I am going to heed the cries for help and understanding that my Grand-Dolberry has been pleading for, for so long. Lo, these many years he has suffered untold, well actually they were told, agonies with the ubiquitous weed that is so prevalent in the regions that he has chosen to live in. As you are all aware, he has had many near death experiences with the resulting skin eruptions from simply making contact with the odious weed.
I believe he was living in Chicago (Napierville) IL when he had to seek relief at a medical clinic. He later called his mom ( I think it was about 5 AM) and told her that the doctor said his condition was such that it would have killed a lesser man! Woe was him!
Since then he has suffered through numerous other attacks of this malady. Once again, he has been attacked and has been sleep deprived for days on end as a side effect of his meds.
So, I know how pleased and relieved he is going to be when he hears that there has been a pharmaceutical break-through and at last, instant relief (within one minute) is in store for him! Gloryoskie!! This new long awaited medication is called ZANFEL. It is available at your pharmacy, no prescription required, it's an OTC cream. Rather pricey at some pharmacy counters, $38.00 an ounce, but you can use it frugally and it has a ten year shelf life. It can be purchased on e-bay for $15.00 if you are lucky. It has been touted to be still effective after twelve hours and a bath. No more itching, no more oozing and no more pity parties!
How sweet it is! So Grand-Dolberry, run do not walk, to your neighborhood pharmacy and be
itch and ooze free for the rest of the summer. Amore and ciao, Owls Pine Tree.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
May
This has really been an unusual May. Since January 1, the longest string of days without rain is six. That happened in April. We've had two three day stretches. We have had 67 days with rain. We are a little more than ten inches above the average rain fall for this time of year. The sun shone for a little while yesterday and peaked out a little today but as of now it is raining. The winds have been fierce also on some days. Our tree lost a limb and so did Tommy's. It has been very cool also, not too many days in the 70's. I'll get this out and read it in July when I'm complaining about the heat. Weather's the weather, whether or not.
I had an e-mail from Shannon with a slice of life in Japan. She wrote about an evening out with some of the people on the base. She said they went to another small town near theirs and ate at a restaurant. They had shabu shabu. She gave the directions for making shabu if anyone would like to try it. She said you must first ask the butcher to thinly slice either beef or pork for you. Then you ready a pot of boiling water and drop the slices of meat into the boiling water. Use your chop sticks for dropping the meat and for lifting it out when it is cooked. Use a scum skimmer to skim the scum off the water so that you can see what is cooking. Drop a few bites of seaweed in and leave it for flavor. She said the taste is rather strong at first but mellows out as it cooks. When the meat is cooked, dip it in soy or a mix of mashed seseme seeds and oil. (She said they make their own and mash it in a bowl with a dowel. ) Serve with gohan (rice) and a lot of vegetables and root looking things. Her advice is "Ganbatte" (go for it!)
They were at their neighbor's house for a First Communion celebration and the host had taken the hot dogs off the grill and placed them on a serving platter when low and behold a large hawk flew down and snatched a hot dog off the platter! Lenny had their dog, Kelly, on her leash and was so distracted by watching the hawk fly off with the hot dog that Kelly saw her chance and took a couple of hot dogs off the platter too. Seems all the neighbors thought that was very funny. Shannon said she was up three times in the night letting Kelly out in the back yard because of her hot dog induced belly ache. The next morning they noticed that all the leaves were gone from the pepper plants that Shannon had planted. They were puzzled about how an animal could have stripped the leaves off without damaging the stalks. After sometime, they finally decided that Kelly ate the leaves to relieve her belly ache.
Shannon was bemoaning the fact that that she will not be here for the Fitzgerald Family Festival. She said they will be back in the states in October and she hopes when we have a festival next year she can join us. She misses seeing family. It gets lonesome for her.
More later.
I had an e-mail from Shannon with a slice of life in Japan. She wrote about an evening out with some of the people on the base. She said they went to another small town near theirs and ate at a restaurant. They had shabu shabu. She gave the directions for making shabu if anyone would like to try it. She said you must first ask the butcher to thinly slice either beef or pork for you. Then you ready a pot of boiling water and drop the slices of meat into the boiling water. Use your chop sticks for dropping the meat and for lifting it out when it is cooked. Use a scum skimmer to skim the scum off the water so that you can see what is cooking. Drop a few bites of seaweed in and leave it for flavor. She said the taste is rather strong at first but mellows out as it cooks. When the meat is cooked, dip it in soy or a mix of mashed seseme seeds and oil. (She said they make their own and mash it in a bowl with a dowel. ) Serve with gohan (rice) and a lot of vegetables and root looking things. Her advice is "Ganbatte" (go for it!)
They were at their neighbor's house for a First Communion celebration and the host had taken the hot dogs off the grill and placed them on a serving platter when low and behold a large hawk flew down and snatched a hot dog off the platter! Lenny had their dog, Kelly, on her leash and was so distracted by watching the hawk fly off with the hot dog that Kelly saw her chance and took a couple of hot dogs off the platter too. Seems all the neighbors thought that was very funny. Shannon said she was up three times in the night letting Kelly out in the back yard because of her hot dog induced belly ache. The next morning they noticed that all the leaves were gone from the pepper plants that Shannon had planted. They were puzzled about how an animal could have stripped the leaves off without damaging the stalks. After sometime, they finally decided that Kelly ate the leaves to relieve her belly ache.
Shannon was bemoaning the fact that that she will not be here for the Fitzgerald Family Festival. She said they will be back in the states in October and she hopes when we have a festival next year she can join us. She misses seeing family. It gets lonesome for her.
More later.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Just stuff
Yesterday was Mother's Day and I heard from or saw each and every one of my six children. How sweet is is to be a mother. I was visiting Doc when Mike called so I missed his first calls but finally got to talk to him late in the evening. Linda called and stated her intentions of holing up all day in her warm cozy house because it was such a miserable day weather wize. Gregg came on his way home from work and shared his derby pictures with me. They are terrific! Kristin and Tim picked me up and I went to have dinner with Karen and her family. We did in fact, Skype Carrie in Seattle, when I got home from there, Keith called from Sarasota with the great news that he, Angela, Conor and Bridget will be coming up to visit in three weeks. Fantastic! Brian had called me early in the morning and then came to see me late in the evening and shared his pictures. He has super pictures that he has taken from Derby Day on. Neat pictures of Big Brown in his bath, stall, walking, eating without his bridle and portrait shots, etc. His pictures are in an album and most of them 8 x 10's. There are pictures of Big Brown's trainer, owner, grooms and hot walker, and of course, his digs. All in all I had a fabulous day as a mother.
I did go right from Mass to get my gas tank filled and spent $56.00 ! So obscene! I couldn't get the cas cap off and had to ask for help. The guy that helped me kept calling me Babe and gave me a tutorial on how to take a cap off. Seems you have to turn it counter clockwize or ' to the left' as he kept telling me. OK. Then the pump wouldn't give me a receit and I had to go back inside to get it and my good Samaritan comiserated with me over the lousy start for my Mother's Day. I wished him well and went home.
Things went well clear up till about 8:30 PM when a huge limb blew off the oak tree in the front yard. I spend a lot of hours lying awake worrying about that tree falling on my house in the dark of night. Fortunately, the tree limb swept across the windows as it fell but as far as I can tell it did no damage.
Years ago when Keith and Brian were still in school, we went up to Ohio to visit. While we were there we went to London and we took Aunt Agnes for a ride to visit the cemetery and other places around Madison County. She showed us the land where she and my mother and the other eight children along with my grandma and grandpa lived. She pointed out a huge old tree standing proud and tall out in the open. She told us that fifty or more years before the tree stood behind their home. It seems my mother was always afraid that the tree would fall on their house and spent a lot of time worrying over it. Agnes pointed out that the house had long since rotted away to the point that it had to be razed and my mother had passed away also but the tree was still standing. The moral of that story was evident.
It was also on that trip that as we visited the family graves ,she had us drive to the burial spot that she and my Aunt Catherine had chosen. They neither one had married and lived together in the family home that Grandpa and Grandma had retired to in London. They had chosen their head stones and had them engraved and were all ready to go. The date of birth was there but the date of death was blank. She told Brian and Keith that she and Catherine wanted the two of them to be pall bearers for them and they made it easy for Keith and Brian by picking a site near the road so they didn't have to carry them far. Catherine lived for 95 years and Agnes lived for 88 years. Did you ever stroll through a cemetery and notice the birth date followed by a dash and then the death date? The whole life experience is represented by the _dash_ . Think of the history that that dash could unfold. Words of wisdom: 'make your Dash count/ Do the best you can!' PS. Brian and Keith did ,in fact, perform the duties of pall bearers as they had been asked to do.
There are 253 days left until we elect a new president.
Quote for the day: "If the Iranians were to have a nuclear weapon, they could proliferate."
I did go right from Mass to get my gas tank filled and spent $56.00 ! So obscene! I couldn't get the cas cap off and had to ask for help. The guy that helped me kept calling me Babe and gave me a tutorial on how to take a cap off. Seems you have to turn it counter clockwize or ' to the left' as he kept telling me. OK. Then the pump wouldn't give me a receit and I had to go back inside to get it and my good Samaritan comiserated with me over the lousy start for my Mother's Day. I wished him well and went home.
Things went well clear up till about 8:30 PM when a huge limb blew off the oak tree in the front yard. I spend a lot of hours lying awake worrying about that tree falling on my house in the dark of night. Fortunately, the tree limb swept across the windows as it fell but as far as I can tell it did no damage.
Years ago when Keith and Brian were still in school, we went up to Ohio to visit. While we were there we went to London and we took Aunt Agnes for a ride to visit the cemetery and other places around Madison County. She showed us the land where she and my mother and the other eight children along with my grandma and grandpa lived. She pointed out a huge old tree standing proud and tall out in the open. She told us that fifty or more years before the tree stood behind their home. It seems my mother was always afraid that the tree would fall on their house and spent a lot of time worrying over it. Agnes pointed out that the house had long since rotted away to the point that it had to be razed and my mother had passed away also but the tree was still standing. The moral of that story was evident.
It was also on that trip that as we visited the family graves ,she had us drive to the burial spot that she and my Aunt Catherine had chosen. They neither one had married and lived together in the family home that Grandpa and Grandma had retired to in London. They had chosen their head stones and had them engraved and were all ready to go. The date of birth was there but the date of death was blank. She told Brian and Keith that she and Catherine wanted the two of them to be pall bearers for them and they made it easy for Keith and Brian by picking a site near the road so they didn't have to carry them far. Catherine lived for 95 years and Agnes lived for 88 years. Did you ever stroll through a cemetery and notice the birth date followed by a dash and then the death date? The whole life experience is represented by the _dash_ . Think of the history that that dash could unfold. Words of wisdom: 'make your Dash count/ Do the best you can!' PS. Brian and Keith did ,in fact, perform the duties of pall bearers as they had been asked to do.
There are 253 days left until we elect a new president.
Quote for the day: "If the Iranians were to have a nuclear weapon, they could proliferate."
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Derby Day 2008
It is often called the Sport of Kings, but I think its a sport for all when it comes to watching it. Yesterday was the second largest crowd ever, to watch The Kentucky Derby. I was present at the first largest crowd back 34 years ago at the one hundreth running of the Derby . That year we went to the in -field and believe me there were no kings there. It cost $5.00 to get in and you were searched at the gate for alcohol and other substances and people from all walks of life were there. The riff-raff and the hoi pol loi all cheering together and all singing together and crying together.
Yesterday was still as thrilling as the first derby I attended. We are fortunate enough to get to be right on the fence about eight feet from the track. Hearing the thunder of hooves around the bend and watching the jockys literally 'jockeying ' for position is an experience that has no equal. Gregg took a picture of the horses just as they passed us and #20, Big Brown was very close to the back of the pack planning his circuitous trip to the finish line.
Gregg, Paul and Karen, Linda and Larry, Cynthia Sullivan and Paul Duryea, from Cincinnati, Nathan and the former ump from Denver, Junior, Brian and I were in it for the day. Brian had to leave frequently to attend to his duties and then he roved the whole area to take pictures. Gregg joined him to take pictures from the vantage point of seeing the horses rounding the bend after the race . They were right there when Eight Belles had her break down and had to be euthanized. She came in second in the Derby and had proved her mettle by beating every horse except Big Brown. She was a beautiful, beautiful filly and will long be remembered in the annals of racing. We all mourned her passing.
Linda's husband, Larry is a former Naval Officer and he told us that "8 Bells" is a Navy symbol that means," End of the Watch." When there is a burial at sea the ceremony ends with eight bells ringing.
This may not have had any thing to do with the naming of Eight Belles, it may well have been a coincidence because the belle part indicates a female but nevertheless, it was the end of her watch. We laugh in embarrassment over the sentimental tears that are shed when "Weep no more my Lady.. is sung but there was no joy in our tears for Eight Belles. She left her mark in the racing world. Larry Jones, we offer our sympathy.
On a happier note, I gave a list of bets to Karen to place for me, (the betting windows that were effecient were a 'fer piece' to walk, the near by windows were the tellers from hell) Anyway, Karen accidentally made the wrong bet, she bet #20 across the board instead of betting Pyro. I did also bet Dennis of Cork to show so I won!!! Thank you ,Karen.
We went to Bucco de Peppo (?) for a late dinner when the festivities were over and then came home and crashed. Cynthia and Paul got up at 6:AM and headed back to Cincinnati. A good time was had by all and we are looking forward to Derby 135.Thank you, Brian. You are definitely the host with the most! Thank you ,Gregg for the great pictures you've posted for us. We hope to see some of Brian's soon. We are so lucky to have you talented guys in our family.
I'll write more tomorrow.
Yesterday was still as thrilling as the first derby I attended. We are fortunate enough to get to be right on the fence about eight feet from the track. Hearing the thunder of hooves around the bend and watching the jockys literally 'jockeying ' for position is an experience that has no equal. Gregg took a picture of the horses just as they passed us and #20, Big Brown was very close to the back of the pack planning his circuitous trip to the finish line.
Gregg, Paul and Karen, Linda and Larry, Cynthia Sullivan and Paul Duryea, from Cincinnati, Nathan and the former ump from Denver, Junior, Brian and I were in it for the day. Brian had to leave frequently to attend to his duties and then he roved the whole area to take pictures. Gregg joined him to take pictures from the vantage point of seeing the horses rounding the bend after the race . They were right there when Eight Belles had her break down and had to be euthanized. She came in second in the Derby and had proved her mettle by beating every horse except Big Brown. She was a beautiful, beautiful filly and will long be remembered in the annals of racing. We all mourned her passing.
Linda's husband, Larry is a former Naval Officer and he told us that "8 Bells" is a Navy symbol that means," End of the Watch." When there is a burial at sea the ceremony ends with eight bells ringing.
This may not have had any thing to do with the naming of Eight Belles, it may well have been a coincidence because the belle part indicates a female but nevertheless, it was the end of her watch. We laugh in embarrassment over the sentimental tears that are shed when "Weep no more my Lady.. is sung but there was no joy in our tears for Eight Belles. She left her mark in the racing world. Larry Jones, we offer our sympathy.
On a happier note, I gave a list of bets to Karen to place for me, (the betting windows that were effecient were a 'fer piece' to walk, the near by windows were the tellers from hell) Anyway, Karen accidentally made the wrong bet, she bet #20 across the board instead of betting Pyro. I did also bet Dennis of Cork to show so I won!!! Thank you ,Karen.
We went to Bucco de Peppo (?) for a late dinner when the festivities were over and then came home and crashed. Cynthia and Paul got up at 6:AM and headed back to Cincinnati. A good time was had by all and we are looking forward to Derby 135.Thank you, Brian. You are definitely the host with the most! Thank you ,Gregg for the great pictures you've posted for us. We hope to see some of Brian's soon. We are so lucky to have you talented guys in our family.
I'll write more tomorrow.
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