Being Grateful During the Holiday?? The Passing of a Friend.

I did say I like Christmas better than Thanksgiving.

Although, an ambiguous time; in the back of my mind my thoughts are not far away from dear friends on the other coast, sitting and waiting by the side of a loved one in Hospice on Christmas Eve. How does someone celebrate when one is dying?

He had so much energy and a desire to live; but it was not so.
I hear he has passed peacefully, in the late morning of  December 27, 2010. My far away friend whom I can still see, fresh in my mind, has been taken away.

Jack Costello was an outstanding leader, both in the military and the civilian world. He had more energy than younger men under his leadership. Through his relentless drive to excel, he neglected that one pain in his pancreas.
Why is it that something so dark comes swiftly through one's productive life and takes them away for no given reason?

People are told to be grateful to God; even after He has taken away their loved ones too soon. They must think that God is like a baker who has taken away all their bread and throws a few crumbs back; expecting gratitude, for not taking the whole loaf. Some people are just grateful to God that they once owned a whole loaf.

I don't believe God wants gratitude from the living for what He takes away and leaves behind.
He wants us to have greater understanding and knowledge because the physical pain of the one dying becomes the mental pain for the one living. Isn't that what Jesus Christ did for mankind?

Today most religious people who believe Jesus died for them; have that mental pain called "guilt."
Unfortunately, what mankind learned about sin, was "confession." And they are good to go for another day of sinning. I don't think God had that kind of learning in mind; but, don't ask me.  I am already walking on thin ice, according to some of my friends.

From what little living, suffering, I have witnessed; it only makes me stronger with each passing day, to shout back at God. After all, he did give me a brain and He knows I will challenge Him; even in my ignorance; because I am using the ignorance he gave me, based on a religious faith, that is not a certainty, among the living. It is only a certainty among the dead. 

My friend must know the Truth of his Faith by now. He has gone on, to the Light: and we, the living are still in the Dark. 

Christmas Day

It's Christmas day and only the four of us are at home. It was fun. I did not cook very much which is always great. My husband likes to cook for the holidays and he is getting better with practice.

There was a time when he first started cooking; getting in my way, in the kitchen; telling me how to cook. His days were numbered then. I was wondering how long he expected to live.

So this Christmas Day, my husband cooked an excellent duck, my favorite meat; and I was nowhere to be seen. Duck with port-Cherry Sauce Bon Appetit, Nov. 2000. Epicurious. 

In days gone by, when I thought I had to help him, he had to have the exact ingredients when he made anything. He always forgot something when he left the store. He would go back to the store several times a day, or send me.  To say the least, it was a painful process.

But this Christmas, when he discovered there were no fruit fresh preservatives for the apples; he, once-in-a-blue-moon, took my advice, and used a substitute: lemon juice.  Making 2 apple strudels which were slightly more sour, but very tasty, that we ate them both in two days. 

He did not stop there. For breakfast he made Crepes Suzette with Curacao liquor which should have been orange in color to match the orange flavor and compliment the yellow eggs. Only finding the blue colored Curacao to mix in the yellow eggs; we ended up with Dr. Seuss's Green (crepes) Eggs. http://kottke.org/09/02/green-eggs-and-ham

He's learning that improvising can be more fun than painful.

The girls and I got our new phones. A htc EVO 4G that goes with our Sprint service. So if you see an unusual phone #714-381-6685 pop up on your phone with no message, it's just me with ADHD fingers... difficulty in performing tasks, hyperactive and impulsive.

While inserting new phone numbers, for some reason, a message would pop up on my phone screen: End Calling.

"End Calling?? 

I don't remember, Start Calling." 

I press:  End...End...END...! 

Something is very wrong with technology that is just short of Hal, a renegade computer: Memorable quotes for
 2001: A Space Odyssey

I changed the ID; to show my name, instead of my mobile number, so it won't be a mystery to you, that I am screwing up again, or maybe, Not. I might be calling you; I just can't get through to you because you won't pick up.

http://kottke.org/09/02/green-eggs-and-ham

New Technology, New Concerns

New phones that respond before you can think (see my next blog) and now new Credit Cards that are tapped, not swiped.  When my daughters received new tapped cards, I did not give it to them for fear it would be so easy to mistakenly tap, tap, tap up a huge debt. 

My husband recently heard that the reason his credit cards did not work in one European restaurant was because they no longer accepted the "swipe" cards; only the "tap" credit cards. 

AND, consequently, consumers are discovering that thieves can walk by and scan the "tap" card in their pocket.  It seems consumers are in a No Win Zone; especially, when the credit card issuers don't include a security FRID sleeve for the card they send to you. 

While googling "tapped" credit cards, I discovered other useful credit card security sites.   

All featured below:

High-Tech Credit Cards Vulnerable to Thieves
http://www.wlwt.com/r/23681530/detail.html


Electronic pick-pocketing by Snopes.com 

Are big-name stores making it easy for credit card thieves?

There are stainless steel wallets for $19.99.

                              AND the WINNER IS!

How to make a duct taped wallet to secure your credit card FRID Chips.

 GOOD LUCK

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year One and ALL

Image via Wikipedia

My favorite Symbol in Winter

I guess it's time for a Christmas letter. Where does the time go. I told my oldest daughter that if I died today, I would be happy. I am so stressed and it's the only way I will get any peace.  Or maybe not, after writing all those blogs about how disappointed I am in God. He will never let me rest now; even when I die.
Since I wasn't thankful at Thanksgiving; what can I be thankful for at Christmas. Brights colorful lights; definitely Snowmen and the fresh air with all those negative ions. Generally speaking, negative ions increase the flow of oxygen to the brain; resulting in higher alertness, decreased drowsiness, and more mental energy.
We are all finally healthy without any aches or pains.
Kristine did have some back pain last month and missed some of her culinary classes. When she had to do double time to catch up, she was not impressed with the savory classes; so she switched to the baking program: Le Cordon-Bleu Patisserie and Baking Program. When she bakes she feels more relaxed than slaving over a hot stove. She is still taking her prerequisite classes so she can easily continue her classes right into the baking program.
It is a good thing that she is joining the real world and not always in her head. We have started watching creative cake baking on the food network channel which is something Kristine is interested in when her first baking class begins in the New Year.

One of Kristine's needle points she had framed for us

The rug, Kristine latch hooked with her matching framed needle point. She gave to me last year.

Presently, she is making Christmas and baby gifts. She loves to needlepoint; something she acquired while at Appleton House. Needlepoint, like baking, helps her relax and she does it 24/7 in between cooking classes.
She seems to excel at whatever she takes on; in spite, of her mental illness.
If I needlepointed as much as she does; it would drive me crazy; whereas, it's her sanity.

Kathleen is also making her Christmas gifts since she started taking a jewelry class. She is learning to weld metal pieces together. It is time consuming as she found out, as I have not heard from her since she started. I asked her to make me a necklace with an ankh and woman symbol welded together. It freaked her out when she saw the design I drew because she thinks it will be too hard to make; but, I think she can do it since she has made more complicated pieces. She said I probably won't get my Christmas gift on Christmas day; like my birthday gift which she will give me on Christmas. She and a friend made templates of my rose pictures, so I can make my own greeting cards. In the meantime, she is planning a trip to New York to look for an Internship in account planning in advertising. She has finally found her niche. She created her own informative videos of San Francisco: Alamo sq. shoe garden: discover and The slides of Castro that can be seen on youtube.com as well as at her KaptainCupcake blog site.


The house in Whitefish, Montana is coming along. I will not be getting my Blue Louise quantize slab oven wall for the kitchen.The Brazilian Co. sold it to someone else. I can get over it, as long as the house has a roof. It would have been the only thing in the house that is Wild as everything else are beige, brown, gray, etc. Although I probably can find something else just as wild. What do you think?

Painting I had in mind when I selected the Blue Louise slab

Blue Louise slab with my ideal vent

While in the health food store last month, a woman asked me to taste her salad. Then she gave me a free invitation to a healthy cooking show to learn about eating foods to prevent cancer. The demonstration is to promote expensive cookware. However, we also learned to cook some very tasty, healthy foods with tips on how to keep the vitamins in food. We learned about the natural nutrients in
Goji berries,  Hemp seeds  and Maca . Although, I have to put lots of flavoring in with Maca because it tastes like, what a smelly sock, might taste like; so you know it's gotta be healthy or who would eat it?
A few days ago, I put it in Kristine's coffee with lots of peppermint mocha flavored creme and cinnamon. She said nothing.
The next day, I forgot to put the Maca in her coffee; so I added it to her yogurt; instead, with blueberries, honey,  hemp seeds, and cinnamon.
Later, she came walking into the room saying her coffee tasted bad and she asked me if I had put that god awful Maca in it.  I swore, I did not put any Maca in her coffee that day;
but don't ask me about the yogurt.

My husband, as usual is on his marathon business trips. This year alone there were several trips to Saudi, Kuwait, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Qatar. Washington D.C, Alabama, TX and I cannot remember the other half of the year. He is getting a little tired of all the traveling and thinks about retiring all the time.
I have already heard from some women whose husbands have retired. Their husbands get bored and end up making them their new project.
What little time my husband is home, he likes to make me his project too. Once when he was home for 2 weeks he said, "We need to fold the towels a different way." This after 37 years of folding towels. That's fine dear, if you want to fold the towels a different way, you go for it.

It's winter and as usual I will be pulling out the soup pot. For some reason, my family likes my soups; although I have no clue what I put in them. Very similar to a witch's brew....Hee, hee, hee, hee...
Where's the dog?

I guess there were a few highlights this year...
We traveled to Montana to survey the building site, while selecting tile, etc..
It's not exciting like some people keep telling me. I will only know when the house is completed what it will actually look like.

We went to London to meet the Duke of York and a Saudi Prince. That could have been surreal, but I had already seen the Grand Canyon.
While in Dublin, I saw the Book of Kells. Definitely there is some mental illness associated with that kind of meticulous, detailed drawing; especially when a monk is cooped up for years in a room doing nothing else. No one sane could concentrate that long on one thing.
Of course, on a reversed planet, sanity would be considered insanity (much like our government is today). I think we are headed there now, in the New Year...Watch for It.
In the meantime,
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Stuck in a Hotel Room

I figure, while I am stuck in a hotel room, I might as well blog.

This is the yearly Christmas dinner gathering of executives and their wives in Texas where we reintroduce ourselves to one another for one night.

While we are heading to the airport, my husband, who travels 24/7, tells me that he has requested an upgrade for both of us, but he will probably get upgraded first. It's only a 2 1/2 hour flight, so I am not concerned.

My husband likes waiting in the executive lounge until shortly before we board.  So there we sat while the airline agents at the boarding desk paged us repeatedly to come up for our first class seats. At about the same time, my husband tells me that they will notify him on his Blackberry or the lounge Reps will tell him.

NOT

While standing around to board, my husband tells me he will go first because he wants the first opportunity to get a space for our carry-on bag. He is in seat 9 and I am in seat 16, so I watch as he leaves; while waiting for the agents to call my zone for my seating area. Not long, I hear my last name called out; adding: "party of two." I am not sure that I heard, what I heard.  I hesitantly walk up to the agent's counter and stand a few feet away because there are other people waiting in line too. Then, I hear the agent yell out my first name.

I immediately swing around the line to the front. She tells me, "You have been upgraded to first class."

I said, "What about my husband?" She said that he already boarded. Too late.

Moral of my husband's life:  Just when he's comfortable with a routine on his own, his wife throws him a curve ball. 

Meaning, he feels, he never thinks clearly when I am with him. Which really means that he doesn't know what he is missing: his first class seat; until I tell him.

The truth doesn't lie in what he thinks; but in, what is: That I see the curve balls coming because I am not in my comfort zone; but he thinks he knows better, than I know, because he is in his comfort zone.

Moral of this story : His comfort zone only appeared to be bullet proof until his wife told him otherwise.

Holidays and Celebrations

Now that the holiday season is upon us, I often wonder why I feel a tinge of depression around Thanksgiving. You know that time of year, I should feel thankful.
I think it's the Only time of the year, I don't feel grateful; if only, because it's a National requirement.
I don't think it's just me. All those movies and articles of extended families coming together to squabble around the turkey. It's a ceremonial rite; sacrificing a bird to God when we know He doesn't deserve it. Poor bird.
During Thanksgiving, I think there is just too much identical DNA in one room: It's like looking in the mirror all day long.
However, Christmas doesn't seem that way. The vibes are rather uplifting on that day. It's a celebration of a Life; whereas, Thanksgiving is a celebration of what we have. I think celebrating Life is so much better than being Thankful for everything God gave us; that we didn't want in the first place; mainly some of the relatives we have.
If I could have had everything I wished for while growing up; how could that have been any worse than what God gave me; instead of what I wanted.
I am sure He thought that what I wanted would not have taught me anything from life; whereas, what He tortured me with; I had learned something.
Yes, it did teach me something. It taught me how screwed up God's creation turned out and He's probably very upset too.