Cookies In Cups

An hour after my nice healthy dinner tonight I realized I needed to have dessert.  I don't have any sweets in the house, so I ate a handful of raisins thinking that might satisfy my stomach.  It didn't, and I pulled out the ingredients for cookies.

However, in the interest of portion control I made TWO (one for me and one for Hubby Tony) and cooked them in coffee cups in the microwave.  Less than five minutes later my craving for sweets was satisfied.

(Sorry, no picture. we ate them too fast!)

Chocolate Cookies in Cups for Two

1 T. butter
2 T. sugar
1/4 t. vanilla
pinch of salt
1 egg
3 T flour
1 T cocoa

Melt butter in microwave. Stir in sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add egg. Stir in flour and cocoa. Pour into two coffee cups.  Cook in microwave for 40-60 seconds. Serve warm

Five years ago today: Creative Currency

Whoopee!

My church established a new Welcoming Committee a couple of months ago.  One of my friends is on the committee, and she invited me to join. Among other projects, the group will help maintain the front page of the parish website and publicize events on a newly-installed electronic bulletin board (AKA big-screen TV) in the church vestibule. 

Earlier this month I went to a meeting to learn more about the tasks.  At first we're focusing on publicity, using the TV to show a slide show of things happening each week.  Even though the little I've learned about computer artwork came from adding images to my blog, I volunteered to quarterback the job. 

Since this was a new task for me, there was a learning curve. My first practice attempts looked great on my computer monitor but too small on the TV.  When I tried to size them up they looked skewed.  I finally figured out the correct size for the background and learned how to add text.  It's still a cumbersome process, but every time I put a graphic together I get better.

After I figured out how to produce the graphics I had to learn how to transfer them from my computer to the big screen. We bought a new TV for our house a couple of months ago; I didn't realize it was 'smart' until someone showed me where to plug the jump drive (containing the files) in and how to access the contents of the drive on the screen.  I followed the same process at church.  The first time I saw one of my slides on the TV I have to admit I was really proud of myself.

TV screen shot

Five years ago today: Kind of Blue

Cold Weather Is Good For Something

Twice a week (Monday and Thursday) I open the mall Customer Service desk.  On those days I bring my lunch with me; I get hungry before I can take a break, and as long as I have things cut into bite-sized pieces I can eat in between fielding customer questions and answering the phone.

This week the boss asked if I could change my schedule and come in early every day.  I rearranged a couple of things, then told him I could do that.  However, that meant I had to come up with manageable lunch food four days in a row.

My go-to protein is chicken breast, but I don't want that every day.  This morning I looked in the refrigerator for the package of sliced turkey Hubby Tony took  out of the freezer last night.  It wasn't in the meat drawer or on any of the shelves.  (As I was putting the finishing touches on my lunch I found it in the fruit drawer.  I'm guessing he was in a hurry to get out of the house this morning, or his coffee hadn't kicked in yet.)

The only other protein option was a carton of eggs in the refrigerator door. I decided to scramble a couple for my lunch.  They'd be messier than cubes of meat, but it would have to do.  I cooked the eggs in the microwave then cut the mass into pieces.  I now had a piping hot serving of eggs ready for my lunchbox, but there was a problem. All I had to package them in were plastic containers, and I didn't want to put the hot chunks in there.

Mother Nature came to the rescue.  My phone said the outside temperature was 1°. I dumped the eggs on a plate and set the plate outside in the garage.  Fifteen minutes later they were completely chilled and ready to go.

Five years ago today: Perfect Potion

Gung-ho About Galoshes

Saturday night Hubby Tony and I got together with some friends for a "Guys and Dolls" night; the men meet at one house to play poker, and the ladies gather at another house for companionship, dinner, and a movie on the TV.

I was the first to arrive at the Doll house, and had a chance to chat with Sally, the hostess.  She mentioned she had a new job as an Independent Sales Consultant for Grub's boots. When she showed me the section of her basement devoted to her products I could tell she was excited. Before I knew it she'd talked me into taking home an awesome pair of fuchsia-colored waterproof rubber boots.

(In case you're interested, here's Sally talking about them):



Five years ago today: Put A Shine On It

Car Wash

Most years our area has a short winter weather reprieve in mid-to late-January.  It came this weekend.  Just a few days ago it was 14°, then it started warming up.  Yesterday was 43°. Today is 58°; time to get outside, because tomorrow will be back down to 12°. 

We've had a couple of minor snow events in the past few weeks, which left my car with a thick layer of dried salt residue and road grime.  After lunch today I decided to go to a nearby do-it-yourself car wash and give my vehicle a cleaning. I wasn't the only one with that idea; when I got there every bay had two or three cars lined up.  I picked one of the lines and waited for my turn.

I use this place several times a year.  It's always been coin operated, so I have to make sure I have a pile of quarters with me to feed the machine.  Last time, though, I noticed they'd upgraded the payment stations.  Now you could pay with quarters or use a credit or debit card.

The new option was handy because Hubby Tony had just cashed in his change cup at the bank and there were no quarters to be had.  When it was my turn to use the washing bay I swiped my card and waited for the signal to start.  Using coins, you start with $2 worth of time.  It's always a challenge to guess just how long the wash is going to take and add the appropriate amount of quarters (or risk running out of time before the car is completely washed and rinsed).  Today I didn't have to keep an eye on the time meter, but I did have to remember to hit the STOP button so I didn't get charged for time I didn't use!

Five years ago today: The Writing On The Wall

Drink More Water!

Today I pampered myself and used a gift certificate for a massage I got for a Christmas present.

It's always a treat for me to get a massage.  When I called to make an appointment last week, they didn't have any appointments that suited my (somewhat limited) schedule before today.  However, the delay gave me time to anticipate how good it was going to feel when I actually got there.

This massage studio is located inside my chiropractor's office.  There are two dedicated massage rooms located just past the room I go to for my adjustments.  I arrived a couple of minutes early to fill out paperwork, then moved to a room where I undressed and laid on the table under the covers.  After a couple of minutes the masseur arrived and got started on my hour of full-body massage bliss--back, legs and feet, arms and hands, then shoulders and neck.

Before I knew it my time was up.  I took my time getting dressed and came out to the reception area to hand in my gift certificate.  The masseur handed me a bottle of water and said I should drink extra liquids today.  When I asked him why, he said that when your muscles are manipulated during a massage waste materials and other toxins are released.  The extra liquid helps flush out the toxins.

Now I know.

Five years ago today: Don't Call Us, We'll Call You

Back In Business!

It took 72 hours, three service calls, four different technicians (five if you count the one working remotely from the cable company office), and all new equipment, but our house has re-joined the digital world.

Last night I was thrilled to see the Internet access icon at the bottom of my computer monitor when I got home from work. I didn't realize until this week just how much I rely on it.  Of course I had trouble reading my emails and checking in on my bloggy friends, but the less obvious repercussions really surprised me:

• I found out the newer versions of Microsoft programs assume you're online.  Tuesday I needed some clip art for a project I'm working on. Normally it takes just a couple of minutes to find something in Word. However, without the Internet there was no gallery of pictures to choose from.  To get what I needed proved to be a laborious process of using an ethernet cable and zip drive to transfer files from a laptop to my main computer. 

• Then later in the project I had a question about the Paint program.  I tried using its 'Help' menu, only to find it had been moved online.

• My cell phone's calendar doesn't have an option for manually syncing with the Outlook I use on my main desktop computer.  Everything is done through the cloud, and I had no Cloud.

Five years ago today: Makes Scents

Four Important Words

Five years ago today: Watching Paint Dry

Offline

When I woke up this morning it figured to be a good day. For the first time in weeks it was less than completely dark when my alarm went off; I could make the bed without turning on a light. After I got out of the shower I heard birds chirping. When I got down to the kitchen there was fresh coffee made, and there were a lot of choices for breakfast.  All of this put me in a great mood.

Then I remembered we were having Information Highway issues, and my great mood vanished.

The problem started yesterday morning.  When I tried to get online after breakfast I got an error message telling me our home network wasn't available. Son Donald did some moving-around of wires and determined we could still surf the Web by going downstairs and plugging the computer directly into the ethernet cable. Mid-afternoon that stopped, too.  (We get our service through the cable company.  The TV still works.)

All day I wandered around like a lost soul.  I checked emails on my phone a couple of times. However, I have a small phone data plan because I count on using the network in the house.   There wasn't anything urgent enough to drive to a coffee shop for free WiFi, but I missed checking in on blogs and websites.

This morning, with no ability to access the Internet I finished all my To Dos quickly.  I decided to go to work early and use my laptop with their WiFi.  I put the computer in a tote bag, then added my lunchbox and some other necessities and left for the day.

Traffic was light.  I got to the mall 45 minutes before I had to clock in at the Customer Service desk and set up in an area with a hotspot.  It was SO satisfying to be able to access the Internet!  Time flew, and before I knew it I had to go to work. I had a chance to use the computer a couple of times during my shift, and at the end of the day I checked the Internet once more.  After I hit the 'Publish' button for this post I packed everything up and left the mall.

The cable company is coming out tonight. I hope they're able to fix the problem so I don't have to go through the same procedures tomorrow!

Five years ago today: Bingo!

Things Are Not Always As They Appear

Just the other day a Facebook friend invited me to befriend Pope Francis.

I never Friend anyone who I don't know personally, but in this case I thought I might make an exception, so I went to the page to see what was there.  It only took me a few seconds to notice an error in the first post, which started with “A MESSAGE FROM THE ALTER IN ROME THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT”.   I'm pretty sure the Pope would know the difference between alter (which means to change) and altar (the table in a church where religious ceremonies are carried out).

After that bad sign I was suspicious, and started doing some research.  I found that there were TEN pages using Pope Francis's name, none of which had an 'official' designation.  My target page was just created on January 10th of this year.

 Needless to say, I won't be adding this Pope Francis to my Friends list.

I wanted to let the person who recommended the page know what I'd found out, and decided the least embarrasing way would be to send her a personal message.  It was really hard to compose something that didn't sound know-it-all, but I eventually found the right words and sent the message on its way. Never got a response back, but that's OK.

Five years ago today: I Kicked My Science Teacher In Line At The Bank Because I’m NOT Crazy