exhaustion; anniversary dinner

Work has been crazy busy for about three weeks now. These last two days I have sort of paid a price for that. I was so tired on Thursday night/Friday morning that I slept something like 14 hours. On Friday night/Saturday morning, I ended up sleeping something like 12 hours. And I still feel a bit tired. I am not sick and am not having my period, so this is just sheer physical exhaustion. Hopefully I can make it through another week of work; hopefully things will quiet down once the holidays are over.

Last night Dan and I did go to a very nice anniversary dinner at Main Street IX in Milan. I even wore a dress and gold fish net stockings and dress shoes for the occasion. The food was very very good - the appetizer was broccoli-cheddar fritters and it was great. I got a salad, very nice and fresh, and Dan for this wonderful Southwestern corn bisque. I had magnificently good lasagna and Dan had a prime rib with vegetables and wonderful mashed potatoes. We had the house pinot grigo, and it was very good. The restaurant itself was pleasant - we got a table for two in the front window - and the live music was very enjoyable. Very pleasant and tasty dinner, and I would be glad to eat there again anytime.

Today Dan and Steven and some of Steven's friends went up to Montrose for a wrestling tournament. Bill and I had a pleasant and quiet day at home.

Tags: Main Street IX

multicultural books

Most of the public universities in this part of the US (Great Lakes states) require their freshmen to take a 3 semester hour class in multiculturalism. My son, currently enrolled at Ball State University in Indiana, is no exception to that. Since I paid for his books (primarily, though not all- novels - for this particular class), I told him he had to bring them home at the end of the term so that I could read them.

These are the books his professor picked for the class he took (Honors 189 - Honors Symposium in Global Studies). Well, with the exception of one book, that he accidentally left behind in his dorm room, but he said was really weird and almost impossible to understand anyway - this is the list.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa al Aswany (Egypt)
Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong (banned in its own country, Vietnam)
The Royal Ghosts by Samrat Upadhyay (Nepal)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)
Poems, Protest, and a Dream by Soy Juana Ines de la Cruz (written by a woman protesting for her right to intellectual pursuits in Mexico in the year 1691)
First They Killed my Father by Loung Ung (the memior of a woman who lost most of her family in Cambodia's Killing Fields when she was a child - this was required reading for every incoming Ball State University student this year)
The Analects by Confucius

He says I will most likely really like/love The Kite Runner.

wedding ANNIVERSARY

Today was our twenty first wedding anniversary.

Dan had to work days. I had to work afternoons. We did manage to meet for lunch at out favorite Chinese restaurant in Ann Arbor (where we had our first date way back in 1983). http://www.arborfood.com/cgi-bin/db.pl?q=x&t=ab.tpl&n=184

The restaurant is like a white washed cave, with a waterfall as you come in the front door. The food is good and spicy. We both got soup and spring rolls, and Dan got a shrimp dish, and I got a vegetable dish. We drank lots and lots of hot tea.

Luckily, the restaurant is right by the Jeep dealer. I had to take in the Jeep for an oil change. They found some things wrong with it, so in two Fridays I will take in for a whole day for repairs. Thank God for warranties, as I will only have to pay about $400.

After lunch, Dan went back to work and I had an hour or so free before I had to go to work. I went to Trader Joe's and bought cool food. Then I went to the bookstore. And then a coffee place for a hot chai latte, as the morning Mountain Dew and the lunch time tea was wearing off and I needed more caffeine.

Then work happened. This week has stunk, very busy. Tonight was typical of this week!

One more night to work, then I get two days off before working New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

On Friday, Dan and I will get our real anniversary date - going to a nice restaurant called Main Street IX in Milan, where we will hear live jazz as we dine.

http://www.mainstreet9.biz/

 

Tags: Sze Chuan West, Main Street IX

wedding anniversary gift list

This is a list I occasionally need, so thought I would keep a record of it. It is from the Chicago Public Library web site. I am sort of incredulous that any couple could be married for a hundred years, but...

	Traditional	Modern
1st	Paper	Clocks
2nd	Cotton	China
3rd	Leather	Crystal, Glass
4th	Linen (Silk)	Appliances
5th	Wood	Silverware
6th	Iron	Wood objects
7th	Wool (Copper)	Desk sets
8th	Bronze	Linens, Lace
9th	Pottery (China)	Leather goods
10th	Tin, Aluminum	Diamond
11th	Steel	Fashion jewelry
12th	Silk	Pearls, Colored gems
13th	Lace	Textiles, Furs
14th	Ivory	Gold jewelry
15th	Crystal	Watches
16th		Silver hollowware
17th		Furniture
18th		Porcelain
19th		Bronze
20th	China	Platinum
21st		Brass, Nickel
22nd		Copper
23rd		Silver plate
24th		Musical instruments
25th	Silver	Sterling silver
26th		Original pictures
27th		Sculpture
28th		Orchids
29th		New furniture
30th	Pearl	Diamond
31st		Timepieces
32nd		Conveyances (e.g., automobiles)
33rd		Amethyst
34th		Opal
35th	Coral (Jade)	Jade
36th		Bone china
37th		Alabaster
38th		Beryl, Tourmaline
39th		Lace
40th	Ruby	Ruby
41st		Land
42nd		Improved real estate
43rd		Travel
44th		Groceries
45th	Sapphire	Sapphire
46th		Original poetry tribute
47th		Books
48th		Optical goods (e.g., telescope, microscope)
49th		Luxuries, any kind
50th	Gold	Gold
55th	Emerald	Emerald
60th	Diamond	Diamond
75th	diamonds, diamondlike stones, gold
80th		Diamond, Pearl
85th		Diamond, Sapphire
90th		Diamond, Emerald
95th		Diamond, Ruby
100th		10-carat Diamond

Sources:  
  Anderson, Charles.  "The Exchange," RQ 25 (1985): 175.
  The World Almanac and Books of Facts. Mahwah, New Jersey: World   
    Almanac Books, 1997.
  World Book Encyclopedia, 1997 ed., s.v. "wedding anniversary."

Tags: wedding anniversary gift list

what planet are you from?

http://www.blogthings.com/whatplanetareyoufromquiz/

 

You Are From Venus

You love all forms of beauty. You love dressing up and anything luxurious. A social butterfly, you're incredibly popular and a great host. You're known for your fairness and affection. And as a frind to all. Careful though! You're desire to please may make you too willing to conform. Be yourself. Focus on what matters to you. You'll be all the more popular for it.

 

 

Which Hogwarts House do you Belong in ???

http://www.timidity.org/tests/sortinghat.html

Tags: sorting hat, Hogwarts

Christmas

The weather is behaving in a more normal fashion tonight. I drove home from work in a rain/snow mix. When I let the dog out to pee a few minutes ago, little ice balls were coming down. We are due to get about an inch of slush tonight.

Today was Christmas. Dan cooked us a good hearty breakfast, and then we opened our gifts. Steven loved his ipod nano. Bill loved his laptop. Dan seemed happy with most of his gifts. He gave me diamond jewelry, which makes me want to yell at him for the expense. He has been watching too much television and seen too many diamond jewelry commercials! A few books would have been just fine, at a fraction of the cost.  But he did it out of love, so I cannot yell at him. I even wore one of the necklaces to work tonight, to make him happy.

Work was surprisingly steady tonight for a major holiday. But sickness and injury do not go away just because it is Christmas. And those of us who work in hospitals must do our jobs so that unfortunate people who are sick or hurt at the holidays can get good and compassionate care.

   <--- hardworking nurse taking loving care of his/her patients on Christmas night - they are true angels!

Christmas Eve

Beautiful day - sunny and warm. Not normal Michigan December weather at all! I am not complaining, though.

We had a lovely family breakfast today. We made breakfast burritos, and they were delicious. Wonderful breakfast for Christmas Eve.

Dan and Bill both seemed to feel better today - or, at least, they were not so very grouchy.  I am about the same. Steven's cold seems to be a bit worse.

I went in to work, but it was quiet, so I took a couple of hours of vacation time and came home early, so I could spend a bit of time with Dan and the kids before they went to bed. I got home just in time to say good night to the kids, and make sure they took some cold medicine at bedtime to help them sleep despite the sinus drainage. Dan and I watched a Star Trek movie they were showing on television.

Given how little time we are having together this year due to work schedules, I am very glad to have that bit of time with everyone. A good use of the vacation time.

Looking at the clock, I see that it is actually now Christmas. So Merry Christmas to everyone out there! Hope you get to spend time with your loved ones! As everyone knows, that is the best gift life has to offer!

Saturday before Christmas

Today Steven and I were slightly sick, and Billy and Dan were really pretty ill. Dan unfortunately had to work today, and I have to work Christmas Eve and Christmas, so we will not get a single same day off together for the holidays. And that sucks. And it sucks that Bill was running a fever all day and feeling awful. And it sucks that Dan was pretty darned sick, too.

 

But we still had a nice evening, despite some yelling between the two sick ones right at dinner time. We had a lovely make-your-own taco bar, and Dan made his family's fudge, too.

 

The main thing we did was watch Christmas shows and movies, though.

 

We started with Charlie Brown Christmas, which is the greatest holiday TV show ever.  We all love that one the very best.

 

Then we watched the film A Christmas Story, about a very imaginative little kid in northern Indiana who wants a BB gun more than anything in the world for a Christmas present. Very very cute and very very funny.

 

Next came the TV special that is a close second to Charlie Brown - the original animated Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

The song could be about my former friend! (Though it could be about anyone who treats other people reapeatedly rottenly, and never cares enough about the other person's pain to apologize.)

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
Mr. Grinch.


You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.


You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch.


I wouldn't touch you, with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.


You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You haveall the tender sweetness
Of a sea sick crocodile.
Mr. Grinch.


Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the sea sick crocodile.


You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch.


The three words that best describe you,
are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."


You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots,
Mr. Grinch.


Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.


You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch.
With a nauseas super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse.
Mr. Grinch.


You're a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool
sandwich
With arsenic sauce.
    

 

Then came George C. Scott in The Christmas Carol. That version ROCKS! The kids were both glued!

 

Finally came We're No Angels, an old classic Christmas film starring Humphrey Bogart as a convict on Devil's Island. I love that one, too.

Tags: Christmas movies, Christmas specials

Friday before Christmas

Yesterday I indulged in one of my hobbies and spent the day baking. I made Irish soda bread, gingerbread, double chocolate brownies, and chocolate chip swirl bread. Dan and the kids really enjoyed chowing down on fresh baked goods right out of the oven.

In the afternoon Dan and Bill and I headed into Ann Arbor to buy Bill a laptop computer for Christmas. It was cloudy and raining ,and we got to see a sky filled with angry clouds and huge rainbows. That was rather stunning and beautiful. I wish I had had a camera with me. Lots of people were stopping and taking pictures of the sky - it was that awe inspiring!

We got the laptop and a few grocery items and we all came home and crashed. The kids are both coming down with a cold, and Dan and I both have slightly upset tummies. Nothing a couple of days of rest will not take care of!

What the heck are these tag things AOL has added to our journals? Since our entries already have titles, is there any real reason to use the tags, too?

more about Meadow Brook

More about Meadow Brook:

The widow of one of the Dodge brothers (who happened to be an almost obscenely wealthy woman) and her second husband, a lumber baron (also quite well off financially) built a beautiful castle on some rolling land in Rochester, Michigan. They led happy lives filled with huge house parties, raising horses and dogs, and doing charity work.

Eventually they left the castle and all of its precious furnishings and art work and collections of rare books and other assorted small objects of great value to the state of Michigan. A major university was built in the back fields (Oakland University), a large outdoor concert venue for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was built in another of the fields, a professional theater company found a home, and the beautiful mansion itself was turned into a museum.

During the summer, the mansion's beautiful grounds and gardens are home to art fairs and classic car shows.

During the holidays, the old castle/mansion is decorated with countless lovely Christmas trees and decorations, and people come from far and wide to tour the house in its Christmas finery.

It is well worth the tour. The regular furnishings of the house are lovely - from jade tables in the bathrooms and the gold plumbing fixtures to the silk wall paper and stained glass windows. As the second husband was a lumber baron, the house is filled with wood - and some of it stunningly carved. And the curio cabinets are still filled - whether with French crystal pieces or collections of china and/or stone elephant statuettes.

Throw in the beautiful holiday decorations, and you could easily spend many happy hours there, seeing the lovely castle and all of its beautiful furnishings.

After leaving Meadow Brook, we went to Lake Orion, my home town. I had not been there for a few years, as I know few people there anymore. But what used to be the Orion House restaurant had been turned into a pleasant sports bar with fairly decent food, and we happily ate dinner there, before a country drive past numerous lakes to Clarkston.

Tags: Meadow Brook Hall

last night of the work week

Another night at work that kicked our butts. Another night of gift exchange, good food, and friendship. You gotta take the bad with the good in most areas of life, and tonight was certainly no exception to that.

One of the more unusual gifts I have thus far received was some goodies form the Calder Dairy. http://www.calderdairy.com/ This dairy is a Downriver legend, and I have never tried their stuff before. The eggnogg is as thick as paint, and totally delicious!!!

Now I will have two days off to spend time with the kids and Dan. We already have plans to watch our favorite, Charlie Brown Christmas tomorrow, and I will have fun baking. I plan on making - at the minimum- chocolate chip cookies and Irish soda bread. I will probably make muffins and chocolate chip coffee cake and corn bread and brownies either tomorrow or Saturday, too.

We are having strong rain tonight and tomorrow. We will have another couple of inches of rain. This has been one wet December - and nearly all of it in rain. This is the strangest Michigan winter I have ever experienced. No complaints though - I hate driving on icy roads!

I still have to talk about Meadow Brook and some other things more fully. Tomorrow perhaps I will commandeer the computer for awhile.

Tags: Calder Dairy

Entertainment News- Final 'Harry Potter' Title Announced - AOL News

Entertainment News- Final 'Harry Potter' Title Announced - AOL News :

those holidays- they are coming

Work is still horribly busy. It seems to get this way at the holidays more years than not. But we are doing our best to hang in there. Tonight we had a nice party, in fact. That was good. We needed that. Good food, gift exchange, friendship. All wonderful things.

The last three years the holidays have sucked serious butt for me. This year I am hanging in there pretty good and staying strong. I had one melt down yesterday and cried, thinking of my father being so sick and dying three years ago, and the way that former friend treated me and going into a major depression as a result two years ago. Last year I was still very upset about the latter, and wanting an apology and some sort of closure. This year has been good so far except for yesterday. But I had a couple of good cries and am feeling a lot better today.

I am so glad Dan took me to Meadow Brook last weekend. And visited my home town. That was good and lifted up my spirits.

Steven is working on a big report on Roman history this week. We are studying the history of the American West, just about done with astronomy, and reading The Odyssey. We will give him a couple of weeks off for the holidays after Friday.

Dan's business is so busy right now that he has Bill helping him full time since he came home. So he has been tired and grouchy, as he has lost touch with hard manual labor while in college.

Dan and the kids are going to California to visit his parents in January. Bill will be flying in and out from Indy; Dan and Steven from Detroit Metro. I am going to have the house to myself. I plan on working on my unfinished NaNoWriMo story those days.

 

 

ay yi yi

Work has been kicking my butt the last couple of nights. Well, the hospital usually is full and stressful right at the holidays...

Hopefully when I have a bit more energy, I can make a better post about Saturday, and catch up with family stuff, too!

rook Hall, Lake Oriona day from my childhood

http://www2.oakland.edu/oakland/ouportal/index.asp?item=3762&site=87

To see some of the things we saw today at Meadow Brook.

We had a wonderful day today. Went up to Rochester and toured Meadow Brook Hall, which was glorious with its Christmas decorations.

After that we drove over to my home town, Lake Orion, and had dinner. The drive was beautiful, passing by Paint Creek, and some of the lakes that stud the Lake Orion area.

Then we headed over to Clarkston before coming home.

It was really nice to see my old stomping grounds from my childhood, particularly with none of the baggage from that rotten childhood. It was great showing the kids how pretty northern Oakland County is, with its hills and streams and numerous lakes. It was great showing them Lake Orion, where I grew up and neighboring Rochester and Clarkston, with no baggage and no pain. Just beautiful places, and a nice place to eat dinner.

Time does heal -and it probably helps that things have changed enough to make them fairly different - but not enough to be completely unrecognizable.

It was a wonderful day. A happy day. One to remember. One filled with beauty.

Tags: Meadow Brook Hall, Lake Orion

star gazing party

Very busy week, both at home and at work. Tonight was the busiest night at work yet - and it looks like it will be a rough few days coming up, as we have some very sick patients right now.

Tonight there is a possibility of the northern lights, so Steven and I have stayed up late and are having a sky watching party in between mugs of hot chocolate. While there is no sign of the northern lights, we have been seeing lots of bright meteors. and I have been able to show him some of the easier to spot constellations like Orion. We are having fun. The weather is freakishly warm for Michigan in December and we are able to go out and be only a bit chilled with sweaters, but no heavy coats. We seem to be having a meteor shower tonight, and that is really cool.

The government is offering its employees dental and vision insurance for the first time this year. This week I signed up for both. Our wonderful dentist, Dr. Slade, passed away last month - tragically so, as he was still a young man. He was a good and compassionate dentist. But we did not go in as often as we should have, because it is expensive going to any dentist if you do not have insurance - much less four of you going in! So now, as soon as we find a new dentist, we will start having regular checkups. And I can get glasses, which I have been putting off for years because of the expense, and Dan can get his eyes checked, as he probably needs reading glasses. So all of this is good!

Bill is coming home tomorrow. It will be great to see the kiddo.

very nice long weekend

I have had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! Since this is the only time I get off this month (other than my usual days off from work), I am very glad that things have gone so well. Yes - that does mean that I work Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and New Year's. That happens sometime when you are a public servant. But we got our holiday schedule for next year, and while I will still be working the two "eves", I get both of the days off. And that will be very sweet and will make up for this year quite nicely.

On Friday Steven and I had a day out. We met Dan for lunch at Panera Bread, and spent most of the afternoon shopping. We got books and music, and I bought most of the gifts for my friends at work (just need to pick up some good beer for the two beer lovers and I will be all set).

On Saturday evening we went out for dinner. We had intended to go to this chocolate lounge (!!!!!!!!) I had heard about in Ann Arbor, but when we got there it was closed and there was a sign up that a Thai restaurant will be moving into that space. That made me cry! But we wandered around downtown Ann Arbor for awhile, and decided to eat in a microbrewery pub we have heard good things about. Steven and I had the macaroni & cheese, and that was very good after wandering around on a cold December evening.

Today the guys went to a wrestling tournament on the other side of Lansing. So I spent a lot of time with the pets, did a lot of laundry, took a bubble bath, and watched four - count them - four - movies, I also got the gifts for my coworkers wrapped up.

Now all I need to do is find my address book, and I can mail gifts to out of town family and friends. I cannot mail holiday cards until I find it, either. On the other hand, if I do not find it by Christmas, people will get nice things and cards for Valentine's Day instead!

I am very glad I had three days to relax. I needed that!

And my son will be home in five days, on Friday!

quiet day

When Steven got up today he wasn't feeling well. My first thought was that perhaps I did not get food poisoning after all, and he had whatever nasty bug I have had since Saturday. But it turned out that he was exhausted and dehydrated from some hard wrestling practices this week. A couple of sports drinks and a large meal and he was feeling a lot better. I, on the other hand, and still having problems.

Someone at work gave this bag of beautful clothes tonight. She got them from her church, and thought of me. The skirts and shirts are lovely, though the tops are a bit lower cut than the ones I usually wear. Dan will like that, though!

Quiet day at home, and I got all of Dan's gifts wrapped and under the tree. Quiet night at work, and someone loaned me a dvd and a video to watch. She likes old movies and the dvd is an old Hepburn movie called Desk Set. She said it is a very cute Christmas movie that initially does not seem like it will be a Christmas movie. The video is a newer movie I have not seen.

Tomorrow we are due for some more snow. Hopefully all will be well.

The picture above is of my parents in their cabin in north central Arkansas at the time of their fiftieth wedding anniversary in December, 1999. They have both passed away since that picture was taken. The dog belonged to my oldest sister, who was also in Arkansas for the celebration. His name was Carlito, and he has also since passed away.

 

first real snow of the winter; life is weird

Tonight we got our first real snow of the year - as in snow that actually sticks to the ground. Only an inch or so; enough to be very pretty and to make the roads a bit slick. I got to use my four wheel drive most of the way home, as the road crews had not cleared the roads very well yet. The Christmas lights are gloriously beautiful in the snow!

The weekend turned out to be weird. Dan took me out to that great restaurant on Friday and he was very sweet and romantic.He told me that he knows how rough the last three Christmases have been on me and that he wants to make this the best Christmas of my life.

Well, on Saturday afternoon I started to feel bad, and ended up as sick as you can get. I was up all night running to the bathroom every twenty minutes or so and my abdomen felt like a boxer had punched me. It was bad. It was really bad. I was still sick on Sunday - heck, I still ran to the bathroom off and on today, even though I made it into work tonight (I did not make it in on Sunday). Lordy, Lordy.

I felt really bad for Dan. He is this very practical and logical businessman - he has to make an effort to be romantic like that. And here I quite likely got food poisoning from that great restaurant. It does not seem to be something community acquired, or we would all three have gotten it. Food poisoning is the best guess at this point of time. Dan got a very light case (two trips to the bathroom) and he had eaten one bite of my food.

YUCK!

The holidays can only go up from here, though, right?

crazy weather and good friends

The weather has been absolutely insane the last few days. Wednesday night it started raining. All day Thursday and Thursday night it poured. We must have gotten 2-3 inches of rain. On Friday it rained and the wind was literally roaring. It sounded like a 747 jet buzzing low overhead. Today was cold, but simply gorgeous, with this glorious blue sky that just compelled you to go outside! Other area of the Midwest/Great Lakes had a horrible ice storm, huge snow dumps, and even some blizzard conditions. Supposedly that stuff came within a two hour drive to the west and northwest - but all we got was heavy rain and wind. And today was a lovely winter day.

Thursday my buddy Jim achieved perfection on his quest for making good pasties. He had tried before, and was never happy with the result. This time he had obtained a family recipe from a Yooper who works in anesthesiology. These babies turned out perfectly. Man, they were as good as any you could find in any pastie shop up in the U.P. He used equal parts of potatoes, onions, meat, and rutabagas, with salt and pepper as the only seasonings, and used premade refrigerated dough. Oh, they were perfect!

Yesterday afternoon, Steven and I listened to the wind roaring, drank hot chocolate, and watched good movies. It was a good afternoon.

And then Dan took me out to dinner at this really good Italian restaurant in Ann Arbor called the Palio. Downtown Ann Arbor was filled with groups of Christmas carollers and with small brass bands playing holiday music. It was a lovely evening, very charming. I loved it. I love the holidays!

When we got home we watched movies and relaxed, and had a peaceful night at home.

the week is getting on...

Had a bad headache again today, though I made it to and through work. Today was an all time record high temperature, and it was so humid water droplets were forming in the air as you walked around. Everyone was outside with short sleeves today - unheard of for this late in November. Tomorrow the thunderstorms will move in and the temperatures will drop. Friday the snowstorm moves in. Got to love insane Michigan weather! The weekend will stay cold and will have snow flurries. So the loveliest Indian summer everyone I have talked to can remember will be over, and winter will have us in its grip! But when the crazy weather steadies, my head will be a lot better.

Today I spent more time decorating the tree. It is an act of love and remembrance for me. So many of the ornaments are gifts from family and friends, and so many of them have memories attached to them. Some of them are gifts from friends now lost to me through death or distance. Others were ones Dan and I bought to mark special things in our lives - for the children's first Christmases, cardinals for the year those beautiful cardinals built a nest right outside the bathroom window in our old house. There are bulbs for Red Wings, UM, and Pistons national championships. There are ornaments made of satin thread in bright colors that remind me of my mother (in a positive way, which given how abusive she was, is great to have). Some of them - the most precious - are ones that the children and I made together with beads and wire - and equally precious are the ones the children made in school to give me as gifts. So many good memories - so much love. This year the one that got me the most was the red bulb with a picture of a loon and the word "Ontario". Dan got that for me many years ago. Before the children came we would go to Toronto and Niagara Falls - and most especially Stratford for the theater festival. He got me that bulb when Bill was born. Looking back - I now see it as the promise that it was. That someday the dirty diapers and exhaustion and stress would be over and that we would have romance again, and that he would one day be my lover again, and not just a husband and father. Someday we will have Ontario again, two middle aged people rediscovering each other and holding hands as we walk in the beautiful parks.

 

going better

I still had a low grade nagging headache today. That will probably stay until the bad weather that is causing this problem arrives later this week. I think the storm will be bad - the earlier before the storm the headache comes, and the worse the headache, the worse the storm usually is. When it gets here, the temperature will plunge and we will get heavy rain (the western part of the state will get heavy snow).

Made up for being a sick slacker at work tonight. I scrubbed and stocked everything I could scrub and stock. I did the work of two people to make up for being half of a person (at best) yesterday.

At home I continued to decorate for Christmas. I love doing that! And I got the next two day's lessons ready for Steven. It was hard preparing material for the planet Uranus. I have a sick sense of humor, and all I could think of was off color jokes, which, of course, I could not say or use. Why in the world did they give such a name to a planet? If they had run out of appropriate Greco-Roman mythological names, why not something Hindu or Norse?

I even managed to do some Christmas shopping, as the little store at work was open late.

Tomorrow I will run a quick errand or two and continue to decorate the house. Thursday will be a huge laundry day. I am hoping Friday, when the weather will be rotten, I will be able to watch some movies.

it was one of THOSE headaches

I woke up today with one of those headaches. You know the kind - where you crawl out of bed, where loud noises and bright light bring stabbing pains, where it all you can do to get dressed and crawl to your car to drive to work.

And then when I was driving in Ann Arbor on my way to work, I started to get car sick. Because the sun was out and it was bright and my head hurt. A lot. So I started to get sick to my stomach.

I thought about pulling into a parking lot and calling in sick with my cell phone and sitting there until my stomach calmed down, but then I realized that I was a lot closer to work than I was to home.

So I went into work, completely miserable. Though the nausea went away once I was no longer moving. But I spent as much of the night as I could in a darkened room, rubbing my head.

What a sucky butt day!

back to work

I knew it would happen one of these days - I left for work with Bill still at home. And yes - it stinks to come back and his little truck is not in the driveway and he is gone on back to school.

At least work was fairly quiet, so I did not get stressed out.

Got home and worked on lesson plans for Steven. We are on the last unit of astronomy - the solar system. We started with the sun and are working our way outwards. We are on Saturn now, so we should be done with astronomy and reading Darwin's Origin of Species by Christmas. We are done with the Civil War and have begun the American West. We have finally finished The Iliad and are now working on The Odyssey.

And with that, it is time for a shower and then bed!

a good day, eh?

I have been having a great day, with the house to myself. I have gotten to use the Internet (I do not get very much computer time these days). I got to take a long hot bath, with plenty of bath oils. My skin feels so soft and good now, and it was very soothing on my months-long-diarrhea ravaged butt. I need to find the time to soak in such a way more often! I got to read without interruption. I got to blast classical music!

I did get some housework done, too.

The guys should be getting home pretty soon.

It was great to have some time for myself. But it is good spending time with my family, too!

thankfullnesses

Since it is Thanksgiving weekend...

I am so thankful for my children. I am getting choked up, just thinking about how wonderful they are.

I am so thankful to have a job (even if it does help make me sick sometimes) in a time and place where so many people have lost their jobs.

I am thankful to live in a beautiful place. Just being outside today with the sunshine and the lovely trees and the squirrels as big and fat as rabbits running around was very good.

I am thankful to be able to help other people on a nearly daily basis. That is what life is all about! That is why we are here!

I am thankful that my older son has a place at a university, and that there is money to pay for it!

I am thankful that I can spend time with my younger son every day!

I am thankful to have some of the finest people in the world as my friends and my coworkers.

I am thankful for the opportunities that have opened up for both of my children in the past year.

I am thankful for the sun shining, for the breeze blowing, for the beauty of the snow on the pines.

I am thankful for a roof over my head, food to eat, and so many books to read and so much music to listen to.

I am thankful for snuggly, purry cats and a goofy and loving dog.

I am thankful that the Detroit Tigers finally learned how to play baseball!

I am thankful that the Red Wings had a classy captain like Steve Yzerman for so many years! Enjoy your retirement Stevie Wonder!

I am thankful for lessons learned - the most painful are usually the most powerful.

I am thankful for knowing so many good and generous people, and for knowing so few cruel and selfish ones.

 

 

 

more freezing fog

Had a great day today with the kids. We got a lot done, and still managed to have a lot of fun. We could have Christmas tomorrow, if we wanted to!

Just let the dog out, and we are having freezing fog again tonight. The fog is not anywhere nearly as heavy as last night, but thin as it is, it is still freezing on the grass and trees.

I am so glad that I have not had to drive the last two nights!

Manuel Barrueco & Cuarteto Latinamericano concert

Last Sunday Dan and I went to a concert at Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan. We usually go to rock concerts or jazz concerts, with an occasional concert given by a full symphony orchestra or philharmonic. This one was quite different for us - a chamber quartet playing along with a Hispanic classical guitarist.

The chamber quartet was the Cuarteto Latinamericano, from Mexico. They primarily play music from Latin American and Caribbean classical composers. The guitarist was Manuel Barrueco, born in Cuba, and incredibly gifted.

The program:

Carlos Guastavino Las Presencias, No. 6

Javier Alvarez Metro Chabacano

Michael Dougherty Bay of Pigs

Augustin Barrios La Catedral

Roberto Sierra  Triptico

Astor Piazolla Tango Sensations

                       La Milonga del Angel

                       La Muerte del Angel

The music was very interesting and quite different from your usual chamber repertoire.

I had sort of known going in that the only American composer on the program was Michael Dougherty, who lives in Ann Arbor. But it did not really occur to me that the composer would be there to hear his music being played. But he was, and bounced up on the stage when the time came for his music, and was very cool in explaining the themes in the music, and having the musicians playing bars of music to provide examples of what he was explaining. That was really great, and he is probably a great professor. He has a lot of energy, explains things so anyone can understand him, and has a lot of interest in the subject.

But it turned out that he was sitting right behind us. I do not think that bothered Dan, but it made me feel sort of weird. Here we were, listening to some unusual and challenging music - and the man who composed it was sitting right behind us, so probably saw our reactions to the music and to the people playing it. That really did make me feel strange.

After the enjoyable concert, we headed to the downtown (original) Cottage Inn. When I was a student and living in the dorm, I used to walk there with my dorm mates in the middle of the night when we would be up late studying, to get garlic bread with cheese and pop. I remember a time when I went there with Dan many years ago, and some of the football players were there and completely amazed me, as each ordered a (personal) large pizza for an appetizer, and then ordered a huge pasta dinner for the meal. Well, Dan and I did not order that much food, but we got garlic bread and pop and a loaded pizza. It brought back good memories of when we were much younger.

what breed of puppy are you?

***You Are a Chihuahua Puppy***

Small, high strung, and loyal.
You do best in the city with a adults - young kids could crush you!

What Breed of Puppy Are You?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatbreedofpuppyareyouquiz/

what kind of American English do you speak?

***Your Linguistic Profile:***

50% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

15% Yankee

10% Midwestern

5% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofamericanenglishdoyouspeakquiz/

how greedy are you?

***Your Greed Quotient: 8%***

You're anything but greedy. You're eager to share and give to others.
For you, collecting material possessions is more trouble than it's worth!

How Much Greed Do You Have?
http://www.blogthings.com/howmuchgreeddoyouhavequiz/

Thanksgiving dinner

Just to remember what we had.

salad

lettuce, broccoli, carrots, red cabbage, green onions, dried cherries, grated cheddar cheese, green bell pepper, cucumber, mushrooms, dressing, croutons

turkey breast

corn bread stuffing with cashews and dried cherries

turkey gravy

butter/herb mashed potatoes

corn bread

lemon poppy seed bread

garlic-cheese biscuits

asparagus with cheese salsa

macaroni and cheese

cherry & marshmallow yellow cake

cherry vanilla ice cream

beautiful day!

The freezing fog lifted this morning and turned into a lovely early winter day. It was crisp and cool and clear and sunny.

The kids brought the Christmas trunks up from the basement and put up the artificial tree for me. In a few minutes I am going to go upstairs and decorate it, as well as drink some hot chocolate. In the meantime, Dan hung the icicle lights from the gutters on the front of the house and I put some net lights on the bushes both in front and behind the house. They look gorgeous.

It is so good having three of the people I care about most in all of the world home with me.

Tomorrow the fellows will be going to a wrestling tournament. I will have the house to myself, and will listen to very loud classical music a lot of the day, as well as allowing myself the rare luxury (due to lack of time) of a long hot bubble bath.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone out there had a wonderful Thanksgiving today!

We had a peaceful day at home, a good dinner, and plenty of time to relax, despite getting a lot of work done.

As evening came, a fog bank slowly moved in, drifting through the trees. Supposedly it will become a freezing fog as the night goes on.

I am a bit tired right now, but hopefully I will time later on Friday to talk some more of the last few days, the unusual concert Dan and I went to last Sunday, and how nice it is to have Bill home for a few days. And how both kids were angels today, helping with the yard work and helping clean the kitchen.

another relaxing day

Last night a tree came down in our yard. Thankfully, it did not do anything to the electrical lines. But it did take out the phone line. So we were without land phone and Internet access for most of the day. The phone company came by in the afternoon and made a temporary fix, running a line on the ground between the pole and the house. Sometime in the next couple of weeks they will come back and do a permanent fix by burying the line and taking care of the tree, which is messing with the telephone pole.

Steven and I spent the day quietly home schooling.

Tonight he had wrestling practice at UM, and Dan and i went to the Cherry Blossom Japanese restaurant. The service was great and the food was wonderful.

Tonight Dan and I watched the dvd of Munich. Brilliantly made movie, but very depressing.

indoor soccer, good food, and relaxation

I am pretty relaxed, except when I think about having to go back to work. I really needed to relax. While I am still having some diarrhea, and some asthma symptoms, things are definitely better.

Dan is hovering over me and being very over protective. It is at once one of his most endearing and most annoying character traits. He doesn't seem to want me to leave the house this week unless he is with me to hover over me. I feel as if I am wrapped in lamb's wool.

Nevertheless, I am getting a lot of housework done, especially the laundry.

I am still working with Steven on home schooling.

I am reading a lot and have made a nice dent in my To Be Read pile.

I have also watched some movies, which always makes me happy.

Tonight I got to watch Steven play indoor soccer for the first time.

Indoor soccer is very cool! It is played on a hockey rink, but with turf instead of ice. And players are not supposed to take each other into the boards, as they do not wear any padding. It is very fast paced, and very fun to watch. It is good for Steven, as they use hockey style flying substitutions from the bench, so he can get a break whenever his asthma bothers him. It is a very cool cross between ice hockey and soccer.

After the game we ate a wonderful Italian dinner at the Macaroni Grill.

Then we went to Target for Dan to buy some shoes and to buy some bottle of Italian cream soda. We got many flavors of that. This is something we have started getting into since last summer. I have the feeling my kids are going to turn into foodies like their mother. They both love going to Whole Foods to test taste the imported cheeses.

Tomorrow Steven has wrestling practice at the University of Michigan. While he is there, Dan and I will go to the new Japanese restaurant, the Cherry Blossom. We have been wanting a chance to go there.

Tonight it is snowing. It is great to be able to just enjoy the beauty of the snow, without having to worry about having to drive in it.

              

visiting my Bilbo

After the play on Sunday, we drove directly down to Muncie, about a four hour drive. We got there a little before 9 PM and picked up Bill at his dorm.

We then went out to dinner, at the best restauraunt we have thus far found in Muncie, that great country Italian place that Dan and I found when we moved Bill into his dorm last summer. We all enjoyed dinner. It was great seeing Bill again.

We then dropped Bill off at his dorm, and went to the hotel to sleep.

Yesterday we slept in and then went to explore the Muncie Mall while Bill was in class in the morning. He called when he was done with class, and we picked him up and took him out to lunch. We had Mexican food. We then took him to the Mall for an hour or so, then we went back and did a major excavation of his dorm room to try to find a couple of missing items. We found his keys, which had been missing for a couple of weeks, and also found his student loan check for $500. Both were buried in dirty laundry. We did not find his new ipod, which is reportedly already dead (this is the third ipod which has died on him) and which we wanted to bring home to try to resurrect. But we did make sure that the check was deposited in the bank.

Then it was time to come home. Another four hour drive in the dark and gloom of early winter.

I miss my son. Today is his birthday, but today is also a day when he is in classes all day long so it was not a good day to try to see him.

 

Royal Shakespeare Company ~ The Tempest

On Sunday afternoon we went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform The Tempest. This is my favorite of all of Shakespeare's plays. I love the way love and vengeance and revenge and reconciliation are all intertwined throughout the plot. I love how what could have been a great tragedy turns itself into a happy ending. In many ways I have always felt that it is the most human of all of Shakespeare's plays, and that Prospero is his greatest character. I also have always had a great love for the character of Ariel, the spirit freed from the prison of a cloven pine, only be given another service.

This was a very unusual production of The Tempest. Instead of being set on the usual tropical island, this one was placed in the Arctic, and the spirits were portrayed as being Native American in nature. There was ice and snow and a very memorable use of a dead seal.

While every member of the cast was first rate, three really stood out. John Light, who had been so fine as Brutus in Julius Caesar, was a wonderful Caliban. Julian Bleach was an Ariel for all of the ages.

And Patrick Stewart - oh, Patrick Stewart - he was born to play Prospero. Ah that final speech. Ah, the setting free of Ariel. Ah, this is what theater should always be - a miracle before your eyes and ears and heart and soul.

are you a slacker mom?

http://areyouaslackermom.com

Your quiz results make you a Smarty Pants Mom

Smart parents like you have smart kids.  They need plenty of intellectual stimulation and you provide them with all they need, plus lots of love. You know how to help them with algebra homework, and you are superior at kissing boo-boos.

Steven's birthday

Last Friday was Steven's birthday.

We spent a quiet day. We went into Ann Arbor for lunch at Panerra Bread and to let Steven do some shopping. He is old enough now to pick out his own presents. He picked out some video games and dvd's, and a very nice Red Wings shirt.

For dinner we had salad and pizza and birthday cake and chocolate ice cream.

It was a very pleasant day.

rain, voting, & fog

Today was marked by a hard, cold rain.

Dan and I went out and voted together. In all of the years we have been married, I cannot ever remember us doing this simple thing together - driving to the polling place together and voting. We have previously always made our way to the polling station and voted separately.

With my extreme disgust of all of the corruption in politics, I mostly voted for people from the little parties (Libertarian and Green) rather than the big two. But I still went there in the hard cold rain and did my civic duty. I had a bad and pretty funny moment when I discovered that there was only a Republican and a Democrat running for state senate, and no one from the little parties. I was on the verge of writing in my own name as the ultimate protest vote, but at the last second I held my nose and voted for one of the people on the ballot. But Dan did nearly roll on the floor with laughter when I told him what I had almost done.

Three work nights down, two to go!

Driving home was very slow. There was a very thick blanket of fog, so everyone on the road just sort of crept along in their cars...