Please Vote, Black Friday and a Decision About Adornment

It's the final day of voting for my current story. I'll not win this week, and if I end up getting sent home, I've made a valiant effort this season and it's been a blast. Right now, though, the season is catching up with me. Thanksgiving is next week, and I'm still unsure about what to have featured for our Black Friday/Small Business Saturday annual sale. I'll have to come to a decision "right quick" because I'm totally running out of time. 

Black Friday is quickly approaching. It's less important 
than in the days before a lot of online shopping, but it's 
still an important retail day. Next week! I'm nowhere 
near ready for this. 

A customer earlier this week told me that Virginia Stroud passed away earlier this month. I knew she was getting on in years, but it was still a sad thing to hear. I adore her art and have carried her prints for years and years. She always had a loving and playful outlook through her art - celebrating her Cherokee culture while embracing her own unique style of artwork. She'll be missed. I still have quite a lot of her prints available, but I won't be restocking them now, and I won't have a chance to chat with her and catch up on the "wahoshi" any more. It's one of the drawbacks of getting older. 

Virginia Stroud had a very gentle way of 
portraying the older ways of the Cherokee 
people. Her style was unmistakable, and 
her love for her heritage came through in every 
brush stroke. She'll be missed. 

I've had a second hole through the lobe of one ear since post-grad times in New Mexico. I had it done in conjunction with a friend at a place in Lubbock, Texas. Whoever pierced it did a horrible job with their piercing gun. It never really healed well, and has always bothered me a bit. But it's been more than 40 years that I've put up with it. I just purchased a set of small 14K hoops, thinking that might resolve the discomfort I feel in that ear, but it's not going to work. I can't even get the slightly curved wire through the wonky hole. So, I've decided to just leave it alone and naked. It's probably going to try to close up on me, like any wound, and at this point, I'm totally OK with that. I'll wear earrings, as I always do, in my lower holes of each ear. That's enough garnishment for this old lady - LOL. 

When my friend and I decided to split the cost of a 
piercing and got my second hole in my right ear, 
it should have been in this position. It wasn't - it 
was a bit higher up, and it was poorly pierced. It 
never healed properly, and has always bothered me. 
Time to give it up and leave it totally alone to 
close up on it's own. I'll just use my lower hole 
which was done properly more than 40 years ago. 

So, I'm off to the gym and the pool. One of our "group" decided to get a listing together of all our phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses so that we have a basic swimming address list for those of us who are here every single day. We're hoping to fend off issues like we had with dear Rosemary last week. It was wonderful to see her looking hale and hearty (as much as any 80 year-old woman who weighs under 100 lbs can look). She's sprightly, a real firecracker, and we were all horribly worried about her last week. But she's OK, and very touched that we all were so worried about her. She was the catalyst for this new group. I think it will be a good one to be a member of - lots of friends on that list. Have an excellent Wednesday, I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and please, if you haven't voted for my most recent tale, please do. The links are in a post from the past five days or so. 

LJ Idol and Garlands and ... I'm Running Late!

It's a swimming day and I have 15 minutes to get today's blog post up and running. Ooof! LOL But I actually slept until my alarm went off - a rarity - so no regrets. And isn't that how life should be lived whenever possible? A life of no regrets. Yet, I'm quite sure each one of you, my readers, have experienced a regret or two in your own lives. Paths that were offered to you that you didn't take. Choices where you might have made the poorer decision. But then again ... how would you actually know? The future is still an unknown in that imaginary other life, and life still continues to require you to live it. 

We're down to the final eight, but one person had to pull 
out yesterday because life got in the way. So, we have seven 
of us, and one of us will be eliminated. If you are kind enough 
to vote for me, I won't be eliminated, and will be able to more 
into the top six! I'm rather astounded, and very grateful. 

I'm doing well with votes for LJ Idol, but if you haven't voted for my story, I'd REALLY appreciate your vote. (Links in yesterday's post.) We're down to the final seven. One more person will be eliminated (one contestant bowed out due to life getting in the way - it happens). I like my "fairy" story and I hope that you do also, and that if you read it and like it, you'll take that extra step and vote for it. 

I bought three 50' lengths of this garland 
from Amazon. The last garland I had been 
using had been purchased from Frank's 
Nursery and Crafts (they closed all of their 
stores in the early 2000's). I'd been using them 
for many years, but they were getting a bit 
threadworn and falling apart. 

I'll be stapling foil garlands around the store today - time to Xmas the place up a bit. I bought new garlands because (1) the old garlands I had been using for 20 years or more had been in such bad shape that they were ridiculous, so I tossed them out at the end of last year, and (2) I'm hoping that the new garlands won't shed all over everything. We would find bits of tinsel in nooks and cracks for months after the old garlands were pulled and put away. The new ones shouldn't be quite as "sheddy" (is that even a word? - LOL). 

I'm running a little late today. Have to get 
going. 

So, I'm off and running. Today's blog is short because I'm running really late. I hope you have a totally fabulous Tuesday and I plan on being back here with all of you tomorrow. Be kind, spread love, and Slava Ukraini. 

The Leaves are Gone, Now Winter Can Visit (But She Can Take Her Sweet Time)

DH got busy with the leaves yesterday morning, and I joined him after I had cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast. He already had three piles along the street, and was working on more piles in the front yard. Our procedure for leaves is tarps - we take a pile, move it onto the tarp, add more piles if there is room, and then pull the tarp down to the steep slope where we've been depositing them for 20+ years. It helps to stabilize that slope, and it's out of the way. A good location. 

We had a LOT of leaves to rake and it took us several hours 
to finish things up from what DH had done on Saturday. 
Fortunately, although it was cool, the weather was perfect - 
no rain, no snow. Yippee! 

I think it took us about three hours total to get the leaves taken care of. I had to admire the garden while I was outside. My Lantana flower plants are still blooming, they're the only plant we have in the garden that are still giving us color. Such a delight. They won't survive the winter in our cold, but it's a joy to see them still giving us their all this late in the year. 

My Rosemary is actually good in Zones 4-8. We're in what's 
called "Zone 4 Hardy", yeah ... we get COLD and we get 
Winter. But we'll keep the pot close to the back patio door 
and see if it makes it through the winter. I do love my rosemary 
for cooking. 

The other things that are still growing are my herbs. my Rosemary and my Thyme. It's possible that the Rosemary might winter well if we move the pot to a protected place, so we'll do that. The Thyme won't survive our cold at all, but I'm enjoying the fact that they're still up and growing. I actually got quite a lot of herbs from them over the summer, put them into my dehydrator, and have jars of freshly dried herbs for my cooking. Happy me! 

We usually do a really good reduction on price for our 
After-Thanksgiving Day two-day sale. We hold it on 
Friday and Saturday. Then we focus on after Christmas for
the next sale event.  

It's two weeks until "Turkey Day" and then we dive into the Holiday season with our after-Thanksgiving Day sale weekend. I still have NO idea what we'll put on sale. I'm thinking maybe the cube shape of our Swarovski crystals, but in the past I've also done a straight percentage off the price of everything in the store. I might just do that for easy. I don't like having to do cash register gymnastics for items on sale vs items not on sale, when I'm super busy with customers. Easy is better (and more accurate). So, I'll bounce things off DH and Chickie and figure out what I want to do. I have newly purchased garland, so I'm bringing my staple gun to the shop so that I can put it up over the next few days. Since this is new garland, it doesn't already have the right lengths together, nor the wires to mount it to the cabinet fronts. I'll be starting from scratch with that aspect of the holiday decorating this year. But, hopefully, I won't have a floor full of sparkly shedding to sweep up after January 1st either. 

I'd very much appreciate your vote if you haven't already 
voted for this week's story. I'm in the final eight (actually 
the final seven since one more person has dropped out 
because of time conflicts with real life). I'd love to keep 
going with this group, and every vote is important. Links 
are in the paragraph below. 

Voting is open for my story at LJ Idol, and I'd really appreciate your vote (if you haven't already voted for this story). The link for voting is here https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=32233 and my story is here https://erulissedances.dreamwidth.org/1072926.html . Thanks for your vote in advance. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slave Ukraini! 

I Explored the Twin Cities Yesterday - An Experience Saved by Google Maps

 It's Saturday. What are your plans for the weekend? 

I know what I'll be doing - I'll be raking leaves on Sunday. NOT one of my favorite tasks. DH has let them pile up, and we're having one of our last nice weekends, so he'll be out there today and tomorrow, raking and I'll be expected to join in the "fun" tomorrow. I hope he gets the upper front yard done today, then we can work on the upper back yard tomorrow. I think he wants to load the leaves into the back of the pickup truck and haul them to the County yard waste recycling center. Whatever, it'll be a Sunday of hard labor, and somewhere in there he'll want to watch some football and I'll need to do a load of laundry. 

I'm not looking forward to raking the leaves. Up to me? I'd 
hire someone to do it. We have a LOT of trees, so there are 
a LOT of leaves. Ugh! 

Yesterday I was scheduled to see a new doctor - a step up from my standard doctor. He's a specialist in bone work. Since I have now been on Fosomax twice, and the bone scan results from my test earlier this year were disappointing, I'm moving up the scale to a specialist instead of my regular GP. I thought he was located at the clinic just north of my home. OOPS! I was seriously off base on that. 

I had never been to this location of Allina Health before. I guess 
I'll get used to going here if I need an injection every six months. 

Silly me, I didn't check my phone's calendar carefully enough. Instead of being a few short miles from the house, he was at a clinic completely on the other side of town in Coon Rapids (don't ask about city names in my area - they're varied, somewhat weird, and often not in English). It's all part of the greater Metropolitan area, but for me, a person from Denver where it's ALL Denver for miles and miles before getting to the suburbs, the little areas of local government that make up our Metro area is confusing. I had no idea how to get to the new clinic, and had less than an hour to get there. 

I had never used this feature of Google Maps 
before. It worked out REALLY well, and I 
arrived in plenty of time for my 8:50 am 
appointment. 

Fortunately, the receptionist at the wrong clinic was able to help me get Google directional maps on my phone (which makes sense - I use a Google phone), and show me how to use it. Voila! I now knew where I was going and how to get there. I was there in plenty of time. It was a large three-story building, so a major hub of my medical clinics. My new doctor was very nice, quite young (of course, everyone is young to someone of 70 years of age), and very thorough. I enjoyed both him and his assistant, Kate. They sent me down for labs, where I had to wait for 45 minutes before my name was called. The vampire assigned to me needed seven tubes of blood, but she was GOOD. No problems, no pain, and no mark. Results are in my in-box today. I'll take a look later this morning. 

So it was an eventful few hours, and I was really glad to get home. I suspect I'll be shifted over to injections every six months, and if that doesn't work, they'll have to do infusions. All to keep my bones from breaking apart. I'm not a fan of broken bones, so I'll manage to do whatever is needed. I'm out of here, have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini 

Missing Friends and Writing Stories - All is Good

My friend Rosemary has been MIA and we've been concerned. Rosemary is like the watch that "takes a licking but keeps on ticking". She's an older woman, maybe cracking five feet tall and probably 90 pounds - very small. But she's a power house. Norwegian in ancestry, she exhibits all of the positive traits of the Vikings - strength, perseverance (or stubbornness), and a bright interest in the world. She's at the pool every day for the 5:00 am opening, and if she won't be there, she always lets us know. 

Rosemary is at the swimming pool five days a week for 
the 5:00 am opening. She's been there for years, and the 
days she's missed she's been out of town with family, or 
something else that she always tells us about in advance. 
That wasn't the case this time. 

She was at the pool on Monday and our mutual friend, Meg, said she had looked quite tired and had even said that she was exhausted. She had family visiting over the weekend and probably overdid it entertaining her kin. On Tuesday she wasn't at the pool, and we were all a bit concerned, but figured she was taking a day to recuperate. On Wednesday she wasn't there, and we tried calling her and leaving a message on her machine (she never actually picks up the phone, and she's old fashioned - land line only, no cell phone). 

Rosemary was MIA. This is something that NEVER 
happens. I'll be scolding her and making her promise 
to call one of us if something like this ever happens again. 

On Thursday she wasn't there again. This set alarm bells off for several of us, and I determined to do a bit more in-depth searching after I was finished with my swim. I asked our gate gargoyle - Sabrina - to look into the computer and find her address for me. I wanted to drive by her house to do a wellness check on her since she has no living relations in the Twin Cities area. Sabrina agreed and gave me the information, making me promise I'd phone her with the results. 

So, I went to Rosemary's house on my way to the shop. It's a lovely house, very well kept up, neat and tidy. But all of the lights were off, and there was no answer nor any sign of life. I couldn't see if her car was in the garage or not - there were no windows in the garage door. I called Sabrina with the news, and she dug a bit farther on her end, finally finding a secondary phone number for one of her sons. The son informed Sabrina that there had been a death in the family, and Rosemary had traveled to wherever she needed to be for the family. We're all breathing a sigh of relief now, and are looking forward to seeing her again next week. I will scold her for frightening us, however. Such a naughty girl! LOL 

My latest story is up for reading, and I'm quite happy 
with it. I could easily see a longer tale with this 
character. Voting will open today, so I'll post links 
for voting in tomorrow's post. I hope you'll take 
a look/read and will vote for me when you can. Every 
vote counts. We're down to the final eight and two 
more will be eliminated this week. 

My current story is up, but voting doesn't open until later today, so I'll have a link or something in my post tomorrow. I do hope that you'll read it and vote for my tale of a worried Elven father. It was a fun story to write, went in directions I certainly hadn't planned, but that's when the best things happen when I'm writing fiction. I hope you enjoy it, I'll be back tomorrow with a voting link and to wrap the week up. Slava Ukraini. 

Tea, Cooking and LJ Idol - Yesterday Was a VERY Busy (But Good) Day

It was a very crowded day yesterday, but I actually got everything done that I needed to, including a check-up with my Orthodontist. I passed that with flying colors, my next checkup is in March next year. Whoot! It was lovely to see everyone again. 

I passed my checkup with Doc DeVoe with flying 
colors. He's pleased, I'm pleased, and I don't see 
him again until March! Whoot! 

I did grab some time to pick up a bunch of tea from the grocer across the street from Dr DeVoe's clinic. I had checked my selection at my local grocer earlier in the day, and it just wasn't thorough. So, I bought a bunch at the store "up North", and I'm stocked for at least four months, probably closer to six months, now. 

I ended up with more than $100 of tea, not unusual when 
one canister can cost $14. But I love their teas, they're 
very clear about what exactly is in each one, and I do a 
LOT of label reading before a tea makes it into my 
shopping basket. I drink several portions of tea every 
day, so ingredients are important. Remember - "There's 
nothing natural about 'Natural Flavors". In fact, 
the term "Natural Flavors" is a really good reason for 
you to NOT buy something. 

My next story for LJ Idol is due today, and I didn't have ANY time to work on it at all, yesterday. Today will be a crunch time. I think I see where the story is leading me, but I just have to bring it home and revise it a few times before posting it. 

My cabbage soup turned out really nice. I'll 
have some in two days. I have to finish up 
my chili first, then I can dive into my soup. 

I made a lovely cabbage soup in the crock pot yesterday, baked my next 10+ days of fruit for my breakfasts, and I was still prepping salad vegetables at the end of the day when DH came home. I also managed my three loads of laundry. What a housewife! LOL I feel fortunate that Aearwen cancelled our chat yesterday. I could have managed it, but it would have been in the kitchen instead of comfortably in front of my computer for an hour of "down time". I think next week we'll be back to our normal schedule once again. 

I have to finish my story for LJ Idol, and get that uploaded 
while I'm at the shop. We operate on Eastern Time for this 
contest, so I can't wait until I've arrived home and had 
dinner before uploading. 

So, as I rush off to the swimming pool once again, I wish all of you a safe and productive Thursday. I'll let you know when my story is available for reading and voting. We're down to the Final Eight, and I'm up against some extremely talented writers, so every vote will count! Thanks in advance and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Another "Day Off" That's Anything BUT a "Day Off"

 I'm hitting the ground running today. It's a laundry day, so my first load is already in the washer. It's a "day off", but I also have a 2:00 pm appt with my Orthodontist for a check-up. I think things are going really well. I'm remembering to wear my appliance overnight, I'm keeping it super clean, and it's a total joy being without braces and having straight teeth during the days. What a wonderful thing this past two years have brought to me. 

I'm still in the running for LJ Idol and I'm thrilled. I think 
this week's challenge is coming together well, I actually could 
see a book out of it if I was so inclined. However, one story 
will be sufficient at this point in time. LOL I'll let you know 
when I have posted it and when the voting is opened. 

I'm working on my next tale for LJ Idol. It's turning into a bit longer story than my usual, but I still have to edit it (and work on it), so it might shorten in the editing process. I like where I'm going with it. We'll see what I end up with overall. 

Aearwen and I have been chatting on Wednesday 
afternoons for several years now. It's always lovely 
to catch up with her. Today will be a bit of a time 
crunch, but I think it will work out just fine. 

If our schedules mesh, I'll have a chance to catch up with Aearwen for our weekly "convo" at 4:00 pm my time. Last week her brother was visiting from Arizona, so we cancelled our chat. This week, I can't recall if he's still visiting or if her schedule is once again open. I guess I'll find out - LOL. It might be a tight one for me, since I want to grab some tea at the grocer near my orthodontist after my visit with him. I think the schedule will work if there aren't any unforeseen items like exceptionally heavy traffic, etc. But we chat on the cellphone, and that can be done practically anywhere, including my car. So no real problems there. 

I'm a huge fan of Republic of Tea herbal teas, and the 
grocery shop across the street from my Orthodontist 
has a great selection of them. I'm getting rather low 
on them right now, so I'll try to make time to restock 
while I'm in that area of the Cities. 

But, I have load 1 of 3 in the washer and I'm wearing my swim suit, prepared to head off to the gym in less than an hour. I'll need to look through my TBD list and make sure I hit everything on it, but I think I'll manage well, in one way or another. LOL I like busy days (usually), and I really like my Orthodontist, so it's all OK. Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.