Another Birthday, Dear Jane.

Dear Jane,

Another birthday has past and yet you do not look a day older than 40.

Your nighttime routine must do wonders (snarkity-snark-snark).

Well, happy birthday anyway.

It has been cold and snowy at times here. I drove home in snow that wasn’t quite snow, not quite sleet. It kept trying to freeze up on my window, i had to drive with the front defroster and window wipers constantly going.  Otherwise my windshield would have been a solid layer of ice.

Well, the good news in my life is that I start class for the Library Technical Assistant certificate in four weeks. The bad news is nothing right now. There are a few hick-ups but we are managing. Christmas may not be a shower of presents but that is not the important point.

I always ask about you and the responses are few. I hope wherever you are, you are getting fair swipes at the hypocrites who managed to get into the best rooms. Done here, Jimmy Bakker is selling heavenly mortgages and food stores so you have something to eat in heaven. The man is scamming people once more. All I do is hope I will never be like that. Gullible, I mean.

I can be taken in by a good story, especially if there is any bit of plausibility. A good story is a good story whether it is true or not.The thing is, I never want to be so cynical that I look at every story as if it could be false. That is not how I want to live. Oh, I love a good conspiracy theory every now and again. But to live on that on a regular basis is crazy.

It is next to impossible to find a good picture of this man.

I feel the same way about our current political climate. I am not a fan of the President-elect but I have a feeling he will not be thwarted by the Electoral College. So the next four years are going to be filled with constant strife and degradation. The money that man will make of off the office of the President will be legendary by the time he is through.

Oh, but that stuff is boring. I predict Hollywood is going to make many comedies and musicals for the next few years to take our minds off of the mess that is going to be Washington D.C.

One of the most disturbing things I have found in post election life is the use of the word snowflake. Trump supporters are using that word, along with cupcake, to belittle democrats who are protesting Trump’s win. Every time I hear them say ‘snowflake’ I can’t help but feel that they are a bunch of sore winners. Do they realize how they make themselves look – which is meaner and more stupid than they all ready are – when they use these derogatory terms? Probably not.

Well, I have bored you enough. Best wishes and I hope all is well wherever you may be.

Wishing you the happiest of birthdays,

your devoted friend, etc.

 

 

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Wordless Wednesday

Dinosaur in the garden

 

Play Words With Friends Only If You Are Brave

What is your favorite time-wasting addiction?

Mine is Words With Friends.

I play it early and often. Like many people who play, I have the usual suspects of ether people who play a round-robin starting from the time I get up until I play my last words before bed.

What I love is that most of these people play just as hard as I do. My favorite opponent, zgrandmom, beats me by at least 100 points all of the time. Except for the few times I have beaten her.

Image by Rode To Hell

Once I got her by one point, another found me thirty points ahead. Some of it was luck and some was good wordplay at the right time.  Our next game after those wins features a setting back as you would not believe.

There are other opponents who are at my level. We go back and forth over the victory but the battle is worthwhile. That is what makes it fun.

The frustrating part is when I come across people who don’t seem to play as hard. You know, the ones who swap tiles 3 or 4 time a game. Or they pass a lot. Or they quit the game when you finally can pull off a terrific but terrifying word.

I lost one opponent when I played “tantric.” I reveled as I placed it on a double double word score line. The points were unbelievable!

That is till I checked and saw the other player has given up. She simply did not play anymore until the game faded.

Another opponent kept swapping tile. I have had bad tiles before but when you change them three times in the space of six moves either you are an idiot who does not know how to play or your eye for pattern really sucks. I told one person to stop swapping because I was going to take advantage of them and get a really high score. This was after I was 100 points ahead. They resigned the game shortly thereafter.

Cowards.

To be honest, when I have lost once again to zgrandmom or Etay at least I know I have been challenged. I know these ladies (I assume) are going to battle it out to the last letter. Chances are I am going to learn a few new words or combinations that will win a game later on down the road. They will not give up, change tiles or get scared off by a slightly naughty and difficult word.

If it were poker, these women would show me how they were going to up the kitty with complete aplomb.

So bring it on because chances are I have a whole bunch of constants without an available vowel on the board. And I am bucking for that triple word score!!!

Are you ready to go against me?

Things I Wonder About

Why is it that when the tank is full to the brim, the gauge arrow is loath to move. You can go 50 miles without the line moving.

Running on empty...

But once you get into the no-man’s land of a quarter tank of gas it appears that every mile is taking more fuel than it should. Suddenly, a ten-mile distance leaves you near the line of emptiness, wondering just why the gas station is not in sight yet.

As much as I love my mini-van, this is the one thing I hate about it.

What do you wonder ?

The Fluffy Nose

Wordless Wednesday

 

Rudolph the Red-Nose Ford

 

 

As we finish up the holiday season, when should we take it all down?

 

 

Wishing the Best on Your Birthday

 

 

Dear Jane,

 

Image by Melodi2

I wanted to take a few minutes out of this holiday season to wish you a happy birthday on the 16th. If it is possible, I would love to share tea time with you but when is always the question. With all of the events flying around our family, I scarcely get a moment to breathe and think.

 

Last night, our daughter and her Girl Scout troop sang carols at a senior living facility. Later in the evening, our second oldest played in a band concert. I had to run youth group at church and missed out on the concert. Tonight, half of the family will take part in the 4H Christmas party while I attend my daughter’s band concert. Friday night is my office party.

 

My house is getting quite messy. Toys or pieces of toys are strewn about and the dog insists on shedding. Dust is everywhere. I am hoping to spend some time cleaning on Saturday morning before heading to the stores to buy a birthday gift and a grab bag gift suitable for a boy or girl. My daughter is voting for candy although one of her classmates is diabetic.

 

Saturday afternoon my daughter heads to the birthday party while I am off to a Christmas party for children at my church. Then there is a singing time at my church from 5 p.m. till 7 p.m. Our church choir will sing four songs and our youngest member will do a solo of “Emmanuel.” Then I plan to go home, eat some soup and go to bed. I am hoping to stay there till New Year’s but you and I know that is not practical.

 

Book Cover image from barnesandnoble.com

I am being quite rude as I have not asked how you are doing or if you are working on anything new. I look in the stores and hope some forgotten manuscripts have been found but I am always disappointed. I am hoping to begin work on the series by Rebecca Ann Collins which looks at the lives of various characters after “Pride and Prejudice.” Perhaps that will be my goal for the new year.

 

Please let me know when we could have tea together. If it cannot be in December, perhaps we could get together in January. Life slows down considerably and my biggest concern will be cleaning out the ‘closet of doom.’

 

Your devoted fan wishing you the best on your birthday,

etc….

 

Related Posts:

Notes From Rumbly Cottage: Curling Up with a Good Book
Notes From Rumbly Cottage: Wishing the Happiest of Birthdays

Notes From Rumbly Cottage: My Dream Casting Wishes for Jane Bites Back 

Notes From Rumbly Cottage: Austenland – My Dream Cast

Most of You Will Ignore This Blog Post and Not Share it

It is the middle of the holiday season and it seems as if our hearts are more open to pleas of mercy and understanding.

Image by Wcizmowski

On my Facebook account, it seems as if everyone has a tale that makes you want to be understanding whether the issue is bullying, cancer awareness or calling this holiday ‘Christmas’ as opposed to ‘holiday.’

But then it creeps in. The guilt line.

“I bet most of you will not repeat this or put it in your status.”

If you do not you are less of a Christian, less of a person, a failure of a human being. You have no heart, no spirit, no soul.

Or you are like me. You give the flying finger to the guilt inducing note by deleting it, ignoring it or, on one of your not-so-good days, write a comment saying how lousy it is to give these guilt trips.

After all, do we not have enough guilt about everything we are not doing for the holidays, for our kids, for our community? Have you given enough this season, volunteered enough, made your kids happy enough while working around the dysfunction that surrounds you?

Here is someone you know a little or a lot trying to guilt you into agreeing with their point of view. Suddenly, you are a bad person for not agreeing and you did not even get to  hit the ‘like’ button yet. Chances are you might agree with them. But that line stands in the way of complete agreement.

Here is what I am telling you to do.

Feel guilt free as you do not hit ‘like’ or pass on the email.

Let it go un-noticed.

Kids have been dodging mothers’ guilt trips for years, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. Why not take a page out of that book?

Let this be your guilt free moment of not allowing someone else’s need to be insufferable right  earnest and make you ‘less than’ because you are not in the 10% who are going to re-post their statement or forward their worthwhile-but-guilt-inducing message.

They want the drama, the top of the mountain feel of being right, and the knowledge that they can get other people to follow them.

Image from klondikebar.com

If you still feel the need to re-post, I understand. But leave the guilt at the curb because if you direct it to me with that line about how most people are not going to put this on their status, you can bet I am  in that 90%.

Even if it means giving up a Klondike bar.

So Many Ways to Scare Your Neighbors…

Wordless Wednesday

When is it too early to put out Halloween decorations? I am not sure. Some of these were taken last week, others this week. Nevertheless, there is something enjoyable about a good and safe scare.

 

 

Notice the flying bats

 

Notice the Mosquitoe Plant surrounding the ghost

 

Look at the figures in the TreeSpider's Web catches a pumpkin

 

Witchy Display

 

Ghostly Window

 

A display I saw on Sept. 29

 

Our ghoulie

 

  

Opening Act

 

Scary tree

Another flying ghoul farther back

 

Ghoulish gathering

 

Have you seen good home halloween displays yet?

The Sea of Snow

Wordless Wednesday

Six months ago, snow was the topic of our lives.

 

My Neighbor's Pine Tree

 

 

Playing with Christmas Toys outside

Snow, Snow, snow everywhere

 

Picture by Sue Molyneaux

 

And it felt as if it was never going to end.

A Cottage Visit for the Answer Lady

Oh, there are questions and ponderings. When the answer lady looks at the search terms used to find their way to this humble blog, she is never quite sure if people really do not know these things or in serious need of a book.

Well, at least there is the internet and Google to assist those who have a question and need an answer.

Q. Who is older – Johnny Depp, Nicholas Cage or Barack Obama?

A. The Answer Lady knows this one without even looking up dates.

Why is that you ask?

Nicholas Cage is only six days younger than Answer Lady. Plus, her adorable 14-year-old is a huge Johnny Depp fan and tells Answer Lady all of the time that they were born on the same year. That would make both men 47.

President Barack Obama, Image from visitingdc.com.

Now, our president was born in 1961. In fact, he will have his 5oth birthday on August 4th.  So the answer to the question is that Barack Obama is older than Nicholas Cage and Johnny Depp.

Q. Why has my spider wort gotten leggy?

A. Spider wort loves spring weather. This grassy plant gets nice and high. Fuchsia or purple flowers bloom and it is quite lovely. However, once the heat of summer settles in the plant is not so happy, especially if it is in full sun most of the day.

Spiderwort in full sun, not pretty.

I have spider wort in full sun and in part shade. The plant in part shade is a little weepy but there for the most part. The plant in full sun is wilting, drying away and the patch of ground is looking bad. This fall, I am transplanting the rest of my spider wort to the part shade sections.

Q. Which is tastier – Elephant Ears or Funnel Cakes?

A. The answer to this question is that the Answer Lady does not have a clear concise answer. Both food items contain flour, sugar and grease. Both are sugared – granulated sugar on the elephant ear and powdered sugar on the funnel cake. You can get toppings on the elephant ears that make them even more tasty.

That does not answer the question and the Answer Lady must ask that dear readers begin to pipe in about their preference. As it is County Fair season, we are planning on an expedition to decide which is better. It is a tough job but someone has to do it. Does anyone want to join me and share in the load?

Image by Grafixar