Here's a little humor after our recent election:

George Bush goes to a primary school to talk to the kids to get a little PR. After his talk he offers question time.

One little boy puts up his hand and George asks him his name.

"Stanley," responds the little boy.

“And what is your question, Stanley?"

"I have 3 questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? And third, whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?"

Just then, the bell rings for recess. George Bush informs the kiddies they will continue after recess.

When they resume George says, "OK, where were we? Oh, that's right: question time. Who has a question?"

Another little boy puts up his hand. George points him out and asks him his name."Steve," he responds."And, what is your question, Steve?"

Steve responded, "Actually, I have 5 questions."First, "Why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN?"Second, "Why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? "Third, "Whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?" Fourth, "Why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?"

And fifth, "What the Hell happened to Stanley?"

Fall Photos Finally

And I did it! Now that was a big accomplishment for me: actually getting out and using the digital camera, uploading them into the computer and finally posting them on a site! And it only took me about four days to do that. :}

But aren't they cute! Standing out in front of Grandma and Grandpa's front yard posing so nicely while mommy takes just one more picture please.

I'm very glad I took these photos last weekend actually because today is rainy and chilly. In fact it is supposed to rain off and on for the next week and the snow level tonight is actually 7,000 feet! Yea!



I just love this photo too, driving back home from Grandma and Grandpa's up highway 4. Over the river and through the woods. Well, it's not literally over a river, but you can most definitely see the woods!

Next I promise some beautiful mountain rain storm pictures. :}

Fall Colors

Fall has always been my second favorite season. I’ve always seen it as just a prelude to Winter, which is my season. But I’ve actually been quite enjoying Fall this year. It’s my second year here in the mountains again, just me and the kids. Last year we had just barely moved in and I don’t think we really had a chance to enjoy the Fall weather before Winter hit. But it’s just beautiful here right now. Although the majority of the trees are the evergreens, there are quite a few trees right now turning the most amazing colors of gold, red, yellow and orange.

In fact last weekend the kids and I took some Fall pictures with my digital camera (that I never use). We took pictures in town and around my parents’ house, that I do hope to eventually actually get around to posting one of these days! We also made Fall collages. We each took a small brown paper bag and went for a walk around our street as we picked up pretty leaves, twigs, pine needles, flowers…When we got back home it was interesting to see what each of us had in our bags and how we had collected some things similar and some different. Then I got out construction paper, pens, crayons, colored pencils and glue and we started to create! What fun! And the kids really got into it. I hung up our three collages on the pantry doors after they dried. Wesley made little people out of his collected leaves and fall foliage. He even glued on little eyes from my sewing supplies and a fuzz ball red nose. And Laken used up all of the glue in the glue bottle on her second picture making what she told me was “a lake”. Yea, it was a Glue Lake!

November came in with two days of rain and nice cool temperatures and I was getting excited feeling Winter on its way. My dreams began to fill with snow! We were building fires every night and crawling under our toasty electric blankets with our home made, knitted slippers on. Then the last two days it has not only cleared up, but warmed up. It’s almost 80 degrees out today! The Farmer’s Almanac actually said that this Winter is going to be 6 degrees colder than last winter. We did have a fairly last Winter last year though, but I didn’t think it was too bad. Now I grew up here in the mountains, but this was my first Winter living up here again in about 17 years. And I did just fine! Now that I think of it, it was a late Winter last year, because the kids were hunting Easter eggs at my parents’ house in the snow. Sweet!

So I do plan on enjoying the remainder of our wonderful Fall here in the mountains as I continue to look forward to a chilly Winter!!

Weather

The Gods must have heard me yesterday. Or at least they read my blog.
After I got home from work this evening in less than an hour the temperature here dropped over 10 degrees and suddenly there was thunder on the horizon. Forget the horizon is was practically in my back yard. I smelled the rain before I saw it out the window. That amazing smell of a summer mountain storm. Of course I was standing out on the back deck as the rain started to come down. It was just what I needed. Then came that surreal twilight glow after the storm. Both the front door and back door are wide open even now although it is almost 9pm, and the house smells wonderful, fresh, clean.

I love weather, in all of its forms. That's one of the things I couldn't stand about living in LA. There is no weather. After all, it's Sunny Southern California. Give me a good thunder storm, hail, several feet of snow any day. When Mother Nature looks down and says, "Take That!" it's always breath taking. Awe inspiring in any form. It's beautiful.

Is It Winter Yet?

This picture is supposed to be keeping me cool right now. I'm not sure it's working however. It's #%$@ing hot! Hey I can use that word if I want to, it's my blog. It was 100 degrees today, which is atypical as I live at 4,500 feet elevation. It's not supposed to be this hot here! I moved up here to get away from the damn heat!

People do tend to be either winter or summer people. I'm definitely a winter. I would much rather be cold than hot. There are numerous fun ways to keep warm on a cold winter night. I mean let's face it, you can be naked, holding a cool drink with a fan blowing on you and still be hot. Did you get that visual. Yea? Well I'm still hot. I would much rather be outside shoveling snow than sweating my ass off for no apparent reason. Now don't get me wrong, there are certain things that are most definitely worth working up a sweat for. I am doing none of those at the moment, so I don't want to be sweating thank you very much.

And I've lived in HOT before believe me! I did two years in Vegas. Very strange weather (if you can call it "weather") in Vegas. The long range forecast calls for temperatures of 110 degrees to 117 for the next three weeks. I'm in Hell, it's official. But it actually snowed on Christmas the two years that I was there. Bizarre. I also did a year in Phoenix. No thank you. The summer we moved to Arizona, we were driving in from Southern California and stopped at a small gas station in the middle of nowhere. It was the hottest summer on record at 120 degrees that day. And breezy. I stepped out of the car and was hit with this stifling hot air like opening an oven. It literally knocked the air out of me and I couldn't breathe.

So I will sit here with my iced tea under the fan and attempt to stay cool until the sun goes down.

Walk The Line

I was curiously surprised by this movie last night. I really wasn't anticipating that I would like it but I did. I loved it! Plus Joaquin Phoenix is HOT, even with the scar. Or maybe it's especially because of it. Regardless, he has that whole sinister thing down. I loved him in Gladiator as well. I mean him and Russel Crowe in the same movie...Yummy! They could have been playing Gin Rummy for 2 1/2 hours and I'd watch it!

I was never a huge Johnny Cash fan, although I grew up listening to that music. I would listen to mom's old records every day from Cash, Janis Joplin, Sonny & Cher, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis, Willie Nelson. As an adult however I've only known the older Cash, from the last decade or so of his life. I was fascinated with the movie for that reason. He was one messed up dude! I never knew that he toured with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. I did know the Lewis story before watching the movie, now there's one sick twisted puppy. And we all know the Elvis story.

Why does that type of musical genius tend to coincide with compulsion? Brilliance of any type, musical or otherwise, has always seemed to belong to the addicted. Take a look at Walt Whitman, Jim Morrison, Edgar Allen Poe, Motzart, Nietzsche. Does genius preclude sanity? Does brilliance breed obsession?

Hot Chefs

Ok, I have this thing with Anthony Bourdain lately. Well, not so much lately as I've always loved his show "No Reservations". I recently saw his episode on Ferran Adria and was completely blown away. Adria is a genius and the way that Tony did the entire show was amazing. You could tell that he was skeptical, having a classical French background in the industry, about the direction Adria is taking the culinary arts. But after spending the time with the man and understanding what he is trying to do, visiting his lab as well as the restaurant, Tony's comment at the end was so, so true, "Nothing will ever be the same."

I loved his Paris show as well. Although Bourdain has said he tends to avoid locations in places like France and Italy, you could tell that he is drawn to Paris and that lifestyle.

And I didn't realize that Bourdain has published novels, which I absolutely must, must read. Intelligent, passionate, gorgeous, prolific, creative albeit sarcastic and addicted, I'll take it.