Alien Song

WOW!!!!! Gotta check this out. I love it!!!!

May take a little time to load, so go make yourself some popcorn and grab something to drink. It really doesn't take THAT long to load. You need Quick Time, it's available on the site if ya need it.

Crank up the volume and ENJOY!!!!

www.brendonbauer.com click on movies, then click on I Will Survive.

Great Weather for Bing-xu

Yes, it's 4704, the Year of the Dog. The weather according to Shasta's pet page looks great, for here in Phoenix anyway. The Chinese new Year celebration starts with the new moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. So, we have a new moon tonight.

The Chinese use of the lunar cycle to determine the New Year dates from about 2600 B.C. The lunar calendar is yearly. There are 12 *animals.* The New Year date varies , falling sometime between late January and the middle of February.

Before the day, much preparation is made. The house is completely cleaned, to cleanse away any bad luck. Door and window panes are painted a fresh coat of red to ward off evil spirits. Then they are decorated with colorful calligraphy called *chun lian* featuring themes for happiness and longevity. The New Year's Eve dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, with several foods signifying different good wishes.

On New Year's day, an ancient custom called *Hong Bao,* meaning Red Packet, is observed. This involves married couples putting money in red envelopes and giving it to children and unmarried adults.

On the first day of the new year, many people abstain from meat because it is believed this will ensure them long and happy lives.
On the second day, the Chinese pray to their ancestors and gods.
Third and fourth days are meant for men to spend time with their in-laws. (Ooooh, that could be a scary one).
On the fifth day, called *Po Woo,* when people stay home to welcome the God of Wealth. No one visits with family or friends, to do so could bring bad luck to both parties.
From the sixth day to the tenth day, the Chinese visit their families and friends. They also visit the temple to pray for good fortune and health.
Day seven is when the farmers display their produce. Noodles are eaten to promise longevity and raw fish for success.
Eight day we find family reunion dinners held, and on the ninth day, offerings are made to the Jade Emperor.
On the tenth through the twelveth day, friends and familiy are invited to dinner. On the thirteenth day, simple rice congee and musterd greens to balance out the rich food eaten over the past several days. It cleanse the system.
The forteenth day si spent preparing to celebrate the Lantern Festival, which marks the culmination of the new year on the 15th night of the celebration.

Pretty interesting about how other cultures do things.

I got to thinking about the signs of the Chinese calender and the zodiac signs. I would be a *seahorse.* Horse in Chinese and Pisces in the zodiac thing.

I *Heart* My Nano

I got my new gadget, iPod Nano for Christmas from my *significant other.* I had to wait until a couple weeks after Christmas to get it because, as usual, he waits until the day of to get my gift. Since this was a very hot item, everyone was out, even on-line. It was worth it. This is my most favorite gadget right now. The sound is absolutely incredible. Light weight. Easy to use. Lots of memory.

My Nano goes to work with me, on walks with the dog and anywhere else I might go that requires waiting. I mainly wanted it to have something to listen to while I work and when flying. I work outside and by myself most of the time and need some *company.* No, I'm not a *ho.* Up until now, I had a very small am/fm portable, but sometimes the reception wasn't good and you have to put up with all that yacking. If I was going to be in one place where I could take my *boom box* I did that.

My playlist goes from ABBA, B 52's to Madonna, John Mayer, Uncle Kracker, Black Eyed Peas, Nora Jones, Santana, Jewel, Jason Mraz, Elton John, Blondie, Coldplay. etc. Bonnie Raitt, Michelle Branch, more Santana, k.d.lang, Amy Grant, Cher, etc. are just waiting to be places on the *A-list.*

Shasta, Nano and Kelly Clarkston want to go for a walk. C-YA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY...VICKI C.

The day has finally arrived with all the fan fare that it deserves!! I hope you have enjoyed the 37 e-cards that I've send ya over the past two or three days. Hope you are celebrating your day with food, drinks and fun. We will celebrate soon.....with food, drinks and fun!!!!!!

Again.......HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

(Vicki C is the one on the left)

With love, Frodo

Find A Grave

I came across this rather odd, but interesting web site http://www.findagrave.com where you can look for graves. You can search by state or country. Famous and not so famous. You can even add your own family and friends by setting up an account. Most of the *graves* I *visited* had pictures of the person and of their grave site. You can also vote as to how popular this person was. There is even a place to leave a *note* for this person.

What I found strange was they have a store where you can buy stuff. Stuff like T-shirts, mugs, ball caps, post cards and of all things .....tattoos! The picture is the front of one of the post cards. I don't know about you, but, I would rather not get a *grave post card.* That's kind of creepy. *Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here. See you soon.*

Why would you want to have this site on your cell phone? It's available. I'd be afraid when it updated that the grim reaper was calling for me.

Guess I'll go get me a Grave tattoo. Later!

Drop And Give Me 100

Yes sir....anything you say,sir!!!

My nephew Chris is now a DS (drill sergeant ) in the Army. He is stationed in Arizona. Has been on tour in South Korea. Hasn't been to Iraq, thank God.

He has a high security clearance, so if I tell ya what he does, I'd have to kill ya. He wants to be a police officer (at least, that's the last I knew) when he *retires* from the Army.

We are very proud of him and his service to our country!!

Great job, Chris!!

I like the new uniforms. They look like a DVD that's gone wacky.

He's an army of one and being all he can be. Oh.....he has some very cool tattoos too!!!!!

4 8 15 16 23 42

I've just finished watching the first season of Lost. I know......I'm WAY, WAY, behind. It's not like I've just found about Lost either. I was just watching other things. My nephew says that I'll never get caught up. Maybe, not until it goes off the air. I watched a couple of episodes of last season, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense......so I'm starting from scratch. I haven't watched any from this season.

This show is so good. It's like a giant brain teaser. There are tons of web site dedicated to helping you solve the puzzles and spoiling it too. My favorite site is http://www.oceanic-air.com. It's very cleverly done.

Renting season one has allowed me to *dig* into each episode and hunt for clues. I'm totally hooked on Lost. I love it.

So, if you are the other person out there NOT watching Lost, it's not too late. But.....you will be WAY behind.

I'm waiting for the *thing* to come out of the jungle!!!

1,481 Miles From Graceland

This past Sunday, I went to the Barrett-Jackson Car Auction in Scottsdale. I knew that Elvis' 1960 Lincoln limo that he got while he was stationed in Germany in the Army was going up for auction, but little did I know that Elvis would be there himself.

I was walking around looking at some vendor shops outside and there he was. I read on Barrett-Jackson's web site (www.barrettjackson.com) that celebrities come to these shows, but who would have guessed ELVIS?

I have never been to one of these auctions. I wanted to go to this one for several reasons:

• never been
• cost was $10.00 on Sunday (after that $150.00)
• Elvis' car was there
• wanted to see the 1950 GM Furturliner Parade Of Progress Tour Bus (photos of which along with many others from the show posted at www.flickr.com/photos/lizardgal)

I found several cool surprises at the show and took photos, so make sure you check out Flickr for all the photos. One of the surprises was this odd looking deal. I call it *The French Air Man.* It's an 1937 air compressor from France. Notice where the hose is coming out of. There's a close up of him on Flickr.

I put my name in for a drawing to *drive* (static display) 2007 racing Mustang. You got to get in and spin the wheels around. It was loud!!!They did have a oval set up outside where you actually drive. Well, I DIDN'T get picked.....boo....hoo!!

It was worth the 10 bucks just to see Elvis. He did seem a little stiff though. Must have been the long drive to the show.

80,000 Criminals Wanted In Church

Arizona sure has been coming up with some goofy ideas recently. This one wants wanted individuals to come to church and surrender themselves. Not only *give up,* but also be tried and sentenced on the spot. This is no amnesty program.

Seems like this was done in Ohio with some success. The idea is open up a church for 3 or 4 days with officers and judges present in a *safe* environment. (I can just hear Quasimodo saying *Sanctuary.....sanctuary*.) The authorities say that surrendering under these conditions will save lives of officers, criminals, criminal's families and citizens, as the doors of the criminal homes will not be busted in or stand offs not taking place.

Seems to me like the criminal's rights would be violated, but the ACLU doesn't think so. (What a shock, they make a fuss about everything.) I'm sure they will be attending church.

In Ohio, some of those surrendering wanted to know if they would be going home after being processed. Well, if home is a 8x8 cell.....yeah.

There are some real concerns like, who's going to pay for all this, what happens to illegals, how is the court system going to handle should a large number of criminals surrender at once and can the jails handle this increase all at once. Sheriff Joe probably has the answer for that one, I'm sure.

We've got the place, but not the time. So, guess we'll wait and see if they do it or not.

$5.50 for a Peanut Butter Sandwich?

I just found out about a *restaurant* that serves nothing but peanut butter sandwiches. It's called P.B. Loco (www.pbloco.com), located in Scottsdale.

Now, I don't know if I would spend $5.50 for a PB&J sandwich, well, maybe just once.

According to the article, the whole thing started in Minnesota by three lawyers, who set up shop in with the first P.B. Loco in the Mall of America. Arizona alert--two more are planned for Chandler and Glendale later this year. Goodie.....Glendale would be closer.

There are a dozen kinds of PB. The two basics, smooth and crunchy, but then the weirdness comes in with raspberry white chocolate, dark chocolate, creamy white chocolate, raspberry dark chocolate, banana, cinnamon and raisin, apricot, Asian curry spice, sun-dried tomato and cafe mocha. Now, the add ons start. From the old favorites like grape jelly and raspberry jam to the more *exotic.* Spread on marshmallow spread and Nutella (an Italian chocolate-hazelnut spread). You will also find some *off the wall* stuff like bananas (well maybe this one's not *off the wall*), pickles, cream cheese, carrots, lettuce, bacon, potato chips, raisins, apples, pretzels, cucumber, chocolate chips, chedder cheese, coconut and M&M's.

There are 16 sandwiches on the *menu* $4.95 to $5.50, but you can build your own too for $4.50 plus .50 for each add on. You can pick your own kind of bread, white, wheat, multigrain or tortilla. You can also have your sandwich grilled. But wait, there's more......each sandwich comes with animal crackers.

Guess what this sandwich is called. Creamy PB, banana, honey and bacon bits and grilled. The Memphis, as tribute to Elvis.

Well, that's pretty much the *spread* on P.B. Loco. I would probably build my own of crunchy PB, grape jelly, potato chips and chocolate chips, on white bread ($6.45 plus tax). I do live on the wild side sometimes, so I might do something really crazy.

Psssttt.....

......I'm letting you in on alittle secret. In two weeks from today my best *bud* is having a birthday. She is probably wondering why I haven't been doing my ususal month long birthday thing. I usually start the first day of January with the *count down to birthday nonsense.* This includes e-cards, goofy e-mails about things that might happen, music and etc, leading up to the day. Our birthdays are one month apart. We are much more like sisters than friends. We are like:

• Batman & Robin
• Frodo & Sam
• Yogi & Boo Boo
• Lone Ranger & Tonto
• Thelma & Louise
• Sponge Bob & Patrick
• cake & ice cream
• Andy & Barney

The list could go on and on. I've decided to do something different this year. Oh yeah......there's going to be *nonsense.* She's just not going to know when, where, or how.

Here's a early (clink) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VICKI C.

With love, Frodo.

Yeah, Where Was He?

Book Review

I just finished reading *Memoirs of a Geisha* by Arthur Golden. No, I haven't seen the movie and probably won't. The book is so good and from most experiences of movies being made from or based on a book, they usually aren't as good as the book. I'll wait until it comes out on DVD, just to see the photography and listen to the soundtrack.

Back to the book....it's hard to believe that it's a work of fiction. I'm sure somewhere in Japan, there is a girl or woman saying *This is my life.* He takes you into the culture of Japan and the geisha lifestyle. What those girls go through to become geisha is incredible. Geisha is very competitive and *dog eat dog* world. I was immediately sucked into the book and found it hard to put it down.

I don't want to give any of the story away. I will say that the the *facts of life* talk given to the young girl before the bidding war starts on who would take her virginity, involves the *eel* and the *cave.*

I give this book ****+ and highly recommend it.

January's Curious Holidays

Well, it's January and I bet you thought the holidays were finally over. Guess again. January, as with every other month has it's own unique holidays that Hallmark hasn't even thought up. In January we can celebrate (or complain about) the following special days and weeks.

January is Hot Tea Month and also Coffee Gourmet International Month

Jan. 4 is Dimpled Chad Day and Trivia Day
Jan. 8 is Second-hand Wardrobe Day
Jan. 14 is Penguin Awareness Day
Jan. 16 we can find Appreciate Dragons Day
Jan. 21 is National Hugging Day and Squirrel Appreciation Day
Jan. 22 Answer Your Cat's Question Day
Jan. 30 is Bubble Wrap Day and Inane Answering Machine Message Day

For week long festivities we have:

Jan. 9-13 Intimate Apparel Market Week
Jan. 11-17 is National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week
Jan. 22-28 is National Creative Frugality Week, National Handwriting Analysis Week and National Nurse Anesthetists Week

Last, but not least, Friday the 13th.

Sounds like we will be busy as never before in 2006. (Gotta get used to writing that 2006 2006 2006).