child. One of my guests does not like lamb, and another potential guest does not eat ham, so…. I never mind, leftovers are wonderful!

5. Let’s throw some politics into this week’s mix-oooohhh…Do you know the whereabouts of your birth certificate and when was the last time you had to produce it to prove you’re you?

Guess what? Yes! Not only did I need to have it to get married, both times. I also needed it to show the Airlines who I was, in order to be allowed to fly with Hubby when he was still a pilot! Then when we moved back to New Hampshire, I needed it again to get my drivers license! Two years ago the Department of Homeland Security asked for all documents to show who I was again. So I have a file with my birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc in it. Also, if I go to the town I was born in, they also have a way of producing a legal copy for me, as it is filed there!

See, I could run for President!

6. As a child, how did people describe you?

Pretty, bright, talented, gregarious, blond. Here I am, in a community theater production of “The Sound of Music”. I played Gretel.

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7. What do you complain about the most?

Hubby not watching my dackels close enough. He will take them out and then a little while later he comes back inside looking for them! It makes me crazy!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Joanne is doing great. Each and every day finds her working very hard in rehab. We all continue to pray for her recovery, and it is amazing what miracles can be worked!

Joanne will go home this weekend for a visit. She is so excited to go to her house, see her kitties, her things and spend time with her husband and kids.

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This weekend I plan to start my seedlings for the garden. We’ve bought some seeds already, but I need to finish buying those, as well as the potting soil.

What I Did This Weekend

Miss Marple 2

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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Oh what a busy weekend it was. A wonderfully, busy, weekend!

On Friday we drove north to Waterville Valley, where I skied again for $1.00. It was also my last day of skiing for this year!. I have to say that these were the BEST conditions I have skied on in YEARS!

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I was confident enough to ski the diamond trails! Yay, me!!!

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So, the skiing was on Friday. On Saturday we dressed up and went to a wonderful dinner party honoring our friends, getting married!

April 9 11 017

It was a great party and the food was wonderful! In fact there was a grape salad recipe that I simply must get!

On Sunday I drove to my daughter’s home to visit with her, shop a little and have a bite of lunch. After losing her two older cats a couple of months ago to illness, Mandy has adopted two pound babies. They are hilarious! The all black one is Bear and the black and white one is Echo.

Mandy’s Kitties from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

Our Anniversary

Today is Hubby and my 23rd Wedding Anniversary. Yay, us! Yesterday while we were skiing someone asked me what was the secret to a happy marriage. I told them…

  1. Marry your best friend. Sex is great, but in the dark days, when it seems like everything is going down hill, you would do well, to be married to your  best friend!
  2. Be kind to each other, each and every day, and remember, you are not always going to agree.
  3. Enjoy your children (and grandchildren, the man was older) while you have them. Their youth is fleeting. You can teach them so much when they are young, and they can also teach you.
  4. Love, love, love!

So to my best friend, my love and my husband for the last 23 years, Happy Anniversary! It’s been a heck of a ride though this life!

Our 23rd Wedding Anniversary from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-Ins are sponsored by my cousin Janet. Come on and join the fun!

And…here we go!

1. In the near darkness howls a lone dackel.

2. No vacations til further notice.

3. But this mini series called “The Kennedy’s” is very enjoyable. Good acting and interesting story lines, even if the history channel wouldn’t run it.

4. Fish swimming swiftly in the stream.

5. It’s always nice to spend time with my family.

6. Good food and pleasant company.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to I am planning to cook a nice meal for Hubby and I and watch more of “The Kennedy’s”, tomorrow my plans include going to a party to celebrate my friends getting married and Sunday, I want to go to see my daughter!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

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1. National Read a Road Map Day falls on April 5th. Would people say you have a good sense of direction?

No. I really don’t. However I know enough to know how to read a map. In fact I like maps!

Do you rely on a GPS when you drive somewhere new? When was the last time you used a map?

Whenever I go anywhere I have a map and my GPS. I take nothing for granted.

2. What’s your favorite cookbook?

Julia Child’s Everyday Cooking. Just a small simple book with normal recipes.

3. What painting would you like to “walk into” and experience? Why?

Monet

This is by Claude Monet. I believe it is from his “Water Lily” series. Hubby and I had this print blown up to fit over our jacuzzi! We had it entirely sealed in heavy plastic to save it from moisture. I love to pretend I am floating in a boat through these lovely lilies! It is so relaxing to lie in the tub, and enjoy this print.

4. What annoys you more- misspellings or mispronunciations?

Neither or both! Let me explain. Written, it can happen to everyone. Spell check doesn’t pick up everything and it can see one thing as being correct, when it should sea this as correct.

Since I am the original Mrs Malaprop, I can relate to almost anyone who mispronounces a name or word.

5. What is something your mother or father considered important?

My Grandparents always considered honesty the most important thing. I try to live by that.

6. Do you like or dislike schedules?

I really dislike schedules, and yet, when I am going somewhere or doing something, I crave schedules.

7. Let’s have some fun with National Poetry Month (that would be April)…write your own ending to this poem-

“Roses are Red
Violets are blue…”

Doggies are loving

and so are you!

Incidentally if you’d like to read the history behind that little ditty you’ll find it HERE.

8. Insert your own random thought in this space.

Joanne is doing great. Each and every day finds her working very hard in rehab. We all continue to pray for her recovery, and it is amazing what miracles can be worked!

It’s hoped Joanne will go home in a month. Hopefully, not much renovation will be needed at her home, but her Dad is checking everything out, so that if there are places that need hand rails, they will be installed well before she leaves.

More than anything, Joanne just wants to get home, and God willing, she will be home soon!