Open house...

  I discovered something about myself, I'm a peeping Tom or Tammy.  I really enjoy looking in other peoples houses.  No not in the way you think.  I like to see how they make their house, their home.
  Everything in the house reflex their taste and their creativity or lack there of.  I use to go to new subdivisions and walk through the builders model homes.  I went to trade shows to tour RVs and boats.   I would look a home magazines.  On vacation I would tour older homes on historic tours.  I liked to see what decorating and space saving ideas I could steal, ah incorporate in my own home.
   But I have now hit the jackpot.  Online there are millions of people around the world inviting me into their homes to look around.  I can look as long as I want, take my time and explore.  They want me to see their homes.  They open the closets and let me have a look inside.
   Why because they want to sell their house.  I have seen places that invite you to sit down have a drink and relax.

   I have seen places that look like a decorator lives there, and others that left the decorator in tears.  Yard that say a gardener lives here and yards that say what's a gardener?  View that move you to tears and view that would have you closing the curtains.  Bathroom the size of most people's master bedroom and others that make the one on the plane look big.

House on top of mountains ...

and houses under the ground...

   You name it, it's out there.  All waiting for you drop by and explore. Without a Realtor following you around, looking at their watch.  You just can't peek in the medicine cabinets.

Is this July or December...

    I am one of the poor unfortunate souls who worked and managed a retail store.  I loved meeting and helping people find the perfect thing for themselves or a loved one.  I was glad that I so impressed some people that they would come back and ask for me to help them or their friends.  The long hours I could handle most of the time.  What I dreaded and hated was... CHRISTMAS.
   It was enough to send me into nervous twitches and mental breakdowns.  All those people all demanding that they are first.  They are better than everyone else and you should get out of their way because they are coming. ...And that was in the parking lot.
   I have always love Christmas and all things about the holidays.  The decorations, the lights, the songs, the smiles on peoples faces.  But when you work in a retail store at the MALL.  You get to the point that you dread the months of November and December. 
   The stores are all decked out in their finest.  The children of all ages are wide eyed and looking for Santa's place.

Image via Wikipedia

The smells, the excitement, the sales and special gifts are great.  But by the time you fight the traffic and find a parking place you have had enough. 
   During the Christmas season parking is at a premium and unless you open the store, it will take you an extra 30 minutes to find a spot.  That is if the mall hasn't decreed that all employees must park 2 or 3 blocks away and wait for the bus or walk.  And of course the store is now open extended hours so you either come in at 6am or leave at 1pm.  If you are a manager you sometimes do both.  You are on your feet all day, because even on your break there is standing room only at the food court.  Your lucky to make it to the counter and get a drink before it time to run back to the store.  After a long day the last thing you want to do is hike to your car.  My poor feet ache now just writing this.
   When I left retail sales I promised myself I would never go to the mall at Christmas.  So far I have kept that promise.  Do I miss the decorations... No,  how could I when the stores start putting them up in  September, or earlier.

Image via Wikipedia

   Now this year the Christmas sales are starting this weekend!!!!  In JULY. 
   Oh no...there goes that twitch in my eye. 
   

Related articles by Zemanta

• Christmas In July: How Much Can You Save? (forbes.com)
• Stores push summertime 'Christmas' sales (msnbc.msn.com)
• Christmas Traditions: Colonial American Christmas in Virgina (brighthub.com)

Make My Day...

   I couldn't post this weekend.  I tried believe me I tried.  I sat down thought about what I wanted to say.  I brought up the dashboard and started typing.  I looked at the screen ... and could make out a thing. 
    My keyboard on my laptop was acting up.  The t, u, y and s keys where sticking and wouldn't type.  We cleaned it, sprayed it and dusted it.  We turned it over and literally beat the crap out of it.  Yuck!!!  How did all that get in there anyway? 
    Every time we cleaned on it, I would have to disconnect everything on the laptop.  Then to see if that worked I would need to reconnect the laptop.  Pull up a office program and type.  I felt like I was back in typing class.  AaBbCcDcEeFfGgHh....  Okay so far so good, until I got the Y.  No matter what we tried or how many times we cleaned...it would not work.  I never realized how many times you use the Y key.  Until I tried to get around it.
   I was getting so frustrated I had to leave the room before I did something drastic.

   Yesterday we finally had to pull out an old keyboard rewire it and plug that in.  Now I'm back in business.  I guess I really cant blame the laptop.  It was used when I got it.  And it was used by a serious, very excitable gamer.  The poor thing has more than done its duty. 
   While the laptop it self keeps going like the energizer bunny,, 
the keyboard is running out of steam.  I guess its time to take it in and have it professionally cleaned and serviced.
   But that would mean I would be with out it .... Oh no... can't breathe .... Relax.  Take deep breaths and think of my happy place.
 
   WHERE THE CRAP IS THAT HAPPY PLACE.

Deseption at the Church dinner....

   On quite a few of the blogs I follow, there have been discussions on the dinners and socials at the church.  You got to admit the food is really good there.  All the ladies bring the dish they are famous for. 
   I have been blogging all my Mother's collection of recipes at my other site.  She had recipes she collected since she got married in 1956.  Quite a lot of them given to her by relatives and the Ladies at church. These recipes are bring back a lot of memories for me.
   I just finished typing up a few of the gelatin salads that she has and it reminded me of those family get togethers and church dinners.  We always had great fun at these occasions and we ate a lot.  As kids our favorite part, of course, was desert.  All those cakes, pies, cookies, brownies and if you were real lucky homemake ice cream.  There was always a jell-o salad or  two as well.  Like Bill Cosby always said "There's always room for Jell-o".
   Little did we know that those sweet little ladies where about to play a cruel trick on us.  Behind those sweet smiles lies the evilest of plots.  They looked at us with kind eyes and suckered us right in.  What,  you might ask, did they do?
   Well, let me tell you.  They served this....

 And they served this...

 You tell me which one has the whipped cream and fruit .... and which one has the mayonnaise and vegetables.


   Yes, I know they are both delicious, and I like both of them.  But when your a kid ... and you have your mouth all set for desert ... and bite into mayo and vegetables.... Let's just say their was a lot of yucky faces and spitting going on.  And some of those sweet old ladies ... Laughed.
   To this day I always wait for someone else to take the first bite, to see which one it is.  I just don't trust those sweet smiles and kind eyes on those little old ladies.




   By the way the orange picture above is an Ambrosia Mold... the lemony one is a Holiday Waldorf salad.  Did you  guess right?

Mountain thinking...

   With all the heat this summer, we have been doing some serious thinking about moving to the mountains.  It has always been a dream to wake up in the morning pour a cup of coffee and look out at this...

                                      The Blue Ridge Mountains

Or maybe this....

                            Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

How about this one....

                                    Volcano at Lake Clark in Alaska


Maybe not that last one... too cold and too scary.  The only thing I want smoking around my house is this...

                       A nice cozy fire in the fireplace.... Where it belongs.