Dahlings!
Sorry to have been away so long. I cannot seem to find my way back here very often. Mostly, I get lost in my life and I suggest that is a good thing. We all need to find ways to escape this little box, don't we? Besides, I have an underlying uncomfortable spot which cries out that NOBODY will be the least interested in the egotistical, self-indulgence that IS blogging... at least my blogging. That translated, who wants to read about my life anyway? Duh.

Meanwhile, summer is upon us. We need the BEST new cocktail, don't we?
Margarita, mai tai, rum&coke -- all tried and true.
But what can we concoct that is NEW and REFRESHING and DIFFERENT?
Oh, some go for the Mojito, but it is becoming a bit ho-hum, is it not?

I suppose I should watch the waistline and opt for ice tea with Splenda?
Yes, yes, I must say that is a plan.
But all plans are meant to be scuttled.

If you dare, post a new drinky poo, and I'll give it a whirl.
Meanwhile, it's a holiday weekend and we all need to rest up... for... SUMMER VACATION!

TTFN!

So, thanks a lot, Paisley, ol' building and loan pal.
I'm having a teensy, teeny weenie martini.... and on with the show.
Now, let's see.....

SEVEN THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE
1. Fiords (or is that fjords?) -- well, I think that means seeking the Swedish ancestors. Via Paris, of course.
2. Get my grandfather's World War I diary de-coded. Yes! I have it and it is in code. So cool. Alas, what did the lovely man have to SAY? Inquiring grand-daughters want to know.
3. Write something that other people would put on their Top Seven list.
4. Get that something and many others PUBLISHED! In the real world, in print, via an agent in NYC.
5. Sail around the world in a "small" ship (less than 100 passengers), stopping in small ports, taking about a year.,
6. Talk my kid into maybe just one teeny, tiny, grandchild. Altho I must say, I'm so not obsessed.
7. Change the world, of course.

SEVEN THINGS THAT ATTRACTED ME TO THE LOVE OF MY LIFE... (oh, the current love, of course)
1. Smile
2. Kindness
3. Humor
4. Adventure
5. Wow, can he kiss!
6. He accepted my quirky, eccentric, craziness (thank goodness)
7. Did I say Kindness with a Smile? (and he loves to vaccuum & do dishes & windows)

SEVEN BOOKS (this is the hardest, I think)
1. From Here to Eternity - Jones
2. A Soldier in the Great War - Mark Helprin
3. Shogun - Clavell
4. Lonesome Dove - McMurtry
5. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
6. Harry Potter --- all of them!!!!
7. Prince of Tides - Conroy AND Prodigal Summer - Kingsolver AND Clowns of God - Morris West
and one more little book that made me cry a lot:
Traveling Light - by Katrina Kittle (just wow... or was it me? hormones?)

SEVEN BOOKS THAT I ADORE FROM MY CHILDHOOD (I needed more than 7)
1. King of the Wind - Marguerite Henry
2. Gone Away Lake - and- Return to Gone Away - Elizabeth Enright
3. Seventeenth Summer - Maureen Daly (ah!)
4. Henry Huggins - and - Jean and Johnny - Beverly Cleary
5. The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew - Margaret Sidney
6. Onion John - Joseph Krumgold -and- Charlotte's Web - EB White
7. (okay, I'm cheating... I recently read this) The Tale of Desperaux

SEVEN NON-FICTION BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
1. Embracing Our Selves - The Voice Dialogue Manual - by Hal Stone (and Winkelman)
2. Joy's Way - by W. Brugh Joy, M.D.
3. What Your Dreams Can Teach You - by Lukeman
4. The Enneagram - by Helen Palmer
5. The Tarot Handbook - by Angeles Arrien (and her books: Signs of Life, -and- The Second Half of Life
6. Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest - by Christina Baldwin
7. The Artist's Way - by Julia Cameron

Whew! that was Tough!

SEVEN MOVIES (oh tres dificile, but I shall not go overboard)
1. Young Frankenstein
2. Field of Dreams
3. Dirty Dancing
4. Dancing with Wolves (I paid to see this one SIX times on the BIG screen)
5. Avanti
6. The Shawshank Redemption
7. Funny Girl

8. American Dreamer... it's silly, but can I add that?

(see? I didn't think so hard.... and I own a gazillion movies)

SEVEN THINGS I CANNOT DO
1. Touch my toes
2. A cartwheel
3. Swim laps
4. Run a marathon
5. Ski (yes, I have so tried... and I always cry, so what's the use?)
6. Speak Spanish
7. Eat cheese (ick! I can't do anything stinky or stronger than Jack, mild cheddar or American)

SEVEN WORDS (or phrases) I USE ALL THE TIME (or is that just A LOT?)
1. shit
2. swell
3. helllloooo
4. puh leeze
5. I am so sure! or I'm sure! or Surely, you jest?! (you know... when I'm yelling at the Supreme Court Hearings.... oy, my bloodpressure)
6. And (instead of BUT -- what liberation to consciously realize that I can do more than one thing, have more than one emotion or belief, and not constantly negate the first part of any sentence)
7. fait pee pee (hey, my doggie speaks French)


I'm sure this list business is mucho much easier without stopping to refill the martini, but
DAHLINGS!
Would it be more fun?
I think not!

And I don't mean the kind you're gonna find in the bands at the Rose Parade.
Champagne. That's the ticket.
Clear, clean, bubbly. Brute or whatever. Dry. That's the other. Oh, who knows? I cannot claim the inside track on champagne.
Although I have spent time in the Champagne region of France. Also Burgundy and of course, the other major wine areas of Europa and Northern CA. They grow it, I'll drink it. Seems only fair, n'est-ce pas?

Meanwhile, hope everyone had fine visits from Le Santa Claus.
Quaff carouses to the day... tipple off that last dribble of Egg Nog.
Fire up those new iPods. And dream on.

2006 by all accounts MUST be a better year than 2005.
Let's hope:
War, in all its faces, stops.
Peace reigns. As far as that can be accomplished, in a serious manner.
Literacy and education spreads -- for ignorance is the most poisonous, deadly enemy.
Scandal rocks the nation and shifts the balance of power back to some sense of balance.
The slide into debt becomes reconciled to our own understanding of sacrifice, as our foreparents understood same.
And... hopefully... ALL the religious zealots -- on all sides -- cool their collective jets. Sheesh.
Again, PEACE in all quarters.

So, no predictions, but let's raise those glasses and hope for the best.
And remember....
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!

Hmmm, love that bubbly.

I had this BITCHIN' Post..... and lost it.
So... now I have to start all over again.
What's up with that? Ugh!

Okay, well, let's see.
Yada, yada, yada... I was waxing poetic about three basic concepts:
1) Holiday Drinks
2) The "war" on Christmas
3) Trends

I like a little NOG in my egg nog.... what do you like? Brandy? Rum? Both? Other... explain. I think my dear ol' grannie used to slip in a bit o'whiskey. Some like Jack Daniels. And then the connoiseurs in the bunch (who might those be???? do we really know any???) might do with a splash o' Grand Marnier or Cognac. Holiday drinking can be quite the learning experience, huh? Hold on... refill...... ooooh, yes... a bit more whipped cream on top, and a smidge of nutmeg. Fresh grated. That's a good thing.

My my... think Martha MUST drink to get through the holiday season? Oh, but she probably "tipples" or "imbibes" or "quaffs"... doncha know? Vocab... it's all about vocab. The SAT's were sooo right on that score. But, I digress... back to holiday drinking and such....

When suitably numb to the buzz ... or is that suitably buzzed to the numb?
What's with so many people having too much time on their hands? Can they work on the big issues... or... not. Really... "war" on Chrismas?
I wanna raise my mug (more brandy?) and holler...
Hey! You guys who are boycotting some store because they didn't put up "Merry Christmas" signs...what is it with you? Weren't you the ones who used to rant that Christmas was too COMMERCIAL? What's up with this nonsense? Especially when you're out buying the number one gift -- the XBox which is (A) too expensive for a kid, puhleeeeeze...and (2) violent (as in WWJD?)..... Even imbibed, I can spell hypocrisy.

I wanna take another little (?) sip and say.... another HEY.... it's a freakin' PAGAN holiday! What are you thinking? You've got a TREE in your living room! Can you say... DRUID... CELT.... SOLSTICE? Come on... you've put candles on a tree ... made a ritual of cutting it and dragging it through the snow, into the house to decorate and then sit around (hopefully toasting the new year) and you put gifts under it brought by elves and a little ol' man..... Do you really think the Jews in Bethlehem did that? Nah... don't think so.

In fact, all those celebrations "they" think are so holy.... helllllllloooooooo... Pagan. The church (which btw for all those evangelicals who think Catholics-aren't-Christian --- and yes I've heard them say this idiocy).... The only christian church for nigh unto 1500 years was Catholic.... but that "church" adapted/subsumed all the pagan holidays and overlaid theirs. DUH.

Come on.... rabbits, eggs... hellloooo Fertility Rites from Spring... Vernal Equinox. And here we are... the winter holidays.... evergreen tree, candles, fires, singing, gifts = Winter Solstice... and end of cycle....

"They" need to drink more. Well, drink at all would be good. See? They are crabby Grinches because they don't tip a bit o'brandy into that egg nog. Lighten up. A little less starch in that choir robe, buster.

Okay, now for trends.... (as I fall momentarily off my soapbox and reach for my drink)
Whatever happened to the Tom & Jerry? Let's start a trend and re-vitalize that drink, shall we?
Here's your mission.... go into a bar or liquor store or party...and order a Tom & Jerry. See what happens. Maybe we can make the good ol' Tom & Jerry the next martini? Huh?

Worth a shot. (shot? shot? did anyone say shot? I can do that!)

And to all you good ol' HOLIDAY CELEBRANTS...

Don't boycott Walmarts because of some stupid "they" and advertising decisions. Don't go into Walmart, even if a huge, silver and gold "Merry Christmas" sign, 10 feet tall in flashing red lights hovers over the door. Do not go into Walmart... merely because.... it's TACKY, TACKY, TACKY.

I mean, dahlings... if I went into a Walmart, I'd lose my parking space at Nordstroms. Heaven forbid.

So... let's recap... No tacky Walmart (buy local/Mom and Pop need you).... It's a PAGAN celebration so get over it... and pah-leeeeze....

No "war" on Christmas. Enough war going on in the "real world" to cover that territory.
If we all lift a glass and toast WORLD PEACE -- that's a better use of time all around..
Plus... add the chant
Bring back Tom & Jerry!!! (the drink, darlings... not the cartoon... altho that's nice, too... in its way..)

Lifting my glass to you all.... ummmmmm... more brandy!
PEACE

Ah... yes... the holidays.
No longer the "holy" days, are they?
Well, not unless you worship at the Church of Our Lady of the Margarita, or the Shrine of the Immaculate Martini.
Oh, sacrilgious, you say? Mon dieu, certainment!

I say everybody should lighten up. Life's too short.
Not to put a damper on it all, but dammit Jim, two deaths this week and the week isn't even over.
Pour me another and make it a double.
Whizzzz. Bang. Time marches on. And does NOT stop for anything.

Control?
No such thing.
I know so many people who delude themselves... and I mean actually spout out loud... that they can control "something." But noooooooo. Control is an illusion. Pure and simple.
Ask a hurricane to step aside, you've got better things to do, and what happens?
You saw that.
And then, there's that proverbial bus with your number painted in black on the windshield.
Ah yes, mes amis.

Hit me again. I just love the holidays. Cranberry juice and vodka. Yummmmm.
I'll toast to that. And hurray for the internet, just the Cosmos' way of saying, "you don't ever have to step into a mall again."

Adios amoebas. A toot a lure.

Ladies... hair day. What can I say? Nothing like foil in your tresses to bring out the best in you. Wired for beauty.

I always say if it's not natural... who the hell cares? A blond is a blond is a blond. And then again, a redhead... means you'll be back in that chair fast... red fades...darn it.

I digress. At least I'm consistent in that.

I would have usually sipped a bit of the bubbly and wiffed through gossipy magazines that are two months old, or pondered hairdo ideas, or checked out the clothes in Vogue that nobody in her right mind would wear. Why do they think we want to look like that? And who can afford those clothes? And to what $25K a plate dinner would we wear them?

I'll tell you my "day into evening" look. Jeans into jammies. So there.

Nnnnn Eeeee Way. I was such a good girl. While the foil was processing, I whipped out my laptop and wrote 2000 words.

Coiffed and cute once more, I came back to the casa, changed into comfy clothes (not the jammies until apres din din) and tapped out a few more mots.

This calls for a cocktail.
I'm thinking Vodka Collins. Whatdya think?
Tootles.

Oh.. Midnight Showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire... my my... is a hip flask in your future? Who cares about popcorn when cognac is at hand?

Okay, okay.
A frosty smoothy (shot o' rum) et VI-OLA.... check out that word count.
Okay... I should be further along...
We do what we must when we can.... or something like that.

12155

Just think...some people have zero.
So sad.

Slug, slug, slug.
So much to do, so much time.
Which means.... doing nothing?
Yeah, well.... see that word counter?
Hasn't changed, has it?
Yikes! I'm sooooo far behind. I see some marathon writing on the horizon.
Time for some serious cocktails.
Gentlemen (oh, and LADIES!) start your blenders!

So, how does one motivate one's inner slug?
Do tell, dahlings!

Ever feel hemmed-in? Like the bookcases are closing around you, choking off the air?  I twirl in my lovely swivel chair, but all I see are the walls spinning along with me.  

Oops... Nano says we have 8065 words.
Couldn't let that go now, could I?
Raising a glass o' cheer before nitey nite.