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dooley's Blog
Today was Saturday
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:13 am Since today was Saturday I worked seven hours. I had a day off yesterday. There was a big gun show in Phoenix and we thought we would go walk around and we might see something I could buy DR for his birthday. But when we got up he said he was tired and didn't feel like walking around a gun show. So, we just went to Phoenix to do a little shopping. We started at Trader Joe's. I found a pink heather plant before we got in the front door. It smelled so good. It's pretty, too. Picture tomorrow, maybe. Then, we went to Saver's, a resale shop. That was a waste of time and we left quickly. Then, we drove clear to Dunlap and 35th Avenue to go to an Oriental Market. I wanted to buy tea and they usually have a choice. I bought lychee tea, India tea(assam), oolong tea and some called Lung ching. It was in a sealed can so I only bought it because of the strange name. No English on the can. It is a green tea, I think. The leaves are in big chunks. I haven't tried it yet. I only made a pot of the lychee tea which is fragrant and quite good. It's a black tea. The India tea comes packed in pound bags. I haven't opened it yet. I need to get a tin out of the shed to store it in. I also bought a box of Irish breakfast tea and a box of oolong tea, both teabags for when I don't have time or want a big pot of tea. Tonight I had P&G Tips. That's English and quite good. On Thursday when we went to Ross's, I bought a box of Harrowgate. It's English, too. It's a black tea. So, I now have a bigger selection of tea and will probably end up going, "eeny, meeny, miney mo" to decide what to make. I bought a few other things and then we went to a Thai buffet for lunch. Not as good as it used to be but the neighborhood has taken a slide down hill. We went to the Sunflower Organic store for polenta and I bought some wholegrain pancake mix to try. We bought fish for Christmas eve at Trader Joe's and a few other gourmet items for Christmas. No presents though. The smell in the Oriental grocery make DR feel sick so he went outside to wait for me. We got home about four and I put the pork roast that was in the refrigerator in the oven and went to do a few little things while supper was cooking. Today, was a light day bookwise at the library. The drop boxes were nearly empty. But, last night was the Christmas parade in Prescott Valley. A light parade. This afternoon was the parade in Prescott and tonight was the lighting of Christmas lights in Courthouse Square in Prescott. It's a really big deal and makes the news all over Arizona. We didn't go. Being a light book day I had time to move books around on the shelves. Two of the other ladies moved all the H thru K books before the library opened and I moved all the C thru G books by myself this afternoon. It's all part of a big move to rearrange things to make better use of the space. It's been a lot of work though. Another lady will move A thru B on Monday morning. She has moved her share over the last several weeks. I can make you go cross-eyed by telling you how it works so just imagine several thousand hard back and paper back books all changing spaces. The non-fiction books did not change spaces but I am forever moving them about trying to make more room. It will be June 2008 before the new library is ready to occupy so space is very much a concern until that time. My one elbow hurts tonight and sometimes when I've moved a lot of books my fingers cramp at night. I think tomorrow we will stay home and see about doing something Christmasy. Of course, that will entail moving things around a bit. Well, okay, it will entail moving things around a lot. I'm thinking if it is at all nice I might begin with the outside. It is supposed to rain during the week and I can always do inside if it's raining. Chance can help. She always looks so worried when we start moving things. Chance and dr have gone to bed. I didn't sleep all that well last night so I think I might be headed that way myself. As for the Christmas shopping, not much was bought in the way of presents. I did buy two sweaters for work but dr paid for them. I guess I will have to go Christmas shopping again. DR says he doesn't need anymore things to not have room for. I did order a subscription for him for Shotgun News which he likes to read. But, that wasn't a surprise. Oh, well, that's my rambling for tonight. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 536 times
The day after
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:58 am Well, here it is the day after. We hadn't intended to do much of anything and I guess we didn't really do much. DR said we should go to breakfast. We went up the hill. It was more brunch than breakfast but we ate breakfast food. It wasn't very good. The restaurant was busy and I think they got careless with their cooking. My bacon was only cooked on one side. The waitress never came back until we were finished. When I told her about the bacon not being cooked she was going to go get me some more. DR told her to forget it, we were finished. The manager wasn't around so DR is going to write him a letter. We won't go back there. Being busy is not an excuse for poor food quality. We waited a good 20 minutes to be seated and we could see empty tables from where we stood. I think they didn't have enough wait staff on duty. We went to the mall. I bought gift cards from Barnes & Noble for Christmas presents. The woman wanted to give me free boxes but I told her no, I was just sending them in a padded envelope. I'm saving money buying gift cards, why would I pay extra to put them in a package that costs more. Oh, well! Not her fault. She didn't know what I was doing with them. People were very rude and pushy just about everywhere today. If they didn't want to go shopping, why didn't they stay home. A lady knocked DR's drink cup over because she wanted to fill her cup before he finished. What would it hurt to wait half a second until he finished? She glared at him like it was his fault. They put something on sale at a store and then, they put a young kid on the register and he doesn't know what he is doing and everyone is trying to talk to him at once and he doesn't know and that's all he said, "I don't know!" He couldn't even get anyone else to come to help him. He'd get on the intercom and no one would come. If I'd been him, I'd probably have run screaming down the aisle. Where was the manager or dept. head when he needed helpd?Kids don't know what to do when a lot of people gather at one time and all want to be first. We left. We didn't need anything anyway. It isn't a good start to the Season of Good Cheer. We stopped at Michael's and bought a ring to make a wreath. DR is going to make a wreath out of Rosemary for the kitchen. He bought a stem of red berries to put on for color. I think I will have a ribbon for it when we get the Christmas stuff out of the shed on Sunday. I have got to get the Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff gathered up before I think about the Christmas stuff. Why aren't these holidays spread out a little? No wonder everyone is stressed. You can't get stuff put away from one before it's too late and you are rushed getting things out for the next one. Good thing we have a few months after the new year to recuperate. Maybe that's why we have winter, to rest up for the spring and summer. We haven't had a frost yet. I was out with Chance this morning and looking around the yard. It was cloudy and cooler than I like. But as I looked around I saw a couple petunia blossems still standing up straight. The leaves were a little brownish but the flowers were a nice bright red and white. I saw some yellow and orange calendula and some yellow coreopsis and a few purple cosmos. I even saw a couple morning glories. The morning glories were not very big but they made a bright spot in a gray day. In the garden there was a tomato plant still green with a yellow flower. Some coriander was blooming and there was one squash plant with a flower. They are all still trying to do their job and making the yard and garden shine on a dull, cloudy day. It made me feel better for sure. I mean, I wasn't feeling bad but those flowers cheered me anyway. Now, the weather forecast is for low 50's during the day this week and low 30's at night so I know those flowers aren't going to last through the week. But it is nearly December and they should have gone a month or six weeks ago so if they die this week I still had flowers longer than I could have expected. Nature is wonderful. Now, if I only had time to run out and pick the seeds and pull the dead plants and rake the leaves and all the other things I need to do outside. But, if I don't get it all done it doesn't go away. It waits patiently for me to get time to do it. I think I must be rambling again. Must be bed time. I have to work 8:30-4 tomorrow and DR is going flea marketing. Dooley Last edited: Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:56 pm This blog entry has been viewed 550 times
Pfeffernusse
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:10 am Today was not a busy day at the library so I got a lot of books moved around and cleared all the carts in the workroom. I even managed to get the books in the 800 (Dewey Decimal System) straightened out. It was driving me bats everytime I had to shelve a book in that section. Put some books in for repair. Books just don't last as long as they did. It was dry and dusty in the library today. My lips are cracked and dry tonight. I kept putting lip balm on them. I will put some vitamin E on them before I go to bed. That helps a lot. We stopped at the I-HOP for a sandwich on the way home and I tried to drink all the iced tea. We were home about 5:30. I checked out the stew and then went and made Pfeffernusse cookies. I always make them for Thanksgiving and until Christmas. That's it until next Thanksgiving. They are a hard little round dunker, spicy with anise, cinnamon and cloves. German peppernuts. I think the Swedish people have a version, too. Pepperkakor, maybe. I always have trouble getting them the same size but last year my youngest son told me he uses a small melon ball maker. I don't have one of those but I found a half teaspoon measure and used it and now they are about the same size. I put them in a covered jar with half an apple. I cleaned up the kitchen and made a pot of tea and finished the banana coffee cake that I made yesterday. Tomorrow we are going to install the flooring in the kitchen. DR has to fix the gate to Chance's little yard. The bottom hinge is off or something. I had to tie it shut tonight. She pushed it out at the bottom and was having fun running around the big yard . She paid no attention when I told her it was time to come inside for supper. So, no cookies for her tonight. The Petco store sells dog cookies that look like people cookies. She likes the sandwich cookies best. They have a filling that looks like frosting. DR says it tastes like pork fat. Yuck! She likes animal crackers too. I pulled a beef roast out of the freezer to cook tomorrow. Maybe I will try out my new Rival electric roaster before I need it for the Thanksgiving turkey. Need to remember to get that turkey out of the freezer, too. One year I remembered it on Thanksgiving morning and spent a couple of hours running cold water on it trying to thaw it enough to cook it for dinner. We ate late that day. I only have to work four days this coming week. Mon, Tues, Wed and Sat. We get Thursday off and Friday is my usual day off. The library is closed on Thursday and Friday so everyone gets those days off. The library is at the Civic Center. They've been putting lights up all over so I guess they will start lighting them after Thanksgiving. I usually get our Christmas things out after Thanksgiving. Our neighbor has his up already. He likes to do it before it gets cold so his fingers don't freeze while he's doing it. He goes overboard. He has lights enough for the whole neighborhood. DR bought a santa and reindeer for the roof this year. He got it at a yard sale. We have a big 5 foot star for the shed roof. I guess we have to figure out how to rearrange our living room, too. But first the kitchen floor and then we'll think about the rest of it. I think it's time to think about sleeping late in the morning. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 843 times
Where does the time go?
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:27 am The week just started and it's already more than half finished. I had planned to have my house all cleaned by now. What I have is a big mess? More so than when I started. We have shelves and bears everywhere and I seldom dust them. But, I figured if company was coming for Thanksgiving I should at least attempt to get the house cleaned. I have two of the three large shelves cleaned but still have the one with all the little bears on it to do. DR decided as long as the shelves were cleaned he'd bring the can collection back and pack something else in boxes. We couldn't eat supper at the table tonight because we couldn't find the table. Guess what I will do tomorrow? Today, we went up the hill and had breakfast at the I-HOP. They have good whole grain pancakes. Fry's had potatoes on sale. 99 Cents for 10 lbs. So, I bought two bags. DR bought two bags. I can store them in a tub in the small room. It isn't heated. We stopped at Albertson's and guess what they had on sale for 97 cents for 10 lbs. We bought four more bags. Now, we have 80 lbs of potatoes. That should last us until summer. Well, maybe. Last year we bought 100 lbs. Without the boys here to help eat them, they last a long time. But, baked potatoes are good and it helps heat the house in winter. We stopped at the auto parts store to look at tonneau covers for the truck. DR has been looking at them and there was one on sale that he wanted to look at. They had one made for our truck. They said it was the one on sale but when we got it home, it wasn't like the one in the ad. It looks to be a better one so maybe they ran out and were substituting or maybe they made a mistake but it is now residing on the back of our truck. We stopped at the flooring store. Last week we stopped and found out we could get flooring for our kitchen for 69 cents a square foot. Crazy Nate's is the place. So, the guy quoted us a price for our 8 ft by 10 foot which is what we need. But, when we went to get it, the guy wasn't there. A woman was there and she told us we couldn't buy a piece 8 x 10 because it came in 12 foot lengths. But, that's not what the man told us so DR said "let's go." We started to leave and the woman told us we wouldn't find it any cheaper anywhere else. I told her that might be but we might find somewhere with more honest people. Where one person tells you one thing and then someone else tells you something different when you go to get it.We will go on Friday to look somewhere else. There are lots of flooring places in the phone book. It's just that we wanted it down before Thanksgiving. It has been crazy at work. The library was closed on Friday for Veteran's Day. It was open Saturday but I think people expected it to be closed because it wasn't that busy except for the bookdrop box was over flowing both times. I did have things all put on the shelves by the end of the day. But, people that didn't come on Saturday came on Monday and I didn't get everything put away. I didn't get finished on Tuesday either. Today, all of the librarians and "bosses" were at a library conference so there was a shortage of staff so the day people didn't get a lot done, except the lady cataloging books. So, there were lots and lots of books to put on the shelves. But, our volunteer was sick so there was a shortage on the evening crew also. I had to be at the checkout desk for the first hour and a half so there was no way I could get everything shelved. So, there will be a lot to do when I go in tomorrow. But, being busy makes the time go faster. It never drags along with nothing to do. I do stop for a break about halfway through the evening. The library director calls me his Whirling Dervish Shelver. We stopped at the grocery store after work and bought a turkey and a lot of other stuff too. Now, at least we will have turkey and potatoes for Thanksgiving and sweet potatoes and cranberries and vegetables and pumpkin pie and whatever else will fit on the table.DR just put Chance to bed so maybe it's time for me to head that direction too. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 580 times
What did I do?
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:54 am What did I do today? Not much. Slept late. Got up and went to breakfast. We drove clear north of Prescott because we wanted to go to Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store. We didn't find any bargains so started to the DAV thrift store. On the way we wanted to stop at the new Tuesday Morning store that opened in Prescott last month. We've been to the one in Phoenix. I think this one is about the same size. Anyway, I got mixed up and we drove past the street so I thought I could cut through the K-Mart parking lot and get on the right road. But, we saw a dollar store. Actually it says Nothing more than $2.00. So we stopped there and bought a few things. A duster with a long handle for those pesky daddylonglegs webs up by the ceiling. Dr found some grape juice from Kedum Winery in Milton, NY. It has a special meaning for him since his parents lived in Milton and we visited the winery. That's not all, but I'm not saying the rest. Then, we cut through the parking lot and got on the right road. Next to the Tuesday morning was another dollar store so of course we went in there. I bought some Christmas pot holders. I really needed them as mine are in the shed with the rest of the Christmas stuff. Then, we went to Tuesday morning. Brian saw the glass globe he wanted but it was too big and I told him it was. We didn't buy it. We didn't buy anything at Tuesday Morning. But, we discovered there was a new Big Lots store opened in the same shopping area. It was bigger than the one in Phoenix and better organized. We bought a few things there. I bought two little glass bear ornaments. I really needed those. (HA) By then, I had a headache so we decided we needed to get something to drink and I could take an Aleve. On the way to the car we saw a cowboy (Hat, boots, jeans, he looked like a cowboy). He was leaning over a shopping cart. He straightened up and saw us coming. He had a wrench in his hand. He started talking and backing up. He had bought the "Chinese" wrench in one of the stores and he had bought a big pair of "Chinese" bolt cutters and only used it once and it snapped and it made him mad because they wouldn't take it back so he wanted to make sure this wrench worked before he took it home so he took the wheel off of the shopping cart and was just putting it back on again. He grinned and went off down the sidewalk. He said it all so fast that it took me a minute or so to absorb all that he said. I started laughing. DR couldn't follow it all so I had to tell him what the man said and he started laughing. People thought we were demented, I think. We got in the truck and left too. So, we forgot about going for the drink and ended up at the DAV. I even remembered to go straight instead of turning. For some reason when I get on Iron Springs Road and head for the DAV thrift store I always turn left onto Willow Springs Road and there is no where to turn around for several blocks and I always get so mad at myself. But today I kept telling myself "go straight, go straight" Dr was laughing at me but I went straight. We bought a couple of things. Dr found two glass globes for his project. One fit and one was a wee bit too big. I found a wooden sled for a bear to sit on under the Christmas tree. Then, we went to the mall and had a Subway sandwich and a drink. My head stopped hurting so Maybe I just needed to eat something. But, I was tired so we decided we would just stop at the grocery store and then go home. I bought a pot of Pele Mums at the grocery store. They are a rust color. Big ones. They will look nice on the table at Thanksgiving or on the counter. I serve Thanksgiving buffet style so I think I will put it on the serving table. We bought a few things at the grocery store and them I was ready to come home. We stopped at the post office. There was a letter from our insurance company that is for prescriptions. It said that the WalMart in our area has $4.00 prescriptions on certain generic drugs and if the prescriptions that I use are on the list I could save three dollars on each one because their co-pay is seven dollars. They are going to drop the insurance coverage at the end of the year anyway or we have to pay the whole cost of it. I called WalMart and my prescriptions are on the list so Monday I will call the doctor and get copies of the prescriptions and take them to WalMart. Insurance companies are in the business of making money, not helping you, but I thought it was nice of them to tell us we could save money. It will actually save them money though. The lights dr bought for his project didn't work so he's taking them back tomorrow. He loaded the truck so he can go to the flea market tomorrow while I work. I brought a small lawn table inside to put my mums on in front of the window for now. I measured furniture and spaces so we can move things around before Christmas. No matter how I move stuff there is just so much room in this house. Something will have to go. I think it should probably be a few bears. Well, maybe more than a few bears. But, they aren't going anywhere. They've staked their claim and will hang on for dear life if I try to move them. I must have close to 400 now. I need to ask myself where will I put it BEFORE I buy it. Of course if I put it back dr goes back and gets it so he can't claim it's all my fault. I finally made a pot of tea and a sandwich when we got home. Dr has gone to bed so I should find out where Chance is and put her to bed. She always has a dog treat before she goes to bed. She might be sleeping on the floor by the bed. Sometimes she does that until I go and put her out in the laundry room. Her bed is much softer than the floor anyway. Have to get up at 6 am so I'd better be going to bed, too. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 641 times
A little of this, a little of that!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2006 7:02 pm I haven't been writing much lately. I've been keeping busy doing a little of this and a little of that. On Sunday, I broke up a lot of branches from the scrub oak tree we trimmed in the spring. They broke easily but I did get a big blister between my thumb and first finger. It was sore until it dried over. Now, it's peeling skin so it's going away. I clipped weeds and filled 4 black trash bags for the trash man. I didn't want those seeds in the compost. I still have a few branches to break and then that area will be done for the winter. Well, I still do have seeds to save from the cosmos and coreopsis. I sent some to Glendann this week but there is still tons out there. I have morning glory seeds to gather, too. Cajunbelle wants some of those. I scattered a few along the front fence this morning. I'm hoping they will grow there in the spring. I seem to have more luck growing plants that I didn't plant. I didn't plant the morning glories. I never planted hollyhocks and they are taking over the whole place. I had a basil plant growing in the middle of the yard. Why would I plant basil in the middle of the yard? I didn't. Today, I saw a zinnia growing up by the wheelbarrow. I didn't plant zinnias. I, also, didn't plant cardinal vines. They vied for fence space with the morning glories this summer. Hummingbirds love them. Speaking of hummingbirds. I went outside earlier in the week and a hummingbird buzzed my head. So, I got out the hummingbird feeders and gave them a good cleaning and filled them and hung them from the rose arbor and the house eaves in the front yard. Then, I stood at the fence talking with my neighbor. Well, that hummingbird buzzed my head and almost took my nose off. It wanted me to move away from the arbor so it could feed. Finally it decided if I wasn't going to move it would eat anyway. Soon, two of them were there. I take my hummingbird feeders down in the summer when there are flowers because all I feed are ants and bees. We have a few hummers all winter so I do have them up. Sometimes they freeze and it's a little comical to see them try to eat from them. I have to bring them in and run them under warm water for a bit. My neighbor joined a quilting club at the senior center. They are making lap robes for shut in elders. They have a goal of 75 for Christmas and have around 50-60 finished. Marilyn wasn't quite sure of the exact amount. She was busy taking apart one. The leader's aunt makes tops and she is very elderly so doesn't sew exactly straight and sometimes gets them sewed back around to front. But, no one wants to tell her she can't help so they just take them apart and put them back together. Isn't that nice of them? Anyway, I've been thinking of cleaning my shed and getting rid of the boxes and boxes of material since I don't quilt much anymore and I volunteered to give it to the quilting club. Now, all I have to do is get enough ambition to get that started. Since I need to get to the Christmas stuff one of these days, it's a good excuse to do it. I'm going to put a pork roast in the Nesco roaster in a bit. I put it in a bag with olive oil, worcestershire and some fresh picked herbs earlier. Basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and sage. I put in some peppercorns too. We found pork roasts on sale last night and dr has 10% off with his card for 60 days so we bought two large ones. I cut them in two pieces each and made four of them. Three are residing in the freezer. This morning I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep and finally decided to get up. I made cornmeal for breakfast. We all like hot cereal, even Chance. I made a big pot of tea. Then, I went outside and cleaned out the pond tub. We didn't get the rocks around it finished this year so didn't get the waterfall working. There is always next year. We put the pump and tubing away until spring. I covered it with plastic. I'm thinking I can build some kind of Christmas scene on the plastic. But it can't be anything heavy. I'll need to look in the garden center at Costco or WalMart and see what I can find. I raked up the fallen leaves and cut out the dead foliage in the lily bed. I put the leaves around the rosebushes. I'm thinking instead of putting leaves in the compost I will spread them in the herb garden area and then dig them into the ground in the spring. I need to add stuff to that soil anyway. It's in terrible shape. I watered my plants that are in the exercise room now. Dr finished that last week. He build a really nice heavy shelf for them. They get morning sun. When the apricot trees finally lose their leaves they will get more sun. I want to go out and cut the weeds back behind the storage shed where dr keeps his flea market stuff. It is a truly neglected area. Maybe I'll put some wildflower seeds there in the spring. Better than weeds. Maybe I'll wait until tomorrow. I still have to work tonight and that's sure to stir up allergies. I was thinking I'd go shopping tomorrow, but we did a bit last night so maybe not. But, maybe we can go for breakfast and look in the thrift shops. Yesterday we stopped in one and dr bought a small refrigerator. We'd stopped looking for one and there it was. Maybe there will be some yard sales. We looked at a bargain outlet for kitchen flooring yesterday. We will go back next week and buy some so we will get in put in before Thanksgiving. We have a small kitchen area so it won't be too bad. Guess I should go get that pork on to cook. It won't cook in the refrigerator. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 591 times
Smoke!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:24 pm The wildfire people are doing a lot of controlled burns now. We had a lot of rain in the summer and things grew and grew. Now, there's too much vegetation and it has dried and is prime for wildfires. So before they can get started by campers or lightning the fireservice people do controlled burns. But with the clouds hanging around and the breezes kicking up in the evenings the air is full of smoke. On Monday and Tuesday we could smell it in the library and when we came out it looked like heavy fog but was very smoky. It makes your eyes burn and a lot of people are having trouble breathing. But, they say it has to be done so it won't burn out of control and destroy homes and towns. It was supposed to be sunny the last couple of days but it's been very overcast both days. I think it must be a lot of the smoke in the air. We've been busy at the library. Monday's are always busy. Tuesday was Halloween and there was absolutely nobody in the library. I had all the books shelved by 7:30 and went and straightened shelves for the rest of the evening. They made up for it yesterday though. There were so many books coming in that I didn't get started on shelving until my shift was half over. So, I didn't get it all finished. I did get all the nonfiction shelved because no one likes doing the little numbers. There was an explosion in the cookbook aisle. I think someone pulled out a heavy volume and there was a paperback volume next to it and it started sliding and slid all the books off onto the floor. Someone being helpful picked them up and piled them mumbo jumbo back onto the shelf. It didn't take me long to fix it but it must have been funny when it started a landslide. The poor patron probably didn't know what to do. I am glad they were thoughtful enough to put them back on the shelf because someone probably would have just walked over them or on them. I called our friends in Goodyear to see if they wanted to come for Thanksgiving this year. Last year their car quit coming up the hill from the valley and they had to be towed up to Prescott and then come back on Saturday to get their car. They had a large bill to get it fixed. That was the last time they were here as she has been sick and had to have some surgery. Anyway, she still isn't feeling well but they really want to come up for Thanksgiving. It is about an hour and a half to their place from here. Al is 76 and Ree is 70. She was just 17 when they got married so they have been together for a long time. He plays accordion and still plays daily and sometime two or three times a day for nursing homes and assisted living homes. He's booked as much as two years ahead. But, he doesn't do holidays. Their family is in California so they go there for Christmas. They have come here for Thanksgiving the last three years. Al is deaf but he wears hearing aids. He just got a new digital pair that cost several thousand dollars. But, when the settings change it beeps at him and he says it gets irritating so he shuts them off. So he can't hear when the phone rings or she talks to him. She gets so mad. Yesterday when I called she was shouting, trying to get him to turn them on so he could hear me. They have the phone on a speaker/amplifier system so he can hear it. But, he has to have his hearing aids turned on. But, yes, they want to come up for Thanksgiving. Their car is still working fine. I went outside with Chance the other morning. She wanted to chase cats in the lower yard. Only the cats had all left before she got out there. I got some pint jars and began to collect seeds. I collected cosmon, coreopsis, four o'clock, morning glory and nastursium. We haven't had a frost yest so some haven't dried enough to collect yet. I was looking this morning and we have blooming now, coreopsis, calendula, petunias, nastursium, morning glory, cosmos, geranium, baby's breath, flea bane and the pots of impatients and dianthus. There is a big bush outside the back door that has purple berries on it. I shall get DR to take a picture of it. I forgot the name of it. I'll have to look it up. It starts with Japo well, I will look it up and post it with a picture. The pyracantha has red berries on it. We only have a little sticking over from the neighbors yard. There is a large thick hedge of it up the street and it's beautiful right now. Yesterday we went up the hill a little early and had supper at the Chinese Buffet. I had only eaten a scone for breakfast so I was really hungry by the time we ate. That's not good. So this morning I only had a scone so now I have got to go find something to eat. Maybe an apple. DR bought some fine large Jonagold apples last night. No cheese though. Maybe I'll have another scone and a cup of tea. I made oatmeal currant scones with whole meal flour yesterday. Enough to freeze some. But we have to eat them because there's no room in the freezer. I made have to organize it a bit better. Or stop baking stuff or bake more stuff. I have a lot off zucchini that I shredded and put in for bread during the winter. I also have loaves of bread already made. Oh, well! Better go see what to do with the day before the day is gone. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 599 times
Things I did today!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:33 am Since I went on a fieldtrip to Phoenix on Friday, this was my only day off this week. I slept late. I made blueberry or chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. I told DR I would do the dishes today because I wanted to clean the cupboard and refrigerator. I wanted to clean the cookbook shelves too but I didn't get those done yet. After perusing Gardenstew for awhile, I went outside to do some things, like watering plants. Then, I did something I had on my list all summer. I hauled gravel bucket by bucket and dumped it on the path that runs from the house through the herbless herb garden to the lower driveway. I did a bit of housework and then, I made supper, did the dishes. Remember when DR wanted chocolate chip cookies and I didn't have any chocolate chips. The next day our neighbor Frank (not our gnome) brought over a bag of chocolate chips. Then, on Wednesday when we went to the grocery store, they had 12oz. bags of chocolate chips on sale for a dollar. So I was supposed to make chocolate chip cookies for DR. I did that after supper. I made them half sugar and half sugar substitute. I added walnuts to them. They turned out fairly good. The oven in the new stoves works great. It was sunny and warm out today but I brought my plants inside anyway. Maybe tomorrow I will get the cookbook shelf cleaned. I have a pile of cookbooks that I bought at the booksale and I need some space for them so I will put some that I don't use so much elsewhere and put the "new" used ones on the shelf. I found a diabetic dessert book that looks useful. There was a recipe for apple raisin pie that I think I can adapt with cranberries for Thanksgiving. Now, I think I need to write a couple of letters. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 529 times
Field trip!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 4:34 am I felt like I was back in school again. We went in a city van to Phoenix to view libraries that are about the same size as our new library will be. I was not terribly impressed. I think the cities paid a lot of money for glitz and wasted a lot of space on nothing. I was only looking for certain things like lighting over the shelves and space between shelves, etc. I did like some of the shelving but not all of it. Like I said, "glitz" not practical. The director's see big airy buildings that are monuments. The worker's see big airy spaces where you have to walk lots and lots of steps between the different sections to shelve books. There will be lots of selfhelp features that may or may not work. We saw a beautiful big book return system that automatically sorted the books into the proper bins for shelving. It had a big "OUT OF ORDER" sign on it. When questioned about it the manager said it was out of order about twice a month. He said it wasn't always down long and sometimes it rebooted itself but it's just more glitz. I can't see that it will pay for itself by using less human employees if it's down twice a month for a day or two while they wait for someone to come fix it. Self checkout works only if the patron knows how to use it. I hate to say it but there are enough befuddled people in this world that they also have to have a human checkout person to either do it for them or show them each time they come. The children's sections were nice. They had lots of space and activity centers but nothing to encourage children to check out books. Only to encourage them to use computers or visual materials. I can see why everyone thinks libraries as they are not are going to become obsolete. Why check out a book when you can download one from home? They have websites where you can download things from a home computer. You do not even have to have a library card. They count this as library usage if you use their site. So why the huge airy buildings that look like art museums? To improve their self image or to improve the city's image. They even get their books from a vendor who catalogs them, puts the barcodes on them, puts the magnets on them and stamps them with the libraries name. That one library had 158 employees but what do they do with all the selfhelp streamlined machines. Each selfhelp machine had at least one or two people there helping people figure out how to use them or doing the work for them when they decide not to work today. I do hope things improve with use but that one library had been using them for two years. Oh, well! It must be my age showing. I grew up without computers and selfhelp machines. Now 3 year old kids can do it better and maybe that's what the system is aiming to please. Future generations. I still don't understand the wasted space and high ceilings that have to be heated and cooled. Now, we went to lunch. That was a part of the field trip. No sack lunch for us! We went to a place called "FEZ". Middle eastern in cuisine. The director was afraid he would have nothing to eat because he eats strictly plain food with no sauces or stuff junking it up. He was able to get an all american burger but he said he had to remove all the junk they put on it and could not eat the ciabetta that they put it on. I had a Casablance chicken sandwich. It was quite good. It was on a ciabetta roll. It had goat cheese for the bottom layer, grilled pears next, grilled chicken breasts, dried cherries and mixed greens with a pomegranate vinaigrette sauce on it. I think the sauce also had a lot of garlic in it. We each ordered our own lunch but the architects who were hosting the lunch also ordered appetisers to start. They were things like lettuce wraps with dried pears, dates, cherries and grilled chicken chunks in pomegranate sauce. herby grilled flat bread with garllicky hummus and shrimp, eggplant and mushroom kibis. They also ordered three big baskets of sweetpotato fries with cinnamon sugar sprinkles. Lunch over ran the scheduled time which is why we only had time for three libraries instead of four. The Friday night traffic out of Phoenix was a mess, bumper to bumper, stop and go. We were over an hour late getting back. Good thing, they picked me up and dropped me back in Mayer so I didn't have to trek up to Prescott Valley and then turn around and come back. End of field trip. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 642 times
Easy day
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:32 am We got up late this morning and I checked in with gardenstew. Moved my plants back outside. It didn't frost last night because it rained. Tonight it is some cloudy so it may not but it's supposed to be cooler than last night and clear up toward morning so it might. When we got home from work we moved all the plants inside again. Well, not all of them, just the ones in pots. I started vegetable beef soup early. Vegetable soup is never the same twice because there are so many different vegetables you can use. Since DR is on a no to low salt diet I used lots of herbs in it and I put in kale and swiss chard too. It was really good. Lots left over for another day. Chance thought it was good too. I started to work on a bear but needed a longer bolt for the head. So, I told DR we needed to go to the hardware store. On the way we passed a thrift shop so we stopped to look around. Good or bad? We found a few things so it was good but you know how it is. We bought more than we needed I guess. We bought two small bears, two small scarecrows on sticks that I stuck in bottles. Two soup cups or cereal bowls, one Halloween mug for tea. A juicer for fruit needed for making juice for jelly. Two pair of slacks that I can wear to work. Today, everything that was gray was half price so one pair only cost a dollar. I also bought blue corduroy slacks. After we left there, we went to the hardware store which was just down the road. They didn't have the bolts that I wanted. I bought a different kind, but then I didn't use them today. I did something else when I got home. I will buy bolts tomorrow when we go up early. Ace Hardware has the right ones. I don't know why I even went to the little one here. When I went out to pick the kale and swiss chard, I checked and there isn't any squash but the other big one. I thought I might pick it but decided to wait. I thought about pulling all the plants but DR said wait until they dry and they will fit in the trash better. I never put squash plants in the compost because they generally have squash borer's in the stems and I don't want them in the compost. I wish I had a shredder because I don't put heavy stalks in the compost either. I was trying to figure out what was left last night. There is the kale and swiss chard and a few tomatoes, no more squash but oregano, coriander, chives, basil, small hollyhocks that will bloom in the spring, marigolds, calendula, Indian paint brush and the nice lacy asparagus plants. Those asparagus plants will turn golden one of these days. They look pretty. They really grew huge this year. When we moved here there were only two plants growing among the weeds. I babied them and this year there were maybe a dozen. I haven't cut them because I want them to multiply. Maybe, next spring. That's all in the garden area. Let's see, there are cosmos, coreopsis, calendula, nastursium, morning glories, four o'clocks, petunias, geraniums, begonias, those purple flowers in DR's flower box and some baby's breath and some white impatient's still blooming. The trees haven't turned yet but maybe if it's going to frost they might. I don't know why I think it will frost. it's still October and generally it's in November before it does but you never know. It's cool. I dug in the storage boxes under the bed and brought out sweatshirts and sweaters today. I had to put some summer shirts in the boxes to make room in the closet for the sweaters. It's cool evenings so sweaters for work are good now. It wasn't busy at the library tonight so I was finished with everything about 20 minutes before closing. There weren't even any patrons left so we thought about closing early. It's not allowed though so we didn't. We had to find busy work. On the 27th eight of us are going to Phoenix on a field trip. The library director, the assistant director, three part-time people and three full time people. We are going to visit other libraries to see layout and how they set up their depts. so we can tell the architects how we want the new library set up. They will break ground in the spring but the new library won't be open until June of 2008. Everything takes so long to build. It's going to be a huge place but part will be community meeting rooms and offices. Chance and Dr went to bed so I guess I'd better head that way myself. Later Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 636 times
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