when the spirit moves me

I hate to admit it but I love toys. I lust after them for months/years -like those widescreen/flat screen TV's, but I don't see one of those in my immediate future, unless I win the lottery. Yesteday I did get a Palm pilot tho. It's charging as I type. I got one at xmas time, the cheapest version and hadn't opened it. This weekend in the flyers , where i persue all those expensive toys, there was the nicer Palm tungston E on sale. This one can take a memory card and hold music and pictures. So besides having a fancy organizer I now have what I am calling my "E pod". Now if I can only figure out how to use it.

American Idol

Posted by rdl

The show you love to hate or hate to love? It's dumb, it's moronic, but it's funny; my favorite of course is Simon- so mean and sharp-tongued.I started watching it with Luke last year,at the end of the year before actually.But sitting on the couch with him reminds me of when I was a kid and watched The Ed Sullivan Show with my parents on Sunday nights. I won't tell you how many times I voted for Bo. So anyway that's what I'll be doing tonite I'm afraid to say.

S.A.D.

Posted by rdl

Seasonal Adjusment Disorder(for those of you not familiar with this - it's real - it's been studied) this is what I think I'm suffering from, among other things. This happens every winter it seems, cold and dark don't agree with me. I just noticed that I haven't posted since sat.(except for my call for help for the new name.) I have seen some signs of it around the blogosphere as well. It evidently also explains my cravings for sweets and carbs - mmm pasta and hot fudge.You can read more about it here, in case you think i made it up. Think Spring!

first lines

Posted by rdl

Got this idea from Musings of a Middle-aged Woman.These are the opening lines on my blog for each month of 2005:

April: This is a work in progress ( my 1st attempt at this).

May: Well, I'm finally back from my little foray into computer hell.

June: Well I had good intentions of writing in here and also turning over my garden but my old back is telling me to just go lie down.

July: I am seriously thinking of giving up blogging - its seems to be my latest addiction.

August: just one more load of laundry..
..fore I die ( sounds like a Bob Dylan song.)

Sept: Well it seems our illustrious President(synonymous with jackass) has proven his total ineffectiveness/uselessness once again.

Oct: Feel my best
Staring at this screen, typing on these keys. Writing a post or reading a post.

Nov: Feel like when I was six and had whooping cough; everyone else was out playing and I wasn't.

Dec: Over at The Glittering Muse my poem is included in The Symphonic Poetry Carnival.

Not a Joke

Posted by rdl

This is why I don't like to watch the news or read the newspaper. I used to only get the Sunday paper but because a telemarketer caught me on a good day and it was a good deal (less than the Sunday only paper) and because my son likes reading the sports page while he eats his cereal, we've been getting it daily. So I've been reading the front page and of course other than that blog news there is only bad news - This poor girls kidnapping, Bin Laden's new threat(which makes me wonder about my upcoming trip) and 2 pictures of kids, one who was beaten to death and one nearly to death (in vegatative coma).
I can't wait to we go back to just getting the paper on Sunday. For 2 reasons, the above and because all that paper (all those trees) and lugging them to the transfer station (dump) to be recycled.
So when I was trying to find a joke to post for Joke friday it just didn't seem right. I can't get that picture of Jill Carroll as a hostage out of my head. I downloaded that picture of her but then found the one of her as the vibrant woman she is. I am praying for her release.

Joke friday

Posted by rdl

Change of mind/heart: Not wanting to disappoint any who come here for Joke Friday and thinking after all humor is good medicine.

Things to Ponder- Some of these are great, make sure you read at least the last 3.
Number 10 - Life is sexually transmitted
Number 9 - Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
Number 8 - Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.
Number 7 - Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.
Number 6 - Some people are like a Slinky.....not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.
Number 5 - Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. Number 4 - All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism. Number 3 - Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?
Number 2 - In the 60s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
AND THE NUMBER 1 THOUGHT FOR 2006: We know exactly where one cow with mad-cow-disease is located among the millions and millions of cows in America but we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the Department of Agriculture in charge of immigration.

Life's a ball

Posted by rdl

Life's a magazine. How much?.. 25 cents.. only got a nickel..that's life.. what's life?... a magaizine. (From when i was a kid growing up in NJ.)

Then there is this quote:
Life's what happens while you're making other plans.

I had all intentions of posting one of those 35 drafts today, but i got involved in a number of things, none of which i've finished, unfortunately. So I still have to find Red Sox/Yankees tickets on Ebay ( which I am new to) if I can figure out how to just finish registering. I am signed up for Paypay so i'll be able to pay for those tickets when I find them. And the worst part of all this is that my 12 yr. old doesn't think I should go to the game; well I can he says if he explains things to me before we go, or I promise not to talk. hmmmmm.

Then there is school vacation,Spring Training and baseball camp. Still have to make plans/find reservations for all that.

Who would've ever believed that my live would revolve around baseball.

Update: Exciting news- I just won my first bid on Ebay - tickets to the LA Dodgers/Redsox Spring Training Game!!!

Drafting

Posted by rdl

5 comments

Going thru a extreme drafting phase here. That's me - non-committal with a dash of ADD. I just counted I have 35!! if you go way back. Most of those will be deleted tho. So does anyone else do this? or do you just fire them out and don't look back? Turning into a wicked night owl here, forget that i have to get up at the crack of dawn or before actually, still dark at 6:20AM. Too late to work on those drafts now; maybe tomorrow.

beach,birds, basketball and blogs

Posted by rdl

Creative types, don't balance checkbooks or put makeup on for their son's basketball game where all the other moms will be perfectly coiffed. They take pictures of the birds at the feeder, go to the beach on a rainy day, and of course blog, what else.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted by rdl

0 comments

January 15, 2006
Quote of the Week: Martin Luther King, Jr. on War
"It is time for all people of conscience to call upon America to return to her true home of brotherhood and peaceful pursuits. We cannot remain silent as our nation engages in one of history's most cruel and senseless wars.

During these days of human travail, we must encourage creative dissenters. We need them because the thunder of their fearless voices will be the only sound stronger than the blasts of bombs and the clamor of war hysteria.

Those of us who love peace must organize as effectively as war hawks. As they spread the propaganda of war, we must spread the propaganda of peace. "
---------------
"Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life."

---- both quotes by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968)

Front page

Posted by rdl

Came downstairs this morning to make coffee and breakfast for the kid and there on the front page of The Boston Globe (on the top half - not bottom!) is this article about bloggers!
Headline: Website wants to unite bloggers smaller headline under that:
Mass. startup to pay writers (ok now they have my attention).

Now is when I wish I had a scanner, this would be so much easier than typing this whole thing. Well, light dawns on Marblehead, I'll hyperlink to it( so maybe i don't need a scanner). So you can read it for yourself right here

I've gone to the website but haven't had that much time to explore it; I must say I wasn't very impressed by what I saw. I was impressed with that Headline though.

Seven Things

Posted by rdl

Seven Things
this meme(I forget where I found it)was deceptively difficult to answer, but it actually appealed to me.

7 things I plan to do before I die:
1) Travel around the world
2) Write more/better
3) Play the piano more/better
4) see the grand canyon
5) Buy a boat
6) go to New Orleans
7) finish everything I've started
7 things I can do:
1) Play piano
2) Make a mean margarita
3) write poems
4) twirl a baton
5) knit
6) Grow basil and make pesto
7) tell jokes
7 things I cannot do:
1) Quit my job
2) Get enough sleep
3) Play the piano as well as i'd like to
4) Move
5) Drive without swearing
6) Write a book
7) Vote Republican

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1) Smarts
2) A dark/twisted/wicked sense of humor
3) Tall,dark and handsome
4) Not fat, not bald
5) Sensitivity
6) Musical/artistic talent
7) A big, knowing grin

7 things that I say most often:
1) Idiot/moron (while driving)
2) Jackson!(loudly - it's the dog's name)
3) I love you Lukie (to my son)
4) Shut up ( to the cat)
5) pick that up
6) damn it
7) where's my car, keys..
7 celebrity crushes:
1) House
2) Sting
3) Morton Downey Jr.
4) Bono
5) Charlie Sheen
6) Kevin Costner
7) Paul Newman (when he was younger)
As usual I'm tagging everyone who wants to be tagged.

joke friday

Posted by rdl

4 comments

Choosing a wife

A man wanted to get married. He was having trouble choosing among three likely candidates. He gives each woman a present of $5,000 and watches to see what they do with the money. The first does a total make over. She goes to a fancy beauty salon gets her hair done, new make up and buys several new outfits and dresses up very nicely for the man. She tells him that she has done this to be more attractive for him because she loves him so much.

The man was impressed.

The second goes shopping to buy the man gifts. She gets him a new set of golf clubs, some new gizmos for his computer, and some expensive clothes. As she presents these gifts, she tells him that she has spent all the money on him because she loves him so much.

Again, the man is impressed.

The third invests the money in the stock market. She earns several !times the $5,000. She gives him back his $5000 and reinvests the remainder in a joint account. She tells him that she wants to save for their future because she loves him so much.

Obviously, the man was impressed.

The man thought for a long time about what each woman had done with the money he'd given her.

Then, he married the one with the biggest boobs.

Men are like that, you know.

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

The bad cat goes to the vet

Posted by rdl

8 comments

Took the bad cat, Dakota, to the vet today to be checked-to rule out any disease that could be causing his bad behavior. Also discussed with the vet if its not any thyroid or diabetes type problem causing his mood disorder then we will try amitryptiline to see if we can improve his mood (50% chance of it working he said). maybe I'll try it too. He was in full form today; put on quite a display. The assistant put on those huge suede gloves like you see the bird handlers wear with hawks. He was putting up a good fight tho for 16 and the vet went and got a blanket to throw over him and they had to knock him out with gas so that they could get a blood sample. This is why I don't take him to the vet much and have ordered from the foster and smith catalog and done his vaccines myself (except for the rabies vaccine which is only every 3 yrs. thankfully). So sounds like there is an outside chance that the bad cat can be rehabilatated - I'll believe it when I see it. Like the vet said, he really is a beautiful cat.

Update: Vet called today with the blood results, the good news is he doesn't have diabetes or thyroid(tho it's borderline); the bad news is he has kidney disease - not renal failure but renal unsufficiency. Well, he is old i guess. We are going to treat him with a blood pressure medication that's supposed to help for some reason that fails me now. And I'm going to try and have a cat door installed to the basement so that I can keep food out for him that he can get too all the time. We're going to hold off on the psych. drugs for awhile, for him anyway.

Party at my house

Posted by rdl

6 comments

When I first moved into this house,5 years ago, the previous owners were bird lovers, so I filled the bird feeders dutifully; I didn't realize it was a full-time job and costing me quite a bit of $$( I was also feeding a pretty fat squirrel.) I was filling them every day it seemed.
I remember coming downstair that first morning (it was the middle of Feb.) and going into the sunroom and seeing my cat and dog watching the bird show - both of them sat mesmerized by it and myself included.
It was so neat and I kept it up for awhile til i got tired of filling those feeders constantly, going out on the snow covered deck, climbing up to reach the feeder and then the expense of buying those huge bags of seed and lugging them home.
Then recently, I don't know why, but I bought some birdseed and then a new feeder, more birdseed. It's really quite amazing and fun watching them. I didn't get a picture of the magnificent cardinal and bluebird, maybe next time.

bookstores

Posted by rdl

Well we hit 2 bookstores in 2 days. Yesterday we went to Barnes and Noble to return a xmas book. Luke picked out a Red sox book ( what a surprise! - the consumate Red Sox fan.) The last book I bought him for a good report card was "The Idiot" by Johnny Damon, that I just found out today has some inappropriate stuff. Oh well, I can't proofread everything he's gonna read, can I? I suppose I should be more careful. But this coming from someone whose mother let her read Peyton Place ( and if you're as old as me you know that was steamy way back then.) His book selection yesterday was," Now I can die happy" by the ESPN sports guy.

Today we went to Borders, I had a gift card for $20 that I got for opening a charge card. I also had a coupon for 1/2 off the 2nd book. It took me a little longer than him to find one tho. of couse he had 2 sports books picked out in no time and settled on Stephen Kings " Faithful", yep bout the Red Sox . I guess my boy is a little obsessed, guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I had a list of books, some of which i couldn't find. The problem with not buying many books is deciding when you finally do. The one I settled on after going back and forth between fiction, poetry, and writing books was in the religion area with the buddhism books, one called "When things fall apart". Maybe this will be the one.

Just for fun!

Posted by rdl

(Yes, I used to take all those silly quizzes in the ladies magazines.)

I took the "The Animal Spirit" quiz on gURL.com
		My animal spirit is... The Mongoose The mongoose is the only animal that would risk life and limb for a loved one. The mongoose also uses its speed to escape danger when it finds itself in a tight spot. According to shamanistic wisdom, mongoose people value relationships over everything and are the most loyal of friends. Read more... What is your animal spirit?

Joke Friday

Posted by rdl

Blonde joke:

A blonde decides to try horseback riding, even though she has had no lessons or prior experience. She mounts the horse, unassisted, and the horse immediately springs into motion. It gallops along at a steady and rhythmic pace, but the blonde begins to slip from the saddle.

In terror, she grabs for the horse's mane, but cannot seem to get a firm grip. She tries to throw her arms around the horses neck, but she slides down the side of the horse anyway. The horse gallops along, seemingly impervious to its slipping rider. Finally, giving up her frail grip, the blonde attempts to leap away from the horse and throw herself to safety.

Unfortunately, her foot has become entangled in the stirrup, she is now at the mercy of the horse's pounding hooves as her head is struck against the ground over and over. As her head is battered against the ground, she is mere moments away from unconsciousness when to her great fortune...

Frank, the Walmart greeter, sees her and unplugs the horse.

Fours

Posted by rdl

Another meme:

Four jobs you've had in your life: Ophthalmic technician, bartender, tv crewperson, charter boat office manager.

Four movies you could watch over and over: When Harry met Sally, Casablanca,Forrest Gump, Dumb and dumber

Four places you've lived: Boston, Key West, St. Croix, Martha's Vineyard

Four TV shows you love to watch: House,Seinfeld, Everybody loves Raymond, Cheers

Four places you've been on vacation: Florida, California, Paris,Bahamas

Four websites you visit daily: Simply Wait, Musings of a middleage woman, find me a bluebird, follow that star.

Four of your favorite foods: pizza, pasta,cheese,Thai.

Four places you'd rather be right now: Hawaii, Caribbean, Italy, Paris

You know the drill: play if you feel like it.

Bunco!

Posted by rdl

7 comments

I guess us chicks (women) in the burbs are desperate. Desperate for entertainment, desperate to get out of our houses. Tonite I went buncoing - to a bunco party. A bunch of grown women sit around tables and roll dice - don't ask ,I just do what I am told. I am not a regular (cause I don't want to commit(admit) to this silly game but hey I like a night out, excuse to eat and drink and talk grown up ladies talk. Tonite I actually won the prize for the last Bunco ( the last roll of 3 die). I was thrilled, it was the first time in more than a year that I have been playing that i have actually won anything.
When i was in college, we used to play bid-whist (something like bridge). If I had my druthers, we'd be playing pool or poker.

Narnia

Posted by rdl

4 comments

I'm kinda ashamed to admit that I didn't like this one as much as King Kong. Probably shoulda seen this one first. Of course Kong moved along like a Hollywood blockbuster and Narnia moved to the beat of different drummer, had purpose, meaning. Tho I do think this is one that is better to read and absorb and get lost in. I'm sure I've tried to read this book long ago and I know there is a copy of it on Luke's bookshelf. I probably thought I might read it to him, tho the last book that I read to him was the 1st Harry Potter and now I'm buying him books from the adult shelves, like the Idiot by Johnny Damon. Anyway I say, two thumbs up for the gorilla and one for the lion.
The witch was pretty cool tho.

No more holidays please

Posted by rdl