Stolen cheesecake

We picked up my mother on Thursday and she’s been staying with us for a few days. Other than the fact that she’s very hard of hearing and refuses to get hearing aids, so you have to repeat everything at least twice, she’s been a very good guest.

She loves the coffee I make, and the Entenmann’s donuts I buy.

We went out to eat last night. The three of us (me, LP & BP) ordered desserts—she said she didn’t want any—but when they came, she told the waitress that she’d ordered the cheesecake and proceeded to eat every last bit. In reality THE CHEESECAKE WAS MINE!! LP laughed and laughed and thought that his Grandma pilfering my dessert was the funniest thing ever.

bad news/good news

Bad News:
I was in a meeting today from 9am until 3pm

Good News:
I received three free autographed books.
The Seventeen Traditions by Ralph Nader
The Riverkeepers by John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich

Bad News:
I was in a meeting today from 9am until 3pm

Dinner Conversation

With different schedules BP , LP and I unfortunately rarely have dinner together. Dinner time when I was growing up was a major production---what with 2 parents, 2 grandparents and seven kids. We almost always had political discussions—usually with my beloved grandfather railing against the Russians, whom he called “Rooshans.”

Being the outspoken dudette that I was, when I was in junior high, I remember getting into almost a knock down, drag out fight with my Dad about the Vietnam War demonstrations going on at Wabash College. Even though he was a Democrat, he was also a former Marine, and he was a “support the president, right or wrong” kind of a man. Having lived through Reagan, Bush 1 and some of Dubya, he outgrew that stance. He was almost as rabidly anti-Republican as Naggy poo and Bly are.

Well anyway, this evening BP, LP & I had a very nice dinner discussing (of all things) the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War.. LP couldn’t believe it when I told him that, in grade school, we had regular “duck & cover” drills in the hallways so we’d be prepared in the event that the Rooshans dropped the Big One on us.

I'm tired of posting stuff.

previews

I saw Baby Mama this afternoon. It was good--why wouldn't it be--it stars Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Steve Martin.

What was almost even better was a preview of a movie opening in July: Mama Mia starring Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth. It looks fantastic! I can't wait.

Speaking of Meryl . . .she's starring in a biography of Julia Child. I saw her in make up and she looks like a great Julia . I can't wait for that one either.

Signature lines

Do you know someone who puts a quotation in their email signature? Most of these signatures are annoying—especially those coming from work email.
A few days ago I got this email from one of my counterparts in another department. She was pissed that I hadn’t done something she thought I should have—even though it was in her court and she got called on it in a meeting.
The email went something like this:

WHY DIDN”T YOU SAY SOMETHING IN THAT MEETING?? I CAN’T BELIEVE NO ONE SAID ANYTHING! It wasn’t MY fault that it was SCREWED UP and NO ONE SAID A DAMNED WORD! This is gonna come and BIT ME IN THE ASS Come BONUS TIME IN a few weeks. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS SHIT!

What was funny is that her signature line was:

"I don’t sweat the small stuff, and I’ve discovered that it’s all small stuff."




You gotta admit---that’s funny.

-------------

Many people at my workplace have gone to inserting their picture in their emails--right above their name. People should not do this.

Primary Day

I'm up.
I'm dressed.
I have my voter's ID card.
I'm ready to cast my vote for Hillary Clinton.
I'm thrilled.

blu thought I might enjoy one of these mugs. She's right!

Good luck on Tuesday Hilly!

The flu saga

This flu has been brutal. I feel I’m about 80% of capacity, but now BP has it. What is it about men that makes them awful patients? It’s like he’s the only person who’s been sick. “I must have it worse than you did, Puddin.” Umm. Noo. I just have to do some things so I dragged myself up a few hours to get them accomplished.

I made the mistake of giving him this little bell to ring when he needed something. Last night he slept in our bed and I slept on the couch—for a few reasons: 1. I didn’t want to try to sleep with his feverish, sweaty body tossing and turning all night. 2. I was still coughing a lot and didn’t want to wake him up.

By the third time he’d rang that damned bell in the middle of the night, I wanted to shove it up his ass or cram it down his throat. “Puddin, can I have some cold water?” “I need a straw.” “It’s time for my cough medicine.” “I think I need another flu pill.” “Would you run this washcloth under cold water, it’s too hot.” “I feel awful.”

Throughout the night I was worried that we'd have some kind of emergency (a fire . . a robber . . .an earthquake . . .) and I'd have to try and haul BP's sick ass outside. Thank God nothing like that happened.

I didn’t even hear the alarm this morning and overslept and was late for work. Work today was more than pleasant when I realized that the alternative was to answer that damned bell all day.

Anyway, BP is slightly better because today he’s eaten two popsicles (“Do we have any of the red ones left?”), a small hunk of French bread, an over-medium egg (“with just a tiny bit of salt and a medium amount of black pepper, Puddin”), a blueberry muffin and two Saltines. He’s also had lots of water and an orange Gatorade.

Please cross your fingers that LP doesn’t get it. Thank you.

I feel like crap. I'm sick. Chills. Fever. Coughing. My bones hurt yesterday.
But I have to go into work for at least a little while today because we're so freaking busy.
Blech

The world can rest easy: Baller won $500,000 on Big Brother. He's giving $100,000 to an autism charity to help the same kids he called retarded.

Orent-licker

I got a lot accomplished on my day off. I have bags of mulch and mushroom compost and peat and potting soil heaped in my yard. I moved around some yard things to make room for the family of gnomes coming to stay for the summer.

Boy is Indiana ever popular with the Democratic candidates, but we haven’t seen McCain which doesn’t disappoint me any. Hillary and Obama are running constant television and radio ads. It feels so special to be courted.

One local politician-guy caught my interest just because of his name: David Orentlichter. Pronounced Orent-licker. I looked up his website and seems he’s both a physician and an attorney. I wonder if he’s ever sued himself for malpractice. Anyway, the pictures on his website are pretty bland: One of him, his wife and their 2.1 children looking all “Ideal family.” One of him with two hard hat-types—this is probably to impart the fact that he’s pro-jobs. And one of him reading to African American kids (one’s looking bored as hell.

I think it would be refreshing to hear a candidate say “I have no new ideas. I’m dumb as a post. I just want to go to Washington so I can get free haircuts, free postage, free health care, a kickass retirement, and get wined and dined by people wanting my vote on legislation.Vote for me! I’m John J. Dumbass and I approve this message.”

Day Off

I've decided to take off work tomorrow to head to Menard's and get my Spring order of mulch, peat moss, and other gardening accoutrements.

I might insist that BP take off too and go to Panera's with me before Menard's. He's not a coffee person--he loves tea.

We had a wonderful Sunday. We grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob. It was (as Racheal Ray would say) "yummo."

I tok a shower and am headed off to read.

Lesson for the day

BP got the mower ready for this season and the LP mowed the lawn yesterday.
Remember: Do not scalp your grass! Set your mower at about three inches high so your grass can get thick and remain healthy. Set too low can cause bare spots in your lawn and invite disease and weeds to sprout.

Having said that, why not get rid of most of your lawn and plant some native plants. Lawns are old leftovers from English lords and ladies and palatial estates to show how wealthy you were. Nowadays with gas prices so high, we don't need vast expanse of lawns. Lawns require fertilizers and water and gas for mowing whch releases god awful chemicals into the air.

Once established native plants (easy to research what is best for your area of the country) require very little care and water and fertilizer. Plus you'll be doing all the little birdies, butterflies, ladybugs, earthworms and other beneficiary buggy boos a massive favor by providing food and shelter.

Google "(Your State name) native plant list" or email Ded---I'm sure he'll be happy to help you. :)

Survivor

I'm watching Fans Vs Favorites Survivor, and while she's not my favorite to win, Cirie is excellent at strategy--booting out Ozzy tonight with his immunity idol unplayed. Great move!

Jason's growing on me--he's naive but a good game player.

For my affection, no one can beat that muscley gravedigger James. He's so very purdy!

People please

Who first started saying "at the end of the day"?

Also "It is what it is"?

I'm sick of both of these sayings.

Is it Dr Suess-type philosophy?

What gives?

My daffodils are blooming








The fence, which is probably four inches on our side of the property line, plus today she was on her ass putting down those planks and marble rocks which encroaches even more.

Defend the Line!

I got up early this morning and washed clothes, cleaned the bathroom, fed the birds, cleaned the bird bath and read the paper. Now I’m enjoying my coffee.
Weird Spring: Today it’s colder than a witch’s tit, but my daffodils and hyacinths are blooming and look spectacular.

You may remember the nasty neighbor I told you about . . the Gladys Kravits nosy parker. The block gossip. The one who crawls around (literally) on her lawn, picking the crabgrass, paints her walk three times each summer. The one who hated us sight-unseen because the old lady we bought the property from wouldn’t sell it to Frieda’s mother. Anyway. She had a company put up a fence between own properties.

She’d hate it if she knew that she actually saved us money, because we had planned on doing the same thing in two years. I noticed she had the company put the “face side” in toward her own property, and the unfinished side towards us. Having researched fencing ordinances in anticipation of our future project, I knew this was against code. In our area, the face side of a fence goes out to the public side.
I went over to her and politely (yes, politely) asked her if the fencing company was finished with the project. She said, “Yes” in that icy Frieda-tone. I told her that the face side should be out facing our property and she said, “I told them I wanted the nice side facing my property.”
Me: I’m sure, but ordinance says that it should face out toward the public side.
Frieda: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Me: The fence company should know the local ordinances, but you’re going to have them come back and redo the fence.
Frieda: Like hell!

A few days later I called the Zoning and Building Inspector and asked them to go and take a look at the fence, and last week the fencing company was back and faced the fence on our side.

BP said that now the fence encroaches about four inches onto our property. He wants to call again and she’ll probably have to take the whole fence down and redo it completely.
I don’t really care that it’s over, but BP says, “We have to defend the line! When we go to sell, it’ll be an issue.” I don’t know how this will play out.

Rag's Luck

I just read old Rags' blog and it puts me in the damnable position of defending her—which I do not like at all.

Apparently someone posted in that Zag Wiki Shelf thing that Rag was in a cult, and since she uses the name Ragmuffin in her photography business (only God knows why) a potential client Googled her name . . up pops the Zag thing and now this would be client doesn’t want a cult member to photograph his whatever. Rag’s out $700 big ones.

I always knew that Wiki thing was a bad idea and a place that people would go to shit on others, that’s why I wasn’t a fan of it. Not to mention I wasn’t a fan of Zagglossus….I thought he was a pedantic blowhard. But I digress.

Anyway, if Rag wasn’t such a rag I’d consider sending her $700. That is, if I had an extra $700 bucks. Or I could sell one of the purses my sister’s given me over the years. But I won’t do that either.

But I’m sorry about her luck.

A creep goes out of his way to make derogatory and mean comments when a post merely laments the untimely passing of a kid. There was no cause for it whatsoever, and I'm hopeful that he'd change his tune if his kids had known a murder victim. But maybe not. Maybe he's just a creep, plain and simple.

Abigail

One of LP's grade school acquaintances was murdered last night. She and two friends (one is still in critical condition at a local hospital; the other was treated and released) were somewhere they weren't supposed to be, doing something they weren't supposed to be doing, and they suffered tragic consequences.
People in general do stupid things, and teenagers do stupid things a lot. You can't tell them anything, because they tend to know it all.
My heart goes out to her parents and friends.

Hello

Hi. I'm back. This week in Florida was boring as hell.
I'm glad to be back.
Free booze though. Still. I'd rather pay for my own booze
rather than sit through boring ass seminars.
That's all.

I bought a cardinal "windy wings" outdoor mobile and it's cute.
It's hanging outside on my porch alongside my windchimes.
Cardinal is the Indiana State Bird. Do you know your State Bird?
Clanky & Mems, does England have an official bird, like the
U.S. has the eagle?
In case there is doubt in anyone's mind, I have officially crossed
over to "old lady." Not quite on the par of the woman who has thirteen
house cats, but close. However, I do talk to the butterflies and birds who visit my birdfeeders.

It figures

My periods have been very spotty lately---hahahahah "spotty" get it???
And I'll go two or three months without having one. Well, I'm leaving for Florida on Sunday and guess what?

Yep.

Mostly for Spidey

Spidey Puddin,

I'll be on a business trip to Orlando next week so don't worry.
I'm not leaving until Sunday so I'll be around until then.

Love ya

Emma's Plan for Economic Renewal

It's Tuesday.

I'm going to campaign that America adopt a 30 hour work week. We'd probably be more productive and there's be less sick time.

A 30 hour work week.

A mandatory 10 weeks of vacation time per year.

A minimum of 10 dollars per hour.

Meetings cannot last more than 30 minutes or the caller of that meeting gets beheaded.

Free Panera coffee and bagels every morning.

If a person wants to come into work in flannel pajamas, I say go for it, however any man who comes to work dressed in khaki pants and a blue shirt gets beheaded.

I will be issued a Taser gun and and am free to use it on people that I dislike and who I do not want to hear from in the office. First offense, get Tasered, second offense, get beheaded.


That will do for starters.

Easter

We had a nice Easter. LP and I joined my sister , Mom, my sister, husband and their three kids for an Easter brunch in Indy. BP was on a business trip and didn't make it home for Easter.
This place had a groovy three-piece instrumental group who played while we ate.
Here are some of the brunch items:

eggs
omelets
potatoes
bacon/sausages
waffles
cereals
pastries


All kinds of lettuces and salad stuff



antipasto:
salami,
*spiced ham,
*olives,
*herbed mozzarella cheese balls,
*peppers,
*fennel & orange salad,
*grilled asparagus with feta,


scalloped potatoes
seasoned rice
grilled fresh mixed vegetables
*poppy seed fish with asian sauce
*jumbo shrimp cocktail
*pork loin with thyme dressing
roast beef


chocolate cake
three kinds of *cheesecake
fruit tart
chocolate fountain with marshmallows, graham crackers and crisp cookies to dip
coconut pie
coconut cake
carrot cake



The starred stuff is all the stuff I tried (oink) but it was so good!

Enchanted

I bought myself an early easter present: Disney's Enchanted on DVD.
What a wonderful movie! Amy Adams is just charming as a cartoon come to life--she's a got a good singing voice too. The group song of How Does She Know That You Love Her in Central Park was one of my favorite scenes.

Patrick Dempsey was good. And I loved that the casting person casted a real-looking little girl as his daughter Morgan. She wasn't cutesy. She wasn't blonde. She didn't over act. She wasn't bratty. She was a little chubby and looked like a real six year old.

Only my sweetie Susan Sarandon was a scenery chewer as the evil stepmother. She should have scaled it back a bit, but I forgive her--she's Susan Sarandon for cryin' out loud.

Even my poor black gangsta child watched it with me and enjoyed it in spite of himself!~

A Day in the Life

Yesterday in Indiana:

The rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun shone a little brighter. I think it was because Hillary Clinton visited our fair State!

Tuesday is my good news day.

I took today off. We're supposed to get rain, rain, and more rain today, tommorrow and into Thursday.

I think I'll paint today and read and clean the bedroom. What a day-off agenda.

Happy St Patrick's Day

I've decided to go to work today and take off either Turesday or Wednesday. But I'm not wearing green so you can pinch me.

I'm debating on whether or not I should take Monday off.

Arguments For:

1. It's St. Patrick's Day.
2. I don't have any meetings set up for Monday.


Arguments Against:
1.
2.

On another note, in an effort to jump start a bad, sagging economy I will once again offer the Emma Powerball Jackpot Extravaganza. Powerball drawing tomorrow is $275 million. If you'll email me a number between 1 and 55, I will go and buy a ticket. If that ticket wins the Jackpot, the ticket's participants will split (Dr Evil dramatic pause) One million dollars.
Email your number before NOON Saturday to emmawrites@aol.com

Lewis Black

You guys know Lewis Black? He’s had his own comedy shows on Showtime & Comedy Central, and he’s a contributor on The Daily Show.

On a recent TDS segment he wondered about the Elliott Spitzer thing and asked why someone would spend $4300 for sex? “For $4300 you could buy a used Honda and go FUCK IT!!" You know the way he gets all manic and his faces screws up? The line was hilarious.

But maybe you had to be there.

A Nugget

I'm reading a book called "I Never Knew that About Ireland" by Christopher Winn

Here's a nugget:


"The word 'quiz' was invented in Dublin. In 1780 a Dublin theatre manager, James Daly, made a bet that he could introduce a meaningless word in to the English language within 24 hours. He hired a posse od schoolboys to chalk up the word 'quiz' on every available wall or surface in the city and soon Dublin was agog to know what was going on. And that is how we came by one of the most commonly used words in the world."

Old meds

The buzz is that now pharmaceuticals are ending up in our drinking water. People get rid of their old and half-used perscriptions by flushing them down toilets--they end up in wastewater treatments and come back through our faucets. Blech. My community has a program where you can take old 'scripts and even expired over-the-counter meds and aspirin, etc. and they will dispose of them in an envirnomental safe way. They have specialized containers and empty them under police and medical supervision.
Find out if you can do it in your own community.

Peeps are here

Another reason to welcome spring!

Saturday

Hesh up Dear Mems. You can suffer through my green blog for a bit. It's to signify Spring and all green things to come.

Spidey Lou: I drift in and out of my Bliss.

Today BP, LP my Mom, Sis and I are driving up to Midway Airport to drop off the BP so he can fly to Texas to pick up a vehicle he bought from a friend. I'm telling you it thrills me to no end to give up a Saturday to have my ass in a car for hours and hours, but it's a request from the husband so I'll suffer in silence.

Schell: Did you like Lost. Ben gets creepier and creepier. I'll bet you a Powerball ticket that his "contact" on the freighter is none other than MICHAEL! I read where he's supposed to come back this year.

OOOOOMMMMMMMMMM

Nothing really new or exciting here.
We're under another winter storm watch
for Friday and Saturday which thrills me to no end.

Damn. I'd forgotten how gorgeous this song was until Jason Castro sang it on AI tonight.
Here's Jeff Buckley's version of the great Leonard Cohen song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AratTMGrHaQ

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the Lord,
but you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
the minor fall, the major lift;
the baffled king composing Hallelujah!

Your faith was strong but you needed proof.
You saw her bathing on the roof;
her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you.
She tied you to a kitchen chair
she broke your throne, she cut your hair,
and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah!

You say I took the Name in vain;
I don't even know the name.
But if I did, well, really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word;
It doesn't matter which you heard;
the holy, or the broken Hallelujah!

I did my best; it wasn't much.
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch.
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
And even though it all went wrong,
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!

This woman's name is Patti Stanger. There is a reality show on Bravo about her and her Millionaire's Club. She accepts millionaire male clients and finds them their "ideal woman." She calls herself a matchmaker.

I've seen this show a few times and it is awful. Needless to say she rejects women who are ugly, fat, too highly educated, and opinionated. Most of the women she uses are between 25 and 35, straight-haired blonde, thin, with huge tits and not a lot on the ball upstairs.

She told this red haired woman that men don't like red hair because it's too matronly. "Can you dye it lighter?" She rejects women who send her head shots because men think women who post head shots on internet dating sites are all fat. She tells curly haired women to "straighten it!" because men want to run their hands through long straight hair. Let me tell you--this woman is not so hot herself. She's like a cross between Elvira and Bill O'Reilly. Do some women actually do a 180 in order to atract a man with money? They must--evidentally her business is booming. She also is mean to her staff.

We've got a new tenant--a retired lady who seems very pleasant if not a wee bit persnickety. We have to move in a refrigerator this week because the previous tenants had their own. BP got the scathingly brilliant idea that we would put our fridge in the rental house and we'd get a new one. Sounds good to me, so I'm thinking of taking Tuesday off to go to Menard's and buy a fridge with BP. All appliances are 10% off.

Tomorrow we're going to our Tax Lady to figure if we owe, or if we're getting a refund. I get a boatload of taxes taken out of my check each month but 2007 was a very strange year for us so it's anyone's guess. Ces't la vie.

We had our Girls Night Out last night. I had a dirty martini and a Mexican chicken dish (not Bert.) Fun was had by all.

The lowly white man

I sat at a lunch table today with several casual work acquaintances.
We were chit-chatting about this and that--mostly politics-- and then one middle-aged fellow proclaimed, "The group in America that is most discriminated against today is white males."

People looked really uncomfortable, but no one said anything. Well, you know me.

Me: Please. Don't make me choke on this lovely tuna surprise I'm eating. Either you're just incredibly stupid or your brain's lost oxygen after all those years wearing that fucking white hood over your head.

The lady next to me laughed so hard she had Pepsi coming out of her nose. Hand to God.

Dinner for Sis

I'm making a dinner tonight for my generous sister as a means of thanking her for her generosity.

spicy cucumber salad
jasmine rice
thati basil chicken with peppers
bananas foster for dessert
tea
----------
still loathing the Big Brother houseguests
----------
all the American idol girls sucked last night
----------
looking forward to Lost later tonight

Tomorrow we're supposed to get more snow.

We're having a lunch pitch in tomorrow at work. I told them that if they expect me to cook then I'm not coming in until 11:30. I'm supposed to bring the deli sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. I'm trying Ina Garten's Grown up Mac & Cheese with three kinds of cheeses and basil and stuff. The recipe is on www.foodtv.com

I'm sleepy since I stayed up until midnight last night watching the Oscars. I had to explain three times to LP the difference between the Oscars, the Emmys and the Grammys. He wasn't too interested. I didn't even mention the Sag Awards, the Golden Globes and the People's Choice Awards. He would have just rolled his green eyeballs.

Anyway, being the young black thug that he is, he liked seeing Denzel. He liked American Gangster but told me that I wouldn't like it--it was too violent. He's right. I wouldn't even want to watch that movie--or a lot of the others this year that were very graphic and/or violent--No Country, or There Will Be Blood. Blech.

I did buy Ratouillle (misspelling there) What a good movie. I did however get grossed out when those fifty million rats came pouring ou of the house when the ceiling caved in. Blech.

Earlier I ate some popcorn and some Laffy Taffy I got 1/2 off the day after Valentine's Day. My sick feels woozy now. Blech.

When is Enchanted due out on DVD? That's my speed

It may cause you to develop a second vagina

I love Tina Fey

As you may already know, I love Tina Fey. She's a great comedy writer. I love 30 Rock, and when I saw she was hosting Saturday Night Live, I taped it. Hilarious. Here's one of their fake ads. It's for "Annuale"--pills that give women only one period a year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdExnHM33kQ.

Read the warning at the end of the bit!

She was also guest commentator on the SNL Weekend Update. I wish someone had YouTubed that--because it was awesome. She did a pro-Hillary piece that included, that some people were worried that Hillary and Bill would be "co-presidents" she said "imagine that . . this country being run by two highly intellegent people!"

and (paraphrasing) "Some think Hillary's a bitch. of COURSE she's a bitch!. I'm a bitch. This one's (pointing to Amy Poehler) a bitch too. Bitches get things done. That's why they have nuns and not priests teach Catholic school. Those dried up old clams could hit you. By graduation you were bruised, bloodied by those bitches, but you knew the capitol of Vermont!" I snorted and snorted!

Tina Fey, I love you.

Larry David's Curbed It

I bought the Season five DVD set of my favorite show that I don't get to watch in real time, Curb Your Enthusiasm. I've watched three episodes so far and I am not loving it.

So far LD and Cheryl have intentionally stopped by a friends' house a night after a planned party and played as if they had forgotten the real date only to be trapped into staying. A gigantic black penis and balls cake had a featured roll in that episode.

Another episode had Larry accuse a house guest of masturbating on one of their blankets, only to discover it was his pal Jeff. Jeff got horny when he was over at the David's for Passover. "I wouldn't have done it on Yom Kippor! I wouldn't have done it on a high holiday! But it was only Passover."

Have LD and company lost their magic?
I'll let you know when I 've finished the whole season.

------

Spidey: We got another three inches of snow yesterday.

This morning I was patiently waiting in line at Panera, preparing to order a large coffee and everything bagel, well toasted, with two butters.
A cute little black boy and his mother were ahead of me in line.
He looked back at me and I smiled at him.
He tugged on his mother's coat sleeve and in a loud stage whisper told her,
"Mama, that white lady is smiling at me!"
She told him, "Smile back at her."
He looked at me and said in a loud voice, "NO!"
It embarrased his mom, but it made me laugh.

BB Til Death Do the Viewers Puke

I thought I told someone to tell me not to watch Big Brother. well, no one did and I started watching it and man, where do they get these jacked up contestants?

Parker looks like the Staples' rubber band man.

Amanda's squeaky voice rivals last season Jessica's voice for most annoying sound on earth.

What happened to the gay guy's partner?

According to the one of the fan sites, the live feed caught "good Christian girl" Natalie giving her partner Matt a blow job on Day 2.

I hate Jen.

I hate Chelsia's eyebrows.

Why does Joshua have an extra "h" in his name? Joshuah.

And is there time to go into why both "Sheila and Adam" are just plain wrong/stupid/nasty/hillbilly? Adam looks like the Love Child of James Caan and Marty Feldman.

Yoko Ono is 75 today. She was listed in our paper's "Celebrity birthdays."
They put a description in front of everyone they list. For example, "musician John Mayer"
"actor Paul Newman" "Lost's Matthew Fox."

Yoko was described as "vocalist Yoko Ono." That made me laugh. VOCALIST!!? haha.
I wouldn't have even put a description for her. Who doesn't know who Yoko Ono is? I'll bet even JulieReneeB and elu have heard of ole Yoko.

It's Bill Paying Day today.

Also laundry.

Also I taped the new Jamie Oliver cooking show this morning and I plan to watch that.
I adore that potting shed type outside kitchen he cooks in. I want to live there--surrounded by his herb garden and the stray chicken or two. I like the way the Irish and the British pronounce the herb OREGANO ---O RAY gan o.
We pronounce it O ray GA no.

People sure do talk purdy over across the Big Pond.

A few people pet peeves

1. People with no backbone.

2. People who think having all students armed with weapons would have prevented the latest Campus Shootings.

3. People who talk loudly on their cell phones from one end of Meijer's to the other. Talking to an unseen guy named Ed about all of her real estate clients and how stupid they are, while she's blocking other people (me) from the red bell peppers.

4. People who are weird . . but not in a good way. There are good-weird people in this world--those don't bother me. The weird-weird ones who make no sense but think themselves worthy of note are the ones I'm talking about. Get it?

5. People (co-workers_ who expect you to drive to lunch week after week and offer not a note of thanks for driving. I've had it with these people. Next week it's "I'll meet you at the restaurant."

Happy Valentine's Day

We received a six dollar and thirty-three cent rebate check in the mail today from our insurance company after I cancelled the policy on BP’s ratty old van we no longer have. Yippee! Of course better than that was the ultra cute Valentine’s Day card I received from Spidey. It featured the Office gang. Thanks Spidey-Lou.
Since my loving husband is in Phoenix on business he won’t be here to shower me with love, affection and gifts. Woe is me.
My LP however has informed me that he wants chocolate for his Valentine’s Day gift.

“And what will you get me?” I asked.
He answered, “You have a great son, what more do you need?”
What more indeed.

WINNER:

Pop Collaboration With Vocals: "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)," Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

They may have won a Grammy, but their video still sucks

love this angle on the columbine

lupine

Taking a page out of Spidey's book, on this -1 degree day I was looking at my old garden photos. This was taken in June of 2005. I love the bi-colored lupines and hopefully they'll bloom again this spring..

Of Bagels and Filing Cabinets

My new favorite bagel is the EVERYTHING BAGEL--Garlic, poppy seed, sesame seeds--which, granted, isn't everything, but well-toasted and smeared with real butter or a good plain cream cheese, it's pretty damned good. I enjoyed mine with coffee. My breath will smell like garlic all day, but I think it's an okay trade off.


OHH!!!! I FORGOT TO TELL YOU!! BP finally got rid of his rusty old ugly van! I told him that the insurance was coming due for it and since he drove it less than two times the whole of last year that it was time to get rid of it--sell it, give it away, something. Last week he came in smiling, all pleased with himself. He told a guy he knows that he was getting rid of the van. The guy reconditions filing cabinets and tables so BP traded the crappy van for a not-so crappy 4 drawer filing cabinet and two small stainless steel tables he'll user in the basement. I'm thrilled to have that eyesore out of our driveway and he's thrilled he got a "deal."

So I'm watching TV and flipping channels from Survivor (YAY--the disgusting Jonny Fairplay was the first one to get voted off) and Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?
The player was a PhD candidate and she was up to the $500,000 level with one question to go and if she got it right she'd be the show's first millionaire.
The subject was U.S. History. She'd always liked history so she risked her $500,000 for a chance at the millionaire.

"What US pilot was the first to break the sound barrier?"

Hell, I'm screaming at the TV "CHUCK YEAGER! CHUCK YEAGER!"
And she's thinking out loud, "Lindbergh was the first to cross the Atlantic. And Amelia Earhart was a woman pilot. . . . umm......"

Me: CHUCK YEAGER! CHUCK YEAGER, YOU ASS! CHUCK CHUCK BO BUCK BANANA FANANA FO . . . "

Contestant: And Howard Hughes had the Spruce Goose . . . .ummm. . . . I'll lock in Howard Hughes.

DAMN!!

I want my million dollar check.

UFOs

I've gotten to the part of Shirley's Sage-ing While Age-ing where she's talking about extra-terrestrials. She believes that the Earth has been visited by ETs since forever. She has read, studied, researched these UFO sightings for a long time. We've not just been visited by one group of ETs--we've been visited by four distinct planetary visitors from various places in the universe. She reports that President Eisenhower actually met with aliens in New Mexico in the early 50's. She writes and reports on very compelling information.


Many people have reported seeing UFOs.
Personally, I don't know about other planetary vistors to Earth. I don't think about them on a daily basis. Supposedly, these visitors have given us information on cloning, among other things. It's intesting to think about.

Today at work:

The whole company's computer system was down all day. It's amazing how much work we do with the computer, so my day was pretty much blooey.

I had a conference call at 2:00 which was totally boring.

Afterwards my assistant and I went for coffee and then home.

I hope it's fixed tomorrow. I probably have 50 million emails and loads of work to do on each one.

Happy Sunday! I'm enjoying my coffee despite the fact that Nesta Kiki Marie is swirling around my feet.

Oops, just a minute . . . .

Okay, I'm back. I went to the bathroom and then turned off the coffee maker.

Chores to do today:
1. Vaccuum our bedroom! It's long past due.
2. Watch The Soup which I recorded last night.
3. Go to the store and buy milk and other stuff


I'm reading Shirley MacLaine's new book Sage-ing While Age-ing. (Spidey, you might enjoy it too) I've always been a big Shirley fan. Her movies, and her books. I admire her courage to believe what she believes (reincarnation, extra terrestrials, etc.) despite ridicule from Western thought.
In this book she discusses her physical body aging, her friendships with Stephen Hawking and some NASA astronaut (I forget his name right now) who had metatphysical experiences on his way home from Earth from the Moon.
She also throws in some celebrity tidbits like the time she told mobster Sam Giancana to "Fuck off!" because he badgered her to eat some spaghetti.

No Super Bowl Chat Here

I usually blog about things I love and like: both of the Ps, books, gardening, music & movies, travel, politics. Stuff like that. I love talking about that stuff.

But don't talk to me about Football. Or about the Super Bowl. I don't like football, or sports in general come to think about it.

Nominee for Worst Video

I don't watch many music videos but I was clicking past VH1 this morning and saw a video Gone Gone Gone--a duet by Robert Plant and Allsion Krauss (love her.) The song is a bouncy ditty but the production and creativity values of this video were awful. It looked like it had a budget of a thousand dollars. There were three sets:
1. A giant silver room with big disco balls hanging down. The two were on tread mills singing to each other--looked like a giant roll of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil vomited on them.
2. They were in a room of those big blow up Wave Balloons--you know the kind that car dealerships use to draw people's attention to a car sale. They were singing and getting wind-blown hair.
3. A huge Gold Lame room with people sitting at tables, and other people dancing, and Plant and Krauss pointing to each other and singing.

Bad. Horrible. Bad. Horrible. And just plain Yucky.

Still cold. We're supposed to have a "snow event" tonight and tomorrow, which may mean up to 6 inches of snow.

I'm having orange juice and a yummy croissant this morning.

Have you ever had a stiff neck? Well, this morning I think I have a stiff head. My head hurts to move it.

Lost debuts tonight: ABC 9 pm to 10:02--it's getting an extra two minutes!

It's frozen cold and windy here today.
But it's off to work I go.
Ta.

I got a default jugment against the freeloaders . . . now, if they'll only pay up.
--------

I made the most delicious Bananas Foster for dessert tonight:

3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 bananas, peeled and sliced
dash cinnamon
1/4 t vanilla
2 tablespoons Appleton rum

Melt butter in skillet.
Add brown sugar and stir until sugar is melted.
Add bananas and saute until tender.
Add cinnamon, vanilla and rum.

Spoon over vanilla ice cream.
It takes about five minutes to put together and it's almost as good as an orgasm.

I am going to small claims court this afternoon to get a judgment against the evicted tenants. They owe me $1572.41.

I will ask my limousine driver to speed to the County Court House and run over as many redneck white trash lower socio-economic peasants as he can--leaving them broken, battered, and voting Republican.

Power to the bourgeoisie!!

Yes I have fun. No, I didn't get drunk--I just had one extraordinary margarita.
And I ordered seafood tacos.

Eight showed up and we gossiped and laughed--and perhaps even a snort or two.

This afternoon I met my sister for lunch. I had grilled salmon with too-hot wasabi sauce. Man, talk about clearing out your sineses. Afterwards we shopped. I got two pairs of shoes, a denim jacket, from Ann Taylor's that was originally $98 marked down to twenty, and four books and three magazines. A nice afternoon.

Tonight it's Girl's Night Out. In a few minutes I'm meeting about twelve others for drinks and dinner. I'm looking forward to enjoying a Patron margarita on the rocks. I'm wearing my new jacket out tonight.

Since I'm playing today--tomorrow I'll do housework and laundry.

I blocked off a week in May for vacation. I thought about going to Barbados, but then Sanibel Island in Florida is also a possibility. I lived in Florida for five years back in the 80's but never made it to Sanibel. I thought we could also take a guide trip through the Everglades and a day trip to Key West.

Barbados looks cool too--but it's an awfully long way away. Plus next year--our tenth anniversary, we're planning to go on a cruise. My first cruise, and BP's first cruise--so we could do Barbados then.

BP said that I could choose where we go. Because this winter has been so fucking fierce, a beautiful white sandy beach sounds so wonderful.

Any of you been to Sanibel/Captiva?

Precious Kitty Update: I sure hope Mems doesn't miss it!

Nesta's new favorite hobby is to run into the bathroom when I'm finished with a shower and hop into the tub to watch/play with the faucet drip. Isn't she precious??

I can't believe someone who is dirt poor would be against universal health care, even if that plan has flaws. Some amount of health care is better than nothing. This country has got to get on board with the fact that there are millions and millions of people in this country without adequate health care--or any health care. A lot of people have to work past the age they'd like to retire just because they need health care benefits that a full time job gives them. It's disgusting.
Who's going to address this problem? The Republicans? Bah! Yeah, right.

If you didn't already know it, my husband is a saint.

His mother called at 1:30 this morning because her sump pump wasn't working and her shower plumbing was going haywire. She had called a plumber but he wouldn't get there until someime today and she was worried and scared. So BP drove 60 miles out in the bitter cold, fixed both problems temporarily until the plumber came, told her for the 50 millionth time that she should sell that ancient farmhouse and move closer to us, and drove home. He got back about 5:30, poor thing.

I think I'll let him sleep until noon.

Ok, so it's going to be way, way frigid this weekend (that's a meteological term--'way way frigid')

Last weekend I painted something that I want to hang on the kitchen wall. This weekend I'll put the finishing touches on it and ask BP to hang it.

Since we have a 3 day weekend (thanks MLK, Jr!) one project I'd like to tackle is the bedroom closet. It's a catch-all and an absolute mess and I don't even want to tackle it--but it's a job that needs to be done.

Project Runway: I'm sad that Kit was booted. She seemed like such a nice and talented person. I hated all the avant garde creations except Jillian and Victorya's. That coat and ruffled shirt were great! All the contestants this year seem to truly like each other, and not backstabbers like in years past.

A few days ago in Indianapolis some gunmen went into a house (a reputed crackhouse) and murdered the two women there. As if that weren't enough they also killed their two small children (one was a baby.) WTF? Why in the hell did they have to murder those kids? No sense to it at all. Now supposedly three out of the four gunmen have been captured, and of course, each said he was there, but not the shooter. Sigh.

I have a headache.
I think it's because the weather's changing--it's supposed to get very cold this weekend. Or it could be from work. Or a combination of the two. Who knows.

I think all work should cease in the wintertime and we should just burrow beneath bedcovers for the duration, emerging only to pee, eat or read. If a political candidate runs on that platform, I'll vote for him/her.

Email from Meme

Meme received this personalised card from the Bushes. I thought I'd share

Whirligig--love that word

Got up.

Washing sheets.

Watching the light snow fall.

Going to make coffee and pumpernickel toast.

Yesterday I received three garden catelogs in the mail--loving it. This gnome whirligig is on sale. I might have to be tied down to keep from buying it. Isn't it cute?

Britney meets history

I was watching E!'s The Soup with Joel McHale last night. In case you don't know-- it's a show where they show stupid and/or absurb clips of other "real" shows, then make fun of them and the celebrities on them.
Some of Joel's recurring targets to make fun of: Tara Banks (Tara is always about Tara), Oprah and her vajayjay, Barbara Walters and the View, Donald Trump, Pat O'Brien and his Access Hollywood (or whatever entertainment show he hosts,) etc.
He was reporting on the reporting of Britney's mental breakdown and being rushed to the hospital the other day. An entertainment reporter by the name of Jim Moret (as an aside--he's the son of actor James "Moondoggy" Darren) was reporting on Britney leaving the hospital.

Moret: To dodge reporters Britney left Cedar Sinai via an underground tunnel.

Cut to McHale: Ah, Britney--the Harriet Tubman of the bi polar lip syncers.


SNORT! Writer's strike or not---that was funny!

Words of Wisdom

From my quote of the day calendar:

--Three things have helped me successfully go through the ordeals of life: an understanding husband, a good analyst, and millions of dollars.--Mary Tyler Moore

--Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now, that's a real treat.--Joanne Woodward

--A finished person is a boring person.--Anna Quindlen

--Women are always being tested . . .but ultimately, each of us has to define who we are individually and then do the very best job we can to grow into that.--Hillary Clinton

--Love thy neighbor--and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easer.--Mae West

Item:

After twelve years of dependable nuking, my microwave blew up. It went out in a blaze of glory. Literally. A blaze.

My New Love

Nabisco Gingersnaps with REAL ginger and REAL molasses are wonderful! So spicy and gingery!! 4 cookies are only 120 calories with only a little fat.

GET SOME!

Three days ago the high was 7 degrees . . today it reached 64.
It's January.

Vern Yip, Here's a Tip

Have any of you watched Vern Yip's Deserving Design? I like Vern, but his bedroom designs are SOOOOOOOOO impractical!

Of the two bedrooms he's done, one had about twelve glass orbs suspended over the bed with little tea lights in them. When lit they're pretty, but HOW do you light twelve tealights (get up on a ladder?) and WHY would you put twelve tealights on the ceiling when there are so many soft lighting options that would be better.

The other bedroom had a headboard where he incorporated the same type of evil tealights into wrought iron. This bed even had a cloth CANOPY. WTF, Vern? One of the tealights could go awry and FVOOOOMPH! . . .there goes the canopy up in flames.

I wanted to crack the Tealight Headboard Recipient lady in the head! She and her family lost "everything" in Katrina. When Vern did THE REVEAL she and her daughters jumped up and SCREAMED and HOWLED like stuck pigs, then she collapsed on the floor, then the bed then started bawling--mascara running down her face. GOOD LORD and pass the potatoes...Reign it in, Girls!!!
Anyway, Vern you are as cute as a bug with your lip gloss an' all...but, please no more tealights!!

My New House

Hello Dear Reader,

I thought you like to see my new house. Well, it technically won't become mine until mid March when I win it from HGTV.com.

It's in the Florida Keys, on the water. The only trouble is it'll be part of a small community of six other homes, when the building is complete.

One thing about HGTV really pissed me off: This is the 12th Dream Home giveaway. All the others have been hosted by Joan Steffend of Decorating Cents. This year they ditched Joan and hired a twit named Monica Pederson (of Designed to Sell) whose teeth count rivals Giada DeLaurentiis. This broad is younger and sexier than Joan so I figure that why the boot was given to my girl Joanie.

Anyway, I'll still take the house when I win it, but I'll give the HGTV execs a piece of my mind about this matter.

I'll host a Shelf Meet in the Spring when I win. Well, maybe not a Shelf meet---but a Emmawrites Blog Reader Meet--gotta keep out the riffraff.

How am I supposed to go to work when it's been frigid cold most of the week? Not fit for man or beast or Emma.

It's supposed to be 50 degrees and raining this weekend. Oy.

We evicted the deadbeat tenants. Of course they left the house in a mess (who takes down smoke detectors??) We go to small claims court at the end of the month. They owe us close to $2000 so far. It'll climb when we do some repairs they caused.

Meme, we have a vacant house if you and the boys want to be Hoosiers.

My computer has a new hard drive.

Happy 2008 to all.
We went over to my friend's house about 9 and stayed until 11, came home, watched the ball drop and was in bed by 12:05.
We played a game called Left, Right, Center--it's a quarter game involving three dice, each one having an L R C or a dot. Depending on what you throw you have to give a quarter to the person on your Left or Right. If the die shows a dot then you get to keep it. It you throw a C for center a quarter goes into the bowl in the middle of the table. The last person with
at least one quarter wins the pot. I won one of the pots--it was fun--especially when the party's hostess started rubbing the dice on her nipples to bring her luck. Snort--she was a little drunk.
We got about 2 inches of snow overnight so as soon as LP gets up and shovels a path I have to go to the grocery store.

Sticks and Stones

Easiest candy you'll ever make:

2 packages Butterscotch morsels

1 can La Choy chow mein noodles

1 cup of cashews, rough chop

Melt the butterscotch either in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave. Take off the heat and stir in the noodles and chopped cashews until well mixed. Drop spoonfuls onto waxed paper or Reynolds No Stick Wrap and let cool. You can also refrigerate them.

They are terrific! I call them Sticks & Stones

Inspired by Tree's List

Favorite Books in 2007

**Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows by JK Rowling. A satisfying wrap up to the best series about a wizard and Muggles ever written

**The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. About the secret lives of California Redwoods and those who climb and live among them.

I’ve read a lot this year—just nothing else stellar, but I’m sure I’ll think of other good ones.


Best Television

**30 Rock. Tina Fey is a comic genius as is whoever cast the show. If you're not watching this, you're a gay looser!

**The Office. The only thing that disappointed this season was that because of the writer’s strike it was so short. They need to make one more season—any more and I’m afraid it will Jump the Shark.

**Colbert Report. Steven is obnoxiously funny, whereas O’Reilly and those he parodies are just plain obnoxious.


Television Messes

**Big Brother. This show just gravitated mean and stupid people. None were humorous—just mean and stupid

**A show I won’t watch anymore: CSI because I loved and will miss Jorja Fox, sorry Gil Grissom, I’ll miss you.

**Whenever Dubya shows his smarmy, smirky face

Notes:

**If I ever read “S/he’s in rehab” it will be too soon.

**In 2008 I hope I’ll never have to read/hear about: Britney, Britney’s sister, Lindsay, Paris, Dannielynn, Anna’s decomposing corpse, Racheal Ray

For Clanky & Catz, my recipe or sugar cream pie:
1. Go to Marsh grocery store.
2. Buy a sugar cream pie.


I love to cook, but hate to bake so I usually buy my desserts.


Today two friends took me out to lunch and fought over who would buy my lunch. Haha.
Then BP & LP and I went to a discount store and bought a recliner/rocker/game chair/thingy for LP's bedroom.

I made chicken and new potatoes for dinner.

Yesterday we went to St Elmo's Steakhouse in downtown Indianapolis for my birthday dinner.
I had good wine, their famous shrimp cocktail, filet mignon and bread pudding for dessert. It was very expensive but a very nice dinner and we had a good time. My sister who went with us told us that she's been there several times and she's seen Mario Andretti and some NFL coach in there.

Oh, they make their own shrimp sauce with freshly ground real horseradish and man, oh man that stuff was POTENT and cleared out my sinuses. When I took the first bite it was like the hot stuff went directlythrough my gray matter and ended at the very top of my skull! Whewy!

I also bought myself a B-Day present: My own plaque to put up in my backyard, certifying it as an official Backyard Wildlife Habitat. I will take a picture of it this spring when I put it up and there is something in bloom.

We had a really nice Christmas. About 2:00 we drove to my sister Jane's house and hung out, opened presents and ate around 6pm. She's a wonderful cook and put on quite a spread: turkey, ham, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberry stuff (ick) homemade yeast rolls, and her famous homemade noodles (it's an Indiana thing). For dessert I brought pecan pie, sugar cream pie, tiramisu and ice cream.

After dinner and clean up we played cards--poker, and a game called "Pass the Shit"-- and we were home by 11.

Today I got up and went to Panera Bread for coffee then out shopping for a few things: batteries, scissors and Thank You cards. I also had to buy these adorable Christmas cards that were half price. I'll put them away for next year but will probably forget where I put them.

Then I hung out and watched Dreamgirls for the first time--I bought myself a present of the DVD for $10. I'm glad Eddie Murphy didn't win an Oscar for his protrayal of Jimmy Thunder Early, cause he wasn't that great. Every time he said something he sounded like his Donkey from Shrek voice.

Jennifer Hudson was quite good though. Overall, I thought the movie was too long and rated about a C. The songs' lyrics were really bad--sounded like an amateur wrote them.

But there were cameos by John Lithgow and John Krasinski from The Office. Oh, and Jamie Foxx did a good job--as did the guy who played CC--Effie White's songwriting brother.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm going out for a great dinner with BP, LP and one of my sisters.

A few weeks ago, Linda, one of the women I usually have lunch with, told the group that she lost one of her diamond tennis bracelets. She wears three bracelets on her wrist, and while out Christmas shopping she must have lost one. She listed five or six shops where it may have fallen off. She was heartbroken because it was not only expensive, but it also had sentimental value.



Flash Forward:

Yesterday I was sitting in the living room reading the newspaper and i went back to the Classifieds and the FREE column (lots of cats, a half breed puppy, and a piano this time). I glanced down at the Lost & Found column and there it was: A BRACELET FOUND IN THE VAC OF KOHL'S. CALL & DESCRIBE.
I called Linda and left a message on her machine that she ought to call this number_______,and describe her tennis bracelet. It was a longshot, but hey.

That afternoon she called and was thrilled--it was, in fact, her tennis bracelet!
So, I did my good deed for the day.

It's weird, because very seldom do I read the classifieds, Free Items column or Lost & Found. It must have been Synchronicity, Serendipity, Fate, or one of those things.

Saturday before Christmas Stuff

Yesterday we had my employees Christmas lunch. We had fun--I took them to a restaurant that they chose (expensive) and then we went home around 2.

After he got his hair cut (the cutter girl was a real "slimmee" --not slimy . . . slimmee-- and wanted him, don't you know) LP and I went out Christmas shopping. Well, he mostly shopped and I stayed in the car. I was forbidden to go into Bed Bath & Beyond with him.

We're wrapping present today. I told him that I'd help him wrap everyone's and he could wrap the presents he got me and BP.

Yesterday late afternoon it started to mist rain and after that it got foggy as hell. Rudolph's nose would have to be at full wattage to get through that pea soup.

Phil Donahue's 72nd birthday was yesterday and I forgot to mention it. I love Phil Donahue and miss seeing him on tv. So, Happy Belated Phil, you old Liberal Fart!

I'm taking the rest of the year off--don't have to go back until January 2. Who's happy about that? Who? Who? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

One of the secretaries came into my office today explaining that she was asking people to donate money because this woman who works in the cafeteria had her gas shut off and she needed $700 to get it turned back on.
A few people around here (me included) know for a fact that she received over $6000 in back child support in October. So did she pay her utilities and other bills then? No, she bought cigarettes and Jack Daniels and a flat screen TV and went on a trip to the Bahamas.
Now her two kids had to leave the home and go and live with an aunt who has heat in her house.
I did not contribute to this fundraiser. The secretary fell for a false hard luck sap story and talked other people into contributing.
I just hope the money raised goes directly to the gas company and not to the woman herself to blow on smokes.

Dan Fogelberg: 1951-2007

When I was in school, I played it so much that I wore out two copies of his Souvenirs album:
That picture of him, with his long hair, sitting on a rocking chair was just a quiet kind of sexy.
Loved his music.
Loved his voice.
Dan Fogelberg died yesterday.
Thanks Dan.

Same Old Lang Syne

Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling Christmas Eve
I stole behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve
She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried
We took her groceries to the checkout stand
The food was totalled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation dragged
We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldn't find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And we drank it in her car
We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness but neither one knew how
She said she'd married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
She would have liked to say she loved the man
But she didn't like to lie
I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasn't sure if I saw doubt or gratitude
She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly but the traveling was hell
We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness but neither one knew how
We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to time
Reliving in our eloquence, another 'auld lang syne'
The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out and I watched her drive away
Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned in to rain...

Sunday Morning

1. We got a lot of snow yesterday. It's supposed to stop around noon but we're getting 40MPH winds until 3 so that won't be good. LP's going to have to shovel, shovel, shovel.

2. Spidey** you little imp. I received your Christmas card yesterday and I felt all the little shineys you put in the envelope before I opened it, so they didn't go all over the floor! ;)

3. Last night I made this kick ass chicken recipe I saw that Food TV guy--Guy Fieri--make.
RECIPE. I used chicken breasts instead of thighs, and just regular red and yellow peppers instead of the kind he used. It was really really good. Lots of flavor.

4. On today's agenda: clearing off the snow, reading T is for Trespass, cleaning my kitchen and that's about it.