I felt the kitty rub up against me, you know how they do if they want you to scratch their back for them. Then the kitty cat went over to the door and I thought, no! don’t go in, I don’t have enough time right now to chase you down and get back on the phone in time. I have seen this kitty a few times and I have said hello to the kitty but you know how kitty cats are, they just ignore you.

When I was done putting the clothes in the washer, I walked towards the sliding door and the sniffing kitty. The noise I made scared the kitty and the kitty took off. I was safe for now. I would be able to go right back to work and not worry about trying to catch a strange cat and put it outside.

I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I felt something down by my left foot, so I reached down and scratched it but it turned out to be what I thought was a mini lizard. I see mini lizards sunning themselves on the fence when I go to get the mail. they move very quickly and disappear very soon. I went back to sleep and I dreamed of mini lizards and turtles.

When I started work the next day my pant leg felt funny but I didn’t think anything of it. Later when I was working I felt something on my knee. I reached down and thought I got what was crawling and threw it off. Later I felt something in the back of my pant leg. This time I was on a call so I tried to find it without missing a beat. I did find it and I crushed it.

It was on the inside of the pant leg so it was easy to crush without the worry of getting bit or stung. The next time I could log off I did and took my pants off. I looked on the inside of that pant leg and found a dead beetle. This is what I had found earlier that same morning when I had gone to the bathroom and thought was a mini lizard.

Every time I leave the draft dodger away from the front door some small creatures find their way into my house. I have to try to remember to check before I go to bed to see if the draft dodger is snug up against the door.

The neighbors are moving. They don’t like the neighborhood because the kids can’t ride their bikes up and down the street. So now I have to put up with new neighbors. Sigh. Just when I got used to the fact that I didn’t have to make adjustments for extremely noisy neighbors. They don’t believe me that they are the best neighbors I have had. I did see some suspicious behavior when they first moved in and I saw some suspicious behavior just before they moved out. I wonder what TJMax is going to bring me for new neighbors?

I was flossing my teeth and a tooth that was cracked split apart. I started looking at inexpensive dental insurance. My AARP membership gave me a quote for $38 per month. I got a lead from a co-worker about Encore Dental. So I went online right away and got a quote. I got a quote for less than AARP for $31.50 per month. I choose to pay more right away per month so I could get serious dental work done right away. I got my Encore Dental card in the mail along with the dental plan. I like my new dentist, she is really nice and so are the people who work there. My tooth is now fixed and it was almost painless, even though it was a root canal.

I took a shower and there was no hot water. Right now you can still have a cold shower as the temperatures have not dropped far enough to make a difference. I cleaned up the house and called the landlord. The landlord said he was coming that afternoon or maybe a bit later in the early evening. I was worried because the neighbors had a lot of debris scattered around the yard. I was going to tell them the landlord was coming. I went out to get the mail and lo and behold, the neighbors had done one of their outside cleaning up the yard bits, so I didn’t have to tell them the landlord was coming.

My fan died. It got to be monsoon season, so I needed something more to get a breeze going. It worked well until the fan died. So I went shopping for a new fan. I got a heavy-duty fan and it has a very long stand. I was using it and smelled the same thing I smelled just before the other fan died, so I turned it off. That was a few weeks ago and now the temps have dropped so I don’t need to run the swamp cooler all day and night and don’t need a fan. I personally think there is something wrong with the wiring in this apartment and it won’t allow too much electricity to be going through the wires.

There is a Beetle burial ground out by my trash containers. I did see a dead beetle this summer. Last summer I did not see a dead beetle and over last winter it was very dry and extremley dry this summer. So dry that you probably saw news reports on TV about the blazes in AZ. The other summers there have been dead beetles by the trash container and the Monsoons have come and no draught. So the summer with no dead beetle was followed by a very dry winter and then the next summer more fires than normal. So this summer I had a dead beetle and will see if there is the usual wet winter. Then I will be able to predict a dry summer with more than the usual number of fires.

In the early evenings, my Aunt let me play with the kids in the neighborhood as long as I did not go farther than I could hear her call me. I remember hearing her call my name and then I said goodbye to the kids I was playing with and went back to my Uncle and Aunts house.

My Uncle was an architect and he had people working for him. One day my Uncle and Aunt visited one of his employees. The guy was Asian, had a wife and two little girls about my age. So I spent the whole visit playing with the two little girls. One evening my Aunt let me go through her trunks for a fun play. She gave me some things from the trunks that I could take home with me and I have some of those to this day. A couple of aprons, a purse and so on.

Soon the week was gone and my Aunt was doing stuff to get ready to go. She had bought some groceries  and left those in a couple of bags in the dining room on a chair. I was playing with the neighbor kids and had told them what was in the bags. They convinced me to open the bag of marshmallows and share them. So I snuck in and did so. I snuck in several times and of course I snuck in once too often and my Aunt caught me. She was so nice. She put me on her lap and talked to me about what I had done and why it was wrong. She did it in such a way that I didn’t take it the wrong way but that I knew it was wrong and I was sorry and that I wouldn’t do it again.

I don’t know why they picked me to come spend a week with them. My Mother’s sister and brother also had kids that they could have chosen. But, chose me they did and I wrote to my Great Aunt often. I could tell when she needed a new pacemaker because her handwriting became even more difficult to read. She came to Ann Arbor one time for a pacemaker and I visited her in the Hospital. We wrote back and forth until she died.

About half an hour later mom comes out and takes me to the bathroom and gets a bath ready and starts to help me clean up. I remember this distinctly as strange because I had been bathing myself for quite a while. My brothers are all dirty as well, but I am the only one getting a bath. Each one of my brothers comes in and cleans up at the sink in the bathroom while mom gives me a bath.

My Mother’s Uncle and Aunt had come down from a Northern Michigan city to take me for a visit for one week. So this was my Great Uncle and Great Aunt, my Grandmother’s brother and sister-in-law. I remember riding in the back seat all by myself. Riding in a seat by myself was totally unheard of as all five of us kids rode in the back seat when mom and dad took us somewhere. This was accomplished by one child back, one child front edge of seat, one child back, one child front edge of seat, one child back.

We had supper and later it was time to go to bed. I was in a bed all by myself. This was strange for me because I just slept at home on the wicker sofa at night and had never slept in a bed before now. I couldn’t get to sleep so I sat at the top of the stairs and listened to my Great Aunt and Great Uncle talking while they watched TV.  My Great Aunt went to the kitchen for something and noticed me sitting at the top of the stairs.

She stopped what she was doing and came up and talked to me. She taught me the Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep prayer. Not all of it just what follows.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
Lord, be with me through the night
And keep me ’til the morning light.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
If I should live for other days,
I pray the Lord to guide my ways.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
If I die before I wake,
I ask the Lord my soul to take.

Then I went to sleep.

to be continued………..

You can’t have a cooking show unless you use the word ‘carmelize’ or some form thereof. Your food always tastes good, you never make a face when you taste it. You don’t have to tell me that you ‘really like x or y’ this is a given, otherwise you would be cooking something else. I do, how some ever, enjoy when you tell me WHY you are doing something.

Made In Spain (José Andrés) Only the home page is in Spanish the rest of the website is mostly english http://www.josemadeinspain.com/

one liner – Spanish cooking

niche - All Spanish cooking, all the time.

He has an accent and his rhythm and cadence of speech is a little distracting but he is very enthusiastic.

Travels to Spanish shops and businesses as well as Spanish markets to show us how they cook something or where they get something. Washington D.C. is where he lives and where he cooks for his TV show

Lidia’s Italy(Lidia Bastianich) http://www.lidiasitaly.com/

one liner – Italian cooking

niche - All Italian cooking, all the time.

Travel – Takes you to different cities in Italy and food markets in Italy. She cooks in her kitchen. She has guest chefs. Sometimes one of the guest chefs is her mom. The guest chef cooks unless it is her mom. Mom watches and advises. Sometimes the Italian people are uncomfortable when she speaks English for the camera. She uses all the parts from an animal for recipes. Apparently Italians have a favorite food made from corn meal called Polenta. They put it in a sandwich all by itself or they use it in different recipes.

Mexico – One plate at a time Rick Bayless http://www.rickbayless.com/

one liner – Mexico, cooking

niche - All Mexico cooking all the time. He can speak (probably write and read also) fluent Spanish.

most knowledgeable – Tied with Steven Raichlen

most unusual scenario – half-naked in Mexico spelunking episode and all after food. Also unusual (for cooking shows) occasionally uses a pit to cook the dish.

He travels to different places in Mexico. The Spanish people seem to like him and they are not uncomfortable when he speaks English for the camera. He really researches the dishes and the history of the place he takes you to. He does not have guest chefs but his daughter helps him cook. He cooks at his home or at his restaurant.

Barbeque America (Rick Browne) http://www.barbecueamerica.com/

Have not watched enough shows to be able to have a complete review.

Food Trip with Todd English http://www.toddenglish.com/

niche - Travels all over to find a dish.

Have not watched enough shows to do a complete review.

Hubert Keller : Secrets of a Chef http://www.fleurdelyssf.com/

one liner – French meets West and no guest chefs or guest cooks.

niche - Cooks in the Kitchen of his restaurant (Sleek) and you can see people in the background performing chores.

Doesn’t really travel it is all done in one kitchen or another.

He is enthusiastic and excited clearly loves what he is doing. He has won some awards for cooking. He starts out the show in his show kitchen and ends the show in the kitchen of one of his eight restaurants. You can download recipes from his website.

America’s Test Kitchen From Cooks Illustrated(Christopher Kimball) http://americastestkitchen.com/

one liner -  Consumer Reports meets Everyday cooking.

niche - They research the cooking process, re the chemistry that happens. They also research the utensils and equipment that is used.

There appears to be more going on than we can see.

safety tips – occasionally has some cautions.

Least traveled? They don’t go anywhere, most of the action takes place in the test kitchen.

Occasionally does a gourmet recipe. Most bang for your buck for non gourmet. They really test different chemical processes so you get the best flavor for the least amount of money. They cook food over and over again using different ingredients or different processes to get the best taste. They qualify traditional recipes by saying this recipe calls for X but we found that doesn’t really work so we found  Y (either a different process or different ingredient) works better.

Daisy Cooks! (Daisy MartÃnez) http://www.daisymartinez.com/home.shtm

Has the most Joie de vivre

Have not watched enough shows to do a complete review. 

Sara’s Weeknight Meals (Sara Moulton)(went to  U of M Ann Arbor) http://www.saramoulton.com/

one liner – Great meals in about an hour (or less sometimes).

niche - gourmet meals geared to cook on a week night.

A bright cheery kitchen to match her bright cheery personality. Knows her stuff. Kitchen is well laid out. Sara does not own a restaurant but has cooked in lots of them. Recipes can be found on her website. She has written several books. She has done a lot of work in television in a behind the scenes capacity and in front of the camera also. Sara does not really travel on her show but she has traveled the world. Sara’s Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_moulton does not mention that she has won any awards.

Jacques Pépin:Fast Food My Way (Jacques Pépin) http://www.kqed.org/food/jacquespepin/

I think he was Julia Child’s favorite person to cook (on TV) with.

Dirtiest Chef – he does not wash his hands very often. He usually just uses his towel that he has hanging at his waist.

Have not watched enough shows to do a complete review.

Christina Cooks (Christina Pirello) http://www.christinapirello.org/

one liner – More than cooking

niche - Health food plus singing and exercise.

She could do without the singer of her choice.

Doesn’t really travel it is all done in the kitchen or a room nearby (for the singing and for the exercises).

Have not watched enough shows to do a complete review.

Primal Grill With Steven Raichlen (Barbeque U) http://www.primalgrill.org/

one liner – Barbeque, barbeque and more barbeque.

niche - Cooking with barbeques.

If I was his wife he could buy as many barbeques as he wanted to.

safety tips – Never forgets to tell you how to be safe while cooking. Keep the food safe and keep yourself from getting burned.

most knowledgeable – Tied with Rick Bayless. Sometimes he forgets to tell you to remove the membrane, usually with ribs.

most traveled – Without a doubt.

most countries – He has seen a lot of the world plus he has researched the history of the dishes he prepares.

most unusual food cooked (sorry forget what it was).

Rachel Ray (Rachel Ray) http://www.rachaelray.com/

niche – Does her cooking before a live audience and has guest celebrities to sit at the table with her.

Cooks food that is popular with the audience whether it is good for you or not.

Slowest Chopper and does not seem to use utensils that she is comfortable with.

Nick Stellino Cooking with Friends  Nick Stellino http://www.nickstellino.com/

one liner - His friends are (no surprise) Chefs.

niche - Talks with his guest host. A Lot. You wonder if they can actually cook the dish in the time alloted.

Talks with his hands. A lot.

He is very enthusiastic and seems very happy. One time I saw him come in to the set wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. You don’t usually see chefs do this. He has not won any cooking awards but he was grand master of the Columbus Parade in San Francisco (a first for a chef). You can download recipes from his website. He has a blog.

Everyday Food (Martha Stewart) http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/

niche - Has Five people prepare five dishes in one half hour, this doesn’t work for me because you don’t really get to hear about the dish and what to do with it due to lack of time.

If you don’t have a lot of time you can see five dishes prepared in this show.

Simply Ming (Ming Tsai) 蔡明昊 http://www.ming.com/simplyming

one liner – East Meets West

niche – When he has a guest chef on, he prepares a dish. Then later he helps the guest chef prepare a dish, then they sit down to a table and eat the dishes that were prepared on that day’s show.

He travels to China and shows us how they eat a dish in China. The Chinese do not seem uncomfortable when he speaks English for the camera.

Cleanest chef has a handy sink. Washes his hands a lot and when he is too far away from the sink he has a bowl of water to wash nearby.

Joanne Weir’s Cooking class http://www.joanneweir.com/index.php

niche – Has a person next to her that is the ‘student’, this doesn’t work for me. On NCIS the characters Ziva and DiNozzo’s animosity towards one another doesn’t work for me either. Joanne’s student never asks questions this is unrealistic.

Have not watched enough shows for a complete review and will not be watching enough shows to do a complete review.

By the time I got home I had decided to just fold the part of the map that was too big to the back and then tape it. I got out the foam board and placed the map over it. The foam board measurements were incorrect. From top to bottom the map fit on the foam board exactly and I didn’t have to cut or fold it back. From side to side I did fold it back and then taped it on the back.

Then I set about putting push pins into the map. I put one into Tucson, AZ. Then I put one into Titusville, FL. Then I put a pin into Sharpsburg, GA. Then I put a pin into Cleveland, OH and one into Waynesville, OH and then one into Richfield, OH. Then I put a pin into St Louis, MO. Then I went to the state of Michigan. I put a pin into Fowlerville, MI. I put a pin into Pinckney, MI. Then I put two pins into Saranac, MI. Finally I put a pin into Mabank, TX and one into Indianapolis, IN.

These places on the map are where all my friends live. So while I am working or while I am working at my PC I can look up at the map and see where all my friends are.

I was in the choir. So being in the choir meant you had to be early. If you were late by the time you got there the ‘good’ choir robes were gone and you had to wear whatever was left whether it fit or not. A big bummer. I ended up in the back row because I kept trying to follow the person on my right because I couldn’t hear. It took quite a few choir practices for the choir director to get me a spot where the overall sound was good.

I had to memorize John 14:2  ’in my father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would not have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.’ At the time I thought it was a very long passage. I was about 10 or so and I had to get up in front of the whole church to recite it. So I got up and recited it but I think I forgot to say ‘I go to prepare a place for you.’ It was horrible.

I remember accepting Jesus as my savior one Sunday by getting up and going to the front of the church. Later I was told to come to church on a certain day and to bring a change of underclothing. The ceremony to be baptised was in the basement of the church and  the cover was removed and the basin was filled with water. I took off my dress and put on a long black gown. Then waited my turn in the crowd. Then the minister called my name and I stepped down into the basin where he was at. He had a clean dry handkerchief. He tipped me back into the water while holding the handkerchief over my face. It was a quick dunk. Soon I was getting some help getting out and on to the dry floor. Then I changed into the dry clothing I had brought. I received a little green pamphlet. The title is ‘Helps for the New Christian.’ Just inside the front cover is written by me in pencil the day I was baptised. I still have this little green book.

One summer my sunday school church went to camp. I don’t remember how this was paid for nor where we went. I just remember taking a sleeping bag and pillow and changes of clothing to last one week. Camp was not right at the water’s edge but we had to follow the path through the woods to get to the water. On the path we passed through several camps. One camp had a minister and what he did every summer was write his sermons for the entire year. On the last day of camp I wanted to go and sit on top of the hill and watch the sun rise without being disturbed by other people. I was hoping when I laid down to go to sleep that I would wake up before everyone else so I could accomplish my wish. I packed all my stuff so I wouldn’t have to do it when I came down from the hill the next morning. I woke up in time and got dressed as quietly as I could then left the tent and climbed to the top of the hill. Then I waited for the sun to rise. It was peaceful and all I heard were birds and animals moving about. The sun rose and I sat there watching and then stayed a bit. While I was sitting there I heard people moving in the camp below so I knew it was time to go back down.

In high school I joined a group for teenagers. This group met on Wednesday evenings. We all had to bring a passing dish. This part was embarrassing to me because even though I could cook it was really hard trying to find something I could bring to pass. I usually ended up bringing a loaf of bread because we bought 10 loaves for a dollar. So I could bring the loaf of bread as it was the only thing that wouldn’t hurt the meal budget.

When I was getting ready to graduate high school the Tough Love book was given to me by someone at the church. Phyllis and David York are the authors and I believe the book was just published originally in 1969 or maybe earlier. When I was going through my books one time and doing a spring cleaning I donated this book. There was an inscription in the front left flap. I remember when I read this I thought to myself that they must have really liked me.

The church I went to every Sunday morning had a huge sky blue water tower behind it so I always had to pass it and that is probably why I remember it. I wrote this blog for those that think I have not had enough God in my life. I went to church every Sunday and was very active in church activities and my grandmother used to tell bible stories to all us kids when we visited with her black light and felt. So when I grew up I had a lot of religious background to draw on. Then when I got divorced I had a lot of time to think about stuff. Like the meaning of Life, so I spent five years trying to decide if there was a god or not. I chose to be an Atheist because for me there is not enough evidence FOR the proof of god.

The Ryobi® battery is too big for my smaller than average women’s hands. It takes two hands to remove the battery from the weed eater. It also takes two hands to remove the spool cap from the Ryobi® and remove the spool to either put on a new spool or to unwind the line by hand. The Ryobi® guard was much easier to put on than the ®Worx GT guard. The Ryobi® does not vibrate while you are using it and it is heavier than the ®Worx GT. It takes about four days to do the whole yard, alleyway and where the cars are parked with the Ryobi®.

When I got my ®Worx GT, I was working so I had to wait until I was done working to play with it. The ®Worx GT battery is smaller and so is the spool cap and so is the spool. Even though the spool is smaller it has more feet of line on it. The ®Worx GT has 16 ft of line compared to the Ryobi® which has 9 ft of line on the spool. The ®Worx GT guard was a caution to put on. It was the hardest thing to do as far as the ®Worx GT goes. Putting the guard in place and then screwing the screw in took some doing. I think though that the screw will stay in place and not fall out like the Ryobi® screw guard did.

So then the next morning I took the ®Worx GT lithium battery from the charger and put it into the ®Worx GT trimmer/edger. It only took one hand to do so. I took off the spool cap to take a look at the spool housing. That only took one hand so even before I use my ®Worx GT trimmer/edger I am liking it very much.

So then I go out to the yard and start whacking weeds. The ®Worx GT vibrates and it vibrates so much that I was wondering if I could finish before my hand got tired. Well I did not have to worry. The ®Worx GT is not as heavy as the Ryobi® so my hands did not get tired as fast. I did the whole yard then I decided to do the alleyway then after I was done with that I did where the cars are parked. ®Worx GT vibrates a lot so I am going to try wearing gloves next time to cut down on vibration.

I won’t be needing to use the edger feature on the ®Worx GT as I have no lawn to speak of to edge. The ®Worx GT would be just a bit heavier with the edger tool attached to it. The Edger looks like a nice little tool and maybe if I put the edger tool on the ®Worx GT it would be heavier enough and maybe that would offset the vibration.

So here is my assessment briefly. Ryobi® battery bigger. Ryobi® spool bigger. Ryobi® guard easier to put on. ®Worx GT spool has more feet of line. ®Worx GT battery and spool cap are made for a woman’s hands. ®Worx GT vibrates. ®Worx GT is not as heavy. ®Worx GT is easier to adjust for angles. The ®Worx edger feature is nice.

Overall I like the ®Worx GT trimmer/edger much better than the Ryobi® weed eater. The next time I used the ®Worx GT timmer/edger the vibration did not bother me and I didn’t have to wear a glove to offset the vibration.

I tried installing the Cisco Linksys© but gave up this time and called the customer service. They talked me through installing it and they determined that something was wrong with it. So I probably could have installed it the first time I tried if it had not been a lemon. I had installed one at my previous place of drive-to work and it was very easy to do. I didn’t have to call the customer service for help at all.

I bought a Belkin© wireless router and let me tell you it was soooooo much easier to install than the Cisco Linksys© wireless router. I took the Belkin© out of the package and the cable was already connected to where it should go, so that was a plus. I am tech savvy but when the instruction diagrams and the equipment don’t match as in the case of the Cisco Linksys© I should have known then that something was wrong. Plus the customer service at Cisco Linksys© is based in India. That was a caution talking to them. Come to think of it maybe the Belkin customer service is the one based in India, I did talk to both the Belkin© and the Cisco Linksys© customer services that day, oh well.

Ok, so I look at the diagrams for the Belkin© and start plugging away.  The diagrams were printed on the outside of the box that held all the components. So then all my cables are hooked up. With the Belkin© it is a one, two, three process. So easy. Last step was putting the cd into the drive on the computer and installing the wireless router. I saved the manual to my desktop to refer to. Then I registered and put in the password and all and put the login and password where I was supposed to.

So now I go to my laptop because that is the reason I bought the wireless router. I wanted to be able to use the laptop in the living room while watching TV. I turned on the laptop. Had to uninstall the McAfee® software. My cable company includes the McAfee® software in the bill and you can install McAfee® on three computers maximum. So then I logged in to my cable company’s website and downloaded the McAfee®.

What I should have done was get the laptop up and running, install the McAfee® and then let it do all the updates it hadn’t done because I hadn’t used it for so long. But no, I just had to download something I had found on the Internet in one of my searches. First I had to download the software to be able to download the file I had found. The software was BitTorrent.

So when I was finished downloading and installing the BitTorrent I did my search for the file I had found previously and then started downloading it. The file I found is a 14 cd file. My current co-workers will know exactly what I downloaded as it is something we know about. The problem occurred because it took all day while I was working to download this 14 cd file. If I had waited a day or two for my computer to finish downloading and updating software on my computer it hadn’t been able to do because I hadn’t used it on a daily basis, then perhaps it wouldn’t have taken all day to download the 14 cd file. But then because it is BitTorrent it may have taken all day anyway.