Us

It occurred to me as I was paging through all the photos I've got on my computer that I don't think I've posted one of DeeDude and me together. Actually, we don't have that many pictures of us together seeing as how there really isn't anybody ever around to take our picture. But, when we visited The Texas RoadHouse a few weekends ago with our neighbor, Phil, I asked him to snap a picture of us together. So, here we are.

Master Cook Recipes

Oh, I love the internet. I just spent the evening downloading hundreds of recipes from Mad’s Recipe Emporium to import into my Master Cook Program. I got 1,400 Copy Cat Recipes. I got 400 of the Back of the Box Recipes and I downloaded 300 Alton Brown’s recipes. Oh, I love the internet. I've got a resource page at Talking To Spirit for Master Cook stuff too. And, did I mention they were all free, though Joe does accept donations. What a terrific site.

Make Mine Neat

I was once a drunk. At the time I thought I was quite the wit. Turns out I was a twit. I’m glad that I don’t drink anymore. Sometimes I joke around and say that I’d like a drink. I’m not joking. I really would like a drink. But, I don’t do it. Like they say, you take it one day at a time. It’s more like one minute at a time. Most times, though, I just forget about it. It’s sort of like grieving for somebody. Eventually, it’s not on your mind all the time.

When you first quit drinking it’s really pretty tough. But, somewhere within you, you find the resolve that you need to do it one more time and quitting is just one attempt at it after another. At the time I thought I was a total failure not being able to quit. But, now, looking at it all from a different point in time I see all those misfires at quitting were actually part of the process of quitting.

If anybody reads this who is trying to quit drinking, or stop smoking cigarettes, or trying to get off of drugs, have hope and keep trying. It does get easier. I can say I’ve been sober for 7 years and 11 months. It doesn’t seem that long.

It's Cold

Sometimes getting mad isn’t really going to get you much of anything at all, except mad. Now, in addition to the furnace not working there was no hot water in the shower this morning. I let the taps run in the kitchen and the bathroom sink and eventually both gave up half-way decent hot water. Not scalding like is the usual case for them, but a little bit more than warm. The shower has a child-proof thermostat on it that won’t allow more than x degrees of hot water through. This morning it never went past cold. I did me a French bath standing at the sink. One of the guides just said at least I wasn’t as dirty as if I’d been working in the fields.

After one fast blow-up last night DeeDude turned philosophical about it. Even the news that there wasn’t hot water this morning didn’t phase him. I should take lessons from my husband.

Anyway, he works at home today and will call the furnace people when they open at 7:30. We’re lucky the pipes didn’t freeze. Then, we wouldn’t have any water at all. Right now it's 35 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

Learning Spanish

One of my resolutions this year is to learn a foreign language. I'm not saying I'm going to be fluent in a year, but I'd like to be able to say a few things in Spanish. So, I made a new blog. It's: Learn Spanish With Me and I'll be adding a new word each day. Today's is a doozy. Furnace. Go see the entry.

Also, I am so totally open to getting help from those of you who know how to speak Spanish. What I'm doing right now is translating stuff in Alta-Vista's Babel Fish translation services and I do know that sometimes it just doesn't come out right. So, if you see me not saying it correctly please don't hesitate to jump in.

Carter Beats the Devil

I’m reading an absolutely terrific book. It’s, “Carter Beats the Devil” by Glen David Gold. I’m about half way through and it has absolutely gripped my imagination and attention. It is a fictionalized account of Charles Carter who was a magician in the early 20th century. He hails from San Francisco and there are references to places I know which are always neat. I haven’t yet gotten to the place where he’s going to beat the Devil or, in fact, have read anything about a Devil unless it had something to do with Mysterioso, an arch rival magician, who Carter vanquished with the help of Houdini. You can see more of his posters at http://www.magicgallery.com/Carter.htm

Dinner at The Texas Road House

Man, but dinner was good. Phil, our neighbor, Dennis and I all went to dinner tonight. I love this place...there are peanut shells all over the floor. We got there shortly after 5 pm and even though they'd only been open an hour the place was packed and remained so the whole time we were there. Service was fantastic and the food was great. Mouthwatering ribs, chili, salads with the works on them and prime rib. This was spread out among the three of us. They also do something very interesting to the butter they serve with the rolls. The butter is whipped and has cinnamon sugar in it. Just a really fantastic dinner. They've got over 200 locations spread out over 43 states. Check out the menu and locations at The Texas Roadhouse.

Flowers from DeeDude

Sometimes Spirit Whispers

The biggest news of all is that, “A Year of Psychic Readings” arrived from LuLu.com. I was thrilled to hold in my hands a book with my name on it. It didn’t matter that it was the only copy and that there might not be that many ever purchased. I was thrilled anyway.

However, as I figured, there are things that need to be changed and fixed. Right off the bat I saw that there were no numbers on the even pages…just the odd ones with the exception of page 26 which was blank. Go figure. I went back to the document I’d uploaded and, sure enough, I’d done something to the footer so that none of those pages displayed. So, there’s that to fix.

A couple of the graphics got disconnected from their text so I’ll need to hook those back together.

The other thing I will need to do is to fix the index, which is something I have not been looking forward to. But, it’s next.

Also, the cover itself, though attractive, might need to be changed. Within 3 minutes all I could see were all the fingerprints I’d left on it. Not a good one. So, maybe I’ll change that.

And, the last thing is the title. DeeDude said not to have the word Psychic in the title. He said it was a turn off. So, I’m thinking what else could I call it? Musings from the Mist…Advice from my Invisible Friends…Okay…enough silly. It’s advice. It’s channeled. DeeDude already told me I shouldn’t use the word, “Channeled”. It’s pretty mysterious at times. It’s secrets I never knew about before Seth told me. The Other Side Unveiled. Only, it’s our side mostly. How to Live an Upstanding Life. Assistance About Arcane Matters…Think…think….Help me guys…Watch Out! Your Path is on Fire. What? More, please. There’s Always Hope. Hey, I like that one. Okay, that’s a keeper, but let’s keep going, please. Another Way to Look at Life. That’s nice too. Snippets from Spirit. Cute. I like the idea of using Spirit and having an “S” word with that is sort of balanced. I Thought I was Crazy, But I was Merely Hearing Voices In my Head. Yeah, right. About Living From Dead Guys. Well, yes, but that’s sort of weird.

What’s a good “S” word? Streams…Sifting…Shifting…Shitting…stop it…Smells…Spirit Speaks…Yes, I’d love to use that one, but somebody else already did, didn’t they? What about “Spirit Speaks – Practical Advice”

How about Spirits Speak? Spirits Whisper. Sometimes Spirit Whispers. I like that one.

Red

I would really like to have something interesting to tell you about. I’d like to be witty. I’d like to be interesting. I’d like to be mysterious. I’d like to be intriguing. I’d like to be sexier than hell. I’d like to be so funny you’d wet your pants at the stuff I said. However, I’m not. I am, instead, red.

It happened at work. We were stuck away in a small office counting and the heat was turned on pretty good. It’s one of those places where the controls are somewhere else and with what we were doing it wasn’t worth our while to go find and fiddle with them. Just get the job done and get out of there so we can go back to our regular place to work.

I found out I was red when I went to the restroom and looked in the mirror. Holy Smokes! It was like I’d been out in the sun for 10 hours my face was that red. Not splotchy at all, just totally beet red.

Either it was the heat or my blood pressure was up. Maybe it was my first honest to Pete hot flash? I’m 51. I’m supposed to be having something like that going on aren’t I?

Anyway, it’s okay now.