Don Knotts and other funny stuff

Dear Friends,
Glad you have a minute to read. I just have about a minutes worth of thoughts in this post.
Don Knotts was a funny, funny man. I must find a Don Knotts video to watch to say goodbye to him. Love to laugh. I have all twelve of the “Fawlty Towers” series with John Cleese videos to watch when I feel like laughing and occasionally I listen to an old Bob Newhart standup routine - I have “Something like this . . . the Bob Newhart Anthology” CD and need to find more of the comedians from an earlier time. Yes, today I often enjoy Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld and other more current comedians but some of the older stuff is also worth a repeat visit for me . I must check on Lili Tomlin and see if I can find a CD or video of hers. Netflix is the site recommended by a friend to get Don Knotts videos but I don’t belong. Perhaps I should look into that.

Hope you have an interesting day with some smiles in it. I am grateful for my son and his wife today. Come to think of it, my son is who gave me the John Cleese videos.

Take care,
Maggiegladyoucame

List of lists of books by genre

Dear Friend,
I'm glad you have a few minutes to read this now.
Today's short journal entry is about choosing what to read next. When I am deciding what to read I usually check my mood before I purchase, because so often my enjoyment of a book has to do with if that book is what I need at that time.
This link leads to a very handy list of lists. Let's say I want to read a gentle, cozy mystery or maybe a "can't put it down" medical thriller. These lists are of the authors of particular genres. I am reading a P. D. James mystyery right now and have recently read The Kite Runner, two very different types of books. One of them would not have meet my need for a gentle cozy mystery. I'm sometimes wanting to relax more and will choose a slowly paced book. Other times I might want something relevant to current events or something I can't put down. So here's a link that helps me find the kind of book I'm looking for.
www.waterborolibrary.org

What have you read that was really good? Something that surprised you or made you think or maybe you just couldn't put it down. You may get your suggestion published here by leaving a comment. I do look over them prior to their posting to keep objectional material out of my journal.

I am grateful for time to read. I remember when I was a little girl and my big sister subscribed to a book club for me. Every month or so a new book came. I loved it. I like to send magazine subscriptions as gifts now, because I know that the gift will come 6 to 12 times a year which is fun.

Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame

Excellent Travel Journal - JohnnyJet

Dear Friends,
I have found a site that is not only informative but is just plain good reading. John DiScala writing as JohnnyJet (http://www.johnnyjet.com) is not only an articulate traveler, but the tender eulogies for his mother that he and his family wrote for her make me wish I'd known her. He's got her Mississippi Mud Pie recipe on the site too which sounds like a real treat. But don't lose sight of the fact that it's really a travel journal. Oh, and this is the travel site that Joe Sharkey, columnist for the New York Times, says "brims with the sheer joy of travel."

I am grateful for this new website and for the person who created it. I remember a trip my parents and I took when I was a child that took us to Knottsberry Farm in California, as well as a visit with family. It is a good memory.

Take care of yourself,

MaggieGladYouCame

Art Quilts and Houston Quilt Festival

Dear Friend,

Hello and glad you're here.

The International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas is another interesting destination even if, like me, you're not a quilter. There are hundreds and hundreds of beautiful traditional quilts with patterns we are familiar with from grandmothers, moms and country decor. There are also hundreds more one-of-a-kind exquisite quilts worthy of display on a wall rather than used for warmth on a bed. The two quilts pictured on this page,are one-of-a-kind quilts by a quilt artist. I went for only one day last year since I am not a quilter and was just there to see the quilts not shop or take classes. Was I amazed to find the International Quilt Festival, absolutely gigantic and impossible to see in one day. I didn't even get to walk past all the quilts. I spent the first half of the day looking through the booths with hand-dyed silk purses and jackets, sewing accessories for machine and hand sewing such as needlepoint stands, and sewing machine software, the fabrics, project decorations, quilted items, all available for purchase, were overwhelming and something that I didn't realize would be there. I found a beautiful sterling silver needlecase which I have loved using. I do needlepoint. If you love to sew or work with fabric in anyway this show would be a memory maker for you. I will go again and will stay 2 days the next time. The web address for the show follows.

I am including a web address for the quilt artist who created the quilts pictured on this page. I found her on the internet. She has both a home page and a blog. This address is for the blog. From her blog you can get to her homepage. I have not taken a lesson from her nor purchased one of her quilts, but would love to own one. "A Walk In the Woods" is the name of her blog. Her address is www.friestyle.blogspot.com/ . These are the unique art quilts pictured on my page. There are many others shown in her blog and webpage. Just beautiful.

International Quilt Festival (Houston) - The Festival information for 2006 is not posted yet, but this is the website where it will be posted when available. The dates are in the first week of November this year. This company hosts two other shows that the general public may attend. One is in Chicago and one in France. The information about all their quilt shows is at www.quilts.com .

I flew into Hobby Airport on Southwest which is a little closer to the Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston than the Bush - Intercontinental Airport, but either airport will have a shuttle that goes to the hotel attached to the Brown Convention Center. I made a reservation in advance for my shuttle ride.

I have a quilt that my husband's mother made when she was about 13 or 14 years old. It is so very pretty.Here's a picture of it. I am grateful for it.

Take care,

MaggieGladYouCame

A spa experience - Miraval Resort and Spa

Dear Friend,

Thank you for stopping by.

My spa experience was very relaxing, and stimulating at the same time. Two friends and I went to a spa in Arizona last week. This spa emphasizes relaxation created by both active and passive activities and individual responsibility for choices. The passive activities that created relaxation for me included bird watching, and meditation. The active routes to relaxation included many different exercise options. The individual responsibility for choices came from an atmosphere that offered lots of activities but encouraged you to only pursue those and as many as you choose. They also offered anything you wanted to eat and in a quantity you chose, but if you wanted to, you could take healthy cooking classes ( I did dessert and breakfast classes) and nutrition classes that were sort of hands on - so that eating slowly wasn't something we just talked about but something we did together. It was one of the most unusual trips I've taken - never having been to a spa of this caliber and for such a long time - 5 days.
An old acquaintance once said, "Plan as if you had 20 years to live and live as if you only have today." That quote could be a summary of the philosophy they offer which they call "Mindfulness." The spa is Miraval Resort and Spa outside of Tucson Arizona and all three of us came home very relaxed. What a treat!
We ate 2 meals with a nutritionist with two different focuses, we attended two cooking classes, we did yoga, pilates, Fletcher towel works (More information farther down the page on this.) went on botanical and bird walks with a naturalist, took a journaling workshop, and had a wonderful facial, a couple of massages and a reflexology experience.
The desert was interesting and parts were pretty - the resort has a water feature that is quite large running through the middle of the property which softens the more barren desert landscape. Because of the desert they have something like 350+ days of sunshine.
I will go back to Miraval.


As I've said before no one pays me to talk about any of these things - I just enjoy writing and when I write it helps me to put my thouhts and feelings into words if I am trying to get them down on paper.

The sunrises and sunsets in the desert are beautiful. I am grateful for them. I am grateful for all the pretty birds I have the pleasure of seeing and hearing. I am grateful for friends.



Take care,

Maggiegladyoucame

Sweet Onion Dip

Dear Friend,

Another beautiful day here.

How about something different in the way of an appetizer? Fritos with swiss chess, mayonaise and sweet onions make a delicious combination. This appetizer recipe is what my friend Donna calls "A Cup, A Cup, A Cup." For a real taste treat, simply grate swiss cheese to make 1 cup, mix it in a quart cassarole with 1 cup mayonaise and 1 cup chopped sweet onions. Then add a touch of whatever you like - press a little garlic or crumbled bacon or don't add anything extra. Bake it uncovered in a preheated oven - 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. Then dip away with those Fritos. It's smooth and creamy and just yummy and I'm not even a swiss cheese fan. Need I say that light Hellman's can be substituted for the real thing. I have even been known to lightly touch the top of this, when it has stood for a little bit and the oil floats to the top, with a paper towel to remove a little of the fat. Can also be fixed the day before you need to take it somewhere and reheated in the microwave. I have used this when I knew the meal would be heavy with salad and vegetables rather than meat. Yummy. I think I'd like to try this when dinner is cold gazpacho soup and a salad or half a sandwich.

I am grateful for good food.
I remember one Halloween when my elementary school aged boys made the headless horseman shaped from coat hangers and covered with their clothes. He was holding his head which was a carved pumpkin. So cute. Their idea and their project. They did it, together.

Take care,

MaggieGladYouCame

Traveling to Memphis, TN; Hershey, PA; and Kansas City for Antique Automobile Club of America Show and barbecue

Dear Friend,

Hi. Hope you can spend 5 minutes reading this note.

Can you imagine spending a trip with a focus that includes eating? I love that. Of course we like to do more than eat, so we are often pursuing one of our hobbies - just as golfers go golfing, skiers, go sking, etc. Several blogs ago I said I'd write about our October 2004 trip to Pennsylvania to the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) car show, swap meet and auction.
http://www.aaca.org/
My husband and I enjoy looking at antique cars. So we planned to drive to Hershey Pennsylvania for the AACA annual meet. We knew the fall colors would be lovely and they were because we would be there the second week in October. Then there's the food channel, which is often on, in this house. We had seen a special about the best barbecue restaurants across the country. So we wrote down some restaurant names and addresses, plotted our route and off we went to see the cars and eat barbecue and other regional fare. We had a lovely long drive though Tennessee. We ate at Jim Neely's Interstate Barbeque as well as at B. B. King's restaurant downtown, both in Memphis. Other enjoyable attractions of interest included watching the ducklings come out of the elevator at the Peabody Hotel making their way to the fountain to swim and play and then returning to the elevator to go back up to their "penthouse."From there we drove up through Virginia on the Skyline drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains overlooking the Shenandoah Valley which was lovely, as had been Tennesse. Then on to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where we stayed while attending the AACA show and sale in Hershey, PA about 15 miles away. There were several hundred, yes hundred, booths at the swap meet part of the show and auction. Here are a few images - from the cars lined up in the auction and others we saw in the car show.

We spent three days at the AACA show and sale and then took a day and went over to browse the antique furniture in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. It's in the Amish country and oh my - I could have stayed for days and not have seen it all. While in Pennsylvania we did a little "regional eating." I really enjoyed the German food at Stout's Black Angus in Adamstown. We ate inside in the restaurant as opposed to the beer garden outside. When we were leaving we saw a couple of hundred folks in the beer garden so it must be good also, but was sandwiches instead of the 3 course meal we had inside. While in Pennsylvania we sampled Pitt beef sandwiches from Pittsburg, and Phillie Cheese steak sandwiches from Philadelphia. It wasn't barbecue - but regional fare and wonderful.

From Pennsylvania we went through southern Ohio and into Kansas in order to eat KC steaks in Kansas and sample their jazz as well as their barbecue. We went to Arthur Bryant's Barbecue restaurant in an older part of downtown Kansas city. This is supposed to be one of the oldest barbecue restaurants in the United States if not the oldest. The barbecue was delicious. But back to the jazz and steaks - don't miss the Majestic Steak House because of the jazz in the basement.

http://www.kansascitymenus.com/majesticsteakhouse/

We had a great meal at and the entertainment was outstanding. The big surprise in Kansas City was the architecture from the 1920's in the Country Club Plaza shopping area. It was some of the prettiest Spanish architecture, I've seen. The roofs were pretty terra cotta colored tile, and there were mosaics like the one on the front of the building in the picture created with tiles. This was our country's first shopping center. There are about 5 streets, each about 3 or 4 blocks long with this great architecture and elegant shops. Just lovely. There is lots to see and do in Kansas City that we have left for another trip. We did visit President Truman's home while we were there - Independence Missouri is a suburb of Kansas City.

This trip was both interesting and beautiful.

Next month we are going to Florida. Around the end of March I'll write about that. Florida is another car show and for me, we will bird. This may not be the best month for birding in Florida, but I bet all months are good times for birds there. Did you know that Florida has the #1 state parks in the country? That's what they say on their state part website. We will rent a car there and drive from Amelia Island in the far northeast part of Florida to the Florida Keys. We will visit national parks, enjoying the flora and fauna, beautiful birds and of course the water.

I'm so glad you took the time to read this. I am grateful for you. I am also especially grateful for my ability to see as I go back over this lovely trip that was so dependent on that sense. This whole trip is a very fond memory.

Maggieglad you came

All photographs in this post were taken by me. Please ask before borrowing .