#86

What's to happen to all those jerseys

 the ones in 

blackandgold 

with WARD 

centered between the shoulders?

The jerseys that sit beneath a 

smile

sweetandcute

with charm

centered above the neckline?

The jerseys that belong to 

wide receiver

SteelerHinesWard

who isn't a Steeler
tonight?

Those jerseys will forever be worn

by fans who bleed

blackandgold

no matter

what.

Little Rituals ~ Slice of Life

Benjy is my old soul.
An 8-year-old heaven-bound deep thinker.
He's my little missionary.

When he was about 5, he asked, Am I supposed to love God more or you more? I told him that as children of God, we put Him first.  Then we honor our parents.
He seemed unconvinced, afraid I'd get my feelings hurt, but I assured my baby that I would be blessed to know that he loved God with all his heart.

So now we play this little game. One of us says, I love you.
The other replies, I love you, too.
Then one of us rushes to beat the other to say,  I love God more than you.
The words usually spill out tripping over one another, IlovGomorthyou!!!!!!

 I bet we've played this little game a thousand times.
A thousand times a thousand.
We always grimace when we don't win and Napoleon Dynamite Yessssss when we do.
Then we giggle and I want to jump into those large green eyes of his and stay there forever.

Latest reads that had me hooked - and not a one of them is crime fiction(!):

Hilarious! Definitely better than the movie. (Though Meryl Streep is a great visual for The Devil herself.)

A tragic love story that had me hooked till the end and then longing for more

Another tragic story that unravels the secret life of a pilot after his death. I loved this author's other book Sea Glass which I read last fall.

Narrated by 5-year-old Jack who lives with his mom in the only space he's ever known - an 11-by-11 room - this story of his kidnapped mom and his life day after day is haunting and powerful. This book was a must-read at stoplights. "Boys, tell me when the light changes, OK?"

I've just started this one, and so far I'm incredibly attached to Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani. But I haven't met any other main characters yet.

Interesting bit of trivia: I picked up all of these books except Room from my local thrift store for 2 bucks each. Of course, I wish I could pay an indie seller full price for each of them, but my budget doesn't stretch that thin.

Politics Shmolitics

A play in one act

Setting: living room, morning sun streaming through the window, just before church, a news story about the Republican primary is on TV, Benjy is sitting on the chair, I'm on the couch reading the paper.

Benjy: Mom, do you like Mitt Womney?

Me: Well, he doesn't appeal to me. I don't care for him very much.

Benjy: Who do you care for very much?

Me: Hmmm, well, honestly, I don't like any of them very much.

Benjy: Do any of them make good laws?

Me: I guess some of them have been involved with some good laws.  But I just think they all seem wrong.

Benjy: (thinking hard, chin resting on his fist) OK. Are we going out to eat after church today?

As I told you yesterday, EmmaLemmaLimaBean has a bit of halitosis. 

See this picture?

I would not be able to do this in her current state.

This morning I spied why.

My baby has a lumpy growth in her mouth, on the inner side of her left upper lip. I spotted it quite by accident, and when I tried for a closer look, Emma wriggled and writhed her way out of my grasp. Bless her heart. It hurts.

Praise God for the New England Veterninary Center and Cancer Care, less than a mile from home. The sweet doctor there saw her right away, remembered me from our last check-up almost a year ago, and quickly realized he'd need more hands on my baby to get a closer look. A couple of minutes later,  Dr. Sachdev reappeared, flashing a photo of Emma's growth on his smart phone. It was quite ugly. As ugly as the plaintive cry I'd heard from Emma while she was being held, restrained, to get the photo. A mom knows that cry, even a dog's human mom. 

I left Emma there for a biopsy. It was sad, watching Dr. Sachdev lead her out the door and down the hall, but her tail was wagging. So trusting is she. 

I picked up my baby doll this afternoon after she'd awaken from her sedative. Benjy came with me. We could hear her barky howl, which is what she does when she's excited. 26 barky howls later, we fastened her collar about her neck and headed for home. She lapped up two bowls of water, took a snooze, and then gobbled up her dinner of ground beef sprinkled with her pain meds. Blissful is the Lima Bean.

And so we wait. The biopsy results will be back Tuesday or Wednesday. We don't dare wonder what it is. But we do pray. Benjy is our prayer warrior over here. He prayed to God that Emma would be OK. And I know God hears our prayers. Will it be OK here with us? On earth? Or will it be OK in heaven with Him? And yes, I do believe that all dogs to to heaven. If the Lord God would create such a wondrous creature, then why wouldn't He find a place for it in his perfect world?

That alone gives me peace.

Ein went to the vet today. And while his name has always been a little weird - pronounced E-In - it never donged on me that one might NOT know how to say it. "Ine" is how they called him to room four. You know, like "ei" = I. Hmmmm. I did not see that coming. 

E-in is a rescue cat, picked up on the streets of New York City and sheltered by Mary's Kitty Korner, a no-kill shelter. (Do you know how hard it was to type that K on Corner???)

This behemoth beast weighed in at 14.8 pounds, which was not the least bit shocking. What was a surprise was this: "He is a little chubby, but he's definitely not obese. He has a large build." So there you go. He's not as fat as I thought he was. E-in, defying the odds since New York City.

We paid $194 today for his visit (Connecticut pricing), which included two shots, a fecal exam, a basic check-up that found his temperature normal, but was achieved rectally, which disturbed Benjy to no end, a "medical waste fee", and a bonus round of antibiotics for Emma's halitosis. The dog's breath is nothing short of lethal. But the poor old hound dog is beyond dental cleanings. Too risky. So we dope her up twice a year on drugs and that seems to be good enough. If only that worked for humans.

Meanwhile, E-in was prescribed a diet of canned food in addition to his boring dry food. Tonight he got his first bowl ever. He lapped it up, hunched over his bowl like a lion king. Emma sat behind him like a sphinx, rock solid, but immobile. Emma doesn't eat canned food. Not because she's not special. But because she won't eat it. She only wants what she can't have.

E-in cleared his bowl and Emma stalked some more. Now E-in is sleepy happy calm while Emma is wondering where the party is.

This used to be the party, when it was not her bone.

Mellow Yellow

Melted Butter

Cake Batter

(the butter recipe)

Benjamin Moore 2020-50

The Real Deal splashed on my kitchen walls.

When the light is just right, I'll snap a picture for you. 

My kitchen looks so pretty, 

so fresh, 

happy, 

and ready for spring.

In other news,

Buddy the Elf has a Pinterest page. 

Of course, I'm receiving all his pins.

Gratitudes belated:

#31: Winter break: Hey, I don't get it, but I LOVE it. 

#32: Movie night with a friend - at home on the DVD, comfy, cozy, free to pause when you have to pee.

#33: 4 boys in the house today, and out. At nearly 60 degrees, they needed to be aired out. And they were.

#34: Nearly 60 degrees today

#35: Calvary Fellowship, our church is launching a campaign to find a real building!!!!!!! To God be the glory when this happens!

#36: Finishing The Devil Wears Prada - funny. In the middle of On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - powerful.

#37: Home fellowship tomorrow. I love this time with a small group of my church family. We're reading The Me I Want to Be.

#38: Blogging - aiming for 31 straight days of slices in my life in March.

#39: Hilarious spoofs of politics. Because sometimes all you can do is pray and laugh.

#40: David Letterman, still going strong since I was in high school. Guess that means I am, too. :)

Roanoke Times via Roanoke.com

I've spent the better part of an hour reading over old blog postings by Roanoke Times metro columnist Dan Casey. He writes about typical regional/local stuff - city hall, processing fees, lost puppies picked up by good people, ticked-off Roanokers, the Texas Tavern, drive-thrus in coffee shops. He is to the paper now what Ed Shamy was when I worked there back in the '90s.

You know, in the previous century. 

Shamy intimidated the dickens out of me. A shy little editorial assistant fresh out of college, why, I'd  rather run naked down Church Avenue than transfer a phone call to Shamy personally. Shamy wrote about the same sorts of regional happenings with gusto and took a lot of heat from anybody who disagreed with him. I always agreed, of course. But I think ticking people off was part of the glamour of his job. It had to be fun to get such a rise out of folks. It was probably part of the job description.

So, Dan writes - puts it out there. And people respond.
There's this girl named Suzie. 
Suzie is always right, apparently.
Rightly conservative, vehemently right. And she knows it.
She disagrees with Dan.
She has friends who back her up.
And there are the ones who like Dan.
Gdad comes to mind.
A little more lefty, a whole lot nicer.
Also Contrasuzie. Isn't that a hoot? Can you guess whose side she's on???

I found myself reading this soap opera of sorts. The characters' names had changed, but I remember the setting. City Hall is right across the street from the paper's building. Texas Tavern is a hop away. The art museum is down the street. Oh, I felt like I was at home. The people's names may be different, but their voices weren't. They were the same voices that made up the discourse of a city with a newspaper out to share, expose, rally, and even entertain.

I read the Hartford Courant here in the most expensive state in the country, and I just for the life of me can't find a single interesting column that makes me look forward to the next. There's no hometown feel to it. I dare say if I lived in Hartford proper, I'd not feel it. I can't feel the relationship between the paper and the people. Maybe I'm jaded because I don't know where Hartford City Hall is. Or because I never worked at the Courant or got skered by one of its writers.

Maybe it's just that the Roanoke Times was such a part of my life back in the day. Not only did they actually let me write a wee bit when I worked there (I'll never forget that first byline!), but I also met my husband at the Times. And I realized that I wanted to be a teacher after writing for its NewsFun section for elementary kids. Even when I'm stressed, I have nightmares that I haven't put the weekly calendar of events together for the Extra section, and so it won't publish and the entire page will be blank(!)

So I feel a taste of wistfulness when I read it online. It makes me wanna go home. There's an undeniable connection there. One that I reaches out to me in cold, distant Connecticut.

Now pardon me while I go see what Contrasuzie and Gdad are up to.

I'm all lalaloopsy!

I have two little girls in my class of 2nd graders who have Lalaloopsy dolls. They have button eyes and odd hard plastic hair and their legs swing back and forth and I swear they giggle when I'm not looking. The dolls, they do giggle.

So intrigued by these creatures, I decided to explore this little world of dolls who look an awful lot like the Doodlebops my kids used to watch when they were crawling.

Did you ever watch the Doodlebops? 

They're a little scary, what with being alive and adult-sized.

I walked around Target with the B, a simple trip for milk and bread which of course meant I had to take a detour to the Lego section because when in Rome....

While B hunted for Ninjago gadgets, I sauntered over to the pink aisles. I only visit these shelves when there's a girl birthday party to buy for, which is seldom.  But I was curious. What does a Lalaloopsy display look like? And how is it different from Star Wars or Nerf?

Oh, I was enchanted! Immediately reverted to that pig-tailed girl in the '70s ogling the Barbies at Hills in Kingsport, Tennessee. I want that one! And that one! And, oooooh, THAT ONE!!!!!!!!!

Because they were on sale for a mere $4.99, I walked around with the Mini Lalaloopsy Marina Anchors doll in my buggy for too many minutes. I was convinced I should have her because 1) I loved the beach, B) her legs swung to and fro, and, oh yeah) her packaging looked remotely like Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Remotely, but close enough. SCORE!

But then I started with my husband's buyers PREMORSE and thought that if I could only have Mini Lalaloopsy Spells a Lot, then I would have a TEACHER doll, and that would be just right for me since I wouldn't play with my doll at home, but at SCHOOL. Yeah, that would be so much better, but Target didn't have Spells a Lot.

And if I had Miss Spells a Lot, then I'd have to have this tree house to put her in. And there's the school bus, too, but I don't find myself pining for that.

It's all about the treehouse.
It reminds me a lot of the one the Weebles had before they got all engorged.
This is the toy I never had, the one I would have given all my Barbies for.
If I'd not choked on a Weeble first.