I'm Alive!

Well, haven't I negelected my blog beyond reason???. What can I say, up and to work, home and to bed.. With Prom, volleyball, etc. I have only had one day off since we opened.. Everyone new is mostly trained and I am very happy with all of the employees. They are all fun and hard working, for once I made good choices.

However, the BIG NEWS is that Preston eloped with Amanda and they are now married. It was a shock to all of us, but he seems happy, so I wish them both the best. They were married last week, (Monday?) and she is staying in NC for a couple of weeks, along with her two children. I just want Preston to be happy.

Last Saturday before going to work, Teresa and I went to the Women's Expo in Salem. It was alot more interesting that I thought it would be and we had a great time. Jenny Holsapple had a fantastic booth, decorated with pink sashes and lace and rockin' music playing. It was a fun place to be. I couldn't stay long, since that day was Prom and I was working with Bill.

Mom and Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob came to visit me at the ice cream shoppe again this week. It was so nice to see them again. Uncle Bob told me he used to be a soda jerk in his younger days working for Uncle Ed in his sweet shop.

Let's see....a strange thing I saw this week, was............along side Route 37.....a pair of hounds tooth pants, just laying there in the sun........can you imagine?.....who wears houndstooth these days, anyway?....:-).

My friend Linda in California is a new grandma and sent me many pictures and a happy email. I am so happy for her. Hey, buddy, hugs to ya, if you are reading this!!! I will write soon.

tick-tick-tick...it is almost 11 a.m and I have to get ready for work (should already be ready, but here I set).

Thieves in the Night and a call from India

Happy Sunday Ladies and Germs......
It has been a hectic week. The weather has been spectacular (except for Thursday which was crap) and there has been a constant line at the ice cream shoppe window. This is great, but my poor feet have to get used to the concrete once again!...Ouch...thanks, Preston, for the foot spa....aahhhhh!

Friday night Ashely and Alana (two girls who worked for me last year), stole some daffodils during the night and brought them to the window of the ice cream shoppe and gave them to me as a gift. Wasn't that sweet, they stole flowers for their old boss lady!! (Ok, I'm not that old!) It's just a figure of speech, as in past employer........ANYWAY......whatever!...:-).

So today is Sunday and it is a beautiful day again, storms coming tomorrow and Tues. though. The phone range and it is my friend, Jayanta, from India. We had a nice visit and he was very easy to understand. He had a deeper voice than I expected and spoke very good English...still that accent was very strong. I guess it didn't sound weird to me, due to there being so many foreign doctors in this area, most of them from India or thereabouts!.

Darren and Mindy made a surprise visit to the ice cream shoppe yesterday!...I happened to look out of the side window while I was waitng on someone and Mindy was making faces at me....too funny. They were in town to go to "Uncle Dave's" 40 birthday party. He lives in Alma, so it wasn't a strech to come to Farina. We had a short visit, but it was great to see them both! They came back to the house to see Bill and for Darren to get his hat that he left here at Chrismas time.

Well, I must go clean the ice cream machine...........I just can't wait......can you hear the sarcasm in my voice???? Guess not.....SINCE I'M TYPING..!!

Looks innocent doesn't he?

Looks innocent doesn’t he? Jay (Jayanta) is a friend from Amman, India that I met about 4 years ago on the Virtual Tourist website. We have been corresponding regularly ever since. I have never seen his sense of humor, but he is very kind and has sent me pictures of his wife and children and of vacations he has taken. I consider him a very good internet friend. However since I have never met him, I always keep my emails intellecual and am not my usual silly self!....But sometimes people surprise you………

On April 1st Jay wrote:

Dear Sheila

I am coming to USA in the last week of April as a tourist on invitation of an old friend from the Silicon Valley in the State of California. I am arriving at San Francisco on 24th April and shall return to India on 10th April after visiting some other States. I am not sure whether I shall be able to see you this time or not.

With warm regards
Jayanta



On April 1st, I wrote back:

Hello, Jay,
Thank you so much for the April Fools card, I really enjoyed it, so kind of you to think of me.

I am very happy that you are visiting the United States. San Francisco and San Jose is where I spent my vacation last fall, do you remember? You will truly enjoy San Francisco, it is a very old city with lots and lots of hills. Also lots of tourist things to do there. My brother lives in San Jose which is right next to San Fran. I would like nothing more than to meet you, but I live on the eastern side of the U.S. (about 1200 miles away from CA). Also, I am opening the ice cream shoppe this Sunday, so I am locked in here, I am so sorry. We could do the next best thing, you could call me and I could at least say hello to you and put a voice with your face. I would like that very much if you would like to call me here are my phone numbers:

Home: 618-547-3379
Cell phone: (this would be best as I always have it with me) 618-322-9081

I will be working, but am off on Saturdays, usually. So you could call me on a Saturday, if you like. If you are too busy, I will understand, but would be so happy to hear from you.

Well, Jay, it has blown up a sudden windy, thunderstorm here with lots of lightening. I didn't think it was even supposed to rain and now it is pounding on the side of the house. So I had better get off of the internet, dont' want to burn up my modem...that would never do!!!

Wonderful to hear from you, let me know about the phone call.

Love to you and your family,
Sheila

On April 2nd, He write back:

Dear Sheila
It was also an April Fool. Probably you did not notice the dates I mentioned in my letter. Thanks for your overwhelming response which clearly indicates that you have great trust on me. If I come to America in the future you will be the first person I would like to meet. I have a special interest in the city of Chicago because of Vivekananda about which I wrote you earlier.
Thanking you once again.
Jay

I wrote back:

Well, you are just quite the joker, aren't you??? I fell for your April Fool's joke, like a ton of bricks didn't I...ha ha! And, yes, I noticed the dates in your email, but I thought you just made a mistake and meant to type May...You were really convincing, you are such a tease!....

Hey, you know you can still call me and say hello! I think you owe me one!! :-).

Have a great day!
Jayanta, Sheila


You just never know, do you?

The iceman cometh

A week has once again come and gone. Most of it has been spent getting ready for the opening of the ice cream shoppe. I did get to have lunch with mom Thursday. Teresa called and was crying because her mom fell and broker her wrist and ankle. Her mom has Alzheimer's and is getting continually worse. It is so sad. Teresa also heard from Robert and that made her cry too, I guess it is really over between the two of them, hard to believe after 5 years. She is so sad, I wish I could help her. Mom gave me some phone numbers for her to call to maybe get some help with her mom. Sending hugs to ya , Tuh!

Tomorrow is opening day. Bill and I spent the entire day finishing up with the cleaning, etc. We went to Arby's for supper. We stopped by mom's and she went with us. Guess that was my last supper..lol.

On a more serious note Pope John Paul II passed away today. It is very sad, even though he lived a life of helping others and passed peacefully. He did alot of good for the world, so we should all be thankful.

Sir Lance Abunch.........

Preston is home for a few days, well, just for two days actually. He is going to Wisconsin to meet Amanda. Anyway, today he came to spend the day with us. Bill was working outside and Preston and I just stayed in the house and visited and had a great time together. I fixed home-made pizza and cherry cobbler with ice cream for dessert. Mom came up for supper too and to visit with Preston. After dinner we watched a movie...A KNIGHT'S TALE. It was very good and was cleverly laced with modern music and present day humor. I give it 5 stars *****. The best part of the movie was GORGEOUS Heath Ledger as Sir William Hatcher...what a hunka hunka.




It was so nice to see Preston again and to spend some time with him, I was glad mom got to see him too! Preston, we love you very much!

Doggie diaries, part one

Took Teresa to St. Louis today to get a cortisone shot in her back....ouch...Bill went too and AFTER the procedure we went to Olive Garden and had a very nice lunch and a long visit.

Then I came home and let the dog out to run a little since she was stuck in the pen all day while we were gone. About 2 hours went by and I went out to put her up, she didn't want to get back in the pen, so I grabbed her by the collar and was pulling her toward the open gate. She twisted around and got under my feet, I went flying down onto the ground right into all of the mud (2 days of rain here). Sally thought I was hurt and started slurping me in the face. I jumped up and she ran to her pen, she knew she was in trouble!! So, I checked to see if any neighbors were watching (or worse if Bill happened to be looking out of the window)...and no one was. So I had to come in a take a bath....that was my day.

Man the Ultimate Survivor

Since these last few weeks have been mostly dedicated to getting the ice cream shoppe ready for business, there is nothing much to write here. All family members are doing fine, Preston is coming home March 25th and that is about it. Spent last Thursday with mom and we had a fun day of relaxing and it is probably our last "Hurrah" until I am again off work next winter....:-(

So here is something extremely fascinating that I saw on the National Geographic channel last night.........In search of the Ultimate survivor. There have been recent discoveries of skeletal remains of humanoid types in Africa and other areas on the planet. These human-types were walking the earth at the same time. Not as an indiviual developing through the millinia as we once thought. These are not skeletons of apes, they have been DNA tested and are definatley human. Many of them lived in the same area and probably were aware of the other's existance. Here is a link to the preview that was on previous to airing:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/ultimatesurvivor/preview.html

It was absolutely astonishing what these skeleton remains reveal. What is known as modern man was almost wiped out by a Golaith-like creature with an average height of 6'4". However, modern man in the end survived by some luck and by having a bigger more creative brain. Also, the Golaith like man had a major genetic flaw, in that his skin was not properly functional in cooling him. He had to live in very cool climates and could not run for long periods of time.

This special was two hours long, so I can not possibly type everything here that was theorized , but it certainly opens the mind to a different past than what we have always been taught.

The final "civilizing of man" was when we learned to speak and therefore , communicate with each other. The speaking mechanism was a fluke of nature and is what seperates us from the primates. Well, I could write a book, but I am sure it will be aired again, it is truly amazing.
I can't seem to get it off of my mind today.

Top 'O the Marnin' to yeh...green people

I am so far behind on my bloggin......I thinks me needs a blogger vitamin.....one that would make your brain remember to blog. Isn't that the strangest word?

Anyhoo, today is St. Patrick's day and since I am partly Irish....
I have a book entitled: Irish Cures, "Mystic Charms & Superstitions",

Here is an Irish Remedy to get rid or freckles:

"Anoint a freckled face with the blood of a bvll, or of a hare and it will pull away the freckles and make the skin fair and clear.....Also the distilled water of walnuts is good."

I don't know about you, but it seems it would be easier to distill a walnut than to get blood from a bull......I think I would still with the nuts!

Besides I don't have freckles!

Have a great St. Patrick's day everyone!

Red Neck Central

Ok, I live in the country but don't consider myself a redneck......but.....I digress!...Saturday night we went out with Bill's cousin, Kathy and her husband, Paul. It was Kathy's birthday!....after eating supper at Denney's we went dancing at the Moose club in Salem. Most of the people at the dance were from Kinmundy and so was the band! We actually had such a good time singing along and laughing alot. Bill and I danced alot. I had on really tall shoes and my feet started hurting , but I just kept on dancing. There were about 12 of us at the table, all from Kinmundy. Kathy had several drinks and kept dancing even when the rest of us were sitting down, she was really enjoying her birthday! She was doing this kind of strange dance step, but it looked vaguely familiar!. Pretty soon Bill got up to dance with her and OMG...that's where I saw it...it must be a Halterman thing. I said to her husband..."Do you think that dance step is something they inherited?"...we had a good laugh, but I guess I shouldn't make fun of hubby at least he gets up to dance!

So here is a little Easter joke, just for good measure!

We got home about 12:30, what a great evening! We haven't danced in ages!

The Great Chicken Escape!

Today is Friday. Bill took off to Michigan with his friend, Paul Neff, who is a truck driver and has been friends with Bill since high school. I talked to Shelley for about an hour and then I called my friend, Anne Roth, and we talked for an hour too!...Then I baked bread and made an apple pie. While all of this was going on it was a terribly windy and cool day outside. It snowed for a while, and then turned to partly couldy. I am listening to music and singing and just enjoying my day while I cleaned and cooked. About 2:00 I went to get the mail, on my way back to the house I see a chicken running along the outside of the fence. I thought one of them flew out until I got a good look at her...it was the Donna Knots...the chicken that was on lock down. She had escaped her prison and was trying to get back on the coop! I can't imagine how she got out. There were huge boards on top of the cage AND the barn was locked! Maybe I should change her name to Houdini!....It was very windy, so I guess that is how she got out of the barn, since the door is not tight but is on a slide...... but how she got out of the cage is a mystery to me. And, of course she went right for the nest and parked herself there! So I had to pick her up, squawking all the way (not me, the chicken) and put her pack in her cage. I put a huge blanket and some more heavy boards on top! If she excapes from there this time I am just going to WIG OUT! This is what she would look like if she was a cartoon.......

Chicken diaries......Lock Down!

One of the chickens would not get off of the next all day Wed. Bill's mom said it is because she is wanting to nest and hatch her eggs. We dont' want any little chicks, so we had to put her in a cage in the barn. She was not happy!....She is in solitary confinement....or Chicken lockdown, if you will! Dona says to leave her in the cage for about a week and she will forget about it!

What? A week has gone by already?

This last week has been a quiet blur. Not much happening. Getting ready for the ice cream season in many ways. We are relaxing as much as possible, we know what we are in for! I have spent two days with mom, which is always so much fun. We have worked on the chicken yard, making a barricade between Sally and the chickens and giving them more room to run when we are working and can't let them loose. We took a ride around Forbes State park one day last week. Just more or less relaxing. Yadda Yadda Yadda. One week passes without notice!

Fish ice cream anyone?

In honor of the nearing of the ice cream season, I give you...WEIRD ICE CREAM FLAVORS:

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream

Does fish-flavored ice cream sound good to you? Don't cringe -- according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, it's all the rage in Japan.

A few years ago, Yoshiaki Sato, the owner of a candy and ice cream shop in the fishing village of Ishinomaki, Japan, was watching a news report on TV about fish that were caught locally, the Pacific saury, going to waste. Mr. Sato suddenly had an idea about what to do about all the extra fish: make fish ice cream.

Everyone, including Sato's employees and his wife, thought he was crazy. And the fish smelled up Sato's sweet factory. But Sato was on the right track -- not only did people slurp up the fish ice cream, but now he makes ice cream out of sea slugs, whale, turtles, cedar chips, and much more.

Now Sato helps other towns in Japan make ice cream flavors out of their local specialties -- including pickled orchards in Toyoma, chicken wings and shrimp in Nagoya City, and eel in central Shizuoka.

According to the article, Japan is not the only country that goes for weird ice cream flavors. In various parts of the U.S., ice cream flavors include praline-chile, garlic, sauerkraut and minestrone.

But odd ice cream flavors in Japan have really taken off, where Sato's sweet shop began the trend of making ice cream out of local food specialities.

Among Sato's eighty-plus experimental ice cream flavors that paid off: abalone, salmon, crab, sea urchin, octopus and shark fin.

Sato had to solve several problems to make ice cream out of fish. For one thing, fish tend to freeze into rock-solid chunks when frozen. Then there's the incredibly fishy smell. Sato found he could solve the freezen problem by soaking the fish in alcohol, which doesn't freeze like water does. And he solved the smell problem in a variety of ways, depending on the fish. For instance, he boils octopus in brown tea, and steams shark fins with green onions and miso soup.

But saury smelled the worst, and was the most difficult challenge. Sato finally got rid of the fishy smell by putting the flesh through a seven step process, including soaking it in whiskey, brandy, and five other alcohols, then combining it with walnuts, almonds, peanuts and chocolate.

Kids love it -- especially the specks of fish meat mixed into the ice cream.

Recently, Sato was asked to create an ice cream out of pit viper, a deadly, poisonous snake. He skinned it, steamed it in sake (Japanese rice wine), and pulverized it in a juicer. According to the Wall Street Journal article, the ice cream that resulted was the color of toffee and smelled a little bit like fertilizer.

What's next for Mr. Sato? A local village has asked him to make ice cream out of their local specialty: fireflies. Perhaps he'll end up with an ice cream that lights up on the tip of your tongue!

The Visit

Mom and I went to Subway for lunch, as usual. It was a pretty nice day for February. After lunch we got on the internet and ordered some wine for Kim and Sylvia from the Genkota winery in Mt. Vernon. They showed us such a great time on our vacation and Kim and furnished mom and I with laptop ibooks. We sent them three bottles of our favorite wines in appreciation. After that we went to the Health food store and mom got some peach tea and I got organic raw sugar. I thought the lady that owned the "Nutrition Center" had died, what a surprise to see her sitting there as always, glad I was wrong!!

Then we went to uncle Bob and Aunt Betty's house and took them some of our eggs. They really appreciated them. It was so nice to visit with them. Got to visit with Rob too! After an hour or so we headed back to mom's and then I came home. It was a really enjoyable day! My time is running out here, winter is about over, so I try to enjoy each day!

My Glamorous life!

It was a cold and damp day, but we decided to clean the chicken coop...oh, joy! Nothing to bring you down to earth more than scoopin' poop!. We also raked lots of dry leave into piles to put in the chicken pen. It has been so rainy and wet, it is a mess. While we were raking the chickens were running around the yard.....FREE RANGE CHICKEN EGGS FOR SALE......and they started running through out piles of leaves throwing them around with their feet!...it was just like having a bunch ot little kids around...only cheeper (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose, am I funnyor what?......probably or what). At the end of the day it was nice to be outside in the crisp cool air doing something besides vegetating on the couch!

That's all I got!

It must be Halloween in everyone's head when they think of me..

One of my friends on the Clayboard made this little picture for me. It is my "cell" as
in "Cellphone". Thanks Jeanene!..these people must really know me..lol.

This past week has not been a good one. Bill's grandma died. She was in her 90's and has been ill for some time. The funeral service was like a Sunday morning church service, with cheerful hymns and a serman. Things didn't seem so sad that way. IT was a great idea, it was a celebration, as it should be.

Secondly, Bill has had the worst head cold ever. I have just been waving good-night to him and sleeping in the extra room.

Thirdly, my Apple laptop just went dark, never to return again. I wrote Kim today and he is sending the 15inch powerbook to me that I used while mom and I were visiting.

Other than that all is well on the Halterman Chicken ranch. We are not doing much but relaxing right now, in about 5 weeks we will have the ice cream shoppe open and it's back to work for the both of us.

I think I will just relax in my "cell", maybe Clay will give me a lick of his ice cream cone!

Working Women's survival convention

Teresa and I went to St. Louis on the Metrolink to the convention center to our annual pilgrimage to the Working Women's survival show!. We usually go in a van with a bunch of other girls on Friday, but we decided to go on Saturday and just the two of us. It is so difficult to keep track of each other in that place!

We got there about noon and had a fantastic time. There were alot of new products, we bought vitamins and tooth whitening products. Teresa bought more stuff, but I was trying to be reasonable! We also bought what we called our "foofoo" pins, which was made of feathers. Teresa's was black and looked like a turantula..lol!

The speaker was Carolyn Kepler from the tv show "The Apprentice", she is the exec. vice president of the Trump organization!. She was really interesting and funny!

We left at 7:00, well, we had to, they turned out the lights! We ate at the Chuchwagon in Fairview Hts, bout Robert some White Castle hamburgers, Bill some Krispy Kreme donuts and some hotwings from Hooters (for Robert Too!)

It was so much more fun with there being just the two of us, I think it is the best time I have ever had at the event. We tried to remember how many years we have been going to it, and I think we arrived at 12 years, wew, we have been through alot together, she's just my best buddy ever!

Got home about midnight.......me tired!

Off to see the Wizard

Well, what an exciting day!!.. We went to Kentucky and paid for our new ice cream machine which will be delivered in about a month. I can' t believe it is getting so close, spring I mean. I am ready though, even though it is nice to have each day free, I need to feel like I am accomplishing something! We grabbed a sandwich and came home. See? I need some excitement in my life!

Oh, well, I guess I shouldn't complain....Bill is a prince...lol

Mom and I went to Subway for lunch. On the way there we passed Bill, but I didn' t see him, I had something more important in mind...a Teriyaki Onion Chicken sub...who needs to wave at the husband when there is food involved!


After lunch we went back to mom's and made some recipe cards on the computer. We had coffee and cookies and we packaged up Doris's present! I hope she likes it! We had a great time making it for her!

I came home about 5:00. Spent the evening reading...sheesh there is nothing on the tv anymore!

The Super Bowl and a mysterious visitor

Today was the superbowl. The Patriots and the Eagles. I don' t watch sports, so I didn't have a favorite team. We watched though because we are Americans and , hey, it was the super bowl!
Paul McCartney was the half-time show and he was wonderful, very classy and no "wardrobe malfunction", just lots of good music, reminiscent of my high school days at Salem High...Beatles...slumber parties...prom...those were the days. In the second half the game finally got exciting and the Patriots wond, 24 to 21. It is the 3rd time they have won in the last 4 years...so the news media is calling it the "Patriots Dynasty".

This picture is from the Mardi Gras, but I just had to post it by itself, even though it is in the collage. If you look closley behind the last girl on the right, there is a guy who saw me taking the picture and just popped in behind her. I knew he was their and took the picture anyway, so funny, he got his picture taken with a bevy of beauties and they were not even aware. So, he is my mysterious visitor.



As if there isn't enough to read,here is a link to a short history about Soulard in St.Louis:
http://www.explorestlouis.com/neighborhoods/soulard.asp?PageType=4