CLEAN SLATE

Question Of The Week 12-30-13

NOT SO QUIET

My sister and I model elegant scarves made by sil for our Christmas gifts.

Bil and my son do not want to be left out so they model scarves too.  Bil is Leo the Lion.

Exciting game of Chicken Foot with my sister as score keeper.  That is not right.

Smug look on my son's face as he believe himself to be the winner.  There is some debate as my sister was keeping score.

Who ever said you need a large crowd of people to have fun on Christmas Day.  We had the most wonderful time and lovely dinner at my sister and bil's home.  And believe me, four people can be as rowdy and twenty.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishes for a warm and happy holiday.

TWO ROADS DIVERGED

Question Of The Week 12-23-13

P.S. Be sure and visit the previous post HERE IS A CHALLENGE to visit the bloggers who took the selfie challenge.

HERE IS A CHALLENGE

Try taking a selfie of you and your pet/s.  Let me know in the comments that you have posted your efforts and I will link you on my blog.  Here are my disasters with Slim.

Her ears are spread in preparation for flight.

She cannot be this close to me without giving kisses.

Looks like this is the best we're gonna get.  We are both so much prettier than this:)

If you don't have any pets, let's see the inside of your refrigerator.  You can tell I'm not preparing any Christmas dinner.  Are you?

I just noticed that the bottom row of my refrigerator door is full of salad dressings but my vegetable bin is empty.  lol

WHO TOOK THE CHALLENGE?
(Be sure to visit this brave soul.)
1.) Aunt Betsy of Betsy A Baby Boomer 
(She did amend the challenge a bit, but that's okay, she also added a bonus picture you won't want to miss). 
THEN THERE WERE TWO!
(Visit this brave soul as well.)
2.) Olga of Confessions of a Grandma
(She also amended the challenge.  Look how tidy her refrigerator is.  And isn't she cute in her glasses?) 
WHAT? ANOTHER GOOD SPORT?
(Be sure and visit here to applaud this blogger.)
3.) heartinhand of Heart in Hand
(It is a tale of a frosty walk. You gotta love her.) 

COLLECTING FEELINGS

Question Of The Week 12-16-13

THE CANDY MAN WOULD

Our courtship was perfect.  Filled with flowers, jewelry, cards, and candy.  Always candy. 

As the years went by, the other gifts may have fallen by the wayside but never the candy 

because we both had a passion for chocolate.  It was the gift we could give each other on 

any occasion and know it would be hit. 

 
We both loved the kind of boxed chocolates that came with a map showing what was where.  

Ron could easily grab all the coconut pieces without guilt because I could not eat them.  He would 

relinquish the orange filled ones to me because they were my favorites.  We would try to equally divide

the ones filled with nuts and if there was an odd one, he would always leave it for me to have. Cream 

filled were a toss up but Ron would always leave that last piece for me (well almost always).  

Ron was a “feed the troops first” person.  He never took the last of anything.  He always made sure 

everyone had a full plate before he even considered taking a bite for himself, until it came to chocolate. 

That was a different story.   If I got in the car and went outside the boundaries of our property and 

there was one lonely piece of candy left in the box, it would be gone when I returned home.  “Well you

left it here” he would say with a grin, as if that meant I had left it for him. 

Who can take a sunrise 
Sprinkle it with dew
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two 
The Candy Man 
Oh, the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 
'Cause he mixes it with love 
And makes the world taste good  

I won't feel too bad eating all of these because they have my name on them:)

SHALL I STAY OR SHALL I GO

Question Of The Week 12-9-13

Will you continue 

blogging to the end of the year 

or are you 

planning to take

a break?

Have you noticed that a few of our blog buddies are already falling by the wayside until 2014?  It is reasonable for them to do so in order to make time for all their end of the year projects.  Often I find myself considering this choice.  Are you thinking about it?  If you take a break, will you tell us you are going? Will you still read and comment if you stop posting a blog entry?  As friends take a break, will you look for some new blog friends to add to your reading lists?

NO DASHING

Out of the house to feed and water the critters.

Headed back inside.  Slim is ahead of me in both pictures.

View of barn in the snow.  Looks like we don't have a driveway.

Monitor view from all four cameras at once.  Barn, front porch, den door and back of house.

You can tell this old gal isn't going to be dashing through the snow this year.  My Cagney & Lacy surveillance team keeps a close eye on things in the snow covered NOL-NOC Estates with all four cameras.  Still shots from video aren't very good but you can get an idea of what we have in this part of Oklahoma.
  
Ron did not like the cold and snow but he would have been out there plowing a path for me anyway. He would clear our driveway and my walking paths to the barn then get back into the warmth as quickly as possible.  When we lived in Kansas he also would take his tractor up to the church and clear the parking lot and sidewalks.

It is a good thing I don't need to go anywhere and I don't need anything from the store.  Slim and  I will ride out the storm in the warmth of our cozy home, only venturing out to tend to the outdoor family.

IT'S RAINING MEN

Snaggle Tooth posted an interesting fellow on her blog and inspired me for my post.  Perhaps I can arrange to add her guy to my collection. The fellow pictured with me below is Dexter.  My sister, (worried that I would never remarry after being single 21 years) gave him to me for my 50th birthday.  We had to hide him because he terrified my grandson Dillon who was a toddler at the time.  Thankfully Ron came along a couple of years later and saved me and Dillon from Dexter.

Dexter and Granny Annie

Then, of course, you might also remember Vincent who stands guard around here.

If I can get that Postal guy then I'll have no shortage of men around the place to look out for me.  Maybe ST's guy can teach my rural postal carrier, Crazy Dave, a thing a two about delivering the mail.

US CELLULAR COMPLAINT again...

You might remember this post. Well, matters have only gotten worse.  This week I received a letter stating another account number has been established for me. I now have THREE accounts with US Cellular.  Today I went ahead and filed an informal complaint with the FCC and will follow up with a formal complaint after submitting copies of all the correspondence, etc.  Here is the summary of the complaint.

8-9-13 I changed to single account due to death of my spouse on 7-1-13. Multiple attempts to handle a simple issue have led to creation of three accounts at US Cellular dealing in-person with 8 reps, on phone with different rep each time (at least 8) and through email with various reps only to resolve one issue while then creating a new issue. Each representative seems eager and friendly and wanting to help but after assuring me they have the matters resolved, it turns out they do not and I can never reach that same person again. I would call it a comedy of errors but it has become too painful. I now have three different account numbers with US Cellular and only one phone. The three accounts have two with credit balances and one with a balance due.  

I am closing this to comments because everyone saw this before.  It is primarily to make US Cellular even more aware of my anger and anxiety in case they see it. The original post is still open to comments.

CAN'T TRUST THIS DAY

Question Of The Week 12-2-13

I need to change my powers of concentration.  Am I really just now posting my Question Of The week and it is after 1PM on Monday?  Yikes!