Just a quickie to announce that *I* have one of the coolest granddaughters in the entire UNIVERSE!

Yes.  I'm bragging and proud OF it.

Just learned that Amazing Grace has won the "Spirit Award" for the SECOND time in her young life! 
First time -- kindergarten.  This time -- second grade.  (One is not allowed to win two years in a row.)

This is a "voted in by peers" award that goes to the nicest, most helpful, etc. etc. each year.

Her teacher says she won this time by a landslide!

Scanner is down -- don't have a more recent pic -- but here you go:  You are looking at one of the sweetest kids I've ever known.

A gazillion kudos to her mom & dad!

that Jenna Bush got married.  Nor do I care if she lives happily ever after.

That is all I have time to say today.

Y'all be careful out there.

Later:

Oh yeah.  I almost forgot.

I also do not care with whom Barbara Walters has slept.  In fact, it makes me a little nauseous to think about it.

It’s January 28 and I have absolutely nothing to say that might be remotely interesting.

So whut am I doing here?

Well, I just thought maybe I oughta’ take the holiday decorations down before Easter.

For Christmas, Santa brought me a sinus infection and bronchitis.  My doctor gave me two rounds of antibiotics -- count ‘em -- 4 WEEKS’ worth -- but they must’ve been inferior products on the cheap from some “Wise Guy” warehouse, because they haven’t worked  yet.  Should’ve gone to a Canadian drugstore, I guess.

I also got this really cool toy that comes with this HUGE orange laser pistol (that looks like a Colt .45) and a bunch of cans.  So that’s pretty much whut I’ve been doing all this time:  Shooting at cans.  (Which feels a whole lot like tilting at Windmills.)

Oh yeah.  And blowing my nose.

And feeling like I’m walking around under water.

A word to the wise:  Buy stock in Kleenex.

The madness of summer has continued into fall.  I've put enough miles on my car to have driven to Calcutta and back.

(If one COULD drive to Calcutta and back, etc. etc.)

And now, rather suddenly if you ask me,  it's that once-a-year time when I always have a mild surge of domesticity and begin cranking out Fifi pies.

Thus, still no time for the muse.

However.....I would be horribly remiss if I failed to mention the birthdate of one of my peeps -- that free-range pundit we all know as Ed Kaz.   (Insert exclamation point here.)

Besides, he's been nagging me to update.

 
    As a general rule, I sorta' don't like to write much serious stuff
here because hey!   Sarcasm is entirely too much fun to waste.......and as Oscar Wilde
once wrote, "Life is too important to be taken seriously."   (Ole' Oscar has been one of my main men for years!)

    Besides, I could drive even GAWD crazy with my bleeding-heartness once I get started.

    But this summer, for reasons I know not, has been filled with thought and introspection for me.  I haven't enjoyed it much, hence, not many blog entries, and trust me, I plan to celebrate with great abandon when life manages to jerk me out of this somber, somewhat gray, place.

     But I digress.  The reason for today's entry is that a fellow Xangan,  Transvestite Rabbit,  (sorry, I dunno how to do the link thingy) wrote an
amazing blog called  Tell Them Who I Am.

    And in my not-so-very-humble opinion, I think it oughta' be required
reading for the world.

    And it moved me to share a poem that I read years ago and liked so much that it hangs in a frame on my wall.  I have no idea who the author might be, but I rather believe that he/she wouldn't really care about getting any special credit.

    The end.

    Tried to imbed a REALLY cool video clip here and it didn't work, dammit.  And I don't have a lotta time -- I'm not exactly back yet -- so guess I'll go with the FG Topic & get 'er in just under the wire.

(But first, a parenthetical note:  Music is EVERYTHING and there's no way in hell I could list every "song of my life" here.  So here's a list of just a VERY few of 'em which continue to mean much, in order of their appearance in my life.  And no, I ain't typing the lyrics.  You can hear any or all of 'em at  iTunes.com or Limewire.)

•    "Oh My Papa" - Eddie Fisher

•     "The Happy Wanderer" - Henri Rene

•     "Wake Up Little Suzy" - The Everly Brothers

•     Every song Johnny Cash ever recorded.

•    "With God On Our Side" - Bob Dylan

•    "We Shall Overcome" - Joan Baez

•    "Give Peace A Chance" - John Lennon

•   "The Midnight Special" - Johnny Rivers OR John Fogerty

•    "And It Stoned Me" - Van Morrison

•   "For Baby, For Bobby" - John Denver *

•   "Sunshine" - John Denver *

•   "Bad To The Bone" - George Thorogood

•   "Innocent When You Dream" (barroom version) - Tom Waits

•   "I Can Hear Music" - Beach Boys

•   "Have A Little Faith In Me" - John Hiatt version ONLY  (Holy Shidt!  WHUT a SONG!")

•   "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" - Arrowsmith  (better known to me as Lindsey's song)

•   "You Can't Overlove Your Underwear" - The Fruit Guys  **

    *"John DENVER, for crissakes?" you may be asking.   Don't knock it, goddammit!.  I sang these songs to Princess Prissy & "THE KID" when they were babies.

    ** This is a damm fine song, even if it WAS written just for a TV spot.
                  

Help. 

A couple of weeks ago, my "To Do" list accidentally ingested mega quantities of steroids and is now holding me hostage in a "Work-with-no-Release" program.

Please send cakes with scissors in them. 

And a clone.

    Grownup's Featured Content asks about "Independence."

    On this, Independence Day, I haven't much time to devote to the answer as I seem to be fettered with obligations.  (Are any of us ever really independent?)

    So I'll just say this:  Apparently I was born to struggle for independence.  As a child, I wanted it badly enough to kick, scream, fight, and write for it.

    I wanted it badly enough to enter every single contest I could find that offered the winner her very own bicycle.   There were at least 15 and I dutifully entered them all -- positive I'd win at least ONE of them.

    The Snow Crop entry blank instructed me to write, in twenty-five words or less, why I wanted a bicycle.

    And so I did.

    And won the only thing I've ever won!

    And suddenly, much to my mother's dismay, I had WHEELS!   I was FREE!   I could go wherever I wanted to go.  I could explore!  I could escape the boundaries of home whenever I chose!

    Which was often.