Christmas 2009

Our family Christmas celebration was held on the 20th this year so that the clan could be together.

Andrew was pleased with the Wii he got. Elena loved the Wii game that she got to play on the Wii she got a few years ago.

After we ate a huge meal consisting of all kinds of hor d'oevres, including roasted shrimp, tenderloin slices, baked jalapenos that were stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon (from Tommy's kitchen), hummus, green salad and so many other things, we all sat down to open gifts.

The kids had waited patiently for hours and anticipation was high when we finally got the signal that gifts were about to come out of hiding. Jeff and Margaret are waiting just as patiently.

My favorite picture is one of Jeff and Margaret's son and my great grandson Dakota very carefully opening a package.









On Christmas Eve it snowed all day here in
Texas and my front courtyard had started to fill up with snow. In my blog post last spring I posted a picture of the courtyard without snow and ready for the summer months.

Face Games

Facebook has become an enormously favored social networking website. Oh yes, of course I have a Facebook page and I've been sucked into playing the games. Farmtown first and then I joined Farmville, then Lil Farm. Yoville became a big interest when I found out I could decorate an apartment with coins I earned visiting friends and baking cakes!

The only useful game I've joined is African Safari where some of the advertising dollars and cash used to buy the monetary 'shells' is going to help buy mosquito nets to prevent malaria in Africa.

After playing these games for awhile, one morning I woke up and couldn't bend my right arm! I don't know if I have tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome which has effected my elbow or it's just plain arthritis. The outside bone in my elbow is larger and I have trouble picking things up, even a coffee cup.

So this is the computer revolution! I've heard that AT & T is going to stop printing phone books and some newspapers now can only be read online.

My arm had better get better fast, I can't wait weeks to read the news or contribute dollars for mosquito nets, I need to get going now!

Healthcare

I couldn't let President Obama's speech go uncontested. He said many positive things, one being that illegal aliens would not get health insurance and would be exempt from any free healthcare. What he didn't talk about is the Amnesty Project, which will in effect give citizenship to all these illegal aliens and therefore, they will be getting health insurance. If they can't afford it, it will be free. Is that a dichotomy or what?

Can anyone give me a good reason why legalized Americans will be paying for everything and why these illegals will be getting free healthcare still?

And another thing I read in the paper today that Canada is very unhappy with their government run healthcare system and want to change it to be more like the United States. Why are we trying to be more like Canada when we know it hasn't worked for them?

May?

It can't be May already. I thought I'd updated this blog a few weeks ago but it was March! Not that I like to talk about time passing me by, but it is. After a certain age, time whizzes by so fast you think "I just took the trash out yesterday" and here it is Thursday again and time to take out the trash.

Saturday nights are just the same as week nights. Used to be Saturday nights were date nights or eat out nights or movie nights. Now I just say to myself on Friday night, "Oh tomorrow is Saturday, I can sleep late".

So May is on it's way to becoming June. I hope I remember to look at the calendar in time so I know June is here.

OMG, this blog update is pathetic!

Earth Hour

I hope you will join and help the world support EARTH HOUR.




http://www.earthhouramericas.org/official_ads/English/Digital/300x250.swf

Houses

Houses fascinate me. I like nothing better on a pleasant Sunday afternoon than to ride around in different neighborhoods looking at houses. If there is an "open house", all the better.

It's amazing how many different styles there are from Italian, French and English knockoffs to original architecture by degreed architects and by owners out of necessity.

The house above was built in 1774 in a small town in Connecticut and looked quite different than it does in this picture. It did not have the sun room but had an open porch when it was originally built.

The latest picture was taken in 2007 and shows that the side porch was converted into a sunroom and many other changes were made.

Another house in the same area was originally built in 1791 by the son of the family who built the first house. On the property the owner had a tinware shop where he and his father made pots and pans.

The house as it is today with a sunroom added. Both houses have been continually occupied since they were built.

My house was built in 2001, actually started in 1999 and finished at the end of 2001.

These three pictures are shots of my house. The first is a shot of the house from across the street. The second is a picture of the back of the house taken from the side lower yard and the third was taken from my library looking out the window, across the courtyard and into the dining room. It was designed by the architect, Norman Ward and is a very modern style with Japanese aspects to the landscaping. Of course I live in the South where the weather never gets too cold for too long and we are outdoors a lot of the time.

If the weather is nice this coming weekend, I think I'll take Tinker and we will drive around the area looking at houses and the spring flowers in the yards and on the trees.

Yard Art?

Another favorite piece of art is a sculpture by artist Otto Rigan. It is made from green granite and glass. The cut-outs from the original large granite piece contain thick slabs of glass stacked together and look like windows.

The edges of the glass mirror the color of the granite. As the sun sets, the left side facing West glows brightly against the darker sides backed by the granite.

As you look at the back you can see the front window in my house and notice that this sculpture, quite by accident, resembles the angles and mullions of the window.

What I love most about this second image is the figure in the background looking out of the window!