Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing: The Unknown Author Questions

1.      if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to? Just be around me for a while.  Nothing hidden here.

2.      have you ever found a blogger who thinks just like you? if so, who? In a lot of ways, it's Bev Sykes in Funny the World.

3.      list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with. Nothing that fits me.

4.      do you like your name?  is there another name you think would fit you better? My name is fine.

5.      do you think of yourself as a human being or a human doing? do you identify yourself by the things you do? Not exactly.

6.      are you religious/spiritual? Not in the least.

7.      do you care about your ethnicity? I'm a WASP (white Anglo-Saxon protestant) by heritage, so no.

8.      what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime? None

9.      are you an artist? I used to consider myself a painter, but haven't painted in about five years. I'm creative.

10.   do you have a creed? The old-fashioned Golden Rule will work.

11.   describe your ideal day. Swim class, coffee, bridge, some knitting and TV time, time with family.

12.   dog person or cat person? No pets, please.  But if I must choose, I'll take a goldfish.

13.   inside or outdoors? Inside

14.   are you a musician? I love to listen, but have no musical talent as a performer.

15.   five most influential books over your lifetime. None that I can think of.

16.   if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same? Probably not.  I think any person is a combination of genetics and environment.

17.   would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”? I've never even seen tumblr.

18.   what’s your patron-us?  From Harry Potter?  Nothing of that here - although I've read and enjoyed the books and movies.

19.   which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle? I'm probably a Muggle.

20.   would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else? Somewhere else.

21.   do you love easily? I can, but probably "like" more quickly.

22.   list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order. In a 24-hour day, sleep, be on the computer, watch TV, knit, read.

23.   how often would you want to see your family every year? En masse, 3-4 times a year; in smaller groups, anytime I can.

24.   have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone? ????

25.   could you live as a hermit? Probably, but I'd rather not.

26.   how would you describe your gender/sexuality? Ordinary female.

27.   do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”? Yes - soft, comfortable, old, creaky.

28.   on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin? 3

29.   three songs that you connect with right now. I don't really "connect" with songs.

30.   pick one of your favorite quotes. "It is what it is."

Congratulations to Sarah!!!

The duplicate game this afternoon was a "Mentor/Mentee" session, with the Mentees bringing a salad lunch to share.  Lunch was great, of course.  There were about 20 or so tables and two "flights".  My Mentor was a very nice lady with ~1700 MP (I have ~12MP) .  We didn't play many hands, so got lots of practice playing defense.  I managed to not screw anything too badly.  And we came in 2nd in our group, with 52.70% and earned 0.63 MP.  I'm very pleased - obviously.

Granddaughter Sarah says that my squirrel is Grandpa (John) coming to torment me.   She just might be right.

But the most exciting news of the day is that South Carolina has a new lawyer.  SARAH PASSED THE BAR!!!

Menagerie?

The last couple of days the squirrel has just showed up twice in a day - once in the morning, and once in the afternoon.  He checks to see if I'm watching, and then runs off when I pick up the hose.  Both times.  And he's so funny. 

My menagerie seems to be growing.  Yesterday and today, I've a little chipmunk run across the deck.  Then this afternoon, I thought I saw the squirrel beside the deck.  But when I looked closer, it was a little bunny rabbit.  I guess all these critters are living under my deck.

"It's a lovely day today..."

It's been a gorgeous day here today.  I had such a lovely afternoon.  I sat out on the deck, watching the birds and knitting.  I managed to find some music on my cell phone and listened to chamber music along with the chirping.  Plus I saw the first hummingbird scout checking out the nectar in the feeder.  Just a lovely quiet time.

Busy Monday!

What it did here was rain, rain, and more rain.  In the 24 hours from about 7 pm Saturday until yesterday evening, we got 5"of rain!  The schools were delayed opening today for two hours so they could see any standing water on the roads or trees down, etc.  Lots of problems in the low areas, but not at my place.  There were some leaks in this old roof (due to be replaced this year sometime), even in my hall, so things to deal with. 

The squirrel was particularly obnoxious during the rain yesterday.  He'd get up on the railing and watch to see if I was going to get up, and then he'd actually wait until I picked up the hose before he ran off.  He'd get to a nearby tree and hide on the other side of it.  Pretty funny, actually - but the stream from the hose will reach it, and I can spray on it enough to get him to run off out of sight. 

The birds were really out at the feeders yesterday, even in the rain.  I get tufted titmouse, black-capped chickadees, Carolina wrens, gold-and purple finches, an occasional cardinal, and the bluebirds.  I put the hummingbird feeder out this morning since a couple of friends have mentioned seeing hummers around. They are fun to watch. 

I saw my orthopedist this morning and he said all looks well with my knee.  Next appointment is in 6 months, and he told me that he's planning to retire at the end of the year.  So now I'll have to find someplace else to go with my orthopedic problems.  Or just hope I don't have any more...Right! 

I did have some excitement this morning.  While I was eating my yogurt before going to swimming, I saw a mouse scurry through the living room! And then when I went into the bathroom, there was another one drowned in the toilet - guess he went in for water and couldn't get out.  Needless to say, he got a quick "burial at sea". They don't freak me out, but I don't want them, of course. Never had anything like that here before!  And I quickly reported it.  I guess they came in because of all the rain and people working in the ceilings fixing leaks. 

I had duplicate tonight.  We actually got some decent cards and played them fairly well.  Not as well as I had thought (others seemed to do better with the same cards), but we did make some master points this time.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

A number of years ago, I read a book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.  It's a fascinating story of how a young black mother in Baltimore was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951.  She was treated with the radiation treatment of the time at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and subsequently died.  Because she was poor and black, she and her family were not treated quite the same way as an affluent white family would have been.  Some of the tissue removed from her body during surgery was saved for experimentation.  There was no consent given or asked for - as would have been the case with any patient at the time. 

During the course of the examination, it was discovered that the cells from her tissue continued to live and reproduce after other cells would have died.  This amazed the researchers, and the cells continued to thrive and reproduce. This makes them of incredible use in developing new treatments and drugs - think drugs against polio, pneumonia, AIDS, etc.  Johns Hopkins gave these cells to any legitimate research facility.  And the cells still live. 

But Henrietta's family knew none of this.  Until they started to hear rumors about it and got false information, and were contacted by unscrupulous hucksters looking to make a buck.  Then Rebecca Skloot learned something about the story and decided she wanted to know about Henrietta Lacks as a person and about her family. 

This is where the story begins - and the search is fascinating.  Recently I heard that Oprah Winfrey was making an HBO movie based on the book. I subscribed to HBO just to see this movie and watched it this afternoon.  As always, the book was better, but the movie does capture the intensity of the feelings of both Ms Skloot (the white writer) and Henrietta's children.  I'd certainly recommend both the book and the movie.

Friday Five

1. Nothing much going on around here.
2. I played duplicate this afternoon, and we came in next-to-last.  The gal I play with on Friday is really not very good.   Like a lot of players, she doesn't really understand playing defense, and I seldom know what she means with her bidding.  Oh, well, I'm certainly not perfect, and hate to criticize.  We'll keep on.
3. While we were there this afternoon, we had a really hard rain shower - and got about 3/4" of rain in my gauge in about half-an-hour.
4. I'm going to a birthday open house for a friend tomorrow evening.  Her house is hard to get to - up a steep driveway and a set of steps.  Her children are going to run a golf-cart shuttle from the street up and down the driveway.  That'll work.
5. More rainstorms predicted for over the weekend and much cooler temps on Sunday.

Come again!

Today was a lovely spring day of rain.  The rain this morning was a slow "farmer" rain - pretty much constant, but very light.  And, by suppertime, there was an inch of water in my rain gauge.  Since dark, there have been several hard rain showers with accompanying lightning and thunder.

The drought has been so long and prolonged, I can only paraphrase

Rain, Rain - Come again!

Not much

I didn't play duplicate tonight.  My usual Monday partner has out-of-town company and the temporary partner had to cancel, too.  I didn't want to go without a partner, so I'm taking a night off.  I sat outside (under my new umbrella) for a little while after supper this evening.  It was lovely.  I even figured out how to get some music on my phone, and enjoyed some tunes from the original casts of old movie musicals. 

We've been promised rain all day, but not a drop around here until about 8:30 tonight.  And not much then.  I hope the showers will come back during the night.

Quiet times

My weekend was very quiet.

The foursome here decided to get in some bridge yesterday afternoon, and that's always nice (if not particularly challenging).

I got my laundry done this morning.  Margaret came over this afternoon for a little while.  She needed to return some unused flooring (she and Jesse have redone their family room and master bedroom with bamboo flooring).  She picked me up and we headed off to (gasp!) shop.  The place she needed to do the return was closed today, so that was a loser.  But we went on to a warehouse place here called Southeastern Salvage.  She got a couple of small area rugs, and I was looking for an umbrella for my deck (which I didn't find there).  Then we went to Big Lots and found an umbrella and base there.  When we got back here, she put that together for me and put up some more hooks for planters on my railing.  She had brought some hanging baskets of Mandeville - the only thing that really thrived on my hot deck last summer. I'll get a few bedding plants for some other planters, and that'll do it for my "gardening".  We went to eat at a favorite Asian place, and now she's gone home.  She does take good care of me (as do all the girls). 

13 April 1908

Today would be Pink's 109th birthday!
----------------------------------------------------------------
Not much going on today - just Silver Sneakers, bridge here at the Terrace, and fighting with the squirrel.  I did get him twice, though.  I managed to hit him with the water gun, although that didn't accomplish much.  But the maintenance guy here had hooked up my hose with the pistol-grip nozzle, so I was ready for Mr. Squirrel the next time.  And I really got him one time as he thought he was sneaking up on me.  He didn't come back after that.  But I bet he'll be back tomorrow.

Finish with flourish!

It's been interesting this spring to be sitting in my chair sitting in my chair in the mornings, watching the sun come up.  The earlier rising is to be expected, of course. My windows (and chair) face generally southeast, and I am surprised by how quickly the sun is moving to the north.  As it comes over the ridge, it shines in my eyes and I have to pull the drapery to cover it.  I'm having to close it more and more each day, it seems.  Just a little celestial observation.

---------------------------------------

The very quiet day finished with a flurry of activity.  I had a date for dinner with Carol and Stephen.  The restaurant we had picked turned out to be closed on Tuesday night, so we went to Plan B and went to another nearby location.  We hadn't visited since before Christmas, so we had a lot of catching up to do.  A fun time! 

Shortly after I got home, Tina called.  We hadn't talked in several months, so again, we had a lot of catching up to do.  That's always special, too, and it'll be great to see her when we go to the beach. 

As I was finishing my conversation, my cell phone rang.  It was Margaret.  So I verbally hugged Tina and hung up.  Margaret was working on our flight reservations to get to Juneau for our Alaska trip in August.  That took a while, but now that is done.  And we talked plans for the family trip to Hendersonville and Kentucky in May.  2017 is turning out to be a busy travel year.

Spring into Monday

We had another lovely day today, with the huge full moon tonight.  Not much going on today, except for swimming and coffee, then bridge tonight.  My partner and I did have 47% and get 0.17 MP - so not a bad evening.

My exciting life

Laundry and knitting.

Watching the bluebirds and wrens.

My exciting life.

Ms Ella Fitzgerald said it best

It's A Lovely Day Today

Ella Fitzgerald

It's a lovely day today
So whatever you've got to do
You've got a lovely day to do it in, that's true

And I hope whatever you've got to do
Is something that can be done by two
For I'd really like to stay

It's a lovely day today
And whatever you've got to do
I'd be so happy to be doing it with you

But if you've got something that must be done
And it can only be done by one
There is nothing more to say

Except it's a lovely day for saying
It's a lovely day

Hum-drum

Nothing new going on around here.  Today was a lovely day, just a bit cooler than it has been.  The trees are all leafing out, the dogwoods are in bloom.  The bluebird couple in the birdhouse have gone nuts eating up the mealy worms.  I may make a trip to Walmart tomorrow morning, just to get bird food. I played duplicate this afternoon - we came in just a little below the middle.  Not bad, but nothing particularly good, either.

Two severe storm fronts today

No rain this morning.

Sunshine this afternoon, and

Half-inch tonight.  Sigh!

Currently...

Currently

I am... 

Reading: Rain, nonfiction about the preColumbian migration of the peoples of the Four Corners area. 

Watching: Tuesday night TV 

Listening to: windchimes 

Wanting: good cards 

Needing: to play well with good cards 

Loving: the spring flowers and new green colors

Thinking: about my knitting 

Feeling: pretty good today 

Celebrating: having a good life 

Grateful for: having a good life

A quote I want to share: Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. -Maya Angelou, poet (4 Apr 1928-2014)

An interesting Monday

I got up to go to the Y this morning, and just got away less than a block away when I saw it lightning - so there would be no swimming.  I just turned around and came back home.  The lightning finally stopped, but the rain continued.  We had 1.5" of rain by the time it quit shortly after noon.  And the day finished off with lovely sunshine and temps in the 60s.  We did some good and some bad at duplicate tonight, and came in just below middle.

The blue birds have been working on the mealy worms I put out - and nobody else seems to like them.  This is good. With the other stuff, there is a squirrel who has decided to challenge me.  He gets up on the railing and seems to just sit there until I notice him, then starts reaching for the feeder.  I run him off, and he sits at the base of the stairs and just watches me, until I come out on the deck and stomp my foot at him.  He's really enjoying it, I think.  After the third time this afternoon, I brought the feeders in.  And then I went on Amazon and ordered a super-soaker water gun.  I'm going to put pepper water in it and see if I can get him a couple of good licks.  That might slow him down a little bit. Oh, well, it does keep me occupied.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing: The Cannon Fodder Questions

1. Is there someone you'd like to be kissing right now? John

2. When you're being extremely quiet, what does it mean? Either I don't have anything to say, or I'm asleep.

3. What are you listening to right now? Nothing - just finished CBS Sunday Morning.

4. Are you a big fan of thunderstorms? I'm always concerned about power outages or downed trees, but I love that they clear the air, and are usually followed by sunshine.

5. Do you believe in perfect? Not really.

6. Are you a jealous person? No

7. What was the first thing you thought this morning? Whether or not I really wanted to get up or might be able to go back to sleep.

8. What do you think about when you are falling asleep? Usually, nothing - I just go to sleep.

9. Are you satisfied with what you have in life? Yes

10. Do people ever think that you're either older or younger than you actually are? I have no idea.

11. Do you think men truly understand women? Probably as much as women understand men.

12. How about women understanding men? See above.

13. Did anybody ever call you handsome or beautiful? Probably - no doubt it was a polite overstatement.

14. What is one fact about the last person that called you? She's an old friend, who lives in another state.

15. Other than your current one, tell us about the longest relationship you have had either a romance or a particular good friend.  My longest-known friend goes back to the summer between ninth and tenth grades.