Madam In Wonderland

Santa brought me 2 new Elvis Shirts!
This one is the "Cisco Kid" shirt.
I figured I would record a few songs tonight.

Funny, people think that you can just go into the studio and record them 1, 2 , 3. I was down there for hours. I can sing a song up to 25-30 times until I am satisfied with it. Most people would be driven crazy by the repetitive nature of this process. Thank God I'm not "most people".

A song I did back on Long Island years ago called "Past Midnight" took me 10 hours to create OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again.
(Drove Penny NUTS!!)

I hope you like the 2 (out of 3) cuts I did tonight.

"Here Comes Santa Clause"

"Silent Night"

These cuts will be on my upcoming album
"Madam In Wonderland"
(to be released in 2009)

**Remember** "Someone always says something profound in their lifetime, that doesn't make them any more insightful than the man who invented the boob mug".
- B.A. Del Piano 2008

The Christmas Holiday 2008

Christmas Eve:

For the first time in so LONG I cannot remember, I didn't go to a Christmas Eve church service. But.... I was not feeling well.

I have this new thing, I do a little, and I sweat a LOT. I don't mean sweat, I mean HAIR DRENCHED neck wet, clothes wet sweat, with exhaustion. Odd. I have had low grade fevers with this as well.

Take a look at the photo below. This is me on Christmas Day sitting and playing with my puss kittens. My hair was soaked, yet my nose was freezing, and my forehead was cold and clammy.


Despite the sweaty crap.... Christmas Eve was very nice.
My Mother In Law came over and we put out quite a spread for her.




Deviled Eggs, Pepperoni, Nacho Cheese Pie, Clam Pie, Chips, Veggies Dips, A Variety of Cracker Barrell Cheeses & Crackers, Olives, Gerkins.... and of course Christmas Cookies!!

We watched "It's A Wonderful Life" (black and white version) and the Grinch, then Midnight Mass at the Vaticin....... I am NOT Catholic, so this is what I got from that Mass....

"Oooobley - Doooobley- Dobley-Weeble".........

Momma in Law went home around 2 am. I sent Penny to bed, and I was determined to meet Santa Clause so I stayed up....
(until I fell asleep!)

CHRISTMAS DAY:
(I missed my Mom and Dad, Sister & Niece.)

Christmas Morning was AWESOME.
Penny got up with the pups, and there were gifts under the tree!
(and candy canes hanging from the branches!)

Santa even left 2 donut doggie beds for the babies! Junior ran directly to one, and Lilly Joe tried to open a couple of gifts that were under the tree! (Sure dogs don't know!!)

and look what Santa left in our dining room
(what did he do with our old set????)

Santa also left something
SPECIAL for me....

I love my Orangutan!!
She is soooooooo AWESOME!!

Penny Loves her too!!

We had a nice relaxing day together watching Bing Crosby and Danny (f'n) Kay in White Christmas.

Penny's Mom came over and we had a nice lasagna dinner
a mozzarella salad and a cheese cake dessert!

We had a very nice day filled with food,
and laughs and many blessings.
(put the mother in law right out!!)

**Remember** "Someone always says something profound in their lifetime, that doesn't make them any more insightful than the man who invented the pet rock". - B.A. Del Piano 2008

HO HO HOCHOO!

When I came home from North Carolina, I had the flu bug.
I went to my Doc. the day after I got home, he gave me a strong antibiotic. All was well....except the cough lurked around a bit.

We keep getting socked with snow.
My neighbor Sal has a big....

SNOW BLOWER!

Between Sal and I plowing and shoveling, and then the damn snowplow people filling things back in....it's been a bit hard to keep up.
Mind you Sal is 75 and I have MS.

Soooo.... I had to go out and deliver the Avon orders today. Then after that do some final touches on shopping. Not for gifts, but for food and snacks for Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day.

When I got back home, I was so sick.
The coughing was so bad I sware I turned blue.

Penny gave me my meds + cough medicine (YUCK!!)

I am feeling a bit better now, at 6:48 am.

I know that for the first time in I CANNOT REMEMBER WHEN
I won't be going to a Christmas Eve service, and that breaks my heart.

I will post more as the holiday unfolds.
God Bless Us All....Everyone....

CRAP! WRONG TINY TIM!!

**Remember** "Someone always says something profound in their lifetime, that doesn't make them any more insightful than the man who invented the chia pet". - B.A. Del Piano 2008

The Rest Of The Christmas Photo's

Christmas Pic's Snow Poms and Santa!

As we count down the days to Christmas,
I have my eye out for Santa Claus and those flying reindeer.
Today is December 21, 2008.
What is Mr. Clause doing today....right now?
What's happening at the North Pole?
You can click on the banner below, or go to this site to find out.
http://www.northpole.com/Village.html

I LOVE tracking Santa Clause!
If you have noticed, like I have....
sometimes the times are a little "off"
on the Norad tracker..
Hey I am such a pro at this, I have been doing this since I was a kid!


I will be listening to the Santa tracker, or watching it on the news,
and sometimes it says that Santa already delivered to my State of New York, yet I KNOW he hadn't stopped at my house yet.

Remember, that Santa Clause does NOT go the same speed every year.
I mean who knows if he let Blitzen or Lawanda stay home and let Chester drive??

The rate of speed times by the time continum....
Norad cannot be exact.

Now onto Snow Angels.
Yes, even dogs can do this special imprint in the snow.
I have proof.We caught Emily Sue having a ball in the snow!

Fwwwwwwwwwwwwwew!!

The packages were mailed off today to our friends and relatives. The cookies were handed out to our wonderful neighbors and also included in the packages we sent.)
What you see above on the Left:
Raspberry Magic Bars
(made with coconut and chocolate and damn they ROCK!!)
On the Right: Gingerbread Chocolate Bars...
They may sound like crap, but they taste GREAT!....
(I don't care for gingerbread, but try em' they are GOOD!)

Now for the next batch: ABOVE at the top you will see Ricotta Cheese Cookies with a nice marachino cherry in the middle (is that classy or what?) AWESOME Tasting too!!

The dark cookies on your left are Cappaccino Flats. These were wild to make, after the dough was made, and chilled in the garage for awhile... then I shaped and cut the dough logs, baked them, and let them cool, then DIPPED THEM IN CHOCOLATE!!

Next are the Pecan Snowballs......As you can see, we chose cookies that had TASTE and Variety!!

and finally......way on your right are the "Spritzes".
The Red Ones are Almond Flavored!!
The Green Ones are Vanilla Flavored
just to screw with your taste buds!!

Little Minnie Mae Thought the Spritzes were the same
and look at what it did for her taste buds!!
ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS?

COOKIE PRESSES SUCK!

As Christmas is nearing, there are things Penny and I must prepare for. We were looking so forward to baking cookies together. So we pulled an ALL NIGHTER last night.
As a matter of fact, we stayed up until about 8 am.

That's right 8 am!

I went into this remembering when I was a young un' and my Mom would fill the cookie press, and hand it off to my and my sister. All we had to do was click the trigger, and a tiny cookie wo0uld appear in whatever shape we chose. So this year I bought 2 cookie presses.
1 pampered chef and 1 cheap one from Walmart.
1st try....
THE PAMPERED CHEF COOKIE PRESS....

I don't remember life being this HARD! Sooooo...
I switched to the cheapo Walmart Brand....


I tried to push the trigger.... Without bringing my intestines to complete failure.... No can do. So I pushed the top to let the dough come out, and it did....SLOWLY.
Of course then THE DAMN BOTTOM POPPED OUT, AND I HAD RED DOUGH IN MY LAP!!

Did I give up?? HELL NO!

We got a TON of cookies done,
and we will be sending them out to
friends and family for the holiday season!
(I ain't eating these!! Lol!!)

***** IN MEMORY OF UNCLE RALPHIE Dec. 17, 2002*****

Oh, Christmas Tree....What kinda PUDDING??

We managed to finish our Christmas Tree. Penny did an AWESOME job video taping the revolving tree! Hope you enjoy watching it.



In the song "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" there is a line that has been bothering the crap out of me ever since I was a kid. That damn line about bringing someone some "FIGGY PUDDING"!! WHO THE HELL WOULD EAT FIGGY PUDDING?? What the hell does "FIGGY PUDDING" LOOK LIKE??? Here is my rendition of what "Figgy Pudding" looks like :

Not A Creature Was Stirring....

It's the end of 2 era's.
One of my favorite shows Boston Legal ended.
I watched the last episode tonight.
And our beloved fancy mouse "Stewie" passed away today.
"Stewie" lived to the "high end" of his lifespan.
Fancy mice live to be 1 to 1 1/2 years old.
Stewie was just over 2 years with us.

I will miss him dearly,
but I am richer in spirit for being blessed with "Stew".

I am just getting over a NASTY Flu.
It's driving me CRAZY that Christmas Decorations aren't up yet.
We went NUTZ trying to find a new tree this year.

I cannot count the stores we were in today.
We wound up purchasing 2 trees today.
1 tree was 7.5 feet tall, it was beautiful.
We even purchased a revolving stand for $40.00.

We got the damn thing.....
I mean the beautiful spruce up in the living room.
IT DIDN'T FIT!! IT WAS TO BIG!!

Sooooooo, I had to re-box the damn thing
I mean the beautiful spruce...and lug it back to Home Depot.

We got a refund, and headed out to 7 or 8 MORE STORES!
Finally, we got a nice 6.5 foot tree that fits GREAT in our revolving
tree stand. The tree is up.....and we will decorate it tomorrow.

Photo's to follow.

Please remember "Stewie" and ALL creatures great and small
in your prayers. I will miss me little rodent friend.

Ok....I'm HERE AGAIN!

(Actual Sign located in Raleigh North Carolina!)

You may be asking yourself
"Damn It Barb!....Where The Hell Have You Been?"
or you may not give a crap at all!
Either way I'm going to tell ya....
I am in North Carolina at the moment,
and I have been here since Nov. 23rd.
(Actual Sign Virginia/N. Carolina)

Mom and Dad came to pick up their 2 dogs,
and I took the 12 hour drive back with them.
Mind you, that is something I hope to never do again.
I would rather fly than drive the 12 hours.
Although we took turns driving, my legs were in rough shape.

However.... Thanksgiving at my sister's house was very nice.
Here are some photo's....

Me and my sis Patti

Me and my Bro. in Law Ken
Me and my Bro. in law Woody
I missed seeing my niece Cass,
but she was with her boyfriends family in Georgia.
I miss being home in NY.
The Carolina's are okay, but I wouldn't live here.
(Yup. Another actual sign in North Carolina.)