Shake, Shake, Shake-uh-Shake It!

I hope that everyone as a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did! The family came over and we enjoyed the full traditional thanksgiving dinner...mouthwatering turkey dripping in homemade gravy, freshly whipped mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing and sweet potatoes caked in even sweeter melted marshmallows. Add some sides of applesauce, cranberry sauce, cucumber salad and broccoli smothered in cheese and you’ll know why I’ve also been enjoying the leftovers most of the weekend, too. It gets me all aflutter!

Speaking of aflutter, if one can be in love with a thing, I am...my early Christmas present, an iPhone! I have to say, it’s my coolest toy since I got my iMac. There are just tons of apps that make it do all kinds of things and I’ve also discovered Scrabble and Yahtzee games that I can play on my phone. The best part? To roll the dice to shuffle your tiles, all you have to do it shake the phone. That’s right...shake, shake, shake, shake, uh shake it!




Speaking of shaking, Hysteria Lane was blanketed with several inches of snow overnight. UGH. I dislike winter, scraping snow off my car, slipping on ice and shivering in my shoes. I need one of those countdown clocks counting down the days ‘til summer! There's probably an iPhone app for that!



This weekend was also the countdown until Christmas. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I haven’t. I’m not one of those Black Friday shoppers. Forget it. There is nothing in Wal-Mart I am willing to freeze my ass off standing in line for hours and risk getting trampled to death to get. I’d rather wait until the last minute than deal with that mess. But, I did put up the Christmas tree that I got on clearance last year. I like to shake things up a bit, so I didn’t go with the traditional green tree. My tree is copper colored and this picture doesn’t do it justice. It’s so beautiful in person, it gives me chills!


Today is also World AIDS Day and HIV and the AIDS virus need to be shaken out of our lives. As most of you know, my brother passed away from he AIDS virus back in 1994. He likely contracted it before anyone had even heard about it and I wouldn’t wish that hell on anyone. Today 33 million people are living with HIV and AIDS took the lives of 2.1 million people including 330,000 children in 2007 alone. Worldvision has tons of information on AIDS, including ways you can help. In the Chicago area, there is a wonderful organization called BEHIV, whose dedication and assistance helped my family get through one of it’s toughest times. If you are in a position to help out with either of these organizations, please do.

Until next time, keep shakin’ it up everybody!