Ouija, Memories

I've posted stories and memories in alphabetical order that have helped me share Mom with you. As many of you know she died last April and it's been cathartic for me to remember the good times. Many of my memories have spurred memories for you all too, which has been fun.

So this Ouija Board is my O memory. Mom and I played with this for hours and always had great fun with it. It's one of the few items I kept from my childhood, and you can tell by the box...it's been around a good number of years. It was common place for she and I to sit on the edge of my bed after we had done the dinner dishes and ask Ouija questions. It was our "Girl Time." We asked it important questions, like who was gonna ask me to the next dance. lol Sometimes it would just start talking to us. After we'd ask it questions, we say Ouija do you have any information for us; and it often did. As I recall my Ouija was a male Ouija, it told us that. My brothers and Dad would come in the room and laugh at us, say we were pushing it....but we weren't. They'd try it but it typically didn't work very well with them.

It did predict things pretty accurately for me. Once in fact, it spelled out a name of someone I didn't know. A few days later, I met this boy walking down the hall at school. A short week later he asked me out; and we dated for awhile. Sometimes in the summer months just before school was due to start we'd ask it what my school schedule was going to be. What teachers I was going to have. We even wrote them down so we could compare when school did start. So, the force was strong with Mom and I.

A good friend loved it too, and it wasn't uncommon for the 3 of us to play with it. She soon got one of her own and we had neighborhood parties. We'd get both Ouija boards going at the same time with all the neighborhood kids around. This was when we were all in High School, as I recall. Good times were had by all. Her Ouija was a girl Ouija. I wonder if she still has hers?

I always thought of it as a toy; until a few years ago I read some people are actually afraid of them, and won't let their kids play with them, or have them in their houses. I know one person goes to garage sales for the purpose of finding the old original ones to destroy them. Don't get that. Don't want one, fine don't buy one or use one. Why destroy someone elses fun and in my case very special memories of Mom.

Too bad I didn't get this out of the basement all these years, we could have had some more fun.

My alphabetical Memories:

Other Memories:
A=Advice, Afghan, Apples
B=Bread, and Bernie
C=Camping, Creativity and Courage
D=Dancing and Delaware Dam
E=Energy and Etiquette
F=Friday
G=Gown (wedding gown), grape pop
H=Hammocks and Holidays
I=Ice Skating and Isaly's
J=JACKS, Mother and Daughter, childhood games
K=Kindess, something we're taught
L=Love Story
M=Memories, One Year Ago Today (Making Do and Mohican)
N=Noodles Over Niagara

W=Wow Mom, The Wisteria

This is For The Birds

This weather is for the Birds! Dark, Gray, Wet, Rainy AGAIN. And we're expecting more of it tomorrow and the day after that; and the day after that. Then it might clear for part of the next day before the rains move in again for weekend!

My yard is sooooooooooooooo green it looks like I painted it with a really big bright green paint brush. Now that's pretty; but my flowers are soggy. And I need some decent weather to plant some annuals in the pots for the porch and the deck.

Rain makes me sleepy, tired, and makes me think of how miserable the poor homeless folks are without a dry place to sleep. And so, I need to work more on my ghan for the homeless (see notes regarding that in my previous post); and got my fingers and toes crossed for a sunny day to help dry us all out. Though I do have to un-cross my fingers to knit and or crochet.

Mother's Day

Pretty, colorful, edible, healthy even. This pretty fruit basket/boutique was sent by my daughter. Isn't it darling? And it tasted soooooooooooo good. Strawberries, pineapple, grapes, 2 types of melon and chocolate-peanut butter covered Granny Smith Apples.

We spent the day on planes flying from Ontario, CA to Midway in Chicago and back home to Columbus. I find traveling tiring. Partially because you don't really eat normally, partially because of the chaos that seems to exist in airports and let's not forget all the various time zones. So during one of times on the ground she did call to wish me Happy Mother's Day and then had this fabulous fruit delivered to me on Monday. Hubby and I enjoyed it with every meal for a couple of days. What a great gift!

Thought of my own Mother, this now being the 2nd Mother's Day without her. My next post will be about her, another of my memories; as soon as I can get the picture needed.

I took yarn, knitting needles and crochet hook with me naturally. I did knit each day and on the flights coming and going; but took more then I needed; which is typical. lol When it's 80-90 and one can spend time at the pool enjoying the sun the yarn takes 2nd fiddle. We've not seen much of sun in these parts you know with all the snow in the winter and the still cool damp weather here.

I am though at what I consider the half-way point in my first knitted ghan. Nothing fancy, a simple corner to corner using every color in the rainbow and then some. Using up odds and ends, left-overs and am having fun seeing how the colors are coming together. I'm now at the point where I'll start decreasing; thus what I believe to be the half-way point. Don't normally make a square ghan so no doubt will need to do something about an edge; so perhaps a bit less than the half-way point. This ghan is slated for Pine Street, which is a homeless benefit you can read all about on my Bridge and Beyond.
Picture looks a bit blurry, perhaps I moved a bit. When I get further along I'll try it again to share.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Plan for the day:
yard work
laundry
make blog rounds for all on my blog log...........got all 23 done!
make and schedule a few blog posts
do my EC's drops
check my work schedule

How Dare You!

I was staring at this quite a while waiting for the lite to turn green, then I remembered I had my camera in my purse; as I often due. Snap! Did it quick, so it's a bit blurred. Cropped out the license plate. I found I thought lots and lots about these as I was driving around that day and wondered why someone would plaster this on their car. It's not something I've seen before. We also know this individual supports or thinks you should support your local music. And what exactly does support your local music mean? The church choir, a band at the bar?

I found it a bit ironic, they didn't want you to presume something as important as what their religion is; but they feel the need to tell you what to support. So, the question is what does it make you think of? Do you think they're an atheist, or Muslim or perhaps they follow witchcraft. My mind races, so many possibilities. What do you think? Do you notice bumper stickers?

In general, I don't like bumper stickers.

Making Green $$ and being Green

You're looking at $21.00. Ok, I'm sure of you are scratching you head and saying, poor thing she's really gone over this time. There are 7 ink cartridges in this zip lock bag from computer printers. I had them tucked away and kept forgetting to take with me when I'd shop at Staples. So, they've added up. You receive $3.00 everytime you recycle a print cartridge at Staples. When I took these in, they did something on their computer and when I signed in a couple of weeks later I saw I had a $21.00 credit. I've printed my receipt and am ready to do some shopping.

So, by being Green and recycling my cartridges I'm making Green...yep real green $$ money. Thought I'd pass along yet another tip to help the environment for your children and your grandchildren.

Is Mother Nature Confused? Mixed up?

This is a yellow tulip in my backyard. How, or why the red appeared is beyond me. This is not a new tulip, one in fact I've had since my daughter was in grade school. It's always been all yellow. My daughter was in grade school 15+ years ago. There was no red on it last year. Click on picture to see it larger, do you see a tiny bit of red tipped on the edge?

As of today, I finally have a way to decrease picture size. On the recommendations of a friend who's techy, I downloaded a free software program called Irfanview. I don't really know how to do much yet. But, I was able to change the size of this photo from 3000 x 4000 pixels to 1500 x 2000 pixels, then when I loaded it here, used small. Believe it loads faster, and should use less storage?

I have a free trail of Adobe Photoshop Elements, but I find it very difficult to use, and only once was I able to change the size. After I did it, I couldn't tell you how I finally did it. So, when the free period is gone I will not be buying it, I will be uninstalling it.

So, what do you think is Mother Nature Mixed Up? What happened to the tulip?

Before and After

I've shared a few of pasta dishes with you before, but thought it was time for another. As the pasta (bow tie) is cooking, slice red and yellow peppers (slice not chopped for nice larger pieces), sliced fresh mushrooms, red onion. Sprinkle with olive oil, add pine nuts, and 4 or 5 sliced sun dried tomatoes. The veggie mix will be cooked in the microwave for about 4 minutes covered. Wait til your pasta's almost finished so the veggies aren't mushy. Quickly brown Andouille Sausage (don't need but about a cup). You'll add the sausage to veggie mix so don't over cook when browning it.
When pasta is drained (I like al dente) return to pot, throw in 3 -4 handfuls of fresh baby spinach, top with veggie mix mixture, mix til it seems coated, the spinach will be lightly wilted but not mushy. Serve over pasta, sprinkle freshly ground Romano cheese.

Quick, Easy, Pretty, and pretty darn good if I do say so myself. And I do. lol

All you need to top of the meal is a nice glass of wine and good loaf of bread. Not garlic bread, the sausage is very full of flavor so the garlic bread would fight it.

I call this Andouille Pasta Vegetable Medly