Dangerous Gifts

I bought this cute set of Karate Santa ornaments on eBay to give to Treklet's Taekwondo Master.

On the back of the box there is a warning label:

What the heck??

Inside the box there is list full sheet in tiny font listing the Terms and Conditions of use:

Are you freaking kidding me???

Wow, I sure hope Master Truscott is careful using these dangerous ornaments. Maybe next year we'll get him something a little safer, like a pack of razor blades or a bottle of muriatic acid.

Stingy Jack

I usually carve an elaborate design, but this year I tried something new. It was easy and fast.
OMNOMNOM

The Irish brought the tradition of the Jack O'Lantern to America. But, the original Jack O'Lantern was not a pumpkin.The Jack O'Lantern legend goes back hundreds of years in Irish History. As the story goes, Stingy Jack was a miserable, old drunk who liked to play tricks on everyone: family, friends, his mother and even the Devil himself. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree. Once the Devil climbed up the apple tree, Stingy Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk of the tree. The Devil was then unable to get down the tree. Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him not to take his soul when he died. Once the devil promised not to take his soul, Stingy Jack removed the crosses and let the Devil down.

Many years later, when Jack finally died, he went to the pearly gates of Heaven and was told by Saint Peter that he was too mean and too cruel, and had led a miserable and worthless life on earth. He was not allowed to enter heaven. He then went down to Hell and the Devil. The Devil kept his promise and would not allow him to enter Hell. Now Jack was scared and had nowhere to go but to wander about forever in the darkness between heaven and hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave as there was no light. The Devil tossed him an ember from the flames of Hell to help him light his way. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed out Turnip, one of his favorite foods which he always carried around with him whenever he could steal one. For that day onward, Stingy Jack roamed the earth without a resting place, lighting his way as he went with his "Jack O'Lantern".
On all Hallow's eve, the Irish hollowed out Turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets. They placed a light in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away. These were the original Jack O'Lanterns. In the 1800's a couple of waves of Irish immigrants came to America. The Irish immigrants quickly discovered that Pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve out. So they used pumpkins for Jack O'Lanterns.

(I did not write this) CREDIT: pumpkinnook.com

Dropbox

I use Dropbox every day. It's very useful, especially when needing to access files between multiple computers/devices. I seriously use it every day. 

Our lesson plans our there--I can access from laptop, desktop, iPad or phone.  Copies of tickets or reservations I bought online? In the Dropbox. Backups of my Quicken files? In the Dropbox. Pictures I want to move to my other computer? In the Dropbox. Pictures of my insurance cards? In the Dropbox. There are a million uses for it. You can even share files with others.

What's the best thing about Dropbox? It's FREE! If you sign up for your free Dropbox, I will get extra storage for FREE, and when your friends sign up from your referral link YOU will get extra FREE storage--up to 8 MB!

My Dropbox is FULL! Oh noes!! I only have a 3 MB dropbox, so won't you give it a try and help me get more storage in the process?

Get your free Dropbox here:

http://db.tt/0KSYMDjE

Aunt Ruth's Fruit Salad

I wasn't planning on blogging today. I haven't blogged in MONTHS and there is so much I could write about, but several tweeps asked for this recipe, so here is a quickie blog post.


I am homeschooling Treklet now, and we had very little to do this morning and finished very early. We were having a lunch guest, so I added a cooking lesson and had her cut fruit and help measure the ingredients for the sauce in the recipe below.


My Aunt Ruth was my mother's sister. She's been gone several years, after a depressing several years with Alzeimers. My mother and her were both adopted, and were not blood-related. They were opposite it many ways, and bickered  constantly when they were together. I don't mean that in a bad way, they just did, but they were very close. I miss them both!!

Me, Aunt Ruth and my eldest, Katie
12 years ago. She didn't remember the day we
spent at Navy Pier when we got back home.
Alzheimer's SUCKS

Aunt Ruth and I visited often. As a matter of fact, it was her that I stayed with the night I left my 1st husband the manic-depressive, alcoholic drug addict. :-0.  We smuggled my 80 pound German Shepherd into her 3rd floor (no pets allowed) condominium and I slept on the couch. The next day my sister-in-law drove down from Madison to get me and I lived with my brother for almost a year before moving back to CA. 

After my mom died (1991) my Aunt & I grew very close.My mom's memorial service was at her church. I talked to her at least weekly on the phone. She came to CA and visited once and I went back and stayed with her several times at her condo in suburban Chicago.

WOW!! WHAT A RABBIT TRAIL!!  All that because of fruit salad. 

Aunt Ruth gave me this recipe about 25 years ago. My family loves it. Use any fruit you like, just mix it up! It's good with or without the Cool-Whip. Use SPARINGLY over your fruit because it's very sweet, and frankly, not very healthy with all those marshmallows in it. ;-) 


I serve this over any kind of mixed fruit. Today I combined cut up banana, apple, peach, plum, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries! I did not add the Cool Whip. 

FRUIT SALAD DRESSING

from Aunt Ruth

Ingredients:

2 T. flour

3/4 C. sugar

pinch salt

2 eggs, beaten

2 T. butter                                          

1 C. pineapple juice                

Juice of 1 lemon                                 

18 marshmallows       

Cool Whip (optional) 

           

Directions:

            Mix flour, sugar, salt, eggs, and butter. Add juice and cook slowly, stirring constantly, until it just begins to boil and thicken. Beat in marshmallows while mixture is warm.

            When cool, add Cool Whip, if desired. Keep tightly covered in refrigerator.

            Serve over fresh mixed fruit.

Are you ready for the Khan???

I know, I know...there have been at least a dozen blog-worthy things in my life the last couple of months, but I have FAILED in documenting them.

I had a blast at Phoenix Comic Con with Treklet, took an 18 day TwroadTwrip with her and met up with 7 Tweeps along the way, and made a huge decision--we're homeschooling now! Perhaps I'll get around to writing about some of the details in the near future. Right now I'm struggling with organizing my thousands of photos from the trip!

I'm uber-excited to have TrekJen visit in a couple of weeks during San Diego Comic Con! I've got my w00tstock and Roddenberry Dive Team Mixer tickets, and look forward to seeing more tweeps, old and new.

Soon it will be time for the Big One--the Star Trek Las Vegas Khan!!! Are you going? I know I am, and I'll be dressed for it! Here is the info on this year's customizable Star Trek Tweeps gear:

"You're not ready for Khannnnnn without your Trek Tweep PERSONALIZED gear! T-shirts and more with the Trek Tweep TWOCK on the front and YOUR Twitter handle on the back! Ordering is easy as 1-2-3:

1. Visit http://www.cafepress.com/kwamsrantshop/7876885 and choose the item you want. Be sure to note it's name and item number.
2. E-mail kwamster@me.com with the item you want, and your Twitter name.
3. I'll e-mail you back a link to your personalized item(s), then you can order!

Also: 

• If you don't want personalized items, visit http://www.cafepress.com/kwamsrantshop/7876879. 

• Discounts- Here are some codes to use:

1. 15% off (until 7/7) code: JULY15
2. $15 off $50 or more (until 8/31), code ANN0623
3. 15% off (Not sure of exp. date), code: LIVELONG"

Ode to Ernie

(sing to the tune of "The Candy Man")

Who can take a drear day
Add a cup joe
Cover it in chocolate
and a Trek reference or two?

The Ernie Man
The Ernie Man can
The Ernie Man can cause he mixes it with Trek and makes the world feel good

Who can take a starship
Set it on the floor
Pose it with a pig
and make a photo I adore?

The Ernie Man?

The Ernie Man!
The Ernie Man can
The Ernie Man can cause he mixes it with Trek and makes the world look good

Ernie_five makes
Every pic he takes
Satisfying and surprising
Talk about the ratings rising
They all become Enterprising

Who can take tomorrow
Dip it in a dream
Defeat Cardassia
And collect up all the Breen?

The Ernie Man

The Ernie Man can

Ernie_five can cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world feel good
And the world feels good cause the Ernie Man thinks it should

36 years ago today

May dad died 36 years ago today. I was 14. It took 5 years for cancer to finally win. Frankly, I mostly remember him as a man we went to visit at the VA Hospital. I remember the phone ringing in the middle of the night. I knew it was the hospital. I knew it meant he died. Then I heard mom cry.

This is a poem I wrote soon after his passing:

NICE GUYS FINISH LAST

My daddy was tough

My daddy was kind

He was the kind of man

You very rarely find

He had such reason

To moan and complain

He never did

Even when in great pain

He always wanted

Me to have the best

He never wanted me

To be like all the rest

He was a proud man

He held his head high

Never put others down

Oh God, Why did he die?

We watched him suffer

Five long, drawn-out years

We sure watched him, all right

Through the saltywet tears

The one time he cried

Was on his dying bed

The last time I saw him

Five days ‘til he was dead

He is gone now

We can’t revive what’s past

Now mommy cries a lot

‘Cause nice guys finish last

I can't say that this any great art, but I was a kid, and I was hurting. I have used poetry at many times of hurting in my life. I've never really shared most of my writings. 

My dad was an orphan; his mother died in childbirth with his youngest brother and his father "died of a broken heart" shortly after that. His mom was German and his dad was Irish. His three sisters were old enough to find work, he and his two younger brothers went to a German Catholic orphanage. The middle brother, Chuck, died when I was a kid. I vaguely remember him as a very obese man that was buried in a double wide casket. The youngest of the brothers, my Uncle John, remained a devout Catholic his whole life. He is a Deacon, and a former National President of St Vincent De Paul Society. He is 84 now, and in frail health. I last saw him eleven years ago. All of the sisters are long gone.

My dad, Robert,  was born August 9, 1918. He died April 25, 1975. He was only 56 years old.  He was a Marine in WWII. He was on a bridge in Okinawa that was blown up by Kamikazes. His pelvis was crushed and he had several discs in his spine fused. He last worked as a tool and dye maker for Boise Cascade. I wish I could tell you more, but that's all I know.

Here's a picture of my dad in the Marines. I think he looked like John Wayne.