thisendoftheswamp

The day after Christmas, The Squire decided to sort through all of our greeting cards, looking for a birthday card for a dear friend who is turning 90.

Well.

Apparently, my habit of buying cards from House Mouse and then forgetting I have them and grabbing one at the Dollar Tree can have some serious consequences. For me, at least. The Squire put various get well, birthday, and sympathy cards, into hanging file folders, and then politely asked me to go through the Christmas cards and decided what I want to keep.

And, no, I can’t keep all of them.

This poor soul was looking for food in a puddle in our front yard. He was actually picking up small twigs and giving them a shake to see if they were edible.

I had some fish that was past its use-by date, so I cut it into small pieces and tossed it out. He flew back, but the fish wasn’t to his taste, so he left it. I think it was simply because it wasn’t live, but I’m not going to buy goldfish for him. I wonder how he’d feel about meal worms?

Well, the blue jays enjoyed my offering, at any rate.

Eldest Daughter sent me this link https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8hqLKaq/ because she knows I really like brie.

It didn’t work out quite as I had expected. But it was still tasty spread on thin wheat crackers.

For years, people have been hounding me about dropping my trusty flip-phone and get a smartphone. So far, I have resisted. The Squire has one, and it doesn’t impress me. It beeps and blips constantly. If he receives an email on the computer, his phone beeps. If the kitchen door is opened, the phone beeps. He has R2D2 living in his pocket!

While we were on vacation Eldest Daughter took us to a phone store to buy her Poppa a new phone. The pressing question was, Did I want The Squire’s old phone. I really, really didn’t, but with three pair of pleading eyes upon me, I finally agreed to take it.

I did not agree to use it.

The salesman wrote my phone number on a sticky note, but it fell off the back of the phone, so I don’t even know what it is. Doesn’t matter. I couldn’t remember it, anyway. Eldest Daughter loaded a really nifty app called Yuka, which allows you to scan the bar code of just about any food item and see its nutrional value. I took it to a meeting last week, and we had a great time playing with it. I took it to the grocery store and got a few surprises; things such as pretzels are not bad if you flick off the salt, but some “healthy” foods are anything but. I use Yuka and play solitaire on the new phone, but that’s it.

Pretty expensive toy, but that’s my opinion of smart phones, anyway.