Good Night's Sleep

 Last night I had the best night of sleep since my surgery. When I changed positions I noticed almost no pain at the base of my neck. I do have some pain after my physical therapy exercises, but I am using only gabapentin to reduce the level. No more muscle relaxant (highly sedating) nor extra-strength tylenol.

I received two pop-up cards from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law during my recovery. I still have them sitting out because they are so pretty.

I have an appointment for the corona virus vaccination on February 2nd. Light at the end of the tunnel.

My pastor came home Saturday after a week in the hospital with COVID. He is still on lots of meds plus shots to prevent blood clots. He had a tough time. It is going to be awhile before he is back in the pulpit. The church has already arranged for somebody to fill in for at least the next two weeks. I still only watch online.

My husband started a jigsaw puzzle last week. I wasn't interested, but yesterday as I listened to the worship sermon I worked on it a bit. It is set up in the den where the computer is located. Now I am hooked.

I felt kind of bored last week. On Saturday I watched a DVD movie titled Miss Potter about Beatrix Potter. I bought this several years ago at a garage sale and had watched it, but I had forgotten most of it. I enjoyed it though it has a sad event.

Today I have as my computer wallpaper a photo of Old Town San Diego which I took last February. No winter get-away this year so I am browsing my photos from previous years.

Hope you are all well. Do whatever it takes to avoid getting COVID.

Beautiful Weather

We are having beautiful weather now. Sunny days around 78-80 with nights around 60. We have had the windows open to let in the fresh air. 

This morning after splitting a Special Imperial omelet with my husband at American Table, we drove to Lincoln Park subdivision for the annual garage sale. I didn't find anything to buy, but walking around the neighborhood was pleasant. 

My irises have finished blooming. Now the knockout roses are in flower. The stems are very short and often more than one bud on a stem, but I found a few to put in a vase.

I had an early morning medical appointment in Fort Wayne yesterday. Afterwards I shopped at Kohl's and Macy's. In Macy's Last Act discount section, I found a dress for $4.96. It is a bit shorter than I normally wear; it skims the top of my knee. If I feel too self-conscious wearing it, I will wear it with tights or maybe with leggings as a top.

With its darker colors and long sleeves, it is probably best for spring or autumn wear. The bodice is smocked.

I started one of the jigsaw puzzles I bought at FOL sale in North Webster. Inside was a folded up paper with a note that said piece chewed on by our cat. The puzzle is turning out to be very hard and at 1000 pieces bigger than I like. I may give it another week, but I have done the easiest parts (the birds). At least next week is not very busy for me though I plan to get my second Shingrix shot.

Soon it will officially be summer. The forecasts don't show very hot weather for the next 10 days but some rain. 

Bargain puzzles

Besides the 5 decorating books I purchased at the Friends of the Library book sale yesterday, I bought 4 jigsaw puzzles at 50 cents each. I guess I was in the Spring mood looking at the flowers in these puzzles. I worked at the Grace Village library this morning. This afternoon I am going to start in on a jigsaw puzzle. I think I will do a 500-piece one so I can sit in my sunroom using my round table. A bit of sun from time to time breaks thru the cloud covering. It will clear out tonight which means the temperatures will drop. 34 early tomorrow morning, 33 Saturday night into Sunday morning. I am glad that I am enjoying puzzle flowers, not real ones as they would be frost nipped.

I received a letter in today's mail that the court case I was summoned to serve on as a juror was settled. I do not have to go to county court Tuesday after all.

Almost cool enough to wear the fuzzy top I picked up at the recent Grace Village Swap Shop, but I will refrain. 

Since gray is a blah wardrobe choice, I tucked in the striped scarf that belonged to my mom. I suppose I might wear a black turtleneck and add color with earrings instead. Something to put away for next fall/winter. Trying to enjoy Spring colors now.

This Is The Life

I went to the North Webster Friends of the Library sale yesterday. I bought 12 items (10 books, one large-print; 2 audio books) for the retirement library. I bought for myself 2 jigsaw puzzles, and got one puzzle for free as it had a piece missing. One of the puzzles is Christmas/winter scene so I put it away. The free 500-piece puzzle I started yesterday afternoon and finished this morning. I really like it. It reminds me of my beachcombing interests.

The daffodils are rampant around our neighborhood. Tomorrow is the Peabody Retirement Community tulip festival, but I have seen hardly any tulips around here, and those not open. Maybe the end of next week I can travel to North Manchester. We are to be in the 70s after Sunday. Our pear tree has lots of buds; they will probably open into a white canopy by mid-week. The weeping willows and magnolias have their new growth. 

My husband is starting on a big woodworking project for the Chime Choir. They need new tables. He is building a prototype and after he gets feedback, he will build 16 tables to hold the chimes. He did procure the wood for the legs. Next will be the plywood sheets for the tops. 

 

Tonight we will attend a recital at a local church of the students in Grace College's Worship Major program. This is a new program so we don't know what to expect. Grace College eliminated its Music Major program several years ago.

Our Carson's is shutting down (one of the Bon Ton chain stores) by August. So far the liquidators haven't marked down the prices much. I plan to go to the bigger Carson's store in Fort Wayne on Tuesday to see what bargains they have. I will be sorry to see it go away. 

I need to go to the AAA office in that city to make a payment on our 2019 winter cruise. Yes, we put a deposit on a partial-canal trip to Panama with Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Cartagena Columbia as additional ports. This will be on Princess, a new cruise line for us.

Other than a two-night stay at a B&B in South Haven, Michigan in July, we have no other travel plans. 

In the past month there have been over 720 views of my blog by sources in Italy. It skews the statistics terribly and has taken a lot of joy out of blogging. There is no good way for me tell if real people are enjoying and learning from my blog. I wish this robot viewer would disappear. 

Ah, well, at last it feels and looks like spring which lifts the spirits.

Cozy Winter Afternoon

It is a gray misty second day of winter. Wednesday I had some shopping to do and decided to look for a new jigsaw puzzle. I really wanted something Christmasy, but there were none in the 3 stores where I looked. Instead I bought a cozy winter puzzle.

I thought this was a fun puzzle to do. I discovered small details as I worked on it. I hadn't noticed the mice in the picture while in the store.

Sorry they are blurry, but they are above the pillow next to the logs.
The rocks that made up the fireplace were the hard parts. No sky, but non-descript rocks.

We have been munching on Spritz Christmas cookies. I ran out of frosting. LOL. I gave 4 of my neighboring condos a plate of these with homemade chocolate chip cookies (all "left-overs" gone!) and some candies, including those white chocolate peppermint truffles I love made by Lindt. This is the first time in years that I have baked goodies for the neighbors. 

The songs my choir sang last Friday night keep going through my head. Not bad for earworms.

I picked up two books at the Grace Village library this morning. Tiffany Girl by Deeanne Gist. I enjoy this author. Then Washington's Lady by Nancy Moser. I have never read any by her, but this one about Martha Washington caught my attention since I have recently seen her impersonator at Colonial Williamsburg.

Better

I'm in better spirits today. I bought a bouquet at the grocery store yesterday. Now I have pretty flowers to enjoy for awhile.

My rosebush next to my porch has lots of blooms now, too, as well as the Stella d'oro lilies dispensing yellow "sunshine".

The concert we attended last night was a mixed bag. The opener was a man playing fingered guitar. He played one Billy Joel song (which I didn't know) and the rest were his original compositions. I am sure he has much skill in this type of guitar playing, but he wasn't very personable and I never warmed up to him and his songs. After 30 minutes, the main performers appeared for a longer concert.

The Burchfield Brothers were pleasant and entertaining. It was almost a relief to be hearing "normal" music after the strange guitar pieces. Jon played a classical guitar; Ben played a malletKat, a midi synthesizer geared for percussion. He was constantly fiddling with the controls to change the sound. Ben's other contributions were different whistles, including his own vocal whistling in several songs, most notably in Wayfarin' Stranger.

They had the audience join in singing a few praise choruses. If Southern Gospel is a favorite for you, you can cruise in the Bahamas on Carnival's Elation in January. It was never clear if these brothers would be performing (they are not on the brochure) or just promoting this event for a referral commission.

This concert is part of a series sponsored by Grace College to serve as a substitute for MasterWorks which the institution hosted until two years ago when they asked the group to leave. The explanation was that the college was subsidizing a large part of the expenses by providing housing and no longer could do so. The attendance last night was maybe 1/8 what the former summer concerts attracted.

I'm not too sure these substitutionary choices are going to catch on.

This morning I went to a yard sale at Courts of Colfax. My mother-in-law lived in one of the senior apartments about a decade ago. There was jewelry, knitted items, besides clothes, household goods, puzzles, books. I bought 4 mass market paperbacks at 10 cents each which I will donate to Grace Village library. I also bought a puzzle for me.

One lady was giving away a few of her beaded jewelry pieces. I picked up some with purple beads. I have been looking for some purple earrings. I will redo these using the faceted rounds (not the cone beads).

At lunch I tried a new flavor of Sparkling Ice. I found the first swallow refreshing, but when I drank it with my meal, it clashed with the cantaloupe melon. I probably will stick with the Black Raspberry flavor.

My husband told me he would haul off the discarded books to the public library so I won't have to carry heavy stuff while my back is bothering me.

Garage/Rummage Sale Finds

North Webster, a small lake town about 15-20 minutes drive from us, had its Community Garage Sale in its community center. The ad said tools and lumber among other things. My husband wanted to be there when the doors opened at 8 a.m. Early Saturday rising; yawn.

Not much in the way of tools, lumber not what he wanted. I found the prices rather high for most things, or they were unpriced and you had to offer a price. I am not a haggler so unless I see something I really like and want, I just walk away.

I had seen Corian cutting boards before. There was a whole table of them in different sizes and shapes. Not a bargain, but I decided to buy one to try.

The board sure is heavy. I already see once home in better light there are some light scratches. I suspect that is one of the qualities of this type of board. I junked 2 discolored poly cutting boards. We'll see how this one works out.

My bargain was in the Senior Center room, not the gym.

25 cents for a puzzle. Maybe I will start on it next week.

Plastered near the entrances were signs advertising a rummage sale at a nearby church. We took the bait. Bought some peanut butter chocolate brownies. We had a 9:30 a.m. treat at home. A bit on the dry side. At lunch, I nuked them in the microwave. That softened them some; very tasty warm.

My big find of the day was at the church. Lenox Winter Greetings items filled one table. I bought a set of two bowls. They look brand new, still have the stickers on the bottom, and came in the box. They have lids for easy refrigerator storage; the lids also have a small vent to open if microwaving something in the bowl.

The sticker said $2 for the set. I really like them. They go well with my Christmas drink coasters which have birds on them; also, with my new decorative plates. I'm going to wash them, put them in the box, and store them away until next winter/Christmas. Something to look forward to at the end of 2017.

My finds cheered up a gray rainy day.

Spring Inside At Least

Our forecast for today was for snow and gusty winds. The winds are here, but the snow if it comes won't be until tonight. Right now around 2 p.m. it is 39 degrees. The crazy Indiana weather will turn into 70 degrees Sunday. I talked with my neighbor behind me this morning. She said when she started walking her dog, it stopped and stared at my patio. My husband had leaned the bird feeder against his storage box as it often blows over in high wind. The dog knew something was different and not quite right she said.

I created my own spring inside by buying some plants. They are starting to open.

My daffodils outside are starting to bloom; hope this cold weather doesn't zap the flowers and kill them before they open up all the way.

Getting ready to start a jigsaw puzzle that looks like spring, too. It's a big one; usually I prefer less than 1000 pieces these days. It's a good day to stay inside.

Blueberry Muffin Break

 

When the heavy rain stopped around 10:15 this morning, I headed for the Calvary Tabernacle rummage and bake sale about half a mile from my house. I brought back 4 blueberry muffins. My husband and I had a morning break. We’ll enjoy the other two muffins with our scrambled eggs tomorrow.

Mostly this church was selling chairs, but I did find a jigsaw puzzle.

I will work on this next weekend after my very busy week is over. I felt like something other than folk-style landscapes which there were several at this sale.

 As I helped my sister-in-law clean out a closet, there was a tripod in the corner which she didn’t want. I have never used a tripod, but the difference was amazing. It just confirms my suspicion that my blurry photos are the result of the slight tremor in my left hand. I used to be able to take close-ups with few problems, but not the past few years.

BTW, the corn-flake-coated chicken drumsticks were good. I didn’t crush quite enough corn flakes so a little skimpy on the last drumstick. I will make these again sometime.

Jigsaw Puzzles

When my husband and I were courting, we discovered that both of our families had a history of enjoying jigsaw puzzles. My family did them in the summer sitting on the porch of the Big Bear cabin. His family did them around holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas; his mom often put a tablecloth over the unfinished puzzle on the dining room table so they could eat and then removed it so the puzzle workers could continue.

Most people probably look for a pretty or interesting picture. We have arrived at certain criteria before adding a puzzle to our collection. Because we like to do puzzles together with family (usually around the holidays), we look for puzzles with “zones.”
This puzzle my sister-in-law brought to our house for Thanksgiving is a good example.

Though there is some repetition of color, there are distinct areas an individual could work on while others worked on other zone areas: the embroidered towel; the small blue and white plate; the medium plate which has a distinct pattern; the garlics; the wooden board and knife; the eggplants in the bowl.

I liked this puzzle so well, that I searched ebay to see if there were other Ceaco Culinary Classics puzzles. There are, but the only one zoned as well as this one is the fruit puzzle.
We have started stocking up on smaller puzzles (less than 1,000 pieces) which gives us a better chance of finishing in one day.

Puzzles with extensive unbroken portions of one color (sky, grass, snow) don’t make it to our house these days either. I will never forget the puzzle I worked on one Christmas at my parents-in-law. Grayish white sky, snow-covered ground with the only “anchor” being a fence that ran thru the middle of the scene. Not at all enjoyable. Yes, I want a challenge, but I want to enjoy it. Complicated puzzles like the one I gave my husband while dating consisting of a pizza means studying the picture extensively to see if the pepperoni lies next to a green olive and a mushroom at a certain angle and are also troublesome. I have experienced plenty of puzzle sessions with box hogs who insist on holding the box lid in their hand or turning it towards his/her self. In this case, that was the only way to do the puzzle.

One Christmas we met in the fellowship room/dining area of my mother-in-law’s senior apartment complex. We had 3 puzzles going at the same time (some claimed we were in competition to see which table finished first, but I never signed on to that), but when we came down to the last half dozen pieces they didn’t fit, and even the colors seemed somewhat off. Turns out we had a roving family member who decided to surreptitiously move pieces from one table to another. All 3 tables of puzzlers found themselves with a conundrum, but we finally figured it out.

Searching ebay for the Culinary Classics got me hunting for a Christmas puzzle. We have a 1,000 piece village scene, but I was hankering for something smaller. Ta-da! I found it, and it arrived Wednesday. The sky will probably be the hardest part, but at least some of it is straight-edged border and there appears to be a shaft of light breaking it into parts. We’ll find out next week when we unbox it and lay it out on the card table.

P.S. The hardest part turned out to be the tree. So many ornaments and candles look alike.

My husband has incorporated puzzle making into his woodworking hobby. He affixes posters or calendar pictures on birch plywood and then creates “figurals” (special shaped pieces relevant to the theme of the puzzle) before cutting the pieces. Many of these have been gifts to family, and he houses the puzzle in special boxes he makes.

 There have also been some free-standing puzzles.
  

  Yep, we are definitely a puzzling family.