Category: Friday Five

Computer Woes

Once again I am having computer difficulties. Jack offered to let me use his laptop to hunt down a new machine. So while I figure out what I want, and where to get it, I am also using his machine to update the blog. So, gentle readers, here are the Friday Five.

1. Many people have told me to get an Apple Laptop. When I priced out, what I want in their machines, it was well over 3 thousand dollars. Should I spend 3 thousand dollars on anything right now, it would be a good vacation! So I’m not thinking Apple.
2. There are several HP’s that I like, and I think we will take a ride to Staples, or BJ’s. I also think I may go to their web site and “build my own”.
3. I was looking at computers on Amazon, but a lot of people complain about the fact that they feel they are getting refurbished machines and not new ones. I would ignore it if I read just one review like this, but it seems to be happening a lot.
4. Aside from computer woes, I decided to deep clean my kitchen from the top down. It meant climbing ladders, and standing on the counter to wash the tops of cabinets, and really work to get the greasy film off the light fixtures. Well, the next day I could hardly move. You see, I have not worked my arms above my head, and in a washing motion in well over two years, due to my neck/spine problems, so yesterday I could hardly move! I took the day off to do laundry and this morning I feel much better.
5. Tomorrow is Quinn’s birthday party. His actual birthday is March 7th, and that is when I will post his birthday montage. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the kids!

Well that’s it for Friday. I will try to “borrow” Jack’s laptop to add an entry to Dackel Princess each day. Hopefully, I will get my very own laptop soon.

I am off for the first trip to my sister’s house in two years. We’ve gotten together other places, but not at her house. It is the weekend where we’re having the Memorial Service for my brother in-law’s Mom, and I really wanted to be there for that. But here are five more things I am thinking about.

1. Jack took my car to the car wash and also checked all the fluid levels. I vacuumed and sprayed the car down with Fabreeze. It has the dusty, mid-winter smell.
2. I have everything in the car accept my toiletry kit. Once I brush my teeth and do my hair, then that bag and my cellphone charger bag will get tossed in as well.
3. The dogs are all depressed. They saw the suitcases come out, and they know I am leaving them. Jack will be here, but to them, there is nothing like Mommy.
4. I put my “funeral” dress on today and the zipper broke. Not because it was under any stress, but just because it’s a crappy zipper. I shall wear pants and a pretty top to the service.
5. I’m loving the new phone. I have it all set up for the trip. Yay!

Have a great weekend everyone!

This has been a crazy busy week for me, and on top of the crazy business, my laptop once again, needs to be cleaned and updated. I start to type and the computer takes a moment or two before it shows me the letters. It’s been driving me mad, so I backed everything up, called my computer friend, Brad, and he is picking the laptop up on Thursday to clean her up. So, I am writing this on Wednesday night, so it will automatically post on Friday. Anyway, here goes…

1. I finished up Mandy’s afghan and went about finding a new pattern so that I could work on my next one. I found a pattern I liked, and bought all the yarn for that.
2. Now I had to decide what colors to use and what order to place them. There is a lot of thought that goes into making an afghan. Especially when it is for someone that you love.
3. We went out for Valentine’s Day to one of our favorite places. They were offering Mussels in garlic, white wine and a cream sauce. Oh my goodness, they were wonderful! In fact the entire meal was, and I was so full, that I couldn’t eat dinner that night.
4. On Wednesday we bought Lili a toy. Now you probably don’t think this is a big deal, but Lili is sort of the low man on the totem pole in our house, as far as dogs go. The dackels aren’t always kind, and they never share their toys. So, we bought her a new tug of war toy, and gave it to her. Well, you would think we had given her a million dollars. Not only does she love the toy, but I could see how happy it made her. It was so sweet!
5. This weekend I plan to do laundry and crochet. And watch more of the Olympics. What’s happening in your world?

The week just flew by. I was sort of down and out with a cold, and so the fact that from Monday until today I have pretty much kept in my pajamas and done nothing but sleep, crochet and marathon watched The Incredible Dr. Pol.

So, as the week closes out, these are the things I’ve been thinking about.

1. Winter colds! Oh how I hate them. It wasn’t that I was particularly sick, but I was sneezing and coughing and was generally miserable. Thank goodness for good tissues and Hall’s Cough drops!
2. This week we had two episodes of This is Us. Oh my goodness I cried almost the entire way through the Sunday night episode, and then again on Tuesday night. I still think this is one of the best shows on the TV right now. Probably because it evokes such emotions in me.
3. We had another 10 inches of snow yesterday. Jack took the snow blower out Wednesday night and then again on Thursday afternoon. The snow is pretty, but really, I am so over winter!
4. I am making great progress with Mandy’s afghan! It really is beautiful and is gets bigger and bigger I love how the variegated yarn has created it’s own color pattern through the afghan. I think maybe another month and it will be done. Possibly sooner.
5. I’ll be going down to see my sister and attend her mother in-laws Memorial Service in two weeks. It will be so nice for us to be together during this time. We don’t get to see each other too often. Thank goodness for cell phones and unlimited calling!

I seem to be list oriented this week, as we start the month of February. The first Friday of February, can you believe it?

I returned to Weight Watchers on Wednesday and here are my thoughts on getting back to taking care of my eating and my health.

1. I returned to Class after nearly a year hiatus. Not because I wanted to be, but because 2017 was a tough health year for me I had lost quite a bit of weight, mostly because I could not eat.
2. It was more than wonderful to see my old friends in Class. I got so many hugs, and so much love. If that isn’t encouraging, I don’t know what is. My main goal now is to finish losing the extra weight and to learn to make healthier choices!
3. I stayed after class to learn about Weight Watchers new program. It sounds very good, but I have to tell you that my head is still swimming with all the information!
4. I started out on Thursday morning, trying to make sense of this program. After lunch I felt a bit overwhelmed and also hungry. Now here is the deal, I had eaten a wonderful breakfast, and I spent time making a good lunch. There was no reason I should have been hungry, except you say “diet” to me and suddenly my mind thinks I’m starving!
5. I’ve still got 19 points to use today, so I guess I will try to plan a normal dinner. I think chicken fajitas. I have steak fajitas for Jack. If I am lucky and this works well, by my birthday in November I will be at my goal weight.

This week the Friday Five will center on my feelings about keeping Dackel Princess alive. I’ve been keeping her going since 2005!  It all started out during the Blog craze, where everyone was blogging. I was feeling frustrated having no where to share my thoughts about Shubi’s illness and my cousin Janet, and our friend Megan, suggested I start a blog. I tossed out several titles, and Megan like The Dackel Princess. And in May of 2005, Dackel Princess was born. So, here is The Friday Five for January 26th, 2018!

1. Originally I wrote about Shubi. My very first dackel.

My darling Shubi!

She had gotten sick in 2003 and I had no outlet for my feelings, as I watched her getting sicker and sicker with a disease called GME. (Granulomatous Meningoencephalitis (GME) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system.) Shubi fought the disease valiantly, with monthly capsules of Chemotherapy, and high doses of Prednisone. Eventually I could see what the medications were doing to Shubi and I stopped them, and 2 years after her diagnosis, Shubi went to Rainbow Bridge.

2. When I learned Shubi was so ill and would not survive, I wrote to a friend in Germany telling her about it. She arranged for me to get a dackel from German Champions. After a phone call, where Jack used his best German, we arranged to go over in May of 2004 to get baby Greta.

Baby Greta!

3. After Shubi’s death, we brought Greta to a German dog show where she got her rating. She was rated as Excellent! Then I found a German boy dog, who happened to live quite close to us here in New Hampshire and Greta became a mother December 10th, 2006 to five beautiful babies.

Anneliese & Arnie when they were babies!

That was when Dackel Princess became a puppy blog. I wrote about the puppies and how they grew and of course Arnie and Anneliese stayed with me, and I wrote all about them. Anneliese’s puppies, and life amongst the hounds!

4. But eventually I stopped breeding and then the grandchildren came and I began to write about them, my home, my love of cooking, traveling and photography.  Now I realize, that I may not be a dachshund, but because of my love for dackels, I am The Dackel Princess!

5. I’m not sure how much longer I will continue to write. I suppose as long as I have something to say. I love sharing my life, my thoughts, my recipes, with all of you. And I sure hope that you enjoy reading it.

Another week has come and gone. It seems that January is flying by, and as I write, I wonder if all of 2018 will be like this? In any case, here are five things I am thinking of as the week closes and the weekend begins.

1. Finally Jack and I are recovering from out mid winter colds. It’s been a real monster and very hard to shake. In fact it has lasted almost 3 full weeks.
2. We are finally warming up a bit, after several weeks of below zero or single digit temperatures. In many ways, I am ready for Spring!
3. I have actually gotten some important house work done the last few days. I do what I’ve been told. Work for an hour and then take an hour off…It’s worked and in many ways it’s like Spring cleaning, without the warmer temperatures!
4. I made a great Prime Rib Roast the other night. It came out quite well, and today I will make a nice beef stew with some of the leftovers.
5. This weekend, my big plan is to get all the Christmas stuff together and get it put away for another year. I have wrapping paper I bought for 50 cents, and bags of bows for 25 cents! I also bought my Christmas cards because they were on sale, but also because I loved their antique style! So I am already for Christmas 2018

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and my your days be filled with fun things and good friends and family times!

Oh yes, and GO PATRIOTS!!!

I woke this morning and I am actually feeling better. After being ill since just after Christmas, it made me very happy to actually feel better. So here is today’s Friday Five!

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1. After not being able to breathe through my nose for weeks, I can actually breathe and not have to blow my nose every two seconds! Yay nose!

2. I can once again swallow. I have lived on liquids for a couple of weeks because swallowing has been hard. My cough is also slowing down, after weeks of gagging, hard, coughing.

3. Despite the fact that I could not eat whole foods, I have not lost any weight. Thus confirming my belief that I could survive a nuclear holocaust as long as I had some sort of liquid. Vodka perhaps?

4. Jack bought me a new rug cleaner in November for my birthday. At first I was nervous about using it, but I have to say, it is the best machine (Bissell ProHeat 2X® Revolution™ Pet Pro Carpet Cleaner/2007) I have ever owned! And the cleaning fluid, Bissell 1990 Pro Pet Urine Eliminator Upright Deep Cleaner Formula + Oxy, is magic! It has worked on old stains as well as new ones. If you have a dog or cat, trust me this works like a charm!

5. Jack is also a bit better, although not quite on par with me. I am hoping that with a few more days of rest he will be on the mend along with me.

I woke up this morning to more snow. Now ordinarily I could care less, but I had an important doctors appointment and this rapidly falling snow was only going to make it more difficult. Here is how my day went.

1. I kept waiting, hoping they would call and reschedule my appointment. But they never did. In fact once I got there, the secretary told me that almost everyone had cancelled today I could have come in sooner. Grrr!
2. Jack and I had a quick small lunch and then we headed to the doctor’s office. The roads were terrible! This was at 1:15 PM and at that time we had probably 6-8 inches of snow.
3. Jack drove (thank goodness as I really flip out driving in those situations and Jack does not). Everyone was driving about 15 to 25 miles per hour, as things were brutally bad. Jack is such a great driver and I knew we would be fine.
4. However, there was one guy in a little sports car that was driving so fast and fishtailed his car’s rear end all over the place. I seriously thought he was going to go into a tree.
5. Jack just came in from digging a little path for the dachshunds. He says there is at least 10 inches now and they have forecast more snow until 4 AM on Friday. So when all is said and done we will probably have over a foot.
6. Oh yes, I did make it in to see my doctor. Well, actually he wasn’t there and I saw this wonderful Nurse Practitioner. Truth be told, I liked her more than I did him, and I felt that she listened to me better, as well as gave me a more thorough physical exam. Diagnosis, Bacterial Sinus Infection, which explains the high fevers, painful sinuses, and a rather gruesome multitude of other symptoms! Treatment: nasal sprays and antibiotics. Then all should be well.

Here we are the last week in 2017. The last Friday. Not only has this week gone by quickly, but the entire year seems to have flown by. But as the year ends here are some things on my mind.

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1. There really isn’t anything more important than Love. Love for your family, your friends, but probably most importantly, love for yourself. If you do not love yourself first and take care of yourself, you will be unable to truly love anyone else.

2. After love, I think physical health is most important. Thus, my New Years Resolution (of which there are a few this year) is to go back to Weight Watchers and not only lose a little weight, but to get healthy! This will mean eating well, and getting out and moving again. 2017, where I was so ill, has found me in the worst shape of my life. I need to be healthy, body, mind and spirit!

3. Care. This year I plan to dedicate myself to caring more for my home. Being unwell, I let a lot of things go. This year (Resolution) I want to get each room cleaned  and spend time painting and resealing each window. The painting and sealing is so important.

4. I want to work on my blog more. (Resolution) I let it go so much. Thanks so my friend, Megan, I have a new look and now I am ready to daily blog once again! I have so much to say, so much to share. So 2018, look out, here I come with some new posts!

5. Back to crocheting. I love working with my hands, and while making Savannah’s afghan I found that the motions of crocheting, helped the arthritis in my hands! So I have two projects I would like to do this year. Both are big projects. Both will be incredibly fun!

So I think 2018 will be a wonderful year, full of hope, dreams and excitement! Spent with the ones that I love, and of course, watching my grandchildren grow! Life is good and if there are days it deals me lemons, I shall make lemonade!