Jason’s Neighborhood

1. More love.
   
2. Less weight.
   
3. More yoga.
4. More books.
5. More exercise.
   
6. More vacations.
   
7. More fun! 

These all seem totally doable.

Bring it, 2010! Bring it!

 

These are some vintage postcards from my mom's collection.  Today I will bake Christmas Tree cakes and make Swedish Roselle cookies.  Of course I will wrap presents and get ready for tomorrow. We will go to mom's and see the peeps and then it's off to a Titan's game for Kevin and I.

It's been a busy holiday so far. Very busy at work. But I will try to remember what this day has meant for so many years.

Christmas is my mom's birthday and it hasn't been the same for so many years already. I'll think of her many times today, tomorrow and many more times this week.

Tonight we will watch Meet Me in Saint Louis as we have every Christmas Eve for the last 18 years.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Chicken butt!

If you would have told me, at any point in my life, that there would come a time when I brought a chicken into my house to wash and blow-dry her tush, I'd have looked at you like you had lobsters crawling out of your ears. Sure, I've washed a lot of chicken in my time, but never the live variety..and I've never blow-dried one, live or otherwise. Well, this afternoon, I did just that.

Poor Esther had made a mess of herself. If it were a chicken like Pearl, I'd have just waited until she cleaned herself up during one of the million and two dust (mud) baths she gives herself everyday. She's a pretty white chicken when she's all cleaned up but she prefers the bad girl biker look. Esther, however, is sort of like Miss Prissy on Foghorn Leghorn and I was sure she must have been horrified having other chickens looking at her in that condition. Kind of like when we went to DeWitte's snobby aunts house and she hadn't done the dishes yet so she wouldn't let us in the house.

So, this afternoon, I let the other girls out into their portable run and brought Miss Esther into the house. I put a warm wet rag on her nether regions, while Nathan held her and said "Gross!" a lot..I can't wait till he's a parent, that kid doesn't know from gross, and put her in a cage on the kitchen floor to give the gunk time to loosen up.  We enjoyed the interaction between Esther and the cat. Esther acted like the cat must have been a ferocious chicken eating tiger, even though she's now twice the size of the cat and would surely win in a head to head match. Don't tell her, though, she thinks she's dainty. We evenutally locked the cat in the bathroom because it seemed like she was starting to believe the ferocious chicken eating tiger hype.

After that, it was time to really get in there and clean her up. I was kind of worried..the last time we tried to give an animal a bath that doesn't usually receive baths with the warmest of welcomes, was Cleo. DeWitte put a leash on her and attached it to the faucet, so she couldn't jump out, and she ended up flying around the tub in mid air like a cartoon cat and we had to replace the shower curtain. Esther didn't seem to mind, though. Throughout her back-end bath she seemed to kind of purr. I thought the blow drier would be a fight, too. My chickens are so chicken that they're eremikophobic, which means that if you put new sand in their run, they think it's gonna eat their face off.  But, no, Esther just sat there and let me blow dry her like it was a five star feather salon. She even offered me a tip but I didn't take it, I just cleaned it up with a paper towel and washed my hands.

After she was dry, I took her back out and put her back with the other hens, who were all fighting over a three inch plot of mud. She just looked down her nose at them, turned around and shook her clean, fluffy butt.

The Austere Academy is the fifth book in the series. At this point I've completely given up reading them to my son and am just enjoying them on my own. I liked this book because the poor kids finally find some friends. Of course, there's no happy ending, but it was nice while it lasted.

clipped from www.kniakrls.com Marion County Deputies were involved in a high speed chase at approximately 2:45 AM Friday Morning near Melcher Dallas on Hwy G76. Deputies spotted a suspicious vehicle in the area and as the license plate was being processed the vehicle sped away.  After a chase of approximately one mile, the vehicle went into a ditch on G76, and three suspects were apprehended.  The driver of the vehicle, Jamie Wilson of Chariton was charged with OWI, eluding, and reckless driving.  A passenger in the vehicle, Trapper Bryson, also from Chariton, was arrested on an outstanding warrant from Lucas County.  A third individual in the vehicle was not charged.  No one was injured in the incident.  KNIA KRLS will provide more information as soon as it becomes official. Jamie Wilson Trapper Dyllon Bryson

Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid is a book of quotes and passages from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I've really come to love this series (even if my young son hasn't) and I enjoyed this book as well.

Something else I'm loving is the goodreads website. I use it both to keep track of the books I've read, but also to seek out new books I might enjoy. I really like reading the reviews of friends and strangers when I'm looking for new books to add to my to-read shelf.

The only thing that would make the website even better is if more of my friends (hint, hint) were more active on the site. And that's why I'm plugging it here. =)

clipped from www.cnn.com Prosecutors say Laura Lundquist killed centenarian Elizabeth Barrow, a resident of Brandon Woods Nursing Home in Dartmouth, after the two women had an argument over a table Lundquist had placed at the foot of Barrow's bed. Barrow was found dead September 24 with a plastic shopping bag tied loosely around her head, according the Bristol County district attorney's office. An autopsy indicated Barrow had been strangled. Barrow complained that the table obstructed her path to the bathroom, authorities said. When a nurse's aide moved it, Lundquist punched the aide and grumbled that her roommate "might as well have the whole room," prosecutors said. District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said Barrow repeatedly complained that Lundquist was making her life "a living hell" in the weeks leading up to the woman's death, and that Lundquist remarked that she would outlive her roommate.