Happy 4th and Freedom to all!

Hey, Happy 4th and Freedom to all!

I hadn't been able to sign in for about two weeks. Very weird it was, and I think maybe because we use a Google sign-in for work. The blog kept insisting on my using that sign-in, yet wouldn't accept any passwords. I only tried a few times, as I'm on the computer quite a bit, but it's for work. By the time the reports are finished up and sent, I usually have had my fill of computer usage! Plus it's also usually quite late/early and I work fairly early in the morning, seven days a week. I haven't even Twittered very often and that is the quickest, easiest thing to do.

Anyway, I finally had time to monkey around with the blog sign-in today, even though I got on the computer to write up two reports from yesterday. Yeah, OK, now I'm feeling guilty about that and need to get to work and get those finished and sent.

Happy Heart Day!

Today is my favorite day of the year.

Happy Valentines Day to you!

Happy New Year! And a new use for Hwy 61

2009 has already struck in some parts of the world. In Minnesota they are still counting and re-counting votes. Al Franken is leading by 50 votes. We like our media celebrities in Minnesota--remember Jesse Ventura? California has a thing for celebrities too, apparently.

Update: The famous Highway 61--now a runway. An airplane made an emergency landing on the Highway 61 expressway. “The engine ate itself for breakfast. That doesn’t happen often.” said the vice president of business admin for Cirrus. The engine apparently threw a rod shortly after takeoff, causing the aircraft to lose power and need to make an emergency landing.

And if that wasn't odd enough, after the plane landed on the highway--the passing traffic started honking at them! Ha ha, wish I had been there to see (and hear) that!

Oh well. 2009 is going to be a super-duper, fantastic, fabulous, wonderful and GREAT year! Happy New Year to you!

Merry Christmas Eve

New music love: Ghostland Observatory. I love, love, LOVE them!
The vocals remind me a bit of The Cure, but the sound is unique and can't really be categorized, Techno-Rock is probably the closest.

Some of their songs:
Move With Your Lover
Sad Sad City

Rich Man

But I like nearly everything of theirs that I've heard.

You have the right to remain MERRY!

So quiet

It's so quiet with son and grandson and ex-dog gone that I've had the TV on for most of the evening. Since I got home from taking Mom out, like I do every Saturday, anyway. I'd been on a sort of TV diet, had it on only about 2 or 3 times in the past month. The police radio has been off all of that time too. Just wanted the quiet. But now it feels odd and sort of wrong. Right now the background noise is sort of nice.

The visit was great and far too short, like always. Son had to work this weekend, he's in retail, and so had to return back to his home. How he managed to get Black Friday off, I don't know. That was a feat and I appreciate it! His girlfriend was working nearly the entire time he and grandson were gone. She really missed her sweetie and her baby. I don't blame her, I miss them now. Funny how quickly one becomes accustomed to having kids/grandkids around!

They only stayed for two nights, came late on Wednesday and left on Friday. He had many other friends and family to see (they all wanted to see grandbaby!) so while I got to see him, it wasn't for any extended amount of time.

Grandbaby LOVED the baby playland! We brought many of his favorite toys upstairs and he had a good time with them and in getting into other things.

Hope you had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! I did.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Turkey Day to all, except those not having turkey...
To them I wish:

Happy Ham Day!

Happy Prime Rib Day!

Happy Marinated Shrimp Day!

Happy BBQ Day!

and a Happy To-furky Day for the vegetarians! And not TODAY, of course, but tomorrow. I've also heard it called Gratitude Day or Gratitude Attitude. So:

Happy Gratitude Attitude Day!
No matter what's for dinner...

Those Damned Dollies

Just finished a visitation and now need to write the summary and do a billing document. First, I thought I'd blog a bit.

Have you seen the movie "A Scanner Darkly"? Weird animated movie that takes place "seven years from now" and is about an addictive substance called "D" by the same guy as "Blade Runner." If you haven't seen it, be sure to check it out. I got it from the library.

I want one of these!

Damned Dollies

Hard to pick a favorite, maybe Maude. What a great Christmas gift! But it's too early to be thinking of that, we haven't even had Halloween yet.

What are you dressing up as for Halloween?

The Big Bang

I love the 4th of July! Mostly because I enjoy fireworks and big crowds (sometimes, not all the time, but holidays are special). And there were so many fireworks shot off yesterday. In fact, I still hear some going off outside right now, a night later. Maybe these are the leftovers from the 4th of July stash. It all kind of goes along with liking big crashes of thunder and cannonfire.

Yes, cannonfire. When I was going to school and dating my husband to be, his frat had an old cannon at all the football games. Dates and girlfriend's job was to stuff the cannon with tightly packed, wound up toilet paper. Whenever our team made a score, one of the frat boys would light the fuse of the cannon and set it off. We didn't have a great football team then, but the cannonfire was also used to mark the half and the end of the game. The explosion was great and I'd get as close as I possibly could, to even feel the air reverberating. That's probably why I have a bit of loss of hearing nowadays! That and the loud concert music. But what fun, I really loved playing with the cannon. We'd sit on it, but not right after it went off because the barrel was hot for awhile.

We also set off fireworks, with contests to see who could hold on to a lit one as long as possible. One of my roommates ended up with a burned hand doing that. So seeing all those kids and younger people out setting off fireworks brought back fond memories. I love the smell of fireworks too, and the air was full of it.

Both cities each set off a wonderful show. My Mom and I parked so we could see both displays. After I had dropped her back to her place and driven home, the neighborhood fireworks were still going off. I have a great neighborhood for fireworks, the people really get into it. I wouldn't have had to leave home to see some really nice displays! My only worry was that many of the fireworks went right over my roof. I was just a bit afraid of the roof catching on fire. But it didn't. At least last night.

I do hope they won't keep firing them off quite so late/early tonight, though. An older woman needs her sleep, you know. And I have to get up for work at 5 a.m. Hope YOUR celebration was spectacular and fun!

Violence here, too: not a happy 4th for all

Well, happy 4th of July Holiday to you! But it isn't a happy 4th for everyone. Here are some clippings from our local news:

Soldier murdered one week after returning from Iraq
Staff Sgt. Adam Sheda made it home a little over a week ago after an 18-month tour of duty with the Army National Guard in Iraq. His family could breathe a sigh of relief that a military death notification team never appeared at their door bearing bad news from the Middle East.

It was a team of local law officers who notified Sheda’s family that he lost his life about 3:40 a.m. Saturday when he was shot to death during a dispute.

He said witnesses said two to three shots were fired. Police believe two shots were fired. Sgt. Bob Shene, who leads the Police Department’s Violent Crimes Unit and who served 14 years as an officer in the Coast Guard hinted that alcohol fueled both men’s actions in Saturday’s incident, but he wouldn’t elaborate.

Staff Sgt. Adam Sheda had a myspace.com account:
http://www.myspace.com/CavSgtAdam
Be sure to look at his photos.

And the violence has continued. Here is the newspaper article of what I heard unfolding on the police radio last night:

Jul 04, 2007 - Police continue their search this morning for the person or people involved in a Tuesday evening drive-by shooting. Police say one woman suffered non life–threatening injuries. A neighboring child told the police: "I saw bullet cases everywhere." "It makes me feel weird because I might get stabbed or shot." Some witnesses indicated that a vehicle had driven by an address up here and fired some shots at some people on the deck and towards the residence." This wasn't the only report of shootings in that area on Tuesday. "There have been some ongoing disputes over the day, during the day, that might be related to this final incident here tonight." Police will continue their investigation today.

Violence and war are not just "over there" in Iraq and other countries, they're here, too.

How to break a mother's heart--don't call

Hope you had a great Easter weekend, I did. On Saturday my younger brother came up to my Mom's apartment and I did my usual noon meeting with her there. What a nice surprise it was to find my older brother and wife there also! My older brother has brought flowers for Mom and I (he didn't know younger brother and wife were going to be there, also). I really love messing about with flowers, both in the garden and cut ones. The bouquet he gave me was so large that once I got home, I made four vases from it! Younger brother and wife brought steaks and cooked them and an entire meal. Those were some really tender, delicious steaks! For dinner they made a ham with mashed potatoes and all the trimmings. I washed dishes each time but barely helped with the cooking. I think I peeled potatoes and set the table, and that was pretty much all the help I did.

My younger brother and family brought the books that I had left in Mom's old house (which they now own) and even brought them to my house and helped unload them into the basement. They liked my house too, which was certainly a point in their favor! They had never seen it before.

On Sunday I went to a sunrise service, and it was really hard to get up that early. I'd gotten up at 4 a.m. on Saturday and had gone to bed late. The service was followed by a breakfast, followed by another service. I went home to get the Easter card and gift for my Mom and got to her house around noon. Then we went out to eat an Easter dinner, even though we'd both done plenty of eating the day before!

The only sadness was that I didn't hear a thing from my son. I've not heard from him since he called to let me know that he had arrived safely, over a week ago. He doesn't have his own phone and I don't know his address, so his Easter card has been sitting on my kitchen table. He was going to get me that address right away and I was going to send the card on Monday or Tuesday. I suppose I could have called his girlfriend's family, but I was already upset about it and not willing to cheerfully go through the channels to get to him. By that time I would have been scolding him for not calling me, and I don't want to call him up to scold him!

I hope he is OK. I wonder if he's working now and how Natty, our little dog is doing. Someone,
Maria, I think said something about how your children can break your heart--and that's so true. They don't do it on purpose, just thoughtlessly. We had parted on good terms, with tears so I know it's not that he's deliberately ignoring me, just distracted. He was so thrilled at getting to be "part of a family" complete with a father and younger sister, that he's forgotten his original family. I'm a bit jealous! Have a good day, even though it's a Monday!