Thanksgiving for Everyone

On this day of thanks, let us not forget that everyone has something to be thankful for.

Mamacat is thankful for the bathroom water faucet, Mamahuman, the rings off of milk jugs, sunshine and every time that stupid dog goes outside.

Jack is thankful for food, that big cat Marco, snacks, sunshine, paper bags, food and getting his cheeks rubbed (and food).

Meg is thankful for heat vents, The Man, sunshine, the comb and anyone who will sit on the couch.


Marco is thankful for all those little dogs, car rides, walks, squeaky toys, playing fetch, sunshine, running around, his humans and his excellent ability to protect his home from attacking squirrels, birds and rabbits.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Another Moment of Grace

I could write about the Scout program that the Girl and I attended on Friday involving one yard of fabric and ending up with five matching accessories for her room. But...no.


I could write about going to see "Legally Blond" at the Cleveland Palace on Saturday and that it was a tremendous amount of fun even though our seats were a bit stink-o. But... I think not.


A much more important thing happened last night.


I stubbed my pinkie toe.


Mind you, this wasn't your ordinary run-of-the-mill type of stubbing. This way a "fall down and immediately break into tears" type of stubbing. The kind of stubbing that involves pretty much every four letter word you know. The Man said I was just freaking out because I was afraid of a repeat of last autumn. And frankly yes, that did cross my mind, first thing. And then over and over and over again throughout the night as the pain would not subside.


This morning I was into a full on limp. And this is what my toe looks like.

Gruesome, isn't it. I think I can safely say now that it isn't broken. The swelling is gone and I can wiggle it freely. I'm saving the limping now just for sympathy. I think it actually helped that I had to go zombie watching today. All that pacing and moving around kept everything from going stiff. But it still hurts like a you-know-what.

So forget cute projects and travelling musicals. My toe hurts and it's ugly. That's all you need to know.

Let it Graupel

Last winter the Man came home with startling news. He heard on the radio about a new type of snow. It looked like little Styrofoam balls. When it fell and finally landed you felt like you were in a snow globe. He couldn't remember what it was called except that it started with a "G".


"Can you believe it? You think you've heard everything and then you find out that something new is falling from the sky!"


Today is day three of snow around here. Snow a week before Thanksgiving isn't unheard of, but enough snow to cover everything and stay, which it has, certainly is upsetting folks. My street was an ice rink this morning. My driveway is a deathtrap. And true to my prediction, the leaf sucker truck has not returned. Everyone has a snow covered drift of frozen leaves banking their front yard.


I was zombie-sitting a particularly nasty group of second graders today. I couldn't wait for the buses to come. Of course, one of the buses was late and that was the bus that was supposed to be carting away my two worst offenders. As we stood outside waiting for the big yellow savior I took a good look at the snow. It was in the shape of tiny balls, like Styrofoam packing all ripped to shreds.


"Hey, this type of snow has a special name," I pointed out to the future juvie inmates.


They all looked at what was gathering on their shoulders, gloves and the ground.



"Yeah? What's it called?" They pointed their little rat faces at me waiting for the answer.


"Umm...it starts with a G. I'm not sure actually."


Luckily the bus pulled in at the moment so I didn't have to put up with their smirks.


Anyway, that type of snow is called a graupel. Now I know and so do you!

Remembering Herb Score

When the Man and I were first dating, the first thing I had to learn was to not talk during the guitar solos of songs. The second thing I had to learn was baseball.

Before the Man I had zero knowledge or interest in baseball. My dad raised me to watch football and boxing. I had never been to a baseball game and never watched a game on television. And I certainly had never listened to it on the radio.

The Man and I started dating in the winter. When our first spring rolled around I noticed that his truck radio was constantly on Cleveland Indians baseball games. I was bored out of my mind. Why were we listening to this? But as the summer progressed, I grew to love the voice of Herb Score as he called the game. He was folksy and always upbeat even when the team was getting their asses handed to them again.

The Man took me to plenty of ball games those first years we were together. This was back when the Indians played in Municipal Stadium and you could show up anytime and still leave with money in your pocket. We would go way up in the nosebleed section, mostly empty except for us and cheer on the team. Sometimes they would even win.

Herb Score became the background voice for our summers. In the mid 90's, when the team was really put together, we rarely missed a game. More often than not we would have the game on the t.v. with the sound off and the radio on. Television announcers can't measure up when you could be listening to Herb.

The Man and I once went to Indians and White Sox game in Chicago. When we were leaving, we saw Herb crossing the street ahead of us. The Man shouted out, "Hi Herb!" Herb Score turned and waved to us. That was the best part of going to that game.

Herb retired from announcing games in 1997 leaving us stuck with the doom and gloom of Tom Hamilton. Since then, we hardly ever listen to games on the radio. It just isn't the same.

Herb Score passed away this week. He was 75. I just want to say thank you, Herb. Thank you for making baseball interesting to listen to. If it wasn't for you, I don't know if I would have been able to stay with that boyfriend of mine!

Houseplants in the house

One of the saddest days of autumn is the day I have to bring my houseplants back in the house. I just feel so sorry for them. They've been living la vida loca outside since late spring getting all the luxuries like sunlight and water. Once they come back in the house it's all over.

I try to water them. But I usually only realize to do it when their all droopy and pathetic looking. As for light, my house has a lot of windows, but none of them are placed very well for plants. Add that to the fact that we have to keep the plants up and out of the range of nibbling cats. I'm sure the all the plants consider my house nothing more than a dark, dry cave.

This year the plants had a great season outside. The spider plants are huge. The Girl's jade plant doubled in size. Even my poinsettia survived, which is big news. I've never had much luck with poinsettias. But now they're in the house. I spend the whole time bringing them in apologizing to them. Really. Ask The Man.

One of the plants we inherited from Grammy back in the spring was this guy. I'm not sure what kind of plant this is.

This would be the one plant who did not have a nice summer. When I went to get it, it's leaves were all bug chewed. It was scraggly and listless. I figured it would be a complete goner in two weeks once it came in the house. A few days later it started to flower.

Right now it has tiny towers of white flowers with purple speckles. They don't look like much in passing, but when you get close you can see how complex and beautiful they are.

Look how small they are!

My camera has not really been in top form since my baby cousin dug through a pile of coats to find my purse at the very bottom. Then she dug through my purse and found my camera. Then she threw my camera down a flight of steps. Lovely. I have to keep the battery compartment closed with a piece of tape. Whenever you turn it the camera creaks like it's in pain. But that was almost a year ago and it's still taking pictures. I asked the camera if it could take a super close-up of a flower so I could really see the purple speckles. The camera clicked and groaned and had plenty of failures. Finally we got this one.I think this plant is trying to tell me that it's a true houseplant and could I please never put it outside again. I think I can manage that.

President Elect Obama

I didn't actually believe it was going to happen until they said it last night.

"We just got this in. We can project California for Barack Obama. So now we can say that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States."

And I'm proud to say that I cried quite a bit.

I stayed up late for his speech and I'm really happy that I did. It was wonderful. So wonderful in fact that here it is!

Do you hear something ringing?

I appreciate all these organizations calling to remind us to vote. I really do.



No. I'm sorry. I don't. I'm sick of it. I'm so annoyed with the constant ringing of the phone today I'm ready to rip the cord from not just the wall, but completely from the house. Our answering machine has been quite a trooper taking most of the blows. I would understand if it were to burst into flames before the day was out. I wouldn't blame it in the least.




We've been reminded to vote, reminded where our polling place is, reminded who to vote for, reminded what not to vote for, told again to vote, told again where out polling place is. I can't wait for today to be over!



PS: And just so everyone can sleep tonight, we did go vote today. We tried to go and vote last Friday but the line was an hour and half long! Forget that! Today I just walked in, voted and walked out. Easy peasey!

Jack O' Lanterns at Night

While I'm thinking of it, here's our pumpkins all lit up.

Mine

The Girl's

The Man's

I would show you the Boy's but before I could get a picture he and his hoodlum friends shot it full of holes with the archery set and then dropped it out of a tree just to see what would happen. I'm sure you can imagine what happened.

Halloween Day 3

My sister is having a Halloween party.

Yeah?

Yeah. And we're not doing anything that night, so I already said we would come.

Oh?

Yeah. It's a costume party.

silence

Did you hear me?

I haven't worn a Halloween costume since I was in the sixth grade. I don't think I've ever even been to a Halloween party before.

So this will be fun!

The kids don't even have costumes this year.

Nope. But we will.

Huh. What night is it?

Thanks for the invite sis! We had an great time!