My 5 Word Review of Avatar

Posted by Rosie on February 16, 2010

Yes, my baby boomer hubby and I saw Avatar in 4D Imax. Now, notice that I said 4D that was not an error. When you are sitting in the theater with those funny looking glasses and look at everyone else hypnotized by the virtual reality of the screen, it is really 4D.

But here is my review in five (5) words.

DON’T MESS WITH THE FOREST!

Have You Ever Wanted to Change the Endings of Some Movies?

Posted by Rosie on February 3, 2010

I am an avid movie lover. I view, review and cite them in workshops and keynotes.  But so often I look at a movie and decide on how I would create a different ending. For example, the movie I posted the other day Dodsworth had one of those endings most of us would cheer. I mean after all he had such a horrid time with his wife. Why shouldn’t he be happy with a lonely woman his age who appreciated his gifts?

Yet, I came up with an alternative, rather controversal new ending. It goes something like this:

His selfish, self-centered and cheating wife goes home alone after he leaves her for another woman. While on the cruise ship she meets a dynamic baby boomer grandmother who provides some character building advice. The woman goes home and gets trained to be a therapist.  Her clients are emerging baby boomer women with a need for a new perspective on life.

Later she becomes remarried and before the film is over actually apologizes to her daugher and hubby.

So, that is my version but do you have movies you would provide a different ending?

10 Things You Should Know About Facebook Privacy

Posted by Rosie on January 8, 2010

I just reviewed an excellent post about Facebook privacy. For example, did you know that you can insure that you are not tagged in a photo? Ok, some of you are saying what is a photo tag?

But seriously, even if you never knew about these issues read this article and more will become clear. Read 10 New Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.

Remember, many babyboomers are not on Facebook because they are concerned about some of these issues.

PS Be sure to read the 131 comments that come with this excellent post. 

When you finish tell me what you think.

Super Soups-Hearty Beef Vegetable Soup/Stew by Cindy Shields

Posted by Rosie on December 9, 2009

Special thanks to my guest blogger today, Cindy Shields

Hearty Beef Vegetable Soup/Stew

I make big batches of this soup and some times I thicken it and add dumplings. The left overs are frozen in plastic containers, making great meals to heat in the microwave at work.

2 lbs stew meat
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp Heinz 57 sauce
1 large onion,chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
12 cups beef broth (3 jugs)
4 cups V8 juice
3 bay leaves
1 tsp Spicy pepper medley
1 tsp Roasted garlic and peppers
2 tsp Basil
2 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Thyme
1 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp crushed chilies
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp seasoning salt

1″ spaghetti in your fist, broke into 1″ pieces

1 turnip
1 large parsnip
4 large potatoes
6 large carrots
1 leek, chopped

If making dumplings, add dough to soup when vegetables start to boil. Cook covered for 10 minutes, uncover and continue to cook another 10 minutes. Remove dumplings to a bowl and keep warm in oven. Continue to make either the soup or stew. Always thicken the stew just prior to serving so it will not burn.

1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 1/2 cups frozen peas

Sour cream (optional)

Brown the stew meat in the butter and shake Worcestershire on top of stew. Add the next 16 ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 1 1/2 – 2 hours. Add the spaghetti broke into 1″ pieces and bring to a boil, stirring several times so the spaghetti won’t clump together. Add the next 5 vegetables, peeled and cubed into the same size pieces (I like bite size pieces). Bring to a boil again (add dumplings if desired) and simmer for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender crisp. Add the peppers chopped into pieces and the peas. Bring to a boil once more turn off and serve with a dollop of sour cream on top. For stew, thicken with a mixture of either 1 cup corn starch, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup Bisto traditional gravy mix or with flour, water and Bisto.

Dumplings

2 cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp fresh parsley chopped

Mix flour, baking powder and salt well. Add the milk oil and parsley mix until it forms into a ball. Drop tablespoons of dough into boiling soup. Simmer covered for 10 minutes, uncover soup and continue to simmer another 20 minutes. Remove dumplings before thickening for stew.

Visit Cindy’s site featuring outdoor grilling delights at

Do Home Health Agencies Provide Free Flu Shots For Home Health Aides?

Posted by Rosie on October 21, 2009

Do Home Health Care Agencies provide free flu shots for their Home Health Aides? I wondered about this question because many many Home Health Aides are underpaid but extensively needed to provide home care.  If they are sick their options for sick days are few. Some agencies just do not have the resources to provide paid sick days.

Yet, if they are sick and go to work anyway it is silmilar to the wattress or kitchen helper who may be sick but works anyway because they just cannot afford days off. The result can be a spread of infection to those they serve,

I firmly believe the the Home Health Aide should get as many perks as possible. So, if you know of a Home Health Care Agency in the US that gives perks like free flu shots or sick days please post a comment. They should be applauded and recognized.

In addition, many baby boomers are transiting to other careers. Many are looking into home health care as an option. It would be good to know where the good agencies are residing. When you think about it an agency that cares for it’s people will probably go out of the way to care for your loved one.

Baby Boomer What Will You Say at Thanksgiving When…

Posted by Rosie on October 6, 2009

Baby boomer what will you say Thanksgiving when someone at the table asks you, “Why in the world do you  hang out on that computer? ” “Don’t tell me you are also one of those folks that do the Twitter thing, Why??

Now, even if you are not planning to eat with anyone Thanksgiving Day someone is bound to be totally shocked that you, a baby boomer, does stuff like social networking, marketing etc on the computer.

So get ready, by sharing right now what and why you are doing on the computer. What makes you, that special baby boomer spend time on the computer?

Frankly, I hope to help serve food at my moms senior center. Then will sit down again with family.  I will probably bring the subject up about the mental sharpness you can  get with blogging.

I really want to teach seniors how to blog.

Baby Boomer Women to Attend Social Media Event in October 2009

Posted by Rosie on September 16, 2009

Here is a special annoucement from the Founder of Boomer Diva Nation. Beverly Mahone about an upcoming Social Media Conference.

Boomer Inventory Challenge-Week 2 in My Online Attic

Posted by Rosie on August 1, 2009

Leaving one of my hosts

I have decided to leave one of my hosts. I will be making the call to the new location  I have already started the move by pointing the domain names to Sedo where I am selling them. With Sedo, as soon as I get an offer I can place them into auction.

That task should be done before my next report.

Gabcast

Our very first taste of audio came via this site.  This site was in it’s early stages but provided free audio code to paste in your site. Now, I really did not know how to do that at all then. But listen to this greeting.

You can hear it blast at Blogging For Boomers, Ray has such a nice voice.

Radio.Userland is shutting down in December 2009.

I had this site listed in my notes. It provides a blogging platform and hosting solution. They were around a long time and they remind me of baby boomerism. They appeared to be very good and offered a good solution for many folks. I never used it but here is their announcement:

Radio UserLand service closing

UserLand has decided to close the Radio UserLand and Salon Radio services as of December 31, 2009.

You can continue to use your Radio weblog hosted with UserLand until the end of the year.

If you plan on continuing to use Radio to publish your blog, we would recommend that you look for an alternative web host if your weblog is being published to a UserLand server. You can use the FTP option [1] in Radio to publish to your own server.

The closure of Radio will also mean that the UserLand-hosted comments, trackbacks and stats tracking will be unavailable after the shutdown date.

If you have any questions, please send them to customerservice@userland.com

Tech Smith

Tech Smith are the makers of the wonderful video  and screen capture software,  Camtasia and Snagit. Now, I have both and discovered my user to user forumn login information. Ah, time to make a visit.

Words Can Hurt or Heal

I found the publishing ftp information for this one page site I have not visited since I was thin. Shame on me. It needs a complete overhaul. But I do need to do something before my customer service workshop next month. If I have enough, I am passing out the really cool cards with the powerful words. I am committed to helping to eliminate verbal abuse. I will get back on that road again with the re hauling of this site.

I once had a blog up called Words Blog but it was on the wrong host and needs to be restored. Wow, this trip to my online attic is bringing powerful reminders to flames of passion that are growing dim.

Finally…

Some of you remember reading our journal posts about the making of the story book DVD called, Crumbsnatcher Gets A New Name.

Well, we also installed a blog called Crumbsnatcher. But you could really call the blog DYFS for blog neglect. This week, actually yesterday, a post was made on this site. Not only that but Crumbsnatcher is now on Twitter. Those who know the story realize that this bird, who lived in birdtown, went through some stuff and had his name changed by me mother , Ms. Sarah, to Mighty Care Finch. Any way you can follow Mighty Care aka Crumbsnatcher on Twitter.

Have you done any work this week in your online attic?

Taking Care of My Mother-Caregiver Series

Posted by Rosie on July 15, 2009

This is a guest post by the author of Judys Caregiver’s blog , Mariah Kissel

Taking Care of an Aging Parent

My name is Mariah Kissel and I love my mother. She has always been there for me. I was never a sweet little girly girl , and as teenage daughters go, lets just say my parents had there hands full. My mom and dad where constantly fixing my mistakes and covering my butt. When I was in the sixth grade, my class was going to put on a show for the PTA. It was a medley of songs from the Sound of Music. Everyone in our class got to be in the show but only a few were selected to be a Von Trapp child. My teacher was picking the last Von Trap girl and it was between myself and one other student. She told us to bring in a costume on Thursday and she would pick the girl with the best one. Well, of course I waited to tell my mother the costume part until Wednesday night. “If I dont get this part I will die.” Yes I was a mellow dramatic child. I think I cried myself to sleep that night because my mother didn’t rush out to find the perfect dress for me. The next morning I woke up and there it was. The perfect dress hanging on my bedroom door. My mother had stayed up all night sewing together this amazing costume out of scrap fabrics she had laying around her craft room. I got the part in that show because of her talents, not mine.

My mother was always doing things like that for my sister and I. I cannot think of one major event in my life that she wasn’t a part of . When I wanted to move to California she helped me find an apartment and helped pay the bills for said apartment. A year later when I called, begging her to come get me because I couldn’t take LA anymore, she drove four hours in a U-Haul with my dad, packed me up and moved me back to Las Vegas and back into her house. That was just the first of many, many, many times that I would move back in with dear old mom and dad. She was there when I got married and when I got divorced. This amazing woman was even in the delivery room when I had both my children. Katelin in 94 and Jacob in 96. she was the best grandmother. I never had to buy a Halloween costume for my children. Whatever they wanted to be she would make it happen. They were her pride and joy. Even when I told her I was once again getting married, she helped plan the most exquisite wedding. I guess you could say she was as perfect a mom as you can get. She was my best friend.

I Never thought in a million years that all of that care, love, happiness and friendship could be gone in an instant. So when I got that call, that devastating call. The one that said my mother was sick, confused and alone. The call that said she would need 24 hour care for the rest of her life, I can honestly say that there was no hesitation in making my decision. A decision that would change both her life and mine. My mother spent 35 years taking care of me and it was time for me to return the favor. I became my mother’s caregiver right then and there. Caring for a sick aging parent is the hardest thing I will probably ever have to do, but no matter how hard it can get I wouldn’t change my decision to take care of the woman who always took care of me.

In my blog, you will get a glimpse of what it is like to be Judy’s caregiver and daughter. The good, the bad, the funny…The not so funny. I’m not here to give great advice, all though I might try from time to time. I’m just here to let the hundreds of thousands of sons and daughters taking care of their parents know that they are not alone.

Do The Winds of Change Make You Want To Give Up?

Posted by Rosie on July 9, 2009

Listen as two baby boomers talk about NOT GIVING UP! Yet listen carefully to the “Winds of Change” blowing in the background.

Encourage someone today!