A Little of This, Some of That

I opened up Blogger to write and I saw the post below. I thought I'd share it with you. An update on Google Friend Connect 1 day ago  by  A Googler In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs. As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count. We encourage you to tell affected reader...

Many of you know that I love animals. Over the years I've had many pets. Dogs, cats, horses even a mouse. About 12 years or so ago I decided to start showing dogs.  At that time it was Great Danes. In particular I was showing harlequins. those big white dogs with torn patches of black. I was lucky enough to have owned/shown the number one Great Dane in the United States (United Kennel Club) of 2003. As my Dane's aged, I was prepared to get another.  However, my beautiful wonderful Baron, shortly before his 11th birthday, became very ill and bloated. At the time he was immobile at home.  Living alone, I was unable to lift him to take him to the vet. My best friend's husband came over and between us we were able to sling him and get into the van. I still had two Danes, but who were also aging, at home. That was when I realized I would have to 'downsize' they type of dog I would be able to care for. I had long wanted a Basenji but the timing was never quite rig...

I continue to be amazed at the fear mongering that is rampant upon social media. First, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to those individuals, families and friends that lost their lives this last week at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. If the allegation is true, that the shooter made the statement 'no more body parts' that seems to embody the rhetoric the GOP has been spouting, In particular Ms. Carly's out right refusal to re-track her 'mis-statement' about seeing a video that simply doesn't exist. Then we have Trump spewing hate for just about anything and anyone that doesn't agree with him. And people are still following this individual who wants to close mosques, require Muslims to register and wear some sort of ID a la Nazi Germany and Jews. All this does is to serve to stoke the fears of people here in the states. In the aftermath of Paris, suddenly being a refugee from Syria means you are a terrorist.  How can the United State...

On Monday, November 9, a new law goes into affect in Wisconsin.  Thanks to Scooter Walker. This law is requiring welfare recipients to take and pass a drug test to obtain benefits. I am NOT a supporter of this and I'll lay out additional reasons in a moment.  Until then, please review the following articles that I link below. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/welfare-drug-testing_56156d38e4b021e856d344cd http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/maines-welfare-drug-tests_55ce1b56e4b0ab468d9d266f http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/florida-welfare-drug-testing_n_6807268.html http://time.com/3117361/welfare-recipients-drug-testing/ http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/26/3624447/tanf-drug-testing-states/ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/30/the-myth-of-welfare-and-drug-use.html Ok, I could post more, but they all say basically the same thing.  That is, testing welfare recipients is pretty much a waste of money. Lets do some basic math sh...

Do you know who Emma Lazarus was? In 1883 she wrote a poem, and I would guess that many of you know at least part of it.   You may even recall learning it as lyrics to a song as it was indeed set to music. Ms. Lazarus penned the poem as a way to rise money.  Before I tell you for what, here is her poem titled: New Colossus  "Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,    With conquering limbs astride from land to land    Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame    Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name    Mother of Exiles.  From her beacon-hand    Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command    The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.    "Keep, ancient lands,  your storied pomp!" cries she    With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,     Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,...

As promised, here is another story about ghosts that live with me. I'd been in my century old house for about a month when a couple of different things started to  happen. I noticed a horrific smell that would come and go.  I tried and tried to find the source of the odor but was not able to pinpoint where it was coming from.  With its elusiveness making it even hard to find I eventually gave  trying to locate the odor and concentrated  on getting the house ready to open as a bed and breakfast. A year after I bought the house, I opened the BnB.  It was actually more then a year after I opened the inn that I began to notice that the odor would arrive with my guests and leave when they did.  NOT a good thing to have happen when you are running a inn!  SO, I decided, since I had nothing to loose, I had a 'heart to heart' with my ghostly guests and told them to knock it off. Did it work?  Well, I've not had the odor since....  you te...

I grew up in Marinette for the most part.  There were a few years when I was in the middle grades that we lived in Florida and Kentucky before returning.  So, to keep things simple, I simple say I grew up here and graduated from Marinette Sr. High. I left after graduating high school and went to college before moving to Minnesota.  I returned to Wisconsin but it was some years before I returned to Marinette.  Along the way I was married and divorced and single mom of twins. In moving back to Marinette, I wanted a house that was large enough to suit my needs.  I wanted to open a bed and breakfast. I was very picky about what I wanted and I looked a numerous homes and houses, never quite finding what I liked.  It was over two years before I found my perfect house. After all the years of searching and all the houses I of course had to pick a house that had issues.  It took some work to get to closing, but we did get there.  Since this big old h...

Like most of you, I peruse the news and read those items that pique my curiosity.  Today was no exception. On one of the more popular websites I ran across an article that gave me pause.  Actually two articles and while they seem to be about different 'things' I found them to be particularly similar in the underlying issues. First, an article about the county clerk in Morehead Kentucky who has refused to give out marriage licenses to gay couples.  She did of course spend a few days in jail for contempt and then promised to not interfere with her deputy clerks in granting marriage licenses. I'm sure you are aware that she has in fact defied that court order and has altered the format of the marriage licenses in such a way to cast doubt on the validity of them. Her defense?  It's against God's will for her to issue the license. I'll get back to this in a bit. The other articles (as there was actually more than one) deals with the idea of Islam in the Uni...

I've found that the older I've gotten, the more interested I've become in history. Traveling around the world an making stops in places like Greece, Egypt and more have also served to pique my interest and revisit some of those old history lessons-  (Thanks Magistra for grounding me with more than just the Latin language!) Of course I'm most interested in my own family history and how it relates to the actions and events of the era it stems.  This has also been fueled by my own family's mystery. My maternal grandfather was not raised by his biological parents, rather by an aunt and uncle.  Not an uncommon occurrence in the late 1800's but it does create a hole in my family's knowledge.  My mom, understandably, would really like to know her roots.  And so, I have embarked on a journey of research and exploration. Genealogy researching has really opened my eyes to various items about my family I didn't know;  It wasn't only my maternal grandfat...

I love going to farmer's markets.  Fresh produce of course but today's farmer's markets often hold many other types of vendors.  Crafters, wine makers, music and so much more can often be found in this lovely local markets.  Green Bay hosts two farmer's markets.  One on Wednesday evenings and one on Saturday mornings.  Each of these markets has it's own 'flavor' but both have the air of Carnival.  Excitement, sights and sounds abound. Note that a city the size of Green Bay has just two official farmer's markets.  The same is also true for Appleton.  Carnival time that is surrounded by fresh foods, baked goods, music and more.  Each of these markets are teaming with festive air. Now, turn to Marinette Wisconsin and Menominee Michigan.  Sister cities that reside directly across the Menominee River.  (In fact once upon a time, the U.P. used to belong to Wisconsin) Each city started out with its own farmers market.  Frida...

I wear many hats.  I show dogs, ride horses, scrapbook, read, research genealogy and many many other pursuits. Although I retired from State service in 2011(Thanks ACT 10) I ended up going back to work. When a nice, easy job falls into your lap that pays pretty decent, you tend to sit up and take notice.  Besides, one of the many hats I wear is world traveler and it pays for my wanderlust! But I digress, Suffice to say that I am a supervisor for a local company that has a national interest. Recently one of my employees had off and I covered the open shift.  This particular shift includes answering incoming calls. Technology is touted as being such a wonderful  thing!  Phones  have progressed from land lines, to expensive bag phones, car phones (think Magnum PI) to very large cell phones to today's multiple choices.  Land lines have progressed to using a single cord per phone to fiber optics handling many, many lines processed through a comput...

What's UP Airlines? Most of you that know me are aware that I travel. A lot.  Sometimes I drive but I often fly.  I inherited my father's love of wanderlust and find that I typically take a long trip every year.  On top of my travels, my mom fly's to Florida every year as she is a snowbird.  We used to drive but when the gas prices started going up it ended up being less expensive to fly back and forth.  Then price of oil went through the roof and flight fares went up, and along with the increase fares airlines started to charge baggage fees. Ahhhh, all those wonderful fees..... At first it was $10 for a second bag, then $10 a first checked bag.  Next think was $10 if  you paid the baggage fee at booking or $20 at the gate.  Then came baggage fee for carry on.  Wait a minute?  Carry on?  Yep.  But wasn't the baggage fee because of 'handling' the bags?  That's what I thought.  So who 'handles' the carry on...

I watch the news.  I get my news from several sources to try and glean as much fact as opposed to 'slants' on various topics. I've noticed, and I'm sure that you have as well, that most mainstream news deals with celebrity 'stuff'.  I don't know about you, but I'm not particularly interested in what celeb couple are breaking up or hooking up.  There are far more important things to read about. Of course the current political climate is interesting, but for my purposes today, I'll not discuss that- I'm sure there will be plenty of fodder as we gear up for the elections next year. No, today I'd like to talk a little bit about something that should be in the headlines and yet you don't see anything much about it.  In fact I first learned about this issue a few years ago on facebook- which has also been fairly quiet about the situation in the last several months. What am I alluding too?  The rapidly disappearing honey bee. Ok, so it...

This is my first foray into the world of blogging.  These pages contain my own opinions- unless otherwise stated- on a variety of topics. That's important so I'll repeat it.  This is a venue for me to share my own opinion on a variety of topics.  My OPINION. I welcome comments and look to engage conversations, but please, no foul language, disparity or personal attacks.  I reserve the right to delete and/or block individuals from this type of posting.  It is OK to disagree, but present your arguments with some thought behind it. Difference of opinions are what makes life interesting.