Birthday Party

Today my granddaughter, Autumn, is 5 yrs old, and I went to the party. Here is Autumn and her little sister, Arianna:



And of course, Donald did an excellent job on the cake. He said he asked her a week ago what theme she wanted, but she could never make up her mind. Yesterday, with one day to go, she told him she decided on Rapunzel (as she pronounces it, Ree-punzel).
If you have granddaughters and have had to chance to see the movie, you will recognize the cake, and it was certainly elaborate:




Here is a close up of Ree-punzel and her long hair:


And the last picture I took, speaking of long hair, is of my son, Joe, and me. Joe has always had beautiful red hair. For the past number of years he has kept it cut close, nearly shaved, so the color was only barely noticeable in the sun. He has let it grow the past couple of months, and at 34 he has not a gray hair on his head yet. The picture won't show the true glory of the red hair, and it would be much more obvious in the sunlight, but I wanted a souvenir as he is going to cut it before school starts in January.


Finally, a shot of the western sky that was on my camera when I imported the pictures to my computer. I think it was taken a week or so ago - each sunset is more beautiful than the last in this area - and I know I've shown similar views since I've lived in this house.

Will I ever learn?

I am forever misplacing my glasses. I need them for reading, but I find myself forgetting to take them off when I walk about, and when I realize I am still wearing them, I set them in the nearest suitable place.

When I was a young girl I worked in an office with three unmarried middle-aged women. They were wonderful to me, and were like beloved aunts. Each wore a chain around her neck which held her reading glasses, so when she took the glasses off she wouldn't lose or misplace them. It was a symbol of old age to me then, and to this day I don't like the thought of buying one of those chains. I am way past middle age, however, and I really need one, so I wonder if I could wear a chain to hold my glasses, and quickly take it off when someone comes to the door. It would be particularly helpful when grocery shopping as I now have to carry them around and am constantly putting them on to see what is on the shelves and to read labels, but taking them off to walk to the next item on my list. But what if someone I know sees me? What a dilemma!

Several people have suggested that I call Goodwill or some other such organization to pick up my old stove. Although it is over 20 years old, all four burners and the oven work just fine. But pride would demand that I clean it up really well if I expected to donate it. I have the top and front fairly clean and at least it is not sticky, but when Steve was here and pulled it out a bit to check the connections, I found the sides are covered with baked on animal fat that has dripped down. The sides of the stove are sticky beyond belief, and it will embarrass me to even pay someone to take it away, much less to expect someone to use it. I know I could spend a day cleaning it and it would still not be decent, and I don't intend to spend a day trying to clean something I won't ever use myself.

I'm out of bread again so it's time for me to get out the ingredients and measuring cups and spoons. I didn't mention it but the model of machine I am using is Toastmaster Bread and Butter Maker. Yes I could actually make my own butter in it, the paddle churning the cream, without the heating element of course. Can you imagine how many calories I would consume a day if I had fresh home-made bread AND butter? I use nothing but real butter as it is, but if I made it from scratch I'm sure I would use a lot more per slice. I ought to try it out as a small crock of flavored butter would make a nice gift. I like my butter just plain old salted organic, but I know others enjoy garlic flavored or other spices and flavors.

I have been noticing small problems with my laptop once in a while, and am afraid one of these days it isn't going to power up. I still have another year on my extended warranty, but would hate to do without a computer for the week or so it would probably take to fix it. And what if it isn't worth fixing? I sure can't afford a new Mac laptop right now.

My driveway looks halfway decent now as I loaded all the remnants of flooring and a couple of small pieces of carpet into the dumpster that arrived at 8:00 am. The wooden pallet, bagged leaves, Yvonne's satellite dish and a lot of other junk are tossed. Soon I will begin the junk collection again, as I will have the big cardboard box holding the electric range. The stove came double boxed, and Donald took the outer box home for the girls to play in and make a fort. Remember those days, when a refrigerator or other appliance carton was better than any toy?

I'm still here

Just nothing to write about. After spending Sunday walking around the stores I mostly rested on Monday and even today. Tomorrow I'll have a small dumpster in my driveway so I can get rid of a lot of junk from the house - scraps of flooring, cardboard, a rod for vertical blinds (from the smoking room so it isn't worth even trying to clean up), and even a couple of bags of leaves that I raked up.

I checked at the office today and it looks like I'll have to get someone to come out and pick up my old gas range. That means it will cost me, but it's worth it when it comes time to get rid of it.

I wanted to mention that I'm still dissatisfied with the options for email. It seems that many of the programs such as mail.com, Thunderbird, and many others, merely collect your email from other accounts such as gmail. What I was looking for was a completely new email program and address. I know they are out there, but some of them don't have very good organization. Right now I'm just plodding along with gmail and the "old" screen. Maybe they will let me keep that screen for a while; I can always go back to using AOL if I need to.

It looks like a slow boring TV night, so I'll probably listen to music for a while and then turn in early. Catch ya later.

Shopping trip

My daughter called me a little after 9:00 am to ask if I wanted to go shopping with her. The clincher was that she was going alone, no kids along. I love the kids dearly, but remembering having to shop with four little ones of my own I must say one of the joys of aging is that you no longer have to deal with taking kids into stores. It was a good day for me because she drove, and is willing to drive to places I wouldn't go near especially on a weekend. I didn't buy much, but I did get one of the most important gifts on my list. The best part though is spending time with my daughter. We don't have the opportunity very often, so I couldn't pass up the chance.

I am totally worn out this evening and will just sit in my recliner after a supper of sandwich and a beer.

Thanks to those who left me positive comments on my Ireland and Appalachian Trail blogs. I need to go over them myself and do some editing and fixing, as well as to add pictures. I have tons of photographs taken on my extensive travels, and as soon as I get a scanner working I will start posting them plus writing descriptions to go along with them. I have quite a few wonderful memories of Korea, Tokyo, El Salvador, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, etc., plus many photos taken on various trips in the US.

Someone asked why I would want to quit blogging, and the answer is that while I really love comments on what I write, I don't like criticism and ridicule. When the Mr. Angry Anonymous decides to leave a nasty or jerky comment, I just feel like throwing it all away, which is probably the exact reaction he wants. But I don't like to play games, and I would rather get out of the arena than to deal with the aggravation it causes me. He always waits until he figures I have become complacent and then BAM! I don't know how others feel about it, but I don't think I'm alone - maybe my skin is just a bit thinner. Once in a while I read a blog that I don't agree with, but I hope I never leave a comment that is hurtful or insulting.

I bought the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies, and will have a cookie baking session when Ara is home for Christmas holiday. I'm thinking of including the 5 yr old and nearly-4 yr old, although I can't imagine working in my kitchen in a group of 2 adults and 2 little girls. I wish I had a dishwasher, and I sure wish my new electric range hooked up. It's too bad (or maybe it's a blessing in disguise) that I am not set up for sleep-overs or we could really make it a fun celebration. I do hope to have Ara spend a night sometime, as I finally found Piper Heidseck champagne, which I think is the perfect tasting champagne, and I want to share it with someone. I really wanted to have some champagne to celebrate my moving into my home but I don't drink that stuff alone. Some things are just too social and need company for complete enjoyment (good coffee almost fits that description as well). But I can't let her drive home, so she will have to spend the night.

I mentioned previously that I was looking for an alternative to gmail, and I have tried two programs so far. Neither of them is any easier to use than gmail, and in fact, are a bit more complicated, or possibly less intuitive. I will keep searching. I will only try a program that lets me keep my gypsy97 name, which leaves out Yahoo. I tried to create a Yahoo account years ago and must have messed up the first try, so I will never be able to use it again there. I use Yahoo groups, but email isn't an option, and Hotmail is a windows program (I believe).

This morning when Jeannie got here she wanted to look at the ads in my Sunday paper while I was drying my hair. All of the sudden all of the electric went out, all through the house. I didn't know what to do or whether this was an outage throughout the park, or what. I went outside to see if I could see any lights anywhere, and stopped a gentleman out for a walk. I asked him if he had seen any lights or Christmas lights on and explained that I had no electricity. He said he was a retired electrician (am I lucky, or what!) and came over to check it out. I had no clue where the electric panel is, and it turned out to definitely not be outside. He said it is usually indoors and asked if he could come in and look for it. We found it in my bedroom closet, and he reset it so I had electric. When I take a shower I set my little electric heater on the bathroom sink and aim it toward the shower, but I turn it off before I turn on the hairdryer. This morning I set the little heater back in the living room and aimed it at Jeannie while I was drying my hair. I found out the heater and hairdryer can't be on at the same time, just as it was in my RV. So I learned to stop and think twice before I turn the hairdryer on, as well as to appreciate Frank, the retired electrician. It seems there are a lot of folks in this park who offer help to those who need it. Not everyone, but a lot of them.

A couple of additions

In response to Carolyn's inquiry about my Ireland blog, I have added links to both my journals written while I was in Ireland (2000-2003) and my backpack journey of the Appalachian Trail (1997). The Ireland blog consists of only a few entries, but one of these contains daily journal entries. The blog was taken from letters written to my mother while I was in Ireland, and there are noticeable gaps plus the entries she didn't save from the last year I was there. I think it may have been because a man was living with me (horrors and shame!!!) and she just didn't approve.

I used a different program for the Appalachian Trail blog so it isn't quite like what you may be accustomed to in Blogger.

I removed these links a while back when I was seriously considering tossing the whole blog thing into the can. I still have days like that once in a while, when I wonder why I even keep this up.

I decided it was time for a new header photo, and this one depicts one of my favorite sites - Mt. Shasta. It is seen from a great distance in every direction, and when it first comes in sight you can't help but feel your heart jump in amazement at the beautiful sight of it. I make no claims to be a good photographer, and I normally don't enhance or do anything to my photos. This is mainly because I'm too lazy to sit down and really learn how to do it. I also realized many years ago that you can't capture the beauty of nature on film or on a canvas. You can come close, but some sights just have to be held in memory. I guess the photos or drawings help to trigger the memory, and I hope my poor attempts at picture taking trigger the memories of those who have been fortunate enough to see Crater Lake and Mt. Shasta.


This was taken during my visit with Judy and Emma back in August of this year:


These pictures were from my stop at Crater Lake in Oregon as well as the views of Shasta:









Since these photos are from the CD of film developed at Costco, they don't act the same as photos imported from my digital camera. For this reason, you may not be able to enlarge them to the same degree.

The floor is finished!

Donald came over this afternoon and finished the bedroom floor. I will still have to buy baseboard and have it put down, but that can wait as far as I'm concerned. The floor looks wonderful, and I'm now willing to start putting things in their proper place. I ended up with a complete package of flooring, plus a near-complete package that had mostly damaged planks in it. I am going to try to return the full one and get a credit on the partial. There is also a complete roll of underlayment, and I hope to get some money back.

I wrote an email to Home Depot to tell them about the delivery of my stove without letting me know when I could expect it, and it subsequently sitting on my porch all week. I heard back from them today expressing their apologies and offering me a $45 gift card. I accepted the card, and hope that it plus the money back on unused and unusable flooring will take a chunk out of the cost of a range hood, or even a dishwasher. I don't want to order anything online again for a while even though I know mistakes can happen in the stores as well as online. All in all, I really like Home Depot.

Donald moved the stove inside the house for me after he finished the floor. It was double boxed and strapped to the wooden pallet, so by the time he got it down to one box it came through the door easily so that we didn't have to remove the stationary door. The next job will be to pull out the old stove and cap off the gas line. I won't be in a great hurry to get the electric wired in, as I can use the microwave and slow cooker if necessary.

The girls came over with Donald so when they tired of coloring pictures we watched cartoons. Autumn asked me if I watch cartoons when they aren't here, and I had to tell her no I don't. They like to snack when they are here because they know what I keep on hand for them. They always start out with wanting grapes, because Nana always has grapes in the fridge. The grapes are wonderful this time of year, and I will get a new supply tomorrow.

Another day of rest

I think this could be habit forming. The only work I've done today is laundry and bagging leaves that were piling up in my driveway. In the mid-50's and sunny, it was a beautiful day for hanging out the wash. The sun makes such a difference with its lovely warmth. The outdoors sometimes feels warmer than inside my house!

I don't like to set the thermostat very high in my house - never did. I have it set mainly to come on in the early morning hours when the temps reach their lowest. During the day if I'm sitting still I turn on my little electric heater. My electric bills for the past two months that I've lived here show that my usage is between 200-250 kwh per month. While I didn't request it, the Park office put me in for an energy assistance rate, which I believe is a senior low income discount. I didn't try to apply for that because I've never been considered to be in the low-income range, although maybe just above it. I'm glad to have the discount, and my electric bills range from $17 to $21 monthly. BIG, BIG difference from what RV parks charge!

I want to thank everyone who had comments and suggestions about my complaint about gmail. Shadowmoss mentioned a free program called mail.com, so I tried it and have a new email address: gypsy97 at mail dot com. For the time being my mail will be forwarded from my gmail account to the mail account, and I'll see how it goes. One thing I will be watching is the spam catcher. For some reason I am on the list to send mail about Rolex watches, viagra and sex enhancements. Gmail does an excellent job of catching the spam. (I hope my blog doesn't end up in everyone's spam catcher because of the mention of this crap.)

It was another morning of waking up to the aroma of fresh bread. I actually enjoyed getting up,and again found the perfect loaf. It is interesting that the recipes that come with this particular bread machine ALL call for 1 tsp of lemon juice, and I already had a bag of lemons in my fridge so I use fresh juice. Wherever I go in Sacramento this time of year I see the bright yellow of lemons on trees overhanging fences, and once in a while oranges and tangerines. I may try to find a small lemon tree that can be planted in a big container for my backyard. We all miss the tangerines that loaded down Bill's backyard trees. At Christmas time he used to send the large flat rate boxes from the Post Office to friends and relatives all over the US, and I'm sure they all miss it too. But I digressed from the discussion of lemon juice. Does anyone have an idea what this does to the bread making process? I looked in my other cookbooks and find nothing even similar in bread recipes.