Mom's Home

Mom is home now, as of Wednesday. She's doing well, eating well, and getting around well. Well, well, well!!! I've been at her house taking care of her, which I don't mind at all, but she has no internet!! OMG, I am having withdrawls!!! Today my sister is there so I can get to my computer!!!!!

I am thrilled that my mom is home and doing so well. Yay!!!!!!

Countdown

Well, I'm afraid to say, but since I have been busy and away from my computer taking care of my mom, I have to stop my countdown. We did make it to 19, though!!!! Pretty pretty good, if you ask me.

Happy Holidays, Everyone! I'll still be blogging as much as I can!!!!!

19

"19" is a 1985 hit song by Paul Hardcastle, with a strong anti-war message, including sampled soundbites taken from a documentary about the Vietnam War in which 19 is claimed to have been the average age of United States soldiers killed in the conflict (an assertion which is widely disputed). The song was parodied by British satirist Rory Bremner as N-n-nineteen, Not Out, the title referring to the English cricket team's risible performance against the West Indies in the previous year.

With a similar name and anti-Vietnam War theme, I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green), by the Australian group Redgum reached number one on the Australian charts in 1983. In 2005 a hip hop version of the song was produced by The Herd, and was voted in at #18 in the 2005 Triple J Hottest 100 playlist.

20

The number 20 is used as an index in measuring visual acuity. 20/20 indicates normal vision at 20 feet, although it is commonly used to mean "perfect vision" (Note that this applies only to countries using the Imperial system. The metric equivalent is 6/6). When someone is able to see only after an event how things turned out, that person is often said to have had "20/20 hindsight".

Mom Update

Just wanted to throw out a little update on my mom. She's doing well, recooperating nicely, and we hope to have her home possibly Wednesday. She finally got to eat something on Monday...pink jello and juice. She said the hospital must really be getting racy to be handing out pink jello!! Poor lady, this is the first thing she's had to eat in 6 days. And trust me, at 103 lbs, she doesn't have a lot of room to spare! I told her I'd donate, but...

Anyhoo, for now, (knock on wood) she's doing very well, perky, spunky, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Now we just need to get her home so I can lavish even more love and attention on her!! Not to mention some GOOD food. No more of this pink jello crap!!! :)

21

Twenty One was an American game show. It included the most popular contestant of the quiz show era, but it achieved notoriety for being a rigged quiz show which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of Senate investigations. The 1994 movie Quiz Show is based on these events. In time, Twenty-One represented the longest hiatus (42 years) between a cancellation and a revived comeback of a television game show on the same network in the history of broadcasting.

The initial broadcast of Twenty One was played honestly, with no manipulation of the game by the producers. Unfortunately, that broadcast was, in the words of producer Dan Enright, "a dismal failure"; the first two contestants succeeded only in making a mockery of the format by how little they really knew. Show sponsor Geritol, upon seeing this opening-night performance, reportedly became furious with the results, and angrily ordered the rigging of Twenty One so as to prevent a repeat of this incident.

The end result: Twenty One was not merely "fixed", it was almost totally choreographed. Contestants were cast almost as if they were actors, and in fact were active and (usually) willing partners in the deception. They were given instruction as to how to dress, what to say to the host, when to say it, what questions to answer, what questions to miss, even when to mop their brows in their isolation booths (which had air conditioning that could be cut off at will, to make them sweat more).

~ If I remember right, wasn't there a 'Happy Days' episode that touched on this, too?

22

Cleveland, Grover (1837-1908), 22d and 24th president of the United States.

Historians have judged Cleveland one of America's greatest presidents and his presidency as the most distinguished one between Lincoln's and Theodore Roosevelt's. Four achievements are generally associated with his name. He restored honesty and impartiality to government; he planted deep in the American mind the idea that the evils of the protective tariff system ought to be abolished; he saved the nation from the abandonment of the gold standard at a time when abandonment might have produced economic chaos; and he taught the American people that in their handling of foreign affairs conscience should always be the one dominant force.
Yet Cleveland's greatness as a president rests more on his character than on his accomplishments or brilliance. For honesty and independence alone he would stand out as a major president in the Gilded Age. Many historians have praised Cleveland for his courage, firmness, uprightness, self-direction, and common sense. "It is as a strong man, a man of character, that Cleveland will live in history," wrote Allan Nevins, who has made the most exhaustive study of Cleveland. (http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0097430-00&templatename=/article/article.html)

And I only thought he had a muppet named after him!!

23

There is a belief that the number 23 is a magical number, showing up in everything in life, from conspiracies to religion to everyday living. Jim Carrey starred in a movie regarding this phenomenon, and there is a website dedicated to 'proving' the existence of the number in EVERYTHING. Take a glance at the list and decide for yourself...

http://afgen.com/numbr23b.html

As for my opinion, I think a person can find a lot of just about anything when they're looking for it...

24

So, where are we now? Ah yes, 24.

Just for reference, during this shopping season, 24-carat gold is pure gold. There are no metal alloys added. As explained by http://24carat.co.uk:

"A carat as applied to gold alloys means a proportion by weight of one part in twenty-four, or 41.66 parts per 1000. The higher the carat value, the higher the proportion of gold in relation to the base metal content. Pure gold is therefore 24 carat."

So keep that in mind when you're shopping for me this year...

Family Emergency

Sorry to be out of touch lately. We've had a family emergency and I have been otherwise occupied. Back in October, my mom was having a bad time with her foot. It was infected and not getting any better. My husband and I decided we needed to act fast on Tuesday, because it had gotten a lot worse from just Sunday night and it was UGLY. She had angry red blotches and huge blisters that developed overnight.

We took her to the emergency room down in Duluth, about an hour's drive, Tuesday afternoon. The ER dr was taking cultures and was thinking flesh eating bacteria. He panicked. There was an orthopedic surgeon that wanted to amputate her foot if that infection didn't improve within three hours. Well, we made it through that night with high high high doses of intreveneous antibiotics, and since the infection didn't spread, there wasn't an immediate threat of amputation. She has poor circulation in her legs, which wasn't allowing the antibiotics to flow to the foot before. So she had a major surgery on Thursday, a bipass in her aeorta in her abdomen and a veinal (sp) bipass down her one leg. She came through it just fine, she is doing great.

She'll be in the hospital probably another week. But, right now she is great and no more threat of amputations for the moment. IF it should happen, it would only most likely be a toe, not the foot, too. So......PHEW. It's been a rough week.

It looks like she won't be able to come along to Vietnam to get her granddaughter, when the time comes, but if things hold the way they are, she WILL be able to chase after her grandbaby with much more vigor and energy than before!!! THAT'S the most important thing, anyway. But, IF the CFD/Referral Faeiries are reading this, I have a feeling she'd get a huge lift seeing a photo of her newest granddaughter for the first time! Hint Hint.........

28

Normally, people have 28 teeth, not including wisdom teeth.

~ I can't say as I ever counted, or thought of counting them!

29

Floccinaucinihilipilification contains 29 letters and is the longest word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Note that the letter e does not occur.

In case you're wondering what it means:

"an act or instance of judging something to be worthless or trivial"

I hope I never get that word in a spelling bee!!!!

I'm showing a rerun of a previous post...just a shameless plug for my dear friend Karey. If you are looking for a special and unique gift for the Holidays, I would highly suggest checking out her link below!!!


Two Girls Jewelry



I have to show you all the BEAUTIFUL jewelry that my dear friend Karey made for me!!! She is so talented. I asked her to make me a custom piece that was like the ocean. What she made is even better than I could have imagined myself. The different pieces look like squares of sea glass, and the way she designed the necklace makes me think of an ocean wave with glints of sunshine on the water. She did tell me that the sparkly white beads reminded her of watching a friend surf, and I can see why! It so looks like the sun dancing on the water!!

It's utterly gorgeous, Karey, and I thank you so much! I hope you all will check out her blogspot... http://twogirlsjewelry.blogspot.com/. She has such an eye and knack for her jewelry! Sooooo talented!!!!!!! She actually crochets the metal strands on the necklace with a crochet hook!!!!!!!

30

Could we be in the final month of waiting????? Ooooooooh, let's all hope and pray!!!!!!!!

31

You scream, I scream, we all scream for Baskin Robbin's 31 Flavors!!!!!

Here's a little history of Baskin Robbins, from my favorite Wikipedia:

Baskin-Robbins is known for its "31 flavors" slogan. When the first Baskin-Robbins store opened, it offered 21 flavors, an innovative concept at the time. The idea for having 31 flavors came from the Carson-Roberts advertising agency (which later became Ogilvy & Mather) in 1953, along with the slogan "Count the Flavors. Where flavor counts." 31 was also more than the 28 flavors then famously offered at Howard Johnson's restaurants. Burt and Irv also believed that people should be able to sample flavors until they found one they wanted to buy ― hence the iconic small pink spoon.

By 1948, Burt & Irv opened six stores, the first franchise covering the sale of ice cream was executed May 20, 1948, for the store at 1130 South Adams in Glendale (Store #1). Burt and irv were brother in laws. In 1949, the company’s own production facility opened in Burbank. They made the decision to sell the stores to the managers, thus becoming one of the first franchised food service businesses[citation needed]. In 1953, Baskin-Robbins hired Carson-Roberts Advertising (now Ogilvy & Mather) who recommended adoption of the 31 as well as the pink (cherry) and brown (chocolate) polka dots and typeface that were reminiscent of the circus. The first store that adopted the new 31 look was 804 North Glendale Ave. in Glendale, California in March of 1953. Between 1949 and 1962, the corporate firm was Huntington Ice Cream Company. The name succeeded The Baskin-Robbins Partnership and was eventually changed back to Baskin-Robbins, Inc. on November 26, 1962.

Baskin-Robbins was owned by the founders until purchased in 1967 (just prior to Burt Baskin's death) by the United Brands Company (United Fruit). In 1972, the company went public for the only time in its history when United Brands sold 17% in an IPO. A year later (1973), the British food company J. Lyons and Co. purchased Baskin-Robbins from United Brands and all the public stock. J. Lyons then merged with Allied Breweries, becoming Allied-Lyons in 1978. Allied-Lyons then merged with Pedro Domecq S.A. in 1994 and became Allied Domecq. Baskin-Robbins, Togo's, and Dunkin' Donuts now comprise Dunkin' Brands, Inc. Dunkin' Brands was part of Allied Domecq until its purchase in 2006 by a group of private equity firms - Bain Capital, Thomas Lee and The Carlyle Group.

Baskin-Robbins has maintained solid, controlled growth over the last several years through development of stores that combine Dunkin' Donuts and Togo's. Recently the company announced plans to aggressively grow their standalone locations again and is currently actively seeking franchises[citation needed]. Baskin robbins original colors were brown (chocolate) and pink (cherry) and our famous pink polka dots represent balloons.Baskin robbins has created over 1000 flavors since 1945.

~And now, you've learned something for today!! :)