Eggciting

OK, so I have this new obsession. It's playing Hatchlings on Facebook. My friend and co-worker Amy "invited" me in early January. It took me awhile to accept and then getting the hang of it took a bit longer. I am now ranked in the mid-seventies in the Philadelphia region and spend time every day "hunting" for eggs and feeding my Hatchlings. I've tried to get my friends and family to join so I have more places to hunt. So far only Auntie Beth has joined. She hasn't played yet but I always can find an egg in her *basket*!

The egg pictured here is my current favorite, the Mardi Gras egg.

Now it's off to Facebook to find some more..

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Quote for the day: The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket. ~ Andrew Carnegie

Crissy

Today is the 21st anniversary of when my sister died. Anniversaries should be things you celebrate with joy, not with sadness. They need to come up with another word. I tell people that for the first couple of years when the day came I was very sad. As the years pass I’m less sad and more wistful but you never forget the death of someone you love. I still find myself forgetting that she's actually gone and then remember and start wondering what she would be like today. I can now think of her and a smile will come to my face.

This year was particularly tough. I thought I could get through the day without crying but I was not successful. Maybe next year will be better. There's lots more I could say but I think everyone knows what I mean.

Here's a link to what my Aunt Beth posted today - she said it so well.
http://betharment.blogspot.com/2009/02/crissy.html

Quote/poem for the day:

A Child Of Mine (To All Parents)

Edgar Guest

I will lend you, for a little time,

A child of mine, He said.

For you to love the while she lives,

And mourn for when she's dead.

It may be six or seven years,

Or twenty-two or three.

But will you, till I call her back,

Take care of her for Me?

She'll bring her charms to gladden you,

And should her stay be brief.

You'll have her lovely memories,

As solace for your grief.

I cannot promise she will stay,

Since all from earth return.

But there are lessons taught down there,

I want this child to learn.

I've looked the wide world over,

In search for teachers true.

And from the throngs that crowd life's lanes,

I have selected you.

Now will you give her all your love,

Nor think the labour vain.

Nor hate me when I come

To take her home again?

I fancied that I heard them say,

'Dear Lord, Thy will be done!

'For all the joys Thy child shall bring,

The risk of grief we'll run.

We'll shelter her with tenderness,

We'll love her while we may,

And for the happiness we've known,

Forever grateful stay.

But should the angels call for her,

Much sooner than we've planned.

We'll brave the bitter grief that comes,

And try to understand.

(gender changed from the original poem to female)

Stand By

OK, so I've decided I can't keep up with this posting every single day thing (my apologies to Jen!). I will only post when I have something really profound (or funny) to say.

I'm sure my (four or five) loyal readers will understand. And yes, I know I used way too many parentheses in this post!

Quote for the day: Mama always said life was like a box a chocolates, never know what you're gonna get. ~ Forrest Gump (as portrayed by Tom Hanks)

Blah

Today was a kind of blah day. Woke up with a kind of stuffy head and itchy ears. Did as little as possible, took a nap and then went to dinner at the Farmer's Market. We usually don't go on Saturday so it was kind of different. First we ran into our accountant and talked to her for a few minutes. Then ran into our former next door neighbors. Their son was like a grandson to Frank's mom so it was really good to see them. "Little Mike" is now so tall and grown-up looking. Then ran into two of my cousins who I haven't seen in ages. Justin had a son that I had never seen, he's now 11 months old and is adorable. Looks exactly like his father and uncle looked when they were babies. We'll have to start going on Saturdays more -- it was a great way to catch up with everyone.

Quote for the day: Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless. ~Bill Watterson

Karaoke Night

Went to Karaoke at the Elk's club. Auntie Beth and I went and joined Uncle Son and Aunt Barb. Julia and Robin and some of their friends were also there. Couldn't get Auntie Beth to perform. She just refuses to admit that she has a *wonderful* voice.

Quote for the day: Always keep a song in your heart – it’s like karaoke for the voices in your head. ~ Robert Fulton Abernethy

Little Things

Little things I'm thankful for:

• people who say thank you when they really don't have to
• the sweet lady who cleans our office and does an excellent job
• the lights all being green when I'm running late for work
• same as above only when I'm in a hurry to get home
• my short commute (3.2 miles)
• M*A*S*H reruns
• a cold Diet Coke
• the Chinese buffet when I'm really hungry

Quote for the day: Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. ~Robert Brault

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A Car of a Different Color

My first car that was all mine was a Chevy Chevette. It was one of the very popular, at the time, two-toned ones. It was burgundy and tan. That car was amazing. AM radio, no AC and vinyl seats. The steering wheel was black so when it was hot out I sometimes worried my hands would blister. That little car was great in the snow, got great mileage and never really let me down. Three cars later I'm now driving a Jeep Cherokee Laredo. This car is also currently two-toned; burgundy on top and white on the bottom. They've invented a vaccine for polio and almost eradicated smallpox from the face of the earth, why oh why can't they invent a road salt that doesn't turn my car white?

Quote for the day: Take it with a grin of salt ~ Yogi Berra

Snow Memories

I remember going outside and playing all day in what seemed like feet of snow. Now a big storm is a couple of inches. I remember Dad carrying me and my sister to a local store to get us boots. They were those cute red ones that had elastic bands that hooked around a button to close. We usually wore them with bread bags over our socks so we wouldn't get our pants all wet. I now wear what I call "duck shoes" and would never even think about putting on bread bags. When I was a little older I remember going sledding at a local golf course and hoping that whatever it was you were sliding on (sled, cardboard box, trash can lid) would stop before you hit the creek. I never made it that far but our Associate Pastor once ran into a tree and couldn't sit comfortably for awhile. It's been decades since I've heard of anyone going sledding there.

When I was a kid I looked forward to snow. Now I look forward to it melting. I'm tired of scraping my car in the morning, saying goodbye to my husband as he goes out to salt and plow and hoping I don't fall on my face as I try to make it into work in the morning. I still enjoy how pretty it looks while it's coming down, I just hope that it's all gone by morning.

Quote for the day: The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball. Doug Larson

The Good Ole' Days

Remember that email that was going around a couple of years ago about the kids that were graduating that year and how they hadn't lived without things like microwaves and cable TV? I’m so old that I can actually remember getting up from the couch and changing the channel. There were two knobs, one for VHF (channels 1 through 13, I think) and then UHF for the higher channels. In total I think there were 4 channels on VHF (ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS) and then 3 on UHF (17, 29 and I think the third was 48). Then there were little knobs for adjusting the horizontal and vertical picture and brightness and contrast. Remember how the picture “rolled” when something was going wrong? Then came the miracle of cable. I remember the box in our house had 30 channels. I think there were two rows of 15 and a switch that you used to switch between the rows. Ours had an extra long cord and it reached all the way to Dad’s seat on the couch. I like to think of it as a “corded” remote.

I recently actually yelled downstairs to Frank when I couldn't find the remote… the TV is less than 5 feet away.

Quote for the day: I wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's a knob called "brightness," but that doesn't work. ~Author Unknown

25 things

There's this "tagging" thing that I've seen on Facebook where people are listing 25 things that others might not know about them. Since I don't care to share mine with 1/2 the world I decided I'd give it a try here. The 4 or 5 people reading this probably know most of these but might be surprised by a few.

1. my favorite flower is the lilac
2. my favorite color is purple
3. I love country music; mostly the older stuff
4. I'm addicted to reality TV
5. my favorite movie is "The Wizard of Oz"
6. my all time favorite TV show is M*A*S*H
7. my favorite cookie is the Snickerdoodle
8. I love staying up late and watching corny old TV shows
9. I can drive stick shift but only like to do it when no one else is in the car with me
10. I have a large collection of magnets that people have given me from all over the U.S. (I have some from foreign countries too!)
11. I'm currently addicted to playing Yahtzee on Pogo
12. I can remember phone numbers from jobs 20 years ago but usually can't remember what I had for dinner last night
13. I ended up becoming what I said I wanted to be when I grew up
14. if I could have any car that I wanted it would be a candy apple red 1964 Mustang (convertible, of course)
15. in my entire life I have only tasted coffee once (not including coffee ice cream which I totally dislike)
16. my worst OCD trait is that I have to check the alarm clock several times to make sure it's set before I can go to sleep
17. I graduated 11th in my class in High School
18. the most fun I ever had was crashing into my Dad (multiple times) on the bumper cars at Knoebels - Jordie was my passenger and loved it too!
19. my favorite scent is a baby after they've been bathed
20. my favorite book is "Gone With the Wind" and I've read it twice
21. I find it almost impossible to wear underwear that doesn't match what I'm wearing (I blame my mother for this)
22. I used to be an officer in the US Coast Guard Auxiliary
23. I usually brush my teeth in the shower
24. I once shot at and hit a groundhog. I have a witness!
25. It took me way longer than I thought to complete this list

That's it.

Quote for the day: Toto I’ve a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. – The Wizard of Oz