Today's find

As is usual on Tuesday, I stopped at the 2nd hand store on my way home, after helping the guys on the computers. At left is my latest find, a pig salt shaker. You don't see a fine one like this every day - and only 39 cents! :)

Not all is lost

This morning I sat down at the piano with some Christmas song books. And, amazingly enough, I was still able to play them!! Guess I ought to get busy practicing and maybe I'll be able to play them smoothly by Christmas.

B. and I stopped at the women's shelter today (the central donation point) and dropped off some coats, blankets and a bag of hats I knitted & crocheted over this past year. There was a whole line of folks around the block, waiting for their lunch. Hopefully the stuff we dropped off will keep some of them warm this winter.

A Morning at the Shelter

Baked some cookies to take down to the homeless shelter when I went down there yesterday morning. I made chocolate chip - with nuts and without, pumpkin pecan cookies, pumpkin bread, and some diabetic chocolate chip bars. That should have been enough variety so everyone could have something they might like.

It was a quiet day at the shelter, everyone in the computer room was hard at work looking for jobs, housing or just checking their email.

As usual, on my way home I stopped at my favorite 2nd hand store. I found a nice warm winter vest to wear under my coat - perfect for what I wanted and at a great price, $4.99. I wore it last night when B. and I went for a walk to the library and to the store to buy Thanksgiving wine.

We've had a bit of sunshine lately which is much appreciated. Looks like today will be sunny too.

Mosaics, Cooking Tempeh & Driving Discount

Here is the latest mosaic created by B., a flowered mirror. We'll probably hang it in our entrance hallway. It looks even better when you see it in person!

Saturday I went to the "Cooking with Tempeh" class I had signed up for. I was leary of it, expecting to hate the taste of tempeh. Instead, I found I rather liked it and it seems like it will be easy to cook with. The instructor made tempeh chili which we ate with quinoa - very tasty and probably the first tempeh recipe I will attempt. He also made tempeh patties which were rather bland by themselves but would be good on a bun with pickles, mustard, ketchup and other condiments. The recipe for patties could also be used to make tempeh "meatballs". The other two recipes were for "croutons" and stroganoff. I liked the croutons okay and could see adding them to salads but I wasn't too crazy about the stroganoff. Overall, it was definitely a worthwhile class as I now have some new high-protein vegetarian recipes to try.

We met with our insurance agent earlier this week and he said that our AARP driving class should give us a $60 discount per year. Since our certificates are good for three years, that's a pretty good deal. We paid out $20 and took the class but we should save $180.

All quiet on the cat-front. Both Zoe & Devin have been behaving themselves.

Driving class & pumpkin bread

On Monday & Tuesday this week, B. and I went to the AARP driving class It ran from 9:30 to 1:30 each day, with a couple of breaks. The class reviewed the usual driving rules but concentrated on explaining physical changes to our bodies as we age and how that affects our driving. For example, most people's night vision is affected by the time they are 40 years old. As time goes on, some people avoid night driving altogether. B. and I still both drive at night when necessary but use extra caution. http://www.aarp.org/families/driver_safety/driver_ed/a2004-06-21-whatisds.html.

A lot of the course material was familiar to us but we each learned a few things. And there were a few items that we knew were unrealistic in some cities. Don't exceed the speed limit makes sense in most places but I know from experience that if you try to do that on the Atlanta freeways, you are in danger. You may need to drive at 70 or 80 mph just to avoid being hit by the other drivers!!! Also, stopping when the light turns red seems reasonable but in Atlanta it is generally expected that two or three cars will go through the red light and you just wait for them to do so. Maybe it's that way in all big cities. Life - and driving - proceeds at a far more frantic pace in major cities.

The class also went over determining when to give up your keys & stop driving and how to plan ahead for that day. We even were given free all-day bus tickets so we could check out the local bus system.

We both got our certificates for taking the class and we'll be giving them to our insurance agent so that we can get a discount on our insurance. It cost $10 each to take the class but the certificate is good for three years so we should get our investment back.

The first day of class found all of us hungry by break time. There was a snack machine down the hall with some feeble snacks and we all pounced on it to help us through the morning. That night, I went home and baked some pumpkin bread to bring to class. I took the lazy way, just throwing some eggs and water into a mix and popping it in the oven. No big deal. However, all the students & the teacher were quite appreciative: "This is the best pumpkin bread ever!" or "I couldn't have baked anything this good." I didn't have the heart to tell them it was just a mix. Guess no one bakes anymore...