One of my favorite places in the Bay Area.....

There is a huge cemetery up in the hills of Oakland,
the Piedmont Cemetery. It is full of huge crypts and lots
of mausoleums and there are gorgeous statues all around.

A black cat wandering the cemetery....
or is it an restless spirit, attached to its place
of earthly remains?

This is one version of the angel that I love, it is
a smaller statue on the other side of the cemetery,
this one always sits in the shade of a tree.

There are 4 of these lovely ladies, watching over
the bones of the dead.

To me, cemeteries are so peaceful and beautiful.
They are places where you can go and think clearly.
Cemeteries are not sad to me, they are reflective and
soothing to the soul. The magic of the past is all
around you, rippling thru the air like a pool of water,
everywhere you look, there is beauty with reverence.
(Ok yeah, and partying in the cemetery when I was
a kid was waaaay fun too!!)

My Angel!! He is the angel that I go to when I
need a clear moment. He has a black widow living
under his robes in the front. On his lap is a book,
around his neck are stars, and he is gazing off
with a wise look in his eyes- there is a lot on his mind.

This is one of the "un-endowed" sections of the
cemetery- these graves are SO old- from the 1800's-
that they lie forgotten and uncared for. What
will happen to them? Will they be replaced by new
grave sites? Nothing is forever......

Regal crypts, houses for the dead

Johnny sweetie

Saila cutie

One of the two beautiful sphinx statues

You can lie in the ground forever, or you can
put your ashes in an urn and have a glass
cabinet for your remains.
(not trying to be morbid because it's
all a beautiful process!)

Saila and her "pet" turtle bead that got
to have a tour of the cemetery by being
dragged around on a string!

These HUGE plants had black Bird of Paradise
flowers growing from them

My sweeties and glowing white tulips

AWESOME picture that Robbie took!

Ethereal tulips

Johnny's Poems

Johnny Keohan

March 25, 2009

Winter

You cannot hide from me,

I will follow you,

I am all around,

No place to escape,

I give everything a sheet of white,

Trees die, but Santa comes,

I give so many joy,

But annoy many others.

Guilt

The fire is growing,

No way out,

You have to tell,

But no, you can’t,

They’ll find out one way or another,

You should tell, wait no, maybe not,

They’ll be angry one way or another,

Maybe they’ll understand, or not,

What should you do?

No way out.

The cat

Man I hate that cat,

Looking at me with those emerald eyes,

Such sorrow in them,

Whispering, telling me not to go,

I never believe those sorrowful eyes,

But maybe I’ll regret that later,

But that’s later,

But still those sorrowful, emerald eyes wouldn’t lie,

Those hypnotic emerald eyes.

The River

Just sitting, watching the fish in the river is a treat,

I wouldn’t care if I didn’t catch any fish at all,

Just sitting, watching fish swim is enough,

I could just sit there, all day and all night,

Each one has their own story to tell me,

Listening to their stories is a treat for me,

So many to listen too,

So many going about their own business,

But some pause to tell me their own story,

Just sitting, listening to the fish is a treat for me.

Ode to the bathroom flies

All the brave bathroom flies that died that fateful night,

When the giant named Johnny came and killed them,

In twos and threes, fours and fives he killed them,

They were squished and squashed in a variety of ways,

Down the drain and down in the toilet, even in the shower,

They called reinforcements, but he killed them too,

By sixes and sevens they got squished and squashed,

Shot them with water, soap, conditioner, shampoo,

Squished by his hand covered in water or soap,

So none got away,

To all the bathroom flies that died that fateful night.

Just some random beauty shots.....

Well, I tried to capture the beauty of the sunset
from our back porch and this picture does ok justice
but if you really wanna see it in all its beauty, you'll
have to come on over.

We are lucky because this is the view from our back
porch. We get to say goodbye to the sun and see the
storms coming in from the Ocean.

When I turned around and looked at our house (with
its new beautiful paint job), I thot that this would
make a beautiful picture and it does. You can see
the sunset in the window.

YAY!! Look at my gorgeous lettuce!! It is soooo
tender and Yummy!! There are onions and daisies
mixed in with it too, I am so proud of my lettuce!!

A close-up of succulence.

The baby tomatoes. They are just babies now. In a
little while they will grow into big monsters with
plenty of juicy goodness!

YUMMY lettuce clippings!

YAY, yay, and extra YAY!! I FINALLY finished my
third blanket! I am aiming for a blanket a year (I start in
the late Fall but this one I didn't start until deep into
Winter), and I think this one is my best one yet!
Crocheted blankets are fun to make.

Saila is modeling how comfortable this blanket is!

A close-up of one of the squares. This is a
detail of my "pumpkin" square.

She is so proud that she can carry Shadow now!
This is after her ballet/tap class.

A memory of my Grandma

Every night I tell the kids goodnight and tuck them in.
Most nights I hear them talking after I've turned the
lights out and shut the door. I let them talk, they are
friends. On nights when they get kinda giggly and loud
I always find myself yelling "Go to bed!" Tonight, when
I said it, I was reminded of my Grandma's "rum cake
recipe." Somebody sent her this funny Rum Cake recipe
(it was a real cake recipe?) where every few steps on the
recipe you are suppose to take a sip of rum.
My Grandma got such a kick out of the last
part because the person writing it "got drunk" and jumbled
some steps and words. The last part said "Check rum again
and bo to ged." She always laughed and laughed at the
"bo to ged." Anyways, tonight I almost said "Now, bo
to ged!" I had to stop and smile to myself and come and
write this down. It's a heat wave, hot night (temperature
89 degrees in the house) and it makes me think even
more on my Grandma and my visits to Michigan.

Found it on-line!! Yay!! Here it is, exactly:

Best Rum Cake Ever

1 or 2 quarts rum
baking powder
1 C butter
1 tsp soda
1 tsp sugar
lemon juice
2 large eggs
brown sugar
1 C dried fruit
nuts

Before you start, sample the rum to check for quality. Good, isn't it? Now go ahead. Select a large mixing bowl, measuring cup, etc. Check the rum again. It must be just right. To be sure rum is of the highest quality, pour one level cup of rum into a glass and drink it as fast as you can. Repeat. With an electric mixer, beat 1 cup butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 seaspoon of thugar and beat again. Meanwhile, make sure that the rum is of the finest quality--try another cup. Open second quart, if necessary. Add 2 large leggs, 2 cups fried druit and beat till high. If druit gets stuck in beaters, just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the rum again, checking for conscisticity. Next sift 3 cups of pepper or salt (it really doesn't matter which). Sample the rum again. Sift 1/2 pint lemon juice. Fold in chopped butter and strained nuts. Add one babblespoon of brown thugar, or whatever color you can find. Wix mell. Grease oven and turn cake pan to 350 gredees. Now pour whole mess into the coven and ake. Check the rum again, and bo to ged.

I can still hear my Grandma laughing!!
Makes me smile.......

Our Last two days of Spring Break

On Friday we went to the Jelly Belly factory. This is
Saila and Rob at the "Sample Bar," where you could sample
any flavor you wanted.

Johnny, Rob, and Saila wearing the Mandatory
hats- sorry no camera's allowed inside the factory. I was
bummed too because I really, really wanted to take
a picture of the Oompa Loompas because they
looked so different from the movie, it was
interesting- they had funny shoes too.

Killer Jelly Bellies hangen from the ceiling!!

No kidding- we bought $50 worth of Jelly
Bellies and we were sick of them THAT night!!

We ate dinner at The Blue Frog- I like this statue

The boys and their beers
(yes, Johnny has rootbeer!)

Us girls and our drinks!

The kids relaxing in the room, watching the
Three Stooges

My TIRED boy!!

A flower outside the place we stayed

Then we cruised on over to the City again and went
to the Aquarium by the Bay- the one at Pier 39

These jellyfish are SOO big!!

Other beautiful ghost jellies

No flash photography is allowed in the tunnels
so my pictures came out kinda blurry. It is really
fun because you get to have fish and sharks swimming
all around you.

My favorite little guy, only blurry

She LOVED this!

The Bat rays! They would stick their heads out of
the water to get a better look at us! It was sooo awesome
how they would swim by to be petted- so curious!

Outside of the Hard Rock Cafe in the City

Snapdragons

My sweeties!

The sea lions are STILL out there

Some strange yellow, petal-less flowers by the Bay