Friday, January 4, 2013

Salami in the Slammer



Thought for the day:  An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in; a pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.  [Bill Vaughn]



Happy New Year, y'all. As Oprah Winfrey said, Cheers to a new year and another chance to get it right.

A fresh start. Don't you like the sound of that? Not that I was bored with the old year, mind you, but isn't it exciting to embark on a new one, and to anticipate what may lie ahead? May this be the year we all get it right.

In the new year, may your right hand be stretched out in friendship, but never in want.





So, did you go out dancing, and wining & dining to welcome the new year? Eat breakfast at a crummy restaurant on the way home?


Did you go to a party... or host one... where a guest demonstrated a skill he mastered in college?

Peach drop- Atlanta











Did you spend the evening shivering with a huge crowd of people... partying, singing, and waiting... and then counting down while some object descended to mark another year's demise?











Me, neither.











Oh, we've done a lot of those things over the years, and hosted some pretty terrific parties, too, but now, we generally go out for an early dinner, and then spend a relaxing evening at home by ourselves. (This year, better yet! We steamed crabs.) Like a couple of old farts, we grumble about some of the so-called music they play on the TV celebrations, and then as the bewitching hour approaches, my hubby pops a bottle of champagne. It may not be earth-shattering, but it suits us.


Of all the New Year's Eves Smarticus and I have spent together, one stands out above all the rest, because it was so unique. You see, it was the one and only time we spent the night at ... the local jailhouse.




HA! Didn't know I was such a bad girl, didja?




Remember the Y2K scare? Even though there was a mad scramble, and a ton of cash spent during the nineties to fix a computer glitch that could've crashed computer systems all over the world, a lot of uncertainty remained as January 1, 2000 approached. And not just about the computer glitch. Emergency management personnel had other concerns, as well.


Enter amateur radio. At the request of government officials, amateur radio operators set up stations in every police station, fire house, hospital, public utility, and numerous other places I can't recall right off hand... just in case.



My hubby and I set up at the police station just inside those doors and to the right. We maintained communications with the other emergency stations around our county and state. We checked in with other operators set up in similar situations in other states... and in other countries.

The police couldn't have been nicer. They had a great spread of food set up to celebrate the holiday, and told us to help ourselves. The mayor stopped by and chatted with us. We had a blast.

We stayed until about 4AM, because by then, everyone was fairly sure all was well. Still, it was pretty cool. And like I said, unique. I'm sure others have spent New Year's Eve in jail before... but with a slightly different connotation. (And they probably didn't get any cookies, either.)

                                 What's the strangest place YOU ever spent New Year's Eve?


Now is the time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving the road to hell with them as usual.  [Mark Twain]

By the way, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did. Here's a handful of pictures...

L to R: Aaron, Kymber, Devyn, and Jaiden
Nothing puts the magic into Christmas better than sharing it with family and friends... especially if children are involved. We had the pleasure of staying with our son and his family. Can you believe the kids actually posed for pictures before opening a single present?
Princess Kymber


The boys each got a Superman towel/robe thingie; Kymber got one of Ariel; and Devyn got Minnie Mouse. She isn't usually one to smile for a picture, but she reeeeeally loved her Minnie Mouse get-up.




With a little help from big brother Jaiden and a LOT of help from mom Tina, Kymber made a batch of itty bitty cupcakes in her new Easy Bake oven.
The three older kids got kid-friendly tablets from their other grandfather. I can't believe how quickly they picked those things up and started playing on them, as though it were intuitive. Aaron is only two years old, and he was navigating on that thing better than I was. ('Course, I realize that ain't saying much...)



Okay, enough. Christmas is over for another year, a whole new year stretches ahead of us, and... life is good.

Oh, by the way, for those of you who remember when the kids got rabbits last year, what can I say? All of a sudden, the little critters have been multiplying like... rabbits! Two babies were born a week before we got there, and four more were born two days before. After the first two were born, Tina took the older rabbits to the vet. All girls except for one very enthusiastic little guy, who got neutered. Too late! I'm telling ya, he was a really busy bunny! A couple days ago, seven more babies. Ah well, time to enlarge the habitat again...

                                Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

58 comments:

  1. Your New Year's Eve celebration sounds perfectly wonderful to me. And it was much more exciting than mine. I was thinking back of the parties I attended in Beverly Hills. This New Year Eve, in the wilds of West Texas, I had a quiet dinner alone by the fire - and my only guest was my cat.
    Methinks I've sunk to the very bowels of hell......

    My most unusual New Year's Eve? Probably when I spent the evening at a cheap bar in Tonichi, Mexico.

    Sweet Christmas photos of the grandkids!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, Jon! I see you've got a new pic now... looks good. I reckon it's time to change mine, too. (I think it'd be a hoot to do a photo of the back of my head...)

      Anyhow, happy new year! And look on the bright side, cowboy. You didn't have to worry about the cat drinking all your booze and slopping food on your sofa. May 2013 be a more cheerful one for you. As I watched the weather report yesterday, I wondered if you'd gotten any snow there to brighten up your landscape. I hope so. If ya did, go make a snowman. (I know it's too much to expect you to make a snow angel...)

      Delete
  2. What's the strangest place YOU ever spent New Year's Eve?

    My wife and I spent a small part of a New Year's Eve inside a giant, multistory self storage warehouse in Washington DC. The simpliest, but by no means complete, story was that she had to move stuff out and sense we were already in the area seeing some of her kinfolk we decided to go ahead and take care of that chore.

    In actuality we were still dating and after taking out the items she wanted to bring back down to South Carolina we both saw her old mattress...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, you ol' dawg, you. Those were the days, huh? Happy new year.

      Delete
  3. You survived then! I love that beer trick!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aye, and you did, too! Heck, I'll betcha you could DO that beer trick... only with a fine wine, of course.

      Delete
  4. Great story about helping out the police on New Year's! Your grandchildren are adorable! BTW, Shortly after Animal House came out, I went to University of Wisconsin to visit my brother for the world's largest toga party. They were selling togas there. Mine was more traditional, and my boyfriend wore a Superman towel toga. I never saw him again, but I still have the towel. I'll bet it's similar to your grandson's!
    Julie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Wow, so you actually went to a toga party, huh? Cool. And, um, I won't read anything into the fact that you still have his toga... (HA!)

      Delete
  5. Your title is a magnet, kind of a carnival barker. (we used to accuse my husband of that in his business. Ha ha). Your Christmas photos are adorable. Christmas is such fun with the little ones. The excitement of Christmas gleams in their eyes and the adults catch the spark from the kids. We have no little ones and we did nothing this Christmas.
    I recognize the importance of ham radios. Remember when I said that ham radios will save the world and I still believe it. I just heard tonight about a new book, "A Nation Forsaken" that tells how the country is not prepared nor
    interested in being prepared in case of a glitch in the grid.
    By the way, my studies are going very slowly but they're happening.
    Great post with all the pictures and stories. Always truth under humor in your posts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good, I'm glad to hear it... if my book gets published this year, I'm gonna have to learn how to be a carnival barker of sorts to sell it! Unfortunately, you're right about the overall level of preparation, but I'm glad to hear you're still hitting the books. You'll have a call sign before ya know it.

      Delete
  6. You must be my long-lost sister... Our New Year's Eve was dinner out and a quiet evening at home, with grumbling about the music. Hahaha. I'm finishing the bubbly by having mimosas.

    Your grandkids are absolutely adorable!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HA! We grumble more and more about the music every year. Can you believe it? Not a single rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" to be found! What especially got me this year was a song, allegedly "number one" for the past YEAR... and we never even heard of it... or the group performing it. Guess we're outta touch, huh? Mimosas, huh? That sounds like a good idea. (Otherwise, the rest of that champagne will sit in our fridge until all its bubbles are long gone.)

      Delete
  7. Love the story of your Y2K New Years!

    We were considering driving to a party an hour and a half away in between delivering and picking up our daughters from THEIR parties, but then we got a call from some local friends. Their grown-up children had kind of taken over their house for a party and broadly hinted that it would be great if the 'rents found someplace else to be ...

    So they came over to our house and we had drinks and snacks and watched the Doctor Who Christmas special. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It sounds like you had a super New Year's Eve. I always preferred having friends and neighbors come to our house rather than getting out on the road ourselves. An hour and a half drive after a party sounds a little risky this time of year. Too many party hearty folks swerving around on the road.

      Delete
  8. Hi Susan .. Happy New Year - so pleased you had that satisfactory quiet evening - sounds good to me. I spent the day in bed - never mind that's over with for this year and I should now be healthy for many a month .. not usually a sick bod.

    Loved the story of your camp out - thankfully that year didn't spewl us all into multi-time frames or funny things ...

    So now - Happy 2013 - mind you those crabs sound an excellent idea - delicious ... cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy New Year, Hilary! I'm so sorry to hear you weren't feeling well, but glad you're doing better now. Pamper yourself a little, okay?

      Delete
  9. I had to chuckle at you moaning over the music choices on the New Years Eve shows....we did the same thing. All the best in 2013...keep healthy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gee, I wonder if our grumbling is more about US... or about the crappy music they play nowadays? I mean, really... not a single "Auld Lang Syne" played on the boob tube? What's WRONG with those people? (HA!) Happy New Year!

      Delete
  10. Good to see back! You have the most adorable grandchildren. How wonderful to be able to spend the holidays with them.

    The oddest New Year's Eve I ever spent was on the sofa in my den, sitting next to "Romeo" the Lhasa Apso, watching a Twilight Zone marathon while TG and Romeo's owner replaced our heat pump out back. Romeo was very friendly--sat snuggled up next to me the whole time. He was also gassy. Interesting *cough* evening.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Good to BE back!

      I've spent the night next to gas-producers, too, but they weren't dogs. (I love that his name was Romeo.)

      Delete
  11. Happy New Year Susan!!!! Aaron, Kymber, Devyn, and Jaiden look so happy in their pic lol. I hope 2013 is your best year ever :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy New Year to you, too! Let's hope 2013 is the best year ever for all of us.

      Delete
  12. Love the pictures! I'm definitely a stay-at-home-er. Big crowds make me anxious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My husband isn't a fan of crowds, either. Me, I'm energized by them, but I'm just as happy to snuggle down at home with Smarticus.

      Delete
  13. Hey, whaddayaknow! - this blog bit actually appeared on my Blogspot Dashboard.

    'Salami in the Slammer' - good title.

    Devyn looks really cute in her Minnie Mouse outfit!

    Strangest place I ever spent New Year's Eve? Hmmm... Nuttin' comes to mind, and that's probably a blessing to be thankful for.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Woo-HOO! I have "arrived". Something tells me you're being coy about the strangest place you ever spent New Year's Eve. Thn again, maybe the margaritas gave you a blessed case of selective amnesia.

      Delete
    2. SUSAN ~

      >>… Woo-HOO! I have "arrived".

      I think you were already “there” but Blogspot didn’t get the memo. Perhaps when I posted a comment on your blog a few days back, it woke something up in the Blogspot System (B.S.) and the B.S. had this thought: Oh, so he’s serious; he REALLY DOES want to ‘Follow’ Susan’s blog. Well, alrighty then.

      >>… Something tells me you're being coy about the strangest place you ever spent New Year's Eve. Think again, maybe the margaritas gave you a blessed case of selective amnesia.

      No, actually, I wasn’t being coy. It was probably just the fact that when I posted the above comment I was enveloped in the mental fog I experience every single morning that I must get up early for work. (I usually wake up just in time for my lunch hour and begin to doze off again 61 minutes later.)

      But when I read your comment again, now, after getting home from work, I thought: DOH! How could I have POSSIBLY forgotten about the strangest place I ever spent a New Year’s Eve?!

      It was SO UNUSUAL that I once wrote about it in a blog posting. Click the title link below and scroll down until you see the photograph of my old friend Dean and I hoisting cans of Budweiser (written on the bottom of the photo it says “Cheers!”) When you find that picture, read the next couple paragraphs [separated by posted photos] below it. That will briefly tell you where I spent my strangest New Year’s Eve:

      ‘MY HOMEMEGALOPOLIS AND ME – Part 4 Of 6’

      Thanks for telling me to think again – it was RIGHT THERE when I did.

      ~ D-FensDogg
      ‘Loyal American Underground’

      Delete
    3. Um yeah, I'd say that was pretty darned unusual. I don't reckon too many people have done that and lived to tell about it. Guess that makes you guys unique, huh? (And only a teensy bit nuts.)

      Delete
    4. Well, boys will be boys. (And I was considerably younger then than I am today.)

      ~ D-FensDogg
      'Loyal American Underground'

      Delete
  14. Oh man! Those are some very happy Christmas faces! Kymber looks like she'd explode if she smiled any wider in her princess outfit!
    Look at you guys, standing by in a jail in case the ops shut down. You're awesome. I don't think I've ever spent New Year in a strange place. I do remember the Y2K thing, and waiting until the call came that all was well at my job (if things had shut down, there was a team of us to go to the coop and put everything perishable in storage lockers) before I drank anything. So that was probably the strangest part- waiting til midnight passed before even having a drink. But when the Asst. Manager called, it was clear he'd had every confidence that nothing would happen. He was polluted! It's been years since I got trashed on New Year.

    So here we are with a shiny brand new year, and yes, another chance to get it right. Happy 2013, Susan. I hope it brings wonderful surprises and many giant I'm-gonna-explode smiles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, Kymber LOVES to dress up like Cinderella. She already had the dress and tiara, and put them on for me before Christmas so I could take some pictures of her. (A real hambone.) Then, she got another tiara, earrings, princess "slippers", and purse for Christmas. Time to take a bunch more pics. She even had me take a close-up of her feet in those slippers.

      Yep, you can never have too many of those gonna-explode smiles. Right back atcha.

      Delete
  15. I watched Scrooged with two of my brothers and was home before 11pm. I welcomed the new year in reading a book. Not very exciting but you know what they call New Year's Eve in some circles, Amateur night :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, if it was a good book, that's a good way to spend ANY evening.

      Delete
  16. I partied,I shouted, I had my last drink at 10:00 so as to be the sober one driving at 2:00.

    :-)

    I'm all about giving back. :-)

    Happy new year!

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
  17. You were so kind to be on duty for Y2K. The strangest place I've spent New Year's? For 31 years I was in bed next to Dr. X.

    Yeah. I know I was nuts.

    Love,
    Janie, who went to bed at 9:20 with the Z-Boys, pretty much the same thing she does every night

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yipes! 9:30? You must get up even earlier in the dark thirty than I do. And, nah, you weren't nuts. You hung in there because you wanted to make it work.

      Happy New Year!

      Delete
  18. Busy Bunnies are Happy Bunnies :)
    Love your grandkids - Devyn's smile is priceless!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, then, those bunnies must reeeeeeally be happy! Thanks. I really love that pic of Devyn.

      Delete
  19. Kids faces don't prevaricate. They like you. I second their motion. Happy new year, Susan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awwww. Gee, thanks. That was an awful sweet thing to say, dude. Happy New Year to you, too.

      Delete
  20. 'Now is the time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving the road to hell with them as usual. [Mark Twain]'

    Ha! You come up with the best quotes, Sus.

    I can see you had a beautiful Christmas and, yes, my eyebrows did shoot up when I read that you'd spent a night in jail. I like though, very much, your words,

    'We stayed until about 4AM, because by then, everyone was fairly sure all was well.'

    I'm listening to Depeche Mode -- very atmospheric, often moody music -- and for some reason reading those words at the same time just made me feel ... like getting it right.

    Happy new year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey! Happy New Year! I've missed you, kiddo. I hope you enjoyed a wonderful respite. Welcome back. (And I have no doubt that you'll get it right.)

      Delete
  21. Very cool about your New YEar's Eve...in jail. :-)

    Had a great Christmas too!

    Your grandkids are too cute!!!! Just beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, I'm a regular jailbird. Thanks... we think the munchkins are pretty irresistible, too.

      Delete
  22. What a patriotic way to see a new year in. This year my son and his family stayed over (youngest aged two and a half) We were all in bed and sound asleep by 10.30. Boring but true.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HA! Not boring at all. And you were probably up bright and early (and bubbly) to face the new year.

      Delete
  23. Those pics of the kids are adorable!

    Me and the hubs were very boring. We watched THE TWILIGHT ZONE marathon on New Year's (a tradition for us) and I think I was asleep by about 9 pm. We're very exciting. :)

    Happy New Year to you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's great to share a tradition like this with your hubby. Excitement is a subjective thing. Happy New Year!

      Delete
  24. I knew Kymber was a princess before I scrolled down and saw your notation. She just had that princess look about her. And what huge packages there were in that first picture. Good thing, patient kids. Looks like you had a great time. For me, this year I stayed up until midnight. After that, my hubby called his siblings and when they asked where I was, he told them I dropped, just like the ball. So silly!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HA! At least you made it to see the ball drop first, huh? I started fading pretty fast after that, too. Happy New Year!

      Delete
  25. What a beautiful family. Happy New Year!

    I like to have a quiet New Year, either at a friend's house or by myself at home.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Such gorgeous grandchildren.
    I never bother with New Year celebrations.
    I see the fireworks on TV news the next day and that's enough for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Wow, not even a teensy little glass of bubbly? Well, whether you celebrate or not, I'm gonna wish you a great big wonderful new year... so there!

      Delete
  27. Those children's bright, beaming faces are precious. Have a wonderful New Year, Susan.

    xoRobyn

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi-ya, Robyn. Here's wishing a wonderful year to you, too

      Delete
  28. I was searching for loan to sort out my bills& debts, then i saw comments about Blank ATM Credit Card that can be hacked to withdraw money from any ATM machines around you . I doubted thus but decided to give it a try by contacting {skylinktechnes@yahoo.com} they responded with their guidelines on how the card works. I was assured that the card can withdraw $5,000 instant per day & was credited with $50,000 so i requested for one & paid the delivery fee to obtain the card, i was shock to see the UPS agent in my resident with a parcel{card} i signed and went back inside and confirmed the card work's after the agent left. This is no doubts because i have the card & has made used of the card. This hackers are USA based hackers set out to help people with financial freedom!! Contact these email if you wants to get rich with this Via email skylinktechnes@yahoo.com or whatsapp: +1(213)785-1553

    ReplyDelete