Family

Today I went to a baby shower for my niece's son's wife. I guess that makes her my grandniece-in-law.

It was a fun day and it was great to see all my nieces and their grown daughters. It's so hard to realize that all those little girls I knew so long ago are now mothers with grown daughters. It looks like there will be many more such parties in the future.

Baby gifts have certainly changed. This new baby received many very nice gifts, among them Ralph Lauren outfits, Tommy Hilfiger shoes (whatever happened to Carter's) and something I had never seen before - a cloisonne egg for her first haircut. It was really very cute. Of course there were the usual dresses, blankets, bath sets, etc. I had fun last week shopping for a gift, I just kept putting things into my shopping cart - pajamas, blankets, books.

There were a few games, but one guessing game that I just realized they never told us the results. They passed around five jars of baby food and we were supposed to taste and identify the contents by smell. Some of us had a hard time identifying by smell, so we decided to taste. Even then we all couldn't agree on which was which. I think my one sister-in-law wanted to eat the whole jar. That one had to be fruit, the vegetables were never that good.

It was a fun day and it's always great when the family gets together. In spite of their idiosyncrasies, they are a great bunch of in-laws. We all agreed we should get together more, especially for happy times. The unspoken words were that we're all getting older.

Hmm, think I'll plan a Christmas party.

'Tis a Puzzlement

Since the election and hearing the breakdowns of how people voted, I have a question. Can anyone out there in bloggerland explain the following. When 95% of black people voted for Obama, that was a good thing. However, if 95% of white people didn't vote for Obama and had voted for McCaibn, that would be racist.

Maybe I'm not too bright, but I don't understand.

Election

I was very disappointed with the election results. I had wanted John McCain to win, and towards the end I thought he really had a chance. There was one bright spot in this election though. I learned today that I live in a red community. Our community gave John McCain about 60 more votes than it gave Barack Obama.

Now, we can just sit back and see if any of the pre-election promises will become facts. I did hear on the TV today that there is one promise that will definitely be kept. It seems that Barack Obama promised his girls that if he won the election they would get a puppy. I'm sure he won't be able to disappoint his girls.

Now let's see what he does for the rest of us.

NYC Marathon

About 25 or so years ago, I thought it might be fun to run a marathon. I kept that idea in the back of my head for many years, but as I got older and I realized how much training was involved, I woke up and decided that my dream of becoming a marathoner should stay just that - a dream.

On Friday I read an article in the WALL STREET JOURNAL about a woman who was competing in her 21st consecutive NYC marathon. She's my new hero. Her name is Joy Johnson.

She started running at age 58. She's a retired gym teacher and her goal this year was to run the race in less than six hours. Unfortunately, it took her six hours, five minutes and 58 seconds. Last year she finished in almost seven hours and decided that it was too long to be on the road, so she decided to train harder. During the summer, she ran 50 to 55 miles each week instead of 30 to 35. She rises at 4:00 AM in San Jose, CA, reads her Bible for an hour and then sets out on her pre-dawn run.

She has sturdy, pointed shoulders, smooth tan skin that resembles soft leather and a leggy, slim-waisted figure many younger women would kill for.

Did I mention that she's 81 years old?

New Car Problems

You know those old expressions, "You can never find a taxi in the rain", and "You can never find a policeman when you need one"? Well, I have another, "You can never find a traffic jam or red light when you need it".



Yesterday, there was a delay on the bridge so I changed the station on the radio to get a traffic report. When I tried to go back to the original station, I couldn't find it, or worse find out how to get there. I hit all the buttons. I think I got some FM stations, some other band, and the CD I had in the player. I just couldn't find my original station, so I listened to my CD for the third time. Finally, when I got to my destinatiion I was able to find the manual and find out to go there.



Later that day, I noticed that my seat was getting hot. I have heated seats in this car. Last week I checked the manual and turned the heater on. Yesterday, I couldn't turn it off. Again, I had to wait until I got home to look at the controls and turn the heater off.



Maybe I wouldn't have so much trouble with this new car if I would just read the manual in the beginning.

Halloween Parade

Last night I went to a Halloween Party. This is becoming an annual event. The hostess, a friend of a friend of mine told me that it is a lifetime invitation. I can come any time.

The party celebrates the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. This friend has an apartment overlooking the route of the parade. There were fewer sponsors this year so the parade was shorter than usual. As usual, it starts with marchers carrying tall skeletons. There were several bands and marchers.

But the real show is the parade watchers. There we saw an assortment of butterflies, fairies and other winged characters. There was the usual Marilyn Monroe, along with many doctors and nurses.

The party was a success, not too many people, but very interesting people, even though we disagreed politically. Among the guests were an actress (not very well known), a lyricist who is trying to get a show produced. I tried to get some pictures, but it was too dark outside, everything was a blur.

Of course, we took the subway. The ride into the city was uneventful, but on the return trip, many streets were closed and we had to walk quite far. Then on the train, we saw many partygoers returning home. There was one man who was travelling along, and I thought it took guts to ride the subway dressed as a jester. Good for him.

I must add that the police did a wonderful job maintaining order during and after the parade and even though we had a long walk to the subway. Immediately after the last parader went buy, the sanitation department was out in full force cleaning the street. When they were through you would never have known there was a parade.

Computer Exploration

Crash here. Ever since my mom got home from her last Geographical Exploration she's been ignoring me for hours. She spends all her time on her computer. I don't know what's so great about it, I'm much more interesting and I'm prettier.



Anyway, today I decided to get up on her desk and see what was new and what was so great.






















I looked all over, it doesn't look that interesting to me.
































Hmmm....It looks like she left a snack there. Is that where she keeps all my treats? Now I know why she spends so much time there. I like them too.























Oh well, enough exploring. Time for my nap.