Passports are being required to get back into the USA as of Jan 23, 2007 if you are flying.  However even if you aren’t planning on flying back in, because you are taking a cruise or driving across a border, you should still have your passport. 

Something may happen while you are gone requiring you to fly back.  In any case by Jan 2008 you will need passport for any travel outside the US to return to the USA.

Some Caribbean countries already require passports instead of the normal picture ID and birth certificate.

In our paper today Walgreen’s is having a sale.  $7.99 for 2 passport photos. AT any rate, the most I’ve seen for pictures is $10.   So at least get your photos made, then apply for your passports as soon as possible. 

The cost of a  passport is $97 for ages 16 and older and under 16 it’s $82.   They do not run sales on passport fees so there is no sense in waiting for a sale.

In normal circumstances it takes about 6 weeks to recieve your passport.  But with so few Americans having passports we look to an increase in the time it takes to process the applications.

There are services that will expedite the processing to as little as 3 days but they cost almost as much as the passport itself.

You never know when the opportunity for international travel will come up and as much as we don’t consider it, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean are international destinations.  So get that passport as soon as possible so you are ready to travel, travel, travel.

 

I have been told by Gentle Hands and also the trainer at the gym to use an exercise ball for a computer chair. 

Since I”ve killed all the padding in the oversized office chair I have, and last night I could barely sit in the chair it was so uncomfortable, I finally broke down and bought a ball today.

Walgreens had a bogo sale.  So i bought a ball and pilates tubing.  I use the tubing at the gym so probably know enough to be dangerous about it.

After finally getting the hand pump working took me about 10 min to blow it up.  A little smaller than I would like but it’s working fine.

I hope I’m supposed to bounce as I sit.  I also wonder if bouncing wil help use calories and lose weight over a period of time.

Well for right now its fun.  As i have it sitting on a box i will probably need a bigger ball.  But also plan on using it for exercises on the days I don’t go to the gym.

And I am sitting up straighter more often.   The chair was so big that i found myself not being able to sit back anyhow. 

 

 

 

 

 

and I was too sick to really enjoy it.  I guess teh mess of the flat tire brought on a muscle spasm attack and by Christmas day i was just too miserable to enjoy it. 

 Other than that I had a nice time at my cousin’s.  I went over Sat night and on Sunday they had a Christmas eve dinner for their  best friends and some of her relatives.

We went to Christmas eve candlelight service at an Episcopal Church.  The pageantry was beautiful but the incense being waved around really choked me.

Then we went to bed and got up and opened presents in the morning.  My cousins were just like little kids with their presents.  It was a lot of fun, but then that muscle spasm started acting up again so I went back to bed for awhile.   Then got up in time to have the big dinner and left right after.

I came home and went to bed at 330pm  and that’s where I’ve stayed till this morning.  There’s a little pain but not that searing pain, taking my breath away.  So hopefuly I’m over the worst of it.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

 

Had my day all planned out.   run some errands  come back and help out with our Friday markets over at the Expo-connector where our paid vendors sell their products. Mostly offering good deals.  Make a tuna casserole for dinnner  and finally get this room cleaned up. I’m almost there with straightening up this room.

So I start up the road and hear this noise like snow tires. Oh oh, that isn’t right.  So I stop and get out.  I have a flat tire.  Not going flat but completely flat.   How in the world did I walk right by it to get in thecar and not see it?   So called the driving club we use.  Will take them an hour to get here.     Traffic is really bad.  Took him about an hour and 10 min.  then about another 25 min to change the tire as we had to keep the car in the garage and there wasn’t much room for him to work.  Driveway is on a hill and not a good idea to jack the car up on a hill.

Tire has a big screw in it  and a little nail.   He says it was the screw.  I probably picked it up at the post office where they are widening the road and have messed up the parking lot royally.  Won’t be going back to that post office.  We have a nice little store across from Walmart that does all the mail,  ups , usps and fed ex.  I’ll be using them, no lines and they are nice.

So i go to the tire shop where we bought the tires last year.  Took them 3 hours to patch the tire, rotate them and do an oil change.

Finally I got to run my errands and made it home about 5pm.  So there went any inside work I was going to do today.

Why do men want to break up with their girlfriends but still control them?  Tink’s boyfriend recently told her that he wanted to see other people without telling her that there was already someone else in the picture.

After telling her this right before a party she was helping host, he ends with telling her he’d like to be  friends.

Why?  What does  ‘being friends’ mean in a situation like this.   Then later that night or the next night he puts on his blog what he didn’t tellher in person.  That he reconnected with a computer geek like him from high school and he no longer ‘has to settle’.

Well whoever thought that he was “settling”?  I kind of thought he was lucky to have a girlfriend that wanted to include him with things she was doing and with her family.  Of course I might be a bit prejudiced but still…..

So what’s with this “I hope we can stay friends” bit.   It just doesn’t work.  It’s basically I don’t want you but I don’t want you to be happy with anyone else either. 

Either keep the relationship going for real or break it off completely.  In this case you can’t have your cake and eat it too!

It’s been a long time since I did any real baking.  I’m still messy.  Using lots of pans and spoons.

Today I made fruitcake and fudge.   Had to run to the store as we no longer have a sifter.  What  a difference a real sifter makes.  I had been using a small colander type and it took forever to sift 2 cups of flour in it.

I believe the fruitcake turned out well.  I haven’t tasted it yet but the batter sure was good.  I soak the fruit in a cup of rum for a night.

Then I decided to make the fudge  It’s been 2 years since I made any.  So made it, spread it in the glass pan,  and then sat in the chair to clean out the saucepan.   That was kind of neat, not having to fight anyone for the remains.  But kind of lonely too.  At home we always fight over who gets to lick what’s in the pot.

But as I was sitting licking the spoon I”m thinking there’s sometlhing wrong with this.  It tasted kind of flat.  Then it hit me I forgot to put the vanilla in at the end.  I was so eager to get it in the glass pan that I completely forgot the vanilla was added at the end.   So I got up and ran into the kitchen and stirred in the vanilla.   What a difference in the taste!  So yes  vanilla does make a big difference, especially since I use the pure extract.

 

 

Well after nearly two years exercising at a gym, watching what I eat and winding up gaining 14 lbs and being a size larger, I decided to chuck it all.   I gave notice at the gym and will start walking here more next month.

I went to Walmart today and they were out of the soft baked Pepperidge Farm chocolate chip cookies and out of Onion Soup mix. But I bought the ingredients for fudge, chocolate chip cookies and fruitcake.   What I don’t eat in the next two weeks will go in the freezer and I will eat off it all year.

Decided not to make Lasagne tho since I will be at my cousin’s for Christmas day.  But bought Stouffer’s frozen lasagne which we like.  Not as good as homemade but it works.   Will be just right with a salad.  I’ll probably do that Christmas Eve.  

Probably will make our Waldorf Astoria cake for New Year’s eve.  Haven’t thought what else I will do.  Will get a filet mignon for New Years Day.

what are  your plans?

Put the last packages in the mail today to Gentle Hands and Tink.  I had a blast wrapping Gentle Hands and Piper Dude’s gifts.  I had already wrapped the girls gift and Computer Guys when i was home at Thanksgiving.

 I am still trying to decide if I should put up lights outside but looksl ike all my extension cords are inside cords.   I hate to spend almost $20 bucks on a cord when I have plenty in VA.

I have a snowman table  and I keep finding cute little ones to add to it. I put white fluff under them and they look like they are on a field of snow. Will post a picture when I can get good ones.  

 I also have a Peanuts set up on the buffet.  I put white fluff under them too.  I have the Nativity set, the Nativity miniatures, the scraggly Christmas tree.  The white fluff just really adds to everything.

I also made a basket with white flocked  greens and then put in spikes with purple presents  and it came out really nice.  Wrapped the basket in purple material  then put white fluff under it.  

Oh and I put Mojo in his Santa suit, Petey Bear in his candy cane suit and Buttercookie in her Red Hat outfit on the couch.  And took a white Coca Cola Santa bear and a little bear that changes his sweater each month and put them in a chair wiht a wreath..

So I’m done decorating also.   How about the rest of you?

 

I’m watching 7th Heaven which is bad enough.  They are going to kill Eric this year.  He has heart problems so that will definitely mean the end of hte series.  What a loss.

But one of the commercials was showing high school students with leeches.  the old fashioned kind that way back when they used for sucking blood to cure diseases.   they showed one kid pulling down his bottom lip and he he had the whole inside rim covered in leeches.   

They showed a a student desk with leeches climbing up the back of it.

What are these kids thinking of?  I know they are supposed to do weird things but this goes beyond the bounds.

They showed a principal with his desk full of jars of the things and various apparatus.  They called it something that sounds like  ‘slauming’.

I sure hope my grandhcildren don’t get caught up in it.  That’s all their mother needs is to have slimy leeches around the house.

It was really horrible to watch.  Kids used to do weird things but not a lot to actually hurt themselve long term.  Now it seems they are bent on their own destruction, with the choking game and the other things they do and now this.

was I so lonely today?

can’t i lose weight no matter what I do?

are gas prices going up?

get all my papers and things filed?

couldn’t I find anything interesting to buy for meals today?

were there ants all over my bathroom floor today?

and why were they still moving after spraying and spraying them?