Honored to accept this award

I was truly honored this morning to receive this award from the delightful woman who calls Bloggingham Palace home, none other than Mimi, Queen of Memes.

We have been busy today running errands, packing the van, driving and schlepping dorm room stuff (up to the fourth floor!) and have just returned from dropping off Kid One for Year Two of college.
So now I have a chance to thank Mimi publicly, and to steal from her post the info about this award, created by Skittles.
Mimi is one of the first five recipients, and she was kind enough to select me as one of her honorees. Quoting the Queen:

"This award is for bloggers who shine their light throughout the Blogosphere. Some do it with humor, others with creativity, and others with their kind and thoughtful natures. We all know more than a few of them so why not give them some recognition?"
I do enjoy being recognized, I must admit. I also admit to pangs of guilt, because each day I read such beautifully written posts that evoke emotions ranging from tears to laughter. I am invariably brief in what I post and tend not to reveal much of myself ...

It is difficult to come up with just five bloggers. Here goes:
I'll start with my first blogosphere acquaintance, Joan, The Erstwhile Librarian. She is a retired librarian who is detail oriented and analytical, as is her sister, Lynn, A Tired Mama, to whom I am also presenting this award.
Their cousin, Ina, the buyer who can't wait to retire, is also deserving. These three great women all live in California, as does my fourth honoree, Michael C who cracks me up. I laugh out loud as I read his words, which are usually about nothing worthwhile.
Last but by no means least is Michael's best blogging buddy and my new acquaintance, Odat. She has a wonderful sense of humor and spreads peace to all whenever she leaves a comment. This week Odat even introduced us via video to her little snot dog, Spud. An interesting canine, for sure.
Stealing again from Mimi: Please display your badge - should you choose to accept it - on your blog with a link from whence it came and name five super bloggers.
You must also mention that it originated at Skittles' Place so that she can keep track of the award's progress.

P.S. I also stole the idea to use different colors and fonts from Mimi. I hope the Queen doesn't get into a snit about this.

Good fortune ahead

This is the optimistic message I received in my fortune cookie tonight.
Ralph and I both were pleased with the fortunes we got, and since we are now addicted to blogging we immediately looked at each other and said, "let's use these on our blogs." We think alike much of the time, it's safe to say.

Practically speaking, my dearest dream is to earn more money and feel valued. I have other dreams, but I'm being practical for the moment.
I'm not talking big money, that's not my goal, but simply enough to feel valued for what I know I can do.

My job rewards me with lots of attention and recognition and thanks, but those things, though appreciated, obviously won't pay the bills.

Should I look for another job? Yes. Am I afraid of the interview process? But of course.
Am I revealing too much of myself? Most definitely.

College: Year Two

We've been busy around here getting Kid One ready for Year Two.
Can't believe it was a whole year ago that we did this the first time...next year we will be getting Kid Two ready for Year One as we get Kid One ready for Year Three.

Who's paying for all this?

I keep hearing Ralph talking with Kid One about loans, grants and scholarships. They must have something to do with it.

I just live here.

One more quiz, just because

It's Back to School season and in honor of that much-anticipated time of year, I took another quiz.
This one was pretty accurate. I do like pink and I do love shrimp.
Give it a try...

You're a Flamingo!

Pink is your favorite color! Always looking to shock others, you
are absurdly thin and absurdly outlandish in your tastes. People come from all
over to see you, but as long as you've got a swimming pool, you're pretty
satisfied wherever you end up. And boy, do you love shrimp! When you really get
going, you can sound like Forrest Gump talking about shrimp...


Take the Animal Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Oh, Huck!

You're Adventures of Huckleberry Finn!

by Mark Twain

With an affinity for floating down the river, you see things in black
and white. The world is strange and new to you and the more you learn about it, the less
it makes sense. You probably speak with an accent and others have a hard time
understanding you and an even harder time taking you seriously. Nevertheless, your
adventurous spirit is admirable. You really like straw hats.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

It's 7 a.m. Sunday and I just bravely took the book quiz that Odat kindly provided yesterday. I guess it's fitting that the result has a river theme, since we live in a Valley formed by two rivers.
And Mark Twain? Well I have visited his Victorian mansion in Hartford. And I've read a couple of his books.
And the world is indeed strange and new to me with the dawn of each new day.

Hobby? Blogging I guess

Empress Bee tagged me with this meme a few weeks back. I hesitated at first, but then today I decided to give it a whirl. ~ ~ ~
To borrow from Bee: "Be sure to follow these simple rules: Post a short article and include your photograph (or more if you want to) . If you already have a picture online somewhere, then get creative with a new one :) Next include the link to the others who have displayed their pictures, or even include their pictures in your post, adding a reference to it. So far, these are the brave ones :) ..."

Gayla at Mom Gadget
Char at Essential Keystrokes
Paul at Reflections
Rob at 2Dolphins
Zep at The In-Sect
Ingo at Stixster
Stevie at Lost In Cyberspace
The Paper Bull at (oddly enough) The Paper Bull
Lisa Sabin-Wilson at Just A Girl In The World
Dawud Miracle at dmiracle.com
Wendy Piersall at eMoms at Home
Dennis Bjorn Petersen at Petersen Inc.
Randa Clay at Randa Clay Design
Drew McLellan at The Marketing Minute
Becky McCray at Small Biz Survival
Phil Gerbyshak at Make it Great!
Steve Woodruff at StickyFigure
Dave Olson at Live the GREAT life that you desire
Greg at Become a Remote Control SEO
Ariane Benefit at Neat Living Blog
Genesis at the At Home Mom Blog
Armen at iFFECT.NET
Mihaela Lica at Online Public Relations
Tara at Graphic Design Blog
Doris Chua at Home Office Women
Edward Mills at Evolving Times
Tony D. Clark at Success from the Nest
Jonathan-C Phillips at SmartWealthyRich
Karen at A Deaf Mom Shares Her World
Lisa Gates at intrinsic life design
Rammel Firdaus at rammelfirdaus.com
Carol at Pentimento
Adam Kayce at Monk at Work
Thomas at Technical Blogger
Tammy Lenski at I Can't Say That!
Chris Brown at Branding & Marketing
Rory Sullivan at Hamelife
Derek Wong at Going The Wong Way
Embuck at embuck.com
Ms. Q at QMusings
Shelly Tucker at This Eclectic Life
Steve at Ramblings from the Marginalized
Troy Worman at on!blog
Lilith at Lilith’s Owl Nest
Revov at REVO-OVER
Karin at Stop/Start
Jamy at Seay's Kopitam
this is a miracle
Anything Goes!
Adrian of First Time Dad
Hui Sen of Brain Spillage
Seiche
Lis of About-every-little-thing
Diamond of Nonsense, fun, tears, happiness and anger all roled into one
A Nice Place In The Sun
Christy from Christys Coffee Break
Comedy Plus
Eat Your Maths
NoDirectOn(not:NoDirection)
Twisted Sister
Muffin53 dot com
Muffin53
Late Bloomer Boomer

We are supposed to include a photo. This is me last August playing mini-golf in downtown Hyannis. I know, that's cheating.




Title: Late Bloomer Boomer

Name: Patricia

Country: United States

Occupation: Journalist

E-Mail: yes

Birthday: Dec. 29

Favorite color: dark pink

Favorite drink: dark pink

Favorite fruit: apple

Favorite dessert: ice cream (sundaes if possible)

Hobbies: blogging


Whew! I did it.
Really don't know who to tag...feel free to take part.

When in doubt, use an email tidbit

A young man shopping in a supermarket noticed a little old lady following him around.
If he stopped, she stopped. Furthermore she kept staring at him.
She finally overtook him at the checkout. She turned to him and said , "I hope I haven't made you feel ill at ease; it's just that you look so much like my late son."
He answered, "That's okay."
"I know it's silly, but if you'd call out "Good bye, Mom" as I leave the store, it would make me feel so happy."
She continued on and went through checkout.
As she was on her way out of the store, The man called out, "Goodbye, Mom."
The little old lady waved, and smiled back at him.
Pleased that he had brought a little sunshine into someone's day, he went to pay for his groceries.
"That comes to $121.85," said the clerk.
"How come so much? I only bought 5 items!"
The clerk replied, "Yeah, but your mother said
you'd be paying for her things, too."

* Mystery flower *

I went on another five-minute photo shoot today in the side yard. This flower is a neighbor of the one (Rose of Sharon?) that I photographed and wrote about on July 31.

Can anyone identify it for me?
I have no clue what it is. I know I could look it up, but that would ruin the fun.

Thank you in advance.

For her royal blogness

Mimi, she of Bloggingham Palace fame, is the Queen of Memes, as we all know.
I snapped a picture of this memo cube that sits on my desk. It reminds me of Mimi and sums up her attitude in a nutshell, don't you think?

Now Mimi can be more than the Queen of Memes, she can also be the Queen of Memos.

I hope her highness isn't irritated by this. I would not want to go back into that dreary dungeon again.
Stay with me here, I realize it's a stretch. I'm just trying to be clever.

Did I hear a groan?

Mozzarella and me

I'm a lucky lady. Ralph likes to cook and create in the kitchen. He's doing so now, making an Italian-style salad with tomatoes and basil from our (tiny) garden.
He knew I was getting hungry, so he just rolled in here with a slice of salami wrapped around chunks of cow's milk mozzarella. I didn't even have to ask...

Ah, the simple things.

Slice of life

We had a fun get-together at our pastor's house yesterday. There were 33 of us, which is a lot for our congregation. Some folks were guests.
We met a woman who is a New York City native and she told us she used to read Shakespeare and Chaucer aloud to get rid of her accent. And she succeeded!
Ralph and I thought that was pretty cool.

In an unrelated development, Kid Two's geek skills are starting to pay off for him. This weekend he raked in $175 for working on computers. (Some was for past work.)
Our boy is earning money and building a reputation among friends and family. Today he will be making another house call.

Kid One is working another full day today, which is a good thing.

Picnicking with the pastor

Today we are going to a picnic after church hosted by our pastor at her house. Her husband will be doing the grill work.
Everybody will be contributing something. Ralph made chili for us to bring. (No, Odat, he didn't make it in the waffle maker.) :- )

There will be no consumption of alcoholic beverages, which is a good thing, because I tend to get a tad silly. It's iced tea for me.

If anything exciting happens while we are consuming burgers and potato salad and brownies and lemonade, I shall report it in due course.
Stay tuned.

Culinary tidbits

The other evening I attended a Coddled Cook (if you get my drift) party at a friend's house. It was the first one she ever hosted, and she did a great job. She is an artist and her air-conditioned backyard studio was an ideal location for the festivities.
My mother came with me. It was fun to get out and socialize.
The presenter created an almond-flavored pastry filled with whipped cream and sliced strawberries. With chopped nuts on top. Yum.

I ordered a black plastic thingamabobby for Homer. It's for when he cooks chili and spaghetti sauce and uses a frying pan to break up and brown ground beef or ground turkey, and all that sort of stuff.
Or I can even borrow it, if and when the culinary spirit moves me.
I also got him a jar of cracked peppercorn and garlic "rub." My mother bought him a bread knife. We have a bread maker and the new knife should be just the thing. Homer should enjoy his new toys, we hope.
I would have loved the steak knife set, but it was pricey. Oh well.

Sandwich struggle

I was concerned about my mental state Wednesday afternoon, after that car episode I had.

Now it's Friday afternoon and I just did another really dumb thing.
And my concern is growing.
I just made grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches (on 100% whole wheat bread) in the waffle maker.
Without meaning to.

When it smelled ready and I pulled up the lid, I was surprised to see the bread had all these little squares on it. Kinda waffle-ish.
Then the light bulb went *off* in my head. I couldn't believe I had used the wrong appliance.

Now I am really getting concerned about my mind. It apparently lives at someone else's house, it doesn't seem to be anywhere near here.

The sandwich maker I was supposed to use is pictured below.
Notice it's white; the waffle maker is black.
One would think I would be able to tell them apart.

But I guess that is a lot to ask of me this week.
Is it stress? Tiredness?

It may be a good thing that I am off from work today; I believe it may be time for an afternoon nap.

From the (e)mail bag, again

A woman went to a pet shop & immediately

Spotted a large, beautiful parrot..

There was a sign on the cage that said $50.

"Why so cheap?" she asked the pet store owner.

The owner looked at her and said,

"Look, I should tell you first that this bird used to live in a house of prostitution and sometimes it says some pretty vulgar stuff."

The woman thought about this, but decided

She had to have the bird any way.

She took it home and hung the bird's cage up

In her living room and waited for it to say something..

The bird looked around the room, then at her, and said,

"New house, new madam."

The woman was a bit shocked at the implication,

But then thought "that's really not so bad."

When her 2 teenage daughters returned from school

The bird saw and said,

"New house, new madam, new girls."

The girls and the woman were a bit offended

But then began to laugh about the situation

Considering how and where the parrot had been raised.

Moments later, the woman's husband Keith

Came home from work.

The bird looked at him and said,

"Hi, Keith!"

Tagged - and by an attorney no less

That curmudgeonly attorney from the Windy City tagged me with the 7 Ps meme, and I accepted.
Now to get to work. On the tag. Not on work. No way. Much better to avoid work...

To quote The Curmudgeon:
"The idea is this: You take these seven "P" words and sort of fill in the implied blanks about yourself."

Passion - I have passion. But do I have to tell people about it?

Purpose - What's the purpose of this meme?

Pursuit - Of happiness? All one can do is try.

Position - Low woman on totem pole.

Pummeling - I give myself one on a regular basis.

Progress - I do see some. It's all baby steps.

Personality - I've got one; really I do.

Now...who to tag. I pick three ladies I don't think will hate me when they read this: Lynn, Joan, and Ina.

This was fun!

I'm concerned

OK, this is serious. I am about to pose a question that I normally reserve for private time, at home in the bosom of my family.
Will any of you guys come visit me at the home? That nice, quiet place for which I apparently am headed?

I just went to the store to get me a notebook. Since I am working at home, I no longer have access to the "supply drawer" and I seem to have run out of reporter's notebooks.

I bought a notebook, walked out to my car and...(this is scary) I got into the passenger seat. I was all alone. I was in the wrong seat.

Waaaaaaah!

Not your father's 50-somethings...

...to paraphrase a line from an Oldsmobile commercial from awhile ago...at least Ralph and I hope we're not!
It's nifty to be fifty, right?

And we're late bloomers, so for us 50 is the new 40, as far as I'm concerned.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Phineas Taylor...what a guy!

There's nothing like going to a museum on a Sunday afternoon, even if the weather was beautiful this past Sunday and we "should" have been enjoying the great outdoors.
We went to The Barnum Museum not far from where we live in southern Connecticut. As you can see the exterior is beautiful.
We learned a few interesting things about Phineas Taylor Barnum, American showman extraordinaire.
He was born in Bethel, Ct. in 1810 and died in Bridgeport, Ct. in 1891.
Contrary to popular belief, historians say Barnum never said "there's a sucker born every minute," a phrase associated with him.
He is probably best known for promoting General Tom Thumb, a man who was only 3' 8" tall, and whose real name was Charles Sherwood Stratton and Jumbo the African elephant he bought from the London Zoo.
Barnum started The Greatest Show on Earth, which years later became Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus.
He even became mayor of Bridgeport in 1875.
I don't want to bore folks with any more history. But I do believe it's fun to get to know the history of your hometown or state. There's plenty of it to be found, and it's always fascinating to learn something new.

Class dismissed.

Just think

I think I need to think. And I have been avoiding the whole concept.
Thinking takes too much time, and too much thought, to be honest.

I need to think how best to maximize my skills to make more money.
And I need to think how best to market myself to make more.
And be happy in what I do to make money.

I think I need a thinking cap...

I remember meme, Mimi

I finally did this meme, and I hope Mimi, Queen of Memes, will forgive my tardiness and not throw me in the dungeon at Bloggingham Palace. Or force me to try on her pencil skirt, or play the piano, or sing opera.
I duly fear any of those fates, I daresay. Hell hath no fury like a Mimi scorned, I've heard.

LAYER 1 – On the Outside
Name: Patricia M. V.
Birth Date: Dec. 29, 1929
Current Status: Married
Eye Color: Blue/Green (depending on the lighting)
Hair Color: Brown, with stripes of gray

LAYER 2 – On the Inside
I am: German, Irish, Scottish, English, Norwegian
My Fear: Success
My weaknesses: buy one, get two free
My Perfect Pizza: Tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil (OK, I copied Ralph)

LAYER 3 – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
My thoughts first waking up : What day is it?
My bedtime : 10 p.m., or thereabouts
My most missed memory: home cooking

LAYER 4 - My Pick
Pepsi or coke : Coke, regular not diet
Single or group dates : Neither
Adidas or Nike : Adidas
Tea or Nestea : Tea
Chocolate or Vanilla : Heavenly Hash or Cookies 'n Cream
Cappuccino or Coffee : coffee, cream no sugar

LAYER 5 - Do You…
Smoke : Never
Curse : Does s-h-- count?
Take a shower : yes
Have a crush : the mailman (woops!)
Think you’ve been in love : I am, despite my crush (he's married)
Go to school : Not now
Want to get married : 21 years happily
Believe in yourself : Always
Think you’re a health freak : no

LAYER 6 - In the Past
Drank alcohol: college
Gone to the mall : Went to Sears to buy a coffee maker in June (copied Ralph here, too)
Been on stage : in kindergarten
Eaten sushi : yes
Dyed your hair: never

LAYER 7 - Have You Ever:
Played a stripping game: Jamais! (plagiarized again, I admit)
Changed who you were to fit in: No

LAYER 8 – Are You Hoping…
Get married: Am happily to aforementioned Ralph (Airhead 55)

LAYER 9 - In a Guy:
Best eye colour : icy blue
Best hair colour : brown with gray highlights coming through
Short hair or long hair : short and neat

LAYER 10 – What Were You Doing:
One minute ago: eating a grilled cheese sandwich
One Hour ago : leaving "The Simpsons" movie
Month ago : working I guess
Year ago : enjoying Cape Cod

LAYER 11 – Finish The Sentences:
I love : being home with family
I feel : anxious too much
I hate : mean people
I hide : chocolate
I miss : Ralph being able to walk
I need : to get a better paying job

I hope her highness the Queen of Memes will approve of my work.
Thank you for reading.
Tagging...
Odat
Sari

One way to spend a half hour

I just Simpsonized myself.

Presenting ->>> >>>>

Those are my cat's ears. I guess I should go back and fix the picture.

Note to self

Hi blogosphere friends,

Here is today's word to the wise:

Don't tell anyone you know in real life about your blog.
It can hurt when they don't read it.

Has anyone seen my halo?

I just completed a short quiz over at Odat's to determine just how evil I am. Here is the startling result:


How evil are you?

On Target

Yesterday I did a story at our shiny new Target. (Yay we now have a Tar-Jay!)
The big box was built on a remediated brownfield site and our Governor (that would be M. Jodi Rell for you non-Nutmeggers) came to town and ceremonially signed a law about brownfield site cleanups. The law had already gone into effect July 1.
And who can be opposed to cleaning up contaminated parcels of land? Not I.

It was probably 95 degrees in the noonday sun. And there were about 100 folks there to see the guv. I don't know how my blog friends in sunny climes like Southern California and Arizona stand all the heat. I can't.
Won't somebody please make it October?

Upper crust - not!

Pawlie had this on his blog and I just had to do it. Merci, PK.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Countess-Palatine Patricia the Loquacious of Leper St George Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Meme accomplished, sort of

I was one of the folks Empress Bee tagged with this meme last Thursday.
It's supposed to be "Ten lies my mother told me." I had a lot of trouble with this.
But she did tell me:

1) If you cross your eyes, they'll stay like that.
2) If you put your hair behind your ears, it will make your ears stick out.
3) If you watch TV in a dark room it will be bad for your eyes.
4) I heard Santa's reindeer up on the roof last night, didn't you?
5) I heard the Easter Bunny's big feet stomping around in the living room last night, didn't you?

That's all I could come up with right now...Guess she didn't lie to me much.
This exercise leaves me to wonder if my own two children could come up with 10 lies I've told them.
Eek.

I tag The Moose Buyer, (I call her Moosie) and Odat.

One talented cat

Watch Nora. She's adorable.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=04f3dee5-b12a-4c67-96a3-cdc2749fca47&f=06/64&fg=email

From the (e)mail bag

Just for giggles:

At the church's marriage seminar for husbands, the priest asked Luigi, who was about to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary, to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he managed to stay married to the same woman all these years.

Luigi replied to the audience "Well, I'v-a tried to treat-a her well, spend-a the money on her, but-a, da best-a is-a dat I took her to Italy for the 20th-a anniversary!

The Priest immediately commented, "Luigi, you are an amazinginspiration to all the husbands here! Please tell the audience what you are planning for your wife for your 50th
anniversary..."
Luigi proudly replied, "I'm-a gonna go and-a get her."

They're back ~

Our children are back from church camp. Yay!
Here they are today when they got back in the van, tired but happy.

Kid 2 had more fun because he wasn't working as one of nine counselors for 62 "energetic" middle school-age kids, as his sister was doing.

They are happy to be back in air-conditioning with their computers. And access to the refrigerator.
That makes them sound spoiled. But they aren't, really.

I've tried and tried

I'm not technically oriented. Or mechanically oriented. Heck, I'm not really oriented at all.
I cannot seem to get an image to go along with my comments. Homer got his lookin' good, but I cannot seem to get it right.

Even Kid 2 couldn't help. Can someone assist me?

Domestic crisis averted

Guess who prevailed?
(For reference see previous post)
I am writing this seated in a new, supportive desk chair.
And it was on clearance! The last one of this model at Staples! Already assembled!
We celebrated by spending a bit more money and getting some Chinese take-out.
You could say we are a wild and crazy couple.

Desk chair-itis

I still haven't gotten myself a desk chair. I don't want to spend the money right now, but I continue to have a pain in the neck, on and off...Complain, complain.

Homer wants to go shopping for one tonight. I don't feel like it.

Will this create discord in our happy home?