We had a whole day at home again. The temperatures were up. When Chelsea and I walked, and we did walk, it was 19 degrees with no wind. We can take that. I think she was trying to lead me around the park, but I did not let her go out of the tract at all because they had not yet plowed the walkway around the park AND wading through 2 to 5 feet of snow to get back to Tall Grass was not in MY plans. She would have disappeared anyway.

Bobbie and Bill came over for dinner this evening. I fixed liver, as I mentioned earlier, for Bobbie and me and ribs for Bill and Dick. We also had tater tots, corn and Jello with banana cake with brown sugar frosting for dessert. It was a lovely evening and we got caught up with them. Bobbie and I split the liver and onions so we will have sandwiches for the next few days. It is really good liver. Randy Walter from Rhine Plymouth gave it to us. He and Regina buy a side of beef every so often and don't like liver so they share.

The other evening I was watching one of those shows where the host goes all over the place trying strange and different things to eat. This one mentioned Abalone Sandwiches. It reminded me of a story.

My ex husband loved abalone. You dive for abalone, you know. At one time I think he worked as a tender for an abalone diver. Anyway, he brought some home one evening and I told him that I didn't know how to cook it so he said that he would.

Sounded good to me. The boys were maybe 12 and 7 and we lived in HuntingtonBeach. We also had and electric oven. Dick had never cooked on anything but gas.

I went about my business, cleaning something upstairs and the next thing I knew there was black smoke hanging from the ceiling at about a foot deep and growing. He had started melting the butter in the frying pan while he cut and pounded the abalone for frying. Not realizing that you have to anticipate and turn down the heat before it gets too hot, he had the butter burned . The kids thought it was funny. We were opening doors and windows and crawling around on the floor to stay below the smoke.

Eventually, we got it cleared out and I instructed him on the nuances of electric heat so we could eat those delicious abalone.

Have a good Sunday.

Bobbie sent me an email for sharing and I l0ved a statement in it so will include it here.

'Whenever God Closes One Door He Always Opens Another, Even Though
> 
> Sometimes It's Hell in the Hallway'\ 

Isn't it a great statement.

Mary
 

Last night I was so tired by 8PM that I could not stay awake any longer. I went to bed and did not even REALIZE that I had not blogged until this morning. I really can't tell you why I was so tired. I stayed home the whole day and guess I just kept busy with cleaning and sewing and all the other things that have to be done. Maybe I am better off to leave at least once a day.

It is now after 11PM and I JUST got home from working at Rhine. We are in the middle of winter league. Last week was SO cold that very few teams showed up to shoot so this week was busy. We shot 20 scorecards and only three of them did not shoot both sets. Then trap two started breaking birds and we could not use it for about a hour and a half. The last team finished at 10:10 or so. We fudged a bit as we are supposed to be done by 10. I had the gun room and had to field the unhappy guys when they had to wait what must have seemed forever for their turns. I was able to keep them pretty calm. Poor Tom Lawaan and Peter Hatas spent the whole night scoring in that snow and cold. We took in enough money. I drove home VERY carefully. I did not exceed 40 MPH. One could not see the white line and I could tell it was slippery. I did not test the traction control OR the 4WD. I just drove slowly and steadily home.

The early part of the day consisted of cleaning the kitchen, baking a cake and going to lunch with my friends. On the way home from lunch, I got the car washed and then went to the Plymouth Inn and made arrangements to block off several rooms for the Celtic Women's Spring Fling in April.

Tomorrow we get to stay home the whole day again. I invited Bobbie over for a liver and onions dinner. (Bill and Dick will have oven farmer ribs.) They will grumble as we enjoy our dinner. We will both have enough for sandwiches during the coming week too. Num Num.

Ellen Burstyn said "Most of my life, if a man did something totally other than the way I thought it should be done, I would try to correct him. Now I say, "Oh, isn't that interesting."

Sounds like a good philosophy (mostly.)

Mary

This is one of the best pictures that I have ever taken. Isn't it great?

Mary

Dick and I went grocery shopping this morning. We checked the Wilderness Restaurant because Jim and Michelle had told us that it was open again. It is apparently, BUT not for breakfast so we proceeded on to Mc Donalds. Dick got a big breakfast and I got a sausage Mc Griddle. They do have good breakfasts. Then on to the Pig for grocery shopping. With a concentrated effort we were done by 9:15 and even with getting gas in the car were home by 9:30AM. Not a bad effort.

I put the groceries away and Dick and Chelsea went down for a nice nap. My friend Nancy Roehre picked me up at 11AM and we headed for Sheboygan. We stopped first at her sister in law's house. Her sister in law is Kathy Roehre Burich who graduated from High School with both Nancy AND me. They are on the high school reunion committee and Nancy was picking up the flyers that are to be mailed for our reunion this summer. Would you believe that we will be celebrating our 50th High School Reunion this summer? I can't.

Then we drove over to Gander Mountain where Nancy's pistol was waiting for her. Nancy is really enjoying pistol league and shooting. I am delighted to have someone to shoot with once in a while. She had been using her brother Jack's pistol but it is rather big and cumbersome for a little person. She bought a ruger. When she went to Gander Mountain and explained what she was doing and where she was shooting and who she was shooting with, Norb, the salesperson said that he knew me and was SO helpful to her. Bobbie, he is Norb of Norb and Rocky.

We stopped for a quick lunch at Quisno's on the way home.

I tried to take a short nap but it was cut even shorter by Chelsea, who was a real problem this afternoon. I took her for a 15 minute walk, she did everything. Was at my desk 10 minutes later and she was whining to go out again ( at least I THINK she wanted to go out) So I took her out again for another 15 t0 20 minute walk and then she started pestering me again. She is really either getting senile or really having difficulties. I try to be really understanding because she is old, But I am getting very tired and am not exactly young either. I sure get tired after the third or forth time dressing up to take her out in a two hour period. One has to start with that because she cannot talk and tell us what she wants.

Tonight we took Mother out for her birthday dinner. We went to Richards in Sheboygan Falls. It was a lovely evening. I mentioned to Rose, the waitress, and a dear friend, that it was for Mom's birthday and they brought her a big piece of decadent chocolate dessert to share with a candle and we all sang Happy Birthday. The other waitress is Nancy Roehre's sister and went to school with my brother Jeff. She was totally surprised that her sister is shooting pistol. So I spilled lots of stuff to her.

One more extremely cold night and then the temperatures are supposed to warm up a bit. We are certainly ready for a break.

Love

Mary

I think we must have had a foot of snow last night. It was fluffy and deep. Chelsea was up to her little neck. She did her Pepe Le Pew bouncing this morning which is awfully cute to see but then we had to wander around until we found a spot with the snow low enough that she could do her bathroom duties. It is pretty hard to squat when the snow is as high as your bottom.

This afternoon, she was really funny. She ran across the plowed road and jumped up into the bank that had been made even deeper by the plows and darn near disappeared. Didn't bother her too much.

We had an appointment with Dr. Hodous for Dick's feet this morning. There was black ice off and on all the way between here and the Clinic. Fortunately, we were not in any hurry and I just took my time. A couple of times I felt the car start to stray but was able to keep it steady. One of the open callouses seems to be healing. It is almost healed which we really did not expect. So that was and is a relief. We must be doing something right.

Had the furnace and humidifier checked today. All is well, and he changed the filter. He did suggest that we get a Carbon Monoxide Detector as the heat exchange on these furnaces is known to be weak and it is eight years old now. We need to be on that. We will check on that. Seems to me that Jim checked those things out when we were at Hunters Glen and we had one. Ryan, the inspector, said that Steger DOES carry them. They run from $45 to $195 including installation. We will ask Jim first.

I received an envelope from my niece, Vikki, today. She sent back the pictures that I had shared from when we used to go jeeping out there in the deserts and sand dunes. She also sent me a wonderful gift. A poster of her son Scott Simon #181 riding his cycle with an insert of his face. She is right, he has Johnston plastered all over him. A nice looking young man. I will hang this poster. I love things like that.

Love

Mary

Hello. It was a snowy cold Monday. Because of the snow, the birthday dinner we promised to Mother this evening has been postponed to Wednesday when it should be safe, (cold but safe) to take her AND Dick out and about.

The bible study had six of us there today. Several people are on vacation so we were pretty much full group. The readings were very interesting in that they were the handing of the reins to Jesus from John the Baptist and Jesus picking his first four apostles. Joe was quite clever in his wording. James and John were called from their job working with their father Zebedee on a fishing boat. He referred to it as the Zebedee Fishing Company and indicated that these young men were probably much more interested in following this guy who had been recommended by John the Baptist. They must have hear John speak and were more excited about following Jesus than hanging around fishing with their father for the rest of their lives.

Then I swung by Mother's and gave her the birthday card. This was when we decided that unless things changed we would put off the birthday dinner. While I was there a beautiful azalea plant arrived from Nora and Leif. Eileen and Fred were out to see her on Sunday. Presents and flowers were piling in and everybody was calling which is certainly proper. When one reaches 92 years old, the world should stand up and take notice.

Believe in yourself.

Mary

Believe it or not , it is actually warmer now than it was most of the day and it is only 0 degrees. This is bitter cold but it is supposed to be warming up a bit this next week. At least we will get to double digits.

I went to the 8AM Mass. It was not quite as full as usual, probably because of the cold. I got a call from Mother. She asked me to pick up a Blessed Trinity Bulletin for her. She stayed home because of the bitter cold too. I am sure glad she didn't try to go.

The rest of the day was very quiet around here. I sewed a bit on my denim quilt and cut out the edging for another Celtic Women Sweatshirt Jacket. I did some crocheting. I am going to be making caps for cancer patients who loose their hair during treatments. Apparently there is a big demand for them so I figured I can put some together of an evening while watching TV to keep my hands busy.

Just finished watching the Packer's lose the playoff game with NY. What a disappointment. They just weren't playing. They didn't seem to be putting any heart into it. So despite the fact that they managed to be tied at the end, they did not play all that well and we were not really surprised. Disappointed but not surprised. So , we wait until next year.

Barb called during the game and we had a nice phone visit. It will be nice when she is done with that assignment in Florida and they decide for sure what thy are going to do. It is hard for them to be so far apart. She goes home for four days in early February.

Take care and have a good week.

Mary