Did you Miss me?

What has life been like? I thought this deer caught in the headlights pretty much sums up how I have been feeling. Work is insane with a lot of projects this spring, middle guy picked SCAD as his college, youngest is doing track, hubby was in California this week and we have our trip to London very soon! ( 3 deer avoided yesterday, must be the season of love for them)

My trip driving down south with my parents went better than expected. My Mom confiscated my ipod with her noise reducing headphones and my Dad and I drove 1500 miles listening to soft rock on satellite radio. I was a little punchy with all that mellowness by the time we reached Florida, but a few hours poolside cured that right away. The best part of my mine vacation was the four books that I read. I got the call this week from my parents begging me to come down to help them drive back, this time I got smart...they are going to pick me up in Jacksonville, so I get to miss the entire drive through Florida. Now if I could bring knitting needles on the plane...I could get a lot of knitting done on the ride back.

It was my birthday this past week and I bought myself an Iphone, I justified it by the fact that my other phone was being held together by duct tape and ceased working yesterday. Can I say that geek that I am, I am in love with the phone? Guess I will be working an extra shift or two each month to justify the internet.

Here's a picture of the lovely flowers that my oldest son had sent to me, it's now on the mantle since one the fattest cat decided that flowers were now a required food in his daily diet. I love the smiley mug.

To make my blog more than "this is what I ate for lunch"...here's my deep thought for the week: Short waisted pants (hip huggers is what we used to call them) should be outlawed since only 2% of women can wear them well. Or maybe we weren't as chubby as people are now?

Here, But No Internet- New England Ice Storm

We are one of the lucky ones, we lost power during the storm and had it over the weekend. But have had no internet/phone service since Friday. The pictures that I took on Saturday are amazing and all I can say is, the smell of pine when you open your door in December is not a good thing. We had a lot of big boughs come down and the snapping was incredible. So I will not be around visiting other blogs for a few days.

I just heard from home and now we don't have power due to the wind of today and the branches that came down with the wind. It sure makes life interesting in NH.

Stay safe, warm and send us some energy!!

Christmas Decorating

Christmas Images 2009
Originally uploaded by jennymcb

The one thing that I have done early this year is to decorate the house for Christmas. We have been lucky to have had all the boys help us decorate the tree with us each year. I know that won't last forever, but it's nice to have it now.

The Santa Claus in the bottom is from my parent's and he is now over 49 years old. Each year, the boys tell me that he smells old. They're right, but smelly old St. Nick and his cardboard chimney are my connection to the decorations that I grew up with.

This weekend, I have to get the village set up on my back porch. My parents have an elaborate village which they build on and we end up with the sub-division village, an eclectic mix of village buildings and people from both my parents and my husband's aunt.

Tea has a contest going and after going to her blog tonight, I realized that I hadn't entered yet, so here is a slice of what we have for decorations. (Are the cats under the tree considered decorative?)

Remind Me Again: Christmas Date

Why do I allow this holiday to sneak up on me every year? Why couldn't I be more like Tea and get my shopping done earlier? And why does our town have our property taxes due on December 1st? Like Shelly, I still haven't done my Christmas cards and yes, for some I feel it's just a waste since I see some of the people often. But then there are a few people that I do like to stay in touch with. But why do I let this holiday cause to feel guilty and rushed? Because I let it, mmmm, New Year's Resolution, get the Christmas shopping and cards done earlier.

Then there's the ambitious knitting projects that I haven't completed yet. Without getting into details, since I think some of the recipients may read this blog, I can safely say that felting yarn won't be a passion of mine. I just don't have the patience, pictures to follow in another post or two. But I am not thrilled with the Noro felting and will have to re-wash the items a few more times. It would have helped if I had used the right size needles for the second object and it appears that "they" are right about larger needles to be used for felting. The good news of all of this, is that I will be felting some bags for Shelly's Good Medicine Bag project and have some darker wool to be used for boy bags, after Christmas. I will be patient, because I think the outcome will be worth it.

The Christmas tree is up, the cats are leaving it alone. Now I wish I could say the same of the cotton stuffed stars, wreaths and santas that were sitting on my windows. Stash seems to think that they look better strewn about the house. When he sees one of these decorations, he is beside himself in trying to get to it. (Btw- see that pretty tree skirt under the tree? It's now balled up behind the tree, since the cats have taken over that real estate, better under than in the branches, I say....)

Gift buying, another minefield.....what to get our parents who have what they need. Is it necessary to get stuff for the sake of a gift? Next year, I want to knit sweaters for my aunt and mother and will just have to do that earlier. Gift certificates to restaurants work well for my in laws since they like to go out to eat, but it seems impersonal. As for my kids, we plan on a trip to London in the spring to visit my oldest who will be doing a semester in England, no big gifts for them this year!!

What dilemmas do you deal with at Christmas time? Relatives, gifts, food, time, cards or just fitting everything in?

To Market, to market- not me on Black Friday!!

First off, the market bag is what I just finished tonight after running out of yarn yesterday at my brother's condo in Maine. I am so glad that I went the 12 inches instead of the 15 inches since it is so stretchy as you can see in this picture. Reminder to self: Don't start a lacy knitting project when you are watching a football game. I had to take out two rows twice b/c of miscounting. After about 8 repeats of the pattern, I was able to figure out right away if I was doing the right pattern. It then became easy. I think this bag is going to be part of my yankee swap for work, I might go with a "green" theme. Any ideas what I could add to it?It was a nice Thanksgiving spent manning the oven while most of my family went out to go skiing/snowboarding. I sat and knitted while watching movies as my brother tried to catch up on his sleep. He works 7 nights on with 7 nights off as a Pharmacist and I know the week off can be tough, especially since he wasn't feeling A-1. The turkey that he was roasting was delicious as it cooked with butter soaked cheesecloth and hourly bastings. I was on vegetable and dessert duty with another couple bringing a salad and squash. The squash was cooked without butter and it so good! I have to find that recipe on line, since it was so tasty. We ate our Thanksgiving meal at supper and it made for a relaxing day. The evening was spent watching some very funny old SNL skits, some I knew and some I had never seen before, such as the Cork Soaking.

There wasn't much traffic over to Sunday River and overall there wasn't much traffic on Wednesday. A comment that One Gal made on my recent post made me wonder whether people stayed home in order to go out shopping today. I sure hope not. I wouldn't have given up my day of knitting by the fire while my family was out enjoying the snow. When I was younger, I don't think there was such the big deal about shopping the day after Thanksgiving as there is now. Actually the comment made during last night's newscast that had a story about people waiting at a mall last night for it to open at midnight was: "Some people have got to get a life." That sentiment would be mine when it comes to shopping!

Tales from The Dentist's Chair

As I begged kindly asked for some novacaine for my gold crown, I had time to think about dental work and worse case possible dental scenarios while waiting for the numbing to occur. Two weeks ago, I had a reaction to the epinephrine where my heart began racing. The thoughts that went through my head that time was, oh crap, I'm having a heart attack and I'll just wait it out, b/c I don't want to go to the ER with a 1/2 tooth. Then when my breathing remained fine, I was getting curious about my blood pressure, however, it wasn't until the end that I finally said anything to my dentist. He told me that it was a reaction to the epinephrine and that it wasn't common. His comment was, "Did it feel like your heart was going to beat itself out of your chest?" Well, actually, yes.

So back to this afternoon's dark thoughts, I asked if patients ever sneezed during procedures. They said sure, but they usually have warning. But the worse is when the power goes out. Oh great, hadn't thought of that one. Sure will remember that dark thought the next windy day at the dentist. And how was your day?

Saturday Stuff

Today was a rainy day here and after making banana bread and molasses cookies with my new mixer, I did not do much of anything else except meander around the internet. (Well I did fold some laundry and cleaned the kitchen....) It was interesting to look at my site statistics to see if there are any readers out there besides the few that I know come by and read this blog. Based on the semi-anonymous nature of this blog, there are limitations to what I can really write about without stirring the pot of my life. Right now, I have a whopper of a vent just stewing in me, but it will never be on the blog. Just know that I am a deeper person than seen on J's thoughts and musings.

In the vein of being random, I found the following website, Scrapblog, which I thought was a great waste of time. What I really liked about it, was how easy it was to use with flickr photos and that I was able to manipulate photos and elements. I would rate it as a 9 on a scale of 1-10 for websites that entertain. (Shelly and Rock Chick, I just didn't have the patience to do the sand, I gave up after getting a 1/3 done at thissand.com )

Time now to get back to knitting and finish up my second sock on my second pair. It's so true the procrastination that occurs when there is a pair of something being knitted.



7 Weird Things to Make Me Happy

No Nonsense Girl has a post that includes 7 weird facts about herself and I took the liberty of tweaking it for me.

1. I kind of inherited a Kitchenaid Ultra mixer minus the whip and dough hook attachment. It has rarely been used and today I made Banana Bread. Yea, this appliance has found a home on my counter. Looks like I will be baking more.

2. Today I worked as a lab tech and had to draw blood this morning. All of my patients were over 80 years old and I had one tell me that I was excellent b/c I drew her in a spot that no else has before. When my coworkers came by to see if I needed help, I let the patient tell them how good I was. Everyone I drew today was pleasant and chatty, it was a great way to start the day.

3. Daylight saving time, I have to say that I love getting up when it is light and am not to upset about it getting darker earlier. Now that cats just have to figure it out for themselves without waking us up.

4. No more sports for my kids until the end of the month for one of them. I have reached the point where I am glad my son is done with football forever.

5. We are going to Sunday River for Thanksgiving and I am not even planning to ski, it's going to be a simple meal with my brother and all the boys can go out and play in the snow. The couch in front of the fireplace sounds good to me!

6. Knitting socks is fun. Can't believe that I would ever say that. It's kind of dumb b/c you can buy a sock for so much less!

7. Getting my driveway paved over, it's going to make snow removal so much easier this winter.

There's some random things making me happy, anything weird making you happy? I purposely didn't include the election this Tuesday, because there is nothing weird about that making us all happy to not have to see another political ad.

Sneaking in an Unofficial Thursday Thirteen

There is just not enough time for me to do the Thursday Thirteens and give it my best effort at responding and visiting other bloggers. Like I said before, even a non-practicing Catholic still has the residual guilt effect which prevents me from "officially" doing a Thursday Thirteen. Blogging has not been at the top of my list of things to do with so many other activities taking up my time.

1. Presidential Race: I had lost that excitement with the upcoming election, but a certain vice- presidential nomination has made me become a political junky again. I can't wait until Tundra Barbie (or Caribou Barbie) is allowed to speak to the press. All information thus gained on the internet indicates that McCain has picked a woman who speaks her mind, and I don't mean that in a positive way. In four days, over 980 knitters/crocheters joined an anti- Sarah Palin group vs. 223 in the for Sarah group. Does this mean that a lot of liberals knit?

2. Football: My son is a senior football player, and I am involved in setting up team dinners. Then there are the games, first game for my son was exciting, he made an interception and ran it in for a 35 yard touchdown.

3. Cross Country meets: My youngest is a runner and we made it to one meet and missed his second. Sometimes you just have to make choices. Keep your fingers crossed and send up a quick prayer for his knee, tonight he came home complaining of pain in his knee after feeling part of his leg go numb while running. Ice and Ibuprofen have been used and he will check in with the trainer tomorrow.

4. Reading- Not enough time in the day to read. But I did finish Chocolat by Joanne Harris, which was a terrific book. The characters were well developed and there was a little magic going on. I liked the good vs. evil and based on what people have told me about the movie, I think the book was different. Good story!

5. Knitting- In the little brown bag next to me, I have a 1/2 finished shawl, one finished sock and an another 1/2 done and little special something knitted for my Autumn swap partner at ravelry. It's sad that I combine playing Canasta online with knitting!

6. Cat grooming- Hello blogging buddies!!! Nobody told me about long haired cats and the need to comb. I took a lot of grief from my friends last week as I missed a morning of golf to take my long haired Stash to the vets to get rid of the matted fur. I read on line not to cut the mats out myself and felt that $28 dollars was worth it. Now I comb him regularly, what a pretty kitty he is.

7. Work- Yuck, back to helping out another department that can't keep it's help. Can't complain too much, it's a nice way to save some extra money for our planned family trip to England next April.

8. The six tomato plants grown in various pots are now providing us with a lot of tomatoes. Ugly set up, but effective. (So what if you could see eggshells in the composted dirt?) Which leads me to the topic of food, do you really know how much a 17 year old football player and a 15 year old Cross country runner is capable of eating? The milk and food consumed is amazing!

9. Back to school, I think I like the routine, but it's still tiring. Let's see how the first progress report looks like for each of them.

10. Senior boy, will he or won't he get college applications to fill out? Repeat after me, not my problem. Last night we got a call from a small private Catholic college offering him a scholarship, and we had never heard of the school! Not sure it would be the right fit for this particular kid. Are some colleges that hard up to call homes based on SAT scores? His scores really aren't that high compared to others.

11. Exercise? Occasionally, how's that for a lame answer?

12. Family conversations- Sad to think that those after dinner conversations with the boys won't be happening in another 3 years...where the heck did the time go.

13. Senior portraits, I am going to say that Prestige/lifetouch is a huge monopoly and I will not be buying any "portraits" from them. I will happily pay a local photographer money to get pictures that I can afford of my child smiling!!

There's my random 13 for the week, a little bit of this and that of my life. Here's a question for you----> Do you really think Charlie Gibson's interview of Sarah Palin will be hard hitting or a fluff piece? ( comments on the internet indicate that we will see her goodby to her son heading to war)

It's All About Choices

When I first started blogging regularly, I tried not to be a political fanatic. We all have our opinions and perceptions of the candidates and issues which I try to respect. With the upcoming presidential race, I became apathetic due to the mess that our country is in, the war that we should not have started and the outright takeover of the Justice department of the religious right. (Vote Machine: How Republicans Hacked the Justice Department, By Scott Horton for Harper's Magazine) Surreptitiously having a degree from an Ivy League college was seen as wrong when compared to a degree from a fourth tier college with religious ties. Where was the checks and balances? Isn't there suppose to be a separation of church and state?

Back to choices though...I chose to become apathetic and after this past week's RNC nominations, I am choosing to learn more about the candidates. My opinion of the American dream is to work hard, go to a good college and raise a family. Even when we needed my full-time income, our choice was for me to work part-time to raise my family. We don't go to church, I believe in a woman's choice for abortion and even though I would like to think that my sons won't have sex until they are married, we have lots of conversations about birth control to ensure that they know what safe sex is. According to some people, I guess I am not American. But these are the choices that I have made and so far, knock on wood, no teenage pregnancies here and my sons are planning to attend college.

Senator McCain has chosen Sarah Palin as a running mate and it's my opinion that if she was a man, she wouldn't have even made the list, let alone the short list. She has chosen a political career over being home with her family. Beyond the whole teenage daughter pregnancy, I worry more about her youngest son and the medical issues that he may have. The first five years in any child's life is important to their development, even more so when there are disabilities involved. Ms. Palin has chosen to be a vice-presidential candidate. It's a tough call to say which one on the Republican ticket has made the worst choice. All I know is, that if elected, the republicans will try to limit our choices!

Don't you just hate it when.....

Shelly had a post earlier this week that was about incidents that just make you want to say, Don't you just hate it when
And I had thought that I would get around to writing a post earlier this week, but don't you just hate it when time gets away from you? But since blogging just invites rants and raves about the daily roadblocks we encounter, I am getting this past week off my chest, right here and now....

Don't you just hate it when....

You go into a store without a list and walk out without that one item that you need that week? I went back to school shopping the day before school without my kids which was a treat. Based on the amount of "I want and I need" whining that I heard from other kids in the store, I made a wise decision. However, I walked out the store with two bags of notebooks, binders, and pencils/pens when I realized that I forgot the poster board for the football team dinner that I was helping to organize.

You finally sit down to write a blog post, or be in the middle of knitting, reading or watching a movie and the phone rings (twice!!)
Believe it or not, I really don't like talking on the phone. I feel that it's an interruption to what I am doing at the moment. It's that whole Catholic guilt thing where I don't want to get anyone upset. I wish that sometimes I would just let the answer machine do it's job.

Your cats have discovered a new toy and it's not a store bought toy?
One of our cats has found out that they can dig out our carpet from where it attaches to the wooden floor. Grant it, this is a carpet that we should have replaced 9 years ago when the dog died. Maybe the cat just doesn't like orange?

When the dealership tells you that there is nothing wrong with your car and it still can't hold a charge, so it sits dead in your driveway?
We have dodge durango that is on it's second battery this year and no one can seem to find out why the battery dies. This week was particularly a pain in the butt because my husband took my son's car to the airport and I ended up driving and picking my kids up all week. Anybody want a Black dodge durango? We can't even sell the beast.

So in the grand scheme of life, my problems really aren't that bad...life is still all good! Got one knitted sock finished another started, first cross country meet in a beautiful location and we have had a weekend without rain.

Oh Happy Day

I went into work today feeling great. For the past four days I have been going in late and have managed to go walking every morning. Bubs is going to school for two hours in the morning for Cross Country practice and I changed my schedule to go in late and leave later. Today was a great walk with the majority of it in the woods. The weather was gorgeous, sky was a deep blue, the air was cool and the sun was out. It was truly a treasure of a day!

Going into work, I decided that I would stay happy no matter what. The work gremlins tried to get me to change that attitude as I was accosted by two different people with two different problems while all I was trying to do was to get to the lounge to fill my water bottle. But I did keep that freaking smile on and listened. I have the strangest position in the lab, I get to address any problems that occur from the outreach services we provide to physicians, plus I guess I am involved in send out testing. There's a lot of problems and questions that can come up through the day and I never seem to get done what I had planned for the day. Overall though, I love my job and appreciate all the people that I work with, even the ones the can occasionally make me lose my smile.

Getting home and finding out that we are having company tomorrow night with a house that is slightly frumpled- still smiling....
Cat tearing up the tacky orange carpet that really needs to be removed- still smiling, isn't that what duct tape is for?

What made you happy today?

Knitting Jag

4 corner dishcloth.JPG
Originally uploaded by jennymcb

If I haven't been blogging, then what have I been doing? Well, I am kind of in a knitting mode again. I also discovered Ravelry.com, where I can get lost for hours just viewing everyone's projects and all the gorgeous yarns. When I grow up, I want to work in either a local yarn store or a book store.

The first item found on the internet that looked interesting to knit was the 4 corner dishcloth, it was fun to knit it, but I could have done better on the grafting. I did learn how to do a provisional cast on....what did we ever do without the internet and tutorials??? This page has a bunch of different ones that others have made up and I like how the variegated yarn works up. I also finished up a striped noro hat after "borrowing" some yarn from friend at work. Love the yarn!

Then, two weeks ago, a friend and I went to the Knitting/Crochet show in Manchester, NH where we got see more yarn that was lovely to touch and look at, but pricey to buy. I did pick up some mohair yarn to make a simple stole for a Christmas gift and a magic loop booklet with some funky pink yarn to make socks.

This week I took a sock knitting class at the NH Knitting guild meeting in Concord where I learned that it really wasn't that difficult to do the heel. Who would have thought...after 3 attempts of starting, I finally have my first sock to the stockinette stage. I also have the stole going also, it's kind of nice to have two projects at one time, since they are two kinds of knitting in my book. Right now I am at the quick and easy part of the sock whereas the stole takes time due to the texture of the yarn.

The summer is flying by and we have had the grossest weather here in New Hampshire, rain, every day. How do people in Seattle deal with it? At this point, when the clouds are thick, I hate to see the sun come out, b/c I know we are going to get some thunderstorms.

Two of my boys are up in Nova Scotia for a long weekend with my parents. That was an adventure getting a photo id for my youngest, but it's all good now. It used to be simple to travel to Canada and my mom never had to get notarized letters to bring up all the kids that used come along with our family. I have my middle guy home and today he had his senior picture taken, we went out to breakfast afterwards and he helped me with the food shopping. It's nice to have that one on one time. Guess I wore him out though, I think he is napping.

Still doing a lot of reading and pestering the librarians every other week. There was a part time job at the library and I thought of it for a second job, but it would really cut into my being available to my sons and their activities, especially if my husband is traveling.

I do get around to read blogs occasionally, but haven't had the time for Thursday Thirteen. I feel guilty if I write a thirteen and then not be able to visit others. Do you ever feel that way?

#47, Thirteen Reasons Why I am Unmotivated

I struggled today to figure out what my Thirteen should be this week and here are thirteen reasons why I am unmotivated (or ornery) to be creative.


1. Perimenopausal, when you were 14 and the last to get your period, does it really seem like it was worth the anticipation? Now that you get it every 3 weeks?

2. It's hot and it's not that dry heat, but a muggy, pervasive, ozone laden muggy heat. My garden needs to be weeded and I am using the heat as an excuse to not get out there.

3. Rain, almost every afternoon, without fail, or just threatening.

4. Cars, we used to call the guys at the garage my buddies, but for pete's sake, do I have to see them every freaking month? This week it was the sway bar on the minivan...sounded like my wheel was going to fall off.

5. Procrastination, how long have I had Fireworks on my computer would equal how long it has taken me to not spend the time to figure anything out.

6. Our new hospital cafeteria, I am bummed that I can't be excited that it is finished. They obviously didn't consult a woman to work out the traffic pattern.

7. They kept the freaking water/ice machine that requires you to put your tray down and the area is a cluster with people trying to figure out what side they want to get their condiments from.

8. Radio music in the cafeteria, I can't wait to hear my in-laws' reaction to the loud music playing. It would be hard to imagine any senior citizen happy with the noise level, when it just plain aggravates me!

9. Vacation can't come soon enough and I am beginning to feel pulled in multiple directions at work. I need to get it all back together again, or I may just have to tattoo a sign to my forehead stating that I am only part time.

10. Canasta, yes, I have become addicted to another game on POGO. I love the brainless playing of canasta with a frozen pile.

11. Planning relaxing family time has become work with our middle guy now working. All those who want to go away and leave a seventeen year old boy home alone just raise your hand...yep, that's what I figured.

12. Crafts, I have squares to put together for same middle son and it's too hot....but then I feel guilty knitting or crocheting anything else.

13. My period, did I mention that it comes far too often? What the hell was I ever wishing for when I was 13?

Sorry if that was too much personal information but there you go, my thirteen for the week.
On a happier note, I was thrilled to get an Encourager Award from Paulie at Postcards from Paulie I had encouraged her to blog and she has loved it! She has some great flower pictures and pictures of her jaunts around town. Way to go Paulie!
And then Shelly at This Eclectic Life got to bring the finished afghans to children with cancer in Texas.
I am able to be happy, I just wasn't motivated! Have a great rest of the week and do some random acts of kindness!
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#46 Thursday Thirteen Random Things

Thirteen random things that I did this morning, my day off.



1. Went golfing at 7 am with a friend and the grass was wet. It was nice to have dry socks and shoes waiting for me in the car.

2. Took my golf clubs out of the car and actually put them where they belonged..in the garage and not the back of my car.(notice, not a single word yet about how I did golfing--> bad day of golf)

3. Noticed some of my tomato plants drooping from the rain yesterday, stuck in sticks for that rustic look.

4. Contemplated moving some of the plants in my front yard to prepare for the walkway we might make this summer, did pull up a couple of weeds.

5. Picked up pathetic cat who hates being held.

6. Finally hung up the hummingbird feeder off the back porch.

7. Filled the bird feeder to hang also which is safe to do since it is at least 15 feet off the ground away from bears.

8. Sat out on the back deck to drink some more coffee while reading the paper.

9. Hung out a load of laundry since I couldn't resist the sun and the breeze. I love the smell of sheets dried on the line.

10. Folded the load of laundry that I left in the dryer from last night.

11. Made myself a swiss cheese, ham and pickle sandwich.

12. Checked my email from work.

13. Spent at least 30 minutes trying to figure out how to make the TT 13 banner. That's Mini in my chair which is right by one of the bird feeders, she's sound asleep now. Speaking of sleep, it's now after 12 pm and I guess I should get my sons up...Happy Thursday and Fourth of July !!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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#45, 13 Things that Some People Believe that I can't Believe

Last week was all about what I believe to be true, this week here are 13 things that others believe, that just makes me scratch my head and ponder the future.

1. It appears that people may be interested in the activities of classless celebrities, like Paris Hilton and the Spears' sisters. Seriously, why else would so called Entertainment shows have these escapades as headlines?

2. More people are likely to believe that their child is gifted at age five than just being normal. We actually had someone stand up at a recent school budget meeting tell us that we should spend more money b/c they moved to this town b/c they had a gifted five year old. This comment led my son to whisper to me, "What can he do? Tie his shoes?"

3. There are people who believe that there is a direct link between the weapons of mass destruction that were suppose to be in Iraq and the events of 9/11. But then there was a lot of spin to that story to influence us to support a war.

4. I guess people believe that we want to see their underwear.

5. I love my cats and I do believe that they communicate in their own feline way to me, but that doesn't mean I believe that they deserve to inherit money from me when I die like Leona Helmsley's dogs, nor will I dress them up.

6. Do people really believe that elections are equal in all the states? Why is it harder for a person to vote in Ohio or Florida compared to New Hampshire?

7. People actually care about what actors/actresses have to say when endorsing candidates or causes. Hey, guess what...just because you are famous doesn't make you any smarter.

8. I am still not getting the warm and fuzzy feeling from the current administration that they have my best interests at heart.

9. Why should the people who played by the rules for mortgages as far as only buying what we could afford with a down payment, pay for those who bought large houses with no down payment and balloon payments eventually pricing them out of a home. There is an equation that has existed for buying a house, it's really simple...you can only afford a house that is less than a 1/3 of your income for mortgage payments.

10. I know there a few rock concert fans out there, but why pay $100 for a concert ticket for a band that you saw 20 years ago for $30? Are rock bands like wine? Do they actually get that much better over time?

11. "Reaching the afterlife is possible through more than one religion, 70% of Americans believe, according to a new poll." Does that mean if you don't participate in religion that you can't go to heaven?

12. My children believe that hamburgers and pizza can be eaten on alternative days for dinner, there's no need for meat, starch and vegetables at every meal. ( Now I know you have to have a vegetable, b/c that's what my mother told me.)

13. One item above the required 20 for the express line is still one more than you are supposed to have. Really, it's not okay. You're not beating the system, you're just aggravating the people behind you.
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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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#44, 13 Things I Think are True, but Can't Prove

I have not done a Thursday Thirteen in awhile, but these will give you an idea of how I think.


1. Mr. Bush " We must produce more oil"? Is that because you won't endorse smaller cars for Americans? I think he's making some money off of the "oil crisis".

2. The Celtics should have won in four straight if they were good enough to win by such a large spread last night. I think losing a game helped the NBA to make more money off the series.

3. The likelihood of spilling coffee on yourself while driving increases exponentially as the amount of dark color decreases in whatever you are wearing.

4. The media has taken over our political process.

5. I don't believe that people actually care about what the women on The View think.

6. Healthcare costs would be reduced if drug companies did not advertise on television and in magazines. Also, if doctors/providers actually read and researched the drug information themselves, rather than take a drug rep's word for it with whatever perk they are giving away, then less people would be on drugs.

7. Read a great article about the differences b/n boys and girls yesterday which just enforces my belief that gender bias grading exists in school. (Teachers don't engage boys....love the quiet girls...)

8. High school graduates know less about work and have less general knowledge of the world than 20 years ago.

9. Oreos are baked with addictive substances.

10. Anyone can be the best, but it takes work, hard work and time. (Eg: Tiger Woods)

11. Everybody gets what they deserve in the end, but don't expect to witness it.

12. Canned laughter doesn't make anything any funnier, but the company that owns all the tapes of canned laughter in Hollywood is the power broker for sitcoms. Nothing gets on without their laughter.

13. Small appliances are now built to break within five years. This would explain why we are on our 4th toaster oven in 24 years, but we are using a blender that is over 30 years old from my in-laws.

Can you disprove any of the above?
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Getting Old and Falling Apart

Back in January while watching a Patriot's game, I had crossed my legs for the entire game while knitting. I know, bad thing to do, but since then, I my leg has just not felt right. Then the extra days that I have had working on my feet all day and just getting a little bit more physical last weekend ( golf and gardening) just put it over the edge for me. Nothing felt good, whether I was sitting, standing or laying down. At this point, I didn't know whether to ice or put heat on it. Yesterday, I went to the doctor and my pressing some areas on the outside of my thigh by my hip and above my knee, the intensity of pain led to the diagnosis of Iliotibial band syndrome.

Based on what I have read, I probably did some wrong stretches on it after the knitting episode to relieve that pain. But I have to admit, the huge amounts of motrin that I am now taking along with icing my thigh has really helped. Yet, the idea of going to Rehab and having one of the young, buff guys help me stretch is certainly appealing (maybe I won't tell my doctor that it's working....).

It's strange that I am prone to pinched nerves and inflammation to muscles. After working on my inlaws computer once, I ended up with a numb arm and knot the size of a plum on the back of my shoulder. Wish I was younger and swimming again, life was less painful back then and my muscles were never an issue. The problem I have lying ahead of me, is the time that I have to give this current injury to heal, I won't be able to do much walking and the lack of exercise will have to be off set by me eating less. Summertime + eating less = No Fun. I guess I can hope for calmer days to go kayaking.

7 Weird Facts - Tagged again

This Gal tagged me awhile back for a meme about my hometown and I skipped out on it. Not much to write about the town that I live in now where the one landmark is a Mobil Station and we have no stores. Seriously, the highlight of living here is the low crime rate, the occasional bear at the bird feeder, and the hour drive to either the mountains, seacoast or Boston.

This week, One Gal tagged me again for the Random and/or Weird Facts about Me meme. I had to look back to see what I wrote for the last Meme which sounded similar to this one. But the last one was 8 Things about me and this is random or weird facts, mmmm, sounds like a challenge to me. So here goes:

1. When I was about 10 years old, I once ate a Sugar Daddy in the car with the window open and then got my hair stuck on the candy. I can't remember how we got it out, but I do remember the incident.

2. Well, since I have picture up of the Sugar babies, I might as well admit that as an adult I pulled out a crown while eating a Sugar Baby. Okay, so my kids didn't like them and I was just helping to finish up some leftover Halloween candy. This was before I learned how to throw out the candy.

3. My current dentist is a very nice person, but I hated the dentist that I had when I was growing up. His humming was obnoxious and now I am dealing with the humongous fillings that he put in 30 years ago which need replacing with crowns. He was mean and told me that I was a baby. I should have told him that he hummed off key.

4. I hate getting my teeth cleaned, it takes all my energy and patience not to rip the very nice hygienist's hands from my mouth.

5. I once almost failed a math class in college because it was scheduled the same time as All My Children. Now, how pathetic is that? Beanie---Don't get any ideas and repeat after me, "Skipping college classes that I paid good money for, is stupid and very irresponsible."

6. I went to a parochial school and can still recite my helping verbs and can't even remember what grade that was for. Am, is , are, was, were, be, being, been, have, has,had, do, does, did, shall, should, can, could, may , might, must... maybe I could be on a game show or something.

7. There are some commercials that I actually enjoy and when my husband watches Nascar while I am on the laptop, I will look up during commercials. This year my favorite is the "Rabbit Release" for Tylenol.......

Now the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I won't be tagging, but if you would like to write up a 7 Weird Facts, let me know and I will link back.

The following have already shared their 7 Weird Facts:
One Gal's Musings
No Nonsense Girl

Tuesday Transistions

I love Tuesday blogging, my work week is half over and I don't have to really think creatively until tomorrow night for Thursday Thirteen. There's some exciting stuff going on here. A friend of mine has four kittens and we may be getting one, I think my two younger sons and I couldn't believe that my husband didn't put up a fight. ( Now this is where I find out if my oldest son in college or his girlfriend reads my blog...wonder when I will get a phone call?) More on that later this week.

Penny over at Just Bloggin' Along has tagged me with The Name Game.

The rules: List one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use one you would like to have. Tag one person for each letter of your middle name.

M - Mother, somedays I just look at my kids and wonder where the time went from when they were babies to the big galumpers that they are now. Being a mother, makes me appreciate my mother that much more. (Yes that "happy" baby would be me!)

A - Absurd. Sometimes I just come up with the dumbest, visual images. My latest was last week at the golf course with my friends. We all played terrible, but on one particular hole, every chip onto the green with it's undulating hills had us all talking to our balls in the air. "Come Back, Come Back"...it just brought to mind the scene in Titanic where Rose is freezing to death on the door calling to her rescuers. Pretty absurd mind...but I found it amusing. We have a lot of movie references and repeated dialogue in our family.

R - Reading, I love to read. Would read above anything else if I wasn't so compulsive about finishing books. Blogging has been great for finding new books and authors to read. This blog is about the best book that I read this past summer: Double Bind.

I - Imagination. I like to think about the what ifs. Especially on the golf course when my golf balls refuse to follow the imagined course of flight. My imagination is really active during big Powerball weeks....

E - Ebony Ann, my husband and I had the bestest Black Lab ever. Seriously, we got her when she was a year old and she was trained for obedience competitions. The absolute best dog to bring anywhere. Based on our experience with her, I don't think we would have the ability to give another dog a chance.

I think that many have already done the Name Game Meme, so I won't be tagging. But if you haven't and want to give it a go, link on back and I will check it out.