Saturday, November 29, 2008

It was a GOOD birthday :)

I got up to make the 6 am opening of a couple of stores -- had one VERY important gift to buy.
Then I stopped at Macy's and picked up a set of my favo sheets -- 400 count. I am enthralled with the Charter Club brand. They are "just right". And since my last set became threadbare, it was time.
Well, almost time -- we are getting a new bed - a Queen. So in anticipation, I bought a set of queen sheets !

Three stores, ran by McD's and got a biscuit for me and a sweet tea for Colleen -- and I was home by 7:20 !
I wanted to go by Walmart for gifts for the kids names I drew at work (for the Women's shelter) but there was not enough money to be saved to cause me to go there. Perhaps tomorrow.

Good day -- we goofed about and just relaxed.
Dinner was at Harrah's -- oh my, I am in love with the Mongolian BBQ.
(Today I went by the Oriental Market and bought the brand of hot sauce that is used at the restaurant).

Presents !!
Lots and lots of beads from Colleen -- and a great thermal shirt (Army, no less !!).
And a wonderful sweatshirt from the main squeeze. It says, and I quote: "What part of Ya'll don't you understand?"

My B4B package came on Wednesday and I waited patiently until my birthday to open it.

Ok --- Ghiradelli Milk chocolate with caramel .
Size 15's: bronze, burnt orange and creme pearl.
4 mm purple velvet swarovski bicones.
Dark purple drops and dark purple matte size 11 seed beads to go with the bicones!
Gold, pink and rust colored pearls (a strand each!
Copper colored rondelles for embellishment.
More size 11's: gold lines salmon and then salmon plain (yummmm).
Small gold/yellow daggers for embellishment.
A set of end caps form my kumihomo (way cool -- I can't wait).
AND
the most perfect black onyx SQUARE cab !

My friend Rose sent me 2 lottery tickets -- hopefully I'll scratch and win. But even if I don't, I've won anyway.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. "
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Very cold

BITTER cold.
Ick.
We've had snow flurries off and on all week.

My hamstring is getting better everyday.
I had to resort to wearing the orthotics in my tennis shoes. Hate to admit it, but they are working.
Now if I can just get the rest of the darned pain back where it should be.

Haven't beaded much this week as I have been in the wing chair at night with the heating pad on the old hamstringer.

Today we went to Kohl's and I bought a few Christmas and birthday presents.
Gotta "git 'er done...." .

Sunday, November 16, 2008

This and That

Very rainy and windy/stormy all day yesterday.
Last nights storms were intense.
And our sidewalks had a gazillion worms out -- EWWWWWW !

Today the temps have turned much cooler.
And so very windy.
It is turn -- fall mst be here.
The weather forecasters are talking snow flurries next week.
EEK !!

My hamstring is all screwed up again.
Yesterday I was hobbling around like an aged Seabiscuit.
Should have been shot, I tell you !
This morning I went over to the workout room and did the recumbent bike for a bit.
Then came home and used the stretching band.
It's a bit better.
Tomorrow I will just have to wear tennis shoes at work -- and my boss will just have to get over it.
Maybe I will go out and buy some black nike's or something like that. Yeah, yeah -- disguise the shoe for rehab... THAT's the ticket!

Still working on my bead projects.
For the BJP, I have 2.5 months completed.

Nothing much else going on.

We did buy a beautiful display cabinet for the 'library' .
Take note: the Library was the room formerly known as the Dining Room.
We eat in the kitchen dining area. We don't entertain formerly.
This is perfect. We are slowly getting furniture -- piece by piece -- and will put all our books, good stuffed chairs to sit in, my antique library table - in there.
The cabinet was such a bargain !
Oscar Huber is going out of business. It is glass, beautiful wood, the door slides left to right and back again (not swinging out).

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Kentucky Hot Brown

Doris -- this is for you! It is SO good on a cold day.
I'll post later about the beer cheese!


The Kentucky Hot Brown
(from the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky).


This is the BEST lunch sandwich on a cold winter day !

Ingredients
1 stick butter
3 Tablespoons flour (regular)
2 cups milk
1 cup Colby cheese (grated)
1/2 box Parmesan cheese (grated)
Chicken or turkey
Country ham or baked ham
Bacon, fried to a crisp
Tomato slices
Paprika
Tabasco hot pepper sauce (5 dashes or more to taste)
2 egg yolks
In a 4-quart, heavy sauce pan, melt butter. Mix in flour until mixture is smooth. Add milk in small amounts at a time; cook until sauce is thick. Add Tabasco sauce and Parmesan cheese. Remove from heat. Take out 1/2 cup sauce and add the two beaten egg yolks. Mix well and return to the remainder, stirring constantly. Add Colby and American cheeses. Remove from heat.Toast six slices of bread on both sides. Slice each piece in half and place on a heat-resistant plate. Layer with chicken or turkey, ham of your choice, sauce, tomato, and 2 slices of bacon. Top with paprika. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Politics

While I am careful re politics -- I don't care who this is aimed at, I just thought it was amusing!

OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY:Be responsible for yourself!

----------------------------------
MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the groupsinging, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper'ssake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Hillary and Barack go on national television agreeing that the plight of the grasshopper is the fault of George Bush.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of thesummer.The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay hisretroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Obama gets his old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be very careful how you vote in 2008

Treats for ME !!

Saturday I spent the day on the road and with friends from North Jersey.
We have a little "support group" of ladies that all have either worked for IBM (umm that would be Idiot Branch Manager-- from the old company) or unfortunately, still do.
About once a quarter, we try to get together to talk, laugh, talk about him, eat, talk, eat, etc.
We were WAY overdue this time.
Left home about 8 -- drove up, stopped for one quick shopping excursion (a Christmas present), and then we visited.
We ate like horses, laughed a ton and a good time was had by all.
I left North Jersey about 6-ish and got home right at 8:30.

Much to my surprise, when I walked in to the bedroom, there was a box sitting on the bed -- FOR ME !!!
Wheeeeee !
It was from Doris and inside were two (2) of her bags -- one of larger bags (with material that just jumps off the cloth to me !!) and one of the darling pyramid bags.
Inside the larger one was 2 bars of soap -- and they smell SO good!

I was one happy camper !!
I am thinking that the larger one will be great for bead supplies when I am going somewhere -- or even from room to room in the house. That way I can keep all the colors/tubes of one project together while I work them.