Sometimes I think....The holidays are.....

The holiday season is sometimes a whole lot of work and adds much stress....mostly to women, (honestly guys.....you get off pretty easy) !

Sometimes I think they are way over rated, very expensive, and many times the true meaning of Christmas is far from many minds. This year something very special happened, that in telling would devalue the experience....lets just say we should always "believe" in Saint Nick!

However, all the work in decorating and cooking, shopping, and entertaining is all worth it, especially when you have children....My childhood memories are now like golden nuggets that I cherish, spent with so many loved ones that cared enough to make it special for us kids...

Those wonderful people are now gone, and the wonderful memories of love in the making are in my heart still, and now fully appreciated.

Someday, I hope that's how my son will feel when he is a dad!

Sometimes I think....

That when a child thinks they need more space from you, once in a while what they really need is more of you.


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Introducing Murray

This is Murray, our new dog. After we put down our beloved Mickey (see earlier post), we welcomed him into our home and hearts. He is a 'ShiCon', possessing his own unique, and funny personality. He is for the most part, oblivious to everything around him, focusing only on his own need for play and attention. We now pretty much live in 'his world'!

Yesterday was not the best day for Murray....It was his turn to do what we ask of all our canine and feline family members....get neutered or spayed. It is in our opinion, the responsible thing to do, so that we do not add to the population of our community's animal shelters, many whom face certain death.

Murray made us proud. He was a real 'man' about it, and came through remarkable well, albeit a bit sore.

This got me thinking about the whole idea of neutering males. Really it isn't such a bad idea! How well do you think Murray's human counterparts would recover from such an operation? Considering that the common cold can keep some of them complaining for days on end, and that the process of birth was never even a consideration!

Back to the idea of human neutering...It would help to solve the number of fatherless children, families on welfare, the court's voluminous cases of unpaid child support.....the list here is endless!

Also, there is something I could ponder over endlessly, if neutering male canines lends them to wonder off less, following the 'scent of a woman', would that be true of men as well? Ahhhh....woman the world over be jumping all over it! 'My cheating husband, fixed forever'!

Think how many marriages could be saved! Of course men have been having vasectomies for eons, but that does nothing to curb their desire to hunt for the female.

Please know that I am not a man hating woman, I just got to thinking !!!

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WTF?!!?

Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburger

Ugh !!

My knees

Nope, this blog isn't really about popcorn, although I do love it, and can't imagine going to the movies without a bag of lightly buttered popcorn and a nice diet soda!

Popcorn is great, and I have fond memories of going to the Drive- In as a child and "getting to go" to the concession stand alone ,or with a friend! Memories of watching shows on TV that were shown only once a year....Cinderella with Leslie Ann Warren,It's a Wonderful Life, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Wizard of Oz....all were special events and homemade popcorn was the crown jewel that always accompanied these special evenings.

Memories...good ones...

Not long ago I was having a troubled evening with my now teenage son. He had gone up to bed, but my instincs told me he was up to something. My room is on the main floor, and his upstairs. So slowly I crept up the stairs in the quiet still of the night, my detective gear in full mode. But my knees....shit, they sounded like a bag of microwave popcorn on high! Pop....crack..crack... pop, pop, pop....

When the hell did that happen to me? Hey, I can still do a stair case; several times over....no problem! But what's up with all that noise and popping sounds?

Someone who doesn't know me well, might just mistake me for a women who might be nearing the dreaded "MA" (middle age). They would be, as I said, very mistaken! Still I can pull downed trees from the creek, carry 50 lb. salt bags downstairs to the water softner (okay, sometimes I tumble them down the stairs, but still I lift them to my car from the store, and lift them out of the car at home, and lift them into the tank!).

While gardening kneeling is part of the deal (even if I do get "stiff" sometimes), but I get down and low, plant, weed, water, fertilize. I cut dead branches from my 2+ acres, so what the hell is a little bit of popping knees? Only if they weren't so dreadfully loud!

Maybe the MA is creeping upon me, but hey, I've always been young at heart, and don't plan on changing that anytime soon.

I just need new ammunition for checking out what my son's doing, 'cause the ole knees are gonna give me away!

One thing, then another.....

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這是語言是

在我的博客！

這是我駕駛wacko。

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Somehow tonight when I went to post a new blog, I must have hit a key by accident. and my whole "homepage" looked like what you see above.

Of course I don't read whatever language that is (although I did write that little diddo), and I couldn't get anywhere. How do you click the "help" button when the characters are not even anything recognizable?

So...I clicked everything!!! Obviously this kind of frustration is not conductive to letting

your inner creative juices flowing....basically I was getting quite pissed off.

Then the dogs needed to go out, the were yelping (sort of, or maybe I just needed a breather), so out we went. Well the the guy who cuts my front yard was here today and pulled out the stake to which I tether our new puppy. So I went to screw it back into the dirt. Cut myself... In the house I go to retrieve a band aide which I keep in my walk in closet. After grabbing one I went to turn off the light, and my belt rack / jewelry organizer fell. Little teeny weenie things (and belts) all over the place, inside purses, shoes, and the like. So I spent a few minutes cleaning that up, but not completely. That kind of chore is never really done, is it?! Somehow you keep finding little surprises for months on end!

Now I hear the dogs (Girlie really, our 6 1/2 female Maltese) barking frantically out front. Our new "puppy" Murray, is having his way with her, and she is none too happy about it. Poor girl, she was a virgin, but Murray took the V card from her, for forever!

Okay, I know I was doing something, what in the hell was it? Went and got a cold glass of ice water and a a glass of wine. When I went to crack the ice tray (ice machine is broken), the freezer door started to slowly close, and about 1/4 of the ice fell to the floor. Shut the door and now I have nice, cold water!

What's that noise? Following the sound I find my son's rat, Cliffton, digging at the new bedding in his clean cage. It's in scatters surrounding his around his "little area", which is in the great room "so he has socialization". Turn around...just turn around now and you never really saw that, tomorrow it will still be there....go on now Marty, go on.

Oh yeah, I had poured cold ice water and a glass of wine, sounds good, especially now! Grab them both to go try to remember what it was I was doing to begin with. I was doing something, right?

Water. Water all over the floor by the fridge and into the carpeting on the hallway. Ice cubes melt, you know. Crap. Rags, get the damn rags! Clean up that mess, take my two glasses into my bedroom retreat. Don't ya know it, the damn mongrels have to go again!

While outside as they are doing their business, I remember about the blog and those Chinese or Japanese characters that infiltrated my blog, and plot out my plan of attack.

So here I am, got that shit 外圍所有整理出來！(figured out and fixed). But what the hell was I going to write about in the first place? It probably doesn't really matter, because this was worth writing about anyway. Do you have days like this too?? In the end it just matters that we can laugh at ourselves, after all, like I said before, that rat bedding is still going to be there in the morning, but I might not be laughing then. : 0

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...and then I cried!

For a couple of years now I've been thinking of buying a convertible, it's something that I've wanted for a long time. For the most part I am a practical person, and a two seat convertible roadster is about as far opposite as practice as you can get!

However, for the past two or three springs or beautiful fall days when I would see a nice convertible traveling along, with the driver seemingly as happy and content as can be, I could feel my skin changing from it's natural blotchy tannish color to a mean & envious green. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the vehicle I had. It didn't have many miles on it, wasn't very old, but I couldn't let it rip ~ put the top down and just let 'er go!

So early winter of '07 my research on convertibles became somewhat serious. I was all over the Internet, comparing all of the different classes of convertibles, looking at prices & packages and spending way too much time on what felt more like a computer hobby than actual research.

Then one day my son and I were out doing errands and across the street from the farm supply store was a Nissan dealership. With extra time on our hands, we ventured over, and next thing we know we are driving east on 35 in a red 2008 Nissan 350Z! While I didn't think it was the car for me, my thirst was becoming somewhat clinched!

Back to the computer I went.....then back on the road at every chance I got to go look at models. A few more test drives.....getting better. Then I saw her! A "Monaco" blue 2008 BMW Z4 with beige leather interior and a beige soft top. I had hearts floating out of me like you see in a cartoon....she was beautiful! I took her for a spin. Shit, I was really thirsty now! But, like I had been taught, I didn't let on to the sales gal who was hovering over me that I wanted to explode and write a check right there and then! I went home.

It rained, and rained, and rained.... Who the hell wants to buy a convertible in the dead of winter or when it is pouring rain for days on end? Then the rain stopped. Got on the dealership's website, she was still there, now center of the showroom! A shining beautiful star!

Fast forward.... I drove her home on May 21st, in a bit of a mist....but the search was over and my thirst was quenched! She only came out when there wasn't a chance of rain. I bought a duster and kept her free of dust daily. One happy girl was I !

Three days after the temporary tags came off of her I took my son to the pool and hooked up with my friend Missy. After a few hours of talking and sunning, we were done for the day. We hugged and I said goodbye to her and to her daughter Paige. I got in my darling, started her up, backed her up, and CRUNCH!

I put my head down on the steering wheel and couldn't even get out. Missy came from across the parking lot, my head still down. I asked her to tell me it wasn't bad. She said it wasn't really all that bad, but it wasn't really good. At least I think that's what she said. I was shaking. I got out, and then, ....and then I cried.

I called the police, shaking, went in to call for the owner of the vehicle I a had backed into. Debra. Debra was nice, really nice. Still crying. She didn't want to even report the scratch I had added the the other scratches and missing lights her kids had caused. Love marks, maybe? Thanks Debra, I'll try to pay that one forward.

Well, you know the rest....called my insurance company, blah..blah, blah.....

Lessons learned:

1. There are some really nice and understanding people out there (thanks Debra, again)

2. Missy is a really good friend (but I knew that already, multiple times over!). She stayed and filled out the forms for me as my hands were shaking too much! She and Paige were just there for me, and I am sorry for all the curse words that Paige may have heard.

3. That no one, not my Mom or my Dad, or anyone else was going to kill me. That was ironically my first instinct: "Shit I am gonna get it now!" Although I wish they were around to "Give it to me"! (I miss them, even that part!)

4. How lucky I am that no one was hurt.

5. That my beautiful blue shining star is just a car. Nothing more and nothing else.

And finally:

6. Maybe God decided to knock my high faluting ass down just a notch, especially now that my Mother and Father aren't here anymore to do that for Him.

If number six is right, it worked. Thanks, God

Six good lessons learned for the low low price of a $500.00 deductible. Not bad at all.