I'm not a football fan but...

I was flipping channels last night and saw that the San Diego Chargers were playing the New York Giants. The score was Giants 20, Chargers 23 and had three minutes left in the third quarter. I thought, "oh good, they are ahead." But decided against watching the game because I figured they would just lose like they did the last two games. Besides, no one else was home so I could watch whatever I wanted. Law and Order came on later so I watched that with my dad when he got home. As soon as it was over Dad suggested we watch the 10 o'clock news. A few minutes into the broadcast they get to the Chargers game. They talk about how all the fans were booing and chanting against Eli Manning. Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that. Eli Manning is the quarterback for the New York Giants and last year he was San Diego's first-round draft pick. Manning didn't want to be a San Diego Charger and San Diego was rightly offended. The noise in the stadium was deafening whenever Manning played. On and on the story went when finally they got to the final score -- 23-45 Chargers. What? Nobody scores that high in football. I couldn't believe it and started laughing hysterically. I think I laughed for about 25 minutes. Talk about getting a beating! That was almost as good as when the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in the World Series four years ago.

Observation Mix Mash!

Here's a mix mash of my observations for today -- in no particular order of course. This evening while looking to the western sky I saw what looked like the entrails of a rocket ship that were caught in the glow of the setting sun. It was absolutely stunning with its golden orange and red hues along with iridescent green. Awesome! (Photo from www.signosandiego.com ) The Apprentice: Martha Stewart -- if I were Martha Stewart and I had all that money I would find somebody else to do my hair. I saw a few minutes of this new show and was totally annoyed by the fact that her hair kept getting in her eyes. During the scene in the "boardroom" her hair is in a different position every time the camera cuts to her. One minute it's covering her eye and the next minute it looks like someone pulled it back with hairspray and then it changes back to covering her eye again. If you ever visit San Diego don't eat at Casa de Pico of Bazzar Del Mundo. It is a beautiful restaurant but the food is very bad and the busers stand around telling jokes in Spanish and laughing so loud they disturb your own conversations. Sorry, Mom, for dragging you there today. Chuck Colson has cut to the chase again in this must read article regarding Deep Throat and Watergate entitled Machiavelli Morality. As he points out it's unfortunate and ironic that the lesson learned from Watergate and Deep Throat is that the ends justify the means rather than the true lesson which is that no one is above the law. And finally, here's an atheist who is not bothered by the use of God in the Pledge of Allegiance. As he puts it, "Religion plays an important part in our politics and culture. A vast majority of people have some belief in god, and as an atheist, I don’t begrudge that belief. The end result of the ethics of religion largely overlap those of my own ethics of reason. They are rooted very differently, but in the end, they agree more than disagree. The danger of removing god from political discourse is that, inevitably, god is replaced the the State. This was the whole point of Marxist atheism, and it is still the thrust of those leftists who would purge god from US politics."

My Pirate Impression

Echoing Pat's Pond in honor of Pirate Day, which I think was yesterday, I'll share a funny story from the Norm and Karen files. My wonderful husband Norm helps me take a shower each morning. Sometimes he gets water in my eye (imagine that) and so I have to close one eye because of the irritating feeling of the water in my eye. So I look up at Norm with my one eye closed and I say in my best pirate imitation, "Ayyyy, Matey!" (Maybe you have to be there.)

Getting to Know Me

At the request of the March Hare from The Mad Tea Party I have answered the following questions. Five things I plan to do before I die: Pass on my vast wisdom to my nieces. Visit the Grand Canyon. Go stargazing in the desert. Find someone to make all the inventions I dream up. Learn PHP programming. Five things I can do: Design a web site. Learn a new computer program without opening a book. Run a computer help desk from my home. (This one I have been forced to do because of family members and friends who can't remember how to do things on their computers and the friends they send my way. Maybe I should start charging for this so I can get out of debt faster.) Grocery shop online. I can shock people with my peculiar sense of humor. Five things I cannot do: Cook. Play a musical instrument. Wash dishes. Jump rope. Eat raw fish. Five things that attract me to the opposite sex: A dry sense of humor. Someone who likes my sense of humor. I'm not sure why I should answer these questions because I have my Norm and I'm not looking anymore. Five things I say most often: Cooley wooley. Could you pick that up off the floor for me? I love you, Normie. What's for dinner? Thank you God. Five celebrity crushes: (personal note: I find the characters these men play attractive but only from a distance. If I could figure out what makes them attractive to me I could probably answer the question above that I could not answer.) Nathaniel Parker -- Inspector Thomas Lynley of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries on PBS Sean Connery -- Bond, James Bond Anthony LaPaglia -- Jack Malone on Without a Trace Chris Noth -- Detective Mike Logan on Law & Order Patrick Stewart -- Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation Five people I want to do this: The Songstress of News from the Great Beyond SarahK of Mountaineer Musings Ambra of Nykola.com Pat of Pat's Pond Vanda of Thinking Out Loud

Aunt KK and the Girls

I spent the weekend with my nieces, all three of them, and I'm still recovering. Friday afternoon, Grandma (my mother) and I picked up Hannah and Mackenzie at school and thus began our wild weekend. First, we went to Albertson's to get food for dinner and snacks for the girls. Grandma normally doesn't buy a lot of sugary stuff but somehow we left the store with two different kinds of boxed doughnuts and cereal. Chalk it up to grandmotherly indulgence I guess. While exiting the store we saw a young man collecting donations for Teen Challenge. My mother gave him coin change from her pocket and told him how much she loved their program because of how much it helped her son. When we got to the car Hannah found a dollar in her backpack and wanted to give it as a donation so we drove over to where the man was standing and she handed it to him through the window. I'm so proud that she has such a generous heart. We arrived home unloaded all the groceries and Grandma laid down for a nap. The girls and I watched cartoons on the Disney channel so they could have a rest on the couch. Later we had some snacks and Grandma started dinner. She made this rather strange concoction we call Uncle John's corn pudding and the girls declared it was the best meal they ever had. (I should enter this in one of the recipe carnivals.) After dinner Grandma took Hannah to Wal-Mart to buy some new jeans because the girl just keeps growing taller. Mackenzie and I stayed home and played paper dolls for a while and then a game of dominoes. Mackenzie is only five years old but she plays dominoes pretty well. Grandma and Hannah returned home so we turned on our movie for the night which was Ociee Nash. It was cute and we all enjoyed it. This movie reminded me of Forest Gump only it was for children. By the time the movie was over we were already for bed. Morning came early and even though it was Saturday we didn't get to sleep in. My brother and his wife attended a worship seminar so Grandpa (my dad) picked up baby Zoe and brought her back to the house. We weren't really sure how she would handle the situation because she is only 10 months old and is very attached to her mother. Thankfully she handled the whole thing rather well. Grandpa had to go visit Granny (my grandmother) who was in the hospital for a couple days but she's doing OK now. Breakfast consisted of doughnuts and cereal. Hannah and Mackenzie entertained themselves with paper dolls for several hours. Baby Zoe was content to play on the floor with her toys and my foot rests. She had some sort of push toy that she likes to wheel around the house. She almost walks by herself and is very fast crawling around the floor. Late in the morning I decided we needed to go outside and play for a while so I invented a game for us to play. I called it alphabet treasure hunt. Basically I made a list from A to Z and our goal was to find something on our walk through the neighborhood that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Hannah is eight years old and has just started third grade so she was our official list keeper. We found everything except something starting with the letter X. The girls thoroughly enjoyed it. By the time we returned home baby Zoe had almost fallen asleep so Hannah rocked her while Grandma made lunch. Zoe slept on the couch while the rest of us munched out on turkey sandwiches with barbecue potato chips. Yummy! Unfortunately, Zoe slept only 20 minutes. Her lunch consisted of mashed bananas, Vienna sausages, goldfish crackers and raisins. She absolutely devoured those Vienna sausages -- it was adorable. The girls continued their self entertainment with paper dolls. They have such a vivid imagination and it was fun to watch them play and listen to some of their storylines. At one point I decided to participate so my doll was the Mommy. After awhile I got engrossed in a conversation with Grandma and forgot that I was playing their game. I kept hearing Mackenzie say Mommy, Mommy, and I couldn't figure out why. Then it dawned on me that I was the Mommy. Okay, Aunt KK needs to pay better attention. Zoe crawled around the floor and played with my wheelchair and other toys. It turned out her favorite toy was a small empty cardboard box. I don't know why her parents bother to buy plastic toys. Much to the joy of Hannah and Mackenzie Grandpa returned home around three o'clock. He and I took them to the community pool and the three of them went swimming. Grandma stayed home with Zoe who still wouldn't take a nap. The girls played in the pool for an hour and I got a little sun. The next thing we know it was time for Jack and Ashley to return and take the girls home. Baby Zoe didn't cry until she saw her mother! All in all it was a great day.

He's Home Again!

Saturday my wonderful husband, Norm, was able to return to our humble abode. He is doing well and will continue with IV antibiotics until the end of this month. We have no idea when he will be able to continue with "normal activities" so I will remain in San Diego. It's very hard to be apart for so long but we are dealing with it with God's grace.

Sometimes you just gotta Laugh

My wonderful husband, Norm, has been home from the hospital for a week and a half. Today he had doctors appointments and tests to see how things are going. His MRI showed there has been improvement since they discovered the staph infection in the spinal column of his neck. Lab test results looked good as well. The only problem is that the nursing service assigned to help him with his IV antibiotics was so incompetent that they did not program the machines properly and he could not stand to have them in the house because they wore such heavy perfume. When the machine failed twice on Friday they gave up and said it was all his fault. He went without medication until last night when a different nursing service came over to help. This nurse was very nice and said that the other nurses had incorrectly programmed his IV pump. Unfortunately nursing agencies are so short staffed that they cannot commit to a daily visit for the next two weeks which is how long he will need to continue the medication. So, his doctor called him this evening and said you have to come back to the hospital so we can manage your IV medications until we can find an available nurse to visit at home. That's right, Norm is back in the hospital. Norm told me that all he could do was laugh. So I cried for a minute -- mainly because I wished I could hug Norm at that very moment -- and then I laughed too. I'm praying he will only be in the hospital for one night and that tomorrow they will have good news regarding a reliable and competent nursing service.

My View of the Blogosphere

For some reason I can't get my head around writing anything on my blog lately. So here is my view of other blogs. Call Me Teem, a Canadian blogger friend, has begun blogging for the persecuted Church. Pat's Pond is making zucchini bread today. Sounds yummy. SarahK of Mountaineer Musings, also known as my blog mother, has a brain full of mush today and is blogging like crazy since she quit her job. Interruption of list -- I'm listening to music on my mother's compact stereo CD player which used to be mine when I was in college. I think it's time for Mom to get a new stereo because this CD player keeps sticking and it's driving me crazy. Too bad nobody is home right now to make it stop. Oh, it just fixed itself, what a relief! Now back to the list. I read an interesting post today at The Mad Tea Party. Apparently the March Hare had an interesting, although unwanted, conversation with her son on the subject of gay marriage. I immediately directed her to this timely post entitled "10 Lies Gay Activists Desparately Want You to Believe about Marriage" at D. L. Foster's Perspectives in Motion. Finally, the Songstress at News from the Great Beyond has started her own Blogger Fit Club with the goal of weight loss and fitness. I say good for you and do your best!

Labor Day 2005

This is us on Labor Day. Aren't we cute? We had a great time that day. My brother, his wife and the girls came over to my parents home. We watched old Fat Albert cartoons on DVD and ate hotdogs, potato salad, baked beans and chips. After lunch my brother, Jack, and my sister-in-law, Ashley, and I played a short version of Trivial Pursuit the 90s version. Guess who won? Here's a picture of us sitting around the table with baby Zoe being cheered on by Mackenzie. Zoe is not quite 10 months old and yet and she can stand up all by herself but she has not yet taken to walking on her own. I think she will be doing it before the end of the month because she is so eager. She gets so proud of herself that she claps. Oh so cute! Later, we went down to the community pool and the girls, my brother and my father went swimming. My sister-in-law, the baby and I watched as they played in the water. Both Hannah and Mackenzie are really good swimmers for their age. They went home early that day because the girls had their first day back to school the next day. Mackenzie started kindergarten and Hannah started third grade. My how time does fly! It seems like only yesterday when Hannah with two years old and she couldn't say Aunt Karen so we decided she would call me Aunt KK. So that's what I've been known as ever since. I think my grandma Elsie is the one who started calling me KK and my mom has done so for a long time. You might be wondering why we didn't go to the beach since we are in San Diego. Well, half of the county went to the beach so we decided to stay home. So this is how I spent Labor Day. What did you do?

He Is Home

Norm is finally home! I thank God for his grace and mercy. Norm is doing well but he still has IV antibiotics for the infection in his spine and he will not be able to lift anything over 10 pounds for at least six to eight weeks. I will continue to stay here in San Diego with my wonderful family. I am a person who is blessed to have two places to call home. I miss my husband terribly and my cats and my friends and my house but I am at home here in San Diego with my parents and surrounded by friends and family. The truth is though that I would still be blessed even if this were not the case. Blessings come from God above and I give him all the praise and glory. Have you ever found yourself feeling two opposite emotions at the same time? This week I felt a mixture of heavy hearted sadness and joy. The joy is from spending time with my nieces. The heavy heartedness comes from watching and hearing about all the devastation along the Gulf Coast states. Knowing that tens of thousands of people have lost everything and many people have died it causes one to stop and reflect upon so many things. We live at the mercy of nature. Here in California we could easily have such a major disaster upon us in a matter of moments if the "big one" hits. Also, I have been thinking a lot about the years I lived in Morgan City, Louisiana and how many times I've visited New Orleans. Last Friday I was getting my hair cut at the salon where my mother goes and we saw a friend I had not seen since my wedding 6 1/2 years ago. Donna was 10 years old and I was 16 when she and I became friends while we lived in Morgan City. Her father was in the Coast Guard and they had moved from San Diego to Morgan City and lived in the house right behind ours. My mother was going for a walk one day when she saw their car with its California license plate. She knocked on the door and introduced herself as a fellow Californian. Don and Bonnie and their children Donna and Richie became our lifelong friends that day. Within a couple of years we moved back to San Diego and eventually they came back to San Diego too and our family friendship has continued to this day. Donna and I spent the hour reminiscing those days in the deep South and all the fun times we had. She reminded me of the time the two of us went for a walk to the McDonald's and I suggested we go through the drive-through. She was afraid to because we were not in a car but I said it was okay because I'm on wheels. LOL nobody complained and they gave us our order as if we were in a car! She said she thought I was so cool because I was daring to do such a thing. Knowing that I was cool for at least once in my life makes me feel good. Friday evening my brother and his family came over. My niece Zoe is nine months old and standing up by herself. She is so cute and gets so excited over her accomplishment. She likes my wheelchair and grabs ahold of my foot rests and plays with my feet. Hannah is eight years old and she is full of energy and likes to draw. Mackenzie is five and she is learning to ride a bike. We went to the park near my parents place and Mackenzie practiced her bicycle riding and Hannah zoomed around on her razor. It was so much fun to watch them play and be a part of their fun. Hannah and Mackenzie are very helpful to me and give me lots of hugs. Mackenzie is here now so I need to finish this posting so I can play with her!