Vincent

Vincent Van Gogh was a master painter.  Many of his paintings are iconic and instantly recognizable.  Everyone thinks he was a mad genius.  Well, he did cut off his ear for unrequited love so you can see how he got that reputation.
Other than that, the general public doesn't know much about Vincent.
I learned today that a study done in Holland showed that Vincent wasn't quite as mad as we may have thought.  Apparently he was meticulous in his work.  He even used lines to help him get the perspective right which they can detect with some machine now.
Also, he might not have used the actual colors we see because the red paint from that era lost it's pigment leaving blue behind when it was originally purple.  Luckily, he did use blue paint for Starry Night so no worries there.
I learned some about Vincent years ago when I saw Leonard Nimoy in a one man play about his brother, Theo, the not mad one.  He was solid as a rock and loved his brother like crazy and took as good of care of him as Vincent would let him.
Artists then were literally starving and would sacrifice food even from their own children to buy paint.  So apparently, Vincent wasn't the only mad one.  Just the most obvious about it.  Monet's family almost starved and lived on the graciousness of others many times.  But Vincent had Theo.
I learned a little about Vincent from Dr. Who too.  That was the Vincent I liked best.  Passionate and a little raving but so sweet.  That's who I think of when I think of Vincent.  I think he deserves it.  After all, he did give us Starry Night.

Oh, Deer

There are a ton of deers around our house.  They are a herd.  I think there are about twelve of them at least.  The dirty dozen is what I call them.
Listen, I used to think deer were beautiful and gentle creatures.  Then they came to live with me.  First, they ate all the landscaping I bought the first year we lived here.  Then, they started on all the landscaping in sight.  They ate all the ground cover in our back yard so that what used to look like a beautiful park area now looks like a dead zone.
They even eat plants that they aren't supposed to like.  They even at rose bushes, thorns and all.
SO, I hate them.  They are pushy and arrogant.  A couple of nights ago there were two of them standing in our backyard staring at us while we ate dinner.  It was very disconcerting.  I pulled the shades.
One morning, last spring, I pulled up a shade first thing in the morning and the darn thing was standing right there staring at me.  I jumped about a foot.  It didn't run away or anything.
In some places(not here thank goodness) the deer get so aggressive they try to jump on kids at their bus stops.  Sometimes they are standing in your yard like they are your pet or something.  They run out in front of cars and don't look both ways before crossing.
I cried when Bambi's mother died...............not any more.

Mes Amis ( My Friends)

Welcome to Mon Ami, mes amis!  We had a wonderful day at the winery in Port Clinton, Ohio.  It is a venerable old place.  It's been there since the 1870's.  It has not one basement but three.  When I was a young girl, I thought it was the most posh place on this Earth and believe me, I was not far from wrong.
We had a fun tasting with a friendly bar keep. She was talkative and knowledgeable.
We fell in love with the Walleye White but then we had their Spumante and we were hooked.  Not too sweet as some are.  Just right for our palettes.
We were with our good friends, my WP and her husband and my DH's childhood friend and his wife.  Everybody liked a different wine but that's ok.  When we all found our favorite, it was off to the dining room for lunch.
Well, the food was excellent.  I had the crab cakes and fried spinach.  The crab cakes were delish and the fried spinach was melt in you mouth after the initial crunch.  Very interesting(and loaded with potassium!!)
Everyone loved their lunch and then it was time to say goodbye to the childhood friend and his wife and head to Avon Lake where we met WP's daughters and brother with his girlfriend.  The first winery was Klingshirn.  It was a rustic little place and very crowded even just by us and a couple others.
The wine was ok but not for me. I was too spoiled by my Spumante.
So we packed in the cars and headed to John Christ winery just down the road.  Now this place was really enchanting starting with the young owner who reminded me of Dr. Patrick Drake from General Hospital.  He was sweet and helpful and cute.  We found a Riesling we liked, got a couple of cheese trays and went out on their screened in porch.  Did I mention how cute the owner was?  Well, he was.
The very cute owner thought we were from a bus at first and told us no buses.  WP's husband asked him if a mini van was OK and the very cute owner laughed and said of course.  We were really in three cars but you know what he meant.  The eight of us had a fun talk and then we all headed to dinner.
It's a nice thing, having friends.  Sometimes they are your age, sometimes much younger and sometimes they are new.  It's important to have them...even if you only have a few.  Oh, yes and did I mention how cute the owner of the last winery was?

What's Up Doc? II

Sorry, I just can't help myself.  You know that movie I told you about yesterday?  Well, I went back to it and couldn't believe what I was seeing.
The young doctor was flirting with his patient whose life he saved, of course. Precise work, remember?  She said she thought she could walk and she stumbled across the room and then stood there for a moment of dialogue and she sauntered back to her chair like she had never had a problem.
The young doctor told her to get back in bed and she refused(the little minx) and he swooped her up and put her in the hospital bed himself.  They proceeded to kiss--a lot.  Of course someone caught them and she pipes up with it's OK, we're engaged.  He looks stunned, the other person leaves and she says, OK?  And he says OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What man on Earth ever did that, I'd like to know?  Oh, old Hollywood how you led us on.
Anyway, they marry,  It's a disaster.  They fight.  She leaves in a huff after he tells her off but good and voila!  she's in a car wreck and has a disfigured face.  Three guesses.  She wants him to stay and, feeling ridden with guilt, he says OK.
Weeks later, she removes the bandages and she doesn't even have a scar.  Just the day before she wouldn't let her husband look at it and she insisted the drapes be drawn since she woke up in the hospital.  But, she's fine.
Just one thing after another for that couple! He tells her that she's back to normal so he is going back to the hospital and the girl he really loves and she says OK.
Do you wonder why I grew up with a warped sense of romance?  Each one of these scenarios is laughable in itself but the hits just kept on coming, one after the other until the end when he reunites with his true love(who happened to be Tarzan's wife) and guess what, he doesn't even kiss her!!  OK!
P.S.  Just want to say these movies were old in my youth too.  Just in case you were wondering.

What's Up, Doc?

I just watched the first twelve minutes of a movie from 1937 about Emergency Room doctors....at General Hospital!!  But the name of the hospital is not the subject of this post.
The young doctor who was an intern worked the emergency room and made twenty dollars a month plus room and board and, as the receptionist was happy to point out to him, free laundry.
Yes, twenty bucks.
Then his colleague who pulls out a bottle of booze from his medical bag and has a snort, asks this young doctor to go on the next emergency call because he was too tired(or possibly drunk).
This young doctor goes-yes, I said goes, to the site of the emergency, climbs this impossibly high ladder and opens the medical bag and oops! he took the one with the booze in it.  No worries, he had the patient drink it up and then he proceeded to amputate his arm.  His supervising doctor told him it was the best job he ever saw.  So precise.  Yes, really, he said precise.
The patient's wife was so grateful to this young doctor that she kissed his hands.  Oh, yes, I'm guessing that was before she was presented with the bill.
It got me thinking about the last time I went to the doctor.  It was for my annual physical and she gave me all of five minutes.  Imagine kissing her hands.  Not in this lifetime.
Just think of the money that doctors make now.  It is mind boggling and even struggling interns probably make more than twenty dollars a month but I'm not sure about the free laundry thing.
I guess I'm saying I'd like to see a doctor climb a ladder and cover an emergency for his colleague.  If I'm ever in that situation, I hope he brings the bag with the booze in it!

Stalked II

Oh, yes, I am dieting again.  Oh, sorry, I'm making a lifestyle change.  You know that's what they say now.  But who am I kidding?  I'm on a diet....again,
I really don't mind.  I love veggies and fruit for the most part--let's not get into brussel sprouts.  I can give up sweets pretty easily.  It isn't such a hardship really.
I only need to lose about 15 pounds.  That doesn't sound like much especially when you consider what people have to lose on the Biggest Loser but man, it is hard.
Those pounds just don't want to budge.
Also my jaw is getting tired.  I have chomped my way through so many carrots and celery sticks, that I have lost count.  I've also been eating a lot of bird seed.  Most people call it Quinuoa.  It looks like what you put into a bird feeder though.  It tastes fine but it makes me laugh every time I eat it.
Also, on this life style change(see I'm catching on) I eat like five times a day.  So it seems like I'm always cooking.  DH and I figured out why I am sick of cooking dinner--I have to make a "fancy" lunch every day instead of just slapping together a sandwich and by the time dinner time rolls around, I am completely uninspired.
Good thing pizza is on the lifestyle change.  No, really it is.  Not a whole one or anything like that.  Just a couple slices.  Mmmmm. I'm getting hungry.
I hope I will be able to write a blog entry somewhere down the road(like in 12 weeks) and write about how successful and thin I am.  Keep your fingers crossed and I'll keep cutting up that celery!

Stalked!!

OMG!  I can not go on to my home page without that grumpy old guy who thinks you need to buy a house or insurance or something showing up.  Every day, every time I open the darn page.
And now he turned up on Facebook.  That's right.  There is no escaping him.  I tried to capture his picture to post here but it didn't work.  You know how they have pictures of the most wanted?  He is the least wanted.
To make matters worse, now he's sending his brother.  Another grumpy old man but I don't think he has any teeth.  I tried to capture him too but it kept turning the cursor into a pencil so I would sign up for something.  Probably hawking the same thing as his brother.
I don't want old men showing up on my computer screen uninvited. It's just....well, icky.
I think it's safe to bet that nobody wants those two showing up on their screen, not even grumpy old women.
If I was ever going to click on one of those ads(and I never am no matter what I swear on a stack of Bibles) it would never be one with a creepy old guy.  They should opt for some good looking old guy--like Sean Connery--yeah, he would work.  Then lots of grumpy old ladies would open it for sure.
But not me.  I never am going to click on an ad on my computer screen no matter what, no way, no how.....wait a minute, did I say Sean Connery?  Hmmmmm.