I'M BACK!!!!

Well, my darlings, the Big G is back and ready for bidness....chatty bidness that is!!! We got ourselves a spankin' new Gateway!! I have to get used to the keyboard and add all the lost addresses on my other email address, so it's going to take a while before I can get situated.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and looking forward to a sober New Year!!!! hahahahaha, did I say sober. Well, I have to be in order to make my "menudo." So many of you vomminted, I mean, commented about our popular soup/stew for the "crudas" many of us go through on New Years....cruda in Spanish means "raw," and let's face it, isn't that the way we feel after a night of over indulgence???!!?!?!?! Bought almost $80 worth of stomach, chile and I just remembered, I have to buy the posole, hominy, but I don't like the stuff in the can...I buy it fresh.

The hubby is going to the Sun Bowl game tomorrow...oh, it has another name, can't remember it, but Stanford and Ok are playing. I'll be home, cutting meat, and start the cook off, and stink up the house...that stuff really reeeeeks, but it's sooooo good when it's done. My brother's girlfriend doesn't like it, this coming from a Japanese woman who eats bait!! LOL Frankly, I love sushi but I think it's funny.

Saturday, the Diaz fam, or the ones that are here, will be celebrating Christmas...opening gifts from each other. I'm providing the meal, menudo of course. Should be a fun evening spending with my fam. Frankly, we don't intend on going anywhere again for Christmas again. My Christmas wasn't what I expected, but it was great to be with my little penis posse and get to know the newest little guy, my Sammy...he's a super chunk!!! Once he got used to my face, he was just adorable...that's usually the way it goes for most people!!! LOL

Well, need to get running and do some other stuff on this contraption. I can't tell you how much I've missed you all; as the old Joni Mitchell song goes, "Don't you know it seems to go, you don't know what you've got till it's gone..." Peace out my friends and thanks for not forgetting me!!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Hellooooo my darlings!!!! Damn, I've missed you all so much and thanks for the comments you left me on my last blog. Well, the jury's in...the computer is a fried goner!!!! My poor little Dell sits there looking so forlorn and sad, but I will replace it soon with a brand new spankin' new Dell. My sweet man's company has a deal with them and he'll be able to buy one for a really good price, so hopefully, I'll be back online in January...from my lips to God's ears.

I'm getting ready to go to Austin tomorrow for Christmas. I'll be gone from the 22nd to the 28th just in time for the "menudo cook-off." For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a really great soup made with....drum roll please.....cows stomach and I add an ox tail in there for more flavour!!! Ok, I see some of you making those sour faces and sticking your tongues out going "YUCK!!" Well, I'll have to admit, it's an acquired taste. I grew up with it and I didn't touch it as a child, but I fell in love with the stuff as an adult. My sweet, late uncle, from Ohio, used to come by on New Years Day to our house to get his share of "menuuudo!" A very brave man for his time!! LOL I already have the list for my hubby when he arrives on the 26th from Chicago to go grocery shopping at my favorite Mexican shop, Mandos, for my stuff....can't wait. Didn't make it last year since I was still in shock and mourning from my dad's death. Oh speaking of Mexicans, how many Mexicans does it take to fill up a gas tank???? From what I witnessed today while I was gassing up, about 8!!! It was "toda la familia" trying to figure it out, till I went over there to help them..oey vey!! I guess it was my good deed for today. Anyway, you all have your black eyed peas for good luck for the year...we have menudo...not for luck but for the hangover the next day!!! We're really quite practical when it comes to these things...besides, I hate black-eyes peas. Made them when I was married to my ex...was from TN.

My sweet man and I have already decided no more Christmas' away from home...the little mountains can just come to Mohamed, dammit!! I'm still not threw packing for Ian and me and I think that I'll just be up late tonight with the laundry...you ask what the hell I was doing all weekend....not a friggin' thing. Saturday, my mom and I went to the cemetery to lay some flowers on my dad's grave...it's been a year and some on my aunt's since her birthday falls on the Virgen de Guadalupe day. Then I came home and spent the better half of the time wrapping gifts. What was I thinking....I can't take wrapped gifts on the plane...Doh!!! So the next day, Ian and I went to the $ General to get some bags, then I just labeled them all and packed the gifts in a piece of luggage. My butt, knees and lower back are really pissed off at me right now for putting through those wrapping sessions on the floor...ouch!!

I also saw one of my fav movies...well 2..."It's a Mad, Mad Mad World, " and "The Name of the Rose." Didn't stay up to watch the "Hangover," but I'll watch it in Austin since Andria has it. Tonight, I'll be washing, packing and just the usual one does before a trip and leaves all the details to the last minute. I did invite my poor daughter-in-law to come over as soon as her husband arrived. She was shorted some pills, Concerta, for her 6 year old steps0n and called me for advise....told her the pharmacies are notorious for doing that and the customers always ends up paying for it....metaphorically, or in her case, physically!!! LOL The kid was pinging off the walls and speaking in tongues....so I told her Benedryl is her next bet...it worked!! Hey, been there,done that!!! So I told her as soon as Lance get's home, just cross the street and come over to instruct her how to feed my doggies during our absence and have a 6 pack on me!!! LOL

Well, my dear friends, this is the end of my story and I'm sticking to it. If I don't get to blog before Christmas, have a wonderful Christmas or whatever and please be happy, safe and stay a little crazy. LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!! Peace out.

Computer Go Ba-bye

Hello my bloggy friends. I've got devastating news, my computer has bitten the dust, been kidnapped by virus and Trojan horses pirates, blown up, kicked the bucket, crash and burn...ok, you get it....it's brokie!!!

Would you believe that I lost it due to some research I was doing on Christmas traditions around the world for a story I'm writing for my grandchildren. I was on this one site and clicked on the Netherlands, and POW, was hit hard...both Microsoft and Trend Micro went crazy....then everything went blank. Called my little brother for help, since my son is such a grouch. My poor little bro tried to help me via the phone, but to no avail. So my sweet man put a call into a computer nerd who used to work for him....hopefully he can restore some of it or just build me a new one.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know I'll be out of the loop for a bit. Right now I'm using my dad's old Macasauris, but hell, at least it works!!! So when I come to Miss Daisy's house, my mother, I'll check in with you all. I won't be around till next Monday when I come over to take her out, so till then, have a wonderful week and weekend, and I'll miss you all terribly...tear! Love you all and miss you, peace out.

An Award & Other Ramblings

Good morning all, I received this award some time back and I'm so very sorry to Linda for not posting it sooner, but here it is. This is from my crazy friend right up the road in Albuquerque, NM... http://lindaomasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.blogspot.com. Unfortunately, I'm to send it to others, but I ran out of people, so I guess the "Buck Stops Here," thank you Harry Truman!!! I'm supposed to tell you 10 things about me....hmm, I did this once before and I came up with some pretty funny stuff, but right now my brain is eaten up with Menopauseitis!!! Hold on, I feel a hot flash coming on.....I'M MELTING!!!

Ok, that's over with for now, so here are 10 things about me:

1. I think everyone knows this one, but I don't like snow, bleh!
2. My great-great grandmother was an Irish Jew....didn't even know such people existed!!
3. I was married almost 26 years to a toad, but met my Prince Charming finally.
4. Returned to school when I was 47, graduated with a B.A. in Art in 2005, at 53.
5. I'm an artist (oh duh, really???).
6. I have 3 kids, Joel, 33, Andria, 31 and Ian, 24. I didn't give birth to them, I folded!
7. Love my grandkids, Sean, 9, Ryan 7, Zach, 5 and Sammy 4 months
8. I have many acquaintances, but few really good friends...I'm very picky!!
9. I used to lie in the confessional...told the priest all sorts of stories till he recognized my voice.
10. Ok, this one is really personal, but I've had farting contests with my grandsons!!! My daughter put an end to that, the ol' poop!

There's the 10 things you most likely don't know about me, or maybe you do..I don't remember what I say in my posts from time to time. Oh well, as my ex father-in-law used to say when he'd repeat a story and we called it to his attention to the fact we had already heard it, he'd say" Goddammit, I like that story and I wanted to hear it again!!" He was a hoot!

Has anyone ever thought about those stupid made up words you have to type to get your blog comments published? Well, I have. I thought maybe someone, like a linguist, could come up with a language using those stupid pseudo words. I was listening to some guy the other day on the radio and he spoke nothing but Klingon to his son till the kid caught on at age 3 and refused to speak to his father in the Klingon language again!!! Ya think that guy needs a life???? Anyway, I thought the same could be done with these little letters that sometimes we have to decipher with a squint. So, do you think I need a life???? Just one of my crazy ramblings.

Well, hopefully will complete most of Christmas gifts today and get them ready for shipping or packaging to take with me to Austin. Right now I'm playing with glass paints...having a blast and the glass and paint are so forgiving...you make a mistake, you wipe it off and "all gone!" Well, my dear friends, it's off to my happy place and hopefully will take pics of the final projects and post them here. Peace out.

Snow, snow and more snow!!

Hello all in blogoland, just wanted to touch base with you all and let you know that the snow didn't hamper my attempt to strand myself in my house, as most El Pasoans do...it's not the weather but the horrific drivers. Desert people have no idea as to how to drive in wet weather, snow and oey vey, ice!!!

I had my fill of that when I lived in Germany back in the mid-late 70's. I was amazed at how these people went out for walks or their daily visit to the stores to buy food for the days meal. They had their youngsters bundled up, many looked like little ticks, and they had no problem taking their babies out, in well insulated strollers. I just watched all this life go by me as I stood at my warm kitchen window. Well, I wasn't about to be left out, so I got my 4 month old son, now 33, and put him in his stroller and decided to take a walk in the fields across the street from our apartment complex...thought I'd go buy some honey from the honey lady that lived in that area. Well, I never made it to the fields, let alone the honey lady. The wind was sooo cold and sharp and after a couple of blocks, I said this is crazy, I don't belong here, I'm not a winter person and I don't like the cold, and the snow sucks!!! However, as my little ones grew older, I did take them out to play in the snow and laughed at all the crazy Germans and Turks driving in the ice...they'd put on their breaks and slide for a good 2 blocks....the Turks had this thing about driving backwards...must be a Turk thing.

Well, I will say one thing about snow, it looks beautiful on our Franklin mountains. These are pics I took on Wed. and Thurs. This scene is right outside my front lawn...just love it. This was the day after the storm.



This one was taken yesterday morning. The clouds hovered all day and the only thing peeking out are the peaks....lovely!


I shouldn't complain since I know there are a lot of people who experience lots more than here...we measure by inches, whereas in other area, measure by feet!!! I like our inches better.
So dear friends, hope you have a wonderful weekend, full of love, laughter, family and food....oh yes, Anne, you also try to enjoy spirits....not talking about the "BOO" type either!!! Peace out!