M I A

Goodness, what a busy week! A weird one too. Nothing serious, just unexpected stuff. Randy's old computer was giving him fits and our service kept going in and out. I'd be in the middle of trying to post and it would go down... I'd lose everything and got so frustrated that I took some days off.

Then Randy got a new computer and I loaned him Hal's (my computer) monitor, mouse and key board so that he could transfer stuff from his old one to his new one. So Hal is currently down until that is completed. Meanwhile, Hal is off at the computer spa getting the works. :-)

Our service is still going in and out. They are coming to fix that and hook up more cable for us in our family room that we are trying to get moved into for winter. So I've no idea when things will be normal. I will continue to work on Randy's new one until Hal is re-set up inside the house. The time for patio computing is over for the year.

I had two interviews this week. One was yesterday and I think it went very well. Ironically, I didn't want the job that I thought I was applying for... only 10 hours a week, but the Emp. Div. says I have to apply. When I got there, very relaxed because I didn't care if I made a good impression or not, she told me that the short job was filled but would I consider more hours. Suddenly I was very interested in making a good impression. Ha. For once I think I did very well in the interview process. I'll keep you posted.

This weekend... off to T and K's for pulled pork BBQ and watching the Ducks Vs The Trojans at the Coliseum. There has been a lot of flack aimed at the Ducks from USC, but we retain the higher ground on mannors. The game should be a good one with high emotions adding fuel to the fire. The point has been made that since USC can't do a bowl game, this is their big fight for the year in the Pack 10.
Yikes! But I believe in my Ducks and hope for the best. Good luck to both teams.

Meanwhile, I'm keeping a close eye on BSU... scoping out a possible match if we go that far into nationals. All that blue turf! Ha... they call it "Smurf Turf". It seems to me it might give them an advantage, as it matches their uniforms and they sort of blend in... but I think that's an illusion because games are filmed from above and it's not 3-D. Anyway, they are looking good.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Sorry I've been off so much. No worries... its all great here. Big grins everyone!

Okay... a totally silly photo that I love. This is little N's uncle R after she put flowers behind his ears.


We had one of our usual football season weekends... as much football as we can squeeze into the days. Our Ducks were on their by... so we skipped around to watch the competition get beat and to scope them out .
As you know, Saturday is college football day and that leaves NFL for Sunday. Neither of us have a particular NFL team, but we know those we do not support. Kind of a weird way, but it works for us.


Hey... thanks Badgers for knocking those Buckeyes down!


A funny thing happened on our local news channel. The sports guy was talking baseball and mentioned that our head newscaster liked the Yankees.
But when the camera went back to the newscaster, he said very clearly and deliberately
"I am not a Yankee fan, have never been a Yankee fan and will never, never be a Yankee fan. I'm a Red Sox fan!"
I happened to be in the bedroom and Randy was in the living room... I could hear him laughing at my agreeing woot.
When I came out he said "So I'm guessing that Rick (news guy) is your new best friend?"
Yep. That's about right. I'm not the only left coast Red Sox fan.


Which brings us to last evening. I found a couple more fans.
Randy is not a baseball fanatic, but he enjoys the games with me when I can see them and is endlessly amused by my responses to the Yankees.
I tend to go by the saw "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" and in that spirit, I always root for whoever plays against the Yankees as a point of honor.


Randy has been wanting me to meet his friends N and M.
Last night they came over for burgers.
We ended up rooting for the Phillies, among other things.
When they arrived, M and I went to the store for buns and brews.
Now, I do not easily make friends with other women.
Its not that I dislike them, it just doesn't seem to happen.
I don't do girlie things. I like science, history, politics and some sports.
But by the time we got back from the store... I do tend to yak...
we discovered that we had tons in common.
Later, I found out that I have tons in common with N, her hubby, who is into great music and we danced through the same circles back in the days of Miss Bliss. Like Randy, N and I were likely in the same places at the same time... out there in the crowd, on many occasions.
They did not leave until 2:00 AM.


I was expecting a quiet weekend without a Duck game.
I could not have been more wrong. Lots of cheering, great games all around and good company.

I'm fresh back from an interview at a craft store.
It would be a good job for me. In fact, its only about 6 blocks away so I can walk to and from work. I think the interview went well, but they have to do my background check and will call me in about a week.
I also popped my head into the liquor store this weekend... and the gal seemed pretty pleased to see me. She said they needed to keep it open for another week, but she winked at me.
I hope she wasn't flirting.

Big grins everyone!

Golden Reflection

This is a little barn that Randy's grandpa made a bazillion years ago that he used to play with as a kid. Now it hides under our holly.


Today is a golden hump day!
One of those days where I wake up bright and cheerful to sunshine and pay attention to details that I would normally miss.

Not much has been going on to talk about, but things that have happened, tiny as they are have big meaning for me.


Last weekend was the Duck game of course... at T & K's.
They had one of those Subway sandwiches made for a giant and tons of finger foods. Our Ducks, now moved up to #2 in the nation won, but not without cost. Three of our best players were taken out by injury.
One hauled off field to the hospital with head injury after he was slammed in a totally illegal move. Helmet to face.
There is rumor that the gentleman who slammed him will be ejected, but that is up to the Pac 10 folk.
He seems to be okay, if you can believe what the news says, but we will see how long it takes before they allow him to play again.
If nothing else, it should prove that even with 3 of our very best taken down, we can prevail.
We have a by this week. A good thing... time for our fellows to heal.


The next day was our little N's birthday.
N is Randy's only grand daughter, who turned 4 and could not be sweeter or cuter. She sat on my lap and played with my blouse ties much of the time we were watching the game the day before.
I am completely captured by this little heart.
Her mom and I were drinking strawberry daiquiris.
Her mommy, Randy's only daughter, turned to me and said
"Yep, you're grandma... my mom hates that, but I'm okay with it!"
I appreciated that.


The birthday party was supposed to be at a Chuckie Cheese, but they were so crowded and they did not keep our reservation... so we moved it to another local pizza place where they were thrilled to put up with so many of us.


N didn't care. She was ready to play, eat and open presents!
In the end, it was a success... of course. N kept running up to me to show me her presents, and I got a great big hug when it was time to go.
Almost all the family was there. One of Randy's boys could not make it and his ex had to work. Otherwise it was the entire clan and many friends. My list of folk I know here is growing.


The last few days I have been busy doing the application thing.
Its like some wild river that never seems to reach the ocean.
Yesterday we took back the aps that I collected on Monday.
Here's one annoying thing... Monday I go to the place where the Emp. Div. sent me... with the warning that if I do not go there I can loose the benefits I've been denied and appealed. So off we go and its way out yonder in the paw paw patch at the outskirts of life here. I walk in and there is a big sign that reads:
WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS!
Swell.
About that time the phone rings and its Randy's best friend, who he has been trying to get over to meet me for some time now... she's at our house. My Emp. Div. wild goose chase caused us to miss that.
Well crap!


Otherwise, everything is still sunny and warm and my spirits are high.
The only real plans we have for now are to get together with his daughter and her two kids and his son's fiancee and her daughter for the fun of it.
His son, R just reenlisted in the National Guard and has flown south to train for 9 weeks. We thought that might cheer his fiancee up.


There you have it. Family is what I am gaining now. I have a wonderful family that I treasure, but there is room here for more...
these kind and accepting people have improved my life.
I find myself here on a golden hump day, grateful and happy.


Big grins everyone!

MAN AT WORK

YAY! YAY! YAY!


The man has a job.


As you know the guys are working a three large cabinets for a fancy
walk in closet. Two are the type that have shelves and drawers for everything from snuggy unders to jewelery. I can't imagine having enough jewelery to put in a big drawer, but hey... go for it lady. The other has a built in seat for sitting in when you put your shoes on. Me, I generally use the edge of the bed.
Guess that's why I don't need a fancy walk in closet.
Not that it wouldn't be nice. I'm happy with a normal closet.
In fact, I could not begin to fill the drawers in this thing.


But I've gotten off subject haven't I?
T showed up to work on the cabinets and told Randy that his boss could use him at the cabinet shop. Very cool beans. Its not full time at this point, but hopefully will work into it. But it is something and Randy happens to be very good at it.
In fact, Randy makes custom fine furniture on the side.
That's my happy news.


Somehow its made the sky brighter and the sun warmer.
I'm feeling pretty good about things today.
The only draw back that I can think of is that it's swing shift hours.
Hey... any work right now is good work.
But then there will be evenings when I am sitting here alone.
But when you get a gift, you have to be thankful and make the best of it right?


So... I decided that I will spend that time baking goodies for the man and getting a leg up on holiday baking. Normally I'd make something to give to my kids or buy something. Make something... quilts was what I had in mind, but its too spendy for us at this fork in the road.
So instead, just like Little Red Riding Hood, I'll be sending baskets of goodies.
And when Randy comes home, there will be wonderful smells in the house and something warm and sweet to greet him.


You can choose to view bumps in the road as nightmares, or you can write your own fairytale.
Given a choice, I'll pick the fairytale every time.


:-D


Have a great day everyone.
If you have any happy thoughts you want to share, please...
your comments are always appreciated here.



Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find some little red socks.
(There's a joke in this... but its not something one puts on a blog.)
I figure if you know the joke, you'll laugh.

AGE DISCRIMINATION

I know there's a rainbow out there somewhere. I took this photo in front of our house last week when Blogger would not let me publish pics.


I am finding a curious thing on applications on line.
You know they all have disclaimers about being fair employers who do not discriminate against this or that politically correct issue.
You have to read these silly claims and then click a box that says you understand.


WHATEVER!

I have also found that they have ways of asking questions that belie their statements on age.
For example, several have boxes you can check with age categories.
Some just want to be sure you are over 18 or 21 for youth labor laws and selling items that require a minimum age limit like alcohol and cigarettes.
Understandable.
Yet there is another group that give you age groups such as
18-25, etc.
I have run across several now that only go as high as 40 years of age.
There is no box to check that is over 40!


This fascinates me. One would not even accept my application unless I checked that I was born after 1968!
Yet they all have the same anti-age disclaimer.


I had a good giggle too when the clerk at the liquor store asked me hesitantly if I could lift a box that weighed over 20 pounds.


I said "No problem. I'm a mom... I can carry two toddlers and four sacks of groceries and still use one hand to unlock the car door."


You gotta keep your sense of humor if you want to keep your dignity.
:-D


On the humor front... the man and friend T are still working on the huge cabinets they are building in our shop.
I enjoy sitting out there with my surround sound, watching them work.
Last night they were spraying lacquer over the stain... just outside the big shop doors.
I'm sipping my drink and things are kind of funny... I mean we are laughing a lot.
We generally do that anyway, but things were extra funny.
It wasn't the beer. It wasn't the jokes.
I think maybe now I understand why people "huff".
At one point, T says
"I think I lost three brain cells... and I was saving those."


It's hump day!
Enjoy!

HUNGRY

Imagine him seasoned with bits of parsley, sauteed to perfection and then liberally dipped in garlic butter.
Joy!

I'm off on a food trek.
I admit that for years all I truly did in the kitchen was make very large meals for a large family with a limited budget on a daily basis.
Not much fun, a chore for the most part.
It takes the thrill out of food when you come home from work tired and do not really feel like making a Thanksgiving sized meal, but someone has to feed the masses I call my family.
I fell into a pattern of making many of the same things over and over.
Blah.

Since my resurrection from the dedicated and somewhat depressed mom in charge into a single person with no more obligations to rear children and became a happy singleton, I have found renewed interest in the delights of food exploration.


Much of this is due to Randy, who is a great cook as well as back yard griller. I have always loved to eat food... which as you know can be a problem. The fact is that feeding children is not exactly a task that involves much praise from the eaters. You set something in front of them and they eat it.
Randy is generous with compliments and suggestions. We often cook together and for each other. Add into this our friends, T & K... who have a great recipe box as well and are generous with offerings... and we are all off and running. Especially with the new to me event of tailgating and game day BBQs.

Still, much of what is prepared involves store bought products that come out of a jar or bottle. For example, the guys like to make appetizers. We do muscles, clams or oysters on the grill and then dip them in a Thai Sweet Chili Sauce or like the smoked steelhead on crackers with cream cheese and the Red Pepper Jelly.

My new food trek is about making those jar items fresh myself.
So I've collected recipes for both, as well as Spring Rolls and I can hardly wait to try them out. I am sure that we will prepare them as directed the first time and then tweek them until they are to our liking.
For me, that's the fun part. But then, that is what is fun about cooking here... being able to present something that delivers satisfaction and pleasure to my eaters.

Its been a food sort of summer for me and I'm thinking that will continue for a long time. You know about the berries, the green beans and other various foods that I've been packing away in the freezer.
Yesterday I did up a bunch of corn for freezing... shucking, blanching and cutting nibblets off of fresh organic cob corn.
These were all grown at Mom and Ron's in their huge garden.
Next summer, armed with my compost efforts, I will have one of my own.
All I have to do is get through winter.

This year, Randy and T are not hunting.
Next year they will again.
I love the idea of giving my market less money.
By growing, hunting and fishing... well there will be much to play with in the kitchen. Plenty to share!

The Duck news is good. The Ducks, though behind at the end of the first half did what they do very well... that is to own the second half of any game. Final score, Ducks 52...Stanford 31. Both the Ducks and Stanford are ranked in the top ten nationally. This latest victory... and a heck of a game it was... pushed the Ducks up from their rank of 4th into the rank of 3rd. WOOT!

Unfortunately, next week our game will not be televised.
You can bet our ears will be glued to the radio.

On the issue of employment, I think I may have hit a bit of luck.
I am at this point willing to do just about any honest work to be able to contribute and then take my time finding a better job.
We happened to be in the liquor store yesterday and on impulse, I asked if they were doing any hiring.
She said that there was a part time job opening up, to drop by a resume.

Its only part time, but here... I can get part time employment benefits, which would resolve the issue of my qualifying for them.
The liquor store is quiet. Here, they are state controlled.
You don't go to the market for hard liquor, only beer and wine.
Hard liquor is all they sell.
Its small and as I said, quiet and calm.
I think that might be a good fit for me.
But then, maybe something better will show up too.
For now, that would do.


I hope you all had a fun weekend. Let us know what you were up to or what your hobby or passion is these days.

GAME DAY

Since Blogger has some issue with uploading my photo... sorry, just words today,

and quick ones at that.

The biggest news here is that ESPN's 

Game Day

has come to broadcast from Autzen Stadium.

Fans were up way before dawn flooding Autzen's outer areas to show their passion.

And passion we have here!

Today's game... our Ducks vs Stanford

will be aired on ESPN.

Kick off here is at 5:00 and I've no idea how that translates for any of you, but if you can catch it

it should be a hell of a game.

Stanford is ranked 9th and the Ducks moved up one space to be ranked 4th.

Don't let that fool you, it could go either way.

On the opposite coast... best of luck to 

Boston College's Eagles today too!

If I can, I will try to catch that game on TV.

This morning Randy and T are working on some cabinets, until its time for T to go to Autzen.

We'll be staying at home for this one.

No worries... we will do it right.

On the menu: 

Cony dogs with lots of onions,

smoked steelhead with cream cheese on crackers with hot pepper jelly.

Adult beverages of course.

Today the side by side cities of Springfield and Eugene will be LOUD.

Tomorrow I expect near silence...

voices will be left behind in Autzen

and all that will be left will be the horse whispers of fans... and hopefully the legacy of another win, evidenced by the big grins on local faces.

Whatever you do this weekend, enjoy and stay safe.

If you have a game... good luck to your teams.

If you have someone you care about...

be sure to show it and be thankful.

Life is sweet!