Well, I thought of this during my first blog (Animals). Now, one of my favorite dinners includes fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy.  And no, it doesn't "bother" me when I fry up the chicken breasts.

 However, there was a time when I felt differently. One summer when I was a teen, I spent a week at my grandparents' farm. When we were younger--and lived in the area--we'd visit the farm often; I helped my great grandmother gather eggs from the chicken house while my brother helped with the crops & other animals. Once, they even tried to teach me how to milk a cow.  Let's just say I'm sure glad we didn't have to rely on me to bring in milk for the day!

 Now, the year I'm talking about, I think I was about sixteen. Most of my week there was spent sunbathing in the small area that wasn't shaded, or reading. But I did help out in the kitchen as well as other chores.  By this time, my great grandparents had passed on. So it was my grandmother whose job was to pick out the chicken & 'prepare' it for dinner.  She hadn't asked me to 'help'; but for some reason, I was nearby. I hadn't really thought about it, I suppose; the chickens weren't "pets".   And I didn't like the way they 'bugged' me when I went to gather eggs. But, still, I never wished them harm. 

 You've heard the expression "wringing someone's neck". Well, that's not just an expression on a farm. After that, of course, you have the "axe".  Without going into detail, I'll tell you that I did NOT eat any chicken that day--or for a while after that! I have a hunch that if I had to 'prepare' chicken that way, that I would not be eating it any more! (Thank heavens for Supermarkets!)

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Do you take naps, now that you're older?  Seeing a new Poll got me to thinking about this subject. 

Actually, when I was much younger--and baby-sitting--I would often nap when the little ones did.  But I got out of that habit once the 'little ones' were old enough that they didn't nap.

Then, years later, when I was working 4-11pm at a nearby convenience store, I got into the habit of napping for about an hour before I went to work.  I don't know now how I did it: but I actually was able to curl up on the couch and go right to sleep! Normally, it takes me a long time to fall asleep, at night, anyway.

Then, in recent years, for a while I was napping almost every afternoon: from 4pm to about 6pm. Unlike my husband, I can't 'catnap' for half hour or so; if I fall asleep, it'll be for close to 2 hrs. But recently, I haven't been napping at all. I have no idea why. 

However, one thing I've noticed recently: if I sit in a comfy chair (like my rocker/recliner) I will often fall asleep watching tv. I had never done that before.  So now, I watch tv from my comfy swivel chair here at my desk--to be sure I don't fall asleep in the middle of a show!

I have to laugh at myself now, because I never could understand how my late friend Audrey could fall asleep in her recliner--every night. I guess it comes with getting older!    

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As we get into 'fall' here, people are talking about 'pies'.  I'm actually more of a cake person; so I don't have pie very often.

However, I will eat different kinds of pie: Dutch apple, peach, & cherry, for example.

But my favorite pie would probably be Blackberry--served warm, with ice cream on top. 

However, this time of year, I'm more likely to have Pumpkin (custard) pie with whipped cream on top.  My husband likes to say that I 'like a bit of pumpkin under my whipped cream'--which is probably true.   

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After looking at some of the 'new' TV shows, I've decided I'm "old-fashioned', for lack of a better word/phrase.  It seems like the 'powers that be' can't seem to come up with any new ideas! And I'm not interested in seeing "new takes on old ideas". I happen to like the original versions!  

I didn't like the idea of a 'new' Hawaii Five-O; so, no, I didnt even watch the Pilot episode.  Now, it's a 'new' MacGyver. And no, I don't plan on watching it.  If they can't come up with any new ideas, why should I bother?  

I've now found 3 'possible' new shows to watch: Timeless (a time travel series) & Frequency (I liked the movie, so I'll give the series a chance).  Then, I'd forgotten about Designated Survivor; I watched the pilot & found myself hooked on the plot--so that's one I'll definitely watch.

 However, as usual, at least one of these shows is on at the same time as an returning favorite, so we'll see which one wins out! 

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When I went grocery shopping this past week, I stopped in the coffee/tea section. I didn't find the 'lemon tea' I was looking for; however, I did spot a bottle of Sassafras Tea concentrate.

Boy, does that take me back to my childhood! When I was little, my grandma had 'sassafras root' (yes, the same basic flavoring for Root Beer).   I always loved the homemade sassafras tea. Even after I had grown up, when I was 'back home' in Indiana, I'd look for the package of 'root' so that I could make my own.

 Now, as then, I like it 'strong'.  The directions call for 1 tablespoon of the concentrate for a cup of tea. I use about 3 T.  But it's worth it, to get that 'old fashioned' taste.  

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I'm sure I wrote earlier this year about my Phobias, and of course Flying was one of them.   I recently took a trip to visit my sister up north; and yes, I had to 'fly'.

   Now, yes...I did get a script for Xanax--and took one before each flight.  But...I don't think I'd need that, if I were to fly again.  This flight was just over an hour; I kept 'busy', reading.  And, yes, I did say it was ' a bit bumpy'; however, after thinking about it, I realized that the 'bumps' were much less than I feel when we are driving over some side streets here in town!  So I honestly can't say it was 'bumpy' at all.  

On the first flight, I didn't even think about chewing gum; and my ears popped several times. So I made sure to have gum with me on the flight home--and I guess it helped, because I didn't have any 'popping''!  

Another thing I was a bit worried about was 'seatmates'. There were 3 seats on each side of the aisle; and those seats are small! However, I had nice seatmates both times.  

On the way to Minneapolis, the lady in the window seat was a frequent  flyer who said I should look out the window; well, no thank you! At least not at that point. She chatted with me, which I'm sure helped to keep me calm at take-off. Then, we both started reading. And actually, the flight was almost over before I knew it.

On the way home, I also had nice seatmates; this time, I took the window seat--and yes, I did look out a few times! None of us felt 'chatty', so we all did a lot of reading. I had taken a few cookies along, per my sister's suggestion; and also at her suggestion, I had purchased a bottle of water each time.  I did sip the water a few times, but I really wasn't hungry--so those cookies made it home with me without having been touched.

I think what had worried me most about flying is the 'turning' and take-off. Before this, my only experience with planes was when I flew with my dad as a child--in a Piper Cub; and I've also flown in my brother's single engine plane as well as that of a friend of the family.  In small private planes, you really 'feel' the turning; I always felt like I was going to 'slide out' the door! And take-off and landing was very pronounced.  However, you don't have that in commercial aircraft.  

So, if another opportunity should come my way, I don't think I'd be a bit worried about flying again.   

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      Last night I was wrestling with my iPod Shuffle; I wanted to change the music on it.  Little did I know what a huge hassle it would turn out to be!

       My son was here & told me I had been doing it all wrong! Well, I told him: it worked for 3 yrs!  My best friend gave me the iPod Shuffle as a birthday gift 3 yrs ago; not knowing any better, I just 'copied' my favorite music to it from my computer. And yes--it worked just fine! It  got me through a lot of dental work the last 2 yrs: when the drill started to bug me, I'd turn up the sound!  But recently, I decided I wanted to dump those songs and replace them with soothing music. 

     Needless to say, it didn't work!  First, when I hooked it up to my computer, those (previous) songs didn't show up, even though they 'played' when I turned it on.   And then, when I 'added' songs, they showed up when it was hooked to the computer;but they didn't show up when I tried to use it. 

       So, being "smart" (not!), I clicked on FORMAT.   Then when I turned it on, it told me  I had to use iTunes!    I downloaded iTunes--and never could figure it out!!   The darn thing told me my iPod Shuffle was 'corrupted'--so I clicked on the fix item. Ha.  It kept  telling me it was 'open' in another program.   My son even tried to 'fix' it. Nope. Wasn't working.  Now, I didn't even have the 'first group' of songs on there!! 

  My sister called and when I told her what we were doing, she said: Why not just put your music on your phone?   My reply: why would I do that?   She said, that's what she does.  I replied: you have a Smartphone--I don't.  True, I can put music on my phone; but it sounds bad & it would run my battery down faster. 

But...there's a bright side: while looking for something else in my 'office supplies' file cabinet, I found a cheap mp3 player!  And yes...it works great!    So...when I finally found my 2010 CD of ALL my music, I was able to put my 'soothing' music on that mp3 player. Yay! 

And as a PS: my son just took the iPod Shuffle home with him; he'll try to 'fix' it on his computer--and then I can either add music myself, or give him a SD card with the songs I wnt on there, & let him put them on.

 My son brought back the iPod Shuffle last night: all fixed! We put the music I wanted on it & it works great; & I now can add/change music any time I want.  

 Later, I Googled how to change the 'name' on it because when he 'restored' it on his computer, it automatically became "Michael's iPod", lol; now, it's back to "Dianne's iPod"! 

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I did a Poll about Pizza earlier, which gave me the idea for this Blog.  I love pizza; but between budget and diet, we don't have it very often.  And because we don't have it very often, when we do, I want something 'special.'  

 My current favorite  is deep dish pizza--square--from Little Ceasar's. I realize 'thin crust' is probably better  for us; but, I don't consider that 'special'.    We skip the 'soda' and chips that are offered; we both realize that it's better  for us to have water with our meals.  Recently, we tried two of their 'new' varieties: bacon wrapped and cheese-stuffed crust. But we both prefer the 'regular'deep dish.  

Over the years, we've had various 'favorites'.  We really liked Pantera's, but they went out of business; we also liked Domino's. In fact, Domino's was our favorite before we tried Little Caesar's. We've tried others, but one or both us us disliked them.  So now we only get Little Caesar's.  

I've thought of making my own. So we may try that sometime. I would be happy with a 'one topping'--bell pepper; my husband prefers Pepperoni.  So I suppose I would have to do it 'half and half'.  Of course, the 'regular' crust that you can buy prepared is closer to thin crust; so  I suppose that would be 'better' for us.   

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WHITE CLOUD OR CHARMIN??

I thought I'd try something different for this blog. I figured I'd go for 'whimsical'.  

 I started using White Cloud toilet paper back when it was sold in a "two roll pack"--when we first got married. Over the years, it morphed into a 'four pack'.  At that time, I was getting 'pink' since our bathroom was 'sort of' pink. (I can't actually remember that first rental home, but at least I think it was 'sort of pink'.)

Later, when we bought our single wide mobile home, we had two bathrooms; so I got pink White Cloud for one bathroom and blue for the other. The same thing worked for this home: pink for one bathroom and blue for the other.   It's possible that over the years in the single wide home that I might have gotten other colors: I can't remember for sure!  

Eventually, "White Cloud" became "Charmin". I think that was due to a merger.  Anyway, I continued buying the two colors--until suddenly the only thing you could get was White.  I wasn't happy about that; however, I read somewhere that 'no color' was good for the sewer systems.  So I thought, "That's okay."

Well, in recent years, Charmin started 'separating' things: you could get Ultra Strong, or you could get Ultra Soft. I tried both and decided that Soft was what I preferred--mainly because I have sinus problems and quite often, I'll use toilet paper for my nose.  

And of course, they had to make things "interesting": soon you had the choice of different 'sizes' of rolls.  I ended up getting Mega Soft, which was a large number of 'huge' rolls! At that point, we had our adult son living with us--and his children part time as well. One Mega roll lasted one week in each bathroom. So that seemed to work well.  The package also seemed to last until our next payday, which was an added benefit.  

Now, we come to 'today'. The last  time I went shopping, I suddenly realized something had changed. The name is back to White Cloud suddenly!  And...it's now "soft and strong".  Hmmm...okay, we'll try this out & see what it's like.  So today I took a piece of the 'old' and a piece of the 'new' to compare them.   I like both; however, the 'old' (just Soft) is definitely softer.

So...the next time I go to the grocery, I'll take a look around and see if they have 'both' or only one.  I had gotten this 'new' White Cloud at WalMart; and I didn't pay attention to the rest of their selections.  When I get to the actual 'grocery', I'll look around.

I'm curious to see what they have--and if you can now choose from the two of them.    I suppose I could Google it to see if the company has 'changed'.  But my instinct says probably not; it's probably just some kind of marketing tactic. What do you think??  

PS--I did Google it: apparently White Cloud is 'exclusive' to WalMart. So that answers one question.  

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