Those Oldies But Goodies--Part I

I selected 14 photos to represent the vast history and the interesting architecture of the island of Ireland.  If you have no desire to see someone else's "slide show," I will understand.

Ireland has a rich and ancient history and  we were able to see all kinds of buildings and ruins in our quick week.  I will post just a few here.  Lets start with the oldest.  A neolithic stone circle dating to the bronze age and also known as Druids Circle.  This one is the Stone of Kenmare which is a five minute walk from the center of the town of Kenmare.  There was an honesty box for a small fee to enter, and we were the only ones there on that afternoon which made it most spiritual and enjoyable!  There was a thorn tree hung with prayer ribbons and whatnot, but not so much stuff as to clutter the tree or the peace of the place.

Keeping on the history time-line we visited the burial tombs from the 12th Century.  This one in the photo below found in the area called the Burrens, named after a clan that lived and ruled in the Cork County Area, was haunting.  The Burrens is 260 kilometers of limestone pavements criss-crossing the hillsides.  In the 1640's Cromwells surveyor described it as a "savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor tree to hang him,nor soil enough to bury."  The limestone surface we saw dated from 10,000 years ago.  Winters rarely go below 43F in winter and above 59F in summer and thus it has a long and mild growing season with lovely alpine flowers in the cracks in the stone in the spring.  The last photo below is the Poulnabrone portal tomb where human bones had been found.

We also saw the Cliffs of Moher on this region, but I will spare you at least some photos!

More modern in time are the ruins of castles and we saw three in one day.  I wish we could have stayed in one, but it was too rich for my traveling companions and it is always good to leave some reason to return. There are ruins of castles all over Ireland! 

The most famous is, perhaps, Blarney Castle.  The Blarney Stone is believed to be half of The Stone of Scone upon which the Kings of Scotland were crowned and was believed to have come from Jerusalem.  Half the stone is now in Edinburgh, Scotland and the other half in Blarney according to legend.   The owner makes money on these legends, but it seems that no one really knows the real history of the stone.  To kiss the Blarney Stone you have to lean backwards out of the parapet.  While some of my party kissed the stone, I am full of way too much blarney and passed.

The Rock of Cashell has a stunning view of the countryside as well as the ruins of a distant Abbey in the second photo below.   The buildings included in the complex: 12th century round tower, High Cross and Romanesque Chapel, 13th century Gothic cathedral, 15th century Castle and the restored Hall of the Vicars Choral.  You must take the tour as the history is worth it.  You can see in the photo below that they are working to maintain the walls of the chapel which are beginning to erode from moisture.

And then on our trip we saw the more modern buildings such as Christ's Church Cathedral in Dublin where we actually got to ring the bells!!  I had watched an old British mystery on TV which revolved around the bell ringers of a small village church.  I never realized how much strength and balance goes into ringing bells as well as how dangerous it can actually be!  I was totally out of breath by the end of the few minutes I pulled that rope. Three of us rang at one time and we had to remain in sync.  The first one to ring had to get the rhythm and ended up ringing for the longest,  I was the last to join in with the assistance of the "Towerkeeper" and I was certainly out of breath by the end.

And finally Trinity College also in Dublin where the young man, our guide, was both funny and knowledgeable.  It was his last tour as he had graduated and was on to bigger and better things...journalism.  We, of course, saw the Book of Kells and passed by the shelves of the many rare books in that same library.  (Note his "Harry Potter" jacket which all tour guides are required to wear.  It is so old that the black has faded to green.)

It amazes me that these leather bound books are in bright sunlight and even some areas had windows open!  We were told that books were shelved according to size rather than subject!

Well that is a brief review of the structures made of stones.  There is a lot of stone on the island!!

One Green Day at a Time Introduction to Ireland

I started with a Friday night red-eye flight against the sun and landed in the morning of  the next day in my vacation country, staying through that week until leaving on the following Monday morning. Then I arrived home the same Monday around 9:00 P.M. in the evening East Coast time but about 2:00 A.M. vacation country time, and I yet I still survived!  As some of you guessed it was a trip to Ireland.   I never had the chance to visit this Emerald Aisle, and this time ventured forth with my son and his wife and her parents.

I took over 2,000 photos, the sun shined about 80% of the time, we got lost very briefly a few times, we saw a LOT of the island, we lucked out several times, and we had a stupendous trip. We (hubby) was successful in driving on the left side of the road in both the cities and along the very narrow country roads.  We mostly followed our son's car as his phone GPS was more accurate than our rented Garmin GPS.

I will not bore you with all the pictures as travel photos can be a bit of a drag after the first 4 or 5!!  I will post a few in a themed review in the coming posts just to share for those who like to see another's travel experience or who have an interest in going someday.

I learned that paying for most of the tourist tours is really worth it.  The Irish are great at telling tales and keeping you informed about the castle, or factory, or garden, or history of the place you visit.  They are truly friendly and VERY helpful.  We did not make it to Northern Ireland, which I am told is more somber and reserved and really another country.

All of the people I traveled with had various percentages of Irish blood in their veins (and since there are more Irish people outside of Ireland than on the island, perhaps even I have a drop of such blood ;-) and perhaps this is what made the trip so wonderful.  Bits and pieces to follow.

(My cough was suppressed by heavy duty codeine which also helped with sleep!  I am slowly returning to normal.)

In a Fog.

Leaving on our trip tomorrow.  Checking out the webcam to see the "ocean view" we might have on our second day "there."  I am hoping this is not accurate but all other webcams that I checked out in the country are either live or black if they are down.  Now you have a pretty good idea of where we are going?  And, yes, I am bringing a raincoat.

Up in the Air

I am getting ready for a trip (yes ANOTHER travel opportunity) and I am doing a little jig about it.  I just read somewhere that some rental car companies in other countries will not rent to someone 70 years of age.  So I only have a few years left to get around on my (our) own!  Then the only opportunities are more expensive.

Yet, the plans for this trip are in the hands of someone else (my son's in-laws), and I am sure we will be glad with whatever transpires and wherever we stop---hotel, a few bed and breakfasts and then a hotel.  I will tell you where when I return and bore you with at least a few photos.  (My biggest issue is how much camera gear to take!)  I am determined to take only one small suitcase.

To bring me down to earth, I have been juggling doctor's appointments as I have had a chronic cough this summer that will not go away.  The next step on the path of health discovery is that I have asked for an MRI since an X-ray ("probably underlying COPD"--whatever in the hell that means) showed nothing of significance.  But the cough is annoying everyone around me as well as myself.  Thus, I now have to take it on the trip with me and I am sure with the Ebola scare I am going to be taken aside and given a temperature reading and lots of space from passengers while others are being scanned for weapons.

This life is such an adventure, isn't it?  Makes you stronger.

I do not mean to leave readers up in the air...maybe I can blog more from there?

Stay safe from fires, floods, volcanoes and loud people until I return.

A Night Out and A Mellow Out

My husband an I too rarely take advantage of the many activities in nearby Washington, DC.  It is over an hour's drive and we have to stay at one of the kid's houses in the suburbs and sometimes these activities are expensive.  But this past weekend we decided to take advantage of a Pink Martini pops concert at the Kennedy Center.  The Kennedy Center has several stages and presents all types of musical and dramatic events.  Some are free and some are very expensive.  When I had first moved to this area decades ago and first went to the Center I asked my neighbor if I had to dress up.  She laughed and said unless it was an "opening" I would see everything from nice dresses and suits to students with back-packs and in jeans.

This last weekend I saw the same.  Although some of these folks looked familiar and clearly were a celebrity of some type.  Nothing I could place in my limited cultural background.

Pink Martini is an international cultural band and now are based out of Portland, Oregon.  This particular evening they also showcased the talents of four of the great grandchildren of Maria and Captain Georg von Trapp.  These young ones are also now working out of Portland, Oregon, moving recently from a lovely little town in Montana.

It was a great experience because it was supported by National Public Radio, one of my favorite stations.  Ari Shapiro, one of their international correspondents, sang TWO solos and one duet.  Who knew?  What a talented and entertaining young man.  The very next day he flew back to Scotland to report on the independence vote in that country!  Also making a special appearance was Scott Simon from NPR, who cannot sing, but was most entertaining with his attempt at yodels.

I brought my small point and shoot camera and captured a few throw away shots.  My mind was not really focused and thus the camera had the same problem.  But I thought I would share the elegance of this concert venue for those who cannot visit it.

Just past the Hall of Nations into the North Grand Foyer where President Kennedy's bust towers over everything else.

Outside on the terrace where stunning weather allowed ticket holders to sip their wine or eat their candy while having quiet conversations before the opening curtain.

This view from the terrace looks across the Potomac river toward Georgetown.  (Maybe you will remember we ate dinner from that side and I posted a nighttime view of the Kennedy Center across the river?)

We were blessed with a stunning sunset looking toward the Virginia side.  This photo is blurred...like most of these and it "might" have been that great "Pink Cherry Cosmo" that I had with dinner at P.F.Changs in Arlington that increased the sloppiness of my photography.

But this last photo below turned out really fun...sort of like one of those rainy day impressionist paintings from a French painter.  Even mistakes can be rewarding.

Redisovering Cooking

Most of us get a lot of landfill in our mailboxes. If you contribute to even one charity or political action group you get on the mailing lists of hundreds of others.  I am in that demographic group (upper middle class old farts) that would get the type of mailing the Great Courses group sends out.  They offer courses on history, music, and science.  These courses come with textbooks and DVD's (downloads if you wish) and usually run well over $200 for a complete course.  Thus, I usually throw the catalogs away figuring there are enough free courses on the internet for most of my needs.  (http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses  -  https://www.edx.org/ - https://www.open2study.com/courses -  Some of these need Apple interfaces but most can work on any computer.)

Anyway, when I received the recent catalog I noticed that the usual courses had substantial discounts.  The course titled "The Everyday Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking" which had been priced at $269.95 was reduced to $39.95!  This includes 4 DVDs and a book.  This course comes out of the CIA (the one at Greystone, New York) ...not the spy agency but The Culinary Institute of America.  (I know, you were wondering just what type of meals they taught!)  This CIA is a premier institution and I actually ate at one of the school's restaurants after a conference a long time ago.

So envisioning long winter months ahead, I opted to purchase this course.  Yes, I know it is dated and that is why they reduced the value, but it meets my needs.  There are 24 lessons at 30 minutes each taught by Chef Bill Briwa.  They are designed for home cooking and not commercial venues.  Thus far I have gone through lesson one which is an overview of ingredient, techniques and flavor, and I did learn a few things.  The second lesson was about essential knives and I learned even more.  Next I listen to the lesson on more essential kitchen tools---from pots to shears.

The lessons are a little dumbed down for my tastes, but I like the fact that they are short and to the point.  The book that comes with it follows exactly.   Oddly enough the chapters come with a list of ingredients to shop for but no recipes.  I will have to see how that works out as I move forward!  I guess if you have to know how much of something to add, you shouldn't be cooking???  Anyway, I am looking for an improvement in techniques and not new recipes!

I will keep you posted on how my spatchcocked chicken turns out.

Our Heroes

I just finished reading the autobiography titled My Beloved World (2013) by Justice Sonia Maria Sotomayor.  As the 111th appointment and only the third woman and the first of Hispanic heritage to the Supreme Court she is one of the most interesting and groundbreaking women (people) in the justice system.  Her biography left me much more comfortable about our Supreme Court than I have been in ages with those old white dudes that sit next to her in their robes and their parochial minds and their lack of insight into how this world is changing.

Her life is rich and her own exploration of her life was marvelous.  She has such insight and is so willing to admit her errors and review her philosophy as she lives her life.  She is both an everywoman and a genius at the same time.  She is that woman you wanted for a sister or best friend.  She dances between poverty in Puerto Rico and touring with the Fendis in Italy and does not miss a step.

Lest you think I admire her because she is a liberal justice, please note, Sotomayor's circuit court rulings led to her being considered a political centrist by the ABA Journal.  Also A Congressional Research Service analysis found that "Sotomayor's rulings defied easy ideological categorization, but did show an adherence to precedent and an avoidance of overstepping the circuit court's judicial role."  Yet, when you read her biography you wonder at her ability to not get an ulcer when the Supreme Court ruled recently against affirmative action because we not longer need it!!  I am looking forward to her role on this court in the coming decade.

I recommend this biography to anyone who is interested in learning who makes up our citizens and who loves this crazy quilt of different cultures that makes us the nation we are today.

I understand there is a new biography on her and I will have to research that.

Leaking Color

Mage challenged me to black and white...more sophisticated and more artistic and something I rarely if ever do because I am a color freak.  I took a walk around my garage to see what had the texture and structure for B & W.  But as you can see I kept letting the color seep into these photos through the leaks of my brain.

Addictions

Passions come and go and some of them come and never go.  The wonderful thing about retirement (if your family is amenable) you can indulge to your heart's content those things that light your fire if they do not require large amounts of money that you do not have.  You DO have time!  Lately photo manipulation has been my addiction.  I go out and take a bunch of photos and if the lighting or focus is particularly good I can manipulate it until the cows come home or my back screams for me to get up and get moving and just have fun with the creations that appear.

Below is a butterfly I found sitting on my deck this past spring taken with a Canon point and shoot that I rested on the railing.

He is perhaps not exceptional, but the white background lent itself to manipulation.

First I cropped him, changed the photo light levels and contrast and then gave him super cool edges.

Then I decided to really turn him into a work of art.

I found in a coffee shop the poster below that seems to say it all when it comes to my approach to photographic art.

David Simon's Dangerous Ideas

This HBO writer "The Wire" puts succinctly and with great clarity the argument that should reach a much larger audience.  Please take the time to listen to the entire speech.  (Please be aware it includes profanity...in all the correct places.)

http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/30/david-simon-at-the-festival-of-dangerous-ideas/

Two Sides

Two sides of the same coin.  One side is smooth and peaceful and the other is detailed and interesting.   One finds days without tasks a dangerous passage of endless time where one can see one's mortality looming ahead.  The other finds days unscheduled with meetings, errands, duties, appointments, or social obligations important days to be filled with nothing but pondering the beauty of a rich life.

One of us can nourish the soul on tufts of time between hours of busy accomplishments and discussions with others and the other finds it needs huge pillows of time as the only way to survive in the cacophony of living. 

One of us sees time as something to manage and the other sees it as a rich amorphous fragrance.

And yet, we do manage to walk this road hand in hand.

A Review: Movies and Holidays

We had those 4 young people Friday and Saturday.  The first day was quiet with wine on the dock and good conversation.  A crab and salmon and freshly harvested oyster dinner went off without a hitch on the deck and the mosquitoes held off until late evening.  Since one of the young men was from Hong Kong, he fully appreciated the fresh seafood even though it was not prepared as he was used to.  The next day was full of loud and busy boating.  Everyone was out on the water from noisy ski-doos with teenage boys hanging on to drooping swimsuits to those super fast useless speed boats filled with bikini-glad dyed blondes and the guy who owns the boat.  Little guys were driving(?) small flat-bottomed fish boats and others were pulling floats behind with small brothers.  We cruised to a nearby pocket beach and snacked on cheeses, deli meats, olives, dried fruits, etc..  The heat was a bit much, but we survived well, except for one small accident by me which I will save for another  post.

The couple that is friends of my son and his wife admitted to us they were thinking wedding plans!  It is not an easy road for the following reasons:  her parents are traditional, southern, and very conservative and somewhat religious, his parents are a big noisy Chinese family from Hong Kong with that Asian energy the Chinese bring to any celebration which can be somewhat overwhelming and demanding.  They are also not Christian.  I did not ask what religion or if they belonged to any religion at all, but the young couple were clear it was NOT going to be a church wedding.  They are not wealthy so having to keep all decisions frugal or give in and then let the families fight over who pays for what and thus runs the show...not a good scenario.  (I will let you in on a little secret in that they were thinking and we encouraged that they go ahead and get married secretly by a "Justice of the Peace" so that the future husband he can get on the bride's health insurance plan and they "plan" another wedding in a few more months when they have saved more money and had time to create a strategy.) The young man from Hong Kong has become bored with his job, and because they have no mortgage, no children, and are in their early 30's, he has decided to leave this job to join a start-up with greater risk but far greater potential but with no health insurance.  I am excited and hopeful for both of them and want to help them in any way without adding to their stress.

At the end of the second day this couple left on their way to do other things and son and daughter-in-law stayed on through the evening and next day.  We talked and talked (DIL was drinking wine so I did not ask about their plans for children...although I do know from another source that she is trying to get pregnant.)   Son helped us with our wi-fi and set up a password which I have been trying to do for months.  He also fixed some hardware on a window which had boggled my mind.  We have a great relationship with both of them.  Years ago we were not as close to our son who wanted to be on his own and not keep us in the loop of his merry-go-round life, but he has matured and she has also influenced a change in him.  Our times together are fun, peaceful, and rewarding.  I feel very, very, very blessed.  I am not the easiest person to hang out with if I care about you, so we all have adjusted I am guessing.

We did all watch the movie "Noah" on TV one night and may I warn you that it is the biggest waste of time.  The acting is the only thing of any merit.  The script is terrible, the plot is weird, the character development non-existent, special effects ho-hum...so do not waste your money.

Well, I am now off to do 7 (yes SEVEN) loads of laundry.

What a Silly, Where is your happy human spirit?

I will be returning my little grandson to his parents tomorrow eve after taking care of him all week.  There are always food issues, but for the most part, he is a most amenable child.  We visited a reptile show, had a watergun fight, raced Lightning McQueen cars, did new puzzles and watched a few movies.  Hubby played his part and fortunately this little man likes us both equally.  But I am not slated to have time to breathe, read, photograph or write poetry yet.

I must plan for the weekend as I will have guests coming down the very next day.  I do not usually plan a Labor Day party.  I used to ask my daughter and her son, but they already had plans almost always, and we, trying to think of others, seemed to always be between neighbors, so no Labor Day picnic or BBQ was usually on the horizon. (I must be better about plans.)  Please note that I am ignoring the fact that we were not invited anywhere either!

Anyway, my brave  daughter-in-law has asked if she and my son can come down for the weekend.  They have invited themselves.  And I am glad they have, even though I am totally exhausted from my bad back and my grandson.  And I refuse to make them feel imposing and I will pretend this is the best weekend ever.  Another reason is because she is also (with prior request) bringing her best friend and that friend's boyfriend and I just love this couple!  They are struggling in their lives, but are the good people we all want as citizens.  I am really impressed that my daughter-in-law is brave enough to ask to come for the weekend.  I do not know if I would have been that upfront with my MIL, who was a gentle old soul, but did not live nearby

So this Saturday I am up early to clean a little and try to plan/shop for meals for the weekend.  This is the hardest, but I will try to keep it simple and just enjoy their young ideas and energy!  If I learn some new stuff I will certainly share.  Have a great Labor Day, because no matter what you do, you deserve to celebrate you labors.

No Clue

It is early morning just after breakfast and I am sitting on the sofa avoiding as much movement as possible since I seem to have some sharp, terrible, lower back pain when I do move.  I have not had back problems for over a decade, but I did something wrong, cannot pin point what, and am hoping it goes away soon.  I am also caring for my 3-year-old grandson all this week.  Hubby is off to neck therapy as I sit here.  We are a pair!  Grandson is happily ensconced with his second puzzle of the morning.  I am peaceful as long as I do NOT move.  What are the chances of that happening the rest of this morning?

I have had the little guy all week and today is the first day of pain and I really do not think it was lifting him in and out of his carseat, or crawling around on the ground racing cars, or sitting on the floor putting together puzzles or lifting him in and out of a bathtub.  It just started out of the blue as if I had scraped away the soft tissue in my joints during the night and now there was bone on bone!  Many of you have been there and know exactly what I am writing about.

I am just thankful that I have the "easy" child this week!

Tag, You're It!

While I was roaming the land of Big Skies with two of my favorite males, I got "tagged" by Colleen Redman.  I must state that I usually ignore memes, surveys, blog-monkeys...whatever you want to call these infectious bugs that dash through the social networks of digital song and make you dance/sing to their rhythm.  Yet, I have read Colleen's blog for years and since she herself is infectious, I accepted her challenge.

This is a very difficult challenge because it is for "writers."  I have just recently begun to see myself as a photographer, and now before I get too old, I guess I must get my mind about whether I am a writer or not.

I started writing for fun when I was in grade school.  I kept notebooks that were pasted with photos cut from magazines or bits of nature collected and then I wrote prose or poetry that had emerged (like vomit) in my brain.  It was an addiction and I really never thought about it.  But I had to do it.  In primary and secondary school the writing assignments (fiction or non-fiction) were my favorites.  I am a story person.  I even made up stories about my math figures to get through Algebra!  Blogging is my adult panacea, but I do wish they provided a free editor.

Anyway, that is the background for my answers below:

What am I writing/working on now? 
My blog posts, of course.  I just finished a short photo-journal book of the trip for my grandson and it will be a memory gift.  I tried to write in the mind of a 9-year-old and thus it was pretty yucky.  I had started a fictional book months ago and it was such a disappointing venture that it gathers cobwebs on my laptop.  I am always writing poetry in my mind, which sometimes makes it to the page.  I keep thinking I will follow through on a few ideas that are germs in my mind...but this is why I do not see myself as a WRITER.

How does my writing differ from other writing in its genre?

Unfortunately, I do not think my writing differs much.  My voice is a common one.  I strive for honesty and try to avoid bluntness, but they seem to come hand in hand.  I think that Gandhi had it precisely correct when he said the only God is truth...or something to that effect.  Truth is very hard to capture in words, though.  And I have not yet decided if it is truth that changes or my mind.

Why do I write what I write?

It is like eating and breathing and loving.  It is something that I HAVE to do.  I am a seeker and I hope that by putting the pen to paper I will find what I seek.  I hope to make astonishing connections and sometimes I actually do, on a smaller and more comfortable scale.

How does my writing process work?

I do not have a process, which is, of course, the problem.  Consistency is the engine of great writers.  Coffee and early morning and being the only one up are the keys to getting my writing engine going.  I procrastinate on keeping a notebook for all my treasured thoughts as I work through my day.  Colleen keeps a notebook and even more important she can decipher it when she needs to!  I am a people watcher and do have a skill for recognizing a good character...now if I could just weave that into a tapestry of a story.

What are my future blog plans?

Since I do not have deadlines nor do I get paid for this, I do not have to have a plan.  I still feel a calling to write and would do so even if no one read these words.  When I began blogging in 2004 (before you were born?) I had no plan and thought of it as a private journal.  Then I may have been a better writer in purity of thought and tone---who am I kidding?  Now I am somewhat addicted to "my readers" and have them in mind when I write.  It is probably not good for writing that you care how your readers perceive you and sometimes bite your pen.  

I will not tag anyone, but would love if any of my readers desired to pick up this tag/flag and run with the ball and any other metaphor you care to use...just let me know.

Time Travel

I have heard of jet-lag but I think I had become infected with time-lag this trip.  I went from seeing old, old, old, friends where I had deep and emotional touchstones, where it was almost as if they were on the other side of a time warp and while my fingers touched quickly, that only happened if my eyes connected at the same time.  Otherwise it was somewhat like rapidly flipping pages in a dusty old photo album.   You try to hang on to the memories of you and them that happened and created part of the puzzle pieces that form bits of what you are today, but you also realize, at least those of us who live great distances away, that this is like visiting an old and favorite movie.  It brings back feelings, but you are not sure that you were a character in that movie...maybe you only watched it one time long ago when you were most impressionable.

Those of you of live near where you grew up may not have such a jolt when your paths cross with old friends.  I do not know.  I do know for me it is a bit of  an acid trip.  My energies get drained and I lose my place in time and understanding.

This may very well be the last time I see old classmates all together.  It will not be the last time I visit family.  We see each other every few years, but that is mainly due to weddings and children moving across the country.  These will soon dwindle and we will have to make an effort to meet up.  Someone, a sister-in-law whose family lives across the Atlantic Ocean, suggested we needed a big family vacation together.  The last one was in Italy well over a decade ago.  I am up for it this decade, but may not be up for it in decades to come.

I do think part of this sweep in emotions was that in the middle I shifted gears to share 9 days with my nine-year-old grandson who is a treasure of a traveler.  I hope he keeps happy memories of this trip because we were all in a super genetic link with similar interests and energies.  I do not think the link will be so smooth with the other two when their time comes for such a trip.

OK...next I will take on Colleen's TAG...!

As Luck Would Have It

So the first Sunday in Colorado was going to be a rather long day.  I had a 50th High School reunion at a local small town restaurant (there were only 21? in my graduating class and only 7 showed!).  It was an emotion-filled thing with many having passed recently including one of the men helping to organize the event.  We all are talkers and I did not get to any really in depth conversations with anyone as we sat around a rather large square table with our spouses and significant others.  No one has changed in personality or interests though.

The horse girl is now a horse lady and she forgave my best friend and I for TP-ing her house every Halloween.  It was a big old mansion at the end of Main and we just could not resist.  She is about four feet five with a lovely long gray braid down her back and drives a BIG truck.  My two best girlfriends sat on either side, and as is true with best friends, we found plenty to talk about and started right where we had last left off.  The star quarterback and main basketball player who went to STATE our senior year had shrunk!  He was small in build and shorter than I. What happened???  My old boyfriend was in the process of his second divorce due to having an affair with the pretty blonde lady that he brought to the luncheon.  He is fairly wealthy owning lots of land in the area and seemed to have no problem leaving his house on the lake in a nearby town to his former wife who sadly was fighting cancer. Whatever did I see in him?  The class Valedictorian was still somewhat of a snob, but had spread in size and looked less like a book worm and more like the life coach she had become with her PHD in psychology.  Two of the spouses (men) sat like cigar store Indians, but were not bored, just quiet.  My husband talked almost the entire luncheon with my ex-boyfriend...wish I would have been a fly on the wall there.  Below is the class with partners, only 12, and faces blurred to protect the innocent, although I am guessing that none of us were innocent anymore.

Then later that afternoon my family had a get-together BBQ in a nearby town with even MORE food.  Hubby had his birthday that day and I was helping carry out a HEAVY strawberry/chocolate/poke(?) cake in a glass casserole when I missed the 1-inch step down on the patio and went down like a drawbridge just missing the metal table where everyone was sitting.  I landed on two knees and one elbow with the cake in my arms.  I managed to save the cake!  I had whipped-cream on my nose as I struggled up after someone took the cake and no one DARED take a photo.  Actually they were in shock when I stood up and you could have heard a pin drop.  My knee and elbow bruises were ugly...but no broken bones, even though I have osteoporosis.  I sat with ice on the knee for a while and broke out in a sweat due to the shock, but managed to maintain my cool.

As luck would have it, all the bruises were superficial and I was able to do all the walking and hiking the next two weeks in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana although the knee bruise got much uglier!  Oh yes,  I did say I saved the cake...didn't I?  (Post Script...my dress pants tore in my fall and luck had it that this happened AFTER the reunion so I did not wear torn pants!)

Assess the Situation

She is back.  She is thinner!  She is older.  She is much more meditative after spending time with old high school friends and family that she sees once every few years.  She is more mellow after spending two weeks touring the Wild West and Big Sky Country with a nine-year-old.  She has tales to be digested before being shared and she has to work on a "tag" from Colleen of Loose Leaf Notes.  But right now she is heading out to a small, local, French restaurant with her hubby to honor our 44th anniversary!  She has missed the blogging and the bloggers and will return to full force soon. (For some early photos go here.)

Back and Forth and Up and Down.

Packing for a trip this evening but saw this on the news and was sure that I was losing my mind.

"Hours before Congress broke for the August recess, House Republicans claimed that the President could use executive action to fix the border situation with unaccompanied children fleeing violence in the Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. In a press statement released Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other House Republican leaders indicated that President Obama could address the crisis “without the need for congressional action,” a statement tinged with some irony given that just the day before, House Republicans had slammed the President with a lawsuit claiming executive overreach"   This lawsuit is the GOP suing the President for using executive action to delay the implementation of a part of Obamacare...the very bill they tried to repeal dozens and dozens and dozens of times.

The House can find no middle ground on an immigration bill which their members claimed three years ago would be done by now.  They do not agree with the Senate version.  Now they want the President to use Executive action to solve the issue so they can take off on five weeks away from the job with perhaps less guilt for their inaction.

At least I may be away from the news for some time and that may prevent me from pulling out my hair until I am bald.

Beefcake? and Perhaps a Little Cheesecake?

One reader asked if I was writing a romance novel based on the subject of my last post.  No, I am not a big reader or writer of that genre, although I must admit as a much younger woman I consumed my share of bodice rippers with lantern-jawed mysterious men.  Fellow blogger, Rain Trueax, is the romance writer that got me thinking about abs because she has written a number of books that require covers with abs. We talked about cover designs for such books as she does her own.  She has a passion for our country's early history and the wild west and the cultures of that time.  She does extensive research to make her characters come to life so that the story she weaves is more than just romance, and her women are as strong as her men.  If you want to know more about her writing and her books you can go here.

Anyway (please read this in an Ellen DeGeneres voice), I had an opportunity to explore more Beefcake the other day.  I went to an event with my children and grandchildren.  This is an event that I would never have gone to on my own, and unless you are a former marine or married to one, I doubt very much you would have ever gone to one of these either.  (By the way it costs $25 a head just to be an observer, so I probably will not go to one of these again!)  Oorah!!

There was lots of dust and mud and sweat and blood.  You may not know, but it seems that the term cheesecake actually may have originated in Britain way back in the 1660's!  Sexy (and promiscuous) women were referred to as cheesecakes and tarts.  The few women in the last of my photos in this post are NOT cheesecake and certainly more beefcake.   The theory on the word beefcake is that movie cameramen were the first to use the term in the late 1940s and early 1950s when they discovered that women liked to look at well-honed men and actors started taking off their shirts and smiling in that certain way.

These guys above are serious because they clearly are willing to get dirty.  We all know how bad dirt is.

This beefcake (with hench woman and child in tow) is not too proud to wear his glasses when the challenge is done.

(No comment on the dude immediately above!)

 Get down there and eat that dirt!

NO, the woman in the foreground is not dead or tired, she is actually rolling all the way across to each log.

They were moving very slowly by this time as the ropes were super slippery from all the mud.

As they walked up to the last few challenges they all looked like the walking dead to me!

BUT before they could shower and reveal all those six-packs they still had this last challenge to leap over!  "Oorah!!"

I know, you are disappointed that these are not as sexy as you had hoped.  Maybe you can go on over to Mage's ComicCon photos as she always manages to catch a sexy type or two and the costumes she photographs are far more intriguing.

Oh ... one last photo to let you know why in the heck I was there. It was to support my granddaughter and grandson.  She doesn't usually run in purple net skirt, but Dad was too late on arrival to get her changed!

The Cover Up

Winding down the end of the week with the little granddaughter.  It is Friday morning and she had doughnuts for breakfast and is now watching TV...those things that we are supposed to avoid doing with kids.  But I need a slow morning and thus I have her plugged into the mind-less-tube.  We spent time at the pool the other day and I took the photo below.

This photo is just for one of my blog readers...Rain Treaux.  We were having a discussion on abs, hot men, book covers,  etc.  Do I have you curious?  Oh well, too busy to elaborate.  Just enjoy, unless you are a guy.  See you in a few days!

Busier Than Any Old Cliche You Want to Choose

The world is too much with us this week and in the coming weeks.  Hoping to find time to post and read blogs, but as most bloggers know, the world waits for no blogging man (or woman).

Yesterday was filled with about five hours of doctor's appointments, blood tests, waiting to fill prescriptions, and cancellation of our attendance at a philanthropic reception last night.  Hubby was in so much pain (neck and then an elbow---see prior post) that we pushed into seeing his primary physician late yesterday morning.  Without going into all the details, let us just say we continued this journey most of the afternoon.  He is on three more prescriptions and we are waiting for side-effects.  One side-effect was that he slept all the rest of the day into late dinner after we got home.  He is no longer in pain and trying to slow down.  (We have not checked crab traps in three days !)  Health issues never fall at a convenient time, and this summer is already very full for us.  But, we did squeeze in an  MRI at the end of the week.  We have to get to the healing issues because....

Today I have to get another reservation confirmed for a trip to Ireland in early September (going with my son, wife and in-laws after our cancellation of our trip to Turkey with the other set of in-laws due to all the war issues raging everywhere.)  Today I have to plan for a children's class on soil.  Today I have to grocery shop and plan menus for the week. Today I have to vacuum.  It is crazy, please try to keep up.

Granddaughter gets picked up on Sunday, tomorrow, for a week with us.  We are making felt fairies, cooking stuff, having a chocolate tasting, swimming and dragging her to the garden class I am teaching with other children on Monday.  I am tired already, but loving the opportunity.

Then the week after next week is a break before hubby and I are off to Colorado and Wyoming for two weeks with the 9-year-old grandson to explore geology and nature and sleep in the bowels of a volcano.  He will visit great uncles and aunts and I will attend a high school class reunion as well --- of about 10 of us really old people who are in good enough health to show up!  I am not looking forward to the emotional roller coaster of that luncheon, but I must go.

Then it is back home and another week to recover before we get the littlest grandson (four-years-old) for his week of being indulged by grandparents.

Summer will be over in the blink of an eye and then just one week to get ready and pack for our Ireland trip.  Son's in-laws are making most of the plans, but, thus far, we have only the Dublin arrival, two days in Ballingcollig, a rental car and two days in Dublin before heading home.  We have the whole middle of the week to fill and I wish they would get on it!

Yes, I am tired, you are tired, we are all tired...but we are keeping one foot in front of the other because the alternative is not something I want to dwell on.