Good Sunday morning, only it's afternoon now.  Dot and I did our usual, church, then sharing a piece of lemon meringue pie and a tuna melt.  We don't often have pie but sometimes do and it often is a cream pie.  Dot knows lemon pie is my favorite, so that's what we had today.  We usually have burgers but had the tuna melt instead.  When Norm would go with us, instead of eggs and toast, I usually got the tuna melt and I feel the branch of Mr Burger makes the best I've tasted. 

I think it will remain chilly today, however, the sun shining makes it a nice day.

Tom drove for Uber last night until about 1:30 and said people were still celebrating St Patrick's Day with much drinking.  Someone said they had been at one Irish place from 10 am and it was midnight when Tom had him as a passenger.  What a waste!

Mary Ann

Mary Ann, I must agree...... tis a waste.

Mary Ann - That guy sounds like one serious drinker . . . 10:00 AM to midnight!   He probably wasn't even Irish.  (Not that that's an excuse.)

I wish I knew where to get a good tuna melt?  I've always liked them better than a burger, but seems that the restaurants that used to serve them, no longer do.  Denny's used to make a good one, but they aren't on the menu here.

Our sons birthday is tomorrow, March 20, so we'll be taking them out for dinner some night this week.  Right now, I have to get organized, and do some birthday shopping.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute!   

   

Good morning, its cool but sunny here and Farrah is daydreaming on her window to the world, (i.e. the chair set in front of the balcony doors ). You can tell, even with the snow, of Spring's arrival. The larger flocks of song and forest birds have broken out of their multi-species winter flocks into smaller ones of their own species, ravens are chasing groups of young males out and reestablishing couples only territories while the boars, (male bears); are making their first forays out into the world from winter dens, as reported by the news. So the rest will follow in its own time.

I looked yesterday and today for more of the Bald Eagle but it must have been just a stopover as I haven't seen it since.

I have nothing further planned for today other than to set in motion plans for later on in the week, so I hope you all have a good day!

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2017/03/eagles_return_to_nest.html#incart_river_index

The eagles are near Beulah MI which is in the upper lower peninsula if you care to look at a map.  The first (still) picture is a couple years old and is in Ottawa County, which is just west of Kent County, where I live.  It confused me, but then I clicked on the pictures lower down and they are the ones featured in the story.  I watched as a parent flew to the nest and moved gradually to the nest with two eggs in it. 

We've had a very nice day today and our temperature is near 50 degrees.  I haven't done much but I've been occupied doing something all afternoon, even napping.

Tom returned from the store so we have food again and I have cookies to snack on.  Tom doesn't go to the store regularly and we run out.  We're OK for a couple of days as far as meat is concerned.  Tom goes to lunches with friends and that is when I fend for myself. 

I have the golf channel on, but it's muted.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann, I googled Uber, and found it very interesting. Is it Nation wide, I wonder ? Has Tom ever had any bad experiences with those that celebrating too much ? I pray not. He is probably big enough in size to keep the trouble-makers behaving.

June, Uber has some built-in safety things for drivers and I think Grand Rapids is tamer than some larger cities where I've read there has been trouble.  Passengers pay in advance with their credit card, therefore, the drivers don't have to carry any money, unless they want to carry some of their own.  The driver only knows he will pick up someone at a certain location but he doesn't learn the destination until he picks up the passenger.  The passenger is told the general description of the vehicle that will pick them up.  Tom has been lucky with his riders even if they were drunk.  What really disgusts him is the number of young women he picks up  who are already drunk and heading for another bar.  Usually his passengers have not been in a bar all day, so that may have been a St Patrick's Day thing.  Tom is big/heavy but I don't think he would be a match for any big passenger.  I think because the passenger has already paid for the ride keeps many of them on the "straight and narrow".

Mary Ann

Mary Ann,  I tried to contact Uber to get a ride a while back, and there was nobody in my area that provided their services.   One of my doctors had suggested I try them, as there are times when I have a terrible time getting a ride to doctor's appointments.  I am not really sure that I would feel safe using them, tho. 

Joy

Joy, I'm sorry Uber wasn't working in your area.  I know if you got Tom, you would not have to worry.  I have read about some Uber problems, only it wasn't with the drivers but passengers.  The taxi drivers were upset when Uber started here, but I haven't heard of any problems.  I don't see why they wouldn't be as safe as taxi drivers - and the Uber drivers don't carry money so there shouldn't be any attempted robberies.

We live in a township just outside the city limits so if there are drivers, there is service.  When Tom first started, one of his first fares took him to Detroit, 150 miles from here.  Of course, he had to drive back home alone for no money.  They get paid for the actual trip and if they're lucky the company has another trip for them when they finish a run. 

Mary Ann

Hi everyone.  The day has started out beautifully.  I slept in this morning until after 8 am, something I very seldom do.  I was so tired when I got home from Church yesterday that I put my sub in the refrigerator and had it later in the afternoon after resting for two hours plus.  Walmart did have our order ready for pickup yesterday.  I did watch some really good basketball games and now see that South Carolina beat Duke so will go on in the Tourney.  They played too late to stay up and watch them in the win.  Today I plan on attending my noon meeting and then at 4 pm Pat has an MRI if she can stand to lay on the table long enough.  Tonight is our monthly men's meeting at Church but I have decided to not attend.  We will likely eat out tonight after the MRI.

Yesterday my groceries were put in the car by the assistant manager.  He very carefully checked the bags and realized the sour cream was missing and thought some almond milk was also missing.  He went to get these items and I discovered the almond milk was in the bags so knocked on the door and was able to save him from having to find that item. 

Joan, is the desert producing any wildflowers with alll the rain?  Of course, I know you can't go out and look for them but your son may have commented.

Mary Ann, I think lemon pie is close to the top of my favorite list.  In fact I had a slice of Mrs. Edwards lemon pie last evening.  We are getting the one or two slice packages of pies and that is working out better than having a whole pie.  Since they are frozen there is no rush to eat them, although they don't last long and Pat isn't having any so that means I have to eat them all by myself.  (Poor me!)  I didn't watch golf yesterday as was too occupied with the basketball games. I looked at the outcome this morning and it looks like it was a pretty exciting and close match.

Marilyne, birthday celebrations are a great time for family togetherness.  I haven't had a tuna melt in a long, long time. 

Patricia, when I went to the mailbox this morning I saw the mother bird was sitting on her 3-story next.  She didn't move as I walked right by her.  It sounds like spring is coming your way.

Larry, no comment from son but I will be going out on Wed, for a hair cut so will try to remember to look.  Will let you know.

Last week on probably the Weather Channel, there was a segment about the desert where all of the rain had caused the desert to break out in blossoms.  It was beautiful and the Ranger said that in two or three days it all would be gone.  There were all sorts of flowers.

Larry, I used to get the individual Edwards pies and I liked them.  I think all I bought was the lemon pie but it got where I couldn't get the individual pies and like you, I didn't need the whole thing.  I had forgotten about them long ago.  I think I would have trouble reaching them, too, because they were on the top shelf.  Tom gets some pies, but they're nothing like home made pies, these come in cherry, apple, lemon and chocolate.  I like cherry and apple but not the others. 

Tom and I went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch today.  I ate some of it but brought most of it home.  I had had breakfast only a short time before.  The place was clean but not fancy and the food was good and ample.  The luncheon special was $4.75 and you can't beat that.  I told Tom it is a place I probably would not choose to go but if someone was going there, I would gladly go too.  I'm not a big Chinese fan, but I can eat it.

We are enjoying sunny 50 degree weather.  I left the cat out on the deck for 10 minutes and he got along fine but he was ready to come in when I opened the slider.

Mary Ann

Good morning again from the not so newsworthy Interior. I have seen countless photos that others took of the visiting Bald eagle on the electrical pole. It is evidently hanging about in the area and on the other side of the building, but I haven't seen it since.

I was angered this morning to learn that a man who lives here has taken it upon himself to throw items out from the donation table that he feels are not worthy. Generally, they are women's items but who appointed him as caretaker? Folks say it is useless to talk to him that he was one of the first to move in. But that doesn't make him staff!

I donate regularly and if it isn't in good condition I toss it. It makes me wonder how much of mine he tossed when I was believing someone could use it?

Mary Ann - I'm also not a big fan of Chinese food, but I will eat it.  We have a very large Chinese population here, so there are countless restaurants of all styles of food from different regions of China. Some are very fancy, but most are the standard American style Chinese food.   I much prefer Vietnamese food. Lots of those restaurants here also, since we have the largest population of Vietnamese people, outside of Vietnam. 

Not many places around here to buy pies.  My favorite is also lemon meringue, but I haven't had a really good one in many years.  Of course I could make one, but I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.  

Today is our son's birthday, and we were hoping to take him and dil out for dinner tonight . . . but they already have plans, so it will be some other night this week.

Angel, we used to have a donation table downstairs but one person took advantage of it and  Mgmt. deleted  it  entirely.

Marilyne, we only have some Han Chinese here who have a restaurant. We have several Thai which seems to be the majority here along with Hmong and Korean. There are a few Vietnamese restaurant,/groceries, but I really like the Korean bowl meals or just a noodle bowl.

Joan, our table is just a small circular one but there can be some nice items. Today I was donating two sets of white plastic measuring spoons, one set of white plastic measuring cups, and a set of white measure marked scoops. I also picked up a small black, lined blazer with gathered sleeves which I knew better, but still..Another woman came in to donate some purses which I wisely restrained myself from looking through. The point is that this man has no right to police the donation table and throw out things. That just ticks me off.

Do you mean the person donated too much or was selling it elsewhere? We have a man who occasionally grabs everything, even feminine items and gossip says he's selling on eBay. To me, at least that way someone will get to use it!

Angel, the person who caused us to lose our table had put some old used flower pots with dirt still around them and in them and they were not cleaned up at all.  So Mgmt just deleted the table.

I'm sorry, that is just rude to not at least clean them! We have a volunteer on each floor that maintains the plants in the public areas. And in the summer, we have flowers and garden plots available. I mention this because last summer, folks would hose out the old pots and leave them in a stack for others to use. I had a number of stoneware and glazed pots, and a book on herb gardening that I asked the guy on the fifth floor, about wanting them. But first I washed them out. That's only mannerly.

We have a mated pair of ravens, obviously healthy as they are quite large. They have taken over perching on the electrical pole and every time I see one soar with spread wings, I look to see if it is the eagle again. Some Native women here said that each year at the summer POW WOW's ending festivities, they release an eagle from the Sanctuary's rehabilitation site. They said that sometimes the eagles stick around and may be starting an Interior population.

Patricia - I keep meaning to tell you that I like your text/font, much better now than I did when you were using the smaller font size with the bold face.  For some reason, it was very hard for me to read.  I don't ever post in Soda Shoppe, but I do like to read the messages there.  It's impossible for me to focus on, and read Amy's tiny messages, so I have no idea what she has to say?  Also Shirley's and Denver's posts are way too small for me to read comfortably, but not as small as Amy's.

Hi everyone.  I am fine but am running late and I want to go and see if I can find a new easy chair.  If I wait I won't have the energy later today.  I will be back.

We had a horrible thing happen yesterday.  The son of a friend of Tom's shot and killed his mother (Tom's friend), then shot himself and died at the hospital.  The friend's husband was at work.  I don't know much of the details and so far no motif has been found and, who knows, with both of them dead, the reason may never come out.  I knew her slightly as she and Tom had been schoolmates since first grade.  Even Dot remembered having met her.  She was 59 and the son 34.  He was her son from a previous marriage and I don't know whether her now husband was really the stepfather or just the mother's husband.  Tom said he didn't sleep well last night, as I can imagine. 

In other developments, Terry has been sick in California, where he flew to meet his new grandson.  Terry is not well anyway, so this hasn't helped.  I don't know if the plane trip brought this on or not.  He is in he hospital, getting better and may go to son Geoff's home or where he and Jan have been staying, in a couple of days.

Life gets complicated, doesn't it!

Today is starting out to be a beautiful day.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann - That is so terrible and sad.  How shocked Tom must be, and everyone who knows this family.  It seem like we see a story like that on the news, so much more often than we did in years past. Life seems to be so complicated and hopeless for so many young people in today's world.  I will be keeping this family in my thoughts and prayers today.

Marilyne, the story of my font became so convoluted that I just went back to the defaults on posting. I had complained that it seemed quite small to me and more like a 4 or 5pt rather than the 14pt. I was attempting. I brought this up, and both Jeannie Lee and Janie said that they had no idea of what I was talking about as it showed large and bold to them. If I was in Opera, it displayed correctly at 14pts. And bold, but not in Firefox. Firefox showed this. Not wanting to use a separate browser for only one forum, I returned to default.

That is appalling about Tom's friend. Since 2005, multiple murder via firearms rates has crept upward. And from the last year, it has been at least three a day in this country. There is a site, similar to the doom's day clock that keeps a record.

This was a nice morning to get out to shop and this afternoon it is going to get into the 80's again.  My shopping trip was successful and after sitting in probably 20 different recliners I found the one that fit my neck just right.  A week from tomorrow it will be delivered.  It is leather and has the motorized recline feature rather than the lever.  We are giving the chair I am replacing to our granddaughter's boyfriend who just purchased a home and has little furniture.  Our granddaughter is coming out this evening to fix dinner for us and it is much appreciated. 

Pat was able to tolerate the MRI yesterday afternoon but said she know has a good idea of what a sausage feels like being in that MRI tube with no room left over.  We did eat out afterwards and went to Pizza Hut and got a visit a few minutes with our son as they were not very busy.  Looking forward to a restful rest of the day.

Mary Ann, with two of you to eat the pie it would go more quickly.  Right now Pat isn't eating pie, other than the small pizza pie last evening for dinner.  The lemon comes in two individually boxed pieces in another box so I can eat one and the other stay frozen. 

Patricia, it sounds like the man discarding items from your donation table needs to find something else to do. 

Marilyne, I have eaten a lot of American Chinese food, usually chicken fixed 30 different ways.  I don't think I have ever eaten Vietnamese food and only two or three times had Thai food.  Nice thing about adult birthdays is that we can celebrate on days around the day rather than on the day if schedules dictate.  A hint that may help you with small print.  Hold down the Control key and scroll up or down with the mouse wheel and it will change the size of the print you see on your screen. 

Mary Ann, what a dreadful thing to happen.  It is sad enough when someone commits suicide but why do they feel they must kill someone else.  What a disaster for the family.  Sorry to hear that Terry didn't tolerate the trip well and is in the hospital.  He is missing out on all that holding time of the new grandchild. 

Joan, it sounds like your management threw the baby out with the bathwater with regard to your donation table. 

Thanks for your comments on the murder-suicide.  Tom wrote a beautiful tribute to her, probably to put his thoughts on paper.  I don't know who, if anyone, he will share it with, maybe only me. 

Regarding the print/font, I have a difficult time reading the "default" because it is not bold.  The size is OK, but it isn't sharp enough.  I manage, so no one has to change, but long ago I posted how I appreciated the bold fonts.  I had responses that it was too much to bother with, so I have, and will continue to, put up with the lighter font.  Please, don't anyone change for me!  I did not mind the italics you had, Patricia, because they showed up bold on my screen.  I wonder if a lot of the difference is on our own computers, not the sending computers. 

Maryilyne, you mentioned how small Amy's print/font was - I don't find it small and that is why I wonder if it is our own computers that determine what we see.  I have a bad time reading news because it is so faint.  I will say much of my own troubles are MY own eyes.  I admit I have old eyes.  And one is worse than the other - and never the twain shall meet!

Larry, I have always appreciated your dark, larger than mine, font.

Mary Ann

Larry, yes.  Even tho the woman who caused that loss is long gone I doubt we will ever see that table back.

Mornin all.  Candy called me from Pal m Springs last night.  She is in the process of taking Lady to her sisters in Santa Cruz.  Long Story but boils down to ARK. does not recognize service animals even tho  they are Federally sponsored & funded .  So she is taking Lady  to her sister.  She has been unable to get an apt. due to having a dog.  Sad and I have shed a lot of tears over this.  Tis really a shame.

Mary Ann & Patricia - After reading your messages on font size, etc., I am convinced that I am seeing the sizes differently from the rest of you - which is probably because I have an iMac.  I think I'm one of the very few in S&F with a Mac computer? Amy's font is almost microscopic when I go to Soda Shoppe, whether I'm on my computer of my husband's.  Shirley's text changes quite often, so I think she must play around with font and color?  Denver's is small and square looking, but I can read it if I squint! 

Mary Ann - your font looks exactly the same size as mine, except for the blue color, which I like!  The posts from everyone else in this discussion, as well as in all the Leisure Activities discussions are easy for me to read, because they are the same size as mine.  So I would guess that most members use the default setting, as do I.  As soon as someone changes to a unique and different sized font, my Mac evidently doesn't like it! LOL    

And I see all the posts exactly the same, no italics or different fonts, just bold or not.  With Firefox.
I too like to see posts in bold like I do mine.   It is just a habit to take and after a while becomes quite automatic.

Okay, mine used to be the same as Larry's 14pt. and bold. I then added the italics to that. It showed up fine in Opera browser but teeny tiny in firefox. I was told it was all in my head so I simply went back to default. I had originally changed because of a discussion about font sizes and font colors being hard to read.

Marilyn, I too have an iMac and it always showed Patricia's font as bold and very tiny, I would have to put on my glasses to read it. Now for some reason it is standard size and easily read. My iMac is now 10 years old, so whatever it gives me, I accept. My being 92 years old gives me very little help is solving problems.