Requiem in pacem

In no particular order

Lynn Bell
Ingrid Armstrong
Jon Mac Nobles
Ed Notestine
Gill Clements
Ed Miller

New favorite thing!

Did you know you can take a package to Target (the SuperTarget on Abrams - maybe others) and mail a package? It's the NEW POST OFFICE!

Take your package, put in on the scale, tell the machine the size, put in the zip of the destination, swipe your credit card, print the postage and VOILA! No standing in line watching clerks chew gum!

What a concept!

I love it!

Texas v. Nebraska

We went to the game expecting the worst.

After all, we'd suffered through Texas - OU.

But 1) Omaha is nice. We toured Boys Town (remember the Spencer Tracy/Andy Rooney flick? If not, watch it when you can) and the Durham Museum, which is in the old Union Pacific Train Station, when they knew how to build a train staion.

2) the fans before and after the game were unbelievably nice. "Welcome to Lincoln!" "I hope everyone is nice to you while you are here." "Great game!" "Was everyone nice?" "Glad you came"

3) We won!

Shopping

I remember reading years ago about how French women shop every day for food for that night's meal and thinking - that's just insane. I had a weekly calendar of every child's schedule and shopped once a week, planning for leftovers.

Some days, with soccer, volleyball or gymnastics practices, I just planned for McDonald's or Wendy's - knowing I couldn't get home to cook those nights - and if I did go to the effort, it was wasted.

Now, however, I find that shopping every day seems to be my pattern. Since there are just two of us, I tend to just go pick up a salmon dish from Eatzi's or Whole Foods and that's that. Or, like tonight, I go get two steaks, two potatoes and some lettuce. Tomorrow, I'll think of something else and go find it.

Maybe Bubba's.

Wimped out

OK - I wimped out on my trip back from seeing Katherine, et al in Virginia. My AA flight from DCA to DFW was about 3 hours 40 minutes and every minute was marred by two children in 8 DEF (I was in 10 A) talking, laughing, screeching, shrieking, sobbing and playing games at top volume. I should have called the flight attendant at the beginning of the flight ans asked her to ask the children and their adult companion (who never said shhhh or shush or "use your inside voices") to calm them down.

I wondered if perhaps they were hard of hearing and needed to converse at decibels beyond normal speech.

I even put on my defensive CD player earphones and listened to the end of "The Shape Shifter" - Tony Hillerman (highly recommended) and still couldn't block out the sounds of these two demons. At one time they played some sort of game that utilized slapping the tray tables at intervals. I couldn't have been the only wimp in the front of the plane! And they were close enough to First Class to be heard as well.

Next time I won't be so nice....

PS seeing Katherine, Andy and Margaret was delightful! They are moving to within babysitting and cousin range - woo hoo!

This week

This week hasn't been so great. Mary's devoted dog Kieran is gone. He had a great send-off, but will always be missed. He was a one-woman dog.

Also, Jerome (both Jerome and Kieran were named by Mary....) who was our volunteer cat. He showed up with a loud voice in 1992 and demanded to be our cat. We walked him all over the neighborhood (he would follow) to find his lost home, but he was determined to be our cat. He'd already been neutered and declawed in the front, which may have precipitated his departure from his earlier home.
About a month ago, he attacked and jumped on the back of an annoying, barking dog who dared to invade his space! And he did it twice as the idiots who were walking the dog came back "to teach the dog a lesson"!

Jerome had been ailing and losing weight for some time and the last week or so refused food and water. After several attempted interventions, I decided that I couldn't bear for Jerome to just starve himself to death.

Thanks to Janie Hodges, DVM, who treats all of us like family.

In other bad news, my older brother has been diagnosed with lung cancer - no fair for someone who quit smoking in 1987! It's early days, but here's hoping it's caught early and easily treatable.

Founder's Syndrome

My Library group (including me) is suffering from Founder's Syndrome. Those of us who have been there since the beginning of our grassroots effort to make a library happen in our community are having to hand it off to others. And it's hard.

It's hard to see that a whole new group is taking over and depending less and less on our knowledge and experience - even though we know it's time to expand our vision. The new people don't know anything about how we got here and they seem adverse to learning from our mistakes, making them over and over.

However, I'm ready to step back. The new phase of the library is going to involve getting people who know people who can give lots of money to build the new facility - not just us worker bees who sort and shelve the books and hold book sales. We're talking about people who can raise millions of dollars. It won't be perfect, but I have faith that they can get the job done.

There are some of us, however, who can't accept the transition from day to day leadership to a more auxiliary role and are complaining to everyone within earshot that the "letter was too long" "the membership categories were not complete" "the mailing was late" etc, etc. But you know, someone else did it, and we didn't have to.

Our whole effort has been made up as we go along - we could step in and do an event, mailing, program, grant request at the last minute and so far, we're still reacting, rather than acting. But I think this will change as the new group goes forward.

Will they do everything perfectly? Probably not. Would they be smart to listen to the old folks? Probably. Will the Library survive and prosper? I have every hope.

New Car

I just heard about Meg locking herself in the car (she's fine, thank goodness! And Katherine may recover soon.) and I just have to brag about my new car. Here are the things I wanted:

(1) adjustable pedals (my short legs meant that in my Tahoe I was pretty close to the steering wheel. If I were in a wreck, the air bag would probably do some major damage. In my new car, the adjustable pedals mean I'm a little farther away from the wheel.

2. power rear lift gate. Hauling that rear gate in the Tahoe was something I knew I would outgrow. I love punching the fob button and the gate lifts while I'm walking up with my basket from Sam's or Home Depot.

3. power third row. I didn't use the third row in my old car very much. I think we removed the seats when I brought the car home and put them in once, when we had family in town. Each seat weighed about 80 pounds and the installation and removal were hard to do. The power seats mean that I can push a button and raise up one or both of the third row seats.

4. seats fold flat. In the Tahoe, I could fold up the second row, but the third row stood up about 12 inches - meaning that I would have to get in the back area and lift up anything big to go over the seats. In the new car, the folded seats lie flat so things can slide up to the back of the front seats. A caveat is that there is a channel between the folded flat third row and the folded flat second row, but it can be overcome easily.

A bonus is that the car has a locking system that can rescue me if I lock the keys inside or if I just need to put something inside without using the keys. It has a five digit code that unlocks the passenger door with an additional code for the rest of the car. When the total code is in, I can open the back hatch. All without a key!

Also, the car is big, sits up high and small cars fear me.

It's a Ford Expedition. After two Suburbans and two Tahoes, I'm sold on Ford.

Sniff, snort, cough

Everything is blooming in Dallas, including my nose! The dust is blowing in from Canada and mingling with the rain-soaked mold, mildew and budding flowers - to all of which I have acquired allergic reactions. I don't know why I haven't lost a significant amount of weight just from blowing my nose over the last two days.

I never used to be allergic to anything - except wool (itchy, itchy) - but now spring brings a new period of first, drippy nose, multiple sneezing and watery eyes. This is followed by a couple (I hope only a couple) of nights of waking up to uncontrolled coughing.

Remedies include bourbon, honey, lemon in hot water, Nyquil, Sudafed (the good kind you have to sign for), hot salty water to gargle, hot tea with lemon, Hall's lemon cough drops, lemon drops and my new cure - Lemoncello (sort of a liquid lemon drop with vodka).

I'm counting on a good night's sleep tonight!

My list

Not my bucket list - just a list of things I needed to do today:

Make bank deposit
Go with Elizabeth to see discovery materials
Call the tree man
Send the Garden Club agenda
Write up next year's President of Garden Club's responsibilities and send
Buy bread, milk, OJ, dog food, bananas, something for dinner (salmon with salad and garlic bread)
Buy Vitamin D (for some reason Vitamin D is in, right now)
Mail a package of talking Easter Eggs to Katherine

I've finished (or helped Mary finish) the puzzles and now am knitting a prayer shawl.

Library expansion

Our generous landlord has allowed us to have the 3,500 square feet across the hall for storage, story time and room to breathe! It's very exciting - they are having the carpet stretched today (very wavy). If I can figure it out I'll post pictures. It will make a huge difference in our Book Sale stuff, not to mention having space for the staff to sit at an actual table to eat lunch!

The snow is just about all melted and the sun was out, but not really warm.

Once I finish the Nominating slate for the garden club, I'll only have to be on that kind of committee one more time (next year as past president)! Just like my resolution to never serve as treasurer again, I'm setting aside Nominating Committee as well - especially if I have to call and cajole people into serving.

I've found a new hairdresser - Michael. A friend told me about him - nearby, good and price is right. She neglected to tell me (how could I have missed it?) that he wears an eyepatch? I did like the haircut, though - and he's very entertaining and nice.

Still thankful for electricity

It is nice and warm, and I have the Olympics and the NBA All Stars on TV. Not that I'm that interested in the All Stars, but apparently it is a big deal and it's here in Dallas.

We've had a nice Valentine's Day - out to dinner on Friday night, brunch after church today, and Elizabeth, Megan and Emma for dinner tonight.

We're finalizing plans for the Clan Egan Rally in Tasmania - very exciting!

Some people still don't have electricity - I'm feeling very thankful.

Power outage

We had no power (no lights, no heat, no TV, no computer except for low charge iPHone) for almost 24 hours. How did our ancestors/ancestresses deal with it? I went shopping and then tried to nap.

I also went to Luby's Cafeteria for the first time in a long time - their Louann platter (senior citizens only, please) is over $7 - I can eat twice at McDonald's for that!)

Anyway I decided to treat myself since it was cold, dark and boring at home - and I had picked up Game Change at Sam's.

1. When I went to pick up my tray, the lady shoved in a new stack, clipping my fingers.
2. When the serving man put in new meat loaf (or something), he slopped juice into my tray and onto Game Change.
3. When I got coffee and asked for cream, I was told the "lady would be by to take my order" which she was, but my coffee was cold before I got up to get my own cream
4. I was overcharged and had to wait until the manager was called.

So, I think I'll give Luby's a miss from now on.
BUT! electricity back on! Hooray!

In other news, I've been letting Jerome the cat sleep in the garage (with a plug in oil heater) since it has been so cold.) Since the power was out, I couldn't raise the garage door to let him out and had visions of him either starving or freezing to death. I finally found the emergency key (thanks to Byron who never throws anything away), but couldn't make it work. I finally called a locksmith, who could make the key work and Jerome is rescued!

Electricity is wonderful!

Good news!

My friend didn't break her neck in the car wreck yesterday! She (according to rumor) merely broke her collarbone and a couple of ribs. Not great, but still!

Donor Bridge, whining, accident

The Donor Bridge is a great program in which agencies can sign up and on a specific day, donors can donate to the agency (or library) and the donation is matched. Great, right? But the application is awful. We need the mission statement, impact statement, employee retention, history of the organization, management succession plan, strategic plan, fundraising plan, three year financials, etc., etc.

I know, I know - it's all valuable information - but what a pain to do it all. Do most agencies have a paid person to do this? Also, it only works on a PC and internet explorer - so all the info I've collected on my Mac has to be sent to a person with a PC then uploaded from there. And did I mention that we changed our name in 2005, but apparently not with the IRS, just with Texas, so all that has to be changed and they've misspelled library on all our forms (Libarary) - so that all has to be changed, too.

If it weren't a local program and if we weren't planning a capital campaign, I would just say to hell with it.

In worse news, one of our key library people, past president of the Friends and good friend was in a car wreck tonight and broke her neck. She has feeling in her extremities and is talking, so it could be lots worse -

Last whine. Our generous landlord has let us have about 4500 more square feet for the library - mostly storage space and space for meetings and storytime. Since it used to be an office, there are poles which contain computer cables and electricity which go from ceiling to floor which we want to remove since we don't need them. I took the man who's been doing handyman stuff here at the house and at the rental places over to help - but now the building manager says everyone who works there has to sign a waiver for asbestos.

Wasgij

I saw that Leanne Egan had talked about the puzzle Wasgij and googled it. It is jigsaw spelled backwards, and the picture on the puzzle box is not the picture you reassemble. The one you do is what one of the characters in the puzzle is seeing. Challenging - but fun. Basically you fit the puzzle pieces that fit without having a clear idea of what it will eventually resemble.

I bought a regular puzzle at Target to work tomorrow - there's something about being able to create order from chaos that appeals. I'm still working on the Donor Bridge application, but think I've done the Colonial Dames one. I've sent off the latter to a checker. We'll see.

My friend Lisa Arrieta was found dead in her home last week. The funeral is tomorrow. I'm sorry to say I had lost touch with her - she was about 10 years younger and we've gone in different directions since we both worked on the Theta Recommendation Board with Nancy Abbey, but I'll miss her just the same.

Cold and rainy and colder and more rain tomorrow.

The electrician we've asked to work on the rental duplex is apparently waiting until spring to do the job, but, so far, no tenants have moved out.

Megan and cough syrup

Megan is better, but Dr. Pharo will keep watching her bilirubin levels. Apparently Mark gave her a teaspoon of over the counter cough syrup and that may have caused the problem. I googled cough syrup and children and that is a big no-no, and doesn't even address the problem of a teaspoon is too much for a 5-year-old.

It may be something entirely different, but is still worrying.

Elizabeth and the girls (all in pink and looked darling) came over to see Lexie on their way from the doctor's office to the park and we had Mini-bites spaghetti and meatballs. They didn't eat it all so I had the left overs for lunch. Pretty good!

I'm still working on this Donor Bridge application, but may be whittling it down. I'm also weeding (which is library-speak for removing books from the shelves which haven't been checked out for three years or so) in the Dewey 200s (religion). Almost none of those books which were donations have ever been checked out. We're going to have a great sale on March 6!

Garden Club Meeting

The Garden Club meeting went off OK - fabulous house (where do these young women get these palaces? They can't all be married to drug dealers!) and the program - Poisonous Plants - was great. The presenter was a real drama guy and had a multi-media production about herbal poisons. He was really good.

Elizabeth called and asked me to pick Emma up at school because she was home with Megan who had come home early with a bad headache. They went directly to Dr. Pharo, who said to wait until more symptoms (fever or vomiting, etc) showed up, but they never did. She took Megan back this afternoon and it is still a mystery what is wrong. (Of course, not good for the imagination that I've just seen a dramatic exposition of herbal poisons - hemlock, caster beans, henbane. Could she have eaten something?) They are still waiting to see - she is in ketosis, but no evidence of diabetes. She still has a headache.

Anyway, Emma was darling - her teacher put her hair in pony tails (she was so proud) and we had hot chocolate in little tea cups.

I'm waiting to hear how Megan is tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm procrastinating about filling out the Donor Bridge form and the Colonial Dames application....

Wisdom of Gaga

Gaga used to say, since she wrote in her journal every day and also wrote to Lolah Mary daily -"When you write every day, there is lots to tell. If you write once a month, you can't think of anything worthwhile to relate."

I always think I will have something interesting to say, but usually don't.

For instance, today I had the freezer people come out. Obviously I don't use the freezer much, and when I opened it last night, it was hot inside. I threw all the meat and spoiled stuff out, which fortunately wasn't much. The vodka, pecans, cookies from the Christmas party and freezer pops were just fine for the temporary heat wave. The freezer guy said that $395 for a new timer was lots better than a new SubZero, which runs $6-7,000 (!), or even a new condenser motor which runs about $2000.

After that I met Elizabeth, Megan and Emma at the Library for Storytime, where Jim Carvell (Wade's father) plays the guitar (and made Emma his biggest fan "Play it again!"). Then we went to Bubba's for fried chicken, hot rolls with honey and delicious green beans. Did I mention that it was raining? And we only had one umbrella? Every child should have her own umbrella.

Back to the Library for a meeting in our new space. Our kind landlord (who has given us the space for 8 years for $1.25 per year, but has recently decided the Library won't be in his new building as promised) has given us about 4,500 new square feet across the hall with room for Book Sale set up, Storytime space, a breakroom with an actual table for the staff. We met to try to decide what will go where, and who should do what to set it up. First on the agenda is stretching the carpet which lies in waves on the floor - then we can begin moving in the dozens of books in beer flats which can then be sorted as to their Dewey number for the Book Sale.

Back home to work on tomorrow agenda for the Junior League Garden Club. I recommend any president or presiding person should do a printed agenda and hand it out to everyone. That way you are organized in your mind about how things should proceed, and you won't forget anything. (If you do, someone will remind you "Your forgot the Treasurer's report!). The Program Chairman of the Garden Club is one of those really detail people who are great on a committee, since they insist on keeping everything just right. They are also terrible on a committee since they drive you crazy "Have you checked the number of reservations?" "Have you ordered enough chairs"? "Let's do a walk-through of Debbie's house to see where the speaker should set up." This also makes for a very smooth meeting.

We're going (assuming Byron gets home in the next 45 minutes, otherwise I'm going) to Book Club where our favorite reviewer Marjorie Currey will talk about Warren Buffet's biography (by a HP woman) "Snowball".

I'm sure tomorrow will be equally fascinating.

Bam's and Ranny's Chili and Beans

Classic recipe:
2 - 3 round steaks - cubed 1/2" by 1/2", brown in oil. Ideally these should have the bone in, but hard to find these days.
Add salt and pepper
Add 2 whole cloves of garlic
2 cans of Mountain Pass Red Chili Sauce
2 cans water.

Simmer, covered, at least 3 hours - the longer the better. stir occasionally. Add flour and water paste to thicken.

Beans: In another pot, put 1 pound of pinto beans, add water to cover. Boil for 5 minutes. Pour off water. Add fresh cold water and chunk of salt pork. Cover at simmer at least 3 hours - the longer the better. Add water when needed and stir occasionally. When ready to serve, mash some beans to thicken.

Homemade rolls:

Scald 2 C milk (or 1 C milk and 1 C water), 1/2 C Crisco, 1/2 C sugar (scant), 1 t. salt. Allow to cool. Soak package of dry yeast in 1/2 C warm water. Add to cooled liquid (130 degrees). Add 5 - 6 C flour. Let rise, then knead. Shape into rolls (cut in circle, fold over once). Let rise in oiled pan. Bake 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

I usually make this up in advance and freeze. The meat should be in shreds. Do not use ground meat or the West Texas Goddesses will haunt you. If you don't want to cut up the steak, just get Wolf Brand with no beans and don't aspire to true chili greatness. (New Mexicans spell it chile for no good reason I can find.)

Note - it is hard to find true red chili sauce (not salsa, picante or enchilada sauce - these do not smell right.) Sometimes I can find red chili sauce at a Dollar Store.

You can substitute chili powder or Wick Fowler's 2-Alarm chili mix. Taste right before serving to achieve desired chili kick.

I now use Sister Shubert's frozen rolls rather than homemade.

Serve with iceberg lettuce which has been torn and put into a bowl with a tiny bit of oil and two cut garlic cloves. Remove garlic and add lime juice and salad oil (not olive oil) to taste.

Enjoy!