What Are You Doing For Excitement Today?

[Ms Bear]

Diane, sorry to hear about your friend passing.  In the past couple of years I have been amazed to find out how many of my daughters friends have lost their mothers.  I am a second mom to them and so glad I can be here when they need me.

[Judy Harder]

Diane, I am sorry for your loss. It does seem that each day as I age, I am knowing more and more people who I grew up with either passing or their family members leaving.

Just last evening I attended a memorial for my granddaughters maternal grandmother and at any time it is awful to lose a granny, but at Christmas time it hurts terribly more.

Her funeral will not be till spring. Weather is too iffy.........several are in other states and it was decided to have services later.

Oh, Emma Clark Eastburn was her name. Native of Oak Valley family and known by Emma Clark.

[larryJ]

So true about losing friends or relatives.......it seems to occur more as we get older, of course.

And so it begins.........

The Newport Beach Boat Parade has begun and will go through Sunday.  My son has decided to combine this years "Junk Food Night" with the boat parade.  I will be making the beef jerky and fudge and my wife will make the deviled eggs.  I started "Junk Food Night" many years ago when I didn't want to fix dinner.  It was a big hit with my kids.  After they moved out, it faded away.  Last year, my son decided to revive the tradition and it was a huge success with many friends coming by to enjoy chips and dip, baked goods, my jerky and fudge, my wife's deviled eggs, cakes and candies.  This year, according to the responses I see on FB, it will be rather crowded.  I have reserved ten seats at the American Legion Post for Friday to watch the boat parade just for our family.  Then the "Junk Food Night" will take place on Saturday followed by a short walk to the bay to see the boat parade.  The weather calls for rain so the boat parade might be canceled, but not the "Junk Food Night."  My son has ordered and received a "Buddy the Elf" costume and will be wearing it on Saturday.  I have already denied any relationship to him should he wear the elf costume.  Can you imagine a 6'6" elf?

Larryj

[Wilma]

I, too, have lost loved ones this year.  Makes the ones that are still here all the more precious.  I mourn, then go on with my life, as death is only a part of life, a part that separates us physically.  But the real person will be with us as long as we are able to remember them.  My husband has been gone for eight years now, but I still consider his opinion when I make decisions.  I do wish he would stop telling me what to do.

On the lighter side, I am no longer washing dishes by hand.  My dishwasher was repaired yesterday.  The repairman came, brought with him the part that I said it needed, put it on, and every thing was back to normal.  I can't see the reason for paying for a diagnosis when you already know what is wrong.  Some places treat you as if you don't have sense enough to know why your appliance isn't doing what it should.  SHEESH.

[Diane Amberg]

Glad to hear you are back to washing your dishes by washer. I've always thought the hotter water kills more germs.
So last Wednesday night we had our fire company Christmas open house hosted by our chief, with all the other local fire companies invited to attend. I had already been asked if I was making my" famous" stuffed mushrooms again. Of course... I did 30 pounds, stuffed with the help of four other people. I cook, drain and chop the six pounds of sausage at home, so it 's quicker to make up the rest, with the chopped mushroom stems ,sausage ,Italian bread crumbs ,spices and olive oil at the firehouse kitchen. It makes up 8 extra large pizza pans (at 350 for 20 minutes in our convection oven) They really went fast.
   Yesterday morning I rounded up four other firefighters and we rang our big old fire bell at 9:30 in honor of the innocents who died at Sandy Hook. This one really bothered me...had a knot in my stomach all morning. I think it got to me because I knew they were locked up in the same way we do in our schools here every day, and he still got in and killed all those people.

[Dee Gee]

Locked doors only keep out good people, bad ones don't care about locked doors.

[Diane Amberg]

We also have a police officer assigned to be in the local high school. For people who have never had to deal with court ordered busing, it's hard to explain. He does manage to defuse most things that are internal to the school.

[Janet Harrington]

Since I have to work all week, I cooked a holiday dinner for Jim and my oldest grandson, Derek. That will probably be the only holdiay dineer they will get, except for mother's dinner on Saturday that Jim will attend.

My poor men live on sandwiches while I am gone all week. Every once in awhile, one of them will get creative and make an omelet. Poor babies. I feel so sorry for them. NOT!

Anyway, I work Christmas day as that is the only way we get any holiday pay. Oh, well. It isn't like I haven't worked holidays before. When I was sheriff, I fixed a huge holiday dinner for the jail and whoever worked. We did our best to keep as many of my employees home as we could on Christmas day. But, it would often happen that someone would get into a domestic on that special day. One time the domestic was because the husband had bought the wrong size of jeans for the wife. LOL

[Diane Amberg]

I just had a wonderful visit with a 40+ year friend who flew his 9 grand children to the east coast from Washington state to see the area where he grew up. They went to DC to see all the sights and stopped here today to visit more of the east coast family and show the kids his old firehouse. I gave them the usual  tour and it was great fun. He had been a New Castle County Police Officer working cases in child abuse... a real "special victims' officer. The stuff he dealt with was just so sad.
They will see the liberty bell, the Constitution Center and old Philly before they fly back in time for school to start again. History in the flesh.

[larryJ]

TODAY IS A GREAT AND WONDERFUL DAY!!!!!!!

At Christmas my son had suggested that everyone should go with him and his family to Legoland down in Carlsbad this weekend, well, today and tomorrow.  I decided against it as I was sure that it would turn out to be all of us there and I would be the "sitter-in-charge" while everyone else enjoyed the rides.  That and I am just not that interested in amusement parks at my age.  However, my wife and her cousin agreed to go which was a surprise.  Then it occurred to me that I would have two days of nothing to do and nobody to do it for.  Yippee!  So this morning they were off and I had the place to myself.  This, in itself, would make for a great day.

The wonderful part?  Shortly after they left, my beautiful, wonderful daughter-in-law sent me a picture.  A picture of a pregnancy test!  Then she called to tell me that she was pregnant!  She hasn't gone to the doctor yet, but the pregnancy test says she is pregnant!  Of course, I am hoping for a grandson after having three granddaughters, but I will take what I get. 

THIS IS INDEED A GREAT AND WONDERFUL DAY!

Larryj