Thursday, December 30, 2021

Not exactly Mickey...



Crazy thing this morning:

For a little background I've had a mouse this week.  I only saw him once last week, nosediving under the refrigerator.  So I set out my traps...round things with a little door that you put peanut butter in the bottom of.  The dumb mouse is supposed to go in the door to get the peanut butter & the door closes behind him & he's trapped. No hurt up front.  Then I toss the entire thing.  I've had about 4 mice in the last year & a half & they've worked fine.  Til now.

The genius mouse hit the door once but it closed before he got in & scared him off.  He didn't try again.  So it was time for meaner stuff.  I got this poison stuff that goes in a plastic box & the mouse eats it & then eventually dies.  Not what I wanted but I hate a mouse in my house much worse.  So genius mouse has been munching along & I have not seen again.  I was hoping he'd gone to the big mouse house in the sky.  

So, this morning, I'm sitting on my couch & felt something on me...& I saw a mouse fly by.  Of course, I was startled...I knocked over my full glass of water & dropped the computer in my lap.  Then after a few minutes to calm down, I moved the trap & went looking.  I pulled the cushions off the couch & found the mouse dead right by the arm.  I watch for a couple of minutes & got a cup towel & hauled the body outside & tossed him over the fence.  I hate to say that for a mouse, he was kind of cute.  But dead was always his fate.

So here is my question.  How could he have run over me & 2 minutes later be dead?  Did I scare him to death?  Heart attack?  Maybe he was weakened by the poison & it didn't take much.  Or more disturbing...is there more than one mouse?  A brother of the original now bent on revenge?  And creepiest of all, if he's bold enough to run over me sitting on the couch would he run over my sleeping body?  I'm probably going to have to take a sleeping pill tonight to calm those fears.

Time will tell. 

Signs I'm becoming my parents...



There is a commercial on TV where a man is trying to cool up people who have become their parents.  The ads are cute but ineffective because I don't know what it's for.  There are several versions & they are pretty clever.  And I find myself in at least one person every ad. I pack snacks to travel because $5 for a candy bar in the airport is excessive. I wonder how much money the parking people at the stadium make for owning real estate.  I compliment good employees because sometimes they are rare.  So today I was out & did a couple of things that made me think I've turned into my Mom.  And for the record, I can't think of a better person to turn into.

1. I went looking for half price Christmas loot at Walgreens.  I bought Hershey's Kisses & Reese's Peanut Butter nutcrackers.  And my friend found M & Ms.  I'm ok with red,green & gold candies in March.  Also if your birthday package has Christmas wrapping paper or the food I bring over is on a holiday plate appreciate my frugality. 

2.  Speaking of candies, I like the peppermints from the Sonic & I love hard butterscotch candies.  I don't buy them but will eat one if it's handed to me.

3.  I look for pull through parking spaces even if I have to walk a little further.  I don't like backing up.

4.  I have Consumer Cellular.  For my $30 a month I gtet unlimited talk & text & enough cell data.  I'd like a newer phone but not enough to pay for one. Mine is good.    And I'll brag about this to anyone who'll listen! 

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Secret Decoder Pennies



In the junky snail mail insert today I saw this ad for some limited edition pennies that were minted in 2009 & this company in New Hampshire is giving them away.  Actually free.  No charge.  No shipping.  No handling.  Just fill out the coupon & mail it in & they mail them out to you.  So I filled it out & put it in the post box today.  I felt like I was 8 years old & sending in cereal box tops for a secret decoder ring or possibly a Lucky Charms spoon.  Always took like 3 months to arrive  & by the time it showed up I'd forgotten what I ordered.  But I loved getting mail anytime.  Anyway, we'll see if they show up.  

They are pretty cool looking.  They'll probably end up on a jewelry mirror. 

Saturday, December 25, 2021

Call the Midwife Christmas Special 2021

Cyril & Lucille

 

I love this show!!

We start with the week leading up to Lucille & Cyril's wedding day.  The baby business is strangely slow so everyone is helping plan the wedding.  Violet Buckle is making the wedding dress.  Sister Hilda is baking a cake, even though it's a tradition of Lucille's church for the church ladies to walk up the aisle with cakes.  Trixie is doing flowers. Nurse Phyllis is lending moral support as she remembers her friend Nurse Barbara.  After the man who was going to give Lucille away falls ill, Fred Buckle will give her away with Reggie taking over as best man.  Even the gorgeous Matthew, who I hope they finally let Trixie happily ever after with, gets in the act as the chauffeur to get the bride to the church on time.  

But then, there are complications.  Babies decide to be born in waves.  We have a woman having her 5th with complications.  One has a heroin addiction.  We found out that the Turners' May was born addicted.  I'm always scared what will happen with her.  One is a Sister Francis' first breach.  I'm sure I've missed a couple here.  

Oh, and after a mistakenly drunken hen party, poor Lucille takes a tumble on the stairs & ends up with massive black eye 3 doors before the wedding.  Leave it to Sister Monica Joan to come up with a solution.  Leeches.  Yep, they went there.  But in 50 minutes, they pulled the patch off & the black eye was gone.  I cannot even imagine sitting still for a scene where Dr Turner was standing above me with a leech to attach to my eye.  Yuck.  But Sister MJ is always way smarter than people give her credit for. 

The wedding was beautiful.  Everything settled down & it went off without a hitch.  Nurse Phyllis comes up with perfect attendants...babies that Lucille delivered now 5 year olds. She wears a locket with her parents' pictures inside. Even Sister Hilda gets to walk up the aisle carrying her cake. 

This show--in general--makes me laugh and cry on a regular basis.  I found myself grinning like a fool with every new baby.  

Chex Mix/Texas Trash

 I'm fully a creature of habit.  Even with little things I have to have a good reason for a change & even then I have to have a little inner debate on it.  Sad but true.



Many years ago my mom started making traditional Chex mix from the recipe off the box.  3 kinds of Chex, nuts, pretzels, butter, wostershire sauce, season salt, garlic powder, onion powder. And for years we looked forward to it.  My nephew especially liked it. (That's my memory anyway.)  I still make it for him every year like mom did & he picks it up every year & says he eats it.  He may feed the birds on the way home.  Not sure.  My cousin likes garlic rye chips so I've started adding them.  I don't really like them so I pick them out.  But nephew has not complained.

So my sweet neighbor brought me some yesterday to add to my personal stash...and hers has Fritos in it & it's good!   I've never seen it before so obviously never tasted...buy yum.

Next year I'm going to need a bigger pan!

Christmas 2021


 

I'm good so far.  

Even though I'm not much on Christmas, for some reason I feel the need for a  Christmas dinner.  Probably because I have a food addiction.  I like to think it's subsided alot but it'll always be there.  I'm working on it.  I don't cook much anymore because it's a lot of work for one meal.  I don't like leftovers so mostly I only eat it once.  One of my eternal New Year's resolutions is to save money & I can do that pretty well if I only make enough food & don't throw any out.  It's a 2022 goal to do it better.  

And probably because a special dinner is what my body & psyche expects.  Today I made a chocolate pie & a fruit salad & for a few seconds, it smelled like Mom's kitchen on Christmas day.  It was overwhelming. I also made a forgettable piece of ham & a baked potato.  

Surprise (no surprise) the fruit salad & pie were the best part.  That sounds like supper to me.  And possibly breakfast tomorrow. 

Now time for another Christmas tradition...a nap. Zzzzzz.

Friday, December 24, 2021

Walgreens

The corner of happy & healthy.  Whatever.

 

When I first retired in 2010, I worked seasonal at Walgreens.  They were open then 7am-9pm.  I'm not sure of their hours now in pandemic world.  And open 365 days a year.  So I got to work Christmas day.  I think we open 9am-6pm that day.  And we were busy all day long.  4 registers and lines down the aisles.  What the heck?  And people coming in wondering if we had pies & salad ingredients & mad that we didn't.  .  We were like, "It's is a drug store".  And at 6pm we had a manager standing at the door letting people out.  And when we finally got rid of everyone & the door was locked there were still people trying to get in.  They saw us inside trying to close & they were beating on the door & yelling.  And I'm sad to say I knew one of them, a guy I used to work with.  

I understand that someone might need an emergency pharmacist on a holiday but there was not one working that day.  They have a 24 hour pharmacy at another location.  If they had an emergency, we referred them.  Something a sign on a door could have done.  I don't understand why ANY store needs to be open on Christmas day.  I tend to think twice about shopping with them when it's not Christmas. 

I do remember a nice lady (yep, shopping on Christmas day) saying she could not believe we had to work.  She bought the 4 of us pints of Blue Bell ice cream.  

Christmas Eve



It's Christmas Eve.  These days, it's just one day closer to the holiday season being over which is how I get through holidays these days.  It's hard without people.  Steve doesn't even ask.  He has his wife's family so he doesn't need me.  Hope asked a few months ago but then they decided to go to Philadelphia.  It's too far away & I would not have gone anyway.  I was invited to Dallas to my Aunt's but I don't like the long drive.  So it's me, not them.

My across the street neighbor brought me some Chex mix & a little rose bush.  Very sweet.  My only Christmas gift.

I loved Christmas Eve growing up...we always got to open presents!!  We'd eat supper & do dishes & then the youngest person would pass out presents & we'd take turns opening one at a time.  Then when we were little, Santa would come on Christmas morning.  Then a special Christmas meal of chicken (no turkey for us!) & dressing with pie & fruit salad about 1130.  Then of course there was football about 3 so by then it was time for more pie & fruit salad. Tomorrow, I'm cooking some ham, a baked potato & making a fruit salad.  And I'm making a chocolate pie.  That I have to eat before 6pm of course. 

I miss my family, of course.  No way around it.  But I guess that's my new Christmas tradition.  And I live with it fine even if my heart aches just a little for the ghosts of my Christmas past. 

3 weeks...

2 days ago on Wednesday I weighed and I'm down 2 1/2 pounds.  But I feel that I've lost.  My good jeans are almost too loose already but over the past few years I've lived with baggie clothes.  I want to get down to a constant weight of 130 so I can buy clothes that fit.  21 pounds to go. 

One thing that I have to stop weighing so much because I get discouraged.  Here is my goal, written right here on this page:  I'm not weighing again til February 1.  That's my 2 months mark. 

The diet (I hate that word...trying to think of another) is easy.  It's actually worse waiting for 10 am than not eating after 6 and that surprises me.  But I've made it so far.  It's gonna be good!!

Noelle/Mrs Worthington's Party--Movie



It's Christmas Eve & I was scrolling through the hundred's of streaming service for a Christmas movie.  I'd never heard of this one.  The description says "A priest arrives in a tiny fishing village the week before Christmas to shut down a dying parish...and beomes entangled in the lives of the town's eccentric characters while learning the power of forgiveness & redemption".   I'm thinking that was written by either the writer of the movie or by someone who had not seen it. 

The original name of the movie appears to be 'Mrs Worthington's Party' for some unknown reason.  Marjorie Worthingon is a character but she doesn't have a party & is not a Mrs but an unwed mother-to-be who tempts the original priest & the priest arriving to abandon their collars.  She doesn't have much of a personality & is not a beauty people write sonnets about & there is not enough interaction to warrant any declarations of love.    Also, there are not many eccentric characters...just older parishioners.  While the first priest sees them as family, the 2nd priest doesn't like people.  

Basically, there is no story.  And the movie basically sucks.  I did watch hoping for something to happen.  I watched for 'Noelle' but I guess we got Mrs Worthington's party, again whatever that means.

Not sure where it was supposed to be set.  I had expect an English thing but there are no English accents. 

The actors all have limited credits.  The guy who played the human hating priest wrote it.  He has a Robert Redford vibe if you forget to put your glasses on.  The 3 main actors are the producers.  I'm not sure at all how they got this travesty financed.  I seriously got a 'Billy Jack' flashback from this movie...a bad actor writes a bad movie & hires his equally untalented wife & best friend.  I sincerely hope they all have day jobs.

It's been awhile since I've found a movie this crappy.  

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Bridget Hanley

Candy & Jeremy 

 

In 1968 a TV show came on called 'Here Come the Brides' set sometime in the late 1800s Seattle, a logging town full of men but the only single women were Lottie the saloon owner & Miss Essie, the school teacher. The men are ready to move on to a place with women when the Bolt brothers Jason, Joshua & Jeremy vow to go back to Massachusetts to bring back brides.  They kept their promise & Candy Pruitt (Bridget Hanley) was one of them.  She was the love of youngest son Jeremy (Bobby Sherman, the absolute love of all of my 11 years).  Candy never got to be an actual bride although she & Jeremy were engaged when the show was cancelled.  It was only on for 2 seasons.

I have to admit I wanted to be Candy, mainly because Jeremy loved her, but also because she had impossibly cute hair that would be impossible now to do every day, much less in the 1800s.  And trust me I tried.  I have lots of hair but that hairdo was impossible.  I picture 4 hours in a chair & lots of hair pieces.  

Sadly, Bridget Hanley died yesterday.  I can't say I've kept up with her career although it appears she was in a few things.  I did watch a documentary piece on the Motion Picture Retirement Home, a place in Hollywood financed by "the industry" to help people in the movie business who have found on leaner times.  She was a resident of the home.  And I read she had Alzheimer's which makes me very sad.  

She was a part of my childhood, another link gone.  Another memory.  

My only other observation is that Candy & Jeremy might have gotten married but I'm sure his brother Joshua would have stolen her from Jeremy.  I say that tongue in cheek because actor David Soul (Joshua) stole Bobby Sherman's real life wife.  According to reports he knocked her around awhile before moving on.  What a prince.  

Monday, December 13, 2021

2021 Book Page


 

2021 Books

Rules of Civility Amor Towles
The Sentinel Andrew Child
Before We Were Yours Lisa Wingate
The Road Cormac McCarthy
Little White Lies Ace Atkins
The Silent Patient Alex Michaelides
Ordinary Grace William Kent Krueger
Kickback Ace Atkins
Old Black Magic Ace Atkins
Slow Burn Ace Atkins
Happy & You Know It Laura Hankin
In The Wood Tana French
The Kitchen Front Jennifer Ryan
Still Life Louise Penny
Lincoln Highway Amor Towles
When all the Laughter... Lance Rentzel
                                     Lightening Strike William Kent Krueger     
     The Cuckoo's Calling Robert Galbraith
        The Silkworm   Robert Galbraith