Congratulations to my BFF Diane Hawksby! She won the Mary M. Zannis Scholarship 2008 from the New York Health Information Management Association. The Hawk and I worked together for more than 20 years at Plattsburgh PBS station. Oddly enough, we both had studied to be medical secretaries and found ourselves working in TV instead. Hawk went on to study Health Information Management and now is the Queen B at a pediatrician's office. Which makes me chuckle to no end as working with little children was not one of her favorite things when we worked together. Of course as the business manager, her contact with the kiddies is limited. But now we are both in the medical field; me through my volunteer work with North Country Life Flight. We've come full circle. Way to go Hawks! I wish you continued success in your academic and professional pursuits. Hawks makes one great tortiere too and I was fortunate to have one of them grace my table for the holidays. Merci mon Ami! Hope that is proper French! It's been awhile since my French classes. Hawks is the young "girl" on the right.

Curl Up With a Book

Another favorite book I've posted (even though I have yet to read it) is Fat Cat - The Danish Folktale. My dad's PT told me about the book after seeing our fat cat Jesse. In the folktale, the Fat Cat eats 35 pies, then moves on to eating people, a mouse and her sewing supplies. The mouse cuts her way out his tummy and all the people come out. Cat learns a lesson. Sounded like my kind of story and one my grandkids would enjoy.

My dad's PT said she always enjoyed reading it with her kids - it was their favorite. Maybe our local library can get me a copy. I'll try it.

I'm also reading Shoot the Moon - loaned to me by my pal MJ. I think the sheriff is the killer, but sloshing through it and I won't know for a while. What are you reading these days? Great weather for books. I went to the library today but just picked up a few magazines since I have Shoot the Moon and a la Cart to enjoy for now.

I just gave my hiker sister a copy of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. It's a very funny book and I think she will enjoy that one.

Coors and Oreos

Over to your right you will see my favorites on Amazon.com and today's favorite is a book I bought myself for Christmas. I had heard an interview with the author Hillary Carlip on NPR and was fascinated with her book theme. Hillary finds shopping lists abandoned in grocery stores and uses them to make up stories about the shopper. In her book she takes on the persona of 26 different people and dresses up as she imagines they would, photos are included. It's the type of thing that captures my imagination too. I always wanted to see the exhibit at the New York State Museum of suitcases found in storage of NYS insane asylums. I like getting different types of glimpses into people's lives. Hillary's book a' la Cart: The Secret Lies of Grocery Shoppers certainly does that for us. Should you wish to purchase the book, keep in mind if you go to Amazon through my "blob" link, I get paid. I'm on my way to internet tycoonship... You can visit Hillary's website at http://www.alacartthebook.com/

Snowing, rain, sleet in the Adirondacks today. We have had it all. I was disappointed with this weather today. Tonight I was to accompany MJ of North Country Life Flight to a presentation to the Ausable Forks Rotary Club. They cancelled the meeting due to slippery roads so hopefully we can do that another time. I like getting out of the house when I can and miss my buds at NCLF.

Coco TV

I found a way to keep Coco entertained. Cost me about $20 for a bag of black oil sunflower seed - boy has that stuff gone up in price. But, worth it, as I sprinkle some outside the window and she gets to watch the show. And thankfully, she doesn't bark at them, just looks. For some reason gray squirrels make her whimper but the red squirrel - she just watches.

I can only use the seed this time of year - have to stop in March as raccoons begin to visit and I don't want to encourage them.

Nice time to point out my husband's handiwork. Those oak windowcases were boards he planed himself and cut and designed. And he hates woodworking. I'm glad he built our house before he discovered that.

Now I find that if I click on some of the photos in my blog they enlarge - others don't. Not sure why that is but this one enlarges. Further study needed.

BFF

I had a wonderful lunch at Karma, Plattsburgh's Indian restaurant today. Good friends, good food. It was a great gathering. Karma has a wonderful buffet that they are offering on Sundays this month for only $6.95 just to get people to try them out. Usual cost is $11.95 . We ate the most wonderful things, lots of curried dishes, veggies, Basmati rice, lentils, chicken (the curried coconut variety was heavenly) and more. Be sure to order "nan," a basket of their wonderful bread - costs extra but worth every penny. http://www.karmaplattsburgh.com/


My friend the Hawk told us about this wonderful story she saw on the CBS Sunday Morning show today and I searched it out. For your viewing pleasure. It warms your heart. Enjoy! You do have to watch a little CBS promo first but it's only 30 seconds.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Pilots and Paws

I saw a neat news story on NBC's "Today" this morning about the program Pilots and Paws. It touched my heart and made me think of my own little rescued dog Coco who was brought from a "high kill" shelter in Alabama to Maine (not sure if she flew or rode up in a Coupe de Ville) where I found her.

It's a wonderful program that allows those with the means and a love of flying and animals to help save animals and help them find a new home. Check out their website. It's a sweet story. There are so many ways to make the world a better place. This is one of them.

http://pilotsnpaws.org/

Happy 2009! A cold day in the Adirondacks today - about 10F was as high as the temp climbed but my house...90F in the kitchen with the woodstove going. I almost passed out from the heat and had to keep opening doors and windows and walking out on the porch. I had stuff cooking n the stovetop and the oven going too to make my chicken pot pie - a dish my Mom used to make for us. It came out quite comparable I must say. Easy as pie to make:

Stew a chicken with some onion to make lots of broth.

When meat falls off bone, pick all the meat off and put back in pot. I think I left the rest of the carcass in bag on porch to draw coyotes tonight - oops.

Peel as much potatoes and carrots as you need (actually my 93 year old dad peeled the potatoes again) put the carrots in first to cook for 20-30 min. add the potatoes and I threw in some peas too (they look a little unappetizing in the picture I took but hey they were good). Once all that is cooked and simmering well, make it turn into gravy - mix or flour/water your choice. Then I mixed up a double batch of Jiffy Baking Mix biscuits and spooned that onto the boiling stew. Now you have two choices here, I heated the oven to 400 and put the pot in the oven to cook the biscuits. You can cover the pot and cook for 15-20 min and you will have dumplings on your stew instead of biscuits. But for pot pie I wanted a nicely brown biscuit topping. It was very yummy.

My daughter and her girls came over - we ate well and did I take any pictures? No, and we celebrated our belated Christmas today. But wait, I did take one picture. Of my dang pot pie. Oh well. Happy New Year. I did get beautiful pics of my grandgirls in a nice frame as one of my gifts. They both took a great school pic this year.

We played with their Wii after supper. I could not get those movements going and got beat badly by little kids. My dog wanted to play too and kept barking and jumping on me. Maybe that's why I lost. It's Coco's fault. I think someone should invent Wii games for dogs. They would make a mint. You watch...it's the next big thing. You read it here.