I've finally found my camera. Sometime ago I wrote about the Gnomes in my home. Apparently my house gnome had put my camera away "in a safe place" and then conveniently forgotten to pass that information on to me.
Today's treat is my Gnome performing Quality Control on Sunday's Chocolate Cake.
I think I have my Gnome's Stamp of Approval.
Me?
No, not really...
but did you know??
I just saw the Room Spinning wildly about my head; you can experience it too!
I think it was the goat goo....
Do I have to answer now?
I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!
This has been the craziest winter ever. I've spent a good portion of January buried under snow, snow, and did I mention snow? Makes a body wish for a little bit of that Global Warming to sneak in for awhile.
We've had another 16 inches blanket our little piece of heaven. I realize that what we got was only the leftovers from a very nasty storm that has made a track from Texas to the Northeast; and yes, I am grateful that we only received snow and not the freezing rain and layers of ice with which so many others have had to contend. But frankly, we have already been there, done that twice around here. The last time left many of us without power for a week. So I feel your pain.
What I don't understand is how my backwoods, rural "city" has finally got it's game on when it comes to plowing. They must have some psychic on staff that figures out which days I really need to leave the house and then makes their best effort to plug up the out end of my driveway. Now remember I hibernate most of the winter venturing out on my own, at most, four or five times during the entire month. That is mostly due to the cold that accompanies the snow. Let me explain. Firstly, I can and do drive in the snow. I've only ended up in a snow bank once many years ago. I'm apprehensive not neurotic. What I can't avoid is the constant 'What if' going on in the back of my head. Every trip flips a switch in my brain that continuously repeats, in color and full sound, a never ending loop of mental 'What If' worse case scenarios always ending with... and now I'll be forced to walk somewhere, anywhere, TRAPPED in the COLD. To further complicate the matter is the fact that I don't mind the cold otherwise as long as I have made the decision to venture out into the winter wonderland of my own backyard. Chilly is ok; cold I hate. Convoluted, I know.
Anyways....
Although the snow banks are getting higher and higher, the city always finds enough road rot to drop across the end of the drive, piled high and tight. Anybody who has any sense knows that you can't always burst through to freedom. Why? Because the stuff they leave in my drive is usually cement disguised as snow. Hubby never seems to have that problem because he has his truck AND the city pyschic always waits until he has left to signal his lone rogue plow to do it's duty and block me in. This year Mr. Psychic has kicked his game up a notch. Sometimes he leaves the drive clear and merely plugs up the entire street intersection. Bah! You can get out but you can't go nowhere. He has resorted various ploys from using a School Bus broken down across the intersection to bribing the neighbors into some real funky parking on either side of my drive. Once again... you can get out of the drive but noway can you make a turn, right or left onto the street.
Today it was pure genius. First it was the remains of last night's snow and wind driven drifts piled neatly across the drive. Then it was the back end of the trash truck while the crew worked on a malfunctioning whatever. Finally BIL showed up and unplugged the drive. Yippee. I really needed to get out today. I had my coffee, bundled up to beat the band, hit the button to the garage door opener, grabbed my lists and purse from the counter, fought my way out the door (the cold has shifted the porch... again), lifted my eyes to the world beyond... and... BIL had left a mound 3 foot high and 6 foot long across the end of the porch steps. Darn, there must have been a whole lot of drifted snow out there. Ok so maybe I can climb that mountain. Wait. Don't bother. He's also left a small ridge directly across the drive. What was he thinking????
Maybe I could shovel my way out.
But
What if...
Answer: When the giver wants it back.
But can this gift actually be returned?
A New York doctor who gave his wife a kidney is suing her for $1.5 million — or the return of the vital organ — after he says she cheated on him with a physical therapist.
Richard Batista, 49, is demanding the sum in the middle of a messy divorce with his now-estranged wife, who suffered kidney ailments for years before the transplant.
The Long Island surgeon said he gave the gift of life to his wife in 2001, but things turned sour just two years later while she was recovering from a karate injury, the New York Post reported.
His wife, 44-year-old Dawnell Batista, had an affair with her physical therapist in 2003, he said. She recovered from the knee injury, but he says her low blow has him all out of joint
.
"I saved her life and then to be betrayed like this is unfathomable. It's incomprehensible," he told the Post. "She engaged in an extramarital affair and refused to go to marital counseling and reconciliation."
Two years after the affair began she filed for divorce, and Batista accuses her of trying to limit his access to their three children, ages 8, 11 and 14.
"She slapped me with divorce papers in the operating room while I was trying to save another patient's life," he told the Post.
Divorce attorney Dominic Barbara said this case was a first, and that he arranged for a medical expert to determine his client's kidney's worth.
"This has never been done before in the state of New York," Barbara said.
My Thoughts
EXACTLY
I found this on another person's (Covered with Joy) blog. She gave blanket permission for fellow bloggers to post this on their own blog.
If you want to do this, just BOLD the items you have done and post it for all to see. 
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (but it was not on purpose, long story)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
WHAT?!?!?! 99? There ought to be 100!
What do you think # 100 should be?
What # do you want a little more information about?
I’ll post the best suggestion and my answers next Tuesday.
We are so lucky.
So far about an inch of rain has fallen; most of it turning to ice throughout the Adirondack mountains. All around us are reports of downed powerlines, crushed cars, hugh trees on the ground.
There are 200,000 homes without power at the moment. They expect that number to grow as it is still raining and freezing out there. They think that falling trees throughout the area will plunge another 50,000 into darkness and cold. The power companies are anticipating a target date of Sunday for "turn on".
Many shelters are opening for residents in Saratoga County, Albany County and points north.
My town seems to have had mostly snow... not sure why... but very glad about that. We do have the generator gassed up and at the ready just in case we lose power.
EDIT Just heard the weather report... It will continue to rain and freeze all day, through the night and predicted to stop midday Saturday. They are saying that we will get an additional 2 inches of snow on top of the ice and then... yes there's more.... bizzard strenghth winds and dropping temps. The cold is going to be more of a problem then the wind because the whole slushy, icy snowy mix is going to harden to the consistancy of cement. So we are being told to dig out and move what snow needs to be moved (such as the pile left at the end of the driveway by the snowplows) before it becomes unmoveable later today and tonight. Sheesh!
I'm six years old.
I'm dancing, prancing, happily gyrating to Elvis Presley's, "You Aint Nothing But A Hound Dog" with my 15 and 16 year old aunts. They are teaching me to Jitter Bug. Somehow, somewhere in the distance bearly audible through the music I hear.... "but he's a little light in the loafers". They were pointing in a clandestine sort of way to Richard, uncle's best friend.
What?
I start to ask my auntie whatever did they mean when the phone rang. Immediately a chorus of "If it's for me, I'm not home" seems to shoot out from every corner of the little country home. How strange. But that's how it was done at Grandma's. Whomever picked up the phone was the designated "liar" at large. Oh, they all took turns except, of course, when everybody home was not home. The receiver was never picked up untill each person home had registered their availability status. So Grandma's house was populated with part time ghosts and floating shoes.
I wondered, what is so different about Richards shoes. They looked fine to me. In fact they were well in fashion and beautifully polished. In fact, they looked exactly like Uncle's shoes. Uncle, his best friend Richard and two girls were headed out on a double date. They must have been somewhere in their late twenties or so. It's nice they are all going out together.
EDIT... I began this entry on Friday will all intention of posting a cute light hearted, sincere tribute to my uncle. But fate had another plan.
I was going to bring you back to the present some fifty years from that long ago day of floating shoes and part-time ghosts. I was going to tell you of Uncle's kind heart and Richard's wacky sense of humor. I was going to tell you of a young girl's first encounter with "gayness" and how over the passing of these fifty years, not once has the word gay, homosexual, or any number of epithets has ever been attached to their relationship. It was the time I suppose. One didn't talk about that or acknowledge that there just might be something different happening between Uncle and Richard.
But life can be unpredictable, choosing a path not desired by anyone.
Uncle passed away today. Subconsciously I must have felt death approaching. Why else would the memory of that day insist I put it down in words. Only last week he was doing well. Prostrate cancer had won over; slowly rotting Uncle's body from the inside out. Stealing his peace, his dignity... mercilessly degrading him.
He and Richard had been partners for more than 50 years. They were each others first true love. They had shared the good times and the bad, always faithful to one another. I remember how close they seemed to be.. one would start a sentance to have the other finish. Smiles meant just for each other. Comfort when the sadness of life became to heavy to bear alone.
I wonder if they ever admitted, verbally to anyone within the family, what I instictively knew from the age of six, long before I knew the meaning of homosexual or understood all the baggage that word carries... that Uncle and Richard were a couple, a pair, a family just like my family. They were content in each other's company.
I will miss him. I will grieve his loss. More, I will grieve for Richard as he must cope with the aloneness of being widowed while only admitting that a good friend, his roommate is gone.
My father's family was always willing to accept that Richard was more than a friend (they won't say gay) but they will not, will never be able to accept that Uncle was gay. Too bad for them.
I knew at six.
And I loved him and Richard.
Then... and now.... and forever.
What???
Since I'm no longer in Kindergarten,
I knooowww,
you're not asking me...
Sheeeeesh.
I just dissed this Featured Question; you can be annoyed too!
I'm tired. I'm grouchy.
So sue me.
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