take off the wrapper

 

hey, bud.

 

for the birds.

 

I'm tired of missing my sidebar.

So I needed to post a bunch of stuff to get the posts to move down to get my sidebar back. I don't know if it's going to work, but there you go.

The Red Tent

I found my book! Jan recommended it to me. It's called The Red Tent -- I've started it and it's very interesting. It's set in old testament times, in the family of Joseph and his brothers, but it focuses on the women. The red tent was where the women of the family went when they had their period, to rest and wait and worship the female gods.

Interestingly enough, as I'm on the verge of Menopause, I start reading this book.

So I go to my doctor, (Bringing the book, for while I wait, but not BECAUSE of the book, obviously.)

And he says... "You are too young for menopause." He's got this magic pill, called "bio-identical hormone replacement therapy," which will cure me of being old. So I signed up for it.

And right now I haven't taken any yet. I take it right before bed. But right now it's perfect, because it's pure potential and no reality yet. It has the promise of being the fountain of youth. Right now, it could be the perfect answer to everything -- my pudgy gut, my dry skin and falling out hair, my cranky paranoia. It could be the complete cure for everything that makes me feel like my grandmother.

And since I haven't taken it yet, it is still perfect.

Cross your fingers, I'm going to take my medicine and go read in bed now.

I hope to awaken at the age of... maybe 27? That would be young enough.

 

So much to say, nothing to say.

Hi everyone.

I have so much to say, I really want to tell you all about everything going on, all the laughs, the tears, the stress, the elation, the trials, tribulations, and ... well, all the drama in my life. That is what the blog thing should be about, right? Because drama is interesting, and a blog should be interesting.

But how can it really be like that? Because everything I have to tell you also involves other people who probably don't want their lives broadcast over the internet. Like the boys. I can tell you the simple, basic little things about my boys. Like for instance, Frankie has started work on an English project about the American Dream, and we were searching for good poems to illustrate his research paper with. And Nicky had a really nice day yesterday seeing his friend James, who he never gets to see anymore. I don't think the boys would mind if that was what I wrote about.

But that's not really the stuff I want to write about. That isn't the stuff I'm all emotional about, or the stuff that keeps running around inside my head over and over.
But those things are actually too private to write about. If not for me, then for the other people involved.

So I end up focusing my blog on things that only affect me. And really, how often do you want to hear about my hormones? Or my toenail polish? Or my worries? BORING.

So, I have nothing to say.

Thanks for checking in.

Love ya.

Good Night.

 

It's nine o'clock and I'm ready for bed. And I'm sad because I lost my book, the one I haven't read yet, the Red Tent book Jan recommended. Where can it have gone? I know it's here somewhere. And I have half of my closet on my bed, so I really can't go to sleep until I've put some of that stuff SOMEWHERE. So I really don't have time to read anyway.

Clematis

 

I love clematis. They are doing very well around here. (Although, to be honest, this is last year's picture.)

I have something of an addiction to them now. I want to buy more and more and more. More colors, more sizes. I'm not going to, though.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a nice picture.

The end.

My willing slave, THOR

 

I wanted to get a pedicure, but honestly, I hate to spend money on toe polish. So I tried to do it myself. Yes, I can still reach my feet -- but not very well, and certainly not at the right angle. So I asked Thor to paint my toes. But when I held my foot up in the air for a few minutes, I got a wicked foot cramp. So Thor was willing to get down on the ground and paint them from there. Wasn't that nice of him? And as he was painting them, I just knew it was a lovely photo opportunity. So I made Nick run and get the camera. And now it is immortalized for all time in film and on the internet.

Ain't blogs wonderful?

OK. What exactly is the purpose of a blog? I'm still not sure.
But I love posting this.
I hope you aren't grossed out to see it.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I have made a list of things to do for this weekend. I often do that. Unfortunately, I don't always DO those things. But I usually do make a list.

Some of the things on my list are just one little number, but they take a lot of time. Like number 5, get couch. The couch was at Mom's house, which is an hour and a half away, and then of course we hung out for the day.

 
This is number 23 -- clean out side yard. I knew the side yard was bad, but I had no idea it was THIS bad.

The kids have been here, as you can see. They have been here and left again. Dropped their stuff and run off.

I'm a little aggravated with them. I took this picture to be used as evidence against them.

Thor said I can't actually punish them, because I never told them I wanted them to clean it up in the first place, and besides, I'm very messy with my own stuff. It's rather hypocritical of me to get mad at them when I'm no better. I know he's right. But it isn't fair that everything that's messy is MY fault, is it?

So I'm not grounding anyone, but we WILL be having a big cleaning day tomorrow.

Not today, because today is the holiday. And it is going to be a beautiful day to just sit outside and eat hamburgers. And besides, Frankie will be working. I already cleaned up the side yard.

But he and Nick can help me with other things on the list, even if they are MY messes.

Long Weekend at Home

 

This is just the start of the home vacation. Summer is starting now. Don't you love the greens?
I've bought the baby pool for the backyard pool club for this year. Frank should be picking up liquor on the way home -- preferably red wine and pina colada's!

I am being teased by festivals.

UNFAIR! They're teasing me... there are so many festivals I want to attend this summer, but I HAVE A JOB! And they mostly require driving 9 or 10 hours on Thursday so you can set up by Friday.

This is on the top of my list:





... I can't go there.


Here's another one:



... that's where all my peeps is at.

Keep your fingers crossed, I wanna find at least one for this summer!

I like supersaturated vegetation.

 

I like out of control vegetation.

 

Do I dare say it???

Bring me a shrubbery!

Ok, that's enough.

Clematis

 

Me at the computer = Wordless Wednesday

 

Rain rainrainrainrain

I'm waitiing for hot sun and summer.
This rain is making me sleepy.

And a job is seriously cutting into my free time.

Is there a full moon tonight?

glitter-graphics.com


Everything went wrong today, but in very peculiar ways. I can't really explain it more than that. Nothing was just normal. Everything was weird.


Anyway, it was also a difficult week last week. So I didn't post much, because I was so busy. Those of you who know me know I have two sons, but my "third" son was in the hospital. He's better now, the long term effects are yet to be seen, and I don't know what's happening next with him -- but I still appreciate your good thoughts and energy and prayers for him... He's my third son, I'm his "fourth" mom because he has a mom, a gram, and a godmother, and then me. Does that make sense?

Then, Nick and I went camping over the weekend -- it was a great trip, like usual.

Alright, I gotta go again, but I'll post more this week, I hope.

Happy Mothers Day to my Mama

This is my Mama...

 

... she is a wonderful mama and grandma, and I hope she has a very nice day today.

Some of the things you should know about her:
She is a very determined person. When she sets her mind to something, she gets it done. She can accomplish anything. She is also very intelligent. She loves to read and she likes to play on the computer. She's pretty technologically savvy -- not something everyone in her generation has accomplished.

Mom is very artistic. She has always been a very artsy craftsy person. When we were kids, she made a lot of our clothes -- and I always liked them. She also made a lot of dolls clothes for us to play with.

Mom always made holidays magical. I remember one Christmas, she decorated the whole house to look like a candy shop. I also remember her taking every single book out of the huge bookcase we had on an entire wall in the living room, and creating a "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" diorama. She made our halloween costumes. She made eggs like the ukrainians, with hot wax and dark dyes, and others like faberge eggs, with lace and pearls. She made chocolate eggs of fudge and icing, and she made hollow sugar eggs with icing ornaments. She made toys. She could make anything.

Lately, Mom has been into scrap-booking. She makes beautiful photo albums and journals, some for herself and some as gifts for us and other people in the family. She is the family historian.

Mom loves gardening -- at least she did before she lived in the middle of hungry deer territory. And she is an optimist -- she still gets flashes of hope, in spite of the deer, gardening in spite of the fact that everything gets eaten. She's even done water gardening, buying a plastic pond and rearranging it year after year with plants and fish.

Mom loves travel. She's gone all over the United States. She still camps, at least she camped with us last summer... She signed up to be a Girl Scout leader when I was a kid, and went camping without a clue in the world about "HOW" to camp. And then, she got my Dad to camp. And then, they did a night of backpacking on the Applachian Trail.

My Mom is very clean and neat, although she has tons of STUFF, she's always organizing it and she keeps everything in order and dust free.

My Mom has listened to me complain about everything under the sun, and basically just listened and not criticized. She gives me good advice, even when I don't want to hear it. She is always sensible and usually right.

My Mom is a very loving, caring mother and grandmother, and I think she's wonderful.
Happy Mother's Day, MOM!!!

Crud.

My house is so gross. I need to clean it today, big time. There is crud and dust balls and clutter everywhere. I'm not looking forward to it. I'd way rather play with the computer. Can you tell? I'm posting about cleaning instead of actually doing it.

Frank has been really good about taking care of the house lately, what with me at work. But he's not home. I don't really like to clean when he's here, anyway. I don't know why.

Frankie asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, and I told him he should clean up for me. He didn't like that idea. Not one bit. He's more inclined to buy something, I think.

This morning, Frankie had to get up at 6:30 for work. I felt bad for him, but it really aggravated me that he had his radio set to go off at 6:30 AM and left it blasting for at least a few songs while he lay there. I didn't have to get up, but I think he wanted me to. But I'm not that good of a mother. HE needs to get up at 6:30, but that doesn't mean that I do! I'm very proud of him choosing to work this job, though. He's doing construction... a man's job for my little boy. Right now it's only Saturdays, but in the summer he'll start working more.

Nick, on the other hand, really needs to get a job somewhere, but he's only 15 so I'm not pushing it. He used to scoop Italian Ice, but I don't think he wants to do that this year. We'll see.

Anyway, I've stalled long enough. Time to get to work....

Text Messaging for Teens

I am really conscious of the effect text messaging is having on the teens around here, especially now that my own kids have been given the right to text. (We're paying for unlimited texting. Last month, we used 1,743 text messages. That's an ACTUAL NUMBER that I just took off my bill.)

It didn't cost a lot to add unlimited texting. I find it inconvenient to text, it's easier to talk. But I've seen some teens that text as fast as I can type on a full keyboard. We decided to add it because it was very obvious that our kids, as high school students, would be extremely "out of the loop" without the ability to text. Please keep in mind that we aim to be slightly BELOW the middle of the road in the "cool" department. Our kids are more on the geeky side. That's fine. We don't want them to be complete outcasts, on the other hand.

Another aspect of texting: texting during school. It's like passing notes in the old days, but you aren't limited to passing a note to someone in your class. In fact, you can be passing notes to a friend in another school. Or another state. You can be calling your mother and asking her to bring in the homework project you forgot. (My kids probably don't text during school. Of course I've forbidden it, but that's no guarantee with teenagers. I believe they don't simply because they have poor service inside the building.)

Texting is like the gossip grape vine gone wild. Something can be happening, and at that very moment, a teen can (and will) spread a message to every friend and acquaintance in their phone book. That can be a huge number of people; my older son can reach about 75 people, and he's not as overly addicted to his cell phone as some other people are.

Add to this instant communication, the fact that some of the kids who text are overly emotional... very dramatic... prone to exaggeration... possibly even out right liars. (Not all, mind you. But definitely at least some.) Typical teenagers, they aren't always considering the reactions or repercussions to the messages that they spread.

This USA Today article talks about some of the aspects of texting in the school system. Like kids texting rumors of school violence -- whether because they believe it, or because they want to have a day off school... which leads to absenteeism. (Would YOU want your kid to go to school on a day that it was rumored there was going to be significant violence?) Interesting article.

It can be pretty comforting to a parent to know that they have instant access to their child, any time of the day or night, via a cell phone. And with texting, that even extends to inside the classroom. The child is always available.

I don't really think that everyone is realizing all of the repercussions of this instant communication, though.

Any comments? I'd love to hear your perspective.

One more question. I'm taking a poll. Do you believe in reading your child's text messages? Yes or no? And another question, if you do read them... do you read them openly, or do you read them on the sly when your child is not looking? Does your child know you read the texts?

Growing things

 

This is a photo of an African Violet that I took at my Mom's house a while back.

I'm in a planting frame of mind, for indoors and outdoors. I felt like posting a photo and this one jumped out.

On my "to do" list I've got a variety of planting chores:

I have African Violets that have rooted and need to be potted.
I have "Cast Iron Plant" to repot for the office.
I have to weed everywhere around the house -- every flower garden outside is a mess, and I haven't had the energy to work on any of them yet.
Thor's enthusiasm for gardening this year and last year -- and the rising food prices -- have made me interested in trying to plant vegetables this year. The problem is what should I plant, where?


I kinda miss my job at the A&P plant department. It was very relaxing.
It was also only 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, so it left me a lot of time for myself.
It was also not much money.

Ornery

Ornery is a good word for how I'm feeling today. If you cross my path and I snap at you, I apologize in advance. Maybe it's the hormones -- what exactly happens to you when you start hitting menopause? Can I blame that?

It's only Wednesday, but it feels like Friday. I feel like I should be off work tomorrow.

I'm mad at a lot of people who have no reason to realize it, and probably wouldn't care if they knew. I've got a running dialog in my head with these people about how I'd like to get back at them.

I really need to cut that out. It isn't very nice of me.

BLEH.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

glitter-graphics.com

In the spirit of Hallmark Holidays everywhere, I wish everyone a happy Cinco de Mayo, which I assumed was a holiday made up by Corona Beer and Tequila distributors.

I learn something new every day, though. I said "Happy Cinco de Mayo" to the french teacher in school.

Turns out Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexico's defeat of French armies, or something. She wasn't celebrating, although she was very nice about it.

Who knew? It's a real holiday, which I am completely ignorant about.

My new music widget from Last-FM

Isn't it cute? I really think so. I added Last-FM to my site, and I signed up over there for an account. You can turn in on and listen to my own favorite songs, if you want to. Warning, though... I love these songs, but I suppose you probably won't. I have very strang taste in music.

I saw it on the Caffeinated Librarian's blog the first time, and this is the first time I've had a chance to play long enough to really try it out. So... feel free to listen or get your own radio station.

Wishes

When I was a kid, everytime I saw the first star in the sky, I would wish for the same thing. It was always a wish for "Happiness."

Last night, I had to question that wish. It didn't seem like enough.

I ended up deciding to wish for two things. I wished for Happiness, and I wished for the sense of gratitude to be able to appreciate the happiness I have.

The Knights who say, NI

A quick clip... Sandi went on Youtube and found a bunch of videos of Lego Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But the video for the Knights who say Ni had the embed code disabled! So, rather than the lego version, here is the real thing for your viewing pleasure.

I don't post often enough.

 
Here is a gratuitous shrubbery shot. Just because I like to open with a photo. But I don't have any really good photos to open with today. And I'm sorry I haven't been posting more frequently. I would like to post more often. But today is Sunday, and so I have more leisure time. I can post a few things. And then, go do the laundry again.

The Great Depression

Gram was alive during the Great Depression, and she used to tell some really good stories about what it was like back then. Everyone banding together, hand-me-downs were fine because everyone wore them, food was more valued (but not scarce in her house because her family had gardens and kept their jobs.) I used to think of it as a very romantic time, because that is what it was to her. She didn't really suffer, and although she was cautious about saving things she never got neurotic like some of the other older people who lived through it with more trouble.

I am not really "into" watching the news and the financial reports and things like that. And I've never been that good at watching the money I spend. It's getting tight out there, though, and if even I'm noticing, it must be something. I keep wondering how difficult it will get before the economic turn around, or whatever they call it.

Like the gas prices. Last week -- maybe two weeks ago -- my friend Laurie called me to let me know that I should fill up the tank, because the gas prices were going up dramatically the next day. So Frank and I both filled up the tanks at $3.11 per gallon. Now, gas is passing $3.39 or so; It's expected to be up to $4.00/gallon pretty soon.

Which of course means that all of the food, which is shipped in, is also going up. I was never good at knowing my "prices" -- like am I spending too much for a gallon of milk, if I spend $3.50, or can I get it cheaper down the street? But I can tell you for sure that my food bill is going up and my cart is getting emptier. (And this of course happens now, when Frankie finally decides he LIKES food! Both boys are eating more, finally!)

Well, all that is pretty normal, I guess. Everyone always complains about the prices and things. But a week or two ago, someone was telling me that squatters had moved in somewhere down the park. I believe the park police moved them on. But THAT is eery. Hobos? How much more "Great Depression" can you get?

I'm really grateful to have gotten a job when I did, because with the economy the way it is, we need two incomes for sure.

Anyway, here's hoping that the "recession" goes away soon.

Happy Earth Day!

 

And happy almost spring!

Kitchen Window, Sunrise...

I took this picture earlier this week -- Tuesday, I think. I meant to post it sooner but it's been a very busy week, so I didn't have any time to. Now, all the flowers have fallen from the tree, and the leaves are sprouting. The tree looks rather bare today.

 

Everybody's a critic.

Someone anonymously recommended I post something from "this century" in response to my earlier excited post that we had Pearl Jam tickets, which accompanied a clip from a concert in 1996.

So, for those of you who are interested, here is a clip from the most recent concert they did... Lollapalooza, which I would have been at if I didn't get a job.

The perspective is probably much more like the view WE'll have at the next concert. Still a nice clip, though.

The Woodpecker... a complete poem...

Mom read the one stanza of The Woodpecker that I had posted,
and talked to Aunt Patty, who then found it for me -- on google, I think.
So, here it is... it makes me smile because I can remember Gram reciting it...


The Woodpecker

The woodpecker pecked out a little round hole

And made him a house in the telephone pole.

One day as I watched he poked out this head

He had on a hood and a collar of red.

When the streams of rain pour out of the sky,

And the flashes of lightening go streaking by

And the big, big wheels of thunder roll

He can snuggle back in his telephone pole.

-- by Elizabeth Madox Roberts

Camping Again

One thing about my blog. I think it may be predictable to the point of boring. Sorry. There are the camping posts, the stressing posts, the Pearl Jam posts, the flower posts, etc. -- but usually nothing overly unusual. Which brings me to the camping post, which follows.

We went camping this weekend, Nick and I with the Boy Scout troop. It was a little dicey for a while there, whether Nick was going to come or whether this was going to be me with none of my own kids. Luckily for me, Nick agreed to come. I love these trips. (Which you already know from earlier posts, right?)

Nick was looking super dashing, wasn't he?
 
He's such a cutey. He's getting really big, too. No baby anymore.

I took a ton of pictures, like usual. I took a lot of good pictures of some of the boys in the troop, but I don't really like to post those because I'm not sure that they or their parents would approve or disapprove. So I try to avoid taking pictures that are too identifiable, at least. I don't mind as much about the back of their heads. I took less scenery photos than I did last time.

So there you go.

Opening Ceremony

 

Camporees are started with an opening flag ceremony. Here are (most) of the boys. Nick's waving to someone, I have no idea who...

Misty Morning Hop

 

It turned out to be a beautiful weekend, in spite of dire predictions about the weather.

Cooking fire

 

This is a lovely fire photo, in spite of the fact that it is taken during the day! We made this fire so I could start baking potatoes, and also for Booth's cake -- although the fire was gone way before the cake was started.

A Woodpecker

Here's a woodpecker, accompanied by a poem my Gram taught me:
 
Woodpecker pecked out a little round hole
And went to live in a telephone pole

(That's all I remember.)