One more Thanksgiving Post

On black friday, darling daughter and her dearest sister went shopping. One of the items they bought was a gingerbread house kit.

This is what they got:






They were quite proud.

another silly quiz (I love these things!)

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Thanksgiving Day Nor'easter

Anyone who lives on the east coast is aware of the Nor'easter that blew through. Here in Pennsy, we had some hellacious rain, but that was all.

However, at my sister's house, in Ocean City, NJ, there was some serious flooding. By Thanksgiving, the storm had passed, but the flooding (always the fun part of nor'easters) was still there, as indicated in these pics:
This is outside my sister's house. You'll notice that in the center of the street, there is a higher area.
The water in the foreground of the pic is the ocean; the water on the far side is the bay.
This is not the first time that I've seen this; however, Darling Daughter and her Dearest Sister had never seen flooding like this. I had to tell them that this isn't bad, I can remember taking a row boat down these streets.

And people ask me why I left the shore.




Tags: Thanksgiving
Tags: nor'+easterTags: family
Tags:


Ocean City, NJ

Happy Thanksgiving

In the interest of fairness, here is the opposing point of view:

Heard of Deer?

Lou: Look at that bunch of deer in the yard.
Bud: It's a herd of deer.
Lou: What?
Bud: Herd of deer.
Lou: Of course I heard of deer, we got a bunch in the back yard.










How many deer does it take to make a herd? I have four who have decided that my backyard is a great place to graze. I wanted to post a picture of them, but that is problematic, as I have to take the picture first, and the deer are, apparently, camera shy.

I've lived here a year, and although I've seen bunnies, and squirrels, and chipmonks, and possibly a bear, but I never saw any deer.

Then last week, I saw one. Actually, my dog saw it first. She got into a "pointer pose" which is odd for a beagle. Then she took a step and pointed with the other foot, the entire time glancing at me as if I should do something about the deer.

The deer looked at the dog as if to say, "What do you think you are doing? I'm bigger than you!" Then the deer took off up the ridge. Buttercup looked at me, and said "No, that's too big for you." She seemed to understand.

Then two days ago, we saw four deer. They were eating my compost (I had just made chicken soup and the compost pile was full of vegtible ends). Buttercup was very upset, but not enough to give chase. Perhaps she realizes that, while technically she is a gun dog, she is only supposed to chase smaller prey animals. I tried to get my camera, but they were back into the trees before I could get a pic.

I've been seeding the compost with veggies, hoping the deer come back. All the land around me is posted "No Hunting", so they are safe here. I'm hoping they are here when we have snowfall.

Deer in the snow. Now that would be a picture worth taking.

Tags: deer
Tags: beagle

Wow

I haven't blogged in a long time! Unfortunately, blogging is low on my priority list, and recently I had a high priority item occupying my time.

I finished my book and set it off to an agent who wanted a full.

In reality, it didn't happen like that. I met an agent at a writer's con and for reasons that still bewilder me, instead of pitching one of the 4 manuscripts I have completed, I pitched an unfinished one.

Of course she requested the full manuscript, so I had to finish the sucker and get it to her. Now I'm waiting impatiently for her response.

It is tentatively titled: Best Friends 4 NEver. It's a children's chapter book, geared to the 9-11 girls/early reader market. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and trying not to get too excited about this, but that's hard.

So I'm just waiting.

Tags: Writing
Tags: publishing

More Random Thoughts

I read over my last entry and I realized that it is a rambling mess. I considered editing, but it did reflect accurately how I felt.

My daughter's best friend slept over last night. I usually don't allow sleepovers on school nights, but this was a favor to the mother. They choose to sleep in the family room. Every October, our neighborhood is infested with these little black and red flying bugs. I don't know what they are, but they don't bite and by November (or the first frost) they are gone. Unfortunately, they have decided that my daughter's room is the optimum entry point to our house. I killed as many as I could and we cleaned them up, but Darling Daughter still didn't want to sleep in there. They both slept on the floor because they were too lazy to use the inflatable mattress and I was too annoyed at this point to argue.

My dog thought this was entirely too odd to go without investigation, so I had to keep her out of the room. When I woke the girls this morning, the dog ran over to where they had slept and laid herself down. After about 3 minutes, she realized that the floor wasn't that comfortable and retired to the sofa. She had an extremely confused look, and I'm sure she was wondering why the girls thought the floor was a good idea when there was a comfortable couch in the room.

The dog, Buttercup, has some odd habits of her own. The strangest is when I take her outside, she must, everytime, without exception, walk the perimeter of our property, sniffing each blade of grass. We don't have a fence, and her ideas of where our property ends is a little fuzzy. In fact, I'm pretty sure she is trying to annex the neighbors' yards as part of her patrol.

I have been trying to declutter my house and my life. It's hard. I'm a packrat by nature and I always think I'm going to need something in the future, or possibly sell it. I'm starting with books. JA Konrath is asking, via his blog, for people to send books to a buddy of his in Iraq.

Now this is easy. While I have trouble throwing away my books that I don't want anymore, giving them away seems like a great idea. Who doesn't have books lying around? Send yours off too!

We Grieve

We grieve for the Amish families who lost their daughters in the tragic school shooting. While all school shootings are tragic, this one strikes me as demonic. The Amish. They are the plain folks, or Plain Dutch as people in my area (the Fancy Dutch) call them. Of course, they are all of German descent, Pennsylvania Dutch being a bastardization of Duetch.

Although I work in the 3rd largest city in Pennsylvania, it is not uncommon to hear a co-worker ask, "Is is making down yet?". Even though I'm a transplant, I know the correct response: "Yah, it's making down goot, but not dunnerwetter, say?" (Is it still raining outside? Yes, very hard, but I don't think we'll have thunderstorms, do you?). We also share traditions such as Faschnacht day.

The Amish aren't shy or standoffish. They are humble. You can't maintain humility if you are a tourist attraction. But if you visit and want to talk with the Amish, go to one of their farmer's markets. In addition to food that is unbelievably tasty, the Amish will talk to their customers.

They are a peaceful people, and an easy target. Even after the murders, they show no animosity, in fact show forgiveness, to the killer. It's all about being humble.

For most of us, when something bad happens, we say "Why me?" Those who practice humility, like the Amish, answer that with "Why not me? Why do I think I'm so special that the tragedy that affects the world should skip me." It is this acceptance that allows them to avoid the anger and grieve in peace.

Hours after the killings, Amish neighbors went to visit the family of the man responsible to show forgiveness. That family attended the Amish girls funerals and many Amish attends the murder's service. That isn't that uncommon. Drivers who have killed Amish in auto accidents are invited to the funerals to show there are no grudges.

So it's ironic that Fred Phelps and his gang of thugs threatened to protest at the Amish children's funerals. I'm unsure why. The above link blames PA Governor Ed Rendel for signing legislation that forbid protesting at funerals. Now I'm all in favor of free speech, but protesting a funeral? Unless you believe that the deceased is still alive, protest somewhere else. Let family and friends grieve in peace.

But then I read this interview with Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of Fred Phelps, by Alan Colmes. Here is the most despicable dialogue:

COLMES: Did those girls deserve to be killed?

PHELPS-ROPER: Well, they did get killed, and they did that. Who controls the hearts of men? It was at the hand of an angry God those girls are dead.

COLMES: Did they deserve to die?

PHELPS-ROPER: They did deserve to die.

COLMES: How you can possibly make a statement like that?

PHELPS-ROPER: Because that's exactly what happened, and it happened at the hand of the lord your God.

I'm not even going to comment on the insane logic. Or that Fox Network is giving these people air time. Maybe on another post.

I'm sure all of Phelps lunatic flock were WWJD? buttons and shirts. But what would Jesus have done? Would he go and cause pain to those who have lost their children? Or would he have offered comfort, even to those who have caused him harm?

I think Jesus is on the side of the Amish.

Tags: Amish
Tags: Fred Phelps

Rogue Scholars

If you want a laugh, go to Tod Goldberg's blog. He has a fine example of what to do with hate mail.

Just go there. You will laugh.

Medieval Pennsylvania

This is the 21st century, isn't it? Women do have rights, don't they? A doctor in Lebanon Country, Pa, doesn't think so.

A firestorm of controversy has erupted over a young woman who was denied emergency contraception after she said she was raped.

The emergency room doctor in this case said it is against his religious beliefs to give out what has been called the morning after pill, even after a rape. The morning after pill is a high dose of birth control medicine that can prevent pregnancy.

The doctor was quoted as saying:

Dr. Martin Gish, a Mennonite, was quoted in a local newspaper saying, "The dilemma I have is the whole rape issue. Which side are you more concerned with? Are you more concerned about the mother or the life that was possibly created? That's my dilemma."

Reading between the lines, it would seem that the doctor has a problem with rape. I'm not sure what the "dilemma" is.

And obviously, he is more concerned with the possible creation of life that the welfare of the woman. And why would that be? Why is this such a dilemma? Perhaps it is because a woman's life or welfare is less important than her serving her purpose. To procreate.

Or maybe he thinks we live in Afghanistan, where a woman who is raped is accused of adultery.

And I guess is doesn't matter that the "woman" involved is a child. Or that she had forced intercourse. Or that she was brutalized in a way that most rape victims describe as a "little death". That she will never look at the world or people in the same way. That she will never really trust again. If you want to read a first person account of what rape does to a woman, go to BB's blog, The Den of the Biting Beaver. She explains it more elegantly than I ever could.

The concern here is that this doctor is forcing his beliefs on his patients. And while one might question that a patient can go to another doctor, this guy is an emergency room physician. Most people going into an emergency room don't have a choice. That sort of if the definition of an emergency.

My beliefs about abortion have always been if you don't like abortion, don't have one. Personally, I'm not completely comfortable with abortion, but I am less comfortable with anyone dictating what a person should do with her own body. Especially a rape victim.

There is a bill being introduced in the Pennsylvania house to require hospitals to rectify this. Personally, if you're a physician who doesn't like emergency contraceptives, then you shouldn't be working an emergency room.

Sunflowers

I'd always felt that sunflowers had been overdone in the past few years. I mean, after Van Gogh, why bother?

But Mother Nature is the true artist, and here are a few of my sunflowers from my garden.



big yellow flowers

Jesus hates your thighs

Darling Daughter wanted to go camping with her friends. Camping is something I enjoyed at her age (14), but hate now. I felt guilty depriving her of this experience. So when the opportunity presented itself, I was quite happy.

The downside is that the camp is a church camp. Now we are spiritual people, but not religious. Not for lack of trying, I'm a non-practicing Catholic, Lutheran, Wiccan, and Neo-nonsensical pagan.

The particular church involved in this camp is the Mormon church. Now you may wonder I would allow my daughter to attend a camp that is run by one of the more strict and conservative religious organizations.

Well it wasn't just an opportunity for her to live for a week without a blow dryer and makeup. First reason: The family that runs the camp are very good friends of mine. And they are a nice family. Regardless of what I may think of their religion, they are loving families who take care and nurture one another.

Second reason: I want my kid to be tolerant of others. Tolerance gets a bad rap, but I believe that tolerance is the solution to prejudice. Of course, tolerance is not a blanket to accept any behavior. But even though I think most religious people are full of shit, as long as they don't hurt anyone, or become a pain in the ass about it, or try to make laws so that I have to follow their rules, it's Ok with me if they want to be full of shit. I'll tolerate it.

Now this camp has rules, one of which was a "modesty standard". The girls are not allowed to wear shorts above their knees, only one piece bathing suits, no tank tops or sleeveless shirts and no belly shirts or halters. I thought this would be a deal breaker for my daughter, because, much to my disappointment, she is the fashion goddess. But she surprised me and said it didn't matter, because she really wanted to go to the camp, and didn't care about the clothing.

So off we went to shop for camping supplies and modest clothing. While shopping in Foreman Mills, darling daughter picked up a cute tank and short set. I said, "Put that down, don't you know that Jesus hates your thighs? And your shoulders too." Then she grabbed a halter and said, "Can't buy that, Jesus hates my stomach."

We continued throughout the store, commenting on what Jesus would not approve. I'm not sure what the other shoppers thought of our commentary, but we were cracking each other up.

Blasphemy can be a great topic for mother-daughter bonding.

Gone...But just for a little while

I'm back.

I didn't die, or get sick. Nor did I win the lottery or run away on a spur of the moment vacation. Unfortunately, I wasn't consumed in writing my novel, either.

I was depressed.

And as is my way, I shut down. Not like you see on television or in the movies where someone gets so depressed they can't get out of bed. I got up and went to work, took care of my kid, kept appointments. But that was it. I did the bare minimum that I had to do. I was surviving, but not really living. This is what I do when depression hits me. And I do that until it passes (which it always does--thank the gods!).

June 25 was the 9th anniversary of my husband's death.

I don't know why the grief overpowered me this year. But it did. Entirely. It was surprising because I thought I had absorbed the grief. That I had internalized it. That being a widow had become such a part of me that the sadness, while always there, had just become a facet of my personality.

Once again, I was wrong.

July is usually a good month for me. My daughter's birthday and mine are in July. Also, the date that my daughter's adoption was finalized is in July. Those are happy dates. But the depression continued.

The only extraneous thing I did was work my garden, particularly the compost pile. Now it may sound odd, but I enjoy composting as much as gardening. Every time I turn my compost, I thank the earth for what it has given me, and offer the return of the nutrients. Of course, part of me says, "Hey, you're playing with garbage", but it doesn't deter me.

If I get a chance, I'll post some pictures of my garden. It's not huge or particularly noteworthy, except that I'm a city girl, and this is my first venture into horticulture.

Something about the plants growing out of the earth, makes me feel insignificant and wondrous. Either that, or I'm spending too much time in the sun.

Weekend in Philly PT 2

I had one bizarre moment during my weekend at the writer's conference in Philadelphia. If you read the post below, you'll remember that I took a train to Philly each day. I had to get a 7 am train to get to the conference by 9 am. The nice thing is that I can easily sleep on the train.

Saturday morning, I woke to what I thought was a nightmare, then I thought maybe it was a flashback, then I realized it was just the gods playing a joke on me.

I had boarded the train and settled in for a nap. I like trains. They have big comfortable seats. The gentle motion is like a boat on a calm sea. I can't really read on a train (motion sickness) or do any other kind of work, so sleeping is my commuting activity. I always hope I don't snore.

I was sure I was dreaming. I am a vivid dreamer, and many times, my dreams have a soundtrack. But this time, it had to be a nightmare. As I came out of my slumber, I heard:

Make new friends,
But keep the old,
One is silver
And the other gold.

It was being sung in a round. This was followed by the Jeep Song, Cowboy Joe, and One Bottle of Pop (also being sung in a round). Now I was awake, or at least I thought I was. The mostly empty train was full. Full of Girl Scouts!

I thought this must be a flashback of some sort. All those years I spent in the girl scouts, at girl scout camp, singing these simple-minded songs. It was some sort of karmic illusion. If I closed my eyes, would they go away?

No, it wasn't a flashback, I was on an hour long train ride with about 50 girl scouts. And they were singing.

New Template

This is the new template. I didn't move all of my customizations over yet, but of course none of them are documented, so it's a pain in the ass.

And I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this template.

Weekend in Philly

I believe I've fully recovered from my weekend extravaganza at the Philadelphia Writer's Conference. It was a wonderful conference, exceedingly so, because I got a scholarship for it from my writers group.

Unfortunately, I did not have the money for a hotel room, I commuted each day. Which wasn't too unfortunate, because the regional rail line is a great way to travel to the city.

The PWC is different than other conferences I've attended. The major sessions were 1 hour on each of the 3 days of the conference. That truly made a difference. Too many times these sessions are too short to achieve any depth. Issues are glossed over and there is no time for discussion.

On Friday they had the agent/editor appointments. I signed up for the agent who represented children's lit. After I introduced myself, I started my pitch. She immediately interrupted to tell me she did not represent picture books. Not to be daunted (and because I was hyped up on adrenaline and caffeine) I asked if she would mind listening to my pitch and give me suggestions. She agreed. After my pitch, she did not offer suggestions, she asked to see the manuscript. Although she does not represent PBs, she wants to read it to possibly pass on to a co-worker that does PBs (do literary agents work like real estate agents? If an agent facilitates a sale, do they get a cut from the other agent?). I was beside myself! But I was smart, since I only used about 3 of my allotted 5 minutes, I went over my "Writing Business Plan" with her and asked her advice.

One interesting tidbit she passed on is that she reads writer's blogs to see if they are crazy. This was not the first agent I heard say that. And I'm pretty sure crazy is a euphemism for "pain in the ass" or "impossible to work with".

On Sunday, I found out that I had won the "Wall of Words" for poetry competition. For those who are unaware, this is common at conferences. Writers can place a one page piece on the appropriate wall (fiction, non-fiction, poetry). Name of the back so all are anonymous. Everyone gets to vote. So I was pretty stoked. People who were not related to me liked my work! Yeah me!

If you have an opportunity to attend a con, don't miss it. I've been to 2 and they have been unbelievably helpful.

I'll post more later.

Tags: Writing conference
Tags: Philadelphia Writers Conference

Blogging for LGTB families

Today is "Blogging for LGTB families" day. I didn't know about it until I read Terrance's post on Republic of T. Now you might ask why would a straight woman care about lesbian and gay families.

Because an attack on any type of family is an attack on all families. Including mine.

Why should these families be treated differently? What makes the man/woman/child family somehow superior than any other combination?

I think the problem lies with the conservatives. Now maybe you believe that the man/woman family is best. I'm not going to argue that. But having an opinion doesn't make it so. So in typical conservative style, they seek to criminalize behavior they can't control. Control, I believe, is the keyword there.

My opinion is that when these conservatives (particularly christian ones) see g&l families flourishing, they feel threatened. They feel threatened because they must believe their belief system is right, absolutely and unquestionably, or their entire belief system falls apart.

So if they can't convince people to be straight for Jesus, they will marginalize, penalize and criminalize the g&l family.

I've found that g&l families tend to be excellent families. Maybe because they have to fight for being recognized as a family, they take it more seriously. I don't know. But I do know that 10 years as a foster parent, I've seen no kids taken from gay families and put into foster care. However, I've seen many gay families open their doors to foster children and adopting them.

Something I don't see these conservative Christians doing.


Tags: Blogging for LGBT Families

Meme

This is from Ben, at Dictionopolis at Digitopolis

10 Favorites
Favorite Season: Autumn
Favorite Color: Hunter Green
Favorite Time: Pre-Dawn
Favorite Food: Poptarts, strawberry, no frosting
Favorite Drink: Jack and Coke
Favorite Ice Cream: Hard serve, chocolate marshmallow
Favorite Place: Key West, FL
Favorite Sport: Figure Skating
Favorite Actor: Dennis Quaid
Favorite Actress: Jodie Foster

9 Currents
Current Feeling: Pleased
Current Drink: Ice Tea
Current Time: 3:09
Current Show on TV: TV is off
Current Mobile used: The one that my company pays for
Current Windows Open: None, central air here
Current Underwear: Yes
Current Clothes: Yes
Current Thought: Is it time to go home yet?

8 Firsts
First Nickname: Petunia (don't ask)
First Kiss: Can't remember his name...
First Crush: Dave S
First Best Friend: Deneen M
First Vehicle I Drove: Plymouth Duster, 1972
First Job: at a daycamp
First Date: Bobby ? took me to the mall
First Pet: A simese cat named Reena

7 Lasts
Last Drink: Latte
Last Kiss: From my daughter
Last Meal: Sausage McMuffin
Last Web Site Visited: Dell
Last Movie Watched: War of the Worlds
Last Phone Call: A psychologist who had to have his laptop fixed today, absolutely, needs it tonight. Called to tell me he will pick it up tomorrow.
Watched: Sopranos

6 Have You Ever...
Have You Ever Broken the Law: yes
Have You Ever Been Drunk: yes
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: yes
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire: yes
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: yes
Have You Ever Broken Anyone's Heart: yes.

5 Things
Things You Can Hear Right Now: My boss's best friend calling him names.
Things On Your Bed: Not at home now, but probably a Beagle and a Cat
Things You Ate Today: Sausage McMuffin, and a banana
Things You Do When You Are Bored: walk the dog

4 Places You Have Been Today
McDonalds
Borders
My office
My daughter's school


3 Things On Your Desk Right Now:
Laptops (lots and lots of laptops)
Software
Laptop Harddrives
Screwdrivers and other assorted tools

2 Choices
Salt or Pepper: Do I have to make a choice?
Hot or Cold: Hot

1 Place You Want To Visit
Grand Canyon

Tagged: anyone who reads this

Thank you

There is nothing else to say.











Tags: Memorial Day

I couldn't help myself

I had to share this. I got it from Love America, Hate Bush. Click the pic.



Tags: Bush Bloopers, George Bush