BDABRock's Blog

'Toil and risk are the price of glory".

(Alexander the Great)

Are you a risk-taker?

Are you conservative?

Do you wish you were  different than you are in this regard?

I have read where people worked an ordinary job for 35 years, and saved---always saved and was frugal ---and would up having a million dollars at the time of retirement. 

When I look around and see how we, and our kids, and our grand-kids spend our money, I  have a sick feeling.

We eat out too much.  We buy presents and clothes that we could all do without.  We entertain ourselves, and make gluttony, and think it is the way to live.

Is it?

You can make it two ways:  either toil   or take risks.

Which do you prefer?

EVEN IF I DID NOT BELIEVE IN A HIGHER POWER  BEFORE...I WOULD HAVE TO RECONSIDER.

AMAZING.

I JUST HAD TO SHARE THIS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw

....from an   e-mail....

If you didn't see this on the Tonight show, I hope you're sitting down when
you read it.
This is probably the funniest date story ever, first date or not!!! We have
all had bad dates but this takes the cake.
Jay Leno went into the audience to find the most embarrassing first date
that a woman ever had.
The winner described her worst first date experience.
There was absolutely no question as to why her tale took the prize!
She said it was midwinter...Snowing and quite cold...and the guy had taken
her skiing in the mountains outside Salt Lake City, Utah.
It was a day trip (no overnight). They were strangers, after all, and truly
had never met before.
The outing was fun but relatively uneventful until they were headed home
late that afternoon.
They were driving back down the mountain, when she gradually began to
realize that she should not have had that extra latte.
They were about an hour away from anywhere with a rest room and in the
middle of nowhere!
Her companion suggested she try to hold it, which she did for a while.
Unfortunately, because of the heavy snow and slow going, there came a point
where she told him that he had better stop and let her go beside the road,
or it would be the front seat of his car. They stopped and she quickly
crawled out beside the car, yanked her pants down and started.
In the deep snow she didn't have good footing, so she let her butt rest
against the rear fender to steady herself.
Her companion stood on the side of the car watching for traffic and indeed
was a real gentleman and refrained from peeking. All she could think about
was the relief she felt despite the rather embarrassing nature of the
situation. Upon finishing however, she soon became aware of another
sensation.
As she bent to pull up her pants, the young lady discovered her buttocks
were firmly glued against the car's fender.
Thoughts of tongues frozen to poles immediately came to mind as she
attempted to disengage her flesh from the icy metal. It was quickly
apparent that she had a brand new problem due to the extreme cold.
Horrified by her plight and yet aware of the humor of the moment, she
answered her date's concerns 'what is taking so long' with a reply that
indeed, she was 'freezing her butt off' and in need of some assistance!!
He came around the car as she tried to cover herself with her sweater and
then, as she looked imploringly into his eyes, he burst out laughing.
She too, got the giggles and when they finally managed to compose
themselves, they assessed her dilemma.
Obviously, as hysterical as the situation was, they also were faced with a
real problem. Both agreed it would take something hot to free her chilly
cheeks from the grip of the icy metal!
Thinking about what had gotten her into the predicament in the first place,
both quickly realized that there was only one way to get her free.
So, as she looked the other way, her first-time date proceeded to unzip his
pants and pee her butt off the fender.
As the audience screamed in laughter, she took the Tonight Show prize hands
down. Or perhaps that should be 'pants down.'
And you thought your first date was embarrassing.
Jay Leno's comment...?? - This gives a whole new meaning to being pissed
off.
Oh and how did the first date turn out???
He became her husband and was sitting next to her on the Leno show.

 From an e-mail:

 The yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front.  It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape.  I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away.  "You're not taking that old thing, are you?" Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt.  "I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!"  

  "It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom.  Thanks!"  I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object. The yellow shirt be came a part of my college wardrobe.  I loved it. After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned. 

The next year, I married.  When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days.  I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois   But that shirt helped.  I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 15 years earlier. 

 That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom.  When Mom wrote to thank me for her "real" gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely.  She never mentioned it again. 

The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to pick up some furniture.  Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom.  The shirt! 

And so the pattern was set. 

On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress.  I don't know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp.  The yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture.  The walnut stains added character. 

In 1975, my husband and I divorced.  With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois   As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own.   I wondered if I would find a job.  I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort.  In Ephesians, I read, "So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up." 

I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the stained yellow shirt.  Slowly, it dawned on me.  Wasn't my mother's love a piece of God's armor?  My courage was renewed. 

Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother.  The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer. 

Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station.  A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet.

Something new had been added.  Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words "I BELONG TO PAT." 

Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters.  Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, "I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER."  But I didn't stop there.  I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington , VA.   We enclosed an

official looking letter from "The Institute for the Destitute," announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds.  I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the box.  But, of course, she never mentioned it. 

Two years later, in 1978, I remarried.  The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head.  It felt lumpy.  I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt.  Inside a pocket was a note:  "Read John 14:27-29.  I love you both, Mother." 

That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses:  "I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives.  So don't be troubled or afraid.  Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again.  If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me." 

The shirt was Mother's final gift.  She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease.  Mother died the following year at age 57. 

I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave.  But I'm glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years.  Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art.  And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets.

=================

Do you have such an object in your life?  At my first marriage in 1961 we received an ironing board.  The old-timey heavy kind.  I taught my three kids to iron on it --- (27 years of marriage;) in my second marriage, now at  18 years,  I have taught my two step-children to iron on it. Six months ago the old board just gave out. The rachet on it came unsordered.  I laid in out in front for the trash men to pick up.  I laid it on top, gently. It was not a good day.  This old ironing board  had seen me  through a lot of happy and crying times.  I felt like I was burying  a very good friend.

Sad.
 bdb

 From an e-mail:

 The yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front.  It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape.  I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away.  "You're not taking that old thing, are you?" Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt.  "I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!"  

  "It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom.  Thanks!"  I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object. The yellow shirt be came a part of my college wardrobe.  I loved it. After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned. 

The next year, I married.  When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days.  I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois   But that shirt helped.  I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 15 years earlier. 

 That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom.  When Mom wrote to thank me for her "real" gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely.  She never mentioned it again. 

The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to pick up some furniture.  Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom.  The shirt! 

And so the pattern was set. 

On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress.  I don't know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp.  The yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture.  The walnut stains added character. 

In 1975, my husband and I divorced.  With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois   As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own.   I wondered if I would find a job.  I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort.  In Ephesians, I read, "So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up." 

I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the stained yellow shirt.  Slowly, it dawned on me.  Wasn't my mother's love a piece of God's armor?  My courage was renewed. 

Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother.  The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer. 

Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station.  A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet.

Something new had been added.  Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words "I BELONG TO PAT." 

Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters.  Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, "I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER."  But I didn't stop there.  I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington , VA.   We enclosed an

official looking letter from "The Institute for the Destitute," announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds.  I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the box.  But, of course, she never mentioned it. 

Two years later, in 1978, I remarried.  The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head.  It felt lumpy.  I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt.  Inside a pocket was a note:  "Read John 14:27-29.  I love you both, Mother." 

That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses:  "I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives.  So don't be troubled or afraid.  Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again.  If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me." 

The shirt was Mother's final gift.  She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease.  Mother died the following year at age 57. 

I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave.  But I'm glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years.  Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art.  And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets.

=================

Do you have such an object in your life?  At my first marriage in 1961 we received an ironing board.  The old-timey heavy kind.  I taught my three kids to iron on it --- (27 years of marriage;) in my second marriage, now at  18 years,  I have taught my two step-children to iron on it. Six months ago the old board just gave out. The rachet on it came unsordered.  I laid in out in front for the trash men to pick up.  I laid it on top, gently. It was not a good day.  This old ironing board  had seen me  through a lot of happy and crying times.  I felt like I was burying  a very good friend.

Sad.
 bdb

1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 16 work
>boots.
>
>2. Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns & Ammo
>magazine and some back-issues of NRA magazine.
>
>3. Put several giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazines;
>include a deer thigh-bone.
>
>4. Leave a note on your door that reads:
>
>Hey Duke,
>
>Big Jim, Slammer, Gravedigger, and me went for more hollow-point ammo.
>Back in a few minutes. Don't mess with the pit bulls -- they attacked
>the mailman this morning and they messed him up real bad. I don't
>think Killer took part in it but it was hard to tell because of all the
blood.
>
>It took Bobbi-Jo hours to clean up the sidewalk. Anyways, I locked all
>four of 'em up in the house so you better wait outside. They're kinda
spooked.
>
>We'll be right back.
>
>Bubba
>====================

Hope ya'll enjoy.  I got this e-mail...thought it was  funny.

We  use the word Bubba alot down south here.

Do you know any Bubbas?

bdb

Just try this. It is from an orthopedic surgeon...
This will boggle your mind and you will keep trying over and over again
to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't. It's preprogrammed
in your brain!

1. WITHOUT anyone watching you (they will think you are GOOFY......) and
while sitting where you are at your desk in front of your computer,
lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right
hand.

Your foot will change direction

(If it doesn't you have a neurological
problem)!

A little boy, about six years old, was walking down a dirt road after
church one Sunday afternoon when he came to a crossroads where he met
a little girl coming from the other direction. "Hello," said the
little boy."Hi," replied the little girl. "Where are you going?" asked the
little boy. "I've been to church this morning and I'm on my way home,"answered the little girl. "Me too," replied the little boy. "I'm also on my way home from church."

"Which church do you go to?" asked the little boy. I go to the
Lutheran church down the road, "replied the little girl. "What about
you?" "I go to the Catholic church at the top of the hill," replied the little boy.

They discover that they are both going the same way so they
decided that they'd walk together. They came to a low spot in the road
where spring rains had partially flooded the road so there was no way that they could get across to the other side without getting wet. "If I get my new Sunday dress wet my Mom's going to skin me alive," said the little girl. "My Mom will tan my hide if I get my new Sunday suit wet," replied the little boy.

"I tell you what I think I'll l do," said the little girl. "I'm gonna pull off all my clothes and hold them over my head and wade across." "That's a good idea," replied the little boy. "I'm going to do the same thing with my suit."

So they both undressed and waded across to the other side
without getting their clothes wet. They were standing there in the sun
waiting to drip dry before putting their clothes back on when the little boy finally remarked,

"You know, I never realized how much difference there is between a
Lutheran and a Catholic."

To some Oklahoma football fans, there are things that just aren't done in the heart of Sooner Nation, and one of them is to walk into a bar wearing a Texas Longhorns T-shirt.

That's exactly what touched off a bloody skirmish that left a Texas-shirt-wearing fan nearly castrated and an Oklahoma fan facing aggravated assault charges that could put him in prison for up to five years.

The shocking case has set off a raging debate in this football-crazed region about the extreme passions behind a bitter rivalry. Some legal observers have even questioned whether this case could ever truly have an impartial jury.

"I've actually heard callers on talk radio say that this guy deserved what he got for wearing a Texas T-shirt into a bar in the middle of Sooner country," said Irven Box, an attorney in this city 20 miles from Oklahoma's campus in Norman.

According to police, 32-year-old Texas fan Brian Christopher Thomas walked into Henry Hudson's Pub on June 17 wearing a Longhorns T-shirt and quickly became the focus of football "trash talk" from another regular, 53-year-old Oklahoma fan Allen Michael Beckett.

Thomas According to police, 32-year-old Texas fan Brian Christopher Thomas walked into Henry Hudson's Pub on June 17 wearing a Longhorns T-shirt and quickly became the focus of football "trash talk" from another regular, 53-year-old Oklahoma fan Allen Michael Beckett.

Thomas told police that when he decided to leave and went to the bar to pay his tab, Beckett grabbed him in the BLEEP, pulled him to the ground and wouldn't let go, even as bar patrons tried to break it up. When the two men were separated, Thomas looked down and realized the extent of his injuries.

 MORE OF THE STORY....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/ncaa
/09/11/oklahoma.texas.fight.ap/index.html?cnn=yesp>

========== going a little too far. I'd say use discretion in what you wear in a bar, on a plane, and so forth. ...but for different reasons.

Nepal's state-run airline has confirmed that it sacrificed two goats to appease a Hindu god, following technical problems with one of its aircraft.

Nepal Airlines said the animals were slaughtered in front of the plane - a Boeing 757 - at Kathmandu airport.

The offering was made to Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection, whose symbol is seen on the company's planes.

The airline said that after Sunday's ceremony the plane successfully completed a flight to Hong Kong.

"The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," senior airline official Raju KC was quoted as saying by Reuters. (daily Gut)

=========s

I would opt for a couple of good mechanics with a full tool-belt. This is almost amazing to me...this blend of technology and idolatry. As for me, I would be goosey about flying   Nepal.

  I wonder if the god's  are laughing......and as for the goats....I only hope they got et   after all this.

Photo was taken at a competition in June 2006. The competition was between 9 women for best makeover.
They had every possible beauty treatment available to them over a period of 12 hours before the contest. Look at the before and after photos. It really is Shocking! http://littlebitalluring.com/ebayauction/THOSE%20WOME
N.jpg

Conclusion - there are almost  no ugly women, only women who can't afford the make-up  and make-up experts.

(BTW, the woman 2nd from the left won the contest.) 

This woman is the only exception. The make-up  did not work. http://littlebitalluring.com/ebayauction/HILLE
RY.jpg