Patsy, Rick's Adm Assistant, had a surprise retirement party for her husband Jerry last night. Someone made him this candy bar card. It's quite cute and innovative. I have made a few of them myself years ago. Fun to do.
Jerry is 65 and tried retiring 10 years ago, decided he was too bored, so became a GM for a Rudy's. Now Patsy is giving it up in Feb; Rick will have to find a new Adm Assistant, but she is so great it will be hard to replace her.
After Rick and I moved here, one evening a group of 30 or so bicyclists came zipping around Grand Oaks Loop altogether and at a great rate of speed. It looked so fun. When they do the loop, including the entrance on Twin Creeks Blvd, it is a 3-mile ride. They do it 3 times and then move on to the rest of their route. We see them about once a month; bicycling is really big here (all outdoor activities are, this city is quite fitness conscious).
Tonight Rick and I were out walking Zoya (Chris and Alyona were working at their house) when they came rushing by. I hurried home and got my phone camera, just in time for the next go round.
Chris gives Zoya a little bit of whatever food he is eating: a small corner of cheese, the crust of pizza, a potato chip, small bit of hot dog. Well, we all give her too much table/human food and Alyona commented that Zoya is getting fat for her age. She still looks trim and musclely, but just a little beefier than she should be.
We were outside yesterday morning and Chris gave her a bit of his pizza crust. She wasn't hungry and didn't want to eat but wanted to save it for later. She went to the side of the house with the rocks and started digging a hole. I didn't know what she was doing and told her to stop digging (she loves to dig in the yard); Chris said she is trying to hide that pizza crust for later. So then she walked all around whimpering, trying to find a spot to hide it. Finally, Chris told her to just eat it and she did.
I have found small hunks of bread, cheese behind the cushions of the couch. Today I was vacuuming and found a potato chip hidden in the corner by the bookcase. When she doesn't want to eat something but can't find a good hiding spot, she walks around with it in her mouth, whimpering.
Chris asked me if I left it for her, she likes to find the food and eat it later. I said, no, I ate it.
Several months ago Jason was in Cincinnati and ate at Taste of Belgium, and had the most fantastic waffles ever. He bought some to take home, but they were expensive (4 smallish waffles for $12). He raved and raved to me about them, saying the next time I was in Indy we needed to take a trip to Cincinnati just to eat these authentic waffles.
Last night as I was watching TV Triple D did a show on Taste of Belgium. Indeed, the waffles looked delish, I so binged a recipe that used yeast and Belgian Pearl Sugar, as used at the restaurant. I found a recipe (on a fun new website to browse); this morning I got up and ordered Belgian Pearl sugar. It will arrive on Fri, so Fri night we eat real Belgium waffles for dinner.
Further research turned up a place in Salt Lake City that makes great, authentic Belgian waffles. Bruges Waffles, with 4 locations: downtown, Sugar House, Draper and Provo. Guess where I'm eating at least once over Christmas?
After Zoya and I finished the morning walk and were home, she wanted to go outside in the backyard so I let her out. Next thing she is scratching at the door, I open it and she is standing there looking at me with her puppy dog eyes with the Chewbacca toy at her feet; I told her I was busy and couldn't play and shut the door. More scratching, wash and repeat.
Finally, when she realized I wasn't going to play, she came in. I went into my bedroom to make the bed and put away towels, generally do a clean-up. She wanted in the bedroom, but I told her it wasn't a dawg room. So she lay on the carpet in the doorway. When I was busy in the bathroom, she sneaked under the chair, hoping I wouldn't see her.
Reminds me of the time Claire had gotten in trouble with Scott for something, ran into his bedroom to hide under the bed. The only problem, her tail was sticking out. Hide: epic fail!
So, basically, outside of a few metropolitan areas gun murders in the US aren't among the highest in the world. Only in those cities, and probably only in certain select areas in those cities. The rest of the US is a safe place, not a bullet riddled cesspool.
But I don't have any problem with background checks, waiting periods, etc., before a citizen can buy a gun. Just not sure the criminals/murderers will comply with the law.
Example #1, quoted
"We can't put this off any longer," President Obama implored the nation last week as he introduced 23 executive actions designed to reduce gun violence in America. While the United States has the highest level of gun ownership per capita in the world, its rate of gun homicides, about three per 100,000 people, is far lower than that of Honduras, the country with the world's highest gun homicide rate (roughly 68 gun murders per 100,000 people). But America's homicide rate varies significantly by city and metro area, as I pointed out here at Cities a few weeks ago.
The map below compares the rate of gun murders in American cities to nations around the world. Building upon Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data used in that post, Zara Matheson of the Martin Prosperity Institute compiled additional data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other sources collated by The Guardian. (While international crime data suffer from significant reporting and comparison issues, homicide data is more reliable. As the Urban Institute's John Roman points out, it is the one type of crime that is "hard to fake" and also most likely to be reported.)"
"The pattern is staggering. A number of U.S. cities have gun homicide rates in line with the most deadly nations in the world.
If it were a country, New Orleans (with a rate 62.1 gun murders per 100,000 people) would rank second in the world.
Detroit's gun homicide rate (35.9) is just a bit less than El Salvador (39.9).
Baltimore's rate (29.7) is not too far off that of Guatemala (34.8).
Gun murder in Newark (25.4) and Miami (23.7) is comparable to Colombia (27.1).
Washington D.C. (19) has a higher rate of gun homicide than Brazil (18.1).
Atlanta's rate (17.2) is about the same as South Africa (17).
Cleveland (17.4) has a higher rate than the Dominican Republic (16.3).
Gun murder in Buffalo (16.5) is similar to Panama (16.2).
Houston's rate (12.9) is slightly higher than Ecuador's (12.7).
Gun homicide in Chicago (11.6) is similar to Guyana (11.5).
Phoenix's rate (10.6) is slightly higher than Mexico (10).
Los Angeles (9.2) is comparable to the Philippines (8.9).
Boston rate (6.2) is higher than Nicaragua (5.9).
New York, where gun murders have declined to just four per 100,000, is still higher than Argentina (3).
Even the cities with the lowest homicide rates by American standards, like San Jose and Austin, compare to Albania and Cambodia respectively.
Yes, it's true we are comparing American cities to nations. But most of these countries here have relatively small populations, in many cases comparable to large U.S. metros.
The sad reality is that many American cities have rates of gun homicides comparable to the some of the most violent nations in the world."
Example #2, quoted "What Is shown below is a daily occurrence in The Portland Area. 99% of these are GANG related. Not one gun law will have any affect on any of them. What would have an effect is abolishment and control of the Gangs.... But they seem to serve a purpose and that is fear in the public which makes them inclined to vote for tax levies for Law enforcement and jails, instead of actually cracking down hard on the gangs, they do things that essentially have zero effect on controlling and stopping any of it. Instead they prop up their gun crime statistics and use that against the 2nd Amendment and the citizens as well. This accounts for most of the false gun stats that the anti's use for the state. Seriously there are 1 to 2 and sometimes more shootings a night in Portland/Gresham areas every day of the year. And they are predominantly gangs doing the shooting. The stats the anti gun crowd use are deliberately misleading and deceptive."
The birds have two places on our patio they like to do their dodo. I had read to place rubber snakes around and that scares the birds away. I bought 3 snakes (this was in June or July) but Zoya got one of them and put it on the back step. The only person that got scared was Alyona when she walked out. The birds still do their business on my patio.
It's my job to take Zoya for a walk every weekday morning. This morning after we got back she started running around the house like a crazy woman, so I went outside with her and threw her fav orange ball. She had great fun running and fetching the ball, altho she likes you to fight to take it away from her when she returns the ball to the thrower.
Finally I got tired of throwing the ball and went back into the house. Soon she was scratching at the door, I opened it and she had placed the ball on the step and was standing there looking at me, asking are we done? I'm not.
I went back out and threw the ball a few more times, but one of the times it went into the pool. She ran to the pool, the ball went in, and she turned to look at me. The expression on her face was so funny, like Now what? I'm not going in after it, you need to get it. So I got the ball out.
I came back in the house and she came in also, but got one of her toys and brought it to me, and kept trying to give it to me. I said I'm busy, I can't play now. She threw the beaver up on the table where I was working on the computer!! It was probably an accident, but the beaver did end up on the table in front of me. I had to laugh.
About 8 months after my tinnitus began I read a book recommended by my VT and is probably one of the best resources out for tinnitus. The author wrote (he had tinnitus himself so severe he contemplated suicide) don't join any support groups where all you do is sit around and talk about how miserable life is with tinnitus. I took that to mean don't talk about it.
Well, I do. But I really do try not to tell everyone about my woes.
And this is my latest: Two weeks ago my ears started ringing unusually loud, plus my left ear, the bad one for all sounds, started throbbing to my heartbeat. I could hear and feel it, and it drove me crazy. I started to get worried because the sound wasn't going down like it usually does but stayed extremely loud and the ear throbbing continued and didn't quit. I thought, this will be difficult to live with.
My ringing has now gone down, not to as low as it was, but down, and the throbbing in my ear comes and goes.
I do hate to complain (Rick and all my kids would disagree!!) because Rick has tinnitus and other people have things much worse.
But I need something to blog. So you get to read my complaint. Lucky you.
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