Shannon's Speech to Erin

Lauren, Erin, Shannon. Photo by Jennifer Kirby

Nate's girlfriend Erin has a sister who has autism. Shannon is not the autism. The autism is just an aspect of her personality that makes her unique. She has come a long way from the little girl I met years ago when I drove the drove the bus. That little girl cried loudly all the way home because I could not turn the bus around so she could go back and get a book she forgot. This Shannon is more mature and outgoing and self-assured.

On the morning of graduation...oh here. I'll let her mom, Jennifer, tell you. This is an email she sent out last week:

"For those of you who didn't know, Shannon secretly prepared this speech and planned to deliver it at the Indian Land High School graduation ceremony. I discovered her plans on the morning of graduation when I asked why she was carrying around her Hello Kitty tote bag all morning (which contained her secret speech). She was highly disappointed when I gently told her that she wouldn't be able to deliver it at the ceremony because Mrs. Faris wouldn't have time to add her to the agenda at the last minute. Things worked out all right and Shannon gave us this highly entertaining speech at our cookout later that evening."

And so, without further ado, here is Shannon's speech. I'm leaving it pink because that's how she typed it. But I've darkened the color so you can read it a little better:

SPEECH FOR ERIN’S GRADUATION

Erin Leigh Kirby, my older sister and role model, I have many things to say about you and anything else that is related to you. But first, I have this introduction. I won’t be saying stuff like how much you mean to me or what a wonderful person you are because I find those such speeches so formal that they are tacky. Instead, I shall use a speech that is the most suitable for my tastes and therefore have decided to make one my own way. I don’t care if this gets criticized because it is my speech and I can do whatever I want with it. The only thing that will not change about this is that it is for you and you only. So to all those who may not find this speech appropriate for the occasion, I suggest you either shut up or pack your bags and get out of here because, again, it’s my speech and I can do whatever I want with it. Back to the subject, we all know you’re great and have made a big impact in our lives, Erin, but I have these things to say. You are, in fact, the greatest nitwit that I have ever known. Note that this is the first time that you have been called by a supposingly insulting name in public and it may be your last so enjoy that while you can. Also, I wish you and your current boyfriend good luck in your future relationship. Speaking of which, I know what sort of future you want but I remember one thing that, if I remember correctly, is on a pillow that Dad owns. “You never see a motorcycle parked outside a psychologist’s office.” In other words, should your dream of becoming a psychologist come true, you may as well be the first one to have their own motorcycle and hopefully still have some sanity left to function normally. Forgive me if I just happen to embarrass you in front of a lot of people especially those that you may not know very well, but it is part of my job as your big little sister. It is my speech, after all and I do not wish to change anything. Now, without any further ado, I shall start with the past, continue until I get to the present, and finally present the grand finale of the speech. No, I won’t give any of it away because you will have to sit there and listen just like everybody else. That means all the impatient little rugrats out there. I know you’d rather be playing your silly games than listen to what I had to say.
Let’s start with the time when we were little kids. As a little sister, I wanted to be just like you: social, easy to get along with, and have a lot of friends. Of course, the goal was extremely difficult for me because of my condition, which, for those of you who did not know already, is autism. But I never gave up. I overcame the difficulties even though it took a long time to become who I am today. By a long time, I mean many, many years of my life. I was able to fit in as a student of the schools we went to together from an elementary school in Jefferson County, Kentucky, to a middle school in Madison County, Alabama, and from there to this high school in Indian Land just because of that goal. However, I don’t want to spoil anything to our listeners now because I have yet to tell them about all the details. Back when I was the youngest of the family, I was learning how to communicate. You helped me use the power of communication by playing with me. Our favorite game is a pretending game inspired by one of our favorite movies, The Lion King. You remember how much fun that was and so do I. When our little sister Lauren was born, we were pleased to have another kid to play with. Soon, I started disliking her because I find her annoying and difficult to live with. Everything was fine with life in Kentucky because we were able to go to places that are fun such as the Louisville Zoo and Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. Then we moved to Alabama. At first, everything was exciting to us, but during the first few weeks of school I met someone who eventually became an enemy. You know who I am talking about, but I refuse to mention her name. I don’t want to upset anybody at an event that was supposed to be a happy one. I was barely able fit in because of my condition in which I knew nothing about until my curiosity found it. Another reason why I was barely able to fit in the school environment is because of the old hag I mentioned earlier. I would tell everyone the whole story, but I still don’t want to turn a happy event into a sad one so I decided not to say anymore about the horrors I’ve been though because that would ruin your day, would it? You probably remember that creek in the forest we sometimes went to, the beautiful tree that used to be next to our Alabama house, the ditch behind that same house, the giant pool area we used to go to every summer that had the concession stand, visiting your friend’s houses, and even that large place near where we used to live that belong to one of your friends. Man, he had his own lake and everything! I know it disappoints you a little when we had to move to Indian Land, but this place has benefitted me a lot. I was too miserable to stay in Alabama, anyway so we had to move for my own sake since Mom and Dad are very… no, EXTREMELY worried about me. It’s been a good few years since we first settled in this quant little town. Our school bus broke down on our first day of school, we got cable again, my vocabulary grew significantly, you got to drive, we got to go to the Renaissance Festival and an anime convention, I broke my pelvis, our little sister Lauren survived a car accident with a whiplash, we got ourselves an HDTV, we got Ginger, we experienced Smokey’s death, and Mom won a car of her own. Now, it is this.Look at you now, Erin. You are ready to go to college, and I could not figure out how I should feel. I was sad that you won’t be with me the next couple of years I’ll be in high school. I was proud that you got your high school diploma and get to go to a good college so you can get the career you wanted. I was disappointed that I didn’t get any awards this year because I tried my best this year. I was happy that we had fun together all these years. But unfortunately, I’m afraid I might burst into tears because of all these emotions and reasons for feeling that way. I just can’t decide how I truly feel and why. Lots of things you do have inspired me much more than anything else. I mean, look at me. Why else would I be wearing my hair like this? Or wear these glasses? Or read a lot of manga at the school library, play some video games, listening to rock music, and have fun on the Internet? WELL?! You helped me become who I am, for crying out loud and thanks to you, I’m one of the greatest people in this school! Now I have friends, good teachers, a great life, and a cat. As for the boyfriend part, I’ll have to work on that because I don’t have one right now. Anyway, congratulations on making me feel improved despite the fact that I have been living with autism my whole life. I sure appreciate it. By the way, I hope you’ve decided what to get for me for my birthday. If not, I’ll just have to take back everything I just said. PSYCHE! No, seriously, I do hope you got me something. Now, that’s it for the speech. I hope you and everyone else had enjoyed it. Thank you.

Summer "To Do" List

Today marks the beginning of my summer break. Sort of. I'll go back on June 22 for 2 or 3 more days. We will be ramping up our School Report Card report to the state, and it involves documentation and records. And I would be the Registrar. So that's MY STUFF everyone wants to paw through.

Between now and Saturday I'll begin my summer stuff and then my adorable bff Julie will come for an 8 day visit. During that time we will drink wine, play board games, watch movies, paint 2 bathrooms and probably more stuff, and then we'll go to the beach.

Then I work those few days and begin my summer in earnest. And so to be true to my nature I have made The List:

1. Do yoga 3 times a week, Jazz 3 or 4 times a week.
   
2. Back up and clean our two computers
3. Work more on moving the old Gone to Carolina blog over to this one
4. Work in Photoshop with my new Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet(It arrives in a few days). It should enable me to improve my skills on selecting and deleting objects in photos and many other things that require more detail work. I'M EXCITED! But I'll have to try to contain myself while Julie is here...

So there you go. Now it's out there for the internet to see. You can ask me how I'm coming on it.

What is Spanish for "Delayed?"

I announced via text message this morning that we would be having a Taco Fiesta tonight. Mensa Boy left a note on the counter for the guys (& Erin) saying, "Taco Feastesta at 7:00 tonight. vamos a comer!" (Sorry, don't know how to type the upside-down exclamation point before "vamos" on blogspot.

So I get home from my wonderful massage and commence cooking the meat for tacos. And I reach into the cupboard for the unopened jar of Herdez salsa that I've had in there for 2 months. When I placed the jar in there I put a note on it that said, "DO Not Eat!"

This worked for some time. I don't know for how long, but I kind of think the jar was still in there last week.

And now it's gone. And Taylor has drunk it. And Nate has gone to get another jar. "It's by the Mexican part by the deli, not in the 'international" aisle,' I told him.

"Yes," he said. "I know exactly where it is. I've been through this before."

Les Miserables vs Less Miserable

We are back from a wedding and watching Les Miserables. The version with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman and Claire Danes. Looking at the box, the pairing of Neeson and Rush was critically acclaimed. Not a word about ole Uma And Claire. Were they deadbeats in this movie, not pulling their own weight? We'll find out. Believe it or not, neither of us has seen the story.

On the "Less Miserable" front...I declared today my emancipation from the boys laundry. This came about as a result of having my note requesting that they do a couple of loads yesterday go ignored. As a result, I counted up something like 8 loads of laundry that needs to be done this weekend.

You might think I just snapped. But to be honest, my body is sore and, after bending down into the dryer to get article after article out and fold it, all of Nate's or Taylor's, I decided I'd just not fold it anymore. They never put it away anyway. I fold it and put it on their couches. They just pick stuff off there and put them on.

That morphed into "why not just have them do their own?" And so that is what I'll do.

Mensa Boy's Resolution Passes SC UM Annual Conference

Today the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church affirmed a resolution regarding human trafficking. Mensa Boy has been on the Board of Church and Society for the past year and asked the board to consider this issue.

Here is the text of the resolution:

A RESOLUTION CALLING FOR THE SOUTH CAROLINA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
TO BEGIN COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Whereas, Human trafficking is defined as a modern-day form of slavery, in which victims are subjected to force,
fraud, or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
“Human Trafficking Fact Sheet”); and
Whereas, Human trafficking generates $9.5 billion annually and is the fastest-growing type of criminal activity in
the world today (U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; The Polaris Project);
and
Whereas, As many as 27 million people in the world today are victims of human trafficking (Sociologist Kevin
Bales, “Disposable People”); and
Whereas, Some 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked annually across international borders worldwide, with
about 14,500 to 17,500 of those trafficked into the United States (U.S. Department of State); and
Whereas, An estimated 200,000 American children are at high risk for trafficking into the sex industry each year
(The Polaris Project); and
Whereas, All people are created by God and in the image of God (Genesis 1:27); and
Whereas, God is a God of justice (Isaiah 61:8), who calls on His people to work for justice and to defend the
oppressed(Isaiah 1:17), and blesses those who work for justice (Psalm 106:3); and
Whereas, God hears the cries of the oppressed(Psalm 10:17-18); and
Whereas, Jesus Christ defined His mission as ministering to the poor, the captive, the ill and the oppressed(Luke
4:18-19); and
Whereas, The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church has studied the issue of
human trafficking while participating in the U.N. Commission on the Status and Role of Women; and has endorsed
and promoted the “Rescue and Restore” initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and has
publicized the Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline: 1-888-3737-888; and
Whereas, The United Methodist Church’s 2008 Book of Resolutions calls us to educate ourselves about this issue
and work for its eradication; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church encourage its members
and churches to join in fighting against all forms of human trafficking, in working to rescue and restore its victims, in
promoting vigorous laws and prosecution of perpetrators, and in working to reduce the demand for trafficked persons.
And be it further
Resolved, That the following action steps are suggested:
• Educate yourself and others. Resources include the following:
U.S. State Dept. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons: www.state.gov/g/tip
U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services: www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women: www.catwinternational.org/
The Polaris Project: www.polarisproject.org/ ECPAT International: www.ecpat.net
Not For Sale: www.notforsalecampaign.org/
• Pray for victims to be freed and restored, for demand to be reduced, and for perpetrators to stop
their evil deeds.
• Work with other churches and denominations in supporting the provision of safe houses for
victims of human trafficking.
• Call on all people to recognize their particular responsibility to raise awareness of the issues
involved in human trafficking.
• Observe the “National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness” on the Sunday before January 11
each year.
• Identify advocacy groups and consider contributing financially to the work of freeing victims of
human trafficking.
• Determine what services are available locally for runaway teens (who are particularly vulnerable
to traffickers) and how you can support these services.
Submitted by The Board of Church and Society
Mary Lynn Polk, Chairperson

Steak Sandwiches

steaksandwich
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Simple enough. The recipe was in Cooking Light. Fresh fennel, dried fennel, cumin, 4 4-oz beef tenderloin steaks, ciabatta bread, arugula, homemade mayo. Serves 4

I ended up with two 9-oz angus tenderloin steaks, fennel, baby arugula. I bought the pasteurized eggs to make the mayo and when I put them in the fridge at home I found I had 3 jars of store-bought mayo in there already. I decided not to buy ciabatta, since I always have bread dough on hand anyway. I baked up half a batch in a loaf pan when I got home so I'd have nice, uniform slices for the sandwiches. I took the two thick steaks and sliced them in half height-wise to get 4 steaks. I was relieved to see that you slice the cooked steak to put on the sandwiches, because the recipe serves 4, but I was feeding 5. I was counting on the hearty bread to fill up my guys.

You mix together the dried ground fennel, cumin, salt and pepper and toss in a pan with thinly sliced fresh fennel and saute until it starts to brown. BUT if you don't have cumin ... there you are. I also didn't have ground fennel, but fennel seed, so I toasted that for a bit and ground it in my herb grinder.

There really is no substitute for cumin. So I decided to just go with an entirely different flavor profile. I tossed in garlic powder instead and sauteed thinly sliced onion with the fennel.

Mensa Boy sliced the bread and toasted it lightly.

I took the fennel/onion mixture out of the skillet and set it aside. Then I sprinkled the garlic/salt/pepper/ground fennel on the steaks, heated the skillet back up, and cooked them about 6 minutes on each side. Removed them from the pan.

While the steaks rested I spread mayo on the bread, doled out the fennel/onion mixture, and laid arugula across the whole thing. Then I sliced the steak thinly and doled that out among the 5 sandwiches.

I sprinkled fresh lime juice on mine.

The sandwiches were a big hit, but the guys felt cheated because we made them have salads too. They felt the measly bit of arugula on the sandwiches should have counted as the veggies.

Taylor also said that he'd like me to make this again when Nate and Erin go to school this fall so that he can have a second sandwich. So there you go!

Indian Land High Class of 2009

senior2
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I took this photo of our graduating class last Friday after awards day. We have 118 seniors, so it wasn't too hard to capture them all in the photo. I'd say we probably have right around 100 here.

This photo really demonstrates the miracle of modern technology. I shot this in the gym at ISO 1000. The students were standing on the floor of the gym and I was up on the top of the folded-up bleachers looking down at them. Behind them you can see the gym floor, a folded-back tarp, chairs and a speaker stand.

What? You can't see any of that? Can you see the kid over there on the right about a third of the way up that doesn't have his robe on? You can't see him either?

Yes folks. That's Photoshop. And I have no idea how to do all that. But my friend Robin Champion had her husband take out all the background stuff and put a robe on goofy guy. Then he sharpened and de-noised and we ended up with a pretty nice photo. I can do the sharpening ok, and I can filter noise and adjust lighting and color. But taking out all the background and stuff is just beyond my capabilities at this point. That's what I really need to spend my time doing this summer.

Anyway, I'm excited about this photo. I have the white background one on the school website. We are having 4x6 prints done at the drug store and we'll put them in their diploma covers for a gift. That's what I'm excited about.

They are adorable, aren't they?

Many thanks to Tim Champion for photo editing. You can see his photos here.

He Doesn't Like Cucumber

I just found this out. After 27 years and 1 day.

Up -- Trailer for Pixar's New Movie

Normally I pan animated movies. Ever since the guys outgrew them and I haven't HAD to watch them, I've not seen the necessity of going to them. But Mensa Boy wanted to see this and, since he rarely wants to go to a movie, I agreed.

It was a great story, with good humor and no lagging parts. The only downside was being in a theatre with a bunch of families with little kids!

Girls in the Mix

We are house of boys. There's Mensa Boy, of course. Then Nate, who is 19. And Taylor, who is 14. We've always just been a house of boys.

And now we have Erin, Nate's girlfriend. She is 18. We love having her around. She's not real girly so it hasn't really changed the dynamics around here much. But she does have a woman's mind, and so it gives me someone to roll my eyes with around the dinner table when they are all going on and on about "Survival man" or "really tall flagpoles that reach out into space and what it would be like to be sitting on the top of one."

The other night we were are the supper table and Erin and I started talking about haircuts. This caused Nate to just sit and move his head back and forth, like at a tennis match, watching us talk to each other. I think he was surprised that either of us would talk that long about hair.

My friend Paula has a house of girls. One in college, one just graduating high school and the other a rising sophomore. Her two older daughters have boyfriends. Her daughters are fairly girly and so she is she.

I bet it's much weirder to bring boys into a house of girls than it is to bring girls into a house of boys.

27 Years

This morning I asked Mensa Boy the annual anniversary question: "It's been (x) years, how long does it seem like it's been?"

"Well, maybe 21," he said. "It doesn't seem like 27 but for sure more than 20."

And there you have it. The question answered.

Family Meeting

We just finished a nice supper of turkey burgers (courtesy George Foreman...so glad I have him around for these days when the sky suddenly explodes), sweet potato chips (some rather charred, but great nonetheless) and steamed cauliflower. Oh, and of course the homemade hamburger buns.

May I never buy a hamburger bun again. I'm certain I will at some point, but for now, while I have a nearly endless bowl of bread dough in the back of the fridge, there's really no point in buying the tasteless, doughy variety at the grocery store.

I had a chat with the children about summer and am hoping to get the three of them involved in some painting this summer. Buddy Julie is coming for a week in June and she and I will get the two upstairs bathrooms done. Then the bonus room and guest bedroom will be left. It sure would be cool to get the guest room done before she gets here. Erin says she likes to paint. I wonder if she could get that done with Nate the week before Julie comes? Hmmmm.... I have to work 10-hour days that week, so I won't be wielding a paintbrush in the evenings. We'll be lucky to get a decent meal that week.

The hardest part, to me, will be getting colors chosen. I really need to come up with a plan for the master bath. The master bedroom is a rose-y brown. But it also could use a new coat of paint. I dread choosing.

Anyway, I've told the three of them that I will try very hard to find gas money for them to make a road trip back to see Grandparents this summer if they will help out with some stuff here at the house. We'll see how that all goes.

Mom? Is That YOU?

I think God's voice sounds like my mother.

Yup. But I bet this doesn't come as much of a surprise to most of you.

So last night I was doing my yoga. A long routine because there was no Jazzercise. The routine is a Yin Yoga practice, wherein one puts oneself into a pose and then attempts to relax every muscle that is not needed to maintain said pose. And then, of course, you are supposed to relax your brain too. Because once you are in that pose, whaddaya need a brain for anyway? As you stay in that pose, the muscles gradually relax and stretch more and more, and the pose naturally gets deeper and deeper.

It's quiet. And should be a great time for praying. But you are supposed be relaxing your brain too...like meditating. And to me praying takes a lot of brain cells. So I've been trying to meditate on the word "pneuma" these days. The sequence is about 8 poses, which I hold for 5 minutes each, so that's a long time to breathe in "pneu" and breathe out "ma," so after a bit I think to myself, "How about just trying not to think anything at all. I want to hear God speaking to me."

So I begin to pray "I'm here. I'm listening. Teach me. Move me." And I find myself saying this in my head over and over. Until finally I pause and, I'm not totally sure, but I think I heard God's voice. And he sounded exactly like my mother.

And he said "Well shut up then! Let me get a word in edgewise!"

Dinner and a Movie

Taylor, Mensa Boy and I went to Big View Diner last night for supper. It was an early one and I'm very glad. We got there a little after 5 and still waited about 30 minutes. It wasn't a bad wait, though. They took 2 stools at the bar and I stood while Taylor played video games on a countertop console. The woman next to me had a great, citrus-looking drink in a regular glass so finally I asked her what it was. "A margarita," she said. "And it's wonderful!" I like margaritas but I don't drink them very often. They never seem tangy enough to me and often are too sweet. And also usually don't have enough alcohol in them. But this one looked fantastic so I ordered it. It was fabulous. Like limeade with a little kick.

After we hung around for about 25 minutes the manager asked if we'd like to sit at the counter in the diner rather than continue waiting for a table. So we agreed. It was a little awkward, I thought. We were right at the pass for the kitchen and so everyone was bustling back and forth across the window getting food. I worried that watching the food being handled might ruin my appetite, but it didn't. The staff worked well together (there was a guy and a girl working the pass together, assembling plates and doing garnishes) and they were clean and efficient.

Taylor order spaghettini and meatballs that I thought didn't really look that great. But I didn't taste it so I can't really say. The meatballs are made on the premises and they do their own meatloaf so they are probably pretty good. He ate most of it, but left 2 1/2 of the 4 meatballs. That's normal. He's not really my meat eater.

MB had a philly cheesesteak. He said it was good, but I did see him put ketchup on it, which I think someone doesn't do with a really good one. And I had a reuben, which was wonderful! It was stuffed with meat, too much to eat. Good and hot and just the right amount of kraut and sauce.

But the big hit, I thought, was their vinegar potato chips. OH. MY. GOSH! I mean, I'm usually going for fries anytime I can, and normally would sub out chips for fries. But they had a big tub of them on the pass and they looked great so I figured they needed trying. They were absolutely delicious. Just a hint of vinegar and the chips were sliced so thin you could see through them and then fried to perfection.

So I think we'd go back there. I almost suggested them for breakfast yesterday when Rena and I went out, but I'm glad I didn't. They are not open for breakfast yet. I bet they will be wonderful when they do.

After that we met Nate and Erin at the theatre to watch Star Trek. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we were in the back of the theatre, but that's my only negative comment. It's a BIG MOVIE and I think being further back would have helped me take everything in a little more. We loved all the characters and the actors they chose to play the original series characters. They had just enough references to the old series to keep you delighted but not too many. And they left it wide open for more stories. We all agreed that it's time for a new Star Trek series.

THEN we hit Marble Slab Creamery for some ice cream. There was live music on the patio outside the shop so we sat by a fountain while we finished our treats. It was just a nice evening all around.

A Summary

Here's what I've been doing since May 5:

1. Went to a bridal shower for a girl from Mensa Boy's department. It was a lingerie shower. Why did I go to this, you ask? Me, who buys her "lingerie" at Target? Well, truth be told, I didn't have an excuse not to, and Heidi, who was throwing the party, assured me there would be an available corner for me to rock in if I needed it.

It turned out to be a pretty pleasant shower. There was only one game, which entailed a passage from Song of Solomon where the two lovers describe each other assets in ways we modern folk never would think of: hair like a flock of goats and neck like the tower of David. You know. We had to match the descriptions with the body part.

2. Planted my flower bed. Stuff's coming up now. Especially since we are having rain rain rain. In fact, my patio tomato almost seems like it might be getting too much water.

3. Jazz, Jazz, Jazz, Yoga. The usual. And each week I do something in yoga that I never had tried before. Last Saturday it was a headstand. Pretty cool, I thought.

4. Played Badminton at school. If you could call what we, Erin and I, did playing badminton. We lost our first game in the tourney 21-3. And I have to say it was not my fault, actually. Turns out Erin is not a closet baddie. She pretty much sucks, actually. I think she herself was more surprised than I was. We had great shirts though. Erin bought yellow t-shirts and drew Sumo wrestlers on them. The Sumos held flaming badminton rackets. Our team name was Sumo Warriors. Why did we have that as a name? Because they wouldn't let us sign up without a name and since both of us are slight of build, we thought maybe we'd pick something that was the exact opposite of us!

5. Did I mention the lingerie party? I did? Well, it's still a little bit stuck in my brain. Trauma does that. Takes a while to wear off.

6. Oh yeah! And we had a surprise 50th birthday party for bff Rena. Her sister-in-law planned it, but we helped with food and kept the secret for a month. Payback's going to be a bitch, though. I can tell. Fortunately fellow posse member Tambri's birthday is 8 days after mine, so if she decides to do something to me, it will be to both of us. And we'll have another year before we turn 50. A lot could happen in a year. If I play my cards right, I'll lose all my friends by then so there would be no one to have to a party like that.

7. Nate came home from school last weekend. Which means GF Erin will be here a lot. I'm glad they have each other because I think neither of them are going to have any luck finding jobs. So they can drive each other nuts rather than just Nate killing us.

I think that's it for now. We have a busy couple of weeks coming up. Baby Taylor is graduating from 8th grade. I'm going to be so glad to have him at the high school next year. I just hope I'm still there!

Yoga+Jazz=WipeOut

But it's a good wipe out.

I've been doing okay in Jazzercise lately...able to hold my own for the most part. But there are a lot of classes where I'm just fatigued and sore during class and don't have the flexibility I'd like.

So I decided to try doing a yin yoga practice before Jazz by way of a warm-up. Yin yoga is a style that calls for holding poses for 5 minutes or so (or working up to that if you need to), and relaxing every muscle that you don't need to hold the pose. It's pretty darn hard. You have to take an inventory of your body during the pose and figure out if you need each muscle. If not, then you make it relax. The good part of all of that is that having the muscles relaxed allows the fascia to stretch. And when you get those deeper tissues stretching you get a very nice, fluid feeling in your body. I just started doing some yin yoga this weekend I like it very much. I've been doing a sequence I found in The Yoga Journal. Here is the link: Sweet Surrender.

So anyway, I did the practice Sunday by itself and then decided to try it last night before Jazz. It was a great experience! With the exception of a little muscle over my right hip, I felt great through the entire class. But man was I tired when I got home! And sore. I took a couple of Tylenol before bed last night to ease the sore muscles and slept like a baby. I'm going to see if I can get Mensa Boy to do some of those poses too. I think he'd find it would help his running a bit.

So it's raining today. Bear was not interested in going outside, so we did the backyard thing rather than trudging around the block in the rain. The garden looks joyful this morning as it soaks up the water.

You Never Stop Being a Mom

Enjoy!

Good Food, Good Wine, Good Friends

Last night after Jazz, the posse came over to celebrate Rena's birthday. It's on Friday. We had fajitas, veggies, fruit, cake and wine. Lots of wine.

Fajitas are great for stuff like that. You can do all your prep ahead of time for the most part. We had shrimp (Harris Teeter had bags of frozen, cleaned shrimp for $5.99--12 oz per bag) and beef. Lately I have been buying skirt steak, which is tough and kind of cheap, and putting it in my small crockpot with some onions, garlic and a little beef stock. I cook it on high all afternoon and then slice it and saute it a bit to get some caramelization going. It's a great weeknight meal because it's quick and easy. The shrimp I just tossed in butter and Old Bay in the skillet until done. Some cilantro from my herb pots and a squeeze of lemon was all that was needed for the shrimp ones. For the beef fajitas I had tzatziki to put on there, or sauteed peppers and onions. It was a nice meal.

We sat out on the patio and talked and laughed for a couple of hours. The weather has been perfect for that kind of thing.

Off to work!

Can You Stand Another Commentary on Sanford and The Money?

My dad asked me a question about Sanford today that prompted me to come up with this explanation (as I understand it) of the "Sanford and the Stimulus Money" soap opera. Now here are the disclaimers. Dad said he thinks it's interesting that Sanford would reject "any" stimulus money but is willing to ask for Federal Disaster Funds for the Myrtle Beach fire. It's not actually true that South Carolina is rejecting "any" stimulus money. SC is getting something like $8 Billion. The question is about something like 5% of the total amount we are getting. And stimulus money is not the same as Federal Disaster Relief. Different buckets of money.

And finally? This is only MY WAY OF UNDERSTANDING the $500M issue. I completely believe I could be wrong on this. Actually, sometimes I think I MUST be wrong. Because my understanding, illustrated below, makes it seem like such a stupid thing, that I can't imagine I'm right and that this is really what it's all about. But? I've lived long enough to hear bigger arguments about stupid-er stuff. So here goes. For your entertainment:

The stimulus money is going to cost us more in the long run if we take it. Taking the $500Million that he is talking about has strings attached that will mean starting new programs for which that stimulus money is intended by the Feds. I liken it to this: You have a house. In that house you have a washer, stove and refrigerator. You dry your clothes outside on the line. The refrigerator is on its’ last legs. You need a new one. But you are still making payments on the washer and stove. You are just limping along, keeping your beer and brats in your neighbor’s fridge until you can get those last few payments on the washer and stove. Once you get those paid off, you’ll buy a new fridge with the money you’ve freed up in your budget by not having to make those payments.
Your uncle says he’ll give you $1,000. But you can’t use it to buy a new fridge and you can’t use it to pay off the washer and stove. He thinks it’s a travesty that you are drying your clothes out on the line. He lives next door and doesn’t like seeing your undies swaying in the breeze. So he’ll give you $1,000 to buy a dryer. You have to use every dollar of that $1k on the dryer, too. Which means basically a top-of-the-line LG steam dryer. With a 7.3 cu ft capacity, this bad boy is going to need a lot of room in your laundry room. Which means you also will have to remodel your back porch to accommodate it and the existing washer. It’ll probably cost another $1000 in demolition, supplies, and labor to get that done. Now, since I’ve just recently found out that I could lose my job if Sanford doesn’t take the money, it puts me in the interesting position of feeling like he should, so that I can salvage my measly $xxk a year job, and feeling he shouldn’t because I just don’t think my uncle needs to tell me how to run my house.

Nonsense

I'm quite sad today. I ordered perennials 2 weeks ago and they still have not arrived. I checked and now find they will not arrive until the first week of May. I hope that's not going to be too late to get them settled before the big heat.

I shot baseball last night and got only one shot worth anything, and it's not worth more than about a dime. I'm kind of sad about that. Especially because parent expectations are always high when they see a person with a newspaper name tag on and a seemingly nice looking camera, shooting their little darling playing a sport. Ah well.

So today will NOT be spent planting plants. I do still have some garden clean-out to do, and I need to shop for some shoes and whatnot for spring/summer.

What will I find in the garden?

This morning I woke to a pounding rain. When that happens, the first thing I think about is whether I can get Bear outside long enough to do his business. Because if I can, then I can leave him all day without having to come walk him at lunch. I was successful this morning, so now I can get off at 3:30 instead of 4.

But the other thing I wondered, and am still wondering about, is what has happened to my new little plants that I put out last night. I planted my herb pots. They will probably be okay. But I had plants that were too large of the pot so I split many of them and put part in the flower bed. Some of them were fairly fragile when I put them out there. Will they be okay? Or are they broken and flattened by the downpour? I won't know until after school today.

My mail order plants have not arrived yet, either. If they show up today I'll be in good shape. I can plant them tonight after Jazzercise. But tomorrow night is the Friends of the Library meeting at 6 and I don't know how long that will go on.

Gardening is stressful! It's a little like parenting!

My Azalea

My Azalea
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

The other day I think I wrote about Azaleas being best enjoyed from a distance. I said that when you get up close to them, they are generally pretty ragged.

I'm eating my words here. After I said that, I went out and started looking closely at my azaleas and also at my neighbor's. All of them have blooms that are in pristine condition.

Today is the last day of spring break and I could spend it in mourning, dreading going back to work. Don't get me wrong: I love my job. But this is the hardest time of the year for the Guidance Department as we prepare for graduation and also work on testing and just in general try to get the year wrapped up. And of course we are all anxious for summer...not just students, but staff too.

But instead I'm going to live today in the moment as much as I can. I hate to let a beautiful day go by unnoticed because I'm too busy worrying about tomorrow.

Have a great Sunday!

Forester Bob

Foresterbob
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

He's taking some trees out around the edge of the flowerbed. Actually, just two little trees and then some branches from other big trees to get more sunlight in there. Tough looking, isn't he?

As it happens the nasty tent caterpillars were on one of the big branches I needed removed. So, problem solved there too.

Pink Dogwood

PinkDogwood
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Mensa Boy wants to start going through the woods in our back yard and taking out the dead trees. Then he'd like to plant new trees back there to replace them.
After seeing this one in my neighbor's garden, I told him we should just fill each spot with white and pink dogwoods.

EWWWW! WHAT ARE THESE?

worms
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I found myself underneath this a couple of hours ago. Are they friend or foe? Should I let them live or whack 'em? (yes, I've been watching reruns of the Sopranos lately)

Dogwood

Dogwood
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

A Little Sprout

Sprout4.17.09
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I found this sprout, among many, in the garden last night when I started cleaning. I like his dual colors and he seems a little stronger than some I've found. I don't know what he is, but he seems like he deserves a chance to grow up to something. So I spared him. If I had come crashing into the garden with a big ole rake I could have missed him and plowed him under. He could very well be a weed. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I found many promises yesterday when I started. Buried under the leaves from fall and winter were many little green leaves and sprouts emerging from the earth. I gently brushed away the detritus and tried to give them all air and light. I have one Azalea that is leggy but very full of blooms. I'll shoot it later. And my white Azalea is just starting to bloom. And still the guy I call "my deadbeat Azalea," who has not bloomed since 2003. This is his last year in my garden. If he doesn't produce, I'm kicking him out and changing the locks. I'm quite certain my neighbor Mary will take him in.

Some things, when you look at them up close, seem to get more beautiful. Like Dogwood blossoms. But other things are almost uglier up close. That's the way Azaleas are. I think they are best enjoyed from afar.

theVisitor

I watched this movie yesterday afternoon and I must say it is one of the best I've seen in a long time. This lonely, depressed college professor goes to New York to a conference and when he gets to his apartment (he's kept it for 25 years, despite living and teaching in Connecticut), he finds a couple of illegal aliens living there. After only a brief hesitation, he allows them to stay and ends up befriending them and becoming a big part of their lives. The man, a drummer/musician from Syria, is hauled in by immigration and the professor, played by Richard Jenkins, does his best to help him out.

It's Thursday and I see Spring Break Slipping Away!

I am tired. A little less tired than yesterday, I think. I wasted the entire day yesterday napping and watching a movie. I did go to the grocery store and made a very nice supper. I wish I'd taken a photo of it. It was from Prevention magazine. Next time I make it (and I will make it often) I'll shoot it.

Today I'll go to yoga and then who knows? I may finally get that flower garden work done. But I'm not in a rush to do that today. It's supposed to warm up to the 70s tomorrow and over the weekend so that would be a great time to do some gardening. I also need to start working on my pots.

Gone to Carolina Archive: April 15, 2005

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman, is the story of a Hmong child with epilepsy and the problems doctors and her family had communicating with each other. Lia Lee had such severe epilepsy and her doctors could not seem to gain any understanding with her parents about medications and treatments. The book was published in 1997 and I sincerely hope things are better for the Hmong people now than they were then. Carolinians aren't as familiar with the Hmong as Minnesotans are, so this book may not interest my local readers as much. But if you live in Minnesota you really should read this book. I gained not only a better understanding of the Hmong community but also a great deal of respect for them. "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" is the loose translation for the Hmong word for epilepsy. Hmong believe that a person with epilepsy has had their soul frightened away from their body and a spirit called a dab is catching her. If/when the soul returns then the illness will be resolved. Many Americans think of Hmong as "Laotians" but that is not the case. Laos is just the last place our Hmong were before being brought to the U.S. The Hmong have history in China, Siberia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. They were resistant to governments who tried to assimilate them and when things got to be too much they would pick up and move on. The Hmong were brought here by the U.S. as refugees after they helped the CIA with their "secret war" on North Vietnam by serving in the Armee Clandestine in Northern Laos. They were led by Hmong leader General Vang Pao and helped cut off North Vietnamese supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, supplied intelligence for US bombing missions and helped rescue downed US pilots. The book is about 50 percent Hmong/U.S. history and 50 percent the story of Lia Lee and her family's clash with the American medical system. I had a hard time putting it down. It does not sound academic at all...more like a very good story.

Life's Not a Beach for Bear

We are back from the beach and I think Bear is glad. He didn't think much of it. After considering his behavior I concluded that he doesn't like it because there is no grass. Bear is a typical walker, stopping at many posts, mailboxes, trees and clumps of grass to leave a liquid note that he was there. But there are no such things on a long stretch of sand. And so he ranged back and forth in front of us, at the end of his rope, occasionally stopping to see if we would pick him up.

He didn't think much of the water, barely sniffing it as it wafted toward our feet. The beach was pretty clean of debris too, so no dead jellyfish to check out, not even any interesting garbage. As we headed back to the walkway that took us to the street, he perked up and almost sighed when we relief when he saw a clump of grass ahead.

It was a short, restful visit. It rained off and on and was fairly cool, so we really didn't spend any time by the water. We roamed around Barefoot Landing and had supper at The House of Blues. We read books and Taylor played video games on his Gameboy and watched videos of Corner Gas on the little DVD player. Monday we had our Easter dinner...ham, deviled eggs and salad. Fresh strawberries for dessert.

And so here we are at home. A mountain of laundry to do and the flower garden to gently clean out. I'll do some yoga and Jazzercise this week and some reading. I like Spring Break.

Happy Easter Everyone!

We are off the beach in a bit. We'll be gone only a couple of days. Taylor's not a big fan.

I bought some plants yesterday and planted them this morning after church. I picked up a plant called Plumbago that I'd never heard of before. It's got these great little pale blue flowers all over it. The plant is already showy just in the pot. There was NO INFORMATION about it all on or in the pot. I hate it when they do that. I picked it up and carried it around to pay for it. "So you're going to get that?" Rena asked. "Yeah. I like it," I told her. "But we don't know anything about what it is," she said. "I know," I told her. "I'll google it."

It turns out to be pretty much the perfect thing for an imperfect gardener like me. Hard to kill, likes sun, can handle shade. What more can I ask? I stuck it in the ground and watered it well. We had quite a bit of rain a couple of days ago, so it'll probably be fine without more watering until I get back Tuesday.

I also put dahlias and lantana in the corner planters of the patio again. And I bought a rosemary bush to put in the flower bed up at the top where the sun shines all morning and all afternoon. Everything I plant up there dies so I'm hoping the rosemary will do the trick. And it can get as big as it wants.

I also found some yellow poppies and I bought some sweet corn on a whim. I told Rena that Mensa Boy wanted corn but I poo-pooed it because corn needs so much room. "Buy him some corn Karen," she said. "If you don't get corn on it, you can just say it's a grass." And so I did that. Mensa Boy now thinks Rena is a hero. "Now we won't starve," I heard him tell Taylor. hmph.

I ordered quite a few perennials from Spring Hill Saturday morning. I'd love for them to arrive before spring break is over, but my luck they'll probably show up after that and it'll rain for several days. I invested $80 or so into them, so I'll have to get them planted whenever they arrive. I'll take some photos when I get back.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today. I'm so glad we are having spring break. I can feel myself calming down and relaxing already.

Uh OUCH!

I made a brisket yesterday. I read through the recipe (in "Fine Cooking" magazine)when I bought the meat, but apparently my reading comprehension was a little off. I saw the part about 2 1/2 hours, and the part about another 1 hour more, but I failed to notice the first 1 hour.So I started the brisket at 3:30 and then realized that this would mean eating at 8 o'clock.

Now, I can wait that long. I'm generally not that hungry in the evening. But my guys can not. Taylor said "We are going to have to eat 8 snacks to wait that long." So I suggested burgers. We'll eat the brisket today.

I know it's a waste of money to buy pre-formed burgers, but I do it anyway. I try to keep at least one packet of pre-formed patties in my deep freeze at all times. They come in handy in times like these. And having bread dough in the refrigerator all the time really has come in handy too. I pulled the brisket out, put it on the back of the stovetop, cranked the oven to 450 and baked off 4 burger buns. Lowered it back to 350 and put the brisket back in.

Taylor cooked the burgers. It's not optimal to cook meat from frozen but he made a mistake that caused them to come out perfectly. He lit the grill without opening the vents. By the time I notice that, the burgers had thawed nicely. I opened the vents and they finished cooking.

But this post is about the OUCH! When I went to pull the brisket from the oven, my carefully sealed foil lifted off the edge of the pan and I steamed two of my fingers. Left Index, Left Middle. And of course I was carrying the heavy pan from the oven to the island at the time so I had to just keep going. No dropping that pan.

There was SIGNIFICANT pain last night. I iced it for about 2 hours, took 400 then 400 more mg of Ibuprofen, and tossed down a sleeping pill at the same time. This morning I woke 10 hours later and the fingers don't hurt. But that middle finger has a terrible blister on it.

So I have no moral tale to tell you about this. Wait. I do.

1. Read the entire recipe a couple of times and maybe underline the cooking times before you start.
2. Always keep a backup meal in the freezer.

Bear is Moping

We finally have fixed his bark collar so that it is about 90% effective. We thought we'd fixed it before, but his barking has gotten worse with the nicer weather. Finally last night I told the guys that we needed to adjust things again. He was on my lap and went into a barking fit. I held him and pressed on the collar and he really yelped mid-bark.

"He needs to have some hair on his neck cut," I told them. "Someone that doesn't love him as much as me needs to do it. Maybe Dad."

I'm always teasing Mensa Boy about how he doesn't kiss the dog like the rest of us do.

Today I got a text while in yoga. "The bark collar is finally working!" Taylor said.

"Yay! what did you do?" I asked.

"Tightened it two notches and Dad shaved his chin like you said," he replied.

He's been pretty quiet now. A minute ago he ran to the door barking quietly when the ice cream truck came, but then cut himself off with a shriek.

Poor him. But good for us!

uh...er...Thanks!

Yesterday morning Mensa Boy was still sleeping at 9 a.m. Since he's usually on the way out the door to Sunday School by then, I figured he must still be too sick. He's had a terrible cold since he got back from Uruguay.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"Somewhat better, I think" he said.

"Do you feel like bacon?" I asked.

"Do we have any?" he asked.

"No. But IHop does," I replied.

And so we hatched a plan to go to the church of the almighty pancake instead of the little Methodist church down the road. We got the guys up, called Erin to wake her up, and drove to IHop, taking care to go out the back way so we wouldn't go past the little Methodist church.

We arrived home a little while later to a message on our answering machine from my bff Cassie. "Hey. Missed you guys at church. Hope [Mensa Boy's] ok. We prayed for him because Harold said he was real sick."

!

On a related note, I called Cassie the other day and told her that Harold and the church were getting a little bit personal with the church sign on the highway. On the back side? The side you can hardly see because of the tall Leland Cypresses? It says "Go to church weekly, not weakly."

At least he didn't put my NAME up there...

socks

socks
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

These are the socks my mom made. Just for me!
Thank you Mom!

My Mom Built Me Some Socks!

This morning I went out to walk the dog and get the paper and realized I had not checked the mail yesterday. Inside the mailbox was a little package for me from my mom.

A pair of gray, hand-knit socks tumbled out of the package. A rather professional-looking job, if I do say so myself. I'll add a photo when the sun comes up.

THANKS MOM!

Yoga: Definitely Not for Sissies

When I mention yoga to people, they tend to say, "that's nice." And they sort of click off at that point. There are two main opinions I get from people about yoga: "Eastern, mystical philosophy," and "Not really a workout."

The truth is that yoga, while it does have history dating back to 3,000 BC (Stone Age) shamanism, and there is a lot of Hindu philosophy associated with it, is as personal a philosophy as can be. The benefits of yoga to the mind and body surpass any cultural and religious boundaries that I can think of.

I became interested in yoga when I entered menopause and began to suffer depression. My general practitioner mentioned it to me as a way to learn how calm the mind and settle the body. He himself said he was surprised to find himself recommending it to me and other patients. Later he began practicing it himself when his family acquired a Wii Fit! You see, yoga is largely about breathing. And medical practitioners now know that breathing can do a lot to calm the central nervous system and reduce stress.

I began by learning a couple of very basic, short routines from DVDs. I've written about them here.

But now I've stepped it up a notch and am taking a yoga class at our local gym. And I have to say I've found that class to be as challenging, if not more so, than some of the jazzercise sculpting classes I've taken. My Saturday morning routine now includes a 60-minute jazzercise class and then a 75-minute yoga class. Yes, there is some "laying around and breathing." But there are also some very challenging poses that take you to the end of your strength and stretching ability. Last week we did some poses with planks and then lowering ever so slowly to the floor...like a very long fully-stretched-out push-up. And then we had to get ourselves back up. After doing that for a dozen times, our shoulders and upper backs were definitely fatigued.

Today we practiced a couple of balance poses where we balanced our legs on our arms and held ourselves up off the ground with our hands. Called the Crane Pose, this pose makes you feel almost as if you are pitching forward on your face before you hit the right balance. We also did a pose similar to this Warrior III pose, except we started from a forward bend and came up, instead of starting standing and bending down.

So, after 2.5 hours of some pretty hard working out this morning, I did some puttering around and then took a nice nap. I'll have to do some serious stretching tonight and tomorrow to keep the body from seizing up like an engine out of oil!

Oh, and I didn't mention the Jazz-to-the Max class I took yesterday at 5:15! 45 minutes of cardio and strength training, but mixed up...instead of 30 minutes of cardio and then cooling down to do 30 minutes of strength, we did cardio, lifting, cardio, lifting. Totally kicked our butts. I may not be able to lift my arms for a week! And then it will be time to do all of this over again...

Slumping

I just don't have anything at all to say.

I'm finding that to be the case more and more lately.

And I think I'm in an "end-of-the-book" slump. It took me nearly 2 weeks of reading every spare minute to finish "World Without End" by Ken Follett. Now the story is over...all 1100+ pages of it...and I miss it. It's like when "West Wing" went off the air. There's a hole in my life where that book was. And I don't really have anything tantalizing to read right now.

But I am catching up, slowly, on my TV watching. The DVR has been quite full of the last 2 weeks of "House," "Brothers & Sisters," "24," "Gilmore Girls," "The Last Restaurant Standing..." all that.

I'd love for someone to make some book recommendations.

Is Sanford Really a Nut?

I'll tell you right now, so as to spare some of my readers the few minutes it will take to read the rest: I don't think so.

Now probably all the people who think I'm not entitled to my opinion have probably left this blog.

I read this story in The State newspaper this afternoon. (sorry, you may have to register to read it) I'm sorry to say I have to agree with Sanford's reasoning on his request to use PART of the stimulus money to pay down debt. I emphasize PART because some (ok, many) of my colleagues at work keep saying "Sanford wants to turn down the money," as if he saying NO to ALL of it. Read the story, people. That's all I'm sayin' about that.

Sanford would like to use $577 million to pay down school bonds and additional $125 million to repay unemployment loans (I admit, I don't know what unemployment loans are. But I know what a loan is: money you owe and pay interest on until it's repaid). That's out of the approximately $8 Billion South Carolina should be getting. The story says "Doing so, Sanford said, would free up $162 million in debt payments the next two years and an additional $125 million over the next 13 years that could be put to other uses."

The story quotes Sanford thus: “I’ve made clear my position to using debt to solve a problem created in the first place by too much debt — and I don’t believe this to be an unreasonable position,” Sanford wrote. “We believe this course of action will do more to ensure South Carolina’s long-term economic strength than would other contemplated uses of the funds.”

I just don't see the problem with his reasoning. I really really don't. Am I just that stupid? If I got a windfall? I'd pay off my mortgage and my home equity loan and THEN I'd think about something new. And I'd also figure out what I wanted to do with the $1,600+ a month in payments I currently pay to service those two loans.

Apparently I, a proponent, am not the only one using my home mortgage as an example to bolster my argument. "Kershaw County superintendent Frank Morgan compares Sanford’s spending plan to a parent paying off a house mortgage when their children are starving."

Well, we aren't STARVING, but we should would eat a lot better if we weren't paying this mortgage payment each month. Morgan says they are struggling to pay teacher salaries and all that. Well...yeah. Like a family that struggles to make their car payment because they have to pay their mortgage and car payment.

The story goes on: "State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said Sanford’s idea ignores more pressing short-term needs for schools over the next two years. Spending $700 million on debt would mean money could not go to classroom programs or teachers."

Maybe that's what I don't understand. The story (and Sanford) probably could have gone on to say where the money is that is not going to classroom programs or teachers. Well, actually? I'll step out here: Most Carolinians know that the money left when our legislature, despite examples of other states trying it and failing, restructured education funding to be from the sales tax instead of property tax. Now here we are with almost the highest unemployment in the country, nobody can buy anything, and yet the majority of us still have our houses upon which we are now paying less property taxes.

South Carolina reminds me of AIG. Without the bonuses to the executives. They've managed our finances terribly and now want bail-out money.

I wish the story gave us Sanford's proposal is to help out those situations of the crumbling schools and laid off teachers with with the debt service money he's freeing up.

Time to lob the tomatoes, my friends.

Rainy, Restful Weekend

It's drab and rainy here. In the 40s and dark. But my camellia is blooming all over the place, so I have this spot of color right outside my window. I really need to go out there and shoot it. But it's wet!

Mensa Boy and I watched "Lars and the Real Girl" last night. We'd watched it before and fell in love with it. It's sad and poignant at the same time. This lonely guy orders an anatomically correct doll from the internet and treats her like a real person. The entire town gets in on it, even electing her to the school board.

I finally finished reading "Rabbit, Run" by John Updike. Holy cow, what a book. This 26-year-old loser, who was a basketball star in high school, just up and walks away from his family. But he doesn't even do that well, ending up in a town just a bit away shacking up with a part-time prostitute. His minister befriends him, although I kind of felt like the minister was a bit of a loser too. I was glad to be done with the book. It's for our book group that meets this afternoon. But I will probably go back and read "Rabbit Redux" eventually. I bought the two in a volume together. Right now I'm on to Ken Follett's "World Without End."

So today will be church, reading and some serious yoga. I'm very sore from jazz and yoga yesterday. I used 8 lb weights at all three classes last week and now my arms are screaming. The screaming is competing with my abs' noise, as Sarah put in a real ab-buster in her set this week too. But? It's all good!

Balloon Man

Well, you could try it at home if you have an 80 inch balloon made in South America.
Don't forget the glasses!
I hope he had someone else there videotaping and wasn't doing this unsupervised.

Balloon Man

Breaking Bad

This show's second season premiers tomorrow night at 10 on AMC. If you have not seen it, you really should give it a try. It's imaginative, dark, humorous, serious, and heartbreaking. I stumbled upon a write-up about it last year and had to watch it. Here is a synopsis of the show from the AMC website:

"Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher who lives in New Mexico with his wife (Anna Gunn) and teenage son (RJ Mitte) who has cerebral palsy. White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of two years left to live. With a new sense of fearlessness based on his medical prognosis, and a desire to secure his family's financial security, White chooses to enter a dangerous world of drugs and crime and ascends to power in this world. The series explores how a fatal diagnosis such as White's releases a typical man from the daily concerns and constraints of normal society and follows his transformation from mild family man to a kingpin of the drug trade."

And here's a short video that recaps the first season's first episode:

Mrs. Hughes Live at the Ice House

She says what so many of us think and don't say out loud.

Proud to be a Republican. I THINK?

So I'm sitting at lunch today, minding my own business, when my lunch companion says to me "You have such a big heart. Such a caring personality. How is it that you are a Republican?"

" "

The statement came about because for the last two days I've been working with our district ESOL (English as a Second Language) person to get a couple of new students enrolled. The new students are from another country and have been sent here by their father to stay with their aunt.

Some might say we should not offer a free education to children such as these. Their parents live in another country, we have never and may never collect a dime of taxes from this family. These kids could drop out of our school or they could stay and graduate and go back to their homeland, taking the benefits of their education with them. Or? They could go on to college here, graduate, and stay here, gaining U.S. citizenship. Who knows? Only God knows.

While they are here, they will be well-cared for by our school and community. The aunt and uncle are not wealthy people, but they will provide them a good home. At least that's the feeling we get from the aunt. And the staff is rapidly falling in love with these two students. I'm confident our students will too. We have many children of immigrants here in our school. At least one church I know will turn itself inside-out to help the aunt and uncle provide for the family's basic needs. And the church will love every minute of it.

Yes. I am a Republican. But I have no problem with immigrants. I have very few problems with illegal aliens. I am an environmentalist too. I believe in social programs. I don't think we should give just any tom, dick or harry a free ride, but I do believe in business. And one of the first adages of business that I learned is "You gotta spend money to make money." And I happen to think that is true socially and spiritually as well. You need to invest in humanity to receive back. You need to put yourself and your values out there for consumption to truly reap rewards in heaven and on earth. Some investments don't work out. But others do.

Donkey Basketball

I have no idea what was going on there. I was probably trying to turn around to see what was going on with the basketball. I never actually got my hands on the ball the entire time I was in the game. I basically just sat on my donkey and rode around. Except at one point I leaned over and pushed a friend (on the opposing team) off her donkey.

There is a distinct advantage to riding in the last quarter. By then you have a good idea what donkeys are ride-able.

The game was fixed in favor of the elementary. That's seems fitting. They had the most participation and sold the most ticket. And since the proceeds benefited the booster club, and the elementary doesn't even have sports supported by them, it makes even more sense to let them win the game. And we had to LET them win. 'Cause I'm tellin' you...we got donkey bb skills, man!

So we are back to school after a snow day yesterday and 2-hour delay today. That's all folks!

Photo courtesy Tim Champion. http://champs.fototime.com.

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Here he is at 11. Today he is 19. Maybe when Mensa Boy wakes up we can figure out how to scan one of his baby pictures. The new scanner is a bit beyond me!

Today we will go to Greenville to meet Nate for lunch for his birthday. We'll do that at 11 because the weather is pretty dicey today. We want to be on the road back as early as possible.

Some people are like slinkies; not really good for anything but they really bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

KEEP WOMEN IN LINE WITH GERITOL 1960 IRON POOR BLOOD

Dedicated to Julie

MST3K - Keeping Clean and Neat

We used to enjoy Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

The Trial

We began our weekend with a movie. At home. That Mensa Boy had chosen. Don't worry, things did improve from there. Yes friends, against my better judgment I did allow him to choose a movie from Blockbuster.com. And that movie was:

THE TRIAL by Orson Welles.

YIKES.

For those of you who have heard me go on about MB's movie picking...Eraserhead being the most infamous...this movie is right in there. It's a Kafka-esque story about a man who wakes up to find the police in his room, there to tell him he is to go on trial. But no one will tell him what his crime is. Everyone else in the movie seems to know. Just not him. We kept telling each other that it was like a nightmare with all those bizarre scary nightmare qualities.

I hung in there until about 20 minutes before it ended. After I went to bed, MB watched it again with commentary. See?

Continuing with reliving my high school years, one literature book at time, I read "The Giver" yesterday. It actually was not out when I was in high school, so I guess I was living Nate's High School Lit class. It was a very enjoyable book. Quick read. Right now I'm working on a book I picked up at the bargain table at Borders: "Case Histories," by Kate Atkinson. Riveting!

Love is Still a Worthy Cause

Trainspotting

I don't think I'd agree that this movie is "massively entertaining," as the cover of the DVD says. I see the cover also says "Electrifying and Hilarious." I would say it's electrifying. And a little funny in a dark humor sort of way. But "Hilarity" is not what comes to mind.

I ordered this movie up from Blockbuster.com some time ago because I realized I'd never seen it before. Sometimes I'll watch a movie or give a TV show a try just because it seems like EVERYONE has seen it.


Was it a good way for me to spend 90 minutes of my Saturday afternoon? Well, it did keep me entertained while I cooked my chocolate torte for Valentine's Day. I'll give it that.

If you're going to watch this movie, be prepared to be horrified by the way these heroin addicts live. The movie, by director Danny Boyle, who nowadays is being much hailed for his current hit movie, "Slumdog Millionaire" (I haven't seen that one), is about a heroin addict (Ewan McGregor) who wants to get out from under his addiction.

The movie uses black humor to demonstrate how awful this situation is. The humor keeps it from seeming preachy and helps to make the message so clear. My favorite line is by the main character, Mark "Rent Boy" Renton: "We would have injected vitamin C if only they had made it illegal"

I'm glad I saw the movie.

Gorilla Arm

GorillaArm
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Another toy bites the dust, appendage by appendage. Today I threw away the last gorilla arm. I have to do this kind of thing when he's out having his walk. As it is, if he can sort out the scent of it in the kitchen garbage, amidst all the banana and onion peels, he'll sit there and cry for it. That's why I always choose the kitchen garbage. I'd never be left alone if I used a different, less odiferous waste receptacle.

Last week we finally also threw out "Octo-head." The stuffed Octopus was with a us a long time, as a septapus, sextapus, quintapus, quadripus, tripus, duopus and finally an unipus. The Octo-head, or cephalopus (we never could totally decide what to call it) stuck with us for about a month.

Bear is getting faster and faster at shredding toys. This gorilla was dismembered and disemboweled in about 30 minutes.

They Days They are A-Passin'

We are enjoying a week of 70-degree weather here and it is really energizing. We Carolinians are definitely spoiled when it comes to winter weather. It was cold (down to 20) for a few days, overcast, sometimes rainy and snowy, and it felt just awful! Even though I never had to wear a jacket heavier than my leather one, it really seemed just bitter and unfriendly outside. How easily we Yankees adapt to the Southern climate!

Yesterday started with Mensa Boy pointing out to me that my beloved Kashi granola bars were on the recall list. A note stating that fact was left on top of my almost-full box. At first I denied the necessity of throwing them out, but at the end of the day I did just that. It was very very sad. I went to the grocery store in the afternoon to do my weekly shopping (actually it seems like it's closer to every 10 days) and could not find any more of them. There were snack bars there by Kashi, but all of the granola bars, which I eat for breakfast several times a week, were gone. I have a full box in my office and I'm considering denying they are on the list and just eating them.

After I was flipped off by an impatient driver on the way to work, I began to have serious doubts about how the day would go. But it ended up being a pleasant day at work, punctuated by my favorite salad from Wendy's: The Mandarin Chicken. And 12 hours after the flipping-off incident I found myself in an EXCELLENT Jazzercise class, being physically challenged by my instructor bud Sarah. My entire torso is sore today as result. But it's a pleasant soreness.

It was a good day yesterday and, even though I began the day today by trying to pour coffee into the BOTTOM of my travel cup (I really need to turn some lights on in the morning when I do that), I have every reason to expect that today will be wonderful.

I hope yours is.

CollegeMoney

CollegeMoney
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

Last year I was surprised by how easily the money came together for Nate's freshman year at Erskine.

Friday I was surprised by how easily I screwed up my calculations. Failing to notice that an invoice I received last fall was for just the FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR has cost me an additional $2,300. A costly error on my part. And one for which I had to transfer money from our home equity line of credit this morning.

Ouch.

But Nate is thriving. After a serious academic misstep this fall he seemed to rally over J-term (the period during January when students take just one class on a very intense basis) and raised his GPA significantly. He aced that class, which is really the least I can expect of a son of Mensa Boy's taking that particular subject: The History of Ancient Israel. So now he is hurdling headlong into spring semester and will try his level best to get his GPA to a level that will allow him to maintain part, if not all, of his scholarship money.

It was a quiet weekend here in Indian Land. My other two guys went to the beach with SCUMYs...South Carolina United Methodist Youth. They had a good time. I had wine with good friend Nannette and her beau Chuck on Friday night.

Saturday I hit the Jazz class in Fort Mill and then stayed to attend a Yoga class afterward. After that it was pretty much all downhill. The exercise was good, but quite a bit for this body, which proceeded to seize up and say "ouch" in as many was as possible. But it's a good ouch.

I read more of "To Kill a Mockingbird" which, I have to say, I'd forgotten was so. darn. funny! And I watched episodes of "Private Practice" on the internet. What can I say? I fell victim to the crossover episode of "Grey's Anatomy" and PP and had to find out what the heck she could have said to make him stop the proposal process?

And now my guys are home, it's beginning to darken outside, and it's time to start settling down for the work week ahead.

Sheesh. Another Snow Day.

birdfeeder
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

At the risk of dissing my employer on the internet...wouldn't a 2-hour delay have sufficed?

Yes. It is snowy. A bit. Less than you see in this photo. This one is from the last snow day. But really the issue today is ice. Which I suspect will be all gone as soon as the sun comes up.

Most people celebrate snow days. Particularly kids. But they aren't taking the long view when they do that. You see, we've already lost our Feb 16 off day from the last snow day. Now they will start whittling away at our spring break. Yup. Some really nice, 70 degree day will be taken away to make up for today.



This morning I ran into Taylor's room, jumped on him and started urgently saying "Taylor! Taylor! Wake up!"

He murmured a question.

"No school today!" I told him.

He murmured his happiness.

Yeah. I'm kind of mean that way.

Jack Johnson - Upside Down: Final Stereo Version

Enjoy! Listen to the words. Click Twice. It will take you to YouTube to watch.

I &The Catcher in the Rye

It's Sunday morning and I'm settling in with a terrible cold and the book "The Catcher in the Rye." I'll cough and blow my nose all day, drinking whatever appeals to me and no doubt dozing as often as the massive headache permits.

Why this book? Well, we have this little book group at church and it's run by two high school sophomore girls. They just studied it in their English class, loved it, and now want to share the love. It's been 30mumble years since I read it, and I am remembering already, after only the first half-dozen pages, that I loved it then too.

Of course I'll have to pull up some sort of study guide so I don't look like a blooming idiot in the discussion. I have no idea what literary parsing is done to this book that merits every high school student in the nation reading it.

It's okay to be hideously sick every once in a while. It makes you appreciate your overall health. I do kind of wish, however, that the headache wasn't part of the game.

Oh. Please forgive the grammar in the title. I just needed to do it.

24: The Chloe Watch

Favorite line of the week:

Motobo: "Are you an FBI agent?"

Chloe: "No. I'm just a stay-at-home mom."

Dear St. Joe: Make This House GO!

"You realize I'll have to blog about this," I told my friend Nannette.

"Yes. Yes I do," she said. "In fact, we'll have to take photos when we bury him and have a glass of wine in his honor."

And so our plans for the burying of St. Joseph in Nannette's back yard. It may be next Sunday afternoon.

PRAYER TO SAINT JOSEPH FOR SELLING A HOUSE

O, Saint Joseph,
you who taught our Lord
the carpenter's trade,
and saw to it
that he was always properly housed,
hear my earnest plea.

I want you to help me now
as you helped your foster-child Jesus,
and as you have helped many others
in the matter of housing.

I wish to sell this [house/property]
quickly, easily, and profitably
and I implore you to grant my wish
by bringing me a good buyer,
one who is
eager, compliant, and honest,
and by letting nothing impede the
rapid conclusion of the sale.

Dear Saint Joseph,
I know you would do this for me
out of the goodness of your heart
and in your own good time,
but my need is very great now
and so I must make you hurry
on my behalf.

Saint Joseph, I am going to place you
in a difficult position
with your head in darkness
and you will suffer as our Lord suffered,
until this [house/property] is sold.

Then, Saint Joseph, i swear
before the cross and God Almighty,
that i will redeem you
and you will receive my gratitude
and a place of honour in my home.

Amen.

My Favorite Things: Artisan Bread

ArtisanBread5Mins
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I heard about this book on "Splendid Table" (another of my favorite things) and had to get this book. I made the bread for a couple of weeks from the recipe on the radio show website, but when I needed to buy a book for buddy Cassie's birthday, I found myself clicking the button for this one too. (One-click shopping on Amazon is DANGEROUS!)

It is absolutely true that the longer the bread lives in the bowl in the fridge the better it gets. It's great right away, but after about a week or 10 days, it takes on a mild sourdough quality that just can't be beat. I made these two bagettes last night for supper and we had hot meatball sandwiches with them. Another thing I've done is tear off three small lumps and made hamburger buns out of them. Any way you do it, you really need to be careful not to make a lot of bread. Because you will not stop eating it until it is done. So it's best to just make a batch small enough for that meal.

There are other favorites in this photo as well. The wooden cutting board is on the counter at all times and I use it for every bread and veggie and cheese...anything that's not meat. But the greatest thing is the french bread pan. One of us kids gave it to Dad one year for his birthday or Father's Day or something and after he had it for a while he realized he wasn't using it so offered it to me. Every once in a while he tries to ask for it back!