Tuesday Archive Link Up

Kenya Johnson, whose blog is one of many that show up in my Reader, is one of the co-hosts of  the Tuesday Archive Link Up (TALU).  The idea is to pick an old post from your blog archives to share with a community of other writers doing the same thing

After reading Kenya's Tuesday posts for many weeks, I decided it would be nice to link up. It looked like there were a couple of dozen other bloggers, who were billed as a "mature group who leave meaningful comments".

My first TALU--I Have A Lot Of Friends At Work. I Just Don't Know Their Names. (I can't believe it's been a whole year since I wrote this!)

Now that I'm linked up I get to go off and discover new blogs among my fellow linkees.  Who knows, some of them may become my new favorites!

Five years ago today: New Thing #110-Do You Want to Know a Secret?

Voluminous Vegetables

Hubby Tony and I attended a potluck luncheon today.  After giving my contribution a lot of though, I decided to bring vegetables and dip.

Yesterday I went to the produce market and left with a bag of baby carrots, packages of cherry tomatoes and broccoli, a cucumber, a large red pepper, and a few handfuls of fresh green beans. When I got home I blanched the green beans and broccoli, then seeded the pepper and sliced it into sticks and cut the cucumber on the diagonal.  Everything went into the refrigerator until today.

When I went to arrange the vegetables I realized I didn't have anything large enough to hold the amount I bought.  The best I could do was an aluminum pan. I knew this would be a pretty informal event, though, so I wasn't too concerned. After I set a plastic deli container in the center of the pan to hold ranch dressing I arranged the vegetables around it.

I think it turned out nice, don't you?

Five years ago today: New Thing #108--Fun With Styrofoam

The Coffee Forecast

There's always something new to learn! According to the Farmer's Almanac, your coffee cup can help you predict the weather:

If the bubbles of coffee collect in the center of your cup, you can expect fair weather. If they adhere to the cup, forming a ring, you should expect rain. If they separate without assuming any fixed pattern, changeable weather should be on its way.

I don't think I'd ever noticed bubbles in my coffee cup, but when I read about it I started looking for them.  Sure enough,  there they were!  On  inclement days the bubbles headed for the sides of the cup, but on the nice days they did stay in the middle

So, the coffee barometer worked.  But why?  I found the answer in a video on one of our local channel's Websites.  The bubble's movement is caused by changes in humidity and air pressure.

fox2now.com

Five years ago today: New thing #107--The Sound of Silence

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

Pepper the cat likes to sleep on our bed at night (but his brother Jackson prefers to disappear). Within ten minutes of Hubby Tony and I getting in bed Pepper jumps up with us and settles in. His traditional spot is next to Tony's legs, but for the past few weeks he's been changing it up and coming over to see me.

 I love it when Pepper lays on my lap when I'm sitting on the couch.  In bed not so much.  He tries to get as close as possible, often draping his body over my legs.  I already wake up a couple of times each night with hot flashes, and the cat just makes it worse--his body is like a little portable heater!  I don't want him there, and if I'm still awake I'll kick him off.  Eventually he gives up and goes away.

Tony left for a retreat yesterday.  He'll return on Sunday. While he's gone I get to be Pepper's nighttime BFF.

Shortly after I climbed into bed last night Pepper climbed onto my lower legs. He was purring so loudly I could hear it.  I went through the standard kicking off routine, but I knew it was useless.  When Pepper plopped down right next to my lower legs I tried moving them slightly, but he scooted over to close the gap.  I figured that was the best I was going to get, and rearranged the covers so my feet were sticking out.  That cooled me off enough to go to sleep.

I woke up ninety minutes later in a puddle of sweat.  Pepper had moved and was stretched out along my torso.  I know I should have felt honored; according to the experts snuggling is a sign he likes me, but this was too much!  I got up and went to the bathroom; the cat followed me.  When I climbed back into bed the spot where he'd been laying was still annoyingly warm.

Surprisingly, Pepper didn't follow me back to bed and I quickly fell back asleep.  Two hours later I woke up again to find the feline heating pad curled up in the crook of my legs.  I moved my legs so I was lying diagonally across the bed and went back to sleep.

Tony gets up much earlier than I do and feeds the cats. This morning they harassed me until I got out of bed and gave them food at their normal time.  I managed to complete the job without completely waking up, then fell back into bed.  When my alarm went off I wasn't surprised to find out that Pepper was once again snuggled up next to me.

I suspect I'll have the same issues for the next two nights.

Five years ago today: New Thing #106--Being of Service

Unknown Familiar

I was listening to the radio this morning when a song came on I'd never heard before. The singer sounded familiar, though, and the tune reminded me of something else. Several minutes into the song it segued into something I HAD heard--and you may have, too.  The first song was "God is Love"; the second was "Mercy Mercy Me". The singer was Marvin Gaye.

God is Love/Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) Marvin Gaye

Oh don't go and talk about my father
God is my friend
Jesus is my friend
He made this world for us to live in, and gave us everything
And all he asks of us is we give each other love.
Oh ya
Don't go and talk about my father
Cause God is my friend
Jesus is my friend
He loves us whether or not we know it
Just loves us, oh ya
And He'll forgive all our sins
Forgive all our sins
And all He asks of us, is we give each other love.
Oh ya
Love your mother, she bore you
Love your father, he works for you
Love your sister, she's good to you
Love your brother, your brother
Don't go and talk about my father, He's good to us,
God is my friend
Jesus is my friend
For when we call in Him for mercy, Mercy Father
He'll be merciful, my friend
Oh, yes He will
All he asks of us, I know, is we give each other love,
Oh ya 

Woo ah, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east
Woo mercy, mercy me, mercy father
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas, fish full of mercury
Ah oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land
How much more abuse from man can she stand?
Oh, na na...
My sweet Lord... No
My Lord... My sweet Lord

Five years ago today: New Thing #104--Chapstick Crazy

Shared Responsibility

About a month ago all the St. Louis Bread Company cafes introduced a new concept--the "Meal of Shared Responsibility".  When you order their turkey chili in a sourdough bread bowl there's no set price; you decide how much you want to pay for it.  If you're feeling flush or want to do a good deed you pay more.  If you're hungry and have no money, you can still eat.

This isn't the company's first attempt at no-price menus.  There are several Panera Cares (Bread Company is known as Panera everywhere else) cafes throughout the country, where everything is "pay what you want".  One of them is in a suburb of St. Louis; it's not particularly convenient to me and I've never been there. But there are over 100 Bread Company locations, which makes it easy for everyone who wants to participate.  Tonight I did.

Hubby Tony wasn't going to be home for dinner, so after work I took a walk and ran a couple of errands before I stopped by the Bread Company a couple of miles from my house.  When I placed my order, instead of telling my how much my bill was the associate asked my how much I wanted to pay.  The suggested price is $5.89.  When I checked my wallet I had plenty of money, so I gave her a little more than that.

Just like any of the Panera lunch and dinner items, this meal comes with a side-a piece of baguette, a bag of chips, or an apple.  I chose the apple, and asked for my food to go.  If I'd eaten in the cafe, the kitchen would have poured my chili directly into a small hollowed out loaf of bread. For carryout, they wrapped the bread in paper, put the chili into a container with a lid, and slid everything into a bag. I opened the container, found the spoon in the bag, and took my first bite of chili.

YUM-O!  The chili had chunks of ground turkey and three kinds of beans (garbanzo, kidney, and edamame).  I also saw pieces of tomatoes, carrots, corn, and onions.  I tore pieces of bread off the bowl and dunked them in the savory chili sauce.  The bowl was more bread than I normally consume, so I told myself I was only going to eat part of it, but when I was done there was nothing left but crumbs.  I was full, so I saved the apple for tomorrow.

According to the company, the 850-calorie meal  is very healthy.  It contains 56 percent of the recommended daily value of fiber and 34 percent of recommended daily protein.  If this was the only food someone was going to eat in a day they'd be getting a good portion of their daily nutrition.

Five years ago today: New Thing #102-- No Idolatry

How Heavy Is Your Glass?

I received this in an email from a friend:

A young lady explaining stress management to an audience confidently walked around the room with a raised glass of water.  Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question...'Half empty or half full?'  However, she surprised everyone by inquiring, "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 8 ounces to 20 ounces.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't really matter.  It depends on how long I hold it.  If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.  If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm.  If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.  In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."  She continued, "and that's the way it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.  When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden - holding our stresses longer and better.  So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night.  Relax, then pick them up later after you've rested.

Life is short. Enjoy it.

Five years ago today: New Thing #101-- Say Cheese!

No Grow

Several weeks ago when I was killing time on Pinterest I learned you could regrow green onions from the stem ends. I pinned the information, thinking it would be an interesting project to try. The opportunity recently presented itself, when my co-op purchase included three bunches of green onions.

The directions for regrowing onions looked easy. You save the roots, along with a couple of inches of the white bulb, and place them in a glass with water. In a couple of days the green stalks should start growing back, and in about a week you'll be able to use them again.

The next night I used the first bunch of green onions. Instead of throwing the bottoms in the stock bag I keep in the freezer I put them in a small glass jar, filled it with water, and set the jar on the counter top   It was hard to keep the onions standing upright, but I figured it would be easier when they sprouted.  The next day it looked like the outer layer of each onion was starting to get a little higher at the top and I got excited.  This project was going to be easy!

However, that initial spurt was it.  A couple of days later I used more onions, added the bottoms to the jar, and waited.  Nothing happened, except I started to smell a stinky-onion odor (even though I changed the water daily).  I checked the jar.  Most of the onion stems were slimy. I threw them in the compost pile.

There were four that survived, but they did NOT thrive. Each sent up one anemic shoot.  A Google search for "green onions in water" had millions of results. I only went through the first few pages, but all of the writers of those posts had success growing their green onions in water. I started to feel like a failure.

Since I wasn't having any luck regrowing the onions in water I decided to take the project in another direction.  I also read you can put green onion ends in dirt and they'll regenerate. Today I got a small pot, filled it with topsoil, and stuck the sickly onion shoots in.  I wonder if I'll have any better luck now?

Five years ago today: New thing #99--It's Meez!

(Almost) Normal

I was working at the mall Customer Service desk today when one of the salespeople ran out from the store across the corridor and yelled at me to call Security; someone was having a heart attack in the back of the store.

I hurried to the phone as quickly as I could and made the call. Somehow they'd already heard about it, and said an officer was on the way. Before the officer could arrive, someone ran past me and got the defibrillator that hangs on the wall a few stores down so they could do CPR.  One minute later the security officer arrived carrying a large first aid bag, followed shortly by one of his co-workers and a supervisor.  A pair of police officers trotted up to the site.  Five minutes later the EMSs showed up pushing a stretcher.  Each of them disappeared into the bowels of the store.

Two sales associates stood outside by the store's door talking to each other with worried looks on their faces.  Other than that, there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary happening.  Shoppers strolled by, oblivious to the drama that was taking place inside the store.   It reminded me of the poem Musee des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden (which refers to Pieter Breughel's painting The Fall of Icarus).  In the poem people go about their business, unaware that a boy was falling out of the sky.

I observed the excitement for several minutes, then the phone rang and someone stopped at the desk with a question. The EMS left with the patient, and then the rest of the responders slowly ambled out, looking like they were ready to resume their normal business.

Pieter Brueghel, The Fall of Icarus

Musee des Beaux Arts (W. H. Auden)

About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Five years ago today: New Thing #97--The Color Purple

In Honor Of Tax Day...

Rhymes With Orange

Five years ago today: New Thing #95--"That Guy"

Saucy

Hubby Tony and I had an almost-full house this weekend.  Son Brian and Daughter-In-Law Nicole came into town for a sporting event, and Son Donald was here, too.  (The only person missing was Son Tony.  We missed him.)

This morning after breakfast everyone went their separate ways, and we converged back at the house in time for lunch, which was carryout Chinese.  Brian went to pick it up, and came into the house carrying a large brown paper bag.  We took out the containers holding the entrees and the soups; after they were distributed there was a layer of sauce packets laying on the bottom of the bag.

For five people the clerk had given us more than 30 packets of soy and sweet and sour sauce!

I don't really have a use for the sweet and sour sauce, except for eating it on crab rangoon (any ideas?), but I cook with soy sauce pretty regularly.  Today's stash went into a Tupperware container in the refrigerator door that holds a variety of condiments.  Next time I run out of soy sauce I'll just open all the little packets and dump them into the bottle.  That will probably be enough for several weeks.

Five years ago today: New Thing #94--Portside Mousing

Doing A Good Deed From The Comfort Of My Couch

Years ago I set up an account with e-Rewards, an online survey company. Every few days I get an email from them telling me a survey opportunity is available. After I complete the survey, I get "paid" in e-money that I can redeem for rewards. When I started doing their surveys one reward option was certificates from a Big Box Bookstore. That ended, though, and now the vast majority of rewards are airline or hotel points, along with vouchers for online retailers and subscriptions to magazines I'm not interested in.

If I'm busy I don't bother opening the survey emails, and in half of those I participate in my survey answers don't meet the criteria to qualify.  Despite that, though, I'd built up a nice account balance.  When I got an email from the company telling me the'd set up a partnership with a microloan organization and I could redeem my money towards a loan I was very interested.

Kiva Microfunds (AKA Kiva.org) allows people to lend money via the Internet to people in developing countries.  It was founded in 2005, and is the first and largest microlender on the Internet..  The charity evaluator Charity Navigator has given Kiva its highest 4-star rating.

The normal Kiva process (if I was using my own money), is to pick a specific borrower and read the details of their story before I made a loan.  But because I was letting e-Rewards front the money, the only choice I had was the section of the world the money would go to (but they wouldn't guarantee it would go there; if there weren't loans in that area, they reserved the right to send it to another region).

There were several levels of Kiva giving available. For a $40 investment of "currency" I was able to subsidize a $100 loan.  Ten minutes after I clicked to redeem, I received an email thanking me for my donation.  It said, in part, "With help from Members like you, e-Rewards is empowering people and creating opportunity around the world."

Since I've made my donation I've gotten a couple more survey emails.  I've taken them more seriously; I can't wait to make another donation!

Five years ago today: New Thing #92--Organize Me!

Hooray For Me! (Redux)

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 was a milestone day for me, when I reached the 1,000 blog post mark.

On that day, though, I had to count the writing I did at two different places. Today THIS blog reached the 1,000 post milestone...

and I don't plan on stopping any time soon.


Five years ago today: New Thing #91--Water, Water Everywhere (But Not Bottled!)

Thanks, I'm Just Doing My Job

Today a 40-something man and his daughter (who looked to be 4 or 5) stopped by the mall Customer Service desk. They were on their way to this afternoon's Cardinals baseball game, but before he could get into the stadium he needed to print the tickets his friend had bought online. He’d already tried at the Cardinal store in the mall, but they couldn't help him. Was there any place that could?

Our desk has an all-in-one machine that prints, faxes, and copies, and we offer to do all of them for customers. When I told him that he asked if he could pay me for my effort or get me a soda from the food court (the answer was ‘no’-we don’t accept money or tips to do our job).  

The mall has attached the computer monitor to the desk with a thick metal cord.  It's difficult to turn it around for customers to see, so with the man's permission I pulled up the ticket website, then entered his friend’s email and password. Together we figured out where to click to retrieve the tickets; I printed them out and handed them over.

The whole time the man was bubbling over with excitement; he kept telling his daughter they were going to have "the best day ever" thanks to my help. When I got done he looked at my nametag and told his daughter that Miss Kathy had been so nice printing the tickets for them--would she give me a thank you hug? I came out from behind the desk, but the girl slid behind her dad's legs and hid there. The man then asked if HE could give me a hug of thanks. It felt a little weird, but I sensed he was being sincere, so I let him.

One quick hug later, they were on their way.

Five years ago today: New Thing #90--Mahjong Madness

Baseball Is Back! 2013

St. Louis takes its baseball very seriously and today's Cardinals home opener was no exception. Opening Day parties started at nine in the morning with a downtown rally sponsored by a local radio station. Another station broadcast from a tent several blocks away.  The Official Opening Day Pep Rally took place right outside the stadium, and a couple of other media outlets hosted events at downtown restaurants.

I'm just a casual baseball fan, but I enjoy the pageantry of the home opener ceremony, which lasts 45 minutes.  It starts with the Budweiser Clydesdales making a circuit around the outfield warning track, followed by the Hall-of-Fame players wearing red blazers and riding in convertibles, then the players in pickup trucks. This year there will be a special tribute to Hall-of-Famer Stan Musial, who passed away in January at the age of 92. Both the home and visiting team (the Cincinnati Reds) will be introduced, the National Anthem played, and the ceremonial first pitch thrown before the start of the game.

Busch Stadium has almost 44,000 seats. Add a couple of thousand standing room only tickets and the capacity is closer to 47,000. Every one of those tickets is gone; the only way you can get into the stadium at the last minute is to know someone or buy tickets on the secondary market.

I had to wear my company-prescribed uniform of white shirt and black pants to work this morning, but in honor of the day I added Cardinal earrings. There were quite a few people walking through the mall wearing team gear.  My shift at the Customer Service desk ended at 3, and I listened to the last of the pregame show on the radio as I drove home.  Hubby Tony was already there; he had the TV turned on and was DVRing the whole thing.

Unfortunately the game didn't live up to the ceremony hoopla. The Cardinals gave up nine runs in the ninth inning and lost 13-4.

Five years ago today: New Thing #88--New Territory

One Of The Mysteries Of The Universe

Yesterday was a spring cleaning day at Casa Kathy.  I took the blinds down from the bedroom windows, washed them in the bathtub, and re-hung them.  I removed the flannel sheets from the beds and replaced them with cotton ones.  After lunch, I changed the duvet cover (along with its shams and bed skirt) in the master bedroom and switched out the artwork and accessories.

All the bulky winter-weight fabric led to lots of extra laundry.  The washer and dryer were going for hours.  Every time a load would finish in the dryer a clean one was waiting to replace it. The last load I did before I sat down for a well-earned rest was the duvet cover and shams.  When I moved the load from the washer to the dryer I made sure the cover was completely right side out and not tangled up. I used the dryer's automatic setting, and when the load was finished I didn't bother to take the things out.

This morning before breakfast I washed a load of clothes. When they were done I opened the dryer and was momentarily surprised there was something in there, but quickly remembered what it was. As usually happens with large items, the load was tangled up into a wad (which meant it probably wasn't completely dry in the middle). As I unwound it to check I realized the duvet cover had completely turned itself inside out!

I've seen short-sleeved shirts reverse themselves in the laundry, but this duvet cover and shams aren't lightweight.  They're made out of heavyweight decorator cotton material and together weigh about 8 pounds; the cover is more than 7 feet long on each side. I have no idea how the inversion came to pass, but I wish my dryer had a video camera so I could observe the process.

Five years ago today: New Thing #87--Driving on the Information Superhighway

Starting From Seed

This year I decided I was going try to grow some vegetables from seed. I went to the store, looked at their selection, and bought two--spinach, which is a cool weather plant I could do right away, and Swiss chard for the warmer weather. Driving home I envisioned delicious bowls of greens freshly-picked from my patch in the back yard.

In this area, spinach seeds can be planted outside right after the first frost, which should be in mid-March. However, this year the cold weather wouldn't go away; on the first day of spring the temperature barely made it to freezing, and a little over a week later we had a foot of snow on the ground. Since Mother Nature wasn't cooperating I decided to start the seeds inside.

I started with a cardboard pulp egg carton. First I cut off the lid, then filled the cups almost to the top with potting soil, added three spinach seeds to each cup, and covered the seeds with a light layer of soil. I placed the bottom of the carton into the lid (which acted as a support) and watered the soil until the cardboard was soggy. Next, I set the carton on a baking sheet and slid the whole thing into a plastic bag to create a "greenhouse".  The makeshift greenhouse went on the east-facing window seat in the kitchen.

According to the packet, I could expect the seeds to germinate in 8-10 days. However, at the end of that period I only had two straggly sprouts, but since the weather still wasn't cooperating and it was too cold to plant things outside I took the plastic bag off and waited a couple more days. The extra time allowed a few more seeds to develop, so half the cups contained seedlings.

This week the nighttime temperatures finally rose above freezing; it was time to plant outside!

This afternoon I turned a section of the garden soil over, then cut the egg carton cups apart and planted them (even the empty ones--I'm quite the optimist) directly into the ground and watered the area well. The cardboard is biodegradable and should quickly fall apart. I hope it works. The packet of seeds was $1.35, though, so if it doesn't at least I'm not out a lot of money.

Five years ago today: New Thing #85--For The Birds

No Name

When I first started blogging I didn't get any comments.  Within a couple of months I had a handful, mostly from friends or people I'd linked to that came by to return the favor. Fast forward five years.  Now most of my posts have comments displayed.  They also have quite a few spam comments that never see the light of day.

It's an annoying process to get rid of the spam. I have all blog comments sent to my email.  The Anonymous comments go to the Trash folder; when I see them it prompts me to check my Blogger account, where the junk comments end up in the Spam section. I review them to make sure nothing important accidently ended up there, then delete it.

Every spam comment starts off with some sentences praising what I've written, and end up with a link to a site irrelevant to my topic. I understand they're generated so their website links appear and increase their rankings in search engine results.  They're just doing a job. It's still annoying.

I decided to have a little fun with the spammers. Instead of just deleting the comment spam I decided to pick out the cream of the crop from the past few days and share it with you--including the atrocious grammar and typos (in purple italic), along with my reaction (in normal color and font).  Enjoy!

"I'm really impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it's rare to see a nice blοg like this one nowаԁауs."

I bet you say that to all the bloggers you leave anonymous comments with!

"Excellent way of telling, and pleasant paragraph to get data about my presentation focus, which i am going to present in institution of higher education."

You're going to use MY words in a presentation?  Thanks.

"I used to be able to find good advice from your articles."

What? I didn't realize I'd stopped!

"Very quickly this site wіll bе famous among all blogging and site-building visitors, due tо іt's fastidious articles"

Wow!

"I have to thank yοu for the effогts you have put in wгiting this site.  I'm hoping to check out the same high-grade blog posts from you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own site now ;)"

I wanted to check out this person's site, but was afraid to encourage them.

"Hi, i belіeѵe that i notiсed уou νiѕiteԁ my blog so i came tο go back thе fаvοг?"

Um...no I didn't.

"magnificent post, very informative. I wonder why the other experts of this sector do not notice this. You must continue your writing. I'm confident, you have a huge readers' base already!"

I didn't realize I was an expert in a sector!  Why didn't someone tell me?


Five years ago today: New Thing #83--Think You're So Smart?

April Fools'

Today is April Fools' Day, but (sadly) I didn't participate in any of the normal silliness.  It was slow today at the mall Customer Service desk; I didn't talk with any of the regular mall walkers, and didn't feel comfortable" tricking" any of the customers that came up to ask me a question.

I didn't hear anything on the radio, or see anything on TV. I'm sure there were pranks played online, but I wasn't privy to them.

After work I needed to get a couple of things from the drug store.  It would have been easy to stop on my way home, but I decided to combine the errand with some exercise and walk to a nearby Walgreens.  After I got home and said hello to the cats I changed into a pair of jeans and laced up my tennis shoes, then hit the road.

I left my subdivision, strolled through the adjoining one, then crossed the street and entered a third.  As I sauntered along, I listened to the birds chirp and enjoyed the bright blue sky.  I watched a couple of squirrels scamper up a tree, and I marveled at the change in the weather from a week ago.  Last Monday we had a foot of snow on the ground, and this week spring bulbs are blooming and the trees are getting ready to do the same.

When I turned a corner and saw large splashes of yellow in a yard I assumed it was another patch of daffodils. However, when I got closer I realized the homeowner had "planted" some silk sunflowers amid the emerging tulip leaves.  I don't know if it was an intentional April Fool's joke, but those blooms weren't there the last time I walked that way...

Five years ago today: New Thing #81--The Joke's on You