Blue Moon

The song has been singing in my head all day since the radio played it to take note that tonight is a full moon - the second for this month which makes it a "blue moon" |I should step outside tonight to see if I can see it. I seem to be losing it. Well, maybe not totally but in some respects it has me wondering. I made out bills with cheques the other day and mailed them off. One company called the house - spoke with Harry - to say I had put the wrong month on the cheque. I apparently wrote 09 for the month instead of 08. So now I am wondering it I did that for all three cheques I mailed - likel;y did but haven't heard back from anyone else yet. I know it is overload, but still I have always been proud of my diligence in ensuring things are done right. I guess I should have another drink?? Harry went to the LCBO today to buy me a bottle of the Bright's House Wine along with a case of beer for himself- he came home with a box of the wine. The man in the store told him it would be cheaper to buy it that way. Now I ask you, is this the way one should drink wine? I like the feel of a bottle and pouring it into my goblet - glub glub glub! I have yet to open the box but the spout is in place and all I need to do is pull off the plastic cover and fiqure out how to pour it haha. I am sure before tomorrow is over, I shall have mastered it! Tomorrow I am going to a bridal shower at the Community Centre here in town. A girl we know as a daughter of the people who babysat our kids is getting married. We have knwon the mother since she was about 10 and now her oldest daughter is marrying. I feel I should go and make an appearance. It would be the first Community Shower I have attended - they are common in small towns - have one shower and invite everyone to come. But again I was struggling with a gift idea. So I went to the Bin Store in town, and bought a few packages of goodies, and a gift certificate. At home I have a small basket and shall line it with tissue, arrange the goodies and the card with the gift certificate in the basket and cover with a big bow I bought. I may be out of line yet again depending on what others bring as gifts but I feel good about this so shall go with some confidence (some, that is !! as I am still not too comfortable going into the Centre with people I don't know!) Anyway, that has been my day so far - hope all is well with you folks. Have a peaceful long weekend - and welcome to the month of September - Fall is upon us. Take care

OK!

That certainly was a detailed explanation and I thank you, however, I think I should not fool around with it too much or I might mess up my so far good luck with logging in. You have the option of calling in the "computer squad " but here I have no support and since I am really the secondary user of the computer, I shall leave well enough alone for now. However, this still does not address the issue of Cathy's ongoing access? So hope we shall hear from her soon!
Just finished doing vegetables in attempt to keep up (losing battle I think) and right now I desire a quick retreat to bed, and read a bit! I had a chance last night to review in great detail the hanging you just completed - I enlarged each picture and stared and stared and recognized some of the beads you and I handled together.I even read the comments left by others. How wonderful for you to see it take shape and now hanging in the show!  As well, this is the piece you had just dyed the day I arrived in Winnipeg so it held a special meaning for me. Short message tonight - so long for now....take care.

new skills

When we had all of the trouble with the computers, the girl showed me a how to copy things.  When this happened once before, they recovered all of the files from the broken computers and put them all under a couple of  icons on the screen.  When I needed something out of the file, I had to go to the icon and open it and then find the file for use.  However, this time she did a part of the recovery while I was watching, and I noticed she was taking the files from the icon on screen and copying them right into the area where I where I would want them.  In fact she had both areas open on the screen at the same time, so I know that can be done, and actually found the key to do it, but lost it again.

The secret is in a right click of the mouse.  I start by highlighting what I want to copy, then right click on it.  A screen comes up with options, and I choose copy( left click).  I minimize the screen I'm on and open up an area where I want the information to be, and right click again and the paste option comes up.  Left click and everything is copied, even into an e-mail.

I'm still playing with this and I'm not sure how far I can go, and will still continue to play with it.

How did you do that?

You  really are a wizard - I have no idea how you were able to copy messages back and forth as you did. I intend to have a good look at the options once I write a few words here- there must be an easy way to copy and paste betweeen the blog and the email. And I do not know if you can read the messages Cathy or are shut out completely?
I made another batch of ketchup today, and it's not quite as good as the first batch - that seems to always be the way and since I play with ingredients, I'll never have two of anything turn out the same I guess! They have started another game show on the radio station we listen to from North BAy. Three times during the day you can call in and have a chance to open the vault and win a max of $10,000.00. Each turn offers incremental amounts of money, and you can decide when to quit and take all the money you have won, or try another turn. Of course, if you take one turn too many, you get a blast and lose all the money you have accumulated. I have never played on the air because it is too hard to get through, but regardless, we have to dial in everytime and try - and this will go on for the next 8 weeks. I don't have my own stash of wine like you lucky folks, but I have bought a nice bottle recently of Brights' House Wine that tastes really quite nice. I usually go for the cheap stuff and at 13.95 this isn't exactly cheap but certainly not expensive. So I will keep drinking this for awhile - it seems that as time goes by, my taste changes and I want to switch to something a little different. I like Black Tower too, but it is more expensive of course. Hard to believe the long weekend will soon be upon us. Not that we do anything, but it always marks a turning point in the seasons and brings the dreaded Fall closer. It was much colder last night and with all my house plants still outside, I fear that I will have to move them in sooner than I was prepared to - I need to clear the space in the sun room now so they can all sit nicely on the shelves and window sill. The shelves are currently full of trays of seeds saved from the vegetables and drying out for use next spring to plant. Harry bought two bales of hay the other day in order to plant his garlic this Fall and cover up with the hay for over winter.
Well, I am going to fiddle with the blog and see if I can copy to email, but if unsuccessful, hopefully the message will publish on the blog. Take care

To ensure you are in the loop., I shall respond to the email rather than onto the blog tonight. The blog can be very finicky but then for whatever reason, settles in and allows you great freedom – so please keep trying.

We went cranberry picking today on a slightly rainy but hot and humid weather day. We got about 16 cups of cranberries and two kuchens later, very delightful to eat! This means I tested the oven and it works very well. Also cooked two squashes we bought at a market and enjoyed for supper. The route into the cranberry marsh is about 2.7 km but very pleasant in spite of fear of bears and piles of bear poop in the trail. I also encountered a snake but thankfully it kept out of my way. We shall be going back in a week or two to pick some more (hallejulah!) so I shall try to enjoy the walk in and out – I do not enjoy the picking and never have !!

I made ketchup the other day – it is the most delicious sauce I have ever made – great recipe and I loved to make it and now eat it! Took some time to reduce it to ketchup consistency but well worth the effort. Every day we pick buckets of tomatoes and the table is full again. Running out of different ways to use them up and yet they keep piling up! Thank goodness the cucumbers are waning. Apparently, we may be going to Kirkland Lake again next week to take some more corn up to the “family” ! Yeh, yippee!

I enjoy my treks down to the lake with the dog – sit at the water and dream – what a waste of time you might think – no, it keeps me going! Funny how the most mundane things can and must amuse me – quite a life, eh?

I picked up the latest Steve Berry novel at the library the other day so have put down the Clive Cussler book I was reading, and will concentrate on this book so that it can be returned on time. They had a survey to fill in and in doing so my name is in a draw to win an Ebook so I hope I might be lucky – may be same as the lotteries – ie no luck . Did I tell you that the the North Bay Council is deciding after a public meeting whether to go ahead and accept the chance to build a Casino in North Bay. With my latest experience at Shooting Star in Mahnomen, I might consider a trip to two if it does come into being. It would be closer than the one in Orillia (Casino Rama) and might be a bit of fun! Well, time to bed down and read a bit. Tomorrow it is the weekly trip to North Bay again to shop. Although we did go into the Bay today to get gas – the cranberry marsh is close to North Bay. We got some more bird feed as well, so I can cross that off my To Do list for tomorrow. Take care

From: Cathy McGrath

Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2012 6:39 PM

To: 'Elizabeth Pearce' ; 'Pat F in Winnipeg'

Subject: Blog!!!

I am having trouble getting into the blog again, but I have survived my first week back. I went into work this morning because fees change tomorrow and they had to make sure the accounting program was working. They said about 2 hours. I was done in about 40 minutes. Oh well…. 4 hours on a call in. I got 15 jars of salsa made today. With Jalapenos and cayenne pepper. A mite spicier than last year. I made pickled eggs for Jim ‘cause there is no way he will eat this batch of salsa. I got 7 jars of ripe cucumber relish and 9 jars of zucchini relish made, too. Now I would like to sleep!!! We were given some apples, so I think I will freezer some apple crisps. Then they will be there when I crave them. Tonight is comfort food. Goulash and mashed potatoes! I guess I am grateful for a lot of things. Family, friends and fun!

You are never alone with a hippo in your pocket.

Another adventure

Yesterday  we went for a drive. As the sun set, and it started to get dark, we headed south of hwy 44 on hwy#59 toward Bird's Hill Park.  Getting closer to Garven Rd. we saw all sorts of tail lights , and realized that cars weres stopped and lining up at the Garven Rd lights.  Getting closer, we discovered that the highway was closed and police were directing everyone east onto Garven Rd. With the backup and the need to merge three lanes into one, it was quite dark by the time we made the turn.  Now, we knew that, eventually, passing the south side of the park, we would hit hwy #207.  But that was a long way down the road, so when everyone ahead of us turned south  down a paved road, we just followed along.  Someone had to know where we were going--right? The traffic was so solid that a car sitting on a driveway to the right of us had no chance of ever pulling onto the road across traffic.  So picture literally hundreds of cars blindly driving down a country road in the dark.  I kept wondering what people in the houses we passed were seeing and thinking.  Eventually the paved road turned to gravel, and very dusty, but everyone kept trucking along,  as many behind us as in front.  I could see the lights of the city to the right and realized we were a fair way south of where we had wanted to be.  Suddenly, ahead of us a group of young people in safety vests, and with ATV's, were blocking the road and waving everyone to make a left hand turn.  And like a bunch of sheep, everyone turned left, and kept going down even more gravel road.  But, in the far distance, we could see what appeared to be cars  heading south-- perhaps a main road?  Yes!  We are saved!  A paved road heading yet further south.  At this point we had no idea where we were, but took comfort in knowing that there were a heck of a lot of other people in the same predicament.  Eventually I saw a sign stating that we were approaching hwy #15 ( Dugald Road).  Turned out that we were on hwy #207, exactly where we would have been if we'd just stayed on Garven Rd in the first place--and it would have been paved all of the way.

We stayed up to see the local news, in hopes we could find out what had happened, and found out that an RCMP cruiser had been in collison with a motorcycle on the floodway bridge. Then in the paper this morning found out that the collision had ended a high speed chase between the RCMP and a group of motorcyclists.  A high speed chase through all that beach traffic coming home on Sunday evening?!?  I'm sure grateful that we saw the after effects and weren't in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

There you are....

I now have an event to look forward to.....50th Anniversary Party!!!!!! I shall be there with bells on! Likely have to buy a snowmobile to make the trek, but anything goes haha. Thanks