Red Shoe Ramblings

I've Moved! Please Come Visit!

2006-12-10T17:42:00.000-05:00

I didn't mean to do this until the first of the year, but I seem to have done a booboo that left me no choice....oops! So please come visit over HERE at the new home of Red Shoe Ramblings. I don't have my own header yet and my sidebar's a mess, but the welcome mat is out! Also, if you have me on your blogroll or links list, or if you subscribe to this blog's feed, please change to the new URL. Thanks! (And sorry to be a pain, but I decided I've dealt with the vagaries of Blogger long enough!)

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2006-12-10T16:09:00.000-05:00

nothing to see here...

The Good, the Good, the Annoying, and the Interesting

2006-12-10T00:52:00.000-05:00

The Good: Voting has now ended for the story contests. I would normally stick a link in that previous sentence, but I just flat don't feel like messing with it. If you don't know what I mean, look at yesterday's post. Or the day before. Or the day before that. Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote and tomorrow I'll post the winnahs! The Good: Check out what I got in the mail yesterday from Janet: How cool is that! It's hanging on my inspiration board now. Thank you, Janet! It's beautiful! :-) The Annoying: Bloglines. Bloglines was really annoying yesterday. They kept having some sort of cyber-hiccups or something so that every time I turned around they were telling me that some blogs I like to read had 25 new posts each. 25 each, y'all! At one point they were trying to tell me that there were something like 600+ new entries posted on blogs I subscribe to. I thought for a brief moment that that some of you really DID find a source for Writagra and were totally hogging it! But it was all an illusion. The ones that would show massive new content really had nothing new, while the ones that had new stuff posted sometimes didn't show it at all. And here I started using Bloglines to make life easier. Yeah. The Interesting: Today's DAT is some willow leaves that fell from our curly willow tree and landed in this interesting pattern. Well, I thought it was interesting anyway. I hope you do too. It almost looks to me like it should mean something. "Willow Leaves" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Where's the Writagra When You Need It?

2006-12-09T00:29:00.000-05:00

Hi! Thanks for stopping by. I'm so happy to see you! But, um...I've got nuttin' today. Well, ok, that isn't entirely true. I have bunches of scribbled notes on the paper scattered around my desk, notes about possible future blog post ideas. And they're all things I really do want to talk about sometime. But as I look through them right now my reaction is Nope. No. Naw, not that one. Unh uh, I don't feel like writing about that one right now either. What we have here is is a failure to perform by the part of my brain that normally produces this BlogWritingStuff. I'm told it's nothing to worry about - that it happens to everyone now and then and I shouldn't make a big deal of it. I should just relax, try not to worry, give myself some time, and try again later. But for now I think I'll just leave you with a wee ~~nag~~ reminder and a photo and then roll over and go to sleep. Just give me a little shove if I snore. Heh. Reminder: You have just slightly less than 24 hours from the time I'm posting this to vote for your favorite entry in the "Hot HubbaBubba" or "Not Tonight, I Have a Headache" story contests. You can read the stories and the rules for how to vote HERE. Voting closes at 11:59 US EST today and I'll announce the winners on Monday. Here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Climb" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) And what the heck - just because it's been quite a while since I posted one, here's the results of a quiz I took recently:

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

They're right. I DO think the world would be a better place if people read more. :-)

A Glimpse of my World #2 (with a couple of oh-so-fascinating digressions)

2006-12-08T00:17:00.000-05:00

I want to share a few photos with you today. But first... Digression One: Before we get to the photos, here's a quick reminder that if you haven't voted yet for your favorite entry in the "Hot HubbaBubba" or "Not Tonight, I Have a Headache" story contests, you have today and tomorrow to get those votes in. You can read the entries HERE. And don't forget, only votes submitted by email count. If you tell me your favorites in the comments section, that's lovely and all, but it doesn't help the talented writer of your favorite story win a semi-fabulous prize. So email and vote! Digression Two: If you enjoy voting for those stories so much that you're looking all around just HOPING for something else to vote for, you could always try clicking HERE. Y'see, my website has been nominated to possibly be featured on the Indie-o-rama website if it gets enough votes. The catch is that you must be an Indie-o-rama member to vote, but if you are you can vote HERE. I'm nominated in the "Artists" category. If you aren't a member, you can join for free by clicking HERE (scroll down to the bottom for the free membership), and THEN go vote for me! You don't have to, of course. But if you do - Thank you! You're pretty! :-) Now on to the photos... Check out the handsome visitor who has been stopping by our house lately: I wish I knew his name, but I don't. He has a collar, but no name tag. We think we know who he belongs to - a neighbor we generally refer to as something that starts with a "B" and ends with an "itch." (Long story, but believe me she's earned the name.) He seems so sweet and if he was abandoned or obviously neglected I'd take him in, but I think he's being cared for physically. He just seems really lonely. (sigh....) Check out how green the grass is under his feet! That's what our yard looked like until yesterday, when we woke up to this: and this: I know it isn't much compared to the snow a lot of places around the US have already gotten lately, but it's the first snow we've seen around here this winter. It's prompted a lot of extra activity at the bird feeder that hangs outside our dining room window. We've been getting visitors like this guy: and these: Naturally, as soon as I put the camera away, a cardinal and a downy woodpecker visited. Pppffft. Earlier this week I took some full moon photos two nights in a row. Tuesday night the moon had the strongest, most colorful ring around it I think I've ever seen. It was like a ring-shaped rainbow. I tried to use the timer to capture it and while it isn't perfect, this next photo will give you the idea. It's also today's Daily Art Thang. "Moon Ring" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Poetry Thursday: It Seems Like a Meme

2006-12-07T00:21:00.000-05:00

The prompt this week on Poetry Thursday is something a little different - a meme! Anyone who has spent any time around RSR at all knows I looooves me some memes, so excuse me a moment while I do a happy little Snoopy Dance around the room. (lalala lalala lalaaaaa....lalalaaa lalalaaaa....) Aaahhh, that was fun. Now on to the meme. The part supplied by the prompt is in bold type while the answers I added are in not-so-bold type. 1. The first poem I remember reading/hearing/reacting to was probably Dr. Seuss. (And don't EVEN try to tell me that "Green Eggs and Ham" isn't poetry!) 2. I was forced to memorize "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" in school and um....well...nothing really. There is no "and" to that. That would be the first poem I remember being required to memorize, but I don't recall it having any significant impact on my life other than being a handy way to remember the signal in the church tower..."one if by land, and two if by sea, and I on the opposite shore will be, ready to ride and spread the alarm, to every Middlesex village and farm..." 3. I read~~/don't read~~ poetry because it makes my heart sing and makes images dance through my head. 4. A poem I'm likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is "High Flight." I know y'all must get tired of me bringing that one up so often, but it's one of the very first poems that ever made me want to read more poetry. 5. I write~~/don't write~~ poetry, but not very often, and not very confidently. 6. My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature because for me poetry is more about the language itself - the rhythms and imagery of the words - and the feelings they evoke; while reading novels is more about the characters and the plot as driven by those characters, and if those stories happen to contain beautiful language and imagery then yay!...so much the better...but that's not why I read novels. 7. I find poetry in unexpected phrases that get stuck in my head and spark other images. Also, I find poetry in the poetry section of my book shelves. Ahem. 8. The last time I heard poetry was probably when I listened to an audio link posted by other bloggers. I seldom read poems aloud (although I really should!) and I'm not exactly in a part of the country that's big on poetry readings. 9. I think poetry is like a painting made of words. That doesn't mean I think it needs to be "pretty," just that it needs to capture something...some moment in time, some emotion or dream, some glimpse of truth, whether beautiful or ugly or anywhere in between. It's a way of looking at life and the world around us a little differently than we normally do. Here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Entanglement" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) Want to hear more about the world of poetry? Then check out links at the Poetry Thursday blog.

Read and Vote and Vote!

2006-12-06T00:27:00.000-05:00

Today I'm going to switch things around and share the Daily Art Thang first and after that you get to read the fabulicious contest entries and I'll tell you how to vote for your favorite! DAT, taken while on a walk with J: "Silhouette" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) Now on to The Contest! Most of you will know what this is all about, but in case it's your first time here (lately or ever!) read this first so you know what the rules of the contest were. Go ahead, I'll wait. Lalalalalaaaaaa.... Back? Good! Then on to the vote! Here's how the voting will work: 1. I've posted all entries received - three for Contest One and seven for Contest two - anonymously, with just a number assigned to them. If any of these stories included the author's name within the body of the story (and a couple did!) I will substitute "Ms. X" for the name to keep it anonymous. 2. After you read the stories, please vote for your favorite for each contest. So you are allowed two votes total - one for the first contest, one for the second. If you entered, you are (of course!) more than welcome to vote for your own entry or entries! You are also welcome to link to this post on your blog and ask your friends to vote, but I ask that you please don't tell them which story is yours. You just have to trust that they'll have the good taste to like yours best. :-) 3. To vote, send an email with either "contest one" or "contest two" in the subject line and the number of the entry you are voting for in the body of the email. Send it to this address: tansy @ kywirelesscollc.com (remove the spaces on either side of the "@" to make that functional!). I'm asking that you send a separate email for each contest. Kind of a PITA, I know, sorry...but I have separate folders set up to collect votes for each contest and it will make it a thousand times easier on me if y'all send individual votes. Combined ones will make me grumpy. :-) ONLY email votes will count!!! If you merely say what your favorite is in the comments section, it does NOT count as a vote for that story!! 4. Voting will end Saturday night, Dec. 9th, 11:59 PM, US Eastern Standard Time, and winners will be announced here on Monday, Dec. 11th. If there is a tie for either contest, the tie will be broken by the time-honored "pick a name from a hat" method. 5. One final thought before we get to the entries...If you leave comments about the stories here in the comments section, please remember that the lovely, kind, and BRAVE people who wrote these and sent them in for your reading pleasure will be reading what you say about their stories, so be nice! :-) Ok, on to the stories at last... Contest One - the sex stories (Have no fear, these are all PG-rated...well, ok, maybe PG-13) ------------------------------ #1 We met, strangely enough, at the vet’s. I brought my bird named Trixie. Trixie was coughing and losing feathers. Teaching her to say, "Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" seemed like a good idea at the time. Turns out that Alan is an old movie buff. He brought his dog, Sam, to the vet’s the same day. Sam had chewed a rubber chicken in half and was suffering a slight digestive problem. Rubber chickens will do that..... Alan is tall, like me, blond hair and blue eyed. Those dreamy, get-lost-inside blue eyes. We met for coffee the next day. One thing lead to another and we were at his house. He lured me there with a promise to watch the "Jump the Shark" episode from Happy Days on DVD. After a cup of Irish coffee, I couldn’t care less what Richie was up to. All I wanted to do was kiss that man. We headed for the bedroom taking clothes off along the way. This is not my usual MO. I like to get to know someone first. It is better to know that they happen to have pink, fur-lined handcuffs in the bedside table, BEFORE, you end up in bed with them on your wrists. (Don’t ask how I found that out!) We spent the afternoon wrapped in his sheets, talking, laughing, and, well, you know. It seems Alan was really happy to see me.

Trixie? She and Sam both recovered. They spend a lot of time together, just like Alan and me. --------------------------------- #2 He came to her window again tonight. His visits had resumed after a long absence. An absence for which she only had herself to blame. He had come to her in silent adoration and she had driven him away with unkind words. But it must be true what they say about absence,for she had thought about him often during that time. And thinking about him made her crazy with a desire she couldn't name. She would stretch out on the bed and roll from side to side. Or she would lie on the floor, and pushing down with her feet, glide her body across the cool tiles. Or she would crouch in anticipation, like a cat in heat. Had he sensed that? Is that why he had started coming around again? But it was different now. HE was different somehow. He had started bringing her things. Strange things. Like last time he brought her a rubber chicken. What was he thinking? Did he really believe he could win her heart with that? (Now if he had brought her that damn noisy bird Trixie that lived down the hall...that would have been a different story!) And the time before that, it had been a pair of pink fur-lined handcuffs. What need did she have for little pink handcuffs? She already had her beloved little pink socks!

She sighed. And now here he was at her window tonight with the strangest, and,in her opinion,most useless offering of all. A “Happy Days” DVD. The one with the episode of the Fonz on water skis. She sighed again. She had always thought he was a pretty cool cat. Kinda funky. But now, he was ...well..he was just bizarre!!! She was going to have to tell him it was over between them. She tried to let him down as easily as she could. “You've really jumped the shark with this one, sweetie!” she said. Her words echoed in her head as he disappeared into the darkness. Jumped the shark...shark...shark... SHARK! The word hit her hard. FISH!!! YUM!!! ------------------------------------- #3 Deb missed Jon. He’d been gone all week for work and was due home tonight. If she could just come up with something, she could concentrate on making a wonderful welcome home dinner for him. Deb was a comedy writer for SNL and had been trying to convince Jon she wanted to be a serious writer. But to look at her now, with the pink fur-lined handcuffs and rubber chicken on the couch beside her, and DVD of the “Jump the Shark” episode from “Happy Days” beginning for what seemed like the hundredth time, she was still clueless for material for the opening sketch they needed for their guest host this week. She’d exchanged her pajamas for an old flannel shirt and shorts this morning and spent the day watching that episode so many times that her parrot, Trixie, was beginning to recite bits of dialog. There was a knock on her door; Jon was back early! Deb threw a pillow over the chicken and handcuffs and paused the DVD then rushed to the door to let him in. The door was barely shut when his snowy coat hit the floor. Lips locked, they inched toward the couch. Slowly, Jon unbuttoned the top button on her flannel shirt; this signaled a change in their relationship as he lowered her down onto the couch. He reached beneath her to pull the pillow from under her, only to have the chicken and handcuffs tumble to the floor. From his position over her he looked from the floor to the picture of Fonzie frozen on the TV screen and back to her face. He just smiled and, as he reached for the handcuffs, Trixie said, “Aaaaay. Cool.”

******************************** Contest Two - the excuses --------------------------------- #1 I had just finished typing up the sex scene you requested, and as it was set in the 1940s, of curse (oops, I meant course) I was using my beautiful old Smith Corona portable typewriter. Just as I hit the last key, Captain Jack Sparrow burst in bearing gifts, and by gifts I mean a pair of pink fur-lined handcuffs he'd picked up in Tortuga...said he traded a keg of rum for them, but knowing the good Captain, it was more probably a quite nearly empty glass he'd traded...along with that "shiver my timbers" grin of his. So the story was put aside for the time being, while we ensured the handcuffs 1) fit and 2) worked properly...and they most certainly did! We promptly fell asleep and when I awoke, I made the following discoveries: Captain Jack was gone, there was a rubber chicken, a shark & a Fonzie doll in his place, a DVD was playing in my VCR (I believe it was a Happy Days episode, where the Fonz is water skiing), and Trixie, my bird, was out of her cage and had a big evil grin on her lil beak. I got up, put on some coffee, and wandered over to the typewriter to take the page I'd typed the sex scene on out. To my horror, there were splotches of bird poop, completely hardened and covering most of the page. When I tried to pry it off, the letters underneath were gone, whole sentences of letters. This, of course, explains why Trixie was grinning. Damn that bird! ------------------------------ #2 I had every intention of writing a sex scene. I even found some pink fluffy handcuffs at our party store, because I thought a playful night of fooling around would give me fresh ideas. The best laid plans.. While I was shopping, I forgot to turn the oven down, so the object of the planned fun and games arrived home to dried-out casserole. He was particularly grumpy about it, made disparaging remarks about being forced to eat rubber chicken for dinner. So. off to a shaky start, amorous feelings were diminishing fast. However, not deterred easily, I slunk off to slip into a skimpy robe that l use when I need to bring out the big guns! How was I to know that at this moment my cat was hopping through the window with the neighbor's parrot, Trixie, clenched in his jaws? The neighbor followed, screeching louder than Trixie, and she only stopped when her eyes fell on me, leaping around in the famous little number, trying to save the unimpressed bird. Retrieving her pet, she backed out of the door with bulging eyes. I was hoping the beloved would see the funny side of this, but no, he gave me an ear-bashing about humiliating him in front of the neighborhood. We plunked down on the couch, flicking half-heartedly through the channels..nothing! So we put on our DVD of old Happy Days episodes, and as the Fonz found himself riding the shark, I was mumbling to myself that I would rather be doing that than riding this mean tempered old man next to me. I sat down at my keyboard with every intention of writing a sex scene, but not a saucy thought popped into my mind, and I realized I would need the mental equivalent of female Viagra to make this article happen... ----------------------------- #3 Deb, Ms. X will not be writing you a sex scene involving a rubber chicken, a pair of pink fur-lined handcuffs, a bird named Trixie, and a DVD of the Happy Days "Jump the Shark" episode. She was right there with you, thinking how much she would enjoy that postcard, until reading the list of required words. She's pretty sure she could get one hot enough and still reasonably clean with anything playing on the DVD in the background, including the "Jump the Shark" Happy Days episode. It's a bit harder to tune out a bird, especially one named Trixie, when you have two characters getting it on, but it's doable. And what's not to love about pink, fur-lined handcuffs? They are pink, soft and fuzzy, and if a burglar breaks in on the middle of the sex scene, can be put to a secondary practical purpose. No, it was the rubber chicken that was the deal breaker. Rubber chickens remind Ms. X of her father, who played many practical jokes that involved rubber chickens. (Helpful Hint: The proper preparation of a rubber chicken for any prank is to first fill it with baby powder, which can also be sexy - the powder, not the chicken full of powder, that is.) And thinking of dear old dad shut down Ms. X's sex scene creativity in less than the proverbial heart beat. She's now busily scrubbing some unwanted images from her mental processes. Therefore, please excuse Ms. X from writing a sex scene for your contest. Respectfully, Ms. X's totally traumatized subconscious -------------------------- #4 My coworkers were dancing on their desks and imbibing in “holiday cheer” Friday afternoon. Instead, I was sitting at my own desk using my work computer to write my DebR sex scene when my drunk boss entered my cube armed with mistletoe. When I tried to dodge his advances, he made a grab for my arm and the next thing I knew he had joined our wrists with pink fur-lined handcuffs. I let out a bloodcurdling scream which prompted a coworker to call 911. When the paddy wagon came, my boss and I (still cuffed together) were hauled off to jail where we were stashed in the drunk tank with a man dressed as a pirate with a parrot he called Trixie duct taped to his shoulder and a businessman from Peoria who kept asking me if I was Rachael Ray. After the booking sergeant and his buddies finished making crap out of the “Jump the Shark” episode of “Happy Days” they were watching when we were brought in, they finally unlocked the fur-lined cuffs and let me go when I proved that I hadn’t had anything to drink and was a victim of circumstance. By the time I returned to the office, I was met at the door by a security guard who escorted me to my cubicle, where I found my computer wiped clean and my personal belongings and a misguided rubber chicken leftover from the holiday party packed into a cardboard box on my desk. The office manager had found my sex scene and told me I was not to return. I didn’t have a chance to e-mail the sex scene home so, sadly, I will be unable to participate in our contest. -------------------------- #5 Actually I was all ready to sit down and write this wonderful love scene. But, it has been a hell of a week. The kids are just driving me crazy. Just yesterday I came home from work to find our seven-year-old Lizzie handcuffed to the bed with a pair of pink fur-lined handcuffs. I freaked out. Seems Johnny, who is seven-years-old and lives next door is the one who was doing the handcuffing. In my sternest voice I told him to uncuff my daughter immediately and no I did not want to know what his mommy and daddy did when mommy had on the handcuffs. I always wondered about them! Julianne, who has now become a teenager, has suddenly developed an interest in the old "Happy Days" and seems to think that the "Jump the Shark" episode is okay for her to watch twenty-four hours a day. But, you know what they are like when they are teenagers. There is just no way to control them. Adam decided he would try out his science experiment in my oven. Have you ever smelled a burned rubber chicken? I spent hours trying to get the smell out of the house and damn near froze my butt off because I had to leave the windows open for two days. Oh, but the best was Clyde came home from a business trip this week and it seems he won a bird named Trixie in a poker game. Of course, he arrived about the time the pastor showed up to see how we were doing. Pastor James looked at the bird and said, "Oh, what a lovely parrot, you are!" to which Trixie replied, "Oh, fuck a duck!" Honey, I never realized Pastor James had false teeth until I saw them on my carpet. I know all this isn't a great excuse, but, I am just exhausted and I don't think I could think of a sex scene if I tried. Your friend, Ms. X(2) ---------------------------------- #6 I was SO SO going to write the sex story (though mine would be closer to an nc-17, I think, than a pg rating). so, here's what happened...this morning as I went to write the story, I realized I needed to get some food for the peacock. Trixie was (and still is!) screaming her fool head off as only peacocks can truly do. CPS is going to come at any moment thinking I am physically harming a child. yeah yeah, she needs food. what's a girl to do. I realized that my fabulous pink and fuzzy handcuffs HAD to come off. I couldn't very well go to the store with the handcuffs dangling from one of my wrists, now could I? I mean, I KNOW people in this town. rob had managed to abscond with HIS copy of the special key and he'd neglected to tell me where the extra was. so, off to the phone I went. rob had no IDEA where the extra set was. he hears Trixie hollering in the background. he even started feeling a little bad about leaving me in this predicament. He called me back just a few minutes ago and asked if I'd found it. nope. still nothing. where ARE they? At this point, I figure it's just as likely that they're in the inside that upidstay shark that the fonz had to jump over in what was probably one of THE lamest episodes of Happy Days ever (what was rob THINKING when he bought that DVD?) as it is that they're in the house somewhere. because my house is rarely spic and span, finding them is proving.ahem.difficult. and because I'm frantic about the lost key, there is no way that I can get in the mood to write a fabulous sex scene. the only thing that in my head that I can write down is some nonsense about a rubber chicken - now really, how sexy is THAT? so clearly, I can't do it. it would be in bad taste. and my handcuffs keep knocking on the keyboard. so sorry. -Ms. X (3) ps - I really have well and truly lost my keys and it's just about killing me! ---------------------------- #7 The Best of Intentions By Ms. X (4) Working away late one night on my first novel, I paused and stretched my weary arms in the air and rolled my neck to loosen the tight muscles.My heroine had just had a scathing and witty exchange with the handsome young stud of a police detective. The electricity was in the flowing between their catty barbs and the underlying chemistry between the two was boiling to the surface. This would be an excellent point for a steamy sex scene, but could I really pull this off? Did a Bible study leader and Sunday school teacher really have it in her to write something realistic? I settled into the computer and stared at the screen. Nothing. I opened another document and started typing random words to use in the scene. “Rapturous, quivering, milky . . .” I felt a little bit of bile in the back of my throat. Good grief, this wasn’t a trashy romance novel. Hmmm . . . how to write a classy, mature, really authentic sex scene? I decided to look for some inspiration. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. I flipped through our DVD collection. Fantasia – fireworks, but not the right kind. The Little Mermaid – well the girl could wear a seashell bra and carry it off. The Best of Happy Days – The Fonz. Now there was some smoldering sexy. Flipping to the back cover the picture of the Fonz on water-skis made me chuckle. Nothing like “jumpin’ the shark” to suck the sexy out of a leather jacketed icon. Giving up on the DVDs, I decided to flip on the television to see if inspiration was waiting somewhere on cable TV. On the first channel – one of the gazillion Law and Order series’. “Detective – are you telling me the only witness to this murder is the owner’s bird” “Trixie, Your Honor. Her name is Trixie.” Hmmm – is it too late to introduce a slut named Trixie into the storyline? Make a note of that. She could cause problems for the happy couple – IF I CAN EVER GET THEM TOGETHER!!! Change the channel. Oh wait, this looks promising. Nip Tuck – soft core porn on basic cable. Perfect! Wow, that Christian Troy is a sexy guy. But wait a minute, what is he doing? What is that in his hand? Oh my . . .is that. . .a rubber chicken? (The gag reflex automatically starts to fire again and I have no desire to revisit the dinner I choked down earlier in the evening.) I snatched up the remote and turned off the TV. Now it was time for the big guns. Sneaking into my bedroom and moving with all the stealth and silence I could muster as not to wake up Brad, I opened my lingerie drawer and reached to the back for a small white box. Inside, was a gift from my bridal shower, some friend of my mom’s thought it was such a clever and kinky gift - pink fur-lined handcuffs. I never told my husband about them thinking I’d never have a use for such a thing. But low and behold, they might be just the talisman this gal needed to get some steamy inspiration. I laid them on the desk and stared at them for ages. Picking them up, I twirled them around a few times. I wonder how these things work? Click. Crap. Well, you can probably guess the rest. The sex scene never got written, and my husband couldn’t stop laughing as he drove me to the locksmith the next morning to have my fuzzy pink handcuffs removed from my hands. The characters will have to wait for the blush to clear from my face before I can get back to their potential for some – er – resolution. ---------------------------- And that's it, y'all! Time to email in those votes. Remember, you get one per contest. :-)

SPC: Red, Week 1 - From Glam to Real Life

2006-12-05T00:29:00.000-05:00

The December theme for the Self-Portrait Challenge is RED! Considering the name of my blog, I bet it won't come as a great shock to anyone to hear that I really like this theme. This is one of those months when my problem won't be coming up with ideas. The problem will be narrowing down those ideas to just one per week! I really liked last month's Glam theme too, although I chose to go for a more Hollywood version than a rock-n-roll version. Ironically the Glam theme inspired me to go out and buy my first-ever tube of red lipstick. I've owned almost-red before...a sort of reddish-brown called "Cocoa", and an almost burgundy-ish shade called "Raisin", but never red until now. I'm still not sure I'm comfortable with it, but it's kind of cool knowing it's in my make-up bag if I want to use it, which is what I did for this first photo: "Red Lips" But that photo doesn't feel very much like ME. That photo is still just me playing dress-up for the camera, just like I did all last month, and that's fun but not something I want to do all the time. So my real self-portrait for this week, the one that shows a much more typical view of my love for the color red is this one: "Red Shoes for Real Life" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #34

2006-12-04T01:11:00.000-05:00

1. Here's one final ~~annoying plea~~ last-call reminder about the infamous story contest. You have less than twenty-four hours to send me a fun little story for your chance to win a Box o' Goodies! (Click here for details.) TickTock, TickTock... The entries will be posted here on Wednesday, at which time all you wonderful RSR visitors get to help me choose a pair of winners! 2. Sending out big Happy Birthday wishes to my nephew, Josh, who is turning 16 today. Happy Birthday, Josh! Let me know when I should start hiding my car keys. :-) 3. I used to be soSO into all things Christmas. The baking, the decorating, the shopping for and wrapping of gifts. Any more....not so much. I've been almost Scrooge-like the past couple of years. I've gotten to where I do the vast majority of what shopping I do online (although I still enjoy wrapping gifts). And I didn't do much baking, or decorate at all last year. But this year my family and I are reviving the baking tradition, and I got a Spirit-of-Christmassy wild hair the other day and put up a tree. I'm kind of proud of myself for putting up a tree this year, but still, looking through my old photos shows what may be a disturbing trend. Take a look... December, 1998: December, 2002: December, 2005: But this is an improvement over that last one, right? December, 2006: It's little and it's fake, but hey, it's a tree with tinsel and a star on top. Yeah, baby! 4. THANK YOU to everyone who was supportive in the face of my big fat whine yesterday. You guys are the best! 5. Here's today's Daily Art Thang, an old foot bridge in the woods, that is now turning itself into a moss garden of sorts: "Shattered" (clickable)

You Come For Fun, I Give You a Little Nag and Whine (yeah, baby!)

2006-12-03T08:18:00.000-05:00

The Nag Here's yet another ~~annoying shove~~ gentle reminder before we get to anything else. You still have the better part of two days to send me a silly little story and have a chance to win Fun Stuff! (Click here for details.) And don't be surprised when you see yet another ~~nag~~ mention of this tomorrow. So far the competition is small, but mighty. And those of you who have been brave enough to enter Contest One are doing a great job of meeting the challenge while still keeping things PG-rated. Thank you! :-) And if you want to read the story that was the reply to the challenge that started it all, check out Dragonfly's story. Keep in mind hers is much longer than what I'm asking for from y'all for the contest, since this whole thing started as more of a dare between friends, but I thought she did a super-fabulous job of meeting the challenge. Brava, Dragonfly!!! Your postcard will be in the mail in the next couple of days. And the Whine (pass the cheese...) I've been taking photos to possibly use for the December Self-Portrait Challenge theme of Red and I can already tell this is going to be one of those months when I have more photos I like than weeks to use them. The November and December themes were/are both things that I loved, so what do you want to bet that January - which contains 5 Tuesdays - will have a theme that makes me cringe. It just always seems to work that way. Heh. But now, I'm going to admit something not-too-pretty here. I'm finding myself with a wee bit of an Attitude Problem about the SPC at the moment and I'm working on getting past that. The point of the challenge should be for me to do it for myself - as a way to creatively interpret a theme with a subject (me!!) that doesn't always make me comfortable (although participating in the SPC for so long really has made me more comfortable with having my photo taken than I've ever been in my life). Mostly I think I DO do it just for the creative satisfaction. But there's that small, fiercely competitive part of me that craves recognition, and that part wants a nod now and then from the features editors. I found myself feeling a teensy bit discouraged and bitter to have put so much effort into the posts I did for the November theme only to not be given a mention by even a single features editor for a single week. I've been letting that suck some of the joy from the December theme for me...having just a bit of a "why bother" sort of attitude toward it. SO, my goal for today is to get right the hell over myself and come up with something FUN to post for Tuesday without getting my panties in a twist if the Powers That Be of the challenge don't think it's "good enough." Pppffftt! (Psssttt, Morven....Sorry about the "panties" thing...hehehe) I figure if I set that goal publicly I have to follow through. :-) Daily Art Thang "Intersection" (clickable if you want to see it larger)

A Post to Tell You Stuff You Never Knew You Wanted to Know

2006-12-02T00:27:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick ~~nag~~ reminder before we get to our regularly scheduled post. Don't forget, you have slightly less than three more days to send me a little story and have a chance to win some semi-fabulous prizes! (Click here for details.) The postcards are finished and the other stuff is purchased and it's all stuff I'd enjoy getting in the mail myself so I hope the winners will like it too. How bad could it be to get some Free Stuff in the mail, yes? :-) So write away, my lovelies...write away right away, before the deadline creeps up on you! Now here, in RSR Saturday tradition, is a meme. I snagged this one from Angela, who borrowed it from Kristen. When is the last time you held hands with someone? Wednesday, when J and I took a walk together. He left town early Thursday morning and only got home a couple of hours ago and went straight to bed, so unless you count getting my dog Riley to "shake" there have been no hand-holding opportunities since then. You wake up as the opposite gender, what's the first thing you do? Probably scream like a little girl. Oh come on...don't tell me that wouldn't freak YOU right the hell out! Figuring out interesting stuff to try would come later, after the hysterical fit. Have you ever touched an electric fence? Not on purpose but yes, I've accidentally touched one before. They hurt every bit as much as you'd think they would. Where is your mom? Physically she's gone, but I believe she's around me and my family. Morning or night person? Night. SoSoooo night. What is the last movie you watched? At the cinema: Casino Royale At home: Some sappy Hallmark thing that made me cry. I don't know why I feel compelled to watch those things when I KNOW they make me cry and I HATE that! Things about the opposite sex you notice first? Eyes, smile, hands, height (or lack thereof) Ever been in love? Have been and am. What's something your friends make fun of you for? How foggy-headed and grumpy I often am first thing in the morning. (Did I mention the part about being a night person??) What is your curfew? Aaahh, and here we discover that this is yet another meme that must have been written by a teener for his or her MySpace page. One of these days I'm going to write a meme that asks stuff like how much life insurance a person has, and how many prescriptions they currently take, and do they prefer Arnica Gel or Ben-Gay for their various aches and pains. I'm just sayin'... So ok, dear Teener, one of the deals of not being a teener anymore is that you set your very own curfews, even when you choose badly, which I often do. I stay up later than I probably should pretty much every night, but even when I'm wide awake at 2 AM, I'm not breaking a curfew. RahRah for adulthood! Heh. Would you ever dye your hair red? Of course not! I'm appalled at the very IDEA!! Bwahahahahaaaaaaaa!! What's your worst personality flaw? I'm just too, TOO perfect. (Kidding....y'all know I'm kidding, right?) I hate questions like this. I have so many flaws to choose from, but I don't particularly like to focus on any of them! For today let's go with the flaw of excessive self-indulgence. Or oooooh, how about the flaw of an unnatural fondness for exclamation points!!!!! :-) What career would you wish to be in? Jet-setting heiress. Hey, don't ask if you don't want to know. Which country would you like to visit? It's a tie between Italy, Greece, and New Zealand. Oh! And since seeing Casino Royale, I also really want to see Montenegro. And y'know I've always been interested in seeing France and the UK. And ooooh, Spain and Switzerland, Prague, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the Scandinavian countries...yeah, let's just say pretty much all of Europe. Iceland looks pretty. And I'd love to see the Forbidden City and Great Wall in China. And Egypt. I'd really like to see the pyramids and the Sphinx. Oh! And since seeing Sue's photos I want to visit her in South Africa. Edited to add: Yes, Caity, Australia too! (Can't believe I forgot to mention that one. Oops!) Now do you see WHY I want to be a jet-setting heiress?? Do you want a well paying job or a job you enjoy? Sure, both - thanks! If I can't be a jet-setting heiress, that'd be great. When do I start? Do you wish to have the same best friends when you're older? Yeah, that'd be good. Do you believe in needing religion? I believe I need (and have) a connection to something greater than myself in my life, but for me that need is not tied to organized religion. Where's your dad? Kentucky, around an hour and a half drive from here. When were you last on the phone? Yesterday, with J. What shoes are you wearing today? At the moment I don't have on "real" shoes. I'm wearing fleece-lined pink suede clog-style house slippers. Do you like math? I detest it and the feeling is mutual. Numbers simply don't behave properly for me. Think I'm kidding? Ask me sometime to share the story about my checking account and the tricksy numbers that even freaked out some people who worked for the bank. What about history? I find it fascinating when it's told in a way that makes it real. So many history books are so dry. But when it comes alive and we get that these were real people, just like us, and the story of their very real struggles - like I said...fascinating. Have you ever seen 5 squirrels at one time? What an utterly bizarre question! I've certainly seen more than one squirrel at a time, but I have absolutely no idea if I've ever seen exactly 5 at a time. What next, a question about if I've ever seen six swans or 12 dancing princesses? Can you touch your nose with your tongue? Not even close. Do you have a brother? Yep! Did your great granddad fight in the civil war? I don't think any of my great-grandfathers did. If you go back another great or so, there may have been some who did, but I don't know for sure. If any of them did, I don't know who, and I wouldn't know which side they fought for. My ancestors at that time (from both sides of the family) would've been living in southern Kentucky, near the Tennessee border, which was one of the areas of the US with the most deeply divided loyalties at that time. Do you like hugs? Depends entirely on who they're from. I LOVE hugs from people I like or love. Not so much from people I don't know well or don't like so much. Do you want to be a doctor? No. Although it might be fun to play one on TV. :-) (Raise your hand if you're old enough to get the pop culture reference.) What do you do right before you go to bed? Take off my glasses. Right when you get out of bed? Put on my glasses. Do you want to be famous? Not especially. It sounds inconvenient. Do you do your own laundry? Yep. Until I get that jet-setting heiress gig, there's no one else gonna do it for me! Wanna be tagged to do this meme on your blog? It's self-serve! Tell me so in comments and run with it, baby. :-) Daily Art Thang: "Fern Walk" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

November Bliss List in December, Complete with a Digression or Two

2006-12-01T00:28:00.000-05:00

It's Bliss List time again! Ok, it's actually a little PAST Bliss List time, since it's now the first day of December and I'm posting my list for November, but WhatEVER, Dude. I spent most of yesterday fighting mad hordes of Crazed Christmas Cshoppers (had to make it alliterative - don't ask me how to pronounce it) in order to get groceries because they say our weirdly warm weather (more alliteration!) is coming to an end today and we may get some snow and everyone in the civilized world knows that if the weather forecast calls for snow you must - MUST!! - go to the grocery store and buy bread and milk. It's a law or something. Please don't anyone tell the Grocery Police that I bought tortillas and pepper jack cheese and pomegranates instead. And some other food too, I forget what. And two books. Oh, and a tree! I bought a wee-teensy fake-o Christmas tree today. But more on that later, because it's Bliss List time! Here are some things that have been making me feel Blissful in November:

The gloriously messy sweetness of pomegranates
The vibrantly messy colors of winter sunsets
That early nightfall makes it so easy to snuggle up on my favorite corner of the couch and read a book without feeling like I should be doing something else instead
That even though I'm not a fan of winter, it gives me a reason to wear warm, soft, fuzzy hats and scarves and I AM a fan of those
It's the perfect time of year to make and eat homemade vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Yum!
Spending time with family
Going on Photo Safaris to look for artful views of everyday things
The sight of such colorful and intricate blooms on such a spindly, homely-looking plant as my Christmas cactus
(my darling) Clementines

"November Bliss" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) What's making you feel blissful this month? In one last digression (well one last one for TODAY, I mean, not one last one EVER, so don't go getting your hopes up), this post completes one full year of Bliss Lists. I started this series in December of 2005 and am trying to decide if I want to continue it into 2007 or if I want to end it here. Will I find new things to make me feel blissful each month if I continue, or would I just be recycling thoughts and images I've posted during this past year? Hhhmmm... I don't know the answer to those questions yet. I guess we'll all find out sometime in the next month or so.

Poetry Thursday - Ugly Things (A Song)

2006-11-30T00:34:00.000-05:00

I like the prompt at Poetry Thursday this week, but it simply hasn't been a week where I could put the time and thought into writing something original for it, so I'll hope to revisit it another time. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep this short today (Hey! You in the back - stop laughing!) and just share a poem that speaks to me. Then I'll get back to my To-Do List that somehow magically seems to keep growing longer despite the fact that I AM doing things on the list and crossing them off! Bah! And also Aaarrggghhh! But I digress. On to the poem. I love the ending. Ugly Things (A Song) In an old worn-out basin I planted violets for you and down by the river with an empty seashell I found you a firefly. In a broken bottle I kept a seashell for you and coiled over that rusty fence the coral snake flowered just for you. Cockroach wing carried to the ant hill: that's how I want them to take me to the cemetery when I die. Garbage dump, garbage dump where nobody wants to look but if the moon comes out your tin cans will shine. If you put a bit of love into ugly things you'll see that your sadness will begin to change color. ~~~Teresita Fernandez (translated by Margaret Randall) DAT: "Changing Color" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) To read more Things Poetical, just look for the links here.

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #33

2006-11-29T00:21:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure that post title is quite what it should be, because this one includes a lot of Linky Love, which is kind of like showing you Stuff pulled from Other People's Drawers. (Wow, that just sounded very, very wrong.) My Drawer: Don't forget you have five more days to write a fun little story or two for a chance to win some semi-fabulous prizes! WooHoo!! You even have your choice of two different ways to enter - the HubbaBubba theme of Contest One, or the Have-a-Headache theme of Contest Two. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out This Post. Go ahead, I'll wait. (Lalalalalaaaaaaa) Are you back? Oh good. My Drawer: Y'all! I JUST, as I was typing this post, had my 150,000th blog visitor since I started keeping track of stats! That's so cool! I noticed it was getting close and was keeping an eye on it to see if I could spot when the count tipped over. So to whoever just visited here in the early hours of Wednesday morning (US EST), surfing in from New York state via the SPC site - Hi! Consider yourself showered with virtual confetti and balloons to the sounds of a Cyber Brass Band playing "We Will Rock You." :-) OPD: Do y'all ever visit the Worth 1000 website? I don't go often, but I visit now and then. They post lots of challenges for people to show off their photography and Photoshop skills. A friend sent me a link to one of their recent contests which was called "Pimp My Ren" which was a challenge to "show us today's big bling, hip culture as seen thru the eyes of yesteryear's classic artists." I found the results pretty creative and funny, (if occasionally a bit disturbing). You can check it out Here, if you want to see. OPD: Anyone who spends much time here knows I'm not a TV snob. I freely admit I watch some crappy stuff, but still...Ever wonder just exactly how badly wrong this whole "Reality" TV thing can go? Wonder no more. Just check This out. I'm at a loss for words. You just have to read it for yourself. Go ahead. I'll wait again. (Lalalalalaaaaaaaaaa) Back? Well, what did you think?? I know. I KNOW!! The citizens of Muncie, Indiana, have my condolences. My Drawer: I spent some time in Muncie many years ago. I wonder if they still have that really great used book store. I wonder if the Red Dog Saloon is still there. I wonder if Yorktown Cafe still has mile-high coconut cream pie. And ooooh, there was that fab little Italian restaurant with the wine tasting bar. Hhhmmm... But y'all, I'm not going anywhere near the place to find out. Not anytime soon anyway. My Drawer: Today's Daily Art Thang is a sunset photo I took on my front porch a few days ago. Pretty, yes? We usually have prettier sunsets in the winter here than we do in the summer. "The View from my Front Porch one November Night" (clickable) My Drawer: Come on, everybody, write those stories! Not many entries so far, so your odds are good! If you ever in your life made up an excuse to a parent, teacher, employer, or significant other, you can DO this. :-)

SPC: Glam, Week 4 - Movie Poster

2006-11-28T00:45:00.000-05:00

Here we are at the final week of November's Glam Self-Portrait Challenge. All month I've been taking my inspiration from classic Hollywood glamor shots. For this final week I decided to veer a little sideways from that and turn my final self-portrait into a faux movie poster. I got the idea from the lovely Angela, who used this site to turn one of her self-portraits into a magazine cover. When I saw they also offered a movie poster template I thought that was a perfect way to wind up my homage to Hollywood. This is probably my least-favorite of the photos I've posted for this month, but still...how could I resist ending this series with a shot that features red shoes! "Self-Portrait in a Movie Poster" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window, which you really should so you can read the fine print on the poster!) PS...I see that the SPC theme for December is RED! How ironic. Maybe I should post this twice! Edited to add - Because several people have asked about the "film rating" - it's rated R for "Red" and "Ramblings." I'm not that deep, y'all. :-D

Write Something and Win Some Deb aRt (and other possibly-almost-fabulous prizes)!!!

2006-11-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

(Contains minor Quilt Content - GASP!) The past couple of days, I've been working on making a few fabric postcards. The quilters who visit here will know exactly what I mean. Non-quilters may or may not. They're little artsy things you send through the mail just like a regular paper postcard, but they're made of fabric and are layered and stitched just like a teeny-tiny quilt. I've been making one for Deborah B who was nice enough to send me a photo of a poster exhibited at the Quilt Festival in Houston, featuring one of my fabric postcards. Check it out: I don't have to tell you which one is mine, do I? Well, in case I do, it's the shoe card in the lower right. BTW, all the postcards pictured are the same size (4" x 6"), so it looks weird to me to see mine shown larger. But I digress.. I'm also making one for my BFF Morven, who hinted that she'd like to see a DebR postcard show up in her stuff from Santa. And I'm making one that will go to my friend Dragonfly once she completes a challenge I set for her earlier this month when she was having trouble getting going on her NaNoWriMo story. And that brings us to the subject line of this post. While I was making these cards, I decided to make two more and extend the aforementioned challenge to RSR readers and turn it into a little contest. It's been a while since I gave something away here and that's fun to do! Actually I'm turning it into TWO contests. The winners will each receive one of my FlipFlop fabric postcards (similar to the one shown in the poster above, only the shoe will be a different color), plus assorted other Stuff still to be determined because I haven't bought any of it yet. Heh. But I'm going shopping later this week and will put together a couple of little goodie boxes that will contain the postcard, plus other stuff I think is neato-coolio. And even if the winners turn out to not like the same stuff I do...hey, it's Free Stuff and you could always re-gift it. ;-) Contest One For this contest you have to meet the exact same challenge I issued to Dragonfly - write a sex scene. Yes, you read that right - a sex scene, dammit! Ill leave it up to you how explicit to get, but let's not make it anything I'd be embarrassed to share with my more modest friends or family members. I'm not going for porn here, more like romance novel stuff or even light romantic comedy. After all, no one said it had to be a GOOD sex scene. :-) (If someone submits something I think crosses that admittedly ambiguous line, I'll send it back to you and tell you why and give you the option to edit and try again if you like.) But wait - there's more! (C'mon, this IS a challenge, after all.) Each of these sex scenes must somehow include the following four elements: a rubber chicken, a pair of pink fur-lined handcuffs, a bird named Trixie, and a DVD of the Happy Days "Jump the Shark" episode. Entry details to follow after I tell you about the next contest. Contest Two What, you say that the thought of writing a sex scene and posting it on the internet makes you feel very uncomfortable? Yeah, me too. I found out a couple of years ago when I was writing my NaNoWriMo story that, while I like to read a well-written sex scene and I certainly enjoy participating in one (ahem), I do NOT like to write them. My story STILL, two years later, has a big blank space in the manuscript where I think a sex scene should be, and in the middle of that big blank space it just says "add sex scene later." Sigh. So for Contest Two, write a an excuse story for me about why you didn't turn in a sex scene. Think "the dog ate my homework" only more outrageous. The catch? Oh come on, I bet you've guessed. Every excuse story must include the following four elements: a rubber chicken, a pair of pink fur-lined handcuffs, a bird named Trixie, and a DVD of the Happy Days "Jump the Shark" episode. How To Enter Please read carefully! This is not rocket science and I'm kind of anal about people following the directions for this stuff. :-) 1. Let's keep these stories brief - say no more than 250 words or so. (I'm not going to count, so if you go over a little that's fine, but let's use some common sense and not send in the blog equivalent of "Gone with the Wind", y'all!) 2. When you've finished story (or stories), email a copy to me at this address: tansy @ kywirelesscollc.com - delete the spaces on either side of the "@" to make that address functional. Put either "Contest One" for sex scenes or "Contest Two" for excuse stories in the subject line. Within 24 hours after sending your email, you should receive a confirmation email from me that will simply say "got it." If you don't receive that email, contact me using the email addy found in my sidebar. 3. You may only enter each contest once, but you may enter both contests if you like, for a total of two entries. However, you can only win once. If by some bizarre chance the same person would win both, I'll draw a name from the two runners-up and that person will win one of the prizes. (Drawing of names from a hat will also be how I break ties, if any.) If you enter both contests, send each entry in a separate email, using the appropriate subject line for each. 4. Deadline for getting entries to me is one week from today - Monday, Dec. 4th, at 11:59 PM US Eastern Standard Time. (You're each responsible for figuring out how the heck that translates to your local time! I've got enough to do here organizing this thing. Ha!) 5. A couple of days after the contest closes, I will post all entries here without names (I'll assign each story a number) and the winners will be chosen by reader vote. I'll explain the voting thing in more detail when the time comes. 6. Obviously if you win I must be able to contact you, and you must be willing to email me your real name and your snail mail addy, otherwise I can't send you your goodie box, which would kind of defeat the purpose of entering in the first place. 7. Any questions? Contact me at the same addy I listed for entries and give me at least 24 hours to respond. So come on, y'all! Get writing and sending those things in. Don't make me have gone through thinking up this puppy for nothing! ********************* Here's today's DAT - another view of a bloom on my Christmas cactus. I think this version is very O'Keeffe-ish. "Cactus Flower 2" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

A Friday Thing on Sunday

2006-11-26T00:22:00.000-05:00

Every week I check to see what's posted over a the Friday Five site, even though I don't usually participate. But a couple of weeks ago they had one I thought would make a pretty interesting meme so I saved it and today feels like a good day to share it. So here we go... On The Road Again 1. If you had to move 100 miles or more to the north, east, west, or south, which would you choose, where would you end up, and what's so great about there? Well, I think it would have to be "or more" to get me to move. 100 miles in 'most any direction wouldn't put me anyplace that would have any advantage over where I am now, and moving that far in most directions would put me further away from my family, which I would consider a Bad Thing. I'm not sure how many miles I'd have to travel to move someplace that would seem worth the trouble to me, but the direction would pretty much have to be either south or west. If we ever move again I want to go someplace with less winter, not more! 2. Do you have a favorite stretch of highway or byway for driving, touring, or wandering? I like to drive on the stretch of road known as Paris Pike. It runs between Paris, Kentucky and Lexington, Kentucky, and has been called "one of the most scenic byways in the nation." It's always had very pretty scenery. It's bordered with a lot of horse farms, so there are big old houses set way back from the road, majestic trees scattered across deep lawns, nicely maintained barns and paddocks. There are miles and miles of fences, either rail fences or dry stone, and you can often see Thoroughbred horses in the fields. When I was growing up, it was a rather dangerous stretch of road - two narrow, twisty lanes with no median and little or no shoulders. A few years ago the highway department started renovating it and now it's a four-lane divided road, but it isn't a standard cookie-cutter freeway. The designers worked very carefully to integrate the road into the existing landscape and to maintain as many of the historic features as they could. They maintained most of the existing dry stone fences, had new ones built in some areas, and added a lot of landscaping into the green space between lanes. When it was all finished it turned out to be a road where the scenery is just as beautiful as the one I remember from my childhood, but the road itself is a lot safer and more fun to drive on. It's won several design awards and is often held up as a model for a more modern sort of road design. 3. Are you happier to start a trip or return home? Start. I love the sense of anticipation and adventure - wondering what's ahead. When I come home, I'm always glad to arrive safely, of course, and to get to see my dogs and cat again, but the end of a trip always leaves me feeling a little let down. 4. Plane, train, automobile, bicycle, or foot? Well that depends entirely on how far I need to travel! I love to walk - I go for walks almost every day. When we lived in Wisconsin I used to bicycle a lot, but ended up getting rid of my bike when we moved to Kentucky because the last two areas we've lived in have no safe place to ride. I've never really traveled by train other than just short rides run as tourist attractions, but I've always thought it sounded like it might be a cool way to travel. And I love to fly, although I must admit that crowded planes with small seats, no leg room, and lousy food service are not the optimal way to experience flight. 5. Do you overplan or underplan your travels? (Assume that "no" is not a valid answer.) But...but...but...the answer IS no! I always plan perfectly. (snort!) Ok, ok, if I must choose I have to say I overplan. But only a little bit! If you want to play along, you know the drill - tell me so in comments and you can consider yourself tagged. Here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Cactus Flower" (clickable)

A Review of a Movie, a Bond Movie (no spoilers)

2006-11-25T09:28:00.000-05:00

I hadn't mentioned it before now, what with all the Thanksgiving Stuff going on, but this past Tuesday J and I played hooky from Real Life and went to see the latest Bond movie, Casino Royale. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, especially since I was one of many people who wasn't so thrilled with the idea of BlondeBond when the casting of Daniel Craig in the role was announced. But y'all, he was fabulous! He reminded me of Sean Connery's Bond and I definitely mean that as a compliment. One reason I'm surprised I was so impressed is that, unlike a lot of detractors, I always liked Pierce Brosnan's Bond. Sean Connery was always my favorite, but before now I'd have ranked Mr. Brosnan second in my personal Bond list. I freely admit that's in large part because I'm just a huge fan of that man, and have been since his Remington Steele days. I thought his smooth, urbane humor worked for a certain sort of Bond. He'd be a spy that women would flock to and men wouldn't suspect was tough. Well, if Mr. Brosnan is the smoothest Bond, Mr. Craig is clear on the opposite end of the spectrum. You know I never noticed until I put these photos together just how much Timothy Dalton physically resembles George Lazenby. It may even have been talked about back in the day, but I sort of slept through the Dalton years. Anyway... Daniel Craig is, in fact, so rugged looking that he almost looks odd in a tuxedo, but he pulled it off. And he was utterly believable in the violent action sequences. There's one scene where a baddie is trying none-too-gently to get information from Bond. Those of you who've seen the movie know exactly which scene I mean and those who haven't will recognize what I'm talking about as soon as you see it. When I tried to play that scene in my mind with the lovely Mr. Brosnan in the role, it simply wouldn't work. No one - not even his biggest fan - would have believed Brosnan's Bond would pull off what Craig's Bond went through in that scene. With Craig, I believed it. My only quarrel with the film came in the last 2/3 or so of the movie when things slowed down considerably. Again, I'm betting those of you who've seen it know what I mean, but I won't say so I avoid spoilers. I suspect they were trying to appeal to the female members of the audience, but during that section this female just kept thinking "oh come on, we know what's going to happen here, just get it over with." The film is quite long and I think they could have cut a huge chunk out of the section I'm talking about and brought the movie in closer to 2 hours without missing a thing in terms of telling the story. Other than that one quibble, I thought this was classic Bond, the best in years. If you're a fan of old-school Bond movies - if you're someone who has said for years that Sean Connery is THE Bond and no one else has come close to getting it right - then go see this one. I bet you'll be pleased. I give it an A- and would have given it an A if the director had trimmed some fat from one section of the movie. If you hate all things Bond then, um....never mind. (said in my best Emily Litella voice) Here's today's DAT: "Cactus Bud" (clickable)

Thoughts from the Hide-out

2006-11-24T09:39:00.000-05:00

Here I am, home again after spending a lovely day at my sister's house yesterday. There were eight people, one dog, a lot of good food and drinks, and a lot of talking and laughter. I took my camera with me and thought maybe I'd share a couple of photos today, but once I got there I never gave the camera another thought. Guess what - It turns out that just physically having a camera in the same building with you doesn't result in photos. Really! You actually have to take the thing out of the case and point it at stuff and press some buttons. Sheesh! Who knew!! Today I plan to hide out in my house because I have no desire whatsoever to be on the road with the hoards of mad shoppers determined to find bargains on Black Friday. Which, BTW, I've always thought was a terrible name for a Day After a Holiday Day. I understand where the name comes from - retail going into the black in their accounting books because of so many sales that day - but it makes me think of the Black Plague, or of funerals or something. I find the name very morbid sounding. I've never liked the name Boxing Day either. Again, I get where it comes from, but when I hear it the first thing I always think of is people hitting each other! Bleah! Anyway... I tend to practice major shopping avoidance between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. The extra traffic and crowds wig me out just a bit and leave me feeling claustrophobic and grumpy. I always try to get some of my gift shopping done before Thanksgiving and will do at least 80% of the rest of it by ordering stuff online and having it delivered to my front door. The UPS man knows my name well. :-) I used to try to get all of it done before Thanksgiving, but found that didn't work out so well for me because the few times I'd be in the stores during that last month between holidays, I'd find things I couldn't resist because they'd be perfect for this person or that one, and I'd end up overspending. So now I do some of my gift buying early, but leave room for those surprise finds toward the end too, when I'm unavoidably fighting my way through the crowds in the coming weeks. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, are you one of those people who has everything bought, organized, and wrapped before December ever arrives, or are you one of the people frantically scurrying around the stores on Christmas eve (or somewhere in between)? Do you do any (or all!) of your shopping online these days or do you have to see and touch what you're buying? Or maybe some of you are ambitious and organized enough to make creative gifts for everyone on your list instead of buying them. (Show offs!) Am I the only one hiding in my house today?? Here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Green Spires" (clickable)

The Giving of the Thanks

2006-11-23T00:12:00.000-05:00

It's after midnight as I'm posting this, so it's now officially Thanksgiving Day in the US. It may not be original to list things you're thankful for on Thanksgiving, but I still like the idea. After all, what's not to like about a holiday that's about being grateful for the blessings in your life and spending time with people you love! If you don't want to see me get all gooshy and sentimental, you might not want to read this. :-) But if you don't mind a little goosh, then read on. This year I want to say I'm thankful... ...for everyone I love and for everyone who loves me back. ...for my sweet dog friends. Dogs are a living example of how to love freely and without fear. The love of a dog for his or her people is one of the closest things to truly unconditional love this side of God. ...for my fat, obnoxious, somewhat psychotic, and extremely irritating cat. Bless his heart, he drives me nuts, but when he curls up in my lap in the evening and purrs his shriveled little heart out, I remember why I love him. Plus, if dogs are on this earth to show us how to love others, then maybe cats are on this earth to show us how to love ourselves. Even if a cat is stupid, unattractive, or annoying as all get out, that cat still KNOWS he or she deserves love and respect. We should know the same. ...that I have my physical necessities, like a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and food on the table. ...and also that I have many of my spiritual and emotional necessities, like books, peaceful surroundings, books, art (doing it myself and looking that the work of others), books, music, books, adventure, books, movies, and books. We may not have a lot of money, but I feel rich. ...that my body is still hanging in there and carrying me around with no more than the usual aches and pains of middle age. ...and that blogging has giving me a creative outlet I didn't know I wanted until I found it, and allowed me to discover so many fabulous people I wouldn't otherwise have known. To those of you in the US who are celebrating Thanksgiving along with me today, I hope you're having a wonderful day and finding much to be thankful for. For those of you outside the US, even though today isn't a holiday for you, I hope exactly the same thing for you. Because after all, we shouldn't really need holidays to be grateful for the good things in life, yes? Yes! Peace... "Thankful" (clickable)

"Thank Your First Commenter Day"

2006-11-22T00:08:00.000-05:00

Neil, over at Citizen of the Month, started a tradition last year called "Thank Your First Commenter Day." It's all tied into giving thanks and showing your appreciation for that first kind soul who made a stumbling newbie blogger feel welcome in Blogsylvania. Neil explains it all very logically with a history lesson about savvy Native Americans, and clueless uptight Pilgrims, and canned cranberry sauce, so you might want to pop over there and read about it because he explains it better than I ever could. Anyway... I didn't participate last year because I'd never heard of Neil at this time last year, so I was ignorant about this important new occasion. But this year I'm in! The very first person to ever leave a comment on Red Shoe Ramblings was the delightful Dara, who I must admit I knew before I started blogging, since we co-own a formerly hoppin' but now sadly neglected email list. She is, in fact, one of the main people who talked me into trying blogging in the first place, so I'm sure that first comment - and many that came after it - were a way of encouraging me to keep at it. Dara is a Buddhist nun with a wicked sense of humor (I know, sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it, but it's true!) who lives and works in Sedona, AZ. Her blog is called Daramusing. It hasn't been updated for a couple of months, but if anyone wants to stop by and say hi and maybe leave a comment, I bet she'd like to hear from you. Dara, thank you for being the first person to give me a little bloggy comment love! I miss your voice, sweetie. Wish you'd write something! :::smooch::: Oh, and if anyone wants to read the first post (don't expect much...SO dull!) and Dara's first comment, you can click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. Sorry I can't link directly to just the one post, but for some reason that's the one and only post I don't have archived individually. I must've monkeyed around with my settings on Day 2! Here's today's Daily Art Thang, a photo I snapped from our front porch a few mornings ago. It looks like the way I usually feel in the morning before I've gotten that first jolt of caffeine in my system. "Morning Fog" (clickable) PS...While I'm thanking my first-ever commenter, I'll also send a shout out to my latest commenter, because I like the idea of honoring the present as well as the past. The last person to leave a comment here just before I hit publish on this new post was the lovely Darlene of A Walk in My Shoes. So glad you stopped by, Darlene. I always love to hear from you! :::smooch::: to you too. :-)

SPC: Glam, Week 3 - the Boudoir Portrait

2006-11-21T00:58:00.000-05:00

It's week 3 of November's Glam Self-Portrait Challenge. I have to say I'm enjoying this one. People are being very creative! Plus I love the fantasy element of these photos. The ones I've been doing are like a grown-up version of playing dress-up and pretending to be a princess. :-) As I continue to take my inspiration from classic Hollywood glamor shots, this week I focused on a type of publicity photo that has been around as long as there have been movies and people who wanted to be stars - the boudoir photo. Not that any of those photos were actually taken in anyone's bedroom or dressing room, of course. They were carefully staged studio portraits, but that was the feeling they were meant to evoke - the sense that you'd caught a glimpse of the glamorous movie star in an intimate moment. The studios wanted you to want their stars. They wanted you to fantasize about them and want to be them. I had trouble narrowing my choices in this series down to just one photo, so I'm posting my two favorites. The first one was based on photos like these examples featuring Veronica Lake and Clara Bow: The examples I'm sharing are all B/W, but I decided to do mine in color. Here's my version: "Self-Portrait - Boudoir Portrait" I didn't quite end up with the same angle to the head, but it still has a similar feel I think, especially to the Clara Bow photo. The second pose is based on photos like these pics of Lana Turner and Barbara Stanwyck: And here's my take on it (a bit more Lana than Barbara): "Self-Portrait - Boudoir Portrait: Take 2" (both photos are clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window) Only one more week to go! Wonder what the theme will be next month...

The Balance Thing

2006-11-20T00:24:00.000-05:00

One day last week I was visiting Suzie's blog and she'd posted the results of a test she'd taken that was supposed to give some insight into the state of a person's chakras. Ok, if I may take off on an immediate tangent here, I have to confess that a part of me wanted to cringe a teensy bit just then, when I typed "the state of a person's chakras." I was raised with a very conservative and traditional-for-this-region religious background, including many years of parochial school, and it's left me with the remnant of a Baptist preacher's voice living in my head. ACK! My current spiritual beliefs are miles away from the beliefs of the church in which I was raised, and that Inner Preacher is not my favorite part of my personality, to say the least. I've worked for YEARS to shove him out of there, but there he is, still hanging around and sneering at me at the oddest moments. Pardon me for a moment, while I stuff a sock in his mouth. NOW, as I was saying.... I read about this test on Suzie's blog and went to take it and found it interesting. Here's what it said: And here's a link to brief explanations of the results - too brief, in my opinion and I'm not sure I agree with all of it, but I agree to an extent. For instance, take a look at the two chakras it says are out of balance with me - under-active Root and over-active Third Eye. It says that someone with an under-active Root chakra will "tend to be fearful or nervous" and would "easily feel unwelcome." I don't think I'm particularly fearful or nervous at all, but I tend to agree about the part about easily feeling unwelcome. I know that's a big part of why I'm almost phobic about making phone calls is because I'm always 99% certain (with no logical reason for that certainty whatsoever!) that whoever I'm calling will consider it an annoying intrusion rather than being happy to hear from me. It goes on to say that when someone has an over-active Third Eye chakra they "may live in a world of fantasy too much. In excessive cases hallucinations are possible." Again, I'll go along with half of that. I DO tend to live inside my head too much and that's a fantasy world if there ever was one. (snort!) But hallucinations? Um...not so much. I also wish they gave a little more information about balancing those chakras that are out of whack, but on the other hand I'm sure that information is out there in other places. I can see enough truth in these test results that I think it may be worth checking out a book and reading more. Maybe this one that I've been hearing about on a few blogs. Balance is a Good Thing, yes? Then this past weekend I saw that Melba had taken the same test and posted her results and she's also added a word exercise. I'd fully intended to do that one too, but this has already gotten SO long that I think I'm going to save that for another day. (Sheesh, am I completely incapable of writing a short blog post???? It would appear so!) Anyway, on to the Daily Art Thang, which is a self-portrait today. It seems sort of silly to post a self-portrait on a Monday when I'm going to do a Glam SPC post tomorrow, but I took this photo a couple of weeks ago after buying a new hat and I liked how it turned out. Now I'm thinking about using it as a new blog profile pic because I'm already sick of looking at the one I've been using the past couple of months. Heh. So here it is, an UnGlam self-portrait, with no make-up except some lipstick, but a cute hat! :-) "Self-Portrait in a Hat" (clickable) PS...If the perspective looks a little odd, it's because I was lying down on the back deck railing when I took the photo. Sometimes I get the balance thing right. :-)

It's a Colorful Life

2006-11-19T00:02:00.000-05:00

This is a wonderfully colorful meme I stole from Bee, who snagged it from Susannah, who borrowed it from Vesper, who...oh, never mind. You can follow the trail yourself if you like. 1. Closest red thing to you? My hair? Or is my hair more orange than red? If so, then it would be the baby-sized pair of red velvet shoes hanging on my bulletin board. They were a gift from my friend Laume. 2. Has anyone ever cheated on you in a relationship? I think so, but I never had proof. The person in question said that "nothing happened" with the ~~slutbag~~ other woman until after we broke up, but I have good reason to believe otherwise. Oh well, it was a long time ago. (I must stress here that I am talking about an old boyfriend, not my husband) 3. Last thing to make you angry? A dangerously incompetent driver on a narrow, curvy, hilly road. Yep, road rage, baby! 4. Are you a fan of romance? Ummm, yeah, sometimes (Deb says somewhat hesitantly). It kind of depends on what we're calling "romance" and how the person involved pulls it off. I'm a bit too cynical to throw myself into it no questions asked, but under some circumstances I'm open to being swept off my feet with gestures grand or small. :-) 5. Have you ever been in love? Yep. Have been and am. 6. Do you have a temper? I think everyone has a temper, the question is what kind. I'm generally pretty even-tempered and don't get much more than just a little snarky or irritable over most things. I try to choose my battles. But on the rare occasions when I really DO lose my temper, it's LOST. Gone. We're talking nuclear blast and all that's left is to clear the rubble. (I'm glad it doesn't happen often.) 1. Closest green thing to you? A lime green wall. 2. Do you care about the environment? Yes (Does anyone ever say no to this question? Because sheeeeeeesh! If they do, they should be immediately relocated to live in the middle of a land fill or something. I'm just sayin'...) 3. Are you jealous of anyone right now? No. A lot of people use the words "jealousy" and "envy" interchangeably, but they aren't the same thing. I'm very rarely jealous, but I have a tendency to sometimes be envious of others and I really don't want to be. It's something I work to try to change. (And I think I have improved in that area over the years.) 4. Are you a lucky person? Yes 5. Do you always want what you can't have? Sometimes (see above re: envy!) but not always. 6. Are you Irish? I'm American. But some of my ancestors were Irish. :-) 1. Closest purple thing to you? MurpleMaid, the zaftig purple-clothed mermaid that was a gift from my friend Morven. 2. Like being treated to expensive things? Sometimes....maybe. This is kind of like the romance question - it depends on who's doing the treating and how expensive we're talking and why I think they're doing it. 3. Do you like mysterious things? I like mystery novels and I like puzzles, that sort of thing. I'm fascinated by the mysteries of the Universe and all we don't yet understand. I don't, however, like being around people who are extremely secretive and create mystery around themselves where there doesn't need to be any. I figure if someone is TRULY mysterious, their casual acquaintances should never suspect a thing. If someone feels the need to go around wearing mystery like a black cloak, I figure they're a poser. 4. Favourite type of chocolate? Almost anything not too sweet, which generally means dark, but sometimes milk is good too. 5. Ever met any royalty? Nope. Not unless they were in disguise or something! 6. Are you creative? Yes. I wish I was more original, but I'll go as far as saying I believe I'm reasonably creative. 7. Are you lonely? Sometimes. I find it hard to imagine that there's anyone in the world who isn't lonely now and then. A person can be lonely in a crowd. 1. Closest blue thing to you? Most of what I'm wearing - my shirt, my jeans, my socks, the stones in my earrings and in the ring on my right hand. Also my eyes. 2. Are you good at calming people down? Yes, I think so. 3. Do you like the ocean? LOVE it! Love the way it looks, the way it sounds, the way it smells. 4. What was the last thing that made you cry? Oh, I shed tears here and there over anything - songs, TV shows, blog posts. But the last time I cried - REALLY cried, not just got a little teary-eyed - was last weekend when I was feeling down about how much I still miss my mom. 5. Are you a logical thinker? I can be. I'm really good at those logic puzzles where it gives you little dibs and dabs of information and you have to sort it all out and figure out who lives in what house and drives what sort of car and works at what job and so on. But in my daily life I rely more on intuition than logic. My heart thinks faster than my head. 6. Can you sleep easily? No. I'm not a very good sleeper at all. 7. Do you prefer the beach or the woods? I can't choose. I just can't. They both feed my soul. I want a place where woods run down almost to the beach. :-) 1. Closest yellow thing to you? A bright yellow picture frame. 2. The happiest time(s) of your life? I don't know. I never know what to say when that question comes up. I've had lots of happy times, but don't want to single one out as THE happiest. 3. Favourite holiday? Does this mean holiday like Christmas, Easter, etc? (That's how Vesper answered it) Or holiday like trip? (That's how Susannah and Bee answered it.) If it means the former, I'd probably say Christmas, although I'm not quite the Christmas nut I was when I was younger. If it means the latter, then probably the trip we took to Hawaii in 2002. 4. Are you a coward? I don't think so. Not that I can claim I've never done anything cowardly, because of course I have. But I don't think I'm a coward overall. 5. Do you burn or tan? Burn. Sigh. (Although I try not to do either anymore!!) 6. Do you want children? No. Although I love spoiling the kids of family and friends! 7. What makes you happy? Being with people I love, reading a wonderful story, creating something I'm proud of, singing, looking at beautiful scenery, having adventures. 1. Closest pink thing to you? A little cloth box created by Diane D. 2. Do you like sweet things? Oh yeah. Way, WAY more than I wish I did. 3. Like play-fighting? Not so much. I have a low pain threshold and bruise easily and what other people think is "playing" often truly hurts me, and I'm not into pain. 4. Are you sensitive? Oh yeah. Again, way, WAY more than I should be. That's another of those areas I've been working on over the years and I HAVE improved, but I still take things too personally. 5. Do you like punk music? I'm not a huge fan, but some of it is good. 6. What is your favourite flower? I don't have a single favorite, but I like anything that's old-fashioned and super-fragrant - daffodils, lilacs, viburnum, peonies, roses, lilies...stuff like that. 7. Does someone have a crush on you? I have no idea. There are a few people here and there who act a bit flirty with me, but for all I know they may act flirty with everyone. 1. Closest orange thing to you? The background of a postcard Julie sent me from her trip to Glastonbury last year. 2. Do you like to burn things? Sometimes, I guess. But it isn't a big turn-on for me. 3. Dress up for Halloween? Dressing up for Halloween is one of those things I think sounds fun in theory, but in practice I can rarely be bothered with it. I'd rather take photos of other people's costumes! :-) 4. Are you usually a warm-hearted person? Yes, I think so. 5. Do you prefer the single life or the security of a relationship? I like the security of a relationship that allows me to be myself and pursue my own path from within that relationship. 6. What would your super power be? Ooooh....dilemma. I've always answered "flight" to this question, but then I saw Bee's answer "to heal people" and that's really, really good. Hhhmmm.... Maybe I could heal people by flying?? :-) 1. Closest white thing to you? The pages of a notebook I keep by the 'puter. 2. Would you say you're innocent? No. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but c'mon y'all...I'm 44 years old. Anyone who can live for 44 years on this earth and still claim to be innocent is a better person than I am. 3. Always try to keep the peace? No. I prefer peaceful surroundings and everyone getting along. I'm not an agitator or instigator. But I won't *always* try to keep the peace. Sometimes it does more harm than good. 4. How do you imagine your wedding? In the past. Hehehe. It was very nice, but if I had it to do over again, I'd want to skip the whole church wedding thing. I'd want to elope and get married on a beach at sunset. 5. Do you like to play in the snow? NO. Snow is a four-letter word. I like to take photographs of it - briefly - then I want it to melt and go away. 6. Are you afraid of going to the doctors or dentist? I'm not afraid of going to the doctor, although I find doing so annoying, but the dentist freaks me out. I'd rather have a pelvic exam than a dental exam. Seriously. 1. Closest black thing to you? Everything I'm wearing that isn't blue - my bra, undies, shoes. Also my watchband. 2. Ever enjoy hurting people? No. 3. Are you sophisticated or silly? Gee, I wonder....yeah, I'm going to have to go with silly on this one. 4. Do you have a lot of secrets? Some I guess, but I wouldn't say many. 5. What is your favourite colour(s)? It's easier to say what colors I don't like and that would be the dunduggity ones - gray, wimpy shades of pink, dingy shades of brown. I like pretty much all the rest. 6. Does the colour you wear affect your mood? My answer is the same as Bee's and Susannah's - it's the other way around for me. My mood affects what color I choose to wear. If you decide to use the famous Red Shoe Ramblings Self-Serve Meme Tagging System (patent pending...NOT), please let me know in comments so I can come see your answers, 'k? Thanks! Here's a snapshot of a fire we had the other night because a) it was pretty and I want to share it with all of you, and b) you can find pretty much all the colors mentioned in the meme in this one photo: (Can you find me in there? Twice even??) And here, for today's DAT is an extremely "messed with" version of that same photo. This one is clickable if you want to see it larger. "Home Fires in Neon"

20 Years Ago

2006-11-18T01:11:00.000-05:00

Twenty years ago today - the 18th of November, 1986 - I went on a blind date. A woman I worked with kept telling me about some guy her husband worked with and how she thought we'd hit it off and wanted to introduce us. I was doubtful. Really doubtful. I resisted for weeks, but finally gave in and agreed (with many sighs and much rolling-of-the-eyes) to go to a little dinner party at her house and meet this person, although I was sure she was wrong, since every blind date I'd ever tried had been a disaster. On the surface, I should've been right. I came to Pat's house straight from work and I was stylin' in my red dress and red shoes, with my typically '80's Big Hair, along with saucer-sized earrings and bangle bracelets. I would've looked quite at home at most any yuppie dance club. He was a tall skinny guy with shaggy hair and a beard, wearing faded jeans, cowboy boots, and a flannel shirt. He looked like he should be hanging someplace with sawdust on the floor. And it wasn't just the look. We didn't really seem to have much in common. But there was sparkage, people! Definite and immediate flying of the sparks was going on that evening. The next day I told Pat "if he asks, give him my number." He did. She did. He called. A little over two years later, in February of 1989, I married that guy. Sometimes the blind date thing works. Go figure. Love you, J! Here's today's Daily Art Thang, which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of this post. :-) "Berry Cluster" (clickable) Hhhmmm....Unless one wants to make something profound of how opposite the shiny red berries and the pointy green leaves are, yet how well they complement each other. Well. Maybe this photo has something to do with the rest of the post after all! HA!

Just Dreaming Out Loud on a Gloomy Friday Morning

2006-11-17T10:01:00.000-05:00

Merciful Zeus, I'm so late getting anything posted today, y'all probably gave up on me. I've actually been up for a little while, but I got lost on a fascinating website called Find Your Spot. This time of year, when it goes all cold, and gray, and virtually sunless in my little corner of the world, J and I always start dreaming about moving somewhere else, specifically somewhere winter isn't such a grumpy bitch. For now it's just a dream, but who knows about the future. Find Your Spot is a website that takes you through a long list of questions about what's important to you about where you live - climate, economy, job opportunities, government, cultural opportunities, religion, schools, housing costs, crime rates, education - all sorts of things, and then generates a list of two dozen US towns and cities it thinks you would like based on your answers. I had a few oddball things thrown into my results, like Las Vegas showing up in the #5 position. (Las Vegas? Really?? I can't even imagine!) But my overall results can be pretty much summed up by the top three recommendations: El Cajon, CA (near San Diego), Alexandria, LA, and Honolulu, HI. Nineteen out of twenty-four of my results were towns or cities in California, Louisiana, or Hawaii! Nineteen out of twenty-four, y'all! Hhhmmmm.... Sadly, unless we come into an unexpected and HUGE windfall of the spendable green stuff, I don't see California or Hawaii ever being an option for us. The cost of living is way too high in those two states compared to what we're used to here in little ol' Kentucky. But I find it interesting that Louisiana showed up so often. I wouldn't have thought to single out that state in particular as opposed to so many other states in the southeast (which IS, in fact, a region of the US I really like), but Alexandria is a town where J has done some contract work in the past and he really liked it there. Oh yeah, and the average cost of a house in Alexandria is $135K as opposed to ~$500K in the other two top spots on my list. Ahem. Oh well, just dreaming out loud...for now. Meanwhile, I have to admit our little corner of Kentucky has some pretty days, even on the dark side of the year. Here's a glimpse of one of them: "Autumn Pond" (clickable)

Poetry Thursday: Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

2006-11-16T00:38:00.000-05:00

This week at Poetry Thursday, the prompt is to lie your ass off. Well, ok, there's a little more to it than that. You can read about the idea in more detail on the PT blog, but basically the suggestion is to do a creative writing exercise where you list any 10 everyday objects and then make up a lie about each of them, and try to turn those lies into a poem. The instructions go on to say: "The point: to help flex your creative muscles. Creative writing is all about lying — making up stories that never existed or representing something in such a way as to make it like it never was. Of course actually, the sideways look — or lie — is often made to try to extract something essential, too. In Mark's words, telling lies to get at the truth. But making stuff up is also fun. The more outrageous the better." I thought what the hell, I'd give it a shot. So I started writing down objects one day and this is the list of 10 I came up with: window, tangerine, clock, fork, book, shoe, telephone, needle, lantern, and comb. As I started jotting down ideas for lies to tell about those objects, it all started to turn into this surreal little story in my mind - a story that reminded me of the sort of dreams I've had on the rare occasions when I've had an extremely high fever. It's one of the more bizarre things I've ever written, to say the least and I almost can't believe I'm even sharing it. But anyway, here it is - a poem of sorts about things that never really happened, except maybe in the mind of someone who was delirious, or doing some really good drugs, or...um...me. :-) Fever Dream The window draped softly over my shoulders, while the tangerine sat warm in my hand and hummed a lullaby. A clock erupted through the floor to shatter the fork's stately dance with bitter, swirling rage. "Hush," said the book, as a sliver shoe swept through its pages, untangling tightly braided words. "Be glad you aren't the telephone, crippled and alone, grieving for the wings it never had." The needle nodded in sympathy, or perhaps in smug agreement. No one ever quite knows what the needle is thinking, not even the lantern, who is in the autumn of her thirteenth life. As all became quiet once more, a comb crept in on blue velvet feet and crawled into my hand to curl around the tangerine. The fork began to dance again to the sounds of a lullaby, while the window draped softly over my shoulders. If you want to read more lies (or maybe even some poems where people opted to tell the truth!) then check out the links on Poetry Thursday. Today's DAT: "Tangerine Dreams" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Comments on Comments from the Past Two Days

2006-11-15T09:18:00.000-05:00

Hi y'all! I've gotten so behind on Stuff that I've given up on any thought of attempting individual replies to the last couple of days' posts. So I'm going to do a reply post here and call it Good Enough. regarding yesterday's Glam SPC: A few people asked about both the lashes and what I was wearing. The lashes are, of course, totally fake. My real ones are sparse and wispy and so light-colored that they might as well be invisible. Mascara is my friend. :-) I don't usually wear falsies (frankly, I can't imagine going through that too often!) but I couldn't resist putting on a pair for these glam shots. As far as people asking how I get them on straight and keep them on - to the first, very carefully and with a lot of cussing. It took me several tries to get that right! And as to the second - I don't! Toward the end of taking these photos I was having some Eyelash Migration without even realizing it and ended up having to move the lashes back into proper position in Photoshop in a couple of shots. ;-) And what I was wearing wasn't a dress, it was (as Jen surmised) a hand-dyed silk velvet scarf I bought from the lovely Deb Lacativa last year. I decided early on when taking these photos that the costume changes were going to be a total pain in the ass. So for most of them I was topless and just draping various scarves and things over the girly bits to keep the final photos rated PG. Was that Too Much Information? :-) regarding The Great Glasses Test of '06: OMG, y'all realize you've completely overwhelmed me, right? I was figuring if I got oh...5 to maybe as much as 20 comments, I'd consider that a great response. So now I'm still totally confused, but I'm also very touched and greatly amused and both of those are Good Things. I love how passionate some of you got about your preferences and how analytical others were! I think my favorite Laugh-Out-Loud comment was the one where Terry referred to the much-maligned #5 pair as "serial killer glasses." ROFL! I received an interesting email from my brother-in-law where he explained that he chose #2 as his favorite because he felt like the rectangular shape of 1 and 6 had become almost a cliche for Artsy-Nerdy-Cool and he'd like to see me get something a little different. He also informed me that he would no longer be speaking to me if I bought #5. I told him if I had more money than God, I'd buy them just to wear when I visit Sandy and him. (But I don't, so never mind.) Hi, Andy! :-) J (my husband, if any of you don't already know that) was with what seemed to be the majority of you in that he really liked #6 and 1; said he could live with 2 or 4; and he actively disliked 3 and 5. I'm still undecided, but I really appreciate the input! I will say that (much to the disappointment of a few of you) the more I look at the photos, the less I like #3, plus I'd hate to go around wearing glasses my husband detests. I have sex with that man, y'all! And, despite my smartass comment to my BIL, I don't see me getting #5 either. (Picture Cate and Kristen being disappointed while everyone else breathes a sigh of relief. Heh) But I still really like various things about all 4 of the others, as well as the unnumbered rimless ones, so....hhhmmm....we'll see. Whatever I get, I'll be sure to post pics so some of you can cheer and others can mutter and wonder how I went so very, VERY wrong. :-D Today's Daily Art Thang: "Ephemeral Strength" I may not like spiders (helloooooo, Understatement!!) but I find their webs fascinating. (clickable)

SPC: Glam, Week 2 - Digicolor Deb

2006-11-14T00:21:00.000-05:00

First of all, to everyone who commented yesterday, THANK YOU! I'll talk more about that tomorrow rather than double-posting today, but I wanted to take a minute to tell you all how much I appreciate your input. Now on to our regularly scheduled SPC post. **************** It's time for the second week of November's Glam Self-Portrait Challenge. I'm continuing to take my inspiration from classic Hollywood glamor shots rather than the suggested Glam Rock. This week I was inspired by a legend - Ms. Lucille Ball. Everyone knows Lucy was one of the great comediennes of classic television, but what some people may not know is that she had a long movie career before that and was known in her younger days as Queen of the B-movies. When Lucy was a young starlet, most movies were filmed in black and white. But when the studios started switching over to filming many movies in color, the camera became one of the first to love Lucy. Life magazine did an article about her in 1943 in which they dubbed her "Technicolor Tessie" because of the vibrant visual impact of her pale skin, blue eyes, and red hair in color film. I'm no Lucy, but I have that same type of coloring. And I'm not using film, but the effect is similar in pixels. So for this Self-Portrait Challenge photo, I've dubbed myself: "Digicolor Deb" This is my husband's favorite of the photos I've taken for this challenge. :-) And as a bonus, here's a second shot from that same series of photos. I didn't like the overall pic quite as much as the previous one, but I liked the position of my hand in this one and I liked the look of my eyes: "Digicolor Deb: Take 2" (both photos are clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window)

Do You See What I See?

2006-11-13T01:11:00.000-05:00

Remember a few months ago when I reluctantly decided to give up on wearing contacts and go back to wearing glasses full time? You don't? Yeah, I'm a little fuzzy on exactly when it happened too and I don't feel like digging through the archives, so I'm not going to be linking to a former post. You'll just have to trust me on this one. The thing is, my current glasses are old and scratched, I don't think the prescription is quite right anymore, and I don't like the way they look. So it's time - past time really - to make an appointment for an eye exam and then order some new ones. But now that I'm not wearing contacts anymore, I can't really SEE what I look like in blank frames well enough to choose new glasses. Make sense? Sure it does! So here's my ingenious solution. The last time I went to a certain megahuge discount store which shall remain nameless, but it rhymes with Blooper Ball-Fart, and yeah I know all the bad things about Blooper Ball-Fart and why I shouldn't go there, but sometimes I DO, ok? Ok. If it helps at all, I tend to feel bad about it after. Ahem. Anyway, last time I went to BB-F I took my little pocket camera with me and zoomed through their optical shop and yanked a bunch of frames off the display and took "arms stretched out" photos of myself so I could see how different styles and colors would look. Clever, yes? I thought so, but I'm not sure the guy working there agreed. BB-F WorkerDude: "Can I help you ma'am?" Me (with a big smile): "No thanks! I need new glasses, but I don't have an appointment. I want to see how I'd look in them before I order any and I can't see how I look in glasses unless I'm already, you know...WEARING glasses, so I'm taking a bunch of photos of myself in different frames so I can look at them on the computer later and post them on the internet and show my friends and then decide what to buy." BB-F WD (looking a little dazed): :::crickets chirp::: SO...how about taking a look and telling me what you think? In a perfect world, I'd like to get two pairs of glasses, although depending on the cost that may not happen. I may have to get one pair and hope to swing another pair through ye olde budgette in a few months or a year. But let's say for a moment that the clouds will part and the sun will shine and I'll have a positive plague of money cluttering up my bank account and get to buy two. In that case, I'd like one of them to be something very minimalist, kind of like this: (Please excuse the blurriness and weird facial expressions. These were speed photos if there ever were any, and in bad lighting at that.) Then I'd like the second pair to be much more obvious - sort of Cool Artsy Nerd-style glasses. I'm thinking something sort of like one of these: (this one is clickable, although the quality of the larger version is not-so-good) Do you like any of them? Detest any of them? Talk to me! I'm ready to see things through your eyes. (grooooan) In keeping with today's blog post topic (in a weird sort of way) today's DAT was a photo I took a few weeks ago where I was messing with depth of field and wanting to keep just one very small portion of the photo in focus while the rest went a bit blurry. "One Sharp Edge" (also clickable)

Those Were The Days? Well.....

2006-11-12T00:34:00.000-05:00

I feel the need to post something a bit mindless today, so here's a meme I lifted from Janet a while back. Yes, a meme. YES, another one. It's Sunday and it's been a rough week. Cut me some slack, 'k? Thanks! What was your first childhood pet? A gerbil named Gerry. What was your favorite comic? Assuming this means comic books (as opposed to newspaper comic strips), I liked the Archie ones a lot. I used to really like those lurid horror comics too (which I find a bit mind-blowing in retrospect, since I detest horror movies) What was your favorite childhood book? I loved the traditional fairy tales (like the Grimm bros. stories), and the Trixie Belden books, and "A Wrinkle in Time. " Going farther back, I liked Dr. Seuss an awful lot too. Did you ever have an imaginary friend as a child? No Did you play an instrument as a child? I played the piano. Badly. What was the first hit single record you bought? I have absolutely no idea, but it was probably something really lame. I got my first record player (yes...Record player) when I was about 11 years old and at that age I had a huge crush on (omigawd, I can't believe I'm about to reveal this...gulp) Donny Osmond. Yes. I know. What tune sums up teenage summers? "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" What was first pop concert you went to? I hardly went to any. I've never been into concerts - still am not into it. Don't like the noise or the crowds. That said, I think the first one of the few I went to was for the band Journey. Fave teenage TV program? All My Children. No, I don't still watch and haven't for years and years, but I was totally hooked on that soap during high school and college. Were you a naughty or a good girl at school? Both. Really! I was a straight-A student, ended up as valedictorian the year I graduated. I was a cheerleader 3 years and played volleyball (badly) and basketball (badly) one year each, and was in the choir. However I also broke a lot of rules, spent more time than I ever wanted to with the principal and in detention, and I was at one point suspended and threatened with expulsion. So. Both! Miss Popularity, Artsy Pants, weirdo or geek, which of these groups classify you at secondary[high] school? In high school I'd have to go with Miss Popularity with a whopping side of geek. In college I was more an Artsy Pants-weirdo combo. Girl most likely to [as in year book]? I don't think we did that "most likely to" thing when I was in high school and if we had, I have no idea what they'd have said. See above regarding my somewhat wide range of behavior at that age! :-) What color did you paint your bedroom as a teenager? White. I know, sad isn't it. But I shared with my sister, so we'd have had to agree on a color, and that room had bright red shag carpeting. BRIGHT. Red. So white sort of seemed like a visual relief. Plus we had so much stuff on the walls it hardly showed anyway. Very first paid job ever? Babysitting Have you ever been really drunk? Yes. Bleah. Did you smoke dope? and if so did you do a Bill Clinton [ smoking but not inhaling]? No. I know that's unusual for someone in my generation, but it's true - I never tried any illegal drugs at all. Even as a teenager I knew enough about my tendencies (toward escapism and OCD-ish behavior) to think that if I ever tried drugs I might like them altogether too much and might not be able to quit. So I just never started. A stupid thing you did? Just one? Heh. Ok, how about the time my friend Pam and I were walking through the woods and came upon a ravine. We noticed some wild grapevines in the trees along one bank and decided to do a Tarzan move and swing across the ravine on a grapevine. Pam went first and made it fine. I went second and the one I was swinging on broke when I was over the ravine. Luckily I only got the wind knocked out of me and got some bruises, but I came about three inches away from impaling myself on a broken sapling stub that was sticking out of the ground like a stake. Pretty stupid. Left handed or right handed? Right Should you play a board game with me? I have no idea what that question means. Is it asking if I like playing board games? Then yes, some of them, but not all. I love Scrabble. I like Apples to Apples, Taboo, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, stuff like that. I also love to play cards. But I detest Monopoly and I've never been into checkers or chess. Is it asking if I'm good at board games?? Some yes, some no! If you came to visit me what would we do? Here again, I find this confusing. I suppose it's asking if YOU, the person reading this, came to visit me, what would we do? Well, it depends a great deal on who is reading this! I will say though that I'm not kidding when I talk about living in the middle of nowhere. If you come to visit, you'd better want to see me, not a lot of touristy stuff. That said though, there are places we could go antiquing and some pretty scenery (photo ops!) quite close by. There are towns and cities within decent day-trip distance where there are museums, theaters, shops, etc. We could climb the Purple People Bridge. (I still need to do that!) But mostly I hope we'd hang out and talk and laugh. RSR regulars know the drill - all tagging is self-serve, so if you want to play, tell me so in comments and consider yourself tagged. Today's DAT: "Glowing Heart" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Healing? Wallowing? Hhhhmmm....

2006-11-11T09:19:00.000-05:00

It's looking like another one of those days around here. After I posted this blog entry, I truly felt so much better - like I had flipped the switch on a pressure release valve. Plus, this week has been busyBusyBUSY, which helps in its own weird way. No time to think, or brood, or feel. (Yeah, I know numbness isn't particularly healthy, but it's very soothing. Just ask any addict of any kind.) Yesterday I worked my way to sore exhaustion helping J put a roof and part of the siding on our new garage extension. Then last night I slipped away into what I thought would be a deep and dreamless sleep, which was stupid on my part because my sleep is never dreamless. I don't remember the details any of those dreams this morning, but I woke up feeling all jagged and splintery inside. Me being me, I might be able to soothe those jagged edges and shove it all back inside if it had been sunny and bright out today, but it isn't. I woke up to a day that's dark and cool, damp and windy - a day where I won't be getting out and pounding nails into boards with every bit of strength and anger inside - a day that makes me feel like making a pot of tea and huddling in a blanket on the corner of the couch and watching sad movies. Some people would probably tell me to go ahead and do that, but I doubt I will. At the end of the day the crying would make me feel physically ill and I'd be angry at myself for the self-indulgent wallowing. (I might even be angry at myself later for posting this blog entry, but I'm going to do it anyway and see if it helps.) When you're going through a bad time emotionally, for whatever reason, how do you balance between owning those feelings and expressing them - feeling what you need to feel - and wallowing? How do you know the difference between feeling as healing and moving forward, and feeling as a self-destructive loop that's leaving you in a bad place you need to leave? I wish I knew, but I don't think I've figured that out yet. I'm working on it. My brother and sister and I are planning to revive a family event that we let go after Mom died. We used to get together in mid-December and make candy and bake cookies, then we'd share them - among ourselves and with friends. This is a photo of (l - r) me, Sandy, and Mom taken 7 years ago during one of our marathon cookie-baking sessions. We intended to keep doing that after Mom died, but on my part I just couldn't. It was one of the things that hurt too much. Strangely though, despite grief hitting me harder this year than it has any year since the first year after she died, this is also the first year where I found myself wanting to revive the family Sugar Coma Marathon. Somehow this year it seems like something that would both make Mom feel close by and would help those of us left behind to form some revised family traditions. So Mark and Sandy and I are planning to get together next month and bake our little hearts out. I figure we'll laugh and cry and tell some "remember when" stories. It feels to me like it could be a step in the right direction. You know, I really DO think typing all this out helped a little. Writing as release...who knew. "Three Leaves" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

A Little Bit of my Life in Pictures

2006-11-10T01:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to Lexington for this: Well, that's not really the reason I went to Lexington. I went to Lex to do a boring-but-necessary errand. But I could have gone any day this week. I went yesterday so I could be at the Great! Opening! Sale! complete with 99 Red Balloons! Ok, ok...there were really only 5 red balloons, but I'm prone to hyperbole when I'm excited. They did, however give away freebie red tote bags to the first 100 customers and I got one, baby, along with some books to go with. Damn do I ever love book stores. Aaaahhh. While I was there I thought I'd snap a self-portrait in front of one of the horse statues they have in that shopping complex. I don't know why, exactly. Because it was there and I was there and it seemed like the thing to do. Oh yeah, "overexposed and squinty" is hawt! I don't know why the horse was looking at me like I was crazy. So were some people (looking at me like I was crazy, that is), but I didn't take any pictures of them. I took that photo right after buying two new bras, but I didn't take any photos of those either. You're welcome. And speaking of self-portraits (well, I was if you'll look back a paragraph or two), the lovely Vanessa made this request after seeing my last SPC photo: "I would really love to see this shot in colour... your amazing red hair must look just breathtaking." Thanks, Vanessa! :::beam::: Since that was such a sweet thing to say, and since I thought some other people who are into photography might be interested in seeing what I started with to end up with that particular portrait, here's the original color version - cropped but otherwise not corrected, so you can see that my backdrop needed a good pressing and I was wearing a ratty old cardigan (soooo glam! heh): Overexposed again! (Although I actually do think my hair looks kind of pretty.) I'm tellin' ya, overexposed is the new black. In this case, however, it was deliberate, as I knew I'd need my face to be uber-white in order to look right in the finished B/W photo, since I was going to be darkening it considerably to make the body visually disappear. In the snapshot above it was because I just didn't pay any attention to the direction of the sun. :-) Today's DAT is: "The View from my Back Yard" (clickable, as usual)

Poetry Thursday - Just one that spoke to me on a late Autumn day

2006-11-09T00:25:00.000-05:00

I've decided not to follow any of the quite wonderful prompts today for Poetry Thursday, but instead just, well, what I said in the post subject line - to share a poem that spoke to me today. I hope it speaks to some of you too. Three Times My Life Has Opened Three times my life has opened. Once, into darkness and rain. Once, into what the body carries at all times within it and starts to remember each time it enters the act of love. Once, to the fire that holds all. These three were not different. You will recognize what I am saying or you will not. But outside my window all day a maple has stepped from her leaves like a woman in love with winter, dropping the colored silks. Neither are we different in what we know. There is a door. It opens. Then it is closed. But a slip of light stays, like a scrap of unreadable paper left on the floor, or the one red leaf the snow releases in March. ~~~Jane Hirshfield "...dropping the colored silks" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) If you want to read more poetry, just follow the links you'll find at Poetry Thursday and find some magic! PS - I owe some replies and some blog visits, but I've hardly been home at all the past couple of days and it's not looking like today will be any different. Just want to say I appreciate everyone who has stopped by and I'll get to some replies and visits SOON - no later than the weekend. Hugs and smoochies! :-)

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #32

2006-11-08T08:53:00.000-05:00

1. I waited until a bit later than usual to post anything today because I wanted to see what the US election results were. I was disappointed in our local results, where a candidate for a county office who (whom?? I can never remember that rule) I really wanted to win was defeated by only ~400 votes (!!!) and our district was one of the few pivotal Congressional races that didn't pull through and vote for a change of leadership. But I'm thrilled with the national results. The voters in most of the rest of the country did a much better job making their dissatisfaction with the current situation known. Yay! 2. And in a more private battlefield known as my living room - Y'all, there is an invasion of spiders in my house and it is Freaking. Me. Right-the-hell-OUT! One of those little buggers HAD to have gotten in here and had babies or something and now there are all these teeeeeeny-tiny little spiders that keep making webs on and around my favorite reading lamp. Did you catch that? My favorite reading lamp, y'all. That's personal. Every day I vacuum up webs and little invaders and I don't much more than turn around and there's more and I can NOT figure out where they're coming from. I'm having horrible paranoid thoughts about the possibility of a nest of some sort lurking in the depths of my couch, but I've vacuumed the parts I can reach and I can't do anything about the parts I can't reach, since I can't exactly literally tear it apart, as that would require buying a new one and I can't afford to do that. And where is the mother?? That thought is making me lose sleep. The little ones are too small to suck off my face in the night unless they team up and cooperate (shudder!) but Where. Is. The. Mother??? I may have to move. 3. Daily Art Thang - photo taken a few weeks ago when the trees still have purrrrty leaves: "Bright Spot" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: Glam, Week 1 - Classic Black and White

2006-11-07T00:13:00.000-05:00

The theme for November's Self-Portrait Challenge is Glam: "Lets ditch those imperfections and go all out GLAM. Yes lets glam it up with some disco, diamonds and glitter. I suggest some gorgeous shots - really over do it on the posing and makeup and dressups and show us the extrovert you." I've been finding this challenge both a lot of fun and also really, well...challenging! I love the part about playing dress-up with fancy clothes and jewelry, and glomming on the make-up. I enjoyed looking for props and back-drops that might be interesting. But I found it was a little tricky to end up with something that I thought said "glam" instead of "aging drag queen." Ahem. Because I've always been a fan of old movies, that's my inspiration this month - classic Hollywood. Each of the portraits I'm doing is inspired in some way by old Hollywood publicity shots or pin-ups. This first week, I'm sharing one that's inspired by an old style of publicity shot that was popular in the 1920's and 1930's. It's one where the subject of the portrait was dressed in black and posed against a black backdrop and the photo was shot in high contrast so that the body virtually disappears into the background and only the face and (sometimes) hands are featured. Check out the examples below of (clockwise from upper left): Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell, Louise Brooks, and Greta Garbo. This technique turned out to be harder to pull off than I thought it would be, but in the end I came up with one I liked. So here is my first Glam SPC: "Self-Portrait in Classic Black and White" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Thanks, and a Nag, and a Tease

2006-11-06T20:35:00.000-05:00

The Thanks BIG thank yous and cyberhugs to everyone who has commented or emailed about my last post. I really appreciate your thoughts and good wishes. It helped me a lot to write all that out. Most of the time I feel like I've dealt with the loss of my mom and I'm doing ok, but every now and then, even all these years later, something comes up - some aspect of the grieving process - that I find I still need to go through. It shouldn't take me by surprise anymore, but sometimes it still does. It just takes as long as it takes. Thank you for not running away when you come here expecting a bit of fun and find me handing you a bleeding chunk of my heart instead. I'm sure that has to be disconcerting. The Nag Now, in a complete change of subject, I want to echo what the lovely Amber said so eloquently in this post - if you are a US citizen, in just a few hours from when I'm posting this, the polls will be open and I want to urge you to get out and vote! The system may not be perfect, but people who came before us (and not so very long ago at that, if you are anyone other than white and male!) protested, were arrested, beaten, and sometimes died to make sure we have the right to make our voices heard on election day. So no excuses, y'all! Even if you're tired, or busy, or you don't feel good, or the weather is crappy, or, Or, OR. Just DO it. VOTE! If you don't vote you have NO right to bitch about the results, IMO. And if you're too disillusioned about the way the voting system works, then get involved in that issue after the election and maybe we can make some changes. The fact that I, as a woman, can vote tomorrow proves that changes can be made if we're willing to fight for them. The Tease RSR regulars will know that tomorrow is Self-Portrait Challenge day. I've taken a slew of photos for this month's challenge, only a few of which you'll end up seeing, but I just have to share this little teaser because it made me smile. For some of these portraits, I decided (in the spirit of trying for "all-out glamour") to wear false eyelashes. From some angles I liked how they looked, but from others they were SO over-the-top 1960's kitschy that I thought they looked hilarious - like I was trying out for a guest role on "I Dream of Jeannie" or something. So here, just for fun, is a little look at my eyes in falsies. See ya tomorrow!

Falling

2006-11-06T00:43:00.000-05:00

Hi y'all. If you'll excuse me for a minute, I need to start this post with a quick message to my brother and sister because I know they read RSR sometimes. Mark, Sandy, if you're reading this at work, don't do it today. Stop and go away and read it at home if you want, but not at work, ok? Thanks. I love you. * * * * * Here's the thing. I've been having a rough time emotionally the past couple of days and I think it's worse because it's taken me by surprise. This coming Sunday will mark 5 years since my mom died, so you might think I'd expect it to be a rocky time of year, but it usually isn't for me. I've had problems with extra portions of grief on her birthday and on mother's day but for whatever reason, the anniversary of her death hasn't been one of the bad times for me - until now. But this year it's hitting me hard. Mostly when I think about Mom, I think about the person I knew most of my life, before she got sick. Sometimes I think of the years after her diagnosis, when she was fighting to beat the odds and living way longer than any doctor thought she would, mostly through sheer willpower. I rarely let myself think of the final days, the ones when both the doctors and Mom decided it was time to stop fighting and get on with the process of dying. But the past couple of days I've been replaying those days in my mind...thinking about where we all were five years ago this week, what we were doing. I remember my mom lying in a hospital bed in the middle of the living room of my parents' house and the stream of visitors who came to see her and tell her goodbye. I remember the last day of her life, and how all our immediate family spent most of the day there. Mom was so groggy and doped up, barely conscious, but I know she took in at least part of what was going on around her. I remember someone saying something about how much she loved her grandkids and how they had her wrapped around their little fingers and Mom opened her eyes - just barely, and smiled - just barely, and managed to lift one hand off the blanket and twirl her finger around. I remember at one point, after most of the family had left and I was sitting beside her bed, she opened her eyes and looked right at me and said "let me go, just let me go" and I told her it was ok to go and she should do what she needed to do, that we'd be ok. I'm not sure I believed it, but I thought it's what she needed to hear. I remember at some point during the night, hearing her calling out, and I remember what a struggle it was for her to get any of her pain meds down because she was having so much trouble swallowing. We finally got her to swallow a dose of morphine tucked inside one tiny bite of pie that one of her friends had brought over earlier that day. She quieted back down a little after that and I dozed off, although Dad never did. He woke me a couple of hours later to tell me she was gone. It was the early hours of the 12th of November, 2001, exactly 5 years and 1 day after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. What I don't remember is large chunks of what happened in the days after that. I know I made some phone calls and went with Dad and Mark and Sandy to do things like choosing a casket and flowers, a grave plot and headstone. I know there was a wake and a funeral. I remember bits and pieces of all that, but there's a lot that's just gone for me, or at least buried so deeply that it's as good as gone. I remember those days in flashes, like scenes from a play that didn't really have very much to do with me. From what people have told me, I think I was very efficient. I seem to have played my part well. Maybe it's good that this date is bringing all this up again. Maybe I need to remember this and try to really live it this time instead of retreating inside my head and playing at handling it while a scared little girl inside cries for her mommy. Maybe it's good, but I don't like it. My heart hurts. "Falling" (clickable)

Little Bits of Fluff

2006-11-05T09:17:00.000-05:00

I had some thoughts running through my head yesterday that had the potential to be a Real Post, but this morning I'm feeling a little oogie and I find I just don't have it in me to dig that deeply into my brain or heart. Sorry. Meanwhile, just so there's something here for the intrepid souls who stopped by on a Sunday, however lame that something might be, here's a gratuitous cute cat shot: "Skybrary" (clickable) I originally took that photo a couple of months ago for the "With Someone" SPC theme and then didn't use it. And here's my traditional Stupid Sunday Quiz:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
The South
The Inland North
The Northeast
Philadelphia
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

They're right about where I'm from - I was, in fact, born in southern Ohio. Although I don't quite have the newscaster "non"-accent they mention after living in Kentucky for so many years, unless newscasters have started saying "y'all" and I haven't noticed. (Which is entirely possible since I detest TV newscasts and prefer to get my news from newspapers or online sources.) I'd be curious what the results would be for someone outside the US taking that quiz, since that person obviously wouldn't actually have any American accent. I wonder what kind the quiz maker would think they had based on their responses. Hhhhmmm... Any of my non-US friends game to try it and tell me your result? For today's DAT, here's a photo I took a couple of weeks ago when the red maple tree in our front yard was in full color. Those orange-red-brown leaves are gone now, as are most of the leaves on the trees in the woods, except for the oak trees. They'll have brown leaves clinging to them well into February. "Red Maple Leaves" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) I hope you've all been having a lovely weekend. I'll hope to be more coherent and somewhat more interesting tomorrow.

A Bunch Of Rather Odd Questions

2006-11-04T00:18:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday. so like it or not, it's time for a meme! (I happen to like it, but sometimes people tell me I'm weird.) This one is courtesy of Kristen. Someone knocks on your door at 2am, who do you want it to be? I want it to be a stray tree branch, or a stray dog, or even a stray little green bug-eyed alien, because any person knocking on my door at 2am has to mean bad news. Your boss tells you he/she will give you a $20 raise if you'll do your job naked. Do you stay and take the raise? I have no boss, but even if I did I can't imagine I'd say yes to that. I'm not saying I can't be had, but I'm not cheap! :-) Put yourself in a nutshell. No. Ever see a ghost? Yes, once. (And I've sensed them without actually seeing them a few times.) Happy with your body? No, I can't really say I'm happy with it, but I'm relatively content with it, despite it's flaws. It's carried me around for so many years now that it would seem mean to hate it just because it's not perfect. A reason to move to Iceland. From photos I've seen, it looks beautiful. Plus I kinda-sorta know someone from online who lives there, so I'd have a potential friend in place. :-) A place you've lived that you miss. The last town we lived in, a little. There was too much of J's family close by, dropping in at all hours without so much as a phone call, but despite that, there was a lot I liked about that town. A job you'd never do, no matter how much you were paid. Taxidermist A band/group you thought was cool when you were 13. Wow, way to make me feel freakin' OLD! When I was 13 it was the mid 1970's, so let's see, who would I have been listening to then? Heart, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Bob Seger...people like that probably. I actually still like all that music. :-) You have a nightmare, who's the first person you think to call? I wouldn't call anyone. I'd just get up and do something else for a while - read a book or something. Wanna have kids before you're 30? Honey, that ship has sailed. In fact, the sails are out of sight over the horizon and it may be about to hit an iceberg. A memory from high school. Sneaking into the principal's office after hours to read my file and see what my teachers had said about me and what my standardized test scores were. Yep, I really did. :-) Ever had a crush on a friend's parent? Nooooo. (Was this meme written by a 14-year-old or what??) Do you look more like your mom or dad? Y'know for years I'd have said I looked more like my dad, but acted more like my mom. But the older I get, the more I see both of them in both my looks and personality. I'd really say it's a toss-up! Something you've always wanted to learn to do. Fly a plane. How you'd like your life to be in 10 years. I'd like all the people I love to still be here and healthy, and I'd like for us all to be happy with ourselves and our lives. If all that is true, then the details of it all don't matter that much to me. Something you learned this year. How to turn off the annoying "greeting" chime on my Olympus camera. (Hey, it may not be profound, but it made me happy as all get-out!) What do you want for your birthday? Oh good grief, I'm SO not ready to think about that yet. I'll get back to you in a few months. Name 4 things you did yesterday. 1. I went out to lunch with J. 2. I did laundry. 3. I went for a walk. 4. I tortured myself by taking lots of photos for the November SPC, most of which turned out to make me look like I'm 113 years old and/or weigh approximately 597 lbs. Bah! (But I got a few that are maybe ok.) Last item you bought yourself? A book. (Ok, actually a few books. Sheesh.) What did you have for breakfast? A bowl of cereal. Black coffee. Name a celeb you crush on. Cary Grant (Hey, you didn't say they had to be alive!) Name the last 3 songs you heard. I have absolutely no idea. J had the radio on earlier and I was halfway listening to it, but I can't tell you what even one of the songs was that I heard, never mind three of them. How many hours of sleep do you get each night? I'm usually good with about 7 hours unless I'm sick, then I need massive amounts of sleep. What do you wish you were doing right now? Well, this I guess. If I wanted to do something else badly enough I'd be doing it. (Unless we want to get into FantasyLand, in which case I'd very much like to be on a tropical island, listening to the ocean, reading a trashy novel and sipping a drink with a little umbrella in it - a drink brought to me by a hot, scantily-dressed young man with a sexy accent. Sigh.) Who's the first person in your phone book on your cell? Arty (aka my friend Martha) Last time you witnessed a fight? A physical fight? I can't tell you exactly, but it's been several years. Argument? Actually I can't tell you that exactly either, but more recently....within the past few months. Name 3 places you'd like to travel to. 1. New Zealand 2. Italy 3. Greece Do you know how to ice skate? No. I've tried it a couple of times, but couldn't get the hang of balancing on such a tiny edge. I have weak ankles and kind of a crappy sense of balance. Name something you like that's out of the ordinary. First tell me what's ordinary, then I'll tell you something I like that isn't. I'm never quite sure what words like "ordinary" and "normal" are supposed to mean. Is bigger really better? Well, gee, that depends ENTIRELY on what one is describing, don't you think!!! What do you think of Brad Pitt? I think he's kind of girly-looking. What color are your toenails. Sparkly coral Do you own anything with a skull on it? Yep Traveled to Europe? No, but I'd sure LOVE to. Last movie you watched? At the cinema - "The Departed" On DVD - "Click" Where were you when you had your first kiss? In a car in my parents' driveway. Last board game you played? Pictionary (I think...and assuming that's considered a board game) Leather or lace? Leather. I'm not into lace at all, except occasionally on lingerie. Ever had a black eye? No, thank goodness! Have you ever worn fishnet stockings? Yep Wow, that was kind of a weird one, but still fun to do. If anyone else wants to do it, just leave me a comment saying you're tagging yourself so I can go see your answers, ok? Thanks! Here's today's Daily Art Thang, an extreme close-up of a section of an oak-leaf hydrangea's leaf: "Rift" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #31

2006-11-03T08:22:00.000-05:00

1. Yesterday afternoon I started trying to take a few Glam photos for the November Self-Portrait Challenge. Oy. Really, just...Oy. And maybe Ack. This isn't going to be easy. 2. Look at what I saw on the floor the other day when the sun was hitting a suncatcher just right: Pretty, yes? What's weird is that the suncatcher is in the dining room window and this was all the way over here on the library floor where I wouldn't have figured the colors could reach. There's probably something a bit profound buried in that thought, but I'm not sure what it is because I haven't finished my first cup of coffee yet. 3. I was excited to discover the other day that Lexington is about to get its very own Half-Price Book Store! YAY!! I love that store and always try to go when I visit Cincinnati. It's such a great place to find older stuff that's no longer carried in new book stores, or to try new-to-me authors on the cheap. Now, not only is one about to open in Lexington (which is 25 miles closer to me than Cincy), but it is located right next door to Off-Broadway Shoe Warehouse (aka Shoe Mecca). Double-YAY! They were open to buy last time I was in town, but weren't selling yet, which was just painful, as they had some stuff there that I'd been looking for and that stuff will probably be gone when I go back. It's almost enough to make me consider going back for their grand opening day next week, despite the fact that I usually avoid grand opening sales like I'd avoid plague-ridden door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen. Hhhmmmm.... 3b. Speaking of stores I love, I wonder if I'd still be so hooked on Target if we had one closer or if I'd get used to them and not want to grab everything I see when I walk in the doors?! Last time I was in a Target in Lexington, I kept grabbing stuff and going "ooooooohhhh" and throwing it in the cart and then I'd think "no, Deb, you don't need that" and I'd put it back. I do that ALL the time when I go there. I must look insane. In the end, the stuff I kept included this hat: (crappy photo, sorry) and these socks: The black things are cat-shaped jingle bells I cut off them. I loved the color and feel of the socks, but I didn't particularly want jingly ankles. Maybe I'll reuse them on something crafty. (I almost typed "something crappy" which might actually have been oddly appropriate. Ahem.) 4. Look at the roses J rescued from a rain storm a couple of days ago: He said they were the last ones out there except one and it was too far gone to pick. It always makes me a little sad when the last of the roses die for the year. After the rain ended I went out and took a photo of that rose too and that's today's Daily Art Thang. "Last Rose of '06" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) 5. If you have such a surplus of time on your hands that you want to waste some (or you are just unable to resist a challenge! Not that I'd know anything about that. Ahem.), Here is a link to a game, courtesy of my friend Bev. My goal was to finish in 33 seconds, but the best I was ever able to do is this: Good enough. I'm done now. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Poetry Thursday: Words that Dance in my Head

2006-11-02T08:36:00.000-05:00

That's the prompt at Poetry Thursday this week - "words that dance in your head." Then we're asked to explain why those words resonate with us and to perhaps use them as a jumping-off point to another poem. I love the phrase "words that dance in your head." THOSE words dance in mine. Thank you to Melba for suggesting it. The poem I immediately thought of when I read the prompt is one of my all-time favorites and one of the first ones I ever posted for Poetry Thursday - "High Flight." (Click on the link if you want to read the whole poem.) That poem makes me feel as if I should be able to just lift off and fly, but I think the section that dances in my head more than any other in the poem would be these lines: Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; and these: Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew - I love that poem so much that it even inspired me to do a series of altered book pages a few years ago, based on both "High Flight" and the song "Born to Fly" (which, in itself, inspired me to write a poem a few months ago). That poem makes me think not only of the joy of flight, but of the courage of aviation pioneers who really were daring to go where no one had gone before (cue Star Trek theme song...heh), especially of the women pioneers who had to fly in the face of what was considered "proper" for a lady. (Pun intended!) There were people like Edith Berg, who became the first American woman to fly as a passenger in an airplane, soaring for two minutes and seven seconds. Or Raymonde de LaRoche who, in 1910, received the very first pilot's license awarded to a woman. There was Harriet Quimby, the glamour girl of flying in her day, who was the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel. She accomplished that in April of 1912, just 3 months before she plunged to her death in an aviation accident. In 1921, Bessie Coleman became the first African American - male or female - to be issued a pilot's license. Then there was Jacqueline Cochran, who went from being a hairdresser to being one of the most accomplished women in aviation history. At the time of her death in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any male or female pilot in aviation history. And of course, no list of female aviation pioneers would be complete without Amelia Earhart, who set several records and then disappeared while attempting to fly around the world. She also wrote this poem: Courage Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace, The soul that knows it not, knows no release From little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear; Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear The sound of wings. How can Life grant us boon of living, compensate For dull grey ugliness and pregnant hate Unless we dare The soul's dominion? Each time we make a choice, we pay With courage to behold the restless day, And count it fair. ~~~Amelia Earhart The final lines of that poem dance in my head too. Today's Daily Art Thang is a more distant view of the same barn I showed in yesterday's post. "Autumn Barn 2" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) You can find links to more words that might dance in your head here.

Fabulously Glamourous? We'll see

2006-11-01T00:43:00.000-05:00

When I posted my final Self-Portrait Challenge entry for October yesterday, I didn't yet know what the theme was going to be for November. But now it's been announced - GLAM! Kath says "I suggest some gorgeous shots - really over do it on the posing and makeup and dressups and show us the extrovert you." She goes on to suggest taking inspiration from sources like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Glam Rockers like David Bowie, and while I think those ideas sound fun I have to say I'm more inspired by the thought of a slightly more classic glamour - an old-fashioned Hollywood style perhaps. Either way, I'm excited at the idea of tackling this theme, but not because I think it will be easy. I don't. I think it will be as difficult in its own way as the Imperfection theme was. It can be hard sometimes to find beauty in ourselves and to truly SEE it and own it without feeling like we're bragging or being conceited. But beyond that, I find it intriguing that we're not even being asked to look for beauty exactly, but to create glamour. There is a difference. Here's how Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster define "glamour:" 1 : a magic spell 2 : an exciting and often illusory and romantic attractiveness Those definitions make me think of the brief Dove video that's been making the rounds of the 'net, where real beauty might be defined as the model's lovely eyes or the dramatic arch of her brows, the shape of her cheekbones or her pretty smile; while glamour would be the illusory attractiveness of her appearance after professional make-up, hairstyling, flattering lighting, and creative post-photo editing have worked their magic spell. I don't know if Kath meant us to get all philosophical about it or not, but that's where my thoughts are taking me. I haven't decided exactly what I'll do for this challenge yet, but I have some ideas and I figure I'll play around a bit with those ideas later this week. Who knows what I'll come up with. Whether I succeed in finding the proper spell to make myself glamourous or not, it should be fun to try. I always did like playing dress-up! For today's Daily Art Thang I'm sharing a photo of a neighbor's barn. It's one I see every day from the curve of my driveway and I've always thought it was a lovely view in a very Kentucky-ish sort of way. I've taken oodles of photos of it over the years, trying to capture the view the way my eyes see it and I don't feel I've ever truly succeeded in doing that, but the photo below comes closer than many of my efforts. "Autumn Barn" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: Imperfection, Week 5 - Goofball

2006-10-31T00:21:00.000-05:00

Do my eyes deceive me? After a month that has lasted approximately 11,847 days, can it truly be the LAST Tuesday in October?? It is, it really IS! And that means it's the last week of October's Self-Portrait Challenge theme of Imperfection. Yay! So, what one last horrid flaw should I share during this Paean to Flawed Humanity? Here it is - the sad truth. (You should maybe sit down because I think you'll be shocked. Or not.) Y'all, I'm not cool. I'm not dignified, or regal, or sophisticated. I am, in fact, a big ol' dorky goofball. I'm someone who, when she sees her 17-year-old niece wearing extra-long blue-and-silver false eyelashes doesn't think, "how silly" but instead thinks "oooh, I wants me some of those!" I'm someone who would grab those eyelashes off the table when said niece takes them off and would put them on herself and would then try to wink, despite the fact that I can't actually make my facial muscles create a proper wink. I can sort of close one eye if I squint the other one ALMOST closed and screw my face up into an unattractive grimace, but I don't think that's really winking. I'm someone who, when her sister grabs a camera and says "hey, hold up your wine glass and give us a thumbs up," doesn't think "well, no, that would look stupid" but instead says "Duuuuh, Okay!" and then posts the resultant photo on the internet. Aha, wine, you may be thinking. So this is like one of those drunks wearing a lampshade moments, right? Wrong. I had not yet finished even one glass of wine when this photo was taken. I wasn't drunk. I wasn't even slightly buzzed. This is just who I am. I hope I'm still allowed to appear in public now that I've revealed this terrible imperfection. Ahem. "Self-portrait as a Goofball" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) PS - Those of you who saw last Tuesday's SPC post, take note of the bruise just under my watch band - "a little clumsy," remember? And nope, I have no clue where or how I got that.

October Bliss List

2006-10-30T00:29:00.000-05:00

It's Bliss List time again! Here are some things that have been making me feel Blissful in October:

The colors of autumn leaves
New shoes that fit like comfy old friends from the first time I tried them on
Getting to see my niece and nephew on their Homecoming weekend
Flannel sheets (cozy!)
My new camera! (I know I went on and on about it last month, but I have to say it again. I'm having so much fun with it!)
Celebrating the anniversary of my husband's grand entrance on Planet Earth (aka Johnny's birthday!)
Lazy Daisy cake - first time I've made it in ages. Yum! (I was inspired by a post on my friend Morven's blog)
"The Thirteenth Tale" - fabulous book!!
Hot soup on cool nights (Yum again!)

"October Bliss" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) What's making you feel blissful this month?

Of Stats, and OPBP*, and Quizzes, and Stuff

2006-10-29T00:09:00.000-04:00

(*OPBP = Other People's Blog Posts) Stats I've had several people ask how I found the keywords people used to find my blog - the ones I talked about in this post. I answered in the comments for that post, but because I know a lot of people don't go back and read the comments (or never read them in the first place!) I'll talk about it here too. I would think if you're using a pay service (like Typepad) to host your blog it should include access to your stats, but if you're using a freebie like Blogger, you won't find your stats there. (Ya gets what ya pay for!) You have to add a little bit of code to your blog template to collect the information. I use Stat Counter. I know several other people who have had good luck with SiteMeter. Both are free for the basic no-frills service and both are pretty simple to install into your template and give you insight into lots of interesting information about where people are coming from and what they're looking for when they find your blog or website. And don't we all need something new to obsess over? Ahem. OPBP I wanted to share a couple (ok, THREE, if you want to be picky about it) things that caught my eye on other blogs the past couple of days because some of you might find them interesting too. If you want to read a really good rant you can go HERE, where The Zero Boss talks about NBC refusing to air a commercial for a documentary about free speech. Yep, I know...the mind boggles. If you check it out, be SURE to read the comments too, where commenter Francesca (Stuntmother) writes the best curse I've ever seen - EVER. It should be put on a t-shirt or coffee mug or something. Or, in the category of silly-but-fun, you can go HERE where the writer has put a great deal of thought into analyzing who would win in a space fight between Serenity and the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. I have to say, I agree with most of it. (And yes, I realize that the fact that I think this is worthy of thought proves that I'm a big ol' dorky GEEK. Heh.) Or, for still kind of silly, but fascinating (at least to me) reading, you can go HERE, (a site I found courtesy of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books), and read the results of a challenge issued by Wired Magazine for writers to write a 6-word story. Yep, you read that correctly - six words. They had submissions by several writers including Margaret Atwood, Joss Whedon, Gregory Maguire, Neil Gaimon, Kevin Smith, and many more. My personal favorite was by Margaret Atwood: "Longed for him. Got him. Shit." Are any of you up for writing a whole story in six words? Here's mine: "Flew to Mars. Spaceship crashed. Oops." Quiz of the Week I should probably skip this part, but it's Sunday and Sunday is Quiz Day. It's a tradition, dammit!

You Are From Neptune

You are dreamy and mystical, with a natural psychic ability. You love music, poetry, dance, and (most of all) the open sea. Your soul is filled with possibilities, and your heart overflows with compassion. You can be in a room full of friendly people and feel all alone. If you don't get carried away with one idea, your spiritual nature will see you through anything.

What Planet Are You From?

Stuff Stuff, in this case, being today's DAT, a photo I took of my dog Riley while I was partway up a tree and she was looking at me like I was nuts: "Please Don't Let That Woman Fall On Me" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) I'm off to Fall Back into bed now. See you on the other side!

A List of Firsts

2006-10-28T00:32:00.000-04:00

If it's Saturday, it must be MemeDay. I got this one from Bee. 1. Who was your first love? His name was Jimmy and we were both 5 years old. We would say "I love you" to each other and steal kisses on the merry-go-round at kindergarten recess. He told me we were going to get married when we grew up. Liar! :-D 2. Who was your first kiss and when? Not counting Jimmy and the merry-go-round? His name was Danny and I was, hhhmmm...14 I think. (Weird bit of trivia - almost every boyfriend I ever had, up to and including my husband, had a name that started with either a J or a D. Very strange!) 3. Who was your first prom date? I never went to a prom. I went to a school where it was against the rules to dance. Yep, just like this movie! (I LOVED that movie. I still kind of do.) 4. Who was your first room mate? Her name was Carol. We only roomed together one semester, my first year of college. She was nice, but we had very different personalities and ended up hanging with totally different crowds and both moved on to other roomies pretty quickly. 5. What was your first job? Very first - babysitting. Then in college I worked for the admissions office during the school year (first two years, then for the college art gallery the second two years) and flipped burgers during the summer. (Bleah. I remember always smelling like grease and onions, no matter how much I showered!) 6. What was your first car? An AMC Concord. Real glam, yes? Ha! I loved that car, though. It was the first big purchase I ever made by myself. (My dad was with me and gave me advice, but I chose it and worked out the deal.) 7.When did you go to your first funeral? The first one I remember going to was for my uncle (Mom's older brother) who died quite young. He was only...hhmm...37 or 38 I think, and died of complications from heart surgery to correct a congenital defect. I must've been around 13 or so. (If I went to any before that, I don't remember them.) 8. How old were you when you first moved away from your hometown? That would be when I went away to college. I was 17. 9. Who was your first grade teacher? Mrs. Hammons. I detested her and the feeling was mutual. 10. Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane? Washington DC. I was 11 years old. I LOVED it!!! 11. Where did you go for your first date and who was it with? I was 13, my date's name was Doug. Neither of us was old enough to drive, but we went on a double date with our friends Pam and Mike - he was 16. We went out to dinner - very tame. 12. When you snuck out of your house for the first time, who was it with? I'm not sure I ever DID sneak out of my house. I stayed out so late that I had to sneak back into my dorm after hours in college a few times. (I went to a private school and there was a curfew.) Unless you're my dad reading this and then - Hahahaaa, Dad, just kidding! I studied hard every night and then went to sleep by 11:00 PM. REALLY! Ahem. 13.Who was your first best friend and are you still friends with them? Debra H. We're almost exactly the same age and our moms were good friends, so they threw us together from the time we were infants. We were friends pretty much all through elementary school, but no, I wouldn't say we're friends anymore. We never had a falling out, we just gradually grew up and apart into different lives, but we're friendly when we occasionally run into each other. The last time I saw her was 5 years ago, when she and her mom came to my mom's wake. 14. Who was the first person to send you flowers? I've had people send me flowers over the years but I'm not sure who did it first. Probably some boyfriend or other, and his name probably started with a J or a D. Heh. 15. Where did you live the first time you moved out of your parents house? College dorm room. 16. Who is the first person you call when you have a bad day? My husband, unless he's the one causing the bad day. :-) 17. Whose wedding were you in the first time you were a bridesmaid or a groomsmen? If you include flower girl in that, I was a flower girl for my mom's cousin, Charlotte, when I was around 5 years old (give or take a year or so). (Edited to add: Y'know the more I look at that photo, the more I think I must've been more like 7 years old. My brother looks 4-ish in that and I'm three years older. Funny the tricks memory will play on you - I'd have sworn I was 5 when I was in that wedding!) But the first time I was actually a bridesmaid was for a high school friend of mine named Gleah. We were way out of high school by then though. We were both around 24 or 25 at the time she got married. Dig my big, blonde, '80's hair! 18. What is the first thing you do in the morning? Open my eyes and say hello to the husband, dog, or cat who has caused me to leave my blissful slumber. As usual, if you want to steal this meme, just tell me so in comments and you can consider yourself "officially" tagged! Here's today's Daily Art Thang. Don't bother reading anything profound into the title. I'm being quite literal - this is the view of the railroad tracks looking the other way from yesterday's DAT. "Looking the Other Way" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

You Found Me HOW?

2006-10-27T00:34:00.000-04:00

I know lots of bloggers have written posts about keyword searches that lead people to their blogs, but I never have - until today. Most of the time I don't even think to check to see how people got here! But today, inspired by a recent post by Dragonfly, I decided to take a look at the keyword analysis for Red Shoe Ramblings and tell you what I found. In the past couple of days, these have been the most popular searches used to find my blog: 10. Redhead L'Oreal Um, yep. That would describe me all right. Did you have a question? 9. 80's Clothes and Hair Oh dear. Must we go there? MUST we??? It appears we must. Did anyone else notice how Danielle (Bree's daughter) looked on this past Sunday's episode of Desperate Housewives? Big, curly hair, HUGE earrings, a big-shouldered striped t-shirt, skinny pants. I'm tellin' ya, she could've wandered straight from that episode into pretty much any '80's teen flick you can think of and she'd have looked right at home. I'm thinking any day now it'll be time to buy a pair of scrunchy ankle boots and start wearing some of J's fishing lures on my ears. 8. When do spiders go dormant? I don't think they do. I think the sneaky little hairy-legged, multi-eyed bastards just move inside and try to make nests in places I don't want to think about while waiting for their chance to suck my face off while I sleep. I swear one built a mansion of a web in ONE night in my dining room window this week! (...shudder...) 7. frizz ease ethics In my opinion, if easing your frizz makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone, then it's ethical. But hey, you're entitled to your own opinion. I never claimed to be a philosopher. 6. Rent character analysis Mimi Mimi is a needy, wounded, girl-child in a woman's body who almost self-destructs by trying to fill her emotional void with drugs and sex. But she has a heart of gold and a couple of really good musical numbers. Next! 5. Lollipop guild munchkin shoes Really? With all the beautiful shoes in the world, you really want to know what the lollipop guild guys were wearing on their feet??? Wow, I don't even want to see inside your mind. Sorry, no help here, although if you click on that last link you might find what you're looking for. Maybe it's for a Halloween costume. Yeah, that's it...I'm going to believe you only want to know how to put together a Lollipop Guild Munchkin Halloween costume. Whew! 4. Playing in my head earworm Oh man, do I ever know where YOU'RE coming from! I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. Oh hell, I'll tell you first! I've had "Kiss" by Prince in my head for two solid freakin' WEEKS. I've tried thinking of other songs and it doesn't work. I've even tried thinking of other Prince songs, hoping it would sort of wean me away from hearing the exact same one over and over. Nope. Not even Little Red Corvette can drive away his Kiss. "You don't have to be rich to be my girl. You don't have to be cool to rule my world. Ain't no particular sign I'm more compatible with, I just want your extra time and your....KISS!" There, is it in your head now too? You're welcome. 3. Fabric Postcards Wow, kinda cool that this is number three. When I think to check, it's usually number one on my search list. I'm glad people like it, but it's nice when people visit for some other reason than the infamous fabric postcard instructions. I've had about 40 bazillion hits on that thing in the past year (rounded up to the nearest bazillion). If I'd had any idea when I wrote that post that it would turn out to be so popular, I would NOT have gone out of my way to point out my stubby, unpolished fingernails in one of the photos! And I might have chosen a wine that actually went with the chocolate instead of just grabbing a pretty bottle out of my pantry. Ahem. 2. Grey's Anatomy footwear Ooooh, do you mean those fabulous red stillettos they show in the opening credits?? Those are HOT! Sadly, you will not find them here. And if I had them, I wouldn't share. I would put them on a pedestal in some flattering lighting, and admire them daily, and show them to visitors (as long as they promised not to touch!), and only take them down now and then for naughty games with my husband. (Was that Too Much Information?) And the most popular search to find my blog this week: 1. How to crochet a scarf Oh dear. Oh, you poor, poor people who are evidently being led to this post. I hope I haven't scarred you for life. Here's a bit of advice from Auntie Deb. If you want to know how to crochet a scarf, it might be a good idea to click on links that actually describe the finished object as a "scarf" instead of clicking on a link that describes how to make a "scarf-like object." I'm just sayin'. In the future, if anyone does a search for "blonde with cleavage" they're going to find this DAT, not because it has anything to do with blondes or boobage, but because I'm warped and find the thought of it amusing. "Blonde (trees) with Cleavage" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Poetry Thursday: a Poem for an October Night

2006-10-26T00:34:00.000-04:00

Rather than following the prompt for Poetry Thursday, I decided to post a poem that I ran across a few months ago and liked. I remember thinking at the time that it didn't feel right to post it then. It felt like an autumn sort of poem. So I'm going to share a portion of it now. It's called "Witch" and is written by Jean Tepperman. It's a long one and I'm only going to share the last third or so of it here, but if you want to read the poem in it's entirety you can find it on this website or in the book "Ain't I a Woman!" a selection from: Witch ...They built screens and room dividers to hide unsightly desire sixteen years old raw and hopeless they buttoned me into dresses covered with pink flowers. They waited for me to finish then continued the conversation. I have been invisible, weird and supernatural. I want my black dress. I want my hair curling wild around me. I want my broomstick from the closet where I hid it. Tonight I meet my sisters in the graveyard. Around midnight if you stop at a red light in the wet city traffic, watch for us against the moon. We are screaming, we are flying, laughing, and won't stop. ~~~Jean Tepperman Here's another shadow portrait for today's Daily Art Thang: "Autumn Shadow 2" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

So "Bird Brain" may not be an Insult!

2006-10-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

If you could magically transform yourself into an animal for an hour or so - a once in a lifetime thing just to see how that animal experiences the world - would you do it? I've always thought I'd want to try being a bird and be able to soar above the earth to see how much it feels like my flying dreams. But a recent article in Parade magazine gave me one more reason to think it would be cool to see through a bird's eyes for just a little while:

For the best sight, we need a bird's-eye view. Some birds have at least four types of color receptors. "We can't possibly imagine how incredibly colorful the world is to birds' eyes," says Scott Lanyon, professor of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. "For every color that we perceive, birds can see multiple distinct colors. Relative to birds, we humans are all color-blind."

Of course it might be hard to go back to being virtually color-blind after that, but still, what an experience that would be! What about you - if you answered yes to the first question in this post, what animal would you want to become for an hour and why? Here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Autumn Shadow" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: Imperfection, Week 4 - Too White (and a little clumsy)

2006-10-24T00:02:00.000-04:00

Another week, another flaw. That's the story of the Self-Portrait Challenge in October. So what's the flaw I'm sharing this week? I'm white. Oh, I'm not white like snow, or styrofoam cups, or albino bunnies. But I'm way toward the pale end of that peachy-beige sort of color commonly known as "white" when used to describe skintones. What, you don't think there's anything inherently wrong with being white? Yeah, that's what I think too, but it turns out that in the eyes of modern society a person can be "too white." Most of my ancestors came from the cool, misty northern regions of Europe where there wasn't a lot of reason for genetics to favor the production of melanin. In other words, I was born to be pale and to not have a lot of tanning capacity. But still, I can't tell you how many times people have taken one look at me in the summer sun and exclaimed, "You're so WHITE!" I've heard references to cave dwellers, vampires, fish bellies, ghosts, and things that glow in the dark. Ironically, as recently as a few decades ago milk-pale skin was considered fashionable and highly prized in most Western cultures. Women who had it guarded it carefully, while those who tanned easily covered up in the sun and used lemon juice (or even more caustic substances) to try to bleach out unwanted color and look more like their paler sisters. But somewhere along the way, lifestyles and fashions changed. Creamy-white was Out and Coppertone-tan was In. For years, I was certain this was a "flaw" I could overcome. As a teenager, I spent hours in the sun, coated in baby oil, in the quest for the golden-brown shade society considered perfect. And I burned. And peeled. And burned again. And peeled again. I shudder to think now of all the damage I did to my skin trying for something I could never really achieve. And then there were the tanning beds I tried in my early twenties. Because yeah, THAT'S a good idea for an extremely pale woman - strip down to your skivvies and lay in a coffin-shaped box while allowing yourself to be bombarded with ultraviolet radiation. If they'd offered barium-laced cocktails on the side it could've been almost like a post-apocalyptic spa day. After that I tried some tan in a bottle stuff and, while I wasn't happy with the results, at least that's not permanently damaging (as far as we know...ahem). I consider it to be akin to coloring my hair or trying colored contact lenses - temporary and fairly benign. But still, eventually I wondered why I was even bothering with that. Why was I letting other people tell me that a darker skin tone is prettier, or healthier-looking, or automatically "better" than the skin I was born with? It makes no more sense to me than the futile practice of generations of women trying to bleach out darker skin. Isn't it more important for my skin to be healthy and to look good with my hair and eye color? That's what I ultimately decided anyway. So now if someone decides to point out my dreadful flaw by saying to me "omigosh, you're so WHITE" I just smile and say "thank you." Oh yeah, and here's a little bonus flaw. See the boo-boo on my leg? I have no idea how I got that. I'm so used to bumping into things that I seldom even pay attention when it happens. I absent-mindedly say "ow" and go on with whatever I'm doing, and then later I see a scratch or bruise and think "Wow, that looks like it must've hurt. Wonder when/where/how I did it." Heh. "Too White (and a little clumsy)" (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

It's All About the Colors, Baby!

2006-10-23T00:03:00.000-04:00

Quilty Colors Hhmmm, should I have told you to sit down before I said the Q-word? Well don't get too excited, I'm not working on anything major, but I did do a little sewing recently(ish). Remember I was meeting my friend Nancy for her birthday lunch this past Friday? Well I came bearing gifts. A group of us gave her a quilt block shower. We made enough blocks to give her one for each year of her life. (I won't say how many that was because I didn't ask if I could. Ahem.) All of them were blue and yellow star blocks and here are the ones I made: Maybe when she uses them all to make a quilt one of these days she'll let me post a photo of it. How about it, Nan? Artsy Colors After we had lunch, Nancy and I went to an exhibit of Impressionist art at the U.K. Art Museum. (In this case U.K. would be University of Kentucky, not United Kingdom.) Wish I could show you photos of some of what we saw, but of course they don't allow cameras. Check out what I bought at the gift shop though - light switch covers decopauged with bits of art prints. Cool, yes? The one with the Mucha print (on the left) is now in our library (aka 'puter room, aka studio), while the Gauguin one on the right is now in the kitchen. Autumn Colors And finally, for a few of you who have been asking to see what the fall colors look like here in Kentucky, here are some photos I took on the drive home - literally. I had the camera along and every now and then I just held it up and aimed it toward the front windshield or side window of the car and snapped, just to see what I'd get. The colors are a bit muted this year, especially since Friday was overcast, but here's a little photo series of my drive home from Lexington. The last couple are my Daily Art Thangs and all the photos on this post are clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window. On Paris Pike where a lot of the huge multi-million dollar horse farms (estates!) are. Not that you can see any of them in this shot, but trust me, they're here. If you look at the larger version, over on the far left of the photo you can just barely see the edge of one of the dry stone fences that are all over this part of the country. Ok, so it isn't exactly the Eiffel Tower, but it's a tower, it says "Paris," and I thought the trees at the base were pretty. On a stretch of road knows as Pleasant Valley. (You really should click this one and see it larger. The light was kind of cool.) Ok, even if you click the larger version you won't see much more than a tiny white speck, and in this smaller version you pretty much just have to take it on faith, but from the ridge I was driving on you JUST can see our house on another ridge in the distance. Also, check out the road curving away in the mirror in the lower left corner of the photo. Pretty nifty, eh? "Country Road" Just after you turn onto the road I live on, this is what you see. And yes, the road is just as narrow as it looks in this photo. It's about a lane and a half and if you meet another vehicle you both have to slow down and squeeeeze over until one set of tires is just off the edge of the road. Unless you meet here, where there IS no edge on one side and then someone has to back up. "Country Road 2" This is the view just past the end of our driveway - the last thing you'd see before you start up the hill to our house. Hope you enjoyed the autumn drive!

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #30

2006-10-22T10:10:00.000-04:00

1. I heard about this website from Corky: Bizarre American Holidays. I hate the site design (it was evidently designed by someone who does NOT have middle-aged eyes that appreciate some contrast between text and background!), but it's a fun place to poke around. I discovered that J shares his birthday with Virus Appreciation Day and I share my birthday with Buzzard's Day AND Everything You Think Is Wrong Day. Who knew?? Not me, obviously, because everything I think is wrong. What amazingly bizarre holiday shares your special day? 2. I got a pair of these pens in the mail the other day after hearing about them from the fabulous Mir on Want Not and I like them! They feel nice in my hand and they write smoothly. But of course the thing I like very best about them is that I get to walk around the Bible belt using this pen in the post office, bank, grocery store, etc. and watching people do a double take if they notice that the pen says www.penisland.net on the side. I've always known I have a very active Inner Child, but it's only in recent years that I've come to realize that perhaps my Inner Child is a nine-year-old boy who appreciates fart jokes. 3. I took the quiz below because Chief Biscuit dared me to. I have to say, while I think the "score" is pretty accurate, I think the write-up about it is silly. Who says we're supposed to completely change our lives every ten years? I'm thinking the goal is to change what needs changing and keep the good parts, yes? Ah well...silly quiz writer!

You've Changed 40% in 10 Years

Ah, the past! You may not remember it well - because you're still living in it. While you've changed some, you may want to update your wardrobe, music collection and circle of friends.

How Much Have You Changed in 10 Years?

4. Here's today's Daily Art Thang - a photograph I took a few weeks ago in a nearby small town. I love the whimsy of the tinsel star on top of this tower, presumably put up for Christmas some year or other and just never taken down. Here's both the straightforward version of the photo and one I messed with. "Star Tower" "Neon Star Tower" (both are clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window)

A Saturday Meme Thing

2006-10-21T09:09:00.000-04:00

I'll share more about my girly day out soon-ish, but for today, it's the weekend and I'm running late getting something posted and feeling lazy, so I'm falling back on one of my stand-bys for these sorts of days - Ye Olde Meme. I got this one from Amber, Susannah, and Kristen. What is your idea of perfect happiness? A day spent with people I love, doing things I love. (Or is it a day spent with things I love doing people I love? Naaahhh...) What is your greatest fear? I'm not going to say. I'll talk about my normal everyday sorts of fears all you want, but I'm very superstitious about talking about the big ones, and in particular of putting them in writing. Dwelling on them feels to me like I'm inviting those very things in to my life. (Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts~~~~~) What is your favorite journey? The one to someplace I've never been What do you consider the most over-rated virtue? Chastity (That was Susannah's answer and I'm keeping it because I agree.) What virtue do you wish you had more of? Moderation. I truly believe in the saying "All things in moderation, including moderation" but I'm not very good at it. I tend more toward an all-or-nothing sort of attitude toward things. On what occasion do you lie? When I think the truth will do more harm than good and I don't have the option of remaining silent. Which words do you most over use? Really, totally, very, actually (I'm very attached to my modifiers!) What is your greatest extravagance? Books! I should use the library more, but I want to OWN them, dammit. What do you dislike about your appearance? For most of my life I'd have said my never-flat stomach, but in the past few years I think the toll gravity is taking on my face is bothering me more. Clever dressing can help camouflage an overly-round belly, but puppet lines forming around my mouth and a sagging jawline are just out there for all the world to see. Which living person do you most despise? I agree with Kristen - there's a special place in hell for pedophiles. (I don't even believe in Hell in the Biblical sense, but pedophiles almost make me hope there is such a place.) What is your greatest regret? I don't regret much, but if I could have a talk with my teenage self, I'd tell her not to worry so much about being "good" - trying to be what people thought she should be. When I was younger, I spent so much time and energy on that, that when I did break loose now and then I did some things that, looking back on them, were just plain stupid. I'm luckier than I probably deserve that nothing bad came of those times. So I'd tell my younger self to spend less energy on being "good" and more energy on being smart! What or who is the greatest love of your life? My husband, the rest of my family, books, art. When and where were you happiest? I don't know. I've had lots of happy days in my life, but no one thing stands out to me as THE happiest. Which talent would you most like to have? I'd love to have a really fabulous singing voice. What is your current state of mind? Lazy (Hey, it's Saturday morning!) If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? My mom would still be alive. If you could die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be? Well, I wouldn't want to come back as a "thing" so it would have to be a person! But I don't know of a specific one - someone who is happy and loving, and who lives a good life. What is your most treasured possession? My photo albums stuffed full of memories What thing would you like to have, that you do not? Enough money for my husband to retire now instead of years from now and for us to travel What do you think is the lowest depth of misery? Grief, in any shape or form (This is another of Susannah's answers that I'm keeping) What is the quality you most like in a man? Kindness, intelligence, passion, integrity, humor, an adventurous spirit (I know that's more than one quality - so sue me!) What physical quality do you like in a man? Tall, beautiful eyes, a great smile, and I kind of have a thing for both dimples and sexy forearms (and I can't tell you what defines "sexy" for me in regard to that part of the body, I just know it when I see it!) What do you most value in friends? Kindness, humor, intelligence, integrity What quality do you most dislike in a person? Being two-faced (Or as a friend of mine says - Don't smile in my face while you're pissing down my leg!) Who are your favorite writers? WAY too many to list them all, but some that come to mind would be Jane Austen, Charles deLint, Dean Koontz, Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters Who are your heroes in real life? People who live through experiences most of us can't imagine and not only survive but somehow find a way to use those experiences - that survival - as a source of strength What are your favorite names? I like old-fashioned names, things like Lily, Rose, Grace, Elizabeth, Adam, David, John, William How would you like to die? I'd like it to be one extreme or the other - either slipping quietly away in my sleep or being right in the middle of doing some fabulous adventure, like having a heart attack during a Senior Citizen parachute jump or something. Either way I'd prefer it to be several years from now. :-) What is your motto? "Reality is fine in small doses, but as a lifestyle it's much too confining." (Lily Tomlin) If any of you want to do this meme and haven't already, let me know in comments (assuming Blogger lets you, that is...gggrrrrr) and you can consider yourself "officially" tagged. Here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Bluebird Box" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

A Glimpse of my World

2006-10-20T00:15:00.000-04:00

The earlier gentle days of autumn have turned to the sort of days that can make a woman have to fish her bra out of a tree. EvilDemonKittySky continues to let me know my place in the universe. My husband has interrupted his latest remodeling project (an addition to the garage) to head south for a few days to talk some sense into some factory's machine. And I'm off to meet my friend Nancy for lunch and a visit to an art exhibit. (Yay!) How's your week been? Today's DAT: "Nail Bucket" (most of these photos, including this one, are clickable if you want to see them larger) Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, Nancy!

2006-10-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

Since I post something almost every day, I seldom post more than once in a day, but this time I had to pop on to give a shout out to my friend Nancy, who is celebrating one of the big "ends in a 0" birthdays today. Hope you have a wonderful day and a wonderful year, Nan!

Poetry Thursday: Avoiding the Past

2006-10-19T00:57:00.000-04:00

This week on Poetry Thursday, the prompt for the week is to spend time with poetry we normally avoid. This idea was submitted by Michelle and here's what she had to say about it: "I'm sure we all have those poets/time periods/genres we avoid. I usually try to stay away from anything written before the twentieth century. Why? Because I've made myself believe I can't understand it; that it's too difficult. Some of us may avoid love poems because they're too mushy..." There's more and you can read it at the Poetry Thursday blog, but I quoted that part because Michelle has described exactly the type of poetry I tend to avoid. My favorite poems tend to be quirky and to have a humorous edge, even if the humor is dark (maybe even especially if the humor is dark). I have a tendency to avoid poems that take themselves very seriously, and poems that are extremely flowery and sentimental ("mushy!"). I quite often avoid poems more than 100 years old because either I expect them to be preachy or sickeningly sweet, or because the language seems old-fashioned and difficult to understand and I don't always feel like taking the time to work my way through the lines and really THINK about what the poet was saying. (Lazy, Deb, very lazy!) But this prompt seemed like a really good idea to me, so I went to the poetry section of my bookshelves and pulled off a volume I rarely open - "The Oxford Book of English Verse." I have no memory whatsoever of where I acquired this book. It might have been something I kept from my parents' things when we helped Dad clean out the house after Mom died, or it might have been something I picked up at a flea market or yard sale for some reason. (I'm prone to odd impulse buys at those places!) It's not a very large volume (about 8 inches by 5 inches and a couple of inches thick) but it's crammed full of small print - over 1,100 pages of poetry written between 1250 and 1918. The original copyright date is 1900, but this "new and revised" edition was printed in 1939. I spent a while on Monday reading various poems at random from this volume and it was really pretty interesting. Some of them justified my worst fears about older poetry in terms of style, sentiment, or both. For instance, take a look at the first couple of lines of this poem called "Blow, North Wind" that dates to around 1300 and was written by an unknown poet: I chot a burde in boure bryht, That fully semly is on syht, Um...huh??? My guess would have been that the poet was saying something like "I caught a bird in [something!] bright, that fully seemly is on sight" but I'd have been wrong. There's a footnote that explains some - not all - of the archaic words and it turns out that "I chot" means "I know" and "burde" means "maiden." It doesn't explain "boure", unfortunately. So evidently it actually says something like "I know a maiden in [something!] bright, that fully seemly is on sight." In other words, the poet knows a pretty girl. Yeah, sorry, but that's way too much work for me to get to "I know a pretty girl" when there's so much other poetry out there for me to enjoy. But on the other hand, there were several poems that I really liked when I took the time to read them and to really try to understand what the poet was trying to say. So today I want to share the poem below, written sometime in the mid-17th century because, while the style might seem old-fashioned, I found the sentiment expressed to be very modern. How many of us have seen friends dating people we couldn't stand - maybe falling in love with them, contemplating marriage - and we've wanted to say to that friend's lover "Dude, get lost. You aren't good enough for her." And here's someone basically saying that in verse almost 400 years ago. Add to that the rumors, embraced by some and denied by others, that the lady described in the poem may have been a secret lover of the poet and it all starts to sound a bit like a modern soap opera, doesn't it. Fascinating! To One persuading a Lady to Marriage Forbear, bold youth; all's heaven here, And what you do aver To others courtship may appear, 'Tis sacrilege to her. She is a public deity; And were't not very odd She should dispose herself to be A petty household god? First make the sun in private shine And bid the world adieu, That so he may his beams confine In compliment to you: But if of that you do despair, Think how you did amiss To strive to fix her beams which are More bright and large than his. ~~~Katherine Philips (aka 'Orinda') 1631 - 1664 Here's today's DAT (which has nothing to do with the poetry): "Orange Light" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Good Book, Bad Chocolate (No Spoilers)

2006-10-18T00:38:00.000-04:00

Good Book I'd been hearing the buzz about Diane Setterfield's novel, "The Thirteenth Tale" for a while and I just finished reading it earlier this week. Wow! It's a mystery in the Gothic tradition and has been compared to stories like "Rebecca" and "Jane Eyre." Vida Winter is a wildly successful, but mysterious and reclusive, best-selling author. She's given several interviews over the years and in every interview she's told a different version of her past, all of them blatantly fictional. One day Miss Winter writes to a young woman named Margaret Lea, who works in her father's bookshop and who has a modest reputation for writing scholarly biographical essays. Miss Winter tells Miss Lea that if Margaret will come to her house and listen to her story, that she (Miss Winter) will finally, after all these years, tell the true story of her shadowed past. At first I wasn't sure I was going to like this book. The beginning seemed to move rather slowly and Margaret seemed so cool and disconnected that I wasn't sure I was going to care very much about what happened to her. But just like Miss Winter's story grabbed Margaret, this book gradually, insidiously grabbed my attention until it was getting harder and harder to put it down and do other things. By this past Monday night - well, early Tuesday morning, really - I sat up to finish it because I simply couldn't stand to go to bed without knowing how it would all end. This is one I already plan to re-read sometime in the next few months because I want to see how the story feels to me now that I know how it all turns out. Highly recommended! I give it an A-. Bad Chocolate Y'know, I'm pretty easy to please. Really! I love chocolate and even so-so chocolate is usually better than oh, say...Brussels sprouts or liver. So when I saw this: ...the other day, I was, well...maybe not excited exactly, but interested and prepared to be pleased. I like dark chocolate, citrus, and spice, so a Dove Organic Citrus Spice Dark Chocolate bar should be perfect for me, right? Riiiiiggggghhht. IF, that is, "right" means "ugh, NO, are you kidding me?" I opened it the other day when I was craving just a bite of chocolate. I broke off a square and prepared to saver a nice smooth spicy citrus bite. Then BAM! my tastebuds were on instant overload from what tasted like a freakin' mouthful of raw ginger. It's not like ginger can't be combined with chocolate effectively. Target's Choxie line includes a lovely dark chocolate bar studded with bits of candied ginger and it's yummy. But this? Ack! Once I burned past the overwhelming taste of ginger and could taste the chocolate, it started to improve, except that then it finished with what I assume was supposed to be the citrus taste, except that instead of tasting like the juice of fresh oranges, or even halfway decent orange candy, it tasted like that icky white membrane stuff that you aren't supposed to eat on oranges because it's so bitter. I found myself wondering WFT they put IN this thing??? So I turned over the package to look at the ingredient list. It included chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, orange extract, and flavors. Did you catch that last one? FLAVORS, y'all! Want to know how Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster define the word "flavor?" Take a look: "the blend of taste and smell sensations evoked by a substance in the mouth." Yeah, let's think about that a minute. If you can put it in your mouth and it evokes a taste and smell sensation then it's a "flavor." Do we really want to think about exactly how many "substances" are covered by that definition? Excuse me, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. (And hey - vomit has a flavor!) Don't get me wrong. I'm sure the flavors they put in there are perfectly acceptable food-type stuff, but that doesn't mean they should've all been combined into one poor, innocent chocolate bar. I mean come on - I probably could create a recipe to make a Honey Dill Ribeye Chocolate Bar, but that doesn't mean I SHOULD! Lesson learned. Next time I look at the ingredient list BEFORE I buy a new food item, and if I don't see something a little more specific than Flavors, I'll have to pass. Today's DAT, which has nothing whatsoever to do with lovely books OR disillusioning chocolate experiences: "Oak and Maple" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: Imperfection, Week 3 - Potty Mouth

2006-10-17T00:21:00.000-04:00

Time for yet another week of wallowing in our (alleged) flaws for the October Self-Portrait Challenge. Funny, I never noticed before how long the month of October is. It must have at least what....57 days or so? Yeah. Anyway... Before my weekly SPC confession I must make it clear that my parents are blameless in this matter. They tried to raise me right. They took me to church. They read stories to me and taught me to read them to myself. They made it clear that certain behavior wasn't acceptable in their home. They taught me the concept of respect for myself and others. They were both teachers who had excellent vocabularies and tried to pass that on to me. And I think it worked, really. I think most of what they tried to teach me stuck. It's just that in the end my vocabulary has come to include some words that are a bit more, um....colorful than they might have liked. I don't mean I cuss constantly or anything - not even close. I know profanity is overused a lot in modern society and I get as tired as anyone else of hearing someone drop a half-dozen F-bombs into a mundane observation about the weather. But I also think it's a bit ridiculous that there is still a perception in some circles that a "nice" person shouldn't say anything more vulgar than "Good gracious! Mercy me, that certainly does sting!" even if her arm is being chewed off by a rabid dog. So I admit it. Judging by the standards with which I was raised, I ended up with a bit of a potty mouth. I use some words and phrases that would make my mother wince if she was still around to hear them. And sometimes I think maybe I should try to be a bit less bawdy, a bit more refined. But other times? Well. Like it or not, sometimes there's just nothing more satisfying in this world than raising your head to the sky and yelling "Fuck this shit!!!" "Self-Portrait with Potty Mouth" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Time in a Bottle?

2006-10-16T00:59:00.000-04:00

In one of those lovely cases of synchronicity that I enjoy so much (no sarcasm intended there, I really DO) the theme of this past weekend seems to have been Time. The prompt over at Sunday Scribblings yesterday was "If I Could Stop Time" and, while I don't participate in SS (at least so far), many of my favorite bloggers do and I've had a great time (Har!) reading some truly wonderful and imaginative writing this weekend. (Follow the link if you want to read them too. And BTW, do you think I could work just ONE more parenthetical aside into this paragraph if I worked at it really [really] hard? Guess so!) Then yesterday morning my friend Deirdre, who has a knack for finding cool websites, sent me a link to the Yahoo! Time Capsule Project. Am I the last person on earth to hear about it? Probably so, since I've said for years that one of these days the earth is going to end and I won't know about it until the next day. But ANYWAY, in case there's someone else out there reading this who hadn't heard of it either, here's what the project organizers are doing: "For 30 days, from October 10 until November 8, Yahoo! users worldwide can contribute photos, writings, videos, audio, even drawings to this electronic anthropology project. This is the first time that digital data will be gathered and preserved for historical purposes. ...by November 8, you will have helped create a digital legacy of our times, a mosaic of revealing snapshots that will be sealed and entrusted to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings based in Washington D.C., officially taking its place in history." Some of the categories for submissions include things like Faith, Hope, Sorrow, Anger, Love, Family, You, Beauty, Fun, Now. I think it's a pretty cool idea and I plan to take some of the photos I've already posted on my blog in the past year and a half (things that are therefore already out there in the public) and make it my goal to contribute something to each category before the deadline. Here's what I uploaded today: (clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window) If you want to see how my submissions appear on the site without clicking through thousands of entries to try and find them you can see them Here and Here. And if you want to submit something yourself, go Here. I'll warn you, I didn't find it the most user-friendly website in the world, but with a little perseverance I figured it out, and once I did it's pretty simple to submit something, so I hope some of you give it a try too. There was another thing or two I'd thought I might mention today, but this is getting long (wow, what a shock - NOT!), so I'll save those for another day and go ahead and get to today's Daily Art Thang. Even the DAT has a bit of a Time theme, as I took this photo when I noticed that my spring-blooming Bridal Wreath Spirea decided to put on a little fall show - first time in nine years I've ever seen it do that. "Out of Season" (also clickable) Y'know, "Out of Season" seemed to me to be the perfect title for that photo, but now I'm flashing back to the '70's and channeling REO Speedwagon. "I'm so out of season. You left me cold and I'm standin' here freezin'. I'm so out of season now...." It's a Time Thing.

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #29

2006-10-15T00:03:00.000-04:00

1. Does anyone who reads RSR live in or around Houston? Or does anyone who reads RSR plan to go to the International Quilt Festival there the first week of November? I got word a couple of days ago that one of the quilted fabric postcards I donated to the Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser to raise money for the American Cancer Society is being featured on a poster that will be used to advertise the fundraiser around the city of Houston. This is pretty exciting as they seem (from the email) to have only chosen 8 postcards to feature out of 2500+ donated. So, YAY! If anyone lives in or visits Houston during Festival time and spots one of those posters around town, I would LOVE to have a photo of the poster on location. In fact, tell ya what. I'll even offer a bribe....er, I mean a PRIZE. If anyone sees the poster with my fiber postcard on it somewhere in Houston and takes a photo of it and emails a copy of that photo to me telling me exactly where you saw the poster, the FIRST person to do so will win a fiberart postcard of their own (assuming I have a way to contact you for your snail mail addy). I'll make it just for you and mail it to you. So lemme know if you're in the area and game to go on a one-item photo scavenger hunt. :-) The postcard they'll be featuring will be one of these two: (they didn't tell me which one they were using) 2. I mentioned these two websites around this time last year, but I think they're worth a repeat nod, as they're both seasonal fun: Here is a website where you can carve a virtual pumpkin and see how it would look without all the mess of scooping out oogie, slimy pumpkin pulp and seeds. (Although this way you don't get to roast the pumpkin seeds and eat them for a snack, which is a shame because they're pretty tasty!) And Here is a website where you can play a game of Hangman featuring a sarcastic skeleton. The only way I can figure people are getting the scores I see on the high score board are that they play so much they memorize the word list. Sheesh! I feel like I'm doing good if I break 200! It's fun though. If you play, let me know how you did! 3. If it's Sunday, it must be Quiz Day, so here we go:

You Are 84% Intuitive

Your intuition is so spot on it's scary! You can learn a lot about people and situations, simply by listening to your gut. And you've even wondered if you can predict the future at times. Just be sure not to always listen to your intuition... someday it could be wrong!

How Intuitive Are You?

But on the other hand:

You Are Incredibly Logical

Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

That means my awesome logic should be able to tell me when my awesome intuition is failing me and vice versa, right? So, all righty then! Good to know. ;-) 4. And last, but (hopefully) not least, today's Daily Art Thang: "Autumn Vine" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

The Tale of the Seven-Legged Spider

2006-10-14T09:01:00.000-04:00

The other day (before it got so cold and windy around here!) I was taking some photos on the back deck where we have some volunteer lettuce and sunflowers coming up in a half-barrel planter. I noticed a daddy-long-legs spider crawling around on one of the sunflowers. Digression: Do y'all call them Daddy-long-legs or Granddaddy-long-legs? I've heard it both ways. Or do you call them something else altogether? Anyway... Anyone who has spent a lot of time around RSR knows that I have a wee case of arachnophobia. I KNOW spiders are very useful for catching destructive insects and they spin beautiful webs, but they totally creep me right the hell out. It's all those eyes stuck at random places that do it. That's just not right. (Shudder) So I have drawn a line. If the spiders stay outside, I leave them alone no matter how creeped out I am. However, if they are stupid enough to enter my house, I assume that they are too stupid to live and I'm perfectly willing to send them to that giant spider web in the sky. Natural selection, y'all. But y'know, there's creepy and then there's CREEPY. Creepy is when you see a paunchy old guy with a long, gray ponytail buying black mesh bikini underwear. CREEPY is when you see him wearing them. Creepy is baby dolls who wet themselves. CREEPY is Bratz dolls, and serial killers, and mimes. For me, on the Official DebR Spider Creepitude Scale, Daddy-long-legs are merely creepy, not CREEPY. So when I saw one crawling around on my volunteer sunflowers I decided to face my fear (in a rather literal sense) and take some macro photos instead of just going "eeeuuuwww" and getting as far away from him/her/it as possible. I did the job pretty quickly, because I'm not THAT brave, so it wasn't until I pulled the photos up on the 'puter to edit them that I noticed that this spider was a little different. He was an amputee! Yep, I'd just done a photo session with a Seven-Legged Spider. I wonder what happened to him and how long ago. Do spiders re-grow lopped-off bits the way some lizards re-grow their tails, or if they lose a leg are they legless forever just like we would be? It didn't seem to slow this guy down any. Once he noticed me with one or more of his many eyes (shudder) he scurried away pretty quickly. But I got some creepy-but-cool photos before he left and my favorite of them is today's Daily Art Thang. "Portrait of a Seven-Legged Spider" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Hello, Autumn

2006-10-13T09:03:00.000-04:00

Just a few days ago, Darlene asked the question "What makes Autumn official for you?" My reply to her was this: "What makes autumn official for me isn't any one thing, it's a combination of several things - when we have the first fire in our fireplace, when I switch the sheets on the bed from plain cotton to flannel, when I make soup for supper after a summer of grilling and salads, when I start wearing socks and close-toed shoes every day instead of wearing flip-flops." At the time I wrote that comment, I hadn't done any of those things yet. At the time I wrote it, we were still having the sort of glorious early autumn days where the sky is an almost unbelievably intense shade of blue and the leaves are just barely starting to change color, where the days are warm and dry, the nights are cool (not cold), and the breeze has a little bite to it that tastes of Granny Smith apples. At the time I wrote that, October in Kentucky looked like this (today's D.A.T.): "The Hunt for Red October" (Hey, y'know, that would make a helluva good title for a book or movie! Someone should totally use that. You're welcome.) (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) (Triple parenthetical asides used by a trained professional on a closed set. Do not try this at home.) But in the last few days, Autumn has stomped her little foot and decided to show us who's boss around here. I tried on boots earlier this week (although I didn't buy them) and I haven't worn flip-flops since Tuesday. I wore a heavy jacket and hat on my walk yesterday and was grateful for them both. We had homemade vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for supper the last couple of nights (yum!). So far we still haven't had a fire and I haven't switched the sheets to flannel, but it's only a matter of time, and not much time at that. Hello, Autumn! Looks like you're official.

One of Those Days

2006-10-12T10:47:00.000-04:00

Written: Thursday, 8 AMish, EDT Posted: Thursday, 10:47 AM EDT (not as late as I thought it might be!) It's Thursday in Kentucky. Now I realize it may seem like I'm stating the painfully obvious to most of you, but as it happens, I'd completely lost track of that little fact until I checked in on a couple of blogs right before I went to bed last night and started seeing some Poetry Thursday entries showing up. At first I thought "huh?" and then I thought "crap, I guess it IS Thursday." I'm not sure what day I thought it was, but not Thursday. I was too tired then to bother with putting together a post last night, but no big deal, right? I'll just get a good night's sleep and do it in the morning. Except now it's morning (of Thursday! see, I know what day it is. Yay me!) and Blogger seems to be having ISSUES. Again. What a surprise! Well, except for the part where it isn't a surprise because they have issues so frequently. I can access some Blogger blogs this morning, but others I can't, and guess which blog is one of the ones I can't access. Go on, guess, you know you want to! If you guessed that one of the blogs I can't access is my own, you win a shiny tiara and a cherry-red pogo stick! (Both virtual, so I hope you have a good imagination.) However, being the wildly optimistic person I am, I figure what the hell. I'll go ahead and write a theoretical blog post and save it in the hope that Blogger will get some serious therapy and I will perhaps be able to make this post go from theoretical to the um....not-so-theoretical (what word do I want there??) before the day is over. If you're reading this, it worked. If you're not reading this, then how do you know what I'm saying? This whole thing is just a little weird. Remember the ivy pic I posted a few days ago? There should be a link in the previous sentence, but since I can't access my freakin' BLOG, I gots no linky love to give. But hopefully some of you actually DO remember it. Anyway, this next photo was taken the same time from a little different angle and not quite so close-up: I wanted to show what I started with, but the messed-with version below is today's Daily Art Thang: "Ivy - Paintified" (starting photo is clickable if you want to see it larger, but this version isn't - sorry! WYSIWYG.) I'm pretty much going to call participating in Poetry Thursday a loss for this week and try for next week, but so I don't leave RSR's Thursday visitors completely poetry-less, here's a tiny verse that appeals to the dark, perverse side of my sense of humor: You Fit Into Me you fit into me like a hook into an eye a fish hook an open eye ~~~Margaret Atwood Happy Thursday, y'all!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things (if you call 100 "a few", that is)

2006-10-11T00:11:00.000-04:00

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and wa..." Oh! Excuse me, I was channeling Julie Andrews for a minute there. I haven't been able to get that song out of my mind ever since I saw Susannah's list of "100 Things I Love." I'm finally getting around to posting my version and I kept a few of her answers because some of those really are things I love. Also I should mention you won't find my family or friends on this list, even though I love them the most of all, because I'm trying to make this a list of things or experiences rather than people. So ok, onward! These are a few of my favorite things: 1. blue skies 2. books 3. movies 4. kissing 6. coffee 7. the ocean 8. freedom 9. my intuition 10. candle-lit bubblebaths 11. wine 12. poetry 13. Good Mail 14. back rubs 15. rainbows 16. soft, fuzzy sweaters 18. cinnamon 19. photo albums 21. puzzles 22. soft, clean sheets 23. flying 24. chocolate 25. raspberries 26. imagination 27. pretty shoes 28. singing in the car 29. dancing 30. laughing 31. hope 32. fountains 33. confidence 34. cuddling 36. smiles 37. puns 38. swings 39. rocking chairs 40. writing 41. hot, passionate sex 42. a fire on a cold night 43. air conditioning on a hot night 44. open windows on a night that's just right 45. dessert 46. doodling 48. vanilla 49. going to plays 50. whistling 51. my computer 52. kittens 53. the scent of honeysuckle 54. comfy, old jeans 55. dangly earrings 56. seeing the UPS truck pull up 57. corny musicals 59. woodland streams 60. photography 62. my dreams 63. gorgeous lingerie 64. paper dolls 65. margaritas 66. traveling to new places 67. hugs 68. rings 69. lilies 70. pasta 71. cat naps 72. the wind in my hair 73. antiques 75. colored glass vases and bottles 76. cruises 77. the scent of line-dried laundry 78. karaoke 79. sleeping outside 80. autumn leaves 81. games 82. the stars on a clear night 83. seafood 84. my brain 85. optimism 87. viburnum 88. my ratty old bathrobe 89. movie popcorn 90. jasmine 91. sparkly, shiny things 92. art 93. mountain-top views 94. my sewing machine 96. tortilla chips with salsa 97. home 98. having someone else brush my hair 99. roses 100. blogging! (both writing mine and reading others) DAT: "A Few of My Favorite Things" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: Imperfection, Week 2 - Smartass

2006-10-10T00:34:00.000-04:00

This month continues the theme of revealing our imperfections for the October Self-Portrait Challenge. Well, ok, brace yourselves because I know this will probably come as a HUGE shock to those of you who know me, either in real life or from reading RSR regularly, but sometimes people tell me I'm a smartass. Seriously! I know, it shocks me too. I've been thinking about it and, even if they're right, I'm not sure why that should be considered a flaw. After all, I'd rather be a smartass than a dumbass, or a jackass, or a pain-in-the-ass. But still, people sometimes say "smartass" like it's a Bad Thing. Therefore, in the spirit of realizing that those people may be seeing some flaw in me that I need to face, I'm making the choice to share this imperfection with the world - or at least with the lovely people of the world who choose to visit here today: "Self-Portrait as a Smartass" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Explaining the Unexplainable

2006-10-09T00:02:00.000-04:00

Hhhmmm, perhaps I should change that subject line because it sounds all deep and thoughtful and this post isn't so much. In fact I'm not even really explaining the unexplainable, more like explaining stuff some meme said I shouldn't. But that meme's not the boss of me, dammit. (That statement might be more effective if I could slam a door or pound my fist on a desk or something while I say it. So picture me doing one of those things, ok? Ok. Thanks!) So, in response to yesterday's comments (just the questions - I'll respond to the non-question comments in the comments section of yesterday's post): Liz asked: "ok so i kinda want to know more about why you were suspended from school...hmmm. very, very interesting. oh and what is drying in that barn picture? i want to know more about that too. (please)" Second question first - that's tobacco. We don't grow it, but several of our neighbors to and that photo was taken at a barn just down the road from us. And as for the first question, I was suspended from school because I had the poor judgment to date an idiot. Ok, no, not really. I mean he kind of was, but it's not like anyone MADE me go along with his stupid idea. I was in 10th grade and the boy I was dating at the time thought the perfect way to celebrate his birthday was to shoplift a bottle of liquor (some nasty pre-mixed cocktail thing) and bring it to school so that he, and I, and a few of our friends could drink a toast during our lunch break. I think by the time we passed the bottle around, we got a grand total of about two swallows each and it tasted vile and we'd probably have gotten a better buzz from swigging Nyquil. Nevertheless, it was most definitely against school rules to have booze on campus, and someone ratted us out (I never did find out who), and we all got suspended for two days, so it worked out to one day per swallow. I learned a very important lesson from it though: If you're going to break the rules, don't get caught. Oh, and also that I needed a better boyfriend. Susannah said: "tell us more about kissing a picture" Well, y'know, this one's going to be really boring because I don't remember specifics, just that I'm quite sure I did that during my adolescent "have a crush on a different pop star and/or movie star every week" phase. I remember having posters and fan mags and stuff and I know my friends and I used to kiss the pics sometimes. I don't remember names though. Sometimes the mind is merciful in the memories it chooses to suppress. :-) Darlene said: "The opposites of innocent and sweet...please do explain?" Hhhmm, well now, I didn't actually say I was opposite of innocent and sweet, just that I didn't quite think those descriptions fit me. I think mischievous and spicy might fit me better. ;-) Catherine said: "I'd like to hear about the sitting on a roof top - also about being fired, but only if it won't revive bad horrible feelings." I've sat on several rooftops! In college, the fine arts building was multi-level and you could climb out the window in one section and be on the rooftop of another section and I used to do that sometimes, just because I liked the view from up there. Also the first apartment I shared with J was the same way. We could climb out our living room window and be on the rooftop of another section and we could watch the city fireworks from there on holidays. And I had a friend once who liked to sit on the roof of her house at night to think and watch the stars and I used to go up with her sometimes. We'd both watch the stars and talk about life. And naw, no big deal on the firing. It wasn't because of anything I did, it was just one of those things where the company I worked for at the time went into a slump and had to cut personnel and I was low on the ladder. They'd have probably termed it a lay-off rather than a firing, but when you get called into the supervisor's office and told "we don't have enough hours for everyone and we're letting you go" it still means you're unemployed no matter what they call it. Janet said: "I've never had Mexican Jumping Beans so that would be nice to know about, and also who did you want to kill??" Mexican jumping beans are totally boring. They're just these little larva things that bounce around in some beans or seed pods or something until they hatch and then they die. (Or at least they die if you have them in a little airtight jar. Go figure!) I remember someone in my family having some when we were kids, but I'm a little fuzzy on if it was me or if they actually belonged to my brother or sister. And ummm...I'm going to plead the fifth on the question of who I wanted to kill. There have been a handful of people in the course of my life who have evoked strong and violent feelings in me to the point where I had dark fantasies about causing them severe bodily harm, up to and including a gruesome death. But I'm not so sure it would be wise to name names on a public blog. That sounds like the sort of thing that could come back to bite me in the ass somehow. :-) Bee said: "i'd love to know more about the laughing until you peed one. that seems really funny." Well, no, sadly that's just what happens sometimes when you get to be middle-aged. LOL! (oops...damn, now my chair's wet! kidding...) Really, sorry to be let you down but there's no one story that sticks out in my mind, I just know it's happened to me before. BTW, I like your screen name. My first name means "bee." Wow, that got long and probably wasn't even all that interesting after all. Oh. Well. It's Monday and we do what we can on Mondays, yes? Here's today's Daily Art Thang, another view of the same barn as yesterday's photo, only this is a different angle and it's been "paintified." "Tobacco Barn - Paintified" (clickable)

It's Time to Pet Our Peeves Again! (and more about yesterday's meme)

2006-10-08T09:01:00.000-04:00

Yep, it's that magical time of year in the US, National Pet Peeve Week. Can't you almost smell the crisp comments and roasting wit in the air? No? Oh. Ok. I was curious what my pet peeves were last year, so I pulled up ye olde archives to check it out. Hhhmmm, interesting. I listed two pet peeves for Day One of NPPW '05, and I still agree with both of them. I may be peevish, but at least I'm consistently peevish! Maybe I can come up with some new peeves before the week is over though, just to spice things up. Ahem. And speaking of spicy (smooth, Deb, smoooooooth), about yesterday's meme - for those of you who wanted to know more information about my answers, first of all - thank you! You're pretty! :-) Second of all, tell you what. If you really want to know about some of my answers, tell me in comments (or an email if you have trouble commenting) which ones you want to know more about and I'll either reply in comments if the answer is simple or tell you the story in a future post if the answer is interesting enough to warrant that. We'll treat it almost like another Virtual Press Conference. Since the one person who asked a specific question yesterday was Amber, we'll start there. Amber asked: "That first one... Like YOU were naked, taking pictures? Or you were naked IN the picture? Because for all we know, you could be running around naked, taking all your DRT pics! THAT would be funny." I agree, that first question was worded ambiguously. But in the end it doesn't matter because the answer to either version would be yes, although not often and not recently, and if anyone reading this sentence is an immediate family member then - HaHaHA, just kidding of course, so you are to forget I said that, immediately and forever. Heh. Also, Amber, if you'd ever seen me naked, you'd know the word you were looking for is "frightening", not "funny" but it's an understandable mistake seeing as how they both start with an F and all. Stuff would start bouncing around and it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye or something. Ahem. Oh, and to Darlene who said "you look so innocent and sweet and nice" - thank you! I am nice. (Mostly) However innocent and sweet made me giggle. One out of three isn't bad though, right? And Mim, thank you for explaining the number of questions! My Inner Obsessive is soothed by the logic of the explanation. I'm throwing in a quiz today, just because I can. I think the results of this one are dead-on accurate for me (at least at this stage of my life).

You Are A Realist

When it comes to romance, you tend to take a realistic approach. You believe that love takes time, and it's something you have to work hard for. A bit cynical, over the top romance tends to get under your skin. Your heart is difficult to win ... but it's totally worth it.

Are You Romantic or Realistic?

And here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Kentucky Barn Close-up" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Is That Your Final Answer?

2006-10-07T00:34:00.000-04:00

Aaaah, the weekend. The glorious, lower-blog-traffic weekend when I indulge my unnatural passion for memes and quizzes because I feel like I can do so while annoying slightly fewer people. ~~~Twirl~~~ I got this Mim from meme...um, no, let's try that again. I got this meme from Mim at R*S*V*P. The object of the meme is to answer each and every question with either "yes" or "no." No "maybes", no stories, no explanations or equivocations. ACK! Mim encouraged me to do this one, but I'm afraid my head might explode from the strain of not being able to explain my answers in excruciating detail. But ok, I'm going to try it, with one teeeensy-tiny revision. I'm allowing myself the use of question marks because as I read through the questions there are some answers I'm truly not sure about. My memory just isn't that great for Real Life, only for things like stupid trivia and silly song lyrics. You want to know the name of Ebeneezer Scrooge's first employer or the words to the theme song from "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (which, hello!, aired when I was like 7 years old!!)? I'm your woman. You want to know if I've ever gone to school or work without my underwear? I'm a little iffy on that one. Sorry. So here we go... Have you ever: 1. Taken a picture completely naked? yes 2. Danced in front of a mirror naked? yes (?) 3. Told a lie? yes 4. Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back? yes 5. Been arrested? no 6. Seen someone die? yes 7. Kissed a picture? yes 8. Slept in until 5pm? no (?) 9. Had sex at work (on the clock)? no 10. Fallen asleep at work/school? yes 11. Held a snake? no 12. Ran a red light? yes 13. Been suspended from school? yes 14. Pole danced? no 15. Been fired from a job? yes 16. Sang karaoke? yes 17. Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? yes 18. Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? no 19. Laughed until you peed? yes 20. Caught a snowflake on your tongue? yes 21. Kissed in the rain? yes 22. Had sex in the rain? no (?) 23. Sang in the shower? yes 24. Gave your private parts a nickname? no 25. Ever gone to school/work without underwear? no (?) 26. Sat on a roof top? yes 27. Played chicken? no (?) 28. Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? no 29. Broken a bone? no (?) 30. Flashed someone? yes 31. Mooned someone? yes 32. Shaved your head? no 33. Slept naked? yes 34. Blacked out from drinking? no 35. Played a prank on someone? yes 36. Had a gym membership? yes 37. Felt like killing someone? yes 38. Cried over someone you were in love with? yes 39. Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? yes (?) 40. Been in a band? no 41. Shot a gun? yes 42. Shot a bow and arrow? yes 43. Played strip poker? yes 44. Donated Blood? no 45. Ever jump out of an airplane? no 46. Been to more than 10 countries? no Ok, I need to go lie down now, with a cool cloth on my forehead. If I'm back tomorrow it means my head did not, in fact, explode from doing this meme. I STILL want to explain some of those, dammit. It also bugs my Inner Obsessive that there's 46 questions. Why 46? Why not 40, or 45, or 50?? Ok, I'm shutting up now. If you want to play too, tell me so in comments and consider yourself tagged. And the next meme someone points out to me better be something where I can TALK, dammit! ;-) DAT: "Walnuts" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #28

2006-10-06T01:00:00.000-04:00

1. I am ever-so pleased because a Penn Station restaurant has opened recently in the little town where I do most of my shopping. Yay! It takes so little to make me do a happy dance. There aren't a lot of food choices there and this is one of 3 or 4 fast food places I most wanted to come to town. Now if only the others would open there too, and also some nicer restaurants, and a good coffee shop, and a nice big book store, and a great shoe store, and maybe a Target. That's not wishing for too much, right? Right?? 2. On the other hand, it is perhaps not a good sign that since Penn Station opened a couple of weeks ago it actually showed up in one of my dreams. Sheesh! The dream had to do with being there at the restaurant with friends and waiting (and waiting and waiting) for food (which isn't realistic, they're usually quite speedy) and then went on to have something to do with some of us going to a nearby gas station to fill up an obnoxiously huge vehicle I actually wouldn't be caught dead in while we were waiting for the food, and then the brakes went out and I was trying frantically to prevent this beast of a car or truck or whatever it was from crashing into anything and hurting anyone, and I'm sure it's all very deep and significant and something to do with unmet needs and a feeling of being out of control about something-or-other, but you know what? It pretty much just made me want to go to Penn Station for lunch. A moment of silence please while we all marvel at the depths of my shallowness. 3. I really hope no one decides to pass a law like this in the US. I would be in SUCH trouble, capiche? 4. Here's today's Daily Art Thang: "Ivy" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Poetry Thursday: The Body

2006-10-05T09:31:00.000-04:00

The theme for Poetry Thursday this week is The Body. I had trouble narrowing it down to just one poem this week, as I found several I liked that fit the theme, plus I had something rattling around in my head that might someday turn into a poem, but it isn't there yet. I finally narrowed it down to one I want to share by Sandra Cisneros. If you're offended by blunt earthiness you might want to skip on down to the Daily Art Thang, because Ms. Cisneros is nothing if not blunt and earthy. That's what I like about her poetry. :-) If that sounds like something you'd like too, then read on. Well, If You Insist My body, this body, that has nothing to do with who I am. But it's my body, this body you long for. Sinew and twist of flesh, helix of desire and vanity. These bodies. Your body. My body. Ours swallowing each other whole. This. That. Neck. Mouth. Cock. Cunt. Little terrorist, you terrify me. Come in then. Climb on. Get in. Well, if you insist. If you insist... ~~~Sandra Cisneros Daily Art Thang: "Honeysuckle Berries" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: Imperfection, Week 1 - Stubborn Denial of Reality

2006-10-04T00:13:00.000-04:00

The theme this month for the Self-Portrait Challenge is "Imperfection." We're being asked to share our flaws. You know what? I don't like this theme. I didn't like this theme when we did essentially the same thing a few months ago and called it "All of Me" (show us the ugly bits) and I don't like it any better the second time around. Most of us are hard enough on ourselves already. Do we really need to highlight stuff that makes us feel bad about ourselves? I'm thinking no. So my first impulse was to pass on participating in the SPC this month. But that felt like giving up to me and I don't like the idea of not meeting a challenge. So I thought maybe I could find a way to put my own unique spin on this thing. Hhhmmmm..... I have a few ideas on that so we'll see how it plays out as the month goes on. This first week though, I'm going with my first impulse when I don't like a situation - to stubbornly deny that the situation exists. You want me to show you stuff I don't like about myself? Sorry, I can't HEAR you! I'm in my Happy Place where the sun is shining and the birds are singing and I am the epitome of womanly perfection. It helps me to stay in the Happy Place if I close my eyes. To further enhance the experience, I'm trying to train my dog Riley to cover my ears with her paws to block out the rude sounds of Reality, but she doesn't quite have that part down just yet. So for now when you ask to see my flaws I'll just say "Lalalala...I am not listening; I am not listening to you." (Bonus points if you know what movie I just misquoted.) "Self-Portrait - Stubbornly Denying Reality" (clickable)

It's a Big Day 'Round Here

2006-10-03T00:34:00.000-04:00

I'm putting off posting a self-portrait (within the theme or not) for a day because today is a double family holiday around here. First I want to say happy birthday to my wonderful husband. (This is today's DAT and is clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) From the top left, moving clockwise: here is J as a two-year-old between two of his older brothers, napping on his birthday in 1998 with EDKSky (who he supposedly doesn't like), with a bumper crop of tomatoes he grew a few years ago, fishing in Florida, climbing around on some rocks in Maine, teaching a friend's daughter to fish in North Carolina, and building a snowoman in our front yard a few winters ago. Besides being J's birthday, this is also my sister's and brother-in-law's anniversary. (also clickable) Hope you two have a great day! I have to share this photo too so you can see my bridesmaid hair: Soooo hawt! (Snort!) And for Catherine, who asked about yesterday's post (and anyone else outside the US who might have wondered), here's a link explaining what Homecoming is. I'm soooooo far behind on responding to comments it isn't even funny, y'all. I'll try to get to it soon, pinky-swear! And one of these days I might even talk about something besides my family. Maybe. Heh.

Homecoming

2006-10-02T09:49:00.000-04:00

I'm baaa-aaack! Betcha didn't miss me this time unless you noticed I wasn't responding to comments or doing any blog visiting. But I managed a few minutes on the 'puter to publish some posts I had ready to go so I didn't have to play catch-up with my Daily Art Thangs when I got home. Yay! I went to my sister's house for the weekend and had a great time. (Thanks for having me up, Sandy and Andy!) No Purple People Bridge this weekend, T.C., unfortunately. I wish I could've managed that, but the weekend was too busy. I still want to do it though! I'm hoping this turns out to be one of those years we sometimes have in Kentucky where the gorgeous fall weather goes on a good looooooong time before real winter weather sets in. If so, I might still manage a trip to the PPB before the year is over. If not, it'll have to wait for spring (dammit). One of the great things about going up for a family visit this weekend is that it was Homecoming weekend for my brother's kids, so I got to see them all dressed up. Check out the outfit Amber wore to the football game: Cute, yes? She designed and created the shirt herself out of a plain white t-shirt, including painting on the letters and the Wildcat face. I thought it turned out great! It's hard to tell in the photo above, but she had on some fabulous fake eyelashes that were a mixture of bright blue and metallic silver. Here's a close-up where you can see them: I liked them so much that after she took them off I borrowed them and wore them for a little while: That's Josh in the background, but I painted out part of the pic because he was making an obscene gesture behind our backs. I got my revenge later though, when I took him by surprise and actually got a decent photo of Mr. NoOneGetsToTakeMyPhoto. HA! All the photos above were taken Friday night. Then Saturday evening we ran over to Mark's house to take pics of the kids dressed up for the dance. Here's proof that once in a very, VERY great while Josh will not only allow someone to take his picture, but will even give the crowd a little smile: ShortGirl and Josh (Yes, I know ShortGirl's real name, but I'm not sharing it because I didn't ask her if I could) Don't they look good? I actually got several photos of them. Josh said I was allowed to take ONE, but unfortunately for him I suck at math. However I'll play fair and only post one of them. ;-) And here's a photo of Amber, who looks gorgeous, as always: The only photo I took that would've shown her whole dress turned out blurry (gggrrr..... Sandy, if you got a good dress photo, would you email it to me, please?). Other than bugging the crap out of Mark's kids with my camera, we mainly just did some shopping and talking and watched a movie or two, stuff like that. It was nice! Here's today's DAT: "A Modern Family Portrait with Pizza" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) Tomorrow is Self-Portrait Challenge day and I'm still, this close to time, trying to decide whether to participate or if maybe I'll skip this month. (Or maybe I'll post SP's but not stick to the prompt or post links on the SPC website.) This month's theme of showing our flaws seems all too similar to a challenge we had a few months ago and it was one I didn't like the first time around, so I'm not at all sure I want to reprise it. We'll see....

Quizzical

2006-10-01T13:23:00.000-04:00

It's Sunday and it's been a few weeks since I inflicted any quizzes on you, so I'm indulging myself today. This first one seems oddly appropriate, doncha think?

You Belong in Fall

Intelligent, introspective, and quite expressive at times... You appreciate the changes in color, climate, and mood that fall brings Whether you're carving wacky pumpkins or taking long drives, autumn is a favorite time of year for you

What Season Are You?

And this next one kind of does too because this time of year always makes me think of back-to-school, even though my school days are long, LONG behind me. Check it out - I gots me some mad skillz, yo!

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100% Punctuation: 100% Vocabulary: 100% Spelling: 80%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Y'know what's really weird about this is that I only missed one question and it was in the spelling section, (that wasn't the weird part - my spelling is kind of sucky), but the one I missed wasn't one of two words I felt a little unsure about. It was one of the words I was just sure I knew how to spell correctly! Just goes to show what I get for being sure. Pppfffttt! DAT: "Purple and Gold" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

September Bliss List

2006-09-30T08:46:00.000-04:00

It's Bliss List time again! Here are some things that have been making me feel Blissful in September:

My new camera!
That my friend Morven finally started a blog
"Water for Elephants" - one of the best books I've read this year
My new camera!!
Cooler, breezy days with bright blue skies, and nights cool enough to need a light jacket (I love autumn!)
The gorgeous colors of the leaves as they start to change colors (I really love autumn!)
My new camera!!!
Seeing some potentially interesting new programs show up on TV...
and finally getting to see some new episodes of some old favorite shows.
And did I mention my new camera? Just checking.

"September Bliss" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) What's making you feel blissful this month?

Camera Love!

2006-09-29T00:54:00.000-04:00

I've had a few people ask how I'm liking my new camera (a Panasonic DMC-FZ7, for anyone who missed the post about me buying it). So far I like it very much! I'm still going through a bit of a learning curve with it and there's lots it can do I haven't even started to explore, but it's easy enough to use in program mode to pretty much just jump right in and start taking photos. I love the macro function. I've been able to get some shots from just an inch or two away when the camera is in macro mode. (One of those macro photos is the one I posted yesterday and you'll no doubt be seeing more in the coming weeks.) And I love the zoom. Having a 12x optical zoom is a huge difference from my little point 'n' shoot Olympus camera. Case in point: my hound dog mix, Mac, is notoriously hard to photograph. He was abused and abandoned before he came to live with us and is still pretty skittish and disinclined to trust people, although his social skills have improved tremendously in the past few years. So you can figure that getting a close-up photo of him just pretty much doesn't happen. You point a camera his way and he may not know what it is, but he knows it means someone with something in their hands is focusing attention on him and in MacWorld, that's a Bad Thing, so he runs to someplace he feels safe. But in the short time I've had this camera, I've already been able to get some decent shots of him by using the zoom. Check out this one taken from about 20 - 30 ft. away (all of these are clickable if you want to see them larger): The photo above is completely unedited other than compressing the size down to something I could use for the web. But I haven't cropped or color-corrected or any of that. That first shot is already more of a close-up than I could've gotten with my old camera, but since this one is higher resolution, I can crop the shot and get even closer: Or even closer yet: That's about as close as I can go with this photo without it getting too pixelated to use, but hey, I think that's pretty good for something taken with the zoom! With my other camera, the only way to get a photo of him that fills the frame like that would be to take it from about 2 ft. away and it simply would never happen. I'm really looking forward to seeing what else I can capture with this baby. My only quibbles so far would be that I'm not entirely happy with the noise levels and color saturation in the photos when taken with certain settings, but I'd be willing to bet that's more to do with things I'm doing wrong than with the camera. Eventually I'll learn the tricks! For today's DAT, here's another photo of Mac taken from a distance, but this one's been altered: "Mac: Paintified" (also clickable) I may be scarce online over the next couple of days, but I'll be paying some catch-up visits early next week. (I may or may not be posting stuff here the next two days - depends on if I have 'net access or not. Fingers crossed.)

Poetry Thursday: Indelible Ink

2006-09-28T08:58:00.000-04:00

Let's see if Blogger will cooperate with me getting this posted. It wasn't playing nicely at all before I went to bed last night. Hmph. Today the prompt for Poetry Thursday is about synaesthesia. I think that's great, as the topic fascinates me. Amber wrote a very cool post about a particular type of synaesthesia just a few days ago. I've had bits and snippets of poetry ideas running through my head this week, things that would fit the theme, but nothing I could pull together in time to share this week, so I'll hope to revisit this prompt another week. Meanwhile I'm just going to share a poem I like. To the Engraver of My Skin I understand the pact is mortal, agree to bear this permanence. I contract with limitation; I say no and no then yes to you, and sign - here, on the dotted line - for whatever comes, I do: our time, our outline, the filling-in of our details (it's density that hurts, always, not the original scheme). I'm here for revision, discoloration; here to fade and last, ineradicable, blue. Write me! This ink lasts longer than I do. ~~~Mark Doty Today's Daily Art Thang has absolutely nothing to do with the poem, it was just a photo I'm pleased with, taken using my new camera's macro function. "Carnival Glass" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

A Fugging in Kentucky

2006-09-27T09:34:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wish my cell phone included a camera. Most of the time I don't, but sometimes... Like yesterday, I wish I could've whipped out a phone and taken a photo to show you and then that would pretty much be the whole post. "A picture is worth..." and all that. But since I didn't have a camera on me, phone or otherwise, I'll have to try to tell you about it. No, I take that back. I don't want to talk behind someone's back, so I'll try to tell HER about it. To the woman in front of me in line at the pharmacy yesterday: Sweetie. Sweetie! I feel so bad for you because you must not have a friend in the world. I know that because no true friend would have let you leave the house in what you were wearing. Let me tell you something as one middle-aged woman with a generous ass to another, ok? There are some garments that simply should not exist. They don't look good on anyone, not even tall, willowy supermodel types, or tight-bodied teenage girls. And anything that would look bad on a supermodel has no business being on this earth because the rest of us don't stand a chance with it. One such garment is clearly that pair of pants you had on. Faded neon-red knit track pants with a wide once-white stripe down the outside of each leg - not flattering to pretty much anyone. Faded neon-red knit CROPPED track pants with a wide once-white stripe down the outside of each leg - that's just WRONG. I'm pretty sure the existence of those pants is straining some law of physics almost to its breaking point. Then when you finish off The Pants with a stretched-out t-shirt in a clashing shade of red, clunky white gym shoes and charcoal grey argyle socks - argyle!! Merciful Zeus!! - well, Sweetie, it just made me want to take you by the hand and be your shopping buddy, because You Can Do Better. Seriously. You DESERVE better. Everyone does. Unfortunately, by the time my brain stopped bleeding and the hysterical blindness wore off, you were gone. But if by some chance you ever read this, email me! We'll do lunch. We'll shop. We'll buy you some clothes that FIT (say it with me: "structure") and a full-length mirror, then we'll have a ritual burning of the abomination known as The Pants. The world will thank us for it. Hugs and smoochies, Me DAT: "Autumn Sumac: Paintified" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: With Someone, Week 4 - Morven

2006-09-26T00:21:00.000-04:00

This is the last week for the September theme of "With Someone" for the Self-Portrait Challenge. The instructions are to "...include someone else in your self portrait. Someone meaningful to your life or to the moment or to a specific event that you wish to document." Today I want to introduce you to my friend Morven. Morv and I met online in 1999. I'd stumbled across a quilting email group and decided to join and Morven was already a member. I posted a rambling (and kinda smartass) intro note and mentioned in passing that I lived in Kentucky. Morv emailed me off-list to find out more. Turns out she was living in Kentucky too, although she'd only been there a few months. She'd come over from her native New Zealand to be with her husband while he was working on a long-term project in the US. We found out more about each other and discovered we had loads in common. We decided we were Cosmic Twins! Plus it turned out we only lived about 40 miles away from each other, so it wasn't long before she and her husband came over to meet me and mine. It wasn't the first time I'd met someone in person that I'd first met on the Internet, but it was the first time I'd told someone where I live and invited them to dinner. (We had chicken and dumplings. I have no idea why I remember that, but I do.) Morven lived in Kentucky for three years before returning to NZ and she became one of my closest friends and I still miss her like crazy. We stay in touch through email and an occasional phone call, but man do I ever miss the days when we'd get together to make trips into Lexington to have girlie lunches and hit the stores and talk and giggle. Luckily she makes occasional trips back to the US though. (YAY!!!) The photo below was one I snapped during her last visit in March of this year. "Self-Portrait with Morven" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) If you want to meet Morven yourself, she recently started a blog of her very own, called Food Art and Random Thoughts, so stop over and tell her hello and Happy Birthday! Yep, that's right. That's why I had to feature Morven THIS Tuesday rather than any other is because today is her birthday. Wish I could give you cake and a hug, Morv. Love you! (also clickable: photo features Morv and me as well as our husbands and some of our wonderful girlfriends)

It's Alive!

2006-09-25T13:39:00.000-04:00

Hi y'all! Did you notice I was AWOL for a couple of days? I know at least a couple of you did because when I logged on just now I found a couple of emails asking where I was. (I'll email you back soon!) I'm fine, but my internet service was gone all weekend and half of today. It was not just merely dead, it was really most sincerely dead. (Name that pop culture reference!) We had mega-storms roll through here late Friday night and they caused all sorts of power outages and other problems. I have my 'puter equipment hooked into a pretty decent UPS with a voltage regulator AND I unplugged everything anyway before I went to bed, yet somehow a surge or something still managed to kill my wireless router and my ethernet card before I could cut the power. I replaced those on Saturday (once I - with the help of a techie guy - finally figured out the problem), but then, even though it said I was connected to the 'net, I still couldn't actually DO anything. Couldn't pull up any websites, couldn't access my email account, nothing. I just kept getting an error message that said "We are not programmed to respond in that area." (Name THAT pop culture reference!) Ok, really it said "Can't find server" but isn't the other more interesting? By the time I realized the new router and ethernet card weren't going to fix the problem, it was Sunday. Three guesses how much 'puter help is available in rural Kentucky on a Sunday. If you guessed "not much" you win a sparkly gold star and a spotted pony! (Both virtual, of course.) Anyway, finally an hour or so ago a couple of guys from my 'net server showed up and hooked my 'puter up to their laptop. They unplugged and replugged various wires and cords, and shook their heads and looked puzzled, and muttered arcane incantations and then rearranged some more wires, and monkeyed around with some of my programs - which nearly gave me fits because I am a total control freak when it comes to how my 'puter is set up - and finally pronounced the problem solved, although I am less than convinced that they ever truly figured out what the problem really WAS in the first place. I think they just got lucky. Not that I'm knocking luck. Heh. We shall see in the coming days exactly what they did and if I can live with it. But by that point I SO wanted my 'net service back that I was pretty much willing to let them sacrifice a live chicken and paint my keyboard with blood while singing Barry Manilow songs if that's what it took. So. Here I am! Hi! :-) I am, of course, hopelessly behind on my usual 'net activities. So other than telling you guys where I disappeared to for the better part of three days, I'm just going to post three days worth of Daily Art Thangs, all taken with the new camera. (Be kind, I'm still learning!) Saturday's DAT: "Goldenrod 2" Sunday's DAT: "Mr. Stripey" Today's DAT: "End of Summer" (All these are clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window)

Stuff you never knew you wanted to know

2006-09-22T09:09:00.000-04:00

I first saw this meme on Jen's blog and then shortly afterward, Julie sent it to me. So here's a bunch of possibly interesting (but probably NOT!) stuff you never knew you wanted to know about me. I enjoy answering these things and I enjoy reading others' answers, so if you want to play along, tell me so in comments and you can consider yourself officially tagged. If you don't want to play along, well...ok, FINE. I don't mind being sad. SniffSniff. (Bonus points if you know where the quote "I don't mind being sad" comes from!) 1. FIRST NAME? Deborah 2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? I was named after a character in "The Silver Chalice" by Thomas Costain. 3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? The last time I got a little weepy was when I read Tammy's SPC entry for this week. The last time I flat-out cried? I honestly don't remember. I don't do that very often, which is good because crying gives me a horrible headache and generally pisses me off. 4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? No, not at all. It's ugly and nearly illegible. 5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? I'm not much of a lunchmeat fan, but if I had to choose a favorite - either ham or hard salami. It's a toss-up. 6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I would like me, but I'm not sure Myself and I would be close friends simply because I am not very good at ALL at initiating contact. I seldom make phone calls because I always feel like I'm bothering people when I do. I'm so far out in the boonies that it rarely occurs to me to invite anyone over because I assume they won't want to slog all the way out here. I enjoy hanging out with my friends and talking to them, but as a rule most of my friends are MUCH better about contacting me than I am about contacting them. They pretty much have to be. So Myself and I would probably both be wondering why the other one never called or visited until we eventually drifted apart. (Damn, that sucks of me. I need to work on this issue!!) 7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Nope, I was never any good at all about keeping up with a paper journal, which is why it amazes me that I like to blog. 8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes 9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Maybe. Depends on the circumstances. 10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Smart Start Healthy Heart cereal (or Heart Healthy...I always forget which). I like to top it with either fresh or dried fruit. 11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No. 12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Physically? Not particularly. Emotionally? Reasonably so. 13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Pecan Praline (or is it Praline Pecan? I can never remember that either!) 14. SHOE SIZE? 8 or 8.5, depending on the shoes 15. FAVORITE COLOR? Red. No, orange. No, blue. Or maybe green. Or, no, um,what was the question? 16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? A lack of focus 17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My mom 18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Well, to answer on their blogs, sure, that'd be great! 19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Blue (dark wash) jeans and Granny Smith Apple-Green nubuck clogs 20. LAST THING YOU ATE? A bowl of cereal (see #10!) 21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The hum of the computer, rain on the roof. 22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Red! 23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Vanilla, cinnamon, lilacs, freshly-cut grass, the air after a rain, basil, baking bread, my husband's hair right after a shower 24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Johnny, when he called from town yesterday to ask if I wanted him to bring home lunch. 25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU'RE ATTRACTED TO? Their smile. 26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Yes, both of them, very much! I've actually met Julie in person once (and would love to again!) and hope to meet Jen someday. 27. FAVORITE DRINK? Margarita, rocks, extra salt; or ice water with a slice of lemon or lime 28. FAVORITE SPORT? Competitive book or shoe shopping. Heh. 29. EYE COLOR? Blue 30. HAT SIZE? Hats have sizes? 31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Used to, for more than 20 years, but reluctantly gave them up and switched to full-time glasses use earlier this year when I decided contacts just weren't working well for me anymore. I still miss them. 32. FAVORITE FOOD? Seafood! No, pasta. Or maybe cookies! Or oooooh, a big bowl of fresh berries. Wait a minute, I've lost track of the question again. 33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy endings. Real Life is scary enough. I don't need it in my movies. 34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Granny Smith Apple-Green ribbed Henley 35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer, although I don't care much for either. I'm a Spring-and-Fall kinda woman. 36. HUGS OR KISSES? Damn, that's a hard one! I'd hate to have to choose only one forever, but if I HAD to, I guess I'd take hugs. 37. FAVORITE DESSERT? I don't have a single favorite. It depends on my mood. I like most desserts, unfortunately for my waistline! 38. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? I'm currently re-reading an old Barbara Michaels book (a ghost story) called "The Crying Child." 39. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Some boring photo of raindrops or water spots or something and the word "Allsop" 40. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Survivor: Cook Islands, Grey's Anatomy, ER 41. FAVORITE SOUNDS? moving water of any kind - the ocean, a stream moving over rocks, waterfalls, fountains; laughter (KIND laughter, not the cruel mocking sort); the wind blowing through leaves 42. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Stones 43. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Hawaii 44. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Remembering utterly useless trivia while managing to forget lots of useful and relevant information. 45. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Cincinnati, Ohio 46. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I already told you that. Pay attention! Sheesh! 47. NEWEST THING YOU'VE TRIED? I'm drawing a complete and total blank here! Guess I need to try something new soon so I have a better answer to this question than "uuuhhhh...." 48. ONE THING YOU'D CHANGE ABOUT YOURSELF: I'd manage my time better 49. WHO DID YOU LAST SEND A LETTER OR CARD TO? Morven 50. WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT IN THE WORLD IF MONEY WAS NO OBJECT? New Zealand or almost anyplace in Europe DAT: "Goldenrod" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Poetry Thursday: a Letter

2006-09-21T09:18:00.000-04:00

This is yet another week where I'm ignoring the prompt for Poetry Thursday and just posting a poem that spoke to me instead. When I ran across the poem I'm sharing today, it reminded me just a little of one of the first things I ever posted for PT, an odd little poem called "Eve and Medusa." This is another odd little poem about characters from history or myth (depending on what version of history you believe), told from an unusual point of view. Somehow it feels very timely to me, a sort of social or political commentary in the form of a simple letter. Love Letter Dear Samson, I put your hair in a jar by the pear tree near the well. I been thinkin' over what I done and I still don't think God gave you all that strength for you to kill my people. Love - Delilah ~~~Carole E. Gregory "Shades of Gray" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) You can find links to more poetry by clicking on the link in the first paragraph.

Yep, that's personal all right!

2006-09-20T00:50:00.000-04:00

Hey, y'all. It's Wednesday and I have no more letters to turn into WordPlay. Aaarrrggghhh! I miss it! I had something else in mind to post today for my first PostWordPlay Wednesday, but I was gone most of the day Tuesday, first running errands (like grocery shopping, HoHum) and then helping J with a project, so I ran out of time and will have to save that for another day. I have two itty-bitty things to share and we'll call it a wrap. The first is something I got in the mail Monday and when I saw what it said I started laughing and I showed it to J and told him, "I am SO blogging this." Take a look: I wish I could tell you what was inside, but I can't. After I scanned it I threw it away without opening it, since it was obviously VERY important to the sender that this oh-so-PERSONAL message be opened by the addressee only and my name is neither "Postal Customer" nor "Current Resident." Oh well, I guess we'll never know what they wanted. I'll be brooding about this for...Hey! Guess what else! I bought a new camera! I concluded that there is no such thing as my perfect camera yet, just as I suspected. But after both Jennifer and Deirdre recommended this camera, I had a look at it and ended up deciding to buy it. (Not at that website though. I found it cheaper elsewhere.) I'm still keeping my 4 MP, weather-resistant, Olympus point-n-shoot camera. It's not as tiny as some on the market, but it's definitely small enough to be considered pocket size and I'm used to how it works, so it'll still be a great option for when I need something small and rugged. The new one is larger, but still reasonably compact and it has a lot more options in terms of being able to manually adjust the camera settings and being able to add lenses later if I want. Once I figure out its tricks, it should be a good camera to take a wider range of shots than I can with my Olympus, but it doesn't have either the bulk or the hefty price tag of a true DSLR. I just hope the memory cards I ordered (from a different place than where I got the camera) arrive soon because the measly one that came with the camera holds a grand total of four - count 'em!...1, 2, 3, 4!...photos. Woo. Hoo. Today's DAT is the best of the first four I took. Please realize that "best" is relative. This is not a great photo and not something I'd normally post as a DAT, but I can see that once I learn to use it properly I might be able to get some really good photos with this thing. In this photo, I was trying to keep the poke plant in the foreground in focus and the background soft. It worked pretty well, considering I took the photo from several feet away in kind of crappy light. "Poke Plant" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: With Someone, Week 3 - Amber

2006-09-19T00:22:00.000-04:00

The September theme for the Self-Portrait Challenge is "With Someone" and the instructions are to "...include someone else in your self portrait. Someone meaningful to your life or to the moment or to a specific event that you wish to document." When I married Johnny, who comes from a large family (8 brothers and sisters!), I became an instant aunt, and even (gulp) a great-aunt to nieces and nephews ranging from young children to adults with kids of their own. But when my brother's oldest child, Amber, was born, that was the first time I got to know a niece or nephew right from the very first day they came into the world. I'd have adored Amber anyway, but it turns out we have a lot in common. She's an artist and a movie buff, and she loves cute shoes, sparkly jewelry, and other girly stuff. She's smart and adventurous, and she has a wicked sense of humor and likes to sing karaoke. I always have a great time around her (and her dad and brother!). So today I want to share a self-portrait collage of me with my niece, Amber. "Self-Portrait with Amber" From the top: Me holding Amber (and a teddy bear I bought for her) a couple of days after she was born, Christmas about a year and a half later, the results of Amber getting into my make-up bag and painting both our faces a few years later, the two of us at my house a couple of months ago. (Clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) I'd love to do one of these with my nephew Josh too (my brother's younger child) but it's wicked hard to get a photo of him these days. I mostly have some great shots of his hand in front of his face and the back of his head. Ahem. You can find links to more self-portraits here.

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #27

2006-09-18T00:21:00.000-04:00

1. Tomorrow be Talk Like a Pirate Day! ARR! Since tomorrow be Self-Portrait Challenge day too, I've decided ta celebrate a day earrly. If ye want ta get in the spirit o' things ye can go ta this here website 'n' find out more. Er if ye really want ta get in the spirit o' things ye can do what I'm about ta do 'n' go ta this here website ta ha' yer blog post translated into Pirate lingo. Shiver me timbers! If ye don't want ta speak Pirate, it says the site will also translate into Goth, Superhero, 'n' more. Maybe I'll try those another day. 2. Be it no wonder me asparragus plants always look like the tops be chewed out o' them? (photo taken in me aft yarrd) 3. Blow the man down. Don't ye hate it when ye needs be admit ye might needs be change yer mind about something? Me matey Nancy be a HUGE fan o' Bob Dylan. I be most decidely not. This chair be high says I! I've always thought he was a terrific chanteywriter, but ha' never been able ta stand his voice. Me matey Morven summed it up perfectly fer me when she said, "'Everybody Must Get Stoned' ain't just a chantey title, it's a suggestion fer how ta enjoy hearrin' him sing." ARR! So imagine me surprise when I got a package in the mail last week from Nancy 'n' that package contained this here CD along with a note that said "Please give Bob a chance. ARR! I'm a pirate! This here be his new album 'n' it's fab! This here be me campaign ta change yer mind." Imagine me even greater surprise when (after rollin' me deadlights 'n' thinkin' "yeah, right"), I popped the CD into the player 'n' starrted ta listen 'n' discovered I didn't hate it. Really! I'm not goin' ta claim I love it so much I'm ready ta go out 'n' starrt buyin' 'n' playin' All-Bob All-The-Time er anything, but I find this here parrticularr collection pretty darrn listenable. Avast me hearty mateys! Go. ARR! I'm a pirate! Figure. Thanks, Nan! I think. ARR! Heh. 4. Daily Arrt Thang: "Bless this here Nest" I promise I'll belay talkin' like a pirate tomorrow. Avast me hearty mateys! Well, mostly anyway.

"This is Chick-Lit"

2006-09-17T09:45:00.000-04:00

I received a very interesting book in the mail not long ago - a book of short stories called "This is Chick-Lit." It turns out that last year there was a book of short stories published called "This is Not Chick Lit." I'd never heard of that book until I found out about this one, and I'm not sure I'd have bought it if I HAD heard of it, since I think defining something by what it isn't is a bit absurd. Couldn't that book just as accurately have been named "This is Not Science Fiction" or "This is Not 18th Century Romantic Poetry" or "This is Not a Treatise on Quantum Physics?" (Although I will admit to a bit of curiosity about that book now that I've read this one. It would be interesting to compare the two.) Anyway, the book "This is Chick-Lit" is a collection of short stories written and compiled as a response to the previously mentioned book, by a group of women writers who write chick-lit and are proud of it. I thought the introduction to the book was fascinating, as it turns out this is a debate that has raged since long before the term "chick lit" was ever coined. The editor quotes a letter written by Charlotte Bronte in 1848, in which she bemoans the popularity and critical acclaim of books written by a Miss Jane Austen, saying she doesn't understand their appeal and finds Ms. Austen merely "shrewd and observant." Um, yeah, ok. You know, if the very worst thing someone could find to say about ME was that I'm shrewd and observant I'd count myself as having done pretty well in life. In a similar vein, one of the criticisms frequently leveled at the genre known as chick lit is that it consists "merely" of stories written by, for, and about women. Well again, I'd say....yeah, so? What's wrong with that? Why are we, as women, so frequently hard on ourselves and on each other? I bet if there was a name for books written by, for, and about men you wouldn't have a bunch of men saying that's a bad thing. IMO, there ARE books out there written by, for, and about men, but they're just called "books." Sigh. It's hard to debate a thing if you don't stick a label on it first, yes? Anyway, on to the book itself. On the whole, I liked it. It was an interesting cross-section of writers and stories. As with any short story anthology, I think some stories worked better than others. Short stories can be a tricky bit of writing to do correctly. They need to be an engaging slice of life so that you want to know what happens to the characters, but they shouldn't feel like the writer tried to compress an entire novel's worth of story into just a few pages. Some of these stories managed that balancing act quite well, some not so much. There were, unfortunately, several stories that felt to me more like the Cliff's Notes version of novels rather than true short stories. They weren't bad, but they made me feel a bit rushed and cheated, and left me wishing the writers had developed these stories into novellas or full-length novels instead. And there were a few stories in the book that simply didn't appeal to me. They were well-written, but not to my personal taste. Again though, I find that in almost every short story anthology I've ever read. But at least half the stories in the book were true short stories and quite good ones at that. Some of my favorites include "Shell Game" by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, a story that effectively turns a nursery rhyme into a grown-up cautionary tale; "Trash Talk" by Karin Gillespie; "Meeting Cute" by Andrea Schicke Hirsch; "Secret Agent Chick" by Raelynn Hillhouse; and my personal favorite of the collection, "Cafe con Leche Crush" by Heather Swain, a slice-of-life story that is exactly what a short story should be. "This is Chick-Lit" is a book I'm glad I read. My grade for it: a solid B. Today's Daily Art Thang: "Orange Wings" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Hanging out in Trees

2006-09-16T09:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry to be very US-centric for a moment here and talk about something that probably isn't airing in other countries, but how many of you have been watching "Men in Trees" on TV this week? Somehow this one slipped right past my radar when I was hearing talk of new shows for the fall season and the pilot episode was over before I heard about it. Luckily, they re-aired the pilot last night, as well as the next episode in the series, and I've just got to say so far I'm lovin' it! It's about a writer of relationship advice books who discovers, while on her way to Elmo, Alaska, for a speaking gig, that her fiance is cheating on her. She calls the wedding off and decides that, despite her successful books, she really doesn't understand men at all. So she decides to stay in Elmo for a while, where the ratio of men to women is 10 to 1, to see if she can figure out this strange species called "men" (and of course write a book about it). There are inevitably going to be comparisons to "Northern Exposure" (a show I loved), but so far I think MiT is holding it's own. I may be judging too quickly with having only seen two episodes, but so far for me the quirk factor is just exactly right. So if you like quirk and you haven't checked this one out, I recommend it. In my area, it's on Friday at 9 PM. And just because it's the weekend and I'm a QuizSlut, here's one to help you figure out the strange species called "Deb."

Your Personality Cluster is Introverted Feeling

You are: Tolerant, flexible, and open to new ideas. A stickler for integrity and authenticity. Passionate about causes, beliefs, or politics. Likely to have many "best friends" from many walks of life.

What's Your Personality Cluster?

DAT: "Stacks"

It's Fashion-ating

2006-09-15T01:11:00.000-04:00

I got this meme from Susannah who also asked to see a photo of what we were wearing 10 years ago. I can't find a single photo of me from 10 years ago in anything but jeans and a sweater or t-shirt (and not many of those photos) so I'm going to get in the WayBackMachine and share a photo from 20 years ago instead. It's funnier anyway. This was taken in November of 1986 just a few days after I met Johnny. I claim full responsibility for the outfit, but that is not and never was my butt-ugly sofa! (FWIW, it wasn't J's sofa either. It's in a university dorm lobby...long story.) What has been your biggest fashion indulgence? In terms of quantity, shoes and lingerie. In terms of really splurging on a single item, probably either my red suede cowboy boots, which I've worn until they're practically falling apart, or the champagne-colored silk evening dress that I bought early last year and have only worn once. It's not like I have an evening dress sort of lifestyle, but I fell in love with that dress and just had to have it. It's so Jean Harlow! See: What is your signature scent? Soap. I'm super-sensitive to artificial fragrances and can't wear perfume without choking. Back many years ago when I still could wear perfume (sigh...) I used to love Shalimar. What was your biggest fashion mistake? Letting people convince me during the last leggings-and-tunic fashion craze (that seems to be coming back....bah, humbug!) that someone with my figure could wear that look without appearing to be pregnant. So. NOT. True. And no, I'm not sharing a photo. What item(s) do you never travel without? A book, cell phone, dental floss, wintergreen TicTacs, a small powder compact, lipstick, sunglasses, a ponytail band to get my hair off my face and neck if it's driving me nuts. What was the last film you saw? Not sure how this relates to fashion, but what the heck. In the cinema: "Snakes on a Plane" At home on DVD: "Take the Lead" What beauty products do you swear by? John Freeda silkening creme to defrizz my hair, Neutrogena tinted moisturizer with sunscreen for a little help smoothing out my skin tone without feeling like full-out foundation (which I hate) What is on your iPod? I don't have an iPod. I know, shocking! Want to know what's even more shocking? I have absolutely no interest in getting one. I dunno, maybe I just don't know what I'm missing, but that's ok. If I don't know then I won't want to spend the money to get one. :-) What was the last item of clothing you bought? A pair of jeans. To be more specific, a pair of jeans that's already going out of style because they're a mid-rise boot-cut instead of a skinny-leg jean. But I love my mid-rise boot-cuts and I'm clinging to them for as long as I can find them in stores. HA! Where do you buy your lingerie? Sometimes Victoria's Secret. I like the way their "Body by Victoria" line fits. Sometimes Target. Their Gillian & O'Malley (??) line is very similar to the BbV line and waaaaay less expensive. And in an underwear emergency I'll buy it anyplace I have to, including the dreaded WalMart. And don't tell me you don't know what an underwear emergency is. If you've never had one you've lived way too sheltered a life. Which shop(s) couldn't you live without? Fashion-related you mean? None, really. I have good luck finding clothes at Target (and wish we had one closer to where I live). Locally I get quite a few things at a clothing store called Goody's. I like a few others too, but there's no particular one I'm super-loyal to. I tend to shop low-end for a lot of clothes because I get bored with them and I want stuff that's inexpensive enough that I don't feel guilty about getting rid of after a season or two, although I'll spring for nicer things if I expect to get several years wear out of them - things like boots and coats. Thanks, Susannah, that was fun, even if there was nothing at all high fashion about my answers! :-) DAT: "Streak of Gold" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Poetry Thursday: Thoughts on Life

2006-09-14T10:10:00.000-04:00

This week I'm ignoring (for now) the prompt for Poetry Thursday, although I may revisit it at some time. The idea - to try to write a poem as if I was someone else - sounds fascinating and I can't wait to see what other people do with it. I was reading a poetry anthology earlier this week and kept finding myself drawn to some very brief verses and gradually realized that many of the ones I was drawn to had a couple of things in common. They were older poems with more formal rhyme schemes, and they had to do with attitudes toward life. So I want to share three of these today because somehow in my mind they all sort of go together. Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone, Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in your own. ~~~Adam Lindsay Gordon Bitter-Sweet Ah my dear angry Lord, Since thou dost love, yet strike; Cast down, yet help afford; Sure I will do the like. I will complain, yet praise; I will bewail, approve; And all my sour-sweet days I will lament, and love. ~~~George Herbert An Epilogue I have seen flowers come in stony places And kind things done by men with ugly faces, And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races, So I trust, too. ~~~John Masefield "Ephemeral" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) You can find links to more poetry here.

Z is for...

2006-09-13T00:34:00.000-04:00

Time for my final WordPlay Personal Dictionary Entry! If you want to know more about how and why I started doing this series of posts, read my "A is for..." entry. If you want to see a list of more people doing the same thing, check out Laume's WordPlay site. I've loved doing this series so much. Thanks for the prompt, Laume! I have no idea what I'm going to write about on Wednesdays after this week. Oh well, anyway, here we go with one final round of WordPlay... Z is for... Zenna (Henderson) - A classic SciFi writer I really like. She wrote a series of interconnected short stories about some alien refugees who landed on Earth years ago and how they and their descendants try to fit in and make new lives here. I've lost count of how many times I've read those stories. Zinnias - Z-plant I like. Bright, cheerful, easy to grow - they only way they'd be better is if they were fragrant. Zappo's (aka ShoeMecca) - An amazing place for shoe addicts to browse, dream, and possibly buy. Zebras - Proof that God likes interesting design. Zucchini - Z-food I like many different ways, including zucchini bread and zucchini pie. Zodiac - A topic that interests me. Zinc - I swear by the zinc products you spray or swab up your nose to get rid of cold symptoms! Zeus - One of my favorite exclamations (blatantly stolen from my favorite-ever episode of BtVS) is "Merciful Zeus!" Zaftig - Something I am. Isn't it a lot more fun and exotic-sounding to say zaftig than some of the other words used to describe extremely curvy women? Zig-Zag - A design motif I like a lot! Zesty, Zeal, Zip, Zoom! - Z-words I like. "Z is for..." (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

A Birthday Shout-Out

2006-09-12T09:50:00.000-04:00

I wanted to send a big fat online birthday wish to my friend kristen d. Happy birthday, kristen! I hope it's wonderful!! If you want to wish kristen happy birthday too, you can visit her at Ardent Peace. I bet you'll be glad you did!

SPC: With Someone, Week 2 - Four Generations

2006-09-12T00:03:00.000-04:00

The September theme for the Self-Portrait Challenge is "With Someone" and the instructions are to "...include someone else in your self portrait. Someone meaningful to your life or to the moment or to a specific event that you wish to document." This is one month I wish had more Tuesdays as I'm having a terrible time choosing who to feature! There are so many people who are special in my life and I don't want to leave any of them out. Maybe I'll do some bonus "self-portraits with..." on other days besides Tuesday, just for fun. But anyway, for this week I want to share a photo of me as a baby with my mom, Mom's mother, and Grandma's parents - four generations of family on one sofa. My parents were young when they married (both of them were 20 years old) and I'm an oldest child, so I was lucky enough to have all four of my grandparents still around when I was growing up and even five out of eight of my great-grandparents were still alive when I was born, although they all died when I was still quite young. I have vague memories of three of them, especially my great-grandma Elliot seen in the far left of this photo. One of the reasons I love this picture is the story my mom told me about my great-grandpa's reaction to it. He'd show it to people and tell them, "This is my daughter, and this is my granddaughter, and this is my great-granddaughter and she's the grandest of them all." I wish I remembered him more. Everyone should be "the grandest of them all" to someone. "Four Generations: MaryLindy, Ace, Erna, Anita and Deb" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) And here's a bonus photo just because it's another of my favorites from my childhood. This is a photo of me (on the right, in the blue dress) and my cousin Michael (on the left, in the red pants) sitting on my Grandpa M's lap. (Grandpa M was Mom's dad.) Michael and I are almost the same age so whenever we got to see each other we were nearly always either best of friends or worst of enemies. I'll give you one guess about the state of things in this photo. From the way my grandpa is eyeing me like he has a loaded grenade on his lap, I'm guessing I got the blame for instigating whatever had just happened, but I'm sure that can't be right. Surely that sweet little girl in the blue dress could do no wrong. Ahem. "BabyWars" (I'm counting these photos as my DATs for today, since they were both damaged and I used Photoshop to restore them.)

Arty-Facts (Ok, more like Arty-Opinions)

2006-09-11T00:11:00.000-04:00

Thank you for all camera advice yesterday, y'all! It was much appreciated and you gave me some more things to think about and to look at. I'll let you know if I get something! Several weeks ago, Laume created an art meme on her studio blog and I'm finally getting around to sharing some of my answers. I made a few changes, as the meme was quite long, so I combined a few questions and eliminated a couple others but here are my answers to the slightly revised version of Laume's Arty Meme. Favorite artists: I'm not going to list textile artists, as I listed several of those a few weeks ago in response to a question, but regarding non-textile artists some of my favorites include Cezanne, Escher, Gaugin, Hopper, Kahlo, Magritte, Manet, Matisse, Modigliani, O'Keefe, Parrish, Sargent, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh. (I'm sure I'm forgetting some!) Favorite art styles: Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; Early Renaissance, Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Surrealism, the Ashcan school, Outsider art, some Pop art. Again, I'm sure I'm leaving some out of that list. I like a LOT of different styles. I once wrote a fascinating (NOT!) term paper on the artistic merits of ancient Greek pottery for an art history class. I wrote another comparing the artistic careers of Rembrandt and Picasso (yes, I really did). And my favorite term paper was a little gem entitled "Marcel Duchamp's 'Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2': Its Significance as Related to Cubism and Futurism." (The title, while an accurate reflection of the topic, was my attempt to deliberately be as pretentious as possible - my idea of a little joke. I don't think anyone else got it. But I got an A on the paper.) Favorite Mediums: To work in myself - Fabric, pencil, oils, photographs, paper or digital collage, mixed media assemblage. For other people's work I like to see art work in all mediums. (Well, ok, except maybe things like so-called art made with bodily wastes and rotting garbage. I totally don't get the concept of using those sorts of things as art.) If you were given the opportunity to change all the artwork in your home for new, would you? No. As much as I love the idea of acquiring some new artwork, I have pieces in my home I wouldn't want to give up. Have you ever won a prize or award for your work? Yes Have you ever sold your art work? Yes Have you ever given away your art work? Yes Favorite colors: If you mean to work with, I tend to gravitate strongly toward water colors (blues, greens, purples) and toward 'most any bright clear colors. I'm not a fan of pastels or dunduggity colors with lots of grey in them ("country" colors), although I like true earth tones - the darker, warmer versions that don't have lots of grey. Where do you get your inspiration? From the Inspiration Fairy, of course! Doesn't everyone? Ok, seriously, I don't know. It could be from anything - a phrase in a book, a photograph, a color scheme in an ad, a shape I see somewhere around me, a dream. What are you currently working on? Answering this meme. :-) If you could own one famous work of art, what would it be? Ooooh, that's hard. There's lots I love. The first one I thought of was "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper, so that's what I'll go with. When should I get a wall ready?? Or if that one isn't available, I'd gladly take pretty much anything by Van Gogh, although I'm particularly partial to "The Starry Night", "The Night Cafe", and "Bedroom in Arles." Would you want to make your living as an artist, or prefer to keep money out of the creative process? Well gee, if I could just make what I want to make and people wanted to throw money at me for it, that would be wonderful (hey, I can dream!). But I don't like doing commissions and I'm not a huge fan of teaching classes. (I might like teaching classes if people would READ the frickin' supply lists and prep instructions - if any - and come prepared, but sadly for every half-dozen who do there's at least one who doesn't and they drive me NUTS.) What kind of atmosphere do you create best in? Quiet. I don't like noise (even background noise like music or TV) and I don't like interruptions. Of course this being real life, I don't always get uninterrupted quiet in which to create, but that's what I like best. Do you use/control your muse or does your muse use/control you? Despite my fondness for the horrid movie "Xanadu", I don't believe in muses. UhOh! Maybe that's why I haven't been too creative lately. Maybe I'm wrong and I DO have a muse but I've pissed her off by not believing. Yikes! (Her? Him? Are muses always female? Hhhmmm....) Maybe I'd better work on that belief thing. "I DO believe in muses, I DO believe in muses, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I DO believe in muses." (Name that mangled movie quote!) Since I chose "Nighthawks" as the famous artwork I'd most like to own, I thought I'd put my own little spin on it for today's DAT. "Self-Portrait with Johnny in the Nighthawks Diner" (Ok, not my best effort. But I didn't promise a daily masterpiece, only a daily attempt at some sort of creative effort.) If you want to do this meme on your blog, just tell me so in comments and you can consider yourself officially tagged! (And of course you can comment without considering yourself tagged too. I love it when people just pop over and say hello.)

I've Got a Fever and There's Only One Cure (No, not More Cowbell)*

2006-09-10T10:11:00.000-04:00

I've been having symptoms for weeks and trying to ignore them and pretend they'll go away, but it's no use, y'all. I have a full-blown case of New Camera Fever. While not fatal, this condition is annoying to someone with obsessive tendencies (who, moi?) and results in spending all too much time on sites like DP Review and C-Net and ePinions. Sadly, I've come to the conclusion that the camera I want does not yet exist although, being an optimist, I have a faint hope that maybe someday it will. Still, I thought I'd talk a little about my New Camera Dream here because a) how does the Universe know what to manifest for me if I don't ask for what I want, and b) some of you might know something I don't. Here's what I love about the camera I own now, an Olympus Stylus 410:

It's compact enough to slide into a pocket or small purse
It's weather-resistant. The Stylus line has gaskets and a special interior lining which means that (unlike the VAST majority of digital cameras, that are super-sensitive to moisture) you can stand in pouring rain taking photos and not ruin the camera. I've even heard of people taking these cameras into shallow water without ruining them, although Olympus specifically says not to and I've never had the nerve to try it.
It has great battery life. I can get a LOT of shots before I have to recharge.
It has a few nice perks like a self-timer and remote shutter release
It was quite affordable
It's Olympus and I'm a big fan of the brand. I've been using Olympus cameras for about 15 years and am currently on both my second Olympus film camera and my second Olympus digital.

Here's what I don't love about my current camera:

It's only 4 MP, which is adequate, but I want more - at least 7 MP
It only has a 3X optical zoom and I'd like more (It has the digital boost thing for the zoom that most digital cameras have, but I never use it as it pretty much sucks in terms of image quality)
The macro function on it sucks rocks. If I try to close in tighter than about a foot away, the focus is totally wrong. I want the ability to get in with a way tighter focus than I can with this camera.
It's not great in low light conditions either, although I've learned to compensate for that somewhat if I can set up a shot using a small tripod. But if I'm shooting on the fly in low light, most of the shots are a bust.
It has a mode menu where you can tell the camera to adjust for certain conditions (like low light or glare) but no true manual controls.

So here's what I want and believe does not currently exist in DigitalCameraLand:

Compact size (both small and light weight)
Weather resistance so I can take photos in the rain or next to a misty waterfall and still have a functional camera instead of an expensive paperweight
7 MP or more of resolution
Really good macro ability
Better than 3X optical zoom
Decent performance in low light conditions
Good battery life
The ability to override the auto functions and take photos with the "wrong" settings for artistic effect
Use-friendly menus and button placement
An affordable price (in my terms that means $400 or less)

Now is that too much to ask?? From the research I've done so far, apparently so but hey, my wish is now out there in the Universe, so maybe it will manifest itself before I settle for less. And maybe someone out there who knows something I don't will see my wish list and come up with a recommendation! Today's DAT is a photo where I would have loved to see what I could do with a better macro function: "Under the Peonies" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) *In case anyone doesn't get the pop culture reference in the subject line, it's a take-off on this famous SNL comedy sketch.

Air and Water

2006-09-09T10:10:00.000-04:00

Even though I usually save the silly quizzes for Sunday, I've got nothin' today, so a quiz it is. (Hey, that rhymes!)

Your Element Is Air

You dislike conflict, and you've been able to rise above the angst of the world. And when things don't go your way, you know they'll blow over quickly. Easygoing, you tend to find joy from the simple things in life. You roll with the punches, and as a result, your life is light and cheerful. You find it easy to adapt to most situations, and you're an open person. With you, what you see is what you get... and people love that!

What's Your Element?

I'm not sure I entirely agree with the description, but parts of it are right and I find it interesting because astrologically speaking my rising sign is Aquarius (an air sign) and I also have several planets in Aquarius. I have a lot of water in my chart too and really expected my test result to say my element was water. I'd love to read that description if anyone decides to take the quiz and post it. Speaking of water (I loooooves me some smooth segues! HA!), yesterday Amy (The Calico Cat) sent me a fabulous photo she took in Australia and asked if I could make it more abstract using Photoshop Elements. She said I could use the results as a Daily Art Thang if I wanted, so that's what I'm doing. Here's the original photo: "London Bridge" by Amy P And here are a couple of the things I did with it, one Amy requested: "London Bridge Abstracted" and one I did for myself, just for fun: "Moon Bridge" Maybe I'll have more to say tomorrow. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Random Items from the Junk Drawer of my Mind #26

2006-09-08T00:12:00.000-04:00

1. For all of you who love to read as much as I do, I highly recommend this book: "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen I started reading it Wednesday morning and thought hhmmm, this seems like it could be interesting. I read a little more and thought wow, this IS interesting. I read a little more and got so caught up in the story I forgot to think about how interested I was. I read every spare minute that day and then sat up an hour past when I meant to go to bed Wednesday night because I couldn't stand to wait until the next day to see how it ended. And when I read the last line of the last page I had a smile on my lips and tears in my eyes. I see it's gotten mostly positive reviews on Amazon but a few not-so-good, so I can't promise you'll all like it, but I loved it. I really did. When I read the negative reviews I was left feeling like they read an entirely different book than I did. This is one I'll be reading again in the future. 2. Happy Birthday, Grandpa Keeton! My only remaining grandparent (Dad's dad) is having his 88th birthday today, which means for the next 6 months he's exactly twice my age. I know he doesn't read RSR, but I'll say it anyway. (The photo is Grandpa holding me when we were both quite a few years younger than we are today.) 3. Today's Daily Art Thang: "Chicory" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Poetry Thursday: Blue on Blue

2006-09-07T07:59:00.000-04:00

The prompt at Poetry Thursday this week is Blue - the color, the mood, whatever blue means to us. One of the first things I thought of when I heard the prompt is the sky and flying, in particular the poem "High Flight" with its glorious phrase "Up, up the long delirious, burning blue" but I already posted that poem. My second thought was of Mary Oliver's poem "Blue Iris." And that's what I decided to share this week. I love this poem so much! I hope you like it too. Blue Iris Now that I'm free to be myself, who am I? Can't fly, can't run, and see how slowly I walk. Well, I think, I can read books. "What's that you're doing?" the green-headed fly shouts as it buzzes past. I close the book. Well, I can write down words, like these, softly. "What's that you're doing?" whispers the wind, pausing in a heap just outside the window. Give me a little time, I say back to its staring, silver face. It doesn't happen all of a sudden, you know. "Doesn't it?" says the wind, and breaks open, releasing distillation of blue iris. And my heart panics not to be, as I long to be, the empty, waiting, pure, speechless receptacle. ~~~Mary Oliver "Blue Iris Dream" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

Y is for...

2006-09-06T00:21:00.000-04:00

Time for another WordPlay Personal Dictionary Entry! If you want to know more about how and why I started doing this series of posts, read my "A is for..." entry. If you want to see a list of more people doing the same thing, check out Laume's WordPlay site. Now here we go... Y is for... Yahtzee - A game I like to play, both in real life and on the computer. It's a fun moment when all five dice turn up the same number and I get to yell "Yahtzee!" Yellow flowers - I love all colors of flowers, but if I had to choose a favorite flower color, I'd choose yellow. Yellow flowers look like little bits of sunshine that have landed on earth. Yarn (the kind you knit or crochet) - I'm a bad, BAD knitter, but I do it anyway because I so love all the fuzzy, floofy, frivolous (and sometimes sparkly!) novelty yarns that are out right now. I make scarf after scarf after scarf. Some I give away, but you can see from the collage that I've also kept quite a few. Yarn (a story) - I also like the phrase "spinning a yarn" to describe telling stories. To me, that phrase brings to mind the image of myths, legends, and folk tales handed down through the generations by the light of a fire on a dark night. (The book I show in the collage below is about a storyteller.) Yogurt - One of my favorite things to have for breaksfast. I like the kind with the fruit on the bottom, not blended. And I like it with sugar, not artificial sweetener (bleah). And I like sprinkling a little granola on top. My favorite flavors are peach and mixed berry. Yum!, Yikes!, Yay! - Y-words I say a lot. (And yes, they all have to have the exclamation marks after them.) Yes - A Y-word I like to hear people say to me. :-) "Y is for..." (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)

SPC: September, Week 1 - With Johnny

2006-09-05T00:10:00.000-04:00

The September theme for the Self-Portrait Challenge is "With Someone" and the instructions are to "...include someone else in your self portrait. Someone meaningful to your life or to the moment or to a specific event that you wish to document." So naturally I have to start the month by sharing a self-portrait with my DearestDarlin'OnlyOne, a.k.a. my husband, a.k.a. Johnny, a.k.a. J. I chose to share a glimpse into some of my favorite moments with J - the quiet moments alone. Edited to add: In case anyone else wonders, as Janet did, what the heck we're holding in the top left photo, it's a peeled pear. We have several apple and pear trees along one side of our driveway and one of the things J does when we go for walks together and the fruit is ripe is to pick an apple or pear and he'll peel it and slice it for us to share as we walk. He would probably just eat it as-is if he was alone, but he knows I'm grossed out (almost to the point of phobic) by fruit and/or veggie skins (it's a texture thing!). So even though he thinks it's silly, he indulges me by peeling it before we share it, because he loves me. :-) "Self-Portrait with Johnny" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)