Friday, January 24, 2014
A Random Five Facts & Feline Friday post
My Five things for happenings update first -- The cat is at the end here
One: I found this box of Magic Jim at the Kroger (grocery) store yesterday in the toy section. Since it wasn't a food then I didn't buy it.
Really though, I also didn't buy it because it is not 'Jim', but rather 'Jinn'.
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Two: Mrs. Jim had bunion surgery on Jan 2, one day after her birthday. It has been over three weeks now. This cast went on at the end of the first week and it is scheduled to come off next week.
Her first calf rubbed her sutures the wrong way and so the PA put on a new one with more padding for her. The first one was definitely an eye catcher being LSU purple and yellow. The second is all purple except for the white on each end.
On the right wearing the purple cast, Mrs. Jim is Face Timing with our youngest grand-daughter, KP. They use Face Time more than Skype now, I don't know why.
Three: Mrs. Jim's Sunday school class has been so nice with furnishing us food. It saves her from having to eat my food too. This is a chicken casserole which made us four meals. Above is a light meal, half the chicken casserole and half a fruit salad with sliced avocado.
Four: This is my friend's newest acquisition. It is a 1929 restored Model A Ford 4door sedan. He also has a 1937 restored Ford pickup and two Model T Fords. Well, he did until today when he sold his 1917? Speedster (picture of a 1916 Speedster that looked like his). My pictured of it here is from last Sunday when he drove it to church.
Five: What do these two pictures have in common? Loss of property. The cell phone I put into a cup of coffee the other day. I was in the car and forgot that the cup holder was not empty.
I had to wear the shoes because I had lost my slippers. I found them today in the hall closet. I had looked there several times but it turned out they were under a big jar of cheese balls.
And I bought a new AT&T Samsung flip phone for $14.99 at Radio Shack. I just stuck my SIM card into the slot and it worked fine. No camera though. But the only pictures I ever took with the old one were an accident. I went into Radio Shack the other day and they had told me that this was a GO Phone and would not work as a regular one. The fellow at the AT&T store told me they did work and he used to sell them at his place.
My Feline Friday Cat:
This cat meets me most every month when I come to pay my storage shed rent. It is very friendly and always gets up when I come so that she can be petted. I don't know it's name or breed.
Fine print stuff:
==> I am linked up today with Nancy at A Rural Journal. She conducts her "A Random Five" blog hop there. Click that link to read other "A Random Five" posts or to join in with your own.
==> I'm also linked with Steve's Burnt Food for this today, go see his cat.
He and others have a Mr. Linky going there so you can see other cats too.
==> Click on any picture for a larger size and a better view
He and others have a Mr. Linky going there so you can see other cats too.
==> Click on any picture for a larger size and a better view
Labels: A-Random-Five, Feline-Friday, Jim Does
Thursday, November 14, 2013
A Random Five post [022] — Venice to Athens via the Black Sea [Bulgaria] — Feline Friday
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One: This, cat, a Hawaiian band member is the drummer. One of the chefs on our 2013-Venice-to-Athens-via-the-Black-Sea cruise made this cat from a pineapple.
You can see all of the band members, two of the chefs, and my Hawaiian shrimp salad here.
Below I will show pictures from our cruise that I took while we were stopped in Bulgaria.
On Sunday after church we did see more cousins, Dorothy who moved from Houston and SOME of the others.
One gave us this flower from her bush. She calls it a Confederate Rose. Mary took some blooms and also a couple of cuttings.
You may know more about Confederate Roses than they do. I don't think they are real roses. (Wikipedia says, "Hibiscus mutabilis, also known as the Confederate rose or the cotton rosemallow, is a plant noted for its flowers."
Three: Eating is good in our family. Mrs. Jim loves the fancy food on our cruises. One of her, and my, favorites is the Princess Coffee Club. We make one card last a whole cruise or more because with the card the special brews are "free". That sure beats the machine stuff.
Next is KP frosting the cupcakes she and Mrs. Jim had made. The whole family loves chocolate.
Finally is the "Special" board in one of the British pubs we had visited. I had a baked fish pie which was not on the menu. Sorry, no picture.
Four: I read this yesterday: "Upwards of 30,000 (African) elephants were slaughtered by poachers in 2012 — the largest number in decades. Despite a 1989 global ban on commercial ivory trading, the last five years have seen a dramatic surge in poaching that threatens to wipe out the roughly 500,000 elephants still living in Africa, experts say." (Read more here)
Five: Our Bulgaria stop on the cruise. First on our list was to go to the beach in Bulgaria.
The beach is on the Black Sea. Neither Mrs. Jim nor I had been on the Black Sea before, let alone putting our feet in. You will see below that I only put my finger in.
KP was leading the way. We rode over to the beach and back in this little train.
For this port we had to tender. That meant for us that we must ride back and forth to the ship in the life boats. That is kind of fun every now and then.
My Five things for happenings update, the cat and more cruise pictures
One: This, cat, a Hawaiian band member is the drummer. One of the chefs on our 2013-Venice-to-Athens-via-the-Black-Sea cruise made this cat from a pineapple.
You can see all of the band members, two of the chefs, and my Hawaiian shrimp salad here.
Below I will show pictures from our cruise that I took while we were stopped in Bulgaria.
Two: Visiting with the cousins ~~ Saturday, October 19, we had planned to visit my cousins (link) in Nebraska for a couple of days and then visit my sister in Iowa during the week. But we didn't go (link to my prior blog post about that).
But the next weekend we did visit Mrs. Jim's cousins in Louisiana. Above is Mrs. Jim with her 93-year-old cousin, Mary. Mary still drives and she teaches her ladies' Sunday school class every Sunday.
On Sunday after church we did see more cousins, Dorothy who moved from Houston and SOME of the others.One gave us this flower from her bush. She calls it a Confederate Rose. Mary took some blooms and also a couple of cuttings.
You may know more about Confederate Roses than they do. I don't think they are real roses. (Wikipedia says, "Hibiscus mutabilis, also known as the Confederate rose or the cotton rosemallow, is a plant noted for its flowers."
Three: Eating is good in our family. Mrs. Jim loves the fancy food on our cruises. One of her, and my, favorites is the Princess Coffee Club. We make one card last a whole cruise or more because with the card the special brews are "free". That sure beats the machine stuff.Next is KP frosting the cupcakes she and Mrs. Jim had made. The whole family loves chocolate.
Finally is the "Special" board in one of the British pubs we had visited. I had a baked fish pie which was not on the menu. Sorry, no picture.
Four: I read this yesterday: "Upwards of 30,000 (African) elephants were slaughtered by poachers in 2012 — the largest number in decades. Despite a 1989 global ban on commercial ivory trading, the last five years have seen a dramatic surge in poaching that threatens to wipe out the roughly 500,000 elephants still living in Africa, experts say." (Read more here)
Five: Our Bulgaria stop on the cruise. First on our list was to go to the beach in Bulgaria.The beach is on the Black Sea. Neither Mrs. Jim nor I had been on the Black Sea before, let alone putting our feet in. You will see below that I only put my finger in.
KP was leading the way. We rode over to the beach and back in this little train.
For this port we had to tender. That meant for us that we must ride back and forth to the ship in the life boats. That is kind of fun every now and then.
- - - - - -
Fine print stuff:
==> I am linked up today with Nancy at A Rural Journal. She conducts her "A Random Five" blog hop there. Click that link to read other "A Random Five" posts or to join in with your own.
==> For more Feline Friday cat pictures, you can to Sandee's blog here. Or go to Steve's at http://burntfooddude.us/ as he is the author of this meme.
==> Click on any picture for a larger size and a better view.
==> Click on any picture for a larger size and a better view.
Labels: 2013-Venice-to-Athens-via-the-Black-Sea, A-Random-Five, Family, Feline-Friday, Flowers-buds-plants, Friends, Travel
Friday, November 01, 2013
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Feline Friday ~~ Cats of Greece [ 01]
and
My Five Things Today
and
My Five Things Today
[One] These kittens were running "wild" atop the little mountain at a monastery stop in Meteora, Greece.
Our ship was docked in Volos, Greece, and we had bussed up to here. Oh, yes, there was a little climb for visiting these.
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[you can click on the pictures for a more viewable size]
[(still) One] The last picture shows where we were.
[Two] I celebrated my birthday this week with the help of friends, family, and Mrs. Jim. My birthday was October 30 but our family spreads the birthday stuff out for a few or many days. Above was on the 29th, when we played Texas 42 with these friends. Our host had baked a birthday cake for me.
[Three] Some of the family joined me for supper on the 30th at our local Papadeaux Seafood Kitchen restaurant. I had a fried catfish poboy, a salad, and cheesecake. My grandson-in-law took the picture. His wife (my oldest of four granddaughters), the next oldest granddaughter, my youngest son (he is single, ladies), a great-granddaughter, Mrs. Jim, and my older daughter all came to help.
[Four] On the 31st, Halloween Day, I drove a friend to his doctor's appointment in the Woodlands. He was not allowed to drive as he had a pacemaker installed during the weekend after having a heart attack.
On the way home we stopped to check on his toy (an airplane, not pictured) and a hanger he is building. This toy, a 1928 Piper Cub, belongs to a friend. His other toys were two more airplanes, three antique cars, and an old motorcycle.
[Five] That evening, the 31st, we went to the University of Houston(stats and schedule)/South Florida University football game. My Houston team won, 35-26. They now have seven wins with one loss (7-1).
Mrs. Jim treated me to the game for my birthday. It was very festive due to it being Halloween night. Many of the spectators Houston college performers and help were in costume. There were several categories for costume dress.
Held at Reliant Stadium in Houston, the stadium is also home to the Houston Texans. There was some concern that we might not be able to get into due to the heavy rains we had on the 30th and 31st. But it had stopped by game time and we weaved through the streets that were open. Some neighbors where we live measured over seven inches.
Fine print stuff:
==> I am
linked up today with Nancy at A Rural Journal. She conducts her "A Random Five" blog hop there. Click that
link to read other "A Random Five" posts or to join in with your own.
==> For more
Feline Friday cat pictures, you can to Sandee's blog here. Or go to Steve's at http://burntfooddude.us/ as
he is the author of this meme.
==> Click on any picture for a larger size and a better view.
==> Click on any picture for a larger size and a better view.
Labels: 2013-Venice-to-Athens-via-the-Black-Sea, A-Random-Five, Family, Feline-Friday, Friends, Greece, JBday13, Jim Birthday, Travel
Friday, October 11, 2013
A Random Five post [020] — Venice to Athens via the Black Sea [003 Istanbul, Turkey, part III]
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One: We took off last weekend from blogging except for Sunday. I did post a couple of poems on my other blog though.
I was teaching our class Sunday school lesson Sunday so I had been preparing for that. Plus Katrin (our toy poodle) has been on medications that make her vomit everything, food, drink, and pills, back up. I didn't even play golf Tuesday.
Then on Friday (by this time, I had Katrin off her meds) we left for Alexandria, La, for Mrs. Jim's family reunion.
Here are a couple of driving pictures and one of our breakfast at the LaQuinta Inn. The breakfast wasn't anything extra nice, but it was tasty and quite adequate. Especially since we would load up on food at the reunion.
I am sorry but I don't have any reunion pictures there. It was at Harold Miles Park which sits on the side of a bayou. We met mostly inside a screened pavilion. The room adjoining was air conditioned.
Yesterday was the Christmas Bazaar at our church. The Ladies Fellowship Luncheon group sponsored and set it all up. It was well attended and merited a handsome profit. The money would go to a scholarship fund for our graduating youth.
The two ladies on the right were greeting the attendees as they entered the church atrium. I caught the lady below carrying her "Eat at Joe's" sign the week before in church.
Below is a picture of our gym and large assembly room. These men (and I) were attending the Men's Power Lunch. We have one of these each first Monday of the month during the school year.
Our speaker this time was Lee Strobel, a former atheist who told of his reasoning for converting to be a Christian. He was at that time the Legal Editor of the Chicago Tribune. In 1981, after two years of exhaustive research he reported, "I realized it would take more faith to maintain my atheism than it would to become a Christian."
He is an attorney and writer, selling more than 10,000,000 of his books. At present he teaches apologetics as a professor at Houston Baptist University. You can read more of him at his Web site, www.leestrobel.com/ . Next month's guest will be singer and song writer, Larry Gatlin. I'll buy your lunch if you'll be my guest.
Two: Our second day in Istanbul we did everything on our own. The evening of the first day we had some local talent to perform for us. A singing and dancing group came to perform. They were followed by a local belly dancer. She was quite good.
I had a belly dancer's daughter in my class at the college. They daughter also danced and taught our Business Club, Phi Beta Lambda, a routine to do to the tune of New York, New York. We then had a performing entry that year in the Mardi Gras in Galveston.
Below, left, is what we saw from our balcony in the evening. The blue light on the left is one of the two bridges spanning the Strait of Bosporus. The lights on the bridge put on a nice light show about every ten minutes. At the upper left side of the picture is a remote ship' bridge where the pilot stands to guide the ship up to the dock to anchor.
Three: In the morning we took the tram back to the mosque area and visited the Hagia Sophia. Pictures are above and left. This mosque "is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum...
"From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935." Wikipedia, Hagia Sophia
Four: Our next stop would be the Grand Bazaar. "Constructed in 1461, the Grand Bazaar (Kapali Çarşi), boasting 5,000 shops, is one of the largest covered markets in the world..." [10 of the best markets in Istanbul].
We walked over from the Hagia Sophia. It was uphill part of the way and about a three quarter walk. Mrs. Jim bought a purse, Karen got herself a fez and a small dish, and KP now has a new wooden yoyo, the old fashioned kind.
The second link above said the Bazaar had 22 entrances but we had a hard time finding even one when it was time for us to go. Our next stop was MacDonald's for lunch.
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The carts are different ones selling different food items. I like to eat off the street but here we did only at the MacDonald's, not counting KP's ice cream earlier at from a little shop by the mosques.
Inside the bazaar there was no air conditioning and things were quite warm. A few of the elite shops did have their own cooling system of sorts. And there were a liberal number of water faucets to use for drinking or for filling water bottles. KP enjoyed washing her hot and sweaty face and drinking a bit from her hands. (She didn't come down with any dread disease.)
Four: After eating at MacDonald's, Karen and KP took the tram back to the ship. Mrs. Jim and I strolled back down to the mosque area. We both wanted to see the Basilica Cistern. We only saw the outside because they charged a pretty high fee to go inside. Plus the queue was quite long. [click on picture for larger size]
.
Five: We sailed out of Istanbul before dark. That meant that we got to see the east end of the Strait of Bosporus most all the way to the Black Sea before it got dark.
.
Doing that also meant we were able for the next to last time to observe Istanbul on both sides from the river (we had done this previously on our palace and river cruise combo excursion).
.
We had watched a lot of this part of the cruise from the upper forward club room. That one had a dance floor but no one was dancing at this early hour.
KP is dressed here in a costume she and the rest of the kids in the Kids Club had made earlier in the morning.
We enjoyed our morning outing on our own. Mrs. Jim and I stayed a bit longer to see the cistern and the outside of another palace.
When we came back the first tram we caught did not go all the way across the Bosporus River to where our ship was docked out in the Strait. So we had to ride back up to another stop where the correct tram also departed. Then there was no problem.
This ends my writing of our Istanbul/Constantinople two days. Also on this day I am posting about the Cats of Constantinople like I did the Dogs a couple of weeks ago.
Next will be telling of our day outing in Bulgaria. On our own, again no paid excursion there for us.
Fine print stuff:
My Five Things Today
One: We took off last weekend from blogging except for Sunday. I did post a couple of poems on my other blog though.I was teaching our class Sunday school lesson Sunday so I had been preparing for that. Plus Katrin (our toy poodle) has been on medications that make her vomit everything, food, drink, and pills, back up. I didn't even play golf Tuesday.
Then on Friday (by this time, I had Katrin off her meds) we left for Alexandria, La, for Mrs. Jim's family reunion.
Here are a couple of driving pictures and one of our breakfast at the LaQuinta Inn. The breakfast wasn't anything extra nice, but it was tasty and quite adequate. Especially since we would load up on food at the reunion.I am sorry but I don't have any reunion pictures there. It was at Harold Miles Park which sits on the side of a bayou. We met mostly inside a screened pavilion. The room adjoining was air conditioned.
Yesterday was the Christmas Bazaar at our church. The Ladies Fellowship Luncheon group sponsored and set it all up. It was well attended and merited a handsome profit. The money would go to a scholarship fund for our graduating youth.The two ladies on the right were greeting the attendees as they entered the church atrium. I caught the lady below carrying her "Eat at Joe's" sign the week before in church.
Below is a picture of our gym and large assembly room. These men (and I) were attending the Men's Power Lunch. We have one of these each first Monday of the month during the school year.
Our speaker this time was Lee Strobel, a former atheist who told of his reasoning for converting to be a Christian. He was at that time the Legal Editor of the Chicago Tribune. In 1981, after two years of exhaustive research he reported, "I realized it would take more faith to maintain my atheism than it would to become a Christian."
He is an attorney and writer, selling more than 10,000,000 of his books. At present he teaches apologetics as a professor at Houston Baptist University. You can read more of him at his Web site, www.leestrobel.com/ . Next month's guest will be singer and song writer, Larry Gatlin. I'll buy your lunch if you'll be my guest.
Two: Our second day in Istanbul we did everything on our own. The evening of the first day we had some local talent to perform for us. A singing and dancing group came to perform. They were followed by a local belly dancer. She was quite good. I had a belly dancer's daughter in my class at the college. They daughter also danced and taught our Business Club, Phi Beta Lambda, a routine to do to the tune of New York, New York. We then had a performing entry that year in the Mardi Gras in Galveston.
Below, left, is what we saw from our balcony in the evening. The blue light on the left is one of the two bridges spanning the Strait of Bosporus. The lights on the bridge put on a nice light show about every ten minutes. At the upper left side of the picture is a remote ship' bridge where the pilot stands to guide the ship up to the dock to anchor.
Three: In the morning we took the tram back to the mosque area and visited the Hagia Sophia. Pictures are above and left. This mosque "is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum... "From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935." Wikipedia, Hagia Sophia
Four: Our next stop would be the Grand Bazaar. "Constructed in 1461, the Grand Bazaar (Kapali Çarşi), boasting 5,000 shops, is one of the largest covered markets in the world..." [10 of the best markets in Istanbul].We walked over from the Hagia Sophia. It was uphill part of the way and about a three quarter walk. Mrs. Jim bought a purse, Karen got herself a fez and a small dish, and KP now has a new wooden yoyo, the old fashioned kind.
The second link above said the Bazaar had 22 entrances but we had a hard time finding even one when it was time for us to go. Our next stop was MacDonald's for lunch.
.
The carts are different ones selling different food items. I like to eat off the street but here we did only at the MacDonald's, not counting KP's ice cream earlier at from a little shop by the mosques.
Inside the bazaar there was no air conditioning and things were quite warm. A few of the elite shops did have their own cooling system of sorts. And there were a liberal number of water faucets to use for drinking or for filling water bottles. KP enjoyed washing her hot and sweaty face and drinking a bit from her hands. (She didn't come down with any dread disease.)Four: After eating at MacDonald's, Karen and KP took the tram back to the ship. Mrs. Jim and I strolled back down to the mosque area. We both wanted to see the Basilica Cistern. We only saw the outside because they charged a pretty high fee to go inside. Plus the queue was quite long. [click on picture for larger size]
.
Five: We sailed out of Istanbul before dark. That meant that we got to see the east end of the Strait of Bosporus most all the way to the Black Sea before it got dark..
Doing that also meant we were able for the next to last time to observe Istanbul on both sides from the river (we had done this previously on our palace and river cruise combo excursion).
.
We had watched a lot of this part of the cruise from the upper forward club room. That one had a dance floor but no one was dancing at this early hour.KP is dressed here in a costume she and the rest of the kids in the Kids Club had made earlier in the morning.
We enjoyed our morning outing on our own. Mrs. Jim and I stayed a bit longer to see the cistern and the outside of another palace.
When we came back the first tram we caught did not go all the way across the Bosporus River to where our ship was docked out in the Strait. So we had to ride back up to another stop where the correct tram also departed. Then there was no problem.
This ends my writing of our Istanbul/Constantinople two days. Also on this day I am posting about the Cats of Constantinople like I did the Dogs a couple of weeks ago.
Next will be telling of our day outing in Bulgaria. On our own, again no paid excursion there for us.
==> I am also linked up today with Nancy at A Rural Journal. She conducts her "A Random Five" blog hop there. Click that link to read other "A Random Five" posts or to join in with your own.
==> Click on any picture for a larger size and a better view.
==> Click on any picture for a larger size and a better view.
Labels: 2013-Venice-to-Athens-via-the-Black-Sea, A-Random-Five, Istanbul, KP, Travel
