Grandma's House

Tagged by a meme from Ambulance Driver, I hereby post my response. Okay, here are the rules:

Pass it on to five other bloggers, and tell them to open the nearest book to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences. The CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL!

Okay, tag yourselves, please. The nearest book to me is one I haven't started yet, The Wallace by Nigel Tranter. (darn paperbacks don't stay open right away, do they?) Now, page 56:

"More than you think, my son, I do believe. But - come you away, where we may be more private, lad. I trust all within my house. But it is not seemly that we should converse here, before all this gawping, open-mouthed clan!"

Are you intrigued yet? Of course you are. If you take up the meme, leave a note so I can read what you wrote, ok?

I'm feeling a little punny, so I thought I'd combine these two stories.

First, we have some karma, so to speak:

A 21-year-old man was accused of driving drunk and leading police on a chase that finally ended with him running over himself.

And then, we top that off with some dogma, as it were:

Authorities said a police dog bit and helped apprehend a Dayton man wanted on dogfighting charges.

How sweet it is!!

I realize it is Caturday now, but I had to post this picture. This is Holly, the winner of the 2008 National Dog Show. We usually watch it, but it was, unfortunately, on a channel this year that we were not getting at the time. Of course, Sir Mugley put up the new antenna and now we're getting all of our digital channels like we're supposed to. Better late than never, no? Anyway, I'm stuck with an extra digital converter now, since we had to replace our television. But that's neither here nor there. Look at Holly and be happy!

If you want to save some money on your Christmas shopping, and don't want to fight the crowds, click on the link on the right side of the page for Amazon and search their Black Friday sales. I bought a bunch of movies for less than $5 each, and it was great! Plus I can use the kickback, um, er, commission on the sales. Go. now.

Well, it's Phriday and I'm phull! I've been snacking ever since dinner. I just realized about twenty minutes ago that it's Phriday, and I have Phideaux to post. We had a wonderfully quiet day here. This year, we decided to stay home and relax. Sir Mugley went to the store Wednesday (brave soul that he is) and bought a smoked chicken and potatoes and salad and French bread and red velvet cake and peaches... oh, my achin' belly! Anyway, we weren't the only ones to have a good day. This guy got off lucky:



Now, let's get on with the Phriday Phideaux! I picked this one because it is just awesome!



For such a little guy, this one has a great big story:



Uh Oh! Doesn't look like this guy had a good Thanksgiving:



Here's hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We were moving things around yesterday, and found our little stuffed bear. She's a pretty white bear, with holly leaves all over her white body. Her name, naturally, is Holly. So in honor of Holly appearing for the holiday seasons, we watched a quadruple set of movies to get into the mood: Holiday Inn, White Christmas, A Christmas Carol, and my daughter's favorite, It's a Wonderful Life.

I keed. She hates that movie. So naturally we watch it every chance we get. That's what loving parents do.

I'm trying to get into the spirit of Christmas early this year. I couldn't do it last year at all, with all the bitterness of my daughter's divorce-in-progress and the kids leaving. This year they will still be gone, but I've had more time to adjust, and I get to talk to most of them. My oldest, Delia, isn't permitted to make long distance phone calls, and her father has no phone so I can't call her. She is pretty isolated as they live outside of town in a trailer with her little 3 year old brother to play with (she's 12). When she left here, she was a happy, active 11 year old tomboy, lean and tall at 5'2". When I saw her in September she had lost her smile, didn't want to talk to anyone, and weighed 150 pounds. Way too heavy. But if her mother says anything about it, her father won't allow Dee to call her mom. It's draconian and there's nothing I can do about it.

Enough with my rant. Someday, when I get moved, I'll be able to get her once in a while. Maybe I can rid her of the toxic ideas he's putting in her head.

I had to deal with some very unpleasant business this week. After talking to my son, Mr. Attitude from Cheers, Boos, Sweat and Spandex I learned with some chagrin that my grandson, Anthony, called his daddy an SOB. Naturally daddy was having none of that. So he grounded him for a week, and made him call both his grandmothers to tell us what he had done. I asked my son how hard I was to be on the boy, since it was a first offense. He said to make him cry. Now, I'm way out of practice on that. So when Anthony got on the telephone, I asked him what he had done, and he told me.

Then I said, "Anthony do you think that I am a bitch? A bitch is a female dog. Is that what you think of me?" "Oh, no, grandma I love you. You're not a dog. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry." I paused, then said, "Okay, I forgive you. When you get mad at someone, instead of saying that word, find another one. Next time you get angry with your daddy, call him a turkey or a beast. Beast was his nickname when he was a baby." "I will grandma, I'm really sorry I said that". "Okay, Anthony. I love you." "Oh, I love you too, Grandma, and I really miss you."

Well, when he said that, I couldn't take it any farther, because he was making me cry. But I guess I did my job, because after he gave the phone back to his dad he started crying in the background. So I don't think he'll be saying it again, at least to his dad. I miss those little boogers. I haven't seen them in a long time.

Welcome to this week's edition of Phriday Phideaux! As usual, ihadahotdog.com has supplied some wonderful pictures phor your entertainment. The theme of this week's presentation is Let's Have A Phriday Party! First, we'll break the ice by starting off with a group dance:



And we would really let go and dance some more free-style:



When we were through dancing around, we would sit around and tell scary stories. Ooh!



Then we'd snuggle up together and stay warm in the winter temperatures. There is nothing warmer on your bed than a big ol' furry dawg snuggling up to your back. My little beagle tries to rest his head on my neck sometimes when his nose is cold.

This guy should try to control his impulses:

A man faces a domestic battery charge after allegedly hitting his girlfriend with a sandwich as she was driving on Interstate 95 on Friday.

That's bad enough (and please, no jokes about salami, ok?), but the last line of the story just kills me:

Police haven't said what type of sandwich was involved.

Oh, man! What possible difference could that make? I almost spewed all over my keyboard when I read that.

This story is outrageous. This mayor is apologizing for something he had no control over. You cannot control what children are saying when they're not even in your presence. Half the time you can't control what they're saying when they are!

At any rate, all this crap about killing Obama has got to stop. There are four good reasons:

1. It's wrong to murder people.
2. It would make him a martyr, and we don't need any more of those.
3. Riots would break out all over the country.

and the really big one

4. If he was killed, Joe Biden would fall over dead at the prospect of taking over, and we'd be stuck with Nancy Pelosi as President. I can't live with that one. Just the thought makes my skin crawl!

I'll keep this short, gang. I'm not seeing the linky love for my Air Force team here. You know, the Army and Navy guys are already over $10,000 for their teams, and I know we can top that. Tell your friends, just a few bucks from everybody and we'll "fly" right by them all. Let's make those numbers "soar", people. All right, I'll stop if you make a donation. Deal?

It's that time of year again. The time for all decent, military loving people to give a little back. Project Valour-IT is taking donations now through November 27. What is Project Valour-IT you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. It stands for Voice Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops. Yeah, I like it, too. Anyhoo, every year bloggers take a branch of the military and raise funds for the Project. All of the money goes to the same place; this is just for bragging rights.

As you can see, I've gone with Air Force Blue. It was difficult making a decision, as my father and father-in-law were in the Army, as was my brother; my daughter enlisted in the Navy, and my son enlisted in the Army. But my spouse was in the Air Force, so I had to back him up, right?

C'mon, you can spare five dollars, right? If I can, you can. If you can spare more, it would be put to good use. These troops need our help. Let's go, let's show them how grateful we really are!

The Ultimate Color Test

When you are at peace, you are: Deeply stable When you are moved to act, you are: Confident and optimistic When you are inspired, you are: Spontaneous and adventurous When your life is perfectly balanced, you are: Philosophical and expressive Your life's purpose is: To live a passionate life

In honor of my alma mater, I present the East High School song:

To East High School, brave and true,
Our voices now we raise,
Over all the city wide, in melodies of praise.
Ever foremost in the fray,
May she always stand,
Guarded loyally and well by our faithful band.
So, let us fight, fight, fight for dear East High
The name we all revere, (we all revere)
And let us fight, fight, fight, for everyone,
So give a rousing Rah!, Rah!, Rah!,
We yell, we yell,
For East High School, we love so dear,
Then let the chorus swell,
For her fair fame, we'll spread the name
Of Dear EAST HIGH.

I don't know why. Just felt right.

It's Phriday again. I have a slight head cold this week, which is really making my economics class a load of laughs. Yeah, right. I've never had a class that I hated so much after only one week. Gack! I'll be glad when it's over. Anyway, I couldn't deprive my reader (you know who you are) of Phriday Phideaux, could I?



So here we go. This is the face I used to see when I'd try on clothes, which is why I don't do that anymore:



Here's Maggie and Sunny Lucas, doing their rendition of Lord of the Rings, because I'll probably watch that trilogy this weekend:



And this one, just because it makes me smile every time I look at it:



See ya later, gator!

This is my baby boy. Isn't he cute? And where did he get those arms?? Seems he's bulked up a bit since he left home. I know it wasn't my cooking holding him back. I suspect.... exercise. Dun Dun DUNNNN!

For pity's sake, could we at least wait until he does something?

You know what they say here in Missouri? The only people living in Kansas are the ones who couldn't read the "Welcome to Kansas" signs!

It dawned on me today that I haven't posted lately on our family football bet of 2008. Sir Mugley is following Jacksonville and Pittsburgh; I am following Miami and Baltimore. To reiterate the rules, you earn points when your team scores. It doesn't matter if they win or lose, only how many points they reached. At the end of the season, the loser pays the winner one penny for every point difference in their total scores.

At the end of week nine, Sir Mugley has 338 points; I, on the other hand, have 342 points. It's a lot closer than I thought it would be. Eight games to go. Right now Sir Mugley owes me a lousy four cents, but I'm hoping for more. Of course we have different rules for the playoffs. We choose teams at a dollar a game; the Super Bowl is a five dollar bet.

We've been doing this for about eight years now, and Sir Mugley has only beat me the last two years. I think that's enough.

I heard Mr. Obama was late for his first press conference. He's gonna have to do better than that. Someone said that before he started talking he looked frightened, like a deer in the headlights, but he snapped out of it fairly quickly. And he made a blunder, talking about Mrs. Reagan's seances, when he meant Hillary Clinton. At least he called and apologized.

There's a website up called 52 to 48, or something like that (I won't link to it), all photos asking Republicans to "reach across the aisle and make nice now that the election is over". Yeah, I don't think so. Pictures of signs are useless; prove what you are saying by working to keep this country safe, keep the government's hands off our guns, leave our churches alone, leave our 401k's alone. Do your job and leave the rest to the states. Then we'll play nice.

Once again my intrepid Tigers won, defeating Kansas State (yeah!!) 41-24. Turns out #3 Penn State, #8 Oklahoma State and #11 TCU all lost their games this week. It will be interesting to see where Missouri winds up in the polls. I'm hoping for top 10.

Finally heard back from the prodigal daughter. The grandchild count will be remaining at 10. My sympathies go out to her and to Mark. It can be a really difficult time to go through.

Our family reunion is set for December 6 this year. Of course my brother has to work that afternoon so we'll have to do it early. My silly sister sent me an email to let me know she couldn't afford to purchase gifts this year, because she's been out of work since July. I told her that gifts were not the reason I showed up at these things and that's the truth. I seldom have money to buy gifts for my family. We generally scrape together enough to give each of the grandchildren a gift card. They really like getting them; they think it makes them more grown up if they can buy things themselves. Of course, this makes me the cool grandma! I can live with that.

I do worry about the oldest grandchild. She is currently living with her biological father, because he lied his butt off in court while my daughter was in the middle of getting a divorce, and got the ex to back him up, which he now regrets. This lovely girl, age 12, has a lanky, tomboy figure, small boned, and always happy. When I saw her in September, this child was quiet, rarely smiled and had bloomed up to about 150 pounds. She lives in a trailer with her father and his fiancee and their three year old son. They have no phone. She has no computer. He is very controlling. And he has started restricting the amount of time she can talk to her mother on the phone, and has been bailing on visitation rights. There's always a new excuse. I'm afraid she's going to have to go back to court and try and get her back before he does too much damage. I know the other three children are doing fine, but I've only seen her once since last December and it has been difficult. I know it's wrong, but there is a special bond with the first grandchild, and in my case it was increased because I was the labor coach and watched the birth. If you were to take a picture of my daughter and my granddaughter in pajamas in their cribs and lay them down beside one of me the same age, you couldn't tell them apart. It was like having her little all over again.

Pray for them please. Daughter and fiancee are coming Thanksgiving weekend for a visit. Hopefully son and daughter-in-law can come as well. We'll find a way to rent them a room or something and have a blast.

People of Missouri, I have but one small thing to say to you at this point:

I TOLD YOU SO

I warned you on Monday that Proposition A, which lifted the limits on casino losses to increase the money going into the education budget, would go the same way as the lottery. And guess what???

I WAS RIGHT

Check this out:

The money is supposed to go to schools across the state, but that may not be happening at all.

Those in support of Proposition A promised that school districts across Missouri would receive a lot of money. Yet, a closer look reveals that all depends on how the state budget looks next year.

The Proposition A money from casino revenues goes toward total state funding for public schools. And with tax revenue expected to be down across the board, this money may go to help fill that deficit. That means school districts may actually see less money, rather than more funding.

And then there's this little gem:

Another interesting point, lies in the fact that some smaller school districts around here won't see a dime because they're considered "hold harmless" districts. They already receive more funding than what's required under the state school funding formula.

That was a guarantee years ago for smaller districts, so they didn't lose money as they shrunk in population. So this money, won't affect districts like Shell Knob, Camdenton or Climax Springs at all.

As for when this money might come to other districts, it might be 2010 at the earliest.

You people can't say I didn't try to warn you. I have my blog from Monday as evidence. You should really listen to your grandma once in a while.

That felt good. I haven't scolded anyone in a long time. I was getting rusty at it. Just be glad this is a blog. You wouldn't want to see me angry in person. I'd scare the Incredible Hulk. Just ask my kids.

Now this is just pathetic. I mean, come on!! How did the cardboard box get in before the stick!! That's just wrong!!

It's Phriday again. A bad week deserves good laughs, so here's Phriday Phideaux. This week's theme is bad hairdo's:







That's it for Phideaux this week. Again, all photos from ihasahotdog.com with thanks. More to come...

What a day. This was my initial reaction to the big announcement tonight:



After I had a chance to digest what had happened, I felt like this:



I'll be back for Phriday Phideaux. I've gotta get some rest. I can tell you that I'm not sure I can accept Mr. Obama as my President. It has nothing to do with race; it has everything to do with character, and frankly, I believe he has none. I only pray that we can fix whatever he breaks in 2010.

For those of you who live in Missouri, tomorrow we're going to vote on Proposition A. This proposition concerns riverboat gambling in Missouri. Here's the problem: The people who want you to vote "yes" are saying it will bring millions more into the education funds. This money will be earmarked for education and cannot be used for anything else. They said the same thing about the lottery. After that passed, the state government determined how much would be going into education from lottery sales and deducted that amount from the budgeted amount for education, putting that money back into the general fund. In other words, it didn't help "the chiiillldren" at all. Now they're back for more.

Proposition A will take all limits off the amount a person can lose in one night at the casinos and increase the amount the casinos have to pay the state. They say this will bring us up to the same levels as adjoining states. I'm sorry, but I don't care about the adjoining states. I care about this one. People for A say those running campaigns against it are from those other states, people against A say those running campaigns for it are all casino owners. I say they're all crazy.

We set those limits on losses for a reason. Some people have very poor self-control and would gamble everything they have if they didn't have a limit on it. Is it so hard to go back the next day if you really have to lose more money? No. I'm voting no on Prop A. It won't help the children, it could potentially bankrupt their parents and that is no help at all.

I would like to say here and now, since I won't be blogging tomorrow, that if you don't vote, don't you dare complain about the way the country goes. You gave up that right when you decided to stay home. If you haven't decided who to vote for yet, WHY NOT?? How long do you need? This campaign has been going on for nearly two years! If you seriously haven't decided yet, let me give you a hand:



(Yeah, I stole that, and right now I can't remember where. If it was yours, let me know and I'll give you credit for it.)

GO VOTE GO VOTE GO VOTE....

I'd like to express my condolences to the Obama family at the loss of his grandmother. It is hard to lose someone who raised you and gave you every opportunity to thrive. I could say something snarky here about the way he treated her during the campaign as others have done, but I won't. Adults don't do that.

I also note that Obama's Nevada campaign director, Terence Tolbert died at the age of 44 due to a heart attack. My sympathies go out to his family at his unexpected demise.