I promised to post some pictures. Here they are. Names have been changed to protect the guilty!

Last night, after things quieted down, I found out that there may actually be more than “hype” to the claim that tryptophan can knock your lights out! We not only all fell asleep before bedtime, we had a hard time getting up this morning! I don’t think I’ve slept as late since my teen years! ;-)

Good thing that we slept in, though. We awoke to frozen water pipes. Don’t want to have to deal with that any earlier in the morning than necessary. It’s going to be a very long winter, I’m afraid …

And now, here are some pics … our own warm little episode of chaos …

Last night, I met with some dear old friends for dinner. We enjoyed each others’ company … there was a lot of teasing, laughing, raising glasses and toasts … it was one of those little gems which I can savor later, when things are quiet, and I’m by myself.

On the way home, my mother-in-law and I began to talk about some of her health problems. Her nephrologist has been after her to prepare herself for dialysis … and she admitted to me last night that she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that. The warmth of our little meeting was suddenly sucked up into the dark empty of the cold, driving rain which was making the road so hard to see. Trying to keep my voice from showing what I was feeling, I asked her to consider that we still needed her … that her creatinine would improve if she were on dialysis, and she would be feeling better … that whenever anything happens, the first I think is, “I can’t wait to tell her!” … that I could help her with the home dialysis … anything … anything … just please don’t bail on us.

Once home, as I should have been asleep to prepare for all of today’s cleaning and baking, I was instead morosely considering that the majority of my very closest friends are in my mother-in-law’s generation. None of them are in good health. They all seem to be in a race to leave …

At the moment, I still have them … Fr. Paul, Fr. Bob, Fr. Joe … Althea … “Mom” England … Susan … Emery … There will come a time when our “get togethers” of 9 and 10 people will become sad little “nights out” with only 2 or 3. Is this what it’s all about?

Letting go … is so hard to do.

I visited “The Doctor is In” and cut and pasted some of his many inspirational posts … and printed them out so that I could have them at my bedside for those long wee early hours when sleep won’t come because there are too many faces, too many ideas, parading through my mind. While they certainly won’t put me to sleep from boredom - they may let me eke out a bit of peace, and thus some z’s.

And now … I need to head for the kitchen, and make some pies. I’ll take pictures tomorrow, and share them with you - whoever you are, out there - reading my sometimes “long” thoughts.

Peaceful Thanksgiving Day, everyone! May your homes be warm, loud with voices you that are dear to you, and full of cheerful bustling.

As I was looking over the meager leavings in my Site Meter account, I came across something I’d never seen before … it was a link from a site named Blog Shares. Blog Shares?

Curiosity got the best of me, and I clicked … expecting to find yet another of those sites which have absolutely nothing to do with your site, do not have a link to your site, and which you’ve never lain eyes on before.

Instead, I found a page which contained the IP to my blog, and a value! $3,977.37!!! Wow! Can I cash that in now, or later?

I looked further down the page a bit, and discovered that some fellow I’d never heard of owned 75% of the “shares” in my blog!!! Now wait just one cotton picking …

The words “CLAIM BLOG” caught my eye on the right edge of the screen, and I thought, “Ok! I’ll show this fella!” and vehemently attacked the link as if that would put an end to the entire fiasco!

Uh oh. No such luck. “You need to be logged in to claim a blog.” Oh poop! And I’ll bet you can’t guess what you need to do before you can log in, eh? *nyuck nyuck*

Ok. I made an account. I logged in. And now I’m the proud owner of yet another little button in my sidebar.

Do we get points for how many of those we have when we die?

… you’re missing out …

“The Doctor is In” has posted a new entry … and I’m still reeling from the impact. There’s more food for thought there than I bargained for. It may end up being just what I’ve been looking for these last two years …

Please, if you haven’t done so yet, go take a look at “The Choice of Fools” … and read each and every word. Read it twice. Make a home for it.

I’m going to print it out and take it to bed with me so that I can read again before I go to sleep …

“Deferred Success” is new term for failure?

By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In 2005, some people wanted the word “brainstorming” replaced by “thought shower” so as not to offend people with brain disorders, and they also wanted “deferred success” to replace “failure” so as not to embarrass those who don’t succeed.

Both phrases appear on a tongue-in-cheek list released on Thursday of the year’s most politically correct words and phrases issued by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that monitors language use.

The phrase that topped this year’s list was “misguided criminals,” one of several terms the British Broadcasting Corporation used so as not to use the word “terrorist” in describing those who carried out train and bus bombings in London that killed 52 people in July, according to Paul JJ Payack, the head of Global Language Monitor.

He added, “The BBC attempts to strip away all emotion by using what it considers ‘neutral’ descriptions when describing those who carried out the bombings in the London Tubes.”

Second on the list was “Intrinsic Aptitude,” a phrase used by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers to explain why women might be underrepresented in engineering and science. The phrase met with “deferred success” and Summers had to fight to keep to his job.

“Thought shower” was third and a French word for riff-raff or scum, “la racaille,” was fourth thanks to being used by French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy to describe rioters of Muslim and North African descent in suburbs outside of Paris.

“Out of the mainstream,” which Payack said was used to describe the ideology of any political opponent, was fifth and in sixth place was “deferred success” the euphemism for “fail” that Britain’s Professional Association of Teachers considered using to bolster students’ “self-esteem.” The move met with “deferred success.”

Seventh on the list was “womyn” for women in order to distance the word from men and eighth was using C.E. (Common Era) for A.D (Latin for “Year of Our Lord”) so as to be more neutral in dates.

Ninth on the top 10 list was words and phrases that either de-Christianize the Christian holidays or neuter their genders. For example “God Rest Ye Merry Persons” replaces “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Seasons Greetings” replaces “Merry Christmas.”

In 10th place was a move aimed at the heart of Australian culture when security staff were banned from using the word “mate” to address members of parliament. The MPs rebelled and said not being called “mate” was unpatriotic.

Reuters.com; “Oddly Enough News Article”;
Last visited: 19 Nov 2005; Last updated: 19 Nov 2005;
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