Leaping Thought Wednesday

For those of you who are new to my blog: Every Wednesday, I let my thoughts just take a leap. No reason, no plan. The banal, the trite and the me come out. I post these thoughts numerically until I get tired from writing or my brain goes dead. Whichever comes first.

Here is another installment of


1. I received a call two days ago from a friend who is like a sister to me. In nine years of knowing each other, she'd never told me things as sweet as the sentiments she expressed to me the other day. How strange. I knew she loved me as I love her and that we both figure prominently in each other's lives, I just... well I'd never comprehended the degree to which I figured in hers. Now I know. I'll always carry inside me what you said Ale. Thank you for this gift. To say I am glad things are coming together at this point in your life, does not even begin to plumb the depths of my happiness for you. A toast to our friendship and always being there for each other. You mean so much to me.


2. I limit TV time strictly in this household. Though my son might cry, I turn the television off and that's it. I think children need play time of the kind where they have to invent games for themselves. I had my own little world as a kid. There were no limits to what I could do in it except, those limits which my knowledge of the world imposed.

3. I once jumped off a stairway with an open umbrella pretending I was Mary Poppins. I soared (if you could call it that) all of two steps before I tangled in it. Quite the miracle I didn't poke an eye out or pierce something. I did get banged up real good though.

4. I'm not that much into musicals but this is one of my favorite musical movie moments: Julie Andrews playing Victor in Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria. In this scene, James Garner's character is instantly smitten with Julie Andrew's only to discover that the woman he is starting to like is in truth, a man. Great expressions on all the actor's faces when everything becomes clear. Especially from Leslie Ann Warren's character. She is James Garner's blond lady friend. The dance number is beyond wow.



5. I've discovered a very funny blog. Apparently, it's like an outlet place for the writers and artists who work at Hallmark cards. This is where they express themselves outside the Hallmark box. Of course, that's just MY interpretation of it as they hardly give any background at all. The blog just is. There are echoes of Saturday Night live, John Stewart and Gary Larson all rolled into a one in this fantastically funny place. It's my new fave. Here are a couple of funnies to whet your appetite:


The Wisconsin and Hawaii primaries have handed Barack Obama his 10th consecutive victory over what's-her-name.

U.S. forces plan to try shooting down a failing American spy satellite. It's very tricky to pinpoint a satellite in space, so Vice President Dick Cheney has recommended a "shotgun approach."

Six unused cases of recalled beef will be thrown away by schools in Maryland and Virginia. Said a school spokesperson, “Now that we know what it is, we can no longer call it mystery meat.”

Here are 9 simple steps you can take to help sell your home. Step #1: put it on the market 2 years ago.

Sean “P. Diddy” combs will re-create the Sidney Poitier role in a TV version of “Raisin in the Sun.” In other entertainment news, Gary Coleman has been signed to play Michael Jordan in an upcoming bio-pic.

Dog the Bounty Hunter is back on the air! If you don't know who Dog the Bounty Hunter is, you are very, very lucky. We envy you.

Good news! Kirstie Alley is introducing her own, personal, weight loss plan. As is the case with all celebrities, it features having your own surgeons, chefs, trainers, hair and make-up teams, and insisting on the best possible lighting. So it's for everybody!

Hasbro is developing a global version of Monopoly, featuring cities from around the world. Winning tip: Always hang on to your get-out-of-Guantanamo-free card.

Amy Winehouse will give her first public performance since leaving rehab at the British Music Awards, hosted this year by Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne. So tune in ‘cause it promises to be a pretty big three-way train wreck.

6. I heard it directly from my mother this morning that the deal had been closed on the sale of their apartment in Panama. They are moving to a bigger pad somewhere still close to their old one. As happy as I am that it's all wrapped up since I know they wanted the change so much, I can't help but feel down at the news. I lived a large portion of my childhood and growing up years in that apartment with my sister and parents. It holds many memories for me. Strange to think that the last time I set foot in it (about 8 months ago) I had no idea that it would be for the last time. That's okay. I'll get over it. The new one is bigger, better and as my mom says, will fit both daughters and sons-in-law, the existing grandchild plus all the grand-babies that are still to come. She's a wishful thinker as you can see.

7. Read what is below and tell me this is not one of the most touching collection of wishes you ever heard. I found it on a great blog called Half Past Kissing Time. Make sure that you read on the side bar the origin of Half Past Kissing's blog's title. She says:

Whether you remember Paul Harvey or are too young to know who he was, you will appreciate this wisdom, which was written by a man named Lee Pitts and popularized by Mr. Harvey in a 1997 Broadcast:

These Things I Wish for You:

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I’d like better.

I‘d really like for them to know about hand-me-down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meatloaf sandwiches. I really would.

My cherished grandson, I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. I hope you learn to make your bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen. I hope you have a job by then.

It will be good if at least one time you can see a baby calf be born and your old dog put to sleep. I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother. And it’s all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he’s scared, I hope you let him. When you want to see a Disney movie and your little brother wants to tag along, I hope you’ll let him.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. On rainy days when you have to catch a ride I hope your driver doesn’t have to drop you two blocks away so you won’t be seen riding with someone as uncool as your mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books. When you learn to use those newfangled computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get razzed by your friends when you have your first crush on a girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what Ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin you knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on the stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole. I hope you get sick when someone blows cigar smoke in your face. I don’t care if you try beer once, but I hope you don’t like it. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your grandpa and go fishing with your uncle. May you feel sorrow at a funeral and the joy of holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through a neighbor’s window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster of Paris mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you--tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness.

7. It's a lazy day here in Houston. The kiddie is playing pirates on the floor in front of me. Little moments of silence are punctuated by blood-curling aaargrrrh aarrgrrhs and off-sounding aye aye! mateys! It boggles the mind that my three year old even knows such expressions. He's a bit of a ghoulish kid. Lately he's been stabbing me with a little two inch plastic sword that belongs to one of his pirate dolls and when I pretend I'm mortally wounded, he jumps and squeals for joy. Then he does it again. Ouch! That thing is pointy.

8. I think Spongebob is such a rude show. I never let my son watch it. My husband however, did. Just the once mind you and now, all he wants is Spanch-Bab all the time. I pretend I don't know what he's talking about when he asks me for it.

Mami? Spanch-bab?

Who's that R? Mami doesn't know any Spanch-Bab.

Is that your friend?

Yea, yeah, here (he points at the television screen)
Mami, here! Tele! Spanch-bab!

What? your friend's in there?

Yea! yea!

No R. There is no friend in the television.

Yea! Here!

I give him my skeptical look.

He drops it 'cause he knows he's going to go nowhere with this.

And eventually he gives it up but only for a little while. The kid's tenacious, no doubt about it.

9. I'm going to an event for my son's school on Friday. A ladies luncheon. I don't know quite why calling the lunch a ladies luncheon makes me feel so much older than my years (which are a lot but not quite there yet). I have pictures in my head of sweet blue haired ladies sitting at tables playing bingo under clouds of hairspray fumes. Why can't we have a ladies club night or something? A mommy pow-wow? A razzmatazz gathering? I feel so passé.

Photo by ivegotthejamsinmypocket

10. That's it for thought-hopping. At least until next Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by.