What's the Neighborhood Coming To?

You just never know what's going on behind closed doors. You do normal stuff like drive your car home and park it in the driveway.You see kids innocently playing with each other around the neighborhood.




You do normal stuff like weed your flower bed while daily life carries on all around you. You see people come and people go, and it feels like all is right with the world.







Then the police knock on your door at 8:00 on Sunday morning and you see your neighbor across the street shoved into the back of a police car, handcuffed and driven away. You also see a yellow police tape pulled all around his property and cars. You watch 7-8 detective types stand out in front of the house for 2-3 hours until a Crime Scene Investigation van pulls up, they all don their blue, vinyl gloves and enter the house aka "crime scene". You witness two giant tow trucks back into our narrow street to load up the two vehicles and take them away. You see television camera crews move in to take video of the house from every conceivable camera angle. You even agree to be interviewed and by doing so, you learn from the reporter the word "murder" is polluting that same innocent neighborhood air the kids were just playing in. You learn from another neighbor that the kids were taken away by Children's Services at the same time their dad was arrested by the police (their mom apparently wasn't home). That's an improvement over what you were thinking because you hadn't seen them at all and were imagining the worst.

You shake your head over it and realize that those nice looking people across the street truly are merely strangers when it comes right down to it. Those mornings when she was sitting on the front steps with her head in her hands start to make more sense. In this case, I'm glad they are now out from behind closed doors.

So Much Pain, So Much Love

How often do each of us think about those who are starving while we are eating this?







How often do each of us reflect on the situation of those like her...........while we are comfy, cozy in our lovely homes with all our modern conveniences and our loving families?







How often are we thankful, period?

Baby Day

All I have to say about today is that it was full of babies and that makes it a great day. We met my cousin's 3 month old baby, Luke, for the first time and he was a cutie. At one point, he and Beckett were laying on the floor just looking at each other, of course I didn't get a picture so you'll have to take my word for it.

The day started a little rough when my parents were an hour late and I took off, traveling the route they would have driven there, thinking I was going to find them broken down somewhere or worse, but I got called back within 10 minutes because they showed up. (They came the back way so I had missed them.) It turns out they had misread the invitation and thought they were supposed to be there at 1:00 for a 2:00 dinner instead of 12:00 like the rest of us. Scary but it turned out ok. I swear I'm going to buy them a cell phone, I hate not being able to reach them when they are enroute somewhere. Anyway, we simply at Mother's quiche for dessert. All's well that ends well.

Off to Netflix...

Work Stuff

Today and actually this entire week everyone has been very tightly wound, yes, just like these lovely folks in this picture.

And if everyone is tightly wound what happens if something doesn't go right or someone complains...right, the anger ball unwinds and blows up!

And that's what this week has been like, lots of blowing up and nothing constructive getting done. Everyone just running around complaining about everyone else. Yuk! Where's my lottery ticket?

Rewind

This is now the third time I have tried to publish this blog. I think that is a sign that I was far too morose in my previous attempts so I'll lighten up and shorten up. Suffice it to say, while I sit here with my never ending typing, my "better half" is in the other room, portraying a real, live... >
that's right - COUCH POTATO - exposed stomach and all.

Not only that, his bad influence has now resulted in another member of our household following suit... >

So, I'm looking for a local chapter of TVAA that will help them to get beyond their extreme addictions.

I don't know, it may be hopeless...

Urgent Care vs. Primary Care

By yesterday my daughter had become quite ill and decided she needed to go to Urgent Care because she couldn't handle another night of no sleep and not being able to breathe. So, the family drove to the nearest Urgent Care Clinic (she couldn't get in to her doctor soon enough) and were told it would be about 2 hours before they could see her. So, they drove home and I took her back around 2 hours later since the baby was already in bed.

First of all, the number of people who use Urgent Care, not to mention Emergency, as their primary care provider blows my mind. There were some true urgencies in the room like a tow-headed little boy with bright red cheeks who was crying because it hurt so bad and my daughter. But mostly there were low-income people in the room who don't have primary care doctors and use these facilities for all their aches and pains.

If you think about it, this serves them similarly to a national health care system because they simply have to wait their turn for service. And I have to say the service that is provided is pretty cookie cutter, i.e. everyone gets the same antibiotic, the same inhaler, etc. I may be oversimplifying somewhat but I don't think I am completely.

The other thing is if you ever want to get sick, this is the place for you. The perfect atmosphere of hacking, coughing, sneezing, blowing of noses, it's all there in stereo, all ages, all sizes and all genders (yes I meant to say it that way).

I don't really know where I'm going with this other than to say that this is one of my top ten places to avoid unless of course I need immediate health care assistance. Then I'll be in there waiting with every other sad individual who has hours to spend waiting for the cookie cutter to be applied to me.

Germs away!

My Day Yesterday

I can sum up my Saturday in just five words, I simply adore my grandson! Why, you ask? Well, they say pictures speak louder than words so here you go...





















My eternal thanks to my daughter and son-in-law for gifting our family with such a sweet, darling boy who I'm quite sure will be a piano virtuoso someday!

As I said, there's nothing else for me to say because these photos say it all.

Strange But True

What do these three individuals, okay famous individuals, have in common? No, they aren't on Dancing With the Stars and no, they aren't guest judges on American Idol, and no, they aren't guest starring on Survivor or on The Simpsons. However, they are all featured in Disney's most recent advertising campaign.

Beckham plays Prince Phillip (of Sleeping Beauty fame). Beyonce plays Alice (of Alice in Wonderland fame), bizarre but true. And Scarlett Johannsen plays Cinderella (at least she and DB have the right look) wearing a 62-carat diamond and platinum Harry Winston tiara worth a paltry $325,000. And all this is only for a few commercials. Kind of makes you wonder what these little 1 1/2 or 2 minute commercials might lead to.

So, a little Disney news, you can tell they are working to do some cutting edge stuff, always a good thing. Hard to keep up with Dreamworks, Pixair, etc.

In the meantime, here's hoping all your dreams come true...

Which Color?

In about a month, we'll be having the inside of our house painted, it's been four years since we moved in and it's time to retire the gold, the gold, oh and by all means the gold walls.

So the big dilemma is, what colors? We have about 7 rooms that need to be re"surfaced", including the repair of some lathe and plaster cracks (old, old house) so we are looking forward to some color variety. But now the problem is, everyone has an opinion on the colors and whatever colors I choose seem to be the wrong ones. I'll admit, the suggestions from my daughters have been good ones so we won't be finalizing the look until we have their approval. Hmm, the tables have definitely turned.

If we're really lucky, someone will want to buy our dining room furniture and we'll be in good shape for the redo of that area of the house. Now all we have to do is to figure out how to post pics on Craig's List, it can't be that different from posting on here, right? Sometimes I feel so pitifully dependent.

Well, so begins another week of work. At least the sun was out today, but it was cold. It's always strange to be outside with tulips, daffodils, crocus and pansies but have to wear a warm coat because it's so cold. Nevertheless, I'll take cold and sunny over warm and rainy or worse yet, cold and rainy. Anytime Spring wants to settle itself in will be fine with me. It could certainly be worse, "The Day After Tomorrow" is on tv and they are walking through 12-15 feet of snow. On second thought, I'm fine with this weather. Have a great week!

Starting Over

Every Spring, all the weeds in the world land in our yard. Ok, it may only seem that way but there are countless weeds to eliminate and numerous dead plants to replace. So my intention is to go from this weed patch to thiswithin a couple of months. Alright, I'm kidding, no matter how many weeds I pull, I'll never have the Hampton Court Palace gardens in my backyard but I am planning something more along the lines of the photo below.

OK, I'm still slightly hallucinating but our backyard does actually look very cool once it is completely cleaned up and replacement plants are in. It just takes a tremendous amount of effort to make it happen each year. The irony of it is we don't even have any grass, it's all rock and plants with a pond in the center and lots of trees. So, I'm beginning to get my head back in the game, preparing to meet the challenge, starting with picking out a bunch of plants for my friend's daughter's fundraiser. That means I need to be ready to go at the beginning of May when all those plants arrive at my door.

Hopefully I'll find a way to discourage certain squirrels who will remain nameless from digging everything up and certain raccoons who will also remain nameless, except maybe for confounded pests, from pulling baskets down, drowning squirrels in our pond and just making general, noisy, obnoxious nuisances of themselves.

If anybody out there has any sage advice, it wouldn't fall on deaf ears.

The Holiday

Speaking of holidays, I just watched "The Holiday" last night i did this because I've been urged repeatedly by countless thousands (well, maybe not quite that many) to watch this movie. So, I did. Let me first say that Kate Winslet totally drew the short straw. I mean what lame brain decided on this casting?


Did anyone really believe she would be totally happy with Jack Black, puhleez!
He must be friends of the producer or director, that's the only explanation I could come up with. Oh, and let's make it even more unbelievable/inplausible and have him bouncing back and forth between beautiful women because he can't make up his mind between Kate Winslet and some totally without moral fiber model type. Come on, Kate, don't settle!


But that's not the whole story. Oh no! Cameron Diaz definitely got the super-duper bonus end of the deal as I would classify it. That would come in the shape of ... that's right, you guessed it, Mr. Jude Law, complete with two adorable little darlings (he played the schizo single dad role). Unfortunately they didn't post pictures of the two wonderful little girls, Sophie & Olivia, and their starry tent on Google but they were truly one of the highlights of the film.

The other true highlight of the film came in the form of an octogenarian (actually I think he may be in his 90's but I coudn't remember the term for that), Mr. Eli Walloch. He played a great old codger role and I thought Kate got the best of the two women's parts by far considering her opportunity to interact with him. I'm sure that was a kick for her in reality although the whole Jack Black ordeal not to mention the really ugly British pseudo-boyfriend with wierd, caved-in cheek bones would have put something of a damper on her enjoyment.

I caught myself laughing out loud (very unusual for me and didn't even realize I was doing it until all of a sudden I heard myself) a few times. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I laughed at in retrospect, possibly Mr. Napkin-Head. I'll have to try that when Beckett gets older.

In parting, I would say that this movie is worth seeing once but did not include the next Google image found under this "The Holiday" category, I simply wanted to include it just because it looked like something Kara would do to a helpless animal or nephew (similar to the lime cat helmet). I'm wondering if the cat was drugged?



And as long as I'm drooling over Jude Law, once again, I don't know why this particular image was under this category but I'm never one to pass up a serendipitous opportunity like this, I'm sure you'll agree.


:)Sweet dreams(:

Easter Eggless

My plan is to celebrate Easter this year with no Easter candy or baskets in evidence. Instead, we will do stickers, temporary tatoos, paints, chalk, and that's just for the kids. Beckett will of course receive baby stuff because that's all he wants/needs right now.

Older and wiser kids will actually see no resemblance to Easter in what they get other than the fact that they are getting it at Easter. In fact one aspect of it will remind them more of Valentine's Day just to throw them off (there also weren't any Easter- type options).

Why is it that we always equate Easter with a white rabbit? After all, rabbits don't lay eggs, they probably don't even like eggs. Anyway, I have no eggs nor any rabbits to offer this Easter but the goodies are already hidden and will provide only a slightly challenging hunt tomorrow since it appears it will have to be held indoors. I don't think that will be a huge issue, I think the stuff will be of more interest. Although there may be some notice taken of the lack of candy.

I do have fun with this holiday, I must admit it. Of course the one who is youngest and won't know it from any other day is getting the most. But that is inevitable isn't it? It's difficult to limit yourself when it comes to babies, alright kids in general.
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Judi Dench was so marvelous in the second version of Pride and Prejudice. I can't think of any other actress who is as versatile as she is, from "M" (Bond films) to Lady Catherine de Bourg (P&P) to Mrs. Brown (Queen Victoria) to Queen Elizabeth (Shakespeare in Love) to Armande Voizin (Chocolat) to Ursula (Ladies in Lavender). She is absolutely one of my favorites.

I would also say that this newest version of P & P introduced me to a new actor who has most definitely taken my fancy. I resisted watching this newest one for a couple of years simply because I felt so ridiculously loyal to the Colin Firth version of Mr. Darcy.

Well, I now have a new appreciation for variety, believing it is truly the spice of life. Because, Matthew Macfayden totaly nailed the part too! I need to give some credit to the director as well who took a beautiful and artistic approach to this production.

Now that I look back at this blog, only I could jump from Easter baskets to Pride & Prejudice. Of course, you could say that this movie would serve as an Easter basket for me so maybe it makes more sense then I'm giving it credit for. What can I say, I'm the biggest sucker for romance in existence, and proud of it.
Ah, Mr. Daawcy...

What Do I Think?

I just finished watching Shopgirl (from this point referred to as SG) and I'm trying to decide what I think (thanks, Kara). The subject of the story is blatantly obvious but it's the relationships she has that are interesting to me. I know there must be countless morals to the story so I'm going to run through all the possibilities.

Now if you've seen the movie you can feel free to disagree with me or better yet, post some of your own ideas. That's the cool thing about movies, books, music; it's the viewer/reader/listener who gets to decide what it means to them, no one can dictate that. And there is no wrong answer...

• Things are not always as the seem.
• Never judge a book by its cover.
• Listen to what is actually being said, not just what you want to hear.
• Sometimes less is better.
• You don't really value what you had until it's gone.
• Love is to be shared; one way relationships will fail.
• Enjoy the moment, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
• Listen to your heart.
• Material things are no substitute for true love.
• Don't follow the advice of others, be true to yourself.
• Make a choice and stick with it.
• Footloose and fancy free.
• Being with someone young makes you young.
  

The story opens with SG looking for love in all the wrong places so sure enough she finds the first one in a laundromat. His name is Jeremy and he's so weird he's almost scary...he actually looks alot better here than he does in real life, I think it's the significantly reduced size of the picture. So they're going along but she never really gets him (because he's dancing to a different drummer) so then all of a sudden, this old guy (Steve Martin) puts the moves on her at work.

It's never really clear how that happened, all of a sudden he's just there buying her stuff and miraculously getting her address to mail packages to her. I guess you could say there's a weird side to him too. Anyway, there's alot more that happens, it was just a different movie and I felt the need to jot down my thoughts on it.

Since Steve Martin wrote the novella it was based on, and it was produced by him, and he starred in it, I'm assuming he chose the cast. It almost felt a little along the lines of "Lost In Translation". Definitely a midlife crisis book, in my opinion. Gotta be free to be me. Whatever. I don't mean to make this sound like a bad movie, it was just written from a middle age male point of view. It really reinforced the fact that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, no doubt.

Spring Has Sprung!

This morning while I was getting ready I could hear the birds singing in the trees outside my window, including some babies I think waiting to be fed. You couple that cheerful sound with blooms and blossoms everywhere you turn and it's true, Spring is really here. How can anyone not be in a great mood when you're surrounded by this beauty?You know how you glance out the window throughout winter and see nothing but bare, black, tree skeletons and dead plants around the yard and you feel like your surroundings will never be green again. Everything appears to be a dismal shade of gray. Then, when Spring actually hits, it's just that much better, isn't it?

I'll admit my moods are almost entirely governed by the weather, sad but true. It is extremely difficult for me to work up any energy on a grey day (Yes, I know, I used both gray/grey spellings in the same Blog - c'est la vie). It's all about those pheromones, so do you want to see what they look like? Well, there's the scientific version...

Then there's the body building version...
I keep telling you, Google images are fantastic and definitely weird.






Then there's the musical version...Take your pick, they do the trick. Ta ta!