I
was watching the news this morning and one of the hosts
said that it seems like Halloween is more popular than
ever. He said it was "four times more popular" than when
he was a kid.
When I repeated this to an acquaintance on my morning
walk, she disagreed. I wondered at that until I read
this news article about how Halloween is more
popular in some areas of the country than others.
Personally, I believe that God has a sense of humor and
wants us to enjoy times like these. I love Halloween and
pretending to be a ghost or whatever. In my opinion, it
teaches us to laugh at our fears.
We are giving out little bags of pretzels and some
candy. I always liked getting something salty as a kid
because, when you eat a lot of sweets, then eat
something salty, you could go back to eating even more
sweets.
Our garden broccoli is now
ready to pick. My husband wanted cream of broccoli soup
for lunch today. Here's the way we made it.
Cream of
Broccoli Soup
1 head of broccoli, chopped and
cooked until soft
1 small onion, chopped and
sauteed in butter until clear
1/2 of a small can of
mushrooms, drained
1 cup of cream or half n half
1 can condensed cream of
chicken soup
grated cheese, optional
salt and/or pepper if needed
Cook the broccoli until soft.
Drain and, using a blender or beaters, beat it until it is
in small bits or pieces. Cook the onion in any amount of
butter -- enough to fry up well. Next, open the can of soup,
use cream or half n half instead of water or milk (or any
combination of any of those, depending on how rich you want
-- we used all cream).
Pour the soup in a pan (stove)
or bowl (microwave), add a canful of cream and stir well.
Add the broccoli, mushrooms and onion. Stir to mix. Heat the
mixture until it is almost boiling - do not let it boil just
heat it until it is hot enough to eat.
Serve a bowl with cheese
sprinkled on top -- so good, rich and filling. Makes more
than enough for two.
We saw this wonderful movie
today - I loved it. The movie had everything: a good plot,
action, suspense, mystery, romance, big explosions, wild
horse chases, runaway trains, sword-play, Antonio
Banderas and plenty of humor. What's not to like?
Catherine Zeta Jones was beautiful - so nice to see
someone voluptuous rather than skinny-scrawny. And her
dresses were beautiful - she wore many different ones,
plus she was as tough as Zorro. ::sigh:: I just loved
this whole movie. My husband liked it, too. Men, women
and older children may all like this one. It has
everything.
It was another fun
afternoon, chatting with
IMVU friends, showing off the stuff we've
"purchased." Chatting does take up a lot of time, but I
can play with chats and keep other windows open, too.
(Click on the image to go to the source and at the
source, click on the words, Original Image, if more
detail is desired.) It was much fun today, learning many
tips and tricks. Iwill post what I learn in my web page
there.
My
mother has always collected dolls - and she still does,
even though she is in her 70's. She has made adorable
Christmas Tree ornaments out of dolls that I thought
were precious.
When I was 7 years old, I thought dolls came alive when
nobody was looking. They just seemed too real to
not be alive. At that age, I never got tired of playing with dolls and
dressing them up. I took them over to friends' homes and
we'd play together.
As I got older, I collected a few dolls. My sisters love
dolls and my mother is still going strong. I have my
original Barbie from the early sixties in great
condition. I took care of it. She jumped into the Beanie
Baby craze and developed a love for quality stuffed
bears. Well made miniature bears are a favorite of hers.
Growing up in a family like this and being a computer
geek, I was primed for avatars. Finally, an
avatar world has come around that I love. The
online characters can be dressed up in any of a gigantic
selection of hair styles, colors, clothes and
accessories and we chat. It is not game-playing
(although I am sure I would love that, given enough
time). It is simply chatting - relating to another
person.
A large part of that is shopping. Choose from a
mall-sized selection of makeup, clothes, hair, eyes,
pets, shoes, even underwear, eye shadow, hats, and more.
You can select beautiful backdrop scenes for IM
conversation. Make hand and eye movements. Show
expressions.
It is a marvelous way to communicate with others. I can
shop, dress myself up and show myself off to my friends.
And the best thing? I have a perfect body!
IMVU (IM Virtual Universe) is free. They give you
credits to go shopping. They make their money from those
who decide to join and purchase even more credits to
amass great closets full of clothes. Designers can make
money creating clothes, pets, etc., for citizens of
IMVU.
I put together screenshots of recent
chats after spending the day with my daughter. The poor
kid has morning sickness worse than I ever had it.
(Click on the image to enlarge it even more.)
I
had two perfectly good working waffle irons, but my
husband was not happy with either one. The first made
regular waffles. "Too flat," he said. He wanted the
deep-pocket Belgian waffles that he has gotten used to.
The second one made Belgium waffles but they were in
small heart shapes. "Not big enough," he said. (It is
adorable, though, producing 3 small hearts at one time.
The hearts are not attached so it is not much in a
batch, but still cute.)
I needed a Belgium waffle iron that made a big,
plate-sized waffle. I found one at Costco. (I had seen
professional waffle irons at Williams-Sonoma and was
thrilled to find one at Costco.)
My husband asked, "What is so great about flipping a
waffle iron as one is cooking?" I consider myself
something of a good breakfast chef (breakfast being my
favorite meal and I often go to elaborate lengths to
make different breakfasts) so I explained how a waffle
will cook more evenly by turning the cooker. Flipping it
helps the batter to flow to the other side, preventing
white undercooked spots.
There are several kinds of waffles that I have made,
buttermilk, sour dough, oatmeal, buckwheat (I buy the
flour fresh ground from a health food store) and whole
wheat (I grind the flour fresh). Fresh flour makes a
HUGE difference in the taste. (Plus I made cocoa cookies
in the regular waffle iron from a cake mix-like batter).
This
is the best little screen capture program I have seen
(free for 30 days). Well, its not really little. It does
a LOT. It even captures video. I captured some of my
IMVU avatar and
made it into a little movie. That's how I got
the little pumpkin animaton in this entry. (I did not
animate it per se).
I captured it, then saved it as an avi file, then used
QuickTime Pro to save the avi as individual images, then
used PhotoShop and ImageReady to make it into an
animated gif. It's a process but I think I've gotten
pretty good at it.
I
was watching the news this morning and one of the hosts
said that it seems like Halloween is more popular than
ever. He said it was "four times more popular" than when
he was a kid.
We saw this wonderful movie
today - I loved it. The movie had everything: a good plot,
action, suspense, mystery, romance, big explosions, wild
horse chases, runaway trains, sword-play, Antonio
Banderas and plenty of humor. What's not to like?
My
mother has always collected dolls - and she still does,
even though she is in her 70's. She has made adorable
Christmas Tree ornaments out of dolls that I thought
were precious.
I
had two perfectly good working waffle irons, but my
husband was not happy with either one. The first made
regular waffles. "Too flat," he said. He wanted the
deep-pocket Belgian waffles that he has gotten used to.
This
is the best