Sorry for the delay! I got my match email tonight. Hope you had a great day. Mine was pretty busy, and I really should be in bed! Just wanted to say hi, though!

By Bea on Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 02:04 am:

Thanks Santa.

By Anonymous on Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 10:56 pm:

Hi Bea! Was out admiring my flowers today, because they are going to be done soon. I live where it's cold and it's been pretty nice so far.

By Bea on Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 11:54 am:

Do you live in the USA? Is/are your kid/kids 10+ or 10-? Do you work outside of your home?

I'm looking for some clues.

It was raining here yesterday, which was fine by me. :o( I've got the flu I think. It's sunny and warm today. I'm doing laundry and trying to clean off my disastrously messy desk.

I hope you have a relaxing Sunday.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 07:21 pm:

Both of my kids are over 10. I live in the USA. It's trying to snow tonight, with rain and temps in the 30's!

I do work outside my home.

I wasn't home much this weekend.

By Bea on Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 10:33 pm:

Whoops!!!!

By Dawnk777 on Monday, October 27, 2008 - 07:37 am:

Yeah, I know. Too long a day yesterday. I'm sorry.

By Bea on Monday, October 27, 2008 - 02:31 pm:

I understand. It's a rare Secret Santa when I don't announce who I am very early in the game. Stay warm.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 10:51 am:

Yeah, I usually mess up somewhere, but not this early into the process.

It's cold and cloudy in WI, but I don't think it's supposed to snow or rain.

Here's a tree that I can see from my backyard.

By Bea on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 05:19 pm:

Did you get snow? The tree is lovely. We are just beginning to get some color here. It's been pretty chilly the last few nights. I need to get my hibiscus bushes into the house for the winter. All my other potted plants go on the south side of the house and get covered with straw. Many of them overwinter and come back next year if it's not too cold.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - 05:57 pm:

No snow for me, but on my dog board, someone lives about an 1 to 1-1/2 hours south of me and said on the 27th, it was snowing like crazy. Not up north by me, though. I've seen some flurries, but nowhere near enough to start accumulating.

Today was nice. The sun was shining and although the wind was a little chilly, the air felt nice when the wind wasn't blowing.

Tomorrow and the next day are supposed to be in the 60's!

Hope you had a good day.

By Bea on Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 05:07 pm:

It was beautiful here, chilly this morning, but a clear blue sky and bright sunshine all day. I had a class this morning but spent the afternoon working out front, pruning my gardenia bush, and cutting back the summer plants.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, October 31, 2008 - 04:41 pm:

It was nice here today, but I've had to work all day, so only got to see the sunshine. I'm glad it's Friday.

Hope you had a good day.

By Bea on Saturday, November 1, 2008 - 08:49 am:

The weekend has arrived. I hope it's as nice there as it is here. Enjoy!! The holly bushes out back are predicting a long cold winter.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, November 2, 2008 - 08:31 pm:

Those are pretty! How are they predicting a long winter? There seem to be a lot of berries.

I had a quiet Sunday. It was a nice day, but it's raining now.

By Bea on Monday, November 3, 2008 - 12:56 am:

They say when there are a lot of berries it will be a long cold winter. I never remember seeing this many berries on the holly before.

It was clouding up this afternoon. I hope it doesn't rain though. I have laundry hanging out to dry.

Have a wonderful week and don't forget to vote on Tuesday!!

By Dawnk777 on Monday, November 3, 2008 - 08:10 am:

Did your laundry get to finish drying?

I thought there were a lot of berries on those plants.

It's foggy this morning and supposed to get up to about 70. It's going to be muggy, I think. 70 is pretty warm for November. It's in the 40's now.

By Bea on Monday, November 3, 2008 - 05:42 pm:

Yep!!! The rain never, came and the laundry dried. I bowled this morning (badly). Our team is in next-to-last place. We still have fun. I met my church group for lunch at Lone Star, and then went shopping. I'll be decorating a tabletop Christmas tree for our military spouses club tree and wreath auction. I needed decorations and lights. I'm going with all gold this time. Last year I did a red, white and blue tree. It's warm and overcast here. I need to be up early to vote before I go to work at the Thrift Shop at Fort Eustis tomorrow. Have a great week.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, November 3, 2008 - 11:18 pm:

Bowling. I'm not very good at it, either. We got together with Gary's family for bowling on Friday night a week ago. I got a 67 and a 75. I had 3 spares and 1 strike. One of my spares was a gutter ball and then getting all 10 pins down. Argh! Why couldn't I have done the 10 pins down, the first time!

Sarah got an 89 and then 30-something. Emily got 40 something and then 60-something.

There was lots of laughter, though.

We have a tree auction here, that benefits some local charities. I've never made anything. I get ideas sometimes, but it never translates into action. I love going to look at the stuff, though!

Festival of Trees It's December 5th through 7th. We discovered that going later on a Saturday allows you more time to admire the trees without having to wait to see them.

Pictures from 2007 I hadn't thought about that coming up soon, yet.

DH and I voted 3 weeks ago, so we won't have to find time for that tomorrow. Sarah voted on October 10th, here in town, because her Tuesday class schedule is busy and she didn't think she'd have time to register AND vote between classes. She was even canvassing for her favorite candidate, over the weekend.

By Bea on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 01:33 am:

I voted on my way to my volunteer job this morning. I had no wait. I know now that my candidates all won and I'm thrilled.

This is the tree and wreath I made for the auction last year.

By Bea on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 01:38 am:

We are finally getting some real fall color here. These are the Autumn Blaze Maple trees that the city planted out front last year.

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 02:28 pm:

Pretty pictures. DH and I are ecstatic about the election results! This is huge. My BIL and SIL are also thrilled, along with Sarah and Emily. Emily was too young to vote, but she would have voted for Obama, if she could have.

By Bea on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - 04:12 pm:

I have to say that my vote was as much for Joe Biden as for Obama. I fear for his safety and his life and I'm glad Joe is there.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 12:59 am:

I like Biden, too.

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, November 8, 2008 - 12:34 am:

Hope you have a great Saturday! We are having pictures taken at church tomorrow, for a picture directory. It's supposed to be colder than today. November has finally arrived.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, November 9, 2008 - 11:08 pm:

Hope you had a great Sunday. I had church, a potluck to celebrate the end of the stewardship campaign, then some computer time after which we had to take Sarah back to college. She was home because we had pictures taken at church, for a new directory.

We had flurries off and on all day and now the temp is about 27-29. Brrr. Feels like winter.

I had to send my jacket to LL Bean to get the zipper replaced. They said it would take 3-4 weeks, but we shipped it on Friday, October 31st. It arrived in Maine on Monday morning (11/3), and I got an email on Friday, that they were shipping it back already, with the zipper replaced. I just checked the tracking and it's moved from Maine to Connecticut (woohoo, checked Google and I spelled it correctly!) Original ETA was Wednesday, but now they say Tuesday. I can't wait. I think I like that jacket better than the older one I've been using.

I was sad when the zipper fabric developed a hole, because the jacket itself is still in fine shape, after 2 winters of use. The zipper repair cost $22. There is a zipper repair place where I live, and the lady does good work, but she's not very fast. It's winter now and I need my jacket now, so it was worth it to send it away. Besides LL Bean probably had a matching zipper. The zipper lady in town would have probably used a black zipper, and my jacket is "deep coral." So, it's kind of orangey.

By Bea on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 08:18 am:

I'm sorry, Dawn. It's been a hectic week here so far and will continue. I hope your week is more manageable.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 09:54 am:

This week is more manageable, I only have to work on Friday, at my clinic job, although I had a 40-minute inservice to go to yesterday.

I got selected to help a friend of a friend, with a blog. The man is an 84yo with a head full of ideas, that he's always writing down. His nephews, encouraged him to get a blog. I went once already to hopefully teach him how to use it, but he was having trouble, so I went last night. I got to type in three entries for him last night. I don't know if he will eventually feel comfortable typing them in, himself, or not. Maybe I type faster than he does. He did mention being a 2-fingered typist, so maybe I can type faster. I'm not sure how many I will have to type up for him. He has a binder of typed-up sheets and said last night, but I think he was just kidding, "How long would it take you to type up all of these?" LOL!

He has paid me just a little bit, for my effort, and I guess if it makes him happy, I would be willing to do it. I had time this week. In December I work more hours, though, so time will be more precious.

He's a caregiver, for the woman's husband, in the house. The husband is elderly and disabled. He's good with the disabled man. The only trouble is that he and the woman of the house are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, so sometimes there are disagreements. He is so good with the disabled husband, though, that they both just have to move on, sometimes, from the arguments. It's an interesting situation.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, November 13, 2008 - 02:25 pm:

Happy Thursday! It's windy today, and the sun is trying to shine. The temp is about 48-50, but with the wind, doesn't necessarily feel that warm. Weather Underground says temp is 47, with a windchill of 45! LOL! Wind is 6mph from the west, with gusts to 14. It's supposed to rain tonight, and snow is predicted on the weekend. I still don't think it will be an accumulating snow, though.

I'm looking forward to going to my knitting group tonight. Last week I had to work and I had to miss it. I need another set of size 4 double-pointed needles to make a soap sack for my SIL for Christmas. I already had a set, but then Emily decided she needed a pair of gloves, so she is using them now! Everything is on sale, on knit-nights!

By Bea on Friday, November 14, 2008 - 12:49 am:

I do a little crocheting these days, mostly making tops for the dish towels that hang with a button loop. I make them as Christmas gifts for friends. It's easy to do one while I'm watching a TV show. Things are still hectic here. I haven't had much time to be on-line lately. Sorry!

By Dawnk777 on Friday, November 14, 2008 - 01:23 am:

Don't worry about it. I have to work at school and then at the clinic tomorrow, so I won't be around much, then.

I love those towels, with the button, but I've never made one.

By Bea on Friday, November 14, 2008 - 02:15 pm:

I imagine you could knit a top for them just as easily. I cut a towel in half, and poke small holes about a half inch apart and about a half inch from the cut edge. I roll the edge, under and simply crochet my yarn right through the holes, catching the fabric. I gradually drop stitches until I have the tab size. Then I crochet until I have enough to wrap around the oven handle and button. I drop one stitch in the center for a button hole, and scallop around the edges to finish. It's a fast project.

I think it's great about you helping the gentleman with his blog. Do you have the software to read printing, and turn it into a document? It is such a help in projects like this. His nephews should buy him voice recognition software (under $100.00) and help him set it up and voice train it. Then he would simply have to edit any mistakes it makes. I'm a firm believer in letting computers do the things they are good at doing.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, November 16, 2008 - 02:38 pm:

No, no OCR software (optical character recognition). Gary did mention it to him.

Hope you are having a great Sunday. I know who my secret pal is now, too! LOL! She was doing well, until yesterday.

It's definitely November, here in WI. Temp is in the 30's. It's mostly cloudy, but the sun peeks through now and then.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 08:35 am:

Good morning! Hope you will be having a great day! My thermometer said 18 degrees at 6:45 am. It's not that windy out, though, so almost seemed colder last night, during the wind, than it does now.

Looks like I need to do my shopping this weekend, so I can get my gift mailed out next week!

By Bea on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 09:16 am:

I'm pooped....still decorating and deep cleaning, but now my throat is so sore. I volunteer at the Thrift Shop today, do the grocery shopping and then play bridge tonight. It's clear and cold here today. Well!! Off to the salt mines.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 11:55 am:

Decorating for Christmas? I'm sorry you have a sore throat. I've had a cold this past week, too. It's really almost gone. Good luck with your day. It sounds busy!

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 08:26 am:

I hope you're feeling better. It was 27 degrees outside and 63 degrees inside, when I got up this morning. Gary turned off the furnace yesterday, to change the furnace filter. I got cold during the day, and noticed that the power to the programmable thermostat was off, so I ran down to flip the switch. That helped in the short-term. What I didn't notice was that the time was off, on the thermostat, by a couple of hours. So, instead of waking up to a warm house, like I usually do, I woke up to COLD house. The time's been reset now, and the house will warm up eventually. It's usually a pretty good system, that the furnace is turned down, while we sleep and wakes us up to a warm house again.

Tonight, is my knit night. We go to a yarn store, about 15 minutes away, to knit, talk, and eat. It's the owner's birthday tonight, so I expect lots of treats. I made Pumpkin Bread to take along.

By Bea on Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 02:54 pm:

Your knit night sounds like fun and very fattening. Knit fast to burn calories. :o)

Brrr. It's chilly here, but with lots of sun, which warms things up during the daylight hours. I left the house with a jacket and a coat over it, and shed the coat after class. The linen jacket over a sleeveless shell was perfect, but I'm a warm blooded person.

Our military spouse's luncheon was fun. It was the Christmas tree auction, and I bid on, and bought a very pretty one for $15.00. The one I decorated went for $22.00. I guess someone liked it.

I hope you are toasty warm now.

Tonight we're going to see RAIN, a Beatles tribute band, in concert.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, November 21, 2008 - 10:34 am:

Hope you had fun at your concert. The military spouse's luncheon sounds like fun. I'm glad someone liked your tree.

There were a lot of treats last night! Some nights there aren't as many.

I'm chilly, down in the basement now. I should have a sweater on! LOL! I forgot to grab one, before I came downstairs. It's about time I got dressed for the day, anyway.

By Bea on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 09:44 am:

It was very cold here last night. We rarely get a hard freeze, but the wind chill was in the 20s.

The concert was great. Want to watch a little?

By Dawnk777 on Monday, November 24, 2008 - 11:13 pm:

They're pretty good. I would have enjoyed it, too, along with my hubby.

We got 2 inches of snow today. It wasn't too hard to shovel. We need a new snowblower, but they are cutting jobs, where my husband works and we find out next week. He is stressed beyond belief. If he keeps his job, we will get a new snowblower. I guess if he loses his job, we will figure out how to fix the old one. We can't make any plans this week.

By Bea on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 07:43 am:

I'll be praying that the news is good.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 07:44 pm:

Thanks. I'm off to write a shopping list, for our Thanksgiving foods. We are making cranberry sauce and an apple pie for my sister's meal, and a sweet potato casserole, for my SIL's meal.

Hope you had a good day today. Our temp was in the high 30's today, with lots of sun, so it felt pretty warm, for this time of year.

By Bea on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 01:38 am:

Our son and family will arrive tomorrow night. I'll be walking my 3 miles and then facilitating the depression support group in the morning. I'll come home, vacuum the downstairs and scrub a few bathrooms.

I made 2 pumpkin pies tonight. They are Nichole's favorites. They are predicting rain on Black Friday. :o(

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, November 27, 2008 - 12:14 pm:

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving, Bea! I hope you enjoy the company and the food!

The sun is shining and the skies are blue. With temps in the mid-30's, it's not too bad for November.

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, November 29, 2008 - 10:08 pm:

Hope you have a great Sunday and First Day of Advent. I'm in the process of making and eggbake and a coffee cake, for tomorrow's advent breakfast. I took a small break to go on my computer, since it calls for stale bread cubes and I just bought the bread. My oven is heating up, so I can lightly toast the cubes.

I have church, then the breakfast, then we pack up Sarah to go back to Oshkosh. When we come home, unless it's been canceled, Emily has to march in the Christmas parade and Gary has to take pictures of it. Oh yay. I get to watch it all by myself. The reason it might possibly be canceled is that we are under a snow advisory for 3-6 inches of snow tomorrow (noon to 6am Monday)

So, wish us luck tomorrow, with driving the 55 miles to Oshkosh and back tomorrow. I don't know when the snow is supposed to start. Well, my oven just beeped, so back to work!

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, November 29, 2008 - 10:36 pm:

The egg bake is done now and Sarah just said she'd make the coffee cake. Yay.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - 11:01 pm:

Your package is officially on it's way, as of 5:45pm tonight.

Here's the delivery confirmation code from the US Post Office:

0308 0660 0001 2341 2600

More snow on the way, to the tune of 3-5 inches. More fun! If Gary doesn't lose his job tomorrow, we get to buy a new snowblower and I won't have to be so anxious about having to shovel tomorrow.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 12:04 am:

I bet you will get your package, tomorrow. The items are wrapped, inside the box. It's a Post Office box, that we must have gotten something in, ourselves.

By Bea on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 04:15 pm:

Hi Dawn. I'm sorry I've been missing. With our family here, I wanted to spend every minute I could with them. What happened about Gary's job??

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 06:20 pm:

He was not on the list, so he still has a job. He feels bad for those who were fired, though. We are very relieved and he sounds so happy today, when I've talked to him.

One of those fired, though, was a merried managing editor, who got involved with a newly-divorced former reporter (She quit a while ago), and ended up getting her pregnant. I think that made him a bit of a liability to keep around.

By Bea on Saturday, December 6, 2008 - 09:06 am:

I'm so glad he is still working. Times are rough right now for so many. I think that guy deserved what he got.

By Bea on Saturday, December 6, 2008 - 02:02 pm:

Have a wonderful weekend

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, December 6, 2008 - 09:15 pm:

Thanks, Bea! I hope your weekend is going well, too. Today was busy. I had my annual Walk-In Clinic gift exchange. We open and steal presents from one another. No one took what I got, but they were fighting over what I brought for a gift.

I got a foam buoy thingie (The part that makes a rope float), with a hand-painted Santa on it. It has a rope for hanging on a doorknob and bells hanging from it, so it would make noise if bumped. I thought it was cool and since we live near a big lake, I like nautical things. I also got a little knitted mitten, with a snowman painted on it.

What I brought was a painted wooden tray with a snowman on it, and a ceramic candy bowl with a country scene painted on it and a snowman and a santa "standing" next to the bowl. It went from Kelly, to Chris, to Cathy! LOL!

The other gift that was fought over, was a 4-ft Norfolk pine tree, with ornaments on it. I think it was a potted tree.

I don't always bring something that people are fighting over. It made me happy.


Then we went to the Festival of Trees. I'll upload some pics to Flickr later on.

By Bea on Saturday, December 6, 2008 - 11:43 pm:

Your gift exchange sounds like fun. We often do it like that with our Military Spouses' Club Christmas board meeting.

Tomorrow is our big open house. We're expecting over 125 to come. I've been cooking and baking for weeks.

We're serving red wine, white wine, hot spiced cider and egg nog.

I have meatballs in tomato sauce, cocktail sausages in barbecue sauce, Ruben bake with pumpernickel, two cheese balls, Texicali shrimp dip, pate with crackers, chili con casa, with corn chips, fudge, chocolate chip cookies, monster cookies, Beigli...Hungarian walnut rolls and a vegetable tray with dip. I made it all myself. I hope there's enough for everyone.

This is from last year.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, December 7, 2008 - 10:51 am:

Yum! I wish I could come!

By Dawnk777 on Friday, December 12, 2008 - 07:35 pm:

I hope your open house went well. My church women's Christmas party was last night, and so was my knitting group party. Argh. The WELCA (women of the evangelical lutheran church of America) party was supposed to be on Tuesday, but was rescheduled because of the snow. Would have liked to go to both.

So, I will have to wait until Sunday to see how my secret pal was, this past year.

On the other hand, I was moaning to the person who owns the shop, where we go knitting once a week, about the fact that we'll miss 2 wks of knit nights, since the holidays are on Thursdays. She said she'd be happy to have us come on New Year's Day evening. I know we'd just be home, on New Year's, since our festivities are on New Year's Eve.

By Bea on Sunday, December 14, 2008 - 01:50 am:

We got a call this morning from Karl’s brother Barry. Their mother, Vilma, fell into the bathtub and broke her hip in two places. She was in the hospital. The want to operate and use a plate to stabilize her hip. The doctors think that immobilizing her for the three plus months it would take for her to heal without the operation, would kill her with pneumonia. Karl is heading up to Pennsylvania tomorrow. The surgery is planned for Sunday morning

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, December 14, 2008 - 04:54 am:

Oh no! Will keep her in my prayers. I hope the surgery goes well. (((HUGS))) to all of you.

By Bea on Sunday, December 14, 2008 - 10:31 am:

Right now, her Cardiologist may have nixed the surgery. He told them she's been on blood thinners, and must be weaned before any operation. Her mind is still very sharp, but she can't hear worth a nickel and won't wear a hearing aid. She's a tough old buzzard, but I think this may be the beginning of the end. At 94 she's had a long life.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, December 14, 2008 - 08:54 pm:

Yikes. Probably wouldn't be a good idea for surgery, while she's being anticoagulated. They'll have to switch her to heparin and get her off the Coumadin temporarily.

By Bea on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 09:36 am:

They operated on Sunday and she came through wonderfully. She is alert and not in pain. They have her up walking and are talking about sending her to rehab soon. She is full of •••• and vinegar ...amazing for someone who will be 95 this week. Karl came back here Tuesday night. Thanks for your prayers.

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 10:16 am:

I'm glad it went well. Thanks for updating me!

By Bea on Friday, December 19, 2008 - 03:37 pm:

I won't be here for the opening so we opened our gifts under the tree last night. The CD is great. I wish our cabin had a CD player. If I get time, I’ll copy the music to my Ipod tonight, so I can listen on board. You have been a terrific Secret Santa and I've so enjoyed getting to know you better. Thank you so very much.

Merry Christmas to you and to all those you love.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, December 19, 2008 - 05:33 pm:

I'm glad you enjoyed your music. I had fun buying your gifts. I won't be here Sunday night, either, so I'm happy you opened your present already. I opened my secret pal present, too!

Have fun on your trip! Merry Christmas. I enjoyed getting to know you better, too.