Exercising - Bah Humbug!

Well, I have succumbed to joining the Texas Fitness Club. It's certainly NOT my first choice of FUN things I want to do. It's not even on my Top Ten Most FUN Things I Want To Do list! But, I HAVE to do it! I MUST lose this extra weight. At least my doc says I need to do this. I know I'd feel better and look better too, but I just HATE exercising! I have the time now that I'm not working full time and I think back to when we moved back to Dallas in October 2007 and if I'd started exercising then, I'd look great by now. But I didn't. So, now I've gotta do it. Today I had my second session with my personal trainer. She made out a schedule of the exercises I need to do on the machines along with some walking and the elliptical. I will need to work on the machines Mon., Wed. & Fri. and the elliptical with 30 minutes of walking on Tues., Thurs., and Sat. This sounds like a very strenuous schedule to me. I'm used to walking about 30 min. maybe 5 days a week on a good week. I know I'll be very sore tomorrow. Also, I'll be sitting a lot the remainder of this week and next since I accepted a temp job. So, my muscles will get sore. And this means too that I will have to go exercise AFTER work. This makes me tired just thinking about all of this exercising that I will need to do. And don't you feel sorry for me?

Being with Family is Wonderful!

Bob and I drove up to Tulsa for the weekend for Carson's 5th birthday party. It was over 100 degrees when we left Dallas and not much cooler when we arrived in Tulsa. Our old car doesn't cool off very well, so it was a very HOT 4-hr. trip! I felt like a wilted flower when we arrived. We stayed with Bob's brother John. He loves to bake cookies, but this weekend he was busy on another project, so no cookies. Just as well, as we are on diets. We went to Carson's party on Sat. She had a new blow-up water slide that went into a pool. All of the kids loved it! If I'd had my swimsuit with me, I would have gotten in too. Corbin grilled hamburgers and hot dogs on his nice outdoor grill. Christian (14 mos.) is walking now, so it was fun watching him. And Caty is so grown up! My adorable grandkids! What FUN! We went with them to their church this a.m. We sure did miss their former pastor, Peter, though. Afterwards, we went to The Bistro -- Corbin & Christy's after-church brunch hang out. It was a GREAT weekend trip and worth bearing the heat!

Springtime in Kansas City

Bob and I drove to Springfield, IL last August to help my mom clean out her house in anticipation of moving into an assisted living home. On our way back to Dallas, we drove to Kansas City to visit Bob's daughter, Jenny, and her husband, Stephen. Jenny knows I enjoy beads, so they took us to a bead shop/knit shop called Florilegium. Jenny likes to knit. I bought these green striped ceramic beads with the pink lampworked flowers on them. When I got home, I added these beads to my bead box -- one of the many I have -- and there they sat until a week ago when I finally decided to use them in this necklace. I had just purchased the pink beads at the Dallas Bead Show when I went in April. I was looking for something to make with the pink beads when I saw the green flowered ones in my box and I thought it would make a nice combination. I named my necklace "Springtime in Kansas City". I read an article that you need to name your jewelry pieces, so I have named all of my necklaces and a few other pieces on my website. I'm thinking about holding a contest for naming some pieces of my jewelry. It's hard enough trying to come up with a different design for each piece of jewelry, much less names too! If anyone knows any good names or words to use, please let me know.

Kitchen Duty!

The Emanuel Lutheran Church in Dallas where Bob and I are members is providing a Summer Reading Program for 3 weeks for neighborhood children. We serve breakfast and lunch to the kids also. The Kitchen Queen, Jackie, asked me to help. I really didn't want to, as I have a lot going on right now, but she caught me at a weak moment. I worked in the kitchen on Mon. and Tues., but today I'm home working on the church newsletter that is due July 1st. The reading program had 14 kids in attendance on Mon. and 11 kids on Tues. And, yesterday we had 6 people working in the kitchen and we were falling all over each other. I figured they could do without me today. Jackie has planned the menus for the 3 weeks. On Mon. we served boxed cereal and grapes for breakfast and beef and bean burritos for lunch. Yesterday, Chad made pancakes for breakfast. The kids had spaghetti, salad and banana pudding for lunch. People from other churches are helping out with the program. There are people reading to the kids and playing word games with them. The kids are also reading to the volunteers. I was told that the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) is holding summer school this week and that might be why attendance for our reading program is so light. Maybe the next two weeks will be better.

In Memory of Cavan

In a previous post, I showed a photo of some items I found in a tin that belonged to my son, Cavan. After he died on Nov. 7, 2005, his wife Lauren gave me a box of some of his belongings and I had put them away in a closet without looking through any of the contents until recently. The closet where I had stored his boxes and a lot of other boxes of momentos we don't need, but wanted to keep, was flooded a couple months ago when the upstairs air conditioner hose got plugged up. We had to remove everything from that closet to mop up lots of water. We put everything that was stored in the cardboard boxes into plastic boxes. In doing so, I went through Cavan's belongings. I found this tin of coins and thought perhaps I could do something with them. When my sister was here, we were looking at a website that showed a bracelet made with these "squished" souvenir coins. I showed Cindy the tin of coins that belonged to Cavan and she and I both thought it would make a unique bracelet. I have no idea where Cavan got the coins. His dad traveled around the world for 11 years and maybe he gave Cavan the coins. Also, Cavan took a Mediterranean cruise while he was in the Navy aboard the USS The Sullivans. So, maybe he collected the coins from his trip. I will wear this bracelet often and think of my son, Cavan, whom I miss terribly.

Old Four Eyes!

I don't wear my glasses much, but I'll have to wear them this week. I see so much better with my contact lenses. I seem to run into things and fall down steps when I have my glasses on. I feel like they are HUGE and I want to take them off when I talk to people. Weird, huh? Anyway, my right eye is tearing, red, bloodshot and itchy. I went to the eye doc today and she told me I have Seasonal Conjunctivitis. In other words, ALLERGIES!! I figured that's what it was. I'm allergic to everything outside. I receive an email daily from pollen.com. The levels of pollen actually aren't very high right now, but whatever is out there sure is bothering my eyes.

By the way, in case you want to know, the necklace I have on is one I made with the $10 glass bead I bought at the Wimberly Glass Works when we were on vacation a couple of weeks ago. Colorful, huh? I haven't put it for sale on my website yet. I'm not sure if I want to sell it. Maybe after I wear it a few times.

Cavan's Treasures

When my sister was here, we were looking at some bead websites and one of them had this project to make a charm bracelet with these "squished" souvenir coins. Do you remember those machines where you put the penny in it and it comes out elongated? I told her that I had just found a tin that Cavan had with several coins in it and I thought I'd try making a charm bracelet with them. Here is a pic of all of the treasures he collected in his tin. There is also a car part that I'm going to use on my bracelet. Cavan claimed it saved his life. I'm not sure if the car part was some place it shouldn't have been in the engine or what. Anyway, I had Bob buy some Dremel bits today so he could drill holes in the coins for me. He's drilled two coins and already his bit is used up! So much for that idea! He said he'd come up with another idea on how to get the holes in the coins. I'll post a pic of my finished bracelet when/if I get it made. It will be a nice treasure for me once I can wear it.

Good Music, Good Friends

I received an email a few days ago from our friends, Cathy & Steve Z. who go to our church. They said that they were coming downtown for the Jazz Under the Stars concert tonight, featuring Havana NRG and they asked us to join them. Havana NRG combines Latin music and jazz for a high-energy fusion sound. I thought it would be fun, so we told them we'd meet them at the concert. They were celebrating Steve's birthday. Chad also joined us and he brought his little dog, Brisket. Cute dog -- for a dog. As most of you know, Bob and I are not dog lovers. Anyway, we all brought food and Cathy brought a birthday cake. We ate and listened to the music. It's fun being with good friends and listening to good music, even when it's high 90's and high humidity. And Bob and I walked to and from the concert and we got our exercise too!

Dr Pepper Museum

Guess where we went today? And it involved no beads! Mike was very grateful for that. These husbands were beginning to think that Cindy and I were ignoring them. Mike, Cindy & I drove to Waco to the Dr Pepper Museum. Bob thought he might be able to go with us, so we walked to the Dallas Farmer's Market first thing this a.m. until we heard from him. But, he called to say he had too much to get caught up on at work. On the way to Waco, we stopped in West, TX for lunch at the Czech-American Cafe. Bob and I had eaten lunch there on July 18, 2008, and we liked it. We walked around the little town and Cindy bought a cute, china tea set for her granddaughter for Saffy's birthday. The Dr Pepper Museum is very interesting and we learned all kinds of facts that EVERYONE needs to know about Dr Pepper. But, I can't think of one of those interesting facts to tell you as I write this. Mike is the Dr Pepper drinker, so he stocked up with a case. It has REAL sugar in them, which you can only buy in Waco, so they say. But, we've found boot-legged bottles of the Dr Pepper with REAL sugar at the grocery store across the street from our apartment. Mike said the caps are different, however. It as a FUN trip!

Dallas Museum of Art & the Nasher Sculpture Garden

Mike, Cindy and I went to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Garden today. Bob had to go to work. We saw the chocolate and soap facial sculptures that were quite intriguing. The artist licked the chocolate and bathed with the soap sculptures of her own face before they were on exhibit. We sat in a chair made of cardboard and it was very comfortable! We saw some pretty scary paintings, such as a man's body with a head, but no face. And we saw artwork of the old masters, such as Monet, Manet and Picasso. I like those the best. Cindy is an art teacher in the Chicago area, so she enjoys seeing the artwork of others. I think Mike is bored watching Cindy and me make beaded items and he's willing to go about anywhere.

NeeNee & CheeChee's New Beaded Necklaces

Here is a photo of Linda (NeeNee) and Cindy (CheeChee) wearing our newest beaded necklace creations. Of course, we had to go to EVERY bead store in town today and then when we finally got home at 4 p.m. and sat down to work on our new projects we were missing beads!! Cindy bought a Tibetan bead at the Milwaukee Bead Show that she used as a focal bead in the necklace she is wearing. I got inspired for my creation from seeing a necklace yesterday at Froggie's Toy Store. It's a free-form necklace with deep purple and pale yellow Swarovski Crystal beads and lots of wire. I haven't decided yet if this necklace will go on our website or not. I might keep it for myself. Cindy is keeping hers. We have lots more beaded projects to work on and our time together is getting shorter every day.

Back to Beading - Maybe!

My sister Cindy and her husband Mike arrived yesterday afternoon. Cindy and I had planned to spend nearly every minute of our time together beading, but things keep getting in the way. Such as fixing meals, cleaning up the kitchen and such. These men expect to EAT! Cindy and I could do with eating a carton of yogurt or a banana and not make any mess and just keep on beading. Last night after dinner and the kitchen was cleaned up, we finally got our beads out. We sat down and discussed some projects we wanted to do. I had to go upstairs for something and I saw a wet spot on the bed. Not good! I figured Buster or Rowdy had done something. I got closer to inspect the wet spot and something wet hit my head! I looked up and there was water dripping down from the ceiling!!! There was a huge spot on the ceiling and it looked like it was going to cave in at any minute. I hollered at Bob and we managed to scoot the bed over away from the dripping water. Of course, we had to strip the bed completely and turn the mattress over. This was nearly 10 p.m. when this happened. Why don't things like this happen earlier in the day? I called the emergency maintenance number and a maintenance man came right away. He discovered that no one was in the apartment above us at the time, but there was a dehumidifier that had overflowed. We have cement floors, so I have no idea how water can get through those. Anyway, we mopped up water, put blankets in the dryer and finally got to bed a little before midnight. No beading yesterday. :-( Today, we went to church, then Cindy and I got the beads out again and sat down to bead. Of course, we discovered right away that we were missing components for our projects that we had to do right then! We took a trip to Michael's Craft Store and some other errands. When we got home, it was dinner time, of course. Mike did help me with the cooking. We all wanted Gelato after dinner, so we got in the car and drove to the West Village. We walked in some of the little shops and I saw a beaded necklace that sparked an idea for one I want to make. But, I don't have all of the supplies. Tomorrow it will be a trip out to the bead shops. I sure hope I can sit down and make some beaded jewelry tomorrow.

Bead from Wimberly Glass Works

Here is a photo of the glass bead I bought from Wimberly Glass Works. When we got back from our trip to Wimberly yesterday, I called my sister, as I was very excited to tell her about my bead purchase. Cindy and I both make the beaded jewelry for NeeNee & CheeChee's Beaded Things -- www.neeneeandcheechee.com I told her that there was a basket of lampworked, glass beads at the Wimberly Glass Works where Bob and I saw these gorgeous, glass lamps that we wanted to purchase. I told her that I settled on buying A bead instead. She laughed. We usually buy strings of beads or multiple beads -- not just ONE bead. I have no idea what I'm going to make with my ONE bead. I could hang it from a cord or a chain for a necklace or I could put it on a wire with other beads on a necklace. I'm hoping that my sister when she arrives tomorrow will give me some inspiration as to what to do with this bead. In the meantime, I'm going to put it out where I can see it and maybe I'll get an idea all on my own. The inspiration will probably hit me at 3 a.m. when I can't sleep!

Dinner with the Sappenfields - June 11, 2009

This is a photo of our good friends, Bill & Linda Sappenfield (and us). Pastor Sappenfield married Bob and me on Aug. 27, 1995, at Joy Lutheran Church, when we all lived in Tulsa, OK. Now, Bill & Linda live in Round Rock. They met us for dinner last night (Thurs.) The day started off, however, with just Bob and me driving to Wimberly -- about 25 min. from Gruene. There was an art glass gallery there I wanted to see. They had some beautiful, pricey lamps that I would have loved to have bought, but I settled on buying ONE glass lampwork bead instead. It was $700 vs $10. Then, Bob and I drove into Wimberly and we walked around the cute, little shops. I love doing this! Bob is OK with it. He's not the shopper that I am, but he enjoys being with me. Then, we decided to check out the Devil's Backbone Scenic Drive. I'll be posting my Shutterfly link to the photos we took. There were some breath-taking views that the photos don't even begin to do justice on. We stopped for lunch on the way back to our B&B. Then, we rested up for our dinner with our friends. It was a marvelous day!

Gruene Mansion Inn B&B - Gruene, TX - June 10, 2009

Bob and I decided to go to a B&B for a couple of nights of our vacation. I had one picked out in Dennison, TX, but Bob said there was nothing to do in the town. So, I told him to pick one out. He knows I'm a sucker for Old Victorian homes with wrap-around porches, so here is a pic of Gruene Mansion Inn B&B where we stayed Wed. & Thurs. nights. We drove to Gruene on Wed. and it took us a little over 4 hours to get there. It's near Austin. After we checked into our room, called Harriet's Haus, we took a walk around the downtown area. We didn't stay in the mansion. The grounds had several buildings that had sleeping quarters and the one we were in was directly behind the mansion. The town has a lot of history, old buildings and homes built in the middle 1800's. Many of the homes have been converted into shops. The brochure we picked up on Gruene Hall said that it was featured in the movie "Michael" with John Travolta. We didn't go in it, but Bob heard the loud music each night we were there. No me. I was wearing my wax ear plugs!

Five Sixty

Today was a wonderful day on Day #2 of Bob & Linda's Excellent Adventure. We started off the day by walking on the Katy Trail. We could have walked to the West End in downtown and found the trail, but after looking at the map, we decided the trail would be easier to find by driving up to Mockingbird and starting from there. This is actually where the trail starts (or ends). It is a 3 1/2 mile trail if you walk from one end to the other, which we did not do. We were originally going to rent bicycles, but since Bob and I have been Couch Potatoes/Computer Nerds way too long and we figured the bike ride would do us in for the rest of our vacation. My legs hurt for 4 days after walking down the 17 flights of stairs last week when we had the fire alarm! After our walk, we came home and cleaned up. We went to a Mexican restaurant that is downtown for lunch. We ran a few errands afterwards. Bob got his hair cut and I found frames for several of Cavan's drawings. Cavan was quite a good artist and I want to hang his art work in our apartment in our Moody Gallery of Art. I had one of his pieces framed and hung, but after I found the folder with more of his art work, I decided to frame and hang more of them. Back home, we rested awhile, then we went to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant called Five Sixy. This is the new restaurant that is at the top of Reunion Tower -- the white ball that lights up at night. The restaurant revolves slowly and we made a little more than one revolution in the time that we had hor d'oeurves, dinner and dessert. Bob and I had gone there when it was Antares restaurant in 1996. This was for our first anniversary. It was very expensive and the food wasn't good at all at Antares. The best thing then was the thunderstorm and lightening to watch while we had dinner 56 stories up. Tonight it was WONDERFUL! Bob usually tells me I'm a cheap date, but not tonight!

Bob & Linda's Excellent Adventure

Bob and I are on vacation -- in Dallas! We decided to stay home and do the tourist sites in Dallas instead of spending a lot of money on a big trip, especially since I haven't worked in 1 1/2 yrs. Today we got around kind of slowly this a.m. and we didn't get out of the apartment until nearly noon. But, hey! We're on vacation!! We decided to go to the Kittrell-Riffkind Art Glass Gallery first on the list. I don't even remember where I heard about this place, but I've had a printed out sheet with the information about the gallery in my dresser drawer for over a year. I printed out a Google map and we set out on our adventure. We got close to the gallery and Bob decided he wanted to eat lunch first. We stopped at a Cheddar's restaurant. It was noisy, but good food. Then, we got back on the road on the way to the gallery. The address is 5100 Beltline Rd. Well, Beltline goes all the way around the city, like a belt circles your waist. We never found 5100 Beltline, so I called the gallery to see where they are located. We were in Grand Prairie, which is on the southwest side of downtown Dallas and we found out that the gallery is in Addison, which is straight north of downtown Dallas! But their address is 5100 Beltline in DALLAS! This was so confusing. Anyway, we headed to Addison and we found the gallery. Bob had it in his mind that it was a museum. Oh, well. We enjoyed looking at the beautiful glass items. And they had glass beads and jewelry! And I picked up information about their glass bead making classes. We found a place to have gelato too. YUM! We're on vacation, right? Then, we headed back home to rest up from our Big Adventure. I talked Bob into joining the Texas Fitness Club, so we walked up there -- 4 blocks from our apt. -- and joined. Bob was too tired to try it out today, so we'll do that later in the week. So this was Day #1 of Bob & Linda's Excellent Adventure. Stay tuned for Days 2 - 7.

NeeNee & CheeChee

NeeNee & CheeChee. "What is this?", you ask. These are names that my sister and I called each other when we were little. We have always been Best Friends and still are, even though I live in Dallas, TX and Cindy in Elgin, IL – much too far away from each other, as far as we are concerned. We grew up in Springfield, IL and Cindy stayed in IL throughout her adult life. I went to Tulsa, OK, Dallas, TX, Sarasota, FL and then returned to Dallas.

When I lived in Sarasota, I saw a beaded bracelet at the mall that I liked, but instead of buying it, I decided to try making one similar, because there was a bead shop within a mile of my house and I love making things.

I went to the bead store and picked out beads that were similar to the ones in the bracelet that I liked. I asked a few questions about what kind of wire to use and a clerk in the store showed me how to finish the bracelet with a clasp. The clerk charged a fee for her help.

I liked the bracelet and thought it would be fun to try making more jewelry. A few days later, I spoke to my neighbor Lori, who also was becoming interested in beading. Lori told me about another bead shop close to our houses and that the man who owned it would teach you anything he knew how to do for FREE! Lori and I spent a couple of hours one Saturday at this bead shop. The owner, “an old hippie” he liked to call himself, taught us a lot about beading.

Cindy came to Florida for a visit, and being the artist in the family (Cindy teaches high school art), she too wanted to learn how to do beading. She and I have fun getting together when we can and sharing ideas on beaded items we made.

My sister, her husband and our Mom came to visit last summer and as we were sitting around the table, Cindy and I were making our beaded jewelry and Mom reading her book, Mom casually asked us what we were going to do with all of our beaded items. I thought about it a minute and I told her I'd like to try selling it. She asked me what I was going to name my business and I told her "NeeNee & CheeChee's Beaded Things." I solicited my sister to join me. Thus, NeeNee & CheeChee's Beaded Things was launched.

Cindy and I would do about anything for each other. A couple months ago I was working on a project and I ran out of a particular bead. I called her and asked her if she would hunt them down for me. This past week Cindy called me to ask me to hunt down a particular bead for her that she could no longer find in the Elgin area. We are as close as sisters can possibly be, even when there is a lot of distance between us. We are looking forward to getting together next week and to share our ideas on our beaded projects.

Fire Dancer in the Pool

We had a fire dancer in the apartment pool last night! But Bob doesn't think this is so wonderful. He's a light sleeper and any noise wakes him up. I sleep with ear plugs, as he snores, so I sleep through everything. I never even knew about the fire dancer until he told me about it this morning and showed me the pics he took with our digital camera. Our pool deck is off the back side of a restaurant in our apartment building and they use it for their open bar. Occasionally, they will have entertainment with very loud music. I rarely hear the music, since I'm kind of hard of hearing to begin with and then I have the wax ear plugs in my ears too. But at 2 A.M. Bob heard the music and when he looked out of our windows, he saw the fire dancer and he took several photos. I suppose he will let the building management know about it too. And we'll be looking for another place to live when our lease is up next April. Probably some place out in the country where we are the only ones for miles and miles.

Fire Alarms!

This is a photo of the building where my husband and I live on the 17th floor -- the floor with the arched windows at the top. This morning at 5:22 AM, there was a fire alarm. A VERY LOUD, beeping alarm and a voice saying that there had been an emergency and that everyone was to WALK down the stairs and NOT to use the elevators! Bob and I got up, got dressed and I grabbed my purse and down the 17 flights we went. I told Bob that I sure was hoping it was not a REAL emergency, as we left Buster & Rowdy in the apartment. It would have taken a long time to round up the cats and get them into their travel bags. We looked out the windows before we left the apartment and we saw no fire trucks or any other emergency vehicles. On the way down the stairs, we saw NO ONE!! We both were wondering why we were the only ones going down the stairs. We peeked in the windows of the doors on the way down the stairs and we saw no one. Bob said that he hoped that our car wasn't burning up. I was secretly wishing that it WAS burning up! We finally made it down all 17 flights and walked outside. There were 3 other couples and Bob and me. I asked if we were the only SMART ones or were we the DUMB ones? One of the maintenance men for the building came around the corner and told us that someone had reached into the gate to the parking garage and pulled the fire alarm. There was no fire and no emergency! Well, we got our exercise this a.m. I went back to bed until 6 a.m. and Bob stayed up and got ready to go to work. I sure hope the rest of the day is quieter.

NOT a Happy Camper!!

I'm NOT a Happy Camper, but I'm better today than yesterday. My computer crashed! This is the first time this has happened to me. I've heard about this happening to other people, but those kinds of things never happen to you, right? WRONG! The first thing I do in the mornings after getting my cup of hot tea, I sit down at my computer to read/write emails. I love to correspond and I have friends and family all over the country that I keep in touch with. I turned on my computer and it said it was unable to start up. I have no technical skills when it comes to computers, so I asked my husband to take a look at it. "No problem." he says. "I can recover everything tonight when I get home from work." He told me to turn it off and he would fix it when he got home. Well, instead of "fixing" he deleted -- accidentally of course! -- everything in my computer. I had NOTHING!!! Zip! Zilch! Nada! He worked late into the night reinstalling software and some of my files. And I worked all day today to recreate more of my files. Luckily, the church newsletter that I had spent 2 weeks working on had been emailed to the pastor for her to approve the previous night! Whew! Good thing for my husband or he would have been sleeping on the couch and taking me out to ALL of my favorite restaurants for dinner for a good month or more. The pastor emailed the newsletter back to me to email out to members of the church today. Of course, I had to recreate my email address book and groups -- again. My husband still has some work to be done on my computer, but at least I can correspond again.

By the way, in case you're wondering, I made this necklace. The flower petal beads are from a bead show I went to in Dallas a few weeks ago. I'm trying to decide if I want to keep this necklace for myself or add it to my website -- for a small penny, of course.

The Red Door

The Red Door. This is the name that I gave our church newsletter when I was asked by the pastor a couple of weeks ago to create one. This is a drawing of Emanuel Lutheran Church, where my husband and I are members. It has a Red Door. Why a Red Door? This is a good question. It's tradition, I was told. I looked at sites on Google to get a good answer and there is a lot of discussion and answers to this question. One answer was

"The red doors symbolize the blood of Christ, which is our entry into salvation. They also remind us of the blood of the martyrs, the seeds of the church."

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about the newsletter that I am creating. I spent ALL DAY yesterday working on it. Pastor Zelle wanted the newsletter sent out to church members June 1st, but we found out that wasn't possible, since she just gave me the job duty the week before. So, hopefully I can get it out to members this week. I collected reports and I added some church news. My husband downloaded some free software that is similar to Publisher that I've used previously, when I wrote the newsletter for Westfield Mall where I worked in Sarasota, FL. The Scribus software is NOT user-friendly though, and I've had a rough time learning it. And I don't have Microsoft Word on my computer and when I receive the reports from church members, I was printing them out and re-typing them on my newsletter. When my husband got home last night, he asked me why I was doing that and I explained to him that I couldn't copy and paste from Word when it came up on my computer. He told me that all I had to do was save the file and then open it in the Word Processor! Boy, am I dumb! This is definitely a learning process.

Daily Mode of Operandi

This is OUR Daily Mode of Operandi. Rowdy and mine. I get my tea fixed as soon as I get up and then I sit in my computer chair and read/write emails with Rowdy on my lap. Every once in awhile if I don't pay attention to him, he will give me a little pat on my face. "Hey! Remember me? I'm down here needing some TLC!" Then, I have to stop what I'm doing and give him a hug, a kiss and tell him "I love my Rowdy!" This pacifies him for awhile. Buster needs a turn once in awhile too, but he just sits upright and only stays a minute. I think cats are wonderful! I've had cats nearly all of my life. They all have their own personalities and preferences just like people. Rowdy LOVES olives! Yes, that's what I said. Olives! And he doesn't prefer green ones over black ones. He could be asleep anywhere in the house and if I open a jar of olives, he's immediately at my feet meowing and driving me crazy for one. It must be like catnip to him. Buster doesn't like olives though. We learned this some time ago. So, whenever I use olives on anything, I have to cut off a small piece and put it on the floor. Rowdy rolls around all over it and gets it good and hairy. He rubs his face in it too. And if Buster tries to see what all of the commotion is about, Rowdy is very protective of HIS olive and he won't let Buster in on his secret! Rowdy will bat Buster on the head and growl at him. Buster stalks off. Then, Rowdy eats the olive. Oh, yum! Of course, he'll come begging for more olives. If I sit down with a salad that has olives on it, he won't leave me alone and he'll get up on the table in hopes of getting one himself. That doesn't last long though, as cats aren't allowed on our tables!! I know Rowdy is hoping he'll get olives today.