♫ February 4, 2013 ♫

Happy Monday! How are you this fine February day? I had a very busy weekend. I didn't get much done at all on my schedule Saturday, but it was still a productive day in other areas. We went out for fuel, went grocery shopping, picked Josh up from work, the FD got toned out to a med call, I stopped by the station to drop some stuff off, we came home, unloaded the groceries & put them away, then all headed back out to go clothing shopping. When we got back I had not only clothing to sort & put away, but I hit the jackpot on a bunch of crochet books & then it was time to not only sort those, but catalog all of the patterns in them & put them away ... along with all the other patterns that needed to be cataloged from books I had sitting around & put THOSE away ... many hours later, every pattern was cataloged & sorted into 3 files ... crochet & knit, doily patterns, or grid patterns used for anything from beading to cross stitch to the Knit Wit, to needlepoint, etc. With all those cataloged, I started putting the books up in the bookshelf & am completely out of room. I had to pull a few books out & place them in the "sell on eBay" pile. If I haven't opened them in so long that they're dust covered or not useful in a productive way, they went. What doesn't sell on eBay will be taken to Half Price Books. The only problem with taking them to Half Price books is ... I'll walk in with 1 case of books & walk OUT with THREE. I love that store. :) After pattern sorting it ended up being 10:p. Did I eat today? Nope. BACON! Who says bacon is just for breakfast? Well, it WAS my 1st meal of the day, so 'technically' ... ;) Did some housework finally at 11:p, then sat down with Pete to watch The Big Chill. After the movie I checked facebook & then we finally did the nighttime routine (minus the TV show because we just watched a movie & it was what, 2:30a now?), played Words w/ Friends, 5 Card Slingo, & went to bed. Sunday I woke up & cleaned the house (didn't want to be doing that at midnight again), so I finished folding the laundry, cleaned the bedroom mirror, dusted my office wall decor, watered the plants, did little pick-ups around the house, & swept the bedroom. When all that was done I went through the Sunday paper, checked facebook, worked on the doily I'm crocheting (since I didn't get a chance to the day before) while watching a movie, had peanut butter on toast for lunch, machine knitted since I also didn't get a chance to the day before, & finished a panel, started a new panel, & also finished off 2 skeins of yarn & started a 3rd. Since this is a scrap yarn afghan, the skeins go quickly & each one is new & different, making it very interesting to work on. This afghan has nice patterns stitches in the panels, so each new color of yarn shows the pattern stitches in a new & different way. The FD got toned out to a MVA, went through my misc books & took an interesting self-test to see how argumentative I am (not at all ... I'll avoid it whenever possible), gave Kyle a haircut, spent some quality time with Pete, took a shower, had a quick dinner, watched some television, played Words w/ Friends, discovered Scrabble, cleaned out my facebook apps (I had over 100!) Delete party! Cleared out a bunch of other stuff on facebook, headed into the bedroom, played 5 Card Slingo & went to sleep. it was almost 4 in the morning. Pete & I really get upside down in our schedules over the weekend. We've always been bad that way. When I start Fire Inspector class next month though, that WILL change. I can't do what he does. We're going to bed EARLY whether he likes it or not. I refuse to spend 2 months in class under the power of 5 Hour Energy. It works, but I shouldn't have to resort to that when the easiest answer is GO TO BED EARLIER. Of course now class is on the line. I may not be able to go. I may need to instead get a job & if I do, I'll be at work & CAN'T go to class. :( Bad timing! If I do have to get a job, I have a place already picked out & REALLY hope I can get the job. I've watched the kids try to get work & it was nothing like back when I was their age & got a job. I'm from a time where you chose where you wanted to work, went in, applied, & knew before you left the building if you had the job or not. Now it's been a LONG time for me, but I'm hoping I can still do it that way. If not, I'm in for a rough time ahead of trying to get a job. So, if it comes to that, wish me luck! I hope the FD will understand that I'd be dropping the class I JUST signed up for NOT because I changed my mind, but because I won't have a choice. Today I updated the apps on my phone & grabbed 2 new ones; 7-11 & a graph app where you can make grid patterns for all crafts that require them. City Council Meeting tomorrow.

Groundhog is the same animal as a woodchuck.

In Sarasota, Florida, of all places, archaeologists have discovered the bones of a colony of people that lived 6,000 years ago, which predates, I guess, many of the things in New Mexico & Arizona. And apparently, even 6,000 years ago, people went to Florida to retire. -Johnny Carson 1977.

Instagram:

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In the original The Book of One Thousand And One Nights, the story of Aladdin was set in China. In fact, Aladdin was a little Chinese boy.

Karen Carpenter dies of anorexia (1983):

Karen Carpenter, a singer who long suffered under the burden of the expectations that came with pop stardom, died on this day in 1983, succumbing to heart failure brought on by her long, unpublicized struggle with anorexia.

Carpenter had a fixation with her weight from her earliest days performing with her brother, Richard, in and around their hometown of Downey, California. As a teenager, she dropped at least 25 pounds on a popular and severe weight-loss program known as "the Water Diet," so that by the time she and Richard burst on the pop scene with their smash hit "Close To You" in the summer of 1970, she was a thin but healthy 20-year-old carrying 120 lbs. on a 5' 5"  frame. She maintained that weight through the early years of the Carpenters' success, yet it appears that Karen's insecurities about her appearance only grew, even as she was becoming one of the biggest pop stars of her era.

In pictures printed in Rolling Stone magazine in late 1974, when the Carpenters were one of the most successful acts in all of pop music, Karen looks fit and healthy. Yet by mid-1975, the Carpenters were forced to cancel tours of Japan and Europe after Karen collapsed on stage in Las Vegas. Her weight had plummeted to only 90 lbs., and though it would rebound somewhat after a brief hospitalization, the next seven years were a repeating cycle of dramatic weight loss, collapse and then hospitalization. The name of Karen's condition was virtually unknown to the public at this time, but all that was about to change. Early on the morning of February 4, 1983, while staying in her parents home in Downey, Karen suffered a deadly heart attack, brought on by the physiological stresses placed on her system by the disease whose name soon entered the public consciousness: anorexia nervosa. She was only 32 years old.

Morning without coffee is sleep.

New York Giants upset New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII (2008):

On this day in 2008, the New York Giants stunned the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.

The Patriots and Giants met at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona in front of 71,101 fans. New England came into the game with an unblemished 18-0 record, and was attempting to become the second team to finish an undefeated season with a Super Bowl victory. The first was the Miami Dolphins, who went 17-0 in 1972 after besting the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII.

Led by quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Randy Moss, the Patriots averaged 36.8 points per game during the 2007 regular season. Brady threw an NFL-record 50 touchdown passes and was named NFL MVP. The Giants, on the other hand, had finished just 10-6 in the regular season and needed three straight playoff wins on the road to make the Super Bowl. Their toughest test came in the NFC Championship game, when they managed to escape with an overtime win over the Green Bay Packers in sub-zero temperatures. They entered Super Bowl XLII as 12-point underdogs.

Five weeks before the Super Bowl, the Patriots and Giants had faced off in the final game of the regular season, when New England was able to clinch its perfect 16-0 season with a close 38-35 win at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. But when the two teams met in the big game on February 3, the score would be much lower. At halftime, New England was holding on to a slim 7-3 lead. The Patriots were up again late in the fourth quarter, by a score of 14-10, but the Giants had possession, setting up a dramatic Super Bowl finish.

With just one minute, 15 seconds remaining and their Super Bowl hopes dwindling, Giants quarterback Eli Manning pulled away from several Patriots defensive players and threw the ball down the field. Little-used wide receiver David Tyree, who had scored his first touchdown of the season earlier in the game, out-jumped Patriots safety and four-time All-Pro Rodney Harrison to catch the ball, cradling it against his helmet with one hand as the two men fell to the ground. Four plays later, with only 35 seconds on the clock, Manning tossed the game-winning touchdown into the hands of Plaxico Burress. The Giants’ defense, which sacked Brady five times during the game, stopped New England on the next four plays to seal the win. Manning, the younger brother of superstar QB Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts, took home Super Bowl MVP honors, matching his brother's feat one year earlier in Super Bowl XLI.

The two teams would meet again in 2012 in Super Bowl XLVI, with the Giants dealing New England a 21-17 defeat in near-identical fashion, coming from behind in the game's final minutes. Manning, who completed 30 of 40 passes in the game for 296 yards, with one touchdown pass and zero interceptions, was again named Super Bowl MVP.

Order a manual typewriter at work.

Over 500 billion cups of coffee are sold worldwide annually - that's a lot of coffee breaks!

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Put it on ice. Freeze bread & other baked goods, hard cheeses, most fruits & vegetables, meat, poultry, & soups until you're ready to eat them. Use ice trays to freeze baby food, sauce or stock, raw egg whites & yolkes (separated or whisked together), & chopped fresh herbs in water.

To relate effectively with a wife, a husband, children, friends, or working associates, we must learn to listen. And this requires emotional strength.

Ways to prepare coffee top 10:

1. Cappuccino
2. Frappe
3. Latte
4. Espresso
5. Mocha
6. Americano
7. Black
8. White
9. Red eye
10. Flat white