Amy good to see you Have a good day,May you get all the fun things done today, don't let the wend blow you away.

Lloyd

Good morning, Lloyd.  It's nice that you enjoy using Skype.

Amy--Good morning.  Oh my--if you do go to the chocolate factory would you please get some for the "hidey hole"?  Enjoy your drive.

Good morning Everyfriend!  The last of the chicken that I bought with my extra discount has been in the crockpot overnight.  There is enough to make some chicken noodle soup AND some chicken corn soup.  I'm not going to make soup today.  I'll just freeze it in two containers until some "do-nothing" cold winter day comes along. 

My plan for today is to finish the coconut cups and pack up the candy that has to go to my sister, niece and nephew.  I'll have a box ready to take to meet them when they pick up Bridget on the 15th. 

I hope you all have a lovely day doing exactly as you wish!

Good Morning Everyone, from the cool but clear
rocky coast of Maine. 

All around the city here the holiday lights
are going up and I see that a few
people have their trees up.   

My windows are up with blue lights and and white lights on a small tree.   

Now to wait out the count down until after the 25th.     

And then we are on to a new year... 
Hooray!

Have a good day,  Everyone!
Sandy

Good morning, Janie.  I am sure your sister, niece and nephew are looking forward to receiving your yummy candy.

Sandy--Good morning.  I see Christmas lights going up here, too.

A few lights went up around here on Thanksgiving night but that is too early for me.  I might have David bring up the front door wreath but the tree and window candles will wait awhile. 

The temps. are more seasonal today and the sun is shining brightly.  Not sure what I will do with the day but will probably find some mischief to get in to.  I really need to do some vacuuming but my shoulder has been bothering me so I'll try to use that as a good excuse to not "bow to the house-gods".  That is my way of saying I'm going to be lazy today so don't give me any demerits, Joan.

So glad you are starting on the antibiotic quickly, June.  Catching it early might heal it sooner.

Good morning, Phyllis.  Sorry your shoulder is bothering you, but it's a good way not to get any demerits.

Good morning everyone, sun is shining for now , like yesterday and by noon clouds will roll in again.

JOAN  my cable is $140 and after the first of the year will go up again. I have the very basic and nothing else to drop except the cable for TV. I have talked to a few who have Roku or how ever it is spelled, and dropped the cable.  I would like to drop the phone and just use the iphone but still do not understand that. I do not want to drop internet, I would be lost without the computer.

HAL  wages were really low years ago. My first job  paid .55¢ an hour.

LARRY  so far I have taken only 1 picture with my iPhone and that did not come out good. My daughter gets some great ones with hers and my grandson takes many videos with his.  I saw this morning about the temperatures dropping this coming week. Glad I have a warm winter coat, will be needing it.


AMY  I am not looking forward to snow this year. Too many appointments coming up and I will not travel when it is snowing. Did it for too many years.

PHYLLIS  like you, the warm weather we have been having feels weird to me. Not normal at all, the weather NOT me.

PATRICIA  I started working in a jewelry factory, did a lot of different ones since then and ended making electric circuits.

JUNE  I feel fortunate with my sons and daughter. Even though she is far from here she is still helpful. Hope the doctor found why your leg wakes you.

CALLIE  looks like you did a lot or errands while you were out yesterday.

JANE  I will be there to get some of those coconut cups. Just the thought has my taste buds watering for a taste. I have had a longing for pork chops lately and I have not had one in a few years. Crazy.

JENNY  so sad to think a woman could kill your sons and then herself.

JOAN  about now I have been awake long enough to want some of your breakfast casserole. Chuckles sounds like a former doctor I had. Food for Thought would be wonderful for those children. Thank you for all today's goodies.

LLOYD  Skype does work with problems at times.

AMY  enjoy the drive. Would love to go to the chocolate factory with you.

PHYLLIS  when my son took me home on Thanksgiving I saw some houses with their lights on, much too early. I know a shoulder hurting feels.

Good Morning Everyone!

Well, love technology when I can use it like this morning.  I just got through watching my Granddaughter get married in France.  Our scatter family here in Texas and elsewhere were all watching and commenting.  Just wished someone could have introduced everyone, didn't know who we were looking at, except bride and groom. 

At any rate it was a great way to start the day.

Nasty weather here.  I think it must have rained all night.  About five inches in the gauge this morning.  Joanie, I would ship some to you if I knew how.  I have an old rusty bucket but it would all leak out before it got to you.

Gloria, I guess it is all relative anyhow about wages.  They have to raise prices to pay the higher wages....

Everyone have a great day. 

Hi everyone.  A chilly but nice Saturday morning.  We are predicted to only get to 58 degrees today and to be even cooler tomorrow with rain starting in the late afternoon.  I got out early this morning and made a fast trip to Walmart to get a couple of items and now am set to stay home the rest of the day.  I will watch some football this afternoon and probably evening.

Yesterday Pat and I enjoyed getting out together.  We went to Tin Lizzy's for our main meal of the day and then came back from Augusta and stopped at the Office Depot where we bought a chair that is adjustable on 5 legs with wheels and arms that Pat hopes to be able to use in the kitchen.  She is feeling better and wants to resume some of the cooking responsibilities (and I am not complaining although I know I will need to be here arms to reach things in the cabinets so she doesn't need to get up and down as that is what is painful for her.  Hopefully the chair will be high enough to to used in the kitchen.  When I went to pay for it I found it was discounted so saved about $25, which was nice.  Now I have to get it put together or wait until Scott comes out Wednesday and ask him to assemble it.  I have several things I want to accomplish this morning such as fixing me some frozen fruit cups and grate some cheddar cheese.  Next week will be a big shopping trip to COSTCO to stock up on several things. 

Joan, if my neighbor's house is decorated inside as much as it is outside it probably is a showcase.  While these are nice homes they aren't fancy or anything that would cause them to be on a tour of homes. 

Phyllis, I always took care of the finances and bookkeeping since that was my education and work life.  However, a few years ago I wanted Pat to know everything that was going on and she started handling the checkbook and paying the bills and reconciling the bank account.  However, she is finding it frustrating now so since her last operation I have been taking care of all of that and haven't had any complaints from her about it.  I try to document everything well and have also shown my son where everything is because I think he would have to help her as time goes on if I were no longer here. 

Patricia, did you ever have to use the comptometer?  When I was in college I had a business machines course and we had to learn to use them. 

June, I sure hope that antibiotic stops that infection quickly and stops the pain that interfered with your sleep.  Glad you saw the doctor.  We want you around for your next birthday and beyond.  You help brighten our days. 

Callie, what is a Dirty Santa exchange?  Does this relate to gardening?

JaneS, you have the most talkative sofa I have every heard of but its vocabulary does seem limited to the zzz's. 

Mary Ann, my new glasses are so much like the ones I had that I have a hard time knowing which is which.  It doesn't really matter since both have the same prescription.  I am also glad to see Tiger Woods competing although it sounds like he has a long way to go to get back into the top tier. 

Jenny, what a tragedy of the mother and two young children.  I see that the Colorado Buffalo's didn't fair very well.  We lost a good friend a few weeks ago to suicide.  However, she was an older lady who had suffered with mental illness for a long time.  It was a shock to her many friends. 

Amy, I sure would find a reason to go by the chocolate factory today.  I hope you and your husband have a nice day on your drive today. 

Phyllis, I remember reading that Erma Bombeck said to just set your vacuum cleaner out and if anyone came by just say you were getting ready to vacuum so you didn't have to do it today. 

Gloria, don't give up on your iPhone.  Feel free to write me or call me if I can be of help in understanding something on your iPhone.  I am far from an expert but I bet between us we can figure it out.  I would gladly give up television before I would my smart phone, whether an iPhone or Android smart phone. 

Hal, how wonderful to get to see your grandaughter's wedding.  Wow, that is a lot of rain.   Will there be flooding in your area?

Gloria--Rumor is that my cable etc. will be going up again since there's been a big merger.  You are a smart lady and will get proficient taking photos with your iPhone with just a little practice.

Good morning, halkel.  Terrific that today's technology enabled you to view your granddaughter's wedding in France.  I sure wish you could send us some rain.

Larry--Good morning.  I hope the new stool works out so that Pat can do some things in the kitchen.  Are you going to take a peek at the house that is on the Tour of Homes?

Not long back from our annual MS Christmas three course lunch at a large hotel just a short distance away from the MS centre....12.30 - 3.30pm.....Cant fault the meal, one of the best I have had in a long time, not that I have many meals out but.....the restaurant diner was packed, think there are two or maybe three different dining areas as one had wedding guests...Our dining room was bright, with at least five large round tables with each table seating around eight to ten...the waiting staff were excellent, the meals well presented, hot and very filling with a choice of three or four variations which had to be chosen on the leaflet menu a few months ago when booking and paying, but I swapped my afters with someone at our table from the Christmas pud to the cheesecake...I had the melon to start with followed by the fish....and of course all ended with a pot of tea or coffee and the usual after dinner mint...The raffle took place at the end, sadly this time we never held a lucky ticket...Yes for three plus hours I was in good company, just as well as the atmosphere and conversation between myself and R is non existent......Link to hotel...


http://www.hotelrembrandt.co.uk/

Good Morning on a cold, wet, dreary day in central Oklahoma,

Everything looks wet but no water running down the street so we must not have had much rain.

Hal,  how much fun to "attend" the wedding in person via technology. 

Jackie,  the MS Christmas luncheon sounds like a Fine Affair. So glad you had a good time.

Larry,  Dirty Santa is one name for a gift exchange game played in groups.  Guests draw numbers and #1 chooses a gift (wrapped but not labeled).  Subsequent numbers have the option of taking the gift someone has chosen or picking a new one.  If your gift is taken away, you get the same choice - etc. until all the gifts are chosen.  Then everybody opens theirs at the same time.  You might get a gag gift or something really nice.
I doubt there'll be any gag gifts in the group next week.

In addition to getting all those errands done yesterday morning,  I put the simple decorations on my entry porch yesterday.  Just finished doing the eating area in the kitchen.  Plan du Jour is to "leisurely" see how far I get with other decorations - while watching the Bedlam football game.   Nothing elaborate - just a bit of Christmas color and sparkle.   I use a lot of artificial holly and poinsettias.   

I had a surprising and amazing experience yesterday afternoon.   
Some minor health issues had been bothering me all week and were really getting annoying yesterday.
At 3:20 p.m.,  I called my doctor's office to see if I could get an appointment with either of the two PAs I really like.  After I explained my concern, the conversation went like this:
Me:  ......could I get in with C or S early next week.
Appointment Lady:  Do you really want to wait all weekend?
Me:  What other choice do I have?
AL:  How long would it take you to get here?
Me:  About 15 minutes.
AL:  C has an opening at 3:45.  I can put you down for that one.
Me:  I'm on the way!!!!!!
Didn't even stop to comb my hair or put on lipstick - just grabbed the car keys and went!
Situation could be taken care of with sample med and an OTC one.  I'm so grateful I won't have to feel icky for several more days and doubly grateful that my doctor's office is so considerate.

Wishing Everyfriend Everywhere an Enjoyable Day.

Good morning, EVERYFRIEND!

BURRRRR. BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!  Lot's of frost on the pumpkin!  The sun is out though, and it sure is pretty. 

JACKIE, I love your avatar....you look nice in blue!  Yes, terrible situation regarding the mother and what she did.  People are really up set that she, or anyone could possibly do this.  Mental illness or what ever the cause....HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY KILL YOUR OWN CHILDREN?  Just the horrid thought of what the poor little guys must have been thinking.  Very sad.  Heart breaking.  So happy to hear about your luncheon.  Will look at hotel pictures when I can.  Always nice to read something that you are able to enjoy.  Sorry your luck was not with you today for the raffle. 

HAL, how exciting to be able to watch your granddaughter's wedding that was taking place in France. 

LARRY, it is always good to read about your and Pat's outings.  Sure glad she is feeling so much stronger now.  Yes, my BUFFALO'S sure did not fair well last night...but they sure had a exciting season and we are happy the coach was honored with National and PAC 12 coach of the year awards.  You are right, suicide at any age is hard to accept.  I was happy to read that the husband/father does have a support group with him now, but that will change as the family is from afar.  The neighbors are all close, so they will do what they can.  Just so tragic.  BTW, I smile at your Erma Bombeck quote....she was quite the lady that I was very lucky to have met in person.  I agree totally, regarding giving up TV before iPhone or iPad! 

GLORIA, the cost of cable is just ridiculous.  We watch only a handful of the hundreds that are available.  My dear friend ac oss the street just got her first cell phone EVER....a iPhone 6+ and she is I heaven.....she had no idea of what the fuss was all about...so she, too, is trying to learn how to use it.  Like Larry said, if any of us can help you along just ask.  Yes, wonderful still and videos can be taken with the phone.  The iPhones are very good at all they can do, but the weakest part is how it is as a phone! Don't be afraid to practice a lot of picture taking...you know they cost nothing and you can blow them away in a flash!

PHYLLIS, take it easy with the sore and aching shoulder.  The vacuuming and anything else can just wait...you know it is not going anywhere! 

AMY, I hope you and hubby enjoy your ride, and of course  you must stop at the chocolate factory! 

Thank you, JOAN, for our goodies today.  FOOD FOR THOUGHTS are both so true. Enjoy your day. 

I am off to get myself ready for a Birthday celebration with my neighbor friend.  She is making me lunch, has baked a pie and we are going to have a very nice gab fest. 

CALLIE, how nice that your doctor was able to get you in right away...hope the Meds take care of your issue. 

Take care, everyone. 

Jenny

Good morning from a soon to be busy, Saturday in the Interior!

Farrah is getting to be almost too smart. If I go into the closet where her food and treats are stored, she is right there and very vocal, within seconds it seems. She must sleep with one eye partially open and an ear cocked. The laser light is the same. I can pick up the old tin piece, and she is right there as she knows what it does.

Often she will drop her felt mouse in my lap and sit down close. If I don't immediately toss it for her to catch and attack it, she will verbally remind me to throw it. She has never meowed or made natural cat sounds. But the few she does make are simple to understand in context. She must believe humans are so slow.  She now interacts with both men and women visitors, enjoying pets and rubs so I feel she has totally overcome her abusive past.

Larry, I have never used a  comptometer, but realized that I had seen them before when I Googled the term. I took Begining Bookkeeping and Bookkeeping One in college, but my primary focus at different positions was either the cash office, reconciling or auditing other's department reports and tapes.

We are still getting snow here as it is warming and there is more moisture. The last few years we have had little to no snow so there have been some fender benders and two soldiers got into a physical altercation over one such accident. We are said to have two inches on the ground and another 3.6 in scattered dusting throughout next week.

Vanilla-Jackie--Your MS group luncheon/party sounds like it was a lovely affair.

Callie--I've been in groups who played that Dirty Santa gift exchange--fun.  If the event wasn't at Christmas time we called it "White Elephant" gift exchange.  How lucky you were to be seen by a PA so quickly.

Jenny--Enjoy celebrating your birthday with your friend/neighbor.

angelface--I think Farrah is one very smart cat.

I went to the country store where I buy some of my candy supplies and they had wreaths outside the door.  I bought one for my front door and one for my back door and they are hung.  So, like Callie, it will get done a little at a time.  While I was rooting around for the over the door wreath hangers, I dug out my 2 large and one small Christmas flags.  If I feel like it later, I might hang them today.

Must get back to the coconut cups.  That's the assignment for today.  Keep on keeping on!

Janie--It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Patricia, I swear Kendrick has ESP.  He can be sleeping in the living room - or elsewhere - and when I get out of my chair in the computer room, he is at the door to meet me.  His food is beside that door.  If I go anywhere near the front door, he is there to be let out - if I'd let him out, which I don't do.  I let him out on the deck a while ago and he stayed just long enough for me to sit on the couch, then he came to the slider door to let me know he did not want to stay outside.  When he sees me go toward the slider, he puts his front paws on the glass to let me know he doesn't want to be outside.  I will have to have Annie look for a laser light because I think he'll have fun with that.  I have no idea what has happened to previous lasers.

Everyone seems so busy with Christmas preparations.  I do have a few things I'll bring upstairs.  I also have to look to see what I might have in Christmas cards because I still send out a few.  I've received two already.  I don't do any Christmas baking but I do order a few things.  This is the first year the adults are not going to exchange gifts and I'm glad about that because I am hard to buy for and I don't need anything except services.

Mary Ann

Good afternoon, one of those in and out kind of days.Cloudy right now, and again very windy.

Larry, I love to read those old sayings of E. Brombeck.  Last week I was watching and old Johnny Carson show and she was on it.  Hope the chair works for Pat. I just finished one week of PT, but I do not see any improvement, I think at this age, the spine is pretty well set, He looked at and old MRI I had made 6 years ago, and one disk was gone then, and the spine was bent. If the PT does not work by the end of the week, he said shot again in the back. Which I have done, and they only lasted a month. Then go back in 3 months and get another. I think I will just go along the way I have, and just smile.

Hal, that was wonderful you could view your GD wedding.sometimes new technology is not so bad.

Gloria, in 1941 my first job, paid .35 and hour. Cyriel started out in the power Co. in 1947 for .95 and hour. That also was the year Dennis was born.

Thanks Joan for goodies.

June, I went to the doctor once a week, when I hurt my leg this summer, as it was infected. It finally did get better, after months.Poor circulation

My first job paid $75 a month, payable in two installments of $37.50 each.  Later on the company went to weekly payments and that first payment was hard because we had to wait the two weeks then it was half of what we had been getting.  I did get used to it.  I worked for 43 years and 9 months, most of it in the Appliance Department (the company sold major appliances for many years until 1973) and I worked in that department 25 years in the office.  It was a good company to work for and now all I ask of them is to get my pension check in the bank each month - which they've done so far.  I only worked for the one company.

Mary Ann

Linedancer--Too bad you can't tell much difference after going to PT.  I've heard many say that those shots in their backs didn't help much--sure wish you could get some relief from the pain.

Mary Ann--Kendrick keeps you "on your toes".  My very first job, when I was still in high school paid $.35 an hour.  My first job after college paid $76 a week--checks received weekly.

As Janie would say, I am all in but my boot laces....we had a fun day...I did accomplish a lot too! The Chinese buffet was excellent and I managed to bring the dogs a wee treat  of chicken balls!
Over to the chocolate factory where it was just humming with people shopping. We managed to get some goodies and yes Joan check out the hidey hole....even dark maraschino cherries. I did stop in the quilt shop and picked up a gift for daughter in love for her birthday. Then we tootled on home, the weather was perfect and all 4 of us are beat now. Yes, the dogs went with us .

My first job was walking the neighbours dog, I got $1.00 a week for that, Next I worked on a farm in the summer picking raspberries for 5 cents a pint and 10 cents a quart. When I was 15 I worked on another farm helping with chores and farm work. For that I got $1.00 a day plus room and board. LOVED that job!

Time to relax

HOORAY!!  The coconut cups are done!  And I made some new flavors this year....mint and raspberry and they are also done.  Only a few until I tried it out and now I have to do a taste test.  I'll put a few of each flavor in the hidey hole so you all can do a taste test also.

My first job was part time while I was in high school.  It was a variety store (5 and 10) and I worked after school on Friday for 5 hours and all day Saturday (9 a.m to 9 p.m. with 2 half hour meal breaks.  I took home a grand total of $13. 50 a week for that.  An 10 of it went to a store where I had a winter coat laid away.  It was the first real item of clothing I ever bought entirely for myself and I loved it!  I don't remember retiring so I must have worked about 65 years.  You'd think I'd be making a thousand dollars an hour by now.  If that happened, I'd work another year and retire!

Amy glad you had a nice day!  My VERY first job was babysitting and I got 25 cents an hour to watch 2 little boys.  Sometimes my sister would come and help me but usually I had them all to myself!

And I'm all in but my shoestrings, too (My boots have a zipper)

The rain continues to steadily fall.  Flash flood advisory is now in effect for next day and 15 hours.  When I went out this morning our local creek was bank full.

Amy, choclate factory.......hmmm hmmm good stuff,

I worked at Safeway grocery store on saturdays from 8 till 10pm a dot a whole two dollars.  Also pulled a lawn mower, yes I said pulled, for the groundskeeper when he mowed the football field.  Believe it or not that was  a two day job.  Got twenty five cents an hour, which was big money but hard work.  No power mowers in those days, just the old reel mowers.

My first few jobs were babysitting and berry picking for nominal wages. Then when I was 15, a group of us got together and designed fliers for housekeeping and empty apartment cleaning. We, there were six of us,  worked in pairs and did better than our previous babysitting. My first actual job was in a ceramics craft store and I made 40.00 a week.

MaryAnn, Farrah doesn't know time or regular cat behavior. If you open the outside door, she hides at first. She knows when its breakfast because that is first thing in the morning between shower and coffee making. She doesn't meow, doesn't wind around your legs or chatter at birds. She doesn't sit on your lap or sleep on your bed but I'm hoping that may come later. She will stretch out on the back of the couch behind me and sleep which is a sign of trust she recently started.

Hal, be careful. I was in a similar flood and that water just swept up and over the trees and inundated everything very suddenly.

My first job was in a
"clam and burger shack"  that was just
down the street from me..

I have no idea how much money I made,
but maybe $1 and hour... for a few hours at a time.    I was 13 or 14.     

What I do remember is that I went to
a Red Sox/Yankee ball game in Boston,
with my Father and a friend of his.   
And the person that I worked for gave me a note to give to the manager of the BoSox  before the game.       

In return,  the manger of the BoSox brought me out a base ball signed by the Red Sox and the Yankees...     Ted Williams,  Mickey Mantle,  Jimmy Piersall, Yogi Berra,  Whitey Ford...

Imagine that?    I had that ball for years,
but somehow or other it disappeared..

Imagine that!
Sandy

The hardest job I ever did was in the Westinghouse factory.  The year I graduated from high school and was heading off to college, I got a job in the that factory.  Since they knew I wa only summer help, I did a lot of jobs for short periods of time, including hanging over a solder pot, sorting about 80 bins of small parts and even learning to assemble radios on a line.  The nice lady next to me would see things beginning to back up and she'd say, "Let a couple go past dearie, I'll get them!" When my grandmother asked me about half way through the summer if I'd learned anything, I told her emphatically "I've learned that I don't want to spend the rest of my life working in a factory."  I always felt a little sorry for the people who bought the radios that I worked on. 

Funny thing is, that by the time my daughter Cathy graduated from high school and was heading off to college, RCA had a factory nearby.  She got herself a summer job there and did almost exactly the same things I did.  And she said almost the same thing about not wanting to spend her life in a factory.  FUNNY!

My first job after leaving school was in the printing industry....printing factory, stacking magazines and newspapers coming off from the large rolling machine, and stacking them onto the wooden pallet....If I remember rightly my take home weekly pay after tax stoppage was £5 - 7 shillings and tuppence...in old money, ( pre - decimal )....

I was only there a few months as they had taken on a handful of school leavers, only to tell us they were moving the company into London....In those days, if you worked in the print, you was required to join the printing union, the father or mother of the chapel as they were called...( a shop steward )  who called a meeting and was up in arms as to why the company had employed us school leavers knowing the company was soon to be moving...So that was my first taste of employment....

I did do baby-sitting (or child sitting) for 15c an hour.  If it was close to home, I walked to the place and/or walked home.  At night, in the dark. 

Sandy, if you still had that ball, it would be worth a lot of money, especially with those names on it.  Occasionally, a person will bring an old ball to Antiques Roadshow and they're worth thousands!

I was a Detroit Tiger fan when young and saw them in a few exhibition games in Grand Rapids, and the only major league games I saw were the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds; my cousin lived near Chicago and he took me to those games. 

Mary Ann