I can’t believe it: I have my own internet domain! This is so cool, technology-wise, and I’m easily excited about getting and working with new technology! I was excited in the 1970s when I bought my own electric typewriter, and again in the early 1980s when our family had one of the first Apple IIe computers. The thrill continues. In 2016, I bought a tech device Jeff hadn’t even heard of (because he didn’t need it), and last September, I changed a command in the root drive. Now I have my own domain name. I’m a hip, tech-savvy baby boomer (with Jeff’s help).

Readers, take note:

If you want to continue reading my blog, as of today, it is at https://dctrd.com. In case the string of consonants appears confusing, think “doctor d” and take out the vowels. Doctord, drd, and docdi were already taken. There must be people just like me out there, because I had the same issue with my personalized license plate which is also DCTR D for the same reason.

Now, the background story. Jeff has generously been allowing me to post my blog on his cyberschroeder.com domain, but he is going to retire that address in August. As a result, he had to select a new domain for his own blog, personal email, etc. and so did I.

I offer thanks to Jeff for setting up my new domain and for making everything work so that, for a transitional period, if you go to https://diane.cyberschroeder.com, you will automatically be re-directed to my new domain. This will be true until August when cyberschroeder.com ceases to exist, so if my few (think “select group”) readers want to keep reading my musings, change your bookmark for this blog.

As I told Jeff, I probably could have done this myself . . . with step-by-step instructions and phone support from him. For Jeff, who has all kinds of domains, it’s no big deal, but I never expected to need or have my own domain name. Thanks, Jeff, for keeping me cool!

Kari’s family opened their gifts at home this morning and then came to our house in the early afternoon to join Kathy, Annette, Ted, and me to open more gifts.

Dylan created two new games to give as his gifts to us and to Kathy / Annette.
Dylan was excited about his new pocket watch. It’s gorgeous, but challenging. There is no battery–you have to wind it; it’s analog, not digital; and the hours are shown in Roman numerals. Dylan is confident he can handle these challenges.
Teddy found happiness in two new pigs and a pig nose.

Ted and I saw some prank gift boxes while we were Christmas shopping. We immediately knew two people who “needed” them. Annette was the recipient of a Roto Wipe (box).

Note that this device is Number 1 in #1 and #2’s.
It’s ranked with 5 stars, beating out the car wash sprayer (3 stars) and the elm/maple leaf (1 star).
The mini version is even portable!

The other lucky (?) recipient of a prank box was Laralee, who enjoys jigsaw puzzles.

Only 12,000 pieces. The shiny box made a reflection in my camera lens. The entire sky is really a single shade of blue.
The 12,000 pieces are micro size (1/4″, according to the box) and require a tweezer (included) to place them in the puzzle.
If you like this puzzle, here are four more to enjoy. Again, each puzzle was a single color, without shading. (I need a better camera.) My personal favorite is “Summer Night Sky” with the two stars shining in the blackness.

Of course, the boxes did not represent the real gifts inside, although we included a small jigsaw puzzle to make Laralee’s box sound more authentic. After all the gifts were opened, it was time for a snack.

Well, if we must . . . .

Merry Christmas to all!

The St. Charles Christmas parade was so much fun last year that we–Kathy and Annette, Kari’s family, and me (Ted wasn’t feeling well)–decided to go again this year. Last year, the weather was very cold and blustery, and there was snow on the ground. We were more comfortable this year with sunshine and a temperature in the low 50s. We started the afternoon with lunch at Pizza Hut, which is always a hit with Kari’s boys. After that, we headed to Main Street for the parade. Perfect timing–we had five minutes to select a good viewing spot before the parade leaders came into view.

Since pictures of the period characters in the parade look very similar from year to year, I decided to “people watch” instead.

Yes, the carolers are colorful, but check out the guy in the red and white striped jacket on the right.

This family must be related to Mr. Burst. They came in their Christmas pajamas.
We were near the end of the parade route (closest to the riverfront for the Santa send-off), so we were among the last people the parade marchers saw. A number of them gave a thumbs-up to the lady with the camera for having the tackiest Christmas sweater along the route. It was covered with large Christmas lights that flashed.

Santa and Mrs. Claus in their horse-drawn carriage are the last people in the parade. The parade-watchers fall in behind Santa and follow him to the bandstand at the riverfront.

We were in the middle of the crowd, so this shows about half of the attendance. Santa was in a hurry this year. He’s usually the last item on the short program agenda, but this year, he was first. If you look closely, you can see his red suit in the bandstand and he’s already saying farewell to the crowd.
By the time we arrived at the park gates, Santa and Mrs. Claus were in their carriage, leaving to go home to pack the children’s gifts for Santa to deliver tonight.

The parade and send-off were finished, so we went shopping in a few of the Main Street stores. Fun, fun, fun!

Ted started feeling a little bit sick on Saturday, December 22, the day before Kathy and Annette arrived for Christmas. He is still running a low-grade fever today, so he wasn’t able to go the St. Charles Christmas parade with the rest of us–Kathy, Annette, Kari’s family, and me. He doesn’t have much energy and feels achy. He should be feeling fine by the time our family Christmas is over and the girls have returned to their homes.

Symbolic picture of how Ted is feeling.

Kathy and Annette arrived today for their Christmas visit, and Kari joined us for dinner after her shift at the skating rink.  Kathy and Annette brought unstuffed pepper soup and a salad for the main course, I made a cherry pie for dessert, and Kari brought cookies and candy she and the boys made for the holidays.

Kari and I previously decided we didn’t want so many cookies and so much candy this year.  We agreed that we’d each make a full batch of two specific cookies we enjoy (cherry and chocolate freezer cookies for me; cut-out cookies and scotcheroos for her) and we’d each make a batch of the single candy we most enjoy (bon bons for me; turtles for her). Together, we’d divide the batches to increase our individual variety and to share the bounty with Kathy and Annette.  We didn’t know that Kathy and Annette were also going to make some cookies and candy to share with us.

The pepper soup and the salad were delicious, but they paled in comparison to the desserts we had available after dinner!

Here’s the Christmas cherry pie I made with Door County cherries from Wisconsin and Ted’s mom’s cherry pie recipe.

The table groaned when we covered it with the cookie and candy selections.  There were so many choices, and every one of them was tempting.

In November, when the St. Louis area was hit by a 4-7″ snowfall (depending on where you live), I posted a front-page St. Louis Post-Dispatch photo of Mr. Burst , shoveling his driveway in his bathrobe.  I was surprised Mr. Burst didn’t even take time to put on his pants before going out into the cold.

I was even more surprised to see today’s paper.  In a special section titled “The Year in Pictures,” Mr. Burst made the front page again.  The November photo of Mr. Burst was used as the cover shot for the special section.  What a guy!

 

Ted and I spent ten months of 2018 looking forward to our six-week trip to Bali, Australia, and New Zealand.  In preparation for leaving on November 26, we did our Christmas shopping and gift wrapping in October, had a few holiday lights strung in the front yard by early November, and had selected a lot of the summer clothes we planned to pack . . . when we learned we would be canceling the trip.

I experienced some digestive problems for most of the year and was hospitalized for the problem in June.  The symptoms continued to worsen, which led to the inevitable series of specialists and tests, culminating with three specialists agreeing that my best option for a long-term solution was surgery.  I was given the choice to delay the surgery until after the trip, but I knew I wouldn’t enjoy myself and it seemed foolish to spend the money on the trip, only to spend my time in pain in my room or in a foreign hospital.  Ted and I decided to cancel the trip, and we filed the travel insurance claims for a full refund.  We plan to re-schedule the same trip for next winter.

None of the doctors knew exactly what the surgeon would discover, which was a little scary to me.  Not knowing what to expect, Ted and I put our travel plans on hold but agreed that, depending on what kind of follow-up treatment I needed, our “consolation prize” for canceling the six-week Bali-Australia-New Zealand trip would be a shorter trip to Hawai’i as soon as I was well enough to travel.  The surgery went well and my recovery is progressing as predicted by the doctors, so Ted and I sat down last night to book our Hawai’ian getaway.

Unfortunately, it quickly became obvious that if we want to go to Hawai’i during the Missouri winter, we need to book our flights months, not weeks, in advance.  We planned to use our frequent flier miles to go back and forth and found that, except for a single first-class flight, the only remaining seats require an overnight stay between the connecting flights in both directions.  (No airlines go directly from St. Louis to Hawai’i.)  We have the miles we need to fly business class, but neither of us has enough frequent flier miles to go first class.  As he put the travel books back on the bookshelf, Ted sadly remarked that “Maybe it’s a sign we should stay home this winter.”

 

Last week I had a holiday lunch date with four retired women friends from the college.  Today, I had a lunch date with two other retired women friends from the college.  These two were both on my staff.

Jeanette was the first person I hired to help with the administrative work in my department.  Until then, the Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) program was a one-woman show presided over by me.  Over the years, Jeanette and I became close friends.  We work in such similar ways and think along such similar lines that other people sometimes said Jeanette and I shared a brain.

As time went on, the AEL program grew in size and, several years after I hired Jeanette, I hired Gail to work as a lead GED teacher.  She and I share an almost identical teaching philosophy, based mainly on “What’s the best thing to do to benefit the students?”  We always worked well together and, in addition to being co-workers, we, too, became very good friends over the years.

The three of us enjoy getting together regularly for lunch and have been doing so for several years.  This time, before we left the restaurant, Jeanette said, “We need a picture,” so we did the selfie thing.  Here we are:  three good friends.

L->R:  Jeanette, me, Gail

Last night, Ted and I went to Teddy’s first orchestra concert.  To anyone without a loved one in the orchestra, it wasn’t much different from Sky’s and Dylan’s concerts in previous years.  For us, though, there was a grandchild change and an instrument change.  Sky and Dylan both played cello, but Teddy is learning to play the viola.

Ted and I arrived 10-15 minutes before the concert began, knowing that Kari was saving us seats with her family.  We would have arrived earlier, but the orchestra must have a bumper crop of musicians compared to previous years.  Traffic was backed up about a half-mile to enter the school property.  When we finally reached the parking lots, we joined many other attendees trolling the lots in search of empty parking spaces.

Even the auditorium was packed, with the bleachers filled to capacity and staff members scrambling to set up folding chairs around the margins of the gym.  Kari had seats saved for us, but another lady pushed Kari’s coats aside and sat down.  When Kari mentioned she was holding two places, the lady said, “Well, we only need one more,” and then that person sat down, leaving no room for Ted and me.  We joined the rest of the overflow crowd on folding chairs (which were probably more comfortable than the bleachers).  The photo below shows our view of the concert.  About a dozen people were even farther back than we were.  The sixth grade orchestra is partially visible.  Teddy is seated with the fifth grade orchestra on the other end of the gym.

 

Ted walked to the other end of the room and managed to get a photo that showed Teddy playing his viola.  Follow the red arrow to Teddy’s adorable curly hair.  If you could follow the other red arrow far enough, you could see me sitting on a folding chair, waiting for Ted to return.  Notice the other people on folding chairs along both walls.

 

Kari’s family joined us after the concert and we exchanged greetings and hugs with all the family and took a better picture of Teddy with his viola.

 

Ted and I love these concerts and we’re already looking forward to the spring performance.  We plan to be there earlier to avoid the unexpected parking and seating issues.

Kathy sent me a care package to cheer me up after my surgery.  One of the things she included was a jigsaw puzzle with a modernistic image of the Eiffel Tower.  Her accompanying note reminded me that, even though we had to cancel our Bali-Australia-New Zealand trip, Ted and I will be going to Paris next July to celebrate our 50th anniversary.

I wasn’t sure how far I’d get with the puzzle after Ted’s and my aborted puzzle experiment, but 300 pieces was far less intimidating than 1000 pieces.

Getting started–Turning all the pieces over and finding the edge and corner pieces.

Voilá!  I thought of Paris all the while I worked on the puzzle, and was further inspired by the Swarovski Eiffel Tower Ted and I bought in Paris in 2016.

Plan A for November 26, 2018:  Plane tickets from St. Louis to Bali.

 

Plan B for November 26, 2018:  Movie tickets at our nearby mall.

 

This was a disappointing change for Ted and me, but not life-changing.  My successful surgery will have a far greater impact on my life.  We’ll go to Bali, Australia, and New Zealand next year.

This picture accompanied the headline on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the day after our big snow storm.  Apparently, Mr. Burst was in such a hurry to get his driveway cleared, he didn’t even take time to put on his pants.  Maybe he couldn’t wait to try out his kind of neat two-handled pusher shovel.

Since Ted has our yard cleaned up for the winter, he and Kari decided to spend this warm afternoon (mid-60s) cleaning up the leaves from her yard.  Ted loaded his chipper into the car and headed to the work site–Kari’s house.  Dylan was the official on-site photographer.

Kari takes a turn, . . .

. . . Ted takes a turn, . . .

. . . and the job is a team effort.

Dylan noticed that even the cat was on-site to snoopervise the work.  Since he’s a cat, he did no actual work, but he most likely needed a nap when the job was finished.

Kari invited Ted and me to join her family for Thanksgiving dinner.  She prepared our family’s traditional Thanksgiving ham dinner and, of course, everything was delicious.  I’m thankful every day for all the blessings I have in my life, but Thanksgiving Day is a special time to acknowledge them.

Ready to eat the delicious dinner.

Later, we had pumpkin and/or apple pie with whipped cream.  When Kari said “pie,” the boys came running to help serve it.  They were ready for dessert.

 

After dinner, Sky and Dean disappeared for awhile and Kari, Ted, and I continued visiting in the living room.  Soon, the front door opened and a surprise guest (Sky) joined us with his escort (Dean).

Dean bought molds and made this costume out of fiberglass for Sky.  Sky wore it for Hallowe’en and was the hit of the neighborhood.  Groupies along the trick or treat route asked for selfies with him.

It’s just as authentic-looking in the back.  This is definitely the. best. Hallowe’en. costume. ever.

Like the groupies, I needed a picture of myself with my grandson / stormtrooper ready to protect me.  He’s getting so tall!

 

Spending Thanksgiving with our family is one of my best blessings.

During my recent hospital stay, my friend Liz sent me a pot of mums to cheer me up.  It worked!  They are beautiful in our kitchen bay window.

Today, the NWS had a winter storm warning out for the St. Louis metro area, predicting snowfalls from 4-7 inches, and we had about 4 inches at our house.  All the K-12 schools announced their closings on the 10:00 p.m. news last night.  The snow stopped around 3:00 p.m., the sun came out, and the temperature shot up to 46 degrees.  The melting has begun.

The snow looks like a soft cushion on the lawn chairs.  In spite of that, no one is sitting in them.

Finally!  After three years, I had a chance to use my new snowblower for a snowblower-worthy event.  The snow was melting almost as fast as I was clearing it, but I had to play with my new (?) toy.

The weird part?  This is so early for snow in St. Louis that the trees still have most of their fall-colored leaves.

We have six inches of snow in our forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  Ted and I went out to dinner tonight and our waitress told us her mother would call this “french toast weather.”  Why?  Because everyone goes to the store to buy milk, bread, and eggs–the ingredients for french toast.

Snow accumulations in the St. Louis metro area today ranged from 1-3 inches.  We had about two inches of snow at our house.  This was the earliest one-inch snowfall in St. Louis in 27 years–since 1991.

Check the upper right center of the photo to see Ted getting the mail.

Our new trees look pretty with snow on their branches.

 

One of my friends recently told me that persimmon seeds can forecast winter conditions.  The Farmer’s Almanac agrees, and includes the forecast guidelines.

In Jefferson County, about 30 miles south of us in the metro area, the Jefferson County Extension office has been collecting persimmon seeds from the county and found the persimmon forecast to be accurate for 15 of the last 19 years.  Last year, they collected seeds from three areas of Jefferson County.  The seeds varied by area and so did the winter.  Amazing!

Persimmon seeds in our area have a spoon-shaped kernel this year, indicating a snowy winter.  Since we’ve already had two back-to-back snowfalls and a unusually heavy snowfall early in this season, maybe Ted and I will have a chance to use our three-year-old snowblower this winter.  So far, we’ve only used it for two very light snowfalls–just to make sure it worked before the warranty expired–so it’s still shiny and clean.

Ted and I were shopping at Von Maur and saw these holiday fashions for men.  I’m trying to picture Ted in the green suit and tie, but it’s not working for me.

We had our first snow of the season last night, . . .

 

. . . and our second snow of the season tonight.

The burning bush and the sweet gum trees in our neighbors’ yards are gorgeous right now.

Yesterday, Ted took the leaf blower in hand and cleared the front yard while I raked the leaves in the back yard.  Ted hauled all the leaf piles to our brush pile area to be chipped and bagged.

Here’s my favorite guy cleaning up the front yard.

Look at all the leaves!  And our trees aren’t even half bare yet!  (Check out the trees in these pictures.)

 

Last year, Ted and I jumped into our leaf pile; this year, we weren’t even tempted.  We’ve had so much rain in the last few days, there were more wet than dry leaves in the pile.  We can both attest that wet leaves are heavier to move around than dry ones.  While I was raking, I found a giant leaf.

My hand, giant leaf, and regular leaf.  I have no idea which tree in the area produces the giant-sized leaf.

 

Today, Ted put all those leaves through his chipper, which grinds them into pieces that range from dust to one inch.  Then he bagged them up for the lawn waste pickup tomorrow.

Ted and eight bags full.  I hate to think how many bags it would have taken if the leaves weren’t chipped.

 

A job well done. . . . And a job to be repeated at least once, maybe twice more before our trees are finished dropping leaves.

 

Ted’s and my polling place had longer lines than we’ve ever seen, even for Presidential elections.  We usually vote between 2:00-4:00 pm, because it’s pretty dead then–no before work, lunch break, or after work voters.  We walk in, sometimes wait for one person ahead of us, vote, and leave.  Today, however, it took us 45 minutes to get through the line and, when we finished, the line was longer than when we went in.

Other people in line were commenting on the large turnout as well.  One of the judges mentioned that the reason our polling place no longer accommodates two precincts is that the people in our precinct vote!  Another woman in line suggested that we put marijuana on the ballot more often.

The line ahead of us snaked across the room three times in an “S” shape before it reached the election judges’ table.  I counted over 75 people ahead of us–during the slow time.

When we arrived, we were at the door.  When we left, the line extended outside the door and alongside the building, and there was a line of cars arriving and hoping to find a parking spot.

 

It was great to see such a huge voter turnout.  Go, U.S.A.!

I found an anniversary card I’ve saved for years.  It makes me smile every time I see it.

Front of card

Message inside card

I suspect we had our last near-80º day of the season earlier this week (78º).  When November 1 arrived, the weather turned gray and cool, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way.  We had the furnace checked, the irrigation system turned off, and the pool winterized and covered a few days ago, so Ted and I decided it was time to put the lawn furniture away as well.  Ted had already cleaned out the storage shed and washed it down, inside and out, so it was ready for a seasonal change of contents.  Everything looks so bare now.  I guess I’ll start counting down the days until spring returns.

We always leave a few lawn chairs out all winter for firebowl seating and for the few days of 50- and 60-degree weather we get each month when it’s nice enough to sit outside in the afternoon.  Everything else is in storage.

We were planning to rake/blow leaves as well, but we had nearly two inches of rain in the past two days, so the leaves and ground were too wet for that job.  Now we have something to do when things dry out after the next two days of forecast rain.

Ted and I went to a movie at the mall today.  On our way in, I saw this dress.

Yes, that’s real Christmas garland around the hemline.

Even better!

Wings at the shoulder in the back, complete with twinkling lights.  Oooh!

 

Question:  Is it my style for Christmas?

Answer:  Definitely not.

While Ted and I were Christmas shopping today, a brief shower passed over and treated us to a double rainbow.

I love the centerpiece Kathy created for me, using my favorite flower pot, and the table runner Kari made is a perfect backdrop for it.  At this time of year, however, both look out of place (or out of time) on the table–too much like spring.  Ted and I went shopping and found some pretty fall things for our November table.

Tomorrow the pool crew is coming to winterize and cover our pool.  Tonight, the temperature was 60 degrees.  It was a perfect evening for our first firebowl night of the year.  We have a brand new firebowl (the old one wore out/burned out) and new plastic wine glasses (thanks, Thom and Katie), and we enjoyed it all–the pool lights, the fire, the wine, and–most of all–sharing the time together.

Ted has the pool lights on, the fire lit, and the wine poured.

Together–our favorite thing.

Today is National Chocolate Day!  According to the National Confectioners Association, there are actually 16 different made-up holidays for chocolate and more than one has been designated as National Chocolate Day, but October 28 is the most commonly cited day.  Have some chocolate and carpe diem!

This year, PBS partnered with libraries and bookstores to identify America’s favorite novel.  The 100 finalist novels were chosen in a national survey of 7,200 adult readers.  The list was very eclectic and included some surprising contenders and some surprising absentees.  For example, Margaret Mitchell made the top 100, but William Faulkner did not.  There were high-brow and low-brow favorites; contemporary novels to classics; an international selection of authors; gender and ethnic diversity; and a variety of genres.

Book lovers (including me) will tell you that it is very difficult to select a single favorite novel, but Bill Gardner, vice president of programming and development at PBS said, “We’re not trying to tell people what the greatest novel is, and does it really matter who wins?  We’re not doing a vote-you-off-the-island type of thing.”  The mission of the Great American Read, said Gardner, was to promote a positive conversation about books.

The 100 finalist novels were highlighted and discussed in an eight-part series of programs on PBS beginning on May 22.  The reveal of the top ten selections was made on October 23.  I’ve read nine of them (not The Lord of the Rings) and my personal favorite (if I may choose only one) would be Gone with the Wind, followed closely by Little Women and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Apparently, living in a valley (we have steep hills in front and in back of our house) protects us from the wind.  Our weather forecast for today included a wind advisory, warning us of wind gusts up to 40 mph.

 

This is what our anemometer recorded for the day.  Our peak wind gust was only 1 mph over the minimum advisory level of the sustained winds.

 

We had leaves blown down and Ted cleaned a lot of them out of the pool, but that happens in fall whether or not we have a wind advisory.  I hope we’re as well protected when a tornado comes our way!

There was a pretty sunset today and it was reflected in our pool.  In real life, the sky was pink like the reflection, not yellow, but my camera was apparently thinking more “sun” than “set” when it focused on the sky.

It’s the Hallowe’en season, so there’s a lot of seasonal candy on the store shelves, and a lot of costumes and haunted houses designed to make people say “Eek!”

My favorite “eek” this year comes from Mars, Inc. manufacturer of my year-round candy weakness, m&m’s®.  They made an apparently limited edition of “Ghoul’s Mix” m&m’s® for the 2018 Hallowe’en season.  I assume it’s a limited edition, because Kathy and Annette bought these m&m’s® at the Kirksville Wal-Mart, but I couldn’t find them anywhere in the St. Peters area.  Sensing m&m’s® distress in St. Peters, the girls sent Ted and me a trick or treat package of Ghoul’s Mix m&m’s®.

Eat them if you dare!  Na-ha-ha-ha!  (Evil laugh)

I scanned a few more photos tonight and, as usual, enjoyed the memories.  The kids were so little!  Ted and I were so young!  And, of course, our parents were still with us.

1978 was Kari’s first Christmas.

My mom and dad spent Christmas 1978 with us.

It’s March 1979.  Jeff and Kathy are climbing the tree in the front yard at our first house.  Tommy is standing safely on the ground.

April 1979.  We took the kids to the St. Louis Zoo at least once each year when they were little.  Only big brother Jeff’s feet can (barely) touch the ground.

Tommy, the birthday boy, is 3.  That means Jeff is 7, Kathy is 6, and Kari is almost 1.

In May 1979, we celebrated Kari’s first birthday in WI with our parents.  Ted’s mom and my dad both had May birthdays as well, and we celebrated my dad’s retirement from the U.S. Air Force on this visit.  Party on!