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Eye of the Tiger

I am sitting here tonight wearing a large tiger's eye and silver ring that Dereck got me for Christmas. I just found the following information about tiger's eye stones, not knowing anything about them before except that my mother had a tiger's eye ring I always admired when I was growing up.

"Tiger's Eye is a good stone for those born during The Moon of Growth - (20 Apr - 20 May). Tiger eye's calming influences can help people born during this time of year cope with the rapid changes that frequently upset their lives. It can also help them to put down the new roots that will lead to expansion in material directions.Tiger's Eye is a good stone for people with the zodiac sign of Taurus."

I asked Dereck whether he had known that ahead of time, and he said no-- but it makes me like the ring even more to know that it is such a cool stone. It also goes with my amber, and all of my brown.

I have been offline so long that I shall have to resort to bullets:

• Christmas was an unmitigated pleasure. The kids got us up around 8:00 a.m. and we opened gifts for a couple of hours (seven of us taking turns) and had coffee and then a brisket brunch. We just lazed around luxuriously for hours, walked up to see the cows, then had deep-fried turkey for dinner. Stuffed and happy we just enjoyed the day.
• Sunday, we had company. Amy and Earl came, and Amy's friend Heather and little boy Casey; Tom and Joyce's dear neighbors Sandy and Donny and their two children, Chase, who had a fever, and Donald, twelve, who took the boys for tractor rides. It started to snow in the evening.
• Earl made a fabulous fabulous pizza* (as part of the white pizza on the day after Christmas tradition they have started): crust you buy from a pizzeria; large, round, thin slices of provolone cheese overlaying the whole crust; pears sliced as thinly as possible and covering the provolone; pecans, coarsely chopped; gargonzola cheese; then brush the whole thing with honey. It is fantastico.
• *editorial comment: I don't care if it isn't pizza-- whatever it is, it is really really good!
• Earl and I sneaked out for cigarettes by the barn and Joyce caught us and shook her finger at us: "You naughty kids!"
• Amy and Earl win hands down for the most hilarious stories: "Big Ed had just gotten out of prison for murder, for the second time, so shopping in Kris Kringle town was not on his agenda."
• Big Ed came to visit them a few weeks ago, after getting out of prison, "But not for the bad murder." He is about seven feet tall, so Amy wondered what on earth to feed him, but she had two hundred hand-made Italian cookies in her backseat, left there by a friend.
• Earl's Uncle Mike had said that he and Ed would be arriving at 5:00, but didn't come, so Amy and Earl went to bed. Mike arrived at 5:00 a.m., and entered the house, found a piece of mail with Amy's name on it to verify that it was the right house (Earl had left the door open for them) and then walked upstairs and knocked on Amy and Earl's bedroom door, and scared them half to death.
• Big Ed had refused to come in the house, reasoning that if it were the wrong house, he did not want to go back to jail. Amy forgot how the cookies had come to be in her possession, and immediately offered them to Big Ed.
• Later, when asked about the cookies, Amy and Earl said, "What were we going to do, take them away from him?"
• "They are now in Big Ed's stomach. And we aren't going to get them back." They had been planned for a charity, so Amy figured they had gone to a good cause. You have to see their gestures and hear their voices. It was very very funny.
• In the evening, it started to snow.
• Yesterday, we drove down to Bethlehem, PA, to see the tour of the city and the Moravian bookstore where you can (and I did) buy Moravian stars, which have 26 points on them. They are very beautiful. It was FREEZING cold.
• Today, we hung out here and then all went up in the truck to take hay to the cows, and hanging on the back of the tailgate made me feel like a kid again.
• We are within two miles of St. Tikhon's and still haven't been there-- hoping for Vespers tomorrow or Thursday.
• Tomorrow: the crayola factory for Tommy's seventh birthday.
• Today bought: a shell for the top of the car to haul our stuff back in; a down coat for Christian; three pairs of snow pants 50% off at Sears. Wait until after Christmas to shop. Seriously.
• Les enfants went sledding this afternoon (while I was out buying warm things) and loved it (though Tommy has no weight to help him sled).
• I have been reading my vampire slut book: I have counted so many typographical errors as to make me crabby, and it is entirely too smutty. I am no prude, but I do like a little plot with my smut, and I like vampires with my vampire smut. So, that is making me crabby too. ( If I want another good vampire mystery, I will probably have to write it myself.) But not so crabby that I am not still reading the book.