Just for fun, I've sent Mario (my houseboy and personal masseur at The New Residencia) out to do a "man on the street" poll:

"How much did you pay for a gallon of gasoline/petrol/your addiction to oil this week where you live?"

 

Just the facts, Ma'am! :)

Okay, here we go with another round of Friday Fun Facts:

1. I have never ever gotten a speeding ticket in all my years of driving. Mind you, I'm not saying I've never been pulled over... I've just never been issued a ticket! ;)

2. My favorite scent has to be Patchouli (I know, very retro and 60's) and my favorite aroma in the whole world is the smell of freshly baked bread. My Lithuanian grandmother was always baking bread and surely this is where it all started for me.

3. No matter how hot it might be outside, I always have to sleep with a sheet partly covering me, especially across my legs. I think this has something to do with childhood and thinking the boogeyman would come out from under my bed and grab my feet while I slept. (Yeah, like a sheet was gonna protect me!!! :)

4. I am a very optimistic person and believe that when you expect good things to happen, they usually do. Even when things don't go well, I'll find the silver lining of the situation. See my pic above!

5. I love peanut butter, and eat it in some way or another almost every day, i.e. on toast, on crackers, or in a sammich.

-Six

                                   

"If thou rememberest not the slightest folly that ever Love did make thee run into, thou has not Loved."  -William Shakespeare

Ah, Valentine's Day... or is it really Ambivalence Day?

This February 14th, I would like to wish a Happy Valentine's Day to the men who didn't choose me in this lifetime. And, while they each brought their own brand of heartache to my life at the time of our break up, ultimately time has revealed that I am the one who was lucky after all... and I thank God for unanswered prayers!

My Dearest Michael: I gotta give you your props...you are honest about who you are. You're a dawg, admit you're a dawg, and are even proud of your fleas. Had you chosen me instead, I would be the wife you are cheating on right now. Thank you for leaving me behind. Happy V.D. to ya!

Charming Barry: You were certainly a slick one, and ran a good game. I believed you were sincere about me, and you made me feel so important in your life. I didn't really care for that knife in my back, however. Well, I'm certain that's what makes you the successful attorney you are. Thank you ever so much for removing your legal briefs from my life. Happy Val's Day!

Un-princely Phillip: You were kind only on the outside, as inside you had quite a mean streak deep down. I also wasn't too crazy about the mere nodding acquaintance you had with truth and honesty. Physician, heal thyself! Thank you for excising yourself from my heart before I was in too deep.  Happy Valentine's to you, as well!

My Sweet Edward: The love of my life. You had everything, but didn't recognize it until it was too late. Now you will live with the reckless choices you've made forever. And that doesn't include me. Happy Ambivalence Day to ya, Sweetness!

If you have someone you love, celebrate it every day... not just Feb 14th! :) 

xoxo, -Six

              

The Year I Ruined The Super Bowl Party

My former husband and I had invited a dozen or so friends over to the ol' Ponderosa in the evening for our first ever Super Bowl Party, 10 years ago.

Ah, I remember that sunny and extra seasonably mild Sunday afternoon at the end of January 1996 like it was yesterday! What a lovely treat for gardeners like me suffering from winter "cabin fever" when Mother Nature brings a surprise gift of four consecutive 55-60 degree days, instead of her usual lot of blustery cold, freezing temperatures!

The temptation was too much, and my heart began to race in the balmy pseudo-springtime air. I could not resist. I grabbed my shovel. That magnificent little Crepe Myrtle tree just HAD to be transplanted from the corner of my back yard to a more prominent position where it could get the admiration it deserved... and NOW, darn it!

My eyes darted back and forth, from here to there, mentally graphing the yard and formulating my strategy. Yes, "there" is the perfect spot! Punching my spade into the chosen sweet dark earth gave me a fix any junkie would envy. I kept digging and digging, enlarging the hole for my beloved Crepe Myrtle.

And then....

...I saw something strange in the shovel of dirt I retrieved from the hole. It looked like a section of wiring. Not so unusual, actually. Our house was brand-new construction, and in planting around the foundation over the months, I had uncovered all kinds of things the builders were too lazy to clean up and throw away. But then I looked into the hole... and saw the rest of the wiring sticking out thru the dirt and what had revealed itself to be the cable I had unwittingly just severed.

My husband burst thru the back door, yelling like a wild-man on fire: "WTF?? Our mother-@!#$% cable just went out!!! And The Game is starting in three hours!!!"

Gulp! An immediate feeling of impending doom washed over me. So that was what I saw sliced in half in the hole I was digging. Our cable tv CABLE....

Well, you don't really think the cable tv company would consider the salvaging of my Super Bowl Party as an emergency, do ya? :)

I understand it was a beautiful night in Tempe, Arizona in Sun Devil Stadium... and that the Dallas Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 27 to 17, led by Troy Aikman.

Post Script:  My Crepe Myrtle tree looks stately and magnificent ten years later!  My husband was released as a Free-Agent two years after the non-party.

           

 

Me at about age 3.... and me "Four score and twenty years later" on New Year's Eve

Freaky Friday Fun Facts

1. I was a hairdresser for about 6-7 years during my single, partying 20's. It was a great creative outlet for me during that time, but I began to feel I really needed to challenge my brain more. I've worked in the medical field since then, and currently work in an orthopaedic surgery office.

2.  My favorite number is 8... a number of balance.  I have an aversion to odd numbers for some reason...but not to any neurotic extremes however! (no worries, Kenoath and Graffiti :)

3. I was quite an athlete in school, and attended college on a volleyball scholarship. However, I was lost and had no focus, and dropped out after the second year to go to hairdressing school. My flower-children parents didn't mind at all. It was groovy with them. I think they probably should have minded...

4. I'm sort of a word and information geek, and spent a lot of time reading World Book Encyclopedias for fun when I was very young. You can probably guess how I feel about my thesaurus and dictionary. :)

5. I am only second generation American.  My grandparents came here from Lithuania in the early 1920's via Ellis Island.  It would have been cool to have gotten to know them and hear their stories.

I'll "Biggie Size" my facts and throw in a 6th one, on account of liking even numbers:

6. I was born on a Friday at 1:01 a.m.... and it just so happens I'm a bit of a "night owl" still and Friday is my favorite day of the week.

I now return you back to your regularly scheduled blogging! :) -Six