Not a Winter Wonderland after all oops

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Christmas, postaday2013, snow, winter

I was a little hasty last week when I pronounced a Winter Wonderland for this year.

We are back to brownish grass and overcast, gloomy skies, a little sad for Christmas. Today in Blandford it was a balmy 60 and Jack and I went outside for a long walk around Blandford. Do I miss the snow? Not really, I only miss the strategically placed snows, the snow that would adorn the great pine trees and the dead grass along the side of the roads. Otherwise I am quite happy that the ice and snow are gone from the driveway and the roads that we drive on, if only because it makes for much safer driving conditions.

I was reading in the Huffington Post earlier today that yesterday Central Park in New York went up to 70, a record breaker, yet in the midwest there were frigid conditions and the difference between the two were making for tornado like events to happen.

Tomorrow we will see temperatures in the 50’s and then on Tuesday we will dip back down to the 20’s and then by next Friday we will be going back up into the 30’s. Personally I would be happy to be at a constant 50, instead of this back and forth of surging and then dipping, you get dizzy trying to regulate the thermostat.

I know that one who talks about the weather doesn’t have much to talk about or so they say, I’m not too sure who “they” is that is saying it, but that is what I have heard. In this instance, however our weather is a little on the weird side, so I feel justified in speaking about it, especially since just last week I was all excited about the Winter Wonderland for this year. I honestly didn’t see our losing all of our snow just days before Christmas, coming. I would not have bet money on this bet, that’s for sure.

Daily prompt: Random act of kindness

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giving, kindness, postaday2013

Tell us about the time when you performed a secret random act of kindness — where the recipient of your kindness never found out about your good deed. How did the deed go down?

I can’t remember exactly how and to whom, but I know that I have done a few good deeds anonymously in the past. Oh how I hate the disintegration of my memory, not because I can’t write about them, but because I can’t remember and it isn’t going to get any better which is getting a little scary as time goes on.

I think that acts of kindness are wonderful however they occur, anonymously or not, and I like performing acts of kindness because it helps people, either strangers or friends, it really doesn’t matter. Help is a good thing, no matter who it is, who receives it and who gives it.

I think that part of my daily writing is to leave something of me behind for my babies and their babies to read when I am no longer here. Would that be considered a random act of kindness? Perhaps, I wish that my grandparents had left behind some sort of diary so that I could have gotten to know them better as people, besides being grandparents.

During the holiday season, I like to try to make a meaningful donation for those who are in need. That is also a random act of kindness that means a lot to me, it is much for me as for them.

American Hustle : a movie review

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actors, movie review, movies, postaday2013

My hubby and I loved the movie! Director David O Russell is one heck of a director with a grand vision. The seventies where the movie was set, was alive and kicking, I don’t think that anything was forgotten; the clothes, the cars, the attitude, the music and the city, everything felt true, without a hint of nostalgia because it wasn’t that kind of movie. This movie was about the con, getting caught, trying to keep your head above the water and steering clear of a sinking ship.

I was born in 1967 so I might have heard about ABSCAM, the F.B.I’s takedown of a few corrupt politicians, so while I was watching the movie, it still felt fresh and stress inducing, since I couldn’t remember any of the details, I was in elementary school and busy with other things at the time.

The acting was stellar. I mean there was not a single performance that wasn’t excellent. I do have to say that while Amy Adams did exemplary work, Jennifer Lawrence was absolutely amazing. Her character was so far out there, it helped dispel the built in anxiety that hovered above the entire movie and it was very welcome. Jennifer’s character made me burst out laughing a few times and made me feel better because I was nervous for Christian Bale’s character, Irving, and Amy Adams character, Sydney; their con game was a tight rope that was so razor thin that sometimes you felt that holding your breath was the only way to get through the scene. I can’t forget Bradley Cooper, his character was just as complex and integral as the other three and Robert DeNiro, when he wants to be scary and intimidating, boy can he.

This is a definite must see movie, excellent movies should always be seen, if only to get your head away from the usual and onto different places, escapism is never a bad thing.

My two babies are home!!

Tags

family, Jack, pictures, postaday2013

Our baby girl arrived yesterday as did the baby boy. Our home is complete. Today we all went to the mall together. Our time at the mall was blessedly short, we got some toys, that the baby boy picked out, for our niece and nephew. I may be feeling BahHumbuggerish, but the thought of my niece and nephew lift the Grinch like cloud away from my spirits.

Don’t get me wrong, I am so happy to have my babies home because I love having them home with me. This has nothing to do with the holidays. I think that perhaps it is the commercialization that is getting to me. As I get older, I find that I want less and less for Christmas, I think that I am stressing because I have no idea what to get my mother, my sister or my brother-in-law.

Jack is over the moon having the babies home. He doesn’t know where to turn, does he go with the baby boy or does he go with the baby girl. But hey there is Maman and he wants to be with his Maman and Jack can’t forget his Papa. He wants to be with everyone at once. Since we can’t stay in one spot all together, he has been going back and forth and getting a little tired for all his troubles, the poor dear.

As you can see from the picture, Jack is on my lap and before I took the picture, he was gazing adoringly at the baby girl whom he hasn’t seen since Thanksgiving.

Daily prompt: By the skin of your teeth

Tags

academics, fail, pass, postaday2013, school

Share a time when you narrowly avoided disaster.

I am ashamed to admit that during my second semester at S.U.N.Y at Albany, my freshman year, I wasn’t the most responsible student. There was one class Introduction to Logic that I habitually blew off by not going to class as I should. The consequences made themselves known by the results of my quizzes and tests; failing grades. The professor made one announcement that gave me one shot and one shot only to redeem myself, he told the class and lucky for me that I had decided to attend that particular class that day, we had to decide how we wanted our final grade to be calculated that day, the average of all of our quizzes and tests or just by the final exam alone and we had to tell him that day. I didn’t have a choice, I had forced myself into a corner with my irresponsible behavior and I had pick the final exam, putting all of my eggs into one basket and hope that they didn’t scramble.

Luckily for me, I had done extremely well in all of my other classes, giving me the luxury to devote my brain power to that one final. Over the course of two days, I put the text book in front of me and committed the text to memory. Logic isn’t all that difficult as long as you have all of the rules in your head and you understand the applications. I took two entire days to understand and commit everything to memory and when the time came, my brain was on, the good old days, and I gave it my 200%.

I have to admit that for a few days my stomach was full of butterflies and I wasn’t having an easy time eating much of anything, I was that worried about my grade. I had never failed anything before and I didn’t want to start with college, I certainly didn’t want to have to tell my mother that I had failed and it was all my fault. There wasn’t any excuse, I was ashamed as I had said earlier and this was a lesson that I have never forgotten, when you commit to something, you owe it to yourself and to others to give it your all. Responsibility is a serious thing, it is also a matter of self-respect and you owe it to yourself to have self-respect, by throwing a college course away like that you are not giving yourself the respect you should and it is a big deal. Your success in life, however you choose to define it, depends greatly on how you treat yourself and if you treat yourself poorly, any success you may hope for will be so much harder to come by.

Having said that, I did learn a grave lesson, the hard way yes, but it was learned. I didn’t fail the class, I received an A, I got 100 on the final, but I would have not had to commit an entire book to memory or put my grade in such a bad way if I had simply been responsible and lived up to my commitment.

I never made that mistake again. I made sure of it.

A winter wonderland!

Tags

gardens, postaday2013, winter, wonderland

I didn’t have the time to trim back the “special” grass this past fall and with the snow coming down all around me, I am so glad that I didn’t. I thought that it was so pretty contrasted against the falling snow, that I had to take a picture and show it to you.

The spent grass and the fluffy tuffs fighting against the elements reminded me of the beach during winter-time. Beaches are amazingly beautiful in winter-time. They are especially wild and savage looking, the winter sun casting a different look on the sand and ocean, I especially love the tall grasses that defy the odds by growing well in the sand.

So this year I’m glad that in my busynss, I neglected in one of my pruning duties, and left the tall grass alone in the front, I love the simple and stark look it gives to the front of the house in the house.

I can’t believe that after this snowfall is over, the temperatures will go up to the mid 40’s, hooray. It’s in the teens right now and it is fairly brutal, it may look beautiful but it so so very, very cold.

We are going to have a white Christmas, which is nice, I can’t for the life of me, remember if we had a white Christmas last year, but it doesn’t matter because it is definitely white now.

Daily Prompt: Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Tags

consumerism, economics, politics, postaday2013

Imagine, in great detail, an invention that could help reverse pollution — describe for us how your invention works and how it will help save the planet.

I have liked Inhabitat on Facebook for over a year and they post many articles about inventions made by so many young people in Africa, it is really exciting to read about them. Most of the inventions are low cost, made from local materials and are all related to important needs of their communities such as clean water access to electricity. I am nowhere near as talented or inclined to think outside the box as these amazing young people do, so I will let them save our planet. I highly recommend that everyone at least checkout Inhabitat once, if only to see how inventions are alive and well in the world of young people.

My contribution to eliminating pollution would be to scale back the rampant consumerism and materialism. If we stopped buying the cheap products and instead saved our resources to buy high quality products and when they break down , get them fixed instead of instantly throwing them away, that would make for less waste. I know that I am preaching heresy, consumerism and materialism is what keeps our global economy chugging along and for me to say stop buying is tantamount to sedition at the marketplace. I like to think of the old days when you bought something, it was made to last and if it needed repairs, there were repair shops easily found. Granted the time that I am looking at pre-dates Walmart, Target and discount stores, I am thinking of the age of the Mom and Pop store and when there was manufacturing in the States. The throw away culture wasn’t born yet.

I have been reading of dump sites located in China and in India for old computers and other electronic devices, and they are all near small villages, these villagers are exposed to fumes and runoff since they are tasked with destroying them. However there is a father and son operation that has come up with ways to recycle most of the discarded components into other viable materials for a whole slew of other products. They are the exception rather than the norm.

I really think that we need to steer away from the pervasive throw away culture that the new generation has already embraced since they don’t know any better. A planet made up of hazardous waste will only lead us down a path that we seriously don’t want to travel. There is still time to turn it around and making less waste is never a bad thing.

Back on the road

Tags

hotels, Jack, postaday2013, travel

Back on the road, this time with Jack. The baby boy went off to Romulus Michigan to make another music video. The baby girl is coming back from school this week, so she will be finishing the Christmas decorating, all that is left is putting the Christmas candles in the windows and to hang the stockings on the mantle, otherwise the house is more or less set for Christmas.

As you can see, Jack is situated right where he likes it best, on me. As I am fairly sure you have noticed, he definitely has some poundage to lose, his rear end is on the wide side. I got the necessary Healthy Weight dog food so hopefully in one month’s time, Jack will be a little slimmer, the poor lamb. The baby boy hopefully will stop calling him Fatty Magoo, it does suit him, but for his well-being he needs a healthier nickname.

The only downside about traveling with Jack is dealing with his quirkiness regarding where he will or won’t go to the little boys room. I bought the doggie pads, but I am hoping that he will find an acceptable spot somewhere outside. I would have never thought that a dog could be so picky over where to go or where not to go.

Our little Jack is definitely a character.

Christmas decorating, sort of done

Tags

Christmas, decorations, postaday2013

The hubby and I decided that today was the day for decorating since Mother Nature was going to send us a lot of snow this weekend and there was nothing better to do. Jack is funny because he really doesn’t like it when I spend most of the day going up and down the stairs and then spend the rest of the time on my feet, he feels deprived of his lap. As I sit and write this post, he is laying half on my lap and now he is content.

Now Jack is off my lap because he heard his Papa in rattling around in the kitchen and that might mean food. He has two loves; food and my lap and once food is done, then my lap is back on his agenda.

The tree is up and decorated, after I had put all the lights up on the tree, they are brand new strands and the new fangled led lights to boot, I plugged them in and one strand is a different kind of clear light, it looks sort of yellow compared to the other three strands. My hubby and I both noticed it before I put the rest of the decorations, if I had taken the offending strand out it would have left a gaping hole so I left it. Now that the tree is decorated, it doesn’t bother me. However there is a glaring difference in the picture, oh well.

The stair bannister is decorated with garland and lights and my work is done, except for the Christmas cards that I am going to write this evening.

Christmas is coming up faster and faster and I am a little bit more ready today than I was yesterday, hooray!

The Hobbit : The desolation of Smaug

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movies, postaday2013, reviews, The Hobbit

Today my hubby and I went to see The Hobbit in 3D, normally I dislike 3D, but in this case it was justified. I loved it, anything Tolkien and directed by Peter Jackson, I will love it. I know that, for many who are avid Tolkien fans, the movie does stray sort of far off the course of the book, but I don’t care. This is a spectacular visual, living, breathing world full of elves, dwarves, hobbits, wizards and orcs, not to mention humans and one stupendous dragon and I will follow and join the journey no matter where it takes me. There are all of the ingredients necessary to ensnare me for the ride; courage, bravery, nobility, adventure and danger. Did I mention that there is a dragon?

Oh Benedict Cumberbatch, my new crush. His voice, what an instrument, his voice is Smaug, Smaug the terrible. And I can’t forget Bilbo, as Gandolph would say Hobbits are the most curious creatures, full of surprises to the very end and full of untapped sources of courage.

The dwarves, now that I have been able to visit with them a while longer, I can safely say that Kili is one of my faves for his cheerfulness and bravery, his brother Fili is rather nice also, Thorin the King does have the potential for greatness, we see it under the surface. Balin the elder dwarf is, in my mind, the wisest. The rest also have their own personalities which came across much more clearly the second time around.

I really enjoyed visiting with my friends once again and I can’t wait to see them for part three.