Bring me back those sweet little romances

Oh how I love doing these things!

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have medium conscientiousness. You're generally good at balancing work and play. When you need to buckle down, you can usually get tasks done. But you've been known to goof off when you know you can get away with it. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

And back on the movie topic: I saw the movie "Rent" on Tuesday night. Well, really it's more of a musical. I love LOVE the music in it! Now I want to own it and will probably, after the next pay day, start to haunt the pawn shop where son and friends buy their movies to try to find it. I'd heard about this movie for years and when I saw it at the library on Monday night, scooped it and three others up. Monday night was a nasty, slippery night but I had both movies and books due at the library because the library had been closed for four days.

The library movie I saw last night was "The Libertine". Maybe I'm just being a prude about it but this movie was a bit much for me. The "c" word was sprinkled throughout. Despite the best efforts of "The Vagina Monologues" I really don't like that word. The movie is set in "decadent 17th century London" and the movie jacket isn't kidding about the decadent part. Johnny Depp and John Malkovich star, and I really like the both of them and they did an understanding acting job, especially Depp (as always!) But this movie was so unlike the pretty little romantic novels I've read about that period that I just can't like it and never want to see it again. I thought I appreciated gritty and real but not in this case, bring me back those sweet little romances!

Well, hope your day is sweet, as opposed to gritty and real!

Turkey: I almost won

OK, this is really old news by now. Reading about Rainey Pete's gasoline win reminded me that I promised to tell you how I almost won a turkey, a week ago.

Of course it all started when I was driving to work, like most of my weekday stories start. I was listening to my favorite radio morning program while driving over the interstate bridge. I was in a great mood for going to work, because last Wednesday was the "Friday" of the week, we weren't open Thursday or Friday.

The two DJs on the radio were joking around with callers and playing music, but also trying to get people to come to the station to win a turkey. They said they had 100 turkeys to win and all that one needed to do was stand below their third floor window and catch one. They recommended bringing a laundry basket to catch the (frozen) birds.

I thought it was cute and funny but didn't think too much more of it until I was driving towards the bayfront area, where our office suites moved on November 1st. The DJs started talking to the people who were bridged by our famous aerial lift bridge, telling them to get out of their cars and catch a turkey. I suddenly realized that the radio station was across the street from where I parked my car for work!

I sped up and could see the crowd standing below a building window. The DJs were yelling down to the crowd to "watch your heads" and "get ready". Over the radio the male half was gasping about how heavy the box was as he was lifting it up to the window. I parked my car and started running across the parking lot.

The third floor window opened wider, a basket appeared and tilted over and....slips of paper came drifting out! The crowd leaped and grabbed the pieces of paper, which were coupons for a free 12-13 pound turkey. Despite my sprinting, the paper and most of the crowd were gone by the time I reached the sidewalk below the window.

The female half of the DJs was on the street with headphones. She was on the air when she described my mad, futile dash and said to me "sorry, they're all gone". That was it, it was over that fast and no turkey for me. But later I was sort of glad I hadn't won, or at least not as sad. I didn't have to cook a turkey this holiday. Have a great day!

Sleeping around

I like variety in sleeping places and now that we're in a bigger house, I can do that again. The little country cabin had three choices for sleeping, the futon or the couch, and the big brown recliner chair all in the living room. Sadly, we don't have the recliner any more. It wouldn't fit up the apartment stairs and I wish we'd just stored it so we'd have it now, but I truly thought we were going to be tenants for years at least. I really miss having the recliner and saw that the place where I bought the new couch and chair had 30% off on the exact match recliner to our living room set!

So amid the other shopping on Friday, I went to check it out. The price tag said $900, so I went to ask, figuring that was the base price, not the sale price. But the actual price was around $1500 and the SALE price was $900. That was just too much for a recliner, so I resumed shopping for smaller, cheaper things like dog food and groceries. Although it was disappointing to not be able to buy the recliner, it did make me feel pretty good about the price I'd paid for the couch and the chair!

At this house I have the bed in my bedroom, of course, but also the (nice, soft!) leather couch in the living room, the futon in the balcony part of the loft and the other bed in the back (private with a door) room of the loft. There's also the old couch in the family room downstairs but since son has friends in and out, I wouldn't sleep there. So many choices! The futon has a skylight above it, so that's pretty cool, and from up in the loft you can really hear the rain falling on the roof. I like sleeping on the couch in the living room too, but probably most often just sleep in my regular bed. I do miss having a recliner as a sleeping choice, though.

Speaking of rain, it's raining out this morning, after being drizzly slush and slippery yesterday. The interstate bridge was especially treacherous to drive because of the high wind and slipperiness. I normally like rain but this house has a leak in the basement in my son's bedroom! We've patched it, sort of, but obviously not well enough. There's a weird chink in the siding up on the front porch, by the front door. It's exactly over the leak and that's where the water is coming in. Some weeks ago I called the former owner/real estate seller and asked him the name of the siding company. He and his wife had just had this house sided last fall. I'm hoping the same company can put some sort of patch on it, better and more permanent than we did!

Happy Tuesday to you!

Thankful to Julie & Bobby (and a day off)!

Hope you had a great Thursday, Thanksgiving or not. I did. This was the first Thanksgiving that we ever went out for the big meal instead of eating it in. If I just got to sit down at the table and eat, or even just set the table, a big meal wouldn't be so bad. But we start cooking at 7:00 in the morning and do it for long, hot, sweaty hours before the magic time of 2:00 PM rolls around.

I like the turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberries, sweet potatoes and the rest and the leftovers too, but really really hate cooking them. And it's always Mom and me doing all the work while the rest of the family just show up to eat (and maybe help with setting the table or doing the dishes). If I really enjoying cooking, it would be fun. But I don't, so it's not fun.

This year my Mom would probably have done what she did while living with me, sitting in a kitchen chair and directing all of the cooking action, no thanks! Luckily for me she was easily convinced that going out might be a fun thing to try. Plus, neither of my brothers and their families were coming up so it was just us three. Well, it turned out to be us four, as my son asked if his girlfriend could come too.

She has spent a lot of time at our house and is a really sweet girl and I love her. Even my Mom (who just met her for the first time) liked her, which is saying quite a lot! We went to a neighborhood restaurant called "Julie's" and when girlfriend asked who was doing the cooking (she thought it was a family sit-down dinner) we told her "Julie". Luckily she has a good sense of humor, as I don't think she's ever had Thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant before either.

The food was great, even pumpkin pie for dessert was included! Girlfriend had to leave early to attend a regular sit-down family dinner out of town. Son decided that a movie might be nice so we three went to see "Bobby" which I cried most of the way through. It's an excellent movie, very well done. I hope I'm not giving away too much to say that it isn't so much about the history of Robert Kennedy as much as it is about how he affected the people around him. The movie was full of great actors and was so well done that I really cared about the people, even though I know they all (except Bobby, of course) were fictional characters. An excellent choice by son and a watch-worthy movie. Go see it if you haven't already!

Next time I gotta tell you how I almost won a turkey on Wednesday! But then I'd would have had to cook it...so maybe it was all for the best. I have today off from work! A day off! Yay! Wahoo! And....I could keep going. It's really nice to still be here on the computer after 8:00 AM instead of at my desk working. I love it. Have a good day and a great weekend!

Huh?

Where are you? Blogger seems to have eaten my links. That's how I find my favorite blogs and bloggers to read! So if I've missed you, sorry about that.

I hope it's just temporary. I think it's an evil trick to make me try the new Beta Blogger, or whatever it's called. I have an old Google (I had first typed "Goggle, ha ha!) account in which I don't remember the password nor the E-mail that I linked it to (or the password to that old E-mail)! So at this point I can't change to the new version or I won't be able to access my blog!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Fun Music Meme: If Your Life Were a Movie

This meme is way too fun. I've spent too much time on it. It's hard not to listen to the entire song when it comes up. Actually I did it twice, once with my regular playlist and then with the "quieter" playlist. This one is the first one I did. Try it (if you haven't already) the pairings are really pretty funny. It's good entertainment!

Music MemeIF YOUR LIFE WERE A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

Opening Credits - "Gold Digger" by Kanye West (yikes!)
Waking Up - "Fergalicious" by Fergie
First Day at School - "Beverly Hills" by Weezer
Falling in Love - "I Wanna ..." by NIN (ha ha, this one's great!)
Fight Song - "She’s in Parties" by Bauhaus
Breaking Up - "Disposable Teens" by Marilyn Manson
Prom - "Temple of Love" by Sisters of Mercy
Life is Good - "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots
Mental Breakdown - "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath
Driving - "Smoke on the Water" by Led Zeppelin
Flashback - "London Bridges" by Fergie
Getting Back Together - "Brick House" by the Commodores
Wedding - "Don’t Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls (wouldn't THAT be a wedding song?)
Paying the Dues - "Pretty Vegas" by INXS
The Night Before the War - "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake
Final Battle - "Hips Don’t Lie" by Shakira
Moment of Triumph - "Vertigo" by U2
Death Scene - "Midnight Rider" by Allman Brothers
Funeral Song - "Don’t You Forget About Me" Theme from The Breakfast Club (wow, that would work)
End Credits - "I’m Here for the Party" by Getchen Wilson (I love the ending!)

Doesn't that make you want to try it? We have a three day work week and already it's hump day! Yay, have a good one.

Are you dreams still valid?

It's Friday today, the best working day of the week! I'm not going to recount any dreams for you today. Although they were interesting, and... OK I won't go there however tempting.

I went out to dinner with a good friend. At least I consider her a good friend even though we seldom see each other. We had an interesting talk about the book I mentioned yesterday. That conversation segued into daring to do our dreams, which turned into, what ARE our dreams anymore anyway?

Ever feel like that? Like life keeps you so occupied, busy and distracted that you aren't sure what, if any dreams you have left? And are the dreams that you used to have still valid. As a child and teenager I dreamed of living in the country, raising dogs, writing a book, and living simply. Although those sound like they all might fit into each other to make a life, they all were separate dreams. I did all of them, sort of, and they weren't as satisfying as I had though they would be. At least they weren't a stopping point for me in that I wanted to say, "Yes, this is so great that I want to do it for the rest of my life." Basically I tried each of them and then moved on.

And then there were the other dreams of starting my own business, having a bookstore, running a daycare that I spent much of my spare time figuring and dreaming about how I could make it work and how wonderful it would be.

It's funny but in hindsight evaluation, the daycare idea, which was one of my favorites, wouldn't have worked for me. I'm just not into noise, clutter, commotion and dealing with lots (or any) small demanding children! What I liked about that dream was planning the toys, games and environment for the kids. Really, I wanted to educate them and make their life better, not just take care of them. But running a daycare would be mostly just taking care of them with just a little of the rest thrown in. In other words, I wasn't looking at it realistically. True of many of my dreams.

We had that discussion last night and each came back to the original question, well then what is/are my dream(s)? And isn't it intesting that night-time experiences are called "dreams" too. So a book about following your dreams could be about doing the wild crazy things that you dreamt about last night---or, the big goals (sort of aligned with the "How to Be Good" theme) of how do you want to spend your talents and interests.

OK, I'm done now and ready for coffee. Have a good Friday and a wonderful weekend!

How to Be Good

Dreams are kinds of like an invisible friend to a child, and an interesting bonus to adult day-to-day life. When I was still in school someone once told me that you have to be like a hunter to remember your dreams; a combination of sneaking up on them and sitting quietly and waiting for them to come to you. I think that's a flawed analogy, but she had a point. Remembering dreams is a habit that gets stronger and easier with practice. Some people are just not interested in their dreams. I'm interested in dreams because it's a whole another part of oneself doing things and experiencing things. I'm interested in what I did yesterday or last week, so I'm also interested in what I've experienced in dreams. And even though dreams aren't "real" they feel real when you're in them, so it's like you've had that experience.

My dreams are usually about either working or food and often a combo of those two things. Last night was no exception: dreamt that I had a TV show and was sort of famous. I was invited to speak at a conference being held at a hotel. They had a reception for me that was a BBQ, held around a swimming pool. I really wanted to swim but had to mingle and talk with people about my TV show. An ex-co-worker was attending with her mother, they were sharing a hotel room. The mother didn't want to go to any of the seminars but just wanted to go swimming. The rather creepy thing is that in real life the ex-co-worker's mother died five or six years ago when younger than I am right now. There was a lot more to that dream, and there were other not-as-well formed or remembered dreams, but I will not get into them so as to not be (more) tedious!

Probably one reason for the above dream (I once mentioned in a meme about having a TV show on how to be a good person) was that last night I eagerly finished a wonderful book, "How to Be Good" by Nick Hornby. I have several other books that I've been reading off and on but once I started this book I couldn't put it down. Hornby is the author of "About a Boy" and "High Fidelity", which is one of my all-time favorite movies. I'd not read his books before but had been told the books are even better than the movie(s). "How to Be Good" is a book I wish I had written, clever, funny, and very interesting in that the situations and thoughts are so realistic. It's exactly the dilemma that I've been going through all of my life. Like most people, I know HOW to be good, and what I should be doing. But actually doing what I believe in is strangely so difficult in real life.

Here's an Amazon review of the book:
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In Nick Hornby's How to Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It's also why she puts up with her husband David, the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway. But one fateful day, she finds herself in a Leeds parking lot, having just slept with another man. What Katie doesn't yet realize is that her fall from grace is just the first step on a spiritual journey more torturous than the interstate at rush hour. Because, prompted by his wife's actions, David is about to stop being angry. He's about to become good--not politically correct, organic-food-eating good, but good in the fashion of the Gospels. And that's no easier in modern-day Holloway than it was in ancient Israel.

Hornby means us to take his title literally: How can we be good, and what does that mean? However, quite apart from demanding that his readers scrub their souls with the nearest available Brillo pad, he also mesmerizes us with that cocktail of wit and compassion that has become his trademark. The result is a multifaceted jewel of a book: a hilarious romp, a painstaking dissection of middle-class mores, and a powerfully sympathetic portrait of a marriage in its death throes. It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry as we watch David forcing his kids to give away their computers, drawing up schemes for the mass redistribution of wealth, and inviting his wife's most desolate patients round for a Sunday roast. But that's because How to Be Good manages to be both brutally truthful and full of hope. It won't outsell the Bible, but it's a lot funnier.
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I want to read "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy" and anything else this guy has written! Have a great day, and try to be good--but not too good!

Dreaming, and a tragedy

Last night I had two dreams about working. In one dream was I was employed by a corporation that owned a building with office suites, hotel suites and a store. The store was high tech in that every item of food or whatever had an electronic price tag. Oh, I know they already have those in bar codes, but this was interactive in that it would raise a cent when the inventory reached a certain point. The exact number of items remaining was automatically calculated, as was the amount sold per item, per category and per department.

A shopper filled his or her cart and, without taking anything out of the cart, it passed through a sensor that read all of the little price tags. The shopper had a sensor card too, which paid for the items, and received a print-out that they had to sign a copy. Our pay was automatically put onto this sensor card too, daily. Very cool.

The second dream was nearly the opposite in that I was working at a gas station! It was one of those stations with a couple little fast food tables that we kept having to wipe off. People were messy with napkins, catsup and by spilling drinks. We also had one full service gas pump so one of us kept having to run out there to pump gas. Still, it wasn't a very busy station and the guys (all men but me) played video games and I read books between customers. One of the guys gave me an interesting questionnaire-type thing to do and I wish I remembered the questions, but I don't.

Back to real life. You won't thank me for this one. I found this out at work yesterday and don't know any of the people involved. Warning: it's a sad, horrible story:
_________
Macie, a 4-year-old ballerina, was wearing her pretty princess outfit; her little brother, 2-year-old Garrison, had donned his Superman cape.

The siblings, who loved to dress in their Halloween costumes, were sitting side-by-side in a double stroller on their way home from a trip for hot cocoa in downtown Denver when a pickup sped through an intersection Friday night, killing the children and their mother, Rebecca Bingham, 39.

Frank Bingham, 41, the father and husband, was injured in the collision and was admitted at Denver Health Medical Center, said Autumn Stone, a Parker family physician and Bingham's sister.

The driver didn't appear to slow down, witnesses said, but Denver detectives were able to use the license plate that broke off from the pickup to track down 36-year-old Lawrence Trujillo, who owns the red Ford that police believe smashed into the family. Police arrested Trujillo on Saturday on investigation of three counts each of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

The accident was one of the most graphic that Denver traffic cops can recall, said Sonny Jackson, Denver police spokesman. Children's shoes, socks and a "decimated" stroller were scattered across the street for 100 feet.

"That they ran into an entire family and did not bother to stop is unimaginable," Stone said.

The pickup ran several red lights before it reached the intersection of Arapahoe and 15th streets about 8:40 p.m. going between 30 and 40 mph, police said.

Rebecca Bingham, 39, cared for stray animals and liked taking her children to the zoo. Just then, the Bingham couple was pushing the double stroller on their way back to a light rail stop, legally crossing Arapahoe Street, according to police.
Since the accident, Frank Bingham has told relatives that he recalls flashes of the moment, including seeing a truck bearing down on the family.

"It was coming too fast to react," Stone said.

Alice Maynard of Evergreen was putting her four children in her sport utility vehicle nearby when the truck raced through the intersection.

"I saw the stroller flying," Maynard said. "It was horrific."

Frank Bingham fell near the intersection. The truck threw Rebecca Bingham about 25 feet, and Macie and Garrison an additional 25 feet,

Garrison Bingham, 2, was just 16 months younger than his sister and loved to play with her. according to several witnesses. The children came to rest with one on top of the other.

"I saw a whole family get run over last night," said Curtis Reefe, a valet for Gallagher's and La Fondue restaurants. "It's one of the worst things I've seen in my life. I wish I could erase it from my brain."
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The link (you know I can't get links to work well) is denverpost.com if you'd like to read the entire story. Be careful out there and have a good day.

Weekend, revisited

Yeah, I WISH I could revisit last weekend, a three-day long one! It's just that I forgot to mention some of the stuff I did on the weekend. I got out of the habit of blogging everyday, and out of the habit of journaling, too. I've journaled since I was 15-years old, so I don't want to stop or break that habit.

First, the Packers beat the Vikings! That's a plus in my book. Although the Vikings are my second favorite team, I still don't want them to go beating the Packers. My family are all life-long Packer fans, even my brother who moved to Indiana. His kids are even Packer fans! But my son and his friends are all Vikings fans, having all grown up (and most still living) in Minnesota. He does like the Packers second-best though, sort of a reverse to my lineup.

Speaking of my son, two different places have hired him! He has to make a decision of which by Wednesday. Also, he needs to find or get his Social Security Card, and it's probably much harder to get a copy now, with all of the identity theft. He still is enjoying school, which is good. He didn't like high school much but has good memories of some of the things he and his friends did during that time!

I also got to download a batch of music when son hooked up the speed internet to my computer! It was so lovely, I wish I had it all the time but can't afford it or cable TV either. At least for the next few years.

Last weekend I watched the movie "The Way We Were" borrowed from the public library. I remember watching that movie as a young woman and thinking it was a sweet, sad love story. This time I cried through much of it! What a difference a few years and lots of heartache can make. It brought back lots of old memories of past loves. I still don't like Barbara in it that well. She's so loud, shrill, rude and unpleasant.

They are hiring for the 911 Dispatcher job again. It pays $3/hour less than what I'm getting right now, which is quite a drop. Plus I'd be on probation for a time. What if I didn't make it? It's a tough job which requires very fast thinking, not my forte, plus there's the being buried alive down in that underground bunker thing. It's not like my current job would take me back if things didn't work out, either. Most employers are funny that way. If you leave them for whatever reason, they don't ever want you back. They would rather take a chance on somebody new. I just find that sort of odd and vengeful. My current job, for example, will not even refer to anyone who left by their names! It's a taboo to ever mention them again. I guess the company considers an employee leaving as the ultimate betrayal.

Well, have a great Tuesday!

Back to work in the snow

It's been so long since I've signed into Blogger that I hesitated with my password!

Speaking of long, today is the end of a nice long weekend, three days. We were off Friday for Veteran's Day.

I read in the paper that some elementary children were confusing veterans with vegetarians, WTF? So they had a special program to explain what veterans are--and probably did not serve vegetables, as that would further confuse the kiddies. The program for Veteran's Day was a really good idea, as kids still went to school on Friday. It wasn't a holiday off for them.

I'm really trying hard to not be judgmental about this but I just can't do it. Don't these people read books or even watch the news on TV? Nobody had to tell me what a veteran is when I was a kid; we knew that and many others things from, oh, about the age of four or so. We certainly didn't learn that as a third or fourth grader in school. Sigh, that disturbing ignorance is one of the reasons I home schooled my son for several years, as many as I could. But, to be fair to the schools, that's the sort of thing one should on their own, or at least at home from their parents commenting on the news.

I woke up last night and the dark was lightening, you know, like before the day comes. So I thought it was nearly time to get up, even though I didn't feel at all well rested. A look at the clock in the kitchen and it was only 1:30, but a look out the window told the story, we're blanketed in snow. If a car had gone by on the road I could have determined it right away, without looking out the window. Vehicles sound different, muffled when there's snow cover.

Usually I quite enjoy my dreams but I had the weirdest, bordering on nightmarish dreams last night. It one awful dream I put my little dog (whom I love dearly) into a cooking pot of hot water and then, with a big butcher knife, nearly slit her in half so she'd fit in the pot better. She didn't seem to be in any pain but I suddenly realized that she was dying. I'd killed her! Then I woke up. I'd had other horrid dreams like that. Hope you had better dreams last night, and have a decent Monday!

A horse race

You're a Horse!

Versatile, powerful, and true, you have quite a reputation for hard
work and a certain unbridled spirit. Many look up to you as an example of what
people can really become, though somewhere deep down, you admit to feeling a little
bit broken. You hate racing, but are still exceptionally good at it. Beware broken
legs, dog food, and glue. If your name is Ed, you do a surprising amount of
talking.


Take the Animal Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Well, enough of that. I'm still eagerly awaiting to see who has won the Governor's race in my old state. It was neck in neck, a real horse race when I went to bed at midnight. Getting up this morning was hard, but I had a couple of cool dreams after putting on the snooze button twice! I normally never use that button but after several nights of getting to bed late, it just seemed like the thing to do--and getting up out of bed did not.

The new office location has a huge advantage in the off-tourist season, free parking across the street! It's a real luxury to not have to leave home so early in order to find parking, and then walk to the office.

Speaking of walking, son and I walked to the polls after work last night. It was pouring rain but I like "weather" when dressed appropriately. I had to go with him because he wasn't registered yet and also hadn't received his new driver's license yet either. So we did our part for our new state and the election seems to have turned out well, except for the last three questions at the end. One of the questions had to do with reinstating the death penalty in our state and another was the marriage question. When I went to bed last night it looked like all three were winning with "yes" votes.

I'm going to leave you now despite the fact I want to catch up on blog-reading, and go turn the TV on to see how it all came down. Have a great day!

Fresh, hot cornbread

I just finished a piece of freshly baked cornbread. It actually had corn in it and grated cheese (two kinds) on top, so was a meal unto itself. I like trouble-free cooking and eating! Cornbread can be made so many different ways. How do you make yours?

*UPDATE*
Recipe for cornbread. This is a recipe for northern cornbread. I actually like the southern version better. It doesn't have any sugar in it (I don't think) and is different than what we make up here. There are many, many ways to make cornbread:

Basic Northern Cornbread
Stir together these (below) four dry ingredients:
2 cups cornmeal
1/3 cup white flour
1 to 2 tablespoons of white sugar (optional)
a pinch or two of salt

Then add these three (below) items into the dry ingredients:
1 3/4 cups of milk
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 beaten egg

Mix together and pour into greased (shallow) cake pan. Bake at 400F degrees for 20-30 minutes until a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean. The sides of the cornbread will be browned and slightly pulled away from the cake pan.

Other items can be added to the cornbread batter before baking, like this time I added about 2 cups of frozen corn. And after the bread was done, I added about 1 1/2 grated cheese (cheddar and swiss) to the top, so it would melt in.
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As you can see, it's an easy easy recipe to make. My Mom used to make it for my Dad and his buddies while they were out on the lake ice fishing. She'd bring it out to them hot from the oven to warm them up.

Today is a nice warm day. I walked to the gas station to buy the Sunday paper without even putting on a jacket. Yesterday that was not the case, I wore my leather jacket and gloves and still was cold when outside.

I was checking my E-mail and opened up this joke:

Peeing Emergency
Two women friends had gone for a girl's night out.

Both were very faithful and loving wives, however they had gotten over-enthusiastic on the Bacardi Breezers.

Incredibly drunk and walking home, they needed to pee. So they decided to stop in a nearby cemetery.

Having nothing to wipe with, one of them thought she would take off her panties and use them.

Her friend however was wearing a rather expensive pair of panties and did not want to ruin them, but was lucky enough to squat down next to a grave that had a wreath with a ribbon on it, so she proceeded to wipe with that.

After the girls did their business they proceeded to go home. The next day one of the women's husbands was concerned that his normally sweet and innocent wife was still in bed hung over, so he phoned the other husband and said,

"These damn girl's nights out have got to stop. I'm starting to suspect the worst. My wife came home with no panties!"

"That's nothing", said the other husband, "Mine came back with a card stuck between her butt cheeks that said: "From all of us at the Fire Station... We'll never forget
you."
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Have a great rest of your weekend!

You guessed it

Guess what? Well, a couple of you DID guess correctly. The move was not finished, they stopped around noon or so and had a huge spread of food sent in and then played around with the rolling chairs! I wouldn't have been interested in the food anyway (because of being sick) but it really would have been nice if the move had been completed. Oh well. Upon return to the office I hefted boxes around, and moved my own work things twice. The front is not finished yet so I was assigned an office--but it turns out the person was returning on Friday. So after I'd set up shop in that office, I was moved to another office of a person we haven't hired yet.

Everyone was ooohing and aahing over their gorgeous new office and furniture while I was trying my best to not be sad about it. It certainly bites that they couldn't find an office for me when I've worked there since 2000. That I must be in the front with no window to open for fresh air, no view, and worst of all, no privacy. I've said that all before, but seeing all of my co-worker's great pleasure in their new offices was hard for me to take. It reminded me of awhile ago during a staff meeting when the color chips were laid out and everyone but me was eagerly selecting the color of their new office. Yep, it's hard not to be sad about it. I don't know where I went wrong, have worked hard, put in long hours, done a good job, been totally dependable--and get treated like an old shoe. Yeah, I'm a bit bitter about it.

I'm really enjoying my temporary office though. It's one of the few inner offices so has no window but it does have WALLS and a DOOR! How sweet it is to have those again, even temporarily. Of course I wasn't actually in it yesterday. Everyone was asking me, "Where's the ___, or where's the ____?" all day, so even after the move was finished I was still digging through and moving boxes around.

Thank God it's finally Friday as this has been the longest week ever. Have a good day and a great weekend!

What Happened?

Well, we had the big office move yesterday. Don't ask me how it went....because I wasn't there at the end! I think I've picked up a new bad habit, as I went home sick after four and a half hours of work. So I didn't get to see the grand finale of moving. Yikes, I hope they DID finish the move! I'm going to find out soon, when I go to the new office this morning.

I think I'm allergic to moving.

Have a super Thursday!

Moving right along

Today is the day of the big move--at work. It's been far worse than any of my previous, personal four moves this year. And the new office space isn't done yet so the contractors are still there, working on it. Oh joy.

I only had about twenty kids come trick or treating last night. A disappointment, and long gaps of waiting between the groups. My house is kind of on the end of the neighborhood, bordered by a main road. And worse, my front door faces that main road. I saw some groups of kids come to the neighbor's house, then cross the street to go back down without coming to my house (which was sort of out-of-the-way), oh well. It was still fun to see the costumes and I had enough candy to give the kids many pieces each.

from my E-mail:
A New Barbie for Christmas

With his chiselled looks and nippy little sports car, we always suspected Ken might be full of it - but now Barbie has gone and got herself a dog that's gone the same way too.

The latest Barbie accessory is her pet dog, called Tanner, which not only looks like a loveable labrador but also poops like one too. Almost a soon as Barbie has fed the dog its biscuit treats, a little something comes out the other end.

But, in a move designed to encourage responsible dog ownership, toy manufacturer Mattel has provided Barbie with a pooper scooper and bin too, meaning Tanner never has to leave any unwanted 'gifts' lying about on the carpet.

Tanner also comes equipped with dog toys, a bone, biscuit treats, a feeding bowl and a pink lead.

And, just in case that does not get the message across, Mattel has produced a promotional video of Barbie and Tanner playing in the park that shows you how to 'potty train' your dog.

So while Barbie may have seemed like the girl who had everything - including great clothes, cool cars, fabulous horses and no end of accessories - now we know what she was missing.
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Have a great day!