Happy NEW YEARS EVE

I had planned to update but running out of time, have to go to work till 10 pm so wishing everyone happy holidays and happy reading, I'm still on The Toss of the Lemon. Not much time to read.
I've updated florenceview with the story of our Christmas and what I learned from it, just hope it sticks, and a little on animalsthatgivepause about what we can learn from our pets.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

From Baghdad, With Love by Jay Kopelman

A story of a dog named Lava and the people he inspired to save him. I got this book for Christmas and I'm not just saying I liked it because it was a gift, it was a great book, not only for the dog story but for the human side of the war.
Like so many others I suspect I followed the war closely @ first, plus my son was over there, but then life got in the way, this book explains what life is really like in Baghdad or was a couple years ago. For this reason this book is just not for dog lovers but everyone who has any stake in the war which means all of us.
Melinda Roth is a co-author with Jay Kopelman, I would like it if they had written a little more verbosely but the short paragraphs lend themselves to the story.
You can buy it @ Amazon here.

Two Days Before Christmas

I work @ Wal Mart part time. Have for 6 months now. After having a "desk job" (running my husbands business) for the last few years it's been a culture shock. I had to cashier yesterday @ the front of the store but as they say @ Christmas EVERYONE is a cashier. For awhile the store manager was behind me cashiering, they don't lie, everybody does what they can to keep everything running smoothly. Here in the mid-west we are gearing up for another round of ice and snow, that coupled with the Christmas season made for extremely long lines @ the cash registers but everyone was patient and curteous that checked out @ mine. I don't cashier most days so I may have been slower than some but most of the people left laughing, don't know if that's in the job description or not. I have to work marking down Chrismas items in the early am Friday, trust me I will NOT be standing by the doors when the store opens Friday morning.
My husband was @ home asleep in his recliner when I got home with the three kittens curled up on his lap. Anyway the wild kittens were hissing @ everyone when they came in the house after their mother disappered right before Thanksgiving, now they stand up and beg like the dog for attention. Here's a picture of them asleep in my dads old office chair, Ok Crusoe the survivor isn't asleep, he's begging for food or me to pick him up. My husband keeps saying they are really wild cats, they think they may be dogs and I may be their mother but they aren't sure, they really don't like those big cats outside.
I confess this is for 3 blogs, have to leave for work in less than an hour, haven't had much time to read but I'm still working on The Toss of the Lemon which is an excellent book but just too much going on this time of year. Plus Wal Mart fed us yesterday, good ole holiday meal of bar-b-qued pulled beef and pork and ribs, plus salads and beans and desserts, it was excellent.
I hope all are safe in their traveling this season. Hopefully we won't lose electricity with the storm and those still without get it back soon in the northeast.

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

I love this mans books. My nephew read this and asked me to review it. As I spent all day making lep cakes or lepkuchen (results and pictures on florenceview go see it's one of my other blogs, dog is also on animals that give pause will be more about him maybe tonight) and am currently trying to wade through The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan (say that 3 times fast) I said this is a good day to do it as I haven't read anything new for a couple days. You can own The Hour I First Believed for $13.90 used @ Amazon right now or they can get the new one to you in time to read over Christmas if you choose one day shipping.
I got the book @ the library, I was thrilled and naturally read it till I was done (my OCD coming out again). That was before Thanksgiving and I still had it when my nephew arrived Wednesday for the holiday and to pick up his dog from my daughter. That explains the dog picture here. BTW his name was Runt but now it's Newman. What does this have to do with the book? I'm getting to that, Mikey, my nephew, saw the book and started reading it, I think he read my How Starbucks Saved My Life book too but he got like half through with The Hour I First Believed and he had to leave on Friday. Through all the kids and the turkey and the dog he read this book, we talked to him, he grunted, no actually he would answer politely because he is polite and nice, my husband says I and my daughters and his sister are mean to him but he's Mikey? Granted he's my nephew and you are thinking cute little red headed kid, that was 30 some years ago, he's a daddy to two almost grown kids and a high school literature teacher now, he's like getting close to my age, when he was 11 and I was 21 it was a much bigger gap. He shares my appreciation of Wally Lamb and he did get to finish the book when someone gave it to him for an early Christmas present. There's that personal touch my blog needs or I just threw in there to torture you, now back to the book.
The book is basically about Columbine and it's effects on one couples lives but it's intertwined with the mans ancestors which all culminates into an ending you really don't see coming as do most of Mr. Lambs books. The main male character (who is a teacher also as is/was Mr. Lamb) is the narrator and seemingly unrelated or inexplicable childhood events become clear to him after he is forced by his wife's mental state after Columbine to return to the old family homestead. Mr. Lambs ability to get inside the skull of another person and feel and explain what they are feeling is unparalleled in my estimation. (does in my estimation ALWAYS come after unparalleled? like pnut butter and jelly?)
I own the two other books of Mr. Lambs, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True. I will have to purchase this one so my husband can read it. He's the original macho cowboy type truck driver (read grandpa who wears cowboy boots and a gimme baseball cap) but he's read most of the Oprah book club books and most of my current library too. So if you need one more Christmas gift for the hard to buy for you might consider this book. If they like long involved books that is. It's not light reading and it's not light to lift it.
The Washington Post didn't like this book very much and my nephew said the same thing in a much milder way, he could have left part of that historical BS out. But if Mr. Lamb did would it have been the same book and would we come away with the same feelings? Probably not.

Gimme a break, you can't afford a BOOK for Christmas?

This article says book sales are going the way of car sales. Huffington Post Article

Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse not to vacuum or dust since I've been blogging and linking and creating and inserting html all day but this struck me as strange. I'll cut down on whether I buy the $2 tv dinner or the $1.50 can of soup for my lunch, I'll not make any trips to town that aren't absolutely necessary but I have to buy a book once in awhile if it's just a used book. Even with library privledges that just doesn't cut it sometimes. You see I read a book, my husband takes it in the truck and reads it, one of my daughters reads it, my other daughter reads it, sometimes it goes to my step-son or step-daughter, maybe a friend gets it, maybe I consider it to precious and it stops @ me and my husband but my books get READ and I don't think we are a weird family or have that much more time than most. All the kids work full time, I work part time, my husband has a more than full time truck and we find time to read. I don't own anything extravagant other than my purse and my car and the car was a "present" from my husband (a present with payments) The last new furniture I purchased was 11 years ago and it still looks new because no one is allowed to sit on it but that is all beside the point. My mother was an English teacher and you would think that's where I got my love of reading but she never encouraged it, she actually discouraged it but that's another story, she had Portnoys Complaint and that was enough for me even though she thought I couldn't reach that shelf.
I know books as presents are looked down upon by children and kindle has brought a whole new world to books but geeze, it's still a book!! Books provide insight and thoughts that the boob tube just can't give you and as much as I love computers and the internet it's hard to beat a good read for mind stretching. I admit I just skimmed the article but it says Barnes and Nobles stores are almost empty??
It seems the larger publishers have kept to the old and the tried and true which isn't working but it seems to me people think a book is an extravagance? We've purchased SUV's that were too high and gas guzzlers, bought Mc Mansions, $100 jeans are sometimes the norm and we can't afford a book?
I'm better off than I was 9 or 10 months ago by far and @ that time I cut out book buying entirely for almost a year previously but books are just as much a cornerstone of our economy as the automakers are. Maybe they don't employ as many but the intellectual cost of publishers going out of business will be huge. Our entire thought process as a nation could be changed. So if you haven't gotten all your Christmas gifts or need something to keep yourself occupied go to your local book store. For $20 or $30 you can pick up hours and hours of entertainment and share it with others, and if it's good enough you can have the same enjoyment from it when you reread it!!

Just After Sunset by Stephen King

The electricity went out here last night. I know I'm nuts but I finished a Stephen King book by kerosene lamp and candlelight with freezing rain falling. OK, I didn't finish it till they got the power on but I was questioning my sanity reading a Stephen King book in the semi darkness. (with the kittens trying to see if they could really see in the dark no less)
The stories in this book were typical Stephen King. Do I think he's improving with age, yes. BUT of course I am one who cries long and loud the man can WRITE, it doesn't have to be scary. I liked this book probably because I could finish with one story and put it down and then go on to the next. I didn't feel the need to finish it all @ once like I do with his novels. BTW there is a story about suicide and OCD in there that I found exceptionally interesting (GRIN). The last story is sticking in my mind. Literally, it was gross, Stephen said he managed to gross himself out and I was grossed out to the max. The New York Times At Special Bargain Rates is probably my favorite, The Cat From Hell is a classic. The Things They Left Behind is poignant to say the least.
Overall an engrossing good read. I bought the hardback as my Christmas present to myself, couldn't wait for the paperback.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

I liked the book, I didn't LOVE the book but it's one I will remember passages out of for awhile. It's based loosely on Laura Bush and I really didn't remember hearing about the accident she had when she was a teenager in which another teenager is killed. That was the turning point of Alice's life in the novel.

I'd heard of it of course and had no desire to read it, thought it would be dull as dishwater, I got it @ the library and started reading it Monday and finished late last night because I took a snow day off of work. It's not dull @ all on a psychological level alone. The accident when the main character is groping for direction and atonement of some sort is fascinating to me. All though I've never been involved in an incident of that proportion I'm not sure what my reaction would be but I'm sure seeking atonement would be in the forefront of my emotional needs. Actually this book explains my family to me in a strange strange way. At a family reunion in 2004 my daughters asked my brother and I where we came from. The rest of the cousins are not completely quiet but there are no surprises in their life or maybe I should say they are not LOUD, they are upstanding, quiet and polite, not saying my brother and I can't be perceived as such but smart Alec might come to mind sooner (or other forms of the expression). There are surprises in my life and my brothers, a little rowdiness, I still feel the need to ride motorcycles if they are available (even with my grandchildren on the grass and they have on a helmet), we don't drink or not anymore but we are more like a hard working Charlie in the book than we are Alice, but the rest of the family seems to operate on Alice psychology. That question asked in 2004 has always stuck with me. Reading this has given me some insight into what the differences may be and why. Does that change me? Probably not except I have a deeper understanding of family dynamics.

Overall a good read, the years between the first 10 years of their marriage and one day in the white house are glossed over and merely referenced, but on the whole I found it a satisfying book, not quite like anything I'd read recently.

Ever seen an elephan paint?

Go check out this link. 4shared It shows the elephant painting a rather remarkable picture of what else, an elephant with a flower.
Snopes says the animals are trained to do this. I am going to have a talk with my bichon about earning his keep and maybe the kittens now. The least they could learn to do is paint walls?
It's late, I'm reading both Stepehn King and Curtis Sittenfeld @ the present moment, what a combo? Supposed to be freezing rain and snow here tomorrow so might just stay home from work!

Craigslist for service?

On Change.org there is a metaphorical reference to a "craiglist for service". One of the founders of Craigslist has something to say about it.
Mr. Newman recommends going to Change.org to look @ healthcare and what we can do.
Here's the link to the total post.

On a side note my husband was stuck on I-44 in NE Oklahoma this morning, seems two trucks had jackknifed in front of him. All was OK, one truck drove away. Roads are like white outside so I have to go clean off windshield and ATTEMPT to make it to work 25 mi away, forecast tomorrow is for freezing rain, oh joy.

To Die Alone

I couldn't find this quote from my one page web search. Well the quote that comes from the end of the story that makes up this post. I was going to write a big long post about my kittens and the 3 sets of orphans I have raised this summer/fall/winter but that will have to wait. I spent a good deal of the day on the phone talking to my husband who is waiting to get unloaded in OK city, he's driving his truck, he's not personally being unloaded. Even if you are just from MO you really don't appreciate Oklahoma aesthetics OK?
Anyway I wake up during the night, on a rare night I sleep through 8 hours, blessed, most nights I wake up @ least once, sometimes up to 4 times, I get up go to the bathroom and perhaps see what the weather is doing, sometimes I get on the computer for 10 minutes, you get the picture.
Well I've had to shut the door from the garage turned family room to the rest of the house because the kittens have discovered where I sleep clear @ the other end of the house. Their catbox is in the family room and also they disturb the dog which disturbs me and they take little side trips to the dining room and I'm finding bits of potpourri strewn about the house and the lace doilies and tablecloths are getting a pulled and rumpled look? So I shut the door @ night and part of the day. I'm in the family room when not asleep or cooking or cleaning anyway.
So I get up last night for like the 2nd time and start to go back to bed, I saw that the kittens food bowl was almost empty and thought everyone says I spoil them horribly because they are never without food and get either milk or canned food once a day. My daughter who is studying to be a vet assistant has even suggested my big cats are overweight?
So I start to go back to bed and even though the heat is on but turned down in the family room (we are talking animals with fur on them remember) and they have a comforter to snuzzle into on the couch and the plant light is on by the plants (also known as cat box #2 and #3 to them) they look @ me as I'm going to shut the door and it hits me they are thinking:
She has left us here in the cold and dark to die.......................alone.
So I give them the last 1/3 of a can of cat food and filled up the dried cat bowl and go back to bed. Dunno if it was the Stephen King short story collection or actual cat telepathy but the thought stuck with me. To die in the dark and cold, alone.
Of course it's possible they are just drama queens too?

What is Middle Aged

Wikipedia definition of Middle Aged:

According to Collins Dictionary, this is "... usually considered to occur approximately between the ages of 40 and 60".

The OED gives a similar definition but with a later start point "... the period between youth and old age, about 45 to 60".

The US Census lists middle age as including both the age categories 35 to 44 and 45 to 54, while Erik Erikson sees it ending a little later and defines middle adulthood as between 40 and 65.

We won't go into what brought on this discussion but I'm still pretty safe except by the census bureaus young definition.

Mid Missouri and Midwest in for a massive temperature drop!

UPDATE: The temperature did drop from 63 @ 2 pm to 38 @ 3 pm. Stuff falling from the sky looks sort of white too. Time to do things that require electricity, I did go get kerosene.

This from the National Weather service.

FINALLY...A DRASTIC DROP IN TEMPERATURES
WILL OCCUR ONCE THE
FRONT PASSES THROUGH ANY PARTICULAR
LOCATION TONIGHT. AS A
MATTER OF FACT...
A ONE HOUR TEMPERATURE DROPS OF
25 TO 35 DEGREES
CAN NOT BE RULED OUT.
LINK

I don't think the forecasters are smoking anything wacky so it should be an interesting evening. It's 65 degrees here now, the wind is gusting up to 45 mph and it's just cloudy, by this evening we are supposed to have freezing rain changing to sleet and snow, 1/4 inch of ice possible with up to 1 inch of snow and sleet on top of it. Of course last winters ice storm took care of most of the weak branches on trees but I know the temp drop can cause problems of it's own.

So it's a holly jolly pre Christmas season. Think I will sweep the floor (the kittens have discovered what fun it is to drag stuff out of trash cans), take out the trash, and head to town after some kerosene for the heater after I make sure it's in the basement. Oh what fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight!!!!!! Oh and husband is unloading in Oklahoma City tonight and then going to try to make it home, if it's too bad he's just heading up I-44 and trying to go pick up the next load in IL. I remember MS, nothing to worry about but weak tornadoes and hurricanes with bigger tornadoes. OK flooding but that wasn't like ICE.

Fruitcake for the Masses

I used to make a fruitcake recipe that almost everyone would eat. I haven't made it for years, we have been living in a motor home in MS for a couple years and I forgot last year and am working and blogging this year but thought I would share in case anyone wanted to try it. Boiling or cooking the fruit in the microwave really helps, this will probably be an all day project but you will leave the fruit to cool so you can do other things.
No recipe, find one oneline that has fruit and flour in it, I prefer one that looks like it will come out about 1/3 cake and 2/3 fruit. You'll need raisins, (if you want them, I made with and without) @ least a big can of cherries, a big can of pineapple maybe 2 if you like pineapple, 2 oranges or more and a couple grapefruit, I used to make LARGE quantities of these but this is for one or two large cakes. Peel the oranges and grapefruit, remove as much of the white stuff inside peels as possible and cut peel into slivers, juice the fruit and add whiskey and lots of sugar and boil SEPARATELY or cook till tender and candied. I used to do this on the stove, the microwave is GREAT for doing this, just watch so the mess doesn't boil over in it. How much whiskey? You'll probably have to add more liquid (whiskey) to get the fruit candied so I'd say 1/2 C or 1/4 to start with for the peel, more for the fruit. Do the same for a can of cherries and a can of pineapple, probably adding like 1/2 as much sugar as you have fruit or live a little and dump the sugar on! After you boil your first peel or fruit you will get the hang of it. My husband likes things SWEET so I used lots of sugar. If you are using raisins soak them in whiskey and add about as much sugar as you have raisins and cook down, I don't think I actually "candied" them. Let your fruits and peels cool and make the cake, your candied fruit will be more moist than storebought to say the least so adjust the amount of liquid you use acordingly, reduce by 1/4 if you drain your fruit to 3/4 if you don't drain you fruit, if you want drain the fruit and use that liquid for pouring over cake later thinned down with a bit of whiskey or use it in the cake if it calls for it. Make sure it's done but not like crispy, let cool, maybe dab on a bit of brandy or whiskey while cooling, a little more after it's cooled, store in a cool room and keep dumping on the whiskey, maybe adding sugar to it. I usually make one smaller cake and eat the first piece after it's cooled!!

Good NEWS for once from Nigeria!

Three young people were awarded scholarships for their acts of bravery and determination in Nigeria. With all the talk of our economy, the ice storm in the NE and the coming one in the midwest, and Palin's church burning here's a bit of cheer and hope for the world.

Original article here: Punching.com interesting articles below this one on the page also. Obama like hope for Nigeria is the title of one.

Outtakes from the article:
According to the Chief executive officer, Dufil Prima Foods Plc, Mr. Deepak Singhal, the winners were given the awards for their outstanding acts of bravery and courage in the face of disability and illness.
According to him, the first prize winner, Bala, saved his baby sister from a raging inferno that gutted their house in Kano. Ayodele’s heroic act was similar to Bala’s, as she rescued her brother that would have been crushed to untimely death by a vehicle. According to the story, a car had lost control and almost ran over the baby boy before Ayodele’s risky intervention (she ran into the road and snatched him up).
Omalade the third youth rescued himself from the grip of being stigmatized and poverty. Denied education by his parents, Omolade had to take his future in his hands by taking to shoe-making. Nobody taught him. He just fell on his talent and flair for shoe making. He started by mending shoes for neighbours and family members. In spite of all the odds, the crippled entrepreneur now has four apprentices working for him.
Endquote:

Massive inequality, we have learned, isn't the best way to run an economy after all.

I've been poor, eating beans and biscuits poor, can't work because I don't have a second car poor and the kids daddy wasn't a reliable babysitter poor. I have a friend (she did the right thing, college, married an up and coming guy) that couldn't have kids, tried every treatment known to man and of course all I could ever talk about were my kids. They were like most of my life and I felt bad for my friend. She did adopt a little girl who is cute and adorable eventually.

So I can understand this woman's plight, that said, flying in yoga instructors etc. to a remote location in ID? That seems silly and just beyond the point of being rich.

Read the article here to see what I'm spouting about this morning before I go to work. (Don't wanna go, can you tell?)

Father in Hiding because of Illinois Governors Scandal

Of course the father is Rahm Emanuel, democraticunderground story here and the story from The Chicago Sun Times here. ABC has been applauded as being fair by the right and the left and their story is here. Ok I heard abc was fair on a right wing radio show which I listen to so I can be upset but also so I won't start leaning WAY far left.

It does say he did manage to sneak out of his home. I sell on ebay or have and really don't want people to know exactly where I live although they could figure it out if they tried hard enough, that's why the police officer lives next door, LOL. Whoever let Mr. Emanuels address out should be ashamed. Death threats?? Have we all gone nuts?

Bichon Pictures and Grooming

I got Dispatch as a Poodle, long story short, he's a bichon, Vet said so, probably a cross between a poodle and bichon. He has a little hound in him too, he's like RELAXED compared to most little dogs sometimes. Also there is the matter of those black straight hairs on his back by his tail.

He does not like to be groomed. When he was a puppy I tried to cut his hair a little the first time and it was a laughing battle in a lawn chair. It soon turned out to be a battle every time. Forget clipping his nails. I'd have the vet clip his nails and pull the hair out of his ears. I started getting him groomed but he didn't get invited back to some of the groomers and the last one didn't do as good a job as I did as far as I was concerned. I found Big Birds Groom Blog which is also one of my links over to your right. I figured out how to do a modified Bichon cut with the aid of cheese sticks, for the dog not for me. As you can see the results were great! The first two pictures are of him trimmed like a poodle and the grown out bad haircut I got from the last groomer. The last 3 were taken the fall of 2007 and 2008. I've also found training him to be helpful, he does sit, lay down, roll over, beg, and shake on command plus of course he walks on two legs like 10 ft across the floor for cheese or steak. We also know quite a few tricks he has taught us such as the bounce bounce move which means I'm gonna bug you till you play, bounce bounce followed by a whine or a bark which means PAY ATTENTION TO ME, the jumping from a high object to your arms move which means human had better catch dog, and the waiting to be picked up which he will assist you with by jumping or crawling into your arms. And as my son said we try to teach another dog a trick and Dis is like what do you want me to do, 3 flips and then walk across the room like a person, JUST GIMME THE TREAAT!! He also does whatever we are trying to get the other dog to do which is cute.

Granted the pictures are of an ungroomed dog and a freshly brushed dog but you will see what a difference the proper haircut and brushing can do for your bichon. Also the tail hair length was shorter on some of the earlier good grooming pictures because we had a labrador puppy that thought the bichons tail was a handle to grab him by and RUN. That's been a year ago and the tail has grown back out.
Oh yes the heavy collar I leave off unless he is going with me somewhere. The reason he has a big dog leather collar is because he destroyed his first cute little puppy collar in 10 minutes, chewed through it. I bought a heavier cloth collar, he knew what he was doing the second time, took 2 minutes for him to get rid of it. Thus the big dog collar.

News and musings, December 12, 2008

Well the automakers aren't going to get bailed out by Congress, United Autoworkers Union wouldn't take any pay cuts. Not a good deal. I know I was opposed to the bailout but if congress wanted to do it with stipulations maybe just maybe I thought it would force Chrysler and GM to evolve into workable auto manufacturing entities again. No dice it seems?
Auto bailout goes down in flames.

It seems Patricia Blagojevich isn't without blame in the whole mess with the Illinois Governor.
Illiniois first lady scrutinized before husbands arrest.

Bernard Madoff founder and president of a New York firm that invested funds for wealthy individuals, hedge funds and other institutions, was charged with operating what he told employees was a long-running $50 billion Ponzi scheme in what may be one of the largest frauds in history.
Madoff charged in $50B Ponzi scheme.

What do all three of these above news articles have in common? Greed plain and simple. I know it's oversimplification but when I was growing up greed was putting as much jelly on your bread as was humanly possible. Capitalism in this country has turned into greed. I am totally for a honest wage for honest work, a honest wage doesn't entail $78 an hour with benefits for gluing carpet in a car. The American consumers have been paying these prices for years riding on our bubble which I'm afraid was one huge Ponzi scheme or pyramid type scheme. Which I believe is not Biblical but that is neither here nor there. Consumers will pay the price now but hopefully we will realize what is fair compensation and it will be lauded more than being able to buy a McMansion in the future.

I know not everyone HAS to work @ Starbucks and it's not a viable option anymore with all the store closing but the book How Starbucks Saved My Life should be required reading in high schools colleges and unemployment lines. It's by Michael Gill and is available here on Amazon. I loaned my copy out but everyone should read it, it just might make you a better worker whether you have a low end or high end job or own your own business. Basically it's how one man realized that there is worth in work beyond monetary compensation but it's also about how he had treated his employees and what type of boss he was which has become typical of so many business'es around the country I'm afraid.

(Blathering drivel below)
I really must clean house and my dreaded desk which has been accumulating things to be filed for like a month now, I wasn't going to blog but the temptation was too great, you know nothing will change if you do everything the same which is true only the house gets dirtier if I spend all day @ the computer. I got up in one of my early morning ramblings and found snow on the ground?!! It's mostly gone now, supposed to be 50 today but snow and ice for 3 days next week, the 3 days I have to work in the week. Hopefully they are wrong. A lady @ work had her husband bring her into work the day it got bad last week and as my husband was away from home I told him that wasn't fair I had to drive in it, he's never taken me anywhere like work and only to the dr if I was REALLY sick and couldn't drive. Then I was thinking about some of the rides I've taken with my husband int he snow and decided maybe it was best I drive! He's a professional driver but sometimes that seems a little scary on the snow! LOL

Comments Please??

I got a blog background from http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ , changed my colors etc. Any comments are welcome, does it load too slowly etc?

I swore I would stay with plain ole black and white but this just caught my eye.

The September Society by Charles Finch

Ok, I work @ Wally World. Long long story, not my ideal job but the first one that called for an interview and I hadn't worked in town in so long I wasn't sure how much I could do physically or mentally (especially after lyme disease). It's been a pain @ times but a blast, my kids want me to keep working because it keeps me busy (translation: mama is occupied with something other than ebay and painting) and husband likes the grocery money I bring in.
Why do I bring this up? Because I started The September Society at work on my breaks and lunch hours this week. I didn't get far (maybe because of all the talk in the breakroom) and wasn't really into it or impressed @ first but last night I started reading about 11 or so and finished it @ 2 am. Charles Finch is no Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but he's good. The comparison to Sherlock Holmes is inevitable as Lenox the dectective in The September Society is in London and doing his dectective work in the 1800s. Finch does manage to interject a little of the Jane Austen novel into his Holmes like work which makes it more enjoyable I think if not true to the detective genre. Boy I'm coming up with the big words aren't I? tee hee hee..... Seriously a good light read for a cold winters evening or two. The clues seem a little more far fetched than Holmes do but I read most of the Sherlock Holmes stories as a child so I may look on them with more nostalgia than anything I read now.
Here's a link to amazon where you can buy the book for one of those winter nights.

Caylee's remains found?

I had hoped against hope that the little girl was alive, I'd read somewhere that they found remains in a canal, now this article says that a childs remains were found not far from Caylee's grandparents.

I just read more and this page from channel 6 has loads of links to all of the videos etc. if you can stomach it. Personally I just read the article.

Voter fraud, snow in New Orleans?, $4 Starbucks vs. Mc Donalds

Two articles about voting machine problems and open source software. Seems that Diebold who makes atms which function flawlessly make the voting machines with a glitch that makes them not count some votes. Basically from what I've read you have to purge the first count, count 0 and then it will work (overly simplified explanation). BUT this information wasn't included in the manual in time or wasn't followed.

CA Diebold Voter Failure

Brad Blog

In other unrelated news snow fell in New Orleans, my husband is in McAllen TX and he had the heater running last night so it's no stretch of the imagination to see how it could snow in New Orleans.

Rare Snow Blankets South Louisiana

and Houston

Rare Snow Warms Houston Hearts

Hey all you hurricane relief people down there!!! Thought you left the snow up NORTH didn't you?? LOL

Mc Donalds is putting up billboards in Seattle close to Starbucks headquarters that say Four Bucks is Dumb for expresso. Being a coffee gourmet sort of I haven't tried either one lately, I like my 4 T of Maxwell House French Roast and my 1T of Sams Club French Roast to a pot. Not nearly as pricey as some of the other small bag coffees you get in the store but still much better than custom roast or any generic brand.

Mc Donals versus Starbucks

26 things that are good about the BAD economy

Snow here and tired tired.
Ran across this article
as an example here are two of the things that might not be so bad:
26 not so bad things about the bad economy

17. Can stop worrying about what bling is.

18. You just might possibly finally lose weight.

Read the rest, will give you a laugh instead of listening to the Illinois Governors potty mouth.

How to Understand Kashmir and Survive the Jihadis: An Interview with Sir Salman Rushdie

Link to a VERY interesting story here.

If you know what a fatwa is or a Jihadi and know who Salman Rushdie is you need to read this article. If you don't know any of these things you REALLY need to read this article. If you can wade through it that is, VERY interesting. Doesn't tell you how to save money @ the grocery store but I do admire a man who goes about with an escort on crutches when his life has been threatened repeatedly by a rather large group of fanatics and the hotel clerk is afraid to mention his name aloud.

Puppies save three-year-old boy lost in freezing Virginia woods

It seems this 3 year old boy wandered away from home and spent a 17 degree night outside in the cold protected by two furry friends.

quote:
A toddler lost in the Virginia woods was back home safe Sunday thanks to two puppies who kept him warm through a harrowing night of freezing temperatures........another member of the search party that found the boy, said the puppies refused to leave his side.

As the child was placed in an ambulance to be taken to a local hospital for examination, "The puppies were watching where he went.

unquote:

Read the complete story HERE

I know dogs sense helplessness, I had a dog when I was a child that wouldn't let me get close to water and would start tugging @ me if I started climbing when I was a toddler, I can barely remember it but he was my built in babysitter, Shep, he was an english sheperd, big furry black dog. Lets remember our animal guardians today no matter how large or small.

whazz happenin

The English bulldog of my nephews has found a name, Newman, off of Seinfeld, I thought it was appropriate but Mikey (the nephew, he's over 6' and over 40 but he's still Mikey) wanted a literary name since he is like a high school English teacher or literature or whatever they're calling it. He likes to read like me. Anyway I reminded him that Newman wasn't a very literary name, haven't gotten a response back yet.

I let the kittens out for about half an hour (kittens are inside until they are like 1/3 grown and can survive outside hopfully, haven't been outside for like a month or two) while I was cleaning off the patio/apron/driveway/playground large chunk of concrete outside the back door. I put our 10 year old bar-b-que up, some sort of record for a grill, swept all the acorns (no acorn famine here) and sticks from the ancient oak tree at the corner. Our storage shed went flying in a tornado a couple years ago and hasn't gotten replaced so it all goes in sort of a hidden spot by the back door where the cats have a shelf to eat on and I keep my everyday gardening utensils and the grill etc. I put the kittens there and the other half grown kittens from the other two bunches of kittens I rescued were out there. My other outside dog was out there and maybe my cousins dog and my other two dogs. Guess what happened?? The young kittens rubbed against the dogs and followed them around and hissed @ the other half grown cats, they knew the dogs were familiar and friendly because they had been in the house some but the cats don't come in or aren't supposed to??? Makes me a little leery of letting the kittens out but the rule is dogs in the house that are housetrained but not cats and we have a building full of straw for them to stay warm in so soon the kittens have to go out. BUT what will happen to them if they love the dogs and expect no harm from them and are afraid of cats? I'm sure they will learn they are cats @ some point but it's rather amusing.

Also made me think about prejudice and how what we are used to is what we aren't afraid of. Not necessarily because it's better but because it's familiar.

We've all done our fair share of career changes and lifestyle changes lately. I hope we haven't made any flawed choices because of fear of the unfamiliar. I know our country is in uncharted territory right now and it is scary to have less money than you used to, trust me it's either been feast or famine most of my life, BUT that doesn't mean all things that happen will be bad. Board games and home cooking are making comebacks. I think people have came to the realization that they can think and what doesn't make sense really does not make sense, it's not because they are stupid that all the excuses for the economy doesn't make sense, it's because they are excuses for greed plain and simple. What does this have to do with prejudice? Sometimes prejudice is just fear of the unknown, we don't know what will happen to us or our country, personally I think it will get worse before it gets better. I hope it's never the same, I hope we are more sensible as a people and realize we can't have new ALL the time and we can still laugh and love and enjoy each other because that's where the true wealth and happiness are at.

Adopt a Boxer

You can find pets for adoption on moads4u or on the Stover Animal Control Website.
This is Miller, he is a boxer/lab mix with that special look that made me take my yellow puppy home when the last thing I thought I needed was a baby lab. Miller is beyond part of his puppy days but he still has that I wanna play look about him. Check him out or the other animals @ the websites.


More about Miller:
Nov. 5, Miller was an owner surrender. He does well on leash and gets along with everyone. He is partly house broken but needs work. The girl at the vet office said he never once made a mess in his run for the 24 hours he was there. He could not wait to get outdoors to go when I picked him up. His eyes have such a great expression. Adoption $75.00

David Carr The Night of the Gun

I've been reading David Carr's book The Night of the Gun where he relives his 20s in detail and then his later life and goes back to revisit the people who lived it with him to see what they remember about the past. The gist of the tale is the night the book title is taken from the ownership or if there was a gun or what happened with it differ hugely as with all the recollections in the book. Depending on the person’s personality, ability to recall, or differing interpretations among other quirks plus what actually happened all culminate into what each person ultimately remembers as truth. It's a good book, one that kept me up till 2am when I finished it!!

Personally I've found this to be true in all groups especially families or extended families. We had an ah-ha moment in our family recently where decades of seemingly mean, cruel, or rude remarks suddenly all made sense. (Also my mother’s dedication to being strict with her kids was explained partially, it backfired in a big way, she raised two black sheep!) Decades of secrecy were suddenly shot down and it turns out EVERYONE knew, just not anyone under the age of say 75 in 2006. This led me to question relatives on another facet of family history which turned out to have two VERY different interpretations. We won't go into detail because some of those who care are still alive but it was either a case of abandonment and rescue of an unmarried mother or parental interference in a love affair that turned out badly and then the parental influence repeating itself in the subsequent generation. That's why my cousin and I are only 1/2 cousins. Seems our family has more than it's share of these accounts and differing interpretations but not enough to cause rifts, just puzzlement. Such as the great great-grandfather that abandoned his family and had another family but came back to visit the first family and wife, to give money or see his first wife hasn't been decided, they would meet in the woods across the highway from where I now sleep.

We question our children’s memories and those of our grandchildren, how could they possibly possess the rich and varied fabric our memories bring us? I let my kids go wander the farm but not the countryside like my parents did with me. My grandchildren had their Rhino type vehicle over here on Thanksgiving and rode it around the farm, they were never out of hearing and seldom out of sight though, that’s just the way the world has changed since the days when I was a child and couldn’t be found for hours and hours. They and their mother and aunt tried to find where the original log house stood before MY great grandparents moved it to it's present location and couldn't. I think I can find where it stood but we are talking almost 130 years ago. Family legend has it that it was the doctor’s house and when our town was burned during the civil war it stood on the south end of town and was spared. My great-grandparents moved from Germany with their 5 children and bought the farm and moved the house piece by piece, log by log, to the almost exact center of the farm. It's been covered in tin for as long as I can remember so it's remarkably well preserved. It's also hideously spooky with tattered wallpaper, broken boards and it's share of creatures (and lipstick writing on a door from my cousin and I one day!!). BUT it's a memory for my grandchildren and hopefully their children. So is riding the Rhino through the fields with their mother and their aunt whooping and jumping terraces, terrace jumping is a big sport and probably not what my dad had in mind when he built them but oh well. My great-grandparents never thought an automobile would be involved in a nostalgic memory, much less something called a Rhino, I never thought guitar hero or wii boxing would be a family memory but they are intertwined now too. All of these memories whether pleasant or unpleasant are part of our wealth as a person, as people, as a country, and as citizens of the world and should be cherished.

Memories and Ramblings

I came home from work Thanksgiving eve to find the turkey breast done in the slow cooker thanks to my daughter, my nephew and youngest stepson were also here. We aren't talking teenagers here, stepson was the youngest and he is 25. We had a really good talk about family etc., my stepson echoed most of our thoughts in that his childhood wasn't idyllic when he was living it, his stepmother was known for sneak attacks for one thing, catching him doing something wrong and punishing immediately, imagine the horror!! LOL But after being around others who came from TRULY dysfunctional homes or abusive situations we all realized how very lucky our lives had been. We all sat around recalling memories and analyzing the latest member of the family we thought needed analyzing.

This isn't a sales pitch but it involves a website for ads something like craigslist. It's the brainchild of my cousin with embellishments by me. MOADS4U came about because we were tired of being pushed around by Ebay and wanted something for locals and beyond. Right now it's a little rough but it does work. Collectively we have 20 years of computer and web experience. My cousin is the web person, I'm more of an OS hobby person, I think networking is fun? We've been on ebay for 6 years, been power sellers, I want my feedback on my tombstone, that's how good it is.

What does this have to do with family (I can sense the stifled yawns right now)? My cousin and I have been friends for all of our lives, best friends. We never had to think about it, we always had a best friend. She had a sister who was quite a bit younger and we both had older brothers but we were always best friends. We aren't even first cousins, her mother and my father were first half cousins (and were always there for each other, all of the old diaries from the 30s and 40s have the two families getting together around the wood stove playing board games and then playing in the snow or that's how it seems). On the site MOADS4U the top pictures are her grandpa, a old bus or car, a bank building which was the office where we both worked for awhile (it was the office for my husbands trucking company then), her mother as a girl (my surrogate mother when I needed one), and a creek which was known as Uncle Sam's (not the guy on the poster, Uncle Sam White who used to own it). The creek was a magical place with a rope to swing off of, a log to sit in the water on or dive off of till the next flood washed it away, a gravel bar for fires and wiener roasts. Back in the 70s before pollution or keeping babies away from life was thought of I took my oldest daughter swimming there when she was only 5 months old, she LOVED it and was surrounded by all the town kids who had come down to the swimming hole to cool off. The water ran through miles of woods and fields, it wasn't chlorinated but if it had rained that summer it was fairly clean. We've taken her children there, they think it's great but REALLY like the pool. LOL

We started the website together after doing websites for many people around the country. We share that and a view (my cousin lives next door, down the road if you will) dogs (my dog races their car when they come home and their dog is always here when I come home) and sometimes vehicles. Our lives have paralleled with first marriages that were "forever" to guys who were friends and had some drug problems shall we say. We both grew tired of the lying and just general craziness being married to those two brought. We both ended up getting divorced although hers was more drawn out and mine was faster, she had 3 kids, I had two, we acquired 2 and 5 stepchildren with our second marriages. We were remarried within 2 weeks of each other to a cop and a truck driver although they are so much more than that. Her cop is a gunsmith @ heart and my truck driver is a farmer @ heart (BTW they aren't perfect but we don't wonder what they are up to most of the time). Our children whether natural or step have done us proud which is probably a mid western term but that's how it is.

All of this talk of family the other night (we stayed up till 2 am, STUPID when we had to get up @ 7 am and start cooking and go to the train station) reminded me of our childhoods and while not totally idyllic by today's standards they were almost so. We rode horses and rode horses, sometimes with saddles, more often not, one Indian Pony we could ride without a bridle and jump on him from behind. We broke a pony for the neighbor and it ended up rolling over on me, luckily it didn't weigh hardly anything. We took my pony in an old abandoned log cabin and then discovered there was a cellar that wasn't too sturdy under the pony, all was well and good but that was probably the stupidest thing we did. We swam with the horses and on occasion my pony would chase us, she wasn't known for her pleasant temperament (biting, chasing, and rearing were more here style than nuzzling) (we probably should have been killed @ some point from being thrown off a horse but we figured out how to roll in a ball and relax and could be tossed with the best).

We climbed every roof on the farm except where our parents could see us climbed to the peak, slid down, and then jumped off, luckily it was only like 10 ft to soft grass but it still wasn't smart (all the falling or being bucked off of horses came in handy probably). We explored another abandoned house in the woods (was actually my great aunts but I didn't know it @ the time), my cousin had a broken arm and we took the nails out of the window panes and put the panes of glass in when we climbed out then they promptly fell out and broke. The house was full of awakening black snakes and others in the spring which gave us both a horrible lifelong fear of snakes, the walls had been insulated with mud and straw and I guess it was a good place for them to hibernate. We ran to a door which turned out to be a cellar with steps going to nowhere but a pool of water and bones from animals that had fell in the cellar window and not been able to get out. SPOOKY!! LOL especially for 11 or 12 years old! Where were our parents? Our mothers were doing something in the house with their bouffant hairdos and flowery dresses or Capri's, as long as we didn't have to go to the doctor when we got back and our clothes weren't in tatters we were OK as long as we were GONE and we would just show up for meals. Our fathers were in my dads mechanics shop in overalls (our dads were both big men, not tall but both dark and burly, spoiled us but we did what they said when they said it) working on something or another or exchanging stories with Sunday loafers around a wood stove with bottles of pop in glass bottles, sometimes we played in the shop, whirled each other around with an automotive belt while the other one was on a mechanics stool with wheels and then LET GO! We grew up with tales of how the moon would spill it's magic out if a quarter moon was tipped or how the Spaniards had abandoned some treasure long long ago. The first one nobody really believed the second one no one ever found the treasure and I think it's long gone if it ever was there, a form of that story exists almost everywhere. We had annual beginning of summer and end of summer cookouts @ the creek with swimming parties where our parents actually would get wet and quit fussing about all the work they had to do. When my husband and I were cleaning out 50 year old hay etc. out of the barn last winter we found the trivet device my dad had made for those cookouts (actually he made it for cooking while hunting I think but my mom put a stop to the 26 foxhounds he had @ one time). Our cookouts were kool-aid, fried potatoes always and hamburgers or fried eggs and they always tasted GREAT. We went exploring @ my cousins farm also to old abandoned mines filled with water that we threw rocks in and speculated on their depth and whether their were bodies in there, exotic names like the Ouchita, signs of mans work in the woods abandoned and grown over. We got older and rode in her brothers old cars and wondered which of his friends might be boyfriend material. Then marriages and children came, working and hoping and surviving, now we are both grandmothers.

I'm hopefully able to look back with fondness and ahead with zest although the zest is hard to conjure up some mornings,we are not OLD yet though. My cousin would abhor the thought as she is only a year younger, OK a year and 43 days, but we do have a treasure trove of memories and history. Actually our parents were both older than normal for the 50s and 60s so we are of an age when we remember our parents best. I don't think we are totally unique in our relationship but life has given us each someone to lean on and remember with (what brought this on was trying to remember if we cleaned Aunt Betty's house for her one day and WHY we cleaned Aunt Betty's house, which used to be Uncle Oscars and had a huge screened in porch, was once a log cabin and was by a creek, I thought I can ask Peggi if she remembers!). I look on our website as a modern day quilt made by two cousins, friends, sisters, however you want to qualify our relationship. A few stitches here, a blog there, a scrap of fabric here, a new ad there..... and life goes on.