YES!!

Black Eyed Peas-Let's get it Started (Live)


Is that a big sigh of relief or a big whoop i hear starting across the Blogworld?
Yea yes, we did it!!
Drinks all around! Pass the salsa please.

U2 & Green Day - The Saints are Coming


Here is the music and picture that should've gone with yesterday's post. When I saw the video for the first time tonite I thought of how the planes in it reminded me of the birds that I saw yesterday.

Untitled

I had one of those moments today - not sure what the right word for it is so I will just tell you what happened. I was checking out at the counter of this shop that sells alot of X-masey stuff, when I mentioned to the cashier that this year we finally broke down and bought a fake tree. She replied that she hadn't celebrated XMas for 2 years-since her 17 year old grandson died on Dec. 10th 2 years ago; but she said that she was going to, because the other night she woke up with a start when she saw him at the end of her bed and he all he said was, "It's time."

I said, I was sorry and since I frequent this store from time to time for candles and stuff, I suddenly had a deja vu - i really think she had told me this before - maybe last year. It made me glad that I was in a chatty mood and talked to her and that we had this exchange - again. I could've been my sometimes (frequent) sullen self and missed this opportunity.

I was thinking about this when I got in my car and started to drive to pick up my son at school. The radio was playing the new U2/Greenday song - The Saints are Coming ( I love this song) and I looked up in the darkening sky and there was this flock of birds moving in swirls of movement, almost as if with the song. And suddenly it reminded me of my father and his death at this time of year 2 years ago. I remember sitting on my window seat the day after he died and talking to a good friend from Pittsburgh about his passing and suddenly noticing alot of bird activity in my back yard and commenting to my friend that normally I wouldn't be sitting there at this time of day and how I felt like time had slowed and made me notice things more with his passing. That year at Christmas when I opened the box with the gifts she always sends to the kids and me, there was this pretty glass bird ornament. I couldn't remember the exact date of his death in the car today. I just knew it was after Thanksgiving.
When I got home today I came on here to see. I wrote this last year on the one year anniversary of my father's death - November 28, 2004.

Only three more days!!

Can't wait for the big sigh of relief on Thursday = the last day of Nanoblopomo/short for I must be completely insane. Yup starting Fri. (oh yeah- Joke Friday/make that Saturday), I can go back to my slacker ways.

Technically I didn't have to post again but...

thanks to Ipanema I found this funny cartoon site and decided I should do my Sunday Blog pick of the week: drumroll please~~~~~~~~~~~ it's Ipanema from Under the Canopy.

Seems I've disappeared

Can't get my site to load! What's up with that. I guess I will spend the day trying to figure it out. Damn Blogger!! Help!!

Insomnia

Maybe i jinxed myelf but #25 on the list is insomnia. Insomnia secondary to pain in the arm(elbow). Or is the insomnia secondary to depression, or is the depression secondary to arm pain. Heading to kitchen for ice and cereal. Lame as it may be, at least I got today's post out of the way. I know I need an attitude adjustment. Don't feel like a drink, but I would kill for a pain pill.

Let the shopping begin..

Happy Thanksgiving

The Quandry:

And don't anyone say it's my own damn fault for waiting to the last minute - that's just what I do. I've never had this happen to me before and I have a long history of shopping late on the eve of holidays and today I went early(maybe that's where i went wrong - shoulda waited and I coulda snuck out for a drink along with the shopping- as i have met friends from work in the past). Anyway it was only 1:00 and they were damn near out of Birds!!! They said they'd be getting some in soon. Deninition "Soon" please; anyway this nice lady dug one up, only problem was, it is puny - only 9&1/2 lbs. I usually get 12-14. But there's only 6 of us, so it'll probably do. I just called the store and they got them in. So do I run back and exchange the bird?? P. I can hear you laughing/ you will probably be the only one to appreciate this post since you know my history.
Well, I've got to start peeling and cleaning so I'll keep you posted on the bird.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Bird update: after much deliberation I went back finally- there were only a couple of birds left; only 12 pounders - but it seems way better - not looking like the 90 lb. weakling at the beach. Now if those vegetables would only peel themselves.

Lets Do It

Epiphany

e‧piph‧a‧ny [i-pif-uh-nee]
–noun, plural -nies. 1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day.
2. an appearance or manifestation, esp. of a deity.
3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
4. a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight.

[Origin: 1275–1325; ME epiphanie < LL epiphanīa < LGk epipháneia, Gk: apparition, equiv. to epi- epi- + phan- (s. of phaínein to appear) + -eia -y3]

Sunday sampler

First, answers to yesterdays quiz
1) b.
2) a book, earliest form The Romans made them so they didn't have to carry their scrolls with them.

Movie Review: Keeping up with the Steins was cute and a little funny but really more cute. I liked the Grandfather the best. The kid was good, no really good. The mother was likeable, the father ok and the Grandmother, the mother from Everybody loves Raymond, well i just kept thinking, no she's Raymond's mom and she's Italian. As I said the Grandfather was the best and the most believable(is he Jewish? - he sure seemed like the real McJew) And Daryl Hannahs still looks and acts exactly the same -cute and ditzy.
Since I don't want to give the ending away, I'll just say that I'm glad they did the right thing.
We gave it two thumbs up over here.

Blog pick of the week: Alexandra over at The Write stuff.

Quiz

Today was supposed to be Haiku Saturday I think, but the problem is I'm a little fuzzy from over imbibing last night at my friend, Mary's, open house for open studios. I don't know how many of those dixie cups of wine I had. I'm sure it was that red one that did me in tho or the fact that I didn't have dinner, just chips and dip and olives and cheese. Fun wandering in and out of artist spaces and viewing their work, and there even was some music. An enjoyable evening, maybe just a little too enjoyable.
So I was reading an interesting article from the Living Arts section of the Globe tonite over take out dinner and came up with this short quiz for you:

1. How many surviving books in the "John Adams Unbound colletion"?
a) 370
b) 3700
c) 1800
d) 4800

2. What is a codex? (This one is not a mulitple choice). But I will give you one clue - it's from Roman times.

Ok I'm going to watch "Keeping up with the Steins".
See you tomorrow with the answers and maybe a movie review.

Joke Friday

How to handle a husband


A couple was celebrating their golden wedding anniversary on the beaches in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Their domestic tranquility had long been the talk of the town.

People would say, "What a peaceful & loving couple".

The local newspaper reporter was inquiring as to the secret of their long and happy marriage.

The Husband replied: "Well, it dates back to our honeymoon in America," explained the man. "We visited the Grand Canyon, in Arizona, and took a trip, down to the bottom of the canyon, by horse. We hadn't gone too far when my wife's horse stumbled and she almost fell off. My wife looked down at the horse and quietly said, "That's once."

"We proceeded a little further and horse stumbled again. Once more my wife quietly said, "That's twice."

"We hadn't gone a half-mile when the horse stumbled for the third time. My wife quietly removed a revolver from her purse and shot the horse dead.

I SHOUTED at her, "What's wrong with you, Woman! Why did you shoot the poor animal like that Are you crazy? She looked at ME, and quietly said, "That's once."

"And from that moment.....we have lived happily every after."

Chocolate

Yeah, finally some good news!
I'm heading to the store now.

And hear(yes i meant to spell it that way) is another interesting find.

Hump Wednesday

Ok, back in the good ole days on hump Wednesday we would head for the bar- ah the neighborhood bar. In Boston I figured out early on that everyone did not head to "where everyone knows your name" but to the closest place to imbibe. Literally if you worked in a restaurant, you would go to the nearest bar to yours and if you worked in a hospital you would go to the bar across the street. When I worked in the bar business, we did in fact go to the closest watering hole, even the one you worked in, if you could get away with that. And when I worked in the hospital, yup right across the street - closest one. Tonite, right out of my fridge - Pinot Grigio - not as interesting as in Boston. C'est la vie. Cheers!

Oasis

Day 14 and feeling like the guy in the desert with the mirage. Need water, must write. But I just finished doing homework (7th grade is hard!),dinner,dishes and sweeping up sawdust! The job was only supposed to take 4-6 hrs.; theoretically it shoulda been done on Saturday. Tuesday here, 9:05 PM and I'm still hearing drills and breathing in sawdust. Well #14 on the list was ranting and raving; now for the Tues.existential question: why does it always take/cost 3 times as long/much as they say?

And House has already started!

Manic Monday

Actually it really wasn't for once. It's Academy and a lot of the docs were at that. I wish I was, it's in Las Vegas and my cousin is there,lucky girl is married to the doc not working for him like her poor cousin. No interesting patients to write about today and I can't find the draft of an old one. I guess this is what happens when you have more than 300 posts, the old drafts go somewhere, get eaten or something.
So I will tell you about my favorite piece of equipment at work instead. There is only one, as I am tired to death of using most of them and they aggravate my tendonitis- must try and use my left hand more(you would think this would be easy for a lefty). Ok, so it's the doctor's stool- you know those little black stools the doc sits on at eye exams. Well I sit on one at the desk, while I take the history and find out why the patient is there, after I've taken their vision and refracted them (which I can do sitting but more often I stand), I roll back on my stool and grab the slit lamp table and pull it over to the patient. Yes that is it folks, sad but true, the most exciting part of my job - my dear ole doctor's stool.

Footnote: reason I couldn't find that old draft was because it was an old post.

No day of rest

Here it is Sunday and here I am with my list of excuses(pictures) again. These are the pictures that should've been in yesterdays post. So why is it when you have work done in your house it always takes twice as long and costs twice as much as they say? and why do you never seem to remember this well known fact til you're breathing in the sawdust?