Happy Easter!

     Emerson, Madison, & Blake               Zach and Eli                                Mimi

It's tough to tell who had more fun. The grownups hid eggs for the triplets and then the triplets then hid eggs for the grownups. The truth be known, they all had a wonderful time at Grandma's House. 

Happy Easter!

All You Need Is Love

Taxation Represented!

Will Rogers
It is a good thing that we do not get as much government as we pay for.

James Madison
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents...

Will Rogers
Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.

Robert A. Heinlein
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.

Arthur Godfrey
I am proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is I could be just as proud for half of the money.

H. L. Mencken
Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.

Albert Einstein
[on filing for tax returns] This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher.

John S. Coleman
The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away.

Herman Wouk
Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.

Dr. Laurence J. Peter
America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.

Okay!

                                              Sorry it's tax time. I am totally over taxed.

Not Lost in Translation

Happy Birthday Jennifer

          So today is my Sister Jennifer's 57th Birthday. At least that is how old she would have been had she not died at 42. When we were girls, Jen would drive us up to the Woodside store on Skyline, in her MG so we could get some Baklava. After years of rebuilding the dual carbs on that car, she rigged it up with fuel injection. The electronics for the injectors were wired to a battery located behind the drivers seat. The connection was an alligator clip (roach clip) that had to be wiggled from time to time, the fuel would cut out,  the sign that the wiggle was necessary. So through much wiggling and giggling we had a wonderful time racing up for that Delicious treat. Today, 40 years later we still race up to Woodside Store to obtain Baklava  to enjoy for you as you are still with me in those awesome memories.

Don't You Know....

Government at Risk

Happy Spring!

If you were standing on the equator during either the vernal or autumnal equinox, you would see the sun pass directly overhead, the only two times in the year when that is true. This photo was taken in the Canary Islands. Pretty Cool!

Enough!

                             You know how some photographers just cross the lion.

This one is Just Right!

So my husband built me a beautiful guitar for our 35th anniversary. He put a woman and her polar bear on the head stock. My guys have always called me Mama Bear for my fierce protection of them. I think I earned the strength of the bear through love and unwavering devotion to my family. But what I do know for sure is that I am loved by a man that is very talented and I am a very lucky Mama Bear.  

Play Day with Play Dough

Grand Father, Father, and Grandson are having a great time playing with Play Dough in Grandma's Office. What a fun Saturday morning thing to do.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Let's get it Right!

Paddy, Not Patty

Solemn League and Covenant

Each and every year millions of Irish, Irish-ish and amateur alcoholics are needlessly distracted from their Holy Tradition of drinking themselves into a stupor in the name of Saint Patrick, a Roman Briton slave holding the dubious honour of bringing Christianity to an island that would use it as another convenient excuse to blatter the hell out of each other for centuries.

The source of this terrible distraction?

An onslaught of half-hearted, dyed-green references to St. Patrick’s Day as St. Patty’s Day.

It gnaws at them. It riles them up. It makes them want to fight… you know, more than usual.

IT'S PADDY, NOT PATTY. EVER.
SAINT PATRICK’S DAY? GRAND.
PADDY’S DAY? SURE, DEAD-ON.
ST. PAT’S? AYE, IF YE MUST.
ST. PATTY? NO, YE GOAT!

Paddy is derived from the Irish, Pádraig, hence those mysterious, emerald double-Ds.
Patty is the diminutive of Patricia, or a burger, and just not something you call a fella.
There is not a sinner in Ireland that would refer to a Patrick as “Patty”. It’s as simple as that.

Grand

• Paddy
• Pat
• Packie
• Podge
• Pád
• Pod

Daft

• Patty

While I'm bending your ear…

Shamrock isn’t just any auld piece of clover: it’s three-leafed. Tradition holds that St. Patrick used shamrock to teach the Trinity, so give it a bit o’ thought before ye slap a four-leaf clover on yer plastic leprechaun hat. While I’m at it: Shamrock Shakes are boggin’ and will make you boke unless you like drinking mouthwash.

Irish Car Bomb isn’t a cute name for a drink or a cupcake and, if you are pushing shite like this, cut it out. Those of us that lived their lives punctuated by car bombs aren’t giggling along with you. 25-year-old Ronan Kerr was murdered in April 2011 by an Irish car bomb and he can’t join you for a drink. If nothing else, for Christ’s sake, stop putting money into cans for vague causes.

Paddy, Mick and Taig/Teague/Tadhg have been used as ethnic slurs for centuries—sure—but they’re still just names. However stereotypical it is, it isn’t a slur to call you by your actual name. Nonetheless, some folk are under the impression that “Paddy” is terrible but changing a couple of letters will make it magically OK. They don’t know their arses from their elbows. 

Reddit Credit

10 Wonderful Weeks

My Son Finished his Parallel Parenting Class and he is still a great parent, whose X runs perpendicular to Normal.

Attitude! Have a Good One!

Indignity Of It All

reddit credit of course!

Mood Swings

Dear John, I Know What You Mean! Love, Becky

Which Inspired Which?

 

                       I know where I feel closer to my God.

The Time That Matters

Key Trouble

So my Son had one of those days. His Horoscope probably said: This is going to be one of those days you will have key trouble. He was working hard loading up a big job in his truck to deliver up to the mountains, his keys in his pocket were being troublesome, so he put them in the console of his truck and figured out after he closed the door that the trouble was that the keys had locked the truck without his knowledge. So drive back up the mountain to his home to retrieve his spare set, taking his Father's truck. Return to the shop, help the other's finish loading and drive his Father's truck up to the Job. The other guys taking the rented delivery truck.  Work hard all day and then drive the rented Bobtail back down the Mountain to return it, leaving his Father's keys in his pocket and his keys up at the job site with his tool bag. Now the other guys have no way to get down the Mountain and he has no way to get up the Mountain. Except Mom. He couldn't believe it, he hated to have to ask, he was so mad at himself. Well things like this happen. Sometimes because maybe if you were on the road at a different time, you may have found it was the wrong time. His girlfriend made him a nice dinner and had it waiting for him when he finally arrived home. It gave her a chance to show him once more how much she loved him. No one had to say anything nasty, he knew what he had done. Love is so wonderful, Love is understanding and simply offering help, if needed.

I've heard it said,

Back at You

I have always believed this to be true.
I  keep it in mind before I speak.
Not everyone needs to know that much about me.

What's Up Doc?

So Kevin's Doctor retired. He was a great Doctor and Kevin felt confident with him. Now it was time to choose a new Doctor and so we went to Kaiser's Choose a Doctor Website and scrolled down the list. He passed over a few competent looking female Doctors and stopped at Dr. Stein. He said, "This guy looks good." So we signed Kevin up as a new Patient of his and made an appointment to see him. 

As we were laying in bed that night, I turned to him and asked if he got the first name of his Doctor?

He hadn't and I said, "Well Just as long as his name isn't Frank Nicholas." He looked at me quizzically before it sank in.