Leftovers

Last week, for the first time ever, I had ALL of Thanksgiving week off from work. So for the second time in 23 years I had Thanksgiving with my family. [The other time is a story in itself... for another time.]

You may know that where I come from, distance is measured in minutes. ["How far to the store?" "About five minutes...."] Nearing the end of the long drive, I passed a sign that indicated Louisville was 145 miles away. Traveling at highway speed [70 mph... or a little more] I thought, “Two more hours to go!” [Yes, I converted minutes to hours in my head before talking to myself....] About 20 minutes later the speed limit was down to 60 mph due to construction and I passed another sign. This one said that Louisville was now 120 miles away. And I thought, “I was two hours away 20 minutes ago… how can I still be two hours away?” I imagined that every few minutes I would run into a lower speed limit and I would be two hours away forever. For. Ever.

Is it wrong that I am thankful that it wasn’t me that spent Thanksgiving in the hospital with pneumonia? Even though my brother did? It made for a weird week for all of us. But it sucks to be him the last few days.

On Friday and Saturday nights there was a reunion of my high school class. I haven’t really kept in touch with anyone from high school. Moving 850 miles away from home has a lot to do with that, but I’m not sure I would have even if I still lived closer. Still, it was interesting to see what has happened to some of my classmates. There are a few lawyers and doctors [at least one neurologist and one reconstructive plastic surgeon], several career military, a few teachers, firefighters [including a chief of the local fire department], and various engineers, tradesmen, and business people. Most had families [and several... um, second or third families] with children and a few grandchildren — one girl [a good catholic girl, not that I want to reinforce any stereotypes] has 10 kids. TEN KIDS! And a 15-passenger van as a family car….

Did everyone who owns a car take it on the road on Sunday? Because, really, it seemed like we were all out there. And I’m still really tired. But, is it wrong that I’m thankful I wasn’t in one of the accidents I passed on the road?

3SP: Gone to the Dogs

I should be asleep right now….

• 32 Stories by Dogstar
• One by Three Dog Night
• Hound Dog by Elvis

The song titles link to YouTube videos and the artist names link to their official web sites.

Happy Turkeyday!

With all due respect to people that have better eating habits than I have, this is one of my favorite recent quotes:

Some of my favorite things to eat are vegans. ~Mario Batali

I had some sitcom rerun on a couple days ago (I think it was 8 Simple Rules, not that it matters) and as they sat down to Thanksgiving dinner one of the characters said:

The human body has 27 feet of intestines and I plan to fill every inch of mine.

Lovely image. But I thought it was amusing….

I was with one of my sisters today when she answered the phone. This is her side of the entire conversation:

Hello… okay… okay… okay… yeah… uh-huh… okay… okay… okay… all righty!

I told her, “You’re so disagreeable!” All of which has nothing really to do with Thanksgiving. I just thought it was funny.

Letting the parade pass you by is preferable to having it run over you. I think.

And remember, if you look around the table and you don’t see a turkey… it may be you.

3SP: Thank You!

This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S. So here’s a 3-Song Playlist with Thanks as the theme. And, “Thanks!” to all the online friends I have here in the blogosphere.

My favorite radio station plays Alice’s Restaurant every Thanksgiving at noon. I saw Arlo Guthrie in concert once. He did not play Alice’s Restaurant that night, but I really enjoyed the show anyway. He had a good sense of humor. Lots of people yelled for that song and others. At one point he said, “We don’t have time to play them all. Thank God we recorded ‘em!”

There are, of course, other songs that would fit this theme. I also considered a theme of things I am thankful for [but this was easier]. What songs would you include [either songs about thanks or things you are thankful for]?

• Thank You by Sly and the Family Stone
• Thank You by Dido
• Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie

The song titles link to YouTube videos and the artist names link to their official web sites.

Vignette: Transit of Mars

Ginger peers through the lens of the telescope. Mars is leaving the seventh house. Soon, she knows, it will be in retrograde. “He’s going back,” she whispers to herself.

Fred carries the last of his belongings out of the apartment. He locks the door but instead of removing the key he pushes sideways, breaking it off in the cylinder. He stares for a moment at the piece left in his fingers then turns and walks away.

As Mars approaches opposition it begins a period of retrograde motion, which means it will appear to move backwards in a looping motion with respect to the background stars. The next retrograde period will begin on November 16, 2007 and last through to January 31, 2008 with Mars appearing to move backwards through the sky from the constellation Gemini into Taurus. ~ Wikipedia

[Note: Learn more about Fred and Ginger here. ~Tim 6 Dec 2009]

OLPC XO G1G1

“The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child.”

Their goal is to get the cost of a durable, connectible, usable computer down to $100 and distribute them to children in developing countries. The plan isn’t without critics or controversy. As a professional educator, I have some criticism of the program too but I’ll reserve that for later because I think that this IS a step in the right direction. [One of my favorite quotes is "Only by attempting the absurd can we achieve the impossible" because I think it neatly describes the dream of an educated populace.] Besides that, the reason for this post is to highlight a special, limited-time opportunity for residents in the U.S. and Canada.

The current cost of the computer that OLPC is distributing [called the XO computer] is about $200. They are not for sale to the general public, but you can donate the money and have one of the computers sent to a child in a developing country. Between 12 November and 26 November though you can Give One and Get One — a donation of $399 will send one computer to a child in need and one will be sent to your child [or to the kid in you]. I really want to get my hands on one of these.

Even if you don’t want one of your own to play with, you might consider donating one [or more] of these as a holiday gift this year. After all, if you’re having trouble deciding what to give the loved one that seems to have everything, maybe the answer is to give to some else instead.

3SP: Veterans Day

Eleven November is Veterans Day in the U.S. — a day to thank and honor all the people who have served honorably in the military in wartime or peacetime. One of my cousins was injured in Viet Nam. My father enlisted in the army right after he graduated high school to fight in World War II. I know families that have much stronger and longer traditions of military service.

Regardless of how you feel about our current military involvement, I think we owe a great debt to the men and women who volunteer [and they are all volunteers] to maintain the safety and security of our country. To all those brave people I say THANK YOU!

Here’s a 3-Song Playlist for the veterans. The Ballad of the Green Berets along with The Green Berets movie a couple years later were hugely popular in the sixties. Brothers in Arms was, I think, hugely under-appreciated in the eighties. And Life During Wartime from the seventies is just for fun. Because we all need a little fun….

• Ballad of the Green Berets by Sgt. Barry Sadler
• Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits
• Life During Wartime by Talking Heads

The song titles link to YouTube videos and the artist names link to their official web sites.

Tragically, Most of You Can’t be Here

Our drama department is presenting its fall production this week: After Juliet by Sharman Macdonald. The play picks up the story of the Montagues and Capulets after Romeo and Juliet have died. I helped with the set construction [again] and, as usual, I’m looking forward to seeing the performances. The kids put together the following commercial which I think does a pretty good job of capturing the spirit of the piece:

[Try this link if it isn't playing above.]

That scene at the end [where Rosaline is swinging her "ax" -- that's half a circular saw blade on an ax handle] is in the play; it’s a pretty wicked fight scene [and makes me just a little nervous, but they have practiced it a lot...]. Now, don’t you all wish you could be in Orlando this week just to see this play?

3SP: Questery #1

Time now for the home-game version of a 3-Song Playlist. These three songs have something that links them together. [It's a pretty easy one, but it does go deeper than the titles]. No links or hints yet. [You can always look them up yourself if you're that anxious to find out.]

• Hello, Mary Lou performed by Ricky Nelson, written by Gene Pitney
• The Birds And The Bees performed bt Jewel Akens, written by Barry Stuart
• You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet performed by Bachman Turner Overdrive, written by Randy Bachman

Do you know what links these three together? And [be honest] did you have to look them up or listen to them to figure it out?

Have fun!

Answers are now down here….
Read the rest of this entry »

One of the Hot Things at the Party

Smoking is a filthy, disgusting habit. I hope you never start — or I hope you stop soon if you smoke now.

But… [everyone should have at least one vice, right?] I enjoy an occasional cigar. Especially as the weather (finally!) is turning a little cooler and I can sit outside comfortably. I never smoke inside my house or car. I don’t encourage smoking (see the start of this post)… well almost never. At the Halloween party on Saturday, with the permission of the hostess, I brought along a box of cheap cigars to share. They were integral to one of my costume ideas that I ended up not using. [Gee, could I be more obscure?]

Lest you think that was all I brought to the party [aside from my charm and sparkling wit, of course] I also brought Triscuit crackers with cream cheese and jalapeño pepper jelly. It sounds weird [um, it's me, remember?], but the pepper jelly [don't get just plain pepper jelly, make sure it's hot pepper jelly] has a bite to it that’s tempered by the cream cheese. It’s hot. It’s cool.

Anyway, I left the box of cigars out on the balcony. And someone actually asked me [I can't believe they lobbed me such a soft one], “Cigars? Did someone have a baby?” To which I quickly [eagerly] replied, “Yes! It’s a ghoul.” [sparkling wit at the ready!] Really. I slay myself. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. And I was not drinking. Maybe just a tad short of oxygen?

At least I didn’t set my hair on fire.

Please do not spook unless spooken to.