Max Says Have a Very Merry Christmas - 12/24/08

Max and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

For Dave - 12/23/08

cat loves a mouse @ Yahoo! Video

Rats! - 12/23/08

Got some *good* news today from Florida.  The real estate agent who manages my condo down there sent a cleaning crew in this week to get ready for the Snow Bird coming in January 1st and they found evidence of a major rat infestation!  Now truly I'm sure they do not resemble in any way the cutie in the picture.  I found a picture on line of rats walking around on a white tile floor and it was just too too creepy for me to contemplate the actuality of that scenario and ever return to that place again so I've opted for Ms. Cute as a Button Rat.

The Rat Abatement Specialist said they apparently are hiding out there during the day since its been vacant for awhile and leaving at night to feast in the dumpster.  He's trapping them and removing them which is a 7-day process (remind anyone else of the Pied Piper?) after which they will seal the holes and sanitize the entire unit.  This of course means that I'll lose my renter for January and February as the initial rental was for 2 months.

I now have to write a letter to the condo board and the building management company.  Apparently the building management has not been doing the required monthly extermination or they would have seen the evidence of this bigger problem.  My agent said she was in there about a month an a half ago and everything was fine.

All I can say is EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

A Fun Thing For This Morning - 12/21/08

I borrowed this from my friend TonyJ's site this morning.  What fun!  You can go here and try this with your own name.

You entered: I entered my complete name as given by my parents at birth

There are 15 letters in your name.
Those 15 letters total to 74
There are 4 vowels and 11 consonants in your name.
 
What your first name means:

Welsh	Female	Variant of Carys: Love.
German	Female	Feminine form of Charles.
English	Female	Variant of the French Cherie: dear one; darling. Rhyming variant of names like Meryl and Beryl.

Your number is: 11

The characteristics of #11 are: High spiritual plane, intuitive, illumination, idealist, a dreamer.

The expression or destiny for #11:
Your Expression number is 11. The number 11 is the first of the master numbers. It is associated with idealistic concepts and rather spiritual issues. Accordingly, it is a number with potentials that are somewhat more difficult to live up to. You have the capacity to be inspirational, and the ability to lead merely by your own example. An inborn inner strength and awareness can make you an excellent teacher, social worker, philosopher, or advisor. No matter what area of work you pursue, you are very aware and sensitive to the highest sense of your environment. Your intuition is very strong; in fact, many psychic people and those involved in occult studies have the number 11 expression. You possess a good mind with keen analytical ability. Because of this you can probably succeed in most lines of work, however, you will do better and be happier outside of the business world. Oddly enough, even here you generally succeed, owing to your often original and unusual approach. Nonetheless, you are more content working with your ideals, rather than dollars and cents.

The positive aspect of the number 11 expression is an always idealistic attitude. Your thinking is long term, and you are able to grasp the far-reaching effects of actions and plans. You are disappointed by the shortsighted views of many of your contemporaries. You are deeply concerned and supportive of art, music, or of beauty in any form.

The negative attitudes associated with the number 11 expression include a continuous sense of nervous tension; you may be too sensitive and temperamental. You tend to dream a lot and may be more of a dreamer than a doer. Fantasy and reality sometimes become intermingled and you are sometimes very impractical. You tend to want to spread the illumination of your knowledge to others irrespective of their desire or need.

Your Soul Urge number is: 8

A Soul Urge number of 8 means:
With an 8 soul urge, you have a natural flair for big business and the challenges imposed by the commercial world. Power, status and success are very important to you. You have strong urges to supervise, organize and lead. Material desires are also very pronounced. You have good executive abilities, and with these, confidence, energy and ambition.

Your mind is analytical and judgment sound; you're a good judge of material values and also human character. Self-controlled, you rarely let emotions cloud judgment. You are somewhat of an organizer at heart, and you like to keep those beneath you organized and on a proper track. This is a personality that wants to lead, not follow. You want to be known for your planning ability and solid judgment.

The negative aspects of the 8 soul urge are the often dominating and exacting attitude. You may have a tendency to be very rigid, sometimes stubborn.

Your Inner Dream number is: 3

An Inner Dream number of 3 means:
You dream of artistic expression; writing, painting, music. You would seek to more freely express your inner feeling and obtain more enjoyment from life. You also dream of being more popular, likable, and appreciated.

At Seven Months - The Winter Solstice - 12/21/08

The ancients celebrated the winter solstice as the return of the light.  They knew that after this day the sun began to incrementally bring more daylight back into their lives.  Today also marks for me the seven month anniversary of Warren's passing.  I will use the metaphor of the solstice to remind myself that the light will return to my life as well.

I Worry About Thee - 12/17/08

My great-grandmother Emma Josephine used to say (according to her grandson my Dad anyway), "there is something wrong with everyone except me and thee, and I'm beginning to worry about thee."

At First Sight - 12/12/08

A little poem to mark our 27th Wedding Anniversary which is today.  Happy Anniversary Warren.

At First Sight

Love it was.
I've heard it called the thunderbolt
That instant falling
that opening of an ancient door
and finding home again.

And so I found you
waiting unaware the both of us
for fate to bend in our direction
Oh yes, my heart said, there you are.

C. Jones 12/12/08

Where Was I 34 Years Ago Tonight? - 12/9/08

Where was I 34 years ago tonight?  Let's see, I was at home in Waldorf, Maryland, with my almost 5 year old daughter and my now ex-husband.  I was 10 months into a 9-month pregnancy and the baby was scheduled to be induced the following morning.  I was probably throwing up (as even Jenny remembers from when she was 5, Mommy was throwing up all the time).  It started at 4 days and didn't end until I transitioned in the delivery room (right before delivery).  It was a fun 10 months.  At my doctor's appointment the day before I had threatened to kill myself if they didn't induce the baby.  You see back in the day, they weren't as smart at figuring out just how far along you really were and the doctor's just assumed I was wrong about my dates.  Like any woman has ever not known when the little critter was actually started.  But I digress.  I think I was at least as big as a house, maybe bigger and very, very uncomfortable.

The next morning we traveled to D.C. to Greater South East Hospital and I was was given the drug to start contractions.  At some point in time they gave me an epidural for pain and put it in a little too high on the spine.  The doctor said "If you have any trouble breathing, let someone know" and then he left the room.  WTF?  Isn't breathing something they should be monitoring if it might be an issue?  Luckily for both of us it didn't become a problem.  After only seven hours my son Dave was born.  What I remember about the delivery room was that it was so quiet.  Dave was born with his eyes wide open and looking around.  He didn't cry right away but he was fine.  He was probably thinking WTF!  (Sorry, I seem to be loving that phrase tonight.)  The reason I said after ONLY seven hours is because his sister took from 6:00 a.m. on a Monday morning until just after 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning to leave the mothership.  Thirty-three hours!!  Seven hours was a walk in the park after that.

When Dave was a week old, the top layer of his skin peeled off which is something that happens to babies that stay too long in the womb and their protective waxy coating wears off.  These days they wouldn't let mother's go that far past their due dates as there is too much risk to the fetus.

He was 9 pounds, 3 ounces.

Messages - 12/5/08

I was listening to my future daughter-in-law's show on Blog Talk Radio yesterday morning and she and her co-host Kate had a guest on the show who is a medium (Lizzy Starr).  Usually the guests who come on don't or won't do readings on the air, but apparently Jen's husband who died in 2004 came in very strongly and a reading broke out for Jen, and then for another woman who works on the show and then for me.  Jen actually asked the medium if there was someone there for me as I had suffered a loss in May.  Jen also said that since coming into David's family she has learned what being in a family really means as she feels so loved and accepted and already considers me the Mother she wished she'd have had.  I was very, very touched by that.

There were some things the medium said that I didn't understand until later.  She said my husband was saying something about curlers, did I have curlers in my hair?  Well no.  However later I remembered that just this week I was wondering if I still had curlers or whether I'd thrown them out and then I found them under the sink in the bathroom.  Then she said something about were we high school sweethearts.  Of course that wouldn't have been possible because of the difference in our ages, but I think she was just misinterpreting that.   Warren always called me his child bride and I'm not sure if that colloquialism is used in the U.K. as well as here.  She told me that I wear his ring and that makes him happy.  I wear his wedding ring on my left hand between my wedding band and my engagement ring.  The big, big, big validation that I was getting message from Warren was when she told me "he says to tell you he's building you a house."  Well I just lost it right there.  I have a thing for houses that are two stories with a wrap around porch.  The kind of house I always wanted but never had.  Before he died he said he was going to build my "two stories and a porch" on the other side.  No one knew that but he and I. 

Jen had also gotten a message for me the night before that but was afraid to tell me.  She doesn't usually get information like that and I think she was a little freaked out.  He told her that the other night when I thought I'd felt someone touch my cheek, it was him (and I did feel that by the way) and also he wants me to stop crying myself to sleep as he is fine.

That was a lot to take in in one day.   I'm happy/sad.

Jen is bringing so much new energy into the lives of this family.  Its like she flipped a switch that has energized us in so many ways.  She and my daughter are becoming fast friends and now Jenny is doing paranormal investigations with Jen and Dave and the rest of their team.  We're meeting so many interesting people through her.  She has truly been a blessing to us.

There are TV documentaries in the works for next year and a movie too.  I will let you know when things will be aired in case you're interested.

Food for the Soul - 12/4/08

Poem: "Broth," by Richard Foerster, from Trillium (Boa Editions).

Broth
Some days we cannot help
but stand, chilled to the marrow,
and so let the water brim
with whatever bits we find at hand,
then ease into the kettle the wrecked keel
of a chicken—how like an alchemist
anyone intent on making soup.

The onion, halved then quartered,
separates into a lifetime
of crescent moons, and the carrot's
bright disks float like so many risings
gathered into a single day. Precise,
but not precise. It's not so much practice
as instinct to know that six

peppercorns are enough to pique
the senses, or that a trickle
of salt, rolled from the palm, honors
the one that bore us and will swallow
us again. Somehow we learn
that the parsley must be bitter
as the earth after Eden and one smatter

of thyme is enough to soothe the soul.
We do not think twice about adding
the bay leaf with its tincture of poison.
When we ache, we'll gladly shiver
to stir the broth, then sip, trusting
in the delicate balance of the common-
place to exact the cure. 

Perhaps Love - 12/2/08

John Denver & Placido Domingo