Happy Thanksgiving To All....

Of course, it is the day after thanksgiving...... shopping is happening, bread is baking, etc., etc., etc.....

Yesterday I grilled a turkey..... We went to Sandy's family for lunch at noon!!!

I was the only one cooking a turkey so the pressure was on....It was up at 5ish.....as you can see, my eyes were blurry (couldn't possibly be the camera...)

Then is was start the grill so is it could warm up... and get out the turkey..... the timer, the seasoning for the turkey, and some of the ingrediants for the gravey....

the turkey weighed 18.88 lbs...... Next we have the turkey in the sink after I washed it off and sprinkled it with seasoning.....

Looked pretty much like a turkey... at 6:00 am, I put the turkey on the grill..... this turkey had one of those little pop-up thingies....but not trusting that, I also used my tempature probe in the other breast.... Here it is on the grill....
The next step in cooking on my Holland grill is to close the lid and wait until the tempature probe tells me the turkey has reached the correct tempature...... So in the meantime I will start the gravey......I found this receipe in a Cajun cookbook - it is called Werstershire gravey... I am not going into a lot of detail other than it tasted good whein it was finished... and oh yeah, I did use the rest of the the turkey that came in the package.....

..... While the turkey was cooking Sandy prepared spinach salad and squash caserol and, I worked on the gravey......

The turkey finished cooking shortly after 10AM.... And here it is...

Inspector cob is looking over it....... We covered it with foil and finished our other preparations and left for turky lunch/dinner at Sandy's family..... We had a great time, ate lots of terrific food, gave thanks for the many blessings we have and came home.... It was a wonderful time.... Oh, and the turkey was a big hit, it was moist and tasted good too..... I used my grandfather's carving set to care it up before we ate

Then the fun started winding down, we packed up and came home at halftime of the first football game!!! When we unpacked we discovered the remains of the turkey....... and as you can see, inspector cob is pleased!!!!Well - happy day to all of you.... keep being thankful for all the wonders of this world and expectations of the next... and remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another. Love and peace, john

I don't usually ask for favors, but I am asking all of my friends to go to the blog about Matt Fay and leave a comment durning this difficult time for Matt and his family. I know that they appreciate all of your uplifting comments - and thanks M. for leaving yours..... here is the link - http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/

You will recall that Matt is a student at the college where I teach and he works in my department. He was within a semester of completing his degree. Last year he contracted a rare form of cancer, passed along genetically, and has been fighting ever since. He has been having chemo for over a year and apparently will continue to do so...... He needs all of our thoughts and prayers. So tell your friends to pray for Matt and his family.

Thanks and blessings to you all. John

There is new information about Matt Fay.. follow this link http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/ Please keep praying.

thank you, john

This and That!!!

These are our inflateable gohsts...... we used them on our deck this year and also in the back of the truck for Trunk or Treat!!!

Our not so scary scare crow!!!

100 pumkins all in a row - all dressed up and ready to go -
To the Coalition for Kids!!!!

Jill on a field trip!!

Trunk of treaters getting some pumpkins!!

A trunk decoration..............

Another Trunk or Treator!!!!

Our less than spectacular fall colors!!!

Peace to you all, John

Dinning in East Tennessee - the bad and the good of it!!!

Yesterday after my PT session for my shoulder, I needed to go to Wal-Mart and wanted to go to eat... So I decided to try the Gondolier Italian Restaurant and Pizza a new place near the Wal-Mart..... Here is the e-mail I just sent to their corporate offices, after all, they do business in 5 states!!!!

I am writing to complain about the service I received yesterday at your Johnson City store. Actually it should be the service I did not receive.

I walked in for lunch at about 11:30 AM on Friday. I was seated and looked at the menu. I decided what I wanted to eat. Ten minutes later no one had been to my table. The hostess went by to seat some people and I ask her if anyone was working this section. She said she would send them right out. The people she seated received immediate service. I sat there for another 5 minutes and no one came to my table. So I left. I will never return and I will never eat at any of your stores. It’s really too bad, I love to eat out and I am a very good tipper.

Cheers, my name

PS: I am a professor at the local university and will be telling all my students about my dining experience, or rather lack of it.

I do not expect one thing from them, but I feel better now.................

The joke around here since I moved here in the mid 80s is that the food is good but the service is not that great!!!

Well, that was the bad - Here is the good -

I have to say that is not always the case. Last night we went out to dinner with our friends Marie and Dennis.. We went to a local place called Cootie Browns.... We were seated and immediately served by a cheery helpful waitress... The food was good, the company was better, we had a really nice evening.... Unfortunately, I spent more space telling you about my bad experience then I did about my good experience...... but the day ended on a positive note and life goes on!!!

I hope you have a nice weekend in blog land or where ever you are.... and remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another........ Peace, john

This past summer Dennis and Marie and Sandy and I went to the beach.... We had a wonderful cabin on the beach!!! We had a great time...... If we had gotten to the Outer Banks and found

these conditions, I would have..............But we did not....... These images and the next bit about Thomas Jefferson I copied form other bloogers around the world..... Google/blogger has a nifty feature that displays images that are posted on blog pages, be careful what you post, it might be seen by the whole blogger world.... I have a lot of fun watching it when I need to relax and do not want to read.. check it out at:

http://play.blogger.com/

In the mean time here is Thomas Jefferson:

and his ten rules!!!

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

Never spend money before you have earned it.

Never buy what you don't want because it is cheap.

Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.

We seldom repent of having eaten too little.

Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

How much pain the evils cost us that never happened.

Take things always by the smooth handle.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, count a hundred.

Thomas Jefferson

So, thank you bloggers for sharing these thoughts and images.

May we have peace on earth, john

Please pray for my sister and 5 of her 6 children and their families who live in the San Diego area as they cope with the horrific fires of Southeren California.......... pray also for the many thousands of other people who are suffering with this nightmare.......... Thank you.... Peace, john

Cherokee United Methodist Church

Youth

the patch

A pile o'pumpkin

Can you find the el(pumpkin)mo?

Ten little pumpkins all in a row

All lined up and ready to go!!!!

Oh Wow, we are so happy!!!
Because..............
Will soon be here!!!

So, remember to take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another,

Love, John

Fall break in Gatlinburg -

Hi everyone, we are back..... We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Gatlinburg with our friends Dennis and Marie.... we were in a condo near downtown Gatlinburg

We had a lot of fun being together and shopping and eating...... We had hoped for the colors of fall, but we got mostly green and brown....

We ate at the Alamo Friday night; on Saturday, we ate breakfast at the condo, then Dennis and I ate lunch at the Fox and Parrot pub and Marie and Sandy went to a tea room, then for dinner we ate at the Greenbrier; on Sunday, we ate breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, a late lunch at the Black Mountain Brewery in Pigeon Forge, and we had cheese and crackers and bread; on Monday, after packing the vehicle, we ate at FlapJacks and came home.......... We had a good time eating ........ Here is the Alamo - it says so on the sign!!!!

Before we went to many, many craft shops in a lengthy loop of such places, we went for a ride to find the Tanasi Lodge - Why you ask? Well in February the Greer's are having their retreat there and next summer, we are celebrating my 65th birthday there.... We got lost (even though we could see the place up the mountain), and drove around places where the signs said private property do not enter, and other such inviting commentary's........... we were close........ we asked someone if they knew where we were and they said "you are right here!!" - no, not really.... the fellow I talked to knew where it was and told us exactly how to get there.... my GPS system was about a full block off..... anyway, we drove up this mountain and at the end of the gravel road, we found the Tanasi Lodge.......... And here it is and after the lodge is the view down the mountain into the valley!!!

While we were relaxing in our condo..... the ladies would be doing knitting and crocheting...

Somebody took off his shoes!!!
And was later seen floating in the wall behind the mirror!!!!!

Since the foliage was less than spectacular, we did not visit the woods!!! However, on one of our shopping trips, after outletmalling until we nearly dropped, we ate at the brewery in a shopping area that was sorta interesting.... I was able to purchase something called smoked venison trail steaks (a type of jerky - no comments please)....... and we did encounter a friendly black bear.....

We had a wonderful time with our friends..... we are home now, with all the new stuff found here and there, and tomorrow it will be back to work for Sandy and back to normal for Dennis and Marie and one more day of Fall break for me!!!

Oh, yah! After we got home we went and picked-up Jill at the spa... she had a bath and got a new boo rag.....

And she wishes you a

season!!!!

So, we had a great time - and we are closing in on Halloween..... so, remember to take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another. Peace, john

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI)

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI)

Last Thursday I had a MRI of my shoulder...... From the title, above, you can see what MRI stands for. You may not know what it is but if you can read the secret code in the second line, you will know!!! Actually, that is the same as the first line except it is in a font called Webdings!!!! There you have it!!

Here is a picture of the MRI machine!

I have had a CAT scan and two MRIs so I wasn't concerned - Yes you are in a tunnel and yes it is loud - sort of like being in a 55 gallon drum with someone beating on it with several different types of hammers.... anyway, I was not overly concerned...

This time, they put my shoulder in a hard plastic harness and stuffed me and the harness into the MRI machine. Well, I was in an awkward position and by shoulder was being twisted in an unusual position. I have never been able to judge time in the tube, no watch, and all the beating throws you off your counting routines... Anyway, after a short period of time my bound-up shoulder was in pain and the rest of that arm was numb..... The pain got worse and the arm continued to be numb.... Finally, I moved.... bad deal... they had to have a do-over for that part of the test so it lasted a little longer than the 30 minutes that it was supposed to last... my bad...

Well that is behind me and I have the results. No torn rotator cuff.... good news.... I have, to quote my doctor, really bad, bad, bad, advanced arthritis." He immediately sent me to the orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Aiken, who I can see on November 7the.... he is really good and is very busy!!!! He did my knee!! My doctor, not wanting to be overly optimistic, says he my want to scrape or replace my shoulder... Hummmmmmmm, I will have to think about those options.

More importantly, I am bummed out about the fact that this is my second joint to have been affected by my arthritisto the point of surgery or possible surgery. I have been pondering the possibilities of a continuing list of joints that will continue to deteriate over time.... Well, I will hop off of my pity pot now....and get on with my life.

Thanks for listening. Remember to take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another.... Love, john

Matt Fay update--

I don't know much but here is what I do know. Matt has just started another round of chemo and is really worn out.... he has at least one more round to go before they evaluate his tumor... it looks like he will be in treatment for most of the rest of the year... after he is finished with chemo he will have surgery...

For those who don't know, Matt is a student worker in my office that was diagnosed with a fairly rare form of cancer late last year and has been in treatment ever since. He was able to finish the spring semester, but not able to come back to school this fall.

Please pray for this young man. He is a real warier and is fighting this cancer with all his strength and with the help of the grace of God.

So for sure, take good care of yourself, so you can take good care of another.
May the peace of Christ be with you and yours, john

Doggers and Kitty Katters:

As many of you know I really love our dog Jill..... and I love our cats Little Bit and Roxy. But, I am particularly fond of Jill.... On our recent trip to Tampa for the wedding of Sandy's niece we had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with some other pretty cool doggers and a kitty kater. I am not sure why I call them doggers and katters, but it is something that started with Jack and Jill and I'm sticking with it.


Kumba the katter!!!


He is named after a roller coaster ride at Bush Gardens near where Sandy's sister lives......

He is a big cat and not really afraid of mingling with the rest of the pet clan........ sometimes he will let you hold him...

Our first night there he slept with Sandy... Sandy was sleeping approximately the same place as the picture above, sometimes the katter was too!!!



Now we have Pogo....

Pogo is a Jack Russel and I am sure in his younger days was more like a pogo then he is now!!! However, he is pretty "bouncy" and very friendly....




Pogo is looking out at the pool - all of the doggers love to swim in the pool... However, Kumba is not that interested in doing that!







This Lexus the pit bull.... she is as gentle as a lamb.

She usually travels with Sandy's brother-in-law but she was home for the wedding, as was he!!!





Lexi, as she is sometimes called, is quite old now but holds her own with the rest of the pet clan!!! Hummmmmmm....








This is Mater (with a long a). Mater is named after the tow truck in the movie Cars.....

He is the youngest of the lot. He was a rescued dogger and is a little shy to get too close to people.... He as a lot of energy!!! Actually, he ownes the young man and woman who got married and was having a sleep over while they are on their honeymoon..


Here are Mater and Lexi side-by-side!!!

Well there thy are - the doggers and katter we visited this past weekend..... I was sad not to have Jill with us... but what we decided is that our dogger and katters can learn to live together in harmony!!!

Remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of others. Jesus said, I did not come to be served but to serve... and so it should be for us as well.

Peace, john

Hello - I have been to a wedding!!!!

We are near Tampa Florida at Sandy's sister house..... Sandy's niece got married this evening. Between the rehearsal and the wedding I was able to take about 250 candid pictures... The real photographer took all the posed pictures!!! I had a great time....

Through the magic of the Internet, I have been able to grade students assignments while being away from home......not wanting to miss anything I ask my friend Dennis send us the church bulletin , the Compass. We will be home before you know it and life will be back to normal... whatever that is???

Well, remember to take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another. Peace, John

I was at the dentist office, where were you?
I went from there to work, where were you?
I went from work to home, where were you?
I saw tower fell on TV, we all died a little,
Where were you?

God grant us peace on earth and througout the universe.