Forgot to mention

Our speaker today for the luncheon was a retired lady that worked for 35 years for the Department of Social Security. She had excellent information for us and I imagine that tomorrow there will be a bunch of telephone calls to our local SS Office in Conroe for appointments. :-)

ASLA Luncheon for January 2011

Today was the last luncheon for ASLA for 2010. February will begin the 2011 series. Lots of red shirts, flowers, table decorations and delicious Chinese food to appease even the pickiest eaters. My carnation was a gift from the Association for my work on the Garden Gals committee and it is looking awfully pretty in my kitchen. This upcoming year will be very interesting for me as I have accepted the Chairmanship and so far I have spent almost a week (working daily) all total on organizing the computer spread sheets and making telephone calls. Going to be a great year! From my hospital friend Carol "Life isn't tied with a bow....but it's still a gift."

Blogging.......

Recently I have found myself awake during the night and I am blogging. I remember when I was a student at the UofH and as an elective, I took shorthand (some of you may not even know what that is - that many years ago) and my instructor said "when you are listening to a conversation and you begin to mentally translate it into shorthand, you have mastered the technique". I'm not sure if that applies to blogging, and that I've been doing it so long, or if my mind is preoccupied with all of the ideas I have for topics to blog about. It appears that every day there is such an abudance of info that I process I begin to get a little wacky. Although I make the comment that "retirement takes a lot of energy and time", I really do enjoy it. Especially the few mornings that I can just flip off the alarm and flop over. Last evening I stayed awake making travel arrangements for the first 6 months of 2011 - it was easily 1:00 a.m. before I turned in, and had to be up early this a.m. for a trip to Huntsville for a luncheon date. With my additional days at CRMC and being the chair of Garden Gals, participating in Ex Pats and the ASLA, sometimes I'm not sure if I'm coming or going. Crazeeeee me. So, enuff of all of that. Napoleon I said "From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step".

Buddah has been framed.....

and the art piece is not cally-whampus, it was me hanging on to a chair while I snapped the pic. I had purchased the Buddha head several weeks ago and had trouble making a choice of framing ideas, plus the piece is very heavy and needed a substantial frame. Finally on Wednesday Don (framer) called and said the frame had arrived. Today was the first day I've had a chance to run over and have the work completed. Really pleased with it and my wall is filling up. Only a few hundred more pieces and I'll be a happy camper. In the meantime, darling daughter was cleaning out her bookshelf and found a book she had in college - which she so thoughtfully sent on to her mom...The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations. so you know what that means - unlimited new quotes for the blog...btw, there are over 4,000 thought-provoking quotations from the world's most celebrated men and women. YIPEEEE! I will start in the A's - from Frances Bacon, "Natural abilities are like natural plants, that meed pruning by study." We've got a long way to go readers, so stay tuned - :-)

New CRMC friends.....

CRMC is such a busy place. Now that I have added an extra day, I'm meeting even more new and very capable people. Monday I work in the Cath Lab and on Thursdays I work in Day Surgery. Both areas are related and interact so that made going to Day Surgery on Thursdays much easier for me to jump right in. Yesterday was a very busy day and I came home bushed. In a good way though. Next week I've been asked to work a little extra time in Human Resources. That should be interesting and I'm looking forward to that. One of my friends from the hospital and a new follower of my blog, sent me a list of Aphorisms. I really liked them so they will certainly become part of my thoughts for the day, beginning now.....not necessarily attributed to anyone, I'll still use """""". "The nicest thing about the future is....that it always starts tomorrow." nice, huh? Enjoy your weekend. Stay warm if you live _______.

Ex Pats dinner......

Many years ago, having lived overseas I found out I was eligible to join Ex Pats Group. Went to the dinner meeting last night, about 30 of us, and met lots of new neighbors. Most interesting evening - so many people have lived in such far-away places and had varied careers before retiring. Looking forward to enjoying this group of very interesting people.
Today's thought was sent to me by a new friend, Valerie - source unknown but it's a good one "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass....it's about dancing in the storm."

Volunteer Me.....

and proud of it. One year of volunteering at CRMC in the Cath Lab Waiting Area and now, in addition to Mondays, I have added Thursday afternoon to volunteer in the Day Surgery Waiting Area. I feel really good about my efforts and the new friends and associates I have met at Conroe Regional. Lots of really nice people, great doctors and the devoted family and friends who sit and wait for their loved ones to complete procedures and/or surgery. "It's a good thing"....my thought for volunteer work.

looking a little pale there and no I don't need a procedure...:-)

Another new toy for me......

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a die hard Tivo fan. My Tivo and I have been together for a long time and by and far I found it was wonderful and provided me with the security of knowing tv programs that I wanted to watch while I was away from home would be recorded. Now I know that many folks have the new improved digital type boxes but I've never needed one. Last week I received a letter from my service provider informing me that as of March 15th my tv's would not work without one of their particular boxes. Soooo, the installer came out yesterday and gave me a specially equipped box to insure my tv's would continue to work well past March 15. Most of my day yesterday and today have been reading, reading and reading the instruction book and finally I've succeeded in programing my tv's and favorite shows. Not yet able to do all the functions but I'm working on it. Must admit the football game today was exceptionally bright and full screen. We'll see what tomorrow brings. From Albert Einstein, today's thought "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Fits me to a T.

Garden Gals 1/11/11

Computer was in repair today so I'm just able to do my blog from yesterday's Garden Gals last event for 2010 - our new year starts 2/1/11. We had our annual luncheon and plant exchange at Heyden's and it was well received. There were 24 lovely ladies, the food was whatever you chose and the plant giveaway, stealaway provided lots of give and take. The weather was very cold and windy, the friendship warm and friendly and we are looking forward to another great year with our group. Today's thought from Niels Bohr "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."

It's .......

one,oneone, oneone.....a/k/as 1/11/11 - how cool is that! It's brrrr out and I'm off to Garden Gals today. When I return home later my computer will be unavailable so I thought I would just do the 1/11/11 thing now....today's thought from former President Dwight D. Einsenhower "An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows." bundle up and stay warm....

Celebrating Lorena's new kitchen....

Friend Lorena got a Christmas gift of a new kitchen. She is a wonderful cook and loves to entertain so it was definitely a special gift for a special lady. Several of us were lucky enough to be included at the lunch and it was delightful. Lorena is from a very traditional Italian family. Everything was made from scratch and it was a YUM! Congrats Lorena and keep on cooking. I'll be happy to be a guest anytime. From Dorothy Parker - today's thought "Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves."

You do the math.....

After 10 years of renewing my drivers license by mail, it was finally time for a new and updated license. i.e....a new photo. OH NO! I was told by several friends that my local county DPS could take up to 6-8 hours of waiting to be renewed. I decided to drive out to Anderson, TX., about 45 minutes away from Montgomery. Cute courthouse and cute little town, population about 500. Somehow it ended up being the county seat for Grimes County. To cut to the chase, they no longer do drivers license renewals. Foiled again by Google! Next alternative was to return to Conroe, wait 6 hours and possibly have to come back tomorrow. So off I went thru Navasota, College Station and Bryan to Hearne, TX. Took the eye test, received a number and waited about 35 minutes to do the procedure for getting a renewal. Another hour back and I was home. Was it worth it, well, it was a beautiful day, I really had nothing else planned and I do love to drive and be on the country roads. You never know what exciting things you may see or be able to do. Time wise, well worth it, gasoline wise, ?

Darling daughter gave me this wonderful calendar of Quotes - this month, January, Eleanor Roosevelt "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery and today is a gift." Amen....

Gray Matter January 2011

Getting back on track, Gray Matter #1 for 2011. This article appeared in November 1982. 26,538 letters were received and 81,063 reprints were mailed out. I believe it was a good thought for the New Year and perhaps an inspiration to "stop and smell the flowers". Even if they are not the traditional "roses"...Stop anyway and enjoy the small blessings that we take for granted and walk right pass...In keeping with that thought - Robert Half reminds us "What happens when the future has come and gone?"....

1/1/11

W E L C O M E 2011 - HOW COOL IS THIS!