Thursday Thoughts

Ok, this is my own version (maybe) of the "Thursday Thirteen" but I figured I'd title this "Thursday Thoughts" since I might not actually have Thirteen things of interest to post about!

1. My cousin, Tom Hill's wife, Karen, continues to make good progress since her heart transplant surgery this past Monday. Thanks so much again for the prayers and thoughts, well wishes people have been having for her and her family.

2. I'm baking Swedish Limpa Rye bread as I type this today. I had planned to bake it on Monday but had been dealing all weekend with a pain in my left shoulder blade that was really preventing me from doing much of any type of movement and I knew there was no way I could possibly have been able to do all the kneading necessary to get a good batch of bread mixed up, rising and baked! But today, feeling pretty chipper in that respect and very hungry for some good hot, fresh-out-of-the oven rye bread slathered with loads of REAL butter so that's why I'm baking this today.

3. I watched maybe 2-3 minutes last night of the Larry King-Paris Hilton so-called interview. Disgusting! That was no interview at all, just pablum! Check out this blog to read some good discourse on that interview and tell me JB here isn't totally on target with his thoughts about that so-called interview! This blog is one of my big favorites to read as Mr. Burnett writes a really concise blog about lots and lots of things important in society today.

4. My kids, especially my son and younger daughter, from the time they were really small have always had a "thing" about the sounds various things make when they are almost empty - like a ketchup bottle or mustard or the dish detergent, etc. Any noise that even remotely resembles that of flatulence and they have always seemed to be quite fascinated with it. It's a trait I believe they inherited from their father -who also loved to do things like pulling bed covers over others' heads too -tightly, no less - so you got the full exposure that way! But I digress a bit there. Yesterday, as Mandy was fixing Princess Maya a cup of choc-a-lit (her pronunciation there) milk, and squeezing the chocolate syrup bottle, it was near to empty and gave out this loud, "Pfffft" sound. Maya immediately looked up at her mother and said "EWWWW! Fart!" Just thought it rather amusing there - history repeating itself maybe?

5 And, speaking of Miss Maya -again (or still) -this is for my good friend Sharon, over in State College. You probably weren't aware that Maya knows your name and can identify you by your photo (the one with the Nittany Lion at the Autism Walk this spring) which is among the pictures that blink in and out on my screensaver here. But yes indeed, Maya knows when she sees your picture and she points to it and and says "Sharon? Sharon?" She also includes you in her evening prayers too - when she gets to the "God Blesses" Mandy says she always includes "Sharon!" I thought that was pretty cool considering she's only ever met my friend Sharon one time when she came to the house about 5-6 weeks ago to give me an assist with pictures for the photo display for our class reunion!

6. I sent out a questionnaire last week to everyone on my e-mail address book who is a part of my Mom's side of my family tree and who should/will be getting a reminder sometime in the near future about our upcoming reunion the end of July. I'm very concerned about how much longer this reunion will last because attendance has been dropping - like flies -for the past 3-5 years. The past two years I think we only had about 23-25 in attendance; three years ago, maybe we topped out at 28-30 or so, but it is very small at any rate. Those of us who are faithful, regular attendees at that reunion have discussed this at every reunion for the past so many years trying to figure out a way to get our attendance to grow instead of diminishing, as it has been doing. In my questionnaire, I requested everyone to reply so that I would then know the e-mail address I have on record is still working and also, to provide me with their current mailing address too - snail mail that is. Then, I went a step further and explained the dilemma our family reunion is in and would they please answer the questions I posted below -trying to get people's opinions on how to keep the reunion alive, how to improve it, etc.

To date, only six of the probably 30-35 cousins who received that e-mail have responded with their snail mail address and of those six, only two took the time to try to give any suggestions on what they think could/should be done to keep the reunion going.

I find that response really sad, you know. Apparently very few of my cousins have much interest or faith in keeping this event running. It's been an annual tradition for 57 years thus far; this year would be our 58th reunion, and I really, really, REALLY hate the thought of it going down the tubes forever ya know! And, especially after having been to the reunion on my Dad's side last weekend and seeing well over 100 people there, all having a really great time, just makes me even more depressed then I suppose. I'm happy that my Dad's family gets that type of response to their reunion and just sad that my Mom's family seems prone now to forgetting where we all came from - those ancestral roots, ya know. Maybe I'm one of only a select few now who still thinks they are important to know.

7. Something my daughter and I have noticed of late in our local daily newspaper that really annoys both of us is that the paper and at least one of their staff writers is putting small pieces and photos in the paper about the township where we live and they are stating in the paper that this area is in "Centre County." That is an error! The township where we live is most certainly a part of Clearfield County - those folks -editors and reporters alike - need to check a map of the county and see which townships fall in Clearfield and which in Centre County!

A continuance of that annoyance is that last night I received an e-mail from my good friend up in Michigan - Jeff - who, though he was born and raised there knows as much if not more than many folks who have been born and raised here about the history of our county, of this township too. In his note, he asked about what "hamlet" the newspaper was referring to in recent reports of our Township Supervisors Meetings - called "Lance" because he'd never heard of another village around here with that name. Well, that's because there is no other village here with a name like that -save the village of "Lanse, PA" that is! This one particular reporter has a habit of not just placing our township in the adjacent county but also of not knowing how to spell correctly the names of some of the little villages in our fair township either. It is LANSE, not Lance - make the corrections NOW, please! Yeah right! I'm sure they'll respond right away to MY blog post now won't they! I suggested to Jeff that he write a "letter to the editor" and question them on this spelling confusion thing, which he did. Now, it will be interesting to see if they correct themselves in the future, won't it.

In my opinion, it just proves it to me more than ever that our local newspaper doesn't like to acknowledge that those of us who live in the "Down River" region from Clearfield exist unless, that is, they want us to subscribe to their lovely little newspaper that rarely reports any newsworthy events from this neck of the woods! I'll not go out on a limb here and name the paper outright but just wish they would make some PROGRESS in the accuracy department, as well as the reporting of happenings around the entire county area too!

9. On some side notes here, someone on my blog favorite list is celebrating her 22nd wedding anniversary tomorrow. Stop by here and wish Shelby another 22 years and more! Or go check out Smalltown Rn's blog about a difficult case she has to deal with in her work. She also posts some really gorgeous photos on her blog of British Columbia and the island she calls home too.

If you're looking for something to read that almost always provides at least a little chuckle, sometimes a big hearty laugh, check out this blog here or maybe this one, here.

But, if you want to read something that will really touch you to the very bottom of your heart, check this blog out that I bookmarked last night after my buddy, Skittles, pointed me in the direction of Rants from Sunnybrook. I haven't yet added Rebecca to my "favorites" list but I plan to do that in the near future. If you've never visited her place, do so - she's a member of a very important group in this country that you will wish, especially after reading her blog, that there was no need for such a group as this to exist, but sadly, there is just such a necessity.

10. Ok, my bread is now all baked, my chicken (bbq) is ready to go into the oven now so I can have supper ready when Mandy and the 15-year-old get home from a visit to the foot doctor and I've pretty well covered most everything on my mind at this point in time. Well, everything that is, except for the MEME I got tagged with the other day by my blogger buddy, Linda! The MEME she hit me with wants virtually your total biography and then some! I have copied it over to a text file so I can look it over some more, study it closely that way and maybe I'll be able to post in without causing my pea brain to totally explode from overusage!

So, having said all that - here then is tomorrow's Bushism for the day, while I'm still writing here.

Friday, June 29, 2007
"I must confess. It did confuse some of the folks at the Crawford, Texas, coffee shop when I was traveling around the country with Theodore Kennedy." - Chicago, Illinois, May 13, 2002

Yep -if you referred to him as "Theodore" I'll just bet it confused a whole lot of people then! LOL