What Would You Save?

Today I was in the "dilation room" at my ophthalmalogisit's office, waiting for the pesky eye drops to take effect and dilate my pupils.  I still had enough vision left to read a magazine.  I only read magazines at doctor's and dentist's offices.  That makes it actually fun to wait 30 minutes to get to a waiting room and then wait more!  It's a treat to read those magazines once in a while without paying for them.  (I do pay for and read The Sun at home, but since it has no ads it doesn't feel like a "magazine" somehow.)

But I digress.

My eyes are fine, by the way.  Unless you count the fact that I have early cataracts and surgery is probably going to be needed within the next year.  Of course, then I will only need glasses to read, which is actually...fine.  With me, anyway!

But again, I digress.

So while reading some magazine which shall remain nameless because, well, frankly, I can't recall what mag it was, I came across an article about the actress Viola Davis.  I have always (as long as I've been aware of her that it) liked Viola Davis.  But after reading the article I found that I not just like her acting, but also I think we would make good friends.   Here is why:

1.  She recently became a mom for the first time by adopting a baby at age 47. 
2   She has a good sense of what is important in life.

How do I know that number 2 is true?  Here's how:  she and her husband live in L.A. and recent wildfires threatened their home.  They found themselves with 5 minutes to take whatever they wanted out of their house and then had to evacuate.  Here is what they grabbed first:

1.  some hummus,
2.  a can of sardines, and
3.  some chocolate.

After that she asked her husband, "should we get the insurance papers?"
And her husband (who could also be my friend any day) said, "No, just the food."

So then they left.

I don't like sardines, though The Player is a big fan. 
So Viola and hubby, if you are reading this, I just have one thing to ask.  What KIND of hummus was it?

Shopping Situations

First, I went to Target.  I should have known from the situation of the parking lot, i.e. overly full, that I would not have a good time inside the store.  I left after about 15 minutes of being unable to manipulate my shopping cart safely among shoppers nor being able to find what I wanted to purchase there.  Which as it turned out wasn't anything.

I went to another store, which shall remain nameless because I bought J-dude's Christmas gift #1 there, and I won't say what store because occasionally he reads my blog over my shoulder.  The opposite of POS (parents over shoulder - code for kids who are typing to friends and don't want any cats to get out of bags...I guess that's KOS.)

Next I drove to the opposite side of town to get Sisi's #1 gift, but the store only had a few left...in pink.  Egad.  Pink will never do.  So now I need to do some more shopping, another day.  Or online.  Yes, online is sounding good after the Target situation.

I really do not like shopping in crowds.  But if I shop online I need to be sure that there are no KOS situations.

After giving up on more shopping, I called The Player to inquire about dinner.  After we discussed the situation  I stopped at The Jewel and bought a kielbasa.  I spent a long time looking at the various kinds, brands, meat options (turkey pork and or beef, turkey only, etc.) and finally picked out a turkey only polska kielbasa.

After that a college student came up behind me and said "hello" in a strange and sultry voice.  Must have a thing for older women shopping for sausages.  I said "oh hi" and ran as fast as I could to the check-out.

Now I'm home and kielbasa-mac-and-cheese is ready for dinner.  Adieu adieu!

Geo-Bee

I love maps.  I love maps so much that I even love reading about people who love maps.  Map-geeks, we call ourselves.  My 2 most worn pieces of reading material are

1. my old Betty Crocker cookbook and
2. my US atlas.

I loved reading MapHeads, a book of essays about maps and geography that even my dad, who taught me to love maps and books, found "boring."

So it is my great pleasure to announce that I have passed along my love of maps and geography to J-dude.  J-dude's school has a Geography Bee and he was picked as one of 5 kids in his sixth grade team to participate in the bee.  I thought the bee was tomorrow after school, but...it was today and I missed it.  Sigh.  Especially since the Dude got 4th place out of all 28 6th, 7th AND 8th graders to participate.  He claims it was good we were not there, so as not to make him nervous.  But still wish I'd had the date right.

I asked J-dude some of the questions in the Bee.  Just in case I had forgotten he is a sixth grader, he reminded me by saying..."I don't remember" with a little sneer in his voice.    I bugged him and bugged him and he said:  "It was about 2 mountain ranges, I could tell it was Chinese or Belgian, but it was a Japanese word and I don't remember."

I am not making this up.

So either
1.  Sixth graders are programmed to drive their parents crazy, or
2.  We should be worried about the level of geography knowledge among middle-schoolers, or
3.  All of the above.

What.Ever.  (My sixth grade response to not knowing the answer.)  I am still very, very proud of my boy.

Hope You are Not A Robot

Today I "marked as spam" 4 comments on old blogs.  One was pretending to sell Peyton Manning jerseys, which J-dude wants to purchase just to bug his grandma, because the 2 of them are the most avid and opinionated football fans in our family and just because he loves her.  That's the way it works.

Regarding the need to prove you are not a robot:  I think the Comment Moderation on old comments is working, so that the rest of us don't have anything to prove.  Of course if I blogged more regularly (ahem) I would be able to have more data with which to verify this hypothesis.  (Note clever wording to avoid dangling participle at end of previous sentence, something that bugs me only slightly less than spam comments from robots and only slightly more than Peyton Manning.)

Mentioning Peyton will probably bring more robot comments.  So would mentioning Ugg boots.   Oops.

Yesterday, December first, in Central Illinois, the 4 of us worked together to put away the summer outdoor paraphanelia such as the trampoline fabricky parts, the patio furniture, grill, and deck pots.  And then today the temperature was in the 60s.  Go figure. 

Today there was some major room cleaning by the little people, some major squirrel-chasing and an unacceptable amount of barking outside by Samarra, and some leaf-raking by The Player.  What did I do?  Hmmm...I made an acceptable amount of chili.

It is the beginning of Advent and today's reflection at NCC revolved around the theme of Hope.  What Wild and Crazy Thing do you Hope to see in your lifetime?  My answer was that there would be No Fear.  I believe fear is the root of all evil.  Fear drives us to do ridiculous things...be greedy for fear of not having enough, do absurd things in the name of health care for fear of dying, treat people inhumanely for fear of the differences between us.  I wish we could see the connections between and among humans, animals, plants, the Earth and the Universe.  If we would let it, hope could also drive us to do ridiculous things...be generous, accept, be compassionate, open our eyes.