Andy Murray Wins!!

In case you don't follow tennis, just to let you know that today ANDY MURRAY FROM SCOTLAND  WON THE WIMBLEDON FINAL! He's the first man from the UK to win a Wimbledon singles final since 1936 and he won all 3 sets of the match ( 6-4, 7-5, 6-4!) I'm excited about this because it continues to prove the point that persistence does pay off. (Along with hard work of course.) I think it's so nice how something really great and historic that happens to a sportsman can make spectators feel so happy and as if they won Wimbledon too. Heck, after 77 years I figure everyone who supported the UK in tennis and Murray in particular should feel like a winner! All I have to say is: hooray!!

 

Bars don't serve strings!

Here's the joke for today, just to prove that strings (in addition to under 21-year-olds) won't be served drinks!

"So, there were these three strings standing outside of a bar. One string bravely decided to go in. The bartender says, "We don't serve strings here" and throws him out. The next string decides to give it a shot and saunters in. The bartender takes one look at him and says, "We DON'T serve STRINGS here" and throws him out. The third string thinks for a moment. He loops around and shakes out his scraggly ends, and proceeds into the bar. The bartender looks and looks, and finally says, "... Are you a string?" to which the string replies, "Nope, I'm a frayed knot!"  

This joke came from: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100709154921AArPPX3

The quest to take a picture of a dog...

I'm always impressed when people can get a dog to stay still long enough to take its picture. I suppose it helps that Smartphones have cameras so it really only takes a second or two to get a good shot. Still, getting a dog to stay still for those two seconds can be a challenge. My friend Denise for example, wanted to get a picture of her dog holding an American flag in its mouth for the 4th of July. She said though that things didn't quite work as she had planned as once her dog Toby had the flag in his mouth he started eating the stick to which the flag was attached and then ran away with it. Denise had to run after Toby, get him to spit what was left of the flag out of his mouth and yet she still managed to get a picture of him!

Not to be outdone, I decided to see if I could get my dog Doogle to stand still long enough to get his picture. I managed this feat by acting as though I was about to throw him his Frisbee. When someone gets ready to throw Doogle a Frisbee, Doogle lies down and waits for it to be thrown and then he bolts and almost falls over himself trying to get it. Anyway, I managed to click the picture and throw the Frisbee before he could move. My reward: the picture below!

To me these pictures prove that dogs can be very photogenic-as long as you can get them to stay still long enough!

Things I like about the U.S.

Since it's a day to be patriotic, I thought it might be good to think of things I really like/am proud of about the US. These things include:

• That it's a nation of immigrants which I think is something that makes this country more unique and colorful.
• The fact that the right to vote is universal and everyone's opinion can at the very least, be voiced.
• That people can practice any religion they want.
• That people can protest. The fact that people can lawfully gather in groups holding signs and yelling about issues that tick them off and the fact that creating this ruckus can serve to bring about change is pretty cool.
• That this nation gave the world Sesame Street and Disney. ( I think Big Bird is educational and fun and let's face it, life without Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck-my favorite, would be so much less amusing.) 
• That the first chocolate chip cookie was made in the US!
• The monuments throughout the country. My favorite is the Lincoln Memorial. When I visited DC-it has a great view of the National Mall and somehow it just seems peaceful to me.
• That great musicians came from the US like Aaron Copland and George Gershwin.
• That an American astronaut showed the world that it's possible to walk on the moon.
• The belief in the US that you can be whatever it is you set out to be regardless of your background, as long as you're willing to work hard and not give up.

Finally, I think what I love best is that the US is my home and the place where most of my family live and I wouldn't have it any other way.  

Black raspberry picking!

My family still live on a farm and since I've been visiting my parents over the holiday week, I have found myself spending more time in the outdoors. This morning I went out in the woods by my family's house with my dad and we picked some black raspberries which will eventually be turned into jam.  I've found that it's nice to get things from nature rather than a store. Not only can we get berries but my parents also keep some bees which means we have honey too. We don't have quite enough bees to make enough honey for commercial sale but we make enough for our own use. It beats Whole Foods hands down! Coming from a big city where green space is at a premium, being able to pick berries seems so much more fun. Although I do like living in the city  because there's always something happening, every so often I find I need to go somewhere that's quieter and greener just to remind myself that green spaces still exist and  that not everyone lives in apartments 2 feet from each other. Maybe there's a reason why people call nature "mother," I find that when I'm outside in parks or just open green spaces. I think of my family and so going to these places acts as a reminder that my home and my family are always with me.

Maggie's quest to make magical flakes more available to US citizens

A friend of mine was going to travel to the UK recently and among the things I told her she must do on her trip is to try a vanilla ice cream cone with a Cadbury chocolate "flake".  For those (unfortunate) people who don't know what a "flake" is, it's basically a bunch of chocolate shavings melted together into a stick formation. When inserted into a vanilla ice cream cone it is absolutely mahvelous dahling! Upon telling my friend about this, I wondered whether it was at all possible to get said chocolate flakes easily in the US. So today I went to my local supermarket that has an aisle dedicated to international foods and when I got to the UK/Irish section (yes there is a UK Irish section praise the Lord!) the damn section had no flakes! I was so disappointed! It got me thinking that the US really needs flakes as I couldn't stand the idea that little US children all over the place were missing out on their goodness! I was so bothered by this I went home and Googled "flakes" just to see where you could get them if you wanted them as badly as I do! Apparently, you can get them from Amazon.com (click here) and they deliver "fast"! Still,  I think they should be more apparent/available. So here is my appeal to Cadbury:

Dear Cadbury:

I love the flakes that people put in ice creams very much and I feel like people in the US would benefit so much from their goodness! Please don't let any more children be deprived of this goodness and sell more flakes to more US supermarkets. They're too good not to do this!

Thank you in advance for your help!

Sincerely,

Maggie
Self Proclaimed President of the Flakes are Fabulous Club

Happy 35th wedding anniversary to my parents!

I'm very happy and proud to say that today marks the 35th year that my parents have been married! My mum and dad actually met and got married in the UK as my mum is British. My dad was working for an insurance company in London for a while and at some point he lived in an apartment close to one where my mum's sister and her husband were living and they became good friends. Since my father couldn't go home to Michigan for Christmas, my aunt invited him to go with her and my uncle to her parents' house and my mum was there and that's how they met. The romantic side of me likes to think it was love at first sight but I feel like they're too sensible (in the best sense) for that!  When my mum and dad told my mum's parents they wanted to get married my grandmother turned to my mum and said, "why couldn't you marry a nice English boy?!" (My grandmother had already seen another of her children-my aunt, marry an American from Texas.) Despite this misgiving I think my grandparents quite liked my dad so it worked out well.  My parents have done a lot over the past 35 years, including: traveling all over the world together, remodeling a beautiful farmhouse where they still live, and raising 3 great kids together. They've had ups and downs but they've dealt with the ups and downs together and I think they came out stronger for weathering the storms. They still love each other very much and to me they've served as a great example of what a loving relationship is-nurturing, enduring, and most of all, fun!