etcetera

a little of everything

WhataLottaMonth

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In Fairview Heights or O’Fallon, somewhere up in the St. Louis area, is a restaurant called Lotawata Creek that has great food and a lot of it.  That is what this past month has been.  Full of great things and a lot of it!!!

My computer was fixed although I did lose a bunch of my dictionary and did have to stress significantly on transcripts.  My friends’ daughter was married for whom I played the keyboard.  The wedding theme was Winter Wonderland and was beautiful.  The keyboard playing… not so beautiful, but I guess it was okay because people were kind enough to tell me it was good.  Still, it was another major stress activity.  Our family party was the same day as the wedding, so as soon as I was finished playing, I hightailed it up to my sister’s.

The social calendar in my life is usually fairly bare, but this month I’ve had two events on the same night at least three times.  Bummer. I want to fit everything in.  And so far have been able to squeeze them in although it’s running from here to there.  So glad I did because I won over $30 at the poker party!!

My poor little blog has been left behind, just stagnating as I gad about.  I felt so bad about it this morning I thought I would sit down and just throw in a few tidbits of why it’s been left alone.  Poor blog baby.

What have you guys been up to this season?  Do you have time to throw a word in here to let us know what’s happening on your calendar of events?

Star of Wonder, Star of Might

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There is just so much to say about stars!!

star gazing

I love lying on a blanket on the ground in the summer and locating the constellations, getting together with friends for a meteor shower party and yelling, “There’s one!”

I enjoy remembering the burned-in-my-brain images of the two or three most awesome sightings of falling stars and shooting stars.  There’s a difference, you know.

falling diver

Falling stars gracefully fall into the earth’s atmosphere, as a beautiful diver makes a beautiful dive from those tall cliffs.  Some are faster than others, but they all fall straight down.  Shooting stars shoot across the sky.  During meteor showers there could be hundreds at one time, but generally it’s a lone star followed by another lone star.  They are all amazing to me.  Well, the heavens are just amazing to me.

To know that I’m looking into eternity, that it never stops, is just, well, overwhelming.  The astronauts, way up there, are no closer to the end of it than I am down here.

There are many websites and blogs that talk about stars; that are filled with information.  And they are great!  Click the stars link and you will find all sorts of neat stuff, including some cool pictures… like this one.  This is exactly what the star that fell to the ground in front of our vehicle looked like.  It truly was that bright!

Hubble star

Many years ago when my children were small, we as a family all went out to the country to watch one of the most fantastic light shows I have ever witnessed.  It was a meteor shower, and the shooting stars were everywhere.  They couldn’t be counted there were so many whizzing by.  Nate and I were talking about it, and he remembers it as I do.  That was the only time I’ve seen anything like that, and I’ve been on many meteor shower quests.

Another moment in time that I will never forget is standing on the balcony outside my bedroom on one of the upper floors of a Florida hotel late one night.   The details of who I was with and why I was there are fuzzy, but I know that I was heavy of heart at the time.  As I stood there gazing at the sky and the ocean, the most beautifully large, slow-falling star fell right in front of me.  Such a bright star!  It brought me comfort and joy, a sign; a sign in the sky from God that I needed at that very moment.

Or maybe I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

But I can’t help but wonder who else saw that lazy, beautiful falling star at the same time I did… maybe needing a sign as well.

Catch a Falling Star…

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On the way home from Alton this evening I was graced with viewing two falling stars and one burst of some kind of extraordinary light in the sky.  Nate and Mike googled meteor shower, and sure enough, there was one since Thursday.  The next viewing will be on December 13 and 14.

meteor shower by Simon Filiatrault

Every year there are numerous meteor showers.  The Perseid in August and the Geminid in December are the ones I have been able to view this year.  They are awesome! There are some great pics and good information out there in the webosphere.  Environmental Graffiti is one of them.

Wikipedia has a table as to the names of the meteor showers and when they will be as well as whether they are weak or strong showers and the best viewing times.  Click on the link; it is very interesting.

Try to get out and see the Geminid this week.  You should be able to see some falling stars by 6:00 or so — we saw ours around then — and make lots of wishes.  Click on this link to read all about wishing on a shooting star.
May all your wishes come true!

Living the Good Life

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I actually made a salad!

Home fries -- very tasty

My tired buhiney is sitting down for a minute after a long, arduous day of cleaning house and working on transcripts.  My head was pounding, but all it took to fix it was a couple of Excedrin and a short, little lie-down.  The short little lie-down has my pace slowed a bit, so decided to look through some of my pictures.  Then decided to share them with you!  All that deciding has really tired me out!

In keeping with my blog motivator, I actually cooked last week.  Since I’m starving right now, these pictures got to be first.

a piece of the fruit of my arduous labor

The new flocked tree was decorated with whatever was in the big plastic container I dragged in from the garage.  It was pretty just with the lights and flocking.

the girls with our new puppets

The glare from the piano is, of course, me with the camera.  Jeez. The smiling little munchkins are, of course, my sweet grandgirls.

my just scrubbed grandduck

There is nothing that makes life good like having children around, whether they belong to me or someone else.  Today I talked to two of the girls who used to come over when they were in town at their grandma’s and play dress up.  Now they are in college; one going to graduate next year.

The fun of posting pictures of the family, silly pictures, and waiting on them to find them, just brings a smile to my face.  Except when they are silly pictures of me.  I can’t see why that would be one bit enjoyable or make anyone feel good.  So please, I beg you, don’t post any.  Please, please.

worn out family from partying all day on the farm

Living the good life may not be the same to everyone.  And it changes from time to time for me as well.  Getting things accomplished, even when I have to give up a trip to the cookie walk, makes me feel good.  Knowing that Excedrin is the best headache medicine of all time is fantastic.  Having food in my house and being able to still enjoy playing makes me feel great.  Celebrating the birth of Jesus the Christ with a lovely tree, well, that’s just good stuff.

The Christmas Piano Recital

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WHAT in all that is musical are we doing here?

Sunday, December 4, was the piano recital for my four piano students.   We must have had a lot on our minds when this pic was taken.  We can do better than that.

Ah, yes. Our sweet little selves are shining through.

We practiced a bit and finally got a smile or two that was pretty good.

I just gotta tell you about my awesome students.  They only started in the spring of this year and can already read and play Christmas songs.  Since I think they are so awesome, we had a recital with a small cookies and punch reception afterward.  I’ve had several comments about how other people think they are awesome as well since they heard them at the recital.

Emily

Lindsay

Emily with the long, dark hair is a senior in high school.  She played Christmas songs, hymns, and a duet, Swan Lake, with Lindsay.

Lindsay is the high school science teacher.  Since she also plays saxophone, she could read the treble notes well when she started.  Putting the paper notes with the piano keys has been a smooth transition for her.  She may not think so, but for such a short time taking lessons, it has been.  Both her and Emily have busy, busy schedules to fit learning piano into.

Little Emily

Little Emily is nine.  She likes to pick out the tunes and then learn them by memory, but she also is learning to read the notes.

I don’t know how Suzie managed to escape a solo picture.     She is in the sixth grade.  Her songs were Jolly Old St. Nick and a duet with me.

Learning music is learning a new language.  Students learn to read and then speak (play the instrument) the language of music.  They learn to hear it and know what’s being said (know the notes, melody, harmony, timing).  It’s tough.  The joy comes each time they make a step forward in their progress.

Little Emily is always saying she doesn’t know what the note on the paper is… until she stops for a few seconds and thinks about it.  Then she always knows it.

It’s been a great pleasure of mine this year to teach them.  One of my goals for 2011.  My pastor videotaped the recital, so next year we can see how far they have come.  I’m excited about that… and them.

I like these guys!!

Ms. Amazing

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I look just like my Mom here.

You know, I really hate to brag, but sometimes I amaze myself; so much so that I have nicknamed me….  Ms. Amazing!!  Yep, pretty dadgummed amazin’ awright.

So far this week (what? it’s only Tuesday?!) I have managed to crash, I say, totally crash my Mac.  White screen.  Snow.  Christmas is coming soon.  Better watch out.  Better not shout.  (See how my amazing mind works?)

This one looks like a screamer.

Oops.  Too late.  I’ve been shouting, screaming, kicking things, and just generally behaving in a manner unbecoming Ms. Amazing.  When I’m not standing around staring into space, that is.  Well, that used to be my nickname:  Spacequeen.

Once when my children were all small, my mother called.  As we were talking, one of the boys did something, so I had to tell Mom to hold on a minute, laid the phone down, and took care of the problem.  A little bit later my mom came through the front door grinning ear to ear.  “Did you forget something?”  No, I don’t think so.  Then Mom proceeded to go pick up the telephone receiver and hang up the phone.  Gee, I hope I didn’t use ugly words while she was waiting on me to realize I had left her hanging, on my last word so to speak.

my professional look?

Sunday night I stayed all night with my seester.  (When my hair is longer and curly, people think I am of Southwest descent.  What’s that mean, anyway?  That I can speak Spanish as in seester?)  We had decorated her tree and put some Christmas things up.  Since it was foggy, I just stayed planning on getting up when they get up around 6:00 or so and going home to get ready for work.  The extra bedroom is very dark and away from noise; good sleeping.  I started waking up, thinking I would wait for Dar to get up, but feeling rested and that she should be getting up soon.  My cell phone rang and I jumped up to get it.  As I passed through the kitchen, I looked at the clock.  9:40!!!!!  WHAT?!  Where was Dar?  I soon realized work was calling me wondering Where is Bren?  So I threw on my clothes, whizzed home, and got ready in, oh, three minutes.  Such a lovely start to the week.

This almost looks like my high school senior picture!

Come to think of it… that used to happen in high school too.  I would take my makeup to school and scrunch down in my seat behind the kid in front of me to put on makeup.  Ms. Beasley never even acted like she saw me doing that.  She was one of my favorite teachers.  Now… I just wash my face with a wash cloth and hightail it on to work.

oooh, I'm so kissable in this picture.

The night I stayed with Dar and slept so soundly in the dark room, I had this sexual dream about our little state’s attorney.  I couldn’t wait to tell him.  He’s this cute little thing younger than my children, so I knew he was going to be so excited and delighted.  When I told him we kissed in my dream, he said, “Well, how was it?”  “Sort of like kissing my brother would probably be, weird.”  Then I went on to tell him that there was this really hunky stud muffin that was in the dream too (I think it was the defendant from last week).  Our little SA said I had, in all of three minutes, totally deflated his kissing ability and studly quotient.  Only Ms. Amazing can take ’em down that fast!

Me as a blonde.

I’ve been asked on many occasions, “Are you sure you’re not blonde?”  (Sorry blondies.)   In fact, there is a great possibility that I am blonde.  After all, my middle name isn’t really Kay… it’s Ray.  I found that out when I got my certified birth certificate to go to Mexico many years ago.  I told my Mom, “Hey, did you know my name is really Brenda Ray?” “No, it isn’t.” “Yes, it is.  It’s right here on my birth certificate.”

So you see, I’ve been living under a false pretense of rightness gone wrong when actually it’s been wrong all along.  From day one.  My life was destined to be one screw up after another.

I think I like me with blonde hair.  I look pretty amazing.

The decline of thanksgiving, namely mine

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Grrrr.  And grrrrr.  Where has my dedication to being thankful the whole month of November gone?  I have lost my grip and plunged head first into the “it-must-be-Christmas-time” bad attitude.  A thief has stolen my goodwill, my cheery outlook on life, my decision not to despair this season but instead be thankful for 30 days (they say that’s how long it takes to set a new habit), and to come out victorious in the face of the New Year.

The stinking thief lives in a very thin, silver box and costs waaaaay too much money.  That’s the only reason the stinking thief is still in my house today:  I waited waaaaay too long to decide I don’t know what the heck in Hades I’m doing with the thin, silver box, so it must stay because I can’t return the blankety-blank (insert really, really bad words here) thing.

It is, I know, operator error, operator stupidity, operator dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks-when-it-comes-to-computers, but I followed all the instructions (I thought) to the letter.  So why do I now have a blank screen on my disgusting I-so-hate-it Mac Air?

Because it’s possessed by a demon?  I think so.  Because the makers of this computer are too smart for their own good and like messing with people such as I?  Oh, yeah.

So, it’s now off to the friend who just fixed my tower (viruses that came right through the McAfee) to see what he can do with the devil.

I only hope he is still sane the next time I talk to him.

The Birth of Radio Shaq!!!

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Well, the router trip turned into a USB trip.  That was successful!  (Somersaults, jumping up and down, yelling wildly)  My beloved RadioShack had a thingie with a USB on one end and an ethernet connection on the other.  So I bought the little darling for around $25.00 (worth every penny) and brought it home to marry my new Mac to the internet.  There was consummation of the marriage between them, and I have been deliriously happy ever since.

Today they are giving birth to a brand new blog post in their honor and named after the one who brought them together.  Little Radio Shaq is singing the praises of its godparent,

RadioShack

RadioShack, for getting me connected.  And this evening when I get home, I am going to try to get my software up and running via the downloads that I could not download previously.

🎵RadioShack…I think I love you.🎵

And so does little Radio Shaq!

My upcoming router trip

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Today I am thankful that I have finally, and I say it again, finally, figured out how to get my brand spankin’ new MacBook Air that only can access the internet through Wifi to actually access the internet.  I am going to get a router.  Tomorrow.  Only because I don’t feel like doing it tonight… even if anything was open to get it.

MacBook Air

For the past several months I have been trying to get my court reporting software on this Mac computer.  First, I put on Parallels so I could add Windows since my software runs on windows.  Great!!  Get to transcribing notes!  But, no.  After a call to Stenograph, which I should have done first before I bought a computer, I found out that Parallels doesn’t work with my software.  Windows needs to be put on through Bootcamp.

This week is the week!  After I get the router, then the Windows.  An update coming soon.

The Gift of Seasons

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autumn

Autumn is a lovely time:  beautifully colored trees; cool, crisp weather after the hot summer days; bonfires; jumping in the raked high leaves; toasting hot dogs and marshmallows; Halloween; Thanksgiving.  What fun!

Today I am thankful for the seasons of the Midwest.  We have lovely springs full of new life, gorgeous blooms, warmth after the cold, dreary days of winter, hope.

spring blooms

Then comes the summers full of vacations and swimming and picnics and laughing and shady spots under the canvas of full tree limbs, life.

sun with shades

And last but not least we have winter: a time for slowing down… until the snow comes.  Then it’s all about sledding or ice skating or building snowmen or snow forts or shoveling out from under snow.  It’s a time we appreciate that hot heat we had in the summer as we break ice to water cattle or horses.

winter scene

This weekend I am enjoying a fall party at the home of my nephew and his lovely wife.  Six children, cousins, all running around playing and fighting and having a great time.