Thank You Google!

"55th Anniversary: Rosa Parks refuses to move."

Hopefully we all know the history of Rosa Parks and the difference that she made in a world that was refusing to take action to change the injustice she and many others like her were facing. If you don't, go google it (or click on a link below!). It's important. It's important to understand the history or our nation, the mistakes we've made, and the way we need to move forward. It's more important to learn from our mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and not let it happen again. People say, "history repeats itself" and I have to wonder why. Why we would we repeat our mistakes?

What is my take-away from this day? This anniversary? Change and Hope. I like the powerful words behind the actions that Rosa Parks took. The tag line to the Google image, and suggestion that one person can make a difference...

55th Anniversary: Rosa Parks refuses to move
(from wikipedia) US Congress calls her, "the mother of the freedom movement".
Rosa Parks Biography- Academy of Achievement
Rosa Parks: The Woman who Changed a Nation

So, thank you Google! Thank you for reminding me that there is hope. There is hope in change, even when it takes patience and fortitude to get there. And, thank you for reminding me that it sometimes takes a lot of courage to make a difference, enact change, and fight for freedom.

Seltzer Water and Fruit Gels

Every Saturday for, well, forever, Bill has gone to the grocery store for me because we inevitably need something for Sunday. I'm not sure why this happens. I can go all week without going to the store and we'll do without, but knowing that we shouldn't go to the store on Sunday means that we absolutely NEED something the day before. Anyway, he didn't go tonight, I did. That's always a mistake because I NEVER stick to the list.

It seems like every time I see Bill's sister I crave seltzer water. When she used to visit she would have a bottle of seltzer and mix it with gin or Jack or whatever. I don't know exactly. I envied the way she was able to sip on her drink for like an hour and not have to refill the 10 times I would. OK, I'm exaggerating, but you understand my point, don't you? I would sometimes fill a glass with ice and seltzer just so I could sit and chat with her without getting bloated on soda or water and so I didn't have to run to the bathroom every 10 minutes. Anyway, I bought some tonight.

Fruit seems like a healthy option for a snack and the produce section seems like a safe place to shop. This is where I started my shopping excursion. Bananas, grapes, apples. Check, check, check. I bought the cheap fruit. I just couldn't find it in myself to pay a buck for a mango or even worse, 59 cents for a kiwi. Do you know how small a kiwi is?! I was checking out the oranges when I saw a sale sign below for some fruit gels. Yum. They looked tasty. The tangerine looked scrumptiously orange and you can't go wrong with raspberry. Check, check.

After I got home and sent Bill to bed because I'm not going to be tired for hours do to a 2 hour nap I took with Payton from 2-4pm, I unloaded the many extra groceries that I had and started putting things away. I opened and tasted the fruit gels, yum. I got a glass of ice out and opened the seltzer water. YIKES! That sucker started spewing EVERYWHERE! It totally took me off guard and when the geyser started going I couldn't even keep the lid in place. It blew up all over the island, including all in the 2 open containers of fruit gels, all over the floor between the island and the sink, and by the time I got it to the sink, nothing. It was done exploding. Nice.

So here I sit, blogging my disaster of a shopping trip, sipping on seltzer and eating wet fruit gels. And let's face it, seltzer water doesn't really taste good and fruit gels are really gum drops.

Happy Birthday, Little Man!

When I look at this picture, I don't freak out. When I was at the park with him, I didn't freak out. When I consider that he was on a platform that is 3 times as high as he is tall, I still don't freak out. However... when Payton decided to lean forward and try to reach the top rung of that ladder with his foot, missed because it is was too far, and then proceeded to hang from those bars that he has his hands on in the picture... well, I freaked out. A little. I freaked enough that I didn't take the picture of him hanging, but not enough that I put him back up there to get the above shot.

Happy Birthday little man. We love all 26 pounds of you!

Ugh.

I reread that last post about pie and a few things came to mind:

1. I should not post or read posts about food while hungry. It just makes me hungrier.
2. There were so many grammatical errors and weird sentence structures and wrong verb tenses that I don't even know where to start to fix it so I'm going to leave it. (I' m pretty sure this last sentence was a good example of what I'm talking about.)
3. I may have lost my ability to write.

Ugh. What happened to me? Will I get it back or am I ruined for.e.ver?

NTS: All Pie is NOT Created Equal

I am not a pie baker. That's my mom. She bakes pie like it's no body's business. I once made an apple pie that her husband raved about and I was completely embarrassed. I had used a frozen crust that I'm sure had expired over a year ago and I kind of miss-matched the ingredients from a Lion House recipe because I didn't have everything on hand. I never could have duplicated that thing. I like berry pie and made a decent cherry one once, but I had red stained fingers from pitting all those dang things. In my opinion, the only one I've really gotten right was a simple triple berry (yep, from the Costco bag), store-bought, fold out, Pillsbury crust. Yum. Serve it warm with a little real vanilla ice cream.

Best pie I've ever had? Mom's currant pie. 1990. She used the last jar of currants that her mother had canned. I believe my brother and I cried while eating the last slice. We've tried to find good currants since, but just can't.

Best pie I've ever eaten out? Pie Town, New Mexico. Anything they serve.

Best pie this time of year? Pumpkin. From Costco. Don't even waste your time trying to bake one, and accept no substitutions. Well, I imagine someplace like Marie Calendars or something makes a good one with incredibly overpriced tag, but you get more bang for your buck at Costco and you'll need to share it with some friends.

Why am I writing this post? Because I tried to accept a substitution. Fry's had their pumpkin pie on sale for 6 hours only today, while I was there. I bought 2 'cuz they looked just like the pie I love. They are not. It is not even close. I repeat, accept no substitutions because all pie is NOT created equally.

"Men Are Such Pigs"

Bill uttered these words to me after recounting the lecture they received at work on how you are not supposed to put your gum in the Sharps container in the bathrooms. Really? Duh. What moron would do that? Here is Bill's answer:

"It's probably the same idiot that takes a dump and wipes his boogers all over the stall door, then washes his hands so he can get a paper towel to drop on the floor before he sticks his gum in the small hole of the Sharps container to clog it up."

This is also probably the same guy that got binoculars banned from the University of Phoenix building. Yep, you're not allowed to take any magnifying device of any kind onto the premises. Parking lot included. Why? Some idiot was oogling someone in the parking lot with some binoculars.

"Men are such pigs." (a woman never would have been caught!)

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."

(Rita Mae Brown "Sudden Death," 1983)