"Grapeleaves"

This is an entry that I had done four years ago when I first started my journal....I made grapeleaves tonight for hubby & I it brought it all back....     Grapeleaves

Standing at the kitchen counter trying to open this darn old bottle of cured grape leaves I flash back about forty-five years ago and it almost seems like yesterday.  My Grandpa was from the isle of Crete, coming from a village high in the mountains...as tough as nails and yet the gentlest man I've ever met.

"Nick" came to this country at age 16..and when war broke out he joined the army at 17...of course, he was sent back to Europe with the cassons.  He never spoke greatly about the war years, just kept everything in.  He met and married my grandmom, a South Carolina belle, started a family and enjoyed an American way of life.

He was an excellent chef....no one ever went hungry in his house.  My grandparents house was the focal point of the family, all our vacations, holidays were spent there, drawing all fractions of the family like a magnet every year.

For some reason Grandpa decided to teach me how to cook and I will forever be grateful that he did.  One of my first lessons was making "grape leaves" filled with chopmeat, rice & cumin..rolled just so - so, add water, lemon juice and wait for the aroma to fill the kitchen.  Forty-five years later my husband is grateful that I'm a good cook and it's all due to someone that he never had a chance to meet.

It's funny, standing and rolling the leaves makes me feel a compelling connection to my past, I can hear "Nick" say "Don't forget to pinch the stem off if it looks tough" followed by "that's right..you are doing a good job".  Anyway I know that I learned the right things sitting at his kitchen table.

My Grandad & Grandmom used to "battle" with one another, playfully it would seem.  Grans would say "Nick!" What is that man doing now?"  Grandpa would counter with"Lee! What are you going on about?" "I'm just cooking"...then either side would enlist myself or one of my sisters to "tell" Nick this and he would do the same, as if they couldn't hear what each other was saying.  It was hilarious.

Oh, boy when everyone came for dinner the dinning room table creaked & groaned under the weight of the repast that Papoo would present to us mere mortals.  Grandma was allowed to set the table, with us helping, fix real ice tea and help bring the food in.....everything else was pure Grandpa.

Every time we would be leaving..they would be on the porch waving goodbye and Grandma saying "You'all come on back now yahear".

I spent almost every summer with them in Norfolk, loving the southern night air, humming birds and pink trees...but most of all them

Those Were The Days My Friends

Sorry the pictures I couldn't copy them but the words are really good.... Our Childhood in Black and White.  Go all the way to the bottom past the pictures. I think you'll enjoy it. Whomever wrote this, described childhood to a T.    Hope you enjoy it.  Black and White (Under age 40? You won't understand.)  You could hardly see for all the snow, Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.  Pull a chair up to the TV set,  'Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet.'  My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.  My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice-pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e-coli. Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then. The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.  We all took gym, not PE.. and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.  Flunking gym was not an option even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym. Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.  We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.  I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.  I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.  Oh yeah .. and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!  We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.  Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.  We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home. I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little didhis Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.  To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that? We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?  LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T; SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING.       Pass this to someone and remember that life's most simple pleasures are very often the best.

Computer Woes

 Oh, I found this on the net thought it was hysterical, because we are going through this crap right now. Somehow my husband opened up something and infected his laptop.  Nothing I could do to clear it up, it was beyond me...ran every program I could think of to get rid of the "bug".  I gave up.  We have a talented friend named Angie who was up for the task.  She managed to get rid of it, but she had to wipe his computer clean...so anything that was on there is gone.  I'm just glad that our computers were not linked, that all the family pictures are on my computer..grateful for small things. In the interim doing a search for cures I came across something funny and I want to share it with you....I just had to laugh....

New Computer Virus List

OPRAH WINFREY VIRUS: Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands back to 200MB.

AT&T VIRUS: Every three minutes it tells you what great service you are getting.

MCI VIRUS: Every three minutes it reminds you that you're paying too much for the AT&T virus.

PAUL REVERE VIRUS: This revolutionary virus does not horse around. It warns you of impending hard disk attack---once if by LAN, twice if by C:>.

POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS: Never calls itself a "virus", but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism."

RIGHT TO LIFE VIRUS: Won't allow you to delete a file, regardless of how old it is. If you attempt to erase a file, it requires you to first see a counselor about possible alternatives.

ROSS PEROT VIRUS: Activates every component in your system, just before the whole darn thing quits.

MARIO CUOMO VIRUS: It would be a great virus, but it refuses to run.

TED TURNER VIRUS: Colorizes your monochrome monitor.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER VIRUS: Terminates and stays resident. It'll be back.

DAN QUAYLE VIRUS #2: Their is sumthing rong wit your komputer, ewe jsut cant figyour out watt!

GOVERNMENT ECONOMIST VIRUS: Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine.

NEW WORLD ORDER VIRUS: Probably harmless, but it makes a lot of people really mad just thinking about it.

FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT VIRUS: Divides your hard disk into hundreds of little units, each of which does practically nothing, but all of which claim to be the most important part of your computer.

GALLUP VIRUS: Sixty percent of the PCs infected will lose 38 percent of their data 14 percent of the time. (plus or minus a 3.5 percent margin of error.)

TERRY RANDALL VIRUS: Prints "Oh no you don't" whenever you choose "Abort" from the "Abort" "Retry" "Fail" message.

TEXAS VIRUS: Makes sure that it's bigger than any other file.

ADAM AND EVE VIRUS: Takes a couple of bytes out of your Apple.

CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS: The computer locks up, screen splits erratically with a message appearing on each half blaming the other side for the problem.

AIRLINE VIRUS: You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore.

FREUDIAN VIRUS: Your computer becomes obsessed with marrying its own motherboard.

PBS VIRUS: Your programs stop every few minutes to ask for money.

ELVIS VIRUS: Your computer gets fat, slow and lazy, then self destructs; only to resurface at shopping malls and service stations across rural America.

OLLIE NORTH VIRUS: Causes your printer to become a paper shredder.

NIKE VIRUS: Just does it.

SEARS VIRUS: Your data won't appear unless you buy new cables, power supply and a set of shocks.

JIMMY HOFFA VIRUS: Your programs can never be found again.

CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS #2: Runs every program on the hard drive simultaneously, but doesn't allow the user to accomplish anything.

KEVORKIAN VIRUS: Helps your computer shut down as an act of mercy.

IMELDA MARCOS VIRUS: Sings you a song (slightly off key) on boot up, then subtracts money from your Quicken account and spends it all on expensive shoes it purchases through Prodigy.

STAR TREK VIRUS: Invades your system in places where no virus has gone before.

HEALTH CARE VIRUS: Tests your system for a day, finds nothing wrong, and sends you a bill for $4,500.

GEORGE BUSH VIRUS: It starts by boldly stating, "Read my docs....No new files!" on the screen. It proceeds to fill up all the free space on your hard drive with new files, then blames it on the Congressional Virus.

CLEVELAND INDIANS VIRUS: Makes your 486/50 machine perform like a 286/AT.

LAPD VIRUS: It claims it feels threatened by the other files on your PC and erases them in "self defense".

CHICAGO CUBS VIRUS: Your PC makes frequent mistakes and comes in last in the reviews, but you still love it.

ORAL ROBERTS VIRUS: Claims that if you don't send it a million dollars, it's programmer will take it back.

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Big Brother Version 2008

I'm still trying to assimilate what I just read on AOL's news clips.  It seems that there is a company that is producing little bracelets that have the capacity to record where you are, follow you wherever and then if you act up...knock you on your assets.  Seriously folks, Big Brother has definitely arrived!

These bracelets would be fitted on every passenger flying, from babies on up to your 90 year old Grandma....that way it's fair to the swarthy, beady-eyed nervous gentleman who keeps clutching his briefcase. Unbelievable.   I'm sorry if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck...dam it - it could definitely be a duck.  Do you walk up and say...Oh, are you a duck? I don't think so, just grab the sucker and look for feathers.

I can't imagine a world where little babies, children are subjected to wearing something like this. There has to be some reason for all this insanity.  I know the world is not safe, it hasn't been safe since it was created folks.  The tragedy that was 911 brought home to us just how unsafe we all are. 

When people of ill will, evil men plot to do dastardly deeds it shocks us at our core.  That's the reason they do it. To shock us, to make a statement...they don't care about life, theirs or ours. So why would we care how they are treated once caught? We do care because of the fact that we are human. 

The Federal Aviation Board is studying this bracelet to see if it would work onboard. Of course, it will.  It's main purpose is that it is a mini taser and can take down a 230 pound man in a heartbeat...disarming whatever he had in mind. Actually, that's a good thing....see they have me thinking about it too.  But, you have people with pacemakers, heart conditions, breathing problems what if it goes off by accident?

 Can you imagine all this, the future is coming... 

 

 

 

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Lazy Day

 

Wow, ever have one of those days where your thoughts just ramble on and on till you almost have no control as to what you are thinking of or where your mind takes you.  That's how my day was...

First I've made up my mind to lose some weight, that's why the scales are up on the page...figured visual positive thinking...heck if it's working for Oprah...why not me.  I still have to find a large piece of cardboard and cover it with all that I endeavour to accomplish. Some swear that it really works. I haven't cut wishes out of a magazine since I was a giddy teenager in love with Fabian and Sal Mineo...lol. Look at me, I'm going backwards!

The Monkey's are my favorite.   I had to use them. A couple of days ago I read the most ignorant blog and it was from a professional writer. He claimed that the 9.3 TRILLION dollars that we are in a hole for is largely being driven by rising Medicare and Social Security costs!

Oh, really! Not the little old war in Iraq? How about Afganistan? This is just another twist from a spin doctor to white the Republicans and in particular President Bush.  They are bankrupting this entire country, putting all of us in jeopardy and limiting our children's futures. It is heinous. Now to turn around and blame a system that did work, would work if they would keep their dam hands off of it.

I don't have that much memory loss and can recall a time that we were debt free, the future looked pretty good - we were respected around the world.  Not that long ago either...eight years ago. Then it ended. We need change and I hope everyone will vote for change not just the party that they always vote for either...we need to really get on the right page for this one folks.

The Star Wars Plates? Oh, well someone was talking about Star Wars and my mind went to the dishes that I put away somewhere.  I had been planning to find them and put them up in the Ebay Store...I loved Star Wars, as did my kids.

Now you have had a little peek into my mind complete with pictures!

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Happy Fourth Of July

Everybody have a wonderful, safe fourth of July....eat, enjoy - make merry. That wonderful fireworks display is a photo that my talented son Kenji shot off his balcony window in New Jersey....right across the river is Manhattan in all it's full glory.  What a sight!

The other picture is one of my mother and father in law at their own wedding. There is just something about this picture that is so touching, the way Jim is holding Anne's hand, as if to never let it go.  And he didn't.  I was going through old pictures and this one captured my eye.  They are both gone now, too early I believe.  There are so many times where I would love to pick up the phone and call Anne but the years have taken that course away from me.  It is uncanny the way my youngest son resembles his grandfather, you can definitely see the genes at work here.

Speaking of my youngest son, he is getting settled in at his new place in Portland Oregon.  He took off just about one month ago for the great west, looking for adventure I would guess...or maybe mountains? Anything but flat, hot, yucky Florida.   He found a great job, making double what he was here...a neat little apartment, an older small car to save gas...now comes the fun part of furnishing the whole place..lol.  My sister helped by giving him a bed as she is redoing her guestroom and taking him in for the first couple of weeks so he could get his act together and learn where everything was in Portland.   It is a grand adventure and he is doing well.    Still miss him..but that's Mommy talk.

Everybody enjoy the holiday.....

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