Saturday, December 24, 2011

NORAD report: Santa confirms that Japan is recovering nicely


You've gotta love Santa Tracking by the US military....  I hope the Japanese really are finding their way out of the woods.            Merry Christmas Japan.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Candy Canes for breakfast


It must be the holidays, right?

So, this morning I raced out to get to the bank, which I believed was opened... and it was, whew~  I grabbed my coffee, my kid and my paperwork and dashed out.  On the way out of the bank, I notices a bowl half full of candy canes!  I was very excited because I had not had breakfast yet.  Somehow this was satisfying.  Harley liked it too, needless to say.  A purple lolly AND a candy cane, that's the 6 year old jackpot.

We've been lazing around most of the rest of the day.  We had a nice cup of hot chocolate and clinked Merry Christmas to each other.  I had yet another candy cane with my Cocoa.  It tastes so much like schnapps to me.  I adore it!  When I worked at Bennigan's about a million lives ago, we used to make Irish Coffee and float dark Creme de Menthe on top (The green kind)  It looked so pretty, but I was sure it was gross.  One evening I tried it, and I was SO wrong!  Although, instead of Irish Whisky, I just prefer a little Kaluah.   The point is if there is whip cream on top, you cannot ruin a coffee drink by floating CdM.  It cannot be done.

Happy Holidays Everyone, and may you enjoy perfect health, happiness and peace for the new year.
Cheers!
pf

Monday, December 19, 2011

From Death Row to Slapstick

Saturday was the single most bizarre day I've had in quite a while.  I began the day at the ungodly hour of 6am. I actually woke at around 445, but laid back down.  That was really a dumb thing to do as I was seriously wide awake the first time and after I laid back down, getting up was completely horrid.  So I got up and had some Jo and a smoke and was on my way to one of our lovely state prisons to see a friend who resides on death row there. 

I used to write him and visit him so often, we had our own sort of language and ways of communicating which only we could understand.  Abbreviations in our writing and references in our speech so that we could communicate freely when we needed to.... They are always monitored and watched and the tables are quite close to one another in the visiting "park".  Some subjects are just off limits to others and so we had our ways of making privacy.  Since the birth of Harley and the crash of the economy, I only get up to see him 3-5 times a year... (It is 4 hours round trip), and writing has become sporadic at best.  It's hard when someone is still as important to you as they ever were, but you simply have so many demands on your time and attention and energy in the present right in front of you that your behavior would tell them otherwise. That said, we had a marvelous visit full of laughs and some tears.  The men there are experiencing really hard times as the admin has totally changed thanks to our delightful governor.  They are being mistreated and picked on constantly, but that's another story for another time.  So I spent my whole day there eating bad canteen food and drinking freeze dried coffee.  The best part is the pop corn.  It's so buttery gross it's good!  Really good!  

On the way home, I got a call from a long time friend  John, who has come to town to play in a reunion benefit concert with his old band.  It has become a tradition for a bunch of us old friends to go and hang out and catch up, listen to GREAT music and dance our fool asses off for a few hours... and forget our real age!  John and I discussed his getting me and my companion on the guest list (aka broke people's list) as the tickets were 23 clams each!  Whoa Nellie, that's a half a tank of gas and almost a week of groceries for me.  Since he has a rather large family, he didn't want to make promises since each band member only gets 8 free spots.  He had been in town since Tues, and it was now Sat and I had not heard from him, so I figured he couldn't swing it and I was planning to home and collapse...  So he calls to tell me he is leaving our names at the door and he hopes we can come... sigh...  While I was really excited, it was also kind of a real mind bender to think I was going to be up till the wee hours that evening... especially since I had been awake since the wee hours that day!  I haven't done this since my 20s, but ok, why the hell not?

So my oldest friend in town and I decided to go for it.  I came home, played with Harley for about 20 minutes before I had to take a shower and leave again.  We were supposed to bring canned food for the homeless as part of the benefit.  I had planned to bring that, and my winter coat also, but it didn't happen.  What did happen is that I freaked out when I could not locate my drivers license and my 20 dollars left over from the prison visit.  You have to put your money in a plastic bag along with your driver's license and your car key.  I knew I had it when I left, but I could not find it.  Finally, I did.  It was under a pile of something or other on a desk.  But I spent so much dang time looking for them I was late and scatter brained and left without the food or my coat!  DOH!

Ok, this is getting really long so I will continue this adventure in the next post.  I know I'm not really good at this continuation thing.  Jojo is probably still waiting for the conclusion of the Pooh fiasco post!  (smile).... but I will do my level best to continue this ramble tomorrow.  Seriously, this was a long damn day!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

For Ms Moon


I would like to share my version of the Hail Mary prayer...  I love the rhythm of the Catholic prayers I learned and find comfort in that...the only problem is, I don't believe the words.  So I made up my own.  I am going to do this in a sort of trilogy fashion, in keeping with religious tradition... ironically, there are only 3 prayers that I like!

Hail Mary
Our Father
Act of Contrition

So without any further adieu, I will present the original prayer as I was taught, then my version... which is paganised to my liking.


Original: Hail Mary


Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, 
Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the time of our death.
Amen.


My version:Hail Creation


Hail mother, full of grace,
The great mystery is with thee.
Blessed art we who create,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, life.


Holy Earth, mother to all,
May we nurture and sustain each other,
Now and forever.
Amen.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Gross is funny when you're 6

In fact, it's hilarious!

Hi.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday...  Ours was good, but I was sick and not feeling especially grateful for that.  My favorite part was coming home and getting my jammies on.  

So much has happened that I wanted to write about, but did not have the energy or the whatever to do it.  Here I am with a little time and this is what is on my mind.... ever so sorry....  

Harley is deep into the gross stage of boyhood.  Here is a little ditty he made up just for me the other day. 

Smell my feet!
Smell my farts!  
Suck eyeball juice! 
Eat your boogers and you'll be happy!

I'm so proud....
And this is but one of many shiny examples that I can share about what is going on in my world right now.  I mean, I know it's normal... it is normal, right?  In any case, he is so much like his father in this regard it makes me shiver.  He pushes things wayyyyyy to far.  He does not know when to stop... or if he does, he ignores it, like a lemming jumping to his doom.

The worst part, is sometimes it's actually funny and I can't help myself.  The mischievous gleam in his eyes when he's on a gross roll is indescribably cute.  He is so delighted with himself, it's hard to "no response" him or to even keep a straight face.  He said something yesterday in the car and I just cracked up.  I told him he couldn't tell anyone I laughed at that or they'd kick me out of the mommy association.  

The words are not the worst part though.  It's the trying to get me to smell his belches and farts that is really disturbing to me.  I have to put my foot down with that portion of the show, but I can see how it might be confusing for him. ("Well, if you thing THAT was funny, watch THIS!")  I get it.  I do.  But seriously, this doesn't show any signs of letting up any time soon and I'm really kind of done with it.

I wish I had the stamina or clarity to write every day, because there have been many cool things that have happened since last I posted.  I'm just undisciplined, period.  I had a little time this morning and this is what is on my mind.  Again... so sorry!