Trivia

Day by day

Christmas is sneaking up on us all. I had time this week to have lunch with Jr High School and High school pal from waaayyyyy back when. It was a lot of fun to catch up and share a little food and fun. I've been doing very routine kind of things like grocery shopping, laundry, house cleaning, errands, and working in the gallery. In between I'm baking bread, ordering gifts, and shredding papers from the years 2008 and 2009. May as well live in the present, eh? My filing system (gulp!) was overflowing, so it was time to take care of this while the bread was baking. It took about the same length of time. the poor shredder shut down a few times from overheating, and I have a huge black plastic bag full of paper for the dumpster.

My brother celebrated his 74th birthday yesterday and had a new camera to try out. Dont' know if he will keep it, but he has fun reviewing them and comparing the features of different models. I wait until he decides what's best then buy his old ones or whatever he advises. This time though, I'm sticking to my Canon that was once his. I've had it for years now and it's a fabulous camera. I've never had a bit of trouble with it, and it is super simple to use. But, I wish it was red. I love red cameras, and now he does too. I can't justify changing cameras for the color though but it's tempting.

I found a new toy today that I might want later. The Canon selphy ES40. A portable printer for the camera. Looks like fun to have, but I know I would probably not use it often enough to warrant the purchase.

I already have one new toy that I have not taken out of the box yet. The Magic Wand portable scanner. I can see where I will have fun with it, but it's a Christmas present for me, from me, so I won't play with it until the big day arrives. Then I"ll be scanning everying in sight. It has OCR capability, so it says. Hmmmmm..... we'll see. Optical Character Recognition is something tricky - or it used to be. I have not tried it for years, so hopefully it's better than the old ones. I love that I can carry it with me and scan from friends art and not rely totally on my camera.

I made some spinach dip in my fresh bread tonite and carried it down to kids. They loved it, so I will buy more of the mix at the Hallmark store and make another batch for New Year's eve.

My poor daughter in law is going through dental hell this week. She had an emergency, the pain was so bad she had a tooth extracted yesterday and will see the oral surgeon tomorrow. I know what she's going through. She really suffered during Thanksgiving, and thought she'd put off doing anything about it, but finally she could not delay any longer. Her cheek and jaw are so swollen already and two more teeth need to come out tomorrow. Then the building of a partial so she can chew properly. What a Christmas present! What a huge expense. This has been the year for dental procedures in this household. In January I will start exploring the options for rebuilding my mouth. But first, I plan to enjoy the hollidays. Hope you do too.

Candis sings again

Candis celebrated her 15t birthday last week. She's counting the days until she can drive. LOL Her high school choral group is performing tonite and tomorrow night at a renovated old theater in town. Three bus loads of kids, including the orchestra and acapella choir are in this holiday program. I picked her up tonite, taking Nikki for a night ride in the car for company. Nikki is one of Candis' biggest fans. Tomorrow I get to see the performance myself, hoping her dad gets off work in time to go too. Her mom is in school and can't miss any classes, so she can't be there to see her girl. Maybe I"ll have a photo tomorrow.

Fa la la la la..... tis the season to be busy

Oh my! A holiday boutique at the gallery in Lodi with the pottery league, a tea with the mixed media group in Sacramento, a visit to the cat shelter in Sac, the Stamper's Corner shop in Elk Grove and then the beautiful exhibit of over 500 nativity sets at the Mormon church in El Grove all in one day. One exhausting day. What was I thinking?

The pottery was outstanding and the other mixed media artists had beautiful things to sell. It was a single day show and I have not heard how they did. I picked out a couple presents for ME. Pottery. somethings i can't do myself.

The tea was lovely as ever, it's an annual tradition with this group. The most charming setting and good company, tasty foods, and hot teas and a Christmas gift exchange. Delightful.

The cat shelter is where Sally volunteers once a week. She is a cat person. I"m not, but I enjoyed seeing them and appreciate how they are caring for the lovely animals while trying to find forever homes for them. Sally knows each cat by name. But she has favorites too. She has two beautiful black and white tuxedo cats at home so can't take more herself (husband objects to adding more). I'm glad I had a chance for this quick visit, as she talks about it a lot and I could not visualize it.

Stampers Corner had a special event with the new Hero Arts catalog and inventory coming out. We had to go check it out. I found a few special Christmas papers and two stamps that I added to my collection.

Then, the highlight of the day was the exhibit at the Mormon church. Sally had worked on putting it on, having one room decorated with red and gold as her project. Over 500 nativity sets are shown at this 3 day annual event. Every size, shape and material. Of course there are some duplicates, but spread in different rooms they just add to the grandeur and are testaments to the popularity of the Christian tradition.

After all this, I still had a long ride home alone in the dark on the freeway, accompanied by public radio. And when I got home I was greeted by three very lonely hungry dogs who could not decide whether to jump all over me or run to the food cupboard. it was a good day.

Bushisms

I had a calendar with quotes of George W. Bush. What the heck do you do with that? Why not make post cards with some of them? I had another old calendar from 1995 with pictures of dogs. Hmmmmm...... Guess what? don't ask me why the camera took blue pictures today.

More mail art going out

I am having such a blast making and receiving mail art. I wonder why it lost popularity a few years ago. I'm hoping to revive it, and in my own little circle it is working. No one takes it very seriously, and it is quick and easy. And RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) make people smile. I'm smiling when I send them, the post office smiles and looks at them on the way, and the person receiving one usually has a brighter day with a simple little gesture of friendship, like a smile. This is a smile by mail, or even a hug. I'm sending off another batch on Wednesday. I like to mail them in Acampo. There's no line, the postal lady is so interested in it, and is such a nice friendly person, and I know they get special handling. It only takes 28 cents worth of postage to mail one if they are under one ounce and not thick with things hanging off them. So, it's a much more doable thing than sending out decos and waiting for years sometimes to get them returned. My friend Bobbi recently got one back that had been out and about for five years. It had traveled to Europe and back. Ihave a hunch it was stuck in someones art room, buried under layers of papers and "stuff". anyway, here are a few more that I"ve done recently. I even made my Christmas cards as post cards this year. LOL