Frank Yoon (1920 to 1995)  My Lola Julia told me that the ideal man to marry is one who is twice your age plus seven years. I was pretty close with the first husband. He was 33 years older than me. Some people thought I married him so I could get a green card. The husband and I were/are both second generation Americans. Early in our marriage, we were in an emergency room  where a doctor asked the first husband if he was an actor or some kind of famous guy. Guess only actors and famous guys marry younger women. Of course, some people thought at first that the first husband was my dad. I liked to say that I had robbed the grandpa cradle. Ours was a marriage of love. That was all. We met at a party I gave and in the middle of it we left so I could show him my new red truck. I don't know why I did that. We found that we had a lot of things, beliefs, and values in common. We moved in together, then married. We hiked down the Grand Canyon, backpacked through the Sierras, and traveled her

I can do simple things in Photoshop. Resize photos.  Sharpen images. Fix color and brightness.  Easy stuff. I can kinda smooth away scratches on photos. For instance, here's a before and after photo of the mama and the baby older brother. Original photo  I'm sure a Photoshop expert could make the photo finer, but I'm happy with my results. If I need or want to do something harder, such as stitch up a bunch of shots into a panorama, I ask the husband. When I can't remember how to do a certain skill, I ask him to teach me again. And again. Fortunately, the husband is patient. Another thing I love about him. Here's an example of one of my stitched-up panoramas: If I had been more patient, I may have been able to match the brightness of all the shots. Maybe. By the way that's Monterey Bay in the distance. All in all, I use about 1/19 of what is possible to do in Photoshop. Hmmm, I had planned this post to be short, and really to focus on what is coming up next

"I came down to check out the chicks," said the middle-aged man, still looking quite youthful in a charming way. We were standing by the egg vendor at the local farmers market. "The chicks you eat or the other kind?" I asked. "We ate chicks last week," he answered, looking amused with himself. "Okay." I noticed the straps holding up his glasses. "You won't get anyone wearing those straps." He pulled off his glasses and looked at them with concern. "I can't lose these glasses. This is my last pair. These are more important than chicks." "So, you're seeking middle-aged chicks then." "Yeah," he said, looking confused. I enjoy interchanges like that.

Do you think you have the right personality to work for the CIA? No, not the Culinary Institute of America. The CIA! The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. The CIA has a personality quiz on its Web site that anyone can take. Want to give it a try? Click here: CIA Personality Quiz The result to my answers: Impressive Mastermind. Hooo Boy!

Three Mondays ago, Brooke of Makin It Domestic presented me with a Sunshine Award for the post on my pancit recipe. It was the first award anyone has given me for a blog post. For that matter, I can't recall ever receiving an award in all my years of being an adult. So, yep, I was very happy and flattered to receive the Sunshine Award. Of course, me being the wary wort, I did a google search on "Sunshine Award bloggers."  I was happy to see that all types of bloggers throughout the world were receiving them. The purpose of the reward is simple: The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blogging world. Totally cool indeed! Thank you, Brook of Making It Domestic , very much! As the recipient of the Sunshine Award, I am now asked to present this to twelve other bloggers. Hooo boy! I'm not into judging who deserves an award unless I've been employed to judge. My employer, who is me, says judging is not part of my

"Busy, busy," the husband said to me when I asked him if he read my latest Take 25 to Hollister, California post . "Yeah. But I'm not making any money," I said. "Well, you're not robbing a bank." That's why I love the husband. The mama's sewing machine is still good to go! We're two freelance writers, just minding our own business. Though lately we haven't been good at minding it. Yesterday, I did look at online job ads for freelance writers and bloggers. Is it so bad to say I'd rather earn nothing for writing a post to my blog than get paid moldy peanut shells for researching and writing a tight, comprehensive article? Well, at least for yesterday. I may just be disciplined today. Yesterday, I spent much of the afternoon checking out the various sewing and crafts giveaways being hosted by Sew, Mama, Sew! I didn't count, but I'm sure there were far more than a hundred bloggers who were participating in Sew, Mama, Sew&#

Isn't Tara hilarious? I hope you took a bit of time and checked out some of her other tales at Two Hands and a Roadmap . The random writing prompt generator that we used gave me this doozy to wrap my brain around: "You are a letter in the alphabet on your classroom wall chart. You are tired of being up on the classroom wall. Write about an adventure you could have if you were down for one hour." Yeah, I know. What?  To read what I finally wrote, click on over to here at Tara's blog.