Obligatory New Years Post

I don't happen to believe in New Years resolutions myself. I believe that everyday one could be assessing what works and what doesn't. Of course I believe that, but almost never do, unless hit in the head with a two by four piece of reality. One of my many faults...er charms I am sure.

I have learned a lot in the last year of blogging. Today is in fact my (Whoopee) one year.Thanks to all you happy wanders that have embraced one of the most private blogs I know of.I kinda like it this way. At first I would run to the counter awaiting the on-slot of devotees to my brilliance..what a silly twittling I can be. Now I am happy with the pace and breadth of where and what I currently am. I even have moments of peace here, away from the hustle and bustle of a home with more kids then good sense dictates.

I once had a chance to join a blog role and chickened out chose not to  because I wanted to be able to continue to write what ever nonsensical  piece of garbage that came to my heart and mind (and I have too.) I have used this place for many things over the year, a place to put recipes , vent, dump my "stuck in my head" throbbing tunes and just a place to work out some ideas I have been toying around with. A place to deal with my mistakes.

Will I be more focused in future, take a more decided direction? Knowing me...... I highly doubt it.

Thank you my two and a half regular readers for stopping by and saying hello from time to time. Glad to see I can't alienate everyone. :O)

May the next year bring you all only good and if it doesn't? May it bring you the strength to handle the not so perfect thing we call life.

Forward ho.

You know I'm going to have to....

heap curses on the head of the evil person that put THIS song in my head.




May a camel spit in their tea, may boils visit upon their derrière, may your neighbour's dog bark alllll night long, may your balls only find the sand traps, may the elephants at the zoo escape and flatten your....oh you get the idea.

Silly news

The man that took the bunny out of easter and  put her in the bathroom for millions of men has struck again.

Hugh Hefner is engaged. The 84 year old Playboy popped the question to long time girlfriend, Crystal Harris. As they say love is blind, especially for Crystal who is only 24 years old. I wonder what Holly Madison thinks about this? Will Hef and Crystal have a big Playboy wedding?

Hef is a real charmer, when he divorced his last "long time" wife he stated that Viagra was the reason. Why stick with one..er...bunny when you can pop a pill that puts you back in working order and you can sample the wares of multiples? What a catch..

Question: How can someone who is only 24 be a "long time" girlfriend?

Fully Informed Jury Association making an impact?

Town can't find jurors willing to convict in Pot case.

A man with a string of convictions and a reputation as a drug dealer was going on trial in Montana for distributing a small amount of marijuana found in his home—if only the court could find jurors willing to send someone to jail for selling a few marijuana buds.The problem began during jury selection this month in Missoula, when a potential juror said she would have a “real problem” convicting someone for selling such a small amount. But she would follow the law if she had to, she said.
A woman behind her was adamant. “I can’t do it,” she said, prompting Judge Robert L. Deschamps III to excuse her. Another juror raised a hand, the judge recalled, “and said, ‘I was convicted of marijuana possession a few years ago, and it ruined my life.’ “ Excused.
“Then one of the people in the jury box said, ‘Tell me, how much marijuana are we talking about? ... If it was a pound or a truckload or something like that, OK, but I’m not going to convict someone of a sale with two or three buds,’ “ the judge said. “And at that point, four or five additional jurors spontaneously raised their hands and said, ‘Me, too.’ “
By that time, Deschamps knew he had a jury problem.

This good....not because I am a pot smoker, found out in high school it just made me sleepy not high, but because it is a total waste all around. No I am NOT going to argue about the effects of pot or anything like that, it's a freedom issue for me.

 “We’ve got a lot of citizens obviously that are not willing to hold people accountable for sales in small amounts, or at least have some deep misgivings about it. And I think if I excuse a quarter or a third of a jury panel just to get people who are willing to convict, is that really a fair representation of the community? I mean, people are supposed to be tried by a jury of their peers.”

What a taxeater that recognises that it might be cheating or defying the spirit of the system to keep dismissing until he could stack the jury? Never say so.

“It’s becoming an increasing problem. People just don’t seem to care about marijuana cases anymore,” said Brian Towne, the LaSalle County prosecuting attorney.
The issue is ripe in Montana, which is home to the headquarters of the Fully Informed Jury Association, a national group that encourages jurors to nullify laws they believe are unjust.

H/T WIN

On this Christmas Eve

Christmas eve in our home, like so many others,  in steeped in traditions. Some are ours alone and some we have inherited through the generations.

One of the things we do after dinner is we get the kids together and we wrap the presents for other family members. Each child no matter how small has some sort of job, that changes with each gift. Some handle the tape, some get to pick the wrapping, an other picks and prints the tags, it is all a very organised mess that makes the children involved and wastes time keeps the littlest ones occupied until just about bedtime . One of the jobs is to be the DJ, to pick and keep the festive music flowing. A very important and sought after job around here. This year that honour fell on the shoulders of my 6 year old. She had a great idea to use youtube as the source of her selections. Sure why not?

Knock yourself out. For some bizarre I had some misguided vision of songs that express CHRISTmas sort of like this:




Did I forget to mention she is 6? What we were serenaded, for about an hour to an hour and a half , with  57 million ( OK that was a slight exaggeration, very slight mind you) renditions and repeats of the following :



I guess I forgot she was only 6, all the younger were delighted, they danced and sang, laughed and a good time was had by all under four feet, I am sure they will sleep with visions of hippos dancing in their heads....

Merry Christmas all, be safe, find moments of true contentment , make memories, be family, most of all love and be loved.

Grey.

NARF!

Why oh why is this ' song' stuck in my brain?

Well I can hazard a guess, but come on really?

Obsessed much?



I think I need to join Joel and adopt  some kittens...

Psychedelic Sunday

Heh...you may think I'm crazy, but I know you are...YOU know who you are.

Yes you do..

Oh my lord love a duck.

The Cattleman is insane or something.

As some of you semi-regulars might know I have a rather largish family and added to the mix are my Breakfast club kids. We currently have three siblings from the Sudan.

We have heard thru indirect sources that officials would not be adverse to those children never returning. Which has gotten the Cattleman thinking....down right crazy thoughts.

Cattleman: If they do allow the kids to stay I think we should adopt them.

 Insert visual of blinky eyed disbelief.

Grey: WHAAAAAAAAT? are you mad? We have eight, count em eight children stuffed in this house, plus our daughter, señor super sperm, their preemie baby.  Don't you think it's more then enough chaos for anybody?

Cattleman: Exactly, we have managed and what's three more?

Grey: Three more permanent is crossing the line.

Cattleman: What line?

Grey:  The line between wondering if your crazy and knowing your crazy. I want to stay on this side of it.

Cattleman: We have time to think about it, work it out.

Grey: Take all the time you want, but it isn't changing anything, nope, nadda, not happening, never, ever, I'm done, finished, kaput, finito, . Mark my words...Are you outta your mind???????????

Christmas with a capital cranky curmedgeon

The  Salvation army seems to be taking some flack for using  funds from their campaigns for  prison mission work and handing out sunshine bags as an outreach program. I even heard people calling into our local talk radio alarmed at this turn of events. Some went so far as to angrily state that they will no longer be putting their hard earned dollars into those kettles.

OTTAWA — The Salvation Army is playing Santa to federal inmates, delivering gifts and season's greetings inside prisons across the country.


The "Sunshine Bags" contents vary by region, but are usually stuffed with treats like chocolate bars, candies, peanuts, magazines or personal hygiene products.

Some correctional officers are furious the Salvation Army is directing charitable dollars to Christmas presents to a population that includes murderers and rapists — especially in tough economic times.

"When you donate to a charity like that, in your mind you think you're helping kids and poor families have a Christmas. You don't think you're giving money so inmates can get Sunshine Bags," said one veteran prison guard at Ontario's Fenbrook Institution, where about 450 inmates will receive the bags Thursday.

The guard said while the bags don't have a high value individually, the cost is significant when multiplied for thousands of offenders in penitentiaries across the country.

Hmmm lets take a look at the name, beginnings and mission of the salvation Army shall we?

Definition of salvation.

n.

1. 1. Preservation or deliverance from destruction, difficulty, or evil.
   2. A source, means, or cause of such preservation or deliverance.
2. Christianity.
   1. Deliverance from the power or penalty of sin; redemption.
   2. The agent or means that brings about such deliverance.
   
    

Preservation or deliverance from destruction or evil eh? Hmmm pretty sure we have that in Prison. Be the agent or means to bring about deliverance from sin and evil? Again I'm thinking if you are in an army that fights despair or evil ..what do ya know, jail just might be one of the top ten places to go...go figure...

The beginnings of their Mission? 

The Salvation Army's main converts were at first alcoholics, morphine addicts, prostitutes and other "undesirables" unwelcomed into polite Christian society, which helped prompt the Booths to start their own church.

The shame, the horror....imagine a Christian organization acting so bloody CHRISTIAN? Who would have thunk it?

Now I partially blame our current injustice system, folks are so frustrated with the lack of convictions. With The easy sentencing I can almost forgive them for thinking that only the most vile specimens of humanity must actually reside in jails.

Even if that were so, so what?

Even I, a baaad Christian,  knows that these are exactly the types of souls that Christ was most interested in saving. He did not die on the cross to make a pathway for only those  who slightly pad their expense report, who take the Lords name in vain, bring home staplers from work, who covet their neighbour's wife's fine bosoms and firm young derriere, that lie or cheat or drink a dram too much. According to the legend he died for every dead, living or future soul no matter what their sin if they sincerely repented and asked for forgiveness.....And yes that means even rapists and murderers.

That is mission that  Christ set "us" to do, that is the Christan way, at least that is the way Christians are supposed to be.

So you can or not drop cash in the kettles because visions of poor children getting toys stopped dancing in your head. Feel free to judge the works of these good Christian bothers and Sisters based on wrongful delusion of  a sliding scale of sins. You can decide who is deserving and who is not of your funds, it is your right, just do not fool yourself with your own Christian goodness and charity, because me thinks you might require more growth in this area...

But What do I know?

More Canadian "Junk" Science or inventions

That I wish I never heard about. I originally thought this was a parody to show how sick, depraved, (really there are no words to adequately describe this situation) government Officials are getting.

If you think a TSA grope is bad, gay men seeking asylum in the Czech Republic are forced to drop their pants and get hooked up to a penile plethysmograph to find out just how gay they are. After the "peter meter" device is attached to their penises, they are subjected to all kinds of pornography to see what happens to their junk. This test then determines if they can seek asylum.

The European Union's main human rights agency, the Fundamental Rights Agency, denounced the procedure.

So I googled the peter meter and was shocked to find out it was indeedy real and in use. To add pride to the injury it was invented by psychologist Kurt Freund, who interestingly is at the Canadian Center for addiction and Mental Health right in Toronto Canada.

Far be it for me to judge the mental Health of a man that can come up with such a physically, spiritually, soul suckingly humiliating test for the Gay population, but I can hazard a guess.  Far be for me to judge what kind of Bureaucrats think this is OK to subject human beings too, but I can hazard a guess on that one too.

Only the most arrogant gay hating anti theists could possibly even give this procedure a split second of consideration. What animals, that must think that their subjects are just cattle or some how sub human.

This pleasant  device was even used right here in Canerder, used to determine if parent's little wee darlings have gay tendencies or not. Are you out of your minds parents? What kind of parent would subject their child to this procedure and what kind of snake oil salesman would subject a patient to this torture on behalf of a worried parent?

It's use was recently halted in BC, they were using it on Young sexual offenders, some as young as 13, after a worker was charged with sexual assault . Really one needn't worry about someone who makes a living attaching these things to young boys and then showing them kiddie porn now would one?

I mean really who could sit with a straight face and say: I completely trust and would leave my children with a person who attached this machine to little junk and then shows the kids porn. Yup I would leave my children with that guy.

A very useful device I guess to measure if their programs were working  to reprogram their sexual triggers. Just how does that work if you keep reintroducing images of their favorite stimulation?


Next thing ya know some smart cookie is going to come up with an idea of shooting electricity thru these kids to fix up their brain pathways......

What do I know?  I'm currently just a house Frau.

The Glen Beck ripple effect

I don't do TV, I really don't have the time and frankly since that quirky twin peaks show popularized meaningless weirdness as a staple and Surviver popularized staged "reality" who has excess life for that non entertainment?

But I do have a T.V. and I do catch rumblings around the blog-o-sphere of this Glen Beck Character, (hey I have a huge family sometimes they get to have what they want and they want T.V.) I bit the bullet and decided to get Fox news so I could make up my own mind about this rabble rouser, this trouble maker that has the highest ratings . I have to admit that I have a certain fondness for troublemakers.

So we ordered the Fox news and this has been an interesting experience, I am not crazy about the guy and his delivery, a tad toooooo evangelical for me, but I think I see where he is going.

Certain phrases  that he has been tossing around that kinda made me stand up and pay attention. The number one being

Food Insufficiency and food sufficiency.

Now Glen is talking about the average person not being able to feed their family past the next paycheque and the foods banks crises, you  get the Drill.

Now The Paster has been strongly urging his followers to rid themselves of debt, sell everything that isn't absolutely essential. Get out of debt. Check splendid idea. Heeeeal thy bank account, heeeeeal they credit, shun the evil credit givers. I'm down with that GB Paster, good advice anytime.  The Grey's have unloaded over 100 thousand Gs in the last few years ourselves.

Once again  he keeps bringing up the food sufficiency and insuffeciency...The GB Paster is a Mormon, Mormons have a rule that they are to build up at least one years food supply in their home for hard times. Start off with a weeks worth, then work up to a month, then three months, then six, then a full years worth.  GB Paster keeps hammering the Government take over of the food industry and the hidden inflation on foods, talking about Mao and Russia's forced famines on the populace to keep them weak and compliant....He's leading up to it folks, I can see it coming a mile away.

Leading up to the advising his followers to get that food stuffs stocked up. The Grey's  are already working at it hard....but we have a huge family, this just isn't easy or cheap.

Dang I have no idea if I will be thrilled to have Millions join me in my quest, comforted that more folks will be able to take care of their own business and be somewhat prepared then they would be otherwise or maybe I will be seriously ticked because the shelves are about to get emptier and way more expensive.  That old law of supply and demand is about to come and bite us slow and steady folks in the behind.

Ouch  to the budget dead ahead. I think I may have to step up some basic acquisitions.

Heh.....

So I went into my unused section of my basement this afternoon to get something and I felt a stiff draft.

Looked around and found one of the windows ajar by about a good inch. (I think someone was smoking down there, but that is a different hunt isn't it?) It is against the law here to have screening on your only alternate method of escape in case of fire.........

So I guess, since I have no clue how loooooooong that window has been open, that just may be the way the wee mousies entered our establishment.

Question: Do you think this means I need to fess up and concede or do I just leave that tid bit  here and let it be? I haven't mentioned the wee beasties (around the house)  for weeks now........

Look Rocky while I pull a

rabbit, or should we say sacrificial lamb, Outta our hats.

Notice how the story is Julian now and not the information released? How short an attention span or how easily the sheep are distracted by a media directed feeding frenzy.

Gotta love the Honey pot charges and the nice touch of freezing all his bank accounts and assets, in an attempt to undermine his ability to mount a serious defense against the limitless pockets of Tax payer stolen funds that every P.O.'d government has at it's disposal......

La Princesa has arrived

Whooosh what a time!

Today by emergency C-section she was delivered at around 3:20 pm. She weighed in at a mighty 5 pounds even.

Both Mamma and bebe are doing well, I think the Daddy may make it too. :O)

The Cattleman and I have traded places and his getting to hold his first grand child as I type. There will be no getting him off that cloud, he is over joyed.

Now I am off to have a shower, eat a hot lesuierly meal after reasurring the rest of our brood that I did not disappear, will not disappear again......

Conversation heard in my living room tonight.

GL: So you are an Aunt now.

Little one: Really? Not a sister again?

Other little one: I am an ant too? But  I wanted to be a snake.

Another little: Snakes are yucky I want to be an elephant.

I see we still have some splainin to do.





All is right in our world tonight, blessings have come to Greys.

Got the call!

And we are off, be there for 9 pm and the new wait will begin....

My family famous shortbread

I thought while I was here I might share my recipe for Whipped shortbread.

GL's Whipped mouthwatering shortbread:

Basic Ingredients:



1 full pound of soft butter.

1 cup of icing sugar.

1/2 cup of cornstarch.

3 cups of flour.

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.



Directions:


Well if you look at the list of ingredients you must wonder how these could possibly be soooo special? I will tell you.

Number one trick/secret is that the butter has to be soft and by soft I mean veeeeery soft. Not melted but how butter gets when it's been on the counter while you have had your oven on all day soft. Slides right out of the package soft. Really soft, but not melted. Get it?


Number two trick/secret is to sift the dry ingredients together, I do it at least once, sometimes twice. This makes the ingredients "lofty" and lighter, allows the air to work it's magic later, for it's fluffy melt in your mouth texture that is so desirable.

So sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.

In your mixer bowl mix the butter around a bit to get it fluffy.

Add vanilla.

Sloooooowly add the sifted dry ingredients while the mixer is doing it's thing.



If you are adding a flavoring, now is the time to add it. ( I'll get to flavoring additions at the end.)

Your going to let the mixer beat the living daylights out of this now. If you have a standing mixer, go vacuum a room. Put the washing in the dryer, change the oil in the car, book your massage appointment, every once in a while just check to make sure that the beaters are not all clogged up and if the batter is stuck there, turn it off and use a spatula to dislodge it. Turn your mixer back on and go vacuum another room. Windex all the mirrors in the house or something. You get the idea, be patient, let the mixer do all the work. It should have the consistency of whipped cream by the time you are done.


Now would be the time to add you add-ons if you are doing such a thing. If you are adding wee tiny chocolate chips you can not whip them, you must be quick or they will be chopped up and ruin the appearance of your beautiful white cookies.



Once you have your add-ons in drop teaspoons full of batter on parchment paper or tin foil lined cookie sheets.


Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, in a preheated oven. 350 F, watch them closely as they go from browning on the outside rim to burnt fast. I start checking at 11 Minutes or so.

Flavorings and add-ons:

These cookies on their own are delicious, but I really have a hard time leaving things alone, traditional.

You can buy teeny tiny chocolate chips, be they white, dark, milk chocolate. Even butterscotch chips Which I personally am not cray about. Yes I have even added skor, they seemed to disappear easily.

Lemon /Poppy seed has become popular. Just add a teaspoon of lemon juice or a bit of grated rind, about a tablespoon and at the end of mixing add a teaspoon or so of Poppy seeds.

Orange /Cranberry. Add a teaspoon of orange flavored extract or a bit of grated rind about a tablespoon and cut up small pieces of dried cranberries to add at the end of your mixing. Amount is optional to your tastes. Num Num.


Maple/walnut. Add maple extract, in a pinch I have added a tablespoon or two of real maple syrup. Add semi crushed, small pieces of walnuts at the end of the mixing.
As you can see you are only limited by your taste buds and imagination


Just make sure to add the liquid flavoring at the start, (when you add the Vanilla) and the add on after you have your desired consistency from the mixer.
 
Easy eh? Go forth and multiply your Christmas baking.

So its on..

My daughter being induced in the next 24 hours, the baby still seems to be perfectly formed but much too small. While the baby has gained weight she has fallen to the bottom 3 percentile. So the doctor has decided once the necessary resources are in place nature will be given a wee nudge in the right direction. So we wait by the phone for the call to go.....

I will be in the delivery room at my daughter's request.  She thinks my presence and experience will give her confidence and Iwill be able to keep her calm. Oh boy....

Fingers crossed all continues to go well and I am able to be what she needs.

Meanwhile we wait like every other expectant family thru history by baking up a storm. Shortbreads, muffins and bread.

Correlation is NOT necessarily CAUSATION.

This is a scientific principle that sometimes slips off the edge of my brain. I know it, I understand it, but in real life it is a principle I tend to forget to make allowances for.

Question: How many dead mice do you figure I need  before I revise the theory of how the troops set up home sweet home in my stores room?

In case you missed it my current reigning theory is that the Cattleman and company accidentally brought them home when they panicked  at the mice they found  and then packed up our summer place....I might have..ummmm...kinda sorta..ya know...not exactly accused or anything...but made a point of....gently, yeah thats the word gently, in a good natured manner ( yeah thats another good one too) referenced their hasty packing of linens as a possible source of our rodent problem. Only because the wee mousies showed up at exactly the same frickin time. See the correlation?

So back to my question, how many of them do you think it would take to make my (I wasn't really married to that whole idea but just threw it out there as a plausible possibility) theory null and void?

10? Whoosh I am still safe then.

5? Oh dear da dear dear me....now that sorta presents a wee bit of a problem for me.....See the hardware guy knew what he was talking about when he said that mice find peanut butter irresistible, so irresistible in fact I think the mice are coming from out of house to heed it's call. I almost feel like I am luring defenseless Eloi to their unsuspected fate..almost.

I of course would have no issue with revising my theory, it's not as if I have actually complained (aloud) about the bringing home of the mice creatures...or gone so far as to hastily compose a  really bad poem in honour of my frustration...no no no no not moi. It's not like I ever triumphantly asked the Cattleman to go dispose of the first two snapped ones just so he would know that I was right about the mice being down there...nope not going to be an issue at all.....

Are you sure 5 are enough? Does that stretch credibility that he accidentally brought home a blanket, sleeping bag or pillow with a nest in it? 5 sure seems like I may have to...oh what the heck...10 it is, a nice round number, very scientific non?