Monday, January 9, 2012

Wow - life keeps whizzing by. Felt better on Friday and went to have lunch with some of the Poly Goddesses at Mexican Inn. It was so great to see everybody; had an excellent time; ate far too much.

On Saturday evening we went to dinner with about 30-40 of our closest friends (lol)! These are all members of our little social organization, After 5.0, and most are long-time dear friends. We went to Bella's for dinner - wow, another time of eating too much. Had a great time.

On Sunday I went to a quilting bee...only one of us took a sewing machine this time and instead most of us took hand work. I am making crochet squares for a new donation afghan from what's left in my yarn stash. I didn't feel like dragging any of my machines out because I am in the process of cleaning up, straightening up, organizing my sewing/craft room. I'm thinking it's going to take me a week to get it done. And will include buying a new shampooer - ours hit the dust. I need to go to Home Depot or Lowes and get some pegboard and hooks so I can get things put up -- also another shelf board and some braces. And maybe some short shelf boards as well. There are way too many things contained in my room! All the filing cabinets for home; a television, huge desk, cutting table, supply drawers, fabric/sewing machine storage, etc., etc., It takes such a short time for it to all go to chaos.

DH is not feeling well. He has what I had last week - chills, general don't feel good, drainage, no strength. Except for him it is accompanied by nausea. Yuck. So, this is another Monday when we really still haven't been able to START getting things done around here that we need to do (clean out, throw away, downsize).

I've been looking at motorhome online. Apparently the economy is such that we may possibly be able to get something pretty good for not a lot of money. I have a trip to Philadelphia mapped out -- going from Little Rock to Nashville, on to Piegeon Forge, Roanoke, Washington DC, then finally up to Philly to "base" for a week or so while we explore Gettysburg, Lancaster, travel to Woodbine NJ, and to NYC. I'd like to come back via Richmond, on to Raleigh, then down to Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Mobile, on in to Texas before making our way north again. Really nice to be retired so TIME is not really a factor. BUT, thinking now that we may just fly into Philly and rent a car -- do the other areas one at a time -- go to Nashville/other Tennessee as a separate trip; do the Virginia/Carolina/Georgia as a separate trip; maybe drive to New Orleans on our way to Orlando.

Also been researching Alaska cruises and such. Because of the more stringent enforcement of Canadian laws, we cannot enter Canada (because at a much younger age DH messed up and it's all in the database). We thought we could cruise from Seattle and back, but no go. So, I've finally discovered we can fly to Seattle then on to Alaska and take one of the tour vacations that way - which will include a cruise to the glaciers as well as Denali National Park. And the prices are fairly reasonable! That's a real shocker.

This week we will be getting passport applications completed and start the process of booking the cruise to Key West and the Bahamas. That's going to be fun. Thankfully we will not be subjected to the same border embarrassments as Canada! If you have ANY kind of misdemeanor or ANYTHING on your record, you cannot get over the border even to board a cruise ship! For our Carribean cruise all we have to have are U.S. passports, not visas.

Hmm, so what have I been doing at home? Today for lunch I made, from scratch, yellow squash soup. Very good! Very rich!! We had it with some butter garlic artisan bread that we haven't used before. Then, for tonight's dinner, I made us a boil (little new red potatoes, smoked sausage, corn, shrimp). Thank goodness I had some Old Bay seasoning on hand! So, we have had PLENTY of food to eat today.

Tomorrow will be busy for a little while. DH has to go to his group session, and I've got to spend time on the phone making appointments, getting insurance straightened out (changing from active employee to retired), and no matter what else happens tomorrow, I've got to get my dang laundry finished! Part of it is still in the washing machine and some of it is wrinkling in the dryer as I write and I don't want to go get it out tonight!

If you get a chance, go to the following link and listen. I luv this song. There's a history of this song in our family. My brother, the middle child, discovered this in a church hymnal in the long ago and loved the words but didn't know the tune. He got mother to play it on the piano for him (he was just a kid), and he used to sing this a lot. I have loved it since the first time I heard it as well. We had never heard it recorded by anyone until the last few years when I discovered an old Jim Reeves recording of it, and now this one by Marty Robbins. It says a lot.

Evening Prayer, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAqUEjP6Lw4

Luv to all. May the good Lord bless and keep and forgive us all of the stupidities we've committed.