♥ January 2, 2013 ♥

Good afternoon & how was your 1st day of 2013? It's been a busy one for the FD already. The very 1st thing I got to write into my brand new DayTimer pages for this year was a med call at 0033. Unfortunately, since I'm still sick as a dog, I can't go. The last thing someone needs is to call 911 because they're not feeling well & then have me show up & give them the plague on top of whatever problems they already have. Pete & I did manage to finally get up enough energy to go to the store & get some basic groceries. Being that this cold has killed our appetites, we weren't really hungry, so we picked up basic staples & a lot of chicken noodle soup. The grocery trip wiped out what little energy we had stored up, so we came back home, had soup & went back to bed. When we woke up in the morning it was finally more of a normal day. We still feel like crap, but we were able to push through the full day without

crawling back into bed for once. I checked AT&T & then came on here to wish all of you a happy new year. After that I cleaned the bathroom mirror, dusted the bedroom wall decor, cleaned the dining room bar, cleaned the dishwasher (I love stainless appliances until I see how often you have to shine them), did the dishes, cleaned the sink & counters, straightened the afghan on the living room chair, blew the dust out of my knitting machine, swept my office, &

took out the trash. Poor Kyle is so confused from the holiday & traveling. He followed me out the door & said he was going to take the trash down to the road. I asked him why & he said "Because it's Sunday & we always take the trash down on Sunday." I said "Kyle, it's Tuesday." & he just looked at me, completely confused. During the housework the FD had another med call for an injury, but I didn't think a 95 year old patient wanted my cold either. I did my

eBay business & am going to ramp that up starting this year. After that I watched a movie while I machine knitted for a bit & while I was doing that the FD got it's 3rd med call for the day / year. I went through all the mail that had piled up while we were gone & then checked Twitter, looked through my PDF directory, & loaded up Sims. I completed Sapphire Point (shown in the last 2 screenshots). I haven't uploaded it to the exchange yet though because for some reason it's not showing up in my game launcher. WTH? I'll have to try again next time. If you notice, the roof pitch is higher when looking at the rear view of the house. That's because I decided it was too high for my liking & I lowered it a little bit before taking the front screenshot. The next house I'll build is a 2-story home called Breckenridge. I played one of my busy games last night ... Charmed Manor. Busy because instead of my preferred 1 line at a time going, I have 3. I had Piper, Phoebe, & Paige all at once. All 3 had to get jobs, all 3 had to meet someone, all 3 had to have children. It was horrific to keep track of (for me) because I prefer keeping track of ONE at a time. It's just SO much easier. Anyway, Orlando Matthews (2nd gen) met & married Liliana Ng. Liz Halliwell & Hugh Cortez had a baby girl named Jeanita Halliwell (3rd gen). She loves the outdoors, is easily impressed, is a Virgo who likes songwriter music, spaghetti w/ veggie sauce, & the color lime. She was JUST born & Orlando & Liliana's child is due tomorrow. Trinity Halliwell is off (they were all supposed to be a day apart, but Trinity is much younger than her cousins). Trinity became a teen the day her cousin became a young adult. The 2nd pic is Trinity going to her 1st day of high school. At dinnertime I closed down the game & Pete didn't want to stay home & eat so we went out to Denny's, came back & watched Dark Matters: Twisted But True, & then headed off to bed. It was a long day ... we got up at 8:30a & were up until 2:a. I was exhausted. Being ill, I was hoping for a shorter day, not a longer one. This morning the pager, phone, & radio woke me up earlier than I had planned on being woken up. Another med call. 4th one this year & it's only the 2nd. My sister-in-law Angela called for a couple hours & then I got the banking done for this pay period. That brings us up to now. A chilly 42° Wednesday afternoon in Texas. My northern friends think 42° is warm & comparatively it is. I'm just not used to the cold like I used to be. Yes, I'm from the north, but I've been in Texas for 2 decades now & I got used to the heat. I kinda prefer the cold because I can compensate for it easier than I can triple digit heat, but we don't have as much cold as we do heat so I'm not acclimated to it much anymore. Not many plans for today. Just waiting for Pete to get home with groceries tonight & hopefully a Dunkin' Donut. :) City Council Meeting & LCFD Maintenance Tuesday.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a principle-centered, character-based, "inside-out" approach to personal & interpersonal effectiveness. "Inside-out" means to start 1st with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self -  with your paradigms, your character, & your motives.

A car is like packaging for humans without a sell-by date.

Ancient Mexicans were the only people of the New World to have developed the wheel ... but they only used it as a children's toy.

Car-washing tips top 10:

1. Use baby wipes to clean the dashboard.
2. A soft paintbrush is good for dusting tiny interior grooves & holes.
3. Ink stains on leather can be removed with a cuticle remover.
4. An old sock is useful as a car wax buffer.
5. Clean windshield blades by wiping them with full-strength white vinegar.
6. License plates can be cleaned with WD-40.
7. To refresh the car's smell, spray ventilation ducts with household deoderizer.
8. Baking soda & salt sprayed onto battery terminals cleans the battery - sponge off & air dry.
9. Degrease the engine with ¼ cup of baking soda & 1 gallon of water, rinse thoroughly.
10. If hand washing the car exterior don't use hand or dishwashing soap, use auto-washing solution sold specifically for cars.

Currency:

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Draw the outlines of feet on the floor of your cubicle, & practice dance steps every time you stand up.

Hot Chocolate & Marshmallows:

Prep: 3 min.
Cook: 8 min.
Serves: 4
Cost per serving: $1.86
Ingredients:
4 cups whole milk
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
½ tsp. instant coffee powder, optional
Marshmallows and extra cocoa powder for serving, optional
Preparation:
1. Bring milk to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in chocolate, cocoa, honey, vanilla, salt and coffee, if desired. Whisk until chocolate has melted and mixture has thickened slightly, approximately 4 minutes. Ladle into mugs and serve with decorated marshmallows (see step 2), if desired.
2. Make this rich hot chocolate even more special with decorated marshmallows. Set a small, sturdy snowflake stencil (find one at a craft store) on top of each marshmallow. Sift a small amount of unsweetened cocoa powder over the marshmallow, then carefully remove stencil. Use marshmallows immediately.
Per Serving: 401 Cal., 27g Fat (14g Sat.), 25mg Chol., 4g Fiber, 11g Pro., 45g Carb., 137mg Sod

I love Tommy. He's - he's dull. He carries one of those medical identification things around his neck. It says, "Do not bury until after heavy pinching." -Johnny Carson 1975

NPR Music:
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The NPR Music app – it’s love at first listen.
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- Multi-genre music content, with news, music streams, live concerts and interviews.
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- Customizable playlist.
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- Stunning magazine layout lets you visually browse and easily filter content.
- Stream your favorite music stations and discover new ones.
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- Enhanced playlist features:
* Ability to save your playlist items for offline listening.
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Rare Bugatti found in British garage (2009):

On this day in 2009, media outlets report that a rare unrestored 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe has been found in the garage of a British doctor. A month later, on February 7, the car sold at a Paris auction for some $4.4 million.

The black two-seater, one of just 17 57S Atalante Coupes ever made by Bugatti, had been owned by English orthopedic surgeon Harold Carr since 1955. Carr, who died in 2007, reportedly had kept the rare vehicle parked in his garage since the early 1960s and hadn't driven it in five decades. The car was built in May 1937 and originally owned by Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon, the 5th Earl Howe. Curzon was also the first president of the British Racing Drivers' Club and a winner of the 24 Hour Le Mans race.

When it was built, the 57S Atalante Coupe was capable of reaching speeds of more than 120 miles per hour at a time when the average car couldn't do more than 50 miles per hour. It was also notable for its low-slung frame and V-shaped radiator and featured pig-skin upholstery. At the time of the auction, Carr's car was said to be in good condition and had 26,284 miles on its odometer.

The Bugatti car company was founded in 1909 by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti (1881-1947) in present-day Molsheim, France, and became known for producing expensive, cutting-edge sports cars and racing cars. From the time of its founding until the 1940s, the company built fewer than 8,000 cars. Following the death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947, the company went into decline and changed hands several times. In 1998, Volkswagen bought the rights to build cars under the Bugatti name. In 2009, the company introduced the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, a sports car convertible which was capable of speeds of some 253 miles per hour and carried a price tag of more than $2 million. The Veyron could reach 60 mph is under 2.5 seconds.