Anonymous Comments

Lately, I've been getting a lot of anonymous comments on old blog posts. The comments end up in a spam folder.  Usually, the comments have nothing to do with the post in question. I suspect these comments are either phishing or bots, and I delete them.

Earlier this week, Anonymous asked for some advice on starting a blog. So Anonymous, this is for you. Last year, I wrote a post with some tips for blogging. You can read the blog post here.

In addition, let me add this. To be honest, anonymous makes you look like an Internet troll. I have received anonymous comments, but the author also includes his or her name. I treat anonymous the same way I treat phone calls where I don't recognize the name or number on Caller ID. I don't answer those calls. If it's important, the caller will leave a voicemail. If you want me to answer you, even if you are commenting as anonymous, leave a comment that has to do with the topic and leave your name. Let me know there's a real person behind the comment and not a phishing scam or a bot.

If you are sincere about starting your own blog, you can't be anonymous. Does anyone else have any other tips to help Anonymous?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1.Himself's iPhone 4 battery wasn't able to hold a charge. Took him to the phone store and upgraded him to an iPhone 7. The salesman wasn't able to port the contacts over.  I spent some time chatting with Verizon customer service on Facebook and they had me download Verizon Cloud to the old phone and backup to their cloud. then when that was done, install the app on the new phone and voila contacts would be on the new phone! Didn't work

2. When Himself got home from karate I played with his phone. Poked some buttons and was able to download his contacts from iCloud. Was insufferably pleased that I haven't lost my touch on Help Desk. (BC: before children and calligraphy took over, I was a computer programmer. A very long time ago.)

3. With temps nearing 90, it felt more like Summer than Fall. No complaints from me.Spent the afternoon in the sunroom doing some Reggie homework.

4.  Calligraphy supplies I needed for Reggie's class, arrived very quickly. Thanks, John Neal, Bookseller.

5. On her day off, the Eldest invited me out to lunch.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

By this time, I began to pay attention to a young lady who seemed interested. Her name was Mary Riccio.

She invited me to her 21st. birthday. We knew one another.

When I was at the East Boston Center,  would tell her to stick around and walk her home. And during the Summer stop for an ice cream cone. And walk along chatting. Nothing serious, but it would eventually become so.

I told Doris that I was going out with a girl, gave her name and also told her that Mary had attended a Valentine's Party at the Arnold house in East Boston.  She could not place her.

As my 21st birthday was approaching, Doris suggested that I should bring her over on what would be my 21st. birthday on a Sunday evening. She invited Mary through me.

I did bring her and we had dinner. There was a little to do. Bobby Arnold said something about his mother baking a cake and he got shut down and was told to go to bed. And he went off saying he hated Mary.
a little after that company began coming into the house. The secretary and other girls and young men who worked at the Club. And at that point, I found out that it was my birthday being celebrated. It was a nice evening and quite late. Mary and I left as I would have Monday off.

Of course, this Mary would become your mother in the future.

Mary and I got closer and serious. Things would change. Pearl Harbor would change a lot of plans.

Wordless Wednesday

T Stands for Cake and Tea

Oh, to have the skill to make cakes like these. And I have the tea cup pattern she used to mold her fondant teacup. It's a Royal Albert china teacup from the Regal series. I have two of the cups in black and dark red which is packed away. My Godmother told me a collection of tea cups needs to have at least one black cup to complete a collection.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Welcome Autumn

Sunday, late afternoon. Welcome Autumn! If only this temperature would be the average for Fall and Winter days to come. I'd be one happy camper.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The bunnies haven't been making frequent appearances during the day. Cinnamon braved the misty drizzle to come out for a snack.

The mourning doves are ground feeders. This guy decided he was going to be King of the Birdfeeder.

The King was joined by a Queen. Or vice versa.

By the time Hurricane Jose moved up the coast and reached us, it had diminished to a tropical storm. Most of the effects of high surf, downpours, and heavy winds were felt along the coast. I live a good 50 miles inland. We enjoyed a spectacular sunset.

Winter is coming. This is the time of year, Timex spends portions of his day jammed inside the birdfeeders. He stuffs so many seeds inside his cheeks that his head is bigger than his body. It's a wonder he doesn't get stuck inside the feeder hopper.

The mums Himself bought to replace the Morticia Petunias.

The red maple tree is the first tree to turn color and drop its leaves.

Himself also brought home these planters filled with mum and tall grass. Because the mum planter is top heavy, the wind kept blowing them over.  We used the Morticia petunia planter to brace the mums.

The petunias are making a comeback.

Most of the rain we had was a misty drizzle and not much of that, either.

We did get some gusty winds. Most of the garden kites have flown away.

All that was left of the garden kite I did in memory of Ink, were the kite tails. They will make good nesting material for the birds.

How does your garden grow?

Body, Mind, and Soul Planner

Happy mail arrived again this week from Nan. Besides her beautiful brush calligraphy, she included the new stamp that commemorated the eclipse. This stamp is so cool, and I'm thrilled to have one. Why get all excited over a stamp? Well this stamp goes through a transformation.  It goes from depicting a total eclipse to

a full moon when heat from your hand is applied. An interactive stamp. How cool is that?

Inside another Mind, Body, Soul planner. Nan and I had a chat about the planner and what worked and what didn't. I didn't get much done in last week's planner. I had good intentions, but we know where good intentions lead. I found I can't really plan things several days in advance. Either something comes up and I can't complete planned tasks. Nan had some good suggestions for better time management tasks. Thanks, Anne, I found our chat very productive.

She also included a note explaining she kept the Body, Mind, Soul blocks empty for me to pick my own quote to go with each. So my quote for this week: I'm dancing as fast as I can.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Had our annual lunch at Legal Seafood with my cousin.

2. Met the new neighbors two doors up the street. They are a very nice, young couple.

3. Won some stickers from Magic Love Crow . Looking forward to fun mail.

4. I've been looking for cinnamon chips forever. On the way home from the train station, I stopped at Goretti's (small grocery store). For chuckles, I browsed the baking aisle. Goretti's had 4 bags of cinnamon chips left on the shelf. Greedy guts, I bought all 4 bags. Score!

5. Himself brought mums home for the front yard. Guess he didn't like my Morticia Petunias (i.e. dead flowers)

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

About a month after this incident, Betty showed up at the Boys Club as I was closing up. I heard the cellar door rattle and I went to check and there she was when I opened the door. She explained what had happened and we began again. Only this time it was not in the open. We had to meet at different places and she was helped by her friends. And on one occasion it was a ride in a car. Another at their home.

Of course I told the Arnolds what had happened. And she came over to Brigham Rd. and we had a nice time. Doris left us alone in the parlor and then I walked her close to her home just beyond the car barn and left her as she continued to walk home.

This continued until some time in the Winter. Betty worked for New England Telephone and Telegram. She was an operator and would call me on duty which was a no-no.

It must have been in Feb. heavy with snow on the ground she called me. Normally she came to the Club. And I waited for her but she did not show. I got stood up. Although I later figured out that her parents had either caught on with what was going on and put a stop to this or her parents picked her up. I did not hear from her again.

I continued with my part-time courses for credit and also had some of the girls interested in me at least I would catch them signaling to one another.

Had I been a full-time student. I might have returned the attention. But being part-time did not make me one of the class or student body I would attend and go to my next class if there was one or if only one course leave. While the rest of the class went to the next class or off to prior plans.

Wordless Wednesday

T Stands for Mystic

A couple of weeks ago, Red and I hit the road for a favorite outing. When our girlies were little, we used to take them along. Now, the trip to Mystic is our annual getaway. We missed the trip the past couple of years because Red had moved to New Mexico. With moving back to Massachusettes, and work schedules, this was the first time we could go.

It was raining and we drove through a downpour.

We know we're close when we pass Foxwoods Casino. I've never been to the casino, though on a return trip home, Red got turned around by the GPS and we ended up driving through tribal lands.

The weather cleared as we got to our destination. 

Olde Mystick Village is a tourist destination. It's a collection of shops from gardening to Wiccan. Some of the shops carry expensive jewelry, clothing, knick-knacks. Red was thinking of getting a new sweatshirt, but $50 was too much. If you're looking for an unusual gift this is the place where you might find the gift for someone who has everything.

Cardinal and bird figurines in the garden shop.

The ducks were busy rooting for goodies in the grass.

This fellow had a beautiful blue stripe on his wing.

I wasn't able to take lots of pictures inside the shops. I got some frowny looks from the proprietors. I think they thought I was casing their joint. The bath and body shop advertised a good place to take a selfie. We did, but not sure Red would want me to upload our photo on the Internet.

We pass Franklin's General Store a few times as we meander along. It's usually the last stop we make to purchase fudge. They have delicious fudge in lots of varieties. They also hand out fudge samples. So we stopped in for an appetizer before heading to lunch.

We usually stop to grab a bite to eat at a sandwich shop called the Ten Clams, but Ten Clams moved out. We ended up at Mango's Wood-Fired Pizza Co.

I had a meatball sub (grinder/hero/hoagie), a Coke, and we shared a bag of rosemary and olive oil potato chips.

The duck pond was busy.

The cooking store we always visit opened up a second shop that sold table linens, china, and other items for entertaining. I loved the blue and white tablecloth and the Willow ware teapots and teabag holders.

The Scandinavian shop is another favorite of ours. They have some beautiful and hysterially funny greeting cards.

Red bought this tee-shirt to salute her Viking roots. I thought I had taken a picture of the front which was a horde of Vikings.

Holly bushes reminding us Winter is Coming.

Gorgeous and unusual items in this jewelry and gift shop. Out of my price range.

After a fun day out time to head home. This time driving by the casino on the highway and not through the tribal lands.

My purchases. Jars of flavored honey. The honey shop had 3 dozen varieties and allowed tasting. I tasted every single one. So hard to decide, but I selected lavender, cinnamon, and coconut. Got the same for my cousin, except instead of coconut, I got her blackberry. The gift box came with a wooden, honey wand.  At the cook shop, I picked up new, blue turning spatulas. At the linens and entertaining shop, I got the Blue Willow, tea bag holders. I also found adorable, kitty wine glass markers with an Ink kitty in the package. At Franklin's I bought a block ( 1/2 lb.) of Snickers fudge (caramel and peanuts) and a block of Mystic Fudge (dark and light chocolate marbled together). For Himself, a jug of real maple syrup.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Body, Mind, and Soul Planner

While Skyping with Nan she told me about an idea for a planner that combined items to feed body, mind, and soul. She asked me for some suggestions so she could create a personalized chart. Suggestions were for small steps that over time would become habits. I wasn't sure what she meant but sent her some items for the lists.

A few days after our Skype session, this fun envelope arrived in the mail. It was the only piece of mail for the day, and it was for me. And it wasn't a bill! 😸

Inside was this happy chart. I love the lettering and the mermaid. I really like the sentiment. Progress, not perfection. This saying fits with Wabi Sabi, the philosophy I try to keep in mind. Wabi Sabi: nothing is permanent, nothing is perfect, nothing is complete. Thanks, Nan for letting me play along with you. I hope I can keep up.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Winter is coming. Timex wedges himself inside the birdfeeder to stuff himself with seeds.

Yellow leaves fall like rain.

Hydrangeas fade

The weeds are still blooming.

Goldenrod and Heath asters form the sideline of the meadow.

This fellow was attracted to the goldenrod

The twin trees out back are in distress.

Looks like we'll have to call the tree removal service.

Winter may be coming, but Summer is trying to hang on. The morning glories never bloomed but this sunny fellow made an appearance.

How does your garden grow?