Rest In Peace, Uncle Mickey

We got word yesterday that my Uncle Mickey passed away.  He was 83 years old.  He was my dad's younger brother.  And he was the last of his generation on both sides of my family.  It's odd to know that I no longer have any living aunts or uncles.

Uncle Mickey had 12 children.  Every time I try to name everyone, I miss someone and I miss a different one every time.  I know the first 4 or 5, then I get lost.  I remember the last 2 because they were 2 of the 3 boys in the family.

Let's see.... Michelle, Veronica, Vincent, June, Dorothy, Victoria, Dawn, Nora, Joseph, Brian, Bernadette,  and.... see?  One is missing from my brain.  And I even cheated and went on Facebook to see who I missed.  She's not on Facebook.  It'll come to me, eventually.

It just occurred to me that me, my siblings and my cousins are all now the "older" generation of the family!  We are the aunts who attend the wedding and baby showers of our nieces.  I am not sure how that happened!  It sort of snuck up on me.

CHRISTINE!  Christine is the 12th child!  Actually she's more like 5th or 6th.  I could see her face, but I just could not get a name to the face.

There was another child in the mix, who I always thought was my cousin.  Her name is Angel.  She was a cousin of  my cousins, but not mine.  Angel's mom and my cousin's mom were sisters.  We always thought she was because I think she lived with all the others.  I guess what's one more kid in the mix when you already have 9 or 10 or 12?  As an adult now, I can see the difference in Angel from the others.  Angel is part Hispanic and everyone else is full Irish.

I was hoping to find a photo of Uncle Mickey in my cousins' profiles, but I don't see any.

Rest in peace, Uncle Mickey.  Say hi to my Mom and Dad for me.

World's Shortest Books

World's Shortest Books  _________________________________  THINGS I DID TO DESERVE  THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE    By Barack Obama  ____________________________________________  MY BLACK GIRLFRIENDS  By  Tiger Woods  ____________________________________________  THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY COUNTRY  By Jane Fonda & Cindy Sheehan Illustrated by Michael Moore ________________________________________  MY HUMANITARIAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS  & HOW I HELPED AFTER  KATRINA By  Rev Jesse Jackson, Rev Al Sharpton, Congressional Black Caucus, 99.9% of The National Basketball Association ______________________________________

THINGS I  LOVE ABOUT BILL 

By  Hillary Clinton
_________________ 

Sequel: THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HILLARY

By Bill  Clinton
_________________ 

THINGS I  CANNOT AFFORD

By Bill Gates
____________________________________ 

THINGS I  WOULD NOT DO FOR MONEY

By Dennis Rodman
_________________________________ 

THINGS WE KNOW TO BE TRUE

By Al Gore & John Kerry
_____________________________________
  GUIDE TO THE PACIFIC 

By Amelia Earhart 

__________________________________ 

HOW TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST

By Dr. Jack Kevorkian
__________________________________ 

TO ALL THE MEN WE HAVE LOVED BEFORE 

By Ellen de Generes & Rosie O'Donnell 

____________________________________________ 

GUIDE TO DATING ETIQUETTE

By Mike Tyson

__________________________________

  

THE AMISH  PHONE DIRECTORY
_______________________________________
  

MY PLAN TO FIND THE REAL KILLERS

By O. J. Simpson
_________________________________________ 

HOW TO DRINK & DRIVE SAFELY

By Ted Kennedy 

_________________________________________________ 

MY BOOK OF MORALS 

By Bill Clinton

With introduction by 

The Rev. Jesse Jackson 

******************************************************* 

AND, JUST ADDED: 

My Complete Knowledge of  Military Strategy
  By Nancy Pelosi

Dear So and So

Dear Kat,
Happy 30th Birthday, my friend!  I hope it was wonderful!


Joanie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Chachi (my car),

I'm sorry I haven't taken really good care of you this year.  I promise to do better, especially since the 2 new tires, replacing the bent wheel (damned potholes) and the long overdue oil change cost me $375 the other day.  Getting the other bent wheel replaced and the rear brakes today (ka-ching! another $260) should make you happier, even though my wallet is crying.  Can you please be kind in July when I need to get you  inspected and pass the emissions and inspection tests??  I know you're not as young as you used to be (Chachi was 8 on New Year's Eve) and you have 131,000+ miles on you, but I know we can have many more happy years together.  I really do love you a lot, even though I don't always show it.

Promising to show you more love in the future,

Joanie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Mother Nature,

Flood warnings and high wind alerts for this weekend?  Really?   Haven't you punished us enough this year?

I just have one small request.  If you must knock down one of my trees, can you make sure that it hits the roof?  I need a new one and the insurance will cover it if you do this.  A $500 roof  I can afford... a $6,000 one?  Not so much.

Tired of all this "weather",

Joanie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Greg from work,

Thank you SO MUCH for giving me your "old" Droid!  I really do love it!  I still can't believe you just gave it to me!  I know you love your newer Droid X.  It is so much faster than the Blackberry!  

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Joanie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Friends,
If you like Dear So and So, and want to give it a try, just pop over to Kat's Place at Three Bedroom Bungalow, hook up with her Linky and add your own!  It's a great way to blow off steam, and you can read lots of other letters!

Love,

Joanie

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Keely  is the host for Random Tuesday Thoughts.  Go check her out at  The Un Mom for lots more fun Randomness!! 


We had Spring.... for 2 whole days.  Then, cold and snow and wind came back.  Yay us.


A friend from work gave me, GAVE ME, no charge, his old Droid!  He bought the Droid last year when it first came out (and I bought his 3 month old Blackberry from him).  He lost his Droid, so Verizon sent him another.  He used that one for a couple of months, then his boyfriend gave him the Droid X because Verizon had a BOGO sale.  When I mentioned that I really wanted to get a Droid, but I needed to wait until after my daughter's wedding to get it, he told me I could have his!!!  How cool is that!!!


I discovered that the Droid is soooo much faster and cooler than the Blackberry!  I'm having fun, learning my way around it and downloading free apps.  


I'm keeping my Blackberry for my audio books.  I listen to a lot of books in my car.


Maleficent has Facebook.  Great.


I do a check every now and then to see if she or the ex has Facebook.   She now does, he does not.  


I also (for fun) check on John's ex-wives.  Yes, I said Wives (plural).  He has 4 of them.  And you all wonder why I'm not chomping at the bit to marry him!  


Anyway, 3 of the 4 of them have Facebook.  We are NOT friends on Facebook.  I do, however, post really glowing things on his family members' pages.  I'm fun like that!


I've decided that my son shows up here every week or so for a few days, not to see me, but to catch up on all the shows he watches on Showtime.  They don't have that channel where he lives the rest of the time.  I'll take it though!  He also gets to do his laundry for free.  And I might even cook him a meal once in a while.


I think I'm randomed out.  Cya!

Apple does it again!

I thought this was too important not to share.

Apple does it again! 

 

Apple announced today that it has  developed a breast implant that can store and play music.The iTit will cost from $499 to $699, depending on cup and speaker size. This is considered a major social breakthrough, because women are always  complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

Blah

I have a bad case of the blahs.  

Don't feel like writing.

Don't feel like reading.  

Don't feel like trying to be humorous.  

Just don't feel like it.

I'll be back though (fair warning)

Musical Mondays Moves Me!: Love Songs!

 Lorie at The Shrewbridges of Celebration, FL told me about Monday's Music Moves Me, 

so here's another cool music blog meme to do.

Amanda at Bloggin’ with Amanda hosts Musical Monday – What Move’s You?. 

You can get the instructions by clicking here.

All month long, in honor of Valentine's Day, we are doing love songs!


When I was a teenager and young adult, I loved this song and wanted it to be the song I danced to at my wedding.  Of course, time passed.  I didn't marry my high school sweetheart (who turned out to be a cheating jerk).  I met and married someone else (who, ironically, also turned out to be cheating jerk).  I did NOT use this song as my first dance song.  To tell you the truth, I can't even remember the song I danced with my new husband because the band didn't bother to learn the one we had chosen.  But that's a whole 'nother story for another day.  


So when I was a teenager, young and in love, I wanted to dance to Elvis Presley's I Can't Help Falling In Love With You.  To this day, it's still one of my favorite love songs!





I also learned that I was chosen as a "Tag Dancer" on the Spotlight Dance! How cool is that!!  Thanks Marie and Callie and Lorie and Larry for the honor!

Prompt Me! Wednesday: A Treasured Gift

This is my first try at Prompt Me! Wednesday.  This week's prompt is A Treasured Gift.


It took me a while to think of something to write about.  Then I remembered a gift I received for Christmas 6 years ago from my daughter, Gina and my future favorite son-in-law, Gene.


When Gina was in college, she majored in Theatre.  In her Junior year, she was cast as Dinah Lord, the bratty little sister in The Philadelphia Story.  I thought she was simply marvelous, but don't just take it from me, an unbiased mom.  Here's what  Myra Yellin Outwater, a theater critic from the Allentown Morning Call newspaper had to say about her performance:

• From the moment that Regina P walks out on the Labuda Center stage at DeSales University, her performance as Dinah Lord lights up Act 1's production of Philip Barry's "The Philadelphia Story." Regina, who plays the delightfully impish tomboyish younger sister of Main Line heiress Tracy Lord, is just great fun to watch, a troublemaker with a "Capital T." She mugs and sasses and stirs up Barry's 1930s period comedy of Philadelphia Main Line manners as she irreverently stokes the fires of mischief. (the only change I made here was to remove her last name)

Sorry... a little digression there.  Anyway, in the lobby of the theatre, they post pictures of the dress rehearsals.  There was one photo, of Gina, as Dinah, "performing" for the newsman and photographer who were there to document her sister, Tracy Lord's upcoming wedding. I loved loved loved this photo!!!  It's a good 2 feet by 3 feet!  

Imagine my surprise, on Christmas morning, when Gina and Gene come into my house carrying this large package for me!  I could not imagine what it could be!!  I was jumping up and down and clapping happy when I saw this framed picture of Gina!  It hangs in a prominent place in my family room.

I thought I'd find the picture on Gina's Facebook page, but it's not there, so I took a photo of the framed picture.  And here it is!

This is a most treasured gift.  This scene was so damned funny!  And Gina had to sing badly, but she has a lovely strong voice.  I wish I had a video of this play!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Keely  is the host for Random Tuesday Thoughts.  Go check her out at The Un Mom for lots more fun Randomness!! 

So my 20 year old daughter is in Las Vegas until Friday.  She's not even old enough to gamble OR drink!  How is this fair?  Yes, I'm jealous!  She's there for a Paul Mitchell Convention.  She goes to a Paul Mitchell Cosmetology School on the other side of Pennsylvania.  So it's a learning experience.  Yeah, right.


We're getting some precipitation right now and it's ... RAIN, not snow!!!  YAY!!! (I'm writing this on Monday evening)


I keep discovering new authors and of course, they have series of books, so now I want all of the books in the series!  I just downloaded 2 more books in Paul Levine's Jake Lassiter series.  I really liked the first one!  


I few people commented on my blog post about Reading and have suggested a few goodies.  So now I have MORE books to look out for!  Good thing my Kindle can hold up to 1500 books!

I'm trying to write here, but Cameron has other ideas.  Do you think he wants some attention?

So Christina Aguilera really messed up the National Anthem.  It's sad that so many people don't know it any more.  She looked like crap too.  Why can't "professional singers" just sing it like we learned it in school?    Look and listen, if you can stand it.     

Have you met Bill Balsamico?  He's the owner of a restaurant and lounge in North Versailles, PA, located in Western Pennsylvania.  He puts messages on his sign outside his place of business, Casa D'Ice.  I love this guy!  He does NOT know the meaning of the term "Politically Incorrect".  He takes shots at local government, the President, Illegal aliens, and more!  He's now on Facebook and has his own website, www.casadice.com. Check out his website and you can see all of his famous signs!  Here's an example.  This is the sign he has displayed this week.

That's it for me!  Now check out some other Random folks!  I bet you find stuff you like!

Musical Mondays Moves Me!: Love Songs

 Lorie at The Shrewbridges of Celebration, FL told me about Monday's Music Moves Me, 

so here's another cool music blog meme to do

Amanda at Bloggin’ with Amanda hosts Musical Monday – What Move’s You?. 

You can get the instructions by clicking here.

It's February, and that means our songs will be all about LOVE!!  I've posted about this video before.  If I ever get married again, this is the song I want played.  I know that Beyonce recorded this song, but nobody can do justice to this song like Etta James.  Here is At Last.