- November 14, 2012 -

Good morning (I think). I think I figured out why I was so off my game yesterday ... I have a cold. Yesterday I just didn't have the energy or the 'want to' for much of anything & couldn't understand why ... today I have the classic symptoms of a cold. Thank you Kyle! I'm blaming him because he felt the same way yesterday (I found out last night) & is home from school today & out cold. Now I'm sitting here sneezing & blowing my nose but I refuse to crash like I did yesterday. It was bad enough I thought I was missing maintenance because I was just SO backed up, but it was worse than that, I missed a business meeting. We swapped business & maintenance for the month of November & I had completely forgotten. So here I was, unable to go to the station, yet I had the minutes from last month's meeting, I was supposed to have the financials, take the minutes of THIS meeting, etc. I can't believe I screwed that one up! I really couldn't go though ... even once I realized it was a business meeting & not maintenance, I just couldn't. I would have been more useless there than I was here if you can imagine that. Plus, knowing what I didn't know then but know now, I'm glad I didn't go & make everyone else there sick. The last thing we need is an entire FD with a cold because of me. I'm sure our patients would prefer not calling for help & getting someone sneezing on them in addition to the problem they already have. When I finally was able to store up enough energy to get off my butt yesterday, I started with a Carnation Instant Breakfast (at 7 PM), & then got to work on the house. I cleaned the shower, straightened out my sock drawer, fed the cats & dogs, cleaned the bar (the other side of the kitchen counter that's set up to have bar stools at it, no ... we don't have a wet bar in the house, emptied one of the shelves in the fridge, took the shelf out & cleaned it thoroughly, threw out anything past it's expiration date, & put the rest back nice & neat while deciding to use some of the Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce on the hamburgers I was cooking for dinner, dusted the living room lights, blew the dust out of my knitting machine, & mopped the master closet. After that I checked eBay & rolled over to my knitting machine to start the next to last panel. I didn't get far though. I just didn't have the energy. I ended up sitting there staring at the TV more than actually knitting. When I said my 'want to' was gone, I mean across the board. Knitting is one of my favorite things & I didn't even do THAT. When Pete & Josh got home I made hamburgers for all of us, crawled into the living room chair & vegetated in front of NCIS & NCIS Los Angeles & then went to bed ... totally exhausted. Today Josh is off work & Kyle is home with the cold he so nicely shared with me. I just shared some DayQuil with him & he went back to bed. I refuse to go back to bed because I've GOT to get stuff done around here. I just hope that even with the sniffling & sneezing I can manage enough energy to get through the day. I think I can I think I can I think I can. LOL! Anyway, I downloaded Seasons yesterday but haven't even opened the game yet. I'm so excited about it but just hadn't had the time yet. I'm really hoping that tonight I'll be able to check it out! :) The FD has an EMS call around 3:30a this morning & so far today I did manage to sync my checking account with Quicken. Maintenance Tuesday night.

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How did Tonka Toys Incorporated, the kiddie-truck manufacturer, come up with its name?

Last day for Texas' celebrated drive-in Pig Stands (2006):

On November 14, 2006, state officials close the last two of Texas' famed Pig Stand restaurants, the only remaining pieces of the nation's first drive-in restaurant empire. The restaurants' owners were bankrupt, and they owed the Texas comptroller more than $200,000 in unpaid sales taxes.

A Dallas entrepreneur named Jessie G. Kirby built the first Pig Stand along the Dallas-Fort Worth Highway in October 1921. It was a roadside barbecue restaurant unlike any other: Its patrons could drive up, eat and leave, all without budging from their automobiles. ("People with cars are so lazy," Kirby explained, "they don't want to get out of them.") Kirby lured these car-attached customers with great fanfare and spectacle. When a customer pulled into the Pig Stand parking lot, teenaged boys in white shirts and black bow ties jogged over to his car, hopped up onto the running board—sometimes before the driver had even pulled into a parking space—and took his order. (This daredevilry won the servers a nickname: carhops.) Soon, the Pig Stand drive-ins replaced the carhops with attractive young girls on roller skates, but the basic formula was the same: good-looking young people, tasty food, speedy service and auto-based convenience.

That first Pig Stand was a hit with hungry drivers, and soon it became a chain. (The slogan: "America's Motor Lunch.") Kirby and his partners made one of the first franchising arrangements in restaurant history, and Pig Stands began cropping up everywhere. By 1934, there were more than 130 Pig Stands in nine states. (Most were in California and Florida.) Meanwhile, the chain kept innovating. Many people say that California's Pig Stand No. 21 became the first drive through restaurant in the world in 1931, and food historians believe that Pig Stand cooks invented deep-fried onion rings, chicken-fried steak sandwiches and a regional specialty known as Texas Toast.

But wartime gasoline and food rationing hit the Pig Stands hard, and after the war they struggled to compete with newer, flashier drive-ins. By the end of the 1950s, all of the franchises outside of Texas had closed. By 2005, even the Texas Pig Stands were struggling to survive—only six remained in the whole state—and by the next year they had all disappeared.

In 2007, state bankruptcy trustees found a way for one Pig Stand, in San Antonio, to reopen. Though it will probably never be as popular as it once was, and customers now have to get out of their cars and go inside to eat, the restaurant remains a sentimental favorite of many Texans.

Name all of the ingredients mentioned in the Big Mac jingle (boy do I have this one memorized since the ads came out YEARS ago!)

Beef patties, special sauce, tomato, lettuce, relish, cheese, pickles, mushrooms, onions, sesame seed bun.

On crowded sidewalks, make sure your lit cigarette doesn't brush anyone. Don't flick butts onto the street. Cigar smokers should smoke outdoors only, & in uncrowded places so that people who want to escape the smell can do so.

Rich isn't an amount of money; it's a mindset about how you live. I've been broke, but I've never been poor because when I was broke, I just had no money. I still had hope. I still believed I could win. And I was willing to sacrifice.

Search online for a short funny video to watch - laughter reduces stress hormones.

Stagflation:

Persistent inflation combined with stagnant consumer demand & relatively high unemployment.

Americans saw the stagflation of the 1970s as an indictment of Big Government rather than a crisis of capitalism.

"Stagflation" is a portmanteau, that is, a word that blends 2 others (in this case, "stagnation" & "inflation"). The 1st documented use of the word appeared in 1965 in the writing of British politician Iain Macleod: "We now have the worst of both worlds - not just inflation on the one side or stagnation on the other, but both of them together. We have a sort of 'stagflation' situation." Macleod is often credited with coining the term, & his linguistic invention was quickly embraced by edonomists in the U.S., who used it to refer to the period of economic sluggishness & hight inflation that affected the country in the 1970s.

When it comes to the anatomy of a horse, what is a stifle?

A joint similar to the human knee that is located between the femur and tibia.

Which Australian city has the most people?

A. Brisbane

B. Hobart

C. Perth

Which of these artists didn't die at age 27?

A. Kurt Cobain

B. Jimi Hendrix

C. Janis Joplin

D. Jeff Buckley

Answer: D. Jeff Buckley

Which sandwich is the most popular?

A. Ham

B. Bologna & cheese

C. BLT

CBA. No one knows when the BLT came on the scene, but it probably evolved from the "Mens' Club Sandwich" popular in the 19th century. Anyone for banana cream pie?

While cooking, use a coffee filter as a spoon rest for easy clean up.

You're as useful as __________ at a __________ party.