NaBloPoMo Day VIII: Brought to you by the letter S and the number 40

This week is the 40th anniversary of PBS's Sesame Street. I have wonderful memories of this show, and it still looks to be a hit with the kids. This video of songs from 1969 to 2004 should bring back some memories:

I love that Google dedicated a week of Doodles to fun depictions of favorite characters.

November 4th: To kick things off (so to speak) is, of course, Big Bird.

 
November 5th: Everybody's favorite monster, Cookie Monster! I have a poster on the side of my fridge with the big blue guy holding a couple of chocolate chip cookies in one hand, his head held in the other asking, "Got Milk?" My sister put the first one up and some very special friends replaced it when it tore.

November 6th: Best friends Bert & Ernie. These days some people construe their relationship as homosexual, but that is not what kids think of when they see Ernie up to his hijinx and Bert all worried about something. It is more about getting along with someone different from you, I think.

November 7th: Oscar the Grouch is a lovable curmudgeon, whose heart of gold shines through when his friends need it. When I was really tiny, my folks dressed me up for a Sesame Street event in green footed pjs and carried me around in a trashcan!

November 8th:  Elmo was just being introduced when I started to outgrow Sesame Street, so I feel like 'I knew him when', before he had his own segment and Tickle-Me dolls.

November 9th: Edited to add, as the Sesame Street goodness is not yet over. Cannot forget the Count! Below I have his Lullabye four your enjoyment.

November 10th: Edited again to add The Grand Finale!

I end with the words to the Sesame Street Theme Song:


Sunny Day
Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame Street

Come and play
Everything's A-OK
Friendly neighbors there
That's where we meet

Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street

It's a magic carpet ride
Every door will open wide
To happy people like you--
Happy people like
What a beautiful

Sunny Day
Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame Street...

How to get to Sesame Street

How to get to...

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/sesame-street-lyrics-the_n_347200.html&cp

NaBloPoMo Day VII: Trivial matters

I am so stock full of random trivial knowledge, why isn't it ever something that will actually gain me anything? 


I just got back from a trivia night fundraiser for the Hillsboro High School Scholarship, invited by a friend that is a graduate. Having nothing else on my calendar, and interested in a bit of a brain challenge, I agreed. Well, we placed in the top quartile; fifth out of 20, though there were a few questions/answers to which we took exception. 


Note: if you ever go to trivia in Jefferson County, make sure you have somebody that knows country music!


That is all for now. Must rest my weary brain, as each sentence is taking too many corrections to spelling, typing and thinking errors.

NaBloPoMo Day VI: Help, I've Fallen...

 Owwww.

I am such a klutz  sometimes. Last week I fell up the stairs with an armload of stuff so couldn't catch myself and ended up with a nicely bruised left knee and a really ugly - I mean blue/black before it turned purple ugly - bruise on my outer left thigh. It is finally fading away and I go and step on a sweetgum ball and fall, skinning my right knee, tearing a hole through a new pair of pants, and 4 hours later my left hip is telling me that I won't be up for walking much tomorrow. As I said, klutz. 


Even in a couple hours of blowing/raking up leaves, I didn't fall (I don't think an almost-trip that only minorly wrenched my ankle counts) but when I was locking up the shed after I got back home, bam. I was down on the ground and staring up at the lovely colors of the sweetgum tree.



It doesn't help that my joints, especially my lower legs, have been paining me enough that my doctor had blood drawn to test for Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Vitamin D deficiency and a few other things. Results are not in yet, but that was the most blood I've had drawn, other than by the Red Cross. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it is the Vitamin D deficiency (I am pale as a ghost and wear at least SPF 55 sunscreen every day) as that is the easiest to deal with

NaBloPoMo Day V: Stay tuned...

I have a bunch of great posts in mind for this month, but I am either waiting on pictures, waiting for it to be installed, or waiting until I have the time and patience to upload photos and hyperlinks and proofread, and do all the things that should be included in a good post. Instead, I am copying my to-do list, as I only got partway through the top thing today. Ugh. Thankfully, the next two days should be nice weather and I should be able to complete 1 through 3.

My to-do list

1. Finish sanding back deck
2. Brush off/rinse deck and let dry
3. Apply sealant to deck
4. Install balusters on deck
5. Install second soaker hose for hydrangea garden before covering with mulch for the winter
6. Reinstall first soaker hose to allow for new plants and cover with mulch for winter
7. Grade pathway between hydrangea garden and Missouri Native Plant Rain Garden for path
8. Measure, cut & attach longer drainpipe for rain garden
   
9. Install path fence for rain garden and fill with pebbles
10. If at any time freezing is imminent, bring in rest of hothouse plants
11. Plant rest of bulbs
12. Bad weather options:
1. clean house
2. finish converting flower girl pillows into tooth fairy pillows
3. research Christmas presents
4. always paperwork to be filed, bills to be paid, etc.
   
13. HVAC installation: one of these days Hoffman Brothers will be scheduling installation of our solar panel for our heat pump and they will also be re-ducting some areas for better air flow. More about this project after finalized
14. Front yard concrete - finalize designs so that once we have income once again, we can get this taken care of before the front stairs crumble
15. FIND A JOB!!!

Edited to add: 

• Rake/vacuum/somehow deal with the blanket of leaves & prickly little balls from our neighbor's giant sweet gum tree.
• Prep for Thanksgiving at our house
• Winterize the windows with that magic hairdryer film, caulk, tape, foam or a combination of the aforementioned
• Loose weight
• Paint the upstairs bathroom
• Patch the drywall in the laundry room and cover the dryer vent that let in the birds last winter that built the nest that caused condensation to back up in the dryer vent which led us to replace by cutting a hole in said drywall
  

NaBloPoMo Day IV: Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm huntin' wabbits--I mean job hunting

Last night after I blogged day iii, I went to enjoy a nice long soak in my jacuzzi tub (big selling point of the house) with a good book (Robert Jordan's posthumous finale of the Wheel of Time series, part 1 of 3.) It was nice. For about 10 minutes. Then, my brain started composing a cover letter for a job posting that I had flagged earlier in the day. Stoopit brain wouldn't understand that this was my wind-down time, and to let go and immerse itself in the story. I tried for another 5 minutes (my bath times usually stretch toward the 1 hour mark,) and finally gave in and got out. 


Almost two hours later, I head to bed after uploading my resume, filling out the rest of the application and saying goodnight to hubby. A half hour later, I am back downstairs at the computer tweaking a few answers and concatenating a cover letter with the earlier resume, as they did not have a place for a cover letter, and this application is just far enough outside my job experience for one to be useful. I uploaded the new resume combo, logged out and went back to bed. This time, after only 15 minutes of reading my brain was ready for some REMs and consented to sleep.

This was only one application but shows the anxiety and stress that goes with the job hunt. I take only small comfort that there are lots of people in my same situation, because they are out there competing for jobs, too. To all others out there unemployed, my condolences and sympathies, but outta my way you wascally wabbit!