Marlene McKay » Family and Friends

My aunt sent me an article about a leopard

Marlene — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:36:53 +0000

I know I’ve told you that I have an aunt that lives in London. She sent me an email yesterday with a link to a local newspaper (to her) that was running a story with pictures about a leopard that attacked a large crocodile. It was quite a battle; the leopard won the battle and hauled the crocodile off to eat. All I can say is that the leopard must have been pretty hungry to take on a crock! The article was on the Earth news section of the website of the London Telegraph paper at Telegraph.co.uk if you want to check it out.
Absolutely amazing!

Slept through the celebration

Marlene — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:36:05 +0000

How did you celebrate the new year? I wanted to stay up, and my hubby and I even broke open a bottle of champagne! We each drank two glasses (we sipped) and turned on the Dick Clark celebratory television show. I’m sorry to say that we both fell asleep (me on the sofa, him in his recliner) around eleven pm and woke up about around one am. Oh well, we missed it! But you know what, the new year is here just the same. Hopefully this is not the LAST new year our civilization watches!

Landline or not?

Marlene — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 03:32:53 +0000

I’ve been hearing and reading more cases of families giving up their hard-wired landline in their homes in favor of simply using cell phones. I can understand the logic, the cell phones are small and they carry them with them at all times, the landline phone is usually larger and more cumbersome. Yet I question the wisdom of this strategy. I like having a landline phone, one that is completely hardwired, and corded. Yes, we have cordless phones, but if and when the electricity goes out (and it DOES go out!) and the cell phones are useless because our house is a dead zone, we depend on the hardwired, corded landline to call the electric company to report the power outage! And we use it to keep in touch with friends and family during the power outage! In 1998 we had a huge ice storm that knocked the electricity out for nineteen days, but we had the telephone service every minute! We could not have maintained cell phones in that case because we could not have kept them charged!

So, in OUR house, anyway, I expect the landline is here to stay. What about you?

Boy is it hard work

Marlene — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:26:39 +0000

My sister and I started taking clogging classes a few weeks ago, and let me tell you this; it is hard work! Yes, it is a lot of fun, too, but we certainly work up a sweat! And I do NOT like to sweat! So I have to come up with a plan of action for that one. I’ve been wearing long pants to class, and I think perhaps if I change into yoga shorts and a sleeveless shirt that I should be more comfortable. I am enjoying the comraderie with my sister in the class, and we’ve been inviting one of my sister-in-laws to join the class too. I hope she does; that would be such fun!

Christmas fruits

Marlene — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:31:01 +0000

The past couple of days we’ve been getting gift boxes in the mail from my hubby’s relatives. Seems as if they all decided to buy fruit from Harry & David this year! We love their pears, so we are glad to get the gifts. One of the boxes arrived with no message as to who the gift is from, it just said in the message part for my son to keep his hands off of the fruit! I am thinking it is from my sister-in-law, but I’m not sure of that.

Today we got another box, this time from my hubby’s aunt – it had pears and candies and nuts and smoked salmon and baklava and all kinds of great goodies in it! That box cost a bundle, I am sure! The last time I remember eating smoked salmon was right around 1999, and I really enjoyed it, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy that treat, assuming that my hubby doesn’t eat it all before I get any of it!

All in the family

Marlene — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:37:38 +0000

When I told my sister-in-law that my sister and I were taking clogging classes near where her house was, she said she had never heard of it before. I told her it was a form of dance, and it was a lot of fun. Since her hubby is reluctant to dance with her when they go out, I invited her to join us clogging. She said she would love to try it out. Well, she DID come to class and she enjoyed it a lot. Now it looks as if there will be the three sisters clogging together in class every week! What fun!

Sad anniversary

Marlene — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 01:41:43 +0000

Today is the anniversary of the death of a little sheltie dog we owned. His name was Laddie, and he was a very loving and devoted family pet. He has been gone for about six years now, but we still remember, love, and miss him dearly. That’s the sad part of having pets, you grow to love them so much and when they pass away they leave a big hole in your heart. Sure, you get other pets and love them too, but that hole is still there.

Clogging

Marlene — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:32:44 +0000

My sister and I decided that we would try our hand at clogging. Hmmmm…. I should rephrase that – we decided we would try our FEET at clogging! A lady that I met through a business networking group told the group that she enjoys clogging and I had never heard of it before. Not wanted to look or sound stupid, I went home and Googled it. Turns out it is a form of dancing. My sister and I really enjoy dancing, so when I found out that there were clogging lessons to be had locally I asked my sis if she wanted to give it a try with me. She said she would, so we have gone to about five or six classes. Boy is it a work-out!

My friend want to buy a van

Marlene — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:27:02 +0000

My best friend wants to buy a van. She wants to use it to take crafts she makes to local craft fairs, hoping to make some money off of her favorite hobby. She wants me to join her in her “weekend” business by helping her load the van at her house and going to the fairs with her, unloading the van at the fair and setting up her display and then help her man her table at the fair. She’s offered to pay me a percentage of the money that she takes in. I’m not sure that she will really make any money doing this, but I told her I’d help her for one season.

I’m really concerned that the cost of gas is going so high that she’s not going to be able to drive it out of her driveway! But, she is pretty insistent, and she is telling me that right now the prices of vans are getting lower because of the gas crisis. I’ve told her that if she is so insistent on buying a van I will help her try to find the best insurance by doing some Internet research on the coverage and prices that are available from the many different insurance providers.

Meeting new friends

Marlene — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:48:16 +0000

My family lives in a fairly rural area, which I really like. We are close enough to the city to go into the city for special occasion shopping trips and special occasion meals, but I would not want to live in such a congested area.

Living in such a rural area, however, can get kind of lonely, and we’ve found ourselves thinking about how to meet new people beyond our neighbors and work on finding friends on our local area. We’ve heard that there is a community center supper next weekend, trying to raise money for the Community Center. I think we should go to it!