handwork......

ok, so the mm spent the day in domestic bliss...doing what my husband's rumanian grandmother called 'hantverk' or so it sounds when he says it in her manner........i replaced a zipper in a silk dress....lined a skirt that did not seem to go well with a slip.......replaced buttons on a coat-dress.......and remade a sleeveless dress that was supposed to look like a wrap.......my sewing machine needs lubrication and cleaning from disuse.......but that must wait for another day......

poetry...

ok, so today there are two poets in my minds....for starts...(from mpr)today is the birthday of poet Walt Whitman, born in West Hills, Long Island, New York (1819). He grew up in Brooklyn, and lived in New York City for most of his life. He began working as a printer's assistant from a very young age, and in the '40s and '50s he worked for a series of newspapers in Brooklyn and Manhattan. It was in New York City, in 1855, that Whitman published the first edition of his poetry collection Leaves of Grass. He couldn't find anyone to publish it for him, so he sold a house and used the money to publish it himself. There was no publisher's name or author's name on the cover, just a picture of Whitman himself. He wrote the poems in a new style, a kind of free verse without rhyme or meter. He said in one preface to the book, "Here are the roughs and beards and space and ruggedness and nonchalance that the soul loves."

Leaves of Grass got mostly bad reviews, but Ralph Waldo Emerson called it "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed." Whitman printed Emerson's comment on the second edition of the book, and he wrote an anonymous review of it himself, hoping to spark sales. Whitman continued to add poems to Leaves of Grass and publish it in different editions throughout his life. It eventually went through nine different editions; Whitman compared the finished book to a cathedral that took years to build, or a tree with visible circles of growth. In the 1880s the Society for the Suppression of Vice called it immoral in a Boston newspaper, and that's when it finally started to sell. Whitman used the money to buy a cottage in Camden, where he spent the rest of his life.

the other poet called to mind today is theodore ohara, of danville, ky, who wrote the poem memorialized on the marker in the courthouse 'park'.....

THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD"By Theodore O'Hara
The muffled drums sad roll has beat
The soldier's last Tattoo;
No more on life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
But glory guards, with solumn round,
The bivouac of the dead.

this is all that is on that marker.....the rest can be read on-line.....it is much too sad to read.....but basically calls to mind all that is horrid about war......written just after the mexican/american war...and made famous during the civil war.....it means more to me having read and seen cold mountain..........and has the requisite street named after him.........just a little bit of remembrance on this memorial day........

sports update.....

ok, so our friend patrick morgan has made it out of regionals in both the 1600, and the 1600 relay events........we are relieved, as he will be able to defend his state title/record despite recent bout of illness.....congrats to patrick....and may the college scouts be numerous in attendence and generous in offers......also congrats to martina navratilova...who at 47.5 years of age is still alive in women's doubles and mixed doubles.....although she was ousted in teh first round of women's singles.......she is such an athlete......she who is 6 months younger than me and still kicking in a world overrun by wunderkind.....

mean mamma

ok, the my general meanness came into question last night at dinner, when i refused to let our daughter have a second huge helping of lasagna after she had already eaten a first huge helping, 2 pieces of bread.......and no salad.......yes, she could have salad.....but she had no business with extra lasagna....the meanness came up when the discussion of 'growing girls' was brought forth........our daughter, at age 11, has probably grown all that she will grow...given her current state of puberty.......at this mention....she burst into hysterics, spent time 'on the steps' cooling off.......and only later was calm enough to read on-line about the stages of growth in puberty, and associated milestones.......fortunately the article from nih stated tnat many girls have reached their full adult height by age 11........gentle readers.....this child, who was neglected as a young child to the point that she had no predictable availability of food has a problem with food.....if there are servings left in bowls on the table.....particularly of meat or starch...never with vegetables...go figure......she feels compelled to eat them.......we were stunned when she used a leftover roll to wipe out her ice cream bowl one day last week......she said she was still hungry and nobody else had wanted that roll.......given the fine line between allowing a child to become obese, and creating an eating problem.....i must tread carefully here......we do know that heaviness runs in her biological family.....she is not yet in this state...but she has quite a potential to become so......pray for us all here in this household, that we may make it through this child's adolescence.........

women in combat......

ok, so let us no forget women who fought bravely/served in battle on this memorial day weekend.....the photos i have seen thus far of vets arriving in washington dc for the wwII memorial were men......women in combat have an unlikely heroine to look up to...it was on this day in 1431 that Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy in Rouen, France. She was an ordinary French peasant girl, living during the Hundred Years War between France and England. When she was still a teenager, she heard the voice of God telling her to join the battle and help defeat the English army. She performed a series of apparent miracles and persuaded the French army to let her command a group of soldiers. At the battle of Orleans, she led the revitalized French army, bearing a flag with Jesus’ name written across it, and the English were defeated. She continued fighting battles until May 23, 1430, when she was captured by enemy soldiers. They turned her over to the church to be tried as a heretic, idolater, and sorcerer. Her enemies believed that the only way they could have lost in battle to a woman was if she had been using witchcraft. She was mostly forgotten for about 400 years, and then she was revived as a patriotic figure during the French revolution. In 1920 she was canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict the Fifteenth. She is the only person ever burned at the stake for heresy who later became a saint. The file on her at the Vatican is still sealed. joan really must have been incredible......many movies made of her, but now when i think of joan, , i see eowyn with helmet on and sword in hand...standing up to the witch king.......with the truly great screen line......i am no man........which she pronounces just before destroying him.........curious that the vatican would have kept joan's file sealed.......joan of arc: the secret vatican file sounds like a good movie concept.....

baseball.....

ok, so now that i am loosely 'following' teams that i want to beat the nyy this year....i am confounded by their schedules......boston plays seattle today (h), baltimore monday (h) then anaheim (a) tuesday and wednesday, then a day off.......i was surprised to see that anybody would travel for a 1-day stand.....but several teams have done this....just not the nyy.....they actually get a day off on memorial day.......we would theoretically travel to see my dad's grave monday, but i believe his ashes are still in my mother's closet and she has not gotten around to interment at the veteran's cemetery......not far to visit, as she lives across the street....i might just stick around and watch a baseball game via her satdish...........

lotr/rotk

ok, so having seen lotr/rotk once on the big screen and twice on tv via dvd......i would have done things differentlty if i were queen of the universe and could control the editing of epic sagas.......for starts, i would drastically cut back on the frodo/sam/gollum scenes........they really weighed things down in all three installments....one or two scenes would have sufficed with regards to gollum trying to make frodo distrust sam...........and one or two scenes of sam and frodo climbing anything....the steps to the spider lair.....or mount doom......... could have conveyed the same weighty sense of adversity, duty, survival.......also, i would cut out the scene at minas trias (sp)where frodo is in bed recovering and all his friends come into greet him, one by one.....this could have been melded with the coronation scene.......and saved time......on a similar note, i feel that the romance between faromir and eowyn that was played out in the book should have been fleshed out in the film.........and the ending......i.e...everything after the coronation...could have waited til the extended version........i have read all 4 books (including the hobbit) numerous times.....and i do not think i would have felt slighted if the text had been shortcut a tad for the sake of telling a story well, versus telling the entire story whether it turned out well or not.......it would be good to be queen.......

insipid.....

ok, so mm has regressed to past favorites........at least with books on tape.....the library was quite wanting in anything that interested me, so i checked out a classic....northanger abbey by jane austin......probably her novel that i am the least familiar with......so far....jane has used the word insipid twice.....and we are only to chapter 3........gentle readers.........some words may be used over and over....connectors, etc.....but other descriptives screamout from overuse.......jane has used the word sallow at least three times......i am being overly critical, i allow......i may simply overlook repeat use when i read,but when one listens.....such things are more easily noticed.......a curious development, as my close aquaintance asure me that i hear nothing they say to me.............

roadrage.............webrage........assorted other rages............

ok, so there are many rages on the mm's plate this evening........for starts.....i made a 'quick trip' to frankfort to obtain our chilled....fedex quails...that fedex could not deliver due to lack of staff........gentle readers....there are few calls as unwelcome as the food vendor...who calls on friday afternoon to tell you that your quails are in frankfort......3 counties away....and that they have no drivers to deliver them....and that you will have to locate the frankfort fedex office yourself and go there.......the food rep says this from his in-laws house in henderson....near st. louis...so we all know he isn't going to frankfort to get the quails.........and the company that sent the quails also called....so sorry that they used fedex instead if ups....which is 4 blocks away....i could have walked there.........so i got in my van.....full of recycling, by the way....and drove to frankfort using directions i found online.....and drove back.........there was construction at the bluegrass parkway exit.....which delayed my return by 30 minutes.......so by the time i got home i was good and upset..........and then.....i discovered that my good friend...the loyal opposition.....had lifted text from my blog onto her own blog.......i was flattered....and wanted to use this trackback feature that appeared when i added comments to my new format......1.5 hours later......i have downloaded software, read instructions, disclaimers, blah, blah, blah....and still do not know how to link the l.o's borrowed text to my text........i did figure out how to upload photographs,....but that was not on a holiday friday afternoon........which brings me to my third rage.....i have 2 weddings tomorrow....and i have to work........who in their right mind wants to get married on a day that i do not want to work?...............

storms

ok, so i didn't get much sleep last night...mostly due to the storms......there were at least 2 that swept through with sheets of rain, howling winds....the works.......someone had to lay awake and decide if things were bad enough to warrant going to the basement.......but today.......i am pretty worthless........scotty, my kitchen assistant....told me that the storms kept him awake, too....but he had no where to go.....as he and his family of 5 live in a trailer park.......the coverstory in the lexheraldleader was of a trailer completely destroyed by the tornado that came through yesterday south of here......very scary to live in a trailer......more storms are expected monday......maybe a good time to catch up on sleep with a nice afternoon nap.....

roots....

ok, so my spouse came home yesterday jazzed up about a customer who came in for a bike with his new wife........who is from romania.......gentle readers.....my spouse's grandmother came from romania when she was 14 or so with her younger sister( the ages changed with the telling of the story.....but they must have been young)......to cincinnati, where they cleaned houses until they had enough money to get married........anyway......my spouse asked the romanian bride if she was familiar with the 'hometown' of timisoara....in northwestern romania......'timisoara...she replied....of course'......and then she turned to her new husband and asked him if my spouse did not have the complexion of a romanian.....in all fairness......my spouse and his siblings mostly have ruddy complexions.....and his oldest brother has distinct mongol traces......which makes sense given the history of the steppes.........we are amiss when we say...definitively...... that our kin are german...this branch was only german after WWI......before it was part of the austro-hungarian empire........they are actually romanian......and they should be proud of this connection.........

separation of church and state.....

ok, so i am finally reading a time editorial about the colorado bishop who suggested in a letter to parishioners that those who support abortion rights, or who vote for people who do should be denied communion......gentle readers....i must admit to near-glee when i heard on the radio this morning that there is a pending court case challenging the tax-free status of the diocese in colorado...given it's current political playership.........i was also relieved in our recent council-race.....though i did not get to vote in it due to my county residence....the only minister running was voted off the ballot for november......certainly, the general populous understands that separation of church and state was one of our fore-father's wisest moves.........

ok, so a friend had suggested this picture as more indicative of my blog than my picasso........ 

the lord giveth, and the lord taketh away......

ok, so i have 2 letters on my kitchen counter....the first....your son was on the spring u.k. dean's list.....the second.....from the irs telling that we had underpaid........ok....so the letter doesn't exactly tell me how we underpaid.......just mail us this discreet amount, and we'll call it even.....maybe it is dubya's way of raising capital.....he has mailed everybody in america the same letter, and we all mail him a check........i guess i like the letter from the dean better...........

new words.....

ok, so this post was cut/pasted from an email sent by my workaholic brother that i hear from so rarely.......

New Words

The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again
asked readers to take any word from the dictionary,
alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one
letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this
year's (2003) winners.

Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people
that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone
layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking
down in the near future.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which
lasts until you realize it was your money to start
with.

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which
renders the subject financially impotent for an
indefinite period.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray painted very, very high.


Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic
wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are
running late.

Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got
extra credit.)

Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off
all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the
Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through
the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Glibido: All talk and no action.

Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem
smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed
just after you've accidentally walked through a spider
web.

Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that
gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and
cannot be cast out.

Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding
half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the bunch ----

Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole

lord only knows....

ok, so here is the song back played on an antique concertina whilst crouching on the floor......i do want credit on my permanent record for knowing that it was beck's own song, and from an album i had heard before.......and i have no idea what it means or why i like it......

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!
You only got one finger left
And it's pointing at the door
And you're taking for granted
What the Lord's made on the floor
So I'm picking up the pieces
And I'm putting them up for sale
Throw your meal ticket out the window
Put your skeletons in jail
'Cause Lord only knows it's getting late
Your senses are gone so don't you hesitate
To give yourself a call let your bottom dollars fall
Throwing your two bit cares down the drain
Invite me to the seven seas like some seasick man
You will do whatever you please and I'll do whatever I can
Titanic, fare thee well, my eyes are turning pink
Don't call us when the new age gets old enough to drink
'Cause Lord only knows it's getting late
Your senses are gone so don't you hesitate
Move on up the hill there's nothing dead left to kill
Throwing your two bit cares down the drain
Odelay, odelay, odelay, odealy odelay, odelay
Just passing through
Odelay, odelay, odelay, odealy
Going back to Houston
Do the hot dog dance
Going back to Houston
To get me some pants.....

great ad.....

ok, so i am bored on the first day of not going to work at 7:30 am.......now that the kids are out of school, i have decided that i can have a morning that borders on leisurely, at least for 30 minutes or so......anyway, i was reading links from the l.o.'s new blog.......something about the axes of eve's panties.....ha.....and i saw a brilliant ad.........3 presidents portraits in a row....jackson, lincoln, and gwb.....the caption....what do these three presidents have in common?....the answer....the first two can unseat the third......jackson....lincoln....get it?.....and it was a kerry ad.......i have never donated cash for a political cause, but this may just have to be the year i change my poltical tactics......by the way, l.o....if it is the fired professor i am thinking of...the one that used to date my parisian traveling partner before she adopted and settled down....i can tell you that he got fired for sleeping with students......maybe that is not the one you are thinking about...but hey......you may come across his file, too......

beck.....

ok, so my household has spent the past hour watching beck on austin city limits, backed up by the flaming lips.........he did not sing devil's haircut, too bad.....butr then he did play an interesting song from odelay on a concertina/accordian-type instrument.....very haunting......

lost in translation.....

ok, so one translation of the word resille, as in picasso's femme a la resille........is hairnet...woman in hairnet hahahahaha.........now that is really funny for a food service person who now refuses to wear one........however, i have put in my time as a hairnet-wearing kitchen lady.......this is too funny.............

this picasso really captures my mood these days...plus it matches the backround..... 

fyi

ok, so for those who are not currently working in the restaurant industry.....a quick word of caution.......it is not a good idea to make coffee without putting a pot under the spigot.....just thought this bit of info might come in useful at some point..............

martin luther

ok, so.......today's blog is a tribute to martin luther...the original martin luther.....as reported on writer's almnanc

It was on this day in 1521 that the German priest and theologian Martin Luther was declared an outlaw by the Edict of Worms. The edict made Luther more of a hero than he already was, and it's a big reason that Protestantism caught on so quickly.

Luther decided to become a priest after getting caught out in a thunderstorm one night. He swore to God that if he survived he would enter the religious life. He did survive, and he went on to study theology, become ordained, and get a job as a professor in Wittenberg. As he became more and more involved in the Church, he began to grow disgusted with some of its practices. He was especially angry about the Church's sales of indulgences, which were said to decrease the time a person had to spend in Purgatory.

On the eve of All Saints Day in 1517, Luther posted ninety-five theses attacking the sale of indulgences to the door of his church. He wrote, "All those who consider themselves secure in their salvation through letters of indulgence will be eternally damned, and so will their teachers." There were thousands of peasants and pilgrims in town to observe All Saints Day, and the pamphlets caused a sensation. They were originally written in Latin, but they became so popular that people demanded they be translated into German, and so they were. Hundreds of copies were printed up on a printing press, which was still a fairly recent invention, and Luther's message spread throughout Germany and Europe.

Luther was threatened by church leaders, but he continued to publish controversial writings that attacked the church hierarchy. When the Pope issued an indictment of him, Luther burned a copy of it in a bonfire at his university. Religious leaders and politicians began to realize how dangerous he was becoming to the traditional church, and in April of 1521, a group of Roman princes pressured Emperor Charles V into forming an assembly to try to get Luther to reject his writings.

On his trip to Worms, Luther was celebrated as a hero at most of the towns he passed through. People hugged him and showered him with gifts, and he told them he would battle the Pope in Worms "though opposed by all the gates of hell and the powers of the air." When he arrived in Worms on April 16 he was cheered and welcomed by a crowd of people.

Luther had to appear twice before the emperor, and each time he was told to take back his teachings. He said, "Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason . . . my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe."

Luther had a letter of safe conduct that gave him twenty-one days of safe travel through Germany, but as soon as he left the assembly he was declared an outlaw, which meant that he could be killed by anybody without the threat of punishment. He went into hiding in the Wartburg, where he grew out his hair and beard. Within a year, he moved back to Wittenberg, which had become the center of the Protestant Reformation.

5th grade promotion......

ok, so our daughter was promoted to the 6th grade today......which means that we have at least 7 more years of hands-on parenting left before our nest is empty........this event was idyllic in many ways.......my spouse and i walked there......in itself a rarity in all but small-town america....and as we walked a former classmate of acw's at montessori/dhs soccer ran across the street from the bakery to say hello and to say that he would be in the bike shop later on to get some parts, and to let us know that he has spent the year in jackson,wyoming working and mountain biking.......and, as we discovered, he almost worked at my favorite jackson restaurant....thai me up.......so we went to the promotion.....and cayle looked just fine considering that she has shoved her choice of dress into a kroger bag along with her shoes before leaving the house........it made no sense to ask her to take it on a hanger once it was already in the bag........the 'grads' camei in to the elementary gym to pomp and circumstance......and then we sang my old kentucky home.......and the students then sang the jenny rogers elementary school song.......and then cayle read her personal essay about her time at jenny rogers.......well. she was among 6 who reads their personal narrative.......and i was so pleased that she left out the part that she left montessori because she didn't fit in and couldn't figure it out.........and that her second grade teacher asked us why we were not medicating her........and the part about her having 3-4 women she calls mom........thankfully, she kept her remarks to the 1000 pound pig owned by the teacher she had last year.......such are the blessings of life...........

by the way.....

ok, so i like this new format....it has the pea-green of the original......with a kind of target-store feel..........

d-day......

ok, so we are nearing the 60th anniversary of d-day......and given the current military climate.....the two situations do not belong in the same breath let alone the same blog.......as a 16-year old, i visited omaha and gold beaches with my parents and my brother, who went on to 20 years of service in military intelligence.......the memory of the cemetary at omaha remains in my memory, as well as the terrain at gold beach.......the fact that anyone survived was an act of god.....we visited the bayeaux tapestry on the same day.....which records battles hundreds of years earlier......clearly, we have learned nothing about war or peace in the interim......today i heard rumsfeld ranting to a congressional hearing about how unfair it is that us troups have cell phones that can transmit pictures........frankly, i think all soldiers should be so-armed.........the closer we are to the reality of combat, of death....the less likely we will be to allow our barely elected leaders to volunteer us in future........and as for family values.....i find it laughable that bush was hurt biking on the day he skipped his daughter's college graduation...the one she skipped out on.............those bushes.....aren't they just precious?...............

somewhat successful.......

ok, so i wanted this picture to be part of my template, but that will have to be for another day....as for this day, i am delighted that i have changed my template, saved my comments, and added a picture....the picture of a mysterious woman who may just be my alter-ego.......

the meanest mamma 

throw-away society

ok, so my middle child came home from the presby. church/centre yardsale yesterday with some real bargains....and while i am pleased about this, i am also appalled.......the clothing/stuff involved in the sale are things left by students in dorm rooms...just abandoned...there was at least 1 television, a computer, lots of furnishings, and clothing......scw got shirts by banana republic, a&f, and express.......for next to nothing.......these are not pieces of clothing that i would label disposable.......do the young have so much extra cash that they can casually discard $37.50 polo shirts...........oh my.......

a blogging record.......

ok, so i could clearly be doing laundry, or tidying up the pile of college mail, but i prefer to blog with my disposable time.........about......burger king's push to market to 20-something males..........ha.....my 20-something male spends all of his apre time either playing everquest on-line....or writing his great-american novel.......so how can burger king tap into his buying habits........who knows......he has already figured out that he can fix ramen noodles, frozen veggies, canned chicken and bag salad for far less than a #2 combo.......good luck in marketing to this need breed of 'spenders'..........

paris cdg

ok, so my friends and i may have flown out of the doomed cdg terminal in january...on an air france flight to atlanta.....i cannot recall that it looked new, only that the duty-free shops looked new.....but then that is what i would remember......and that is the leg of our journey that almost came to blows, as my friend clara had my boarding pass......and i had hers.....and she got on the plane first, and i was left without the correct pass.....and had she not come back out and loudly announced in english that there had been a mistake, i might still be sitting in that terminal......well, not really, but it makes a better story..............

run, patrick, run.....

ok, so there is sad news in the running community that patrick m. may still be too ill with his viral infection to defend his state track title......he told his mom that when he gets to the second lap he feels like he is breathing through a straw..........hopefully he will recover with medications........he is such a talented runner, and deserving of scholarships that may be available from scouts who go to state track meets........again, so sad, because by next year's track finals, the scholarships will have all been decided...and that will be too late for patrick..........

bush approval rating near all-time low....

ok so i thought i was done blogging, but there is always time for bush-bashing...

CNN) -- President Bush's approval rating remains virtually unchanged from the record low of his presidency two weeks ago, according to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll.

Forty-seven percent of people polled May 21-23 said they approve of how Bush is handling the presidency -- up 1 percentage point from a poll taken May 7-9. (Full story)

Forty-nine percent said they disapprove, down 2 percentage points from the previous survey. With a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, the change was statistically

if only he could keep this up til november......but wait.....he probably can........

a kindred procrastinator

ok, so there are lists of famous procrastinators........and this is the first person who overlapped with my leftie list......

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was a man of incredible talent. He explored almost every field available to him, in both science and art. He made significant contributions in engineering, architecture, biology, botany, anatomy, math, and physics. He sculpted, painted, both portrait and mural (e.g., The Last Supper) and made plans for ingenious machines that wouldn't be built for centuries (e.g., planes, submarines). He also never finished a project on time.

Part of what made Leonardo such a "Renaissance Man" was that he was distractible as he was talented. Jacob Bronowski, the scientific historian, speaks about his procrastination. His talents and energy were often wasted in doodles and unfinished projects. The Last Supper was only finished after his patron threatened to cut off all funds. Mona Lisa took twenty years to complete. The Adoration of the Magi, an early painting, was never finished and his equestrian projects were never built.

His procrastination caused him much grief in later years. Despite his varied contributions, he felt he could have achieved much more. Given his talents, it is without doubt that more of his aspirations could have become a reality in his own time. So much was half-completed that he appealed to God, “Tell me if anything ever was done. Tell me if anything was done.”

The cause of Leonardo's procrastination appears to be distractibility. Today, we might even characterize Leonardo as suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder. Being unable to focus on one project until completion is highly predictive of procrastination. His distractibility, jumping from topic to topic, allowed him to contribute in a wide variety of fields. However, it is doubtful whether such as strategy could create more than a dilettante today, even with Leonardo's ability (i.e., he was said to be able to paint with one hand and write with the other, simultaneously). Thanks to efforts over the last few hundred years, including da Vinci's of course, contributing new knowledge often requires many months of continued focus.

a support group for lefties......

ok, so there needs to be such a support group, for those of us who continue to be confused and confounded by handedness.......i am not alone, but these famous lefties are dead or not personally known to me, and of no real use to me in this crisis....ben franklin, joan of arc, alexander the great, charlemagne, julius caesar, napolean, josephine, queen victoria, prince charles and prince william, fidel castro, henry ford, helen keller, jfk jr, caroline kennedy, matt groening and therefore bart simpson, lewis carrol, mark twain, durer, davinci, escher, holbein, klee, michaelangelo, raphael, kurt cobain, paul simon, paul mccartney, jimi hendrix........in fact what stared this blog was a riff from purple haze.........which was the name of my high school newspaper........we were the purple indians, by the way, before using indians as team names was not politically correct........or rather, it was purple haze until someone caught on........which i did not understand at the time, being a tad naive to such things....but back to lefties.....it is good to have something in common with so many driven people.........curious, in that i have given up drivenness for lent and not taken it back up again.........but that may be why my middle child claims that i seem lost...i need to rediscover a passion for something vital.......again.....i think it should be my novel.......so why do i procrastinate so about working on it.....do i also have procrastination in common with all of these fine folks......... funny how i cannot find a similar list of famous procrastinators..........

a support group for liberals......

ok, so my good friend anne came in for lunch with her daughter who graduates dhs wednesday, and who will attend centre......with a notably liberal staff attended by basically southern semi-conservative students....the daughter promised to shake things up......but the best part of the few moments i could spend with them was simply reaffirming that i am not the only person who feels the way i do about life.......if anything, my friend anne is more liberal than i......and has probably gone to greater lengths to assure the free-thinking nature of her children (all 6).......and she is certainly the more vocal...with several ascerbic letters to the editor to her credit........but then, that is what i like about her........she is outspoken as well as unafraid to be so......

comments.....

ok, so the comments have disappeared again.....maybe it is just the phase of the moon.......or maybe divine intervention...or maybe cyberterrorism.........regardless....the comments are the second-best part of blogging....so to who(m)ever is in charge of comments out there in cyberspace, please put them back......

thunderstorm......

ok, so we are experiencing a thunderstorm, and my pets are having a collective crisis over said storm.......the older dog is standing at my feet, shaking in his 'shoes' , whilst the cat paces and tries to jump up in my lap.......but she will not just sit in my lap so i must eject her over and over....and the large one...the yellow dog, just lies near, looking worried.........what a motley crue we have here........

weekend update....

ok, so the boston redsox won several games aganst toronto, and the yankees lost several games against texas, so this morning boston is up by 2 games.....yeah....and the chicago cubs are also on top of their little division....just as it should be for a potential sox/cubs ws matchup......and i heard on the radio this morning that martina navratolova (sp...) will be playing both singles and doubles at the french open.......at 47...i am impressed by her spunk and level of fitness..............

centre college......

ok, so my middle child will be away from home, attending governor's scholars program for 5 weeks.........at centre college.......in danville ky...which means we will drive him across town the end of june....and he will live in a dorm less than 2 blocks away from trc and dbf.......and we are only allowed 'on campus' to visit him for 1 single day in july..........however, both trc and dbf are within the legal limit that scholars may venture off campus......and he is allowed to attend church.....so theoretically he could be sitting in the pew with us/near us for 5 straight sundays.........and maybe show up for lunch on saturdays at the restaurant.......he will be studying russian language and culture...should be interesting....we will miss him.....luckily he has email access....and he can keep up with us via blog..........

alias......

ok, so tonight is the alias season finale......which means that i have 12+ hours to wait for this special program........the last 2 seasons had memorable finales........i have been to abc's alias site.....there are so many things scheduled to happen it boggles the mind.......the evil lauren will steal critical documents from cia headquarters.........her soon-to-be-ex husband vaughan will somehow confront her as well as some dark secret from his past.......sydney's newly revealed/found/lost sister will have to decide if she can trust her newly found/lost father sloan.....and sydney finds out some shattering truth that will shake up her trust of all of the above characters, as well as that of her father, who has recently had dna testing to prove that he is her dad........and what is this about her dad getting it on with her mother's sister katya?........oh my.....the plot really does thicken........this show fulfills my need for soap opera-like drama without the need for a day-by-day fix........just once a week for 1 hour......that is about all i can find room for....but what an hour...........

evening walk.....

ok, so my spouse and i took a pleasant post-supper walk on the 5k cross country course at dr. mack's farm........this fine fellow has consigned most of his property to natural prairie with the support of a govt grant......so it is wild and wonderful......white yarrow is now in bloom, as is rosa multiflora.......a cultivar introduced as a hedgerow plant.......until it proved unable to stay in any hedgerow......at osu there was a specialist whose job it was to get rid of rosa multiflora.........anyway......our daughter's foster father and his 2nd bride married on this property last august.......in a lovely ceremony with a fabulous bluegrass band at the reception in a huge tent.........our friend larry and his wife cammie were there......we have a picture of them with our daughter under than tent.......sad memories along this walk........last night during dinner my husband and children got to talking about the u.u. church...and how danville needs one.......but then...dr. mack's 'services' every other sunday really count.....people gather for 1 hour of meditation and coffe...then hear a message by a volunteer............my sons suggested that the symbol of this loose gathering be dr. david anderson.......naked.....carrying the tablets under one arm, and a cup of free trade coffee in the other hand.........those who know david will find this quite fitting.........

more about left-handers......

ok, so this leftie perfect game guy has me thinking about lefties....such a select group of folks to be associated with, i must say.......here is list #1...presidents...

Left-Handed U.S. Presidents
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) 20th
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) 31st
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) 33rd
Gerald Ford (1913- ) 38th
Ronald Reagan (1911 - ) 40th
George H.W. Bush (1924- ) 41st
Bill Clinton (1946- ) 42nd

why so many recent lefties......my mother would be the first to tell you that it was custom years ago to 'correct' handedness....and to force lefties into using their right hands.....my mother contends that she is really a leftie, but was forced otherwise.......i am shamed to be in the same group as reagan, bush #1 or ford.........oh my.......

pleasant encounters......

ok, so my eldest child came home last night to surprise my spouse on his 49th brithday.......we had an idyllic supper, with grandma, all the children home........well.. at least until the election came up and we spatted a bit over kerry 'talking out of both sides of his mouth', to which i countered that it was better than having cheney speaking for him out of his mute mouth like a blessed puppet...............anyway.......my eldest was just precious......chatting a mile a minute with our middle child......about who knows what...it was so good to see both children vibrant with excitement and focus........the eldest even said as much to me this afternoon before he went back to lexington.......'you, know mom, i didn't have anybody to talk to when i was in high school,.......and the people i hung around with...well i just did things i shouldn;'t have done..........i know what (scw) is going through......he doesn't have anybody to talk to.......he will when he goes to college.......' such incite from a boy not yet 20.......i am so pleased that they have found each other as friends at this late date........

learning curve......

ok, so i have spent the past few hours since coming home trying to add a picture to my blog.........not my picture, but my iconoclastic picture..........and i have gotten nowhere.......i have downloaded the software available for free from blogger for such things......and still cannot figure out what to do next.......copy and paste does not work in this instance......the blogger profile wants my photo's url....and i cut and pasted the directive to my hardddrive where the photo is stored, but that is not good enough.....and i have tried ti apply the photo to the new software out in cyberspace.......and so far that also does not work.......alll this for a friggin picture.............of a mysterious woman..................ah well.....i will figure this out yet.................

photoblogging....

ok, so i really should get with the program and change my blog format to one that at least allows pictures.....not that the pictures would be of me, .......maybe some painting that captures the moment, or a perfect rose.......or whatever.......maybe i can come up with my own icon/logo

dishwasher area as a post-bermuda triangle

ok, so in the past 24 hours, our daytime dishwasher...the brad pitt wannabee....left to go to dui training class.....and has never been seen again......whilst the neely hired evening dishwasher had a panic attack last night and had to be rushed to the emergency room......he was cold as ice, pale as a ghost.........or so i have heard........unfortunately, none of the college or high school age folks who have come by asking for summer employment have expressed interest in dishwashing.......they all want to wait tables and collect large tips........no matter what the us govt says about illegal aliens, i would give my eyeteeth to have 2 or 3 illegal aliens on staff, right at this minute............they would have reason to work hard, and they would show up for work, and they may just last longer than those we have hired recently.............

painfully unhip......

ok, so i have visted the loyal opposition's new blog....and i have read some of her comments from hip locals....and i have concluded that i am dreadfully unhip.........not that this is a problem for me....as hipness is obviously a state to which i have never aspired.........i am just stating facts....but it does bring to mind jack white's production of loretta lynn's new cd.......the hip and the painfully unhip have come together in a wonderfully unique way.....there may be hope......

perfect game top 10 list from david letterman...

ok, so i copied this from dave's home page, without permission....you don't think i know dave, do ya???

Late Show Top Ten Cool Things About Pitching A Perfect Game

10. "After this, I can go 0-15 for the year and honestly not give a crap"
9. "My pre-game dinner at Denny's tonight? On the house!"
8. "Shows everyone that even though I'm 40, I can still...I'm sorry, I lost my train of
thought"
7. "Cool to get congratulatory call from the President, even though he kept calling
me "Larry"
6. "Can walk up to guys who've thrown no-hitters and whisper, "Loser"
5. "All the pine tar I can eat!"
4. "Your catcher hugs you and it feels kinda...nice"
3. "Maybe people will finally forget about the time I killed that bird"
2. "It's just one more thing about me that's perfect, am I right, ladies?"
1. "George Steinbrenner just offered me a billion dollars to sign with the yankees"

harvard prize book award

ok, so among other awards, our middle child won the harvard prize book award.......presented by a harvard alum who is an english professor at centre......
As defined by the Harvard Alumni Association web site, the Prize Book is to be awarded to an outstanding student in the next to the graduating class who "combines excellence in scholarship and high character, with achievement in other fields." The award is usually made at the school's graduating exercises, with appropriate remarks by a local alumnus or alumna. The Prize Book may also be awarded to outstanding high school teachers, who inspire curiosity and excellence in students. the student we visited at harvard was the harvard prize book winner 2 years ago........so far, we have been deemed unworthy to actually look at the book........maybe there is a qualifying exam.......

secret service

ok, so the secret service were here today for lunch with the centre security people, presumably planning for sandra day-oconner's visit/speech sunday to centre for graduation.....they didn't much look like secret service...but then i have no idea what i think they should look like......ah well......

devil's haircut.....

ok, so i went and got another one of those anonymous haircuts yesterday....a pretty good one, actually for the money......i am always amazed when i am asked if i want a wash as well as a cut.....the hairwashing part may be the very best part of a haircut........but i digress into fantasy....anyway......i got this song into my head.....beck's devil's haircut.....a catchy little tune that was blaring as we drove through northern germany on our way to amsterdam,...whilst i was really on the wrong road, and not wanting to alarm anyone, nor admit that we were lost, i simply headed in the right direction until i was in the right place........this song also makes me think of the loyal opposition, of whom i have seen so little this year, and read of so little this year......i do miss her special brand of irreverence......

lost......

ok, so my middle child has informed me that i seem lost, now that i have no really good book or book on tape, and that this explains why i blog so frequently.......i see it as procrastination over spending time with the novel and i am trying to piece together.....i have finished organizing all of the past blogs that i liked enough to cut and paste.......i have also unearthed all of the notes that gail and i took about how we would like our screen play idea to go......as well as the several outlines that i have put together....now all i have to do is weave it together somehow......easier to blog on unrelated subjects,frankly..........

perfect game trivia.....

ok, so randy johnson, a 40 year-old leftie from arizona diamondbacks threw a perfect game last night....27 batters up and 27 batters down........the interesting trivia....is that the ky senator that we democrats are hoping to unseat in the fall is none other than 1964 perfect gamer jim bunning......who grew up in southgate ky across the street from my inlaws before they moved to cincinnati...pitching well and being a republican......doesn't mean i will ever vote for him...............

missing herbert.....

ok, so today when i was driving to the recycling center, through centre's campus, i spied a man and his daughter....walking deliberately....and the man looked so much like my dad i almost stopped the car......he was wearing my dad's favorite casual get-up.......taupe polyester pants, and a beige button down shirt....in polyester (it IS drip dry......) and a sunhat........belt matched shoes.......i heard today on npr that there is a link between people who do not read for pleasure and alzheimers.....i do not buy that, as my dad did the nyt crossword daily, completely, in pen......people like that are in the same league of people who read novels daily, aren't they?.........anyway.........i miss my dad.......

abandoned child.....

ok, so i just read about this on cnn.com.....

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- Authorities appealed to the public to identify an abandoned 3-year-old girl who says her name is Courtney, she's from Brooklyn and she wants her mommy.

her dad left her with stranger so he could 'cash a money order', and he did not return.......no idea where the mother is........9 years ago, i would have read this tale in disbelief......no reasonable parent does this kind of thing.....but that would have been before i met my third child's birth mother, birth father, associated social workers, foster parents, half-siblings, new husbands, et al...........somehow the term et al seems eerily out-of-place.........there is another world out there of people whose dysfunction goes beyond any lifetime channel made-for-tv movie.....and this dysfunction is something that daily love and attention by basically decent and caring people cannot erase.......my child's birth mother once attempted to give her half-brother away to a couple she met in the drivethru window at mcdonalds........had it not been the the vigilance of her social worker....the daughter of our child's original foster parents.....who divorced after we adopted.......he and his new wife are in our bookclub.....(his new wife ( a lawyer) is a friend of the lawyer who did the adoption case for us pro bono )got it? this is pretty convoluted stuff.......anyway.....we have seen abandonment, remorse, abandonment, remorse......so many times......and yet...we still allow our child's birth mother to have contact (we would allow the birth father contact, but he assured us that he had no......not worth going there........ ) because we know that it is important to our child to know that even though her birth mother has 'problems' she has not totally abandoned her.......and we have full expectation that when this child turns 18 she will try to live with this birth mother.........just because she will be legally able to do so.....ands she must then discover for herself that this is not a realistic option........we have 7 more years until this fateful day.......i try not to think about it......anyway.......i really feel for this child, found in baltimore......from brooklyn.......may she find peace........

city commission elections

ok, so mm is quite smug about yesterday's elections, in which the 2 'yes'men for the evil mayor received bottom of the barrel votes.......only losing to the conservative preacher....i must say that i was torn in who (whom?) should be at the bottom....as i am totally against the clergy running for office......anyway.......the newspaper really played up on these incumbents being at the bottom of the heap of votes......they are so squirrelly that they did not announce their recommendation about cutting funding for our downtown promotion office until yesterday, when it was too late for the newspaper to cover the funding cut...which could have effected voting ( the paper comes out before the polls close......).....but that did not matter, because the 2 mayoral flunkies are certain to lose in november ( 8 will run-off for 4 slots in november....), given their lack of support yesterday........maybe they will cease in this curious triumverate with our vile and serpantlike mayor...........and reinstate 'heart of danville' funding.......i suspect not, as there is not a dram of shame amongst the 3 of them..........

million dollar wedding giveaway.....

ok, so in the backround at my house since we got home has been oprah and her million dollar wedding giveaway finalists and voting......only 1 couple can win, the the other 2 couples get valaable prizes and go home dejected......if i had the option of having a million dollar wedding, i believe i would 'spend' the money differently than those blockbuster extravaganzas we have read about in print or that have been intimated about on this program.....this from the queen of lowbudget nuptuals......we spent the following on our wedding....the week after my spouse finished grad school......$60 on fabric for my dress (which i finished just hours before the wedding)....wedding cake- donated by my spouse's summer employer during 4 years of college- buskens bakery in hyde park, cincinnati......preacher......no idea...my parents did make a donation to the church general fund that covered the minister, and the lunch basics brought by my parents' sunday school class.......3 amish hams- my parents bought these.........violinist....again- no idea......but she was wonderful.......suit......ernst bought this at an outlet...for maybe $60. and my mother altered it.......assorted mints,napkins, punch, plates......not too much.......the bottom line.....we enjoyed a basic wedding and a basic reception....then spent the money we did not spend on a wedding on 3 weeks in europe........let me repeat....3 weeks in europe.......i have never had this much time off since, unless you count giving birth or recovering from a miscarriage........given those choices...big wedding or 3 weeks in europe....i would still choose 3 weeks in europe........i have attended weddings for friends that were over-the-moon....only to learn weeks/months later that they had already separated....i credit the longevity of our marriage, in part.....to our low-budget beginning.....no silly expectations about what marriage was about.....and a shared determination that the common goal (big honeymoon) was worth attaining through thrift...........of course, one must also give credit to a spouse more than willing to hyphenate.....and also to separate checking accounts.......amen , amen, and amen............

predatory plants......

ok, so i have spent some time this afternoon pulling out predatory plants.......there is a white loosestrife that someone gave me that has become a pestulant plant.......it has almost taken over the spots once taken over by the prairie pink primrose.....also a predatory plant.......and that is not even considering the daylilies......which have outgrown every intended location, and have worked their way into every unintended nook and cranny......and the lamb's ear......well.......i really like lamb's ear.....so i am pretending that it is NOT out of hand......yet.............there was a time that i thought mint to be my only pesky plant.....now the daylilies have almost drowned out the poor mint.......barely enough for a julep or two.........

triple crown propects....

ok, so i have this theory about smarty jones.......he will win the triple crown if i continue to miss his televised races.....i missed the derby....because i was working...i missed the preakness because i was working.....i will likely miss the belmont.....of course....my missing the belmost could be assured by the transfer of funds....but i doubt that smarty jones' trainer is aware of how much his horse owes to my absense........

things i would have been too embarrassed to admit......

ok, so there were a few ladies-who-lunch in today......inquiring about my children and their summer plans.....all were quite impressed that our eldest had a fulltime job, and that he had gotten it on his own....one lady commented that she and her spouse ( a doctor) had hoped that their eldest would find a job to help them pay for the pricey stereo system they had installed in the car they gave him for graduation.............but he has so far helped friends to find jobs rather than look for himself........gentle readers......anybody who is foolish enough to buy a big-ticket item for a child without a repayment plan signed in duplicate upfront should not be surprised that said child is not in a hurry to find a job.......ah well.........she did ask if we needed any help at the restaurant.......nope....we have all of the help we could possibily need for this summer.......

voting......

ok, so i showed up to vote this morning, even though there was little to vote about........i finally cast a presidential primary vote.......though there are as yet no signs visible in my community for any candidate, let alone the clear frontrunner....we do not seem to be a 'battleground' state...sadly.....and there was a senatroial primary in which the opposition to the democratic favorite has the same name as the republican majority leader of the state house.....curious.....and a us house seat primary in which the opposition has already dropped out.....i would rather have voted 'in town' where city commision primary voting is taking place......more to vote out certain thorns......but this urge to live in town only comes around in voting seasons.......too bad that in our society, people cannot choose to vote where they work and/or own businesses rather than where they happen to live.......if i were queen, that is how i would do it..............

bravado.....

ok, so tonight, when my spouse and i walked outside of our house to walk around the cirle, there was a woman in the road admiring the rose on the trellis....who looked vaguely familiar........because her daughter is on cayle's soccer team.....and she lives up and around the corner.....which we would know if cayle went to the boyle district school.......this lady was fully aware of these facts......she said....'now your daughter doesn't go to the county school'.......as if asking for an explanation......which i blamed on my older children.......'my boys wanted to play soccer for danville'.......that came out of my mouth like water goes under a bridge.......it was partly true......our eldest wanted to go to danville because when he was in 5th grade and had to go somewhere from montessori, his classmates were going to the danville system middle school, and they were all going to play soccer......the rest of the story went unsaid......it just cannot be offered as explanation...it is a story best kept as an answer to a direct, specific question....and that was not the case tonight.......so much for my bravado........

spending time with my novel.....

ok, so i have located my novel notes,......and have spent the last little bit with them........organizing them into the following categories.....strictly personal, whooooworthy......parenting/familial issues.....catering/food service.......employee issues....blogging particulars....saving the world......seeing the world......race issues.....religion issues.....i have already taped these cut-up portions of blogs onto the map of the princeton art museum......i have no idea why i have done this.....maybe the bottle of wine i brought with me for such a purpose.........the blogs so chosen are genuinely whoooworthy........that part is good...at least when i am least in focus i have some sense.....

angst......

ok, so i just finished rereading a book about the author's walk along the pilgrim route to santiago de compostella....in northern spain......2 years ago when i was traveling in the snow storm from bilbao to madrid we saw a pilgrim from the car.....and we were quite excited...because he was a real pilgrim....with a shell, and a floppy hat.......one day i would like to do this walk...from arles, or le puy...or vezelay......certainly not from paris on the rue st jacque because that is a long way indeed........but to make a real pilgrimage...surely that is a major life event.......to catholics......of which i am not and will never be.....in fact...i must confess to cynicism........sunday in church.......which i came every close to blowing off......was, in fact,........gideon sunday.....and half the congregation had already blown it off........i have heard the gideon spiel many times......the same way each and every time.....it would seem.......and i allowed myself to snicker with my middle child, during the message.....about the banality of it all.......i will admit, gentle readers, that i am loathe to proselytize......i believe religion to be personal, and not something to crow about to all/any who will listen.........so why would i want to walk the entire northern route from the french border to the ocean.....because it is there?.........the only interesting thing i found in the book club book about john adams........was the fact that he once landed near santiago and traveled to paris along the northern route.....he even wrote to his wife from bilbao.........which is not quite on the pilgrimage......but i have been to bilbao and to no other place on the pilgrimage....so i was interested to read this.......back to the catholic part....sunday, we sang a call to worship that sounded so catholic....i was thinking it, but my spouse actually leaned over and whispered...this sounds so catholic.....and i started snickering.......i feel guilty, snickering at church, but then i am so cynical......i would not be surprised that when one looks up cyncial in the dictionary......there would be a link to mm..........ah well........one day i will snicker the entire walk to santiago..........

brad pitt....

ok, so my new daytime dishwasher looks like a thinnish version of brad pitt.......and whilst this may seem like a bonus......let me say now that whenever one has a choice bewteen brains and beauty, it is always best to pick brains.....because when one exists without the other, it is painful indeed........the only good thing about the situation is that at least one waitress has been beside herself in trying to get dirty dishes to the dishroom.......but as for me......when someone cannot carry on a reasonable conversation, then what is the point of being on my payroll........

brown vs board of ed.....

ok, so the supreme court ruled segregated schools as unconstitutional 50 years ago today.....2 years before i was born, by the way......and today schools appear in danville to be not much better than they were when i moved here 23 years ago.....there is still a totally segregated school......ky school for deaf......which does not appear to have nondeaf kids begging to get in.....there is a totally integrated school system...the danville system........and then there is a semi-integrated school system...boyle county schools.....the qualifications for attending danville vs boyle was free choice...up until a few years ago.....therefore parents who lived in the city limited could opt to send their children to the county schools.....even if it meant driving by the danville schools to get to the county schools....and families who lived in the county district...like us...could opt to send their children to danville.....in the 18 years i worked at the hospital, i spoke to school classes freqently about good eating habits....to fully caucasion classes in the boyle schools.....'they' say that things have changed...that there are a few black kids who go to boyle.....mostly to be able to play football......gentle readers....both danville (class A) and boyle (class AAA) won state football titles last year.....we made the decision to send our children to danville based on the % of grads who went on to college......roughly 80% of danville grads versus 50% of boyle.....at least at the time......integration was a factor, but graduation odds tell a big tale.....at least about expectations in the curriculum, etc.....we were warned against this choice by well-meaning people who assured us that our children would be fearful of even going to the bathroom......where they would surely be beaten up and their lunch money stolen...this has never happened.but i am sure that many parents till make home purchase decisions now based on the school district....a tough choice in that the nicest homes are by the country club (still segregated, by the way, and with no c-w members)and in the danville district......ah well.......such is life in a free society.....

revelation.....

ok, so last night our daughter stayed over with a friend who attends out church......so.......when ecw left to ride with his buddies, and i had read the paper on the deck,....and had enough coffee......i decided that i had time to 'lay back down' for a liitle while before sunday school.......and i woke up as his truck came back in the driveway.......and i got up and got dressed quickly to be able to make it to church on time.........gentle readers.....skipping sunday school is a slippery slope to heathen behavior......and i am so close to backslider status today......and the dreams that i had in my little 'nap' were so bizarre...............hardly worth it.........

jerry springer.....

ok, so when i was in grad school at u.c. jerry springer was mayor of cincinnati........one of his more interesting scandals involved paying a hooker with a personal check.....on the day he got married.......and now this bit of news was on-line....

CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio Democrats have chosen talk-show host Jerry Springer to be an at-large delegate for the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

oh, my.......i may be a liberal, but i am not stupid.............
jerry springer has been lewd enough to make the hippest hippie go republican......why can't he just stay on his ill-favored reality program and leave the rest of the democratic party alone......

it's 5:17...do you know where your novel is.................

ok, so i just had a lovely chat with my eldest....who is just tickled (my words, not his...) with his room, his roommates, his neighborhood, his job,......he is working 40 hours a week at the big uk library......and so far he has read 1 book a day between tasks......and has found 2 hours a day to work on his novel.....which brings us to my novel.....which i do not spend time with, let alone 2 hours a day......i am not quite sure where it is.....having brought the big guggenheim bag in from the car when we got back from our upeast trip........it is in that bag...but i am not sure where that bag is as i sit here at the pc.......my eldest told me that i have to spend time with it....not just think about it.......i do think that writing htis blog keeps me in tune with my plot, but i have not actually knit together any of the themes i have previously plotted out.....i can 'tell' the book, but i haven't written enough down to feel like a novelist.......at least not in the way my eldest describes his work.......he has so much potential....i am so thrilled that he is finding his stride.......and managing to make it to work on time........

gay marriage

ok, so tomorrow in mass......gays may legally marry....npr has run several interviews with folks on both sides of the bouquet.......a female justice of the peace who resigned rather than sanctify such unions.....and a small town who is so excited about the prospect that they are rolling out the red carpet for willing couples........in my view, a commitment is a commitment, regardless of gender......and there should be legal benefits attached.......i am amazed at those who i go to church with who have commented recently that they din't know what all of the fuss is about......as there are no gays around here.....i about choked......because we have gay couples who attend our church....not openly so......not hand-holding open......but for church members to be innocently unaware is quite amazing to me at this late date.........i am saddened that the church of christ on lexington road has gone through such turmoil over having an openly gay deacon......our church went through a similar disruption over having female deacons.......our church has also had gay deacons......but again, they were not 'out' and therefore seemed safe as 'unmarried' men of god.......well, mass. needs our collective prayers for the days ahead.......

frasier

ok, so we sat up and watched the last original episode of frasier.....not the last episode, because the 11 year run will live on reruns for the next few years at least........i have not watched this show faithfully.......mostly because the time slot...9-ish......competes with a hot bath.....and there is no contest on most days if i can choose a hot bath and something cold to drink.......however....i am sad that this show is ending...because it was so intelligent in its humor......we laughed loudly during several of the scenes......especially when fraiser's dad thought for a moment that the monkey he was carrying was his newborn baby........it may have been an old gag, but it was funny.........the only show that i watch faithfully is.......alias......as my family and friends are well-aware.....there is nothing funny about this show......i enjoy trying to guess where the plot line is going....i predict that theywill find rimbauldi himself in some cave at the cliffhanger moment....like the part in indiana jones and the last crusade when they find the crusader still alive, waiting for the next knight to come and relieve his vigil over the cup of christ.....i like the strong female lead......not that i envision myself as her, but i like notion of an international woman of mystery.........yeah.....

interesting stuff.....

ok, so this was in reader's almanac for may 16....my brother's birthday as i now remember...i must remember to call him...

It was on this day in 1763 that James Boswell first met Samuel Johnson, the man who would become the subject of his life's work, (books by this author). Boswell was twenty-three years old at the time, bumming around London, going to parties and brothels, and feeling like he was wasting his life. He kept a very detailed diary and wanted to be a writer, but he didn’t know what to write about other than himself. His literary hero was the scholar and writer Samuel Johnson. Boswell had heard that Johnson sometimes stopped by a particular bookshop in London, so Boswell began to spend time there in hopes of running into the great man.

Boswell was drinking tea at the bookshop on this day in 1763, when his friend Thomas Davies told him that Johnson had just come into the shop. Boswell got incredibly nervous when Johnson came into the room. They got into an argument about a man they both knew, and the meeting ended poorly, but Boswell wouldn't give up. He went to a party at Johnson's house a few weeks later, and after the party was over Johnson asked him to stay a little longer to talk. Boswell ended up telling Johnson the story of his life and his struggle to find a vocation. The two men became close friends, and Boswell began to write a book about Johnson that would become his obsession.

Boswell tried to write down everything Johnson did and said in his presence, in order to preserve it for posterity. Boswell's attention occasionally irritated Johnson, and Johnson once said to Boswell, "You have but two topics, yourself and me, and I'm sick of both."

Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson came out in 1791, after Johnson;s death, and it became a bestseller. By 1825, all of Samuel Johnson's writings were out of print, and they didn't come back into print for another hundred years. But Boswell's book about Johnson went through forty-one English editions in the nineteenth century alone. Boswell managed to write a book about Johnson that is more interesting to us today than the books that Johnson wrote.

another quasi-neo liberal for peace......

ok ,so my friend gail lent us 2 dvd's to watch this week.....montster's ball.....which we are saving for a completely private moment......and a long walk home...with whoopie goldberg and sissy spacek.......nothing brings out the northern liberal angst like a film with southern violence, abuse, gospel singing,......colored versus whites........i never grew up with any of this....in my birthtown...millersburg, ohio......we grew up with amish children....who were different...but not so different......they did not watch tv.....nor wear underwear with elastic......they wore diapers pinned together with straight pins......now that is devotion......so in my 5th grade year when we moved briefly to hillsboro, ohio.......i was somewhat unprepared for the integrated school that my parents sent us to....it was closer than the segragated school that our neighbors attended.......i can recall being threatened in the bathroom, briefly,.........and then it must have been no fun for the people involved because it never happened again.........because i never play along.........anyway.....we moved that same year to a county that was 100% caucasion.....and that played out until i went to college, and found a job at mt. carmel medical center, where the kitchen staff was 100% black.......i gave rides to and from work to workmates because it was on my way.....and because these people were my friends....my card-playing friends....we played spades every break for 2 solid years.....if i miss anything about columbus, ohio,. it is cards....................so here we are tonight, having just watched the movie gail lent us....and she is not here....she was up to the restaurant helping with the dishes so i could go home.......at least until her daughter was ready for prom.....maybe we will win the lottery tonight, and she will really be my millionaire friend gail......and we will pay other people to do dishes for us......but until we win, well gail is the kind of girl that i owuld want my brother to settle down with......hard-working, dilligent, direct...........any that gail is at work is a good day.....

lupine envy...

ok, so today on the way home from work, i espied in a yard 3 huge lupines......enormous lupines......such as they have in catalog pictures.....certainly not in real life......lupines catch my eye because (1) they remid me of a marvelous day in the west when we were hiking and came across lovely low-growing lupines in full bloom....and (2) because i cannot seem to grow them at all....... no matter if it is from seed, or from nursery plants...they die in my care as if they know that they are misplaced and doomed from the beginning.......plants like azalias.......i understand my inability to grow them.......we live on limestone.....quite close to limestone, in fact......so acid-loving plants like azalia, rhodedendrons, blueberries, dogwoods......might as well throw them over the cliff for all that they will live in our yard.......so what is the deal with lupines.......

always time to be catty

ok so today a girl came into the restaurant wearing a dress that reminded me of a 4-h project i did in the 7th or 8th grade.....it was pitifully tacky then......who knew.......but horrific in 2004........polyester stripes going in different directions in at least 2-3 shades of green and beige......oh my......it really took my back.......needless to say, i did not win the fashion show at the fair that year............what was i thinking?

and so confused......

ok, so this morning i noticed that i sign-in passwords with my right hand.....and use my right hand to type in many letters that my left hand could/should be typing.....this is a revelation to me, as i am left-handed.....i cannot seem to hold a pencil in my right hand.....so why do i favor it when i type?.......i tend to hold forks with my left-hand....but can manage to hold an eating utensil with my right hand,......such is the mechanics of survival, i suppose.........all this hand-confusion may be due to the arthritis-like pain i have in my hands and wrists this morning.....maybe my right hand is stepping up to the plate to give my left hand a breather.......

so old......

ok, remember a few blogs ago when i bragged about emptying a truck-load of mulch in just a little bit.........well....the morning-after is upon me and i feel like a woman twice me age......i can't be positive.....but surely somebody old feels this badly.......mostly my wrists and my arms.....but also my sinuses from all of the dust coming up out of the mulch in the breeze.....and my eyes are swollen.......and my feet hurt---at least the bottoms do........oh, my what i wouldn't give to go back to bed, and not to work........

gettin' radical......

ok, so the mm may just get radical at this wedding in june.....a catholic wedding at st. somebody's church.....at numerous gatherings in the past, my ultra-catholic relations made it plain that i, a non-catholic, could not take communion......though my spouse, raised catholic but baptised in the southern baptist camp....could take communion because he did not denounce his catholic roots........go figure.......but maybe....just maybe, i could shake things up a bit by just marching up to the front and taking communion with everybody else.......gentle readers.....be aware that my sisters-n-law would have a collective fit......and might just convulse into tremors......but would not that be worth it for just a moment of civil disobedience?.........

let's get technical.....

ok, so the discussion at the dinner table turned to the invitation.......and then my spouse posed the question to the table.....who knows how to spell mamma's given name.........yes.....one out of 2 present knew that my name is not kathy, but kathlyn........not kathryn because a ill-favored aunt might think i was named after her.....a point of trivia.....kathlyn is the name of both warren beatty's mother and oldest daughter........and then he turned the tables on his own name....also misspelled frequently......and our daughter was unaware that his name is ernst, and not ernest..............ah well........and then there are the people who spell stephan with an 'en' or an 'even'....or people who spell cayle in numerous ways.....the worst was a race in which she finished as 'caylor'.....my boys still use that name on occassion...............what's in a name?........lots of emotion............it would appear..............

kathy with a 'k'.......

ok ,so i have been in the weber family officially for nearly 24 years.........and today we received a wedding invitation made out to ernst, cathy and children........gentle readers, the delightful bride was born just weeks after our wedding in 1981......so one would think that she, and her mother who has known me longer....could spell my name correctly.......let's see......i have personally addressed christmas cards to her family for the past 24 years........and i do not believe that i misspelled my name to confuse or confound them........further, these are not people who would think that a 'c' made for better alliteration........i am ticked off.......can one reasonably discount the gift based on a fumbled name........yeah, yeah, yeah.....i know that i am being quite petty....but then...i am the meanmamma.........which has no 'k's or 'c's.............

so much mulch.....

ok, so after work my daughter and i polished off an entire truck-load of mulch.,.....and really never left the front yard.........i appreciate the effort, as it was windy......not necessarily the best conditions for mulch........there was a time when it would take 2 loads of mulch for the fronty yard, but encroaching perennials have reduced the need for ground cover.....

its going to be a long summer.....

ok, so boston lost last night to toronto 12-6........oh my.....

the trellis rose.....

ok, so the trellis rose(s) will probably be in full view this weekend......those who live within driving distance of this blog's origin are invited to come on out to see it.....sunday would be a great day....anyway.....the trellis rose bushes, city of york, were the suggestion of my husband's oldest brother, who runs a rosarium in the dc area as a sideline......he gve these bushes to us...but sold a large number to monticello several years ago, as the bush is listed as one grown by jefferson......the trellis was built by my spouse and my dad one fine weekend......so i always think of my father whenever the roses bloom over it......the bush blooms on new canes....so i am loathe to trim it back.....it does occassionally grab ahold of people who get too close.......ah well...such is the ilk of beauty............

scores just in......

ok, so i do live through the glory of my children.....satII scores....out of 800.........biology 790...french reading only 800....us history 800.........yesseree......

tarte au citron

ok, so today i am making tarte au citron, with a mix purchased at the bon marche in paris........i would have prepared it before now had i quite understood that i would have to make my own tarte shell....pate brissee or some other pie dough....so today i remembered to bring home a frozen pie dough sheet (purchased by the case of 24......) and we will have lemon tarte as dessert for my mother's birthday this evening.......we are having pizza.......grandma is ordering it in......because nothing else sounded good her to......she likes hawaiian pizza with ham and pineapple......i hope that we get one without ham and p.a........for the rest of us........pizza delivery is as rare around here as chinese takeout......but there was not a scrap leftover from lunch.......and mother thought that 'the children' might like pizza.....which means she wanted pizza......but that is her perogative.......when you get over the age of 75.........you tend to get your way more often than not...............wish me luck on this tarte, as i do not actually read french....and i am hoping that the picture directions on the back are all there is to this........

good times don't last long enough...

ok, so my friend gail and i have decided that the best of times don't ever last long enough, while the worst of times seem to settle in for the long haul......now that may be just how we see things today.......

the funeral home....

ok, so we all went tot he funeral home in lexington last night.......the big yellow one on the harrodsburg road that is every bit as huge inside as it appears from the road......by the full parking lot we assumed that there was more than one funeral going on.....no....this was all for larry.....we waited 30 minutes in line before actually getting a chance to hug the widow and speak softly to his sons and mother........the only brightness to lighten the mood was the flowers.......incredible flowers......there was a spectacular vase full of calla lilies.....so simple and so elegant...and so eloquent an ellegy to our friend.......i can think of no purer a tribute than a vase of calla lilies......that will be the worst part of my own demise.....apart from the being dead part......i will not get to see the flowers...what was sent and who sent them......being a reasonable person, i would probably request at the end that no flowers be sent....that tress be planted in my name instead.......but last night, i was wowed by the floral display.....

more good news....

ok, so even though boston lost last night to cleveland, they are no worse off in the standings because the yankees lost big to anaheim.......

late entry

ok, so i somehow missed this comment, from maggie, somewhere in north dakota. from sometime in late march.....it made my day............

Wow! I cant read ALL of this but do you work? What a life you lead. Accidently found this looking for something not at all like this. WOW.....

yesserree...what a life i lead..................thanks, maggie...........

teresa kerry

ok, so when i am 66, i want to look as good, or better than teresa heinz kerry......even if my hair is no longer brown...........

bread dressing.....

ok ,so today i gave into temptation, and made bread dressing to go along with my roast pork special, rather than rice or potatoes...........my favorite flavor sensations are not the usual sweet ......they are salty, sour and savory........i especially like the taste of salt and vinegar potato chips.....and i really like bread dressing.....the version i made today has lots of sauteed shallots, celery, and sweet onion, in addition to dried cranberries.........oh my.....i have just caught myself standing at the refrigerator door eating the leftovers cold.........gentle readers, the mm would probably not cross the street to get a scoop of free ice cream......but i would wrestle you to the ground over something salty and savory....and maybe sour as well.....

cool concept

ok, so i read about this in the nra newsletter.....in my profession, nra stands for national restaurant association.....

In Boston, it's all in the family
Sibling restaurateurs Robert and David Kinkead, the former of Washington, D.C.'s Kinkead's and the latter a corporate chef for Todd English, will open a joint restaurant in Boston called Sibling Rivalry. The restaurant, expected to open this October, will feature a split menu divided by the brother's dishes. The Boston Globe (5/12)

frankly, i cannot see myself ever doing any sort of business venture with my sibling.......especially since the best name has already been taken....hawks and doves in washington dc......that basically sums up our political agendas..i suppose we could come with a few signature dishes....like a creamed crow pie, for when certain repubublicans need to eat some of the above.........

women who cut their own hair......

ok, so in the middle of the lunch rush, my hair started getting in my eyes.........at least my bangs were in the way.....so i took a pair of scissors and trimmed them......into the trash can...without benefit of a mirror........they feel much better...but they look awful.......i will have to trim them up a bit better before we drive to the funeral home in lexington this evening.........larry's widow.....who hyphenated her name, by the way......put a 2 column obit in yesterday's lexington herald leader......that must have cost her a pretty penny......but then her grief is great......you only meet the love of your life that one time......and they were the perfect couple, as late-life couples go.......and they were kind to our daughter...remembering special events in her life.....a lengthy obit that even mentions the cats he left behind is just the sort of thing one would expect/understand from a widow of a short but excellent marriage......i am not so sure that my family could come up with 2 columns.......though they seem to have glimpses of deep understanding of my psyche from time to time......my mother presented me with a gift certificate for a manicure for mother's day.......and my middle child remarked later, in a whisper........mom, you're not the manicure type....what was grandma thinking?.........he is right, i am not the manicure type.....women who cut their own bangs without a mirror do not tend to be the manicure type.......i do draw the line at decency...i never wear ill-matching clothing, even when doing mundane chores like cleaning closets or painting outdoor furniture......and i always wear a belt if there are belt-loops.......ah well............at least my bangs are no longer in my eyes..........

www rage.......

ok, so there is a rage distinct from other rages....that is a direct by-product of the computer age......there is road rage.....which i feel on occassion when it takes me longer than 4-5 minutes to get across town.....or longer than 1 light to make a left hand turn from main street.......there is dubya rage......which tends to kick in when i listen to the news.....the particular idiocies change daily, but not my response......add to this the rage that happens when the comments disappear from my blog....or it takes way too long for my blog to upload.....or posts seem to disappear....or email bounces back like it has been blocked......or blogger is'unavailable' at the time i want to blog......it is all so vexing.......and i feel so out-of-control in any of it.......i only passed computer programming in the late 70's because my roommate wrote the programs for me......don't recall which language i did not learn...fortran? cobal? i was able to borrow the code necessary to import comments into my blog.....but i do not pay for this service, so i should not be surprised when these comments go away.......frustrated, but not surprised..........

more about my murder mystery....

ok, so i am done with all 7 of the tapes with my library 'book'......and til the end, the murderer of the cook was not named.......the sleuth/narrator was following a cross between an agatha christie english manor house mystery, and a phillip marlowe/sam spade hardboiled mystery......so at the end....the female sidekick (who in this case is short and lesbian...go figure.....) asks the rampantly heterosexual burglar/bookstore owner who killed the cook.....he replied that he did not know.....he knew who killed the pseudo-victorian male model, and the silent, stiff-upper lip brit, and the hapless handyman......but not who killed the cook..........he quoted a line from the filming of the big sleep, in which the actors were debating a line in the screenplay......who had killed the chauffeur....they called in the author, who said that he did not know who killed the chauffeur........yes, he wrote the book, but he did not know the answer to all questions..........ah well.........in agatha's books, we always knew who killed who.........that is the shame about american things./..we are sometimes ok with a story half-told........

boston

ok, so there has come to be an informal support group of boston fans, here in central ky.........i was found out by the bartender, one day when i was following the game online.......and he has mentioned it to the bourbon/wine wholesaler........who has mentioned it to our octogenarian doorman........anyway.......i was not the one who initiated the conversation today about yesterday's game.... and all agree that the best series ever would be between the cubs and the redsox.......and that the yankees are overpaid pondscum.......but that goes unsaid..........

work ethic......

ok, so after work, we arrived home to find that ecw had driven the car rather than the truck......so i did what one does when one finds an empty truck......i went to the garden center and bought a load of mulch........and the term meanmamma resounded amongst my kin.....because when my daughter asked could she go play with the neighbor girl, i said no.......because we have work to do........when mamma....when can i play?.......when the truck is empty....that's when..........well, the neighbor girl actually came over and started helping us........and actually said the following words, within earshot of my child......'i really like to do mulch,.....i like the feel of it.....i like to work, and feel that i have finished something......' gentle readers.....this child is 9. and a child after my own heart.......whenever my own child whined about wanting to play.....our little neighbor girl replied that there would be time to play when the work was done....................whoa..........clarification.....this conversation took place in my mother's yard.....we start there....because it is at the top of the hill, and because it is easier to get her gardening chores over early.......than to listen to the questions regarding why her gardening chores are not yet done..........so we emptied an entire truckload of mulch, and did not begin to finish her mulching needs.......i did try, truth be told, to finish the job without her knowing we were there........it is so much easier that way.......to focus on the job at hand.....when my mother is present she starts to think about things the way they could be if we had 1)unlimited funds 2)unlimited labor 3) unlimited time........and i cannot feel that special zing of completion when so many future projects hang in the balance.........as luck would have it, the neighbor girl left at precisely 4:30 to go home so she could eat and make it to her 5:00 dog training class........she apologized to cayle that she could not possibly 'play' until maybe friday, because of her commitments........but hey, she was mighty helpful while she was with us......and i can only hope that her unusual brand of work ethic rubs off on my child............

designated wet person........

ok, so we went up to mother's yard after supper, to see what scw had planted after supper, and to see what damage the water company had done in repairing their line........there had been a big wet sink in my mom's yard, and since it did not show up on her bill, it had to be the water company's problem.......well. i stoood by the big hole long enough that my mother's neighbor...(and my neighbor) came out to ask about why i was standing there with a hose.......now,. gentle readers....i have never met this neighbor, he is like the author of catcher in the rye......and he stayed long enough to ascertain that the water problem would not be assigned to his bill........and then he was gone......anyway....we re-seeded my mother's yard where the water company fixed her leak, then went on down to our yard to re-seed our own bare spots.....and that is when calamity struck......the nozzle burst off of our hose.......leaving me a sopping mess..........and a continued mess....as we were not done with our bare spots....and lord knows we do not stop until we are done...........................i put down that nozzle at the first opportunity...................and left it to god's grace........or the partner who also knows how to shut off the water.....................

field of dreams......

ok, so this is blog # 1282 or something like that.....on one of my trips back from paris........deedra and i watched field of dreams...............this movie always brings tears to me eyes........the field, the father who plays, the son who believes........so succinct.........baseball has so many emotions attached........

my murder mystery......

ok, so for once...the cook is tghe 3rd to go in the list of murder victims in my current on-tape novel.....and the text has gotten understandably humerous....they have a house full of people, and the cook dead.......so far they have subsisted on leftover ham and boiled cabbage......but the weekend is but half over....so where do we go from here......................raw potatoes....cracker jacks..........tinned tuna.........i love it.......no reasonable writer kills off the cook......

mother's day......

ok, so on mother's day we had a motely crew of mothers at our table......there was me, the mm in residence....and my mother....and cayle's mimi...who was her foster mother for 5 years until the adoption......and cara,the birth mother called during lunch...........we spoke of mimi's two daughters......who cayle also regards as mama boo and mama chris.......we could have included pappy's new wife, but we have already had the pleasure of this experience at cayle's baptismal celebration, when mimi and the new wife showed up to celebrate cayle's free will baptisim........(we are southern baptist..........)i was relieved that the mothers ended at 3 rather than 5 or 6.........this summer......when scw goes to governors' scholars.....for 5 weeks, and acw is in lexington.....it will be just the three of us........1 mother, 1 father, and 1 daughter....no extra mothers............we have never had such close quarters...............this will be a telling summer...........

the fletch factor....................

ok, so this entry will be a personal obiturary for larry fletcher, who passed away blessedly saturday night..........larry was the kind of guy whose second happier marriage made one pleased...he never had to say he was miserable in his first marriage....you just knew......so when he met the love-of-his-life.......you could not help but know it for certain, and be estatic with him........i never ran with him....but then...i do not run......rumor goes that the sun shown bright on any run that larry showed up for......the fletch factor.......if fletch came, the rain held off until he left.........my memories of larry have to do with the time between runs.......like the pound-and-peddle event.....when the 20 mile event was between farmer's bank drivethru and the morgan's then driveway............traditionally, i would drive all of the little ones down to the morgan's.....and organize the food for the potluck, and then maybe take a nap in their hammock until a bike or a runner showed up..........in the year in question.......the potluck was over, and ecw went to open the bike shop, and several of us just stayed on...on their deck....drinking beer and having a good talk about life......by the time ecw showed back up....with pizzas.... our collective children were run-amuck...and larry and i (and others.....maybe the trents...the morgans......the serres....) were sunburned on the deck.....and happy as little clams........... that was a very good day........when i think of it...now that the pound and peddle leaves from my own house, i understand that the event is not what it was.............i was honored to be invited to his second wedding.......and honored still that he remembered my daughter's major life events.........but i was perplexed when he chose treatments that were known up-front to be doomed..........gentle readers......were i told at christmas that i had 3-4 months to live......i would be on the plane to new zealand......cruising both the north and south islands, then hiking the lotr sites.........he died from the complications of treatment, not from his cancer.......i shall not knowingly go in that way.......my prayers are with his wife.....who waited until she was over 40 for the right man to come along.....he did, and now he is dead......how can i reconcile this with my personal faith.......

ready to burst.......

ok, so my roses are ready to burst........so many roses......even new ones that i have never seen bloom before.........by this time next week this place should be a showplace.......and so early......in years past, the mainshow was not until memorial day weekend or later....is this a clear sign of global warming........

domestic miracle worker........

ok, so i was recently referred to as a domestic miracle worker.......which days later i now take as a jibe.....because the original miracle worker....anne whatshername...the one who taught helen keller sign language was, by all accounts.......unattractive and wearing thick glasses...and unmmarriagable.......i prefer the term domestic goddess............and will use the initials d.g. from here on out in this blog...........