m.o.M - mother of Michael

When Good Food Goes Bad

Pond-ering the Future

Last night was the year-end banquet for the high school swim team. The centerpiece for each table was a fish bowl and once dinner was over, we were told to check under our seats for a fish. Whoever had the fish got the fish bowl and it's resident goldfish.

As luck would have it, I didn't have the fish under my seat, but Tom sure did and somehow it was decided that this little fishy would join the other fishies in my pond.

I decided to wait until this morning to make sure the little guy was still alive before I took him out for the big plunge. Sure enough, he was still swimming about which is better than a couple of the fish were doing last night before the banquet even ended.

I call him/her "Tom" in honor if it's benefactor. Michael calls him/her "Sponge Bob Squarepants" because, well, just because. Whatever the name and whatever the sex, I hope this little fishy likes its new home!

There he is: the orange speck just to the right of the large white fish's tail!

It Seems so Wrong, but Feels so Right

Sitting in the carpool line at school, radio cranked as Mick 'the Lips' Jagger and I belted out the words to Satisfaction! We were rocking out!

Then we sang:

When i'm watchin' my tv
And that man comes on to tell me

Mick sang:

How white my shirts can be

I sang:

How white my teeth can be

But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarettes as me
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what i say

Come on, let's sing it together!

C + M + B

My most wonderful neighbor, Margie, is from Munich, Germany. Last year I had the wonderful fortune of traveling with her to Germany and meeting her two sisters who still live there.

This past Christmas, Margie gave my family her nativity. It hadn't been out of it's box since her husband, Stan, passed away 20 years ago. To add to the antiquity of the set, the manger had been hand-made by Herr Dalmyer, the father-in-law of Margie's older sister, Erika. Herr Dalmyer made the manger from wood  and twigs he found in the forests of Bavaria.

The beautiful figurines not only came from Herr Dalmyer, but were also purchased by Margie and Stan in the Kris Kringle Markt in Munich over forty years ago.

Margie did the honors of setting  up the scene and reminiscing over each piece. Later, she brought over the moss for the floor and set it up all over again.

This morning when Margie came home from church, she told me that the incense in the church today made her think of her mother.

On each January 6th, her mother would chalk the letters C M B over the front door of their apartment and light a  small cone of incense in each room. These acts would bless and protect their home for the next year.

C - Casper    M - Melchior    B - Balthazar

Celebrating Kings Day as the day the three kings arrived in Bethlehem was thus in Margie's Bavarian home.

The First Fire of the Season

Roasting marshmallows over an open flame under a starry, starry sky.

What better way to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah!

Is This the End or Another Beginning?

I have been so inspired by all the new blogs I've been reading as a result of NaBloPoMo. There are sewing blogs, environmental blogs, gardening blogs and lots of knitting blogs. Here are a few (a VERY few) of my new favorites:

Nikki-Shell - I've also subscribed to her magazine, MixTape and I'm loving that as well!
Sew Mama Sew - Her crafting lists make my head explode!
Schnozzfest - She just cracks me up!
The Domestic Diva's Disasters - Another bunch of great ideas!
Black Dog Knits - I think this is one of the nicest looking blogs I've ever seen!

The list goes on and on and on and on!

I'll miss having some of these to read every day, but I'll definitely read them whenever they update.

I have learned this month that I can do this every day. I don't know if I need to or not, but I may try to continue. I have enjoyed thinking about what to write; it's become part of my daily routine. Some days I had to search a bit and other days the posts just seemed to write themselves.

Oh well, in the meantime I think I'll work on my craft room/office (what a dump!) so I can get on some of these great ideas I've read about this month.

The End is Nigh!

And thank God for that!

I often wonder why anyone would want to be a weatherman (weather predictor, weather person, weather guesser). You're rarely right and everyone hates you. It must be difficult not to respond to criticism and jokes with, "Then you look out the window yourself and you decide what the weather's going to be like today!"

The initial 2007 hurricane forecast:
17 named storms, including nine hurricanes, five of them major.
The adjusted August 2007 hurricane forecast:
15 named storms, including eight hurricanes, four of them major.
The actual 2007 hurricane season:
14 named storms, including six hurricanes, two of them major.

Okay, so they were wrong again, but how arrogant must we be to think that we can really predict the weather so far into the future.

I, for one, am thrilled they were wrong.

As they say, "Been there. Done that."

Port St. Lucie, Fl. September 2004

Little Fingers, Little Hands

Bob Villa's spirit is possessing my son.

I don't necessarily want an exorcism. I can see some great benefits to having a Bob Villa around. The thing is, I would like to have all the latches, knobs and other items that are affixed to something else via a screw to remain that way. Call me silly, but having a door knob fall off into my hand is only cute the first several times.

In a stroke of genius, my dear husband, father of this child, turned the un-building activities into building activities.

Now I have a wonderful new birdhouse. The first, I hope, of many to come.

What Does It Mean?

• Bad weather coming because the squirrels are stocking up.
• Bad weather passed with a dry, windy spring causing excess pollination.
• More deer in the future due to an abundant food source.

Around here it means sweeping, sweeping, sweeping. The acorns fall like rain and on we sweep.

This Early Bird Got the Worm

There's something about an old book. The smell, the feel and on those lucky occasions, the content.

One of my scores today was Mother's Encyclopedia. Six hundred and forty pages of everything you ever wanted to know about raising children, but were afraid to ask.

This book covers everything from illness to meal planning to how to make toys. I love the pictures in it as well as the information.

One section entitled "Answering Children's Questions" is highly enlightening. In fact, I may use some of these when Michael hits me with one of his question-asking marathons.

One of the examples of questions is about war. "Why can't we have a shelter like in Sally's backyard?" and "Why do I have to get under my desk at school?"

Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. How unfortunate.

The more I sit here and look through this book, the more I'm loving it! I may turn to it this month as a source of post inspiration.

I told the woman I bought this from that I was going to put it on the shelf along-side the copy of Dr. Spock that my mother used for me. "I never did like that Dr. Spock, but looks like you turned out okay in spite of it."

"Thank you, ma'am. Have a nice day."

My other scores were pretty great too.

A Waterbury mantle clock circa 1930 (with it's key!) and two hand painted porcelain lamps on indeterminate age. I do know these belonged to the grandmother of the woman from whom I bought them.

All in all, not a bad little haul for $16.00.