7 years old today

Happy Birthday !

The first stages....

Warm up blanket

This is the warm blanket I made for my father-in-law christmas 2005. He has loved this thing to death and now needs another. This time I am planning on making him a log cabin style similar to Mason Dixon knitting. So far I should be complete with it sometime early 2008.

Movie list

A movie list

[X] Citizen Kane
[X] Casablanca
[ ] The Godfather
[] The Godfather Part 2
[X] Gone with the Wind
[X ] Lawrence of Arabia
[X] The Wizard of Oz
[X] The Graduate
[X ] On the Waterfront
[X] Schindler’s List
[X] Singing in the Rain
[X ] Ben-Hur

Total: 10

[X ] Seven Samurai
[X ] Magnificent Seven
[X] Three Amigos
[X ] Yojimbo
[X ] Fist Full of Dollars
[ ] Last Man Standing
[X ] Hidden Fortress
[X] Star Wars
[X] Empire Strikes Back
[X] Return of the Jedi
[X ] Ran
[X ] Dreams
[X ] Rashomon

Total: 12

[X ] Psycho
[X ] Vertigo
[X] North by Northwest
[X] The Birds
[X ] Rear Window
[X ] Dial M for Murder

Total: 6

[X ] Blood Simple
[X] Raising Arizona
[ ] Millers Crossing
[X ] Barton Fink
[X] Hudsucker Proxy
[X] Fargo
[X] Big Lebowski
[X] O Brother Where Art Thou?

Total: 7

[X] Alien
[X] Blade Runner
[X] Legend
[X ] Black Rain
[X] Thelma & Louise
[] Black Hawk Down
[X] Gladiator

Total: 6

[X ] Time Bandits
[X] Brazil
[X ] The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
[X ] The Fisher King
[X] Twelve Monkeys
[X] Seven
[X] Fight Club
[X] Primal Fear
[X ] American History X

Total: 9

[X ] Spartacus
[X ] Lolita
[X ] Dr. Strangelove
[X ] Point for knowing the full title of Dr. Strangelove
[X] 2001: A Space Odyssey
[X] Clockwork Orange
[X] The Shining
[X] Full Metal Jacket

Total: 8

[X ] The Pianist
[X] Rosemary’s Baby
[X ] China Town
[X ] Easy Rider
[X] One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Total: 5

[ ] Unforgiven
[X ] The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
[ ] The Searchers
[ ] Rio Bravo
[ ] Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
[ ] Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Total: 1

[X] Halloween
[X] Nightmare on Elm Street
[X] Friday the 13th
[X ] Chainsaw Massacre
[X] The Exorcist
[X] Silence of the Lambs

Total: 6

[X] Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
[X] Beetle Juice
[X] Batman
[X] Edward Scissor Hands
[X] Ed Wood
[X] Mars Attacks!

Total: 6

[X] Reservoir Dogs
[X] Pulp Fiction
[X ] Kill Bill: Vol 1
[X ] Kill Bill: Vol 2
[X ] Sin City
[X ] Four Rooms
[X] From Dusk Till Dawn
[X] Desperado
[X] El Mariachi

Total: 9

[ ] Gates of Heaven
[ ] Vernon, Florida
[ ] The Thin Blue Line
[ ] Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
[ ] Mr. Death
[ ] The Fog of War

Total: 0

[X] LOTR: The Fellowship of the Rings
[X] LOTR: The Two Towers
[X] LOTR: Return of the King
[ ] Forgotten Silver
[X ] Heavenly Creatures
[X] Braindead aka Dead Alive
[X ] Meet the Feebles
[X] Bad Taste

Total: 7

[X ] King Kong (1933)
[X] King Kong (1976)
[X ] King Kong (2005)

Total: 3

[X] The Sixth Sense
[] Unbreakable
[X] Signs
[X ] The Village

Total: 3

[] Pi
[X] Requiem for a Dream
[X] Memento
[X] Insomnia
[X] Batman Begins
[ ] Following
[X] The Virgin Suicides
[X] Lost in Translation
[X] Being John Malkovich
[X] Adaptation
[X ] Eternal Sunshine or the Spotless Mind

Total: 9

[X ] Better Off Dead
[X] Sixteen Candles
[X] The Breakfast Club
[X] Weird Science
[X] Ferris Beuller’s Day Off
[X ] Planes, Trains & Automobiles
[X] The Goonies
[X] Stand by Me

Total: 8

[X] The Shawshank Redemption
[] The Green Mile

Total:1

[X] Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
[X] Princess Bride
[X] This is Spinal Tap
[X ] The Jerk
[X] Ghost Busters
[X] Animal House
[X] Blues Brothers
[X] Little Shop of Horrors

Total: 8

[X ] Princess Mononoke
[X ] My Neighbor Totoro
[X ] Spirited Away
[X ] Howl’s Moving Castle
[X ] Akira
[ ] Steamboy
[ ] Ghost in the Shell

Total: 5

[X ] Waiting for Guffman
[X ] Best in Show
[X ] A Mighty Wind

Total: 3

[X] Night of the Living Dead
[X ] Dawn of the Dead (1978)
[X ] Day of the Dead
[X ] Land of the Dead
[X] Shawn of the Dead
[X] 28 days later

Total: 6

[ ] Bottle Rocket
[X] Rushmore
[X] Royal Tenenbaums
[X ] The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
[X] Snatch
[X] Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
[X] Trainspotting
[X ] Shallow Grave

Total: 7

[X ] Delicatessen
[X] Amilie
[X ] City of Lost Children
[X] Run Lola Run
[X] La Femme Nikita
[X] The Professional
[X] The Fifth Element

Total: 7

[ ] Mean Streets
[X] Taxi Driver
[X ] Raging Bull
[X ] Last Temptation of Christ
[X] Goodfellas
[X] Casino

Total: 5

[ ] M
[X ] Metropolis
[X ] Nosferatu
[X ] Diabolique
[X] Usual Suspects
[X ] Double Indemnity
[ ] The Third Man
[ ] Manchurian Candidate (1962)
[X ] Cool Hand Luke

Total:6

[X] Raiders of the Lost Ark
[X] Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
[X] Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
[X] Jurassic Park
[X ] Color Purple (read the book)
[X] Saving Private Ryan
[X] E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
[X] Jaws

Total: 8

[X] Die Hard
[X] Lethal Weapon
[X ] Mad Max
[X ] The Road Warrior
[X] Braveheart
[X ] Man Without a Face
[X ] Passion of the Christ

Total: 7

GRAND TOTAL: 178/205

Sux to your Asmar

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.

Jane Austen

A day off

Now I feel I need some Noro therapy. It is just so pretty!

Sad memories

I used to have these two friends that were in the restaurant business. They worked really hard (from 9a to 11p Monday-Saturday) in their little restaurant. They had a few waitresses from the local university to handle the lunch crowd during the day, but only had their kitchen staff of two and themselves to handle the other hours of the day which included deliveries,waiting on tables and cooking.
At the time there were a few things that I could not agree with in how they chose to run their business. 1) They lied on their taxes (not admitting they were the actual owners and by record only paying themselves 15,000 as managers. 2) The kitchen staff were illegals. I think I overlooked these obvious flaws because of how they were. The four of them lived in a tiny apartment in a not so nice neighborhood and drove a car that had seen betters days. The clothes that they wore were simple and all they seemed to do was work (aside from Sunday). When I challenged them on the illegal help and how they are treated, I was quickly told "all Chinese restaurants do this". My friends at least paid them well and treated them as family. When we went out to eat " American" food with them, the kitchen help always came along. The head cook ofter showed me photos of his two boys and how wealthy they were because of his help. It was worth it to him that he would never be able to go home again just to make sure his family was taken care of and well (if he left, he could never return because his papers were forged).
Our first crack in the fragile egg of friendship came when we both had our first child. Theirs came first at two months early. While she was on maternity leave, he was left to run the restaurant by himself. The baby was in the hospital for the first three months of her life and the car was at the restaurant needed for deliveries. She was left alone at the house while he worked. They only took her to see the baby when someone from his family found the time to take her there (her family were still in Hong Kong). Often she was left alone because she needed to rest and was not to be disturbed. Once while visiting I got to witness a hissy fit of his because it was not fair that she got to lie around all day while he worked at the restaurant. He could care less that she almost died during labor or that the baby was very ill. He could not run the restaurant alone and demanded she come back to work. He pressed her often until she hired a live in nanny to take care of the child. Often they only saw their baby(later child) for a few hours in the morning and not once getting up with the baby at night or dealing with any illnesses.
Fast forward six years. Now the restaurant friends are very wealthy with a string of restaurants, a million dollar house and Mercedes in the driveway next to the Escalade.
We don't communicate much anymore. Years ago, we ran out of things to say to one another. They live in the world of business deals and fancy vacations. The cute immigrant charm is gone. Their Chinese friends are gone replaced by white upper class neighbors from one of the country clubs. Every year I invite them to my child's birthday party and for the last two years they have not bothered to even RSVP their regrets. I miss my silly friends. I do wish them well. Farewell good times.
Now I hear from an employee, the INS has raided all of their restaurants twice and he has a girlfriend that runs one of the restaurants. I was told that he and the girlfriend do not even bother to hide their relationship from anyone including his wife and child. When the employee asked me why I thought she would put up with this behavior ...all I could think of was how could they get divorced. They probably cannot afford anyone looking at their finances too closely.

Look at the list of (100) books below.
Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicize the ones you want to read.
Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
Movies don’t count.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Gol.
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving))
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Am I drunk?

I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual.

well....at least I amuse myself

"Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."

Kindergarten

Kindergarten: I remember kindergarten. I walked to school with my neighbor a boy named Tobias who was called Tubalub. He was my first kiss. I remember he wore brown corduroy pants and sweater vests that matched. We both did, but my were often red. My hair was cut Mia Farrow in Rosemary's baby short. My mother told me since I would not let her braid my hair she had it cut off. It was cute but psychotic. Everyone in my class had long braided hair. We had cookies for a snack and we each got two. I remember liking them very much. We had pfeffernusse around December which started me on a lifelong obession with the delicious cookies. I learned to tie my shoes. My father and I worked on it one night after dinner. It was tough but my father would not let me give up.

1st grade: Jens and Kyle moved next door to us that year. I loved to play with them. They had a large dog which frightened me. Their mother loved to bake sweets and breads and I often was at their house to sample her efforts. My mother always said she had wanted a daughter so I should be nice to her. She seemed sad. The men of her family often left her alone for days and I kept her company. She was the first woman to teach me to cook (my mother had no patience for children in the kitchen). This was the first house where I had cream cheese on a bagel. I don't think my mother has ever eaten a bagel. We went to a festival and I remember Jens and I eating nuts from a paper cone. We then decided to be wolves and howled walking from the train all the way home. I remember never wanting to return home from their house. I don't remember their father much. I don't think he was around often. I remember my mother saying he drank. ?

FIVE YEARS

Five years ago I had just begun what I consider as my adult life....my daughter was four months old. She was so helpless and looked just like a monkey. I had only four months previous made my biggest purchase to date, a house, and was only one month from my second largest purchase, a car. What a year that was.....a baby, a house and a new car all in one 6month span.


What a fool.....talk about stress

Sunday

Today was so beautifully fall that I had no choice to be happy. It is sad to be so depressed and utter miserable all of the time. I know that sometime soon I will have to lift myself up, dust off my boots and start all over. Maybe this time as I rise up from the ashes of my former self, I can begin anew as someone better and easier.
On a sadder note, I have failed on our vacation this month. It seems October is THE month for vacations in the mountains. All cabins are booked except for a few undesirable ones. What to do, what to do?

Maybe I can go somewhere else, but where???

Is is me or does this sound good?

Bit-o-Honey Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Source: The Candy Bar Cookbook: Baking With America’s Favorite Candy by Alison Inches and Ric McKown.
Makes 18 to 20 pieces.

Pumpkin Cake5 (1.7-ounce) Bit-O-Honey Bars 1 cup canola oil 4 eggs 1 (15 ounce) can pure pumpkin1 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon ground allspice 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder1 teaspoons baking soda2 cups all-purpose flour
Cream Cheese Frosting8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 2 ounces (1/2 stick) butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract4 cups confectioners’ sugar

For the pumpkin bars:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 x 9-inch pan with nonstick spray.
Freeze the Bit-O-Honey Bars 10 minutes.
In the food processor, chop candy bars coarsely. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, using electric mixer, combine the oil and eggs, and mix 30 seconds on high. Add pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Mix on medium 1 minute, scraping down sides of the bowl.
Add the baking powder, baking soda and flour, and mix on low 30 seconds.
Fold in the chopped candy bars.
Pour the batter into a prepared pan and bake 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

For the cream cheese frosting:
In a large mixing bowl using and electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Mix in the vanilla extract. Add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until thoroughly incorporated. Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled pumpkin bars. Cut into 2 x 3-inch squares.

ah to be a cow

Farmers low at hemp ban for cows
By Alan Little BBC News, Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein milk farmers have been stirred up by a government ban on their feeding hemp to their cattle.
They are the most chilled-out, laid-back, carefree cattle in the world, and happy cows produce better milk.
What is it that keeps the cash cows calm? Hemp, which is related to cannabis. And that's why Liechtenstein has banned its use.
This has in turn enraged the country's dairy farmers, who say that the hemp relaxes those jangly bovine nerves.
Hemp farmers are less then mellow about the new law.
"Hemp is good for cows because it is serves as a very small tranquiliser," says hemp farmer Jean-Pierre Egger.
"Many of the cows are stressed nowadays. If they eat hemp, they calm down. Now, a milk cow which is calm produces better milk. That is a fact."
No high
In neighbouring Switzerland, hemp is grown legally for industrial purposes but farmers are also banned from feeding it to cattle.
The authorities there say the trouble is that a chemical called THC - the chemical that helps give the "high" associated with cannabis use - can get into the milk.
The only thing which gets high is the quality of milk and the quality and general health of the cow Jean-Pierre Egger Hemp farmer
Peter Malin, of the Liechtenstein Department of Agriculture, has similar concerns.
"We don't want to have to contaminants such as THC which doesn't occur naturally in milk," he said. "And we don't want it to be consumed by people, especially by children."
But farmers say this European hemp has none of the narcotic properties found in its Indian cousin.
The cattle here may be relaxed, but they are not stoned.
"The only thing which gets high is the quality of milk and the quality and general health of the cow. That's how high the cows are feeling," says Mr Egger.
But there are some other dairy-cow farmers who are sceptical about the milk-yield benefits of hemp. They welcome the ban.
Dairy farmer Simon Schiprscher says he never feeds his cows hemp.
"I thought the people that did were a bit exotic and alternative," he said.
So consumers of Swiss chocolate and Gruyere cheese can, well, relax.
For the cows who will have to change their diet though, life is about to become a little less laid back.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/4699945.stm

okay......

Spectators cheered as entire Cambodian Midget Fighting League squared off against African Lion
Tickets had been sold-out three weeks before the much anticipated fight, which took place in the city of Kâmpóng Chhnãng.
The fight was slated when an angry fan contested Yang Sihamoni, President of the CMFL, claiming that one lion could defeat his entire league of 42 fighters.
Sihamoni takes great pride in the league he helped create, as was conveyed in his recent advertising campaign for the CMFL that stated his midgets will "... take on anything; man, beast, or machine."
This campaign is believed to be what sparked the undisclosed fan to challenge the entire league to fight a lion; a challenge that Sihamoni readily accepted.
An African Lion (Panthera Leo) was shipped to centrally located Kâmpóng Chhnãng especially for the event, which took place last Saturday, April 30, 2005 in the city’s coliseum.
The Cambodian Government allowed the fight to take place, under the condition that they receive a 50% commission on each ticket sold, and that no cameras would be allowed in the arena.
The fight was called in only 12 minutes, after which 28 fighters were declared dead, while the other 14 suffered severe injuries including broken bones and lost limbs, rendering them unable to fight back.
Sihamoni was quoted before the fight stating that he felt since his fighters out-numbered the lion 42 to 1, that they “… could out-wit and out-muscle [it].”
Unfortunately, he was wrong.

It is a sick, sad world

A woman in Maumelle is charged with manslaughter for leaving her two-month-old baby alone for a night of partying, during which the infant died.

LaKeela Webb was charged Tuesday in the May seventh death of Jayce Burks. Prosecutor Larry Jegley says the manslaughter charge was the most appropriate for the case because there was only alleged neglect, not premedidated harm.

Police said Webb, who is a licensed practical nurse, found the child was not breathing at about 1 p.m. on May seventh. Rather than seek immediate medical help, police say she drove the baby to her mother's house in Sherwood. The mother called an ambulance and the baby was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police said there were plastic bags, toys and clothes in the baby's crib. An affidavit said there was blood on a crib sheet and on a plastic bag in the crib. Police said the infant was alone for 13 hours.