Happy Thanksgiving to All

Here in the USA we celebrate Thanksgiving on November 23 this year with a feast, prayers, family and friends.

George Washington declared a Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789.
"May we all unite in rendering unto God our sincere and humble thanks ---
For His kind care and protection of the people of this country,
For the great degree of tranquility, union and plenty which we have enjoyed. "

Washington continues on and asks God "To protect and guide all nations and to bless them with good government, peace and concord."

And those are my wishes and prayers for all you, my blog friends, all around the world.

Witty insults

I am de-cluttering paper and found a list of insults that I printed out years ago.

Here are a few that might make you chuckle:
"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." -- Robert Redford
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book, I'll waste no time reading it." -- Moses Hadas
"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." -- Samuel Johnson

"A modest little person with much to be modest about." -- Winston Churchill
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." -- Charles, Count Talleyrand
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." -- Oscar Wilde
and in the words of Groucho Marx
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it."
Nitey night all. Sweet dreams.

New floors, walls painted in my Happy Room

Here is the new flooring in tones of grey with some tan. It was put in Oct. 4 and Oct. 5. This is the biggest home improvement project I had done this year and the first big project without my husband.

Here are photos of the one wall my older son painted yellow for me on Saturday, and here are the new birds curtains. The other 3 walls he also freshly painted white, not a harsh white, more subtle. The yellow caused me to name this My Happy Room. I used Valspar "Summer Blonde" from Ace for the yellow paint.

Above is the sealant  which is white, plus the moisture barrier on top of the old floor and a bit of the new floating floor being added. Below is a large area of the sealant covering the old floor, as it dries it goes from grey to white.

Below is the old discolored floor, which looked gorgeous 30 years ago when we had our house addition built.

I am very happy with the change and hope this new floor lasts for a long time, decades in fact. I bought new curtains for this area, for 2 patio sliding glass doors and one long window, and my older son is painting the walls "slipper satin" in two rooms, with one wall in each room "summer blonde", which is a pale cheerful yellow for my "happy room."

Foxtails are dangerous to dogs as Bounce will affirm

These foxtail plants look harmless but beware; they can injure dogs. My dog Bounce sniffed one on the sidewalk while on a walk with me last week and he sneezed right away. He intermittently sneezed and shook his head for a couple days and finally had surgery to remove it on Oct. 4. The veterinarian explained that foxtails have tiny barbs so can not be easily removed and they keep going further in. Of course the surgery required anesthesia so she cleaned his teeth too, while he was "out". When I picked up Bounce at 5:30 that afternoon she showed me the foxtail she removed from his nasal passages.
He is all peppy and well today, hurray. That was 800 dollars well spent for my dear little Bounce.
A friend left a comment here telling me that her dog had a foxtail in its ear, and another that one entered through the skin on her dog's chest and it entered a lung! Surgery was successful in both those cases and for Bounce. As the saying goes about these benign looking seed heads, "for want of a nail the horse was lost", tiny problems can become huge!
On Oct. 3 I got a phone call that my step mother (age 84) had died, and I cried a lot. Oct. 4, 5, and 6 men were arriving at my house to put in new floors in 3 rooms. I couldn't cope so my older son stepped in and called the vet, and took off work Thursday morning to take Bounce in for surgery, which enabled me to go to Griefshare, where I cried a LOT and ladies gave me lots of support, kleenex and a hug or two. Meanwhile the new floors were installed.
So that is my week last week.
On the up side, the weather is lovely, my favorite temperature of mid seventies, and the new floors look very handsome indeed. And I have to say, Bounce is very Bouncy.

Cheering Meself Up

Yes, me, myself and I, otherwise known as "meself" can use some lighthearted moments. As I take slow steps in my widowhood journey, one treat I enjoy is to read upbeat memoirs. Celebrity memoirs can be fun diversions. I just ordered Betty White's book and it hasn't arrived yet, but I am guessing it will be a fun book to read.

I did buy and read Carol Burnett's book.

This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett

I laughed out loud at quite a few things she shared. Some favorites: the two times she did her Tarzan yell at full volume (once to stop a mugging and once in a store to prove who she was so she could make a purchase). Burnett shares stories about spending time as a friend of Cary Grant and how she embarrassed herself when they met. She was also overwhelmed when she met Jimmy Stewart on the set where he was filming the FBI Story, and she promptly stepped off the set into a bucket of whitewash. She walked away with the bucket stuck on her foot, and refused to look back. They later became friends too. Each chapter is short so you can read it in a few minutes, but if you are like me, you will read just one more and one more, etc. A little bit of genuine heart break is included, but most of the book is fun fun funny. Of course, humor is a very individual matter, so I can't tell what might appeal to you, LOL. 

I am reading Rue McClanahan's memoir and it is upbeat as she often laughs at herself and her choices, especially regarding men. Typically when a man in her life asked her to marry him, even when alarm bells were going off, she said yes. All the while trying and failing to say "let me think about it." Rue enjoys sex and writes about it here. This book will go nicely with Betty White's memoir, since all 4 Golden Girls became close while working together for many seasons. Rue never gave up her acting, even when living on a teeny income as a single mom and I cheered for her when the Golden Girls rescued her pocket book :)

Any tips on other upbeat memoirs?

Sunflowers in September

Sunflowers in September are bold sentinels of the last of the summer days.

My neighbor plants these sunny plants every year.

I like the cheerful new school sign next to the sunflowers.

Does the above photo show the sense of wind moving them? It was tricky to take these photos as the sunflowers were moving this way and that. They were being whipped around by the breeze from the ocean and yet standing firm, just like we sometimes need to do in life's storms.
"The heart which has truly loved never forgets,
     But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets,
     The same look which she turned as he rose."    Thomas Moore

Earl Grey Tea, Favorite Tea Cup and Fun Tea Quotes

This tea cup, a gift from a friend, is lovely inside and out.

This is the same tea cup, plus my current favorite tea, Double Bergamot Earl Grey. I like Earl Grey and sought out the double bergamot, the flavoring made from a special type of orange. Most Citrus bergamia is grown in the province of Reggio in southern Italy, and also in Cote d'Ivoire for the essential oil. Earl Grey tea was first advertised in London in the 1880s, and first appeared in England in the 1820s.
Here are some quotes about tea.
"What would the world do without tea? - how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea." Sydney Smith
 "Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea?" Rupert Brooke
And one I like that is quite famous or infamous " Mr. Churchill, if you were my husband, I would poison your tea!" "And if you were my wife I would drink it!" Winston Churchill
Tea, an important beverage!
And yes, I like coffee too, which I grind fresh from coffee beans.
Do you have a favorite tea or tea cup?
I am praying for safety for all the people in the Houston area where the flooding is, and for the homes and the animals, and for recovery. Think cooling prayers for much of California as a few days of high heat has reached even me on the coast and inland and to the south is terribly hot.