Anything I Can Do To Help My Brain.....

When I read an article in Psychology Today titled "Naps Are Exercise For The Brain", it tickled my funny bone and alerted my brain that a nap was in order. Yes indeed, a siesta is now something I look forward to. Any form of exercise that doesn't involve actually you know, exercise, is my cup of green tea.

A survey in the New York Times states that:

"• 1 in 3 adults admit to napping on a typical day.

• Napping is high among adults who have trouble sleeping a night or who have worked out in the last 24 hours."

The article also blabbed on about people out of work napping (well, duh) and people dissatisfied with their incomes who have trouble sleeping also nap. (Double duh)

Then it brought up the suggestion of a micro nap. I don't want a friggin' mini nap, I want a NAP. Go to sleep, get down to REM, wake up refreshed and hot to trot and rearing to go nap. You know the one.

"All of us can learn how to nap and reap its many rewards!"

We have to learn how to nap??? That doesn't come naturally ??? We get tired and sleepy and eyes droop and the brain gets mushy and we want to do what? Sleep!!!

Which is what I am going to do now. All this brain teasing in the Psychology Today article has made tired. I need a nap.

What Do You Really See

Don't look at me
What you see
Are today's clothes
Today's face
Not the real thing

Don't reach out to me
Not in that way
I don't have what you want
I won't be what you need
Release me

Don't think you know me
Our paths barely cross
Your face is already forgotten
My breath you still crave
But I am already gone

Please look at me

Two Packages In The Mail

Badass Geek had a fun little contest that I participated in and was one of the lucky blogs to win a Badass Geek pin. My pin arrived in the mail today and I put it on my sweatshirt as soon as I opened the package. Thank you to Badass Geek and The Boss for the pin. My pin is one of the eye heart Badass Geek pins.

Also, in today's mail, I received a book from Lou at Subdural Flow. The title of the book is This Is Not The Life I Ordered--50 Ways to keep your head above water when life keeps dragging you down, by four women: Deborah Collins Stephens, Jackie Speier, Jan Yanehiro and Michealene Cristini Risley. I read the Contents, Acknowledgments, Introductions, and Preface right away, and will begin reading the book tomorrow.
Thank you, Lou!

Remember When

Toot! Toot! Not like a regular car horn, this sound attracted the neighbors from several houses away. Children ran and got to the van before the driver could come to a complete stop. The adults who were home were slow to arrive as the doors were thrown open on the rear of the van.

Oooh! The children squeezed in closer to get a look. The driver pulled out the first drawer. The aroma was so tantalizing some of the children were dizzy. Not many people had enough money to purchase the wares. It was enough to see and smell the delights.

These were poor people living in rural areas. For some, walking was their only transportation. The truck brought doughnuts, cupcakes, birthday cakes bread and rolls to the neighborhood. Oh, the lucky ones who were tasting the bakery delights that night!

This Little Hippie Blog Would Like To Thank.......

Green Eyed Momster is sharing a Kreativ Blogger Award with this little hippie blog. Whoo Hoo! Thank you for putting this blog in the same post as the wonderful blogs named to receive this award.

Green Eyed Momster is a working woman, a wife, a mother to a whole house full of kids and a barnyard of animals. She gets my vote for busy hard working push-her-down-and-she- gets-right-up woman! And she's cute too.

Since I am supposed to follow the award rules, I will list seven fabulous things about myself. Hold on to your hats, here's the Big Seven:

1. I take meds for high pressure. That's pretty exciting, right?

2. Camping was the way my kids and I took vacations and had time together. I also went camping without my kids sometimes with groups. Wilderness camping. I can form a circle with rocks and start a little fire and cook my food and set up my own little tent and use my little shovel. Yep, I am a camper. No, I do not belong to the country club.

3. My kids dad and I each had crossbows and would set up hay and targets and practice together. We were pretty good.

4. I started cutting my own hair when I was five years old. My mother had the scissors in her hand and was going to attempt again to cut my bangs. I ran away from her and locked myself in the bathroom. I sat in the sink and got the razor blades out of the medicine cabinet and watched myself in the mirror and cut my hair. When I came out, my mother had to admit I did a better job on my bangs than she did so from then on I cut my own hair, but after that first time I used scissors.

5. I never ate fast food until I was in eleventh grade. The foster home I was in at the time was a large family and some evenings they would make a Taco Bell run. This was like I died and went to fast food heaven. I would ride with whoever was driving just for the sheer fun of the drive through experience.

6. My kids did not get to go trick or treating. I was paranoid about something bad happening on a crazy night like Halloween is (to my way of seeing it then). I kept telling them they were just too precious to me to take even a tiny chance on anyone tainting a candy and something happening to them. They always were given the option of having a Halloween party at our place or all of us going out to dinner and/or a movie or something they all voted for. It always worked out and as far as I know they never resented not going trick or treating or felt deprived. However, my daughters are the ones with children and they do allow them to trick or treat.

7. I used to hike and walk a lot. Every weekend was time for a good hike. I was a dare devil too. So I would jump from boulders and climb around like I was still a kid. About fifteen years ago I jumped down from a large boulder and landed wrong. By the time I went to a podiatrist the joint under my big toe was damaged. I was in a cast for a couple months and then a goofy shoe thing for awhile but it has always been tender and sore under that big toe. All that means is that since that happened, I was not able to wear high heels. Hallelujah! That got me out of having to try to wear those high stepping skinny heeled shoes and boots. I'm a tennis shoe or hiking boot kind of girl!! And proud of it!

Whew. Did I deliver on the fabulous facts???

Now, Drum roll, this award is being passed on to:

My friend, Margie, at WHEN THE HEART SPEAKS. If you want to read gentle poetry from her heart, read her posts.

Shanel, at Determined To Have Joy. Isn't that a nice name for a Blog?

James, at Something Sighted. His blog is teaching the wanna be photographer in me some of the basics and by seeing his work I am encouraged to try to be as good as he is.

And hey, I am doing my part by passing it on. There is no obligation to do anything with it. It is a choice. If you would like to accept this award, cool. If you are not into the award thing, that is cool too. Get it?

Conversation Cards

How many people know about a tool to help initiate conversation. Personally, I have never had a problem talking (or not talking, clamming up) when I feel like it. Just ask my kids. It was always a joke that mom talked so much. I think they just didn't appreciate the fact that on my job, whatever it was at the time, I didn't talk to people. They didn't know much about my childhood either, so they didn't know about my trust issues. So the fact that I was comfortable with my children meant that I would talk (and talk and talk) with them. I encouraged them to talk too.

When my children were quite young, I initiated a ritual of tea time in the late afternoon. Pot of tea and real tea cups and saucers and sugar and tea and honey and cookies or some treat. The reason for the ritual was my way of teaching them social skills like conversation. They learned quickly that I was hoping for a time of visiting and sharing thoughts and feelings or current events or news. Sometimes it was tough to pull words out of them, especially the shy son sandwiched between two sisters.

In November 2006 I wrote this post about conversation aids. So I was thinking about this even back then.

Included in a recent online order, I received a little packet with some cards about the size of playing cards. They are Conversation Cards. The outside of the packet touts "Just pull out a question and the chit-chat begins!"

I honestly was not aware that some people have trouble talking with other people. So I have a plan to produce cards for people dating. Maybe that is why there are so many divorces. They didn't learn how or what to talk about with each other while they were dating! And of course I will make cards for families. Maybe the busy families today will return to the sit down meal and talk together because they will have my cards to spur on the conversation!! And I won't leave out the seniors, especially since I am in that category now. I will make cards that prompt reminiscences of the good (or bad, sorry) old days. This will give us seniors something to talk about when we are whiling away our final days in rockers on the front porch watching life go by!!!

COUNTRY LIVING

This picture was in a post at Strat-o-Blogster. He found this at fallpumpkinfarm.com. The Strat is longer than a football field!

Thud! Another squirrel landed on the roof.
His cousin is begging for food at the back door.
The possums venture out at night.
We're learning a different way here.

Sometimes a hundred birds cover the yard.
While others sing from high in the trees.
There is a magical scene when we stop to look.
We're learning a different way here.

The giant raccoon comes to visit every day.
He checks for leftovers the squirrels missed.
All the critters get along in the yard.
We're learning a different way here.

Three seasons the corn gets ten feet high.
Acres of green and designs in the fields.
Friendly people who aren't hurrying everywhere.
We're learning a different way here.

Note: The picture inspired me to write this. It is a connection between the guitar playing hubby and our living in Nebraska two years this May.

Arm, Hammer, Shovel, Big Spoon

Cutie AKannie at Elegant Blessings is sharing a "baking soda" award with me. Cool, huh?
If you haven't read her blog you are missing something I tell you! Get over there and read her blog and then come back here.

If anyone is interested in reading seven more things about me, here they are:

1. I used to have easel, paint box and oil paints, and would sit on the coastline in southern California and paint coastal scenes. One time my two oldest kids got into my box of paints and decided to paint my bedspread to make it pretty!!

2. Keeping with the paint theme, for many years I would scour flea markets and thrift stores for real wood tables and small mirrors and use an electric tool to chip designs into the wood and paint the pieces in blended colors. I was my most happy when I worked on these pieces.

3. One of my many varied jobs in my crazy hippie life was a poodle groomer! Some of the standard poodles were bigger than I was. The shop I worked in was privately owned and pretty fancy. It was great fun.

4. I don't collect things because I move so much, but I have an angel collection most of which are Christmas tree decorations. I did some traveling and would find an angel for the tree in my travels. Each year as I unwrap an angel I say "this one I got in London" or where I got each one and it brings back memories as I hang them all on the tree. That is the main reason I want a Christmas tree each year.

5. I learned to drive a stick shift at age eleven or twelve, most cars I have owned have been stick shifts. The one I have now is a five speed.

6. During high school living in foster homes I cut hair for ladies in the neighborhood and gave them perms for money to feed gas into my really old almost running car.

7. I was a brides maid seven times before I was a bride and then brides maid several more times after I married. One time I was seven months pregnant with my first child and my brides maid dress had to be altered at the last minute.

Now my turn to share this award. If any of you already received this award I apologize now, you know my heart is in the right place!

Hey, Julie, at The Buffaloe Pen, I'm sharing this award with you.

Jim, at Suldog, here is an award for sharing your mystery dates with your wife with us.

Kathy, at Grace was Calling and I Didn't Pick Up (isn't that an awesome name for a blog!!) I am sharing this award with you.

Here Comes The Sun

Everyday Goddess has acknowledged one of my posts on her blog. In her "Toasting The Posts Of The Week", she gives a heads up to my post titled "Free At Last". Thank you, Madam Goddess, for acknowledging my writing and my will to endure. I will add the spinning sun to my awards which will be on my side bar soon. Listen to me, "my awards" like I have so many and like they are Academy Awards. In a way, they are, because they are given with the best of intentions blogger to blogger. Hard worker to hard worker. Respecter of content to respecter of content.

A Girls Best Friend

Oh no, never wash it!
Use it as often as you want
In fact, the more you use it
The better it performs
It is a perfect fit
When you hold it in your hand
It gets too hot to touch
When the temperature rises
After each use
Clean it with some oil
Keep it handy for quick use
If a prowler intrudes
Take a wide swing
And knock him on the head!
It's a girl's best friend
The cast iron frying pan!

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

My mother sent me an article she cut out of her paper in Nevada, but she doesn't say what paper.

Examples of What Young Children Had Written For School About The Sea:

An Octopus has eight testicles. (Kelly, age 6)

Oysters' balls are called pearls. (Jerry, age 6)

Sharks are ugly and mean and have big teeth, just like Emily Richardson.
She's not my friend any more. (Kylie, age 6)

My uncle goes out in his boat with two other men and a woman and pots and comes back with crabs. (Millie, age 6)

When ships had sails they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes when the wind didn't blow the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would have been better off eating beans. (William, age 7)

Mermaids live in the ocean. I like mermaids. They are beautiful and I like their shiny tails, but how on earth do mermaids get pregnant? like, really? (Helen, age 6)

I'm not going to write about the ocean. My baby brother is always crying, my Dad keeps yelling at my Mom, and my big sister has just got pregnant, so I can't think what to write. (Amy, age 6)

Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves into chargers. (Christopher, age 7)

The ocean is made up of water and fish. Why the fish don't drown I don't know. (Bobby, age 6)

My dad was a sailor on the ocean. He knows all about the ocean. What he doesn't know is why he quit being a sailor and married my mom. (James, age 7)

For Me, Blogging Is Not A Competition

My first post was early September 2006. When I first started blogging, I did not know what I wanted or if I would continue to blog or not. The first year of blog posts were me stumbling around trying to "find myself". I was actually doing just that in real life, so it stands to reason my blogging skills were disjointed and unable to proceed beyond a certain point.

That is why I am in awe of some of the blogs I read regularly now that are only a year in existence. The bloggers are either complete brainiacs or they are more mature than I was after one year of blogging. I am so pleased to find the talent in buckets- full throughout the blogosphere. I am more of a reader than a writer; however, writing has turned out to be good for me. I have found a way to write about things that have deep meaning for me by writing in the third person.

At last I have come to a place that I know what I want regarding my blog. I am comfortable with my writing and with the lovely people I am meeting in other blogs. I am learning new techniques and hearing other viewpoints and find myself on the growing- up bandwagon of bloggers. This is a wonderful ride.

Being secure in myself shows up in what I choose to do in the blogosphere. I read many blogs and comment when I choose. I do not feel pressured to leave a comment and I do not feel obligated when I comment. It is precisely because it is my choice that blogging is so much fun. Not all the subjects are fun; some are solemn and heart rendering. This is life.

When people read my posts and leave comments I enjoy reading the comments more than I am able to express. Not for the recognition. Simply for the joy of reading the wonderful and humorous or loving and caring comments people choose to leave me. It is amazing to me that we people of different cultures and backgrounds meet in our blogs and find things to share and appreciate about each other. Why this doesn't happen in real life as easily as it is done in the blogosphere I have no answer.

If someone puts a link to my blog on their blog I am grateful and pleased. That too is not mandatory. Never will be as far as I am concerned. I am not in a competition with anyone to have more followers or more comments or more awards. For me, the joy comes in the total experience. The more I read other blogs and the more we each find our own niche and comfort zone, the more we are able to write posts of interest that will find more and more people reading and so on. See, I get it now, and it only took three and a half years.

Answer to Trivia Question:
Little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
What are little boys made of?
Answer: Frogs, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tails!

February 14 2010

Happy Valentine's day


Trivia Question:
Little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
What are little boys made of?
(Answer will be in next post)

Free At Last

She had been sent to the school in Los Angeles because there were no foster homes available. At least that was what she was told. She was made a ward of the court when she was twelve years old. She had not been in the court room when this took place. She had never been in a court room. She went willingly to the school as it had been described to her by the woman assigned to her case.

The woman drove her to Los Angeles. The girl had one old suitcase of clothes and nothing else. During the two hour drive, the girl tried to calm the butterflies and concentrate on the sights along the freeway.

The first view of the outside of the school was impressive. The three story structure was massive and seemed to occupy an entire city block. In her nervousness, the girl didn't pay much attention to the bars on all the windows. She had moved many times in her young life, more times than she was old, and she was used to adjusting to new situations. The woman walked her up to the front door and rang the door bell. The woman gestured for the girl to walk in front of her so the girl carried her suitcase and walked in. It was a good feeling to know they were expecting her. The nun who had answered the door showed them into a small office. After signing some papers, the woman said good bye to the girl and the girl was left with the nun, who proceeded to open the suitcase and take out all the contents. She put things back in one item at a time, setting aside things she explained were not allowed in the school. Razors were not allowed. The nun explained that a razor would be given to her just before she walked into the shower and returned to them as she walked out of the shower. What a strange rule!

The first six months in the school were spent in some sort of disciplinary action. Most of the time it was standing for hours in a corner with her nose touching the wall. The infractions were many. Talking back to one of the nuns. Not doing school homework. It took those six months to teach the girl how to survive in that school. She didn't speak unless she had to. That way she wouldn't be punished. If a girl tried to get into bed with her during the night, instead of hitting her, she got out of bed and went into the bathroom. After six months she had learned. She sat docilely with the other girls in the main room and watched television. It was safer to be in a large group. She didn't get into any more fights or disturbances.

One day a girl who was in the senior class approached the girl and instructed her to come with her. At first the girl thought she had slipped up and was in trouble for something. She thought and thought and couldn't think what it could be. But she followed the girl and when they proceeded up the stairs toward the dormitory, the girl suddenly couldn't breathe and she couldn't walk and she kept trying to get up the stairs but she would crawl up one stair or two and fall back one and then try to get up. The senior girl kept her distance and didn't say anything, just watched the younger girl trying to find the strength to make her way to the dormitory. The younger girl had been there long enough to know that the only time a senior girl went with a younger girl to the dormitories at this time of morning was to get the girl's belongings. She was going to finally leave this school!!!

Awards

Debby, at the blog Just Breathe is sharing an award with twelve of her followers. Thank you, Debby.

If I could, I would have a button on my keyboard that would enable me to fly around to the amazing blogs I read and continue to find and leave a magical award in my wake. Like sprinkling angel happy flakes or maybe chocolate kisses.

Green-Eyed Momster shared the Kreativ Award with this little hippie blog. So here we are with two, count 'em, two awards at once. Kewl!

When accepting the Kreativ Award I am supposed to list seven things you probably don't know about me, so here they are:

1. I like to wear a toe ring on the second toe.

2. One of my favorite jobs was driving a forklift and heavy equipment.

3. I really want to get a cat (Some of you know this).

4. When I write about me or people close to me I write in the third person.

5. One time I drove an Alfa Romeo around the track of an international speedway as fast as I could drive it!

6. My eyes are blue.

7. My young years were in an alcoholic family but I have never personally had an alcoholic or drug addiction. Too many other problems to waste time on drugs or alcohol!!

Love Is...

Love begins within me. If I am healthy and loving toward myself and satisfied in my own skin, I am able to love and be loved in a relationship.

Being in a relationship, in my case a marriage, requires me to take the blinders off and be in reality. Being married isn't waltzing around the house in heels and a French maid costume waiting to surprise hubby as he walks in the door! What if he has a cold? What if he is feeling "ouchy" with me? What if he is tired? Sometimes I am these things and more. Is it the end of the relationship if I don't get the response I want when I want it?

Acceptance and forgiveness are acting with love toward the one I love. Learning when to speak up and when it would be better to talk later. A gentle touch on the arm or cheek as I walk past my husband several times a day is connecting throughout the day in ways that don't need words. My husband will pat my butt when I fix dinner or reach for my hand at the dinner table. For me this is true intimacy.

Finding that place somewhere in the middle where I'm not slipping on wet rocks on a cliff and not laying on the couch with headphones eating bon bons is what working on love is really about. That middle place of caring about my husband so much that I can feel his pain when he hurts. But knowing he is an individual with rights and needs of his own, as do I, keeps me out of his business. I don't spout unsolicited advice. I realize I am not the know all and be all in his life. Trusting him to be an honorable man and knowing he is doing the best he can is also freedom for me.

For me love is a big circle. Holding hands to form the circle are humor, dignity, kindness, forgiveness, laughter, intimacy, surprises, encouragement, sensuality, honesty, non judgmental and no expectations.

Love is something so precious and joyous I want to celebrate it every day, not put one day aside a year to remember the fun of love.

Note: Yorksnbeans at Elemental My Dear is collecting posts on what we think love is.
Timely and fun, don't you think? Go read her post and write a post on Love!

The Penny From Heaven

I found a penny today
laying on the ground.
But it's not just a penny,
this little coin I've found.

Found pennies come from heaven
that's what my Grandpa told me.
He said angels toss them down
Oh, how I loved that story.

He said when an angel misses you
they toss a penny down.
Sometimes just to cheer you up,
to make a smile out of your frown.

So, don't pass by that penny
when you're feeling blue.
It may be a penny from heaven
that an angel's tossed to you!

~~Author unknown

Angels I believe in. I have had an angel covering my back all my life. My mother sent this to me. Thanks, Mom.

Ah, Thank God For The Simple Things!

My newly found blogger friend, Chris, at Enchanted Oak, is sponsoring a blogland money raising event. Since we can't all meet in person to raise the sides of the new barns and houses for the residents in Haiti, we do what we can do. If you haven't read her post yet regarding each of us listing the things we consider to be the simple pleasures in life, go there now, and then come back here and tell me what you think. Some of you multi talented writers out there will be writing poems and stories and bringing happiness to the rest of us just with your entries!

Here is a list of some things that bring me joy (In no particular order):

My hubby's dimple
Hearing my brother laugh
Knowing people like Chris who reach out to help others
Speaking out for what I know to be right for me
A good night's sleep
The good humor in people in blogland
The color pink
Music, Music, Music
Emails from my children
A big giant humongous orange sunrise
Wonderful photography (other people's)
Finding a new author that I really like
A jar of roasted peanuts
A tax refund
Learning new things
An excellent cup of coffee

Things We Have In Common

Our lifestyle might seem mildly boring to some people. That is absurd to me though, because I feel like my life is interesting and pleasant and calm. Three things I would put at the top of a priority list if I had one.

Hubby and I have many things in common. I had stopped watching any news on television when I met him and he did not watch TV at all. At the time I met him, I had a large plasma TV on my wall and surround sound and all the gadgets. Six months into the relationship when we each moved from our respective homes into a rental house together, it did not take any deciding for me to part with the TV and most of the gadgets. So for four and a half years we have not watched TV, not any TV. It is funny, when the subject is introduced into a conversation upon meeting someone new, and we say we don't watch TV, it just is not heard. ALWAYS, later in the conversation, the new person brings up some show on TV and asks if we watched a particular episode!! Amazing how people cannot or will not listen. I imagine recovering alcoholics get the same treatment. We people in recovery are not the only ones in denial!

The next thing hubby and I have in common is music. I have mentioned in earlier posts how much music has meant to me all through my life. In a different way, but with no less importance, music has been part of hubby's life. When he was young his father bought him an acoustic guitar. From there hubby began playing in a band and singing. So for 33 years hubby moved around in the music world and the drug and alcohol world as well. For a man with bipolar disorder, seeking to disassociate by ingesting chemicals contributed to many manic episodes and other trials in his life. I always mention the fact that he has been clean and sober for nine years whenever I refer to his addictions. Back to the music, an angel must have been sitting on my shoulder when I was getting to know the man who became my hubby. I have music in my life like I always wanted. Live music. He has a keyboard and lots of gadgets and equipment attached to the computer as well as music software. He composes tunes for background to play his guitar. This is so fun for me to be around. I have had the joy of helping hubby compose music, sitting with him in front of a blank music software page on the monitor.

We are each in recovery programs. Hubby and his sponsor meet regularly. I work the twelve steps with a sponsor in a codependents anonymous program. I keep my remarks on our individual recoveries to a minimum; however our individual work is life changing and of upmost importance. It is personal but powerful and we keep it that way as well as honoring others anonymity. I speak openly about my own recovery, I keep my nose out of hubby's recovery.

We each have iMac computers and printers and scanner and all the equipment we need for the things we do. Hubby was blogging before I started blogging and we have different blogs we each follow on our readers;some the same and some different interests in blogs. If I find a great photo I either forward it to him via email or chat and he does the same thing. We have interests in recovery and nutrition and politics and photography and poetry and humor and fiction and art and of course music. So we are constantly sharing things we find.

Hubby has always made our bread, mostly whole wheat. So he makes hamburger buns too. We share an interest in making cookies or candy with honey and carob. Sometimes we are in the kitchen together or just one of us doing our own thing.

Reading is something we have both incorporated into our lives. The first time I was going to meet him in person almost five years ago I told him I would meet him in front of the restaurant and I would bring my book so if his meeting went a little over I was fine because I would have my book. For me that was just normal. No big deal. I have a book with me everywhere I go. He told me later that when I said that, he was a goner. We had been emailing and talking on the phone quite a bit by then but we had not found our shared love of reading yet. We go to the library every week to drop off books and movies and find more. We pore over the stacks of books and I carry a list of my favorite authors and add new ones regularly. All the people working at the library are our buddies.

Life has been tough in many ways for each of us, but we are grateful for the learning experiences and the challenges that have taught us to be strong and true to what we want as individuals. We all bring baggage with us into relationships, the bags just don't have to be full of dirty clothes. It is nice if there are some spices, some memories, some kindness, and some spunkiness.

Answer to Trivia Question in previous post:
What singer was born Anthony Benedetto? Tony Bennett! I can tell this question was not difficult enough!! So many people popped up with the correct answer. I told you that you all are way too smart to be hanging out with me!!

Note: More white stuff keeps coming down from the heavens, sorta like angels sprinkling powdered sugar on top of the mounds of white sugar already here. Gotta love it!

Everything But The Kitchen Sink, But Wait! There Is A Kitchen Sink!

The New York Times sometimes has an unusual story. If you look at the photos of this Cadillac, it looks like a well cared for 1956 Cadillac.

"Step inside and you are confronted with an interior that might leave the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay at a loss for (four-letter) words. The space once devoted to the front passenger seat is replaced by an array of culinary appliances, including a toaster, refrigerator, hot plate, cutlery holder and, yes, a kitchen sink.

The car, which shows only 1,700 miles on the odometer, wears its original 54-year-old Firestone tires! That would be like me still wearing a pair of shoes I've had 54 years. I guess the comparison would be more accurate if I only walked 1,700 miles.

Trivia Question:
What singer was born Anthony Benedetto?
(Answer will be in next post)

Happy Groundhog Day

Normally I would not be so enthusiastic about a goofy little rodent. But my entire life has been associated with this little guy. Today is my birthday.

So Happy Groundhog Day everyone!!! Yeehaw!!!

Trivia Answer (Question was in the last post):
(The question was Can you name the five Marx Brothers?)
Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Gummo, Zeppo.

Morning Sounds

Yaaawwwn, big yawn.
AARG. Groan.
Sneeze. Blow nose.
Stomp stomp stomp... Feet into bathroom.
Creak, squeak. Floor creaking.
Indoor wind.
Snort.
Flush.
Water in sink.
Whir whir whir Electric toothbrush.
Chirp Tweet...Birds outside.
Cough.
Another sneeze.
HAWNKK...Blowing nose.
Caw caw caw...other birds outside.
Dog barking outside.
Beep beep beep...Snow blower beeping as it backs into the cul-de-sac.
Snort.
Coffee maker sputtering.
Gnaw. Nibble. Scratch. Squirrel scratching on ice in rain gutter.
Neighbors cars crunching snow and ice on driveways.
Clearing throat.
Clang of spoon stirring in cream in coffee cup.
Slurp...Aaah...First sip of morning coffee.
Clank...Icicles falling off roof and splattering on sidewalk.
Sassy, get over here!!...Neighbor calling their dog.
Heater kicking on.
Ssshhhh...Washing machine filling with water.
Mouse clicking.
Hubby playing guitar and working on his songs.
My heart going pitter pat listening to hubby play his music.

Trivia Question:
Can you name the five Marx Brothers?
Answer in the next post. Hah, seriously, it will be there.