BAKE COOKIES TODAY

December 18 is National Bake Cookies Day. I may indulge later this evening. I had thought of making iced up and decorated sugar cookies. With lots of sprinkles and colors. But I will probably make chocolate chip or oatmeal as that is what the Cookie Monster likes best. I LOVE peanut butter and nuts in mine, but I would feel guilty making just those. And my butt doesn't really need them anyways.

I would offer to make available photos of my batch all steamy and crisp as they come out of the oven, but the Monster eats them right off the trays. So pretend you can smell them about 8 PM.

Ice Ice Baby

I can hear the ice hitting my house. The storm actually started late yesterday with copious amounts of rain. It rained so hard I thought it was snow-except snow doesn't make that much noise. We were upgraded to a winter storm warning about 5 Pm Thursday and it is slow coming but no matter what it does, it will screw up my weekend. I want to go to an Open house Saturday at the stamp store in Fowlerville-but if the roads are bad, will try for Sunday.



I need to go to the gym tomorrow too-its the last day of the "World Series" competition. We get points for whatever card we draw from a standard deck of cards. The Joker card is a grand slam and I haven't gotten that one yet. So far, I have 24 runs-which get me Hurley bucks to use in the pro shop. I already promised the hubster he could have mine-I just don't like the selection they have anyway. He has a few runs-but since he never really goes, he can't get runs.

Hopefully, the next storm will find my car in the garage instead of in the driveway-I have taken all the "crap" to Goodwill except one chair and two tables. Next week, everything else goes to the trash or recycler. I can actually see my garage floor now! It still looks like cement-but I can see it.

Maybe He'd Like to Eat Alone..With His Phone for Company

I can't put into words how angry I am tonight. My husband is on vacation this week and next. It seems he is too busy to take a normal day off here and there and now has several weeks to make up or he won't get paid for them. Last week he had Election Day off too, and spent the entire morning in a conference call because the rest of the company-which is GM-is not off if they aren't on US soil. So what was supposed to be a whole day off ended up half a day-and when I suggested turning in for a half day's pay, he laughed it off. And then slept the rest of the day. Luckily, we got to vote-which was the whole reason for the day off.

But here we are with one whole week off to get some long put off things done-or so I thought. Yesterday the phone rang multiple times and then I heard him scheduling another conference call for today-which actually turned out to be two of them. I needed to do some long distance shopping and he said he would drive me even after I said "don't bother-I don't want to interrupt your precious scheduling". We weren't even on the freeway and the phone started ringing-I counted 17 calls over the next several hours. I don't know if he had any while I was inside one store as he sat in his car supposedly reading the paper. All thru the next shopping trip at which I needed his opinion of an item so he couldn't "not" go in-the phone rang and rang. Not once did he say I will call you back later when I am not busy. I heard him tell the caller he was shopping, and later as we were eating but I guess I don't rate as important enough to turn the damn thing off for one hour. I told him he would have the phone to his ear as he gets by-pass surgery if they'd let him.

He thinks it's all funny that I object to this behavior. Will he think its funny when I no longer bother to come home? I left a few weeks ago over the BS and only came back because I had a weird feeling about my dog. My dog died that morning as I was rushing him to the vet. I didn't even get a hug. That might have crushed his precious phone.Maybe I should have called him for a hug-but last I checked, a phone can't hug you back.

I guess you know when things have jumped the shark. This is the last year of a situation comedy that isn't funny anymore but the sponsors are milking what's left of the viewers and the actors are only phoning it in.

Día de los Muertos

Darth Marley-May the Farce Be With You!

Cold windy Halloween 2006. Sad as Clancy isn't here with Marley and me. His costume-an angel with halo and wings-still hangs on the door knob. Maybe I should have dressed Marley up as the angel to make the "experience" rub off because sometimes he is Darth and its getting out of hand.

There were a lot of "kids" this year-if you consider high schoolers kids. I saw very few small ones-and it was pretty annoying that a mom came to the door, cigarette in hand-and giving me some sob story about how tired her poor kid was to come and beg. One little girl about 7 or 8 insisted to this mom she had already come here because I gave out markers and erasers but mom said no, it was around the block. Now what are the chances that two people in the same neighborhood gave out the same EXACT items? Bull s**t!

I ran out of markers by 6:45 (I had purchased 55 4-packs at 1.00 a piece. I also gave each kid a choice of two erasers either sports related or lipstick girlie. Why did most of the boys take the lipstick one? Maybe it looked like a bullet to them? I ran out of erasers too and had to substitute individual bags of Cheese It crackers and ran out of those by 7. SO in my pantry I had a large box of individual packs of M and M's, so had to dig into those. I hate giving out candy as it just isn't my style-I usually give comic books but there were none this year that were appealing. I was afraid I was going to have to resort to small bottles of orange juice!

Bless You Boys!

As I write this, it's the bottom of the 7th inning game 5 in St. Louis and the Tigers are down 4-2. It's a must win game for the Tigers. I have to say honestly that while would be great if the Tigers won the whole thing (first getting a scrappily played win in tonight's game), but I think it would be great if it also went 7 games-winner take all. And who ever wins-good for them. It is a boon for both cities who have weathered so many down times. Both are blue collar cities and scrappy teams. Both cities are part of the "rust belt" depending a lot on the automotive industry-which has been in the cellar for a while. There are many things in common between the cities, the teams and of course the friendship of the two managers. A lot of people paid god-awful amounts of money to see these games in person, so I hope they all get that opportunity. If the Tigers win tonight, the last two games are in Detroit. I don't have tickets and if I had them, would give them away to my kids and hubby (I don't like crowds). So my fingers are crossed for the chance to let everyone who has a ticket actually get to enjoy the fun of it all.

Luckily, I have been to celebrations like this in my lifetime-the NBA Finals three times and the WNBA Finals once-what a blast! So I wish the same for everyone who loves sports. Thanks to all the athletes who have given us a chance to get away from the real world for a few hours and be a part of something fun and energizing. Bless you boys!

King of the Backyard RIP Clancy

There is no better friend than you!

A Simple Gesture- A Lifelong Friendship

Sometimes words aren't needed. Sometimes a simple gesture can "speak" far better than well constructed speeches. Such was the case at the 1968 Mexico Summer Olympics. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalist from the United States, took to the victory stand and silently raised a fist and bowed their heads. Beside them stood Peter Norman of Australia, the silver medalist. He gladly participated in the "human rights" empowerment by wearing a badge and issuing a statement acknowledging that he was but a small ripple in a deep silent pond and he hoped that one of those ripples would reach the shores and initiate others to be involved in the fight for human rights no matter what the color, profession, age or income of those who are not treated equally.

A few years ago, a statue was erected commemorating the moment at the San Diego State University where both Smith and Carlos had been teammates. Absent from the depiction was the 3rd medalist Peter Norman with his complete agreement to be excluded. He was very aware of his participation at Mexico City and later-Smith and Carlos were two of his greatest friends. His teammates.

Last week Peter Norman died and Tommie Smith and John Carlos were his pall bearers-just at Peter Norman had supported them 38 years ago, they supported him on his last journey. Team mates forever-friends forever.

For the World is Hollow............

This fragile living spaceship is under siege. It is on a deadly collision course with its own native travelers. A large crater is forever imprinted on its shell-and the very foundations of the ship are being shook to the core as an aftermath.

Who is not listening to the pain of this warning? Has the Oracle of Korea issued a tangible prophetic opinion on the rotating ship with this act ? Has he spoken to all the life forms thru colliding objects?

What will be the reaction from other Oracles? This is not a game of win or lose. Only we are aware of the Oracles of Spaceship Earth and their ignorance. One had shown his face and his stupidity-will others follow?

Garlic Pee

I ate so much garlic in the last three days that whenever I pee-it smells like garlic! Had sautéed garlic on Thursday on my veggie sausage pattie sammich.Yum-o. I just discovered that whole wheat flat bread that lets you wrap (I think it's marketed toward kids-it came with tattoos) and they are a small size. My veggie sausage pattie was inside with garlic and then garlic mustard that had a zing!

Friday, I was experimenting and cooked a large bag of mini carrots,thinking I would make a carrot mash bake with brown sugar topping-but decided I wanted creamy soup instead. This was a modified recipe-in which I subbed for all the animal products-using soy milk and veggie broth. I added crushed garlic and ginger-and a dollop of soy sour cream with cilantro on top.

Saturday's garlic was to die for! Roasted garlic with chiabatta bread (a whole loaf!)and boursin cheese-and roasted red peppers. There was some odd greenish sauce on the side, which I haven't figured out-it had a bit of a zing. My sammy also had a garlic aioli. Anyways, wanted to lick the dish clean for the roasted garlic-I did let daughter take the extra home-perhaps a lunch for her or a snack.

So every time, I pee-garlic! But no vampires or werewolves came around with the full moon last night, so must be good-right? I think if they took away the garlic odor-wouldn't be as good.

Bottle of Wine; Fruit of the Vine...

Still sober. Interesting wine tonight. This was a late harvest Riesling c.2003 from Zafarana Vineyard , located in the Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City. 2003 was a very short and low quality season so the vineyard owner decided to scout out other local vineyards for a blended wine of similar grape character.

This was my first venture into a late harvest wine. It was sweeter than I thought it would be, but with the spicy New Orleans style pasta I had for dinner, it was very complimentary on the tongue. I picked up pear/apricot with a tinge of apple . This would also be great as an after-dinner wine and is modestly priced at about $11.00. It's only for sale in Michigan for some odd reason. I don't understand the Michigan wine laws one bit!

A Swift Kick is Perhaps Due

Why are men so pissy about shopping ? Hubby needed some new shoes.He had one shoe actually peel-the leather came off in small striplike peels. I am assuming this was the interaction of the salt with the leather. It might help if he were to wear his rubbers but that's a moot point now. We found some in his size and it was buy one pair get another pair 1/2 off. Not a bad deal-altho the last time it was buy one/get one free. So he slips on the shoe-says its okay without tying it or walking in it-but its a different size than what he normally wears which is a wide or D width. Now you can't take shoes back if you've worn them outside. I remind him of this and that he needs to pick out another pair for the half off one. He says he doesn't need a second pair-and I said get them anyways because its a good deal and I know as soon as we were to leave with one pair, he would say he needs another within a few weeks. Its not like the shoes are gonna spoil in a box in the closet or plain old black-tie shoes even go out of style. At least not as long as wearing shoes is common practice.

It's the same with OJ, socks, Kleenex----he would only buy what he needs for today not thinking that he will need more later in the week . Example-I asked how much OJ was in the fridge, did he have enough to get thru this week (I had bought 2 half gallons last week). He said yes, he had enough for this week. I asked if he would have enough for next week. No, so he would need some more by Sunday. I have to always drag it out of him-he would never volunteer any extra info unless I play 20 questions with him. I really got pissed off-he knows I hate to shop-and any of you from Flushing know how scary going to the Meijers on Pierson Road is at night and that is why I need a body guard to go there. Why did he think it was okay to even think I wanted to come back to the store Sunday to replenish his stupid OJ? Or his signal that he needs more granola bars is leaving a flavor he doesn't like on the counter? I thought the cats had knocked it off the fridge . And you know he would never go shopping on his own. I can't even remember the last time he actually bought anything by himself except gasoline. I am tired of being his mommy. And really tired of yes and no answers-that actually go around in circles. I am beginning to think men over 50 regress into newborns language-wise. So I next expect babbling-that will go well with the unannounced farting.

Haunting on the Porch

I am so in the mood for Halloween. I sorted all the ridiculous boxes of boxes of decorations in June to see what I might be in need of. Umm...I could start my own scare factory-not really nasty scary but silly scary. This is one of my favorites. I hope to have a companion for him soon-a witch would be nice. And of course, Frankie will serenade us again this year. Maybe I will finally use the fog machine that I got for Ben and he never needed it.

The need to get away from MySpace....

MySpace is nuts! All the glitter, flashing, outages and inappropriate postings including pictures is just too much. And also there is no one my age or from my school to connect with. But maybe that is a good thing-I had very few friends in HS-and one recently died. MySpace is just not what I want or need, so this is a new start. I have another blog for personal musings I may let others view someday. But for now this is my public face and the other will be my rant and rave, blow up and bang my head into the computer screen time out in the corner place until I feel like I want to share.