Aside from the fact that we have inordinate gloomy winter weather here in the Pacific Northwest (we have 3 types of days here: light gray, medium gray and dark gray), I do feel a bit more hopeful because the days are becoming noticeably longer. By 5:00 pm it is still daylight! Yay!

I look forward to the summer, when it stays light outside till 10pm! Makes it hard to sleep at night but then I don't need as much sleep during the summer - much more active.

My crocuses are up already. We have had a relatively warm spell (50 plus degrees) and though it's nice to see the bit of purple color they bring, I fear that it's a false promise of winter's end. There is always the windstorm that hits us at the end of winter. Lions in March... though they often occur in April. I hate that especially because it blows the blossoms off the fruit trees and the petals off the spring flowers.

These are the days when one prepares for the Christmas holidays: cookie baking, gift wrapping, decorating the home (and homesite!), sending cards, and doing all the other homey things I enjoy every year.

One thing this year is the straining and bottling of cordials and plum brandy. I finally found suitable bottles with corks at Pier One Imports and have managed to fill many bottles with plum cordial, blackberry cordial, and plum brandy. YUM! Summer's work comes to fruition now.

Cookie baking: Russian Teacakes, Almond Spritz (in the shapes of wreaths and trees), iced sugar cookies (snowflakes and angels), and Jam Thumbprints. Problem is, I have no tins. No one returned the tins I gave out last year! Usually I tell them that if they want cookies the following year they must return the tin. Oh well...I must shop for more tins now..

Another tradition is watching all the Christmas movies: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the old cartoon one narrated by Boris Karloff and NOT the Jim Carey monstrosity), Miracle on 34th St. (with little Natalie Wood), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (Burl Ives narrating), A Christmas Story... the list goes on. One thing I miss is the old Norelco electric shaver commercial. It had a claymation Santa riding a Norelco electric shaver in the snow. It was always broadcast during Rudolph. But no more. Sniff.

I do wish for some snow. I love to wake up to a white blanket prettily covering every bleak shrub and bare limb outside. My neighbor's kids would play in the snow making snowmen, igloos, etc... and then when they "used up" their snow they would come over to my place and beg me to let them play in my snow! I hesitated the first time, because I really wanted my yard to have the lovely pure covering unblemished by footprints (well deer tracks are nice though), but when I see the pleading in their eyes and realize what a treat it is for them to have snow which occurs very rarely here, I must relent.

I post a few quotes and excerpts about the election results and I get a message about how the election was won by "cunning and deception"!

Let's see, the "cunning and deception" of Dan Rather's forged memos attempting to slander the President?

Or like the "cunning and deception" of maniacal pseudo-documentaries by rich Hollywood fatcats?

How about the "cunning and deception" of big print small minded publications which use junior high school tactics to demean and name-call the President?

And let's not forget the antics and machinations of Terry "Thug" MacAuliffe's DNC and rich cohorts, like George Soros, whose Eastern bloc mentality thought he could BUY an election!

Yup, President Bush sure used a lot of "cunning and deception" to fool us stupid Conservatives!

It turned out better than I could have hoped for. A mandate from the people. Real people. Not Ivory Tower denizens, not Hollywood and Rock Star elitists, not foreign billionaires, not biased media journalists. No, it was from the heart of America... those people who occupy the middle - not New York, not California - but the flyover states. They came out in droves and voted. They showed the left that they are tired of their strophe and antistrophe of Bush-bashing, America-hating self loathing.

Furthermore, I love the fact that we won the House and Senate! And Tom Daschle was given the boot. "You are the weakest link. Good bye."

It makes me laugh to see how flummoxed the left is right now. They have no clue. I wonder if anyone in the Democratic Party has the guts to look in the mirror and ask: "What did we do wrong? What did the average American reject about us? Is it possible that we were wrong about things?"

Maybe some soul searching among the left will be a result... a much needed and welcome bonus from this decisive election. But I won't hold my breath.

CRONYISM: Favoritism shown to old friends without regard for their qualifications, as in political appointments to office.

The news is flooded with speculation and talk about the impending eruption of Mt. St. Helens. She has been blowing off steam and ash for several days now and they anticipate a more serious action from her any time now. Living over 100 miles north of her I don't have too much concern of a fallout... though if the wind blows a certain way we may get some ash if she does have a major eruption.

My neighbor has a lot of kids, most of them grown, but she tells me a cute story about the eruption of 1980 (I know, a cute story about a volcanic eruption sounds incongruous).

Anyway, she and her family lived closer to the volcano in 1980, and when it blew their city had a lot of ash cover. They were instructed to refrain from going outside so the family elected to stay home on Sunday. Since they would miss Church she dutifully decided to give her kids a Sunday School lesson at home. It happened to be a Holy Day, so she asked her children if they knew what special day it was (the answer being something like Pentecost Sunday...)

Her 7 year old son immediately shouted out: "I know! It's Ash Sunday!"

Reading how effectively Maria's Mom got her way with obdurate businesses:

Maria's Mom,

I thought that it might work with terrorists:

"You bombed our Towers. Give us Osama bin Laden. We will bomb you. Give us bin Laden. You killed our people. We want bin Laden. We will never stop hunting you. We want bin Laden now. We will continue to bomb you. Give us Osama bin Laden right now."

"There is a certain anti-Americanism. It comes into waves and disappears again. We assisted countries, which wanted to be free and independent. We could have been imperialistic after First or the Second World War. But we asked just for the chance to help individual nations on their way to democracy and liberty. We took land only to bury our dead. Therefore I will not accept the gabble about the imperialism. It has not been a part of our history for the past 100 years. In the past ten years US troops freed Kuwait. We freed Kosovo - an Islamic country. And we freed Afghanistan from a totalitarian regime and a terrorist organization. We do not want to stay in any of these countries. We want to put the responsibility back into the hands of their people. Our record is clear."

Colin Powell

(Thanks, Phenom for the great quote - my sentiments exactly!)

My point is that why do people say that America is imperialistic? We are not establishing colonies anywhere! When we leave we let those nations rule themselves (however badly they may do it). And if I hear the claim that the imperialism is "American cultural domination" then don't accept it! Don't watch the films, or read the books, or eat the burgers, or have democratic elections - that's a choice every nation has, and it's not being forced down anyone's throats!

I'm sick of lame excuses like that - as if everyone is a victim somehow and has no free will.

Every week I get an email from the local hoity toity movie theatre informing me what is playing (and coming attractions). The owner likes to show more arcane and indy films and sometimes I see really interesting things there, and sometimes it's a big yawn. Anyway, with that weekly email is a trivia question and the first correct response wins 2 tickets.

I never bothered trying to answer the question mainly because I don't know the answer, but also because I assume that I will never win. Well last week I decided to try and win.

The question was: "What screenwriter was born in the Bronx in 1923, and for what films did he win Oscars?"

I initially thought of Neil Simon, but when I Googled his name I saw that he was born after 1923, (though he was born in the Bronx!). I finally came up with the correct answer: Paddy Chayefsky, who won Oscars for The Hospital, Network, and Marty. I quickly submitted my answer (within minutes of receiving the question) and I just got a notice that I won!

That was fun. I ought to participate more in things like that because I sometimes surprise myself since I normally assume that I never will win anything.

Case in point: a few years ago I submitted a winning answer to a local radio station and won 2 tickets to a play at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, plus dinner for two on the Spirit of Washington dinner train! That was great! And just in time for my birthday.

Next: I set my sights on the Lottery!