Well goodness!!!

.....stay away from blogger for a few days and look what I come home to.....

Red Mojo over at Half a Bubble Off gave me this awesome award.....along with some very sweet words about me!! Not sure what I did to con her into thinking that led her to believe that I was deserving of such an award but I will wholeheartedly and very gratefully accept nonetheless!!

Thank-you m'dear......:)

LOL Red Mojo........in your analogies of awards being like sex....I believe you mentioned something about....you never forget your first....well, uhhhmmmmm this is my first ever blog award and I won't soon be forgetting it either.....**wink**

Checking in........

Starting a new relationship seems to have turned me into a bad, bad blogger......eeeeeks!! Will have to do something about that vewwy, vewwy soon!!

Actually the relationship is taking things slowly.....couple of dates a week......which is what we both wanted.....lol as opposed to the fabled lesbian myth/way of the U-haul being rented for the 2nd date!! ahahahaha I could NOT resist adding that!!

Alright, alright......for those not in the know (can there really be folks that have never heard this one??).....there is a joke that has been around for well, forever......and it's become somewhat of an urban legend in this lifestyle.....referrencing the fact that all too often this is what we tend to do.....rush into things........the joke goes like this........

What does every good lesbian bring on a 2nd date??

The U-Haul

Getting far too old and settled for the U-haul nonsense these days.....slow and steady stays the course.......AND.....I'm having an aweful lot of fun **grin**.

Until next time fellow bloggers............:)

Mental Feng Shui.......

Seemed like a good time of year for something like this..........


ONE. **Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.**

TWO. **Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational
skills will be as important as any other.**

THREE. **Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.**

FOUR. **When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.**

FIVE. **When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.**

SIX. **Be engaged at least six months before you get married.**

SEVEN. **Believe in love at first sight.**

EIGHT. **Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have
much.**

NINE. **Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to
live life completely.**

TEN. **In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.**

ELEVEN. ** Don't judge people by their relatives.**

TWELVE. **Talk slowly but think quickly.**

THIRTEEN. **When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and
ask, 'Why do you want to know?'**

FOURTEEN. **Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.**

FIFTEEN. **Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze**

SIXTEEN. **When you lose, don't lose the lesson.**

SEVENTEEN. **Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and
Responsibility for all your actions.**

EIGHTEEN. **Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.**

NINETEEN. **When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct
it.**

TWENTY. **Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.**

TWENTY- ONE. **Spend some time alone.**

New Beginnings.......

There is a song by Mary Chapin Carpenter called You Win Again......

In it there is a line that goes like this........

....standing on the corner of love and heartache......

This is where I spent most of the year 2006 standing, rooted, waiting for decisions to be made.....then I spent 2007 walking away from this corner....deciding that I would just be blissfully single.......lol this worked.....some of the time.

2008 has started with sad endings and new beginnings......

Sad endings in that I lost my godmother, just after New Year's, after a long battle with cancer.....she and her husband were my Dad's, who just past away last April, very dearest and closest friends....so the funeral was fraught with all kinds of levels of sadness.....sadness and grief for her and her family, of course.....but also brought back memories of Dad's passing and his funeral.....same church, many of the same people.....grief wounds reopened with a view to healing over a bit more than before.

New beginnings in that I started dating again late last fall and shortly before Christmas met a very sweet interesting woman who, as luck would have it, lives nearby and is as interested in me as I am in her. It's still really early.....we've had what?.....2 dates with a plan for a third.....but damn it sure feels nice!

My Mantra......

I'm going to borrow an idea from my blog friend Drowning Pisces -- the idea of a weekly mantra....only mines going to be just this one time....and I think I like it so much it's going to be my mantra for the year!!!

Right after I wrote my New Year's Eve blog post about 2007 -- the year that was....and I mean nanoseconds after I hit that little publish button....the ball had dropped, the New Year had been ushered in and I was still watching one of the New Year's Eve shows on TV and saw Natasha Bedingfield sing her song Unwritten. I've heard that song dozens of times before....it's a great song!!

Given what I had just been writing about....new beginnings......this one particular line just zinged me!!! So, without further ado here is my new mantra for the year...........

Today is where your book begins......
......the rest is still unwritten.

Fits the new lifestyle change to a T don't you agree??

.....had to have been synchronicity at work....it was just too, too coincidental the way this all happened!! Have I mentioned how much I love that word......synchronicity??

Synchronicity........

The coincidental occurrence of events that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality – Merriam Webster’s Dictionary

The year that was..........

2007 has been a year of changes for me to be sure.

A relationship was ended at the very tail end of 2006 that probably should never have been rekindled in the first place **sigh**.

I lost my father after a long, arduous illness that made his leaving bittersweet as his passing was a blessing saving him from anymore suffering....but left the rest of us sad and shell shocked.

Family fallouts ensued and continue.

Grieving was done on all three fronts......the lost relationship, the lost father and the family fall-outs.....and the grieving continues, as it does, in it's own way, in it's own time.

But, as often happens, out of sadness, grief and difficult times often good things ensue. Sometimes these good things are like miracles presented to us to keep us from going mad.

For me that miracle was the lifestyle change I started on January 8, 2007. I call it my lifestyle change because I hate (despise?? cringe at??) the word diet.....and because this has become so much more than "just" a diet -- it really has become a complete lifestyle make-over for me.

Since January 8, 2007 I have lost 70 pounds. I continue to maintain that loss and keep working at losing another 20-30 lbs. I have not weighed what I weigh now in 20+ years. I have completely changed my style of eating to the point where virtually nothing processed, pre-packaged or sugary ever makes it into my system.....and I have yet to start missing any of it!! Slowly but surely I have built up a work-out routine to the point where I work-out hard for at least 45--90 minutes at least 5 times a week. This summer saw me hiking and biking for 10+ miles several times a week. I haven't biked in probably 10 years. I have dropped about 8 clothing sizes. My blood pressure which had become very problematic towards the end of 2006 is completely cleared up and normal now. My cholesterol -- although never bad, bad was certainly borderline for a quite some time and there was one element of it that was really bad -- is now superb!! So much so in fact that my doctor commended me, not just on remarkably bettering my bad cholesterol, but more importantly on raising my good cholesterol which is, apparently, a really difficult feat to accomplish and is very healthy for you!!

So, all in all, this year has had it's fill of the good, the bad and the ugly.....but the bad and the ugly though hard at times -- are tolerable -- and we do somehow get through to the other side. The good?? Well, can't say enough about the good!! I look forward to 2008 with no expectations other than to keep on truckin' with this journey I've been on for the past year.

In the spirit of keeping things simple.....here's my wish for the coming new year to all my friends and family.......

What's a 710??

A few days ago I was having some work done at my local garage. A blonde came in and asked for a seven-hundred-ten.

We all looked at each other and another customer asked, "What is a seven-hundred-ten?"

She replied, "You know, the little piece in the middle of the engine, I have lost it and need a new one."

She replied that she did not know exactly what it was, but this piece had always been there.

The mechanic gave her a piece of paper and a pen and asked her to draw what the piece looked like.

She drew a circle and in the middle of it wrote 710. He then took her over to another car which had its hood up and asked "is there a 710 on this car?"

She pointed and said, "Of course, its right there."

If you're not sure what a 710 is Click Here


Heyyyyyyyy I'm blonde...I figure that gives me the ok to post the occasional blonde joke and this one just about slayed me....roflmao!!!

Note to self for next Christmas.........

'nuff said 'bout that one......GAH!!!!

I am off to my sister's home in a few minutes here to spend the holidays with her family....it will be awesome....always love spending time with the sis, her hubby and the 3 nephews....the oldest will be back from University....haven't seen him since the summer time!

Tomorrow we are all headed to the big city of Toronto, finding a nice spot for lunch and then going to catch this show....

......can't wait....it's been eons since I've done something like that.......:)

So I will see everyone on the flipside of the holidays.....or possibly during the holidays as I will have my trusty laptop with me 'natch!!

Wishing everyone a pleasant, calm and relaxing holiday season filled with oodles of love, great eats and good cheer!!

The Golden Girls.....

Please allow me to introduce you to my girls........

A blog I recently discovered, Drowning Pisces (of the recent most excellent post about ellipses!), had a picture of two of her cuties -- one is 156 lbs. and the other is 7 lbs lol!!!

This is Molly....my 6 year old golden retriever....ain't she pretty?? Both girls are rescue dogs and I've had Molly since she was about 2 years old. I don't think she was treated very well for the first 2 years of her life as I have never met a more anxious dog in my life...you just have to look at her the wrong way and she is rolling on her back in a very submissive pose giving you her belly....not sure she'll ever grow out of that. But she is a sweet, sweet girl who just wants to be loved and fed.

Maggie protecting her bowl!!
And then there's Maggie who is a Shi-pooh....3 years old....I got her about a year ago...also a rescue dog....I think she was part of a puppy mill scenario. She is the bossy-boots in the family and has no qualms about keeping Molly in her place!! They play very sweetly together and I am always in awe at how gentle Molly is with her. They will play tug of war with a rope-toy and let's face it...with the size difference and if Molly had a mind to.....she could pretty much launch Maggie into outer space....but she never does and Maggie usually ends up winning....trotting off happily with her prize!!

They love to sleep touching each other.....usually Molly will settle in for a nice nap and then a few minutes later Maggie will ever so nonchalantly settle herself in next to her big sister.

Tales of a shopping adventure.....

Leading up to the holiday season Dorky Dad has been writing a series of articles about how much he adores this time of year....especially this year as he is hosting both his parents as well as his in-laws!! He's a tad stressed over it all.....go on over to his blog and you can read all about it!! We all know that he will come out of this just fine.....regardless of the outcome....no doubt the events will make for more interesting blog fodder!! Funny, fun fellow!!

Anyway....one of his recent posts was about standing in line for 45 minutes for something that took all of 15 minutes and it put me in mind of..................

Christmas line-ups..............OMG!!

This is the time of year....each and every year mind you -- you'd think I'd learn...when I am cursing and resolving that NEXT year I won't wait till it gets to this level of madness and mayhem!!!

I have to say though, the other day the good mojo gods must have been smiling at me....I steeled myself for a trip to the mall, with list in hand, hoping to make this as short and sweet as possible!! Would you believe that somehow I made it the entire length of the mall, back and forth, hit about 6 shops, got 5 people completely bought for....and made it out alive in under 40 minutes!!!

I was in and outta there so fast I felt like.............

"¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!"

I suspect that people saw the determination in my eyes and the smoke coming outta my heels as I was motoring along and made the wise decision to steer clear of such a frightning and intimidating force!!

Then afterwards I treated myself to one of these most delicious of beverages -- a gingerbread latte................YUMMERS!!