Auld lang syne

In case you hadn't noticed, this is the last day of 2008. I hope it's been a good year for you and that 2009 is even better.

If you're rockin' at a party or watching Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve, you'll probably be singing Auld Lang Syne. This old Scottish song is usually attributed to Robert Burns, but actually it pre-dates him. It's just that he wrote it down and put his own twist on the lyrics.

Like most of us you probably don't really know the words, or what they mean. You can translate 'auld lang syne' as 'times gone by', 'days gone by', 'the good old days', or what ever you want it to be that's relevant to saying goodby to the old year, and hello to the new.

In case you forgot the words, here they are.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne!

Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

Happy New Year!

Wuses

I work with some of the biggest whinners in the world. I worked as a nurse for 20 years and I hear more about my co-workers physical complaints on a daily basis than I heard from my patients.

Take today, for example. There were only 3 of them in the office. Two of them didn't sleep well and are sooooooo tired. One of them injured her thumb during the ice-over of the 23rd. She won't go to the doctor, nor wear an ace bandage, but she sure can complain about it. One of them went home after lunch because he was "sick". One of them has a son with diarrhea so she had to work from home yesterday.

And they all went home early.

Some days are golden

Christmas day was beautiful here. It was cold, but not "freeze the snot in your nose cold", and the sun was shining all day.

The news reporters on television kept talking about the bad weather all across the nation. I didn't know whether to feel sorry for everyone else, or smug because I had sunshine and they didn't.

Truthfully, I wanted to feel smug, but it was Christmas day so I tried to be sympathetic.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

And the angel said unto them,

Fear not: for, behold,

I bring you good tidings of great joy,

which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born

this day in the city of David

a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:10 – 11

Merry Christmas

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS!

Free Website Tools and Clipart

Boondoggle!

Congress has been passing out tax money like it was penny candy.

Recently billions of dollars was earmarked to bailout banks and financial instituitions. Now if any company should know how to handle money it should be a company whose business is handling money. I mean handle it responsibly, not just play with it.

Yesterday an Associated Press story revealed that bank executives got billions of dollars in bonuses and incentives last year and then asked the taxpayer to pay for them. Read the story on MSNBC . Some banks cut executive salaries but still doled out multi-million dollar bonus packages.

If you screwed up as badly as these company leaders did, you'd expect to get fired.

This morning the Associated Press released another story story that 21 banks refused to say how and where they were spending our tax money. Some of them claimed they just didn't know. Duh, maybe this is why they needed to ask for a handout in the first place?

MAYBE CONGRESS SHOULDN'T HAVE HANDED THEM OUR MONEY WITHOUT DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY?

Book review.

I am reading a book called The Lost Tomb that I bought for my trip back in October. I've been reading it for at least a month and I've finished a couple of other books during that time. It's one of those books that's almost interesting, almost compelling, but not quite.

It has pages, after excruciating pages, of obscure historical accounts that I'm skipping while I search for the action sentences that will move the plot forward. They seem to be few and far between. And they seem to be the same scenes, same activity, just different locales. Occasionally, a new character will join the party, but mostly just to give more history lectures.

The thing that annoys me most is that all the characters murmur, all the time. The author can't write "she exclaimed", "he whispered". No, it has to be "she murmured", "he murmurmed". One time they murmured three times on one page. One time somebody "murmured excitedly" - I don't think you can do that.

I've got less than 100 pages to go and I'm trying valiantly to finish. "Why?", you may well ask. Because I paid $6.99 for the book, that's why.

Blackberry Winter Re-Visited

I knew I had heard the term "blackberry winter" but I couldn't remember what it was so I Googled it. Just in case you want to know, it's a southern phrase referring to a brief cold spell that occurs when the blackberries are blooming (about mid-May).

It's about 20 degrees outside my front door right now and I'm wondering just how cold can it get in the south in mid-May? What are they considering a "cold spell"? 50's? 60's? Wimps!

Blackberry Winter

I bought fresh blackberries for 99 cents a package at the supermarket this weekend. They were beautiful black jewels. Large, plump, shiny, unblemished. A delight to behold.

They had no taste what so ever.

I should have known better. I'm rather picky about the fresh fruits and vegetables I buy at a grocery store. Too often they either have little taste or a weird taste. They don't have any scent or they smell like chemicals.

The blackberries made me wonder if people in the future will have any idea what good fresh food is supposed to taste like, to smell like. Will they be satisfied with unyielding, carboard-textured, scentless, tasteless foods because they don't know any better?

Sometimes it's good to be an old lady and to know things the young can only imagine.

A little of this, a little of that

I saw a flock of robins on the way home yesterday. I don't know if they were coming or going so I don't know if they were early or late. All I know is they'd better head south or risk freezing their little tail feathers.

Last night I had a dream we were buying beef roasts in a vending machine at the bank. Not cooked beef, but raw roasts like you'd buy at the grocery store. I don't know if this was a commentary on the price of beef, or something I ate for supper.

I'm working on a training presentation for my co-workers for an application I haven't used much. I've been provided with training activities that were created by our company's "professional trainer", but I'm confused. I have one set of activities that's for everybody to use and I have one for advanced users. The only difference I can find is that one for everybody is 5 pages and the one for advanced user is 6 pages - but the 6th page is blank. That's the Dumass company for you.

A night for socks

When I got home from work today my furnace wasn't working. It was only 66 degrees in here, but it could have been worse. Sunday the low was 8 degrees and today it didn't get below freezing and the temperature outside was at least 50. Anyway, it was too late to call for repairs so I "rebooted" the furnace.

Similar to the way you reboot a computer, I turned it off, flipped the breakers, waited an hour, and turned it back on. And it worked. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't go out in the middle of the night.

On my way home the traffic light about a mile from here wasn't working and it rained heavily most of the night and day and I have a feeling we had some kind of electrical problem in the neighborhood though I couldn't find any clocks in the place that needed to be re-set.

I got to thinking. How many other things would benefit from being rebooted? Relationships? Diets? Jobs? Morals? Dreams?

Think about it.

A loaf of bread

I made bread this weekend. Not from a mix. Not from a refrigerated tube. Not in a breadmaker.

I made pumpkin bread with cream cheese filling and I made herb bread. They're edible but not prize winning, though I did notice that the house smelled pleasantly of pumpkin bread when I got home this evening.

I don't make bread very often anymore. When I was younger, and skinnier, I made homemade bread at least once a week. As my bread consumption went down, my weight went up. Just saying.

I learned several things doing the bread making process this weekend. Not the least of which was:

1. Pumpkin bread tastes better on the second day.
2. I have two sizes of bread pans - too small and too large.
3. I should make bread more often before I forget how it's done.

Weeeeeeeeeeee

I recently bought myself a Wii. It's suppose to be good for old people. Gives them a way to get exercise in the security of their own homes.

Just walking around the box it came in is more exercise than I usually get.

A negative thing about the Wii is that like most toys today, you can't just get a Wii and be set. You have to buy accessories and additional games. Like it was a kid. The Wii Fit is hot right now. The reviews claim it makes exercising fun and motivates you to exercise daily.

Unless you're lucky, about the only exercise you can get from Wii Fit is if you go shopping every day and search the stores for it. It's almost impossible to find at a retail store or on-line, but eBay always seems to have plenty. Do you find that a tad suspicious? At least you can exercise your mind trying to figure out why.

Anyway instead of Wii Fit, I bought the game set Active Life: Outdoor Challenge.

I prefer to call it by it's real name "Are you trying to kill yourself, you crazy old woman?"

I got tired just reading the instructions and almost caused myself bodily injury trying to figure out how I was supposed to jump in the air with both feet while simultaneously touching one hand to the floor in a parody of snowboarding.

You want me to get that on film, don't you?

Trust me - it ain't gonna happen.