Christmas Break

This former teacher is used to getting two weeks of vacation at Christmas, so I'm going to be taking a break from blogging until probably after the New Year. In the mean time, I want to wish you all the very happiest and safest of holiday seasons--and from Patricia, Milt, and Coquette--our little Pomeranian elf--

Happy 89th, Mom!

Today is my mother's 89th birthday. That's pretty special, I think. My sister and I took her out for lunch and got her some new duds. Here she is looking spry and sweet on her special day.

Don't Let It Snow!

I love snow at Christmas--just not right on Christmas Day, please! My daughter is flying in from Louisiana to spend a week with us and she is due to arrive Christmas morning at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Snow flurries are predicted for our area for the forthcoming week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that those flurries will not turn into the blizzard that the east coast is presently experiencing.

Snow is beautiful, but it can wreak havoc on travel plans, can't it?

Is snow affecting your holiday travel?

(photos from www.fyvestar.com and www.portlandsentinel.com)

Happy Anniversary to Us

Today is Milt and my twenty-seventh wedding anniversary. We are planning a nice afternoon out at a local restaurant after we take my Mom in for a medical appointment. Thus, this post will be short as I have to get ready.

I checked this site to see what present to give a couple on their 27th anniversary and it turns out it's sculpture. We don't have any sculpture.

However my artist daughter makes some nifty cloth sculptures, which is probably not what the wedding anniversary gift folks had in mind.

So, happy anniversary, to my dear husband. Here's to 27 more!

(graphic from http://russellmcneil.blogspot.com)

The Exchange Meeting

My writing buddy Diane and I met yesterday for pie, girl talk, and to exchange our manuscripts. She will be reading my first draft of my second novel (Tune in to Murder) that I wrote during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. I will be reading the second draft of her first novel--Too Dead to Dance.

Both of our novels are cozy mysteries and both Diane and I are having a great time tweaking our own and each other's stories. There's a great pleasure in being able to hand over my manuscript to Diane and to accept hers. It's almost like we're exchanging children. "Here! Take my baby! I entrust it to you!"

The big difference is that when I get my manuscript back from Diane, I know she will have made some wonderful improvements in it. Wouldn't it be nice if we could exchange our children with a trusted friend for a while and see what improvements they might make in the little darlings?

(graphic from www.nataliedee.com)

Candy Nostalgia

My hubby Milt and I dined at his favorite restaurant yesterday--Cracker Barrel. He got his regular dish--chicken fried steak. As much as I like Cracker Barrel's wonderful home-cooked food, even more I enjoy perusing the memorabilia in their lobby.

Yesterday, Milt and I reminisced about candies and gums as we stared at Cracker Barrel's collection of sweet goodies from years gone by. Here we saw several types of gums and candies we had loved as children. Milt and I had both remembered enjoying Black Jack gum when we were young. I also had loved Teabury gum but Milt had never tried it. He had, however, indulged in Goo-Goo Clusters.

We spent a lot of time looking for one of my favorite childhood candies--the Cherry Mash. We couldn't find it. I couldn't believe that Cracker Barrel could have all those old-time candy favorites and not the amazing and delicious Cherry Mash candy bar. It was my all-time favorite!

Do any of you remember the Cherry Mash candy bar?

(photos from www.en.wikipedia.com and www.blogs.westword.com and www.sweetfactory.com and www.candyfavorites.com)

Mother-Daughter Night

How often do mothers and daughters get a chance to enjoy a night out together? Not often in our family. However, on Thursday night, my sister Chris and I were invited to a wonderful dinner at our mother's assisted living facility--Independence Village. The lobby was aglow with Christmas finery. A warm fire sparkled in the fireplace. Here's a photograph of the three of us in front of the huge tree. An electric train runs around the base.

The meal in the dining room was the best I've ever had at Independence Village--a marvelous buffet with prime rib, shrimp, and magnificent desserts. The three of us ate a lot and enjoyed dinner conversation filled with family memories and fun.

Afterwards, we indulged in a special treat--a chocolate fountain! I've heard of these devices but I've never experienced one. Independence Village set out trays of fresh fruit and mini-creme puffs with long skewers. You select one of the items, place it on your skewer, and then soak it as long as you like in the fountain. What fun!

I really blew my diet at this dinner, but I had a wonderful time. Most important, I got to spend quality time with two of the most important ladies in my life!

Have you spent quality time with the important people in your life this holiday season?

"Subjective Soup" Explains Tiger Woods

Poor Tiger Woods! Even little old ladies (like me) who have no interest in sports or celebrities are writing blog posts about him. Actually, in the interests of full disclosure, my hubby Milt is a major golf fan and I do watch Tiger put a few holes now and then when Milt is glued to the television during a golf tournament. I have always been impressed with how modest Tiger seemed and how much he appeared to care for his wife and family. Now--this!

So, Tiger, what went wrong? At the risk of repeating what I'm sure many other pundits have suggested, I have a few ideas.

First, wealth. People with money can do things they might not consider if they didn't have any.

Second, travel. People who travel a lot professionally have the opportunity to stray from their marriage vows. Doesn't mean they do, just makes it easier.

Third, invulnerability. People who win virtually every golf tournament they enter and who can make 50-foot puts (not sure 50 feet is possible) probably figure they can easily hide ten mistresses from their wife.

Fourth, fame. People who are well known attract fans (in this case, women) easily.

So, why did it all fall apart? Here's what I think. Tiger's obvious mistake is that he took each of his affairs too seriously. If he intended to have multiple sex partners, he should have had multiple one-night stands with prostitutes and paid them well. Instead, he formed genuine relationships with ten (so far) women, corresponding back and forth regularly with each, and thus allowing each of the ten women to believe that she was the only woman in his life.

As long as word of Tiger's trysts did not come out, he was safe, but as soon as one relationship was revealed, the other women then realized that their relationships with Tiger were not exclusive as they had originally thought and they were incensed, so they blew the whistle on him too.

Tiger Woods is, in my opinion, not so much a man who cheated on his wife with multiple women; he's a polygamist. It's as if he's married to all of these women and they are all vying for his attention, as in the television series Big Love. Tiger's wife Elan may be the head wife, but there are other wives out there demanding Tiger's time. Either way--cheater or head of a multiple-wife harem--Tiger is in a tough spot.

What do you think? Why did Tiger get himself in this mess? Do you care?

(photos from www.mediaswirl.wordpress.com and www.epiphanygirl.wordpress.com)

The Martians Have Landed

My hubby Milt was looking out our back window at the lake behind our house this morning when he suddenly announced, "The Martians have landed!" I ran to see what he was talking about, knowing that he is the authority on all things Martian. Lo and behold, I saw three perfectly round large circles in the new fallen snow on the lake. Could it be? Could this be a sign of Milt's distant relatives coming to visit us? The imprint from three flying saucers from outer space? Who knows?

I got my trusty camera and snapped the above photographs. The first photograph shows one of the circles as close as I could get. The second photograph I had to take at an angle to get all three of the circles in the picture. You can see how the three circles are spaced as if at the corners of an equilateral triangle. That surely must be significant.

What do you think could have caused these three perfect circles in the snow?

Walking on Water

How funny to peek out my back window to see the geese on our lake struggling to walk on the recently frozen water. It's like watching beginner ice skaters!

To Superior Scribblers Out There

Many thanks to my blogging friend Tammy at The Fly on the Wall for bestowing the prestigious Superior Scribbler award on Subjective Soup (my goodness--double alliteration--four words starting with "s"!).

The rules for the Superior Scribbler award are to 1) pass the award on to five deserving blogger friends, 2) link to the Scribbler who gave the award (Tammy), 3) display the blog and link which explains the award, 4) add my name to the list on that post, and 5) post the rules on my blog. Hope I did all that!

Considering the name of the award--Superior Scribbler--I feel I must award it to five bloggers whose blogs I read regularly because I truly love the content or because the blogger's writing style is so fabulous. Here are five bloggers who, for me, fit this description (out of many, many others in the blogosphere):

1. From a Yellow House in England--Dori is from Georgia (the one in the U. S.) but she lives in the English countryside and her posts make me feel as if I'm right there in Miss Marple territory.

2. The Queen Speaks--The Queen is a single mom living in Colorado and also a mixed media artist. I love her art work and how she describes it.

3. Inconsequential Logic--Roschelle is a registered nurse and a fantastic writer. Her posts are always timely, pertinent, and produced with great style.

4. Mature Not Senile--Jude is retired, just like me, so we tend to agree on many issues, but she has her own unique way of expressing herself.

5. Shalampax Speaks--every time I read this blog I'm not sure if I want to visit Shalampax or avoid it like the plague. Even so, I am riveted to the daily problems of the inhabitants of this isolated (and imaginary?) island. You decide for yourself.

Thanks again, Tammy. And congratulations, all!

Blood or Berries?

This is the second day in a row that my Pomeranian Coquette has returned from our daily walk and has left bright red marks all over the kitchen floor. Upon examination, I find that her left front paw is covered in red liquid. Yesterday when it happened the first time, I thought it was blood. I thought maybe she had stepped on something sharp while we were out walking. However, she showed no signs of pain. She was not limping. Then, I thought she might have stepped in something.

There is a tree in our front yard that is covered in bright red berries and I guessed that she might have stepped on a berry and the red liquid I was seeing on her paw was really berry juice. It was a mystery.

Today, the red stains again appeared on our kitchen floor after Coquette and I took our walk. My husband Milt went outside and brought in one of the berries. He cut it open to see just how red the actual juice was. It wasn't. So now, I'm not certain what's going on. Once I clean up Coquette's paw, she walks around just fine and no more red staining occurs.

I'm contemplating getting her some booties for her feet (although I doubt she'll willingly keep them on), to protect her paws when we go walking. Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this? Is it berries or is my doggie's paw bleeding on my floor? What should I do about it?