Westdragon’s Lair

1. I was adopted as an adult in the last quarter of my senior year in
high school. This makes for the blank stares I get when introducing
myself to fellow high school alumni.

2. I’ve never broken a bone in my body.

3. I’m divorced and remarried.

(continue reading…)

My 2009 New Year’s Resolutions (in no particular order)

Do more creative things. I’ve been wanting to learn how to tat again for some time. I think this is the year to tat. I’ve accepted that I have crafting ADD, so I just need to embrace it. One week it may be cross stitch, the next scrapbooking. Just go with it.

Ok, this sounds frivolous, but watch more movies. We have a hundred + movies on our Netflix list & we won’t get through 1/2 of them if we keep the ones we have for months without watching them. Relax Gina. It won’t kill you to watch a movie or two.

Continue with my reading. I read 50+ books last year including audio books & have really enjoyed it. I think this year I’ll delve more into spirituality. But of course I can’t live without fiction.

Continue to take small steps that help my health & joy. With the exception of the holidays, I’ve been walking quite a bit more & have actually enjoyed it as well as it has helped me sleep.

I’d also like to do a thorough cleaning of the house. We still have a couple of boxes that we haven’t unpacked yet! It’s just old paperwork, but I’d like to get through as much of the house as possible to really get rid of things we don’t need or want. I haven’t been particularly successful in doing this in years past, so I’m not going to have a cow if I don’t get through the entire house, but a couple of rooms would be nice.

Mom. I do need to help her more with her unpacking, but I haven’t found the will to do it without judging her or feeling frustrated. I need to do it but I need to do it graciously. I may need to meditate on that & maybe take it in small bites.

I’m sure there’s more, but this should do for now.

Happy New Year!

So the site is now running on the new webhost. Seems a bit snappier but we’ll see.

When I was a child, I always remembers my Italian grandmother’s hands. Nonna never wore gloves to work in the garden, clean, do dishes so he hands would take on the smells of what she was doing. Bleach, weeds, cleanser, fruit, all left their scent on her hands. But most often her hands smelled slightly metallic. I didn’t realize what it was, it was just the way she smelled.

It wasn’t until I was older that I figured out what that smell was. I was living on my own & doing my own cooking when when I discovered that garlic will make your hands smell for days after cooking with it. After trying many remedies to get rid of the garlic smell did I realize that my hands smelled like Nonna’s.

I don’t have her thick short fingers or filed to a point fingernails, but I have my grandmother’s hands.

I no longer try to get rid of the garlic smell when I’ve been cooking with it. The smell helps me remember Nonna & her hands. Always working, doing something. Making bagna càuda, risotto, apricot ice cream, picking berries to eat from the vine, tatting, laundry, crocheting, canning…her hands were always busy.

After trying to live my life different from her frugal to a fault ways, I’ve come to realize that she lived greener & heather than I do now.

There are a lot of things about her that I don’t wish to emulate. She could be difficult to get along with & could be down right mean about some things. It was her way or nothing else. The highway wasn’t even an option. She was fixed, the center of my families orbit. She did a lot to screw up my mom.

But she did love all of us & did her best to care for all of us. She helped raise her younger brother’s alone as a teenager. My mother had everything she needed during the depression. She would take us grand kids for a month or more at a time. She probably had a negative carbon footprint. I thought she could do anything…and she probably could have. She was a college graduate & worked outside the home when most women couldn’t. Her mind was always sharp & she had a great memory. She was married to my grandfather for 63 years & she loved him until the day she died. She taught me a lot to do to keep my hands busy. And she taught me a lot about life & love.

I was just reminded this morning by a co-worker that next year on my 3 year anniversary I’ll start getting 3 weeks of vacation a year. Yippie!

Having just bought tickets through TicketMaster, I completely concur with this article. Even the last time I bought tickets from the box office TicketMaster had added in a ’service charge’. 
http://consumerist.com/5062273/ticketmaster-is-evil-and-must-die 

Apparently they have not gotten into the secondary ticket market (scalping) and it’s fairly seamless between that & they regular tickets sales. I just heard stories on the radio about people going to buy tickets for a concert @ $75, but somehow ended up in the secondary tickets & actually got $300 tickets without realizing it. The number of complaints was staggering.
 
With the ease of computer ticketing, one would hope that their days are numbed in their monopolist hold on the ticket market.

I found this little guy in the backyard today snoozing under some bags. I think he’s a friendly rat snake but I certainly wasn’t going to snuggle up and see…

My friends, close by & far away. I couldn’t get through the rough times without them.
My husband. He really is my best friend of all & supports me with whatever direction I decide to head off into.
My mother’s health. The pacemaker has really done her good & I’m glad for it.
My stepdaughter coming for Christmas!! Yea!!! I can’t wait!!
My mother-in-law will be coming for Christmas too. I wish more family could come too, but it will be nice to have a holiday with family again.
My job. I love my job & am very lucky to have one that I enjoy & I feel secure in. May God help those who aren’t so lucky.
My husband’s job. See above.
Books & good reading buddies.
Muttley’s new meds…he thinks they are treats & he feels so much better on them.
Hosting visiting family this year. All 3 of the Dragon’s sisters were able to visit us this year.
World of Warcraft is still fun & going strong.
OBAMA GOT ELECTED! Please let him be smarter than his predecessor & know how to use it.
Crafting ADD. I’ve come to embrace it now. Oh look, scrapbooking, hey, look at these bead, wow…knitting…

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!

It’s freezing! Literally. We had our first freeze this morning. It didn’t last too long where we live, but we did go out & cover our pathetic hibiscus last night. We forgot to cover it last year & it hasn’t really recovered well. The one twig that is left needed some TLC.

Currently it’s not quite 2 pm & it’s 51 outside. The sun is shining, it looks beautiful, a light breeze blowing…then you go outside & get slapped by the icy air. We live in Florida FFS…I don’t think I could live where it actually snowed!

I’m still high from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert last night. It was awesome!

If you’re not familiar with TSO, they are equal parts London Philharmonic and Guns n’ Roses with a dash of jazz, R&B, Whitney Houston & Michael Bolton thrown in for flavor. All set to a rock opera & show that would make Pink Floyd proud. They looked like Poison in tuxedos w/tails. Oh yea, and they mostly do Christmas music. And there was snow. Eclectic? Yes. Awesome? Oh yea.

The concert began with their light equipment on stage. It rose like a behemoth from the depths as the music began. They began with a small string orchestra, choir, huge drum kit, 2 keyboardists & 1 guitarists. Then from the lights 3 platforms descended with 2 more guitarists & a violinist. Can a violinist shred? If so, she did. She was awesome! Pencil thin with a custom made *pink* electric violin. And no wonder she’s pencil thin, she was on springs…running from one side of the stage to the other, bouncing & was nothing short of extraordinary.

The entire concert was just magical. The lights, music, effects…of course I got emotional & teared up a few times. It’s just something about good live performances that get to me. And then when it started snowing, I felt like a kid.

The audience was a mix of young and old, jeans & evening dress, there were even a few kids. But for all it’s diversity of age, it was Jacksonville so it was pretty much all white.

Our seats were on the side of the area, so our necks are a little sore, but we were near the back so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Best…Christmas…Present…Ever. (ok, just the best for this year since my darling husband is great at getting me awesome presents every year.)