Evening campers,

Everyone have their pencils sharpened, or their printers ready for the "secret" recipe for perfect hard-boiled eggs? I've tried everything over the years in this quest, so don't go sharing with just anyone (you don't want EVERYBODY to show up at the bash with perfect deviled eggs, do you? AND, YOU are getting this for free..so. It's going up for sale next week, sort of like the Neiman-Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe. Anyway, on with the show...

Okay, I canNOT guarantee that your eggs will be perfect, because your stove isn't my stove, but I'll describe what the water should be doing so you can figure out what number to put the burner on during the second stage, okay? Good, now then. Got those fresh eggs? Good deal, let's go.

First, select a pot that will allow all eggs to lay on the bottom with no crowding and they can "move". If you have to do a BUNCH, either use a bigger pot, or multiple boilings. Put your eggs in, then fill pot (or you can semi-fill before the eggs to "pad" their landing, to about a half inch before the top. Put on the stove, and crank the burner to high, and set your timer, phone, whatever you use, to 10 minutes. IF your egg water is in a furious, spitting boil before that, which it should, and has to be, but depends on pot size, etc, turn the heat down(I have a high 10 to 1 selection, and I turn it to about 6) until the water is in a nice, gentle, rolling boil, which means it looks like there is something under the surface, trying to get out, but NOT spitting or steaming. Set for 20 minutes, for real this time. When timer goes off, take carefully to sink and put under the cold tap. Tip the pot so that the hot water is run out by the cold and turn the pot so that IT cools, too. Do this for a couple minutes, then put the eggs in an open container and into the fridge it goes, for at LEAST an hour. Then, when you use them, just simply tap the egg on the counter, all around it's middle, and you SHOULD get two nice even pieces. That is it. Let me know how it goes.

Well, got a new job starting next Tuesday. Have had enough of the abuse. I feel for the poor dear, but I just, for unknown to me reasons, just irritate her, OR, I'm told, I make her feel safe enough to let off the frustration and anger she feels from being in the bed for so long now, but given that she also rips new ones for poor customer service people on the phone if they don't understand her the first time...and for heaven's sake, she has a damaged vocal cord, and sometimes is hard to understand just from across the room. And I have talked to her on the phone, and it sounds like there is mild static on the line, so it's not just me, but I AM at the top of her 'hit' list. She actually raised her hand to me yesterday, and I'm a 59 year old woman, and she does NOT have dementia. BUT you know the saying that you can fool some of the people SOME of the time, but not ALL of them all of the time? Well, I have finally, after all these years, run into someone that I cannot, not fool, but truly please. It is a very sad day for me, knowing she WILL have to be 'schooled' by the service I work for, AND start over with yet another girl. I hate all of that, plus I FINALLY got both the dogs, her's and her son's, to really like me. Even taught the girl how to sit so I could leash her for walks, which, btw, are NOT on my duty list, just do it when I'm caught up, and they don't have to wait for her son to get home. Eight hours is a LONG time to hold it, right? Anyway, enough of this, or I'll cry again, and I don't want to.

Anyone check out the Bible thing yet? Probably, if I'm being read at all, won't be until after Sunday, or maybe when most people go to church, the holidays, especially this one.
Here's another question. Since it's been pretty well established now by Bible scholars that Jesus could NOT have been born in December...won't go into why unless you ask...why can't we spread it out over the whole year? I mean, I'm on a very tight budget, and I buy for people when stuff is on sale and give them little presents all year, as I can. Wouldn't that be nicer? Then the "spirit of giving" would last all year round. How cool would THAT be? Think about that. The kids would be getting gifts all year round IF they were good all year round, NOT just the last month before Santa comes. Who says he has to come "but once a year"?
Tell them he was hit by the economy, too, and can't afford enough reindeer flying dust for a worldwide trip now, and has to come when prices are down. AND you have kids being good all the time in hopes of scoring, win-win. As for the grown-ups, what's wrong with a nice present for when someone just broke up with someone, or got a raise, new job, or just because? You could have a closet full of stuff you get when it's cheap, and you're flush, and give it out whenever. It'll put the Christmas tree guys out of business, but killing a tree just to decorate isn't cool anyhow, is it? I KNOW we need trees (I AM writing a book that will need paper, after all), but just to make the house smell nice and have a family activity for an hour? Play a game of Jenga instead...that's wood, AND re-usable over and over. The tree guys can use their farmed trees to sell to the paper companies instead. LONG LIVE BOOKS, bah humbug to books on tape or, worse, online.
A book is a friend for life, if you want it to be. You can keep it forever, and when you forget the ending, you can read it again, all new.

Okay, about the "BE USUAL" campaign. This is a multi-stage program here. What I'm aiming for, ultimately is "BE UNIQUE". I mean, you already are, right? So why not BE it, "out of the closet", so to speak. Don't need to share EVERY single aspect of yourself with everyone, probably best you don't, in fact. But what happened to being yourself? Why do we all seem to have this need to conform? And the worst offenders of conforming are the ones' so desperate to be different....like this slouchy cap, ironic thing going on, and the, what, steampipe thing? That is SUCH total conformity, and anonymity, when you stop for just one second and think about it. This is one of the perks of being bipolar, I cannot be "normal", so I have an edge already.
I've been using the phrase "be ever alert because the world needs more lerts", and hardly anyone gets me. I'm just trying to say, BE YOU, not the people you see on TV, especially on those reality? shows. I swear I saw Snookie at the store today, and this woman way WAAAAAY too old for the look, so just BE YOU. So THAT is what I'm shooting for here, in time, slowly, so as not to scare anyone...got to ease folks into just being themselves or there will be a world full of "deer caught in the headlights" everywhere. Can't have that, can I? So, one step at a time.

Okay, I'm fading here. Been a VERY long day, and have two more glorious days with Atilla, ME knowing what's coming, and her not...and I'm not allowed to tell. 
Don't know how cattle ranchers do it...not that I'm comparing her to a cow, just that I know what's coming, and she's blissfully unaware. This will be torture, but then, I've been tortured for a month now, so I guess two more days won't kill me, but I just KNOW I'll cry on Saturday when I leave, and she'll know then what's coming. 
So, I may be back tonight, maybe not.
Good boiling, everyone.
Nite nite....Dragonfly