Friday Fragments: A Good Week!

EASTER

Today Gerard is going to participate in the Stations of the Cross neighborhood walk. This is the first I have heard of this and would love to join him, but I have to work. To get off on Good Friday, you have to put in for it early because it is a popular day. I find it odd that the New York Stock Exchange closes for Good Friday, but not many businesses.

Sunday I will be a puppeteer participating in a puppet show at Parma Heights Baptist Church for grades 1-6. We are doing "More Than a Miracle" which presents the message of Jesus' death and resurrection from the view point of how kids may have viewed the events that were there. Kind of like a time machine effect and including some powerful video clips too. I look forward to this.

Good Work Week

This week went very fast! I was busy and extremely productive without feeling stressed or rushed. I love it when I can finish up everything by the end of the day and although that wasn't the case every day, I only had four or five leftover tasks to do as opposed to 10-12 the previous week.

I have found some new inspiration to do book-related videos. There is a Booktuber community of avid readers on YouTube. I am just starting up but through consistent uploading and commenting on others' videos, I hope to get a good number of subscribers. The downside is this means more computer time because videos take time to edit and upload, not to mention the time involved in visiting others! Here is the introductory tag video I did but will not be sharing these here or on Facebook in the future. Rather, those interested can subscribe to my channel--search for Karen Zemek.

Appointments

Gerard went for new glass frames because the ones he has were digging into the side of his nose. WalMart said they'd call when they were ready, but he finally called them to check and sure enough, they are ready.

I was very happy to find out I can get my mammogram done on Saturday so do not have to take time off from work for that. Yea!

That's it for today!

 Finally got some Friday Fragments for Mrs. 4444 the host at Half-Past Kissin' Time.

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Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

Eagles

I always liked eagles and thought they were very cool birds until last Friday when I read how eagles eat cats in Reflections by Kathy's Friday Fragments.  Sorry eagles, I prefer cats to you.

World Smile Day

Today is World Smile Day according to the morning news show so smile and see if you can make someone else smile today! I hope this post makes you smile.

Favorite Reads for September

Spunky and Manny's favorite was Posey, a picture book about a kitten.

Karen's favorite was Revealed by Temera Alexander, a Christian Historical Fiction book:

Gerard's favorite was Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty about several moms with kids at the same school:

Click the links to see our reviews on our book blog, Grab a Book from Our Stack.

New Windows

Monday we finally finish our bit-by-bit window replacements by getting new windows from Pella in our main bathroom and upstairs bathroom. I had to have bubble wrap taped up over them to keep the cold out. The main bathroom actually gets ice and snow on the inside during the winter! No more, yea! This makes me smile.

Children of the Day

I am enjoying participating in another Beth Moore Bible study called "Children of the Day" on the books of I & II Thessalonians. She is so good at applying the scripture to our life and using many funny and interesting examples from her life. This is what makes her such a good speaker.

Joke

I'll end with a little joke to try to get you to smile: Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 ate 9.

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Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

MRI Done

I had my first MRI ever this week. I had no clue what it would entail so asked my surgeon and he said, it uses magnetism and takes a better picture than the mammogram. Well, first they inject dye into you which they couldn't do the first time I went because my veins were too small in my left arm. When I had my lumpectomy done five years ago on my right breast, don't ever let anyone take your blood pressure, vaccinate you, or take blood or poke you in your right arm. Always use your left. Now all of a sudden, my surgeon says "It's a small risk, go ahead and let them use your right arm if they have to." Well, the technician really liked my vein in my right arm and got the dye in the first try with no problem--it didn't hurt at all!

I had to lay still on my stomach though for half an hour. I never lay on my stomach so wasn't exactly comfortable but I managed. Then she game me headphones to help drown out the loud noise. It really was LOUD and sounded like a jack hammer pounding right in my ears. She added some music but that didn't help-it just made it even more annoying! I was relieved it was over and I was out of there in an hour, but by the time I went to bed, I had a headache and woke up with it. Not sure if it was from the loud banging noise in my ears for so long or just from all the stress. I actually took an Advil and totally skipped my morning computer time and laid down instead! Even my husband asked me what was wrong.

Reading

I actually missed my bus stop coming home twice this week and not just by one stop, but by 3 or 4! It still wasn't too far a walk home but the first time, I was reading my book and just couldn't keep my eyes open because I was so tired. The second day, I was engrossed reading the same book (REVEALED by Tamera Alexander)and missed it again.

Cleveland Indians

My Indians are now officially out of the playoffs but they had a good season and hung in to the end. I'm hoping the Browns can put some wins together this year and win over half their games. They are 1 for 3 but each game went right down to the end.

Sunday School

So far I have six kids in my 5th grade Sunday School class and am loving it! They are SO good and all are really trying to learn the memory passage (Proverbs 3:3-7) which is one of my favorite passages. One of the boys quoted it all last week and one girl stayed after to try learning it all--it was the first time she came! I found exactly the prizes I had in mind at Walmart: candy, cookies, munchies at $1.00 each. I was thrilled because when I looked for these things at Giant Eagle, I couldn't find them.

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Friday Fragments: Scary Things, Work, Redecorating

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

What a Relief!

My husband gave me a real scare last Sunday. On the way home from church I got a call from him whining saying "I had an accident!" I asked him where he was and he said outside our house. I was only about 3 minutes away so said I was close and would be home soon. (I really like our Ford Escape which has a cell phone feature that I can answer and talk on my cell without taking it out of my pocket, so please, no lectures about using the cell phone while driving.) Turns out he was just fine, and his "accident" was spilling the dog's water while falling over our cat, Manny Boy who ran right in front of him. The water got on our newly painted kitchen wall and made a big ugly spot. He's such a drama queen. I was so glad he really wasn't in an accident!

Frightened at Lunch

Yesterday was nice enough to go to a nearby park area at lunch time. I had some multi-grain chips with me, but unfortunately, I think they attracted a bee. This bee came really close to me and I was afraid it was going to crawl on me. I got up and it followed me so I dropped the bag of chips on the ground, hoping it would follow the bag, but it didn't. Finally, after standing relatively still and praying that God would protect me from this bee so I wouldn't get stung, I no longer saw it's shadow and so picked up the bag, closed it up tight, walked the rest of my lunch hour and finished my chips when I got inside.

Work

I had another CRAZY busy week! I am feeling like a juggler lately, trying to keep everything going but at the end of the day, I think I was only caught up one out of five this week even with working 45 minutes extra. I look forward to a better work week next week with my main boss out of town all week and the secretary who was on vacation that I backed up for will be back.

Redecorating

We are very pleased with how our rooms turned out and that everything is back in the right place. I moved some pictures around too. I'll put pictures up in a separate post this week. Whew!


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Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

Direct TV-Browns Games

This week we found out that there is a dispute between Fox and Direct TV which basically amounts to not being able to watch the Browns games on DirectTV. Again, due to plain greediness on the part of Fox, wanting Direct TV to pay double for the otherwise free programming. I don't quite understand it, but hope I can find somewhere to watch the games.

Funeral

My brother-in-laws funeral was quite different from what I am used to since he was Catholic. I never heard of having "prayers" at the funeral home first and then moving everyone over to the church for the mass. I don't understand why they couldn't do it all at the church. I thought it was kind of nice though when the funeral procession turned down his street to take him by his house on last time.

Painting Progress

We're finally almost done. Our living room and dining room should get finished today, I hope. Right now, our living room is completely useless since even the TV is unplugged. I get a headache when I look at the mess.

That's it, gotta go to work. I'm out.

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Friday Fragments Already!

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

Movie

We went to see a good High School football movie, "When the Game Stands Tall" and had a private showing. We were the only ones in the theater at the 10:50 showing on Tuesday. The movie was very good with a lot of good parts and we both liked it. We chose this one over "If I Stay" and I'm so glad we did!

Painting Progress

The painting of the bathroom, kitchen, living room and dining room began this week. So far so good on the pet front. None of them got into the paint, went into the heat ducts or brushed against the walls while they were wet with paint. I'm glad it dries fast because I did have a bit trouble keeping Spunky Doodle off the kitchen counter after the painter left. If you are in the Cleveland area, I highly recommend using "Sue's Helping Hands" for painting or handyman needs. We are loving the purple we chose for the kitchen and bathroom!

Watch for the surprise color in the living and dining room . . . Gerard did want the gray so we chose a different color instead.  Abby is greeting Sue, the painter, when she came back for day 2.

On the Medical Front

I was down in the dumps when is saw the words "suspicious area" AGAIN referring to my last mammogram. This is the wording used when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. I am optimistic though after my appointment with my surgeon who said he thinks it's probably just scar tissue from my surgery after not feeling any lump; however, he recommended that I have an MRI done just to confirm it. It is scheduled for Sept. 10. I am really hoping it's all okay!

Fun Week

We've been having really good weather this week and have been playing tennis every day. Gerard is a very good sport who keeps playing with me even though I win every match. He wins some of the games though and sometimes makes great shots that I can't possibly return. Just not as many as I make. We have some tough battles though, sometimes having over three deuces in one game! (For non-tennis players, a deuce is when the score is tie at 40-40 and you need two points in a row to win the game.)

Yesterday was much cooler than it's been so was perfect weather for the zoo which we took advantage of.  The animals were all lively and we had a fun time watching them.  The snow leopard was pacing right by the glass so we could see him close up (I so wanted to pet that big cat!).  The elephant was reaching up with its trunk to eat the straw that was hung up; the beaver was swimming and taking a shower under the waterfall; the wolves were actually running around (probably because the noisy planes practicing for the air show were flying over their area).  The meerkats were cute as ever and there was even a baby one!  We actually bought a couple 3D wolf placemats that match our seat covers on our dining room chairs.

It's so nice being off work, we hate to see this week end!

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Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

Sadness

Yesterday was a sad day for me. On top of a stressful day at work, I finished reading Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote which made me cry.  A good dog story but the last few chapters when not one, but two dogs die was very sad.

Gerard's brother is still in ICU because he is having trouble breathing and has an infection in his lungs.  He's been in there for a couple weeks now.

Then, I found out that our blogger friend, Sparkle the Designer Cat is very sick.  I read Sparkle's Thank You and Good-bye post last night.  Sparkle gives advice to cats and even wrote a book which we loved:  Dear Sparkle--Advice From One Cat to Another.

Redecorating Progress

I am a bit frustrated with our decorating plans because I found out that the great computer visualizer I wrote about doesn't show how the color actually looks when it's on the wall and neither do those little paint sample things!  So, now I'm getting seven more sample quarts to try out the paint on the walls before deciding what colors to use.  For the living room and dining room, Gerard is leaning toward yellow and me toward green.  Hopefully, once it is actually on the walls and we can see it, we will come to an agreement.  I could go with yellow, it's not like I'm totally opposed to it.  This weekend, I plan to start washing the walls to get them ready for painting later in the week.

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Friday Fragments: Finally Did Some!

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

Redecorating

After 17 years, I think it's time to redecorate our rooms and update some things if we are ever going to do it. Right now, just trying to decide on a color scheme and choose some colors that will look nice that are not so blah.

Fascinating Read

I just finished reading Risk Factor: Crossing the Chicken Line into Your Supernatural Destiny by Kevin and Chad Dedmon. I can't stop thinking about it! It's about really putting faith into action and taking some risk to publicly pray for people to be healed. These guys actually go to hospital emergency rooms to pray for people and they get miraculously healed! The one guy prayed for a person in a grocery store that was hard of hearing and then after she was healed, invited other people to come to a certain checkout lane if they had certain health problems and wanted to be healed. A bunch of people showed up and were healed at the grocery store! These are only a couple examples from many that are shared in this book.

Vet Time

We go back to the vet tomorrow with Spunky Doodle to see if she has gained any weight in the last three weeks and see if her ear infection has cleared up. If it has, she'll be getting some shots. I hope it has but am not so sure I did the ointment right. Then Manny goes for his shots and comprehensive exam on Wednesday.

Cat Treats

I found that my cats both like to lick the inside of my salmon package. They also like the sardine juice, but Spunky licked it up so fast that she vomited her dinner shortly after. I'll have to give her less next time. She loves the sardine pops I make for them and that way she has to lick them so that keeps her occupied for a long time.

Summer

I am enjoying the outdoors now so haven't been blogging much, as you probably noticed if you are one of our followers. Just feel it's more important to enjoy time with my husband playing tennis and walking the dog together. After all, there are only so many hours in a day so we have to make sure we do the important things.

Sweepstake Surveys

I keep faithfully doing the sweepstake surveys we get from Giant Eagle, Dollar Store and Walmart but haven't won yet. It sure would be nice to win soon!

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Friday Fragments (Life, News, Books)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

July

Happy Independence Day!  I am so thankful I live in America and still have freedom.  I just wish it was still a Godly nation.
  
July is a good month for us: Off for the holiday July 4, looking forward to having a mystery outing with my Sunday School class on Tuesday (off work); helping to prepare for Vacation Bible School (VBS) Treasure Island on Wednesday; then off the whole next week to help with the fourth graders in VBS. 

Cedar Point--New Ride

I saw on the news this week that Cedar Point now has the slingshot ride.  It looks quite scary and you have to pay an additional $25 to ride it!  For another $20, you can purchase a picture of you on it.  Neither Gerard or me would ride that one!  What about you?

False Alarm

I don't know quite how to describe the feeling I had when I thought I lost my cell phone on the bus Monday. I guess sad and shocked might cover it. When I went to make a call, that is all I could think of when it wasn't in my pocket. I was so distracted that I accidentally opened an envelope marked "confidential" that was for one of the attorneys I work for. Read my post: "Oh, Oh! I Lost My Cell Phone" to see what happened.

Sunset from porch

Porch Time

We've had some hot weather this past week so I enjoyed sitting on the porch in the evening. I love summer!!!!!!

Reading

We've read some very good books in June. To see our reviews, visit Grab a Book From Our Stack.

Gerard's Favorite

Karen's Favorite

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Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

Here I am rushing again before work to get my Friday Fragments up.

I had a GREAT time at sports camp coaching 4th grade boys basketball and leading devotions. They were very cooperative and responded to the gospel message the first day!

Really don't care about the World Cup tournament at all, Gerard watched a little of it.

I am currently reading GRADUATION DAY by Joelle Charbonneau, the third book of The Testing series. Another YA dystopian series. I am flying through it!

For the summer, In Sunday School I get to teach all the kids who just finished 5th grade including the girls. This is turning out well and I am enjoying it! Last week we had 13 which is the largest Sunday School class I've had in a very long time. The kids listened and participated well too!

That's it, gotta go.

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Friday Fragments (pets, books, teaching, news)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post.

Spunky Doodle

Spunky Doodle lived up to her name again this week. She cracked me up when I was getting Abby's dog food ready for the next day. She always jumps up on the kitchen counter where I'm working and tries to get some. Last night I tried putting her off and she jumped right back up over and over again about 12 times! She is one persistent cat and I finally gave up and let her stay. I emptied one bag into the other and she stuck her head all the way in trying to get crumbs. I really should have gotten Gerard to video this. Maybe we can do it again. She also got into some mischief this week but you'll have to wait for our Monday Mischief post for that.

Abby

Abby went to get groomed this week and didn't make a fuss, just walked right in but then couldn't get out of there fast enough! Boy, did the fur fly! She came home smelling real nice with a brand new pink bandana and all soft (softer than usual). Karen and Gerard found a car fence online for dogs to keep them safe in the car. I'm not quite sure if I'd like this contraption or not. Do any of you have this? Do you like it?

Good News

Got a call from my hubby at work yesterday saying that he can have off to help in our church sports camp too! He will be a blue shirt worker which is basically a "go-for" job. The blue shirt people assist the coaches, escort children to/from the restrooms and first-aid, set out the snacks, take care of attendance and giving out the free gifts each day. I'm glad he will be involved too. He also is going to help set up the Wednesday before camp starts.

Good Book

We both just finished reading Keep Quiet by Lisa Scottoline and liked it. Gerard didn't care for the ending but I liked it even though it wasn't very believable. I like happy endings! It's about a modern-day family of three, who are struggling in their marriage and have a teenage son, Ryan, who is a good student and a good basketball player hoping for a scholarship. When the father and son decide to keep quiet about the hit-and-run accident they were in, things go from bad to worse. Click the link to read our reviews.

New Class

Last Sunday, the new 6th grade girls were added to my class of new 6th grade boys for the summer. We still only had six so that's one reason it makes sense to combine classes. It went well and I think I'm going to like it. It certainly changes the dynamic of the class!

Opinions on the News

I am so sick of hearing about the "Gay Games" coming to Cleveland. I want nothing to do with this.

The President making deals with the Taliban is UNBELIEVABLE! How does he get away with this? Can anyone explain this to me?

In Cleveland, I like the talk about the "sin" tax which goes to help pay for the sports facilities. The talk is to have the teams "compete" for it. It may be based on the team's performance. I like that!

What say you?

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Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. It's been quite a week so I have more than usual this week:

Enjoyed a hot day on Wednesday this week--got up to 86 degrees with sun.  Read book at nearby park on my lunch hour soaking up that sun.  Still waiting for the downtown library garden to open.

Switched our Bruins wastebasket down to the basement and brought up the Red Sox one.  The Indians is now in our computer room and the Browns one is in my den upstairs.  Bruins had a great season--too bad they lost in the playoffs.

I won a $25 PetSmart gift card from Mrs 4444, the host of Friday Fragments which is something we can always use.  I found out out when I really needed a lift after a rough day at work with computer wars.  I was very surprised because I only entered once.  Thanks!

Looking forward to going to an Indians game with free food next week.  GO TRIBE!

Can't wait to get my hair cut--it's really driving me batty!  I think this is the longest it's ever been and I think I look like a sheepdog.  It comes off next Saturday.

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7 Friday Fragments (funny, educational, life, products)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

Screeching Stopped

After about a month of screeching, we took our KIA into the repair shop. Whenever we started it up it would screech but then stop once we got going. It would screech when we turned the steering wheel sometimes too. In half an hour, it was fixed--just something going on with a belt. The best part was meeting a huge German Shepherd named Tank.

Nice Watch

We got a free watch with our Blair order. It's really nice with easy-to-read actual numbers. Too bad is doesn't work but what do you expect for free, right? It was disappointing though because that was really the only reason we placed an order. Although the velour shirts are very nice.

Stop the Stink

This is the funniest commercial I've seen in a long time. It was at the beginning of a Just For Laughs video but when I went to embed it, there was a different commercial so I looked it up on YouTube and here it is for your laugh of the day.

Happiest Story of The Week

Lady and her cat got reunited after 5 years thanks to a microchip in the cat. We have one in Abby but not in our cats since they stay indoors.

Joint Juice

I just found a Glucosamine-Chondroitin supplement drink with vitamin D3 that I like. Find out more at jointjuice.com. Unfortunately, Giant Eagle is discontinuing it.

Picasa

Anyone know how to delete pics from a picasa album. It seems every picture I ever uploaded to my blogs is automatically in there. I just recently discovered that I can reuse pics from there so I have many duplicates.

Community Dinner

I'm looking forward to helping with our church's community dinner this coming Thursday. I'm taking the whole day off since it's the same day as my bone density test. This way I can help set up in the morning and help wait on tables or distribute the groceries. We are planning to give a nice bag of groceries to every family who comes that they can take home. The stockpile of donated groceries is coming along nicely.

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6 Friday Fragments (animals, restaurants, sports, books)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

Cat Librarian

We Would Make Great Library Cats!

A cute Cat was "Hired" As Assistant Librarian in Russia. That's what our library still needs. We just visited a brand new one that opened last Saturday. It was very nice, but it still needs a cat librarian. We also learned that we could return books there that we checked out from a different library since they are all in the same Cuyahoga County system. How convenient is that!

Lolita's Restaurant

Lolita's restaurant is closed on Mondays, however, when I called to make a reservation I got the recorded message that "Currently, all our lines are busy. You can dial 10 to be transferred to the hostess or try again later." When I dialed 10, I got another recorded message saying "Do not leave a message if you are calling to make a reservation." Wouldn't you think they could change their message on Mondays to let people know they were closed? I tried half a day to make a reservation. (The hours are listed at the top of their website, but I was specifically looking for the phone number and didn't pay attention to the hours.

Frosted Flakes

Frosted Flakes' Tony the Tiger is the same age as my hubby--both born in 1952! I discovered this tid-bit when playing free Kibble on Wednesday this week. (That's where I first heard about the library cat too! The link is in my sidebar so you can easily play whenever you visit our blog. Not only do you learn interesting things about cats and dogs, but your click helps provide free food for animal shelters. Down the street, a family has a big blow up Tony Tiger on their front lawn for Halloween--it's cute. On second thought, maybe it's Tigger. (sorry, no picture--didn't know I'd be writing about this)

Red Sox

What a season! They started out one of the worst teams, no one thought they would even make the playoffs and boom! They are the Champions! What made this really special is that they haven't won the World Series at home since 1918 when Babe Ruth was on the team! I am happy for them and the people of Boston. One day it will be the Indians winning the championship--I hope in my lifetime!

Trick-or-Treat

It was rainy but warm yesterday for the trick-or-treaters. I spent so much money on candy lately and we are so busy around the time they come that this year I wasn't going to pass out any candy. I just couldn't skip it though--I love giving out candy to the kids in the neighborhood, it's a chance to interact with my neighbors and it would be the first time I skipped it. I bought two bags of tootsie pops on my morning break, got home even later than usual but still managed to hand them all out. I even chased after some who I missed because I got home so late. What kind of candy did you give out?

Favorite Reads

Our favorite reads for October were Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff (Gerard's, but I am going to start reading it tomorrow) and The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton (also Gerard's) and my two were Unfinished Symphony by V. C. Andrews and a non-fiction memoir about international adoption from Russia: To Sing Frogs by John Simmons. Click the links to read our review and see the pictures of the books. Another interesting YA read that we both liked was The Program by Suzanne Young about the epidemic of teenage suicide and a prevention plan.  Did you read any good books in October?


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4 Friday Fragments (sports, thoughts, animals, books)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

Lack of Sleep

My new screen saver!

Too bad the Indians lost the wild card game--just couldn't score in spite of getting lots of hits. I stayed up until 11:40 pm hoping for a late inning rally that never happened. The next night I watched the Browns beat the Buffalo Bills 37-24 giving them 3 wins in a row and putting them in first place all alone in their division. Our QB, Brian Hoyer, got hurt at the beginning of the game after a scramble and I thought for sure this was going to be a loss when we were down 10-0. To my surprise, Brendan Weeden stepped up and got it done with no interceptions and several huge plays, making the third down conversions. It was worth staying up until 11:45 p.m. I'll catch up on my sleep tonight. Glad this was the only night game for the Browns this season!

Crazy Thought

I was just thinking today how nice it would be if nations would handle their differences by playing a game instead of going to war. Kind of like a dual, but it would be fun! Maybe I should suggest it to the United Nations. War is so horrible and lots of lives could be saved this way. Players could be with their families and just come to play the game, then go back home. What game would you suggest they play to settle their differences?

Coati Mundi

a South American Coati Mundi

I learned of a new animal this week. One of my co-workers took a trip to the Panama Canal and sent me this picture of a creature she saw--a South American Coati Mundi. I've never heard of this animal before!  I think it kind of looks like a small kangaroo but it is apparently part of the raccoon family.

Books

Check out our reviews of Our Favorite Reads For September:  Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain (Karen's choice) and Alex by Pierre Lemaitre (Gerard's choice).  Both these are very good!




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6 Friday Fragments (New things, food, bruise)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

Camera Size Settings

I thought I'd use the VGA (email) setting on my camera for blog pics to save space and help them to load faster but found out that size doesn't work for our blog header at Grab a Book From Our Stack. It didn't go all the way across so had to up it to 2M.

Free Food

At work Monday I ate well. First, I had two pieces delicious chocolate cake brought in by a co-worker (thanks, Cher) leftover from her clam bake on the weekend. One was a ho ho cake--it had HoHos cut up on top. Then, because I rode the bus to work, I got a free lunch given by our green committee--Rascal House pizza, salad, and cookies. With eating all that (4 slices of pizza and two cookies), I didn't even need any supper!

Google Maps

I just discovered Googlemaps.com this week and really like it! I was impressed that as soon as I went to the site, I saw my location with a picture of my house! I looked up a location that was listed on the E-check notice we received that would be much closer for us to make sure it was the Lube Stop I thought it was. Then I looked up our favorite pizza place, Casamels in Parma, and did a review of it. Last Sunday when we had a missions emphasis at church, the youth pastor used Google Maps to show us where Haiti was. That's how I found out about it.

New Shows

We both liked watching Hostages, a new show. Did you like it?  Did you watch any other new shows you thought were good?  We also watched the sitcom about the Little League baseball family, but I was disappointed in that.  I didn't care for the mother's potty mouth or the grandfather's manner with his grandson.  My husband enjoyed The Michael J. Fox show too but I haven't watched that one yet.

Name Poems

Thanks to Mary-andering Creatively, I discovered a Name Poem Generator. You can choose a motivational poem or a funny poem. If you don't like it, you can click "generate poem" again and you will get something different.  I plan to post our name poems on Wednesday.

Strange Bruise

I discovered this bruise on my inside left thigh on Monday morning and it is still there! It never hurt or itched and I have no idea how I got it. It doesn't seem to be spreading either. It's a little tiny red dot on a very slight bump (like a mosquito bite) with a black and blue ring around it. Should I be concerned? Anyone have a clue as to what may have caused this?

GO TRIBE!  MAKE THE PLAYOFFS!

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7 Friday Fragments - Feline Friday (cats, church, news, blogging, sports)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

Cute Screen Saver

My cousin sent me an email with lots of cute animal pictures so I saved some I especially liked. This is one of them that I am now using as my screen saver picture on my computer:

The big cat looks like my Manny Boy

Vet Visit With Manny Boy

Last Saturday Manny went in for his routine checkup and although he has the beginnings of Gingervitis, we did not have to have him get his teeth cleaned. The new vet said we could give him an antibiotic (Clindacure) just once a day for 3 days--just had to put it on his food. She said it will kill the bacteria that is making his gums red (they looked dark pink to me). Other than that, all is good, even his weight! Wish we had a third person who could have videotaped us getting him into the carrier--that's always fun!

Horrible News

Three teens in Oklahoma shot a college student from Australia because they were bored? Said they did it just for fun! These teens are despicable! Here is the link to the news story I saw on Yahoo News this week: Police Say Teen Shot Australian Student in Oklahoma For Fun. What a sick world we live in!

Good News

I always get a bit nervous when I see mail from the hospital after I had a mammogram, but was relieved to see my latest results are normal! It will be four years now the first week of September since my lumpectomy to remove the cancer.

Bible Study

I signed up for another Beth Moore Bible study at our church starting September--A Heart Like David. I really enjoy her studies so am looking forward to it. Also, our Women of Wonder monthly meetings will start up again. This year they will have a morning one as well as the Thursday night one to hopefully get more ladies involved. It is primarily a fellowship time with good food, short devotional, a craft or other fun type activity and prayer. Are you starting any new Bible Study at your church?

New Blogs To Me

This week I found two new wonderful blogs: Through following up on a commenter I discovered: Mary-andering Creatively and through the Note Card Party blog hop, I found Sue at To Live, Love and Journal Our Days. I am now a new follower of both and have added them to my blogroll. Hope you will pay them a visit too!

Question of the Day

Hope to get to 1 more game this year!

My husband asked me which I am more excited about: the Indians chase to get into the playoffs or the beginning of the Browns season. My answer is, the Indians. I look forward to the Browns starting again, but as long as the Indians are in the race, my focus will be on them.
GO TRIBE! GO TRIBE! GO TRIBE! CATCH THOSE TIGERS! GO TRIBE! GO TRIBE! GO TRIBE! CATCH THOSE TIGERS!

New Design

I like that I can choose from lots of different designs at discover.com for my credit cards. Can you guess what I picked? If you read my blog regularly, I bet you can. One is a tuxedo cat and the other is a tabby. Just got the tabby one this week!

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5 Things We Learned This Week (animals, pets, life, food)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Unknown Mama for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

Turtles

Painting a turtles shell is harmful to them so Never Paint on a Turtle.  I learned this from a turtle blog called "Underneath the Shell" where you can find out more.

Poop Tip

Using a zip-lock plastic bag for the cat and dog poop keeps the stinky smell trapped in the bag. See "Yes, "Pack It Out" of the Wilderness Means Your Poop Bags Too" about being a responsible pet owner. This blogger even picks up others poop!

Weigh In

Our Spunky Doodle went from being obese down to heavy at 11 pounds. At least we are heading in the right direction, but the vet said her ideal weight is 9.5 lbs. I'm already barely feeding her as it is, only about 1/8 cup of dry food per day!  Her blood work came back good and no parasites, yippee!

 

Email Aggravation

When I went to access my Spunky Doodle email account, I got this message:

AT&T Service Suspension Alert
AT&T Yahoo! services suspended

You no longer have access to your AT&T Yahoo! account spunkydoodle@sbcglobal.net because your ATT Yahoo! Internet services have been suspended. If you are under 13 years of age, your parents need to re-approve your access to your email account and other ATT online services. Your parents can log in with their User ID (gkzemek@sbcglobal.net) to give that approval.

This is the one we use for our book blog and which gets requests for book reviews. I was able to get it reset but then a few days later, it came up again and I couldn't get it to reset. I called ATT technical support and after spending at least 20 minutes, mostly on hold, Vanessa said she would escalate it and I should be fixed in 24-48 hours! I told her to change it from a child's account and gave her my birth date instead of my cat's.

This was Wednesday and it is STILL not working!  GRRRR!  The Good news is that it finally was fixed as of Sunday!  Yea!!!

Good Treats for Dogs

According to the summer 2013 issue of "DogFancy's Natural Dog" blueberries and cranberries can benefit dogs. It said 2 or 3 berries are great for a small dog, a 50-pound dog could have a dozen. I'm going to check with our vet though first before letting our dog have any. So far, we only give her a little peanut butter once in a while.

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3 Friday Fragments (books, costs, heat)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Unknown Mama for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

What To Do With Books You Have Read

Beth Ann from It's Just Life shared a new way to pass on books to others in her post "Releasing Books Into the Wild" that I haven't heard of before called bookcrossing.com.  Personally, I use paperbackswap.com--it's not just paperbacks and when you post books that someone wants, you send it to them and get credits to use for a book you would like that someone else posted.  The one sending the book pays the postage.

High Costs

If you think things are expensive here in the U.S. just read "The World's Most Expensive Cities" at CNNMoney and you will soon feel better. For example, they list common items in U.S. dollars such as bread, wine, cigarettes, gas and a 3-course dinner with wine for four. The city who had the most expensive price for a loaf of bread was Coracas at $9.40! In Sydney, a pack of cigarettes is $15.48! For the 3-course high end dinner for four, it costs over $1,000 in Zurich, Paris and Geneva!

Hot Enough

We enjoyed being off this week and are so glad Gerard didn't have to work in that hot warehouse during this heat wave--it's been over 90 every day this week! We spent the mornings helping in our VBS and fortunately, our church is air-conditioned. In the afternoons we mostly stayed inside unless walking our dog except for Monday when we do play miniature golf.

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Friday Fragments (funny, authors, tips, crafts, learning)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Unknown Mama for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post to give Mrs. 4444 a break for the summer. Here we go:

Laugh

This video made me laugh out loud when I saw it this week. I would like one of these to wear when I greet at church!

5 THINGS WE LEARNED THIS WEEK:

Cowboy Vest Craft

Helping in a group of 80-100 kindergartners for VBS takes a lot of time on preparation. We both learned how to make a cowboy vest using a paper bag. You can too by following the instructions listed in yesterday's post. Gerard will be working in this group this week and had to make 50 cowboy vests out of paper bags. Lots of cutting and taping. We worked on cutting them out while we watched most of the Indians game last Sunday and Joel Osteen. Then I taped around the neck of them and did a little Monday through Wednesday to get them all done. Whew! This is one reason I don't like to work in the younger groups.  It's actually a pretty neat craft--older kids could make their own though. I think the kids will love these--they get to color patches and glue them on! (At least we didn't have to do that part.)

Authors

I discovered some new authors this week after reading A Bride For All Seasons--Mail-Order Bride Collection. Four authors contributed to this book containing four historical romance novellas that I thoroughly enjoyed. I already read some of Mary Connealy's books but also look forward to reading more of Margaret Brownley, Debra Clopton, and Robin Lee Hatcher's. Have you read any by these authors--recommendations of what to start with?

Just Right-Click

Pic I made my big discovery on

All my blogging skill I learned along the way on me own with a little help from other bloggers. I am still learning! I started blogging in 2008 and just now discovered that when loading pics from my camera to the computer, all I need to do is right-click on a pic and choose the rotate counterclockwise option from the drop down menu to change it to portrait from landscape! All this time I was saving it to my computer, then opening it up and then choosing rotate.

Juggling Update

My juggling is coming along and I am confident I can learn this. I'm practicing with two balls now! Are you currently trying to learn something new?

Dog TV

A new channel is coming soon for dogs! Yes, it is for dogs who are home alone all day to watch. Abby is not a big TV watcher, but Gerard is eager to see this. Get more details at dogtv.com. Do you think your dog would like it?

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