New Years Tradition

There’s a yearly tradition that we do here at the Hotel Thompson that I thought I would share.  It’s nothing difficult, really simple if you will.  Mom/dad have done this for years and as they say, “If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it!”  I thought I would share with my friends here in blogville because one can never have too much of good luck, right?

On the 31st of December before midnight, place money outside on your porch.  It can be a loose bill, change, or in an envelope.  This stays on your front porch.  Before midnight, everyone goes outside of the house.

At midnight, you open the front door and throw the money in over the threshold.  This should be the first thing that crosses your door.  This represents money coming into your home for the new year.  Remember, you don’t step into the home until after the money goes in.

I’m not sure where mom/dad got this from but they have been doing it forever.  I mean heck, we’ll take all of the help from everywhere we can, right?  Happy money tossing tonight my friends 🙂

 

Shopping Around the World

My friend Fozzie and I have scheduled a group posting today of Shopping Around the World.   We thought it would be interesting to see the differences between different countries all over.Here are our prices for the following from our area – Georgia USA:

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Items to price this month:

• Soup – Yummy!  Soup is fantastic in the winter and for colder days.  Dad’s favorite ‘can’ soup is Chunky’s Beef Barley.  He LOVES that stuff!  When mom can find is for a $1.00 a can – she stocks up the cabinets.  It’s great, convenient for daddy to prepare and tastes awesome.  Yep, I know it does.  I’ve licked the bowl a couple of times – snorts!
• Christmas Trees –  Why are trees so expensive?  Of course, the longer you wait until Christmas, the cheaper they are.  That makes sense, right?  We don’t have a tree here at the Hotel Thompson so I had to check with a friend on this one.  Our friends have a five foot fir.  It cost them – right after Thanksgiving – nearly $80!  Of course, if you wait until the day before Christmas – the price will be so much lower… as well the branches.  So it might look like a Charlie Brown tree then.  Snorts.
• Cold Medicine –  Mom couldn’t believe the prices on this!  Her and daddy will sometimes take DayQuil or Nyquil.  As an alternative, they will buy the store brand of these items.  Sometimes if mom is lucky, she can get a combo pack with one of each for around $8.00 – can you believe that?  And mom says what is up with Mucinex?  Have you seen the prices for that stuff?  It’s between $20-25.00 a box.  Mom has recently found a generic brand for this at Kroger for $4.00 a bottle!  What a mark up for brand name huh?
• Hot Drink –  This time of the year, there is nothing like something hot and satisfying on your tummy for warmth and to head off a bad cold.  Mom LOVES a hot toddy.  This is a rather cheap drink because you have most of the items on hand – perhaps less than $2.00 when you calculate.  Mommy said I could share her hot toddy recipe below – enjoy and let us know what you think 🙂  It *always* puts mommy in a good mood.
• Random Item of your choice.  Whiskey – Mommy tries to always keep some Jack Daniels on hand.  Her and dad are NOT big drinkers here but there is an occasion when you need this stuff. Her random item will be Jack Daniels Tennessee honey, 750 ml.  It costs around $30.00 but lasts for a while and goes GREAT with mom’s hot toddy recipe.

Mom’s Hot Toddy Recipe:

1 teaspoon of honey; 2 ounces of boiling water; 1 1/2 ounces of whiskey (your choice but JD Honey goes great with this recipe); 3 cloves; 1 cinnamon stick; 1 slice of lemon and 1 pinch of nutmeg

Combine all of the ingredients above except for the nutmeg.  Let stand for at least five minutes to combine the flavors.  Add the sprinkle of nutmeg and then let your worries go away!

Thank you my friends for Shopping Around the World – hope you had a lot of fun!

 

Shopping Around the World – REMINDER

Shopping Around the World is so much fun to see the various prices around the world!

Me and my pal Fozzie started Shopping Around the World in April.  This has become a huge hit and we all want to know if we are paying more or less than everyone else – snorts.  We are going to do it again this month on Wednesday, December 31st.

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Do a posting on your blog linked back to mine.  That way we can keep track of all of the different prices.  It should be interesting to see the differences between.  Mark your calendar so you can do a posting with us.

Items to price this month:

• Soup – It is that time of the year here in the States for soup – shivers.  What is your favorite can/container to buy and how much is it?
• Christmas Trees – Since it’s Christmas time, how much are real trees going for in your area?
• Cold Medicine – Tis the season to get sick 🙂 Mom has had to buy some for daddy lately and she couldn’t believe the price of it – OMP!  List what kind you normally keep on hand/price.
• Hot Drink – During the cold season, what do you keep on hand for something hot – whether it’s coffee, tea, hot chocolate, hot toddy, etc.  Name what you have/price
• Random Item of your choice.

Come join the fun of Shopping Around the World – mark your calendars

Wednesday, December 31st.

Thank you very much for your ideas for the monthly listing. If you have any more suggestions to be added to my on-going list, please email them to me.

 

Mommy’s Food Blog Reminder

Friends – If you get a chance, you *must* check out mom’s food blog here.  You will NOT be disappointed.  Those pictures of hers just make me want to lick the computer screen.  YUM-YUM!  Don’t forget to let her know what you think.  ❤

 

2014 in Review

NOTE my friends – *THIS* couldn’t happen without YOU!  Thank you so much for a great year.  Here’s a toast for a fabulous 2015 to come!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 47,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell

This month for Bacon’s Show and Tell  we are highlighting that one toy that you got as a child that you absolutely HATED – snorts. Remember to link your blogs to this one so we can all share.

Today, I’m letting mommy discuss the one toy that she got that she absolutely hated, despised, couldn’t stand and didn’t want – snorts.  Did you get all of that?

Well, without further ado – take away sweet mommy of mine.  Your story is safe here with all of my friends.

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Thanks sweet Bacon of mine.  When I was little I was what they referred to as a ‘tomboy’.  No Bacon, I’m not talking about a boy named Tom.  I’m talking a girl who likes to do boy stuff, like ride bikes, climb trees, play Cowboy and Indians and such.  Well, I did not like dolls at that stage in my life – I wanted to run with the boys.

Cabbage Patch dolls came out in the 1980′s and were a HUGE hit.  I was turning 11 that year and my mother – of all things possible in the world – got me a red haired Cabbage Patch doll – eeww puke – LOL.   It looked very similar to this picture of a Cabbage Patch Doll.  When I say I hated that doll, it would be an understatement.  I threw gently placed it in my bedroom far back in a corner under a lot of stuff so I didn’t have to see the freak.

Weeks passed and my mom was kind of upset that I was not playing with said expensive Cabbage Patch doll.  I mean after all, it was a toy.  My mother nagged and nagged and nagged – asked me repeatedly when I was going to play with the beautiful doll.  Until one day, I thought sure let’s play with the Cabbage Patch doll with a wicked look on my face.  Uh – oh, this can’t turn out good, right?

So I took the evil little Cabbage Patch doll out in the back yard to play.  I was out in the yard for a while before I came back inside of the house.  My mom was cooking dinner and looked out the back window and saw smoke.  My mom didn’t know what it was and asked me about it.  I told her it wasn’t important.  Hey, there’s smoke out there – it has to be important, right?  So my mother took me back outside to investigate the smoke.

That’s when me and my mom found it.  I say it because you see I never named that Cabbage Patch doll.  And, don’t think that I was a pyromaniac or anything – I wasn’t.  You see the story was that I was playing Cowboys and Indians.  I was a Cowboy and you guessed it – that Cabbage Patch doll was an Indian.   The “Indian”… AKA Cabbage Patch doll… got tied up to a tree because it wouldn’t say uncle.  Since it wouldn’t give in, I set it on fire.  End of Cabbage Patch doll – evil laughter.

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell – REMINDER

This month for Bacon’s Show and Tell  we are highlighting that one toy that you got as a child that you absolutely HATED – snorts.You know we all received them growing up.  Your parents got you something, a friend got you something or the big man himself Santa brought you something and you had to do a double take because you couldn’t believe YOU got it.  You might have kept it a secret all these years because you didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.  Then again, you might have screamed to the heavens above that you hated it. 🙂

Now is the time to tell us ALL about it.  What was that one thing you had that you HATED?  Share it with us on Bacon’s Show and Tell scheduled for tomorrow – Tuesday, December 30th.  Remember to link your blogs to this one so we can all share. Mark your calendars and I hope to see you here my friends – oinks.

 

Tough Times at the Hotel Thompson

 Hello my dear friends.  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas holiday.  It was wonderful here at the Hotel Thompson.  I think it was one of the best we’ve had in several years that I can remember.  What?  I’m only four – snorts.

We had some things to overcome the week of Christmas – one being mom being ill and then there was Houdini.  Cute poor little guy.  The picture to the left is one that was taken on the way to invasion of aliens procedure… well that’s what daddy calls it anyway – snorts.  He looks so pitiful doesn’t he?  He had no clue.  Now personally I don’t remember the invasion of the alien procedure but I have the scars to show for it.  Mine was done so early in my life – at three weeks.  Unbelievable huh?  Hoo-Hoo waited until six MONTHS for his procedure.  Anyway, I don’t remember mine and mom and dad so that’s a good thing.

Mom and dad dropped off the little guy at 8:00 am on Tuesday, December 23, 2014.  Mom was advised that Houdini would be abducted first.  WOW – if anything these aliens are precise huh?  Mom for some reason was a nervous wreck all morning long.  The vet’s office advised she could call around noon to check the status of the alien invasion.  Rolls piggy eyes.  Mommy doesn’t have that kind of patience so of course she called at 11:30AM.  He was in recovery.  The staff advised he was doing fine and mom could pick him up after 4:00PM.  Of course, again you know my mom’s patience level – rolls piggy eyes, she was there at the office at 3:45PM – snorts.

Mom and dad picked him up, got his medicines (he has a pain pill and an antibiotic) and brought him home.  The first he did?  He tried to lick where his alien invasion happened.  I don’t get it.  I don’t remember licking mine – but then again how could I?  My head doesn’t move like that.  Darn not having shoulders per say.

Mom immediately called the doctors office and they told her to put a shirt on him so she did.  Cute huh?  Perhaps she should have went with the shirt that said, “Problem Child”.  Snorts because he was a problem child.  He kept at it and would move his shirt.

Again mom called the vet’s office.  They advised there was the last possibility – the cone of shame.  Thud – now this should be fun.  So mom and dad dropped off Houdini at Nana’s to be watched while they drove as fast as they could in Albert the Smart car to the local pet store to get a cone of shame.

Okay does this picture not look like a sign of ultimate defeat?  I actually even felt sorry for the little guy for a while.  Here he was all drugged up, recovering from surgery and then with the cone of shame.  The first couple of days, he was out of it and so was mom.  Let me tell you about the love of a mom.  Poor Hoo-Hoo, he wasn’t in pain because he was drugged.  But mommy wanted to make sure he was okay.  So what does she do?  She holds him all night long, rocks him to sleep, sings to him and rubs his little back.  All for his comfort so he knows he’s okay.  Can you say aaww?  But that’s my mom.  She’s done the same thing for all of us anipals here at the Hotel Thompson.

Yesterday was the last day of the little guy’s medicines.  I’m not sure who is more glad of that – Houdini or mom – snorts.  I admit he was really good about taking them up until Saturday.  Then he was back to giving mommy a hard time getting those two pills down twice a day.

And don’t think that cone of shame slowed the little guy down.  Not one bit.  By Thursday, he was into EVERYTHING.  He even got stuck up under mom/dad’s bed.  Wearing his cone, he couldn’t get out and he whined so of course mom went on a hunt and find mission.  There he was stuck up underneath a king size bed.  And there was mom, laying on the floor reaching up underneath it trying to get him.  I have to admit it was a hoot of a good time for all of us anipals.  Of course it was.  We *all* tried to help by climbing up and over and all around mom while she was on the floor.  Snorts – it took her about thirty minutes but she got him out.  I wished I had video taped it.

So that’s where we stand right now at the Hotel Thompson.  Houdini still has his cone of shame on and he is healing up nicely.  He will get his stitches out this coming Saturday – which is a good thing.  Then the cone of shame can come off and he can get a good soak in the tub.

 

 

Hey – Heads Up

Mommy was recently asked to write an article on living with someone with visual impairments and disabilities.  I’m going to be posting the article on my blog on New Years Day, 01/01/2015.  I hope that you will join me here this date to read her article.  

It gives you a lot of insight on what we experience here in every day life at the Hotel Thompson and on mom/dad’s adventures in shopping and traveling.  And you know my mom and her sense of humor – I hope it shows in her article.  She has put a lot of time into this article and I hope you can smile and perhaps learn something new 🙂

Please my friends be free to share this article with your friends on your blogs on 01/01/2015.  It’s something that we need to do to educate everyone on disabilities and means a lot to us here at the Hotel Thompson. And what a perfect way to do it on the first day of the new year 2015.  We can make a difference!

Thanks!

 

Men Don’t Remember