Friday Fav Five & Saturday 9

There is always something to be thankful for. I am joining Susanne for the Friday Fav Five.

1. Thankful that we could have lunch with my son and his wife to celebrate his Dad's birthday. We were able to meet up after church at a Mexican restaurant and hubby ordered fajitas.

I got soup and soup to go for my aunt. We visited her after our lunch. She is my mom's baby sister and is 82. She is a breast cancer survivor She fell twice during Covid and broke her hips but made it through that. My mom would have been 89 this October. My aunt told me she loved her big sissy.

2. Thankful that my son got a promotion at work and he and his wife are saving for another cruise.

3. Thankful that I got to meet up with a couple of friends and Bible journal. They were not able to meet with the group last week. We met up at a coffee shop at a church nearby. I ordered my usual lavender latte. We were there for 4 hours!

4. Thankful that granddaughter asked us to come to her school carnival. Her Cologuard was hosting a group. We got to meet our grandson's girlfriend too.

5. Thankful to see my cousins on my dad's side. I am the oldest. We were at the after funeral gathering for my uncle that has passed. We took some pictures and here is one of them along with one from over 55 years ago. It was so nice to be with family but I overdid the driving and I think I have elbow bursitis.

Saturday 9: Spooky Scary Skeletons (1996)

Unfamiliar with this week's featured song? Hear it here.

 

1) In this song, Andrew Gold sings that these skeletons send shivers down his spine. Do you often involuntarily shudder or shiver? Yes, on occasion.

 

2) While they appear frightening, these skeletons are harmless and only want to socialize with us mortals. Can you think of something -- or someone -- that intimidated you at first but that you were more comfortable with as you became more familiar? 

I can think of a lot of things. When I was working for the postal service, I worked under a Retail specialist. She gave me one of her programs to maintain. It was the vending program- buying stamps in vending machines. Our postal district had 10 offices that were ranked 2-10 in top sales in the nation. I worked with the employees to make sure they were keeping up with their machines. They send me revenue information each week that I input on a computer and the information went to headquarters in DC. Grand Centra Station NY was #1. My manager told me they were going to have this big marketing meeting and I had to explain things to all these other mangers and postmasters. Was I scared, Yes! My manager took me in the bathroom and prayed with me and the girl that was going to talk about her program. She said I would be okay, because I knew the program. I had to go in front of all these people and show pictures on a overhead projector. Later, the girl that ran toastmasters said I did really well and the only way she could tell I was nervous was seeing my pencil shake a bit. A lot of people said I did great, and they learned a lot about the program. It gave me more confidence to speak in front of large groups.

3) The video for this song was originally created in 1929. Skeleton Dance was a short movie produced and directed by Walt Disney himself. In 2006, Disney Studios paired Gold's song with this animation for a Halloween DVD. Do you have any DVDs that you watch seasonally (every Halloween, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, etc.)? 

We had DVDs of all of them. Not most are on Disney Streaming

 

4) You may not realize it, but you likely already know one of Andrew Gold's songs. He wrote "Thank You for Being a Friend," the theme to TV's Golden Girls. Blanche, Dorothy, Rose or Sophia: Which is your favorite? Rose, but I like all of them and still watch them on the Hallmark channel.

These questions will help us get into the Halloween spirit ....

5) Introduced in the 1880s, candy corn was originally called Chicken Feed. It was developed by a candy manufacturer who gave it the orange/white color and special name to differentiate it from jelly beans. Do you like candy corn (a) all year around or (b) at Halloween only or (c) never? 

(b)I do like candy corn, and so does my grandson, so I will get a small bag for the both of us.

6) What candy will trick-or-treaters get when they show up at your front door? 

I usually get a large bag of Dum Dum suckers and take them to our church Trunk N Treat.  I explained that in my last post and included a lot of pictures. There are also pictures from my granddaughter's Cologuard performance.

 

7) Halloween was a 1978 movie by John Carpenter about Michael Myers, who kills while wearing a ghostly mask. In the original movie, the mask used was a $2 Captain Kirk mask, painted white. Both Halloween and Star Trek are successful franchises of more than a dozen movies. Have you seen more of Michael Myers or Captain Kirk? Captain Kirk.

8) In 2022, a survey of California schoolchildren revealed that Buzz Lightyear was the top pick of Halloween costume. When you were little, did you prefer to dress up for Halloween as a hero, like Buzz, or a scary monster? We got the cheap boxed costumes when we were kids. Halloween was more innocent when I was a child and not scary like it is now.

 

9) Some long-time White House employees claim they have seen Abraham Lincoln's ghost wandering the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Have you ever seen a ghost? No, don't believe in them, but I do believe in angels and fallen angels.

 

Saturday 9: Fooled by a Feeling (1979)

 

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

Chosen because next week is April Fool's Day. 

1) Some believe that the practice of playing tricks on one another on April 1 dates back to the 14th century because it's mentioned in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer is considered one of England's greatest poets. From memory, quote a bit of poetry for us. (It doesn't have to be English, or great.) When I was around 8-9 our Sunday school class performed in the Christmas Eve performance. Each person had a portion to learn. The teacher lit the first  person's candle and then they said their part. Then the that person lit the next persons candle and they would recite their part. At the end we sang a song. Her is my part of the poem.

Christians lit the light, 

that all the world would see, 

the gift of love 

from God above, 

God's son who set us free.

2) When Crazy Sam was a little girl, her mother would prank her on April Fool's Day by slipping a rubber worm or plastic spider in her lunch box. Did you/do you carry a lunchbox, either as a student or an adult? Yes I did. I think I was around nine or ten in this picture. I am in the middle. 

I think the thermos lasted about 1 day.

3) In 1998, Burger King got into the April Fool's Day fun by promoting a special "Left Handed Whopper," supposedly perfectly  designed for a leftie to hold. Describe your perfect burger. Sesame seed bun, lettuce, tomato, pickles and sauce. Once in awhile I like grilled onions.

4) In this week's song, Barbara Mandrell sings that she followed her heart into her lover's arms. Are you more often led by your heart or head? Just depends on the situation. 

5) She knows now she was wrong for believing her man loved her. When did you recently admit you were wrong? Today.

6) Barbara Mandrell recalls being able to read music before she could read words. Can you read sheet music? Yes I can because I played piano for years. But I could not point the notes out and tell you what they are.

7) Barbara had her own TV variety show in the 1980s and, in the 90s, acted on the daytime drama, Sunset Beach. The soap opera's producer, Aaron Spelling, was a huge fan of Barbara's and was thrilled to finally meet and work with her. Tell us about someone you really enjoyed working with, and why.

I have not worked since November 2010. I enjoyed working with most people in my department. I shared an office with a girl named Irene. I would play my Christian music sometimes and she would play her oldies some times. We could talk about all sorts of things while working unless we were on the phones. I would share what was happening at my church and Women's ministry. Before we moved into our new church, we got to write the names of people we were praying on the cement floor. It was just before they placed the carpet. I told Irene I put her name down and she said thanks for thinking of her. She left my department in 2009.  We would chat on occasion through text message. In 2012 I started getting Bible verses from her so I asked her is she was a Christian and she said yes. She said a mutual friend invited her to church. When she went, she realized it was the same church I told her about. I wasn't going to church much then because I was taking care of my sick dad. But one day I was there and Irene came over to say hi with her friend and told her "this is the girl that wrote my name on the floor in the church. Then she hugged me. She said I led her on that path. I told her God did!

I like bible journaling with my friends and my friends Linda and Coreen come to my mind first.

8) In 1979, when this song was released, a top-of-the-line Sony Walkman sold for $150 (approx. $500 in today's dollars). Did you have a portable cassette player back in the day? I still remember using a desktop recorder to record songs from the radio. It also helped me learn terms for my physiology class. I would read the terms while recording. Then I could play it back while reading. Later I got a smaller Walkman to listen to music.

9) Random question: What's the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning. Wow, it is late! 

This week went by so fast! The grands came over on Saturday and spent the night. We were able to do some Bible journaling and they painted wooden rainbows. The girls also had fun dressing up the dogs. The dogs hate to wear clothes but they liked the attention they were getting!

Monday hubby and I had to rest. During the week we watched a series on The Queen of Soul - Aretha Franklin. It was very interesting. I was also busy working on my Lent project-bible journaling. Also doing a project for my craft group. 

In April I will be going on a virtual cruise to Hawaii with Crafty Destinations(Set Sail and Stamp). They had one last April called Quarantine Cruise and it was fun. They provide you with all the digital materials that you print out and cut. Each day we had a morning wakeup call and them 2 teaching lessons. Everything is crafting. Last time we stopped in Mexico. At the end of the 5 days we all had a cute memory book of our adventures. If you are interested in it, I can post a few sample pictures.  The link is  Crafty Destinations When you sign up, you are given the link to the private Facebook group where we see the live presentations. It doesn't start until April 14 and material will be mailed out by the 9th. If you have stamps-rubber or acrylic, get them ready. But you don't have to have them.  You will get plenty of graphics to print out and use. In my other group, they suggested we find pictures in Pinterest. I might go to the public library and see if they have used magazines that have pictures. I will also be using some of my pictures from my last Hawaii trip.