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Our Daily Thread 10-25-13

Good Morning!

It’s Friday! 🙂

On this day in 1854 The Charge of the Light Brigade took place during the Crimean War. The British were winning the Battle of Balaclava when Lord James Cardigan received an order to attack the Russians. He took his troops into a valley and suffered 40 percent caualties. Later it was revealed that the order was the result of confusion and was not given intentionally.

In 1881 the founder of “Cubism,” Pablo Picasso, was born in Malaga, Spain.

In 1955 the microwave oven, for home use, was introduced by The Tappan Company.

In 1962 U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson presented photographic evidence to the United Nations Security Council. The photos were of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

And in 1983 U.S. troops and soldiers from six Caribbean nations invaded Grenada to restore order and provide protection to U.S. citizens after a recent coup within Grenada’s Communist (pro-Cuban) government.

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Quote of the Day

“And I would be the first to admit that probably, in a lot of press conferences over the time that I have been in coaching, indulging my own sense of humor at press conferences has not been greatly to my benefit.” 🙂

Bobby Knight

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Today is Johann Strauss II’s birthday. So it’s “Tales from Vienna Woods Waltz”, from The Bijou Orchestra.

It’s also Sarah Ophelia Colley’s birthday.

And it’s Jon Anderson’s as well.

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Anyone have a QoD?

54 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 10-25-13”

  1. Good evening Jo.
    Good afternoon Ajusuun.
    Good morning everyone else.
    I’m waiting for TSWITW to get ready for the Y. (In this case “S” means slowest). 🙂

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  2. Evening Chas. Friday evening here and I’m ready for a quiet weekend. And, yes, I did go spend an hour in the weight room. Good thing I have a kindle as there is no other way that I could do half an hour on the elliptical.
    Had dinner at our very noisy Teen Centre.

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  5. Happy Friday.

    So who really moves “fast” in the mornings anyway? I start out slow but pick up speed noticeably by mid to late morning.

    We never had a microwave oven — and I’d been out on my own for quite a while before finally buying one for myself (late 1980s, 1990ish?). And weren’t they very expensive when they first came out? Kind of like home computers I suppose, technology tends to get cheaper (and a lot better) with time.

    I had to get up early today (it’s still dark out here) to haul the trash out (my weight training and workout for the day so far, the other part will be lugging the heavy office computer around with me all day).

    I also have an assignment at 8:45 a.m. (yes, that’s “early” in our world of journalism with night deadlines). Then I’ll have a lot of writing to do afterward, I’m just hoping I’ll get out of work at a reasonable hour tonight.

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  6. Morning all….Chas I read TSWITW as the “Sweetest”…not “slowest”…. 🙂
    I’ve been awake since 2:30….so has Paul….we have had a very productive conversation this morn…didn’t solve the problems of the world…but, we are in it together and encourage one another and others in the journey….(he just went back to bed….I cannot sleep!)
    I believe our first microwave was a Tappan…it was huge and did not have a turntable…it was given to us by my parents…they got a new one…we were blessed to get their old one!
    Busy day today around here…ya’ll have a blessed one…praying for ajisuun’s family today….

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  7. Good morning Folks. Radar operators knew for many years that microwaves would cook things. The fire control radars used for Missile guidance aboard my old ship had a kill radius of 700 feet. It was only when the development of miniaturized power electronics became available that the power of the Klystron and the Magnatron became viable.

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  8. Do you realize that in two months it will be Christmas?
    I heard my first Christmas song today.
    The guy on the radio said that on this day, in 1942, the number one song was “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby. And he played it.
    It’s a bit early. I can’t see how that would be #1 this early. It surely was because of the movie. But it’s still early.

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  10. To add to Aji suun’s comment on communication yesterday, I did finally get her text, late in the evening, over 12 hours from the time she sent it. I hadn’t emerged from my house on Wednesday, because that is the day I have to do some housework. I usually spend the morning doing laundry and making yogurt.

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  11. I won’t be going to Lions today. I have a conflict.
    Our church is having a luncheon for couples who have been married fifty years or longer. There are many in our church who fall into that category.
    They have another luncheon at another time for widows, etc.

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  12. I saw my first microwave in the mid-1960s. I was in elementary school and a friend of my dad’s had just started selling them

    We stood in his kitchen and watched him cook a “baked” potato in 10 minutes, amazed. (Some things never change, doesn’t it still take 10 minutes?) my mother shook her head. “Why bother?”

    My father-in-law bought us a microwave 20 years later. It was expensive but I remember justifying it–my husband was working swing shift at the Shipyard (building the USS Michigan) and he could heat up dinner whenever he got home!

    In the new house, the microwave is a drawer under the kitchen island. No turntable. I’m still getting used to it!

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  13. I remember when we got our first microwave–I think I was in junior high–and I thought it was the coolest invention! Frozen dinners have come a long way since then. My BIL, who lives in San Francisco, still doesn’t have one. He thinks it can’t be good for you to eat food cooked in a microwave, so he chooses not to have one. I couldn’t live without mine–it gets used constantly!

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  14. Oooh, Anonymous, a microwave drawer! I’m debating that for my kitchen overhaul, but can’t find one anywhere in western Canada 😦 Let me know the good things and the bad things about it so I can decide if it’s worth pursuing or not. Thanks! I keep thinking it would be nice to be able to stir something without having to lift it out of the oven.

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  15. I use the microwave a lot, too, but not every day typically … Still, it would really be hard to live without it now. I think my mom always felt it would make “real” cooking obsolete and thus she resisted it (advising me to resist it, too!).

    But there comes a time …

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  17. We never had a microwave growing up; I’ve had them on and off as an adult, generally because my housemate had one or wanted one. Me, the “kitchen tool of choice” is a toaster oven. This house has a microwave my husband got built in, but no toaster oven. Granted, I’m cooking for more people now, generally, so a toaster oven would not be as “essential” as it was when I was single, but I still resent the extra time a full-size oven takes to heat up, and the extra energy it uses, when I nearly always only need one shelf and could use a toaster oven. (In a large toaster oven, one can do anything but cookies or a turkey. If doing only a few cookies at a time, even that would be possible. But in a toaster oven I can make brownies, a meatloaf, or nearly anything else one would make in a full-size oven.)

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  18. I had a toaster oven for a while but never used it much — things either got nuked or put in the real oven. So I eventually sold it on craigslist. But many people love them, I somehow never got used to using it I guess.

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  19. Good Morning Everyone. It is The Big Move Weekend. I remain overwhelmed by it. It was time. Mr P and I had our first “argument” yesterday. He has some South Western Pottery pieces that are not to my taste at all. I unpacked several things from the box they were in and put them on shelves. I took the box out to him in the garage and told him what was in it. He told me the pieces would be dispayed that this was OUR first house and I had so accept some things that were special to him. On the other hand, I have found some really ketchy stuff that I like. I have not one but THREE wooden salad bowls and the matching smaller bowls. I also have some mahaghony appetizer and serving trays from the ’60’s or ’70’s. I can’t wait to find a reason to use them.

    QOD Who among us grew up or had those LARGE carved mahoghony spoons and forks handing in the kitchen?

    On microwaves: My grandfather was the first person to have one that I knew. It was huge and I believe was a Litton. Seems it cost a small fortune.
    There are Maximized Living Chiropractors in my area who preach the evils of using a microwave. The show tests of water out of the tap and water that has been microwaved used to water two plants. The one watered with the microwaved water (that has cooled) dies. I don’t know.

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  20. I’m guessing microwaves aren’t that good for us. But the convenience is hard to beat. Still, I do most of my cooking via real oven or stovetop — skillets, etc.

    Be sure to stir stuff in the microwave if the directions say so.

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  21. Kim, we didn’t have them but I do remember the giant wooden/decorative spoon-and-fork sets. 🙂

    Some Southwest pottery is very cool.

    I love yellow ware when it comes to bowls & things to put on exposed shelves in the kitchen. I like old stuff. 🙂

    I have some old pieces of yellow ware from my mom’s and also some I picked up years ago in antique stores (and one mixing bowl that I love — a reproduction but it goes perfectly with what I already had — that I bought for $8 at Home Goods).

    I also have a wonderful, large, very old (uneven) wooden bowl, a birthday gift from my mom many years ago.

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  23. Microwaved water kills stuff? Sounds like witch doctor stuff to me… Unless he gives a good reason for it.

    Of course it might be breaking down some of the added chemicals (like chlorine) and causing problems.

    I’d be less skeptical if it wasn’t just a demonstration.

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  27. The drawer microwave is fine but I’m impatient and I don’t like how I have to wait for it to open and close itself. I don’t like how the buttons work and since I’m tall, a microwave in the wall was never an issue for me.

    How does it work? You push a button and the drawer comes out. You set in your dish, give it a little push and wait for it to close itself. Then you push the buttons and wait for it to go to work. It doesn’t have a turntable either, but I stuck the platter from my last microwave in it so it’s easier to clean.

    It’s an appliance. It belongs to me. We’ll see how long it lasts. I’m not optimistic.

    In other appliance news, this house came with a la-di-da Viking oven/stove. I don’t like it at all. My Martha Stewart friend was here last week drooling over it. It retains heat, DOESN’T have a self-cleaning function and the burners . . .

    Oh, and the dishwasher that came with the house?

    It works.

    That’s all I can say.

    I don’t mean to complain. I’m grateful for what I have. Really.

    What I probably need is a kitchen manager to keep me away from these appliances. You almost feel sorry for them when I enter the room . . . ! 🙂

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  29. We have a normal countertop microwave. Sits in a corner on the counter out of the way.

    My dishwasher is a portable one on wheels that you hook up to the sink. It was a floor model a guy at church got us from where he worked. That was 14 years ago. Probably the best $50 I’ve ever spent. 🙂

    I don’t mind rolling it out and hooking it to the sink either. It takes about a minute, another 5 to put away the dishes when done, but it sooooo beats washing them by hand. I really hate dishwashing by hand. Seriously, I’d rather clean toilets.

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  30. Dishwashers…

    We got a new one a while back. The old one’s rack was peeling and rusting. Finally it started leaking and we just had to get a new one.

    So this new one looks like a plastic box. Really. Cheap lookin’ boxy thing with the integral control panel.

    And do you know, it can do a 12 hour cycle? Who in the world does that? We just put it on the one hour cycle and let it go.

    It is a lot more quiet than the old one, and it does get things clean. It also holds the really big dishes that we had to wash by hand before. Hey, I guess I can start using them now.

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  32. I am also soooo done with the jack hammers and backhoe out front 8 hours a day for about 10 days now too. 😦 But they’ll be back next week. It’s also cool how they park the backhoe overnight directly in front of the house too. I didn’t want to park in front of my own house anyway. Start up at a high idle at 6:45am is really fun too, as I’m sure you can imagine. 🙄

    Hopefully another week should do it. 🙂

    But I still have no idea when the dirt mound where my sidewalk was will be repaired. They’re kinda vague on that…..

    Sorry, I’m ranting a day early. 🙂

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  34. I regard my little gas range/oven as the height of luxury. All those in the village cook over open fires…

    My mother was always doubtful of the effects of microwave radiation on food to be consumed by humans. Whenever I have used a microwave oven, I am always creeped out by how long the food takes to cool down – there is something unnatural about the heat produced. We were given a microwave in my late teen years. It was mostly used by a sibling in-law for popcorn, until it gave up the ghost. We never saw the need to replace it, and my in-law discovered the delights of my mother’s old electric popper – he has asked her to leave it to him in her will 😀

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  38. Good Afternoon, Y’all!
    Hope it’s been less stressful for you…a busy day here

    Kim and AJ…check your FB messages

    Have a super weekend!

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  40. Or just “treen”.

    Evidently it is a combination of two words:
    Old English “treowen” which meant “wood”, and (I gather) the word “tree” with the “-en” suffix.

    If that’s not clear to you, then it’s for good reason. I couldn’t understand the Google diagram. I’m waiting on my linguist friend to explain it…

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  44. Dishwasher: none. There was one under the kitchen counter when we moved in, but we got rid of it after a few years of it not working very well (it would sometimes leak). We put a cabinet in its place, where I store my gluten-free items that don’t need refrigeration or freezing. There’s also a shelf in there where I store my cookbooks and recipe file boxes.

    Microwaves: two of them, but we mostly only use one now. We got two when I was teaching piano at home and needed a quick way to heat up supper between the afternoon and evening students I had. I’ve heard that the electromagnetic waves microwaves put out are not good for people, and it seems to me that having two microwaves going at once in separate corners of a small room would be even worse for a person standing in that room. We don’t do that anymore. 😉 In fact,I’m trying not to rely on the microwaves very much at all anymore. I wouldn’t mind getting rid of them, but a few people here might protest that.

    Toaster oven: never had one, never grew up with one, either. That’s probably the end of that story. 😉

    Wooden utensils: I don’t recall ever seeing a wooden fork, but my grandmother had a thick, dark wooden spoon that she used to stir up a batch of cookie dough when we’d go to her house and help her bake cookies. Makes me smile, thinking of those times…licking that particular spoon was especially satisfying. 🙂

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  45. I have a microwave here that I bought from someone that is the exact same as the first one that I got when my youngest was born in 1984. I use it all the time as I tend to make a meal and eat it the rest of the week, so it is for reheating. Only trouble is, it is on US current so I have to have a transformer to use it. Of course it is also good for keeping things away from the ants, that’s where I store my honey! and if I bake a cake, I will put it in the microwave to cool with a small towel to absorb the moisture. Very handy

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  46. Inbutnotof…you may have gotten the wrong Kim on Facebook. My first name is spelled like the place in South Africa. My maiden name is the opposite of White and my last name starts with an H and ends with a T and sounds something like “he burt I think I’m gonna Hurl”

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  47. Early rave: hubby has off next week and the week after. 🙂 It has been his tradition for a number of years now to take off the last week of October and the first week of November to cut wood. Of course he cuts wood a lot of other times in the year, also, but he has some nice, long, uninterrupted days to do that while he’s off, and the temperatures this time of year are generally perfect for the task, in his estimation.

    We usually take some time off from school, too, so the older kids can go with him. My routine changes, too. I reevaluate our homeschool routine, doing some planning and tweaking. I usually try to take on some household projects I don’t have much time for at other times of the year. I also switch out all the warm-weather clothes and bring in all the cold-weather stuff. (Some of the switching begins earlier than that, as we haven’t exactly had shorts-and-flipflops weather outside for a while now 😉 but the transition to all fall-winter wear gets completed at this time.)

    So it will be a busy two weeks, and I may not be around here much (I’ll be reading, probably late in the day, but might not comment much). Enjoy yourselves, behave, keep the great classical music coming, AJ — let’s see, is there anything else? 😉

    I’ll be certain to check the prayer requests, too, and you know I’ll be praying. Blessings, all.

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  51. Oh I knew the answer to MIM’s question!! grrr
    And Donna, I, too, love yellow ware….I have several pieces…the big bowls I put in the corner upper cabinets in the kitchen because the fronts of those two cabinets are glass paned….don’t you just love the feel of a nice sturdy yellow ware bowl?
    We have had to replace all of our appliances in this house…dishwasher is a Bosche and is very quiet…not to mention it actually gets the dishes clean! Our microwave sits on a shelf above the countertops…it’s used…much, by the teenager….
    My last HOA meeting is tomorrow….it may prove to be tense…I am looking forward to being off of the Board…please pray I remain steadfast and resist being pulled into contention….and that I would honor our Lord in all I say, do….and think! (my goal is to keep my mouth shut!) thanks….

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  52. nancyjill, how did the issue with the dog owners next door ever turn out??

    Yeah, I love those old 1930s yellow ware mixing bows, very primitive & some with those old blue bands.

    One of my favorites is a small yellow ware bowl from my mom’s parents in Iowa .. It was always called the “whipped cream bowl” because that’s what they whipped the cream in for holiday dinners. It has a crack in it but it’s been sealed and is still usable. Love that bowl, always did, even as a kid.

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  53. Michelle, thank you for the info about the microwave drawer. I would not like waiting for the drawer to open either. I will go with a standard microwave.

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  54. Trying to go to bed but there were throngs of loud teens outside prompting the neighbor across the street — a slip of a thing but also a dockworker and you don’t mess with them — to explode, yelling (with f bombs generously sprinkled throughout) that she had a gun pointed at them and the’d better get off her property and move on NOW.

    Seems to have worked. 🙂

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