Be prepared for ...

Unbearable Cuteness!

I know, all babies are cute but our little princess is monopolizing the cute here in the blog-o-sphere.

March Desktop Calendar

Funny thing happened besides my slip-n-fall, I created March's calendar ahead of time. I must have secretly known I'd be out of commission like pregnant women who clean their house before they go into labor. Anyway, here it is and it's even early. Don't get used to it because next month it will, most likely, be late.

If you'd like to use this month's calendar as your desktop pattern for your computer please use the following instructions. If you have any questions you can leave a comment or email me at mooncrazy.debono@gmail.com

I've changed the sizes a bit and removed the large image and replaced it with something a bit smaller, 1023 x 680.

• Click on appropriate link. large calendar, 1024 x 680 or small calendar, 800 x 500
• PC users-right click or Mac users Control click, the image and select "Set as Desktop Background"

The calendar is now your background and all your files or shortcuts will be floating on top. You can rearrange them but not the background calendar.
Don't want it once you've selected it?
PC users:

• Select Start, Control Panel, Appearance & Themes, Change desktop background.
• If the image is distorted, select "center" under Position.
• To remove, select none and apply.

MAC users:

• Select System Preferences
• Desktop & Screen Saver
• Select a new image
• If the image is distorted, select "center" from the pull-down

On a lighter note

Who doesn't like dogs and cats acting all human? I adore I can has cheezeburger. It lifts my spirits.

Things you can't do with one hand

Yeah, I'm still whining about my limited use of my hands. I'm not really a sit-and-watch-TV kind of person. I usually sketch or sew or fiddle with something if the TV is on so I'm about to go crazier than I already am.

Cooking is do-able but a real chore so I'm making casseroles, one dish meals I can pop in the oven. Yesterday I tried to do too much by putting a rubber glove over my brace and for that I paid dearly last night. Seems rubber only kept it dry. Who knew?

So here is my current list:

• open a can, really open anything
  
• slice anything hard
• lift anything hot from the oven (just don't ask)
• hold a newborn baby

Floss teeth was on that list but I found these nifty little "floss bows" that do the trick. For a while I was going au natural until I was asked if breasts can go feral, like cats. So, I've mastered getting my bra on without twenty minutes of rolling around on the bed; though I still need my darling companion to unhook me.

One positive is I'm reminded how much my husband does care for me. Friday at the market, after I closed the car trunk with my keys inside, I believe they fell out of my braced-hand unnoticed, my darling stopped what he was working on and came to unlock the trunk. No scowl, no lecture; just a hug. I must remember that.

Things you can do with one hand

You can type the name Barbara.

Well, with my left hand. Although I am a righty I have always used my left hand for some things. I can use a left-handed mouse with no problem. Typing is a challenge but I am getting better.

I did find out I could shave my legs with my left hand and brush my teeth. Washing my hair is easy but for a while it will have to be air dried. Make-up, nope. Lipstick, unless I want to look like a rodeo clown, will have to wait.

This, I remind myself, is temporary unlike the unlucky that come from the war and deal with far worse than this.

So, there's another thing I can do single-handedly, vote.

Vote your conscience.

Hey, watch this

Here is my new floor in my office. It's cork, a renewable resource. The tree is stripped of it's bark then in 9-14 years it grows back. During that time it does what trees do best, suck up all our crappy air and give us oxygen. So for the Green in me, I decided on cork.

Little did I know what a chore this would turn into.

First Lumber Liquidators might be inexpensive but the customer service stinks! My husband and brother-in-law, not new to any type of home improvement, had a devil of a time getting the floating floor to go together. It was supposed to "click" together with a gently tap of a mallet. The worked very hard and got it down in two days. When almost finished one of the panels did actually "click" into place like the instructions said, one!

So after the installation comes the sealing, polyurathane. Ah, a nice satin finish and now we need to wait three days for it to dry completely. Unfortunately I could walk on it and I say unfortunately because that's how I fractured my wrist. I'd love to say it was because it was too slick but I'd be lying.

When you start a sentence with, "Hey watch this" things only go downhill from there. In my socks, I slid across the floor, then down on my wrist. Jeeze, no wonder it's broken. I'm quite lucky it is only a small fracture and no cast but a removable brace for four weeks. After that the Dr said he'd re-xray then go from there.

This has put my continuing remodel plans back a few weeks. We should have everything out of the living room this weekend, maybe. The walls in the living room look great but I won't be able to hang and pictures for a while. Sigh.

Crack!

That is what I heard as I hit the floor. Right now I'm waiting to hear from the Dr. as to when they can set it. YUP! fractured. Good news, it's my right wrist so i won't have to brush my hair for a while.

Please let it be a cast I can take s shower with.

Pictures to follow. Typing with one hand SUCKS!

Stay tuned because when I can type I'll tell you the funny story how this happened. Let's just say, I'm old enough to know better.

Let the fun begin!

Is this the sweetest baby you've ever seen?

Our darling friends have a precious baby girl. She has a name but for now I'll call her "Princess". They are the happiest parents right about now, though probably not sleeping much.

Do enjoy kids; this is the best of times.

Hey sailor

To help me keep track of my walking miles I got a pedometer on Sunday. I read all the instructions, measured my stride and thought I had it dialed in. It seems like it's about 20% off.

Now if it were on the fat side I wouldn't even bother but it seems to not be counting enough. Huph! Can't have that so I wore in on our dog walk this morning and it said I went 11 steps. Wait a darn minute. It's damn close to a mile that trek we take so I examined the counter thingy again. Seems I've been wearing it too close to the middle of my body and the pendulum doesn't swing far enough. I've moved it closer to one hip and now it counts ten steps if I take ten steps.

I'm also swinging my hips a bit more, every little motion helps. So, if you see me walking down the street I'm really not trying to pickup anyone, just trying to count the miles.

Editor's note: This is unrelated by about a month ago my spell check on Blogger quit working. I apologize for an serious misspellings.

Walking towards a healthier me

For Lent, my sister is not giving up but adding. She has vowed to walk three miles a day until Easter. Now since I like to walk but sometimes need a challenge to motivate me I've decided to accompany her virtually until they get here next week.

Does this mean I've returned to the church? Nope it would take a whole lot of change in Rome before I did but it's more of doing something good for me. My darling companion is riding his bicycle more and I've been cooking lighter. Lent is only for forty days so we'll see how we do. At least it's forty days or exercise.

Social Security to aliens? Bogus!

Maybe on Mars but not here in the US.

Before you forward on e-mails take the time to make sure the information is correct. There are a few websites I use as a source to check rumors such as this.

www.snopes.com and FactCheck.org both are very reliable.

There has been an e-mail circulated recently about Social Security and immigration. It says that the Democrats are planning to give YOUR social security benefits to illegal aliens and for you to add your name to the list and forward it to many of your friends (make sure they are legal) and then off to the President. Check out this link about this e-mail.

It is a distortion of the facts by some Republicans. Nobody's proposing paying benefits to illegal immigrants, not until they become US citizens or granted legal status. And that is the same for guest workers as it is for people like Pauline, a friend that in the past few years has gotten her American citizenship.

The bill in question was passed last May with a bi-partisan majority. During the debate an amendment was offered to change current law to prevent immigrants from getting credit toward future Social Security benefits from taxes paid before they have legal permission to work.

Now here is the interesting part, The Social Security Administration has what is calls an "earnings suspense file" to track the amount of wages that are taxed for collection but not credited to a specific worker. SSA officials have said that the fund takes in as much as $7 billion a year. Where does that money go? It pays benefits to US beneficiaries. So, if you are collecting benefits now, some of that comes from illegal aliens who work, have taxes taken out and get no benefit or would not get benefit in the future.

Really what your Democratic representatives in Congress are doing is the opposite of what this e-mail states, they are protecting SS from retroactive payments.

Now, if your are still reading this, send this to your entire e-mail list. This is the type of information they'd love to have and they'll thank you for sending the truth.

Don't forget to vote!

Let thee without sin

If I'm in line at a market/big box store/confessional I have no problem chatting with people; I'm a friendly person. What I don't like is someone commenting on my choice of cereal/tomatoes/sins.

While stopping by Costco to buy some canned tomatoes the woman in front of me asked as she wrinkled up her nose,

"Do you know how much sodium is in those?"

"Is this a contest," I asked, "do I get a prize if I know?"

"Oh heavens no, I'm just warning everyone I see buying them", she says.

"So, that was a rhetorical question, you knew the answer but you just wanted me to look stupid?"

"Well! if you don't care about your health"

"I do care about my health but I've weighed the benefits of eating canned tomato and getting lycopene along with the sodium or eating frozen processed food and just getting the sodium. By the way, do you know how much sodium is in your frozen chicken breasts? Have a nice day."

People, if you find yourself wanting to help the world/your community/fellowman resist unless it's to vote the Republicans out of office.

Our fifteen minutes of fame

As most of my friends know I'm one third of the contributors to our family food blog, Peanut Butter Etouffee. Our little blog has been selected as one of Blogger's "Blogs of Note." Now this was a total surprise and though we love the popularity, we've had about 250 hits an hour, we are scrambling to get out all the "Thank You" e-mails. If you've never stopped by scoot on over and see what daughter lil bird has written about us.

We shall bask in this light for a while, at least for fifteen minutes.

February Desktop Calendar

February already? Where does the time go. Given my track record for publishing this year I should start on March's calendar today but since it is a leap year, February has 29 days this year.

If you'd like to use this month's calendar as your desktop pattern for your computer please use the following instructions. If you have any questions you can leave a comment or email me at mooncrazy.debono@gmail.com

I've changed the sizes a bit and removed the large image and replaced it with something a bit smaller, 1023 x 680.

• Click on appropriate link. large calendar, 1024 x 680 or small calendar, 800 x 500
• PC users-right click or Mac users Control click, the image and select "Set as Desktop Background"

The calendar is now your background and all your files or shortcuts will be floating on top. You can rearrange them but not the background calendar.
Don't want it once you've selected it?
PC users:

• Select Start, Control Panel, Appearance & Themes, Change desktop background.
• If the image is distorted, select "center" under Position.
• To remove, select none and apply.

MAC users:

• Select System Preferences
• Desktop & Screen Saver
• Select a new image
• If the image is distorted, select "center" from the pull-down

The price we pay

When I'm particularly stressed I have a CD of nothing but rain. Yeah, I know, boring but it honestly isn't. When I'm flying it's my favorite. It's on my ipod and it can seriously put me to sleep in minutes but tonight I didn't even need to plug in. Tonight I have my own rain. At times it's been storming, beating the windows, splashing down into great puddles and now it's a soft and gentle rain.

The rain, welcome to me, has some recently burned out hillside residents up worrying rather than enjoying tonight. Here in Simi Valley we were lucky to escape this fire season and rain will only green-up our hills rather than send them sliding down to crush our neighbors. That isn't to say it won't happen to us next year. With more homes being built in the hills I can't imagine we'd dodge that bullet many more years. But, until then I have my music, live tonight, and I'm enjoying every drop.

January Desktop Calendar

Welcome 2008 and any new visitors to my blog. I always try to get them up before the first of the month but hey, it's been fun New Year celebrating and shopping with my sister.

If you'd like to use this month's calendar as your desktop pattern for your computer please use the following instructions. If you have any questions you can leave a comment or email me at mooncrazy.debono@gmail.com

I've changed the sizes a bit and removed the large image and replaced it with something a bit smaller, 1023 x 680.

• Click on appropriate link. large calendar, 1024 x 680 or small calendar, 800 x 500
• PC users-right click or Mac users Control click, the image and select "Set as Desktop Background"

The calendar is now your background and all your files or shortcuts will be floating on top. You can rearrange them but not the background calendar.
Don't want it once you've selected it?
PC users:

• Select Start, Control Panel, Appearance & Themes, Change desktop background.
• If the image is distorted, select "center" under Position.
• To remove, select none and apply.

MAC users:

• Select System Preferences
• Desktop & Screen Saver
• Select a new image
• If the image is distorted, select "center" from the pull-down

Good bye old fella, hello handsome

As this year, 2007, slides into oblivion, it's time to think back about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let's all hope twenty o eight will be a stunning year.

We lost a few friends:
Good bye,
Walker, Ken, Lois,

Made some new ones:
Hi,
Gail, Paul, Jeremy, Ken, Kathy

Connected with some old ones:
Welcome back,
Nikki, Darryl, Dorothy, Scott

• My sister and husband sold their house in Florida and took to the open road.
  
• My lemon tree gave forth green buds, flowers and finally this past week, lemons.
• I got to see my sister three times this year, three!
  
• The fires didn't come into our little valley, this year, but the wind did.
• Apple stock rose 134% this year, amazing.
• I started working in pastels and produced quite a bit. Down side, I sold nothing.
• My garden tour was successful and I continue to love giving tours at the Getty Center.
• Riding public transportation and walking became important.
• After 37 years of marriage, we both learned more about each other.
  
• We learned how to fill and empty a black water tank.
• I discovered I can has cheezeburger?

And the best thing about the upcoming year,

• There's only one more year to his presidency, crazy though it will be, one more year.

My new year's wish for all of you is happiness, prosperity and peace. We won't get the last unless you bitch to your elected officials so get out there next year and write letters.

For me, I only hope I can continue to continue for one more year.

The best of the season to you

Yes, I mean you, you who read this blog on a regular basis, you know who you are. This is the time we set aside to see old friends and family, take time to thank them; or forgive them, and think about those that have been in our lives and aren't anymore. Our time is so short on this planet, almost fleeting, so make sure you take a bit of time to say the things need saying.

Since I've seen way too much stress at Christmas time, mostly self induced, I've try ways to side-step the angst. Our family, albeit small, has a difficult time getting together so we celebrate the holiday when we can. This year it will be December 29. The actual day means little to me, it's the getting together that is important. I gave up celebrating the religious aspect of the holiday such a long time ago, as did my family, so we have no problem shifting the celebration.

This would all be different if our mother was still alive. She was the elf herself. She was always so excited about Christmas morning that if she spent the night, which she did on occasion, she'd be playing Johnny Mathis' Christmas music at five a.m. because she couldn't wait until we were all up. So now, even though she's been gone for a while, if I hear Mathis's Christmas Song, I know another angel got it's wings.

Merry Christmas!

Jimmy Hoffa, I think I know where he is

Freaky things seem to follow me around like a hungry hound. Last week, while Christmas shopping, we stopped in a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf store for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. While paying for my tea the contents of my wallet spilled out on the counter and before I could grab it, my drivers license slipped into an abyss. Seems there is a drivers license sized crack between the two counters and that's where my license went.

When I asked the staff person if they could get it out they assured me they couldn't. Huh? You must be able to. Nope. I was mystified but after I was sure no one else could get it out I hustled over to the DMV and $21 later my license was replaced.

Now I've asked a few friends who's fault this was, I was lobbying for it not being my fault, but I couldn't get anyone to agree with me. Like my sister said, it was just a freak accident that probably couldn't be reproduced if you wanted. I just want to be there when the coffee bar is removed, for whatever reason, and they tear out the cabinets. Who knows what else is down there.

What bastards!

Who am I ranting about, today? The auto industry. California, along with 16 other states, wants to write tougher auto emission standards regarding cars and trucks and the genius in Washington decided it would be better if all states were to work together. I agree we should all have the same laws but what's wrong with the tougher standards for everyone?

What a silly question. The the auto makers would actually have to act sooner and those big contributors to politicians might not contribute big anymore. Again, Bastards.

Washington fat-cats sleeping with the auto industry 1
Global warming and your children's future 0