Christina tells a hilarious story about her two daughters and some deserved spankings. My favorite line: “Nobody tells Mommy what to do.”
Damn straight!
“The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.” - Mark Twain
This week, Carnival of the Recipes is being hosted by blog-daughter Prochein Amy. I don’t have an entry this time, but that lentil soup sounds good!
And speaking of food…. guess what premiers on January 16th! That’s right:
Ten glorious episodes (hopefully not the last) of yummy Morimoto goodness. All I can say is don’t bother calling me at 9PM on Sundays, cuz I ain’t answerin’!
Shamelessly stealing from Lady Mac:
1. What did you do in 2004 that you’d never done before?
Met my friend Ulrika,
hung drywall, flew pregnant, taught a scrapbooking class, and took my
daughter fishing. I’m sure there’s much more I’m forgetting.
2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t believe I made any for 2004. I do have three for 2005, though. 1) Finish converting my den into a bedroom for SexyHusband and myself, 2) redecorate my daughter’s room, and 3) finish quilting my niece’s wedding quilt.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yeah. Me. :)
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.
5. What countries did you visit?
Texas. It’s a whole ‘nother…
6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
Freedom from credit card debt, though it’s not gonna happen in 2005.
I’d also like to have a minivan. That one’s much more promising.
7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
June 21 - birth of my son, Thomas
December 8 - mother’s heart surgery
March 14-24 - trip to visit family in Texas
“…naked pigs might lead to paintings of naked people.” - The Associated Press, via The Seattle Times
I’ve been doing a lot of introspecting the past several weeks, and I’ve come to realize something about myself: I have extremely high expectations of behavior for people. Some might say impossibly high. I find myself very often disappointed in the choices other people make, even when those choices have no impact on me, personally. Quite often, I find myself having condescending thoughts about people, then wondering if I should feel ashamed of those thoughts.
I think close exposure to my family is really what brought it on. Many members of my family do things I heartily disapprove of, and some I find personally repugnant. Some are lazy, some are irresponsible, some are slobs, some are selfish, some are spiteful, some are petty, some are just plain rude. Then there are personal habits that irritate me - smoking, drinking, pissing on the toilet seat. The more I was around them, the more I found myself judging them, and all too often the judgment was negative.
But it’s not just my family. I do this to many, many people in my life. “Oh, God,” I think, “there’s Betty. Her kids are such brats, I wonder what she must let them get away with to make them that way.” And then, “I wish Rhonda would shut up. Doesn’t she realize what an insufferable blowhard she is, and that she’s ALREADY TOLD ME THIS STORY THREE TIMES BEFORE?” And then, “I knew Louis would get his car repossessed. He never could afford those payments, and shouldn’t have even tried.”
Sometimes it sounds catty in my own head. Bitchy. Sometimes it sounds to me like I’m just putting others down to make myself feel better (and isn’t THAT a famous refrain from my childhood?). And then, sometimes, I think, “But they DESERVE this judgment from me. They really ARE being bad people/saying bad things/acting in bad ways, and isn’t that what being human MEANS - to judge those around you?” It’s a quandary. I don’t want to be this raving, hateful bitch, but the older I get, the more I find myself seeing others’ shortcomings. Is this because of a natural loss of idealism? Or am I just aging badly, and casting meanness?
Stories like this restore my faith in my fellow man:
A 40-by-60-foot storage room [at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center] is nearly stacked up to its 12-foot ceiling with stuffed animals, clothes, shaving kits, books, videos, CDs and DVDs. Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops have sent photographs of themselves along with boxes with goodies. Schoolchildren have sent stacks of handmade cards.
The goods are desperately needed and appreciated by the soldiers and their families, who sometimes arrive at the hospital in Northwest Washington late at night without more than a few pieces of clothing. They could end up staying at the hospital for months while the soldier recovers, Wagner said.
[…]
Gifts for wounded soldiers have been arriving since the onset of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but this was the first time the hospital ran out of storage room.
[…]
Wagner recalled a man in Kentucky who sent his half-used telephone calling card to Walter Reed, along with a handwritten note. The man could not afford a new phone card but said he wanted to send whatever he could to the soldiers “who were fighting for his freedom,” Wagner said.
Kinda puts all the self-obsessed screeching over at the Democratic Underground into perspective, dontcha think?
Just in time for all your holiday baking, the new Carnival of the Recipes is up. Enjoy!
I’m going to be slowing down my lightning pace of blog posting, and focusing my time and attention on my family. I have three children under five, and the older two are particularly enchanted with the notion of Santa, Christmas trees, stockings, cookies, presents, and the like. I have only two more days to make this year special for them, and I don’t want to mess it up. Hubby’s downstairs as I type, plucking the Christmas turkey (you want fresh? I know from fresh!), and I’m planning a pretty big feast for the big day for the five of us.
I hope you are able to spend this holiday season with people you love and cherish, and whose company you enjoy. I hope you are able to take a few moments to reflect on how you have grown and changed in the last year, and how your life has been enriched by those closest to you. I hope that if you are dissatisfied with some part of your life, you vow to change it in the coming year - I know I will. I hope that the joy and magic of Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus lasts you throughout 2005. I hope you get what you want, and that you realize that not all of life’s joys can be wrapped in a box and festooned with a bow. I hope that you spare a thought for the men and women in harm’s way, so very far away from their own loved ones, and that you are grateful for all they give.
I wish you peace, love, joy, hope, and many, many blessings.
“You can’t go down on a woman without getting your stomach full, your face covered and the sheets wet. That’s ok though; it’s still an awesome experience.” - Mike
“I love this soup; it makes me sneeze and sweat!” - My step-mom, at the Chinese buffet
With much gratitude to regular reader and frequent commenter homebru, I bring you: the recipe for Sonic’s Cherry Lime-Aids! I haven’t yet tried it, but I shall, as soon as I’m having another hankerin’. :)
I made this cheese ball as an appetizer for Thanksgiving, and by the time the mashed potatoes were ready to be served it was gone. G-o-n-e. The whole family sat around my cousin’s tiny dining room table in shifts, pawing at this cheese ball. It’s THAT good. And SO easy. I’d suggest you double it if you have a big family, or are serving it at work
1 8-oz. pkg of cream cheese
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 jar of pimento cheese spread (the stuff in the little glass jar)
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
A few diced olives, for color
Mix everything together with your hands. Squish it like Playdoh, making sure the cheddar and cream cheese are thoroughly incorporated. Form the mixture into a ball, then roll in a mix of chopped pecans and dried chives, coating the entire ball. Serve with Wheat Thins.
Yum!!
Incidentally, I’m submitting this to the Carnival of the Recipes, which I will be hostessing the week of February 25, 2005. Make sure you post (and trackback) recipes of your own - people come up with some of the most awesome foods!
The world’s most expensive truffle returned to Italy to be buried on Saturday.
[…]
Despite having paid a $52,000 for the precious tuber, the restaurant left the fungus in a safe for too long and it rotted.
When experts in Florence heard, they asked to have the 852 gram (1.9 lb) truffle returned for burial in the hope that it would sprout a even bigger one next year, local agency ANSA reported.
And the fungus fanciers had found a suitably historic resting place.
After a requiem poem and solemn ceremony, the truffle was due to buried under a tree believed to have been planted by Italy’s famous 15th century explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
I don’t know what is more absurd: 1) that someone would pay $52,000 for a truffle, 2) that said someone would then let said truffle rot, or 3) that they actually had a CEREMONY to bury a friggin rotting fungus. Seriously, you can’t make this shit up.
Small bits of paper will pass completely unmolested through a six-month-old’s digestive system. Typeface will still be legible.
I’m just sayin’.
I recently had this IM conversation with Mike:
Mike: There is this guy..Dr. Morris something…he says that women wear lipstick to make their lips look like their labia…ehh, ok I guess…
Dana: Women wear lipstick cuz their moms did
Dana: Or older sisters
Dana: Or the model on tv
Dana: Though on the labia theory…. does that mean goth chicks want to give the illusion of having dead pussies?
Mike: My theory… younger women typically have fuller more colored lips so older women used lipstick to look young
Mike: Then younger women started doing it to look mature
Mike: Ba da bing…one vicious cycle thing
Dana: I hate lipstick
Dana: It feels gross
Mike: It feels gross on my cheek, I wouldn’t like it at all on my lips
Mike: And lol @ goth chicks…poor Annie
Dana: I like lipgloss, though
Dana: Wet lips reminds men of sex
Dana: Or at least, that’s MY theory
Mike: A brisk wind reminds me of sex…. :-|
So… what do you think? Why do women wear lipstick? Foundation, concealer, blush - all that stuff I understand. You want to hide flaws, and give the appearance of perfect skin. But why the lipstick?
10) Gas is 30 cents per gallon cheaper there than in the Pacific Northwest. This is great
when you first get to Texas, but sucks ass when you get back to the PNW.
9) I need to have my own vehicle wherever I go.
8) When it rains, it pours.
7) I hate traffic.
6) I love shopping.
5) Sonic rules. (Cherry Lime-Aids… mmmmmm!)
4) Car door unlockers are great for helping you find your car in a too-big parking lot.
3) 70-degree weather two weeks before Christmas is just all kinds of wrong.
2) When sharing a home with teenagers, it’s best if they have their own bathroom.
1) No, really.
“My creative juices really started to flow, shorting out my keyboard and ruining a nice shirt. Then suddenly, I had an epiphany. I named him “Harold” and put him in a jar on my desk.” - Liberal Larry
A 10-year-old girl was placed in handcuffs and taken to a police station because she took a pair of scissors to her elementary school.
School district officials said the fourth-grade student did not threaten anyone with the 8-inch shears, but violated a rule that considers scissors to be potential weapons.
Administrators said they were following state law when they called police Thursday, and police said they were following department rules when they handcuffed Porsche Brown and took her away in a patrol wagon.
Granted, I don’t know what Porsche’s prior arrest record looks like, or even whether she was a habitual discipline problem, but honestly: have teachers and school administrators lost ALL sense of reasonable response?
School district officials have promised a crackdown on unruly students this year, and new policies give administrators the power to expel students for infractions as minor as violating the dress code, chronic tardiness or habitual swearing.
Administrators say the steps are needed to regain control over a notoriously unruly school system, but some parents have complained that discipline has been overly harsh and that school officials have been too quick to call police about minor problems.
All that heavy-handed tactics like these is going to accomplish is to piss the kids off and make them WANT to break the rules. As hubby commented, consider this part of “reasons to skip public school #I-ve-lost-count.”
Thomas and I got home yesterday, early afternoon. He remains a good little traveler, and only cried a tiny bit on our way into Spokane, when the pressure hurt his ears. I distracted him with numerous rousing renditions of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Pattycake,” so we made it through. My mom’s recovering well, though she’s still stuck in ICU until at least today. Her heart’s being “lazy” and only beating every other second. Considering it should be beating three times faster than that, they’ve kept her on the pacemaker. If her heart rate doesn’t pick up, they’ll have to put her on a pacemaker permanently. Still, she’s able to get up and around some, moving from her bed to a chair in her room and back, and her breathing exercises are getting a little easier for her. She’s off of all oxygen help now, so she gets tired more easily, but that’s normal.
Now I’m just in the throes of trying to get my inbox under control, and catch up on work. I’ll get back to posting here as things strike my fancy, though I’m done with regular, daily journal entries. Thanks to everyone who read along, even when there wasn’t much to see. To kick things off, here’s a song I heard when I was in Dallas, dedicated to SexyHusband. It’s Rascal Flatts’ “Bless the Broken Road.”
I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn’t see how every sign pointed straight to you
Every long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to youI think about the years I spent just passing through
I’d like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You’ve been there you understand
It’s all part of a grander plan that is coming trueEvery long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you
Last night I watched “Bringin Down the House” with my sister, so my new favorite quote from a movie (and you have to see the movie to get it) is, “I like to kiss you a lot.”
Mom had her surgery on Wednesday, and she did great. There were no complications with the procedure, and the surgeon says he removed the entire tumor. The biopsy came back, and it was benign.
Mom’s been in ICU the last few days, and has progressed from a breathing tube to an oxygen mask to breathing on her own, with only the help of a nose tube. She was terribly swollen right after the surgery, but by the end of the day yesterday, that was nearly all gone. She’s eating a bit of solid food now, and tolerating it well: no nausea. They plan to take the monitor (pacemaker?) out of her chest today, and move her to a regular recovery room. That’ll be VERY good for all of us, because her visiting hours are quite narrow when in ICU (only four hours per day, in one-hour increments), and she can’t have flowers. I did get her a stuffed reindeer she could feel, and she seems to like that.
I’m planning to go back to Washington on Tuesday. I really miss my family very much, and I want to get back home and be with them. I have a ton of work to attend to, as well, and it will be less than 2 weeks until Christmas. I’ve enjoyed visiting the rest of my family and spending time with them, but it’s time to get home. Two more sleeps!
Thank you to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. They were very much appreciated.
OK, I totally didn’t know about this until I saw a bump roadblock in my traffic, but apparently I’ve been nominated as having the best weblog design. Lisa
deserves all the credit for this, but it would still be nice to win. Go
vote! Oh, and you have to type in the letters on the form before you
can see the list of nominees.
Thanks, Lisa!
I went with my mom and Donna yesterday to meet with the heart surgeon. He said we should go ahead with the heart surgery as soon as possible, and it has been scheduled for next Tuesday morning. Apparently, they only do 3 or 4 of these a year at the hospital my mom is going to, and 1-2 of them are performed by her surgeon. We’re all glad to have a date scheduled, since my mom felt like the delays were akin to being on death row and getting multiple stays of execution. I’ve moved my travel date, and will likely be heading back to Washington on the 12th, giving me less than 2 weeks to get ready for Christmas. *sigh*