Sonnystone Acres

us at knob hill tavern, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

isn’t he sweet—i said smile and got this lovely grimace. 55-years-old today and still working his ass off to take care of me. we celebrated in our usual rowdy fashion: he went to the scout meeting and i napped. sister sent over some lovely purple moccasins; i gave him 3 same-style shirts in different colors. the kids called. we munched leftovers. it’s a wonderful life and i hope it goes on forever.

with all of the holidaze and traveling, i’ve not gotten back to my new-style blogging. today should have been book club day, but i’ve not actually read a book per se. i have been perusing a lot of magazines, however. both the thanksgiving and christmas copies of southern living and country living have been studied for decorating ideas; the atlantic had some fine articles—one on genetics that had me looking up words. biblical archeological review was a winner from cover to cover. i’m headed to the library tomorrow, so i’ll try to be back in the swing of things next week.

in the meantime, celebrate.

11/28/09, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

thanksgiving hasn’t got a lot of tradition with me. in fact, it’s a little bit lonely now that the old folks have died and left me. not into sports, not enough people around to feast, we’re left with decorating for christmas and grazing on finger-foods, washing them down with enough bourbon to sober me up.

BUT WAIT!! my little olivia visited and spread her particular brand of joy throughout the week-end. yayayay!

thank the Lord for grand-daughters…i can hardly wait for christmas!!

11/20 spectacular, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

the radio city music hall christmas spectacular is, well, spectacular. santa (danta to our family) flew in on his sleigh and the dancing/tapping was fascinating, especially to a certain 3 1/2 year old who believes………..

11/20/09 tkts, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

i love this picture. she danced all over the lit stairs at tkts.

11/21/09 highline, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

after melissa and i saw the newly-revamped musical “Ragtime”, we met back up with eric and emma and went downtown to the Highline, an urban recycling of railroad tracks into a park. i want to see it in every season with my little guide, who knows her way around her city.

pre-school program, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

though the rockettes are spectacular, Ragtime was superb, and the Highline is intriguing, the very best part of my trip was a surprise: emma’s school (st. joseph- yorkville) had their “prayer service” —code for thanksgiving program. emma’s enthusiasm and talented choreography reminded me so much of her mom…….

black cat weathervane, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

this last week has been a preview of the New Sonnystone Acres and it’s been fun, don’t you think? i’m going to be gone for the next week, but when i return i’ll be armed with new books to review, more celebrity interviews, award-winning (in my mind) photos, and interesting tid-bits of information to make you think.

this tuesday melissa will be giving up her gallbladder. not sure what time. she’s expecting to be home that evening and be ready to greet me when i arrive wednesday night. thursday and friday i’ll be visiting emma’s school and dance classes topped off by the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes and dozens of Dantas at 5p on friday. saturday is free, but i’m sure we’ll come up with something fun and funny. early sunday morning i’ll catch a flight back to nashville and be back at sonnystone around 2p.

we’re pretty excited about the thanksgiving holiday with olivia and her folks. we’ll be putting up our christmas decorations. how about a beggar’s banquet to celebrate casey’s b-day? what are ya’ll doin’ the 28th?

take care of yourselves this week. keep smiling.

on this day in 1955, NBC showed the first live TV program from a foreign country.  we’ve come a long way, sort of:  the broadcast was  from Havana, Cuba for ‘the wide world of sports”. 

 on this day in 1968, the beatles’ movie “yellow submarine” premiered in the usa.  little did we know that their creativity was so near the end.  the song “hey jude”, possibly the most over-played (on the radio) song ever, was in its 7th week (of 9) at #1. 

other chart-toppers: 

1952:  Jambalaya (on the bayou) - hank williams

1960:  georgia on my mind - ray charles

1984:  wake me up before you go-go - wham (another overplayed song); 

           purple rain - prince and the revolution  (he’s so cool)

november 13 is the birthday of:

garry marshall, the dude who wrote, directed, produced nearly every great sitcom and lotsa great movies. (1934) 

chris noth - if you don’t know him from law & order, surely you’ve heard of mr. big (1954)

whoopie goldberg, a woman who i don’t particularly care for  (1955–she’s younger than me??)

it is friday the 13th, not the movie, but be careful anyway.