This is your Christmas tree
This is your Christmas Tree on performance enhancing drugs

Actually this is what happens when you don't measure and go pick out a tree by yourself without the tall person that you normally use as a point of reference to help you dertermine whether something will be too big or too small or just right. This baby sucked up every strand of lights and every ornament and has a few hungry places that want more. I have not complied. Yet. I have yarn though, and patterns. I may crochet some snowflakes for those places. Yes. That sounds like a lovely idea.

In other news...

Yesterday sucked.

Today is better.

I get my braces off!

You may actually get to see a picture of me smiling!

Maybe.

OH, call me crazy.

Go ahead-it's okay.

We have ANOTHER TEENAGE GIRL in the house.

Yepper.

Her dad is an asshat.

That's all I'll say about that.

Cross your fingers for me/us.

It's shaping up to be one wild ride here at End of the Rainbow.

I'm sure to throw my hands up in the air and scream like a girl for parts of it!

=)

On my mind...

One of my most favorite books, definitely my favorite title.

Eating Fire, Tasting Blood

Just in case you were wondering.

Funk

Funk happens
Funk happens because
Funk happens because my
Funk happens because my spine
Funk happens because my spine and
Funk happens because my spine and my
Funk happens because my spine and my piriformis
Funk happens because my spine and my piriformis don't
Funk happens because my spine and my piriformis don't agree.

Because
Because my
Because my spine
Because my spine and
Because my spine and my
Because my spine and my piriformis
Because my spine and my piriformis don't
Because my spine and my piriformis don't agree
Because my spine and my piriformis don't agree funk
Because my spine and my piriformis don't agree funk happened.

All that to say that I have discovered that I can't pick up anything while bent over at the waist.
You know how you do when you are getting the wet things out of the washer and throwing them into the dryer?
I can't do that anymore.
Well I can but it is unwise and leads to extended down time.
I'm rather tired of down time believe it or not.
In the mean time others have been "helping" with the laundry.
Rather inconsistently as I have recently discovered.
So.
Funk happened.

I need to rewash the clothes in the washing machine.
PEE YEW!

DON'T NOBODY LOOK IN THE BACK OF MY CAR!

I was kind of tooting my own horn when I said I had completed my Christmas shopping in a two hour marathon yesterday.
I had.
Gotten everything on my list that is.
Now, though, I keep thinking of more fun stuff to buy everyone on my list.
So, actually it seems that rather like the first pee when you've been drinking the beer, yesterday's first shopping trip just broke the seal.
Someone is gonna have to take away my car keys, cash, debit card, credit card and checkbook and maybe sit on me a little bit too.
I WANNA SHOP!
(sung, of course, to "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister)

Henceforth the dwelling formerly known as 18 blah blah blah shall be known as:

End of the Rainbow.

Ahhh.

Some places...

Some places hurt. Tienanmen Square in Beijing is one of them.
The concrete cries out with the agonies of of violent death.
Our walk across the city center was a trial of sorts.
It lasted long enough for us to take our picture with Mao (something simply everyone who goes to Beijing must do)(that's him in the very back teetiny as can be) and rush across as though the hounds of hell were nipping at our heels.
While we were in China we saw many wonderful and interesting things and had some fabulous experiences.
We saw three men with two sledgehammers deconstruct a seven story brick building over the course of a year.
We saw people die in bicycle car accidents nearly every week in every city we visited.
We also saw a man paraded through the early morning streets on the back of a truck, his crimes written in red on banners and loudspeakers blaring commanding all to gather at the local sports stadium to witness his very public execution.
We witnessed a man being beaten nearly to death with 2x4's ostensibly because he had skipped out on a restaurant bill.
We saw a woman whose eyes had been put out in childhood to make her more pitiful in her job as beggar and street musician.
We saw wire crates filled to the brim with puppies and kittens, crushed and suffocating, waiting to be purchased for supper.
We saw starving people who couldn't afford a grain of rice.
We saw filth unimaginable.
We saw the extreme disparity between the haves and the have nots.
We came back to the States, quite happy to be living where we do.
But our eyes have been opened.
We see.
What we see is a damn shame.
It is a damn shame that our personal liberties are disappearing more and more every day.
It is a damn shame to see people go without health care in what is still one of the richest countries in the world when even the meanest of peasants in China could expect a modicum of health care.
It is a damn shame that our education system is so corrupted that our students can no longer think.
It is a damn shame that our people are so ignorant that they don't even see that there are questions they should be asking.
It is a damn shame that we are living in such an environment of fear.
It is a damn shame that we are being manipulated by fearmongers.
It is a damn shame that the fearmongers are people we trust.

I'll be honest though.

As long as we are healthy and there is food on our plate.
As long as we live this fat life.
We won't think about change for the better.

We are the goddamned frog sitting in the skillet that is slowly getting hotter and hotter, killing us by degrees.
Clueless
Until it's too late
That we are in one of those...
Places that hurt.

That's all I have to say about that.

Orange (you glad it's not a banana?)

Nej responded to an orange challenge and I know I've got at least one good orange photo and more than a few not so good ones, and thought I'd hitch a ride on the theme bandwagon-plus the Kid and I have been saying that silly knock knock joke to each other all week so I feel I must respond due to my "strange things in 3's" OCD compulsions.

Here we go!

Sunset at Wrightsville Beach North Carolina

The most perfect mango I have ever seen or tasted and it came from my Mom's mango tree.

One orange cat with glowing eyes-kindof a freaky thing to see at night

NO BANANAS!