Saturday, January 15, 2011

Saturday, Jan. 15

Slept really late this morning, until 8:30, but did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Mother came over mid-morning, and after I'd gotten ready for the day, we continued sorting and organizing scrapbook and card-making supplies.

Before long, we realized we needed more plastic totes, so Hubbie went to the WDCS and bought three more for us. That was just enough to finish the project.

Around 1 p.m., I got a phone call from a distant relative, who lives up north, to discuss genealogy information. This relative, who is a 53-year-old man, is my second cousin once removed, and he has been working on our family's genealogy for about thirteen years. So he has an enormous amount of material, some of which he has passed on to me (the information that concerns my leg of the genealogy).

It's obvious that he has a passion for researching our family, so he has followed us back to the mid-1800s. He has not been able to go further, since earlier ancestors lived in Ireland, and records from then were somehow destroyed. So, he said, he'd need to know the names of some of the living descendants in Ireland to be able to continue his ancestry search in that country.

I'm not a genealogy buff, but I'm glad to have the ancestry information he has provided. The only thing I've been able to add to his research is descendant information from my father down. But that is quite a lot, since there are several generations living in this and other states. He seemed pleased to be able to add that "piece of the puzzle" to his information.

I could immediately tell that he is a member of our family, because he sounds just like my brother in a northern state. So far, he has not interviewed my brother and niece, so I gave him my niece's e-mail address. He has interviewed my nephew, which is how he was finally able to track me down.

He offered to send more information on my leg of the genealogy, and will, in the spring, snap photos of ancestor grave markers in local cemeteries to include in what he sends.

His call was not a surprise, since we have been communicating regularly for several months...he asked for an appropriate day and time to call, and today is what we agreed upon.

Following this phone conversation, Hubbie and I sat down to watch our favorite college basketball team play to a nail-biter win. I'd recorded the game on DVR.

By then, it was nearly suppertime. Tonight, we had leftover beans and ham and spinach (from the freezer), and fresh-cooked sauteed cabbage, and baked potatoes. For Mother and Hubbie, there was cornbread. It was a very satisfying meal.

Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I did our usual thing of watching TV.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Friday, Jan. 14

Up around 7:30 this morning, and did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast. Mother came over mid-morning and began sorting scrapbook and card-making scrap paper into colors. I joined her in this activity as soon as I was ready for the day.



We packaged the scraps in see-through sleeves, and put it all in a plastic tote. We also stored various sizes and colors of envelopes in a tote. We've gathered all sorts of envelopes from flea markets and yard sales, and from greeting cards that we exchange among ourselves (we don't sign names on the fronts of envelopes). Whenever we want to make a greeting card, we first choose an envelope, and then cut card stock to fit the envelope.



After lunch, Hubbie went to the barber shop, and when he got back we ran errands to a dollar store and to the WDCS. At the dollar store, I bought supplies for making hand cream. We use a lot of this soothing cream during the winter months. Applied at night, it keeps hands and feet soft.



At the WDCS, I bought three more totes to use tomorrow in sorting scrapbook and card-making elements, like buttons, ribbons, brads, etc. We also bought grocery items needed for the weekend.



Later at home, Mother and I fixed a supper of Ziplock bag omelets, which we had with potato pancakes made from leftover mashed potatoes, and the last of the Stollen bread I'd bought at a bake sale during the holidays and put in the freezer until we needed it.



This evening, we went to the college five minutes down the road from us to see the Kenya Acrobats perform. This is the third in a series of four performances that I bought season tickets for. Before Christmas, we saw a Celtic/folk music group, and then a hypnotist comedian.

Tonight's performance was tremendous as a group of seven acrobats performed human pyramids, balancing, tumbling, limbo dancing, hurling through hoops and contortions. The contortionist was particularly spectacular. The three main performers are nothing but pure muscle and performed hard-to-believe acts.

Folks must have been in the mood for something different after the holidays, and following a recent snow event, because the theater was packed, and the college had to turn people away. I'm really glad we have season tickets. We arrived around 6:30, for the 7 p.m. performance, but I wish we had arrived earlier, because we couldn't find aisle seats, which is what Mother prefers. We did the next best thing and had her sit behind a little girl, so she could see over the top of her head.

I'm certainly no acrobat, and I proved it last night, when I tried taking off a pair of long underwear while standing up, got my legs tangled, lost my balance, hopped helplessly to my right and banged my right arm, hard, on the edge of my office desk. Today, I have a huge bruise on that arm. Pretty stupid of me, since I could have sat on my office chair while removing the garment. I learned my lesson.


Note: today, I received the cutest card from three of my grandkids: on the front, it asks, "No blue hair? No heavy perfume? No stockings rolled down to the ankles? What kind of grandmother are you, anyway?" Inside the card, it says, "The cool kind, of course!" It just made my day.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Thursday, Jan. 13

Up at 7:30, but skipped my exercises so I could get ready to take Mother to the medical clinic for a fasting lab blood draw and a doctor's appointment. This was a routine visit to check her blood pressure to make sure her medications are still appropriate. Her blood pressure was up, but that was probably because she didn't take her meds this morning. She didn't realize that she should have. We won't get the blood test results for a few days.

Back home, Mother went to her house to do whatever she had planned for her regular Thursday at home. She probably did as I did, and worked on her 2011 calendar.

Hubbie had a 10 a.m. Master Gardener meeting, so he wasn't home when I arrived. So I immediately gathered my old calendar, the new one, a pencil and pen, a highlight marker, and correction fluid, and set to work recording the many birthdays in the year, as well as routine activities for club meetings, tutoring sessions, dental and doctor appointments, and finally, upcoming events that I'm aware of right now.

Once that was done, I went back through the calendar to pick out and list the most important events of the year...the birth of a great-grandchild, Hubbie's hernia surgery, my 50th high school reunion, reconnecting on a social network website with family I hadn't heard from in years, becoming involved with the local Literacy Council, etc. I've been making these lists every year since 1999. It's interesting to go back and review them...they're a walk down memory lane.

This was my major project for today, and it took about three hours altogether this morning and this afternoon. I didn't do much else the rest of the afternoon, except review my lesson plan for tonight's session with the Hispanic student.

Around 4:30, a lady called on behalf of the student to say she wouldn't be able to make it to her session tonight, because her older daughter, who usually babysits with the baby, had a class of her own to attend, so my student was without a babysitter.

So we scheduled to meet on Monday and Tuesday of next week. I certainly hope this is the last delay before we get back on track. I don't want my student to lose what she's already learned before we can even move to the next unit.

For supper, I heated the leftover pork chops, barbecued with sauce, carrots, onions, and celery, and made a batch of rice to have with them. Leftover coleslaw and slices of Swedish casserole rye bread completed the meal.

After that, Hubbie and I did our usual thing...watched TV, including the movie, "12." This PG-13 subtitled Russian movie is about 12 jurors deciding the fate of a Chechen teenager accused of killing his stepfather. It's billed as a loose remake of "12 Angry Men." It's reminiscent of film festivals, which often feature foreign subtitled films. I'm a fan of film festivals, so I enjoyed this movie. Once we were into it, Hubbie enjoyed it, too.

Here's a bit of news that could unsettle some folks...seems that thanks to a wobbly earth, our astrological signs are wrong. I'd always thought I was under the sign of Capricorn, but according to this new information, I'm actually under Sagittarius (Dec. 17-Jan. 20). Sis is on the cusp, I guess, so she can choose Sagittarius or Capricorn (Jan. 20- Feb.16). To think I've been reading the wrong newspaper horoscopes all these years!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Wednesday, Jan. 12

Up at 7:30, and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Mother came over while I was doing that and nodded off in the rocking chair. I think she's been up since around 4 a.m.



While I got ready for the day, Hubbie ran errands. I was plenty happy to stay home, since the temp was in the single digits to low teens this morning. Br-r-r.



I didn't accomplish much before lunch, but afterward I set to work organizing our scrapbooking and card-making supplies. My goal was to separate rubber stamps and punches into categories and put them into Ziplock bags and then into a plastic tote. Once that was done, I did the same with stickers.



Getting these things organized made me want to sit down and make cards, but I'm going to resist until my scrap papers, and other elements are sorted. Maybe I can get to that this weekend.



Mother developed a headache this afternoon, so she wasn't in the mood to work on the jigsaw puzzle.



Supper tonight was barbecued pork chops with celery, onions, and carrots, with baked sweet potatoes and coleslaw.



Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I watched TV, including our favorite college basketball team as they played to a disappointing loss. Game programming was interrupted for President Obama's stirring eulogy at Tucson.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Tuesday, Jan. 11

Up around 8:30 this morning, and did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast. Mother came over while I was on the treadmill. While I got ready for the day, she and Hubbie prepared veggies for potato soup, which we planned to have for supper on this extremely cold day.

There wasn't enough time before lunch to do much of anything beyond checking e-mails and my social network page, and call my Literacy Council student to postpone our session from tonight to Thursday night, because I had a community theater board meeting tonight. Of course, we'd agreed that if the schools are out for ice or snow, then we will not meet either, and they were out today. But since we haven't had a session since before Christmas, I'm anxious to get back on track again, and don't want to wait until next week.

After lunch, I made photo greeting cards on my computer to use as thank you notes for Great-Granddaughter and Hubbie's two daughters for birthday gifts I received from them. Great-Granddaughter's features a photo of her with Sis and me displaying our balloons and gifts. The cards for Hubbie's daughters feature photos of our house on a snowy day.

While I did this, Mother worked on the jigsaw puzzle. I joined her once I was done with the greeting card project. This is one tough puzzle, and it's slow-going completing it. Sis helped us while she was here over the weekend, but we still have a little way to go on it. The reason it's so difficult is that it's a painting of pots of flowers...and with paintings, the changes in colors are so subtle that it's hard to detect them. We once had a puzzle of a painting of a garden full of yellow irises that we finally gave up on, since we were able to find so few pieces after the border was complete.

Later, I made a batch of bran muffins to go with the potato soup. As usual, pulling together a meal is a family undertaking.

Mother went home afterward, and I set the TV for a western movie on DVR for Hubbie to watch while I was at the community theater meeting.

The meeting was at 7 p.m., but only five of us showed up, because several are involved in the production of an upcoming play, and a few are sick. Our president couldn't make it, because she lives out in the country, and secondary roads are still frozen.

So the vice-president conducted the meeting, lining up folks for various chores related to the Civil War reader's theater, scheduled for two weekends beginning January 21. I volunteered Hubbie and myself to usher on the afternoon of January 23.

The vice-president, like me, had a recent birthday, her 60th. She informed us that as a consolation prize for reaching that exalted age, her husband is taking her on a vacation in Florida.

The former board president thanked me for the sympathy card I sent in condolence of his mother's death. He said she had recently reached her 100th birthday, and had lived a wonderful life. I was glad to hear that. It's heartening to know there are so many centenarians these days...gives the rest of us hope.

On a lighter note: this morning, Mother related the story of her cat crazily tossing one of her shoes around, and reaching inside of it as if trying to dig something out. She finally retrieved the shoe and peered into it, discovering a dead mouse tucked way down inside! Apparently, the mouse had died from the rodent poison Mother had set out, and the cat had found it and decided to use it as a toy, including hiding it in the shoe. Good thing Mother found the beastie before she stuck her foot in there.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Monday, Jan. 10

Today is my birthday. I'm sixty-something-something-something, etc., etc., etc. Happy Birthday to me.

Woke up around 8 a.m. to a snowy day. We only got one or two inches of the white stuff, so it didn't create quite the winter wonderland that happened in the central and southern parts of the state. But it was enough to cancel school, and therefore my tutoring session tonight.

I started my day with a treadmill session and resistance exercises. Once I was ready for the day, I uploaded photos of the trumpeter swans, and of the Saturday birthday party, to my social network page.

Then I gathered the leftover chicken noodle soup and boiled chicken and went to Mother's house for lunch. While she heated the soup, I grabbed my camera and went outdoors to take snow pictures.

The soup was good again on this chilly day. Mother had made a from-scratch chocolate cake for dessert in honor of my birthday.

Afterward, I went back out to look for more photo opportunities. Back indoors, I uploaded the snapshots to the social network page.

Besides shooting pictures and visiting the social network page, I didn't accomplish much beyond doing a couple of loads of laundry, and calling Mother's doctor to re-schedule her fasting lab test from tomorrow to Thursday, and contacting the Literacy Council director to get a message to my student that we would not meet tonight or tomorrow night...tonight because of the weather, and tomorrow night because I have two meetings to attend. The Literacy Council director gave me the lady's phone number, so I'll contact her myself tomorrow to re-schedule to Thursday night.

Later, Hubbie treated me to dinner at a local steakhouse. We shared combo meals of steak and shrimp, and chicken and ribs, with sides of okra and a baked potato. Just as we'd finished our meals, a huge noise erupted from around the corner, as three waitresses shouted and rang cow bells. As they marched around the corner, I must have jumped a foot out of my seat. I let out a shocked cry and clutched my chest. The waitresses apologized for scaring me, but they went on to call out to the other diners that it was my birthday, and then they sang to me, and presented me with a white cake/ice cream/chocolate syrup/whipped cream dessert topped with a cherry.

Our waitress came back later, laughing about my reaction. She said that most of the time, folks know that that's going to happen, but it's a lot more fun for the wait staff when folks don't see it coming. "You're reaction was a classic," she said.

I've had a wonderful day, including lots of nice comments on my social network page, and special birthday cards in the mail.

Special birthday gifts these past few days: visits from Sis, Son, Daughter-in-Law, Grandson, Daughter, and Great-Granddaughter; a Tinker Bell balloon; a flashing rose; a garden stone; homemade coffees from Sis; a telephone call, card, and e-card from Son; birthday cards and letters from friends; a coconut cream pie and a chocolate cake from Mother; birthday wishes from friends and family at my social network page; dinner out and a birthday song by wait staff; and the promise by Hubbie to buy me a new bicycle as soon as we're in a town with a bicycle shop. I'm truly blessed.

Tonight's TV fare was the 1992, R-rated, movie, "Thunderheart," starring Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, and Fred Ward. An FBI agent, part Sioux, is assigned to participate in the investigation of a murder on a Sioux reservation. The story is based on real events that happened in 1975 in South Dakota.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Sunday, Jan. 9

Up around 7:30, but once again skipped my exercises, so I could spend time with Sis before she had to head back home after lunch.

After I'd programmed the DVR for the week's shows, and did a couple of other things, we watched a 1985 movie musical I purchased recently..."A Chorus Line," starring Michael Douglas.

It was lunchtime when the movie ended. For lunch, we had leftover New England stew, with slices of Swedish casserole rye bread, and red velvet cake for dessert.

Sis headed home shortly afterward, because she wanted reach her house before a predicted snowstorm hit.

Mother spent the rest of the afternoon working on the jigsaw puzzle, and Hubbie and I went to the WDCS for milk and bread (no joke, we really did need milk and bread...so did Mother), plus a few other items. And even though our part of the state is not included in the worst of the snow predictions, the store was crowded, as it is every time snowy or icy weather is forecast.

While we were at the store, I decided that a pot of chicken noodle soup would be the perfect meal for tonight's supper, so we picked up a package of chicken breasts. As soon as we got back home, the three of us worked to wash and defat the chicken, cut up veggies, and start the meat stewing.

We all agreed that the soup, served with biscuits and honey, hit the spot on this extremely cold night.

Mother went home after supper, and Hubbie and I watched the Encore Mystery movie, "Signs," starring Mel Gibson. At one point in the movie, a character is watching a TV news program, and mentions that a bird has fallen from the sky, as if it had run into some sort of invisible shield and broken it's neck. Reminded me of recent news reports of hundreds of birds falling dead from the sky. As one eyewitness said on a local TV news channel, "We don't need no dead birds flying around." Amen to that.

Funny: at the beauty shop where Sis got her haircut, an older woman I'm acquainted with noticed the wristwatch one of the hairdressers was wearing.

She grabbed the hairdresser's arm and exclaimed excitedly of the watch that features a large face and wide white wrist bands , "Oh-h-h!! That's one of those popular new watches, isn't it?"

The hairdresser agreed.

"I don't like them," the woman flatly stated.

I cracked up laughing. The woman's husband, who was standing beside her, commented that whatever his wife thought flew out of her mouth. I assured him I already knew that, since I stand beside her in water aerobics classes.

Later in the evening, it began snowing in our part of the state. The southern and central parts of the state began getting snow in the afternoon, so reports of school closings began scrolling across the TV screen pretty quickly.

But it might be morning before we in this part of the state know if schools will be closed. Normally, it wouldn't matter to me, but I've alerted my Literacy Council student that if the schools are closed for weather, then we will not meet, either.

The snow inspired me to enjoy the last piece of coconut cream pie with a steaming cup of decaf, sugar-free cafe latte, from a mix that Sis made for me. Delicious coffee...thanks, Sis.

Finished the evening with a session in the hot tub.