Imp’s Place

Today was the first day hunting season.  I am not a hunter, but I have a cabin in the country. It is posted no hunting and no trespassing.  I was out at the pond fishing.  I looked up to see a small deer come out of the woods.  He saw me and ran.  A few minutes later two hunting dogs appeared.  The dogs were not afraid of people, so they stayed around.  I tryed to send them back to woods were they came from, but the dogs refused to leave.   I waited for the owners to arrive. The dogs had tracking devices on their collars.  After dark, one of the dogs left. the other one stayed.   I finally called the owner and he came to get the dog.   While I was waiting  I looked up the law in Virginia.  A hunter has the right to retrive his dog on your property without asking permission from owners.  I had visioned hunters following their dogs and coming out of the woods with guns. This does not seem right.  It feels like like robbery. Why do hunters have the right to come on my land without my permission?   I did talk to the owner of the dog and he told me that is why he had not retrieved the dog, that he had picked up the signal and the dog was on private property.  He was waiting his return.    Some hunters respect the landowners even tho the law does not.

I was talking to a friend awhile back.  We were both saying how we don’t seem to make time for our spouses. We had great times when we were dating them, but now we seem to be busy with working and just daily living.  We decided that it might be fun to start making dates with our spouses.  We are going to try it for the next six months.  Once a month we are going to go out on a date with our husband.  Last month my husband and I went to the river bank and just took a nice stroll around taking pictures of wild life.  It was fun.  It gave us a chance to just be together.   I said something about this at work.  Several of my co workers thought it was a good idea.  One was saying that that is what is wrong with relationships these days is we forget to take care of them.  Relationships need to be tended to and it was a good idea to teach our children that Mom and Dad need time together.  This month I think I am going to take my husband out to lunch.  We have busy schedules.  A lunch might fit in better than a dinner.  Then the following month I will look at something more like dinner and a movie, or an afternoon outing maybe a picnic in the country.

We all know that exercising is good for the body.  It seems it can also be dangerous.  I hear “Check with your doctor before starting any exercise program.”  Walking in the evening sounds like a good thing, just watch out for holes.  A friend of mine was taking an evening stroll with her husband. They were walking and talking and she did not see a small hole in the pavement. Stepped in it, lost he balance and fell. She twisted her ankle on the way down breaking it and twisted her knee.  Another friend of mine tried bicycling.  She missed judge a curb and landed on cement garden edging. This landed her in the hospital with a gaping wound in her leg. I know my friends are clumsy.  I can only imagine what would have happened to them if they were doing some exercise program that they should be checking with their doctors first.  Every time my husband tries to exercise to loss weight he gains.  He gets hungry and eats more.  I am having a hard time believing you can exercise off weight.  I see the only way to lose weight is to eat less and eat healthier.  My doctor recommends the 6 small meals a day diet and he means small.   I am sure exercise is good for you. I am just not sure I want to be that healthy.

I was talking to a friend the other day and asked her what plans she had for the weekend.  She said, ” It was house cleaning party weekend.”  I asked her for more details.  She said that with her and her husband working, one weekend a month, she throws a house cleaning party with her family.   They sit down Thursday night and plan a menu of fun foods for the weekend.  Friday after work, she stops at the grocery store and picks up the food.   Saturday morning they start at the back of the house and work they way to the front of the house cleaning.  With it being one weekend a month the children seem to be more helpful.  Yes, every one still has their chores on a daily basis, but this cleans up every thing.   They also have one weekend a month set aside for yard work.  The other two weekends in the month are play weekends.  She said that this way things get done without so much stress.  It also gives them family time.  What a great idea!!!

Women have traditionally have stayed at home and managed the house.  Now more women are working.  House hold chores are being divided up. Yet, women still seem to do a lot of house hold chores.  Women now are almost equal to men in having heart problems.  They do not see to experience the chest crushing pain that men do.  They have vague symptoms such as,” I don’ t feel right.”  jaw pain and arm tingling.  More woman are having stress health problems such as stomach ulcers and high blood pressure.  One would thinking that women would join together and find ways of helping each other.  Instead, they seem to be each others worst enemy.  I rarely hear a woman complainant another women on a job well done.  I often  ” I wish she would do her job, instead of having every one else do it.”  Home life and job have traditionally been to separate worlds.  I am hearing more and more personal issues at the work place.  I am hearing it as an excuse to being rude or not doing a good job.  ” Oh, you know she is having problems finding a good babysitter.  She is so stressed over it. You know she will do better as soon as this issue is resolved.”  We are women!  We can do better than this.  We need to support each other on a professional level.  Family needs to help out and divide the work load at home.  We enjoy the extra money and benefits that come from a two income house hold.  We ,as women need to stop being catty and be real ladies.

Today we have became a nation of health conscious.  This does not mean we are healthier just that we are aware of it.  Instead of drinking sodas, we are drinking bottled water.  I wonder, What is in the bottled water and who regulates it?  I like the bottles.  A lot of times, my bottled water comes from my tap.  I reuse the bottles.  I see so many people with bottled water bottles.  Are they doing the same thing I am or are they really buy water to drink?  We makes jokes about water. “Oh it must be in the water”   Is that a joke or is there some truth to that. Have we lost our minds buy water when we have water in most homes that is regulated by health officials? Now, they have come out with sprarkling water.  It is carbonated and is flavored.   It is not bad.  I enjoy it.  No calories, but i wonder how good it is for your body.  I know I don’t drink as much water as I should.  I understand that you should drink at least 2 litters of water a day and caffeine  products take away from water.  If you drink a caffeinated drink, you should drink twice the water. That is a lot of bottled water.  I will keep reusing my bottle.

Oh, so much has changed on planning weddings.  Yes, some of the traditional weddings still take place. There just seems to be much more happening with weddings.  I saw in the paper the other day of using bright colors for a summer wedding.  I am hearing that a good photographer for a wedding is booked a year in advance. A wedding is now up to the bride and groom on what they want and it all seems to be expectable to every one that attends.  I still enjoy the traditional wedding in a church with the reception to follow.  One of my favorites is the black and white candle lit weddings.   Those seem to be fading out.  I am seeing more informal weddings.  I have seen some beautiful, tasteful garden weddings. The beach weddings seem to be for summer.  I think it is great that the bride and groom have more options.  What a way to start a life together! It really makes the couple share ideas.  I sure some wedding never happen because they see how different their ideas are.  The most beautiful weddings are those that are planned from the hearts of the couple.  I think of the book The Wedding. It is a story of a man planning for a year a surprise for his wife of renewing their vows for anniversary gift.  His father-in-law helps him and keeps reminding him that gifts from the heart are treasured the most.

The other day a coworker asked me for my copy of pretzel salad. She said, “I know it is a holiday dish but it is so good and I think it would make a great summer dish.” As I was looking through my recipes I remembered how I got the pretzel salad recipe. In Nov. of 2003, our job was so stressful. We were under new management and project deadlines. None of us were looking forward to the holidays and added holiday stress. A coworker came up with this idea of having a potluck lunch the Wed before Thanksgiving. We were to bring in our favorite family dish. The idea snowballed. A quiet shy women spoke up and said, “I will bring pretzel salad.” We all looked at each other in shock. One that she spoke up and two none of us knew what she was talking about. We all said, “Great, Bring it!” She walked in with this dish covered in cherries. It was so wonderful, we all asked for copies of the recipe. She said it was a hand down thing and she would write it down the best she could.

Pretzel Salad

Part 1

Crumble small pretzels and place in bottom of baking pan. Mix butter softened and 1/2½ - 1 cup sugar and “dot “over pretzels. Bake 10-15 minutes or until butter melted and pretzels crystallize.

Part 2

8 oz package of cream cheese

1 tub of cool whip

1 cup sugar

Mix well and place over cooled pretzel base.

Part 3

Top with pie cherries or strawberries

Chill.

I see a lot of t shirts with attitude slogans, such as my attitude is showing.  They always make me laugh because they are so true.  Attitude is a huge part of our world that we seem to ignore. If you go into to work thinking it is going to be a great day  usually it is.   If you go in thinking the boss is in a bad mood. usually they are.   It is what we see.  I see any job is 90 percent attitude.  It is that old saying perception is your reality. You create your own heaven or hell.  If you look for something to be bad, it will be there.   If you look for the good things, they are there.  It is our attitude that changes a good day into a bad one.  If you go into a job with a positive attitude and some thing goes wrong, you will focus on the good things of the day, instead of the one bad thing.  Positive attitudes are contagious, but so are negative.  We have started a “game ” at work.  When you are feeling negative, the first person you see you ask them to tell you something good.   It keeps every one focusing on the good things and not on the negative.  A good thing can be there are only 2 more hours left to work, or the sun is shining.   It does matter what it is as long as it is positive.  When I asked a coworker the other day to tell me something good, he told a great joke. We both laughed and went back to work.  The rest of the day was easy.   Later, he confessed that his day was not going so well and he really need the laugh.

I visited Monticello , Thomas Jefferson’s home, this last week.   It was a warm sunny day, so I took the tour of the house.  It was fun to see how he lived. The massive clock as you enter the house still chimes on the hour.  I loved the bed built in alcove in the Madison room.  Yes, James Madison was a frequent visitor to Monticello. The dumb waiters hidden on the side of the fire place to bring up wine for dinner was such an excellent idea.  It was sad to think of one of our founding fathers dying poor.  The house was sold to pay off debts.  It is such a contrast to the politicians of today.  They spend millions of dollars on campaigns.  Jefferson sold his books to the library of congress.  I understand the house was in needed repairs when it was sold.   I walked around the grounds.   The gardens were amazing.  The vegetable garden was his living laboratory.  He planted over 300 varieties or more than 70 species of vegetables.  Visiting his grave site, one of the tourist asked if the Hemings family were buried in the grave yard?  The answer was ,”No, not as of today.”  The Hemings were Jefferson slaves.  Betty Heming and and her children were inherited to Jefferson from his father in law, John Wayles.  In 1998, DNA has linked the two family and many believe that these were  children of Thomas Jefferson.  It does not sound to me that Thomas Jefferson would pass the scrutiny of our politicians of today.