Tardy Tidbits!!!

The older I get the faster time seems to pass! As life gets busy and days turn into weeks, then months, certain events that would normally be blog fodder became obsolete before I get the chance to post them, so this entry is dedicated to a few life moments that flew by.

On October 12, Ralph and Joyce Giffin observed their 5oth wedding anniversary. The family celebrated with them at the Old Spaghetti Factory near Portland Oregon on Oct. 11th. Their three children Kelly, Ralph (Chic) and John with spouses Kent, Holly and Dawn attended along with their only granddaughter Tatum. Ben, their only grandson, was unable to make it.

Halloween brought smiles as Kent aka, Dr. Bill Dior Bonze, along with skelepup Leelu went reversed trick-or-treating to a couple of neighbors where they handed out rather than received candy. Earlier that day Leelu and Kelly went to the nursing/rehab center to visit a friend and handed out candy to all they encountered there. Leelu charmed everyone with her tricks for treats!

Thanksgiving was the scene of a rare gathering of the Giffin clan. A wonderful time was had by---Grandma (91), her children Ralph, Jerry and Carry with their spouses Joyce, Diane, and Bill, and the kids Kelly, Ralph (Chic), and John with their spouses Kent, Holly, and Dawn.

More smiles when the "kids" ended up at the table in the kitchen while the "adults" took their seats at the big table in the dining room. The youngest of the kids is close to 40!

There was quite a bit of excitement when moms oven started spewing great balls of fire! Kent thought the two hour tardy turkey would cook more quickly if the heat was jacked up and when he added water to the pan all the juices splashed out and ignited! The end result was that only the outside of the turkey was done enough to eat after a 3 hour delay to dinner.

Since I spend most of my life eating right, low carb, low calorie, low and correct fat, etc.--- Thanksgiving is one of only a few day's a year where I eat without reservation. I went straight for the mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy with a small token piece of turkey. I didn't bother with that filling healthy stuff like veggies and salad! All was polished off with a substantial piece of pumpkin pie smothered in Cool Whip!

I felt horrible afterward of course and the heart burn took a few day's of right eating to eradicate, but it was sure worth it---no regrets!

Christmas is upon us now, my second favorite time of year (4th of July being number one) and soon I'll post a blog on why it's only my second favorite!

Don't give me any lip!!!

First came hello
Then a handshake
Followed by a hug
Which progressed to a kiss on the cheek
Lets not forget the other cheek while we're at it.
Can you see the progression here???

I come from a family of non hugger's and am personally not comfortable with too much human contact from anyone but my husband. Wouldn't you know I'd marry into a family of hugger's which has taken me years to be semi comfortable with---it actually seems weird not to hug now. Even my own family has grudgingly gotten into the act.

So OK, I'll exchange a platonic hug and mean it, and I'll even admit that I'd miss it if no one did it anymore, but now people are actually kissing! Eeewww! That's where I draw the line! I don't want a kiss on the cheek, it messes up my make-up, and is just plain creepy. A year ago I was only dealing with one or two cheek kissers, but I've recently noticed that the number is growing and that one cheek doesn't seem to be enough. Just last month I was assaulted with a triple kiss...left, right, left again.

There are a select few "sincere" kissers from whom I will accept a peck on the cheek, but it still messes up my make-up! I've been told that it's European to kiss and my response to that is, who made the Europeans the authority on kissing in America! We fought a revolutionary war to liberate ourselves from unwanted "customs".

Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, Dementor's steal your soul with a kiss, kiss spelled backwards is ssik.

We live in a society where preschoolers have police records for normal childish playfulness and yet an unasked for kiss on the cheek among adults is widely accepted as a greeting and goes unchecked.
FYI--- http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=2023

So if you are a kisser and are offended by my honest sensibilities---I'm sorry for your discomfort and hope you understand mine.

If you can't resist the urge to pucker up, take a clue from the French and grace the AIR ABOVE my cheek with a lippy smack!

EVER HOPEFUL

A little hobby I have is entering sweepstakes online. I've won quite a few modest prizes, but never the grand prize. I figure I'll never win if I don't enter, so I subscribed to a sweeps site to help me find the good ones, and it has more than paid for itself.

I know a few of the tricks to increase my odds, but am not so serious about it to go as far as hard core sweepers do. I get discouraged sometimes, because no matter how hard I try there are always "zealots" taking sweepstakes to a level either impossible for me or impractical.

The best sweeps are "one time only entry's" per email, household, no referrals. That's about the most level the playing field can get. But for the obsessed there are even ways around this. Sigh....I take heart though when I think of the man who entered a national, once daily, multimillion dollar sweeps once and won. I believe there were more than a hundred entries possible.

I had a really good year not long ago and was sharing with everyone all the prizes I had won. I take a fair amount of flack from people about this hobby so this was my glory story for the skeptics.

Those same disbelievers were all over how much they could use this or that prize I had won and since I like to give, I did....with a weird mix of pleasure and sorrow. When the crowd had figuratively stampeded through my winnings with hardly a thank you, there was absolutely nothing left to represent all my hard work.

After that experience, I decided no one would have an inkling of future winnings...and they didn't. I now daily cherish the box full of rather useless (to me) items which I'm not quite ready to give up. There were some useful prizes which escaped the box like cash, gift cards, gift baskets with edibles, cosmetics and household items....all mine this time!

Now that times are tight the prizes have gotten smaller and the number of sweepers larger. Still...I continue to remain hopeful that the big prize is just an entry away and if I don't enter I won't win!