Hello all, how do you like the pic?? Donna has flipped her wig. hahaha, i thought it was cute. We were screwing around with the camera this last weekend and this is one of the snaps i took while reading the book. The focus isn't perfect and the depth of field is too deep, but like i said i'm still reading the book.

I have to admit i'm really looking forward to getting back out to the weeds and take some shots that I have taken before, but i like to revisit things from time to time. One of the shots i am dying to take is a reproduction of a post card my grandfather took of my grandmother and i along the river road. I guess i'll take it with just me cause i like the symbolism of it and then i'll take the same shot with Donna and the boys. Then of course, a whole lot closer to home, i'll have to go to LBJ Grasslands every chance i get and i'm going to the San Jacinto Monument this summer if i have to go by myself.

Ya know it has been six years since we went camping on the Guadalupe near Canyon Lake, so i think it's way past time we went back. We used to go there all the time, but our last trip was kind of a bummer and we stayed away for a while. I think we're ready to go back.

One last thing, I was watching TV today and a commercial came on where they are looking for subjects to test an investigational Bipolar medication. They are looking for people between 18 and 50 with depressive episodes that last for more than a month or those individuals that are hypomanic, something else, or have mixed episodes. Now i know that in these studies they set it up so that neither the patients nor the doctors know who is or is not taking the actual drug and who is taking the placebo. This brought a thought into my pointed little head. In order for a person to begin a new antidepressant medication they have to stop the old one. Okay, so that means that some of these people are going to purposefully go off of their meds and get sugar pills instead. I know clinical trials are important, but do you really want to take bipolar people off of their meds on purpose?? I know there isn't anyone i know that wants me to go off of mine, but it would make for an interesting doctors office. You guys be cool, D

P.S. I'm a huge Deadliest Catch fan and i feel like one of those little old ladies that gets misty when a soap opera character dies, but i sure am going to miss Captain Phil.

A Few thoughts on what i know.

My dear old friend Lavender Chick, should i say old??, posted a blog this week about the twenty five things she has learned in her years on this earth. I really enjoyed it. As a friend of mine would say, "It spoke to me". So i have decided to put down a few of the things i have found to be fundamental datums. So, Thanks for the inspiration Lavender Chick and just so's you know, i am using an empty Hummingbird Farms wonder lotion bottle as a dish soap dispenser. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Right??



These are in no particular order, i just put them down as they came to me.



1. Don't settle for something other than what you want. If you want Ro-Tel Tomatos, Del Monte Stewed Tomatos aren't going to cut it.



2. You can be as rich as you want to be in public, but you know how rich you are when you get home.



3. Girls lie, Girls make you feel bad, and Girls can do both at the same time. (If the sexist tone of this bothers you, change gender and see if it doesn't fit)



4. A glass of tea always tastes better when someone else makes it for you.



5. When a doctor gives you advice on the state of things, it is just that; Advice. What you do with it is your choice.



6. Nobody loves the way they look in pictures, just accept how you look.



7. If you like your car and it gets you where you need to go, it's good enough.



8. Nothing is too big when you do it for love.



9. When a child or a parent dies, they are never gone.



10. Rotisserie Chicken, Sun Chips, and Guacamole is the perfect meal.



11. Text messaging is for passing bits of information, Calling is for conversing.



12.Doing something unexpected for someone else makes you feel good.



13. Always have mashed potatos with english peas, the potatos will keep you from having to chase the peas all over your plate.



14. Some friends can be closer than family, they're not a replacement they're a blessing



15. Make time for the things you want to do, nobody else will.



16. Ultimatums rarely work out for those that make them.

17. People are who they are, either work within those parameters or don't, but change is not an option.

18. When dealing with life, the ability to compromise is important, but not as important as not compromising who you are.

19. Always leave room on your list to learn new things.

20.

...for this, I shaved??

I have resolved to be a happier person this year......(internal dialogue, major reminder for the minor minder) Well the 17th came and went and we got all dolled up for Donna's Company party thing they had out at the Hilton on the lake. I have about a million things to spill out here and i'm not sure which side of this bucket has the hole, so please bear with me. I guess first thing would be the dress. On an eleventh hour change of plan, i scrapped the empire waist and went A-line. Still a sweet heart neckline and two into four straps across the back and floor length. All in black. Naturally. However, the shawl had already been completed and she wore it. They went together fine, but i knew the difference. I know it probably doesn't make any sense, but this dress irritated the hell out of me and i missed my own deadline. I had it all set up to go to the cleaners for its first pressing Friday morning, but i ended up doing something else and didn't finish the dress until Saturday. They don't do pressings on Saturday. Water under the bridge. This party was the same as most other company parties i've been too. A whole load of phoneys trying to out phoney each other sprinkled with a few genuine people here and there. At one point, a woman asked me to hold her camera while she and Donna and some others took a picture. Naturally, i held her camera. After their picture was snapped, she looked at me and started yelling, wanting to know why i didn't take a picture. It wouldn't be nice of me to repeat what it was i was thinking at that moment, so i simply yelled back at her to take her camera. At that moment i was holding a shawl, my dr pepper, and her camera. It's not like i had a third arm, but she asked me to hold her camera, not to use it. ACK!!! I don't have to see her again. Woo Hoo!! It wasn't long after that we came home. We scarcely talked to each other the rest of the evening. Go figure, i had to be married for a hundred years to have a bad date with her.
On a better note, my Freshman beast child, a.k.a. Bucketface, is throwing Shot Put and Discus with the Varsity and he's competitive. So, i'm terribly proud of him. Right now he's battling acne, something i barely had, and the zinc alone isn't getting it all. Talked with a doctor friend that suggested a milk holiday as sometimes milk can bring about acne if you have a milk allergy. Evidently, you can have the allergy and still tolerate the milk. So to that end, it's Soy Juice for the kid. Bucketface is not the happiest kid in town over that, but he'll do anything for a clear face.
Further good news. The little one, Cheech, received a letter from the school district this weekend informing him that he had been accepted to the Math, Science, and Technology Magnet School. The really amusing part to this is the letter said that if we accept the offer, we'll have to fill out the application for the program and to just write "accepted" in the blank and mail the letter back. Maybe all of the lectures and redoing homework are paying off for him. I mean he's been in honors classes since they were made available, but he just doesn't get fired up about anything. Well i'm proud of him too. I told him today that you don't have to be a football hero to be loved, you only need to be yourself. He patted me on the head. He's my hugger, or in this case, patter.
Well, school and work return to our world tomorrow and i'll be back to my routine. I still need to get a battery for my car and replace my camera, but eh, i'll get there. In parting let me say this. I have made the dress that i made this time before and i believe i am going to retire it. She got the last one of those i'll ever make. Tomorrow, i'll check her closet and see what she needs and go ahead and make her something new for work. Someday, i'm going to get around to making me that poet shirt i want, but until then i'll just soldier on. Y'all be cool now, D

It's time to start the dress.

Okay, so she's five foot ten inches. Why is this relevant you say?? Well I'll tell you. A very long time ago i made dresses and never gave a hang about the shoes that would go with them. I had this "Positive Shoe Theory". This PST worked fine for a while, but as you know all good things must come to an end. I made a wedding gown once and set my PST as the bride having a three inch heel. I'd seen her wearing such shoes more times than not and just figured that was what she would be wearing. The afternoon of her wedding i was called to the church for a "repair". A very rare occurrence, but i do make myself available on the afternoon of the event for anyone that gets an occasional gown from me. Well imagine my horror to discover that she, the bride, was wearing flats with bangles on them for both the wedding and the reception and hence made her dress a couple inches too long and she kept tripping over the damn thing. What made this really fun was one of her friends had tried to use hem tape and an iron to move the hem up and all she did was make the drape of the skirt twist. One last little detail, i had thirty five minutes to fix it or the day would be ruined. well with about six needles worth of thread and a very hot shower in the rectory, the dress turned out, though the invitees had to wait about ten minutes on the bride. She did look stunning, but again, i think all brides look stunning. There is just something about the way a woman looks that is about to get married, it's happiness, it's promise, hope, joy,... all good things in one package. So, back to Donna's shoes. If she'll settle on shoes, i'll start on the dress and i even have kind of a plan.
Well, I'm going with the empire waist and a very full skirt. It should drape a little heavy, but that seems to be in this spring, especially for her body type. I'm considering splitting two to four straps with them woven across the back and a sweet heart neckline. And, since I'm not a huge fan of sleeveless, it's probably going to get a full shawl. Both will be lined and all the trimmings, now i just have to get my butt in gear. It's for the 17th, so I'm not too worried about it. Now, the hard part of this actually turned out to be color. As i wrote previously, I'm tired of the little black dress, damn utilitarian wonder such that it is. So, i layed out the following, bone white, cream, a silvery gold, a copper, and a very pale olive. And the winner is........................BLACK!!!!! For the shawl, following black was easy, i got a gold lace and a lite gold lining and a cool little gimp for the edge. I have some lead crystal buttons that I'm going to use and I'll end up gathering the straps. All i have left is to find a gold trim for the dress, but i won't add it just for the sake of having it. It will have to work or it won't make the cut. As i get it going I'll see if i can't post a couple pics just to share.
In the meantime, be great and take care of each other, D

My Resolution, Resolution.

In years gone by i have been among the portion of the world that makes New Years resolutions and this year, in a sense, is no different. With that said, this year i am taking a new tack toward a direction that has tortured me for a number of years. You see the thing i forget, and many others i would imagine, is that resolutions are nothing more than goals. Goals, you know, are supposed to be trying, but attainable with an amount of effort. The amount of effort depends on just how trying you want your goal to be or rather on the depth of the lesson you are attempting to learn. On any given year i have resolved to: stop getting irritated at my children for doing stupid crap, stop getting angry at people in line at the grocery store that feel the need to hover over me in line, stop getting mad at people who do not listen and still try to answer the question, stop wanting to park my car on people that don't talk and choose to keep everything bottled up till it boils over, stop getting pissed off at people that put things off until they have to be dealt with, stop getting crazy mad when my own stuff doesn't get done because i was helping someone else... There are others like my weight, smoking, and my growth as a writer, but I'm sure you more than get the point. So, here is my new tack for today and beyond.
I'm going to resolve to be a happier person. Should i become angry over something, I'll address it and regardless of the outcome, I'll let it go. If i miss my Rosary a day or two, I'll pick it up where i laid it down. When i get the person that hovers at the grocery store, I'll remember to smile when i say, "Hey, Scoochass back." When it comes to my growth as a writer, if i can't write at home, I'll just get in my car and go to the park and do it there. I'm just not going to wait on anyone anymore and I'm going to learn the word sorry. Out of all the words i know, sorry is the one i use the least and i probably should use it a whole lot more. I say that not only as "I'm sorry, i did that", but also as "I'm sorry, but i can't help you today."
Today, i am going to start my life. Sounds funny, start my life at nearly forty five, but that is what it is. I have things that have laid fallow too long. I have an Aunt that had a tremendous impact on me i haven't seen in over fifteen years. I don't know exactly how long, but I'd sure like to see her again on this side of the grass. I missed my first novel goal by about ten years and I'm through with that eating at me. There are others, to be sure, and i will take them on the same way i do everything else. For those of you taking notes, that would be head on, one at a time, left to right, top to bottom.
I bid each of you all the blessing of a new day and those things you so richly deserve, D
P.S. My boot heels where dug in, will stay dug in.
"I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if i could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man." Sam Houston.

Ode to Christmas Dinner

Hello Sports Fans, it's a beautiful Wednesday morning (2:35 a.m.) and the world is as it should be; more or less. I'm sitting here with my trusty cigarette (new quit date for New Years), a Dr Pepper and that would be the caffeine free variety (all the sugar and none of the buzz) and a screaming bowl of dark chocolate puppy chow. In case you don't know what puppy chow is, it's not the Purina puppy food, it's a snack food made out of chex cereal, chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar. The recipe on the side of the chex box calls it "Muddie Buddies", but my gal pal JB calls it puppy chow. Let's face facts here, they are square and about the right size, kind of brown with a powdery white coating. Looks like puppy chow, gets called puppy chow around here and at night when i am snacky and I'm writing, i eat it with chopsticks. Naturally, my kids think i'm weird for doing that and honestly Donna just stopped asking questions sometime around year ten. The reason why i eat it with chopsticks is simple enough. If i eat it with my hands, my fingers get all gookey (has to be a word) and if i eat it with chopsticks my hands stay clean and i can type without gooking (also a word) up my keyboard. Feel free to try it sometime, if you can do it in front of little kids it will drive them mad. It sure is fun though.
Well on to Christmas Dinner. So after all of the menu changes i put myself through for Christmas Dinner, it ended up that we didn't have that woman over anyway. You know, i'd say my prayers had been answered, but i was just so horribly angry at the prospect of eating with her that i really have doubts they were my prayers that were answered.
We hadn't had a big ole Pitt. type ham in a number of years so it was good, just not the duck i was wanting to fix, but the ham was really good. There is a place in Whitesboro Texas called The Old World Meat Market and i highly recommend them for anything animal related. The Stags Head, Stags Leap, or Stags Butt Pinot Noir went with the ham well enough. On that note, doesn't it seem weird that a whole bottle will go from pop to poop in a single glass around a table, if you even make it all the way around?? I mean, they need to get more wine into the damn bottle without making the bottle any bigger.
I made a bunch of gnosh type stuff and deviled eggs with dill and horseradish for my little "Bucket Face". At the very last minute, i rolled the Green Beans Almondine out of the pan and into the dish and dinner was on. Okay, now i have to tell you the best part of the whole meal was the bread. Now, yes i do make bread often. I make it multiple times a week. However, since we all got the bug that went around a month ago i threw out my three sour doughs. Yes, i had three different sour dough starters. The traditional one that's made from fermenting off a dough that is jump started with store bought yeast. The second, called Biga, is made by fermenting grapes in a flour and water solution for a couple weeks and then nurturing it until it gets enough natural yeast from the grapes to actually leaven bread and lastly, a sour dough that was made from the naturally occurring yeast in the air we breath in Garland. This is the process the San Francisco Sour Dough Company uses to make their sour dough. It was my least favorite, but it has to be due to what is in the air here. I'd probably love what would grow out of the air in Alpine or Ft Davis, but that's there. Anyway on to the bread. I made a plain ole Italian bread dough, but i did something i read about when i was doing research on the Biga sour dough. They talked at great length of letting the bread rise in a crock bowl for up to three days, naturally ensuring the dough doesn't dry out on the surface, and then baking it off in the bowl. Well now the bowl that i most often use to do the first rise in is a big old pasta bowl. The sides are shallow and wouldn't send the sides of the dough up near as much as a regular bread bowl, but i though what the heck.
You know, that morning i got out my Kitchenaid and made one of the prettiest doughs. It really was nice and smooth and very elastic. I had high hopes, but i have had high hopes before. So, i olive oiled the bowl and dropped my dough ball in to raise. A while later it had doubled and i punched it down and that's when it hit me. I thought, hey dude, just leave it in the bowl. And, so i did. When it was proofed up nice and pretty, i threw it in the oven and smiled. It looked like one of those moments of Grace, but i didn't want to get too carried away as i still had to get it baked.
Now, just so you know, every time we have a family sit down, special occasion meal i make bread. One of us, other than me ( cause it's good for kids to get the opportunity to do it too) will say grace and being the guy that made the bread, i'll tear it in half and pass it down both sides. It's just one of our little traditions. Well i hadn't given that whole bread breaking thing too much thought when i decided to bake it off in the bowl, but how was i to know.
Okay, so i take my bread out of the oven and SHAZAAM!!!!! One of the prettiest loaves i have ever seen or made. One small glitsch though, I had a loaf that was 14 inches across and 12 inches high!!! TILT!!!! I turned it out on a towel and kept it covered for the fifteen minutes until we ate. It was massive. In the past, i have made three pounds of bread for a meal like this but it's always been a ring or a braid or something you could manage. This was like one of those medicine balls from gym class. I put it on my plate, still covered in a towel and my glasses had to be moved back to give it room. Now imagine this, i have two Darin Mcgavin's and they are junkies for homemade bread and i had a couple sneakers trying to get into the bread. Suffice it to say that we ate soon after that. My big boy said Grace and then all eyes were on me and my bread. When some jackass said, "What's this bread called??" I was a little horrified. In all that time i had never heard or read a name for the practice of cooking it in the bowl. So, i did what any good English guy would do, i pulled out my Latin and named it. Caput Di Bellum!!! Sorry to do this to ya, but try to keep up, it's sort of a joke. Caput Di Bellum is literally Head Of War/Battle, okay, so is that War Head Bread?? Well, i think it's more like Hot Head bread. Seriously, the damn thing was like handling a bread basketball. If i could go back and say something different, i'd call it Turks head after the knot, but it's out there now and they want me to do it again. I will, but i think i'll give it a few days first. It sure was nice eating off of Donna's new dinnerware. Yeah Yeah, i know you aren't supposed to give dishes as Christmas, but she dug it. If you doubt me, guess what i got. I got what every housewife dreams of getting, a 6qt crock pot with a latching lid so you can transport it. I have split pea soup in it now for later today. The only thing i'm left with that's not been covered is why, why on earth did her new dishes come with coffee cups that hold a half a litre??? Two cups the percolator is gone, but we fixed that. I'll tell you next time how that worked.
You guys take care of yourselves and the ones you love. None of us belong to anyone, we're simply on loan for a while. I bid you Safety, Peace, and Hope D

Guess who's coming to Christmas Dinner

Oh joy of joys! It's three days before Christmas dinner and i'm getting to set an extra place. As with all things in my world, it's a long story but if there is any other kind i'm not familiar with it.
I had the menu for Christmas dinner all figured out and at the last minute i got word the woman my mother-in-law takes care of is coming with her. Normally, i don't mind additional people when we have special occasions, but this Christmas is different. I don't know why, it just is. I wanted this to be a quiet family only day. It doesn't help that i'm not a fan of this particular woman. If you compound that with her being in the latter stages of Alzheimer's, it doesn't paint such a glorious picture. I'm not sure if i'm irritated because my idea is blown apart or if it's due to her son's, that lives between her place and ours, refusal to have his mother in his house. Hell, it's not like i don't know what it's like when you don't like your mother at times, but i doubt i'd turn her away, especially on a family holiday. So, i scrapped the duck. Then, i scrapped the Cornish Hens. Next thing you know, Lamb was out. I've seen what she does to good old beef, so Prime Rib was never considered. Where did that leave me?? I'll tell you, mighty pissed off. It's like the one day a year the family can get together and no one goes anywhere. They don't sit on their phones or ipod's all day and every ones buddies are preoccupied. So, Ham is in. It's been a while since we have had any, so it'll be good. Green Beans Almondine and Loaded Mashed Potatos, with a Ceasar Salad with either a Cab Sav or Pinot Noir. I can't remember at what stage i got the wine and i'm not going back.
I swear, if anyone complains or comes up with some excuse to run out on me while she's here, i'm going to go live under the bridge.
Well, i have a few hours of sewing tomorrow so i ought to get to bed. With that, i'l leave you with ths thought: Text messaging is over rated!!!
Y'all take care of each other, D