Happy Birthday!!! and Get Well Soon.

Happy Birthday! to:

George Washington.

My Grandpa.

My aunt Kary.

My cousin Tammie.

My niece Katie.

That's a lot of people in my family being born on Washington's birthday, I think.

In other news, my younger brother (of course he's younger, I am the oldest.  All my siblings are younger!) is in the hospital.  Seems he woke up Monday feeling a bit under the weather and also in some pain.  It went away.  He went to work.

The pain returned.  But subsided, after it had his full attention.

When it returned hard and heavy for the 3rd time, HE DROVE HIMSELF TO THE HOSPITAL.

PSA - Please don't drive yourself to the hospital.  You could be having a heart attack (he was) and end up killing yourself and taking innocent people with you (luckily he didn't).

So my 40-something year old brother goes to the hospital and they said he was "having a heart attack".  I guess while they were watching and testing?  They went in through the femoral artery and put a stint in and things straightened right up.  Then he was moved to ICU and spent 24 hours or more there.

After that he was being moved to an intermediate care room and hopefully released today or tomorrow.

I gotta tell y'all that this is scary.  He is young, he is thin, he has a nice fast metabolism and seemed to be in good shape.  What business does a young, fit 40-something have going through this?  It scared the crap out of me.

Hopefully, they will give him some answers and he will make the necessary lifestyle changes.

In completely unrelated news, it is Ash Wednesday.  I have been thinking and thinking of what I am doing for Lent.  For the past few years I have been taking a small amount of our food budget and spending it on things for the homeless.  I make up little brown bags with a piece of fruit, a handi-wipe, some crackers or granola, different little items and usually a little note with something positive written on it.  I take 4 or 5 a day with me when I go run errands or go to meetings or whatever and pass them out.

Our city council in all its wisdom has decided to fine people who panhandle and also people who give to the panhandlers.  What dicks.  I am so pissed about this I can't stand it.

Needless to say, there are a lot of behind the scenes local politics at play in this and I am going to find myself down there raising all kinds of hell about this.

But back to the issue of Lenten giving.  I prefer to make my Lent observance something about giving to others from what I have rather than "giving up coffee, cheetos, wine, chocolate".  That's not very meaningful to me.  Of course I can go 40 days without whichever of those items, but what will I learn from that?  What will I take away from my Lenten experience?  I want to make it a little more impactful for me.

And in another turn of conversation!  Try not to get whiplash keeping up!  : )

My Rachel Pie may be the only person who finds my choice of cake pictures to be hilarious.  But honestly, what could be funnier than a My Little Pony birthday cake from Las Vegas?

Let's celebrate life

Could we celebrate life and those who love it for a change?

I don't mean to be unkind or unfeeling, but seriously?  Whitney Houston is dead.  She is yet another in a long line of celebrity/performers who can't seem to get a handle on their addictions.  And that is sad.  But it is sad in a way that is different than mourning someone who gets hit by a train or dies of cancer.

Yes, addiction is a disease.  But it has a component to it that involves free will and choice.  And as sad as all this is, there is a part of me that just wants to remind people of that.  She was a smart woman and she knew that any time she picked up a pill bottle, it could be the last time.

I would like to take this opportunity to say how much harder it is for those that I know and love who work through their addiction on a day-to-day basis and have been doing so for 30 days, for 4 years, for 20 years, for 36 years. To make the hard choice, the not-near-as-much-fun choice each and every day, THAT is what we should celebrate.

I don't want to say too much and break the anonymity of people I love, but this is what happens when you get cavalier with your sobriety, when you think you can handle life alone, without your support system and without giving all the power over to God.  You take some of that power back for yourself and you can have disastrous results.  We as mere mortal humans have to know our place in the scheme of things.

So if you are one of the many, many out there struggling on a daily or hourly basis with addiction, please know that I celebrate you.  I celebrate you every time you think of picking up the bottle/pills/needle/whatever and choose to call your sponsor, or ask for help, or pray, or go to a meeting instead.  It may not get easier but it will get to be more of a first response.

I am not at all sure that I have the kind of strength and resolve it takes to beat an addiction and keep working on sobriety, so I stand humbly in awe of those of you who do.

You inspire me.

You inspire me to be better.  To keep working on myself to be the best I can.  To keep working to be healthier, spiritually, mentally and physically.

And to the others who might be reading that are still struggling and wanting to make better, healthier choices for themselves before the next wrong decision could be the last decision, please know that it is never weak to ask for help and support.  It is the strongest thing you can do, to lift yourself up and say "I am worthy".  Please keep striving and asking and praying.  Minute by minute, if necessary.  You are worth it.

Valentine's Day Surprises!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I know, I know, just yesterday I said how it isn't really a big deal in La Casa Lisa Pie any longer and what happened when I woke up this morning?

I went to the bathroom like most people do when they first get up and it took me a minute to notice that something was stuck on the mirror.

Here's what I saw:

Aww, isn't that sweet?  Those cute little boys from Glee!

It still didn't register that it was for me though.  So I was getting dressed and talking on the phone and headed to the kitchen to make my giant mug o'tea for the morning, while still on the phone with my wonderful friend Mom of the Peach and I went to the cabinet to get my tea mug and what did I spy on the shelf where the mug should have been??

A Valentine's card (with the promise of a home-cooked dinner!) and some beautiful flowers.  There are daisies, alostrumeriam and roses, all shades of pinks.  Just beautiful.

I am still on the phone and giving my friend a play-by-play of what is happening, too.  So I take my mug and go to the water dispenser to get instant hot water for my tea.

And look what I found strategically placed over the hot water button:

Hee!!  So I took my mug of hot water and went to the pantry to get my morning teabag of Scottish Breakfast.

And you will never guess what I found!

Another Glee Valentine in my tea box!!!

So of course, we are laughing and loving this over the phone still and I made my tea and went to the computer as I do each and every morning to do my email and check in on facebook, pinterest and One Kings Lane.

And sure enough!  One more Valentine on my screen.

And then I looked down at my keyboard:

How sweet is that?  Mr. Ed had to get up pretty early to sneak around doing this and not make a sound.  I was so surprised.

I can't wait to see what's planned for dinner.

In other news, I bought myself something off the Vermont Country Store  recently and just haven't taken pictures to show you.  Those of you who are my age may remember this.

Do you remember this?  Sweet Earth!  I have been so excited since I saw this on the VCS website and I finally broke down and ordered one.  This is the "woods" scents version.  Back in the 1970s there were also a flowers one and a grasses one.

I tried to get photos of the labels describing each scent but it's all shiny and glare-y.  From the left it is Sandalwood, then Amberwood and on the right Patchouli.  You can wear them individually or mix them as you wish.

I will check out the VCS site again and see if they carry the other scents or not.  Also, it seems like I remember there was some kind a Christmas-y holiday one too.

I just scoped out the google to see if anyone had posted pics of the original 1970s versions of the Sweet Earth and glory be!!  Of course, there are photos.

This first one is the Christmas-y winter ones, Frankinscence, Myrrh and Mistletoe.  It's in the newer version of the case.

Below is one of the older styles. The Rare flowers collection.

And here is a magazine ad for the Sweet Earth scents.

Makes me very nostalgic for all the great old cosmetic items from back in the day.  Do any of you remember Yardley cosmetics?  Love's?  Mary Qant?

Have a lovely Valentine's Day and remember that your friend Lisa Pie loves you!

Almost Valentine's Day . . .

and really?  Do I care?

Not so much.  I don't have a pretty crepe-paper covered shoebox all decorated up with heart doilies and glitter for all my friends to put their Valentines into.  I guess if my kids were little I would have more fun with Valentine's Day.  When the kids were little I used to decorate the house.  Actually, because Rachel Pie's birthday is 3 weeks prior, I used to put up pink and white streamers and balloons and stuff for her birthday and then afterwards I would add in the red and the Valentine's decorations.  It was fun for me to have lots of seasonal decorations up.  

But now?  Not so much.  Not that I am bitter or sad or anything, it's just another day and I hope that I do a good job letting people know I love them all the other days of the year and don't need to save it up for just one day.

Did any of you watch the Grammys last night?  Holy Smoke, there's nothing like the Grammys to make you feel like an old fart!  Who were all those people?  I hate it when I realize how uncool I am and how much I don't know about the new kids on the block!

Here are my thoughts on the Grammy Evening:

1. LL Cool J - looked smoking hot in his tux.  He was a fabulous host.

2. Starting out the evening with Bruce Springsteen, awesome move!  He was great.

3. There was a commercial for Mastercard, one of those "Priceless" ones, showing an older couple in Buenos Aires shopping and taking tango lessons and then actually getting out on the dance floor at the end with the professionals.  It was a perfect ad!  Loved it.  Do you think I can find it on youtube to share it with you?  Nope.  When I do find it, I will post it.

4. Adele!!!   She was wonderful.  Loved her.

5. Katy Perry looked better with pink hair than the blue.

6. Did you see the ad with Willie Nelson singing the Coldplay song?  It was so good.  Here, watch this:

I don't know what any of this has to do with Chipotle, but it's a great little film/commercial nevertheless.

7. Nicki Minaj - W T F ???  I don't really know what to say about her attire or performance.  And she sooo out-Gagaed poor Lady Gaga sitting there with a bird cage on her face.  But if that's the best Nicki Minaj can do, well, I have no hopes of seeing her at any future award shows.

8.  And believe it or don't, another ad!!!

9. And the BEST thing on the Grammys . . .

THE CIVIL WARS!!!

O. m. g.  I fell in love listening to them.  Beautiful voices, perfect harmony, it was soul-stirring.

Here's a link to the official video of the song they performed:

Have a happy Valentine's day or a happy Tuesday, whichever works best for you tomorrow!!

No words

Enjoy!

You're welcome

FINALLY!!!!

Those of you who have been with me since the beginning know what an epiphany this is.  Anyone else, just play along.

Remember how I am a tea hoarder?  You know I have whittled and whittled down my tea stash only to create a tea tin stash?  I can NOT bring myself to throw away perfectly good tins.  I have looked and searched and thought and thought of ways to recycle, reuse those tins and not much has come to mind.

And then I found this  Please, go check out this fabulous recycling blog.  Beautiful, creative and innovative ways to use found objects.

Here are a couple pictures of the tea tin lights

Before:

And after:

Very clever.