2 intuition — yes, I have it

3 desperate — housewives, measures

4.  tears — for fears

5.  purple — rain, Oprah

6.  storage — not enough,  cabinet

7.  duct — work, eye

8. system — computer

9. cabinet — storage, kitchen

10. manager — Sandy

2.  I don’t know what I think about the whole thing anymore.

3. Small houses are the new trend — I especially like Storybook Cottages.

4.  Reading other people’s blogs is very enlightening

5.  I keep meaning to go on a diet but it keeps slipping my mind.

6. As yet, this is not the most clever FF I have ever done — they are a little difficult this week.

7.  And as for this weekend, tonight I am looking forward to tonight, tomorrow my plans include many trips to the Goodwill and Sunday I want a nice, peaceful, restful day — maybe involving a movie or something. Or no noise at all.  Hmm….

I have always said that October is my favorite month.  It is still summery enough in Texas to run around in shorts but that unmistakable crispness of fall is in the air — an intoxicating combination.  October was especially nice this year and I enjoyed every minute.

One thing that happened rather unexpectedly was a visit to the eye doctor.  Two Saturdays ago I awoke to some rather wonky glasses — a little bent out of shape in one of the ear pieces.  So, as I proceeded to straighten them out I snapped the fragile little metal piece and they fell apart in my hand.  Not exactly what I had on taps for the day but it did end my moratorium of visiting the eye doctor.  So, off to the neighborhood optometrist I trotted and received a rather decent bill of vision health considering I hadn’t been in about seven years.  My distance vision in each eye is almost perfect requiring no correction — in fact, according to the good doctor, I should be able to get the restriction taken off my drivers license.  So, with that I went next door and enjoy myself thoroughly while picking out some new specs.  This is what I decided on ~

Lovely little Ray Bans in matte black

Yes, they are black.  A departure from my usual gold, pewter, muddled bronze.  I believe they bring out the blue in my eyes.  They at least add some interest to my pale, pale, complexion.

I decided to reward my bravery by going the whole nine yards and buying some prescription sunglasses, too.  A luxury for me.  So, I chose these~

Comfy little DKNY shades -- ok, not so little

These sunglasses are so comfortable I almost wish the 80′s would come back so we could all wear big, owl glasses again.  What a hoot!

So, that was the goodness of October.  Great weather, new glasses, trick or treat, fun times.

Now it is November.  I don’t like November.  So many bad things have happened to me in November that it is just a sad month for me.  This one isn’t proving to be any different.  It came in with an air of cold, forbode with the rain and the coldness that drew the damp straight to the bone.  Not good for old, arthritic bones.  The sadness has already begun with unresolved issues, being trapped in the house due to weather, only wanting to curl up in front of the fire and watch old movies or read books — ok, that isn’t so bad– but my energy has left me.  The only thing to look forward to this month, other than hopefully waking each morning, is Aggie football on Thanksgiving Day.  That seems to be the last of our family traditions that has survived and I am clinging to it like it is a life preserver.  I don’t even look forward to the food, I just look forward to the one thing I can look forward to.  Sad, I know.

But, November is not forever.  It will turn into December with all the festivity that one can handle.  I just hope it isn’t a white Christmas like last year — white meaning ice, not snow.  I think this year I will break out my Christmas village again — so cheerful with all the lights and all — and so much fun watching Gramps wrestle with electrical cords and stair-step boards and all but such a sight when done.  I can look forward to my new Christmas tree that we bought last year — only I won’t put down my ancient Christmas tree skirt — Rollie liked it way too much.  I have some plans for the mantle — something new that I saw in a magazine — I will have to see about that and I am thinking of garland – lots of garland!

Yes, if I could just sleep through November I would be fine.  Who knows, maybe I will try.

First off, I would really appreciate it if somebody would explain to me why Macy’s is THE store.  I realize that Bob Hope made mention of it and Natalie Wood’s entire childhood support came from it in “A Miracle on 34th Street” and they really have a nice parade but…..ok, here it comes… they don’t carry children’s shoes — at least the one in my local mall doesn’t.  Does that mean that poor little Natalie walked around in her stocking feet?  I am not even sure if they have socks for children.  Ok, just add one more thing to my list of reasons to ignore all that square footage in my neighborhood shopping facility. In my opinion, losing Joske’s was a travesty and I wish we could bring it back.  Please.

Moving on, I have to say that as I am aging I am taking a whole different view of cooking.  I am becoming more interested in it but in a different way.  I am becoming more basic, more plain food, more like my mother cooked.  Of course, over the last several years I have learned to love Le Creuset.  I only have a couple of pieces of it but it is wonderful.  I have two small braising pots or dutch ovens and one the next size up.  They are plenty big enough of us and any company I might have which is rare.  I do have a very large Mario Batalli (sp.) dutch oven  which really needs a new home — it is huge and so heavy I can hardly lift it empty much less with anything in it.  It is a lovely apple green color, however.  I digress.  I am a believer in crock pots, think they have their place in American cuisine and have used one many times myself although I would never go off and leave one on even though they only use the wattage of a light bulb.  However, today I discovered (albeit a little late in life) the joy of slow cooking a little roast in my medium size Le Creuset dutch oven.  I browned it with a little flour, like usual, a little salt and pepper and very little oil.  After I turned it over I added some onion and fresh garlic plus about two inches of water, put the lid on and popped it in a 300 degree oven.  I got it on at about two and cooked it until six.  I can’t even describe the tender, roasted goodness and the divine gravy and I am sure I will never use a crockpot again when I want a slow cooked meal.

At about four thirty I added a pan of sliced potates that I seasoned with salt, pepper, butter and dried parsley flakes.  I mixed some Wondra flour with about 1.5 cups of milk,, poured it on the potatoes and covered with foil.  Granted, not quite scalloped potatoes and definitely not au gratin potatoes since I didn’t add cheese due to my inability to process dairy these days but it was a very rich, comforting, warm, fallish dinner completed with some steamed, fresh green beans that my husband said tasted ‘fishy” and didn’t eat.  Oh well, you can’t win them all.  I should have taken photos — of the food, not my husband.

And then, today, I watched the movie about Paul McCartney being dead — again — I mean I watched it again not that he is dead again.  I am sorry, I think he is dead.  If you look at the photos enough you can seethe difference between the original Paul and “Faul”.  However, I just refuse to believe that adorable little Paul has aged into — well — the current Paul.  Shouldn’t he have gotten better, like Sean Connery and Anthony Hopkins?  Surely.  So, that is my opinion and I am sticking to it.

I will be very glad when they finish the monstrosity they are building behind me.  The dust is deplorable and I am certain very detrimental to my health as my allergies have been much worse and I keep feeling like I am having little bouts of bronchitis.  However, we don’t have to worry about the health of the workers — they were playing a mean game of soccer in the field across the street this mornig before they began work — getting some working out done.  I just wish they would get with it, get done and get lost.  Of course, that doesn’t mean I will ever be able to breathe again.

And in closing, I feel very fortunate to have come from the family I did.  It seems that, for the most part, my family minded their own business, stayed to themselves and pretty much accepted people for what they were and if they didn’t like them, they just didn’t go around them — they didn’t try to change them.  There is a stage production titled “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”.  I understand it is hysterical, probably because it is so impossible.  Yet, that is what some people think you should do — change to suit them.  Hm…I still like the old saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  I still believe that if I am not doing anything immoral or illegal then you just don’t like me and that, is, your problem, not mine.

There, I have said it, and now I am going to go wash my little roasting pan and reminisce about how Paul used to look before…..well, before whatever.

2.  repelled — shooed, water

3.  trench coat — Peter Sellers — mystery

4.  lipstick,  — on glasses and cups, ugh

5.  humongous — Lou Ferrigno

6.  over mitts — necessary kitchen utensil

7.  case — mystery, brief

8.  daughter — sweet

9.  attorney — lawyer, Perry Mason

10  shaken — not stirred, nervous

2.  In the early morning, a fresh breeze gets the day off to a wonderful start — unless it gets your sneezing off to a wonderful start.  Or possibly the headache — I digress.

3.  I love to sniff my hubby’s aftershave.

4.  The American breakfast at LaMadeleine is what I like to have as a treat for breakfast.

5.  The hobby I enjoy most is almost anything needlework — but not knitting or crocheting –  I do not possess the gene for knitting or crocheting.

6.  Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  So stereotypical.  Blah.

7.  Forget it — late again.

1. panel — committee

2.  repetitive — CNN

3.  pancakes — syrup

4.  quarterly — report

5.  impulsive — shopping

6.  episode — Days of Our Lives

7.  I am not as stuffy today.

8.  horrendous — Halloween movie fare

9.  inhumane — treatment of animals as evidenced on the ASPCA commercials during the movie I watched last night.

10.  district — garment

1.  My back is about the only thing on me that doesn’t hurt.

2.  The purslane is growing wild in the back yard and doing quite well I might add.

3.  Leaves are falling all around which means it is fall and the miserable summertemps are over but…..all those falling leaves mean allergies! Bummer!

4.  I don’t think forgetfulness is a sign of aging — I think it is a sign of wisdom — selective memory is what I like to call it.

5.  Healing is much easier when there is a big pot of chicken and rice soup on the stove.

6.  Trying to keep up with things is what I’ve been up to lately.

7.  Forget this one — weekend past — trust me, nothing went on but my sneezing and runny nose.

It has been a while since Melissa has mused.  I have been busy but not much of my activity is blog worthy.  However, I have had some thoughts rumbling around in my head and I figure if I write them down, I will quit thinking about them.

The weather has changed here in North Texas.  I believe that tomorrow we could have temps in the 40′s! As I have often said, October is my favorite month and it was usually an allergy free time for me until this year.  The calendar changed and I started sneezing.  I have no clue why, the cedar isn’t blowing around but here I am, a muddled up mess of sneezing, honking, dripping, dabbing and really hating benadryl.  Why does my perfect month have to be ruined by this?

I have been doing some reading but not as much as I would like.  Well, maybe that isn’t right.  Maybe I am just not reading what I want to read.  I have taken a good look at my bookshelves and I realize I have a problem.  I buy lots of books in spite of the fact that I have limited book shelf space and in spite of the fact that I bought a Nook to help with the random, OCD book buying coupled with the limited shelf space.  I realized a few weeks ago that I am in deep trouble.  JLSHall reviewed a book, “The Hills at Home”, and I decided I wanted to acquire this title — it sounded good.  Well, it isn’t available on Nook.  I had seen the book and I knew what the cover looked like — I could visualize it perfectly because I had looked at it any number of times in the store — but it wasn’t in the store anymore.  Apparently it was out of stock.  So, rather than search out Amazon.com, I just sort of forgot about it until I went in to look on the bookshelf for something else and lo and behold, there was the book.  Of course I could recognize it — I own it! That is when I decided I was in trouble — I need to read more and buy less.  So, that is what I am doing.  Right now I am reading “The Story of Collette” on the Nook and “Amy and Isabelle” as a paperback.  “Collette” is just boring.  It is Victorian and, like most novels of that era are just hard to read and it just goes on and on although it isn’t a very long book.  “Amy and Isabelle” by Elizabeth Strout is depressing.  It is about a repressed mother – Isabelle –with a secret past ( I haven’t gotten far enough along to know what the “secret” is) and her teenage daughter, Amy.  Their relationship is typical of most mothers and daughters during the teenage years.  Isabelle is a single mother that works in the office of a mill, secretary to the head mill man.  She is prim and proper and concerned about what other people think of her.  Amy is a typical teenager smitten with her math teacher and it is going a bit too far. That is as far as I have gotten and it is a good book but I am finding it to be depressing and therefore, slow to read.  I hope it picks up.

I have also been spending some time trying to bust my fabric stash.  I don’t have a huge stash but I have had some of my stuff for a very long time — long enough that I am tired of looking at it.  So, I used up some of the fat quarters making a utility quilt — the largest nine patch in the world — nine fqs sewn together for a top — they were coordinating fabrics in fat quarter bundles so they worked together.  I might make a couple of more like this, just to have as cover — and get rid of some of the fabric.  I love fat quarters and buy them with absolutely no idea in mind — same with buttons — love me some buttons — but at some point it has to become something — unlike buttons that are still buttons even if they aren’t used as closures.  Unused fat quarters, at least to me, become either clutter, a challenge, or just boring.  So, I am making very odd quilts.

Another thing I have been doing is spending entirely too much time reading about Paul McCartney and his alleged death in 1966.  It all started when I ran across that movie “Paul is Dead — The last Testament of George Harrison” on VOD last week.  I stayed late to watch it and then it just piqued my curiosity — could Paul have really died?  Well, of course he could have — did he?  Who knows.  There is compelling evidence that the person we know now as PM is not the same person who was with the band before 1966 — hint — earlobes on photo comparisons.  Then there are flubs that the current PM has committed — look at his visit on David Letterman last year (YouTube, 2009).  Check out his facial expression after his comments.  Hmmm..  at any rate — anybody who does genealogy is naturally curious and that would explain why this is so interesting to me.  However, I think I have exhausted every website on the net concerning the matter so it is time to move on.

So, that has been my time since my last musing.  Not very interesting so I have included some photos taken by my husband who has a  renewed interest in photography.

Until next time — ta ta.

1.  Stealing people’s mail is really uncool.  It results in much lost time when you have to report to the post office fraud dept., make police reports to your local police department and change your bank accounts.  It really should be illegal! Oh, wait a minute — it is.  My bad.  Kudos, however, to the lady that returned my stolen mail to me.

2.  I have discovered that some of the best reading out there can be found on the bargain table at B&N, not necessarily on the best seller rack.  What I don’t understand, however, is why some of the books are on the bargain table and not permanently on the shelves.  Oh yes, I do.  BUSINESS and ECONOMY.  Opps, almost forgot about those things — more important than good books — in a bookstore — imagine that.

3.  I am getting old.  I look at things differently.  I am beginning to look, physically and psychologically, more like my mother and my aunt.  My mannerisms are changing and sometimes I feel like I am looking at my mother.  Is this good?  Well, I don’t know.  My mother and my aunt were great people, so, it can’t all be bad but it is very disconcerting to see yourself turn into somebody else — definitely makes you think about genetics.  This is not unlike my daughter holding her infant daughter who very closely resembles herself — for a split second it was like I was watching my daughter hold herself.  Hard to explain, creepy, and sounds a little odd, I know, but you see things differently as you age.

4. I have learned that, in quilting, the number 5 is a biggie.  Five inches, that is.  I had no idea that you could do so much with five inch blocks. I will soon be acquiring the template for five inch blocks for my accuquilt cutter.

5.  i am becoming bored with Facebook.  It was good when people were just talking to and reuniting with others.  Then came the farms…and the cities…and the hearts…and any number of other silly things.  My email is full of who sent who a special heart and who needs a new building on their farm or found a stray donkey.  I don’t care.  I like to touch base with people like my dear friend in Missouri who I haven’t seen for years but it doesn’t seem like it thanks to FB and myspace.  Instead, however, I have to plow through my email getting rid of the gaming stuff.  Ah, how I miss the old days of FB when it was just new.  I am sure I am in a vast minority here so I will just shut up.

Well, that is about all.  I know there was something else that was on my mind this week but it has slipped my mind.  That happens a lot these days — I prefer to assume that whatever the thought was, it just wasn’t that important rather than think my mind is slipping.  I think that as people get older and appear to be forgetful to those around them, it isn’t really that — it is more like they are just being selective about what they remember — keeping the good stuff and letting go of the crap.  Yes, that has to be it.

Until next week — ta ta!