The After Christmas meltdown

  Christmas is over, thank GOD!  Am I the only one who gets depressed afterward?   It's like this enormous build up since September where you are bombarded with sales, songs, decorations, TV specials, etc!! Then in one day it's gone.  It's like that old Peggy Lee song, "Is that all there is?". For all the thought, work, heartache, stress, it should last 8 days like Hanukkah!  At least!

Since there was dissension in the family this year I hosted the family party at my house.  Again- work, stress, planning, etc.  I am getting too old for this and it's about time to pass the baton to the kids!  So this year was maybe my last big party.

And I tried to make it nice for everyone.  I bought WAY too much food and there is a ton of it back in the freezer! There are only two big eaters who came, my brother Tommy and my son-in-law Kevin, the rest of us eat like birds.  And we were constantly entertained by the two invited dogs, Tara's dog Missy and Ruth's dog Gina.  The got along great, then marked their territory and read each other's "pee mail".

Greetings doggie style

Our big gifts to the girls was a formal dress for special occasions and matching bracelet for Bri and and a very unique gift for Kaity. There is something I found in a catalog that due to a Scottish law a person can buy a tiny piece of land in Scotland can refer to themselves as Lord or Lady.  Don't think it is really true but seemed like a real cute idea.   So now Kaity owns a piece of Dunan Castle in Scotland and can now be known as Lady Kaity. It seemed like a perfect gift for a girl who is so into being a princess we sometimes wonder if she was one in a past life!

Bri in her new formal dress

Here is Lady Kaity

So that all happened on the 24th. The 23rd was Jim and my 21st wedding anniversary.  We celebrated at an upscale Italian restaurant.  We could not find a French restaurant at all and when we put in upscale restaurants in Brooksville Florida it brought up places like Pizza hut! Yeah no.  So we ended up at Bella Napoli which was very nice, great food and atmosphere and fantastic service! It reminded me of the fine Italian restaurants in the Federal Hill section of Providence, RI like Camille's Roman Garden or the Blue Grotto.  Afterward I picked out a movie I thought we would both enjoy "Why Him" which turns out I loved and he liked.  It was a little out of his comfort zone with some literal bathroom humor but still SOOO funny and Jim did laugh at some parts.

At Bella Napoli

Christmas Day we celebrated by ourselves. We don't buy each other much in fact Jim hates getting gifts.  He is full blooded Greek and they don't much care about Christmas, Easter is their major holiday. I'll never forget my first family Christmas with him when people got yelled at for buying him things!  Awkward.  So we "go easy" on him every Christmas and we just buy each other small token gifts or a big gift for the house.

While we sincerely hope everyone had a peaceful and very happy holiday we are saddened to learn of people who have passed this time of year like Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and George Michael. It is always hard to lose a loved one but Christmas time seems to make the heart ache worse. And we are very sorry for their family's loss.

It was several nights before Christmas....

We had my daughter and family over the other day for a very small pre-holiday get together. It was mainly an excuse for the guys to sit around and drink German Beer.  My daughter and her husband were stationed in Germany for 10 years, in fact my oldest grand daughter was born there.  I was lucky enough to visit them twice and it was fabulous!  So gorgeous, friendly, immaculate. etc.  And like we have gas stations on every corner they had a castle!  So they got used to the wonderful beer which can be hard to locate here.  When they do find a place that sells it they stock up.

Their favorite

While he guys were relaxing with their brews, I put the girls to work making Christmas balls.  All I can think of is the funny references to Christmas balls thanks to South Park's Chef's chocolate salty balls and SNLs Pete Schweddy's delicious Schweddy's balls.  Mine are also chocolate and delicious.  Mom has been making them for decades but due to ill health now it falls to me.  It really is a wonderful recipe and so easy to make.

The girls chocolate ball production

The finished balls


We had the girls open one small gift from us with the rest being saved for Christmas Eve. They were decorative boxes for each of their bathrooms which I filled with jewelry. 

The girls decided my Christmas village needed some added touches. So it now features matchbox cars and a drunk Polly Pocket puking in the fountain while her horrified friend looks on. 

Oh Polly I told you to stop at 6 Margaritas!

This brings back memories of my daughter Tara as a little girl adding matchbox cars to my little village.  No little village is complete without a wrecker towing a Ferrari out of the snow. Hey, it was his mistake to drive in snow, serves him right!

There's no place like Dome for the Holidays

It's December already!  Wow, what the heck happened with November, it flew by.  Now we are coming onto the prettiest but most stress filled holiday of all, Christmas. Loved by children the world over and very few others.  And here at the Dome I have been busy decorating.  We decided to have the big family Christmas party this year at our house. There are many reasons for it but the main one is Jim refused to go anywhere else!  He is not into Christmas anyway and at least he can be comfortable in his own home. In fact I have been having a hard to time getting him to go anywhere any day! He is very reluctant to leave the property for any reason. I don't really blame him, it is so peaceful here.

One of the first decorations we made was decorated pine cones. Florida has loads of pine trees and the cones from them can be huge, well over a foot tall, more like king cone!  It is a different species of tree than northern pines and visitors are usually shocked at their size. My grand daughters Bri and Kaity painted them pink, gold and silver and sprinkled all the glitter I had all over them. Then we had a glitter fight from which I am still finding remnants.  Tara still had glitter stuck to her two days later.
When the serious cold fronts arrive fresh cones will be decked out in peanut butter and seeds for the yard critters.

Girls and king cones

Dickens people, I had to move the ghost of Christmas future to the background as the girls think he's creepy

My guardian horses all decked out

My late grandma's manger at least 100 years old!

There is a miracle I would like to share regarding the manger angel.  Every year I unwrap them I notice them a little more decrepit than the previous year. Several years ago I unwrapped the angel and all that was there was dust.  I was heartbroken as she was my favorite piece.  Hours later still bummed out I decided to go for a long drive. Tara and I ended up in Tarpon Springs. They have fantastic antique shops there so we did a little shopping.  In was upon entering one of them I got the shock of my life! There in a small display case was an exact duplicate of my angel!!  I stood in awe when the sales woman added, "isn't that sweet, it's from an antique manger". " I know", I replied, bought it, brought it home and it has looked exactly the same every year, still in fantastic condition.  If that wasn't a Christmas miracle I don't know what is!

Outside lights, all that I can reach, which at 4'9 1'2" isn't all that much

Our new flocked tree

close up of our flocked tree, when we first unwrapped it, it "snowed" in our house

My whole village 

So here we all ready, Christmas shopping and decorating is done. The cards have already been mailed out, nothing left but to enjoy the sights we only get to enjoy one month a year and look forward to my party!

Hooray for Saint A!!

Still reeling from the debacle that was our election, I decided to take a mini vaca with my daughter Tara and grand daughters Kaity and Bri.  I most of all needed serious stress relief!  So it was decided to go to the most wonderful place on earth, no absolutely not Disney- But the always fun and fabulous St. Augustine! St. A take me away!

I have been there numerous times and always find something new I have never done before.  There is no such thing as too many times to St. Augustine. So beautiful, so interesting, so friendly!  I mean REALLY friendly, like Stepford.  I remember one time Jim and I went, while he fished on a pier  I was constantly greeted by well wishers, Ex: hi, how are you, isn't it a beautiful day, etc.  I found it a little unsettling at first but have just come to love it along with everything else St. A.

Our first stop was a Village Inn so Tara, a veteran could get her free breakfast for Veteran's Day. Everybody stopped by the table to thank her for her service and we did the same as many were vets themselves.

Next stop was a hotel. We picked the Best Western right across from Ripley's Believe it or not.   It was conveniently located but a tad pricey, the cost of the convenience, and since we didn't want to look around it would be fine.

Then the long walk into the center of town.  Over the course of two days I walked so much and climbed so many stairs!  I hadn't gotten that much exercise in two weeks!  To really appreciate it's ambiance St. A is a walking kind of place, plus there is limited parking. They weren't thinking cars 450 years ago.

One thing I had never done in all the times I have been there is the horse and carriage ride!  And since Kaity is our little "princess" girl we had to do that first.

The princesses and "Brock"

All of us ready to go

One of the stops on the carriage ride, a breathtaking church

Our horse's name was Brock and he was vocal through the whole tour, perhaps he thought he was giving the tour. Kaity wore her tiara the whole time and did the princess wave to everyone she saw which resulted in laughter, waves and smiles back.   It was nearly an hour ride through parts of town not seen on the trolley tours.  Very fun and interesting and well worth the money.

Our next adventure was Ripley's Believe it or not.  I was afraid the girls may get a little freaked out by the freaks but they were okay and thought it was all very interesting.

Fish made from junk at Ripley's

Girls afraid of creepy statue at Ripley's

 Tara also purchased ghost train tickets which I also have never done before.  But before that we killed a little time in the old part of town.

Girls in front of the ancient city gates

A view of town

Just hanging out

posing with a pirate

The Ghost train was next on our adventure list. I had gone on a walking ghost tour before
and that was loads of fun and super informative, so I thought this should top that.  Well it didn't.   We only made three stops and one of them was right back to Ripley's where we started out from! So that was a little disappointing. One fun part of it though was that we were given real ghost hunting equipment to use, an EMF detector and a laser grid light. The theory there is a ghost will break the grid pattern.

ghost grid

shadow on old tower wall

By the time the tour was over it was nearly 10pm and we were all exhausted from a long fun filled day.

Day two St. A:

Our hotel had a little breakfast buffet which was a nice surprise and we knew we needed it for part two of our tour of St. A.

Since Tara and I hadn't gone to "The Fountain of Youth" in ages and the girls had never been that was number one of the list for the day.

They added to the park and it is much nicer than we remembered.  There were the peacocks of course- always entertaining, the fountain itself where you can taste the mineral water that was "supposed" to keep people young and the planetarium, always interesting. But they added some new attractions too like the weapons demonstration and the old Spanish church. Kaity loved the monk, asked him several questions and afterward gave him a big hug!

Girls toasting at fountain

just chillin at the beach

beach combing

Peacock on a canon

Me and the girls at the entrance to "Fountain of Youth"

Peacock mating dance

Peacock displaying for non-impressed females

Sorry this isn't better I jumped when it went off!

crossbow demonstration

canon demonstration

Two girls and a monk

from the choir loft in the church

A dome to remind me of home

view of the giant cross from the park

at the fountain display

river view from the park

Our next stop was to a park that is pretty close to town. They have an enormous play park a little further away but that requires paid parking. So we opted for this one and they do have a wonderful old carousel!

cool old carousel!

The final leg of our tour was to St. Augustine beach where we all
searched for interesting shells and fossils.

Then we  headed home on the back roads and saw all kinds of cool stuff including a Reindeer farm! Who knew?

Now today I am home adding this blog and so far today has been hell.  This morning I spent hours on the phone with Direct TV trying to  fix a glitch on the system.  Next I tried to load my pictures from my phone to the laptop and that wasn't working.  And finally I have been writing this blog and the mouse has been going bat crap crazy bouncing all over the screen. Ah yes, back to reality! 

Thanksgiving Day is lame-o

We just celebrated the best holiday-Halloween now we are almost ready to celebrate the dumbest-Thanksgiving Day or Turkey Day which is a much better name for it. Like the turkey this holiday is fat, ugly and stupid.  It is a poor excuse for a holiday and the reasons for it are also poor.

First lame excuse:
We need to set aside a day to give thanks. Really?  Just one day? We should be thankful everyday!  If you can get out of bed every day under your own power and have money in your pocket you are luckier than probably half of the world's population.

Second lame excuse:
You need a day to get together with family. Aw, you do that only once a year, that's sad.  Although with some families once a year may be more than enough.

Third lame excuse:
To celebrate the first Thanksgiving,the Indians with their new friends the Pilgrims. Hum, let's ponder that for a minute. This did NOT work out well for the Indians.  Strange people who they helped survive in the wilderness thanked them by eventually nearly wiping them out with wars and diseases for which they had no natural immunity to. The later even claiming Indian Heroine Pocahontas.

My paternal grandmother was half Sioux Indian.  Growing up part Indian I did look at things somewhat differently.  Columbus Day is another ridiculous holiday.  Columbus didn't "discover" anything. That would be like me planting a flag in my neighbor's yard and claiming it for Spain. You can't do that, "someone already lives there". 

And watching a movie of Custer's Last Stand was strange, even though we won. The voice-over would say, " and no one survived Custer's last stand".  Wait a second, what does he mean no one?! Most of the Indians survived!  I didn't get it.  So for me it is painful to celebrate a holiday that is painful to my heritage.

My favorite movie that address Thanksgiving Day is "Addams Family Values".  When Wednesday Addams gives her brilliant speech about why they shouldn't celebrate Thanksgiving Day! Finally some one gets it!! Thank you Wednesday!

The Dome "science project"

This week was annual screen dome maintenance.  After months of rain the pebble tech screen dome floor had "science projects" growing on it. Ewww!  Cleaning the huge deck requires lots of effort and ambition.  We dread it, as it literally takes all day.  We are too old for this to be sure. But Jim refuses to hire people to do what we can do, even if it's just barely what we can do.

I have to say though the screen floor looks great! So clean and sanitized.  No more science projects and it "should be" good for another year. I hope so!

Here at the dome we are always thinking of new ways to make the building and immediate area less industrial looking.  Yes my house looks like a space station but could at least be a "pretty" space station.  Jim has recently started another beautification project which I will photo when it's done.  The front yard barrier was ugly concrete cinder blocks.  Jim is cord wooding and using decorative paving stones to cover the blocks and make the front more inviting.  We also have walkway Foo Dog guardians on the end pieces.

The next thing to tackle is painting the domes. I would really like a tri-color. Currently it is pale green, all of it.  Who paints their entire house all one color with no accents at all, who does that?  The previous owners- who had no imagination at all. I'm shocked they even built a dome! We would like to paint the very tops white then use two shades of slate gray and make them look like mountain peaks.  But we haven't really decided what to do. That is a spring project!

My visit to the Rainbow Bridge

I believe I may have visited the Rainbow bridge in my dream...  There was a beautiful immaculate cabin in the woods.  Surrounding it was a forest with a creek and a waterfall. Even the forest was immaculate with not a leaf nor twig on the ground.  Old people were walking out of the cabin with animals.  One woman with a huge smile on her face told me her cat was 15. I thought if this was a type of animal shelter why would someone adopt a 15 year old cat?   So I walked inside and another smiling person said to me " Miss Kitty is all ready for you"!  They handed me Miss Kitty!  I could smell her ( the aroma of perfume) and could feel her weight.  She was purring and I said to her " I had forgotten how soft your fur was".  Outside we admired the gorgeous surroundings, I told her I never wanted to leave, then I woke up.

My daughter Tara and a friend of mine-Joan- both said the same thing, that she wanted me to know she was okay and being looked after.  Earlier that day Jim had cleaned out the garage and inside the trash can was her old litter box. I spent most of that day sad, thinking about how I missed her! I believe she knew I needed to see her and was only too happy to help.  I believe there are pets in heaven and I can't wait to be reunited!

Like the late great Will Rogers said; " If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."  Ditto to that!

There is a famous Hospice story, a woman was in her final weeks of life.  She was a career woman, had no friends to speak of, no family except for a cat who was her constant companion over many years.  She would slip in and out of deep sleep and every time she would awaken she would say that she saw her cat at the end of a long tunnel. The next time she was asleep he was closer, next time closer still.  Finally she went into a coma for which she did not return. She made a horizontal motion with her hand. One nurse said, "oh look she's waving goodbye".  The other nurse said, "no she's not, she's petting her cat".  Right after the woman passed. She did have family who would be at her side forever, her cat.

Miss Kitty was a rescue cat but sometimes I wonder who rescued who.  She was a little odd at first and didn't warm to us right away. After a few days she finally came out of the room and rubbed against me and I cried! Finally she would find it in her heart to love me.

For the first several years she would never lay on us. She would lay near us, next to us, but not on us. Then one day I got extremely emotional during the movie " Sweet Home Alabama" when they showed the pet cemetery scene and the woman was crying over the grave of her dog.  I lost it and started crying too thinking of my beloved dog Axl who had died a few years prior. Miss Kitty ran into the room, jumped on my lap and did her paw massage while looking sadly into my eyes!  It was the first time she EVER did that and usually she would run and hide if I got emotional. But not this time.
What was different? I think Axl came to her and told her I needed her help and she wasn't gonna run and hide this time!  Ever since that day she was much more loving, like she knew what her position was in the household, therapy cat and affectionate friend.