This Sunday 21 US Embassies in the Middle East and Africa will be closed!

Shockingly this is all due to terrorists’ threats; US citizens have also been advised to be cautious when traveling in those countries. Emergency numbers will be available for people to get any needed help if necessary.

These potential threats are real as stated in this news clip: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-embassies-close-sunday-amid-terrorist-threat/story?id=19845743

Upsetting and concerning, whenever we forget that we are still at war in many countries we get news of another soldier dying in another country and then we get news of the above to remind us that although it is nearly a dozen years since 9/11 things are not that much different, since that day and the days following…when we know this is.

Do you feel safer than that day after?

We are told daily that we should feel that way with the Homeland Security taking care of us and all the technical equipment they have to check when or where these possible threats are and if or when they are coming here.

The date of this year’s April fifteenth when the Boston bombings occurred and killed and maimed once again on our shores, how many of you took a deep breath when you at first were told these men who perpetrated this most recent horror were not the foreign terrorists that killed and maimed our brethren on 9/11, but our own homegrown ones?

Although, it was later on that it was partially disproved, since there was a connection with the training the older brother had while visiting their parents abroad and the brain washings he brought back for his little brother.

We as any other nation have the right to live our lives without fear.

And feeling safe is the most important thing for any human being.

Sadly, whenever I feel as you do too more than likely that we are doing better, that is with caring about us as a civilization, and than reality hits and ruins that! We have very far to go; genocide is still being committed in too many places in this world… and must be stopped!

I wish it weren’t so.

And as foolish as this may sound I thought that perhaps this international social media thing would not only make the world seem smaller, but make us realize how much we all truly need one another… IDEALISM!

But it should not be dead, idealism that is.

Hatred, killing, maiming, diseases, extreme weather affects they should all be dead, but not the caring for one another!

Every time these announcements happen I wish I knew what could be done to change it, but some things cannot be done alone, we do need the world to help to stop this hatred of people not accepting others for who they are.

Religion!

Organized religion specifically, has been the root of many disagreements creating wars since time immemorial, but we still have not learned to live in harmony with understanding all our differences.

Example: Years ago when I was putting together a fashion show for a non-profit, while the men models were getting their haircuts a casual conversation ensued and one stating honestly zealously his beliefs and me stating mine too which were counter to his, since one was a Jew, me, and one was a Christian, he, and so left in a huff, since he felt that no matter how much he tried to talk me into his way of thinking if I did not believe as he did than he wanted nothing to do with me or my fashion show, ridiculous!

If we were nations we would have been at war due to that, but why?

Some do not want to meet in the middle or the more correct reason is not being able to accept others for their beliefs; not being the same as theirs?

That time I could have lied and agreed, but what good would that have done? You see, it isn’t me anyway…lying that is. A nice man filled in the last minute.

And no religion should have to compromise by lying to them or others either, just learn to accept that everyone has their right to believe in a faith so long as it doesn’t tell people to kill, hate or maim others, right?

I know the recent hate organizations are out-shoots of the ancient religions that are more peace loving; they too try hard to separate from them.

We must know all the facts before we judge too harshly.

Oh I don’t know I must have watched too many beauty pageants as a young girl and teen, since all I really want in life is, PEACE ON EARTH AND GOOD WILL TOWARDS ALL MEN AND WOMEN! REALLY!

Fix it world, just fix it! NIKE IT!

On that note of a tall order, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

If you can remember about a month ago I mentioned that ...

I was happy to say that approximately 28,000 people had viewed my blog since I began on June 25, 2008, but in actuality I had been a few hundred short at the time.

Yesterday, I had been sidetracked and so I forgot to tell all of you that that milestone had been reached in less than a week after and since quite a bit has happened…here as we all prefer to say a picture is worth a thousand words...

And I just wanted to thank all of you!

The previews are you, that over fifteen hundred and do you see that all time history of over 29,000? Yesterday was a first in a long time having 99 viewings in one day! Today is not going as impressive, but one could hope couldn’t one…

the day actually ends now for whomever ‘they’ are at 8:00 P.M. EST, help to make another impressive day?

But I suppose most of you can see that admonishment too, “Don’t track your own pageviews”. I wonder if they will banish me or do something worse if they read this.

This warning has baffled me from the start and I cannot figure out how they would be able to do it; that is to figure out it is me looking at my own works’ visitors.

You see, that is how I see you, well not see you, notice that you may have dropped by for a looky of my words espousing my head’s inner thoughts or whatever you wish to call them…

Another proof I have is of the countries that visit too...

 

and this is weekly, although, other foreign lands do show up all week long and I suppose that in a weeks time they only post a few of them. Since I do know that Singapore

dropped by this week too and I don’t see it there, do you? And I have seen that Germany and Romania over the month have also stopped by as well;

Israel and Canada too!

Is this that concept of a story within a story?

My blog has, at times, taken on a life of its own.

Today, I did try not to be on here as much as always.

Why, one may ask, or not? I will err on your wanting to know, otherwise I would have to end this here or tonight and nobody wants that right? I can’t hear you, but that’s okay….

Any-who…

But as we all know too much of this is harmful to you and people who you should be interacting with in person…

Oh you all know that’s true!

Somehow we get on here and say just one more this or that and soon that live body in the same building/home as you wonders if you are there at all?

Writing nightly can take me as long as an hour to two, rarely, if ever more.

So once I start talking to any of you or continue conversations for any length of time it could make live beings feel neglected, I’m just saying… ya know?

I think many of us have also been on the other end of that too, hmm?

So in closing for tonight I thank all of you for your support all these years and hopefully we will build on that and go even further into the realm of people seeing why a half blind, wheel-chaired needed, short, blonde, voluptuous/obese nearly senior gal, living in these United States where the sun does shine, thinks that she has something to say and be heard all over the world, okey dokey now and forever!

On that mouthful of shameless self promotion, allow me to ask all of you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Gardener's know...but don't necessarily like it...

That when we garden, nature, at times, has a way of making your composted organic garden of veggies sometimes get defaced by natural happenstance, be it the wind blowing off the flowers for fruit to form or insects taking that first bite or animals, wild and or domestic defecating on your precious home grown foods… it is not always as one may want to think.

Not much can be done about the wind, since it does blow in different directions and even the best laid idea diagrams for locations of your garden cannot always be prefect!

Fencing is one way to go to keep many varmints out, but others can climb over it or somehow manage to go under or find some way around that and even our own domestic pets can forget that the raised beds are not for them in the dark of night, or just be attracted to them due to that amazing aroma emanating from them, perhaps from that neighbor’s cat having just used it as a litter box!

Horrors!

But it does happen, but not in ours thankfully, that is at least recently, since we decided to wait until the fall here, in Southwest Florida, due to it being way too hot for most crops now. Our winters are even better for many edibles.

Washing all freshly picked items is one way to counteract any unwanted possible diseases on your fruits and vegetables; here is one I found online but I have been doing this in my lettuce spinner without exact measurements, probably too much of each.

“Instructions:

1. Add 2 cups of water, 2 tbsp. lemon juice and 1/4 cup of baking soda an empty spray bottle. Use caution because the baking soda and lemon juice may react to one another and foam up.

     2. Put the lid on the spray bottle. Shake the contents of the bottle     

      well before using.

3. Spray your produce liberally with the homemade vegetable wash. Allow the produce to sit with the wash on it for 5 minutes before rinsing under stream of cold water and scrubbing it clean with a scrub brush.”

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_5078206_make-homemade-vegetable-wash.html#ixzz2af6dwba9

It’s your health so follow those directions with purchased at the grocery ones, even already been washed ones and Farmer’s Market produce too!

Be safe with all edibles, better to err on the side of caution.

In my opinion if you do not wash off all that cleaning concoction above it won’t hurt you at all! After all it is just lemon juice, used in many salad dressings and baking soda great for the digestion! But check with your local health department or county extensions to be sure; warm water is preferable instead of cold for this latest parasite to be killed.

“BOSTON, July 31 (UPI) -- Cyclospora, a one-cell parasite often misidentified as a stomach virus, sickened 372 people in 16 U.S. states, but experts say it can be prevented.
Health officials in Iowa and Nebraska said they linked the illnesses in their states to packaged salad mix -- containing iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots and red cabbage -- but federal health officials said they were not ready to say if the sickness in the other states were linked to the same salad ingredients.
The parasite is spread when people eat food or water that has come into contact with infected feces.
People get Cyclospora infections from some fresh fruit and vegetables that probably came into direct contact with an infected person or contaminated water. Fruit and vegetables grown or packed outside of the United States may have a higher risk of having Cyclospora on them, health officials said.
Previous epidemics of cyclosporiasis have been traced to contaminated lettuce, basil and raspberries grown in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States.
The Cyclospora parasite cannot survive freezing therefore is it not common on cold-weather crops, such as spinach, broccoli, cabbage, or greens harvested in the winter.
In addition, the parasite cannot survive heated water at about 60 degrees or cooking so wash produce with warm water.
Wash hands with soap and water before washing produce and after handling produce to minimize the risk of cross-contamination.
People should always wash hands after going to the bathroom, changing a diaper, or before touching food. Use plenty of soap and warm water, and get a good soap lather and rub hands together to loosen and wash away germs.”

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/07/31/Ways-to-prevent-illness-from-Cyclospora-on-food/UPI-22991375246975/#ixzz2afAx0LA5

On tonight’s note of concern for all of us, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

What's the opposite of nosy?

If nosy means, inquisitive, curious, interfering, prying, meddlesome, snooping than today was a quiet day for me. That explains me all the way!

I am what I am…

Although, is it nosy when someone who lives in a foreign land, Germany, requests that you inform them about their empty lot, along side, next door to your property when it needs attention?

Yesterday, we sent PICS stating that it had become an eyesore and was a hazard due to the overgrowth blocking the street drain.

And amazingly, the lawn service came today and mowed most all of the lot, except the part closest to the canal and did not trim and still clogged the street with now the grass that was mowed and shredded debris and garbage strewed to our property as well as their un-mulched dead grass and branches were tossed against our fence; so more pictures were sent and now we are waiting on what will be done.

Sure we want the neighborhood to look nice and here it is an effort, because not many seem to care. We do have Snowbirds, but they all have lawn services taking care of their properties when they are not here. The problem seems to occur with our transient rental properties that at one time were all owned and lived in by the owners, but now they are bought up by people who got them cheap due to Foreclosures and took them over as rentals. And so the grass when it gets too tall is not taken care of as quickly as most of us that have been here for a long time would care for.

Hubby worked with code enforcement when he was a deputy working in community policing early on is his law enforcement career, they loved him and they worked well with the area to keep it up nicely, he was even on the board for Keeping Charlotte Beautiful committee and so being retired and watching the deteriorating and seemingly non-caring is difficult and so yesterday on the way to the rehab/gym we took down street addresses where the problem was beyond acceptance by anyone and met the necessary criteria of  sixteen inches long on more than half of the property, we found five just to the main road.

The sad part is it is more than likely responsible for home values going down when people don’t seem to care. A lovely pool home across the street from us is for sale and in order for them to get their asking price, as neighbors, it is our responsibility to help by maintaining our properties to get some nice people in who will feel as we do, neatness counts and home pride should too, whether a renter or owner!

We rented only for a short time a home, about six months while building our house in NJ and we treated that property as our own with maintenance no different than our townhouse that we sold before our new home was completed and so we rented in the school district number one would be going to, since our younger son was only two and half years old at that time and number one was in first grade.

And I think that is why we don’t get it, why when you are living in a home why you would not take care of it?
Do you?

At least the landlord should if you can’t.

We also were landlords and certain things were built into the rental agreement that the lessee knew their responsibility and we stated ours and of course both signed that document.

I suppose things have changed with folks not having the time and we sure have plenty of that, but even when we worked and were busing children around from here and there and everywhere; we never hired people, we fit all our home care into our schedules. It was good exercise and fun when done with love and care.

I remain clueless with when people live in anything why they can’t take care of it…like the dirty house, cleaning it is the very least one can do!

Mostly that costs nothing, but time.

Any-who…

A sign-off now from grumpy gal again…

I do suppose that if the home values go down the taxes will too?

NAH!

That’s not gonna happen and hasn’t, odd about that, hmm?

In the nearly fifteen years in this particular home they have only gone progressively up, but none as bad as the east coast where we had in Ormond Beach or New Jersey, believe it or not the taxes on our homes were the same in those two places, more than twice what we pay here but, nineteen and twenty-seven years ago for those! Heaven knows what those are today?

On those realizations notes of perhaps we are okay, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Words, words and MORE GLORIOUS WORDS!

Characters on the net monitor, our need to knows, as well as what they think we should know, got that?

You have the, ‘politically astute’ but with a leaning that is not necessarily yours, but in their mind it should be.

You have the, ‘recipe mavens’ that post those delish concoctions that make you gain tens of pounds with yours eyes. And I am always sorry to find out that they did not create them from their artistic brains.

And that’s right you have the, ‘artistic people’ who love to paint a post with the latest and greatest masterpiece, but again not theirs.

And lest not us forget the, ‘active people’ who doing tricks with their physicality that can amaze anyone at any age, and they keep clean, but still amazing.

Now who can forget those ‘loving parents’ with the most beautiful, clever, talented, king and queens of all major sports, and silliest, in a good way, babes and teens and older ones, but they too become the grands, if lucky enough and that generation appears in so many PICS of their every movement, except what that implies, sorry guys, just had to… if their parents weren’t downright gorgeous, these offspring genuinely are, alas in the eyes and minds of their grandma and grandpa for all of the world to behold!

Save some for their wedding PICS…PLEASE! Not nice, sorry, my green-eyed monster rearing its nasty head, again.

Oh and the other, ‘ones with advice’ on every topic and that we should be more upbeat, and happy, and natural, and socially aware… sure but when will I find the time, and what if…I don’t want to be!

There is never a right or wrong answer to ‘like’ to hit, sure that says you agree with whatever they just posted that they just made you think more than once about and even may have accessed that link there too, to validate what they felt you needed to know, or would enjoy to know or should be aware of to know… HECK that’s a good thing!

No more need for classrooms or TV or other techno marvels just click on the posts all day long that ‘your friends’, yep, yours and mine, since I am speaking of Facebook and you said be mine to them as I did too… and we didn’t even interview them first?

Any other job related to anything in this world we would Google that person or at least do a background check on them, really? KIDDING, NOT!

Life is a crap shoot, and there goes my cringe factor again, knew I left it somewhere!

Any-who…

That expression about choosing your friends, but not your relatives comes to mind…

And so in closing, you or I or both of us said yes to the people on our pages and they agreed and so it was a decision that was met with mutual meeting of the minds, which can be held up in a court of law if I recall my business law that I took for two or three years long ago, but it mostly talked about torts, really, not the ones you eat either for those ‘recipe mavens’ out there!

So the only out is unfriending which we have all utilized when we trimmed out fat off our timelines with regrets at times, but usually not.

And so the point of this was to fill this real estate that I constantly love with indicators that I still do exist and that I have you to talk to/at on a nightly basis and you on occasion do talk back, but gently and I thank thee for that!

So on those notes of what I think I think at times but not all of the times just some of the times, maybe always, but not about you, okay! Allow me now to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Pirate Festival 2013 at Punta Gorda Florida's Fisherman's Village!

Another fine day in paradise!

Being what my title says...

 http://ww2.abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/tips?nord=1

"crewgulls

Why do many of you try to outsource America with your suggestions to people on making their idea products for cheap abroad? I know that it is true that many companies find this beneficial to their products’ bottom line, but what about finding domestic resources to try to increase our bottom line here in America? I love your honesty on the show, but have become annoyed frequently with this attitude of going outside of our borders with telling start-up companies to practice this negative to us message. Sure we could learn to make products here for less, but perhaps you as mentors can figure out the most logical way to do that without damaging the quality of the products for sale. I am a 63 year old woman with a background in business management and retired now for years due to MS and this is just my observation and I am sure that you can do with it whatever you care to do."

This is a general post, that I posted today on ABC TV’s site for their program Shark Tank and who knows if they, the actual Sharks of Shark Tank will ever see it, since it appears to be more of a forum to ask questions or discuss your ideas. PS the link above will bring you there and it appears that I am still the last one to post there today anyway. I did try without avail to attain a contact location to perhaps notify the producers or the cast in total of what I thought, but I guess they are well protected from public opinion in this day and age of who knows what! I really didn’t want to go so public, but oops I did! And oops I did it again, here! LOL!

But for months I kept telling Hubby I was going to do it (get those minds out of that gutter, I meant tell Shark Tank hosts how I felt) and I had forgotten with too many other things going on in our lives, whew!

You all know that we prioritize our lives according to what is most important in all of our lives.

And that is the way it should be, but some don’t get it, and to tell you the truth there have been times in my life when I have felt that too.

Such as: A Cadillac in front of a shack of a home, who’s not the landlord.

A child without a coat in forty degrees weather and swimming when it is seventy degrees. And surprise, those are the kids who never ever get colds.

Eating when you are obese.

Not eating when you are thin.

Exercising when you have muscles like Mr. T, used to have.

A blonde old woman that should be gray, hey, wait, that’s me and my roots are still oddly brown!

You get my point, it is a matter of what is the most important in your life at any given time.

And to any of us that is how we should roll, and now I am finally learning sort of, not to judge, sort of.

The only reason I posted the above blip in my time/space continuum was to take up some much under used real estate here, in this blog, give me a break, and so I prioritized my own usage, ha! I do realize I inundated my Facebook page with it all day long and many saw and some even did agree with it, hooray for that! If you are not following I am referring to my post to Shark Tank, sometimes if the truth be told I have trouble following me... bud, dump, bum.

This just in: Dorian is done! (the tropical storm)

I hope you all had a chance to also read my update on my Express Scripts dilemma that was also resolved too, hooray!

“Today my payments have officially been credited to my account, according to Julie in Minnesota and according to her that was as of 7-19-13 all items were credited, and there is a billing dept fax number, odd how Eleanor knew absolutely none of this, which Julie gave to me and I did verify it is what it is, a fax line! The bank has been notified and I have paid for my last delivery!” Odd quoting yourself, but I did and it is kinda nice too… although, I was about to say I felt important, but my Dad would have said, “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice!”

Gotta love the guy!

He was the one who put the level, in level headed.

Tonight I will be leaving you with some pretty racy pictures:

I call it, CALADIUMS GONE WILD!

On that note of hooray, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all you blessings and share those overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Update on Shark Tank contact, sent the same above comment to this new email address:

http://inthesharktank.com/contact/