Unexpected Praise

I had given up on Oprah. Her show was so self serving and her guests were celebrities invited as experts on subjects they only performed roles about and not areas of their true abilities. However, now she has hit the nail on the head. Oprah can truly help track down most wanted sex offenders, as has already been proven. Hopefully she will stay on track going after these predators who stalk, molest and murder our innocent children. And to think this time she is putting her money where her mouth is by offering $100,000 reward per capture. Hooray Oprah -- Thank you from all parents and grandparents of the children you choose to protect!

THANK YOU KANSAS OKLAHOMA AMERICAN LEGION RIDERS

Protest Fails at Soldier's Funeral
CHELSEA, Okla. (AP) - An effort by members of a Kansas church to protest at the funeral of an Oklahoma soldier today was drowned out by motorcycles. About 70 members of the American Legion Riders group from Oklahoma and Kansas revved their engines in Chelsea as five protesters held inflammatory signs near the church where the funeral of Staff Sergeant John Doles was to be held.

Home Sweet Home 

Party animals :-) 

A gift for the guys from the Hotel. 

Andy Williams house in Branson 

Campus photo across from Mill 

Phantom on Showboat 

Risky Business on Branson Belle 

BRANSON ROCKS!

We are back from our ship reunion. Boo Hoo -- yes, I'm sad that it is over.

All thirty chickens are present and accounted for. Hip, Hip Hooray!

Our trip to Branson was absolutely wonderful. I think that I went around like a real country mouse with my eyes wide open, my jaw slack, tears in my eyes most of the time, emitting lots of squeals and squeaks of joy and lots of hand clapping. Either it was truly a fantastic place to be or I just spend way too much time in Kansas and everything outside our door delights me!

Was it the man I was with? Was it the particular group of sailors we met with? Was it the fact that the reunion was in Branson? Was it the fact that there is entertainment in every corner of Branson? Was it the fact that Veterans are welcomed, treated, toasted, thanked and honored at every corner of Branson. Or, was it simply that the last reunion we attended was so awful, this one had to be good?

It was all of the above and I cried when we left. Yes, we had a good time and I was proud to be with my husband and every one of his shipmates and their spouses. If laughter is the best medicine, we’re set for at least a year of good health.

Without writing a book about everything we saw, here are links to some of the entertainment:

Veterans Memorial Museum

Grand Plaza Hotel

Hardwork U The College of the Ozarks

A favorite performer Todd Oliver

Hotel entertainer Kenny Parrott

We saw Lost In The 50's Show at the Starlite Theatre

Wine tasting at the Stone Hill Winery (Ron and I both passed but enjoyed watching the others.

Charlie's Steak House entertainer was Rebecca Dawn

Best country and best musicians were at Lit'l Nashville Show

Their favored entertainer was Wally Barbee

And, of course, The Showboat Branson Belle

A Sailor's Life

We leave tomorrow for the USS Mahan Reunion in Branson. Mo. Meanwhile, I just found this wonderful blog of A Sailor's Life written by a young man currently serving on the new Mahan. It is a fastinating telling of a tale that everyone should enjoy.

We'll be checking back in on the 9th.

This is Chicken Little. The lower left insert is a full grown Araucana with whispy feathered chin. (Not one of mine, just a photo of one). See the little tufts starting on Chicken Little. I wonder if I'll need grooming tools for the Araucanas lovely feather beards? 

See my chicken pen and hen house and behind them, my slowly evolving new house. It just might happen someday. 

Our worker finally showed up yesterday and Ron was able to get the end of the house closed. Hip Hip Hooray! (baby steps, baby steps) 

HARRIET MIERS

Get ready ladies, we’re going to hear the attacks, condescending attitudes and feel the patting on our silly little heads again. Hopefully Harriet Miers is a “pit bull” because in just over six hours we have persons who know all, see all, and interpret “Bushspeak” by replacing spoken words with those unspoken truisms. (I can’t find their dictionary, so I’m unable to verify the translations.)

The strangest thing I have heard this morning was the statement, “I had hoped Bush would appoint a minority.” Since when was a 60 year old woman NOT a double minority?

So far I see one heck of a woman who has achieved levels of success above and beyond the glass ceiling. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and I’m going to pray that she can withstand the good-old-boys club and the back-stabbing jealous witches club (we are our own worst enemies) and rise to the role of Justice by her hard earned success.

She has been a contributor to many campaigns of Democrats as well as Republicans including Gore’s 2000 Presidential Campaign. How much more bipartisan can we ask that she be?

THE FACE OF KATRINA �Eaghl 2005
 

The Word of the Day for October 3 is:

tabula rasa \tab-yuh-luh-RAH-zuh\ noun
1 : the mind in its hypothetical primary blank or empty state before
receiving outside impressions
*2 : something existing in its original pristine state

Example sentence:
Our newly built house, with its unpainted walls, is a tabula rasa awaiting
our decorative touches.

EXPECTETH NOTHING

I just talked to my mother to say "Happy Sunday". She was asking about our upcoming ship reunion and I told her I was trying not to get too excited. I said I made such plans for how special the last one would be, and then was very disappointed about how awful it was. Mother reminded me of what dad alway said: "Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, .....for he shall not be disappointed."

Lovers not Fighters

This morning we did it. We clipped the teenagers' and the babies' wings. It was quite a show. It had to be done with five of them now escaping the pen during the day and facing imminent death. Too many dogs running across our property.

Ron and I both went inside the hen house and I grabbed each chicken and held it while he did the clipping. It is just like cutting fingernails. The girls were all pretty feisty. The two roosters, Oreo and Tom-Twyla, were almost docile. I saved them for last, expecting them to really get after me. They were more interested in getting it over with and getting outside with the ladies.

Oreo and Tom-Twyla both prefer older women. Tom-Twyla going after the older ladies and Oreo going after the teenagers. Boss Hog watching and laughing because all the women were protesting their admirers. He knows he is the one they All want.

Boss Hog has never had his wings clipped. He has always managed to fight his way out of my grasp. It doesn't matter, because he flew out of the pen once when he was a teenager and he realized he left all the girls behind. He never did that again.

Yep, the two young roosters are lovers (they think they are anyway) and not fighters. Boss Hog is both.

I told the Wal-Mart stocker that I was looking for my granddaughter's favorite candy, thus implying these were for Hope. Actually they are for me. I feel just like a Princess when I eat them. We're never too old :-)