I know all the information isn't out yet and I have been suspicious that so little information has been released and then only acknowledged when the media discovers it first.
So far, what I've heard is this new mother of octuplets is a single mom, with 6 other children ranging in ages from 2 to 7. She lives with her parents in a 3 bedroom home. She was taking fertility drugs and had invitro fertilization to get pregnant. Am I missing something here?
If you're a single parent and already have 6 kids, why would you want more? Obviously you've gotten pregnant successfully before, why would you need fertility drugs? If you can't afford to support your first 6 kids and that's why you live with your mom and dad, why would you try to get pregnant again?
If you can't afford to support your 6 kids, where did you get the money for the fertility drugs and the invitro fertilization? That last one is super expensive. Who is the doctor that enabled this woman to get pregnant with 8 more kids? Are there no ethics in the medical field?
Am I missing a part of this story? So much of it doesn't make sense and I can't believe nobody put the breaks on this months, if not years ago. Lastly, are these the actions of a sane mind? Should this woman be trusted to care for and raise 14 children? Who's going to pay for that? Who's already been paying for their support and the creation of these last 8? UPDATE: News Story
So M and I were discussing the "puppy" issue. She liked that Tshsmom was playing mediator and trying to talk me down from 2 puppies to one puppy. So I told her that just made me raise the ante to 4 puppies. Then she started singing this dead puppy song. I thought she'd lost her mind. So she made me go find a video of the song. Apparently the people where she grew up in Wisconsin were fond of this song. (It explains a lot.) Anyway, I'd like to clarify my request for a puppy, that will be, not only a German Shepherd puppy, but a live one as well, two puppies if I can get away with it. Here's the song.
While we were looking for the bizarre dead puppy song, we came across this guy with way too much time on his hands, singing a song for his cat - "Mean Kitty." Well, he can sing and it is entertaining, so, enjoy!
So, I've always been a blonde, in some variation or another, my whole life. I was born a white blonde. My mother had blonde hair and green eyes, and my father had blonde hair and blue eyes. So it was no surprise that I turned out blonde. I had that soft, baby white blonde characteristic of my Scandinavian heritage. *Sigh* . . . but it didn't last long.
I went the way of many blondes, those whose DNA also carries grandparents with darker hair. So very quickly my hair began revealing golden tones.
Oh, it was still very pretty and pale and I was unmistakably blonde. But the tide was already turning, and the only time my hair would go lighter was in the summer or years later with a little help from Miss Clairol.
By 10, my hair was a medium blonde, still heading darker. In this picture it almost looks as if my hair color was headed toward brown. I've discovered that going darker for a lot of blondes is traumatic. Who else's hair color, besides blondes, can continuously change, year after year, until eventually, you don't look like the person you've always known yourself to be?
By 13, the golden shine was still there, but it was almost completely overrun by that dark, dull, drab haircolor known as "dishwater" blonde. A muddy, dull mass with no life, no spark, and perfectly timed with the insecurities of puberty.
Well, I survived puberty and with the help of Miss Clairol, by 22 I was returning to the color of my youth. I felt alive again, energized, whole. I know it's vain, but I grew up seeing myself with light colored hair surrounding my face. To be confronted with the dark truth was too much to bear.
So throughout my 20s and 30s, Miss Clairol and I were bestest friends. We kept in constant touch and as long as the light shined in my hair, I felt young and strong, able to conquer anything.
On the rare occasions I would color my hair a darker blonde or a red of some sort to allow my natural color to grow out and see what it actually looked like without having obvious roots. I did this during the pregnancies of both my children (didn't want any extra chemicals in or on my body) and again while returning to college. As a returning college student, single mom and full-time worker, Miss Clairol and I didn't have time for regular meetings anymore.
So for a couple of years I hung out with my natural haircolor, sometimes helped with an occasional red or the summer sun. I was in my earth mother stage and low maintenance was a necessity.
But as I got school behind me and my kids were getting older, Miss Clairol and I hooked up again, probably trying to regain some of that youthful feeling.
So for the next 10 years (35-45) I basically stuck with my light blonde. In the winters I would go a shade or two darker and I was okay with that. But then something happened, sometime in my early 40s I noticed I was going light blonde again, all on my own, but only at the temples. It was very pale, very soft and reminded me of baby's hair. *Greatful sigh* I was not only going blonde, I was going platinum blonde! God is good. Then, a few years later (tonight) while blow-drying my hair, I noticed shiny hairs sprouting up on the top of my head and literally bursting out all over. I looked closely because I didn't want to mistake them for gray. No, they weren't wiry and they weren't dark, but they also were not the baby platinum blonde of my temples. Hmmm, I thought to myself, what could these mysterious new hairs be? They're all over the top of my head and they shine like crazy in the light. Then I figured it out, they were angel hairs! I was growing my very own halo! I was so excited and went to show M. She suggested I not mention this to anyone because they might become jealous, but I just knew you guys wouldn't get jealous. Are any of you sprouting angel hairs? I know M thinks I'm in denial and that they're gray hairs, but honestly, I'm really going blonde again, and now it's popping up all over my head. ;-)
Friday, January 23, 2009
Where did this week go? No, seriously, where did it go? It went so freakishly fast for me I'm concerned I may have gotten caught up in a time warp or something.
Anyway, here are some things that made me laugh this week that I thought I'd share:
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JOKES (Courtesy of Comedy Central's Joke of the Day e-mail)
A man was sprawled across three entire seats in a theater. When the usher came by and noticed this, he whispered to the man, "Sorry sir, but you're only allowed one seat."
The man groaned but didn't budge. The usher became impatient.
"Sir," the usher said, "if you don't get up from there, I'm going to have to call the manager."
Again, the man just groaned, which infuriated the usher who turned and marched briskly back up the aisle in search of his manager. In a few moments, both the usher and the manager returned and stood over the man. Together the two of them tried repeatedly to move him, but with no success. Finally, they summoned the police. The cop surveyed the situation briefly.
"All right, buddy. What's your name?"
"Sam," the man moaned.
"Where ya from, Sam?" the cop asked.
"The balcony."
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An elderly lady phoned her telephone company to report that her telephone failed to ring when her friends called - and that on the few occasions when it did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang. The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic dog or senile elderly lady.
He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring.
Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:
1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via a steel chain and collar.
2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.
3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number was called.
4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then urinate on himself and the ground.
5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring.
Which demonstrates that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning.
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And we can't let a Friday go by without some music to make you feel good, so, this video will either make you feel good from the music, or from laughter watching the chick with the long hair fling it all over at the beginning of the video. Have a great weekend!
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Oops! I almost forgot. Click Here. to go to the funniest "Best Man" speech I've ever heard / seen. Wait for it, trust me, listen to him and wait for it. Thanks to Marilyn Maeve's Madness for sending me the video.
Prior to Bush leaving office, his administration was trying to push through all sorts of conservative legislation that would affect women's reproductive rights and wildlife areas just to name two. I'm glad to see Obama's Administration get off to such a good, firm, no nonsense start and protecting our rights immediately. CNN Full Story and here's another one: Yahoo News Story
As a preface to this post, some faces you might see in this post are not who you might think they are, those individuals called in sick to work, so they could not possibly be the folks you see in the following pictures. Any resemblance to sick people is purely coincidental. So we had an Inauguration Brunch and served the following foods: oatmeal with assorted fruits, pancakes, bacon, veggie quiche, crab quiche, smoked salmon and assorted cheeses and crackers, a variety of bagels and cream cheeses, cinnamon coffee cakes, doughnuts, cupcakes, coffee, teas, orange juice, milk, Mimosas (O.J. with champagne) and I think that was it, I could be wrong.
We had about 17-18 people there I think. People would sit, stand, mingle, talk to the commentators on the t.v. and give some other choice remarks, especially when the Pastor of Saddleback Church came on repeatedly saying how we should all be equal, treat each other with love, etc., to which the refrain from our audience was, "except for gays." Repeated as necessary.
There were tears of joy for the occasion. A sense of relief that maybe, just maybe, the long, dark nightmare this country has been in for the last 8 years might finally be at an end.
We had one child present in the flesh. He wasn't much interested in the proceedings. The sweets, however, did receive his rapt attention. We also had 2 children in utero present for the event, neither of which saw fit to make an appearance, that would have put a whole new spin on "new beginnings."
We were all watching the clock anxiously because we thought by law, Obama _had_ to be sworn in by noon. We sighed with relief when Biden was sworn in before noon, but then practically had a cow as other people did their things prior to Obama's swearing in and the clock kept ticking perilously close to noon.
He was finally sworn in at 12:03 or thereabouts and we were informed by the commentator that he officially became President at noon, even though he hadn't been sworn in yet. Okay, huge sigh of relief. Anyway, hope these pictures are okay. I had to take them with my cell phone because the batteries in my digital camera were dead and my son had run off with all the AA batteries in the house, as usual. I can never find an AA battery when I need one. Too many remote controls in the house I guess. What did you all do for the inauguration? Did you get to see it?
These videos are for M. :-) It also helps that a creepy guy has been loitering around my office for the past 2 days and I'm here ALONE, all day. *sigh*
See, German Shepherds can be gentle and put up with a lot.
Babies LOVE them!
They rank high on the cuteness factor.
And okay, so we'll need a higher fence. But just watch how that dog clears that fence as if it were nothing. It's a thing of beauty I tell ya!
Thousands upon thousands, are out there right now, waiting to be adopted.
For all of you stuck in the snow (I remember how long the winters could seem. But you know I'd gladly trade places.) here are some shots of sunny beaches to warm you. (M and I went there a couple weeks back.) Enjoy!
We recently took a trip back to my hometown in New York. This isn't my picture (there was snow on the ground when we went) but it's the sign we drove under on our way to Owego.
This is a view of my hometown looking across the Susquehanna River at the Village of Owego from the East. (Also not my picture)
This picture (not mine) had to have been taken from Cemetery Hill; that's the only place you can get the whole town in from the west. I have a number of these shots, just not in electronic form. While we were there, we couldn't get to the top of Cemetery Hill because of all the snow and the very steep, unplowed roads to get in. We'll have to go back in better weather to get these shots and to show you easily the most beautiful cemetery I've ever visited in my life.
Our first stop in Owego after just under 6 hours' driving time was our hotel. We got a room overlooking the Susquehanna River. This is a shot in the late afternoon before the temperatures dropped. It was kind of hazy, like it wanted to snow, but it didn't. Darn!
Here's that same shot the next morning after the temperatures dropped substantially and the winds picked up to about 40 mph! It was unbelievably bitter cold!
We had dinner at my sister's house the first night, but the next day, M and I drove about 30 minutes to Ithaca, New York, home of Cornell and Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. Here's a shot of it in the Fall (not mine). I was busy driving and M was busy oohing and ahhing and neither of us thought to take a picture of it in the winter. While driving around Cayuga Lake we saw signs for wineries. M wanted to get a bottle of wine for a friend's birthday, so we followed the signs for awhile.
Before we made it to the winery, we came across this gorgeous waterfall. Ithaca's town slogan is "Ithaca is gorges," because of all the gorges in the area. This is the waterfall at Taughannock State Park in Trumansburg, New York, near Cayuga Lake and just minutes from Ithaca. Enjoy the video I took of these amazing falls in winter.
Taughannock State Park, Trumansburg, New York, near Cayuga Lake.
Stunning, huh? After we finished at the falls, we found the winery, got some wine and then headed back to Owego, or rather Endwell to go in search of my favorite lunch - SPIEDIES!!!
We went to Endwell to get Lupo's Spiedies. If you ever get to this area of New York State, you MUST try spiedies. Lupo's makes the best ever. I did a post on my favorite foods awhile back and discussed Lupo's spiedies. They're a marinated meat, usually cooked like a shish-kabob. They're of Italian origin, and the marinate is a vinegar, lemon and pepper base. Oh man - it's so tasty! Lupo's will ship bottles of their spiedie sauce if you want to try making your own. A bit of advice, pork or venison make the tastiest spiedies; let the meat marinate for a minimum of 3 days; save some of the sauce aside to pour over the cooked spiedies; and cooking them over charcoal or wood gives them the best flavor.
After our lunch of spiedies we went in search of doughnuts from my childhood - Spaulding Krullers. We checked every grocery store in Owego. I went on-line to find out the Stroehman Bakeries owned the doughnuts and then searched for a store that might carry them. I found a wholesaler in Vestal and went there, only to discover Stroehman's had sold that store, so no Spaulding Kruller for me! Like that would stop me! Next we searched Endicott and Endwell. We finally found them at the Giant grocery store in Endwell. After doing an Internet search, I've discovered a whole world of upstate New York Baby Boomers all in a desperate search for Spaulding Krullers! Apparently I wasn't the only one hooked on these wonderful doughnuts with their delicious nutmeg flavor. Okay everybody, Giant groceries stores appear to be the only grocery store chain carrying these Krullers in the Triple Cities area. Good luck on your quest to find them! Oh, and sorry about the picture of the empty box. I couldn't find any pictures on-line and the best I could do is take a picture of what was left of our 3 boxes of doughnuts. They didn't last long. *sigh*
Along the way looking for these doughnuts, M jogged my memory about other great childhood haunts. Another place to get great doughnuts and phenomenal fresh cider is The Cider Mill in Endicott, NY. They have the most flavorful and amazingly spiced hot cider. I've never tasted anything like it anywhere else. M was even blown away by the taste. Oh, and did I forget to mention, the cider was free?! Unbelievable! Oh yeah, they also have a theatre there for plays, but we know the real attraction is the cider!
After our morning trip to Ithaca and our trip to Endwell to get spiedies and cider, we went to my sister's house to chat before dinner. On our way back to Owego for dinner, M spotted this sunset sky and we had to stop to take a picture of it. It didn't come out as glorious as it actually was, but we had to try.
So on our last night in Owego (it was just a short visit) we decided to try a new restaurant, The Jailhouse Restaurant. Here's the bathroom.
Here's M pretending to be locked up. Did I forget to mention, they left all the metal bars from the cells in place and you could dine in the cells?
Here's a longer shot of the first floor. The metal catwalks on the second floor are still there as well. I didn't get a shot of that.
Here's M, Pat and her hubby, J at our table. There's another thing I forgot to mention. It was a little odd eating in the Jailhouse restaurant because my father spent quite a bit of time there, as well as both my brothers whose names begin with R. Pat and I both had visits to the jail and it was quite bizarre to sit in there to eat dinner. I told my brother Ralph we ate dinner there on his birthday and he said you couldn't pay him enough to step foot back in that place to eat a meal. Too many memories. Ah, the color of my family history. There's nothing quite like it!
So we had a short but sweet visit back to my hometown, got to spend time with Pat, missed out on meeting Marilyn (Maeve's Madness) I think she went down to New York City while we were there. Oh, my vehicle was a-salted while driving in NY so it got a nice bath when we returned home. Have any of you traveled back to your home towns? What things do you remember from your childhood that you like to relive?
As I was reading the morning news I came across a number of articles that gave me hope for humanity, hope for the economy, and just plain made me feel good or laugh. In lieu of a traditional Feel Good Friday, enjoy the news!
I know all the information isn't out yet and I have been suspicious that so little information has been released and then only acknowledged when the media discovers it first. 
