Tuesday Tails.....The little Japanese penguin

Though, how this species of penguin got to Japan, I'll never know. The clip must explain it but my headphones went south sometime last weekend so there go all the sounds. Anyway, I thought penguins stayed in waters south of the equator. She's adorable anyway, and she's tame, out of place, and coping, like many an other animals including some of those very famous "fish out of water" sort of humans. (One of whom is Me- not the famous part but the "fish out of water" part)

A big thank you very much goes out to Pina!

All of Wolfie's fans will be glad to know that he is well and happy and going for sniff fests (walks) with Mr.Z to various places. He is especially fond of finding the trail of the Bobcat that lives nearby. We have heard this Bobcat on our flat roof and wish her well. We are glad to provide her a resting place, free of Coyotes.

From HERE

Last week it was rather hot again, and Wolfie's little tongue hung out a lot.

Happily for us all, the weather has now cooled off.
Poor little Fellow!

Monday Music: Linda Ronstadt, "Blue Bayou"; semi daily sketch; a book about Everest.

Linda Ronstadt was awarded the National Medal of Arts recently.  She absolutely deserves this honor.  She is amazing.





And a sketch:

Seed, underground, with Roots

I put the book aside that I am actually supposed to be reading and read an ebook entitled Blind Descent by Brian Dickerson.  Thrilling read!

Sunday Stealing

This is Sunday stealing, and originally this was posted on another blog called:

[Random Questions]

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we try to credit the blog that we stole it from. We also provide a link to the victim's meme in our "Previous Victims" widget. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") Sometimes we edit the original meme, to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, to select the best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from this new meme or recently asked questions from a previously featured meme.
Let's go!!!

From Survey's

  [Random Questions] 

But, I'm telling you, the other participants are infinitely more interesting so go read them.  I might not do this anymore as I am just too old and too mundane for words.

Random Questions.
1. Who were you with yesterday?  The Darling Dog, the Darling DH and one of my ebooks.  Actually, the last was a "what".  

2. What woke you up this morning?  An aching arm woke me, and I started waving it around but finally put some Arnica on it.  I guess it's better than an aching head.  Yes, much better than an aching head, for sure.

3. Where are you?  In the greater scheme of things?  I am in limbo.  On the Planet?  I'm near to the biggest Ocean on the Earth, and right now, I'm in front of this computer screen trying to think of "better days and better men", to quote a character in a movie I love called "Enchanted April".  By "men" I am referring to World Industrialists.  I think many of them need a have a good pistol whipping and then to be put to bed without dinner.  

4. Is tomorrow going to be a good day?  I'm just not sure.  I haven't lived it yet.  I'll tell you tomorrow.

5. What’s on your mind RIGHT NOW?  Trying to figure out what sort of question that is??!!  Of course what is on my mind is what I'm going to put here.  I can think of nothing of worth, or of any interest, obviously but the noise coming out of this machine.  I think it's about to die.

6. Do you listen to music every day?  No.  I used to listen to it all day long and half the night but then I got too deaf to have music at a level that won't disturb the dog, starting with Jazzie.  When nearly all dogs go deaf these days, well before their time to do so, I thought that Ghetto Blasting their delicate hearing was downright rude.  So, I quit.  

7. Are you a fast typer?

Yes.

9. Whats your favorite type of soda?
I guess my very favorite is those cucumber sodas we can't get here.

10. Have you ever won an award? Not really, except a talent contest in grade school.  Does that count?  I sung some darn complicated thing, A Cappella, in the 3rd grade.

11. Are you listening to music right now?  No.

12. How long ’till your birthday?  Not long enough!

13. Do you use ebay to buy or sell? No, though I have sold things on Craig's List.

14. Who makes you mad?  I'd have to say thieves and liars, and the bigger the job title held, the more mad I can get.  

15. What do you do when you’re mad?  Too, be honest, I silently wish them the worst of luck in their endeavors while trying desperately to love their hearts blackened by avarice and narcissism.  Yes I am relentlessly democratic about this.

16. Do certain songs make you cry?  Yes, many songs do this.

17. Are you usually a happy person?  Yes.  

18. What makes you the happiest?  Waking up in the morning.

19. Do you believe in yourself?  I believe I exist.  I believe there is a purpose for my life.  I'm not sure I'll actually know what it was until it's over.  I could guess at two things.  Maybe my purpose was already fulfilled?  

Saturday 9 -

The button in the sidebar takes you to the 9ers, which has few rules and is lots of fun on a Saturday.

Saturday 9: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) (2008)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Are the majority of your friends married or single?  Most are married.  Some have re-married, and some are just staying single for now.  

2) Rings are one of the items most frequently pawned. Have you ever visited a pawn shop, either to sell or to buy?  I went once to look at Ukuleles but didn't buy one.  I have seen the trays and trays of rings at pawn shops in some of the hoarder series and thought, "I'd better stay away from there."  I love rings, you see.  But I reckon I could make them if really wanting more.  I'd have to go out to classes though and I don't want to do it.  They have all the big equipment.  So, I stay out of pawn shops.

3) Let's say we want to put a ring on it: What's your ring size?  Now? 6 and 1/2

4) Beyonce does commercials for Pepsi. What's the last beverage you drank?  Green Tea (sip sip)  Very nice.  But I do like Pepsi a lot.  

5) Beyonce also has a clothing line. What are you wearing right now?  A summer dress.  It's still summer here and Heaven help us if it stays that way.  The land of Green and Gold will a thing of the past!

Lost the Source, but it's to a North Carolina AC Company

Thanks to God for AC

6) Speaking of clothes, Sam was changing hers this morning when she unintentionally flashed her neighbor. She didn't realize he was working along the fence that runs under her bedroom window. Tell us one of your most embarrassing moments.  You just don't want to know... trust me.  My cluelessness usually gets me into trouble. Let's just say that I've learned to not jump into any conversation with two feet. 

El Salto Lake Resort

7)  Rumor has it Beyonce is pregnant again. Coincidentally, Sam needs to check the Babys R Us registry for a shower present. Who will receive the next gift you give?  The craft Co-Op is getting all my weaving and machine yarns.  And I get the space in the closet!  I'm keeping any yarn I can knit or make coiled baskets with.

8) But Sam doesn't actually want to go to the shower and is trying to come up a good excuse. Tell us a time you fibbed you told to get out of doing something.  Probably before I was 9 years old.  My friend's father saw how terrified I was of Psycho Dad, so her father did the lying!  Thank Heaven he was convincing!

I didn't dare fib to The Psycho, or actually to Mom even though she wasn't Psycho. Him, you knew you'd be beaten so you just told the truth anyway because it was worse if he caught you in a lie.  Not a pretty picture.  Since HE was a habitual lier, it didn't seem fair.

9) When did you last go inside the bank and talk to a teller?  I year or so ago.  Actually, we talked to a bank officer about something.

From Sam:
Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

Five Minute Friday: Care...WoooHoooo!

You can play along with this very fun meme by following the bread crumb trail (the button in the sidebar) for the "Rules of Engagement", and meet up with the very sweet group who do this thing, as well as our Fearless Leader.

Care:

Care as in health care, I could just see the Almighty tapping a toe and saying, "Why didn't you ask me earlier about this sstuff!?  I could have been reassuring you about just how much I CARE about you by sending a lightening bolt to your beloved Cape HoneySuckle until it glowed in the dark!  Really,   Woman, what were you thinking??"

Today we have a call coming in from the new wranglers of High stakes gambling on the future of stubbed toes, bones that crack and knees that ache, otherwise known as Insurance Agents.

We have to figure out what to do about it all.  I know that the Almighty CARES but I also know what a super sentient Being I'm dealing with.  It's scary to gamble with these big companies who know more about you statistically than you know about yourself.  And I do care about what He thinks of my errant little ways of trying to handle all my own daily care, helped by a very kind Mr. Z, to sort through the dross and make suggestions.  I don't want to have to have anymore care than is necessary because it gets EXPENSIVE.

Full Stop!

Lord, I can't believe any of that makes any sense!

Oh, By the way.....

I think some of these things on the chipotle bags are pretty cute.  This is one of them.  Hope you can read it....

Thankful Thursday: Happiness, sketching bit, roses, tiny post WWI rant

No Bombs falling on one's head, clean food, and clean drinking water means great BIG happiness.

Little Happiness comes while attempting to draw the last rosebud from memory, even though it's not much like the real one:

Unreal

Real

And then there are the other things, the tiny, tiny happinesses.. .......like going to the Tuesday Morning store and finding little treasures, after that annual Squash we all dread but are very grateful for!

And I found these tiny boxes

Mr.Z found these for me... 

Now, on to some chocolate, which is fair traded and Organic.

I've divided happinesses into groups because it keeps me focused to look for even the tiny ones. What I've dreaded for years is coming down. I just can't read the news, anywhere, anymore. I need to stop worrying. I'm not happy because I think the situation was created by the Allies in the early years of the last century when they carved up the Syrian Plain and the rest of the middle east, and just decided to leave some people who had fought alongside them out in the cold, to twist in the wind. I'll just go have some tea and chocolate and keep praying for one of my favorite ethnics groups to make it through this.

Wordless Wednesday: Fall: 2014 Tortoise Egg- infertile

Tuesday Tails, some wings actually- and a sort of tort report

Taken Yesterday evening

A Fritillary Butterfly has found it's way back into the now nearly dead patch of white Geranium.  I wish it luck!

The tortoises produced babies this year but we can't find any of them.  I guess they won't survive very well through what can be brutal winters but one did make it's way to a neighbor's house and now, to the delight of his two little kids, they have a pet about the size of a walnut.  I wish the other babies as much good luck.

In 1991 I found seven baby torts by going out early in the morning and looking for them as they emerged from the rockwall into the sun.  Mostly, the nests hatch around the end of September.  We didn't even know one had been laid!  I'm not looking for anymore babies because they may be in the tall grass and I don't want to step on one.

Tomorrow one of the eggs that didn't hatch but which a predator left under a rosebush is the Wordless Wednesday photo.  The eggs are beautiful things, almost round.  Though the shell is rough it looks a lot like a glowing moon in the low rays of late afternoon light.

Enjoy your week.  

Forget the Music, this is more important....a book

I'm putting this book up where the book by Gail Tsukiyama about a Hong Kong Family was.  Ms. Tsukiyama's book was about the period between the late 30's and up to probably the late 60's, just before China proper was given Favored Nation Status by Richard Nixon.

Please keep your eyes on the Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution.  China said that it was going to leave Hong Kong as it was.  But, of course, it isn't.

Meanwhile, A look into some of our own American corporate dirty little secrets...

"Homo homini lupus"
Man is a wolf to man

Nobodies is a blockbuster.  Published in 2007, it's been mainly ignored.  As Americans, we have a right to know what is happening in our own country, and a duty to change Life for the enslaved people that have been brought here, made to work without pay, and held in this slavery, against their wills.   This sordid affair goes well beyond the Central and South American peoples that the press loves to hammer upon.

My blog seems to be the only way I can tell anyone about this book, and all it exposes about modern slavery.  There are heavy consequences from not doing something about the practices that it exposes, to us as both a People and as a Nation.  We need to act.

You are old Mother Christmas... Sunday Stealing!

October 4, 2014

Random 20

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we try to credit the blog that we stole it from. We also provide a link to the victim's meme in our "Previous Victims" widget. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") Sometimes we edit the original meme, to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, to select the best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from this new meme or recently asked questions from a previously featured meme.
Let's go!!!

From Survey's

Random 20

1. Have you had an argument with anyone recently? If so, do you still have issues with that person?   DH and I were having little arguments everyday.  It's getting better now because we both realize we have hearing issues.

2. Are you talking to anyone while filling this in? How about texting/chatting on Facebook? Nope.  I'm no longer an ultra madwoman multitasker.  I've lost that ability, and that sort of energy!

3. Have you done something recently that helped someone else, in any way?
I hope so.  Time will tell.  And, I've helped the Wolves of Wyoming!  Yay!

4. Who was the last person to pay you a compliment?
I can't remember.  It has to be ages for face to face ones.

5. Is there anything that’s happened in the past month, that you wish you could go back in time and change?
I can't remember anything THIS month.

6. What colour is your purse/wallet?
It's mostly orange and some black.  It's from Guatemala or maybe Peru from a woman's co-op.

7. What’s the closest item to you that’s black? The computer mouse.

8. Think about what you looked like 5 years ago. How did you look different, compared to the way you look now?
I'm older and thinner and, unfortunately, I have that wiser look from living through lots of medical drama, lol

9. Before Facebook became popular, did you use any other social networking site, like Bebo or Myspace? No, I didn't.

10. Has someone of the opposite sex ever sung to you? If so, how did you respond to it?
I've sung a duet, impromptu, on the floor of a pre-school, with a man playing guitar.  We were just two people who loved music, and we were alone, and it was the first time I sang harmony.  I can only describe the experience as a time when Magical and Divine Love spawned for just that little interval.

11. When did you last hug someone of the opposite sex?
A few days ago.  I hugged Mr. Z and thanked him for everything he has done for me.  I said, "Thank you!  You saved my life!"  He said, "I did?  Damn!" and then grinned.

12. Have you ever seen the film “Casablanca”? Did you like it? I've seen it once and liked it.  If you are asking did I join the cult?  No.  I like Comedy too much and tragedy is just like so Everyday that Gad, I can't stand sad things, like the book I just read.

13. Do you have a relative whose name begins with ‘L’? Tell me about him/her.
Yes,  And I love her very much.

14. Are you a secretive person?
I do keep a secret life as a non-caped crusader.

Source, and don't be shocked by the French Video ad

Just kidding!

15. When did you last eat? This morning.

16. If you were going to buy a present for a special person, what would you generally choose?
I would choose money or a gift Certificate unless I knew exactly what they wanted .

17. If I’m going to buy you a box of chocolates, which kind should I definitely NOT get?
Milk Chocolate.  I like Dark.

18. Is there something you generally always ask for help with?
Opening bottles and jars!

19. If you had to give up your phone or your computer, which would it be?
This is no choice, this is the stuff of Anarchy!  hehe

20. Has anyone called you gorgeous/beautiful today?
No, and not for a long, long time, either!

Source

You all have a Wonderful week!

Saturday Komeekz Cruel Nature!: Saturday Nine - Rubber Ducky sing along!

Oh yah, Nature's cruel ... ha!  Maybe that's why human beings have been so cruel, being as we are at the top of the food chain.  Another story for another time...


Saturday 9

This fun meme is on the button on the side bar.  Come and join in with us.  Easy and fun!  Music involved, too!

Rubber Ducky

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!

Saturday 9: Rubber Ducky (1970)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune?

Hear it here.

1) This song is sung by Muppet Ernie. Who's your favorite Muppet?
I like Animal! He makes me laugh!

2) Ernie became famous on PBS's Sesame Street. What public television shows do you watch?

I still like to watch Masterpiece Theater and Nature.

3) When you were a little kid, what was your favorite TV show?
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

4) On Sesame Street, Ernie frequently teases his best friend Bert by stealing his nose. Do you enjoy practical jokes?

Mr.Z's family likes them, and I'm a spoil sport who doesn't like them. Most of the time practical jokes just seem like a cruel thing to do. I doubt I'll ever change my opinion of them.

5) Sesame Street creators developed carefree Ernie and serious Bert to show children that different types of people can be good friends. Think about your closest friend. Tell us how you two differ.

I've never gotten a close friend since most of them have moved away or gone away for good. I sort of miss that closeness but haven't found it anywhere but in my DH.

6) Bert and Ernie share a basement apartment on Sesame Street. Tell us about the basement of the building you're in right now. We don't have a basement and don't even have an attic. I wish we had both!

7) Ernie and Bert were created by Jim Henson. In addition to being an accomplished puppeteer, Mr. Henson was also a talented cartoonist. Can you draw?
I love to sketch everything, draw, and oil paint. Some of this I've done so since I was a little kid. I have developed a couple of cartoon characters but never did much with them. One is Dewey, a nerd who bird watches and the other is a mouse on skates. Of the two, Dewey is the cutest.

8) Jim Henson made his first puppets himself using felt, foam rubber, string and rods -- all items that can be purchased at an arts and crafts store. When is the last time you shopped in an arts and crafts store?
It must have been at least 5 months ago. I can go shopping right in my stashes!

9) When is the last time you took a bath (as opposed to a shower)? Too long, I want my bathtub fixed. I'm tired of taking showers all the time. Fixing it isn't an easy thing. We have to make a hole in the drywall. Making a cabinet entry works but I'm afraid there will be a ton of spiders in that space. When one of those little suckers bites me, it's time for the benedryl.

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

Five Minute Friday: New

The button for this Meme is in the sidebar.  If you want to participate from here you can use the button.  This is fun and relatively carefree because you write, flat out without a pause for correcting anything like grammar or punctuation, for five minutes on the word chosen.  Give it a spin if you are game.  I never write very much because I'm anal about mistakes and the reason for that is that I'm not good at finding them in writings that I do even without restriction like not being able to go back and correct.  Mon Dieu!

New:

New is the feeling I once had when we moved to another school district far away from the L.A. school system.  I was given a chance to leave behind the terribly  stereotypical prejudice that L.A.'s school system had had practically from the moment it was formed.

New is something I only had as a child when we got a new pet or mother made us new clothes, or she ordered dresses for me from the Sears catalog.  We saved nearly all year for the clothing budget.  I never really felt poor because we didn't go hungry and anyway, I never felt like I wasn't well looked after.

New is something DH and I couldn't really afford when we got married except for a washer and dryer that I ordered, much to his dismay, when the first baby started producing smelly diapers by the dozen!

I was very happy to not have much of anything that was new because I'd been raised that way.  I loved the hunt you see, at Junk Yard that existed in those days and had everything including furniture!  I sewed for myself and then for the older girls until they were nearly into their teens, and all this time we happily garnered many things used aside from the pots and pans I bought, along with an iron, and a set of dishes and silverware when I was single, and a jewelry store (of all things) had these things in a complete set for only $55.  Some of these things we have to this day, and they are living the life of a traveling kitchen, after being in the second hand military style foot lockers and going camping with us all the way to such places as Yosemite.

 stop

see, I'm not very fast.

Thankful Thursday: Simple and abundant life... with Teeth marks!

I'm very thankful for having this fairly simple life to live, in view of the terror that is being promulgated and amplified, to what end I do not know, by random people and governments raining hell upon the heads of others.

Thanks, News Agencies, for being the Handmaidens of a movement towards panic that is ruling the hearts of far too many Americans.  These would be the Americans who are presently stockpiling huge piles of things in basements and, bug-out bunkers, to ensure that they and their families and friends will be able to withstand the horde of brigands whom they feel will descend upon them in the first rounds of Armageddon.

Good Lord, you can buy stuff in a bucket at Costco now!

These hordes will be made up of their fellow Americans made desperate by lack of food or potable water once The Big One, in the guise of Government Officials gone crazy, Mother Nature gone mad, or the Armies or Police running Amok.

The Big One has been variously exposed to be, Category 5 Tornadoes, or Hurricanes, Pox, Nuclear fallout, dirty bombs, sea level rise, or you name it.  I hope, like many of them have said, that they are wrong and preparing for nothing.  For myself, I would rather die than fight my armed forces, take aim at a policeman who may be trying to tack a sign on my door, or one of my hapless neighbors, come to help.

Los Guapos

This emotional terror that is leading the buy in of weapons and billions of rounds of Ammo could lead to all sorts of horrible consequences.  Who can even shoot 35 weapons at one time?

Anyway, let's pray that God, The Almighty, who watches us all - even according to many of these terrified people - will be kind to us and keep us from harming each other in the maelstrom to follow the occurrence of any of the above mentioned Super Thingas!*

* yes, "thinga" is a word once used by Virginia Woolf, though not in this context, and I feel quite comfortable using it myself here.  

Wordless Wednesday: Mother's Rock, for her Marquesas Island home, from whence she sent me a Tropicbird in 1985.