Sweepstakes Winner Date from Hell

(This week's Fun Monday is all about place--descriptions by words or photos that define where we live. Our host is Pamela over at The Dust will Wait . Thankfully, she's given us many options for this post. We can describe the geography, a man made monstrosity, a unique culture, a famous person from our place--or--find something new to excite our readers. Of course, we're not surprised that our host, she of the lite dusting, would give an out for those of us who've written entirely too much about home and place lately. So, I'll take Pamela's last option with my tale of the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes winner date from hell. You may not be excited unless you've entered the PC sweepstakes in the past, but you may find some amusement in my story!)
Around the end of the year I started noticing the commercials on TV urging us to enter the annual Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. You know, the one where the Prize Patrol van arrives at some one's house totally unexpectedly (it's the truth, I swear) with balloons, excited neighbor onlookers, and a huge check for 10 million dollars to surprise a lucky winner of grand prize that they won just by mailing in an entry form--no magazine subscription purchase required. When I see the commercial I think two things. One, there was a time when I was so financially strapped that I prayed to win the sweepstakes and entered it every year. Two, how many people actually believe that the sweepstakes is for real? Well, I don't enter anymore, but I do know someone who actually won a PCS prize, S the Accountant, my sweepstakes winner date from hell.

In the late 1970s I had just returned to the U.S. from three years of heady, exciting living and working in the West Indies. As do a lot of young people, after a spell of adventuring I wanted to come home. Home was a small college town in the Appalachian foothills where I had gone to school. I was hired by the university to run their adult education learning center. Every day I got to help adults learn to read, study for their GED high school equivalency diploma, or learn to speak English as a second language (this for foreign students or their families who were studying at the university). The work was great, the dating scene not so much.

If you're familiar with small college towns, you know that it's slim pickins' in the dating department. Most of the eligible--and desirable--men are already taken, usually by your good friends! So in the late '70s I was half-heartedly dating S, the chief accountant for the university. S was not particularly handsome (okay, I know that's shallow, but I was young!), rather boring but reliable and respected on campus. We were floundering along with the occasional dinner and movie date. Then S went big time!

He called me all excited--for S--with the news that he had just been notified by Publisher's Clearinghouse that he had won a $27,000 promptness prize in that year's sweepstakes! Now I wasn't surprised that he won the promptness prize--he was, after all, an accountant. But, in addition to the prize money, he was invited to fly to New York City, along with the other winners from across the U.S., for a whirlwind publicity tour of the city. He would stay at The Plaza Hotel on 5Th Avenue, travel by limousine, dine at the greatest restaurants, see a Broadway play, tour the Publisher's Clearinghouse out on Long Island and meet the CEO and employees responsible for the sweepstakes. Professional photographers would follow the winners for the whole tour.

And, he could bring a guest--me! Would I go with him IF I could be assured of having my own room? I can just imagine S making clear to the tour organizer that his guest would need her own room!! I said "Yes" because it sounded like a great adventure and I knew that S needed reinforcements. He had never flown before. I remember him clutching my hand when we lifted off at the Lexington Airport. He was very smart, but totally lacking in social skills. My job was to be his buffer and help him enjoy the trip. On reflection, I deserved more than my own room at The Plaza--I should have had combat pay!

I could tell so many stories about S the Accountant taking Manhattan, but will be selective. The best stories centered on S's wardrobe, especially a short butterscotch (you couldn't even call it a caramel) colored corduroy coat with a faux fur collar that he bought at the local Maloney's Department Store (where you could also buy furniture or a shovel). When S showed up in that coat at my house I knew that my lovely red wool coat that went so well with my shiny black hair cut al la Dorothy Hamil didn't stand a chance!

S and I got checked in the fabulous Plaza and went our separate ways to get settled in. First time I'd stayed in a place ritzy enough to have mints on the pillow and my bed turned down. Back to S's coat, though. Our first activity was to meet the other prize members in the Palm Court of the Plaza and head out to dinner. I got downstairs first and was enjoying meeting the other people. The 10M grand prize winner was a nice young couple who owned a dime/variety store in Florida. So, we're chatting along when MY date walks in the Palm Court with his tie in hand! The man does not know how to tie his tie! Believe me, his guest (me!) would have loved to help him in the privacy of his room. Instead, a couple of the guys in our party took him to the side and tied his tie. He then puts on his fine butterscotch coat. We get into our private limo for the drive to dinner--at Windows on the World Restaurant on the top of the World Trade Center. (How sad to remember that beautiful place which is no more after 9/11--it had just opened in 1976.)

When we arrive at the restaurant, the limo driver suggested that S leave his coat in the limo since we would take the same limo back to the hotel. He balked, saying that he'd just bought that coat and didn't want to lose it! Reluctantly he did take it off, but not before writing down the limo license plate number and chauffeur's name. Can you imagine the all-points bulletin that would have gone out to New York's Finest if that coat had gone missing! The next night we dined at The Four Seasons without a coat incident. This time it was a cutlery intervention that was required. Even with all the stress of helping S tread the social waters, I still remember the glittery dining room and my first taste of French chocolate mousse.

After that first day I learned to anticipate S's potential social blunders and the rest of the group accepted him for what he was--a good, smart, unsophisticated man who hadn't seen much of the world. It was great to be able to see and experience some of the best of New York in such great style. The highlight of the trip was actually touring the Publisher's Clearinghouse and meeting the employees, including the those who actually drew the winning entries--including our Florida friends--for that year's sweepstakes. So, in these hard economic times, you may want to think about entering the Publisher's Clearinghouse sweepstakes, but think twice before agreeing to accompany a winner to New York!

Now be sure to check out what makes the places other Fun Monday participants live special. That's where I'm headed before the day is out.

P.S. Please excuse the overuse of parentheses today. I don't know why I needed so many. . .

Iced In!

(Tales of human survival, strength, and resiliance in the face of great conflict and challenge have been high on my reading and film lists over the past couple of months. The characters and events have been as varied as World War I trench warfare and temporary truce among German, French and Scottish soldiers; Englishmen/women sent to an Australian penal colony; Iranian -American journalist working for Time Magazine in Tehran; Jewish partisans who took on the Germans in the Belarus Woods in World War II, Dresden bomb survivors in WW II; Austrian student activists who opposed the Nazis; the Polish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, escaped the Warsaw ghetto and hid starving in one room for two years from the Germans; and, last, a young Muslim woman who fought the Serbs in the 1992 siege of Sarajevo.

Our host for this week's Fun Monday is Bookworm Extraordinaire Angela over at the The Lurchers . Angela wants to know what we're reading now. Are we enjoying it? Why? Why not? Well, like any Fun Monday blogger who has a story she wants to tell, I think I can make my tale of survival fit Angela's topic. See what you think.)

Earlier last week I finished Lipstick Jihad about a young Iranian-American journalist's account of her struggles to live in both the U.S. and the Middle East. Check out my Shelfari listing if you want to know more about this book. After finishing Lipstick, I immediately began reading the novel, Pretty Birds, by Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition. Simon has covered ten wars, from El Salvador to Iraq. Pretty Birds, his first novel, is the story of Irena Zaric, a Muslim teenager who was the victim of ethnic cleansing waged by the Serbs during
the seige of Sarajevo in the early 1990s. Irena was a teenager at top of her game: pretty; star basketball player for her high school girl's team; reader of pop culture magazines; admirer of Madonna and the Clash; good friend; wearer of Air Jordans; and owner of a pet gray parrot, Pretty Bird, whom she taught to make the sounds of Sarajevo from the whirring of a washing machine to the staccato punches of mortar fire.

The good life vanishes when Irena and her parents are driven from their apartment, brutalized by Serbian thugs, and forced to cross the river which divides the city of Sarajevo to live on the Bosnian side. Daily life is a string of horrible realities in order to survive in a war zone--moving about their apartment in a crouch so they won't be shot through the windows by snipers, carrying water and dodging bullits, stealing from the dead to buy food, eating boiled grass, being isolated from friends. Eventually Irena is recruited and trained to be a sniper for the Bosnian side because of her reputation as an athlete. "Pretty birds", as the girl snipers were called , were highly prized soldiers--they freed the boys and men for the front lines; they were small, swift, and hard to detect as they moved around the hills of the city or through bombed out buildings. They were like birds in flight, here and then gone.

Luckily this was a page turner from the beginning. I needed something to take my mind off my own struggles here in Louisville. I needed a reminder that people manage in a crisis--dare I say, even learn from their misery? I've tried to keep all these survivors in mind since last Tuesday, January 27, when Kentucky was hit by the worst ice storm in recent history. All of Kentucky was paralyzed by the rain-sleet-ice-snow-ice that hit us without let up. In Jefferson County alone over 174,000 homes were still without power on Saturday. Here's a photo account of how we survived the storm on Summit Court:

Tuesday, January 26--the power went of around 10:00 p.m. Outside I could hear first the rain, then sleet coming down. The house immediately starts getting cold. The temperature drops and in the early morning hours I'm awakened to the terrifying cracks and crashes of falling tree limbs from all over the neighborhood. I go from window to window trying to see what's going on. I see big limbs down in the yard, perhaps on my neighbor's car. I hope it's not the entire tree. At 5:a.m. the power comes back on for about an hour so we can get the initial news reports. More tree branches crack and crash and the house is dark again.

Wednesday, January 27--this was the view out my front door at daybreak:

My neighbors and I stood in my front yard and watched this tree break in half over the street that leads into the Summit Court cul-de-sac, tearing down more power lines as it crashed. We are stuck. None of the houses have power.


So, we're officially without power, only communication is by cell phone (even worse for a blogger and e-mailer, no internets!). My sister lives in a senior citizen's apartment nearby. She thankfully is just fine. My neighbors start packing up and leaving to stay with friends, relatives, and in hotel rooms. Willie and I decide to stay. I drag out the storm box which contains candles, matches, batteries, flashlights and a can of sterno. I rig up this "stove" by the back door so I can kick it outside quickly in case it catches on fire. We can have hot coffee--which makes me happy--while the snow starts to come down seriously and add to the ice weight already on the trees
I decide to keep a storm journal of what happens and how we deal with each crisis. Notice the "we". As the week went on Willie was my only company, except for two cell phone calls each day to save the charge. Willie, two phone calls and the newspaper. Thankfully the Courier Journal was delivered every day. My only contact with the outside world. It was troubling to read about how people were suffering, including seven deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Thursday, January 28--the power is still off. The house is seriously cold. More snow is falling and the temperature dips to 12 degrees Thursday night. I make coffee and heat soup on the sterno stove. Willie and I stay wrapped up in everything we own. I read Pretty Birds with a booklight and Willie is by turns bored and sleepy. This is his bored look.

Friday, January 29--the power is still off. The house is frigid. The temperature hit 11 degrees before daybreak. It's getting lonely. I keep writing, recording the ice storm of January '09 for posterity. Up in the day, Willie suggests that we walk out in the neighborhood and see what the storm has done. I don my snow/ice cleats and we head out, camera in hand. Here's what we saw:

The happiest sight was at least a dozen power trucks just a few streets over from Summit Court. Adjoining states sent in crews to help restore power to the over 205, 000 dark and cold homes in Louisville. I wanted to hug them! As late as 11 p.m. I could see and hear them working on lines the next street over.

Saturday, January 31--up in the morning the boys of Georgia Power pulled their trucks in the cul-de-sac. Good things began to happen! New wires were strung and at 4:10 p.m. we had power. Hurray for the Georgia Power Boys!

It still looked like this on Saturday afternoon, but we had survived without leaving home--no harm done. And, I also finished reading Pretty Birds today. Highly recommend.

Now Angela's final question was what one book would you take with you if stranded on a desert island? That's easy. I'd take a big blank journal so I could write my own story. Although, it wouldn't be about surviving an ice storm, do you suppose? Now be sure to check out everyone else's Fun Monday reading list.

Weighty Truce

(Where are we in the weight loss wars? That's the question from Grace over at Mama Rehema's , our host for this week's Fun Monday. In the first month of a new year and after the excesses of more eating and less exercising of the recent holiday season, Graces wants to know about the diets and fitness plans we've tried, or are working on right now. Well, truth be told, we tend to approach the whole fitness regimen--eating right, exercising, destressing, maintaining balance--as an all out war. Many of us win a few skirmishes, but lose the war. But, perhaps I should only speak for myself. And that is, after nearly 60 years of weight wars, I've called a truce.)

Recently I've been preserving old family photos by scanning them into chronological computer files. One file is of my own school pictures from ages four to eighteen. How interesting to study these snapshots of time and place and note changes in appearance and hints to an emerging personality. There's the sweet , almost baby faces with those shy eyes, of the younger years. The years of unfortunate hairstyles and sometimes bad fashion choices--the rhinestone necklace in the fourth grade, the bad haircuts and perms, and that one year when I decided to be a redhead. One thing was consistent though, I have always struggled with my weight. Looking at the faces in these pictures, I see that there were years when I lost the struggle, and years when I won. For example, in this photo I was seven years old and already beginning to be a round little girl.

Growing up in the country in the 40s and 50s it was okay to be a fat kid. In fact, a fat baby was considered a pretty baby. Women who had some "meat" on their bones were desirable. That meant their husbands would not be saddled with a sickly woman who wouldn't be able to put in the long days of farm work and still bear the number of children that a farmer needed for his on-demand labor force. My mother, Bonnie, was such a woman--physically big and the dominant force in our family. Notice how she's holding me in this photo taken in 1946. Looks like I'm already trying to make a break and not getting too far!

That included any attempts at dieting. When I started trying to lose weight to be more like my school friends, Bonnie told me I'd eat what she prepared, lots of cheap, home-raised country food. In her opinion I was just fine. This attitude was such a contrast to experiences I heard about from my friends or read in books. Some children suffer for years trying to live in a home where every bit of food they ate was monitored by a parent, usually a mother, who didn't want the shame of having a fat kid. If you've dealt with this yourself, I'd recommend these two books: Thin is the New Happy by Valerie Frankel and, even more compelling, Passing for Thin--Losing Half My Weight and Finding My Self by Frances Kuffel. Frankel is a former magazine editor and Kuffel a literary agent. They know how to tell a memorable affecting story. If you have been fighting the weight wars--often with family, friends and colleagues as adversaries--then these two women's stories from childhood to adulthood may show you a way out.

But enough about the past. By now you're probably asking yourself, "So where's Faye's weighty truce?" Here it is:

1. At 63 years old, I'm never going to lose the amount of weight that I need to, so I'm going to be content with losing 20 pounds ver-rr-y gradually.

2. Be happy that I'm strong, healthy and active--concentrate on keeping my numbers in the good range (BP, CHO, etc.). Continue to challenge my body through exercise like pilates (still going for an honest to goodness roll up without help) and distance walking.

3. Eat real food, including cake if I want to, not that diet or drive through junk. Work on the portion size.

4. Keep happy and in tune with my body and spirit by daily attention to what I'm doing to ensure that I continue to live a strong, healthy, and fulfilling life.

My ace in the hole for maintaining this truce is this book which I've used on and off for the past year. Those of you who are writers are probably familiar with Julia Cameron. She's written many books on artistic creativity and the writing process: The Artist's Way, Walking in the World, The Right to Write, The Sound of Paper. And now there's The Writing Diet, Write Yourself Right-Size. The premise is simple really:when you feel the urge to take up the spoon and fork, grab a pen instead. Write to figure out why you need/want to eat and is there something else you should do instead? Start each day with what Cameron calls Morning Pages, three pages of stream of consciousness writing where you become more in tune with your own needs and desires, or as she says,"instead of eating, find out,through writing, what's eating you so you can make peace with it." The plan works for me. Last, year, during the three toughest months of my life I followed the morning pages practice and kept a food, exercise and spirit journal every day and lost weight and maintained my sanity. When I go on oblivious pilot and don't follow the plan, I gain back the weight. I'm back to using my pen as a weapon because "the pen is mightier than the fork"!

Now Monday is almost over so be sure to head over to Grace's place for other Fun Monday accounts of the diet wars.

January 20, 2009

For the first time ever I've had a chance to spend the day taking in all the great and small moments of a Presidential Inauguration Day. Here's just a few of the memories I'll hang on to from this great day:

1. ABC's full coverage of the day--it was not intrusive or ego driven as some of the cable networks where the commentators forgot that the day was not about them.

2. Michelle Obama presenting Laura Bush with a gift of a pen and journal for writing her memoirs when the Obamas "dropped" by the White House for coffee after church. Very classy gesture.

3. Secretary of Education designee Arne Duncan--I know nothing about him, but something tells me he's a good "school man" who will make sure that teachers will have the support and resources to finally make sure that No Child is Left Behind.

4. George H.W.Bush and Bill Clinton greeting each other with great affection before the inauguration ceremony--what a true odd couple. Love H's Dr. Zhivago hat--almost as good as Aretha's!

5. Faces across the world watching the day's events, especially the children in the Indonesian elementary school which Obama attended many years ago.

6. Malia and Sasha coming out on the stage all smiling and confident in their pretty outfits to watch their dad being sworn in. Malia had her camera handy throughout.

7. Aretha's tender, soulful singing of "My Country 'tis of Thee." And what a hat!

8. The Obamas walking the parade route--tall, strong and confident. They make a great team. And later their first dance was so casual and they both looked so modern and with it. Fortunately however, Fred let Ginger lead. . .

9. Obama's serious, almost stern, face as he waited in the wings to be announced and come on stage. He looked like a man who knows he has a job to do--rah, rah time is over. Our country needs a leader who is determined to help us dig out of our economic and morale tailspin. Hopefully he will be our "Sully."

10. The inaugural speech. I loved the way he spoke to not only Americans, but the world. He laid out how we would work with other countries who desire peace, but not tolerate threats to the safety of U.S. citizens. I loved his charge to all of us, both in and out of government, to stop behaving like children and get to work to right our course.

Well, I hope you have many great memories of today as well. Were they much different from mine? And let's all wish Obama a good night's rest and strong pot of coffee in the morning so the work can begin.

Where We Live

(How could we resist posting this particular Fun Monday? On the second anniversary of Fun Monday blogging, Julie, our host over at Another Chance Ranch , gives us a chance to learn a bit more about how other Fun Monday bloggers live, or at least see where they live. She asks us to share a photo of the interior part of our home that we took from the front door.)


Last week if you read my post on quirky things we treasure and saw my hinged coffee table/desk, you got a preview of the view into my living room. I also mentioned that there's not much "stuff" in my home. In fact, it would be a stretch to say that it's even decorated. However, I love well-designed simple rooms that reflect the tastes and personality of the people who live in them. Just this past weekend I noticed the elegant but shabby Warsaw apartment in the WW II movie, The Pianist, with its books, musical instruments, furniture and textiles. I would enjoy living in a place like that.

So, having admitted that I could do a lot better in the home decorating department, I'll still take you on a little tour of my digs and point out some of my favorite stuff:

Here's Willie lying on the sofa--he's welcome to snooze here, if he stays on his end. Next, if you look closely on the end table, there's a favorite brown mug that I got in New Zealand with Maori symbols on the side. On the floor you see my grey "lap buddy" with its handy writing surface and bean bag bottom. Indispensable tool for serious readers and notetakers, and laptop users. Beside the leather chair is a fancy Varilux reading lamp that I purchased about a year ago. Warning: don't waste your money on one, not that great. The library table is a favorite piece of furniture that holds several months worth of magazines to be studied, clipped and sorted. I also stack books that are in the reading queue. The higher the stacks, the better. Over the table is my favorite painting by Jeanne Filler Scott, "The Veteran". Scott spotted this old stray hanging around the fishing boats in Nova Scotia. She said he'd obviously had a hard life with his chewed up ears and battle scars, but he kept on. The underneath shelf of the library table holds photo albums and travel notes from my trips to other countries. Speaking of other countries, notice the world globe on top of the bookcase. It's always handy because I never know when I'll need to check out exactly where trouble is breaking in the world--not the best reason to learn your geography.

In front of the library table is my command center or work station for the living room. This hinged coffee-table is another antique/junk store find.
You can see that it's well used. For how, just scroll down to last Monday's post. Finally, to end the tour you'll notice that there's no curtains at my windows. I like window treatments and actually purchased that striped fabric to "dress" the windows over two years ago. Now that I've actually taken the fabric out of storage, I may be inspired enough to sew some curtains for the living room windows. My neighbors may appreciate that although Willie would have a harder time spotting the mail carrier. . .

Now get out your magnifying glasses and check out where other Fun Monday participants live. It will help explain why you enjoy reading their blogs, I suspect.

Quirky or Just Functional?

(A coffee table is what I'll be sharing with you this week for Fun Monday. Our host, Jan over at The Prytz family , asks us to share a photo and description of the quirkiest thing in our home that we would never give away. Truth is, my table isn't exactly quirky. In fact, after a little googling this afternoon I find that it's not even that original, which surprised me. I do, however, like this table a lot because it's so functional.)

A few years ago I was re-doing my house in preparation for retirement. This work was long overdue because I'm not overly interested in stuff. I keep very few mementos. My living room furniture had weathered over 20 years of dogs sleeping on the sofa and teething on chair legs. I got some fine new leather furniture and was looking for coffee table. I wanted a TABLE--one that would hold all manner of books and magazines, and that would be sturdy enough to prop my feet on to watch TV and read.

One Saturday a couple of friends and I were searching through Annie's Attic, a little antique and secondhand furniture/junk store when I spotted this table:

I liked the warm wood, it's good solid lines and the spare rope trim. The salesperson saw that I was interested so she said, "The top lifts up if you just grasp the corners." I did and voila! The top raised up on some sturdy hinges to reveal a couple of cubbyholes. It was the perfect height to pull up to the sofa for a work or dining surface.

When I got my bargain home, think I paid about $250 for it, I forgot about using it for a coffee table. The table now sits off to the side in the living room and is my command center. I eat here, especially if it's something like soup that doesn't balance well on a tray. I keep watercolor and drawing supplies laid out so I can do a bit of painting whenever the mood strikes and not have to clean up. I pay bills and do finances here. I keep the table stacked with reference books, magazines and writing supplies. So maybe the quirky part is that I keep it in the middle of the room, not arranged the way a decorator would, but where it suits me fine.
If you look closely at the shelf underneath the library table in the photos above, you'll see quite a collection of photo albums/travel journals of my trips to other countries. I would hate very much to lose them because on these dreary wintry nights I may think, "Tonight I'd like to go back to Ireland." All I have to do is to take out the Irish album and I'm walking through Darena Allen's walled vegetable garden or watching her make scones at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. I would definitely not like to lose these albums or my quirkey/functional coffee table.

Now some time today head over to other Fun Monday places to check out what others are hanging on to, no matter what!

What's on Your Mind Lately?

Several times in the last couple of weeks a great chevron of geese flew across the sky at dusk when Willie and I took our daily walks. First we could hear them calling to each other and then look up to see that perfect V formation silhouetted against the evening sky. This sight got me thinking about a good topic for Fun Monday--which I'm delighted to be hosting this first week of the new year.

Most weeks we have around 25-30 bloggers participating in the Fun Monday challenge, each of us giving our own personal twist to the assigned topic. Our little blog community is like a chevron of geese. We're all busy living our lives as best we can, sometimes relying on others to fly in front while we take a back position where we don't have to flap our wings so hard to move forward. Regardless of where you are in the formation, I'm sure you're thinking about 2008 and wondering how things will go for you in the new year. So, here's your question for this week, answer as briefly or extensively as you like:

"What's on your mind as we close out 2008 and begin
2009? Large and small. What are often your first thoughts the minute you wake up? When you're alone and unguarded? Working? Stuck in traffic? Playing with the children? Walking the dogs? When you can't sleep?"

I am so eager to read your responses to this question. I suspect that many of us will have the same things on our minds. We may live differently, but we mostly want the same things from life--and face the same challenges. That's good to know.

Now, here's what's on my mind lately:

1. Caregiver for my Sister--I'm putting this one first because it meets all the criteria: first thing I think about in the morning, lose sleep over, think about it when I'm walking the dog, stuck in traffic, working--you get the idea. Taking care of my sister, who's nine years older than I, has always been a major concern. Until July of '08 she was living independently, with some assistance from me. Early last year she started having health problems and then lost her apartment to a fire. I moved her in with me for about three months--which both of us hated. In October I got her settled into a nice, safe senior citizen's apartment complex about 10 minutes from my home. She's beginning to make friends. I'm trying to come to terms with my loss of freedom and privacy because of taking on her care. Frankly, I don't see much improvement in 2009. . .

2. Surviving the Bad Economy -- I'm very fortunate to have retirement funds from state teacher retirement system and a very stable organization where I worked for 18 years, plus Social Security. I worry though because I have no one else to fall back on in case of a financial or health emergency. I always said that I'd get a job if necessary, but now know that's not the given that it once was. So, I'm looking at all my expenses and figuring out how to live well on less.

3. Things Undone -- in addition to a "To Do" list, I also have a "Things Undone" list that gives me a lot of grief. I believe that it's important to be productive, even in retirement, but most days come up short.

4. Training for a Walk across the South -- my walking buddy Sally and I are signed up to do a week-long distance walk through several southern capitals in March. I must start training for this, but don't want Willie to know just yet. He would be too excited at the prospects of extended walks every day.

Well, that's a few of the things that are on my mind these days. After you've compared my list and yours, be sure to check out the following Fun Monday participants' lists. And thanks, to everyone who signed up to play this week:

1. Jan (host for January 12)
2. Swampy
3. Ari
4. Misanthrope
5. Sayre
6. Tracey
7. Cruise Mom
8. Karisma
9. Janis
10. Sandy
11. Pitts Academy
12. Molly
13. Pensieve
14. Hulagirlatheart
15. ChrisB
16. Jo
17. Alison
18. Grace
19. Gattina
20. Hootin' Anni
21. Celeste
22. Margaret, Brand New Mama

23. Sugar
24. Julie
25. Mommy Wizdom (sort of!)
26. Pamela

Oops! I gave you the wrong links for Sayre, Tracey, Cruise Mom, Pitts Academy, and Margaret. They're fixed now. Note to self: figure out Mr. Linky before hosting Fun Monday again!