Fun Monday

 

Three time host, Mariposa, gave us our task for today: Kids Say the Darnedest Things! Yes, they can be your children...your nephew...niece....siblings...just any experience which makes you say...indeed, Kids Say the Darnedest Things! They need not be a lot...but no limit to how many you can share...more means more fun!

We have three grandchildren, and they are all wonderful and unique. Bob and I are fortunate, we were able to spent time, weekly, with each of our grandchildren from the time they were born until they went to school. We are truly blessed, in this.

These are two of my memories of Erin, my almost 16 year old granddaughter.

When Erin was about 15 months old, she realized that her wonderful Granddad had a name in addition to Granddad. She loved the name Bob, and declared for the longest time that Bob was her name, too. She walked around saying "Me Bob". What's your name, "Me Bob"!

When Erin was about 2 1/2, and I took her to the Los Angels Zoo. She was and is, very independent and I was afraid of losing her. I had a strap to connect our wrists, a loop on each end. It was OK, for a while, then she got really irritated at having to stay right with me. I'd already explained that I didn't want to get lost, and wearing the wrist strap would keep me safe. So eventually, she told me, "Get lost, Grandma!"

This is not Erin!

This is!

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Fun Monday

Sayre is our host and here's our challenge:   What are you and your family doing to deal with the current economic situation on a personal level? Obama's got a plan for the nation, but how do you/will you deal with your own economic stress?

Bob and I have been retired for over 10 years.   Our retirement income is pretty set and manageable.   We're not very frugal, but we're not extravagant, either.  We've been thru other recessions; but the biggest challenge we went thru, was when Bob became a policeman.  At the time, I was a SAHM, with one child and one "in the oven".  Bob took a half cut in pay, because he saw working for the LAPD, not only as something he wanted to do; but as the best thing for our family.  He was right, but a half cut in pay is stunning for the budget.  By the time he graduated from the police academy, we were a family of four, with two dogs.  My total budget for the week in 1970, was $25.00.  That was it, for milk, bread, eggs, all the essentials, plus paper products (toilet paper, anyone?)  and dog food.  One of the ways I managed this frugality was to plan my menus, a month at a time, usually with no duplicates, so we didn't get bored.  I would buy what I needed for that weeks' menu, during my once a week trip to the grocery store.

One of the things I still do is buying in bulk, but only if the items are good quality and will be used regularly - no purchases, just to have savings.

This time around, the biggest thing we've done is increase our charitable giving.  We've started sending a check every month to our local animal shelter.  Charitable giving is really down nation-wide, and by saving a little, here and there, (going back to our early LAPD days),  in other areas, we can send them a regular monthly check.  It's like paying a utility bill.

Fun Monday

This is Jo's assignment, this week:  "March 2nd is my Mom's birthday and was her mother's birthday as well.  For this week's Fun Monday, tell me something fun about your mother and/or her mother.   What fun, weird, laughable memories do you have of your Mom or your Grandma?"

This is my Mom.  I've known her for 64 years and have many memories of her, of course.  I can't remember too many that fit the fun, weird, laughable  catagories; so I'll tell you some things about her.

• Almost everyone who meets Mom, loves her.
• She goes to church at least once a week.
• She's 86 and still drives.
• She is always positive.  She has several ailments that cause her pain, but she never complains.
• She is forever young.  She has lived in a senior community for over 30 years, and doesn't socialize much, there, because the other residents are so old.  (Many are my age or younger.)  She will always tell you how young she is and/or how young everyone thinks she looks.
• She thinks the above photo I took 2 years ago, makes her look old.
• She has very strong genes, as witnessed in this bleary photo of me, Carrie, Mom, Bob and Sharon, taken by Oden last Thanksgiving.  

Fun Monday

Ari_1965 is demanding to know  What does your kitchen counter look like right now? (And no fair cleaning just for the picture!) Do you have any favorite or unusual items on your counter?

I have a long kitchen counter, from right to left

here is a great plant called Mother-In-Laws' tongue.

I hope my son-in-law never thinks of me that way!

In this corner is my teapot and my pitcher.

Next, are the small kitchen TV, a couple of baskets of snacks,

and our bread box.  I opened it, so you could see inside.

Area between the breadbox and the sink, boring.

On the other side of the sink, are the appliances we use regularlly.

The electric kettle heats my tea water and quesadilla press and/or

 panini press are used almost daily for lunch, when we're home.

This is my catch-all corner, next to the stove.  My non-canisters are

in the back; three jars of cooking utensils, tea canister, bucket of pot-holders,

salt & pepper shakers and my cereal dispenser.

Fun Monday

Gattina says she's our leader, by default, this week. I think she's a great leader and she came up with a novel Fun Monday.

Please show us what you wear on your feet inside your home ! Do you wear slippers, flip flops, shoes or nothing? just take a picture and show us your feet !

These are my slippers that I wear each morning, until I get dressed for the day's activities.  If I'm staying in the house the whole day, this is what I wear.  I also wear them last thing at night, after I put my pj's on.  They wait for me beside my bed, so I can slip them on each morning.

Fun Monday

Pamela is the grand inquisitor this week and she wants:  Show me in pictures or tell me in words what defines the place that you live.  The following is the start of a post I saved in draft, not knowing if I would ever use it, so I was partially ready, today:  

Some of my readers may realize, and some may not, Bob and I live in a gated community. It's not only gated, it's for seniors. That means one of the residents must be at least 55 to live here. We move here 10 years ago, Bob was old enough, and I was only 54, so we could move in. The median age of the residents living in the 1600 single family homes is 62. It's a very active community and we really made the right decision, for us.

Here are some of the comments I've heard or overheard regarding living here:

Oh, our book group is going to your house, I be there. I always wanted to go to "the compound."

How often do they let you out.

How can you stand living with all these old people.

What do you do there?

The most frequent question both Bob and I get is:

Do you golf?

Neither of us golf, Bob thinks he might, if he gets too old to do other things.  My favorite of the above is the first one about "visiting the compound".

The collage shows photos taken around my community during the past year. The women in the 2nd row, are part of the Tai Chi class I teach here.  Since we live in Southern California, our weather is great about 300 out of 365 days a year.  One of my favorite things is my garden, and here's a collage of photos from my back yard.

Here's a map that shows where we are.  We're not on the coast, but inland and over the hills from U.S. Marine Corp's Camp Pendleton.

Fun Monday

Angela is the boss this week and this is her assignment:

OK, I know that pretty much all of you out there are bookworms.

So for Fun Monday on 2nd February, firstly tell me what book you are reading now. What's it about? Are you enjoying it and why? If not, why not?

And secondly, if you were to be stranded on a desert island, what one book would you take with you.


Right now I'm reading Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. It's a brand new book that will be published tomorrow, February 3. Verghese has written other books, but this is his first novel and it's a terrific twentieth century epic that wonderfully blends a family drama and medical practices into an Ethiopian political thriller. It's very long, over 500 pages, but the prose are wonderful and vivid; the story is gripping. I'm lucky to be a bookseller; one of the many benefits is getting to read books before they're published. Yeah, for Barnes and Noble.


The second part is harder, because I don't know. I'm never without a book, even when I went to jury duty last week, I took two books, just in case I had to stay all day. I'm betting if I was stranded on a desert island, I'd have packed at leat 5 books. So, I'll give you Lists.

All Time Favorite Books

All the Pretty Horses

Mystic River

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Things They Carried

Best New Books I've Read Recently

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Etta

American Rust

Songs for the Missing

The Flying Troutmans

My oldest blog is for book reviews, I hope you'll find something to read there.

Fun Monday

Grace is the boss this week, and here is her assignment:

Many people make resolutions during the month of January and they usually include diets/eating healthy/losing weight and all that good stuff. I myself decided to try the Weight Watchers this time round. My assignment is to tell us about a diet or two (Atkins, Sonoma, Weight Watchers, South Beach, the You on a Diet, Best Life, The Abs Diet, The Zone, Cabbage Soup, E-Diets, Dr Phil, Jenny Craig, The Meditteranean Diet, Nutrisystem, Slim-Fast, Suzzane Sommers or No Name diet etc etc) that you have tried and what you liked or did not like about it. You can tell us about one diet that you had so much success with, or another that was a torture to follow or both.

AND/OR

Photo assignment: post a photo of something/someone that makes you feel good about yourself. It could be your loved one, your pet, your part of the world, anything goes.

So, we get choices. I've only used one diet in my life, Weight Watchers. I've used it twice; when I was in my 20's and again in my 50's. I like several things about WW, the main one is that it has evolved with the times. It's a great program that helps you loose weight and gain a healthy lifestyle. You just have to do the program. I think that's where most people foul-up, cheating all the time. I'm included in "most people". Lucky for me and anyone whose been a WW'er, all you have to do is get back to it.

This collage shows my daughters, at different stages of their lives. They are wonderful women, beautiful, intelligent and sucessful. They a both great mothers. When I think of them I feel wonderful, about them and myself.

Fun Monday

This is the Second Anniversary of Fun Monday. The assignment from Julie,  "I have decided to put a twist on the traditional Fun Monday. Instead of standing in your front door and taking a photo of what you see outside, let's turn around and take on of the inside. Maybe that will prompt some of us to pick up a tad (you know who you are)."    Well I didn't pick up, not even a tad, so here is what you see when you come into my house, including the dust.

The Welcoming Committee

Welcome, come right in; this is what you'll see, any time you drop in.  Our home is small, 1266 square feet, and you step right into the living room, from the front porch.  Our front door is at an angle, and we chose to have the planks of the floor run straight out from the door.  I took these photos standing on our threshold.  Now, go visit all the other Fun Monday'ers.  They're a great bunch.  If you haven't participated before, jump right in, you'll be welcomed.

Fun Monday

Fun Monday - Show and Tell

What is the quirkiest thing in your home that you will never give away?

This was my assignment for everyone today. I hope everyone had a much easier time of it than I did. I had a hard time coming up with anything quirky that I wouldn't give away. I know, I know, I should have thought of that first.

So, here are the two things I won't give away.

This is a surfers' hat. It has a very broad brim to keep surfers from sunburn and skin damage. Are you scratching your head, wondering why I won't part with it? Well, I gave this to my Dad about 20 years ago. I gave it to him because he had a small melanoma on his face, and I wanted to protect him. It's the only thing I have of his. He passed in 2002. Normally, it hangs in our bedroom, like below.

Here's another head scratcher for you; a crystal cake plate. I bet my daughters don't even know I have this. It's special because Bob bought it for me about 35 years ago. He remembered how I always admired my Aunt Cora's collection of crystal cake plates. She had all kinds of beautiful crystal, and several cake plates. I would have never bought this for myself; I don't even make layer cakes very often. But because Bob bought it, when we didn't have much money, makes it very special to me. Below is another photo, I put some gigantic muffins in it so you could see how wonderful it is.

Here's the list of everyone that signed up to play today:

1. Aoj & The Lurchers

2. Jan

3. Alison

4. Janis

5. Sayre

6. Jo

7. Lisa's Chaos

8. Jientje

9. hulagirlatheart
10. Carrie

11. The Church Lady

12. faye

13. Molly

14. Gattina right link

15. chrisb

16. WT

17. Sandy

18. MommyWizdom

19. Grace

20. Karisma

21. m (the misanthrope)

22. Swamp~Elf (Swampy)

23. iPost

24. Jill

25. min

26. Hootin' Anni

27. Robin ~ PENSIEVE

28. Julie (Our hostess, or tormentor, next week)

29  Lynn posted on Tuesday

30.  Vanderbilt Wife posted on Tuesday

If you're name isn't here, leave a comment. 

Fun Monday, the assignment

Fun Monday - Show and Tell

What is the quirkiest thing in your home that you will never give away?

That is my question for you this week's Fun Monday on January 12th. If you have a hard time narrowing it down to just one thing, feel feel to show and tell about two or three different things. Let's have prose and photos, if possible.

Please use Mr. Linky, it's easy and will help me

Fun Monday

Faye at Summit Musings is our hostess this week and this is her assignment:

"What's on your mind as we close out 2008 and begin 2009? Large and small. What are often your first thoughts the minute you wake up? When you're alone and unguarded? Working? Stuck in traffic? Playing with the children? Walking the dogs? When you can't sleep?"

When some one says, "What's on your mind?", I think they usually mean what's worrying you. I've reach the stage where things are pretty simple, and I really don't worry over many things. My one concern is health, keeping Bob and I healthy is really important. I have so many things to do and places to go, and we just can't do that if we don't stay healthy.

So, my answer is health.

Fun Monday

Sayre is our hostess this week, and this is her wish:

Write this assignment AFTER Christmas (or Hanukkah) and tell me two things about your holiday:

What was the most touching, wonderful part of Christmas for you this year?

AND

What was the craziest, stupidest, funniest part this year?

We had a very normal Christmas this year, well normal for us. Sharon and Oden came for gift opening and Christmas lunch. We opted for lunch this year because one of Sharon's girlfriends was turning 40 on Christmas Day, and her hubs was throwing her a party at 4 PM. (Our best holiday this year was Thanksgiving, when Carrie paid us a surprise visit from North Carolina.)

But, back to Christmas. Probably the most wonderful thing on Christmas Day, was when Oden (9), opened his gift from us. He'd been wanting a guitar, and I found an excellent youth guitar at Target (gotta love Target - perfect gift, easy on the budget). When he unwrapped it his grin was unbelievable. When they were leaving, there's Oden sitting in the front seat of Sharon's truck holding his guitar and flashing a Hawaiian shaka sign (hang loose).

I really don't have a "funny" story from this Christmas, except maybe when Sharon and Oden were wrestling and spilled coffee all over the coffee table; so I thought I'd share this one:  

The Funniest and Shortest Christmas Story

Place: The Newtown School Nativity Play
Scene: The inn at Bethlehem on Christmas Eve

Joseph: Do you have any room at the inn?
Inn Keeper: (Over-playing his role) Yes, plenty, come on in.

Joseph: [Jaw drops, speechless]

Footnote:
In the nativity play, the inn keeper is supposed to say 'There is no room in the inn', and this is how the baby Jesus came to be born in a stable.

I really hope everyone had a great Christmas or Hanukkah this year; and I also hope we all have a Great New Year. Now go visit Sayre to find out what everyone else had to say. Next week Faye is the hostess, and I'm hosting on the 12th, (I think I have a great idea).

Fun Monday

Ari_1965 from Beyond My Slab, wants to know: Tell us about your all-time worst Neighbors from Hell.

I really haven't had any Neighbors that would be voted into the "Neighbors from Hell Hall of Fame", but I've had, some bad neighbors.

The first I can remember was in the early years of our marriage, around 1966. We were living in a duplex, kind of a duplex court. We were the only residents there that couldn't be called "Redneck", this is in Southern California, and we ended up renting in "Redneck Central", amazing. For the most part these neighbors were fine, but their true colors came out the day I had a fender-bender in our Corvette. These neighbors literally poured out of their apartments to see the damage, plus they wanted to know, "What's you husband going to do to you for wrecking the car?!!". I really didn't understand the question - it was incomprehensible that Bob would do anything to me. They actually hung out outside to see the fireworks. They were really disappointed when Bob got home from work, looked at the car and just asked me if I was alright.

Years later, after we had been homeowners for about 15 years, the woman next door complained about everything. She was the 2nd wife, after the death of the saintly 1st wife. What a change. Once she even tried to bribe our gardener to remove or kill our trees in the backyard, so the wind wouldn't blow flowers and leaves into her yard.

Now, we have a neighbor that if I were rich, I would buy her house, just to get rid of her. I'd make her an offer she couldn't pass up, and she'd be out of my life. Alas, I'm not rich, so I put up with her. With her it's my dogs, for some reason she hates them. Always complaining about them, etc. Now, here's the thing, she has a dog, but she just hates mine. Complain, complain, complain. The woman is phobic about many things, but really I've had a hard time understanding why she dislikes these particular dogs so much. When she first moved next door, we had different dogs, she didn't mind them. After those dogs went to doggie heaven, we rescued these two, and she hates them. Maybe I'll win the Lottery and buy her house. Keep your fingers crossed.

These are the dogs she hates!

Dudley and Lizzie