Thursday January 5

[SoCalGalcas]

Good Morning, we’ve had a little rain here. The surf is supposed to get up to 10-15 foot waves. I will believe it when I see it. My grandson will probably go surfing if it is that high. We are so far south of all the excitement in Northern CA. Nothing like that is going on down here. If we do have some flooding, it will be in the areas that flood every time there is a little rain. And, I am sure there will be a car or two that attempts to drive through a flooded area and the people will have to be rescued. Happens every year.
Some people out on a sightseeing boat to see the whales migrating, saw a cow give birth! What a thrill that must have been.
Also, and Beth you will enjoy this. A Snowy Owl was spotted living in Orange County. A little north of here! People were arriving from all over to see it. I would go up to see it if I were still driving.
Going to talk with a lawyer today. Has to do with my son who has cancer. I want to make sure that his wife gets his share of my estate when I die. I like her very much and she has been a good wife.
Lyn

[Shirlv]

Morning All, sunny and warm. California I’m thinking of you. ((Hugs)) Frustrating morning. Long wait on hold for a doctor appointment. Just a yearly wellness check, success in two months. Placed a pickup order at Food Lion for dairy, produce, etc. Took forever to go through the list of substitute if they don’t have my choice. I have enough trouble thinking of my choice. I was going to whine some more but everyone is facing the same difficulties. My smile for the day, a toddler wonderful laughter at her dad trying to hula hoop in the aisle of Walmart. Love those kind of dads. Be safe

[Colliemom]

Good Morning Shirl and all. Shirl, just made a post, saw you beat me by two minutes. So I copied my post and moved it over here. Still morning here in northern Michigan. Light trace of snow overnight. Current temperature is 33°. Looks like there might be a little precept coming down out there but hard to tell. Nothing exciting on the weather front here, for at least the next week. We had some rain yesterday afternoon him the dogs and I got a little wet on our walk. Other than having some rain blowing in my face I didn’t really care because I was dry and warm. It wasn’t raining when we started out but it started after we got about halfway through our walk. The dogs didn’t seem to care either. I just told them off when we got home.

Haven’t been doing anything this morning except looking at printers online. That gets a bit overwhelming although the really expensive ones are definitely out and so are the lower priced ones. Just out of curiosity, those of you who have Apple devices and have printers would you mind telling me what kind of printers you have and if you like it, have any issues and so forth. I have Maya and a couple of canon right now because I have used Karolyn for years but HP seems to be popular too.

Beth, I didn’t think you would want tear your hair out combining three posts yesterday When I started mine nobody was on. I usually have a habit of posting and then going back to look to see if somebody else may have started a thread and posted while I was typing mine. Thrn usually change mine over depending on who posted first. Martha just beat me yesterday because I was still typing when she posted. So I copied my post and transferred it to her post. Then after that I noticed that O’Sharon had posted before both of us, so I re-copied my post from Martha’s post and changed it to O’Sharon’s And yes it was funny that we came up with the same opening titles. I guess we were all on the same wave link.

[Shirlv]

Sue, I have a cannon printer PIXM ATS6420 now listed for $70 on Amazon. Nothing fancy, small and works well. Printer cartridges are outrageous. I mistakenly ordered off brand and it created real problems. The window for instructions is so tiny I couldn’t read it. Family figured it was faulty cartridges. I will think about a printer that uses toner in the future. I have always cannon and find it reliable as long as I don’t mess it up. Lol

[Bethers]

Sue, same today. You and Shirl both missed Lyn's post, but you copying into Shirl's meant I only had two to merge.

Ty keeps finding "cleaned" fish. Yesterday he brought over to me not realizing I'd take it and not return it. He must have seen where I threw it in the tall grasses because he found it today and only let me take about half. He happily ate the bones and all. Better than the hog carcass he got into once. I complained about that and it got cleaned up and disposed of.

[Cudedog]

Going to talk with a lawyer today. Has to do with my son who has cancer. I want to make sure that his wife gets his share of my estate when I die. I like her very much and she has been a good wife.
Lyn

Lyn, your son's wife is surely blessed to have a mother-in-law like you. This is a lovely story, thanks for sharing. I, too, was blessed to have a wonderful mother-in-law. She did not leave me anything in her estate (which was perfectly fine, nor did I expect anything, she didn't have much).

But while she was living, we would take my children (and my dog - she always loved dogs) on wonderful long trips, and leave the (now long-time ex) husband at home.

One time, when my children were small, we loaded everything up in my station wagon and headed out from California to Vermont (oh, my, do I still love the beauty of Vermont). We were gone for several weeks (I forget how long), and made a stop in Pennsylvania where she had family that she had not seen in decades, before continuing on to the Green Mountain State (Vermont - Vert [green] mont [mountain] is French, I think).

My dog, an American Pit Bull Terrier, was a true sweetheart, a good traveler, and one of the great loves of my life. I weep for her still, just writing this. . .

It was October, and getting quite cold. One of the first nights we spent in Vermont was at a slightly run-down bed and breakfast sort of place. LOL. In actuality, it was really just a guest house in someone's back yard (I had not known this when I booked it). When we arrived, well after dark, we were a bit dismayed to find that there was only one bed for the five of us (five, counting dog). It was kind of in a rural area, and I was just too tired to move on to find something better. So I made my kids and - I think my daughter was about four years old, and my son about three - a bed on the floor using sleeping bags and blankets from my car.

Although my mother-in-law loved dogs, I could see that she had been more than a bit hesitant with my dog during our long drive from California to Vermont, probably due to all of the negative press Pitties have always received, from that day to this. Since I could see she was hesitant, I was careful with my dog (who was well-trained, to the point that I could easily use hand signals with her) because I wanted my Mother in law to be comfortable around her, and happy and in our journey. I could tell that my Mother in law appreciated this.

I settled my dog at my feet on the floor and went to sleep.

The next morning - INSTANT PANIC. I could not find my dog, in this tiny room-and-a-bathroom space. I leapt out of bed, calling her name, looked in the bathroom, under the bed, flung open the door and looked outside, now screaming her name in panic.

Nothing! Where was she? What had happened to her?? Had someone let her outside without my knowing???

My mother-in-law was a bit of a heavy sleeper, and all of my rushing around, loudly calling for my dog had finally awakened her. She muttered something sleepily, I looked at her, she had a slight smile on her face as she pulled back her covers.

There was my sweet dog, curled tight against my mother-in-laws side (the position my dog often slept with me); both of them warm, comfy, and snug-as-bugs-in-a-rug.

My relief was so great that I very nearly burst into tears. My Mother-in-law said something to the effect that it was too cold for her (my dog) on the floor, she wanted up, so my Mother-in-law let her in. She said that they both had had a very good sleep - I was glad to hear it, because sleeping on the floor had been very cold!!

After that, my Mother-in-law never had any further concerns about my sweet Pittie girl for the rest of my dog's life. They became best buddies, and always seemed happy to see one another.

Happy January, everyone. Hope all of you are staying warm, and safe - and dry.

Thanks for reading.

Anne

[Acadianmom]

Beth, Sugar would help Ty find dead things to eat. lol She ate something in the neighbors yard yesterday and I wasn't fast enough to see what it was.

It seems like every time I try to start the morning post someone else does too.

We have sun shine today. It's a little cooler at 69. It got cool in the house last night because I had the a/c set for cold instead of heat.

I have a Canon MX922 printer. As Shirl says, the cartridges are outrageous. I have ordered the discount ones and haven't had a problem with them yet. My son set it up so I'm hoping I don't have problems with it because I wouldn't know what to do. I wish I could remember what I had before this one because I really liked that one.

I should bring a hula hoop to the next campout. That would be a hoot. I could do it in high school but the last time I tried I couldn't.

I was blessed to have two good mothers-in-law. Harold's mother never learned to drive so I was her chauffeur a lot of the time. She and her husband ran a country store for years and I think the only time she went to town was if she was sick and had to go to the doctor. She had a brother in Lake Charles and a brother in Baton Rouge and she never got to see them unless they came to see her. When I was traveling East or West I would bring her to spend a few days with her brother and pick her up on my way home. My son had a Boston Terrier that wasn't really a lap dog but if my mother-in-law came to the house he would be in her lap. She broke a hip when my son was about 2 and we got a hospital bed for her to stay with us. I still regret not taking a picture of her and my son in the bed.

I can't think of a reason to go to town other than I need a tax box for 2021 papers. I still have to haul the 2020 box to the old house. My filing is a lot better since I got the small 2 drawer file cabinet. It seems like I have to find something in the last years tax papers often and it was a pain to have to dig through a box.

Martha

[Redetotry]

The sun is out but it feels cooler today. I need a nap I haven't slept well the last two nights I'm blaming it on the phase of the moon.

Shirl I had to laugh yesterday when you said "I wished I lived close to you, I am not afraid of messing up your new computer." I think if we did live close we could find a lot of trouble to get into. I'm starting to think I should look into getting something different as I see some of the desktops are being phased out and it sounds as though it is easier now to transfer.

Anne that was a good story about your trip with your mother in law. Lyn that is very thoughtful of you to to remember your daughter-in-law.

I'm going to look up a recipe for spaghetti with chicken. I have chicken breasts thawed and need to do something with them.

I just looked at recipes for chicken spaghetti and they all use things like cream of mushroom soup and cheese nooooo ! I thought it was like regular spaghetti only using chicken breast and maybe different spices. Does anyone make it that way? I know it is practically a sacrilege but I don't even like mac and cheese

[Irmi]

Good afternoon ladies!

When I checked in earlier today, I said to myself that Beth would be merging a couple posts again. I believe for the past 5 days, we've had 2 pages of posts everyday! Yay us! Martha, I used to carry a hoola-hoop in one of our compartments and Steve said since I couldn't hoola anymore, we needed the room for things we needed. I'll bet I could do that if he let me practice long enough. Anne, I was thinking about you with your weather but you didn't mention that on your post. Please take care. BJ, I thought the chicken would substitute the ground beef as well. What did you end up making?

We had some rain this morning but nothing like CA has had. But it started earlier enough that I didn't get my daily walk in. There was a meeting in the clubhouse this morning that we attended. Tomorrow I have not one but two Dr. appts. We started making out the invitations for our 50th wedding anniversary yesterday, or did I already tell you that? You have no idea how excited I am about having everyone over and feeding them lunch. Enjoy the rest of your night!

[JudyJB]

Chicken spaghetti is easy! Just make your regular spaghetti sauce (can of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, mushrooms, chopped onions, garlic powder, oregano and basil.) I toss it all into one big pan. Then I cut up chicken breasts into 2" cubes (or smaller if you want) and toss them in. Simmer it all for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. Cubes usually break up a little, which is good. If you have any leftover red wine, toss in 1/4 cup. Otherwise, it will be fine without it. If it gets too thick while simmering, add a bit of water.

That's it! Cannot imagine adding those cans of soup. That would not make it spaghetti.

We had 2.95" of rain in last 24 hours, and power went out for a little more than an hour last night. Son was going to come over and "fix" it until he realized his power was out also! Came on early enough so we were warm enough.

Oh, I checked the link to Oroville yesterday and again today, and it has gone up 2 feet in that time. Not enough, but a start.

[cnq50b]

Hi everyone!

It's a rare day that I don't have any commitments.
My DD is in Encinitas with her dad, my son & family went up to their lake house so no baby duties this week & I've caught up on my contract work.

I should be cleaning my place, but I prefer to catch up on what you all are up to.

Sue, I have an HP 2540 printer. I use off-brand replacement ink cartridges (Onn - from Walmart) & they work fine. I've had this printer for a few years now & it's still plugging away. Of course, maybe I'm cursing it by saying this.

Anne, what a sweet story about your MIL & your pup.

Lyn, We've had solid rain up here since last evening. It stopped about an hour or so ago, the sun came out for 5-10 minutes & now it's just overcast. We expect more rain a little later on. I'm just hoping for a clear day next Wed as I have to take my DD to the airport.

We got some of the first hoola-hoops from the county fair when I was about 5. It took as a while to figure out how to do it.

I've adjusted to the contract work somewhat but need to see how it goes once I have the baby full-time & I want to see what it does to my taxes. Plus French class starts in a few weeks so that'll need some time too. Anne, you're right... 'Be careful what you wish for...' I think God must have read my mind during the summer when I was bored.

One tough thing about doing the contract work is they use Microsoft systems (word, excel, outlook, etc) & I've been using Macs at home for a very long time. Trying to figure out how to get around was part of the challenge. I can find my way now, but I know the folks working there would laugh at how I maneuver.

Well, I'd better get moving.
Hopefully I can drop in more frequently soon.
Take care,
Catherine

[Bethers]

When I looked up chicken spaghetti nothing like you are doing Judy. Almost all are casseroles with spaghetti noodles and chicken but then mainly cheesy.

Rita posted a pic on FB of their snow. She commented that she doesn't know how to post pics here so I stole that picture to share for her here.


Arizona needs some of that rain. Or at least the Colorado river does as Arizona is looking to really be limiting water soon.

[RitaMc]

Thanks Beth. Central Minnesota was the bulls eye for this storm. It snowed for about 36 hours straight with no let up. The picnic table is in our front yard out of the wind so a good representation of the amount of snow this area got. Fourteen to fifteen inches. We haven't had snow like this in the 21 century but it represents Minnesota winters of old. Pretty but I am thankful we don't have to drive any where. A friend (who really doesn't sew ) was asked by her grand daughter to make her a fleece blanket and she purchased a few yards too much. I am making g fleece blankets to donate to the crisis nursery center with the extra fleece. A good day to be under a layer of fleece at the machine. Time to heat up last nights left overs.

[Shirlv]

Bj, I miss getting in trouble. Life was more fun than cooking.

[JudyJB]

I put Parmesan cheese on top of the noodles and sauce but you don’t have to. Also notice that my recipe for the sauce has absolutely no oil or butter in it because I don’t brown the chicken. Just throw it in a big pot. Also, I know some people put sugar in spaghetti sauce but i do not like a sweet sauce.

My parents said we’d to throw in a whole cut up chicken but I don’t like dealing with the bones.

You can also make the sauce ahead of time and freeze it.