violetismycolor

panda...

When I was little, I had a stuffed panda bear.  I don't think I ever gave it a name, but I just loved that thing.  It was big, too...about the size of an average 2 year-old.  Around the time I was 6 or 7, it suddenly disappeared and I was frantic.  I looked everywhere for it and asked my mom about it and she denied knowing anything.  Finally, my sister (2 years older than me) told me that my mom had given it to the Goodwill.  When confronted, mom admitted it and excused getting rid of it by saying that it was old, dirty, and falling apart.  I was so angry at her.  What a betrayal...not only to give it away, but to lie about it.  What would possess her to do such a thing?  I still wonder about that.

What made me think of this was the pictures of the new baby panda at the National Zoo.  It is so friggin' cute!  And I just loved reading this update about him:

November 30: Tai's Hair

We are now handling Tai Shan without gloves and gowns. He has received all his vaccinations and is very healthy. Tai's hair is very coarse and dry, like the worst case of split ends. However, the hair is mostly one length—about four inches—and there is no undercoat. Minerals from Mei Xiang's saliva, especially iron compounds, leave Tai's hair with a pink tint. Despite his protests, she still manages to lick him!

The baby panda is named Tai Shan, which means "peaceful mountain" in Chinese. 

How I wish I had my little stuffed panda...

the good, the bad, and the ugly...

Wow.

This weekend was a high-to-low rollercoaster.  Dotted with meals involving turkey:  turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie, turkey and mashed potatoes.

On Saturday morning, John and I went to a memorial service/brunch for our across-the-street neighbor of about 18 years.  He had been suffering from Alzheimer's for the past couple of years, living in an Alzheimer's Care Community.  It was truly a celebration of his life, and so was an uplifting experience for the most part. 

His daughter, Kitty, had recently recovered from a fight with Pancreatic Cancer (probably the deadliest cancer out there).  She was celebrating the fact that she had gone from a 5% chance of surviving for 5 years to an 85% chance of surviving 5 years.  She's a miracle!   We were happy to see all of the family, who live out of state.

NEXT...reading the newspaper, we read about a one-year-old boy who had drowned on Wednesday.  We immediately realized that it was the grandson of friends of ours.  How horrible!  Next Sunday is their annual Christmas Carol Party and we were planning on going.  Now, we're not sure that they will even have one.  The baby's funeral is on Saturday. 

Saturday night, we went out for Indian food (delicious!) and to see the movie, RENT.  Okay, so why was this movie a hit on Broadway for years and years?  It is about a bunch of friends that either:  have AIDS, are heroin addicts, refuse to get real jobs, totally diss anyone who actually is responsible and has a job, hate their parents (for no apparent reason) and on and on.  How do I identify with any of them? 

Sunday was somewhat better.  The kids were doing well when we made our Sunday morning phone calls.  My Mother-in-Law was in good spirits and was able to have good movement of her knee, when we went to visit her.   I finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha and restarted reading the newest Harry Potter.  John and Ross got the Christmas lights up and the house looks cheery and nice.

And now, I am headed into the kitchen to finish up the turkey soup...

IF...small...

*click on it to see it better*

Yay, got my Illo Friday done tonight.  My first thought was a small, but very wonderful, gift sitting under my Christmas tree.  This is the kind of thing I like to find.

I went to lunch and to see Pride and Prejudice today, with the lovely Stephanie.  We had a lot of fun.  We both decided the new Mr. Darcy was certainly dishy.  The movie is terribly romantic.  Go see it...

Happy Turkey Day...

So, click on any of these to see better.  Got no pictures of myself, John, or Ross but some of my dad and some of my nieces.  The day was a good one, with no  political or religious talk...hence, all good.  My nieces seemed to like to chase their older cousin Ross around and had fun with that.  The turkey was on time and cooked to perfection. 

We had called both Adam and Bonnie in the morning to wish them a good day.  They were doing well and seemed happy.   Adam has rain, Bonnie has snow, and we had a dry morning.

I am definitely thankful for today!

nice niece...

My niece, Nicole, has moved to Portland.  She is about 6 months younger than Bonnie and has always lived in Washington State and didn't ever visit much, but I always liked what I saw.  Now that she has moved to town, I would like to get to know her better.  I finally figured out how to contact her and got a hold of her last night. 

Her mom (my sister) is a very ultra-religious (Catholic) person and I am pretty sure that she wouldn't be all that thrilled that Nicole has expressed an interest in spending time with me.  Our views are pretty different and I am way too liberal to hang out with.  Anyway, we are hoping to get Nicole over for dinner soon.  (She can't make it for Thanksgiving.)  And I told her that she is always welcome here, whether just to drop by, to share a dinner, or to come and spend a weekend or more here just vegging out.  I have two spare bedrooms, so there's plenty of room. 

On the Thanksgiving side, my parents are coming, as is my sister Renee and her hubby and 4 daughters.  Add in my Mother-in-Law and her caregiver, Maria, and we will have a fine party, I think.  Not the normal, huge (30-40 people) but much more manageable.  Seems all my other siblings are going to their in-laws. 

I am only worried about how early I am going to have to get up to get that 15 pound turkey into the oven, so that we can eat at 1 o'clock!

email images...

We got an email from Adam, this morning, with a request to call him right away.  It came with pictures.   He had been to the dentist and had a treatment plan.  There were root canals and implants and bring your own root canal treatment equipments...very odd and just a little bit scary.

Luckily, our own dentist is consulting with the Scottish dentist and with us.  We spent about an hour with him tonight and he doesn't think that Adam needs all the things that the Scottish dentist recommends.  I think we're just going to have our own dentist do the work.  It won't be as radical and it will be about one-third to one-half as expensive. 

The pictures gave us a much better idea about what his teeth really look like and what he has in his future.  The thing that made me very sad was that our dentist told us that Adam will never be able to bite into anything really hard, like an apple, again.  Ever.  I guess that it's not the end of the world but I wish that his teeth could eventually be normal again.  Bummer and a half!

Illustration Friday...strength...

***click on the picture to see a larger view***

When I thought of strength, I thought of coffee.  First I thought of strong coffee, which I like.  I have a coffee group who I meet every weekday morning at our local Starbucks.  I drink coffee every day, though, coffee group or not.  John and I go to a coffee shop every Saturday morning, after breakfast.  On Sundays, we go to another local coffee shop/bakery after church.  Clearly, I am addicted.  Hence, do I have the strength to limit my coffee intake?  I'm not actually trying very hard to stop or limit my habit, so I don't actually know...

In the good news catagory...I took my mom out to lunch today, for her birthday (which was yesterday).  We had a very fun time together.  We talked about all sorts of things and really connected.  I also had a good visit with my dad a little bit later.  We went out to McGrath's Fish House in Salem. 

Then, I went to visit my MIL in rehab, and she told me she is getting released tomorrow morning. They have not been treating her very well there.  They are sort of incompetent, really.  So having her move back to her own apartment, with the help of a full-time aid, is good news.   We're all happy about that! 

last week's Illo Friday prompt...night...

I just couldn't let a week go by without an IF post.  So, it's last week's prompt but here it is.  Night.  Still thinking of the whole Autumn thing...night makes me think of the moon and Halloween. 

calling who???

My blog has looked so boring, since I haven't gotten around to doing last week's Illustration Friday nor have I taken any new photos.  So, I decided to post a cute antique postcard image that just makes me feel happy when I look at it.  Voila.

Today, I left my cell phone with my MIL, since she is trapped at her rehab facility with no phone in her room and she is completely unable to get up and walk around.  I thought she needed to have access to a phone, in case those weenies at the Rehab Facility are more incompetent than they already have been and she needs to be rescued. 

When she fell, she broke her right hand and damaged some cartilege in her right knee.  She got her hand recasted the day she left the hospital and apparently, the cast was too tight.  Her hand was swelling like a sponge and, though she kept asking to have a doctor look at it, she was ignored.  Finally, there was enough of a fuss made between my MIL, me, and the director of her assisted living facility that she finally got to get it looked at (and recasted since it was on too tight).  They managed to wait so long that she had to go back to the emergency room. 

Anyway, if anyone tries to get a hold of me on my cell phone, they'll get my MIL.  That should amuse her.  She can use all the amusement she can get.

birthday and more...

My birthday was filled with running errands, hair appointments, cupcakes, and hospital visits.  Overall, busy, but good.   My mother-in-law spent another day in the hospital and I was there in the morning for a visit, and then we all (John, Ross, and I) went over after dinner to bring birthday cupcakes to celebrate.  It was a low-key but nice birthday. 

Last night, we went to dinner at Jopa's...the night before I had gone to dinner at Seasons and Regions with my girlfriends.  So much good food!  So many presents!
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My favorite Jon Stewart moment tonight:  he asks guest John McCain, "Is Dick Cheney insane?" 
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I managed to spill an entire grande eggnog latte on my friend Sandy yesterday morning.  She graciously said it was no big deal.  But I have to admit that I have this horrible propensity to spill things, mostly on myself but sometimes on other people.  Best advice:  make sure you sit on the opposite side of the table from me.
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Bonnie got accepted into an extended study program with one of her favorite professors.  It is a World Religions class that would be next term, with a 3-week trip to Turkey finishing it off.  She is incredibly excited about it.  John and I are more than a little worried about sending our precious daughter off to a part of the world that is less safe then Hamilton, NY...  What are you gonna do?  Kids want to grow up and explore the world...

poor mom...

My poor mother-in-law had a fall last night and ended up in the hospital.  She broke her right hand (what is it with Calhouns and their right arms/hands?) and bruised her hip, so she hasn't been able to walk well enough to get released.  I certainly up she can get out tomorrow.

Bonnie spent the weekend at Nekocon 8...an anime convention in Virginia Beach (that's in Virginia).  She and the Anime Club got the use of one of the college vans and drove down on Friday. We looked up the convention's website and got quite a laugh at this:  (a rule for the Contest competition)  A naked body is NOT a costume.  My mother-in-law said that she wanted to remember that line so she could go tell all her friends.  LOL...  Bonnie had a lot of fun picking out Christmas presents there for her brothers.  She asked me if there was anything I wanted and I said that she could get me a figurine that I could put on my desk...then every time I look at it, I will think of her.  Can't wait to see what she comes up with.

My birthday is tomorrow (Tuesday, November 8) and I am pretty excited.  Presents, cake, ice cream... What is there not to like?  My coffee girls took me out to dinner tonight...always a treat.  Tomorrow, the family is going out, though I think my mother-in-law won't be able to make it.  John is getting me a new printer, an Epson R800...excellent. 

In my water aerobics class today, we had a male teacher...the guy was 64 but had the body of a 30 year-old.  How does he do that?  All the other ladies in my class (ages 60-70) were all VERY attentive...much more attentive than they ever are with the other, female teachers.  It was actually pretty amusing.  He did give the most rigorous aerobics of any of the teachers I've had.  I wonder if he'll be back on Wednesday?

iPod heaven...

Though my 10-gig, black and white, iPod has been sent to iPod heaven, I am still a big fan.  My new 30-gig video iPod showed up a couple of days ago and it is awesome.  Unbeknownst to me, I already had downloaded video to iTunes...apparently when I bought an Anastacia album from Apple.  So, I was able to see exactly how cool the video component of this product is.  There is incredible clarity to the image, though the screen is only 1.5 x 2 inches.  Now I see why this product is already so successful.   I am only sorry that I don't have more video to put on it.  I will find some, though,  don't worry.

Apple has totally exceeded my expectations by replacing my almost 2-year-old iPod with this new one, absolutely for free...and with a brand-spanking-new 1-year warranty, which I can (and will) augment with the extended warrenty.  Their customer service has always been good, but this is beyond the pale.

the dems are coming, the dems are coming...

We had a Democratic House Party here last night. Some of the folks who came, I knew, and others were strangers but it was great. We had Neil Pender, the Executive Director of the Oregon Democratic Party, who was our special speaker. I cooked up a ton of spagetti, garlic bread, and salad. We went through bottles and bottles of wine. We talked about how we hoped to change our state and our nation for the better. Onward, democracy!

no school, no sleep...

Ross and his friends were up most of the night, till almost 5 a.m., apparently.  I say apparently, because this is what they told me but I was trying to sleep at the time. 

One of his friends called his parents at that time and got picked up...???...  I told Ross that if he called here at 5 a.m. to be picked up from an overnight party, I would 1) be pretty upset since he would have woken me up, and 2)  tell him to amuse himself till I was ready to wake up, have my coffee, and feel like getting in the car to fetch him.  I mean, come on...there was no school today.

Portland Public Schools, in their wisdom, decided to take their scheduled Teacher Planning Day and used to it avoid having sugar-saturated students in the classroom, instead of tacking it onto the weekend like they usually do.  Smart move.

Ross used the day to do homework and fill in his on-line application for Oregon State.  I sat there and gave him a little help with the question and answer portion. The questions were lame but had to be done.  His SAT scores have been sent.  Now, all he has to do is to have the school send his transcripts in.  Voila.  Done.  Pack your bags next September. 

Adam update:

Adam finally got his dental appointment, a full 3 weeks after his accident.  The basic message...yeah, your teeth are broken, come back in 3 weeks.  Seriously, folks.  That's it?

We were hoping that Adam could get a retainer with a false tooth to wear while being prepped for an implant.  But his two chipped teeth were weakened in the accident and the dentist doesn't want to risk putting too much pressure on them.  I understand that and appreciate that he is doing what he feels is best, but poor Adam.  The good news is that his dentist is going to email our dentist and coordinate with him, since he knows Adam so well.  His new Scottish dentist has an oral surgeon in his office, so he won't have to go outside to get the whole implant thing done.  I just feel so sorry that Adam is going to have to go through this whole thing for such an extended period of time.  Hope further news is better.