Monday

Life is back to normal as far as Maggie is concerned. She is my happy, lovable cat again. Here is a picture of her on top of the cookbook bookcase. Notice the small windmill by her feet. I don't know how she figured out the paddles would go around, but she played with it and made it spin around. She's a smart one, that cat. (And Spoiled)
Today Carol and I had appointments with Miguel in Turlock. Again I had spots on my feet that hurt. One was for my head. Miguel asked if I've been dizzy. I never mentioned that to him, but when I lay back on my pillow, I would get really dizzy and would try to find a different position. I was concerned about it, but I guess not enough to go to my MD. Miguel said there was some kind of blockage near the top of my head. The appointment was before noon and my face was hot all afternoon.
The recipes have started coming in. THANK YOU!! We need a LOT MORE, of course. It's interesting to see the different ones that people have sent in. Have you sent in your recipes yet?
It was decided to print the Winton Hometown News every other month, instead of each quarter. That will be two more per year. We should be able to find enough material for that. The newsletter that just went out then will be the March/April issue.
The next one (May/June) will be mailed out in May. And yes, it's still fun!!

Another Mistake

O.k. So, I made a mistake. . . again!
I took little Sam back to the Animal Control Center. He was very friendly and lovable, but Maggie just didn't want him around.
I guess Maggie is too territorial. She just doesn't want another cat that close to her. I couldn't bear to see Maggie so unhappy, so the other one had to go.
They weren't overjoyed to see the cat returning, but I did leave the $40. neuter fee as a donation. Can't win them all, I guess. The Control Center will be moving to Castle soon, I think next week. I'm sure Sam will be adopted again, he is a very cute cat.
As for me and My Maggie, we will stay a one-cat household. I'm not going to try that again.

Cat World

Today I brought Sam home from the Animal Shelter. He was happy to be out of that little cage he shared with another cat. He played with some of Maggie's cat toys and that was cute, couldn't get a picture though. He also found the bird that chirps, I heard that go off at least 3 times. Sam likes my recliner. When I hold him he tries to give me a strong hug and he has a loud purr. But, he sneezes a lot. I'll have to take him to the Vet and see what's wrong with him.
Maggie didn't give him a very warm welcome. She is not too happy with me for bringing this intruder home. At least they are not fighting, so I think Maggie will get used to him.Maggie prefers the couch if she's not on my lap. I'm not sure what the sleeping arrangements will be tonight. Maggie is used to sleeping on her side of the bed. Maybe Sam will be happy at the foot of the bed. I just hope he's a healthy cat. That's my only concern right now. I have to take Sam back next month to be neutered. I thought they did that before you take them home, but the Vet is only there twice a month now.
Well, this was only the first day. I hope they will be friendlier tomorrow.

A Rainy Sunday

What to do on a rainy Sunday? Lay about, read the Sunday paper, take a nap with the cat on your lap. I should go grocery shopping, but I'm waiting to see if the rain will let-up.
Yesterday I went to the Animal Control Center and picked out a playmate for Maggie. I went in looking for a short-haired female cat with thick grey hair. Well, the one I adopted is a 6 mos. old male Tabby with grey and brown hair. He is SO cute and lovable, really a sweet cat. The lady opened the cage and let me hold him. He wasn't neutered yet, so couldn't bring him home. BUT - come Tuesday morning, Maggie is in for a BIG surprise!! I'll post a picture of the new Cutie later. Both of these are of Maggie.She better be nice to him, because I'm not taking this one back. I finally got serious about getting another cat because Maggie has been so restless and wanting to play with me all day. She gets too rough with me though and I have the scratches to prove it. She even attacked me close to my face one day. I thought that's it!! She's getting another cat to play with.

I finally finished the newsletter for the Winton Historical Society. What a comedy of errors! Good grief. First I decided to use a different font and typed it all up and then wondered why it printed out so light in the PDF format. After wasting a lot of time, finally figured out the font was not compatible with the Adobe Acrobat program, at least not with my OLD version (5.0). So, after I redid it with the default font in WP, I had a little more room in the document. Did I mention I tried to cram too much into one newsletter and had to go from a size 12 to size 11 font? So after all that, I could have part of it in the regular 12 size font. On and on it went, one mistake after another. Last night I finished typing the names and addresses in the label format.
So, today, I was looking at some of my recipes and deciding which ones to submit to the new WINTON CENTENNIAL COOKBOOK. Talked to my daughter, Sandy, she found the candy recipe I was looking for and emailed it to me.
I've been looking through my Aunt Bertha's old recipe box. I don't know how many of those she had, my sisters all have one, probably my cousins too. Mine has more cake recipes than anything. Found a salad recipe I'm going to try as soon as I get to the grocery store.
Well, that's how my rainy Sunday is going. Nothing exciting, just nice and relaxing.

Today

Today I had lunch at Carrows with a couple of friends. Just as we were walking in at 11:30, we saw this funnel cloud. I had my little camera in my purse, so took a couple of pictures. The cloud was already dissipating. It was on the TV news tonight; we don't usually see such things in Merced.
We had our usual long leisurely lunch and played catch-up on what's going on in our lives. Bev went to Miguel,the Reflexologist in Turlock for the first time, because of a twitching in her ankles that sometimes kept her awake at night and Surprise! It's gone!! Chalk another one up for Miguel Gallegos!! Bev had this for years and lately it had been getting much worse, waking her up in the middle of the night.
I've been working on the Winton Historical Society's newsletter. My sister and I decided to switch jobs, so now she is the Treasurer and I am the Editor. We both will go to interview people and get their stories and maybe scan some pictures. That's the fun part. (Just call us the Roving Reporters!)
It's taking some time to figure out the front page with inserting the large picture into WordPerfect with all the text that needs to be there.
And then there's the names and addresses to type in and print out address labels. This first one is taking a lot of time, but after I get the hang of it, it shouldn't be so bad. The pages have filled up quickly. Maybe we'll have to send a newsletter every other month instead of quarterly. We'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, don't forget to send in your recipes for the Winton Centennial Cookbook.

Winton Centennial 2011

In two short years, Winton will be celebrating its 100th birthday. My Giesbrecht family was among those early settlers, along with many others. The above picture is of the first parade in Winton in celebration of the first mail delivery. The picture is from the Logue/Smith collection of historical photos of Winton.
As part of this Centennial celebration, the Winton Historical Society will publish a new recipe book, “The Winton Centennial Cookbook.” We are looking forward to collecting favorite recipes from family, friends and neighbors; people with a connection to Winton.
If you have a connection to Winton, please help by sending your favorite recipes to: Winton Historical Society, PO Box 554, Winton, CA 95388 or email: wintoncookbook@aol.com
Be sure to include your name and phone number in case there is any question regarding the recipe. You can submit recipes in memory of your mother, grandmother or other loved one. We need to collect recipes now in order to have the book completed in time. Please let anyone with a connection to Winton know about our recipe book project. Thank you so much.

Christmas All Over Again

Hey, It was Christmas All Over Again at My House Today too. Got a package in the mail from my daughter, Sandy. It was a very nice REAL Book of my trip to the Netherlands to visit her in September. The pictures were taken by Sandy, my friends and I. Such a nice keepsake of the trip to Holland. It will be cherished forever. Thanks Sandy!!!! Beautiful. I Love It.
I saw this cartoon online today and it reminded me of what happened when I was visiting Sandy. I needed to wash some clothes and dumped everything into one load. Unfortunately, the dye in my red tee-shirt ran and all my underwear came out pink! The other clothes only a little pink here and there.Tina's Groove -- by Rina Piccolo.

Forget Something?

My granddaughter called me from Chico today and we had a nice long conversation. Just when we were going to hang up, we both heard this loud gun-shot; sounded like it came from my kitchen. I walked in to see what happened.
I forgot I put the eggs on the stove to boil for potato salad.
The water boiled out and the eggs exploded!!
Yikes! Eggs on the stove, the floor and boy, did it stink! Yuk.
Good thing it was warm outside, I opened the windows and doors and turned on the whole-house fan. I hope I'm not getting dangerous in the kitchen. lol.
I might have to throw out the pan the eggs were in. It was a wedding present, so it's over 50 years old, maybe time to get new pots & pans.