Up around 7:30, but skipped my exercises again, so I could get ready to go to the fairgrounds to attend a tribute to the military. It was a stirring event that included a reading of the 116 names of the fallen in our state; a Field of Honors (116 flags, with photos of the fallen); a tribute to those killed in action since last year's ceremony, which included honor guard members presenting a flag to a family member, who installed it on the field; the playing of taps by a bugler; a 21-gun salute (the first shot of which startled all of us); and the playing of patriotic tunes by a military band.
I spent the time we were there snapping photos of the event, which I posted on my social network page after we returned home. I would have snapped more photos, if my battery hadn't quit working. I should have had the presence of mind to charge the battery last night.
We were back home by around 10:30. While I was uploading photos, a young man came to the door. He'd run out of gas, and asked if Hubbie could provide him with a gallon, so he could go to his place of employment to pick up his paycheck. There wasn't much gas in the can Hubbie uses for the lawn mower, so he took the young man to the nearest gas station to get $5 worth of gas to put in his car. With the gas that was already in the can, Hubbie was able to provide about two gallons of gas. We hoped that that would be enough to get the guy where he was going, but Hubbie wasn't willing to provide more, since he figured the guy wouldn't pay it back...and he didn't.
We didn't accomplish anything the rest of the day. Mother came over after lunch to join us in doing nothing.
Supper tonight was the rest of the pasta dish, with salad and bread. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I later went back to the fairgrounds, this time to see the Brian Staples Animal Safari/magic show. It was hot and muggy tonight, but not intolerable under the entertainment shed.
Before we went to the fairgrounds, we went up on a hill to a church parking lot, which overlooks the fairgrounds, so that I could take pictures of the fair. At the fair, we toured the midway, where I snapped shots of the carnival rides, and then we went back to the commercial building to register for prizes.
After that, we searched for the Main Street lemonade stand. In past years, it has been just outside the entertainment shed, but not this year. So we stopped by the fair office and got directions to it. We were told that the reason the stand wasn't in its usual spot was that the local health department said it needed to be on a concrete pad and be enclosed. All they had was tables, which were set on a dirt and gravel path. Tonight, it was in a concrete block building that housed some other food vendors. I'm sure they didn't sell nearly as much lemonade from that location as they did near the entertainment shed.
The animal and magic show was entertaining, but I would have like to see more animals. Staples trains animals for movies and TV. In fact, several of the primates he showed tonight have appeared in shows, and are frequently in his own Nickelodeon show on TV.
The animals he shows are rescued from various places. The lion he showed has epilepsy, and one monkey he exhibited has no fingers (lost them in a medical research facility that uses animals for experimentation).
Part of his magic show included a Houdini trick of being locked into handcuffs, etc., and then locked into a cage of water, where he stayed for three minutes, while he got out of his shackles (behind a drape, of course).
We enjoyed the trick where a table appears to float in the air, while he and an assistant from the audience hold onto the corners of a cloth table cover, and the trick where his son is tied in a bag, and locked in a box, and then as he stands on top of the box inside a drape, he and the person in the box exchange places within seconds.
We were back home around 9:30 p.m. The fair is over for this year, except going to pick up our entries tomorrow afternoon.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Friday, July 22
Up at 7 a.m., but skipped my exercises, so I could get ready to go to the fairgrounds for Senior Day at the fair. The event was scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and we arrived around 9:30, where I got my exercise pushing Mother around the fairgrounds in her wheelchair. Hubbie would be glad to push the wheelchair, but Mother feels more comfortable with me doing it.
The first thing we did was tour the women's building and the horticulture shed. In the women's building, as far as we could tell, we garnered mainly blue ribbons, including our place settings. The Grand Champion in that category was a set of gold- rimmed dishes, with gold candlesticks, etc.
The nicest surprise was that Mother won a Grand Champion award for her pint jar of dried green onions. Mother was so excited when she saw the ribbon, and she continued to be thrilled all afternoon.
We didn't fare as well in the horticulture shed, though we did okay. All the tomatoes but one batch got blue ribbons. That one variety got a red ribbon, though we can't figure out why. My garden basket got a blue ribbon. A similar basket with a greater variety of veggies took the Grand Champion award.
All the potted and hanging plants got blue ribbons. Of the twenty-four cut flowers, sixteen won blue ribbons, the rest got red ones. My floral arrangement got a blue ribbon, while a vase of tall, showy flowers won Best of Show.
After touring the women's building, we went through the air conditioned commercial building and registered for all the prizes. For this, we used address labels, and then jotted our telephone numbers on the entry slips...lots easier than having to fill out the slips by hand.
In this building, we met the man who recently won a million dollars in the lottery. I congratulated him, and he commented that after the government took its share, $600,000 remained. "Well, it's more than you had the day before!" I exclaimed, and he agreed. I don't think I'd have any complaints if I came into $600,000, but some people resent the government in every way.
The senior activities were held in the open entertainment shed, where it was beastly hot, even under cover of a roof. A scant crowd showed up this morning, no doubt due to the extreme heat. The seats are usually full, but today only about sixty folks were there. Of those folks, a couple suffered heat exhaustion and had to leave early.
Added to that, the musical entertainment group failed to show up. Since they were a no-show, the senior citizen director got things underway by conducting the door prize drawing early. In the past, we've won at least a couple of prizes at the event, but not this year.
Following the drawing, lunch was served. We decided to bring ours home to enjoy in the comfort of air conditioning. The meal of chicken salad sandwiches, broccoli salad, baked chips, mixed fruit dessert, and 2% milk was pretty good this year. Often in the past, they've served meals with a plenitude of yellow cheese that I couldn't eat. We added grape tomatoes to our meals, and drank water instead of the milk. The milk went to the fridge for later.
At the event, too, someone was giving out samples of sorghum molasses, served on big, fluffy biscuits. Mother and I passed on those, but Hubbie brought three home for later. The biscuits look like something I don't need to eat, so he can have my share.
The fellow with the sorghum gave a talk about the process of making the molasses, but we were occupied in the commercial building at the time...not that we have any interest in making it, anyway.
Oddities at the fair this year: saw one of the groundskeepers on a maintenance vehicle ride past with a lemur on his shoulder. And in a corral, there is a camel, along with some donkeys and goats. Folks can pay to ride the camel. The other animals are for petting, I guess.
Back home, just as we finished lunch, the roadside vendor called to say she had fresh-picked local peaches for sale, if we wanted to come see them. We did, and bought a half bushel. They are nice looking freestones that are still a little firm. They'll be ready to eat in a a few days. We'll put some of them in the freezer next week. The vendor said that due to extremes in weather this year, peaches are at a premium, and there won't be many more.
We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. For supper, we had a leftover pasta dish from the freezer, with coleslaw, cottage cheese, grape tomatoes from the garden, and sourdough bread.
Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I watched the 2002 movie, "K-19, the Widowmaker," starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Inspired by a true story, when a Russian nuclear submarine malfunctions, the crew must scramble to save the vessel and prevent a nuclear disaster.
The first thing we did was tour the women's building and the horticulture shed. In the women's building, as far as we could tell, we garnered mainly blue ribbons, including our place settings. The Grand Champion in that category was a set of gold- rimmed dishes, with gold candlesticks, etc.
The nicest surprise was that Mother won a Grand Champion award for her pint jar of dried green onions. Mother was so excited when she saw the ribbon, and she continued to be thrilled all afternoon.
We didn't fare as well in the horticulture shed, though we did okay. All the tomatoes but one batch got blue ribbons. That one variety got a red ribbon, though we can't figure out why. My garden basket got a blue ribbon. A similar basket with a greater variety of veggies took the Grand Champion award.
All the potted and hanging plants got blue ribbons. Of the twenty-four cut flowers, sixteen won blue ribbons, the rest got red ones. My floral arrangement got a blue ribbon, while a vase of tall, showy flowers won Best of Show.
After touring the women's building, we went through the air conditioned commercial building and registered for all the prizes. For this, we used address labels, and then jotted our telephone numbers on the entry slips...lots easier than having to fill out the slips by hand.
In this building, we met the man who recently won a million dollars in the lottery. I congratulated him, and he commented that after the government took its share, $600,000 remained. "Well, it's more than you had the day before!" I exclaimed, and he agreed. I don't think I'd have any complaints if I came into $600,000, but some people resent the government in every way.
The senior activities were held in the open entertainment shed, where it was beastly hot, even under cover of a roof. A scant crowd showed up this morning, no doubt due to the extreme heat. The seats are usually full, but today only about sixty folks were there. Of those folks, a couple suffered heat exhaustion and had to leave early.
Added to that, the musical entertainment group failed to show up. Since they were a no-show, the senior citizen director got things underway by conducting the door prize drawing early. In the past, we've won at least a couple of prizes at the event, but not this year.
Following the drawing, lunch was served. We decided to bring ours home to enjoy in the comfort of air conditioning. The meal of chicken salad sandwiches, broccoli salad, baked chips, mixed fruit dessert, and 2% milk was pretty good this year. Often in the past, they've served meals with a plenitude of yellow cheese that I couldn't eat. We added grape tomatoes to our meals, and drank water instead of the milk. The milk went to the fridge for later.
At the event, too, someone was giving out samples of sorghum molasses, served on big, fluffy biscuits. Mother and I passed on those, but Hubbie brought three home for later. The biscuits look like something I don't need to eat, so he can have my share.
The fellow with the sorghum gave a talk about the process of making the molasses, but we were occupied in the commercial building at the time...not that we have any interest in making it, anyway.
Oddities at the fair this year: saw one of the groundskeepers on a maintenance vehicle ride past with a lemur on his shoulder. And in a corral, there is a camel, along with some donkeys and goats. Folks can pay to ride the camel. The other animals are for petting, I guess.
Back home, just as we finished lunch, the roadside vendor called to say she had fresh-picked local peaches for sale, if we wanted to come see them. We did, and bought a half bushel. They are nice looking freestones that are still a little firm. They'll be ready to eat in a a few days. We'll put some of them in the freezer next week. The vendor said that due to extremes in weather this year, peaches are at a premium, and there won't be many more.
We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. For supper, we had a leftover pasta dish from the freezer, with coleslaw, cottage cheese, grape tomatoes from the garden, and sourdough bread.
Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I watched the 2002 movie, "K-19, the Widowmaker," starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Inspired by a true story, when a Russian nuclear submarine malfunctions, the crew must scramble to save the vessel and prevent a nuclear disaster.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Thursday, July 21
Up at 7 a.m., and did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast. Once I was ready for the day, I spent a while ironing clothes, particularly those I'll need for an upcoming camping trip.
Then I called the doctor's clinic to make an appointment for Mother to get a urine test next Monday, to make sure she no longer has blood in it. Her appointment is scheduled for 10:30, which will give me plenty of time to go to water aerobics and then get ready for the day.
After that, I got a call from the president of the Extension Homemakers Council. The new president is an irritating, officious man, who plans to whip us ladies into shape (aside from delighting in being the boss, I can't think why a man would want to head up a woman's organization). Mother and I studiously avoid meetings on the county level, but our scrapbook club is a part of the council, so I can't always avoid dealing with this guy. Today, he wanted an accounting of our volunteer hours for last year, as well as a list of members and officers for our club.
Thankfully, I'd had the presence of mind to ask for the volunteer hours of the other members of our club at our meeting last month. But I had neglected to go through my own calendar to find Mother's and my hours. I did this promptly, and called him back with the number...because July 31 is the deadline for reporting, and I'll be out of pocket then.
He didn't want me to list the members and officers to him on the phone, preferring instead that I mail them to him, which I did later this afternoon. As for the officers, that's a pretty short list...I occupy all the positions, because the other members refuse.
Mother stayed home this morning, but came over this afternoon so we could go to a scrapbook club meeting at the Extension Office at 1 p.m. One of the members came around 12:45 to ride with us.
She brought her Cricut machine with her, with the objective of sharing it with the rest of us. Well, as it turned out, she hasn't a clue how to use it, so I spent our club time figuring it out and using it to make some letters and designs. I offered to show her how to use the machine, but she didn't want to. Neither did the other member. Mother, of course, would never be able to manage it.
A year or so ago, when we discussed how to use our club funds, her suggestion was to buy a Cricut. The rest of us poo-pooed that idea, because the machine is expensive (a hundred dollars and up), because the cartridges for it are also expensive ($20 to $40 or so), because we couldn't justify who would be in charge of keeping the machine between meetings, and because we couldn't decide who would possess it if and when the club disbands.
We decided that buying rubber stamps and punches was a better idea, especially since we were awarded $200 to buy supplies for a community project, and our project is making cards for Caring Hands Hospice (even though it's mainly Mother and I who make the cards).
At the meeting, Mother made a couple of sympathy cards for Caring Hands Hospice, and one of the members used rubber stamps that I'd brought to make personal greeting cards. The lady who brought the Cricut worked on scrapbook pages.
We were back home just after 3 p.m. Mother went home, and I relaxed until time to prepare supper for Hubbie and me...a hamburger for him, a turkey burger for me, with leftover macaroni and cheese, and canned whole kernel corn.
Later, we watched the 1997 movie, "187," starring Samuel Jackson and John Heard. A teacher is attacked and nearly killed at a New York inner city school. After months of recuperation, he agrees to act as a substitute teacher at another school, this one in Los Angeles, where the kids are also tough and scary. A student is killed in this school...was it gang-related, or did the teacher snap?
Then I called the doctor's clinic to make an appointment for Mother to get a urine test next Monday, to make sure she no longer has blood in it. Her appointment is scheduled for 10:30, which will give me plenty of time to go to water aerobics and then get ready for the day.
After that, I got a call from the president of the Extension Homemakers Council. The new president is an irritating, officious man, who plans to whip us ladies into shape (aside from delighting in being the boss, I can't think why a man would want to head up a woman's organization). Mother and I studiously avoid meetings on the county level, but our scrapbook club is a part of the council, so I can't always avoid dealing with this guy. Today, he wanted an accounting of our volunteer hours for last year, as well as a list of members and officers for our club.
Thankfully, I'd had the presence of mind to ask for the volunteer hours of the other members of our club at our meeting last month. But I had neglected to go through my own calendar to find Mother's and my hours. I did this promptly, and called him back with the number...because July 31 is the deadline for reporting, and I'll be out of pocket then.
He didn't want me to list the members and officers to him on the phone, preferring instead that I mail them to him, which I did later this afternoon. As for the officers, that's a pretty short list...I occupy all the positions, because the other members refuse.
Mother stayed home this morning, but came over this afternoon so we could go to a scrapbook club meeting at the Extension Office at 1 p.m. One of the members came around 12:45 to ride with us.
She brought her Cricut machine with her, with the objective of sharing it with the rest of us. Well, as it turned out, she hasn't a clue how to use it, so I spent our club time figuring it out and using it to make some letters and designs. I offered to show her how to use the machine, but she didn't want to. Neither did the other member. Mother, of course, would never be able to manage it.
A year or so ago, when we discussed how to use our club funds, her suggestion was to buy a Cricut. The rest of us poo-pooed that idea, because the machine is expensive (a hundred dollars and up), because the cartridges for it are also expensive ($20 to $40 or so), because we couldn't justify who would be in charge of keeping the machine between meetings, and because we couldn't decide who would possess it if and when the club disbands.
We decided that buying rubber stamps and punches was a better idea, especially since we were awarded $200 to buy supplies for a community project, and our project is making cards for Caring Hands Hospice (even though it's mainly Mother and I who make the cards).
At the meeting, Mother made a couple of sympathy cards for Caring Hands Hospice, and one of the members used rubber stamps that I'd brought to make personal greeting cards. The lady who brought the Cricut worked on scrapbook pages.
We were back home just after 3 p.m. Mother went home, and I relaxed until time to prepare supper for Hubbie and me...a hamburger for him, a turkey burger for me, with leftover macaroni and cheese, and canned whole kernel corn.
Later, we watched the 1997 movie, "187," starring Samuel Jackson and John Heard. A teacher is attacked and nearly killed at a New York inner city school. After months of recuperation, he agrees to act as a substitute teacher at another school, this one in Los Angeles, where the kids are also tough and scary. A student is killed in this school...was it gang-related, or did the teacher snap?
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 20
Up at 6:30 this morning, so I could get ready to go to water aerobics, where the water was heavenly, as usual. Today, 25 of us attended the session. Toward the end of the session, we learned that next week the pool will be used for Special Olympic competitions at our regular hour, so we have been given the option of having our session at 7:30 a.m. Guess I can manage that, if I skip breakfast on Monday and Wednesday. I'll have to miss the next two Fridays anyway, due to previous plans. But I don't want to miss four days of swimming over the next couple of weeks!
While I was gone, Hubbie and Mother took the cut flowers, flower arrangement, and baked goods to the fair. For some reason, Hubbie and I thought these could be entered anytime between 8 a.m. and noon, but the time was actually from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., because judging started at 9 a.m. If Mother hadn't come over at 8:30 and reminded Hubbie of the correct time, we'd have missed the boat on those entries. As it was, they got everything entered with just five minutes to spare. That'll teach us to check the fair book more closely next year, if we decide to enter anything.
Mother stayed home this morning after she and Hubbie got back from the fairgrounds, but came over after lunch. We gathered various colors of card stock and other supplies for a scrapbook club meeting tomorrow afternoon. One of the members is going to bring her Cricut machine for us to play with, and I'll take rubber stamps and punches. Hopefully, we can make a few cards for Caring Hands Hospice.
We didn't accomplish much else for the afternoon. For supper, we had BLT's, and macaroni and cheese, using whole wheat macaroni. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I watched one-hour shows that I'd recorded on DVR, this time from USA channel.
While I was gone, Hubbie and Mother took the cut flowers, flower arrangement, and baked goods to the fair. For some reason, Hubbie and I thought these could be entered anytime between 8 a.m. and noon, but the time was actually from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., because judging started at 9 a.m. If Mother hadn't come over at 8:30 and reminded Hubbie of the correct time, we'd have missed the boat on those entries. As it was, they got everything entered with just five minutes to spare. That'll teach us to check the fair book more closely next year, if we decide to enter anything.
Mother stayed home this morning after she and Hubbie got back from the fairgrounds, but came over after lunch. We gathered various colors of card stock and other supplies for a scrapbook club meeting tomorrow afternoon. One of the members is going to bring her Cricut machine for us to play with, and I'll take rubber stamps and punches. Hopefully, we can make a few cards for Caring Hands Hospice.
We didn't accomplish much else for the afternoon. For supper, we had BLT's, and macaroni and cheese, using whole wheat macaroni. Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I watched one-hour shows that I'd recorded on DVR, this time from USA channel.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 19
Up around 7 a.m. this morning, and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast. Once I was ready for the day, we all went to the fairgrounds to enter crafts, canned good, veggies (only tomatoes this year), and a garden basket.
Then we took a tour around the women's building exhibits, before going to the commercial building. This year, the fair board air conditioned the commercial building and added double doors with an entryway in between to keep the cool air inside. I wonder if the fair board will EVER see fit to air condition the women's building???
All the vendors were not set up yet in the commercial building, but we registered for door prizes at the booths that were set up. No one was manning the booths, but they had left entry slips and boxes or bowls on the tables for anyone who dropped by early, like us.
We picked up handheld fans for us, and coloring/activity books, and stickers, for grandkids. We didn't turn down the mini-chocolate bars at the Caring Hands booth, either.
Then we went to the veggie shed, where Hubbie agreed to help register entries between 11 a.m. and noon. We noticed that fair entries are way down this year...maybe due to the extremely hot weather. If others are like us, their gardens haven't fared well in the heat. Hot weather also makes folks want to hibernate in their air conditioned homes.
Mother and I came back home just after 11 a.m., but didn't accomplish anything else before lunch. After lunch, I made a coffee cake, while Hubbie ran errands.
For supper, we had leftover barbecued ribs, with baked sweet potatoes, and coleslaw. Mother insisted on washing the potatoes for the oven, but then she promptly fell asleep in her favorite rocking chair. She was done in from her excursion to the fair this morning.
I'm glad I was here to watch the potatoes, and finish other supper preparations, because I don't know when she would have awakened. I worry about her cooking and baking at her house without supervision, for fear she could start a fire. I think I'll suggest she set a timer by her chair that would awaken her.
We baked nine potatoes tonight, which was all that was left from a huge batch we bought for ten cents a pound at the WDCS back in the fall. They were beginning to sprout, so it was time to cook them, eat a few, and freeze the rest.
Mother went home after supper, and Hubbie and I toured the yard searching for what flowers we could find for me to make an arrangement to enter in the fair tomorrow. We found a variety of colors of zinnias, cone flowers, rose of Sharon, coleus leaves, and vines...enough to make a fairly attractive arrangement in a Mason jar, tied with a raffia bow. This is similar to arrangements I've made the past few years for the fair, one of which won a Grand Champion award over much more elaborate ones. I think the judge that year found mine appealing, because I'd obviously gathered the flowers from my yard, rather than using commercial ones. This year, I'll be happy just to get a blue ribbon, though.
Later, since I'd recorded no movies on DVR that we were interested in tonight, we watched one-hour shows I'd recorded from TNT channel: "The Closer," "Rizzoli and Isles," and "Memphis Beat."
Then we took a tour around the women's building exhibits, before going to the commercial building. This year, the fair board air conditioned the commercial building and added double doors with an entryway in between to keep the cool air inside. I wonder if the fair board will EVER see fit to air condition the women's building???
All the vendors were not set up yet in the commercial building, but we registered for door prizes at the booths that were set up. No one was manning the booths, but they had left entry slips and boxes or bowls on the tables for anyone who dropped by early, like us.
We picked up handheld fans for us, and coloring/activity books, and stickers, for grandkids. We didn't turn down the mini-chocolate bars at the Caring Hands booth, either.
Then we went to the veggie shed, where Hubbie agreed to help register entries between 11 a.m. and noon. We noticed that fair entries are way down this year...maybe due to the extremely hot weather. If others are like us, their gardens haven't fared well in the heat. Hot weather also makes folks want to hibernate in their air conditioned homes.
Mother and I came back home just after 11 a.m., but didn't accomplish anything else before lunch. After lunch, I made a coffee cake, while Hubbie ran errands.
For supper, we had leftover barbecued ribs, with baked sweet potatoes, and coleslaw. Mother insisted on washing the potatoes for the oven, but then she promptly fell asleep in her favorite rocking chair. She was done in from her excursion to the fair this morning.
I'm glad I was here to watch the potatoes, and finish other supper preparations, because I don't know when she would have awakened. I worry about her cooking and baking at her house without supervision, for fear she could start a fire. I think I'll suggest she set a timer by her chair that would awaken her.
We baked nine potatoes tonight, which was all that was left from a huge batch we bought for ten cents a pound at the WDCS back in the fall. They were beginning to sprout, so it was time to cook them, eat a few, and freeze the rest.
Mother went home after supper, and Hubbie and I toured the yard searching for what flowers we could find for me to make an arrangement to enter in the fair tomorrow. We found a variety of colors of zinnias, cone flowers, rose of Sharon, coleus leaves, and vines...enough to make a fairly attractive arrangement in a Mason jar, tied with a raffia bow. This is similar to arrangements I've made the past few years for the fair, one of which won a Grand Champion award over much more elaborate ones. I think the judge that year found mine appealing, because I'd obviously gathered the flowers from my yard, rather than using commercial ones. This year, I'll be happy just to get a blue ribbon, though.
Later, since I'd recorded no movies on DVR that we were interested in tonight, we watched one-hour shows I'd recorded from TNT channel: "The Closer," "Rizzoli and Isles," and "Memphis Beat."
Monday, July 18, 2011
Monday, July 18
I woke up this morning around 4 a.m. with an awful tummy ache. Tossed and turned for an hour, before it eased. I think the raisin bran cereal for supper, followed by watermelon later decided to give me indigestion.
I slept for a while, and then got up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. As usual, the pool felt wonderful. After Several more members attended today, and we all had a great time catching up on each other's lives.
This morning, we learned that the young lifeguard is to be with us from now on. I'm not sure why our other lifeguard (a coach at the college) has bowed out. Right now, he is in another state, and has been for a few weeks. I wonder if he's seeking another coaching position. He hasn't moved away, I know, because his wife (a former photography student of mine) is still working as a lab techician at the clinic.
Back home, Hubbie immediately told me that he'd found an element to fit the oven and had installed it. He also showed me the old element, on which an entire hunk was missing. Hubbie said it had burned away. No wonder nothing baked or cooked correctly lately!
Once I was ready for the day, I put together a garden basket, because Hubbie anticipated taking it to the fair this afternoon. But then we decided to wait until tomorrow morning, so the vegetables will stay fresh for judging on Wednesday.
After lunch, Hubbie went grocery shopping, and I worked on a lesson plan for my Literacy Council student. Hubbie was back home by the time I needed to use the van to go to the college.
The student was already there by the time I arrived just before 2:30. The first thing I discovered was that all the study rooms were occupied. So I spoke with the librarian, who assured me that I had reservations for a room. There was room with one student in it, so the librarian asked her to go to another area of the library.
The librarian then asked how long I'd want to reserve the room, because it was time for her to schedule on a new calendar. I told her it would be from now on, for as long as the student needed me, and that on any Mondays when we would not meet, I'd let her know so the room could be available for someone else.
Today, the student learned to use sentences with "will," and "won't," and how to transform statements into questions. She found it comical adding " 'll" to names, lke "Ann'll go shopping today," or to surnames like, "Mr. Hunt'll buy a new jacket." She had no problem with "she'll," "they'll," "we'll," etc.
She also had no problem understanding the concept of long and short vowels. But she was puzzled by the word sandwiches, because she imagined that the "wiches" part of the word had something to do with witches.
Words like hut, trick, and puck stumped her. But I was able to explain them, and then she looked them up in her Spanish/English dictionary. She questioned puck as being a name, and I told her that Puck was a character in Shakespeare, but that it is also a heavy disk for playing hockey (had to act this one out).
When our session was done at 4:30, I went to the fairgrounds, where Mother and Hubbie had reserved space for our place settings by putting the placemats down on the shelf and putting our basket of dinnerware, etc., on top.
Mother was sitting in a folding chair outside of the exhibit area when I arrived, where she'd been for nearly hour. So she was glad when I arrived and could arrange the place setting. Neither Hubbie nor she wanted to do this task, for fear of dropping the China and other glassware.
Hubbie had already obtained our entry numbers and had completed the tags for the many potted and hanging plants, and found spaces for them in the horticulture shed. So as soon as I completed the place setting task, we were all ready to come home.
Supper tonight was leftovers from yesterday...pork roast and trimmings...which we heated in the oven. It was about 6 p.m. by the time we sat down to eat.
Afterward, we spent an hour or so putting our individual entry numbers on all the tags. I searched everywhere, unsuccessfully, for a box big enough to put our entries in, and finally decided to empty a plastic tote to use. The crafts and canned goods are now ready to go to the fair tomorrow morning.
Today, Hubbie picked and tagged all the varieties of tomatoes that we'll enter in the fair, so those are ready to go tomorrow, too. This afternoon, one of the Master Gardeners, who is in charge of the vegetable shed, called to ask Hubbie to work the shed at 11 a.m. tomorrow, because he has an appointment for that last of hour. Exhibits are to be in place by noon.
Mother went home around 7 p.m., and Hubbie went out to water the gardens. Later, we watched a couple of one hour shows on TV.
I slept for a while, and then got up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. As usual, the pool felt wonderful. After Several more members attended today, and we all had a great time catching up on each other's lives.
This morning, we learned that the young lifeguard is to be with us from now on. I'm not sure why our other lifeguard (a coach at the college) has bowed out. Right now, he is in another state, and has been for a few weeks. I wonder if he's seeking another coaching position. He hasn't moved away, I know, because his wife (a former photography student of mine) is still working as a lab techician at the clinic.
Back home, Hubbie immediately told me that he'd found an element to fit the oven and had installed it. He also showed me the old element, on which an entire hunk was missing. Hubbie said it had burned away. No wonder nothing baked or cooked correctly lately!
Once I was ready for the day, I put together a garden basket, because Hubbie anticipated taking it to the fair this afternoon. But then we decided to wait until tomorrow morning, so the vegetables will stay fresh for judging on Wednesday.
After lunch, Hubbie went grocery shopping, and I worked on a lesson plan for my Literacy Council student. Hubbie was back home by the time I needed to use the van to go to the college.
The student was already there by the time I arrived just before 2:30. The first thing I discovered was that all the study rooms were occupied. So I spoke with the librarian, who assured me that I had reservations for a room. There was room with one student in it, so the librarian asked her to go to another area of the library.
The librarian then asked how long I'd want to reserve the room, because it was time for her to schedule on a new calendar. I told her it would be from now on, for as long as the student needed me, and that on any Mondays when we would not meet, I'd let her know so the room could be available for someone else.
Today, the student learned to use sentences with "will," and "won't," and how to transform statements into questions. She found it comical adding " 'll" to names, lke "Ann'll go shopping today," or to surnames like, "Mr. Hunt'll buy a new jacket." She had no problem with "she'll," "they'll," "we'll," etc.
She also had no problem understanding the concept of long and short vowels. But she was puzzled by the word sandwiches, because she imagined that the "wiches" part of the word had something to do with witches.
Words like hut, trick, and puck stumped her. But I was able to explain them, and then she looked them up in her Spanish/English dictionary. She questioned puck as being a name, and I told her that Puck was a character in Shakespeare, but that it is also a heavy disk for playing hockey (had to act this one out).
When our session was done at 4:30, I went to the fairgrounds, where Mother and Hubbie had reserved space for our place settings by putting the placemats down on the shelf and putting our basket of dinnerware, etc., on top.
Mother was sitting in a folding chair outside of the exhibit area when I arrived, where she'd been for nearly hour. So she was glad when I arrived and could arrange the place setting. Neither Hubbie nor she wanted to do this task, for fear of dropping the China and other glassware.
Hubbie had already obtained our entry numbers and had completed the tags for the many potted and hanging plants, and found spaces for them in the horticulture shed. So as soon as I completed the place setting task, we were all ready to come home.
Supper tonight was leftovers from yesterday...pork roast and trimmings...which we heated in the oven. It was about 6 p.m. by the time we sat down to eat.
Afterward, we spent an hour or so putting our individual entry numbers on all the tags. I searched everywhere, unsuccessfully, for a box big enough to put our entries in, and finally decided to empty a plastic tote to use. The crafts and canned goods are now ready to go to the fair tomorrow morning.
Today, Hubbie picked and tagged all the varieties of tomatoes that we'll enter in the fair, so those are ready to go tomorrow, too. This afternoon, one of the Master Gardeners, who is in charge of the vegetable shed, called to ask Hubbie to work the shed at 11 a.m. tomorrow, because he has an appointment for that last of hour. Exhibits are to be in place by noon.
Mother went home around 7 p.m., and Hubbie went out to water the gardens. Later, we watched a couple of one hour shows on TV.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Sunday, July 17
Today, Hubbie's granddaughter gave birth to a little girl...welcome to the world, new great-granddaughter!
We were up around 7:30 this morning, but I skipped my exercises. Mother came over while I was getting ready for the day and put a pork roast with carrots and onions into the slow cooker.
We spent the rest of the morning reading the Sunday newspaper and otherwise goofing off.
The roast, with mashed potatoes and gravy, and individual cups of applesauce, was very good. Mother made several comments about the potatoes, which were yellow meat reds. We bought them at the WDCS yesterday, because they were the only variety of red potatoes available. They tasted like the white variety, but I guess Mother just didn't like the looks of them. They have a buttery yellow look that is probably supposed to be appealing. I didn't find them offensive, but Mother just couldn't get used to them.
Following lunch, I made a batch of peppermint chocolate bark, using crushed peppermint disks atop layers of white and chocolate morsels. Mother helped with the project. After the candy cooled in the fridge for an hour or so, I broke it into pieces, and we chose three of the prettiest ones to enter in the fair. Of course, we sampled some of it, too. The rest went to the freezer.
After that, Mother went home to fetch a pretty jar, so she could layer spices, varieties of beans, and macaroni, for a soup mixture. She added a couple of bay leaves, and then I used a rubber stamp to make a Christmas tag, and I added a red plaid ribbon to the neck of the jar. This is a nice entry for the Christmas corner of the fair.
Then I spent quite a while filling out tags for our entries....and there were a lot of them, counting all the plants, veggies, individual flowers, etc. We can take the potted plants to the fair tomorrow afternoon, along with Mother's and my place settings. But the rest of the crafts, and canned goods will go Tuesday morning, after we enter our exhibit numbers on the tags. We can't get those numbers until tomorrow evening, so our job tomorrow night will be to make sure every tag has a number so that after judging, we can get paid for our wins.
We'll spend a lot of time Tuesday doing various fair-related tasks for Wednesday. I'll bake a coffee cake, make a floral arrangement, and put together a vegetable basket arrangement. Hubbie will gather flowers for individual bud vases, as well as a bunch for me to use in an arrangement. Mother will tag all the baked goods and candies.
Re: vegetable basket: this is a new category at the fair, where the entrant must make a pleasing basket arrangement from five or more varieties of vegetables. That presented a challenge to us, since our garden is small, with not a lot to choose from. So I've decided to use the one patti pan squash that Hubbie picked yesterday, two or three yellow squash, the one jalapeno pepper that's on the vine, two or three small bell peppers, some grape tomatoes, and a couple of regular tomatoes.
As for the coffee cake, I'll probably need to bake it at Mother's house, since we're convinced the oven on our stove isn't working properly. Hubbie will see about getting the oven fixed, but it would be too much to hope for that it can be done tomorrow. I figure an element will need to be ordered.
Mother went home around 4 p.m., Hubbie went out to mow part of the yard, and I played on my computer. Later, we had a cereal supper, and then watched TV.
A movie we saw was the 2008, "I Sell the Dead," starring Ron Perlman, and Dominic Monaghan. This PG 14 film is a horror/comedy. A lovable 18th Century grave robber (Monaghan) about to meet the hangman, reflects on his life of crime to a priest (Perlman). The robber and his cohort (who has already gone to the guillotine) kept running into vampires, zombies, and aliens in their bumbling efforts to dig up and sell bodies.
The second movie we watched was the 2010, PG feature, "Chasing 3000," starring Ray Liotta. Inspired by a true story, two brothers in the early 70s, travel across the country to see the baseball player Roberto Clemente get his 3000th hit. One of the brothers is confined to a wheelchair. We like sports-related movies, and this is a pretty good one...and much more uplifting than the previous film.
We were up around 7:30 this morning, but I skipped my exercises. Mother came over while I was getting ready for the day and put a pork roast with carrots and onions into the slow cooker.
We spent the rest of the morning reading the Sunday newspaper and otherwise goofing off.
The roast, with mashed potatoes and gravy, and individual cups of applesauce, was very good. Mother made several comments about the potatoes, which were yellow meat reds. We bought them at the WDCS yesterday, because they were the only variety of red potatoes available. They tasted like the white variety, but I guess Mother just didn't like the looks of them. They have a buttery yellow look that is probably supposed to be appealing. I didn't find them offensive, but Mother just couldn't get used to them.
Following lunch, I made a batch of peppermint chocolate bark, using crushed peppermint disks atop layers of white and chocolate morsels. Mother helped with the project. After the candy cooled in the fridge for an hour or so, I broke it into pieces, and we chose three of the prettiest ones to enter in the fair. Of course, we sampled some of it, too. The rest went to the freezer.
After that, Mother went home to fetch a pretty jar, so she could layer spices, varieties of beans, and macaroni, for a soup mixture. She added a couple of bay leaves, and then I used a rubber stamp to make a Christmas tag, and I added a red plaid ribbon to the neck of the jar. This is a nice entry for the Christmas corner of the fair.
Then I spent quite a while filling out tags for our entries....and there were a lot of them, counting all the plants, veggies, individual flowers, etc. We can take the potted plants to the fair tomorrow afternoon, along with Mother's and my place settings. But the rest of the crafts, and canned goods will go Tuesday morning, after we enter our exhibit numbers on the tags. We can't get those numbers until tomorrow evening, so our job tomorrow night will be to make sure every tag has a number so that after judging, we can get paid for our wins.
We'll spend a lot of time Tuesday doing various fair-related tasks for Wednesday. I'll bake a coffee cake, make a floral arrangement, and put together a vegetable basket arrangement. Hubbie will gather flowers for individual bud vases, as well as a bunch for me to use in an arrangement. Mother will tag all the baked goods and candies.
Re: vegetable basket: this is a new category at the fair, where the entrant must make a pleasing basket arrangement from five or more varieties of vegetables. That presented a challenge to us, since our garden is small, with not a lot to choose from. So I've decided to use the one patti pan squash that Hubbie picked yesterday, two or three yellow squash, the one jalapeno pepper that's on the vine, two or three small bell peppers, some grape tomatoes, and a couple of regular tomatoes.
As for the coffee cake, I'll probably need to bake it at Mother's house, since we're convinced the oven on our stove isn't working properly. Hubbie will see about getting the oven fixed, but it would be too much to hope for that it can be done tomorrow. I figure an element will need to be ordered.
Mother went home around 4 p.m., Hubbie went out to mow part of the yard, and I played on my computer. Later, we had a cereal supper, and then watched TV.
A movie we saw was the 2008, "I Sell the Dead," starring Ron Perlman, and Dominic Monaghan. This PG 14 film is a horror/comedy. A lovable 18th Century grave robber (Monaghan) about to meet the hangman, reflects on his life of crime to a priest (Perlman). The robber and his cohort (who has already gone to the guillotine) kept running into vampires, zombies, and aliens in their bumbling efforts to dig up and sell bodies.
The second movie we watched was the 2010, PG feature, "Chasing 3000," starring Ray Liotta. Inspired by a true story, two brothers in the early 70s, travel across the country to see the baseball player Roberto Clemente get his 3000th hit. One of the brothers is confined to a wheelchair. We like sports-related movies, and this is a pretty good one...and much more uplifting than the previous film.
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