January 16th

For 25 years I celebrated January 16th as my husband's birthday. After he died it was a day I dreaded because it signalled the beginning of the end of the short battle he lost to pancreatic cancer in 2002. That all changed last year.

My chosen sister, the woman that's been my best friend, muse, writing partner, sounding board and the only person that ever really has understood me (including my husband at times), indirectly gave me the best gift that anyone could have on that date. Indirectly because the one that gave me the gift was her daughter. She had one beautiful daughter and was pregnant again. The baby was due in late March, but due to complications and medical reasons that are too complicated to go into, she was induced.

On my cell phone on January 15, 2008 was a message from that wonderful young woman, "I don't care if I have to cross my legs, this baby will be born on Corky's birthday". I cried. And on January 16th after a battle that was hard fought, she kept her promise.

So now, January 16th has a new meaning to me. It's a new beginning and on January 16, 2009, that beautiful baby turned a year old. She's had a hard battle this year. Spent the first months of her life in the hospital, fought off an infection that at the least could have caused her to lose a limb and at worst could have killed her. Thanks to the attentiveness and closeness of family it was discovered soon enough that neither happened. Now the little beauty is walking and talking. She's a year old and I can't be happier that January 16th is a date that I can once again look forward to celebrating.

Happy Birthday Miss Gracie.

Leonard Cohen to perform in NYC on February 19th

I wonder if Jonny will be there in the audience?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran folk singer Leonard Cohen, forced back on the road after his business manager lost his retirement savings, will play his first U.S. concert in more than 15 years next month, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The 74-year-old Canadian icon will perform at the Beacon Theater in New York City on February 19. Tickets for the show at the 2,800-seat venue will go on sale on Friday.

A spokeswoman said she could not yet provide details of any additional shows.

Cohen has been on tour since May, playing shows across Canada and Europe. He is about to begin a trek through New Zealand and Australia. After his previous tour in the early 1990s, he retreated to a mountain near Los Angeles to become a Buddhist monk.

He resurfaced in 2005, claiming that his former manager and lover Kelley Lynch misappropriated more than $5 million, reducing his retirement account to $150,000. A Los Angeles court awarded him a $9 million civil judgment, but he has reportedly not been able to collect from Lynch.

Cohen rose to fame in the late 1960s with his poems, songs and novels steeped in detached romance. His half-sung ballads such as "Suzanne," "Hallelujah" and "Bird on a Wire" have been widely covered by other artists.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Only you can help save Hillary!

Okay, I had to laugh at this article....it's completely (I hope) tongue in cheek and it gave me a laugh....

The Powers that Be
Doug Powers
Posted: January 12, 2009 1:00 am Eastern© 2009

Have you ever seen a liberal politician in need and wished there was something you could do to help? Me neither, but on the off chance you're one of those people, this is your opportunity.

For the price of just 15 cups of coffee – at Starbucks – you can help save Hillary Clinton from having to personally pay off her campaign debt, all while watching Jon Bon Jovi perform.

On Jan. 15 – this Thursday – "A final evening in support of Hillary Clinton for President Debt Relief" will attempt to rid our nations newest secretary of state of her remaining $6.3 million campaign debt. In the good old days, that amount was nothing that $20 worth of cattle future investments couldn't have handled, and it's the best evidence of how our ailing economy has harmed even the wealthiest and well connected of our illustrious public servants.

Remember when musicians put on concerts to help people who were actually in need? Now we're having concerts for rich politicians. This is pathetic, shameless and true to the Clinton tradition.

Tickets for the event range from $75 to $1,000. This means that, if the fundraiser is run in accordance with government math, all Hillary will have to do is sell 100 of the $75 tickets and 25 of the $1,000 tickets, and the entire $6.3 million debt will be considered paid in full.

I'm almost tempted to donate. One of my greatest fears was to see Hillary Clinton as president, and that didn't happen due to the many, many mistakes that were made by the Clinton campaign – and I hate to see that brand of incompetence go unrewarded.

Hillary Clinton's hope and dream was to be president of the United States, and that dream was dashed. It's a sad story, and no doubt this fact will be camped up to the nth degree at the fundraiser.

I picture the evening opening with Hillary sitting in a mud pit with flies buzzing around her head while a weepy Sally Struthers whimpers into the camera, "It takes a village to bail out wealthy politicians whose dreams were dashed … please help!"

Dinner and dancing will follow, and as the DJ plays some up-tempo music, look for Bill Clinton to show off his Samba, Merengue and Cha-Cha moves – also look for Hillary to throw a coffee mug at Bill after she discovers that those aren't dances, but the names of three strippers Bubba brought to the fundraiser.

Then Sally will introduce Jon Bon Jovi, who has fast become the Bob Hope of liberal political cause celebres.

I managed to get my hands on the setlist of songs Bon Jovi has re-written exclusively to perform for Hillary and the liberal audience that will be in attendance. If you're going to Hillary's bailout bash, here's what you can expect to hear:

"Livin' on a (completely voluntary) Prayer"
"I'll be there for Hsu"
"Blaze of Gloria (Steinem)"
"Lincoln's Bedroom of Roses"
"You Give Love a Bad Name" (dedicated to Bill)
"In and Out of Love" (dedicated to Bill)
"Social Disease" (dedicated to Bill)
"Last Cigarette" (dedicated to New York Mayor Bloomberg)
"I'd lie for you"
"Born to Be My Baby"***
"Rodham Cowboy!"
Encore: "Hillarycare" (formerly "Bad Medicine")

***Note: "Born to Be My Baby" was dropped from the scheduled setlist after event organizers learned that the president of Planned Parenthood would be attending the concert.

Rainy Tuesday and Bon Jovi

So I spent my morning trying to find a job. Actually got a couple of resumes out to companies hiring and now I have to wait and see if I get any response. Once I was done with that I wandered over to Hath's site to see what was happening and she had this incredibly simple chocolate cake recipe. Sooooo, I had to try it. I wasn't particularly impressed with the results, but with tweeking, I think it can be much better. Here's the link.

http://thegoddesshathor.blogspot.com/2009/01/5-minute-chocolate-mug-cake.html

If you try it, use mini chips, the regular ones sink right to the bottom.

And from there I ended up at Big Apple Jovi's site. How did I miss her site before????? Why am I mentioning her site? Well, she has a picture there and a ticket stub that caught my interest. Holy Shit. If it's her ticket stub I'm jealous as all hell, because it's for the softball game that was played at Al Lopez Field in Tampa in 1987. I wanted to go. I intended to go. We had one car and hubby wouldn't take me. That was back when I was a closet Jovi freak and he didn't like them, HATED THEM even. I miss the hell out of that man, but I don't miss having to hide my Jovi obsession.

Updated and Addicted

Amber's updated. Still working on the new story and it’s going very well, however, you won’t see it until I’m satisfied with it, so be patient. It’ll be worth your wait.

And I'm addicted. Okay, well, to a number of things actually. First, I'm addicted to chocolate. What woman isn't, right? And those that know me and especially those that have been to my place know how strong my addiction is. My usual 'drug' of choice is Dove Dark Chocolate Promises. Love those little morsels of delight. Then come the Lindt Dark Chocolate Truffles. YUM!

However, I've a new addiction, well, two. The first is Lindt's Dark Chocolate bar with Chili in it. I'd never have tried it and never considered that combination if it hadn't been for Johnny Depp and the movie Chocolat. If you haven't seen it, find it, rent it, whatever. It's as good as the combination of sweet dark chocolate with just a hint of spicy kick that the chili gives it.

The second is body butter, that rich, creamy stuff that makes your skin soft, moisterized and smelling wonderful. Two of my good friends, Angel and Jovilynn came to visit in October and each brought me a pot of the stuff. Angel's was some Scottish stuff called Butter Me Up and it has this floral scent that's very pleasurable and I use often. Jovilynn brought one that smells of chocolate. It contains cocoa butter and gives my skin a wonderfully deep moisturized feeling and I spend the rest of the day wreathed in the scent of chocolate. Heavenly.

Which brings me to the reason I mention it. My addiction that is. You'd think two pots of body butter would be enough for the Muse. Nope. Avon is now selling it as well and so being a good Avon Rep, I had to try out theirs. Their liiv botanicals line of products are awesome anyway, but their moisture boosting body butter has a very light fragrance and saturates your skin without being greasy. I really like it.

They also had to go out and bring out a line of products with a chocolate scent. It’s actually called chocolate orchid (two of my favorite things) and they not only have body butter, but a moisturizing lotion, shower wash and scent mist. So I had to buy the body butter to compare to Jovilynn’s gift. Totally different. Where hers was thick and closer to pure cocoa butter, this is more on the line of light whipped butter and smells of chocolate, orchid and vanilla. Both Angel and I mourned the fact that Bath and Body Works did not have a chocolate line this Christmas and were therefore happy that Avon has one.

And that’s not even including the fact they also have a Strawberry Chocolate Truffle Bubble Bath now......

As an Aside: They do have other scents, it's just I'm hooked on chocoloate orchid. There is also Lemon Sugar, Honey Jasmine and Lime Lavender.