Good Morning Michael 🏆

 

How was he ever supposed to play wide receiver for the L.A. Rams if nobody passed him

 the stupid football, for crying out loud?

Public Secrets

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Los Angeles Rams Win Super Bowl LVI

Los Angeles Rams, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Los Angeles Rams won't have to travel far to enjoy a celebratory Super Bowl victory parade.

NPR

quit smoking

Pandora only shrugged as she started across the lawn. 

"Michael, have I mentioned that you've been more crabby than usual?"

He pulled a piece of hard candy out of his pocket and popped it into his mouth. 

"Quit smoking."

The candy was lemon. She caught just a whiff. "So I noticed. How long?"

He scowled at some leaves that skimmed across the lawn. They were brown and dry and

seemed to have a life of their own. "Couple weeks. I'm going crazy."

She laughed sympathetically before she tucked her arm into his. "You'll live, darling. The first month's the toughest."

Now he scowled at her. "How would you know? You never smoked."

"The first month of anything's the toughest. You just have to keep your mind occupied.

Exercise. We'll jog after lunch."

A Will and a Way

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By Lindsay Fox from Newport beach, United States - Cigarette, CC BY 2.0, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47846970

Real stories: ‘How I quit smoking’

There are many methods you can use use to quit smoking – it is, however, important to remember that what works for one person might not work for another.

Health24

Replant a festive tree

"I'd say we're ready for the tree. Let's go find one."

You want to drive into town now?.

"Of course not." Pandora was already pulling coats out of the hall closet.

"We'll go right out in the woods and dig one up."

"We?"

"Certainly. I hate it when people cut trees down and then toss them aside after the new year.

The woods are loaded with nice little pines. We'll dig one up, then replant it after the holidays."

A Will and a Way

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By Randi Hausken from Bærum, Norway - The Christmas tree, CC BY-SA 2.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29876120

By the time you purchase a tree, it has already been cut for weeks, or maybe even months. However, even a freshly cut tree has been separated from its roots and replanting a Christmas tree without roots simply isn’t possible. If you’re determined to plant your Christmas tree, purchase a tree with a healthy root ball that has been securely wrapped in burlap. This is an expensive alternative, but with proper care, the tree will beautify the landscape for many years.

Gardening Know How 

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“You know,” he said a few moments later, “it suddenly occurs to me that you‟re going to expect me to dig a hole

to put this thing in after Christmas.”

Shane sent him a guileless smile. “What a good idea. 

I know just the place too. You‟ll probably need a pick though. 

There are an awful lot of rocks.” 

Ignoring Vance‟s rude rejoinder, she waved over an attendant. 

With the roots carefully wrapped in burlap and the tree itself paid for—

by Shane over Vance‟s objection—they headed home.

First Impressions

"My Baby Just Cares for Me" ~ Happy Ever After

Finally, she assured somebody named Michael that both he and his fiancé, Vince, 

still had time to learn to swing dance, and rattled off the name and 

number of a dance instructor.

Happy Ever After

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____________

“Got it. Now, why do Michael and Vince need to swing dance?” 

“They're getting married in February, and finally decided on a Big Band-era theme.They're wearing zoot suits and spats.” 

He took a moment to absorb it. “You're not kidding.” 

“No, and I happen to think it'll be fun. So naturally, they want to swing, and particularly well for their first dance.” 

“Who leads? That's a serious question,” he said when she gave him a bland stare. “Somebody has to.” 

“They can flip a coin, I suppose, or leave it to the instructor. I think Vinnie because Michael's the one who's worried about it, and Vinnie's pretty gung-ho.”

Happy Ever After

reason to not clean our homes

"Michael, not to
intrude, but could I ask how long you've been living this way?"
'l bought the place about four years ago."
"And you're still alive. You're a strong man, Michael."


Public Secrets

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We finally have a scientifically-backed reason to not clean our homes

It’s interesting to see that housework isn’t just annoying, but possibly very damaging to our health, too. And while we now have a pretty good excuse to NOT do housework, we still have to wonder, “Who will do it FOR US?” Any volunteers?

YAHOO!

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It was her first free day since resuming her role of Amanda. 
She was spending it doing something she rarely started, and more rarely finished. 
Housecleaning.
In tattered shorts and a halter, she sat on her windowsill two stories
up, and leaning out, washed the outside of her windows. 
The volume on her radio was turned up so that the sinuous violins of Scheherazade
all but shook the panes. 
Occasionally someone from the neighborhood would shout up at her. 
 Ariel would stop working— - something that took no effort at all— - and shout back down.


Dual Images

“Then maybe . . . Wait a minute. February? Is it Vinnie Calerone?” 

“Yes. Do you know him?” 

“Yeah. Knew him when we were kids. My ma's friendly with his. When he heard I moved back, he came to see me. I service his Mercedes. He said he was getting married in February, said he'd get me an invite.” 

“Were you close?” 

“Not especially.” He glanced at her, then decided to finish it out. “He was getting the shit beat out of him back in the day. It looked to me like he'd have held his own one-on-one, but there were two of them. I evened the odds. And I was right. He held his own. Vinnie's wearing a zoot suit.” His grin spread with easy humor. “I can actually see that.”

“You got into a fight for him?” 

“Not for him, especially. It was more the two-against-one deal. Beating somebody up because he's gay is ignorant. Ganging up to do it? That's cheap. Anyway, it only took a few minutes.This is the place.”

Happy Ever After

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Orlando skyline, photo by Bill Dickinson (as permitted for use on Wikipedia)

Orlando nightclub shooting: 49 lives cut short

What’s in your fridge?

But what was she doing with her head in his refrigerator?
"What are you doing?"
"Fixing you breakfast. You have one egg. How would you like it?"
"Cooked." He drained the cup and hobbled back for another dose.
"Your bologna's green, and there's something in here that might be
alive." She took out the egg, a hunk of cheese, and a heel of bread.
"I've never seen things move in a refrigerator before. Got a skillet?"

Public Secrets

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Photographer Mark Menjivar wants to know. The 33-year-old San Antonio, Texas, native has spent the past four years snapping the insides of people’s refrigerators for “You Are What You Eat,” a photo series that recently inspired his first book, simply titled "Refrigerators," to be published in December.

“I was hoping to learn about people through their food — refrigerators are a private space — but more importantly to shine light on how people take care of their bodies and our food supply,”

 

SHINE

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 “Me too. Then what do you say we flip to see who cooks dinner?”
“Buzzing up sissy frozen dinners isn’t worthy of a flip.”
“I was thinking of the steaks we have in the meat drawer of the fridge.”
“We have steaks?” The day got brighter. “We have a meat drawer?” She smiled and got to her feet.
“Yes, we do.”
“Okay, the meat drawer probably came with the fridge. How did we get steaks? Do you have a magic cow somewhere?”
“No, I have a fairy stepmother, who delivers. I asked Syl if she’d pick us up a couple steaks, Idahos, some staples I needed. She dropped them off today, including a bunch of fresh vegetables and fruit because she thinks we need those, too. That’s why there are fresh vegetables in the crisper. And yes, we have a crisper.”
He decided there was no point in telling her he’d looked in the fridge and seen none of those things.
There’d just be some variation of his mother’s standard crack about Male Refrigerator Blindness
Syndrome.

 The Search