Skating with the Stars

This is week two of Skating with the Stars and I have to say that I'm a little disappointed.

I love ice skating, I think that it's a beautiful sport and the idea of stars getting out there and learning to figure skate is appealing.  Especially those stars that are out of their element, learning something new.

I think that I'm a little let down because I keep expecting it be as fun and exciting as Dancing with the Stars.  The fundamental difference in the two shows is simply the hosts and more importantly, the judges.

I think that these three judges can't hold a candle to Dancing's judges.  Len with his curmudgeonly ways, Carrie Ann and her excitement in the art of dance, and last but certainly not least, Bruno with his crazy metaphors and his ability to utterly annoy Len!

No, I don't think that Skating will be around for a season two unless they get some different judges and a different host.

God My Ass Is Cold!!

So we just got off the pier and it’s a bit chilly.  My butt is what is equivalent to an icicle from sitting in a lawn chair out there.  There was an annual boat parade to be watched and the boat parade was nice, but small this year, no doubt a sign of the economy.

I can remember another time when my ass was as cold, it was on my honeymoon.  Now, before you think that it was a lame honeymoon, stop right there.  The honeymoon was awesome, just the outdoor activities left me a bit chilly at times.

It was my idea to go skiing despite the fact that I once swore that I would never strap two boards to my feet and slide down the side of a mountain.  So imagine his surprise when I suggested to my better half a Durango ski trip to celebrate our marital bliss.

Having only water-skied before along with ice skating, I had never been on snow skis.  In fact, I had never been in snow that deep before in my life.  I have to say that it was amazing to see the lovely white powdery blanket on the slopes.  Wait, did I say powdery?  I meant slushy man-made snow, as it was early in the year plus they were having a drought so they were making the snow.

I did what every beginner should do and took a ½ day lesson with a ski instructor.  I took to it very well and before long, I was taking that bunny slope like a pro (ha ha).  After my lesson was over, I went up to the restaurant and had lunch with the husband and afterward, we decided to go back down to the bunny slope before heading to the top of the mountain.

There was a little trail that led down there, which was called the ski-way.  It was a Snow Cat trail so it was very narrow and a blue (intermediate) run.  So, I ski down this thing and when I was almost to the end, I had to make a hard right turn as to not end up in the trees.

This is when I realized that there are two stages to a crash.  First, there’s the mental crash, then the actual crash itself.  I see the trees coming up on me very fast and my mental crash consisted of my panic and muttering ‘OH SHIT’.  I made the right turn beautifully and was home free when the second, “oh my god I can’t believe I made it” phase commenced.  This is where the true mental crash came and I yelled out my husband’s name and dropped my poles.  The dropping of the poles signaled the rest of my body that was time for the physical crash.  I went down hard and fast, but was unscathed, just a little shaken up.

So I was sitting there on the snow, thinking, “God my ass is cold” as I watched my wonderful man take the little ski-lift up to the top and ski down to collect my things.  I got back up and skied the bunnies a couple of times before deciding that it was time to brave the big mountain.

So that I don’t bore you to death with a story that is way too long to do justice in this post, I will stop here and pick up with a part two of this post in a little while.

Until then………….

What is wrong with these people?

Ridiculous!

Girl gets suspended from school over what she wrote on Facebook.

I am both shocked and a little saddened that we live in an age where a girl will post snarky comments about another girl on Facebook, get her butt kicked by said girl, but end up suspended for writing it in the first place!  Whatever happened to the old saying, ‘sticks and stones’?  Why is it that kids today are being taught that something someone says is so emotionally awful?

Yes, words can hurt, but people should be teaching their kids that they are just words.  Why is it that a school will dictate to kids what they should or should not be posting on a freaking webpage?  Why are we, as parents allowing the schools to raise our children and dictate their morality?  It’s madness!

The girl who invoked physical violence against the other should be the one getting suspended, not the one posting on facebook.

Girl says to other girl, you’re a poopyhead.  Other girl jumps the first girl and beats her up.  School official asks second girl why did she beat up the first girl, second girl says, “she called me a poopyhead!”  School official suspends BOTH girls?  Idiots!

No Fish...... *Big Sigh*

Well, my vacation is almost over and I have to say that thanks to mother nature, fishing just isn't in the cards.  The past few days it was way too windy and then of course the rain, which led the way to the cold front that has set in and I'm just not in the mood to sit on the boat freezing my ta-tas off while waiting for some poor unsuspecting fishie to bite my hook.

It's been a great week though and I'm happy to have gotten the much needed R & R.  No fighting hoards of shoppers and no gropings by TSA agents.  All in all, life is good.

Tonight is our last night of peaceful bliss and it promises to be a good night.  We get to stand outside freezing our ta-tas off while we watch the annual boat parade.  Folks down here decorate their boats with lights and festive decorations, indulge in adult beverages and cruise at a slow pace up the creek, entertaining the masses, who are also indulging in adult beverages.  Gotta love it!

Thought I would do this here........

The Big Guy posted this over at his blog, the BBC's Top 100 Books and thought I would do the same here.  He's a very well read guy, puts me to shame and I'm no slacker!  Maybe this means that my taste in books stinks?  Nah, couldn't be.

Instructions:
Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. 

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen    
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien  
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling (all)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee    
6 The Bible   
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte  
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell    
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman  
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens    
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott  
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller  
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare    
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier    
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien  
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger    
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot    
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald    
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens  
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams  
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh  
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky  
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck  
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll    
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame    
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy  
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens  
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis  
34 Emma – Jane Austen    
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen    
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis    
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere  
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne  
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell    
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown  
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins  
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery  
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood  
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding    
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan  
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen    
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon  
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens    
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley    
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon  
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez  
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck  
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov  
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt  
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold  
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas  
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac    
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding  
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville    
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens  
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker    
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett  
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath  
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome  
78 Germinal – Emile Zola  
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray  
80 Possession – AS Byatt    
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens    
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell  
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro  
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert    
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White   
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle    
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad    
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery  
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks  
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams  
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas  
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare    
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl    
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo 

Thanksgiving.....

The holidays are always kind of a bittersweet time of year for me.  I have fond memories of times past as I make  more cherished memories to hold for the future.

The memories of the past, sometimes make me a little melancholy on days like today as I remember my wonderful childhood and the fun times that I had growing up with my grandparents, my parents, my aunts and uncles and my cousins, most of whom are at least 7 years younger than me.  I cherish those moments, but am sad that they're gone.

Grandparents are all gone to hopefully a better place, along with my father, who I miss every single day, and my mother in law, whose loss I also feel deeply.  The aunts and uncles are still around, but have all scattered in the wind as they all became grandparents and established their on extensions of their own families.  We all try to get together once a year for a Reunion around Christmas time, but even that is not the same.  I guess it kind of sucks growing up.

The very bright side in all of this is that I have a family of my own, extensions of myself, and two beautiful granddaughters that I get to create memories with, and god willing, they will grow up to cherish their times spent as I do now.

The past few years, I've created a tradition of coming to the creekhouse for Thanksgiving and then my father in law, my mom and step-dad and my brother all come down for dinner.  Our kids alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas with the exes and so they aren't here this year.

It's traditional to express what it is we are thankful for, and I for one, am thankful for the family that I have now.  I am so fortunate that I have such a loving husband and a father in law that I love every bit as much as my own dad.  I'm thankful that I had an opportunity to know a mother in law, whose strengths were inspirational. I'm thankful to have a sister in law that I admire and cherish, whose perseverance in her own life, inspired me to seek higher education and better myself.

I'm thankful for my children, all four of them, and my grandchildren.  I can't express how thankful I am for my mother and our relationship, though for a long time was strained, but we've grown closer than I could ever have imagined.  I'm thankful for my brother and my Uncle, who are both the last bits of my father I that I have.

 I think that one of the things that I am most thankful for, is my childhood.  I had a really good one and growing up with the two most wonderful parents in the world, parents who worked through their problems and stayed married until the day my father passed away.  It's a rarity in this day and age and I was lucky.

All in all, it's been a wonderful life and I am working hard to keep making good memories for not just myself, but my family.  I love them all.

Mud Rasslin'

It was a wonderful day, though only tiny fish were caught, I did see some good friends in the intra-coastal waterway and in the channel at Mitchell’s Cut.  I saw, for the second time in 10 years, porpoise swimming around.  It was a great sight, and I loved every second of it.

It seems to me that more often than not, when the husband and I go fishing, at some point we are going to end up in the mud.  Of course, I’ve mentioned that it usually ends up with me bailing over the side of the boat to push us out while he masterfully mans the helm. 

You may be thinking that we are horrible sailors, but you really need to understand that where we go fishing, it gets very shallow, very quickly in a lot of places.  Our little bay is only about 5 ½ feet deep at its deepest point.  Ending up in the mud is no anomaly around here, even for the most seasoned captains.

Today, was a little different.  While we did get stuck in the mud, I didn’t have take a trip in the water to get us out.  I was thankful for that, though we damn near blew up a $10,000 outboard motor, not to mention the water pump to the bait well.  Fortunately, all is well on that front.

This, of course reminds me of a time when we ended up in the mud in the johnboat and we had a buddy of ours with us.  So without further ado, I am going to tell that story in an attempt to entertain the masses once more.

My husband, our friend Willam, and I were in the johnboat, headed down to the cut to go fishing.  My husband was at the helm and he ended up making a wrong turn.  In all fairness, the channel markers were really unclear and so he was a little confused.

Anyway, he makes his turn and suddenly we are at a dead stop, the motor is churning up mud, we had run aground.  William had this adorable ‘deer in the headlights’ look and he was just looking at me, then at the husband, then back at me again. 

Finally, I spoke up and said, “Fine, send a woman overboard to do a man’s job!” And of course, swinging both feet overboard, I descend into the mud.  The problem here was that I sank into that mud thigh deep!

Of course, not to be outdone, William decides that he’s not going to let a girl get the better of him and he decides to join me in the mud.  In doing so, the poor man only stepped out of the boat with one foot and as he began sinking in the mud, the side of the boat proceeded to play TSA agent and plant itself right in his boys.

The look on poor William’s face as he made an “OOF” sound and proceeded to fall overboard was classic.  He knocked me on my rear end in the mud which was a whole other bikini bottom issue for me, but despite it all I, was doing my best to stifle to a laugh as I fixed my issues and then helped him up.  We did get the boat out of the mud and get back into the water and made our way to our destination.

The moral of the story, when you have to go overboard, do so with both feet, you never know about those soggy bottoms!

Until next time.

The Bucket and the String

My husband is such a character.  They always say that you end up with someone who is like your father, if you're a woman, and if you're a man, like your mother.  I am a classic example of this theory.

My dad was a classic jack of all trades, but he was a master of many.  He did have a funny way of rigging things up to fix them in a pinch.  The best one, I think was a wire hanger sticking out of the lawn mower engine, why I don't know, but it was there to fix something or other and we got a few good years out of that mower.  My dad could fix about anything, though and that's one of the best memories of him that I have.

My husband, who is downstairs as we speak experimenting on painting techniques for his van, is another one that can fix about anything, especially if he has a book in his hands.  He re-built a transmission from a book, and he rebuilt a lower unit on a boat, again from a book.  The man is a genius.  His boss calls him MacGyver because once he fixed a cabinet drawer with a rubber band and a paper clip.  To quote a movie, 6 days 7 nights, he's one of those guys with skills, that can build you a shopping mall with a q-tip and pocket knife.

When my husband and I were dating, his hot water heater for the townhouse was leaking onto the shelf on which it sat.  Fearful that it would rot the wooden shelf and cause a whole other problem, my husband decided to fix it.  He goes into the house and comes back with a bucket and a string.

Puzzled, I asked him, "what are you going to do with that?"  He said, "Just watch."

He tied the end of the string around the spicket that was leaking then stretched it tight and tied the other end to the bucket handle.  Then, he maneuvered the bucket to where the string was directly under the drip.  I'll be damned if that water didn't roll right down the string and drip in the bucket!

I know it sounds simple, but I was amazed and impressed.  I think that was the moment that I knew that I was going to marry that man.  I was over the moon in love with him as it was, but that instance really sealed the deal.

I am a lucky woman.  I'm not really sure what I did to deserve him, but I'm thankful just the same.

Until next time.

Ahhhhh...........

Vacation at last.  8 whole days of R & R on the water, fishing, boating (freezing, I'm sure) and eating and having some adult beverages.  I promise that I won't be rasslin any motors though, but I'm sure that I'll have some stories to tell.

A trip in the boat with the husband usually means something fun will happen, I just hope that I don't have to bail over the side of the boat to get us out of the mud like I so often have to do......

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.........

I have been reading the Harry Potter books for years, and I've seen every movie to date.  All of the books are fantastic and well written.  As the series gets more involved and the books get longer, how Ms. Rawlings managed to keep up with all the twists and turns is amazing to me.

Movies rarely do a book justice.  Hollywood has a way of trimming down a book to where you end up disappointed.  There are a few rare exceptions, but for the most part, a movie is never is good as the book.

In the Harry Potter movies, the first three movies were pretty close to the books, of course the books are shorter than the last four.  Once Goblet of Fire hit the theater, I was sorely disappointed because they cut out so many important details that had I never read the book I would have been left confused.  As it was I was merely let down.

After that let down, I still went to see the Order of the Phoenix and The Half Blood Prince in theaters, in hopes that Hollywood would either, make a longer movie with an intermission or maybe do them in two parts, releasing them within a couple of months of one another.  They, of course did not, and I went from feeling let down, to annoyed, to finally, disgusted.

The special effects in Goblet, Phoenix and Prince were outstanding, but there was just too much missing from the movies that are crucial to the connection of it all.

Loyal Harry Potter fan that I am, I decided to go and watch The Deathly Hallows, glad that they did it in two parts, but without getting my hopes up.  I have to say that I walked out of the theater very pleasantly surprised and excited for the next part to come out.  Hollywood, finally got it right!  While there are missing bits in this movie, all in all, I think that they have done well.

The movie is long, so I suggest that you use the restroom before you go in and buy a small drink rather than a large.  You don't want to miss a minute of this one.  The special effects are fantastic and the kids (now all grown up) are much better actors.  There are laughs, (when Harry, Ron and Hermione are at Mr. Lovegood's house drinking tea, watch the look on Ron and Hermione's faces when they sip their tea in the background, it's funny) and there are moments that will make you cry, there are scary moments as well and parts that will make you jump out of your seat.

Warning, this is not a movie for little kids.  I do not suggest taking your elementary school kids to see this movie.  There are a couple of risqué scenes (though mildly so) that aren't kid appropriate and like I said, there are some scary parts as well.

All in all, I give this movie a huge thumbs up.  I'm so ready for the final movie!

Until next time.......

I can see it now...........

You remember how when you were kids and you would play 'post office' or 'doctor'?

The new game curious kids will play will be, "Hey, wanna play TSA agent?"

Hello Russia!

I'm not sure who it is, but apparently I have a reader or two in Russia.  Whoever you are, hello to you!  Not sure what you find interesting about what I'm posting, but thanks for reading!

One of my favorites.....

Just gotta love Annie Lennox's voice. She's truly a classic.

Cheap Thrills and Inconveniences

Airport security now offers either a cheap thrill or a major inconvenience, pick your poison.  You can now either get some security person off by being scanned (no nook or cranny unrevealed) or you can get mutual gratification by getting felt up by some security person.

Well, okay, that's what you would call hyperbole, but if the cheap thrill fits.............. well, you know the rest.

In all seriousness, my tendency towards intellectual honesty makes me see these things in two different lights. First, I am unwilling to give up my individual liberty for the sake of feeling 'safe'.  I do not want some government worker to have their hands on my body, nor do I care to have them laugh (or enjoy, either or) at my nooks and crannies (or as Brigette Jones would say, "My wobbly-bits")  in the screening room.  I believe that I should be able to get on a plane and travel with minimal inconvenience to me that can reasonably be expected.  What gives the government the right to perform what equates to a strip search without probable cause?  The answer to that is, we did.  Remember the Patriot Act?

Then there is the other side of this and that is simply that if I want to fly on an airplane, then I must comply with the security screening rules, or I am free to drive, take a train or a bus.  Flying on an airplane, really isn't a right and no one must fly, we do have other options.  Those who are on business?  Well, maybe they can come up with a an alternative for them, such as fingerprinting (something else that I'm not a fan of) or some kind of pre-screening.

Here's another thought......  we could always profile like any other sane country would do and check the most likely suspects, rather than strip searching little old ladies with blue hair!

Of course asking our government to do anything that makes sense is a very tall order.  Another election in two years, sad thing is that the Republicans are the ones that gave us the Patriot Act...  joy joy!  Not much hope on the horizon, it's unfortunate.

Until next time....

What are they thinking?

Why are we funding this to begin with?  Why can’t the government and more importantly, why can't the people who are governed realize that for the government to be into the business of state-sponsored media, is just one more step towards government control over the information that we receive.  Not good.

I realize that we have funded NPR and PBS for years, but it’s time to stop.  I've seen PBS with an agenda for years, and NPR would be out of business if not for tax dollars.  It's time to let the programming stand on its own merit.

Can I Really Keep My Own Money?!

Thank you oh benevolent one!

This really irks me to no end. The government informing me that I get to keep the money that I earned that it doesn't consider me to be 'rich' by their standards. By what right do they do this to us? By what measure do they consider 'wealthy'?

$251,000.00 in Texas is living nicely, but in California? Not so much. Who do these fucktards think they are? Who are they to tell US how to live? I'm sick of it.

Let's hope that the results of this past election wakes the rest of them up and they realize that they need to actually listen to those of us out here who actually earn a living, rather than those who will continue to suck the lifeblood out of the rest of us!

Ayn Rand is probably rolling in her grave to see what has become of this great nation that she so loved!

Until next time.

I survived!

Shopping was actually fun today.  My daughter was sweet and we had a very nice girl's day out.  She ended up with lots of nice clothes and I bought myself a small bottled of Chanel No. 5.  The mall was packed today, which is frustrating to me, I don't like crowds.

I would have preferred fishing.

The Joys of Motherhood

Today I get the honor of taking my sometimes snarky teenager shopping.  I'm really looking forward to it because lately she hasn't been as snarky as her usual self.  I hope it's a good day.

I told her last week, "I'll be glad when you get older and have kids of your own so I can be smart again."

Gridlock and Pointy Things..

I couldn’t be happier at the election results this past Tuesday.  Well okay, that’s not exactly true, I would be much happier if the party that is taking over were Libertarian rather than Republican but it’s better than what we have.  The best news is that with Republicans controlling the House, and Democrats controlling the Senate, DC will be in somewhat of a gridlock which is a win for all of us.  When Congress can’t get anything done, we are all better off!

I have decided that we are better off when there are checks and balances, that way, one party can’t railroad the other party and pass laws that limit our freedoms, whether it’s a socialist agenda (healthcare) or a moral agenda (defining marriage) or an idiotic agenda (limiting the ability of law abiding citizens to defend themselves ie. gun control).  Right now, I’m so happy I could burst into a fit of the giggles.  Aside from Washington being castrated at the moment, I’m sure that over the next two years I will have plenty of material to write about.

On a lighter note, I am starting dart league again in a couple of weeks.  Yes, I love to throw sharp objects at stationary targets and at one time, I was one of the best women in the league, though I’m a little rusty right now because I have taken some time off.  I’m not sure what our team name is going to be but the players in the dart league come up with some funny ones, one year there was a team called “Drunks with pointy things”.

Funny dart story:

One night I was playing in a tournament and this drunken fool kept walking in front of my board.  I asked him several times to please not do that and he would just ignore me. Finally, the last time, I got a little forceful with him and he proceeded to tell me exactly what I could do with my darts.

I kept throwing and a little while later, I see him out of the corner of my eye, making his way toward me, soooooo…   accurate shot that I am, I led him a little and launched my dart, hitting him right in the arm.  Now, don’t worry folks, these were plastic tip darts so the points aren’t very long, but the dart did stick in his arm.  He squealed and screamed like a little girl.

Naturally, I apologized and explained, in my sweetest Southern Belle voice, that I didn’t see him coming and I reminded him that I did ask him several times to not walk there.

He wasn’t happy with me, but, he never walked that way again.

Until next time…………

Buh Bye, Good Luck, Good Riddance!

Ha!  I am watching the election returns and couldn't be more happy to see the backside of a Democratic majority.  I can only hope that they retain the Senate so that Washington will be gridlocked!  The less they do up there, the better!

Let's hope that if the Republicans squeak out a lead in both the House and Senate that they don't have a massive brain fart and squander their majority and hopefully, they don't try to be more like Democrats this time around!

Time will tell.