DOWNTOWN

I had a pretty good weekend. Saturday, I was invited by a friend to go to the Greek Festival which is held at Columbia's Greek orthodox Church, downtown. I had a wonderful time. The food was delicious. Being raised Baptist, it was strange having beer served on church property (i.e., served at all). Of course, I had one. It was an Athenian (sp) and boy did it go down good with the Greek chicken, some kind of pasta (that was out of this world), a filo pastry dish that had spinach in it and bread. I later had Baklava. Honey, I wouldn't mind having me a Greek man because there was definitely some lookers there. They also had a couple of groups of kids that did some Greek dancing. They were truly enjoying life. Of course, some older people did the traditional Greek dance. I can't think of the name, but they just had the best time dancing. Everyone watching the dancers kept shouting, "Umpa" (sp). What a fun time I had. I wish that we, as Americans, would slow down and enjoy life (and not feel guilty about it) the way most Europeans do.

Today I went over to a friend's house for lunch. He can make a mean, homemade macaroni and cheese.

Have you ever had a song(s) to pop into your head, out of the blue and then you spend the rest of the day singing the song until you about drive yourself crazy? Well, that happened to me today. It started out with Downtown by Petula Clark. I don't know where it came from because I haven't thought about that song in ages. None the less, I love that song and it always makes me happy to hear it or just walking around singing it to myself. I then thought about the song, Georgy Girl by The Seekers (an Australian group from the Sixties) which is another old favorite of mine. To me, the two just go together.

Until then...later possums.

OH...MY...GAWD!!

YOU GO, GIRL!!!! I'm speechless. I just did my initial run through of Barbra's new CD. BRILLIANT!! The three that stand out to me so far are: Night Of My Life (great dance number. It makes me want to put on my dance shoes and go clubbing), All The Children (great Middle Eastern flavor in this one. Great vocal surprises by Barbra) and (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away - Classic. Barry Gibb is truly a wonderful composer. I just don't know what to say. It's more than I expected. Barbra and Barry, you made this queer very happy!

UPDATE....Okay, make that five. I've got to include, Stranger In A Strange Land and It's Up To You as other favorites so far.

HATS GALORE

Another London Beanie. I think this one may be it for a while. Unless I knit some to give away to charities for this Winter. Speaking of Winter, I remember when growing up as a child, it always seemed to have been a lot colder than it does now. I firmly believe that we've worked ourselves into a corner with global warming and now Mother Nature is having her say. I remember when President Clinton was in office, he put a lot of positive environmental policies into affect and yes, they were having a positive impact on the situation. It was a proven fact that the hole in the ozone layer was closing up. Then comes along the current person in the White House, who all but does away with everything Clinton did (for our part) to start healing the earth. Bush will not even admit that the earth's oceans are getting warmer, which in turn produces more violent hurricanes, tornados, etc. The list goes on and on. I truly hope that in the immediate furture, we as a country, will strive with utmost passion to do our part in healing the earth and to make it a better place for future generations to live in. I believe that since the Industrial Revolution, the earth has been giving us hints that we're not taking care of her and now she's through talking. I think this quote is credited to the American Indians, "The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth." How very true.

Speaking of headwear. check out this photo. Weren't we just the fashion setters, LOL. This was taken back in 1968 which would have made me 7 years old at the time. With me are my two sisters, Joann on the left and Denise on the right. I like to joke with them and say that I'm the middle daughter. If you look closely, I'm holding a huge ice sickle. Even then, I liked to hold things that were phallic :-) !!


I can't believe that I'm showing this, but I just wanted to show a picture of the beanie being worn. I took this picture today while I was speaking with a friend on the phone. I know, how rude. The way I see it, I was just multi-tasking. Yes, you can look like this by gaining weight and not shaving for two days. Can anyone say, "convict"?! I need to see if I can buy one of those styrofoam heads that you see in wig shops. Speaking of wigs, maybe one day I'll be brave enough to show you some pictures of me in drag. Believe me, it was long ago when I weighed A LOT less and looked much younger.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Charlotte, NC to some of the LYS's there. Me and some of the ladies from the knitting guild that I'm in are going to take a day trip and make it a day of shopping and eating. As Barbra sang on The Broadway Album, "Let's hear it for the ladies who lunch..."

I leave you with this, a beautiful choral anthem written by English music composer, John Rutter. If you ever get a chance to hear this short piece, it will bring you close to tears. At least it does me.

A GAELIC BLESSING (words adapted from an old Gaelic rune)

"Deep peace of the running wave to you

Deep peace of the flowing air to you

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep peace of the shining stars to you

Deep peace of the the gentle night to you

Moon and stars pour their healing light on you

Deep peace of Christ, the light of the world, to you

Deep peace of Christ to you."

Have a great weekend everyone.

FOUR YEARS

It's hard to believe that four years have gone by since the attacks on the Twin Towers, The Pentagon and the American Airline flight that was brought down by it's brave passengers. It's also hard to believe that if it had not been for their bravery, the White House may have lain in ruins. To all the men, women and children who lost lives on that terrible day, I pray that you're at rest and at peace. To all the families that lost loved ones, may you find strength in the hope for humanity and are finding peace in your own hearts.


This is what I've been working on lately; a London Beanie and mittens. I've got another mitten to go. Heck with SSS, I've got SMS!! The London Beanie is from a pattern I found off of the web a couple of weeks ago that was written by an Englishman; I guess when David Beckham made them a must wear. The mitten is from a book I checked out from the library this weekend. This is my first time knitting both a Beanie and a mitten(s). I'm quite happy with myself and the results.

























In other news, I quit my job at Verizon Wireless Wednesday, a week ago. I've been working in a call center since 1994 for one wireless carrier or another. I just could not take it any more. The reason I quit instead of being fired is because I was lied to. The manager told me if they fired me and I used them as an employment reference, they would have to disclose why I was let go, but if I quit, then all they would have to disclose was the dates of my employment with them. Come to find out, it's against the law to disclose the reason an employee is let go anyway. I've never been fired from a job before so I didn't know she was sitting there acting all concerned when all she was doing was sitting there, lying through her teeth and hoping to be patted on the back by higher management that she saved them from having to pay me unemployment benefits. That's okay though because I believe you reap what you sow. That's why I always try to treat others the way that I want to be treated. I'll say this and try to put that place behind me. I don't know how the other Verizon Wireless call centers are throughout the country, but the one here in Columbia is simply awful. You're nothing more to them except performance numbers. You wouldn't believe everything they expect you to do on a call and then not allow you time in between calls to finish taking care of the customer's concern. Lord help if you forgot to do something for a customer because of that and the customer calls back in to complain. Enough of that and that place. I hope that I find something soon. Until later...

FROM THE DUMBASS ON DOWN

Where is the governmental leadership in this country? From the dumbass in office on down to the local government in the States that were affected by Hurricane Katrina? Dumbass gave a live broadcast this morning before he left to go down to the affected areas, but chose to land in Mississippi instead of Louisiana. He knows to stay away from there. Concerning his speech this morning. He was stumbling all over his words, which is not uncommon, but even more so today. As I told Sean this morning in an E-Mail, he knows his ass is in hot water on this one. As some of you probably are aware, there was study put in place by FEMA that was studying the affects that a hurricane would have the levees in New Orleans and how to fix them. We'll guess what, dumbass cut the funding down to next to nothing. Oh yeah, and least we forget where the "savings" went, yes, HIS war in IRAQ. So yes, the effect of this disaster can be tied by to him. His ass had better be impeached on this. I swear!! Enough is enough!! I'm sure that as many are, please continue to keep the victims in the affected areas in your thoughts and prayers and send any type of help that you can. We CANNOT forget this and the lack of leadership we've seen to our fellow countrymen by the current administration. DO NOT FORGET!