Popcorn Balls

A Fall Day

It’s Hallowee’n today. All the little ones will be out gathering treats…or giving out tricks. The sad part is that it is raining and doesn’t look like it will clear up. Fog has rolled in, and it even looks like a Hallowee’n day

Do  you remember when your kids were little and they went door to door…. when they were too small to go alone! All the excitement of having a costume. My husband was good at making costumes, and each year we saved the three costumes, and the following  year when kids came to the door without  a costume, they would leave our place dressed in one if these.

He was also good at painting faces… so before it was time to go out, they came to our place and he would paint their faces.

We lived in a section of Vancouver called Fraserview…

there were at least two kids in every home, a stipulation of our rental agreement, and they were Veterans homes.   We would have well over a hundred kids. As time went by  some of those kids became too old to go door to door, so we didn’t have to supply quite as many treats.

I started making popcorn balls. It took me quite a while to make enough, but well worth it as the kids appreciated them.

When we were moving away from there, one little boy knocked at my door.  He said “My mom told me that you are moving away. Do you suppose that you could give me your recipe for the popcorn balls that  you give us at Hallowee’n?”

Popcorn Balls     (microwave)

1cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup popping corn, popped

Combine first four ingredients  in micro safe casserole Cover with plastic wrap. Micro High 6 minutes. Stir. Microwave uncovered for 4 minutes. 235 degrees F (*soft ball). If not to this point, High for another 2 minutes.

Place popped corn in large buttered bowl. Pour syrup in a thin stream over popped corn. Stir well. Rub hands with butter to form balls. Place on waxed paper. Wrap in waxed paper to give  out.

Makes 12 to 15 balls

It  looks like it is clearing up. The rain has stopped, the fog has gone away, and the sky is brightening.. The little kids will be happy!

Rambling

Rambling!

For more than two weeks now, we have been putting up with one elevator  to move us  up and down as we need to travel up and down, or meals andw activities.  It has become more annoying as each day goes by.

I probably told  you that we had a new, five Star chef,,,,boy, is she good. Last night at supper was a ‘topper’ as far as I’m concerned.

Souvlaki, Tzatziki  (spelling?) and a Greek Salad…with her home made ice cream, which was served in either a bowl or a cone! Talk about delicious! Things are looking up around here!

My niece and her husbands’ black Lab became ill on the weekend, and had to be put down.    Reading her blog about Tynan brought back memories from our little ‘Skippy’. His legs were so short he had to skip to get up the curb. He was a ‘Heintz 57 breed’……you know, a mixture!

Shortly after we put a new carpet in the front room, my husband ended up with a broken leg. He was lying on the chesterfield… and called Skippy to come to him. Now Skippy knew that he was not allowed on that new carpet. He also knew he had to ‘come’ when he was called.  What                                was he to do?

You could almost see the wheels turning in his head!

There was an easy chair between the couch and the hall. So, Skippy jumped up on that chair and walked across it and right over to the couch…and  on up to the other end and gave my husband a big LICK. He did not touch the carpet!

Prayers, Please!

Prayers, please

My dear friend, Janice, has had Parkinsons for many years..She copes. Now she has other complications, and is back in the hospital, where she had a procedure just a couple of months ago.

Please, my dear friends, please pray for her.

Flowers On Display

Flowers on Display.

Along with the Fall decorations that I used in my last post, we have a basket full hanging on the wall. I took a picture, but I was sitting on my motorized chair…and the basket  is not straight… and I cant remember how to straighten it! Tilt your head just a little and that will straighten it for you!

Have you seen those Phony flowers? They come in all shapes and sizes. We have some of those, but also ‘live’ plants. The real thing!

Time to wander!….

My friend Janice has two green thumbs… and she loves her ‘garden’. A lot of it is in large pots out on her deck, but more fill up the spaces in her suite. She is generous in sharing, and when there is something special in smaller containers, she takes them down to the craft room, or the main lobby for all of us to enjoy.

Right now she has three fabulous Amaryllas in bloom!

They all belong to the ‘WOW’ family! All three are on display where we can enjoy them. She was really pleased to get the photos I took for her records.

I am so thankful  that I had figured out how to use my camera in time to get photos in the past couple of days.

I have just started taking pictures while sitting in my ‘mobile’ chair…not that easy! I do stand up to take some of them, but I am a bit shaky working that way.

Today is Thanksgiving, and is a holiday. We had our turkey dinner and stuffing with pumpkin pie at noon yesterday…At supper tonight we had a delightful surprise. Cream cheese and lox on a croissant. Our new Chef is really making a difference!

Fall Season

Fall Season

Something much brighter than what I have been writing about…you know, elevators that don’t elevate. or descend!

This is the fall season here in Canada… not sure what season it is where you live! Our Thanksgiving Day is Sunday. We have decorations up all over the lobby, dining room and Tree Top Lounge (on the main floor).

Here I go…all over the place again. Come on along!

I haven’t used my camera in a long time. The camera was not broken…but the cord thing that I plugged into it would allow me to transfer my photos to the computer quite easily. Well, then I had to use the card thing…. and that took a while for me to find out (through my son) how to use that. And even more time to know how to transfer them.

Believe it or not…I finally figured it out a few minutes ago!

So what has that got to do with fall decorations?

When I was down for supper, I took my camera along, and snapped a few photos so I could test it out. I hope you enjoy seeing these handsome fellows.

As I wrote this a few days ago, it is  bit out of place…Today is Thanksgiving day! Will save the rest for a new post!

Would You Believe?

Would you believe?

After our elevator was ‘out of order’ for a week, it finally got ‘fixed’ after lunch on Monday.

So there is Tuesday, followed by today, Wednesday. By the time we were ready to go down to the dining room for lunch…. same elevator was OUT OF ORDER once again!

I hope we don’t have to wait another week before it is working at it’s job, and doing it properly! Coming home from supper I was trying to get off at my floor…2nd Avenue as we call it…No one would move enough so I ended up on eighth floor, then back down to two. People are getting short tempered! That doesn’t include me of course!

I mentioned supper. Reminds me of the potato salad we had. It isn’t made here, but brought in from the supplier. I had never had potato salad like it before until I came here…..Potatoes, with a few tiny bits of celery and red pepper, and salad dressing. That’s Potato salad here. NO EGG and NO ONION! The best parts of potato salad!

Frustration…It is now Friday again….it was fixed twice, and is now back “out of order”.

Waiting In Line!

Waiting In Line

We have two elevators in this building, but ever since Friday only one is working. The other one is “out of service”.

We have around eighty-four people… with two sittings for meals… one lot are going down while the first sitting is trying to go home. Remember, most of those people have a walker, or are on a scooter, so that the elevator fills up very quickly.

I just made it home yesterday before my oxygen ran out!

EUREKA!!!

One full week of waiting in line ups to go anywhere on the elevator. Once again it is ‘back to normal’…the elevator has finally been fixed.

We have a new tenant on my floor…and her name is “Norma”. I haven’t met her yet, but a lot of people have told me that there is now another ‘Norma’.

We have four ladies named Dorothy. The one that is one of my table mates at meal times fell a few days ago and is in the hospital with a broken arm, I think at the elbow. She will be 104 on the 29th of this month! Not the best kind of a gift that she wanted…or needed.

It’s another beautiful fall day…I went out and took a close up look at the begonias in tubs along the edge of the patio. There is a briskness in the air…almost got me to think about doing some work…but not quite!

No pictures again. My camera is working, but I have to figure out how to upload photos from the camera to the computer program in order for me to share them.

It has been so long since I used the camera that I almost forget that I have one! Maybe that would be a good thing to work on after lunch. I have to load pictures from the card now, and it is a bit different. For me, anyway!