There's this volcano in Iceland...

I watched SNL last night and their opening bit was a skit with Kristin Wigg as the Icelandic singer Bjork. She was being interviewed by "Larry King". Well just click here to watch it for yourself. It make me laugh.

As did this cartoon from our newspaper. I've listened to the pronunciation of this volcano and don't understand it and read it phonetically and still can't say it.

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But in all seriousness, I feel bad for all affected by the ash, the stranded travellers and the economic fallout to mention a few. But most of all I feel for the animals that live in the area of the volcano. What about the people who live there you may wonder, don't you feel bad for them? Certainly I do, their homes are covered in ash and their possessions ruined. I can't imagine the clean up involved. As for the people that stayed and didn't evacuate; well yes, they're living in virtual hell right now but why didn't they LEAVE? Rescue crews went in to get them and they had to be rescued themselves. By staying not only do they place their own lives in jeopardy but the very lives of those who go in after them. Similar to people who choose to ride out hurricanes rather than evacuate.

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The animals couldn't be evacuated. Horses, livestock and the poor swans are swimming in ash covered water. Please take a minute and watch this. We joke about it because we're not living it. Eventually the ash will circle the globe and we'll all feel the effects to one extent or another.

People of Wegmans

One online site I visit regularly is People of Walmart. I'm always amazed that people go out in public looking the way they do. We have WalMarts in my town and I always have my camera with me but somehow never see any of those beauties that show up on that site. BUT...

Having my camera with me finally paid off although not at WalMart. We happen to be in Wegman's, a chain of grocery stores here and as it was we were in the more upscale store. Imagine my surprise when I saw this...

I couldn't believe it. A guy with real metal armor on his leather jacket. Totally out of the blue in a store where you see people in fur coats shopping for groceries.
He stopped at the Indian food bar and I couldn't resist snapping a picture. I had to do it fast and I sort of felt bad doing it. My son said he'd probably pose if you asked him and he'd tell us all about the world he lives in but I couldn't ask. My other son felt right at home since he see weird outfits in NYC all the time.

Happy Birthday

Since Wednesday our oldest has been in from NYC and his brother came home from school yesterday. It's been nice having the two of them here, just like old times. I'd better not get too used to it because Cam goes back to school tomorrow and Kev returns to NYC on Monday. While they're both here we celebrated Cam's birthday out at a Japanese hibachi restaurant called Plum Garden. I'd never been to this type of place and we had a lot of fun.

One of the first things I noticed was these little cuties at our table. His shirt made me smile.

The boys had fun catching rice balls tossed by the chef.

I passed on that.


My steak was delicious, I just wished for french fries instead of fried rice.

Music to my Ears

There's much to love about my new car. The smooth, quiet ride, the heated leather seats which I have to say are pretty awesome and fantastic when you have cold like we do here in western New York. But what I love the most and didn't think I cared about is this...

Sirius XM Radio. I have a short commute to work, seriously, three minutes, four on a snowy day but in that time I never hear any music because all the morning shows do for the most part is TALK. So everyday on the way to school I would listen to my Allman Brothers CD, Blue Sky to be specific.

It's a nice, calm song to start your day with if you're going to be working with 30 kindergartners.
Back to XM radio. I LOVE it. No commericals, no talk, okay maybe a smidge but it's 99.5% music. I love that I can listen to any genre I want and most of the time its set to 60's on 6, 70's on 7 or 80's on 8. Where else can you hear these blasts from the past like Tubular Bells from The Exorcist movie, Too Shy by Kajagoogoo, Manic Monday by the Bangles which I didn't know this, was written by Prince. I even learned that Rogers is his last name. Then there's Bobby Sherman's Julie, Julie, Julie, Do you love me? Don't laugh, I loved Bobby Sherman, in 1970 when this song came out I was 12 years old.

Or how about Men Without Hats and the Safety Dance? Gotta love it.

Another song from 1968, I was 10 years old; Jeannie C. Riley's Harper Valley PTA. You don't hear that on regular radio.






Lest you think I'm about the cheese, here's another favorite from 1970's recorded by Janis Joplin for her album Pearl just several days before she died. I also learned that Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster wrote this song. I love me some Kristofferson and that raspy voice. On a side note, A Star is Born, great movie with Babs.



Another blast from the past, Gordon Lightfoot 1979. This song can bring on the tears.




I don't listen to much popular music of today, I prefer to remain in the past with the songs of my youth. At times it brings back such happy memories and other times makes me feel blue for the time gone by and what once was.

Before I even got in the car to drive home from the dealer I'd decided that I'd use the free three months of the XM radio and that would be that but now $12.95 a month is a small price to pay for all of these memories.

Pay it Forward

I'm not a fan of golf. I have no interest in playing or watching it. I sometimes watch The Masters because of the beauty of the course with the flowering trees and grounds. Other than that, it's too slow. (I grew up as a rink rat and hockey's my game. That sport makes everything look slow) Hubby plays golf in a league and almost every week he comes home and complains about his game. I see his frustration and ask "why do you play it then?" For me, if it's frustrating, forget it, I have no interest at all. I hate the feeling of frustration.

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What makes me write about golf today? I read a story (read it here) about professional golfer Phil Mickelson. His wife and his mother are both suffering from cancer and being treated by the same physician, Doctor Tom Buchholz of Houston's M.D. Anderson Center. Over the weekend at a PGA event, The Shell Houston Open, Mickelson invited Dr. Buchholz and some other medical staff to said tournament. With three holes left Mickelson was out of contention so he asked Drl Buchholz if he would like to caddy for him.

I thought this was a very uplifting story. I seldom read the comments on stories but decided to read more than a few on this one. I'd say that of the comments I read 95% were positive. But you know there are always a few who have to piss all over things. One commenter called Mickelson unprofessional. Another said it was strategic and fake. Someone asked how it made the doctor look, as in he was asked to be a slave to carry his bag. Still another said the doctor didn't deserve it, he makes millions off the sick. Some guy wondered why Mickelson would even bother asking the doctor.

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People, lighten up. I don't know how it was unprofessional, if it was a problem some PGA official would've been all over it. Do you really think the doctor took the gesture to caddy as some form of degredation? As far as making millions, I'm not sure many doctors make millions anymore and if they could save the life of my loved one they deserve every penny. As far as asking the doctor to caddy, for me, if someone is doing something or taking care of someone I love I would want to show them any kind of thanks that I could and I thought this was perfect for Dr. Buchholz.

Tiger could learn a little about character from Phil.

No Pretty Pictures Today

Why are some people so inconsiderate of others around them? Why are they so rude when they don't have to be? Why do they act like it's all about them? I wondered that twice today.

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Case number one~ Public restrooms; I try to avoid them at all costs but sometimes nature has other ideas. Today I was in JC Penny at a nice mall when I used the ladies room. Do they leave their own bathroom like this, with toilet paper all over the floor and pee on the seat? I open a stall and see that someone, to put it bluntly has left their shit unflushed. Now of course I could go in, flush the toilet and use it myself but for some reason I just can't. I open another stall and see another women and I use the term loosely has not flushed and she's riding the crimson tide. GROSS. Just flush the freakin' toilet because I can't.

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Case number two~People that throw things out of their car. That's littering but this went beyond that. We come out of the grocery store and I see that someone has thrown the contents of a cup of something out into the lot, not just on the asphalt but all over the side of my car door. Now in all honesty I sometimes will empty the ice out of a drink into the parking lot but I throw the cup away. As hubby pulls out of the parking space we see two Coke cans that were under our car. The world would be much more pleasant if people didn't behave like animals. Oh but wait, animals don't foul their own nest.

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Okay, rant over.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I'm coming to you today from the swing on my back patio. It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and it is warm out. Yesterday in good old Rochester New York we broke a temperature record with a high of 86 degrees at 3:30 PM. I don't think it got that warm once last summer. I'm just crossing my fingers that this isn't our "summertime".


Thanks to the the cool, crappy summer of 2009 our utility bill went down 30 bucks a month. We're on the budget billing system which means we pay the same amount every month to avoid those gigantic heating bills in the winter. As a matter of fact we had paid so much over our actual usage that for the next two months we don't get charged at all!


Now several things may have contributed to this change of usage. For one thing as I said, last summer was so horrible that I think we used our central air all of two times. Trust me, central air will cause your electric meter to spin wildly. Also now that we're empty nesters for most of the year there are no kids at home leaving every light on in the joint, running their computers and charging all their electronic devices.


I should mention that I spent 18 years of my life working for our utility company and one of my jobs during that tenure was to adjust customer's budget billing. If I saw a substantial drop in some one's usage it could be for several reasons. If their gas and electric meters are in the basement and the meter reader couldn't get in every other month to read them we'd be estimating the bill based on previous usage. The customer may be calling in the reads after reading the meter themselves and not reading it correctly. Or maybe the meter is running slow and is ready for a systematic meter change. Most likely what I'd do is make arrangements for a special read which means contacting the customer and making an appointment to get inside to get an actual read.

Well our both of our meters are outside and are read every other month by a meter reader so I'm chalking it up to the fact that the two of us don't use as much electricity or gas to heat our house, water heater and dryer as we did when there were four of us living here.

Happy Birthday Cameron!

I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living

my baby you'll be.