Pecan Waffles, Sliding Shelves, Screaming Monkey

We began the day at Waffle House per our usual Saturday routine. Pecan waffle—dark for me. We didn’t do Lowe’s since we were just there a couple days ago. Instead we shopped at Winn Dixie and bought some BOGO stuff.

Back home again I installed 2 sliding shelves under the kitchen sink. Now our smaller fry pans and pot lids are under the garbage disposal and scrub brushes, sponges and cleaning stuff are under the other sink. I’m doing a slow speed shuffle of our kitchen and pantry storage. A little today, a little tomorrow until it’s done.

Lou called today. I’m going to see him on Monday to take him to the bus station and have lunch. He’s going to Connecticut for a month and then back down here for 3 more months.

Our flying screaming monkey was delivered today. I guess that requires some explanation. Last Thanksgiving at C&C’s we were told some of the Popoli’s family stories. W learned that Christian’s sister Andrea was terrorized by a toy monkey in her youth. At every opportunity the family scares her with monkeys.

We started thinking about monkeys. The only monkey I could think of was the one that woot sells. Last week woot had a woot-off and it ended with the sale of their “famous” flying screaming monkey. I bought one. The monkey has sling shot arms. You pull back the monkey by its legs and sling shot it across the room. As it flies it gives a long monkey scream.

I don’t know if I want to give this thing to Christian to spring on his sister at an opportune time or whether I want to keep it. The original idea was to get it to Andrea somewhere along the line.

Penny has been craving French toast and bacon for the past few days. We didn’t have white bread until today and today we went to Waffle House. So tomorrow she gets her French toast.

I’m Walkin’

I finally finished the shelves. They work fine after I shortened them by 6 inches. I piled some stuff on them and took some pictures. We haven’t decided what will finally be chosen as appropriate items on these shelves yet but at least I know they work as they are supposed to. Here are some pictures:



Since I haven’t walked for 2 days, finishing the shelves provided a good break point for me to get in my walk. It is hit and miss raining outside so I decided to use the treadmill today. I’m 20 minutes into what should be a 2-hour walk at an easy pace. We are only 2 weeks away from the 20K.

Our trip to Target this morning bagged us absolutely zero bargains. It was a 3-sigma event—us going to Target and spending nothing.

Thurs Feb 26

Here it is 8 PM. Where did the day go? I got off to a slow start today—slept in until almost 7, ate breakfast, did the puzzles in the paper, took a shower and went to Lowes with Penny to get ideas for my cabinet shelves. They had nothing for me so I decided to use the method I dreamed up overnight to make a lip around each shelf.

Back home again I called my Aunt Dot to get information about my uncle. The story basically is that Uncle George has liver cancer. His health is poor so he does not qualify for any of the new or aggressive treatments available. He has just finished a series of 20 daily low-dose radiation treatments and they will find out in about a month how things are with the cancer. Dot said the tumor puts pressure on the bottom of his stomach causing digestive issues and he has a hiatal hernia. This is the same area that was affected with my mother’s cancer.

Dot sounded good and she has good family support. I asked her why she didn’t tell us this was going on and she said nobody wants to hear her complain.

Penny made portabella ravioli for lunch. That was a high point for the day. I spent the rest of the day working on the cabinet shelves and I would have been done with them except for the fact that I made the drawers 6-inches too long. I won’t bother to explain how I did that. It was a logical error and will be relatively easy to fix—tomorrow.

We did nothing red today.

I didn’t walk today. The shelf took longer than expected and I lost track of time.

Tonight only Velcro showed up again. With the weekend coming on I expect at least Marmalade to be showing up tomorrow.

The science podcasts I listened to today were interesting. One talked about a study that you all probably heard about what to spend money on for lasting enjoyment. The study concluded that money spent on experiences brought long lasting enjoyment whereas money spent on things only provided temporary enjoyment. So C&C providing the Academy Awards movie-fest for K&T was a smart and meaningful gift that K&T will happily remember for a long time.

A second discussion centered around the lack of teaching critical thinking tools to kids and the lack of science education. An interesting point made was that if only people understood and could do the simple math on their home mortgage loans many may not have taken those loans. It just backs my opinion that our leaders don’t want an educated critical thinking electorate. Thinking people are harder to fool with words and feelings. The current administration is making HOPEFUL noises about science education. That is good. It will be interesting to see how the talk gets implemented. I’m my usual pessimistic self. Please Mr. Obama surprise me!

Tomorrow is Target day and maybe, just maybe, I’ll finish the shelves.

Special Dispensation

Happy Ash Wednesday! When we went to church this past weekend the Lenten regulations were in the bulletin. Penny read them and informed me that I was off the hook as far as the fasting and abstaining from meat. It seems that reaching the age of 60 provides a dispensation. I still plan to adhere to the rules. I’m not sure how I feel about being old enough to qualify for this treatment.

I did skip my walk today and tonight my hip and foot feel better. We also skipped doing any of our “red” pictures today. I needed to make progress on the kitchen cabinet. I got it all cut and tomorrow I should be able to assemble it and install it. I still have one design issue to settle—how to make the lip around the shelves. I’m mulling over a couple of approaches. I’m going to sleep on it and see what I think tomorrow after my mind has cogitated on it overnight.

Tomorrow should be full with cabinet work, walking and maybe some red work.

Kitty Update—Only Meredith and Velcro have been around this week. Tonight it was just Velcro.

A Red Tuesday

I didn’t get back to working on the kitchen cabinet today. I had a haircut this morning and finished up the laundry. Then, after lunch, Penny and I took off down to Destin Harbor for our second round of red pictures. It’s interesting how many red things that you see but don’t really note as being red.

We went to the new Harbor Walk Marina. That is where the big condo monstrosity is but it is also where our Pat O’Brien’s, Commander’s Palace and Harry T’s restaurants are. The place is definitely tourist oriented but I like what they’ve done. The Harry T’s was selling all their old T-shirts for $5 each. We got shirts for everyone—ended up buying 6 shirts and the kid selling them said “Tell you what, I’ll only charge you $20. I like nice people.”

Penny and I took many pictures of red things and then went home and reviewed our work. My favorite picture of red today was this one.

I also took a couple of other pictures that were not red-themed just because I liked what I saw.

I checked my e-mail and found that my cousin Georgette had written me a facebook message but it went to my SPAM folder 3 days ago. When I read it I found out my Uncle George (my mothers twin) has liver cancer. She said they are treating it with radiation—that’s all they can do—and she asked for our prayers.

Now I am intentionally not listening to President Obama’s speech tonight. I just can’t stand, after actually having HOPE with this guy, seeing how he is using his office to put the old political spin on his actions. His popularity still is high. Either people are very forgiving or just so gullible that they believe his words. Does anyone really think that this mortgage bailout will only go to help those who played by the rules and did the right thing? My kids and grandkids will now help spread the wealth to the "needy" while sacrificing any hopes to improve their lifestyle.

I’m supposed to walk tomorrow but I may rest 1 more day. My foot and my hip are a little sore today and I’ll have to see how they feel tomorrow.

Another Monday

I’d fallen behind in keeping up with the house because of the kitchen cabinet so most of today was a catch-up Monday. I cleaned the kitchen and did some laundry. Both of these tasks are rough on the thumbs. I had been wearing the thumb guards because my thumbs have been consistently painful but they are wearing out. So I’m learning to do things with as little involvement of the thumbs as possible.

I usually listen to my mp3 player while I’m working but today I found that hazardous. It’s a cool dry day today and when I was taking clothes out of the dryer to hang up I created static electricity which jumped from the dryer door to the earphone cord and up to my ear. That got my attention! No more listening while emptying the dryer.

I took a long training walk today down Mooney Rd along Racetrack and back up by way of Beal St. That’s my “big block” walk and it takes a little over 1 ½ hours to walk it. I passed by Choctawhatchee High right at dismissal time. There were cars and kids and busses everywhere.

Penny and I then walked around the neighborhood taking pictures with the color red in them. It’s a means to enhance your color skills. If you want a better explanation see Penny’s blog. So this week is red week. Next week, who knows? We are going to look at and evaluate our pictures tonight while we munch on cheese and crackers and sip some wine. I predict the pictures will look better and better as the evening progresses.

Cabinet Repair

I started repairing under our kitchen sink. A few years ago—I don’t even know how many—the pipes leaked on the particle board cabinet base. That resulted in the collapse of the board and a big hole in the floor of the cabinet exposing the cement slab beneath.

We just lived with it as one of those lower priority things that had to get done. It’s fortunate that I decided to do this because I found that the hot water line had a very slow leak in it. I probably jostled it when I replaced the garbage disposal and the leak was slow enough that it was not apparent. It made a small wet spot on the concrete which was limited in size by evaporation removing water faster than it could puddle.

I have now fixed the leak and replaced the cabinet floor with plywood instead of fiberboard. This area of the cabinets has a blind corner—an area of the cabinet where there is no door to get at whatever is stored there. I’m planning to put a half-moon shelf there now. It’s sort of a half lazy Susan that rotates and then slides out like a drawer. On-line they sell for $285- $370.

I’m hoping to make it with supplies I already have except for some hardware. If I’m successful I’ll make a second one for the other blind cabinet we have next to our pots and pans storage. This is the beginning of a gradual upgrade of our kitchen storage scheme.

Penny and I now are on facebook. We were inspired by K&C about a month ago. I gave the site my high school and college info and it automatically searches its members for people I might know. Some people I knew in high school were there and a couple of my college fraternity brothers. Facebook is an interesting concept and another way our electronic age is helping us keep in touch (or waste our time depending on your outlook).

Feb 19

Happy Feb 19th.

My “big” accomplishment today was cutting 2 Plexiglas squares for Penny to use as cutting templates. It was the first use of the table saw to do precision cutting and it went very well. We bought a 60-tooth saw blade to do this cutting and it cut the Plexiglas easily with no chipping. Penny needed the squares to be, well, square—in the exactly 90-degree sense. My saw made nice square cuts with no adjustments needed. The guy I bought the saw from set it up correctly. The saw is going to make my woodworking much easier.

We had burgers for lunch using the last of the burgers from Kathy’s Christmas gift.

I got in my 1-½ hour walk today but I chose a bad time to do it. I walked immediately after eating that burger lunch. The walk sort of tamped down the food and while I was still a mile from home I wished that I were there in a certain room instead of having to walk another mile. No more walking right after eating for me.

Kitty Update—All 4 cats showed up tonight and it isn’t even a weekend. Last night the ground was wet and Meredith and Velcro were the only takers. Meredith did her thing and left little wet footprints all over my lap.

Did I Catch the Flab Virus?

Sometimes I have days where I run into related items from all my sources of information. Today was one of those days.

I made Penny an quilter’s ironing board that fits over the regular ironing board. It will be easier now for her to press her quilts.

I’ve been listening to podcasts that I subscribe to while I do my chores. Today I listened to the 60-Minutes program that discussed sleep. It seems that lack of sufficient sleep can cause a number of problems from psychological to physical and the effect is immediate. Scientists are seeing test results indicating lack of sleep can cause weight gain, increased risk of Type II Diabetes, and psychological behavior mimicking some mental disorders. It’s more important than you may think to get your sleep. Karen—take those naps whenever you can! I got my Popular Science magazine today and there was an article explaining that sleep deprivation interferes with appetite-regulating hormones and drives us to eat more.

Another article titled “We all came down with a bad case of fat” discusses several viruses lurking in our food may spread obesity by infiltrating adult stem cells and transforming them to fat cells. In other words, love handles are contagious! And we thought it was only genetics and lack of will power.

In this week’s Newsweek there is an article claiming that stress can be good for you. All we need to do is learn to control it.

The article also gave evidence that mild to moderate stress in a woman’s life may be good for fetal development. They quote a study that showed that women under moderate stress in mid-to-late pregnancy wound up with toddlers that were developmentally advanced, scoring highly on language and cognitive tests. A follow-up study showed 2-week old babies of moderately stressed mothers showed evidence of faster nerve transmission—and possibly more mature brain development.

Maybe I shouldn’t pick on Penny so much for getting stressed. It may be more beneficial for her than harmful.

Papa, Papa, PAPA!

I heard that a lot this past weekend from Sophie. It’s her way of saying grandpa and she was in a grandpa mood all weekend.

When Penny and I walked in the door Friday night Sophie was still up. When she saw us she squealed, got a huge smile on her face and shook her hands back in forth in front of her. It melted our hearts.

All weekend she included me in her playing or reading or coloring. I’d get the 3 papas when I didn’t understand what she said. Each one would get a little louder and a little higher in tone and she’d look at me as if she were saying that what she said is so obvious that I had to understand it.

The best part of the weekend for me was when I was left to watch Sophie on Saturday afternoon. She was napping. When she woke up I went in and picked her up out of the crib and gave her a little hug. She hugged me back and just stayed there. I was singing her a little made-up song and she just kept hugging me. She stayed there hugging back for more than 10 minutes. Karen and Tim have shown Sophie lots of love and in the process she has learned to really hug you back in a meaningful way. I just stood there singing to her and swaying back and forth until she decided it was time to stop. It was a special time for “Papa”.

We were in Jacksonville to give K&T a chance to go out for Valentine’s Day while we watched Sophie. It’s part of our continuing effort to give K&T a rest day every month or so and keep us seeing Sophie on a regular basis. We also stopped by High Springs to see C&C on Friday eve. So we’ve been able to keep in touch with the kids fairly well.

Next visit to Jacksonville Sophie will probably be in grandma mood. Penny will like that better.

The drive home was not eventful. We literally drove off into a beautiful sunset. That put us on RT85 just after sunset when the deer come out to graze. We saw around 15 of them. It’s hard to tell exactly how many were there since they are off the side of the road and are only lit by the side of the headlight beam.

We didn’t do a lot today (Tuesday). We slept in, ate a small breakfast and then set about on a couple of chores for Penny returning items to Wal-Mart and Target. That turned into a Target run where we picked up some 75%-off dark chocolate Valentine’s candy. Since I now know the shoe inserts work for me I bought another one.

I did get in a 4 ½ mile walk this afternoon and spent the rest of the time clearing paperwork and paying bills.

Tomorrow we have an 80% chance for rain so it will be an indoor or in shed day.

KITTY UPDATE—3 cats awaited me last night when I got home from the trip, Buzz, Meredith and Velcro. The feeder is going strong. Tonight it was just Velcro and Meredith.

More FOCCUSed

We saw the FOCCUS couple again today and they are showing results of the work they’ve put into their relationship. It’s good to see. We are more hopeful for them now.

That pretty much filled the day. After they left I found I was quite tired. Evidently working with the couple was hard work for me. Penny should really be beat, she cooked a great meal in addition to the counseling.

Yesterday I took another training walk. My foot was and got more sore but not so bad that I couldn’t walk. Today it is back to its pre-walk status. It doesn’t appear that I am making it worse by walking (so far so good).

I’ve been biting my tongue, so to speak, on the political happenings and it’s hard to do. Let it suffice to say that I have lost hope in Mr. Obama. He is acting exactly as I thought he would but hoped he wouldn’t. People are so desperate that they want to believe what they think he is saying. Judging by his performance on the stimulus package he has not brought change to Washington.

I actually wrote a lot more doom and gloom here but decided to delete it. Maybe I’m wrong and the Government is actually doing what is right for the country. In any event it’s our future now.

My thoughts about Washington are captured in the words of John Popper :

It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel that I'll convey
Some inner truth of vast reflection
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don't matter who you are
If I'm doing my job then it's your resolve that breaks

There is something amiss
I am being insincere
In fact I don't mean any of this
Still my confession draws you near
To confuse the issue I refer
To familiar heroes from long ago…..


The hook brings you back
I ain't tellin' you no lie
The hook...On that you can rely

Lunch With Lou

I spent a few hours with Lou today. His bag finally arrived at the bus station so taking him there was stop #1. He was happy to get the bag. He was running out of underwear.

Since it was a beautiful day and too early for Lou to eat lunch I decided to suggest we go walk the beach. Lou likes the beach here and once again enjoyed the walk.

He made a point to call Betty in Oregon while he was at the beach to rub it in. You know, hey it’s 65 degrees here and I’m soaking my feet in the Gulf of Mexico and working on my tan. What are you doing?

Lou wanted fish for lunch so I took him to Harbordocks. That makes 2 visits in 1 week to the restaurant for me. Lou wanted to have Grouper—and he did—and he enjoyed it. After that he treated me to an ice cream and we took care of some Lou business, paying his ATT bill and hitting his bank for some money and quarters for him to send to his grandson.

We ran by the house and picked up a fishing rod for Lou to use while he is here and said hi to Penny. Then it was back to the church. Lou found out on the drive back that the guy he was living with didn’t want him there any more. Lou said the guy was an alcoholic with an alcoholic girlfriend and it was stressful living there anyway. So he didn’t mind in his words “being thrown out”. Lou doesn’t even plan to go pick up the clothes he had there.

The church is working on new living arrangements for him. He is going to share an apartment with another recent convert in the mean time.

I Had a Dream

It was a good dream so I thought I’d write it down. I think I dreamed it because of the 2 little girls that sat in front of us in church on Saturday night. I watched them and thought about Karen and Christy at that age and how I missed having them around.

In my dream I was watching a video tape. I turned it over to watch the other side (which you don’t do with video but it made sense in the dream) and found it was tape of little Karen and Christy that I didn’t know I had. I had discovered a new tape of them. Through the wonder of dreaming I wasn’t watching them any more but I was there with them. I don’t remember what games we were playing but I was there as a 60-year-old playing with my daughters again and realizing that I had stepped back in time to re-live one more precious moment with them. In effect, my wish from church was granted. I wasn’t missing them—I was with them.

I gradually came to the realization that it was time for me to leave. I hugged them, kissing each on the forehead and saying “I love you.” That part of the dream was so real that I could smell their hair when I kissed them. I woke up just after kissing Christy—with poignant tears in my eyes.

It was a nice dream.

Today was our pre-cana Sunday. Once again it fell on a gorgeous day and we were cooped up inside all day. We believe the sacrifice is worth it. It was a good group of engaged and the day went well.

Yesterday, Penny and I celebrated our Valentines day. We lunched at Harbordocks and had wine and cheese for dinner.

Tomorrow I will see brother Lou. His luggage is still lost so he needs to go to the bus station to put a tracer on his bag. I’m going to provide transportation and we’ll do lunch, too. The Church has given him some clothes and he says he’s doing OK.

Real Walk

The temperature finally climbed above 50 today. In fact it was pleasant enough for a walk through the neighborhood instead of using the treadmill.

This was my first outside walk in a while and the neighborhood looked pretty good. I was disappointed as I started out because my foot began to hurt with each step before I got even a quarter mile. It hurt sufficiently that I turned back and headed for home. After about a hundred yards the pain eased and I decided to turn back around and give it another try. I ended up walking about 3 miles. That’s about my limit right now. The river run is 9+ miles so I’ve got a ways to go. The foot is the unknown quantity at this point. Apart from the foot the walk was nice.

KITTY UPDATE—The cats survived the cold weather with no issues. I don’t know where they go but the only time I saw any of them this week was at feeding time. 3 cats have been showing up each night. Buzz is the tamest of the group. It’s never the same mix of cats that showed up this week. On the coldest days Buzz didn’t show up. I wonder if he has a warm house somewhere out there that he gets let in. Other nights Meredith, Velcro or Marmalade didn’t show. Tonight Velcro didn’t show. The feeder is still working fine. The cats have been eating all that is dispensed each day. They are getting help from 2 local tomcats.

Lou is Back

Brother Lou arrived safely here minus one suitcase. I picked him up at the bus station at 5:30 PM and asked him where he wanted to have dinner. He chose Waffle House (he likes their sausage).

Immediately after sitting in the booth and ordering he got on the phone with Wachovia. He wanted to check the balance in his checking account. Somehow his bank accounts were messed up again. From what I could tell the bank closed his savings account and put the money in the checking account that is Betty’s. They said they sent him a letter. Lou explained that he “travels the country” and doesn’t get mail. His Social Security check also goes into the now closed savings account. Lou kept asking the guy on the phone, “why are you doing this to me”. When the guy apologized Lou told him that he couldn’t be sorry. He said they just ruined his life and put him in a shelter.

During the time he was yelling on the phone the meal came and sat there. Eventually Lou got passed to another customer service rep who sort of cleared up things. Now Lou has only 1 checking account. The SS check supposedly will get deposited in that account. Lou will send Betty a money order each week instead of giving her money through the checking account. Lou did eat while he talked to the 2nd person.

After Waffle House we went to K-Mart to get Lou clothes to last for a couple days. Hopefully by then his suitcase will make it here

Lou gets so wrapped up when he travels that he barely acknowledges people around him. He doesn’t like change and his world is full of it. He asked me in K-Mart if I paid for the meal at Waffle House. He didn’t even notice or think about it. He was too wound up with the bank thing. Maybe being in one place for a while will settle Lou down.

His living arrangement in Niceville will be in a 2-bedroom house. The owner is away and his son is housesitting it. The house is close to the church so Lou can walk there. He doesn’t know exactly what plans they have for him this time.

I’ll likely go back to seeing Lou once a week or so. He’s supposed to be here for a couple months.

I had 2 cups of coffee at Waffle House so I won’t be going to sleep at my usual time. But you can’t go to Waffle house and not have some coffee.

Or Am I standing Still?

In our mail today was literature from gocentricity,com. They clam that the universe is really geocentric (because that’s their interpretation of the bible). The Earth is standing still and the universe revolves around it, I can even get a free book so I can learn what scientists haven’t been telling me for centuries.

Interestingly in the same mail delivery was my Discovery magazine featuring the headline, “Are we still evolving?” I wonder what the egocentricity people think about evolution—well, actually I don’t have to wonder.

Another article explained that the earth is gradually slowing down in its rotation to the tune of 3 mille-seconds per century. This means that in the days of dinosaurs each day was only 23 hours long. Of course, if you were a geocentric the universe would be slowing as it revolves around us and it would only have been occurring for about 6000 years. Oh, and there were no dinosaurs.

It was an interesting contrast in the mail today.

My string of exciting action-filled days continued. I fixed the belt drive on the lawn mower, salvaged some parts from the old lawn mower that’s been sitting in the backyard. The carcass goes into the trash tomorrow. And did other odd jobs. I’m finally doing some of those things that I put off as being low priority (like throwing out some of the stuff that’s accumulated).

That’s the mode I’ll be in until I start a real project.

Ground Hog Day

Ah, it’s Ground Hog Day, time for gathering around the table with our loved ones while Dad carves the groundhog.

If you can’t tell I haven’t been doing anything of great interest these past few days. My days have been filled doing house and yard work and getting the workshop ready for whatever project I end up doing next. It’s not very exciting stuff.

I have been walking in preparation for the River Walk. I’m up to 3 miles and although my foot gets sore I think it will be OK.

Old Mr. ground hog did see his shadow today and Mother Nature is not waiting on the promise of 6 more weeks of winter. Tomorrow night we will be down into the 20’s. Brother Lou will arrive in town for the coldest weather of the season. Bad weather seems to follow him around this year.

Tomorrow the adventure continues.