I've Been Wanting .....

A couple months ago I had the desire for a chicken pot pie for lunch.  My go-to pot pie is Marie Callender's.  But I decided it was too much for lunch, not to mention that it cost more than I would want to spend for a simple lunch.

Banquet pot pies are sub-par.  So they were out.

But I remembered that I used to take Swanson pot pies to work and heat them in the microwave.  They worked well for a lunch meal.  In fact, I remember one specific day when I removed the pot pie from the microwave, and for reasons I no longer recall, I dropped it and it landed top side down on the floor.  I was sooo disappointed because I was really looking forward to this pot pie.  The smell of it already had me salivating.  All was not lost -- I just flipped it back over onto a plate and ate it for lunch.

But I digress.

I looked in four grocery stores for Swanson pot pies and could not find them.  In fact, I did not see any Swanson frozen products.  (I used to like the Swanson fish and chips meals, too.)  I looked in County Market, Schnucks, Meijer, and Walmart.  I was certain I would find Swanson pot pies in one of these stores.  But I came away disappointed each time.

Today I was at ValuCheck.  I casually looked at the pot pies.  Just as I figured: no Swanson pot pies.  I had not looked here previously because ValuCheck is County Market's budget store, and I figured if it was not at County Market, it would not be at ValuCheck.

Boy, was I wrong!  On the very last shelf (bottom) of the vertical freezer case, I found a couple stacks of Swanson Chicken Pot Pies.  I purchased two and left the store feeling victorious.

Two Things I Like About Winter

1.  The weather is not hot and humid.

2.  Tap water is really, really cold.

Fireworks

Did you have smiley faces in your fireworks last night?

I did!

Courtesy of “A Capitol Fourth” on PBS last night.

I also watched “Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular.”  (I think I liked the previous title better: “Pops Goes the Fourth.”)

I recorded both programs and watched them this morning.  It made it really handy to fast-forward through the parts that I wasn’t really interested in.  That was mostly performances by current musicians.  I’d listen to a few seconds, and if it didn’t appeal to me, zip to the next.

I have not seen the Boston Pops in quite a while.  They no longer have a program on PBS.  I used to watch the Pops 4th of July program on A&E channel.  But when it went to network TV, it lost its “hometown” feel.  Seemed like they had to make sure to keep it within time constraints in order to get all the commercials in.  I found the show this year on BTV.  Wha’?  Yeah, I’d never heard of it either.  Bloomberg Television, whatever that is.

Keith Lockhart is no longer the boyish youngster he looked in 1995 when he became conductor of the Pops.  Guess that is to be expected.  I missed seeing some of the familiar faces in the orchestra.  There was a trumpet dude whom I’d recognize.  And the older lady who played the piccolo in “The Stars and Stripes Forever” is gone.  I missed her.

One thing that I really like is when these outdoors performances use real cannons during the “1812 Overture.”  I wish they would show how the military personnel are directed to shoot the cannons at the appropriate time.  My guess is there is a musician holding a score and indicating the proper time to shoot them off.

Just in Time for Memorial Day

Our backyard

 
Peonies always remind me of Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as our Grandmother Benefiel called it. We were sometimes out of school before May 30 -- this holiday was always on the 30th before "Monday holidays" existed -- and we would be at her house. Grammie and our great-Aunt Mary cut peonies from their bushes to take to their relatives' graves. They took jars (mayonnaise or pickle jars or the like), and they dug little holes in the ground in front of the gravestones and put the jars in the holes. They'd place the cut peonies and some water in the jars.

Their brother, Roy Matthews, died in France in 1918. They decorated the grave of my great-uncle, Cecil Benefiel, who enlisted in the Army during WWII when in his 40's. They also decorated the graves of their parents and another brother.

During the Victorian era, human qualities were applied to flowers, and peonies were associated with bashfulness and compassion. Additionally, peonies are said to symbolize a happy life and a happy marriage.  (Source: The Old Farmer's Almanac.)

April Snow

"April is the cruellest month....."    -- T.S. Eliot

Mother Nature's April Fool's Day Joke

Easter Sunday fell on April 1 this year, and just like an April Fool's Day joke, it snowed!

Flowers in the back yard

April 3's News-Gazette reported that we received 4 1/2 inches of snow which made this the snowiest Easter Sunday ever.  The previous record was 2 inches on April 4, 1920.

Furthermore, this also set a record for snowfall on April 1.  The previous record had been 4.3 inches in 1962.

April 2  -  Early morning

I suspect some people attending Easter Sunday mass at St. Matthew's may have thought they were living an April Fool's Day prank.  The first Sunday morning mass is at 8 a.m.  But for the past few years, Easter Sunday's mass start time has been 7:30 a.m. in order to reduce the parking lot congestion between the 8:00 and 9:30 masses.  Those people who seldom attend church were probably surprised when they arrived to a full parking lot and the mass already begun.

Out-of-Sync

November 2

Two weeks ago my Fitbit would not sync to my phone.  To be clear, the Fitbit was working ... it simply would not transfer the data to my account.  This went on for a couple days so I emailed Fitbit Support.  I followed their suggested fixes.  We communicated back and forth a couple times, but the Fitbit still would not sync.  They finally threw in the towel and mailed me a new replacement Fitbit Zip.

The new Fitbit arrived, but I could not get it to sync.  According to the information on my phone, it appeared to be a bluetooth issue between the two devices.  I took the equipment to the cellphone store and explained the dilemma.  The guy checked and said bluetooth was operating o.k.  So he reinstalled something, and presto-chango, I was back in Fitbit business.  So happy to have it syncing like it should after two weeks of not working.

lost data
Oct. 27 - Nov. 2

Sadly I lost the data from those two down weeks.  And, it included an 11-thousand step day!  That's huge for me -- I seldom make it to 10-thousand steps in one day.  And I'm also bummed because the two weeks of missing data means my next award will take longer to achieve.  The last award I received was the Italy Badge for walking the length of Italy, north to south (or vice versa).

earned Sept. 28, 2017