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Sunday, November 27, 2005

Remembering my manners and introducing everybody

http://turtleguy70.blogspot.com/

This is Dave (from Alberta?) who began blogging just this month and wonders if there's anyone out there. I first noticed him on Andrea's blog. I'm sure he'd appreciate an audience of more than the three or four of us who have found him so far. He checked in over in the comment section as did:

http://a-witches-cottage.blogspot.com/

from the only totally self-sufficient state in the country, Arkansas (former home of me - 1970/1978). They have everything they need for survival, even a small diamond mine. Only thing they're missing is me and I'm sure many of them are breathing a huge sigh of relief. Arkansas (Ozarks) has some of the most beautiful scenery in the country and not appreciated nearly enough. If you check out the link, you'll see some examples. She left a comment as dragonfly183 about black walnut pie (which I hadn't thought about in years) and turkey. I stumbled across her in the middle of http://maisonmadcap.blogspot.com/ I'm sure most, if not all of you, know her as madcap mum. I had mentioned the racial discussion previously. Many points of view; all well thought out.

First Sunday of Advent today which, in my church, involves lighting a candle. And making a small pot of coffee in the front of the church as part of a message on being prepared. Don't ask. It was a visual. Tire chains, flashers, a blanket, tow rope, and what I believe may have been Army MRE's.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee enjoyed their impromptu pajama party across the street last night. From what they said, they spent much of the night singing and dancing. They did, however, stumble back across in plenty of time to head out for church. I'll try to reciprocate, maybe next weekend if all goes well. Just make a big Arkansas pallet in the living room and line them all up. I have lots of blankets and they can bring their own pillows across. Not much difference between 2 urchins and 4. Elcie will have her room in which to hide out.

One of my friends from our local moveon.org group just turned up with early Christmas for the girls. She emailed me this morning asking me if she could get something for them and should it be games, books, or clothes. I emailed back to say if she really wanted to do it, they're the next thing to naked. Not quite true but seems like they're growing an inch a day. We guessed the sizes which worked out fine for Elcie and Rebecca; a little big for Rochelle. She was bound and determined to find the right size for Rochelle so back out she went. Nothing more determined than one of us liberals when we get our minds set on something. Their Uncle Tim will give them books with his Barnes & Noble employee discount and I'm thinking about inexpensive MP3's for at least two of them and maybe Rebecca as well. Rebecca loves music but she's more likely to sit at the piano and pick out songs by ear and sing. If we ever reach the point where we're not so focused on math, I may start teaching her to read music(which is math after all). One should help the other and she has already picked up some chord structure just from listening. She knows when she gets it wrong and messes around until it sounds right. It's one of the very few things she has patience with and I encourage her. If she stays interested, I may even get the old clunker fixed. The B flat below middle C is horribly out of tune, a couple of the other keys don't work, and some of the black keys are missing their tops. Naturally, all this is occuring in the middle of the keyboard where everything is going on. I have to transpose everything in my head to avoid the stupid B flat and the E flat above it with the missing top. Bummer.

Ray just brought me a bowl of white beans, ham, and rice the size of a washtub. Must think I'm going out to fell trees. Good grief.

My friend who came to T'giving dinner is going back to New England in December to stay for a while. Greyhound told him he needs a passport. I said "to Vermont"? No, to Canada. We need a passport for Canada? I discovered not until December 31, 2006 but Greyhound wants one now. I'm not sure why Greyhound goes through Canada from central CA on its way to Vermont but I'm sure they have a reason. I may google the bus routes and see if there's a better way like up from New York. He doesn't know the first thing about looking things up so I sent him the government travel link and the address of the nearest passport office and told him to spend his evening reading. We used to drive from NY to my relatives in all the New England states without ever setting foot across an international border.

What bothers me the most is no longer being able to run across the border as casually as running across the street for coffee. That's all been spoiled now.

As usual, much too long. Jen - hi. Main reason I still cook at home for the holidays is the leftovers. Are you safely back or still enroute? Never mind; I'll go read your last post again and find out for myself.

Take care

5 comments:

L. said...

Your blog is the perfect color for Advent!

Andrea said...

I read that Mozart music stimulats the same area of the brain that math does, therefore, listening to mozart will improve your math. This would explain why i SUCK at math, my parents grew me up on miles davis and the rolling stones. hmmm

ipodmomma said...

yeah, me too... Black Sabbath and Kenny Rogers...

first Edition KR, lots of loud guitars!

we had an old upright piano when I was a kid, some of the keys were stripped of their colours... I used to be able to pick out Silent Night... but no other really musical bits in my brain, except for a voice! I love to sing....

passport to Canada, eh? hmmmm.... what next? passport to Arkansas? :)))

loved the 'nothing more determined...' quote!

and as for November '06... I know of a couple of nice coffee/tea places in Chico... they have good scones too... :)))) we will see what the year will bring!

gotta go make PBJ! Peter's back to work full time this week.... but since spencer isn't down yet, I ahd a minute or two...

and I hear the Seahawks won in OT!

grinning kangaroos see many absolutes waning

Turtle Guy said...

Hi Granny,

Thanks so much for the plug! I'm not sure if I was fist on Andrea's site, more accurately over at Saraspace, I think. Anyhow, my head is spinning in trying to trace the web of blogging events since this all started! I went from no one to many in a day or so. Amazing. May I make a minor critique of your blog? Black on purple is hard to read... that or I'm getting old, blind or just can't see. So I apologize in advance if I'm slow to read your bits. Otherwise, I'm really rather impressed with the amount of correspondence you keep up with! Where do you find the time??!

Gawdessness said...

With all the talk about colour and I'm still seeing black on purple - which is okay for me -
the beans and rice sounds really good!
I am making somehting like that as I type. Big smoked pork hock and about 7 cans of beans. I was cleaning out the pantry today.
You are right, once you have kids a few more isn't that big a deal most of the time.

After reading all the blogs about american thanksgiving, I have suddenly found myself craving turkey. A first for me. Usually much prefer ham.

Both of mine play the piano and take lessons, mostly because it is math. Well and the girl actually wanted to. My son doesn't so much but he does it.

The church sounds like it was pretty interesting.

I wish it was still easy to cross the border too. We used to be pretty proud of the longest unprotected border thing.

Oh well.