Inside voices please

I am a cranky old lady. My new neighbors decided to play their radio loud enough for me to sing along tonight so I yelled at them.

Turn down that stupid music!
I got my own radio! You want me to crank it up so you can listen to it too?

They turned it down to almost tolerable, but it's still annoying. I don't like annoying people who think they own the world. I'd like to slap their annoying mothers for not teaching them more consideration for others.

Crank 'er up

This is my horror-scope for Friday:
"What's the point in being nice to people who aren't very nice to you? If they think they are getting away with their bad behaviour, they will only be even ruder and more annoying, won't they? Or perhaps you can kill them with kindness? Maybe you can be so sweet, sincere and sympathetic, that their barriers break and their icy hearts melt in the warmth of your sunny disposition. This weekend, the nicer you are, the better results you will get. That might not bring immediate satisfaction, but the long-term gains and benefits will make up for it." http://www.cainer.com/libraframe.htm

Most people don't like to upset other people. They really don't want to hurt others' feelings or they're afraid of retaliation. What ever.

Someone once gave me a magnet that said "Kindness is nice but nastiness gets better results." I know they say being nice won't kill you, but I don't like to take changes. My motto is "If you're mother didn't teach you good manners, I will." I frequently tell ill-mannered shoppers who think they own the grocery store, "Excuse me, and excuse you too". Goodness knows it's almost a full time job teaching discourteous drivers around here how to behave.

It's a good thing I don't believe in horoscopes because I'm too old to change my ways now. Besides, I'm looking forward to being known as that cranky old woman.

Tapioca Pudding

I just had a bowl of tapioca pudding. Homemade tapioca pudding.

That's probably the first bowl of homemade tapioca pudding I've eaten in 20, maybe 25 years. It was pretty good. Not as tasty as I remember it but maybe that's because it was made with 2% milk instead of whole milk. Tapioca aficiandos insist the pudding be made with whole milk or even part milk, part cream. Ummmmmmm.

One of the women I work with discovered Kozy Shack tapioca pudding in the refrigerator section a few months ago at her local grocery store and after raving about it for a few weeks, brought me a container for lunch one day. It was almost as good as homemade. However, my local grocery stores don't carry that brand in the indiviual containers and I can't count on Cheryl to keep me supplied with the good stuff.

So I decided to make my own. My local grocery stores don't carry tapioca. Or maybe it's just that they carry it in funny places because I could only find it at one store and they only had the pearl kind that you have to soak all night and I didn't want that and besides it was expensive. But ... I was shopping 15 miles from here last weekend and Meijers had the familiar red box of Kraft Minute Tapioca for about half the price of the pearl tapioca so I bought it and I fixed it and I ate it.

Which brings us back to the beginning of the story so this is a good place to end.

Decisions and Rainbows

As you may know, I'm not overly fond of the dysfunctional company I work for, but during the last few weeks they've gone overboard with being annoying. Things were coming to a head last week and I knew I'd have to make a decision soon: Stay or Leave.

• I'd quit, but I'm too lazy to look for another job and who knows, the next company could be worse. (Case in point - the current job.)
• I'm not ready to retire. I'm not that old.
• What to do? What to do? Quit? Retire? Find another job? Go back to school and start a new career?

Then the news changed at work and the need to decide stopped being URGENT.

On the way home that day, just as I turned onto Regency Drive, a Voice popped into my head and said "I told you I would take care of you." and when I turned the corner I saw a rainbow in the fountain.

He may not be taking care of me in the manner to which I'd like to become accustomed, but I'm doing OK. I just need to keep looking for those rainbows.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:28

Charity Begins at Home

At home, surfing the 'net:

I stumbled upon this search site "GoodSearch.com" earlier this week. This is what they have to say for themselves:

"Here's a new easy way to raise money for your favorite cause. Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate a penny to your favorite cause every time you do a search!

In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 900 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to the charity or school of your choice. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to your cause!

Here's the web site — http://www.goodsearch.com/.

You can also read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal."



I searched for GoodSearch using my regular search engine (Google) and it seems legit - Check it out at CNN Money and ABC News.

Happy Easter!

Up From the Grave He Arose
Words and music by Robert Lowry, 1826-1899

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Up from the grave he arose;
With a mighty triumph o'er his foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!



"After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you."

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples."(Matt 28:1-8 TNIV)


Happy Life!

Where's Noah when you need him?

I scheduled days off work for Friday, Monday, and Tuesday to do some spring cleaning, shopping, and goofing off. Today - the first day - it's raining, of course. It almost always rains when I schedule a day off.

I don't have much luck with vacations. It's a running joke in my office. If I'm on vacation, my co-workers re-schedule family reunions at the park, picnics, garden weddings - anything that depends on sunshine.

The bad luck this time didn't start with today. When I came home from work on Wednesday I found that a leak in the water heater which led to a mini-flood in the living room, bathroom, and laundry room. I had to work late Wednesday so came home later than usual. If I'd been able to come home at an earlier time, there might not have been so much water to contend with and the maintenance and cleaning crews wouldn't have been called out after hours.

They were cheerful about it, as are most people earning overtime or "after hours rates". I don't get paid for working late, much less get extra for it.

Anyway, here I sit surrounded by misplaced boxes, furnitures, and books. Not misplaced just in the sense that I can't find anything, but because the cabinet that used to be here is now over there.

I'm trying to consider it a head start on the spring cleaning. But mostly it's just a head start on the back pain and muscle aches.

Snowing

It snowed on me yesterday!

Snow is not unusual in April in Indiana but we've been enjoying warm spring weather for at least a couple of weeks so it was kind of a shock to feel the temperature drop to freezing and see snow flakes falling around my head.

Sometimes God expresses a strange sense of humor.

My Fitness Couch

Unless you live in a box by yourself and 3 stuffed animals, you've probably heard of Wii and Wii Fit and maybe even the Wii game My Fitness Coach. Wii is a video system designed to keep you active while you're playing video games.

The object of Wii, as far as I can tell, is to spend $280 on a Wii, then $90 on a Wii Fit, $20 - $60 on as many other games as you care to buy, and $20 - $100 on accessories. The one thing that's sure to slim down is your wallet.

Back in the day, when I was younger and played video games till I developed a nerve disorder in my right thumb, the only video fitness accessory we needed was My Fitness Couch. And it came with the house.

We may have sat on a couch to do our stuff, but video gamers were not the same as couch potatoes. It wasn't enough to keep pressing the buttons till there was permanent damage to your upper extremities. You had to throw a lot of body language into each move to get to the top of the leader board. And jumping up and down on the couch when you got to the top, burned off a lot of calories even if you did do it from a sitting position.

And finding the controls on the other side of the coffee table after you sat down, definitely threw in a grueling stretching routine as you tried to reach it without lifting your butt off the cushion.