I'm trying to live a sufficiently virtuous life that I can be reincarnated as a cat the next time around! Talk about a lifelong vacation . . .

Yeah, lazy beast.......the only stress in her life is my son. And then the stress is he loves her too much. Unfortunately, kitty doesn't like hugs. In our house instead of hugs and kisses its more of hugs and hisses.

My idea of the ultimate vacation is taking place on a tropical beach and includes relaxing beverages served in pineapples by scantily clad male eye-candy.

*sneaking in to pinch the 'win' whilst everyone else is alseep . . . at least till Grrl comes through again!*

This was written by my grandmother.

Lay au Café

Dear coffee, opener of my eye,
Without you, drear would be the morn!
How I should turn from food, and cry
“Why was I born?”

Replenished by your noble brew,
Brain is no longer lame and laggard;
And beaten Heart stands up anew
To Life, the blackguard.

There’s nothing that can fill the void
In me but you –
Hot, steaming, alkaloid,
C8H10N4O2!

Then paeans to that blessed berry
Raised by a far Brazilian farmer,
Which rouses hope, and douses worry,
And dresses me in inner armour.

– Louise Guyol Owen
(1901 – 1995)

Somebody call me?

Love the poem. Think I'll print it and have it framed for my desk.

BTW-I finally posted the Moab pictures.

Yes, but let's not get into details of what I called you . . .

Your grandma was a lady after my own heart! ♥

Well that's not very nice...........

And it is still snowing here in Utah.

Well that's not very nice...........

We called you late for dinner, but we saved you dessert.

Thanks.........what are we having?

I ate way too much sugar tonight anyway. The party I was dealing at had a chocolate fountain and they invited all the dealers to help themselves at the end of the party.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................chocolate

By a curious coincidence . . . chocolate. But it'll keep.

Too much sugar, huh? No wonder you're up so late! How did the party go?

It went ok. The weather was kinda nasty so they didn't have as many people show up, but the ones who did had a lot of fun.

I did fine dealing so it worked out. I'm dealing again on Dec 19. This is a huge party for over 600 people for e-trade. That one should be fun.

How shocking . . . a dealer in our midst!

LOVED the poem! *printing it out now*

Thanks, 'Beth! (Now, for another cup of joe...)

And I'm a getting to be a pretty good BlackJach and craps player as well. Vegas anybody?

Sure -- especially if we can get Mac to show up in a tux!

Trtl, I'm glad you enjoyed the poem; it's one of my favourites! Unfortunately, the poetry gene doesn't seem to have bred true, but I have hopes that the longevity and feistiness did.

Oh yeah, now that would be one way cool road trip! Looking forward to my Vegas trip in April.

You'll bring back pictures to post for us, right?

A couple goes on vacation to a fishing resort in northern Minnesota. The husband likes to fish at the crack of dawn. The wife likes to read. One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors the boat and settles in to read her book.

Along comes a game warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, "Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?"

"Reading a book," she replies, thinking it rather obvious.

"You're in a restricted fishing area," he informs her.

"I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing, I'm reading."

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know, you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault," says the woman.

"But I haven't touched you," says the game warden.

"That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment."

"Have a nice day, ma'am," says the warden as he motors away.

I like it!

Sorry I have to break some bad news.......I won't be making it to the scheduled chat. I got a frantic phone call asking me to deal BlackJack at a party tomorrow (actually, later today). The job pays really well so I accepted. Gotta build up my visit Vancouver fund, you know. So I'll miss hanging out with you all, but I wan tto be ready with immediate $$ when GateCon tickets go on sale.

Thanks for understanding. Hands out cookies to make amends.

*Cheerfully accepts cookies*

Speaking of chats - I wasn't able to get in for some reason - It doesn't like my computer maybe? I tried, and all I got was "connecting" and then "connection refused." What's up with that? I have win 98 on my internet computer, could that be the reason?

Vickie Rose

Don't know. Maybe you need to download the program that supports the chat. I have a DSL line so it runs really fast for me when I can join the chats. I'm probably not the one to answer this question anyway.......that's more Rocky's area of aexpertise. Send him a PM, he'll get you sorted out, fixed up, and connected.

Sorry I didn't make the chat. I ran my *** off all day yesterday getting ready for the party, then the long (very) van ride to get there. We had a blast. It was a great party. People had a lot of fun and I only screwed up the deal a couple of times. The players like it when I screw up........they all win if the dealer messes up the deal. It was a long ride home. I didin't get home until 1230 am so I figured the chat was over. And I was too tired to talk. Hope you all had fun. My next casino party is Wednesday night. Its going to be huge 600 people! I think I'm just dealing Black Jack for that one but if they want me to deal craps, I will.

Gonna be a busy week this one coming up. I teach a class every day next week and on Tuesday, pilot the one I just finished (barely) writing. I can't wait for next Thursday evening at 5:00 pm. Its beer o'clock, baby.

Anyway, whats up everybody?

I dropped into the chat room briefly, but found it echoingly empty.

I spent Saturday getting ready to leave on vacation, Sunday morning at the airport being re-routed around Detroit, and Sunday afternoon in the air being grateful to a gracious universe that not only saved me from the stormbound Detroit airport, but put me next to a mother who kept a close eye on her unusually well-behaved children (clearly illustrating why they were well-behaved)! This is a sharp contrast to my usual holiday travel experiences.

Best of all, I ended up in a position to do her a favour, although it barely scratched the surface of how grateful I felt to her!

Everything seems a little empty around here right now--people must be shopping.

yeah I wonder if the people who's idea it was to have these monthly chats bothered to turn up?


Click here to download the internet

I did have every intention of attending the chat.

I plan on making the next one come hell or high water. Its just been a crazy busy time right now. I'm teaching classes everyday this week, dealing a party, finishing shopping, wrapping, holiday baking and planning menues for Christmas eve and Christmas dinner. Oh and to top it all off.........I leave a week from Friday for a visit with family on the East coast.

I was just asking my husband today.......'Who's idea was this to take a trip a Christmas?"

Beth.......so glad you scored a responsible parent making her children behave. It makes me feel better knowing that people do appreciate parent's efforts to make their young children behave. BTW, my son is also very well behaved on an airplane.

Here's good karma offerings to the travel gods, please keep the storms somewhere else from where those of us traveling the next two weeks need to go.

I want to wish everybody here on MOL a very warm and special Christmas and an extremely Happy 2008!

Catch you later folks!

Big snowy X-mas smooch from a fluffy Sheep.

Thank you for the warm holiday greeting, Sheepy! We don't hear enough from you these days.