Category Archives: Uncategorized

Duct Tape, Windex and Neosporin…What more do you need?

Sitting in the front Italianate garden today with the boys, my parents and friend Ann. The conversation is always interesting. For instance, Alex made the comment with regard to his Courage Museum Presentation about WWII, “I would bring a Chinese made weapon as a sample, but they have banned guns from school.” Conversation about such things and how long a cockroach can live without its head are prevalent. Even the idea of sending farm raised shrimp to mingle with our general native shrimp population to dilute the strength of our stock raised its head. Interesting stuff…HOWEVER…and there is almost always a HOWEVER…

Alex, my youngest determined that most anything can be solved by fixing it with duct tape, treating it with Windex or our friend Ann’s thought that Neosporin can cure most ailments eventually took over the conversation. Alex felt that if a submarine sprung a leak, then you should add duct tape. If you get a zit, then according to the wisdom of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you should apply Windex. Ann was amazed on Easter that she grew up not knowing the power of Neosporin for the curative powers within. All that and Alex thinks he is seeing Starlings floating about in the air above us…I think it is just our friend, another Ms. Ann (Starling) …circling above like the angel she is and enjoying the conversation. My mom thinks that she is just enjoying the Friday night laughter. I think she is right. Drew is in the garage playing keyboards as background music…specifically… Jump by Van Halen…must have been the live concert last night. In any case, duct tape, music, Windex or Neopsporin…this is a well-glued group with lots of love and healing laughter.

Auntie B Loves Jackson T…

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Alex, Drew and Jackson hunt Easter Eggs 2012. Alex turned 11 and Jackson turned 2!

Dear Baby J…Jackson T…
Love you, Love you
From Auntie B…

Your bright blue eyes
filled with curious wonder
watch from two feet high
your cousins like brothers

Yeah Ball! Yeah Elmo!
Run like crazy baby!
Love to watch you go!
Watching, doing, Yeah Me!

Go, go, go Jackson T!
Love you, love you…
From Auntie B…

Channeling Audrey Hepburn…or Happy Birthday Anita

ImageThe busy weekend included the celebration of my friend, Anita’s birthday…She is pretty comfortable being 40, especially since she looks about 29! The week preceding the party was a celebration of Anita’s many creative talents. She had envisioned her grand staircase no longer covered in carpet, but sanded, stained and turned out like the grand entrance it was meant to be. Her daughter, Kelly, was the beneficiary of the flow of creative energy. A bright green “lounge” complete with art-deco touches now occupies the former “beigeness” of the corner bedoom. Lucky Kelly-although it was her splatter-art panels that pulled the whole place together.

The piece de resistance was revealed as my tour entered the guest bedroom. A stunningly warm room with handmade bedspread, crystal lamps, heavenly candles and reclaimed furniture painted black was all watched over by the smokey eyes of Audrey Hepburn in a Breakfast At Tiffany’s pose. As I stood in the room admiring my friend’s talents, I was reminded of those qualities that make Anita such a beautiful person. Her own poise, beauty and grace is evident each and every time she opens her home to her friends-which is pretty often. I think she just might be channeling Audrey Hepburn. As for me…I am kind of a Katharine Hepburn gal who can appreciate a work of art.

Fist of Influence

Spotlight By Fist Of Influence

Three teens from Grayson, GA have produced their first song. Drew Serrero, Ben Snowden and Brian Wilson have been playing together for two years and have performed live at their middle school talent show and with the band Guilty Pleasure. Enjoy!

3.14…How Far Can YOU Go?

Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory) indicates that teachers knew he was amazing when he could recite Pi well beyond the ‘nth degree. My kids can go about 12 places or so without practicing. I struggle to decide whether I want key lime or blueberry.

Pi is an interesting concept and lots of fun to teach because the kids in class seem to “get” it in a domino effect. Abstract lessons are often like that. The teacher and co-teacher present the material per the math manuals, but when something like Pi comes along, it is time to celebrate some math! A few kids get the idea first and then pass along their view of how it works to others and so on. By the end of a class period all sorts of kids are challenging each other to decipher and then memorize the string of numbers that make up this cool tool.

Circling around to the beginning, Pi becomes more than math or a tasty slice of heaven…it becomes a challenge to take it as far as it can go…

Skipping Winter…Springing Forward

Completing the hockey season for us and starting the soccer season generally marks our transition from Winter to Spring. This year, it has been more than difficult to discern the difference at all since hockey ran into soccer and Winter seemed to skip us for the most part this year entirely.

Today, we spring forward regardless of what sport we are playing. (We played both.) Lots of folks are playing two sports today. Some are soccer/hockey combos, some baseball/lacrosse, softball/swimming; the list goes on.

If your family is like ours with lots of activity interspersed with all the other things that come with a springtime weekend, just remember to spring forward or you will be late for something! Winter has stepped aside.

Just Iced the Bathtub…

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Caulked the tub today...ho hum DIY!

Some days the creative juices just need some elbow grease to get going. Sometimes they need cake, but that is another blog entirely…

After rooting around in the attic trying to track down a lost leprechaun, I noticed that next to the Easter Beagle storage box was a nice little critter hole in the gable screen. One thing always leads to another, so I did what all mommies would do…I stapled chicken wire up over the entire opening. I expect quite a racket at dusk when the critter attempts to return home. Pretty sure that the critter was not in the attic at the time I staple-gunned the wiring in place since both cats had been roaming around with me. No noise is good news…in this case. 

With the attic secured, I brought the Easter Beagle and friends down for a decor change. Silly leprechaun is still hiding up there somewhere with Santa and the Wise Men. 

Closed up the attic and went to gather towels for my next chore-laundry. Ho Hum and mundane…I thought…until I stepped on a damp spot located in a place that should have been dry. One thing lead to another, carpet was pulled back, floors cleaned and caulk located. This all lead to me sitting on the edge of the tub thinking about how I could put a positive spin on the “elbow grease break” I had taken from my creative processing (work). It occurred to me that caulking the tub is a bit like icing a cake; messy, somewhat pretty and you get to squeeze a tube of fluffy white stuff along the edge of a surface. So, I hummed a few bars of Patty Cake, Patty Cake and squished my nice straight lines.

The tub looks pretty good. I am back at my desk typing and hoping that creativity will begin to flow faster than my fingers will move. Maybe later, when I reach today’s quota, I will relax with a hot bath to celebrate so I can admire my handiwork.  I just hope I don’t get interrupted by an angry squirrel testing my new security measures…and if that leprechaun insists on staying in the attic, he had better stand guard. Santa and the Wise Men prefer not to be interrupted, it’s poker night.  

Do You Make This Stuff Up?

You know all those great quotes that pop up on the internet every day? There are real live people who make that stuff up! Sometimes it just rolls out daily or even hourly. Sometimes, they go days without a peep. But mostly, they say way cool stuff and their friends just WAIT for it! And when it is really good, the commentary is a bit like a feeding frenzy.

Maybe you have a “friend” on your FB or Twitter account who just cracks you up or says something profound every day. Maybe you hadn’t really noticed until they went a few days without a catch-phrase. Social media has given many a forum for their talents and perhaps reshaped the ideal of what is “social”.

Sometimes it might be a bit like your diary read out loud. Perhaps it might be a veiled comment or a twist of words that makes a catchy post, well…catchy.

Whether it is Christy’s heart pouring out some tender-hearted quotations,  Stan zinging us with a certain brand of humor or Connie’s daughter describing her young life without apology, the friends on my page keep me aware that human nature is a broad category. Commentary is welcome…just please…don’t eat me alive!

Got My Walk On…Thanks Deen of Cakes…

This has been one of those weeks that just sort of vanished into thin air…Two kids, family, hockey, soccer, finishing up writing deadlines, laundry and housekeeping stuff…you get the picture…it all goes by pretty fast.

Just one of the amazing cakes by Janet "Deen of Cakes" Henry

Before I knew it, we arrived at Thursday and I had not taken a step towards my walking goal. I had been avoiding my long-distance walking partner, but she tracked me down today and made sure I got my walk on! Janet lives in North Georgia and is the skinniest cake boss I have ever met! We call her the Deen of Cakes since her maiden name is Deen..But she is a serious walker and makes sure I know the boss means business! Plus, she is the organizer extraordinaire of our high school gatherings and wants to make sure that by the time we get to our big reunion this fall, I will require new clothes two sizes smaller than the last reunion.

So, on a week that pretty much absorbed itself in a black hole of mundaneness…I finally broke out and stumbled my way around the block a few times. I wonder if that earned me a slice of cake?

Fireworks and Oscar Nominees…

Ah…Grant and Kelly…lovely to watch on the Riviera. I laugh every time she asks him if he wants a leg or a breast! She gives the thief all sorts of grief until she realizes that he is, indeed, the real thing. He is not the cat that she thought he was. She is not the kitten he mistook her for…Together, the sensual tension on the screen steams the scenes until they are ready to melt! Can’t help but laugh when the fireworks go off in the background…Same symbolism was used in another Oscar-nominated film shown a couple of weeks ago. Katharine Hepburn’s Summertime with Rossano Brazzi uses the same technique to display forbidden passions. Very goofy by today’s standards, but, like a Hitchcock method…leaves everything up to the best special effects generator ever created…the human mind.

Thanks Turner Classic Movies…It has been a month to remember!

To Catch A Thief