A Irish Poem

STANZAS TO ERIN

by J. J. Callanan

from The Poetry and Song of Ireland

Still green are thy mountains and bright is thy shore,

And the voice of thy fountains is heard as of yore:

The sun o'er thy valleys, dear Erin, shines on,

Though thy bard and thy lover forever is gone.

Nor shall he, an exile, thy glad scenes forget -

The friends fondly loved, ne'er again to be met -

The glens where he mused on the deeds of his nation,

And waked his young harp with wild inspiration.

Still, still, though between us may roll the broad ocean,

Will I cherish thy name with the same deep devotion;

And though minstrels more brilliant my place may supply,

None loves you more fondly, more truly than I.

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND

There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than in all the alcohol ever distilled.

Edward Lucas
British Journalist
1962 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.


Christopher Reeve
1952-2004

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND

I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I’ve made.

Marilyn Monroe
1926-1962

Stan's Birthday!

Yesterday was Stan's birthday.  We all decided to take the opportunity to sleep in and enjoy not having to be anywhere.  Stan took the night off from work.  We went to one of his favorite places, Taco Express, for burritos and nachos for lunch.  Then Stan and the boys went to see the new Green Hornet movie.  They let me beg off, and I went home and made cupcakes.

That evening for dinner we had a bunch of Stan's favorites.  Shrimp cocktail, Kevin's famous garlic bread, salad, baked potatoes (with all the fixin's) and AJ even braved the snowy weather to BBQ some steaks!  It felt like winter, but it sure did smell like summer!

Afterwards we had cake and ice cream (chocolate cake and bordeaux cherry ice cream) and Stan opened a huge stack of cards and our birthday present:  a Belgian waffle maker!

We had a fun celebration.  Although I didn't get pictures of everything we did, Here are a few:

 Kevin made a Swiss chocolate cake for his dad.  I frosted it.  Okay, I'll admit it... I put waaay too much frosting on it.  But dang! It was good!

 When we were on staycation last summer and on our Christmas trip, the hotels would have Belgian waffle makers with their free breakfasts.  Stan loved to make himself waffles.  For his birthday we got him one of those flip around waffle makers.  He made waffles for us this morning and holy moly, were they good!

 There's something about family breakfasts that I just love.  I don't think it's necessarily the food as much as the relaxed, lazy feeling about just hanging out together in the morning.

 Jasper waits patiently behind Stan hoping for something to fall off the table!

The final product!

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it?

Our friends the Eddingtons brought Stan a birthday card and a plate of homemade cookies!

I'm not sure how many of these he's actually going to get .....

And I made some cupcakes for him to take to work tonight to celebrate there.

All in all, it was a great celebration!

A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND

Nobody trips over mountains.  It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.  Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles!

Right off the bat I'm going to say, this is a nit picky post, but I'm going to do it anyway.  Yesterday was a cold day.  I mean, bitingly, bone crushing COLD.  The high was -4.  So I made a crock pot full of bean soup and two loaves of homemade bread for dinner.  It was a good day for that.  So, along with my domestic brainstorm for dinner, homemade cookies sounded good. 

The problem with homemade cookies, however, is that one batch makes way more than we can usually eat.  I've taken to buying those "scoop and bake" tubs at the warehouse stores.  They're freshly baked, and are really good.  Normally I buy them at the store closest to home, but last week I bought a tub at the other store because I was there that day.  A different brand, but a nationally known and good brand.

And here's the problem: these cookies crumble all over the place!  They taste good, but the texture is not the same as the ones I normally buy and bake.  Now maybe a crumbly cookie isn't a big deal; no one is going to have their lives irrevocably altered by a cookie that crumbles too much, but I was disappointed.  And, if you are like me, thought you might want to know!