Me

Look! It's a picture of me!
I thought I should post a picture of myself after my 25 lb. weight loss.

It is happening sloooowly.
I'm never a fan of pictures of myself but I figured I should do it anyway.
About 16 years ago I lost 50 lbs. and the only picture I have from that time is a black and white head shot on an old Sam's Club membership card.

The fun part has been getting new clothes!

It had been more than a month since I lost a pound, but this morning I was down two more, which actually makes the loss 27 lbs., but this picture was taken on Saturday.

And that happened AFTER I ate a frozen pretzel at the baseball game last night.

I've given up bread, except for a slice once a week, so as you can imagine, I found this latest loss rather surprising. But I'll take it anyway!

I had hoped that ALL of my ills would go away due to weight loss, but apparently I pinned too much on it. My blood sugar has been AMAZING, but I keep breaking out with eczema, and my joints - especially my hip - still pains me.

But, you know me, not one to complain!

(hahahahahaha!)

Where Have I Been?

A week ago, THGGM and I travelled to Wisconsin for our annual fall visit with family.
We had a WONDERFUL time.
I feel sad for people who do not have amazing relatives like we do.
I took nearly 400 pictures on our trip.
This year I did not drag along my laptop nor did I crop and post pictures as the days went by.
No.  I saved all of that until I got home.
Well, THAT was not such a great idea after all.
THGGM had Monday off, and as we were sitting around our living room Monday morning I began to go through my emails.
There was one from FedEx, saying that I had missed a package delivery.
I mentioned this to THGGM, asking if he had ordered anything. 
He answered, yes, but he couldn't recall what it was.
Silly me.
In the SECONDS between when I asked that question and he remembered that his delivery had in fact been received, I clicked on the email.
WARNING!  DO NOT DO THIS!
Immediately, my computer went all wonky.
My computer was infected with the DECRYPT virus, which holds one's pictures hostage until a ransom is paid.
This virus has been around for a bit, wrecking havoc on businesses. 
I am an old gray haired grandmother with PICTURES. 
Please do not even ask if I had backed up my files.  Okay.  since you asked anyway, I DID back up many of them, but not all.  It isn't like it is free to do that, and my space was full, meaning I would have had to purchase more storage.  Apparently, it doesn't count that I was thinking of doing that. 
My amazing Son-in-law took my computer and was able to rid it of the virus, but nothing but paying the ransom would bring my pictures back, and I do believe it is already too late for that now.  After much intensive Googling, it appears even the FBI suggests that one just pays the ransom. 
Of course, it could be much worse.  I know that.  Most of my pictures appear on Facebook or this blog, so there is that. 
But, still.
I am so angry! 
I can barely sleep at night if I even think that something I have said without thinking may have hurt somebody else's feelings.  How do these people who do this kind of stuff sleep at night?  Ugh.  I do not know.
Anyway, all is not lost!  I've been trying to get comfortable using the camera on my Kindle Fire.  So, after four days of being away, I DO have this picture that came out somewhat decently.  This is my cousin's beautiful dog, Honey.  Honey wants me to throw that tennis ball for her.  So, there you have it, a picture from my fall vacation.
Now I am going to sulk and mourn a bit more, then I shall return with the silver lining.  Because, you know, there is ALWAYS a silver lining.
This silver lining will also reveal a bit more of my stupidity (yes, really, truly, it will) so I am giving myself a teeny tiny break before I admit to another incredibly dumb thing that I have done. 
Ugh.
Sometimes it is just so very difficult to be me.
But we had a GREAT vacation! 

My Project from a Few Weeks Back

Lately I've been looking for ways to use up what I already have.
This embossed wallpaper is something that I already have.
The old cabinet I keep my glassware in was so dark, so I thought that I would just run the wallpaper down the back of it.
NOTHING is ever as easy as one might think it should be.
The shelves wouldn't budge and the corners had odd bits poking out.
So, I cut and pieced and am hoping the double sided tape will hold it up.
And if you think this looks like a good idea for using embossed wallpaper, think again.
Unless I open up the cabinet, get down on my knees and stick my head inside I would never be able to tell that it is embossed wallpaper back there.
So if the tape doesn't hold (it has for a couple of weeks already) I'm just going to spray paint the inside a creamy white, because I DO like the lighter look.

English Toffee Attempt

Usually it takes several attempts until I get the results I am after when I make English toffee.

My first attempt, made on Christmas Eve, was quite passable.

But it didn't get to the amber colored stage. Which means it was soft.

Pictured here is my second attempt. Made today for the extended family Christmas party tomorrow.

Look at how perfectly it came out. And I do mean perfectly. Note the lovely amber color.

But, it had some white swirls in it. I just could not figure that out.

Then, I looked at my spoon.

What was I thinking, using a plastic spoon?

So, in my trash I have what looks like a giant slo-poke sucker.

THGGM said that he would be happy to eat it, but I've become rather fond of him and would like to have him around for a long long time. This seems to require keeping plastics out of his diet.

I am happy to report that the third batch came out just fine. Not perfect, but fine.

Here's to hoping that I got my failure out of the way early for 2011!

Christmas Shoes

Hmm.

Found some more shoes.

Added two cake plates and two little glass dishes, one sitting on a glass candle stick (those are handy).

The cake plates I covered with doilies.

Since this is NOT what I was actually doing today, I kept running back in to do the necessary tweaking.

I find tweaking to be necessary, don't you?

Some people Tweet. I tweak.

(Next year I may even go Tweak-or-Treating!)

These little wool booties once belonged to an uncle of THGGM's.

This uncle did not survive infancy. THGGM's grandma would have still been a teenager when he died.

I find them to be beautiful, and worthy of display.

And then tonight?

Tonight I added some green beads.

I like how it looks in this particular picture, but for the most part I seemed to have crossed that line of enough is enough.

Stop me if I add colored shoestrings and jingle bells.

I'm sure I'll tweak some more. Mostly by taking things away.

That line? It's just sooo hard to know where it is.

Anyway...

This makes a pleasant vignette on my dresser in the bedroom.

And, I think THGGM likes it better than doll heads wearing severed sweater sleeves as hats.

See This Branch?

Well I did NOT.

I love my magnolia tree.

The pink blooms of spring.

The abundance of twigs it drops just for me.

The shade it provides on sunny summer days.

How perfect it is for young children to climb.

But this branch has GOT to go.

While walking Zeke around the yard on Saturday morning THIS branch smacked me in the head. AGAIN. When I asked THGGM if he had ever smacked into it, his response was "Only every time I mow the lawn."

For all of the differences that exist between THGGM and me, one thing we share in common is the number of times we can be smacked by the same thing before we decide we actually need to DO something about it.

Judy Plumbs the Depths

Okay. This is NOT funny.

It was just two weeks ago, also on Monday, when the horrible pretty pink toilet episode happened.

Notice that I am getting rather handy with jimmy-ing toilets.

This time I tied the doo-hickey up with "It's A Boy!" ribbon, and weighted it down with the new doo-hickey purchased recently for repairing the toilet.

Thankfully, nothing flooded. I just happened to hear water running, and was quite certain that I was the only one home.

By following the sound it was easy to ascertain what the problem was.

Or so I thought.

My thought was that THGGM, who worked in this bathroom all weekend - painting the walls, scraping and painting the floor, and installing a new shower head - had simply not correctly fixed the toilet.

But, since talking to him, he assures me that he did NOT touch the toilet. It hasn't worked in almost a year now.

Why, today, did it decide to suddenly turn itself on full blast?

I do not know.

(insert frustrated sound here)

I Am SUCH a Grandma

This is how one knows one is a grandma.

A sad looking child holds up her index finger to your face and you kiss it, presuming it to be an owie.

She looks strangely at you, and you realize that you now have a booger on your lip.