Thursday 29th November

Up and out early for the donuts, it's nice and bright but was a bit chilly early on, then went up to the 70s.

The speakers at Kiwani's were the two young men from Malawi who are currently guests in Shawnee, I mentioned them a little while back when I went to an event at Larry's church introducing them.    When I was young - pre 1964 - Malawi was known as Nyasaland.

 These are Mark and Austin holding their national flag, they talked about their roles and ministry in Hope House Orphan Care among children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.   The children live mainly with grandparents, or aunts and uncles, and come every day to Hope House for schooling and meals, some of them walking as far as eight miles.

                                                                                           

They also sang to the accompaniment of the drum beat, which I liked, I have some African music downloaded on my computer.

The people are passionately fond of soccer and we were shown a soccer ball they make out of trash.   Also the shoes they make from tyres.


Later in the morning I went to Communion at Emmanuel, then eight of us had lunch at Paul's Place, which was very nice.   Although he no longer has a ministerial role now he is retired, Fr Clark is getting back into things at Emmanuel and came to Communion and lunch too.

In the news..........along with Benghazi, Susan Rice and the Fiscal Cliff, is the War on Christmas ( which at least makes a change from the War on Women)

 The governor of Rhode Island has decreed that the big, official tree in the State Capital of Providence is not a Christmas tree, it is a "Holiday" tree.    This has aroused widespread protests and demonstrations, and the ire of Bill O'Reilly.  The Governor came on the Bill O'Reilly programme this evening and put on a smiling, unperturbed face while Bill O'Reilly ranted and raved and pointed out that Obama is quite happy to call it a Christmas tree at the White House.   This is said Christmas tree being delivered, and says "Christmas Tree" on the side of the wagon

 

Another aspect of the War is an adaptation of "Merry Christmas  Charlie Brown" in Little Rock, Arkansas where an atheist group has complained about an elementary school's plans to take its students to see a production of it at a local church.

The Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon was created in 1965, and follows the story of Peanuts character Charlie Brown on his quest to find the meaning of Christmas in the midst of commercialism.  In one of the cartoon's scenes the character Linus quotes a portion of Luke's gospel to explain to his friend how Christmas began.   Therein lies all the shock, horror.   American - as well as English children, because I know the War is going on over there too - must not be exposed to all this blatant Christianity.

Wednesday

I was up early and busy.   Guy from the computer shop was expected shortly after 9 to sort out network connection to new laptop.  He said problems with it are a feature of the new Windows 8.

I always thought I had internet broadband because that was what I had in England and I know that dial up is a lot slower.  However, because my internet is from a cable company it is USB.  Just before he arrived however my desktop pc decided to go crazy, something to do with the Microsoft package I had installed, but he sorted that quite quickly.

Also on the agenda for today were making cup cakes for tonight's meal at Emmanuel, made tonight by Team Lasagna.
I made red velvet cakes, frosted with cream cheese and white sparkly sprinkles, and  yellow cakes frosted with lemon and topped with blueberries.

 I also melted some chocolate chips and served it as a dip with crisps.   Sweet and salty combinations are quite popular here.

 
Fr Clark and his wife have just had another grandchild in Virginia.  I know it is commonplace now for husbands to be in attendance at the birth, but he was saying that his son was asked if he would like to cut the umbilical cord.   In my day expectant fathers paced the waiting room; they weren't in there cutting the umbilical cord.

Tuesday 27th November

The weather has turned cold, I was scraping ice off my windscreen this morning and trying to remember when it was 113 and I longed for it to be cold.

I was at the Senior Centre this afternoon.   I thought I had done well driving at Thanksgiving - I think it was 967 miles - to Beaumont and back, but Kate had gone down to Corpus Cristi on the other side of the Gulf, nearly into Mexico, and that was about 1300 miles, but she wasn't driving single handedly.   

She and her family had a beach holiday and brought me back some sand from the beach in a little jar, put a candle in, and decorated the lid.  I'll put it with my other 'treasures' on a window sill.

Phyllis also stopped by to visit - an English friend had sent her some M&S teabags and she brought a few to share.

They were putting up the Christmas trees in the Senior Centre.

 I like this one best.

Betty on the ladder, is in charge of the community service workers. the young lad is one of them.   

This weekend is Advent.  I will take down my autumn decorations and get out the winter ones.

In the news.....I gather you hear the ongoing saga of Ambassador Susan Rice, who is in the middle of the Benghazi-gate cover up.   She was being interrogated today by three Republicans hell bent (and I don't blame them) on getting to the bottom of who, exactly, is covering up what.   But the more questions they ask, and the deeper they dig, the worse it seems to get.  They were far from satisfied.   I think Obama is mad, as in annoyed.  She was his choice for Secretary of State but Republicans have sent him a petition saying "don't even think of about it".

Another item of news which interested me is the latest craze among Chinese who are buying up all the high end, luxury properties on the east and west coasts.  I think some are for investment, but also  they are moving in, with suitable adaptations to the kitchens, and suites for in laws (??).    One Chinese lady said there is a lot of prestige in owning a foreign home.

 Bubbles is still recuperating from her ordeal.  She just jumps off the bed to eat, and go out outside for a few minutes.  At first I didn't want to let her out, but it is so cold she goes for a couple of minutes to scratch her claws on a post, then dashes back in and jumps on the bed again.

  







































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































for it to be cold.

 I was at the Senior Centre this afternoon.   I make a big deal of going to Beaumont, driving "all that way" - I think I said it was 967 miles for the round trip.   Kate had gone to Corpus Cristi which is on the other side of the Gulf, nearly into Mexico, and about 1400 miles.   She spent her time on the beach and brought me back some sand in a jar, into which she had put a candle, and decorated the lid.   Phyllis stopped by and we visited, as they say here. A friend of hers from England had sent her some teabags from M&S, and she brought a few to share with me.

 They were decorating the Christmas trees in the Senior Centre.

Thanksgiving Part II

I took some photos of outside in the grounds, but thought you probably saw those at Christmas.

Here are a few new ones.

 These lemons were just outside near their patio, and needed picking.   I snipped them very carefully and they filled a big bucket.  Peter is going to grate all the zest, squeeze the juice and freeze it.  I think I had the easiest job.

 The bird feeders.  They obviously like watching the birds from their patio.

 These are Turk's caps.  I think Michael said they are a relative of the hibiscus, but they never open out any further than that.  They are native to south Texas and very drought resistant.

 Peter and Michael's house.

I left about 8.30 on Friday.   We were up early for breakfast.  Michael's mother was ill, he heard on Thursday she was worse, and he flew to Philadelphia on Friday to see her.  It has been a hard few weeks for him, his sister died very unexpectedly in September.  Peter took him to the airport at Houston and they left 7.30 so I wanted to be up early to say goodbye.

On the way back I stopped at this Holiday Inn.  I'd made a reservation in advance and was glad I had.  I just put the address into the GPS and didn't have to worry about looking for a hotel.

 I took my swimsuit and had a dip in the jacuzzi.

 Took this sunrise from my hotel window.    Anyone can take sunsets but you have to be up early to take the sunrise.

I got home in the middle of Saturday afternoon, and just been unwinding over the weekend.   Went to Emmanuel on Sunday.

This morning, Monday, I went to the vet's to collect Bubbles, and was horrified.  Apart from fleas she was healthy when I left her, but all the area round her eyes is red and sore, and I have got antibiotic ointment to put on, and drops to give her, a job I could well do without, I am not very competent at things like that.

Bubbles was a bit unsettled when we got in, and kept miaowing for a while, and wandering around, but then settled down and all the time I was watching television she climbed into my arms and snuggled down.   I was glad about that, I thought she'd be mad at me and want to run away, leave home again.  

I'm Back and The Thanksgiving Dinner

It has been a lot of driving - all 967 miles of it - but it was lovely to see Michael and Peter, and their friends who came for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Michael is on the right of the picture, Peter on the left.

When they are not in their monks habits they are usually wearing aprons.  Or perhaps this was just a busy culinary weekend.

 The Menu.   The white gravy was actually wild porcini mushroom gravy, but Michael said he didn't want to go over the top with the description.

 

The Orange and Black Olive salad,which was very nice, the oranges were exceptionally sweet. I don't know why I can't get this picture the right way round, I kept trying.

 This is called a sous vide, and it is how the turkey breasts were cooked.  They are vacuum packed which sees off all the pathogens, then cooked in a water bath for a long time, so they never overcook, and are always very tender and moist.   The prime rib of beef at Christmas is cooked like that as well.

 Michael flattens out the turkey skin, seasons and cooks it, and it is ever so good, like crackling but better.   Peter won't have any, says it was like a dead cat when it was sitting  in the back of the 'fridge.

The apple tarts and pumpkin pies.

The dinner table.  I should have taken the photo when the candles were lit.

I'll post a few more photos tomorrow that I took outside.

My monastic cell.

 

 

Monday, 19th November

Got Bubbles into the cat carrier and she cried all the way to Tecumseh.  That is going to haunt me for the rest of the week, but she absolutely had to go to the vet.  I have been battling the fleas unsuccessfully it feels, and it was with a sense of relief that I handed over the problem.   I went to say goodbye to her and was very dismayed to find her in a cage 4' x 4', like prison without an exercise yard.  In future I will make sure she has her monthly flea treatments and I never have to put us both through this again.

I was going to pack, clean the house, be well ahead of myself.   But alas.   My computer has been getting slower and slower, it finally ground to a halt this morning and I couldn't do anything.  I installed an online deal from PCMatic.com which seems to have sorted it out.    I also had to turn my attention to my elderly Windows XP laptop, which I've had for years, I think I was living in Seaford when I bought it, and which I had to acknowledge has died.  It is too old and not economically viable to be tuned up at Staples, or installing a programme like PCMatic.

So I trotted along to Staples to suss out a new one.   It might seem an extravagance to have two computers but I just can't live and breathe without my computer access, and the laptop is useful when  using it in another room, or travelling.

Found quite a nice one for $449, which isn't too terrible when I run it through the currency convertor and see it is £282.  It has a webcam and microphone installed. 8GB Memory and 640GB Hard Drive, and Windows 8.    The Windows 8 seems quite different from the 7 on my desktop PC, so I bought a little Idiots Guide.   I shall probably spend my time at the monastery familiarising myself with it.   I am going to Staples next Monday for a free training session on it.

 

 The case was an extra $20, I didn't have one for the old laptop.

I have loaded up the car.