REGISTER TO VOTE

The last day to register to vote in Massachusetts is October 14th.  If you haven’t registered to vote, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do!!  And then don’t forget to vote on November 4th!!!

October, 1982, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Do you know where you were in October 26 years ago?  I know where I was.  I was at the old County Stadium in the great city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin cheering on the Milwaukee Brewers the last time they were in the playoffs (and the World Series against St. Louis.)  My family had tickets to the playoffs and the World Series, which was absolutely unbelievable!!!  My dad grew up a die hard Boston Red Sox fan (at that time, the Sox hadn’t won the World Series since 1918) and loved baseball.  And my dad taught my brother and me to love baseball too.  When I was growing up, the Milwaukee Brewers had a great program for families, where for a really low price, you could buy something like 6 or 8 tickets a year for children under 13 and the parents would get a reduced price as well.  So going to the baseball games was the big entertainment for our family.  We didn’t take vacations, with my dad working full time and my mom being a full time student getting her Ph.d, and them both doing full time parenting, so being together at Brewer games is really what I remember most.  And then as a teenager, my friends and I would go to a couple of games together.  (Q. and I had some crushes on players as I remember ?!?!)

Back to 1982.  Because my dad had lived his entire life watching the Red Sox lose, when the Brewers made it to the playoffs, my dad told my mom and I quote “if we have to mortgage the house to get tickets, we’ll do it.”  Wow!  Well, they didn’t have to do any refinancing, because when mom went down to County Stadium to see if tickets were available, they had just released the tickets that other baseball clubs didn’t want, so we had tickets for both series BEHIND HOME PLATE.  It really was a dream for all of us (except for the Brewers losing the World Series to St. Louis.)  I think my photos from that time are at my folks, so I’ll post them when I find them.

I was back in M’waukee a year and a half ago and stocked up on Brewer gear for my family (they changed the logo a couple of years ago.)  So I’m set to watch the Brewers.

And my beloved Red Sox made it as the wild card in the American league, so they’ll be playing too.  I don’t know what I’m going to do, with all of this baseball going on!  Luckily I have enough Brewer and Red Sox gear to be able to go a couple of days without doing laundry, I’ll just switch hats and shirts (and even socks!) when I need to!  Thank goodness hockey season doesn’t start until later in the month, otherwise, I’d be really confused!

Yummy Yummy

I just had the most wonderful split pea soup that was made by my friend Tito.  She’s soooooo sweet.  She knows how much I love split pea soup, so whenever she makes split pea soup for her family, she sets some aside for me.  Thanks Tito, you made my day!!!!

John Taylor???

This little tidbit of information is of special relevance to one particular friend of mine.  We’ll see how they react

Did you know that there are actually TWO John Taylors who play guitar for famous bands?  (and to quote Comedian Craig Ferguson “I knowwwwww”)  What’s really weird is that I’ve seen one live in concert and one only on tv.  And the bands?  John Taylor (1) plays bass guitar for Duran Duran and John Taylor (2) plays backup guitar for The Jonas Brothers. 

Given that the band of my teenage years was Duran Duran.  There were pictures of them in my school locker.  I even named a stuffed animal after John Taylor from Duran Duran.  So obviously I saw the John Taylor live with the Jonas Brothers.  That was Addie’s birthday present… tickets to see the Jonas Brothers.  It was quite an experience.

Free Disney Admission (and I’m NOT kidding)

I discovered today that Disney World in Florida and Disney Land in California are letting people get free admission for one day- if you go on your Birthday.  This is pretty cool.  All you have to do is show some ID proving it’s your birthday- this works for kids of ALL ages.  If you want more information, straight from Disney, click here.

the eye glasses

I was talking to a friend (female, who wishes to remain nameless, but wants me to post this story, due to the humor in it ) of mine this afternoon and she told me this story, and I swear that it’s absolutely true!!  My friend got her eyes checked a couple of weeks ago, and the doctor decided that she needed a new prescription for her glasses.  Her insurance company allows for new frames with a new eye prescription.  So she went to look at the frames.  One of the frames she looked at she rejected after trying them on.  She said they looked like Popsicle sticks on her face! (This is nothing against Popsicles, in fact we all love Popsicles, especially the red ones, but I digress!)  So she kept trying different frames on until she found the one she wanted.  Well, her frames came in today and as she was trying them on, she saw the “Popsicle” frames again and after thinking for a moment, she began to laugh and she asked the technician if those were the same glasses that Sarah Palin wore.  The technician laughed and said that they actually were the same glasses.  He said that he got a call today for the first time asking if they carried the “Sarah Palin” glasses.  My friend was stunned that she almost got the Palin glasses, because she wouldn’t wear the glasses now.  She was mortified that she could have had the same taste as Gov. Palin (luckily the frames that she chose were very different, I hear.)  My friend asked how much the “Sarah Palin” glasses cost if you didn’t have insurance…. get this… $1000.  That would be one thousand dollars.  Of course Sarah Palin had the government insurance that probably paid for these glasses.  So if you like the Sarah Palin glasses, call your local eye glass shop, I hope you have insurance!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma

Today would have been my Grandmother’s birthday.  She died a couple of years ago of the complications that result from Alzheimer’s.  Every now and then it hits me… the enormity of it all.  Helping to be her care giver for over six years, watching her fade away slowly day after day.   She was an incredible woman and along with my grandfather, made a huge impact on every life that they touched.  Many people said that my grandmother was the woman behind the man.  But with my grandmother’s help, my grandfather worked on desegregating the Omaha, Nebraska schools, trying to bring equal education to everyone.  And in 1992 the Omaha school district named a high school after my grandfather.  My grandmother was so proud on that day!

Thoughts on our country

I was watching 60 minutes this week and Leslie Stahl interviewed Justice Antonin Scalia (of the US Supreme Court.)  Now I fundamentally disagree with Justice Scalia on just about everything, but I was really fascinated by his passion with which he really believes in the US Constitution and that he believes in his role in interpreting the Constitution.  I hate to say it, but it was actually inspiring to see someone so passionate about the laws of our country.  I think that’s what should be driving this upcoming election.  Which candidate is passionate about the laws and policies of our country.

When Gov. Palin talks, that’s what I see is missing.  I don’t see this passion for our COUNTRY.  I hear her talk about firing the executive chef, putting the governor’s jet on ebay and being an advocate for special needs children.  But she has no concept about what it means to represent our nation.  I think that John McCain has this passion, but again, fundamentally I disagree with almost everything he stands for, which is why week after week, I get more and more excited about seeing what Barack Obama and Joe Biden are putting forth.  I think that these two really care about America as a nation, the citizens of the country, the environment (locally and globally) and also how America is not just a lone nation, but also has an important role on the global stage.

Watching the Pack

Since I joined Facebook a couple of weeks ago, I’ve reconnected with a lot of my friends from high school and college.  Since I used to live in the Midwest, I was a total Green Bay Packers fan.  (I think I posted sometime last year that my dad would be in heaven if the Packers and the New England Patriots would play each other in the Superbowl.)  Well, I was checking my facebook account this afternoon and I saw that many of my friends were watching the Packers game this afternoon.  Since the Patriots weren’t scheduled to play until later, I decided that I too wanted to watch or listen to the Packer game.  Unfortunately, unless I buy a special football package either on cable tv or on the internet, this would be impossible.  But I went to the NFL website and they have something absolutely cool.  It’s a live action animated play by play of every game as it happens.  So I got to watch the Packer game animated live with the commentary written under the little moving lines.  If you want to catch the games online go to nfl.com and click on the game centers button and then click on the game that you want to watch.  Really cool.

Now it’s time for the Patriots game (on live tv!)

P.S. The Patriots and their new Quarterback Matt Cassel beat Brett Favre and the NY Jets.  Yeah!!!