Father's Day!

And missing mine, today.

My Grandfather who didn't have to be DAD...but did anyway!

And my (late) husband, Bill

Although we never had a child "together"...we had three of them. My two boys and his son.
Simply-
Our Kids. 

Missing him a lot today. I wish he could have met Nicole and Emma. He would have LOVED Nicole. He would have loved them both. Wish he could have been there and seen Aiden after he was born. Met Aiden. And I am so grateful that he had the chance to be a Grandpa. Had the chance to be there when Brenden was born. Watch Kaylee and Hannah growing. He thought the sun rose and set on Kaylee-Bug.

She was our first grandchild!
 And such a
"Grandpa's Girl"

James carrying on the Dad Tradition.  Up early to Sausage Biscuits and Gravy and Father's Day Stuff!

Love the Deadpool Robe!

He surprised me with a quick note this morning asking if I wanted to go fishing with him today before the 90+ heat rolled in!

So off we went in the newly detailed Camaro...and don't ask about the 180 (half a 360) on the gravel turn-around...lol!

We be "drifting".

He deemed the morning successful as he did catch a catfish...photographed and released with the admonishment to  

"Grow up and come see me again!" 

Past the nineties now and inside soaking up the air-con...and he was headed off to see Kaylee and Hannah.

Cool, peaceful and quiet here.  Finished everything yesterday (A Cinderella Day) so that today would fall into the "Reclaim A Sunday" category. It is so nice I've been trying to do it every Sunday.  Nice slow start with coffee and the Morning Edition. Clean and tidy surroundings. Making biscuits and gravy. Dove back into Anne Proulx's new offering "Barkskins" which, thusfar, is very good. Jinot just died....why does she bring to life these great characters...just to kill them off!  Review later this week when I am finished. Also in queue for Stephen King's conclusion to the Mr. Mercedes Trilogy:  End of Watch

And...it is that time of the year, I may have to read his "Joyland" again.

So it is basically a "gone fishing"...play in the plants...read a bit...write a bit...NAP...cook some great food...paint a little...and maybe even catch a movie later, kind of day!

Have a Wonderful Father's Day, Guys!

 

CurleyWurly

This arrived yesterday...perfectly times with the end of England and just before I started my (virtual) adventures of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As we explore Mayes' British Isles.

You can try one here:

https://www.amazon.com/Cadbury-Curly-Wurly-England-Pack/dp/B000HNF8ZW

You didn't see a huge number of recipes because, quite frankly, I don't much care for British Food. I find it rather bland/dull. I do enjoy a good fry-up. Discovered a tray-bake was pretty much anything...well...baked on a tray. think brownies and pastries and the like.

Example of a Bristol Tray-Bake

A Ha Ha is basically just what we in The States call a ditch.

                    
                                               The Ha Ha at Woolwich


And most of the puddings and duffs I tried were only good because of the "lashings of custard sauce". I think you could shred newspaper and cover it with custard sauce and it would be semi-edible.

I loved Bangers and Mashies. 

And thought Bubble and Squeak was a great way to fry up leftover veggies with cabbage. But it wasn't a taste treat.
It is an auditory experience.

I had heard that Cadbury Chocolate produced in The States was completely different tasting that that of the UK...so I decided to end Jolly Old England on a high note by importing a sweet.

As far as I know we don't even have CurlyWurly's here. Unless Rocket Fizz carries them. A distinct possibility. Mine was shipped with a packet of Black Ice to keep it from melting on its journey across The Pond.

A CurlyWurly is an open braid of caramel covered with Cadbury milk chocolate.
It was somewhat sweeter than the Cadbury produced here and much less waxy. Melted at body temperature like good chocolate. A nice treat!

And so with chocolate on our lips and the sweet taste of caramel lingering from the CurlyWurly...we bid Cheerio-cheers (farewell) to England and head toward the Fox hunts and Green that earned them the nickname "The Emerald Isles" 

Soon: Ireland.

Middle of the Year...and A Post 5:2 Update: 2nd Year on the Maintenance 6:1

                                                      June 15th, 2016
                                                                                 

Still in those black leather trousers after two years post Fast Diet. The Maintenance Programme works wonderfully when you stick to it...and when you don't, it is easy to drop the few pounds you can gain back by slipping back to the 5:2 for a few weeks.  Best Lifestyle change ever....and to everyone just starting out on this journey-

 It is well-worth the trip!

So...here we are. Mid-2016.
Reviewing My Goals.

1. Continue Practicing Zen Buddhism.

This is the middle of my 9th year. Had this flash of, dare I say, Enlightenment in February when I literally woke and realized that everyone is a Buddha sometimes. And sometimes...well...a lot of the time...we aren't. None of us. Past or present. And that is LIFE.  
How Zen is that. 
Still practicing.

2. Continue the 5-2 Fast Diet

The Maintenance plan works very well. Sometimes it is easy to slip away from it...but a minor tweak with the 5:2 and I'm back to my IBW.  Overall have been fairly healthy (despite Fred, and one encounter with a bad virus that landed me in the hospital) Labs are perfect and I really owe it to the 5:2. My ability to walk is getting more difficult, although I am still ambulatory at this time. I am a realist and have been perusing manual wheelchairs so I can remain independent and working on transfers and upper body strength.  Yeah...Pop-Eye Biceps. ~laughing~ 

In Fall, I am actually going to make the purchase (w/c) and practice using the public transportation system in my daily round with it a bit...get the lay of the land...so when it becomes a necessity I will be ready.

3. Give back more than I receive, and acknowledge what ENOUGH is.

Have been religiously observing the $50. project...sometimes more. And thanks to Zen Buddhism I have long since realized that I always have ENOUGH...no matter what the circumstances. This applies to finances as well. It is a good feeling (serene) and has taken years to acknowledge. 

4. Re-use, Re-purpose or Compost.

Working well. My lifestyle minimalist. My carbon footprint is small. 90 percent of all my transportation is public. I make all my own soil now for potting and top dressing and keep a tote "working" all year. I am growing part of my own food and try to use the Farmer;s Markets and buy locally. I have reduced my meat consumption to a minimum. I use my own bag part of the time and bring any plastic ones back weekly for recycle. I do a lot of re-using and re-purposing.

5. I have (and am currently) working my way through Mayes "Year in the World" using virtual travel and have enjoyed Spain, Portugal, Part of Italy (Napoli), and am currently going through the British Isles. Loving it! With eBay and Youtube and Books and the World Wide Web you can see, do, experience, try almost everything...and even get a souvenir shipped directly from the city you are exploring. I have thus far tried chocolates from all the above mentioned areas. Baci (Italy) is the best, so far...but I have a CurlyWurly on my table from the UK. this opinion might change. 

6. Cross a Few More Items off My Bucket List

Yes...and still working through it!

7. Spend more 1:1 Time with Friends and Family

Yes. And LOVING this as well!

8. Continue to sort and minimize...

Yeah...need to work on this. I get really gung-ho on the tossing and giving away...then I STOP. Or worse yet...go to a tag sale and bring home something else.

Okay...not that bad. But I still need to minimalize a lot more.  Not Ghandi's 100 items...but maybe a few less than I have now.

9.  Spread Love and Light and Happiness like Confetti. Judge less and Love more. 

I truly hope so.  Especially in light of the horror that was this past week. We can't fix everything, people. But we CAN love one another. Unconditionally and certainly without all the judgement.

10. Attend one Writing Conference, have one Photo Trek and one Zen Retreat this year.

Have turned most Sundays into Reclaim a Sunday and a Mini Zen Retreat weekly. So nice, and so centering.  Joined a Writer's Group at the beginning of the year and love it!  Still waiting on the Photo Trek...soon. And have two chapters finished and edited in what will be my very first fiction novel: The Plan.
It is coming on well. 

So...mostly on target and 6 months left to adjust/accomplish the rest!

Life is Good! 

More Anon...

Climb toward the light!

Orlando

Silence
seems the only response
for A World Gone Mad
until I realize
that Our Silence
is often taken for
Mute Assent.

So today I
will Scream
so loudly that
Everyone can hear.

How while we worried
about hypothetical monsters
stalking Target rest-rooms
attacking our children
A Real Monster
slipped into Club Pulse
and killed 48 of them.

Sometimes there aren't enough words or tears. ~

 

Ireland (Virtual) Foxhunt...and Will Durst's BoomeRaging Tour with Clips...

Oscar Wilde once referred to fox-hunting as "The Unspeakable in pursuit of the Inedible"

And I must admit...it does end very badly for the fox.

However, in Ireland, and elsewhere I suspect, the foxes are considered vermin and the dogs do dispatch it (once caught) with instantaneous efficiency.

After watching An Ireland Equestrian Fox Hunt for myself...

https://youtu.be/DO_mF40zcjM

I think that (at least this particular Irish hunt) seemed to center much more on grand horsemanship and camaraderie. Even children on sturdy Connemara
Ponies join in. A family affair. The eventual capture of the fox by the hounds seemed almost secondary.  All in all an invigorating trail ride through the Irish Countryside...jumping small streams, stone walls and hedgerows...with hounds...oh and a fox, of course.  I enjoyed it tremendously!

There are over 80 hunting clubs in Ireland.

Flower Hill is but one of them.

http://www.flowerhill.net/Foxhunting_Ireland.htm

The hunts running between 100 to 150 Euros  ($112-$168 USD) and vacation packages are available.

Back here in the Real World.

Will Durst is touring again with "BoomeRaging"

I LOVE Durst.  I have followed his biting satire and political observations from the time he looked like this

 through the "Bush Years" as he refers to them

then catching him not only in Indianapolis, but later in his home town of San Francisco with my late husband (who also loved Durst's stand-up).

Read all of his columns and enjoyed my video doses of "Burst of Durst" and bought several of his CDs.
At his show "Red, White and Screwed" he even took the time to sign his latest offering! 

Which brings us to this tour: BoomeRaging

A hilarious look at Our Generation through the mind of Durst.

Dear God, we're getting old! 


A brief example of the show

https://youtu.be/qrxH93RxJu0

Opening Act

https://youtu.be/Xnbug8l9B0E

Part 2

Really outstanding! And soooooooooooooooo true.

Hoping his Tour includes Indianapolis...or that he releases it on CD soon!

And the countdown has started

Only

 more days till Rose and Idgy's Fall Adventure!

Can't Wait!!!!

More anon....

Summer Fun with The Grands (Emma)

Because sometimes when life (well..politics) has you right there on the edge of "Tyler Durden"

It is nice to pull back to Center by Mall-Ratting with your Grand-Daughter.

It's Summer Break, and I have plans to have a 1:1 Day out with each one of them before school starts in August.

What a wonderful afternoon. Emma is nearly 10 now.  That amazing age of being grown up enough to want to find her special fragrance  (perfume) and a heart shaped locket at Claire's to put her crushes picture in (also nearly 10...and
"Grandma, he is so handsome") or try on jewellery and assorted hats

but still young enough to go a little crazy in the toy store with the toys, puppets, masks. And bring "Rebecca" along to lunch while learning to eat with chopsticks...or be the proverbial "Kid in the Candy Store" before we had to leave...and even enjoy the Day-Glow Black Light Mini Golf Course  :)

I even found this little puppet guy to play with Aiden next time he is over (or I'm there).

The barrel has a lid for Peek A Boo...and the head, hands, arms, and mouth all move.  He will absolutely love it!

So we played in the mall and shopped til' we dropped...and then checked out the massage chairs for a BUCK in the mall!

                                    "Nope, I am STAYING here...Grandma!"

Week after next, Brenden and I are going to have a "Guy's Grandma Rose Day" (without the perfume and jewellery shopping) and in July I have another Mall-Ratting Adventure planned with Kaylee and Hannah. Nicole and I will have to sneak away for a day with Aiden who is way too mobile and unpredictable for us to have a solo adventure yet. Would like to see Preston again before school starts, as well.

Summer Fun!

Chris and Tina are off to The Dunes and Lake Michigan this weekend for their own Summer Fun :)

 James, Nicki and the kids have been hanging out by the pool a lot, already!
We have been discussing the possibility of a quick 3 day excursion together with a few of the grands to Warren Dunes before summer ends, ourselves!

So...back to Center.
Life is good.

Taking the weekend to relax, bask, write, read, play in the plants, paint,  re-group...and be happy in the knowledge that since Bernie WON Indiana in the Primaries I CAN write him in during the General even if he doesn't win the nomination at the Philly Convention in July. No...the SUPER DELEGATES still don't vote or nominate anyone until July 25th...no matter how many times Hillary and the MSM proclaim her to be the Nominee.

So there's that....

The Media Coronation of Hillary...or Why She Can Wait For Hell To Freeze Over For My Vote

Seriously, it has taken since Monday night to even calm down enough to write this without sounding like Cartman in a South Park Episode

 A Mug of Milk and a Plate of Chocolate Chip Cookies, later...and I am ready to tackle this thing.

~breathe~

Okay...here we go.

Over a week ago Chris Matthews told us via MSM that before California's Primary Election (or the other five that were occurring on the same day) Hillary would claim the nomination.
It is a matter of video record.
Look it up.

Then the day before SIX Primary Elections...without the required number of pledged delegates (and at this point you can stick your Super Delegates right up your ASS, okay...they don't VOTE until July 25th...) On June 6th...MSM called the Primary Nomination for Clinton...WTF?????

And the rest is history, as they say.

Speaking of history...no, Hillary...you STILL haven't received the Nomination yet. That happens at the July Convention. If it happens at all.

https://youtu.be/wduK60MGUT4

The fact of the matter is that NEITHER of them have or will have the necessary number of pledged delegates going into the Convention in July and this will be a Contested Convention. No matter how INCONVENIENT that is for the DNC.

I am so disgusted with all the blathering about what a wonderful role model....yadda yadda...glass ceilings broken and all of that. Foremost because she has played the "I have a VAGINA" card one too many times in this primary to ever consider her a role model for women. A woman who is a real role model for women doesn't have to remind ANYONE they have a vagina...that is the POINT.   The way she has rode on both Obama's and Bill's coat-tails like a water-skiing squirrel. The way she has lied enough to peel the paint off the wall...and is masturbating like a zoo monkey on a kindergarten field trip to the idea of more war...sending your kids..not hers, of course. The way she is on video as a young lawyer laughing about getting a 12 year old virgin's attacker and rapist off on a technicality. And ruining the young girl's LIFE in the process. The fact that she stand in front of us and talks about those EVIL guns...but has no problem brokering deals to arm some of the nations who are then using them to kill tens of thousands including children...and who have some of the most stringent basic human rights affronts against women...but don't let a silly thing like FACTS stop you from saying what a fine Role Model she makes. 

After all, she does have a VAGINA.

And after she has shit on us and spit on us and ask us to "go away" both in person and through her MSM cronies, at least once a week since the Primary started...now she wants us to vote for her...of we will have to face the Boogey-Man  (a.k.a. Trump)   

SERIOUSLY???????

You know what. After watching the manipulation of the media and her self-coronation a full month before the last vote is cast and the day before 6 primary elections...

He scares me a lot less than she does. 

He is a racist, blovinating wind-bag who could never do even half of what he is blustering about. We have laws and a constitution to prohibit most of it. And he is fucking clueless, people. He doesn't have the power to launch anything.  Oh, and Mexico isn't going to pay to build that damned wall. They were pretty clear about it. We won't be deporting Muslim Americans either. 4 Years and it will all be over. Like a bad dream.

She is an evil, manipulative, horrid hag who has destroyed my faith in the democratic system by rigging it to achieve her coronation. And "the peasants"?

"Let Them Eat Cake"

She might take a moment and reflect on how well that attitude worked for Marie Antoinette.  
Just saying.


So when am I going to return to the fold, and vote HRC?

How does NEVER work for you?

Nope. Nada. Nyet. Non. No. Hell no. Fuck no. Not going to happen. Not in this lifetime. Not in the next hundred or so, either. When pigs fly. Scratch that...not even if pigs fly. Not in a million years. Not for a million bucks. Not even if it hands Trump the election.

And you can get over yourselves with the eye rolls and admonishing me

"Well you are just giving it to Trump, then"


No.  If Hillary loses, or when she loses...she and her entitled damned attitude of "It is MY turn" will have lost her the election. Ignoring the wishes of over half the Democratic voters and Independents and the Odd Republican here and there. We have a candidate that can beat Trump. BERNIE SANDERS. And he doesn't come with 99 pre-existing scandals, FBI agents, or more luggage than Lady Gaga on tour. Or Bill. As an aside...if my one vote causes your candidate to lose to Trump...I'm thinking you should have chosen a more viable candidate for the general election...

Just Sayin'

She and her MSM buddies just decided to shove the status quo down our throats...and think we would swallow. 

We'll have to see how that all works out for you.

So I'm standing with Bernie to the Convention and hoping for the best...but even if he and Jane came out tomorrow and supported Hillary...I will NEVER vote for her. So stop asking.

(...I think I'm seriously going to need more cookies...)

~sigh~ 

 











You have to hand it to her, though...

Hillary, after 38 of political activism, has almost single-handedly put me off politics.  

Almost. 

Now I am just pissed off.