Love that Scarlett!

Reading around the various blogs on my favorites today yielded a lot of neat posts, interesting thoughts, questions, ideas and memories too.

First, here's a question for you that my friend Dave is wondering about - how to figure out temperatures and times when using a convection oven he just purchased. If you have some expertise in that type of oven, stop by and see if you can give him some input. I'm sure he'd appreciate any help he can get.

My friend Shelby, down in Alabama, got some really depressing news yesterday. After learning in June she couldn't return to law school this fall, she'd applied to a graduate degree program and was notified yesterday that she wasn't being accepted to that either. But, today -tough little fighter that she is - she zapped off some e-mails, had some round robin type communications running there for a while and ended up getting herself registered for a single course as a "non-degree seeking" student in the graduate program. I'm really happy that she is at least going to be taking one class this fall but her ordeal reminded me of when I had applied to transfer from "non-degree seeking" to "degree seeking" at the end of my second semester at Penn State.

I received a letter from the Admissions office telling me I was being denied acceptance as a degree seeking candidate and the reason they gave me was that I was missing a Carnegie credit. A Carnegie credit? What the heck is that? I called the Admissions office to inquire because my grades though not Dean's list caliber, had been decent enough - a solid B anyway which I thought was pretty doggone good considering I'd been out of school for 28 years when I decided to go to college.

Well, it turns out the missing Carnegie credit was due to the fact that back in high school - when college entrance requirements were somewhat different than they were in 1990 and even more different from what they are today - I had not taken Algebra 2! Imagine that! I called the Division of Undergraduate Studies and spoke to the advisor on the call-in desk who looked into the problem for me. He called me back and asked if I felt I could take the necessary make-up course work and have it completed within the next 15 months. I said yes, as that had been my original plan since I knew I was going to have to take the make-up math classes anyway before I even thought about taking a college level math course. I just had never been aware that I had to have that under my belt before I could be accepted as "degree seeking." (It's amazing what a lot of colleges -and advisors too -DON'T tell students ya know! This advisor then asked if I already had an advisor and I had said yes, I do. He then asked if I was satisfied with that advisor and I had told him no, not really. He then announced to me that he was officially signing himself to be my advisor and to make an appointment as soon as possible to come in and meet with him in person. After we hung up the phone, I did just that - called and got an appointment. And that was one of the best things that happened to me during my remaining three years at Penn State as Dr. Bronstein was a really super advisor! The things he explained to me, the course recommendations he made too - all were excellent advice and thanks to his help, I not only was accepted as degree seeking but also finished my coursework, got my degree in the "normal" four year time span, unlike a lot of other students who, often from having a not-so-great advisor ended up taking classes that actually worked against their degree credits programs and as a result many of them had to attend college for at least one, sometimes two years longer.

So, sometimes things that happen to us that look to be a deal breaker at first, actually turn around and work to our benefit -much like things did for me way back when.

This afternoon, while getting things ready to fix for supper, as I glanced out my kitchen window, the sight there reminded me immediately of my friend, Vic Grace up in British Columbia. Vic frequently writes and posts some absolutely gorgeous photos too of not just the awesome scenery up in her neck of the wilderness there but also of many of the animals that often come calling at or near her home. And, looking out my window, there in my next door neighbor's yard, stood a beautiful deer, peacefully eating apples on the ground that had fallen from the neighbor two doors overs apple tree. It was such a pretty sight and in the middle of the village in broad daylight and all, I thought I'd try to get a picture of it - just so maybe in the near future I could post it here you know. However, my luck ran out on me there because by the time I found a camera here and made it back to the kitchen to go outside and take a picture, the deer had gone -probably spooked by a car going down the road or some other sudden noise. Maybe it Parker, the big (and I do mean BIG) dog that belongs to the neighbor two doors over from our place.

So many interesting posts I read today and that's usually the case most every day too come to think of it!

This evening then, I got an e-mail from an old friend of mine who lives down near Harrisburg telling me she reads my blog all the time and really enjoys it. She says it gives her a little means to keep track somewhat of some of her cousins who live here and who are good friends of my kids and me. Matter of fact my niece is a cousin of this lady's too, come to think of it! Anyway, she'd told me way back the end of November that she had found my blog and was reading it but in all the time that's passed from November to now, she's never ever posted anything in the comments area. I don't know if she's just shy (Naw, I don't really think she's that -matter of fact I KNOW she's anything but shy) but it reminded me that I recently added something to my blog in case you haven't already seen them at the bottom of each of my posts - right by the area where you can click to make a comment - there's this little thing with four smaller blocks beside it called "Comment Clicks." I neglected to call anyone's attention to this last week after I got this added there but it's mainly there for people we bloggers call "lurkers" - those who come by and read our blogs but never comment, for whatever reason. If you check this "Comment Clicks" out you'll see you can just click any of the four buttons there that expresses how you felt after reading any given post and you don't have to have a blog, don't have to even register to have a g-mail account so you can comment the other way in anonymity. Nope, just click whichever button fills the bill in your opinion and either keep on reading or bounce around to other blogs along the way! Check it out. Give it a try sometime. Easy as pie! Plus it shows a little bit to me what type of topics and such people enjoy reading too so not only does it help me, but it helps the readers along the way as well.

And finally, some good words of wisdom from one of the new bloggers on my block - one that I just added to my favorites list last week - Keith -wrote about three words we all think about but two of them are basically unimportant to leading a good life - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. And, as he said yesterday and tomorrow are two words we shouldn't dwell on, shouldn't worry about.

Boy, do I agree with that philosophy. My favorite book has been for over 45 years now -the wonderful "Gone With The Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and Scarlett O'Hara's been my heroine for those many years now as well. I especially loved where she said "I'll worry about it tomorrow." Sage advice Scarlett, my dear cause if you think about it, with respect especially to worrying about thing, tomorrow never comes, does it?

The only day that is truly important in our lives is this one -TODAY! And how well we lived it.

Now, for me, Today could to some be viewed as a day I wasted because I was totally engrossed for the bulk of the time since yesterday when reading my favorite blogs I saw something in the comments of my favorite blogger up Quebec way - where yesterday, her sister-in-law (also a favorite blogger of mine in Ontario) had posted a URL in Latte Girl's comments section that I clicked into and spent the better part of last night and today busily reading as many of the articles in that piece as I possibly could. Yes, to me it was that fascinating. Check it out and see for yourself and let me know what you think. Of course, this site may only be fascinating if you are like me and love shows like "Law and Order," "CSI" or maybe "DaVinci's Inquest" though -
Crime Library. Check it out.

And remember Don't worry about tomorrow - just enjoy the day before you - TODAY!