Search Terms from December 2008
Posted on January 5, 2009 - Filed Under Search Terms, sarcasm
giant pop-out cake - All I can imagine is adult novelty cakes when I see this and how easily someone could lose an eye.
giant cupcake for my room - No, giant cupcake for MY BELLY! (Actually TGH is responsible for this response.)
good looking people can be deceiving - Yeah, but so can the not-so-good looking.
how come i can’t see my meez avatar - Open your eyes! Open your eyes!
baking mr hanky - This doesn’t sound like it would fill the house with a nice cozy smell.
room filling boobs - Now THOSE have got to be some big boobs!
meez porn - Is THIS what that little hussy in the upper right corner has been up to?!! I swear, one of these days, grumble grumble, mutter. **shakes fist in the air**
“cap n crunch original” “vegetarian” - I highly doubt that Cap’n Crunch was the original vegetarian. Yeah, he may be old, but have you seen the way he looked at the Crunch Berry Beast? That look was purely carnivorous! Run, Beast, run! Psssst Michelle - vintage cereals may be a great post idea too!
flaring one nostril - This one keeps showing up so maybe it should be my new tagline for 2009? 
thawing out house - Ewwwww! I don’t even want to think about how bad a thawing outhouse would smell! Yikes!
how to steal a meez - Why on earth would you steal one when you can make your own for free? Besides I’ve got a perfectly good used one here that I would give you. Sheesh.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Blog Friendship Box Update As of December 31, 2008
Posted on January 3, 2009 - Filed Under Blog Friendship Box
Well, the Blog Friendship Box has made it’s way back to Maine in the United States over at Maine Momma’s (Kristin’s) site. I know you are all gonna flip over this like I did. Her addition to the box was just perfect and so appropriate to her area! I won’t keep babbling on about it but will send you to her site here to see for yourself. Don’t be too shy while you are there and please do take a moment to say hello to Kristin and tell her what you think - she is a sweetie as I’ve been finding out through emails behind the scenes.
So now you know where the box was at the end of 2008! However, Kristin has already sent the box on to her choice in blog buddies (but I promised to keep the recipient a surprise for now since the recipient doesn’t know that he or she is getting it yet). So stay tuned for further updates! 
This is so exciting!
Popularity: 10% [?]
Four Things Meme and a Speedy Meme
Posted on January 1, 2009 - Filed Under Meme
My friend the Bead Den tagged me with this four things meme. I’m slow in getting to it but I blame all that on holidays and such nonsense.
Hopefully she forgives me. If she still even remembers my name! 
If you don’t know the BeadDen, let me just tell you that nobody decks out for Christmas like she does (check out her posts all through December) so if you like pretty, sparkly things or just holidays in general, give her a gander. And while you are there, you will get the chance to meet a very smart, talented blogger. Okay, here goes!
4 places I go over and over:
(1) Lately, the library!
(2) Grocery store.
(3) Post office.
(4) My niece’s house.
4 people who e-mail me regularly:
(1) My niece.
(2) My neighbor across the street.
(3) A woman I used to knit with.
(4) Three women I used to work with.
4 of my favorite places to eat:
(1) Home - cheaper, healthier, less unknown ingredients!
(2) The sub shop down in the center of town. I like that it is in walking distance so we can walk there in good weather and I can get a nice raw veggie sub in a yummy pita pocket.
(3) The Longhorn Steak House
(4) The Weathervane - seafood. Every so often I crave some fried fish for some reason. Or maybe it’s the french fries I crave?
4 places you’d rather be NOW:
(1) Back in the Azores!
(2) Someplace tropical, in a hammock, holding a fruity drink with an umbrella in my hand.
(3) In the opposite hemisphere, visiting some of my blog buddies and enjoying their warm weather. I know they would be happy to share, right?
(4) In a Bubble Bouncer - these are so much fun!
4 TV shows I could watch over and over:
(1) That 70’s Show.
(2) The old series, Soap - Richard Mulligan was awesome when he thought he was invisible. Does anyone else remember this?
(3) The Carol Burnett Show (Shut up!)
(4) Sonny & Cher (No really - Shut UP!)
4 movies I could watch over and over:
(1) Forest Gump
(2) The Princess Bride
(3) E.T.
(4) Raiders of the Lost Ark
4 people I hope will respond:
Well, I totally took way too long getting this one done so I’m not going to tag because I’m not sure if everyone has done this one or not. But I do hope some of you will take it on if you haven’t done so already. You know I love reading these things for some weird reason.
Okay, here’s the next meme (I still owe a couple of others and I haven’t forgotten them yet so don’t worry - I am just way behind):
This one is from Speedcat Hollydale, the lovable lunatic who breezes through every so often when he isn’t busy doing “plastic surgery,” playing golf, photoshopping himself into picures, and most recently, showing off his sexy crooning voice! If you have not visited Speedy’s place in Hollydale, you really need to - it’s like a Cirque de Soleil for the blogging mind. Silly, talented, funny, serious - it’s the whole gamut and a lot of fun.
Anyway, the rules are:
Take a picture of yourself right NOW!
DON’T change your clothes, DON’T fix your hair… Just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instruction with your picture.
Well, I broke the rules. First, I would never post a photo in which I wasn’t prepared with makeup and being a little gussied up. After all, I don’t want to scare you all away, sheesh. And I still have some self-image issues so it would be too hard for me to just go raw like that (I’m working on it though and I hope this post is proof). Also, I did some photo editing, but it was to edit out the baby I was holding in the picture because I don’t have time to ask for permission to post it, and I did soften the edges in the oval frame. But that is all the editing I did and it IS a recent photo. So at least, I’m honest anyway.
Now, I usually don’t tag everyone, but in this case, I’d like to tag anyone who is brave enough to do this one themselves. I’d love to “meet” you if I haven’t already and if I have seen you, I’d love to see you again! Consider it a challenge! If you want to see me, click on the “more” link.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Terrifying Toys
Posted on December 29, 2008 - Filed Under Everyday Stuff, sarcasm
Now that the gift-giving holiday is over, I think it is a safe and appropriate time to talk about terrifying toys. I have to think that I am not the only one who, as a child, had toys that gave them the heebie-jeebies under the correct circumstances.
One toy that both my older sister and I shared a fear of was a ventriloquist dummy that she had received as some sort of sick birthday gift. I can’t believe she would have actually requested such a thing on her gift list, but I suppose it is totally possible since she is weird like that. Anyway, back to the dummy, I mean the ventriloquist dummy, not my sister.
Oh, he was fine during the day. But his face took on a more menacing visage once the glow of the sun had dwindled below the horizon. His eyes were frozen wide, wide open. With eyes that widely open, he’d surely see you if you tried to make a run for the hallway safety from your bed in the middle of the night. The deep grooves on either side of his lips, while simply allowing him to appear to be speaking during the day, most certainly allowed for him to drop that lower jaw far enough to engulf an entire small child at night.
My sister and I quickly found a way to avoid his icy stare and to keep from tempting him to devour us. Every day after dinner, we would grab that ventriloquist doll while it was still a bit light out and toss him into the dirty clothes hamper that separated our two twin beds. Our mom would wonder every morning how and why he ended up in the hamper, yet she would continue to retrieve him when she came to collect the clothes and she would settle him onto his proper spot on top of the hamper before she left the room. We were safe again until the next nightfall where this whole “dance” would be repeated.
Another toy I had a problem with was a hairdressing doll I had. Oh, I hadn’t requested a silly fake-looking “Barbie” type doll head to practice hairstyles on. Noooooo sirreeebob. I had to have one that looked very realistic - she had a normally proportioned eye-to-face ratio and her eyes were those realistic looking marble-type things with an actual iris and a pupil in each one. Maybe I would have been better off with the Barbie head, in retrospect. But the way it turned out is that I would have to take the hairdresser doll and place her on the windowsill in my room each night just so. She would have to be facing the outside so her eyes couldn’t see the fear she instilled in my innocent child heart.
Anyway, I think resilience is a survival mechanism. As kids, we had no problem with the terrifying toys during the day and only had irrational fears at night. During the day, we were able to play with those things without any fear whatsoever. It was understood that they were only dangerous at night.
But isn’t it amazing just how resilient a child’s mind is? I mean, we are very dishonest with them when you think about it - filling their heads with the existence of mythical beings, such as the likes of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. And then we go and outright lie to them about things, telling them such whoppers as, “the moon is made of cheese,” “this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you,” and reassuring them that they are not indeed the reason for their parents’ divorce. Truly, it is a wonder that anyone grows up to be a trusting citizen in this country and not some twisted psychopath with parent issues.
But I guess I turned out okay. I’d still rather not have one of those evil monkeys playing the cymbals though.
Popularity: 19% [?]
I’m Having a Very White One
Posted on December 25, 2008 - Filed Under Contest
and I hope all my blog buds are having a wonderful, beautiful season whether they celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Festivus, some other holiday or none at all. Be safe and have fun. I only have good wishes to post here for you right now but if you want something more exciting and interesting, then please go visit my buddy, Debo Hobo here and see if you can win her contest. I don’t think this is one that I’m going to win so you all have a better chance now.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Remorse
Posted on December 20, 2008 - Filed Under Teeni Poem
I once prayed for grace,
and it was given me.
Now I wish I had asked
to win the lottery!
Popularity: 25% [?]
JavaQueen’s Coffee Cup Runneth Over
Posted on December 18, 2008 - Filed Under Award, Meme
My friend the JavaQueen recently gave me an award and a little meme to do. I tried to trace the origins of this award but after 30 minutes of clicking and scrolling through uncharted sites, I gave up. But it is a cool award with an awesome expiration date. It makes me feel like I could go shopping with my pals and never receive a bill. So that’s kind of cool too. Thank you so much for including me in your recipients, JavaQueen! I was truly honored to receive this.
Well, here are the rules for this award:
The “BFF” award is passed on according to the following rules:
1. Only five people are allowed.
2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.
I’d love to share this award with the following people who have been really wonderful blog friends to me.
and for the newer person, I’d like to call out ShengMarie at Anything Goes!
ALSO …
This post is brought to you by the letter G. JavaQueen also tagged me for this cool little letter meme. The rules are:
You leave a comment on this post, and I’ll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it at your place. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on.
Um, I just revisited JQ’s page and realized she assigned me a lette “C” in the comments but in her email to me it was a “G” for good luck. Well, I already went ahead and did the letter “G” so I’ll just stick with that. You know cuz glue starts with G so I’ll stick with it, get it? Yeah, I know. Shut up. Also, I when I wrote this up, I forgot it was supposed to be about things I love. So I’ve gone and messed up another one. This is getting to be a regular thing for me. Sorry, folks.
Anyway, here’s my list:
- Grateful - I’m grateful for a lot of things - one major one is that I was able to see my great nephew. When I was first diagnosed, my niece was in early pregnancy with him and I remember being upset about possibly not getting to see him. So I’ve been extremely fortunate because he is as gorgeous as his sister, whom I adore, even if he is a little bruised up at the moment. See previous post. And my blessings have been ongoing and I’m still grateful for every day that I get to live normally. I’m extremely fortunate and don’t want to take it for granted.
- Granted - What wishes should be. Well, mine anyway. ;) But don’t worry, I’d be generous.
- Generous - I can be very generous. Give me lots of money and I will show you how generous I can be.
- Gobbledygook - That’s what I write on my blogs sometimes. But it makes me happy. So there.
- Gorgeous - It’s an absolutely gorgeous, sunny, day after all the ice storms of last night and this morning. It has been declared a state of emergency in my area and lots of homes are without power. But fortunately, it is not too cold out.
- Ghetto - That’s where this girl comes from.
- Gas - One kind I have more of than I need, and the other kind I have a hard time affording.
- Gazoo - The Great Gazoo was a little green martian character on the Flintstone’s cartoon. Why that popped into my head - I don’t know.
- Gesundheit. I never understood why we would say a German word for blessing in response to a person sneezing. If getting a cold and sneezing is all it took to get blessings then I don’t have to be a good person anymore because I’m sure I’ve got enough of these banked up.
- Garner - I like to garner lots of trivial facts. I love it when I remember some! This word also reminds me of my blog buddy Michelle Gartner.
Thanks for this fun meme, JQ! Remember, comment to get a letter assigned. You don’t have to play if you comment, but please let me know if you would rather not play along so I won’t assign you one.
Popularity: 26% [?]
Finally Thawing Out and Furniture is Dangerous!
Posted on December 16, 2008 - Filed Under Everyday Stuff
This past weekend in New England has been as nasty as a witch’s teat and about as cold as well. We had some severe ice storms late last week I could hear weird noises outside - loud bangs and crashes, but it was too comfy in bed in the middle of the night to look outside and see what was going on. The noises seemed unusual since it didn’t seem all that windy.
When we woke up on Friday, everything was covered in ice - the kind that encapsulates entire trees and makes them resemble a fairy tale character who has been put under an evil spell. Their crystalline branches were beautiful to look at and photograph, I’m sure, but they certainly caused a huge amount of havoc. The weight of the ice enclosing the trees caused millions of branches to fall in several towns and in and in many cases, to take down power lines with them on their rapid descent. Half a tree was downed in our back yard from the next door neighbor’s yard, which explains some of the previous night’s noises. About 150,000 homes were left without power, heat, or hot water. My niece’s home was one of them.
Her husband called me from his cell phone and I made sure to tell him that they were welcome to stay with me as long as they needed to. I have an attic bedroom that has two double sized futons in it. The room is in dire need of renovation, but would do in a pinch. So my niece, her hubby, and their two kids packed up a lot of food, clothes, and general children’s accessories and headed to my house.
I love my niece and her family very much. They are some of my favorite people on this planet. But I’m not sure I want the great nephew here any more. Everything was fine that first night. But the next day, my great nephew somehow either jumped or fell into my coffee table from the couch. I was sitting on the other end of the couch but I wasn’t close enough to catch him. Here is what he looks like normally.
This is what he looked like after meeting the coffee table right between the eyes.
Now, I don’t have a glass coffee table or one that has sharp edges, but the angle that he hit it with his head was the worst possible angle. A trip to the emergency room ensued where the poor kid vomited all over his mom when they got there. He had pretty much already stopped crying before he even left my house, but the quick swelling and black and blue did not look good at all as you can see.
One tiny lead enclosed body and a cat scan of his head later, they were able to determine that he didn’t break anything or hurt his head any worse than we could see, but he did have bleeding under the skin and swelling.
When they returned from the hospital, everyone was on high alert to keep an eye on the great nephew to make sure he didn’t injure his poor little head further. Believe me, if we had bubble wrap, we would have used it. My niece insisted on being by his side or having her husband by his side every minute.
The next day, the poor kid looked even worse, like he had done three rounds in the ring with the world heavyweight champion and had not done them well.
On Sunday, my niece was going to head home because her hubby had been by their house and found the power was back on. But they got home and then the power went back out, so they returned to my house. At one point, I was entertaining the great nephew and I held his hand, bringing him into my bedroom to pet Jam, my female cat, who was laying on my bed. The great nephew went to pet her and Jam actually hissed at him since she is not used to kids. I did not know she would react that way. So, I figured we were better off not taking the chance of him getting bitten or scratched by my cat. We reversed direction to walk out of the room and this time he was in front but he walked straight. into. my. dresser and got himself another bump on his head. I couldn’t freaking believe it! The space is at a premium in my bedroom and I admit that the bed is a bit close to the dresser but I think it was more that he just isn’t familiar with the surroundings. Anyway, he didn’t appear to hit it hard as he wasn’t running, and was just walking slowly. But he had his head turned like he was looking for the door to the room so he’d know how to get out, and *smack* the side of his head near his ear is where he banged into the corner side of the dresser, adding a bump above his ear to his injuries at my house for the weekend. I still can’t believe it. Poor little guy.
I don’t know if my niece is ever going to let me babysit again or bring her kids to my house. I feel just awful. But this is one of the reasons I haven’t been blogging the last few days. And with my reader full of over 150 posts, I may have to just hit “mark all as read” and start over.
Popularity: 28% [?]
6 Photo Meme
Posted on December 12, 2008 - Filed Under Kitchen Gadgets, Meme
My most favorite scrap-bookingest blog buddy friend, Hannah, tagged me to do the following meme.
I had to find the 6th photo on the 6th page of a) my computer and b) my photo hosting/sharing site. I have to thank Hannah for this because it made me look through some photos I hadn’t seen in a while. This is actually kind of embarrassing but funny too. It just HAD to be this one.
Well, the one on the left is the one the satisifes the meme for the a) part. But while I was in that folder I noticed a more recent (but still old), similar posed pic so I had to include that. As you can see in the first photo, I have an awesome taste in sneakers. As a matter of fact, I think those ones are ones that came with detachable roller skates. Yes, I was very cool. And hey, half of my chest looks like the one in that picture again too.
On the right hand side, you can pretty much tell that I still have a great taste in footwear (even though you can’t see my shoes) as indicated by the phenomenal taste in headwear. And if only I had been about two feet taller, I know I could have been a model with those killer poses. Both of these pictures had been scanned in to the computer and used in a slideshow at TGH’s and my wedding.
Now, for the b) part of the meme, I have this - the death of a good friend:
I actually had meant to post about this before but never got around to it - it’s my old Kitchenaid stand mixer. I have all kinds of attachments for it that we got as wedding presents or bought through the years. So it was really upsetting to me when this happened. Apparently, there is some self-contained thing inside that big head that can crack, leaking grease and oil into the motor, and unfortunately, into anything you are mixing if you don’t notice it. Fortunately I noticed it and TGH looked it up on the internet to see what happened. Because of it’s age we didn’t want to risk repairing it so we ended up with a new, black model. So far, that one has performed wonderfully and we are able to use all the attachments again, which I love. I’m such a gadget person.
Next, you are supposed to tag six people. I tag the following six (and open it up for anyone else to steal if they think they would enjoy doing this meme):
GingerMagnolia at Names Have Been Changed
As always, no pressure. I’d love it if you can play along. If not, then this is just a free link for you! ;) Happy Holidays.
Popularity: 31% [?]
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
Posted on December 9, 2008 - Filed Under Everyday Stuff
The title quote was coined by Clare Boothe Luce. Based on several recent events, I’ve found myself muttering it often lately.
For instance, I may have mentioned on my site in the past that I have a couple of elderly neighbors who I check in on every so often. The female half the couple was recently hospitalized (not serious and she is in rehab at the moment), so the male half has been at a loss as to what to do with himself. Now, he is almost totally blind and he is also mostly deaf. I had seen him walking up and down our little street because he can’t stay still for too long. But he is a danger because the cars can’t see him as they come around the corner and he can neither see nor hear the cars!
So, I decided that I could look into getting him some books on CD from the local library. I know he likes his portable CD player because he can turn it up as loud as he likes without offending anyone else. So, on my first trip to the library, I realized they had a very limited and small selection. I know he had mentioned liking the book, “Kon-Tiki,” by Thor Heyerdahl, but as luck would have it, that was not one of the books the library had. So I picked up “The Colorado Kid,” by Stephen King and, “Dear John,” by Nicholas Sparks, never having read the last one myself. He could keep them out for three weeks at a time so that was good, I thought. He was delighted when I gave them to him.
The next day though, he came by to tell me that his batteries had run out. I didn’t have time to go to the store and buy him new ones but I knew we had some in the house so I brought some to him. He had “read” them all within a week and brought them back to me to return to get some new ones. He made sure to tell me that he would be interested in any World War II books.
I returned his CDs to the library and looked for any books on CD that were about WWII, but there really was nothing that I could find. So I got him, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” figuring a classic would be good, and I also picked up something else I thought he’d like (I can’t remember what it was now). Well, the very next day he was back at my side door. He stood there, holding it open, to tell me that he didn’t like one story and that, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was all scratched up and he couldn’t listen to it. All the while, he was letting the cold air into my house and the heat out, and because he can’t see, he didn’t even notice when my male cat, Toast, ran out the door while he stood there (my cats have been indoor cats for the past several years now). Fortunately for me, since he is mostly deaf, he also didn’t notice me cursing under my breath when that happened either. He reminded me of the type of books he likes again and then left.
I returned his books to the library again, letting the attendant know that one set was scratchy and damaged. There still were no WWII books, so I got him, “Face the Nation,” by Bob Schieffer, “The Art of War,” by Sun Tzu, and “The American Revolution,” by Gordon S. Wood. Two days later, when I saw him coming to my door with the CDs in his hands to return them again, I let TGH deal with him while I cowered in the bedroom, listening to every word. He told TGH to tell me that he would like some books on the American generals.
I have to laugh because as annoying as the elderly can be, I do love and admire them. They say what’s on their minds with no fear of repercussion or worries of what others will think. They’ve reached a point where certain things, like anyone else’s opinions or troubles, really don’t matter. I do love them and hope I get to be one some day in the far, far future! But excuse me for now. I’ve got to make another run to the library!
Popularity: 31% [?]
