Chatbug Karen

I cannot believe I actually bought myself a new laptop! That is what happens when I take my kids into Best Buy. We were looking for a book light for my daughter and of course I had to check out the computer department. I was looking at the awesome custom usb drives when I glanced over to the Apple laptop display. My daughter has been trying to convert me to become an Apple user so I decided to check one out while she was with me. The rest is history.

I am very impressed with the speed of my new baby. I got the super slim 13 inch laptop, MacBook Air. I am reading the manual so if you don’t see me for a few days, I am studying.
update: I am learning how to size pictures using iPhoto

the rapture this morning! I heard a rumble and felt the house shaking and wondered what was happening. I thought maybe it was a sonic boom but the way the house shook made me question that. Finally, the news came on and I found out we had an earthquake here in the mid-west. We don’t have them very often so it is filling up the Facebook pages. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck just before 8 a.m. ET and was three miles deep. The USGS initially reported that the quake had registered a 4.2 magnitude, but later revised the estimate. Its epicenter was located about 15 miles east-southeast of Kokomo, and 50 miles north of Indianapolis.

No damage was immediately reported in Indianapolis, though some residents closer to the epicenter were surprised by the quake’s intensity.

I’m assuming that Val is caught up in trying to get everything done during the holidays, cook meals, working as seo of her home and working full time outside her home. Here is the Four Foods on Friday question for last week.

Tell me your four favorite fruits.

That is an easy one. I absolutely love a big juicy orange. Did you know that oranges originated in southeast Asia? It takes mutation to make my favorite, the navel orange. The naval orange contains no seeds so it is sterile. Poor thing. Navel oranges continue to be produced through cutting and grafting. I wonder what seo services it took to work through all that genetic makeup. If I had done it, we probably would have oranges the size of a quarter.

Oh! I guess we are supposed to list 4 fruits that are our favorites.
Okay, bananas because they are so easy to take with me. Apples because they help my digestive system and kiwi because they taste so good.

I love it when I hear that a guy has a plan. He makes a list of things of which he has truly given some thought and goes on the hunt. That would be my husband today. He left this morning and I could tell by the look in his eye, he would be searching for those special spiderman cuff links while under the pretense of finding me something I would ooh and aw over. You see, Spiderman is revered in this house.

Did you know that Spiderman was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko? Spiderman first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962). The sixties were the years that my husband spent curled up on the couch with his dog, Spook, and read comic books.

So, when my husband comes home this afternoon laden with packages, I will be looking for small boxes. No, diamonds aren’t what I will be expecting. I will be happy with the satisfaction he experiences upon, finally, finding those elusive Spiderman cufflinks.

I don’t know if you know who Patsy Clairmont is but I have known of her for a few years. She is a down to earth person who gives good advice. As our family remembers my husband’s brother who passed away two years ago, it would be easy to be sad. I enjoyed hearing Patsy say that her loved ones, who have passed on, are sitting at Jesus’ feet. What an awesome picture! So, if you are feeling a bit blue this holiday season, or simply want to hear someone’s thoughts on the subject, listen to Patsy’s words of wisdom.

I went shopping on Saturday and it got me into the Christmas spirit. You need to stop thinking about identity theft, (get peace of mind with an rfid blocking wallet ), gifts to buy and menu planning. Stop and listen to beautiful Christmas music.

I think this is one of my favorite Christmas Songs. Take A Walk Through Bethlehem lyrics written and sung by Trisha Yearwood, video made by malmal1392 posted on YouTube

and now for the updated Four Foods on Friday question…

Tell me four things that you have made from scratch with chocolate (or just candy if you don’t/can’t have chocolate).

My idea of heaven would be to have a limo take me away to one of those Branson vacations full of oldies but goodies shows, massages and chocolate everything!

I use powdered chocolate to make mayonnaise cake. I use the baker’s squares of chocolate to make homemade brownies. I use chocolate chips to make magic cookie bars at Christmas time. I love to add butter scotch chips to waffles. Oh! that isn’t chocolate! Umm, I use chocolate chips to make toll house cookies.

Wow! Do the weeks ever fly by. I enjoy participating in Val’s meme, Four Foods on Friday and found that I missed one. Oh no! I am going back and doing number 124 which asks…

Tell me four things that you ate on Thanksgiving Day this year.

We had the pleasure of joining friends in Illinois this Thanksgiving and we all went to a fabulous restaurant. We almost had to bring out the promotional umbrellas but there was a large overhang at the front door and my thoughtful son dropped us off at the door. We were seated in a room that was cozy yet large enough to seat a large party such as ours. We found ourselves very hungry and tried to hold back from rushing the buffet like a herd of wild animals. LOL

There were the traditional Thanksgiving choices on the buffet, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy etc. There were a few things I had never tried before and that was fun.

I had some sort of cheese spread that I put on celery. I wish I could remember the name of this cheese.

I also tried cherry slice. It is a cross between pie and breakfast pastry. Yummm!

Green olives. I never buy these and I love them.

Venison sausage. This was not available at the restaurant, my husband brought this from a local deer processing center near our home. It was delicious.

I wish I could say I had all my Christmas shopping finished. When the kids were small, I usually had all my shopping finished before the end of October! It is funny that when you don’t have all the pressures of small children’s needs, deadlines for medical assistant school assignments, and such, you tend to put things off. I definitely work better under pressure.

As I mentioned before, I caught a pretty nasty cold right after Thanksgiving. I thought I was over it but had a relapse on Sunday. I am tired of not feeling well and am determined to get into the holiday spirit. I bought the ingredients to make Almond Roca and plan on getting some holiday baking done this evening.

How are your holiday preparations going?