Today

FOR TODAY, Friday September 24, 2010

Outside my window... It's dark.  It's 11:10 pm.  It rained today so it's cool.  Clouds are partially hiding the full moon.

I am thinking...nothing.  Not at all.  Listening to music.  Reading blogs.  Mindless night.

I am thankful for... so many things...the ability to leave my job that I no  longer loved, anticipating a new job next week.

From the kitchen... I cleaned it a few minutes ago.  Don't like to go to bed with a dirty kitchen.  My friend Jan came over for chicken spaghetti, salad and bread sticks.  It was darned good.

I am wearing... By Dark blue nightshirt with the yellow flowers on it.  Comfy

I am reading... I can't decide between the Christian fiction love story Maggie Rose or new Jack Reacher or the 2nd Dragon Tattoo book.  So I'm not reading anything now.  Just deciding.

I am hearing... my Ipod from the stereo thingy in the kitchen.  Kenny Maines is asking 'Ain't Nobody Lonely?'   30 years ago or so I would have swooned.   Favorite Maines Brothers song ever.

Around the house... I'm on the computer when I should be in bed.

Pondering these words... "Not all who wander are lost" ~C.S. Lewis"

A few plans for the rest of the week... Gotta clean house big time.  It's not horrible but need to do floors.  And laundry.  And clean the office.  Same things that always need to get done!!   How is that possible?  Probably lunch with Deborah tomorrow.  And watch the Netflix movies that I have.  

A picture thought I'm sharing...

Lake Tahoe, April 2007

Chicken Salad Recipe

Chicken Salad

6 cups cooked chicken

¼ c green onion

½ c sweet relish

½ c red peppers

½ c celery

¾ c chopped pecans

¼ t garlic powder

¼ t paprika

1/8 t onion powder

3/8 c French dressing

1 ½ c mayonnaise

1 t salt

Mix all ingredients, let set overnight

I went to a book club last night and the hostess served this with flatbread and it was amazingly yummy.  And it makes a lot!!

Kaden's 1st birthday pictures

One cute cowboy!!

Random Vacation Pictures

They don't necessarily fit anywhere else and are not really interesting enough for their own post so they are lumped together.

Ernie Biggs Dualing Piano Bar

The only picture I took in Springfield Mo.  I expected historic downtown and this was the only picture I really thought looked worth taking.  Disappointed a bit.

Ernie Biggs has one of these in Little Rock too.

Branson Pedestrian Mall

On the street in Branson, before the monsoon.   It truly is a tourist town, I have to give them that credit.  Nice clean streets (even before the rain), lots of attractions and very friendly people.  The traffic has no doubt overtaken them and that could use some improvement and the economy has hit hard.  Lots of theaters with big names but it does not look like the big names perform there much.  I saw a house show called  The Duttons, a clean cut family with a lot of fiddles and a lot of kids.  They were in the Dutton Family Theater in front of the Dutton Family Inn Hotel.  The theater was about 1/4 full but it looks like the perform at least 5 days a week, sometimes twice a day and they have another theater in Phoenix so they winter there.  It was a nice show and they know their audience.  I was touched where they sang the military songs and had people in the audience stand up when their song came up.  Very sweet to see a lot of older veterans there.  I got there late because of the rain so no pictures.  Its going to be my pat excuse.   The Duttons have a lot of mouths to feed so sing on.

They also had dancing fountains.  These were dancing to Kung Fu Fighting.  They also had aquatic ducks, the jeep things that turn into boats and I've wanted to ride them since the first Travel Channel special I saw on them but the timing wasn't right.  Someone was watching for me because the rain started right as it left and the riders would have needed to be ducks.

Clinton Library

Let me begin by saying that Bill Clinton is a horndog.  No dispute there.  I hate the questionable morals he brought to the White House and even if he and Hillary have "an arrangement" I hope it did not include bringing shame to the position of President of the United States or humiliating his daughter.  That being said, he is a charismatic man, no dispute there either.  And I think I'd like him in person.  My friend Drew, in his cameraman capacity, has met him 3 times and Drew says President Clinton remembers him every time.  His daughter's recent wedding pictures show he loves her more than anything.  His charm and commitment to public service seem genuine.  His 'I come from a town called Hope' speech sticks in my memory because it was amazing.   So, I made it a priority to see his Presidential Library, again with my buddy Drew as my tour guide.  I'm told that around Little Rock, it's know as the double wide, which in Little Rock is a compliment!!

The building has a lot of glass and the reflection was not the best for my pictures so we are kind of limited.  It was way cool to see.  He had his agenda for every day he was there and you could pull any date to see where he was and what he was doing.  I pulled my birthday on one of the years and he was in St Louis and back and managed 4 pages of agenda.  On Drew's birthday, a Sunday, he went to church and played golf so it wasn't all work!!

Entrance to William J Clinton Presidential Library, Little Rock, Ar

The entrance.  Gray on gray?  Hmmm.  Might have rethought that one.

President Drew

Drew in the President's chair in the conference room.  The Secretary of Defense sits to his left at all cabinet meetings.   The Presidential chair is 2 inches taller than the other chairs.

President Clinton's desk

Ceiling in Oval Office

The Clinton Oval Office

The Seal in the carpet

From 1993 Inaugural Address.  I agree!!

Clinton School of Public Service

The Clinton School of Public Service is the only place a person can receive a Master of Public Service degree in the US (and probably anywhere else).  It is located beside the library and can accommodate 60 students at a time

Arkansas State Capitol

Not quite as blingy as the Iowa building but beautiful.

The Little Rock Nine looking on.  It's hard to take a good picture of such a big building .

The Seal.  Regnat Populus means 'The People Rule'

Current Governor Mike Beebe's office door

Looking up from the hallway

Looking up from the rotunda

The best tour guide ever, my buddy Drew!!!

I had a great time.  Drew drove me around and showed me the capitol.  He is a cameraman for Little Rock's channel 4 so he know where everything is.  I could not have had a better tour guide!!

Little Rock Nine

In 1957, 9 black students entered Little Rock's Central High School to enforce the 1954 Supreme Court 'Brown v Board of Education' that was passed to end 'separate but equal' and integrate schools.  The governor of Arkansas ordered the Arkansas National Guard to stop the kids from coming into the school, prompting  President Eisenhower called on the Army to escort them in.  These sculptures represent the students and are located just outside the Arkansas State Capitol.  The high school is still open today and they have a visitors center where you can read and watch videos of this historic event.  Sadly, we had time issues (too much to see, too little time) and only got to spend a few minutes there.  I think I could have spent a few hours there, listing to the news reports and the interviews.   And the rain prevented any pictures of the high school.

What an amazing time in history and how brave these 9 were.  What I saw at the visitors center  showed them walking in, scared to death & being taunted on a daily basis.  They were actually turned away on their first day and came back!!  The governor actually shut the school down for the 1958-59 school year to prevent integration.  It was reopened in the fall of 1959 and 2 of the 9 actually graduated from Central High.

The first of them to pass away died on September 5, 2010.  We were at the visitors center on September 2.

Amazing story...cannot wait to read more.  It was actually not before my time but to my credit I was only 22 days old.

One other thing...at the Clinton Library Store I saw what has to be the tackiest souvenir imaginable:  One of those things where you get the BB's in the little holes featured a picture of one of the Little Rock Nine.  Why would someone sell something like that?    Tacky.