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Poem For December 22, 2009: The Pobble Who Has No Toes

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:36:37 GMT

Today's Poem For December 22, 2009:
Edward Lear's Nonsense Classic:

The Pobble Who Has No Toes
by Edward Lear

The Pobble who has no toes
Had once as many as we;
When they said "Some day you may lose them all;"
He replied "Fish, fiddle-de-dee!"
And his Aunt Jobiska made him drink
Lavender water tinged with pink,
For she said "The World in general knows
There's nothing so good for a Pobble's toes!"

The Pobble who has no toes
Swam across the Bristol Channel;
But before he set out he wrapped his nose
In a piece of scarlet flannel.
For his Aunt Jobiska said "No harm
Can come to his toes if his nose is warm;
And it's perfectly known that a Pobble's toes
Are safe, -- provided he minds his nose!"

The Pobble swam fast and well,
And when boats or ships came near him,
He tinkledy-blinkledy-winkled a bell,
So that all the world could hear him.
And all the Sailors and Admirals cried,
When they saw him nearing the further side -
"He has gone to fish for his Aunt Jobiska's
Runcible Cat with crimson whiskers!"

But before he touched the shore,
The shore of the Bristol Channel,
A sea-green porpoise carried away
His wrapper of scarlet flannel.
And when he came to observe his feet,
Formerly garnished with toes so neat,
His face at once became forlorn,
On perceiving that all his toes were gone!

And nobody ever knew,
From that dark day to the present,
Whoso had taken the Pobble's toes,
In a manner so far from pleasant.
Whether the shrimps, or crawfish grey,
Or crafty Mermaids stole them away -
Nobody knew: and nobody knows
How the Pobble was robbed of his twice five toes!

The Pobble who has no toes
Was placed in a friendly Bark,
And they rowed him back, and carried him up
To his Aunt Jobiska's Park.
And she made him a feast at his earnest wish
Of eggs and buttercups fried with fish, -
And she said "It's a fact the whole world knows,
That Pobbles are happier without their toes!"

Mother Angelica On The Temptation To Despair

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:31:09 GMT

Mother Angelica On The Temptation To Despair

Any temptation to despair is not of God, and you need to remember that the enemy wants you to despair. Know your enemy. He's not handing you roses, he's handing you hell. So be careful of any kind of despair. Those temptations come directly from the liar, the enemy who was a liar from the beginning. He cannot give truth. He cannot give beauty. He can't give you anything that is good. He wants to take that good away from you. The only thing he can do to a human being is to encourage him to despair -- what a waste of time it is to listen to a liar. Listen to the Lord, pray for the grace to overcome the temptation, and keep moving.

- Mother Angelica

Happy Saturday: December 12, 2009.

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:59:02 GMT

Happy Saturday!
December 12, 2009.

I am remiss in blogging here! I miss it! I miss it! I miss it! Right now, I need my Xanga "fix" to help me cope with pre-Christmas over busy-ness. Not only that, I need a day when there is no Christmas music playing! No! I'm not a Grinch! It's just that I start listening to Christmas music so early (actually, throughout most of the year), and I feel the need for some un-Christmas music.

Have been fighting with the residual effects of what was probably H1N1, am gaining strength and some stamina back, but am oh! so sleepy most of the time! And since whatever that nefarious viral invader was that hit me like a train, I haven't felt like drinking coffee. I've been drinking (caffeinated) tea, but it just lacks that certain je ne sai quoi - that certain "oomph". So tonight, I am making myself drink coffee. I doctored it up a bit by putting a few drops of peppermint extract in the freshly ground coffee beans before brewing tonight's pot of coffee, and am about to sample it in a minute.

I made three big batches of Nani's Rum Balls this afternoon. Yes! I sampled some of them - only a few, but enough to give me a buzz. They are in a secret place known only to The Recipe Bandit, safe from the greedy, gobbling clutches of my dad. These three batches of rum balls plus a loaf of The World's Most Delicious Pumpkin Bread, are headed to my mom in Florida on Monday.

Speaking of Momsie and Florida: her new little Westie doglet (Gracie) will be arriving this very day or tomorrow from Grand Rapids, MI! Gracie is a breeding dog from one of the top West Highland White Terrier breeders in the country, but her breeder-owner is seriously ill and giving up some of the dogs. She was so glad to be able to find a home for Gracie with my mom, because my mom is a Fantastic Dog Mom and has owned two of the breeder's previous doglets (Ruffy, and most recently Katie). Gracie is five years old and the handlers say she is very lovey, engaging, intelligent, sociable, affectionate, and so forth. They are bringing Gracie to my mom. Those of you who are of a praying/good thoughting persuasion, I would be deeply grateful for even a two second prayer/good thought sent up for my mom and Gracie during this time of transition. My mom's husband died ten years and two months ago, and my mom is down there in Florida living by herself. She has many good friends, but she needs a dog to keep her company and to give her a lift. I pray that it will be "love at first sight" for both Mom and for Gracie when they get to meet each other for the first time this weekend! I am sooooooooo excited for my mom! And for Gracie, too, because my mom is so good to her dogs. Gracie will have it made in the shade!

I am behind on Christmas baking. I've made the cookie dough for five different batches of cookies (make that six) and I think I will be up baking in the middle of the night tonight, now that I am recovered from this afternoon's rum balls. ;) (I really did have a little bit of a glow on from those things! No wonder they are so popular! However, they put me to sleep!). I don't enjoy baking as much as I once did. I guess it's that I don't enjoy the calories even though I am wild about cookies. However, all I need do is LOOK at the cookies and automatically they go to my waistline. Yikes. The joy of middle age. NOT! I enjoy baking during the rest of the year; it's this mad dash to get everything made in such a goshdang blooming hurry in time to send to Florida in time for Christmas that stresses me out.

Did I mention that I hate baking cut out cookies?! :) I don't mind making them medium thickness, but my dear Momsie likes them THIN! Oy gevalt! The Patience Posse™ is sure to try to get me when I make those.

I feel the pounds just attaching themselves to my body in extremely unattractive ways with even the merest mention/thought of cookies! Helllllllllllllllllllllllllllllp!

***
I am behind on Christmas cards, too! Hopefully, my handwriting will be legible this year... I don't send as many cards as I used to. This year will be sending e-cards mostly - specifically because my handwriting is so very unreadable, largely due to taking Lyrica.

***
My mom gave me Hallmark Card Studio 2010 Deluxe for an early Christmas present. It is very, very, very nice - especially since Hallmark.com has gotten snooty patooty by charging a fee for their nicer cards. Who needs 'em?! Dayspring e-cards are much nicer, anyway. I would be willing to pay for Dayspring e-cards, but not for most of the Hallmark.com e-cards. With the Hallmark software, however, I can make nicer cards than on the website! I hate to imagine how much the software cost...

***

I have lots and lots of projects that I would like to do after Christmas - things with graphics (email stationery and signature tags for both IncrediMail and Outlook Express), digital scrapbook-ing, taking photos of snow :), photo editing, and making PowerPoint presentations and/or movies with Psalms and Scriptures and pretty clip art photos/art. Not to mention scanning pictures from all the shoe boxes full of photos under my bed, not to mention the bankers boxes full of photos next to my computer.

There's so much more that I would love to do, but bed rest is the first order of the season. I need to recover from all of these colds and flus - and from Christmas after that happens.

***

There was a lovely surprise for me in the mail today! A cookbook! I don't know who it was from, but I have three guesses who because it's got to be someone from Madison, WI. Anyway, 'tis a delicious looking set of recipes, which of course made itself dear to me because the first page I opened to had a delectable rhubarb recipe.

***

Okay, 'tis really time to head out to the kitchen and get busy baking some Spritz.

Happy Saturday, one and all! And tomorrow is Rejoicing (Gaudete) Sunday in Advent. We light the rose colored candle on the Advent wreath tomorrow! The light is getting brighter! Rejoice! Dismiss all anxiety! The Lord is near!

Much love to one and all in Jesus,

~Miss Chris

Thanksgiving Week: Tuesday, November 24, 2009.

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:15:02 GMT

Thanksgiving Week
Tuesday, November 24, 2009.

Having just celebrated my 45th birthday, and having been blitzed with many, many, *many* good birthday wishes, I find myself once again deep in Procrastination Mode. I am truly so deeply touched by everyone's ecards, snail mail cards, email greetings, and gifts, prayers, and good wishes. Y'all are much too kind and good to me. Somehow, I will find a way of thanking everyone individually... A friend of mine is my comrade in Thanks Procrastination, and he hit the nail right on the head about saying we suffer from a "potentially overdeveloped sense of obligation". I add to this that we also suffer from DPD (Discouraged Perfectionist Disease). Take both conditions together, and you have a person who is really so deeply touched by and grateful for being so undeservedly, generously, warmly, lovingly remembered by family and friends on her/his birthday that she/he feels she/he must pull out all the stops and shoot the works in thanking... and the thanking just never seems good enough to match the kindness and generosity expended on her/him.

Yes. I know. I'm a mess. But the liturgical New Year on the Roman Catholic calendar begins this coming weekend on the First Sunday of Advent. One of my primary resolutions is to thank people, by the grace of God! I just need to remember that I don't need to thank all 38 people on the same day. I take after my Grammy, and I take after her son (my dad) in stubbornly persisting in the notion that I must do it all in one day. It is no freaking wonder that I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; I don't know how to pace myself. I don't know how to do anything by halves, and I don't know how to blooming pace myself. GAH! And please, don't anyone say I could do a "group thank you". That is so inadequate after I received so many thoughtful, overwhelmingly kind notes and cards and gifts. That is so inadequate when people give me the gift not only of their friendship but also of their love and prayers.

Anyway, here it is - Thanksgiving Week! I did have a marvelous birthday despite being miserably ill, but I always feel much more Birthday-ish on Thanksgiving Day/Weekend. I was awfully ill over this past weekend and on Monday, but I think I'm making a comeback, albeit vewwwwwwwwwwwwy slowly. It's just going to take awhile to recover from my latest bout with illness. I'm not certain, but I am thinking that, considering how extra wiped out I am, what I have had the past two weeks was not a mere head cold but was H1N1. In any event, my cage has been rattled. I get this ill once in 20 years, and that's saying a lot because typical of a CFS patient, my poor immune system is practically always on Red Alert. The last time I had something viral of this magnitude, I was left with a permanent worsening of CFS and fibromyalgia. I am hoping for the best this time around, but I am also going to take extra good care of myself. This means BED REST and lots of it.

I am thankful that God blessed me with the strength to bring the multitude of Christmas tree parts and Christmas decorations downstairs to the living room from the upstairs loft right before I succumbed to It (H1N1 or whatever in Hades it was). The boxes cluttered the living room for a week before I put the tree up. I was too ill to care. When I did put it up, it took a mere 22 minutes! That's slower than last year's record of 17.5 minutes.

I am grateful that I survived putting the lights on the tree without losing my temper! I was not feeling well when I did it, but I was determined to do it. It was pure grace that I didn't lose my sometimes very nasty temper! Usually, Christmas tree lights are a breeze for me, but I was feeling feverish, nervous, and weak. God is good. I got the job done!

It was a blessing to be able to get the tree about 2/3 trimmed by my birthday on Friday. I have a couple more boxes of red ornaments to bedeck O Tannenbaum with. Am thinking I will refrain from putting the special blue ornaments on this year, unless my dad especially persists in asking me to put them on. I'm just in a red mood this year.

When I finish trimming with the ornaments and a few more of my Italian Nani's crocheted white snowflakes, I will vacuum the living room (unless my dad beats me to it, which he usually does) to remove the ever dreaded artificial Christmas tree needles which are now littering the carpet (at least they vacuum up more easily than real Balsam Fir needles!) and then put out the Caroling Bears which a little old lady friend gave me last year. They belong front and center beneath the tree. I promise I will take a digital movie of the Singing Bears and post it here at Xanga. Maybe we can even have a "Name Those Singing Bears" Contest! For now, I call the bears DuWayne and Bernice, after my friend's husband and herself. I pray for them (D & B, not the bears!) when I look at the bears and listen to them sing "Winter Wonderland"). Right now, they sit atop a pile of photo albums on the top shelf of my computer desk.

It's time for planning Christmas Baking 2009! My mom and I had a splendid conversation on the phone on my birthday, and I am in the baking business once again. I'm afraid she found the Gum Drop Cake from last year much too irresistible, so she, being ever conscious of her waistline, wants me to skip it this year. If I get mad at her for any reason, I will gleefully sabotage her perpetual diet by making and sending Gum Drop Cake for New Year's. (I am sooooooo evil. Each slice contains approximately 975 bazillion calories. Yes. Very, very, dietarily evil! Muahahahahahahaha!)

I think I did take a few pictures of 2008's Gum Drop Cakes fresh out of the oven, but never posted them. If I can locate them on my hard drive, I'll post them. Keep in mind that they are absolutely stuffed to the gills with spice gum drops, and after being baked, are wrapped in cloths saturated with good brandy. They do give one a bit of a buzz. It was my Italian Nani's specialty, and though for me, it's an acquired taste, for my mom it is simply irresistible and she oinks it down like a little piggy. Does my heart good to see her enjoy something enough to forget about her perpetual diet!!!!

Lots and lots of Cut Out Cookies this year! You know if someone loves you if she/he will go to the trouble to make cut outs from scratch - especially if you put in a special order for THIN cookies. Anyone can make them thick and soft (which is the way my dad likes them...) but it requires extreme measures of Patience, Skill, and did I mention Patience? - to make them thin. I use my Grammy's recipe for these, only I "Italianize" them by flavoring them with pure Almond Extract rather than pure Vanilla Extract.

Then there will be the All Butter Spritz Cookies in vast quantities. I have pictures to share of those, also. Typically, these are flavored a bit on the strong side with Almond Extract and a hint of Vanilla, but a couple of Christmases ago, I "invented" Chocolate Mint Spritz. These are TO DIE FOR and are exceedingly addictive. Just in case you chocolate mint peeps out there (and you know who you are!!!! ) decide to try making them, please keep this in mind: decrease the amount of flour by 1/4 cup and add 1/4 cup baking cocoa. Add lots of mint or peppermint - whichever is your fancy. But please, please, please remember to decrease the flour, otherwise you are headed for disaster. For the record: Chocolate Mint Spritz look (and taste) lovely when dipped in mint/peppermint pale green icing.

Here are some Spritz from a couple of years ago:

Then there will be Nani's Gingersnaps, which are prizewinners. I Adler Bakery-ize them by frosting them with Vanilla Icing. My dad swears they are better than the family bakery's from when he was growing up. My dad is a Cookie Connoisseur.

And lastly, the pieces de resistance are Nani's Rum Balls. The secret is that they call for at least twice as many finely chopped pecans (thank God for the food processor!) as most other rum ball recipes. That and we kick up the rum and the baking cocoa a notch, too. Also key is to use Bacardi Gold Rum and not mess with any other brand. Because of my pain medications, I can't drink, but I will indulge in a very weak Rum and Coca-Cola at some point in the next month.

This is all a LIGHT baking agenda this year. And as I discovered that Momsie hasn't been reading the blog, I can divulge this: I will be singing the "Fatter der Grandma Up" polka all the while I'm baking and confecting. Momsie needs a little padding on her posterior. Hee hee.

Of course, if I manage to evade/avoid any more extra super nasty germs before Christmas/New Year's, I might try some of these wonderly new Christmas treat recipes from Taste of Home Holiday magazine.

The good news is that when I am baking, I am not inclined to gobble the goodies. The trick is to get them packed and shipped before I'm in the mood to nosh. Sometimes easier said than done - especially since I find baking easier and less patience-challenging than packing and shipping.

Time for ice cubes, a root beer popsicle, and some Extra Strength Tylenol. Apparently, I haven't beat this fever yet. At least tonight, I don't feel like getting in a bath tub filled with ice cubes. I think sipping ice water and slurping popsicles might just help tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving Week Tuesday, Everyone! Thanks so much for honoring me by visiting my vanity blog.

Blessings to and prayers going up for one and all - no matter whether I know you or not,

- Miss Chris

Happy Sunday: November 15, 2009.

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:29:19 GMT

Happy Sunday!
November 15, 2009.

Just a quick bloglet entry to notify the world that I am still alive and kicking - just been very, very sick the past couple of weeks. I'll have you all know that my Christmas tree is up, but not lit, and certainly not decorated. I think I'll wait for Friday (my 45th birthday!) to start having that kind of fun.

I'm starting to make out my Christmas 2009 Baking Supplies Shopping List. That's always fun. Though, I think it's going to be a light and extended Christmas baking season for me. I need to break things up into several smaller shipments for my mom instead of making one huge 25 lb. Fed Ex Home delivery race for getting things to her in south Florida. I think this year I will do Priority Mail, in several shipments. As far as the baking supplies shopping: I am going to let my dear dad do that for me this week or next week. I don't want to encounter any more cold or flu germs for awhile.

Speaking of Christmas baking: I just recently received my Christmas 2009 Taste of Home Holiday magazine. There are the cutest little penguin cookies to make! I don't know if I could make those! Somehow, I would feel like a cannibal if I *ate* a penguin cookie. On the other hand, I eat Santa cookies and cat cookies and other critter cookies (notably, flamingos and teddy bears) every Christmas... so what's up with my penguin issues.

Reminds me: I wish to goodness I had a polar bear cookie cutter... Which reminds me: I wish to goodness I had some Polar Bear pajamas. I've got Snowflake pajamas! I've got Reindeer pajamas! I've got Penguin pajamas! I've got various pretty and/or loud plaid pajamas (I happen to be extremely enamored of plaid...). But I don't have any POLAR BEAR pajamas. Boo hoo!

The nearly impossible happened these past eight days with this terrible head cold I've had: I lost my appetite. I've dropped some weight - more than just water and muscle. I can fit into a few things I haven't been able to fit into in awhile. There's always the bright side to everything. Of course, this is only temporary, with Thanksgiving (I insist on calling it "THANKSGIVING" - NOT "Turkey Day") and Christmas and New Year's around the bend.

I haven't had a full blown migraine in over a week and a half. Another silver lining to having had a bad head cold. God always sees fit that my cross is not excessively burdensome. Of course, the first couple of days that I had the cold, I felt really nervous - the natural effect of having a really high temp, and I was wondering if I was going to get through the week without screaming! :) But God is good. And my dad is good to be quiet around the house when I am needing some real Peace and Quiet.

Too pooped today to polka party with the folks on the Prime Time Polka station at www.live365.com . I put up the Christmas tree listening to polkas at full blast volume last weekend. It just seemed a goodly thing to do. Now I am Polka-ed Out, and am in a combination of Renaissance Music Mode (especially Renaissance music composed by Tallis, especially motets), and Jethro Tull Christmas CD Mode. Oh! And I have a thing going with listening to a great huge fun deal of The Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby.

Well, my dad should be back from the library (I sent him on a DVD and audiobook run for me again!) and from doing some grocery shopping. I more than suspect that he will grill chicken on the big Weber charcoal grill for dinner tonight, despite the fact that it's a mere 45 degrees out at 3 in the afternoon. My dad's enjoyment of charcoal grilled chicken is quite exceptional.

Oh! This is a test to see if my mom has been reading my blog: She sent a package to me Priority Mail which arrived on Friday. I let my dad field it at the front door when our trusty USPS person delivered it, and I told my dad that he'd better take it and hide it because my mom told me "to be a good girl" this year and not open it early. Well... long story short: curiosity killed the birthday girl. I snuck into my dad's room this morning when he was at church and I ripped the package open and much to my delight it contained BOOKS! I had kind of suspected what Momsie would get me: books by Adriana Trigiani about "crazy Italian-American families" - three of them she gave me. These are different than what I would usually read, but my mom claims that they are hysterically funny, so I look forward to them. I needed a little Birthday-ness this morning, so I'm glad that I wasn't a "good girl" about waiting for my presents!

Well, that's all for now! It occurs to me that I've not yet written "thank you" notes to certain beloved family members for birthday 2008 and Christmas 2008 gifts. :( "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" or so they say. I had intended to create special custom made greeting cards and then to hand write (ha! me write anything by hand this year - what a joke! I have worse penmanship than a second grader since I took up typing 11 years ago) long, effusively grateful (but yes! SINCERE!) "Thank you" letters to send in - ::gasp:: the snail mail. It would really be better if I would learn to just type an email "thank you" on some pretty email stationery. I feel badly that my family members probably felt like I didn't appreciate their kindness and generosity this past year. Usually, I am better with thanking.

Anyway, it will be the liturgical New Year on the Catholic Church calendar soon. I am planning on making some resolutions. Actually, I've made them already.

Time to go! I haven't had fresh coffee yet today. Was up all night praying and then went back to bed this morning to catch some Zzzzzzzzzzz's until 2:30 this afternoon. I am looking forward to some British Comedy tonight on DVD from the library, notably, P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster, starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. That's quite some serious Vitamin "L" (Laughter) - quite.

Ta Ta For Now!

Love in Jesus to each of you!

-Miss Chris

<- This is what I really hope it will start looking like around here soon! I am praying hard for snow on my birthday like in the "old" days when I was a child. The Old Farmer's Almanac says that our part of the country will have a snowy second half of November! I really hope so!!!!

This Is a Test of the Emergency Internet Polka Radio Station...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:32:12 GMT

This Is a Test of the Emergency Internet Polka Radio Station

Satisfy your need for polkas! I'm going to try to see if Xanga will allow javascript for the Live365.com radio player in a custom module on the side of my blog page. 'Twould be uber kool if that would work!

Polka on,

~Miss Chris

Edit: Xanga won't allow the javascript for the player in one of the custom modules. Bummer. I know Blogger will, but that's all Blogger is good for as far as I'm concerned. Xanga is cooler.

Edit 2: The widget worked this morning, but now the link is "null". I say it's an anti-polka conspiracy.

Thursday Things: October 29, 2009.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:16:22 GMT

Thursday Things
October 29, 2009.

Ordinarily, Thursdays are days on which I would try to focus extra on being thankful. However, I have had an exceptionally rough couple of days this week, and I'm afraid I'm feeling more than a tad on the ornery side. Hence, my self-imposed and possibly going to be long-term absence from Facebook. Facebook is wearing extremely thin with me. The only reason I'm there is to relax and have fun. If people are going to politicize it to the hilt, then I'm picking up my toys and going home - and am likely to STAY home. I am interested in the things which are good, pure, noble, honorable, true, and lovely - the real things which bring people together rather than divide them by turning them into humorless jackals. Some people claim to be interested in peace, but all they're doing is blowing a lot of stinky, hot air around which divides one person/group from another. Peace comes from within and requires that we lay down our lives for one another; it does not come from a heart filled with contention, arrogance, and selfish pride. And blowing hot and stinky air around is not conducive to the unity of the brotherhood/sisterhood of humankind.

I have a devotion to St. Anthony of Padua - a great, great Franciscan Saint. In one of my little prayer books to do with St. Anthony, on a certain day each week, we are called upon to do something nice for the person we like least. Oy gevalt! Holy crap! Talk about Miss Chris fussing and fretting! As Father Larry Richards put it recently: "We only love Jesus as much as we love the person we like the least." Ouch. Make that DOUBLE ouch. No - make that TRIPLE ouch. I have a particular person whom I am more than a little inclined to wish to see strangled (figuratively speaking, of course!) and it has been extremely humbling to me to realize that I love Jesus only as little as I love this one person. I am trying to work hard on cooperating with God's grace in this matter. For me, it is impossible. With Him, ALL things are possible.

Now that I've vented some spleen, I can go on with the cheerful inanities which seem to draw the highest number of visits to my lowly little vanity blog!

* Miss Maggie McGee, the Wild Celtic Kitty has been exceptionally kitten-like as of late. The (much) cooler than normal October weather certainly agrees with her. She is running in full tilt "Bouncy Tigger" and "Road Runner" Modes these past few weeks. She just turned eight years old in early September. Maggie is eating us out of house and home, and has especially enjoyed entertaining herself by playing The Door Game™.

* On the sad side, Maggie has been missing her brother, one Mister Kiki Thomas McFierceson, Esquire. It's been over a year and a half since he died, and Maggie eventually became accustomed to being an only cat, but lately she has been fussing again. I know she wants another kitty to play with, but WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO GET ANOTHER CAT. Maggie has turned into a full time job; with my low energy level, I simply cannot deal with a second kitty at this time. It actually used to be easier when we had two cats - even though Mr. McFierceson required insulin shots twice daily. The two "kids" kept each other amused. So, those of you who are cat lovers and/or are of a praying purrsuasion, please offer up a little two second prayer for my little girl to settle down and be happy without another critter in the house.

* Funny thing, I just had an amazingly vivid dream a week or so ago that we got a second cat, but that he bit. Thankfully, dreams don't mean anything. I really don't want another cat! Or dog! Or bunny! Maggie is a handful in and of herself! She's a delightful handful, but it wouldn't be fair to her or to the other cat (or to my dad and me) to bring in Kitty Number Two.

* My bedroom is bedecked with Christmas decorations already. Furthermore, I plan on putting up the Christmas tree this weekend in the living room. Perhaps I'll spend my few higher energy moments later today dusting Christmas ornaments.

* Oowee! I just recently renewed my magazine subscriptions to Better Homes and Gardens and to Taste of Home Holiday. BHG just arrived in the mail on Tuesday with pies on the cover. I can't wait to dig into some homemade pumpkin pie! BHG also had a fantabulous sounding new recipe for Cranberry & Walnut Muffins. Yum, yum, YUM!

* I don't plan on spending any of the holidays in person with family members other than my dad (and my mom, if she comes up to get a puppy from the breeder). It's not only that I don't want to CATCH flus and colds at family get togethers; I also don't want to TRANSMIT them. And now with the latest research on CFS including the hypothesis that CFS is caused by the retrovirus XMRV, I am guessing that my family would just as soon have me keep my distance at least until more is known. It's okay. I'm so tired from CFS, fibromyalgia, and migraines a lot of the time that being something of a hermit actually agrees with me. Plus, my parents and I are extremely close, and I am blessed to have two such fine and wonderful human beings for my dad and mom.

* I need to get back in the habit of knitting, crocheting, cross-stitching, and learning how to tat. My hands need to keep busy! I'm still not finished with Maggie's little red wool kitty coat that I started knitting last winter. And I have fisherman's wool yarn for making cable knit ear bands to go with my fisherman mittens and scarf which has been waiting for a long, long time. It's almost payday... what I wouldn't do to have a day to go to Herrschner's Yarn Shoppe in Stevens Point and simply fondle all the nice woolly wool yarns and come home with a truckload of yarn to knit and crochet with. I haven't made an afghan for myself in twenty years, and I would like to make one.

* Four a.m. marks five hours without a migraine! WOOT! Time for me to get downstairs in the basement and work out on the Air-Dyne for awhile. Daddy and I are apparently coming down with a cold (it's harder for him because he's not accustomed to being ill most of the time like I am) and I need to get some exercise before I enter the realm of fever again.

*I will be blogging more, as I really have sworn off Facebook. Private emails will be happening a bit more, too!

So sorry this was a bit strident in tone and not as cheerful as usual. For cripes sake, please let me have an opinion once in awhile! I tire of being so nice all the time! I'll try to make up for my crankiness with my Fall Into Reading book/CD/movies list (still working on composing that) being nice.

Each of you are in my prayers! As ornery as I sound tonight, I really do care about people! May God bless each one of you and wrap His arms around you to comfort you for what you are going through.

Much love in Jesus,

- Miss Chris

Making A List and Checking It Twice: Fall Into Reading

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:35:14 GMT

I'm Making a List and Checking It Twice:
The Fall Into Reading 2009 Reading Challenge

For various reasons which I will not bore you dear and wonderful people with, I'm running behind on having finalized and posted my Fall Into Reading 2009 reading challenge list. Those of you who've read my blog the past few years know that I go out of the box and add an addendum to the book list by also posting which movies/TV programs I plan on watching, and also which music CDs I plan on listening to the most. You can read about the reading challenge at http://callapidderdays.com/2009/09/fall-into-reading-2009-the-basics.html Please consider joining in by posting your list on your blog or web page! Part of the fun of a reading challenge is finding out new books to read! It also leads to finding new blogs to read and especially new friends to make!

Bibliophiles, unite! I am a librarian's granddaughter, and I'm proud of it!

I'll post my list later tonight, Lord willing. If any of you join in, please drop a comment in my Xanga comment box so I can subscribe to your blog, too!

Happy Reading!

-Miss Chris

Thursday Thanksgivings and a Blog Challenge - September 17, 2009.

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:44:59 GMT

Thursday Thanksgivings and a Blog Challenge
September 17, 2009.

Note: I am in need of exercising my gratitude muscles, so I thought I would begin blogging things I'm thankful for... before Thanksgiving Day in November! God has truly blessed me in so many, many, MANY ways in body, mind, and spirit; truly He has been extra, gloriously good and kind and merciful to me. Thanksgiving happens to be my favorite holiday, so... why not begin celebrating it early?! Of course, EVERY day should be Thanksgiving! Seeing as how so many people's favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, I thought I would begin a blog challenge to each of you to blog your thankfulness as well. If I can get my eyes open after coffee this morning, maybe I'll even begin a Xanga blog ring for Thanksgiving/Gratitude; we shall see. Those of you who know me know that I can often tend to be enthusiastic about new things and then run out of energy. If I do start a Gratitude Blog Ring at Xanga, I'll post the link to it here later. In the meantime, please consider yourselves warmly, humbly, and cordially invited to blow the dust off your blogs and to begin thinking of things for which you are grateful. And, if you're a rabid Facebooker, note the handy tool which Xanga has on your blog editor page which enables you to post your Xanga blog entries at Facebook. :) And for those of you from the Ragamuffin and Tatterdemalion groups who use blogger or livejournal or wordpress... please start the Thanksgiving "bug" there as well!

What I am going to do today is begin my list in brief this morning, and then add to it at the end of the day, or during the course of the day. Being thankful helps me get my mind off of things that otherwise bring me down. There truly IS a silver lining to every cloud, and after nearly twenty-nine years of a chronic and often acute battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Migraines, I will testify unceasingly to the fact that for every cross there is in life, there is also a built-in consolation - actually consolationS plural - if we will but take our eyes off of the problem and focus them on the God Who loves us.

***
I am thankful today...

- for clean drinking water. Do I realize how many people in the world do not even have clean drinking water? What a gift! I don't ever want to take this for granted.

- for the shade of stately and lush old maple trees lining my quiet little street.

- for the cool peacefulness and slowly coming-aliveness of the late night going into early morning hours; for the calm at the beginning of the day.

- that even though I suffer great physical pain on a constant basis, at least the illnesses I have aren't going to kill me (leastwise not directly, leastwise not anytime soon!). I don't enjoy my illnesses, but I am glad that if I must have crosses then at least I have the crosses that I have and not someone else's. Call me crazy, but I would rather have my crosses than breast cancer or alcoholism.

- for my parents, and for the fact that both of my parents love me enough to pray for me. Many people are not so blessed these days as to have their parents pray for them. There is tremendous power in the prayers of parents for their children; fathers and mothers have amazing God-given power to call down graces and blessings from God's throne to rain upon their children (and grandchildren).

- that my Grammy was so enamored of things Jewish and Yiddish. Somehow I have a suspicion that somewhere in the family tree is a good branch or two of Hebrew blood, and I'm proud of it. With Rosh Hashanah coming up (or is it upon us already?), I find myself reflecting on and remembering Jewish jokes which Grammy's (good Jewish) doctor shared with her, and which she in turn shared with our family. I find myself going out of my way to spend time in the iTunes store looking for Yiddish and Hebrew podcasts, and also digging out the Itzhak Perlman CDs, which leads me to being thankful for...

- the precious and wondersome gift of hearing, for this morning I am going to listen to Israeli klezmer music. I want to be especially grateful for the gift (and that's what it is - A GIFT!, not a "right") of hearing, while my ears are still basically good, because hearing loss runs on both my mom's and dad's side of the family. I get a taste of hearing loss with migraines, during some of which I go partially deaf. On the other hand, with fibromyalgia and migraines, I also (most of the time) have "bionic" ears. I have super ears. The gift of hearing music, and hearing bird songs, and hearing English and other languages spoken lovingly and/or beautifully, is among my top ten favorite things to be thankful for. May I never, ever, EVER take these things for granted!

And that's all for this morning until later. Time for some French Roast coffee!

May the dear Lord bless each of you! I do truly pray for everyone who stops by here. Even though I don't know everyone's name, GOD does, and He knows you, and He knows and cares about every facet of your lives. May this day and the days to come be an oasis of sweet and refreshing joy and thankfulness for each of us!

Love in Jesus,

- Miss Chris

Phenomenal Friday: September 4, 2009.

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:08:45 GMT

Phenomenal Friday
September 4, 2009.

Good Morning, peeps! 'Tis a lovely early morning in the cool upper 40's F. here in my little corner of the world. The sun won't be up for at least another hour and a half, the crickets continue to serenade me from beneath the open window beside my computer desk and will soon give way to cardinal song and chickadee chatter and bluejay bugling. I so much enjoy and love this time of night/day/whatever it is with its precious restfulness-yet-aliveness. Before long, a few of the regulars (neighborhood dogs) will woof gently and usually patiently to be let out to do their business (aren't euphemisms so cute?! tee hee hee), to sniff the fresh morning air, and to chase an early squirrel or two up an ancient maple tree, not yet turned to burnished gold and orange. It's the kind of morning for bacon and fluffy scrambled eggs, hash browns and toast, and the most marvelondrous French roast coffee and fresh orange juice. Of course, that's NOT what's for breakfast here at Chez Miss Chris today, as Miss Chris was treated to a sumptuous dinner of ribeye steak grilled and hickory smoked to perfection on the Weber charcoal grill last night by her dear dad - who, I might add, would do well to open a steakhouse, so magnificent are his charcoal grilling skills.

I digress. Breakfast for me will be a sliced apple (from New Zealand, no less! Can't we grow apples here in Wisconsin?! I don't have anything against New Zealand apples. In fact, they're quite crisp and sweet and tasty. But how much did it cost to ship them here?! Inquiring minds need to know!), sprinkled generously with cinnamon - no sugar needed, thank you, - with a small pot of French roast coffee (I still think that Eight o' Clock coffee beans are far, far superior to Starbucks' insipid brew - so shoot me! Uh-oh! EMFA [Early Morning Feistiness Alert! Sound the alarms!!!]). I will don clean flannel pajamas, my red princess slippers (I am feeling celebratory today), and have coffee out on the patio among the birds and bunnies and squirrels. But dad drat it if I'll invite any chipmunks to my early morning reverie! Ha ha! (another geranium has lost its life to chipmunk crime...)

Santa Claus came yesterday in the guise of my regular UPS delivery guy, bearing a toy from Amazon.com which I will likely be too ill with my annual Christmas cold to enjoy playing with, hence we ordered it this week and I installed it in the middle of the night and am planning on playing with today already. And yes, Ray and Apryl and Christy - I DID sniff the new computer toy/new software smell and DID get a bit of a buzz from said sniffing! ;)

My dad is giving me this new Wacom Bamboo Fun Computer Tablet for Christmas. I got the small version but I love it so much already that I plan on saving my money for the medium version next year (twice as expensive). Cool, cool, Very Uber Cool technology. It's a digital drawing/writing/photo editing/painting tablet and pen. Mine came with a cordless, non-battery-needing mouse, and Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter Essentials, and some Nik photo filter plug-ins for use with the Adobe Photo Elements. I can't wait to get creating! I am currently blogging while waiting for Photoshop Elements to catalog the gazillions of photos on my hard drives (plural. yep. way too many pictures and don't know where to start editing them!)

***

Yesterday morning, I was feeling kitschy and watched The Patty Duke Show at five a.m. followed by Mister Ed at five-thirty. I couldn't enjoy doing that very often, but yesterday's episode of Mister Ed was a dandy, in which Mister Ed and a visiting barn guest (an elephant named Bongo - must've been a Beatnik - hee hee) had disputes over whether the light would be on at night, and whether the barn door would be open. Classic take on married couples. One wants to stay up reading in bed with the lights on until all hours, and the other wants darkness. One wants the window open all night, the other wants it closed. It was cutely done and very droll. It's up there in my Top Five Favorite Mister Ed episodes, ranking at #2, following the flamingo/birds episode which Apryl knows is my favorite Mister Ed eppie.

***

Well kids, my dad is up and so must I make my bed and clean my room and MAKE COFFEE (flashing celebratory neon lights!!!) and then I am going to window shop online for an appropriate birthday gift(s) for Miss Maggie McGee's Eighth Birthday (Saturday/Caturday, September 5th). She has a tozillion cat toys, but I am thinking of splurging and getting her a really, really special gift (YES! I KNOW THAT SHE IS JUST A CAT AND DOESN'T GIVE A FART WHEN HER BIRTHDAY IS!!!). I have a unique and interesting gift idea for her. I just need to get my dad to take me out to Menards or Fleet Farm to see if they have any of them left.

***

I'm feeling giddy, hence the inanity. I have some really neat spiritual things I want to post over the next week or so, which don't quite belong at my PrayersOfTheSaints Xanga but which I think might "fly" okay here.

Happy Friday! May the dear Lord bless each dear one of you! I do pray for each of you!

Love in Jesus,

-Miss Chris