Sophie's Story

C is on a mission today. Over his lunch break he is going to buy a new phone. He has been looking at things on the Internet, reading tech reviews and talking with Carrie's boyfriend. He has given this a lot of thought. I can't remember the model name of what he plans to buy. I do know what it does, it does everything except talk for you when you make a call. (Maybe it does do that.) It has an Internet connection, GPS,will tell you the weather, can be used to read electronic books and plays music. It is even supposed to read bar codes at stores and tell you where to get the best deal. He's very excited about this. He wants me to learn how to use it especially the GPS. I prefer the manual system otherwise known as a road map. On road trip when I do read the map and tell him how to turn he usually insists on looking at it for himself. In his defense while I can read a road map just fine on a car trip, I have been known to get us hopelessly lost by misreading a trail map ...

Several friends of mine and I were discussing the Oscars recently. Naturally most of the talk centered on the categories of best actress,actor,supporting actor/actress and picture. I surprised a few of them by saying that honestly I didn't care about those awards. They are only mildly interesting to me. The awards that really catch my interest are best costume,sound editing and sound mixing. The last two are the ones that interest me the most. My Dad is an engineer at a radio station. I sometimes went with him to work and got to see the boards that the disc jockeys use to control the sounds you hear. (Mind you this was in the 70s and 80s, I'm sure now most of this is done by computer.) There were all kinds of knobs and sliding switches to make things sound all kinds of ways. Sometimes I would even be allowed to play with them. I once was able to watch a rehearsal of the radio show "Prairie Home Companion". Garrison Keillor would tell a story and there would be severa...

I did decide to enter the area speech contest. Since no one else volunteered, I decided why not. It's been awhile and it could be fun. The area that we are in has four clubs in it counting mine. Two of them are less active and the other two are quite active. (Mine is one of the active clubs.) Last year's fall speech contest had fewer contestants because of this. I knew that. At most there would be one maybe two other people competing against me. One of them would be from the other active club and that club is very good. I hoped to place at least second. When the contest program came out there was another person competing besides me. That's all right. I knew obtaining a second place finish would be no problem. The final program was sent to me yesterday afternoon with both names still on it. A third person would have been nice, but that is all right. Before the contest starts the contestants have a meeting to go over the rules and format. The other person had not shown...

In the movie 'Steel Magnolias' Shelby, played by Julia Roberts, describes her wedding colours as 'Blush' and 'Bashful'. When her mother, played by Sally Field, remarks that the colours are pink and pink, she brushes off the criticism saying that one shade of pink is deeper than the other. "I like pink. Pink is my signature colour." I'm interested in signature items. These are things that someone wears or favors so much that it is odd if you ever see them without it. First Lady Dolly Madison's signature item were the turbans she'd wear sometimes adorned with feathers. Pictures of Anne Boleyn often show her wearing a pearl necklace the the letter B on it. I read once that Eugenie, Empress of France,would outline her eyes with make up. She did this even when she had to flee France after her husband was deposed even though this would make her more recognisable. The late Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother often wore a three strand pearl necklace....

I don't believe in hoarding recipes. If I find a good recipe for something and someone else wants it I give it to them. Gladly. The only reason to hoard a recipe is if it happens to be some sort of trade secret. Among us home cooks this does not apply so failing to share something is the height of selfishness. I have lots of recipes that I've gleaned from the back of cans, from magazines and from people I know. Some of them I have made and some of them are waiting for just the right time. You can tell which ones I've made by how the piece of paper looks. If it is pristine chances are I've not made it yet. If it is riddled with stains and slightly warped, I've made it several times. Several of them will have notes on spices and cooking time. A few of them will have one word written on them. Yum. If I make something and it is a big hit I write the word yum on it. That way I know which ones are the really popular ones. (As opposed to the it's all right but ...

I've been on Facebook for about three months now. Except for the fact that it is too easy to lose track of time while on it I like it. The photo albums are nice and the message function is useful. I've chatted with my friend,Sarah,on it and caught up with one close friend from high school. All of these things are nice, but my favourite thing is the status update. On Facebook there is a spot on your wall where you can write a comment. You can change it as often as you like and it shows up on the pages of everyone who is your friend. There is a spot where people can comment on your status and you are notified when a friend of yours comments or changes a status. I've read all kinds of them. Some of them are puzzling, like when Carrie posted that she was distraught. Some amusing, like when Jake quoted from one of his son's favourite Dr. Seuss books. Denise likes to post what she is doing. C posts a little of everything. It's fun to see what people will come up with....