Pente

Algernon made an entry recently about teaching a couple of the kids at his school how to play chess. In my comment I mentioned that I preferred to play Pente. I know I made an entry about Pente on my 360 blog, but I can’t find it! I just wasted a half hour clicking through my “Tag Cloud” there looking for it. Actually, I shouldn’t say it was wasted time. I had forgotten how many fun links I included in many of my entries there and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting some of them! Maybe I should repeat a few of them here…

Back to Pente. I discovered the game in the early 80s and was instantly addicted. Several of us had boards and we spent countless hours playing! You can tell from the wear and tear on the game tube in the photo that my set was well used. (Yes, that’s Alice, hoping I’ll look away for a moment so she can nibble on the board or swipe a stone)

My family members never really enjoyed the game so it was a thrill to find it available online. I keep about fifteen or twenty games going at all times, most of them with one of my original Pente partners. I prefer playing with people I know, so I don’t keep my username public. If you’d like to set up an account (it’s free!), let me know your username and we can play. Come on… I dare you!

Mabel's day to shine

Alice isn’t the only star at our house. Today Mabel is the featured pup on The Daily Puppy website!!! I submitted about 15 photos for each puppy so it was a surprise for me to see which ones they chose to use both times.

Check out Mabel’s page!

Prometheus and Bob

Marion has made a couple of entries lately about some of her favorite cartoon characters. I don’t keep up with what my granddaughter watches (other than to know she loves Hannah Montana and High School Musical) so I’m a little out of touch with kid shows these days.

I loved cartoons when I was growing up. Flintstones, Jetsons, Tom & Jerry, Yogi Bear, Bugs Bunny, Popeye, the Roadrunner…. way too many to name them all. I enjoyed lots of the shows and cartoons my children watched, but one I especially liked was Prometheus and Bob. It was a short that occasionally aired on the Nickelodeon show KaBlam. Each segment revolved around Prometheus (a space alien) attempting to teach Bob (a caveman) some simple skill. Things never worked out like Prometheus hoped in part thanks to an obnoxious chimp that appeared in most episodes.

Here’s the best place I’ve found for watching the clips: The Biggest Prometheus and Bob Fansite

Diaries and Journals

I’ve been keeping journals and diaries since I was in the 7th grade. Rarely have they been the daily entry type (though I’ve had a few of those) but rather the blank or lined-page journals that allow more freedom of expression. I have all my journals stored in our fire-proof gun safe. I doubt seriously my kids will ever want to go back and read them after I’m dead and gone, but at least they’ll have the option. Sometimes I wonder if I want them reading some of the personal stuff I’ve written, but hey… I don’t think it will matter to me at that point!

In addition to my regular journals I’ve also kept a number of prayer journals over the years. My sister gave me a beautiful daily prayer journal on my birthday which I began using in January. It’s been a challenge writing every day, but definitely worth the effort.

Blogging is fun, but it will never take the place of putting a pen (or pencil) to paper!

Words from St. Alcuin

I have received the Christian Quotation of the Day via e-mail for a number of years. As with any devotional, some entries speak to me more than others. Here’s one from last week that I especially liked.

O Lord our God,
Who has called us to serve You,
In the midst of the world's affairs,
When we stumble, hold us;
When we fall, lift us up;
When we are hard pressed with evil, deliver us;
When we turn from what is good, turn us back;
And bring us at last to Your glory.
... St. Alcuin (c. 735-804)

Dream Coffee Cake

Our younger daughter left this afternoon to head back to college. She spent the first part of her Spring Break in San Diego, so we didn’t have her here for long. She use to always want me to prepare her favorite dishes when she was home. Now that she lives in an apartment and can cook for herself, she likes for us to eat out at her favorite restaurants instead.

Since I didn’t get to cook any meals for her, I baked bread for her to carry back to school and tried a new coffee cake recipe. It appeared in our newspaper supplement last week and looked quick and easy to make. It definitely lived up to its name!

Dream Coffee Cake
Submitted by Laverne Koivisto, Ashtabula, OH

1 (18 oz.) package yellow cake mix
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ¾ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 13x9-inch baking pan. Combine cake mix, vegetable oil, eggs and sour cream in a large bowl. Beat 2 minutes with a mixer at low speed, scraping sides of bowl frequently. Mix sugar, cinnamon and walnuts in a medium bowl. Spread half the batter in pan. Sprinkle half the walnut mixture over top. Repeat with remaining batter and walnut mixture. Bake 40 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serves 20.

Carolyn's Mission Pie

This past weekend we had a “Talent Show, Pie Social & Silent Auction” at our church. The purpose of the event, which was hosted by the 2009 mission team, was to raise funds for school scholarships for children in Rio Bravo, Mexico and to purchase equipment for the construction program at Manos Juntas Mexico.

The evening was loads of fun and very much a success, including the delicious pie served during intermission. The recipe came from an earlier mission trip to Rio Bravo. Even folks who don’t particularly like coconut thought it was yummy!

Carolyn’s Mission Pie

3 graham cracker crusts
1 jar caramel sauce
1 large Cool Whip
8 oz. cream cheese
1 can Eagle Brand milk
1 cup (can) coconut
1 stick margarine
1 cup pecan pieces

Brown nuts and coconut in margarine. Mix softened cream cheese, milk, and Cool Whip together. Layer cream cheese mixture, caramel, and nut mix in crust. Repeat. Top with drizzled caramel sauce. Freeze and serve. Makes 3 pies.

I used the 16 oz. Cool Whip, substituted butter for margarine and made them in 8 oz. pie crusts. In addition to the jar of caramel sauce, I got a squeeze bottle of caramel to drizzle over the top. As for condensed milk and cream cheese, I always use the fat –free milk and the 1/3 fat cheese.

Outer Dimensions

You know you’re competitive when the conversation goes like this:

Her: “Well, I’d better get out and start scooping poop. I’ve got two weeks worth to scoop.”

Me: “Oh, I’ve found I have to do it most every day.”

Her: “I’m scooping for four dogs, too.”

Me: “Yeah, but mine are bigger.”

Her: “That should make it easier. Bigger piles are more visible.”

Me: “Not necessarily. Depends on how high the grass is.”

Her: “Maybe so….”

It actually got a little more detailed than that, LOL, but I’ll spare you the rest!



I finally completed the puzzle I began shortly after Christmas. This is the third “3D Motion Puzzle” I’ve done. They are fun, but a little hard on the eyes due to their depth. For the same reason they just don’t photograph well. Puzzle time has been limited since we took in the new puppies. I’ll have to remedy that. I need my sanity breaks!

Alice is a star!

What a surprise to find that Alice is the featured puppy on The Daily Puppy website today!! Check it out here! I sent in submissions for both her and Mabel recently and hoped they would use one or both of them.

One of our outside girlies, Bella, was featured on the “grown-up” page in December of 07. She was less than six months old at the time, but they felt her photos didn’t look “puppy” enough for the puppy page.

Who knows… maybe they’ll feature Mabel soon, too!

Mabel, are you able?

Since Alice got special recognition in a recent post I thought it was only fair to give Mabel her own moment in the spotlight. No clever little poems for her, just that question my husband likes to ask: Mabel, are you able?

Mabel is more photogenic than Alice… perhaps because she can actually be still for more than 30 seconds at a time?? Soft and cuddly, I like to scoop her up for comforting hugs. She’s around 30 pounds now, so I’d better grab her up often while I still can! Mabel might look innocent, but she’s just stealthier than Alice. She’s been a climber since day one and I often catch her standing in the windowsill or other places she doesn’t belong.

It’s been raining here for two days and supposed to continue into the weekend. Imagine four housedogs and a wet, muddy backyard. Add to that the fact one of those dogs isn’t very housebroken and two of them haven’t gotten use to the idea of being toweled off from head to tail (including paws) when they’re nasty.

*sigh* I’m feeling the need for a hug.

Mabel, are you able??