Our Thanksgiving

We had another beautiful holiday down in Charleston/Mt. Pleasant with our friends Lynn and Bob Brennan and their two kitties Molly and  Mandy.  It is an easy 4 hour drive.   Traffic was a little heavier than usual but not terrible.  We made our usual stop in Columbia at Maurices BBQ and this time had a huge mouth watering beef brisket sandwich.  I have never had such tender brisket.

Bob B. loves to cook and he made a delicious vegetarian soup and yummy pear dessert for Wed. night.  Thursday we had the traditional Thanksgiving feast.  Their friends Lola and Glen, who we have met several times, came for dinner.  Lola owns a cigar store in Charlston and Glen drives a tour bus.   He is a huge history fan and we always have fun picking his brain. Since our Civil War class we could be slightly less ignorant about the war.   At Christmas I want to quiz him about the reconstruction.    It was so nice to get caught up on what Lynn and Bob’s family is doing and how their work is going.

On Friday we drove the 15 minutes from their house to view the ocean for a short time before we headed back to Travelers Rest.  Fay missed her kitties and was anxious to get her new computer set up.

Kudzu

I’ve written before about the very invasive Kudzu vines that grow here.   The recent issue of the Master Gardner publication had this little tidbit about the vine.  I thought it was a very interesting piece of history.

Kudzu Corner
Kudzu was introduced to the US from Asia in 1876. It was first used as a shade vine for arbors and as cattle food.  Widespread use began during the 1930s when the US government paid farmers $8 an acre to plant it on fallow fields and bare banks to control erosion. Kudzu vines can grow 1′ a day and 60′ during a season!
Kudzu flowers smell like grape kool-aid!  The purple flowers smell like grape kool aid.   I didn’t even know it had purple flowers.

New HP Computer Windows 7 and Virtual XP done

We had a couple issues but all in all the set up of the Virtual XP inside of Windows 7 went pretty well.  I installed all my software and am really pleased with how it all runs.   Just waiting for the new access codes so I can install the newest office.   Mine is 2002 and I understand there will be a learning curve to go to the new version.   Windows 7 is so much better than VISTA.

New HP Computer

So far so good with set up of the new computer, transferring data files and starting to install software.   The big test will be when we load virtual XP windows and try to install my old software.  If anyone reading this has experience to share abut loading and using virtual XP please let me know.

For those of you who care this is the configeration.   We bought direct from HP but managed to talk them into free shipping like Amazon offered.  Cost was $665 including the $90 for Windows 7 professional.   Currently all my software, data, pictures, web sites and videos take up about 1.2 gig and this is 7.5 gig so have room to grow!

HP Pavilion p6670t PC • Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64-bit • Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-540 dual-core processor [3.06GHz, 512KB L2 + 4MB shared L3 cache, DMI 2.5GT/s] • 4GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs] • FREE UPGRADE! 750GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 500GB • No additional office software • No additional security software • Integrated graphics – Intel(R) HD Graphics [VGA] • No speakers • LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive • Integrated Ethernet port, No wireless LAN • 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, audio • No TV Tuner • Integrated sound • HP USB keyboard and optical mouse • HP Pocket Media Drive bay

My new computer has arrived

My new HP computer came 3 days early!   I’ll tell you more about it later.  Right now Bob and I are getting it set up and it’s FAST!

A better day

Took Smoky in for an antibiotic shot yesterday.   He seems to be just fine.  Lazy as ever.  Sabrina is running around like a little wild woman waiting for me to watch her eat (what’s up with that?), play with  her (her favorite is what we call “red dot” which is chasing after the red laser light) and for a lap to sit in or for me to hold her.   We are blessed with two cuddly lap cats.  Yes, we are all terribly spoiled.  It is a perfect arrangement of two cats and two humans who love and need each other.

ATT came for the fourth time today and we have high speed internet running, U-Verse.   Bob’s laptop runs faster and the statistics say my computer is faster but it’s not as good as I thought it would be.   However, Saturday Fay’s new desktop arrives and I expect there will be BIG improvements.   I’m concerned about how my old software will run on Windows 7 Professional.  I will be getting a newer version of Office and maybe Quicken but all my other stuff is old XP versions or no longer available.   Stay tuned either for horror stories or a litany of WOW THIS IS GREAT!  Let’s hope it is the latter.  It will be many hours of work to get the new computer set up which is why I have waited so long.

I have my 2005 Toyota  with 60,000 miles  back from maintenance so my oil change is now up to $1100 for oil change, rotating tires, new front brakes, new transmission fluid, new water pump and belts and best of all new window shield blades.  It’s still much cheaper than a new car.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m posting this a little early because you may be heading out Tuesday or Wednesday for your Thanksgiving destination and I wanted to make sure my wish for a wonderful Thanksgiving got to you.  Especially for those of you who are traveling in MN and other places nearby I wish you safe travels on your icy roads.  I just hate it when Mother Nature ices and snows on Thanksgiving plans.  I remember well traveling very treacherous roads at this holiday.  We often went down to see my mom in Nicollet and sometimes it was a bad drive but we always made it.  I especially remember one night coming back from Helens and the roads were glare ice.

Certainly with regard for the economy we would like to be more thankful but at least it is still plodding along and didn’t totally fail so I am thankful that at least the stock market has improved and my wish would be that next Thanksgiving more people have jobs and that the mortgage/foreclosure/bank problems are behind us.

I am so thankful for all my new friends and the friends I have had for decades.  You enrich my life so much. For a great family, especially Helen who never fails to make me laugh.  She is truly young at 88.  I have a fantastic husband, two very loving cuddly cats, a nice home in a new community I love and enough money to pay the bills.  I am thankful for the many opportunities to travel this year and for all the things I have learned at my Furman classes.  I am thankful that I still do some website and blog work and enjoy helping each new customer reach their goals.   It is very rewarding as well as fun.   Maybe the most important item is that Bob and I are pretty healthy because without that it would be harder to appreciate all the other wonderful things in my life.

If I were at your Thanksgiving people I would say:
“The measure of a man/woman is by the company he/she keeps. Well, I feel very rich and fulfilled because all of you are here with me. Thank you for being apart of my life and of this wonderful gathering today! Lets remember those who cannot be here today, and include them in our merryment! LET EAT!!!”

Happy Thanksgiving from
Fay, Bob, Smoky and Sabrina

November Fun

November got off to a roaring start.   The first week I had:

• Newcomers board meeting here (15 people)
• an OLLI tour of the new Marriott Hotel
• Greenville News coming to interview us and take photos of the house for the garden article
• A fabulous concert at the Peace Center by The Hot Club of San Fransisco.  They played high energy gypsy jazz which we loved but also for part of the show played the music for four short silent films from the 1920.  Very unusual, fun, quirky films and a delightful night. (Cousin Larry, you would have loved them). This was one of four concerts we got tickets for with a special Peace Center birthday celebration.   The tickets are $5.
• On Saturday we hosted Cocktails R Us for 8 couples.  Bob did a demonstration of making a pen and that was a big hit.
• Sunday finished packing and left for a week’s vacation in Nashville!

That was a little TOO busy a week but we sure had fun and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of it.

 

“This is how it goes”

Bob and I definitely think the play we saw last night at Fruman “This is how it goes” was one of the best plays we have ever seen.  It seems a very simple love story but has many shocking twists and turns as it deals with some very deep racial issues.   Definitely a play that made us “squirm” in our seats.  We recommend it very highly.

Not the best day today

Up at 7 and of course look for the kitties.   Sabrina is in bed with me like usual and Smoky should be sitting in the bathroom sink.   No Smoky.  We finally found him sitting under the bed which he never does.   Doesn’t want food,  even his favorite canned food,  or water.   Hmmm, that’s definitely not like Smoky plus he threw up a couple times.   We watch him for a couple hours and no change so I check the vet’s business card and they are open on Sat. till noon.   Off Smoky and I go for a lengthy wait in the car and vets office.   He is running a temperature and tummy is a little tender.   After xrays it is determined he didn’t eat anything that is stuck and giving him problems.  Then an enema.  They determined he has on overabundance of bacteria in his gut and probably constipated.  So 10 days of antibiotic pills twice a day to kill the backteria and three days of liquid medicine twice a day for throwing up. We all hate the medicine giving.   After several trips to his litter box he is eating and drinking a little and moving around so hope he is ok. There not sure what caused the problem but I think we caught it as early as we could have.  Poor little guy can’t really tell us when he starts to feel bad so we have to wait for symptoms to show up.  He is a pretty good patient.

U-Verse high speed internet – yesterday two technicians worked much of the day and today another one came back and still no high speed access.   We are so disappointed but they seem confident that it will work.  I  think we are the first customers off this new feed. Now we wait until Monday.

Weather is gorgeous, 65 and still lots of leaves on the trees where we are and then that big full moon.  Off to a play at Furman tonight and last night out to dinner with friends to a German restaurant.