I'm Having Fun!

This last week or so has been kinda fun.  I am playing with a lot of neat Web 2.0 things for a training exercise at work, and I have gotten back into this blog as part of that.  I also have gotten new eyeglasses. They cost a fortune, but I really like them.  They also go really well with the Fedora I bought a while back.  See what I mean at left.

I also got some new dvds to watch.  This is the complete series of Beauty and the Beast, a TV series that ran in the late '80s.  I never got to watch the first run of the show because I was taking graduate courses that met that evening, and in those days there were no DVRs. 

I don't know why I like the series so much, but it has a style, an atmosphere all its own that makes it very enjoyable.  It also tends to have a moral message for each episode, much as Star Trek did, and that was always one of the reasons I loved Star Trek.  It was trying to teach us about the importance of being humane as well as human.

Another fun thing to come about this week is that I found a new printing of an old cookbook that I adore.  It is called The Scots Kitchen : Its Traditions (or Lore) and Recipes.  The original was published in 1929, the old copy I have was reprinted in 1968.  The new version was printed in 2010, with a forward, and some new notes and recipe updates, by Catherine Brown, who wrote the cookbook I found my treasured shortbread recipe in.  I look forward to exploring the new edition of this fascinating old classic.

I also have been playing around on Pinterest a lot, and I tried a recipe today that I found posted there by a friend.  7up Biscuits.  They are very easy to make, and come out so light, tender and luscious that it is a recipe well worth keeping. 

7up Biscuits
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1/2 cup 7up
1/4 cup butter
Oven to 450 degrees F.
Cut sour cream into Bisquick.  Add 7up.  Dough will be soft.  Turn out onto board sprinkled with more Bisquick.  Lightly knead a few times, form into a square and cut into squares for biscuits.  Melt butter in 9x9 square pan. 
Place each biscuit in pan, one at a time, turning to be sure both sides are buttered.  You may have to squish them together a little, but that's OK.
Bake them in the 450 degree oven for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Now that I've had some fun talking about the fun things going on, I think I better get back to work.  I will link this to my Nerdy Dozen blog so people from Pioneer can find it. 

Missing My Walking Buddy

I suppose I started to write this too soon after Mr. Bear went to the Rainbow Bridge.  He had a tumor that couldn't be removed and so, because he was so uncomfortable and couldn't breathe well, we made the tough decision to let him go.  There was much crying in that vet's office that day.  (And not just by Matt and I.)  Mr. Bear touched many lives.  He was so loving and so sweet, always up to meet someone new if it meant getting petted.  He and I walked every day, almost a mile and three quarters, most days.  Now I walk the routes we used to take alone.
Except, I'm not really alone.  Every now and then, it feels like Bear and Dougal, our previous Schip, are there with me, running ahead, exciting the neighborhood dogs, who don't always bark at me when I go by alone.  It is hard to go when the school bus kids might be out.  They always waited for Bear.  They would be sad to be reminded that he is gone.
It gets better, but it still hurts to know that he isn't going to be there, waiting patiently for me to put his harness on, getting all excited about going out to see what's what in the neighborhood.  It is also hard to come home from anywhere and not look for him.  Hard not to go to the back door and call, asking if he wants to go out.  Hard to leave or to head for bed without checking to see if he's in or out.  Hard to remember I don't need to buy dog food, or treats.
The cat makes up for some of this, of course, as she has an incredibly large personality, but even she misses Bear.  She goes to the spot he used to lay down every evening when we were watching TV, and she sniffs and looks around, like she wonders where he is.
I will always miss him, but I am glad he is no longer so uncomfortable.  Poor guy suffered through a lot in his 13 years, but at least in the eight years with us, he got to be part of the family, and part of his community.  He walked with the library group in the Red Ribbon Parade for many years, and  the bus stop kids always saw him and waved and even got him to go over and say hi during the parade. He did everything in his life with patience and a calm nature, totally uncharacteristic of a Schipperke.  He was my sweetheart, and I miss him every day.

Random Wednesday Night Thoughts

    So, I have to create a blog as part of a web 2.0 course offered at work.  Gee, I've had this blog quite a while, I don't write in it often, but I've had it going for several years now.  It is yet another neglected writing journal of mine.  (Most of them are hard copy and even more neglected than this is.)  Also, I have been working with computers longer than most of the kids I work with have been alive.  (Applesoft BASIC, anyone?) 
We bought our first computer in 1985.  It was a Commodore 64.  Before we broke down and bought our first PC, a 286, one of the first built by Gateway, we had acquired every possible add on for the C-64.  We had a hard drive, two disc drives, and a 1200 baud modem.  We thought we were hot stuff.  These days, my refrigerator has more computing power than that C-64.
  Heck, my Android phone is probably a more advanced computer than this desktop unit.  I guess this is all by way of saying that I undoubtedly need to learn more about the newer uses of the Internet, considering that when I first heard of it, it was called DARPA Net, and my oldest brother used it to converse with other engineers and scientists who were building stuff for the DoD.  Our first web-like experience was on Quantum Link or QLink, a dial-up service that was primarily a BBS for Commodore users.  I think I would probably perish if I had to go back to the days of waiting for dial-up to connect.  U-Verse has spoiled me even for the high speed cable that we used to have.  U-verse is always there, and I can connect almost instantly to it via the wi-fi on our secure home network with any of my wi-fi capable devices.  And yet I can remember thinking it was amazing that we could just dial a number on the phone and connect the computer to other computers.  We didn't know it then, but it was abysmally SLOW.

My other new adventure this week was ordering new eyeglasses.  This process now involves far more choices (and expense) than ever before.  I think I will really like my new glasses, but I have to wait a few weeks to get them because the lenses have to be ordered.  The sun glasses I already picked up, and they are very nice.  I think this prescription, and the quality of the work by the eyeglass makers, will be a big improvement over my last eyeglasses. What I want to know is why it should cost close to a thousand dollars for new glasses.  (Two pair, but still, I don't have insurance that  covers eyeglasses, so I get to pay the whole thing.)  The cost of anything remotely related to medical care or equipment in this country is just insane.  My great grandfather would be appalled.  People paid him in chickens or apples on occasion.  He wasn't in medicine to make money.  He was in it to help people.  Probably why he practiced in Washington County, Arkansas for more than 60 years.  Yup.  He was 90 something when he died, and he was still practicing not long before he died.
  Why isn't education as lucrative as medicine?
 I mean, most people who go into teaching or into library work do so because they love helping others learn and discover new things.  It is a holy calling, not a mere profession.  Medicine should be that way.  Of all the so-called professions, it would seem to me that the desire to heal people and keep people healthy would be a motive to go into medicine, and that it would be a holy calling, not just a way to make the big bucks. 
Oh, well.  I am just rambling, not constructing a cohesive post, I am afraid.  Time to quit.