Category: the things we do

When I was young … vitamin C

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When I was young my mom made us eat oatmeal or cream-of-wheat in the winter time. I still don’t like the smell of either. My mom also made us take vitamin C every day. I had a tough time as a kid swallowing pill and well, actually I did until I was an adult.

For anyone who hasn’t swallowed a vitamin C tablet quickly, knows that bitter taste as they begin to dissolve in your mouth. For me, it was a common occurrence.

To flavor my hot cereal my mom would add brown sugar. As many people know, once the brown sugar starts getting hard, you have to scrape it or dig it out with a spoon. Often times, where you’ve scraped or dug in with the spoon, it turns white.

I can remember one time my mom put a big spoon of brown sugar in my hot cereal. I saw that white scraping in the brown sugar and began to sob. I was convinced that she crushed up a vitamin C tablet and tried to sneak it into my cereal.

In hind-sight, it would have been easier for me to take however I didn’t like the hot cereal anyway so it was like adding salt to my wounds.

New necklace pranked back

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Years ago I had a boyfriend who came home and said he had bought me a gift. He had gone to the dollar store and bought me a large, gaudy, ugly necklace. I’m sure it was meant for kids because I don’t know any adult that would wear it. The pendent was 2”-3” in diameter; plastic and stuck out like a sore thumb.

He thought he was so funny because we were going to the store and he was encouraging me to wear it, imagining that I would be embarrassed doing so. He didn’t know me as well as he thought he did.

We went to the store and I put it on before getting out of the car. Starting in the parking lot and every time we passed someone, (loud enough for others to hear) I would say, “Thank you so much for buying this necklace for me”.

Who was embarrassed? Not me.

New dog misunderstandings – Part 3

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Have you seen a video of or have had a cat that you put a harness or sweater on? Well, I put a harness on our new dog so there wouldn’t be a strain on her neck while she’s learning how to walk on a leash properly.

Much to my surprise, she behaved as though the harness weighed 20 lbs. She stopped moving instantly and acted like it was too heavy for her to walk. Once I did get her to start moving, she dropped to the ground and laid on her side, just like I’ve seen cats do in videos. Although I did my best not to laugh at her, it was hilarious! Did I mention that she is not a small dog.

She must’ve been raised with cats because there are a few things she does that I’ve only see cats do. For instance, when I point at something that I want a dog to look at, typically a dog will look where I’m pointing. When I do the same with a cat, the cat will look at the finger that is pointing.

Is this because cats believe they are more intelligent and superior to dogs and don’t want to look silly and a dog doesn’t care? Ha ha … who knows?.?. Our new, old dog looks at the finger not at what I’m pointing at. And to be honest, it makes me feel silly to keep pointing when she clearly doesn’t get it.

She also does this when I’m putting a treat in her dish. She looks at me like, “I just saw it in your hand. What did you do with it? Are you magic? Where did it go?” I can point to the dish where the treat is sitting and yet she will continue to look at my hand.

Other areas, she learns really fast so I know she’s capable. So much FUN!

New dog misunderstandings – Part 2

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If you’ve seen the movie, “BIG” there is a scene where Tom Hanks tastes caviar and doesn’t spit it out so much as lets it fall out of his mouth before he wipes it off his tongue. This was hilarious (to me) and one of my favorite scenes.

I know you might think you know where this is going.

I’ve always had canned pumpkin on hand in case my dog gets an upset belly. A few table spoons, a few times a day most often did the trick.

I had a dog that was on a non-chewable medication. I would use a plastic spoon to get a large scoop of pumpkin and put the capsule in the center. We had it down so smooth that the pumpkin (and capsule) would slide easily down his throat. He’d then get another two scoops to ensure it went down.

I was thinking our newest dog might have a belly ache within the first week of rescuing her. I got out the plastic spoon, loaded it with pumpkin and THOUGHT she’d open her mouth to take it. She didn’t so attempt number two.

I didn’t make the airplane sound or gestures but did try to get her excited about it. She opened her mouth and in went the pumpkin. She opened her mouth, tipped her head downward and out plopped the pumpkin. She wouldn’t even lick it off the floor. I have NEVER seen a dog do that before. It was hilarious.

A while later we tried it again and, yup … had the same results. The next time, I put it in with her food. Yay! Success

New dog misunderstandings – Part 1

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We rescued a senior dog from a shelter 10 days ago. She is 12 years old and it doesn’t seem that she’s had the greatest life. She doesn’t know what a toy is and doesn’t know how to play, other than what appears to be how she played with another dog. She isn’t house-broken and doesnt know any command either.

She’s turning out to be an amazing dog. She is kind and gentle. She doesn’t make a sound and we were sure that she must’ve had her larynx removed but a few days ago she heard something and barked. Yay! In this short time, she has come to trust me, which at times takes awhile for a rescue animal.

She’s doing great at learning to potty outside and head for the door when she needs to go. So I thought the next thing is to learn something new.

I decided to teach her to fetch so we got a couple of toys that belonged to my other dog. We stood at each end of the hallway and tossed a ball and a toy back and forth. My hope was that if we acted excited about the game, she would join in. I could swear that each time we tossed a toy, she’d look at me as if to wonder why on earth we were doing that. I think I caught her rolling her eyes at us too.

Ok, so that didn’t work. She had absolutely no interest in the toys, any of them. A couple of times she got excited and began nibbling at a cushion and a throw blanket. This got me thinking, she needed something to naw on and she didn’t like what I had out for her. I got 5 old socks that were in a bin to be used for dusting, (a couple of them were heavy winter socks). I tied two knots in each of them. Years ago I had dogs that loved to play tug-of-war with old socks with knots. I did my best to encourage her to play with it but she wasn’t interested in them. The next day she’d occasionally pick one up and naw on it a bit. The next day she’d pick one up and carry it to the couch with her.

Yesterday she brought three of them to the couch, one at a time. YaY! She has something of HERS that she loves. Here’s my chance to teach her to play fetch, right.!?

I took the heavy sock that she seems to like the most and threw it a couple of feet. She ran to get it! I cheered her on and encouraged her that this was a great thing that she just did! She came running to me and I cheered her on again! I took the sock from her and threw it further. I cheered her on as she got it and started running back towards me! I was so excited, we were playing fetch … but oh, I guess we’re NOT. She ran by me and went into the other room with her sock.

Today I attempted to play fetch again with the same results. I know, I know the same thing will produce the same results. Clearly she did NOT understand why I’d cheer her on and then take it away from her.

One day we’ll get it down, I’m sure of it … really I am.

More technology changes – Batman

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In 1989 the Batman movie with Michael Keaton was released. How obsessed was I with this movie? Well, when all the hype was over, my husband surprised me with the life-sized cardboard Batman that he had bought from the video rental store. I loved the Batmobile too! I thought it was simply the coolest car on earth (at the time).

The same year as the movie release there was a Roadster Show in town. I had never been to one of the Roadster shows before or had even been interested in going however … THE Batmobile was going to be there. I wanted to see that car!

A friend of mine went with me. I was so excited and as we walked around searching for it, my excitement grew. Then I saw it! There it was! I walked around it and looked at every inch of it, oozing with admiration. The guy working at the booth came up, hovered and made small talk.

In the movie the car had this very cool ‘protective shield’ that covered the windshield to make the car more secure. That was one of the things I wanted to see most on this car. I was looking closely to see where this gadget was hidden and how did it come out to cover the windshield. I asked the guy hovering over us where it is and could I see it work.

I’m a pretty intelligent person however, this guy looked at me like I was an idiot. He said, “This is just a car. It can’t do that. It was all movie technology”. He did it, he burst my bubble. I was crushed, like a kid walking up to a closed candy store.

As we were walking away he shouted to me, “There’s no Santa Claus either”. Ugh. Now, years later, I laugh every time I think about it. That technology was a big deal back then. Think of the difference between 70’s and 80’s Disney movies and technology in movies today.

Hummus, hummus everywhere

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I was getting ready to sit and watch a movie. I made a nice batch of hummus and chopped up some veggies because, well movies and snacking go hand-in-hand.

Have I mentioned before that I’m a bit clutsy? I know I’ve mentioned that I tend to laugh vs get upset over spilt … whatever.

Well, last night I was walking from the kitchen to the TV room, minding my own business when out of the blue some cosmic force allowed the bowl of hummus to slip out of my hand and directly onto the floor. I must’ve had too much moisture in my hummus because it splattered everywhere. The more I looked, the more I saw.

I hope you’re able to watch this video as, this post needs a visual.

https://videopress.com/v/nhojnw5H?controls=false&preloadContent=metadata

Garage Sale Frenzy

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Spring is almost here and so are garage sales.

One Saturday when I was a teenager my mom and I went on a garage sale frenzy. We drove up to one house where there were items all over the driveway, in neatly defined rows and the garage door was open. I must say however, that something felt odd about it.

We got out of the car and my mom said, “Hi” to the man by the garage. He said, “Can I help you?”. She told him, “No” that we were just looking. He then told us that he was cleaning out his garage and it was not a ‘garage sale’. UGH I was so embarrassed! Can you imagine as a teenager, the horror. Yikes! To this day, I make sure it’s a garage/yard sale before I get out of the vehicle.

Not quite up to date with the times

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I was on a trip and rented a car. I drive an old Jeep so all bells and whistles in this new car was a bit daunting (but fun). I had the gps on my phone and the phone needed to be charged. I plugged the usb into the slot and at the same time the radio also came on.

I love music! The majority of the music I listen to, is from my iTunes playlists and most of those are older (60’s – 70’s songs). The first song came on and I was happy with that so I left it on the station where it was. On the fourth song I mentioned to my passenger that I couldn’t believe what a great radio station this was, that I loved every song that’s come up.

The fifth song that came up was drumming music that wouldn’t be on a radio station and certainly wasn’t the same genre of music as the last four songs. When I realized that we were not listening to a radio station but that it was the music on my phone that was playing, I almost had to pull over from laughing so hard.

Not the first time I sipped tea

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There are some things that most of us take for granted. With our eyes closed, we can point to our nose, ears, mouth, etc. The same goes for eating and drinking. When we’re eating, most of us don’t have to think about where our mouth is.

I have a small (keyboard width) desktop in front of my keyboard with the monitor behind that. Thank goodness because when and (well IF doesn’t seem to be an appropriate word in my case because I’m pretty clutsy) if I spill something, which most likely I will (and do) from time to time, my computer and keyboard won’t be in the line of fire (or liquid most likely).

I was standing at my computer. I had my tea-mug in my hand and was looking at something on the computer. I’ve done this hundreds of times over the years however there must have been some mis-fire in my brain. I tipped the mug to take a sip and the tea when down the front of me. OMG! I know the edge of the mug was touching my bottom lip, or was it? I could not figure how I didn’t have my mouth in sync with my pour.

Sweet-tooth snacking surprise

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Many (many) years ago and this was so many years ago that one of my food staples was sweets. I still have quite the sweet tooth but avoid foods with sugar nowadays. My then husband liked sweet-snacking but not to the extreme that I did. For the sake of this story I will toss in the fact that I don’t like to waste food.

My husband had mentioned one time that he much preferred the Oreo cookie to the Oreo creme center. One day I had a sweet tooth and thought of those Oreo centers. I didn’t and still don’t like the Oreo cookie itself.

In my sweet-tooth, raging thought process I believed the non-wasteful, considerate thing to do was leave the Oreo cookies for my husband to eat and I’d just eat the centers. I was in the bedroom one night and heard my name called. Well, not called but yelled! Gulp! I knew he just found the creme center-less Oreos. I can’t remember if I got a lecture or just a look. I promised never to do it again.

A few things that I cringe thinking about

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Keeping warm: When I was very young and we lived up in the mountains and it would be so cold in the winter mornings. I would often jump out of bed and sit over the heat vent with my night-gown over my legs so that the heat would blow up and keep me warm. One morning I felt something on my leg. A daddy-long-legs came out of the heat vent and was crawling up my leg. I never sat over that vent like that again.

Poop patrol: When my boys were young we had labs and one smaller dog. If the boys were going out to play in the back yard, they were to pick up the dog poop before they played. We did have shovels and pooper-scoopers yet one day my older boy came running in to tell me that his younger brother (who was 6-7 years old at the time) was picking up dog poop with his hands. We were all grossed out, except my younger boy.

Smells: When my boys were young, for some reason if my husband or youngest son smelled something gross, they would immediately say, “Ewe, smell this”. Myself and my oldest son continually looked at them like they were nuts, “If it’s so gross, why would I want to smell it”.

Wipes: About two years ago I was having surgery to remove a kidney stone that got stuck. I had to go to the bathroom one last time before surgery. The attending nurse told me to be sure to use the wipes and sanitize myself again after I was done, and before heading back to the room.

I was done on the toilet and saw a plastic container of wipes. As I reached for it and vaguely remember that it had the word sanitizing on it. I wiped myself and instantly I felt an incredible burning. I hit the call button for the nurse. She quickly gave me the soothing wipes that were in a drawer (really?).

I had used the disinfectant sanitizing wipes. I wouldn’t recommend that.

Fireflies – We’re never too old

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In the mid-90’s I was working in Tennessee. I spent two-three weeks at a time there. One of the gals I worked with and her husband took me to dinner one evening. We went to the New Orlean’s Manor. It was daylight when we went in to the restaurant.

The sun had gone down by the time we came out. There was a yard right out front, across from the driveway. There were twinkling lights all over in the yard. I asked what the twinkling lights were.

Fireflies! OMG. I had never seen a firefly other than on tv. I ran out into them like I was 7 years old. I was in awe of them. I feel a twinkle in my heart and get warm fuzzies every time I think of them.

Selective Hearing

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When my oldest boy was in the third or fourth grade I was increasingly becoming concerned about his hearing. It seemed that he often said, “What” or just didn’t hear me at all.

I asked the school nurse to schedule him for a hearing test. At the end of the day she had him tested, she asked me to come in and sit down to discuss the results. She told me that his hearing tested good and that he was simply ignoring me. What a relief, I think.

I was a paranoid mom, worrying that something would happen to my boys. To my defense, they were young at the time that John Walsh’s son was taken. We were all a bit scared.

I would tell my son over and over to wear a helmet when he was on the skateboard or bicycle; to watch for car; etc. Years later I was on the phone with him and he started yelling at his young step-brother to put a helmet on. Ha Ha Ha … he listened, heard me, he just chose what to let me know what he had heard.

Practical Jokes and more

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I love fun, harmless practical jokes. When my kids were young we’d have impromptu hide and seek. Someone would hide in a closet. As soon as someone else realized we didn’t know where that person was, it was game-on! We often had to bring our little dog with us to hide because she was a tattle-tail. If the boys didn’t bring her with them, I could always count on her to help me find them. Unfortunately, my daughter-in-law hasn’t thought my adult son’s impromptu hiding is much fun.

We had a living room and a family room, with a dining room between them (in sort of an L shape). We had cable TV in each room and it just so happened that both of the remotes worked either TV. The boys would be watching TV in the family room and I would be here and there doing household whatever’s. I loved changing the channel they were watching, using the living room remote. I would only do it every few months so they would be taken completely off-guard.

They would look at each other perplexed at what happened. I would sometimes hide behind a chair or something so if they came to see if it was me, I’d be hiding. By the third channel change, they would catch on that it was me but it was so much fun.

These are just a couple … I’ll share more later.

I like what you like

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I like food and I like to eat. I’ve been blessed with a high metabolism throughout my life so that I can eat and not have every calorie add a few pounds to my weight. I haven’t been as fortunate the last have of my 50’s but it hasn’t been too bad and I eat what many people refer to as rabbit food (plant-based) so there’s that.

When my chosen daughter was about 12 years old she liked to eat whatever I liked to eat. I would go to the fridge and what I wanted was gone. I don’t mind sharing my food (mostly) but I like to know certain things are there when I want them.

It got to the point that I’d start experimenting. I’d get odd foods and flavors hoping that she wouldn’t like them and therefore, it would just be mine. I could rarely find something she didn’t like (she’d eat most anything, just like me). I can remember how thrilled I was when I got blue cheese dressing one time and she didn’t like it. Woo-Hoo! It was like finding the holy grail. The only problem was that I really didn’t like it either. I did however get used to it.

Lids for bowls, totes, and …

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It seems that about every 2 years I really clear out and reorganize. It’s usually in the middle of purging a lot of ‘stuff’. Like socks missing from the dryer, lids and matching bowls as well as lids and their matching totes seem to wander off.

Recently I noticed that I have quite a bit more lids than I do bowls and containers in my cupboard. How does that happen? I use them, they get washed and put away. I have the same issue with totes. Totes of all sizes from large storage totes to smaller ones. I have a box of lids and only two empty totes. I know I went through and had matches just a couple of years ago.

I’m a pretty organized person, so to have things turn up missing is a bit baffling. It’s one of those things that makes me shake my head, roll my eyes and chuckle it off. It seems that it’s a part of this life that just is what it is.

Yonder Firpiece?

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I grew up in Colorado and then moved to Idaho. My folks were born and raised in New York City and New York is where most of my relatives lived for much of my life. Other than occasionally on TV, New York accents were about the only accents I was really accustomed to hearing.

In the mid-90’s I was part of a team who was working on a project that primarily took place in Nashville. There were eight of us on this team, all from different offices within the Company. I was the only one who did not live in the South, two of them were from the Nashville area. I had been to that office a couple of times and over the years had been on the phone with some of my Nashville co-workers.

Our first day in Nashville to begin work on this project, we took a lunch break and it was decided that I would drive to where we were going to eat. I don’t know why I was the one driving since clearly I was not a local. This lunch outing would truly be my first introduction to the southern language. Most of these gals had as much fun with sarcasm as I have so … you can imagine the fun we had understanding each other. There were 5 of us who went to lunch that day.

I was guided to turn onto a road and then told to go ‘yonder firpiece’. For the first time in my interactions with my Nashville co-workers, I really felt like they were speaking a different language. I first asked how far ‘yonder is’. I would think that at least one of them would know how far ‘yonder’ is but I could not get a clear answer. I could let that go because from time to time we all say something like, go that way for a bit, a ways, etc but … what is a firpiece? When I questioned the definition of a firpiece’, we all laughed so hard I thought I’d have to pull over.

I can tell you that the only answer I got was that ‘firpiece’ is actually, ‘for a piece’. When we got to the restaurant it was a BBQ diner. I’m not a big BBQ fan but hey, when in Rome. I looked at the menu and had a tough time figuring out what to order. I wanted some basics since I was unfamiliar with most of the items listed. (I never imagined how different our foods were.) I ordered pork, corn bread, beans and hominy. When my plate was ready there was shredded meat, a pancake, bbq beans and the hominy. I went back to the ordering counter and told the gal that I got a pancake (I’m not fond of pancakes) instead of corn bread. … you guessed it, that was my corn bread.

One time in a restaurant the waitress asked me if I wanted a ‘coke’. I asked if that was the only ‘pop’ they had. She looked as stumped as I had felt on the drive to the BBQ diner. She said we have coke or water or sweet tea. I thought it was odd that they only carried coke. When the laughter at the table subsided I learned that ‘coke’ was the term for any soft drink just like the word ‘pop’ is to me.

I loved these gals and we worked together on this project for about a year and a half. I can’t tell you the numbers of times we teased and laughed about the differences in our food and language.

A dirty computer screen

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I was on a Zoom call with the ‘gallery’ view set so that I could see everyone. There was just three of us this call so each image was fairly good size.

I was looking at a gal while she was speaking and a spot on my computer screen, near her shoulder distracted me. I wanted to ignore it so I could give her my full attention but knowing it was there, my eyes kept going to the spot.

It was a small spot. I assumed I must have been eating something the last time I was at the computer and some food leapt from my mouth onto the screen.

I reached to wipe it off, finger to the screen and … it wouldn’t wipe off. Not only did it not wipe off but I couldn’t feel a raise like hardened on food either. Hmmmm, I thought it was distracting before, yikes.

I decided to let it go and I’d take a closer look when the call was over. Only a few moments later, the gal who had been speaking got up. The spot on my screen was actually a ball on the top of the back of the wooden chair she was sitting in. The way she was sitting, I couldn’t see the back of the chair, just the ball on the screen right above her shoulder.

We all got a good laugh over that one.