Oh yes it snowed

Oh yes it snowed....and snowed.....and snowed.

Till all of the city was shut down....around 8 inches by the end of the day. I was tucked inside working on emails and phone calls for the silent auction. It was a good day to get that type of work done....because everyone was home or on their computer. I received replies in no time at all.

Although the snow is pretty...I am worried about my little wild cat. She actually came to the front door when I opened it this morning to tell me how bad it was outside. I put a little plastic on her shelter and made sure the little heater was working but she looks cold. I've fed her and given her some warm water...but this is not the season for kitten.

She is much friendlier to me today.....I guess she knows she's in a desperate situation. A few minutes minutes ago I opened the door....and bent down and actually petted her...rubber her back...which she let me. Something new....and then she licked my hand. It almost made me teary eyed...it was like she was saying...okay...I'm not quite tame but I know you are doing something to keep me alive. Oh...I'm such a softie. Yet how can you turn your back on this little thing tossed out by someone?

So I'm going to do more auction work and stay up for another hour...I have to keep turning on her heating pad because it shuts off every two hours as a safety mechanism. Despite the snow my son needs to go to work...so I know someone will check her around 430am....but in between...I can only turn it on and hope it stays warm and keeps her through most of the night. I am seriously considering secretly setting my clock and getting up at 3am to check her heating pad. The city is closed tomorrow....so I can work auction and sleep in ...if I don't fall back asleep.

I am a silly woman.

Wild cat sitting in the little shelter I made for her for the snow storm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waiting for the 4th End-Of-Times Snowstorm

The weatherman are practically having on-air orgasms about the coming storm.

First it was 8-10" then 6-8" and now 4-8 inches....whatever.

They are all waving their hands...having specials on TV....warning about taking water and candy bars and blankets in your car....and how we will be devastated and isolated and stuck....

for 48 hours!!

That's not a very long time.

It's supposed to be 40 degrees by Friday and maybe back up to normal and 50 degrees by Sunday. So even if we are snowed in for two days...it will all be gone in two days too.

This is not the End-of-Times...it's just a pause in the life of a busy city and busy people.

I plan to get up early ...drink some hot chocolate and get an early start to my silent auction work. I have several phone calls to make and I'll probably get in touch with the people...since they will be snow bound in their houses and not in the stores or at meetings.

See there's already something good happening out of this.

I've built a small little shelter for my wild cat which she is sitting in right now...and it should keep her a bit snug till the snow comes and melts. It leans right against my front door so I can toss her some cat food during the day if the snow piles up. Not ideal...but being an abandoned kitten in winter is not ideal either.

I'll also probably make myself an egg sandwich for breakfast....a tradition on a snow day ...followed by lots of coffee.

So weathermen and women keep flaying your arms...let's see how much stuff we get....my only concern....that we don't lose power...cause if I don't have my freaking computer I can't do my auction work....and then I will start freaking out.

Okay....no snow flakes yet...nite nite and let's see what happens tomorrow.

Southern's Enjoyment of Snow over Time...click on picture to enlarge.

The End of Times at my local grocery store.

It's a snow day here in the South...and I did a stupid thing....I went to the gym early ....and then hungry as hell went to the grocery store as the first flakes of snow hit the southern asphalt.

Everyone in town also witnessed that first flake, checked their smart phones...saw the opaque mess on the weather radar moving towards us and drove like crazy people to the grocery store too.

I groaned when I hit the parking lot since quite a few folks made it there before I did. I hit the milk section first....because #2 son, although a grown young adult, can't seem to survive without chocolate milk. Thank heavens a few jugs left.

As the grocery store filled up with people... and I smelled the panic in the air......I sort of went berserk.

My hungry tummy plus all those Eastern European and Siberian ancestors in my DNA joined to form a toxic mix which morphed me into an extreme carbo hunter armed with a steel grocery cart.

Package of cookies to bake....yes!
Tortilla chips ....yes!
High energy cereal....yes!
Frozen yogurt ...yes!
La Leche topping....oh yes yes yes yes !

My cart filled and filled. My logical mind stepped in for a few minutes to buy some lean ground beef , some veggies and fruit...and then was shut off by my carbo hunting ancient ancestors who shouted in my head, "Screw the bananas .....grab the potatoes."

Yes great great grandmamas and grandpas.

Finally cart full.....I ended up in check out lines at least 12 people deep....everyone keeping one eye out the window at the snow and the other eye on people who might dare cut into the line.

The line didn't bother me.....I updated my Facebook status, texted the family that I had saved the day and procured food, and read my email. I took a deep breath.....I felt like an ancient hunter with a mastodon in my sled....we would not starve tonight...no matter how cold or how much snow.

I drove home and called out #1 son who was off work to help me empty the car. He opened the trunk and look startled...."What happened?" Which I took to me, why the heck are there so many bags of food. But hey, I have three men to feed, two dogs, two cats and one wild cat to tend to.....and since I'm the appointed hunter in the family right now....I'd rather have surplus then listen to all these men and animals moan.....about the lack of something to eat. Not that we couldn't all use a few days of starvation.....lol...

Anyways...There's a couple inches of snow........amounts people up North and on the East Coast would laugh at....but we take are inches seriously down here in the south. We are a fragile people who cannot go without bread and milk and the nice-ities of life like cookies and hot chocolate.


Actually hot chocolate sounds real good right now...so I think I'll head downstairs and make some then snuggle up in my office chair and start working on the silent auction bids and narratives I need to write.

If anything it's a perfect day to spend on the computer....now that I have faced down the End of Times.

Brrrrrrrrrrr..................

Oh baby it's cold down south.....maybe 16 degrees tonight.

I read my hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, and I got goosebumps looking at the winter blast snow pictures. I couldn't believe the photos of Lake Shore Drive.....900 cars stalled out in the snow. People sat in their cars for 12-14 hours.....okay my first thought.....did anyone have to go to the bathroom? And how?

In my own hometown, I'm worried about my little wild kitty.....she gotten a bit more tame.....we've moved from ear scratching....to back scratching to a slight tummy rub...(very slight)...I even gave her a name..... Snickers....but at this temperature a young animal could be in serious trouble. I turned on the heating pad under my door map...but she ran away....hopefully to someplace warmer and out of the wind. I'll be up early in the morning with canned cat food if she makes it.

I called my Auntie in Chicago to check on her and she is snug and warm...but my daughter in Ohio had lots of weather trouble. Buried under some snow and ice.....they lost power for 16 hours....around hour 15 they thought about trying to navigate their steep driveway to find warmth at a friend's house. Fortunately the power came on....and hopefully it will stay on as the wind chill is below zero there.

I pulled up the New York Times and read snow stories around the Midwest and got so cold and bummed out reading about the blizzard....I made some hot chocolate with a shot of mocha and a dash of whip cream and put some extra socks on and a t-shirt. Bundled up now, my eastern European DNA is screaming for carbohydrates.....eat candy.....chips....a nice slice of meat with some warm bread and butter.......anything to put the pounds on to protect myself from these winter temperatures...never mind that winter only lasts about three weeks in the south...my body is screaming lard me baby!

Sigh....I tell the cravings in my head to calm down....by the weekend it will be 45 degrees.....but you can't tell my inner ancestors that.....they are sipping the hot chocolate and protesting the lack of some cookies or cake to go with it.

Thank heavens we only suffer through a week or so of winter or else I would be a blimp.......

Stay warm and safe my friends up North....and East

Supersize my Fries

"Light your candles at 5:15pm"

My weeks are getting busier and harder.....the silent auction is just three weeks away and I have over 100 items to organize, summarize, fancy up and haul to a downtown hotel.

The auction itself would be enough of a vise but I'm taking a couple of classes....and it seems from the moment I open my eyes till I try and close them....I am over-scheduled.

So when the text arrived around noon on Friday to light the Sabbath candles at 5:15pm....I stopped....and thought ....I have to do this...I have to rest, recharge and regain my composure.

I phoned my husband and told him to be home before 5:15pm. I ran to the bakery to get a warm buttery soft challah loaf....I dashed into the grocery store for the makings of a dinner salad.....I sped home....cleaned off the table.....opened the wine.....chopped the veggies up.....grabbed a new tablecloth from the closet.....opened my grandfather's special wooden box to retrieve the shabbat candles....lighter.....glasses.......loaded up the coffee pot....cleaned up the kitchen....all with my eyes glued on the clock.

It was almost like a game....could I get everything done before 5:15pm?

5:12..hubby walks in.

5:13 ...hurry put a cover on the challah.

5:14...hurry hurry and get hubby to sit down.

5:15....amen ...I made it. I lite the candles...said the prayer quietly to myself.....sigh and sit down.

My hub and I looked at each startled. Our meals have been so fast and quick this week...half of them I didn't even eat with the men folks but here we are.....face to face over the dinner table.

We clinked our wine glasses. My phone made it's little messages-and-texts-are-here-noises which I ignored. We put on some music.....I reminded myself I could eat slowly....I had no place to dash off to.....I would eat...digest....chat...read....but generally be still...maybe we would watch a movie together later.

It felt so wonderful to regain myself..... I decided to miss my morning class and even services on Saturday. I tried to keep calm......I did a little studying....and again we sat down to a quiet dinner. I didn't do the Havdahla service...the service which ends the Sabbath.... because I actually did not want to the day to end....I decided to continue for a few more hours.....and I plan to hit the sack early and get up early on Sunday to start the day fresh.....classes first....then get started organizing and writing up the auction items.

The next weeks will be very intense.

Thank G-d for the Sabbath.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

To touch, to tame, to connect.

For 4-5 weeks....a skinny ragged little kitten has made her home in the bushes in our front yard.

I don't know how she found us, perhaps, some invisible sign written in cat language is staked in our front yard...."these people are nice to strays."

Whatever, she was a small streak of gray meowing in the bushes.... obviously hungry and I have cat food.

I hesitated for only a few seconds before placing the bowl under the bushes.... I don't want another cat.

I have two cats, two dogs, two sons living with me....and one husband.

The Inn is full.

My last cat, Fancypants, was a stray but I'm not an animal hoarder or someone that takes in every animal that wanders our way.

Still...I could not not feed this small cat. I would figure out what to do with her later.

To my surprise....the little kitty hissed and arched her back trying to look ferocious when I placed the bowl down.

I wondered if she was feral....but her little ribs were sticking out and whatever she was....she was under my bush, in front of my house meowing pitifully.

I fed her the next day and the next day.

She wouldn't come to me and always kept a couple of feet distance.... each time I got down on my knees and peered under the bushes... she would sink further back into the greenery and hiss.

I tried to catch her as the weather grew colder....put out a cat carrier with food in it...but once she was inside... she flung herself so hard against the grate her nose starting bleeding...so I let her go.

And so we continued our little dance.....

"Kitty are you there?"

Meow Meow.

"Here's some food"

Hiss. Hiss.

With snow and below freezing temperatures coming, I worried for the little thing but I wasn't sure what to do.

One day when I opened our front door on a very cold morning, kitty was sitting on our doorstep...but she zipped away the minute I bent over and tried to touch her.

So I placed a bowl of food on our front porch and waited......she peeked out of the bushes and cautiously stepped onto the porch to eat....she had one eye on her food and one eye on me. If I moved....she ran away.

So the dance moved to our front porch.

The night before the first snow storm, I looked out the door's window and saw her sitting on our steps. Cold, small...a little spit of a thing....I knew I had to do to provide some sort of shelter for her or she might not make it. But anything that reeked of human....like a towel...a box....she jumped away from.

Since she occasionally sat on our doormat.... I found an old heating pad and slipped it under our mat and plugged it in to our outdoor lights. Within minutes, after I shut the front door, she curled up in a tight knot over the doormat. Next trip outside, I placed a small square of wood in front of the front step to provide a little wind screen.

Heating blankets don't stay on continuously....people were injured or burned when pads were left on so most heating pads have a two hour timer....which meant someone in our household would have to open the front door and reactivate the heater for our wild cat.

We all took turns ...anyone who was passed the front door looked out the side window to see if the red heating light was still on. Each time someone reactivated the pad.... she jumped away quick as lightening but jumped back just as quickly.

She survived the first snow storm and the ensuing bitter cold nights after. I would reactivate the blanket at about 1am before I went to bed....and my son, who leaves for work at 5am, would be the first in the morning to turn the thing back on...which meant she only had a two hour window to keep warm on her own.

Since she survived the cold tough week, I thought I would try a different approach. I sat down on the front step and waited. Sure enough....she'd peek out of the bushes...cautiously jump onto the front porch...dance around....stretch...rub herself against my flower pots....but she always kept the two foot distance between her and my outstretched hand.

"Come here kitty kitty" I would say softly to her.

"Meow" she'd answer...dancing around in a circle but still keeping her distance.

And then yesterday.....the usual routine....I gave her some food....went about my day....and opened the door around noon to sit on the front step for a few minutes.

Out she popped from her little home in the bushes.....and then she carefully....walked closer to me....I reached out my hand.....I could see the hesitancy in her body.......all her muscles seemed ready to spring ....and then she moved her head towards my fingers...paused.... then bent her head down for a few seconds....allowing me to scratch her..... behind her cold little ears.

We both jumped apart after contact.

She looked as surprised as I was.

What happened today? Why today? After a month of shying away from me....what had changed? Why did she decide to trust me for three seconds...to offer me her neck to touch...to connect?

I don't know.

She came up to me later in the day and allowed me another scratchie then darted off.

Now I'm wondering if she is really feral or is she simply an abandoned kitty who's never been touched or petted.

A couple hours ago I saw a preview for the movie "No Strings Attached" and I found myself smiling because I can guess the plot.....girl asks guy for sex// no strings attached....touch touch kiss kiss...but somehow the same door that opened today between my wild cat and I is opened on a bigger scale when a man and a woman are involved.....the touch...the skin contact creates a connection.

Touching an animal or another person....changes you....some neural pathway is altered....some synapse which was unconnected is connected and caring...concern....attention...flows easier.....and the more we touch.....the more the bond strengthens.......which is why "No Strings" doesn't work often in life....and why I am now worried about a little wild cat sitting somewhere under my bushes.

I opened my front door a few hours ago and wild kitty is not there....the doormat is heated...the board in place....and it's very cold....hopefully she has found another spot which is warmer ...safer than my front door.

So now I am more concerned for her and for her safety....now....that she trusts me a little....I've reciprocated by caring a little more about her. I've even thought of giving of her name.

You touch...you connect....and then there are consequences.

Where are you little wild cat?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pretty nipple pasties that I don't sell.

I admit they're pretty.....I'm sure they would be fun to wear .....but unfortunately I don't sell them.



In the strange world of the Internet....somehow ...somewhere in the galaxy someone has incorrectly swapped my blog address with Gina's Gems.....a blog that highlights...a different
Gina's unique pasties.

In the last couple weeks I've received about a dozen emails about her products....inquiring on cost, on adhesive, and wondering about custom designs.

Huh? I didn't know I was in the pasties business....so a quick check of the net and a few replies and hopefully I have sent customers back to the right Gina.

All these questions about pasties had me wondering though.....can you get them off quickly? do they leave an adhesive residue?

And one more BIG question...do they hurt when you take them off....because there's nothing like setting a sexy scene then shrieking ouch ouch ouch!

Inquiring minds I guess.

Snowmen happen in the South.....

We only get snow a couple times a year.....so it's not unusual to see spontaneous snowmen spring up...sometimes in unusual places.

They're not just for kids down here.

Early morning 'round my house......

Snow Day

It's quiet in my house....the 5-6 inches of snow created a thick blanket of insulation around us.

Although for most people it's a snow day....my husband is a state employee and is considered "essential personnel." So early this morning....we warmed and moved cars on our driveway....scraped windows and kicked the snow around. He'll go downhill initially to work but then he'll have to drive up "Bale Hill"....also known as "Car Hill."

There's an auto dealership on top of the hill.....but when the rare snow hits us.....Car Hill will be littered on both sides of the road with abandoned or wrecked autos as southern drivers who aren't used to driving in snow flunk the attempt.

Yesterday I had to drive through the snow to get home from a meeting. I felt nervous and panicky. Yes, I had bread and milk at home...but somehow the 2-3 inches of snow was getting under my skin. Drivers were already doing stupid things ...not giving their cars enough gas to get up a hill.....turning sharply and braking.......and then a few idiots who were driving too fast. But I grew up in Chicago and went to college in Omaha were snow drifts rule in winter....surely I wouldn't forget winter driving lessons......but I think that's what made me nervous.....I was losing my confidence. I've lived too long in the south.....and a once or twice a year practice of snow driving doesn't keep your skills honed.

Fortunately, I made it home...safe and sound.....giving my car enough gas to make it up "Car Hill" and giving the finally push to get up my own hill...where my house sits.

I'm a little concerned about a small stray kitty we were feeding....she is, probably half feral, but we put a little food out in this cold weather for her. I found her snuggled up against my front door but as I soon as I opened the door she ran away.....hopefully to a better spot to shelter.

So as far as my snow day goes.....I'll grab one more cup of coffee and start working on the silent auction.....unfortunately or fortunately......email and texts still work.

Bluntcard.com

An amazing photo....

I am not sure how I stumbled upon this picture on the net....but it has haunted me for the last two days.

The picture is absolutely perfect....the light....the halo effect around the girl's head....the quiet startle effect.....the young in between adult and child huntress....South Africa....the gut reaction to a dead animal on a live animal.

The Visual Blog gives background on the picture:

"This year’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery has been awarded to David Chancellor’s photograph Huntress with Buck. In the photograph we can see a young woman sitting on a horse looking down into the camera. The photograph appears to be slightly manipulated, as the area near the head of the main subject seems to be brightened to increase her aura. The low vantage point of the camera and the elevated position of the huntress have the effect that she looks grand and statuesque. In his photograph, Chancellor evokes the iconography of equestrian statues depicting knights, gods and military leaders. The central relationship is not between the huntress and her horse, but between the huntress and the buck lying dead across the horse’s back. The symbolism here is pretty clear: the horse is alive, the buck is dead, their bodies crossing each other where the huntress is sitting. The huntress is portrayed as killer as much as a nurturer.

In a sense, the huntress is at a crossroad herself: she is neither girl nor woman. Without the caption provided, the androgynous looks of the subject also fail to indicate a clear gender identity. It is perhaps an ungendered performance that is possible in the ‘wild’ settings the photograph was taken in. This notion of inbetweeness is further emphasized by the lighting: photographed when the sun was kissing the horizon, it is neither day, nor is it night. The low sunlight has the effect that all elements in the photograph come visually together as, for a brief moment, everything is steeped in a deep red colour."

Although the photograph was taken in South Africa, the girl is American from Alabama and ironically her last name is Slaughter. There's been much chatter on the web about rich girls keeping up the hunting traditions of royalty and the moral consequences of trophy hunting.

One article mentioned an interesting aspect of the picture.....neither animal....dead or alive looks at the camera....it is only the human being, who is capable of making moral decisions, who looks us into the eye and asks us....perhaps defies us to have an opinion.

Amazing.

My New Year's Weekend.....

Friday: pulled a muscle in my back.




Saturday: got a mild case of food poisoning which kicked in exactly two minutes after Midnight..



Sunday: started a fire in the oven....flames...billowing black smoke.

But I still remain optimistic about the coming year.

A song for your soul on the last day of the year.

More hot chocolate and chick movies

I think the men folks in our family are about to book a hotel and leave us.

My daughter and I have spent the last couple of days....enjoying cups of hot chocolate with whip cream in between chick flicks.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.....Saying Goodbye to Sarah Marshall....White Christmas....The Blind Side

Tonight I took her to the airport to send her back to Ohio.....a couple hours later I returned with her.

Her connecting flight from St. Louis to Ohio had been canceled because of the East Coast snowstorm a couple days ago and all other alternative routes were totally full....the official at the airport told her she would probably get home in a day or two.

Yikes....fortunately she has an understanding supervisor at work.

So....I'm about to head downstairs to make a cup of hot chocolate and pull out my last chick video in my collection.....Sleepless in Seattle.....one of our all time favorites.

I'm just "on hold" waiting for hub to return home with more whipped cream.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A dangerous combo.....

All the kids are home and the temp dipped down into the 30's.

My husband's comfort food gene was activated.

Before I could blink an eye....he had left over smoked turkey and potatoes simmering in a homemade broth.....and was making biscuits from scratch.

Viola....turkey and fresh hot biscuits.

I would hate to think what would happen if we lived up north....and we had snow plus cold weather plus the kids.....we would probably live in a starch-induced coma for months!

Nothing like a cat in a sweater.......LOL>>>

And for a 100 more dashing felines in knits.....press here.....x

Hard to Believe

Hard to believe my wild stray nervous kitty that hissed at the slightest provocation....is now the gentle comfortable lazy princess which curls herself up in my silk comforter and snoozes for hours....and demands to be combed each morning....and wants fresh water at least twice a day.

Hail silky preened queen of the house!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ahhh ...the solstice

It is a gorgeous day here in the South....and 70 degrees.

Spring feels like it must be just around the corner.

I know winter will come back...cause it's not through with us...but today...when the days start getting longer...it's easy to believe the earth's rebirth is near.

There have been some winter solstice's when you really have to work hard to believe in hope and spring....but not this one.

Wouldn't it be nice if it was just that easy this year?

Oh well I'll wait another 140 years....

Well..... I tried to watch the lunar eclipse.

It was cloudy here in the South....so I found a live webcam with a perfect picture of the moon.

At 1am...not much was happening....I set my phone for 330am ...at least I thought I did....but the night slipped by and so did the lunar eclipse.

It's aint pretty but it's my hallway.......

Well we've started.

We are remodeling the second floor of the house.

I took everything from my parent's house and stored it in the garage....at least 200 boxes.

I then got stuck....how do we change out the bedroom carpets? install hardwood in some rooms? de-clutter and de-toy bedrooms that once held children and now hold young adults?

Spun my wheels for a while....then decided the only way to accomplish this was to work on one room at a time.....starting with my daughter's room and working around till we get to the master bedroom....then and only then hit the garage with all those boxes.

It took me a week to clean out her room and the carpet arrived over the weekend.

It's beautiful....but that leaves her closet her bathroom...the boys rooms....etc etc.

Looks like we are going to have to live a very cluttered life....with new mattresses waiting for new floors and Goodwill having a bonanza from old clothes and toys.

This spring after the literary festival and silent auction...I will tackle Ebay and figure out how to become a seller....for some reason I've been dreading the process....and then between Craig's list, Ebay and Goodwill....I hope to have a clean uncluttered life in about a year?

Then we have to make a decision about the kitchen. Oy.

Oh my "Fannie May" get big with all this candy

Childhood chocolate......mmmmmmmmmmm.

Thank G-d I grew up in Chicago and my local confectionier was Fannie May Candies. A candy company started in 1920 in the Windy City.

From my earliest memories there were Fannie May Easter Bunnies in my basket, Santas and Reindeer covered in foil for Christmas and of course mint meltaways.....a staple in our house whenever there was something to celebrate.

A good grade? A little mint meltaway....my mom completes her taxes for the year....a box of mint meltaways.....going to a dinner or birthday party....well one box as a gift and one box to stay home....that's only fair.

Every time I went back to Chicago I would get a little candy. I grew of fond of Trinadads...a dark chocolate center with a little coconut. I liked the sloppy cherry cordials and of course, the milk chocolate covered toffee. Oh yes. Very very good.

And then....Fannie May disappeared....bought out by a corporation that went belly up....stores closed and the chocolate disappared. But it lingered in so many memories a candy company bought Fannie May and reopened the operation sticking true to the original formula (no substitutions with cheap ingredients) and the stores reopened and all us kids no matter what age smiled.

This time around....Fannie May is hip....and headed for the internet. When I discovered I could ship Fanny May out.....I did....CyberMonday after Thanksgiving became my Cyber Chocolate day and I happily sent boxes out to friends and family.....with a smile on my face....chocolate fits all sizes and tastes.

I even ordered myself a two pound box of chocolate with all my favorites.

My family is complaining they haven't seen the box yet....that's because I've hidden it in my daughter's old bedroom and each day....I go in there once ( or twice) and treat myself to a little chocolate....because I'm sure I'm on Santa's nice list and because I'm sure I deserve it...LOL>>

Santa as Ben Hur

Santa as Ben Hur.....very wrong.
And what happened to the reindeer?
Gladiator meets Rudolph in the Colosseum?
Is that the Naughty and Nice book in Santa's hand?
What's Santa going to do....... a thumbs up or down for the little ones?
Bad Santa
Very Bad Santa

A card for everything

I was hunting for a wedding card when I stumbled across the "troubled love/relationship/friendship" section.

I had mixed feelings when I saw these "greetings."

Part of me thought....it was a cop out. If you were in love with someone and were "troubled" you should talk to them. If you had a relationship with someone and you were ending it...you should talk to them.

But that is before our lives went digital....and now you can simply email or tweet "The End" to someone without ever having to talk to them or see their face or face their sorrow/dismay/hurt.

I suppose, on the other hand, sending a card could be seen as a door opener to conversation.

The sent card signifies there's a problem, a concern, trouble and the recipient will likely have a response.

"Go to Hell" ... "Let's have lunch" ..."I'm not sure what's going on"...a thousand other phrases are possible.

Maybe cards for troubled relationships bother me because I'm female....and women seem, in general, more willing to talk ....more desirous to clear the air. Isn't that what the famous "Men are from Mars Women are from Venus" book was about? Women would be happy to sit on a rock and talk and talk and talk.....while men would rather find a cave in a big rock and retreat to read a book or watch TV.

Hmmmm perhaps a for a man buying a card is really progress.....because a man is attempting.... through Hallmark.....to start the ball rolling even though it's a ball he would sometimes prefer not to catch or throw.

Well...nothing to worry about.....I was there for a wedding card....which meant most likely the couple was doing okay and were happy to get together.....I guess they can find their own "troubled-let's talk" card when the time comes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not Your Typical Holiday Meat and Greet Nativity Scene

An acquaintance of mine runs a restaurant in Mississippi and posted this pic to his Facebook account.

Talk about an interesting meat and greet......interesting meat and an interesting greeting for your traditional Christmas holiday guests....and all displayed on a nice fluffy bed of sauerkraut.

All I can say is TUMS come in a variety of holiday colors to compliment any meal.

Best dang song of the season.....

Flying soon......???

Inappropriate spandex

The government of Singapore declared the new swimsuits worn by its team during a competitive meet inappropriate. The suits used elements of the Singapore flag in the design.

What can I say? Looks fine to me.

Too good to to miss...Happy Chanuka

A viral love letter

So the story is a guy in band is separated from the woman he loves....and made this video without telling his former lover...hoping that it was good enough to get lots of hits and buzz...and she would discover it "organically" or just on her own.

Hope it reaches her........

Do I?

I was ordering a skinny latte at the local coffee shop ....ready to start an informal meeting...when the cashier....a young woman ....looked up at me and said....do you know you look like Meryl Streep?

Really? I said.....

Strange...in the last month....two people have mentioned this to me.

My hair is long enough to wear up now....and I've been wearing it more often piled up in a loose bun.

Perhaps? I favor her?

I looked at Meryl-with-her-hair-up-images and thought I'd post it.

Maybe?

Thanksgiving Day Eve

Hub is knocking around the turkey...chopping ....dicing...stirring......making lots of racket with the pots and pans.

Here's my job tonight.....place champagne in fridge.

I think I got the better deal....lol

Videos I haven't seen with millions of hit on You Tube

Today.....a date.

I was a little embarrassed in class when people started clapping.

Today, my two teachers in Hebrew class announced that I will become a bat mitzvah student.

They asked me my date.

Oct. 20th, 2012.

I could feel my heart jump and my stomach clench.

This spring....after the silent auction....after the literary festival....I will pare my life down to study, my daughter's wedding and going through the last of my parents estate. No more big volunteer projects.....no more studying when I get a chance.....but devoting specific blocks of time to study.

I am actually looking forward to working with my tutors....I'm happy to unlock the prayers....to read the script...to debate and talk about what it means with my Rabbi....and I'm happy to aim towards a particular type of competency in the faith I have adopted and which has adopted me.

I never expected my life to change so much.....I never expected to be given so much by a group of people and a community.....this is ....in a way....my effort ....to show my respect for the traditions and rituals I now embrace.

A Trip to the Delta

I needed dining room chairs.

For almost two decades, my grandmother's Jacobean table...with thick dark oak legs, was graced with large ornate cherry Queen Anne chairs.

In other words....for 20 years my dining room table and chairs looked odd and out-of-sync.

I loved my grandmother's dining room table and chairs....I had sat around the table as a kid....devouring hearty Lithuanian meals....drank tea and "medicine" (whisky and honey) when I was older. When my grandmother entered a nursing home ....I begged my parents not to give the dining room set away. I knew my mother disliked old furniture and beautiful cedar chests and bedroom sets exited both sides of my family in a blink of an eye.

My father saved the table but not before my mother gave the chairs to Goodwill or some other charity. I was devastated. How could she have given those beautiful perfectly matched chairs away? I never knew why she did....but one day the dining room table arrived courtesy of a moving truck. I ran my hands over the smooth surface and loved it....thinking of my small spirited Lithuanian grandma.

I didn't know much about furniture styles when the table arrived...but I knew I wanted to use the table...and that meant having chairs to sit around it.

So a friend gave me a furniture catalogue from a company in High Point North Carolina. I found a picture, placed an order and weeks later a huge truck pulled up in front of my California home and deposited 6 huge cherry chairs. I looked at them in disbelief. This was what I ordered? I looked back at the picture and realized my grandmother's dainty table was in stark contrast to the huge photogenic rectangle the chairs hugged.

The chairs did fit under the table ....but just barely. The weight of the wood which the catalogue highlighted as a sign of quality proved also to be a sign of my folly..... as one could barely move the chairs. Children were stuck in place....unable....despite swinging their legs and squirming and pushing with all their might... to free themselves. Adults groaned and strained trying to move them.

And so we fought with the chairs every time we sat at the table...to get in them and out of them......plus the Queen Anne legs bowed out and scraped the neighbor's chairs. Every year I shook my head and wondered why I purchased them.

One day, when I was prep-ing for my parent's estate sale in Chicago, I realized this was the perfect opportunity to finally free myself from the dining room chairs and other pieces of unused furniture stored in our house. It was hard to just sell 6 dining room chairs without a table...but at an estate sale someone would surely be eager to buy them. So I packed them on a truck...and waved goodbye to my big bulky never-did-fit chairs.

Of course, now I had a dining room table without chairs.

We had a party...we asked people to bring extra folding chairs. We had another party ....we asked people to bring extra folding chairs....we hauled the kitchen chairs into the dining room for family events....we asked people to bring extra folding chairs again.

With the holidays approaching, I decided it was TIME. I had to find chairs somewhere in my state.

So I drove two hours to an antique warehouse in the foothills. Tons of chairs...mostly European...mostly needing lots of repairs.

My husband liked a set of chairs from Germany. Each chair had two guys carved into the back of each chair ....fighting each other with one hand..... and holding a beer mug in the other.

I don't think so.

So last week I set off to the Delta....alone......to a famous antique warehouse. I was surprised how quickly the landscape changed...in less than an hour....I was driving on uber flat roads through cotton fields reduced to stubble.

This time....no fighting guys with beer mugs....but many beautiful chairs....in excellent shape and in styles that might compliment grandma's table.

Within an hour, I had a three chairs wrapped in blankets and in my car....ready to go home for a trial.

10 minutes down the road....I braked.

I saw a shack off to the side of the road....and recognized the town's name.

I was passing by one of the most famous hamburger joints in the state. So I pulled into parking lot next to a rather worn looking building ....sitting on stilts above a bayou.

Lunch was over in 10 minutes and the place was nearly empty. The waitress sized me up and laughed. "You think you can finish off one of our big burgers?"

The burgers were supposed to be as big as hub caps.

"I doubt I could eat half....but I 'll take a normal-sized burger and three hub caps to go."

I smiled at how happy my men folks would be seeing those burgers for dinner.

A rather large hamburger arrived with a heaping side of fries. It was good....and I ate slowly...savoring the famous burger.

Afterwards, in the warm late afternoon sun, I drove around for a while....looking at houses....and feeling the river land. Lots of places deserted.....lots of places....on stilts or cement blocks....waiting for the next flood.


Finally, the angle of the sun warned me it was getting late and I better hustle home.

I hoisted the chairs into the house and placed them around the dining room table.... it was like Goldilocks....one was too big....one was too small....and one was just right.

I packed the not-rights back in the car and made one more trip out to the Delta.

Now I have 6 old modest chairs.....they look like they actually like the table.

They are fancier than my grandmother's original chairs....but not too much.

There's room between the chairs....and you don't have to be a steroid user to move them. The seat cushions need to be replaced....but you can still sit on them....even though the seat cushions are funky blue and almost flat.

Finally....finally ...a place to sit that is just right. Grandma would approve.

Small house in the Delta

Who Knew....Maru?

Late on this bandwagon...Maru has been getting 500,000 to 2million hits on You Tube for at least a year now. Here one of the latest and a devilish one to follow.

Who Knew?

One big Kitty

Fall has arrived in the South

The house is quiet....the cats and dogs are all snoozing on this gray yet colorful day.

I took out a small step stool and placed it in my closet so I could fetch my soft old sweatshirts from the top shelf. It felt snug and comforting to push my arms through the worn long sleeves.

Fall is finally here and the leaves turned just a few days ago.

Fall in the South is luscious....there's just no other words to describe the chilly nights and the warm sunny days. 78 degrees during the days.....50 degrees at night.....the early morning chill of the house often replaced by blue sky sunny warmth. The humidity is gone....which is still a little surprising....soon you forget about damp...until spring when it returns and surprises you again.

My cats and animals all seem snoozy this week. They find shafts of sunlight on the oriental rug or a block of sun by a window and stretch out to purr or dream with their little feet running and skipping after something in their dreams.

In our congregation we had several deaths this week and just yesterday I learned that my friend's mother died.....it's almost as if the very ill have taken their cues from the leaves outside......and are just letting go. It somehow seems appropriate.

I wish too I could relax in the sun.....and just slow down....but my two big events....the literary fest and the silent auction are in gear....and I have a thousand emails, letters and drafts to do this weekend it seems.

But I think I will do that later....I think I'll warm up the HoneyCrisp apple cider I just bought the other day at the store....and sit with one of the cats or dogs....and just dream in color.....even if its for only a little while.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any box will do

Fancypants quickly jumped into an old tax box from my parents which I just emptied.

Once she claims a box....she sits in it for a day or two....then on day three she starts tearing it apart with her teeth.......she whittles the box down into a million shredded pieces then patiently waits for another box to appear in her domain...so she can claim it....squatter's rights.

Yikes.....She's got me trained......lol

Why the Rally?

Ever since I came home from my trip.....people have been asking me about the Sanity Rally.
Mostly, they want to know why I went.....was I a rabid fan of Jon Stewart? A fierce flaming liberal? An angry anti-Tea Party-er.

I find it difficult to succinctly explain why I was driven (but actually flew and train-ed) to the Rally.

Last night, I finally found an analogy that expressed part of my feelings.

Did you ever see the movie.....Close Encounters of the Third Kind?

In this old popular movie from the 70's, several people have an experience which draws them.....actually compels them to find their way to Devil's Tower....a tall squarish lump of rock in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming.

Richard Dreyfus, one of the stars of the movie, sees lights, a potential UFO, and from that point on....he discovers he's fascinated by a strange image....drawn to a squarish lump of something which he paints...draws.....and even sculpts his mashed potatoes into. He sees a picture of Devil's Tower in Wyoming, realizes the Tower matches his images....and decides that is where he must go. He faces incredible challenges to get there. His reward? He's selected to enter the Mother ship.....a huge alien UFO which lands on the top of the tower.

Although I didn't sculpt the likeness of Jon Stewart into my mashed potatoes....in some way....several things triggered me.....to feel like I had to go to The Mall to gather with folks and make some kind of statement.

The negativity about our President plus the personal insults (I consider questioning the man for the 1000th time about his birth certificate an insult)......the business of negative which makes money for people and shows that often stray from the truth....the dismissal of reason, sanity and intelligence ...as having a place in politics....where all trigger points.

And like Richard Dreyfus....after all these trigger points where touched.....I felt the need to go....felt the need to somehow stand up and say.....all this exaggeration and mud slinging isn't going to get us anywhere.....

I believe also....because I have worked as a project manager in a hospital plus worked on several community projects....that people are totally underestimating how long things take to plan and organize. No matter if the President was a Republican or a Democrat....you can not possibly turn an economy around in less than two years....you can hardly plan a literary festival in a year...a wedding in 6 months....and people consider it reasonable that in less than 2 years....10 million jobs would be recreated? Hardly....things do not move that quickly in life especially if you have a diverse group of people which see different ways to get to the goals.

And so I decided a few minutes after Jon Stewart announced the rally....that I needed to go....I believe in reason...and intelligence and discourse and team efforts....things which I don't see happening in our society....any time you start demonizing opponents/people....you create roadblocks towards progress. You can't even organize a pot luck if half the group is angry and combative.....

So off I went.....and when I arrived there and talked to people....I met people who where in the same boat that I was.....there wasn't one sentence that described exactly why they came...it was a feeling....a need.....a plea for people to think about cooperation and reason.

Current estimates put the rally around 200,000 people.....nothing sinister happened....people picked up their litter.....they left quietly.....no one was angry or shouting or spitting....signs where pleasant...amusing....clever......it was done.....it was said.....thousands of people got along on a warm fall day on the Mall in Washington DC.

It was encouraging...a small light....in a lot of chaos...and I am glad I was a part of it.

Great signs and shirts

Basically.....the Rally was about this.