Saturday Centus - Week 157

 

 

Welcome to week ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SEVEN of Saturday Centus.

The prompt this week:   "Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat" 

Number of words:  109 total (including the nine words of the prompt)

Style of writing: Any

Additional Pictures: Any

The regular restrictions apply: PG, no splitting of the prompt, play nicely and visit the other entries, any style or genre of writing you prefer.

Please display my link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.

E-mail me directly with ???'s or ask your question in a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Feel free to link up any time between now and next Saturday...

What a Wonderful Man

In memory of Bob.

 

A wonderful man.

 

The world will miss him.

 

And finally... I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles... The character of an honest man.

 

...

...

 

He possessed those traits.

 

And he was that man.

 

Rest in peace Bob.

 

A prayer for his family would be much appreciated.

 

My Dearest Love...

This ridiculous little letter is linked to week 156 of Saturday Centus.   The prompt (used annoying and often) is highlighted.   To read other offerings using this two word prompt, just click here.

Dear John.

 

I love you.

 

It’s as simple as that.

 

So often I long for you. I seek you out.

 

When I don’t see that special shine of yours, I feel bereft.

 

And hopeless.

 

Dear John.

 

You are a beacon to the longing inside me.

 

A comfortable embrace at the end of a long search.

 

A solid place to rest in times of need.

 

Dear John.

 

Even when you are unkempt and disheveled I am glad to see you.

 

There is no substitute for you, Dear John.

 

Especially at my age.

 

Finding a bush to pee behind can be so difficult…

 

Which is why I always prefer you…

 

Dear John.

 

 

Alphabe-Thursday Letter W

Good morning class.

Welcome to round six of Alphabe-Thursday! Today we will be studying the wonderful letter:



Please link directly to your Alphabe-Thursday URL (if you don't know how to do this let me know!) and please continue to visit the five links before and after your link and leave a comment. Minimum of 10 links visited please. You can visit more if you like, of course, and please try very hard to visit the blogs that visit you for this meme.

I also want to let you know that each week I visit every blog. If it appears I haven't visited your blog by the following Wednesday evening, please let me know!

If you have any difficulties with your link, please make sure to include the number of the link when you e-mail me. It is really difficult for me to find you easily otherwise.

If you have any questions about Alphabe-Thursday or problems doing your link just post it in a comment or send me an e-mail. I'll do my best to help you as quickly as I can.

The McLinkey will be live from 1:00 pm MST time Wednesday afternoon in an effort to assist our lovely "friends across the pond" and continue through 10:00 am MST time Friday morning!

And remember.... link back to this post, you need to be registered as a follower of my blog, PG posts only, and you must visit at least 10 other posts...perhaps consider starting from the last posts and work backwards. The links will stay live after the final post deadline has passed so you can even wait and visit over the weekend or whenever you have more time.

Please link your witty letter W post now!

Pursuing my stone-shaped daydreams...

In Ston-i-color...

 

Get it?

 

Technicolor!  Ston-i- ...  okay, nevermind.

 

I have integrated a training program into my preparations to make my falling-down stone building acquisition a possibility.

Remember I showed you the first falling-down stone building we found over the weekend in pictures here.?

I actually almost went inside this one but the sound of bees buzzing was quite strong by the doorway and I wasn't that brave.

Sigh.

 

Love.   Love.   LOVE.

 

So much LOVE that I'm just not idly daydreaming anymore.

 

NosirreeBob.

 

I'm preparing myself for the day when I can start dismantling these ruins

 

 (which ... ummm... the owners have not agreed to)

 

and moving them to my land

 

(which ... ummm... I have not yet purchased)

 

But I am preparing nevertheless in my own, quite humble way.

 

Yesterday I did arm exercises while holding a 16 ounce can of pumpkin in each hand.

 

 

Like bicep curls and those ones where you lift the weight ... ahemmm, I mean pumpkin can ... straight up from your side.

 

I had to use the canned pumpkin because I couldn't find my hand weights.

 

Which could be, technically, because I don't have any hand weights.

Which is probably because I've never actually trained for the actual moving of a falling-down stone building before.

 

But I figured canned pumpkin lifting was acceptable because many famous body builders do it.

 

Right?

 

...

 

...

 

Hey.

 

That was rude.

 

I heard your snort of disbelief.

 

It's true, though.

 

Did you see the picture?

 

It's not like I could have photo-shopped something like that.

 

mwahahahahahahhahahaha

...

 

But I digress.

 

The important thing, really, is that I'm through just dreaming.

 

And I'm ready to take the first step toward stone house moving preparation.

 

And as soon as my biceps feel better I'm going to do exercises with the canned pumpkin again.

 

Because I, my friends, am unwilling to let my stone-shaped daydreams continue to be only daydreams.

 

I.

 

Will.

 

Get.

 

A.

 

Stone.

 

House.

 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Seriously.

 

For now, though, I must run.

 

I think I remember seeing two 4 ounce cans of tomato paste in the pantry.

 

I think my sore biceps might be able to handle that!

 

 

Sigh.

Stoned-shaped daydreams...

When I dream about the future I often dream in stones.

 

Stone houses, that is.

 

I love stone houses...of any kind...

 

...from castles to humble little garden sheds.

 

And I always blather on and on about someday.

 

Someday when I own some land with a little stone house on it.

 

Blather.

 

Blather.

 

Blather.

 

And because of that simple little truth...

 

Mr. Jenny has been annoyed at me all day.

 

Mr. Jenny HATES loud noises.

 

He HATES screaming and shrieking.

 

I mean, seriously.

 

HATES.

 

(I know what you're thinking!   I wonder sometimes, too, why he is married to loud, shrieky me as well...grr...)

 

Not only does he sigh when I'm really loud...

 

he glares...

 

and then sighs some more...

 

and then glares some more.

 

I don't think it was, technically, my fault for screaming, though...

 

...when we were out exploring Arizona in April again today.

 

There we were.

 

Driving through a small mining town...

 

...when I saw it!

 

"OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODSTOPTHETRUCKRIGHTNOW!"

 

Okay.

 

I'll admit it.  

 

This was not really the first time I've done this.

 

But the other times I really, really, really needed to pee.

 

You know?

 

So those probably don't count.

 

But, yeah.

 

Not only did I scream 

 

"OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODSTOPTHETRUCKRIGHTNOW!"

 

 I was kinda/sorta leaning toward his side of the truck cab when I did it.

 

I truly couldn't help myself, though.

 

Because!

 

LOOK!

 

Look at what I saw!

 

I practically jumped out of the moving vehicle and kissed the decrepit, falling-down stone building.

 

Isn't it awesome?

 

And amazing?

 

And cool?

 

And I bet the owner would want to get rid of this...

 

And I'm pretty certain I could move this myself...

 

stone by stone by stone...

 

And I'm pretty certain I could reconstruct it myself...

 

stone by stone by stone...

 

Okay.

 

Technically I don't even have a place to move it, too.

 

And I probably couldn't do it all by myself.

 

But a girl can dream.

 

Right?

 

And a husband can dream that his wife will become less excitable by falling-down stone buildings.

 

Right?

 

As we explored more we found another falling-down stone building...

 

...but when I saw that one I only smacked Mr. Jenny in the arm and pointed.

 

And tomorrow I'll show you more pictures of my stone-shaped daydreams.

 

Anybody have a little piece of land I could put a bunch of stones on?

 

Sigh...

Saturday Centus - Week 156

 

 

Welcome to week ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX of Saturday Centus.

The prompt is week is going to be short and sweet.

It's just two words.   "DEAR JOHN,"

 

Use these two words to start a letter.

Use 100 ADDITIONAL words to say what you want to say to 'Dear John' in your letter.
 

Number of words:  102 total (including the two words of the prompt)

Style of writing: Letter format

Additional Pictures: Any

The regular restrictions apply: PG, no splitting of the prompt, play nicely and visit the other entries, any style or genre of writing you prefer.

Please display my link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.

E-mail me directly with ???'s or ask your question in a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Feel free to link up any time between now and next Saturday...

Unprofessional Professional?

This little story is linked to week 155 of Saturday Centus.   The prompt, used twice, is in bold.   To read other links using the same prompt, just click here.

“This will just pinch a little.”

I closed my eyes tightly.

“Now just take short shallow breaths.”

I took short shallow breaths…

 …and waited.

 …and waited.

I heard a tapping sound.

I closed my eyes even more tightly.

…and waited.

…and waited.

I opened one eye.

The doctor was on his cellphone.

Texting.

The doctor was texting and I was waiting for him to stick a giant needle in my body. 

“Would you like me to give you a few moments?” I asked, sarcastically.

“No, that’s okay, I’m finished now,” he replied.  He turned with the syringe in his hand and a smile on his face.    “This will just pinch a little.”

Painted Alphabet Letter V

Oh.

 

Man.

 

I am very, very ashamed.

 

I have a painted letter V...

 

...but I painted it before.

 

Ummm...

 

AND...

 

I had laid out a super cute sign with violets on it with a GREAT quote.

 

But I didn't get it done.

 

So...

 

I'll just share the violet quote and save actually painting it for another day.

 

 

The stars will bloom in the darkness...

And violets will bloom beneath the snow.

 

See?

 

It would have been a GREAT sign for the letter "V".

 

Perhaps I can verily  assuage your violent disgust in my laziness by sharing a picture of a very, very cute little baby.

 

This is our little Remington and although he is not wearing violet there are some violet colored squares in the 9 patch quilt he's laying on.

 

 

 

Signs are hand-painted and available in my Etsy shop...you can see the mini link at the top right of my blog or click on any picture for a link!  No stickers...no stencils...my designs.

 

Baby is not available at any cost!  This Grandlittle is mine...all mine...(MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

 

This post is linked to Alphabe-Thursday's Letter v.   To read other V offerings, just click here.

 

Me and Adele...

...we have a lot in common.

 

She is a multi-platinum singer...

 

...and...

 

ummm...

 

I can sing Twinkle, Twinkle little star.

 

BUT...

 

That's not the thing we have MOST in common.

 

The thing we have MOST in common is that we both like to set to fire to things that aren't supposed to be set on fire!

 

She...Setting Fire to the Rain (BTW!  I love that song even MORE than I love Twinkle, Twinkle!)

And I.

 

Well.

 

Ummmm.

 

I attempted to set fire to an orange today.

 

Not in an arsonist, citrus abuser sort of way.

 

But in a creative...

 

Oh heck.

 

Let me explain.

 

The setting an orange on fire happened because I made cabbage rolls this morning.

 

And you know how you can't make a small amount of cabbage rolls?

 

And so because I made cabbage rolls in ridiculously vast quantities, I took a pan over to my parents.

 

And while I was there my Dad was by his orange trees.

 

And I told my parents that I had seen somewhere that you could make a scented candle out of an orange half.

And they laughed at me.

 

And I, with typical middle child insecurities, insisted that we try it.

 

So.

 

We did.

 

It involved a lot of matches.

 

And a lot if disbelief on their parts.

 

Sigh...

 

...but finally the orange was on fire.

...and we sat around for awhile and watched it burn.

 

And I'm pretty sure I did the whole thing wrong because it never smelled wonderfully of citrus.

 

It only smelled a little bit like burnt orange frosting.

Which isn't a bad scent.

 

But it will probably never make me quite as famous as Adele.

 

And her song about Setting Fire to the Rain.

 

But still.

 

It gives me something in common with her.

 

And so I feel pretty cool.

 

And, of course...

 

I wanted to share that with you!

PS.   I actually researched the orange candle thing.   You're supposed to take all the pith and fruit out and just leave the little white stick-up thing in the center as a wick!   Geez.   Who knew?   I'm definitely going to try this again!

 

Alphabe-Thursday Letter V

Good morning class.

Welcome to round six of Alphabe-Thursday! Today we will be studying the very vivacious letter:


Please link directly to your Alphabe-Thursday URL (if you don't know how to do this let me know!) and please continue to visit the five links before and after your link and leave a comment. Minimum of 10 links visited please. You can visit more if you like, of course, and please try very hard to visit the blogs that visit you for this meme.

If you have any difficulties with your link, please make sure to include the number of the link when you e-mail me. It is really difficult for me to find you easily otherwise.

If you have any questions about Alphabe-Thursday or problems doing your link just post it in a comment or send me an e-mail. I'll do my best to help you as quickly as I can.

The McLinkey will be live from 1:00 pm MST time Wednesday afternoon in an effort to assist our lovely "friends across the pond" and continue through 10:00 am MST time Friday morning!

And remember.... link back to this post, you need to be registered as a follower of my blog, PG posts only, and you must visit at least 10 other posts...perhaps consider starting from the last posts and work backwards. The links will stay live after the final post deadline has passed so you can even wait and visit over the weekend or whenever you have more time.

Please link your vibrant letter now!

Step aside 'White Coat Anxiety'...

 

There's a new kid in town...

 

...wreaking even more havoc with my blood pressure than you do.

 

...

 

...

 

After closing my eyes at the scales as I do each time I visit my doctor...

 

(denial...you know...not just a river in Egypt anymore...)

 

I went into the exam room.

 

The scale torturer doctor's assistant person followed me in there.

 

I hopped up on the table and held out my arm for the blood pressure cuff.

 

"Not so fast," she said.   "I need you to stand up first."

 

I was puzzled, but I obeyed.

 

Of course I obeyed.

 

These people have NEEDLES!

 

The scale torturer doctor's assistant person rummaged in her pocket for a moment and then pulled out a...

 

Prepare yourself!

 

GASP!

 

Tape measure.

GASP!GASP!

 

A.

 

Tape.

 

Measure.

 

"I need to measure your waist," she informed me.

 

I stepped back.

She stepped forward with the.

Tape.

Measure.

 

And.

 

She measured my waist.

 

GASP!GASP!GASP!

She wrote down the measurement.

 

And then took out the blood pressure cuff.

 

I climbed up on the table.

 

"Your blood pressure seems a little high," she said after the humming and squishing stopped.

 

"Ya think?" I thought sarcastically.

 

Of course I didn't say it out loud.

 

These people have NEEDLES!

 

When I finally regained my ability to speak out loud, I asked, "What's with the waist measuring thing?"

 

"Oh, it's our new policy.  Our insurance carriers are demanding it."

 

Seriously.

 

I hope the insurance carriers are prepared for the increase in blood pressure medication as a result of this decision.

And I hope I don't have to go back to the doctor for a long time.

 

I don't know if my heart can stand that amount of stress.

 

GASP!GASP!

A.

Tape.

Measure.

Drawn to the dark side...

You know those people that go to visit places where terrible things have happened?

Yeah.

That's not me.

I don't want to feel any bad vibes or see anything icky or even let my imagination run wild when human nature becomes ugly.

So I was pretty surprised when I succumbed to the allure of the dark.

There we were.

Indulging in our new past-time of wasting gas and driving all over Godforsaken Arizona.

This habit started when we got our pick-up truck and now  involves one of us saying, "Well, I don't have much to do today...AND we do have a pick-up truck...AND we do have a full tank of gas!"

This statement results in both of us scurrying around...

Me grabbing water bottles and apples and granola bars. 

Mr. Jenny grabbing the camera.

AND...

Gentlemen start your engines!

We are off!

Spring in Arizona is glorious. 

Desert plants are in bloom.  

Sunsets are magnificent. 

The dust billowing up behind us smells clean and fresh. 

Okay.  I made up that part about the dust smelling fresh...but you get the idea.

On this particular trip we had just meandered around on backroads looking for...well...stuff.

Anything of interest.

Cool trees.

Dead trees.

Big trees.

Cool rocks.

Big rocks.

Ummm...

You get the idea!

It was getting dark and we decided it was time to start heading home when it happened.

We saw it.

A small hand-painted sign that had "Satanic Worship Church".  The arrow pointed down an even dustier road than we had been on.

We passed the sign.

We looked at each other.

Mr. Jenny stopped and backed up.

And off we went in search of a "Satanic Worship Church", totally unsure what we would do if we found it.

There was not much on the road.

A few abandoned buildings...

and lots and lots and lots of brown long-neck beer bottles sparkling in the almost sunset.

We drove a little further.

We kept looking at each other.

My heart was pounding a little bit...thump  thump    thump ....

And then we saw a building on a slight rise in the distance.

As we got closer we could see it was in total disrepair.

I gulped.

Thump, thump, thumpity, thump went my heart.

And put my hand on Mr. Jenny's arm.

"Maybe this isn't a good idea," I said.

Mr. Jenny just kept driving.

As we got even closer we could see a sign by the road but we couldn't read it.

We could see a church bell in silhouette.

"A church bell?" I questioned.  "Do Satanic churches have church bells?"

THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP!!!!

Mr. Jenny just drove slowly forward.

We stopped in front of the sign.

And then we both started laughing.

In fading letters on a sun-beaten background was painted "Stotonic Church".

STOTONIC...

Not Satanic.

We drove around the building amazed that the church bell was still there.

We got out to take some pictures.

The battery on the camera was dead.

I didn't have my cell phone.

So we poked around a bit and then drove home arriving well after dark.

We were still chuckling over mis-reading the sign.

I looked for pictures on Google and Bing to show you what this funky, falling down place looks like but there were none.

And while I was googling...

I briefly considered searching for 'Satanic churches in rural Arizona'...

and then I resisted the idea.

Because I really didn't want to know...

...and even if I found any I wouldn't want to go.

Yeah...

Being drawn to the dark side ONCE is enough for me.

thumpthumpthumpthumpthump

Painted Alphabet Letter U

I have five U's to share with you this week.

Technically, two are T's but since they were Unfinished last week they are going to magically morph into U's - ha! Hope you understand that logic!

Let's get the UN finished T's out of the way first.

16 x 15

 

This is one of my favorite Psalms.

15 x 16

 

And now for the U's.

 

This one makes me smile!

 

12 x 12

 

7 1/2 x 15

 

And this last one is one of the philosophies I try to embrace in my life. 

 

8 1/2 x 24 

 

Signs are hand-painted and available in my Etsy shop...you can see the mini link at the top right of my blog or click on any picture for a link!  No stickers...no stencils...my designs.

 

This post is linked to Alphabe-Thursday's Letter U.   To read other U offerings, just click here.