I'm ready for "The Take Home Chef"

The TAKE HOME CHEF, Curtis Stone, goes to grocery stores and randomly picks out an unsuspecting female shopper (who is always gorgeous), buys her groceries and goes to her house (which always has gourmet cookware) and prepares a fabulous meal for her.

Every time I go to the store I look for him, but he just doesn't seem to be in my store. This past weekend I decided that the reason he hasn't shown up is probably because I'm not ready for him. After almost 40 years of marriage all my pots and pans were well worn and none of them matched. I was just sure that the reason Curtis had not shown up is because I didn't have gourmet cookware.

S0.....Monday I put all my pots and pans in a box for the Goodwill or Salvation Army (or whoever wants them) and I raced straight to Macy's to buy a new set. Wow....I got the 10 piece set...plus you got a bonus of 2 addional pans ...and as an extra bonus you got a 6 quart frying pan. I also bought the 3 quart pot and the square grill. Now if you open my kitchen cupboards I have this beautiful cookware.

I joined CURVES but I have not "morphed" into a gorgeous young maiden yet...but if you see Curtis in your grocery store tell him that I have new cookware and I'm ready for him. BRING HIM ON!

Bella Bella Bella --- Queen of the House !

My retirement gift to myself was a puppy! I know....having a new puppy is like having a new baby. Am I crazy?

This is Bella. She was born on Feb 13th (my Valentine puppy). Bella is a puggle. Her father is a pug and her mother is a beagle. When I got her on April 9th she weighed just about 5 pounds. Now at 3 1/2 months she weighs 10 pounds. Both her mom and dad are small dogs so I don't think that she'll get too big.

Right from the beginning she has ruled the household....and, yes she is spoiled. She gets to sleep in bed with us and gets plenty of attention. She is going to puppy class so that she can learn to be a good puppy. Puggles are very smart and she can already sit, lay down, stay and come...WHEN SHE WANTS TO,

It amazes me that she can find the smallest piece of paper we drop and is constantly chewing on everything. One of her favorite things to chew on is the fringe on our oriental carpets. My daughter told me to spray her with a squirt bottle when she chews on something she shouldn't __ that seems to be working pretty well. I'll be happy when she gets through the chewing stage.

It has been a long time since I've had a puppy and do I ever have a lot to learn. I waited too long to have her nails clipped the first time and ended up with big scratches on my hands (I had to explain to everyone that I really wasn't a cutter; I just have a new puppy). She has already outgrown her first harness, her first bed and her first crate. On a happy note, housebreaking is going good and she rarely has an accident in the house. The poor baby got a reaction to her shots and her usually wrinkly face became really puffy and wrinkly. Now she has to be pre-medicated before her shots so that she doesn't get a reaction.

She is personality plus and I love her to death. I could use advise on how to get her through the chewing stage. Does anyone have a good chew toy or chew stick that their dog loved? Oh well...I didn't really like my shoes, rugs and clothes anyway. I just need to move closer to my daughters so that she can play with Princess and Big Sweetie and then she'll be too tired to chew.

Daughers are Wonderful!

This weekend my scrapbooking buddy Linda and I got to spend the entire weekend with our wonderful daughters. What fun!

Linda and I have been co-workers, friends and scrapbooking cohorts for many years. We have always thought that our eldest daughters sounded like two "peas in a pod" and would get along great if they ever had a chance to meet. Since they both love to scrapbook about three years ago we talked them into going to the CK Convention in Bellevue, Washington with us. Linda's daughter lives in Utah and my daughter lives in Idaho. Just as we suspected, in no time at all they became the best of friends. Since that time the four of us have enjoyed some great times getting together for "girl" weekends.

This past weekend the two girls flew to Oregon so that the four of us could scrapbook all weekend at our favorite scrapbook store --- Scrapbook Fever. It was a marathon ...from 8:00 am until 2:00 pm each day. We got lots of scrapbooking done, but the special joy of the weekend was getting to spend with our daughters.

On Friday night Linda's husband (and Christy's dad) surprised us by bringing us Christy's favorite pizza and delicious berry smoothies (very much appreciated since it was 97 degrees here on Friday).

The weekend involved lots of laughing and giggling. We are known for being a bit on the outrageous side when we all get together so the store put us upstairs with other people who were as crazy as we are. Jenny got a chance to use some of her social working skills when two of the people had a disagreement over what type of music we should listen to. When one of her fellow scrapbookers found out that her dog had some major hip problems, Christy and Jenny tried to make her feel better (right Christy?). We all finished the weekend with dark circles under our eyes from no sleep, new friends, lots of completed scrapbook pages and wonderful memories of our time together (did I mention that Jenny set off the security alarm by accident at 3:00 am?). We already have another "girls weekend" planned for November. We can hardly wait.

Ganny is back among the living!

This winter I went "soft in the head" and let my former employer talk me in to working part time for the months of November through February. When February came they begged me to stay until the end of March.

The good things about working are --- I love my job, I love the people who I work with and finally I love the money. The bad thing about working...it definitely cuts into my leisure time. But now I am again a member of the "retired" world. Hurrah!

Do you judge a book by its cover?

What is your first impression of this guy? You can't see it in this picture but he also has tatoos all over his arms. He has piercings in his lip, both ears and his nose. Some days he wears a belt that is made out of chains and a bracelet that has spikes on it. He has tiny square black glasses. I have never seen him wear anything other than black.

In the past I probably would have been petrified if I saw someone who looked like this. However, for the past year I have worked in a different work location that draws its workers from an entirely different demographic of people. Most of the people that I work with have tatoos and many of them have multiple piercings. We have several people with black and red hair. Although there is a dress code, their style is very casual and is far from the "formal" atmosphere that I am used to.

Actually the young man above is one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He is always at work at least a half hour before his shift begins and is always ready to work when the start time comes. He is extremely conscientious and never misses work. Although he has only been on his present job for about 9 months, he has worked for the company for 8 years and has done an excellent job on all of his previous jobs.

If you call our company, he might be the Customer Service Representative that you speak with. If so, you would be very lucky. He is soft-spoken, very polite and makes each customer feel like he has been waiting all day for their call. Since he's still fairly new on this job he has things to learn but he does his best to make every customer feel special and to resolve their problem. If you were on the other end of the phone, you would probably never picture him to look like this.

He and the other people I work with have taught me to be more open-minded and not to "judge a book by its cover".

Oh, by the way, his hairdo is done with a flat iron, elmers glue and lots of hairspray. He says it takes him about 20 minutes to get it in place.

State Cheerleading Championsip

My beautiful granddaughter Hannah is a cheerleader for

Lakeridge High School. Although this is her 3rd year as a cheerleader, it is her first year being part of their compeition team. There are 15 girls on the team.

She has had quite a year learning the routines and mastering her back hand-spring. Thank heavens she isn't one of the fliers....I'd have a heart attack for sure.

Yesterday was the state championship. Lakeridge was one of 55 teams from all over the state who competed. I must

admit that I am a sucker for this kind of event...I love to see all of the cheerleading uniforms and see their amazing performances. Each teams did a tumbling routine, a cheer and a dance routine. For the most part all of the teams were sesational.

This isn't Hannah's team but it will give you an idea of what the competition looked like. I did take a video of Hannah's team butit is to big a file to load here.

Her team placed 8th in the competition. Even though they were hoping to finish in the top 5 so that they could get a trophy, placing 8th out of 55 teams was outstanding (especially considering that several of the girls are new to the competition team this year. My old high school placed 3rd, so I enjoyed watching them also.

Congratulations to Hannah and her teammates. You did great!

FFF - Favorite Foto Friday

This is a picture of my son-in-law Zac at his wedding reception in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on September 10, 2001. The reception was at a german restaurant and Zac became the entertainment. We all had so much fun....the next day was 9/11 and the world changed.

Box Crushers bring it home!

Last weekend the Box Crushers (the pool team that my son Travis plays on) competed in the Tri-Cup pool tournament.

As you may recall from my earlier post, a few weeks ago the team won 2nd place in their Monday pool league. That win qualified the team to play in the Tri-Cup tournament. This tournament pitted the winners of the local leagues in the Portland and surrounding area (from Salem to Vancouver and Hillsboro to Gresham) against each other. Sixty five teams completed.

After a grueling two days of competition Travis' team came in third and won $1000. This was quite a feat considering they were playing the best teams in Portland. No one had ever heard of the Box Crushers and thought that they were absolutely no threat. Now they are a legend.

The next step in journey is the regional competition to be held in June. This will bring the winning teams from Oregon,Washington, Idaho and Montana together. At this point they don't know where the tournament will be. They are hoping that it will be somewhere out of state. If finish in the top 8 in that tournament they will progress to the national tournament in Las Vegas. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Senior Bingo ....here we come!

Do you have your own private geriatric social worker? I do! .... little did we know when we paid those thousands of dollars for my daughter's college education that we'd get a direct payback once we got to be members of the "golden age generation". Yep, my oldest daughter Jennifer is a social worker for a "Seniors" agency and she knows just what we need.

Last time I visited her she decided that she, my other daughter and her husband, and I should go to BINGO at the senior center. Now, even though I legitimately quality as a senior, I'm really more the American Idol concert type.

Jenny, Suzi and I at the concert this summer

Jenny says that when you get to a certain age all senior women get the gene that makes you buy those horrible sweatshirts with pictures on the front of them and get the tight kinky-curl short permanent. I'm not quite to that stage yet. I've been to bingo before and know that not only do the women match that description but they also have their purse full of lucky trolls, special colored dabbers, bells to ring and whistles to blow.

The first thing that happened when we got there was that we all got in trouble because we sat a table that was usually occupied by REGULARS. We didn't know that people sat in certain places and we just stayed put. Next we got in trouble for talking and laughing. Playing bingo is serious business! You can read all about our experiences on Jenny's blog.

We actually had a great time in spite of not winning. Most of all it convinced us that "Bingo Caller " definitely should be the next occupation of my husband AIRJER. Anyone who knows him, knows that he is one crazy dude. He has way more personality than the present bingo caller. Mr. AirJer would have all those old ladies loving him after 1/2 hour.

The other thing that the bingo caller does is shop for hamburger, buns, chips and pop (they sell hamburgers during the breaks). That is right up AirJer's alley too....he is the only person I know who can make an all day trip out of going to the grocery store to buy a couple of items. (My girls are convince that he has a thing going on with Tami, the meat lady at Albertsons because he always takes her a Starbucks coffee and gets great deals). He loves to grocery shop and loves to find the best bargain. Does this sound like the perfect job for him or what? Right after we were there the present bingo caller announced that he thinks he may retire soon. Watch out bingo...AirJer is coming.

AirJer hasn't had the chance to experience this wonderful adventure, so over President's Day weekend we are flying over there so that he can go to bingo with us. The six of us (my daughters, son-in-laws and AirJer and I) are going to celebrate Valentines day at the Senior Center playing bingo. I've even been shopping for one of those awful sweatshirts to wear just for laughs. You can bet there will be another blog about this experience.

What do you think.... does this sound like a perfect match for AirJer?

The blue leather recliner bites the dust...FINALLY!

The blue leather recliner has become a legend in our house. Many, many years ago we bought a navy blue leather couch, recliner, and chair.

The recliner immediately became dad's chair and he has clocked many hours sleeping in it. The chair should have made it's exit a long time ago, but Jerry wouldn't even listen to suggestions that he should get a new chair. About 5 years ago the ball bearings started falling out. In the past year springs have fallen out, there are rips in the arms and the whole chair tilts to one side. When Jerry falls asleep in it his head bobs to one side since the chair tilts so much. No amount of pleading

would make his give up his beloved chair. In the last few months the chair had gotten so bad that he actually had to put pillows on the seat to keep the springs from polking him.

Even though personally I would have loved to burn the chair, some things just aren't worth the fight. If that chair really made him that happy who was I to get rid of it. Whenever we go to a store that has recliners he "tries" them out and promptly declares that they just don't feel right (of course not - he doesn't remember what it feels like to sit in a real chair).

Over Christmas my daughter Jenny and I were Christmas shopping and came across a recliner that we were both sure he'd like. Finally after a month of begging Jerry to at least go look at it, today he finally agreed to go. It only took one test "recline" to convince him that it was indeed the chair for him.

We said...."We'll take it!" .... and guess what-they only had the display model (which had a few dirt spots on it). After a few phone calls they located the chair at another one of their stores about 5 miles away. So, off we went to the other store. When we got to there not only did they have the chair, but also had a lounge chair that matched it.

Patience pays off because now we each have a new chair.

Does anyone want the old blue recliner?

Sometimes my brain is sawdust.....

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am addicted to scrapbooking. Even back in the dark ages when I was a teenager (and long before scrapbooking was in vogue) I loved this hobby. And as the years have gone by I have only gotten worse .

My scapbooking buddy is my friend Linda . Between the two of

us we probably own every scrapbooking tool and gadget known to man (or woman) plus a huge assortment of paper, ribbon, chipboard, embellishments, button, etc.. We buy our "treasures" at Scrapbook Fever (our favorite scrapbook store), at CK conventions, on QVC and wherever else we find things all these wonderful things that we can't live without (we only buy things that are new and different - don't we Linda).

Honestly, I have enough scrapbooking supplies to last a lifetime.

Before I retired, I justified my purchases by saying that I had to buy things before I retired and could no longer afford to buy them. I don't know what my excuse is now. Linda and I crop together frequently, take classes, go to scrapbook conventions....you get the idea. We even have brainwashed our daughters. This picture was taken after we had all been scrapbooking for 3 days with no sleep.

Linda and I love trying new techniques and have been known to scrapbook from 10:00 AM until 11:00 PM and only get 2 or 3 layouts done. (Did I mention that we talk a lot?) We love to spend hours creating our masterpieces.

No project is too intricate or overwhelming for us....or is it? Have you ever had those days when your brain is just sawdust? As a rule I find scrapbooking very relaxing, but sometimes I just don't have the energy to be creative. On these days I just want to sit down and magically come up with a beautiful page without having to think about it. I shouldn't admit it, but when this happens I cheat and resort to "page kits".

In September we went to Scrapbook Expo in Salt Lake City. There was this great booth - Out on a Limb Scrapbooking that had wonderful page kits for $2.99 - $4.99. Even with all my scrapbook supplies I can justify spending that amount (because it would cost me at last that much for paper and supplies ---- right?). No! I have no affiliation to this vendor and don't get a kickback by mentioning them. I did meet the owners Lindsey and Kate and really liked them. But, on days when my brain is sawdust these kits are perfect! They are also great for beginning scrapbookers who want some help getting started. Here are some of my pages that I made using these kits:

I'd include a layout that I designed from scratch, but then you might tell me to only use the page kits.

Come and get it ----- Chicken Fried "Snake"

My grandson Bryant is an avid hockey fan. He went to his first hockey game when he was just a month old and really loves the game. Luckily for us he doesn't really care who wins or loses as long as he gets to go to the ice arena and take in all the excitement. All fall he begged his dad to bring him to Portland for the weekend so that he visit Grandpa and Ganny and he could go to see his favorite hockey team - the Portland Winterhawks. He doesn't really understand that the Hawks have only won about 7 games all season and are not a very good team this year. . . they are his heros. It didn't take much talking to convince Zac to bring him since Zac loves to spend his weekend at Powell's bookstore. So, Zac and Bryant came for a weekend of hockey and fun.

When he went home Bryant promptly reported to his mom that he wasn't sure whether he wanted to go to Grandpa and Ganny's house again because he had almost had to eat Chicken Fried "Snake" for dinner. He just couldn't believe that we'd actually eat snakes. After quite a bit of talking Jenny finally convinced him that it was Chicken Fried STEAK, not Chicken Fried Snake.

Jenny may have thought the issue was settled, but evidently it wasn't because shortly after he arrived in Portland for Christmas Bryant said he wanted to talk to me about that Chicken Fried Snake. He wanted us to have it for dinner that very night. Since it is one of our family favorites I quickly agreed with the provision that he helped me make it.

Bryant loves it when we cook together...but he wasn't quite sure about wearing an apron. He got much more enthusiastic when he found out that we got to play with flour, milk and eggs.

He couldn't quite believe that we got to get flour all over the kitchen. Well, one thing led to another and pretty soon we were having a flour fight. As you can see I got the worst of the flour fight.

Bryant looks perfectly clean, but believe me he wasn't. And the kitchen had flour from one end of it to the other. But from now on whenever Bryant has Chicken Fried "Snake" he'll remember the flour fight we had when we were cooking it together. That's what it's all about --- creating a lifetime of memories. (Just like when we play "Old Maid" and the winner gets to smash a chocolate cupcake into the losers face...but that's another story).

YOU CAN'T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS!

I began wearing glasses at the ripe old age of 8. I hated wearing glasses from day one. Kids are very mean to other kids who wear glasses. Worse than that was the dreaded day that they did eye tests at school. Even if I had just gotten new glasses the week before I could never read that darn eye chart. I remember standing in line waiting for my turn and trying to memorize what the kids in front of me were saying. Of course it never worked and I was humiliated when I couldn't read the chart and had to take a note home to my parents saying that I needed stronger glasses.

One of the best days of my life was when I turned 16 and was finally old enough to get contact lens. Back in those ancient day contacts were fairly new and they didn't let children wear them because they didn't think they were old enough to take care of them correctly until the magic age of 16. I wanted to wear contacts so bad that I became a pro at putting them in and taking them out in two days. In all my years of wearing contacts I've never lost a contact.

Fast forward years and years....the Doctor says that I can no longer wear my old hard contacts but have to get a new kind called gas permeable so that my eyes could breathe better. No sweat - they were just like the old kind but more comfortable.

Fast forward again to a few months ago. My doctor told me that I would have to change to soft contacts because they would be much better for my eyes. The plus side....he put me in monthly soft contacts so I only change them once a month. I love being able to wake up in the middle of the night and see and I love only having to change them once a month. The down side....I cannot change those darn contacts.

I have what my daughters call "small, beady eyes" and I have a very strong blink reflex. The entire strategy for putting soft contacts on and taking them off is totally different than with gas permeable contacts. After about 100 tries I can get my contacts on if I have to, but I absolutely cannot get them out.

Each month my two daughters have to change my contacts. It is quite a production. One has to "pry" my eye open while the other one takes the contacts out. It usually takes at least 20 tries with my youngest daughter yelling "big eyes mom, big eyes" before the mission is accomplished. By the time they get my contacts changed they want to take up drinking.

Last week I got a bad cold that was kind of in my eyes and one eye was really hurting. Since both of daughters live in the Boise area I couldn't have them take them out. I tried and tried and could not get my contact out. I finally went to Urgent Care because my eye hurt so bad. I had managed to get one corner of the contact folded under and scratched my cornea. No wonder it hurt! So now I am "one eyed" until it heals (did I mention that I don't even own a pair of glasses. I tried getting them once but they are like coke bottles and make me sick to my stomach").

I think my goal very soon is to get Lasik surgery. I guess this just validates the old saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". Am I the only idiot out there who can't learn to change soft contact lens?

Box Crushers take second place in Pool tournament

You didn't know that I'm a pool shark in my secret life did you? Well I'm not....though I did feed myself my entire senior year in college by getting high scores on pinball machines.

My son Travis is the proud owner of this trophy. For several years he and his friends have played in a Monday evening pool league. All season I listened to him whine about how his team was doing terrible and they'd probably end up in last place (he's highly competitive) ..... and then LOW AND BEHOLD ..... his team finished in second place. The first and second place standing was decided by the last shot in the last match.

Travis, Bryan, Micah and Justin

At the end of January the team will compete in the regional tournament. Competition will be stiff but the top teams will advance to the national tournament in Vegas. Travis says that he doesn't think that his team has much chance of winning but he's probably being modest.

Good luck Box Crushers...I hope you're packing you bags for Vegas soon!

Mr. Air Jer visits the Nail Salon

What is this guy thinking?

After I retired in April, I talked my husband Jerry (aka Mr. Air Jer) into going to the Nail Salon with me to get a pedicure. Although a bit apprehensive at first, after the first 30 minutes he was a convert. He proclaimed pedicures to be the "best thing ever" and said that he only wished he had started getting them years ago. His only disappointment on his first visit was that Annie didn't offer to paint his toe nails and he didn't have the nerve to ask her.

On his next visit he told Annie that he wanted his toes painted Magenta to match the wedding colors of our daughters upcoming wedding. Imagine the surprise of all the wedding guests when he changed into his shorts and sandals at the reception. All summer he had a great time wearing his sandals to the grocery store just to see the reaction he'd get from people. Most people just stared. A few brave souls said "there's got to be a story about the toes" ... and each time he'd invent a new story to tell the person.

Since then each time he has had a pedicure he has tried a different color...he's had navy blue, black, hunters orange (for duck hunting season) and sparkly red for Christmas and New Years. He keeps trying to talk all of his buddies into going to the salon with him for a pedicure. So far no one has taken him up on it (and he's even offered to pay).

I wonder what his doctor will think tomorrow when he goes in for his annual checkup?