miss'ippi mud, more than a dessert

it's been raining all day. thunder rolling and grumbling constantly. some lightening, the kind that doesn't flicker and flash, but instead brightens the entire sky and then fades. the sky has been layers of heavy clouds, some low, some fast moving. some dense swirling grays. my yard has become mucky and i know that when i finally do venture out, it will be squishy and my booted feet will mire down if i don't move swiftly to my jerry's truck. i was hoping there'd be a pause, in the constant downpour, to run my garbage out and check my mail. but that doesn't look like it'd happen.

tomorrow night the lows are to be freezing, and the rain is to turn to snow. i don't think that will happen. at most, i expect we'll have a sleety slush. for a few nights after that, we'll have frigid temps. so much for an early spring.

tonight, my jerry and i are gonna babysit his lil five month old grandson. he is a good baby, and i love his smiles. he squirms his whole body when he grins and his entire face bursts into rosy rays, he just beams at ya. that sounds like a wonderful way to spend a cool wet evening, all wrapped up in warm love!

chitting and chatting and chuckling

Earlier today, I drove into town and chatted with the lovely lady who does my hair. Kristen is very very pregnant, she has only just a few weeks left. But she is HUGE and weighs about half again as much as she did before she got pregnant. Her lil girl is low and Kristen feels better when she is on her feet. But the problem is that her feet don't like it. But if she sits, the lil girl in her belly squirms and pushes and doesn't like that cramped position. So right now, Kristen is not too comfortable in any one position. Her lil girl is due on April Fool's Day.

That's awfully close to my Jerry's birthday and Kristen and I teased each other that since she married on my birthday, would it be funny if she gave birth on Jerry's birthday. Kristen at first thought this was great, til she realized that meant she would still be pregnant in another month. She is happy, but very tired. Exhausted.

Saturday morning, I've an appt to get my hair trimmed and thinned some. It's time and I don't want to go shorter, I wanna let it grow for the wedding in October. But in the meantime, I need some of this weight off, otherwise I won't come close to letting it grow before I snap and hack it all off my own damn self.

After we chatted and got all caught up, I went to see my friend Adria who is an artist and we got all caught up too. We discussed possibilities for the invitations and so I have a few things to share with my Jerry. Adria and I will do some mock-ups and then we'll eventually design, print, emboss, and such. The invitations will be wonderful and shouldn't end up costing us anything cuz I have a color printer and lots of card stock and Adria has lots of stamps and all the ink pads and other powders for embossing. The only cost to us will be the postage to send them out and the postage for the reply/confirmation. So yea!! Yea for me!!

The invitations often serve as a keepsake for others and helps to set the tone for the event. It provides information besides just the stated who/what/where/when, it will also let folks know that the location and style of the wedding and reception is to be dress-casual with lots of love and shared joy. It'll be cozy and fun and simple.

Adria offered to sketch a pier as the background for the invitation, which we will then print all the necessary info on. We will then personalize them with embossed maple leafs done is gold and bronze with green ivy. It will be a standard 8.5x11, with the lower half being a rip-away reply to return with confirmation, number of adults/children, and such. Then I will send out directions and such when it is closer to the time. This way, we'll have an idea of how many and what sort of dishes will be brought.

So all in all, today was a good day. I'm feeling lots better and my voice is only a little rough. I'm not hacking and sputtering nearly so much. Yea!! Yea for me!!

let's eat!

my jerry and i are looking at this whole thing as tho it's a special party for our friends and family to share in our celebrating our commitment. there happens to be a wedding ceremony attached to that special party. viewing it this way, helps us to keep perspective, that it's fun and happy and not a time to be getting way stressed over etiquette and custom and someone said it should be this way and you just absolutely have to wear this and that and all that other nonsense that doesn't really mean all that much to us anyway.

in the spirit of keeping it meanful for us, and asking folks to share in our happiness; we have decided to extend that to our reception as well. jerry and i will be supplying the baked chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs. along with the buns, etc. we also will be most likely providing the coffee and tea and some soda in coolers. but in lieu of gifts, we are asking everyone to bring a favorite side-dish.

we have a list of suggestions like: potato salad, macoroni salad, coleslaw, veggie plate, fruit plate, cheese plate, baked beans, green beans, relish tray, deviled eggs, garden salad, creamed corn, corn cobbettes, yeast rolls, grapes, apples, fresh fruits, banana pudding, case of soda, ice cream cups, mini-donuts, mini-cupcakes, mini-cookies, etc.

we want to be sure that there is something for everyone, including some folks that don't do meats, and others who do only raw/fresh foods, and some who can't have sugar. there will be quite a few kids there, and they don't always like wedding cake. that way too, folks can pick during the reception and not have to eat only for a scheduled 45 minutes or something.

we'll be using the multipurpose building and it has kitchen facilities, including a fridge/freezer and a stove/oven. we plan to be outside and to let folks choose to mill about. if it does rain, or get very cold, there is the building, plus a pavilion. i think we can find adequate parking and things will be fine.

there are a few folks who have already asked me if they could help with the reception and the hostessing of the food, drink, and such. i'm holding off on letting them know because i'm waiting to see if jerry's eldest would like to hostess for her dad's day. this is exciting!

i know that there are a billion details, but for right now, all the main stuff is falling into line. and we don't have to do it all within the next week or so, ya know? it's getting way past my bedtime, but i kept thinking, oh! i wanna do one more thing...

sleep sweet!

sssteeeeeve! hey, steeeeeve!!

there's something very soothing about thinking thru plans for the wedding. i never thought i'd be able to have fun with something like this. but that is my priority, to keep it simple and to have fun with it!

the thing that is very cool is that we have so many folks wanting to help out. jerry's son (jerry the second, or wayne, tho i've been known to call him 'steve' for no reason other than he looks like a 'steve' to me, but he probably won't answer to that, now would he?) is taking our music list and making the compilations for us and handling all the music during the ceremony and reception. jerry's son, chris (who really does look like a 'chris' to me, so i have none of those exasperating moments of sputtering an assortment of male names before i land on the right one; well, not yet anyway) is doing all the videography for us. my brother (mic, as in michael, he was mickey as a lil boy, but has never been mike, and almost always mic...as in jagger) will be doing all the still photography. jerry's youngest, mary (waving frantically) is doing the cake (yea!!). lots of folks are chipping in to help with the decorations (donna, jerry's coworker, is terribly excited about this) and set-up the morning of the reception; including jerry's middle child, donna (HIIIiiiiiiiiiii) who will also be heading up the tear-down/clean-up crew. she's very trustworthy with this cuz she's a bit ocd about that, and so is my mom and my landlady and me and well, many friends are so this will be a sorta fun task (or ya know, it could be).

of course my daddy is giving me away, escorting me out on the pier. i asked tho, cuz i didn't want to take it for granted and then get there the morning of and be all like, k, i'm ready and for him to be all like, kissing me on the forehead and then me standing there lakeside thinking uhm...where'd he go? but nope! daddy said, 'well of course' when i asked and he is also buying my spectacularly flattering dress which i've not yet actually posted a pic of. i might slip it in, with a bunch of other pictures so that the wiser of you can pick it out and go, ahhhhhhhh-yessssss, good choice, grasshopper, good choice.

i think i'm gonna go maid-less. cuz the pier and deck are gonna be cozy with all of us out there so no problem. besides, lots is falling into place. like i said, lots of folks are wanting to help out. so, yea!! yea for me!

we decided to do the big honeymoon trip for our first anniversary. that way, we can spread the fun and savor it. instead of trying to rush thru the wedding and get all the other stuff set to go. i think i'll be worn out and needing just a few days to be quiet and still. so we are thinking we can head for n'awlins for a few days (actually Grand Isle, i've been wanting to go for a few years) to just kick back and relax without feeling like we gotta do everything to eek out all the worth we've put into an expensive vacation. besides, that gives me another year to mess with passports and read up on traveling with meds and get all the anxiety issues taken care of. 'sides we don't wanna be adding to the money concerns and delaying the honeymoon trip gives us time to recoup a bit, doncha think that's a great idea?

imma lukkee chahm

a ways back, i'd written about my friend having given me red jammies with hearts in the shape of flowers on them. and also that my mom gave me blue jammies with moons and stars. and i'd said that i just needed some shamrock jammies and i'd be a lucky charm!

poof! look what my jerry got me!

poof! imma lucky charm!

if music be the food of love, play on

My Jerry came over this evening and we went through our master music list and parred it down majorly! We now have the main songs that we want to be played at certain times, during certain things. For instance, for the bridal procession {a lofty way of saying when my father escorts me out the pier}, I'd like to play Etta James's At Last. Altho, if I run down the aisle, we could play Fools Rush In. Kidding aside, we both like the UB40's version of that, and so intend to have that played {some call it Can't Help Falling In Love}.

Then there is a list of songs that we for sure want to have played, like Kenny Chesney's You Had Me From Hello and Bob Marley's One Love. They aren't to be played at key moments, but we definitely want them to be played! There is a nice list of those.

Then there is a longer list of songs that we want to be included in the compilation to be played during the hours of the reception. We can probably play those during the set-up and also the tear-down/clean-up. We want to have those cd's for ourselves to play to reminisce about the special day when our friends and family witnessed our commitment with each other.

So, we're moving right along, getting stuff done! yea!!

snafu

oohps.

my dear friend who was my stand up woman? well, yesterday, i discovered that she has a fear of water. and our wedding ceremony is to take place on a pier. so, uhm...i didn't see that one coming.

but! no problem.

at first i thought that we could just do a lake side ceremony, and then jerry and i could go out on the pier for pictures. but then the more i thought about it, the more i decided, no, i really want the ceremony on the pier. so, there are a few other options.

for the moment tho, i stand alone. maid-less. which isn't a bad thing, and really, since we are all gonna be kinda cozy out there, i doubt that it'll make that much of a difference. it's not like a formal wedding party with symmetric balance must be achieved. at least, i don't think so.

dad'll walk me down the pier, and all the folks will already be lining the way and out on the deck. and jerry will be standing right there with the preacher and his man. mom'll be right there. and so will lots of loved friends and family.

ya know, i can dig the whole 'only me in a dress with flowers' thing.

ten-sided baby blanket

This is one tenth of a baby blanket for Miss Chloe, who shall be {this many} one whole year old in April.

The blanket is all folded up, and since my pic-ability is usually fuzzy and slightly outta focus cuz I am taking still shots with my webcam {which I've never used as its intended function}; and cuz I am taking it at half past a monkey's ass, using only my bedside lamp for lighting...well cuz of all those there combined things, I think this folded view is much better than the entire blanket spread into shadows and draped out of frame and either too far away {so you can see the entire thing, but then nothing is focused} or too close up {which would allow you to see detail, but then you'd not have any clue how it all comes together}.

Yeah, so use your imagination to fill out the other nine wedges {which are folded under what you see, take my word for it}, and poof! there is chloe's blanket. a little early, but better than late, right?

it's here! it's here!

and it looks mahvulluss!

my jerry came over for awhile, gave me the ring {ooooooooh~ahhhhhh}, and then we chatted about arrangements and such.

i've selected THE dress {well, i'm 94.9% sure, like ivory}.



and dude, look at the shoes! kick ass, huh?

taking it to the streets

A couple weeks back, memom came to visit and while she was here; she, my stand up woman, and I went dress appraising and pattern perusing. We found some lovely lovelies, but nothing that was THE dress. Which was fine, cuz we mostly were just getting ideas and considering possibilities.

But, dudes! We had too much fun with some of our discoveries, including a long draped halter number done in bold tie-dye with a huge ass rhinestone buckle anchored squarely between the breasts. As soon as I saw it, I crowed, "this is the one, this is the one!" and later, my mom told Jerry that whatever he'd wear would blend cuz there is absolutely no color, shade, or tint that was not represented in this dress. While I am sure it would suit some woman perfectly, that woman is not me.

Thankfully.

I am having way too much fun teasing Jerry about the dress, shoes, and other details; mostly cuz he doesn't yet know when I am kidding and so he digests most any thing I tell him with grace and tolerance. I did tell him that I was going very mini, with a fluffy multi-tiered viel that was much longer than the dress. And he just carefully blanked his face and then nodded slowly.

Several times, I've gotten very girly and gushed that I just had to diet so I could fit into that size seven dress cuz that's the only size it comes in and it is just perfect. Of course we all know that I'd never do such a thing, I like to eat too much. Witness, Mary's Love cake of a few entries back.

I'm sure some of you have some wonderful suggestions, send links!

mary's love

earlier this evening, jerry's youngest called to say that she'd made me a cake, a luscious buttery pound cake with fondant sculpted rose petals and leaves. oh. my. gawd. it's sinful. absolutely lovely to look upon and to feast upon.

and i get to eat all of it, and not even feel bad about not sharing {jerry doesn't do sugar}.

thank you so very much, mary, for your love.

at last

Jerry and I got tired of waiting for the ring to come in, so he proposed to me Friday using a proxy ring. The ring you see is the one we are waiting for and it is my engagement ring!! I held off on blogging, cuz we wanted to give his kids a chance to know and of course on Saturday, I called my mom and squealed and ooooh'd and aaahh'd and all that. She already knew it was coming, just well, now it's official.

We chose this ring because my birthstone is yellow topaz and his is white {or diamond} and I wanted a ring with both our stones. So he chose a few and out of those, this is the one I really, really, really liked. It's been ordered for awhile now, so we'll probably see it this week at the latest. I hope.



Etta James's version is still the best!

At last, my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh, yeah, at last
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clovers
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh, yeah when you smile, you smile
Oh, and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine
At last

hot sock....getcher hot sox herrrrrrrrre!

ahhhhhhhhm, nice and snuggly and warm...ahhhhh.

a few weeks back, i made myself a heating pad. i bought a large thick pair of men's socks, with the highest cotton content i could find (89%), a large bag of rice, and some chocolate. pour the uncooked dry long grain rice into a sock (i used a funnel to ease the process some, and i added dried anise for the lovely licorice scent; you could use whatever you find pleasant, or just the plain rice)~~eat a chocolate. i put the entire two and a half pounds of rice into the sock {ate another chocolate} and then stitched it shut (by hand cuz i just knew i'd get rice all over the machine and it'd be quicker to do it by hand). the socks i got had a heel contoured into them, so i also stitched a diagonal line thru the heel (which lent the heating pad a nice little bend which fits perfectly around the neck, niiiiiiiiiiiiice). then i took the other sock, and put the first one inside that, so that the toe of the first was at the top cuff of the second (put the cuff of the first down into the toe of the second, ya know, upside down) and stitched across the top {and rewarded myself for a job well-done with another chocolate}.

and poof! there it is! my very own heating pad. pop it in the microwave for two minutes and aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhm.

about 25 years ago, we had 'bed buddies', tube-like heating pads that had handles on each end and removable sleeves. this one that i made a few weeks back is way better and i use it often. and it's way cheaper. good on me! yea!! yea for me!!

Re: Hi {or "my opinionated ass farts again"}

i've a favored cousin that sometimes eMails me a question or two regarding academic stuffs that may need more explanation. sometimes i doubt my helpfulness but dammit if i'm not honest in expressing my opinions, cuz they're exactly that: my opinions. they may be well-founded, but still are reflective of my specific views and general world-view. opinions are like that; they may be well-thought, but do not represent the entire truth of any one thing.

just a slice of the perspective pie, served up with a dollop of creamy pouf!

follows is my eMailed response to the general question of T.S. Eliot's Wastelands and Other Poems:

WARNING: what follows are my rather acidic views of the man, and his work; but mostly the man. please understand that my views are not at all how the overwhelming majority feels (as evidenced by the oooohhhs and aaaahhs that endure). most likely, your instructor admires the man's work and will not appreciate my views (thank you very much) and might find my opinions to be ghastly. that said, i'm not sure how helpful i'll be.

oh lord, well, sigh. yes, i have read and analyzed and discussed "the waste land and other poems" by t.s. eliot. he is not my favorite person, by a long shot; but i don't suppose that matters much to him, his followers, or other lofty scholars. basically, i think he is a pretentious and preposterous man; tried way to hard to be worthy with the result that he is more english than a true english man. i realize the dude's dead, but since his writing lingers on. and on. and on...i just refer to him as tho he is still producing shit. {gee debra, tell him how ya really feel}

when i was in pennsylvania, a rather academic group of professors and teachers and librarians (and then there was lowly me, having received my bachelors's degrees and working for a dime over minimum wage at the local bookstore~~we all folk-danced together, shrug, they had to let me join the book discussion group) gathered and we discussed this slim volume. i made copious notes in my copy, and have since scoured my shelves for it, but cannot locate it; otherwise, i'd spill all! what i do remember the most is that he routinely references the classics and so there were meanings that others in the group argued that totally escaped me cuz i didn't have the familiarity with those classics. being a name dropper of any sort makes me cringe and when others laud all sorts of praise on someone because they do make academic references...well, i think even less of them for that. it's about the same as having gore vidal or truman capote on your bookshelf but not having read him or formed an opinion of your own, instead speaking in reverently awed tones because he happens to be hot within that crowd, at that time.

i truly think that in order to fully understand anyone and their work, you really need to know their biography and the social milieu of their times. it puts things into context. you get a different feel for something if you know that they are writing in the midst of world war one while living in england. obviously, you'll have a different feel as an author than if you were writing as a young man in the 60's in san fransisco, ya know what i mean? so you might want to take a look see at eliot's biography with the nobel prize committee. it's rather brief and so only covers hi-lites, but is dense and don't let that frighten ya, cuz dude, they have to focus on the uberlofty positive academic merits they assign and not the less desirable aspects that might detract from his polished image. like the fact that he had his wife institutionalized for the majority of her adult life til his death; cuz he was embarrassed by her. oh! and it was using her money and family prestige; that's how he rose thru the rankings. nice guy, huh? (if you've a chance, watch "tom and viv"; yes it is a fictional account, but it is based on fact to a degree~his wife was very smart and it is due to her that he gained the foothold in the english realm that he did; otherwise, i doubt very much that he would have made a name for himself at all)

anyway, about the waste lands (which i truly feel is aptly named, unintended): most of "wasteland" is strongly peppered with references to Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance and Sir James Frazier's The Golden Bough. he also assumes that his readers are going to be awed with his references to "tristan and isolda" (a tale like most other verbal traditions, morphed into many slightly differing versions). oh! and then there is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (another work that many people reference but have not actually read it) right there in the beginning. there are so many other references he makes, that the overall feel is very jumbled and more than a bit nonsensical. it's almost as tho he is a teenaged angst-ridden goth who just no one understands, like, ever. except he's a bit older and it's in academic circles. so think of it like the pouty moping emo kid but as an adult in posh society.

i think eliot wrote and rewrote and slashed and dropped and edited and rearranged and perhaps scrambled the pages and then sick of it all, decided, hell, it's so obscure that i can publish it and let the damned readers interpret it and broadcast the meanings they've projected onto my words. til ya get done reading the numerous footnotes and all (a full one third of the printed work), it reads as tho it is still a rough draft that somehow skipped the slush pile and ended up on the printing press, with eliot rushing too late to halt the release of such a jumbled mass and then covering himself by acting as tho that had been his intentions all along and if you don't get it, well, you must be very dimwitted and not at all intellectually elite. sniff. carry on. is it any wonder that so many rush to say, oh yes, my how powerful with all the reverance of those mystified by the emperor's new clothes. as evidenced by the oft quoted "april is the cruelest month" seldom understood.

i most likely have muddled things for you even more so. you'd think i might have sympathy for the man, as he himself with dealing with a great man anxieties and also his wife's mental illness of sorts. but i don't. i don't believe that she was nearly as severely mentally ill as he portrayed in order to rid himself of her eccentricities. and i think the man had a truly low sense of self worth and so covered for that by being the smug bastard that he was. his anxieties were more self-caused and perpetuated and yet he made himself out to be the brave man struggling on in the face of such atrocities.

yes, he was living at an awful time in history, in a terrible place. he was seeing the decay of his society's trappings and watching the struggle of so many different levels of his world as he knew it. there was much uncertainty at that time, 1922, england. and his work reflects that general feel. so more than any one specific reference or explanation of particulars, that's the tone of the entire piece. decay, betrayal, adultry, frightened, dread, refuse, stench, chilled, poison, despair, confusion, loss, anxiety, and on and on and on.

gosh, i don't suppose that's been a help at all, has it? if however it has helped and you want to understand anything in particular or if i can clarify anything i've said here, please do not hesitate to ask! i'll try to keep it shorter and more to the point.

she wore what?!?!

after venturing to the dentists today, where i attempted to stifle my hacking cough so that i didn't end up splattering the good doc's face guard {he graciously reassured me that it was quite alright}; i stopped by the library where my lovely friend behind the desk informed me that i was looking a bit peaked and oughtta go home and get some more rest. which sounded like a fine idea to me and that's just what i did.

this evening, my jerry brought me soup and juice and gave me lots of snuggly hugs. ya know, the kind that make ya just go "aaaahhh.sigh" and yer eyelids flutter shut and in no time at all you're snuffling and making him stagger under yer dead weight. he made me the cream of chicken soup and poured it down my throat and pumped me full of grapefruit juice and then propped me in my pink armchair and stripped off my socks and wiggled my toes and massaged in some very nice soothing cool peppermint lotion. afterwards, he popped my tootsies back into some nice snuggly cotton cozy socks and dropped a kiss on my forehead and let himself out cuz dude, i was nice and relaxed and ready for a nice ole snooze.

but then i hadda pee. and that woke me up and so i decided so i was so lively to jump on line for a few minutes and omg, look what i found!

yeah, i don't know what the hell i was thinking either.

i really am feeling better.

really.

sharing my stupidittee {cuz i coulda kept it to myself, but i didn't, now did i?}

if you're anything like me, when something funny happens, ya just gotta share! even if it means that you coulda kept your dignity cuz no one was there to witness it; share the snicks, snorts, and guffaws.

and in this case, the farts.

i've not been feeling too perky these last coupla days, but did want to visit the dentist cuz i'm thinking my partial just wasn't quite fitting right. i mean, if it fit in the back, it was way too loose up front and if i got it to fit right up front, then the back would flop around and choke me. having just got the piece last week, i wanted to give time to adjust; but since it fell out while talking a few times {and i was pretty sure that wasn't spoda happen}, i decided a week was long enough.

so i called the dentist's office on monday. i felt so poorly that i just propped myself up long enough to make the call, fully intending to flop back down and roll over and go back to sleep. as i was lisping and warbling and slurring my words together and trying to enunciate {which on reflection is about as authentic sounding as a drunk carefully concentrating on shpekin as clearly as posseeebelle}; i was getting more frustrated and pathetic at the same time.

the receptionist took pity on me, cuz bless my lil heart, i sounded verbally {and mentally} challenged. she asked, "oh dear, are you feeling sorta loose today?" and i snorted, chuckled, and giggled myself right into farting. which really set me off. and resulted in my disproportionate sense of humor leaving me limp as a wet noodle, sprawled backwards on the bed with the phone dangling and the operator's snipping electronic voice reminding me that if i'd like to make a call, hang up the damn phone and try again, ya stupid girl.

ah yes, i am feeling oh so much better now.
sigh.

puny me

i spoke too soon yesterday when i had said that i was seeing the tail end of the 24 hr bug. i ended up canceling an appt i had this morning cuz i couldn't even haul my butt into the shower. i spent most of the day in deep sleep, sweating and shivering and having the strangest dreams. all those are definite signs of fever. ripping and raging.

this afternoon i showered that sick sweat off and bundled myself into warm comfy cozy jammies and made myself some nice hot mint tea with just a tad sweetened, mmmmmmhmmm good. i finally was able to stand up without wobbling too badly and washed my dishes. i tried to eat some leftovers, but set them aside for my shaddow to have. instead i ate some oatmeal and that hit the spot and soothed my tummy.

i've been listening to rita mae brown's hounded to death while updating my eMail and such. it's been a good day over all, but i think that i best continue to rest and not push it too much. i do have an appt in the morning with the dentist to get this plate fitted better so that it doesn't feel so loose in my mouth. and then maybe i can speak without sounding like i have...well...a mouth full of acrylic!

my gp told me that about four to six weeks prior to visible pollen deposits, the pesky pollen is floating about in the air; irritating sinuses and clogging up lungs. so that helps to explain some gunk. euuwwwwww.

currently listening to...

whew, dude! i'm hoping i had a 24 hour bug that is showing me its backside cuz i can't take this feverish body-aches breaking into sick sweats and all. i was feeling on the shady side of ill all day and i feel sooooooooooooOOooooooooooo much better now, cuz i took a shower and rinsed away all the sour sweat. ewwww, but damn don't it make all the difference to have that fresh feeling! *wink*

my jerry has been reading the sookie stackhouse books (i think the formal name is The Southern Vampire Mysteries) by charlaine harris to me. he read the first one (dead until dark) before my mom came to visit and then this past weekend, he read the entire second book (living dead in dallas)! those two and the third one (club dead) are included into one book, as seen to the left<------. my jerry'd told me that the third one takes place in jackson (our state capital, rii'cher in miss'ippi).

jerry's been drinking more tea here lately, in part cuz when he reads aloud to me, he gets a bit of a dry throat. he is so sweet to me, constantly making pots of mint tea, apple/cinnamon, constant comment, and such and bringing me cup after sweetened cup. it's so very nice to be so spoiled. sigh. *blink*blink*

i understand that hbo has a series based on the sookie stackhouse books, called True Blood. Anna Paquin plays the heroine. maybe i'll catch it sometime; but i think i like the characters as created by jerry's voice and my imagination.

hope all y'all are feeling fine!

sharing the chucks from eMail

dudes, this made me chuckle and i hope you do too!

Two Little Old Ladies

Two little old ladies were sitting on a park bench outside the local town hall where a flower show was in progress. The thin one leaned over and said, 'Life is so boring. We never have any fun anymore. For $10 I'd take my clothes off and streak through that stupid flower show!' 'You're on!' said the other old lady, holding up a $10 bill. The first little old lady slowly fumbled her way out of her clothes and, completely naked, streaked (as fast as an old lady can) through the front door of the flower show. Waiting outside, her friend soon heard a huge commotion inside the hall, followed by loud applause and shrill whistling. The smiling and naked old lady came through the exit door surrounded by a cheering crowd. 'What happened?' asked her waiting friend. 'I won 1st prize as Best Dried Arrangement.'

congratz to the grrl and the kewl chickee

nutella,

i am sooOOOoooo there!

loves, lil nut

yoooo-hoooo {waving} i'm here

dudes! it's been more'n a week since i last wrote and i won't begin to attempt to catch y'all up on every lil everything. just not possible.

but i can tell ya some of the stuffs!

memom's visit was great! her classes were wonderful, filled with good folks with good attitudes and absolutely no one with a pissy 'tude {tho it seems there is always at least one per group, these groups were all good people}; which made the classes even more fun. the response by those who were in the classes as well as those on the waiting lists was so good that i think the folks at emerson may ask mom to come share her basket weaving skills again in the near future. yea! yea! mom, way to go!!!

in fact, one lovely lady brought mom a jar of beautiful daffodils from her yard and another brought baklava, yum! we had lots of fun and a good time was had by all. yea!!

mom's visit was packed with friends visiting, lots of dinners, movies, chatting, and other great wonderfulness in general. we went to jerry's a couple times and she had the chance to meet some of the kids, including the five month old baby who was kinda gurgly. mom held him and talked with him and put him to sleep in no time at all.

she left on friday, cuz as she says, "debbie's got a new beau and saturday is valentine's day". after jerry was thru with work, he came over and we had some tuna casserole and then i went over to his place for the weekend. we watched some tv, he t-vo's some stuff. 'officer and a gentleman' was on and wow, dude, was richard gere ever that young?!?!

jerry's been reading the sookie stackhouse vampire books (yeah, ok, that's not the name of them, but i'm too damn lazy to look it up right now) so he spent a great part of yesterday and today reading to me and i crocheted. his son and daughter in law and the newest grandbaby (one month old) visited and that was very pleasant. his youngest child (21) and her youngest (five months old) visited today for just a bit and it was good to see them.

but the funniest visit was from four year old lisping lil girl who asked for "swistee tadz" rather emphatically. she told us that her brother (9) was wanting them for something he was doing to a fence in his backyard. jerry and i asked if she meant 'twisty ties' and even showed her a few. she shook her head and all but stomped her foot and insisted that "you know," while nodding at us, "swwwwwisssssteee tadzzzzzzzzzz" while flipping her hands around. we tried calling her mother but the phone was busy and so when her brother showed up, we were a bit relieved, and he assured us, he did mean twisty ties but really wanted zip-strips. whew.

swistee tadz indeed.

but i feel for her, cuz dude, i've been lisping like a fifteen year old with a new retainer all week. if the dentist is open tomorrow, i'm gonna go see if he can't perhaps fit me differently cuz if i get the front of the partial snug, then the back is way loose and if i get the back to fit properly, then the front is way loose. so eating is a challenge and speaking is too.

but damn, don't i have a pretty smile?!?

yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away

{the rest of the song doesn't really apply, cuz i'm not feeling as tho it seems they're here to stay}

MeMom and I went to the Emerson Center {place where she will be holding her classes next week} to check out the room and also look over the list of students. Then we went to meet a dear friend for lunch and then we did something so typically girly-girl I felt a bit odd.

We all went shopping!

Now some of you may be thinking, so what? But I bet the vast majority are thinking, "wtf?!? debra?!? shopping? unforced? with others of the female persuasion?!?" and checking to see if it's been snowing in scorching places and certain wingless farm animals have taken flight. Yes, we did go shopping.

I had a lovely time. {gasp}

But dudes, it wore me out! My brain was all awhirling swirl and my heart was doing weird things. I did get the shaky sweats, ya know, accompanied by the prickling of the scalp and the tiny hairs at the nap of the neck standing straight up and waving to the crowds. It was exhilarating, but a bit scary cuz I kept thinking, "dude, i'm shop.ping sh.opp.PING" Looking at things I have no intention of actually buying. Things that aren't basic necessities; like food.

When Mom and I got home, we kicked back and watched a movie and then listened to "angels and demons" some and chatted with each other. It's a great visit and I'm so glad she came this way. Later, we are going to the library, then meeting Jerry for lunch, and I'm picking up a few friends, and we are going to Jerry's to watch "momma mia".

good times, good times that, good times.

meet memom

MeMom arrived at my home this afternoon, yea! She'll be staying for about a week, teaching three classes next week at a local community center. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from one to four she'll be teaching basket weaving. Each day, she'll be focusing on a different type of basket. I'll include pictures, promise.

In addition to the basket classes, mom and I plan to spend time watching movies, chit-chatting and catching up, visiting with a few friends, drinking wine, eating, and all those other things mother and daughters do. So we got started this even with our lovely visit. Wasted no time!

My Jerry came over this evening, had a wonderful dinner of creamy rice with veggies in a chicken broth base. He and mom met and we all enjoyed a few hours of chatting and laughing and telling stories. Mom brought some mango/citrus wine that she'd made and we opened a bottle. Very tasty. So good.

The meeting of the mom went very very well!

"early night," she calls

I'm about ready to call it an early night cuz dude, it's freezing. The windchill is making it feel about fifteen degrees and that's damn chilly. So, I'm gonna snuggle with Shaddow draped across my legs and read Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Mists of Avalon". It's classic, but I've not read it.

Hope you all are warm, cozy, and comfy.

g'n'nite!

a mid-winter's night slumber

Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow. or not. means the same thing. one way it means that spring is coming in six weeks. the other means that we have six more weeks of winter. being that i'm from pennsylvania, groundhog's day is more than just a note on the calendar.

so, now that the mid-point of winter is past us, perhaps i will not need to refill my propane tank for the season. cuz dude, that's ex$pen$ive.

sweet sleep!

eureka! ee's here

For the ever evolving Indigo, who selected the letter "e" for me, I'm just thrilled to be doing this. Ecstatic, ya might say. {wink} The idea is that I list ten words {or things} starting with "e" that I love. Or ya know, feel that certain zip for, that erotic tingling, if ya will.

I was thinking about that, my relationship with the letter "e". When I was a child, my elementary school's classroom had these little cardboard drawings of items with short words to identify the item, and the sound/letter. "Bed" was chosen to help us lil ones learn how to pronounce the short sound of "e". I still picture it from time to time, to differentiate my ability to correctly say unfamiliar words; since I still have a little confusion between the way "bed" sounds and "pig" sounds. Some pronunciations still elude me.

Enunciating my words has always been a problem for me. When I was little, in that classroom with the pictured words and items; I had speech therapy. Well, I mean for several years, depends on whether my school offered that option. Sometimes, I still crow, "imma human bean!!" Yeah, I'm that much fun.

While "e is for evidence" for author Sue Grafton, "e" encompasses everything for me. From the somewhat corny {but a favorite nonetheless} dance hit "everlasting love" to the myriad of eateries {that feature eclairs, eggs, or etouffee} to exercises {for the enlarged me} to beloved characters {eeyore! egor, edgar, edison, earp, einstein, earhart, eastwood, eisenhower} to languages {english, espanol, ebonics~~which seems like it should be ebonix} to my favorite hours {evening} to authors {eyre, ee cummings, eliot, eco umberto, eddings, elroy, euclid, evanovich, erasmus} to detested names {edward, edmond, ethel, earl, humperdinck engelbert, emanuel, elton john~~great singer, bad name} to good names {elizabeth, eva, enya, eve} to favorite quotes {et tu, brute, et tu? to err is human...} to eight emotions and expressions {eros, exasperation, elation, excitement, effusive effervescence, evasive, eeeek, ersatz} to electronic services {eMail} to lyrics {i gotta peaceful eeeeeeeazee feeling} to my favored organs {eyes} to places {england} to one of my favorite places {emerson center} to favored luxuries {enamaled bathtubs} and brands {elmer's glue}...the list could go on and on and on and o

I'm sure that I am forgetting some very significant stuff, but exactly what, I'm not so sure. It's rather eclectic. And exhausting. Now, I'm stuck in the eeeeeee's!

sssssuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper bowl

wow. dudes, i'm a "football for dummies" kinda gal, but i gotta say, "wow". today's superbowl just blew me away. and i'm not referring to the commercials {tho some were kick-ass, my fave was the insects who orchestrated the coke heist}. but the game, the game was awesome.

i like close games, cuz it seems like the teams are well-matched and you get to see some real good playing {this holds true regardless what sport it is}. i also love to see those amazing plays that just wow the crowd; ya know, those plays that even a complete dummy know is worth getting sooooo excited about.

if you want a good game, this was it. it had it all, thrills, chills, scores, and a few times when even i ended up urging, 'go-go-go-Go-Go-Go-GO-GO-GO-GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO' til i slid forward and perched on the edge of my seat; as tho the added volume and scant extra few inches would propel the lil running dude on the tv screen to left those legs a little higher and put on some speed.

wow. sigh. wow.