Sealing the Deal

Notice how no bride and groom ever hesitate when the pastor says, 'You may now kiss the bride'? And that's as should be!!

Daddy

Daddy reads for the Christmas Cantata at Christmas Eve service tonight. Nicely done!

Beautiful service, too.

It is nice to go to worship with our new bonus family. We filled 3 whole rows! How joyful.

 

Funny. Festive. Fa La La La La! I Keellll Youuuu!

Jeff Dunham.

Jeff Dunham Christmas Special 2008 FULL


Laugh till your bells fall off or your lights burn out. 'Tis the season.

 

Mash-up of Marvellousness!! Warning: Tim Burton and Billy Idol. May cause extreme giddyness.

>wipes away tears of joy<

A thing of beauty should not be kept to one's self.

That's the only animated Disney movie I love. All the others (Pixar doesn't count as Disney in my justifiably narrow-minded book; and Lion King is nearly acceptable) can die in a warehouse fire. But Tim Burton is sacred. Billy Idol adds preciousness.

Play again, and enjoy over and over and over!!

 

Nightmare Before Christmas, Part III: the Our Holiday Descent into Hell. AGAIN. Tour.

Glioma. (glee-O-ma) Noun. A cancer of the brain that begins in glial cells (cells that surround and support nerve cells).

Worse? More specifically, high grade glioma.

We are reminded once again (at high cost) how very precious life is.

 

If, for some reason, you ever decide to throw shoes at me...

...I'd like to request Doc Martens.

They're my favorite brand, I need to replace my fave pair of combat boots (LOVE those patented "Bouncing Soles"!!), but the entire line is very expensive. So I've put it off for the past, oh, 8 years or so.

Specifics: VINTAGE 1490 10 EYE BOOT, size 8 (US women's, or 6 in UK sizes) is the combat boot. But I also like:

* Lottie, an 8-eye number similar to the 10-eye combat boot, but painted all over with very delicate little flowers;

* Milly, a lovely slightly dressier boot, yet still casual enough for me. Easily worn with skirts or jeans, this one suits me perfectly! Especially in the wine color;

* Chloe is a shoe rather than a boot. And she's quite a knock out. Be carefull when throwing this one. Though it's a patented Doc Marten sole, which only means great support on the INSIDE of the shoe. I wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of one of these hot pieces of leather and rubber;

* Drew is a sassy variation on the Mary Jane, a shoe I've always loved. I love her even more in blue...

* Olga is a classic flat. What else can I say? A girl's gotta have some staples. Especially when dealing with punk classics.

These are my requests. You know, just in case you ever feel like lobbing a loafer.

 

Glad tidings of great joy!

Sandy's brain surgery was a great success. We have seen her. She can move all of her extremities. She can communicate just fine. She makes Garcia-worthy jokes! We are deeply appreciate the very fine care she has been receiving. We are grateful for all of the support from friends and family. She is, too!

We are truly blessed.

 

At the Colectivo Holiday Party

My cookies were disappearing! :-)

 

Tonight's Agenda

We get to attempt normalcy in a holiday season of hecticness and chaos at the best of times, made more insane this year with a family medical complication, by being fans at the Cavs game tonight.

It might be nice to have something to force us to be in one place instead of tearing around at break-neck speed.

Then again, it might just as easily be completely maddening to just sit there, unproductively.

Sigh.

Go Cavs.

More on Sandy's status.

The brain tumor is an encapsulated egg-shaped mass on the right lobe. The neurosurgeon is confident he can remove it with ease. These are all good bits of news.

It does not stop me resenting the hell out of this unwelcome bit of biology that threatens the Garcia holiday bliss.

Prayers. Good thoughts. Positive energy. Send whatever you've got.

 

More on this Christmas thing. Just watch.

Strong Bad just makes me laugh, but take his explanations with several grains of salt. He's not always very accurate.

 

So, what's this Christmas thing all about, anyway?

Watch, and learn...



Got it? Good.

 

Beautiful Ohio

A view to be thankful for.

We are en route to Bill and Louise's farm for Rick's side of the family's Thanksgiving celebration. It's always a good day when we get to go to the farm. It's a double-whammy of good when it's a holiday at the farm.

 

With less than a month til Christmas, let the begging begin with this song!

Press the "Play" arrow, and enjoy! The animation is brilliant.

 

Today's Ohio State game against the Wolverines has been cancelled...

Michigan can't get past Toledo!!!

(cue rim shot.)(or not...)

 

Um... Jumping the Gun, Much???

They don't make any announcements regarding this year's Cy Young Award recipients until this afternoon, yet this is what I just found on Wikipedia under Cliff Lee's entry:

2008 Season

Cliff Lee on the mound at Progressive Field on September 12, 2008.In 2008, Lee had a career year. Despite the Indians playing with a l 500 winning percentage for the season, Lee started the 2008 season with much success. Lee was one of only eight pitchers since 1920 to win 19 or more of his first 21 decisions. He was the first Cleveland pitcher to win his first six starts since Greg Swindell in 1988. He also recorded his first career shutout on April 25, 2008, against the Kansas City Royals, allowing just 3 hits and 0 walks.[9] He had the lowest On-base percentage-against at .163 through five starts since 1909. For his efforts and success, he was named the American League Pitcher of the Month for April, when he went 5-0 with a 0.96 ERA. .[10] Lee was selected to his first All-Star game in 2008, and was selected to start the game. Lee worked two scoreless innings for the American League team, surrendering only a Chipper Jones base hit and striking out three.[11]

On August 26, Lee won his 19th game of the season, yielding only 2 runs to the Detroit Tigers.[12] This victory set a new career high for Lee, besting his previous mark of 18 wins set during the 2005 season. On September 1, Lee won his 20th game of the season, throwing a complete game shutout. He was the first Indian to reach 20 wins since Gaylord Perry in 1974.[13] In August, for the second time in the 2008 season, Lee was named American League Pitcher of the Month. He went 5-0 with a 1.86 ERA in the month. On September 12, Lee won his 22nd game, making his record 22-2 on the season. This marked the first time a pitcher had gone 20 wins over .500 since Bob Welch in 1990. Overall to end a career year, Lee went 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA and 170 strikeouts. He started 31 games, completed 4, and had 2 shutouts. He pitched a total of 223⅓ innings. Lee ended the season as the American League champion for both wins and ERA.

On September 30, 2008, Lee was awarded the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award.

Lee was awarded the Players Choice Award for AL Outstanding Pitcher of the Year, and AL Comeback Player of the year, by fellow players.

Lee was also given The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award and The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award for his 2008 season.

Lee's 2008 winning percentage of 88% was the twelfth best of all time, and the fourth best by a pitcher starting a minimum of 30 games. Coincidently, the three pitchers ahead of Lee also pitch left-handed (Randy Johnson, Ron Guidry, and Lefty Grove). Lee's winning percentage is the second best in Indians history, behind Johnny Allen's 93.8% (15 wins, 1 loss, in 24 games) in 1937.

In 2008, he also won the AL Cy Young Award for his outstanding pitching in the season

[edit] See also
List of Major League Baseball wins champions
List of Major League Baseball ERA champions

Trippy, huh?

Notice how the important sentence is incomplete. The boldface and italics were added by me.

It'd be great if it's true. In fact, it will be rather suspect if Lee doesn't win. No American League pitcher had a better season this year. However, no one should have this information reported on a website at this time of this day. A leak of this sort is more appropriate on ESPN or MLB.com...

Wikipedia? REALLY??? (Yes, that's a link to the article referenced!!)

 

I'm Thankful for This Experience

Given the historic nature of last week's election, I wanted some time to reflect and digest before recording my memories. Today is my "How I Spent Election Night" Post. If you continue scrolling down, you can follow (in reverse order...) my day on Election Day. I blogged from morning until Ben & Jerry's. I didn't blog about post-poll-closing because I'd left my cell phone at home accidentally, which let me enjoy the evening fully immersed, rather than trying to record as I went (Rick appreciated my full attention for a change). Here are my observations after the fact.

On election night, after the polls closed and we'd gotten our free ice cream, Rick and I went to our favorite sports bar to watch the election returns, expecting that at least one of the TVs would be tuned to a station covering politics. Heh. Boy, were we unprepared. And given our city, I don't know why!! Here's the scenario.

We live in Cleveland Heights, the most liberal and most integrated city in the most liberal (by many accounts) county in the state. Cuyahoga County is reliably "blue". But Cleveland Heights is seriously crunchy granola. It's situated between 2 large universities and 2 small colleges, with 2 huge competing research hospitals flanking one of the universities. Our population tends to be students, faculty, and highly educated folk from all over the world that feed into the hospitals, research spin-offs, and academic world. Which means we also are balanced in a racial manner, too: my immediate neighborhood is interestingly mixed. 2 blocks north is the Hassidic neighborhood. Our own street is only 2 blocks long, yet is almost a tiny sample of the world as if it were on a prepared slide for a massive microscope. I love it.

"Our" bar is called The Winking Lizard. The closest one is practically walking distance from us, only about 2 miles away. The interior has multiple rooms, and each room has multiple TVs. Each room had only one TV dedicated to a sporting event, and the volume was selected to the CNN tv! :-) What? Worry about missing the election returns? I say again, "Heh!" EVERYONE in the bar was engaged with the goings-on, and talking with neighboring tables. It was an emotionally electric atmosphere.

And friendly!!! I have never seen such friendliness before, and this is a very friendly neighborhood! I felt so warm towards my fellow Cleveland Heightsians (or whatever we are...), and it wasn't just because 98% of us were there to cheer on then-Sen. Obama. Everyone was polite, too. No one got vulgar about the opposing ticket, though the opportunity was there. I really feel good about that. I mean, a few snarky comments were made, sure! But nothing foul, nothing that couldn't be said in front of a child or say, your great-grandmother. In fact, all that I heard that was said that night was considerably milder than things already said in the media or on SNL. I don't know if we were acting out of superstitious fear of 'jinxing' the election. All I know is that I appreciated the considerate behavior.

Many people left before the end; whatever the outcome, Wednesday was still a work day, after all. Rick and I stayed to hear the speeches, which beyond what could have been imagined, given the campaigns. We stood there in stunned relief with other bar patrons and workers, sometimes just listening, sometimes smiling at each other, sometimes spontaneously hugging each other.

There were lots of joyful tears.

Out on the street, people were honking horns and yelling cheerfully to each other. Strangers and friends hailing each other from across the street with the good news made it seem like New Year's Eve or some other grand, universal, secular holiday.

I've never experienced anything like it. I think it's unlikely I ever will again.

 

A New Generation of Activism

Generation WE: The Movement Begins... from Generation We on Vimeo.

I don't quite fit the demographic, agewise. I'm "Generation X", part of the "over-educated, underemployed, undermotivated" generation allegedly coddled by the parental Boomer Generation. (I think this video is incorrect about the parents of so-called "Generation We" being the Baby Boom Generation. The Boomers were born at the tail end of WWII, and would therefore be grandparents, even great-grands of the people covered by the labels "Millennial" or "Generation We".)

I do appreciate the motivation and the ideas expressed in this video. I'd like to see how much of this actually happens, now that the longest and most contentious presidential campaign in U.S. history has ended.

 

Serious Cause for Thanks

A year ago this month I was recovering from a lumpectomy.

It was my first time participating in NaBloPoMo, and I chose to participate specifically because I thought writing everyday would be a good diversion from whatever I might need diverting from, and perhaps a helpful therapy device.

As a diversion, writing about the experience wasn't always successful. As a form of therapy, I was grateful for the outlet.

My story from last November (which is accessible by clicking on the "November 2007" link in the archives section, just to the right) has a happy ending. The surgery, performed on the 6th, was textbook perfect. The results, which I received on the 9th, showed that my breast was cancer-free. My recovery was rapid; I never needed all the pain-killers provided in the prescription.

For all of these things I am deeply thankful.

I am also thankful for preventative medicine measures such as mammograms. Having said that, I should explain that my mammogram did not find my lump. I found it while in the shower. (Soapy water is the best method of discovery!) In fact, after I found the lump, neither mammogram nor ultrasound could definitively find it, although the lab techs were very able to confirm that it was there.

That was a terribly, profoundly, disgusting moment!! I had to admit to a small amount of relief that someone else was able to find the cause of worry that I had, yet it confirmed for me that I really did have something to worry about!!! The machines told me there was no lump. The humans in charge of the technology agreed (with me, not their tech-toys) that something was there. At least the humans were able to laugh with me and relate with me about the emotional conundrum I faced: "The good news is that we know you're not crying 'wolf', however, the bad news is that you may have something life-endangering growing inside you."

Again, that ended up not to be the case. I DID learn that the greatest benefit of preventative medecine is not always the procedures used, but the contact and reassurances one receives. I felt well-cared-for at each turn. That made a tremendous difference.

I have an obligation and an opportunity to get a mammogram every year. While I still must do my own self-exams, I feel like this clinical reminder is as helpful as anything else. It's as official as doing taxes and renewing license plates and voting. By putting that appointment on the calendar, I am making a commitment to my health.

I check my husband's breasts now and again, too. Breast cancer runs in his family. Never forget that men have breasts, and can be vulnerable to breast cancer! Because breast cancer awareness is not as promoted among men, it tends to be more lethal when it is finally detected, as it often goes undetected until a late stage of growth and has metastasized.

I celebrate my grim and joyful anniversary much as I spent my recovery: snuggling on the couch with my pets. Just for a moment, though. Life marches steadily forward, so I cannot stay here long! I embrace the activities with which I will fill the rest of my day.

I do enjoy this quiet moment as a gift.

 

Oh, GOD! Indeed, divine inspiration!

I love Cleveland Heights.

later edit: This is the one that came home with me. Marvelous. Went splendidly with spicy vegan spaghetti sauce and chicken parmesan. Afterwards, I had it with a Malley's pretzel bar. Another good pairing, and it nailed my PMS.