Stolen Purse

Last year, my computer was hacked and I had to contact Equifax, cancel credit cards and get a new checking account and change my email address and password. It took time and it was a real pain.

This year, the day before Thanksgiving, while helping my daughter prepare the turkey dinners for an abused shelter for women, one of the abused women not only picked up her free dinner for four but stole my purse as well! The woman was the only person to come into my daughter’s catering kitchen to pick up her food while I was working there.

When I was ready to go home around 9pm, my purse was missing, and so were the only set of keys that I had for my car. This would be the beginning of my holiday nightmare. I lost a new, expensive leather purse, $40 in gift cards, $70 in cash. My keys and house key was gone. I called to cancel my credit card and found that it already had been used for gas. I was able to find out the time and the area. This was within 45 minutes after my purse was taken.

I had to do some damage control…like, cancel my debit card, file a police report, and call Equifax to put out a 90 day fraud alert, and wait in the parking lot until 2 am for the Triple AAA tow truck that would be delayed until 4:30 am. This call was cancelled and my son drove me home.

I would have to wait until Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to cancel one other credit card, go to the bank and sit there for 1-1/2 hour to close an account, open a new one, call the Social Security office to have the monthly checks directly deposited into the new account, and get a bank check to pay for an important bill, and not be charged a late fee. Next on my list was to call my health care provider for new medical insurance cards. Then to Triple AAA for a new membership card and to the DMV for a new drivers license. After this I had to call the Ford Dealer for a start up key to get the car into neutral and have it towed to the dealership where they would cut two new keys and make a new remote. Later the battery died and had to be replaced along with some broken lights and a torn back windshield wiper and a few other problems.

The cost added up and I was out $1,000. I still need to change the locks on my house. I spent a lot of time on the phone, waiting in a parking lot and replacing the things that were stolen from me.

The biggest insult was that I had donated some money toward the food that I was preparing for the shelter. In the end, I would have to borrow money from my children until I had my new debit card and new credit, which will take 5 to 7 days.

To the big loser who stole my purse and identity – I hope it was worth it? I will have been inconvenienced a lot but you will still be you, a loser, for the rest of your life.

Holy Cannoli!

Think of the times that you have gone to an Italian restaurant, looked over a menu, spotted a Cannoli and looked at the price, and thought, “Holy Cannoli! That’s one expensive dessert!”

Well, let me tell you how much time that goes into making the Cannoli and you will appreciate it and the amount that it costs. I took a class on Cannoli making with my daughter, Kate, at my local Community College. The fee to register for the class was $39.00. We would learn how to make the dough and the filling. We needed to bring along an apron, measuring spoons, measuring cups, a bowl, and a spatula. That sounded easy enough.
The first thing that we learned was that the instructor had bought the ricotta cheese and wrapped it in cheesecloth and put it into a drainer in her refrigerator for three days. The ricotta needed to be very dry, and it was.

The filling was divided into two bowls and then some powdered sugar was added and some imitation vanilla and that was stirred up until it was light and fluffy. Then semi sweet, mini chocolate chips were added to one mixture. This is the American version of the Cannoli filling. In the other bowl, the powdered sugar was added, imitation vanilla, and finely chopped citron. This is the Italian version. Each bowl was set aside.

Each person worked on their Cannoli dough. This wasn’t easy. For the dough, flour is needed, and a small amount of sugar, cinnamon, water and vinegar. The vinegar makes the bubbly effect to the Cannoli shells when it is fried in a pot of vegetable oil.

As I said, mixing the dough is the hardest part and it takes a lot of strength to knead it. Knead it we did…for about one hour. I can honestly say that my fingers, the palm of my hands, and my wrists were sore. As a matter of fact, they are still sore.

Eventually, when the dough was done, we rolled it into a smooth ball. We cut pieces of the dough, and rolled it three times in a pasta maker, to be wide and thin. When that was completed, the dough was cut into a square. The metal Cannoli rods were sprayed with Pam for the first use. The square was wrapped on the rod like a triangle. To keep the seam together, we dipped a finger into egg yolk and wiped it across the seam. The rod with the dough was put into the bubbling oil and taken out when it was golden brown. The shell would slip off the rod and the same process would be used until all the dough was gone. The dough can be kept wrapped in a refrigerator for up to three days.

Rosie the Riveter

I have decided to become the second Rosie the Riveter. Am I referring to Rosie the Riveter from the war years? Yep, that’s the one. She became an iconoclast for that generation and the other generations to follow. One just has to see a photo of this woman with her red bandana with polka dots, and her right arm up and her hand rolled into a fist and her left hand exposing her biceps to know that she was extremely capable woman. That is the person that I want to be. She was the woman that first graced the posters and ads during the war years and represented women as an important commodity in the workforce. Because women were needed, it became socially acceptable for them to come out of the kitchen and into the work force.

I want to take control of my life and try to do things like Rosie did. If I can’t, I will hire someone or ask one of my sons. But I do have a Home Repair book on my kitchen shelf above my desk, a handy book aimed at “Woman of the House.” It even has Rosie the Riveter on the front cover. I have used this book from time to time.

Yeah, that is who I want to become, Rosie the Riveter, the capable, no nonsense woman, the I can do anything, I can do everything woman. I figure that I am strong, I am woman, and I sure as hell can be heard when I roar. I am also the woman who had nine children in eleven years. I carried each one full term and beyond. I had a set of twins that I were 2-1/2 weeks overdue. The two of them together weighed over 16 pounds! Talk about a woman who looked like a “beach whale,” that definitely was me.

So far, I have become a force to reckon with at my house. I have tackled cleaning the tiles and grout on my hallway floor, and the tile and grouts in the bathroom. The old caulking is off, and I cleaned all the black mildew off with bleach and cotton balls. I will tackle the caulking next.

My next major project was to paint a hallway…and I did. It looks pretty good. Thankfully it is the same color as the old one but I did get rid of the black marks that my grandchildren made from spider walking on the walls. Just like my children used to do. Then I tackled a bedroom with white walls. I used a cool color, Aqua Sphere. I taped around the wood and my son, who used to work with a painter during the summer, pointed out that I only needed to use one long piece of tape instead of the small ones. It worked for me. Then he cut out the top and sides and bottom. Amazing that he never got any paint on him and did an amazing job not getting paint on the ceiling, floor or wood. I still have white paint in my hair from my painting job and the old clothes that I am waiting have blue and whit paint on them as does the freckles on my face and arms.

I did clean the brushes right but threw away the holder that keeps them just right. I did find them later in my trash and noticed that after you put the brushes in the holder, there is a small Velcro button to keep it closed. My son asked me why in the world I had covered the tray with aluminum foil. Don’t know but that was how my ex used to do it. My son pointed out that once the paint dries you can put other paint over it. Another lesson learned from the son who weighed over 8 pounds and shared the beginnings of his life with his twin, who also weighed over 8 pounds. But he did point out that I did a good job and with that…I pulled my blue bandana tighter and flexed my right arm up with my hand rolled into a fist as I wiped the paint off of it.

The Killing of Lincoln

I read The Killing of Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. I loved the book and couldn’t put it down. While reading the book and even after I read it, all I could think was that this is the way history books should be written. This book makes history come alive in an interesting way. If kids would read history books written like this one, they would learn to love history.

This is a history book but reads more like a big sweeping book of “Who Done It.” There was a lot of information to digest, and I actually underlined it or highlighted it on my Kindle. (Yes, Kindle has this capability). I found out new facts and other facts that I had totally forgotten.

Some of those interesting facts were:

The history of the Ford Theater, and that it was originally known as First Baptist Church in Washington.

Lincoln was shot during the play Our American Cousins, but he really wanted to see the new popular play, Aladdin.

Lincoln dreamt of his death.

His body guard spent the evening in a bar drinking, instead of protecting Lincoln.
During Lincoln’s years in office during the Civil War, he aged dramatically.

Lincoln wanted the union saved and did his best to make it easier for the return of the South after the war.

Lincoln died on the same bed where John Wilkes Booth had laid on a few weeks earlier.
Lafayette Baker found and killed John Wilkes Booth.

Booth was killed by a bullet.

Four people were hung for their part in Lincoln’s death.

Four people served their punishment for their involvement in Lincoln’s conspiracy by serving time in a remote penitentiary at Ft. Jefferson in the Gulf of Mexico.

Robert E. Lee was reinstated as a citizen of the United States in 1975 by President Gerald Ford.

It has never been proven that Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, wasn’t involved in the conspiracy to kill Lincoln.

President Andrew Jackson (Lincoln’s Vice President) was the worst president in history.

I definitely re-learned a lot of history. Pick up and read The Killing of Lincoln and give your brain a much needed exercise. You won’t be disappointed. Bill O’ Reilly and Martin Dugard both did a meticulous job in presenting the facts in this well written book, The Killing of Lincoln.

Published on Kindle

Last Christmas I received a Kindle as a present. I was so excited that I blogged about it. I have always been an avid reader. My father instilled the love of books and reading in me. Growing up, I lived in the city and walked everywhere. The neighborhood library was a few blocks from my house and across the street from my grade school. Every week, I found myself at the library, reading and taking out books. In the summer, I would check out at least 10 books on a weekly basis and I would read every one of them.

My house is filled with books. The books are everywhere – in bookcases in the kitchen, family room, living room, bedrooms, bathroom and of course in my computer room. When I am finished reading a book, I give it to a friend or family member to read. I keep, a number of my favorite books, or I sell them to the Half Priced Book Store.

I still have books that I have re-read, and others that I haven’t read yet. I do have a quirky theory that if I read every book in my house, then I would die. So, that is the reason why I still haven’t read every book.

As for Kindle, I never thought that I would own one. Then the more that I saw it being advertised, the more interested I became. One day, I mentioned to my oldest daughter that I was thinking about buying a Kindle. On Christmas Day, I opened my present from my daughter and her brother and there it was…a Kindle! The other kids bought me a lot of Amazon gift cards to use toward ordering books on my Kindle.

I love my Kindle and use it every day. I can store over around 1500 books on my KIndle. It has to be re-charged once a month. My Kindle can be used with or without Wi-Fi and I can read it even in the sun.

This past week, after working on writing my own novel for the past two years, I published it on Amazon and in the Kindle form. A friend helped me with the cover. My daughter used her photo shop program to get the cover ready to publish. Then my daughter formatted my work to Amazon. After receiving my book, a committee http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifchecked it to make sure that it contained no pornography. Finally, it was accepted and put up on Amazon, in the Kindle form.

Yes, I love my Kindle and I am proud of the fact that I have written and published my first Novel. The book is called The Doctors’ Wives by Mary Aiello Gauntner. I can’t believe that I have a book on Kindle with all those other famous authors.

My dream as a published author has become a reality, thanks to Kindle!

If anyone is interested in seeing my book and reading a sample of it, go to www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=mary+aiello+gauntner&x=0&y=0

Goodbye Borders

It seems like Borders has been closed forever. It seems as if it never even existed, except for the faded name on the building. When I drive by the empty store and parking lot, I am overwhelmed by a deep sense of loss. Borders had been my “home away from home.”

Sometimes, I spent three to four days at the store. Sometimes after my morning exercise I would go to Borders for a few hours to write. Borders became my anchor, my writing companion, a great source of writing inspiration and information, as I went back to grad school and wrote my papers. I painstakingly wrote my stories and my graduate thesis at Borders.

I never left Borders empty handed. It was normal for me to leave the store with a book or two, or a few magazines, or a DVD or CDs, or even a card. I loved being around the books and the magazines and hearing the music being played in the background or the chattering of the people around me.

Listening to people say that Kindle killed off the bookstore irritates me. Or the people who say, I have to have a book in my hand to read. I beg to differ…I am a book-a-holic and love my books. In my house, I have a lot of bookcases and shelves filled with books that I love. Despite having my Kindle, I still buy magazines and certain books that I want to hold and keep. Yes, I love the feel of paper in my hands, I also know that eventually if you keep your books long enough, the pages turn yellow and sometimes the books have that old musty smell.

Kindle or electronic readers did not close down Borders. I point to Barnes and Nobles that still exists, and I rest my case. I watched Borders being mismanaged, and being in disarray for years and not stepping up to the needs or wants of their customers.

The beginning of the stores decline was when Borders changed around the Children’s area and books. Something happened to that department, and things were never the same. The charm was lost with the changes to the Children’s area. It was no longer a comfortable place for children or adults. First, Borders cut down their story hours and then the story hours completely disappeared. The Managers never seemed to understand that they needed to offer something to pull in the customers. Some of the things that they once had were gone, like their monthly, in-house events bulletin about what was going on, the writing groups that met, the book club discussion groups, the weekend music and open microphone that was occurring. Borders just stopped trying and became a dinosaur. Borders had a big hand in killing itself off.

Goodbye Borders. I and a generation of readers will sorely miss you. We will miss sitting in a chair reading books, or miss sitting in your café and enjoying coffee and a pastry while skimming through the magazines.

Every time I drive by your empty store front and parking lot, the reality and sadness once again descends on me. Oh---sure, I can drive 25 minutes to the Barnes and Noble store, but it isn’t the same.

The Borders store was part of my neighborhood and I and a lot of others will miss you--------------- forever.

An Engagement Moment

A few days ago, my youngest daughter, Becca, called me up to talk. She had taken four days off for a vacation and was in West Virginia when she called. Three sentence into our conversation, she paused and then said, “Mom, I got engaged.”

I was so happy for my baby. She had wanted to get married for a long time and she wants to have babies. I could tell she was as happy as I was at that moment.

Then she sent me a photo of her engagement ring. It was breathtakingly beautiful. There isn’t much to say. In the next year, I will have two daughters getting married, and I’ll have two new sons in law to add to my growing family. We have outgrown our table even when we extend it but we always manage. There is always room for one more.

In a way, I guess it is another milestone for me. Hey, this is my baby, who I taught to be as mouthy as me. She is something else. She kept the gray creeping in my hair, and my feet moving when I felt old. I was lucky that she and I spent one year alone together when all the other kids went off to school. She even taught me how to row, despite that I thought I might capsize. She was the one who wondered about who would do the turkey dance when the person who used to do it left. I watched her cry and in turn, she watched me cry. We have taught each other some small life lessons. It is hard to believe that my “baby” will be getting married and someday have children. But time goes on, and in amazing fashion, history has a habit of repeating itself.

Good luck, Becca and Jimbo! May every day be as special as that very magical moment when you two became engaged.

Jury Duty

I was up early. My anxiety level was up as well. I was wishing that I just had the day to myself. I could do that but then if I don’t report to jury duty, I could also be arrested. That probably would make for an interesting blog.

I got to the court house ten minutes before I was due and spent the next 20 minutes trying to find the right floor and the right room. I rode on an elevator to a dead end floor with an elderly lady and her walker and her friend, who looked totally confused. The woman with the walker is what I would label, a Juror Junky, one who babbled on about the procedures and what to expect, while we waited for the elevator to take us back downstairs and start all over. She kept talking while I broke out into a sweat, only wanting her to stop talking, so that I could get to my destination on time.

Eventually, I was successful and found the right room, with a line of jurors walking into the room. I took up my place at the end. After sitting and getting a questionnaire to fill out, I am called up front and shown my summons card and told that I should be across the street in the Civil Court and not here, in Criminal Court. That makes sense to me as I look at my summons and the yellow highlighted information. My veil of stupidity is lifted as I read Room 700 on the 7th floor of the building across the street. I am in Room 418, 4th floor of the wrong building. If I thought my anxiety level was up before…I am just about up on the ceiling.

I make a mad dash, down the stairs, out of the building and across the street. I go through another security checkpoint, and find an elevator to the 7th floor. The floor is crowded with people everywhere, standing or seating in chairs, talking. I am not late and hand my summons to a man, who hands it to one of the woman in charge of jurors. She tells me I am fine, and points to Box 3, Seat 15, as she hands me a clipboard and another form to answer. This one is two sided. I race through it and stop at the part where I have to list my children’s names, education level, employment, and tell if they live with me. There are four lines. I have nine children and use the lines, and the spaces in between the questions, and the margins to list all of them. That took me a bit but I finished it. I hand it in and am told to go and wait in the lounge.

The lounge is filled and I choose a lone table and sit down, pull out a notebook to write in. The table is wobbling back and forth, so I write on my lap, until we are all called back to the courtroom. We are told that there were two cases and they solved them without a jury and we are free to go. We are given our money voucher. I sign mine over not wanting to go into another building and wait in another line

It is now 10:00. Lots of work for spending a little time serving the law. My assessment is that I was happy to be done with jury duty for now. I know that I will be called again and hope it is longer then a month. I was in the Criminal Court a month ago and now in the Civil Court.

Jury duty is just that – a duty. I have to say that those who were at the civil court were much nicer then the ones in the criminal court. Then again that makes perfect sense to me, since those in the criminal system probably see and hear the worst acts of mankind. But at least the questionnaire that they provide me with was only one sided.