ASTI, go watch MM’s and my video on Facebook. I am anxious to see if we sound like you thought.

Hot fresh donuts! Yum.

LadyHawke – what are you talking about? You have the “Smokey Mountains” a few short hours away. Don’t you??
I woud love to live near those mountains. :(

Ironsos – I saw that too. Hot fresh donuts. Yummy. I’m a bakers daughter and when I was little I loved eating the bread fresh out of the oven. Warm and delicious.

Although donuts are not baked unfortunately. That are fried in oil. :(

They
Ugh!

MM, those mountains are about 8.5 to 10.5 hours away, depending on the amount of traffic through Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. So, that is no good for a day excursion with my daughter. You have to go prepared to stay two nights out on the road and that gives you one day between two days on the road. That is still a long way for only one day so you really need four days at a minimum. I know your husband will drive through the night but I won’t do that. I want daylight hours to drive both ways.

I seem to have slept off and on today. I only made it thru about half of the Rose Parade. I watched the other half on the repeat performance. After I woke up enough I started watching the Christmas shows I had recorded but didn;t get to watch. So between sleeping most of the evening yesterday and all day today, I have really made up sleeping time. It could be because the house is so warm. The furnace has not been working so I only had one heater. Yesterday I bought another one just like the one I had. With one at each end of the room, it is nice and snug.

I should be fine now until I get it fixed. My daughter and granddaughter have gone to stay with their friends because it was too cool in the house. I need to get my fireplace hooked up to gas. I have not run it because I have not had the lines checked. When people were breaking into my house, they also cut the copper lines that were exposed outside and stole the fittings and gas line. Maybe after getting my eyes fixed, I will do the things that need doing. I sort of stopped because I couldn’t see good enough.

COOLG, what time do you have the surgery tomorrow? Who is driving you? Will someone stay and help you with the eyedrops?

Gaaaaaacckk!

We finally gave in and got smart phones today. I cannot make the Kindle app connect!! It keeps trying to make me have a gmail account. I don’t want a gmail account, I already have 3 email accounts plus the one at work. The phone is made by Motorola and I can’t understand the (very scant) instructions for it. ;)

DEANIE, none of these very complicated new phones or tablets have anything approaching directions much less comprehensive ones. You have to hunt and peck and find someone with the same phone and go back to the shop and pick people’s brains. I can’t understand why it is beyond technical writers to be able to provide a basic set of directions for each new set of software upgrade they have. I understand as quickly as the software upgrades they can’t necessarily provide the current instructions in the box with each phone but there should be current instructions for each software upgrade available online.

Lady Hawke My daughter Jen is taking me to get my eyes done. I don’t need anyone to put the eye drops in my eyes. I can not see to put the drops in my eyes now. I do them by feel. I find the bottom of my eye with the dropper, then I move it up just a little and the drops hit my eyes correctly. I barely have nay run out of my eye. I have already put them in my eyes this morning. I will put them in again around 8 and then noon. I have my eyes done around 1PM today.

COOLG, I hope it goes well and you get good results quickly.

This is my daughter’s last day out of school. She will want to go do something. I am glad she is still home with me but for the last four or five days she has been frantic to make the most of her last days out of school. I’m ready to do nothing.

MM, I looked at the directions on Google Maps. We are two hours closer to the mountains than you are. They estimate it takes seven hours for us to get there but that does not take into account food and toilet stops. For you the estimate was nine hours, not taking into account food and toilets. Of course, they are not taking into consideration the bumper to bumper drive through, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg which can add an extra one to two hours.

I am also sick of food. I wish I could convince everyone to live off cheese, fruit, crackers or fend for themselves for a few days. I’m not even excited about eating. I have enormous amounts of food in my refrigerator I need to put in the freezer. We will never get through it before I need to throw it out. I cooked new food because it didn’t feel festive to eat leftovers on New Years Eve and New Years Day. There is too much to throw away and too much to eat in the next day. So, I have to pack it away and freeze it.

Lady Hawke I liked your phrase “I am ready to do nothing”. I seem to undergo my own personal solstice at this time of the year. I am perfectly willing to sit around, eating leftovers and generally doing very little other than while away the dark days in non-constructive ways. I am about to investigate the contents of the fridge and pantry to put together something that resembles a meal. If it had been a sunny day a trip to our local town would have included checking out the flooding river, the result of persistent rain in Wales. There might be pictures on our local news this evening.

CoolG You won’t be able to read this but I have been thinking about you and sending healing energy in your direction. I trust that everything will go smoothly and that you will enjoy much improved vision .

Cool G – I am sending you my prayers and good wishes for a quick recovery fom your surgery.

LadyHawke – I guess I always felt you were close to the mountains and you went there often. I love those mountains.

I also wish people could survive off cold cereal. Today I made French toast and coffee for breakfast. Simple to make and all I did was add banana and strawberries as a garnish. We are vegetating the rest of the day.

Yesterday my daughter took me to the casino. My favorite place!! We ate dinner in the casino buffet. The buffet is so decadent. I love that place.

Cool G: Hope the Surgery goes as well for you as it did for me.

Good evening!

We have survived the first day back in the post-Christmas world.

CoolG, I am thinking of you, and hoping to hear asap that all has gone very well. I do hope you notice a huge improvement! xxx

Lurking like a Lushtastic Lush

I think it would take us about 7 hours to get to the Smokies. We are about 5 hours from Knoxville plus another 2 hours to get to the mountains. It might not take 2 hours now that they have newer roads. You no longer have to go thru Knoxville but can take the interstate. Maybe I should google it instead of thinking about how long it took us to get there last fall.

I guess I should get dressed now. I don’t know when my daughter is coming for me. Probably around noon. I am sure I will have to rest in between doing things to get ready.

Well I am back. It was not toobad. I can see a lot better. I go next week to get the other eye done. I am ready to take a nap.

Cool G: Glad to see you noticed the difference quickly.

Going to be nippy the next couple nights. Low around 8F (-13.3C).

Deanie, with android os you have to get a gmail address. Son has a razr and he says you need to do that to access hook ups, coordinate for your kindle stuff, etc.

ironsos, my deck now serves as a refrigerator for the overflow of food cooked during the holidays. I have to put them in a cooler and close it because they freeze, even during the day with the sun out. Not a big fan of such icy cold weather. I am postponing all outside activities including food shopping. Only exception is when I have to rush into the car to get the kids from school.

_{le flurk}

Deanie, yup you have to get the G Mail account… The good news is you won’t be unhappy with it. I didn’t want one either… Truth be known it is now my favorite of all my email accounts. Lots of features, and well designed (very user friendly)…

MM, we had lunch at the casino buffet today. They had a chocolate fountain and fudge topped with chocolate covered cherries. There was also this ball about the size of a tangerine covered in chocolate sprinkles. Inside it had a soft chocolate mousse that tasted as if it had whiskey in it.

COOLG, I’m glad you can see a big improvement already.

MM, My daughter and I wish we were close enough to the mountains to go all the time but the truth is years have passed between my visits, sometimes a decade. The thing although you are further north than we are you are also further east so you are closer to the mountains compared to us than you would have thought.

Cool G – I’m so glad your surgery was good. I’m glad you saw an improvement. :)

My daughter wants to go to the casino on Friday again. Yay for me!

I often use the great outdoors as a refrigerator in the winter. Especially for soda or beer when we have a party. :)

Back twenty years ago I could use the picnic table on the backporch as a refrigerator or freezer. It is not reliable anymore or even possible most of the time.

Back twenty years ago I could use the picnic table on the backporch as a refrigerator or freezer. It is not reliable anymore or even possible most of the time.

Hi DR. LEW, have you recovered from your snowy drive back from home?

ASTI, I had you on my mind today.