Thankyouverymuch!!

Dana from Life Turned Upside Down awarded me this 'Rockin' Girl Blogger' badge!! I am so honored!! She writes great and funny stuff, so head over there and check it out! (It took me a while to figure out how to post the badge-- Thanks Good Woman!!) Thanks, Dana, for the cool nomination!

Writing this blog has turned into a fun outlet and I never expected to get so excited about hearing from you and your comments and riding the ego wave has done wonders for me! I have come to look forward to reading what you have to say and I also enjoy reading your stuff, too! I might not always leave a comment, but part of my daily routine is to read all the blogs in my 'Check 'em Out' list. I love hearing your own tales of your daily lives or your walks down memory lane. I get excited for you when good things happen and I feel sad when you share your woes. I laugh out loud and get all giddy when I find someone that feels the exact same way I do-- I'm not the only one!!

Although I have not met a single one of you in person, I feel I have made many new friends. It is sort of like having a Pen Pal in a modern kind of way. I like that I can write about something I am not sure of, and then I get plenty of encouraging comments. I like knowing that I may have taught you a thing or two. It does my heart good when you keep coming back! Thank you!!

I am nominating 5 Rockin' Girl Bloggers and hope you wear the badge with pride (as you should!).

Lady M from Braveheart Does The Maghreb -- an absolute delight to read and I never miss a post!

Lindystar from Danielle is a Hor -- guaranteed to make you laugh out loud!

Suffering Summer from A Shot In The Dark -- a kindred spirit and my kind of girl!

Drunk Mummy from.. Drunk Mummy -- a funny blog that will keep you up to date on what to drink!

and last but not least: Elsie Button from Flower Fairies and Fairy Cakes -- a fun account of a first time mom!

Post the 'Rockin' Girl Blogger' badge on your site-- here's how: click on the badge and save as a picture then click 'add a picture' on your post. That should do it!

Take a Deep Breath and Hold It...

If you have ever wondered what skunk smells like, you have come to the right place! Last night, being such a cool night with a lovely breeze blowing through, we had all the windows open. I was on the Video Phone talking to one of my girlfriends and the girls were tucked away and sleeping. Then I smelled it. Faint, at first. A whiff of skunk wafting in through the windows. It was just a whiff and then it passed. I didn't pay it any mind. It was like driving on the highway at 60 mph and you pass a dead skunk on the side of the road; a whiff of skunk and then it's gone.

Then it came again, stronger. Have you ever vacuumed the carpet and got a string caught up in the rolling brush and then the brush gets caught and you get that burning rubber smell? It was sorta, kinda, a little bit like that, only STRONGER! With a dash of stink-bug mixed in. You know, that ugly black beetle that scurries around on the basement floor and then you smash it with the nearest handy item and it releases that stink. Ugh! Add in a sprinkle of burnt, and I do mean black, toast and I think you've got the idea what skunk smells like.

That smell got stronger and stronger and the poor eyes started watering. I told my friend there was a skunk outside and she told me she could smell it, too! That's how strong it was! The smell stayed and lingered like an unwelcome guest eating up all your food and then scrounging around in your pantry and digging out your secret stash of chocolate covered cherries. It spilled itself all over the couch and refused to leave, instead, falling asleep and bellowing out roars with every breath in and out. It marched into my nostrils and pulled on all my nose hairs and tied them into a hundred knots.

Hubby came home and said, "Must be a skunk out there." Really????? I couldn't tell.


We went to bed knowing the smell would fade away, riding away on the breeze, bothering some other poor soul's nose. How wrong we were! We woke to the smell of skunk. It's a lovely smell first thing in the morning-- a real eye-opener. Apparently the cat tangled with the skunk. Poor Lucy reeks of skunk. I made the mistake of petting her and no matter how many times I wash my hands, I can still smell skunk on my palms. Apparently they tangled right outside the office sliding door, so every time I come in to check the computer, read some blogs, I have to sit and mingle with the smell of skunk, like being introduced over and over to the same drunken cad who can't remember your name but remembers to give you a slobbery kiss as he leaves and you're left with a dripping wet cheek and no towel to wipe it off.

If there was a 'scratch and sniff' option, you'd do well not to scratch and sniff. You'd back away and run quickly in the opposite direction. In fact, you wouldn't even need to scratch... it's burning through. I can't take it anymore. I'm going to douse myself in my favorite perfume and close the office door. I'll be buying a couple quarts of tomato juice tomorrow. Imagine how poor Lucy must feel...

A Lull Between Berries...

The mulberries are mostly gone and I am letting the birds have the rest. The blackberries are just past their peak and I am only getting a couple of cups worth of berries on my daily rounds. I am waiting for the raspberries now. They are almost ripe and will likely be ready in a few days. Then I shall be busy again, smashing, squeezing and making raspberry jam. In the meantime, a trip down memory lane...



When I came into the world, my parents and sister were living in the country in Illinois. Mom and Dad bought some land and built a house-- they literally helped build it. I always have a hard time imagining Mom on the roof nailing down roofing materials but I have to remind myself that she was young and in her 20s when she did that. Mom and Dad worked different shifts at the town's GE factory so they wouldn't need to hire a babysitter or put us kids in daycare. My sister, who is Deaf, went to deaf school at the age of 3, which was standard at the time, to send deaf children to school early and give them a "head start" on communication skills and education. Mom said it was hard to let her go so early and cried for days afterwards. My sister seemed to thrive at the school and I was home with the parents, so it almost seemed like I was an only child. Sis came home on weekends and then she was gone again during the week.



The town we lived in was small-ish and had all the basics as I remember. We would get our meat from the butcher shop and I remember going with my Dad. I don't seem to picture my Mom coming, but I am sure she did. The butcher shop had a guard dog, maybe not so much a guard dog but he wasn't friendly. I had a best friend that had big friendly dogs and in my mind, I assumed all dogs were lovable, friendly dogs. I walked right up to the butcher shop dog and started to pat it on the head when it lunged at me and bit me on the forehead. I am sure I screamed, though I don't remember that detail. What I do remember is the butcher shop owner giving me an ice-cold bottle of orange soda (Crush?) and I was happily drinking down it's orange, bubbly goodness while all the adults fussed over me. I have a scar on my forehead as a result of Mr. Dog.



There was a restaurant called Al's (at least that is what I remember) and we would eat there once in a while. I seem to think that the place was owned by the neighbor that lived behind us. His name was Al. They served yummy food, or else we wouldn't have eaten there. What I remember is yummy, crispy, gooey cheddar cheese balls! How my sister and I would love to bite into these hot, round, crispy balls of cheese and then pull and watch the strings of gooey cheese stretch and we'd wind these strings of cheese around our fingers and pull them off with our teeth. I've never had fried cheddar cheese balls again after we moved and I hope one day to try them again.



School for me was a long bus ride away. I once saw an aerial picture of the town and the school was in the middle of a corn field, perhaps 5 to 10 miles away. I remember missing the bus one morning and being so upset, I cried. I ran into the house and Dad drove to catch up to the bus, waving at the driver to pull over so I could get on the bus. I was so happy as I sniffed away my tears and took my seat next to my friends, Mark and Toni.



I am a little vague on the school building, but I DO remember during a little birthday party the kindergarten class was having, throwing up all over my cupcake. I had to lie down on a cot in a darkened, spare room in the nurse's office, miserably waiting for someone to come and get me. Turns out I got the chicken pox and I had to stay home for a week. I was more upset over not getting to eat the cupcake than I was with throwing up. Mark, my friend and a neighbor, brought me my school work and I think, a new cupcake to eat.



Home was a lovely place. We had a big house (big in my 6 year old eyes) and I shared a room with my sister, which wasn't really sharing much since she was away at school most of the time. We had a sunny yellow bedroom with homemade quilts and matching curtains and matching crocheted rag rug, all made by Mom. Dad helped her pick out the colors and my sister and I had matching patterned quilts-- mine with green and hers with orange. We used to run and jump onto the rug and it would slide across the room on the smooth wood floors. There used to be a doll that sat on the top shelf of the closet that I couldn't reach and I wasn't allowed to play with until I was older. I'm not too sure what happened to that doll, but I sure do remember the temptation it called out, begging me to get a chair and stand on my tippy toes and still, I couldn't reach it.



We had a pool in the backyard. Dad built a deck and a small pool shed to store all the pool supplies and toys. I remember not being allowed to go in the pool until Mom or Dad were present and impatiently waiting, waiting, waiting. Dad kept a hose under the deck, coiled into a round pile. Sometimes we had to add more water to the pool so it was easier to leave the hose there. I took that hose out one day and swung it around doing a fancy dance (in my mind, it was on a stage with other dancers) and all of a sudden I felt hot water splash my tummy. I thought it was water from the hose, hot from sitting in the sun, but it was a wasp that had crawled in the hose and was mad from being swung around inside there and stung me 3 times on my tummy. Dad picked me up and dropped me into the cool water of the pool and I hung there on the edge, tears running down my cheeks, my belly hot and stinging. I stayed away from that hose from then on.



We lived next to a field, I'm not sure if it was a corn field, wheat field, or pasture, but I do remember Dad warning me not to go out of the side door of the garage without peeking out the door first. Snakes would slither out of that field and come to sunbathe on the hot concrete stoop and if I ever saw a snake there, I was to get Dad right away and he would take care of it. I think he used a shovel to chop it in half and then toss the remains back into the field. Dad had children to protect.



We had a deaf cat named Snowball. Long, white fur with one blue eye, one green eye. He was a handsome cat and came and went as he pleased. I was looking out of the big picture window in the living room one day and I saw Snowball sitting on the corner of the driveway, giving himself a bath. I saw the mean 3-legged dog coming up behind Snowball and I feared for him! There was no point in calling for him or yelling because he was Deaf, so all I could do was watch in horror, sure that Snowball's fate was sealed as the mean 3-legged dog came closer and closer. He barked and growled, his teeth bared in an ugly snarl. Snowball never moved, kept on about his business, giving himself a bath. You could see the puzzlement in the mean dog's face and if there was a thought balloon above his head it would have said, "Why isn't this cat taking off so I can chase it, catch it and chew him to bits?" The dog must have barked a good 5 minutes at Snowball and he never stopped bathing, never noticed there was a barking, growling dog behind him. Thought balloon above dog's head now said, "Shit! This is one tough cat! He ain't scared! *Gulp!* He's gonna whup my ass! I'm outta here!" And the mean 3-legged dog tucked his tail between his legs and ran off. Too bad there wasn't a video camera rolling to catch it on tape, that would have won the grand prize on America's Funniest Videos for sure!

Country life was good to that little 6 year old girl. We moved shortly before my 7th birthday. The parents sold the house, moved us into a travel trailer and took us down to Louisiana. That's a whole 'nother tale.

We Be Jammin'-- A Step-by-Step

Here is a Step-by-Step on how to make Seedless Blackberry Jam. Before we begin, I am in no way a professional photographer and I am not used to taking pictures while I am cooking at the same time, so please forgive the blurry photos and the not-so-bright ones. I thought the pictures conveyed what I was trying to tell so they'll do the job nicely. Before you begin your jam-making, be sure to have these utensils on hand:

Jar Funnel (the blue thing in the left hand top corner, they come in different colors and metal ones, too), clean jars with bands and lids, ladle, silicone spatula (the silicone can handle high heat and regular spatulas will melt as I have since learned!), a potato masher (something like this would work best, the wire ones don't mash evenly), and jar tongs to protect your fingers from touching hot jars in boiling hot water. You'll also need cheesecloth or an old flour sack towel (not pictured).
You'll also need a large canning pot, and 2 large cooking pots-- stainless steel preferred. One pot for boiling the clean jars and lids and the other pot for the jam.
What you'll need for the jam: Sugar- lots of it! Lemon juice, blackberries and fruit pectin.
Take a colander and set it on a large measuring cup (mine is an 8 cup size) and then put the cheesecloth or flour sack towel on top. Place a layer of berries in the towel and smash with the masher.
When berries look like this, you are ready to SQUEEEEZE and say hello to your Popeye forearms!

Hello, Popeye forearms! You squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. Wring that cloth with the berry pulp in there and squeeze every last drop out of it! Take THAT Mr. Boss! (I should warn you, berry juice stains the counters AND your hands. You can use rubber gloves, but I don't mind a couple days of purple fingers. The counter will clean great with that Mr. Clean scrubber sponge-- no house should be without this fine scrubber!) You'll need to repeat this step several times, discarding the seedy pulp and smashing a fresh layer of berries until you have enough juice to equal...

3 1/2 cups. Can't see the measurement here very well (I told you I wasn't a professional photographer!), but take my word for it, it says 3 1/2 cups. Before you begin the cooking part, fill the big canning pot two-thirds full of hot water and set it on the stove on high heat. Keep the cover on. In another big pot, place several clean jars and lids and fill with water. Put that on the stove and boil on med-high heat. Kitchen will get HOT so keep that exhaust fan running and wear cool clothing. Feel free to imagine yourself in a steamy spa.

Pour juice into a large pot.

Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Add 1 package of fruit pectin. I use Ball Natural Gel Original Fruit Pectin. There are other brands and other types-- low sugar recipe, freezer jam recipe, etc... If you make those other kinds, follow the directions included in the package. Cook jam, lemon juice and pectin on high heat, stirring constantly with your silicone spatula. This will be about 10 minutes of stirring and singing The Sound of Music Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do-- Doe a deer, a female deer, Ray a drop of golden sun, Me a name I call myself, Far a long long way to run, Sew a needle pulling thread, La a note to follow so, Tea a drank with jam and bread, that brings us back to do do do do Doe a deer..... Stir until your hands get tired and keep on stirring. When it starts to boil rapidly, let it boil for a minute.Then add 5 cups of sugar all at once. (It helps to pre-measure and have the sugar set aside waiting) Stir some more. Keep stirring. The sugar will all dissolve and it will be about another 10 minutes of stirring before it starts to boil again. Keep stirring until it looks like...

This. When it finally starts boiling rapidly again, let it boil for a minute then remove from heat. Working quickly, (remember that pot of jars you've been boiling? ) using the jar tongs, remove a jar and place hot jar onto a towel next to the cooked jam.

Using the ladle (picture isn't the best, sorry), fill the jar almost to the top. Directions say, "Leave 1/4 inch head space." That just means almost to the top and leave a little wiggle room! After jar is filled, wipe the rim with a damp towel and retrieve a hot lid from the same pot you had the jars in. Wipe dry and place on jar, then tighten band. Use towel to hold jar while you tighten the lid.

Then take your jar tongs and carefully place into the hot water canning pot and make sure water covers the top of the jar by at least 2 inches. don't forget the water level will rise as you add more jars. Repeat until all the jam is in the jars and you have the canner filled. If you have some jam left and not enough to fill a jar, you can refrigerate and eat for breakfast the next morning.
Cover the canning pot with lid and return to a boil. When it starts boiling, then you can set your timer and boil for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, use your jar tongs and carefully set on a towel. Cover all the jars with another towel to keep the jars from cooling too quickly. You'll hear the lids "popping".

Since I do my canning at night (so the kids don't bother me and it's cooler at night and I can sleep off the hot kitchen) by morning, the jars are cool enough to handle. Still a little warm and the jam isn't completely set yet. When it is completely cool, the jam in the jar should be set and you can store in a cool dry space for up to a year. If it lasts that long!

There you have it! Jam!! Or jelly if you prefer.. whatever.. it's yummy on toast, biscuits, desserts, fingers. Enjoy!

We Be Jammin'!

If you've been wondering where I have been these past couple of days, I'll tell you now. As soon as I put the girls to bed, I run to the kitchen and smash berries, squeeze every last drop out of 'em, boil the juice, add sugar and boil it some more. I pour hot liquid into hot jars and boil the entire jar and its' contents some more! And Voila! Mulberry Jam is born!! We be jammin'!! We be sweatin'!! In a hot kitchen!! We be jammin'!! Not quite done with the mulberries yet.. I'll finish the rest of the mulberries tonight and then the next canning project will be raspberry jam. Raspberry bushes are turning pink and will probably be ripe in the next couple of days.

I wait until the girls go to bed, because I attempted to make it in the morning while Hubby was supposed to amuse the kids. The girls were more interested in what I was doing instead of what Daddy was doing. Let me tell you, smashing berries is the fun part, but I don't let the girls do it because the juice stains the counter tops and I want minimal stains on my already ugly 70's lime green faux marbled Formica counter top. Berry juice splatter might actually make the counter top look prettier, but... (Future home improvement project: new counter tops and cabinets) Then after the berries are smashed, I put them into cheesecloth and SQUEEEEZE. I have forearms the size of Popeye's now with all the squeezing I did. If you are in a pissy mood, this is a good workout for you. You can imagine you are wringing your spiteful boss' neck or Miss Uppity neighbor with the spoiled brat kid that gets on your last nerve. You could also boil the smashed berries and then let them d r i p, d r i p, d r i p slowly, but I have no patience for that. Frankly, I have no time for that, unless I want to be making jam in the wee hours of the night and I value my sleep more, thank you very much.

Once you have the juice, the rest of the work goes by much faster. I tend to spend one night smashing and squeezing and then the next night making the jam. Tonight is berry smashing night.

What's that you say? That's a lot of jam and I am making more?? Oh, well if you have 3 little ones that like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and toast with jam (cue music-- Tea, a drink with jam and bread, jam and bread, jam and bread. Doe, a deer, a female deer....)just about every other day, the jam goes fast! Plus I like to give some as gifts and who doesn't like homemade jams?? That's all the time I have now. It's time for the girls to go to bed and time for me to get out some of my pent-up frustrations.

Music Challenge

I've been issued a challenge by Dj Kirkby over at her blog-- Exquisite Dreams. She writes a lovely blog and also has a second blog for her stories, Adventures of a Hippie Child. Her challenge is a music one. Go to http://www.popculturemadness.com/ and pick out music from the year you turned 18. Get all nostalgic and then write a post about how this music affected you. Most people probably wouldn't bother issuing a music challenge to a Deaf woman, but I am glad she did, because she remembered that I do like music. Once upon a time, I couldn't live without music, fell asleep to music and woke up to music. Here's my answer to the challenge...





I turned 18 Fall of 1991. I had just graduated in June and spent most of the summer performing with my High School Road Show. We danced, signed songs and performed skits to a wide range of audiences, and also gave drama-related sign language work-shops. At the end of the summer, late August, we went to Argentina, South America. We were there for a week and performed in a well-known theater and toured the country. One of the songs we did that was on the top charts at the time was Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) by C&C Music Factory. I loved that song! We had a choreographer come in and teach us a dance and taught us the words and we'd practice for HOURS.



How do Deaf people learn words and dance to music? By cranking up the bass! We would dance on wood floors that were hollow and they carried the vibrations well, so we could feel the beat. Then we'd memorize the words and count beats between pauses in the lyrics. I could hear so I didn't have to count beats, but I memorized the words like everyone else. That was such a fun song to learn and I still remember most of the words and some of the dance moves.



That Fall, I didn't know what to do with myself... Go to College? What field of work did I want to do? I was completely lost. I spent a lot of time at home watching MTV and reading books. I was fortunate to have a Mom that wasn't nagging and encouraging me to find myself and figure out what I wanted to do. On weekends, I went to a dance club/bar in DC and I never had to show my ID. The bouncers assumed I was over 21 and slapped a wristband on me so I was able to score drinks. The bar was in a rough area of DC and when you got there, the parking, what little there was, was already packed and you had to park on the street. There would be plenty of rough looking black dudes saying they'd watch your car for 5 bucks. They weren't valets but you paid 'em, because if you didn't, your car ended up getting keyed, trashed or worse.



Once inside, there were 3 main areas-- on your left was a punk music area and everyone there was banging their heads to the music and pretty much slamming around. I didn't like going into that area. On the right, down a dark hall, with neon painted pictures that glowed under black-light, pass the bathrooms where no one cared if you were a male in the girl's bathroom or a female in the boy's bathroom, as long as you could get in to pee, was a huge dance room that played top hits, mixed songs and electronica music. This was where I hung out! There was a long bar on the left side of the room, an upper balcony that over looked the dance floor and on the right was an upstairs bar with tables for people that wanted to sit and drink. The third main area was outside and music was piped out from inside and there was a squared off sandbox for playing volleyball and sort of had a tiki bar feel to it. I would go out there if it got too hot inside.



We would drink and dance all night, all types of people sharing the dance floor. Fights would break out regularly, maybe a guy ogling another guy's girl, or gang rivalry... whatever the reason, big beefy bouncers were there with lightening speed to break up the fight and toss 'em out! I never felt like I shouldn't be there, I never felt in danger, but looking back, if Mom knew I was there, she would have freaked! One of the songs that always filled the up dance floor was Set Adrift On Memory Bliss by P.M. Dawn. The DJ mixed it up and made it last longer and it was a crowd pleaser. I could see people mouthing the words and arms waving in the air to the beat. Dancing was always fun for me, until there was an over-eager guy that wanted to get too close or he had more than two hands and it was difficult to keep him away from you. I remember once, there was a dude that I was dancing with and he pulled up my shirt and had it over my head so fast, I couldn't react quick enough. I pushed him away and moved closer to the friends I came with and kept my eye out for him.



The place is gone now. Too many complaints of fights and police being called over, too many underage kids getting drinks. The whole place went seedy and they finally closed it and bulldozed it down.



There was a vintage car show at the DC convention center and a car buff I knew wanted to go and asked me to come along. We took the subway and the closest stop was a couple blocks away. Since there was a big event going on, all kinds of vendors set up along the sidewalk and one of them was selling bootleg copies of music tapes. I had to stop and take a look. The one I bought was Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch with that song that always gets stuck in your head long after you hear it-- Good Vibrations. I wore that tape out! I had posters of Marky Mark in his Calvins on my bedroom wall and I loved that bad boy sneer he had in those pictures. I kept a diary and I even taped a ripped out magazine ad of Marky in there!



Everything I Do (I Do It For You) by Bryan Adams. Do I need to say more? When Robin Hood came out, I waited for the video (Movie theaters didn't have captions back then so most Deaf people waited for the video) and fell in love with both the movie and the song. One of the first CDs I bought was that album and on the back in the liner notes, there was a bit where if you sent in a request, they'd send you a lyric book. I sent for it and sure enough, I got it! I memorized just about every song on that album! I always liked it when albums would include the lyrics so Deaf people like me could know what I was listening to.



There was one group that I liked and all my friends thought I was so corny. But I bought the album and listened to it and fell in love with all the other stuff on it, too. I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred. I still listen to it and I still love it as much as I did then. It's just a fun album to listen to and every time I hear it, I can't help but smile and I start dancing. My girls look at me like I have a screw loose, but I don't care, I'm dancing anyway! They join me sooner or later and we all have a ball!



All these songs were top hits in 1991 and I loved them all, but the ones above are the ones I have personal memories attached to and whenever I hear them, on the radio, on TV or when I pop in the CD, it takes me back!



Justify My Love -Madonna

Love Will Never Do-- Janet Jackson (remember the video??)

I've Been Thinking About You-- Londonbeat

You're In Love -- Wilson Phillips

Baby Baby -- Amy Grant (I loved loved loved this one!)

More Than Words -- Extreme

Rush Rush -- Paula Abdul

Unbelieveable -- EMF

The Promise of a New Day -- Paula Abdul

I Adore Mi Amour -- Color Me Badd

Cream -- Prince (Before he was Formerly Known as Prince)

Black Or White -- Micheal Jackson

To Be With You-- Mr. Big

Save The Best For Last -- Vanessa Williams (this one gets stuck in my head sometimes)

Wet Cat

We had a summer storm today. Guess who got caught in the rain? Our cat, Charlie. Doesn't he look cute?