And Visions of Munchkins Lurking in my Head

Christmas is done, the New Year has started and I'm grateful the hooplah is over with. As a kid I loved the season and even when I was a young mother I looked forward to the season. Now its dealing with a cluttered house, grumpy husband and the stress of the finacial aspect of it all. So to help eliminated some of it for next year, I've already started buying gifts for next year from the sales this year. (And I have found some skookum gifts for very reasonable prices) Next year Hubby is going up north to his family and I'll stay back with my family. As for the clutter, I've already planned out what is going to be out next year and where. Hubby's villiage is going to have a different spot because one of the trees will be in its place to shake things up a bit.

What has been taking up most of our lives these days, has been the theatre. I'm at rehearsals now between three and four times while Hubby is working on the sounds. I came home one night to my house sounding like we had been invaded by cows. Hubby's work space is the basement (loosely termed, more like dug out with cemented floor) which has the furnace and all the duct work. It being metal, it carries the sounds he is working on all through the house. My house has been full of chicks, cows, wind, explosions and my favourite the dog barking. He had all the dogs in a tizzy looking for the dog barking somewhere in the house. Even the two little ones got in on the action of course started by GiGi. Lucky me, he has now moved on to the monkey and gorilla sounds for the Winkies. I've gone from a farm to a zoo. No wonder the house is in a pickle.

This production has been the most challenging play we have done so far. Not only for the cast but for the crew as well. Technical wise our director has set her sights higher than some of us have gone before but hey, we don't know what we can do until we try. Not only does the cast have kids but a dog as well. The two things that send shivers down directors' backs. WC Feilds I believe said he would never work with either. Its in a way asking for trouble as you never know what they will do or say. You know, we really lucked out. I'm hoping a couple stick around as permenant members. A couple have behaveral problems, hell I have behaveral problems but we work with it rather than against it.

Three kids in peticular have wormed their way into my heart. One is a great little boy with loads of talent but a little unsure. Another is a fifteen year old who is very lovely but very introverted. The third happens to be a little boy who is nothing but all heart with his lines and singing. They are all great kids but those three are the ones that I like to see smile. The coolest thing is watching these kids blossom. And on the whole they are well behaved. Can't ask for anything more.

I will how ever be glad when its done. I have a membership list to put together in a simple manner, a book to finish, artwork to be finished and a house with dustbunnies still rampaging.

Artist just dropped by. She is in town awaiting the birth of her grand child. Times are changing yet again. But I think this little one arriving soon, is the sign of a new beginning. A beginning that will be very welcomed by all.

Good Morning Everyone

I've only tried to update my blog for three weeks now but every time I sit down to do it, the phone rings, the door knocks, a dog throws up or something is burning. (Usually the coffee from boiling over) It seems as Christmas nears, my time gets less and less. Its even worse now that I'm rehearsals for Wizard of Oz. Not that I'm complaining, it just seems to be.

Today for example, I am decorating two trees, one of which is fibre optic and the other I just got the lights on last night. They have been standing for three days. I also have to house clean, attack dog nails with a machettee, laundry plus Hubby will be coming home for lunch to disrupt what ever rhythm I have going. It feels like for every hour I am out of the house, it takes me three to catch up. But I think that just goes with the territory of this household. Did I mention the theatre stuff too? I'm not quite sure what will get done today but something will. Even if its the dishes and I beat Hubby's time at Mariokart.

My delete button has decided to quit. I'm pretty sure it's a silent protest as the poor thing lately has been ignored. That and one of the dogs mauled my glasses and now they sit crooked with teeth marks in the upper corner of the lens. Not any where that impairs my vision, but just detectable enough that it pulls at my attention. Never mind...I just cleaned my glasses, apparently it was dirt.

So I am going to step up to Scribble's Soap Box and have a little vent. You see we have been watching TV lately. Hubby has found a four channels that are English and not religious. On these channels they sell everything from diet food to case law suits. But I think the automatic egg breaker was the one that sent me for a loop. I was insulted as a cook. They show hands and people smashing eggs like they are spastic. Then they show people pulling egg shells from their food. Of course they add the hard to peel boiled egg. First what kind of idiot, smashes an egg into to the frying pan and only fresh eggs are difficult to peel when they are hard boiled. When was the last time anybody got a fricken fresh egg from the grocery store? And somebody thinks this was a good idea.

Then the "Shaker" comes on. This is a dumbbell weighted with springs and you shake it to help reduce those problematic arm flabs. It only takes six minutes a day. One twit comments how she can see the definition the first try. So how stupid are we or is it just the camera that turns people into morons? Ladies, you want to reduce the arm flab, hang your clothes on a clothes line, make bread instead of buying it, pound cabbage into sourkrout, beat muffins by hand rather that using the mixer and if you really feel the need to work out, wash walls. Have people really become this sedentary that we need dumbbells with springs to do it for us? I'm really worried about the average person. At least its not a pre stuffed turkey or meal in a bag.

Although the diet meals were pretty bad. They send you a month's supply at a time. And the great thing is, all the prepared meals without the worry of counting or cooking. Okay...so what happens when you have lost all the weight you want and you have to eat and cook regular food? I'm a kind of thinkin, all that weight is going to find you again and fast. Instint weight loss, instint weight gain and then harder to lose later on.

Everything is so instint. Kids get impatient when their not text messaged right away. All these prepared foods is killing, good old fashioned cooking, because we want it now. And we wonder why stress is the number one killer. We fret and stress because we want it now but we have to wait that minute or two for what ever we are waiting for. Am I the only one who sees the stupidity in this. At least Algerian TV only sells Persian Rugs.

I'm off the soap box and staring at the walls that need to be vacuumed. It's the problem with textured walls. They collect dust bunnies that bungie jump. Its the Christmas dust bunnies I like. They have icicle tinsel from God knows where, (as I haven't used icicle tinsel ever) all intertwined with the hair. Personally I like the red and green glittered ones. They reflect the lights from the Christmas tree as they roll by my feet begging for the broom and dust pan.

I guess I know what I am doing today

Coffe Break #1835

So Hubby comes home the other night and announces he bought a hot water heater. An electric hot water heater. We just put in the one that we had stored for five years in a couple of months ago. One can imagine my surprise at another one coming in the door. His plan now is to convert the house to electric power only. Great idea Einstien but what happens during a black out? My idea was to have an alternate heat source like...say...maybe...Wood that is renewable and I can cook on. Silly me, I forgot, there's the fire pit in the back yard. And if it happens in the winter there is all the snow we can melt. I'll probably play it safe and avoid the backyard for snow collecting.

I've had to do it before. But getting water from snow is like making ketchup. Your canner will be full of snow and the end result is a quarter of what you had before. But it was a good thing I had listened and learned to boil every flake of snow for more than five minutes. Why? I'm not sure but its what my Gramin told me to do and I did it.

I compare snow to ketchup because ten pounds of tomatoes resulted in two pints of Ketchup. Now the taste is worth it. The exploding jar, the not so right ingredients, completely ignoring the recipe and having to learn how to actually can a jar was all worth it. Except for the fact it took me all day making two little batches resulting in two jars to show for my effort. Hubby only reinforced the feeling of defeat when he looked at the ketchup and said "That's it? You look like there should be more." Isn't he a darling.

I will be glad when this play is over. I can feel my brain wanting to have its rest. I just have to keep going until next Saturday when it last curtain call. Its been very hard work this play for the main characters. Mine was only a bit part, thank God because sitting in the president's chair for the next two years is going to be grueling enough without the added stress of a production.

I've already managed to tick of three other executives in my over enthusiasm to get things done and have rethought packing it in, at least twice and I've only held the chair for little over a month. Its that retoric in the back of my head "What the %^&$ was I thinking?" I wasn't. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But I took it on and so forge ahead I will. Tally Ho and all that crap. My English ancestors just flipped in their graves. The Italian side is cheering me on. I think I'm worried.

Dear Randy

It's coming up to a year now Randy. The impact of your life hasn't left us, nor has the pain of losing you. It has become my husband's mistress. I know that Time is only an idea of Man, and that you are only a heartbeat away from the rest of us. It is the hidden doors of dimensions that keep us parted from you. Death is always hardest on the living as we tend to hold on.

Things are different down here now. Some of us have tried to move on and accept that which we cannot change. Some of us have found comfort in each other's arms as the link to you but there are the ones left behind like your brother who carries the pain deep and close. I was very angry at you for taking a part of my husband with you that can never be returned. But the anger has subsided with the knowledge that life is circle, it always continues. We see it in the faces of your nieces and nephews. We hear it in their laughter and the in cries of the newborn. The next genreation will know about their Great Uncle.

Trying to make sense of it all has been very difficult. There has been no words of reason and the question why we put this in the blueprints of our lives has only made things harder...

But somewhere between sun up and sun down I have realized we aren't supposed to make sense of your death. It was just part of your's and our's blueprint. And I realize that we are far from your thoughts as you have moved on into a world that we hope to join someday. You no longer feel aches, pain, saddness or even anger. You are getting ready, planning some future life in which we will all share with you again as we have in the past. You just beat us to the Hall of Records. Its our blueprints that hold us here to finish what we started.

Do me favour old friend, whisper to me the words to make this better for your brother. You know I listen to the wind. It carries the voices from afar. And should you chose to be silent, I understand, but I shall always be listening just in case.

This Hallow's Eve, I shall be lighting a candle in your name. Look for it if you can. We miss you. We love you. And maybe...just maybe...instead of the wind, we can meet in the dream state and have a conversation. You know my door is always open to you and there will always be a cup of coffee waiting at my table for you.