Screw Carnival Cruises!

Yes, I said it!
And I mean it, totally!!!!

Screw Carnival Cruises, man! There is NO WAY I'd go on one of those even it's a total free 1st class replica of the Titanic. It MAY go down like the Titanic!

And on top of the recent probs where the cruise ship breaks loose from the dock, a man is missing from high winds that blew off the security guard hut...

Uh, yeah. As I said...I don't CARE if they totally replicate Titanic in any form; and even if it's free.

Check HERE for more details regarding the latest manure the Carnival Cruise Lines is spoon feeding potential customers and current ones still stuck on that ship.

I swear I am wondering if everyone who works for Carnival Cruises is high.

Write something mon!

Yesh, even if I just blather about a whole bunch of nothing, so here goes...

NOTHING.

Bwaaahaaa! actually, I did so something this past weekend re: making a quicky dinner. I saw a Pillsbury Bisquit commercial for those buttery "Grands" and they showed making a Sloppy Joe sammie with pressed out bisquits. You press/roll the bisquits to 6 in diameter circles, fill them w/Sloppy Joe mix(the cooked mix, IE, the beef/turkey w/the Manwich or whatever you use) and top with cheddar cheese (grated), fold them in half like a calzone and voila....after 9-15 minutes you have Sloppy Joe Calzones!

Very easy and scrumptious!

Victoria's Secret and a young "tween girl."

So, I've heard everyone is getting their undies in a bunch (no pun intended) about a blogging mom who took her young pre-teen daughter to Victoria's Secret.

Any comments?

I have some.

I heard some other people freakin' out on this mom AND her kid. The think that pissed me off most was what others were saying about this woman's child. What kind of mess is that to talk smack of someone's kid? Like how I feel when Lutherans diss the Virgin Mary. You're talking about the Mother of God!

Alas, I digress again.

I personally don't see what the gigantic deal is re: this matter. I personally wouldn't shop w/my 9-10 year old daughter as in my opinion kids grow so doggone quick it'd be a total waste of money unless for some reason VS is having a ridiculous sale where normal (in the sense they don't look like lacy, honeymoon gear and aren't thongs) undies are a buck, then yes, I'll buy her drawers there. But until her growth spurts stop and her body growth has reached a happy medium, IE, I don't have to worry about tossing out a few pairs of uexpensive ndies she's only worn twice due her outgrowing them...then fine. And have you SEEN the undie department at Walmart, KMart, Target, etc....? It ain't that much of a PG-13 atmosphere compared to VS.

Fair warning! There will be thongs!!!! There will be teddies, bustiers, garter belts and stockings, lacey under thingys and the like.

But I wouldn't worry as it's not porn star quality, in my humble opinion. Just people butting in and letting their so-called morals kick into overdrive.

If anyone has a brain in their head and has actually gone into a VS, you'll see VS isn't the mothership for honeymoon apparel. They have wonderful clothing, bath products, even the PINK line which IMO gears a bit more to the HS/college set, but is nice....would fare well for tweens and teens, and those of us who consider ourselves perpetual teenagers over the age of 40. As I mentioned, I personally wouldn't take my kid and waste the dough on undies I can get for half the price and she'll end up outgrowing anyway. I would rather I went to VS and got a nice deal on undies, which they do for email subscribers. They send us free undies or a $10 off undie coupon which I love!

I think everyone needs to get a grip, stop thinking about little girls' undies (you pervs!), chill and take a real hard look at a VS in your local mall... live and let live.

And as I like to say to idiots who tend to put their foot in their mouths without knowledge of ..anything in regard to a topic of this nature.....whatever.

Chicago school closings, March 6th, 2013

Just found out at dismissal my kids' after school activities are canceled. No phone call from the school; I'm not surprised. Here's the link for other school closings in the area. Just click HERE!

SNOW IN CHICAGO? In early MARCH? Who TOLD you this?????

So, we're getting lots of snow in Chicago, eh? Oh dear; snow in Chicago in March? How unheard of! Perish the thought!

Anyway, so I asked my husband if he feels like Superman when he treks through the snow....he replied, "yes. I feel like I'm walking to the Fortress of Solitude."

What a goofy nerd!

I AM STRICKEN WITH BLOGITIS THIS WEEK!

Why you ask? Well, elementary, my little babies;

SNOW DAY!!!!

Have a blessed day!

Bullying of special needs kids is UNACCEPTABLE.

Actually, bullying of any kind is unacceptable.

So, we are still having issues re: bullying and our teener son.

We send our son to a Chicago Charter school that is well known for their "educating children from the inside out." Their philosophy is feeding children nutritious food and encouraging exercise is the way to lead a long, healthy productive life.

I agree. Completely! I mean, sitting on your bum playing video games with the entire bag of chips and a huge Coke is not the way to be, let me tell you from personal experience. But I don't play video games; I watch mah vampire stories!!!! And yes, I realize sitting in front of the 'boob tube' is bad for you; sitting is the new 'smoking,' blasy blah blah. Well, unless I've missed an entire season of my vampire stories or a few episodes of "Nashville," as I'm usually running around anywho, I intend to sit and find out the 411 on Sookie and my new friends...in my mind on "Nashville."

Pardon me...I digress.

Recently a bullying incident has taken the life of a 12 year old boy from Philadelphia who was in a fight this week with bullies. This fight resulted with Bailey O'Neil suffering a broken nose and a concussion. When taken to the hospital he suffered seizures. He was put into a medically induced coma to attempt to control seizures but to no avail; Bailey died from his injuries. This story made it over the pond as here's the Daily Mail's take on this HERE I know there is bullying everywhere to an extent, but I don't believe it should be to THIS extent!

Now back to my kid's situation. My son has high functioning autism. He is picked on often due to his 'quirkiness,' is called 'fat arse' and other unmentionable names. He has actually been physically touched to the point where there was a violent ending...and we took it to the Chicago Police Department, the Illinois Department of Education, CPS and the news.

Now, since my son's school doesn't quite do enough to bring an end to the bullying as the perpetrators continue to bully our son we've informed our son to defend himself. We've also told the school since they're sittng on their hands re: this matter, we have no choice but to leave it in our son's hands; HE WILL DEFEND HIMSELF. Period. And interestingy enough when our son did defend himself recently after being called a 'fat arse' he retorted to the bully 'you're an ugly arse,' our son got in trouble for using profanity.

???

First of all, "ASS" or as I like to say "ARSE" as I'm quite the Anglophile....is in the Bible. It's in Christmas Carols. You know, Now Sing We Know Rejoice? "Ox and ASS before Him bow as He is in the manger now...?" So if my kid is retorting back to a kid who just called my kid an 'arse,' my son is allowed to say 'arse' and in our opinion isn't in trouble because 'ass' is in the Bible and he's defending himself; cleverly I may add.

And why isn't the original perpetrator in trouble as well? Why is it just my kid who's using profanity which is 'arse manure' as one day my son asked what a cock was. I was shocked but kept composure so I can find out what the deuce my kid was yapping about. I calmly asked, "use it in a sentence." He said, "{name of one of his weirdo peers} told me to suck his cock."

?????

OK, calm down Ana. Felt my blood rushing to my face and my heart racing.

I was a bit shocked about this. My son continued to say "He also told me to lick his balls."

OK, OK OK! WE do not speak in that way. And since we have kids and if we just happen to work in the porn industry (WE is me and my husband but we are NOT in the porn industry. Seriously? Have you seen us? We have the bodies of one who sits w/a bag of chips, a huge Coke and watches vampire stories...or writes them for a fan fiction site), we still would never use that vernacular in our house....PERIOD. I basically told my son if this weirdo does it again, tell the teacher the weirdo is talking dirty to you, fin. My son is learning this 'arse manure' at his school. Where else do kids learn profanity? Well, in some cases at home but not in our home...and in my opinion and from my own personal experience, I learned a lot of my dirty, vulgar vernacular at school.

Furthermore, I have put two articles regarding Bailey's situation on my son's schools facebook page...and twice it was taken down within the hour. So much for mutual respect for the parent's and their 1st Amendment Right, eh?

I figured they ("they" being educators) do NOT like smart, somewhat educated, well read parents who are empowered with this along with common sense. Must frighten the hell out of them, wouldn't you say?

Well, re: my son w/the weirdo ball kid. Mmmm....it ended up turning ugly into the above mentioned violent altercation in gym, where weirdo ball licker pushed my kid hard and he fell, hurting his head. This kid was suspended, my son thank God didn't need medical attention but my son does have seizures. And just before Thanksgiving he was punched in the face by a girl in his class who is much bigger than he. THAT too was never quite resolved. The latest to go down was the 'fat arse/ugly arse' deal where my son was chastized basically for defending himself and nothing done to the perp....and hasn't been resolved as my son's school was one of the many schools involved recently with Michelle Obama's "LET'S MOVE" program.

Does "LET'S MOVE" involve moving schools into improving their anti-bullying policies?

OK, so my son's school wants great PR re: their fitness program, have Mrs. Obama by the collar with their so-called 'healthy' rhetoric; but what are they actually doing about this bullying? Isn't it supposed to be a healthy environment, not only physically but mentally? Isn't the promotion of a pacifist nature (which is a credo of this school as my son wasn't even allowed to bring a paper sword to go with his Knight Templar costume for "Multi-culteral Day" as school. So we fashioned a roll of newspaper, put a white sheet of paper over it and wrote 'fake sword' on it to show what he was...a knight fighting in the Crusades and representing a 20x great grandfather who fought in the Crusades in the battle of Acre back in the day) the way they roll?

I am asking rhetorically, of course. Isn't a peaceful nature, which is supposed to be the way this school 'rolls' desired, IE, no negative physical NOR verbal ire? FYI, I am not the only special needs parent who has/is going through this same situation. I know of parents who have pulled their kids out of this school because of this behavior. What IS this school, and other schools, our city, towns, states, our country and the Obamas actually doing to bring an end to bullying?

Not an 'arsed' thing.

GIRL POWER!

Danica Patrick, at the pole for Daytona? Uh, wowsers!






And Christmas Abbott, who can squat 255lbs and is only 5"3 and weighs 115lbs? Woot! That's her up there yonder balancing herself on a big ole' tire. You GO girls!

Read about Christmas HERE!

And...the fact that women can NOW fight combat at the front lines with their male counterparts in the military? I'm telling you, it is a GREAT time to be a girl.

Or as Shania Twain says, "Man, I feel like a woman!"

To take the Christmas tree down....or not!

I dunno but you may call it just plain ole' laziness; I actually had a reasoning behind keeping up the Christmas tree til Candlemas, which is February 2nd, aka Groundhog Day. Candlemas is when Jesus is presented at the temple 40 days after His birth. It's a Catholic feast day meaning blessed beeswax candles for use throughout the year, some of which were distributed to the congregation for use at home to light during storms to ward off further and/or future damage. Since the liturgical revisions of the Second Vatican Council, this feast has been referred to as the Feast of Presentation of the Lord, with references to candles and the purification of Mary de-emphasised in favor of the Prophecy of Simeon the Righteous. Pope John Paul II connected the feast day with the renewal of religious vows.

Now mind you everyone back in the day was either a Druid/Pagan of some sort or Jewish; therefore, Mary a nice Jewish girl and since she probably had her menses after giving birth to Jesus was therefore Niddah and had to do the ritual Mikveh bath to purify herself 40 days after giving birth, thus she was "purified" once again.

Such fear of women I delclair! See how much power we have, girls?

This feast never falls in Lent (the earliest Ash Wednesday can fall is 4 February, for the case of Easter on 22 March in a non-leap year) as it's the last "link" to the Christmas season. However, in the Tridentine rite (aka more traditional Roman Catholics, that is), it can fall in the pre-Lenten season if Easter is early enough, and "Alleluia" has to be omitted from this feast's liturgy when that happens.


The Church of England insists Twelfth Night is on January 5th – and refers to the night before Epiphany, the day when the nativity story tells us that the three wise men visited baby Jesus. But many believe it falls on Jan 6, at the end of the 12th day after Christmas; therefore they keep their decorations up in their homes for an extra day. The difference in opinion is said in centuries past Christmas was deemed to start at sunset on Dec 24; so the 12th night following was Jan 5. Nowadays, people count from Dec 25 and assume 12th Night falls on the 6th. Furthermore, it's supposed to be bad luck for the year if you take it down before 12th night and AFTER 12th night. So, you do it on the 12th day of Christmas with 12 drummers drumming, right? What a contradiction!

Now mind you this is also another winter light "holiday" as pagans back in the day used this day aka Imbolc which has been associated with the onset of lactation of ewes, soon to give birth to the spring lambs. This could vary by as much as two weeks before or after the start of February. The holiday was, and for many still is, a festival of the hearth and home, light and a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring. Celebrations often involved hearthfires, special food (butter & milk due to ewe lactation, and bannocks), divination or watching for omens, and candles or a bonfire if the weather permitted. Fire and purification were an important part of the festival as well. The lighting of candles and fires represented the return of warmth and the increasing power of the Sun over the coming months. It's also the feast day of St. Brigid, who began her life as a pagan goddess and ended up a Christian saint. She was also a fire and fertility goddess (there goes that fire again). In her temple at Kildare, vestal virgins tended an eternal fire. On her feast day, her statue was washed in the sea (purification) and then carried in a cart through the fields surrounded by candles (more light and fire).

And then you have people like your family members; your mother, or sister, gran or auntie or whomever in your life who deems you a lazy lout for not taking the time to put things away as you should since the holiday is over and clean up as it's all messy and cluttering and just plain old ridiculous for keeping your Christmas decor up for that long and using pseudo Christian/Pagan belief systems and spirituality as an excuse not to do so.

I do have friends who are not quite lazy but busy and leave the damn thing up til Mardi Gras or when their real tree has shed so many needles it looks like sticks poking out of a bowl; and not in a pretty decorative manner.

I also thought my tree looked really pretty this year and it made me happy to see it's beautiful lights brightening up our fronchroom; so lovely! So festive!

My reasoning though this year of removing the tree before Epiphany is due to my post toddler aged kiddie who insists on grabbing and pulling on the tree and misplacing ornaments, and breaking several I've had for over 25 years. I cried over the Father Christmas porcelain figurine ornament I had up high (well, I thought it was high enough from grabby little paws; I was wrong!).

I think and hope by next Christmas we can keep the tree up by Candlemas (but away by Groundhog Day; contradiction once more) away from curious hands and the baby will just "ooh" and "aah" from a distance in that "mature" manner a 5 year old should act.

God in heaven I hope!