Every Little Bit Helps

My daughters had a garage sale on Friday. Hope, 10, and Justin, 8, cousins, are always up for a way to earn a little money so they decided to have a lemonade stand during the garage sale. They ended up expanding their sales to lemonade, donuts and chips. They stuck with it throughout the day and ended up making about $67 dollars. 

Their efforts were not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the victims of the theater shootings.

$67 is not a huge amount compared to the needs of the victims, but every little bit helps. I am very proud of these two generous entrepreneurs.

Politics

Image from Bing Images

Politics is not something I ever talk about here and I promise I am not really going to start now. I will not be talking about who I am going to vote for and I won't be telling anyone else who they should vote for. That doesn't mean I am not interested or that I don't have an opinion. It is just something I won't be doing here.

A side bar to the recent tragic theater shootings in Colorado is that, for a few days, both presidential candidates suspended their television advertising in our state. Both campaigns said it was time to focus on the victims, not on politics. Given the vitriol of the ads we had been seeing having them suspended has been a very good thing. They have or will start being shown again and I'm sure they will be just as bad as before.

What hasn't stopped, and the real point of my post, is the constant e-mail and Facebook postings that demean, make fun of, debase, degrade, or try to show the party or candidate they are opposed to in as negative a way as possible. Most people, when asked, say that they are opposed to negative campaigning, yet these vituperative postings spread from in-box to in-box all across the internet. Some are done in a humorous way and some are just plain nasty. None of them, in my opinion, do anything to benefit the political process.

I am all in favor of political discussion, but I wish it could be done in a more civil way. If we want our political parties to find a way to campaign without using ads attacking their opponent maybe a good place for that to begin is with the voters and their communication with one another.

Is your vote influenced by internet communication that is demeaning or degrading to a candidate?

Sympathy for Victims and a Thank You

There is little to say right now about the shootings at the Batman premiere in Aurora, Colorado early this morning except to offer sympathy to the victims and their families and to offer heartfelt thanks to the first responders. 

Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed me with their concerns. 

Images from Google Images

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday or Look Out 2024 Olympics...Here I Come

Ready for the pool.....a sure winner in the special pajama-swim event.

I don't think Karate is actually an Olympic sport, but maybe it will be by 2024 with competitors like this.

Like all well-rounded athletes, 4 yr. old Anna also knows how to enjoy a little down time. 

I Planned A Quiet Birthday

There are 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day this year in the United States. Last Saturday I was one of the 10,000 for that day. My plan was to just let the day sort of slide by quietly. Doc and I have a trip to Lake Tahoe planned later in the month and my family would do a picnic for our July birthdays when the kids are all done with baseball. That seemed like plenty of celebrating to me. Doc insisted that we at least needed to go out to dinner and said that he had invited our friends Martin and Debbie to go with us. I said that was fine and told him to decide with them where they wanted to go. When we got to the restaurant, instead of leading us to a table the hostess walked through the restaurant and opened the door to a private room in the back that was filled with my family and friends. I couldn't have been more surprised....shocked would be a better description. My kids kept saying "it was all, Doc, it was all Doc", like I would "blame" them for changing my quiet birthday plan. It was all nothing but fun.



This is me in the middle with my friends Ellie (left) and Patty (right). Ellie provided the beautiful red feather boa. Patty's contribution was a bra with cups that hung to my waist that I didn't get a picture of. She will get it back for her 65th next year.

                      Doc's co-conspirators Martin and Debbie.

 

Doc had planned a special area for the kids and there were enough iPads and other electronics to keep them entertained.

 

Old fashioned crayons and workbooks also helped them ignore the crazy acting adults.

                      Beck just enjoyed watching all the activity.

    There is nothing better for me than getting together will all my kids.

The party was wonderful and one of the best parts for me was seeing how pleased Doc was with himself about planning it and pulling off the surprise.

I Don't Think I've Gotten Any Plumper Yet

Some time last year my granddaughter, Hope, explained retirement to her little sister, EJ, this way: 

Hope: It means when people get older they retire. They sit at home and watch TV and get plumper while they are waiting to go to the retirement home. 

Now that I am retired  (I love the idea of not working, but the word "retirement" is a little hard for me to deal with),  I am doing my best to avoid Hope's expectations of what I will be doing. I had a wonderful retirement party at work. I won't show any pictures of that since I don't have people's permission to use them. I was surprised and a little embarrassed to get a lot of great gifts, but this card made by Hope, EJ and Beck will be especially cherished.

I have been "retired"  for nearly a week. Some of what I have been doing to avoid spending too much time plumping up on the couch includes:

Trying some delicious peaches at a local farmers market. 

Cheering Jared and Justin on as they tried to dunk their mom at the pool on the 4th of July.

Going with Hope and EJ to a spa day at a kid's salon that their mom had gotten a coupon for. This was a special, one time treat, not a regular thing for these little girls. Hope loved it.

EJ wasn't so sure about it, but insisted she wanted to do it. We told her over and over that she didn't have to have anything done. She said she definitely wanted her nails painted and then insisted on taking it off immediately after it was done.

She especially wanted to get a feather and a tinsel put in her hair. Despite the look on her face, she insisted that she thought it was lots of fun.....mostly she just likes to like what her big sister likes. 

Today I got to watch Justin, almost 9, play a tennis match. He won, 5 games to 1, I think. It was interesting to watch him being all business on the tennis court and then return to his usual goofy self when we went to lunch afterward.

Thanks to my family, so far I have been able to avoid too much couch time (though I have to admit to spending a little too much time playing the computer Mah Jong came that I am a bit addicted to).  I'll keep you posted on my efforts to keep from getting plumper.