Breathe

The thing that matters is not what you bear, but how you bear it.
SENECA

The oven worked fine for Thanksgiving. Hallelujah, it cooked the 18.25# turkey in no time flat. I may use the convection feature more often. But today when I turned it on, the fan started to make a rattling noise. I'm just not going to use it for a little over a week and then I will get it checked. I don't have time right now.

Plumber Steve is working on the bathroom sink. Robin pointed out this weekend that it wasn't working. Hmmm. Steve has taken it apart and accidentally broke part, so after he turned off the main water valve and cleaned up all the water, he took it apart again and we went to get the part that was broken. He has been working on getting it not to leak for a while, but plastic parts are kind of a pain. We'll see how that goes.

I had to put the newsletter for our church together last week. Our pastor was really sick, but I didn't know that so I just used what info I had and shortened it from eight pages to six. Good enough. The printer at the church didn't have any cartridges, so I couldn't print it on Sunday. Plan foiled. I checked the price to have it printed at Kinko's and it was going to be over $70. Next plan foiled. It wasn't going to happen. Then Pastor Abby needed to add something that had to be in the newsletter and since I hadn't printed it yet, we got it in. She also got the cartridge so I walked her through merging the newsletter with the data base. I guess I really learned how to use this function in Publisher well enough to walk her through it. I was going to be irritated that it didn't work out the way I had planned, but I learned something and that is a good thing.

Dinner is cooking and the wine is breathing. All is good.


Be Free,
Lorri

I've been tagged!

I remember when I first saw someone tagged and I thought it looked cool. Now I'm wondering. But thank you Michelle, you are forcing me to think.

Here are the rules:

* Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
* Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
* Tag 3 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I love to sew, but gave up my sewing room 10 years ago to do massage. I have made swim wear, lingerie, tailored a wool coat in high school and a blazer for Steve, designed clothing pieces, made drapes. I am starting it back up, I've missed it.
2. I love trivia, my son calls me the queen of useless knowledge.
3. I am quite insecure around people I don't know but I'm not sure it translates that way. I have been told people are afraid of me. I don't get it.
4. I love to do anything that is creative. I love paint and color and decorating.
5. I am basically lazy.

I tag Shari, Darcy, and Craig.

Have fun and be free,
Lorri

Good vs. Bad

I am not a baker. I love to cook because I can make things up. You really can't do this when baking, you must measure things. I made apple bread on Thursday. It turned out ok, but I didn't put enough apples in it (because I didn't measure them)and if I had it would have been three loaves instead of two. Then it would have cooked in the amount of time it was supposed to have cooked and wouldn't have gotten so dark on the top. It tastes great, but it is a little dark on top. Yesterday I made pumpkin bread using fresh pumpkin. Did I mention that you have to measure everything when you bake. I eyeballed the pumpkin and I should have measured out 3 1/2 cups. It didn't bake right and when I tried to put it back in the oven to try to cook the inside some more (knowing that it probably wouldn't work, but what the heck, it was ruined anyway) my oven made a hum and then a pop and it smelled like burnt plastic.

Oh joy, we thought an element had burnt out, but they both got red when we turned them on, so today I get to test the oven. I will turn it on and preheat it to 350 degrees. If there is no problem, I will turn it off and then make more pumpkin bread and apple bread to bake. Did I mention that I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and if my oven doesn't work (breathe) I will survive, I have alternatives.

Ok, I have ranted for the day and enough is enough. Life is grand.

I just finished up my second quarter as a Pilates instructor for Pierce College Continuing Education. I got excellent evaluations. It makes me feel like I have done what I set out to do when I am told that they enjoyed the exercise and feel stronger and it didn't hurt. I really don't want it to hurt. I also feel that it should strengthen a body in the position that we use it in.

One thing that a lot of people mentioned were hand-outs. Right now I hand out a list of the exercises that we do. They have made it clear that while this is nice, they don't get a lot of use out of it because they don't connect the name to the exercise. So I have asked what the protocol is around my making a booklet of the exercises for students to use at home. Of course, I would have to charge enough to print them, but this idea excites me. Students wouldn't have to buy the book, but it could be an option. Then my mind spins off to all the details and I have a project.


"Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?"

THICH NHAT HANH

Home Alone or Not

Ok, I thought I was going to get a couple days alone. Just me, Puck and the computer. I was looking forward to catching up on this blog and reading those of my freinds, because since Steve is home he is training and is on the computer a lot. It is good that he is training so he can get a consulting job, but it has changed my routine.

Well, Steve left pulling the trailer to go camp with his dad for a couple days. He was gone about an hour and a half. He called to let me know something was seriously wrong with the Yeti, but he was going to put oil in it to see what that would do and he would get back to me. He did and we had to get it, and the trailer, towed to the dealer in Sumner. We will find out tomorrow what the diagnostic tests tell us.


Here us a picture of the Yeti on a flatbed truck which was pulling the trailer.

Lessons learned: How to ask for help? Patience? We really aren't in control of anything? Gratitude that such a thing can happen at a not so bad time.

Oh, and instead of getting a couple of days to myself Steve is here and his dad just came up here instead of camping. So I get the two of them together. What can I learn from this?

Be Free,
Lorri