6 Weird Things About Me

According to the rules....

Each player of this game starts with the

6 Weird Things About Me

People who get tagged (thanks Kiki!)

 need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things

as well as state this rule clearly. 

In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names.

Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their

comments and tell them to read your blog (my problem with this is I don’t know 6 people who haven’t already been tagged)!

1. I love to eat bagels with cream cheese and green olives

2.  I always have something to drink with me, even in church.

3.  I have lived in 19 houses.

4.  I can tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue

5.  I can do the Vinny Barbarino dance far too well (and if you don’t know who he is, you’re waaaay too young)

6.  I have long “monkey toes” that I can use almost as well as my fingers.

Now, for the tagging – I’m tagging Jean, Colleen, Michelle, Jennifer, Karen and Kelly!

Well, my brother’s attempt at forcing Bart to be more docile doesn’t seem to be working.  He got rid of his big cage and put him in the little travel cage on the floor, because apparently height equals power.  The problem is, now everything scares him, and when he’s scared, he flies.  And when he flies, the girls run screaming at the top of their lungs from the room.  Which frightens him even more.  And then he crashes into something.

Which is what happened Saturday.  Something scared him (who knows what), and he took off.  The girls ran screaming from the room, he crashed into the kitchen sink and then took off again and crashed into a big toy bin.  I went and retrieved him (I was wearing short sleeves) and took him back to his cage.  But he was so spooked, he wouldn’t get off.  So I started shaking my arm.  Which hurt.  A lot.  And still he wouldn’t get off.  So finally I got him to climb up to my shoulder.  And there he stayed for nearly ½ hour.  Then last night he stayed up on my arm for more than an hour watching a bad movie with me. 

And let us not forget Friday night when my borther retrieved him after yet another flying incident and Bart climbed up on his shoulder and wouldn't get off.  My brother leaned over to put him back on his cage and Bart climbed onto his back.  So then my brother starts jumping up and down to get him off.  It was the funniest site.  My brother is jumping up and down with this bird flapping on his back.  It looked like they might take off together.

And best of all, I look like I've been attacked by barbed wire.

I, for the most part, keep my political views to myself.  But when I read the following article, I couldn’t let it go.  I think you’ll understand why.  It’s kind of long, but I hope you will read to the end.  And remember, these are our allies.

AL-AWWAMIYA, Saudi Arabia - When the teenager went to the police a few months ago to report she was gang-raped by seven men, she never imagined the judge would punish her — and that she would be sentenced to more lashes than one of her alleged rapists received.

The story of the Girl of Qatif, as the alleged rape victim has been called by the media here, has triggered a rare debate about Saudi Arabia’s legal system, in which judges have wide discretion in punishing a criminal, rules of evidence are shaky and sometimes no defense lawyers are present.

The result, critics say, are sentences left to the whim of judges. These include one in which a group of men got heavier sentences for harassing women than the men in the Girl of Qatif rape case or three men who were convicted of raping a boy. In another, a woman was ordered to divorce her husband against her will based on a demand by her relatives.

In the case of the Girl of Qatif, she was sentenced to 90 lashes for being alone in a car with a man to whom she was not married — a crime in this strictly segregated country — at the time that she was allegedly attacked and raped by a group of other men.

Struggling to forget
In the sleepy, Shiite village of al-Awwamiya on the outskirts of the eastern city of Qatif, the 19-year-old is struggling to forget the spring night that changed her life. An Associated Press reporter met her in a face-to-face interview. She spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her privacy; the AP does not identify rape victims unless they ask to be named.

Her hands tremble, her dark brown eyes are lifeless. Her sleep is interrupted by a replay of the events, which she describes in a barely audible whisper.

That night, she said, she had left home to retrieve her picture from a male high school student she used to know. She had just been married — but had not moved in with her husband — and did not want her picture to remain with the student.

While the woman was in the car with the student, she said, two men intercepted them, got into the vehicle and drove the couple to a secluded area where the two were separated. She said she was raped by seven men, three of whom also allegedly raped her friend.

Lashes for the victim
In a trial that ended in November — in which the prosecutor asked for the death penalty for the seven men — four of the men received between one and five years in prison plus 80 to 1,000 lashes, said the woman. Three others are awaiting sentencing. Neither the defendants nor the plaintiffs retained lawyers, as is common here.

“The big shock came when the judge sentenced me and the man to 90 lashes each,” said the woman. The sentence was handed down as part of the rape trial. Lashes are usually spread over several days, dealt around 50 at a time.

The sentences have yet to be carried out, but the punishments ordered have caused an uproar.

“Because I could make no sense (of the sentence) and became in dire need of patience, I muttered after I read the verdict against the Girl of Qatif: ‘My heart is with you,”’ wrote Fatima al-Faqeeh in a column in Al-Watan newspaper.

Sharia law at issue
Justice in Saudi Arabia is administered by a system of religious courts according to the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. Judges — appointed by the king on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council — have complete discretion to set sentences, except in cases where Sharia outlines a punishment, such as capital crimes.

That means no two judges would likely hand down the same verdict for similar crimes. A rapist, for instance, could receive anywhere from a light or no sentence to death, depending on the judge.

Saudis are urging the Justice Ministry to clarify the logic behind some rulings. In one recent case, three men convicted of raping a 12-year-old boy received sentences of between one and two years in prison and 300 lashes each. In contrast, another judge sentenced at least four men to between six and 12 years imprisonment for fondling women in a tunnel in Riyadh.

Saleh al-Shehy, a columnist for Al-Watan, asked Justice Minister Abdullah Al-Sheik to explain why the boy’s rapists got a lighter sentence than the men in last year’s sexual harassment case.

‘Do you think it satisfies God?’
“I won’t ask you my brother, the minister, if you find the ruling satisfactory or not,” wrote al-Shehy. “I will ask you, ‘Do you think it satisfies God?”

“Please explain to us how one judge ruled and how the other ruled? What evidence did the one rely on and what proof did the other use?” he added.

The broad discretion judges enjoy have been a disaster for Fatima, another Saudi woman. She suddenly found herself divorced from her husband, Mansour al-Timani, after her half-brothers went to a judge and told him their sister had married beneath her.

Fatima, whose full name has not been given in media reports, had been married for over three years and was pregnant with her second child when the judge declared the marriage void in July 2005.

Today, Fatima sits in jail with her 11-month-old son — her 4-year-old daughter was recently freed — rather than return to the custody of her family as the judge decreed.

Absence of evidence
The problems over sentencing are exacerbated by loose trial rules, in which physical evidence sometimes is not presented.

The Girl of Qatif said her trial had two sessions. The three trial judges asked for her statement, then heard the statement from the seven defendants in the first court session, according to the woman. In the second, about a month later, the judges pronounced their verdict. It was not known if there were other sessions she did not attend.

Judges in the case referred The Associated Press to the Justice Ministry when asked about the sentencing. The ministry, in a statement Tuesday, said rape could not be proved. There were no witnesses and the men had recanted confessions they made during interrogation, the statement said. It said the verdict cannot be appealed.

Sharia allows defendants to deny signed confessions, according to Abdul-Aziz al-Gassem, a lawyer who was not involved in the case. They still get punished if convicted, but the verdict is lighter.

“The lack of transparency in the investigation, the trial and the sentencing, plus the difficulties that journalists have to get access lead to deep a darkness where everything is possible,” said al-Gassem.

For the Beauty of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon and stars of light,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above,
Pleasures pure and undefiled,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

For each perfect gift of thine,
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of heaven,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

-Folliot Pierpoint

Ok, one more day of complaining and I will be back to my old self.  I promise.  Well, maybe not promise.  But I’ll try.

Anyway, Shannon has been so sick for the past three days.  I feel horrible.  But the doctor says it’s a virus and just has to run its course.  So she’s with her dad because I have no more time off at work.  And when I call to check on her, she just cries and begs me to come be with her because she doesn’t feel well.  And it’s breaking my heart.  And I know she’s fine there, but it’s still killing me.  I should be taking care of her.  Not sitting here at work pushing paper around.  Oh well.

I did get my hair cut (about 3 ½ to 4 inches off) and Bart the bird either doesn’t recognize me or doesn’t like the change, I don’t know which.  But he better get over it or he’s going to be a very lonely bird.

And lastly, for my birthday I had to bring in food.  I decided to make this Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake.  Now anyone who knows me knows I don’t really bake.  But it came out really well.  And the process went pretty smoothly.  With the exception of when I dropped the powdered sugar into the mixer while it was running and POOF! Sugar everywhere!  I looked like a ghost.  Which my kids found really amusing.  My kitchen is now quite possibly cleaner than it has ever been.  But the cake was really good.  It’s a combination of pumpkin pie and cake.

Cake:
1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Well, I was partially right about my birthday.  Emma gave me a very soft scarf and a bottle of CK One-like perfume.  Shannon, bless her heart, gave me a bottle of, remember this? Love’s Baby Soft, which I don’t think I have even smelled since high school, and Twister.    So apparently I better start stretching so I don’t hurt myself too badly!

Gotta go!  I have parent teacher conferences.

I had one of those heartbreaking parent moments yesterday.  I was talking with Shannon’s teacher (who I adore, in case I haven’t mentioned it!) and she told me something about Shannon that just broke my heart.  They have three developmentally challenged kids that join their class for art and gym.  And last week, four kids teased and made fun of one of them until he cried.  And Shannon was one of them.  I was absolutely crushed that she would do that.  It’s not like her at all.  She used to have a friend with Downs and she was constantly defending her and talking about how mean the other kids could be.

I decided to wait until last night to talk to her so I could think it out carefully.  And I asked her about it and she said she didn’t say anything, she just stood there and smiled.  So I talked about how that was just as bad and asked her how she would feel if they had been making fun of her.  She then started crying and said she was afraid they would get mad at her if she stopped them.  And she wants to fit in so badly.  So we talked awhile, talked about how she shouldn’t really want to be friends with people like that anyway.  And about how when I was a kid I didn’t always make the right choices all the time either, and I remembered how scary it was to think about going up against the “popular” kids.  I told her about how during 6^th grade there was only 1 girl who would talk to me for an entire semester because of a lie one of the popular girls told about me.  And how badly it hurt.  That I understand.

So, hopefully she will make a different choice the next time she’s faced with this kind of situation.  I know in her heart she wants to, hopefully she’ll be strong enough to follow it.

Well, now I have a whole new problem.  Bart the bird no longer likes my brother.  Dislikes him to the point that he keeps lunging at him whenever he gets the chance.  But he still loves me.  The problem is, he’s my brother’s parrot, not mine.  I’m hoping he’s just being cat-like and is just showing his displeasure with my brother leaving him for 1 ½ weeks and will get over it, but he’s been acting this way for 2 days now. 

My brother very nicely took the girls out to buy me a birthday present last night.  I am suspicious though.  They came home smelling like a brothel (apparently they tried ALL the perfumes at the counter), and somewhere in the back of my mind, I seem to recall him telling a story about how he once bought our mom the biggest bottle of perfume he could find because bigger must be better.  Of course it was just the nastiest stuff ever.  And my mom wore it forever because my brother had given it to her.  Which he finds incredibly funny now.  So my fear is that he has passed his “perfume knowledge” on to my kids.  But I’m trying not to jump to any conclusions.  Which is something I do very well.

My jumping to conclusions may have hurt or offended someone, a new friend, and if I did, I’m very sorry.  I hope you will accept my apology. 

And I really hope my kids didn’t buy me perfume……

You know the desk at work where everyone congregates to chat?  That’s my desk.  Probably because it’s right next to the fax machine and printer.  I’d love to think it’s because of my scintillating personality, but probably not. 

So, today these two people are standing behind me when my phone rings.  I answer it and try to screen it customer calls.  I answer the call, and since it’s not for me, I ask him his name and company to transfer him.  Only I can’t hear him when he tells me because of the loud talking behind me.  So I say, “I’m sorry?” and he replies “You’re sorry I work here?” and I say “no, I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you because they're talking about a dead mouse behind me.”

There is dead silence.

Then he bursts out laughing and repeats his name and company.  I start to look up his information on the computer and as I do, this really huge bug flies into my face (the thing is, I knew the bug was around, we had been looking at it earlier because it looked like a tiny lobster).  So I scream and this guy says “what’s wrong?” and I say, “a lobster bug just flew into my face!” and I proceed to try to explain why we’re calling it a lobster bug but he’s laughing so hard I finally give up and transfer him.

He’s still laughing when the other person picks up the phone and he says, “God, I have to meet that girl.  I want whatever’s in her coffee.”  And the person I work with says to him, “if you met her, you’d understand.”

I think I should be offended.

A Turducken.  Who the heck thought this one up?  A chicken stuffed inside a duck inside a turkey?  Seriously? 

I was starting to plan Thanksgiving Dinner and ran across this recipe.  So, courtesy of Paula Deen, here it is for anyone who’s interested.  If you try it, let me know how it is.  I can’t even imagine what it must taste like.

Turducken

Brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar

1 gallon water

18 to 21-pound turkey, skin intact and boned except for drumsticks
House seasoning, recipe follows
Cornbread Dressing, recipe follows
3 to 4-pound duck, boned
3 to 4-pound chicken, boned
Paprika

To make the brine: Mix salt and sugar with the water. Brine is ready when the mixture is completely dissolved. If the water is heated to quicken the process, make sure it is cooled to room temperature before placing meat in. Let the 3 birds sit in brine in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat roaster to 500 degrees F.

Lay turkey skin side down on a flat surface. Dust turkey with House Seasoning and add 1/4-inch layer of cornbread dressing. Lay duck skin side down on top of dressing. Dust duck with House Seasoning and add 1/4-inch layer of dressing. Repeat with the chicken.

Begin trussing up the turkey at the neck. Insert metal skewer about 1/2-inch from the edge and up through the other side. Run butcher's twine between skin and skewer and tighten to draw both sides together. Continue down to legs. With every other skewer, draw together the duck and chicken skin. Tie together turkey legs to resemble standard turkey. Dust turkey skin with paprika.

Roast turducken for 15 minutes. Then turn the roaster down to 225 degrees F to finish, approximately 3 hours. Remove turducken from roaster once the internal temperature in the chicken reaches 155 degrees F. Let rest for at least 20 minutes before carving.

Cut across the middle of the breast completely through. Plate thin slices containing turkey, duck and chicken.

Major Bart the Bird breakthrough!!!! My brother went out of town and left him in my care, so I decided I was going to really work with him.  I already have gotten to the point that he will let me pet almost all the time.  My goal was to have him want to climb up on my shoulder and hang out with me. 

So imagine my surprise when, Saturday morning, he was pacing back and forth on his cage, looking at me.  I walked over to see what was wrong and he held up his foot.  I tentatively held out my arm, and he climbed right on and up to my shoulder.  Now I’m not so sure this is such a good idea, but he’s just kind of clucking and sitting there, with his pointy little claws digging into my shoulder.

All of the sudden, he starts nibbling on my face, which totally freaks me out.  All I can think is, oh my God, he’s going to rip my face or lips off.  So I’m stretching my head as far away as I can, and then I realize (and this is where you should stop reading if you’re eating or easily nauseated) he’s trying to throw up into my mouth! Now, this apparently is the highest form of flattery, they only do this for the ones they love, but ick!  I'm just not feeling the love.

I start shaking my shoulder and trying to get him to fly back to his cage, then run over and try to get him to step off and he won’t.  He just hangs on tighter (and I have the holes in my shoulder to prove it).  I don’t want to hurt him, but in desperation, I finally just push him and he slowly waddles off and over to his cage.

So now I’m thinking perhaps I don’t want to be close buddies with him….

LEOMINSTER, MA -- A little bit of kitsch is leaving the American scene.  The pink flamingo is singing its swan song.

The Massachusetts plant that made the original lawn ornament is closing Wednesday. Union Products actually produced the last piece of trashy-or-trendy plastic in July -- selling off its remaining pink birds for $25 a pair.

Originals signed by designer Don Featherstone, who created them nearly 50 years ago, are being offered for more $100 per pair on eBay.

Rising costs for plastic resin and electricity drove Union out of the pink flamingo business. But the company believes the icons of the 1950s will live on.

The firm is talking with two lawn ornament competitors interested in buying the molds and resuming production.

And before I forget - for all the people who visited Margherite and were interested, she's got the gift certificate portion working and PROMISES to have the entire site working by next Tuesday.