I don't feel well today, after a sleepless night, twitching and coughing.  I took some pills, but that only made things fuzzier.  At last I slept, but do not feel like doing anything today; nevertheless, I dusted and vacuumed in my bedroom.  It always makes me feel better to see bright, clean objects around me.  The presents just keep rolling in, too.  I can't believe it.  Last night came a bottle of Kahlua and a hand-stitched quilted sofa pillow.  I got my solar light hung up yesterday afternoon in the cloudy, rainy weather, and it still glowed for hours last night, but not too brightly.  I'll bet it will do better if there is real sun.  There is none today, though. 

I had a lucid dream the other night that stays with me.  In the dream, I looked out of a window and saw black clouds all over the horizon.  As they approached, they came down to earth in a funnel shape and began to spew out birds and animals.  All the clouds were composed of birds and animals.  A "friend" standing nearby told me that they were all the killed animals, coming back to inhabit the earth.  One of the clouds opened over my lawn and out came many different kinds of animals.  One came right up to the window.  It was a capibara (sp?) from S. America.  I didn't know what to make of this dream, but it seemed to be a good thing. 

I can't believe how laziness has set in.  It's rather like a pause, I keep telling myself, before the new year begins, with all its work and trying to get things done.  I do feel that there is a change coming; perhaps in our country, or the world, or myself.  Or the climate. 

I can't figure out, even with instructions, how this pedometer thingie works.  One of the problems is that everything is entered in cm.'s, or kg.'s, etc. You have to enter your weight, height, and length of stride, all in numbers I don't understand.  Perhaps counting steps is best.  Also, when driving, I can drive to the point that I walk to and get the distance in 1/10's of a mile.  Oh, well.

I spent all afternoon yesterday trying to figure out how to play a DVD movie on my computer.  All my research indicated I needed a decoder to do so, after downloading Windows Media Player 10, and I came within a click of paying $39.95 to get a decoder.  Then I said to myself, didn't I already get all that when I bought this Dell computer?  So I looked through all my disks that came with it and found one that looked promising, and it was the decoder!  This should have put me in paradise, right?  Except their software appears to be crap, because halfway through the movie and every 10 minutes thereafter, everything freezes up and starts and stutters along.  I couldn't even watch one movie.  I am pretty disgusted with so-called technology right now.

What else?  Oh yeah, I'm still fat.  I have lost weight in the past, and I was trying to remember just how I did it before.  I think I simply starved myself for about 2 weeks, and then, the weight started to come off in a reasonable manner, with regular dieting.  Apparently, there has to be some sort of jump-start-me fasting. 

It has taken me three days to itemize everything I got for Christmas, because I keep forgetting little things, like my SpongeBob SquarePants folder.  I shouldn't discount it because it probably only cost 10 cents.  Yesterday, I got busy and actually organized all my recipes, and I used the folder to put in all the leftover recipes that I couldn't deal with then.   

The presents have all been distributed and unwrapped, the bags of paper garbage are in the dumpster, the presents I got are being incorporated into my house.  What did I get?  Well, I got a pink plaid flannel shirt with a zipper and a turtleneck to go with it, I got a solar light to attach to my porch, I got a 30-pair shoebag to put all my shoes in, a couple of books (yes, more books), a garlic jar (I still think the plastic baggie in the crisper drawer works well), a pedometer (I can stop counting steps now?), a small pair of binoculars, 2 movies, a 3/4 length winter coat, a tiny silver hookah(!? tree decoration?), a wedge of Italian Asiago cheese, a six-pack of New Glarus beer called Spotted Cow, a candy cane, a Spongebob Squarepants folder, an Orlando Bloom calendar, a meat/breadcrumb grinder (still to come), a wire basket and suet for the birds,  and I bought and kept two birdhouses for my chickadees and nuthatches.  Oh, and my dogs got a package of dog treats.

To my son-in-law, I gave a rolling office chair with arms; to my daughter, a set of Corelle dinnerware, a lamp and shade, 2 sweaters and a jacket; to my son, 50% of a guitar, an antique ukelele, a cordless drill and case with all the doodads, the movie Motorcycle Diaries, a pair of gloves, and 2 emergency space blankets; to my grandson, an Esteban guitar and case, with instructional video and 2 picks, a wallet and a hand-held video game.  To my son's girlfriend, I gave two baskets, 2 pairs of little stretchy gloves in black, a golden charm bracelet, a picture frame and a book about sewing lingerie.  To her son, I gave a dual cereal dispenser and the book, Aesop's Fables. 

My son-in-law did the cooking, and he made dinner of marinated Italian steaks, Tater Tots, salad with dressing, biscuits, and I brought 4 dozen cookies, 2 loaves of cranberry bread, a bowl of cranberry sauce, and a cherry cream cheese pie.  I had a couple of glasses of Asti Spumante wine. 

I hope everyone had a merry christmas and will have a happy new year.  I think I mentioned that I signed up for Blog Harbor, but haven't done anything about improving this site yet.  The future looks good for that, and my novel IS heading towards completion.  I am making a pot of chili and scrambling around to clean up the house for company coming at noon today.

There have been a number of deaths in the family and among friends, so this holiday season was saddened by their loss.  We are thankful for those that are with us still, and I got to see my grandson, who is here visiting since Thanksgiving.  Hadn't seen him for several years and he is 18 now, has just landed a job at Walmart!

Happy first day of winter!  I have a new book to read, "Fools Crow" by Mails.  Today, I am to bake cookies and cranberry bread.  First, I must wash dishes.  But before that, I must wake up!  I can't seem to get a move on.  It's almost noon, and I have just gotten dressed, after a very restless night, tending my dog, Pepper, who is not well.  What can be wrong with her?  Well, I think she has swallowed so much deer fur that she is constipated, and I gave her a stool softener in some liver sausage, and also a worming pill, Aricept.  She pants, loudly and continuously, all night, and that has to be hard on her heart, at the very least.

On the spying on American citizens, I just heard that Bush said something about the Constitution being "just a goddam piece of paper."  This current administration is so riddled with scandal and corruption that I cannot believe this guy is still in office.  But look at who would replace him.  It should be a double impeachment.  Speaker o/t House Dennis Hastreiter would be next.  Omg, this is why we can't impeach. 

I signed up this morning for blogharbor, and here I am, not much to post about, but I'm barely awake anyway.  I had to scrape up a zucchini off the floor as it had collapsed and become a ball of stinky mush.  And Mouse No. 22 is toying with death at the traps.  They are so cute, but as I noted yesterday, they are also cute when dead in a trap.  Sorry, but it is early and I have not much to say. 

Winter is becoming colder; this morning, the house was 60 degrees.  I barely notice the cold in my long winter duds from Lands' End and my velour bathrobe.  The only thing is that, these days, my feet get cold and don't warm up fast.  In my youth, I never had this problem; I had only to direct heat to my feet with my mind, and they would warm up immediately.  Now, I don't know.  But wearing socks works, so....

The time is getting close when I must decide what I am going to do about this blog.  Keep it and pay, or just get on with my writing in other ways.  Hmmm.

Other than that, I am busy writing my novel and it is beginning to get exciting, even for me.  When it's done, I expect to submit it to a publisher, but you know how they are.  I'll probably get a rejection slip right off.  Nevertheless.....

The snow is beautiful, we got about 5 or 6 inches yesterday and overnight, it is quiet, warm, and so beautiful out.  I'm going to go for a walk in the moonlight tonight, whether it's cloudy or not.  Hunting season is over, and my dogs have brought home many deer legs from the woods to gnaw on in the driveway.  These are their treasures. 

I am thinking I will organize my recipes and publish them, even though many are not my own, my very own, original recipes.  I could put a note on the end of each recipe to say where I got it from, if it's not my own creation.  I'll have to find out what the protocol is. 

Meantime, the presents are wrapped, with the exception of a lampshade that I just don't want to wrap, what's the point?  Anybody can see it's a lampshade....I'm confident that this will be a merry CHRISTMAS.  Can you believe the nonsense that is going on now?  Not bloody likely will I be saying happy holidays. 

My latest book acquisitions are Talk to the Hand; Eats, Shoots and Leaves, both by Lynne Truss, Aesop's Fables (soon to be a Christmas present), and a movie, The Motorcycle Diaries.  Also, another book by Pickover called Sex, Drugs, Einstein and Elves.  Very interesting.   

Yesterday, I went to town in my truck with the shiny new exhaust system, and got my dogfood, sunflower seed for the birds, and grocery items I like at Walmart; then on over to Aldi's and got the rest of my food for the month.  There were 28 bags or large bulky items to haul into the house, but I am now done for this month; no further shopping will be required.  I am getting pretty good at guesstimating just what I need for one month, plus I always have a few things left over.  I'm baking cranberry nut bread now:

              Cranberry Bread  (two loaves)

Peel and cut up 3 oranges, put them in a food processor and pulverize (enough to make 1-1/2 cups).  I also took some of the orange peel and separately minced it, just to make a tablespoon and added this to the orange puree.  Make cranberry sauce with one pkg. of frozen cranberries (follow the directions on pkg.) and put through strainer to make jellied cranberry sauce.  Save this cranberry sauce as a separate dish, it's the leftover cranberry pulp that you need.  You should have a good cupful or more of pulp.  Set the oranges and cranberry pulp aside.  To the orange puree, add 4 tblspns. canola oil, 2 tblspns. water and 2 beaten eggs.  If desired, chop walnuts or pecans enough to make 3/4 cup.  In a large bowl, place 4 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 3 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, stir well.  Heavily grease and flour 2 loaf pans, set aside.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir in orange juice mixture, cranberry pulp, and nuts (if desired) all at once, just enough to moisten.  Divide batter into two loaf pans and bake for one hour approx. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Turn out on board and place loaf on its side to cool.  Wrap and store (but not for long!)

The temp. dived to below zero last night, and I put an extra puffy quilt on my bed, so that makes 4 blankets on top of me, plus I am now wearing my long winter underwear that I got from Lands' End.  I am probably going to keep them on and only take them off to wash them.  We used to turn on the gas fireplace, which put out the extra heat needed to keep the temp around 70 deg. at least, but this year, with the prices, etc. - I am trying to tough it out at 60 - 62 deg. on these especially cold days.  The underfloor heating system continues to do an excellent job; it is toasty on the feet. 

The total mouse kill number is now 17 or 18.  It will be quiet for a day or two, and then a mouse will enter the house from out there in the woods; usually, he is not trap-wary, and will blunder right in.  We don't know how they get in, but we do know where they like to run, so that's where the traps are most effective.  I am even getting used to dealing with their dead bodies. 

I also do a lot more baking these days.  Oh, I made a venison roast the other day.  Here it is:  

                         Venison Roast

Place the venison in a large pan with a close-fitting lid.  Add 1/2 cup of water in the bottom.  Sprinkle the roast with 1/2 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt, 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper, 1/2 tsp. celery salt.  Slather on 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, place four strips of bacon across the venison, cover and roast slowly at 300 degrees for about 2 hours, or a bit more for a larger hunk of meat.  My hunk of venison was probably about 4 lbs.

I made candied yams in a frypan, using a pkg. of yam spice bought at the store and just followed the directions; I also made homemade applesauce with a bunch of apples that were getting spotty and soft.  I put in white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon, and barely any water in the pan.  Then I made mashed potatoes.  When the roast was taken out and cut into serving-size pieces, I made gravy with flour and water in the roasting pan.  This meal was worthy of a holiday feast and it put 2 lbs. on me overnight. 

By the way, I lost four pounds last month, but I probably mentioned that already.  I am now doing penance for the wonderful venison feast. 

I had been getting sick every time I drove somewhere; my eyes, especially, felt like they were exploding....I knew something was wrong with the exhaust system, and today I had it fixed.  They replaced the whole thing, let's see, is it a muffler? on back; everything is currently shiny and bright under there, yet, it seems I just had this done maybe five years ago.  I suppose with all the salt on the roads, the bumpy roads, the hot gases, and all that, that you have to have the system replaced quite often.  But I am sick from driving today and am mostly in bed, recovering.  Just think, that exhaust goes out into our world (we could be driving hydrogen-powered vehicles, with pure water the only emission). 

Back at the ranch, the many mousetraps we have set around the house have done their work.  I think the death toll is 15, at least, and the house is now a quiet, human-residential area.  And all this in the past two weeks, when the weather really turned cold and all the mice said, "Time to get indoors now."

I have gotten two out of three christmas trees up and I love them, I am especially in love with the lights.  All my trees are little, artificial, stand on table tops, and have mini-decorations.  I have an artificial wreath for the door and some candle surrounds, all artificial.  I am intent now on wrapping presents (at least the ones I have gotten so far).  I'm almost done shopping......  I have begun to bake for christmas now, and with the temps plummeting, having the oven going will help keep the house warm.  My dogs love the cold winter weather.   

So many things have been happening lately, and I haven't been able to blog for some reason.  Perhaps I'm a little nervous about these topics.  One is that my brother finally has to do time in prison for drunk driving.  This last event happened the day I called him last February and told him (actually left a voice mail message) that Mom had died.  He, all choked up and sorrowful, left a message for me, that he was going out now to get drunk, very drunk.  Which, of course, he proceeded to do.  And, of course, had an accident, plowed into some other car, thank god nobody was too badly hurt, but he attended the funeral with banged up ribs.  Now he's doing the time.  Before he went in, he was so depressed that he wouldn't communicate with me or anybody, the last thing he said to me was, "I'm screwed."  We are not kids anymore, so this really bothered me a lot.

So getting a phone call from him was happiness yesterday.  They let him get out for 2 days a month, so he won't lose his social security (if you are in jail for 30 days in a month, you lose it).  They charge you $10.00 a day to be in jail.  But while sitting there drying out, etc. he got an opportunity to get a job cooking right at the prison.  He's a fantastic cook, by the way.  So he and 5 other men do all the cooking and he will also get time off for good behavior:  his 12 month sentence will be over in 6 months, if he doesn't drink or do anything foolish.  Also, because he is working there at the prison, he doesn't have to pay to stay, AND he actually earns 25 cents an hour.  He is actually happier right now than he has been in a long time.  And sober.  I asked him if he gets the DT's when he goes in, but he is mentally powerful enough, so that he gets over the drinking and smoking without suffering too much.  Wish, oh how I wish, that he would have an epiphany and stop drinking altogether, but he doesn't seem able to do it.  I suppose he just lives for the day he can start drinking again.  God!  Well, this is one of the uncomfortable subjects I have to cover.

My new address will be, temporarily,

     http://shackhappy@blogharbor.com/

How I could post this new address on my old blog site at myblogsite.com is not known at the present time, so if you are reading my blog now, you are already at the new address, I guess.  I can't post at the old blog address anymore, so.....hmmm.  Maybe I need to read all the instructions.