Geting to know my new phone

Very slowly, that is. Especially enjoying the camera. Took a picture Friday night at a fundraiser and was told by the subject that it was the best photo he had from that night.

Youtube pleasing me. Haven't figured out how to do music on my phone. Have been very conservative on usage until I see how much is one gigabyte. That is all I have. Keep seeing better phone deals, but, oh well. I will now have two years of lusting after better deals. Have found that Verizon in NOT the answer to all of my problems....does not work at the Cohansey Café or at Gallery 50 and people sometimes tell me that I am BREAKING UP. Maybe I will give AT & T a try next.

VERY busy weekend. Thank goodness for a quiet Monday and Tuesday to catch up with myself. Fundraiser Friday night. Lunch with Santa Saturday morning (another fundraiser). Bridgeton House tour Saturday afternoon. Only went to one house but it was warm and cozy, with 20 fireplaces. Then a Prairie Home Companion evening (my favorite thing to do). Sunday was church, Christmas shopping, grocery shopping, football (Eagles lost) and singing at a church service for the Journey to the manger. Luckily, I live right across the street from church so left the football game to practice our song, then 15 minute service, and back home to catch the depressing end of the game. So I switched to 60 minutes, my other favorite thing.

Will I continue reading this series?

Maybe not. There are often some preposterous things that go on in a book involving humans, daemons, witches and vampires. A discovery of witches (audio book), by Deborah Harkness. The first in a series which includes SOME of my favorite subjects, such as books, libraries, history and French. Sentences like, "The library will be whatever the witches want it to be" don't make a whole lot of sense. Our witch masquerading as a human attracts the attention of a French vampire in the Bodleian library at Oxford University. A complicated plot ensues to find out why a particular book seems to be under a spell and can only be broken by Diana. Things only get worse since vampire/witch relationships are forbidden.

Am very pleased with the wreath I made yesterday. I couldn't wait to come home and put it on my front door. Took a nice picture and texted it to my sisters. Have only heard back from one of them. Not sure if the others are accepting/checking text messages. Getting to know my new phone is a slow process.

Waiting around the library to see the movie on movie night. Afraid that I have already seen it. All I knew was that it was in German. Seeing fewer and fewer films these days but I did see quite a few back in the day. Seems like I have missed months and months of this film discussion series. I am one of the few loyal attendees until I am not.

My holiday wreath

Went to a class today...to make a wreath for my door. We used all kinds of stuff to make little bunches of greens. Then we wired the 11 or so bunches to a wreath wire base. I was quite pleased with mine....greens, magnolia leaves, yellow berries, red berries and pinecones, oh my! Actually, everyone's wreath was great, if you like the wild look. I had to go right home and put it on my door. I was right to not choose the big frame.

Good poems for hard times (book), selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor. I rescued this book from the discard pile at the library. So sad. Enjoyed reading it, but I guess I will pass it on. Poems are divided into vague subject areas...and include poems by famous and not-so-famous writers. At the end Garrison Keillor writes a bit about each author and includes a few thoughts from each. My favorite poem is:

In praise of my bed, by Meredith Holmes.

At last I can be with you!
The grinding hours
since I left your side!
The labor of being fully human,
working my opposable thumb,
talking, and walking upright.
Now I have unclasped,
unzipped, stepped out of.
Husked, soft, a be-er only,
I do nothing, but point
my bare feet into your
clean smoothness
feel your quiet strength
the whole length of my body.
I close my eyes, hear myself
moan, so grateful to be held this way.

I thought it was going to be sunny today. Instead it is gloomy and dreary. At least it is not raining.

A dreary dismal day missing one tooth

My only consolation is pain pills, some really good ones. Plus I got my nails done. New color is by OPI - called "Color to diner for". It is a sparkly red.

Full planets, empty plates : the new geopolitics of food scarcity (book), by Lester R. Brown. Given to me by his brother-in-law, it is a nice thin book, detailing many of his thoughts which I have heard before. How the balance of the planet is off, how eating up the food chain contributes to food scarcity, how the increasing population numbers put a strain on our food resources, how political unrest contributes to food insecurity, how water shortages make it difficult to grow crops in the places where the food is needed. Food is the new oil, land is the new gold. One of our best environmental theorists comes from our area.

OK, so it is ONLY December 1st. But I have missed Black Friday, Small business Saturday, Cyber Monday AND Giving Tuesday. The fact of the matter is, I am totally uninspired as far as Christmas gifts go. On my list of things to do today was to make my Christmas list, both what I want, and all the names of all the people I should/want to get gifts for. Shopping isn't much fun for me. Deciding isn't much fun for me.

You are not going to believe this

Heard on the radio today that the most popular name for boys in Britain is MUHAMMED. Next is Oliver.

Thoughts about the sign "Black lives matter". If that is the case, please stop shooting each other.

Finished The handsome man's De Luxe café, by Alexander McCall Smith. The newest in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective agency series. Satisfyingly comforting in spite of things going wrong. Mme. Makutsi starts a new business venture without a whole lot of thought. Charlie becomes a detective and then a secretary. A cup of red bush tea helps with most problems, as usual.

It is harder to schleppe in winter

I have enough trouble getting my many bags from here to there without the addition of a COAT! I find that everything slides off of my shoulders when wearing a coat. I should just break down and clean up my clutter enough that someone can get into my house to install the wifi. I have been informed that WIFI is not the same thing as WIRELESS.

Starting a relationship with my new phone. It is probably smarter than I am, but I foresee many happy hours of getting to know it. Missing my KEYBOARD with my old LG phone. I can't deal with "pictures" of keys. My nephew and my brother-in-law tried to straighten me out on some procedures with the Samsung Galaxy S IV. There are scarily on top of technology. I am at the other end of the spectrum. What is the opposite of an "early adaptor"? I have to be dragged kicking and screaming into anything new. Not really the update kind of a girl.

It is so frigging COLD around here. I must try and plan some future vacations. A friend called and told me he got a round trip ticket for $60 on Spirit. How come I never see those kind of deals? Plus, I DETEST Spirit for their nickel and diming of customers.

Words I like to hear

"You've made it" the instructor says when we have reached the end of our 45 minute Senior stretch on the DVD. "No strenuous exercise for 2-3 days" said the dentist after he pulled my third wisdom tooth.

I am in a bit of a panic, having acquired a new phone about an hour ago. Feel like I have a new relationship, so many hours of learning to come. Have already lost it once as it is a slippery little devil. Am not paying even MORE each month, $80 before all of the taxes, so I sure hope it does a lot more than my previous phone. Am already missing some of the features on my old tried-and-true phone such as the keyboard and the comfortable size. But this phone has the TEMPERATURE on it, with which I am OBSESSED. Afraid to use it though as am totally perplexed about how much is 1 gigabyte of data. I had unlimited data with Sprint although I really couldn't DO much with it.

Through a glass darkly (e-book), by Karleen Koen. The book was about spies who were captured and milked for information. Not sure if any of it was plausible. How many spies are entertained and fed for months and never tortured to get info out of them? With all of the code names and double crossing, I didn't really GET it.