Duke’s Mixture 05.2023

 

hApPy HuMp Day!!

Well, friends, I jinxed myself when, in my last post, I bragged that my blog was being cooperative.  Allowing me to not only save blog post drafts but publish, too.  How ’bout that!!  But then I started working on today’s Duke’s Mixture 05.2023 post and started having all the same old problems.  Error messages when I try to save my work on a draft.  A ‘loss of Internet connection’ message (although I have not lost connectivity at all) when I try to publish.  This LIFE is making me old in a hurry.

This evening I got very brave and researched (This message just popped up:  Connection lost. Saving has been disabled until you are reconnected. This post is being backed up in your browser, just in case.) how to counter these errors that continue to plague me.  Found out I can disable something called ModSecurity on my C-Panel (whatever that is) and that is what I have done.  Now let me type real fast and try to get this post finished and published.

You may remember that “Duke’s Mixture” was a term my mom liked to use.  She generally called meals that were a combination of left-overs from several days before “Duke’s Mixtures.”  Likewise, my Duke’s Mixture posts are a mishmash of ideas, themes, link-ups in one post.

UPDATE:

Somehow, I clicked on publish instead of save.  And sent out this post before it was finished.  Good grief.  Finishing it now.  But anyone who is on my email list may be linked to the unfinished post.  Grrr.

Just a reminder:  Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After occasionally uses affiliate links. This means that if you click or make a purchase from a link provided I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support.

10 on the 10th 05.2023

 

My dear friend Marsha from Marsha in the Middle has done a remarkable job hosting 10 on the 10th.  I have been so ‘hit-n-miss’ with blogging but have missed joining Marsha for this link-up and Joyce for Hodgepodge.  Glad to be joining both gals this month.  Here are May’s 10 on the 10th questions.

And My Answers

• Can you whistle? Boy, can I!!  Started whistling in second grade and haven’t stopped since.  PC says I add a bit too much embellishment for his taste.  But I can’t sing well.  Never could sing very well, but after my 3 neck surgeries, my singing is more like a raspy screech.  My speaking voice has changed, too.  To that of a 3-pack a day, lifelong smoker.  Ugh.  This video is larger than life but can’t figure out how to make it smaller.  Apologies!!

• Can you touch your toes flat to the ground? Let’s see.  It would appear I can!!

• Can you remember all of your teachers from kindergarten to graduation? Not a chance. I remember a few of the good ones. My fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Hardin. My high school Algebra and Geometry teacher, Mrs. Wren, who was not so good. I remember a few others for the way they taught or the way they made me feel but can’t remember their names.
• Can you ride a motorcycle? I’ve ridden on a motorcycle once. It was exhilarating. Scary and fun. But I don’t know that I could ride a motorcycle all by myself.
• Can you groom a dog? Would that entail something more than bathing and brushing? I faithfully bathed my pups and brushed their fur. And do the same with Purrsimmony and Purrsnickitty. At least 2-3 baths a year.
• Can you remember the first vacation you ever went on? Nope. My mother said it was a trip to Woods Hole where my father was doing some kind of internship or attending some kind of summer program. He worked in cancer research and Woods Hole is an oceanographic institution so not sure why he was there. But he was, and mom and I visited.
  But I don’t remember that from memory.
• Can you create things from scratch (knit, paint, weld, etc.)? Finally, a yes. I have knit before. Not well but I did know how to knit at one time. Have painted off and on for years. Working on a poppy-painting project right now through Christie at The Social Easel. I consider my scrapbooking a way of creating from scratch.
• Can you wire an outlet? Wire an outlet, no. Shop an outlet (mall), yes.
• Can you remember your first job? Very well. Aside from years of babysitting, including the children of one of the longest held captives in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War, I was a Shoney’s waitress. For years. Started in the spring of my senior year of high school at a brand-new restaurant in Memphis. Worked summers and holidays for the first years of college at that same Shoney’s. Then transferred to another Shoney’s across state when I transferred to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Hated waitressing. Hated it. But it paid for life at that time.
• Can you upholster a chair? Depends on what qualifies as upholstering. I drape and tuck in pillowcases over our kitchen chairs to keep the kitty fur off of them. Is that upholstering?

Hodgepodge

 

Throwing in a little hodgepodge with my 10 on the 10th.  Have missed responding to Joyce’s thoughtful questions.  Find Joyce’s answers on her blog From This Side of the Pond, and then join the fun yourself!!  You can share your responses in a blog post or in a comment below.

 

Week of 05.08.2023

 

• Did you watch the coronation of King Charles III? Share some of your thoughts about that, or about the royal family in general. I didn’t watch the coronation. And really have only seen a few glimpses of the milestone event. While I appreciate all the pomp and circumstance, the history and the ceremony, I am feeling a bit put out with the royal family. We have watched The Crown through the last episode and it seems that this family is as dysfunctional as the rest of us but putting on such airs and heirs. Makes me sad to think of the unhappy lives of some of the royal family – many of them – and those taken down in their wake. Why in the world is divorce so frowned upon by the royal family and adultery so ignored? If Charles had just married Camilla in the first place, think of the heartache and heartbreak that could have been spared so many. And now I hear rumors flying about William and Rose Hanbury. Has the royal family created another Princess Diana in the present Princess of Wales? Shameful, in my book.  And there’s the expense of all of that hullabaloo. Me thinks there might be a better way to spend some of that money.  P.S. My mother made her first suicide attempt on the wedding day of Prince William to Kate Middleton. Mom was so looking forward to watching the wedding live in the wee hours. Until she wasn’t.

All Hail the Queen of Kimonos

• What are you the uncrowned queen of? My fashion blogging friends have christened me the Queen of Kimonos several times. A title I wear proudly as I love styling kimonos!! They are such perfect pieces of west Texas weather 9 out of 12 months in the year.

• In a box of chocolates which one do you usually go for? The nutty ones. Like me.  My father would always buy a box of mixed chocolates at Christmas time and pass it around every evening after dinner.  We kids were never sure what kind of chocolate we might be getting so would try to poke a hole in several to peek at what was inside before deciding which to choose.

Mom Memories

• Something learned at your mother’s knee?  Wow, this one is very hard. I guess I can say I learned to be a perfectionist and a hard worker at my mother’s (and father’s) knee.
• ‘Like mother, like daughter’…in what way is this saying true for you? My mother was born a few decades too early. She was a chemist when most other women her age were teachers, nurses or stay at home wives and mothers. And she did the research for and co-authored a paper about protein enzymes in blood whose results are still relevant and held in high regard today. I was not nearly as avant-garde but in my profession as a school librarian, but I was a different kind of librarian from many of my colleagues. Not too long ago, a friend told me she had heard another librarian describe me as a the ‘gold standard’ – and that even though I have been retired for 10 years. Warmed my heart. I loved my job and my students and all the books and lessons and projects. I hope I made a difference. My daughters are both working in science-related fields like my mother and are such dedicated, hard-working professionals just as she was.

Spring Cleaning

• Insert your own random thought here.  Off to spring clean the upstairs bathroom.  Making great progress on my spring-cleaning goals.  Might get it all done before summer!!

Week of 05.15.2023

 

• What surprises you the most about people? Not all people, of course, but there are some people who will use their intelligence, creativity, energy for the most evil, conniving things.  In particular, I am thinking of those individuals who create programs and apps and viruses to destroy the lives of others.  If their genius was used for good, this world would be a much better place.
• Would you rather have a chauffeur, nanny, gardener, maid, personal shopper or cook? Tell us why that one?  Right this minute, at this point in my life, I would prefer to have a cook, I think.  Feeling pretty much ‘done’ with thinking what to cook, whether it is good for us, how many Weight Watchers points it might be.  Wondering if I have all the ingredients I need.  And wasn’t I just in the grocery store yesterday??  Oy vey. Tiresome.

Hurray for National Notebook Day

• May 18th is National Notebook Day. No idea what that means but let’s run with it anyway. What’s something you currently keep in a notebook? Have you seen the movie “The Notebook”? On a scale of 1-5 how does it rate? (5=a favorite, can watch and re-watch and re-watch again) To start, I have seen “The Notebook” and remember liking it pretty well.  It’s been a while so I am going to say it was a good solid 4 out of 5.  I rarely rewatch movies, TV shows or reread books.  Why??  When there are new things out there to explore and experience.  PC, however, loves to rewatch and reread.  So, I am often rewatching “Seinfeld” and that comedy about the scientists with Sheldon as the main character.  We watch it almost every day but I can’t remember the name.  I do use notebooks.  I have a notebook labeled “Notebook” that I am currently journaling in.  Hmmm, maybe it should be called “Journal”?  And a notebook called “The 5 Second Journal” that is my to-do list.  I love this notebook so much.  On my second one.  The first was originally a gift from Brennyn.  Then when I learned I had thyroid and kidney disease, breast masses and heart issues – all about the same time (fun few months) and most of them discovered right before I had surgery on my neck – I put together color-coded notebooks for my health records, images and lab results.  Now I have a notebook for PC’s health records, too.  Much to his dismay.  But it is purple.  His favorite color.
  

• Do you like mushrooms? Last dish you made or ate that had mushrooms on the ingredient list? Your favorite dish that calls for mushrooms? I do like mushrooms.  My favorite dish at Olive Garden was a Portobello mushroom ravioli that they seem to have taken off the menu.  The last dish I made with mushrooms was hamburgers with mushrooms sauteed in butter (now there’s some Weight Watchers points) and white wine, with melted Swiss cheese on top.  No wonder I am not losing weight.  You know how I love soup.  Well, this creamy mushroom, chicken and wild rice soup is scrumptious.  Give it a go!!
  
• What would you say is the most annoying thing people do in public? Oh, boo, just one thing??  I can’t list just one.  I dislike spitting, cursing, littering all very much.
  

Road Trip

• Insert your own random thought here.  On Friday, we are heading to Austin, Texas for a weekend getaway.  We will be staying at Brava House and seeing Steve Martin and Martin Short at Bass Concert Hall on Saturday night.  Hoping to visit Sholz Garden for German food and beer and maybe dip our tootsies in the water at McKinney Falls.  Hoping for a very relaxing time.

Your Turn

 

I need to wrap this up because my blog is not cooperating again.  Struggling to get it to save this post.  Wishing you a restful rest of the week.  Going to be sharing a “Let’s Look At…” post tomorrow.  So, if you are in the neighborhood, please stop by.  And keep your fingers crossed my blog is back to cooperating.

Thanks for popping in!!

Hugs and kisses,