Happy Birthday Henry "Wordsworth" Longfellow

Wow, today is a great American poets Birthday! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, born today in 1807. He was the first American to translate Dante's "The Divine Comedy" Thank you Mr Longfellow!

Peril at End House

Yeah! I just heard on NPR that the house that Agatha Christie my most Favorite Authoress in the whole world, is open on the 28th of February. I wish I could be there for this great event. But alas it is in England just outside of London. So there is no way I'll be there. I did what I could and entered Fear.net $5000.00 contest for a vacation. I have very high hopes of winning! Well, hello, hello, I am now one of her Super Fans so I can keep up with all the news about her. I did recently hear that they are making another movie, this time starring Miss Marple with one of my fav girls from "Skins" Cassie in it. Can't wait to see it. I just found out that there is a new game out, "evil under the Sun." for Wii. You know, the first time I get a chance I will buy that. We have already played out the other two games from AOL. The kids just love them, it is an eye spy type of game, with clues. When my Mother in Law was here last year she played for hours. It was nice, she was able to connect with the kids. So why what is my history with Agatha, well a rich one. In the summer my parents sent me to the shore for most of the summer with my Nan, and her sisters, and my Mom-Mom. They had a Readers Digest collection of leather bond Agatha Christie novels. I would lay on the back porch lounge and read for hours. I was gone from there and was Miss Marple or Poirot solving mysteries and more important going to exotic places. It was truly a wonderful time for me. I was doted over by five woman, and I am so very thankful that I had that beauty in my childhood. Let my share some of my favorites of the collection.
Peril at End House
Then There Was None
Death on the Nile (also a great movie with Mia Farrow playing a crazy love sick girl)
Murder on the Orient Express
I hope you will see now why I have such a great love of England.
"Once an English Lady always an English Lady"

When the snacks are all gone.

So I love this poem by Mark Strand, "When the vacation is over, for good" I can't place a link because I can't find one. A free one that is. If you want to read it, it's in the New Yorker online for a monthly fee. If you get a chance it is a really good poem, better read out loud. I was thinking about it because my kids are always complaining that we don't have enough snacks. Really we do it just that they are the five little piggies! It got me thinking, what about a poem about, when the snacks are all gone, for good. Pretty silly, made me laugh so I'll be blogging my poem. (Not sure if that's the right vocabulary) Well, Jason will tell me. Thank God we found each other on FB, it is so much easier having him correct all my English language problems. (If I was writing French or German he'd also correct that)


When the snacks are gone, for good.



They open the cabinet, they close the cabinet

Where are the crunchy chips? The soft gooey fruit chewy, nowhere to be found

An empty box of sweet Girl Scout cookies, some pretzel salt scatter the shelf

What a sad state

Their little stomachs grumble for some sugar

Ah, not all is lost, way in the back a bag of Halloween candy seven months old

Yummy, yummy, right into the trashy



When the snacks are all gone, for good

My children complain

Their sad mournful faces stare up at me

A funeral for their favorite food

Tears of trans fats drip down their chins

Better choices, better health

Lets have a party, a wake



Here is an orange, sweat and juicy

Some fresh strawberries to put some rose in your cheeks

Bright eyes eat some carrots, crunchy reminds you of the past

Grapes come in many colors try them all chewy, almost gooey

Nothing scattered, nothing wasted

Smiles creep a pound their faces

As they think, lets go to the store and buy some more at last no more

Today

February 21, 2009
Thanks to Brie, and her beautiful blog, I am ready to go. Wish me luck. I hope I am not a bore!
-I was up at five thirty this morning to take Gabby to the Room at the Inn. A homeless shelter in Clarksville to make breakfast for the people staying there. It is the second time this month that we have done this. I have to say for me it was better then going to church. To help make one day easier for these people was a great feeling. Gabby's Girl Scout troop did this last winter also but because of the economy being as bad as it is the numbers have doubled. So we volunteer to bring the food and cook it up for them before they have to hit the road at seven. What I learned is, that these homeless people go from one church to another. Every night that it is to cold to sleep on the street. I felt sick. I have never know this life, or really even thought about this life. Being so close to Philly I became immune to the homeless of the city. Just a back ground, a step around the vent to get to the sidewalk. Gabby doesn't get it at all, I guess I can't say anything about that because I just got it. As with most things in my life, "I am just getting it now." I am thankful that I have never had to spend one night on the street. My wish for the world is that everyone would have a home.