It was the best of times... it was the worst of times...

January 29 is a special day in the family. Our Matriarch was born on this day and we spent the weekend laughing and enjoying ourselves and honoring our mother. My aunt made a special trip out for a visit and we spent Saturday shopping the various malls, eating good food, and generally enjoying each other's company. Sunday we all gathered for the traditional birthday lunch of KFC and fixins' and the Mom took Monday off from work, thereby declaring it a national holiday.

But then, the bad news came and on this day that the nation celebrated my mother's birth, we mourned the loss of a great horse.







Barbaro was a favored horse after winning the Kentucky Derby last year. He was probably "unofficially" America's horse, as it has been so long since a triple crown winner! I was so excited with his run at the midway point of the Preakness until he was pulled up by the jockey. Then my heart sank as I watched him hobble off, clearly with a broken leg. A broken leg for a human is one thing, for a horse it is life or death.


I have followed Barbaro's progress since that horrible day. I have a link to his veterinarian's website that gave weekly updates. I think anyone who has been paying attention felt like things were going along smoothly. The updates were now posted at two week intervals. But over the weekend, things changed... as life often does... and Barbaro was put down yesterday.


It was sad. I did shed a tear... and then went on to get Mom a gift for her special day and rejoice in the fact that she's still a fiesty gal in her own right!

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

How long has Diana Ross been around? About a hundred years or so? That being the fact, don't you imagine she would have lip synching down by now?

I watched her highness on the Today show this morning sing a couple of numbers. They were lovely numbers and I was enjoying the performance until Ms. Ross' voice rang clearly through the sound system while her microphone had moved to her hip.

I'm not saying the woman doesn't have the pipes to belt it out, but there was no diminishing of the volume or quality of her voice at all.

Upon closer inspection, it was clear that Diana was pulling the wool over our nation's eyes, and I really thought she would have been better than that.

Apparently climbing those mountains and dipping into those valleys and crossing those rivers for all these years has taken its toll.