notinKansasanymore

We've gotten the first wave of cold weather. Some day, I will live where this kind of nonsense doesn't happen. But for now, I will just say, "Spring is Coming."

Thanks!

Two drink limit, good. Limit on reindeer sausage: bad. Limit on Sax's stuffed jalepenos and Dooj's chocolate truffle cake: no limit is advised. Countess's BBQ brisket and Dooj's pulled pork: no acceptable limit. Limit on dancing: not in this lifetime. I think that TexasNurse and I were already back home by the time the serious dancing started, though.

Interestingly, the last Confederate widow just died last year. She'd been a very young bride, married to a poor sharecropper, when she suddenly became a very young widow, with a baby. She married her elderly neighbor, who had been in the Civil War as a near-youngster. After he passed on, she married his son, whom she also outlived. She died this past year. The oldest Union widow had passed away within five years before that. Oh, if you read the book or saw the miniseries True Women, those sisters are our family. That's mr.niKa's branch. My branch sold them the horse that they hid in the brambles so that the other Army wouldn't steal him.

Yes, we have Revolutionary folks, too, on both sides, and my husband has them on at least his Dad's side, as well. I am descended from one woman who has credit as a Revolutionary fighter, albeit she appears to only have defended her own home (vigorously) against a Tory raiding party. She was injured in that altercation, and never walked "right" again. Her son was walking down the street in Nashville after the war, and by chance met the sole remaining survivor of that raiding party, whom he promptly shot dead. The good people of Nashville declined to prosecute him. It's pretty interesting to think about all of the sacrifices others have made so that we can be here, in this great Human experiment of America. I believe that we are faced with different challenges today; it's hard to start a country, and also hard to keep one going in a right direction. We're not fighting off Tories or Yankees today, but we face other issues which require courage and strength. I hope that those who fought for us would be proud of how we're living our lives today. love, niKa

I am descended from Confederates on both sides; there is not a single Yankee in my lineage, from the time that anybody was identified as Southern or Northern. Before that, though, I'm from Massachussets Bay Colony folk, and Revolutionary soldiers. Calvin Monroe was one of the Southerners, but I'd have to check the geneaology in the attic to give you the other names. My dear husband is descended from the family of Turner Ashby, albeit nobody is descended from Turner himself, who died a bachelor. My family was full of lovely people who were also pretty darn racist, and I don't really subscribe to the "Southern" thing any more; except for discussions of geneaology. Love, niKa

I'm back home with mr.niKa and the niKakids; what a wonderful gathering, George and Countess! Thank you for opening your lovely home to us! Rascal, it was so very delightful to get to know you. Dooj, that truffle cake was such a euphoria inducer that it might be illegal in Utah. And your pulled pork! Don't even get me started on the pulled pork. Countess, I missed the beans, but the brisket was absolute BBQ Heaven. HotSax, those jalepeno poppers were (once again) so very, very . . . hot! They were great! Templelady, your reindeer sausage was really, really good! I kept going back over to pick up more bites all night long. You were missed, and so were Tonto and T-Bone, Twinkie, DWBH (where were you?) and everybody else who was there in spirit, but not in body. It was a smaller gathering this year, but just as sweet. Thank you so very much, George and Countess. It was outstanding. Love, niKa

It's looking like TexasNurse and I won't be seeing you until Saturday evening. I hope that you have a great time on Friday!!

Today, I woke up in a world where anything can be accomplished if we work hard enough. I find myself breaking out into spontaneous grins. There is much to do, so it's a good thing that we're not afraid of hard work. What we have is a chance. It's like a pristine, just-snowed-on back yard, before anybody has put any footprints on it yet. The paths that we make will be very telling. Yes, lots of prayer would surely be good.

Thanks, Lifted! When does your team play the Longhorns? This is only a driveby posting; it's been too too dang busy today. I will go now, and be nervous about the presidential election while falling asleep. Or maybe about the papers I need to have graded and didn't get to grade today. But I won't worry about the Texas BBQ; that's just going to be FUN. I will dance on the way across the house, so as to be defiant of the too-busy-ness of the day. One must remain properly defiant.

Sigh. It was a bummer to lose by ten points. We got outplayed for the whole second half. It seems to have begun when our leading defense player got injured; things went downhill from there. This kid, they now say, may be out for the season. Well, it's a good thing that we've already sold our season tickets! They'd be harder to sell this week than they were last month. We probably won't get them again next year; listening to the games on the radio with mr.niKa is fun, and at those ticket prices, it's also rewarding!

Hi! Sorry, but I just now saw this. One hand up from Oklahoma; the kids won't be joining me this year. I will be staying with Texas Nurse, and the two of us plan to make our way to the BBQ on Saturday evening. It's very nice of you to open your home, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you!

HA! You know me better than that, young man! Do you want me to come all the way down there to give you a piece of my mind??? It was SHEER TECHNOLOGICAL IGNORANCE!! I am an ENGLISH MAJOR, for crying out loud! I may live in a drinkin' town with a football problem (Norman, Oklahoma, home of the Sooners), but I'm pretty well disciplined where imbibing is concerned. One a day is good for the brain and helps stave off stroke, but I pretty much always stay well inside our old two-drink limit. I'm kind of boring that way.

Lifted: have you tried googling your uncle? I've found one or two long-long family members that way. LOVE, niKa ;)

Thanks, Rock. I knew her name, but couldn't remember her Greasespot handle. SOO, Mr.niKa and I got to meet for beer and a burger with Simon, Rocky, and KarmicDebt. It was really, really fun. Lifted Up: it's the beginning of the semester for me; this weekend, I'm taking up the first big essays to grade, so if you folks see me around here for the next few days, it'll be as an avoidance tactic from the stacks of grading. And of course because I love you.

Mr.niKa's folks and brothers and alma mater are all in Tucson. And some of his fav climbs, and our fav cave, and some really decent Mexican food, and (oh, yeah!) one of our four kids. And once we even got to meet with Rocky and Simon and (a truly wonderful woman whose name I cannot say online and whose number I used to have in my cellphone until I stupidly accidentally erased all 237 of my phone book numbers and whose Greasespot handle I cannot remember or find in my old messages and whom I REALLY HOPE PM's me if she reads this so that I can get her number again and call and see how she's been doing.) Tucson is da bomb.

Tom: acronyms. Fellowshipper: is it Spring there? I'll bet the flowers are beautiful. I had the Obama sign stolen out of my yard, and so did everybody else from my street! So I went and got some more, and door-to-door'd like the old days. Now there are lots of signs. I knew that door-to-door witnessing skills were good for something other than . . . whatever it was that we used them for, back in the day. Are any of you coming to the BBQ besides Tom and Me? I'll be there for the Saturday night gig. Love, niKa

Sounds great! Thanks for putting so much work and thought into this. I appreciate you!!

Excie!! How Wonderful!!! Thank you so much for sharing that; you really did just make my day. ((((you)))) Love, niKa

Well, I sure hope everybody's okay over there. God bless them!

Bramble, you make an excellent point. Life is hectic, but would be much more so if some TWI minimog's nose were in our business all the time. I've really developed a distaste for that kind of intrusion, and am proud to say that I wouldn't fit in on Weirwille Road at all anymore. Not even for a WOWburger. Praise God.

Wow. That's quite a question. Where would I be if I had never gotten involved with TWI? I'd probably be a minister's wife, somewhere in the greater Dallas / Fort Worth area. I also have to ask myself where my high school sweetheart would be. That's a story. He was a sweet, cute, very nice Christian boy, with plans to go to theology school and become a minister. He was the first boy who ever proposed to me; he knew that I'd be a sweet wife and a good minister's spouse. He proposed on the 4th of July, 1975. I wouldn't accept, because he didn't trust TWI, and wouldn't take the class, which I'd taken in January of that year. As the summer wore on, I grew increasingly intolerant that he continued to be "an unbeliever," despite his strong faith and ministerial carreer plans. We broke up. During his first year of theology school, some philosophy geek succeeded in convincing this sweet boy that God didn't exist. I wasn't there to make any counterarguments, or just to be his friend, to shore him up in the darkness. He dropped out of his theology courses and became a very successful male stripper in Dallas. Last I heard, he managed a health club. A dozen years after we broke up, after he'd already quit dancing, we met for dinner. He made it a point to tell me that I'd chosen a better path than he had; he was gracious to the end. I was about to get out of the ministry at that time, because I'd finally realized how twisted it was. There we were, both damaged in different ways, because of a fork in the road. I think that we all have had choices: divergences wherein we must choose one or the other, and in the choosing, we burn some bridges. I think that God has protected me because of my main motivation for joining TWI, which was to serve Him. Folks, we won't be the last people to do the wrong thing for a noble reason. I wouldn't trade my husband, whom I met years after leaving TWI, for anything. He really is the love of my life. We have two great chilldren, and I gained two fabulous stepkids. Synopsis: I joined a cult, and gave it the best years of my youth, and God helped my life to work out happily, anyway. Score: Satan and Weirwille - ZERO. GOD and ME - EVERYTHING. All thanks and adoration belong to GOD, who has showered us with both his grace (getting good things we don't deserve) and his mercy (not getting bad things that we do deserve).

Dave Matthews Band - "Die Trying."

Dooj, don't listen to him! We'll sing together, and MAKE him listen. Vee Haaf Vays.

Second weekend in November? Sounds good. Can we get some kind of "official" confirmation, so that we can all start getting tickets? If it doesn't work to have it at somebody's house, maybe we could do a beach thang. It surely was wonderful to see everybody last year!!