Billy Kilmer and the Redskins!

I've already taken a bit of flack for my "seven things" meme last night in which I mentioned that I am a dyed in the wool Washington Redskin fan. Seems that has Debo Blue and Gene Bach wondering about my IQ on that choice.

I also mentioned last night that perhaps I'd have to do a post about Billy Kilmer and how he came to figure closely in my life and decided maybe tonight would be as good a time as any to explain that deal.

When I first went to work, back in 1964, in Washington, D.C. , I started out working as a "Fingerprint Technician" for the FBI - a job I absolutely hated - loathed, abhorred and despised that place! I only worked there about 7-8 months before I found another job -as a clerk typist with the National Rifle Association and I stayed there for 8 years.

About a year after I went to work for the NRA, I was selected to train to become a "keypunch operator" and worked with the data entry department as we changed our membership system over from a Remington Rand equipment set up to IBM computers. It was after I started working in the keypunch department and became friends with several other co-workers who happened to be football fans that I formed my first allegiance to the Washington Redskins. After all, it made sense since I was now living and working in that city that I should support the local home team I thought.

At that time, as I mentioned last night, the Skins were under the leadership of Otto Graham and their record then was pretty poor. Ok, downright lousy! However, as I got to know more people around the area, many who were true-blue Redskin fans, I started then to learn about a few different players, etc. One of them was Sonny Jurgeson who the press touted as being a first rate quarterback but yet, no matter how good they said he was, the Skins still couldn't seem to get their collective acts together.

Then in 1970, a miracle happened to the Redskins - well, the beginning of a miracle, that is, in the form on one Vince Lombardi, legendary former coach of the Green Bay Packers who was hired to coach the Skins. He started them on the road to having the potential to win and when he died and the Skins then hired George Allen -former coach of the Los Angeles Rams - Mr. Allen took the reins and really began to move the Skins forward with his "Over-the-Hill Gang" of players who were old by pro football standards.

In the early fall of 1971, the Skins got off to a good start and then Sonny Jurgeson, the supposedly great quarterback was injured - out for the season - and Billy Kilmer, the backup quarterback took over. With him handling the ball, calling the signals and plays, it seemed the Skins really came together under him -they jelled ya know! I had never really liked Jurgeson - in my opinion, I thought he was arrogant, uppity or some such. Not that I knew him personally but that was just the impression I had of him anyway but Kilmer - now there was a player I liked!

In the mid-season of 1971, one Sunday night after a home game, Kilmer and his date had been out and were at a Toddle Shop in Arlington for breakfast about 2 a.m. and when he went to leave, he gave the clerk a $100 bill to pay for their check. I forget the exact amount of their bill but I think it was around $3.00. Anyway, the clerk couldn't break the $100 bill - didn't have enough change in her cash register and Kilmer supposedly got a bit radical, raising a little stink and there just happened to be an Arlington cop, off-duty, in the restaurant at that time. He arrested Kilmer for, I think, disorderly conduct.

Ok, this is not that big a deal - by the standards of 30 plus years ago and certainly not by today's standards. But it was enough of a publicity event that it definitely made the news for a while.

Back then, I used to hang out at a little restaurant/bar in District Heights, Maryland - "The Shady Oak Inn" and it was pretty much a redneck type bar - a lot of the regulars who frequented the place then were construction worker types, big football fans and especially Redskin fans. The group I was friends with was pretty much evenly split in whether we liked Jurgeson or Kilmer as quarterback although maybe Jurgie had a bit of an edge due to how long he'd been quarterback for the Skins perhaps.

But that fall, the Redskins really came alive - a winning season was on the horizon and it really felt good too!

On January 3, 1972, I had gone out after work with some of the folks I ran with from "The Oak" and we were camped out at another bar just up the street - the "House of Henley" where we were all having a big philosophical discussion on the merits of Kilmer vs Jurgeson.

To be honest, I was probably more than a bit on the tipsy side too.

Anyway, we were sitting around the bar, having this really high-level discussion ya know, when this guy came in and sat down beside me. No conversation, he just sat there for a minute or so till the bartender came by and then he ordered a draft beer. No big deal with that either now is there? Not till he paid for the draft which was I think a dollar then -something like that - with a $100 dollar bill!

Now, as I said above, I was more than a bit tipsy but not so much so that I didn't catch sight of that $100 dollar bill floating across the bar and I spoke to this stranger then, asking him point blank, "Who the hell do you think you are, Billy Kilmer?"

And that my friends is how I met my ex-husband!

That also probably explains why about 8 years later, my ex developed a very strong dislike then for Billy Kilmer -or probably anyone who played for the Redskins since he then had to begin paying me (and our kids) child support you see.

And for me -well needless to say I will always think of the Skins and Billy Kilmer especially as pretty darned special cause without them, good, bad or indifferent as my marriage may have been, if it hadn't been for my being a Redskin fan and in particular, a big fan of Billy Kilmer, I probably never would have met my ex-husband and then, I wouldn't have had my son and younger daughter either. And I sure wouldn't have the three beautiful grandchildren I have today either now would I?

Keep this in mind too now though, although the Skins in recent times seem to have reverted back to playing like they did way back when I first started working in the D.C. area, I firmly believe that someday, they will come back to life again - like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes and will go on to having a winning season again -sometime before I curl up and die - I hope!

And that's the TRUTH!

Seven Things

You might think because I do participate in a lot of blog postings of the Viral Meme type -geared towards listing lots and lots of bloggers I am linked to along with lots of other bloggers who are doing the same thing that I would really be "into" doing memes on my blog.

You would be wrong.

I love to read other people's responses to meme questions - no doubt about that. But a lot of those memes also scare the heck out of me or cause me to go into an immediate attack of being brain dead - totally, totally brain dead. Can't think of diddly squat about my life that is exciting, weird, terrific, intellectual - you name it, and I have become brain dead on those aspects. So, if someone tags me for a meme, sometimes I will participate, sometimes not - it all depends on whether I can come up with some decent answers to the questions being asked.

Well, my friend Dortha -from down in Kentucky, who writes a great blog - "My Favorite Autistic" about her family and especially about her three-year-old son -handsome little guy he is too I must add -who, like my granddaughter, is autistic - tagged me yesterday for a "Seven Things About Me" meme.

I thought and I thought about the various things I've done in my 63 years on the planet and although I think I surely have done some other things that would be interesting or weird, or smart or whatever, this is the best I could come up with right now. Maybe I should start a file in which I jot down little one-liners about me that hit me as I read other memes and then, if I were to get tagged for a meme I would have something to use as a starter. Think that would help? I dunno but it also sounds like work and sometimes, I'm not all that interested in that word and what it means ya know!

So anyway, here then is my very lame Seven Things Meme.
Seven Things About Me

1. As an alum of Penn State University, I am a devout fan of the Nittany Lions and Joepa.

2. I am and have been a fan of the Washington Redskins since way back in the 60's when they were often referred to then as "Otto Graham's Deadskins."

3. Back when I worked in D.C., my old boss would often have tickets given to him by various salesmen he dealt with and he would often give those tickets to me, until the fall of 1971 when the 'Skins actually started to do well and my ticket supply dried up. Darned "fair weather" fans anyway, ya know!

4. It was because of Sonny Jurgeson's injuring his shoulder and putting him out for the entire season of 1971 that I managed to meet my ex-husband. It all hinged on back-up quarterback Billy Kilmer's being arrested for disorderly conduct one night. A long story but I'd bet money my ex-husband kicked himself many times for ever mentioning Billy Kilmer in front of me.

5. I've been to one major league baseball game in my entire life. I don't remember who the old Washington Senators were playing against (that was many years ago cause how long since they left town and moved to Texas?) but my best friend and I went to this particular game and it just so happened former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was also in attendance that day!

6. I graduated from a very small high school - about 200 students in all four grades from 9th thru 12th and a guy who graduated two years ahead of me went on to become a football coach - first with the Arkansas Razorbacks college team and then, to coach in the pros -I think he was with Houston's team for a while and the last I heard about him, he was the Defensive Line Coach for the Green Bay Packers but was let go from there I think last year if memory serves me correctly. He was a nice guy in high school - friendly, good looking, popular too and what's more, he even spoke to underclassmen, like me!

7. I've seen the following people/groups in concert in my lifetime - as you can see, I didn't get out very much then - or now!

The Righteous Brothers - Rock Creek Amphitheater in Washington, D.C.
Tom T. Hall - Clearfield County Fair
Tammy Wynette - Eisenhower Auditorium at Penn State University
The Coaster, Platters and Drifters - Eisenhower Auditorium at Penn State University
Bill Cosby - Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State University.

Now who to tag to do a much better job on telling some interesting facts about their lives?

Claire - the "Cheeky Little Brit" at A Little Piece of Me
Minnesota Blue (Pat) at Random Thoughts
Terri at Terri Terri Quite Contrary
Fermicat at Cosmic Cat
LatteGirl at Never Out Loud

Sledding, Anyone?

Last night, while finishing my reading rounds, my blogging buddy, Theresa, made mention about an accident she had while sled riding and boy, did that bring back some memories to me about my childhood!

The village where I live is surrounded by hills - I live in the "valley" section. Across the road from my house is this really nice hillside - just great for sled riding. If you go up almost to the top - to where the old railroad tracks used to be -start there and come down, the path has a little bit of a curve -very slight though -then it is a nice wide open space till you come to the road you have to glide across and from there, down the alley between my house and the neighbors, till the alley curves. Then you go down over about a 5 foot hump type part into the back field and if it is really good sled riding snow - all packed down, kind of iced over in parts, you can ride clear down to the creek behind my property. This creek has a proper name - Moravian Run - but in town here it is better known as the Sulfur Creek due to the heavy pollution it received in the early part of the 20th century from the old coal mines that used to exist in the upper part of town.

Those of us who grew up along this street always referred to this hill as "Albert's Hill" because of the neighbor man, Albert Werner, who lived beside our sledding spot. The part where we hit the slopes with our sleds was originally supposed to be an alleyway but it never materialized as such. I'm not sure if it actually ever really belonged to Albert or if he just sort of, over the years, incorporated it into his property. But neither he nor "Doc" Lundgren, who lived on the other side of this "alley" (in the house built by my great-grandparents) ever objected to all of the kids down here using it for sledding anyway. It was theirs to care for during the summer - mowing the grass etc., and come winter, the "ownership" shifted over to the kids for our snow fun and sledding pleasure.

The year I was a freshman in high school we got hit with a very big snowfall over Thanksgiving that year. It was a nice fairly deep accumulation and though I don't remember if my mishap took place on Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon -I rather think it was Sunday -but there were four of us out there on the hill on that particular day.

I was a bit of a tomboy when I was a kid so that day, I was out in the snow on the hill with three boys - my next-door neighbor's son, Cyril "Sonny" Little, Bobby Nelson and Daryl "Sharky" Gurbal. For whatever reason that day, we were not starting at the top of the hill but rather at the mid-way part and we were racing - four abreast down the hill. All had been going along fine and dandy until for some reason - I have no clue why I did this - I decided to go down without my sledding pals racing beside me.

I hopped on my trusty old sled and was sitting up, steering with my feet instead of laying down on the sled. As I neared where our sledding path crossed over the road, suddenly I realized Sharkey's older brother, Billy, was walking up the street and he had begun to wave wildly to me, shouting at me, "Car, car, Jen! There's a car coming!"

Now, instead of doing this intelligently and simply hopping off the sled - which move I could have made with no or very little problem, I took my right foot off the steering part and began to drag it in the snow (spragging is what we called it) to slow my speed and possibly stop the sled before I got to the road.

Well, that worked to some degree - it did slow me down but it didn't stop my sled. Luckily, the guy driving the car was driving very slowly - he was actually "trolling" as he had a major crush on one of Sonny's older sisters at the time -so he had almost come to a stop as he saw me and my sled coming into his path.

My sled -with me on it - hit the right front tire of his car. Upon colliding, the middle board of my sled sprang loose, flew up and smacked me dead center in the middle of my face. Strangely enough, I didn't get a bloody nose though. The front of the sled was pretty mangled though thus ending its illustrious career carrying me down the hill for my winter fun activities.

Billy began to run up the road towards me and my sled, asking if I was ok. Almost immediately, Sonny's mother appeared on their front porch calling out his name to see if he was ok. "Yeah, Ma - I'm all right." he hollered back to her. About the same time, Bobby's mother, Gert, came out on their porch and called to Bobby, asking if he was ok. Yeah, he was ok too. Sharkey (and Billy)'s home was further down the street - not in view of Albert's Hill so their mother, Alta Mae, had no idea anything at all had happened.

Billy helped me get up, gather up my sled and limp across the road, down the steps to my house.

As I got to the front door of our sunporch - where my Grandmother was sitting writing letters to her children - my Mom met me at the door then, with a question of her own.

"Was that YOU who hit that car out there?"

She helped me inside, taking my coat, snowpants, etc. and all the while sort of checking to see what, if any, body parts had been damaged other than my nose and forehead - which had by that time already begun to pop out a great big goose egg on my forehead. My right knee hurt and I was limping but there was nothing broken -just twisted it a good one, I did.

Later that evening, while I was reposing in the living room, watching tv, there was a knock at the door. Mom answered it and found a guy (Eddie Nadzom) who lived two doors up the street from us standing there. He said he was just stopping by to see if I was ok, from having wrecked my sled earlier that day.

Mom told him yes, she thought everything was fine - that I would live. Yes, this was my Mom, the registered nurse, showing all the caring she could muster for her sweet, dear ONLY child!

Sometimes, the amount of excitement she would show over childhood injuries to me amazes me as I think about them now. If that had been one of my kids I'd have been a nervous wreck but my Mom apparently had nerves of steel.

That week, when we went back to school, my leg -or rather my right knee -was swollen to about 3-4 times its normal size -very, very stiff and very, very bruised and discolored as well.

Back then, to catch the school bus, we had to walk close to 3/4 of a mile to the center of town. On the way home from the bus stop, we had to pass by the post office so it was my duty then to stop and pick up any mail waiting. Well, wouldn't you just know it but as I gimped my way into the post office, I found out there was a package there for our household. As the postmaster brought it to the window and slid it to me, he informed me it was very heavy and he wondered if I'd be able to handle it.

Well, my best friend, Kate Nelson was with me (this would be an older sister of Bobby, one of my sledding companions) and she and I decided it would be no problem, that we could manage to lug this package home.

I knew what was in the package and I also knew we really were in dire need of it too. It was grates for the coal furnace we had at the time! So off we went, heading down the road -the two of us trying to carrying this package, struggling to carry it really as yes, indeed it was very, very heavy. The fact my leg was really buggered up didn't do a thing to help us either.

We got down just past the intersection in town, in front of the old Cooperative Store (known to one and all though as "Bummer's") when along came the son of our neighbors three doors down - Joey Gurbal - driving his car and seeing how hard Kate and I were trying to lug this package, he took pity on us, stopped and gave us a ride the rest of the way home.

Thank goodness for that too cause otherwise, we might still be trying to get home carrying that heavy old package!

And now, in my elderly years, I get frequent reminders of that day, that episode in my life, as that knee gets stiff and sore -aching -on me frequently - thanks to my being such a headstrong kid and having to show off a bit with my nice little sled ya know!

I think I may hold the honor too perhaps of being the only kid in the town's history to have hit a car with my sled. Isn't that just "Special" too?

Sailors, Beware!

I'm sure most everyone has heard the expression about folks who have a vocabulary not always acceptable in "nice" company -that person can cuss like a sailor - and boy, I have to confess that definitely can describe me!

What brought this idea into mind for a post was a question David McMahanon posed on his blog "Do you ever swear at your computer?"

My question is "Who hasn't?" Probably would be easier to count that how many of us often curse the computer, along with maybe rue the day we bought the darned thing or got connected to the internet.

The things my computer does to me often has me muttering little oaths under my breath. It also sometimes has me cursing out loud, long and very loud, I might add too. Usually, the culprit is a combination of the computer and my lousy, dial-up isp - the always wonderful, always cheerful, always obliging (not) Peoplepc.com! I'm probably not being fair to them I suppose as any dial-up is probably going to have many of the same issues that Peoplepc has - I suppose.

I cuss at this computer over the slowness and contrariness it does seem to have a times. At times only? All the time, in reality.

I hate when people post videos or youtube stuff in their blogs because for me to open and view them is going to tie up my computer for EVER! Or so it seems anyway. It does take a long, VERY LONG time for the youtubes to open, for sure. But that is the isp, not really the computer there that creates that issue, isn't it? Although the guy told me when I bought the computer with so much space on it and also a faster processor that it still won't speed things up if I'm trying to do more than one thing at a time.

I keep wanting a computer that operates the same way those I see on tv - like on "Law and Order" do - turn it on, click in a question and in a nano-second the response -and always the correct one too - appears on their screen. Google must operate a lot better there than it does in the ordinary world I suppose, huh?

I love the way my computer will occasionally "lose" things too. So far it has "lost" my modem a few times and over the weekend, it even lost my software for my isp. Just out of the blue, it was gone and I had to re-load the whole thing. Lucky for me I knew where the disc was and the steps to reloading it as well. Ever notice computers always break down or fail either at night or on the weekend too -when there is no one available, of course, to take it to and get it fixed immediately - if not sooner?

Of course, I cussed at the computer a few weeks ago while trying to do a certain paid post which the company would not accept or they said they could not accept because somehow in the transition process of my writing the post in WORD then copying that over to the blog page, something transposed the code for a registered trademark that conflicted with the software of the paid post company and it would not then accept my post. One that I might add is still up and operates perfectly fine and dandy - goes to all the right urls it is supposed to go to when you click through it but because of the requirement of the stupid trademark -which is also there, just the way it is supposed to be - they wouldn't pay me for my work, grief and aggravation involved in trying to make my submission! I was ticked off at the world that day because I had spent roughly 15-16 HOURS of my very valuable time only to learn I couldn't submit it and couldn't get paid for my work.

Was that my computer's fault? Well, in a way, in my mind anyway, it was! After all, it was the computer combined with WORD that did something, somewhere, in the innards, that transposed the code for the trademark, wasn't it? I called this machine all kinds of names while I was trying to submit that post and fighting with the whole process. And, when I found out I couldn't get it through after all, I still called the computer a lot more names for several days afterwards. Ok, I'm still cussing at that one!

I swear at my computer at times too after my granddaughter has been monkeying around with the keyboard and can somehow find little keys to tap that will do strange things to my screen or other such stuff. Yes, I know it is her doing there but geez Louise, if a four-year-old who can't read, can't write/type can make things go wacky in a fingertap, why does it have to take me hours of work then to figure out how to restore things to their normal state? Well, ya know of course, that is the computer's fault then isn't it?

I cuss my computer daily when I read my favorite blogs too for the way it sets things up. Almost always when I think the page is set up and ready for me to click on a blog, it will suddenly do a little "hiccup" type thing and causes my mouse to actually click on the wrong blog! Yes, it does that to me - not me accidentally clicking on the wrong blog myself - I swear that's the truth on that one! And yes, I do swear then too when that happens!

But I cuss at my computer daily really for what it has done to me over the past how many years now since I got my first one, got my first dial-up connection. It has turned me into an addict!

But then again, as that old adage goes, "Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all" and if I didn't have this sweet little gem under my fingertips - somewhat at my command or wish -I'd be sitting here cussing the darkness instead of not having any way to communicate around the world in a matter of minutes ya know!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it too, folks!

This Week's Intellectual Input

My apologies - I didn't have a chance to post the Bushisms for this week yesterday. Just a tad on the busy side here, ya know. But, here they are now - all ready for your reading pleasure.

Monday, December 10, 2007

"Well, that's going to be up to the pundits and the people to make up their mind. I'll tell you what is a president for him, for example, talking about my record in the state of Texas. I mean, he's willing to say anything in order to convince people that I haven't had a good record in Texas."
--MSNBC; September 20, 2000

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

"I am a person who recognizes the fallacy of humans."
--On the Oprah Winfrey Show; September 19, 2000

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

"The only things that I can tell you is that every case I have reviewed I have been comfortable with the innocence or guilt of the person that I've looked at. I do not believe we've put a guilty...I mean innocent person to death in the state of Texas."
--NPR& All Things Considered; June 16, 2000

Thursday, December 13, 2007

"People make suggestions on what to say all the time. I'll give you an example; I don't read what's handed to me. People say, 'Here, here's your speech,' or 'Here's an idea for a speech.' They're changed! Trust me."
--Interview with The New York Times; March 15, 2000

Friday, December 14, 2007

"I like my buddies from West Texas. I liked them when I was young. I liked them when I was middle-age. I liked them before I was president, and I like t hem during president, and I like them after president."
--Nashville, Tennessee; February 1, 2006

Saturday and Sunday, December 15 and 16, 2007

"I want to thank the dozens of welfare-to-work stories, the actual examples of people who made the firm and solemn commitment to work hard to embetter themselves."
--Washington, D.C.; April 18, 2002

Just think folks, only two more weeks and you'll have read a full year's worth of Wisdom and Wit of the Dubya.

What a Day!

I told you about my day Saturday - fixing the casserole for the dinner to be held at church yesterday and baking my fat fanny off - making cookies. That was all a walk in the park compared to my day yesterday!

First, probably because I was so keyed up inside after writing my post late Saturday nite (actually early Sunday morning), I couldn't fall asleep till well after 4 a.m. so then I slept in and didn't make it to church yesterday. Mandy did get there though - thank goodness - since she had put flowers on the altar yesterday in honor of Kate's birthday this coming Thursday. She will be 16 and yes, I know, there begins a bunch of new problems for sure as she already has her driver's manual here, supposedly studying it. Maya calls it the "Stop sign" book because it has a big stop sign on the cover. How's that for originality, huh?

Well Saturday night was really the beginning for some of the problems experienced here yesterday as my SIL's fuel pump on his pickup truck gave out. The truck broke down about 2 doors up the street from the house so he and Mandy had to go up there, in the rain, and push the truck down here to the parking area out front. Then, he had to call and order a new fuel pump and yesterday he was busy all morning working things out to get the truck moved up to the garage where he works part-time so he could change the fuel pump. It was not a good day for Bill as he ran into problems with trying to make arrangements to move his pickup to the garage and finally ended up taking the truck apart out front in the parking area, in the pouring rain. So, obviously, he wasn't exactly a happy camper.

Then, about 10:30 yesterday morning, Bill's sister called, saying she was calling her doctor as she was having some "issues" (she's due with her second baby any day now) and might need to go to the hospital So she wanted to know if Mandy would drive her there. Mandy agreed to do that and about 1/2 hour later, Kathy called back saying the doctor said she needed to come in and be checked so away Mandy went, leaving me with the two little ones and thankfully, Katie was here so she could kind of keep a little eye on Maya from time to time so Maya didn't totally wreck the house.

I decided that I was going to try to get the molasses cookies I had mixed up the night before - which are the kind of cookie I don't normally bake - rolled cookies, ya know - done up and so I began rolling out the dough. Actually, prior to doing those cookies, I did bake up the snickerdoodles and gingersnaps I'd mixed up Saturday night too but those are no problem as you just roll the dough into little balls, dip that in sugar and then, lay them out on the cookie sheet and bake! Got them done in no time!

So there I am, up to my elbows in flower and cookie dough trying to roll out these molasses cookies and get them cut out, etc., and Maya decides then - of course - to start being contrary. Messing with the computer, out in the kitchen bugging me about all kinds of things.

About 2 p.m., Mandy called from the hospital to tell me NOT to get the kids dressed to go to church because in case she and Kathy didn't get back home on time to get there for the pageant and dinner, she figured it would be a royal hassle then to calm Maya down. So I am stressing out then because I have no clue what the heck to do -if we don't get out there, I've got this huge casserole (5 quart size) of ham and bean potpie that we would then be eating every freaking day this week for openers! So I'm not in a good frame of mind then, as you can imagine. Then, Mandy's best friend calls and while I'm griping to her about the chain of events here, the stupid old cat, Gracie - the one who is senile and often forgets the location of her litter box and seems to think then the kitchen floor - right in front of the sink and the stove - are the appropriate places to do her business - comes out and whizzes on the floor -about 2 feet away from where I was standing at the time. Damned good thing I love that old cat ya know!

And about five minutes after that, as I'm still on the phone talking with Jen-Jen, I hear this really loud crash coming from the living room, followed by Kurtis screaming and bawling at the top of his lungs. I go flying (well, flying to me is a bit slower though than flying to probably anyone reading this -but moving as fast as I could) into the living room to see what happened and there's Kurtis in the playpen just sobbing his little heart out, Maya is standing by the chest-table in a kind of state of shock and Nina, the bad little orange, still a kitten, cat is seated on the floor observing the whole mess of the tree laying on the floor! ARRGH! Just what I really needed to deal with right then ya know! I asked Maya how the tree got knocked onto the floor and she said "Nina did it." Who knows? The way I figure it, it is possible Kurtis may have been within range that maybe he reached out and got a hold of the tree and pulled it over, or Maya might have been messing with it and knocked it down OR quite possibly, Nina may have indeed been the culprit too since she loves to lay in the bow window sill behind the tree and she also likes to knock the ornaments off the tree and bat them around the room too! So, that's the mystery now for this year - "Who knocked the tree over?"

Got the tree back upright, ornaments gathered and back onto it and returned to my baking when Mandy called to say she and Kathy were leaving the hospital then and should be home in time that we can make it to the dinner and pageant. Yay, yay - or in Maya speak - "Doyay, doyay!"

But, to quote another old adage ya know, "All's well that ends well," (I'm just plumb full of "old adages" in case you hadn't figured that out by now), we got the kids dressed, I got a shower and ready to go and we made it out to the church - in the pouring rain, no less (of course) and all in time to get a good table and set up to enjoy a great dinner and another year of enjoying the beautiful pageant to honor St. Lucia - as well as our Swedish heritage in our church!

My son and his new girl friend, Teresa, even made it down to the church for the dinner and program too - which made my day as he's kind of a stick in the mud about attending church but he will occasionally break down and go to a special program especially if there is a meal involved with it too. Kids!

Maya made it through the dinner, program and all without a meltdown - a bonus for us - and actually, she was fairly well-behaved. Fairly well-behaved by Maya standards anyway means no meltdowns and not too much loud and otherwise outrageous behavior.

Back home, Clate and his girlfriend came down to the house and they, along with Mandy and I sat around the table, enjoyed a couple of beers and generally picked on each other for the next two hours! It was one of those occasions of telling stories about when Clate did this or Mandy did that with a lot of chances for each of us to rag on the others - telling stories out of school type of thing but all in good fun, overall as that is generally how things go with my kids and me -just teasing where ever, whenever possible.

If you read my post below this one, you'll see I wrote a little about the history of St Lucia and the program we have every year at our church in her honor plus I even posted some photos of St. Lucia Day programs from past years for your viewing pleasure as well.

Now, today I get to finish baking off the molasses cookies and start getting the rolled sugar cookies baked up too! Never ends ya know, it just never ends! Well, hopefully not for a long time to come anyway!

Now, have a nice day -stay out of the rain and hopefully, we won't get hit with any of the freezing rains they had over the weekend in the midwest but I fear that's going to be the inevitable weather condition du jour either later today or tomorrow, early in the morning, about the time Clate will probably have to leave to go to Hagerstown and start his run for the week!

Festival of Light

Last night was a big event in the life of our church here as we celebrated the life of a young woman who lived in Italy in the 4th century and eventually, when Scandinavia was converted to Christianity, was adopted by Sweden as a patron saint.

St. Lucia, the story goes, was an early Christian who brought food to people hiding in the catacombs apparently by wearing a crown of candles on her head for a means to lighting her way through the catacombs. Centuries later, the story of St. Lucia was used to help convert pagans to Christianity in Scandinavia and the people, because either the date of her birth or the date of her death (can't remember now which it was) fell on December 13th, which was according to old calendars, the longest day of the year, equated St. Lucia with her crown of candles and bringing light as comparable to December 13th being the day after which all days got longer - more light - and so that is a very compact version of the story of St. Lucia. On December 13th though, the oldest girl in a Swedish home is supposed to rise in the middle of the night to prepare breakfast for the family and serve them in their beds. To light her way - and to symbolize the beginning of the days having more light each day after December 13th - she wears a crown of candles which are then lit to light the way as she serves Lucia rolls and coffee to her family.

And because our particular parish was founded in the late 1880's by Swedish immigrants to this area, it has become our church's tradition to honor our heritage -and St. Lucia - on the Sunday closest to December 13th with a special program of the "Festival of Light" and St. Lucia Day.

Here are some pictures of St. Lucia programs from the past. The top photo on the left are two sisters, Krista and Karen Eyerly, daughters of my neighbors 2 doors down the street (their mother is my best friend from the time we were about 2 years old). The top photo on the right
is Debra Young Moriarity with Pastor Ed Devore at our first St. Lucia Day observance back in December of 1981. (Deb is now my next door neighbor). The middle photo on the left is Denise Young Araway, younger sister of our "first" St. Lucia. Then on the right in the middle is my older daughter, Carrie, as St. Lucia in either 1982 or 1983. The bottom picture is of Ellen Pillot - cousin to the Eyerly sisters in the top left photo. I don't have any photos of Mandy from the year (1994) when she served as St. Lucia. She was supposed to serve in 1993 but that year, due to a really bad snow storm that knocked the power out all over the region for about 2 days, the festival and dinner that year had to be canceled so the next year, because Mandy had missed serving as St. Lucia the year before due to the cancellation, she got her turn. One thing all the girls who have served as St. Lucia have said about doing this - beside feeling it was a great honor to get to wear the crown of candles - is what a hassle it was too trying to get all the wax combed out of their hair then the next day! It really is a beautiful program, with the story of St. Lucia being re-read every year, a great pot-luck dinner always - as is the norm at our church anytime there is to be a church dinner - can't beat the food, for sure! Plus at this program, we always have a chance to sing Christmas Carols - anyone can request that we sing a favorite carol while we wait for the procession to begin and at the close of the service, we always have a rendition of the Swedish favorite Christmas song (for our church, anyway, it is a favorite) - "Lyssna, Lyssna" - (Listen, Listen, hear the angels song) and anyone who has ever been a member of any of the church choirs -if they are brave enough - can get up and we sing this carol then for the rest of the people gathered together there. It's one of my favorite times of the year because I no longer sing in the choir so don't get to participate anymore in the singing of this special song except at the end of the St. Lucia program and that song is one I really love - remember the harmony on it as well - so I very much enjoy that part of the program.

Here are two more recent photos of the St. Lucia Pageant at our church. In the top photo, the young lady on the far left is Anna Pillot, niece of Ellen Pillot who is in the bottom photo of the upper pic I posted. To her right, I don't recall that young woman's name but I believe she was an exchange student here that year. Center is Rebecca Baumgardner, and to the right of Becky is Alena Bumbarger, Valerie Amick and Leah Lawrence. Anna is the only one of the girls in the photo who has never served as St. Lucia - probably because she and her parents and younger brother live over in State College while her grandparents -my neighbors about 7 houses UP the street from me (Andrew "Bo" and Shirley Nelson Pillot) live here and still belong to our church. Alena was St. Lucia in 2005, Valerie in 2004 and Leah in 2006.
In the bottom photo here, there is Marge Baumgardner (grandmother of Becky, the St. Lucia in the photo above this) helping the kids to get ready for the procession. In front of her is Kylie Moriarity (my next-door neighbor's younger daughter and sister of Alena Bumbarger -both the daughters of the very first St. Lucia -Debra Young Moriarity). The "star boy" in the photo is Matt Adams and the two girls to the right are my stepgranddaughter, Katie Wagner and then Katie Hulett, daughter of Karen Eyerly Hulett, who was St. Lucia in the very top left photo in this post and she is the granddaughter of my good friend (and neighbor, still) Kate Nelson Eyerly.

Aren't we all just pretty much one big happy family though?

And maybe, if all goes well - and I'm still around and kicking (and blogging) in about 12-13 years, perhaps my little Princess Maya will also be serving as St. Lucia! It would be especially fitting since Maya is named for her great-great-great-grandmother - Maja Lisa Till Eld - who came to this country in 1881, with her five young children in tow, to reunite with my great-grandfather (Carl Eld-Andersson) who had immigrated here in 1880. Hopefully, I'll make it that many years to be able to see that happen. Maybe by then I can teach Maya the words to my favorite Swedish Christmas carol, "Lyssna, Lyssna" by then too.

Really Tired!

That header totally describes me tonight! Really, REALLY tired.

Yesterday, I didn't get around to visit only a very few blogs -tonight I finally finished all my daily visits - about five minutes ago!

Yesterday, I had a doctor's appointment - got stitches removed, good lab report -all that nice stuff. (Nothing drastic - just a little bump type thing on my left shoulder removed last week.) I got some groceries, picked up a new remote control cause the other one for the tv in the living room fritzed out Thursday night and I can not LIVE without a remote control to that tv, that's all there is to it. I know, that tiny bit of exercise between my computer and the tv to switch channels, adjust the volume sure as hell wouldn't hurt me but ya see, I sleep with the tv on, tell time by it (when Nick at Nite obliges by having a routine of the same programs at the same time every night rather than constantly having only "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" on!) And, I stopped and picked up some inexpensive but decent "large" storage containers too for my cookie baking bash that will be ongoing between now and the 24th of the month!

Last night, Mandy and I went to see "It's a Wonderful Life" at the local Rowland Theatre in Philipsburg - a stage production done by the Philipsburg Community Theater Group. Because she and I are both big fans of that movie but also because we are accustomed to the movie, seeing it performed on the stage made it a bit on the "slow moving" side but still good none the less. My cousin, Margaret Ann, her daughter, son-in-law and one of her grandsons (Jamison) all had parts in the play so we had an added interest of course in going to see it -and we did enjoy it very much!

The young man who portrayed Mr. Potter though - he's a terrific kid - a senior in high school now and has played in almost every high school production I think since he was in about 7th grade and he did a super job last night! Kudos to Spencer Folmar! I was joking with his mother about what Spencer's college plans are - major, etc., and she laughed, saying he plans to major in political science but maybe have a minor in Theatre. Good choices there, I'd say after all, politics takes a flair for drama in order to be successful - in my opinion anyway!

After the play, Mandy and I met up with her friend Nancy and Nancy's step-mother, Pauline and went to the Moonlight Madness Midnight Bingo at the Reliance Fire Company. This, I have to add, was the first time I have ever gone to play bingo, for a full session like that -EVER! The last (and only) time I ever played bingo was years and years - EONS ago (my son would say that I would say that) when I was maybe in junior high age range and that was at the Cooper Grove Labor Day Picnic when I cajoled my uncle into allowing me to play a couple games of bingo there - I even won $5 too!

Well, last night -none of us were successful in the money winning department! RATS! A friend of Mandy's did win the one special jackpot though - $500! Good job, Tanya!

But it was not an evening totally wasted as I did win a little door prize thingy - a small stuffed toy with a couple pieces of candy with it, plus Mandy and I each won a "dabber" -only bingo affectionados I suspect will know what THEY are -and Mandy won a ham - almost 13 pounds, sticker price still on it that sold for $29.45 at the grocery store in one of the door prize drawings. So, if you configure that into our win-loss column, we calculate we only lost about $5.00 then total! Not that bad for a nice outing, huh?

However, the bingo games ran late so though it was supposed to finish at 2 a.m., it was closer to 3 a.m before we got out of there and almost 3:30 before we got home! I finally crashed then around 4:30 I think and slept so soundly I didn't wake up until NOON!

Today, after trying to wake up, finally managed to start working on my baking - and cooking necessary items too for the church dinner tonight now (Sunday night -it's 2:30 a.m. Sunday as I type this.)

So to avoid issues with the darned "Separation anxiety" Maya has been having lately - assuring me of no re-runs of having to chase her through the yard today in my stocking feet as I had to do last Saturday after Mandy and Kate left for work, Mandy arranged to take Maya to her girlfriend's house - for some reason or other, Maya never has a hissy fit at all if Mandy takes her there and leaves her when she goes to work. Go figure! So that left me with only Kurtis to deal with and he was being super angelic today which then allowed me to get a lot done.

I fixed my standard "ham & bean potpie) to take to the church dinner and also got four loaves of Swedish limpa rye bread baked (a big favorite at home here). Then I got five different types of cookies mixed up and got two of them all baked off as well! I started on this cooking/baking mini-marathon about 3:15 and didn't get a chance to sit down at all until around 6:30 or so when I had to stop and feed Kurtis - then it was back to the slave kitchen to do some more. I finished up for tonight about 11:15 -and got to sit down for the second time in an 8-hour time span so now, my back from my waist down to my behind is killing me. I know, whose fault is that anyway but my own, but I do what I can when I can and then, pay the piper later ya know!

When I started doing my kitchen detail though, I thought of something I always did years ago when I would do my marathon baking stints - all-nighters of mixing, baking, mixing, chilling, mixing baking, etc. and then I would drag out my stereo, set up the turntable and begin playing any albums I had then of Christmas music - always seemed to help put me in the mood ya know. So tonight, I got out the portable cd player and found the cds my great friend Anne in Cleveland and her husband had sent me last year for Christmas - all different types of beautiful Christmas music but not of the "normal" commercialized types - her husband Ed had burned these cds for me and they are just beautiful pieces of music to listen to, to work to as well. Very stress relieving, for sure, along with providing inspirational music and I really appreciated having them to listen to - so I could "whistle" while I worked ya know!

And now, I am off to bed! For a very well-deserved rest - in my opinion anyway! And don't chide me or feel bad for me either because I over-indulged and my back aches as it is a pleasant ache actually since it was caused by doing something I really wanted to do and in truth, I enjoyed doing all that cooking and baking too! And, I'm looking forward now to baking up the three batches of cookie dough I have chilling in the refrigerator now as well!

My production so far - peanut butter cookies, raspberry swirled chocolate chip cookies and a batch of cookies -new recipe to me - "Chocolate Snowballs" all baked. (I don't think I like the last cookies mentioned here that well so probably this will be their only entry into the household.) Waiting on the threshold (in the fridge, that is) to be baked in the near future, Snickerdoodles, Gingersnaps and gingerbread cookies. Yes, I broke down and mixed up a batch of cookie dough that will require being rolled out and cut and baked -and would appreciate all to say prayers for me that I don't ruin that batch of dough with my rolling, cutting, baking efforts there!

Nite now!

A Little Tag Never Hurts Anyone!

Lovely Stine -from Norway - just tagged me. She said this is an easy one to do cause she knows I'm not all that "into" regular tags and memes. Since this is a viral one though -helps everyone build and keep authority and such, I'll gladly play along with this one. And yes, it is easy too.

I just put my name under Stine's (Mother's Home, ya know) and then tag five others who then do the same thing and before you know it, this thing has grown by leaps and bounds. So, hope you all will play along then -watch the numbers grow a little bit, ok?

A Simple Game Of Tag

I've been tagged by Sandee at Comedy Plus for A Simple Game Of Tag.
It's an easy viral one, and great for links exchange, so here we go:


The rule: When you get tagged, you have to add your site below the person who tagged you. By doing this you are letting the list grow. Then tag 5 others and let's see how big this can get?


Limadang.com
RamblingMoo.com
blogginginmypyjamas
StylewithPassion
Chinneeq

Dora-zooropazoo
Babyshern
HiPnCooLMoMMa
Rachel’s Soulful Thoughts
When Silence Speaks

Dancing in Midlife Tune
Underneath it All
I am Dzoi
Hobbies and Such
moms.....check nyo

Choc Mint Girl
Amel's Realm
My Thoughts
Rusin Roundup - Mel
MondayMorningPower
Comedy Plus
Mother's Home!

Down River Drivel

Stine's tags:
Misty at My Dogs Keep Me Sane
Empress Bee at muffin53
Jeni at Down River Drivel
Reba at Reba's Run
and my dotcom at Mother's Got a Dot Com because Sandee said I could do it on both my blogs, and so I get to tag 5 more people!!!

My tags:

Linda at Are We There Yet
Empress Bee at Muffin53
Saedel at Planet Saedel
Theresa at Theresa's Life
Trav at Trav's Thoughts

And now - it's up to you five to send this out - go forth and multiply, if you please!
Just put your name up under mine and add five bloggers below my five. Easy as pie, isn't it and very low calorie too.

Almost, But Not Quite...

Somedays, as my ex-husband loved to relate, you eat the bear, somedays the bear eats you and somedays, you both go hungry.

I think, as I try to determine which column I ended up in today - win, lose or draw - that today was MINE or maybe it was a DRAW but I feel like I ended up more on top of the heap than anything.

I'm referring here of course to the daily battles that often occur here with the little Princess.

She was a bit on the whiny, clinging side this morning, talking already then about "Going with Mommy" and some "See you later" stuff too which often are said back to back when she is engrossed in a full fledged separation anxiety originating meltdown. One such as the one she pitched last Saturday when she escaped and had me trying to chase her down around the yard in my stocking feet no less! Then yet another one of these came out on Tuesday when I got her off the van bringing her home from school.

Yesterday was calm since Mandy called off work due to the snow storm and crappy roads so Maya had nothing major to rock her little rowboat there then. That is until late last night -shortly before 11 p.m. -when she awoke from sleeping on the sofa with her dad and apparently had been having nightmares about her dvd's -Bratz Girls and Princess video dvd's of which only two of them are currently working because she has fingered the others to death! At one point, when she was wailing and sobbing "They're all gone, all gone, all gone." I think I felt a twinge of guilt because I'm the one who took her baby Bratz dolls and all their tiny pieces of clothing and miniscule other paraphenalia (shoe, purses, other itsy-bitsy pieces) and stuffed them all into the little lunchbox type carrying case they came in and then, deposited it atop the china cupboard, out of sight -hopefully, out of mind too. I did that mainly because Maya had become very unruly one night, refusing at all to pick up any of her toys and especially these darned Bratz dolls. She was warned several times if she didn't "clean up" - sing the "Clean up" song (which she learned in school and when she's of a mood, will gladly sing it for us -not necessarily perform the duties it extols though) -that I was going to take all those Bratz and put them up and she wouldn't be permitted to have them. Apparently she hadn't missed them all that greatly as she didn't ask about their whereabouts after that night.

So, when she left this morning and seemed to be still in a bit of a mood, shall we say, I was leery about how she might be this afternoon upon her return home. Shortly after 3 p.m., I saw "Mr. Fred" drive by to his turn-around spot and went out to gather her and her backpack from the van. As soon as I opened the door, I thought I detected a faint glint in her eyes, as much as to say "Oh no, Gram's getting me off the van, where's m Mommy?" I got her back pack, exchanged greetings with Mr. Fred and helped Maya down only to hear her say "Snow, play in the snow. I play in the snow. Yay, YAY!"

I turned to Fred and said "This might be a bad sign -an omen -for me of what's about to come." He smiled and nodded and said he hoped things would go ok for me to get her in the house.

She had to stop at least 2 or 3 times as we walked down the sidewalk to the house -stooping over to run her hands in the snow. After the second or third time, I think it registered to her that snow is also cold, very cold and she picked up the pace to go inside asking for her Mommy only once after we got inside.

Katie and I were both somewhat braced for an onslaught of crying and fit-throwing but she seemed fairly calm. Asked a couple questions about Mandy and I told her Mommy's at work, she'll be home later and for a change, she was actually satisfied with that.

It didn't stop her from messing with the tree though or from wanting to go to the basement and watching some of those dvd's - the ones that no longer work -and by about 5 p.m., after having been reprimanded a couple of times, looking like she was going to go into a meltdown then, she suddenly crawled up on the sofa and promptly fell asleep. Ah, peace!

I fixed a "one-dish" meal for supper - pieces of boneless chicken breast, cubed, sauted with onions, peppers, celery, carrots and a little bit of broccoli with some chicken broth mixed with a can of cream of chicken soup and added some bowknot pasta to the mix. A good way to get her the desired pasta and also, sneak a few bites of chicken, carrots and such past her too.

Katie had dished up Maya's plate - mostly bowties -and had given her a tablespoon or so of applesauce on the side of her plate too. Applesauce is usually another guaranteed "edible" substance in her mind and Maya dug in. Early on, she was trying to spear a bowtie with her fork and it fell off in mid-stream to her mouth -landing smack dab in the applesauce.

The look on Maya's face as she reached in and gingerly retrieved that piece of pasta, held it up for inspection and then said loudly "OH YUCK!" had Katie and I both stiffling giggles but when she shook it a bit and said "I need to wash this off" we both cracked up. She shook it again, applesauce droplets flying a bit, looked at it again and then popped it in her mouth and forgot about washing it.

After supper, her Dad went to the basement and started a fire there in the woodburner so once it started to remove the chill there, Kate and Maya went down to the basement where she could watch the two videos that do still work - leaving me in peace for a while.

Mandy got off early tonight - not very busy she said - so she was home before 8:30 and promptly took the two little ones in to give them a bath - something both of them really dearly love! Kurtis sits in the tub and kicks his feet so hard, slamming them down on the base of the tub you almost feel like it is causing the whole house to vibrate and all the while, he's laughing and thoroughly enjoying himself there.

Thursday nite is one of the few nights that I do stop -if possible - whatever I'm doing so I can watch my favorite program -"The Office" and tonight looked to be a peaceful viewing for me with both kids in the tub at that time. Kurtis also seems to know I love that show and because of the way it plays, I often have a lot of difficulty hearing all the dialogue to begin with so he generally begins to make a bunch of noise when it comes on. Typical little male already I suppose. But tonight, Maya was the first out of the tub and dressed in her jammies and she out and proceeds to stand almost directly in front of the screen -while my show is playing and I'm trying to tell her - to cajole her really -into please moving aside a bit and please being quiet until Grammy's program is over. About 9:20, she came over to me and took my hands telling me "I push grammy off a couch" - meaning though she wanted to pull me up off the loveseat -and she further gave me marching orders too "Grammy to a 'puter" -meaning for some reason she thought I should revert to my normal base, in my chair, parked in front of the computer.

However, Mandy and Kate had a different opinion about that as they both wanted to surf a bit tonight on e-bay so I didn't regain control of my base here until shortly after 11 p.m.

Which explains why I was even later than usual making my reading rounds tonight and putting my post up too.

So all in all, it ended up being a relatively calm day though. Probably was a good thing that when Kurtis decided he was going to really sleep in this morning (didn't get up until almost 1:30 this afternoon) and I had decided it was a good time for me to take a nice nap along with him then too, that both he and I had slept fairly adequately today so he was calm and so was I that way.

Tomorrow's going to be a whole new ball game though. Mandy has the day off and plans to go shopping, insisting that Bill go with her plus I have a doctor's appointment at 11:45 to have the stitches removed from my left shoulder where I had a little growth of some sort removed there last week so most likely I will have to be the one to get Maya off the van tomorrow afternoon, then hurry and get supper ready as Mandy and I are going to a production in Philipsburg by a community theater group of "It's a Wonderful Life." Seems my cousin Margaret Anne, her daughter Ellen and Ellen's husband as well as their two sons all have parts in this production so Mandy and I are very much looking forward to seeing this. Should be interesting for us - agreed?

But even more so, it will be interesting to see how well Bill survives the night if Maya decides to pull a meltdown number on him when Mandy and I both disappear together too.

Here's hoping her mood is nice and pleasant -and like today - almost angelic. Not quite but for Maya, probably about as close as she could be to that anyway.

And the Winner....

Boy - I am behind on acknowledgements here - got a bunch of awards the other day and didn't post them at that time and you know what happens when I don't do something important right away, don't 'cha? I forget. It gets backburnered -out of sight, out of mind, ya know. Ok, ok, I know -when am I ever in my "right" mind? I could maybe try to weasel out and say I am a "left-brain" person but I don't think that's the case. Just old and senile is all there is to it.

Much as I appreciate getting these awards given to me, I really have a lot of difficulty in trying to decide what bloggers are worthy then of being awarded these as well. Frankly, I tend to view everyone who is on my favorites list as being worthy -of putting out a great blog -and each one has their own twists and turns and topics so I'm going to take the easy road (for me) but it's also the only fair one as I see it, to hand out these awards to EVERYONE!

These awards all came to me by way of NOLADawn -that lovely school teacher down New Orleans way and if you check her site, she has an explanation about each award, where it originated, etc. Good way to learn about some more bloggers that way, don't 'cha know?










Now for the fun part as each of you gets to take these awards and either pass them on to others in a random fashion or as a group thing. Whatever, the choice is completely up to you. You decide as you know who your favorites are and what your own preferences are too with respect to handling awards.

A side note tonight too -Mandy promised Maya last night that if she was good today, she would paint her toenails for her. Remember, this is one very, very vain little four-year-old who also happens to have a vice-like memory at times, usually for anything EXCEPT being good and picking up her toys. So anyway, as Mandy was doing not just Maya's toenails but her fingernails as well, she asked Maya what special occasion she had in mind for these pretty pink colored nails she now had and Maya's reply was "I'm going to the prom!"

Guess she's giving us fair warning now as to what to expect in about 12 years or so, isn't she?

Roaring Shameless Lions

Linda has presented me with another award and it's one that I think I can take to heart in two respects -maybe more. One, I do love to write, two -I am sometimes shameless about it and three, I am after all, also a Nittany Lioness, being a Penn State Alum! Now is that cool or what?

Here's the information on the award she gave me. I have copied it all over from Seamus site so as to get all the information about this to show up here correctly.

A Roar For Powerful Words !

What is this project?

When I set up The Shameless Lions Writing Circle, one of the things I had in mind was that we as a group could encourage and celebrate good, powerful writing on the Internet/blogosphere. This is why I've come up with a new project to try to do exactly that, while of course at the same time increase exposure for the 48 members and their individual blogs. A Roar For Powerful Words is the chance to scream from the mountains the good news about the powerful posts that are produced every day in the blogosphere, despite what some mainstream columnists and journalists claim. This is also a good chance to examine exactly what it is that makes writing good and powerful. I'm sure there will be different views on this.

How does it work?

Below are copies of the award that we can each distribute to those people who have blogs we love, can't live without, where we think the writing is good and powerful. I thought interested members could kick things off by publishing the award on their own blog, naming five people they would like to give it to (members or non-members), and accompany the image with three things they believe are necessary to make writing good and powerful. The recipients then do the same, passing it on to five other people, and so on. We can encourage people to collect their award from our blog, by copying and pasting, or we can give them the link to this post where the award is available in three different sizes, one being a perfect fit for sidebars.

I hope we can have some fun with this and it results in a massive roar for people's writing everywhere!

Take care,
Seamus (the tamer of the lions).

I will try my utmost to live up to the tenets of the Shameless Lions and keep Roaring for Powerful Words whenever, wherever I can. And, I am also going to pass this on to five more bloggers who I feel are most definitely worthy of such an auspicious award. Each of you can go to Seamus' place and select an image to display on your blog -they are available in three different colors too -another cool element there.

Here now are the bloggers I have chosen to pass this on to:

David McMahanon -a writer/photographer from Australia who really goes out of his way to promote good writing and photography as well as to offer tips to bloggers on both those topics in his great blog, Authorblog.

Vic Grace -of Cariboo Ponderer writes some of the bests posts from many aspects - intellectual, educational and just plain sharing about her life out in the great northwest of British Columbia. Stop and visit her place and see what you might just learn new and exciting every day.

An attorney from the Windy City, Curmudgeon deserves one of these awards too for his always well-written, informative posts about life in Chicago with his wife, children and his observations often about society in general as well. A good sense of humor often accompanies his posts too.

Michele at House of Lime writes a great blog from her location in southeastern Pennsylvania with stories about her life, family, events that range from good old fashioned humor to educating readers about many and varied topics. This week she's been explaining various words in the Pennsylvania Dutch language. Drop by and visit her place and be prepared to some great reading.

Sunshine shines through this blog -actually through a couple blogs as she has more than one. I'm just listing this one here today but she also has one about products, books, movies, etc she reviews along with her hobby blog. Sonja writes about her family too - all four children, husband, business -and gives great takes on many different aspects of life. Most definitely a very enjoyable stop at her blog.

I'm sure each and everyone of the above blogs, along with those Linda named for this award and many others too will provide some great entertainment as well as educating the reader on a wide variety of topics. All are well written, straight-forward blogs and run the gamut of topics on any given day.

One Step

Surprise, surprise! I took one little step forward today. I'd been mostly just surfing around, looking at some sites on knitting and not attending to much of anything else -other than to fix supper. However, after supper, Miss Maya came up to me, carrying a partially opened box of Brownie mix and insisting that I had to make brownies.

Now, baking brownies wasn't something on my "baking agenda" -I'd done that batch Saturday night (which I might add was totally wiped out by Monday morning) simply as a ploy then to redirect Maya's attention. Apparently the "Chocolate lover's gene" appears very early in children cause she does love her chocolate - anything. For that matter, I noticed tonight that there's only about a dozen of the Peppermint chip cookies left now too. I commented to Bill tonight about those cookies and asked how he'd liked them. His response was that they were ok but he thought there was just too much peppermint in them and Katie piped up too then saying pretty much the same thing. Hmmm. Kind of makes one wonder then if they were TOO pepperminty, then who the hell's been munching all of them away then? But, I digress.

Seeing as Maya had attempted to open the brownie mix box, I got boxed in then into fixing another batch of brownies. Ok, that's fine. Maybe it will keep a few sticky fingers to themselves if I do get engrossed in some heavy-duty baking then. Not for long though, I suppose.

So, I mixed up the brownies, got them in the oven and while they were baking, I mixed up a batch of peanut butter cookies. The last 3-4 years or so now, I have "cheated" when I made peanut butter cookies and used the package mixes by Duncan Hines as for some reason or other, sometimes when I would make peanut butter cookies they would get a bit ornery on me and not always turn out right. Whereas, the Duncan Hines cookies always turned out really good and my older grandson, Alex, just happens to love peanut butter cookies so tonight, I took a chance on this recipe and hope it won't disappoint him.

I put the cookie dough in the refrigerator to firm up a little bit before baking them and also, to make sure when I got around to putting them in the oven that I wouldn't have to contend with any little person zipping around, getting into everything under the sun either.

So, around 11 p.m. or so, I started putting the dough on the sheets and getting them all ready to bake. I took the last pan of 'em out of the oven about 12:30 a.m. - a little over 6 dozen.

They turned out ok, I suppose you could say - nice size, didn't burn, etc., but this recipe doesn't have a really peanut buttery taste to it -or maybe than hinges on the peanut butter itself. But heck, I used Peter Pan and it's supposed to be really peanutty in flavor isn't it? Or is that another commercial I'm thinking of there?

I asked Mandy tonight if she had any clue where all my large Tupperware storage containers might be hidden - if she had put them someplace. The little brat looked at me with this damned snide smile -she can be sooooo much like her dad at times, ya know - and told me she's sure they're around her "SOMEWHERE!" Yeah right! Either she or Bill or probably both of them have apparently raided my stash of large storage containers and now, they are either in the attic or in the storage slot Bill shares with his dad in a neighboring town. Pisses me off when they do things like that to me and don't bother to ask if I need this item or another - just put it in a box and cart it off to the netherlands someplace, ya know.

If it's in storage, stashed away, I'll never see that puppy again. And, if it's up in the attic here, the odds of my being able to get up there and look around are pretty much slim to nil too. So now the question for my baking marathon is down to what the hell am I gonna put these freaking cookies in once I bake 'em anyway?

Sounds like a good issue for me to spend at least a day or two pondering, don't you agree?

Not Today

The great baking marathon that actually had been planned to start yesterday, then got bumped down today took another hit today and maybe will begin tomorrow. Provided I feel better by then.

Not sick - just so darned cold all day today and tired, really, really tired. What sucks about the "tired" business is that I was asleep last night before 2 a.m. and didn't get up till shortly after 7 a.m. so that should have been a decent amount of sleep - a lot more than I get some days, for sure! But my system just was not cooperative at all about the baking idea even though I used it as a form of bribery to try to appease Maya, calm her down from the meltdown she went into today when Mandy left for work.

She wants -every day now - to go with her mother when she leaves the house. Thankfully, she wasn't as wild and ornery today as she was Saturday -I wasn't taking any chances that she might run for the door and head for the great outdoors so I was holding her, trying to use the pressure of my holding her tightly to me to ease her anxiety. Poor kid though, I really do feel bad for her as she just sobs and sobs - repeating over and over "I go wif Mommy; see you later. I go wif Mommy; see you later." Then when I suggested we could bake some cookies tonight, it all changed to "I bake cookies wif Mommy." Getting her to talk in terms of doing things with me, with her sister Kate and get her mind off her mother's absence can be quite the daunting task at times.

She is fascinated though by the Christmas tree as well as some of the other decorations Mandy and Kate put up around the house. However, her fascination there isn't always shown by her standing back or near the tree and observing it - no, she will -when she thinks no one is looking her way - reach in and remove a couple little ornaments and then, likes to fondle them. The trick here, if you happen to see her doing that, if you use the wrong words when telling her to leave the tree or the ornaments alone, you have to watch for any signs that she is about to pitch whatever it is she has in her hands cause she does have quite an arm there and can provide lots of flying objects if she gets into that mindset.

This afternoon though, she took a fancy to the stocking holders Mandy got to put up on the mantel. Four large letters with a big hook on the bottom that you can sit on the mantel and hang the stocking from them. Set up it spells out NOEL. Kate and I had a piece of garland wrapped around the edge of the mantel to weave in and out around the letters and it was sort of anchored on each end by fairly large candles. Maya had removed one of the stockings from the hook on the "N" holder but in doing that, it pulled on the whole set up and sent the candle and two of the letters crashing to the floor. Thankfully, nothing broken there - the candle holder was a heavy glass one at that. But then, she took the stockings and was putting the two she had gotten off the hooks on her feet -like they were red plush type boots ya know.

Needless to say, we no longer have the garland across the mantel nor do we have the stockings hanging in front of the fireplace either. Just too much enticement there for a little girl who loves to take things down.

And that's about it - can't you tell I got a whole lot accomplished today? So tonight, I'm heading to bed even earlier in hopes I'll be able to get SOMETHING done tomorrow.

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men, huh?

Getting Started

Hard to believe, isn't it, but there are now a mere 22 days left until December 24th. So much to do, so little time! Of course, the fact that I've had oh, 11 months that I frittered away when I could have been putting a little time and effort into some of the craft things I like to mess with - maybe even get two of them eventually completed. But no, I really play Scarlett O'Hara to the hilt here with my "I'll worry about it tomorrow" attitude.

Today, one thing DID get accomplished though. Mandy and Kate got the lights, decorations and tree down - got the tree up and all trimmed. They cleared off the mantel, top of the bookcase and also, rearranged much of the stuff on the shelf above my computer too. So the old homestead has a little bit of a Christmas appearance to it now.

I, on the other hand, had different things to work on -like getting my Sunday Bushisms for the coming week post done first. Hey, sometimes I do have priorities that I actually remember too, ya know. So I did accomplish that much.

And, I did cook dinner tonight too -that in itself was a major thing for me to get done. After all, it takes a lot of thought - and work too - putting that roast in the crockpot, slicing onions to put around it, sprinkle some seasonings in there, adding a dab of water to it. Boy, there's some cooking rocket science for you, for sure. I did have to peel potatoes though and get them cut up while the butter, oil and other seasonings for the "oven-browned potatoes" was heating up in the oven. Added the potatoes to the oil mixture, stirred it around a bit, back into the oven it went to bake for at least an hour. Add to that the very difficult "green bean casserole" that I had to open a can of green beans and a can of creamed soup, mix together, sprinkle some french-fried onions on the top of that and let it cook in the oven too. Yeah, really overworked, I was today!

But, I was engrossed in yet another project today - surfing the "Taste of Home" recipe site online for cookie recipes and then, deciding which ones I would print out and MAYBE eventually will bake some of them too between now and December 24th.

In years past, when I was working two jobs no less, I generally baked between 15 and 20 different types of cookies - often doubling the recipes too -and then, I would pack a Tupperware cake taker container with a large selection of all these cookies and cart them into work with me to put in the break room or in the area where I "slaved" away, helping to get weather forecasts shipped out on time to various newspapers, tv stations and other clients so folks around the world would have a clue what the weather was going to be like in their little corner you see.

I started doing that because for one thing, I used to really enjoy baking cookies. I still do to a certain extent but not as much as I did back then. And, I liked to take little "treats" like that into the workplace mainly because so many of the people I worked with there were young guys, fresh out of college, who really liked and appreciated having a homemade snack available to them too. If any of them DIDN'T like what I had made, at least they were all very polite and never growled about the selections or the quality either for that matter. So for me, it was a nice thing that made ME feel good and hopefully, they all actually enjoyed the goodies too from time to time. I keep telling myself one of these days I'm going to have to make some brownies and other cookies and take in there - just for old times sake ya know -and it would give me a chance to visit a little bit with some of the kids I worked with for about 7 years there. Don't anyone hold your breath though that I will actually do that as now it takes a whole lot of planning for me to escape from the house for any length of time -at least to do it without having a four-year-old and a 19-month old in tow anyway. I don't think anyone over there would be very appreciative of any food I might show up with if I had the Princess with me and if she decided to have a meltdown because to get to the work area, we would most likely have to use an elevator. She sometimes has a big phobia about those contraptions - not always, but more often than not, and I don't feel like traipsing up a bunch of steps, trying to carry cookies or whatever in one hand and keeping a very tight grip on her arm with the other hand. My agility is just not quite up to that par level these days!

But anyway, I did find several interesting cookie recipes. Like 22 of 'em, to be exact - as well as three candy recipes.

Now, for me to be interested in even thinking about making something there one element that absolutely must be present in the recipe or it will never, ever, see the light of day in an edible form coming from me. It must be EASY! And, I do mean EASY!!!

I am, you see, the original "Marshmallow Treats" mother - I think they used me as the model for that commercial. I like any and all recipes that look like I may have slaved over a hot stove for hours on end and taste good too but I know I spent the minimal amount of time needed to prepare those things.

And that habit of mine leads me up to confess to a problem in the cookie baking department.

My all-time favorite cookies are the icebox type cookies my Mom used to bake every year for Christmas. Mom wasn't a bad baker or anything like that but she was not one to try out different recipes nor did she do all that much baking throughout the year until Christmas rolled around. My Grandma would always make "Fruit and Nut Cookies" which I really liked too and I have made them on numerous occasions for my kids and co-workers too but haven't made them for quite some time now because it seems, at home, I am pretty much the only one who likes those cookies.

Mom and Grandma always made the cut-out sugar cookies too for Christmas along with Chocolate chip cookies and gingersnaps too. I always make the Chocolate chip cookies and gingersnaps but instead of the cut-out sugar cookies, I make Snickerdoodles instead.

The reason I opt for the snickerdoodles in place of the cut-out cookies is the same reason why I can't make the icebox cookies my Mom always made that I loved so much - date/nut pinwheels and another icebox favorite was one with chocolate cookie dough rolled out and a corresponding piece of the vanilla cookie dough rolled out and placed on top of it which was then rolled up, refrigerated overnight and the cookies sliced off and baked then.

Do you recognize now the pattern of why I avoid making those cookies yet?

It's all because for some reason or other everytime I try to make cookies that have to be rolled out (and cut-out too), it is an invitation for disaster! A rolling pin and cookie dough under my hands is NOT a good mix - not at all. After trying over the years to make any cookies requiring being rolled out and inevitably, ending up pitching the whole kit and kaboodle in the trash, I finally gave up the ghost on making those things.

But, I can generally find enough other cookies to select from that have the dough just dropped onto the cookie sheet or that I roll up into small balls, dip in sugar, place on the sheets and bake.

THere is one exception to my standard rule of thumb about cookie baking though. THere is one type of cookie that is a bit of a pain in the behind to make but for the special occasion of Christmas, I will forget that "EASY" rule of thumb to make "Tassies." For those unfamiliar with that term, Tassies are little tartlet type cookies. You break the dough into small balls, place that in these tartlet pans and press the dough up into the little cup-like shapes and then fill them with a variety of fillings. My older daughter loves the pecan filling; her ex-husband always liked the cranberry-nut filling; others prefer a brownie type filling or some like the lemon pudding filling while a few like the pumpkin filling too. When I make those tassie or mini-tartlets, it is generally pretty much an ALL DAY job as I usually make about 10 dozen of them then. And it is difficult to do them not just because of the way you have to deal with the cookie dough but, in my case, it is a killer on my back and legs. But I make 'em anyway - at least I usually do - mainly because my kids really love them and after all, I sure as hell am not baking upteen dozens of cookies just for myself, ya know!

So, now that I have all these recipes printed out, over the next couple of days - as my legs and back see fit to allow me - I'll be working on making a couple types of cookies from time to time.

The only thing that might stand in my way is that I can't seem to find all the storage containers I normally have that I stash all my handiwork in when they are all baked and cooled! I can only find about three of my nice big Tupperware containers and I know I had at least 10-12 of them but where they have up and gone now is anyone's guess.

That's another reason I dont bake like I used to do too - too many people around here move my stuff and store it in places I would probably never think to hide them and I really hate having to go on "Search and destroy" missions for that stuff. They really don't take up THAT much space in the cupboards and they do come in handy throughout the year for other things from time to time too.

That, plus I paid an arm and a leg to acquire that large a collection and I sure as heck don't want them tossed out or anything of that nature either. Plus, I basically just hate to have to hunt for anything!

Yes, I am the original Lazy Day cook and baker you see!

Counting Down

And so it begins - the final weeks of 2007 and with that, well the end of the year of great Bushisms for one and all to read and treasure.

With that in mind, I give you here another week's worth of literary gems. I kid you not, these are beauties. But then, weren't they all?

Monday, December 3, 2007

"What I'm suggesting to you is, if you can't name the foreign minister of Mexico, therefore, you know, you're not capable of what you do. But the truth of the matter is you are, whether you can or not."
--As quoted in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; November 6, 1999

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

"We look forward to hearing y our vision, so we can more better do our job. That's what I'm telling you."
--Gulfport, Mississippi, September 20, 2005

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

"For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three nonfatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it."
--Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; May 14, 2001

Thursday, December 6, 2007

"The CIA laid out several scenarios and said life could be lousy, life could be okay, could be better, and they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like."
--New York, New York, September 21, 2004

Friday, December 7, 2007

"The government is not the surplus's money. Vice President."
--As quoted in The Washington Post; November 5, 2000

Saturday and Sunday, December 8 and 9, 2007

"Listen, I want to thank leaders of the --in the faith--faith-based and community-based community for being here."
--Washington, D.C.; September 6, 2005

And, like so many other of these wonderful quotes, I say, "Interesting, veddy, veddy interesting. Non-sensical, but veddy interesting all the same."

The Season Begins!

Talk about a wild day - today was one of them for me! Things were moving along ok until this afternoon when it was time for Mandy and Kate to leave to go to work at the restaurant over in Clearfield where Mandy waitresses and Kate is now employed there on Friday and Saturday evenings as the dishwasher.

To say all Hell broke loose -that's a close description of how I felt after the fact once I caught my breath that is.

Maya went into meltdown mode as soon as Mandy and Kate were out the door -insisting she had to go with them. Initially, I thought she was beginning to calm down and then, she started up again and made her way to the front door which I then learned she had figured out how to unlock it and out the door she went. And, away I went too -trying to chase after her through the yard, down behind the house where I finally did manage to catch up with her and got her back inside although it was far from a pretty sight to the neighbors I'm sure as she didn't come with me as a happy little camper. I wasn't overly pleased either as I didn't have time when she took off to look for my shoes, much less grab them and put them on, so there I was, trying to run around the yard in my stocking feet, yelling at a four-year-old (I was nice though - didn't let fly with any cuss words), trying to catch her without putting myself into cardiac arrest in the process too, ya know. I definitely was pretty well winded though by the times we got back inside.

It took me a good bit of cajoling to get her to calm down but finally, I hit on something that caught her fancy. I told her she and I would bake some cookies together for Mommy to have tonight when she gets home from work. In typical Maya fashion, just baking cookies wasn't quite good enough. She insisted that we make cookies AND brownies too and I finally gave in and we did that.

Ok, the brownies were cheaters - a nice box mix. I'm not embarrassed in the least to admit that I rarely make brownies from scratch. The cookies today though - well these were a new recipe, one that is on the package of the chips I purchased about two weeks ago because they really appealed to me. Mandy and I both love the Andes mints - you know the ones I'm talking about - little chocolate squares with the green mint sandwich layer in between. Well, I came across these baking chips - Andes peppermint baking chips - little red and white chocolate chips, flavored with the Andes peppermint and the recipe on the bag has been enticing me ever since I bought that package and brought them into the house to try making these cookies.

So today was the day! And yes, Maya was my little helper too - licked the bowl and spatula after I made the brownies and then, when I baked the cookies, she was my official taste tester there too. She licked the beaters from the cookie dough almost clean as a whistle too. She snagged at least one cookie of each batch as soon as I got them out of the oven and even snuck out into the kitchen and managed to grab a little blob of the cookie dough on a sheet, ready to be popped into the oven as well.
Here's my chocolate faced little Princess after having licked the spatula and bowl that I mixed the brownies in as well as having cleaned up the cookie dough on the beaters and chowing down at least five, maybe six of the Andes Peppermint cookies I made.
And here's a shot of the cookies, in the nifty little tupperware container, ready and waiting for the family to see how quickly they can make them disappear. I baked almost six dozen cookies and as of now - after I had four cookies along with my coffee while writing this post, plus the ones Maya absconded with too, I think we are probably down to about 60 cookies left tonight.

They really are very good - have oatmeal, coconut and coarsely chopped pecans - along with those nifty little Andes Peppermint bits in them and they were also my kind of recipe too - EASY!

Maybe tomorrow, since we're slated to get a not-so-nice winter storm overnight - 2-4 inches of snow, topped off with freezing rain (YUCK, and Double YUCK forecase there), Mandy had declared before leaving for work today that tomorrow will then be Put-Up-The-Tree Day. So while she and Kate enlist Bill's help to get the tree, lights, ornaments, other holiday decorations down from the attic and get the tree up and trimmed, perhaps if my baking mood last, I will indulge in making a few other types of cookies to freeze, in preparation of the upcoming holidays.

That is, if my back and legs don't lock up on my overnight tonight after my chasing Maya around the yard this afternoon. I'm entirely TOO old for those kind of games ya know!