Blogger Woes

I love to blog, I love to read other blogs, and I love comments, leaving them and receiving them.  Lately, I've been having a major problem and I have no idea how to fix it.  I have no problem at all receiving comments - if you comment on my blog, I receive an email saying that you have commented.  If I leave a comment on a blog, however, I get this in my email:

It's not very clear above - this is what it says:

The response from the remote server was:

550 5.7.1 Unauthenticated email from yahoo.com is not accepted due to domain's DMARC policy. Please contact the administrator of yahoo.com domain if this was a legitimate mail. Please visit https://support.google.com/mail/answer/2451690 to learn about the DMARC initiative.

I've followed the link to learn more about the DMARC initiative but I'm sorry, it's like reading something in a foreign language.  I've called and asked everyone that I know who might have an inkling of how to fix this with no success.  The title of the link's page is "Control Unauthenticated Mail from your Domain".  I can't even understand the title, let alone what follows.  Does anyone know how one would contact the administrator of yahoo.com domain?

I'm still trying to figure this out, or to find someone who can help (if you're reading this and you're that person, please get in touch with me!) but in the meantime, rest assured that if you're on my blog list, I read your posts faithfully.  I try very hard to get through all of the links on a meme although this week, I have been so frustrated I even failed at that.  I am commenting although you may never know that unless you go back to your post and read the comments under it.  Crazily enough, it appears that a few comments have actually gotten through to various bloggers' emails which adds a new level of confusion to the whole ordeal!

Bear with me, I'm here, I'm reading, I'm commenting, and hopefully soon, you'll see that in your email.

D is for Downton Abbey

Don't despair, there is life after Downton...in print!  Tens of thousands of viewers tuned in to Downton Abbey over its six seasons on PBS.  The ups and downs of the Crawley family, along with the Dowager Countess' bon mots, became conversation topics for people from all walks of life.  Publishers were quick to hop on this interest and published a variety of books.  Here are a few from my collection.

The World of Downton Abbey introduced us to the Crawley family as we knew them in  Season 1.

The Great War has ended and life at Downton takes many new turns in The Chronicles of Downton Abbey.

My current favorite, A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey, detailing all of the celebrations and events during the year for an aristocratic family.

A lovely gift from three wonderful friends, The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook.

These two are heading onto my Amazon Wish List.

Available May 2, 2017.

If this is Tuesday, it must be England #60

A quick list of some of my recent and current British telly favorites - thank you, PBS, for bringing them to us

Mr. Selfridge - The story of American entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge, the colorful and visionary founder of Selfridges, London's lavish department store.

Call the Midwife - Season 6 of this fabulous drama, set in London's East End in the 1960s, premiered last weekend.

Home Fires - Inspired by the book Jambusters, Julie Summers' enthralling history of the Women's Institute in World War II, Home Fires follows a group of inspirational women in a rural English community where the shadow of the war casts a dark cloud over their lives.  Season 2 also premiered last weekend.

Indian Summers - Set in a subtropical paradise, Indian Summers explores the collision of the high-living English ruling class with the local people agitating for Indian independence. As the drama unfolds, the two sides alternately clash and merge in an intricate game of power, politics, and passion.

C is for Cruise Books

Vic is a sailor and the Navy has been our life for almost 24 years now.  It's a career, not a job, and for the entire family, it's been an adventure.  For Vic, it's been the amazing opportunity to travel to parts of the world that he might not otherwise have visited.  Sure, deployments are long, they are tough, the separation is never easy, but amazing memories are made and they are usually preserved in a Cruise Book.

A cruise book is a yearbook-style publication often produced by ships of the United States Navy upon completion of a long deployment (typically six months or more). The books typically contain photos of all the people who were aboard during the cruise, usually grouped by their division or department. There are often candid photos as well, showing the people at work aboard the ship. Often there is a map or a description of the ship's travels during the cruise, and there are almost always pictures taken at the various ports of call. - Thank you, Navy History and Heritage Command via Wikipedia.

Over his almost 24 years, Vic has completed all or a major portion of seven deployments (you could argue six, since one was only five months long but since it was a circumnavigation of South America, I consider that a deployment).  Cruise Books were published for four of these deployments.

USS DEWERT (FFG 45) Mediterranean Deployment 1995-1996

Palma de Mallorca; Portsmouth, England; Frederickshavn and Aarhus, Denmark; Lisbon, Portugal; La Spezia and Trieste, Italy; Corfu, Greece, Villefranche-sur-mer, France; Naples, Italy; and Palermo, Sicily

USS KAUFFMAN (FFG 59) Gulf of Guinea Deployment 2006-2007

Augusta Bay, Italy; Rhodes, Greece; Rota, Spain; Cape Verde; Dakar, Senegal; Port Gentil, Gabon; Luanda, Angola; Sao Tome and Principe

USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG 81) Persian Gulf Deployment 2010

Souda Bay, Crete; Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates; Seychelles; Manama, Bahrain; Muscat, Oman; Cannes, France

USS JOHN C. STENNIS (CVN 74) Western Pacific Deployment 2016

Guam; Busan, Korea; Singapore; Manila, Philippines, Hawaii

It's a great deal of work to put together a Cruise Book but I'm very thankful to the sailors who volunteer their time and talents to undertake the task.  It's a great memento.

B is for Enid Blyton

My favorite childhood author is Enid Blyton (1897-1968).  Her books have been read by millions of children in England and around the world.  Her adventures set in the English countryside make one long for simpler times.  I loved her books as a child, loved to read them to my daughter, and still take one off the bookshelf when I am feeling particularly nostalgic.

Among the many books and series she wrote, these are my favorites:

Julian, Dick, Anne, Georgina (George) and their dog, Timmy, (aka The Famous Five) take off on all sorts of adventures, solve mysteries, and enjoy lashings of ginger beer.  There are 21 books in the series.

The Malory Towers and St. Clare's series are set in their respective girls' boarding schools.  Malory Towers is set on the Cornish coast, a magnificent building with a tower at each corner.  How I wanted to go to boarding school with a tuck box and participate in a midnight feast, play tricks on Mam'zelle, and be a part of the pantomime the girls wrote, produced, and performed.  The St. Clare's series follows the adventures of twins Pat and Isobel O'Sullivan who begin determined to hate everything about their new school and end up loving every minute of their time there.  Tuck boxes, midnight feasts, and Mam'zelle feature prominently here too.

Just a few more examples of my love affair with England.

Happy Homemaker Monday 4/3/2017

It's time for another Happy Homemaker Monday with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.  Click here if you'd like to join in .

The weather:::
Kind of all over the place from high 50s to 80 one day.

On my reading pile:::
Still working on To Everything a Season, Book 1 in the Song of Blessing series.

On my TV:::
LIke the weather, all over the place.  I watched the last seasons of Call the Midwife and Home Fires in preparation for the new seasons that started last night.  Vic and I also watched Conspiracy with Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci, a dramatic recreation of the Wannsee Conference where the Nazi Final Solution phase of the Holocaust was devised and continuing in the World War II genre, I watched The War Bride but it had a lame ending.

On the menu for this week:::
Last week was the first week of another round of the Whole 30 - I stuck to the program religiously but Vic had a few lapses here and there (really hard to stick to it when he has to eat in the galley on some days).  The Italian Pot Roast from the Whole 30 cookbook was delicious and our first time to eat fennel.  Vic's traveling this week so it's snack food for me - Whole 30 snack food - and I need to come up with some dinners for the weekend.

On my to-do list:::

• Mammogram on Monday and bangs trim on Wednesday

What I am sewing, crocheting, knitting or creating:::

Still working on my Tea Cup and Mug Exchange blog post and the ornaments for the Christmas in July Ornament Swap.  I'm also finishing up the 2015 and 2016 Christmas Card albums - just need to find some scrapbook adhesive tape on a long roll for the lettering.

Looking around the house:::
Basically tidy - just need to unload the dishwasher and vacuum downstairs.

From the camera:::

The only picture I took all week was the cover of a book at Barnes and Noble that I wanted to check out on Amazon.  

Something fun to share:::

Continuing on with the Declutter Challenge update:

March 27 - Basement - No basement.

March 28 - Hobby Room - Ugh, another work in progress.  I did get as far as clearing off both craft tables so that I can place tools (scrapbook paper, stickers, embellishments, Cricut, Sizzix, etc.) on one and the boxes of the years to be scrapbooked on the other.

March 29 - Porch/Entry - This is the office so it's already been worked on.

March 30 - Seasonal/Holiday Items - Well, at least they are all in the same place but there is still some organization needed here and I just haven't gotten to it yet.

Not something fun but something to share - I checked out the Career Expo which was a was a bit of a bust - I handed out 5 of my 17 resumes (what a waste of paper that was) but the rest of the recruiters just pointed me in the direction of their website. Ugh, sometimes I long for the days when job vacancies were posted in the newspaper and you sent in a letter with your resume and got a come in for an interview response or at least a thanks but no thanks. In some cases, you could even call to make an appointment to see someone about the position. It's so impersonal these days - you post your resume and it goes into the black hole that is the Internet, never to be seen again. Several of the recruiters asked me if I was on Indeed - what is that? Turns out it's a post your resume and employers post jobs site and somehow the two come together. The Career Expo was really geared toward veterans - the police, sheriff and fire department were there recruiting, lots of trade jobs at the shipyards, and several wanting people with CDL licenses. I guess I'm back to waiting for the hiring freeze to be lifted.

Also sharing, the Blogging from A to Z April (2017) Challenge is in full swing.  I don't care for the way it is being run this year - everyone posts links in the comments on the A to Z daily letter post - there's no rhyme or reason to the system and over 500+ participants.  In 2015, they had a list of participants with categorization - (LI) was for lifestyle blogs which were the ones I went to first, Crafts (CR), Book Reviews (BO), Photography (PH), even AC for adult content (so you were warned!).  With that many participants, I'd really like to zero in on bloggers who have similar interests but I don't have time to go through 500+ blog posts to find them.  I was happy to see some fellow HHM bloggers taking part and I've added them to an A to Z blog list along with a couple of others of interest that I stumbled on when I was working my way through the A to Z comments.  It's not as fun this year.

What I'm wearing today:::
Jean, long-sleeved shirt, fleece jacket, Danskos - I'm off to my mammogram shortly.

Bible Verse, Devotional:::
When mistakes happen - Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32)

A is for Jane Austen

I'm sure you thought this post was going to be all about Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility but no, we're going in a completely different direction.  I'd like to share a book that was a gift from my dear friend Jodie, a book that is tucked away for the day that she and I can take off to England for the adventure of a lifetime.

Lifelong Jane Austen devotee Caroline Sanderson embarks on a journey across Austen's England.  She visits and brings to life the places and houses well known to Jane Austen - Steventon, Bath, Lyme Regis, Godmersham in Kent, Chawton, London, Box Hill in Surrey, and Winchester - quintessentially English locations that provided the settings for Austen's writings as well as the backdrop to her life.

England travel + Jane Austen = it can't get any better.  I'm off to search out tea rooms in each of the locations and then our adventure will truly be complete!