Egg Roll Art

Who knew?

When relatives visit us we make our semi-annual pilgrimage to the swap meet. Our swap meet in Mesa is the best for faux designer purses, cheap tools and t-shirts. My neice and nephew model the 2009 redneck collection above. Who knew a t-shirt could make you look so buff?

Fugly or Crafty?

I have a collection of vintage Christmas Elf ornaments. This year instead of putting them on the tree I made a centerpiece. My husband says it's ugly. I think it's cute.

Christmas Corn

Wow, we had a lot going on this week. My husbands family is in town for Christmas. His brother moved to Arizona this year and now lives three miles down the road. Part of the family is staying at our h0me and part of the family at their home.

Compared to my own family T's family is small. It consists of T's parents whom we call G&G, T's brother and his wife, and T's sister, her husband and two children, a boy and a girl. So there are ten of us in all. The grand kids are now college aged and are the life of the party for sure. Very smart, very fun. They are adored by all.

Logistics this week have been interesting. We've tried to get everyone together each day at least for dinner. We've had lots of activities around the house that mainly consisted of cooking, eating, playing scrabble. Jr. enlightened me on how to cheat on Scrabble online. Scrabble is my new addiction. The kids brought their laptops so we are laptop central in the kitchen.

Before everyone arrived I ordered some gourmet popcorn from Dale & Thomas. Awesome popcorn. Many exciting flavors. I figured I'd have it available for snacking throughout the week. What I didn't know was that the family loves to make their own snacks. What kind you say?....

.... popCORN balls, caramel CORN and peanut brittle.

I have more corn than a hog farm right now.

On top of all of the sugary popcorn snacks we also have available fudge, Peach/blackberry pie, german garlic sausage, deer sausage, pepper sticks and various cheeses. If this was not enough to start off a major farting contest, I plan on making bean soup with our leftover ham to be sure the week ends in an explosive digestive bang.

P.S. we are going out for Mexican tonight. Aiyeeeeeee!

Merry Christmas

I've been trying for weeks to get a photo of Gary in his elf hat. I just barely barely got this on his head and snapped a photo. This is as good as I am going to get.
Merry Christmas one and all.

Does this birthday make my butt look big?

Inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the hell happened.

- Cora Harvey Armstrong

Another year older - sigh.

Succumbed

I have succumbed. There was a time when I would never have dreamed that I would wear a Christmas sweater. I started to appreciate Christmas sweaters when I lived in South Carolina. I had a co-worker who wore one practically every day in December. She had some of the most adorable sweaters.

I must admit that I now own three Christmas sweaters and am trying to wear them in the next week or so because they will have to be retired to the sweater box after the holiday.

I don't know if I just hit a certain age and decided WTF I'm going to start wearing beaded, glittery Christmas themed shit but I'm accepting it now. In my own defense I only buy the good ones, not too ugly.

I always wanted to attend an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. I love to thrift and have seen my share of hideous sweaters on the racks.

I ran across an old article on the web where some women "re-mixed" some Christmas sweaters and made them into other "usable" items. I thought they were inventive and funny. See photos below:

A lamp shade.
A tea cozy.

My favorite, a tire cover.

A festive chair back cover.

Dang, I need to get to work. I'm sure my friends could use some wool tissue box covers or thongs for the holiday season.

Trimming the Tree

I usually use decorating my Christmas tree to boost myself into the holiday spirit. I get kind of scroogy and need all of the help I can get. I WISH the tree above was in my living room. That is actually from the lobby of Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas. I was there recently and the decorations at the hotel were stunning. My tree is a much smaller pencil tree that fits perfectly in the corner of the entryway to my home.

So far Gary the cat has been a good boy and not tried to climb the tree. He does however love to hide under the skirt and ambush passerbys when he gets the chance.

Every year I add an ornament or two to my collection. The tree is getting pretty full but I'm not stopping now. Many of the ornaments I have are gifts from friends or relatives and they remind me of that person when I trim the tree.

This week a good friend in Tucson gave me this beautiful western Santa ornament. I just love him. He's holding a ristra of horseshoes and even has little spurs on his boots. Too cute.

I also love his chaps.

Of course I love cats and this fat cat ornament always makes me smile.

Here is my chubby mistletoe fairy. The ornament itself is quite heavy but I just love his little face and body.

I didn't realize that I liked fairies so much but here is another favorite of mine.

The Santa below is a gift from a friend in Ohio. This was shipped to me last year but this is my first year displaying it. He of course is another Western Santa.

He is pretty cute and all decked out in a a Southwestern themed outfit complete with a silver western belt buckle.Thanks to friends D. from Ohio and K. from Tucson for the addition to my holiday decor. Thanks so much for thinking of me.

About Me

I must confess, I read alot of other peoples blogs. I'm sort of a blog voyeur and don't participate alot but love reading about other people and their lives especially if they are interesting or funny. Photos are good too. I have a hard time reading blogs without photos.

I have a good friend of about 20 years who recently sent me a questionnaire to complete and provided her own answers for me. We've all seen them but I thought I might get brave and "participate" on my blog for all to read. I've added a couple of questions that another blogger asked of me.

Normally my answers are most interesting when expressed through interpretive dance but since I am not about to end up on youtube, forget about it. Please know that the names and images have been changed to protect the innocent. Now you can see how boring I REALLY am.

Here goes:

1. What time did you get up this morning? Wow, burning question that everyone wants to know about me. It was the weekend so I was awake at my usual time 6 am but laid in bed with my eyes closed for about a half an hour and then finally rolled out of bed. So - 6:30.

2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds dah'ling. Not that I have many but I love my wedding band and it has diamonds. Pearls, I do wear them but mainly just some tiny tiny earrings. I'm not as blingy as I would like to be.

3. What is your favorite TV show? Currently True Blood. The season just ended and I loved it. Excellent characters. For those who must know, I also love Dexter, Mad Men, Oprah, South Park and The Simpson's. Thank goodness for DVR or I would never see any of these shows.

4. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The new Bond. Quantum of Solace. The name of the movie is lame but Daniel Craig is pretty hot. Love his blue blue eyes.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Coffee with vanilla creamer.

6. What is your middle name? Jean, rhymes with mean.

7. What food do you dislike? There are not many foods that I do not like but my Mom's famous "Texas Sheet Cake" comes to mind. I fondly call it Texas Shit Cake - Sorry Mom.

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I'm still loving the White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan. Rockin'

9. What kind of care do you drive? A Toyota Prius. I love this car for the gas mileage. I drive alot.

10. Favorite Sandwich? I'm not a big sandwich person but when visiting Dayton Ohio I always love a Tuna Sub from Milanos.

11. What characteristic do you despise? Arrogance.

12. Favorite item of clothing? Flannel Pajamas or my fleece bathrobe, I wish I could wear them all of the time. See my Ativar, that's what I look like when I am most comfortable.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? FIJI. I've never been there but the photos look so nice. That's me in the photo, getting my groove back. (and I'm married so of course, that's my husband too hoping he doesn't have to keep paying for trips to Fiji just to get my groove back)

14. Favorite brand of clothing? Currently that would be any brand that fits my body. I do like Kasper though for work clothes.

15. Where would you retire? Retire? What's that? If I could retire I do like the thought of New Mexico. Placitas or Santa Fe would do.

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Yikes. I don't like a fuss for birthdays. I can't remember a memorable one. I'm sure it involved cake, tequila and Riverdance.

17. Favorite sport to watch? People watching. I love to watch people at the mall or airport. I love to watch what they wear and try and figure out what sort of person they are or are trying to project. (I AM a spy after all.)

18. Are you a morning person or a night person? I am a morning person by habit. I loved being a night owl when I was younger but once you become a responsible adult and have to be to work on time it changes you into a morning person. I have a hard time sleeping beyond 7 am but have a hard time keeping awake past 10 pm. How boring is that?

19. What is your shoe size? Depending on the make of the shoe 7.5 to 8. Inquiring minds want to know.

20. Pets? I have one fat cat named Gary who is the love of my life (besides my husband). I am his slave and he knows it. The cat's slave that is.

21. What did you want to be when you were little? An airline stewardess. I thought that would be the coolest most exciting job in the world. (It's not as exciting as a career in insurance though sheesh.)

22. What is your favorite flower? I love Roses. In my younger days a friend and myself went into the floral business and we specialized in Roses. (I need to blog about that) it was a good time in my life but I am glad I am not a flower vendor. You never got to enjoy Valentines day because you were working your ass off.

23. What is a day on the calendar that you are looking forward to? December 21st. My husbands family will be in town and we are going to the Desert Botanical Gardens for their Christmas Luminaria show. Las Noches de las Luminarias. This year there is an exhibit by Dale Chihuly and I am so excited to see it. I love his work.

24. What are you listening to right now? My Ipod (OK, I admit it's only a Nano) has a bit of everything on it. I have been listening to some older music lately - Lou Reed, David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust, Neil Young.

25. What was the last thing you ate? A nutritious Herbert Gourmet Chocolate Dark Turtle. Killer.

26. Do you wish on stars? Yes. I've seen a few shooting stars this year and wish on them every time. (I'm still not too rich or thin, which is my standard wish).

27. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? What kind of question is that? Light blue of course.

28. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My husband. He called to tell me there was a sign for a farmers market down the street.

29. Favorite soft drink? Dr. Pepper but my husband buys coke and I drink that quite a bit.

30. Favorite restaurant? So many restaurants to little time.... I like so many. Here in the Phoenix area I love Cafe' Barrio, Fez, Ticoz, Lisa G's. For chains I like the Elephant Bar.

31. Hair color? An odd mixture of Gray and Blond. I let my hair go natural the past two years to see how much gray I had. It doesn't look bad but I worry about looking too old. I save a ton of money not coloring it though.

32. What was your favorite toy as a child? It's weird, I don't remember a particular toy. I was never into dolls or stuffed animals. The only thing I can think of is maybe my banana seat bike. It was yellow and had a glittery banana seat. I'm sure it was second hand. It was great to have wheels.

33. Summer or winter? I'd have to say summer as I purposely moved to a warm state to get away from the cold.

34. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

35. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate - see answer #25

36. Coffee or tea? Coffee. I MUST have coffee in the morning. I love Starbucks brand. I picked up some Peets this week while traveling in California. MMMMMMMM

37. When was the last time you cried? I cry alot. I cry if I am happy, sad, angry or sentimental. I cry at cute commercials about cereal. I teared up yesterday while driving in my car. I was thinking about family. I'm tearing up right now just writing about it. I'm quite an emotional person.

38. What is under your bed? Besides skeletons, old cameras and probably some old crap that I could not sell on e-bay.

39. What did you do last night? Met my husband for dinner and then came home and watched TV.

40. What are you afraid of? Loneliness, Loss, another great depression.

41. Salty or sweet. - Salty, must retain water, I live in a desert.

42. How many keys on your key ring? Two

43. How many years at your current job? Three

44. Favorite day of the week? Saturday. I am always happy to have a day off of work.

45. How many towns have you lived in? Let me name a few....New Orleans, Lawton Oklahoma, Biersdorf Germany, Dayton Ohio, Tulsa Oklahoma, Hilliard Ohio, Conshohocken PA, Albuquerque New Mexico, Spartanburg South Carolina, Houston Texas, Phoenix Arizona.

46. Do you make friends easily? Not really. I always proceed with caution but once I make a friend I am pretty loyal and have some long standing friendships.

47. Where did the blog name Cornflake Girl come from? I love the Tori Amos song Cornflake Girl. Mostly I love the piano intro. If you listen to the song I'm probably more of a raisin girl but Cornflake Girl sounded better.

48. Are you really a spy? No Jason, I just play one on my blog although I love to watch people and read other peoples blogs which I guess could be considered a form of spying. When I was a little girl I loved reading the book Harriet the Spy. I so wanted to be like Harriet with her little notebook. I guess I am a little like her except the notebook is in my head.

Wow, finally finished. I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about me. Just the fact that I spent a couple of hours on this blog should tell you something..... I hope it was not to tortuous. I had no idea that I could actually answer 48 questions about myself.

Have a great weekend.

The Leavings

Well, Thanksgiving is over and all that is left is the "leavings". We had WAY too much food this year. My cousins who are excellent cooks were in town and created some wonderful dishes. My sister-in-law brought over her specialties and I made a few of my own. The problem is storage. My fridge was and still is so close to an avalanche. My husband and I need to start eating leftovers pronto.

Thanksgiving was so good. We had turkey with root vegetables. I personally had never eaten fennel before (that I know of) and I have declared it pretty tasty. We had a beautiful spinach souffle, roasted butternut squash, cranberries, Bourbon sweet potato casserole, devilled eggs and the list goes on.

After a whole day of prep it took us about 10 minutes to be full. We could only put a spoonful of each on the plate because we wanted to try a little of everything.

The cousins have now left and I am sitting in my bathrobe blogging and thinking about getting out my Christmas decorations. On to the next holiday.

Turkey Eve

Ohhhh, can you smell it? Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I am always thankful for good food and good company. I have cousins coming to town to spend Thanksgiving with my husband and myself. My husbands brother and wife will be here also.

I'm supposed to have a half day at work and I need it to really be a half day as I have not finished cleaning the house. I also need to pick up a few more items (wine).

I'm ready for a few days of R&R.

Get ready because the holiday season is almost here!

P.S. Happy Birthday to my Wisconsin sister F. I hope your 45th year is monkey free.

Twilight - The Book

I just finished reading the vampire book Twilight. I know it was written with teenage girls in mind and I can see how it would be appealing to them. So much pent up desire for the cute bad boy at class. I enjoyed it. The book was a pretty easy read and I enjoyed the premise. I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. I like to do this so that I will have my own images of the characters in my head. It seems that once I see a movie, then I visualize the movies characters instead of my own.

I look forward to the movie and reading the next book in the series.

You're Pitching

Uncle Frank and Grandpa Alex


This week another member of the greatest generation passed away. He was my Uncle Frank. A most wonderful kind man with a great sense of humor a big heart and a bigger family. He is one of my Mothers older brothers.


Uncle Franks passing has brought back a flood of childhood memories for me, most of them having to do with the wonderfully huge extended family that I have back in my home town.


When my family has a funeral it basically turns into a wonderful wake. The wake hits with floods of relatives coming to our old haunt at the Polish Club where the family drinks and eats their sorrows away. (The Polish Club in itself deserves a blog of it's own.)


It is hard living across country and missing the gathering. You miss so much more than a farewell funeral. You miss the introduction of new family members by marriage or birth. You miss the comedy and the tragedy of a large family. You miss the food, you miss the sharing, you miss the hugs. You miss the people who know where you came from and get your sense of humor that sometimes only comes with genetics. You miss the love.


Well enough about me and what I miss... More about Uncle Frank and my Uncle Henry. They both were funny guys who always had a joke and a story. Our family was old world old school, Polish style. I remember things like my Uncle Henry making sausage in his basement. (Best sausage ever) Simple pleasures were the best like Sunday get- togethers at Uncle Franks or by the river. At these events mass quantities of beer were consumed by the Aunts and Uncles and the kids ran and ran until we dropped. Our parents would inevitably drive home with sleeping children, exhausted by the days events, in the back seat of the car.


My Uncle Henry was the eldest son and Uncle Frank was the next eldest son. I remember my Mom relaying a story about Uncle Henry telling a joke to Uncle Frank before he passed away and today it becomes appropriate and funny in the way my family thinks things are funny. Uncle Henry

Here is the joke: Two old men had been best friends for years, and they both live to their early 90's, when one of them suddenly falls deathly ill. His friend comes to visit him on his deathbed, and they're reminiscing about their long friendship, when the dying man's friend asks, "Listen, when you die, do me a favor. I want to know if there's baseball in heaven."
The dying man said, "We've been friends for years, this I'll do for you." And then he dies.
A couple days later, his surviving friend is sleeping when he hears his friend's voice. The voice says, "I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that there's baseball in heaven."
"What's the bad news?"
"You're pitching on Wednesday."

As my older relatives pass away one by one and I become part of the "new" older generation I am consoled by the thought that these family members are reunited on the other side and that their legacy, by intention or not, are the children and the beautiful giant crazy family that they created. May they all rest in peace.

Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans day. My mother and her sister both enlisted in the Army after high school. Back then it was the Women's Army Corp. They called them WACS.


My Mom was small, under five feet tall. They had a hard time finding a coat in her size. Note that hers is a darker color than my Aunt.

They both enjoyed Army life and got to travel to parts of the world that they otherwise may have not been able to see at that time.

If it weren't for the Army my parents would not have met and I would not have been an Army brat with a love for travel.

God Bless our Veterans.

Honkey Love

Honkey 1, 2 and 3. No not THAT kind of Honkey! Honkey as in the honking stuffed sheep toy that my cat Gary LOVES! And when I say love, I mean love.

When our cat Gary adopted us at the animal shelter we did not want him to be lonely. I went to PetsMart and bought him this cute white stuffed sheep. If you pressed on his body it would make a honking sound. We named the toy Honkey.

Note the rip in Honkey 1? Gary removed the honker.

Gary really took to Honkey. He liked him so much he even humped the poor thing. (All of the time). I figured that at the rate he was going I would need some spare Honkey's so I marched back to PetsMart and bought two more sheep and stored them in the closet for later.

Notice how flat the first two Honkeys are compared to his new Honkey.


We think that since Gary was older when we adopted him that he was not fixed until he was mature. We think this may be why he humps his toys. He normally does a little dance on Honkey first (notice the flatness on the dolls) and then he falls down and humps it. He evidently loves an audience too since he frequently dances with Honkey when we have company. (He's not shy). We have watched as he has walked into a room with Honkey in his teeth and then drop it down on the floor and put on a show for visitors.

I may have to go on a Honkey search soon as we are on our final Honkey (Honkey 3). I did find a larger version of Honkey (Honkey Kong) at TJ Maxx onde day but he has no interest in it. I think it's too big for his taste.

Honkey Kong - too intimidating.

Gary & Honkey 2

Honkey love is the best!

Patriotic Small Town America

I liked this video so much I put it on both of my blogs. This one is dedicated to my sister Gitsy as I know she will cry when she sees it. Anything with kids and flags will get either of us emotional. We once broke down at the Liberty Bell together on a tour with some cub scouts. This video was taken in my new home town at the opening of our new public library. I thought it was wonderful.

Welcome First Family

Last night was an amazing scene from Chicago as I watched from my home in Arizona as Barack Obama won the presidential election. If you watched the screen last night you could see that the faces in the crowd included all colors. It was a beautiful emotional scene. God Bless America.