For you...

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.
"I am ashamed of myself, bec ause this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

"That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."

"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.

Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Oh, well now this just makes my day...

Television therapist Dr. Phil McGraw revealed that Alec Baldwin had called him for advice on Thursday and that the two had a "far-reaching, intense conversation" about the actor's daughter and his former spouse.

Boy, the bloviator is really desperate. He's calling Dr. Phil. I actually sat here and laughed out loud. Dr. Phil is about as pathetic as Alec Baldwin. Hmmmmmmm, as Dr. Phil would say, "What's your PAYOFF Baldwin?" Public sympathy? Good luck with that, dude... Not from this corner of my little world. Stupid moron....

A must see....

Marti went to a ladies luncheon yesterday and had an amazing Artichoke and Shrimp Casserole. I posted the recipe on Jan Can Cook. More recipes to come from her regarding this luncheon. It was a HUGE success.... I'll post the whole menu for you when she gives it to me.

Check it out here!

I'm crossing her off my list...

In an earlier post today I was talking about Rosie O'Donnell's video blog being funny. This was before I read about a luncheon yesterday where she delivered an x-rated monologue in front of teenage girls and well respected women.. That was just so wrong in my opinion, tasteless and totally hypocritical because she is always trying to "protect" the children. Sorry Ro, I'm cancelling you out, you're off my list. No more positive press about her from this Heavensville blogger....

That Chris is a Whiz with the Sciz....

My hats definitely off to Maggie's new groomer, to be known from this day forward as Auntie Chris. This wonder woman somehow managed to get Maggie's mats out, thin her coat, and shave her underbelly, all the while making her look EXACTLY like she did before minus all the bulk and fuzz. And yep, these pictures were taken this afternoon, after she was groomed. Needless to say, hubby was THRILLED 'cause he doesn't like buzzed Yorkies. He's a man, of course he likes long hair, even on a dog, what can I say...




My Mags was a brave little soldier. Chris said she could have cared less that she was being groomed, she looked out the window, watched the other dogs and let her do what needed to be done. What a sport, my Maggie Moo.

A big thanks to everybody down at the Butler Centre, those women are all so nice to my sweet little furbaby.

What I'm enjoying lately...

Okay ladies, time to roll out the "What's Jan Enjoying" blog.

Here's what interests me this spring. Oh, all of this stuff is hyperlinked, so you can check it out fast!

I continue to be a gossip mongrel. I make no apologies. I read People, TMZ, Perez Hilton, The Superficial and A Socialite's Life daily. Well, Janet Charlton, too, and others, but I won't get carried away. I'm way too old for this stuff, but I blame it on being brought up in the drug store where Mother worked and reading all those Photoplays and other "movie star" magazines.

I'm really getting into Google Reader. It took me awhile, even though Hooterville kept telling me how great it was, but then isn't everything Google does great?

I'm thoroughly enjoying Rosie's O'Donnell's daily video blogs. Scroll midway down the page of her site and check out her Monday Monday entry. Helene, her hairdresser is my fave.

I continue to be a dedicated scrapper. I'm not making a lot of pages these days, I'm more addicted to BUYING the stupid kits. It's a dollar here, $2.50 there, and before you know it, you're up to $20.00. Oh well, gotta spend it on something.

I still watch Y&R, actually I KIVO it, KI-VO, that's because I don't have TI-VO, I have KI-VO (I record it on my computer and watch a week at a time, well technically I guess thats CI-VO, you get the picture). The acting has gotten really bad lately, REALLY BAD, and now it's almost summer so they will be rolling out the teenyboppers to try and boost the summer ratings. Can't wait for that. :-( The spoof of this show, called the Genoa City News is an absolute hoot. If you like parodies, this one is a must read.

I'm really, REALLY enjoying Perfect Light Desserts by Nick Malgieri, and David Joachim. Everything I've made has been a hit. Fantastic cookbook, just fantastic. I just ordered The Perfect Scoop, an ice cream cookbook. I've gotta get some use out of that spendy Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker I bought a couple of summers ago. I get teased a lot by the family cause it just sits on the shelf.

I also bought a new kitchen chopper from Williams-Sonoma. I had their first version, this one is new and improved, love the fact that it makes perfect small dice and now it's self contained so it doesn't make a mess. It's a great gadget, one of my all-time faves!

And that's some of what I'm up to. What about all of you, what are you enjoying. The comment section of my blog is seldom used, but this is a great opportunity to click on it, send me a comment about what you are liking or hating, depending on your mood. Love that audience participation.

I also have several blogs that I read daily, mostly food ones. I can tell you about them, too, but that's another entry. I'm just killing time this morning, waiting to pick up my poor little Maggie from the groomer.

I'm so outta here....

Tomorrow's the day....

My poor little nappy headed Maggie is going for her first haircut. Her snarls and mats are out of control, and I'm afraid they are going to have to shear her. Pray for her, it isn't going to be pretty.

Oh, boy did Nisha do it this time....

First of all, I want you all to know that I have Nisha's permission to publish this about her. I would NEVER tell stories on my friends that would embarrass them without their permission. However, Nisha is the only person, other than myself, who sticks her foot in it on a regular basis. Well that's not entirely correct, both V and Trish manage to do this with some frequency as well. But Nish tops us all, she has gotten herself into more situations that you can ever imagine.

Now I need to tell you all that she is also a world class accessorizer. Always has been, the woman is really good at putting stuff together. And at an age when the rest of us have pretty much given up and wear what's comfy, Nisha is still out there working it with the best of them.

Okay, so now you get the picture. Last week, Nisha and Charlie were on a vacation in Hawaii, on a private island owned by Dole Corporation, it was quite the big deal. She called me several times, and it just sounded heavenly. The last night of her trip was a dinner sponsored by Dole and Charlie got some kind of fancy schmancy award, so they were REALLY visible.

Nish had put together one of her best outfits ever. White flouncy skirt, black tank, black and white polka dotted cardigan, wedge polka dotted sandals, and a black purse with yet another polka dotted bow and some kind of long black stoned necklace. She got rave reviews. Everyone loved he outfit, even the bigwig putting on the party told her how great she looked. Now this is pretty heady stuff for anybody, let alone a woman of a certain age, it was quite the compliment and Nisha was feeling pretty proud of herself.

She has been famous her whole life amongst her friends for her notoriously tiny bladder. So, naturally she gets up, walks aross the room in front of all those people to go potty and then comes back and when she almost gets to her seat, a woman gets up and whispers in her ear, "excuse me, but you have the back of your skirt tucked inside your underwear." OMG, can you imagine, strolling in front of all those people with your skirt tucked in your underwear. Of course, Nisha, seeing the humor in this has us both doubled over howling with laughter. And having been married 36 or 37 years, she's a pretty smart lady by now and of course didn't tell Charlie about it. So he was, and still is, clueless that his wife was parading around in front of all those corporate type honchos and their wives with her skirt hiked up in her underwear.

But wait, I'm not finished yet, yesterday when they were at the airport, she was trying to lift a piece of her luggage, tripped over it and went sprawling on the concrete, took a really hard fall, fell right on her kneecap and caused herself major pain. And yes, she did it in front of everybody, she is never lucky enough to do this stuff when nobody is looking.

The airport personnel, came running over, naturally afraid they would get sued, gave her an ice pack, and she's been nursing the kneecap ever since. One of the ladies traveling with her was afraid she would have broken her nose the way she fell and her luggage landed right on top of her.

Oh my, girlfriends, I could write a book about her. She's just a total joy, my friend Nisha. She makes me smile. And I just bet she made you smile too, tonight, reading this.

This is such a pet peeve of mine...

It absolutely frosts my cake when I'm out and about and people don't speak English. There is nothing ruder than people, in your presence, speaking another language that you can't understand.

Not long ago, hubby and I went thru the drive-thru at Fazoli's, and the hispanic teenager that was working the drive-thru window couldn't speak English. And he's working the friggin window! It was so annoying! And heaven help if you go to a Mexican restaurant and don't order EXACTLY off the menu. So many times if you ask your waiter a question, he looks at you like, huh, whatchutalkinaboutwillis???

And my biggest pet peeve of all is when I go to the grocery store and the food has Spanish labels on it. Oh, I put it back every time. It's SO wrong. And don't even get me started on those horrid automated menu's you get when you dial a business and they ask you if you want English or Spanish. It's bad enough that you have to spend fifteen minutes just trying to get to a REAL person, but when they want to know the language that's just the last straw! I used to have great success just punching '0' to get a real person, but they've cought on to that, most of the time now when you punch '0' the computer says it doesn't understand. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Cmon people, this is America - if you're going to live here, then learn to speak the language!