Vindication
My mother was a bit on the cautious side. That is not a criticism, because I am exactly like her, and proud of it! She taught me many cautionary lessons, but the one that perhaps sticks in my mind the most is her rule that one should never put on or remove the beater of a mixer when it is plugged in. The chance of mangled fingers is waaaay to high. As a result of hearing her say this over and over, I have never — not once — removed or placed a beater on a plugged-in mixer. I have also been known to yell at Tricia Yearwood or Ree Drummond (on the television, of course) that they should be unplugging the mixer before they remove the attachment. They don’t listen. The other day, I had my Kitchen Aid mixer out to make a carrot cake. It was the first time out since we arrived. I put on the attachment, and then plugged in the mixer. It turned on immediately because evidently the power switch had been turned on. Had it not been unplugged, I wouldn’t be typing this blog because my fingers would most assuredly be mangled. Ha! Vindication for my mother. And a caution to you all.

When the Cat’s Away
Bill has been out of town for a couple of days, having to go back to Denver for a doctor’s appointment. Though he doesn’t sat much, he simply can’t understand how I can sit and binge watch a television program. Over the summer, I binged seven seasons of The Closer. He would walk in the room and shake his head. While he was gone, I binged all the episodes of The Innocent Man on Netflix, a program Bill would have hated. I went from one episode to the next, until I thought my head would explode. But it was AWESOME to be able to watch a program like that without feeling rather than seeing someone’s eyes roll. If you’re into true crime, I recommend it.

One Checked Off
One of the good things about watching The Innocent Man is that now I can cancel my hold for the book by John Grisham upon which the television series is based. It is the author’s first foray into nonfiction, and I have had it on hold at the library for a while. Normally I would prefer a book over a screen, but I am so backed up on library e-books right now that being able to remove one from my holds is a relief.

Hold Still
In Bill’s absence, my brother Dave came over to my house and cooked carne asada on the grill for me. His daughter Kacy joined us, along with her four kids — Kelsie, Lexie, Jenna, and Ava. Before they left for the evening, I managed to get them to hold still long enough to shoot a photo…..

Ciao!

A blogger whom I follow made an interesting New Year’s resolution, and challenged her readers to consider doing likewise. Her resolution? Going to the grocery store only once a week.

For years, I — along with every other parent who had a full-time paying job — faithfully shopped only once a week, generally on Saturday. When I was first retired, it took a bit of time before I could convince myself that I no longer had to shop with the masses; I could shop on, say, Thursday afternoon or Tuesday morning. I had few obligations to inhibit shopping choices.

And yet still, for the most part, I shopped once a week. I chose Monday morning as my self-designated shopping day. Soon I figured out that Monday morning was not a good choice, since the shelves were empty from all of those working stiffs who had shopped on Sunday. It also seems that grocery store management apparently is no longer willing to pay for a night stocking crew. So I spent a significant amount of time dodging stocking pallets while the crew stocked shelves between customers’ legs.

I think it was after we bought our home here in AZ that shopping every day slowly became my normal. There is a Basha’s grocery store about a three minute walk from my house. So while I would generally still make a grocery list and buy my big items at the local Kroger store or perhaps Costco or Walmart, it seems like I would forget something or other, and find myself walking to Basha’s.

Before I really paid attention to what was happening, I found that I was shopping on a daily basis — both in AZ and in Denver. Tsk tsk. I know that is killer on the budget. That’s why the above-mentioned blogger is challenging herself to only shop once a week.

When Bill and I traveled in Europe for those three months in 2008, I noticed that Italian women generally go to the market every day for their groceries. They walked to the closest markets pulling a grocery cart, which I came to call a nonna cart. At the meat market, they picked out a chicken or some sausage. At the vegetable market, they looked at all of the vegetables and decided which looked good to them. No squeezing was necessary because if the vegetables weren’t ready to be eaten, they wouldn’t be in the market. Believe me, I know this because I — being an American — was a guilty vegetable squeezer. I got the evil eye from many Italian women because of this practice. Next they marched to the bakery to choose bread and a sweet treat.

While admittedly, we ate the majority of our meals at restaurants for those three months, I did cook meals when I could. I recall one trip to a market in the small Italian hill town of Roccatederighi in Tuscany…..

Roccatederighi

With a population of about 850, Bill and I couldn’t hide the fact that we were tourists. My Mickey Mouse baseball cap and Bill’s All My Exes Live in Texas t-shirt hinted that we were Americans. (Just kidding, but only barely.)

I decided I wanted to make dinner for us that evening, as it was a drizzly day. The communication between the local grocery market owner and me was a sight to behold. I remember asking her for olive oil, basil, tomatoes, and spaghetti in Italian (olio d’oliva, basilico, pomodori, and spaghetti), and her looking at me like I had two heads. I guess my Italian wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped. But we were able to work it out via my dictionary and lots of hand gestures, and I went home with the correct ingredients.

I digress, I know. But I have sort of modeled my grocery shopping behaviors after those nonnas that I saw in Italy, down to even buying and using my own nonna cart…..

So, while I gave the blogger’s challenge some consideration, I don’t plan on limiting my shopping to one day a week, though hats off to those who do. Instead, I will lose weight, eat healthy, and get more organized.

Yeah, right.

I have long since come to grips with the fact that television commercials aren’t directed at Baby Boomers. This, despite the fact that there are a hell of a lot of us out here, and we have a fair amount of disposable income. Many of us no longer have house payments, our grocery bills are significantly less than those of our children, and our clothing budget is more affordable because velour pantsuits don’t cost that much.

Having said that, it still flummoxes me that so many commercials totally escape me. Not only that, but so many of them take an annoyingly long time to even tell you what product they’re pushing. For example, there is a commercial that seemingly runs 20 times an hour, and every single time it catches my eye and ear. It is a lively commercial featuring hundreds of people wearing brightly-colored jumpsuits running together. Running running running. There is a catchy tune playing in the background. It isn’t until the very last few seconds — a full 60 seconds since those very in-shape people started running — that you learn that the commercial is for the new Apple iPhone. Why the people are running is never disclosed.

The problem is that I never remember what company has paid millions to run that commercial. Each time it plays, the tune catches my ear, but being a Baby Boomer, I can’t ever remember what’s being advertised. I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast this morning. But as a person who spent years in a marketing-related position, it goes against everything I was taught. Get your name right up front, I learned. Your audience might give up if you wait too long.

I am reminded how often I can remember a commercial, but can’t remember the product. If it’s funny, I can usually count on it being a Geico commercial. (Speaking of Geico, isn’t it fun that they are running their old commercials? I forgot that Geico commercials were funny even before the lizard — er, gecko — became the star.)

I don’t think marketing folks give Baby Boomers enough credit. Those of us who forget which is the accelerator and which is the brake are not representative of the majority. Baby Boomers are gamers. Despite our inevitable aches and pains, we don’t give up. When our hips or knees fail, we just replace them. That’s why God invented Medicare.

I believe I have mentioned that Bill gave me a new computer for my birthday. Last week, I went to Best Buy and purchased the newest version of Microsoft Word. Despite the salesman assuring us that downloading it was a breeze — couldn’t be easier — a few hours later we were visiting Best Buy’s Geek Squad. As we waited for our technician with the assuredly non-Baby Boomer name of Stacy to become available, I took the opportunity to glance around at the others also waiting. Down to the very last person, we were Baby Boomers. I kid you not.

We grew up with typewriters that dinged when you came to the end of the line, signifying that it was time to manually move the roller. Our first television experiences were with black and white screens that were about a foot by a foot in a counsel that was bigger than a ’57 Chevy. We were stupified by transistor radios.

But see above. We are gamers. We are not about to let the fact that our new computers have touch screens and more memory than I even comprehend stop us. (Seriously, my new computer’s hard drive has a terabyte of memory, a word I was convinced Bill made up.) So while we have no idea how our computers work, we do know the way to get to Geek Squad.

We may not know why those folks are running, but we are the champions……of the world! Here are two really nice Baby Boomers…..

See how high-tech my telephone looks.

This post linked to the GRAND Social

Happy New Year
I was filling out some medical forms yesterday morning, and they provided me with my first opportunity to correctly note the year as 2019. I am happy to say that I nailed it every time. I have strong recollections of taking about a month to get the correct year back in the days when we wrote checks. Now I rarely even have to sign my name to anything. When Bill’s nurse visited yesterday, she told me I have great hope for a wonderful 2019, and I couldn’t agree more.

Sock Hop
I had heard through the grapevine that Court has taken to wearing crazy socks. I almost didn’t believe it because he is soooo not the type to wear crazy socks. And yet, on Christmas Day, he proudly showed me this…..

Seeings as A Christmas Story is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and the “Pink Nightmare” scene is among my favorite scenes, I couldn’t have been prouder!

Suck It In
There is nothing more humbling than trying on old clothes. Bill’s kids somehow got ahold of his college fraternity jacket. With great glee, they convinced him to try it on. That was 50 years ago, people!…..

Heck, we were happy that he was able to wear his McLain plaids to Christmas Eve services…..

Smile: You’re on Candid Camera
It’s hard to get a serious photo these days. Here are a couple of photos that were taken over the holidays. The first is the gathering of all of our grandkids, and the second is the gathering of many of my great nieces and great nephews at Bec’s New Year’s party…..

Everyone’s a comedian.

Early Celebration
For years, Bec, Jen, Bill, and I have eaten a noon meal on New Year’s Eve Day at Houston’s Restaurant in Scottsdale. That way we are home before things get crazy. This year was no exception…..
Food’s On
I’ll leave you with a scattering of evidence of some of the yummy things I ate over the past few days…..

Ciao!

The year of the Lord 2018 went by in the blink of an eye, as they all seem to do as we get older. It was fun to go back and look at my blog for the past year, as I had forgotten all about a lot of the fun things we did. That’s one of the few good things about getting old: every day is a new day!

January
Shortly after our annual January 1 gathering at Bec’s, she, Bill and I headed off to Sin City: Las Vegas. The highlight of the trip was watching Bec’s daughter Kate (Jojo Diggs) perform as one of the Jabbawockeez dance troop…..

February
This month is always highlighted by Bec’s annual Mardis Gras party…..

Since food is often part of our winter activities, I was very excited to learn how to make summer sausage in February from our AZ neighbors, the Harpers…..

March
Unfortunately, my March highlight (or lowlight) was a trip to the hospital for a bowel obstruction. Don’t I know how to have fun? Bill and I also took a ride out to Saguaro Lake to look for the wild horses. This was as close as we came to spotting them…..

April
We entertained some of our family for Easter…..

May
We came home from AZ to spend the summer and fall in Denver. Our first activity was the celebration of Cole’s birthday…..

Maggie Faith celebrated her birthday shortly after. It wasn’t too long before the McLains boarded their RV and left for their three-month trip to the western part of the United States.

June
Jen and I put on our cowgirl boots and headed off to Pawhuska, OK, where we visited All Things Pioneer Woman…..

July
July was a busy month. Bill and I took the train from Denver to San Francisco, where we met up with the McLains on the Road…..

Jen and Bill and I spent an evening listening to Keith Urban in what was an incredible concert at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater in Denver…..

A night at the Bear Creek Distillery — a local Denver distillery owned by the son-in-law of friends helped nurture my growing love for whiskey…..

Our month concluded with a visit from some of our Vermont family — Heather and our 6-year-old grandson Micah…..

August
Construction continued on our Denver house with the installation of new windows…..

Bec and I took a driving trip to Nebraska to visit places from our youth, and spend time with some of our favorite people — a few of our cousins…..

September
Bill’s participation in the research study for Parkinson’s began in September. After a bit of a rough start, it is working very well to date…..

Bill and I went to the theater downtown, where we watched the musical Beautiful, featuring the story and songs of Carole King. September brought us some wonderful news when our son Allen announced that he and his girlfriend had gotten married…..

We celebrated with a reception shortly after that. The family gathered, including another visit from the Vermont McLains….

October
The upside was a visit to Estes Park to listen to the elk bugle. The downside was a second trip to the hospital for yet another bowel obstruction. Enough said about that.

November
We made a quick trip to our AZ home to check on the house. We finally got rid of Bill’s old Ford Escape which had died earlier in the year….

Thanksgiving was at Dave and Jll’s house, with a much smaller group than last year’s.

December
We prepared for Christmas with some baking…..

Our construction was finally complete, ending with the installation of new carpeting in our bedrooms…..

And we celebrated Christmas, the highlight being the gathering of ALL OF OUR GRANDKIDS…..

Just reading back about my past year makes me tired. And that’s just a snapshot!

Best wishes to all of my readers for the year ahead. Let’s pray for peace, kindness, and good health.

We had a great Christmas celebration — or maybe I should say celebrations because the partying went on for days. I would say that all nine of our grandkids liked our presents to them. But having said that, I must add that three out of the nine had quite memorable reactions.

Maggie Faith asked for — and received from Bill and me — an electronic label maker. She couldn’t have been happier. She spent the next few days — and likely beyond, though we left on Thursday, so I can’t say for sure — labeling just about anything that wasn’t moving. Coffee cups, books, shelves, other furniture, and so on. She apparently was heard proclaiming that it was her favorite gift.

We gave Cole a magnetic building set. It might have just been because it was the first gift he opened on that magical day, but he ripped the paper, saw the colored box, and squealed with joy before he even knew what the gift was.

But far and away, the funniest reaction was from 6-year-old Micah. Earlier on Christmas Eve Day, he had admitted to me that he liked — no, LOVED — banana bread. “Banana bread is my favorite thing,” he said. “But I don’t like it with nuts.”

After he left, I remembered that many moons ago, I had thrown three bananas into my freezer for the express purpose of using at a later date to make banana bread. Voila! A perfect time.

I made the bread (no nuts) and took it over to their house that afternoon. No one was there but Lauren. She took the bread and suggested that we give it to Micah as a Christmas gift.

After he opened all of his presents from Bill and me, Lauren went and got the banana bread. “You have one more present, Micah,” she told him.

“BANANA BREAD!” he exclaimed at the top of his lungs. “I LOVE BANANA BREAD.” He came and gave me a great big hug. Then he got a serious look on his face. “Are there nuts in it?” he asked cautiously.

“No nuts,” I told him.

I love when people are easy to please.

Here is a photo of Bill and all of our grands as we gathered this past week…..

Have a great weekend.