Window Shopper

Welcome back!

I can’t believe I wrote that title but it appears to be true, nevertheless. What I have found is that for those who own a Wii (you lucky dogs…well, I don’t believe in luck but..) getting fit is a whole lot easier. See, I am looking for Christmas presents and I ran across this thing. No one in our family has a Wii so it won’t work for us but I thought I would pass this along to someone who might just have one and want to get fit. It’s called a Wii Fit. Go figure. So, do your research here because this item is apparently in great demand. If you are going to get one for Christmas as a present, I would strongly suggest getting it now and before the supplies run out.

Now, what is it? I can best describe it as a platform that you stand on to play the games. I cannot tell you that the thing will make your breakfast for you but it sure does a whole lot of other things. You get to do aerobics, sports, muscle stretches and balance games. Uh, that one would be a problem for me but hey, I don’t have a Wii so no problem there. Now this is a list of the balance games available with this board: Soccer, Ski Slalom, Ski Jump, Table Tilt, Tightrope Walk, Balance Bubble, Penguin Slide, Snowboard Slalom and Lotus Focus. And the Wii Fit has the ability to keep track of your fitness progress. Not bad at all! I’d like to point out that for those who live in areas that see a lot of cold and snow or ice, this combined with the Nintendo Wii would make one heck of a good exercise program in the winter time.

The product description says this is great for the whole family. Looks to me like it would be a great way to have some quality family time together. I took a look at reviews on this product from some buyers. The over all ratings are good. One complaint I guess you would call it is that they stated that it is not really a game but a way to do your exercise. The thing does ask objectives and it would be unlikely that your child under the age of 11 or 12 would care about that part. However, it is still a fun way to lose weight plus the kids would still like the skiing and soccer, I am sure. Looks like fun to me.

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I know. Late as usual. Well, this year we did not go. The nieces did but we did not. Too many problems for us to go. But I have been there before. In fact, I worked at the carnivals when I was young and stupid. The main thing about those places is that you can smell the diesel fuel all over the place. Stupid as this may sound, I loved that about it. All the sounds, sights, music, smells. All of it was really special to me….then. Now, it would be more of a nightmare since I do not walk well. But it was so much fun then.

I do not want to romanticize that type of life. It was really difficult and would be even more dangerous now than it was then. But I did this in the 60s when some people still regarded themselves as being kind. Now, it is very difficult to find such people in that line of work. But, like Sophia Petrillo (Golden Girls for the uninitiated), I am going to ask you to….picture this. Carnivals: 1960s. I was driving my Honda motorcycle then down the midway…just because I could. No, not during the time it was open. Before we had set up everything. Lots of rides were halfway up. The games were already set up since they don’t take as long. All sorts of people running around there in funny shirts and strange looking hats. The cook tent was the first thing to be operational.

One of the things I loved about the food was the…..don’t choke on your coffee now….fried baloney sandwiches. Those things were awesome. So good. Funnel cakes were pretty good too. I used to work in the cotton candy tent. That was fun. People have no idea how much sugar they are choking down with that stuff. The whole thing is pure sugar spun out. Foot long hot dogs are 9 inches long.

The games do not have to be actually rigged to keep people from winning. The games are just pretty hard to do. You have to practice. Some of the ones with sort of a betting thing going on? Don’t bother. You will NOT win. The rest are win-able just not very often. Sometimes, it is the judgment of the person in the game. If it is, you lose. Period. But it is still fun if you go out there to have a good time. If you go out there to challenge everyone for the bear or the stuffed toy, you will go home usually unhappy. One guy did get the big stuffed toy but he had the police out there and saying someone ripped him off. Not true but that’s what he said. In that particular place, the police believed him. Uh huh.

We did go to some places I would not go back to if I was paid. There was a city that would NOT allow us, who worked with the carnival, to shower at the fairgrounds. That particular place then had problems with the “dirty carnies”. Yeah. That was good. Ah well. It was one place out of so many others. All in all, I had a good time then. But today, I would not go through that again if you paid me to do so. I am older and hopefully wiser.

The fair is still a fun place to go. I love the county fairs and the state fairs. That will never change.

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Since I am at home for the moment, I started thinking about the fact that Labor Day is just about upon us. What does that mean? Summer is almost over. Vacations are, for the most part, in the past. Most of the schools are now back in session. Frankly, I hate the idea of summer being gone. For one thing, that means that very soon, it is going to start getting colder. I hate cold weather. My all time favorite season is spring. The time for a new birth or rebirth. Summer is pretty much too hot. Fall or autumn is a time when things start to die, like the leaves on the trees. Other things go into hibernation. Winter is too cold with snow and ice, at least on occasion here.

This weekend should be devoted to one final picnic. I can see it now. All the picnic baskets on the tables. Loads of people getting out the sports equipment. After all, got to get in that last baseball game. Did you ever notice that most of the time picnics, especially those that are coming from churches or companies always play baseball? The all American pastime. Mostly, guys are playing but there are a few gals there too. It’s about time, don’t you think? Everyone in t-shirts, most have some type of sayings on them. Some are just plain silly, others have company logo shirts or church names. All look like they are having a great time. And so, on goes the game into extra innings.

The ladies are setting up the tables with the salads…potato, macaroni, greens. Can you smell the inevitable baked beans? Mashed potatoes. I am getting hungry just thinking about it all. Not all the guys are on the diamond though. Some are at the grills getting the hamburgers and hot dogs ready to serve. Oh and the chicken. Awesome. I can smell all this right here, right now. Oh look, the food is ready. Someone starts calling all the kids and the baseball players to the tables. And with a prayer of thanks, people dig in. Well now. The ants are not getting any of this food!

Will you take a look at all those deserts? My mouth watereth. Apple pie, chocolate cake, strawberrry pie, pecan pie, angelfood cake, chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars, ice cream. There’s more but you do not need a bigger picture of all that food. Besides, it won’t be long before it’s all gone anyway.

The ladies gather up the trash and the dishes to pack away. The kids run off to play before it’s all over. The baseball game resumes for a couple more innings. Of in the distance, someone has brought some music and people are gathering around to sing along. As the songs get louder and louder, the number of people gets larger and larger, you notice that there are more folks here now than there were to start with. The sing-a-long is in full swing. A happy time for all. As the songs wind down, the people go their own ways talking about the best picnic all year.

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Trust me on this one. That is not a subject I am comfortable with at any time. I have no idea what looks good fashion-wise. I suppose that makes me a Neanderthal in some people’s eyes. I really don’t care. When I go to the store to shop, I wear something comfortable. After all, I’m spending our money, not their’s. You know who they are, right? The fashion snobs. Frankly, I have seen the snobs and they don’t look so hot especially in spandex. ACK!!! These people think that they look GOOD in that stuff. Sigh. Some day, there will be a law against people wearing spandex who look horrible in it, don’t you think? Only someone who is reed thin can get away with that. Or maybe someone with incredible muscles. But NOT some chunky monkey person who thinks they look hot when they look…….ack! Nasty. Listen, I’m fat so I can say that!

Frankly, I cannot see that these folks have any style at all. Now, you want style? Find someone who is wearing renaissance clothing. Okay, sometimes it could be a bit much but look at that style, that flair. No, I am NOT talking about “The Nanny” from Flushing. But I am talking about some really great clothing. Of course, you do have to want to walk around in things that are usually only seen in plays and movies but that’s the fun part. Uh, I still wouldn’t wear that to the grocery store though. Sweats. That’s where it’s at for the store. My Mom would not approve. She believed, like most folks when I was growing up, that you dress up to go to the store and out to eat. You were not casual about it at all. She still can’t stand to have on her “grubs” to go to the store or doctor. She is definitely more comfortable in her dressier clothes. I say she should do what she wants.

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I love spring. It’s a new birth of the green things that lay dormant during the winter. The trees begin to sprout their leaves. The early spring flowers show up. We have had daffodils already. They are such pretty yellow flowers. The roses will be out and blooming pretty soon too. It won’t be long before the hummingbirds come back. That’s one of my favorite things about spring, when the birds come back.

It’s also the time to get out the decorations for the yard. Now normally I do not think of garden decor, especially all winter, but, in the spring, that stuff springs into the mind so just having some fun things in the yard and garden make looking out the window nicer, don’t you think? I have seen everything from those garden gnomes to deer, the fun bugs to someone’s very serious scarecrow. It really does not matter what we put in the garden or the yard. It just makes things more interesting when you do that.

Naturally, each spring we end up in the garden center in some store to pick up a part for the lawn mower or some plants to put in the ground early enough for them to produce such great things all summer! This is definitely the time to get all those plants you have ever wanted to plant in your yard and garden. I love spring!!!

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I absolutely hate to admit it but I need clothes that are larger, a LOT larger. Yes, I am a large woman who needs clothes just like the next person. And it is so hard to find affordable, good looking clothes that do not cost an arm and a leg. What am I talking about? Well, you have heard of plus size clothing, right? The problem I have is that you cannot just go anywhere to get this. Sometimes, a discount store might carry some but it’s unlikely. Yes, they do have the lower sizes but not the larger ones. Some of us need more room, don’t ya know.

One of these days, I am just going to get into those sweats I wear and go find some really awesome clothes. Well, I could always lose some weight first, then go looking for clothes. Actually, that would probably be the better solution but I do love to window shop, hence the name…Window Shopper!! I love it!!!

Happy Shopping!

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When I was still a kid, my grandmother lived in a house with a rather high terrace. She was strict about getting on it so I was not allowed to be on it unless it was an emergency. The whole thing was a real pain to mow, I want to tell you. I spent some pretty long summers there with her trying not to fall on my…..posterior while mowing the yard.

Thing is, there were some great adventures there. For instance, the day I found an orphaned bunny. I took it home and raised it to adulthood, then let him go. He brought his family to see us from time to time. Yes, it was him! Then there was the bat. I found him on a light pole out back of her house. I put him in a jar for a couple of hours. When I noticed that he wasn’t doing too well, I let him go. A friend of mine had an alligator for a pet. He was a little guy, about a foot long, but I wanted nothing to do with him! A friend across the street used to live in Hawaii! He loved to walk in the snow barefoot. I hated that. It looked really cold though he said it wasn’t. I think he lied to me.

My grandmother’s yard was fantastic for lots of things but the worst part of it was the concrete steps up to her house. They were long and sort of steep. If I were going to travel up them now, I would be using a stair lift! Too many steps, too high up for me. But she and I went up and down the things every time we went out shopping. We went to the local Rexall drug store, about two blocks away, which had amazing things in it. I got all my comic books there! If only I still had those books. They are so rare now. Still, I had a great time with my grandmother during all those summers and during the school years before I was a teen.

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I am old enough to remember some pretty hot cars when I was in high school in the 60s. One of the hottest was the Corvette. After all, we had the television show “Route 66″ to go by if we wanted to know just HOW hot they were. Martin Milner and George Maharis played two guys driving around the country in a beautiful Corvette each week. It starts with Tod Stiles (Milner) receiving a bequest from his father who had passed away. Tod got a Corvette, but no money. He and his friend, Buz Murdock (Maharis), decided to travel around the country getting odd jobs and adventures. Sometimes, no..all the time, they seem to bite off more than they could chew, at first.

The point is that they were driving one hot car! They attracted girls galore and strange guys. But in the end, the car was the star. Frankly, the cars aren’t quite as hot today, well, except for the newest Corvette and a few other muscle cars. I really loved the older muscle cars. They were so hot! Yes, I do keep saying that. The show ran from 1960-1964 during my high school years and I thought it had been cut off too early.

Now, of course, there is a fantastic looking Corvette too. I saw a picture of a 2009 Vette that was at a car show recently. It had a coppery color. And I was thinking, wouldn’t that look awesome with C6 Corvette wheels and a serious power plant under the hood. WOW! Okay, reality strikes and I know that the beautiful car I just saw is not going to reside in my driveway anytime soon, but hey, I can dream, can’t I?

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I love grab bags. Of course, I have gotten some real junk in them at times but there have been some really great stuff too. As you may already know, grab bags are those things that the stores cannot sell so they pack them up and put the bags out in a barrel or box for people to purchase. The price is usually pretty good. Most grab bags that I buy are about a dollar, sometimes two dollars. Yes, I know. Big spender.

But there was this one time that I was in a jewelry store. I wanted to find a nice ring but I got so interested in the gold watches that I just about forgot to look for the ring I wanted. Eventually, I saw the grab bags. Now, this was in a jewelry store. How bad could the items be? So, I bought one grab bag. I figured that if it was good, I wouldn’t have to buy another one. If not, I could buy a few more. Not bad. In fact, great. That way, I get some good costume jewelry, if nothing else.

I opened the bag at the store because the clerk suggested I do that. The bag was really light. It had a card in it. For once, I picked up a light one because it just seemed right instead since most people would likely think something great was in the heaviest ones. The card said I had just bought a GOLD WATCH. The watch was worth a WHOLE lot more than I paid. It was awesome!! Grab bags are fantastic!

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One of the things that is such a pain is that there seems to be no time left to do anything we like. If we need to put up blog posts, then there isn’t any time to go out to the store. If we have to go to the store, there is no time for the one show we watch every week, no matter what. And if we need to do any of that, there simply is no time to do that special blog post. Sigh. I think I need some time management.

One of my favorite things to do is sit down and just read books. You know, those weird looking things that have pages with writing on them? Yes, I did almost forget what they were myself. With all the time taken blogging and shopping, it is so hard to just relax with a good book, living in fantasy land. I love it. The last one I read was a mystery/love story. It’s when they combine the chair gripping mystery with the love story that it touches me. I love them and recommend that combo for books to read when you have the time. Ugh. Time.

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