Sunset - looking east

This view was taken while we were eastbound from Arlington on Friday night after having supper at Carolyn's Essenhaus. I couldn't see clouds; I guess the light was just reflecting from the atmosphere.

Gas Prices

Gas prices are up and it's not even spring.
We used to have "gas wars" on East 4th Street when gas went down from twenty-five cents a gallon to eighteen cents. I sometimes forgot that the tax was included in that price and tried to add the two cents on the dollar for Kansas state sales tax. The guy who pumped the gas always explained that wasn't necessary.
Those days I earned fifty cents an hour as a Kress sales clerk. Seems comparable to today's price when minimum wage is around seven dollars.... approximately half that for a gallon of gas.

80 in January?

Not quite. The actual reading outside is 68 but on our screened in back porch with the added clear plastic placed there by L. (mainly to keep the snow out) it was 80 +.

Felt good to sit there in the sun for a bit.

Treat Thursday

We have no snow but the days have had very cold temps. We haven't been out for a couple of days. I never thought I would get cabin fever but I believe I did.
So today, with the forecast for 59, we drove to Buhler and back - a nice ride. Coming back we stopped at The Raz to try their fantastic chocolate dessert as described in an article in the paper. There was a little confusion deciding if I meant the flourless chocolate cake (see the remnants above) or the other chocolate dessert with caramel syrup drizzled over it.
I was going to take a picture when the plate arrived but, short term memory loss was in charge and I FORGOT. This is not cake, folks. This is a row of chocolate fudge on top of a row of solid something that reminds me of hard lard only tastier. L. got two bites and I had to leave a bit on my plate. The pink was raspberry syrup and it all was Too Rich, even for me.

Also a little pricey but if I limit my treats to Thursday, we'll be ok.

Grey Monday

It's still cloudy although they forecast sun. The day is not over yet so maybe later.
Yesterday was a "lot of football Sunday." Both my teams lost so I'm not predicting the Super Bowl.
I did manage to make some Chinese Pepper Steak which is one of our favorites.
It was yummy.

l lb. arm roast (or any steak) cut into thin strips
Fry in 2 tbsp. meat drippings or fat until barely brown.
Add 2 tbsp. minced onion, 1 clove minced garlic, 2 tbsp. pimento, salt and pepper to taste.
1 cup boullion or consume. 2 whole green peppers cut into strips. Cover and cook 20 min.

Mix 2 tsp. corn starch, 1 tsp. soy sauce, 2 tbsp. water. Add to the meat. Serve on rice.

I am copying this with the original spelling and the recipe was typed on a 1949 Royal Typewriter with a brown ribbon. How cool is that?

Class at the library

From the looks of this blurry picture, the class should have been on photography. I only took one shot and that was a mistake. It seemed plenty light in the room so I used no flash. Another mistake.
But, the class was on Social Networking with Facebook and Twitter for businesses. I went just to learn more about both those subjects. Patsy Terrell is a great teacher and this was an informal session with questions asked at any time - the kind of class I like! I learned a lot of interesting facts and much more about the tools available with each of the programs. Thank you, Patsy.

Lady Liberty

The ice melted enough to go buy squirrel food and then a mocha and then a chocolate milk shake. I guess we were celebrating 34 degrees.
On North Main we saw this method of advertising. Hope he's getting minimum wage out there in the breeze.

Replacement Printer

For once a warranty paid off - our year and a half year old printer stopped working. Sent it in with information and received a card to buy a new one (at the same store.) We brought it home yesterday. I was not up to trying to install it last night. My installation experiences have been quite discouraging over the years. The lovely green lines that show progress will advance to 99% and then stall. So I decided to wait till morning to tackle this latest installation.
All went well until I put the ink cartridges into their slots. "Not compatible ink." Yes it was!
Tried it again with different set. Same thing. Turned off printer. Now compatible....
So far so good. Not too crazy with TouchSmart but I guess I'll get used to it.
Technology! I guess it's better than those blue/purple ink copy machines that we kids turned the handle on to help the teacher's produce hand-outs in grade school. (Don't try to diagram that sentence.)

That purple ink sure smelled funny.

Toaster Oven

Our four slice toaster quit toasting on one side. We used it for a long time in that condition and finally decided we wanted to replace it.
This monstrosity caught our eye at Tarjay. We brought it home, read the booklet and proceeded to toast muffins, make toast and nothing else - so far.

To make toast you place the top rack in the position shown, turn the top knob to "toast", the second knob to "broil" and ignoring the third knob, place the fourth knob to light, medium or dark (it's also the timer.)

Simple, right? This morning I did all that. Went back at the sound of the tone and no heat, no toasted muffin. Failed again. After L. came into the kitchen we discovered it was not a mistake in my method. As you can see in the photo, it was UNPLUGGED!
It seems it gets pretty hot when it heats up (a surprise?) and L. was afraid it was too hot. So he unplugged it.

I'll try again tomorrow.

A Working Dog

I admire working dogs and we saw this sweetie at the mall today during our "daily" walk ( so far two daily walks this year.) He reminds me of a Corgi. His owner told me his name but I didn't write it down and now have forgotten it. Bless the people who train these dogs to help others!

Cut Rates

This was the day to shop for next Christmas. January 15th. We started out New Year resolution two weeks late and walked around the mall. We didn't actually do the whole half mile because we didn't "extend" our walk to the exit hallways.
Gradually increasing is the plan.

Decaf Mocha

My very favorite drink from Starbucks.
L. went out and the streets are clear except for ours. He ran some errands and picked this up for me on the way home. How thoughtful. Very warming and pictured in front of a warm quilt on the bed.

A break from snow photos

Another day inside. High temperature today was 17. We're waiting for a thaw.

Potato soup was good but looked strange made in the crock pot. I think I know what happened and I will not vary from the recipe in the future.

Bird bath with topping

This picture of the bird bath reminds me of a cake with a lot of seven minute icing. We won't be getting out today. The high is forecast to be 15 degrees.

Brrr. There may be a hot game of Scrabble later.

Snow

We finally received our first measurable snow of the winter. The little lights have their cold caps on and you can see the depressions where the paperboy walked to throw the paper on the porch.

Both our sons threw papers in the '70's. As I recall, during bad weather they were able to sit on the tailgate of the station wagon and throw from there. Some years later the newspaper company required "on porch" delivery. That would have stopped a few of the "lost" and "on roof " deliveries that had to be replaced. The worst part was collecting. Too many unanswered knocks and some outright rude refusals to pay made collection day a time to dread. Now a bill sent by mail with a check returned by mail has taken care of that chore.

Downside? We never see our paper person and another personal contact has been lost.

Sadness

After the events in Tucson yesterday, there has been much talk on television about calming the rhetoric.

I just heard that the members of the congregation in Topeka who protest at veteran's funerals are going to Tucson. I hope the people there form a barrier of strong people who will quietly block their way to the funeral locations.

How tragic it is that persons have such hatred within and express it in ways that phsically harm others. Even disturbing the peace of those gathered to mourn is not right.

An Indian legend telling of two wolves, one good and one evil, living within the spirit of man and fighting for control made me think of the voices we hear from both sides in this political world. A child asked the elder of the tribe how it was determined which wolf would win. The elder answered, "The one you feed, my son."

Fireplace

This is the first place that we have lived with a fireplace. Shortly after we moved in, we had gas logs installed. About a month later an ice storm interrupted our electricity supply and our only source of heat was the fireplace. We felt very fortunate. We slept in front of it in sleeping bags with the temperature around 50 degrees. That doesn't sound COLD, but it felt cold. I think we had power back on in about twenty hours but were thankful that we had decided to get the gas connection from our friend, Steve!

We actually don't use it very much. Maybe if the computer were in the same room, since that's where I spend a lot of (too much) time, we would burn it more.

L. turned it a while ago to see if it still was in working order. Cold days are headed this way!

Downtown Yoder

This is downtown Yoder looking NW from the hardware story. We traveled to Yoder for fried chicken for me. L. read my previous blog and his New Year's resolution is to let me always choose the place we eat when we go out! So I chose Carriage Crossing. L. had half a hot hamburger sandwich and I brought home some fried chicken, crisp fried green beans and carrots for my supper. Their helpings are large. I wonder if they would fix a child's plate for an old adult?

Eating Out

We have this little game we play at our house. Someone suggests "eating out." Sounds like a good idea to me - no cooking! Get in the car.
Next comes, "Where do you want to go?" Usual answer: "I don't care." (Both of us don't care.) So the husband says, "We'll go anywhere you want to." Next step is the hardest. I try to pick someplace I like and that I think he'll go.
So far, this has not worked. Whatever I choose, he says, "Anyplace but there." This goes on for a time until finally we find someplace he approves or we go back home and eat leftovers.
Today, while running errands, we heard an ad on the radio for chicken and noodles on mashed potatoes with green beans and a roll at Fraese Drug! My favorite. He agreed right away, knowing he could get a patty melt.
Wow! That was easy.

Printer Failure

The printer looks brand new - but it has an ink system failure. For once, an extended warranty is being used. I contacted the number on the warranty and they instructed me to send it in and a replacment coupon will be sent.

When they asked if I wanted the mailing label sent by email or US mail, I replied, "Email." I gave them my address, hung up and realized I had no way to print the mailing label. Duh! So, I went to Office Max and they let me use their system to print out the mailing label.

Some days the brain just isn't in full working mode.

Snow People

We haven't had enough snow to make any snow men but I dug these out for Christmas. Made many years ago but still looking good!

Happy New Year

Hope we all have a safe and happy 2011!
(This is the bell tower at St. Teresa's in Hutch - taken from the passenger car window while stopped at the signal on Poplar. )