National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day

I love Pineapple Upside Down Cake. They are not hard to make but I have only made one in my entire life. It was for Christmas Dinner in 2001. 

The cake got pushed to the back of the counter and forgotten.

 (Look how young and thin I once was!)

 When I finally remembered it,  it was looking a lot more Christmas-y than before.

If you are making a Pineapple Upside Down Cake to celebrate today, 

have a bite for me.

  

Still Here...

Somewhere in this fog...

http://starryskies.com/articles/2007/10/img/slide_Fog.html

Friday's Fav

This week's fav is this picture Hub's took of our granddaughter, Sophia Grace.

We first met her on Saturday, March 12.  I traveled on to Kansas for a few days.  Upon returning, we visited Miss Sophia again - one short week later.  I could not believe the changes in her.  When we see her again in June, she will be ready to go to prom.  Well, almost...

On the Road Again

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go...

We've thrown in a bone or two as well...

We can hardly wait to meet our new granddaughter...

Friday's Fav

Since this is Oprah's last year on the air, that means there will soon be no more of her favorite things episodes.  Someone needs to step up to take her place.  I'm here to fill the void. 

This is my favorite thing this week.  Some of my family members tease me about my obsession with them.  I carry these in my purse and in the car.  They are used to wipe sticky hands and messy faces.  On occasion, I've used them to wipe down a table or high chair at a restaurant if I feel like it might not be clean enough.  I NEVER EVER touch a grocery cart without wiping it down with one of this wipes and then I only touch the cart where I have wiped.  

As reported in USA Today, researchers from the University of Arizona swabbed 85 grocery carts in four states for bacterial contamination.  They found fecal bacteria on 72% of those carts.  Ewww!  With results like that, I might even start wearing rubber gloves!

Have You Seen This?

I first saw this YouTube video when one of my Facebook friends posted it the first of the month.  At that time, it only had six million hits.  Now it has over seven million.  Several hundred of those hits are from me...

This video makes me smile.  I love it when she pretends to whistle along with her dad, then she asks him if she will learn to whistle.  She adores her dad.  You can tell by the look in her eyes when she looks at him.  It is that same look all little girls have for their daddies.  

Find out more about this young father and his daughters here.

Mi Mi Mi Miiiii

I'm getting my voice all warmed up.  You will want to do the same as Sunday is an important day.  

It is Hoodie-Hoo Day!

What, you ask, is Hoodie-Hoo Day?

Every February 20th, at noon, everyone is supposed to go outside and run around waving their hands in the air while shouting

HOODIE-HOO!

That will chase away winter

and bring in spring.

 http://www.types-of-flowers.org/spring-flowers.html

The weather here in North Carolina has been so lovely this last week, I would hate to see winter return.

Winter's Last Gasp

Or maybe just a whisper...

Yesterday everyone was talking about the latest snowstorm being forecast in North Carolina. The grocery store was really busy for a Wednesday. Lots of schools in the state delayed the start of school by an hour or two.  This is what we woke up to this morning.

A lot of my friends and family in the midwest are digging out from under lots of snow...again.  They are enduring sub-zero temperatures as well.

 

Hang on just a little longer, my friends.  Take a look at what I found peeking out of the ground.

Spring is on the way!

Keeping Busy

For Christmas, Hubs and I decided to get a membership to our local YMCA instead of getting things that neither of us really needed.  It has been a great decision and a good investment for our health.

I attend a spin class three times a week.  The instructor for this class is Maria, but I call her Mania(c).  She is intense!

 

from http://bbbedazzled.com/?p=74

Two days a week I attend a class that works all the muscle groups.  Most of the time we use our own bodies for resistance.  Ouch!

 from http://www.answerfitness.com/63/weight-training-basics-principles-weight-training/

The only thing I have been able to get Hubs to do so far is to attend yoga classes with me three nights a week.  That is okay because yoga helps him relieve stress, gain flexibility and increase balance.  When we attend a Yin yoga class, we work on the connective tissues around the joints which helps his arthritis.  I receive the same benefits as well as stretching and relaxing all those muscles I have worked so hard in the other classes. 
 

from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yoga_at_a_Gym.JPG

Since I have been following this workout schedule and eating less, I have managed to lose this...

I have several more of these to lose yet.

Unexpected Trip to the Midwest

On January 14, Hubs and I loaded the dogs and a suitcase into The Tank and headed west to St. Louis.  An unexpected trip back to Hubs' boyhood home was in order as his mom had emergency surgery.  We stayed on for ten days until Hubs' brother could come to stay with Maxine the Great.

Genealogy is one of Hubs hobbies.  He took the opportunity to scan some pictures of his ancestors.   

This is a picture of his maternal great grandmother, Irene Jane Collins.

She lived from 1868 - 1949.

Maxine the Great wanted me to look for this quilt that Irene Jane, her father's mother made.  It is not known when she made this quilt, but it is thought to be about 100 years old.   

A close up view shows that the appliqued pieces were created by folding the fabric in fourths then cutting out a quarter of the pattern.  While the applique was sewn on by machine, the quilting was done by hand. 

 Here is a picture taken just before we left Hubs' mom's home.  Maxine the Great is moving a little slower and still gaining strength, but she is doing well.

It has been a while since I have joined other vintage lovers for Vintage Thingies Thursday.

Winter Blues

What is your weather like?  Here in upper North Carolina, we have had cold and ice.  I have been home for the last two days and I have been a little more restless than usual.  Not really depressed, but feeling like winter has gone on way too long and it is only January.  

Since I am from the midwest, I have no problem getting out in a little cold and ice, but there is no place to go as every thing closes when the weather is like this.  The big problem about driving in this weather are the other drivers.  Southerners just do not know how to drive in weather like this.  Heck, they really don't know how to drive in good weather...  

Did you make any New Year's Resolutions?   It is almost mid-January.  How are you doing with those?  I don't do resolutions, but am continuing to build strong, post-menopausal bones and a healthier heart. 

 from Get Religion.org

Today's date has intrigued me.  

1/11/11   

Do you know that

11111 X 11111

is

123454321?

Cool, huh?

Thinking of the number one lead me to thinking about these guys...

I wore out this album.

My mind has been bouncing around like a BING.com commercial...

I think I need some sunshine...

KC and the Sunshine Band...

File Under "Bizarre"

Hubs has a pair of shoes he wears outside.  He leaves these shoes at the back door on the porch.  When he went to walk the dogs first thing this morning, this is what he found.

Just the left shoe...

Is there a one legged person on a crime spree?
Maybe an animal carried it off?

What do you think happened to the right shoe?
 

Toss It Out!

Did you get one of these for Christmas?

Does any one give fruitcakes as Christmas gifts?

 

Why, yes, they do.

 

Hubs and I received a Sear's fruitcake via USPS from his brother and sister-in-law our first Christmas.  Sear's?  Really?  Can you find those next to the snow shovels and Ice Melt?  Hubs and I got a good laugh at our gift.  The fruitcake went into the freezer (I think they last forever without freezing!) and we sent it back to his brother and sister-in-law the next Christmas.  We've all heard stories of families passing the same fruitcake back and forth for decades.  It was a big disappointment when we didn't get the fruitcake back the following holiday.

 

 

This question begs to be asked.  What did they do with the fruitcake?  Maybe they still have it and are using it as a doorstop or bookends.  It might have kept them warm that winter if they used it as firewood.  Oh, I know!  That was the year Hub's brother was into working out.  Bet he used it as a free weight...

 

 

Or maybe they just waited until January 3, which is Fruitcake Toss Day.  Yes, the day when every one who received a fruitcake over the holidays gets the opportunity to toss it. Just be careful not to toss it AT some one.  Those thing could cause bodily injury.  And if you still have fruitcakes in laws mooching visiting, toss them out too!