Final result

 Butch tested this morning and he is NEGATIVE! Yippee. I thought about making the header "I am positive...that Butch is negative." But then I thought I had better not because it may confuse someone.

We are free to resume our regular routine and it feels like it has been a long time coming.

So today we will go shopping, pick up a prescription at the pharmacy, and stop into the DonWes Flea Market. I need a glass nail file because I seem to have misplaced the one I have. I still have it; I just do not know where it is! I also want to pick up some new sunglasses. Mine are starting to show some wear. I know I have had them over 5 years; perhaps closer to ten years, because we were still in Magnolia Park when I purchased them.

So now it is time to resume the mundane and we are excited about it!

Twiddling my thumbs!

 Not much to write about when we are in quarantine. Butch is doing very well. Once again doing chores and wishing he could be cut loose. He plans to test again tomorrow to see what the verdict is then. Hopefully, we can return to life as we know it. In the meantime...

I ran across this post on Facebook and enjoyed it. You might too!

Heavens to Mergatroyd!

The other day a not-so-elderly (I say 75) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy; and he looked at her and said, "What the heck is a Jalopy?" He had never heard of the word jalopy! She knew she was old ...But not that old.

Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory when you read this and chuckle.

About a month ago, I illuminated some old expressions that have become obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology.

These phrases included: Don't touch that dial; Carbon copy; You sound like a broken record; and Hung out to dry.

Back in the olden days, we had a lot of moxie . We'd put on our best bib and tucker, to straighten up and fly right.

Heavens to Betsy!

Gee whillikers!

Jumping Jehoshaphat!

Holy Moley!

We were in like Flynn  and living the life of Riley ; and even a regular guy couldn't accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop, or a pill. Not for all the tea in China!

Back in the olden days, life used to be swell, but when was the last time anything was swell? Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys, and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes, and pedal pushers.

Oh, my aching back! Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" Or, "This is a fine kettle of fish!"

We discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed omnipresent, as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards.

Poof, go the words of our youth. Where have all those great phrases gone?

Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! It's your nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee-high to a grasshopper.

Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Wake up and smell the roses.

It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills.

This can be disturbing stuff! (Carter's Little Liver Pills are gone too!)

This leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth.

See ya later, alligator! After a while crocodile. Oki-Doki artichokey!

Health report

 Butch is on the mend. He has slept a lot and that is good. He no longer has coughing and hocking fits, or at least they are not frequent. The next hurdle will be to test negative. We are still not sure when to test next. Saturday will be day 5. By then he will be getting antsy. Actually, he is already antsy. I think it is just a part of him.😀

I am still not having any symptoms. 

What he thought...

 Butch woke up with a bad cold. He said he had to sleep in the recliner because if he laid down flat he would choke on the stuff. So I told him he really needed to test to make sure if it was or wasn't just a bad cold. The verdict was covid; I tested too and my test was negative. Yes, we could have "faked it" as I suspect some people have done. I suppose it could even be rampant because there are lots of sick people in all the parks. It is starting to look like a super spread.

So I am sure he will get better and life will resume as normal; it seems that this virus will hang around for a decade or two. I will continue what I can to keep it at bay.

On the brighter side, I finally got a morning walk in after several days of rain and cold temperatures. It is finally warming up; close to 80's today. 

Till next time...

Repair

 I had to do some repair on the Magnolia blog entry. It has been fixed now so you should be able to see the video. Sorry about that!

Magnolia Blog

 I started and kept a blog( https://magnolianews.blogspot.com/) about Magnolia the many years we were there. In the later years, Deon would help me because keeping 2 blogs going while still having a life can be a challenge. This morning I saw a blog entry on the Magnolia blog from Deon and after reading it I wandered down to the bottom of the page and the list of years and all the entries caught my eye and I picked one at random. This one is from 2010 and the first entry to greet me was a youtube video   https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxFt_vnMHTRqami46PoGHtEJpCkl6aFQhu?si=UnAGZEEM19M-v_3L 

I thought our Minnesota friends would enjoy it despite the fact Iowa is getting blasted with snow more than Minnesota these days. 

If you would like to see some Magnolia entries from years past, while visiting the Magnolia blog site, scroll to the bottom of the page and a list of years appears on the right, pick one and see what pops up.

Trivia!

North or South it is trivia. Tuesday night in Texas and Thursday night in Iowa. No, I am not blind in my left eye. It just looks that way in the photo.

My winter coat is on the back of my chair and I kept my headband on so I didn't have to redo it at the end of the evening. It was a cold ride home on the golf cart! We had a new record for attendance with eight teams. 

Overscheduled

 You are hearing from a woman who likes her downtime. I am a basic introvert. It takes a long time for me to get lonely. I enjoy my own company. My crafts have taken a back seat while there has been more emphasis on Trivia and Pool(billiards). Photography has also slipped down a ways. I enjoy reading as well and still get some. And we backed up two or three decades this week and returned to square dancing! So it has been an active week. Butch adjusts to the go-go-go much better than I do. I slept in today until nearly 8:00 am!

L to R-Butch, Barb, Caller Ron, his wife, and Mary & Dave Bruun

Yesterday, Butch and his partner Paul Kelleher played at Fast Eddy's in the Golden Age Olympic doubles pool tournament. They won it last year but failed to repeat the feat this year. There were some rule changes, and new 7 ft. pool tables whereby they played on 8 ft ones last year, as well as perhaps just being off their game. Hey, it happens.

There were several other Trophy players in the tournament but none could take home a medal. And the trophy players are tough competition as any of their opponents will attest to.

Arriving at Fast Eddy's-Butch Brooker

Claudette Hogensen

Deb Thompson

Jeff Golly

Paul Kelleher

Butch Brooker

Alex Stinson

Bob Evens

Where do I begin?

 Sunday Pool...My partner was Kinley Poulsen and we won 7 games of the 10 we played. I think we came in first but I have not seen the official tally yet. Butch and his partner won 6.

Monday I had a dermatology appointment and I saw a different doctor this time. Dr Gonzales took one look at me and said, "You have burned your face!!" "Why did you do that?" I said I thought I was following directions. She said, "No, because you have used way too much!" So I am on a completely different regimen and have to return in a week. I can tell it is much better already.

And then at noon, we went to Alamo Palms with neighbors Dean and Diane R. to a square dance lesson. Yes, you read that right. We haven't square danced for 20 years and we decided to see if we had lost it all or at least tabulate how much. It seems you can go 20 years and still do it!  Oh, we are very rusty but it is coming back. We plan to attend a dance tomorrow night and see how it goes.

I had to get back by 3:00 for a pool hall board meeting. That went smoothly. Paul Kelleher is our Pres. and he is doing a great job. Paul is also Butch's pool partner.

We have a singer/songwriter in our park. He is also Pastor Randy Parks. Randy had helped another neighbor of ours, Gail Feild to write a song. She debuted her song with Randy's help at happy hour! Randy shared a few of his songs and how they came about. Our happy hours are always fun, informative, and entertaining. We hate to miss any of them.

Way too much got crammed into one day and I thank God that doesn't happen all that often. If it did, I would crash and burn more than my face!

Some random photos.

Do you wonder where all the scrap metal goes? A fair amount of it is in South Texas. This metal is not too far from us. 

Sunrise (7:00 am) a week or more ago.

Our neighbor Gail decided to spruce up this very faded fire hydrant. It has its color back! Gail is a woman of many talents.

It happened

 Last night it finally happened. I beat Butch at Pool. Straight up. No special rules. I think he let his guard down a bit too much. It will take more wins to seal the deal and I plan to keep plugging away. I may never be on equal footing but I do plan to give him a challenge worth paying attention to.😁

Caught My Eye

Easy Danish Pastry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XxwjiK6QYw&t=486sIngredients for easy cheese Danish pastries

1 package (12 rolls) of King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

1/2 cup melted butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 egg, beaten

Watch the video for a full demo of how it is done, but here are the basic steps to making easy cheese Danish:

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and place the rolls in.

Next, take a serrated knife and cut a small square in the top of the rolls, about halfway down through the roll.

Mix together the melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Use a pastry brush to brush the surface of the rolls, including the cutout part.

Cream together cream cheese and sugar. Beat in egg. You can use a fork for all of this—no need for an electric mixer.

Pour the cream cheese filling into the cutout holes in the rolls, filling them all the way to the top.

Bake at 375 F for about 12-15 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

I may try this in a weak moment. If you try it let me know what you think.

Barb B.

Life today

 as we know it. The park is filling up big time! Everywhere I look it seems there is someone I do not know and they look so young! I have reached a point where trying to learn their names is pointless because unless they happen to be a part of my everyday life their name is not likely to stick. Note to young people: You know that look of fear in their old,wrinkly eyes when you approach the oldest among us? Trust me, it is because they cannot begin to guess your name and they feel as though they should. You might even look like a grandchild and that complicates it even further. Take pity and work it into the conversation and note the look of relief that washes over them.

Parrots: When we were members of Magnolia Park (close to Don-Wes Flea market) from 2003 to 2018. The wild parrots flew over us twice a day. As a result, I have many wonderful parrot pics. This parrot was directly across the street from our RV and with a good lens on top of being close I was able to get a good shot.

Birds on a wire...and they happen to be parrots!

 And Deon, formerly of Magnolia Park and now Trails End has moved from one good birding spot to another and recently captured some high-quality parrot pics right in her own backyard.

Looks like they are having a domestic conversation.

They pair for life and if you see a loner it most likely lost its mate. They also travel in pairs and are very noisy. The noise is when I would grab my camera and hope they landed in the trees. It is one of the things I miss the most.

Trivia is going well. We consistently have 5 teams of 6 to 8 people. The busier we get the harder it is to keep up with the questions. It does help that I have saved so many over the years. They are a fine bunch of people and we haven't had to break up a fight yet.

I am so tired now from searching for pics, I think I will take a nap. Enjoy!

Sunday Pairs Event

 This was the Sunday that we played pool with whoever we signed up with and we had a full rack of players, 12 teams. That means we all played 11 games. I heard from a few that they would like that to be the format for more than one time in a month. Maybe...We will see. Isn't that what your Mom always said?

The winners were Barb and Butch Brooker with 9 wins. Sally and Paul Kelleher were second winning 8 games. And new Sunday players and new to our park this season,  Diane Justice and Jeff Utter won third place with 7 wins.

See you next Sunday for mixed doubles play. If you sign up, show up. And if you have an issue come up, scratch your name off the schedule. Thank you all for coming to play. The more the merrier!

Barb Brooker

Happy New Year

Best Wishes Always!!

Loss

Our daughter-in-law Laura lost her father Paul Hike SR this past week. He was in a lot of pain at the time of his passing so now he can rest. All of us who have lost a parent know the stress of it. And our thoughts are with her.

Tasty Beef Bumps

My friend Mickey puts some very delicious-sounding recipes on Facebook. And I might add she is a very good cook. It's in her genes! The problem with many very good recipes on Facebook is that they are in a video format. Have you ever tried to follow and make a video recipe? I have a soft spot for beef and cabbage recipes and there was one that looked very promising so I jumped on board. First of all I searched the internet for a printed version to no avail. And I suppose now someone will send it to me.😏

I watched the video numerous times and here is my journey. 

Rough Draft

Cleaned up version

My saved version

 And if you have made it this far and have an interest here is the one you can copy and paste!

Tasty Beef and Cabbage Bumps 12/29/2023

1# ground beef

½ small cabbage, shredded

1 small onion, chopped

1 egg

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp Paprika

½ tsp Tumeric

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Mix and form into 6  “bumps”. Place in a greased 8” x 8” baking dish.

Bake at 360 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove from oven

Mix together 3-5 OZ of mozzarella,shredded, 

2-3 TBS chopped parsley, and 2 TBS Mayo. Place spoonfuls evenly 

on bumps. Bake @ 360 for 10 minutes

Long, long time ago

Pictures from  way back

 

A very young Butch Brooker

Butch's brother Don

Butch's brother Leo

Kite day on Padre. Maybe 2012?

 The golfing years. I was there but when you are the photographer you are rarely in the picture.

Did you ever have to put around a tree on a green? Butch did.

Gary, Jason and Butch.

I was looking at Pictures on my computer and this was the result but now I simply must walk away from the computer and do something else!

Family photo from 2016

Back row-Gary, Jason, and Rich
 

Merry Christmas to all!

 

What I want and what I have...are the same thing.

I saw this quote on a friend's post and it seemed true to me. There is so much greed and power hunger in the world that it becomes more difficult to maintain a positive outlook. I will keep on, keeping on. I wish everyone in the whole world could say that what they want and what they have are the same thing. So that is my hope for the coming year. Unrealistic? I know it is. I will keep hoping...

Flood Gates Open

 The next couple of weeks the flood of Winter Texans will be flowing into the park. Our park population will nearly double for January and February and then in March it all reverses itself.

As for us, we are settled in. It seems to take a little longer each year to establish our routine. I keep thinking it will get easier and it has a little. It took us much longer than I anticipated to transition from the motorhome to our Texas home integrating that with our Iowa home. I am now what I can safely say comfortable with all of it. Our todo list and our want to change lists are in the past. That can change at any moment. I say that not seeing anything on the horizon.

We went to Sam's Club in McAllen yesterday and judging from that we will keep our Sam's Club visits for Iowa. It is just a few days from Christmas so I suppose that has something to do with it. Butch had his leg run into by a woman pushing a cart. And the isles were full of people and carts trying to go in all four directions.

It was definitely not a place for us rural Iowa folk who like our wide open spaces. I don't even like to go to our hometown Fareway when the number of people is too plentiful.  Oh well, we are happy as clams and grateful as all get out for the life we have the privilege of living and we hope you are too.

Till next time!