Sparkling Wine

Do you want to live forever?

2011-12-04T19:00:00.000+01:00

I have spent nearly 10 years here in Germany and with one man whom I met on line. We biked through Europe together which was our main connection. He's not an easy person to stay with and over the years I have gotten much information about him and his personality, from family members and from my own experience. Ours is the longest relationship he has had in his life. He bullies and controls with big brash bluffs of angry outbursts, some of which have nearly driven me away. But I am the type of person that can 'make lemonade out of lemons'. I stayed because I wanted this European experience. I stayed because I wanted to learn about this culture and I stayed because I didn't have much of anything for which to go home.

Don't get this statement wrong. I have certainly family, whom I love and love me. No question about that. But I had closed up many things when I left the USA. Technically I still 'live' at my father's home in Florida. It is my state-side address. But everyone in the USA has their own lives to live and I need to be autonomous too. Dad married 4 years ago and has had a wonderful life with her. It is their home now and I am the daughter that visits once a year, welcomed to be sure, for that time I am there. I don't live there anymore. Returning would mean intruding on their lives in some way which might be long term, given the state of the job market. My sons also have their own lives. So here I stay, with a job and a man to whom I am a friend and now a caretaker.

How long will I be here, how much longer? His health is questionable and his illness is not under control. He is not good at maintaining the right combination of all his drugs and does not follow 'doctor's orders'. Perhaps more is the question, how long will he be here. Cause once he is 'gone' I will leave.

Then my next step will be to return to the USA, but where? Close to my sons? Close to my 85 year old dad and his wife? Or strike out on my own and start up in a new place. Why I am thinking about all this? No, the man I am with is not about to expire but my thoughts do drift to this subject from time to time.

It's a rainy night in Heidelberg and this helps to lay my brain waves out on the pavement like this.

Fine day for thankfulness

2011-11-25T07:51:00.001+01:00

We attended the military Thanksgiving Day dinner at Patrick Henry Village in Heidelberg yesterday. It was so elegant. The food was beautiful to see and perfectly laid out on white linen. The food of course was done to perfection and tasted fine.

However the best part of this fine feast was the company of people I was in. These were also my friends, having been here for over 6 years, I knew most of with whom we dined and for that I was very Thankful.

Cross-section of life where I work

2011-11-22T08:32:00.000+01:00

Another day at work. Yesterday was another rats nest of some kind of problem or other. All repaired, all fixed but time consuming and stress creating.

I must say, working on an American military complex, you do get an interesting cross section of people working for and with you. We have Germans, Philippians, Kenyans, Nigerians, one Korean and a few Americans working there. Fascinating.

Room with a view please?

2011-11-21T20:42:00.000+01:00

I think I will get a room at the Hotel California.

Another day... another week....

2011-11-21T08:33:00.000+01:00

As 8:30am approaches I am ready for the day of tasks ahead. Most of what I do involves efficiency of movement, muliti-tasking and a constant thought of what needs to be done next. I supervise the setting up of a store for the days' operations which involves trouble-shooting the inevitable variables that come with that.

Nothing ever runs smoothly.

Dealing with inanimate object is one thing ... then I must also deal with the animate... those people with whom I work, inevitably they have 'issues' that prevent them from performing the tasks for which they are assigned and will then fall back upon others (like me!) I am the problem-solver!

Onward!

Sunday night blues...

2011-11-20T20:53:00.000+01:00

Why The Blues on a Sunday night? The prospect of work the next day, that's the blues. Not that I dislike my work. Once there I actually enjoy what I do. Just the thought of my life regulated by that time period that's all. Got to be there at 9am, got to get out the door by 8:30am, got to have my breakfast ready to eat by 7:30am, got to get up at 6:30am. See, time periods... little marks on the clock... punctuality governing my life.

Now, Friday is my favorite day of the week... then I have the entire weekend ahead of me. I call it WINE FRIDAY! I find a nice local wine, perhaps a nice Riesling or a Silvaner. Or something from the Mosel region? Living in Germany near the Rhine River and the Pfalz region has great benies!

Tonight, to temper my 'sadness' of returning to work tomorrow... I am having a glass of Weiss Burgunder. Dry with a light pear aftertaste.

No I am not a wino, nor am I a wine-o-phile but I know what I like.

So tomorrow I get to see all my military soldiers and families once again and serve them up some Tacos!

What do I have to say?

2011-11-20T11:36:00.003+01:00

Here I am again, thinking. Dangerous, don't you think? Last post was 2010! Oh My!

Blogs. Have they gone out of style? Have we all bought into the instant posting of a Twitter? (I am not a Twitt) Have we opted for the simple 'notes' of Facebook, just touching base with our 'friends' (really? are they really FRIENDS?)

Writing ... has it gone out of style? Maybe so.

I wrote to my daddy the other day. I sent him some information and he is not much of a computer guy (at 85 he just has no inclination to become a computer addict) so no email for him. It felt strange, writing by hand, a note to him. But then it also felt nice. It was more intimate, a little piece of me on paper that I had touched, pen in hand, my handwriting (which has deteriorated with lack of use). Then I sent a birthday card to a good friend and handwritten a message within the card. How retro of me!

So now I am thinking (again with the 'thinking' thing) are personal journals a good way to get back to thoughtfulness or just another retro thing ... a way to self analyze .... a vanity outlet? But you know, I miss just typing away, extemporaneously, my thoughts as they pop into my head.

Therapy, yeah.

What is in my heart or head or gut.. hmmm?

2010-07-27T21:07:00.002+02:00

There are times I want to express my disdain about men in general. Then I use my intellect and understand that not all men are like the ones I have encountered. Guess that is true of men who have encountered women which have left a bad memory.

What is human nature then? What are men and women partnerships? I try to look at the needs of the human condition and think, "companionship'. Isn't that what each sex needs? Lovely that it would involved something deeper then a friendship (definition please?) or an intimate sexual connection (which fades with time?)

OK. I am not thinking about the nature of long term (my dad and mom, your dad and mom or grandma and grandpa) type of relationships. Or.... should we re-examine why those relationships did last? Ok... many did not other than it was mandatory that they stay together.

I am thinking, why would man not wish to save a 'good' relationship? The woman ... his wife or long term lady... is expressing dissatisfaction within the relationship. So, should the man bale out? Toss the relationship cause the woman is making noise and I, the man, should not have to explain myself? Or should I 'whimp out' and do that modern man thing and find out what my women needs?

Yeah, I am revisiting this subject in my mind... cause the subject has come up again amongst my friends. I don't have the answers ... after 10 years... I still have no idea why a husband would not think a wife was not worth the effort - unless he was due for a change.

Tea and memories

2009-09-19T10:39:00.003+02:00

I made tea for myself this Saturday morning.

I had taken the short walk to the little bakery down the street to pick up our daily bread and two apple strudel, and that called for some tea.

As I poured the water over the teabag the scented steam rose and woke a memory.

I, as a 7 year old, was taken back to a morning in my grandmother's kitchen, a big house just outside of Morristown, NJ with large gardens. I was always allowed 'grown-up' tea when I went to visit with her. She would always fill the hot cup of tea with warmed milk. There was a particular scent of that hot mix and to this day I will be sent back to those times when I smell hot tea with milk.

The power of 'aroma therapy' was, I believe, born out of this human ability.

ps, the apple strudel was very tasty too.

Note to Rachel - my dear friend, I cannot read your blog as it has been made private. I miss being a part of your progress. Hope you are doing well in your nursing classes.

Seasons of Change

2009-09-07T09:04:00.002+02:00

The change had begun and summer of 2009 is shortly to become history. Was it a good season? It had its moments. Now I turn my thoughts to the next season of changes. Weather? Most certainly for that is without control on our part. Within life, I feel a change coming on for myself. It may bring some sadness but it is time to make these changes. I need courage and motivation to make these changes but made they must, else my own future will be bleak.

When faced with choices of a major proportion I tend to be introspective, examining all options, avenues and scenarios, then become motivated. Not all of my choices have been successful in my life but most have not been so devastating that I could not modify or overcome them. Still I fear failure (don't we all?) and my next steps, when they begin, must be carried out completely in their entirety.

I must give all this careful thought. The dangers are, one tends to fall back into the comfort zone of sameness even if that is where you do not wish to be.

Back to the Health Care issue

2009-06-26T07:56:00.002+02:00

There has been a lot of press about health care for everyone in the USA. Some are afraid of that possibility and call it socialized medicine using a tone of voice that evokes impending doom or horror. Others are saying 'it's about time' we not only gave serious thought to it but to implement it. Now is the time is the cry of many. It will hit home for many who may have, in the past, been against it as the solid companies they work for drop health care down to a minimum of coverage with most having to pay large out-of-pocket deductibles and ancillary changes.

It has been said by many in the upper income brackets that the USA has 'the best health care in the world' and yet this great health care is not affordable to a very large portion of our population in the 'Greatest Nation in the World'. And those numbers are growing because of the economic downturn (I would use the word "depression" but that seems to be a word out of favor)

There are people who can afford health care but go off to another country to have very expensive procedures or operation because either their own health care wont cover it (an HMO that has deemed it 'experimental' or some other excuse) and the other country will perform it in high quality hospitals with highly trained doctors at a fraction of the cost that an American hospital would charge. Now that is the crux of the real issue of health care in the United States of America. Our health care, no matter if it is a general office visit to your GP or more specialized, has become so outrageously expensive as to become out of control. Why? Well, aren't we a free market system? And since health care has become Big Business then why not charge what the market will bear?

If you are old enough you might remember when a visit to your GP would cost $5 and he would give you some sample medications to tide you over till you got your prescription filled. Now you don't go to a GP anymore, you go to some medical center where 'your' doctor is a part of a larger medical business. You don't really get to know your doctor nor his staff as in the 'old days'.

You can argue that doctors had to do this consolidation to cut their own costs and you would be correct. Their malpractice insurance has sky-rocketed. Several years ago there was an effort to limit mal-practice suit amounts but that failed. There are arguments both for and against that are quite valid. However it is in large part a factor of insurance companies dictating premiums in accordance with their need for a certain profit margin. One has only to look at the past year's issues with large insurance companies and the 'bail-outs' AND the huge bonus programs that these large companies lavished on their executives to know that it was imperative that a large profit margin had to be maintained. And to do that, large insurance premiums had to be charged. After all we are a Free Market System and health care is now a part of that big business. Good health is not a right, it is available only if you can afford it.

Read Michal Kinsley's "Health Care Faces the 'R' Word" and get a view point that rings true.

The cost of health care is out of control in the USA. How does one get control of something that should be affordable to all? I am still collecting data and forming opinions on this. And yes, I am using a lot of data from Germany in forming these opinions because I have had an up close and personal view of that system. It works and it works because it is under control and it is under control because of a long term dedication by the government. All insurance premiums are based on ability to pay. And you, the insured, get access to ALL medical procedures, not just those listed in some fine print drawn up by that certain insurance company. Now there's an inovative thought!

My weekend reading-dollarsign origin?

2009-06-14T11:23:00.004+02:00

So, we are having morning coffee and the subject came up - 'What is the history of the dollar'. My passion is origins. Origins of words, of customs or of where did mom get that recipe. So, off I go to the internet to research.

Here are my results from the website - http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/dollar.html

The United States Abbreviation Theory

One of the most popular theories is that the dollar sign is derived from the initials of the United States. If you superimpose a capital "U" on a capital "S" then drop the lower part of the "U", what you end up with is a version of the dollar symbol with two strokes. This theory was endorsed by the American libertarian philosopher and staunch defender of capitalism, Ayn Rand, in her novel Atlas Shrugged. Chapter 10 is entitled the Sign of the Dollar. Rand claimed the dollar sign was the symbol not only of the currency, but also the nation, a free economy, and a free mind.

So much for a Sunday morning trivia discussion, eh?

Revamping our Health Care

2009-05-25T17:04:00.002+02:00

Can our health care system be revamped, reworked and renewed to include all US citizens?

I have been following a number of articles about this issue starting way back in the Clinton era when Ms Clinton tried to come up with something.

My first thought was, shouldn't the health care providers first get on the 'same page' about what is considered BASIC CARE?

On the outset, a child born in the USA should begin having regular preventive health care included dental. If we have a healthy youth then it should follow that we would have healthier adults.

In Forbes I read about MEDITECH being used to make hospitals more efficient and create less duplicate work within the hospital medical system. Doctors in all departments would have complete access to a patient's history and current medication lists, test and their results and any other doctors or departments with which the patient has been involved. This system is widely used in larger university medical communities such as the one I am currently familiar, Heidelberg University.

Is this the best place to begin for any medical system? To have a system of sharing patient history could cut the very costs that are choking our health care now.

I continue to monitor these issues. After all, if the USA is to make the claim "the greatest nation on Earth" then it had better get rid of this fear of the word 'social' and know that our society (a word dirived from scocial) must be cared for in many ways through either government sponsored programs or greater oportunities for everyone to obtain 'the American Dream' (and that is a very subjective item).

More to come on this.

Blogging = twittering?

2009-05-23T14:12:00.002+02:00

Big noise over the internet about this Twitter stuff. Just another way to keep everyone glued to their internet connection? Twitter about nonsense. Twitter about your own coolness. Twitter about your pain. Twitter about twittering.

I am sure the mobile communications industry is pushing all this too cause then you MUST have the full service and of COURSE you're gonna need that new, latest and greatest cell phone 'blackberry' or 'iphone' clone, right? Big bucks babe. It's all about spending more than you earn on 'stuff'!

The 'STUFF' industry is suffering right now, peps. You, the consumer public are just not digging down deep in your pockets to get those teckie goodies. Get out the old plastic and get all that "STUFF" anyway, even if your job is shaky and you have lost some of your nest-egg with the global slow-down of stocks, 401k's money markets, etc.

Make your life more ultra light. Have only the things that are really necessary to achieve an enjoyable life but don't set that 'bar' of what is enjoyable, too high.

So, there it is, my own Twitter of the day.

Maybe I should make this blog into my own little Twitter page! LOL!

The truth sometimes hurts

2009-05-03T09:20:00.000+02:00

Philip Larkin - This Be The Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
 They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
 And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
 By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
 And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
 It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
 And don't have any kids yourself.

Light at the end of that long dark tunnel

2009-02-07T15:44:00.005+01:00

In all the years I have been flying back and forth between the USA and Europe I have managed to save some frequent flyer miles. On one trip I was able to upgrade my lowly little narrow coach seat to a full blown first class ticket with all the perks. That included access to the comfy lounges at the airport where you can wait that 3 or 4 hour lay-over in relative comfort with snacks, coffee, juices (free) and drinks (for a price) along with TV or a quiet little nook. Wide seats with a foot rest. A drink and a snack before the take-off, a drink after take off and a nice appetizer , a drink anytime you ask for it. Designer dinners, a light snack just before heading into a landing pattern and did I mention drinks?

Now I am planning another trip to the USA using my miles. I have accumulated enough over the past several years to get round trip tickets for both myself and My Man. I had to book them for the "off peak" season - winter, and fly back in the slow season, early spring. Round trip International tix for 2, about $2500 worth of flying for just over $200 (booking fees you know).
I need this time off. I let my boss know that I was leaving for 8 weeks and he never asked me why cause he knew what I had been through these past months.

It's been a very long 10 months. It was April that my man began to have health problems. I don't know if he will ever be the same as he was, most likely not and I am not sure how much improvement he will achieve. However, we are going to give ourselves some time to rest and recuperate from all this. Florida sun, warmth, color and family (mine) will have some therapeutic affect, it must. This man has seen the insides of 4 different hospitals and spent over 18 weeks total in hospital rooms since July. He has not really be out of our little apartment for many weeks. He needs human contact, some freedom to get out into the warm outdoors where his sensitivity to cold doesn't bother him. And I need Spring to come early.

He needs to smile. He needs to have hope. He needs to see a future.

2008-12-28T12:08:00.003+01:00

The last Sunday of 2009 finds me sitting before my little computer contemplating these last few days of 2008. It's been a Hell of a year, much of that Hell being health related. Me, I am healthy which is the good thing cause my partner had a turn in April which is still on-going. We both hope that 2009 will restore at least some of the health he once enjoyed.

I am trying out this 'Blogger' format to test-ride it and see if it has a better format than the Microsoft Spaces format. As usual, Microsoft fools around with things till they loose customers. Perhaps, like most over-stuff corporations some big 'suits' think that they must justify their position (and their paycheck) by 'having a meeting' and 'forming a committee' to re-evaluate something, ANYTHING so it looks like they are doing something. Then they point the finger (this is called 'delegation') at this new committee and make is sound like it is the committee that has not justified its value but making some new changes or 'mission statement'. So there then is a scramble to just make any kind of change just of the sake of 'change'. Truly the corporate way... Change for change sake.

The world of Big Business is not justifying its existence any longer. It always was the small, personally owned business that created our way of life but the formation of the gigantic and impersonal corporations have created a new class system which has turned into a elitist class. The working class has become the new poor and will bear the burden of the economic troubles created on 2008. Lets hope that some intelligence and sober views will come in 2009.

Let's hope that Google and its Blogger format has the intelligence to get imput from its users before it too make foolish changes.

2009, the year of common sense? Wouldn't THAT be unique!

Strongest Dad in the World

2005-07-23T13:02:00.000+02:00

"Strongest Dad in the World" by Rick Reilly

This article was taken from Sports Illustrated. You better have a box of kleenex by your side.

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars -- all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much -- except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. "He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution." But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain." "Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that." Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks." That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!" And that sentence changed Dick's life.

He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. "No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?" How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii.

It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think? Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 -- only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time. "No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century." And Dick got something else out of all this too.

Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago." So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. "The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

Coca Cola anyone?

2005-07-09T11:51:00.000+02:00

+---------------- Bizarre Facts About Coke -----------------+

[You would think that after reading these facts I would think twice about drinking Coke, but I am opening a can as we speak!]

* In many U.S. states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.

* You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.

* You can rub a car bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola to remove rust spots.

* Pouring a can of Coca-Cola over a car battery terminal will bubble away corrosion.

* Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt or several minutes will loosen it.

* You can empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

* The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its Ph is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

* To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.

* The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years.

Drink up!!!

2005-06-21T12:56:00.000+02:00

June 20, 2005
Someone Else's Child
By BOB HERBERT
It has become clearer than ever that Americans do not want to fight George W. Bush's tragically misguided war in Iraq.
You can still find plenty of folks arguing that we have to stay the course, or even raise the stakes by sending more troops to the war zone. But from the very start of this war the loudest of the flag-waving hawks were those who were safely beyond military age themselves and were unwilling to send their own children off to fight.
It's easy to be macho when you have nothing at risk. The hawks want the war to be fought with other people's children, while their own children go safely off to college, or to the mall. The number of influential American officials who have children in uniform in Iraq is minuscule.
Most Americans want no part of Mr. Bush's war, which is why Army recruiters are failing so miserably at meeting their monthly enlistment quotas. Desperate, the Army is lowering its standards, shortening tours, increasing bonuses and violating its own recruitment regulations and ethical guidelines.
Americans do not want to fight this war.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/opinion/20herbert.html?pagewanted=print

Bizarre Holidays in June

2005-05-28T10:21:00.000+02:00

June is Adopt-A-Shelter-Cat Month, American Rivers Month, Cancer In The Sun Month, Dairy Month, Turkey Lover's Month, National Accordian Awareness Month, National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month, National Ice Tea Month, National Papaya Month, National Pest Control Month, National Rose Month, Fight The Filthy Fly Month, and Zoo and Aquarium Month

June 1 is . . . . . Dare Day
June 2 is . . . . . National Rocky Road Day
June 3 is . . . . . Repeat Day
June 4 is . . . . . Old Maid's Day
June 5 is . . . . . Festival Of Popular Delusions Day
June 6 is . . . . . Teacher's Day and National Applesauce Cake Day
June 7 is . . . . . National Chocolate Ice Cream Day
June 8 is . . . . . Name Your Poison Day
June 9 is . . . . . Donald Duck Day
June 10 is . . . . National Yo-Yo Day
June 11 is . . . . National Hug Holiday and King Kamehameha Day
June 12 is . . . . Machine Day
June 13 is . . . . National Juggling Day and Kitchen Klutzes Of America Day
June 14 is . . . . Pop Goes The Weasel Day
June 15 is . . . . Smile Power Day
June 16 is . . . . National Hollerin' Contest Day
June 17 is . . . . Watergate Day and Eat Your Vegetables Day
June 18 is . . . . International Panic Day
June 19 is . . . . World Sauntering Day
June 20 is . . . . Ice Cream Soda Day
June 21 is . . . .Cuckoo Warning Day
June 22 is . . . . National Chocolate Eclair Day
June 23 is . . . . National Pink Day
June 24 is . . . . Museum Comes To Life Day
June 25 is . . . . Log Cabin Day
June 26 is . . . . National Chocolate Pudding Day
June 27 is . . . . National Columnists Day
June 28 is . . . . Paul Bunyan Day
June 29 is . . . . Camera Day
June 30 is . . . . Meteor Day

http://www.bizarrenews.com/

2005-05-26T10:05:00.000+02:00

+------------- Bizarre National Superstitions -------------+

In Iceland, an unmarried person who sits at the corner of a table won't marry for seven years. A pregnant woman who drinks from a cracked cup risks having a baby with a hare-lip.

In Japan, picking up a comb with its teeth facing your body brings bad luck.

In Malta, churches with two towers are fitted with a clock face in each but the two clocks always tell different times to confuse the Devil about the time of the service.

In Nigeria, a man hit with a broom becomes impotent unless he retaliates seven times with the same broom. ** Sweeping a house at night brings misfortune to the occupants.
(now I have another excuse to get out of work! Yeah!)

In Poland, bringing lilac into the house is a sure sign of impending death.
(Oh dear! My favorite spring flower too!)

In Scotland, red and green should never be worn together. It is unlucky to throw vegetables on to the fire and to carry a spade through the house. This means that a grave will soon be dug. And three swans flying together means a national disaster is imminent. (Christmas is always a distaster at my house!)

In Holland, people with red hair bring bad luck.
(and I am going to Holland this weekend to meet up with a friend who has RED HAIR)

In China, sweeping out a house removes all the good luck, especially on Chinese New Year.
(maybe this was why their toilets were so nasty, tourists rated them the worst in the world?)

http://www.bizarrenews.com

Say the right thing

2005-05-23T21:19:00.000+02:00

Jack wakes up at home with a huge hangover he can't believe. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table. And, next to them, a single red rose!

Jack sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed.Jack looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotlessly clean. So is the rest of the house. He takes the aspirins, cringes when he sees a huge black eye staring back at him in the bathroom mirror, and notices a note on the table:
"Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping--Love you!"

He stumbles to the kitchen and sure enough, there is hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Jack asks, "Son... what happened last night?""Well, you came home after 3 A.M., drunk and out of your mind. You broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and got that black eye when you ran into the door."
"So, why is everything in such perfect order, so clean, I have a rose, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?"His son replies, "Oh, THAT!... Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you screamed, "Leave me alone, lady, I'm married!"

Broken furniture -- $85.26
Hot Breakfast -- $4.20
Red Rose bud -- $3.00
Two Aspirins -- $0.38
Saying the right thing, at the right time -- Priceless.

In the News: Don't get mad, get even.

2005-05-20T21:43:00.000+02:00

MELBOURNE, Australia - I guess you have to be careful who you piss off. A dog club member who was mad after a fight with two women office-bearers took out newspaper ads with their phone numbers touting them as sex workers. One of the victims, a 72-year-old wheelchair-bound woman, had an ad announcing her as "Pauline, erotic fantasies are what I like. Home all day." The come-on line for the other woman, 56, said "Sandy, bashful, bring your toys, a devil after midnight." The two women were woken up by incessant phone calls which didn't stop until the next week's edition. Shirley Irene Wright, 52, was caught when it was discovered the ads were paid for using her bank card.

2005-05-19T20:28:00.000+02:00

~"Dreams are not dreams at all. They are simply reality that has yet to happen."

2005-05-18T20:52:00.000+02:00

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in modern business, because of the heavy investment factors to be taken into consideration, often other strategies have to be tried with dead horses, including the following:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Threatening the horse with termination.
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
7. Appointing an intervention team to re-animate the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Re-classifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
10. Change the form so that it reads: "This horse is not dead."
11. Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Donate the dead horse to a recognized charity, thereby deducting its full original cost.
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a time management study to see if the lighter riders would improve productivity.
16. Purchase an after-market product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare that a dead horse has lower overhead and therefore performs better.
18. Form a quality focus group to find profitable uses for dead horses.
19. Rewrite the expected performance requirements for horses.
20. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
21. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
22. Comparing the state of dead horses in todays environment.
23. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
24. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
25. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
26. Apply for a government subsidy to retrain dead horses.

This can be applied to many government projects as well.

Facts about Humans

2005-05-18T11:13:00.000+02:00

People who live in the city have longer, thicker nose hairs than people who live in the country.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every 2 weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.

The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet.

We shed an average of 40 pounds of dead skin in a lifetime.

When we blush, our stomach lining also turns red.

You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

Your tongue print is as unique as your fingerprint.

We get goose bumps where our ancestors used to have hair.

On a square inch of our skin, there are 20 million micro- scopic animals.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

2005-05-17T23:51:00.000+02:00

Vatertag/HerrentagFather's Day in Germany has a different origin and is a very different observance than the American version. (Austria's Vatertag is more like the U.S. holiday. See below.) Germany's Vatertag began in the the Middle Ages as a religious procession honoring "Gott, den Vater" on Ancension Day (Christi Himmelfahrt, usually in May). Although as late as the 1700s Vatertag was a family day for honoring dad, somehow things went sour and in the 19th century the custom reappeared in Berlin as a less refined and very alcoholic celebration on that same date (20 May 2004, 5 May 2005, 25 May 2006). Today Germany's Vatertag is supposed to be closer to a "boys' day out" and a pub tour with the guys (Männerrunde) than the more family-oriented Father's Day in the U.S. In eastern Germany the day is known as Herrentag, but in all parts of Germany, the Herrentag/Vatertag tradition has a bad reputation as a "Sauftag" ("drinking day"). It may make German bar and brewery owners happy, but hardly anyone else. In some regions groups of men (few of them fathers) still go off into the country to have a "Joe Six-Pack" party on Vatertag, but in reality, the German Father's Day beer bust is largely a thing of the past. While in the past a bunch of drunken men may have been amusing, it is no longer viewed as something funny. Besides, German men today hardly need a holiday excuse to have a few drinks with their buddies.