Thursday, February 25, 2010

What a Week!!!!

How many exclamation points should I add to that title? Wow! I now know what it means to have a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic. Whew! The nose stuffs up and gets numb. The throat swells up, and you can't breathe or swallow. The eyes, face, and neck begin to swell and look awful. You rush to the ER to beg people to save your life! Man oh man, I never want to go through that again. All of this happened last Thursday, and I am still not over it all. I was sent home on steroids, which added another aspect to the whole dilemma. I have a new doctor, and I believe she is going to be a blessing to me. She gave me an antibiotic yesterday, but I have chosen not to fill it. The side effects of that are what I have been experiencing all week, so I do not need any more of that. Anyway, the things are subsding today, and my insides are feeling somewhat better.
Monday was supposed to have been my cake class night. I didn't go, but I did make a cake. I had made a lot of candy flowers last week, so I had them to put on the cake. Of course, I would not normally put all of those flowers on a cake, but for the final cake, we were supposed to add them. Anyway, I took pictures of it the other day. I will post a couple that came out clear enough. I also did the basketweave and the rope trim on it. That was part of the assignment. This was my second time taking this class, and I did get better at making the flowers. I am particularly pleased with my pansies! I also like the little African violets and the leaves for them. I also made little apple blossoms, primroses, and small roses. The daffodils were interesting to learn. There is a lot of detail work that goes into the center sections. We also made chysanthemums. Those are tricky, but I finally got the hang of them. Another flower that we made is the daisy. That one is not very hard. We also made pretty little rosebuds. They are so cute! The rosette is very easy, too. There is something called color flow that we learned to do. You make a very soupy like icing, with a special mixture of the color flow. This stuff is really a type of dried eggwhites. Anyway, you can take any type of picture and put wax paper over it. Then, you trace the picture and allow the lines to dry. Then, you fill in the picture with whatever colors you need. I suppose this is what cake places use when they have big pictures or symbols on top of cakes. I saw them use it as a skill test on one of those cake decorating competitions the other night. The flowers are made out of what they call royal icing. This is icing that is made from a powder that is eggwhites, also. The icing gets hard real fast, and it is like candy. This type of icing is also like what they make those things out of that you can buy in the grocery store to put on cakes.
Well, I have learned a lot. The next course is the last one, and it is fondant and gum paste.I have not been able to go out of the house to register for it, but the class starts next Monday. I am not sure if I will take it right now, though. I think I need a rest, and I need to concentrate on my dissertation again. I haven't been writing it, and I really need to get back to it.
I am blogging today to try and relax. I was getting all numb in my head and face again today, and I think that it may have been out of worry. While I was at Walgreen's, I bought a puzzle to try to start putting together. I thought that might keep my brain from worrying and stuff. Plus, I have always liked puzzles. I don't know when I will start it, but I have it anyway.
I am glad that I have my laptop back at home. Adam borrowed it while he was working on his captain's license. He passed all of that, and I am really proud of him. It is nice to have this in the living room so that I do not have to be locked up in the back bedroom at the regular computer. Well, I will stop for now and post some cake pictures. Have a great day!









Sunday, February 14, 2010

Spang Girls' Reunion Pictures

When I wrote the last post, I did not have pictures to include. Now, I have a few that I would like to share.

Our hotel



Fireworks at Disney, as seen from the hotel, under the Monorail!!



More fireworks ~ They were fantastic, and they were shown to the music of The Sorcerer's Apprentice!



This was taken by my phone. The Disney castle is in the background. It is blue in this picture. The castle kept changing colors, and I tried to get them all. My phone's camera is not that great, so the pictures aren't so good. You can see the outline of the castle, though.




In this picture, the castle is pink. I really enjoyed watching the castle change colors.




The German section of Epcot ~ Where else would we be?!



We took our picture in one of those places that has holes for your head to stick out. Dawn cropped them and made them into individual pictures.

Dawn Grant



Linda Spignesi




Dewilla Hooper



One of the monorails that we took from the hotel and around Epcot.




The little train station in Winter Haven, Florida, with Dawn and I in front.





I am ready to go home! Do you like the luggage? It has pink and purple butterflies on it. I realize that this is little kid's luggage, but I LOVE IT!!




Thanks, girls, for a wonderful weekend. Thanks for sending the pictures, too! We had a ball together!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Home again

Hi,
I am home from my trip to Florida. After reading my last blog just now, I saw a lot of typographical errors that I made. I think that each time the train jolted or something, I hit the wrong key. It is hard to type on those little phone keyboards. Sometimes, the phone makes words that you don't really mean to type. It has a thing that puts up a word that it thinks you are going to write, and sometimes the phone's word gets written. Does that make sense??
I had a great trip and a great visit with my old friends. The second train ride was much better, and the bathrooms were clean! My seat partner was an older gentleman who had been visiting his sister in Florida. He is a World War II veteran and is retired from the Air Force. He was a joy to be with on the long trip home. He said that I was a much better passenger than the person who rode next to him going down to Florida. He said a really big 300 pound guy was sitting next to him and was fast asleep with his legs all sprawled out. The poor little man didn't have any room to sit, and he wouldn't ask for a change of seats. He was a tiny little man, too. The train is very spacious, seatwise, so this other guy must have really been big. I was pleasantly surprised at how much room you have in your seat and around your seat. It is much better than the teeny weeny space you have on a plane. The price was excellent, too! I think I have found my new mode of transportation, especially since I cannot drive by myself anywhere now. My blindness is just too bad now, and I get really scared of traffic coming in and out. I think it is much safer to get on a train and let someone else do the driving. Besides that, you don't have to worry about the traffic or traffic jams!! Well, Monday a lot of the trains were not running up north, because of the snow. Savannah was as far north as the trains were going that day. All of the airlines have been cancelling their flights, too. I suppose that if you were driving, you would have to stop a lot or get into a lot of terrible snow traffic and closed roads. So, the train is a good deal!!

My friends and I posed in one of those things that has a place for your head to stick out. This particular one had three holes. One was way down on the ground (mine), one was way up high (Dawn's), and one was right in the middle (Linda's). We got a couple of people to take our picture, and we thought it would be good to post on facebook. Then, none of us looked good in the same pictures, so Dawn cropped pictures from a couple of different takes and put them on facebook individually.

Spangdahlem, Germany - Summer 1971 - Three young teenage girls say good-bye as two of them go back to the states, and one remains in Germany another year. Fast forward to Orlando, Florida - February 2010 - Three teenage girls, all grown up, meet once again. It has been a long, long time since we three were together. It is a marvelous happening that we are able to meet each other again and be with each other as if time stood still. You wouldn't know that we had not seen each other in almost 40 years. We look different, but the same. We sound different, but the same. We have all been through a lot of things. Many parallel things have happened in our lives over the years. We still have a lot in common, and we are still good friends. What a wonderful, magical, mystical time we had. I love you both, Dawn and Linda. Thanks for the friendship, and thanks for the magnificent weekend of memories and sillies!!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Goin' on a Train Ride!!

Whew! I thought my trip was done for! Then, I thought about a train why not? I should try everything once. So, here I am riding o the silver bullet to Orlando! Yep, that's it's name. I believe we are almost there. The ride gas been calm. Nootion sickness from going up and down, no huge price gouged out oft empty pockets, and no teeny tiny seat to sit in! It has been calm, relaxing, and enjoyable - well, except for the stinky, dirty bathroom :(
all in all, I think I made a right choice for a change.
I am off to see two old friends from my Germany days. I found Dawn again about 15 years ago. We found Linda thus tear on facebook. We haven't seen her since 1971!! Linda arrived in Florida Thursday night, so she and dawn have been visiting. Now today, the three of us will ne together again... What fun!!
There are all sorts of people on the train. The rife is interesting. After my horrific experience with New Jersey traffic, I have been terrified of driving on interstates. Plus, my vision is worsening, and I am very fearful of traffic coming in on me from the sides, etc., etc.
This is my first post from my phone, so I hope there are not too many mistakes.
I will ride the train again on Monday, so I will update my train experiences and trip later!!