Your Mother Should Know ...

The party's started! Come join us!

The DixiePieces crop started at noon PST today. Missed it?  Me, too; I was still at work!  But not to worry.  There's still plenty of fun for everyone, and we have until Sunday night at 9pm PST (I think) to get our finished challenges uploaded.

And there are prizes!  Come on over!

If you were going to be in a variety show, what would you do?

This is our BPS: A Life Well Crafted question of the week. What's YOUR answer? I would sing a duet with my husband. He has a wonderful voice, and I've always wanted to do the duet but never quite had the courage to do it. I wanted to do it in our wedding and DH was all for it, but I chickened out. I had the song picked out, practiced it and everything; then I asked others to sing it. Can you say "chicken"? LOL I'm older now and have a wee bit more courage, so I might actually make it through a song on stage. Or not!  I hope people wouldn't throw raw vegetables at us! The carrots could really hurt!

Posting from EMail

Did you know it was possible to post to your TypePad blog from email? Me either, but this brief message proves it! You can also post from your mobile phone, but I don't think I'll be doing that will my texting how-slow-can-you-go speed! LOL

ETA:  wow, that was fast!  I think I like this feature!

A State of Diminished Capacity

I'm not feeling well, dang it!  I've had a sore throat for several days, and I don't know if it's a continuation of January's sinus infections or something totally new and different.  And it's Sunday, so I won't learn until tomorrow IF the doctor's office is open on the holiday.  If it's not, I may be headed for the walk-in clinic.  Burning eyes suggest I now have a fever, too.  DH reminded me that meant my body was fighting something off.  I know, but it still makes you feel crappy. 

And I'm blaming my minor self-inflicted wound on my diminished capacity.  Otherwise I would never have tried something that involved BLOOD -- even if the doctor did say I could handle it myself.  I won't go into details but will tell you that it involved a spoon, my arm, a mole, and BLOOD.  And was only partially successful! 

Here's the layout I completed for the DixiePieces' weekly challenge (there's a new challenge for this week; go check it out).  I've been wanting to scrapbook this picture, taken at Christmas, for a while.  The black beanies were stocking stuffers and a bit of an family joke, but the kids wear them well.  Robert and I?  Not so much.  LOL

What are you willing to hunt for or pay good money for to ensure its authenticity or originality?

This was our Monday question from the BPS Class "A Life Well Crafted", and I can't think of a thing I'd be willing to purchase that required authenticity.  All the important things in my life can't be bought.  I'm healthy, safe, my kids are doing well, life is good.  Hmmm... I might pay a very small amount for a good joke!

Proof that I married a short man.

DH decided yesterday was pruning day.  It was cold, but it was NOT raining and seemed like a good idea.  We wanted to trim this bush but had no idea what it was called or if we could trim it just prior to spring budding like the trees.  DH dug around the base and found the plant tag.  This lovely perennial is called a Solidago canadensis or "Baby Gold". So I looked it up but still could not offer any pruning advice.  There is none BECAUSE "the average mature size is 18" wide and 24" tall".  Hello?  Two feet tall?  I couldn't believe it and checked our Western Garden Book plus a half dozen online references.  So there ya go.  Proof positive that my husband is approximately two feet tall.  And shrinking.

On the other hand, the plant could be over six feet tall, but that doesn't jive with the experts' information.

 

What kitchen utensil or appliance do you use the most?

This was our Monday question from the BPS Class "A Life Well Crafted", and I've been thinking about it -- when I had time to actually "think" -- for a few days.  My answer:  the microwave. 

Way, way back in the day, I learned to cook for my parents and siblings.  There were seven of us, and we didn't cook small portions.  After I married, it was a bit of an adjustment to cook for just two people.  We had no microwave, and all leftovers were not easily re-heatable.  Chili or any kinda soup worked fine, meatloaf could be sliced and eated cold for sandwiches.  But spaghetti, casseroles, grilled meat?  Those just didn't taste the same re-warmed in the oven.

Enter the microwave.  My mom was the first in our family to buy one, and she took a class to learn how to use it.  The good ones were quite large (taking up the full depth of the kitchen counter) and cost about $700 back in the late early 80s.  I really wasn't quite sure how it was going to benefit me, but I trusted my mother's opinion.  I'm glad I did because it makes my life easier in many ways.  My mom still laughs about my young family standing in line for the microwave on leftovers-for-dinner night!  

DH and I are kinda back to cooking for two, but we do it much differently now.  When he grills, he grills a lot -- burgers, dogs or brats, chops, chicken.  Once it's cooked we refrigerate some and freeze some.  We cook enough spaghetti for 4-5 people, and package it up for leftovers.  Leftovers provide many of our dinners and some of our lunches.  Life is so much simpler when you don't have to come home to cook a meal every night.

Oh yeah, the microwave is definitely my answer!  You can come take my color TV ( I pretty much watch everything on my computer and seldom use it), but don't touch my microwave oven! 

When I asked DH, he said the ice cream scoop!  Ha!  What's your answer?

My Favorite SuperBowl XLIII Commercials

In no  particular order, here are my top four favorites. Enjoy

Scrapbook Pages! Yeah!

I stole some time away from my task list to do a little scrapbooking on Sunday.  With these two layouts, I've finished the BPS Design Your Life class taught by Cathy Zielske.  Our 12th session was about taking what we'd learned and our favorite sketches, and making three layouts.  Here's the last two of my three layouts:

They both look much nicer IRL; I did a bad job photographing and cropping them.

Low water use toilets -- bathroom humor!

May I rant a bit on low water use toilets?  How much water are we saving?  Is there a way to tell?  Really.  I do want to do my share for saving the environment.  We voluntarily recycle.  We reuse -- no, not the toilet paper!  Reuseable stuff.  We have significantly reduced the amount of waste that goes into the landfill.  But I just cannot see the savings on the low water use toilets.  

Do any of you have them?  Do you also have a plunger sitting beside them?  Aren't the plungers a beautiful accent to your bathroom decor?  And when we have to use them, don't the require cleaning?  Which uses more ... you guessed it, WATER!  Adding liquids to the toilet is no big deal; it probably actually helps flush because it increases the water level.  But adding solids is another story all together.  And paper -- what about that?  We add a little paper with the liquid deposits or waaayyy more with the solids. 

I think if we are asked to use these things, there should be two flushing options -- one for liquids (low water flush) and another for solids (regular what flush).   NO one at my house wants to use the plunger.  So are we saving water?  Heck no, because we're doing multiple flushes!  And where is the savings?  

When my family gets together, we find some humor in waiting until someone enters the bathroom and yelling, "are you pooping?"  I know, I know.  It's not something we would do in polite company, but it's kinda humerous to embarass one another.  But, hey, there's no need to ask from my den, where I can hear the flushes of two toilets that adjoin my den.  There's little privacy then for family members because I can hear every flush.  And now I find myself counting the flushes!  Two, three, four!  Just so the toilet doesn't get stopped up.  Where is the water savings in that?  And what about guests?  Do I tell them that if they go number two they have to flush multiple times or use the plunger -- or leave them in blissful ignorance until they freak out when the toilet plugs up? 

Let's go back to the drawing board people!