2014
On a recent trip to Target, DD and I came across a plethora of gingerbread building kits and I'd been reminiscing about the faux gingerbread houses of previous Christmases and how it's been a while since I'd done one. You remember my redneck gingerbread house from years past and GI Snow, right? I can't remember the last time I did this but it's been a while...
I verbalized the thought that maybe I could recreate the row houses and DD was like "Or we could just buy this." So we did. :0) We'd planned to work on it over Thanksgiving weekend, but that didn't happen. So new target will be a couple of weekends hence.
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Came across this on X/Twitter last week and thought it pretty damned amazing--enough that I wanted to share it with you all...
This is Jim Thorpe, first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States...He represented the U.S. in Track and Field in the 1912 Olympics. Look closely at the photo, you can see that he's wearing different socks and shoes. This wasn't a fashion statement.
According to @fasc1nate on X, on the morning of his competition, his shoes were stolen. Luckily, Jim ended up finding two shoes in a garbage can. (Luckily??!!??) That's the pair that he's wearing in the photo. But one of the shoes was too big, so he had to wear an extra sock. Wearing these shoes, Jim won two gold medals that day.
Sadly, the rest of his life was tragic for many reasons, but this just goes to show that where there's a will, there's a way.
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I've been working on cleaning my home office in preparation for rearranging. I had too many things crowded in my 10' x 10' space and it was getting to me. Having an L-shaped desk sticking out into the middle of the room hasn't helped, and I may end up with an arm of it still sticking out, but maybe in a less obtrusive way...
I also wanted new fairy lights-- The ones in the living room have worked great. They've been up for three years now and are still burning brightly morning and evening when the timer turns them on. I attempted to buy similar lights for my office, but basically didn't get the correct ones so back to the drawing board. I have to go hunt down that Amazon order and go from there. :0)
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This past weekend, I also put up my tree... I bought an additional string of lights and spare bulbs so we have a tree with lights (not on when I took the picture) but no ornaments...I'll be working on that this week.
And the HOCKEY TREE is back!! Or will be once the hockey-related ornaments are added. :0)
Have a super week. We'll catch up in a couple of weeks.
Take care.
Meet Fiona the Hippo!
Have you heard of Fiona the Hippo who's Internet famous? She was born six weeks early but survived. She's been immortalized in children's books and news segments for years since her birth in January of 2017.
Image borrowed from the Cincinnati Zoo website.
Did you know that before 1909, scientists placed hippos in the same group as pigs? Despite their outward similarities with pigs or wild boars, hippopotamuses are closely related to whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Hippos are semi-aquatic mammals that are native to sub-Saharan Africa. They are the third-largest land mammal after elephants and rhinos.
Who knew?!
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Black or Green?
Let's learn some things about olives, shall we?
Did you know that the olive is a fruit? Because of the stone or pit inside that is actually a seed.
Did you know that about 90% of all olives are used to make olive oil, the other 10% are used as table olives (aka the ones we eat).
Did you know that all olives (color-wise) come from the same plant? It's all a matter of maturity. Green and yellow olives are at the beginning of the ripening cycle, while the purple and black coloring comes at the end of the ripening cycle. Black olives are usually artificially colored.
Did you know that olives must be cured and fermented before they can be eaten? The process can take anywhere from a few days to a few months depending on what's used to make that process happen.
I like both; how about you?
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Class of 1986
I graduated high school in 1986...which is whatever, but I came across this interesting bit of trivia:
In 1986, Oprah Winfrey became the first Black American woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show!
And sooooo many years later, she's still going strong.
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Why Christmas is Celebrated on December 25th
While doing a bit of research on holidays in medieval Scotland I learned that the reason Christmas is celebrated on December 25th is because it's exactly nine months from March 25th, the theorized date of Jesus's conception.
The church in Rome began celebrating Christmas back in 336, but the most of the Eastern Empire continued to celebrate Epiphany on January 6th for another half-century. Christmas didn't become a major Christian festival/celebration until the 9th century.
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All my babies are under one roof this week--mine!! So excited to have Sonshine and the Brown-Eyed Girl home for a few days. DD is on spring break, so it's gonna be a fun time hanging out and visiting.
Have a super week. I sure will be. Pictures to come!
Take care.
And the shopping is done. I ran out and bought the last gift yesterday afternoon. The tree is up & decorated and the presents are wrapped and waiting patiently for their unveiling in just three weeks' time.
The best part is that with the shopping and the wrapping done so far in advance, I can really enjoy the holiday season.
I've decorated as much as I'm going to I think, unless I get a wild hair in the next couple of weeks...but that's unlikely!
Here's my before and my after...
And yes, sadly, there are two sections of lights that have now burned out...I'll have to either find the extra bulbs and go through replacing each one in turn or just string in new lights next year...
Hope you had a lovely weekend and here's to a good / productive week.
Take care.
Along with my chore chart, which is for personal accomplishments (mostly), I have a to-do list that sits on my desk at work... The same tasks are on it from day to day and then there's another list of things that appear at certain times of the month...
For example, I'm creating a series guide for a writer friend of mine. And rather than just saying I'm going to work on it everyday, I've specified that I'll read through fifteen pages each day. It's a measurable thing and I know when I'm done and can move on to another task.
It's been soooo helpful. I'm planning to break as many things down to a doable/measurable amount. The challenge will be figuring out all the things I need to do this for and then finding the time to break them down. But maybe one thing at a time eh?? Measurable! That means I need a list. Another list. Or to find the one I probably started somewhere...
Hope you all had a lovely weekend... I'm almost done with the Christmas shopping. I just need some ideas for my father-in-law, and I'll be done. Then I can sit back and enjoy the season.
The weather has been lovely as it usually is this time of year...and it's good to be alive.
Take care. Catch you later.
I got my Christmas funding and I started ordering presents...here they are trickling in. :0)
No, the tree isn't up yet, but it may end up getting put up sooner rather than later just because...well... The wrapped presents will need somewhere to be, won't they?
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The fam went to see Dune yesterday. DH has been a fan of the franchise since way back. DD just wanted to see it. I played the Dune 2000 PC game for many, many years and wish they'd upgrade the programming to be compatible with current technology. Maybe the success of the film will spur someone into action on the project. (Not that I need the distraction of a video game!).
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One of my goals / plans for the next year or two is to learn more about advertising and promotion. And I got invited to a free webinar about using Goodreads...which was quite informative. I've spent several days over the last week getting all my Goodreads ducks in order.
In doing so, I found that seven (!) of my books had been associated with the profile of another Jen Fitzgerald (no capital G!)-- But I was able to reach out to the Goodreads "librarian" group and someone there got everything corrected.
Now to get my upcoming release added. For some reason, Goodreads won't accept the AISN as correct... Might need to reach out to those librarians again. Once the new book is in their system, I'm toying with the idea of a giveaway. It'll cost a bit of money, but the book will get a lot of exposure and hopefully a lot of sales up front as a result...
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My chart's working well enough. I'm not completely on track, but I'm getting there. I completed an office chore every day last week, but that's about the only thing I did 100% on. I missed one day of writing, which is fine, really. I needed a little extra sleep, which I don't skimp on anymore. Everything else had two or more misses for various reasons, but each week will show improvement.
Anyway...hope you had a lovely weekend. Weather was gorgeous here in North Texas.
Catch you later in the week.
My little Christmas will be missing a very important component, but he'll be in our thoughts for sure.
Hope you're having a lovely day--whatever that means for you.
Have a great weekend. :0)
The tree is up!
DH helped me put it together and fluff out the branches. DD help me sort ornaments and update my list of ornaments that I've bought or made for the kids and DH (and myself) over the years.
The Christmas shopping is done! A few more packages still need to show up on my doorstep, but the decisions and ordering is done. Next on the schedule as far as presents are concerned is wrapping them. Next Saturday afternoon after my writers group Zoom party... I'll plop my butt in front of the TV and fire up one of my favorite movies (Penelope) and wrap as many presents as I can.
The Christmas menu has been decided. Hoagies! Remember, we're going "non-traditional" here. Food for the Brown-Eyed Girl and her SoulMate's visit has been purchased bit by bit each week. Not quite done yet but close.
Aside from wrapping presents, I still need to do a bit more decorating, which will also happen next weekend (probably), and cleaning. Yuck. :0)
Hope your Christmas preparations are coming along at a good pace.
Have a great week!
I totally forgot to post on Wednesday. It's been a week. But look-- My subscription of Perfectly Mint Tea finally arrived after a bit of a blooper. Originally I received a single box. The ZON allowed me to keep the one box and sent along the correct order of six boxes.
Will it be enough to get me through six weeks now that the temperatures are staying cool and official winter is right around the corner and the two other people in my house also enjoy a good cuppa?? That is the question. The new packaging should start appearing in stores so I'll be able to supplement as needed, I suppose.
It's now December and Christmas is right around the corner. I need to finish gift buying and find a good day to put on some movies--I've got to track down Penelope--and wrap my little heart out. I also need to get the tree up and decorated.
Twenty days and counting. :0)
How are your Christmas preparations coming along?
Have a great weekend!
