Fixed

Yesterday was one of those days we have at least once a year when we get minor maintenance done on the motorhome. This time it was small stuff mostly. I say mostly because our satellite quit working a couple of months ago and that is fairly major for Butch. I called Direct TV and had our service put on hold and yesterday it was repaired and service reinstated. Butch is like a kid with a new toy. We also had the wind sensor on our awning replaced...again. A window shade and the shower door fixed. We are good to go and will be doing so on Friday. We are headed for Granbury TX to visit with Snow Mountain Ranch friends, Mike and Sharon Bryce before heading on further south.

Retro

Anyone want a retro stove or refrig? The stove is a Tappan and in good working order. It doesn't show much wear. I was amazed at how spotless it was. It has been kept up very nicely. They are 1953 vintage. The fridge,a General Electric has some mildew around the door but could be easily cleaned up. Works well too.
These items belong to Susan's mother and were purchased new when she bought the house in 1953. There are people who are into the retro looks so I thought I would give you a chance to see them. If interested at all you can email me and I will pass the info on to Susan.
Last Sunday Butch and I traveled northward in the car to meet up with Gary and Susan. Main purpose was to get Susan's mothers house winterized. It did not sell on the auction. The house is winterized. And we had breakfast with granddaughter Amanda and her husband Brad as well.

Maple Leaf Festival Parade

http://picasaweb.google.com/keep.movin.on/MapleLeafFestivalParade#

A rare day

Haven't stepped foot outdoors. That is a rare day. It was raining hard this morning and kept up off and on most of the day so we have spent the day indoors. Yeah, the usual. Butch is playing spider solitaire on his computer. I am finishing up a Swedish weaving project. We got a nap in and watched the DOW drop another 700+ points...you know, ...the usual.

Monkeys anyone?

A friend sent this and I thought it explained things pretty well.

Economics 101

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all of their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Whatcha doin?

Oh not much...My morning routine is to make coffee then fire up this old computer. First I go to my home page which happens to be iGoogle. I have it set up for various things like the weather in various locations and different news feeds. I have a ToDo list on it, a dictionary and travel direction finder. There are all kinds of gadgets that can be added. If one of the headlines grabs my attention I may click on it but most of the time I pass on the negativity. Even more so of late. Then I check the Atlantic News Telegraph. When you live in an area for twenty years the ties bind at least a little. Then I check the Des Moines Register.
After that it is time to check email. In there will be messages from friends that I answer first unless I do not know the answer and then it may wait till I find out. I subscribe to several newsletters that come on various days. There are a couple of techie ones with computer info, a few Swedish weaving ones and RVTravel.com and I am sure there are ones that are not coming to mind right off.
Of course then it is time to do the puzzle. www.jigzone.com Butch and I have competed on this for years. Sometimes he wins and sometimes I do. It seems to go in streaks. We have signed up for the daily puzzle to arrive in email everyday and we always do the 48 piece classic.
And then I might put something on the blog and that is easier if we have been busy. Right now we are not and thus the ramblings.
After Butch gets up and we have a bite to eat we will get our walk in.

Economy

Yes it is a mess. A greed generated mess. And there may be a few of us who do not think it affects us and I may have been one of those. After all we did and do have our ducks in a row. We are in Carthage MO and the nice Mountain Aire MoHo sitting next to us contains a couple who retired in April, still have a stick built house but spend several months a year in their motorhome. They are not hurting financially. They went to Sears in Joplin to buy a small shop vac. $113. Decided to write a check for it. The check was not accepted. Sears has a company that assesses the likelyhood of a check being okay. They called the company and they said it was a numbers thing and to try another check. It didn't work either! They said a check is NOT guarantee of payment. After all your bank may not be able to honor it! They ended up using a credit card. But this incident bodes the way of the future. This mess will affect ALL of us.

A Moving Day

We are moving today from Peculiar MO to Carthage MO. Only 129 miles but all of it is south! We will have to fill up with fuel today too but we are grateful for the drop in prices. Last I checked the Flying J was selling diesel for $3.619. That is the lowest we have seen since last fall. It is always a crap shoot when we fill up. Should we put in a small amount because it may drop further? Or maybe there is a better price down the road? Bottom line is we do not like to travel with one eye on the fuel gauge. It just isn't a comfortable feeling. We do check fuel prices ahead of us as we travel using these two sites mostly. With the MSN site you need to know the zipcode of the city but that is easily googled.

Gas Prices MSN Auto:
http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx

Flying J

http://www.flyingj.com/flyingjPortalWebProject/flyingjPortal.portal

Leaf Collage

All these leaves were real when I started. I photoed and fiddled, cropped, copied and pasted. This is the result!

Icy!?!

I needed to go the grocery store this morning to get some things to put in the crockpot for supper. Butch turned on the windshield wipers to clear the windshield of what appeared to be moisture...it was ICE. He had to get out with a trusty credit card, the only thing they are good for, and scrape off the ice before we could proceed. I was not expecting temps so low so my rescue plant from Snow Mountain Ranch may be frosted. Time will tell. And it tells us it IS time to head for parts further south.

In Missouri

We travelled to Missouri on Friday and we are parked in Peculiar. I had called for a reservation and they were still full! It was merely luck that they had a spot for us. We will be leaving next Friday for Carthage and we have called ahead there too. Anyone wanting to get into the RV Park business should have an easy time of it. Especially around the perimeter of Kansas City.
The kids are tied up with the auction today in Savannah MO. Looks like it will be a good day for it and we hope people are a bit more relaxed and ready to spend a bit of their money for some really good stuff.
I stayed with Susan's mother, Eloise last night and Butch went back to the MoHo and stayed with Angel. This morning I went to check my mail on the kids computer and all of a sudden it disappeared and then it dawned on me that Butch had brought in my mail on that computer!! Oh well, always time for that later.
Better get my walk in .... more talk later

Coffee Mug Cake

This one has been floating around the Internet for awhile but I just received it yesterday. But I thought perhaps some of you were like me and had not seen it yet.


5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

1 Coffee Mug
4 tablespoons flour (that's plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) some nuts (optional)
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well . Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT!
(this can serve 2 if you want to share!)

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake
at any time of the day or night!

Keri tried it.

Keri tried this recipe and declared it a winner. It looks as though it could be one of those standby quickies to have on-hand.

One-Pot Salsa Beef Skillet

Prep Time:
5 min

Total Time:
27 min

Makes:
4 servings

What You Need

1 lb. lean ground beef

2 cups water

1 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1 pkg. (14 oz.) KRAFT Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese Dinner

2 cups frozen corn

1/2 cup KRAFT Mexican Style Shredded Cheese

1 green onion, chopped

Make It

BROWN meat in large skillet; drain. Return to skillet.

ADD water, salsa and Macaroni; stir. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover. Simmer 10 min. or until macaroni is tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in corn and Cheese Sauce; cook 2 min. or until heated through.

TOP with shredded cheese and onions.

RecipeDetail

Colleen's House

Colleen is an artist and also my friend. Colleen's sister, Denise and I were classmates and we are friends too. A few years ago Colleen and her husband Jim and Butch and I got together partially because they were full timers for a few years and Jim shared a love of golf with Butch. And you know how sometimes you just click with someone?- well, Colleen and I clicked. Since that first meeting, Jim became ill and has passed. Just this past summer. So my friend Colleen is tangling with all the pain of that. Fortunately she has an abundance of friends to help her and I consider myself lucky to be among them.
I have admired Colleen's house from the first time I saw it. Some people have a special flare in making a space all their own. So the pictures in this album are a very small part of what she has done. All the art work is hers. This album is primarily of her bathroom and kitchen floors. She placed and painted her artwork on the floor then coated it with resin.

Flu shots and other stuff

Butch and I went to get our flu shots today. Yes, folks it is that time of year again.

Years ago we Jefferson school kids were fed Hamburger and Green Beans. Some of us remember it fondly and others not so fondly but the Brooker family were in the fondly category. Perhaps in part because Grandma Hansen who lived across the road from the Brookers was the school cook. She was able to inform Butch's mother how to make it. It is really quite simple but the prep has to be right or it is not the same. Leo wanted a blast from the past so the menu for tonight was Hamburger and Green Beans and those of us who are fans of the dish enjoyed it very much. It has been a standby quick meal in our house for lo these many years. I will try to impart the recipe here but a word of warning, this dish isn't going to win any beauty contests...tasty though.

Hamburger and Green Beans
1 lb Hamburger, crumbled and browned
1-2 cans green beans, drained
2 T flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup milk

Drain grease from hamburger leaving a tablespoon or two. Sprinkle flour over hamburger and stir, add green beans and stir. Add milk and stir till it is all heated through. The sauce on this is not like gravy. It is barely noticeable as a sauce.
Enjoy!! or not!

Just another sunrise

They are all thee most beautiful!

Butch takes it up

Often times in between the busy times at Snow mountain Ranch or Magnolia Park Butch will find himself at odds for something to do. He would rather play golf of course but sometimes it just doesn't work out. He had such a day yesterday so I suggested he start a small Swedish weaving project. There is nothing sexist about it. There isn't a law that you have to be female to enjoy it. So he started a project yesterday and judging from the time he spent on it he may get it finished someday. One of the amazing things about it is that in doing a project most of us do half of it then turn our work over to do the other half. Me, being right handed, start in the middle and work toward the left side. Then I turn my work upside down and do the same. Butch changes hands!! He uses his right hand to do one half then instead of turning it over he switches the needle to the left hand to do the other half! I knew he had some ambidexterity because he deals cards left handed but I had no idea it was that deeply ingrained. Imagine being married for nearly 50 years and not knowing that about him. It shows there is always something new to learn about people.

Spaghetti Squash

I have been enjoying spaghetti squash lately and thought you might like some too.

Spaghetti Squash

Also called vegetable spaghetti, this creamy-yellow, watermelon-shaped winter squash was so named because of its flesh, which, when cooked, separates into yellow-gold spaghettilike strands. Averaging from 4 to 8 pounds, spaghetti squash are available year-round with a peak season from early fall through winter. Choose squash that are hard and smooth with an even pale yellow color. Avoid greenish squash (a sign of immaturity) and those with bruised or damaged spots. Store uncut spaghetti squash at room temperature for up to three weeks. After the whole squash is baked, the rather bland-tasting strands can be removed from the shell and served with sauce, like pasta. They can also be served as part of a casserole or cold as a salad ingredient.

Spaghetti Squash Baked Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Style Spinach and Spaghetti Squash Quiche

New Table Cover

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My latest Swedish Weaving project. This one was fun, easy and quick. It is yellow monk's cloth with country blue yarn in the Victorian lace pattern