To Hang the Lights or Not

When I was a wee child we never had Christmas lights so when I grew up I thought I should. I tried out one string on the garage roof in Albuquerque. That was good. I wished for a whole house lined with lights but one string was better than none. When we moved to the great white north we bought a house with wickedly high roofs. You would need a cherry picker to line the house. I settled for the the garage roof again. I dangled off our six foot step ladder hanging icicle lights. I almost gave the construction workers next door a stroke one year hanging lights in a snow storm. They were quite sure I was going to end up flat on the driveway. I didn't but it was touch and go. One year Karl dangled off the ladder for me but that was just as dangerous for any number of reasons. Last year I hoisted some lights up on our trees using a broom. Well a broom and a ladder. None of these attempts has ever been really satisfying. They aren't satisfying because a few trees or the front door and the garage roof is not the whole house! What I want is icicles dripping from every roof line or better yet the whole house outlined in magenta lights...

Of course after the holidays you have the problem of how to get them down. Taking lights down in a snow storm is not nearly as entertaining as putting them up in a snow storm. And by January ice has built up on the driveway adding an extra element of fun. And then there are all the complaints about wasted electricity. But the more I write the more I realize I will need those lights again maybe just to the break the gloom of December.

Originalist Thanksgiving

In 1602 Jamestown settlers sailed the ocean blue. That first November the happy and perhaps starving newcomers sat down to their very first Thanksgiving dinner. Since they were far from the New England forests filled with turkeys, but close to the ocean, it was crab cakes they enjoyed! Following this tradition we too will sit down to an originalist dinner of crab cakes. And ginger sweet potato soup, swiss chard, mashed potatoes, corn spoon bread, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, ginger bread trifle, and apple sour cherry pie. Notice the happy abundance of desserts! Perhaps not an option for the Jamestown folks, but when it comes to dessert, we draw the line! Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Books and Owls

From time to time my electronic things let me down. This month tragedy occurred when my Kindle ( electronic book) went kaput. It was fine and then one night I turned it on to read before going to sleep and it had a horrible blank line across the screen. The blank line grew until half the screen didn't work. I stared at it in gut wrenching dismay.... I am happy to say everyone is awake at Amazon at midnight and they are most sympathetic. You do not have to select a bunch of irritating options before speaking to a real person. And that real person is working somewhere on this continent. They were happy to send me a new one but unfortunately since Oprah had recently endorsed them they were out of stock. I had to wait two and half weeks for my new one.

I turned to paper books once more. Last week I read the autobiography of Julia Child. Good book. It was our book club book this month. Julia doesn't really get going with her life and cooking until she is fairly old marrying in her late thirties and beginning her career in her forties. My friends and I were quite happy to read that! Her husband held a job during the war which included designing war rooms for generals. What exactly that job entailed I do not know.

I bought the Life of Edgar Sawtelle. Can't recommend that one. The dog died and I put the book down. I don't like creepy books where the dog dies.

My Kindle came last Monday. Yahoo! I downloaded a book called Wesley the Owl: The remarkable Love Story of an Owl an his Girl. This one is cracking me up. This girl has something in common with Erik. She cried when her mother thoughtlessly killed a spider. I once had to go to preschool and rescue Erik and a spider from an evil preschool teacher. And there was the time when Erik burst into tears when someone squashed a green beetle at the ice cream store. The girl in the story works at Cal Tech and is given a barn owl to raise. This is a 24/7 job. Baby Barn owls need to eat lots of mice all day and all night. Going on a date with a baby Barn owl makes a pretty funny story. Her date really didn't care for going into a restaurant with a dinosaur shaped bird and a box full of chopped up mice. For our family having mice in the freezer is perfectly reasonable. Here is a girl I can relate to! And I am a little bit of a sucker for a good animal story every now and then. I know I know it is a strange weakness...

I'm Back!

It has been a bad month for blogging. First we had the election which made it hard to blog honestly and then winter came. The last couple of years we haven't had any real snow until January or so but not this year. Tonight's low is predicted to be 19 degrees. That is fahrenheit folks. When I was little growing up in upstate NY snow was fun. I have so outgrown the whole snow thing! Like totally. If I speak in valley girl will southern Californian weather appear outside my window? I have been trying to climb out of my gloom and blankets. Nothing better than a toasty warm electric blanket at night to warm my heart. Electronics once again to the rescue.

Speaking of electronics...Some time ago I mentioned I was thinking of getting a Wii Fit. Karl was out of town coincidentally at the same time I noticed Best Buy advertising Wii Fit. Being lonely and all I went over and bought one. We have all had lots of fun with our electronic fitness. My mother was down and she tried it out and pretty soon she also had a Wii and Wii Fit. My brother-in law was out of town and coincidentally my sister noticed her Best Buy also had them. We are a family of Wiiers. Karl does yoga every morning then plays some of the games. So far Mom is also putting her hour in every morning. I play but not daily like they do. I will have to up my game! I have yet to get across the tight rope and Mom tells me my score wouldn't even show up on her score board. Just too low! But hey, I have been to the rainbow in my floating bubble and she hasn't made it yet. Of course like everything in this family there is some competition going on. Competition is okay except when the only game you have the high score in is yoga breathing. Yep. I am good at breathing. Go figure.

Halloween 14 Years Later!

Not too many people can say they have been friends since they were three months old but this is the case for Brad and Inga! They met at play group in 1992. To me it feels like just the other day but they see it a little differently. The picture where Inga is a clown and Brad is a dinosaur was their very first time trick or treating. Looking at these pictures always makes me nostalgic for Albuquerque. Halloween just isn't the same back East. Better weather and more candles in Albuquerque. And the zoo...I miss the zoo! Moving is more traumatic than you realize at first. We have lived in NY 10 years and I still miss the West. Not that I want to move back just that I wish we could visit. If plane tickets magically became affordable it would be great to take Inga and Brad trick or treating one more time at the zoo in Albuquerque. Do you think 17 is too old?

For all the blog readers who don't know this story. Brad and his family moved east shortly after we did. They now live in NJ. Last spring we went down to visit Byrn Mawr and we stopped by for a visit. Well they started right back where they left off fighting over toys...well not quite...They don't seem to be fighting anymore...