Throwback Thursday

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Eve Fondue

We’re big on traditions in our family. Carrying on old ones and creating new ones. So it was waaaaaay back in 1974 when my mother originated the first ever Cox Family Annual Christmas Eve Shrimp Cheese Fondue Get Together. She invited friends and family and we all sat around the cocktail table in our finery trying not to poke one another with our long fondue forks!

The more we drank the more we dropped bits of food into the chafing dish and then tried to fish it out. The rule was/is if you lose something in the pot you must kiss the person sitting to your right.

This makes for some very funny situations!

I have carried on this tradition over the years. Now it’s just the four of us but still a cherished ritual.

And we still laugh just as much when we drop something into the pot!

Thanks mom!

 1974

2015

Punny Monday

What did the Gingerbread Man put on his bed?

A cookie sheet

MERRY CHRISTMAS

May your Christmas be merry and bright! 

Throwback Thursday

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Wordless Wednesday

Another Christmas Memory…..

My mother was the queen of craftiness. Way before ‘Martha’!  She was always making things.

Gifts, holiday decorations, BgBro’s fifth grade history project---a colonial fort made out of toothpicks and Popsicle sticks!

But she outdid herself the year she decided she wanted to make a Christmas wreath for the front door.

Not a regular ‘hang it on the door’ Christmas wreath.

Oh no, not my mother.

She wanted one that was big enough to cover the whole door so that you had to step through it to enter the house!  

She got the lumber yard to cut a huge wreath shape out of plywood (how she got it home I’ll never know….) then she stapled chicken wire over the whole thing. Into the holes of the chicken wire she stuck evergreen branches. For a final touch she wired large Christmas lights all around it topping it off with a HUGE red velvet bow.

It was a thing of beauty! And a huge hit in the neighborhood. Every neighborhood we moved to! Because as we moved that giant wreath came with us!

(The movers never understood why we wanted to take what looked like a piece of scrap plywood with us....  :-/ )

Punny Monday

On a Good Day…..

I can accept my shortcomings.

And today is a good day! 

So I’ve decided to crown myself “JILL OF ALL ARTS, MASTER OF NONE!” 

Let’s form a club!

With membership cards. 

That way the next time the inner critic rears his ugly head and starts to whisper those nasty little things in your ear you can flash him your membership card and tell him where to go!

Get your very own membership card here.

Throwback Thursday

Me and the infamous Aunt Eleanor. (Notice that sad Christmas tree...lol)

Wordless Wednesday

To my father: I TOLD you so! 

Insanity in Action

I keep taking painting courses online. And I enjoy taking them.  

Does it help my painting? Absolutely not.

Do I WANT to paint like Wyanne Thompson? Yes!

Can I…..emphatically NO!

But I keep trying!

What’s that quote from Einstein…..Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

That’s me! Certifiably insane.

And the funny thing is…..I’m very uncomfortable while I’m trying. I mean almost physically uncomfortable.

I’m not in my happy place. Time doesn’t fly by, it drags.

I don’t know why I keep doing something that doesn’t bring me joy except I want to be good at this thing that I’m obviously NOT good at.

What’s up with that?

Why can’t I accept what I’m good at and be satisfied?

Anyway, I bought new liquid watercolors for this course. (Not that it was required; I just wanted to try them.)

And after making some pretty awful hot messes ……… I decided to just go to my happy place and play.

So I dripped and splatted and smooshed (technical painting terms, lol) and played and had some fun!

'Driving the School Bus'

'Ephalant'

Punny Monday

     Christmas is the time of year when women get Santamental.

Attitude Adjustment

Sometimes you just need to change your perspective……

Throwback Thursday

Wordless Wednesday

Dreaming and Doodling

Punny Monday

What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus?

Claustrophobic

Old Persons Rant or Where the Hell is the Damn Remote?

We got a Roku on Black Friday.

After complaining that there’s ‘nothing good’ on TV from our selection of 998 cable channels and watching 1970’s reruns of M*A*S*H we are now watching reruns of Gilmore Girls (Husband’s choice, not mine) from 2000 on Netflix.

Tell me again how this is an improvement????

I will say one thing for it; I like the lack of commercials. It’s proving my theory that it’s the food commercials that are making me fat(ter.) I didn’t even KNOW  I wanted a bacon cheeseburger at 9 PM until I saw that commercial for one!

The thing I DON’T like about it is the growing number of remotes it now takes to turn the TV on and off!

Call me old fashioned but I long for the good old days of ONE REMOTE for ALL the functions!

We now have; the one that turns on the TV, the one that turns on the tuner for the surround sound speakers, the one that changes the input to the Roku, the one that TURNS ON and controls the ROKU, one that sits next to me for volume and one that sits next to Husband for various other functions (that just confuse the hell out of me!)

There are actually several more for the other various devices but I won’t go into them here.

And you have to be on your toes as to which remote you are using and what ‘mode’ you are in because if you hit an erroneous button in the wrong mode, thinking you’re adjusting the volume, it randomly changes the setting on the tuner and you find yourself listening to ‘All Things Considered’ on NPR while Frank Sinatra is dying in Montgomery Clift’s arms on the screen.

Very bewildering.

Husband tells me not to worry, ‘they’ are working on a universal remote app for our phones. Everything right there on our touch screens for ALL the inputs and devices.

Oh great, I already feel like I’m in airline pilot training school as it is!

I don't want to have to keep re-learning how to turn on the TV.....I just want to watch Casablanca!

Throwback Thursday

Wordless Wednesday

I’m Confused

I bought myself a new leather purse at the flea market the other day. It’s the first time in over fourteen years I’ve actually bought a purse. Mostly I just make them when I need it, so maybe things have changed and I missed the memo.

When I went to remove the tag it said, and I quote: VEGAN-LEAD FREE.

I’m confused on several levels….

VEGAN? Does that mean the ANIMAL was a vegan? Or that the purse is made out of vegetables?   

And LEAD FREE? I don’t even know where to begin with that!

On the other hand I guess it’s good to know I’m being environmentally friendly with my purchases, right?

Punny Monday

A duck walks in to a drugstore and says to the clerk behind the counter, ‘Give me a Chapstick and put it on my bill.’

I'm Trying, I Really Am.......

I'm trying to do the lessons as I'm supposed to, I really am....
But 'they' just won't let me......
Here I'm playing with wet on wet watercolor.........

And here's the result after I 'tweaked' it................

It's not done, but I'll have to wait and see what he thinks.......

Happy Turkey Day

(Thanks, CJ!)

Wordless Wednesday

Paint Splat

I am currently taking (another) online painting class…..this time from Wyanne Thompson. 

I stumbled upon her work on Facebook and one thing led to another….. you know how it is……you do a Google search, find a website, then link to YouTube videos (of which there are MANY…….) poke around in her Etsy shop.....peruse her blog.......

So after a few days of hemming and hawing I decided to treat myself to her Watercolor Wyanne’s Way class.

I’m about half way through watching all the videos, and during one video I notice a paint splat on the side of her painting table.

I couldn’t stop myself……...........

Took a screenshot…….

imported into Photoshop...........

 tweaked here and there......... sent it to Tabley; added the finishing touches and voilà! 

A new addition to the creature family.

Punny Monday

I tried talking about our future but he just kept bringing up my past. It was a tense conversation.

I'm Just Screwing With Your Head.....

Husband doesn’t answer the phone…unless it’s family (and sometimes not even then.)

EVER.

Which is why when the caller said he had spoken to him two weeks ago and Husband said to call back I was……skeptical.

I don’t usually answer the unidentified calls either. We screen our calls like Ninjas. But I was waiting for a particular call and wasn’t sure it would come in as an identified number so I answered.

Big mistake….HUGE, as Julia Roberts said.

I usually tell the callers that Husband  is dead….or I pretend to get all choked up and tell them through barely held back tears that he abandoned me for a younger woman and to go call him at HER residence.

I find it amusing listening to their responses. Mostly they just hang up. (Very disappointing!)

But for some reason I took a different tack with this gentleman.

I told him I found it…… far-fetched……that he ever spoke to Husband and if he was selling something telling me a lie that he had spoken to Husband was not the most intelligent way to go about making a sale.

He assured me he wasn’t lying or selling anything, but his ‘notes’ showed that he HAD actually spoken to Husband on the sixth and he was ‘just following up’ on that conversation.

As it turned out he was calling because he wanted to make an appointment to come to the house to ‘educate’ us on our upcoming eligibility for Medicare. (And offer us a supplemental policy.)

After some banter back and forth about how confusing Medicare can be….yadda yadda yadda… I told him I didn’t find it confusing at all and any information I needed could be found on the government website.

I was getting bored with the conversation at this point so I said, “Look, I understand that insurance sales is a difficult business and that cold calls really suck, but I’m getting tired of yanking your chain so please don’t call anymore.”

There was a long pause and he finally said, “You’re from New York aren’t you?”

I get the feeling this type of behavior isn’t going to bode well on my heavenly score card when I get to the pearly gates…….

Throwback Thursday

My mother. 

Picture taken by my father when they were dating....as you can tell by her pose....

ba dum tsh...

Wordless Wednesday

Believe it or Not

Years ago I was addicted to coke.

Severely and heavily addicted.

I had to have it….everyday. 

 Coke and potato chips was my 'go to' breakfast of choice.

I haven’t been able to drink it for years now but I broke down and had some with my one slice of pizza I treated myself to last night for dinner. 
I am now going to type a sentence that I never thought I'd EVER say in a million years…..

It wasn’t as good as I remember. 

Punny Monday

When the cannibal showed up late to the luncheon, they gave him the cold shoulder.

It’s Too F%#@ing Hot!!!

I want to go outside and play but it’s too f%#@ing HOT!

I swear it’s so hot the palm trees are MELTING!! 

Where is the beautiful balmy winter weather the tourist bureau promised??

I want a refund!

Throwback Thursday

Little BigBro

Wordless Wednesday

Had to Share This......

(Thanks, Liza! lol)

Punny Monday

Need an ark to save two of every animal? I Noah guy......

First Half (more or less....)

DONE!