I just love these things! I should get a life!
A is for Age – 51
B is for Booze – dirty martini
C is for Career – CWDP: Certified Workforce Development Professional
D is for Dad’s name – Edmour
E is for Essential items to bring to a party – I keep getting asked to bring my blender, a 2 hp Vitamix
F is for Favorite songs -- hard to choose just one.... but Kedrov's Our Father; Rachmaninov's Rejoice O Virgin; O Lord, Save Thy People in Obikhod Tone 1 - they always make me cry.
G is for Goof off thing to do – surf the internet
H is for Hometown – Everett, MA and Lake Sunapee, NH
I is for Instrument you play – I used to play all the brass except slide trombone, particularly the french horn; I can play the piano and guitar a little
J is for Jam or Jelly you like – Apple Butter, Freedom Acres brand champagne mint, damson plum and raspberry. There is no other.
K is for Kids - Just one, but she's a fantastic one
L is for Living arrangement – My cheerful little house in Richmond Hill with my almost 17yo dd, one spoiled male shih tzu and our female princess. I mean, our female kitten!
M is for Mom’s name – Beatrice Elena Cieri Babineau
N is for Names of best friends – My best girlfriends, other than my cousins, are Ellen, Cindy, Joan and Carla.
O is for overnight hospital stays – 4 for when I was the patient, and probably about a dozen for when dd or mother or father were the patients
P is for Phobias – Birds flying around near me! Blech! Scary!
Q is for Quote you like – Isaiah 40:30-31
R is for Relationship that lasted longest – It used to be with my life-long friend, Keith, but he died a few years ago.... so now, other than family members and my ex, I think its with my dear friend Ellen
S is for Siblings - No blood brothers or sisters, but two cousins who are the sisters of my heart - Ethel and Roseanne. I love you guys!
T is for Texas , Ever been? – Oh yeah, I've been, and not just in an airport, either. My folks and I and dd drove through it on our way from CA to GA, stopping everywhere we felt like. I particularly liked San Antonio.
U is for Unique trait – Not unique, but a predominant trait I have is that I'm overly helpful. My family and friends understand that I'm just trying to help, but my enemies think I'm bossy and a know it all.
V is for Vegetable you love – Love 'em all! Esp brussels sprouts, artichokes, asparagus.....
W is for Worst traits – See unique trait
X - is for XRays you’ve had – I think pretty much all of me has been x-rayed at some point.
Y is for Yummy food you make – Most things I make are pretty yummy, though I occasionally have to toss something in the trash
Z is for Zodiac sign – I don't really follow this kind of stuff, but I've been told that I'm an atypical Virgo.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Christmas Meme
I got this from Lola and it looks like fun.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Tough choice. I think egg nog at Christmastime, particularly if it has some brandy in it. On the other hand, I love hot chocolate.....
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I used to wrap everything carefully, but once you have a child, it seems pointless to do more than just wrap the presents. Now that she's almost grown, I do the bag thing.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White. Always white. I come from New England, and white lights make me think of icicles.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes, always!
5. When do you put your decorations up? Until a couple of years ago, the earlier the better. I always used to put the tree up on Thanksgiving weekend. But then my parents were failing and it was hard to get everything up. Last year was the first year without my folks, and I just couldn't get into the spirit, so I think we finally got the tree up about a week or so before Christmas. Our tree still isn't up - we were going to do it this afternoon, but both of us are sick. This week for sure, though!
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? For Christmas, I like to eat either chicken cooked in wine or roast pork or kibbee.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Most of my favorite childhood memories have to do with my mother, her sisters and my grandmother cooking for weeks prior to every holiday in that old green kitchen on B St.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember, I really don't. I don't remember that I was devastated or anything.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? As a child, the family would go to midnight mass, and stop at our house on the way home to wake me up so I could open my presents. Once I married, my husband didn't want to do that - he was used to Christmas morning presents. We moved to the other coast, and there was no family around, so it was easy to do the Christmas morning thing. I like it better.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I have enough ornaments for probably 4 or 5 trees! I love Christmas trees! For a few years I did theme trees, but I usually prefer the old favorite ornaments that have been passed down from my parents and that I have collected. Every year I purchase or make a few new ornaments to commemorate that year, and always get a new ornament or two to put away for dear daughter.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love the look of it! Hate shoveling it. Hate the cold.
12. Can you ice skate? Unfortunately, no. I am Uncle Conrads ONLY failure.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Yes, absolutely. Each year, I would receive a brand spanking new box of 64 Crayola crayons. What more could I have wanted?
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Passing traditions on to my daughter.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Cannolis. Buche de Noel. Baqlawa.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? The christmas ornaments that I've collected.
17. What tops your tree? A star with an angel just below it.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I really wish that presents were not part of Christmas.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O House of Ephratha; Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming; O Holy Night; Slava Vishny Bogu (sorry for the butchered spelling!)
20. Candy Canes… yuck or yum? Nice to look at, not to eat.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Tough choice. I think egg nog at Christmastime, particularly if it has some brandy in it. On the other hand, I love hot chocolate.....
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I used to wrap everything carefully, but once you have a child, it seems pointless to do more than just wrap the presents. Now that she's almost grown, I do the bag thing.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White. Always white. I come from New England, and white lights make me think of icicles.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes, always!
5. When do you put your decorations up? Until a couple of years ago, the earlier the better. I always used to put the tree up on Thanksgiving weekend. But then my parents were failing and it was hard to get everything up. Last year was the first year without my folks, and I just couldn't get into the spirit, so I think we finally got the tree up about a week or so before Christmas. Our tree still isn't up - we were going to do it this afternoon, but both of us are sick. This week for sure, though!
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? For Christmas, I like to eat either chicken cooked in wine or roast pork or kibbee.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Most of my favorite childhood memories have to do with my mother, her sisters and my grandmother cooking for weeks prior to every holiday in that old green kitchen on B St.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember, I really don't. I don't remember that I was devastated or anything.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? As a child, the family would go to midnight mass, and stop at our house on the way home to wake me up so I could open my presents. Once I married, my husband didn't want to do that - he was used to Christmas morning presents. We moved to the other coast, and there was no family around, so it was easy to do the Christmas morning thing. I like it better.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I have enough ornaments for probably 4 or 5 trees! I love Christmas trees! For a few years I did theme trees, but I usually prefer the old favorite ornaments that have been passed down from my parents and that I have collected. Every year I purchase or make a few new ornaments to commemorate that year, and always get a new ornament or two to put away for dear daughter.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love the look of it! Hate shoveling it. Hate the cold.
12. Can you ice skate? Unfortunately, no. I am Uncle Conrads ONLY failure.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Yes, absolutely. Each year, I would receive a brand spanking new box of 64 Crayola crayons. What more could I have wanted?
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Passing traditions on to my daughter.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Cannolis. Buche de Noel. Baqlawa.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? The christmas ornaments that I've collected.
17. What tops your tree? A star with an angel just below it.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I really wish that presents were not part of Christmas.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O House of Ephratha; Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming; O Holy Night; Slava Vishny Bogu (sorry for the butchered spelling!)
20. Candy Canes… yuck or yum? Nice to look at, not to eat.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
High School Nostalgia
1) What year was it? 1973
2) What were your three favorite bands? Well, these are who I was listening to: Mama's and the Papas, though they were over by then. Crosby, Stills and Nash. Carly Simon. Beatles. Bette Midler.
3) What was your favorite outfit? Jeans, very very tight hip hugger jeans, well washed, soft and faded. Very very tight tee shirt - any color - as long as it was tight. wide leather belt. orange workmen's boots. Red lipstick. My mother's persian lamb car coat from the 1940s.
4) What was up with your hair? Nothing. My hair does not now and did not then, do "up". It was long, straight and parted in the middle like every other lemming.
5) Who were your best friends? Keith Restaino, Donna Ricci, Frank Cavignano, Bob Gallant -- the band and AEPC kids mostly.
6) What did you do after school? If I wasn't practicing for band or the play, and if I wasn't harrassing polluters with the anti environmental pollution committee, then I was hanging out with my friends
7) Where did you work? Every summer I worked for my parents at Clearwater Inn, but during the school year, I worked on and off at Grants, a local five and dime.
8) Did you take the bus? No, I walked to school, most of the time alone. But I never walked home alone.
9) Who did you have a crush on? My really secret crush was Frank Cavignano, but I never let him know because he was hung up on Donna, and they were both my best friends.
10) Did you fight with your parents? A little - everyone does - but it wasn't major.
11) Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on? Tom Jones and Omar Sharif.
12) Did you smoke cigarettes? I smoked my first cigarette with my cousin Lynne. She taught me how when we were 15.
13) Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker? I was never nervous about my locker. I never lugged books in a backpack, either - no one used a backpack, that's how long ago it was! The first week of school each year, I would clip an extra copy of all my textbooks from the storeroom and keep them at home so I never had to carry any books. I'm not stoopid!
14) Did you have a "clique"?Ah, yes. Several. There was the band/AEPC click, and the drama clique, and the smart kids clique. I hung around with everyone - I had entrance into all the groups that I want to be in.
15) Admit it, were you popular? Yes.
16) Who did you want to be just like? My grandmother, Josephine Cieri.
17) What did you want to be when you grew up? An artist or musician and eventually, a mother.
2) What were your three favorite bands? Well, these are who I was listening to: Mama's and the Papas, though they were over by then. Crosby, Stills and Nash. Carly Simon. Beatles. Bette Midler.
3) What was your favorite outfit? Jeans, very very tight hip hugger jeans, well washed, soft and faded. Very very tight tee shirt - any color - as long as it was tight. wide leather belt. orange workmen's boots. Red lipstick. My mother's persian lamb car coat from the 1940s.
4) What was up with your hair? Nothing. My hair does not now and did not then, do "up". It was long, straight and parted in the middle like every other lemming.
5) Who were your best friends? Keith Restaino, Donna Ricci, Frank Cavignano, Bob Gallant -- the band and AEPC kids mostly.
6) What did you do after school? If I wasn't practicing for band or the play, and if I wasn't harrassing polluters with the anti environmental pollution committee, then I was hanging out with my friends
7) Where did you work? Every summer I worked for my parents at Clearwater Inn, but during the school year, I worked on and off at Grants, a local five and dime.
8) Did you take the bus? No, I walked to school, most of the time alone. But I never walked home alone.
9) Who did you have a crush on? My really secret crush was Frank Cavignano, but I never let him know because he was hung up on Donna, and they were both my best friends.
10) Did you fight with your parents? A little - everyone does - but it wasn't major.
11) Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on? Tom Jones and Omar Sharif.
12) Did you smoke cigarettes? I smoked my first cigarette with my cousin Lynne. She taught me how when we were 15.
13) Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker? I was never nervous about my locker. I never lugged books in a backpack, either - no one used a backpack, that's how long ago it was! The first week of school each year, I would clip an extra copy of all my textbooks from the storeroom and keep them at home so I never had to carry any books. I'm not stoopid!
14) Did you have a "clique"?Ah, yes. Several. There was the band/AEPC click, and the drama clique, and the smart kids clique. I hung around with everyone - I had entrance into all the groups that I want to be in.
15) Admit it, were you popular? Yes.
16) Who did you want to be just like? My grandmother, Josephine Cieri.
17) What did you want to be when you grew up? An artist or musician and eventually, a mother.
Envy
from Saint Cyprian's Writings:
You who are envious, let me tell you that however often you may seek for the opportunity of injuring him whom you hate, you will never be able to do him so much harm as you do harm to yourselves. He whom you would punish through the malice of your envy, may probably escape, but you will never be able to fly from yourselves. Wherever you may be your adversary is with you, your sin rankles within. It must be a self-willed evil to persecute a person whom God has taken under the protection of His grace; it becomes an irremedial sin to hate a man whom God wishes to make happy. Envy is as prolific as it is hurtful; it is the root of all evil, the source of endless disorder and misery, the cause of most sins that are committed. Envy gives birth to hatred and animosity. From it avarice is begotten, for it sees with an evil eye honors and emoluments heaped upon a stranger, and thinks that such honors should have been, by right, bestowed upon himself. From envy comes contempt of God, and of the salutary precepts of our Savior. The envious man is cruel, proud, unfaithful, impatient, and quarrelsome; and, what is strange, when this vice gains the mastery, he is no longer master of himself, and he is unable to correct his many faults. If the bond of peace is broken, if the rights of fraternal charity are violated, if truth is altered or disguised, it is often envy that hurries him on to crime. What happiness can such a man enjoy in this world? To be envious or jealous of another, because such a one is virtuous and happy, is to hate in him the graces and blessings God has showered down upon him. Does he not punish himself when he sees the success and welfare of others? Does he not draw down upon himself tortures from which there is no respite? Are not his thoughts, his mind, constantly on the rack? He pitilessly punishes himself, and, in his heart, performs the same cruel office which Divine Justice reserves for the chastisement of the greatest criminal.
You who are envious, let me tell you that however often you may seek for the opportunity of injuring him whom you hate, you will never be able to do him so much harm as you do harm to yourselves. He whom you would punish through the malice of your envy, may probably escape, but you will never be able to fly from yourselves. Wherever you may be your adversary is with you, your sin rankles within. It must be a self-willed evil to persecute a person whom God has taken under the protection of His grace; it becomes an irremedial sin to hate a man whom God wishes to make happy. Envy is as prolific as it is hurtful; it is the root of all evil, the source of endless disorder and misery, the cause of most sins that are committed. Envy gives birth to hatred and animosity. From it avarice is begotten, for it sees with an evil eye honors and emoluments heaped upon a stranger, and thinks that such honors should have been, by right, bestowed upon himself. From envy comes contempt of God, and of the salutary precepts of our Savior. The envious man is cruel, proud, unfaithful, impatient, and quarrelsome; and, what is strange, when this vice gains the mastery, he is no longer master of himself, and he is unable to correct his many faults. If the bond of peace is broken, if the rights of fraternal charity are violated, if truth is altered or disguised, it is often envy that hurries him on to crime. What happiness can such a man enjoy in this world? To be envious or jealous of another, because such a one is virtuous and happy, is to hate in him the graces and blessings God has showered down upon him. Does he not punish himself when he sees the success and welfare of others? Does he not draw down upon himself tortures from which there is no respite? Are not his thoughts, his mind, constantly on the rack? He pitilessly punishes himself, and, in his heart, performs the same cruel office which Divine Justice reserves for the chastisement of the greatest criminal.
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