Wednesday HodgePodge

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to add your link to the party. See you there!

1. What's the last thing you did that someone else thought was super? DD2 was so happy when I gave her some reward points to rent a car for a week, during her recent trip to CA.

2. The last thing you ate that tasted superb?  
Pastries in Paris. Fresh macarons are the best!

3. Supersensitive, superstitious, superwoman, superambitious, supercilious, supervisor, superficial...pick a super word from the list and tell us how it relates to your life in some way recently or currently.   
If I were a superwoman, I wouldn't be so tired at the end of the day. But I have taken on the role of caregiver for Mr BC. He can't start or end the day without me helping with the dialysis connection, so he says! 

4. Do you love easily? If you're comfortable doing so, explain why you think that is. I'm not sure what this question is.  It is easy to love, the folks that I love.

5. Valentine's Day lands on a Tuesday this year. Will you mark the day in some way? If you're celebrating with a dinner out somewhere will it be on Tuesday or will you celebrate over the weekend?  
Mr BC wants to take some flowers to his dialysis team, as his appointment is on Valentine's day.  I have my cataract surgery on the next day so, I don't think dinner is in the cards.

6. What's something you are loving right now? 
Mercy Street and Victoria on PBS.

7 Write a three word (or less) phrase you'd like to see on a Valentine candy heart.  

8.  Insert your own random thought here. IMHO

I know, the President is entitled to nominate anyone he sees fit to give him advice and certainly we saw the judicial appointment coming.  But I don't see the Betsy DeVos appointment.  He should have rewarded her support with something like an ambassadorship to some  less important country. Rather than putting her in charge of something so important as education.  Her hearings were farcical, many Republicans, thought she was unqualified. It will be interesting to see if she is up to the job, but at the expense of kids?

 

Happiness Is-Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Let's all think happy thoughts...share one of yours here. I am the constant  optimist in this house. I try to keep a smile on my face all of the time. Which is a challenge when you have a resting bitchy face.  I use to get tired of folks telling me to smile when I wasn't really unhappy. So I try to smile every time I look up.

2. There's a Chinese proverb that says, "If you want happiness for an hour take a nap, if you want happiness for a day-go fishing...." What say you? If you want happiness for a day, have a full body massage and a pedicure.. 

3. Where do you go to decompress from the world around you? Walking the dogs is stress-less. I have to do it every day as the dogs can tell time, but once we get started it is very relaxing, especially when we get out of town.

4. What song never fails to make you happy? Don't Worry, be Happy.

5. Wednesday is National Fast Food Day. Should that be a thing? Apparently it is, so tell us what's the last 'fast food' you consumed? If you were putting together your own version of a 'happy meal' what would you include? I had a Culver's butter burger and sweet potato fries, for late lunch, early dinner, yesterday, I can't even imagine the calorie count of a butter burger! My happy meal would be lasagne and salad.

6. In a few sentences tell us why you blog. I wanted to have a project where I could talk about my family, retirement and write.  I started out writing short stories and posting writing memes.  I go hot and cold about quitting but I do enjoy reading and commenting on my bloggy friends, posts.

7. List seven things you're feeling especially grateful for today. I am grateful for:
Mr Bankerchick for 49 years.
Two fantastic grandsons.
That I am friends with my kids.
I have my health and my mind, so I can take care of Mr BC.
My dogs, who love me unconditionally.
Good friends.
Roku....streaming video, because regular TV is boring and the news is depressing.

 
8. Insert your own random thought here. Two thoughts today, a random and a happy one, my brain is heavy with the thinking.
Let's think about: Happy corgi and happy grandsons, trick or treating. 

Saturday 9-Brilliant

Saturday 9: You're Beautiful (2005)
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? 

 Hear it here

1) The first line is of this song is, "My life is brilliant." Using one word, describe your life.  "True." 

2)  This is about a chance encounter between strangers in a crowd, specifically the subway. What "crowded place" were you most recently in? On my trip to London last fall, recent. Victoria Station at 5 pm on a Friday night.  Just getting to the escalator going down, was a mob.  By the way, Phil Sayer, 62, whose voice was heard on most of the automated PA systems on railway stations across the UK, died on Thursday. Mind the Gap. 

3) Near the very end of this song, James Blunt sings, "It's time to face the truth." Do you believe you face things head on? Or do you tend to deny or put off the unpleasant? I tend to put off unpleasant things.

4) James Blunt went to an all-boys school. Some educators recommend single-sex classrooms because they maintain girls just naturally approach subjects like math and science differently than boys do. Do you agree? 
I don't think I would have liked going to an all girls school, but it is probably true.

5) Blunt put his father in charge of his finances. Income taxes are top of mind for many of us this time of year. Do you do your own taxes? Or do you go to an accountant or tax preparation service? I do it using Turbo Tax. Sending it off this weekend, we always owe.  *See Procastination.

6)  In 2005, the year this song was a hit, the sitcom How I Met Your Mother was also popular.  Do you know how your parents met? 
Yes, New Years Eve 1945, My Mom's cousin dated my Dad's cousin and they fixed the two of them up. It was love at first sight for them. They stayed out all night and married in June of 1946.

7) 2005 is also the year Tom Cruise famously jumped on a sofa. Do you remember where he did this?   On the Oprah Show.  I didn't see it when it happened, and really didn't care.

8) 2005 was also the year YouTube really took off. What's the last video you watched? Something on Facebook, I'm sure. Probably something Corgi related.

9) Random question ... Which of these high profile jobs would you enjoy more: head of General Motors, CEO of Apple or president of the New York Yankees?

CEO of Apple, because it would mean that I am very smart about computers and programming, I'd have the most amazing blog with all kinds of bells and whistles.

Where am I? Oh yeah, Back to Bed

Two happy couples at the British Museum last week.

We are back from the great adventure and here I am at 3:00 am  awake and tired at the same time.  It was a lot easier adjusting to the time in Europe, than to the time here at home. We had a great time and I will post some pictures as soon as I get them downloaded or uploaded or whatever.  Which will be around Thanksgiving at the rate I am moving.  

Some Thoughts:

• London and Rome were fantastic and we will go back to see more.
• Paris is overrated.  I can say I have been there but, I don't particularly want to go back. We would visit like to visit the Normandy Landings areas sometime, then we will be done with France.  Also there are no fat people in France.
• The tour group was great and we had some very enjoyable company.  Nikki, our tour director was the best. Our guide Joel was so funny, the way the British can be.....very dry.
• We are not as young as we once were and tire easily.  My feet still hurt and I don't do museums as well as I use to.
  
• The Tube is much better than the Paris Metro.  I didn't get lost there as I can understand the English spoken by the English better than English spoken by the French.  There is truth to the London Underground being the best in the world.
• Buckingham Palace would be a hard place, in which to live,  I would have to place covers over all the furniture.  I found a Corgi hair on my jacket, but it turns out that it was one of Gwennie's that I carried all the way to London.  I left all the ones I could find on me, there.

A Busy Morning

We had to drive to Neosho, MO to get an appointment to get Miss Tiffany into the Cadillac dealer for the ignition switch  recall that is in the news. Decided to get it done as we had to get a passenger window fixed....it wouldn't go up....and since she is currently out in the driveway and not in the garage, we had to get it fixed before we leave. Since she is so old, she was not under warranty for the window.   That is $300 we will never see again.  They also told us .....after we got there...that they needed both keys..... a little something that I think they should have told us at the time we made the appointment.  We had to drive home 20+miles to get the spare.  Apparently the keys have to be reprogrammed.  I wish we could have waited to see the local dealer.

One thing I managed to do was to get Mr BC out, this morning, so we could buy him a couple of new shirts for the trip.   The last time I was able to get him out to shop was last November to buy some new slacks that weren't several sizes too big. I, of course, have been shopping for months!  The last thing he has to do to get ready, is a hair cut.  He was going to do it today, but we had to get back to the dogs to feed them.  Because of the extra trip, the dogs got lunch instead of breakfast, and they were glad we didn't wait for a hair cut
.

Friday Fragments

Fennec Fox

One of my favorite blogs is Tywkiwdbi as the blogger the Minnesotastan  explains the title of the blog: "Tai-wiki-widbee" is an eclectic mix of trivialities, ephemera, curiosities, and exotica with a smattering of current events, social commentary, science, history, English language and literature, videos, and humor. We try to be the cyberequivalent of a Victorian cabinet of curiosities. 
He posts every few days with something I find interesting every time.  I follow this guy and recommend him to you. Click on the link above to find out more about this sweet, scared Fennec Fox.

Gwennie last Spring-Too Heavy

I did not take pictures of Gwennie before we started this diet 3 weeks ago. I took her to the vet for her shots and a prescription for diet food, when he weighed her she was 50 pounds an all time high.  She is already showing signs of it working because her hips are back and you can see air between her tummy and the ground a Corgi version of thigh gap. I took some pictures of her frolicking in our recent snow so I can make some comparisons before we take her back to the vet for another weigh-in.

These are Today's pictures.  She loves the snow

This is how she should look all the time.

It has been snowing since Sunday night and we only got back to walking yesterday.  Mr BC was right I am a grumpy cat (not very nice) when I am cooped up in the house. Even I noticed it this week.  

Had to tell Mr BC to pay attention to the TV....Nancy Grace is on....I can't stand her.  We saw Gone Girl on demand this past weekend and they had a Nancy Grace character in the movie. *Spoiler alert* I wish she got what was coming to her, she was vicious.

Amazon gave me a refund for that book...last week's fragment....and I got a refund and did not have to return the book....that was amazing.

From a previous posting rant.....this is why you get your kids vaccinated.

Now for some fun things:

                            I am joining Mrs.4444 for Friday Fragments. 

Friday Fragments-Mall Walking

I started Mall walking this week, so far, I have gone 3 times this week.  I had decided this was something I would start in 2015, and it has taken until February to remember.  I am hoping that if I start going regularly, Mr BC will come with me. Maggie and Jiggs have been doing it for years and it has been nice to have a cup of coffee with them, during the week.  The tour we will be making in September of London, Paris and Rome, will have lots of walking involved and I want to be able to keep up.

We will get her back to her trim self.

We have Gwennie and Caspar on a diet.  They are both overweight and under exercised. Caspar is hungry all the time and developed a bit of a tummy and he is already slimming. I started walking the mall because, the walks I take with the dogs are much slower and and shorter.  I have made a promise to work the dogs out along with feeding them better.  I wish I could take them on the mall.  Since that is not possible I have taken them, sometimes with Mr BC around several blocks here in town.  It is time for us to all get fit.

We have been experiencing typical Missouri weather....If you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes.  I has been warm and sunny some days and cold and freezing the next.  We even had some snow this week. I am ready for Spring.

This is a good mommy!

My weekend Plans

Linking with Mrs 4444 at Half Past Kissing Time for Friday Fragments

Wendell's Magic Wand Chat

1.  Do you ever watch old TV shows or movies from your childhood or youth? When we first got Netflix, I watched all of the Star Trek Franchise. It took almost 2 years.

2.  Have you ever adopted a rescued animal? Oh yes, most recently, we adopted Caspar a minature dashound, he is adorable and now we have 3 dogs, Totem is a rescue and Gwennie our corgi, is from a breeder. The are all between 6-7 years old.

3.  Are you good at keeping track of paperwork and records? Sort of, I have a file cabinet and a fire proof box.  It works well if I remember to file things back.

4.  What would you like the Magic Wendell Fairy to poof with his wand, and turn into a treat for you? Any snack or sweet you would like. It doesn't have tpo do with carrots, or HE'D eat it!  I have been looking all over for peach ice cream. Since there has been a recall on some peaches, I might not find it this year. i'll get him a carrot cake.

5.  Tell me something interesting-please.

I made a peach pie and I am eating with vanilla ice cream.  It will have to do if Wendell can't come through.

Friday Fragments-HAPPY DAAA AY TO MEEE!

It is time for Friday Fragments from Half Past Kissing Time

Happy Birthday Katie - on the Google page!

I woke up today and didn't remember right away..... that it was my birthday, until Google and Mr BC told me.  Mr BC sang out Happy DAAA AY to you. That is our Birthday song since DD2 sang Happy DAAA AY to MEEE! when she was 4 years old. He admitted later that he had just seen a reminder on Facebook  It is a disconcerting fact that the interwebs know too much about you.  We hope to go out to dinner for my birthday, tomorrow with DD2!

But this is so true too!

I don't have corgoon.  Just one sweet Gwennie.

"Corgi" is a Welsh word - a compound of cor (“dwarf”) and ci (“dog”).  The proper plural form is thus "Corgwn" -
- which  would be pronounced something like "corgoon."

"I list this as "trivia" because the word has been so Anglicized that "corgis" is in common usage, and your use of "corgwn" in a conversation will be seen as pompous intellectualism, unless perhaps you engage your audience by also sharing some of the other English words derived from Welsh (penguin?)" TYWKIWDBI.

I learned about corgwn from TYWKIWDBI  a blogger I follow for his quite interesting and varied posts. He got it from a QI podcast another QI site I will explore.

This is not a commercial for English Muffins....but, I am so sorry I did not buy two of these as they are to die for and when I go back to get some more, they will not be available.  It really tastes like apple pie. 

Hippo has things to do.  Just like me, so have a great weekend.