X-Ray Vision

If I had my choice of any superpower, I would chose invisibility - can you imagine going anywhere and nobody knows that you are there with them; listening, watching, etc.?

Next, I think, it would be nice to have X-Ray Vision. Look at the right bottom corner above - it's a guy working on a copier!

The bottle is empty - is that why he's leaning?

A football player who took his helmet and football along for the picture!

My personal favorite - 2 fruit bats.

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

Friends Christmas

This coming Friday night will be one of my favorite nights of the year! How do I know that?

Well, it's my friends christmas - where my friends from high school; Faith and Janice - along with their families and I have our annual get-together.

It is always a fun night, even though we've been doing it forever (really, I can't remember when we didn't do it!) A guaranteed fun night.

Every year it's at a different house, but has usually been at Faith's or Janice's. I've hosted it twice in the past 15 years. Now that two of Faith's kids have their own homes, we've been able to spread it out a little bit more. Last year was Tim and Becky's year to host and the year before that was Rachel and Mike's turn.

This year will be Faith's turn. We'll have our usual appetizers while everyone is arriving. Then dinner (no idea what it will be this year) and we usually play Trivial Pursuit (boys vs. girls.) Intermingled in there is lots of talking, laughter and catching up. I'd like to say that the game is the highlight of the night, but all aspects of the night are fun. I especially enjoy Faith and Janice working in synch with each other and getting completely off track as they try to answer our question. There are a couple of attendees that seem to be bothered by that, (which is something that I can totally understand) but I end up enjoying their annoyance as well. It is what it is and I've learned to appreciate it over our many years of friendship.

Last year we added a new element which was a great deal of fun. It's called a Yankee Swap and everyone was instructed to bring a gift wrapped present of about $10 in a brown paper shopping bag. Now this bag had to be folded over and stapled with 3 staples!! There were more details than I am sharing right now but it was quite fun. I took it one step further and wrapped my gift to resemble a brown shopping bag, which was quite clever if I do say so myself.

As the kids have gotten older, it's been more difficult to get everyone together. Joseph is home from school in Minnessota. The next day Kimmy heads to Florida. The math that goes into figuring out which night works out best for about 15 people is more than I can do, that's for sure. It's always disappointing when someone is missing. This year we should have full attendance, and that makes me very, very happy.

Very much looking forward to a fun night with fun people who I love dearly.

A Christmas Story

I love this movie - one of the best Christmas movies ever.

Helen Philpot's Perfect Stuffing Recipe

This sounds so good I wanted to share it - I'll be trying it, that's for sure.

Helen’s Perfect Stuffing (Unless You’re Jewish or Vegetarian)

3 loafs day-old white bread, air dried
1 lb bacon
1 stick butter
1 large onion
1 stalk celery
2 tsp. poultry seasoning
Salt & Pepper to taste

Prepare the night before. Chop the bread in a blender or food processor.

Fry the bacon but leave the grease in the pan when you remove the bacon.

Add stick of butter to the grease to melt. Chop onion and celery and cook in the grease/butter mixture.

Combine contents of pan with bread and crumbled bacon.

Toss in poultry seasoning and salt/pepper.

Mix well and if the dressing isn’t “gummy feeling” go ahead and moisten it with chicken broth or warm water.

Refrigerate until morning.

I like to stuff my bird - just make sure you adjust your cooking time to accommodate.

And forget about all that crap you hear about not stuffing a bird. Been doing it for 60 years and we’re all alive and well. Enjoy.

The Greatest Concert - 200 Years Ago Tonight

On December 22, 1808, Beethoven himself rented a hall in Vienna and promoted the concert to end all concerts: the debut, over four hours, of three of the greatest works in the history of music: his Fifth Symphony, the Sixth ("Pastoral") Symphony, and the astounding Piano Concerto No. 4, plus the wonderful Choral Fantasia (forerunner to his Ninth Symphony).

And yes, it was a fiasco.

But imagine: It was as if Orson Welles premiered Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, and Touch of Evil on the same night -- with The Lady from Shanghai thrown in for good measure.

This was mid-period Beethoven. He was 38 at the time and would live another 19 fitful years.

He had been losing his hearing for almost ten years and would soon be completely deaf. In fact, he would play piano in concert for virtually the last time at this epic 1808 program, as hearing himself play would eventually cease. That wouldn't stop him, a few years later, from producing his most astounding writing of all: the late piano sonatas and string quartets, the Ninth Symphony, and much more. If you know Beethoven only from his symphonies you are truly missing nearly all of his most amazing, moving, and profound work.

The hall in Vienna was freezing cold. Beethoven, as a taskmaster conductor, had alienated the musicians, rehearsals were inadequate, he finished one piece on the morning of the concert with (reportedly) the ink still wet that night.

Parts of the program went off very well; on the other hand, he stopped the Choral Fantasia after a few minutes and made the orchestra start over. In any case, the show went on, and on. In that era, it was hard enough for any audience to appreciate and/or grasp the unprecedented length -- and revolutionary nature -- of Beethoven's compositions, and now they were cold and tired.

The key newspaper review at the time noted the genius of Beethoven's new compositions but also the demands on the audience ("It is known that, with respect to Vienna, it holds even more true than with respect to most other cities, what is written in the scriptures, namely that the prophet does not count for anything in his own country").

Beethoven was the greatest composer in the history of Western culture. And in these tough times, you really might find that a little Beethoven -- principally the piano sonatas, trios and string quartets -- will help you make it through your week.

Below please findthe link to a brief clip, the 4th movement of the Pastoral Symphony, decades ahead of its time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5zNiUG__FM&eurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/the-greatest-concert-ever_b_152804.html&feature=player_embedded

A Grateful Nation? I Don't Think So!

At a private meeting after the failure of Lehman Brothers, President Idiot reportedly asked his advisors, "How did we get here?"

Funny because, according to The New York Times, he helped chart the course. Early in his presidency, the Idiot promised to "use the mighty muscle of the federal government" to help make housing available to low-income families, offering tax incentives and forcing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to set ambitious lending goals.

His reward? Mortgage bankers and brokers tripled their contributions to his campaign from 2000 to 2004 and the founder of the nation's largest subprime lender became one of the Republican Party's top 10 donors in 2004.

Bush coupled this with a weakening of the SEC: His first chairman promised a "kindler, gentler" agency; his second was forced out for being too aggressive; and the third chairman has presided over the present catastrophe.

Gee, Mr. President Idiot, we all are just so grateful for everything you've done for, er, I mean to us during your presidency. Thankfully, we are now within a month of this idiot leaving.

Cecile Richards, President-Planned Parenthood

Minutes ago, President Bush's rule limiting the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate reproductive health information when they visit a federally funded health care provider was made official. And, unfortunately, it will take a great deal of work to reverse it — starting today. Please help.

We knew this was coming, of course. With your help, we've been fighting it for months. The rule is clearly a parting gift from Bush to the anti-choice fringe that supported him all these years. Now, anti-choice medical staff can withhold information about abortion, birth control, and sex education from their patients.

Facilities that receive family planning funding, like Planned Parenthood, will have to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control. For example, a doctor who opposes pre-marital sex could refuse to provide a prescription or even information about emergency contraception to an unmarried woman.

Frankly, I'm livid. I believe that tricking women when they are most vulnerable is wrong — and the federal government shouldn't pay people to do it. Especially now, when so many people are already in crisis as a result of the economy, I can't help but feel that this rule is a particularly low blow to the people who need our help, our support, and our most accurate and effective care the most.

Even with a new president and administration coming in soon, this won't be easy to fix. It's going to take more than a simple signature to reverse it. We're starting our work today and we need your help. Please ask the Obama administration to reverse the new rule.

This is a particularly challenging time for so many. More and more people are turning to Planned Parenthood as they lose their jobs and their health insurance — and at a time when donations are down. Your financial support of the Action Fund's advocacy efforts, if you can spare it, is much appreciated. Thank you.

Pogo Game For You To Play

Fun - especially if you are a good speller.

For more Word Whomp go to Pogo to play 100s of Fun Games!
For more Word Whomp go to Pogo to play 100s of Fun Games!

Finally Adam Walsh Can Rest In Peace

Could you imagine if you didn't know where your child was? I can't even imagine that.

In 1981, little Adam Walsh was with his mother in a mall when he just disappeared.

I remember when this happened and felt so sad for the Walsh family at that time. The picture above was all over the news and I can recall that everyone was talking about it and wondering how it could have happened.

Today, the police have finally said that the case is solved - a serial killer took their son and we can only imagine what horror that little boy went through before he was killed and decapitated.

Out of that terrible tragedy many good things happened. Mrs Walsh founded the Center For Missing and Exploited Children and Mr Walsh went on to host America's Most Wanted. Laws were changed. This case contributed to massive advances in police searches for missing youngsters across the country.

Mr Walsh's subsequent activism on his behalf helped put faces on milk cartons, shopping bags and mailbox fliers, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores. It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department.

Even President Idiot finally got something right when in 2006 he signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act to establish a national sex offender registry and to make it harder for predators to reach children on the Internet.

I've posted this before, but here it is again.

About 100 children a year are abducted and murdered, and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children expects that number to remain about the same for 2009. Seventy-five percent of those children are murdered within three hours, the center says.

Peter Banks, a former Washington, D.C., police officer who is the center's director of training and outreach, says parents should prepare their children by talking to them because an abduction can turn violent. "Most abductions are not really abductions: They are seductions by people whose sole ambition is to use their guile and cunning to victimize helpless children," Banks said.

"The No. 1 weapon to arm a child with is self-esteem. Tell your kids you love them and make them feel proud. If you don't tell them you love them, then someone else will."

Whatever you do, don't try to scare your kids. Dr. Carl Metzger, a Portland-based child psychiatrist, recommends parents try not to instill fear in their children or harp on the topic. Repetitive warnings make the parent seem weak or unable to provide care. "Instilling fear ruins the balance for a young child. It would make them fearful or anxious," Metzger said. "The most effective approach is for parents to give a warning in context, such as if something appears on television or a child brings the subject up. That's the perfect time to give the message."

And what is the message? Metzger says it depends on the age of the child. You can talk to a 9-year-old about how it is unsafe to go with a stranger. But you might want to tell a 5-year-old that they may go only with Mommy or Daddy. Metzger says parents need to be vigilant because society has changed in recent years. "There has been a lessening of the network that keeps children safe, and by that I mean children are often left on their own while their parents work," Metzger said. He recommends that children not veer from their destination, avoid occupied parked cars, and if someone does try to physically overpower them, shout, scream and kick.

Police have found that many abductors will flee if a child reacts in that way. As with most attempted abductions, never let yourself be taken to a second location, do whatever needs to be done to get away. "It's fight or flight. You don't have a lot of options."

Steps to take to keep your kids safe:

-Never leave a child unattended in a parked car, park, playground or store.

-Have a family "code" word to use when someone other than the parents is picking up the child. If the "code" word isn’t give, the child should not go with that person.

-Let children know that they don’t always have to listen to adults. If someone they don’t know tells them to do something, let them know that it’s okay not to listen. They should draw attention to themselves in whatever way is necessary to avoid a predator.

-The number one target of predators is adolescent girls, mostly between the ages of 8 and 15. Most girls in this age group should be warned of the dangers to them. Have a plan of action as to what they should do in any instance of danger.

The Not-So-Funny Part Of Shoe Throwing

The Iraqi people have been suffering for over 5 years now because of the U.S. invasion. They have every right to be pissed off. I'd throw shoes or whatever was handy at President Idiot.

"This is a farewell kiss, you dog," al-Zeidi yelled in Arabic as he threw his shoes. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."

Al-Zeidi's tirade was echoed by Arabs across the Middle East who are fed up with U.S. policy in the region and still angry over Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

The response to the incident by Arabs in the street was ecstatic.
"Al-Zeidi is the man," said 42-year-old Jordanian businessman Samer Tabalat. "He did what Arab leaders failed to do."

My Hat's Off, er My Shoes Off To You

ready, aim, fire...

hee hee

I love this!