Happy 60th Birthday Momma!

Here's a picture of the birthday girl taken back in the 1950's with her 3 brothers. If you're looking for an amusing anecdote to accompany this picture...don't. Move along. Nothing amusing to speak of here. Nope. This woman is the epitomy of perfection. No messy closets. No junk drawers. Can push 2 babies out of her body at the same time. Uh-uh. Nothing funny at all. No strange quirks. No embarrassing moments. Perfection, I tell ya. Wait a minute.....

There was one time when she wasn't wearing her glasses when she was brushing her teeth, and instead of using toothpaste she used hemorrhoid cream.

That could be a little embarrassing if it were to get out, don't you think?

Guest Post!

Good morning! First day back to school today! Busy, busy, busy. Time for a guest post.

Hi. I'm Angie. Sister of the lazy dog and your guest poster for the day. I'm not even going to pretend that I'm going to do a good job with this, but maybe it will be a little better than a Monday Nascar post. Should I at least say I'm joking? Besides the Nascar thing, writing is another thing we don't have in common, so bear with me.


I remember having to keep a journal in college for an English class, and I think my first journal entry started out with the line, "I have no idea what I'm supposed to write in this thing." Making lists was acceptable and so began my love of lists. Ah, everything's in order, everything's all right with the world. I have a little pink book of lists now. I think my Christmas present list goes back to 2003. I also have the dates of my menstrual cycle since 2002. Sorry, was that too much information? That English class was required, but I did take one voluntarily as an elective. It was an English Lit. class highly recommended by Ali. She loved it. Thankfully there was still time to drop it after failing the first test. Stupid Canterbury Tales. Who needs it anyway? I should have known better. In my high school senior English class, the big test of the year covered Macbeth. I think I got a D, unusual for me since I was an A/B student. The teacher - who, in this small town, bowls with my mother every Tuesday night, and later attended mine and Ali's bridal showers and Ali's baby shower, and let's not forget all those rockin' New Year's Eve parties! - said, "What would your mother say?" I guess teacher/student confidentiality was in effect and I certainly didn't say anything, so I guess we will never know. Or will we? Let's give Mom a call!


Angie - I just wanted to tell you I made a D on a Macbeth test in high school.
Mom - Well, ok.
Angie - Yeah. (Long pause...)
Mom - Why are you telling me this?
Angie - I never told you, so I just thought I'd tell you now. What do you think about it?
Mom - Everyone does that sort of thing at some time. I'm sure I have too.
Angie - Ok! Thanks! Bye!


I feel cleansed. It went better than a few years ago when me and Ali came clean about how we would stop at the gas station before school and spend our lunch money on snacks. She said if she had known, she wouldn't have given us any money. It's just that I wasn't a fan of the cafeteria food, and can't remember ever eating anything on the tray (just like Big Pup the other day!). Maybe that's why I was 110 pounds. Maybe that's the next diet I should try. Let's stop talking about high school and college. It's making my neck itch. Actually, I have rambled on long enough and should wrap this up in a clever little sentence that encompasses everything I've written so far, but I failed my Canterbury Tales test so it's impossible.

1 In 160,000

Where's WD? He's wearing a red shirt. Not Budwieser red, Dodge red. Does that help?


No, not Kasey Kahne Dodge red, Elliott Sadler Dodge red.


Oh, nevermind.


Countdown to Daytona: 6 weeks.

The End

Yes. It's another Icarus poem. I can't help it. I like poems about good ol' Icarus. And while Auden saw his fall as a failure, Jack Gilbert in Failing and Flying sees it as not as a failure at all. He sees it as the end of a success. Much like Angie and Frank's marriage. It was good while it lasted, but in reality it could not last long. After 8 years there are no regrets from either side. It is, simply, the end.

Failing and Flying by Jack Gilbert

And So It Has Begun

I knew it was coming. There was no way to stop it. WD embraced the idea years ago. I, on the other hand, reluctantly accepted that the day would come when my child would bring home his first....homemade ornament.


Have you seen my Christmas tree? I have carefully chosen each ornament based on its color, style, and how closely it's related to my woodlands theme. There are bears, deer, pine cones, berries, fish and fishing creels. There are not ornaments made out of popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. But that's exactly what Big pup brought home from school one day. Isn't it cute? I think he did a good job but it just doesn't "go" with my tree. Fortunately, he was happy about the idea of putting it on the wrought iron ornament tree--a kind of "island of misfit toys" for mismatched ornaments (WD's New Orleans Saints football shaped ornament, my Husky ornament, Elliott Sadler's racecar ornament, to name a few). A very nice compromise I can live with. And now I'm actually looking forward to all the homemade ornaments to come.

Little Pup Says...

It's funny to listen to Little pup express himself. He doesn't have the firmest grasp of the English language and it's always interesting to see which words he chooses to get his point across.


Me: Tonight's bath night. Are you looking forward to bath night?
LP: No, I'm looking backwards to bath night.


After seeing my hair the first thing one morning, LP: Mommy, your hair is wrinkled.

After WD came up behind me and lifted me off the ground, LP: Mommy is not an airplane! Mommy is not a toy!

And finally, my favorite, while recovering from pinkeye, LP: Mommy, your kisses are like eyedrops.

Awwww, can't he stay 3 forever?

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Brrrrrr.....it's cold out there. With high temperatures in the 30's and 40's for the next few days, it's a perfect time for a bowl of soup. My favorite is broccoli cheese soup served with a loaf of french bread to soak up all that creamy, cheesy goodness. Forget the snickerdoodles, forget the greek spinach bake, if you try only one recipe from my "cookbook" let it be this one. After all, anything with a pound of velveeta in it can't be bad.


1 lb frozen chopped broccoli
1 pint half & half
2 cups water (I use 2 cups of the water that I boiled the broccoli in)
1 lb velveeta
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cornstarch with 1 cup cold water


Cook broccoli until tender; drain and set aside. In a large saucepan, add half & half and 2 cups of water. Then add velveeta, salt and pepper. When cheese is melted, add broccoli. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl and stir into hot soup to thicken. Ladle soup into a bowl, salivate, get out camera and take 36 pictures of said bowl of soup and hope that there's one picture good enough for posting.