Fran and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Today sucked. Sorry to be crass, but that's really all I can do to sum up Tuesday, Sept. 29.

A message board friend sent me this poem. I'd never heard of David Whyte until yesterday. Now he's on my list of favorite poets!


"Sweet Darkness"
by David Whyte

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing,
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness
and the sweet confinement of your
aloneness to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.



(with apologies to Ms. Judith Viorst for borrowing the title of her most famous book)

Ernest Hemingway

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That'll teach you to keep your mouth shut." - Ernest Hemingway

Still looks like summer around here

Highlights in random order from the Guzman vacation:

=)

On September 26, 1987

my friends Colleen and Mark got married! This is their 22nd wedding anniversary. Congratulations and here's to the next 22!

This is a picture of Colleen with the girls in charge of her reception (hence the corsages). The bride is radiant, yes?

L-R: Fran, Colleen, Jerri, and Linda - foxy chicas!

Sage Financial Advice

Had a conversation last night with Caroline. She informed me that she would like a billion dollars.

Me: Why?
Caroline: Because then I can buy things I like.
Me: Really?
Caroline: Yes. Because NOTHING costs a billion dollars!

Thursday 9/24/09

Woo-hoo! Only 2 minutes until the season premiere of CSI and the Simon Baker show, I mean, The Mentalist.

;-)

P.S. Will try to post A LOT OF PICTURES this weekend to make up for my inattention to the blog herein.

New Shows, Old Friends

I'm enjoying the new season of all my fave television shows. It helps me keep track of what day it is, haha. I laughed a lot on Monday night (four funny shows in a row), and I'm still chuckling over a few of the jokes and sight gags. Wednesday is the night for "New Adventures of Old Christine." All the people in the cast are so funny! Trivia: To me, New Christine looks like Colleenie Bobeenie did when she first moved to Sebring.

I try to make it a priority to do things that make me laugh or smile. I've done a lot of both so far this week!

What are YOU watching and enjoying?

NCIS

Lovin' me some NCIS tonight! Tony is some serious eye candy. I like the whole team and how they all fit together, so I'm glad they got Ziva back. She's straight up bad-ass, and I love that. I have a theory about Ziva's dad but want to see if I'm on the right track before I spill the prediction, hehe.

Still trying to get into NCIS L.A. I keep thinking of Chris O'Donnell as the veterinarian on Grey's Anatomy ;-0 But LL Cool J makes me laugh, so I'm gonna keep watching it.

Tomorrow is Hump Day. After that, it's downhill till the weekend!

Hints from Not-Heloise

A couple of kitchen items for this dreary-but-over-now Monday.

Taco traps: little cardboard holders that hold the taco shells upright while heating and eating!

My secret spice ingredient: Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning. Spicy without a lot of heat, and verrrrrrry salty! Double yum!

Presenting ..... the Happy Birthday Song for Granny Old!

**WARNING** Puffs Alert -

Birthday Cake for #68

In between making video clips and photographing sunflowers (haha), I made this bee-yooo-tiful birthday cake for Granny in some of her favorite colors! Yum, yum! :)



For more delicious cake photographs, go here PinkCakeBox.Com

Birthday Sunflowers 9/20/09

These beauties are beaming birthday wishes to Granny Old / Mami! Happy Day and We Love You!

Scattered

Did a little of everything today and a lot of nothing in between! Even though I swore I wouldn't, I did 2 loads of laundry and cleaned a little bit in the bathrooms and bedrooms. I got out some scrapbook stuff I hadn't opened yet, and got my new print cartridges ready to install so I can print (more) pictures. :) Cleaned up all the glass from Caroline's overhead light, which was broken while "someone" was throwing stuff. Shoulda vacuumed the rest of the house after that, but instead I snuck in a nap. While I was dozing, 5 packets of hot chocolate "magically" disappeared. I knew this when I got up and saw the tops of 3 of them on the kitchen table; three for him and she confessed to only two. Watched two episodes of Frasier and got the kids their movie night treats. Tonight they watched 101 Dalmatians (animated version).

Today was my grandfather's 91st birthday. Hope his next year is a great one!

Screen Shot of Website

Current on electronic correspondence

All the e-mail boxes I have are empty. Alert the media, will ya?!

Revamped Part 1

Ah, much better. A few kinks to work out (some things need to be resized), but I like it way more than last night's version. Whew!

Blogging without blogging

A good way to give the appearance of blogging without really blogging is to change the blog format. I don't really like these colors so I'll have to mess with it tomorrow. ;-)

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09-09-09

The date is cool today: ninth day of the ninth month in the year oh-nine. The numbers nerd in me strikes again! Therefore, I wanted to make some historical notes on this most remarkable day. I'm using some prompts from a website called The Simple Woman (link is below).

For Today, September 9, 2009

Outside my window...
it's nighttime and I can't see much except a few stars.

I am thinking...
about health care, gas prices, crazy property values, taxes.

I am thankful for...
the constant, steady things in my life. With a lot of changes floating around me, it is a godsend to me to remember I have a few things I know I can count on. :)

From the kitchen...
I hear Sam (a/k/a The Midnight Chef) puttering around the kitchen and at the stove. Must be getting helping #2 of red beans & rice with sweet peas and sausage with cornbread.

I am wearing...
My old black shorts (w/ pockets, of course) and my maroon T-shirt that's Hall-of-Fame worthy. Plus my white W.T.'s!

I am creating...
an organized, non-cluttered environment at Scrapbook Center. When I have everything in its place and a clean spot, I'm able to really let go and scrap, because I know the rest of it is handled.

I am going...
to bed as soon as I finish typing this.

I am reading...
only the spines of the books in the large stack that keeps increasing and is otherwise known as "books I'm reading next."

I am hoping...
that the new routine at work is getting comfortable. Everything seems to be relaxing a little and we are all daring to take a breath or two.

I am hearing...
So & so on AM talk radio hacking on President Obama's speech this evening. Sam is listening, really, and to me it's just droning on. I'm still processing The Speech.

Around the house...
it's a darn mess. I've been organizing a ton of paperwork, but when I'm done, I place it neatly in its file inside the heavy duty file box and it is completely current. BUT it looks like I did nothing as far as housework. I need to deep clean, but first I need motivation for that task.

One of my favorite things...
is being home with the kids at night without drama. They've been getting their homework done at extended day, so all I need to do is check and return for correction if necessary. We've been doing nightly reading, plus keeping a chart of activities that need doing, then watching a little something to wind down, and bedtime.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Tomorrow I'm going to call the gal at Rollins who helped me with my night class schedule and admissions. I might be having lunch with an old work friend, too. Friday will be work, pizza night, possible game night and Bill Moyers Journal. I hope to get a Saturday morning ritual with the kids going where we go to the library, get some books, and then walk around Lake Eola before lunchtime heat. Both kids need some books that are a little more challenging, and my wallet tells me that I can no longer buy every book I plan to add to the aforementioned reading stack!

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PS - Happy B'day Hugs to my friend Joy -

Gizmo the Tomcat

Gizmo was the grouchiest and baddest tomcat ever. If he could see it, you better know he was boss over it. He destroyed the blue and red afghan that Jerri hand made me. He taught Beamer all he'd ever need to know about respect and pecking order. He was the only one Cimarron loved more than me. Today would've been his 25th birthday.

Long live "The Gizmo"

ObeyThePurebred.com

So tired I forgot to post this great website Obey The Purebred

It's hilarious! Just for fun, here is one of their logos, available in poster size!

They have them for most breeds of dogs, and I think there's a cat version and other links on the website also. Enjoy!

Late again!

Got a lot accomplished and while I was accomplishing, I wondered how many times I've repeated myself on the blog? I think I posted the St. Augustine quote before, and another one, too. Aricept, anyone?

Now going to bed. Got my outfits ready for this week. Trying to get everyone up earlier so morning will be smoother rather than full of drama and anguish.

Too tired to tag ;-)

Quote Collector

I hit the mother lode of quotes I've saved over the years. Apparently one of the boxes I've carried around from house to house contained a folder and a couple of blank journals that I used to write down quotes and save them. I got lazier towards the end, I suppose, since I started copying the quote on a copier instead of writing it longhand. There was so much I've saved that was trash, but some of it was worth keeping!

There were gobs and gobs of paper scraps with snippets I loved (the reason I saved them, of course). It's going to be fun finding a way to incorporate them into my blogging.

This is one quote I found especially inspirational:

"For certain things are not refused to us, but their granting is delayed to a fitting time." - St. Augustine

Got a lot accomplished today. Did a couple of laundry loads and washed some dishes. Even did some sweeping (Cinder-ella!!!!) Filled three boxes of papers that can be thrown away, and got done with almost all of the filing of household bills. Whoever said the numbers don't lie was correct, yet it's comforting to know where I am and where I'm going. Even if the numbers are way lower than I think they should be (snort!) .

I just realized everyone here is sleeping except me! ;-) Tomorrow is Pancake Day and I'm looking forward to being lazy and reading a big stack of newspapers. Good night!

Here comes the long weekend

Friday night:

Pizza - check
Root beer - check
Unpacked backpacks - check
Dried & folded laundry - check
Tokyo on couch - check
Bill Moyers Journal - check

Clock set to get up at regular time so I can get started early -

NOT

Thursday night

Finished hanging up a load of permanent press. Planning big cleaning this weekend. Hee-hee.

Work has been fluid lately and very stressful. Wait, did I already post that thought another day?! More than one day? If so, apologies for the repeat. It's not just me, it's everybody. Snippy, irritated, uncertain, unmotivated, and feeling overwhelmed, because we all know we've just entered the tunnel and it's going to be a while before we see some light on that end. This is only the first week of changes, so it's good timing to have a 3-day weekend after tomorrow.

The best things about today are (1) it's over and (2) it's bedtime. ;-0

Mark Steven Johnson

"Everything you do in life, every choice you make, has a consequence. When you do things without thinkin', then you ain't makin' the choice. The choice is makin' you." ~ Mark Steven Johnson (Ghostrider, 2007 )

There's a first time for everything

Oh.
My.

Today at lunchtime, I ran out of gas. As in, the car wouldn't accelerate with the gas pedal pushed all the way down because there weren't even any gasoline vapors to squeak by on. Once I coasted to a stop - at I-4 and the East/West Expressway (now known as the "408") , I looked in the owner's manual to figure out how turn on the hazard lights. Not only would the car not even turn over, I discovered the A.C. doesn't blow cold unless the car is running.

Sam wasn't working when I called, so he came out to bring me some gas. Crisis averted but not without the standard lecture!

In all my years, I've often wondered how people can run out of gas. Some things you're better off not knowing, haha.

From now on, I am TOTALLY ignoring the Florida Agriculture Commissioner's warning not to top off my gas tank. So there!