Music Monday + food news heehee

John Denver, "Annie's Song"



He used to be so cool before he got bitten by an Aspen.  You know, Gated communities and such; Bob Wahr. Happy New Year's Eve, all you people who love the John Denver.  There's room for all things in the Universe of Music, even in slides up (or down) the scale and little bandito chords out of tempo here and there.  Yah, it happens. 

It's a lovely recording of a lovely song.

TASTE ALERT For New Year's Day!!!!

Remember that the very first taste on January 1st morning must be a sweet one.  This insures a greater than average chance (Las Vegas concurs) of a sweet year in 2013.   This is a Viking tradition, or maybe Swedish, but they were sort of Vikings, Ja? Nej?

Sunday Matinee

This is an old  Black and White that's been digitized, and it has one of the funniest scripts ever produced.  It's not in the fashion of a "Christmas Vacation - National Lampoon" slap stick, but a very clever script and acting.  It just has an unfortunate name at the moment.  

Barbara Stanwyck is the female lead.
Amazon has it for download.
Netflix has it, too.  It's called, "Christmas in Connecticut"

And, here comes the New Year!  I wish  you a wonderful year -one with lots of Beauty in it.

As for myself, I just want to send sPend (slaps forehead) the rest of what's left of my life making pretty things to decorate other people's lives.

Saturday Komeekz, and Hook and Ladder for the Boys!

Happy Christmas, belated.

At fitness today, I was jokingly called a princess, so this made me think of this Bizarro, and yes, I am picking on Mr.B!  It's love you know. 

Actually it's because I think of myself as an "Off With Their Heads!" sort of monarch.  Lewis Carroll style marks for that, yes?

I was so excited to see this big fire truck!  I almost said, "OMG!! Ponies!"  These bring out the kid in me.

Aren't these bright Yellow Fire Engines just the Cat's a$$?

   

Make pictures Big!  It's Lovely!

We were on our way to Christmas dinner at my sister's house.   There was just four of us, so before Dinner we watched "Brave", then after dinner, another movie called "November Christmas", in which  a little girl named Emily played the main roll.  She looked so much like the Star from "Bones", also an Emily, that it really messed with my head!  Both are quite adorable.  Different color of eyes but almost identical ears!  I am in awe of those earrings on Brennan.  The whole female cast wears the most amazing Bling!

We had the roast beast and all the trimmings, too. 

Well that's enough.  I don't make such huge earrings anymore except as Christmas tree ornaments.  My earlobes would be hanging to my shoulders if I hadn't stopped wearing a pound a piece ear gear.

We had two days of sun.  I'm ready for more rain.  Onward to Sunday!  Kids coming Monday!  Yay!

Friday Fill-ins

After Christmas come the long days of winter....  think it's perfectly reasonable to leave decorations up until the end of the rainy season in March.  Who's it going to hurt?  Maybe I 'll leave the tiny trees decorated all year!

1. They've decided that we have to have Daylight savings time for like forever, so why not have it ALL year, I say.
2. I'd be happy to see it keep going and going, as I never get back that hour of sleep and the dog gets a little frantic around his regular dinner time anyway.
3. What is reason we have to switch back to PST?
4. I cannot watch tv shows.
5. Eyes are not meant to endure so many commercials!
6. But oh Well!  There's always Netflix!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching a late Christmas movie, tomorrow my plans include welcoming more family to the dinnertable and Sunday, I want to go walking in the wilds with the kids, looking for Plantain Herb plants!

The pears on the plant:

Today, I ate some of the cactus pears from our plant.

They were very festive red on the outside so very ripe and delicious. These flowers produced the pears, some of which you can see as pre-emergent fertilized buds.

So, these babies give us fruit and nopalitos, too!

What's not to love?

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for:
The Brave Heart
The Sun,
Moon,
and the Rain.

For the Universe,
Flowers,

Chocolate

Oceans of Water,  And of Wisdom

Wordless Wednesday

Santa Calls to NORAD and Saturday Komeekz .... Late

Associated Press ran this article by Dan Elliot , very sweet.

We had a grand time at a family party at our niece's and nephew's house last night.  Another  nephew and his girlfriend were there visiting as well.  His girlfriend is a lovely young woman who is a Veterinary Assistant, and has recently rescued two new doggies.

After the feast, we played that quarters game again, ( LRC ), and it's really fun!  We laughed a lot. It's Absolutely Brilliant Fun.

Merry Christmas Y'all  I'm on the net book so no pictures!

Oh!  A real screamer from Bizzaro!

Merry Annoy the Neighbors Day!

God, I love that man!  Kisses!

Sky Watcher Post-Happy Christmas Eve- Nord info on tracking Santa

Source: space.com via Space.com on Pinterest

I'd love to see this with my own eyes someday

For the kid in you:
How NORAD tracks Santa's flight tonight.
Kudos to DH for this.  All you little honyoks be sure to leave lots cookies out for dear Santa (or maybe he's the HogFather to some of you).

Voice of San Diego on homelessness . Room at the Inn?

 Linkie follows:

Emails from a Newly Homeless Woman - Voice of San Diego: San Diego's Communities

I'm certainly counting my blessings and will find someway, other than financially that we already do, to help out.  Rachel's house accepts many things, and always needs help, funds and blankets etc.  Ask before taking clothing though.

My sister and I are trying to find a local woman's center to take  Comfort dolls.  That link downloads a pattern for them from SewNews.  It's not the one I am using because I like THESE dolls best.  This is the original site before the lady who ran it became completely overwhelmed, God Bless her soul.  The new site is on the side bar button and is wonderful, too.  The two women who have been instrumental in keeping this going are Angels.

Angels! I tell you!!

 

I have only two resolutions for 2013, and those are: to finish the sweaters and, two, make these dolls with my sister  We will find a local shelter or center to give them to.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Senator Boxer: Protecting the Northern California Coast

Senator Boxer: Protecting the Northern California Coast

This was on my wish list.  Huzzah to the team in Government that made it a reality!

Friday Fill-ins

1. Ahhhh , the delicious scent of Christmas cookies, baking in the oven.
2. I'm preparing four kinds!
3. Creating a set of baskets for family members is on the list for this weekend.
4. After this marathon, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy some relaxation.
5. {There will be a} Kick start of tree trimming for a long Solstice Celebration lasting into February.
6.  I don't believe the end of the world is at hand anymore than it's ever been; I'm not afraid of it anyway, even if it does come as suggested by the Mayan Calendar; I mean, what can be done about it?  We will just help each other endure to the end, right?
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to putting my feet up and watching the fireplace video on Netflix, tomorrow my plans include more cookie baking, and Sunday, I want to start sewing together a sweater for Gee!

AND/OR

1. IDOAWCJLTOIUTK: I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, Just like the ones I used to know
2. CROAOFJFNAYN: Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose.
3. IBTLALLC: no clue
4. OLTOBHSWSTL: Oh Little Town of Bethlehem How Still We See Thee Lie
5. SBRAYLITLSIG: this either
6. IBHFC:  I'll Be Home for Christmas
7. WWYAMCWWYAMC: We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas...
8. IHTBOCD:  I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
9. FTSIAJHS: nope!

One of my favorite Christmas songs is, "Feliz Navidad".  Recently DH and I attended a concert of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar.  There came a point when the Trio giving the concert asked us, the whole audience, to sing along.  We joined in to sing not only "Feliz Navidad" but also were asked to stand up and join hands and sing a beautiful old Hawaiian song.

The church is old fashioned, with a high clerestory of beams and stained glass windows, and  this architecture makes great acoustics, and made our soft unsure voices sound hushed and reverent in the parts where we responded.  It was wonderful and absolutely MAGICAL!.   When humans sing, en mass, something just happens to all their hearts.   I like to hear it, if it's Peaceful singing.  I love to join in.  How about you?

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart.

Tomorrow, Saturday, I will have made it to 70, barring a meltdown of our whole existence.  If that does happen, then I pray that God will be merciful to all the sentient beings, and this is because He knows of what we are made.

Peace and Love!

Thankful Thursday... Kurt Vonnegut Day! Knitting Blah Blah

I'm thankful to still be getting up, walking around, breathing in and out, and seeing the Beauty of Our Mother, the Earth.   I "Just think of all the mud that never got the chance to sit up and look around."

And I'm thankful for my medical team, the whole lot of them -my Internist, the specialists who have glued my eye back together, or my wrist and knee, all the orderlies, EMTs who got here in a flash ... I wish them all happiness and good health.  I am thankful for Godfrey, my friend and fellow Ninja, though he's much better at it!  U-rrah!

And for friends and family who make love and life a joy and who also give it form and meaning.

“We're here to get each other through this thing, whatever it is.”

Kilgore Trout may have said this: "God has given me both a life not worth living, and an indomitable will to live it!", but I'm sure he was just joking around, enjoying the irony of human existence.

~All quotes from Kurt Vonnegut Jr.s Novels ~    I'm thankful for Wolfie, and for Jazzie, and Milo and all the other earthlings.
I'm thankful that I have this memento from a sweet grandmother, who quilted well into her 80's:

She could hardly see anymore
but she kept right on stitching stuff together in bold patterns.

And I'm thankful for this living memento, an heirloom plant from my mother's garden.

Christmas Cactus, right on time this year.

I'm Thankful for Angels and Saints

 Knitting Blah Blah.

I found the hat pattern and yarns, while doing this:

Sorting out the scraps for Comfort Dolls.

I saw my sister yesterday, and she wants to make Comfort dolls now that she is a little better and can sit upright for more than a few seconds in a chair.   I'm so happy to be able to do something with my sister again!

Tomorrow and the next day are baking days.  I will be just a little torqued if the Mayan Calendar robs me of this joyful activity.  But then, perhaps the possible thrill of Eternal Bliss, and weightlessness, will be worth a lot more than calorie counting and the lamenting that occurs after the Holidays.


Happy Landings all you travelers!  No Bouncing!

Wordless Wednesday

Well, almost wordless...

Luvey, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping is in the big Apple...

Sorry there are no Tuesday Tails, unless you think of unbridled capitalism as Satan - an entity who is usually depicted with a forked tail and hooves.  We have instead, the  Reverend Billy, who is definitely not Satan.  We've talked about The good reverend in here before as a Sunday Matinee.  Now he is taking the war on the Commercialization of Christmas, and consumerism in general, to Times Square.

Greg Palast, funny guy that he can be, has written an op ed for Truthout on Reverend Billy HERE So, scamper on over to Times Square, if you are nearby, and watch The Good Reverend preachify and possibly get arrested.  Should be fun.

In my own un-romantic life, I've cleaned out the biggest rubbermaid tub they make (full of ancient bits and pieces from a doll design job Bee had as a teen) and freed it up for receiving a lot of the fall deco.  Yay me! Though, I did end up saving the larger pieces for Comfort Dolls, a whole trash can's worth went to the landfill.  I'm sorry any of it did, but really, strips a half inch wide will not make anything, though I firmly believe in the saying, "Waste not, Want not."  Some of them were so small as to be described by Hunka Munka, herself, as "snippets".

One really great thing to happen is that I also unearthed the angora hat yarn (and pattern) which will now be nailed to the wall in a zip baggy so it doesn't get lost yet again. 

Here's a sky shot, from camping this summer in the live oaks at Henry Cowles.  The squirrels were having territorial disputes, and dropped acorns down on me, but this was otherwise a pleasant, relaxing day of sky musing and dreaming.  Take your Peace where Ye may...

Make it as big as you can...

Shrooms, Rebalancing, Music Monday on Sunday this week, and a rant.

Oh, did I say it?  I hate our medical establishment as it is.  I want it changed to include un-prejudicial  care for troubled teens and young adults whose parents now, rightly so, fear that their child will carry a stigma for the rest of their lives if their child admits to any sort of mental disorder.

Furthermore, we, as a nation,  need to get rid of a lot of guns, as k has said.  Melt them down.  If the army is going to be sent after "we the people" said  army will have to come HOME first! But, how will all the people who profit from wars stay rich, you ask?  Let them all have to personally start running drugs, or laundering money, for those who do?

Keeping up the side.....

I don't think these naughty little pretenders are edible.
We went to see an Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Concert Saturday night.  It was freezing (relatively speaking) last night after all the rains.   I'll tell more later if I get back in here to do it.

Update: The AMSD Concert Saturday night was lively, masterful and ingenious.  I heard probably the most beautiful rendition of "Silent Night" I've ever heard, and that's saying something.

Purist aficionados of Slack key may cringe but one of the best improvisational jazz guitar artists out of Hawaii (Chino Montero)- and they have great ones- teamed with a wonderful duo of Herb Ohta,Jr -a top flight and excellent Ukulele player - and Keoki Kahumoku, another highly praised son of a famed father, playing excellent amped acoustical guitar.  The last mentioned two are a Duo who have an easy cross chat that makes for fun in a concert.  Lots of little jokes.  This all made for a very magical show.

They did, with the help of a Bit of Hula hands, make up a pretty funny farce of "The Twelve Days of Christmas"  There was also a very beautiful young dancer who was mostly hidden from short-little-me, but she illustrated some of the songs, and popped out for her cues as "hula dancers" in the 12 nights, to everyone's delight.

Loved the show, guys!  And music does sooth a  lot of "savage beasts".  DH bought me a very large cookie last night, during intermission, which I ate this morning for breakfast.  I only mention this because we all like to hear about cookies.  It's the kid in us all.

Ice Crystal clouds before the Last Storm
Very High,
Very Ethereal
Lomo'd

Today I made cookie dough and froze it, played a LOT of Spider and Free Cell.  Did 24 minutes of Tennis on the Wii, and tried not to eat all the chocolate in the house.  Today, on my mother's birthday, I was going to post about her and the sweet little ways she had about her, though she wasn't a demonstrative person, and she wasn't a hugger.  She taught my children to value ALL life, and she also taught them about gardening, weeds, the importance of lace wings, just so many, many things. 

Many times in the past, I've typed out and meant to share something, but have felt too exposed by my writings.   My heart is with all those who suffered such a terrible blow in both the mall shooting and the school shooting. 

I worked at a school that was attacked.  I remember January 1979 and how much it hurt to lose two valued human beings I worked with.  I remember how controlling I got from that time forward, trying to control everything my kids did and everywhere they went.

Before that time I was the happiest person alive, and had very good reasons for it.  After the shooting I felt exposed and vulnerable, and cried myself to sleep for weeks.  Now, looking back, I feel like my life's purpose was partially fulfilled on the day I expected to die.  You can try to, but you can never forget the sounds, the sorrow, the screaming,  nor can you change memories and get back to your happy life.  It changes you forever.   Our street was filled with news vans and reporters.  All the kids stayed in lock down inside the school for hours and hours.   

So, remember to be extra kind to the survivors, especially for the children, because they may well have a maelstrom going on in their heads and hearts for the rest of their lives, and are trying to cope as well as they can.  They cope until something like this happens yet AGAIN!  You just have to look at the haunted faces of people who have survived civilian attacks anywhere in the world to know that it's a horrible thing to go through.

I wish you safety in your daily lives and Peace throughout.

Cielo de mi Corazon

Estoy muy Triste

From Paula's Blog:

Real knitting content and Friday Fill -ins Fun. Sky Watcher Post

And...here we go! Yippie Skippie!

1. Oh, my , I stopped in to see what was in the Odd Ball Basket at my favorite LYS, and saw some amazing knitting needles; this was on Tuesday after we'd left for home following a Ceramics Christmas party get together; I do not want to want thoe amazing needles!!

2. I need to forget about them sooner, rather than later!

3. Buy one, get several tips and cords with them; snazzie right, but I wish I'd never laid eyes on them.

4. Today I found that last year I had bought two hats worth of angora yarns for myself - so I must think much more about the loads of stuff I already have, beads, yarns, sewing stuff, and knitting needles, and do it more to sew up and knit up this overburden of CRA(P)FT, absolutely, positively!

5. Soon, I'm going to bake Christmas cookies as there will be, as of tomorrow afternoon, 8 batches of cookie dough in the freezer; I love this winter holiday season, solstice and all.

6. Last night, my daughter called and as we were talking she exclaimed into the phone and sort of frightened me;  what she saw a very bright shooting star.  She said it was absolutely spectacular and beautiful.  What is it about shooting stars? Are they good omens, these shooting stars?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to deciding what yarn to use on a bunny pattern I found at the LYS - the one where those needles are; tomorrow my plans include mixing and freezing more batches of cookie dough, and later on we are  going to see my little nieces perform in some musical trios- if it isn't raining,  and Sunday, I want to find that angora yarn for the hats and start one, as well as find the perfect yarn for the soft, cuddly, Opal Sock Bunny!

This is one of the pictures that was in the pattern from Unicorn Books and Crafts.
I think this is a place that sells only wholesale, which is fine.  The good thing is that you can see all the pictures of "Opal," the Bunny on it.

Opal Sock Bunny, from the booklet I bought.  Sweet little Babé

I usually stop in at the shop to look for Odd Balls when we are in the neighborhood, but there weren't any sock yarns.  I really don't even need anymore sock yarn, but this adorable little bunny was there on the table above the Odd Ball basket.  She is made from about a half 100gm ball. 


It rained, starting Wednesday, and coming home from my sister's house I took these snaps at the best sky shot places - those with no overhead wires.  I hate to shop those darn things out.  We were out there trying to find some white corded white LED lights for our little tree.  DH said, "We'll just have to go buy them at the Halloween Christmas stuff sale next year!"

Here's the big storm.  It was blowing in at record speed!  We received one day and one night of rain out of this one.  Wonderful!  It might not look like a desert here, but it really is a desert.

Up the hill and looking West Northwest.

Over the shopping center looking West

You all have a lovely weekend. Take any joy that comes your way, and keep it warm and close.

Bruce Bartlett: The Real Long-Term Budget Challenge - NYTimes.com

Bruce Bartlett: The Real Long-Term Budget Challenge - NYTimes.com

Amen to that.  For the Leadership: Forget the Cliff and take your party back!  You've never been so blind, and it hurts to see it.

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm giving thanks for all the basically volunteer run grassroots organizations that grew powerful enough to be heard in the halls of Congress.  This phenomenon was created with the help of ordinary people who banded together, for Common Cause, to get things done.  Some of these organizations are fairly new, like the NRDC, and  Women for Women.  Some are old, old trench fighters like Common Cause,  Nature Conservancy,  U.S. Human Society, Audubon Society, Doctors Without Borders, GreenPeace, and Habitat for Humanity, Sierra Club, and Amnesty International. 

I'm thankful for all the donations of time and money, both the huge corporate ones and the tiny "widow's mites", which have helped change the way things are done.  You have given us a more stable, humane world to live in and pass on to the generations to come.

Here is a "Thank you" from NDRC, with a little appeal, of course, at the end.  But the idea is that a dedicated group, from all walks of life, can make a difference.  I am thankful for each of you who made a difference. 

Truly, You Made it Happen.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tails, Accidental Art, Walk with Beauty

Wolfie loves belly rubs, and he loves his comfort.  After living Heaven only knows how long out there in the "wilds" of Central San Diego and the riverbed, we think he's earned a little comfort coddling.   He gets tiny treats for everything from homecoming of the Alphas to being a good boy during dinnertime. 

He loves to sleep on the bed beside me while I read or knit, and he snuggles up to the Butterfly pillow whenever he can.  It has my scent on it because I use the other side of it for my sleeping pillow.  Sometimes, when we come home we find him scrunched up to it and sleeping away.  Wolfie snuggles up to the DH at night, probably because I will push the Furbeast away if he locks me in place with his fat, little body.

DH snores but will never admit to it.  Last night, at 1 am,  DH was snoring so loudly that even Wolfie was worried and whined in his sleep about it.  I gently poked the Alpha Male in the ribs and said, nicely, that he should turn on his side because he "was scaring the dog".  DH said, "How can I be snoring! I'm not even asleep!"

Any of you guys ever hear that rather untruthful retort when you finally give in to the instinct for survival (and to get a little sleep) and poke the Papa Bear in the ribs?

Monday, I made the first of four cookie doughs after going to fitness.  We trotted out to Sears, too, where I scored some underthings from my favorite under thing company.  I was thinking of making my own like my Auntie J once taught me to do, but laziness and wanting to support the economy prevailed.   We must support the economy, even though no one, apparently, wants us to have enough money to do it.  Sad, eh?

Well, here's a pretty thang for reading this far.  It's from a display at Monterey Aquarium.  There are several of these amazing art works on display there, made from plastics found floating in the gyre in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.   This isn't exactly accidental art, but I guess it is re-cycled art.

As with any photo here, make it big
All the better to see what's in a gyre way out there in the Pacific

May you walk with Beauty all around you.  And feel blessed.

From Judy out there in the back of beyond.

Not quite!  hehe

Since I went to fitness this morning and then came home and mixed cookie dough batches to freeze until a few days before Christmas, this was a very timely set of rules for dealing with Christmas Cookies!  Thank you Judy!

Christmas Cookie Rules

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.

2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.

3. If a friend comes over while you're making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend's first cookie is calories free,(rule #1) yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.

4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.

5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue. 

6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories.  Red ones have three and green ones have five - one calorie for each letter.  Make more red ones!

7. Cookies eaten while watching "Miracle on 34th Street" have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking Causes calorie leakage.

9. Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate have no calories since the calories Rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate.

We all know how calories like to CLING!

10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It's a rule!

So, go out and enjoy those Christmas Cookies - we only get them this this time of year!

I have still not found my tools. Yesterday, after covering the same ground for the fifteenth time {!!!!} I did one of those very Freudian Freakouts for the Victorian set, Screaming on the inside like a Banchee, until I nearly fainted.  I was saved by some smelling salts dark chocolate that DH advised me to eat.   He also brought me a nice cup of tea.  Maybe I should abandon the plans to make danglie bits of rockie "this and thats", and just do some knitting?

Music Monday, with a Very Young Jack Bruce and Joe Walsh, "White Room".

No, it's not the full on Eric Clapton version.  This is Jack Bruce, with Joe Walsh, my personal favorite player.

You understand; it's my blog, so my favorites, though I will admit that without the Baker Man punctuating, it's a little mild in the backup.  Lol



Thanks to God someone saved this video. 

Friday Fill-in, skywatcher post

1. I saw, I'm afraid, far too much human cunning in my 70 years.
2. How can I change this...just a hint, please!
3. Once when I was very small I didn't have to struggle so much to be happy.
4. My very kind Grandparents and Aunties helped my mother raise me in times past.
5. The [that] road led me to love beauty through the eyes of my mother, her sisters, cousins and aunts, and grandparents. It was the best part of my early life.
6. I love seeing the Earth and all of Nature in the morning light.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching Netflix and reading my book, tomorrow my plans include storing away Autumn decorations as well as putting up Christmas lights and Sunday, I want to find my little pliers!

Sky Watcher 

May you Walk with Beauty all around you

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for my loving, and kind family - Hubby, our daughters, his sister and mine.  I'm thankful for our extended family of sweet friends all over the globe, my trainer who is my friend, Sensei, and stresssss councilor, and for all the kind people who plant flowers in public places.  I'm thankful for Wolfie, all the hard working animal rescue workers and animal rights workers, as well as all the animals who keep this world working while ignorant and greedy people try to destroy it.  And I'm very thankful for Artists and Musicians, as well as ears to hear and eyes to see - especially the color vision part.

I'm thankful to be an inhabitant of God's Beautiful Planet Ocean.  I am thankful for Birds!

Gulls, on the way back to the Ocean

There's lot's more to come...
Have a beautiful day, and pull Peace out of it as often as you can.  30 seconds, a minute in an elevator, an hour just sitting and contemplating the sky.  Whatever it takes!

I Love you all, and want you to know that you have at least one prayer, everyday, for your happiness.  Trust me, though; there are millions of them.  Every Day.

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tails and a hope balloon sent aloft for my knitting

Millions have seen this video of the Border Collie who found, and kept safe, a toddler lost in the woods.  He found his (little) man.  DH sent it to me, and so it's being shared for you to see.  In case, that is, you may have missed it.


And here is our own little miracle "man" (photo taken at his auntie's house) safe in the arms of his Poppa.  He's a miracle to us, too.  He's been re-socialized and is happy again we think.  He seems happy, after all that itchy scratchy thing got settled down.

Yesterday we went to a Christmas get-together with the Rockhounds, and one of my friends asked if we'd ever gotten another dog after Jazz died.  I told her that we'd gotten so depressed after he died that about five months later, I started looking at shelter dogs and after awhile we had found Wolfie at the pound.

She told me about someone she knew who had taken a new, very demanding job in a new city after her mother had died,  and because the job was new and so demanding, she could not be home with her sick 15 year old dog.  When the little dog had died in the lady's absence from home, she was so distraught that she had a nervous breakdown.  So, my rockhound friend and I both agreed that adopting a new dog was the saving grace for me and DH.  People who don't like animals would never understand this, but those who do, understand perfectly.  Sometimes your pet is your only friend and they are like a little child to you.  You get very close to them.

I think the lesson in this is that if you see a friend or family member despondent over the death of their pet, get them to talk out their feelings, and eventually, if the timing seems right, try to get them to start thinking about saving another little life.  DH and I both know that Wolfie rescued us as much as we rescued him.

Knitting is not happening.  But I think when the twins are here, I'll block and sew that Noro sweater together for my DD.  Maybe Elle's pink one will be ready, too. I'm getting it out to work on it, since I CANNOT FIND MY JEWELRY PLIERS, and am not about to buy new ones.  Anyway, the girls and I can sit and do them, and we can learn to block sweaters together.   This is why I miss my girls.  We do things together, even cooking.  It's lovely.

Hope you have a lovely Tuesday and rest of the week.  

Music Monday The Cure: "Friday I'm in Love"

This comes out of a period of time that I didn't listen at all to the emerging popular music genres.  For a whole decade I wanted things to be SILENT!

Like Rap, I do not get this music except for this one amazing song.  The other song sets left me feeling uncomfortable and very weird, like this was from outer space and had nothing to do with most known tonal scales, 88 keys or anything normal.  But I do like this quirky one.

I'm mostly silent now again, wanting to just listen the wind through trees, or the chimes, peace bells, or water running  down a stream or in and out at the seashore, or even bird song when the White Crown Sparrows come back through. 

Maybe it's my earphones, since it's not a studio experience.  Maybe it's that it is so darn electronic? 

I think I'll just go learn to play Texas Holdem.  

Sunday Matinee: "Last Call at the Oasis", and a little flowerpower.

I watched this documentary with intense interest because San Diego is at the end of a pipeline down here in the Southland.  And also, I am painfully aware that the Colorado River doesn't even reach it's delta and has not for several years.   If that isn't a warning of things to come, well, then nothing is.

When I went to find sites about "Last Call at the Oasis", I found one at the very top of the list that was undoubtedly generated by interests friendly to Atrazine ( banned by the European Union) which is one of the accused culprit chemicals from the film. HERE is that site (An Advertizement and clearly marked as such), aptly named "Saving the Oasis".   If you go to the "Frogs" tab, it besmirches the research done by  Tyrone Hayes, UC Berkeley.

To the sneaky pete's on the contact info page of that web site, I'll see that, and I'll raise you one here at Alex Prud'homme's book, "The Ripple Effect", since you apparently don't mind gambling with all of our futures. And furthermore, here is the Royal Flush! from the New York Times.  No pun intended.

And,finally  HERE is the Washington Post's review of the movie, "Last Call at the Oasis".
From where I sit in dry San Diego, the film makes good sense.  From the standpoint of disappearing frogs, I'd like to point out that human skin is permeable, too. 

In this Burg, a project for a state-of-the-art water purification plant proposition was voted down.   Personally, I think it's got to be a lot better than some of the stuff coming out of the Mississippi river as it makes it's way to the Gulf.



Jack Black, my hero.  "Porcelain Springs".  Give it a try; you might like it.  Can I have that Unicorn, Jack?

Flower Shot:

Sunflowers on a Gray Day

Saturday Komeekz, We got rain! Drops Christmas Calendar 2012 Yay!

I love, LOVE, LOVE this cartoon!

Ok, back to normal... Ahem...

Happy December First!

We got rain! Finally the late tomatoes have a chance, and this is Glorious! Yesterday, coming home from the ocean, we saw rain falling in the mountains across Santee Valley.  It was beautiful to see it.  The coast got rain while we were there and it was sweet indeed. 

Thursday was a medical day, and it's answered some questions and taken a whole spitload of stress out of my life.  Half of what I get from time to time is truly innocuous, and treatable.  I could go "dancing in the rain" - aside from the risk of catching pneumonia - the other Nemesis.  Color me Happy!

And here, my knitter/crocheter friends, is the Drops Advent Calendar Link for this year.  There is going to be some lovely stuff in it.