It’s the Christmas holiday, it’s cold and snowy. Time for a holiday puzzle, right! I found this one with the vintage red van, made me think of California, surfers, and Lake Tahoe.
At first, I wasn’t enjoying this puzzle. A few things… The puzzle pieces are small, they don’t stick together, so if you want to move a group of them, they all fall apart. Then they have some strange shapes that don’t click in place, they just sit side by side. Some pieces had me fooled, they looked like they were for the border, but NO, they go in the middle somewhere. Chuckling, I guess that’s why we do puzzles, we want to be challenged, right.
There was a huge surprise. I found three special pieces. The cardinal, the snowman and a reindeer!
A special THANK YOU to fellow blogger, Danny Watts: Chronicles of a Fountain Pen for recommending the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I’ve been listening to the audio of the first book in the series.The narrator, Orlagh Cassidy is fabulous! What a wonderful story!!
Five more days, then Christmas Eve!
Got to focus, get the puzzle done. I might be on book 2 at this rate.
This was an interesting story in the news. Did you hear about it? A man found a check at a train station addressed to HARIBO for 4.8 million in Germany. He called to tell them. They told him it was a cross check, tear it up. Then as a “thank you,” sent him six bags of gummi candies.
Now, people are rushing to judge the reward. Technically, it wasn’t a reward, because to Haribo, check could not be cashed; however, as an “Appreciate the call, they sent some gummi candies.”
This made me think. WHAT should a reward be for doing a good deed? Should anything be expected?
Since there was no reward, will this discourage people from doing the “right thing” in the future? Being kind, trying to return something takes effort.
My daughter has found things, returned them. No reward, a big “thank you!” One was a driver’s license, the address on it, wasn’t far away, so drove it to the person’s home. The lady said, “Thank you.” A year later, she still had my daughter’s email. She wrote to her, saying, “It’s the holidays, thinking of you, wanted to thank you again for returning my driver’s license.” No reward or gift, a thank you.
Curious, what do other people think? If someone found something of YOURS, returned it, would you give them something OR just express great gratitude?
I walked in the store to buy some milk. Look what I saw. This cat pillow alone on the shelf. While I don’t have a cat, it caught my attention. The shape, the eyes. It’s fun!
I wonder if a dog might attack it thinking it was a “real” cat. I don’t have a dog either, so cannot test it out.
Sometimes in our busy, rush, rush, rush day, we were meant to STOP and SMILE!
What do you do when you can’t find your favorite curry?
This S&B Golden Curry is from childhood. My father had traveled to Japan many times and ate this curry. He would get in moods for it. He also liked the Fukujinzuke pickled vegetables, they came in a can. He was insistent on eating those with the curry.
In those days, you could only find this curry in Chinatown. So, off to Chinatown we would go. We loved exploring the shops and learning to eat with chopsticks.
Well, this just means no curry. Maybe there is a supply chain issue again?
So, GUESS WHAT!
I’m going Italian. YES, I’m making bolognese sauce. Hopefully, the store isn’t out of tomato sauce.
If they are, I’ll keep going around the world. Maybe tacos or matzo ball soup? What do you think?
What’s your speciality? Having trouble finding ingredients?
I love good advertisements. For years, I worked for a magazine selling print ads. It was the most fun I’ve had at any job. Yes, it was stressful reaching my weekly/monthly sales goals.
However, I enjoyed scouting out new clients in ALL kinds of industries. I met many interesting people. Ok, I admit, some nice, some not so nice. Yet interesting even when they would slam the door in my face. I would think, “THAT person needs to be sold!”
Recently, I saw this truck with the mold advertisement. I smiled. I was brought back to my old sales days. HURRY, write down the name before the truck dashes off. WHY? We’ve got a Home issue coming up, THIS would be a perfect advertiser. Got to get on it!
My Boss, an Italian guy, would go around the table at our weekly sales meetings asking each Sales Rep, “How the week went.” Seems like a simple question, but if he was in a “mood,” it was embarrassing to be called out in front of everyone.
One guy ALWAYS sat with his chair tilted back trying to act cool. He was a “hot shot.” Talked like a used car salesman. When it was his turn to answer, he’d say, “GREAT week Boss!”
My Manager would say, “Well, Jim, if it was a great week, why didn’t I see any contracts in my InBox?”
Poor Jim! He just didn’t understand that a “good week” meant “SIGNED CONTRACTS!” NO signed contracts, not a good week, LOL. So, don’t set yourself up to be poked at.
Let’s face it, not everyone is cut out for sales. You’ve got to have a tough skin. Stress is high. My Italian manager taught me early on, it’s a numbers game. Do the work, get the reward.
What do you think? You have a friend whose birthday is on Halloween. Would they appreciate receiving a case of Liquid Death on their doorstep? SURPRISE, HaPpy BiRtHdAy — THINKing of YOU?!
The name itself conjures up some scary thoughts. Then to find out it’s a Sparkling Water out of Austria. So, good quality, scary name — ALL YEAR ROUND.
Take a look, they have some interesting names for their flavored sparkling water.
How far does humor go? Would it be appropriate to go visit your grandparents drinking a can of Liquid Death? Give a can of Liquid Death to someone who is going to climb a mountain or off to fight in the war? How about giving a can to a Priest before Sunday mass to quench his thirst. So many inappropriate scenarios for NOT giving Liquid Death to someone.
Obviously, the founder thought this was funny and others did too, because the company is valued at 525 Million. They have a good following.
Birds are so creative in finding a place for their nest. I’m amazed that they chose these company letters when there appears to be no ledge under the nest. Although, they know what they are doing. That nest looks like it is snuggled tightly into that letter G. Such a perfect photograph!
WAIT THOUGH, they chose other letters. Seems like the Birdie friends said, “I’ll take this letter for my house, you go there, and another one over there.”
Then they can visit with each other daily and watch over each other’s nests.
What a great community idea!! A little subdivision.
When I walked past, the birds were flying back and forth from their nests. I was LUCKY that the Birdie on the G was staying HOME and resting.
I hope this gives you a BIG smile like it did for me!
This photo resembles how I felt today. I was trying to open a glass jar of red cabbage. Goal, get the button on the top of the lid to pop. Since COVID my left wrist hurts when I try to open jars/cans. THAT jar and others would not open, no matter what I tried.
Is this significant? Well, when I was around 10 years old I played a game with my twin brother. My parents’ home had a hill on the side of it. We loved to run down the hill, as fast as we could, and see WHO could touch the side of the brick house first!
As we became more competitive, when our two hands hit, not touched, the side of the brick house the impact on our hands/wrists was quite strong. Basically, we used the wall to stop ourselves.
Well, you probably guessed what happened. The last time we ran down the hill, determined to beat my twin brother, I got to the side of the house first, hit the wall and SNAP. My hand/wrist went funny.
I still remember that weird feeling we get when we’ve sprained our ankle, slight dizziness, nausea in stomach. I was not feeling well. I had to hold on to my hand. We immediately went inside to have my mother assess the situation. She’s Italian, imagine the “Oh Gesù.”
At first she didn’t believe us. In her mind, we were supposed to be playing “nicely” outside. How could THIS happen?? As my wrist started to swell up, it was clear, something was wrong. She had me take my t-shirt off, SO PAINFUL. She was guessing if I needed a cast, there would be no way to get the t-shirt off later with cast on. So, I slipped on one of my Dad’s button down shirts.
Off to the Doctor we went. Sure enough, broken wrist. Back then they had these very HOT plaster strips they wrapped around my hand up to my elbow to form the cast. I was given a sling and so began my 6 weeks of “no fun.” Hard to sleep at night with such a heavy cast too. Anyhow, it was fun having people sign it. However, it got so itchy inside that after a while, I thought I would go INSANE.
Fast Forward — over 40 years later and suddenly that SAME wrist is giving me issues. I find that interesting. I only feel a bit of funny pain when I try to open a can or a jar. You know the tough ones where the button on the lid has to pop up. Otherwise, my wrist is perfectly fine.
Haven’t people said they’ve had bone/joint pain after COVID?
Pondering this. Thoughts? Anyone with similar issues after COVID?
OR — LOL — Are you going to say, “Welcome to OLD age, HONEY!”
I love my blue Kenmore vacuum. It’s 10+ years old. Back then Kenmore was just introducing colored machines. You can tell, this is a funky blue, but I FELL IN LOVE with it.
Me and my blue machine, on top of the world. Cleaning became fun! Similar to a bike or a car, if you LOVE the color, suddenly transportation is a joy.
Lately though, the vacuum wasn’t working properly. This little guy was pushing himself. I vacuumed and felt sad. In the back of my mind thinking, “IS THIS THE END?”
No, it can’t be!!
Before throwing in the towel, I needed to roll up my sleeves, check under the hood, find the product number, Google search, etc. Leave no stone unturned. SAVE my vacuum!!
Sure, I was a girl, not a mechanic, but there is YouTube, I could do this!! I didn’t need a vacuum repair shop… not YET!
A miracle! THANK YOU, KENMORE. The information sticker on my machine was still there. Kenmore telephone number still worked!! Hallelujah!
I spoke to a lovely Kenmore Customer Service Rep. She found my OLD Model #. She said I had two filters. An air filter and motor filter. What? Where? She sent me link to old manual.
WELL — I found the filters. Look at photos. I’m so EMBARRASSED!
No wonder my machine was MAD and not working. The air filter is supposed to be changed a few times a year. That is one dirty air filter!
Brilliant Viewpoint 