The Last Grain of Sand Falls...

...and your time is up.

I have been blogging for what seems like quite a while, my little whisperings, some times conversations and sometimes whines and screams. But now, I struggle even to post once a week and that hasn't happened either. When blogging becomes a struggle the blog trickles to an end, and here we are.

If you've been reading, thank you, glad you checked in to make sure I hadn't drowned. Drop me an email if you're interested.

The Princess is a teenager with both feet. We are learning to cope.
The Prince is growing and changing. He is a little more slowly becoming a teenager.
The Littlest Prince is probably the one who has changed the very most while my blog has been around. He has gone from baby to scholar.
My Love and I are still in love and growing in our relationship too.

Thank you little blog, you knew me better than I did sometimes.

C

A laugh here a laugh there, gotta find them where you can

I was reading some quotations I had saved a little at a time. I figured you might find a laugh too and brighten your day. Though, since it's practically raging summer already "bright" isn't a problem. Heat isn't a problem either. I did see a commercial this morning that said you can increase your gas mileage by up to 25% by turning off the air conditioning and using just the vents. Yeah, that's a good idea here. You would definitely save gas since you'd not be using the car while you recover from being baked. Ah logic.

So on with the quotes...

"You know, I telephoned my grandparents the other day, and my grandfather said to me, "We saw your movie." "Which one?" I said, and he shouted, "Betty, what was the name of that movie I didn't like?" I thought that was just classic. I mean, if that doesn't keep your feet on the ground, what would?" - Brad Pitt

"Evangelists say Halloween is the devil's holiday. What a lame-ass devil! Sitting down in the depths of hell, going, "I've got control of the major corporations, churning out weapons and toxic waste, but how can I get candy? Let me think--I'll get the children of the world to dress up as hobos and Power Rangers--and then I'll have all the bite-size Three Musketeers I need! I am Satan!"--Patton Oswalt

"The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on." - Robert Bloch

"What are the three words guaranteed to humiliate men everywhere? 'Hold my purse.' " - unattributed

"If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers." - Edgar W. Howe

"I sold my house this week. I got a pretty good price for it, but it made my landlord mad as hell." - Garry Shandling

"Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over" - newspaper headline

Well, time to go back to my day. Enjoy yours.

C

Even when the cops arrive, sometimes it isn't it enough

This afternoon in Modesto a little person lost his life as other person's watched, and finally a policeman arrived by helecopter and took out the man by killing him. Unfortunately, the little person's candle had been put out as well. There was no specific identification given to the child. But the child's age was estimated at 12 to 18 months. The child was both bitten and stomped.

My heart cannot imagine. Where was the mother in this was she not chasing this nman and grabbing that baby every time he slows his car.

Heck I don't know. I know what I would have done. Regardless, this little person ia gone at the hands of a horrible faith but a far far better place.

His life is in my heart.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/329755.html

iJust shoot me

Due to circumstances beyond my control my mind is no longer connected to my fingers. There will be more of an absense of posts once the air clears. Nothing of concern just not a lot of computer time.

Cindi




Though I just remembered that I haven't told you much about my new baby. I am slowly preparing to retire my older babe and turn in over to a teenager who will probably give it another run for its money. Well without further delay.....

It's a Dell Latitude D830 Laptop with fantasic upgrades. I am very much still adjusting and trying VERY hard to get it all shifted.

This new puter so freaking fast I can't believe it. My previous baby had a 40g hard drive and it's full. This one is way past that. It has an amazing graphics card and 2g of RAM. One of my favorite little goodies is an extra full size battery that you just slip the DVD drive out and add the extra battery in its slot. But I must admit that the fact that I can put on my bluetooth and listen to you tube or whatever without wired headphores or anyone else having to hear it. LOVE that.

Okay that was longer than the top part. I hope you all have an excellent weekend if I don't stop by again.

C

Thursday Thirteen - 13 Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Greetings and Welcome to a Summer Inspired Eating List! Everyone has a way to eat the fruits and the vegetables that just make our taste buds sing. So, you get to give me your opinions if you care to join in. I could almost be a vegetarian in the summer time, veggies and fruits are just so abundant I would far rather dig in and skip the meats. So I picked a few of my favorites and gave you my favorite ways to enjoy it. What about you? 1. We had a fresh watermelon tonight. Hubby chunked it into a bowl. I piled a bowl full and salted it down. Too. Good. Are you a salter? A chunker or a slicer? Does neatness count? 2. Big red ripe tomatoes. Ooooo two ways. Eaten like and apple coming in with them warn from the garden. Or sliced really thin salted and peppered and made into a sandwich on plain old white bread with lots of mayonnaise. That's of options but that's my favorite. Of course a big old tomato biscuit is pretty lip smacking in itself, or a couple of slices sprinkled with sugar make breakfast special too. Yeah, I have a few ideas. 3. Sweet onions. Sliced thin with tomatoes sliced thin, bay leaves, feta cheese and bacon in a salad with vinaigrette. Some people eat em like an apple, but not for me. 4. Strawberries. Sitting in the strawberry patch eating them warm right there in the sun. No cleaning recommended. (I got sooooooooo in trouble for one of these little escapades when I was little) 5. Cucumbers. No peeling. Slice up, salt em, or dip em in ranch and eat as many as you can. 6. Cherry tomatoes. Eat them right off the vine while you are gathering everything else. Or if you can manage the wait, scattered all over the top of a salad. 7. White corn on the cob. Creamed corn like only my Mama, my Nana, and my Daddo and now my Daddy thanks to some Mama coaching, Just the tops of the kernels topped off, them scraped down. Cooked perfectly with butter, salt, pepper, and some cream. Bliss. 8. Big red onions from the fruit stand. Slice em thin, serve them on homemade hummus and na'an. 10. Apples. Pretty much any "eating" instead of baking variety. Peel it with you pocketknife, cut it in quarters, core it and eat. Even if it's got smears from your dirty fingers, eat it anyway. It's isn't going to hurt you. 11. Okra. Slice them in about 1/4 to 1/2 rounds, toss them in a bag of cornmeal with a bit of flour salt and pepper shaken together. Give the okra a good coating, into the hot oil and fry them crispy. No better way to eat okra. 12. Squash either, treat it a lot like the okra above, or do what i did tonight. Slice the squash and a couple of sweet onions, simmer in salted and peppered water. When it is cooked to just a slight crunch either layer it into four layers in a deep baking dish with American cheese slices between each layer and four on top. Sprinkle bread crumbs is you prefer, then bake until done. Or just add cheese while on the stove top until tender and creamy. Enjoy! 13. Yellow Corn, a whole different critter more prevalent in the South. Boil in, season with salt and pepper, slather it in butter and add a copious number of points to your HDL. It's worth it. The Bonus Green Beans. Not the Blue Lake Garbage Beans but real beans. Half runner beans that come in from the garden in a bushel basket. Beans that we sat with Nana on the back porch and strung and broke beans tossing them into the big pot ready to be cooked with some fat back and served with some onions stirred in. It's heaven. It's a memory that I will carry with me forever. In fact, most of the cooking ideas above are memories and ideas born in my Nana and Mama's kitchens. The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

(pardon my lack of TT header creativity. I have a brand new laptop puter which is replacing my older one. Teaching my new puter how to do some of the things my old one knew how to do. Give me a little time and I will start being creative again.)

History's Mysteries

I haven't talked much about my specific family members. I try to respect their cyber-privacy. Today though, you are going to get to meet my oldest sister's husband. He has been a part of our family since 1986, more than half of my life. We will call him the BBIL (big brother-in-law since he is the oldest brother-in-law) for the convenience of the bloggy world.

This week BBIL went to North Carolina to retrieve their second oldest child from college in the mountains. (Her college is close to where most of us grew up. It's where almost all of us were born. It is the real "home" for us all.) She has just completed her first full school year "away" at college. She has done quite well and has been very happy in her "collegiate home" as a teenager. But, it was time to gather her things, and with her Daddy's help come home to our family. Sunday I truly needed a tight hug from her, needed to see her, needed to know that she is safe and sound and still the same sweet babe who went away last fall. She is, she has, and she is home.

My BBIL has long had a great interest in history. He is a Civil War re-creationist and he has done extensive research for CW accuracy. He has spent lots of time working on his family tree and is very proud of the work he has already done. While he was in North Carolina he decided to make a visit to the small county genealogical society. Mostly manned by volunteers they were happy to welcome BBIL to look through the information they have on file. But, it wasn't his research that made the biggest impression on BBIL it was a picture on the wall.

The genealogy group had a very familiar, to BBIL, photograph on the wall. It's a picture that BBIL is very familiar with. It's his great grandfather (I think that's right. It might be his grandfather.) at around the age of 10, surrounded by a fair number of his family members. This photograph had hung on this wall for an unspecified number of years. But, no one knows who they are. It's just an antique picture. And then along comes BBIL, and every person in the picture is identified and linked by family relationship.

Where BBIL had gone to research and expand his knowledge, instead he was able to expand their's and to see his family as an important part of the history of a region, each face now named, now recorded. When the next generations look back there will be names on that photograph and there won't be a time when someone else has to try and figure out who they are, all because my BBIL stopped by to look up some information.

Sometimes history's mysteries are solved by accident.

Cindi

I Feel Like An Angry White Man

I was recently emailed a copy of an article by Gary Hubbell in the Aspen Times Weekly February 9, 2008. He has since written a response to those who have offered their opinions, words, thoughts about what he first presented. I have linked the response page, but I have copied the original article below. It's striking in how very eye opening his opinions are to me.

I can say that beyond a doubt we all need to start looking at our presidential candidates as future leaders not whether they are black, green, female, male, homo-friendly, hetero-centric, whatever. Who they are on the outside, has nothing to do with who our President needs to be. Dig deep, look at them as more than how they are going to look in front of a camera, but how they are going to lead this country into the future.

His article follows... Thank you Gary Hubbell
(his reaction and follow up is here)

Column for the Aspen Times Weekly, February 9, 2008:

"In Election 2008, Don't Forget the Angry White Man"
by Gary Hubbell copyright Gary Hubbell March 3, 2008. All rights reserved.

There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.

Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.

There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

His common traits are that he isn’t looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.

The victim-hood syndrome buzzwords — “disenfranchised,” “marginalized” and “voiceless” — don’t resonate with him. “Press ‘one’ for English” is a curse-word to him. He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.

He believes the Constitution is to be interpreted literally, not as a “living document” open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges who have never worked an honest day in their lives.

The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he’s willing to pick up a gun to defend his home and his country. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others, and the thought of killing someone who needs killing really doesn’t bother him.

The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.

He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, spend a few bucks at a strip club once in a blue moon, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny. He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books. He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of coal and get it to the power plant on time so that you keep the lights on and never know what it took to flip that light switch.

Women either love him or hate him, but they know he’s a man, not a dishrag. If they’re looking for someone to walk all over, they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.

Most important, the Angry White Man is pissed off. When his job site becomes flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped overseas, and he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for slavery or some such nonsense, he bites his tongue and he remembers. When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement.

He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the “poor me” attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.

There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men are members of the National Rifle Association, and all of them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for George Bush.

He hopes that she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.