The Gathering Place, A place to blether

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Good day, all!

It's nice to pop back in for a visit today. We have cold temps (18*) in western Georgia but its a beautiful blue-sky day. Mid-week is a good time for me with several days in a row to work in the studio... almost finished with an Arizona landscape but next must complete a commission so working on fun things will have to wait awhile.

How are the wedding plans coming, Gwen? May will be here before you know it.

SB

Just stopping in to say hello to everyone on this thread. We have another major cold snap here in Ontario this morning. It's -23C or -9 F and no snow in the forcast. I do have an hour and a half drive this morning to take my wife to the specialist today. Hopfully it will warm up a tad before we leave.

Drive safely piobmhorpiper for the road are very slippery in these conditions...

Here too in Mirabel in the lower Laurentians in Quebec it's presently -28°C outside and it'll be about that until Thursday...so quite cold indeed...but at least it'll be sunny.

LOA

Just wanted to share this.



THE U IN JESUS

Before U were thought of or time had begun,
God stuck U in the name of His Son.

And each time U pray, you'll see it's true,
You can't spell out JesUs and not include U.

You're a pretty big part of His wonderful name,
For U, He was born; that's why He came.

And His great love for U is the reason He died.
It even takes U to spell crUcified.

Isn't it thrilling and splendidly grand
He rose from the dead, with U in His plan?

The stones split away, the gold trUmpet blew,
and this word resUrrection is spelled with a U.

When JesUs left earth at His upward ascension,
He felt there was one thing He just had to mention.

"Go into the world and tell them it's true
That I love them all - Just like I love U."

So many great people are spelled with a U,
Don't they have a right to know JesUs too?

It all depends now on what U will do,
He'd like them to know,
But it all starts with U.


Val

Can you believe this lady.....

Clueless 'Millionaire' Contestant

Makes Worst Use Of Lifelines Ever

Kathy Evans, the single dumbest contestant to ever get on 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'

NEW YORK - Idaho resident Kathy Evans brought humiliation to her friends and family Tuesday when she set a new
standard for stupidity with her appearance on the popular TV show, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.'

It seems that Evans, a 32-year-old wife and mother of two, got stuck on the first question, and proceeded to make what
fans of the show are dubbing 'the absolute worst use of lifelines ever.'

After being introduced to the show's host Meredith Vieira, Evans assured her that she was ready to play, whereupon she
was posed with an extremely easy $100 question. The question was:

'Which of the following is the largest?'
A) A Peanut
An Elephant
C) The Moon
D) Hey, who you calling large?

Immediately Mrs. Evans was struck with an all consuming panic as she realized that this was a question to which she did not
readily know the answer. 'Hmm, oh boy, that's a toughie,' said Evans, as Vieira did her level best to hide her disbelief and
disgust. 'I mean, I'm sure I've heard of some of these things before, but I have no idea how large they would be.'

Evans made the decision to use the first of her three lifelines, the 50/50. Answers A and D were removed, leaving her to
decide which was bigger, an elephant or the moon. However, faced with an incredibly easy question, Evans still remained
unsure.
'Oh! It removed the two I was leaning towards!' exclaimed Evans. 'Darn. I think I better phone a friend.'
Using the second of her two lifelines on the first question, Mrs. Evans asked to be connected with her friend Betsy, who is
an office assistant.
'Hi Betsy! How are you? This is Kathy! I'm on TV!' said Evans, wasting the first seven seconds of her call. 'Ok, I got an important
question. Which of the following is the largest? B, an elephant, or C, the moon. 5 seconds hun.'

Betsy quickly replied that the answer was C, the moon. Evans proceeded to argue with her friend for the remaining ten seconds.
'Come on Betsy, are you sure?' said Evans. 'How sure are you? Puh, that can't be it.'

To everyone's astonishment, the moronic Evans declined to take her friend's advice and pick 'The Moon.'
'I just don't know if I can trust Betsy. She's not all that bright. So I think I'd like to ask the audience,' said Evans.

Asked to vote on the correct answer, the audience returned 98% in favor of answer C, 'The Moon.' Having used up all her lifelines,
Evans then made the dumbest choice of her life.

'Wow, seems like everybody is against what I'm thinking,' said the too-stupid-to-live Evans. 'But you know, sometimes you just got
to go with your gut. So, let's see. For which is larger, an elephant or the moon, I'm going to have to go with B, an elephant.
Final answer.'

Evans sat before the dumbfounded audience, the only one waiting with bated breath, and was told that she was wrong, and that
the answer was in fact, C, 'The Moon.'


Val

Too bad someone didn't have a video camera. Would have loved to have seen this.

Val


http://www.chumfm.com/MorningShow/bits/march24.swf

They walk among us...

Took a snow day today. I brought work home with me, but I may use it as a vacation day instead. My son and I did agree to watch a Lord of the Rings movie today.
Can't wait for warmer weather, though.

Val it's a wonder she remembers to breathe!

Just had to share this with you all. I'm still wiping the tears from my eyes.

Val


This is one of the kindest things you may ever see. It is not known who replied, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey &Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven.

Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.

Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by..

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

Val this storey really toched my heart. You see I lost two of my best friends just before Christmas and still miss them badly. You never know what miracles can happen when you send a letter or a prayer to God. Now I have to go wipe my eyes, thank you for this wonderful storey.

Aye, I'm old.

Val

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?
All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?

When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their
hair done every day and wore high heels?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without
asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? And,
you got trading stamps to boot?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside
the box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a
real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . . and
they did?

When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay
rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?

No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in
the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends?
and saying things like, 'That cloud looks like a... '?

Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the
game?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals
because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could
slip back in time and savor the slower pace? Share it with the
children of today.

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the
fate that awaited the student at home?
Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of
drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents
were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was
greater than the threat.

Send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, the Hardy?
Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone
Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Bell , Roy and Dale, and Trigger and
Buttermilk.

as well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula
Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder
with sugar Cruising Biscayne Bay in your 16 foot Lyman and 25 horse
Johnson?
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, 'Yeah, I remember
that'?

How many of these do you remember?
Candy cigarettes

Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside.

Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles.

Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes.

Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum.

Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers.

Newsreels before the movie.

P.F. Fliers.

Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Raymond 4-601). Party lines.

Peashooters.

Howdy Dowdy.

Hi-Fi's & 45 RPM records.

78 RPM records!

Green Stamps.

Mimeograph paper.

The Fort Apache Play Set.

Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going 'eeny-meeny-miney-moe'?

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, 'Do Over!'?

'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest?

Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?

It wasn't odd to have two or three 'Best Friends'?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was 'cooties'?

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action
figures?

'Oly-oly-oxen-free' made perfect sense?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for
giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

War was a card game?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!!!!!

Val,

I remember quite a bit of those things too. They still had green stamps when I was a little kid.

Also, girls still have cooties .

7 Reasons Not To Mess With Children

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.

The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.

The little girl said, 'When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah'.

The teacher asked, 'What if Jonah went to hell?'

The little girl replied, 'Then you ask him'.
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A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.

As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, 'I'm drawing God.'

The teacher paused and said, 'But no one knows what God looks like.'

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, 'They will in a minute.'
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A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.

After explaining the commandment to 'honour' thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, 'Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?'

Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, 'Thou shall not kill.'
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One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.

She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, 'Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?'

Her mother replied, 'Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.'

The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, 'Mummy, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?'
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The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.

'Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a doctor.'

A small voice at the back of the room rang out, 'And there's the teacher, she's dead.'
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A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, 'Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face.'

'Yes,' the class said.

'Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?'

A little fellow shouted,

'Cause your feet ain't empty.'
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The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:

'Take only ONE . God is watching.'

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.

A child had written a note, 'Take all you want. God is watching the apples.'