My Cousin Anita

Today, I got word that my cousin Anita passed away. Though I didn’t see her very often, since she lived in NY and I lived in Florida, she has always been one of my favorite cousins. She was 6 years older than I and, for a time, babysat my brothers and me. I think I mentioned before that she’s the one who taught me to play Heart and Soul on the piano, as well as that classic Nobody Likes Me, Everybody Hates Me, Guess I’ll Eat Some Worms.

When I was a sophomore, my friend Anne Lewis, who lived up in Presho next door to Anita’s mother (my Aunt Kitty), and I rode our separate buses to school, walked right through the school, and rode the city bus to visit Anita one day. She just had her oldest child Danny at that time and he was in a playpen. Later, we rode the city bus back to the school, walked through the school and caught our separate school buses home. Please note: this is not an endorsement to skip school – think of what we could have learned that day.

She loved to fish and she loved her family. I know they would appreciate your prayers.

A Matter of Scale

Today, I watched a video that demonstrated the scale of what President Obama is proposing to take from the federal budget. You can see it at:

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/02/visual-analogy-to-obamas-100-million.html

It sounds like a lot until you see this demo.

Perspective

Since playing Scrabble so much, I’ve become convinced that the computer is making up words. Yesterday, I had made the word SKIP. HARD1 added the word LANE. I thought this was proof … no way is there a word SKIP…LANE. Imagine my chagrin when I later realized it was the word SKI…PLANE. Yet, SKIPLANE is certainly a word. But I still think they make up words when it suits them.

Right now, HARD1 is beating me by an average of 84+ points and I have won only 10.47% of the games I play. It gets discouraging sometimes, but I’m determined to play better. I guess I already do. I went from an average of 203 points per game to my current 84+. If I can just keep up progress at that rate, it won’t be long before it’s only a 40-point average. Yeah, right!

Until next time…