Failed Blogger Resurfaces Briefly

hi there.  Happy Father's Day to whomever this greeting applies.

It's been months since I wrote and I need to write about a huge milestone we recently reached:  last child graduates from college.  Woo hoo.  That feels really good.  We are so proud of him for working hard and getting good grades for four years.  I could study hard for only about 4 days, so I am very impressed with his diligence and attention span.  I hope these traits will bring him good things over the course of his life.

Here's his photo at graduation:

Now, as for the rest of our lives, we have no complaints and no changes to report.  We continue to think about moving and have looked at a few houses, but there doesn't seem to be a perfect house for us to take the time and trouble of selling this house and packing all this stuff, so we will leave well enough alone for now.  But you never know ....

The grand-daughters spent the night with us.  They are, as child-care professionals say, a handful.  But we enjoy them and know that their lives will speed by us quickly, so we take all the sobbing and sassiness in stride.  And beside, they don't actually live with us.  I will add photos here for your enjoyment.

One final bit of amusement.  I have been using Pintrest for a few months.  It's an online scrapbook for those unacquainted with it.  It's amusing to collect funny or interesting photos and assign them to boards that I create and write witty captions and have a few laughs over that.  I have gotten tired of it and decided to sign off, when over the course of 5 or 6 days, I received notification that people were now following my board called "Michelle Obama fan pix".  I admit to feeling like a bit of a creepy stalker collecting and posting photos of the FLOTUS.  However, full participation in the social media world requires a degree of risk-taking.  Just to satisfy my new subscribers, I found some new photos to post on that board.  It's a lot of pressure having "followers".  Good grief people, don't follow me.  I have no idea where I am going.  Stay back 500 feet!

The blog had its 4th anniversary in April.  I started writing just before the college graduate shown above graduated from high school.  For those of you worried about me and my empty nest, we are doing just fine. 

The graduate will be returning home to the nest in August to begin his job search, so I'll likely have some amusing stories about life with an offspring back in the house.  Until then, take time to smell the roses everyone.  Or rosemary.  It smells good too, and is a lot easier to grow.

Let Your Grass Flow

People who follow my writing (OK, person) know I hate grass. I lie awake at night thinking of ways to get rid of it. After multiple attempts to make it look nicer, I've decided that grass is the most difficult and expensive of all perennials to establish and maintain. Not too mention extremely labor intensive.  Last fall I found the remains of a bag of grass seed in my tool shed house of horrors. (Warning: don't open the door. I heard a lot of crashing last time I closed the door.  Hey, did I tell you about the time a hatchet fell from its hook and the handle hit me in the face?)

Back to grass. So I threw all of this grass seed down in the small area of grass I have left in my backyard. I have mulched over and planted over all of the other former grass areas, but I decided to leave this small grass area as seating for humans and pooping space for the dog. Little did I know that the dog will poop anywhere. On top of hellebores, on top of pavers, on top of old smokey, all covered in snow.

Back to grass. Lo and behold, this magic grass seed really took off, and I didn't bother to mow it during my last fall mowing of the wretched front yard grass.  Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I was getting the lawn mower out of the shed-of-death and a hatchet hit me in the face? Now this grass is fabulous. Lush and bright green and wild looking. I really like it this way. I may leave it. It makes me feel like a free spirit. Like a hippie.  I hope you'll like it too. 

 

Bellamy Brothers, 1975, Let your love flow, like a mountain stream

Snow Day

It's snowing. I'd take a photo and post it but that would require me to unseat myself from the sofa. I can't do that right now because Downton Abbey is due to start in about 4 minutes. You already know what snow looks like so you don't actually need me to post a photo. Maybe tomorrow I'll post a photo of the cats when they step out the door. They don't like wet feet so their reaction may be amusing. Stay tuned!! I feel badly about not posting for months now, since Herman Cain was still in the running for President of the United States, or Grand Poobah of the Springfield Moose Lodge. Springfield where the Simpson's live. Aww, shucky ducky that's a good idea. I reckon I could write about the 2 front runners, Mitt and Rick. But hasn't enough been said about these 2 weirdos? And what's happened to Newt? Did he go on another cruise with Callista? I kind of miss the other Rick and Michele. That woman had passion. Have to wrap this up, here comes the Abbey! xoxo, Janet

I Speak for Thousands of Women

hello, I am the self-appointed representative of the  thousands of women never propositioned by Herman Cain.

Herman Cain has never looked at me (or thousands of other women) and thought:

--"Man, I'd like to hit on that."

--"Umm ummm, I'd like some of that hot granny action."

--"hoo boy, she's out of my league."

--"Too bad Herman Cain is with his wife.  He'd like to get to know that honey a little better."

--"I wonder if she'd like to work under me at the NRA.  Wink wink nudge nudge."

--"hey sugar, Herman Cain's got a stimulus package for you."

--"Baby, I'd like to look under the hood of your democrat machine sometime.  Call me."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, should be the end of this sordid affair.  Leave Herman Cain alooooooone.

Crazy Birds Waking Us Up

Readers, the noise level here at the Nest has really gotten out of hand.  Wait, I made a pun without meaning to.  My topic for today is birds.  Lots and lots of birds.  Swooping and whirling and squawking or whatever you call bird sounds that aren't singing or looking for a mate.

One of my gripes about this abode is all the traffic noise we are subjected to.  Sirens and motorcycles and big trucks with grinding gears .... dear gussie it's wearing me out.

And now these blasted birds.  I think they are starlings.  They roost every night in the jungle of bamboo and weed trees that has taken over the backyard of the house across the street from us.  The backyard that faces the front of our house.  It's weird I know but that's how we roll in this hood. 

In August Paul and I went down to 17th street to watch the purple martins coming home for their evening roosting.  That was very impressive; a bird watcher there estimated 4000 birds came in that night, down from the high of 20,000 at their peak.  They had started migrating by the time we went down there to see them.

Our birds start coming home about 6 pm.  It takes about an hour for them to settle down.  Lots of false starts (or stops) happen during this hour.  Apparently there is some sort of protocol that must be followed before they can turn off the light and go to f***** bed.  Then they wake up around 6:30 am and fluff their feathers and fix breakfast, all the while raising cain.  The racket really is kind of frightening.  I don't know where the hell they go all day and I don't want to know.

I've included photos but a video is needed to do justice to this bizarre twice a day event.  It's loud.  Come over and see it.

I have to go to bed now.  No swooping or diving and screeching, I promise.

Taken from my sidewalk.

An impressive swooping maneuver

The Wedding Report

Our middle son Pete got married to the lovely and talented Kelly Hahn on Friday, August 19, 2011.

They enjoyed dating for 8 years and must have decided it was time to take the relationship to a new level.  No one can say they are rushing things, now can they?

While I have always been a big fan of Pete and Kelly for all of their accomplishments and fine personal qualities, my estimation of them has grown exponentially (that's a lot, right?) after seeing them get through this huge life event with nary a scratch.  They juggled a zillion details and were warm and attentive to all of their relatives and friends and appeared to have a great time at their wedding and all of its auxilliary events.  And they selected a great band for the reception, Ten Spot.  Who could help themselves from gettin' all jiggy with it once they got cranked up.  I was inspired to dance more than I have in my whole life by my granddaughter Evie.  For a 3 year old, she's got some moves.  I think she gets that from her mom.

So old granny janny and grandpa Paul had a fine time and now must rest in a darkened room until we regain what little strength we had prior to the wedding.

The only bad thing to report is that I dropped my camera and have very few pictures.  And the ones I got aren't so good.  I was just too excited to be still enough to take any good photos.  Please forgive me.

Something Good Hidden in the Wreckage

hi, I heard there was a problem with the debt ceiling.  Is it leaking?

I won't rail here about the asininity gripping our fair country; others do that so much better than I ever could.  I do wonder why asininity has only one S.  And that reminds me, you know what they say about assume .. it makes an ass out of you and me.

Back to the good news.  Just this week, the Obama administration decided that the new health care law would require health insurance providers to offer, with no co-pay, a range of reproductive health services for women.  This is very good news indeed.  It is shocking to me that many health insurers don't cover reproductive services.  Just another bit of lunacy in our health care system.  A few months ago I became a volunteer for Planned Parenthood.  I am sick and tired of the kooks who demonize Planned Parenthood and I decided to push back in some small way.  Our summer project is gathering signatures on petitions to send to Sec. Sebelius imploring the HHS to require insurers to cover the full range of reproductive services.  Now we don't have to stand out in the hot sun gathering signatures anymore, right?  No, not quite.  I'll be out doing it next Sunday.  It's not a hard sell getting folks to sign, as most people see the need for birth control coverage.  Of course the radical haters are gathering their forces to try to derail this requirement.  Can't those people sit down and shut up for a while?

Celebrate the small things I say.  It may be all we get.


from the NYT:

Insurance Coverage for Contraception Is Required

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: August 1, 2011

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WASHINGTON — The Obama administration issued new standards on Monday that require health insurance plans to cover all government-approved contraceptives for women, without co-payments or other charges.

The standards, which also guarantee free coverage of other preventive services for women, follow recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences and grew out of the new health care law.
“These historic guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need,” said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services.
The requirements apply to insurance in years starting on or after Aug. 1, 2012. They take effect in January 2013 for insurance plans that operate on the basis of a calendar year.