After surfing around LJ and finding all the gorgeous food pics taken by a_muffin_story and her friends, I was inspired to play with taking some food pics of my own. As I was making breakfast this morning, I brought out my camera and did something my mother always told me not to do...I played with my food. Here are the results. Tell me what you think - but please remember this is my first attempt at photographing food and I haven't played with my digital camera very much yet. I need to figure out how to use the manual focus.

I finally got fed up with seeing everything a little out of focus and called the eye doctor on Wednesday to make an appointment. They had just had someone else cancel an appointment so I got in the next day. I went in only to find out that my prescription needs to be changed again. Age is not treating me kindly. I wore the same prescription for over fifteen years when I was younger. Then I had another prescription for about 6 yrs, but this last one has only been a year and a half! *GASP*

In addition to that, I not only need the transition lenses in bifocals, but doc also strongly recommended the crizal anti-glare treatment to improve my night vision and light sensitivity problems. RESULT: a pair of glasses that cost $435!!! *GASP* *CHOKE* *GASP* My insurance only covers up to $200, so I had to pay the remaining $235 in advance! Apparently my insurance coverage which switched to a new processing company in January, has been extremely slow in paying claims and the doctor's office has to pay their vendor when the glasses are received. AND prices are going up since the lenses are plastic which is a petroleum based product and we all know what's happening with the oil industry. Damn Bush anyway!

This situation may result in yet another whole set of fees, because I am going to have a stress related heart attack!

Things seem to have slowed down again, at least I hope that is the case. I got a lot of personnel paperwork off my desk today but still have a lot more to do. I have also managed to scan in and reformat seven more pages for the cookbook in the last two days. I feel great about this progress. However, the weather changes are causing back and shoulder issues again, so I am quitting early this evening and going to bed.

This past several days have been very busy with helping friends, visiting with family, working, and as the King would say "Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera." I feel like I'm constantly running from one place to another and staying up late to make up for the things I still need to accomplish for myself. Call me the white rabbit cause "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.." seems to be running through my head constantly for the past 4 or 5 days. I have managed to squeeze in 3 more pages in the cookbook since last Monday, so I am still making some progress on that project. However, I haven't managed to pick up any sewing, so there's no progress with my granddaughter's sundresses.

...and it's time again for the white rabbit, with the seven dwarfs in the chorus singing "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go". (I seem to have major Disney tunes stuck in my head...maybe I can learn to be like the Cheshire cat and disappear...)

When I was a child, the only family vacation that I remember is going to Branson, Missouri when I was about 11 years old. We all went down and stayed at a campsite in a rented tent. The day after we arrived, my youngest brother got very sick. So my mother stayed in the tent with Tim, while my dad took the rest of us out to see Silver Dollar City and the surrounding sites. About the only thing my mother saw was the campground.

Last year my hubby and I went to Branson with a lifelong friend, we all had a blast. The only plan we had made ahead of time was to visit Silver Dollar City. The rest of the trip was whatever suited our fancy at the time. Hubby and I decided to go back again at a later date and this year we bought season passes for all the parks in Branson.

My mother's birthday is coming up at the end of this month. I decided as a birthday gift to take her to Branson with me. My dad's health does not allow him to travel much and I figured this might be the last time she will have a chance to see what she missed over 35 years ago. I have finalized our hotel and trip plans. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will have a perfect trip. And.. since it is just us girls, we can stop at the craft shops, quilt shops, etc. that I spied during my last visit but wouldn't dare suggest in the company of two men. I would have gotten lynched. This should be fun.

I love spring. I love the end of the really cold dreary weather and welcome the warmth of the sun on my face. In my case, unfortunately, this also means saying hello to my allergies again. I am allergic to several types of pollen, dust, and mold. The warmer weather outside has prompted the plants and trees to start budding again, so of course, I'm sneezing...again...and again...and again. I don't know why but my sneezes generally come in sets of three. Anyway, time to dig out the allergy medications again and go out and enjoy the sunshine. I want to smell the flowers, even if I can't see them through my watery, itchy, blurry eyes.

Last night after working on my grandmother's recipes project, I felt really good about the progress I had made. In 8 days time, I have managed to put 14 pages of this book back together, which is much more than the 1 or 2 recipes a day goal I set for myself. I have also managed to get some housecleaning done, my laundry taken care of, and copied some more of my patterns to make clothes for my granddaughters. I even managed to spend a couple of hours sitting on my deck and reading. If I can keep this up, I'll be making major progress on several things instead of accomplishing finishing one project to the exclusion of all others.

Last week my boss went on a trip to Nevada as part of a group evaluating the Biochemistry Department of their university. He walked in this morning, looked at all of us in the office and said "All I can say is THANK YOU."

He then went on to explain that this other department had MAJOR problems. No one got along with anyone else, the office employees were fighting among themselves, the professors were fighting, and even the Dean's offices did not agree with anyone on how to do things, so basically nothing was getting done and no one wanted to accept the blame. Apparently, it was bad enough that even their paychecks were not issued on time on a regular basis.

He said that interviewing these people made him really appreciate the fact that we have a really good team of people in our department. Our personnel believe that it is much easier to own up to making a mistake and then fix it, than try to sweep the problem under the rug. We also pitch in and help each other when it is needed. We were informed last year by our dean's office that our department (with only 13 professors) continually brings in more grant money then any other department in the college of Arts and Sciences, even though several of those departments are much larger than we are. I chalk it up to teamwork. We all have our differences but still work together to make sure everything is done professionally and in a timely manner. This is why I like my job so much.

However, sometimes it takes seeing how bad the grass is on the other side to really make you appreciate how good you have it on your side of the fence.

I received a special offer flyer in the mail from the wonderful folks at Silver Dollar City this week. Three of us spent 4 days in Branson last fall and we had a blast! After much discussion with the significant other, we have decided to go back to Branson at least once if not a couple of times this year. I went ahead and bought 3 park all season passes at the sale price. So now I have leverage to really get hubby back down there...we already have money invested...and we simply can't waste that... (Yippee! Doing major happy dance!!)

My husband is a pack rat. After being married for most of the past 30 years, I have long since accepted that fact. We agreed he could use the second guest room for "his" room so he could work on building model cars and that sort of thing. Instead of doing this, he has been steadily squirreling away his "found" treasures. I have even watched him earn lots of money by pulling things out of dumpsters, trash cans, etc. Most of what he finds is useful in some way and may only need minor repairs. The fact that my parents manage a storage facility makes their dumpster prime foraging grounds. He usually brings home old army gear, old TV's, VCR's and that type of thing. This week he filled the back of the pick-up with old cookbooks, touch lights, a wooden rocker with a broken leg spindle, some tires, and one item that just cracked me up. Among all of his found treasures was a miniature ancient roman soldier's helmet. It appears to be a poured metal mold that was welded together in the middle. It is only 8" tall and has been painted green and then sprayed with water to give the paint a dappled look. What the hell are we going to do with this?