An answer to endless phone menus!

I just heard about a great website : www.gethuman.com which has tips about how to get past the endless menus on the phone to get to a person!!!! check it out....

Tag x Four

Four Jobs I’ve Had: waitress in my hometown, age 16 and 17; factory worker, making 5 gallon steel containers/buckets; reporter and office assistant for our monthly paper, The Sentinel News (www.sentinelnews.net)

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over: What about Bob?, The Emporer's New Groove, LOTR, and any old Star Trek movie

Four Places I’ve Lived: Ohio, California, Utah, Washington state

Four Places I’ve Vacationed: Europe, Washington D.C., Ohio, Hawaii!

Four of My Favorite Foods: pizza, chocolate, but not chocolate pizza, chocolate cake with caramel frosting ( a nutritional bonanza!) and potpie, (homemade noodles)and beef with mashed potatoes .

Four Blogs I Visit Daily: My oldest daughter's - Mothering on the Edge, my second daughter's - http://www.thesassylime.blogspot.com/, and then I just browse around....

Four Places I’d Rather Be Right Now: Oregon, Hawaii !, Ohio, Pennsylvania ( genealogy research)

Four Bloggers I Now Tag: hmm, I am really at a loss, here.... sorry!

Garden Bed and coordinating joke

first, the joke:
The ship was sinking, so the man had to swim for his life. After a long swim, he made it to an island, and collapsed on the shore. As he woke up the next morning, glad to be alive, he started noticing that things were - unusual. The sky was an unusual dark purple color. The sea, also, a dark purple color. Even the sand below his feet was a dark purple color. 'How odd' he thought, and then he noticed that his arms were turning this same color. "Help," he shouted, "I've been marooned!"


I started my own 'marooned' flower bed . Need to put a little 'help' sign in there, too.

Thirteen things I do EVERYDAY! 1. read the funnies on line ( Zits is a favorite) 2. eat chocolate 3. make hubby's breakfast 3. read scriptures 4. say my prayers 5. shower 6. think about exercising! (some days I actually do!) 7. check the weather 8. feed the chickens with youngest daughter 9. take my meds, stupid decongestant, synthroid, etc. 10. play solitaire, current favorite: Forty Thieves 11. talk to one of my grown daughters on the phone 12. take a nap 13. clean something! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Snickerdoodles 2. Musings and Meanderings 3. Diary of the Nello 4. Diary of a Music Whore 5. Janne's Jabberwocky 6. Peanut Tales 7. Musings From the Edge (leave your link in comments, I�ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It�s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

What's for Dinner Wednesday !

ok , this is from CooksIllustrated.com, it is a bit involved, but worth the trouble ( acronym: wtt ???, or well worth the trouble, wwtt!!) the best meatloaf I've ever eaten!!!!!!!!! and if you don't have dijon mustard or paprika, they are small matters , in my humble opinion... say, when is acronym day, anyway????

Glazed Meat Loaf
If you can't find chuck and/or sirloin, substitute any 85 percent lean ground beef. Handle the meat gently; it should be thoroughly combined but not pastelike. To avoid using the broiler, glaze the loaf in a 500-degree oven.
Serves 6 to 8 Meat Loaf

3 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated on small holes of box grater (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium onion , chopped fine (about 1 cup)
1 medium rib celery , chopped fine (about 1/2 cup)
1 medium clove garlic , minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup tomato juice
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 large eggs 1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (powdered) 1
tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2/3 cup crushed saltine crackers
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 pound ground sirloin
1 pound ground beef chuck
Glaze
1/2 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar


1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread cheese on plate and place in freezer until ready to use. Prepare baking sheet (see illustration below).2. Heat butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until foaming; add onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, and paprika and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to low and add tomato juice. Cook, stirring to scrape up browned bits from pan, until thickened, about 1 minute. Transfer mixture to small bowl and set aside to cool.3. Whisk broth and eggs in large bowl until combined. Sprinkle gelatin over liquid and let stand 5 minutes. Stir in soy sauce, mustard, saltines, parsley, salt, pepper, and onion mixture. Crumble frozen cheese into coarse powder and sprinkle over mixture. Add ground beef; mix gently with hands until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Transfer meat to foil rectangle and shape into 10 by 6-inch oval about 2 inches high. Smooth top and edges of meat loaf with moistened spatula. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf reads 135 to 140 degrees, 55 to 65 minutes. Remove meat loaf from oven and turn on broiler. 4. While meat loaf cooks, combine ingredients for glaze in small saucepan; bring to simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring, until thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes. Spread half of glaze evenly over cooked meat loaf with rubber spatula; place under broiler and cook until glaze bubbles and begins to brown at edges, about 5 minutes. Remove meat loaf from oven and spread evenly with remaining glaze; place back under broiler and cook until glaze is again bubbling and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes more. Let meat loaf cool about 20 minutes before slicing.


STEP BY STEP: Creating a Free-Form "Loaf Pan"Allowing meat loaf to stew in its own juices makes for a greasy mess. Here's our solution: Fold heavy-duty aluminum foil to form a 10 by 6-inch rectangle. Center the foil on a metal cooling rack and place the rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Poke holes in the foil with a skewer (about half an inch apart). Spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
STEP BY STEP: Troubleshooting Meat Loaf Here are two problems we encountered when making meat loaf -- and the steps we now take to avoid them.
PROBLEM: Sides of meat loaf remain crustless. SOLUTION: Loaf pans expose only one side of the meat loaf to browning heat. By opting for a free-form loaf, we achieved an all-over browned crust.
PROBLEM: Meat loaf sits in an unappealing pool of grease. SOLUTION: Baking directly on a sheet pan provides no outlet for exuded grease. A foil base, poked with holes and set on a cooling rack, lets juices drain as the loaf cooks.

Guard Cats??

These are our cats, inexplicably standing guard on the roof of our house. Who knows why cats do what they do, anyway? Cutie Pie is on the left, he was unfortunately named by his owner, our 10 year old daughter. The fluffy grey cat on the right showed up last spring and adopted us. Chloe hung around for a month or two while I asked around the neighborhood; no one claimed her, so we eventually accepted the inevitable and took her in. She is a bit loopy, but well mannered.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen of my favorite FOODS! 1. pizza, thick crust, thin crust, homemade, store bought, love it all, with lots of toppings!!! (no sardines)- good for lunch, dinner, and breakfast!!! 2. chocolate, dark (ie Dove) 3. Chicken Milano at Macaroni Grill 4. cranberry juice 5. fresh glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme 6. Razzleberry Pie, thank you Marie Callendar! 7. roasted almonds 8. fajitas 9. 'popeye' or 'potpie' homemade noodles with beef and broth 10. philly steak sub, meatball sub 11. dble cheeseburger at McD's 12. naughty,naughty french fries 13. dark chocolate milky ways? mars something or other, I think I need one right now because I can't think of the name... Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Snickerdoodles 2. Musings and Meanderings 3. Diary of the Nello 4. Diary of a Music Whore 5. Janne's Jabberwocky 6. Peanut Tales 7. Musings From the Edge (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

starting out

So, if your kids have to help you set up a blog, that means technically, you are a blogger on training wheels? Anyway thanks to my girl (www.thesassylime.blogspot.com) . Yes I know there is a more elegant way to set that up, so how do you do that? I see the link button on my posting window, but that is not much help.

At any rate, we'll see what I come up with, I do like to write, and talk. So blogs were made for me, right?