I am thankful for.......

In 2 days it will be Thanksgiving. Time with family, friends, pets, and maybe a few undesirables. But hey, who doesn't have a few in their family?

If your family is like mine, it has seen it's share of changes over the years. Some have left on their own accord ( or with some help!) and others have sadly passed on. I really look forward to Thanksgiving. When the kids get to sit at the card table in the family room. When the good dishes all come out. It is a great holiday to just let it all go and dive right into gluttony. I have learned over the years to wear clothes that expand with your ever ballooning gut and be sure to wear socks with no holes.

I've learned not to sit in my brother, the Trash Natzi's brown recliner, or to complain about lumpy mashed potato's unless I made them! It is also a time to let the TV blast loudly away so all the old folk can hear the Chiefs or whatever lame football game is playing. Hell, I might even play cards this year!

So, whatever traditions or mishaps you may encounter this Thanksgiving, just remember the family members that are no longer with us, and the family and friends that are. Remember to thank the host and hostess. And in my family, always remember to let Steve take the trash out.

Oh yea, what does this picture have to do with Thanksgiving? Absolutely nothing. That's how I roll.

What keeps me busy....

These are my three dawgs, Vega the Boxer, Baxter the ratalian (Italian Greyhound/Rat Terrier) and Piper my new little Basset puppy.

If they were the chipmunks, Baxter would surely be Alvin.

He's always up to something!

FaceValue?

Let's consider the phenomenon that is Facebook for a moment, shall we? I've been exploring it latley and quite enjoy it. Thanks to Facebook, I now know that Jeff went golfing this weekend (and had a WONDERFUL time). Dianne is not liking the weather. Jeremy is now in a relationship and Sue just became single again. That is something that I don't understand: putting your relationship status on Facebook. I know of a friend that was dating a guy, and week #1, my updates told me that on Monday, Deb was so looking forward to the weekend! Tuesday-3 more days till the weekend and I can see Charles! Wednesday-hump day! We talk every night! Thursday - Friday tommorrow, YEA! Friday - Deb is now listed as single. There ya go, the whole world now knows your whirlwind love life thanks to Facebook. And how can someone have 4,653 friends?! Really? It seems to be a status thing to see who has the most friends. I feel left out only having 84.
Then there's Facebook Farm Town! I am totally addicted to Farm Town!
Facebook Farm Town is virtual gardening. This application is wonderful! Grow your own little garden and raise farm animals. Sell crops at market. Work at your friends farm. It literally keeps you coming back because if you don't, your crops will die! I know, I know, get a life girl! Anybody can have a Facebook page. A certain cause or organization can have a Facebook page. Heck, even your dog can have a Facebook page. I was thinking of letting Baxter have his own page, but he'd probably turn out to be a better farmer than me!
I can say, however, that Facebook has put me in touch with alot of old school friends, which is great! Now you can see how former classmates have changed over the years and all the vacations they've been on and all about their kids' life too. It all depends on how much info you want to put out there.
Then there's the birthday thing. I'm thinking about changing my birthdate from January to August to see how many friends put me on their calendar and see who will send me birthday greetings. Heck, someone might even buy me a cake! Sweet!
Well, better get to work, I think my crops need watering!

Old School

Remember the good old days? When kids had the good sense to know how to play with the toys that were given to us? Here are a few of my favorites that I think are gone because they"might pose hazardous to children."


This one was my favorite! The Creepy Crawler oven set! This is how it worked: you plugged in the oven part, and yes, this baby got hot, just ask my niece Kary. She was about 3 at the time and always a real pain for me, so I asked her to touch the burner to see if it was ready for me to bake my creepy concoction. When she wouldn't comply with my request, I proceeded to grab her little hand and put her finger on it. Yep. Her high pitched-blood curdling scream told me that it was ready! So you pour this solution in the metal forms, place the little handle on it, have to use the little metal handle so you don't get burnt! Then you waited, usually when it started smoking and smelling bad, you knew it was done. Then you pick your little creature creation out with yet another special tool, and viola! You have creepy crawlers! I loved this toy! Kary.....not so much!






Oh man! Little green Army men! My brothers had a whole box of these! Sometimes, they would even let me play with them. They would hide them around in the grass and trees and then they got real creative and started burning them! Wow! They were sooooooo cool melting! Then my dad would find them with the lawn mower. Not so cool.


Weren't these the funnest thing! Clacker Balls! Not much skill to this, other than trying not to break them and have the balls shatter into a million pieces and take your eye out, or worse, behead you! Awwwwww, the innocence of youth.




Poor kids today are missing out on the Wham-O! You hooked your hose up to the clown head, turned on the faucet and, wham-o! The hat would blast into the air and you had a water party!
Now, this was really nothing more than just your average water sprinkler but this was better! This creepy clown was probably the inspiration for Stephen King's "It." Too bad it was taken off the market but, inevitably, you knew some kid wanted a top view of the projectile hat. Dumb kid. Probably lost an eye and ruined it for the next generation!


Hey! Remember the Sit and Spin? Should have really been called the "Sit and Puke." What great mind-bending, nauseating excitement! You would sit down on a spinning disk that had a stationary handle and spin around and around. What you really discovered was what it's like to be drunk without the booze!




And now, this last one really makes me sick to my stomach! I had all, yes, all FOUR of the Beatle Bobble-Head dolls! Do you have any idea what they're worth today! LOTS! And so now, I'm going to find some old yard darts and stab myself in the head with them!

Tung-Ti!

Here's poem for all my Japanese friends: それが私の思考の外のこの冷たい凍るすべての開始時。そしてバックアップを再度始めるとき、日本語のすべてある*によって

Bet you didn't know I knew Japanese. Bet you also didn't know I had Japanese friends.

Neither did I.

Mirror, Mirror on thy wall............

Have you ever had this happen to you? Someone comes up to you and says "you look just like a friend of mine I knew college!" by the name of--Suzy Pfister . Later that day, someone else came up to me and told me the same thing, I looked like a co-worker of hers. Years later, another person came up to me and told me that I looked like a girl they knew---Suzy Pfister. So soon, it's happening regularily. I'm at a barbecue at a friends and an old man hobbles up to me and says, "dear, you look just like my granddaughter, Suzy Pfister." 8 or 9 of my close friends are friends with her and they all agree, the similarities are there. I have people come up to me at work and tell me about this girl, Suzy, who I am just the spitting image of. My friend, Tami, is in one of her classes in university, a girl at the church went to school with her in grade two, a friend from Grandview worked with her at camp last year... it has been SIX YEARS since I first started hearing of this girl. I now live in the same city as her, and have yet to see her! Until today. I'm driving to Chunky Town with Tami in the passenger seat, and I look over at the vehicle beside me. There's this girl in the driver's seat, blonde hair, green eyes. I punch Tami, "hey..is that..." she freaks out, knowing the ginormosity of this moment: "SUZY! It's her!!"
I don't look a thing like her.

Lost and Found

Found: a pair of old blue jeans on the corner of Grope and Priss.

If they are yours, you should go put them back on; no one wants to see your

bum, or underoos.

Dirty streaker!