La Luna’s World

Have you seen this one?

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because
The water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how
Things used to be. Here are some facts about The1500s:

These are interesting…

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly
Bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June.

However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a
Bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet
When getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean
Water, Then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children.
Last Of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty they could
Actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying,
Don’t throw the baby Out with the Bath water…

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high,
With no wood Underneath. It was the only place for animals to
get Warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs)
lived In the roof when it rained it became slippery and sometimes
the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying .
It’s raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.
This posed a real problem in the bedroom where Bugs
And other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed.
Hence, A bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some
Protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something
Other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy
had Slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet,
so they spread Thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their Footing.

As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you
Opened the door, It would all start slipping outside. A piece of
Wood Was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren’t you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen
With a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit
The fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly
Vegetables And did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner,
Leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over
The next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there
For quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,
Peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them
Feel quite Special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to
Show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could,
Bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with
Guests and would all sit around and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates! Made of pewter. Food
With high Acid content caused some of the lead to leach
Onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most
often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, Tomatoes
were considered Poisonous. Bread was divided according to status. Workers
got The burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle,
And guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The
combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple
Of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for
Dead and prepare Them for burial. They were laid out on the
Kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around
And eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the
Custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running
Out of places to bury people. So they would dig up
Coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the
Grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were
Found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized
They had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the
wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through
the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in
The graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for
The Bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was
considered a dead ringer.

And that’s the truth…Now, whoever said History
was boring !!

Tuesday, Eee-gis was adopted by a good man who loves black cats. After being abandoned by his last owners Eee-gis found his way into our back yard. It did not take him very long to warm his way into our hearts. He is a big sweet guy with a lot of personality and can sure carry on a long conversation. The California summer and winters, and the big tom cats were too hard on Eee-gis, so we had to find a home for him to live inside. With the kind help of the neighbors, they found a man who just lost his black cat. He took Eee-gis all the way to Petaluma today. The man took one look at Eee-gis and his heart melted. He was very grateful to have found another cool black cat.

A happy ending for a sweet guy. We will miss the heck out of you E-G.

Guess who was deemed the most popular person in the world by the Guinness book of world records?

Michael Jackson! Last night at the world music awards he was awarded the diamond award for having the most album sales for thriller, one of the greatest albums. I have yet to see any music star command as much dramatic attention as he does. He literally couldn’t sing we are the world at the awards ceremony because the crowd would not stop screaming. The camera panned to people screaming, crying and holding their heads in disbelief. While I am not that big of a fan I certainly do have an appreciation for good music, enjoy. O and once you get past have you seen my childhood its actually a pretty good compilation.

Wishing you a Safe and Happy Memorial Day

There is a pill now available for people who are compulsive shoppers (binge shoppers).  A compulsive shopper is someone who runs up thousands of dollars in dept.  For example the person would go to the hardware store and buy 100 or more screwdrivers and never use them. Kind of senseless shopping buying stuff just to buy.  It could be anything shoes, socks, clothes and etc.  Whew, I was worried I was a compulsive shopper, cause I go to Target every week.

I knew someone like that.  She had so much stuff.  She went and out and bought clothes and shoes like they were going out to style.  She hid them in the garage and in various areas of the house.  It got so bad that she could not park in the garage anymore, because it was so full of stuff.  She said she has boxes of clothes and shoes that she has never worn. She also did this with food too.  She has several freezers of food and lots of dry food goods.

Ladies and gents the magic pill for this ailment to help the compulsive shopper out is the anti-depressant citalopram, available as Cipramil.

What will those pharmaceutical companies think of next?  Hey maybe they can hand these pills out to congress, because they keep passing very expensive bills that is running our Country into more trillions of dollars into debt.

Happy birthday Big Sis, we were all blessed the day you were born.  You bring happiness, love, adventure and a strange twist of weirdness into our lives.
When you turned ten, you were so sad. I remember your explanation, “Now I am a two digit number, and I do not like that.”
Through out the years, I always knew what your favorite food to fix for your perfect birthday meal and dessert was, but the gift thing is so baffling.  As you get older the gift thing gets harder.
How does a mom convey how special her child is, if not for the simple words I love you?
Happy Birthday….

This could be my Weird Wednesday Post.  These two chickens live around the corner of the kitchen.  They always want to be involved in everything that goes on in the house.  They cannot stand to be around each other, but they cannot live without each other.  They are very neurotic. It took forever to get a good picture of them.  T-bird (gray) wanted to pose in the middle and kept inching over and Cricket (multi colored) wanted to monopolize the picture, a heated bird debate occurred and I yelled at them to just smile and say cheese.

In the summer of my 13th year my mom surprised me with a trip to Vancouver to visit my Aunt and Uncle for one week.  My Aunt and Uncle were young and recently married.  They treated me out to a fancy seafood restaurant and I got to sample shark and octopus for the first time. They took me to a fancy dinner at another young couple’s home and had a homemade meal in which the husband and my aunt boasted about the great home made cakes her friend made.  I was excited to try and piece and I remember thinking this is the driest cake.  Even then I had a great love for cake and knew what was good.  My aunt took me shopping and with my piggy bank savings I bought the coolest poster of an old english sheep dog with a caption on the bottom of the poster that read, “A dog is the only thing that would love you more than he would love himself”

The summer of my 14th year, we went shopping at a new clothing store in Walnut Creek.  We entered the store and there in the front was a brand new trail motorcycle, a Honda 125 with a poster that had written on it you could win this. We filled out cards for everyone in the family and entered them into the big drawing box and went home.  I forgot about the drawing, which is not unusual for me. We got a call from the store congratulating ME.  I had just won a brand new motorcycle.  We had more fun on that little bike.  My older brother would take me up into the hills and all around on that motorbike.  I was a lightweight and wasn’t too steady on the bike by myself.

By age 15 my parent’s marriage ended. My older and younger brother took it very hard.  I was sad and felt really sorry for my father, because he had to find another place to live.  It did puzzle me why I did not take the divorce as difficult as my two brothers did, (My baby brother was too young to understand). I know the answer now.  It was the beginning of suppression, a survival skill that has helped me over the years to get through one of the many difficulties that has occurred.

Some times I feel like I live in a fog, clueless. I did not even know 16 years old is a special year.  When I turned Sweet 16 my mother set up the fancy dining room with the good china and the pretty glasses.  (That was a surprise to me.) We only ate in the fancy dining room on Christmas, Thanksgiving and one or two other odd occasions.  So to eat there on my birthday was a real treat.  Mom fixed a lovely dinner and when I entered the dining room, there on the table was a beautiful bouquet of pink roses. The first bouquet I had ever received.  What a treat.

I did not really want to drive.  So I waited and extra year before I got my driver license. At age 17 I took the test in my mother’s new Mustang.  I took the driving test in Walnut Creek, that was a big city compared to Danville.  I remember driving around, my hands dripping with sweat and then the Test Person asked my to parallel park.  It was like he said it in slow motion.  My reaction was, Oh my goooooooooooosh.  But, long story short I past, by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin.

When I was 17 the dance class at my high school took a field trip to Berkeley, I cannot even remember what for.  We all met at the BART station and rode BART into Berkeley.  I was sitting with a group of really cute girls and we were like a bunch of noisy birds just yapping and giggling away.  This is another one of those fog moments.  This guy got up said something to my friend and gave her a piece of paper and walk off the train at his stop.  I thought, wow, he’s not bad, my friend who by the way was knock out really scored on that one.  She got up and came over to me and told me that same guy asked her to give me this, and she handed me that paper. I open it and it had his name and phone number written on it. I said no this is for you, she said that the guy was staring at me the whole time. I was total flattered and sat there in disbelief.

Age 17; in a blink of an eye one day I was in California going to school with no thought of moving and they next day I was on a plane moving to Utah.  A place I lovingly refer to as, The Arm Pitt of the Nation.  I finished my last semester of my senior year at Orem high school in Utah.  I must say I met some really nice friends there.  The experience was one that made me realize just how lucky I was to grow up in the area I did, to live a life of where we were sheltered from the hardship of unemployment, low wages and all that goes along with those predicaments.  Never the less it made me a better person, more appreciative.

I tag anyone who wants to play this meme.

It had been a while since I’ve seen a good chick-flicks. Well, this weekend was chick-flick weekend.  We started out on Friday by seeing the movie The Waitress.  Chee requested this one and was very excited to see this movie.  It would be an OK movie to see on DVD.  On the big screen I though it was not worth it.  It is a simple story of a girl in a bad marriage that becomes pregnant, has an affair with her doctor, really good at bake pies and is miserable. It had an unreal feel to the movie and the ending was totally hokey.

** Just read that the Director/actress of the movie The Waitress, Adrienne Shelly was murdered on Nov 2, 2006.  :0(

Music and Lyrics was the next movie.  This movie was about a washed up 80’s male performer who was asked by a Brittney –Christine super star to write a song for her to perform at on her newest album by Friday.  Drew enters into his life as a lousy plant tender who is a gifted writer. Together they form a back and forth business/love relationship while trying to achieve this impossible goal.  It was a yawner and so predictable. Drew and Hugh have very little chemistry together.

The third and finally chick-flick movie was Catch and Release.  Don’t ask me why I thought this would be a light romantic comedy. It was a darker movie in the “ Hope Floats” with Sandra Bullock flavor.  The movie opens with a funeral open house.  Jennifer Garner‘s character loses her fiancée days before their wedding.  She is devastated.  She begins to put her life back together only to find out that her relationship with the man she loved was false and filled with deception. It was a very long movie, choppy and lacked the ability to hook us into the story.

This is one of those three strikes and you’re out sort of thing.  It is back to TV for us.

The day has finally arrived. The proud Mama was grinning from ear to ear. My first born graduated from college. I am not computer savvy or have a the digital camera, so I haven’t got any personal pictures to post. I am proud of her and her accomplishments. I love you Big Sis you are truly a shining star.

The second picture is the scroll of plain paper that was handed out as a fake diploma. (hehehe)