Cordelia's Mom, Still

Dear Abby: What Do You Have Against Mothers?

Posted on February 1, 2015 by cordeliasmom2012

In her column in today’s edition of The Buffalo News, Dear Abby features a letter from a wife who has gone through a period of marital strife (imagine that!). During that stressful period, the wife confided in her mother, who then took it upon herself to send the husband an email in which it was stated that Mom didn’t like him. Now, Mom wants to see her grandchildren (who live far away), and the husband is uncomfortable with joining his family on such a visit due to the aforesaid email. The wife seeks advice from Dear Abby. [click here, to read today’s Dear Abby column]

I agree that Mom should have kept her daughter’s confidences to herself, although I can certainly sympathize with the lady. It’s hard to hear of your daughter’s unhappiness without doing something about it.

However, I strongly disagree with Dear Abby’s final statement:

“In the future, I hope you will resolve your marital problems like the adult you are and not go running to your mother.”

Say what? Isn’t Dear Abby currently written by Jeanne Phillips, who is the daughter of the original Dear Abby (Abigail Van Buren) – who was an advice columnist? Does anyone believe that Ms. Phillips never, ever approached her own mother for advice?

While I agree that a married couple should make every attempt to resolve their issues in the privacy of their own home, sometimes a girl just needs her mother.

I know of very few women, young or old, who don’t confide in their mothers at times. I am 62 years old, and I miss my mother every single day. I wish I could tell her about the wonderful things my kids are doing now, I wish I could tell her about my new puppy – and I really, really wish I could just drop everything on a Sunday, when my husband is driving me crazy, and go have dinner with my mother – at which time I could bitch about my husband to my heart’s content without having to face an argument directly with him instead. Over the years, there were a number of Sundays on which dinner with my mother probably saved my marriage.

As for the aforesaid upsetting email: According to the letter in the Dear Abby column, that email had been sent “a few years ago.” Sheesh, give it up already people – Mom was stressed and did a stupid thing. That doesn’t mean that she won’t be willing to forgive and forget now. I disagree with Dear Abby’s advice that the wife should talk to her mother about that email and explain how it affected the husband’s feelings. Chances are, Mom doesn’t even remember sending the darn thing, and bringing it up now is only going to rekindle the flames of that old stressful situation.

Mom is already aware that the couple made up long ago. Were I in a similar situation, I would accept a visit from my daughter, my grandkids, and my son-in-law as graciously as possible (albeit, I might occasionally check out the interactions between my daughter and her husband just to satisfy myself that they aren’t faking their current amicable relationship.)

Of course, in my case, I would probably be unable to resist adding a comment to our eventual goodbyes indicating that I promise not to send any stupid emails.

(Hopefully, I would have already resisted the temptation to greet their arrival by throwing myself across the threshold of the front door while wielding an axe – ‘cause that would scare the heck out of the grandkids, which definitely would not be a good thing.)

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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com or notcordeliasmom@aol.com

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Images by: Heather, and Marta Copani, respectively

Posted in Relationships, That's Life | Tagged daughters, Dear Abby, husbands, love, marriage, mother-in-law, motherhood, mothers | 19 Comments

Let’s Try This Again

Posted on January 29, 2015 by cordeliasmom2012

Come on, people!

Too many of you read my Heaven Help My Readers post and believed those photos were actual errors I had made. Did none of you realize I was poking fun at myself?

True, I’m not a very good photographer, but I’m not so bad as to accidentally photograph my own feet, or to hold my finger in front of the camera lens. The photos in that post were intentional “mistakes.” It was not easy to deliberately cut off all of me except for the very top of my own head! Or to position that pointer finger just right!

So, to [hopefully] dispel the myth that CookieCakes is totally inept at photography, I’d like to share some other photos I’ve taken, some with my new digital camera and some with my basic cell phone camera. Granted, these are not at blue-ribbon level, either – but at least they show I do make some effort.

After viewing my “art work,” how about leaving a comment and telling me what you think? Would a little more experience improve my photographic skills, or should I just go back to drawing stick figures with crayons?

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The “famous” cookies-and-juice photo, taken specifically for Paul Curran’s guest post. It took me hours to get just the right shot (and only got close to what I envisioned), but I did get to eat the cookies afterwards:

Here’s one of the draft shots. Paul thought the juice glass was too small. (By the way, it’s not juice – just a glass of colored water). Even non-artistic me can appreciate the difference in quality of the two photos.

And now that I’ve made you hungry, how about some puppy photos.

Here’s what I see when I wake up in the morning:

(And trust me, it wasn’t easy taking those shots with my cell phone while I still only had one eye open!)

Our local radio station loved this shot, and included it in their photo spread of SPCA-adopted pets (it’s too dark and not particularly artistic, but definitely adorable [click on it to make it bigger]):

OK, now for some newer “artistic endeavors” (I would appreciate it if those of you who are professional photographers or art teachers try not to laugh too hard!):

Heck – it worked for Andy Warhol!

Cotton balls, anyone?

Squirrel’s nest in winter – Cody wants to know where those darn squirrels are!

Snowballs – ready for battle!

And, one final photo of Cody (no longer a puppy):

I saw Mom throw that snowball – where the heck is it?

How’d I do, folks? Want me to start doing some of my own photography? Or should I go back exclusively to Flickr.com?

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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com or notcordeliasmom@aol.com

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Posted in Pets, Photography, That's Life | Tagged camera, CookieCakes, cookies, Paul Curran, photography, Puppy Cody | 18 Comments

Bitter-Sweet: The Liebster Award

Posted on January 25, 2015 by cordeliasmom2012

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of bloggers nominated for the Liebster Award. Since one of the requirements for all of the blogger awards is that the newest nominee then go on to nominate a number of other bloggers, each time I would come across an acceptance post by a new nominee, I would excitedly check to see if I was among the that blogger’s nominations. Alas, ’twas not to be.

And I was beginning to feel unappreciated and diminished. Heck, those other nominations had blogs no better than mine – why wasn’t I being chosen? Why was I still standing alone on the sideline, with eyes screaming “Pick me! Pick m-e-e-e-e-!“?

Then along came Kim Scaravelli of Stuff My Dog Taught Me. This morning, she included me among her nominations for the coveted Liebster Award.

And guess what? I don’t qualify.

What, you say? How is that possible? Cordelia’s Mom should be nominated for every blogger award that exists!

Well, the fact is that the Liebster Award can only be given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers. I have more.

Yay me! I have become such a “big blogger” that I don’t qualify! (And no, don’t go running to see what my follower count is – it’s not that far above 200, but it IS above 200.)

However, in the spirit of awardsmanship (is there such a word?) and because I looked forward to this award for so long, I am going to attempt to answer Kim’s 11 questions:

1. If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? That’s easy – a redwood. Because redwoods are really old and really big, and everyone loves them anyway.

2. You are on a desert island and can have only one food. You will never run out but that is all you will ever eat… for the rest of your life. What food do you choose and why? Ice cream. Before my stomach surgery, all I could eat was semi-solids, and after developing ulcerative colitis, for a long time I had to limit myself to very soft foods. Ice cream fit the bill in both cases, and it is so very nutritious – after all, it’s made from cream which comes from the top of milk, and babies begin their lives on milk. What could be better? (I assume that desert island has electricity so I can keep that ice cream frozen? If not, guess the next question would be: “What one living creature would you take with you?” and I’d have to answer, “A cow.” [sorry, Puppy Cody])

3. You have lots of time and no one else wants in the bathroom. Do you choose to take a shower or do you choose a bath? Why? Let’s not go there -trust me, no one would want to sit in my tub in the condition it’s in right now. Even Mr. Clean runs away in terror.

4. In your “dream home” what is the biggest room? Why? The back and side yards. If there’s enough land around me so I don’t have to see or hear my neighbors, I don’t care how big or small the rooms in the house are.

5. You are on a plane. The person beside you wants to engage in conversation but you would rather just watch bad television and eat your tasteless, pre-packaged chicken wrap. How do you resolve this? Get off. The seats are too small and too close together anyway. I’ve heard parachute jumping is fun.

6. Who is your favourite cartoon dog and why? Snoopy, because he’s a beagle. (Note to Cordelia: I’m so sorry we lost your stuffed Snoopy dog on the way into the ER when you were 8. The entire ER staff went one-by-one out to the parking lot to search, but it was just – gone.)

7. You have been trapped in a Karaoke situation. There is no way out. What song do you sing? The mime song, because all you have to do is wave your arms around and look silly. (And dodge those thrown beer bottles.)

8. You are in a clothing store. You have enough money to purchase one “PERFECT” sweater. Beside this item is a sale rack where you find three “NICE” sweaters that can all be bought for the same amount of money. What do you choose to do and why? I mostly shop online, to avoid crowds, and I avoid fitting rooms whenever possible because I hate sharing space with all those beautiful younger women. Do you know how embarrassing that can be? (I’m sorry, what was the question again?)

9. You have a chance to rewrite history and change your name to anything you like… What do you call yourself? God. And I’m sure I’m going straight to Hell for that answer.

10. Too cold or too hot? If you had to pick one, which would it be and why? Definitely, too cold. You can always add layers, but [again, trust me] no one wants CookieCakes taking anything off.

11. The television has broken and there is not a book to be found (what a horrifying thought!). It is a stormy day and you are trapped in your house. How do you amuse yourself for the day? I assume there’s still electricity? Then, there’s only one possible answer – I would, of course, spend time writing this blog (and hoping someone will actually read the darn thing!)

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Well, that was the most writing fun I’ve had in a long time, and I thank Kim Scaravelli for the opportunity.

And because I’m so grateful, and Kim was so gracious in her nomination of me (and because Kim, herself, stated in her post that she loves to be nominated for anything!), I hereby award Kim Scaravelli of Stuff My Dog Taught Me the very prestigious Cordelia’s Mom, Still Enthusiasm Award. The award badge may be obtained here. There are no strings attached, no questions to answer, no requirement to nominate others, and EVERYONE is eligible. Go for it!

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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com or notcordeliasmom@aol.com

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Images by Christina and David Schmitt, and Quinn Dombrowski, and Arctic Warrior, and Mike Licht, respectively

Posted in Awards, That's Life | Tagged blogging, Kim Scaravelli, Liebster Award, nominations, Stuff My Dog Taught Me, writing | 45 Comments

Spam-Bam Thank You Ma’am (January 2015)

Posted on January 22, 2015 by cordeliasmom2012

A new year is upon us, and the spammers continue to outdo each other. Here’s just a sampling of the current fare:

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Comment (excerpt):

“{I have|I’ve} been {surfing|browsing} online more than {three|3|2|4} hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. {It’s|It is} pretty worth enough for me.
{In my opinion|Personally|In my view}, if all {webmasters|site owners|website owners|web owners} and bloggers made good content as you did, the {internet|net|web} will be {much more|a lot more} useful than ever before.| I {couldn’t|could not} {resist|refrain from} commenting.”

Response:

The above comment went on in the same vein for hundreds of lines. You’re a little confused, aren’t you?

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Comment:

“And pretty much anything he wants seems disturbingly possible.”

Response:

I was going to just delete this spam comment, but the fact that it was written on my Have You Been Chosen? post just tickles me for some reason.

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Comment:

“Nice Blog, thanks for sharing this kind of information.”

Response:

Nice comment, isn’t it? And I would have enjoyed it, had it not been written on at least 20 different posts over a 2-day period. Way to go, spammer – nothing like overkill!

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Comment:

“You are my inhalation , I possess few blogs and often run out from to brand.”

Response:

You are my ~~sunshine~~ inhalation, my only ~~sunshine~~ inhalation. You make me happy when ~~skies are gray~~ spammers breath … please don’t take my ~~sunshine~~ inhalation away.

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Comment:

“Yesterday i spent 300 dollars for platinium roulette system , i hope
that i will make my first money online.”

and

“Today i spent 300 dollars for platinium roulette system , i hope that i will earn my first money online.”

Response:

I think you wasted your money.

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Comment:

“I’ll be there for you.”

Response:

Aw. Just aw. One can never have too much spammer support.

♦♦♦

This month, I had more [really good] spam comments than I can use for this particular post, so I will save them for February – and I’m sure I’ll have many more by then. I can hardly wait!

(As usual, apologies to the appropriate commenter if any of the foregoing weren’t, in fact, spam. I realize that some comments suffer in translation, and I try to take that into account when determining what is spam and what is legitimate.)

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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com or notcordeliasmom@aol.com

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Images by: Christian Barmala, and Cliff, respectively