Past Post Resurfaces

Last week I got more than five hundred hits in one day and subsequent high numbers in days following. As you know, I have not posted as frequently as I have in the past, nor have I written anything profound. Sparked by the curiosity of this, I needed to investigate. I found a link on a website had been linked to this post from last September. While I did not know why it was chosen, I did find out that Yahoo Search and Google both have it on their sites. If you put in good housekeeping 1955, up pops wifebear and this previous post.

I received this very article in an email from a friend this morning. It is going around again thus sending people to search to see if this was in fact how it actually was or if MEN want things this way. I can tell you from what I have read in the last couple of days, the answer weighs a lot on the side of, yes, they do! They want more too, but that is nothing new.

I posted this because I thought it was so damn funny. It is timely again though, as ribbons in the hair look so darn cute on 13 year olds and are a trend again. However, maybe not so cute on wife aged women. I won't even go to that topic and how young girls did get married back then. My grandmother got married at 13.

Here is the post, although I omitted my remarks from the original.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Good Housekeeping 1955

This is from an actual May 1955 Good Housekeeping Magazine. Fifty years ago.


The good wife's guide

* Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious
meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know That you
have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men
are hungry when the come home and the prospect of a good meal
(especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

* Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he
arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-
looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

* Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need
a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

* Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house
just before your husband arrives.

* Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper etc and then run a dustcloth over the
tables.

* Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for
him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and
order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will
provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

* Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and
faces (If they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their
clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the
part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the
washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.

* Be happy to see him

* Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please
him.

* Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the
moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his
topics of conversation are more important than yours.

* Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to
dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to
understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at
home and relax.

* Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and
tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

* Don't greet him with complaints or problems.

* Don't complain if he's late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night.
Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

* Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have
him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

* Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing
and pleasant voice.

* Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or
integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always
exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to
question him.

* A good wife always knows her place.

Does this offend you?

See here

It does not offend me in the least! Whoopee a breast. I was a discreet breastfeeding mother of two children totaling 25 months. If they needed to eat, that took priority over everything else. If somebody got a glimpse of my breast or didn't like what I was doing, too damn bad!

We are taught that breastfeeding is the best for our babies. Why is it so disturbing for people to see a breast? The photo on the cover is of a sweet baby looking up at its mother. I remember that loving look. How can it be a problem to put this on the cover of a magazine with people thinking it is gross? Are breastfeeding mothers supposed to stay out of sight and only come out when they know their child will not be hungry? That is totally unrealistic. They eat on demand, they eat different amounts at different times due to growth spurts, among other factors. It is impossible to feed a baby and expect he/she will be content with full tummy for a shower, let alone a trip to the supermarket!

We live in a culture of teenagers and young women with their thongs or cracks hanging out of the back of their pants and that seems to be acceptable everywhere we go. I find this trend disturbing a lot more than a baby breastfeeding. I hope my daughters grow up and breast feed comfortably and without shame and if it helps now to "put it out there" so to speak, then I am all for it!

Long day, but worth it!

Friday we drove two hours north of here to a town called Fillmore. It has been used in many movies for its location and its retro look. Quaint little town. Great place to film a music video, or it would have been on any other day than Friday! It was 105 degrees and they had the kids dressed in black. Katharine was in black corduroy pants and a black sweater in that heat!

The video was for a band from Canada and apparently well know up there, not so much down here. We hadn't heard of them until we looked them up. Punk band called Billy Talent. They want to become more known here and have begun their US tour the day after they filmed their video for their new song called Red Flag.

We arrived at 6AM. Woke up at 3AM! The song is about how things are left for their generation. Every street, other locations and city hall was draped in red fabric, for filming. Red Flag about how we are leaving our world for our children. I think the video will be pretty cool, although a sad fact.

Katharine was among 24 other kids who were there to film scenes running down the street, around town and being in the crowd watching the concert the band was putting on. Military tank and smoke machine included. There were over a hundred extras as well. We hope when it comes out that Katharine will be scene! If so, she will be on MTV and myspace.com/billytalent. We should know in a couple weeks.

It was miserably hot. I had to go to a hotel room to cool off for a couple of hours. At one point Katharine was filming around the corner from where we were hanging out and the band members came out one at a time and introduced themselves to everybody. Really nice guys. I got autographs and photos of all but one member, whom I didn't see. I told them my daughter was filming and they were so nice about how awesome all the kids were. All three band members that I saw, posed very graciously for me to get a photo or two in some cases for Katharine.

We left Fillmore for LA about 8:30. Took about an hour to get to the hotel we booked for the night. I picked up some friends from the airport on Saturday morning and saw no need to go home to Laguna for ten or so hours. We had a beautiful room with heavenly beds. Took hot showers, had room service and passed out in the heavenly beds. We were awakened at 8:30 by the phone. The operator told me room service was there with breakfast and we slept through their knocking. We ate and waited for our friends to call. Picked them up with no problems.

Hot as it was Saturday, Katharine and I set out to find another hotel. Anywhere with a/c. Everything was booked from here to about 20 miles away. We found one hotel and after hanging out for two hours with a broken a/c, we got our money back and left. The owner told me it was hot out and there was a high ceiling. No shit! Still hot though! We finally found another hotel for the night and slept okay. Wasn't a posh place like the first night, but it had air.

Today, foggy and a beautiful 75 degree day! Just in time. People are snapping and cranky! We picked up Zoe and David from their DC and NYC vacation. They got back just in time for a nice cool day! I don't think they believe how hot it has been out here. LA county saw the hottest recorded temp on record the day of the filming. 119 degrees! Okay, that's hot.

We are happy to have Zoe and David home. So are the animals. Glad they had a nice vacation.

I will post some of the photos later. Off to get Katharine from rehearsal. Only a couple more weeks of this nightly stuff, although pick up time moves to 11:00 soon, for a week or so before the show, which I believe opens a week from Thursday....Finally.

OUTSOURCING

Titled: World Class Talent

I have cooled off since I first wanted to post this. I called Circuit City today to discuss somebody wiring our TV and other connectable items and I got to talk to a woman in India! She spoke so fast that I could not understand most of what she said and I asked her to repeat every question at least once. I cannot even tell you how much this PISSED ME OFF!!!!!

What the hell is wrong with our country? Okay, bad question. Why are we sending phone calls to India instead of giving them to some people who can work from home? I mean, seriously, come on! It can be anybody who needs money who answers the phone. Just as long as we can understand them. How about those unfortunate people who call us and we hang up on them for bothering us during, well, anything. Telemarketers are in dire need of money to take the haranguing they get. Why not keep the customer service in this country and give those verbally abused people a break? In turn, giving the rest of us a break because we can understand the person on the other end of the call!

We could do this here! DUH!!!

After she takes my information, she has to call somebody in the states and they have to call me back. Seems pretty damn stupid if you ask me. I know AOL does it, I know other companies do it as well. I was rather surprised to hear the Indian woman on the phone today. I am sure I sounded annoyed. I could have probably been nicer, but we have so many homeless and poor people making below poverty line minimum wages in this country. It seems pretty lame to be sending away jobs that they can have.

Outsourcing really pisses me off! For the record, I am reasonably sure the woman I spoke with and others in the past and future, are perfectly nice people. That is not the point!

Long time no post

It seems like forever since I posted. It has been a busy summer. Hot too, as I am sure you know.

David and Zoe are leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow for DC and NYC. I am taking them to the airport about 5 AM. I think they will have a great time. They are meeting David's sister Phoebe in Charlottesville, VA, then going to see Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Next they will do some touristy things in DC and make their way up to NYC to see Phoebe (again) and other relatives. I think they will have a very good time. Zoe is not too keen on seeing old mansions. She has seen enough of those in our own state capitol apparently. I bet she will like the Smithsonian though.

Katharine is still doing nightly rehearsals for Narnia that will open and play eight shows next month. Exciting news is that today she auditioned for a music video and got the gig! They asked Zoe if she wanted to audition too and she said no. I told Katharine last week that people get offers like Zoe did all the time in Hollywood. A couple of weeks ago we met sisters who were auditioning. Only one was auditioning one day and they took her sister too. Now they both audition. Not Zoe though, we need her to be the shrink for our family.

Anyhow, I had never heard of this band until we researched it a few nights ago. I like them, they are punk rock and play to younger teens. They shoot the music video for one of their new songs next Friday. Katharine plays a tough funky teen. Serious acting for this role! It will be about 110 degrees, but it is her first real gig and we are very excited for her, but not as excited as she is! I will share more details after it is done.

I have not been feeling well this week. Better tonight, but the heat is a killer. Drinking lots of water and keeping it down is a good thing. Tomorrow I will hit 21 weeks (or five months!) of no smoking and have over $700 in my non smoking account. My brother reminded me that my dad bought a 1969 VW with money he saved with his cigarette fund.

We did go see The Devil Wears Prada. I loved Meryl Streep in her role. Sarcastic and just great one liners! This movie is not for young girls who have a tendency to think they are fat. They say in the movie, that size six is the new fourteen. And one girl says that she is one good stomach flu away from her goal weight. I actually thought that was funny. I know, that is bad of me. Good movie though, one I want to own and see again. I bought a couple of used DVD's from Netflix. Nothing is over 9.99 and they are guaranteed. Some of the videos are 5.99. I think the most recent video I got was the Family Stone, it's pretty good.

I am done with Girl Scout registrations finally. I have to admit, it was a lot of work. I will be getting on to cleaning off my pool table, cleaning out junk drawers and sending some Barbie stuff to a little girl in KY. Things I have been meaning to get to forever! Not to mention visiting blogs that I haven't read in far too long!

Happy weekend!

The 4th of July

It's quiet this morning. People are sleeping in or they are headed downtown to stake out a spot at the beach for the fireworks tonight. Enjoying the quiet while I can. The birds are up. Katharine noticed the birds were up at five something yesterday morning. She is not used to that time of day and was surprised. They didn't let her get back to sleep. She has a very bad cold and needed to sleep. The birds don't seem to be disturbing her this morning.



We have no plans for this day. No bbq to go to. No invitations. None given. Just a wide open day. It feels strange being a Tuesday. A broken weekend for some. For others, day four of their long weekend. They cannot sleep it off tomorrow either.



Fireworks here in town are beautiful. They start at 9pm and last a whopping fifteen minutes. People are already staking out their spots on the beach or the nearby grassy areas to get a good seat for the show. Funny thing about fireworks, you don't need to sit near them to see them. The traffic will be insane. The number of people in town will swell to probably four or five times our normal population. Take the bus, take the tram. The tram is free. Leave the car home. By 9:30 tonight a line of tail lights from here to there will be seen. From up here, almost as pretty as a firework show.



We don't need to go down to the fireworks. Up here we can see several firework shows. Unless the fog rolls in too early. Since the trees have been cut, trimmed and generally cleaned up, we have great views all around. Enjoy it while we can because these trees grow back fast. Did I mention that CNG (creepy neighbor guy) got a tree trimmer with enough guys to hold tarps under falling branches? They tied tarps in some areas over the "sensitive" plants. Did I mention that said plants are bent and tattered from the tarp itself? Oh how I take joy in that. Bad, I know.



Thanks to the soldiers who are away from their families on this Independence Day. Thanks to the families who are one short of a perfect picnic today.

"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness), it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), from the Declaration of Independence

So I Thought

Summer if off to a busy start. Things were going to slow down, or so I thought. As I sit here yawning, thinking of going back to sleep, I know I need to be up.

I normally give Charlie chicken jerky treats first thing in the morning. I am out of them this morning. Instead I gave him a bone with vitamins in it. He dropped it and looked up at me. I walked away and he took the bone to his bed. He seemed to handle being out of the jerkey treats better than I thought he would.

It is going to be hot again and I have been shutting the blinds early to keep the sun out. This morning, I am leaving the doors open to let the cool air in. I will close the blinds in a bit. I am not sure why I do this because it will get hot in in here later anyhow! With no a/c the only thing that really would work is opening skylights that will let the heat out of the roof. We don't have those though. Actually, we have a perfectly good a/c. It just doesn't work on our non-insulated home. I hate the heat!

I got a call on Wednesday night from K's manager. She told me there was an audition in the morning at 9:45. We got up there around tenish. There were lots of little kids running around in costumes for this commercial. We called the agent and she said that K's audition was there and the part was for a girl rolling her eyes. We were finally told at 11:45 that her group would begin auditions at 12:30. We stayed. I tried to get her to go try out for a Ford commercial while we were there. The guy kept coming out and asking if there were more people auditioning for Ford. Obviously they had not found the right person for their commercial. K would have no part of it! One mom quizzed her about how much she really wanted to be an actress and mentioned that her mother (me) would rather be anywhere else but there. She took K over to sign her up and K would have no part of it. Called the woman psycho. The woman said she has no patience for that. She said if they wanted to act, then they better act! Then she hauled her son over for the audition.

It was past 12:30 and they still had a lot of parents and neighbor handing out candy auditions before K's group. Finally, the woman gave her a script to read all of thirty seconds and took K and a boy in to read. The director told K that she is a very good actress. She was stoked to hear that. Finally we were out of there.

On the way home, I missed two sigalerts. Sig was a man who designed these alerts, which were for major traffic tie ups. I am getting used to all the freeways in LA that will take me home or to Egypt. I listened to the radio and heard about the sigalerts. I took a different route and thought I was so smart! I got off the fwy in Long Beach (about half way home) to get gasoline. I had to drive for miles to find gasoline. Got back on the fwy and there was a sigalert and I was right in the middle of it. Apparently a big rig had gone thru the center divider and there was also a fuel spill. Both sides of the fwy, and three lanes on each side, were closed. It took an hour for me to reach the first off ramp where I could get off the fwy. I followed the road the GPS told me to follow. It took me back to the fwy. I looked at the fwy and it was empty. I had gone around the accident and had the surreal experience of being with less than dozen cars on a wide open fwy in the middle of rush hour.

Stopped at the store. Got dinner fixings, cooked them, ate them and then back in the car to take K to her rehearsal for Narnia, the play.

Poor Z and cousin L were stuck in the house all day. I dropped them off yesterday. Z is staying with cousin L for a couple days. Today they are going to the huge Anime convention. They will register and get their neck tags. They are going back tomorrow as well. Cousin L is dressing up. Z is not. I think they were pretty excited to be going to this event.

Last weekend my cuzsis Pam stayed in line at Disneyland for 14 hours so they could all see Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp for the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean. L got a kiss on the cheek from Bloom and a hug from Depp, so it was worth the wait. 14 hours, that is a good mom!

I am off to Farmer's Market. Have a great weekend.