Sunday Stealing... from Melissa..

I wasn't going to post a Sunday Stealing this week but this is Melissa's and I wanted to be sure to play this..... if you wish to play along, or to read replies, go to THIS LINK

Thought-Provoking Questions

from Melissa via Marc and Angel Hack Life

1. What Are Three Things You Need To Buy?
Groceries, Paper products, and Dog Food

2. My Biggest Hope Is..... 
....that my kids will find a house where they want to live.

3. What Was The Last New Thing You Tried?
Pelagic trip on a fishing trawler to see off shore birds.

4. What Mood Were You In Today?
Pensive, with a side of Exhaustion.

5. What would be a better name for the color of goldenrod-colored paper?
That's an odd one.  I guess it could be called Rich Gold.  Not a lot of people even know what color goldenrod is anymore.  Of course, people who work all the time with color know....

6. Where did you get your silverware?
Green Stamps,  and I bought the service pieces and any other place settings from Oneida.  

7. What artifact from this past week would you have bronzed as a keepsake and heirloom?
This is rather an inscrutable question.  I don't have Bronze-able keepsakes and heirlooms anyway, and a pot holder from my mother's kitchen would be, surely, a waste of bronze.  The jewelry my daughter made is fine just as it is.  I did find some of her creations in an old show case when Mr. Z needed the cash drawer for a sale at his parent's house.  Elle did amazing, delicate, Japanese bead work.

8. What was the most recent ceremony you attended?
Formal?  A long time ago, for a rockhound friend who died of a heart attack. 
Informal gathering?  A memorial for our daughter on her birthday last year.

9. What east Asian cuisine is good for your Seoul?
I like mainland Chinese food.  And, I cooked a lot of it for my family, using Joyce Chen's recipes. She's the one who showed just how to cut hard cooked eggs perfectly in half with sewing thread.  I started using that technique for eggs and modified it to cut cake layers apart.  Works like a charm.

10. What life lesson did you learn the hard way?    
 First of all I have to look up the meaning of life lessons....
 OK.  Here's mine:  Some people can never be trusted.  
Now, if someone has been untrustworthy, it's Sayonara..no second chances. Life is too short.  Forgive them, then forget them. lol  This is for heavy duty betrayal, not the snitty sort of stuff...

11. What do you wish you spent more time doing five years ago?
Traveling and seeing the entire West Coast with my daughters.  They/we wanted to do this but it was hard to make the time.  I'd just fracking make the time.  I don't care what anyone else had to do, I'd make the time to do this ONE thing.  

12. What gets you excited about life?
I reserve any real Excitement for the Spiritual.
Well, that and a triple scoop ice cream cone of Jamocha Almond Fudge, Chocolate Mousse, and Pecan Praline.

13. Have you done anything lately worth remembering?
I've sort of been in a holding pattern over Life on Earth for awhile.
So, no....well ....I did get all the sock yarn found but not sorted.. I'm making short fingered gloves for a big project.  They are fun to make.

14. What does your joy look like today?
Oh I see, you are wanting a graph.  So, this is for today, but tomorrow could look just the opposite.  I don't  think about ups and downs anymore.  Let it be what it will be....

Don't go here as it's sad: not particularly to me, but maybe to you.....

The link is only here for the copyright info.     

15. When you are 80-years-old, what will matter to you the most?
The same things that matter the most to me right now.  

It matters that I would be able to celebrate  theirs and my birthdays by making or getting calls  from our beloved daughters, being able to hear their news, wish them well, and having dinner with my hubby.  
I also hope not to have be in a prison camp, refugee camp, or have been made to learn Chinese, or worse yet, Russian.  But that's only five years away, you say?  Well, think of how the Nazis took over most of Europe in about five years.  Just sayin'. 

Easter Parade: Saturday 9 Song.....

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

If you would like to play along in this fun meme, or see the other entries, go HERE to see the linkie.....

And... Big Thank you to Sam!

Saturday 9: Easter Parade ("In Your Easter Bonnet") (1948)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This song is about a special Easter hat to be worn with your "Sunday best." Will you be getting dressed up this weekend?
No.  Or should I say, Not that I know of....

2) Judy Garland's partner in this movie was supposed to be Gene Kelly, but he was unavailable because he broke his ankle playing volleyball. Have you ever lost a big opportunity because of a medical issue?
Yes, but not because of something that happened to myself.  

It was the summer my Girl Scout Troupe was stepping up into senior scouting from our intermediate scouts.

I was scheduled to go to Santa Catalina Island with my troop for a week.  A week before this trip was scheduled to launch, my mother nearly severed her index finger when sharpening a knife.  My poor Mother had to have an operation, and I was needed at home to help her. 

If I'd seen Catalina when I was that young, I would have disappeared to it later on in my teens.  When I finally saw it, I was completely enchanted.  Mr. Z. had family that lived there, and so it was a friendly and magical place to me.

3) Garland later confessed that, at first, she would have preferred Kelly because she knew him well and was intimidated by Fred Astaire. By the end of filming, she found she enjoyed Astaire a great deal. Can you think of a friend with whom you had a rocky relationship at the beginning?
There was one girl I met in 6th grade, whom I thought didn't like me at all.  When she came around, I always frowned and left.  After about a year of this, she surprised me by asking me, "Why don't you like me".  I was shocked!  We became friends immediately.  She was one of the sweetest people I've ever had as a friend.  We eventually were in Senior Scouts together.

4) This song was inspired by New York City's Easter Parade. Does your community host a similar event?
I don't think so.  Churches here do.

5) The biggest chocolate Easter egg was made in Italy, measured 34 feet tall and weighed a staggering 15,000 lbs. Do you thinks it's possible to have too much chocolate?
It's possible to have too much of anything, including money.  Or Chocolate.  What the dickens did they do with that egg?

6) Jelly beans are also popular this time of year. A 2013 poll tells us that red is by far the favorite jelly bean color, with yellow a distant second. Do you have a preference?
I like Jelly Bellies.  Candy has to have some "POW" to be worth eating, and, for me, jelly beans just don't do it.

7) We've been talking a lot about sweets this morning. The only holiday that generates more candy sales is Halloween. When do you eat more candy: Easter or Halloween?
Definitely Halloween.  That's when there is left over candy, and a lot of it sometimes.  We buy little chocolate bars because that's what kids around here like the best.  So, then, afterwards we enjoy eating up any leftovers.  For Easter, we don't even dye eggs anymore.  Besides, the only ones we hard cook are brown.  Hard to dye those...

8) Easter is considered the season of rebirth. What makes you feel refreshed or rejuvenated?
Taking a shower and washing my hair.  

9)  This year, April Fool's Day happens to coincide with Easter Sunday. Do you expect to fall victim to any pranks this weekend?
Someone might surprise me, but I doubt it.  We will see.........................................;o)

Happy Easter to all the Saturday Niners who celebrate it!

Thursday 13 Apollos and a side dish of National Angst...

Apollo 1-13... but first, a word from the New York Times.....

New York Article on Bolton's Early Illegal Spying on US citizens

 "It just gets worser and worser".  Did Yogi Berra actually say that?

 I think we DO have some very bad juju coming down in America.  Better get out those Kevlar umbrellas...

I'm breathing, knitting, eating cookies, and reading until I check out of this Heartbreak Hotel.
As far as a list of thirteen goes, well, I'll pick the Apollo 13 flights, when everything was half ways decent in our country, and we hadn't been taken over by the Borg.

Thirteen Apollo Missions...

Apollo 1.... a tragedy.  Like many Americans,  I wrote a letter to Gus Grissom's wife and children.

Apollo 2. a lot of frightful images of a company that makes massive chicken slaughtering machines came up. BUT,  Apollo 2 never flew, and this is not just a joke.  I wouldn't kid about something so gruesome....

Apollo 3. It was launched and carried out part of the scrubbed Apollo 2 mission.

Apollo 4  This was an unmanned mission, to test the rockets and probably some other telemetry that isn't talked about.

Apollo 5 : another unmanned mission that tested the lunar module and recovery procedures  of same.

Apollo 6  The final unmanned test of the Saturn 5 rocket and the lunar module.

Apollo 7  AKA as the Walt, Wally, and Donn Show...  The link is great.

Apollo 8  This one went around the moon with it's crew of three, and it brought them back home to the Pacific Ocean... Yay!😅



Apollo 9  This Apollo Mission took the crew and the Spider (The Lunar Module) with it and did a little dance in the face of the Moon Pixies... Not bad!  They did a bunch of other tests but you can follow the link for the whole enchilada.

Apollo 10  This flight was the second extra-vehicular space exploit for the Spider.  It was the closest mission, to date, for a flyby.  A tease in other words.  It was also a full dress rehearsal for Apollo 11's mission... Close but do not touch.  It had to be hard for the astronauts.

 Apollo 11.  Touch down!  A foot into that outer-space window/door.. and the famous "Giant Leap for mankind" mini speech by astronaut Neal Armstrong.



Apollo 12    This mission was to retrieve some of the other manned missions' bits and pieces for examination of the effect of the lunar environment on them, and to, of course, test the lunar landing module

Apollo 13   Just about every American alive remembers this mission.  And a very fine dramatization was made of it, Tom Hanks played the command Pilot, James Lovell.

And, of course, there were other missions after this, but 13 is the magic number..

And, of course, this all is a whole conspiracy to cover up the expenditure of such vast sums of the taxpayer's money on donuts and coffee for dancing girls and wild parties at the Space Agency, as well as big shopping trips to Europe and let's see.... garages full of Corvettes and Lamborghinis? 

Oooooo I like this one too...

Onion reporting on recent  NRA activism...

Where's Waldo?

Is this great or what....

San Francisco March for Our Lives

Sometimes "The Onion" is just the best thing going...

They, "The Onion", are a little gross sometimes but, Hey, that's the way of the world at this point.... but sometimes things are just fun.. Like the following....

Aside from the latest on Mark Zuckerberg preparing for the upcoming Congressional Hearings by pouring over Law Makers' personal data, there is this:

"NEWS IN BRIEF  (Here's the LINK)
Handwriting Expert Confirms Killer Used Cursive
Today 11:19amSEE MORE: CRIME

BALTIMORE—Concluding that the murderer left evidence containing a distinctive style of penmanship, police handwriting expert Elizabeth Simeon, 29, confirmed that an inscribed piece of paper found at the scene of a homicide Sunday morning was almost certainly a note written in cursive. 

“By the looks of these long, looping, interconnected shapes, which are arranged in regular proximity to one another but leave space between what I believe to be words, I’m willing bet that whoever killed this man meant for us to find this—a note, written in hand-drawn ‘cursive’ script,” said Simeon, staking her 25 years of experience in reading things on the theory that the killer had not just scribbled random lines on a sheet of paper. 

“See here, how this weird shape almost looks like an ‘F’ from a certain angle? I believe it is, in fact, an F—that’s the sort of thing we might expect from someone using cursive. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if this individual had some sort of formal training.” 
Simeon requested the services of an FBI specialist in order to decipher the note, but has, in the meantime, conducted a chemical analysis of the ink splatter and claims to be 99 percent certain the killer’s implement of choice was, in fact, a pen."  

Yes, I'm a bit shameless.  Not as bad as a Toupeé wielding narcissist who thinks he was elected king, but yes, a little shameless....

Sunday Stealing...the TMI meme

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on the WTIT Blog with Bud Weiser. Here

we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. You may have heard the expression, “honor among thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we try to credit the blog that we stole it from, if possible. We also provide a link to the victim's questions in our "Previous Victims" widget. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") Sometimes we edit the original meme, to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, to select the best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from recently asked questions from a previously post. Cheers to all of us thieves!

If you want to join in, go HERE   Thank you Bev!

1. You can flip a switch that will wipe any band or musical artist out of existence. Which one will it be?
More a Genre.... and it would be RAP...

2. You seem to be having an excellent day because you just came across a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk. Holy crap, a hundred bucks! How are you gonna spend it.
Let's see.. There is $250 of free money coming next month so this month I'm going to spend my found money on the kids.  I'll send it to them and let them decide how to spend it.

3. What is your favorite curse word
PetaK!  It's Klingon for "weirdo".  I'm going to learn some more this weekend so that I can insult a certain Suit in a Toupeé without inciting the "Wrath of Khan".  Qapla!

4. You can travel any time in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you get there?
I'd go back 80 years and keep a couple of people from EVER meeting. EVER.. guess who?

5. You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What’s it gonna be?
I will ALWAYS choose Invisibility.  It's just so, Handy....

6. When did you last use your cell phone as a flashlight?
Sometime last year.  It's handy but not that handy.  Too bright!  It is great for fixing some smallish problem on cranky cars at the side of the freeway though.

7. On a scale from 1-10, how comfy are you being naked?
Which end is more?  Well, never mind.  0 is an integer.  I choose 0. 

8. When did you last use food or drink to enhance your mood?
The last time I was hungry.  That would be around 5 tonight.. this is Saturday...

9. Give us a word that gets you excited.
Ice cream!  What?  You don't like that one.  Here's the one I put in first.  Impeachment!
Laissez le bon temps rouler!

10. Now give us one that makes you squirm.
I love words.  But I guess the word, "Filth", comes the closest to an actual raised Eyebrow over a word.  

11. What word makes you smile?

Puppy  😁   🐶

You did ask, you know......Saturday Nine

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!




Sweet Disaster (2016)

Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.

1) This video begins outside a convenience store with a sign advertising beer, produce, lotto and an ATM. Will you buy beer, produce or a lotto ticket this weekend? Will you visit an ATM?
No, and no...

2) As the video progresses, fountain drinks and donuts are consumed. When you stop for a snack during a road trip, what do you usually grab?
It would likely be something we've packed and brought along.  Or, alternatively, I would get chips or nuts, and a Root Beer or Pepsi.

3) The lyrics reference "a river of champagne." When did you last enjoy a spot of the bubbly?
Jan. 1, 2018 aka New Year's Eve. 

4) The end of the video features sci-fi/horror images. Is that a genre you enjoy? If not, what kind of books do you read most often?
I don't like Horror most anytime as I feel real life is horrible enough.  But I do like Sci-Fi.  

As to reading genre, I have always been drawn to non fiction about Economics and/or History, so that's most of what I read.  I like some Historical Fiction like,  And Ladies of  the Club. by Helen Hooven Santmeyr.  I read that one when it first came into my world and own the book.  It's time to read that puppy again!  Great Book.  
I also love a book called A Suitable Boy by Vicram Seth.  I speed read this wrist breaker back in the day...  Library copy. lol...Now that I've nailed down my own hardback copy, I'm going to tell you about it. heehee  Lordy it's such a great book! 

5) The trio that makes up The Dreamers are dyed-in-the-wool New Yorkers. If you could live in any city or village in the world, would you move or stay right where you are?
I'd like to live in any small, coastal city above Santa Barbara.  

6) The Dreamers describe themselves as "impractical."  What about you? Do you consider yourself practical or impractical?
I'm a practical dreamer.  I just need a shed load of money to get things done that I think give us a chance in hell of survival in this newly radicalized world.

7) They also won't "listen to those who doubt" them. Sometimes we find the ones who doubt us most are ourselves. What about you? Are you confident, or do you suffer from self doubt?
I'm human so of course I have self doubts.  From what I've seen over the past 70 years, having become self aware way too early, I know enough about what's good and what's bad for animals, including Humans, as we are just another animal.  For this reason, I've got a lot less doubt about what motivates us the most, and see it as evil incarnate.  That's probably a digression but there you go....

8) Do you often remember your dreams?
I do.
9) Random question: Would you rather get $100 today, or $250 on this date a year from now? 
I'd wait.  That's over twice as much, and it would go twice as far no matter the time lapse and no matter where I donate it.  Actually, I'd just give that much away and then wait for my own "payday".  I'd give it to the people who help American Veterans get off the streets.

Human Rights, and wrongs...

National Geographic did a study and a story about DWB, or Driving While Black.  The link is HERE

As a Nation, we have to address the way that police act towards ALL of us.  After all, this isn't RUSSIA.
This is OUR country.  The Rule of Law, suddenly becoming an intense debate in the Congress,  informs this whole population, that means ALL of us.  Next up on the radar will it be the Asian Americans, or the Italian Americans?

If we don't care how EVERYONE is treated here, how are we justified in being involved in International efforts to protect any minority population.   Our credibility is being flushed down the toilet if we, as an entire country of people from all over the world,  don't address this issue.  And we need to do it NOW.

Deborah Wright

She must have looked terribly dangerous to the officer who pulled her over.  She serves on the Civilian Police Commission in New Haven.

Jimmie Fallon, on the Facebook scandal.

“Facebook had a massive data breach that was connected to Russia. When users heard, they were concerned — but not as concerned as they were when their parents joined Facebook.”

I'm  sticking it on here because I just think that was hilarious, PLUS--- I'm not going to post for awhile.  I'm having trouble typing.  Maybe it's all this knitting?

I love this Painting...

Tuesday Tails of Trumpty Dumpty....UPDATED with a Link....

Yes, he has one....

and I quote a quotable from the news gatherer's of America....

Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall.....

John Brennan, a former C.I.A. director:

“When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.” 

Mr. Sulu, make it so.....

UPDATE to include this LINK to an article in the New York Times about the firm involved in the  Facebook Scandal.

And a Face Book, I told you so.....

Yes, the temptation must have just been too great.  Or, Trump's campaign had something on them.....

Facebook folds and opens again like a Flower...

Music Monday..Tommy Emmanuel’s Reverb sessions

Kiddos, you don’t know how lucky you are to live in the age of YouTube!
It took me forever to figure out how Chet Atkins got that sound.
There’s a whole series of these sessions on YouTube...  have fun!

And then there is this....  so gorgeous! And most people have no idea to whom they owe this gift...

Sunday Stealing.. Fickle in Pink

Join in the fun  HERE   
Cheers to all the Thieves!
And many thanks to Bev!


This from Fickle in Pink, which doesn't seem to be a blog any more.

1. Do you tend to have a guilty conscious?
"Tend to..." is that the first qualifier? 

"Guilty Conscience....a feeling of guilt experienced by someone who is aware of having done something wrong. She has a guilty conscience about the way she treated him."

A: No  I don't have that feeling as I don't intentionally try to hurt other people or the other earthlings.  I won't stand by and let anyone hurt an innocent human child, adult human or sentient animal.  Since Christianity was used in the past to justify the unjustifiable, I can't claim it's my Christian leadings.  It's more likely to be my Taoist/Buddhist leadings.  I would get guilt feelings from standing by and doing nothing. I'd frankly rather die..

2. Do you still have your wisdom teeth?

They are long gone, and I have the Chipmunk pictures to prove it.

3. Peanut Butter - creamy or crunchy?

creamy, but crunchy is good in cookies.

4. Get up off your butt. Take 5 steps. Which leg did you start out on?

Either one.  I always use the one closest to the space I'm moving into, because I've already stepped out onto that leg.  Is this basic training?  It's probably from playing so much basketball as a youth.

5. What color is your favorite kitchen utensil?

It's a bamboo spatula.  I make stir fry with it. So, it's Light tan, I guess.

6. Did you watch the Michael Jackson memorial/funeral?
Though I liked Michael Jackson, I am not interested in watching the funeral of any celebrity.  They live lifes that are large, privileged, and full of created drama.  May they rest in peace.
Thousands of "little nobodies" die every year, without so much as a tear being shed.  So that's the long answer.  The short is one is,  "No".

7. Do you know anyone who graduated from high school this year? Were you invited to their graduation party? Did you go?
Not this year.  Last year, yes.  We would have gone except we were headed up to Santa Cruz to see the girls, work on the Memorial for Elle, and have a little remembrance on her Birthday.  I also wanted to make sure that her sister, Bee, got to have a little celebration for her own birthday the next day.  They are a year and a day apart.  It was a very difficult year us all but especially for B, and Elle's partner.   So, no, we didn't go to the graduation party for our niece.  She's a wonderful kid but we where on our way to Santa Cruz and our Niece's party was on Elle's birthday..so we didn't go.

8. White with black stripes or black with white stripes?
What?  Are you talking about thin stripes?  Ok, I'll play.. I would like white with thin black stripes best.  I hope I'm not missing the point of this. lol

9. If we were to call your 6th grade teacher, what would they say about you?
I was smart but very troubled and had closed into myself.

10. Can you draw a perfect circle?
No, but close.. yes.  This depends on some media factors.  I can't in Paint, with a curser.  I can with a pencil when I try hard enough it's almost perfect.  But with tools......  *wink* Piece of cake.  You didn't say whether or not you could use a scribe.

11. What was your favorite scratch & sniff sticker scent?
I honestly can't stand them and they invariably make me sneeze.  Unless there is some sort of new thing other than the ones they used to put in women's magazines.  I'd get a stuffed up head just opening up the mag at the racks.

12. What does your sibling do for a living?
Neither of my siblings are still working.

13. How many light switches and electrical outlets are in the room that you are in right now?
Three

14. Do you know sign language?
I know a little.  I know how to sign, "Look at the Dirty tree".  


I also can sign "Helicopter"

and Bulldozer

This is part of a blog post here, in October 2003:
"I now know how to sign, 'Look at the Dirty Helicopter', and, 'Look at the dirty tree'.   This last one is something  that Mr Z and I like to use when anyone complains about how "dirty" a tree is that is in their yard"  I also can sign.  "Look at the Dirty Bulldozer".


15. Do you step on cracks in the sidewalk?
Oh ya.  I've already broken my own back and Mother is long since dead.

16. And the sheets on your bed look like....?
Umm.. Sheets?

Meghan Markles Doggie

And no, Wolfie doesn't sleep under the covers.  He gets to sleep on top of a fleece on top of the bed.

17. What is something that everyone else has, but you don't?
EVERYone?  There isn't a single thing that I lack that EVERYone else also HAS.  

Happy Sunday Stealing!

This takes the cake...

A quote from the White House mouthpiece....

"The only thing the President has been applying pressure to was to make sure we get this (Russia investigation) resolved so that you guys (the media) and everyone else can focus on the things that Americans actually care about.”

Does this airhead think we don’t care if Russia smoozzed Trump’s campaign and got its fingers into the desk drawers in the Oval Office?  

Saturday 9: Oh Danny Boy...Joni James

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

Audience peoples.. want to join in?  Go HERE

Saturday 9: Danny Boy (1956)

"Danny Boy" was selected in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it HERE.

(Gal, I'm glad you chose this old recording.  It's very beautiful.. :o)

1) This is a sad song of farewell. Who is the last person you said "goodbye" or "so long" to?
To my hubby, when he went to work out.

2) According to the 2000 Census, Massachusetts is the state with the largest percentage of residents of Irish descent. Have you ever been to The Bay State?
No, unfortunately, as I've probably been only as far East as Youngstown, Ohio, though Grandpa might have taken all of us fishing further into Pennsylvania.  I don't remember it.   

"The wearing o' the green" is one way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Will you wear something green in honor of the day?
Probably my green socks.  A friend from the Knitter's Guild Site made them one year, and sent them to me.  They are a pretty shade of dark olive green.  

4) What color makes you look best?
I think that Pinks or Corals look best, but Black's a big contender. 

5) Will you drink something green in honor of the day (like a Shamrock shake or a green beer)?
No, if we were up with the girls we might go have green beer.  But we've never gone up to Santa Cruz in March.

6) A four-leaf clover is considered good luck. Do you have a lucky charm?
I've honestly never felt they would do me any good, so no.  I've always just counted on. "Dumb Luck".   

From Squirrelosophy
an absolutely adorable site.

But my mother (1/4 Irish) had the uncanny knack of finding four leaf clovers like crazy.  She would dry them flat and slip them into picture frames.  It was amazing, and a knack that she didn't share with any of her kids.  She found four leaf clovers when none of us could, even as grown ups!   I only wish she'd had better luck in her personal life.

7) Though she's singing an Irish ballad, this week's featured artist, Joni James, is of Italian heritage. Can you think of a song as identified with Italy as "Danny Boy" is with Ireland?
The one and only one that I remember is, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" (better known as.."Volaré" here) that made it to the top ten in the original Italian.  It's a so called "cross over song" that was popular in the fifties.  I learned to sing this one because I loved it so much.   


The trouble with trying to remember  an Iconic Italian song, is that over half the popular singers here WERE Italians, and they sang Italian songs but sang them in English.  But Peri (Perry) Como sang in Italian and would sometimes sing them on his show.  I hope other people remember more about this.

8) Soda bread and potato bread are popular in Ireland. Are there any rolls or bread in your kitchen right now?  Yes.  But not any soda bread or potato bread.  I've made soda breads and liked them.  I've never made potato bread. Maybe it's time to try....

9) Ireland is known for its whiskey. Do you enjoy Irish coffee (black coffee, whiskey and whipped cream)?  I don't enjoy whiskey in anything.  Well, maybe the whiskey in a Harvey Wallbanger cake.  Those are good cakes.  And, I do like coffee with creme, though, only from time to  time.  It's more like a holiday treat or something,  like Viennese Coffee that has some chocolate liquor in it.

For Tomorrow, The Friday Whatever: The Irish Questions...

First off.  And a Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all my cousins out there! (In two days)

I'm probably only 1/8th Irish - or for the ease of adding up things like fractions, let's go to 32nds...  so I am 4/32nds.  I have an Irish great grandmother from Cumberland Gap.  The real McCoy, so to speak.  And we all know how inbred those guys were.  Sorry cousins,  I just have to confess.  It surely didn't look good for awhile.

Mr.Z is a quarter (8/32nds) Irish, and so the daughters got half of mine and of his... which is  6/32ths! In percentage that is 5.33333333333333333333333%

Gah, that's crazy making! Anyway, they are more Irish than I am, and less  than their daddy.  I do have red headed cousins, lots of them. So....

Pinterest, of course
So, Kiss me, I'm Irish!

And.....If you want to see a fun article about what it means to be Irish, try THIS one... "24 things you only know if you come from an Irish family"

The cousins thing got me and just made me laugh and laugh.  So true!

God I'm tired of the Bread and Circus's in Washington.  I also know who to blame.  It's that Doctor. Strangelove Crew,  hands down..... I think it's time for a little bit of this... *points down*
  ↓ 
 

 

    
FROM HERE

Thursday Thirteen: Rockhounding...Back in the Day.

1. When the Jeep was young....we took her everywhere!

We took off across the desert, following will of the wisps,  and to explore and find rocks and Treasures!

Remember, all photos enlarge with a click.  And if they don't, I am going to hunt down that feature and hogtie it.

2. Old West on the ground and 21st Century overhead...

While out in the back of beyond, this old fence caught my eye.  On some of the posts were strung lots of horse shoes from when the cavalry made encampments and roamed about.  I took a couple of them as mementos.  We actually met a retired Cavalry officer in San Diego when we delivered meals on wheels.  He told us many interesting things about life in San Diego when he was still in uniform here.

Back to the "bad lands"....Across from this fence, and down the road, was what remained of the cattle ranch- the one that put this fence up.

You can see some of the caretaker's buildings down in the canyon.  At the time there was permission to be on this land.  Of course, you should always find out if that permission is still active or not before going onto the land.  Life threatening "Issues" CAN, not don't.. Ahem.. Life threatening issues can arise that way.
When I was a child, my parents didn't do this checking thing, and we had to witness a very angry man, with a very red neck, roar up into the Wadi in his beat up pick up truck with a rifle rack, and pull said rifle on my parents.  Not typical of Arizona but very typical of most other places, like the California Desert.  Beware.  The red necks are alive and well, and now they probably are making meth.

3. Looking out across the mesas and lands
 across from the Fence in the second photo..

We were headed up to the reddish outcropping in the land cut to look for a mineral called Rhyolite.  If I'm wrong, and that's happening more and more, do not be alarmed.  Something collectible was out there.   We went on a lot of trips where we found nothing at all, so things get a little gnarly in a Rockhound's head.

The accepted definition of a rock hound is that you carry around a bag of marbles.  And, when you pick up a rock you put down a marble.  And then, when you have lost all your marbles, you are a rockhound.  True!  It's been proven many a time.

4. The destination

On the way up to the face, we also found an intrusive plug eroding by the side of the road.  It's interesting, and in fact the whole area is very interesting from a Geological stand point, because the deserts of the southwest are full of these things.

5. Decomposing Igneous plug.

6. These expanses were HUGE!

Since I don't have enough pictures from the early days of any given trip, I'm now going to shift to the focus to two more areas, one being where we drove for miles into a place, found an old mine, got stuck on a road, and didn't find what we were looking for.  I'm sort of glad we don't do this anymore. lol

The trip to an old mine face to look for material in the tailings. That's the stuff that get's left behind when a place is mined.  And, by the way, don't EVER go into an old mine.  What can look like a solid, undisturbed floor, can actually be a down shaft covered over with ever rotting beams and a layer of dirt fall.  Setting our feet on it could send you plummeting down 50 to maybe 200 feet to a lower dig, and kill you in the fall.  Or if it doesn't you will wish it had because you are out in the middle of nowhere....  You get the idea.

7. This is called Four Metals Mine.
Do not go into it.

This is a picture of another mine face.  It's more likely called a quarry.. In it was supposed to be some Blue Agate, which is really sort of gray-blue.  This mine is in the California Desert.

8.  The agate face.

9.  Breaking into the blue...

There was a lot of overhang in this place...One of the more aggressive members lodged
himself down into the opening and worked the face.  He was so greedy that he refused to yield his place for hours.  We were digging with a couple other clubs that day.  Extremely bad manners..

10. "Digging" for "Road" agates.

This one, above, brings tears to my eyes.  "A" was a grieving grandma whose beautiful teenage granddaughter had died about 6 months earlier in a car accident.  She had that hard edge of grief in her voice and, as she looked diligently for blue agates in this place along the edge of an Arizona mining road, she told me how the only place she found some peace was when she went out rockhounding.  I can completely understand this now.  Something relatively mindless and undemanding is required.

11. The foliage doesn't match a Bristlecone
But this is a very old tree.

You see all sorts of things out there in the four corner.  I absolutely LOVE the Southwestern states.  This, above, is just a very old conifer, but not a Bristlecone pine - to my knowledge.  I wish I'd gotten better pictures of this tree.  We were headed down yet another dirt road in Eastern Arizona.  When I spotted this tree, we stopped to take a photo. I'm using the Ricoh for all these.  It's not a bad camera but it gobbles up batteries!

12.  The Rock Boss! The biggest sledge
Hammer we brought!

Why do we go out there and work so hard?  This is one of the reasons.  I call it my Ocean Rock.

13.  Isn't it pretty?

Hope you enjoyed this small romp through my photo album.  It was just brilliant fun while it lasted.  Sometimes I want to be out there again, and then I think better of it.  There is a time to every purpose, under Heaven.

Fly the friendly skies? I think not.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/owners-dog-died-in-overhead-bin-on-united-airlines-flight-speak-out/

This is such an egregious abuse of the power of authority,  that I can’t imagine United Airlines hasn’t fired the attendant who claims she did not know a dog was inside the bag.  She had to know.  Dog carriers are unmistakable.  The weight and movement of the little dog inside of it HAD to be a clue as she was jamming the carrier into the overhead.  She claims she didn’t know.  Seriously! 😱🤭🤨

JUST HORRIBLE!!

Wordless Wednesday.. Tiny art patron....Ed Hines photo...I Love it!

LINK to Op-Ed by Mom

Tuesday Tails: Flamingo in San Diego (video) and the infamous Cherry Tree Rebellion.

Article about possibly Native Flamingos in Florida 

And, the Cherry Tree Rebellion, in Washington DC...  From HERE

Sunday Stealing.. Write from Karen

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on the WTIT Blog with Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. You may have heard the expression, “honor among thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we try to credit the blog that we stole it from, if possible. We also provide a link to the victim's questions in our "Previous Victims" widget. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") Sometimes we edit the original meme, to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, to select the best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from recently asked questions from a previously post. Cheers to all of us thieves!

 These questions from Karen at Write from Karen.  Karen is married and mom of two grown sons.  She says, "I believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Writing Well. (I also believe in our Constitution – Don’t Tread on my Rights, Yo)"

Hear Hear, Karen!  Don't Tread on our Rights! 


March 10th, 2018

Write from Karen

1. What’s the coolest item you’ve found at a garage sale, flea market, etc?
It was at a swap meet in the summer of 1971. I remember this because I was VERY preggers with the Twins.  The item was a brand new Teacher's Edition of the 1966 Jerusalem Bible, for $1.50.  I was almost giddy with joy!  
I still prefer it to any other new translation I've read.  I found it, well, very Quakerly, meaning "plain speaking".  I need to get it re-bound.  or maybe I'll attempt to do it myself.  .....nah..

2. Describe how your day went yesterday.
Mr. Z was away, helping his sisters get ready for a garage sale.  So, I played our MMPOLG a little, knit a little, read a little, watched a Midsummer Murder Mystery, and I cooked and ate some Udon noodles with soy sauce and toasted sesame oil for lunch.  Yummy!  

3. Do you have issues with people entering your personal space? What do you do when your personal space is violated?
Well, I don't normally have a personal space, at least not one I'm aware of.
However, if some lurching drunk were to sit down on a park bench next to me and start to snore as he or she snuggled up to me, I would be affronted, though, so I'm sure that I DO have a sense of personal space.  Good grief that is a long sentence.

4. What is the one meal recipe you think you’ve mastered?
Having to pick one is hard.  But I'll go with Enchiladas Verdes de Pollo.  I used flour tortillas made from my grandmother's recipe.  Now you've done it!  I'm hungry!

5.  If you could take back something you did to someone, what would it be?
I wouldn't have spanked my two older kids, EVER.  It wasn't necessary at all.  I can't remember even spanking the twins, but by then I was a lot wiser, and a much better mom.

6. Would you describe yourself as spiritual, religious, or something else?
I just answered this one. Spiritual follower of Christ, in a Quakerly fashion.. there the last bit is new.  I'm also leaning more toward Buddhist and Taoist, you see... 

7. Did you ever receive detention in school? What sort of kid were you in school – bookworm, smart kid, troublemaker, quiet … etc.
No.  I never did a spell of detention.  But, I had a tough time.  Not getting abused there by either the teachers or classmates until, that is, moving to a more "enlightened" school district at the end of the 10th grade.  So, I ended up being bookish, high achieving, and very quiet except around my friends.  My friends were mostly other Girl Scouts.  They were very cool friends.    

8. When’s the last time you ran a mile? How often do you exercise?
I no longer run, and that would have been since I had my knee replaced in October, 2011.  I also haven't been exercising since my daughter died.   My exercise plan is now to play Wii tennis and follow Tai Chi, and they are likely the things I'll do for the rest of my life.  I can no longer stand to be in a gym.

9. What would you say to your 16-year-old self, and why?
"Eventually, I promise, you will be happy." Why?  Because I was going through the toughest part of being a female in my family.  School wasn't any fun either so my whole life felt like Shlock and shoved in it.

10. What are you avoiding?
I avoid thinking about being blamed for things that happened years ago, when someone I love doesn't know enough about the situation to judge correctly, though my sister and husband know the truth of it.  My friend Carol also helped me with this, because she knows the truth.  She walked that part of my life with me, too.  Her loved ones also fell victim to it.  So, now, I just remind myself, "This, too, shall pass" and I try to be bullet proof again.  But God knows; it's hard.

11. Describe a “Hah! I told you so” moment you had recently.
I wish I had that opportunity. lol

12. What’s more important, where you live or what you do for a living? Why?
Since I know that I'd have been a lot happier somewhere else, I'd say where you live is more important.  Of course, this isn't true for everyone.  Just for those like me.

13. Swear words: Are you pro or con? Why?
I'd rather not cuss, ever.  But,  I've found that I AM more prone to it these last two years. I need to stop.  Why?  I think there are better, and more effective, ways to express anger than loosing your lashing tongue.....

14. Paper or plastic? Do you prefer to pack your own groceries?
California no longer allows plastic one use bags for Groceries or other large retailers.  And when I do the shopping, I'm happy to have someone bag them up for me.  
We use the newer fabric bags.  Freight Outlet also has Boat Bags that cheap, washable, fabulous, and last forever.  I like to stash things I buy, like yarn, into them.

15. Do you have a shoe fetish? How often do you buy new shoes? Do you ever get rid of a pair of shoes?
I used to like shoes a lot when I was younger but never had more than a dozen and a half pairs, which also included my Hiking boots.  Now I don't wear them very much.  I did just get a new pair of Tevas, the first new pair of any type of shoe, besides Sketchers slippers, in four years. and yes, I have sent many of my shoes away, to the Goodwill store, over time....

If you wish to join this meme, Go HERE

Saturday Nine: "On and On".. and a wee rant which doesn't go on and on....

Pretty Song!  Thanks Sam!  I love this singer.

Everyone:  If you'd like to join in this fun MEME go HERE

On and On (1977)
Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.

1) This song describes the plight of "poor ol' Jimmy," who caught his girlfriend kissing someone else. Have you ever spied on a romantic partner? 
Nope  

2) In this song, Stephen Bishop sings that he "smiles when he feels like dying." When did you recently put on a happy face, even though you really weren't all that happy?  
I wasn't all that happy at Christmas Eve, but I was happy enough.  I like spending that holiday eve with my niece's family as well as others.

3) Stephen Bishop always wanted to be a musician, and as a child he began playing the clarinet. Did you take lessons -- dance, art, music -- as a child? If yes, did you take them because you enjoyed them, or because your parents made you take them? 
My parents were, frankly, too poor to give any of us lessons in anything.  My art started before grade school, and so did my singing.  They were a couple of things I was born with a bent for....

4) When he was 12, inspired by The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, he switched to the guitar and began writing songs. Tell us about someone or something that influenced your career path.
 The biggest influence was when Ike organized the IGY, or International Geophysical Year in 1958.  It was the biggest influence, well along with my artistic ability, that influenced my choice of career(s).  Of course... "the best laid plans of mice and men..." was prophetic for me as well as millions of other people in my generation.  People before us, including my grandparents, who weren't east coast billionaires, had to deal with The Great Depression.  

5) Stephen Bishop attended Will C. Crawford High School in San Diego. This school requires students complete 20 hours of community service every year. Tell us about an organization, cause or campaign you volunteered for, either as a student or an adult.  
Uptown Interfaith Service Center.  At the time I volunteered there it was an agency set up to help the homeless, by giving them an address so that they could send and receive their mail and also to receive counseling.  
We provided support for families and for single people to find all available services so that they could have a roof over their heads, a bed for the night if possible, and hot meals.  It was a co-ordinated effort of several churches, thus the name, and was right across from Balboa Park, where a lot of the homeless congregate.
Also, we handed out hygiene supplies and a few other things.  We put them in touch with out patient services.  
The Center has grown an awful lot since I volunteered there. I am so happy to see this.  It is a very good charity. 

6) In 1977, when this song was popular, Seattle Slew won racing's Triple Crown. Sam's mother has always been afraid of horses. Is there an animal you're uncomfortable with?
 I'm just a little afraid of sharks.  I mean the big ones.  The Giant basking and nurse sharks, and small species,  I'm fine with...

7) Also in 1977, moviegoers waited in line for hours to see Star Wars. What's the longest line you waited in recently?
Recently?  None.  Within the past five years that would be the DMV... but  I don't "do" long lines anymore.  

8) The mini-series Roots first aired in 1977. Today Americans are spending more time and money than ever to research ancestry. How far back can you trace your family tree? 
From my paternal grandmother, I learned a lot of names, places, and a family tree rooted in America back into the 1500's, and even further back to both France and to Spain. As to the Native American, or the remaining Europeans amongst my mother's kin, not so much.  I have the Welsh, Irish, Scots, British and Dutch clocked back just three generations, some to the Cumberland Gap McCoys.  One of my non-linear Great, Great, Great, Great etc etc Uncles was one of the Jesuit Priests killed in an Indian raid in Maryland in the early 1600's..  His brother came to the new world later, with Cortés..

9) Random question: It's often said that nobody's perfect. How about you? What quality keeps you from being perfect?
All of them....I am perfectly imperfect in everything.  However,  I used to have perfect English manners, taught to me by my Mother.  They are pretty much gone except for my table manners which are still almost perfect. Tacos, pizza, Pita sandwiches... oh my...  

Otherwise, I guess you could say that I'm just too uppity for perfect manners!  I would likely scream at the top of my lungs at people in office if they were in earshot.  They better keep their bloody hands of the People's "Stack".

"Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the Right- Here I am, Stuck in the Middle with you."

"Money, get back

I'm all right, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack.

Money, it's a hit

Don't give me that do goody good bullshit

I'm in the high-fidelity first-class traveling set

And I think I need a Learjet"

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!