resolve

as the old year winds down, my thoughts today have naturally tended toward turning over a new leaf...in so many ways. there are things that i want to improve. better eating and exercise habits, better financial management, better time management, better mood management, better, better, better.

i AM looking forward to 2008. i am hopeful for this upcoming year. in many ways i have been waiting for this 2008 for most of my life. i have been content with 2007, but there were hard things too, as every year holds. i'm sure there will be hardships in 2008 also, but i am glad that the Lord gives us new beginnings.

on sunday, our pastor gave a really good sermon on Psalm 119. it's the longest Psalm in the bible, 176 verses. for some reason, it really struck my heart. i printed it out, and have been meditating on it for the last 24 hours...

it occurred to me that i want to have new year's resolutions. i NEED to have new year's resolutions. i think we all do. but instead of making a bunch of promises i can never hope to keep, i started to think about some of the promises that David made in Psalm 119. promises to meditate on the Word, and to follow God with all his heart.

i wondered why THIS PSALM struck me so much now, at this time in my life. crazy the way the Lord talks to our hearts sometimes. anyway, this afternoon, i noticed that a particular section of Psalm 119 seemed to fit what i am experiencing. i share it with you, in hopes you might go and read the whole of it on your own sometime.

You are my portion, O LORD;
I have promised to obey your words.

I have sought your face with all my heart;
be gracious to me according to your promise.

I have considered my ways
and have turned my steps to your statutes.

I will hasten and not delay
to obey your commands.

Though the wicked bind me with ropes,
I will not forget your law.

At midnight I rise to give you thanks
for your righteous laws.

I am a friend to all who fear you,
to all who follow your precepts.

The earth is filled with your love, O LORD;
teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:57 - 64

anyway, i'm not sure if i will even stay up til midnight tonite. it always seems like a good idea, until about 11:15 when my body wants to go to sleep! in any case, i know that i have the unbelievable honor of rising in the morning to a new day, a new life, and new chance to be a better version of myself, thanks to the Lord.

love you all, happy 2008!

infj

i was reading some new crafting blogs that i discovered yesterday, and i found a really cool lady in mexico that is so darn terrific. great sewing, and cooking, and she's a montessori teacher and cat lover as well. she was talking about being a "rare" INFJ personality type (is that the meyers-briggs test?) and i remembered that i once took a test and wound up as an INFJ as well. didn't know it was rare, but i do find it kind of freaky when you read those personality tests and they describe you to a "t"...

some of the most obvious likenesses are:

Many INFJs who have the opportunity to gravitate toward higher education where they often find their niche. With their intellectual bent, they are led to endeavors that allow them to deal with theory and complexity. Professors often spot their intellectual inclination and encourage it. oh, so is that why i always tell people i want to be a college professor when i grow up?

The INFJ external environment may be only partially organised. Their internal environment, by contrast, is anything but haphazard. Their ideas need to fit into a coherent whole that has the pieces in place. Organization of the internal world takes precedence over organization of external world. ha ha ha ha ha.

Leisure-time pursuits for INFJs are often solitary or involve the company of others who are particularly important to them. Sitting around with dear friends discussing feelings can be very special to INFJs. coffee and conversation, anyone?

INFJs want to give love and to be loved. They enter into relationships just to be cared for, even when the person is not right for them and they suspect it. um, yeah.

INFJs are usually good students, achievers who exhibit an unostentacious creativity. They take their work seriously and enjoy academic activity. They can exhibit qualities of over-perfectionism and put more into a task than perhaps is justified by the nature of the task. so THAT is why i cannot sew a perfect #$%^&* apron!

anyway, i have taken lots of these kinds of tests over the years. i think i was an owl in one test that compared you to animals, and an introverted, melodramatic, loner-type on some christian test i took once. the biggest thing it tells me is that God had a great big giant box of crayons when he sketched us out, and sometimes he favored certain colors in some of us.

I'm dying to know what letters some of you guys are labeled!!! happy sunday!

http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/infj.htm

all grown up

well, if karen thinks she's old because she got a mixer for christmas, i must be ancient right about now...old but happy! i finally decided to break down and get new appliances for my little bungalow house. i am 45, and i've never cooked on a new stove, or had a new fridge!

so, i took advantage of those new year's deals that are going on. i did not go super crazy, but i did get a fridge with the freezer on the bottom instead of the top (woo hoo, less bending over - hee hee) and a really really cool stove with 5 burners!

i am giddy, and hopeful that i will not get buyer's remorse, as i am wont to do. seriously, i buy lots and lots of little stuff, but i kind of freak out when i buy something big.

watch out girls, my cooking habit should get really serious in about 10 days!

enough already

okay, so much for picture perfect. i'm sure every photographer in town has been out shooting the pretty snow. but after the 4th day of it, i'm ready to say "can we stop this already?"

shoveling is not really my forte :)

thrifters unite!

i guess my fascination with winter (see previous post) did not last long. because i have been sitting here thinking about "the longest yard sale" that i have seen on hgtv.


i want to go there.


right now.


but, it appears that i have to wait til August 7-10, 2008.

take a look at the humongous map. i would stay in the southern region, i think....southerners have better stuff :)


oh. btw. montgomery, alabama is just slightly south of the southernmost part of the trail. hmmmm. know any good shoppers down that way?!

whiter

so, i was thinking it could never ever possibly be any brighter to stare outside than it was yesterday. that is until today happened. the sun is not out, but it's kind of a misty, foggy light that makes everything, absolutely everything, white. again, not capturable on film. just imagine in your head "very, very white."

even the garbage can was kind of pretty this morning when i brought out the trash.

could it be that i am starting to like wintertime?


nah. i wouldn't go that far :)

wow.

just when i start to think that i am going to become a snowbird and fly south for the winter, we get a day like today!

words (nor pics taken by me) cannot describe how beautiful it is here today!!! and warm too. the snowfall from yesterday (which kept me home safe and sound instead of at my parents house in brookings) is light and fluffy and sparkly. ohhhhh. ahhhhhh.

really, snow is a wonderful creation from God. even siesta had to go out the door and stick her head in a snowbank to see what that stuff was! i laughed when she pulled her head back in surprise and went right back to the door...sissy cat.

anyway, i just wanted to share. i dare anybody to have a more beautiful day-after christmas than mine :)


happy day!

weekend wonderfulness

ah. sunday eve before christmas eve. i wish the calendar fell this way every year. all is as it should be, the last gifts have been fought for and won, the last parties have been attended, friends have been hugged, and merries have been wished.

now to just relax, go home to the fam, and "be" for a day or two.

this weekend was exactly what i craved. bubble baths, coffee chats with friends, thrifting and baking goodies. and thanking the Lord because He is good i am grateful for His presence. wishing you all a very merry one! see you next week sometime :)



thrifting for small pillows is kind of a new hobby. so far, i'm two for two, but this is the bestest one. oh, and the vase. love the yellow vase.

and what better to go with the yellow vase than a yellow shelf? the perfect size!
doilies are a good thing, don't you think? i have PLANS for these little gems.
hey, is that a great yellow daisy bowl that somebody bought me for christmas? why, yes it is!
works PERFECTLY whilst baking cookies :) thanks Lou!
ummmmmmm. no wonder my tummy is hurting. these babies required a bunch of tasting!!!

sleeping in

oh, how i love to sleep in! i ended up staying up later than usual last night, and then had a bad case of insomnia...the last time i checked the clock was 3am, doh...

so, it was not a huge surprise when i woke up this morning at 9:30am! sheesh! i began to freak out at first, then remembered that I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT TODAY.

and sleeping in is one of the things i wanted :)

ah. anyway, i tried to google "pillow" to give you an idea how much i love sleeping, but i found the above photo instead. need me a pair of those :)

happy day!

oh man.

how many of my favorite singers were in this clip!

and the most FAVORITIST of all, boy george.
he he.


yeah. times change. the sentiment is still pretty good though.

christmas letter

okay, i actually sent christmas cards this year. i have never really done a christmas letter, but i think they get a bad rap, because i love getting the ones i get. most of the time it's from people i live far away from, and i don't care if they tell me about taking out the trash, i miss them and will read whatever they have to say.

so anyway.

i decided to do a christmas picture collage. no design involved, because my head hurts from designing too much :)

thing is, i need some snail mail addresses or i cannot send cards to some of you lovely friends! you know who you are. send me your real addresses, please. you might want to include your birthday on there too, i am going to ask God to help me remember dates better for my new year's resolution!

and susan, thanks for doing detective work to find out my address. you are good :)


anyway, click on the photo so that you can read the captions if you so choose!

happy Christmas!

ho ho ho

i love bloggers, i really do.

you have to go over to "angry chicken" (click on the sidebar to get there fast) to see the great gift tags amy karol made and gave to her readers! what a neato idea! she is always giving out crafty advice, great recipes and NOW THIS.

i dare you to use one or all of them!

game on

okay, i feel kind of like a high school basketball player in overtime standing at the free throw line. will i make the shot and get everything done i wanted to for christmas? will the crowds cheer and will i be a hero?

or will i just let the world fade away a bit this week, and remember not to forget that Christ is really important, and not much else matters except that we celebrate Him really heartily?

ah. we'll see how it goes. after an almost sleepless weekend, of crafting and brochure making and even some worship and fellowship, er, lunch with friends, i am TIRED. really, really tired. i kind of just want to crawl up into a ball and nap like siesta.

who, btw, is enjoying her 1st anniversary day of living at my house. doing what she does best, napping in a ball on my lap.

schweet, happy day.

shhh. it's a secret.

in the midst of all the holiday madness, i have virtually given up on the idea of homemade christmas gifts this year. it's too easy just to get out the credit card and go, amazon.com must love me!

but, in my heart, given all the time in the world, i would only give handmade things. i did finally finish something for a friend, and i am so happy! i wish i could make 20 more! the big thing is that this is my first official "branded" item of the new company i've had in my head for awhile. if ever i get it together enough to sell any of my handmade lovelies, this is going to be my company name.

the other night in bible study, we talked about living in your dreams, vs. living in reality. i know that mostly, it's not a good idea to live in your head. but as an artist, i always kind of do have those little fantasy dreams that usually never go anywhere except swirling around inside. at any rate, it feels good to take this little baby idea out into the open, even if just to show you guys!

merry christmas thursday!

wordless wednesday

furry happy monsters...

as i was at the computer working this afternoon, i found myself thinking back to the early 90s (yeah, well, i was working AND thinking about the early 90s...i'm silly like that) and i thought of r.e.m. i was a major r.e.m. fan for about a decade of my life. naturally, i got out the itunes and started to play some songs. then i saw this one on youtube, and it made me smile. i love the muppets! and they love r.e.m. too!

saturday coffee

i woke up at 5:30am again today. i don't think i'd actually get out of bed at that time of day, if not for the fact that i get a cup of coffee (albeit decaf). i've been waking up early all week, i think the brain is working on overload a bit, and really has not been sleeping much at all over these last few weeks.

i kind of wish the holidays were different. by the time i come around to fully embracing the meaning of the season, it's practically over. i wish i could learn to relax more, instead of adding on to my to-do list, when i should be concentrating on more important things.

last night, i attempted to go to the mall, i wanted to pick up some stuff for a craft idea i have for some girlfriends. i knew i was in trouble when i sat thru five stoplights before i got to "go" at an intersection that was about a mile away from my destination. it took about 20 minutes to go that last mile...people everywhere. i got into the store, got my cart, and proceeded to walk around aimlessly and WASTE TIME for far too long. never did find the materials i came to buy. bought a bunch of other pointless stuff. got into my car, and went home, feeling a sick emptiness, KNOWING that i was missing the point.

i did set up my christmas tree last night to try and recoup some spirit. in my deflated state, the best i could do was set things up almost exactly like last year. usually i try to put a little spin on things to make them different and new, but this year, the best i could muster was to go thru the motions. so tired of doing, doing, doing...

still, seeing the little warm lights and sparkly treasures makes me smile. ohhhhhh. to stop for a moment and really be in the moment. that's what i want for this year.

so today, a couple of great friends are coming over this afternoon to craft. i may not even dust the furniture, or buy a bunch of stuff to impress them or totally plan the activity we'll share. i may just wait for the moment to happen, welcome them in, and realize that just being together is what christmas is all about, and thank the Lord for having them in my life.

yep, i just may do that :)
happy weekend everybody!

flowers for karen

i woke up this morning to see that my dear friend karen's mom passed away last night. i admit i have been checking her blog almost compulsively for the last week or so. still, my breath caught in my throat when i read the words.

this journey with karen and her mom sue has been a new one for me in many ways. i have always been a sentimental type, a "softie" from the time i was a real little kid. so the delicacy of life, the sweetness of a love between a mom and daughter, the raw emotion of going thru a time like karen has been through, those things are things that have always touched me deeply. i remember times in my own life when i lost things i truly treasured, and did not know how life would ever taste the same without. i hurt for people like karen's dad, who might not know how to show their pain, but feel it deeply nonetheless. in those places, i have been.

what is different for me now, is that sue and karen and many of you dear blog friends and i share in the promises that Jesus brought on the cross. how did i ever LIVE without His touch in my life?

the truth is, i really didn't. until i knew that i knew that i knew that He is real, that He means what He says, that He is the REAL REASON that i am on this earth, i did not know what it was to live. to cling to Him when you are so sad that you cannot function is the ONLY WAY to make it make sense.

and it does make sense to me. what doesn't make sense is the craziness of the world. the silly fighting about whether to say "happy holidays" or "merry christmas." the brutal words that we use with each other in our efforts to prove that WE are right, and THEY are wrong, whoever we and they are.

i guess that the Lord has the ultimate laugh sometimes in my life, because i honestly used to mock people who were "bible thumpers" and looked to God first for answers. at that point, it was still a secret to me, what they knew and what i didn't. but He is famous for revealing His secrets in His time to us, when we really truly want to know them. i thank Him for the secrets He is showing karen even now, and for the promises and delights that He is showing His beloved sue, who i am so honored to have met.

like a hole in my head

that's how much i need more fabric.

but of course, i got an email announcement that this really really pretty fabric called "roman holiday" was half off. isn't it pretty?

so, just in case i don't have enough on my to-do list, i can also do some holiday sewing.

i am not really a traditonal red/green holiday kind of girl. i like coppers and browns and pale blues thrown in there for fun. anyway, i think i'm becoming one of those weird quilty ladies. how the heck did THAT happen?!

doh.

full up

oh. monday mornings are rough. especially after a holiday. i do already have one meeting under my belt, but still. i am feeling more firmly planted in the weekend, than in the new work week.

on saturday, carey and i traveled to rapid city for a visit to karen and her family. we knew that we would be pretty useless in a physical sense, but we wanted to somehow "do" something for karen as she continues on the path of caring for her mom Sue who has cancer. actually, i hate calling her that. if i discovered one thing this weekend, it's that karen's mom is NOT a woman with cancer. she is a woman who has made a difference, whose life has had and still has much purpose, who is planned for and cared for and loved by Jesus, and who God has chosen to shine through, even though (and perhaps because) the experience of having cancer has consumed many of her days.

i was nervous. not really to see sue, because i have seen relatives during the end of their lives, and i have held their hands and through tear stained eyes, said goodbye. i was more nervous simply because i did not want to be in the way of sue spending her time with people she loved. also, i didn't want to take any of karen's time away from her dear mom or the rest of her family. when you get right down to it, i just went to hug karen, because even though blogs are nice, they are not the same as really touching someone.

i was hoping i had a pretty good picture in my head of how sue would look when i saw her. apart from karen's description of her as a little yellow turtle, carey and i did kind of wonder what state she would actually be in. i was worried for carey, who had spent time growing up with this woman, and who has not been faced with too many dying people in her life.

all of the silly worries were for naught. carey was wonderful, she is so warm and able to show love and concern, and i'm glad she got to see sue again. and even though sue didn't communicate much on the day we arrived (it was later in the afternoon, and she must have been tired by then) i was surprised by her absolute beauty. she IS a small little woman, obviously very ill. but she is also luminous. her skin is actually delicate and lovely. her expression when she is awake is one of kindness, and her eyes are just gorgeous. she has the light of Jesus in her, no doubt. you can SEE it. when the girls were reminiscing about the past, she looked around with her small little face and her eyes said that she remembered too. it was hard to see her wince in pain, and even harder to see karen have to see her mom wince in pain. but for me, the thing i will remember is her eyes. THAT is what Jesus looks like. THAT is why He brought carey and i there, so that we could see Him. in person. and touch Him. in person. which we did.

so thank you sue for showing me my Lord. and thank you karen for showing me His feet and His hands. and thank you Lord for showing Yourself. you truly filled me up with you, and i am grateful.

when i took sue's hand to say goodbye, and tell her i was glad to meet her, she looked up at me with those sparkly eyes and said very clearly "it was nice to meet you. i will see you again either here or there." to which i replied "i'm looking forward to that day."

i am. it's good to know that my new friend and i will spend time together again, because He has promised us both that we will. in the meantime, i'll keep praying for a peaceful journey for sue and her family as they travel down the road He has layed for them.

scones for kirsten

Kirsten asked for a good scone recipe, and somehow i could not find the one i usually make. i went hunting (not too far!) and found that www.joyofbaking.com has a bunch of good recipes! i altered the recipe below a bit (i'll add the changes here) and found them to be light and delicious and sconey....! happy baking!

Berry Good Scones

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup dried cranberries or cherries (i used cherries)

Zest of one lemon or orange (about 1 T. zest)

2/3 cup buttermilk

Egg Wash: (i forgot this part, and sprinkled a bit of sugar on top of them)

1 large egg

1 tablespoon milk or cream

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl place the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and whisk to combine. Add the butter and using two knives or a pastry blender (the new/old kitchenmaid mixer set on low worked perfectly) cut in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the rolled oats, dried cranberries and zest. Mix until combined. Stir in the buttermilk (adding more buttermilk if necessary) and mix just until the dough comes together. (dough will be sticky, but that is okay).

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough four or five times and then pat, or roll, the dough into a circle that is 7 inches round and about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut this circle into 8 triangular sections. Place the scones on the prepared baking sheet. Make an egg wash of one beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon milk or cream and brush the tops of the scones with this mixture.

Bake for about 15 - 18 (mine took about 21) minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Makes 8 scones.

dreams come true

i had the incredible honor yesterday of accompanying kristie as she did her first art show for her beautiful jewelry called Flatwear. (i also witnessed her the night before, only slightly pannicked and whipping up the finishing touches of her jewelry - man, she's GOOD.}

anyway, it was fun. the trunk show was at a local coffee shop, which turned out to be the perfect setting. i'm always amazed at how God fills in the details that you could never guess, like the perfect table, or just the right size necklace stand that "just happen" to be there when you need them. thanks Lord!

kristie did a great job smiling and talking with her public. and people were very interested to know how she got started, and how she made the stuff. i was the comic relief, and i kept forgetting to help people because i was chatting and shopping myself! doh. it was really fun to set up though, and even though the photo does not do it justice, everything was lovely.

whew. it's so satisfying to get to participate when God is actually making one of His dreams for His kids come true :) we're proud of you, lou!

sometimes

when you go to kmart to buy laundry detergent, you hear little voices pleading in your ear "take me home with you!"

i'm just sayin.' sometimes it happens.

monkey sox

today is a full-out, hands down, ALL DAY jammie day. i'm wearing my new red and brown monkey socks that kirsten gave me when she visited (which somehow i have already managed to put a hole into!), my old standby velvet stretch pants, and a long sleeved tshirt. ALL DAY. i'll be wearing this outfit if you come over. be warned.

anyway, i am very excited about this day. not that i don't ever have these kind of days, but lately i never have them during the work week. but THIS kind of day is the best part of being a designer, the cherry on top of the dessert.

see, i have a big presentation at the end of this week. it all started about 2 weeks ago when i met with a client about rebranding their company.

it was a good meeting, but not the easiest client in the world to brand. not really my kind of subject matter. so, i did what i usually do when stuff is hard to figure out. i called carey :)

ha. seriously, she is the bigger thinker of the two of us. i mostly hang with the pretty pictures, and she does the hard part. so, she went to work on it, and came up with about 10 ideas about what we could do for this client.

and i didn't really like any of them. sometimes i'm like that, which probably drives her nuts. but she KEPT thinking, and we talked, and it turned into THE BEST IDEA EVER. in my head, anyway, it's really a pretty good idea. that is what always has to happen, i have to SEE the finished project in my head. then, i get really excited about it. like right now.

E X C I T E D.

so, for the last few days i've been plugging away. finding pictures, and thinking of color palettes, and playing with fonts, and moving stuff around on the page. and finally, i think i have something i really like.

and TODAY, i will put it all together. all day. sitting here and forgetting about time, and turning the phone off (you might want to not call me til tomorrow) and making this thing a THING. the very very best part of being a designer. i HOPE that in Heaven, the Lord will still assign me projects and let me do this part. i am assuming that He will. because it really does feel like this is the thing i do better than most things, and it still brings me real, true joy to make something that sits there on a page. i know it's only work, and it doesn't define who i am, and in the end it doesn't really do a whole lot of good for the world, but i do really really LOVE this part.

and hopefully, when i show it to the person i am making it for, he will love it also. whhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeee! here's hoping for a round of jammie days for you guys too.

it's quiet today...

well. she's gone. not quite gone, but kirst is on the road right now, traveling back to her family in minnesota, and the house is quiet for the first time since thursday night.

i forget how much i love spending time with her. this was especially nice, because it was the first time in a decade that we got to spend time without the kiddies around, demanding her attention too. she was ALL MINE, and that was great.

i think it was 1988 or so that we met. she had a blueberry colored long shirt on, matching socks smooshed just perfectly up over her black leggings, and a million jangly bracelets that looked like they came from some foreign land. they did. MINNEAPOLIS, or the big glamourous city, as i thought of it back then. she was cool, and i was not! ha. until i became her friend, and then i was a little also.

anyway, somehow we have kept in touch all these years!! 20 years is a long time! always 4 or 5 hours apart, and maybe only once or twice a year of actual contact. but lifetime friends are lifetime friends, no matter what. so we catch up, and we talk talk talk, and we go away again, each time with a little bigger chunk of each other engrained within us. it's good.



naturally, we shopped on friday. it's the kind of shopping i usually only do with one or two people i know. CRAFT shopping, mostly, although i did get a new winter coat, and we each hit the $1 section at target pretty hard. whew. fun.





then, saturday was Girl Saturday. it was neat to share kirst with the cool artsy girls in my life here. a good mess was had by all. i wish i could share more fruit for my labor, but i got too excited to actually make anything. well, i made one thing.



the funnest part was laughing as we read thru the old books that kris brought, looking for fun phrases to collage. i made a little collage, but the other girls seemed to have better stuff than mine to show for their time. next time i will actually think about what i am doing. oh. and photograph the good stuff that the others make!

schwew, fabulous weekend. now i'm going outside to mow my lawn ON VETERANS Day (or nearly so)....wow!

happy sunday everybody!

thank goodness i don't work here

so, carey and i were just on the phone, talking about the craziness of some of the business people we know, or work with. which we should not have even been doing, because our bible study this week was about having judgemental thoughts about people, often WRONG thoughts, when God is the only one able to judge. our group agreed to sort of "keep track" of our judgemental thoughts or words this week, but i knew i was in trouble when i was up to about 15 by the morning after our group met!

anyway, i digress. i was getting out of my truck today, and found this note laying near my curb. must have fallen off the bundle of "shopping news" rags that get delivered to all the homes here in SF once a week ... the crappy paper i wish they would just stop littering my lawn with (inserted just so you can see how that judgemental thought process works...)!

um. yeah. even though the big capital letters at the bottom REALLY made me laugh, i am kinda glad i do not work here. forgive me for judging, but this person doesn't sound like a whole lotta fun.

singin' along

i wonder how many days it will take before singing this song NON STOP will happen? i've been humming since monday, and today i went back and watched it again for more...i challenge you to find a better song that EVERY LIVING HUMAN loves!


thanks to the 2k's at paulsen for the tip...:)

day and night

well, here we are, 3 days into daylight savings time (or is it the cancellation of daylight savings time?) and i am still messed up.

it started out quite nicely on sunday morning, when i slept EXACTLY one hour later than i normally sleep, thereby (i thought!) cancelling the whole thing out.

unfortunately, my body did not agree.

anyway, the last 3 days have been the LONGEST days of my life! so far, the biggest change is that i am absolutely DONE working at 3:30pm. finito.

the funny thing is that my bedtime has not seemed to change at all. last night, thanks to a series of misadventures best saved for another post on another day, i ended up staying up until about 11:15...which 3 days ago would have been 12:15...on a school day! EEEK!

and this morning, just like clockwork, i popped open my eyes at 6:30am as if i'd been sleeping for days, and here i am. i will need a nap at about 10am, i am sure.

i don't remember things like this ever being so difficult before. better add it to the list of "things SO not to love about being middle-aged."

the upside of the whole deal (and you already know this if you ever ride in Ernie with me) is that my car clock - which i forgot how to set in 1999 - is once again only 4 minutes slow, instead of one hour and 4 minutes slow. much less math calculations to do whilst driving, for the next few months anyway :)

happy day!

error 3259 erradicated

schwew.

back into the communication loop. email fixed.

dave, this is waiting for you whenever you want it :)

thank you, thank you, thank you.

the dreaded error 3259

okay.

so it's not even 9am yet, and i am kind of freaked out! apparently, i am like one of pavlov's dogs and i did not realize it. because i am missing the sound of the "ding" of my email.

my email system has been down since yesterday (pray for my friend Dave to not have a heart attack, and for it to be all better!), and i almost cannot STAND it that i am sitting here, stranded from the world! THANK GOODNESS i have y'all, or i would really be going nuts.

okay, that is just weird. as much as i like all of the internet friends i have, i think perhaps i need some real humans. or siesta. yea, she'll do in a pinch.

here, kitty kitty kitty....

:)

into the wild

last night kristie and i went to see 'into the wild' for a birthday celebration. it was an extraordinary movie, very odd and oddly filmed. i liked it for its beauty, and the story was touching too.

i guess what i am thinking about this morning, is that in the movie, chris is hurt early in life and it drives him to reject people pretty much altogether. he cannot understand why people hurt each other, so he looks around him, sees all that God has created, and sets out to live for THAT instead of people (or society).

what we see are his brushes with death, moments of pure exhilaration (hey Care, he jumped off a cliff too!) and finally his demise thanks to some miscalculations about the alaskan wilderness.

in between, he reads books and meets some odd characters that help him along his journey.

great story. of course, i don't think the movie, or chris for that matter, really ever got to the heart of why we are here. that we as people are made to have relationship with, not just knowledge about, the Living God. that his creations ARE a display of His power and awesomeness, but not the whole of Him. that the REAL adventure for each of us is designed by God, just for us, and cannot be completed (or even started for that matter) without Him.

so yeah. chris mccandless was an adventurer. i think at the end, he was becoming aware of the real purpose he was made for, that relationship with God. i certainly hope so anyway. as for me, i'm reminded of the geoff moore song "when i get where i'm going" where geoff talks about flying, and petting animals, and just the goodness of Heaven. i think i'll get through this life by living a little less large than chris did, but not give up the hope in my heart to someday do everything he did, and more.

happy birthday kristie!

i hope you are "batting 1000" today :)

one more time

well, it was only a matter of time. you've heard my {sigh} adoring comments about ami james, and chef tom colicchio - mostly because they are bald and cute.

but I SWEAR i noticed this guy for his personality first. really.

it's tv season again, and i'm watching the next iron chef on food network. i love the whole iron chef series. i wish we could still watch the original series, because that is classic. and funny. but the "new" iron chef, featuring american chefs, is still pretty good.

i am SO rooting for the abovementioned contestant. michael symon. sure, he's bald and cute, but he is also nicer than most of the chefs, and i think he is kind of a bad boy chef with a good heart. i like that. i'm also pretty sure he is going to win.

i'm ALSO pretty sure i could use some therapy over this particular fascination :)

colors of the day

lovin' UO

look at the great headline that was in my "inbox" this morning.

sometimes, they are woefully short of taste, but this was pretty good.

i'll have some of that.

it's no secret to anybody, especially my pants, that i'm gaining weight at an alarming rate. thing is, i just want to eat food. lots and lots of food. so what's a girl to do, right? yes. cook and feed the beast. hey, it's winter (almost).

anyway, found this recipe a couple days ago. it seems so REGULAR, but still kind of intriguing. i wonder if any more "seasoned" cooks than me ( you know who you are) might offer suggestions/substitutions to gourmet this up?

and yes, i am thinking the whole stick of butter probably should go....!