Obligatory Michael Jackson Post

When I heard that Michael Jackson died I had 3 thoughts.

1. Maybe he has the peace now that he never got in life.
2. What is going to happen to his kids?
3. There goes any sort of real news coverage for the next week.

Is it callous to say that I'm not going to miss him? I didn't know him personally and his life now seemed to be more about the freak show he had become than the music. I wasn't looking forward to buying a new cd or anticipating anything he had planned. I can and still do listen to his music from the past, but the present MJ kinda weirded me out.

I think a whole lot of the mourning is not mourning the man, but rather bemoaning a visible end to many people's youth. His death is a mirror that reminds people that they are not any more immortal than those the idolized in their youth. A woman on the radio today said that she's sad that her kids are never going to know Michael Jackson. Of course they can. I know the music of a whole lot of folks who died before I was born or when I was very young. She talked about how important he was when she was a teen. Again, it's not missing the man, but missing what she associated with him. Her kids can know Michael Jackson. They can know his music and not have to know about the trials, surgeries or general oddness that surrounded him.

All that being said. My heart goes out to the people who did really know him. His family and friends. I wish them comfort in this time of grief.

Question about Tornados

For most of my life I've lived in places that get tornadoes. I've been up close and personal with two and I don't want to make it 3. Recently I've been wondering about tornadoes in other parts of the world. I never hear about them. I lived in Germany for 5 years and never once recall a tornado warning. It seems likely that they do occur other places, but I am surprised that that I don't know for sure.

So I looked it up.

Every continent except Antarctica has them. Here is a link to Wikipedia's list of European ones. At least the worst ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_tornadoes_and_tornado_outbreaks

I guess they have them, we just seem to have more. The US has about 1000 tornadoes a year. Due to the size of the nation the UK has a higher percentage of land covered by tornadic activity.

Information about tornadoes

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html

My baby is 10

My youngest child turns 10 today. My oldest is 20. I'm not one to be overly emotional about changes in life. I like the adventure of seeing what comes next. Still, my youngest is now in double digits. Hormones are starting to flow and full on puberty is not far away. Seems a bit weird that she would be this old and wanting Taylor Swift cd's instead of Barbies for her birthday. Little kids are so easy to shop for. I'm going to miss that stage.

Bessie

Is named after my grandmother who died a month before I became pregnant with her.

Looks very much like her brother Teddy, but has more in common with Tommy's personality.

She's devoted to her big sister. Her big sister is equally devoted to her.

I suspect she's the most musically talented of the 4. All play an instrument and Teddy is very gifted with his trumpet, but Bessie seems to pick up on things very fast. Faster than the others.

She's won an award for a film she wrote. At 6 she wrote a script to enter into the balloon film competition. At 7 she won "most inspiring film". Granted it was an award created for her by the competition's producers, but they also admitted she was in the top 3 of entrants. Everyone else who entered was at least 23.

She likes clothes, makeup and shoes way more that I ever did. Well, except for that point in the 80's where I dressed a lot like Boy George.

She NEVER forgets a birthday or other holiday. She's Dan's little reminder system.

She's so many things that the list could go on for pages. Mostly she's my little girl. For now. And she's the rest of the family's little girl too. Because her siblings are so much older than her, she's grown up with several 'parents'. There's always someone to tell her what to do. Got to be frustrating at times, but I guess the added security of always having a family member around is a good trade off for that frustration.

Happy Birthday Bessie. I love you.

Jonas Brothers

This is my favorite Jonas Brother video ever



The boy balances better than I do in those heels.

I wish

That when the police use horses in Westport at night they would do something about the poop. There is so much crap all over the place. It would be nice if they would use bags or something. If we have to pick up after our dogs then the city should pick up after their horses.

F-ing hot and tired

I went out to Chalk & Walk for awhile this morning. When it was time for me to come back to the shop I discovered that Dan had lost the van. Totally couldn't remember where he parked it. Said it was in red lot 3d. It was in purple lot 2c which is not anywhere near red lot. It took 2 security guards and a golf cart an hour to find it. It is HOT in the parking garage. I was so overheated I felt like melting.

At least he didn't lose it for 4 hours like he did after Brookside St. Patrick's day parade. And I'm happy for every minute I was not with him that day.

Zelda Lily

I like this blog called Zelda Lily There are some pretty good reads on it. It's where I first heard of MeMe Roth (I don't pay attention to AI and missed all that controversy) - and a search on her led me to this article. The Day The Sprinkles Died Contained in that article is this

Her extreme methods have earned her attention before: The police were called to a Y.M.C.A. in 2007 when she absconded with the sprinkles and syrups on a table where members were being served ice cream.

The mental image of someone snatching the sprinkles and syrup up and absconding with them is just too funny.

MeMe is a fruit loop on the loose, I look forward to more of her insane antics. You have to read up on her to truly appreciate the whack job that she is. She has serious body issues and projects them onto everyone. I think she's too thin, but heck, she only eats once a day. How is she going to gain any weight? It's worrisome that her kids are going to grow up with complexes centered around food. I'm also very glad that she's not in my school's P.T.A. Of course we could probably fend her off with some cotton candy on a stick from the school fair.

Brave Little Girl

yesterday a girl came into the store asking to put out flyers for events going on "downtown". I asked where downtown and she hesitated before she admitted it was Power & Light. I started laughing at her. she seemed to get that a lot.

It's no secret that the city wants Westport to vanish so that people can head over to P&L for some overpriced party times. It is pretty funny that this girl was sent to Westport to pass out flyers. Do they think, everyone here wakes up and says "how can I push our customers over to that other district?" every day.

I kinda felt sorry for the young lady. I don't think she had much luck getting them out. And I know of at least one case where they were thrown away after she left. Seems she got smarter and started just asking to leave flyers out - not mentioning where they were for. When the business owner read it - in the trash it went.

some pictures i like

Not all of these are recent, but I was going through old pics and decided to post them anyway. Hard to find one of Tommy. He does NOT like having his picture taken.

yummy

I've started getting slushies at KC Juice. Today I was in a tropical mood and got one made with guava & pineapple juices with mango fruit added to it.

Yummy yummy yummy

Hidden wheat

Researching wheat allergies I found several legitimate sources that claimed most starch in food is corn starch and that if it's wheat it's usually listed.

They lied

they so lied

every time I try something with starch on the label it makes me react. I don't react to corn, so it must be wheat. even my pimento spread with jalapeno's had some hidden wheat.

no more unknown starches for me.

salad for lunch. no wheat hiding in the greens.

good stuff

There is another art gallery in Westport. The Gypsy Gallery is open where the Starbucks used to be. I've been told that it's just until the landlord rents the place, but I also have been told how much he wants to rent it for. Gypsy Gallery may be there for quite awhile. I like having more galleries in Westport. I enjoy looking at the art.

Other good news.

Awhile I posted about the tire damaging stretch of 71. Seems like they are going to fix it. I noticed that they have the pot holes numbered and it goes over 200 for that stretch. Shame the didn't do something to maintain it before it got to be that bad and they had to work harder to fix it. At least it's going to be fixed now. :-)

261 days

Raising $2million to fight cancer. Trying to at least. check him out, you'll enjoy it.

The music is great and the project is too.

http://sureshsingaratnam.com/blog/261-days/

Bathtime

yesterday Fergie had another bath. There was a lot less drama this time. She still does not like water much, but seems to be adjusting to the idea of getting a bath anyway. She was probably just testing us before, seeing if she could force us to not do it. Dog are like that. If they think there's a chance you won't make them do something they don't want to do - they'll work hard to avoid it. Kinda like kids. Of course Fergie is much bigger and stronger than your average 3 year old. :-)

Try this

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

Fergie pictures

Big dog, lilttle shop

I brought Fergie to the shop for the first time yesterday. Everything went way better than I could have hoped for. She loves to ride in the car now and is pretty mellow when meeting people, so she's a good shop dog. From now on, unless it's raining - she'll be up here on Tuesdays and Sundays.

The day was mostly uneventful. Fergie did bark at one large poodle, but that was the only barking/grownling incident. Don't know why either. She didn't bark at other dogs, but really didn't like that poodle. she preferred to lay in the middle of the store, but I had to convince her to lay in back on her pillow. I warned everyone who came in that I had a dog. I figured people with allergies would be happier knowing BEFORE they encountered her. Other people, I just figured they wouldn't want a 100lb dog to sit up and scare them.

I was going to take pictures, but my camera was dead. Got new batteries for tomorrow.

It's been one of those days

Usually people mean one of those bad days when they say that. I mean one of those fantastic days that leaves a smile on your face.

Sunny, happy and fun. What more could you ask for. Actually today's good day started yesterday.

My daughter got her work study taken care of. Now she can afford tuition next fall and just has to earn $$ for her rent and food.

Gabby told me about Boomerang AND that Waldo's has a wheat free pizza And that her friend knows of a beer that's good and ok for me to drink.

I remembered that Jimmy Johns will put their sandwiches in lettuce instead of bread.

I generally feel good.

I lost 5lbs since I stopped eating wheat.

Got the contract for Chalk & Walk today. It's one of my favorite events to work. They still need artists if anyone knows anyone who wants to sign up - MAY EVANS for example. It's free and they give you the chalk.

Sold a lot of buttons. I swear some days I think I could just open up a place that sold nothing but buttons. Call it's Betty's Button Bonanza and giggle when people trip over the name.

Croman decided to behave himself.

got Sims 3 and it's amazing. Probably too amazing. I have to set limits or I will lose track of my actual world.

Susi managed to make enough with balloons to pay for her rent. I've told her about 1000 times that she should just do balloons if she need a job. Today she believes me.

Teddy cat gave me snuggles last night. So did Fergie. So did puppy. so did that kitten. So did Paul. I'm glad it was a cool night and that they took turns because I would have been overheated.

So that's why I am happy. Well, some of the reasons anyway. I hope that everyone who reads this has a huge list of reasons why they are happy too.

Don't believe everything you hear/read/see on tv

Westport is NOT dying as fast as rumor would have you believe.

A new art gallery/frame shop is opening up in the horseshoe. A new clothing store called Evolve is going to open soon and today I just fount out that Boomerang is moving to the area.

I can't speak to the night time economy, but in the day time there has been a real increase in business to to retail stores.

Lots of times I feel like the city is trying to do this district in. Why? i don't know, just seems like it. Even if that's true, it looks like they are failing and Westport is going to survive after all.

Updates

Fergie - She's doing well. We gave her a bath yesterday. She's needed one for awhile, but it took several people to do it. She's strong and DOES NOT LIKE baths. We did it outside and had to corner her on the porch before we could get it done. As much work as it was I'm going to do it again soon. Maybe if we do it on a regular basis she will finally just accept that it is going to happen. She's also gained about 15lbs which looks good on her. I'm guessing that she'll gain 5-10 more pounds before she reaches her full weight. She's a big dog overall. She stood up an put her paws on my shoulder yesterday and I think she's between 6' and 6'2" when she stands up like that. Her jowls started getting droopier too. I never thought about it before, but I guess that's a part of aging with danes. Her muzzle looked more like a labs than a great dane's, but there has been a noticeable change in the past month or so.

Stupid bags - Ok, not so stupid. I am grateful for the donation and am using them, but man that was a lot of bags. I'm working on getting them rolled up into workable amounts. Each box can be cut down to about 1/10 the size this way. That will take up a lot less room.

Wheat - based on the way I feel after just a few days without wheat - yeah that was the problem. It sucks big time, but it also doesn't suck. I'm still going to eat the occasional waffles, but not so often. I made a list of foods I will miss and most of them are bad for me anyway - so not being able to eat them will be a good thing in the long run. I think I've been dealing with this for a lot longer than I imagined. For nearly 3 years I've had chronic sinusitis. After a couple of wheat free days it's markedly improved. Not gone yet, but much better than it has been in ages. Some of the odd skin irritations have started to diminish as well.

Grocery shopping yesterday was a new experience. Dan and Teddy thought it would be funny to tease me about all the things I can no longer eat. I am a huge fan of frosted mini-wheats. Obviously those are off limits now along with lots of other things. My family thought they were being funny until I pointed out that I do all the grocery shopping and if they didn't knock it off I might only buy things that I can eat. Dan & Teddy decided that they would prefer to not annoy the person who buys their food. It was a wise choice.

The shop - Next Sunday Peter Eddings will be playing sax in front of the shop. Time is still up in the air, but I think it will be around 1. Peter is a fantastic young jazz musician. Stop by and hear him play if you have time.