of a Happy 2018 New Year to all of you~~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well 2017 is winding down to a close, tomorrow is the last day of 2017, I'm sure for some people they will be glad that the year is gone.

For others they may ask the question "What Fresh Hell is coming to us?"   I say that with all the new tax laws and other laws that Start on January 1st. 

I had a talk with my tax preparer and he says that I am really in good shape and will not be affected very much.   I don't know about anyone else, and I'm sure all the tax preparers are going to have some serious headaches.

But for now I am looking forward to a nice and relatively quiet New Years Eve, no I'm not going out this time ordinarily I would be going to the New Years Eve Dance on the USS Hornet, but Doyle sprained his ankle and it's going to take time for it to get back into dancing shape and I refuse to desert my Man.

So I have family and a few friends coming over with pot luck, which works out fine for them as they didn't have any plans as well.  It will be interesting to see if the children can keep their eyes open when Midnight comes and if they do fall asleep well I have those extra bedrooms for them to wake up to a new year. 

But Sis and I do have plans to start the New Year with our annual Film Noir Fest in San Francisco, already we have our passport tickets, our vintage selections laid out and ready to pack, reservations made and confirmed at Hotel Rex.    From Jan 26 to Feb 4 a complete indulgence into Film Noir! 

Of course there will be some old favorites like "The Blue Dahlia", "This Gun for Hire" and "I wake up Screaming"  but a lot of seldom seen film's like "Conflict" with Bogart.  

The house will be watched by Doyle, and Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers will be back so the dogs will have their walk if it's not raining.  

Christmas was very pleasant and very cheerful I'm happy to say, and I'm going to present to the children some new books with old fashion binders which I'm happy to say Barnes and Noble provide.

But for now I and Doyle are going to have a nice quiet evening, sitting by the fireplace with candles burning to give the impression of a fire, and we'll be reading our prospective murder mysteries.

Currently I'm reading "A Virtuous Death" by Christine Trent  it is #3 in the Lady of Ashes Series, and has Queen Victoria, seances, and murder all wrapped up in a nice little read.

I wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy 2018 New Year!

Later Darklings

Of Happy New Year 2017~~~~

Hello Darklings!!

And a Happy New Year to all of you!

I’m going to celebrate with Doyle with dancing and merriment on the USS Hornet,  nothing like being on a freezing aircraft carrier floating museum on New Years Eve, but we will have a wonderful view of the Fireworks on San Francisco Bay.

I love that city, I love all of the Bay Area, in many ways it is so Film Noir, if you know where to look and in some cases it just jumps right at you. The only problem is that it's getting too expensive to live here for many folks.

Christmas was wonderful!   The rains held off and I had a buffet type dinner, and I had friends and other relatives who couldn’t stay, drop in long enough for refreshments, a bite to eat and then they were off to see other friends and family, but my core group arrived and we enjoyed ourselves.

We went to Church on Christmas Eve, there is something both solemn and joyous with Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, it reminds us how a husband and his expectant wife had to take shelter in a stable with the animals and there she gave birth.   It really gives the true meaning of Christmas.

Of course for the buffet dinner the main feature was not the traditional “Christmas Goose” (which in America is substituted by a Turkey) no we didn’t even have Turkey, to make it easier on myself and Sis we had the “Honey Baked Ham”.   Yes Ham,  all though I did have sliced turkey breast as well, but the beauty about it being a buffet is that if someone unexpected shows up and it did happen, it was no problem to seat them, any spot with a cushion on the floor would do.   And the kids did sit on the floor. Don't have to worry about the fine china, good old "Chinette" paper plates work very well, but I did owe our garbage man an entire Apple pie, the recycling bins were overflowing,  which I had the chance to give to him, all nicely boxed up.

Trust me Darklings, bribery and showing appreciation does work wonders.

Christmas eve I was ready for drop-in’s with coffee, tea, hot cider and other refreshments and my selection of treats on my three tiered plates,  and I did have a number of drop ins from just a few minutes to an hour or so.   

During the holidays, I took Coralline and Chris to the ballet to see the Nutcracker,  to the Dickens Fair (twice), the holiday Zoo lights, and we drove to Christmas Tree lane and walked among the displays,  of course shopping.   We went to the Theater that had a special showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life”  it’s amazing seeing it on the big screen,  not a dry eye was around me, not even my eyes were dry. 

As I said Christmas is a wonderful time but it can be Gothic in its own way, the dark comes sooner, the sun is much later rising, the night air is colder, it is a time for Ghosts, but not so much for Goblins.

And lately for Elves, it seems that elves are  big thing this year,  even on a number of tree lots they were advertising the small table top trees as “Elf Trees”  I thought that made good business sense.  I like that description.

But now we are heading like a speeding train with no breaks into 2017.

 So far we are going into it with a few colds in the family,  Coralline and Chris and their Dad, my brother, are down with colds, although the children will be well enough to go back to school,  the twins so far are healthy as is their Mom,  Sis has the sniffles but no sign of the cold, I’m doing well having taken my vitamins and a few other things which I can’t spell, which is supposed to strengthen the immune system, because I do not want to miss the Film Noir festival.   So I’ve been dosing Sis as well. 

My leg has healed very well, I do use a cane when I go shopping because there is still some muscle weakness but the strength is coming back with the therapy,  Betty has been happy to be my house keeper,  I ask her if it’s too much and she says no because of the help from the cleaning service, and the fact that I have a brand new dishwasher,  the only time things have to be hand washed and dried is with the fine china and table ware, but we do it together.  The only place she won’t go into is the Library, some of my strange and bizarre things bother her, especially my Cabinet of Curiosities.   So I deal with that room with the light dusting and for heavier with the help of my sister in law and Coralline.

I know I have not been posting as frequently as I use to, but I hope to take care of that soon.

I do have to say I’ve been having fun reading murder mysteries,  I’m in the middle of a Janet Dawson one titled “Murder on the Zephyr”  it’s about the California Zephyr in 1952 and it describes the train and it’s trip beautifully and a murder takes place with the usual  suspects, I’m enjoying this one, and I found out that ME TV on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. is showing “The Night Stalker” with Darren McGavin!   I loved that show when it came out the first time, and now it’s back.    I have it and the two movies on DVD, but to see it on T.V. is such a treat, and Blacklist is coming back.   So I’m looking forward to the revived T.V. season. 

Now I need to go and take care of a few things, last minute grocery shopping, it’s going to be a mad house.

To all of you Darklings, have a safe celebration and Happy New Year for 2017.

Later Darklings

Of my first post for the new year!!~~~

Hello My Darklings,

The new year is starting off very wet, so far we've had seven rain storms in our area, with numbers 8 and 9 still to come,  it's improving the snowpack, the ski resorts and the reservoirs but we are not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot as they say.

Everything in the back yard is soaked, soaked, soaked, and the fence in the back started to fall down, Doyle and my brother have braced it but it's going to have to be replaced.  My gardener has recommend an excellent fencing company, family owned and with good references. 

My cisterns are full of water, so there will not be an extreme need to worry about watering in the summer, but because of so much rain and the extreme cold and we had some very bad frost conditions, I've lost some of my more tender plants, even with protection. 

It had gotten so cold there was like a heavy snow like frost on the roofs of houses and cars and even the Christmas decorations, and I burned a fire in the fire places.  

I had to, something went wrong with the central heating system and I had to call in the repair man, some sort of "doohicky" or thingamabob which was a little hard to get to but was repaired.

On the more Gothic side of life, a severed foot was found on the BART tracks a week or so ago, and in several different places human remains have been found. 

I think I'll be making some adjustments on the garden to see what to plant,  the pet cemetery is doing fine in the back, and so are the orchids in the hothouse, as well as the koi in the indoor pond, poor Belladonna and Weiner Dog are feeling the cold, they have thick sweaters on but still insist on snuggling under the throw blankets on the couch, not that I blame them.

Sis has gone to visit her children in Sacramento she finally was able to line up a colleague to take care of her clients while she's gone,  Doyle is planning to visit his down in San Diego but wants to wait until Sis gets back before he goes.

The children are back in school much to their groaning unhappiness,  sorry my dears, life is not all Holidays.

And I am slowly getting better, the cough has improved, and Betty is just wonderful helping me, and freeing me up for other things.  Like lining up a house painter, yes, the house is going to need to be painted outside, and a few decorative wood pieces look like they have to be replaced, so finding a craftsman for that will be my first priority and then painting the 2nd.   One of my artist friends has also given me the name of a woman who can restore some of the lead framing on some of the stain glass windows so I think this year will be a year that the house will need a "face lift".

But first----- TAXES!   Yes I got my forms from my tax preparer and I am in the process of putting the paperwork together---so thank goodness for Betty to take the other duties off of my shoulders.

And now she is telling me that lunch is ready and she won't take "no" for an answer, well it's a good thing.

I hope to have more interesting and Gothic things for you later on,  I need to see what is out there.

Later Darklings

Of Happy New Year for 2016!!! ~~~~

Hello My Darklings,

I have not been posting so often of late, well I'm still getting better, right now I tend to fall asleep a lot,  the Doctor says it's the cough medicine that I'm taking,  because it has codine in it.   And because of that I'm to stay away from wine and such.   Such a bore but then health is always important.

Christmas was wonderful with family and friends, but our new years tonight will be on the quiet side,  it will be a combination of pot luck and Chinese take out.   No I'm not doing a New Year's party this year, the family has insisted I focus on resting but I do intent to stay up with them to welcome the New Year.

I'll be seeing my Doctor next week, although he did do a house visit this week, and feels that I will no longer need the visiting nurse, but next week he will finally determine that.

Because I've been coughing so much my chest and ribs have been hurting but that has lessen considerably, and I hope to get back to my old self.  

The other evening we all went to the Oakland Zoo and saw the zoo lights and rode the Zoo train as well,  and for the first time in years I wore thermal underwear!!!  Including Thermal Socks!   Not exactly elegant, but necessary in the low 40 and in some cases upper 30 degree weather at night.

The frost has been harsh, my gardener has protected most of the plants but I fear I will lose a few of them,  Spring will tell us how bad.

Sis insisted that I hire Betty as a regular housekeeper and have her come in 2 or 3 days a week with Merry Maids to do any major cleaning for the holidays and lighter cleaning for regular.   I've talked to Betty about this and she is very agreeable to it.   She loves the house and has said to me that I can't do it all by myself and to put my pride to one side. 

We've agreed on what I can do,  and what she will do and it works out.    I did grumble about feeling old but Betty said to me that I'm not old, I just need pampering.   The dog's love her and she likes them as well. 

There has been a bit of a sad thing that has happened in our neighborhood, our elderly neighbor that use to baby sit the dogs from time to time has had a stroke and her children are seeing to her care.   The good thing is that her daughter was with her when it happened and was able to get emergency services for her quickly and that lessened any damage,  but the daughter has now moved in with her so she won't be alone, which is good.

Crazy Son across the street has been very quiet, well with his sister and her husband having moved in with the parents Crazy Son can't pull any stunts, which is good.

New folks have moved into the neighborhood and have refurbished this old Victorian home that was very run down.  The previous owners were elderly and didn't have enough money to do all that needed to be done, but fortunately these new owners love the place and are restoring it.  That makes me very happy.

The family is doing fine, Sis's business is keeping her, well, busy.  Doyle has been kept busy as well but to keep my mind occupied he is having me transcribe his notes (I can read his hand writing).   My brother and sister in law are happy and so are the children although they are moaning the fact that next week they will be back in school.

The following weekend we will have a little "take down the Christmas decorations" party and carefully pack them away.    I will be sad to see that but they will be up next year and the year after that.

I hope in 2016 to be more active on my blog and find more interesting Gothic type things to post about,  strange and bizarre things, and finds,  but now a hot cup of Peppermint tea is wafting under my nose and it's time for Lunch.

I want to wish all of you a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous  New Year!   May all your problems be little one's and the big problems be easily solved and taken care of.

Happy 2016 My Darklings!

Well I'm not that Evil, not really.   Well maybe a little bit.  Oh what the heck, for those of you this can be an excellent thing to work with.

Of Updates on the "Mystery of Vera West" and other things~~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well this is going to be a little bit of a short post.

I very recently updated a few things on my Page "The Mystery of Vera West", granted it's not much but a few things came to light, so I incorporated it into my initial essay so its a bit different from when I first posted it.

I presented to Doyle what I found and he wisely told me that given the sloppy recorded keeping in the early to mid-20th century, taking into account fires, water damage etc. that could explain such gaps, and even movie studio's back in the day never thought that their records of their films and such were of any value, so much may have been tossed out.

Granted I'll accept that, but one would think that there would be something.  Now a days its much harder to hide one's pass, but then I do love a mystery.  Doyle did like what I did present, so many options for a mystery writer.   And to bring in the Black Dahlia as well.....

I have been busy, getting the curtains and drapes over to my sister-in-laws house, the curtains and drapes look lovely Chris and Coralline will be so surprised when they come over during the weekend.

We did have a bit of a busy weekend,  First thing in the early morning we went to the White Elephant Sale and we were lucky and found a number of useful things, it's a good thing we took two vehicles, Doyle's van as well as my Brother's was very useful, it did take two trips however, well three really, we kept finding stuff and then unpacking it was  like Christmas in a way even though we knew what we got, but seeing the surprise on everyone else's faces was so much fun.

Then using public transportation to get to China Town for the Chinese New years parade, the children loved it, all the pageantry and the huge dragon, and the Lion dancers, by the time we got home we were exhausted, as a matter of fact once we got into Oakland we called a cab and advised them how many passengers, and a large cab with jump seats showed up so we took it to my house, and Doyle handsomely tipped the cabbie.  The children fell asleep, so my brother and sister in law went home and we had the children sleep at my house and the next day we all went out for breakfast, banana and blueberry pancakes at our favorite café. 

I know, it doesn't sound so Goth like, but true Elder Goths enjoy the enjoyment of living, much like the Hispanic Days of the Dead, we look at it right in the eye and laugh and enjoy things, for we don't own it, we only borrow it for a brief time and then we have to let it go, but to at least leave good memories for those we leave behind.  That is what a real Elder Goth does.

And now I have to go, I have to work this afternoon and must catch my bus.

Later Darklings.

And why not something Sweet for today.

Of the days after Christmas~~~

Hello Darklings,

It is now the days after Christmas and I am reminded of this line from a song or poem I'm not sure which.....

"It's the night after Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.

The toys are all scattered and broken I fear and
St Nicholas won't be back for a year.

The children are nestled all snug in their wee little beds,
while memories of Sugar Plums dance in their wee little heads.

Mama in her Kerchief, Papa in his cap
have just settled down for a long winters' nap."

Well fortunately no broken toys, but we did have a time rounding up everything.  Because of my brother's family move into their new home, but because of the timing, they have been busy packing and packing things.  With much of their furniture and unnecessary items being put into storage, like two large storage locker's worth.

The good thing is the children are off from school so the two oldest could help their Mother pack things while the younger ones taped the boxes up or boxed the unbreakable stuff like books, CD's and DVD's although my Sister in law said they wasted more tape taping themselves.  And of course boxing up the Summer clothing. 

Monica said that except for the boxes for the first time in ages the house is uncluttered.

Come the first full week of 2015 they will take possession of their new home while moving their things out of their old home, which sold at far above the asking price.  My brother told me that will pay for the new home, the motor home, the needed roof repairs on the "new" home, and with what is left over possibly pay off some bills as well or use those funds as "seed money" for any other repairs and/or upgrades.

But because of the packing, it was decided for the Christmas presents to be here at my house, so on Christmas Day after we'd all gone to Mass, and while the Turkey was cooking in the oven and everything else was set up to be cooked, the children tore into their gifts, and I'm happy to say everyone was thrilled with what they received. 

Of course the family parlor was a mess, but everyone carefully put the right gift tags to the right gift and nothing was lost among the wrapping papers, not even the dogs, although the twins though it would be fun to wrap Weiner Dog up like a present, fortunately Doyle rescued the little fellow.

And no ornaments were broken either. 

Chris and Coralline were very happy with the books I gave them, oh they got other things from me and Doyle besides books, but Chris was saying how nice the 3 books I gave him would look on his book shelf all nice and Victorian he said.

Coralline loved the Monster High doll I got for her, and the dressy warm coat as well, she said she will wear it going to Mass on New Years Day and over to my house for New Years Dinner.

Dinner was wonderful, and with so many guests, and we had friends dropping over just in time to enjoy dessert, which fortunately I had plenty of.   I thought all the children wanted to watch movies but instead they surprised me with wanting to play card games instead, like "Squeak", "Go Fish" and "Old Maid" and other card games to match up the same sets of cards. 

I had Christmas music on CD's of Christmas music boxes, played low so to not intrude, but it was nearly midnight when people began to leave, I had my brother and his family stay overnight it would be a long tiring drive back and they did not have to work the next day so it worked out very nicely.

Over the course of the evening my brother told me on the progress of their move but he and his wife discussed the logistics of living up here but taking the 45 minute drive to the school where the children go to, so they could finish out their school year, it would be a 90 minute drive twice a day, and even though gas is low it was not practical, they had to consider the children's health and also time for them to do their homework. So they scratched their original plans and made new one's

They talked it over with Monica's Mother and Grandmother the children's Great Grandmother and it was decided the children would stay during the week with Monica's mother and grandmother, and come home Friday evening and return Sunday evening to the Grandmother's.

Monica was sure that Chris and Coralline would be fine, but it was dealing with a strict hand on the twins, and to make sure they did their homework and not get out of line.  So they will give it a try for the first report card period and if their grades slipped then they'd go back to the original plan.

Also Monica said that by not dealing with the children during the week Monica and my brother could rotate days off while work was being done on both houses.  Although some work was being done now on their old house before the new owners moved in at the end of January. 

Monica also told me that by having things in boxes she could go through each box and weed out old stuff or things they've never used and donate them.  It made sense to me.

I'm glad I'm having my brother and his family over for New Year's Day, both Doyle and my Sister have left this morning, Sis driving to Sacramento to visit her children for the week and Doyle taking a commuter flight down to San Diego to visit his children. 

But I won't be truly alone on New Year's Eve, my cousin Louise has invited me to go to a New Year's Eve dance, where the dress is 1940's with Big Band Music, she's made reservations at a restaurant for dinner and then we'll go to the dance, it's a fund raiser for a charity and it sounds like fun, and I have the perfect vintage evening dress to go with it.

I can do the slow dances like the slow two-step, the French tango (not to be confused with the Argentine Tango) waltz, slow fox-trot, and a gentle Swing style, I guess I'll have to wear my support corset to make sure nothing pops. 

Then I have to see what surprises 2015 will have in store.

So if you do not hear from me before New Year's, then have a wonderful New Year's Eve.

See you in 2015 Darklings!

Of Wishing you all a Happy New Year for 2014!!!~~~~

Yes Darklings, a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2014!!!

We have had our ups and downs this year, here in the States horrible weather conditions, bombings and other tragic situations, and overseas horrible events happening all over, from Europe, Russia, the Phillipines, Japan, Africa too many countries to name.

But here in the United States we've found reasons to hope and be joyful, from the rescue of a little puppy, to young women being found after being imprisoned for nearly 10 years, and the outreach of strangers to help other strangers.

Yes there are times when we wonder about humanity and the human condition and then glimmers of hope and compassion to remind us that all is not lost.

I know that in Asia and in Europe it is already 2014, and in just less than 12 hours here where I'm at, it will be the turn of the year, a new page to write on, a time to improve oneself, to improve relationships or decide which relationships are toxic to one's health and best left alone.

I do not make any resolutions, but I do make a list of what I need to do, yes a "TO DO" List,  this would include repairs or maintance to the house, cars, wardrobe, appliances, what to weed out, sort out, dispose of, donate,  putting together papers for income tax preperation, listing appointments both medical and dental to be made.  Updating my calendar for birthdays, anniversaries, speical events and occasions.

But all of this starts on January 7th---why January 7th?

Well this is something that I and my siblings learned from our parents, and I guess they learned it from their parents.

The true 12 days of Christmas is really from Christmas Day Dec 25 to Epithany or Jan 6 of the following year, in our Family the entire religious season was from Thanksgiving or the Sunday after Thanksgiving to and through Jan 6 Epithany,  from "Stir up Sunday" to "Three Kings Day".  We had our Advent wreath which here in my home we've been observing,  and certain days are set aside to put up the Christmas decorations and the tree, to fill the pantry and make ready both physically and spiritually.

Those Sundays we attended Mass were very important to us,  Mid-night Mass on Christmas Eve although tiring was important to us, and ususally we'd go after visiting relatives for that was how we spent the Day of Christmas Eve, delivering presents, checking on the Grandparents, calling from one house to the other to let them know we were on our way and if we missed someone it was understood that the packages could be found at one or the other Grandparents house, and we always finished at Mom's Mother's house for a late supper, enjoying the Christmas tree making sure Grandma was o.k. making arrangements as to who was going to take her to church on Christmas day, she always said to us that it was hard for her to go to Midnight Mass at her age, Christmas Day was good.

I remember the last Christmas she had and the $2.00 tree but that is a story for another Christmas time.

Then the days after Christmas, writing out thank you notes, putting away the presents received, carefully folding and storing the wrapping paper (if it could be saved), going through the envelopes to make sure nothing was overlooked and checking the return addresses to update the address book and to note any special notes in them. 

When we were children we'd play with out new toys or visit our friends houses to see what they got, if the weather was fine we'd play outside, if not then indoors and watching the sun when it got too low to hurry home,  but as I and eventually Sis got older we'd help out Mom, our older brother (later our younger brother) would help out Dad and we'd be doing lists of things to be done.

Then after we'd help the folks we'd visit our friends.

New Years Eve was mostly the family getting together at one or the other's home, it would be pot luck mostly nibbles and soft drinks, but at midnight out came the champagne, the children and teens would have sparkling Cider,  then just as the clock struck the 12th chime the front door would be flung open to welcome the new year, and we'd go out to the front lawn if the night was dry and yell out Happy New Year, tooting horns and cheering, one Uncle of ours always lite a small string of firecrackers on the sidewalk and we'd cheer and sing Auld Ang Sing, the neighbors would come out as well cheering and yelling,  sometimes dashing across the street to wish us Happy New Year.

Then after an hour or so, things would slowly pack up and we'd all trickle home wishing Happy New Year to one and all.  The next morning We'd get up, breakfast was not eaten unless someone was sick, we'd dress and go to Mass and then afterwards there was always a coffee shop or resteraunt open for New Year's breakfast, but if time was pressing Mom always had pastries ready for us to eat and then we'd go over to one of the Grandparent's house for New Year's Dinner, which was always served by 5 p.m. 

I remember New Years we'd always have Ham, Easter would be Lamb Roast, Halloween roast Chicken, Thanksgiving and Christmas was always Turkey (Impossible to find a Goose to cook but Turkey was a good subsititute.

Every Friday we'd always have Fish, espeically during Lent, I still like to have some form of sea food during Lent.

After the Dinner we'd break up into groups depending upon what was being done, but even way back then, NO Televison, No Radio except for music---it was hard on the men folk, with all the bowl games on, if the games were on before 5 p.m. fine because the women folk were putting together the dinner but during and after dinner completely forbidden, it was a social time for family.  I really liked the idea and fortunately my Sister-in-law is putting that into play.  It will be hard on my brother and the boys but really it is a good thing.

On the days after New Years, we'd start to take down bit by bit the Christmas Decorations in doors with the exception of the manger scene and the Christmas tree, any large outside displays would be taken down except the lights attached to the house.  My Mother always said that the Three Kings needed the light to find their way.  

By the next day, the first thing packed away was the manger scene and then bit by bit the ornaments were removed from the tree and laid out on the couch and over stuffed chair to prevent breakage, the tinsel carefully removed and saved (tinsel was expensive and dangerous to birds to eat), the light would be unpluged first before anything was removed, next was removing the tree skirt, then the last ornament was the angel tree topper, Mother always put it on the dinning room table for safety sake,  then the lights would carefully be removed or unwound from the tree starting from the bottom and slowly working upwards, carefully wound and wrapped so it would not be tangled next year, but somehow it always was.

Then Dad and my older brother would remove the tree from the water tree stand with Mother wrapping a towel around the cut stump to prevent water from getting on the hardwood floor and rug, Dad and my brother carefully carrying the tree out the front door and to the curb to be collected, it always looked so sad and dried up after its Christmas finery was removed, so Sis and I would tie a red bow on the top of it, sort of saying good by to our old friend.  When the Scouts started collecting the trees and we knew what it was going to be used for it didn't seem so bad, it was going to have a new purpose replenishing the soil.

Then out come the boxes to store everything way, oh it would be an all day project, Mother never cooked on that day,  Dad would call an order of food to a place called "Lola's Chicken Dinners", it was the crispiests, most moist, wonderfully cooked chicken we ever had, Nothing at all like KFC, it was the taste of home-made.   When there was a big all day project, we knew it would be "Lola's" that day.   We were sad when "Lola's" closed and then the building burned down, we'd hoped it would be reopened again, but times change.

However vacuming and sweeping tree needles for the next 6 months was a given, even after our careful cleaning when the decorations and ornaments were put away, a tree needle or two or three would always show up.  Mom would always say "I think it wants to let us know its never forgotten."   And that is going to be happening in my home as well.

So tonight Doyle, Coralline and myself will be getting together with Marissa and her folks and brother and young Chris and his parents for a family gathering at a speical place.  We're bringing Brian along, he's been on the phone talking to his ex-wife and children on the phone, making plans to visit during the Summer, I've just been in touch with My Sister while she is visiting her family and I've made arrangements to have our elderly neighbor watch Belladonna and Weiner Dog while we're out.   She is going to make sure they stay indoors because of the possiblity of fireworks in the area.

I've noticed in checking the Stats on my blog I'm being visited not only from the United States and Canada, but also South America, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Europe, Russia, China, Malaysia, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Germany, even the Middle East, so many countries, I'm glad that you find my blog of interest to you and of some sort of entertainment and perhaps a little insite to parts of the United States, although I am not typical of this country.

To you I wish you a very Happy New Year.

And there have been a few of you who post comments on my blog and take interest in what is going on in my life, to Rebecca, Trisha, Lucretia, Underground for Tea and others Thank you and I wish you all a very Happy, Safe and Wonderful New Year.

See You Next Year Darklings!

From Doyle and Myself Happy New Years Darklings

Of More on Children's Fairyland~~~

Hello Darklings,

And Lucretia.

I looked into Children's Fairyland and you've must have gone in the early to mid-1990's because between 1994-95 Children's Fairyland officials admitted that the little park needed help and with the assistance of the Lake Merritt Breakfast Club they applied for and received Non-profit status, which gave them the ablity to apply for grants, receive money from bond issues and receive donations, with that they've been able to refurbish the park and add and expland programs.

Their web site is http://fairyland.org   During the summer months they have where parents and their children can have a camping sleepover in the park, reservations required in an area called Teddy Bear's Meadow as well as other events throughout the year.

Eventually Coralline and her younger brothers will become too old for it, at least for a little while not yet.

We had a quiet day, doing some shopping and even checking out a couple of antique shops, we're planning to go to Niles tomorrow to look at their shops just to see what they have, we take the back roads to it for a nice little drive and I hope the little tea shoppe will be open for tea, if not we can always have a small pizza at Bronco Billy's. 

I'm glad I've taken the full week off between Christmas and New Year's, Monday we're going to visit our friends that we met when they were doing their Estate Sale, to peruse their goodies, never know what might turn up.  And then Tuesday our New Year's Eve plans.

The time seems to go by so fast.

Must go, the timer went off and even the dogs are running into the kitchen, food a great motivator.

Later Darklings

The first working day of the new year~~~~

Hello My Darklings,

Ahh well, the celebrations are over, and now it's back to work, Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho.

Yesterday was 3 Kings Day or the Feast of the Epiphany, and slowly we took down the decorations off of the trees and from around the house,   the hall is filled with boxes to be put away.

I'm taking a short break at work today, to do a quick post and brief updates.

Coralline and her brothers and Miranda are back at school we didn't have Coralline this weekend as her Folks wanted to visit an Aunt who lives out of town.

And with School back in session the schedule is going to change a bit. 

Doyle and I had a wonderful time at the New Year's event on the U.S.S. Hornet, I will cover that in depth in another post.

And yes Darklings, my sweet sisters' curse of a cold did fall upon me.  I stayed in Bed last Friday and Saturday while my sister, Doyle and Ted, Miranda's brother, started removing the decorations I finally rose from my bed of pain on Sunday to help out or at least direct what should go where.   Sis said to wait a bit when I felt better so we can put everything away.   I hope we can do it by Martin Luther King jr Day.

I had to come to work today to at least clear things up and get things on the right path, so if I need to stay home a couple more days my co-workers will be able to follow my notes.  Being sick is no fun, Phooey!

I saw that Revlon has a new series of nail polish the theme I can't remember except it has to deal with metaphysical themes,  on nail polish was titled "Superstition", another "Essence", "Black Magic", "Charmed", and "Spooky"  there were others and all in a plain non-shimmer colors but there was two types of glitter top coats a sliver one the name is something like "Celestial" and had glitter in the shapes of moons and stars, the other was gold in the shapes of hearts and I think it might have been called "glitter Heart"   but I'm not sure my head is so stuffed up.  

I'll try to find out more later.

Now I must go Darklings and drink some hot tea.  Colds are a curse.

Later Darklings