Straight, No Chaser

Good Monday Morning my dear friends! Hopefully everyone survived the Thanksgiving meal and for those of you who actually partook in the Black Friday fiasco, "You're a better man than I, Gunga Din." I will be going to the Mall today (bleh) with Miss Daisy...she's looking for some warm jammies for her CA trip later this month. Also, my sweet man flies in this afternoon from Houston, after being gone a week. We are actually experiencing winter here in the Southwest, and the forecast is that it will begin to snow this afternoon, right around the time I pick up my honey at the airport...can't wait to hit I-10 when that mess starts...oey vey!

This weekend I watched much on PBS and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of concerts from Andrea Botcelli to the Celtic Women and many more. The only one I didn't watch were the Rockets...eh!! However, I just wanted to introduce you to a group of very talented young men that I enjoyed the most...they're fabulous!!! I'm sure many of you have already heard their music, but for those who haven't, I've included a link to Lala where you can listen. Please check it out and enjoy.

Blog buddies, may I introduce you the Straight, No Chaser:
http://www.lala.com/#artist/Straight_No_Chaser

Peace out.

The Day After Thanksgiving

Good morning all you wonderful people out there in blogland, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I couldn't find a recent family pic in my pic folder, so I pulled this one taken back in in the early 70's. I couldn't believe how beautiful we all were, well, we still are, but in a more spiritual way! LOL I still can't get over my bro in that Miami Vice jacket, even though this pic is older than the series. Maybe Fred should have just kept up the look and the costume designers would have to come up with something new for Crockett!! LOL We were all so young and looking forward to the future. Ironically enough, my ex took that picture of us...wonder what happened to that ceramic horse??? L-R, me, my Dad, Mom, Letty, Fred and seated is little bro, Jaime.

Our family dinner at my brother's, a.k.a., Sonny Crockett, house was wonderful...we ate entirely too much but I did stop with the meal and had no more room for dessert, homemade cheesecake, my pumpkin and apple pies. It was so much fun as we all sat around the table and thoroughly entertained my sister's best friend from Phoenix. Terry came along with my sister and niece. She has such a fractured, toxic relationship with her own family in CA, my sister wanted her to see how a "normal" and I say that loosely, family operates. Of course the subject matter was mostly about my Pops...I know he was present and laughing his arse off at our reminiscing.

However, when you get the Diaz family together the conversation always deteriorates to the most simple and basest subjects of all at a dinner table, potty humour. Don't know why we do, but we find flagellants, feces, hemorrhoids and even boogers, very funny. As mothers, my sister and I brought up our children around such humour as now I do with my own little brood of grand babies (they're better than I can ever be, but they're boys, what do you expect?). I think it all started with my beautiful, intelligent, adorable niece who began having some "wind" problem. Excuse me if I say, but she had a very chatty ass!!! Well, the conversation went down hill from there. My sister's friend was laughing harder than the rest of us, so now she knows how a REAL family behaves, NOT!!! hahahahha!!! But who said we were normal...those of you who really know me, know better. "The apple don't fall far from the tree!"

So my friends, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of laughter, memories and so much love, gratitude and lots of left-overs. Well, I need to call my daughter and see what happened, she just texted me and told me we're going to have to change the Christmas menu since she never wants to see another turkey again in her life!!! Me thinks she over indulged, oh well, maybe we can have the Christmas roast or easier yet, the Christmas hot dogs!! Peace out.

Post Script

Just want to thank all of you wonderful people how much I appreciate your sweet, uplifting comments. Yes, I am sad, but I do have all those wonderful Christmas memories. One in particular was just in a few years ago. My grandsons had received these huge cans of popcorn from my brother. My daughter told the little one at the time, my Zach, that he couldn't have any right then. He began with his typical temper tantrums and my father began to just tease him by telling him to shush in both English and Spanish. I suppose Zach had had enough and turned around and pointed to my Dad and yelled out "You a caca!!" Normally, he would have gotten a spanking for that, but it was so random, we all broke out laughing.

The good news I want to tell you, is that I will have all my babies with me at Christmas. The ex texted me, of course, and told me to go ahead and buy the ticket, so we're all set. Now to wait outside his driveway on Sunday when I take Ian back home and wait for my check!!! LOL

Again thank you all for your comments...I'm so blessed to have such wonderful friends out there in the world...you all means so much to me. Peace out and blessings.

Memories

Good Morning all you wonderful blogger friends. I haven't been around much lately since I really haven't been my ol' self. It's getting to that time of year that reality is very busy knocking on my head. This time last year my Pop was still around, ill, but still with us. He was able to attend our Thanksgiving celebration at my brothers in Las Cruces, NM, right up the road from here. I remember driving my folks up and singing along with Frank Sinatra on the CD player...my dad loved to sing. When he was in the hospital a few weeks later, he began singing "YMCA" and we both laughed about that, then we proceeded to go into old show tunes...we were brought up with Broadway music. Anyway, that was the last family meal we had together.

My wonderful father passed away just a few weeks later on Dec. 19th, 2008. The photograph above was taken 6 days later on December 24, are usual family Christmas get-together. That night we all knew a family tradition was gone. One that we had celebrated since our births, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Our dad was the heart of the Diaz' gatherings and our heart was now gone....we felt lost. We knew things were going to change, perhaps the beginning of new traditions, but change was definitely in the air. I think it frightened us because this is all we knew our entire lives. Change can be so ominous, but we've always rolled with it and see where it takes us, usually better places, but how could it get better without my father?

This year, there will be great changes, my mother is going to Southern CA to visit with my little brother and his family, my sister and niece will stay put in Phoenix, AZ, I will be traveling to Austin, TX to be with my older 2 children and my grandsons. My brother, Fred, and his family haven't decided since we were going to celebrate CE at my mother's house, but now that I'm going to be out of town, he's undecided whether he wants to spend it at home, or maybe drive up to Phoenix to celebrate with my sister. I so wanted my youngest to go with me to see his siblings and nephews, but without going into too much detail, his father has objected to the fact that he would have to purchase the ticket since I told him that this was my Christmas gift from my husband and I couldn't afford it, but this wasn't about him traveling with me, this was about Ian being with his sibs. He and wifey apparently have been a huge sores on every one's buttocks since I announced I would be going to Austin to spend Christmas with OUR children and grandchildren. Originally I was going to have Ian for the entire month of Dec., and I still intend on having him for 4 weeks, there will be a small break between them, though. He's angry because he can't control me anymore and usually blames everyone else, me being the biggest and baddest bee-atch, and if he can't blame others, he admits to lose of memory...jerk!

My daughter is thrilled and we're talking about having the Mommy/Daughter bake-off when I arrive bringing along our traditional Christmas Eve Mexican tamales. My little guys are ecstatic and can't wait and my son-in-law is also very excited...he's a great guy, wonderful step dad and daddy!!

However, with this new adventure waiting for me, I'm still very sad about it all. Like a child, I want things to be the way they were, but as the adult, I realistically know that's not going to happen. I'm keeping an open mind and looking forward to spending this holiday with my children, sadly, minus Ian and my hubby, but the hubby is going to Chicago to visit with his daughter and our sweet, adorable Aiden. I just wish I could win the lottery and take my son, but don't you have to play the lottery to in order to win????? LOL Well, I've rambled enough and I don't know if I feel any better, but it was good to mark these feeling with words. Peace out.

Celtic Women Concert

First of all, I just had to show you pics of our grandsons costumes for Halloween. John-Michael was a gum ball machine and Hunter went as a picnic table....with ants and all. They were so adorable and really hammed it up for the photo!!

The Celtic Women were absolutely wonderful! I took my 87 year old mother and she was more interested in the venue than the concert. The Plaza Theatre was the most beautiful theatre in it's heyday...there was nothing like it between San Antonio and L.A. back in the 30's. My mother used to go to the Mickey Mouse Club, movies and they even had talent shows which many of her friends participated. My father also took her on dates. She said the balcony was considered the "cheap seats," and my dad always made sure they sat in the main theatre!!! I wish I had taken my camera to get all those wonderful, nostalgic expressions. We went from bottom to top and she recognized many of the old furnishings and the light fixtures.

As for the concert, like I said, they were wonderful. Those gorgeous angelic voices filled the theatre and that cute little blond that dances and plays the fiddle at the same time was amazing. Anyway, they put on one hell of show!!! I asked my mother what she thought and she said she couldn't really understand some of the lyrics, except for "Danny Boy!" Of course I told her some of the songs were sung in Gaelic!!! LOL No one understood them!!! However, she agreed, it was a fun show.

Of course there's always that one small group that can be so obnoxious...I called them the "Celtic Women Nerds!" There were 5 of them, one guy had a notebook with Celtic Women memorabilia, protected in plastic sheets of course, wore CW pins and small badges on his jacket (1980's called and they want their jacket and pins back!!!) and was rather large in girth. Then there were the 3 tall, skinny, balding guys wearing CW t-shirts and last but not least, the only female, about 5"2 and weighing in at a ton!!! And lest I forget her hair colour...bright red....let's not call attention to our self, now!!! Just glad it wasn't green!!! oey vey!! Now I'm not making fun of their weight, I'm a rather big girl myself, but come on...don't they have mirrors!!! They also carried some kind of signs, but wasn't near enough to read them. They had front row seats, natch, and when the music started they started clapping...I'm not opposed to people getting into the tunes, but they obviously lacked rhythm!! The would stand up after every song and wooo and holler and hold their signs. Eventually, someone came down and must have told them to control their enthusiasm and just watch the show!!! I'll bet they got their asses kicked a lot in high school!!!

Ok, I'm terrible about describing these people, but it was just too funny. If my daughter were with me, she'd rather die than attend a CW concert, we'd be rolling in the isles!!!! Anyway, it was a great evening and my mother totally enjoyed it and that's what it's all about. Peace out.

Clean Bill of Health

Howdy All,

Glad to say I got my clean bill of health today...all clear of any piggies in the lungs and anywhere else!! My poor sweet man is still hacking and coughing up spleens and leevers!!! The doc said he hadn't seen anyone clear the flu as fast as I did....gave him my secret....contempt, lots of it!!! Scared that swine out of me!!!

Unfortunately, my honey won't be taking me to the Celtic Women tomorrow because he didn't think that he could sit there without hacking and wheezing, soooo, I'm taking my mother. She is soo happy and pleased besides, I know she'll like the music. Now if it had been AC/DC then I think my honey would have grabbed his butt and go....no one would hear him hacking and wheezing!! hahahaha, just got a visual of my mother sitting at an AC/DC concert!!!

Will, not much else to say except I wanted to show you a pic of our Fall here in El Paso, TX, as far west as you can go in TX. Thankfully, neighbor Rudy, provided our street with a lovely Fall leaves display so here it is:


We have sporadic Fall leaves here. So y'all have a great weekend and do some misbehavin'. Peace out.

Monster Swap

I would like to introduce you to "Frau Honkerbooger" from the land of Athena Workman's mind!!
Athena and I were paired up on Zan Ashas Monster Doll Swap and as usual, we had a blast. You can find more of Athena's work at her blog, which has other information as to where you can find her work, at athenaworkman.blogspot.com. Also, I strongly urge you to go to Zan's blog to see the rest of the wonderful talent that's on parade from the swap...there's some really funny stuff there, wildatheartart.blogspot.com.
Now here was my offering for Athena...pretty messed up, huh??? Well, she was something that scared me as a child and that's what this swap was about...something from your childhood. When I was a kid, I remember going to the theatre downtown with my sister and her friends to see , "Darby O'Gill and the Little People." I recall it had a very young Sean Connery in it, but that wasn't the scary part, there was this banshee who was after people. She would come out in the cold of night and try to swoop down and take as many souls as she could. After that, I could have sworn that banshee lived in my room...ready to get me at night, but as long as I wore my trusty scapula I was free from danger. I used to wake up in the middle of the night with that thing almost choking me, but hey, kept that banshee away, so it was either the scapula or the banshee that would get my young little soul!!!

Here she is in all her glory. Athena has been quite nice to actually display her in her home....I'd hide the damn thing!!! Anyway, thank you Zan for such a fun exchange, and thank you Athena for not thinking I hate you!!! LOL But that banshee scared the crap out of me. From what I hear, the banshee is behaving herself over at Athena's. As for Frau Honkerbooger she will also be displayed in my living room, next to all the other dolls I've either decided to keep for myself and the ones I've purchased from other talents. Peace out.

Here Piggy, Piggy, Piggy!!

That's pretty much how I feel right now...down and just plain tired (excluding the mud, please!). Hep, it's official, I tested positive for the H1N1 virus, better known as the swine flu...bleh! Luckily, I'm not as sick as most. I contracted a close cousin back in 1976, so my immune system has already gone through most of the "been there, done that" list.

For the exception of sore stomach and back muscles, from excessive coughing, wheezing like Linda Blair and fatigue I'm actually doing alright. It's hard to fall asleep listening to your angry bronchials, I decided to give them a name, Earl is the deep popping sound and Yolanda is the loud, shrill weeeee-heeee sound. Poor Earl never gets a chance to give his side of the story and finish a sentence because Yolanda constantly interrupts...crack, cra.....weeee-heeee, weee-heee!! Ok, you're thinking, she's turned into pig brain matter, but it's a way of just trying to fall asleep...give them a personality, name them and forget those sounds are coming from your body!! LOL

Now my sweet man has it and I think it's going to be worse for him...he never had it's close cousin back in '76. He's called his doc and so far no one has called back. I told him she just can't prescribe something over the phone....he has to be tested and the results have to be turned into the local, state and national health depts. I think she's trying to avoid seeing him. Told him to go to my wonderful baby doc...he's so adorable and will take him...no, he's a man, doesn't ask for directions nor does he see the logic in making an appointment with another physician instead of waiting and waiting for his to call...oey vey!!!

Well folks, feeling a bit tired. Just letting you know I'm fine, I'm under house arrest till next Friday when the doc releases me from my piggy constraints and hopefully, can enjoy the Celtic Women concert next Sat. Peace out!

Sicky Poo

Morning Friends. If I don't respond to your blogs, please forgive, I have some kind of grunge and I thought I was going to cough up my spleen last night. I get this every so often this time of year. Don't know if it's the allergies or the crappy inversion layers, but it gets me down. Hopefully, I won't have to visit my M.D. just so I can be exposed to more wonderful things sitting in his office!!! I promise to take care of myself and behave.....oh bother! Have a great week and I promise I shall return!! Peace out.

Ebay

Good Morning All! Hope you all had a great evening. After reading some of the blogs, seems many had lots of Halloween...as a matter of fact, I noticed some the regs haven't posted yet....hmm, could it be a bit too much of the witches brew!! LOL Well, I say let's carry this fun into the next holiday....CHRISTMAS!!!!!! Holy cow, if it's not one thing, it's another!!!

Ok, folks, need some marketing advise....not asking you what your secret selling tactics are, just need some feedback on which venue has worked better for you. I'm contemplating going over to Ebay to sell my work. I'm on Etsy for now, but I haven't been very successful there. I know times are rough and people are holding on to their $$, but the Christmas season doth approacheth very soon!!!

So if you would consider telling me what and why you like a particular venue, I shall be eternally grateful for your advise. Have some great pics of grandchildren in their Halloween costumes, but still haven't posted (oh boy, here she goes with the grandkids again!!). Have a great week and peace out.