Where do you get your phytochemicals?

In case it isn't already obvious...

2009-02-01T14:21:00.001-08:00

It's time for me to be honest with myself and you all, and admit that I do not have time for blogging at this point in my life. There's just way too much going on for me to devote time to this little blog. Maybe at some point in the future that will change. For now, I hope you all know that I am thinking about you often, and I hope you will keep in touch via email. (((HUGS)))

~ Jennifer

Winter Survival Gear

2009-01-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

The wind chill is -15. I would say this is for the birds, but the birds have enough sense to leave.

Here are a few things that help get me through the cold winter months. I couldn't survive until March without them! (Click the blue titles to shop for items.)

China Silk long underwear

Nothing beats silk against the skin for pure warmth. I’ve tried Cuddle Duds and a few other mixed material versions, but they just don’t cut it. I wear these under my thermal long johns. :-)

EMU Australian Boots

I bought these boots at the end of last season, on sale. Even then, they weren’t exactly cheap so I beat myself up about it all summer long. I really do not ever spend money on myself, even when it’s something I need. But now that winter is here, I can say unequivocally that these were an excellent purchase. The tips of my toes all the way up to my knees are surrounded in warmth. I only wish they covered my thighs....

YakTrax

Quite possibly the best thing ever invented…and so simple. Metal coils wrapped around industrial-strength rubber bands that wrap around your shoes. Dayton is notorious for not salting their sidewalks or parking lots in the winter. With these babies on, I can walk anywhere without worrying a bit. I ought to be on their payroll, because I can’t even tell you how many pairs of these I’ve sold!

Avon Intensive Moisture Therapy

An absolute must. My skin gets so dry it cracks and bleeds, and no other lotion I have ever tried comes close to providing enough moisture. In fact, I have bad reactions to most other lotions. This coats the skin nice and thick and takes awhile to fully rub in, which is why it works better than the thin, runny stuff. Fortunately, Noelle's grandmother keeps me stocked!

Bailey’s Irish Cream

Mmmm. A jigger or two of this stuff in some decaf coffee at bedtime is the perfect recipe for sweet dreams.

What's on your list of winter must-haves?

Welcome, 2009

2009-01-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

Well, my hard drive has gone to hard drive heaven. So sad. What really makes me sick is that Noelle and I had hundreds of photos on the computer that are gone forever. I at least have a Flickr account to which I have been uploading photos for the past couple of years, but that is only a fraction of what I had. Poor Noelle, who had so many lovely photos, is heartbroken. Lesson learned: get a backup drive. Fortunately, my computer friend says I can pick up a new hard drive at Best Buy for around $100. Not that I have $100, but it’s a heckuva lot better than a whole new computer!

I have to say, I am very glad to see 2009 get here. The last half of 2008 was not good to me! Have you made any resolutions? I normally do not make any resolutions. This year I have decided to learn how to relax. I know, I KNOW. You all know me pretty well by now, and you know that this is really like Mission Impossible. But a friend of mine pointed out that our local rec center is having Yoga classes, so we might sign up and do that together.

My other resolution is to reconnect with friends. With all the craziness of last year taking up so much of my time and money, I have turned into quite a hermit. I need to find ways to get together with my friends on a more regular basis.

I hope 2009 is off to a great start for all of you!

That's the brakes

2008-12-29T13:19:00.000-08:00

I got hit with two major whammies this week. First, my home computer which has been on life support for the past 2 months is now toast. I have a call in to a friend who works with computers to see if there is any way possible the hard drive can be saved. I hope so, because I certainly can't afford a new one at the moment.

And, after 2 round trips to Kentucky and Indiana over Christmas, my brakes went out. Completely. It’s a miracle I made it home in one piece. When the Midas mechanic called me over to show me what was left of my rear brakes, they were literally crumbling in his hand. $600. And I need new tires too, but that was another $500 and will have to wait.

So, you may not be hearing from me for a while as I need to sort things out and recover. Just wanted to let you all know what was up. I hope you all have very happy New Years. Stay safe out there!!

Black Bean Chili

2008-12-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

2 15 oz. cans diced tomatos, with juice
2 15 oz. cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 11 oz. can Mexicorn, drained
5 green onions, sliced
3 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. cinnamon sugar
1/2 tsp. minced garlic

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low heat for 4 hours. Serve with tortilla chips.

This is a very mild chili, as Noelle's tummy can't handle anything too spicy. This was pushing the envelope, really. I added a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of shredded cheese on top of hers.

It was just the thing for a night in which the wind chill hit 25 below zero with winds at 40 mph.

Merry Christmas to you and all your families!!!

Eggless Cooking

2008-12-19T06:17:00.000-08:00

If you’ve ever wanted to bake something but had no eggs in the house, or if you have someone in your family with an egg allergy, you should check out a website I recently found called Madhuram’s Eggless Cooking.

Although I am not vegan, I do like to keep my egg and dairy use to a minimum. We don’t drink milk and we don’t eat eggs, other than in baked goods, because it’s nearly impossible to do otherwise. Now vehement vegans everywhere will argue that point, but a busy single mom on a limited budget doesn’t have the time or money to hunt all over town for vegan bread.

The only time I ever buy eggs is when they are called for in a recipe, and then the least number I can buy at the grocery is 4. There are no chicken farmers here in suburbia that I can get a single egg from, and neighbors would quickly tire of me bumming their eggs. So I will typically use one or two eggs out of the carton and give the rest to the family next door, who I know can use them. Ditto with milk.

I know you can often substitute applesauce in some foods, but not all, as eggs serve different purposes in different recipes. And I am not very comfortable changing ingredients in recipes without knowing what I’m doing.

So I appreciated finding Madhuram’s Eggless Cooking site. Very colorful photos and a wide variety of dishes. The author is Indian so lots of great Indian recipes as well. Note that the site is not vegan – many recipes call for lots of cream and butter. So I think it primarily caters to those with egg allergies. Or, people like me who don’t want to pay an arm and leg for a carton of eggs when I only need one. :-)

Hello, Winter. Back so soon?

2008-12-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

It’s not just the lack of sunshine that gets to me, although that definitely doesn’t help. It’s that I have always been abnormally susceptible to the cold for some reason. I never enjoyed sledding or building snowmen like most children because the brutal cold winter air is literally like torture on my skin. I admit it, I’m a total pansy. And it’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten older, despite weighing much more than I used to. In February and March, when winter is at its worst here, I have to wrap my legs in heating pads when I get home from work just to be able to feel them again. I’m jealous of women who get hot flashes.

In the summer, I get annoyed with people who turn up the air conditioner until a place is a meat locker. Honestly, people start running the AC once it reaches 80 outside! 80 is probably the optimum temp for me. The blood in my veins is finally starting to thaw out at 80. These same people think I’m nuts for turning on the heat when it reaches 34 outside! Am I really THAT out of whack? How cold does it have to get before you turn the heat on? And what do you keep it set at?

I installed a programmable thermostat a couple of months ago. Well, um, okay, I had a boy install it for me….. seriously, you don’t want me messing with electrical wiring, folks. Anyway. I have it set at 70 from 6 – 8 a.m. when we’re getting ready for work and school, down to 62 from 8 - 4, up to 68 at 4 when Noelle gets home, and at 70 from 9:30 – 10 just to get the bedrooms warmed up before bedtime. Then back to 68 overnight.

I also shrink-wrapped all my windows and hung thermal-backed drapes in my bedroom (the coldest room, of course!) to cut down on energy usage. I’m really hoping that all of these measures will help reduce my heating bill, which was absolutely outrageous last winter.

Even with all of this, I wear silk long johns, sweats, and two pairs of socks around the house, and I’m able to just stay above the “miserable” range. I used to think I must be anemic, given that I have been a vegetarian since I was 13. But I now have my blood tested every year and my iron is fine. Probably because I’m cognizant of the fact that I need to eat more iron-rich foods, being a veggie. So I don’t know what my problem is. All I know is that I am counting the days until April.

The good news about winter is that I will be keeping in touch with all of you more, since I will be huddled up inside the house. :-)

**P.S.**

After a whole year of posting, this blog finally has a name. Inspired by the never-ending question that plagues all us vegetarians, particularly during the holiday season: "Where do you get your protein?" Usually asked with a scrunched up, bewildered facial expression. This is my answer. :-)

Update on Noelle

2008-12-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

Noelle saw the doctor last night, and he agreed that she most likely has an ulcer. So she will start taking Zantac every day, and be checked again in a month. She has gained 4 pounds back, and has a healthy appetite again. I finally feel like I can exhale… I can’t even begin to tell you how worried I have been about her. It’s such a horrible feeling when your child is that sick, and no one can find what’s wrong.

I have been doing battle with her school, trying to get them to make some simple accommodations to help Noelle with the avalanche of work that she missed all the days she was home sick. Some of you will remember the constant, daily battles I had to fight when she was in elementary school, before she was properly diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. It was absolute hell. Then she was correctly diagnosed, started working with a therapist, and entered Middle School. The Middle School teachers and Intervention Specialists went out of their way to help Noelle and she responded by getting great grades (most of the time), which raised her self confidence, which in turn spawned even better work. Success.

The first half of her freshman year in high school has been like a return to the dark days of elementary school. I honestly thought that once Noelle had her IEP (Individualized Education Plan) in place, we wouldn’t have any problems. But as she moves up in the years, adjustments need to be made to that IEP to meet the present situations. Missing 5 days of school in the past month is a situation that calls for additional intervention, particularly because it resulted in Noelle’s grades in every core subject plummeting to a D.

All of Noelle’s teachers have been accommodating (for the most part) except for her Science teacher. I have been in constant email communication with her Intervention Specialist over the past 4 days, trying to resolve the situation. I’m so tired of having to fight this battle. I shouldn’t have to still be fighting it after all these years. It would be different if Noelle was a slacker who just blew things off. But she works her butt off, literally for hours every night. She wants so badly to be a good student, to please her teachers and get good grades and be successful.

I have to keep being her cheerleader, encouraging her and heaping praise on her, with a big smile and lots of enthusiastic, positive energy. Then duke it out behind the scenes with the powers that be at the school until they get it through their thick skulls. It takes a lot out of a person, and I’m not sure how much more of it I have left in me.

Sign This Petition!!

2008-12-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

40MPG.org has the following petition online to be sent automatically to each of your Congressional representatives and the Obama transition team. You type in your name and address, and it does the rest for you. It is imperative that we get this message out. Please sign it today! Link follows below.

“I am writing to you to urge that any loan-guarantee bailout to Detroit automakers should insist that, in exchange for taxpayer dollars, the car manufacturers agree to end their four-year-long legal assault against global warming laws in California and three other states. I also want to see any such aid for car makers precisely targeted so that it is used for the development and delivery of hybrids, clean diesels and other highly fuel-efficient vehicles. The "loan guarantees" the auto industry wants are investments. And since my tax dollars are going to back this up, I want to make sure that these are smart investments. Congress and the Administration should send a clear signal to Detroit that the industry needs to get America off of the current dead-end road of addiction to foreign oil and escalating climate change pollution. We need to make sure that Detroit is building the cars of tomorrow, not the gas-guzzling dinosaurs of yesterday. I agree with President-Elect Barack Obama's statement to the U.S. auto industry that: "The need to drastically change our energy policy is no longer a debatable proposition. It's not a question of whether, but how; not a question of if, but when. For the sake of our security, our economy, our jobs and our planet, the age of oil must end in our time." A total of 15 states have adopted regulations requiring automobile manufacturers to reduce significantly the greenhouse gas emissions of their cars and lights trucks. The U.S. automobile industry has been waging a four-year legal battle against these state emission standards. I don't think it makes sense to give Detroit $25 billion in loan guarantees without insisting that, in exchange, it halt its war on the states' legitimate interest in cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles. There are no "free rides" in life. The U.S. auto industry needs to understand that taxpayers are prepared to help them out, but only if Detroit moves away from the mistakes that brought it to the low point it is at today. Please keep me informed about what you do on this topic to protect the interests of myself and other taxpayers.”

http://action.40mpg.org/campaign/bailout?rk=zd4govYqTeIpE

Calling all cat people!

2008-11-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

How in the hell do you have Christmas trees?! Oh my god. I'm going to be an alcoholic by the time Epiphany gets here. No, no. I'll just construct a 7 foot x 3 foot chicken wire fence to surround the tree. I would have to have a tree full of cardinals, wouldn't I? Sigh.

Well, we missed Thanksgiving for the first time ever. I was all prepared to get up and drive to my sister's in Indianapolis yesterday morning, but I decided at the last minute that Noelle was in no shape for the trip. She cried and cried. But I couldn't even pry her off the couch to take a shower. So we stayed home and rested, and it was the right decision, because today she is much better. She's eaten more today than she has in the past week.

A friend came over to work on my computer (which was hit by a virus and will probably have to be rebuilt from scratch), and he noted that Noelle's symptoms are the same ones he had when he had an ulcer. I did some research, and I have to say, everything does match up. I took her off the anti-nausea meds the hospital gave us, which only made her sleep and did nothing for her stomach. Instead, I started giving her mylanta, and right after that she turned a corner. She's now eating bananas, bread, potatoes, and tapioca with no pain or nausea. So keep your fingers crossed that we might be on the road to recovery!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. :)

A trip to the ER

2008-11-24T07:12:00.001-08:00

Noelle spent Saturday in the emergency room of Children’s Hospital. She has had a recurring bout of stomach pain and nausea for the past 3 weeks. I thought she had the flu in the beginning, but she bounced back quickly and jumped right back into things. A week later, she came home with a fever, stomach cramping, and nausea. Again she bounced back. Then Saturday morning she woke up one very sick girl. I will spare you all the gross details.

I rushed her to the doctor, and he sent us straight to the hospital. Noelle has lost 10 pounds since her annual check up back in August, but I suspect it’s really been in the last 3 weeks. She is noticeably thinner and paler. Her symptoms Saturday morning were just like the symptoms I had when I suffered from an intestinal blockage a few years ago. Of course, mine was the result of a doctor stitching my intestine shut after giving me a hysterectomy…. :/ Noelle obviously didn’t have a hysterectomy, but she could have had a blockage of some other sort. So off to the ER we went.

The hospital ran every test imaginable on her, including a rectal exam, pelvic exam, x-rays, etc. and they didn’t find anything. Her white blood cells were good, no signs of an infection, no internal blockage… They hooked her up to an IV to rehydrate her and give her anti-nausea medicine. She felt really good after that, and managed to keep a popsicle down. Then when we got home, she ate about 5 spoonfuls of chicken noodle soup and felt nauseous again. I gave her the medicine they sent home with us and she slept about 11 hours.

The ER doctor said she could just have a really bad flu bug, but I don’t think that’s likely. For one thing, I haven’t gotten it (knock on wood). But also, it doesn’t seem to me that the flu would just sporadically come and go like that for 3 weeks. If you have the flu that bad, you’d be in bed every day, right? It could also be gastroenteritis, or it could be Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I will need to keep her on a very simple diet for the foreseeable future and see how she responds…. And yes, Thanksgiving is in 3 days. :(

Tough love for GM

2008-11-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

Hello, virtual friends! Sorry I’ve been out of touch. I have been trapped in what seems like the Twilight Zone for the last two weeks, where the only law inforce appears to be Murphy’s.

Coming up for air momentarily, I wanted to write some thoughts about the impending GM crisis. As I predicted (I think we all did), GM is demanding a bailout from the taxpayers. It’s tough, living in a city that has literally lived on GM for over 50 years, faced with the closing of our last plant 2 days before Christmas. CNN has a cover story on Dayton up right now, if you’re interested.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/19/ohio.plant.closing/index.html

Everything Mr. Murphy is quoted as saying is true. These closings do not just affect the GM employees, but the thousands who supply GM with their parts. I feel for those like Murphy who are finding themselves in these dire straits through no fault of their own. They don’t have high powered unions to pay off senators to fight for them. They don’t make $70 an hour to put nuts on bolts and get to retire at the age of 50 with full insurance benefits guaranteed for the rest of their lives. Nor do they get the benefit of an unemployment package that pays 95% of their salary with benefits for 2 years. And they stand little chance of finding work in Dayton because the job they have been trained to do, and which they have done for 30 years or more, is a job that won’t exist anywhere, at any factory, once GM is gone.

And yet, despite being surrounded by the stench of death in Dayton day after day, I do not support a taxpayer funded bailout of any American automaker. They signed their own death warrants. It would be different if the manufacturers’ CEOs went to Congress with their tails between their legs, taking accountability for the hole they have dug, willing to acquiesce to whatever concessions were deemed appropriate in order to stave off the hearse rounding the bend.

But they are not. Instead, they are acting the spoiled children they are, demanding that daddy buy them a new remote controlled Hummer to replace the one they just broke by throwing it against the wall. Therefore, Congress should act like a responsible parent and exert some tough love. Yes, it’s going to hurt – not only for GM but for the rest of us as well. The hurt is necessary, I believe, in order to move forward once and for all to restore the quality and confidence of American manufacturing and to put in place the energy practices that have been talked about for 30 years. If I was in charge, I’d tell GM this:

1. File bankruptcy.

2. Tell the UAW to take a hike. There was a time in this country when unions served a purpose. That time is over. To that end: Tell the employees they either take a pay cut or join the unemployment rolls. Pay them what they’re worth – a 20 year old with a GED who puts nuts on bolts should make minimum wage, just like his counterparts at McDonalds do. Retirees can live on whatever they’ve managed to store away in their retirement plans, just like the rest of us do.

3. Completely scrap your product line and start from scratch, making only a handful of stream-lined, energy efficient cars. You’re producing way too much product, all of subpar quality, the majority of which uses too much gas. It’s not rocket science, people. Effective immediately, no car should be produced that gets less than 30 mpg. Yes, it is perfectly doable. Within 5 years, all cars must be powered by some form of alternative energy, be it hydrogen cell or biomass ethanol (derived from non-food sources such as dung). Yes, it is perfectly doable. Don’t tell me you can’t produce these cars at a price people can afford to buy. If you start paying your employees what they’re worth, you can. Stuff your excuses where the sun don’t shine. You’ve had 30 years. Now you’ve got 5.

Of course, I’m not in charge. And not holding my breath.

Ohio, the heart of it all (again)

2008-10-30T17:59:00.000-07:00

It’s nice to be so loved every 4 years. We Ohioans are never able to forget, even if we wanted to, just how important our state is, and always has been, in a presidential election. As we are told numerous times a day (no pressure...) no Republican presidential candidate has ever won the White House without winning Ohio. But I’ve lived in this state for 36 years, and I can’t ever remember a time when we were graced with the presence of presidential candidates like we have been in this election.

Since January 2007 John McCain has been here 33 times, Barack Obama 47. I don’t even know what the tally is for the past month, but one or the other or their running mates has been here every day. And my town in particular seems to be high on their agendas.

On Tuesday, John McCain held a rally at the indoor sports arena at my daughter’s high school. According to her – and verified by the video footage I saw – half the people in attendance were kids seizing the opportunity to skip class. Not to be outdone, Joe Biden will hold a rally there tomorrow. But he will miss out on the added advantage of wayward teens filling the bleachers... the school has a pre-scheduled early dismissal tomorrow, an hour before rally time. In Bowling Green yesterday, thousands of kids from across that county were BUSSED to Sarah Palin's rally in order to fill the bleachers. Hey, guys? I give you credit for wanting to reach out to the youth of our great state. But when you have to start kidnapping them to boost your attendance numbers, it might be time to call it a wrap.

After McCain’s high school pep rally Tuesday, his friend Joe the Plumber made an appearance at The Dublin Pub, a popular bar two blocks from my office, where he told the world that an Obama presidency will be the end of Israel. Well now. I had no idea plumbers were so versed on foreign policy matters. Perhaps McCain should make him Secretary of State.

I really have no problem with Joe. He asked Obama a legitimate question. Obama gave him a legitimate answer. That should have been the end of it. But the guy is holding press conferences on his front lawn every morning, on all manners of subjects not involving clogged pipes, and now I hear that he has a record deal. Go, Joe!

By the way, did you hear the rumor that Joe wasn’t a registered voter? Well he is. But according to those pesky rolls that have brought our state even more unwanted attention, he’s not. That’s because of a clerical error that shows him in the system as Samuel J. Worzelbacher instead of Wurzelbacher. If the GOP had gotten their wish, Joe and 200,000 other Ohio voters would have had a hard time voting next Tuesday. But thankfully, we have a tough as nails Secretary of State who took the matter all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Ohio GOP filed a court case against our Sec. of State, Jennifer Brunner, which would have required her to create a computer software system flagging 200,000 voters whose names or Social Security numbers differed from their drivers’ licenses, including Joe (and my local congressman), to be linked to every single voting precinct in all of Ohio’s 88 counties, within 48 HOURS. Brunner said that put undo stress on her office and took it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Who told the GOP: You don’t have a leg to stand on and you’re wasting our time. Go away. Brunner is now receiving death threats.

Which brings me to ACORN. First off, let me say that the (attempted) voter registration drive I did last month was through our local Obama campaign office, not ACORN. But if I had known that ACORN was actually paying people for their time, I would have signed on with them!! Yes, it’s true: Some of the people hired by ACORN to register voters decided it would be more fun to just sit around making up fake names rather than hitting the streets. Those matters should be taken seriously. It is not true, however, that those people were somehow trying to rig the election for their buddy Obama. They were just trying to make an easy buck.

What is true is that the Greene County Sheriff, Kevin DeWine, cousin of former representative Mike DeWine and head of McCain’s Ohio campaign, demanded to see the thousands of new voter registrations in that county (right next to mine) because he had “evidence” of fraudulence. The Democratic party then filed an injunction demanding DeWine produce that evidence and DeWine said “um, well, never mind.” Now the folks in Greene County aren't very happy with him, seeing as how it is home to 4 colleges, 2 of which are African American and 1 of which is known as Ohio's Berkley.

Need I remind you that this is precisely the BS that brought about the mass Attorneys General firings two years ago, for which President Bush is still under federal investigation? The Republican Party has a major credibility problem. If they could fix that, they might actually win this Independent, Female, College Educated, Middle Class Ohioan's vote they seem to want so desperately.

I tell ya, living in this all important Battleground State is never boring.

Well, actually, it usually IS boring. Except every 4 years.

Going for gold

2008-10-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

Noelle competed in her first Taekwondo tournament on Saturday, and she won gold for her division! I am SO proud. She was absolutely beaming, as you can see from these pictures.

Renaissance Festival '08

2008-10-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

Camping in the Hills

2008-09-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend camping at Hocking Hills State Park, in beautiful Southeastern Ohio, with our friend Jesse. We had a fabulous time, and had perfect weather for it. Hiked 6 miles yesterday, over verrrry hilly terrain that really gave this old body a workout. It was so good to feel my body moving in the middle of this old growth forest. I felt the stress of life just fall from my shoulders with every step I took deeper into the woods. Oh by the way, shopping for camping supplies in a town just hit by a hurricane is fruitless, lol.

You know it’s football season.... all over the hollow could be heard the cries of OH-IO. If you’re not from around here, that’s the Buckeye Battle Cry. The sheer cliff walls of Blackhand sandstone make for great echoes.

It’s a 2 ½ hour drive over there, but what a gorgeous drive it is. And confusing as hell. This was the first time I have made the drive by myself – I mean, as the only adult navigating- and those old, twisty, country roads really throw me off. I got myself quite turned around and had to stop and ask locals for directions a couple of times. That’s because directions down in those parts consist of “Go to the bottom of the hill (which ends up being about 5 miles), and turn right at the mobile home. If it’s still there.” I’m not kidding, lol.

Here are a few of the pictures I took. My camera settings were acting screwy at one point, and I’m not sure why, so some of these are very out of focus. These are thumbnails; click for full size.

As always, it is hard to come back to the busyness of life......but nice to come back to a bed. :)

We were lucky

2008-09-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

Now that I have ventured out of my own neighborhood, I realize even more just how lucky we were! 200,000 people in Dayton – including many of my co-workers - are still without power and probably will be for several days. I’m sick thinking about all the food they have lost in their refrigerators and freezers! Many people have taken up refuge in hotel rooms. Several grocery stores in the area are also without power. I have heard some terrible news stories about robberies taking place.

Everyone is wandering around like dazed war refugees, examining the damage. Hundreds and hundreds of trees broken in half, and many uprooted. But we were lucky in that we had a good hard rain Friday – if the ground had been drier, many more trees would have uprooted. I am so thankful that we only had a small piece of a window broken.

The kids are still out of school, and Noelle is quite upset about it. She has a boyfriend now, you see, and he lives on the other side of town so they only see each other at school. Never thought I’d see a child pout about school being cancelled!

We wore ourselves out tonight cleaning up debris in the yard, and there is more to do. I had to hire a professional to come out and cut down the top half of my maple tree, as it was broken and hanging. So lucky it didn’t fall on the house!

Welcome to Ohio, Ike!

2008-09-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

We had 60 mph sustained winds here with gusts up to 75 mph for several hours today, the outer remnants of Hurricane Ike. Let me tell you, it got very scary at times. We were without power, in the basement with the cell phone and weather radio. I can't imagine how scary it must have been to be anywhere along the coast during Ike, because it was bad enough just riding out the outer band of it here in Ohio.

When the winds finally died down and the power came back on, I stepped outside to survey the damage. I had several large limbs down in my yard, and one in the driveway just a foot from my car. I also had a piece of an upstairs storm window broken. But none of that compares to what I saw as I started walking down the street. Here is some of what I saw....

Amazing that there were no injuries in our neighborhood. My neighbors checked in to make sure Noelle and I were okay, which was much appreciated. Now the sound of chainsaws fills the air. You can't tell from these pics, but right now my street is unnavigable by car. The news says several main roads are blocked by huge trees and there are structural fires throughout the surrounding towns. I'm just thankful no one I know was hurt.

Let me be the first to congratulate Sarah Palin

2008-09-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

I thought it was my ear infection that was causing me to feel dizzy these past few days. But I had a revelation last night: it’s actually the effects of whiplash from the lighting fast speed at which the Republicans have done a 180 on some of their most foundational principles.... the most obvious one being their sudden embracement of feminism.

Listening to the conservative pundits and analysts over the last few days, I am repeatedly astounded to hear them call out the “leftist, liberal media” for questioning Sarah Palin’s ability to be a mother and Vice President at the same time. Case in point: Sally Quinn’s recent Newsweek article which questions how evangelicals can possibly vote for a woman who so goes against their principles. The conservative pundits have eaten her alive for holding up this very painful mirror. But instead of acknowledging their own reflection, they have instead insisited that we have no right to question whether a woman can have babies and a career. As Karl Rove said last night, “How dare they?!”

Are we expected to believe that they don’t recognize their own vitriol when it’s rhetorically put back at them? Are we to believe that the entire Republican party has suddenly come down with a case of dementia, causing them to forget what they themselves have preached for over 100 years now? Let’s be clear: we “leftist liberals” have no problem with a woman raising a family and being Vice President, or President. We just can’t understand why they don’t, either.

For my entire lifetime, and many lifetimes before that, the Republican conservatives have preached a message that women with children have no business having careers. They have brow-beat us with the message that leaving our kids in daycare to go to work is tantamount to child abuse. They have told us that women who strive to mother and work are selfish for wanting to have our cake and eat it, too. They have written entire libraries about the so-called “feminist ideology” which embraces the diabolical goal of women filling positions previously held only by men, AND getting paid the same for it, while we pay babysitters to raise our children for us. They have made it abundantly clear that such ideals are a curse that is sending America to hell in a hand-basket.

But something has clearly changed all this. I woke up Saturday morning to find that, overnight, the Republican party had become a champion of career-orientated mothers all across America. Their new message is: Yes you CAN have it all! You can raise a family and have a career. And not just any old career - you can be the leader of the free world!

Well… congratulations, Sarah. That is one hell of an accomplishment.

Has it really been 3 weeks since I posted?

2008-09-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hello strangers! Yes, I am still alive…barely. Believe it or not, I am still wrestling with this ear problem. It is a hundred times better than it was two weeks ago. But I still have twinges of pain in both ears, and a persistent feeling of being underwater in one. I went back to the ENT specialist on Friday, who for a $50 co-pay recommended I use diluted vinegar to rinse my ears out. I have now spent over $300 in co-pays and prescriptions on this ear infection, finally to be told what some old barefoot mountain doctor could have told me for free. And I have nothing against the barefoot mountain doctors. I’m just opposed to having my insurance company charges hundreds for dollars for mountain doctor remedies. I’ve come to the conclusion that 95% of the doctors in this country don’t know what they’re talking about. And if we have the best health care in the world…I shudder to think.

My baby started high school! She is off and running already, getting involved in as many activities as time and money will allow. She is home less and less, abandoning her dear old mother for the company of her friends instead. Imagine! She was chosen to compete in the statewide Tae Kwon Do tournament being held here in Dayton next month. I’m so proud!

My bathroom has been undergoing renovation for the past two weeks. I think I mentioned before that I had a mold problem. I didn’t know just how bad it was until the contractor started breaking into things… it was BAD. The mold had eaten away my drywall to the point that parts of the ceiling fell down when he went to install the fan. My pipes were all corroded. It’s been one surprise after another. But I think it will be done in another day, and it’s going to look very nice. Now I get to start paying it off!

This weekend I will be at the Greek Festival, registering voters. I promise not to burn the Republican cards. But I AM waiting with baited breath for John McCain’s announcement that he got Labor Day confused with April Fool’s.

Still sick

2008-08-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I am now starting my 3rd week of this double ear infection. I can’t even describe how horrible this is. I have lost 2 full weeks of my life as I have been in a haze of decongestants and pain killers, just forcing myself through the motions to get through work and then collapsing on the couch with the heating pad. I have slept one full night out of these two weeks, which has suddenly reminded me what it was like to have a baby.

What really sucks is that we have absolutely GORGEOUS weather these past 2 weeks. Almost feels like October out there. Yesterday morning I basically said “F*ck it!” and went for a 2 mile hike. I couldn’t take it anymore. Big mistake. I was moaning by the time I got back to my car. I don’t know if the hike jarred things up in there, or if there was just enough wind to aggravate it, or what. But I couldn’t function the rest of the day.

Sooo I have an appointment to see an ENT specialist tomorrow morning. I’m pretty sure he’s going to want to put tubes in.

I don’t mean to sound like a whiny baby and go on and on about this illness thing. I just want you all to know where I’ve been, and why I haven’t been checking in. I have been thinking about you all though, and wanting to touch base to see what everyone’s up to. If you think about it, please light a candle, send some positive energy toward Ohio, say a prayer, burn some incense, cast out the ear demon, whatever else you think might work… I’d appreciate it. :-)

Quarantined

2008-08-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

Our whole house is sick. Yes, even the cat. Going on 3 weeks now.

It started with Noelle getting a UTI, and the antibiotic she was on made her very nauseous. She got done with that, then caught a virus. In the meantime, I developed a bad ear infection. The antibiotic made ME nauseous, so I started a new one. But by this time, it was impacted all the way down to my jaw and causing killer pain. So I am now doped up on heavy-duty vicodin.

Saturday I had to take my cat to the vet and found out he had ear mites. Sooo I handed over $140 for him to be treated for that.

Saturday was also the day of Noelle’s 14th birthday party. I somehow managed to survive it (yay, vicodin!) although I did not get any streamers or balloons put up. And on Sunday Noelle woke up covered in hives. It turns out, she has something called Fifth Disease, which is really what her virus symptoms were that she had a week ago.

All in all, I have paid $300 in health care expenses over the past 3 weeks…..and that is with insurance. I am thankful I have insurance. And thankful that I have savings I can draw from in emergencies such as this. I know there are millions of people out there who don’t have it so good.

I’m going back to bed with the heating pad…..

I'm in love!

2008-07-28T06:12:00.001-07:00

Yes, this little guy has grown on me quite a bit. I wish I had more time just to sit down and play with him. He is sooo much fun.

How many of you clicked on the post expecting to see a man? Yes you did, admit it.

I have been stressed to the max, but what else is knew? It's going to cost me 2 grand to have my bathroom re-drywalled, painted, a new shower insert installed, and a vent put in. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to pay for it. But it HAS to be done.

And I am trying to decide whether or not I want to go back to school. I most likely would not be able to do it until Noelle goes off to college herself, which isn't for another 4 years. But because I love to stress myself out loooong before it's necessary, I am lying awake at night debating my options.

So whenever I do force myself to land and just chill for a bit, this little furry guy does a pretty good job of de-stressing me. For about five minutes, lol. =D

Meet Tobi

2008-07-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

I just adopted a kitten from the Humane Society. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Oh my.

Noelle has wanted a cat for a long time, but my ex was deathly allergic. Noelle used to be very allergic, and still is a little bit, but as long as she takes Claritin every day, she is okay. So this is an early birthday present.

Tobi is approximately 2 months old, and he is already neutered. He is also micro-chipped and has had all his shots. Best of all, he's already litter trained. Hallelujah!

I had no idea a kitten could be so much work. He's just a tiny little ball of energy who never stops moving. He really has a very sweet disposition, and is a lover boy. But just like all babies, he expects attention every minute of every day. He also has a foot fetish. Really. He has to be on or near someone's feet at all times. He's been sprayed with the water bottle four times since I sat down to write this. Sigh.

But he has already provided us with so much laughter and joy just in the last 2 days. I'm rather partial to him.

Ooey Gooey Carrot Cake

2008-07-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups oil

4 eggs

1 tsp. baking power

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

2 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar, and oil; mix well. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking power, baking soda, and salt, and beat into egg mixture. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour into greased 9 x 13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for one hour. Open can of Betty Crocker Cream Cheese Frosting and spread on top. (Hey, I never said I was Martha, now did I?)

A Top 100 Meme

2008-07-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks to HP, I feel a little less read than I did yesterday. LOL. Apparently it was World Book Day recently and I missed it. I hate it when that happens! And in honor of the event, a list was made of the Top 100 Books You Can’t Live Without, which has now been turned into an instant blogosphere meme. Here’s what you do:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE (Since Blogger won't let me underline (easily), I've used an asterisk)
4) Reprint this list in our own blogs

I’ve read 41 out of the 100, but only a handful get my asterisk. For an old English major, you’d think I would have read them all. But I really have to wonder how they came up with these titles. I mean, Bridget Jones’ Diary? Okay, I showed you mine, now show me yours!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling*
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare*
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger*
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald*
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (just cuz everyone should....)
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams*
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll*
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (another must read for all)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne*
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker*
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White*
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle*
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo*

Owls in the Glen

2008-06-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday I spent the day hiking at Glen Helen Nature Preserve, part of John Bryan State Park – aka my happy place. The glen is completely run and managed by students and faculty associated with Antioch College, which is known as Ohio’s Berkeley. They run an ecology institute at the glen that serves as a lab for both college students and area children, who participate in environmental camps there throughout the year.

One of their most important projects is the Raptor Rehabilitation Center. Injured birds of prey are brought to the center, where they are housed in giant flight cages while they are nursed back to health by the staff, eventually to be returned to the wild where they belong.

These photos were all taken there Saturday. It is very difficult to shoot owl photos through a one-inch gap between the bars of their flight cage! The owl being held was getting ready to be released, so it was a happy day. And I caught the teeniest, tiniest frog you’ve ever seen!

The future of the center, the ecology institute, and the glen itself are now up in the air as Antioch College was forced to close earlier this month due to financial problems. It has been a very frustrating and sad time for all of us who love the school and the area of Yellow Springs where it is located.

Antioch College was founded in 1852 by Horace Mann, and has long been a flagship of progressive minded education, being one of the first “white” schools to admit blacks, and the first college in the nation to pay a female professor equal to a man. As early as the 1940s it earned a reputation as a place of student activism, which nearly got it shut down in the McCarthy era, then continued to be a leader during the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam years, and continues to be a beacon of free speech and peaceful demonstration to this day.

There is a great New York Times article on the school’s closing here:

The College That Would Not Go Gently

As someone who spends as much time as possible in the town and the nature preserve surrounding it, I hold my breath for the future of this place that has given me so many wonderful memories. You can learn more about Glen Helen here:

Glen Helen

Vegetable Egg Rolls

2008-06-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

1 package egg roll wrappers
1 egg, beaten
10 oz. package shredded cabbage
10 oz. package shredded carrot
Handful of mung bean sprouts

1/2 cup soy sauce
4 tsp. sugar
4 Tbsp. olive oil
Crisco for frying

Directions

Mix soy sauce and sugar in small bowl and set aside. Heat olive oil in skillet on medium high heat. Add cabbage, carrots, and sprouts and mix thoroughly. Saute in the oil until vegetables are soft. Pour soy sauce mixture over the vegetables and stir well. Set aside to cool. Once cool, begin making the egg rolls.

Lay a wrapper in front of you so that it forms a diamond shape. Brush beaten egg all the way around the edge of the wrapper. Spread two tablespoons of filling along the bottom half, spreading it out in a rectangle shape, stopping just inside the edges. Lift the bottom corner of the wrapper and roll it over the filling, tucking it under. Fold the left and right sides inward and roll up. Just before you reach the top, brush egg on the upper corner and secure over the roll.

Fill a deep pan with Crisco and heat on high, until water sprinkled on top sizzles. Drop each egg roll into the hot oil and try as best you can to turn the roll over so all sides are browned evenly. When crispy, remove the egg rolls with tongs and place on paper towels to drain. Serve with duck sauce, soy sauce, or sweet and sour sauce.

Last one out of Dayton, please turn out the light....

2008-06-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

It was announced last week that the GM plant in Moraine is closing. That sucking sound you hear is thousands of people fleeing the sinking ship of a city that’s been all but dead for years, kept alive only by the GM feeding tube. I could write an entire anthropological study about what the plant has meant to this city, having employed thousands of people, including 3 and 4 generations of entire families, since the 1950s. There is a “GM culture” here very similar to that of the coal mining families in Appalachia. It’s actually hard to describe the cloud of death hanging over everyone here, because even those of us who have no connection to GM at all will be affected.

Everyone wants to blame this problem on NAFTA, and specifically, Bill Clinton. But the truth is, that has nothing to do with it. The Dayton plant manufactures SUVs and large trucks, which no one can afford to buy anymore. The entire industry is (finally) beginning to shift toward hybrids and more environmentally friendly vehicles, which GM has dragged their feet on getting involved with for years. I actually think the skyrocketing gas prices we are experiencing might be the best thing that could have happened to our planet.

So foreign car manufacturers that produce smaller, compact cars and hybrids are making a killing while American manufacturers (GM and Ford) are going under, and somehow that’s NAFTA’s fault. Unfortunately, the folks who work at these plants are generally not educated enough to understand what’s really going on. It reinforces their hatred of anything not American, and keeps them from moving forward into the future.

The other factor in the demise of Dayton’s plant is their own greedy union. When you pay people $30 an hour to sweep the floor, it’s kind of hard to make a profit. Greed is really what it boils down to. A sense of entitlement that says, I’m entitled to make $30 an hour to sweep the floor, and I’m entitled to drive a gas guzzling Hummer simply because I want to. And when this nice little life gets slapped in the face with reality, I’ll blame the foreigners.

Well, that's the gloomy news from Dayton today.

Feeling Stressed

2008-06-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Last week was the week from hell. Man. I had strep throat for the 2nd time in 2 months (I know, I should dump the guy). My weed eater broke. My computer got hit with a nasty virus. My bathroom has a mold problem that has now reached the point of having to call in a professional which is going to cost me a ton of money. Grrrr. These are just the highlights, btw.

The kicker was coming home last night to find my air conditioning not working. The problem is that the pipes in my basement have a leak and the freon oozes out and forms an icicle an inch thick around the pipe. This happened last year and a guy who wanted to do me a favor came over and fixed it for me. I called him yesterday and he said we would come to look at it, but he stood me up. Grrrr. So now I am waiting for someone else to come over today to hopefully fix it. In the meantime, I have every fan in my house running and I'm wearing as little as possible.

The AC went out in my car last week too, but thankfully all it needed was freon and Auto Zone put it in for me.

I need a break!!

A Recipe

2008-06-03T05:19:00.000-07:00

People are always asking me for vegetarian recipes and I say I don’t have any because, really, I hardly ever use a recipe to cook. But I’ve started making a concerted effort to start writing down the steps and ingredients of things I make [in other words, the recipes], so I can pass them on to my daughter some day if nothing else. And besides, now I have a good camera to play with! Can you tell that I LOVE my new camera? LOL. So here is a dish I made last night. I call it Spinach Rotini. I know, very original, eh?

Oh, and one more thing...I keep forgetting to tell you all. My sister Anna and her family are gone on a 3 month missions trip. Can’t say where due to safety reasons, but it starts with a “C” and if you’ve followed her blog in the past you should know. So, keep them in your thoughts!

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound Rotini pasta
• 1/2 pound fresh baby spinach, chopped
• 15 oz. can diced tomatos, drained
• Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and spinach and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until pasta is al dente; drain and reserve.

2. Heat tomatos in sauce pan on medium heat.

4. Pour over cooked pasta.

5. Season with salt and toss

6. Eat!

I usually saute some garlic to add to the tomatos, but didn't have any last night. This is Noelle's favorite meatless dish.

Memorial Day at Lake Hope

2008-05-27T18:18:00.001-07:00

We spent the Memorial Day weekend at a cabin in the eastern Ohio appalachians, at Lake Hope State Park. What a gorgeous place. It did wonders for my psyche. It's amazing how the serenity of the woods clears my head and enables me to think so much more clearly. I haven't had that in sooo many months.

We took one of Noelle's friends with us, who had never done anything like that before. We hiked until the girls threatened mutiny, lol.

We had perfect 80 degree, sunny weather which is a miracle because Friday was cold and rainy, and today was cold and rainy.

We stayed in a cabin as it was almost a 3 hour drive from home, and my tiny little Hyundai Accent can't take the load of camping gear that far up into the mountains. Especially with gas at $4 a gallon! But this was our one trip for the year, and it was worth it.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T06:17:00.000-07:00

I bought myself a new camera for Mother's Day. Noelle accidentally broke mine a couple of months ago, and I have been using hers. (Yea, don't ask me why she was using mine when she has one...) It was going to cost as much to fix that one as it would be to buy a new one, so I bought a new one. I upgraded to a Fuji Finepix 700, which lets me do a lot more than the regular point and shoot digital cameras, for only about $10 more!

Here are some pics I took yesterday. The robin has a sad story -- when I got home from running errands yesterday morning, Noelle and her friend came running to tell me about a robin that was hanging from a string in a tree. Sure enough, the poor thing had gotten her wing caught in a string just a foot away from her nest and was twirling around crazy on it, getting herself caught tighter.

We got the ladder and managed to cut the string for her. But she wouldn't let me cut the string from her body. She hopped away bleeding. I told the kids there's not much chance she's going to be able to fly and feed her babies, and she'll probably die. I could not reach the nest even on the ladder, so I feel bad for the little babies. Kinda sad with today being Mother's Day...

Catching the Light

2008-05-04T18:27:00.001-07:00

My daughter has taken up my love of photography, and actually surpased me, I believe, in her ability to capture pure, unaltered beauty all around her. I can take a decent photo, but I think about it way too much and try way too hard. Noelle just has the ability to capture perfect moments with ease. Looking through her photos, I am reminded of the article I posted recently by the adult woman with Asperger's, who said, "If you could live in my head for just one day, you might weep at how much beauty I perceive in the world with my exquisite senses. I would not trade one small bit of that beauty, as overwhelming and powerful as it can be, for 'normalcy'."

I do weep at the beauty Noelle perceives in the world... particularly in her friends. I thought I would share a few of her photos with you because, well, I'm a mom and I just like to brag, lol. Can you spot the self portrait?

Learn new words, help feed the hungry

2008-04-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday CV posted about the growing demand for rice in the world, causing prices of the grain to skyrocket and certain companies to impose buying limits. In a crazy coincidence, last night on the way home from Taekwondo my daughter told me about this online computer game she and her friends have been playing, called Free Rice, in which they earn grains of rice for correctly matching vocabulary words, which are then donated to the hungry. (Um, the rice not the words, lol.) For each word guessed correctly, 20 grains of rice are donated to families in developing countries. She and her friends have collectively donated hundreds of thousands of grains of rice.

Upon hearing about this, I immediately questioned: what kind of macabre game is this, that someone is sitting on major stockpiles of rice and doling it out on the basis of middle schoolers guessing word definitions?? I raced home to the computer to find out.

Freerice.com is a non-profit game run by the U.N. World Food Program and is financed by advertisers. As you play the game, advertisements flash across the bottom of the screen. These advertisements pay for the purchasing of rice which is then distributed throughout the world. Since the game’s inception on October 7, 2007, 29,724,130,370 grains of rice have been donated.

Of course it would be nice if those advertisers simply donated money out of the goodness of their hearts, but that’s not the world we live in. And kids are actually brushing up on their vocabulary skills, which is never a bad thing. In fact, it’s not a bad thing for us, either. So if you’ve got some time to kill, head over there and test your vocab skills and help feed a hungry family at the same time.

http://www.freerice.com/

Warning: it’s addictive! Noelle is on vocabulary level 36, which has words like orbiculate and intumescence. Man these 8th graders are smart!

The best lemon bars you'll ever eat!

2008-04-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe that's pushing it, lol. But they're the best I've ever eaten. I got this recipe online and decided to make it Saturday in celebration of Spring finally arriving to the Miami Valley. Alas, they're calling for 30 degree temps overnight with the possibility of a flurry or two. Don't they know Thursday is May 1st? Didn't they get the memo???Sigh.

Crust:
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened

Filling:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 lemons, juiced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, confectioners' sugar, and butter until butter is in very small crumbs. Press into the bottom of an 11x7 inch pan. Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and lightly browned.

In another bowl, whisk together the 1/12 cups sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice. Pour over the baked crust. Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven. The bars will firm up as they cool. When cool, dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Talkin' to myself and feelin' OLD

2008-04-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

My baby is going to her first concert tonight!!

Can you hear me plucking my gray hairs? LOL. She is going to see this group called Paramore, about whom I know virtually nothing because, frankly, they make my ears hurt. Jimmie Eat World is opening for them, about whom I know not much more.

Noelle’s best friend just had a birthday and to celebrate, her mother is taking them to this concert. She assures me that it’s all good. I know it is. But honestly, I want to cry like I did on her first day of kindergarten. I’m so old, not only could I not handle taking teenagers to a concert, I don’t even get their music. When did THAT happen?

The first concert I ever went to was U2, who I still really love. What was yours?

Earthquake!

2008-04-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

The 5.4 earthquake that hit Illinois early this morning was felt right here in Dayton, Ohio. Woke me out of a sound sleep! I was asleep at 5:30 this morning when all of a sudden it felt like someone was shaking me. I woke up and realized that my entire bed was shaking! And no one was in it! LOL. I laid there for probably close to a minute trying to figure out if I was dreaming or what the heck was going on. Then it stopped so I concluded I must have been dreaming and tried to get back to sleep. I was getting ready for work when Noelle came out of her room and told me that the radio was saying we'd had an earthquake. At least I knew then I wasn't losing my mind!

Then around an hour ago, several people here at work said they felt an aftershock but I didn't feel that. The news confirms it was an aftershock of 4.2. Really bizarre stuff for Ohio.

Have any of you ever experienced an earthquake?

Finally!

2008-04-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

I didn't take this picture, I just found it online and it made me smile.)

It finally got above 50 degrees for the first time in 6 months last weekend….first time above 40 with no rain! Both Saturday and Sunday were almost 70 degrees and sunny. So naturally, I crammed as many chores as I could into Saturday and spent all of Sunday outside! I can’t even tell you how amazing it was to be outside in a tee-shirt and feel the warmth of the sun again. I literally felt like crying tears of joy.

Noelle and her friend have started geocaching. Do you know about this? It’s a worldwide game in which people hide small containers with log books, post clues on a website, and others look for them and mark their visit in the log book. You can learn more at www.geocaching.com .

On Sunday I really wanted to go to Cox Arboretum, but Noelle and her friend wanted to geocache. We did an online search and found that no one had placed any caches at Cox yet, which was surprising. So we made one! Then we hiked out on one of the trails and hid it. The only problem is that you are supposed to post GPS coordinates when you post your cache on the website, but we don’t have a GPS unit. I looked up the coordinates for the park online, which was the best we could do, and told Noelle to just make that clear in her description. People familiar with the area should figure it out.

Then we all went out for ice cream. As we were sitting there in the sunshine, licking up drops of melting ice cream, I was suddenly reminded of a quote in my Buddha’s Little Instruction Book:

“There are no holy people and no holy places. There are only holy moments.”

I told them I felt like it was a holy moment. They didn’t think it was very holy. But I still say it was. I hope you have a holy moment of your own today.

Are you aware yet?

2008-04-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, it is Autism Awareness Month. Everywhere I look there are stories regarding Autism, which is a good thing. I’m so glad the national media has taken it up as an issue so that the mainstream population can be become educated about this skyrocketing condition. The other day CNN had a fantastic article written by a woman with Asperger’s Syndrome, which is the Autism spectrum disorder Noelle has. Honestly, after two years of intensive therapy, you would hardly even know she had it anymore. She has really made amazing leaps and bounds. The only part of her life that is really still affected is her school work. I imagine she will continue to need accommodations and intervention specialists until she graduates high school. Anyway, I thought I would post the CNN article here for you because it is really a perfect picture of what life is like for those with Asperger’s.

Asperger's: My life as an Earthbound alien

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/autism.essay/index.html

Recently, at 48 years of age, I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. For most of my life, I knew that I was "other," not quite like everyone else. I searched for years for answers and found none, until an assignment at work required me to research autism. During that research, I found in the lives of other people with Asperger's threads of similarity that led to the diagnosis. Although having the diagnosis has been cathartic, it does not change the "otherness." It only confirms it.

When I talk to people about this aspect of myself, they always want to know what it means to be an "Aspie," as opposed to a "Neurotypical" (NT). Oh, dear, where to start . ...

The one thing people seem to know about Asperger's, if they know anything at all, is the geek factor. Bill Gates is rumored to be an Aspie. We tend to have specialized interests, and we will talk about them, ad infinitum, whether you are interested or not. Recognizing my tendency to soliloquize, I often choose silence, although perhaps not often enough. Due to our extensive vocabularies and uninflected manner of speaking, we are called "little professors," or arrogant.
I don't quite understand small talk, and early in my adult life, solecisms were frequent. At meetings, I launch into business without the expected social acknowledgments. It's not that I don't care about people, I am just very focused on task. Do you have to rehearse greeting people to reinforce that you should do it? I do.

I am lucky to have a very dear friend who savors my eccentricities. She laughs, lovingly, about one particular evening at a restaurant. Before she could get seated, I asked her what she knew about the golden ratio and began to spew everything I know about it. I re-emphasize how lucky I am to have her as a friend, because this incident occurred long before I was diagnosed.
A misconception is that Aspies do not have a sense of humor. It is true that we can be very literal, so we often miss the humor in everyday banter, but we can and do enjoy even subtle humor. Our literal interpretations, however, can be problematic.

In first grade, whenever someone made a mess in the classroom, the teacher would ask a student to get the janitor. The student would come back with Mr. Jones (not really his name), who carried a broom and large folding dustpan. When I was asked to get the janitor, I looked all over the school and reported back to the teacher that I could not find it. After all, the person was Mr. Jones, so the janitor must be the object, right?

I lack the ability to see emotion in most facial expressions. I compensate for this deficiency by listening to the inflections in people's voices and using logic to determine emotional context. The words people choose, their movements, or even how quickly they exit a meeting can provide clues to emotion.

I also have intensified senses -- touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound -- so I am attuned to lights, noise, textures, and smells. In a "busy" environment, I will eventually go into sensory overload and my mind will go blank. When this happens, I have to "go away" mentally for a brief period to regain focus. When I "return," I have to piece together what occurred while I was "away." The additional mental processing I must do to function every day is fatiguing, and I don't handle "ad hoc" very well. Being asked to respond quickly in the midst of all this other processing is difficult, sometimes impossible.

I am so sensitive to touch that a tickle hurts me. This is the hardest concept for most people to understand. How can a tickle hurt? All I can tell you is that it does, so I avoid being touched except by those who have learned how to touch me.

Hugs are dispensed infrequently, but if I do hug someone, I resemble Frankenstein's monster, arms extended to control contact. When my dad (who I suspect is an Aspie, too) and I hug, we both have "the approach." We sometimes miss and have to re-approach a couple of times until a brief, awkward hug is achieved.

In school, other children noted my differences, and I was bullied (and tickled into fits of despair) for years. Already needing extended periods of time alone, my response was to become even more of a loner. Uh oh. When you are weird, you are a joke. When you are a loner, you frighten people. It's always the quiet ones. ...

I am married (wow!), and my brilliant husband is an absolute sweetheart. I don't know any other man who has the self-confidence to be pushed away (sometimes sharply), both physically and mentally, as often as he has been. He has been gentle and patient (and, yes, frequently emotionally depleted) as we both worked through my need for space, tendency to go so deep into my own world that the real world and everyone in it cease to exist, and sensitivity to touch during the 26 (soon to be 27) years of our marriage.

I live with anxiety, because the world can be overwhelming and people have expectations that I always, sooner or later, fail to meet. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have been told that I am rude, inaccessible or cold, yet I have never purposely tried to harm anyone, nor do I mean to be, well, mean.

I could tell you so much more, but instead let me share one last insight. Don't pity me or try to cure or change me. If you could live in my head for just one day, you might weep at how much beauty I perceive in the world with my exquisite senses. I would not trade one small bit of that beauty, as overwhelming and powerful as it can be, for "normalcy."

Penguins!

2008-04-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Don’t you just hate it when you learn something new and feel like the biggest idiot in the world for not knowing it sooner? Yea, me too. I just found out last week that there are penguins in Africa! Penguins! In Africa, people! How could I not have known this?

I went to the Newport Aquarium in Newport, KY (which is really Cincinnati) to celebrate a friend’s birthday and we all got tickets to go behind the scenes and actually play with three of the penguins who live there - Paula, Simon, and Randy. We spent about half an hour with the little cuties, a once in a lifetime opportunity. Paula bit me but I forgave her ‘cuz she’d had Simon on her ass all day.

I noticed right away that there was no snow or ice anywhere in their pen, and it was warm. Well, that’s because this species of penguin comes from the southern coast of Africa. Their bray sounds just like a donkey’s, which is what led them to originally be named Jackass Penguins. Poor things! Thankfully someone had the good sense to rename them the Blackfooted Penguins. And get this...the pattern of spots on their bodies is unique to every penguin, just like human fingerprints. These little guys were way cool.

Movie Meme

2008-03-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

Mary Beth posted a really fun little movie meme over at her blog. Pick ten of your favorite movies, go to IMDB and find a quote from each, post the quotes, and see who can guess your favorite movies! Here are mine, in no particular order. No googling allowed!

1. "I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the State. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. "

2. "The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?"

3. "I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't."

4. "I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both."

5. "Playwrights teach us nothing about love. They make it pretty, they make it comical, or they make it lust, but they cannot make it true."

6. "Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have."

7. "Look, champ. I know guys like that. I grew up with them. I was the fat kid they wouldn't let play. "Sit down, fat boy'. That's what they'd say "Sit down, maybe you'll learn something." Well, I learned something alright. Pretty soon, I owned the game, and those guys I grew up with come to me with their hats in their hands."

8. "Yes, the actual Ten Commandments, the original stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mt. Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing... Didn't any of you guys ever go to Sunday school?"

9. "Do you know of Dr. Freud, Mr. Ismay? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of particular interest to you."

10. "I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone."

The Blizzard of 2008

2008-03-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure you all have heard, Ohio was hit by a major snowstorm that dumped 19 inches of snow on us this weekend. That is a ton of snow to fall here in such a short period of time. Personally, I think it's punishment for Hillary winning the primary, but we won't go there.

Snow started falling at 8 a.m. Friday and didn't stop until around 7 p.m. Saturday. Noelle and I are sore and exhausted from shoveling. Here are a few pics we took of the white stuff.

There's an elephant in my yard!

Yes I'm Still Alive

2008-03-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry for being gone so long. I'm in a gloomy place right now. I promise I will return, but can't say when. Thanks for checking in.

Krohn Conservatory

2008-02-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

I have been soooo depressed lately with the winter blahs. I just can’t stand not being able to get outside. It feels like my blood is frozen in my veins. So on Sunday I ventured down to the Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati. Where else can you find a tropical rainforest and a desert all under one roof? Especially in Ohio in the middle of winter! I tried to set up a cot in the corner by the koi pond, but they didn’t like that….. Here are some of the photos I took.

When the hunters become the hunted.....

2008-01-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

I told you how I have become a fan of the TV show Ghost Hunters. What I didn’t realize was that 'fan' was a major understatement. I am, in fact, apparently, an insanely obsessed stalker….

The TAPS guys were in Dayton last week investigating claims of the paranormal at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Growing up here, you hear all these stories about long-dead pilots who refuse to leave their planes, particularly the WWII planes on exhibit at the museum. Paranormal investigation groups have tried for years to get in there, but have all been turned away because Wright Pat is pretty darn important in terms of military bases. So it’s really exciting that Ghost Hunters was personally invited there by an employee, and actually got Pentagon clearance to do it! Really, I can’t even describe how huge that is.

My coworkers and I were really bummed to learn that they were going to be doing a Meet and Greet at the base one night… only those with base clearance were able to attend. But then our court runner came back from a run and mentioned that he saw their van parked outside a hotel just two blocks from our office! So in a momentary lapse of sanity, I allowed my friends to talk me into walking over there on our lunch hour on the outside chance that we might spot them.

Friends, it is freezing outside. 10 degrees, wind blowing snow in your face, freezing. And you all know how much I LOVE the cold. Only a possible sighting of this man could have caused me to willingingly freeze my ass off like that:

So there we were, a bunch of thirtysomething, professional women, going to stake out a celebrity’s hotel like a group of thirteen year olds hoping for a glance at Hannah Montana. We braved the fierce winter winds to walk the two mile-long blocks, laughing at our own ridiculousness as we made our way to the hotel. We had a plan to eat lunch at the hotel restaurant, so we didn’t look conspicuously like the stalkers we were. We got there and the van was no where in sight, but the hotel has its own parking garage, so it was possible it was parked inside.

Well, the entire hotel was deserted, including the restaurant. The only people there were hotel employees, and they didn’t look like the sort who could be talked into divulging the whereabouts of our hunky ghostbusters. Then we glanced at the restaurant menu and decided a $12 salad wasn’t worth it, since the van was gone and we didn’t even know if they were there. Damn. Froze my eyelashes for nothing!

Then, as fate would have it, as I was in my car on my way home from work, I turned the corner by the hotel and there was the van!! If only I had had my camera with me. Luckily, I only live a few minutes from downtown. So I raced home, grabbed my daughter and my camera, and headed back.

On the way, I outlined our covert operation to my daughter. If the van was there, she would lean out the window as we passed and take a picture. Then we would have dinner at the hotel restaurant, and maybe, just maybe, we’d see them. Surely we had a better chance at dinner than we did at lunch!

We reached the hotel and I’m going like 5 mph in rush hour traffic while Noelle snapped pictures out the window, both of us laughing hysterically…..not the least bit conspicuous. I pulled into the hotel parking garage and was immediately stopped by a valet. What?? Dayton has valet parking?? I had not anticipated this.

The guy asked if were checking in, and I, being quick on my feet, said no, we were just visiting a friend. “Okay,” he said, “what’s their room number?” Ummmmm. "I don't know the room number. “Okay,” he said, “what’s their last name?” At this point, Noelle is poking me and whispering through gritted teeth “Forget it, Mom! Let’s just go!” No way, Jose. Those guys were in there, and I wasn’t leaving without a photo of them!

So, my friend’s name? I couldn’t say the TAPS names, that would be too obvious, it would blow the whole operation. “Ray” I lied, and watched nervously as the valet wrote it down. “Okay,” he said, “it will be charged to the room when they checkout.” !!!! Oh crap. "Now just give me your keys." Noelle is flipping out next to me, saying this is a bad idea. “Be quiet!” I whispered angrily. I handed over the keys and got out of the car. I walked calmly into the hotel, dragging Noelle behind me.

Once again, the hotel was deserted, including the restaurant. The only people there were the same employees who had seen me 6 hours earlier, who were now eyeing me suspiciously. Especially since I was fervently trying to calm my child, who was now beside herself that I had just handed my keys over to a complete stranger, and charged valet parking to non-entity!

If she hadn’t been with me, I would have plopped myself on a bench with a magazine for the rest of the night waiting for the Ghost Hunters to show their faces. Eventually they would have to come to the lobby! But it was dawning on me that my daughter just doesn't have the stomach for the lying and sneaking around required of covert operations. (Which, in hindsight, makes me very proud.) I had no choice but to accept defeat.

We walked back to the garage, where I apologized to the valet and said my friend had not checked in yet, got my car back, and drove home wondering WHAT IN THE HELL had just come over me. Noelle wondered the same thing, as she promptly called every one of her friends the minute we got home and said, “you won’t believe what my mom just did!”

Well, we did get a picture of the van at least, which has made me the envy of my coworkers. Yes it’s dark and grainy, as stakeout photos usually are…..

Happy New Year! (Better late than never...)

2008-01-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! Sorry about going MIA for so long. You know it's been a while when you literally have to rack your brain for 2 hours to remember your Blogger password!! Geesh. It has been a very busy month. I promise to get caught up with all of you ASAP.

First though, I have to show off these pics of my adorable niece and nephews! We were so excited to have my sister Anna and her family here the weekend between Christmas and New Years. It’s been a few years since they were here and I hadn’t even seen baby Jonathan yet. Let me tell you, he is just absolutely precious, and I am not biased at all! Here he is with his mama:

Four year old David is sooo much fun, and a brilliant artist. He sat at my dining room table and drew all kinds of wonderful pictures for me.

And my niece Sydney....... I blinked my eyes and she’s TWELVE! She is so grown up and mature. I love her to pieces. She and Noelle had a great time together. I tried taking pictures of them doing Dance Dance Revolution, but they were too darned fast, lol!

Anna, you have your hands full with this beautiful brood. I don’t know how you do it, girl. I regret that I didn’t get any pics of my brother-in-law Jesse. I sure wish these guys lived closer. Oklahoma is just too far!!!

I hope all of you are having a great 2008 so far.

This cracked me up

2007-12-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

Motherhood can be embarrassing

2007-11-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

Soooo, I called my daughter from work this afternoon, to remind her she needed to take a shower pronto because she had an appointment to get her hair cut later in the evening. I almost never make personal calls from the switchboard, because with 12 incoming lines to keep track of, it's pretty much impossible. But the shower thing was important. So I called her and told her to get in the shower. She started arguing with me:

"But she's going to wash my hair when I get there!"

"Well, she's not going to wash your body, so get on it!"

"But..."

Yea, you mothers know how it goes...

In the middle of this conversation my switchboard went crazy. So I put N on hold to answer the other lines, put them on hold and went back to pick her up. "Listen, my lines are ringing off the hook, so stop arguing with me and get in the shower!"

Then I heard a man's voice say "Ummmm, this is Mr. So and So...."

Holy cowsnot, Batman!! I have never been so embarressed on the job in my life. I wanted to crawl under my desk and die. Luckily, the guy laughed and said "I have 3 daughters, I understand." But I still wanted to die. Needless to say, this is why I never make personal calls.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends at my sister PJ's house in Indianapolis. So much food and frivolity! Oh, and football! I only wish my sister Anna and her family could have been there. One of these days, Anna, we will all be together for the holidays!

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving.

Me and my girl.

My nephew Tyler making the rolls. They were delicious, Ty!

My sister PJ and her son Kyle

Ah, sibling love: Rachel, Kyle, Tyler

PJ worked hard all day to prepare a wonderful meal for us. Thanks, PJ!

So sweet

Family friend Buddy and my brother-in-law, David

Step away from the pickles!

Kyle and his sweetheart, Trisha

Family friend Sheryl and her daughter Shawna

Let's eat!

Yet Another Addiction

2007-11-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

It all began last Tuesday night. I play on a live trivia team at my local neighborhood bar on Tuesdays. Last week we had this question: “What country would you first come to heading directly east from Rhode Island?” The answer: Portugal. I guessed France. Bah!

So it was obvious I needed to brush up on my remedial geography! That’s when I found this nifty online game. Very educational. Very humiliating. Very addicting! Have fun.

Halloween Party '07

2007-10-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Sixteen teenagers, one mother. One very tired mother, lol. We had our annual Halloween party last night. A great time was had by all. The house is still standing, which is a good thing! I must be insane, but I really do enjoy having my house filled with the laughter of these kids. We don’t have much, but we do have laughter. It makes me so happy to see my daughter surrounded by friends. All the social problems she had a few years ago are a distant memory. It’s really an amazing thing to watch these kids growing up right before my eyes! ! I’ve known half of them since kindergarten. Now they are almost adults. Man, I feel old. Parents of all the kids pictured gave permission for the world to see them.

Ablaze With Color

2007-10-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

I was worried we wouldn't have much of a color show this year because we had a very dry summer and early fall. But some rain over the last couple of weeks has really made our trees burst into color. Here are some shots I took on a hike Sunday at Clifton Gorge. And a pic of me my hiking buddy took that really shows off the cliffs - this is my favorite spot in the park, a climb that leads down to a pristine little natural spring, way off the beaten path. This is my Prozac.

It's Ghost Night!

2007-10-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

I have a new addiction. You know, I almost NEVER watch television. When I do, it’s the History Channel or Discovery Channel or CNN. I just don’t watch regular TV. Which means I am always out of the loop in the lunchroom discussions here at the office. I have no clue about American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, and apparently I’m really missing out on someone called Dr. McDreamy. I usually tune out of these conversations all together.

But over the past year, my curiosity has been piqued by discussions about this show called Ghost Hunters. Have you seen it? These two guys who are plumbers by day and ghost chasers by night have turned their adventures into a hit TV show. Very clever. So about a month or so ago I actually tuned in to watch, and I was hooked!

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of the paranormal, even though I’m not 100% sold on the existence of ghosts, whatever ghosts might be. I think the majority of stories we hear are either flat out hoaxes or cases of the mind playing tricks on us. I’ve had many of those myself. A fraction of incidents, however, do seem to defy explanation. Doesn’t mean they are hauntings, just things that can’t be explained. The word paranormal simply means “above the norm”. Kind of like UFO means unidentified flying object; doesn’t mean they are alien spaceships.

So, I am basically agnostic about the whole ghost thing. I’m an atheist about it, however, when it comes to TV shows. Anybody who gets paid by Hollywood to do what they do automatically lacks credibility in my book. And yet, I refuse to make plans on Wednesday nights because I can’t miss Ghost Hunters! It’s just so much fun.

Part of what makes this show work is that the two founders, Jason and Grant, seem to be really down to earth guys who do their best to “debunk” any experiences the group has before finally concluding whether or not something is paranormal. This is the 4th season, and in all that time, there have only been a handful of occurrences that they have actually said a place is being haunted. Which lends credibility to the evidence they do seem to find.

And yet, curiously, these intelligent, experienced, down-to-earth investigators very often overlook obvious explanations for “finds”. Hmmm. LOL.

My daughter and I watch this show together, which is one reason I make it a priority. It’s the one time all week she actually WANTS to be doing something with me! Something I don’t take for granted with a teenage daughter. It’s also a great exercise in developing critical thinking skills. Instead of allowing her to get caught up in the “WOW” effect this show so easily provides, I try to get her to analyze everything she’s seeing and hearing to look for another possible explanation.

Ghost Hunters: Look at that! It looks like a person with a large cape in the doorway!

Daughter: OMG!

Me: It’s a curtain.

Daughter: Why wouldn’t Jason and Grant know there was a curtain there?

Me: Because they’re paid to find ghosts, not curtains.

(And upon review, they never said it was a ghost. They said “it looks like a person…” Which is what they do a lot. Present the so-called evidence and leave it open-ended for the audience to decide.)

I’ve noticed, however, that I’ve stopped doing laundry on Wednesday nights. Neither one of us is inclined to go down to the basement to get clothes out of the dryer after an hour of ghost hunting. LOL!

Do you have any good ghost stories to share?

Apple Crisp

2007-10-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend's camping trip was cancelled due to the flu bug descending on our house. Instead, I stayed home and made some good old fashioned Apple Crisp:

¼ cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
¼ tsp. cinnamon
6 medium apples, peeled and chopped (we used Gala)
½ cup flour
¾ cup rolled oats
½ cup brown sugar
¼ butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. In small bowl, stir ¼ cup brown sugar with 1 Tbsp. flour and ¼ tsp. cinnamon. Toss with apples and place in baking dish. Stir together remaining ingredients. Pour over apple mixture. Bake for 45 minutes. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Yummmmmmmmy!

2007 Ohio Renaissance Festival

2007-10-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

I can't remember it ever being this hot at Ren Fest. Must have been 95 degrees out there! But we still had a wonderful time. It is always so exciting to see the brightly colored costumes, listen to the beautiful music and the fun accents, to watch knights drinking bottled water........lol! Oh well, it can't be 100% authentic. These are about half the pics I took, but it was all Blogger could hold in one post. Click the photos to enlarge (but you knew that).

Note to Stag: there was a woman walking around in a completely see-through chain link bikini top which I nearly photographed for you, but decided better of it. Perhaps next year you will get yourself down here and you can witness it for yourself!

Me too, pal.

What happens when Mom's not around

2007-10-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Camping at John Bryan State Park

2007-10-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

The camping trip was a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. I've never taken an extra kid with me before so I learned a few things. But we did have a wonderful time, and it was absolutely beautiful weather. We hiked, played lots of UNO, collected buckeyes, cooked over the open fire, and wore ourselves out. Glad to be home, though. As much as I love being in the great outdoors, it's always nice to have a comfortable bed and a microwave to come home to.

Well, this is a test to see if I can post personal photos without attracting trouble. Photos of our friend are posted with his mother’s permission.

Hello Friends!

2007-09-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

So sorry to have dropped off the planet there for a while. But it was necessary in order to re-group and re-center myself after major life upheaval.

So, what have you all done with your summers? I painted. And painted. And painted! I completely redecorated my house, with the help and motivation of my big sis. It was sort of like cleansing my aura, if you know what I mean, lol.

I'm so happy fall has arrived! I will be hiking and/or camping every weekend until the end of October. Went on a backpacking trip last weekend that was brutal but good. I am taking my daughter and a friend camping this weekend at John Bryan State Park, one of our favorite spots. The car is all packed up so when I get home from work I just have to throw on some jeans and we're off! Should be perfect weather for it.

I haven't blogged in so long I've quite forgotten how to do it! It took me forever to get this thing set up this morning, especially trying to choose a domain name that wasn't already taken. And I must say, I have really rather enjoyed not having a blog. I didn't realize how much energy I was putting into my old one. So don't expect to see too much of me around here! But I will do my best to keep up with all of you.

I'm feeling like it's a sunflower kind of day, so here is a sunflower for you. Hope you all have a terrific day and a fantastic weekend!! :)