“The Renaissance is the name of an important artistic and scientific period that began about 1400 and went on for 200 years in Italy and, eventually, all of Europe. Renaissance means rebirth and this period was a time when scholars revived interest in learning and the arts of ancient Greece and Rome.

People began to think of new ideas and develop art techniques, the sciences, architecture, and inventions. They looked for new lands and trade routes — and their ideas and thirst for learning spread, especially through the new technology of printing. Important artists of the Renaissance were Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, Cellini, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Important scientists were Copernicus and Galileo and philosophers were Machiavelli and Erasmus. Important writers were Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Cervantes. Columbus made his famous discoveries during this time.

The most important philosophy developed was called humanism — a new way of thinking that challenged the authority of the church and allowed scientists, artists, and scholars to produce their own ideas. The people of the Renaissance looked for new explanations, new ways of doing things, new interpretations of writings, new ways of building their homes and public buildings.”

THE TOOTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH
(Or you can’t handle the Tooth!)

The end of September beginning of October had me spending most of the time running back and forth between my dentist (truly she is a demon) and her pal, an oral surgeon (truly he is hell-spawn–but I do THINK he tried to help).

See, I had this really bum tooth and it needed a root canal–or so she said. She has diploma’s on the wall and a “Dr.” before her name so I would think that she could handle pretty much anything related to teeth.
No.

She sends me to another dentist for this root canal.

See, I cracked my tooth because I have a nasty habit of trying to open paint tubes with my back teeth–DON’T DO IT! E.V.E.R!!! Opening tubes up like this made me have multiple cracks in my molar. How it hadn’t cracked open she wasn’t sure.

So it ended up that I had to keep running back and forth to this other doctors office which was about 30 miles from where I live, 5 times–twice I needed to have additional root canals done–I hadn’t seen a dentist in 10+ years due to this overwhelming fear I have of them. It wasn’t fun. I guess they never really got the nerve dead because I kept feeling discomfort–ok, mild pain.

The surgeon asked if I wanted additional medication–I being stupid, didn’t understand what he was offering. I couldda had some good stuff!

Next time I know–always answer Yes, Please!!! to this question.

I did tell him I wasn’t a hero and I would rather not feel anything. Drilling and grinding out the root is the worst. Gah! The stuff nightmares are made of.

Anyway, I think I have my tooth fixed now. It feels weird to have a fake tooth in my mouth. But better then the gaping hole, and throbbing, mindless pain.
I kept wondering how people did dental work without all the niceties we have today–even WITH those nice little shots that are supposed to make it so you don’t feel anything, I still felt lots and lots of stuff.

GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY!!

ANY LAST WORDS???

Do you know what your last words are gonna be?

I know.

They are gonna be:

OH SHIT!!

See, I got to say that quite a bit last month. I had a family reunion in WY. It was a wonderful trip. Best time I’ve had in a long time. The part that kinda sucked big time–was that Barry and the kiddies stayed in Florida due to work, school, commitments, etc. So I went it solo–which was weird! And left me feeling majorly guilty. Do you know how hard it is to have fun when you are feeling guilty?? I did an ok job of it…but it really was hard : O )
Anyway, the whole family (I am the most favored among 6 brothers and sisters) met at my brothers huge home in Wyoming. It was totally the awesomest of awesome times.
I got to be with one of my brothers that I hadn’t seen since my dad died in ’92. I really enjoyed being with my family. They are pretty darn cool. We have distance, major philosophical differences and years that separate us–be we all fit together.

This is a t-shirt I had made up for everyone. I didn’t put in 2 of my brothers-in-laws an one of my sisters couldn’t make it to the reunion, so I have to work on another version real soon. I think I’m going to make my brothers-in-law and Barry Injuns! That would be a hoot!

This is the view from their back porch. I wanted to never leave this spot.

This is the back of their house:

Indescribable.

I took showers in a shower stall that dwarfed my master bedroom. I soooo wanted to slip into the jacuzzi bath, but I never had the chance.

The kitchen was gourmet all the way. Barry would have gone nuts in there. My sister-in-law Marsha made us Jambalaya–she and my brother live in New Orleans area.

They KNOW Cajun cookin’. Her was to die for!

My family warned me multiple times that it was going to be really cold in WY while we were going to be there. Stupid me in all my Floridian bravado scoffed at their warnings. I can handle a little cold. I’m tough–what a bunch of wusses I kept thinking as I packed my luggage smugly. Wrong!!!

If Jeff and Candy hadn’t been so use to entertaining and having multiple coats and active wear for each of those guests, I’d be toast. My idea of dressing warm was a pair of cropped jeans–they hit right about mid-calf, I did bring a couple of sweaters–like that helped a lot.

I would be frozen solid on some mountain side but for them generously raiding their closets for my wussy ass. While there I got to go four wheeling!

t even had pockets with these little holders to put bullets in! It was weird. For all I know I still have things I left in that coat and no one will ever find it because of all the damn pockets. Man, I loved that coat!!

So yep, I was perfectly happy on my sissy yet easy to ride four wheeler.

She was awesome. She cheesed my off when we stopped at one overlook and she takes off her helmet and shakes out her blond tresses looking like a super model and here’s me taking off my helmet and resembling a porcupine–hair all sticking up and over the place. Make up all over the place…but it was the funnest time!

Yep, I saw death all over that hill.

It was wonderfully cold, the color of fall trees all around us…

We rested at this place they call a “warming shack”.

The in-law out-laws–Marsha, Dave and Candy.

We went back to the cabin and just chilled out for a couple hours. Walking around, chatting, and my favorite past time-eating : O )

Jo freshens up the kitchen.

Later that evening my brother Ken took me out again on the four wheelers. We went deeper into the mountains. We must have stayed out for 3 hours or more.

I even saw a moose! Ok, it was dead–some hunter was skinning it, but I did see a moose. I think I saw more dead/ hunted animals out in Ut, WY, and ID then living ones.

And I thought our traffic here was hard to navigate. As we drove we started to see flurries!!

My kids have never seen real snow–just the fake stuff they have at Disney…also known as soap bubbles. Jackson was a lot different then I remembered–of course I’d been their about 20 or so years ago.

The center of town was still the same–dead deer antlers all over the place.

Jeff and Candy pointed out what I thought was a ski run–and part of it was–but another part is used in some world snow mobile race.

Folks get these really powerful Snow mobiles and race them up this HUGE mountain (a bazillion times higher then the one I saw while four wheeling). The object is to see who can go the fastest, longest distance UP this crazy mountain without sliding down the mountain run and/or NOT dying while doing it. It looked neat!

It had snowed quite a bit and it was gratifying to hear it crunch under my borrowed boots. A couple times I just sat and watched people pass. Lots of tourists.

But then I got to thinking snow–driving in mountain passes–hills–metal vehicles–my bad karma=probably not good. This is how my family thinks: Jeff drove his Toyota mega cruiser with shields, torpedo launch, and snow tires.

He did great and just to jump ahead we DID make it out alive.

But we filed into the vehicles. I pulled my seat belt around me extra tight and thought that I could use my Mom as my air bag as she’s small. I AM her favorite after all so I knew she wouldn’t mind.

Group shot. Aren’t we all smashin?!?

Damn, had I forgotten how high mountains are!! Here we are driving in a blizzard (which was beautiful, btw!!) and going up and down these 2 lane roads with no guard rails most of the time.

I got extremely close to one.

They smell.

Real bad.

And big. They are REAL big.

People were freakin’ NUTS about the animals and getting their photos. Here we are sliding down mountains and idiots would be standing in the middle of the roads trying to photograph buffalo and such.

Couple times we almost took out a couple tourists. A couple times *I* almost got taken out. But I got some damn good shots!!

So we turned around and headed UP the snowy, icy mountain we had just careened DOWN. After we get to the end of one treacherously icy road, we see a park ranger just about to close the road we were on! The snowy, icy. Just to let you know…parts of Yellowstone are an elevation of 12,000 feet.

Orlando, FL? Maybe an elevation of 3 feet. I bruise easily at that elevation.

Anyway, the ranger lets us thru with a look of either pure disgust or amazement–it was hard to tell thru my squinted with fear eyes.

Even Mom? We finally make it into the West Yellowstone area and find out hotel.

West Yellowstone is a really cute little area. It’s a winter town–in the season everyone rides their snowmobiles here–I kinda got this mental image of everyone dressed up in some weirdly modified snow/cowboy gear and riding into town on their snow mobiles. Weird images I had.

The hotel was ok. Nothing special. They did have a pool (indoor) and it was at the center of this little town.

I would love to see this place in full-on winter with all the snowmobiles. This place is where people come to rent their snow gear and then they go snow mobiling thru Yellowstone when it’s closed to all other traffic.

We unloaded and caught our breath after our , took a little nap, then met for dinner and…woohoo…shopping. Lot’s of little junky tourist shops that I spent too much money in. Kinda reminded me of here and Disney only everything was deer and moose themed rather then Mickey themed.

We went to this family restaurant that was fun. I can’ remember the name. But we caught it on it’s last night. They were closing down until snow mobile season–which meant they would reopen in January.

So luckily I had my MP3 Player and watched a few episodes of t.v. shows I’d missed with my headphones on. Kinda a buzz kill, but…

It was fun to see Old Faithful go off. I hadn’t been to see if since University. There has been a lot of building around that area. Lots of snow blowing and it was C.O.L.D!!!! We’d had a family reunion about 20 years ago in Yellowstone and stayed at the lodge. That was good times!

We drove the long way around to get back to my brothers house. We went thru Idaho (gah! Never going back there–although I went to a rockin’ place called Craters of the Moon–absolutely one of the coolest places on earth).

Saw one of my old College and the dorm I stayed in (BYU-Rexburg) One of the most hellish times I’ve ever been thru and the main reason I had though I’d never go back to Rexburg.

I just got back to Florida when we had to drive up to Mississippi to attend Barry’s brothers wedding.

It was a mighty long drive–13+ hours with 3 kids in the car. But at least we’d installed a DVD player before we left. That was indeed a god send!! The kids loved it. I love going up to Mississippi.

But Fox wanted NOTHING to do with it. I was thinking since he was so into cars, he’d love to ride this. Boy, was I wrong!

We met Barry’s brother Shane on Friday at a Chinese Restaurant (sucked). He seemed ok–not like I would have thought someone getting married the next day would be…but whatever.

That night Barry and his parents went to a wedding rehearsal dinner. I stayed home and watched Tina and my kids. That all went well. And then they came home. Something was wrong. Barry helped me finish bathing the kids and I could tell he was mighty upset. But he wouldn’t talk about it.

He said he and I needed to go talk. I was thinking the wedding might be off. He said it might be…but we needed some place to talk.

We got the kids down to bed, and then his folks said they’d watch the kids while we went to talk. Yep. Something was in the air.

Many a book has been plotted and laid out at Taco Bell. But it’s 10:00 on a Friday night in Mississippi–which is almost like a Sunday in Salt Lake City–everything is closed. So our big discussion takes place in our car.

I’ve only met this girl twice and those were very brief meetings that didn’t go over very well.

Even the Preacher and his wife where both bitches to Barry, and his Mom and dad. The brides parents didn’t even have the balls to introduce themselves to Barry’s family or to Barry.

I think most of all he wanted to dance with his daughters. But then we found out Baptists don’t dance so…

The wedding did go thru, but Barry refused to stay around for the reception. I had to try and explain to Chloe who had been so excited about the wedding that she couldn’t go and then try to explain that she didn’t do anything wrong–that was hard.

I was pissed. Barry missed time at the office, I missed work, the kids missed school, I was out money for day-care–I was in a dark place. If we had been informed before had that kids weren’t welcome, it would have been one thing, but to have come all this way and not been able to participate was a pretty shitty thing–especially in the manner it was done. And yes, of course, there were kids on the brides side.

YOU SAY IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY… Yep, I turned another year older this week. I had a really fun one.

Initially, I had been thinking that Barry had forgotten my birthday. I had it all planned out–if he forgot my birthday I’d get the mini-laptop computer I’ve been wanting to add to my gadget collection.

However, when I got home from work, Barry had put streamers all over the kitchen, baked me a Shoo-fly pie (to die for!!!). had a dozen roses on the counter and had a present for me.

The only things I’d really wanted for my birthday were: Daniel Craig delivered nekkid and bathed to me
A mini-laptop and this:

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as “O’Bomber” at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means “one who is blessed” in Swahili
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can speak Spanish
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister’s fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol

• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• His daughters’ ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia’s godmother is Jesse Jackson’s daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
• He was given the code name “Renegade” by his Secret Service handlers
• He was nicknamed “Bear” by his late grandmother
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were “street urchins”
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

New terms have been coined from this election.

From Urbandictionary.com:

*NOTE: This condition has been observed in people whether their chosen candidate won or not.

Wife, to her Doctor: “I’m worried about my husband. Ever since the 4th, he’s just been sitting at home wandering the New York Times and CNN for hours on end.” Doctor: “I wouldn’t worry about it. He probably just has an acute case of PEWS. He should be back on his feet by the end of the week.”

-noun

1. the general euphoria experienced when your candidate of choice wins by a landslide.

2. the sexual arousal and excitement caused by same.
“Dude, when I saw the final tally of votes on Nov. 4, I got a total election erection!”

A great post also at the same site:

vote
The best way you have of voicing your opinion in a way that can matter. Nothing’s perfect, and there’s always going to be mistakes, but there is simply no excuse for not casting a ballot for what you believe in. Take the time to understand the issues and then take the time to vote. Don’t let people who aren’t going to be around four years from now decide your future. Complaining without voting is worse than any hanging chad.
My conscience is clear because I took the time to vote.