My cell phone is dying. I think it’s the battery. Today I’ve had 4 short calls on it and the battery only has 2 bars left on it. Last night the battery died by 9 pm. It’s a good phone except for this problem. Sometimes I have signal problems that could be corrected by one of those cell phone amplifiers but I use Nextel and they don’t work with direct connect phones.

My phone also recently started making clicking noises when I have the earphone connected. I tried another earphone I have and it does it with that too so I know it’s not the earphone going bad.. it’s the phone itself. I’m going to have to break down and take it to the Nextel store and find out what’s wrong with it.

I need to get my eyes checked. It’s been over 2 years and they say you should have your eyes checked at least every 2 years. What I would really love to have is those multi-focal contacts or Lasik surgery. I really don’t like wearing glasses. I have a pair of bi-focals for reading and driving, etc and I have another pair for working at the computer. It’s a real pain to have to change glasses all the time.

There has been a few times where I left the house wearing my computer glasses and didn’t realize it until I was going down the road. I had to turn around and go back home and get my other glasses.

Actually what I’d really love to have it the eyesight I used to have. I didn’t wear glasses when I was younger. I didn’t have to start wearing glasses until I was in my 40’s. I’ll take my age 20 eyesight anytime!

Granité (not to be confused with granite) is a granular ice frozen without being stirred. It can be served at the mush stage or frozen hard, then scraped up in fine, feathery shavings. It’s particularly good topped with a little fruit liqueur or rum. It sounds like something that might be served on one of those Caribbean cruises or in a fancy restaurant.

1 quart of water
2 cups of sugar
1 cup or lemon or lime juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon or lime rind
A few drops of yellow and/or green food coloring.

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan, stirring, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Cool, mix in juice and rind, and tint pale yellow or green. Pour into 3 refrigerator trays, cover, and freeze to a mush without stirring. Spoon into goblets and serve or freeze hard, scrape up with a spoon and pile into goblets. About 130 calories per 1/2 cup serving.

Fruit Granité: Boil 3 cups water and 1 1/2 cups sugar into syrup as directed. Cool, add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 2 cups puréed fruit (any berries, peaches, pineapple, sweet cherries). Omit the rind. Freeze and serve as directed. About 140-150 calories per 1/2 cup serving depending upon fruit used.