Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day after everyone has eaten, my family plays board games and does puzzles or sits around and talks. At this table playing "Boggle" are grandsons Mason and Cameron, son David and daughter Chris looking on.
From left to right with his back to the camera is son Tommy, Jackie, Mari's daughter, granddaughter Ryann, daughter Kathy and Mari's other daughter Mariah and son Dave.
Daughter Kathy and granddaughter Ryann, Chris' daughter. My daughter Chris
My son Tommy. His son Andrew had to leave early and isn't in these pictures.
My son Michael and Mari's daughter Jackie
Michael's girlfriend Mari
My son Dave and daughter in law Marie along with son Tommy who is still concentrating on making words in "Boggle".
My granddaughter Elena, Kathy and Clyde's daughter.

My son in law Clyde, who always seems to be taking pictures instead of being in them.
And Tinker watching the action.

Random Thoughts

I've got a jumbled mind today. Not that it's an uncommon thing but today I've got Thanksgiving dinner to think about. Half the family want the traditional turkey and stuffing (a Yankee tradition) with extra stuffing cooked on the side, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, green bean casserole (yuck), creamed onions and all the trimmings of a very bland dinner. This year I want something different and since I'm doing the main meal, I think I'm going to make the decision. How about turkey with Adobo sauce, a Mexican spin on that plain old turkey? It sounds wonderful and the picture in 'Gourmet' magazine is amazing. The adobo is made with two different kinds of chiles, cumin, allspice, garlic and some other spices and mixed with turkey broth. OR, I can buy it in a jar! I'll marinate the turkey in the sauce for about 24 hours and then roast it (unstuffed) and make the gravy from the adobo. The dressing they chose to go with it is cornbread and chorizo with onions and garlic. Of course I'm going to make our tradition Yankee stuffing and regular turkey gravy for those who don't have an adventurous palate. Of the 23 or 24 people that will be here for dinner only a few won't even try it. Oh and I'm hoping I'm not ripping off pictures from Gourmet magazine but consider this as advertising!

While I'm salivating for Thanksgiving dinner, I'm also reading a book that I just can't put down. I stayed awake until 4:00 am this morning reading and slept late today to make up for it. Couldn't help it, I'm finding this book engrossing and it's thick which makes it all the better.

It's about a boy who was born mute into a family that bred dogs. I'm not giving anything away here, but if it's about dogs I'm going to read it. I'm thinking about it right now and wondering what Edgar is going to do about his suspicions of Claude. I'll have to wait until my housecleaning is done to treat myself to more chapters. I'm on page 300 right now and I'll think about it while I'm vacuuming and dusting. The book? A bestseller called "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski. It's even on Oprah's Book Club list.

An Ancient

When this was first described to me I thought it was an ammonite. After this phone pic was sent to me I'm not so sure. It is a complete specimen but doesn't join like an ammonite and looks a little like it has a head and tail. My son said he can see little scales when he looks closely. Some kind of fish without fins? A sea slug? I'm going to have to do some investigating on the Internet and see if I can find out what it might be or might have been. Texas has so much limestone and lots of these sea creatures everywhere you look. I have a few ammonites found when digging the foundation of my house and the kids have found trilobyte looking things and a piece that looks very much like a razor clam near here. This piece is a mystery to me. It is approximately 16" in diameter and about 4 to 5 inches thick. I haven't seen the bottom, I wonder if it had legs? Well, anyway it will be at my house sometime this week and I'll get a good look.

Two new friends visited my yard this week. One gives me an idea of what very large prehistoric creatures must have looked like and the other a colorful, almost unreal looking lizard that I have never seen before.

China Exposed

Now that the Olympics are being played in Beijing, I fondly recall my trip to China. It was in 2000 and the Chinese were already beginning the long process of making the city presentable
for large crowds of foreigners. Men in white shirts, ties, dark trousers and dress shoes were digging in the heat to open ditches for footings for new bridges and highways. Everyone worked for the government and only a handful of people were allowed to own their own businesses.


The Forbidden City is right across the street from Tiananmen Square where some of the reporters have been broadcassting to the U. S. You can't see it in this picture but to the right and down about 3/4 of the way is a Starbucks.


This is is one of our group marching in the opposite
direction from the patroling soldiers in Tianamen
Square. We were not allowed to look at or approach the soldiers.















The marble boat you see on the left was built by the "Dragon Lady" who was Empress for a short time. The story goes that she spent all the money allotted to the army on frivolous things and when her advisors asked for ships she built this marble boat. This boat is permanently located in the lake adjacent to the Summer Palace on the outskirts of Beijing (then known as Peking).














This is what we called a Chinese Harley with
trailer and the one on the right is a two seater
Chinese Harley.


We visited Beijing first, then Xian, took the
Yangtze River Cruise down the river just before
they finished the dam which flooded many, many old villages causing those people to find other places to live. We went down the Li River and ate lunch on the boat after which 95% of the people got deathly ill. I took peanut butter and crackers having been warned ahead of time that the dishes that were 'sterlized' in the unplugged dish sterlizer had been washed first in the Li River. We finished the trip in Shanghai where we saw lovely gardens and rockeries.

All Living Things

As I was on my way to the pharmacy I happened to glance to the side of my car and there was a rabbit, listening, but not a moving millimeter. I decided to sit and see how long he stayed there. He and I both sat for about 15 minutes without moving although the sun worked it's way around the tree beside him. I don't know if the grass in his mouth was for dinner or to soften the sides of his/or maybe her hutch. Just beyond him/ her is a garden just filled with lettuce that it has never touched.

I drove into the parking lot of the pharmacy and happened to look up and saw the "Sparrow Apartments" complete with playground. I was so glad to see sparrows instead of the usual "gang" of grackles that I had to take a photo. Who knows how long we will have these little birds with all the construction going on, new malls and houses being built and highways cutting through the countryside. Almost all of the song birds that I had in my yard within the last seven years have disappeared and been overtaken by huge crows, starlings and an occasional blue jay.

These little sparrows looked so happy just to be gazing out looking things over instead of shouting and arguing with each other like the grackles.

Memorium

As our American Memorial Day weekend comes to a close, I remember all the members of my extended family who fought in wars, both overseas and within our own country.

My Dad emmigrated from Ireland in 1908 when he was 17 years old. His sister had already immigrated to the U. S. earlier and she became his sponsor. She lived in Springfield, MA and therefore, he settled in Springfield. In those days, the government offered citizenship to anyone who joined the Army and fought in a war. He joined the Army just before World War I started and served in France. He survived without physical injury, came home and was sworn in as a citizen in 1918. He did suffer from Post Traumatic Syndrome, a mild case, which made him retreat to his home suffering with anxiety. It was rare during my childhood to be taken anywhere except to visit relatives in Springfield or his cousins in Hartford. This picture was taken around 1919.

Long before the World War I, my mother's great grandfather served in the Civil War, was wounded and got a pension from the government. His family had been here since the early 1700's and he felt it his duty to fight for his country. He died in his 40's and his wife remarried and had twelve children by her second husband. I remember going to visit the descendents of this second family, my distant cousins in Waterbury, CT where my great great grandmother eventually settled. My mother was descended from his first family.

My brother served in the Army during the Korean conflict but was stationed near home at a Nike installaton because my father had had a heart attack and my brother got a dispensation to stay near. My brother's picture shown here was taken in 1983.

My late husband also served in the Korean Conflict from 1950 to 1954 but chose to join the Marines. He came home unharmed long before we eventually met in 1957. His family was Czech and had years before become citizens when his grandmother and grandfather immigrated to the U. S. Here we are on our wedding day on October 26, 1957.

In consideration of these loyal citizens,my family, I would like to ask a question of our government. What is wrong with giving the illegal aliens a chance to become legitimate citizens by requiring them to serve in our armed forces for a period of time? I believe this was done in World War II as well, before the draft was put into place. Doesn't Israel required that both men and women serve in the armed forces? What a great opportunity to increase our armed forces as well as give the people who want to come to the U. S. and take advantage of our way of life, to give back to the country that has given them so much. Our country deserves their loyalty and in exchange they get to have the honor of becoming citizens who revere our American flag.

My family is gone now but I will never forget their part in making our county free.

The King

Several weeks ago I posted pictures of the turkey harem that runs through my yard daily. We haven't seen the King for a long time but today he came by all by himself. No harem around. Maybe he was looking for the 'lost' girls.

Ohhh Shoes!

I just love shoes, don't you? There was a time not too many years ago when I owned 300 pair of shoes! I had shelves especially built in my closet to store shoes so I could group them by color and by style so it was easy to choose a pair to wear to work with any outfit.

About two years ago I got rid of all those shoes since I don't go back and forth to the office anymore and now I have about 50 pair, mostly lower heels. I miss those days of shopping for shoes just because I liked them and then buying clothes to match the shoes.

I did keep some because they were such fantastic looking shoes even though they don't fit anymore and I look at them once in a while and wish I could wear them.

Neiman March sent "The Book" last week and as I was paging through I found some shoes that I coveted. No, I won't buy them but I did scan them and will look at them once in a while with that old yearning to go shopping and buy, buy, buy more!

The lime green pair is my favorite and if I could just get my feet to work for more than two seconds walking in those shoes I'd buy them!

More politics

It's getting closer to March 4th and I am still considering my choice of candicate. The closer it gets to voting time the more nasty the discussions become. I expect that there will be more to come. It's interesting to read what the candidates say to each other during debates and what great charisma Obama has. But unfortunately he doesn't have the experience.

I have not heard how he stands on illegal immigration and what he intends to do about the immense costs these illegals cost American citizens. I am disturbed about both Hillary and Obama voting NOT to make English our national language.

McCain is sounding better and better even if his stand on Iraq mirrors Bushes. I don't think we can leave these people after we started this unending war without trying to keep out the insurgents but I would like to have our boys returned home as soon as possible. Irregardless about what is done, some country in the Middle East will take advantage of Iraq's weakened state and try to take over the country if we leave. The Middle East just doesn't have a democratic state of mind in my opinion.

I would also like to hear what will be done about national health care without the pharma lobbyists putting their two cents (or in their case million of dollars) in. Even for the people who can afford individual healthcare, the costs are amazing.

Fighting crime is another issue I haven't heard anyone mention. In Texas, the crime rate is rising and no one is safe.

I grew up in a time when we could leave our doors unlocked without worrying about someone burlarizing our house, when the children could play outside unminded and just come home at a certain time. I walked to school for 12 years and never worried about being picked up by someone. A generation late when my children were growing up they were free to wander the neighborhood with other children, playing at each other's houses, building forts in the woods and riding their bicycles down the street without supervision.

Will those times ever come back?

I wish I could believe what each of these candidates are promising. Even in the Clinton years (Bill and Hillary instead of Hillary and Bill) we were promised healthcare for everyone and that collapsed.

Anyway we vote we are taking a chance that the person we vote for will do the right thing.

Political campaigns

TV commericals have sprouted up on Texas stations recently in preparation for the March 4th Texas primaries. McCain has his spot so we haven't seen him at all.

It's interesting to watch Hillary and Obama's TV spots. I've noticed that Obama speaks directly to the camera as if he's looking straight into the viewers eyes. He is extremely believable and one feels he has singled you out to hear his words.

Hillary's commercial is quite different. She is speaking into a microphone as if she were speaking to a crowd of people and never looks directly into the camera. This gives me the impression she can't talk and look into your eyes at the same time. That approach makes me believe she is lying because she can't look directly into your face.

I heard tonight that she is in Milwaukee while Obama knows he has to get the Texas vote out and is speaking here. Bill is campaigning here. I think Hillary made a mistake in having Bill campaign for her, he is not well liked in Texas and seems to lose his temper a bit when questioned.

I do intend to vote on March 4th and I'll vote for the person who speaks to me (Obama). His commercial seems so much more sincere that Hillary's.

March 4th will be exciting. I think more people than ever before will be out voting this year. We definitely need a change and I think Obama can bring that about but Texas is traditionally a Republican state.

I've got my fingers crossed.

Vacation Time Again

The weather in Texas is about to become cold and rainy again and it makes me want to get out of here. I wish I were going away somewhere on a nice vacation, somewhere I've never been before. About 3 years ago I went to Japan on a tour with the Modern Museum in Fort Worth and had a wonderful time after I got over the terrible cold. A man that was sitting next to me on the long plane ride kept sneezing and blowing his nose and about two days later I came down with the same thing. We were still in Tokyo at the time. We spent about four days there and I missed a a delicious Italian meal!



I felt well enough to go on the tour of the Grand Palace the next day and later that evening to go to a local pearl shop where I bought the most exquisite South Sea pearls for myself at a very low price.

Since it was an art and architectural tour we visited many reknowned buildings designed by Tadao Ando, the Japanese architect that designed The Modern in Fort Worth. The Temple of Light is considered one of his most extraordinary buildings. It is quite small and in a heavily populated neighborhood but once you are inside, the feeling of being closed in goes away and you feel the 'light'.

Japan nurtures it's children, both intellectually and emotionally with special schools and parks. All of the children we saw were well behaved, some coming from school in their uniforms and some younger children playing in private schools and given free reign to create. We journeyed to the Childlren's Museum and to a private school.

As you can see we couldn't resist playing with the toys. Whoever designed the toys was a genius and certainly had a mind like a child. I wonder if he played with these toys himself. A lot of thought to hand and eye coordination went into the planning and making these toys.




At the culimination of our trip for a little shopping in the antiques area of Kyoto, we turned and saw a Geisha ( in Kyoto they are called Geiko) in training called a maiko or apprentice Geiko, perhaps going for a stroll or visiting friends. We were delighted to snap a picture.

In Tokyo a Geisha is not required to have a long training period and may become a full fledged Geisha right away. In Kyoto, the training period is longer and essentially a Kyoto Geiko has more prestige than a Tokyo Geisha.

I hope to go back someday soon, in the spring time, and visit other parts of Japan. Spring is the best time to go to avoid the monsoon season which is incredibly hot and humid. I bought a Japanese language book to study to learn a few words in order to say hello, goodbye and thank you. I can say them but I cannot read them. If I had to travel alone I would be lost. There are no signs in English and of course why should there be?

Flowers

Flowers are one of the bright things in our lives. Photography is one of my hobbies and I can't resist taking pictures of all flowers especially those closeups we all love. I found these pictures on my computer and remember the place and time and occasion when I had all these flowers scattered around.

This is a moonflower, it only blooms at night. My daughter Chris has a huge plant in her yard and when I was visiting I took this picture.

I got these Cymbidium orchids for a retirement party that I gave for the President of the company I work for. The party was at my house, my first party for a large group.

This green Phaleonopsis was gorgeous and exactly matched the towels in my guest bathroom! That may not be politically correct to have flowers in the bathroom but that room just looked so sophisticated with these orchids in it, before the party I just went upstairs to look at it a dozen times.

This flower grew from a bulb on my back deck and I can't remember what it's called. Can anyone identify it? The wonderful coral color was a joy to look at until our hot Texas summer got to it.

These weird looking flowers are called "Kangeroo Toes" and are a really colorful shade of orange.

They lasted all summer and really made a statement against the white stucco wall on the walkway that leads to my back door.

One of these days I'll take some really good pictures of my flowers and post them here. My photography attempts can only get better with practice I hope.

Are We Good Citizens?

I love quizes and I took this citizenship quiz thinking I knew all the answers. I didn't. I got 84% of them correct. The secret is to read the questions carefully, try to remember your high school or college American history and hope for the best. Try taking this quiz and see how you do.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/interactives/citizenship_quiz/index.html

I think you who are naturalized citizens probably will do better, having had to take these lessons before you take the oath to embrace American citizenship. Whatever score I got on the quiz, I am truly a loyal American. I want passionately to not have our freedoms taken away, a more peaceful and safe environment for my children and granchildren and their offspring.

Visitors

I've had daily visitors to my yard. In the spring there are some hens and one gobbler usually with six or seven little ones trailing behind. Last fall there were thirteen hens who grouped together to range all over the community here pecking at the ground looking for seeds and bugs to eat. They make the pilgramage everyday around the same time.

This picture was taken from the side yard which goes downhill into the woods. They possibly have nests in the woods, I've seen them sit on my fence and fly up into the trees but somehow I think they make nests on the ground.

I don't know if it's one big gaggle or several families that roam around. I have yet to catch a picture of the male fanning his tail feathers but he is impressive.

Off they go into the neighbor's yard. I have seen them pecking at my dining room window but as soon as I run to get the camera they are this far away. Turkeys are funny birds, when they fly they make a sound like a freight train. They call to each other at night and sometimes I can make a sound like they do and they will answer back. I wonder what I'm saying in turkey talk!

What do you know about immigration?

Do you have definite opinions on immigration?

Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ

I was shocked to learn these facts. What can we do about it?

Dogs

Does eveyone love their dog like I do? I left today to go shopping and I was gone for about 3 hours. When I came into the house, Tinker greated me like I'd been gone for a week. She does exactly the same if I'm gone 5 minutes to go out to the mailbox and pick up the mail. She bounces around and gives me kisses and wags her tail. It's as if she is saying "At last you've come home, you've been gone so long."

I think dogs are the only creatures that love us unconditionally. A few years ago I went on vacation for 10 days and she stayed at my son Dave's house, playing with their dog Abbey and having a ball. I went to pick her up even before I went home to unload my suitcase because I missed her so much. She was sitting in their front window looking out when she saw my car and the look on her face was unmistakable. She actually couldn't believe her eyes and did a double take when I came up to the door. I think she thought I was gone for good. I went inside and she crouched down on the floor and cried and then ran and got her leash off the doorknob and brought it to me as if she were saying, "okay let's go home now, I'm ready to leave".

For weeks after she never left my side. She walked from room to room with me, sat next to me while I was on the computer. If I went to the store she was in the dining room window watching for my car to come down the street and then met me at the door.

If I go over to Dave's house just to visit nowI can't pry her out of the car! She thinks I'm going to leave her for a long time again. If I take her food dish and water dish, her blanket and her food with me, she gives me a resigned look and eventually gets out of the car, she knows she's staying for awhile.

This dog of mine gives me endless joy.

New Hampshire primaries

I watched the New Hampshire primaries on TV tonight. I missed part of the Republican debates but then there isn't anyone I admire on the Republican list of candidates.

It is going to be interesting following the candidates until we have our Texas primaries in March when I'll have to make a decision to vote for just one person. I like a lot of things that each candidate said, including some things by Hillary. I didn't expect that. She has great determination and does have experience in a higher office but considering the money troubles and the hooplah of Whitewater I'm just not sure she can stay away from the big corporations. I have heard how much public money they spent when her husband was President, about things they took with them that belonged to the Whitehouse, their arrangement with their protection detail which is paid for by the taxpayers. She is experienced in working for herself I can say that.

I liked the things John Edwards said and his passionate ideals on taking money from lobbyists and getting rid of their influence in his cabinet if he were elected but then I've read that he has an illegimate child on the way. That could be opposition badmouthing or it could be true.

I liked what Governor Richardson said about having experience balancing the budget as governor and his experience working with international governments but there has not been much coverage on him in the news so I don't know any more about him.

Barack Obama clearly has a big audience but he can't really state a definitive plan for the change he is campaigning for. But I like him. Don't know if I'll vote for him until I hear more. I've read many slandering emails about him but can't believe everything you read about anyone. I thought he sounded sincere.

So that about takes care of the four Democratic candidates that debated tonight. I'm anxious to hear more from them and the other candidates and next time I'll mange to catch the Republican comments as well.

What is your opinion?