those darn scallywags

what is it with pirates lately (and i'm not talking about the ones found in pittsburgh) arrgh! a 330 meter tanker, thats 1080 feet!, has been hijacked in the high seas. and no one is quite sure where it is! what! that's a big ship and it is carrying 2 million barrels of oil! that's a lot of oil. i suppose the ocean is much bigger than we think it is. in september some 30 crew members of a french luxury yacht had been taken hostage off the coast of somalia. then i read that an additional 30 ships were seized by pirates last year with the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opening fire in order to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker! how can this be. pirates? it's 2008! what's the matter with this world. and how do you off load 2 million barrels of oil without everyone knowing about it? this is not good. especially since our dear "silver sailors" are about to set upon the mighty seas themselves! let's hope no one is forced to walk the plank and that captain jack sparrow stays in hollywood! scallywag: a villainous or mischievous person thank goodness i only know of a few of these types personally!

if anyone see's this missing hijacked tanker, please dump all pirates overboard and return to the saudi government.

happy birthday gram

when i was young my mother would often gather us around her overstuffed rocking chair and read to us. the words of stickland gillilan are brought to mind:

“you may have tangible wealth untold,
caskets of jewels and coffers of gold,
richer than i you can never be.
i had a mother who read to me.”

one day, my sister cori, came rushing home from the library with a new book she had discovered and was anxious to have mom read it to us. it was an old russian folktale, set in the ukraine many, many years ago. my mother’s voice was melodic and soothing - a wonderful conclusion to a busy day filled with play.

the book, My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, tells the story of a small russian girl who becomes separated and lost from her hardworking, round faced mother while harvesting in the wheat fields. the moral of the story follows the russian proverb: “we do not love people because they are beautiful, but they seem beautiful to us because we love them.”

“some people see with their eyes alone. others see with their hearts, too.” my mother taught her children, this important concept of love and I thank her for it.

colorful politics

it has been one of those frustrating days. a lot going on, no apparent success in anything, late nights and early mornings, moths in the pantry, laundry, laundry, laundry and lots of dishes and general grumpiness on my part. and....i am really sick of politics. i believe in passion and am grateful for my right to vote but goodness this is getting ridiculous. but my day was made much better at about 9:50 pm. i turned on the tv for a moment and tuned in just in time to see characters "denny crane" and "alan shore" in the middle of a heated political debate on the pros and cons of mccain vs obama. during the height of the argument "denny" pulled out a paint gun and shot "alan" in the knee with green paint. "alan" then pulled out his gun and shot his friend with pink paint. soon they were both covered in paint. i laughed and laughed and laughed. i wanted to join in the mayhem. don't you feel like hitting somebody or something every once in awhile? is that something i should admit?

(one of my favorite scene out of the movie steel magnolias is when the character played by sally fields screams at the end of her daughter's funeral that she "just wants to hit somebody". the character olympia dukakis offers up shirley maclaine and says "here, hit weezer!" ... i laugh every time.)

in review this just isn't as funny as i perceived it to be. maybe you had to be there. but i am grateful for the relief and a good laugh. i just hope that once this political race is over we don't end up with an extreme left or right government and that family and friends will still talk to each other. on the other hand maybe it would be a good idea to arm ourselves with paint balls or at least arm the congress.

note to self

1. remember to turn off the tv before midnight. otherwise you will stay up all night watching 2 reruns of without a trace and 3 episodes of cold case and before you know it the sun will start to rise and it is 5 am.

2. remember to buy alka seltzer. (this is needed after eating too many corn chips and salsa at 2 am)

3. remember 2 am feedings are for babies only and not insomniac middle aged women who stay up all night watching tv.

true confession

every year someone in our wonderful, friendly, caring neighborhood makes up a couple of plates of cookies or cupcakes or carmel apples along with a picture of a ghost or witch or something halloweeny and secretly delivers them to a neighbor. the treat comes with a note saying that the receiver must now, as they are enjoying the goodies, make up two more such goodie plates and pass them along secretly to someone else in the hood and thus by halloween everyone in the neighborhood has been treated. (you put a picture of a ghost or witch in your window to indicate you've already been treated so you don't get it twice) the first year i was "treated" made me feel so special. wow - somebody liked me enough to choose me as their friendly "ghost or witch" neighbor. i excitedly made up my two plates, made copies of the instructions along with copies of the ghost or witch picture, placed my picture of the ghost or witch in my front window and promptly delivered my other two. i was happy. .... that was until i got home and discovered i had failed to put a second picture in my back door window and had been treated again. now don't get me wrong, i loved the treats and love my neighbors, but now i had to make up two more plates of goodies and deliver them to two more neighbors! the next few years this "tradition" took place i was sure to place copies of the ghost or witch in both my front and side door windows. this year i noticed that cori had received her halloween witch and had the treats ready to deliver to her neighbors. i had not been treated yet, so while no one was looking, i made copies of her witch so i could place them in my windows and pretend i already participated. but i decided to run an errand before taping her to the glass - when i got home i said to myself, "self - you better put that witch up". so i checked the side door, no treats yet, good and i taped my witch for all to see. the front door was next and as i finished taping my second copy to the window i glanced down and saw a paper on the doorstep. i opened the door and low and behold there was a plate of cookies with a note of instructions and a copy of a witch. so today i will make up my two plates of goodies and find a neighbor who has not been treated yet. moral of this story - it never is good to be a bah humbug at christmas or halloween!

doing my part for the economy

cori tells me it has been too long since i last blogged! look who is talking. but since i always listen to my "elders" and since i have, actually both connors and i have a large wedding party coming to stay at our houses tonight and i need to finish changing the sheets and cleaning the guest bathroom and clean the kitchen, i decided to sit down and post! i believe avoidance behavior runs in my family. because, after i finish this post what i really want to do is go to bukoos and the 5 hour store and bath and body works, etc.
speaking of shopping - i have done my part to help spur the economy on lately. the only problem is that my new toys are making me very sore and tired. last week i went to lowes and bought a new edger and trimmer and blower for the lawn. just a word of caution for any future home purchasers out there - avoid corner lots! my next purchase ended up being a new dyson vacuum. cinny got a new one and i wanted one too! found a good bargain at .... bukoos of course, so after edging my entire lawn i went inside and vacuumed the house, just to see how much dirt my old vacuum left behind. (note: dyson's pick up more dirt than old kenmore's). while at bukoos i also found a cool kitchen faucet and since i needed a new one i bought it. jordon promptly installed it for me and i have enjoyed doing the dishes and cleaning the sink. i saved well over $400 dollars on these purchases. gotta love a bargain. my next and final purchase - so far - was a new dining table. it is 96" long....that's 8 feet!!! will sit 12-14 and if we want to we can add a leaf or two. there is also no "skirt" so mom can roll right up and not bang her knees. now more people can sit at the table and eat. lest anyone thinks i am rolling in the dough, i'm not ... i just got a really good buy. table sells for $1300 - $1500 or something like that. (i verified online and didn't just believe the salesman.) guess how much I got it for ----- $325. and when i die i can be laid out right on it and you guys can have a good ol wake for me. sooooo.... come on over! how about thanksgiving?!

this much is true

recently i discovered or rediscovered that:

Y gram knows all the words to "la cucaracha".
Y the smell of squash baking on a cool autumn day is divine.
Y even though my lauffice (that's laundry room - office combined) is a mess most of the time, i do prefer it to be clean and free of debris.
Y parker and gram speak the same language. they say "uh-huh" and "yup" and "i doe no" exactly the same. berry propel is also their current drink of choice.
Y my sister can make more peach pies than i can eat. (hard to imagine)
Y i like to work ...
Y i also like to laz around - and am quite good at it.
Y i have inherited a bit of the family obsessive-compulsive trait. (thus my collection of backpacks, shoes, pillows, air mattresses, i don't even camp anymore, and, most recently chairs!)
Y history is still my favorite subject.
Y mia maids rock.
Y we use a lot of salt and pepper.
Y i have the best family in the world.
Y cori's music brings me pure joy.
Y my favorite tv reality show is "the amazing race" can't wait for it to start again.
Y and i can spend hours blog stalking!

castles, unicorns and princesses

it was the blue unicorns vs the purple princesses. the turrets of "castle park" stood as the backdrop. players were armed with hair ribbons, cartwheels, skips and leaps and plenty of smiles. a thumbs up was given to us spectators each time her royal highness sophie passed as she ran up and down the playing field. she was in her game and all of our eyes were on her. by the end of the match it didn't much matter which side of the field the soccer ball was on. the little legs wrapped in shin guards and knee socks were tired and their bodies were hungry. they had played a noble and honorable game. each team cheered the other with grand enthusiasm. high fives were given and little voices saying "good game" could be heard. the proud coaches encouraged their players and thanked them for the doing a great job while handing out boxed juices and teddy grahams. i can hardly wait until next weeks game.

dating decisions?

i find it a bit ironic that i am giving a yw's lesson on dating decisions. mmmm...i didn't do very well in that department. not that i was a dating fiend, meaning a person who is extremely addicted to some pernicious habit, but much to some people's surprise i'm sure, i did date...or at least made the decision to date. what i was never too good about was making the decision to marry. so in the long run perhaps it is not so ironic, me teaching about dating. at least i've done that. looking on the positive side i am grateful i'm not teaching on marriage, finding your soul mate and twooo love!

- - -

Epilogue: (reposted at 8:43 am) after posting this blog and then staying up about another 1 1/2 hours to do my lesson, i finally went to bed. during my short sleep, since i awoke at 6:15 am, i had a dream that i was a bear! or at least that i was in a bear's den watching and participating with all the other bears. the massive, but kind mother bear patted my head with her large paw, then patted the heads of the twin cubs, which i estimated to be about 2 year old cubs and then cuddled down next to a very small and cute cub. i felt myself smiling and feeling somewhat comforted and snuggling down myself. hmm, i wonder if the interpretation of this dream means that i need to take a very long winter's nap!

to infinity and beyond

yesterday i learned of a man and his 12 yr old autistic son who were swept out to sea while swimming off the coast of florida. the boy is pretty much a non verbal autistic, except for his love of disney movie phrases. when the father realized they were in trouble and unable to make it back to shore, he kept in touch with and encouraged his son by shouting out phrases from favorite movies. most often used - "to infinity and beyond". darkness set in. they could no longer see each other. i can almost hear the father calling "to infinity..." and the enthusiastic reply of the son "... and beyond". fourteen hours passed as the two drifted further apart. the water was dark and treacherous. by early morning light the young boy would no longer respond. a rescue helicopter spotted the man and hoisted him to the safety of a nearby coast guard ship. there was no sightings of the 12 year old. despondent the man retreated below deck to gather courage and morn his loss. after sometime the rescuers bid the man to come up on deck. they pointed to a helicopter and said that his son was on board and he was ok. rejoicing the father kissed every guardsmen on board ship. the boy survived because he knew his father was near. in his innocence he simply believed he was on an adventure and did not allow fear to set in.

i think that our Father is calling out to us..."to eternity and beyond". He is on our side, cheering us on, knowing we can make it through dark nights and treacherous waters. we need to be brave like the 12 year old who believed and had no fear. if we are prepared, by knowing that the love of our Father in Heaven is constant, we have nothing to fear. so here's to "infinity...ie eternity....and beyond."

Christopher Marino was rescued after nearly 14 hours in the sea.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26639098/

it was a grand night

"our state fair is a great state fair,

don't miss it, don't even be late.

it's dollars to donuts

that our state fair

is the best state fair in our state."

i like the state fair. night time is best with lights and music and game barkers galore. where else can you gaze at blue ribbon onions, see the world's largest alligator, eat doughy corn dogs smothered in mustard, gobble mountains of curly fries, slurp down giant cokes, and stuff yourself with large handfuls of kettle corn, topped with the best candied apples in the state. all while walking through the livestock barns and seeing the prettiest cows and sheep and polka dot pigs ever.

i must admit i did get a little nauseated after a very long merry-go-round ride, standing next to parker. sophie and gummy were on the horse chasing us but thanks to excellent riding skills on parker's part they never caught up. the blurry picture is the best i could do having eaten all of the above before going, round and round and round.

i am sad we missed the "odor-eaters rotten sneaker contest - i think, as well as the "senior's wii bowling tornament" but we did get to see the "tigers of inda" show and watched a bit of the square dancing contest (gotta love those dresses with petticoats). we went with the bradburys, evans, gardners and connors clan. a good time was had by all. more pictures to come, once i get them from cinny's and cori's camera's.

i knew there was a logical reason

adults who struggle with a sweet tooth or battle a lifelong craving for bacon may have something more than weak willpower to blame — at least those with a history of chronic childhood ear infections.

a series of new studies presented this month by taste and hearing experts suggests that repeated infections may damage a vital taste-sensing nerve in kids, perking a preference for rich foods and making them prone to weight gain later.

worse, those who suffer harm to the crucial chorda tympani nerve — which runs through the tongue, along the side of the face and behind the eardrum on its way to the brain — may not realize why they can’t stay away from the small indulgences that pack on pounds.

“they simply like high-fat and high-sweet foods better,” said a scientist with the mcKnight brain institute's center for taste and smell. “the more you like food, the more you weigh.” --- duh. no kidding. ya think! wow. imagine that.

oh yeah - i remember now i always had an ear infection when i was little. right mom! and i'm sure i had chorda tympani nerve damage! (wink, wink)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26391940/ full validating article for those who need proof!

today i am grateful for....

1. that incredibly helpful agent at the konica minolta tech support center, who at first didn't want to help me, but perhaps heard the cry of desperation in my voice and took pity on me. after not having a working printer for over two weeks and not having been able to use wireless printing since windows vista, he had me printing....and printing wireless in less than 1 1/2 hours. there's more to the long saga of this story but bottom line...as geeky as it may seem...a big shout out to damian in alabama! you rock!

2. cool nights. i love sleeping with the doors and windows opened. i love to cuddle under a soft blanket. i just sleep better. fall is swiftly approaching. yippee. we can go to the state fair and look at the quilts and giant pumpkins and pigs and chickens and the world's largest cow and the world's smallest horse and eat delicious candy apples. i can hardly wait.

3. good movies watched under the stars with good friends. last night gram, cinny, reed and i watched a movie on the big screen in their backyard. we ate carmel corn and buttered popcorn and drank ice coke and laughed and cried together. i want a repeat tonight!

4. blogs. these wonderful links allow me to keep in touch with people i love but don't see all the time. i admit i'm a blog stalker. i read people's blogs and they don't even know it. (i'm not sure that's a good thing, but nonetheless i do it.) Other's posts make me happy.

5. good family. good friends.

was that suppose to be a compliment?

tonight we took our first excursion on frontrunner. boarding in farmington we headed to slc, final destination, trolley square, for ali's bday celebration. already on the train sitting near us was a very social, talkative woman. she told us all where she and her family had been and asked where we were going. i politely and in a very friendly manner answered, "dinner in slc to celebrate a 17 year old's birthday". a few precious moments passed in silence. reed and cindy were sitting a few rows away from me and i was facing mom where we sat across the aisle from the talkative women. this creature says "let me guess" and points first to cindy saying "mother" then she turns to me and with a very proud and pleased look says "grandmother" and then points to mom with a nod of her head and says "great grandmother"! i believe my jaw dropped and with a deflated demeanor and ego told her politely, "no, i'm a sister" as i point to cinny! what i really wanted to do was smack her upside the back of the head and say "get your eyes checked, you old bat!" to add insult to injury, when the story was repeated to John Michael his immediate response was not to console his dear auntie and reassure her self image but rather..."way to go cindy!"

i dunno, maybe the women was right, later this night while watching the olympics and the men's gymnastic quest for a medal, the announcer commented on how the latest program was the perhaps the best program of a young man's life....my brother john and I missed it ... we were talking about gout!

it's 3 am, who would you call?

sooooo...it's 3 am and my phone apparently chooses to call the connors and the hones and david's work and my message center and just about everyone else . . . but hillary.
let me back up about 15 hours: have you ever rushed into the bathroom, (at the 5 hour store no less) dancing and desperate because you waited just a little too long and just as you are about to, well you know, your phone drops out of your pocket and into the bowl, ie toilet bowl! you hurry and grab the phone, without thinking and rapidly pull the battery out. then you can think no further beyond that until you finish what you first went to the bathroom to do. then after using all the paper you can get off the stingy commercial toilet paper holder you wrap your device and rush to the sink and yet again immerse the dang thing in water to wash it off! alas - the phone appears dead, but having been experienced with dropping electronic items into water - such as walkie talkies into the lake, while trying to keep the fish on the line - you believe that your lifeline can yet be saved.
you leave the battery out and dry the phone off and wave the phone in the air and blow hot air into every crevise you can find. when you get home you use the hair dryer for more forceful hot air. at 2:45 am you finally decide to go to bed. you look at the phone and attempt to turn it on. it works, sort of, at least the lights are bright but it says the battery needs charging. so very sleepily you plug the phone into the charger and leave it on the couch while you climb the steep stairs and fall into the first available unmade bed in the extra room, because you are too tired to take the decorative pillows and covers off your own bed. now the spare bedroom has no phone in it so as not to disturb any potential guests. and then a very deep, deep sleep sets in. a sleep like you have not had in say months.
then . . . the cell phone demons do their thing. the phone starts dialing random numbers in your phone directory. your neighbor is called at 3 am, your brother in laws work is called minutes later, with fortunately no lasting issues because, well he is not at work, and then it grabs your sisters number and dials her home every other minute for say....15 or 20 minutes. when your sister tries calling the phone back, there is no answer, and when she tries to call your home phone, 3 times, you don't hear that either because you are fast asleep in a room with no phone. your brother in law then gets dressed and your sister is panicked because she thinks something has happened to you and her mother, and they come up and enter a very dark and quiet house, except for an eerie glow coming from the couch where your possessed cell phone is continually dialing "connors home"! your sister first checks on mom to make sure all is ok, then rips the battery out of the phone, leaves you a note to find in the morning and returns home, unable now to sleep herself until well after 5 am. (sorry cori!!!!)
well if this happens to you - do not plug the device in or attach the battery until you are sure it will function properly or it is during a decent hour of the day! after googling i now know i should have immersed the phone in to 90% alcohol - (does bourbon count!). oh well, live and learn.