card of the day

Remember when I used to do Card of the Day? OK, it only last a few weeks a couple of years ago. But I am going to try again. Too many birthdays in January.

brr

back on the bandwagon

One of goals this year is to make Birthday cards and send them in a timely manner. OK, I was a little late with Megs but it was still sent before her birthday.

scientology and autism

Was Jett Travolta autistic? If you look for it, you will see the symptoms.

Does Scientology acknowledge autism?

Does it matter? It is the Travoltas perogative how they raise their children as long as they cause no harm. Because they are celebrities, we feel the right to pry amd judge their lives. But none of this brings Jett back.

The tradegy is that a 16 year old boy died and his family mourns their loss.

Secrets

Recently, my dad mentioned that my mom jad a savings account with over $40,000 in it. She had never told my dad about it and he didn't know the purpose. Dad split it up and gave it to the grandkids. (Later I remembered that mom had Nancy & me sign cards and said the account was in trust for us.)
This got me thinking about other things she kept from him. It taught me that it was OK to keepthings from your spouse. I wonder if dad kept secrets from mom. (I asked and the answer was no.) Did mom's parents keep secrets from each other?
Secrets are big. Post Secret shares anonymous secrets each Sunday with millions of people. Some of these secrets shock me, some make me laugh, some make me sad. Most the secrets make me think of my own secrets. Some of innocent and harmless. Some are self-denial. Some I wish I could take back.
What makes us keep secrets? Some secrets are for fun. We don't tell our family what we bought them for Christmas so they can be surprised when they open the gift. We don't tell people that we pick our noses because it's gross. We keep our PIN numbers secret to protect our personal records secure.
But should we keep secrets from our spouses/partners? Is it OK to keep a secret savings account just in case?

iTouch miSelf

I broke down & got an iPod Touch. I have named it iTouch miSelf. I have wanted one for some time but could not justify the cost. Then Christmas morning came and Andy got an iHome. I went to set it up only to realize that his iPod was dead. It made sense to give my iPod to Andy and for me to get a new. I did trade in the dead one for 10% off the purchase price which ended up paying for the case.

So far, I really like it. It is a challenge getting to used typing with my thumbs versus my stylus. Progress not perfection.

I have been catching up on my podcasts. I started listening to two new podcasts, You Look Nice Today & Stephen Fry. They are a nice juxtaposition from Yeast Radio.

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set by C.S. Lewis

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really liked this series even with the strong correlation to God and Christianity. Though I don't know why the Calormenes had to be worshipping a demon. I think that many cultures can be worship their own god or even the same God in their own way and still be good. Why can't other cultures be good? I liked that each book was short but I could wait to get through them all. The ending was a bit sad and cool at the same time.



I am not sure about watching the movies. I will add them to my netflix but it will years before I get around to them.


View all my reviews.

gameworks @ ybor city

Ashlee & Brad came down for the Outback Bowl. We picked them up and went to Ybor City for lunch. Ybor City is an urban renewal project. It was originally a Cuban neighborhood and there were many cigar factories. Now Ybor City is a tourist hot spot and the place to take off your top during Gasparilla. Most of the wild behavior takes place after dark so we felt pretty safe during the day.

One problem is parking. Urban spaces just don't lend themselves to parking and most of the street parking was blocked off because of the parade that was to take place later that day. The few lots we found were owned by the community college and closed to us. We ended up in the parking garage blocks away but the day was beautiful and the walk was fine, and downhill.

Gameworks is owned by Sega and is filled with Sega video games to play. We got each boy a $10 card but they didn't seem to want to play. Andy was interested in what was upstairs and taking video of the elevator. Brad went with Ryan to play some games but Ryan couldn't settle on anything. At one point, Ryan did want to play the car simulator game but the card reader was touchy and it wouldn't take. We thought he was out of points and I went to get more, but he wanted nothing to do with the games or card after that. He continued to walk around and look on as others played the air hockey. Ashlee and Brad tried playing a game hoping to entice Ryan but he wouldn't play. He wouldn't even watch them.

Andy wandered about and played a few games. He liked the games where the seat would move around. And he took plenty of shaky, short and dark videos. He needs plenty of more practice before we can upload any to YouTube.

Dad, Ashlee, Brad and I got a chance to talk. I really hadn't talked to Brad as I usually saw him with a crowd, ie my family, and he seemed more subdued. Dad got a chance to talk to Brad about the FairTax Book. This book has really got him riled up and I am not one to talk politics and/or finances. I realized that I didn't even know where Ashlee was working. I know I don't keep up with family. I never think to ask questions.

We left about 2:00 pm and walked back to the car. The walk was all uphill and if you have been to Florida you would know that that means nothing. Florida is mostly flat and you would need a transit to see a grade change. But after eating a large-ish lunch and few beers (not me, I was driving), Dad was ready to rest at the half-way point. But he wouldn't stop. It might have been fun to take the street car but it wasn't cheap, something like $2.50 per person, one way!

Brad wanted a chocolate shake from Chick Fil A and Ryan wanted some chocolate milk. We had the GPS find the closest one (which wasn't really close) but was sort of one the way back to Brad's and Ashlee's hotel) but it kept wanting to take us on the interstate. So I named it Lois since she was always driving the freeways in Toledo. BTW, I had a Peppermint Chocolate Chip Shake and it was tasty. I was surprised that Ryan drank the milk!!

The boys must have done more walking that playing as Ryan was asleep before 8:00 pm and Andy was in bed and quiet before 8:30 pm. Which leaves me up typing this past 10 pm.

merry christmas morning

It's been a LONG day. I can't imagine how long it would feel if Christmas were in the summer when the days are actually longer. How do the Australians feel? It's 8:55 pm and all 3 boys are in bed.

I woke Ryan up at 5:09 am. He jumped out of bed, got dressed, came back in to brush his teeth, out again to get his milk and check out his stocking. It's the one thing he is allowed to open while I am in bed. It's a rule that we had growing up. I would be awake from about 4 am, wishing that Nancy would wake up knowing she would get angry if it was before 5 am. Then finally she woke up and we both went downstairs and got our dolls or animal and then our stocking. After that, we stayed on the couch and slept until dad woke up and came down to make the coffee and start breakfast. Then slowly mom came down and we had to eat before we could open any gifts. There were exceptions when Santa left an outfit for church and we got to open those boxes only. And mom knew right which boxes to pick. hmm...

Thinking back, I am amazed we could last so long. Not only was there the wait to eat, sometimes we went to mass and then had breakfast before we got to open gifts. And mom orchestrated the whole thing. She handed out gifts so each kid got one about equal value. Each person opened the gift and we oohed and ahhed before we moved onto the next one. Gifts were arranged in neat piles and guarded. This prolonged the gift giving and receiving quite a bit. Afterwards, we were exhausted and needed naps.

Today, the melee lasted about 15-20 minutes. Poppa didn't even get dressed before it was over. I had talked Ryan into waiting until 7 am to open any gifts but, like a kid on Christmas, I could wait. Neither could Andy and we were opening gifts by 6:30. The boys just opened and went on to the next gift. I am not sure they looked at the gift long enough to know what it was. It looked like they were finished so I grabbed a trash bag and we gathered up the wrappings. More unopened gifts were found underneath. While I did take photos when they were opening their gifts, I realize that I didn't see how they felt about those items. Probably, they didn't know themselves as they were just getting through the opening. Andy never said a word when he got his video camera, the one item he had asked for specifically.

After all the gifts were opened, then the boys grabbed the items they really wanted and then I could see their reactions. The rain stick I thought Andy would love intrigued Ryan. The books I got Andy kept Ryan busy. Andy was just happy to play with his slinky and then grabbed the laptop to watch YouTube! What? Oh no! I showed him his camera and of course he wanted that, NOW! But the battery had to charge. So poppa set him up at the kitchen table with a tall chair and he made faces and such while the battery charged.

Then I went off to church Starbucks and fuel up on caffeine. The caffeine seems to be wearing off and I am starting to feel the day so I will continue this tomorrow. Perhaps.

combination hair

I like to believe that I have curly hair. But it's not true. While there are parts which are curly, most of my hair is not curly unless it happens to be very humid. (Living in Florida that includes all of the summer and most of the fall seasons.) I have come to realize that I have combination hair like I have combination skin. The hair at my nape is courser, darker and curlier. The hair at my crown is finer, lighter and straighter.

As a child, I had very blond straight hair that bleached to a white blond in the summer. Then in the mid 70s, when the shag look was in and I was getting my first shag (hair that is, I was only 9!) my hair began to curl. The more she cut, the more it curled. My mom sat and watched and her mouth dropped open. I thought the worst since there was no mirror and I had only my mom's and sister's reactions to go by. But it wasn't that bad, I had some nice waves. Later, I learned to use the blow dryer to straighten those waves out for the layered look of the late 70s.

I used to think this straighter top layer was from chemicals such as Touch of Sun I used to highlight my hair and allude myself into thinking I was still blonde. But it's been years since I have used any of it so that destroys that theory. Another thought is that years of blow drying has trained my hair to be straight. Whatever the reason, the top layers are straighter than the bottom layer.

What can I do with this mess? Unlike skin, there is no product for combination hair. One product will give fullness to the top layer and make the curly layers frizz. Other products will help with frizz for the curly part but make the straighter layers look dirty and greasy.

I could go for a perm but have promised myself never again. I have had 3 perms in my life. The first one was given by my sister in 1981. It worked and I had some curly hair. One photo looks very similar to Roseanne Roseannadanna. It also seemed to jump start some wave in my hair. In 1983, I had my sister-in-law given me a home perm. Again, my hair took it well and I had some nice curls. In 1985, I sought out professional services thinking that I could get looser waves instead of tight curls. I was wrong. Or maybe I just went to the wrong place. I ended up kinky, curly hair. The stylist burned hair at my crown but "luckily" that was covered up by the abundance of curls. I was told it would relax. It did, in 1988. Never again. Well, probably not.

I try to let me hair do its own thing but when I look in the mirror, I see my mother's unstyled hair and I cringe. So I am stuck blow drying my hair at least during the dryer months in Florida and using chemicals in hopes that I won't fry the ends. (It's a pet peeve of mine to see fried ends.) I hate this added primping to my routine because I am so not a primper. I don't even own make-up. But I am grateful that I have nice hair that hopefully will not thin out with age.