09.17.2011 Elegance By Providence

When my Mom and Dad were married, my Uncle Bill and Aunt Flo gave them a set of flatware.  I've always called them the Candy Cane forks and spoons but it turns out, the actual NAME of this pattern is Elegance..by Providence.  It says so right on the back!

We used them for years - and as there were four of us kids, I imagine they were WELL used.  Over the years, somehow pieces were lost and eventually Mom got a new set of flatware to use.  What the heck happens to the forks and knives that reside in a kitchen drawer? How does a full set of silverware dwindle to just a few pieces?  Did we take them camping?  Were they thrown out by accident by kids pressed into kitchen service?  Did Steve use them to torture my Raggedy Ann? 

Does This Doll look tortured to you?

Anyway - When I went to Illinois State University, I took a setting with me to use in the dorm..a fork, a knife, a teaspoon and a big spoon...and then took them to my apartment in Sacramento, CA.  And believe it or not, they have become treasured pieces of "MY stuff."  In the morning, I root through the silverware drawer to use a Candy Cane spoon for my oatmeal.  If a boy is visiting, I'll set his place with the Candy Cane setting.  I dunno - to me it makes my his dinner with me that much more special.  Silly I know, but I'm a sentimental twit.

At garage sales and in GoodWill Stores I've always looked for more Candy Cane pieces, but have never EVER found any. EVER!  My brother Steve found a knife once, and sent it to me.  But I've never come across any.  I found a place online that will sell new settings, intending to fill in missing pieces...but at nearly $40 bucks a place setting,  well, I may be sentimental but I'm also a cheapskate!  :)  I decided to just treasure my few pieces.

UNTIL!  a few weeks ago, my friend Scott was over for supper and I handed him his plate of food ALONG with a CANDY CANE FORK!  And i told him of my Candy Cane cravings.  He suggested I search on Craig's list.

So I wandered over to the computer, and typed in "Elegance by Providence" and HOLY MOLY !!!!!  A woman was selling an ENTIRE SET on CRAIG's LIST IN DAYTON OHIO!!!!  WHOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!   I was Beside Myself with EXCITEMENT! I emailed her immediately "I HOPE you still have this set because i WANT IT!"

And luckily, it had not sold to anyone else.  I don't know if I could have recovered from the disappointment..honestly.

The VERY next weekend, Scottie and I drove to Kettering OHIO, and met this WONDERFUL woman Debbie McCoy!  In exchange for a paltry sum, she handed me a bag full of shiny metal pieces of my childhood!  I was so happy I babbled!  I'm sure Debbie thought I'd lost my mind!

It's silly, but those pieces of silverware make me very happy!  I smiled alllll the way to the Air Force Museum.   And I enjoyed the museum, but not one of the shiny metal pieces there made me smile like that ziplock bag of Elegance by Providence!

04.01.2011 Backroading in Arizona!

Last week my BRPal Scott and I went to Arizona and did some wandering there.  I'd been in AZ twice before YEARS ago - a quick looksee at the Grand Canyon with my sister Carol while on the way to Durango, Colorado (huh.  wow...that's a BIG HOLE in the ground!  Back to the car!) and a Memorial Day Weekend in Tucson when the boys were really little (Sam was what...10 months old) 

Anyway - Scott's brother Tony is the Mayor of Maricopa, AZ..he and his wife Nancy were very involved in the Relay for Life held on March 25 - so we took this opportunity to see a bit of the world as well as to walk for a good cause. 

We drove northeast of Maricopa to the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert - we both uttered "wow" and "would you look at THAT!" alot.  BEAUTIFUL country.  Also traveled to Winslow Arizona to stand on the corner...

anyway - a good five days.

I'm seriously thinking of starting a collection of little cactus... saw LOTS of those - all types..seriously thought about trying to get one home on the airplane, and oh yah - got some pictures of a ROAD RUNNER!!!! 

no wile. e. coyote tho.

:)

03.21.2011 Willie Nelson and Abe Lincoln and Sam

Now that's quite the trifecta of individuals but all were featured this past weekend.  My Roaming Buddy Scott and I headed west to Springfield, Illinois this past Saturday for a Willie Nelson Concert - stopping first in Terre Haute for a brief albeit satisfying visit (and hand-off of a half pan of oatmeal crunch bars)  with son Sam and his girlfiend Jenna, we then headed north to eventually westward ho on 36...

We managed to find a few gems along the way.  One of our first stops was in Dana Indiana, the boyhood home of Ernie Pyle.  He was the journalist who made World War II more personal and heartrending by writing about the guys actually fighting the war.  The Ernie Pyle State Historic Site located on Dana's main street has a great little museum in a Quonset hut, which sits next to Pyle's boyhood home.  The museum displays include some of Pyle's personal belongings (like his Purple Heart, awarded posthumously) and some stuff that was in his pockets the day he was killed by sniper fire. 

West again on 36 - lunch in an inexpensive but really good Chinese buffet (i'll insert the name and location in here later on)  and finally to Springfield.  Got a room on the 28th floor of a 28 floor hotel! right downtown by the convention center.

The concert started right on time - 78 year old Willie Nelson played and sang the familiar tunes non-stop until 9 pm...when he simply walked over, propped his guitar Trigger against the drum stand, put his hat on, smiled, waved and walked off.  Simply 90 minutes of Willie Nelson and his band, playing amazing music!

Next day?  some Abraham Lincoln visitation - including a few pictures of his Springfield Home (which I visited years ago when in 8th grade) and his Tomb. 

And then home we went, EAST on 36!   I'll attach some pictures later on....

a Fun weekend...thanks RB Scott!

03.18.2011 where are the blogs I can read?

this is truly a silly post...but I was just reading Mike Dodaro's blog posts..and thought, huh - i will just click the NEXT blog link up at the top and see what I get!

Well, I clicked NEXT 17 times and each time I did the blog that appeared was in a foreign language. 

Wouldn't be so bad if I could read a foreign language, any foreign language at ALL...but taking one year of LATIN senior year in high school (which was omygoodness 36 years ago) does not in any way, shape or form equate any level of foreign language literacy.

Kind of wish I'd taken Spanish in high school - because it looked like each of those 17 blogs were written in Spanish.  But when I was a freshman in high school, I was given the choice between CHOIR, BAND or a Foreign language.  And I chose BAND.  Wasn't until I was a senior that I had an empty spot for a language - and seeing as Latin is supposed to be the base of so many words, I took that.

But you know, it seems to me really..that choosing BAND wasn't so bad after all.  Because I know people who actually took a foreign language for 4 years in high school, and if I asked them today to speak to me in Spanish or to read to me one of those blogs..they could not.  They've forgotten most of it.

And two nights ago?  I had my flute out, playing piano music written in the early 1900's.  And over the past 36 years, I've played my flute in church, in football AND basketball pep bands, AND I even got to play flute in the pit band for a few high school musicals. 

So actually, I guess I can say that I am fluent in Flute.  And since I started playing in fifth grade, I have been for nearly 45 years!   And I think that gives me more personal satisfaction than being able to figure out those 17 blogs.  :)

03.09.2011 The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century

I came across this link today - and thought huh..wonder how many of those I"ve read?  or rather I should say, how many of those do I remember that I've read?  I have always read mysteries...my Dad was a big reader, and so some of the older books I may have read and just don't remember.   The ones I remember reading I'm going to mark...and then I think I'm going to make reading the ones I haven't a 2011 endeavor.

After marking - I've got 15.  Huh.  I"ve got some reading to do!

http://www.mysterybooksellers.com/links/20th-century-favorites-1 

 

The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century

(Paperback publisher is noted for titles in print in 2000.  Some have since gone out of print, some publishers have changed, and others formerly unavailable have since been reissued.)

Allingham, Margery. The Tiger in the Smoke (Carroll & Graf)
Ambler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios (Carroll & Graf)
Armstrong, Charlotte. A Dram of Poison
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Death (Penguin)  (READ)
Ball, John. In the Heat of the Night (Carroll & Graf)
Barnard, Robert. Death by Sheer Torture
Barr, Nevada. Track of the Cat (Avon)   (READ)
Blake, Nicholas. The Beast Must Die
Block, Lawrence. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Avon)
Brand, Christianna. Green for Danger (Carroll & Graf)
Brown, Frederic. The Fabulous Clipjoint
Buchan, John. The 39 Steps (Dover)
Burke, James Lee. Black Cherry Blues (Avon)
Cain, James M.. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Vintage/Black Lizard)
Cannell, Dorothy. The Thin Woman (Bantam)
Carr, John Dickson. The Three Coffins
Caudwell, Sarah. Thus Was Adonis Murdered (Dell)
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep (Vintage)
Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (HarperPBKS) (READ)  Connelley, Michael. The Concrete Blonde (St. Martin's)
Constantine, K.C.. The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes (David R. Godine)
Crais, Robert. The Monkey's Raincoat (Bantam)
Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop (Penguin)
Crombie, Deborah. Dreaming of the Bones (Bantam)
Crumley, James. The Last Good Kiss (Vintage)
Dickinson, Peter. The Yellow Room Conspiracy
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles (Berkley)(READ)
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca (Avon) (READ)
Dunning, John. Booked to Die (Avon)
Elkins, Aaron. Old Bones (Mysterious)
Evanovich, Janet. One for the Money (HarperPaperbacks)(READ)
Finney, Jack. Time and Again (Scribner)
Ford, G.M.. Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? (Avon)
Francis, Dick. Whip Hand (Jove)
Fremlin, Celia. The Hours Before Dawn (Academy Chicago)
George, Elizabeth. A Great Deliverance (Bantam)
Gilbert, Michael. Smallbone Deceased 
Grafton, Sue. "A" is for Alibi (Bantam) (READ)
Graham, Caroline. The Killings at Badger's Drift 
Grimes, Martha. The Man With the Load of Mischief 
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon (Vintage)
Hare, Cyril. An English Murder
Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs (St. Martin's) (READ)
Hiaasen, Carl. Tourist Season (Warner)
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley (Vintage)
Hill, Reginald. On Beulah Height (Dell)
Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time (HarperPaperbacks) (READ)
Himes, Chester. Cotton Comes to Harlem (Vintage)
Innes, Michael. Hamlet, Revenge
James, P.D.. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Warner)
Kellerman, Faye. The Ritual Bath (Avon)
Kellerman, Jonathan. When the Bough Breaks (Bantam)
King, Laurie. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Bantam) (READ)
Langton, Jane. Dark Nantucket Noon (Penguin)
le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came in From The Cold (Ballantine)
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird (Warner) (READ)
Lehane, Dennie. Darkness, Take My Hand (Avon)
Leonard, Elmore. Get Shorty (Delta)
Lochte, Dick. Sleeping Dog (Poisoned Pen Press)
Lovesey, Peter. Rough Cider
MacDonald, John D.. The Deep Blue Good-by (Fawcett) (READ)
MacDonald, Philip. The List of Adrian Messenger 
Macdonald, Ross. The Chill (Vintage/Black Lizard)
Maron, Margaret. Bootlegger's Daughter (Mysterious)(READ)
Marsh, Ngaio. Death of a Peer (St. Martin's)
McBain, Ed. Sadie When She Died
McClure, James. The Sunday Hangman 
McCrumb, Sharyn. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (Ballantine)
Millar, Margaret. Stranger in My Grave
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress (Pocket)
Muller, Marcia. Edwin of the Iron Shoes
Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel
O'Connell, Carol. Mallory's Oracle (Jove)
Padgett, Abigail. Child of Silence
Paretsky, Sara. Deadlock (Dell)
Parker, Robert. Looking for Rachel Wallace (Dell)
Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Club Dumas (Vintage)
Perry, Thomas. Vanishing Act (Ivy)
Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank (Warner)
Peters, Ellis. One Corpse Too Many (Mysterious)
Pronzini, Bill. Blue Lonesome (Walker)
Queen, Ellery. Cat of Many Tails 
Rendell, Ruth. No More Dying Then (Vintage)
Rice, Craig. The Wrong Murder (International Polygonics)
Rinehart, Mary Roberts. The Circular Staircase (Kensington) (READ)
Robinson, Peter. Blood at the Root (Avon)
Rosen, Richard. Strike Three You're Dead
Ross, Kate. A Broken Vessel (Penguin)
Rozan, S.J.. Concourse (St. Martin's)
Sayers, Dorothy. Murder Must Advertise (HarperPaperbacks)
Sjowall & Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman
Stout, Rex. Some Buried Caesar 
Tey, Josephine. Brat Farrar (Scribner)
Thomas, Ross. Chinaman's Chance 
Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills (Bantam)
Turow, Scott. Presumed Innocent (Warner) (READ)
Upfield, Arthur. The Sands of Windee 
Walters, Minette. The Ice House (St. Martin's)
White, Randy Wayne. Sanibel Flats (St. Martin's)
Woolrich, Cornell. I Married a Dead Man (Penguin)

03.08.2011 Photography Scavenger Hunts

So I'm a member of a photography group on Facebook - there was a February Scavenger Hunt posted so of course, I wanted to do it.  There were 25 items on the list to find and take a picture of...and hey presto!  I won! And much to my dismay, oh sure, I won, but not many people had much time to devote to this scavenger hunt, and i think i kind of won just because I had so many pictures.

But oh well - i WON DARNIT!  heres a link to the FB album...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115537&id=1384077819&l=a20fa3f7d9

And what did i win?  The priviledge to create the next scavenger hunt list!

Here's the list for the March list...it's an Alphabetical Scavenger Hunt.

Some items are specific..some are open to interpretation.

A Abandoned House

B Blue

C Covered Bridge

D Deadly

E Elegant

F Fire truck

G Gates

H Hands

I Icky

J Junk

K Knives

L Lethargy

M Movie House Marquee

N Nine

O Ooops

P Paint

Q Quaint

R Relaxation

S Strings

T Toy

U Underneath

V Veteran

W Wood

X X marks the Spot

Y Yarn

Z Zany

24 hour blog - hour 13 irrational fears

i have 2 irrational fears...probablt you could consider them very closely related.  i have an irrational fear of papercuts.  I also have this fear of someone standing in front of me, whilst folding paper.  you know where a person is STANDING RIGHT THERE AND HE FOLDS A PIECE OF PAPER IN HALF AND THEN VERY SLOWLY PRESSES DOWN THE FOLD!

omigod.  its gross just typing it.

shudder

i also kind of fear clowns, but really...who doesn't?