thank you

the big boss out at work occasionally brings things to us support people. last week she brought us all a nice bar of soap. she likes soaps and the one she gave me smells sooooooo good. it's peony plum flower, triple milled shea butter soap, o. n. s.co. whatever that means. it looks like maybe she got it at old navy. i wonder if they have bath powder, too.

the other people got other scents, but the only one which really caught my attention was the one for our guy person. he got a musk soap which really smelled good! some of those musks scents are really terrible, but this one said something about white cotton (is that a new fragrance? i've seen it before) and it was soooooooo nice.

i can't decide whether to use mine or leave it by my computer at work where i can smell it all day.

for the gourmet...

i made a new cookie yesterday -- we're taking food in to work one day a month this year -- just my little department (5 of us plus a new person to start shortly). this cookie is called crescent cookies and turns out to be delicious. but .... it's way too much bother to me (not a lot of work, just bother) so i won't be making it again. and each cookie probably has a gazillion fat grams per. no salt though.

2 sticks butter (softened), 3 tbl pwd sugar;
1 tea vanilla;
2 cups flour, 1 cup chopped pecans;
pwd sugar

preheat over to 350*. cream butter and sugar at medium until light and fluffy. add vanilla and blend. slowly add flour on low and mix until blended. stir in pecans. pinch off 2 tea of dough; shape into crescent; place on ungreased baking sheet. repeat. bake until golden (about 20 minutes). roll carefully in pwd sugar while warm, then again when slightly cool. (they break easily.)

mmmmm, delicious. next time i might try a silver-dollar shape instead. no, wait ... there's not going to BE a next time. too much work. lot of mess. takes time....

just like a weekend should be

ahhhhh, what a nice day. i'm listening to Digital Analog Band's Have A Smoke (2003) which is a very laid back new age jazz piece, the sun is shining, the neighborhood is quiet, i'm drinking a cup of rose tea, and there's no hurry about anything.

rose tea? yes. i got it from chado tea -- a really nice website which doesn't keep sending you stuff forever. i ordered several loose teas, mostly orange spices, but also the rose tea, a eucalyptus, and a lavender earl grey. yay to the rose tea (doesn't smell like roses, but is a nice quiet, soft drink), but gak! to the eucalyptus and the grey. at least now i know.

have a lovely day!

sit back and relax?

getting older has so many surprises. somewhere around 54 to 56 or so, you start to notice little things ... grey hairs (and not just up on your head), sparse hairs, tiny little wrinkles, you may not quite be able to recall things as quickly, you find yourself losing concentration, your yearly physicals may show evidence of new problems.

it can take a lot of patience to deal with these new things, and it can sometimes lead to mild depression. talking with someone else about this stuff is helpful and might turn up a suggestion or trick which makes things easier.

i am finally, for the first time in my life, (at 60) starting blood pressure medicine. i'm not happy about having to take it, but after 4 years of watching the values not stay down, my doctor sweet-talked me into doing something.

that's better than billy goat gruff at work. his wife (who is about 4 or 6 years older than he) was diagnosed last year with diabetes. she was VERY unhappy about it and cried a lot. i totally understood.

several weeks ago billy found out he has diabetes. his reaction was closer to angry disgust. i totally understood.

they are both watching what they eat now and starting to gradually loose weight. the biggest problem i see with that is that at their ages (he's about 64) any loose skin isn't going to snap back into position. that's a whole 'nuther depression-filled experience.

and like he finally said to me after he was done talking about his diabetes diagnosis, up-coming sleep test, and all his additional medicine, "golden years my ass."

i totally understood.

make-up

this is the last day of the clinique twice-yearly free-gift thingy, so if you're a fan, get a move-on.

hmmm...

happy birthday to the husband today. he says it's just another day like all the others and for us to ignore it. uhhh, okay.

but what kind of cake should i make and what kind of present should i get?

whoa!

i do a lot of online shopping. yes, we're only twenty minutes away (outskirts to outskirts) from a large town which has lots of shopping, but ... meh. i'd rather do it online if i can.

of course, i'm talking about clothes here. i decided to check around and see what i could find in the way of earth shoes, which i really like. i have shopped from planetshoes.com and doddsshoe.com and been happy with both.

i'd heard a little about zappos.com but had forgotten about them until they came up in a search tuesday evening. i decided to give them a try and ordered a cute pair of earth shoes. since standard shipping was free i was feeling good about things. made my order at 6:45 pm and settled back with a book. after a little bit my e-mail confirmation came through.

about three hours later another e-mail came through saying they had bumped up my processing and upgraded my shipping time. this was tuesday night, remember.

imagine my astonishment when my shoes arrived the next day! not even 24 hours had gone by!

yeah, yeah -- i know they did this just because it was my first time shopping with them and they wanted to grab my attention, but hey! they did!

i will probably shop with them again and see how they do the next time.

gees! less than 24 hours!! impressive!!!

one more thing to worry about

i saw a couple of reports, today at work, about the problems that have started cropping up with lasers. people who are clueless, as well as criminal types, can cause considerable problems for aircraft if they are aiming laser pointers or other laser devices up in the sky.

apparently a green laser is a lot more dangerous than a red one, but either one is bad. if laser-light shines in a cockpit, it can blind and disorient pilots.

the articles were interesting, in a driving-slowly-past-an-accident kind of way. it wouldn't occur to me to shine a laser pointer toward an aircraft; it makes me nervous for anyone to be using one in a presentation, even. they just seem to be quietly evil.

regardless, be aware this is a new potential for malicious mischief. if an idiot can aim one toward a plane, he can aim one toward a car, too. hopefully we won't have to deal with that kind of thing on a personal level.

gees.

fun weekend

sooooo much going on lately. My Older Son, his wife, and the wee little bambina came over last weekend. it was great fun!! enjoyed talking with my dau-in-law very much. and enjoyed seeing the little one smile and laugh. once, she was upset about something (i totally cannot remember what) and her daddy held her while her mom and i stood there listening while she sadly told us all about it. she wasn't crying, but her tale was so sad and she had a lot to say. since she's only 5 and 1/2 months old, i couldn't tell what she was saying, but she definitely was saying something! very, very bright child!! you did good, my son!