Surprise for Kate

Dear Kate, I missed your birthday, so here's a surprise.  Your grandmother, your great-grandmother, and your great-great-grandmother.

Grandmother, Great-grandmother, and Great-great-grandmother

Slam Books

The Q and A entry below reminded me that in Junior High School we used to circulate Slam Books.  Note books, like, say, a secretarial dictation book, used to be passed around.  Each page had question on it, much like the Q and A below.  Lines were numbered, and you answered the question on your numbered line. So it looked like this>>

Page one: Choose your line

1--Jerry

2--Jenny

3--Tom

4--Felice

5--Chuck

Etc,

Page two: what is your favorite food?

1--Fried Chicken

2--Big Mac, fries, chocolate shake,

3--Peppermint stick ice cream, toll house cookies

4--Liver and onions...just kidding...broccoli...still kidding

5--Mom's spaghetti

Etc.

Page three: Best friend's name

1--Karen

2--Tom

3--Jenny

4--Tom

5--Felice

Etc.

And so on for many "favorite" questions.  They were called slam books because in the later pages you posted a one line comment about the person named on the top of the page; thus

Page 31: What do you think about  Anna

1--Talks too much

2--Mascara? Oh, come on.

3--Great eyes

4--Giggles when she is near any boy

5--Goofy about Chad.  Digs Tom Hanks movies.  Lose some weight, Anna

Slam books were against school rules, but they circulated anyway. I think they caused lots of hurt feelings... but that was Junior High life. The what is your favorite this or that was fun, and you could compare all the answers with your own. You could see how you "fit in" .

The fun part was being creative.  You could compliment someone you "really liked", or you could pan someone you didn't. The hard part was reading what the gang thought about you.

Do they still exist... or do they live on now in our Journals?

Clouded Crystal Ball

Once again my predictions have been wrong.  I predicted that the entry immediately below, Q and A, would be the least interesting that I have done.  BUT, in the four hours that it has been posted, it has drawn five positive comments. Go figure.

One response was from my daughter who posted her comments right after mine.  And she gave me permission to print hers too.

So here they are side by side.  You can see how far the fruit has fallen from the tree. For your enlightenment, Dad (blue) and Kate (orange), side by side.

 

1-WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING AT THE MOMENT?
Old Man's War by John Scalzi.  That is, I have it here, ready to read  SIDDARTHA, by Hermann Hesse...actually I just finished it and am without book right now.  I really enjoyed it tho...slow beginnings, but then about 1/2 way through I couldn't put it down.

 

2-WHAT IS PRINTED ON YOUR MOUSEPAD?
CIC Software.  I wonder who they are.  A nice forest green color, solid.

3-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
I play Wordscape online with my daughter daily.  Scrabble is taking a back seat to Wordscape for me too. 

4-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Whatever is left on the table of the lobby of the old folks home I live in. Right now...Watercolor Magic.  In fact, I'd better renew my subscription. 

5-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SOUND?
"You have mail"  The Silence.  It was very interesting last night in fact...I awoke noticing it WAS silent for awhile...no dogs, no cars, no people, no snoring.  YES!!!

6-WHAT'S THE WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
Being ignored GRIEF

7-WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF IN THE MORNING?

What part of me aches the most today?  I usually sit on the edge of the bed for about five minutes before I get going. Sometimes I go back to sleep sitting up.  Usually, "WHAT THE HECK DAY is this?"

8-HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE PHONE?
Four rings...I snatch it up just as the answering machine comes on..As few as possible, hate the sound.

10-WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE?
Family ~ Love   Family ~ Love

11-WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE FOODS?
Avocado,  Greek Olives,  Dip and Chip, Brussels sprouts

Uhhh, CHOCOLATE (s)  

12-DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST?

I'm eighty, I drive forty in the fast lane  YES, but I try to go with the flow of traffic anyway.

13-DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
Well, no   Well, only if he's just eaten a meal...and the puffy, fluffy cat...do those count?

14-WOULD YOU CLASS STORMS AS COOL OR SCARY?
Cool...I love thunderstorms and rain...especially to watch the lightning light up the sky.  WAY COOL

15-WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
1930 Packard Straight-eight.. My family picked it up used from some rich dude who lost it during the depression.  It sat seven passengers easily.  During High School days we called it the "football ferry" and drove it loaded with a dozen kids to "away" games.  The first one I owned on my own was a 1938 Chevy that took be back and forth to UCLA during WWII.  You'll have to help me on this one...I THINK it was a '59 Chevy Biscane?  BLUE with the stick on the column.

16-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ALCOHOLICDRINK?
Jim Beam Bourbon in Pepsi  Margarita, with Cuervo Gold, on the rocks, not blended.  WITH salt  BUT, they also create the WORST hangover!

17-DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OFF BROCCOLI?
Yes they are the best part.  The best part of the Artichoke is the stem also.  The short ones, and YES on the Artichoke!!!

18-IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR:

I could, but I don't. Why does anyone bother?

PURPLE HAZE

19-IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL?

Full...I tend to see the positive in everything.

Full...I tend to see the positive in everything.

20-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? 

Big with Tom Hanks  Too many to count...used to be The Great Escape...but I LOVED Rainman, Good Morning Vietnam and Good Will Hunting

21-DO YOU TYPE WITH THE CORRECT FINGERS ON THE CORRECT KEYS?
I do....thanks to that typing class in High school. I tried typing with a pencil, but ... I do....thanks to that typing class in High school.

22-WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
Whatever it is, it is going to stay there.  I cannot get down on the floor to look any more. Nothing unless you count the cat or the airpump for the bed.

23-WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH?
I wait for the play offs or the super bowl.  I ignore basketball completely.  LOL, BASKETBALL is my favorite!

24-SAY AT LEAST ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU:
I snagged this off a journal!  Sonya sent me one once: She writes a fasicnating journal about her family and her job. That quizwas longer than this one.  Took two days to fill out.  It also had philsophical questions. I notice they are missing in this version, and it is just as well.

My Poppy is a very generous and loving father!

25-DO YOU PREFER HORROR MOVIES OR COMEDY FILMS?
Comedy  Comedy

28-WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE TIME OF DAY?

Mornings at the old folks home here.  Entertainment on Tuesdays.  A pianist plays for us and he lets me "sit in" with my harmonica.  We play cards after dinner for about an hour. Then everyone disappears into the rooms and hibernates.   Cuddle time, whenever it is.  But late afternoon is my most productive time usually.

29-WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE?
Grumpy old people who are peeved about everything.

People not keeping their word or not sharing the load with others.

30-IS THERE ANYONE YOU HAVEN'T FORGIVEN? 
Maybe a few  Pres. Bush, 1 & 2...tho that really ISN't true...unforgiveness only hurts ME. 

31-WHAT TYPE OF MILK DO YOU DRINK?
I have no idea.  It comes to me in a pitcher to put on my cereal.  Funny, I drink the milk from the cereal bowl when the cereal has been eaten, but I gag at the thought of milk from a glass. Can't drink any right now, but would be 2%, but rarely a glass full.

32-DO YOU MAKE YOUR BED IN THE MORNING?

Heck no.  That is why there is a bed room door.  Shut the door. If you make a bed in the morning, you have to unmake it in the evening..  DITTO (I wonder where I got that?)

33-HOW MANY TVs ARE IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD?
1  1
34-WHO PUTS THE GARBAGE OUT?

How nice to live in the old folks home.  You never have to deal with trash, dusting, vaccuuming, or garbage  My husband.  YAY

35. What is your favorite flower?
Roses.  We have a nice rose garden  This is a tough one...but I think I'll say azalea.  It is lovely to see, floats in a dish beautifully, and I LOVE to draw and paint them.  (Though I don't do it often).

36. Candy, jewelry, flowers as a present?
  Candy.  the recipient will usually share withyou  Jewelry if it is expensive...flowers if the jewelry would not be expensive. ;-)  Candy is NOT a good present...oh wait, am I GIVING or RECEIVING?

37. Favorite color? 

Purple or Brown  Still teal (turquoise) or sage (light green)

 

That was fun, Dad...you can post it to your site if you want...I don't have a journal page to put it on.

Love, Kate

Short Review of a Long Movie

I went to see The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Baldwin, and Alan Alda Friday afternoon.  Man, what a movie.  DiCaprio makes a far better Howard Hughes than you would expect. 

Howard Hughes was a hero of mine.  He was a free spirit when it came to creating movies, and he produced them with zeal, and fought the censors and the critics to keep them intact the way he had made them. 

He attacked flying with the same gung ho.  For a time he was the fastest man on the planet.  He built the largest airplane that has ever flown to this day, and he built it out of non-strategic materials, wood and glue. 

He was rewarded by being attacked by the government and rival airlines.  Finally he became a complete recluse and spent the rest of his life in seclusion. 

The movie runs nearly three hours which was well spent by this Hughes fan.

Flags

Our weekly assignment was to create a new country, suitable to ourselves, and then to design a flag to fly within it.  Citizens in my new country held an election to choose a flag.  Here is what they considered.

             

The citizens of my new country decided that the watchful eye of our benevelolent dictator, me, was a bit over-bearing, and rejected it.

     

They reasoned that since our new country was "clothing optional", that cupid would be a suitable icon.

          

Under my urging, the voters finally selected my astrological sign as best representing strength, independence and boldness.  They named the new country Leone.  There is another Leone but that doesn't matter.  Imitation is the purest form of flattery.

Swimming Upstream

Got an idea for an entry to be called Swimming Upstream.  Will work on it, but will take a while.  Drop back, say tomorrow.  Got the idea from Groovynoodles who misses Christmas music which is not playing in January.  The rest of us were sick of it by New Years Eve.

Also she told her daughter in a recent entry: Me:  "Ya know, when I first found out you were a girl, I was so excited!  I thought when you got a little bit older we could go get tattoos or piercings or something.  You're no fun."

Furthermore, her daughter has a science teacher that is so bad that it should be to her credit to get a bad grade.  That is opposite of normal. Gothdaughter is swimming upstream too.

And I, I actually like broccoli.  The rest of the world either tolerates broccoli or spits it out. And those little hated cabbages, Brussels Sprouts, I love.  I eat some raw on the way home from the market, and have been known to make a whole dinner of them only.  I am swimming upstream too.

And my tablemate in the old folks home, Wilma, longs for the days of speakeasys when one had to say "Joe Sent me" at the door to get in.  That is swimming upstream-   longing for a club where you have to know somebody to get inl  Most of us would rebel at that.Wilma was told in college that "We don't want women in the Journalism department here.  We will flunk you out."  She graduated in spite of that.  Also Wilma, who was born in California, hates the uniquely California product: avocados.  Ironic isn't it?

Or take the case of Alice Cheng, who is a brilliant brain trapped in a teenagers body. Isn’t that challenging enough? Now, add that the body is a girls’ in this male oriented society, is overweight in diet conscious America, is Asian in minority-wary population, and is completely urban in temperament in provincial Oregon, (Where’s Oregon?) and you can see what tides she has to swim against.

Cherie LIKES loading the dishwasher.

Donna likes steamed cabbage and broccoli with garlic butter. That is not exactly the conventional view of a tasty dish. Donnaadds that she eats cookie dough, but ignores the actual cookies.

Penguine came home and found her cats had ignored the food in their dish and torn open the cat food bag, and were lined up to steal food and scatter it on the kitchen floor. Conventional wisdom would cause the cats to be exiled to the back yard at least, but Penguine was amused.

Swimming upstream notions will be those notions that we individuals have that are opposite of the popular view.  I will be searching your journals to see how you are bucking the current. Are you making headway, or are you going down for the third time.

Hey, it will be fun.  Join me here soon.

Griff meets snow Assignment 42

When my constant companion, Griff, an eight year old Golden Retreiver, and I moved from California to Missouri, he had never seen snow.  One morning an unseasonally early storm dumped massive amounts of snow overnight.  As soon as the streets were cleared I took Griff for his usual ride to the park for a walk.

When we arrived at his favorite spot, the park was, from his point of view, gone!  I hadn't known that a dog's face could show expressions such as bewilderment, but his did. 

Cautiously he dismounted from the van and stepped gingerly into the cold stuff.  In a matter of seconds he changed from bewilderment to sheer joy.

He rolled on the ground and made strange shaped snow angels. He ran down a slope, kicking snow in front of him, and then chased the snowslide he started.  He ran to the "squirrel tree" and looked for squirrels to chase, but they were busy hibernating.

We had many delightful snow adventures that winter, but that was the most fun.

Extra credit:  The "first dog" Barney has his own website.  They were playing Sleigh ride and that reminded me to make this entry about Winter.  Other Winter favorites are Winter Wonderland and Baby It's Cold Outside.