Trash or Treasure

Are you a collector of anything? I am and have a collection of a few things. Tea cups and saucers, hand blown glass balls and rocks. Yes, rocks. There is something about rocks that attract me. I'm always looking down for good ones. When we go to Cape Cod I love walking the beach looking for colored or unusual stones. When the kids were younger they would carry their towel and beach toys in a backpack. They always wondered why it seemed heavier on the way back to the car. After a while they realized I had put the stones I collected in them. I had an elderly neighbor I befriended and she loved rocks also. Mrs. R. told me when she would return to Nova Scotia to visit family when she was younger she would always bring back rocks. At the little border crossing they used, custom agents would tease her about trying to bring her homeland to this country rock by rock. I "got" that about her. When she died I had the funeral director place a few of her rocks in with her since I understood that they were important to her.

This is my collection of cups and saucers. Many came from my grandmother who collected them. Most were made in England but I have a beautiful blue, white and gold one from Russia. I also have one that belonged to Mrs. R.'s mother. I don't know how old it is but Mrs. R. was born in 1912. This is a floor to ceiling window in the kitchen that looks out into the backyard and a pink dogwood tree.
The glass balls are hanging in our front living room window. They're very pretty especially when the sun shines on them. Too bad we won't be seeing any sun around here for a few months. Note to self; move somewhere sunnier. I live down the street from a convent (the Sisters of Mercy) and I once had a nun stop and ask me about them. She said she always wondered about them when she drove by. Notice my dog Cody in the picture. He loves to sit and rest his chin on the window sill and watch the world go by. I will say that I love my collections but hate dusting them. I refer to the dust as their protective coating. I hate when some smart ass in my family does the white glove test and leaves a mark in the dust. grrrr.


While I'm typing this I'm watching the campiest movie

with number two son; Evil Dead 2

Calendars

I was in one of my favorite stores tonight, Barnes and Noble, looking at their wall calendars since 2008 will be here in a few short days. I got a great little desk calendar for Christmas from hubby entitled "George W. Bushisms; The Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President". I love it! Three hundred sixty five quotes from the man and there are some doozies. In 2008 I plan on posting the quote from each day so if I have nothing to say you can read the wit and wisdom of the prez. Now I know that I may not sound very nice, it's just that I often wonder how he became to be governor of Texas let alone President of the United States. Well I do know actually, money, power, nepotism etc. I don't know how he got through Yale. Well, yes I do. I will admit that being the leader of any country is an extremely dangerous, thankless, hard job (Benazir Bhutto, a perfect example) It also comes with many things to remember and hard words to pronounce. I am positive I wouldn't be any better at it than he. But, and this is a big but, surely you must be able to think on your feet and be able to express "an off the cuff" thought. I will say this, I am grateful that I live in a country where I can voice those opinions.

Back to the original point of this post; calendars. I'll say this, there is a calendar for every walk of life, any interest. Well not any, B&N is a family oriented store. I saw calendars about real live witches, not fairy tale witches. There was your typical model calendars, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, Hotbuns, Daily Hunk and Studs n' Spurs. Every kind of dog breed calendar, a Zombie calendar,

a nun calendar and I loved this one, Extreme Ironing. Yes, photos of people ironing clothes in extreme places. I don't like to iron in my house let alone anyplace extreme. Anyway, I couldn't decide between a New York City calendar or a hummingbird calendar. Which did I pick? As you know I love NYC but I also love hummingbirds. All summer long I try and photograph the hummingbird that comes to my garden. He's very territorial and will chase away other hummers that wander into his feeding ground. I never manage to get a good pic and I've taken hundreds. He's always blurry. The best photo I ever took was the one above. Can you find him? One day hubby comes out and I hand him the camera. The bird flits over almost right next to him, he's not shy and Hubby gets the best picture ever.
I ended up going for the hummingbird calendar.

And all of their calendars are 50% off too!!

Phew

It's over, thank goodness. While I love the weeks leading up to Christmas by the actual day I am exhausted. I end up taking a nap for a few hours in the afternoon while everyone plays with the gifts that Santa brought.

Christmas Eve we go to my husband's side of the family. We got there at the appointed time and found out that our great nephew and niece age 6 and 2 had already opened all of their gifts and they were loaded in the family car. Seems that their mother, my niece-in-law decided that they needed to be opened early. When my kids were little they waited until at least 7:00 pm when their cousins got off from work. Then when 10 pm rolled around and I said that we had to leave to get the kids home in bed I was told I was a party pooper. Apparently their mother has more moxie than I did.

This picture is Christmas Day at my sister's house. Number 2 son loves what I call his "Elmer Fudd" hat. My sister's family has a 4 month old golden retriever puppy named Maise. She is a little devil but cute as hell. Good thing too, she gets into everything. Christmas day it was any tissue paper and ribbon she could find and there was plenty.

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and are recovering nicely.

O Holy Night

While I'm not a particularly religious person (too many unanswered questions) I do like have my own beliefs. At this time of the year I absolutely love the song O Holy Night. Honestly it can bring tears to my eyes. It is one of the most moving and beautiful songs. I feel it is sung the best by a male singer. It's such a powerful song and needs that extra ummph. Some women can pull it off, Whitney Houston comes to mind My all time favorite singer of this song though is Josh Groban. Check him out at this link. While it's not his best version of it I like it because he's outside in the evening and behind him is St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQWXfHzOKUU

My wish to you my blogging friends is for a very Merry Christmas spent with the ones you love and the ones who love you. If that's not possible at this time may you feel their spirit with you.
Peace.

Traditions

Do you have any family traditions that you do during the holiday season?

When I was little, my grandparents always slept over on Christmas Eve.

That meant I had to share my bedroom with my younger sisters. In the morning we were allowed to open one gift of our choice before we had a big breakfast. One year when I was about 11 the gift I opened turned out to be a bra. My grandfather asked me what I got and I was absolutely mortified to tell him. While we always got undies and socks for Christmas I never dreamed I would get a bra. Thanks mom. Today I wish I would get one as my girls require expensive, good supportive ones since I'm well endowed. I apparently got my youngest sister's boob gene too. She has very little. I'd love to give her some.

Now I got off on a tangent for a minute, back to holiday traditions. When my children were little their grandparents (my parents) didn't sleep over on Christmas Eve. That evening is spent with the hubby's side of the family. It has always worked out well since my family starts celebrating Christmas morning opening all of our gifts together. The kids still get to open one before breakfast and before we get there. They always pick one of my gifts because this aunt buys good stuff.

I was thinking about some of our other traditions and they revolve around TV. Is that bad? First, Rudolph, we watch that every year together. The kids got to stay up past their bedtime when they were little to see it. As they got older it always seemed to be on Boy Scout night. I would have them leave scouts early so we could watch. I know, you must be rolling your eyes. The thing is we must watch it when it's on. Not tape it or get a video of it. We watch it just once a year when the network honchos decide to show it. If we could see it whenever it becomes nothing special. The first year that number one son was in college was hard for me. I called him and we watched it over the phone. Roll your eyes again. This year for the first time ever, I had to watch it with just the husband. Number one was busy at school and number two had to work. It was very sad, the end of an era.

Another tradition is to watch Christmas Vacation. This we watch on DVD when our schedule allows. Tonight is the night for this one. I just love the part with the squirrel and laugh like I never saw it before every time. So now that I've blabbed all about my traditions, what are some of yours?
I've got to go and make a chocolate chip cookie cheesecake, 2 pumpkin chiffon pies and 2 Bavarian cream pies. Wish me luck.

I. Am. So. Tired.

Male + Female = Baby

I read the news today that Jamie Lynn Spears (Britney's little sis) is pregnant. What a surprise. Apparently it was an even bigger surprise to Jamie and her mother. The following is an article from Access Hollywood. My comments are aqua.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (December 18, 2007) – Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old sister of Britney Spears is pregnant. A rep for Nickelodeon confirmed to Access Hollywood, Spears, the star of “Zoey 101” is having a baby. “We respect Jamie Lynn’s decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn’s well being,” the network said.
The fourth and final season of “Zoey 101” wrapped months ago so production will not be affected, the Nickelodeon rep told Access.
According to OK! magazine who exclusively interviewed Jamie Lynn and her mother Lynne, the actress is 12 weeks along. The father of the baby is reportedly her longtime boyfriend, Casey Aldridge.
“It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected,” she told OK! “I was in complete and total shock and so was he.”

What?? Total shock?? At age 16 you'd better know how babies are conceived. Now it would be "so unexpected" if she wasn't having sex and got pregnant. It would also be another miracle.

Jamie Lynn said she found out she that was pregnant, first through an at-home test, then later through a visit to her healthcare practicioner.
“As soon as I found out for sure from the doctor, I took two weeks to myself where I didn’t tell anybody,” she said. “Only one of my friends knew because I needed to work out what I would do for myself before I let anyone’s opinion affect my decision. Then I told my parents and my friends. I was scared, but I had to do what was right for me.”
The “Zoey 101” star told her mother, Lynne Spears, over the Thanksgiving holiday. Momma Spears was shocked when she first heard the news.

Really??

“I didn’t believe it because Jamie Lynn’s always been so conscientious,” Lynne told the magazine. “She’s never late for her curfew. I was in shock. I mean, this is my 16-year-old baby.”

Holy crap! You can get pregnant if you break your curfew? I should have a whole lot of kids then. Apparently Jamie Lynn or her mother weren't consciencious enough. Did Mother Spears know her 16 year old baby was having sex? I realize that kids will do what they want. I'm not naive. I've told my own boys that I'd rather they didn't have sex. (I don't know if they have or not. I don't think I want to know) but if they were going to do it, PLEASE take precautions, don't rely on the lady for birth control. While I want to be a grandmother some day but now is not the time. And treat her respectfully etc.

After digesting the news, Lynne eventually “became very supportive” Jamie Lynn said.
Despite the pregnancy, Jamie Lynn said she believes teens should stay away from premarital sex.

Well that ship has sailed.

“I definitely don’t think it’s something you should do; it’s better to wait,” Jamie Lynn said. “But I can’t be judgmental because it’s a position I put myself in.”
In 2003, a 12-year-old Jamie Lynn told Access Hollywood she wanted a change at 16, but of the entertainment variety.

“I want to do acting first, then maybe take a little break, then when I’m about 15 or 16, start singing,” Jamie Lynn said.

Oh to be young again and have the world on a string.

At the same time, Britney predicted Jamie Lynn would be better at handling fame than she was.
“I think she’ll be able to handle the whole thing better than me,” Britney told Access at the time. “I was just brought into it, she’s kind of grown up with it. She’s [been] surrounded by the whole business since she [was] a really young girl. If anything I’m gonna try to get advice from her! She’s stubborn. She’s got her stuff together.”

I think I'm going to move into a cave so I don't accidentally read this junk.

Yeah, right.

Snow day for me!!

Back to bed!!

A Perfect Storm?

Today is the calm before the storm. We're expecting a real nor'easter here in the northeast. The weather prognosticators are predicting anywhere from 15 to 25 inches with winds at 35 mph and calling it a blizzard. It sounds like it's shaping up to be a bad one. Of course we're used to snow, wind and cold here. Living on the shores of Lake Ontario we get lake effect snow all the time but admittedly this will be worse. Thank goodness it will hit on Sunday when most people will not be working. I may get a snow day from school out of this. I'll say it again though, it's way too early for this, it isn't even officially winter yet. I plan to go to the library for a good book today, hit Blockbuster for a movie and get the fixins to make a big pot of chili with corn bread.

WTF?

My search engine is Yahoo and I always check out what they've got up to read about. This morning I see the story entitled "Hollywood's Most Influential Infants". My inner voice said don't bother with that crap but what did I do? I clicked on it. Who thinks up this stuff? Influential babies? What can they possibly influence? Maybe international terrorists see them and think, "aaawww, they're so cute, let's leave the American people alone". Now that would be influence. No, sorry, the only thing babies have any influence over is how much sleep their parents get. I wasted 5 minutes of my life reading about it and then blogging about it. Geeez.
Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed?

Ring Ding-A-Ling

It's that time of year when the bell ringers are out full strength. Actually they were out before Thanksgiving. I swear I dump at least 25 bucks worth of change in the kettle over the 6 weeks before Christmas. When the boys were little I used to give them the money to put in and now they do it on their own. I feel guilty every time I pass one without donating but sometimes I just don't have any $$ on me. It doesn't help that the folks ringing are always so friendly and nice to you, even when you just walk by. I suppose if they were bitchy people wouldn't donate. I sort of wish they were then I wouldn't feel bad. I'm sure that's the marketing strategy. I've got an idea. In Palmyra not far from here, every summer the Mormons put on the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It's a big production with special effects that tells the story of the Mormon religion. I've gone a few times, once when Donny Osmond starred in the lead . It really is interesting. Anyway before the play starts the cast comes out in costume to talk to you about the religion. You can listen as long as you want or say no thank you. Which ever you do, the person will give you a sticker. This tells other cast members that you have already been approached and they leave you alone. We need that so the bell ringers know we've reached our monitary limit. You get a sticker that says you're tapped out. Then I wouldn't feel so bad and at least they would know I'm not a Scrooge.

I'm Getting Old

It's cold here in New York. We've had 20 inches of snow since December 1 although there isn't that much on the ground anymore. We do have some icicles hanging from the eaves that look pretty with our Christmas lights. But really, it is too damn early for this stuff. We still have leaves to be raked.

So the title for this post; I am getting old. How can I tell? Putting up the Christmas tree is getting to be too much work, it's even worse taking it down. Most of the ornaments are breakable and have to be wrapped in tissue. We put it up this week and for a few days it stood there naked. Then I put half of the decorations on, finally a few days later hubby asked if I was ever going to finish it or leave it as is. I did finish it but what I think of now is the chore of taking it down. See? Getting old.

This is the second year with the white tree, we've always had green trees but last year I wanted something different. It may look tacky in the picture but it really is pretty.

Another way I can tell I'm getting old, I went shopping with my niece. Meg is 12 years old and no longer a fan of clothes from Penney's or Target. She likes American Eagle and her favorite, Hollister. At these places the name of the store is emblazoned on most of their clothes. At least American Eagle has some things with just a small eagle embroidered on it. At Hollister everything has their name across the chest. The material of the clothes is very thin, I swear you could read the newspaper through it. And they're not cheap. So for lots of money you can get a thin t-shirt that makes you a walking billboard for them. When I was a kid (there I go again, a sign of getting old) the only shirt that had a company name on them was Champion and you wore them for gym class.

See? Old.

More NYC

In Macy's they had the Waterford crystal ball that is dropped in Times Square on New Year's Eve on display. It was mesmerizing while it changed colors and patterns. I could have stared at it for an hour but hubby dragged me away.

This is the only picture of the Rockettes that turned out. The costumes and dancing were great and oh, to have those legs.
While in Times Square one night I mentioned I had to do bubbles. (In our family bubbles is the code word for having to pee. When number one son was being potty trained he noticed that when he peed it made bubbles in the bowl, hence when he had to go he'd say he had to do bubbles and that stuck.)
No sooner had I said that when we happened upon this store front, the Charmin Restrooms.

We proceed up the escalator and encountered a line of people cued up in a snaking line like in the theme parks. There was music playing, televisions and karaoke. As you got closer to the front of the line you could see the bathrooms. Make sure you check out the links.Twenty individual rooms that were cleaned between visitors!!! When you came out of the restroom you left the door open and they had people that went in and spritzed it. There was an MC that told you which room to use and while you waited he entertained the crowd with jokes, mostly bathroom jokes. Heaven forbid he sent you to bathrooms 1 or 2. I happened to get the VIP room. It was painted a deep green and had an iron wall sconce with a candle burning in it. Kohler toilets, sinks and fixtures, the swanky ones. I know this because we're getting ready to redo our powder room and have looked at these exact ones. Too expensive for us. You may think, "wow, she's really goin on about these bathrooms" but I am very particular about public restrooms. I was as happy as a clam. (are clams really happy and how would we know?) As you left they had prestamped Charmin Restroom postcards that you could send to friends. Too bad Mr. Whipple didn't live to see this. I'm going to switch from Cottonelle to Charmin after this! Oh and we took a carriage ride through Central Park and it was just as fun as the Charmin Restrooms.

I LOVE NY

Seven hours on a train or 45 minutes on a plane to New York City. I can now say I've done both and both have their pros and cons. The train; it is a long ride but we left at 6 am and slept for a few hours so it wasn't too bad. It came into Penn Station right in downtown Manhattan.

A plane; a short non stop jaunt but can be filled with delays. Upon landing in JFK you have to get transportation into Manhattan whether is be bus or taxi, expect at least a 50 minute ride in traffic. If you're not in a hurry, take the train.

This was at the one stop you could get off the train and get some fresh air. This engine looks like it has hit something on the track at some time.
The Empire State Building, the view from our hotel.

Looking out from the lobby of the Time Warner building

looking out on Columbus Circle.

We saw the Rockette's Christmas show and it was wonderful.
Rockefeller Center and the Christmas tree. We had great weather, sunny during the day and clear at night but cold. This area was shoulder to shoulder people and indeed some of them were rude. I found that the native New Yorkers were friendly. We had an older gentleman in a business suit stop and offer us directions when we were puzzling over a map on the sidewalk. The rudest people we encountered were tourists, specifically Europeans. (I apologize if I offend any Europeans that may read this. I'm sure that if you do read my blog, you're not rude.) I got the distinct impression that they felt they were a little superior to Americans.
Visiting Santa in Macy's. He asked if I wanted to sit on his lap
but I spared him a broken leg and cuddled up next to him.


The entrance to Macy's on 34th Street.

Next time, Times Square.