Necessity is the mother of invention…

I decided my windowbox looked a little lean on both ends, so i trekked off to Lowes in search of a bit of filler.  I bought a box of pink begonias, came home, and realized that water was standing behind the windowbox where I needed to walk to plant.  We’ve had heavy rains for days now in Heavensville, the ground is really saturated.

So, not wanting to go inside and change shoes, I tied grocery bags around my shoes and trudged into the water and planted the fleurs.  Yeah, it worked, I looked silly, but what the hey….

A Saturday morning giggle, something we all can relate to…

Must see movie, coming this summer, Julie & Julia...

Incredible story, makes you think how smart animals really are…

Carlene sent me this, I had to share in case you haven’t seen it. ;o)

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University ..  On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.  He got down on one knee, inspected the elephant’s foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground and then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly. Probably wasn't the same fucking elephant.

This is for everyone who sends me those heart-warming bullshit stories.

Burton Hillis, do you remember him?

I was looking thru a Better Homes and Gardens from the 60’s, and there was The Man Next Door by Burton Hillis.  Oh my, did that stir memories. 

Judy, Rosemary, Grandpa Hillis, his wife Christine.  I loved to read about them every month.  His real name was William Vaughan, he wrote under the pseudonym Burton Hillis, He was  so folksy and funny,  I enjoyed his columns so much.

I hadn’t thought about him for years.  He died in 1977 at the age of 61 of lung cancer…

Here are some of  his quotes -  

"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them."

“I'm not convinced that the world is in any worse shape than it ever was. It's just that in this age of almost instantaneous communication, we bear the weight of problems our forefathers only read about after they were solved.”

“Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.”

“Aren’t we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know, the birth of Santa.”

And my favorite -

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”

Gardening, this is what I've been doing this week...

 

 

 

Is the internet going to run out of bandwidth?

Oh joy, not only do we have to worry about global warming and swine flu, now reports are saying that the internet could run out of bandwidth in the coming years, resulting in sluggish surfing and brownouts.

Heaven forbid, what would we do with our lives if that happened?  In a few short years, this little machine has completely revolutionized the way we communicate, I can’t imagine life without a computer. 

If you’re interested in reading more about this, here’s the link.

~ jan

Unexpected pleasures….

I awoke to rain again in Heavensville.  I planned to do a lot of computer work, but Trish and I decided to go to Compton’s Greenhouse, that’s three trips to the greenhouse for me in the last three days. 

We then stopped by V’s in New Harmony, took a quick tour of the village on her golf cart, ended up eating lunch out, great company, horrible food.

Now  I’m home, smooth jazz is playing, the window is open, the birds are singing, and the breeze is amazing.  A totally unplanned day, sometimes those are the very best of all…

Planting, probably in the rain….

Yesterday was fleur day.  Hubby and I picked up V and went to the greenhouse.  It’s really hard to buy flowers, I want them all, and I don’t have room for everything.  I always have pots crammed with fleurs everywhere on the patio, every year I say I’m cutting back and then I don’t. Those plants are so much more enticing in the greenhouse than they are mid-July when it’s hot and I’m tired of watering.

But buy I did, and today I plant.  But that’s after a visit to the dentist this morning, which I’m dreading like a toothache.  No pun intended….

I’ll be back, hopefully with some pictures for you.  There is nothing like warm spring days, it’s glorious right now in Heavensville.  The fur kids don’t want to come inside, they are loving spring, too…

Okay, I’m outta here, gotta put on my big girl panties and open my mouth wide.  *huge sigh heard around the world*

Busy, busy, busy...

I have so much catching up to do.  I have recipes and pictures to share, but it's late and I'm going to bed.  It was a perfect day.  Ryan and Lindsay were here, we spent most of the day outdoors, went to lunch, it was such a good time.

Tomorrow, I'm off to the greenhouse to buy pretty fleurs.  Life is good, I'll be back soon.

~ jan

I’m in the kitchen, today…

Ryan and Lindsay are coming for dinner, so it’s meatloaf for the guys, and salsa chicken and brown rice for the girls.

I just finished making a lemon vinaigrette from a recipe I posted on Jan Can Cook for Apple Pear salad.  Does a tossed salad with lemon dressing go with Mexican?  Probably not, but we both adore lemon,and after making this dressing, I once again question why I ever buy dressing from the market.  It just takes five minutes to whip up an amazing concoction, for a fraction of what you pay in the grocery.  I did a few alterations on the dressing, as Dilly is more of a tart than sweet girl, I’ll post the recipe later for you on Jan Can Cook.

I’m also making Roni’s healthy lemon poppyseed muffins for breakfast in the morning.  I made an applesauce muffin recipe from SparkPeople last week, I’ve eaten them for days,  they’re so good, full of whole wheat and flax seed meal, good stuff, and only 2 points.  I’ve got pictures, I need to get that posted as well.

It’s so pretty, and there are fleurs to plant on the patio, it’s hard to stay inside on the computer.

Enjoy this pretty day, I’ll be back later with an update.

Bea Arthur died today….

Was she really eighty-six years old? Time stands still with Golden Girl reruns, I still think of her as as the bossy, opinionated, vibrant Maude, she was so good in that role.

Mother was such a fan of Golden Girls, I would call her on the phone, and she would often say to me, “What’s new, pussycat?”  She loved to parody Estelle Geddy.

My favorite part of the show was the clothes.  Those ladies really dressed, they were always perfectly coordinated in bright colors, and oh my, did they wear shoulder pads.  And who didn’t love Betty White, and Rue McClanahan was such a hoot.  It was a wonderful show, but not my favorite.

My show has always been  Designing Women.  It ranks right up there with Lucy and Andy.  I adore southern women, I always have, and Dixie Carter in her day was an amazing lady.

It’s sad that we don’t have shows like this anymore.  They were so much fun.  One of my faves was the Elvis episode, if you have time for a peek, it’s a goodie, ladies… Enjoy…

 

 

munchiebusiness.com has a brand new look…

I did take time to build a new look for my webpage yesterday.  Easter is gone, my rabbits needed to hop away, so this is what I came up.  It’s not my normal look, but I think I like it, I really, really like it…

 

Chores…

I’m the world’s worst at putting things off, or as I so aptly put it, “Scarlett will do it tomorrow…” And since I don’t “work,” it’s even easier to postpone to tomorrow what I should do today.

It’s so easy to bury myself in a computer, and be totally oblivious  to everything around me, but sometimes, you just have to do what you have to do.

My closet beckoned me, it was time to change from winter to spring.  My refrigerator looked like tornado passed thru it, the laundry bins were filling up, you get the drift here.

And so, I sadly got up from this stupid machine and did manual labor.   Do I have that sense of fulfillment people talk about when I’m finished?  Heck, no!  I’m fifty-nine years old, do you have any idea how many times in my life I’ve changed out my closets, and done loads of laundry?  How many times I’ve cleaned that darned fridge?  You know, you’re all here with me.  Some of my friends find housework  rewarding, Veronica Jeanne to be exact, she finds cleaning fulfilling and atually enjoys it.   But me, I do it resentfully, all the while longing for rides on Milly, or typing blog entries, or building a new slideshow for this page,  or playing with the fur kidz.

I’m weary of what needs to be done, and long to do exactly what I want to do.  But, unless I want my little world to go to hell in a hand basket, I have to do chores.  So that’ what I’ve been doing this week, chores…..

Spring has arrived in Heavensville…

Henny, just what every girl needs, another geegaw…

Secret dreams…

My mother has been gone for three years now.  I don’t have a lot of regrets about the past, but there are a few, things that have been on my mind lately, and last night as I was watching Dancing With the Stars, and remembering how much she enjoyed ballroom dancing, that little nagging voice in my head was asking me….

Why didn’t I ask her more about her dreams?  What did she enjoy about her childhood the most, who was her first love, what did she always want to do with her life when she was a young woman?  Did she envision herself as a dancer twirling around the floor as she watched those programs? It’s those questions that I have regrets about.  Why didn’t I ask?  Mother was a private person, she didn’t talk much about her life, but why didn’t I probe her a bit, to find out her stories? Maybe it wasn’t as important to me as I was younger, and now that I want to know, it’s too late.

Mother’s Day is approaching, if you still have your mother, take the time to spend a day with her, walk in the sunshine, encourage her to talk about the secret dreams in her life.  We all have them, and even if they aren’t important to you now, someday they will be, trust me.

I’m much more open than my mother, I talk about my past.  My family knows that I always aspired to be a lawyer as a young girl, in later life, as ridiculously silly as it sounds, I would have loved being a P.I., probably from watching too much Perry Mason as a child.  I always wanted to dance, not ballroom, but tap and jazz, I always wanted that horse I didn’t get. 

I’ve always dreamed of living on the water, with a sailboat nearby to take for daily jaunts.  I wanted the gifts of music and art, the natural talented that is rooted deep in your soul. I wanted siblings, and more contact with my cousins.  But these things were not to be, and I’m grateful for what I do have in my life, a wonderful family, great friends, the country life, my sweet little dogs, but we all have secret dreams, maybe this post will make you remember some of yours.

~ jan

Bonnie Hunt’s reaction to Susan Boyle…

You tell em’ Bonnie!  This is one celebrity that has her head on straight.  Bonnie you’re awesome!!!

Guess who went to Rural King today…

Octomom on Radaronline. This is better than any reality show ever made…

Has there ever been a good reality show, really??? And I’ll be the first to admit that I was hooked on Denise Richard’s lame attempt at one  last season, and it was total garbage.  Most of them just bore me…

But now, Octomom is having regular updates on RadarOnline, and I’m totally hooked.  It beats any reality show I’ve seen.  Yesterday, they had all of those petite bebes in strollers, and they were just precious. 

Today she’s riding in a race car thingie with one of her other  children after explaining how she never worked in a gentlemen’s club, but admitting to entering a lingerie contest in a bar, which she won.

It’s really entertaining, or I’ve totally lost it, or probably both…

Here’s the link, if any of you want to catch the latest installment… 

And here’s the link for those sweet little bebes…

Shhhh, it will be our little secret, I won’t tell anyone you watched it.  Pinkie swear…