Fat is not catching....you cannot get it by touching a fatty....

Being that this is an editorial I will give my views on the subject.
Ms. Crone here to report on a shameful incident.

Prejudice in any form is just unacceptable. It matters not whether it is race, color, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, disorder or body size. The very first lesson learned by this reporter was that there are three things one must achieve in order to be a good person (thing in my case). Tolerance, kindness and self love. If one has all three of these attributes then one can be accepted and move about within just about any group. Or so I thought.

Picture in your mind a nail salon, with all manner of "pretties" getting fluffed and pressed to perfection. All kinds of pinkiness and sparkles galore. Also picture a pair of large, loving, happy woman entering said nail salon. All eyes turn to them and they are asked what services they require. Younger woman speaks for the pair and gives them the request. Older woman seats herself and waits to be called.

Water for the pedicures is ready and both woman are called back to the spas but the younger, less large woman is seated and attended to immediately by the owner, who barks out orders to the others, while the older, fatter woman must seat herself and wait and wait and wait, because the nail persons are pushing each other out of the way to "not" have to wait on Ms. Fatty Fattikins. Finally a poor attendant reluctantly starts to work on Ms. FF's toes and feet.

Ms. FF who is an affable and polite person tries to engage the attendant in conversation to show that they need not be fearful......but to no avail. No interaction. Silence is deadly as they say.

Younger woman's look entreats the older woman that all is well while Ms. FF is so hurt by this slighting that the tears of anger start to roll down her cheeks. The worst part......no notice, no apology, no matter.

Both large woman are finished and young woman is helped with toes separator thingie removal, shoes applied and helped to stand.....old fat woman has to do it herself. The best part.....no tip, no return.

But, this is not the first time this prejudice has been silently applied. Mean people suck and fat is not catching.

**** the next time you see a fatty...under all that blubber (probably of self loathing not lethargy) remember Ms. Crone's admonition....that in fact...nice matters and a smile won't kill you.

Don't forget to go to Olde Baggs n Stuft Shirts tomorrow for The Mad Tea Party.................

We have an announcement to make...seriously.......

Due to circumstances that were within our control but simply got away from us because we are not organized enough or some other piece of misinformation.................we will only be reporting on Fridays through the rest of the summer.

I know, I know, keep it down. The management has asked us to announce this so that we won't have any subscription cancellations due to non-delivery.

You'll get your monies worth when September comes along. It's only for the remainder of the summer.....a hiatus/ taking a break /vacation /time out /get our s#*t together /coulda, shoulda, woulda kinda thing. You will get all the enlightened details and intriguing nuances of life with a bedbug and a very old crone, Asbergian waxings and comments on the world, kiddo adventures and whatever other nonsense is afoot. All the same old, same old but fewer and further between.

That however does not mean that the management won't be taking coffee breaks and checking out what "yous guys" and ya'll are doing. Be well, happy summering, carry on.

Lookie what we found while cleaning up the faery garden today........

Tomorrow evening we will have lavender tea and fresh mint cookies. Watch for the fae and leave them some giftees of thimble cookies and new houses and sparklies in the garden on the north side of the house.

So traditionally, Shelley, the grands and I clean up the garden and make sure all is at the ready for the festivities. Pruning back the huge crop of volunteer sunflowers and hollyhocks. Pulling the grass that insists on making it a meadow instead of a garden. And just making sure it all looks lovely for our summer party. The adult turtles were interested in us cleaning and watering and came to pay their respects......just in case we brought cantaloupe, apples, grapes or dog food. We have a respectable gathering of older ones and 2 of the three triples we showed you last year showed up for a feed as well.

Shelley is the chief weeder now as my knees have gone on hiatus and as she was giving an attitude adjustment to an unruly hollyhock, she happened across a baby turtle at the very base of the plant. We all squealed with delight at how tiny and miraculous he/she is with it's egg beak still intact. This young one probably hatched a month or so ago. Her name will of course be Holly, or his name will be Hocker.

Faery on dear ones and happy mid-summer, Litha, Summer Solstice. XOXOXO

Be vawy, vawy quiet....this is just between you and me.

Please click on the link....here and make sure no one else is looking over your shoulder. Come along now and see what I have for you.

Ms.Crone found............

As you may have noticed, I, Ms. Priscilla Winifred Hortencia Baggs, have been absent from my reporter responsibilities as of late. I shall now tell you of my terrible tale of woe and torment.

I am a good employee. I try not to put pressure on my employer as to the state of the office but from time to time....well I must say it does get a bit much. The drawings and projects and busy work on something called Etsy and Facebook (although I still cannot figure out where to put one's face on what book) are all taking over the presentation of a quality gazette, if you get my drift. So in the mayhem that ensues here...kids, dogs, cat, Linda, the snoring man and "the rules" woman also known as the MOM, these lovely folks lost me.

I mean really. How can one just misplace another one? Answer me that one Riddler. No one had seen my sweet self in something like weeks....no lunches, no assignments, no fun, no terror at the hands of block sets and dinosaurs and rabid monkeys. There were no special assignments like the park, the mountains, the museums and haunts of the members of Casa de Cuckoo....they just lost me.

Tossed aside like a carved wooden figure with over sized.....er feet. You know my employer has been trying to "organize" her life and in the process has lost her mind. But we found that yesterday as well in the dustbin. I was in hell in a box with the "things" for selling on Etsy. Of all the nerve! I don't look anything like jewelry bits or crockery or dolls (oh maybe that's how it happened, but never mind).

When I threatened my employer that I might have to quit if things didn't get any better around here....she just laughed and said I was going to get another trainee. Can you believe her gaul? First she loses me and now I have to train someone else? And I got a look at the new employee....sheesh....

More to follow next Friday.

On a more positive note....there is a bit of excitement on LindaOma'sOldeBaggsnStuftShirts tomorrow, you might want to take a look at the Mad Tea....that they filmed sans moi.

Oh my aching brain..........

I've had three days of migraines.....haven't had any in months.....what is going on? I know the burning of Arizona has a lot to do with it but it is more than that. I feel like I should eat my own leg off or something. I'm trapped in my own head. Too much to do...not enough time or energy to complete it all the way I would like...blah,blah,blah.

I have lost more things than I have found since we moved my crapee around again. That is just a statement of fact. I'm old, I like things the way they've always been....NOT. I just can't find stuff. You know important stuff.....like...stuff. The stuff I want to play with stuff...the stuff I left out so I could find it and now it's lost....stuff.

I spent the morning fighting with the aura in my eye vs. the computer screen as I typed out mailing labels for my giveaway and for the orders from Etsy for which I am so thankful. And when I went to look for the container I have the patriotic "Not quite right hearts" to work on.....missing stuff. So I went to find the boots I bought to paint....missing stuff. Then I said I'll go into the garage and find the dolls I am going to us for Dia de Los Muertos.....oh hell no. You cannot even walk down the path of least resistance in that pit. psssssst. probably where all my missing stuff is but it's over 100 degrees out there so I closed the door and decided to blog and complain where it was cool.

Sweet Man is home today....a day off for him. Poor thing he's working way too hard for an old guy. He gets home at 1 am, I'm sleeping. He comes to bed and then I'm awake until dawn's early light. I get up and get the kids ready for program which btw is kicking their collective butt cheeks. More activity than they had seen at school all year in just a couple of days...they were like zombies this morning. SM gets up at 8ish and then he took them to program so I can work on the mailings. He came home and bless his heart he is so tired he fell asleep on the couch....you know I love to hear him snore. Crazy huh? The problem is is makes me sleepy too and I have so many things to look for and not find....I can't be taken a nap.

Speaking of zombies...which I know alot of you like to do, last week Thursday night.......the smoke from the forest fires has given us some pretty fantastic sunrises and sunsets...alot look like tie dye. Shelley tells me when she got home from taking the kids out..."Mom, the sun is orange, the sky is lavender and it looks like the apocalypse....I expected to see zombies coming in herds from the west". ROTFLMAO. You know there sure are alot of funny people at my house. Hmmmmmmmmmm wonder why?????

New development....the dog Ellie also known as elemenopee, who we have had since July 4 last year has started to talk. No really. I'm gonna have to figure out how to video this stuff cuz it's funny. She is definitely GK's beast and when the kids close the door on her cuz she eats all the junk on the floor they are playing with, she will literally lay down by the door and say, "I want you, I love you". The first time I heard her I thought it was GK doing it. GK has been saying this to the dog for 11 months now and the dog is giving it to her in spades.....hehehehehe. If she starts saying "please", I'll let ya know.

Morning Bray Farm rocks.................

Don and Justina are a fabulously friendly, warm and welcoming couple. They introduced us to Da Boyz (donkeys), the kids (their dogs), the goats and the ducks and made us feel like old friends right away. We had a blast.

Don and Justina looking at themselves as King Oberon and Queen Titania

 Ry and Gerea just couldn't get enough of the long ears and even got to go for a ride on Big Red.

GK had let me know that she was dreaming about someday being able to get to ride Ellsworth and today her dream became a reality. We were all surprised at the generosity of  Morning Bray offering the ride. She looked so good riding and Ellsworth's Mom, Justina told GK she looked like a natural in the saddle. As is the case with our beautiful girl, the animals just took to her. She had an instant friend in Ellsworth and Fergus. Kisses, brushing, scratching and loving them just looked like what she does everyday. It was a wonderful thing.

Ry has come a million miles in his trust and faith in things. Just this last week he touched goats for the first time and today he touched all the donks, rode on Ellsworth, fed Da Boys watermelon and brushed Fergus, made himself at home with the goats (they didn't much care for it but he was oblivious) and went about building a most interesting teepee out of sticks in the front yard while the ducks kept their eye on him. He really took to Don and wanted to help him do everything. Told Don he wanted to grow up to be  a farmer.

Those of you who don't follow MBF need to know that Bernard is quite a huge goober and has quite a personality but today well he wasn't really accepting (except a Paco treat) of something else smaller than him in the coral and just wouldn't have a thing to do with any of us. Ellsworth is a gentle soul, Patrick is new to the bunch and still adjusting, Fergus and Nigel have only been at MBF since September. Nigel's still is a little standoffish although he did allow Ry to give him watermelon and GK to touch him everso briefly,  but Fergus couldn't get enough of Shelley or Gerea. At one point Fergus and Ellsworth made a Shelley sandwich, too cute.

We had a wonderful morning, a dream come true for some of us and a welcome visit for others. Don't you just love making new friends? It's one of those special moments in time.

Da Boyz and Mom reassuring them, they are good boyz

Thanks Don and Justina and Happy MidSummers Night Dream to you. smooches and squeezes to Da Boys.

Just another adventure tomorrow.......I think not.

Back a few months ago at Olde Baggs n Stuft shirts, we brought the plight of donkeys being used as roping "dumbies" to your attention and asked for your assistance in a letter writing campaign. Thanks to all who helped and thanks for all the good thoughts for the sweet donkey named Patrick. If you missed that post here's a link.

After Ry had fallen in love with Patrick because he voiced the thought that he and Patrick had a lot in common being outsiders. He was overjoyed when Morning Bray Farm bought Patrick out of his horrible situation and came to live with the 4 other long ears; Bernard (Barnyard), Ellsworth (Worth or now Big Red), Nigel and Fergus. The kids and I all gather around the computer every morning before school and check on Morning Bray Farm and all the dogs, ducks, donkeys and more, and Carson's place 7MSN where Alan, George, Lucy, the long ears and the gorgeous Hank the horse live with cats, a dog named Smooch, a pot bellied pig, chickens and wildlife.

Well, I sent the owners of MBF a drawing that Ry and GK had drawn of the objects of their affection, which are displayed on the side bar of MBF, thanks Justina and Don. After which, these lovers of animals we kind enough to invited us to come and meet the long ears.

It is all that Ry particularly has talked about for weeks....how many days until we get to go to MBF. He has been more excited about that than getting out of school or any other activity. Well tomorrow is the day. The kids baked donkey cookies today (called Paco treats), drew more pictures and helped with a MidSummer Nights Dream at Morning Bray Farm collage. The collage has all five of Da Boys heads on faery bodies, one of the new ducks on the Morning Bray logo and Don as Oberon and Justina as Titania. I think even the Bard would approve of the effort and background that went into the making of the gift. We even watched A Midsummer's Night Dream...which like all movies that Ry sees, he has memorized some of the dialogue....

I have had a love for donkeys, burros and mules since I was a kid. I have a collection of donkeys and carts, donkeys of all kinds and don't tell anyone but I may be more excited than the kids. So when we come back, I'll bore you with pictures, tales and tails.

So we drove very slowly past the prison.....

One of the advantages of still being in the same area that I grew up in and have spent the majority of the last 40 years, is that I have stories and information regarding just about every day trip that we make with the grands. The same thing is the disadvantage. Let me interject here that I have a trivial pursuit brain. Big stuff, important stuff has always run through the holes of my mental colander but the non important, tee tiny obscure stuff sticks like glue.

Oh sure, things have changed throughout the years in the state. Development, new sites, old haunts, cows and horses pretty much look the same as the other cows and horses we have seen before but honestly......it's my stories and Sweet Man's stories that embroider the grands trips. They like their mother will be boring someone else with the useless information about the Native Americans and their diapering techniques in the olden days, the train trips across country, the first time flights in small aircraft etc and so on and so on.

But there comes a time in every one's life when you hear these words, "you already told us that one before". And then the sweet little darlings add the statement (out of sheer fear or because they don't want to be told that what they just said was rude) "but we'd love to hear it again." Until recently, I hadn't encountered that scenario quite as much as we do with SM and the umpteenth telling of how he used to sneak in the back way to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, or the reason he hates limes is because as a busboy he had to clean ashtrays where folks had put limes and cigarette ashes or how he used to coach a basketball team at the YMCA.

And today instead of a moment of "oh hell, I've retold another one".....I got a backseat crowd of silence and then a million questions, as we drove slowly past the old prison. I struck oral tradition gold. And then they both got a little unsettled.....it was quite unique. Even Sweet Man said he had never heard that one before and had questions. She talks, she scores.......and the crowd goes wild.

On a field trip in Junior High we went to the state prison when it was still used to house inmates. We did a tour and then ended it at the gas chamber. All of the kids took a turn in going into the chamber. And as we did this, an incredibly tall man in a prison guard uniform said, "and I hated dropping the pellet every time". There were several of the kids who laughed, most were silent and me and two other girls cried and then threw up. I was and still am horrified that anyone would jack with kids minds like that. Every time I drive past that prison I think of "Lurch" and his mumbling about the deaths of all those men. Nothing I find funny at all.

GK had a million questions about the chamber, it's condition, why I had been upset, was I embarrassed about throwing up and did the other kids laugh at me??? All very typical responses for an 11 year old. She is at the "only the facts, ma'am" stage of life. Ry in all his Aspergian glory said to me, "Oma, next time we go to see something, let's go another way so your heart won't hurt". And then says to Papa, "we gotta be kind to Oma's little girl inside of her because even if she is a grown woman, that little girl inside her can still get her feelings hurt."

When the aliens come back that gave this precious little critter to my family in this life, I've gotta ask for more critters. More heart centered loving, kind creatures who have an empathic something built into their bodies. The only addendum I would ask for is that the creatures don't have to suffer because of their gifts and that we could help them better communicate. Although today, I'd say he said it just right.

There are days of course I would sell him and his sister and Sweet Man for that matter to the first passing gypsy but I'll tell ya what, this was not one of those days.

I am so blessed to be a part of his life. Stars what a day ya'll.

Maybe these thoughts could help your blogger woes...............

http://originalartstudio.blogspot.com/2011/06/comment-solution-worth-giving-try.html

This blog has a couple of ways to get around the no comment problem....try them. I used the second and viola I can comment and not be anonymous.

Information on a giveaway and 2 fun events..............

I do know that there are several of you who are "cross overs" from my other blog Linda Oma's Olde Baggs n Stuft Shirts and I also know some of you are scratching your heads and saying HUH???? What, she writes more drivel than this......and the answer is, "yes in deedy I do".

I wanted to invite those of you who would like to enter my second anniversary blogging giveaway to do so at this link and have a chance to win one of the Mermaid Environment Altered Art pieces I made. I'll be drawing the 3 winners names on Monday June 13th.

And then I'd like to invite you to the 4th Mad Tea Party hosted by the lovely Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist on June 18th. The grands and I will be participating and giving you our version of the lovely red queen and the madder than mad hatter. Come join us.

And then we are going to a secret location on Sunday and spending some time with some asses. And you know how I love me some donkeys, burros, mules,......and you thought I meant something else. Shame on both of us. Ms. Baggs the crone will be reporting early next week on our adventure so you want to make sure not to miss that fancy bit of reporting.

Wow, mermaids, asses, and tea parties.....our schedule is really full.....................of it.

A word from the oldies but warped................

"Water is just coffee that has not reached it's full potential".......COFFEE ON YA'LL

So here's a story from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far....oh no that's not it.

I haven't really given you a story or a tale in quite awhile and since this is a day of sharing friendship, I'll go for it and give you one from my childhood.

As the youngest by 11 and 12 years of three kids, I was raised basically as an only. My sister was married and out of the house by her senior year of high school and right after my brother graduated he went into the Air Force. So at 6, I was it.

I was a latch key kid starting right after I started first grade. Scares me thinking about it now but times were after all different back in the dark ages. I did in fact walk home a little over 3 miles from school, most of that distance by myself. I had all kinds of adventures and back roads to get home and kept myself entertained in ways that I would die if my grands told me they had done. I walked on railroad tracks, across route 66 and down too many alleys and pass thrus. They were all "short cuts" in a matter of speaking.

There was an Italian restaurant whose cook, a really chubby happy man, gave me rolls,  a Chinese place where I ate chow mein when they had cooked too much, a grocery store where I got the empty fruit crates and took them home to built things from them and my favorite place of all.....a house with three huge stone lions out front. It was a massive enclave with rolling lawns and pecan and walnut trees one which had this fabulous rope swing that you could fly to the moon on. And the most divine tiny flower garden under the window of an old lady who after awhile invited me in to talk. For a long time she would visit with me through her open window. No matter what the season. I remember going to see her in the summer and in the rain and when it snowed. She was the purveyor of magick for me.

She is the one who told me about the faeries that lived in the black walnut tree right outside her window. There was a huge hollow (probably from blight or something) at just about 6 year old eye level and she would hand me tiny cookies on a silver coaster and milk or tea in a tee weeny cup to place in the hollow. She taught me to respect and love the fae and know that they would do the same in kind.

Once I was invited inside, her house it was like a museum. When you walked the sound of your footsteps would echo behind you. She had a maid or caretaker who reminded me of Olive Oyl from Popeye, never smiled. The walls had paintings of the olden days and there were pedestals with statues of naked people and animals.

Her room was the palest yellow I had seen and the curtains were a rich cocoa color. She was so crippled that she never moved out of her wheelchair but her eyes were very animated and very childlike. Sweet, kind, dark blue eyes with green at the edges. Her skin was so deeply wrinkled she reminded me of my Mom's laundry in the basket before she hung it up to dry. And her room always smelled of roses and lavender.

Her name was Mrs. O'dell. I never knew she had another name. She told me she had traveled all over the world but that New Mexico had the best air for what was wrong with her and she loved the color of the light in autumn in NM best. She used to be a painter and many of the paintings in the foray were either ones she painted or by some of her friends. She asked me if I knew who Georgia O'Keffe was? Of course at 6, the answer was no. She showed me a painting of a big old flower and said it was a gift. (You can see that big old flower at the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe). They had been friends when she lived in northern NM before she met and married Mr. O'dell who she said had been gone several years. One day I asked her when he was coming back. She laughed so hard she cried. I liked seeing her laugh, her wrinkles disappeared and her voice was like a bird and she liked me because I made her happy. She was the first person to make me feel good about the real me.

I never rang the front bell but would, when I wasn't eating my way home, tap on her window. If she as too sick to see me, she would leave a note in her window which said to look in the hollow and there always was some something there....a polished stone, a pretty flower, a button, a thimble, a sprig of lavender.

And then one day it just stopped. You see I think Mrs. O'dell left with the faery folk because first the notes and things for the hollow stopped, the flower bed went to seed, then the curtains came down and then someone closed and locked the gates.

Every Litha, midsummer, I think of my mentor of the magickal ways of the fae and I leave a special treat for Mrs. O'dell. I know she is whole and happy and laughing and probably is instructing faery children about the magick inside of them just as she helped me see it in me.......this is one of my greatest magick stories and a treasure to have.