Upgraded

After our facials, Carolyn and I went to the AT&T store looking at cell phones. Carolyn said her RAZR had been dropped so many times on her concrete floors that she worried that it wouldn't last much longer. I've had my cell phone for a really long time, and it looks like it. I've dropped it in a puddle once. After it dried out it was fine. I used it in the shower recently...I didn't get it in the water, but the conversation went on for quite a while, so the steamy atmosphere made it quite working until I took it apart and let it dry out. Anyway, I've been considering a new phone for about a year, but just didn't see what I wanted at my usual stores...Walmart, Best Buy, etc. I've never actually looked in the AT&T store before.

I wasn't going to look today, but decided to go on in after a few minutes. The sales associate was showing Carolyn an IPhone3G. I don't need all those features, but it was really cool. I looked at a few others with QWERTY keyboards, but, geez, the keys are small. And the IPhone is really cool. I decided I would just think about it for a while. About a minute later, before I knew what was happening, I heard myself say, "I want that phone!" So, I bought it. Along with a Jawbone Bluetooth thingy, a car charger and a gel case. It's really cool. But, I don't know much about what I'm doing. I was trying to use the Bluetooth while I talked to Robin and hung up on her at least 3 times.

The last phone I got didn't even have a camera, but the manual was about 1/2 inch thick. It told you EVERYTHING. This phone does internet and email and GPS, you can watch movies and television (just what I need, another screen to watch!) and download ITunes. It's really packed with goodies. One little booklet which has a few pages and teeny tiny type warns you about using it in explosive atmospheres, etc. The other little (booklet is to generous to describe it) pamphlet has bigger type and pictures of the screens and tells you what you can do, but is too polite to actually tell you how to do it. I suspect it's fairly user-friendly, but it looks like this user is going to need a couple of weeks to get acquainted before we get friendly.

Carolyn ended up buying one, too, and has been texting me madly. The texting is similar to instant messaging. I finally told her I was working in Quicken and to leave me alone. She had already set up her email account and downloaded some email and looked up an address for Brent. The last I talked to her, she was downloading music.

I need a tutorial. But, it's really cool! Can't wait to get to an internet page and turn the phone sideways to get a wide view. How cool is that!

Soft as a baby's butt

I've had a busy day. Carolyn and I went to Rosenburg this morning where she treated me to a facial. This is the first one I have ever had in my life. Wow! I intend to have more of them. My face feels soft and healthy and I don't see any dead skin cells...even when I use my 10X mirror.

About 10X mirrors...if you don't have one, don't get one. Nobody needs to see themself so close up. A 10X mirror is guaranteed to lead you to the dark side. Every time you pick it up you will see new tiny hairs growing out of your face. You will see nasty places on your face that you can't see without the aid of the 10X mirror. You will tweeze to a fare thee well. Why do we want to see those things? I was totally happy with my face before I got that stinking mirror. And now I can't live without it...it's like visual crack.

But, back to the facial. It was really nice. Carolyn and I are going back in 8 weeks.

Help is on the way!

Kelly's mom and step-father live in Cleveland, Texas. Until a year or so ago they lived outside of Cleveland, in the country. Hurricane Rita, in 2005, left them without power for about 2 weeks. So, they had a large generator installed, one that would run the whole house, I think. Last year, they decided that taking care of everything in the country had become a little more than they wanted to handle, so they found the home in town and sold the one in the country.

Here comes Hurricane Ike and knocks out their power. No generator at this house. It might be two weeks before power is restored. Maybe less, maybe more. Who knows? Wayne's brother Bobby bought a brand new generator a while back. Since he doesn't need the generator, Wayne asked if he would let Kathy and John use it. Of course, he said yes. Wayne picked it up Sunday and they loaded it into Kelly's truck this morning. He stopped by to pick up the cake I was sending...wouldn't you want a cake?...and I saw that in addition to the generator the back of the truck was filled to capacity with coolers of ice and containers of gasoline. Kelly said his hope was that if he got into an accident the melting ice would put out the gasoline fire.

There were multiple calls between me and Wendy and Kelly and Kathy to determine what else they could use. I offered flashlights (with batteries,) water, instant coffee, crackers, chips, cans of vienna sausages, peanut butter, and other things that escape my memory now. They really didn't need any of that, but Kathy needed Diet Coke. I understand that completely. When Kelly stopped by here, he put a diet coke in one of the coolers so his mom could have an icy one as soon as he got there.

I talked to Wendy at 12:30; she hadn't heard from Kelly, but she had been in class. He should have been there by then. I know they were happy to see him. We offered the bay house to them, but the logistics of moving themselves, Kathy's mom Shorty, 2 dogs and 2 parrots in addition to clothes and supplies seemed pretty daunting. They're riding it out in Cleveland.

Mii Bowling and the Bad Guy

My reward for spending 50 to 60 minutes doing the Wii Fit exercises is to go Wii Bowling. You do it just like alley bowling, using the arrows on the alley to aim your ball...adjusting as necessary. I've gradually gotten better and Thursday night I actually threw 8 strikes in a row, bowling a 256 and then a 247, bowling 7 strikes in a row in that game.

Before I bowled those two games we had a little excitement in the neighborhood. Someone came flying down our road and turned onto the road where Carolyn and Wendy live. He (I'm guessing "he") turned into each of their driveways and then apparently abandoned his car there on the road. A short while later, a cop car started patrolling their area, looking for the bad guy. A little while after that a second cop car joined the hunt. Carolyn and Wendy talked on the phone and then Carolyn called me (about a mile away) to let me know what was going on. They had already called the neighbors and wanted me to call Dee and Gary and let them know. This was after 10, maybe close to 11. This was also after Wayne had spent most of the day boarding up our house and then going to the bay to get the golf cart and the red dog table. Chris had already picked up the little red stools. If you aren't a member of the Wendel/Rioux family, you won't know what the heck I'm talking about. The table and the stools were in the bay house that got swept away in Hurricane Carla. Those were some of the very few items that we were able to find after that hurricane.

Anyway, by the time he got back, unloaded and cleaned up it was after Carolyn had called about the bad guy. I went outside to get the keys out of Wayne's new truck and noticed a fire down in the fields. I pointed it out to Wayne, so he thought he'd better go check it out. I told him not to stop and pick up anyone, because we had a bad guy in the area. So, off he drives. About that time Robin called (she was in town staying at Chad's mom's house) and I told her about what was happening. I stood out on the driveway, looking toward Wendy's and Carolyn's, seeing the cop cars driving around. I could see Wayne's truck driving into the field and shortly afterward I realized there were more cars out there...the cop cars. There was a lot of driving around, but eventually, lights flashing, the cops managed to box Wayne in. I was still talking to Robin, telling her what was going on in the field. I said, "the cops have Dad surrounded." After 5 to 10 minutes they turned off their lights and left the farm and went back to the other area. I guess the bad guy just had to bide his time, because Carolyn told me that his car was gone by a little after 3.

After all this excitement was when I bowled the two great games. I texted Robin telling her my score. The next day she told me she was expecting that my text was going to be about the bad guy. She laughed when she saw it was about my excellent bowling.

Excellent bowling indeed! Got my reality check this morning when Carolyn and Kate came over and bowled with me. Never mind what Carolyn and I bowled...Kate (3 years old the end of July) bowled a 93! She didn't know what she was doing, of course, which makes it look even worse for me. They came back this afternoon and she didn't so well. She just couldn't get in the groove. Must have been beginner's luck this morning.

I went out late this afternoon and mowed while Wayne, Kelly, and Brent took down the boards on the first floor windows. It's nice to be able to see out again. All's right with the world!

Good Riddance, Ike!

We boarded up and moved things out of the yard so that they wouldn't become projectiles. I had hurricane supplies set out on the dining room table and put new batteries in some of the tap lights I have had for years. The lights started flickering about 10 PM, so from then on, I carried a mini-lantern, a crank-type flashlight and my cell phone everywhere I went in the house. I wore a forehead light (bought because it seemed like a great light for reading if we lost power.) I thought you might like a photo of how I looked traipsing from room to room. I found an old phone that doesn't require an electrical connection and a long cord to plug it into a jack. I put it down somewhere during all the flickering and spent the next 15 or 20 minutes trying to find it. Not that it was dark...the power would flicker off and immediately come back on...I had placed it on top of a cooler near the kitchen door and I just didn't see it. I should mention that every time the power flicked off, either the microwave or the oven would emit a high-pitched squeal. Very annoying. After about the 15th or 20th flicker, I decided to shut off both A/C systems. Of course, as soon as I did that, the power stayed on, but I waited about an hour and a half before I turned them on again.

I read a while and then I watched a movie that I had recorded a couple of weeks ago, although I could have watched DishNet. We never lost our satellite reception either. Decided to go to bed about 1 AM. I put my ear plugs in so I wouldn't hear anything and went right to sleep.

I went outside about 8 this morning and saw that an oak tree in the side yard had been blown down. Went I got to the tree, I saw that it had no roots on the exposed side. That is a low area in the yard and when we were having a lot of rain a year or so ago it stayed soggy there. I guess the roots rotted, although you couldn't tell it from the leaves. I guess that's one less tree to have to mow around. We need to trim some of the other trees, though.

I'm ready to get the boards off the windows. Maybe I can help Wayne do that. He's already been to the fairgrounds and brought Dusty back. Speaking of transporting animals, a friend sent me a series of photos depicting an Oklahoma dude transporting a bull. I thought I ought to post those here. Amazing!

Hurricane Ike Preparations

We’ve been getting ready for Ike for a couple of days. I finally went to town on Thursday (without a list) to gather some supplies and run some other errands. I didn’t even have a cup of coffee, I was in such a rush to get to town early enough to score some Vienna sausages, etc.

I stopped at Sutherland’s where I found that they had lots of flashlights (some with batteries included) in stock…so I bought some even though I have quite a few of them at home. You can’t have too many flashlights, right? I bought batteries randomly, (this is cool…I misspelled randomly and it didn’t even give me an option about changing the spelling…it just changed it while I was typing the next word…cool!) not remembering what type battery I needed. You can always use C’s and AAA’s and AA’s, can’t you. I did manage to get some D’s, as well…a real coup. They still had OSB plyboard available. I should have bought some, even though Wayne told me we had enough when I called to ask. You never have enough. A couple of our windows look like something Pa Kettle would put together.

I had to insist that Wayne not get on the ladder to cover the 2nd floor windows. They were getting covered, but not by him. We finished them up today. Robin and I helped him. Then Robin and Chad took Dusty to the fairgrounds since our “barn” will probably disintegrate. Dusty is over 30 years old, so we are reluctant to do much to improve his stall…he’ll be out on the roof before too long.

Wayne finally finished everything that he was going to do and came in about 3 and showered and ate lunch. He’s been napping ever since. He even slept through a shopping excursion that Carolyn and Kate made over here.

So, I guess after he goes to the fairgrounds to feed Dusty, we’ll be hunkering down to wait for the big winds.

Cornbread Dressing

I made a double batch of cornbread dressing on Saturday.

The way it started was I was going to the grocery store. On the way I decided to add a roasted chicken to my very organized Excel spreadsheet list. (Mentally added it, I was driving.) Realizing that we usually finish only half of the chicken (unless I think to ask one of the girls if they want half of it,) I decided I would take half of it to Dee and Gary who had just gotten home from more than a month in the hospital. Once I decided that, I thought, "Ooh, I should make some dressing to go with the chicken." So, at the store I remembered to add all the items I needed to carry out my plan.

At home I made a double recipe of Egg Bread. This is the cornbread my mother always used for her dressing recipe. As a special treat when I was a kid, my mom would make this Egg Bread and then cook some Little Smokie sausages. She baked the egg bread in a jelly roll pan, I think, which made it turn out not so high...about an inch or so. The batter was fairly thin and the top would get nice and crusty from the 2 cups of buttermilk, an egg and the shortening in the mix. A square of that, spread with margarine and then stuffed with a little smokie or two...omigosh! I can taste it now! I'll put the recipe in here somewhere.

I wanted to use my new Cuisinart food processor that I had purchased a few days earlier. Of course, that meant I had to remove it from the box and packing, figure out how to take it apart, wash and dry it and then read the manual to figure out how to put it back together and use it. It actually came with a DVD, but I didn't have time for that...maybe someday. Finally, I got my onions and celery finely chopped. (If I had just used my mini-prep chopper, or even my 25 or 30 year old GE food processor that sounds vaguely like a helicopter, it would have been much faster and easier, but nooooo, I went the whole 9 yards.

I guess my point here is that this was another project (like cake decorating) that sounds like such a good idea at first but about half way through is not much fun anymore. Really, making the dressing is not hard at all, it was just the food processor activity that made it drag on.

The double recipe makes a boat load of dressing, well over a gallon. I split it up, then got the chicken and halved it, grabbed the bag of fresh spinach I also got for them and headed to their house. Gary was at the kitchen table and we visited a while before Dee took me to see how their bedroom looks. She's been wanting to redecorate in there for years and had finally ordered new bedding just before Gary went into the hospital. Since the contractors were working there on other things, she got them to paint the bedroom. It looks lovely. She's very happy with the new look.

Egg Bread

Sift together:
1 1/2 cups white corn meal
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda

Add:
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk

Mix until blended. Meanwhile melt
2 tablespoons shortening in hot (450F) oven

Add hot drippings to cornbread mixture and mix well. Pour into hot pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes.

(In the good old nutritionally ignorant days, we used bacon grease instead of shortening. Ooooh!)
Just in case you think the recipe is missing something, there is no sugar or baking powder in it.

I cooked a (pie)pan of dressing for Wayne and I on Saturday. Then on Monday, I cooked a (pie)pan of dressing for Wendy and for Carolyn and another small batch for Wayne and I. As I said, it makes a boatload of dressing. I only doubled the recipe this time. At Christmas and Thanksgiving I quadruple it! Got to have leftovers, right?