CHOCOLATE SERENDIPTY: 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

New Years Eve

Live From Lincoln Center ~A Concert Celebrating Marvin Hamlisch

and

New Years Rockin' Eve Celebration ~ Remembering Dick Clark

New Years Eve From The Couch!

YUM

Have you ever listened to Sam Elliott's voice?

The man could read me a bed time story ANYTIME!!

Just saying!!!

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Italian

Dolce Pazzia... Sweet Madness

I love love love this!!!

Word of The Day

Integrity: the state of being whole, entire,or undiminished

"The most beautiful thing about her was her integrity."

Seeing Me...Being Me

Sometimes other people say things that let you see
your life from their point of view.

They may not have all the facts or know your reasoning.

But crystal clear clarity is in the eye of the beholder.

For self preservation, not that I owe any explanation for my choices in my life, let me say: Life Changes!

The big picture you may be striving to reach, is seldom attainable alone and everyone’s big picture is different. Thus doing good each day will at least keep you walking down life's path. I live each day doing what I feel is best for my family and myself. All that is guaranteed in this life is that you will have to spend it all with yourself. So I am learning to not only like who I am, but to become a person I love and love being with. Regret is not something I want to surround myself with when I am old.
So I want to experience, to learn, to grow everyday. I want to live life, to enjoy life, to be happy!

If my life or my choices are not what you think they should be, I say 'Thank You' for giving my life some thought. I don't need anyone else's approval of me. I am not here to please you or do what you think is right. I am accountable to the two people who live in my home with me, to God and to myself. You and God can work on your judgment of others.

You can choose to be part of my life or not. But as for me, I am choosing to be happy every day. My door is always open to those who care to embellish each day with love and happy!

Painful Leasons

I have learned, repeatedly, that you can not count on
others to fill your needs or your happiness.

I've learned that the squeaky wheel gets the attention,

regardless of the facts.

I have painfully learned, over and over,

that others inflict acidic corrosive drama on you

when they don’t get what they want.

Have you ever noticed that people who are confused

about a subject they can not control
or they do not understand, are angry?

Friday, December 28, 2012

Word of The Day

Nefarious: flagrantly wicked, shameless, rotten and evil.

The person that used this word to describe himself
is so far from it.
I know another who thinks of himself as great,
yet truly is this word.

Wishfull Thinking

I just need to see if the jet is available

to go down and pick you up

and we'll zip over to China

to pick up a bunch of sky lanterns

so we can make our New Years wishes.

True Facts

1	Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.
2	40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
3	315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
4	On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
5	Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.
6	Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.
7	Leonardo DA Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
8	Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
9	There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
10	Leonardo DA Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.
11	Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
12	The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!
13	By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand..
14	Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
15	Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
16	The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
17	Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
18	Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.
19	Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.
20	The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
21	To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.
22	The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
23	The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.
24	The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
25	Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
26	The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
27	Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "MT".
28	It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
29	In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off".
30	A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.
31	We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.
32	Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines
33	Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.
34	Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.
35	Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.
36	When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying "yes" in Sri Lanka
37	There are more chickens than people in the world.
38	The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.
39	There are more telephones than people in Washington , D.C..
40	The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.
41	The average person presses the snooze button on their alarm clock three Times each morning.
42	The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the Combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.
43	The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette Company died of lung cancer.
44	Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
45	The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
46	Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our noses and ears Never stop growing.
47	You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.
48	A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a Few weeks.
49	Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
50	The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.
51	When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.
52	Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned His wife or mother because they were both deaf.
53	A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a Carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After Weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe Leaving her mentally retarded
54	"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language
55	Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking Countries because Colgate translates into the command "go hang Yourself."
56	Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.
57	"Bookkeeper" is the only word in English language with three consecutive Double letters.
58	Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed People do.
59	The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every Letter in the English language.
60	If the population of China walked past you in single line, the line Would never end because of the rate of reproduction
61	China has more English speakers than the United States
62	Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
63	Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.
64	An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.
65	Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our Bodies.
66	Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average Man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his Lifetime.
67	According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.
68	The longest place name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi- Pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu - a New Zealand hill.
69	If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7:00am, you will arrive in Honolulu at Approximately 4:30pm the previous day.
70	Scientists in Australia 's Parkes Observatory thought they had positive Proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a Microwave in the building.
71	Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.
72	More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.
73	Men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better.
74	Coca-Cola was originally green.
75	The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
76	The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.
77	There are two credit cards for every person in the United States
78	TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
79	Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!
80	You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
81	It is impossible to lick your elbow.
82	People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

SO SO FUNNY

$5.37. That's what the kid behind the counter at Taco Bell said to me.
I dug into my pocket and pulled out some lint and two dimes and something that used to be a Jolly Rancher. Having already handed the kid a five-spot, I started to head back out to the truck to grab some change when the kid with the Elmo hairdo said the harshest thing anyone has ever said to me.
He said, "It's OK. I'll just give you the senior citizen discount."

I turned to see who he was talking to and then heard the sound of change hitting the counter in front of me. "Only $4.68" he said cheerfully.
I stood there stupefied. I am 48, not even 50 yet? A mere child! Senior citizen?

I took my burrito and walked out to the truck wondering what was wrong with Elmo. Was he blind? As I sat in the truck, my blood began to boil. Old? Me?

I'll show him, I thought. I opened the door and headed back inside. I strode to the counter, and there he was waiting with a smile.

Before I could say a word, he held up something and jingled it in front of me, like I could be that easily distracted!
What am I now?
A toddler?

"Dude! Can't get too far without your car keys, eh?"
I stared with utter disdain at the keys.
I began to rationalize in my mind.
"Leaving keys behind hardly makes a man elderly!
It could happen to anyone!"
I turned and headed back to the truck.
I slipped the key into the ignition, but it wouldn't turn.
What now?
I checked my keys and tried another.
Still nothing.
That's when I noticed the purple beads hanging from my rearview mirror.
I had no purple beads hanging from my rearview mirror.

Then, a few other objects came into focus. The car seat in the back seat. Happy Meal toys spread all over the floorboard. A partially eaten doughnut on the dashboard.

Faster than you can say ginkgo biloba, I flew out of the alien vehicle.
Moments later I was speeding out of the parking lot, relieved to finally be leaving this nightmarish stop in my life. That is when I felt it, deep in the bowels of my stomach: hunger! My stomach growled and churned, and I reached to grab my burrito, only it was nowhere to be found.

I swung the truck around, gathered my courage, and strode back into the restaurant one final time.
There Elmo stood, draped in youth and black nail polish. All I could think was, "What is the world coming to?" All I could say was, "Did I leave my food and drink in here?" At this point I was ready to ask a Boy Scout to help me back to my vehicle, and then go straight home and apply for Social Security benefits.

Elmo had no clue. I walked back out to the truck, and suddenly a young lad came up and tugged on my jeans to get my attention. He was holding up a drink and a bag. His mother explained, "I think you left this in my truck by mistake."
I took the food and drink from the little boy and sheepishly apologized.

She offered these kind words: "It's OK. My grandfather does stuff like this all the time."

All of this is to explain how I got a ticket doing 85 in a 40. Yes, I was racing some punk kid in a Toyota Prius. And no, I told the officer, I'm not too old to be driving this fast.

As I walked in the front door, my wife met me halfway down the hall. I handed her a bag of cold food and a $300 speeding ticket. I promptly sat in my rocking chair and covered up my legs with a blankey.

The good news was I had successfully found my way home.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- READ BELOW !

Just in case you weren't feeling too old today.

The people who are starting college next fall were born in 1995.

They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.

Their lifetime has always included AIDS.

The CD was introduced years before they were born.

They have always had an answering machine.

They have always had cable.

Popcorn has always been microwaved.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.

They never heard: 'Where's the Beef?', 'I'd walk a mile for a Camel ',

or 'de plane Boss,de plane'.

McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.

They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

P.S. Save the earth.. It's the only planet with chocolate.

My Jewish Grandmother Would Be Proud

Ok, so I don't really have a Jewish Grandmother,

but if I did she would be so proud of me!!

This morning I made a pot of the most amazing Chicken Noodle Soup.

Perfect chilly day comfort food. Yum Yum Yum!

A Perfect Storm

........is a confluence of events

that drastically aggravates a situation.

Also used to describe an actual phenomenon

that happens to occur in such a confluence,

resulting in an event of unusual magnitude!

~Much can be said the same for passion!

Quote of The Day

Ahead is something new, good or bad.
Why don't you settle for happy?

(I don't remember where I heard it, but I loved it!)

You Bet Your Life: Secret Word - Sky

This was before my time, as was the true glory of radio. Just like I Love Lucy and Mayberry , these were truly wholesome gems of entertainment. I think that entertainment from music to both the big and little screen have become much like the American diet; boxed preservatives, and unhealthy fast food fillers. What happened to real entertainment? I watched two movies this last week that where garbage. I don't think I am a prude, at all! But ugly is ugly, stupid is stupid, and wrong is wrong. None of which is entertainment. I think its time to spend my free time being entertained, rather than giving my entertainment vote away to the fast and crapy!
This may make me old, but at least I'm not an entertainment lemming!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Google Doodles

TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO ENJOY THE ART

http://www.google.com/doodles/finder/2012/All%20doodles

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS 1939

This is one of my all time favorite movies.

It is beyond charming! I love it!

Thank you to my Jessette
for the most wonderful gift!

Your mommy is delighted!!!
(My grandmother was 12 years old
when this came out,
It has been one of my favorites
since I was very little!)

Family Snuggle Time

Since my first little one arrived,

I have loved having family snuggle time in mommy's bed.

My family dynamic has changed, but we still have snuggle time.

Even Cheree, my Yorkie Puppy takes advantage of the snuggle factor!

It's some thing I hope each of my children caries on in their families.

Jessette's Home

At Jessette's home her family of three

(Two plus Harley the Black Lab)

love snuggle time.

When she tries to make the bed

they wont get out of it.

Thus creating a very lumpy bed.

She has found that the best way

to get the lumps out

is by pillow beatings!

Mommy and Me Date

Brunch At Mimi's

Holiday Traffic On A Pre Holiday Weekend

I love spending time with each of my children one on one.

They are my very favorite people!

This weekend was cold and rainy,

we couldn't have asked for anything better!

We had a wonderful time!!!

Christmas Cheer On A Stick

Chocolate Dipped Cheesecake!
A Wonderful Gift From Friends!!
Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!

Love and Talent

Jessette created this piece of art for her sister's family.
Watching her progress as she worked on it
Was Delightful.
She chose this piece because
Her sister loves fairy tale art,
And stories of princesses and dragons.
She did it all by hand.
I love all her work.
But this she did with love for her sister.
It was more than a proud parenting moment,
She Melted My Heart!