Thank you, Michelle. I have seen the importance of what I call benign neglect when it comes to letting children play and create on their own in a safe way, of course. My daughter once told me she counts on me to give him the artistic creative background that she knows is so important. That sure made me feel good. Would you like a donation of beads? I have some that I'm not using and I know I need to go back in the jewellery room and go through them. If you're interested in a "grab bag" please let me know. I know choosing beads can be a very personal thing, so no worries if you'd prefer not.

Andrea, I've got my fingers crossed for you. May all the workmen report to your doorway post-haste and finish up now!

SRS, using the voice-recognition program really saves the pain in the hands especially my right hand and wrist. I foolishly threw the ball for 30 min. straight for the dog about a week and a half ago, without support for my wrist. I've been paying for it for the past week or so. I get to see my girlfriend osteopath on Tuesday and it is feeling better. This program really does help.

Also thank you, for understanding about the accountability re' exercise.

Roger did the Thanksgiving dishes today, while I worked on printing out four 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper which spelled out

"INDY 500,
1,372 miles that'a way"

with a big arrow pointing east. I made two sets of these and taped them on some real estate sales type signs which each had iron posts to push into the ground. I didn't want to do that because it would have to be outside our fence and I knew some kids or whoever might pull them out and destroy them. So, Roger and Morgan took the two signs taped together, so that each side had an arrow pointing to the east, with the message, and taped them up high at the top of the pickets of our fence at the end of the driveway. That way the signs are visible from both directions.

Since July, a major road about a half a mile from us has been closed with the majority of the traffic being routed down our little two-lane, old street with no sidewalks. The traffic has increased, it seems tenfold, and when the drivers reach our part of the street, it's a straight stretch, so a lot of them gun their engines and go hell-bent for leather. Sitting on the front steps and yelling at them to slow down takes up too much time and is counterproductive as well as could be dangerous. The county has brought out an electronic speed counter and set it up a couple of times. That slowed the folks down for a little while, then they got used to it and didn't pay any attention. When I told the traffic guy my idea about the sign, he laughed and said something about maybe using humor would get across to some of these folks in a better way. I hope so. They do all seem to think they are running a race, i.e. the Indy 500! The project is supposed to be done by November 30, but I don't see any evidence of that yet.

That's about it for the night. I've lost 7 pounds over the past month. Gained a pound after Thanksgiving, but I think it was just water weight. It's gone again, yippie!

The only thing I've noticed about the VOC is it really slows me down, but I guess I better just be happy without speed typing. Good thing I didn't try to do NaNoWriMo this year with it; it would've taken me forever to get 50,000 words, well, that is if I'd ever gone back to proofread! :-)

kat