When I was a teen, the place in Florida where NASA sent up manned rockets was known as “Cape Kennedy.” On November 28, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson renamed the NASA facility at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after President Kennedy, who had been assassinated six days earlier. Port Canaveral and the City of Cape Canaveral chose to keep their original names.
Sometime in the past decade or so, I realized that the media were once again referring to that piece of land as “Cape Canaveral.” I wondered what had happened to cause the name to be changed.

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I keep coming across the phrase “scoring points” in reference to relationships. The most recent of these was on an A0L page featuring John Gray, the author of “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.” Apparently, part of his approach to improved relationships has to do with recognizing that women and men have different methods of assigning value to romantic overtures.
I have no problem with that. What I mind is the term “scoring points.” That particular term has a very negative connotation to me. It makes me think of one upmanship, and competition, and that doesn’t jive with my particular view of a loving relationship.
I realize that to score points, you have to have done something nice for your partner, and that’s the only reassuring aspect of this philosophy. I worry about a relationship where a person is thinking “Have I scored enough points today?”
That seems calculating to me, and lacking in love.
In all fairness, I know that the author developed this approach for long term relationships which were in trouble, but it seems that young people may believe that this is how every relationship is managed. Will they come to believe that accounting is necessary for every action, or lack of action?
I can see it now. “I washed your clothes, paid the bills, made dinner AND washed the dishes. Now…by my accounting, that brings me to a total of 5,280 points. Twenty more points and I get the MINK!!!” Or conversely, “I got the oil changed in YOUR car, picked up the dry cleaning, took your mother to dinner, AND brought you flowers for no reason at all. I figure that entitles me to _____________(insert sex act of your choice). See what I mean?
It’s just too calculating. We should do these things a) because they need to be done, and b) because we know that our significant others will be happy they’ve been accomplished, NOT because we will get something in return for doing them. Sex should be shared lovingly, and not meted out as a reward.
I think Mr. Gray needs to find another phrase to use

I broke my all time favorite mug today.
I set both the mug, and a laundry basket down on the counter, and when I picked up the basket a bit later, forgot the mug was there. It fell over and must have landed just right to break the handle into three pieces.
This mug came from Two Dogs Pottery, in Alaska. We visited the Saturday Market in Anchorage, and I saw the potter’s work. I didn’t buy much that day, but I came away with a deep blue mug that is perhaps six or seven inches tall. The handle curves from the top of the mug all the way to the base and you can see hints of a warm dark brown at the rim of the mug, and edges of the handle. On the center front of the mug is the shape of a moose, in the natural bisque color of the clay. The moose pattern is sealed, and has a matte look to it.
I liked these mugs so much that I ordered more to give as gifts at Christmas, and I ordered three other animal designs for myself. We have the wolf, the bear, and a caribou. They aren’t quite the same as the mug I’ve damaged. The blue is paler, the clay is a bit heavier.
I’ve been toying with the idea of calling her and asking if she could duplicate the one with the broken handle. It won’t be the souvenir I brought home with me, but it would be close. Would you go to that length to replace something that was a favorite, or would you adjust to the loss and find a new favorite?
I guess I forgot to mention that I hate change…..

I’d like to be perfect, but alas, I’m never going to make it. Only God is perfect, and he must laugh at me, trying to keep up with him!
Eleven days into 2005 the need to reform my life has hit me. When I got up this morning, I decided I would take one chore at a time and work my way through stuff that I hate to do.
I cleaned the kitchen, pulled together the ingredients for tonight’s dinner salad, washed and chopped and diced and bagged it up, so that it would be crisp, and then did a gazillion loads of laundry. Usually the folding and putting away of laundry has to wait until the end of the day, but I got it done load by load. I tidied my room, made my bed, cleaned off the counter at the sink. I started beef vegetable soup in the Crockpot, and THEN…..I worked in the office for a while.
All of this came about because I was avoiding my time on the treadmill today. We returned to exercise yesterday, and I can feel EVERY muscle over my ribs, I swear! It was one of those…..”Lord, please take me NOW” mornings. It won’t keep me from going to exercise tomorrow, but I may wince a bit. Remind me not to take an entire month off next time.
I NEED to get my life organized. I find that I can’t focus when there is a mess drawing my attention, so I’m trying to think of ways to eliminate clutter, organize media, and simplify my life. If you have something that works for you, let me know, won’t you?

Yesterday at 2:30 in the afternoon, my mother called me from the office to look out the kitchen windows. There were four deer shank to shank, heads down, eating the black oil sunflower seed that had fallen to the ground from the bird feeder.
Earlier this week we had a snowfall of six or seven inches. The ground is pretty well covered, so the wildlife has less to draw on to sustain themselves. I cleared the sidewalk, and then shoveled a path to the bird feeders. I’ve been putting out ear corn and mixed birdseed with a high black oil sunflower seed content, and I fill a silo feeder with chipped sunflower hearts.
It’s unusual for us to have the deer visit during the day. Normally they are nocturnal, and their daytime visit might be a sign of their hunger. They were cautious, and nervous. At least one kept watch all the time while the others “hoovered” the ground. The ear corn was the least requested item on our menu yesterday, but even that was totally gone by this morning.
It’s supposed to warm up and rain this coming week, but we plan to keep up a heavy feeding schedule. If I get the chance to photograph the deer, I’ll try to share the pictures with you.
UPDATE:
Saturday night…..the deer are back. I went to drop something in the trash, and realized two of the deer were less than 10 feet from me, with just the kitchen window between us. I held still, and their need to eat was stronger than the need to run. I slipped away, and they stayed. Dear Husband said….”Where there are two of them, there’s likely to be two more.” I’ll check again, later.

“For the most part, I can give up sweets, other than the occasional chocolate or a slice of carrot cake, or …ummmm…HOME MADE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. I used to be totally addicted to anything salty, but I think I’ve finally broken that habit. Now, it seems that comfort food, and things with a complex mix of ingredients draw me.
I have a plan…..maybe I’ll just go to the blog for this….”
As I was saying to Adele in the comments of Just Desserts, I have a plan.
1. No snacking.
2. Eat at regular times.
3. Treadmill or exercise every day.
4. Follow a low carb diet.
5. Gradually cut back on serving sizes.
I plan to eat oatmeal for breakfast, about 7:00 in the morning. A piece of fruit, or fruit yogurt at mid morning. A light lunch, probably soup or salad around noon. A second piece of fruit at mid afternoon, and dinner with Dear Husband. I assume that I can follow his diabetic diet, and have healthy meals.
I’m thinking about adding #6 (which would mean I’d have less time for blogging): Be more active after dinner.
And, I like Cop Car’s mantra of saying the weight I want to achieve over and over, when I’m tempted to cheat on my diet! *G*
Rather than trying to accomplish all that on one day, I’m going to add one aspect at a time until I can juggle it all. I know I’ll slip now and then, but hopefully, I’ll go right back at it.
What do you think??

Do you have a game plan when you go out to eat? Do you think about what you really want to have, and what you can reasonably eat, and then adjust your ordering accordingly? Or, do you order one of everything, knowing that you’ll have to get a people bag, no matter what you order?
We have an absolutely all time favorite place to eat. It’s part of a chain that serves Cajun food. I have eaten the exact same meal there every time I go, because it’s so good I’m unwilling to try anything else. If the restaurant was a bit closer to home, I’d eat there once a week.
We always start the meal off with what amounts to a Cajun version of a fondue. Next, a cup of bisque or chowder. Then, a crisp, cold salad. Dear Husband used to order a different entr

As I write to you, it’s about 10:26 at night on New Year’s Eve, 2004.
We are accustomed to spending quiet evenings at home, with the exception of one very memorable celebration with Jamie and Speedbump three years ago, but it seems that this year will be quieter than usual.

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Both Dear Husband and I have been caught by the cold bug. This morning I realized that in the twenty years I have known him, DH has been noticeably ill perhaps five or six times. He’s very stoic about illness. He will ignore it and carry on, when I think he should pamper himself.
Part of that has to do with being a guy, and part of it has to do with being an employer, I’m sure. He feels that if he is not there to oversee a job, it will either not be done to his exacting standards, or not done at all. So, even if we can see that he is ill, he goes off to work long before the crack of dawn.
Dear Husband and I have talked about colds . There have been years when I have caught a cold three or four times in the colder half of the year, and other years when I have been cold free. He is of the opinion that I need to get out of the house more. I’m not sure if that is a euphemism for “get more exercise,” or if he really means “out of the house.”
I noticed yesterday, when I had to chauffeur my mother around, that I felt better when I was out in the cool air. That doesn’t make sense to me. What is there about cool, or cold air that would ease a cold? Conversely, what is there about my house that could be making me sick? Pet dander, dust, dust mites, fireplace ashes, colognes, scented cleaning products……the list is long, but could they be the reason my colds last longer?
I’ve also wondered if the fact that Dear Husband works out of doors plays a role in how quickly he recuperates from colds. Does cold air force a body to raise it’s temperatures, making it less hospitable to the virus? Or is it just that he gets so much more exercise than I do?
I know they don’t have the cure for the common cold yet. Believe me, when they do, I’ll be at the head of the line to receive it! Until then, a brisk walk outside each day, and an apple, may be the best medicine I can find.

Today, in the part of the United States known as the Greater Chicagoland area (and probably the rest of the Northern Hemisphere), we received thirty-three more seconds of sunlight. I don’t know if each day from now to the solstice in June will have thirty three more seconds of light, but each extra second is precious.
I was surfing to find just how short our day is on the solstice, and this site says that their day is seven hours and fifty minutes, while this site says their day will be eight hours and fifteen minutes. Clearly, it matters what your latitude is, in determining just how little sunlight you get. It’s interesting to note that we do not gain an equal number of seconds of light due to earlier sunrises and later sunsets.
This site has an explanation of how the Earth’s tilt, and the elliptical orbit of the planet around the sun cause a difference close to the time of the solstices in the changes of sunrises and sunsets. For about two weeks prior to the December 21st solstice the sun rises at the same time each day, while the sunset comes earlier and earlier.
As a gardener, I long for the time when I can get back out into my gardens in the Spring. I’ll be pushing it in March, when I go out to pick up fallen branches, and pull up dead plants that escaped my attention this fall. Some of my gardening friends start plants from seed, just to have their fingers in the dirt.
A day or so before Christmas, I received my first plant catalog in the mail, so spring can’t be too far behind!