"Whistle While You Work" (Snow White)

Finally a chance to catch up on some housekeeping. Puh-lease, not the dusting and vacuuming kind of housekeeping (I never make time . . I mean. . . have any time to catch up on that. Although if you ask my kids, they say that my spring cleaning knows no seasonal boundaries.) Anyway, this is housekeeping of the blog kind. I've been so busy with kids and deadlines that I haven't had time to publicly acknowledge these fine blogs and their thoughtfulness in tagging me for an award. A week or so ago I was given an Artey Pico award by Jeannene at Love Conquers All. If you have a chance, swing by her lovely piece of blog-land--she always has something fun or inspirational to see. Thanks Jeannene.

[And here are the rules ...*Put the logo on your blog...*Add a link to the person who awarded you. *Nominate at least 7 other blogs *Add links to those blogs on yours and *leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.]

And two weeks ago (or more) I received another little award from Tammy over at The Olde Hollow Crowe. Cruise over to Tammy's blog for great blue grass music and prim wonders. Thanks Tammy, and so sorry it took me so long.

[Once an award is received, the rules are as follows:1. Put the logo on your blog.2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.3. Nominate at least seven other blogs.4. Add links to those blogs on your blog.5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blogs. ]

And lastly, a tag from Alias Liz Jones. If you haven't discovered Alias Liz Jones, aka Liz Jones, you must go directly over to her blog right now. Do not pass "Go," do not collect $200. She is hilariously hilarious.

So, I'm supposed to answer the following questions.

1. What is Your Favorite Quotable Line From a Movie:

I wish I could say that my favorite line was from a classic movie or some trendy independent film (imagine that word "film" said with an ultra hip, Beverly Hills accent) or something from Casablanca, or Schindler's List, or even Gone With the Wind; but honestly my brain is so crammed full of years of watching kid movies that it seems that these are the only lines I can think of. "It's that Poppins woman!" and "Posts, everyone!" from Mary Poppins; and from Chicken Run, "It's a chicken farm, and we're the chickens!" This line from Bambi, "If ya can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all." And in recent years we've watched a lot of Napoleon Dynamite: "Do the chickens have large talons?" and "My lips hurt real bad." Wish I could come up with something else, but I'll think about that tomorrow. Tomorrow's another day.

2. Who is The Most Famous Person That You've Talked To:
I was on the Bozo show once when I was about 4 years old. It was terrifying. Have you seen that guy's hair?! I still harbor an irrational fear of clowns. And I spoke to Heisman trophy winner Hershel Walker once in college. He actually carried my suitcase in for me when I was moving into a dorm. I'm sure he remembers it as the highlight of his life.

3. How many Bags/Boxes of Potato Chips are consumed in your house per Month:

Three or four cans of Pringles probably.

4.What Foreign Food Dish Do You Prepare From Scratch and Serve:

From scratch? Um, tacos? I don't actually make the tortillas, or slaughter the cow for the filling, but I usually assemble all of the components for the kids. And I do grow our tomatoes.

5.What Is Your Favorite Section At The Super Market:

Definitely the coffee row. I love the smell. And speaking of super markets. Not long ago I was minding my own business in the dairy aisle, trying to find the latest expiration date on a $4 gallon of milk, when out of the blue some guy with a mullet asked me if I just slapped his rear end. I turned around in shock: 'What an impertinent thing to say," (quote from Mary Poppins, btw) I thought. I was taken off-guard by such an odd question, but managed a response, "Uh, no, I'm happily married, thank you very much." Turns out his lady friend (who was laughing hysterically several feet away) had done the deed and walked away so it looked like it was me.

"I don't get no respect I tell ya, no respect at all." (Rodney Dangerfield)

6. What Was Your High School Team's Mascot and What Were Your School Colors:

An eagle. Red, white, and blue.

Now I'm supposed to nominate some people for these awards. This is where it gets stressful for me, and I'm so terrible at doing this part. I love you all, and honestly I try to check in regularly on all of the sites listed on my blog roll. So in a middle-kid-people-pleaser kind of way, I would say that if you're reading this consider yourself nominated.

Big News

I just wanted to share this interesting letter I received recently. The envelope was ordinary enough, and in fact, I tossed it aside with the hateful envelope from AARP and the other junk mail, and promptly forgot about it as I immersed myself in the latest issue of Home Companion. That is, until my daughter opened it for me and informed me of my good fortune. Apparently I am now eligible to participate in this year's Miss Teen Atlanta competition. Wait, did I read that correctly. . . Miss TEEN Atlanta?? After all these years, finally someone gives me my due. Oh so much to do, so little time. And the best part is that the letter says that there is no swimsuit or talent competition. I'm actually relieved about the talent portion of the contest because mostly my talents would include folding laundry, washing windows, and refereeing sibling rivalry. But it is too bad about the swimsuit part because I'm sure I'd own the show in this little vintage number.

That looks just like me. And I'm even working on perfecting my speaking skills. "I think that we as US Americans . . ."

***************

But that isn't the really big news. "Wha!?" you say, "Bigger than a 40-something being invited to participate in a teen beauty pageant? What could possibly be bigger than that?!" This is big. Really big. Bigger than sliced bread. Bigger than the media's attention to Obama's rockstar world tour. Bigger than Celebrity Circus and Celebrity Family Feud -- combined. Oh, I have something bigger than that. A while back, you may remember meeting my son's college roommate, Jude, who came for a week-long visit out here in the country. He's been a great roommate for our son over the past year, but it seems that our son has decided to get a new roommate in January. Meet the new roommate. We love her even more than we love Jude.

The wedding is planned for January 1-- a New Year's Day wedding!! Isn't that the coolest thing you've ever heard. A new year, a new life together. I only hope that being a mother of the groom won't affect my chances at the Miss Teen Atlanta pageant.

Check It

A new juried site! Opening soon.

I Guess a Pry Bar, Bolt Cutters and Pliers are Part of This Guy's Drum Kit

[It's 96 degrees in Georgia today, and I know many of you in other parts of the US are experiencing the same "balmy" temps too. After all it is summer. It's the circle of life, the ebb and flow of the seasons, the yin to the seasonal yang. So in homage to cooler weather (and mostly because I haven't had time lately to breathe, let alone come up with an original post) here's an article from our local newspaper which ran on January 3 of this year. I promise this was an actual article, but I just couldn't resist adding my own commentary which in written in green. And just you wait, we'll all be pining for these warm days come December.]

ATM attack blamed on snowfall mania

Story updated at 1:01 AM on Thursday, January 3, 2008

A man who beat on an ATM Tuesday night claimed he was excited about a light snowfall, but police think he and his friends may have been trying to break into the machine, Athens-Clarke police said. Officers were dispatched at about 11 p.m. to the Bank of America at the corner of Hawthorne and Prince avenues on a report of three suspicious men who were banging on an ATM, police said.
Brian B., 21, told officers he was "hitting on (the ATM) because he is a drummer and this was the first time he had ever seen snow fall," according to police. [So am I missing the obvious connection here? Snowfall = impromptu ATM jam session??] B. and one of his companions, 18-year-old Simon C., each had a backpack containing a pry bar, bolt cutters, screwdrivers, pliers, a razor knife and a flashlight, police said, and both were charged with possession of burglary tools. [That is a little odd, even for a college town. Usually in the South the mere mention of the word "snow" causes tremendous panic and otherwise rational people rush out in droves to buy mass quantities of bread and milk. Perhaps this was a milk run gone awry? Furthermore, why do people just go for bread and milk? Why not crackers and cheese. Or curds and whey? Or bolt cutters and razors? Maybe one man's bread is another man's pry bar. I'm just sayin'. . . .] The third man, 20-year-old Frank O., said if he knew his friends had the tools he wouldn't have been with them because he is trying to become a police officer, police said. [Uh, ya think?! He probably thought they were carrying loads of bread and milk. Nice detective work Sherlock.]
The three men were charged with loitering or prowling, police said.

The Black Plague

Have your okra plants ever gotten black aphids? Last summer ours were literally covered. We've always tried to garden with as little chemical-presence as possible, so to protect our future okra harvest, my husband got something (supposedly environmentally friendly) to spray the plants. He sprayed the little buggies, but it turns out this "environmentally friendly" concoction not only takes care of aphids, but in the process it harms . . . no. . . it obliterates the leaves too. It pretty much killed all new and old leaf growth and we were left with black, shriveled leaves, and eventually sad, naked stems. A few of the plants did manage to bounce back but hardly enough to even bother picking. This year we didn't even plant okra, and it's the squash which has been invaded by some sort of creepy, smelly creature that literally mulitplies overnight. In the beginning we tried the environmentally gentle tactic of killing the bugs one at a time. Then the more agressive tactic of removing the infected leaves. All to no avail. Yesterday the plants were overcome with millions of the creatures. I fought the bugs and the bugs won. I'm beginning to wonder if organic gardening is for the birds. Maybe it's responsible for soaring gas prices, Enron, or quite possibly even the break-up of Brad and Jennifer. We have certainly done our part to protect the environment and to assure the continued survival of a variety of species of insects, parasites, fungi, and many 4 legged mammals (one of which is our dog who eats the stalks of my sunflowers.) I am almost ready to pull out the napalm.

"The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain." Richard Nixon

I Love a Parade

"Nash"ville

The pic above is my husband and me--(And for the record, usually I look a lot more like Cindy Crawford. But for some reason, I think there was something wrong with the camera that day. LOL :)

As promised here's a quick look at the Colbert 4th of July parade. Excitement on parade day was almost palpable, and people, animals, marching bands, batons, tractors, antique cars and a crazy assortment of "floats" were all assembled at the crack of dawn in an organized chaos. My husband and I, our 4 kids (plus 2 extras) sat waiting for the parade to commence in our way-cool vintage jeep (Korean War era, not WWII as I previously reported--oops, so I missed the jeep's age by one war. I never promised historical accuracy.) It was a fun day--even if our sweet ride didn't quite finish. Our "carriage" began sputtering and jerking and then finally conked out a little over half way through--much to the chagrin of the chief mechanic who happens to be my husband (and whose meticulous restoration work is usually flawless.) Thinking that we'd run out of gas, Chief Mechanic hoofed it to a friend's house along the parade route to borrow a bit of gas, while the rest of us sat in the motionless vehicle and smiled and waved and tried to look as if this was the plan all along. Turns out that the jeep was just overheated so we pulled off the road, ditched it, grabbed a few flags and the buckets of candy, and walked the last part of the parade. The kids thought it was hilarious, and I'll bet they'll never forget it! We made quite a splash. ;)
Once we made it to the end of the parade route, we sat and watched the rest of the action go by. Here are a few pics.

This float pictured below was loaded with a ton of kids armed with water pistols. My kids knew many of them so when they saw us in the crowd we became target practice!

Here are the local Red Hat Ladies, and I'm not sure if this dude at the bottom of the pic was lost or if he just didn't get the memo that his hat was supposed to be red instead of blue.

An interesting entrant pictured below--a hearse decorated in anti-gator graffiti (apologies to you Florida fans, but it is Bull Dawg country here.)

This year, included in the procession was a local set of middle-aged twins, Harold and Derrell, who showed up driving what they call "honey wagons." Maybe you've heard of them--they enjoyed their 15 1/2 minutes of fame on the Jimmy Kimmel show a year or so ago. [editor's note: if you are eating breakfast right now while blog-surfing, or if you're squeamish or faint of heart, stop reading right now. I promise you will not want to go down the path that Harrold and Derrell force me every 4th of July. ~cn]

Each truck pulled a "float" with what you might call performance art --one of the twins, Harold (or was it Derrell?) was featured on a trailer decked out with a toilet --he periodically, plunged his head into the bowl and then slung (slinged? slang? Whatever he did, it was gross) the water into the crowd. The other twin Derrell (or was it Harrold?) was featured on a separate trailer wearing a diaper over his clothes. It was a class act. The kids in the crowd think it's great. I don't think there's enough Purell in this world to make me stand anywhere near this part of the parade.

See the guy marked with the purple arrow? I had the same reaction when Harrold, dressed in the red and white shirt (or was it Derrell,) bent over to show the crowd his, um . . . good side. "Ack!! My eyes!! My eyes!!

Sorry for that, readers. So in an effort to clear your virtual visual palette, so to speak, I'll leave you with this sweet photo of our little dog.

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Program For This Important Message

"Nash"ville is in Nashville for a visit with the Tennessee family. We're having a blast! What's not to love about food and family!? I hope to have some pics of the parade to share when I get home. See you then!

e

And now a word from our sponsors:

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown

Family: A social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the children with outer space, and the mother with closet space. ~Evan Esar

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. ~Thomas Jefferson

The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to. ~Dodie Smith

The informality of family life is a blessed condition that allows us to become our best while looking our worst. ~Marge Kennedy


Blessings to you!

A Glorious Fourth

My family is gearing up for our area's annual 4th of July parade which draws spectators from all over the state. As many as 15,000 people (plus 6) descend upon our tiny, historic neighboring town of Colbert. In its heyday, Colbert was a bustling city located along a busy railroad line. Now it's just a sleepy, slow-paced Southern town of about 400 people. But for one day in July, Colbert enjoys a resurgence of energy and the excitement of its glory days. The Colbert 4th of July celebration is more than just a parade-- it's an "event." The other festivities of the day include a 5K road race, local entertainment, speeches, crafts, and tons of Southern food. Often, the locals set up chairs along the street and many have cookouts and invite guests for games of checkers and horse shoes in their backyards. It's always great fun.

The parade itself is, of course, the main event--it lasts over an hour and winds its way through several blocks of the town and ends on the main roadway in the heart of the city near the old Depot. It includes a down-home assortment of pretty much anyone who wants to get there early enough to join in the line: local "celebrities," pageant queens, cloggers, antique cars and trucks, Little League players decked out in their uniforms, church groups, teams of horses, Shriners in their tiny clown-cars, the local high school marching band, baton twirlers, several fire trucks, and (since it's an election year) just about every politician in the state who's still breathing (and maybe one or two who aren't . . . . sometimes it's hard to tell.) One year we even saw a man riding in the raised bucket of his front-end loader. I think an ambulance was positioned in line near this wacky entrant. When my kids were younger and easily impressed, they thought the best part of the day was gathering tons and tons of candy which is tossed from the make-shift floats along the parade route. Nowadays for my kids, those days have gone the way of the railroad and we've outgrown that part. So this year our crew is joining in the parade and we'll all ride in a vintage WWII army jeep my husband restored recently. But we have buckets and buckets of candy which we'll toss to the young kids who are still easily impressed.

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July. God bless America.

Cat's Meow

It's Halloween in July on my page at Glitter and Grunge.

(And Blondie, thanks for the inspiration on the vintage postcard you posted last Fall!)