Dough Costs Dough

I usually buy my bagels at my local Stop n Shop supermarket. They have a wonderful bakery. It is the only supermarket that has bagels that actually taste like they were baked at a bagel store. I needed bagels yesterday and was not near the supermarket so I ran into my local bagel store. I asked for 6 egg bagels. When I went to pay, the girl said it was $6.50. I usually pay $.65 each. I asked the girl how much the bagels were and she said $1.10 each but since I bought 6 there was a ten cent discount. I remember when bagels were $.06 cents each. I thought to myself tagl. That is a family word for "take a good look", because I won't be coming back here again.

The Right To Remain Silent

In law enforcement when someone is arrested, they have the right to remain silent. I think that we should invoke that right on a daily basis. You have the right to remain silent when you are going to hurt someone's feelings. You have the right to remain silent when you are spreading rumors. You have the right to remain silent when you are speaking hateful words. You have the right to remain silent when your words add nothing to the conversation.

Until

The word "until" carries a lot of weight in the  English language. It is a word that bridges two events. It is the link between happy and sad. Easy and hard. Nice and nasty. The list goes on and on. Last night the word "until" played an important role in my life. We are remodeling our bathroom and everything was going well..... until. As my son pulled out the sink and toilet, he noticed that the old plumbing was not installed correctly. It needed to be replaced. Since we know our limits, we called the plumber and he came over at 8pm. He worked for an hour to replace three valves. Now we are ready to continue on with the rest of the job. Everything was going well..... until the pipes broke. Then everything went well after the plumber came.

Notes

This morning I am wearing a skirt for the first time this season. I never wear skirts or dresses in the winter because my legs get too cold. When I put my hand into the pocket of the skirt, I found a note. It said, "Melon, cantaloupe, lettuce, tomato and cuke". This leads me to believe that the last time I wore the skirt was on a Thursday and I was buying food for the next evening's dinner. I usually find these types of notes at the change of each season. They will be in the pockets of my winter coats and spring jackets also. Every time I find one, it makes me laugh. It is a reminder that time has flown by.

I Scream For Ice Cream

When I was a child there was a saying "I scream for ice cream". It still holds true. There is an ices store on Long Island called Ralph's. It is a chain of stores that is only open from March to November. They serve homemade ices in many creative flavors. My favorites are peppermint patty and rum raisin. My first experience with Ralph's was after visiting my grandson in the ICU just after he was born. After each we went across the street for ices. It gave a happy ending to a stressful night. Now, my grandson is included in the Ralph's experience. Last night as we pulled up to the store, he screamed, "Ices"! Each person chose their flavors. He got red velvet and cookies and cream. We had lids put on them to eat at home. As we pulled away from the store, he started to scream for his ices. He is not a screamer, but the sounds he was making were ear piercing. His mother opened his container and started to feed him. He kept saying, "Mmmm" as each bite went into his mouth. When we arrived at his house, his mother closed the container in order to take him out of the car seat. The screeching started again. He cried as she unlatched him and took him out of the car. As he walked up the path to his house he stopped and looked back. The crying ended as he yelled, "Bye bye Gamma, Bye bye Gamma". As upset as he was having to wait for the remainder of his ices, he still had the manners to give me a proper goodbye.

Prime Location

There are many types of places that people choose to live. Some want to live at the beach in the Hamptons. Some want to live in the mountains in a log cabin. I have the ideal place that I want to live. I want to live "At Ease" in "Peace and Quiet". Of all the prime real estate locations, "at Ease" is the best one. Sometimes you could have all of the money in the world but will never live "at Ease". If you can live at "Ease" in the subdivision of "Peace and Quiet", you have it all. Most of us will never get there. It is the one luxury that money cannot buy.

OJT

There is an expression OJT. It means on the job training. Most intelligent people can learn almost anything if they are trained correctly. My family experienced OJT when my son bought his house. He decided to remodel it himself with the help of his family. It saved him thousands of dollars in labor. Now that my husband is retiring, we have decided to remodel the bathrooms. We have honed enough skills to do the small bathroom. We are not professional enough to do the large one as it would require removing a bathtub. By doing it ourselves we will save about $4000.