8.31.2003

Here goes! I'm at the lake... Otto cooked an awesome breakfast... great omelets!!! Gotta catch up on Random Questions for Windy! Hey, Windy... lookin' forward to your 'camp-in' here at the lake! Love you!

Random Questions; Random Days... Sunday, August 31
What is/are your favorite website(s) to visit? Why? Feel free to share the link.

My favorite is PhotoTime - a photo meme. I like it because it's a place where you can share your favorite photos. A challenge is offered every Tuesday and you have a week to take the perfect photo to meet that challenge; then post it to your own weblog and leave a comment at PhotoTime telling the rest of the players where to find it. I post my photos answering the challenge at A Day in the Life. My alterego shares her photos at Sherle's Photos. Check 'em out. Leave a comment... and then go meet the challenge at PhotoTime! I know you want to.

-------------------------------------------------

Random Questions; Random Days... Saturday, August 30
I love this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Please comment.

I agree with that comment wholeheartedly! I wrote a whole blog about this once... somewhere. Anyway it's kind of like looking at the glass half-full instead of half-empty! Look in the mirror... look into those eyes... look into your soul! What do you see? show the world what you see!

8.29.2003



TRIGGER 1::: I held on to............ the belief that all good Catholics use the rhythm method until i had the big family i desired. As a matter of fact number 6 - the bug - was actually planned because i wanted her to be close in age to number 5 - OttO. This worked out fine for us because we were all able to grow up together! Well some of us anyway. I still don't know what i want to be when i grow up!

8.28.2003

What's on..... Right now?
What's On your mind Right Now?
Sorry i'm late but i've been having problems with my blogs so here's what's on my mind right now!!! Why would my blogs... and only some of my blogs..... be unattainable!!!??! Yesterday it seemed to be Blogger in general... then they all came back. Yesterday if it was published to my personal domain i could get to it, even if it was published via Blogger. Today it was some of my blogs... and i'm not saying which ones. Like every other blogging addict i have more than i need... and a couple of them are memes. They're up under several pseudonyms... again.... just like many others.

Funny thing about this time... they weren't just Blogger blogs i couldn't get at but CrimsonWeb as well!!! ...and not just published on the freebies, but also two of them published on my personal domain! I began taking it personally! ...and it didn't matter what pseudonym i was using! Well i wrote an email to my 'html web-building guru' and as soon as i wrote him i tried my sites again and got in! Now i know it's not anything he did... but now he knows some of my 'innermost secrets' - ie. websites i've never told most people that i belong to! Well, somebody else obviously knows them too!

I'll tell you... i went to a day in the life and where my comments should be is..... an apology! ...and the same thing at stuff! Looks like an apology from backBlog! Duh! Do you realize when you set yourself up with all those cute little freebies... the comments stuff, etc. ... that you're opening up your blogs to total strangers!!!!?! Well! That puts a new spin on things. I guess i'm gonna have to learn how to do more of this stuff for myself! Dear God, please give me the time and the patience for some more new 'book-learnin' - i'm gonna need Your help with this.

8.25.2003

Wasn't that fun!!!?Seventeen people played along with me and seven guessed correctly! This game was a real challenge and i thoroughly enjoyed it. Oh! You wanted the answers? They're right here at 'Wild Stories' of course.

8.22.2003

Playing Obfuscation... the blog game
I wrote three stories. Two of these stories are true... one of them is false.....
It's up to you to decide which story is false. Go to 'Wild Stories' and read them. Make your decision and come back to this blog. Use the comments to tell me which story is false. Come back Monday and I will tell you the real truth. I'd like to tell you there's a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow but I'd be telling a lie. The whole thing is all in fun. Matter of fact, why don't you join me... and numerous others... in playing. You can find the rules at LunaNina.com
.....and now the stories!

8.20.2003

Random Questions; Random Days...
Here's another cooking question for you! What would be the perfect sandwich?

For the past few years a sandwich tends to be one of those quick lunch type of things for me... we rarely 'eat out' because we feel it's healthier to eat at home.... hubby's heart, the lowfat thing, that eternal 'weight problem' that never goes away..... but... there's nothing like a good old-fashioned Reuben sandwich... thick dark brown Pumpernickel bread, lots of thinly sliced corned beef, a bit of sauerkraut and lots of gooey Swiss cheese melted over all!

What's on.....Right now?
What's On your 'things that really matter' list Right Now?

The following... in the following order...
  1. family: each grandchild, child, and loved one is equally important!
  2. health: of body and mind
  3. comfort: enough food & clothing to maintain healthy bodies and minds
  4. safety: not so much as to keep everybody restrained inside a 'bubble' but enough to know their bodies and minds are not in danger
  5. knowledge: no matter what our natural intelligence level, we should strive to know all that we can know
  6. love: for one another; for our fellow humans
Yes, I'm a firm believer that until people feel comfortable and safe, it is difficult to feel and express love.

Lulu's Lines
TRIGGER 2::: I turned around and.........
realized I'm no longer that 'young chick' that can do everything! There was a time when every time I knelt down... in the church or in the garden... my knees would 'crack.' We would laugh it off. Now I don't kneel.. the knees hurt when I do that! Could it be all those years of walking and gardening and jazzercize? Health experts now say that yesterday's jazzercise and jogging are the cause of today's joint pains. Was it worth it? Yes. I still think I'm overall healthier for that activity. I still garden... I still walk... I just take a Naproxin before venturing out on a stroll.

During my busy years I had no time for annual visits to the doctor. Those visits were pretty much restricted to the earliest years when I was in a perpetual state of pregnancy... and then visits involving the children. My doctor was an old (by my standards) general practitioner. He was my doctor when I was a child and then he was my children's doctor as well. He knew me and provided me with a lot of common sense advice. Now I have annual 'maintenance' visits. The doctor is a young woman and she understands the needs and physical problems of women. I am still healthy and strong and expect to remain so for a good long while. I thank my parents for those good healthy genes.

There was a time when I looked in the mirror and saw... my nose is too big; my chin too small. Why didn't God make me pretty, blue-eyed and blonde like my sisters? Why did He make me look like my father instead of my mother? My mother is so pretty and I so plain ...and even this has changed. Now I look in the mirror and see... lively brown eyes, full of knowledge and experience... laugh lines around those eyes and around the mouth... perhaps a few well-earned worry lines, earned when the kids were teenagers and I had to start releasing them from my tightly held 'leash.' The nose? It's regal! Now I look in the mirror and see a woman... comfortable in her own skin. I don't plan to 'turn around' again; I like where I am.

TRIGGER 1::: This morning as I woke up I thought..........

8.17.2003

Background... ya gotta know first that my ever-lovin' doesn't eat fowl... so i like to have chicken or turkey that's a 'quick fix' around for dinners. Sometimes i can get away with feeding him 'leftovers' and i quick fix my chicken dish! I'm not running a restaurant so we don't get into fixing gourmet stuff to each individual's taste. This week the local supermarket had barbecued chicken wings... ready-cooked... on sale in a 4 pound package. I LOVE a good chicken wing fix... not to mention fried chicken! (Basically we're on a lowfat diet so 'greasy fried' is a special treat for me.) Yesterday while he had the leftover barbecued pork loin i had my first meal featuring the new chicken wings...

... eeeeeeeeew! awful stuff! No crispy there i'll tell you right now... those wings were dreadful! What good is the stuff if it's not crispy and crunchy... i ask you. He graciously offered me some of his pork but there was barely enough left over for him so i declined. The zucchini dish was excellent so i ate a lot of that... and got into grease up to my elbows skinning the soft flab off the chicken wing bones! I discarded a whole lot more than i ate, that's for sure! Now i ask you... what should i do with the rest of the bag of wings? ... let him try to crisp them up on the grill... serve them when we have company (who knows? they might LIKE it!)... take it back to the store... throw it out... or give it away?

On a 'lighter' note... i just signed on to participate in ninaluna's Obfuscation... the Blog Game. It looks like fun! Here's how you play... On Friday, August 22nd you'll post 3 stories..... Two false and one true or..... Two true and one false. Readers pick the false story(ies), leaving their guess in the comments. (Make sure you let them know which version of the game you're playing.) On Monday you'll post the correct response. Now... you know granni's don't lie, so it'll be easy for you to guess mine... right?

8.14.2003

Okay, who couldn't succumb to Lulu's Lines?

One thing that really annoys me................
you cannot get from here to there easily. Where? Michigan!... going north or south? Fine! There's I-75. That great and wondrous interstate highway will take you anywhere you want to go, as long as it's north or south. I, however, live on the east side of the state... what some refer to as 'the sunrise shore.' My favorite places in Michigan are all on the 'sunset' side... straight across the state from where we currently make our home!

Why do i like that side of the state? For starters, 1/3 of our children live there... harboring 2/3 of our grandchildren in their homes. Michigan's best state park is on that side of the state... in Ludington... and we own property nearby the park on a smaller lake, including a little cottage that sits in about 60 feet from the water! What's not to like?

So what's so annoying?... the road trip across state takes us about 2-1/2 hours... only one of those hours is on a divided highway!!! The other 1-1/2 hours is through smallville, Michigan... one putsy little town after another where all the residents apparently resent the 'fureners' driving through so they do their best to slow us down from a 55 mph speedlimit down to a creeping 30 miles or so! How do they do this?

Relay!!! Soon as we get off the divided highway onto the two-lane 'village idiot' number one pulls in front of us... usually from the left and without stopping at the stop sign. He's not in a hurry for anything other than being in front of you however, for he putts along at a crawl until he decides to make a left turn in front of you while you wait! In order to extend the pain he usually waits until there's a lot of oncoming traffic so the wait can be considerable. Ah! he's gone... and as we slowly get up to 55 mph... enter 'village idiot' number two! We finally get to a 'passing lane' where some forward thinking townspeople wanted to move the traffic through quickly to the next town. Great! But what happens? VI#2 decides to speed up... so guess what? We can't pass him! ...and he doesn't slow down 'til he reaches the end of the passing lane where, unfortunately he drives even slower to make up the gained time!

Then there is the eternal construction area! These spots in the road were planned for the sole purpose of giving the village idiot a bit of siesta time so he can rest up for the next relay! Some of the construction areas in smallville, MI have even come up with temporary traffic lights so they can stop you even when there are no construction workers at the scene! Believe it! It's true!

My husband tells me that at some earlier point in Michigan history one enterprising soul proposed a canal running the east/west route through Michigan... what a concept! Why it didn't go through i'll never know but it sure would have made for a more enjoyable trip across state... if not faster!

8.10.2003

Today my idiot husband once again proved to me how stupid a man can be. After two or so years of his personal ownership of the Olympus digital camera.... now that i inherited it when he bought what he thought was a bigger and better one... a Nikon something or other... he dropped my camera in the lake. Right now he's in the process of 'drying it out' if you can believe that! Not sure when the funeral will be... will keep you posted.

8.09.2003

my response to: I Am Pariah - Blog - Saturday Slant: Leave My Favorite TV Show Alone

First... I'm answering as sherle, my most honest personality on the internet.... well not true, i'm always honest but well, sherle is me. I cannot however seem to get a sherle email account on Yahoo. Long story shortened a little bit, My first online persona was sherle 39... on AOL..... still what i like to call the greatest 'beginner' ISP around! When i wanted to use 'sherle39' on Yahoo, it was 'unavailable' so i chose - ta da! granni39 which apparently nobody wants because after all, who wants to be a granni? It isn't something we ask for or plan on... it just happens! Am i right?

So i finally decided to be 'sherle' again... because a cutesy girly name gets more positive reinforcement than an old 'granni.' I set up an email persona at Yahoo... sherle1975... don't ask! I've been using that email address for my PhotoTime and sherle's photos. Now 'the jig is up' as they used to say in old gangster movies. I tried to sign in to my sherle1975 account and was informed it was deactivated!!! Well this is one peed-off granni! Want my opinion? Yahoo sucks rotten fruit! Okay, with that off my bountiful grannified chest.....

..... the question - Which TV show of yesteryear do you least want “re-imagined” and remade into a modern film?

Okay i don't know if they redid it or not.... Gilligan's Island is the one i'd hate most to see remade! I already didn't watch anything else they remade so if they did Gilligan we can add that to the list of not watched remakes.

8.06.2003

What's on..... Right Now?
Today's question is................
What's On your 'to do list' Right Now?

Don't have a written 'to do' list, although i should and have frequently started one. The list in my head however includes:

Not all of these things are for today... just the most urgent of the moment. Great question June!!! You really got me to create my 'to do' list... and that's a good start at getting things done! ;-)

8.05.2003

Monday Madness..... here are my answers to this week's questions.

1. What's a situation in your life that you felt totally unsure in, or lacking in confidence in?
Totally unsure?... when I became a 'poster child' for Dow Chemical's first big downsizing back in 1986. After years of excellent job ratings I inherited the 'boss from hell' - a guy who i had personally observed screwing the company in every way, shape and form that he could... and rumor had it... many of the women as well. (Cream isn't the only thing that rises to the top... ) I took temporary jobs to get away from him and as a result was one of the first out the door. They did it in a most embarrassing manner... an 'Employee Relations' person came to my desk (and many others that infamous day... all at the same time!) .. told me to gather my belongings... and 'escorted' me out in front of my peers! Through it all i stood tall... but was a real wimp inside... The bad guy - his name is Ed Bowman, a scrawny obsequeous Afro-American, unlike all the honorable Black employees I've known personally at Dow - was later fired while wasting some of Dow's money on a 'business' trip!

2. What aspect of your life do you feel that you have the most confidence in dealing with?
My computer, my websites and blogs, and anytime I am writing... this is when i am most confident. I do these things well and I know i do them well.

3. Is there any one outfit you own that when you wear it, you feel totally confident or able to take on the world?
After i retired (Dow did allow me retirement so i wouldn't sue their sorry asses) i gave all my business attire away to Goodwill... or Salvation Army. I have two 'confidence' styles... 1. most of the time, a good pair of well-fitting jeans and simple t-shirt with a blazer... any blazer and... 2. when i really must 'dress up' - a colorful printed summer skirt with matching plain t-shirt (various colors that match the print), worn with the matching camp-shirt as a jacket... or for variety, with a blazer. This thing shows my legs which, when encased in some good tight-fitting control-topped panty hose, still look pretty good for an old brawd! ;-)

Thank you, Cynthia, for these questions!!! Good ones! You really got me thinking... and going..... and OttO! Enjoy you trip! I've only been to California on Dow business trips but I loved it!

8.04.2003

Forty five years ago i was having labor pains... a prelude to my third child. Three weeks early!!! What could be wrong? Doctor was on vacation; he had me on his schedule. We went to the hospital; got me signed in and prepped... and in no time at all the birthing began!

45 years ago fathers only went as far as the 'Labor Room' and then were sent off to the 'Waiting Room' while mom and kid did their thing! I was always a 'conventional' mommy, just' drinking in a little 'funny gas' and helping the doctor and baby throughout the birth. Did i mention the doctor didn't know me? He was a fill-in for my doctor... incidentally, he was a specialist; my doc was a general practitioner.

The baby was birthed... another girl... she cried.... and i lay there... nothing more happening and i finally said, 'What's the matter with my baby? Why are we not moving out of here?' to which a nurse responded, 'We're waiting for the next one." Did i mention we did not have all the wonderful testing that's available today.... just the doc listening for the baby's heartbeat through the mommy's tummy! Right! We did not know we were expecting twins! The second little girl was born! I heard somebody ask, 'Where's ________ (one of the nurses)?' and an answer, 'She went out to tell the father!' The doctor grumbled,' I wanted to tell him!' and shortly thereafter we were showing the new daddy his twin girls!

He phoned his parents and gave them the news. My parents were up north on vacation and he drove all the way to their vacation place to tell them about the birth.... Right! No cellphones back then either! My mom and dad didn't believe him... they thought he was teasing and that we really had a boy (the first two were girls)... but he left them and came back home to the kids and me. Then they believed him.

We birthed two more girls after this... then i was satisified... i had my big family! The twins are the 'middle child' in our family.

Happy Birthday, Pammy and Patti! I love you!
... blinkie by OttO... aka number 5... aka Natalie

8.02.2003

I DID it! I photographed 26 Things! You know? ...the International Photographic Scavenger Hunt? Yup! It was fun and it was a challenge! Visit my 26 Things... come back here and tell me what you think.... and while you're out there looking at photos, visit my friend sherle's 26 Things too! While you're there, leave her a comment in her guest book..... I did! My friend OttO was working on 26 Things too, and I'll tell you where to find hers as soon as she lets me know!

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?