Good Riddance 2006

Except for a few high points, 2006 has been a trying year for the most part. I learned not to take anything for granted because anything can change in your life at a moment's notice. Here is how my year went and as Rosanne Rosannadanna would say: "If it's not somethin', it's another. It just goes to show you, it's always somthing"
January: My dog and I got attacked my 3 vicious dogs. I was bitten in the arm and cracked my tooth. My dog was seriously injured but somehow survived.

February: My Uncle had a catastrophic medical emergency and nearly died. He fortunately survived, which we are all very thankful, but he is struggling to regain his skills due to a debilitating stroke along with near death during emergency open heart surgery.

March: Someone in India cleaned out my bank account. I went to court as a witness in the dog case. I took a fun trip to South Beach with my girlfriend.

May: I had a cyst removed but it became infected and I was in agony for a few days.

May: Tommy broke his finger.

June: Tommy broke his arm.

July: One of my best childhood friends dies. This was devastating news. It really hurts. So sad.

July: My dog has 2 seizures necessitating $200 worth of tests.

2006 Highlight: Trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

August: Great trip to Vancouver Canada with my girlfriend where I accidentally (stupidly) ran up $500 of roaming charges on my cell phone.

September: I backed into the garage door, while I was INSIDE the garage. I crashed into the closed door and essentially destroyed it.

October: I completed the 38 mile Athens-to-Atlanta roadskate marathon.

November: A wonderful man, husband and father of 2, whom I had known very well, dies of cancer at age 41. The funeral was one of the saddest things I had ever witnessed in my life.

November: I get a speeding ticket and another violation for a total of $300 worth of fines.

November: Over Thanksgiving my purse, car keys, cash, credit cards and cell phone stolen while shopping

November: I find out my other Uncle has larynx cancer.

December: Things start looking up! Lions win State Football championships. I beat one of my fines in court. I have a wonderful Christmas.

Yeah, it's always something! I try to keep my spirits up and expect shit to happen.

Besides Christmas and the 2 vacations that I took with my girlfriend, it has been a sad year. The dog attack, the worries about my sweet Uncle, and the 2 deaths of friends have been the most difficult things. You just never know how quickly your life can change. I try to be thankful each day for my own good health, that of my children and my parents and my brothers and sisters. If anything were to happen to any of them, I don't know what I would do. So I do appreciate what I have now, which is 3 beautiful sons and a wonderful family. Happy 2007 to all of you! Kiss your kids, tell your parents you love them and call your brother or sister and tell them you are thinking of them.

Christmas 2006

This was the Christmas card I sent. I made it and Kenny printed them for me and created the border. After not sending any photos last year and not sending any cards the year the before, I was happy these came out so well.

It was a wonderful Christmas. Having my parents visit on Christmas proper was a rare treat. My good friend Pat was also spending the holidays with us. This is how I had the den decorated:
Here is my Christmas tree- a 8-9 footer that drank not one drop of water even though the bottom was cut. It is bone dry! It has to go very soon!

This year we had a lot more Christmas Eve presents than usual, with Pat visiting and my parents being here for Christmas.
This is a close up of the gifts under the tree.

Here is the Liguini Frutta di Mare I made on Christmas Eve. It was really delicious, a wonderful meal not soon to be forgotten. Molto bene! Buon Natale e felice capo d'anno a tutti di voi! Shrimp, scallops, clams and mussels in wine sauce over linguini, you really can't go wrong! Below are friends Kenny and Pat on Christmas Eve and my mom in the background and Tommy is "relaxing" on the couch. Santa brought me everything I wanted and more. Guess who got tickets to Cirque du Soleil? I guess I have been a very good girl this year! Honestly it was so much work preparing for these 2 days, but it was all worth it. We had wonderful food and lots of drinking going on. We played Scattergories, Pat's first time. She was okay...well I won except the rum and eggnog must have gone to my head because while everyone was on "W" I was on "C"! However even with allowing me 1/2 a point for my answers on that round, I still kicked everyone's jolly butts!
After our fine meal on Christmas Eve, the kids and my parents opened their gifts. I opened a few of mine but Pat and I saved most of ours for Christmas Day. After opening the gifts we went back into the dining room for Tommy's famous apple pie. I should have gotten a picture of his most perfect lattice crust. He actually made 4 pies this year- we had 2 and he gave the other 2 pies as gifts.

Santa Claus arrived - Greg and Andrew were up at 5:30 AM. I got up and 7 and there they were waiting....I am glad they have not grown out of that. I always got up in the middle of the night as a kid. Their father came over at 8AM to watch the opening of the gifts. Pat rolled her hungover self out of bed much later. We had coffee and muffins and not too long after breakfast, egg nog and rum, followed by rum and coke, then white wine. The others switched to then red wine, then beer, and then Amaretto. I made a fresh ham and all the trimmings on Christmas Day. We watched a movie and then football. My mother cleaned my toaster and inside the microwave. The baseboards also got a good scrubbing. It was all good! I am exhausted but this was honestly one of the best Christmases I have ever had. I cleaned up in the gift department as well, getting tossed way more than the usual trinkets I usually get. Happy 2007 to all!

Municipal Court

I have had the misfortune to go to municipal court 3 times over the past few years. It is mind-boggling how these sessions are run. The idea is to cram as many bad citizens as you can in a little room, give everyone a number and make them wait several hours for their name to be called. Professional court-goers know to show up 90 minutes early. If you show up on time, you are behind 200 other sinners.
The majority of the people at municipal court are minorities and immigrants. When the judge starts calling people forward, everyone can hear the loser getting reamed. This week, where I was at Suwanee Municipal Court, fighting an improperly transferred license plate fine, the judge was a real barrel of laughs. He said to some poor schmuck: "Where were you on December 6th? What do you think court date means? 6 months probation"! One man was wearing a tie, who knows maybe he was on his way to work? Well the judge decided to tell him off for wearing a tie: "I appreciate the tie, but it wasn't necessary, but I do appreciate the gesture. 6 months probation"!
The majority of the people there are trying to fight speeding tickets. Something that is quite impossible to do, due to lasers and radars clocking your speed. You cannot get out of a speeding ticket, contrary to all the popular myths circulating about this issue. What is confusing is that if you pay my mail, and avoid court, you lose the opportunity to plead Nolo, which I believe you can plead once every five years. This is supposed to somehow help with your car insurance company. So the only reason really to appear in municipal court to fight a speeding ticket would be to enter a plea of Nolo. A plea of "nolo contendere" means that the defendant neither admits nor disputes the charge, and is an alternative to pleading guilty or not guilty. This is also called a plea of no contest or, more informally, a "nolo" plea. "Nolo contendere" is Latin and literally means "I do not want to contend it." While not technically a guilty plea, it is made as a part of plea bargains and has the same effect as a guilty plea. For some reason the judge was lowering everyone's speed to 59-in-a-45, but not lowering the fine. This made me kind of mad because I paid my fine in advance, for a 63-in-a-45. Had I wasted the court’s time and mine and sat there for several hours, I could have gotten my speed lowered to 59 too, which may or may not impact my insurance premiums.
When I arrived 20 minutes early, I took my seat. There were already at least 100 dregs of society waiting. I was lucky to be sitting next to a very loudmouthed professional who collects speeding tickets as a hobby. First he says excitedly to all of us: "What are you here for? Speeding? Me too!! Where did they get you? Etc. etc" Then: "I was hoping my cop wouldn't show- then they have to throw it out- but that's my bastard cop over there with the glasses. Which one was your cop?" Myth number 1: The cops ALWAYS show! Suwanee has traffic court one night a week. They only have 3-4 cops, why would they not show up? In bigger jurisdictions, the police give out tickets with court dates based on their job schedule- that is, all of their tickets are scheduled for court at the same day and time.
The Mr. Professional Speeder had more tips for his captive audience: "Tell the judge your cruise control was on, that'll get you out of it". Okay. Then he told us all about a special strip that is illegal that you can buy in Canada that you put in your grill which jams the lasar. Okay, Canada here I come. He explained that although they are illegal, there is no way a cop will ever find it". I was loving this guy! A veritable fountain of wisdom! Then he started bragging about his radar detector. I told him that I read that the radar detectors do not work against laser and that Suwanee uses laser. He gave me this most excellent advice: "As soon as the device flashes "L", slam on your brakes! This worked for me today". I am telling you, we have got some real winners out there on the highways. About 5 of us had a great time discussing the nationally known speed traps in Duluth, as well as all our bad experiences in Duluth Municipal Court. A much bigger zoo than the one in Suwanee I might add. Honestly, I am embarrassed to say that I had a lot to contribute to that discussion!
Some people I have spoken to (mainly those who have managed to avoid municipal court) are not aware of the role of the solicitor. When you arrive and sign in, the clerk asks if you would like to speak with the solicitor. The solicitor is actually the prosecuting attorney and is NOT on your side. The way it works is that you can plead your case to the solicitor privately before seeing the judge. If the solicitor feels that your "story" is any good, he can recommend that the judge lower your fine or he can even throw the case out (rare). Usually, however, they tell you that your excuse sucks and good luck with the judge! In my case, with this not being a speeding ticket, rather a bureaucratic screw-up that resulted in me driving around for a year in an unregistered car, I was able to convince the solicitor of my innocence and he dismissed the case. I did not have to see the judge. He assured me that he NEVER dismisses a case. Actually when I first arrived in his office, he assumed I was there about the speeding ticket. He began lecturing me on what a bad mood the judge was in and that I should just give it up. I cannot imagine all the B.S. excuses these attorneys have to listen to. It must get tiring listening to an endless parade of us lawless lowlifes.

Happy Holidays everyone and watch your speed! Here's to a court-free 2007!

Lions State Co-Champions and it's the liberals fault!

The Lions tied the game with the Roswell Hornets. The rules state that there is no Overtime in a championship game, and that both teams become co-champions. It is really weird- no winner no loser. Actually no loser, just 2 winners. So you would think they would be happy, but everyone was feeling like it was 1/2 a championship, and disappointed to share the championship with another school. Do you always have to pre-fix your championship with the word "co"? Do you always have to qualify it? It certainly dampens the achievement, but it beats losing.

Roswell was winning 14-3 going into the 4th quarter. The Lions tied it up with just over 4 minutes left. When the announcer stated that both teams were to be co-champs, the crowd, unaware of the rule, went ballistic. The boys, instead of jumping up and down and celebrating (or crying) were walking around in a daze. It was pretty odd. I was afraid they were going to lose, just like the 1991 Braves did, so when I saw the 14-3 score, I figured it was over. I came back to look at the TV with one minute left and saw the score at 14-14! I was shocked! I assumed there would be sudden death, which always gives me agita. Then nothing happened and the announcer said both teams had won!


From the Gwinnett Daily Post, by Will Hammock
Sports Editor:

State policy kept them from fighting for an outright championship in overtime, but Armstrong (Lions Coach) said his team deserves the accolades of one that wins the title without sharing. After all, it was a GHSA policy that forced the deadlock. The players were just competing under those guidelines.

“They’re all happy,” Armstrong said of his players. “They realize they came charging back and they finished the game. They didn’t lose the game. We had the momentum going and if there was an overtime system, we felt like we had the momentum and could have won the game.”

Instead it was an unusual tie.

It was one of two in state title games on Saturday (the AA game also was a tie) that ended deadlocked, and it also left plenty of people at McEachern confused. The Roswell crowd immediately chanted for overtime, and were matched by the Lions’ faithful.

“I think a lack of information is what hurt the most,” Armstrong said. “If the announcer had made an announcement with a few minutes left about what happens if it’s tied, it would have helped inform people. I told our kids about it in practice, but I’m not sure a lot of them remembered.

“I don’t think any of the fans knew unless their kids told them. The biggest disappointment is there was no celebration. Our kids were a little better after we talked to them.”

Despite the outcome, Armstrong said he understands the GHSA’s policy on overtime.
“In basketball they play another period of time for overtime,” the coach said. “You don’t line up and shoot free throws. Basketball coaches don’t want to see that any more than I’d like to line it up on the 15 and see who can score. That’s not a true measure of how the game’s played. If you’re going to have a tiebreaker, it should be something like two, six-minute halves where each team has an opportunity to get the ball.”

As I said I do not know much about football, but I guess the feeling is that sudden death is not a true test of who is the better team. However, it is used all season long to decide tie games, so why not in the final game? A lot of people feel that this rule, which has been around since 1948, needs to be changed. I think the Georgia High School Football Association will be looking at it.

The stupidest thing I read in regard to this was on an AJC sports blog. A lot of comments blamed the tie and the no-overtime rule on "today's liberal feel-good parenting philosophy".

Actual Blog Comments:

"How come the state has overtime in the regular season but not the playoffs? Talk about backward but I guess that is Georgia for you. I know, it must be left wing liberals making the rules so everyone gets a trophy. That way nobody gets their feelings hurt if they lose"

" I know how i feel as a fan…disgusted, shocked, and absolutelu flabegasted that the “authorities’ could endorse such an idiotic rule. this is the same lame, liberal bozos that give us “social promotions” in academics…nobody is a failure…therefore nobody is a winner either…dumba**es!!!"

"Wow! What a debate. The fact is, that this rule is a terrible LIBERAL rule."

However in 1948, when this Georgia High School football rule was put into place, this parenting philosophy was absolutely unheard of. In fact the backlash against the "self-esteem" movement by many conservatives is really idiotic. Consider the reason for the self-esteem movement: In the 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, it was considered okay to tell your kid he was a jerk, stupid, lazy, ugly and fat. Parents would tell us, and all children that they were worthless, stupid and would never amount to anything. They didn't do it out of maliciousness, they just didn't know any better. As a result a generation of drug addicted, alcoholic, overweight prozac popping adults emerged. It became eventually clear to some psychology experts that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell your kid he was an idiot to his face, that maybe you should build up your child's self esteem so that he would not grow up feeling worthless. This spawned the "self-esteem" movement that right wing talk show hosts despise. They seem to not know from whence it came. So many generations messed up their kids by calling them names creating complete basket case adults. Perhaps some programs do take it too far. But I remember when I first had a child reading a parenting book that said that if my child brings me a picture he made, instead of saying, "geez, what a piece of crap, the lines are all crooked, your art sucks" thereby crushing his spirit, I should say "wow that's great, I like they way you used those colors"! To find something positive in whatever they were working on. As one who continually had my spirit crushed, and who has major head problems due to it, I like the self-esteem movement. But let me say this 1948 rule in football is NOT related because in 1948 there was no such thing as "cooperative games" and "self-esteem"! It was just not considered fair to base the State Championship on kicking field goals.

Worst to First: oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh....

No, a cow isn't dying. I am reminiscing about the wonderful 1991 Atlanta Braves season and how it reminds me of our high school football team's current run for the State Championship. The football team, the Peachtree Ridge Lions of Suwanee, the High School that 2 of my boys attend, are heading to the State Championship in Class AAAAA tonight. This was totally unexpected and I am all hyped up over it. I have not been this excited over a sports team since the Braves awesome season in 1991. I realize that the majority of my readers were not yet born in 1991, but insanity was the rule all over metro Atlanta.

It was the Braves worst to first and the city was in a frenzy. There were tomahawks hanging everywhere you went. Everyone was talking about the Braves, even non-baseball fans. I did all sorts of crazy things like buy an overpriced National Pennant winner tee shirt and stay up half the night watching the games. But the stupidest thing I did was head downtown to the Braves Ticker Tape parade.

As is tradition, a team winning the World Series is usually thrown a parade by its city. The Braves lost to the Twins in the World Series, but there was so much pride- the community was really so proud of this team - that it was decided to throw a parade anyway. The sentiment was to let them know that we didn't care that they lost the series! We loved them for all they accomplished.

I decided to show my support so I headed downtown with my then 3-year-old child who really wasn't walking yet and was kind of heavy. I got on Marta and it was packed. It was full of children ditching school. I nearly got trampled when I arrived downtown. I could not move, I could not walk in any direction. I have never been in such a huge crowd in my life- it was scary. Everyone in the entire city turned out. The estimates are that between 500,000-750,000 were at the parade. To this day, MARTA counts the Braves 1991 parade as its heaviest day of ridership. Due to this massive crowd, not many were able to see anything. There was mayhem and mobbing. I had envisioned that I would cheer as the players passed. Ha, well that never happened- all I saw was a urine-stained corner where my face was trapped in the Five Points Station. I was holding onto the the baby, my arms about to break, freaking out. The next day's headline read: "Bedlam reigns on Peachtree as half-million roar for Braves. Parade crowds, 15 deep, surge into street to touch heroes" It was bedlam all right! But we loved them and it was exciting!

I feel the same way I did about the 1991 Braves as I do now about the football team at Peachtree Ridge. I am NOT a big football fan. I don't really understand the game and find myself drifting off whenever I have tried to watch. Last season my sons wanted to go to the games, so I started taking them on Friday nights. I enjoyed the whole pomp and festivities of the game.

You don't want to mess with this guy, Number 76, Cameron Heyward:

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Note how much bigger he is than every one else on the field:


This year I started reading the High Schools sports pages. That whole 4 downs thing I thought I always knew, but NO ONE ever explained about the 10 yards! Duh, now I get it! I thought you had 4 downs and then if you didn't get a touchdown you lost the ball. If I can only figure out the punting thing...My sons are complete statistics nuts and know all the teams in the county and pretty much in the whole State of Georgia (and the colleges and the NFL). We attended almost all the games this season, because I enjoy those crappy nachos. Eventually our team lost 3 games to the 3 stronger teams in the 7-AAAAA division: Collins Hill, North Gwinnett and Norcross. We were actually excited and pulling for North Gwinnett, our old High School, also in Suwanee, which was having a record 10-0 season and at one point was ranked number one in the State.

The Lions came in 4th out of 8 teams in 7-AAAAA. They were never even close to being ranked in the top 10. The top 4 teams make the playoffs. The 4th seed always has to play a 1st place team, and they have to play as visitors. This is to bump them off easily and give the rightful top finishers a chance to move up. But predicted by sportswriters and everyone else to lose, they have won 4 straight play-off games.

Tonight they play Roswell High School for the State Championship. This is an amazing accomplishment for a school only 4 years old. I have lived in the same house for the past 13 years. My children have been re-districted to 3 different elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 2 high Schools. It is hard to get attached to any one school when you are never in one long enough. When they rezoned us to Peachtree Ridge, only very few families were switched there from our old school at North Gwinnett, perhaps only 5%-10% of the school. Going to the first PTA meeting was odd, because I didn’t see ONE familiar face, even thought I have lived in the same area for 13 years! I felt like I had been dropped in Kansas. Most of our friends were made through baseball and Cub Scouts while at North Gwinnett. We felt like outsiders. I think one good thing about the Lions run for the championship is it is going to bring a sense of belonging and cohesiveness to this school. The school has gotten tons of publicity this past week, including an article in the Metro section of the AJC about the school.

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2006/12/15/gwxridge1215.html


There have been at least 20 articles this past 2 weeks about the football team, particularly in the Gwinnett Section, since they are the only school left standing:

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2006/12/11/gwxlions1211.html

On Friday, my boys told me the football team paraded through the halls as the school went nuts. You can watch tonight's game at 7:30 on Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB). I'll let you know who wins. My son's are going with their dad. I will watch on TV. After attending last's weeks semi-final in the Georgia Dome, I need to avoid crowds for awhile, but that is a whole other blog entry entitled "Ethel and her neuroses"

It's beginning to sound a lot like whining....

Why is everyone acting so stressed? There are 19 days until Christmas Eve. There are only 10 days of work remaining: 3 days gift shopping, 1 day putting up the tree, 1.5 days writing cards, 2 days wrapping, 1.5 days cleaning, 1 day cooking = 10 days. You have 19 days to get 10 days worth of chores finished! You can drag your ass and still finish with time to spare! So enough of the bitching and complaining!

The boys did a wonderful "Christmas Vacation" job on the outside lights. That is the first time I gave up control, handed them the lights and left. It was liberating to have one of my traditional holiday chores be done by someone else and be finished 3 weeks early.

Here is the breakdown so far: 1 day planning my budget and gift list (to which I ignore), 1 long day in the mall, 1 day online shopping (1 Overstock order, 1 Amazon order, a couple of ebay orders) and 1 day pre-cleaning (when the parents are coming you have to pre-clean so that you can be prepared to actually clean closer to their arrival- you simply remove the top 3 layers of dust,but be sure to leave the final layer for Cleaning Day). Thus, I have put 4 days in so far.

The whole Christmas thing can be accomplished in 14 days. That is for someone like me to whom the entire burden of providing a beautiful Christmas for 6 people lies. I shop for 7 nieces and nephews, my sister, my parents, and my friends. I also shop for my 3 sons, so they wake up on Christmas morning to everything they wanted and more. I go out and buy a tree, drag it off of my car and set it into the stand. I try to bribe someone to help me get it into the stand. The worst part of the whole season is getting the damn tree into the freaking stand straight- relationships have crumbled over this issue alone. Then I drag the boxes up from the basement, put the lights on the tree, decorate the house including creating my famous pine bough centerpiece, plan and cook 2 elaborate meals, buy antipasto and chocolate and wine and fine liquers for the guests, write the Christmas cards, wrap over 120 presents, ship boxes all over the country, and scrub the toilets and de-mildew the shower. I draw the line at baking- sorry although I seem to be her, I am NOT Suzy Homemaker and there is not such thing as an EZ Bake Oven.

I do all of this with no help. And what do I get for my efforts? NOTHING!! Not one damn thing! Well not really true, they do toss me a few trinkets. Bitter? No! Bitching and complaining? NO! Why, you ask? Because there are 19 days left and only 10 days of work to do!