been bak’in……mexican wedding cakes, choc.chip cookies, and fudge (did you know the little mini morsals do NOT completely melt?) Needless to say I didn’t…..just tell’in everyone chopped nutss!!!
Author Archives: seriouslyscorpio
CHRISTMAS WITH A COCONUT PALM
Hard to get the lights in place, so large plastic ornaments (red of course) do the job. (and I do mean large)…goes great with the filament tree inside….straight from Michaels 6 years ago. I’m ready!
FRIENDS
Friends….they come in all sizes, shapes, colors, and years. I find in my case, most of my friends, didn’t start out day 1 being, what I call, a ‘friend’. I knew them in grade school. Their desk was beside mine. It didn’t matter if they were male or female. Either we clicked in second grade, or we didn’t. Maybe we shared recess and that was all…..never knowing anything else about each other. It wasn’t really important, was it? Maybe we played musical instruments together in the band….remember those ‘flute’ things we all started on…..before choosing the ‘instrument of choice’. Maybe we walked to school together and then went our separate ways to different classes. I remember how we would meet “at the corner’ and share our lives, as we knew them, til we got to school. Yes, we did walk to school, a mile one way, and we came home for lunch too. How wonderful it was, and still is, to grow up in a small town.
My grade school friends have become my life long friends……there were birthday parties, slumber parties, and chili suppers, and basketball games. We marched together in the band on the coldest of football Fridays, and sweat up a storm in the July 4th Parade.
In our neighborhood we had all ages of friends….some were 5 years younger and some were 5 years older. We all had come to the neighborhood at the same time when the little National Homes were being built in the early 50’s. Everyone had younger brothers and sisters, who were definitely in the way, so we girls had our private times sitting on the curb under the street light, taking walks around the block, sitting under the maple trees catching lightning bugs, and laying on a blanket underneath the stars before the dew fell.
From late spring til late fall we played ‘kick the can’ until our parents called us in…..or in my case, rang the bell. My mother had a school bell and we all knew that when the bell rang, that ment ‘come home and come home now!’ I think if someone would ring a school bell now, at age 68, I would suddenly become 12 again.
Later on the friendships seemed to solidify, and we all felt comfortable venturing outside our town to Girl Scout Camp for 2 weeks and then to church camp for a week where we met ‘boys’. I don’t know who was the most scared. Oh, thank goodness for friends.
As I continued on this journey, thru school, and jobs, and marriage, and kids, and divorce, etc, etc…..there are many acquaintances who have come and gone. The neighborhood I grew up in, transformed to the first apartment, and then house I shared with 4 other girls. My marriage brought me to a new town with our first home, and, as if in some large orderly plan, a friendly street, where my children would come to repeat the process. And so it goes.
My Christmas card list is full of friends. Even today there are those I meet who may become part of this precious list. As I address each card, thoughts of how we came to share our lives, some by mere coincidence, come to mind. Our babies are long gone, our work in the Jaycees, long forgotten, our church suppers and Sunday school teaching, turned over to the young adults, but our friendship, our memories, our defeats, and our successes, remain as bright and clear as if it were yesterday.
Friends…….I am so blessed they came to enrich my life….
WHO IS THE ANIMAL/PREDATOR HERE?
Pitures in the local paper this AM….shows young teens and adults standing beside the dead deer they shot..They even hold the face up as it hangs….who is the animal here?
CHECK’IN OUT TOYS
We took the grand girls for Thanksgiving grocery shopping…That was okay, but it got better when we went to Wendys….it even got better when a toy came with the nuggets! And then, EVEN BETTER… as.it was on to Walmart to the toy department!Tthere were electric cars, and Baby Alive, and bikes, and Lion King kids, and dogs you could pet thru a special hole in the box, and Bratz, and Cabbage Patch, and Baby Alive diapers, and Barbie Houses 4′ tall, and more and more and more, and oh my gosh! Oh to be 5 and 9 again……sprinkles of stardust shown in their eyes and Christmas Lists grew and grew to 5-10-20 times the original size!! Lov’in life.
CAT ON VACATION
We try to keep things as low key as possible…..we hide the suitcases…..bringing them out to fill when he is in the other room napping. His potty box stays in the usual spot until the last second….
I must say, however, Pookie is a seasoned traveler….He has been ‘on the road’ at least 4 times a year, cross country, which does not include our trips to Las Vegas to see his cousins, two beagles, an old barn cat, and a desert tortoise that will live longer than all of us. Pook came to us 12 years ago.He is one of those ‘ordinary’ American Shorthair designs. Even when we adopted him from another family who were getting rid of children (graduating from high school and college) and pets (schooling unknown), we thought him cute but kind of dull. However, we soon learned we were dead wrong and he has been an absolute joy, even a party at certain times.
First we found we didn’t have to worry about a water bowl….we already had them, scattered around the house….yes toilets. Works fine for him, works fine for me. Next, an even more important trick came to our attention….he can open doors. Not too good with the knobs, but with the handle kind, he is killer. Friends who come to visit, and who are not especially ‘cat’ people, come to find him sitting on their chest about 7:30AM.He is either looking for breakfast or a nice warm spot to cuddle for some extra winks. Because of this, we station door stops for privacy.
Now back to vacation……well, the bags are packed, the maps are found, the Interstate has been picked out, the La Quintas have been chosen, and now we show him the red leash! Yes he walks on a leash….and he’s pretty good at it….Or I’m pretty good walking with a leash, don’t know which. The leash isused for safety,cause I don’t want him to jump and run when a German Shephard, also staying at the La Quinta, comes strolling down the hall. We walk on a leash regularly cause it keeps him (or me) in shape. Cat owners also know that when walking, a cat will always walk along the wall, not out in the middle of the hall….that is the ‘wild part’ still in him. The interesting part is that Pookie always follows the wall to the extreme…he even zigs and zags in and out of the doors to each of the rooms. A little OCD maybe? Who knows.
He also is good at sitting on top of hotel luggage carriers….He waits patiently til cat box, cat food, suitcases, and books are packed and then sits proudly as we stroll down to our room. I might add he even understands the concept of elevators and waits til the door is completly open or closed before entering or exiting.
We have even been offered special deals while we were vacationing……A growing family of 5, packing and piling in the little tikes one morning, offered an even trade……our dutiful pet for all of their clan. We passed. Our clan is now in their mid-thirties.
As of this writing, Pookie is now visiting his cousins in Shreveport, La. They include a black cat, 1/2 his size, who can chew him up and spit him out in a second, and a full-sized golden doodle. Although they have know each other for 8 years, they have not grown tight. His cousins try to show him a good time, however, he chooses to hiss in response, and head directly for his room. He does not leave until the potty box leaves and there is no talking him out of it……
I know, I’ve heard it from Pookie a thousand times…..you can choose your friends, but not your family”. It’s only a few days away from Thanksgiving….so forget what Pookie says…..don’t hiss at your relatives, know where the potty box is, and enjoy your meal.
dollars/sense
On NPR yesterday, a comedian said the ‘super committee’ was still working on getting the spending under control…they made a little headway when they found $23.17 in couch cushions…..too funny
shreveport, la
kind of like summer here today….a little humid……Shreveport is a mix of the south and the midwest….all kinds of scenery. Good place to film movies.
weather com’in
Big day in California…it’s gonna rain… sometime, we always need water…,it is truly California’s gold.
ABUSE =
So how’s it work’in for ya…..the abuse thing. It doesn’t matter you aren’t legally married anymore, does it Tom….you can’t stand the idea of losing……not losing Marty, just losing…..You zero
You hit her, you yelled at her, you scared her, you lied to her, you took her share of the life savings and squandered it. You zero.
You threw her and your daughter out into the night, almost weekly, with no place to go, just because you were mad. Thank goodness Boulder City is near Las Vegas and Henderson cause there are hotels where mother and grown daughter could find a safe place to stay.You zero.
When Marty went to be with her dying mother, you would call her cell every night to say you were going to kill yourself, in the desert, if she didn’t fly back . How do I know, I listened to your raving on the phone. You zero.
She finally called the police, because of the abuse. The authorities were going to put you under surveillance, while Marty could file a report….She declined because she didn’t want you to lose your job making $250,000 annually, and therefore, possibly losing what livelihood there was left. You zero
Marty finally went to Family Court and a Restraining Order was issued…..( the judge had no problem making the decision after reading the info she provided.) And then suddenly it was, ‘poor Tom’ the pitiful misunderstood husband. Marty continued to think that the separation could be done amicably, by keeping him from being embarrassed in the Boulder City neighborhood they lived in.The order was done quietly and no one knew. You left and went to suck off the friendship of local people, who had no idea you was abusing your family and not even working.
You moved to Reno and rented a high-end apartment. You said you were going to be near your daughter who lived in Carson City. (She was only there for a few months) You even told the prospective landlord you were renting the apartment for you and Marty, and it was going to be a surprise for her, when she came north! Isn’t that special!y You didn’t have a job and had just finished blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars of their retirement nest egg. Who was to know….except maybe now. Come to think of it, you did exactly the same thing to your current landlord in Las Vegas….You used recent income tax records to show your income, however, you weren’t working and were separated. ( I know that Nevada law states each spouse is entitled to half of the pie) My point is you weren’t working, it was never mentioned, and it was presented as though there was good income to pay for the apartment. You zero!
In the past you had been the one to boast about having one million dollars….you lived higher than necessary, just to show off, and when the family objected to the excessive spending, you made fun of them, remarking that they didn’t know how to enjoy money. You zero.
Judge Sullivan first heard the case…..and he was good…he was also interested in listening and not being biased. What a shame when Judge Sullivan was sent to a Juvenile Courtroom and Judge Elliot was drawn. That was when the bias began….One can look at the court records, and see how the judge has ruled in events concerning this divorce. The examination of these lengthy and bias proceedings show that Judge Elliot serves with an incomplete understanding of what abuse is and how it works. I am sorry for anyone who has her for any kind of family court .
Your attorney presented you as the one who was abused…..explaining that you were the loving husband who had held the family together, while Marty was the one with mental ailments. Your attorney stated you urged her to seek help and was continuing to keep the home together when she filed the restraining order. Judge Elliot went right along with the idea, never checking your past abusive ways concerning your wife, daughter, family, and friends. Twenty plus people had signed on to come to court on behalf of Marty, to share with the judge, exactly what kind of beast you actually are. Oh, not necessary, it was decided, no police report, so no abuse.
What will become of it all Tom…..you continue to harass, to needle, to ‘not follow thru’ concerning the judge’s orders. What you fail to understand is that we are free of you….our family is free. Marty and Andrea are free.
You think you can continue to cause her pain…you are a hangnail, not a wound. You have no core family. You have no contact with your family,and now they will know, they were right in staying away.
It’s over Tom…..give it up. You lose……You zero
seriouslyscorpio 