Chandler Bing
Lovers of the television show Friends will likely remember the episode where Chandler Bing’s fire alarm went off and he was unable to stop it from beeping. Even when he threw it away, it ended up again in his apartment, thanks to the help of a friendly fire fighter. Yesterday, Jen and I felt like we were Chandler Bing. We were sitting in our living room, enjoying coffee with Bec, who had come to visit. Suddenly, for the first time in the 10 years that we have owned the house, the fire alarm went off. And before you could say only you can prevent forest fires, every fire alarm in our house was beeping. We live in quite a small house, and there are a total of five fire alarms within our confines. All beeping. To make matters worse, Bill wasn’t there to help us. We managed to unhook each of the alarms except for the one in Bill and my bedroom, as it is a vaulted ceiling and there wasn’t a chance in hell that we could reach it, even on the step ladder. I frantically called Bill, who was on his way home, but had stopped to shop at an auto place. “Get home right now,” I screamed. “All of our fire alarms are going off.” He flew home, and between all of us, we managed to unhook each alarm. Later in the afternoon, Bill and I put new batteries in all of the alarms. Even then, in Chandler Bing-like fashion, one continued to beep until Bill completely took it apart.

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee
Bill was dressed to kill (or at least to box) the other day when he went to his Rock Steady Boxing class. He is so happy to be back in Mesa, where the boxing class is available. The director told me they had been shut down, but their attorney argued that they weren’t an exercise facility, but instead were a medical facility. Amen to that truth! They won their argument, and the men and women with Parkinson’s are once again working the bags in this oh-so-beneficial activity. Bill’s friend calls him Mohammed McLain…..

One Man’s Treasures
I haven’t heard of an actual orphanage since reading Charles Dickens in high school. But there is an orphanage not too far from where we live in AZ, called Sunshine Acres. They call it a children’s home, and it has been a home to some 2,000 children since it was established in 1954. A worthy cause worth supporting. One of their money-making activities is resale of donated items. We had a large number of items to give away, so Jen called for a pick-up. They came and gratefully took all of our stuff. I hope they sell all of it for a lot of money…..

Quality Control
On Thanksgiving, the job of whipping the cream went to Mackenzie. As anyone who has whipped heavy cream knows, it can go quickly or it can take awhile. It depends on lots of things. Thanksgiving evening, it took awhile. But it didn’t matter, because Mackenzie had company. Four eyes watched patiently as she whipped the cream, undoubtedly hoping they got a chance to lick the beaters…..

Ciao!