239|365 Beginning A New Age (8/31/11)

It’s my birthday.  I’ve had a good day with lots and lots of birthday wishes, cards, people singing happy birthday to me, chocolate brought to me on a silver platter, good food, drink and a new 18-250mm Sigma zoom lens for my Canon camera.

I’ve taken several photos with my new lens but you’ll see many photos from it later.  Tonight my photo is of my birthday chocolate muffin I received from my coworkers (taken with my iPhone).

238|365 Brush It Off (8/30/11)

Brush some things off and keep moving.

I like these quotes, which do you prefer or do you have a different quote along the same lines that gives you encouragement?

• People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what’s bitter and move on. — Bill Cosby 
• Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. — Albert Einstein

237|365 Oh Peanuts! (8/29/11)

In Madill, Oklahoma, the nearest city to our place at Lake Texoma is the Texoma Peanut Inn, the retail outlet for Texoma Peanut Company.  Their specialty is, as you might guess, peanuts.  They stock other ‘made in Oklahoma’ products such as jellies and salsa.  It’s a special treat to stop there and get some freshly roasted peanuts or the honey roasted peanuts. Right now we have a big bag of their peanuts on our kitchen counter and it’s hard to resist cracking a few shells and eating some.

Oklahoma & Texas mainly grow spanish-type peanuts, which have a smaller kernal and have a reddish-brown skin.  This type of peanut has a higher oil content than other types of peanuts, which makes it good for crushing for the oil.

236|365 From The Heart… (8/28/11)

Facebook conversation today on my Mom’s wall:

Donna:  The foot rest on my recliner suffered a fatal blow; I just bought a new recliner and my daughter came with their pickup to get it to my house. The two of us [the majority on her part] got it in the house and set up. Now I’m all cozy again.

Mark: Any memorial service planned for the old recliner?

Donna: I sat with it for the last couple of weeks maintaining vigil over its last days and Kay helped me lay it to rest temporarily in the garage. Final resting place will then be determined by the Oklahoma City big trash department later in September. Thanks Mark for your concern and tender heart.

Barbara: So sad………..

Charlene : I just bought a new dishwasher, it’s sitting in the right spot in the kitchen, I’m dreaming of the day it’ll be installed………enjoy your new recliner, I’m almost permanently attached to mine, it grabs me and won’t let me go, not my fault!

Jeff: Was your old recliner caught sleeping on the job?

Mickey: Old recliners never die, they just fade away in the garage where you look at it every time you go to your car. I just keep repairing mine.

Donna:  Charlene, it sounds as if you should have opted for the auto-install option so as to be able to continue the relationship with your recliner. Jeff, it was an on-the-job injury that I was hoping would qualify for Worker’s Comp, but the patient died too son. Mickey, you know my garage too well! I talked to Kay about the reasonableness and cost-effectiveness of repairing it – obviously she is so burned out on furniture repair and refinishing she was not very encouraging regarding that option.

Keith: Thank you from the heart of my bottom

235|365 Toys for Boys (8/27/11)

Today is my nephew’s 9th birthday and we celebrated with cake and ice cream then he opened gifts.  Among his gifts was a gas-powered remote control car that my brother bought for him.  Of course, my brother made sure it worked ahead of time (read: played with it) and charged the starter yet this afternoon it was reluctant to start.  Finally, it started and we enjoyed a few minutes of excitement as we watched my nephew and others play with the car until my brother crashed it & it rolled upside down.  After that, it just wouldn’t start again.  The photo today focuses on some father-son time as they troubleshoot the car.

Don’t worry, they’ll get it fixed in no time plus there were plenty of other great gifts.

234|365 Banana Clip (8/26/11)

Tonight Keith and I are going to a 1980’s themed 40th birthday party.  After scouring my closet and cabinets, I finally settled on attempting to make my hair ‘big’. Normally, that wouldn’t be any problem but recently I’ve started having a Keratin treatment on my frizzy, curly hair.  Consequently, my hair is pretty tame these days although those sneaky gray hairs are stubbon despite the hair coloring.  Since I couldn’t get my hair ‘big’ enough, I opted to use one of the two banana clips I found in my cabinet.  I loved wearing those in the 80’s with a big hair clip at the top that had a fun design or a big bow.  All my big bow clips are long gone but I did find a cowboy clip.

Here’s my look for the evening.

233|365 Prism (8/25/11)

The error message said that the DVD burner “failed to calibrate the laser power level” and it wouldn’t burn any of the files so it ejected the disc.  I tried several of the suggestions listed on various forums, including a quick burst of compressed air into the dvd burner.  But the computer just kept ejecting the disc and giving me the same error message.  Eventually, I gave up on the disc and copied the files to a cute, tiny 4gb flash drive.

Afterwards, I sat at my desk admiring the pretty colors of the light refracting off the disc, creating a prism.  If only the disc would have been functional as well as pretty.

232|365 The Plaque Says It (8/24/11)

Last fall Keith restored his great Aunt Jane Dunaway’s secretary and tonight he put a plaque on it identifying it.  It’s been in the family since Dr. Jane bought it in Noble, Oklahoma circa 1909.  She probably used it during her medical practice.  Now, we keep old family items in the bookcase portion and wines in the desk portion.

For photos of the before restoration and some history of the piece visit my other blog to read about Dr. Jane’s Secretary.

231|365 In The Secretary Cabinet (8/23/11)

In Dr. Jane’s secretary we have a few collectibles that are from Keith’s family.  Focused in the foreground of this photo is a saw set hammer that was one of the hammers that Keith’s uncle Robert collected.  He had his hammers hung display style in a room and it was an impressive collection.

While not the focus of the photo you will likely notice behind the saw set are 3 commemorative OU Championship glasses that Keith’s maternal grandmother (an avid OU football fan) collected.  The ones visible are from 1954, 1956 and 1962.

Further Reading on my Relative Storyboards blog

Dr. Jane’s Secretary
Her Handmade Flag

230|365 Loaded & Delivered (8/22/11)

Finally, I got them delivered!  Keith finished the two chest of drawers yesterday and tonight Travis came and helped me get them loaded onto the truck and delivered.  Now Travis and Kelsey each have a chest of drawers and can unpack the rest of their boxes.  I know this isn’t the most exciting or great photo but it is such a relief to finally have this done and I never dreamed it would take over 2 weeks to refinish them.

The best part of my day was the 2 1/2 hours I got to spend with my son.  Kelsey wasn’t available so I didn’t get to see her.