Friday, December 31, 2010

Frozen Ice Drops On Boat Cover*

Went to the marina today to check on the boat. Although temperatures are below freezing, there is no wind and plenty of sunshine. I contemplated taking the boat out for a New Year's Eve cruise and wanted to make sure she was ready. However, when I advised the Captain of the Double Jack, he said Are you crazy?

I made sure the electricity was on and the lines were okay. (The level of the lake changes. It's two feet lower in the Winter and ours is not a floating dock.)

While I was verifying the information on the change in water level, I came across this site about submerged wreckage in Lake Washington. Pretty cool stuff and some interesting pictures, mostly of submerged aircraft.

*Not our boat cover, btw.

Seattle's zoo loses a sloth bear to liver cancer

Local News | Seattle's zoo loses a sloth bear to liver cancer | Seattle Times Newspaper
The bear died during a health examination to evaluate symptoms of lethargy... . "When keepers noticed a sudden, drastic decrease in the bear's activity, we immediately scheduled a health examination... ."
What constitutes a drastic decrease in activity in a sloth?

Coulda been the booze.

NYE

I went for the most beautiful walk this morning (and washed it down with two leftover cookies afterward, the last of which shall not remain uneaten if I have anything to say about it). My weather widget advised it was an atypical 21 degrees but with the proper clothing and a mindset that oxygen isn't strictly necessary, I ventured out.

Absolutely worth it.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Brrr

From Drop Box


A little chilly on my walk this morning. Taken with my phone's camera (HTC EVO).

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Notice

Due to technical difficulties I will not be working today. I've tried signing in. Really, I have. But I keep getting kicked out or blocked from signing in and so now I'm giving up.

Blogger and Facebook are working fine.

Clairvoyant Dream

The other night I had a dream that my stepson showed up at my house at 7:49 am - 41 minutes before I was expecting him.

The next morning, he showed up at 7:48 am. That really happened.

Next, I'll try dreaming about winning the lottery.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Important Distinctions



From Ron's Log in Desert Hot Springs.

Nice Story

Fairies

are good. As are cookies. If one is visited by a Cookie Fairy, well, there's nothing better.


I didn't make any cookies this year. (The truth is, I made five dozen inedible cookies, so that doesn't count. I didn't eat them.) But right now on my kitchen counter I have red and green sugar-coated butter cookies, brittle, peppermint brittle, chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter kisses, oatmeal, sugar cookies, and cookies for which I know not the names.


What to do now but eat them? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in between.


Good thing I got those walking shoes because I'm going to need them.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Cleaned Up

Before and After


What Is Meatless Chicken Anyway?



Kung Pao Chicken is on the left under Poultry and on the right under Meatless Chicken Dinners. This confuses me. Get this - the meatless chicken Kung Pao Chicken is MORE than the meatful Kung Pao Chicken.

Better get pizza.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Another Way To Look At It

Winter Solstice is just another name for Beginning of Summer. Here, where I've now lived more than half my life, Summer takes a while to ramp up. Might as well start now.

Re Do

I put my underwear on inside out this morning. Not on purpose, mind you. And not backward, either, which would have presented a whole different set of uncomfortable issues. I was nearly dressed when I discovered the error and the question at that point was, Who cares? And, Should I leave them that way or fix them? Or, Should I wear them again tomorrow?

No one.

Fix them.

No.

I'm glad there will be more daylight in the coming days.

The Light

What if the Light you see at the End Of The Tunnel is just the bedside lamp? Or the one in the ceiling over your hospital bed? It makes sense that would be the last thing you see before it's "lights out, " as they say.

I imagine it could be disappointing to think of The End this way, that The Light is nothing more than an ordinary light bulb. Worse yet, that we are simply moths.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Solstice

I don't like to look at it as the First Day of Winter. Too depressing. Makes me want to hibernate. No, I like to think of it as The Last Day that Days Get Shorter. More hopeful than Three More Months of Shitty Weather.

Yum

(Image from here.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This is the best pie ever (if you're not averse to alcohol).

Monday, December 20, 2010

Vaginal steam bath finds a place among Southern California spa options - latimes.com

Vaginal steam bath finds a place among Southern California spa options - latimes.com
"...There's a bigger picture that we're really missing."
Well, we are talking about Southern California here.

Dresses And Asses

Laurasmagicday writes:
It's been forever since I bought a new holiday dress. The invitation says "semi-formal." So I walk up to my closet and check out what made it up north and isn't in storage in LA. Hmmm. I stick my arm into the wall of hanging clothes and practically pull a muscle to give them room to breathe. Slide. Slide. Slide go the hangers as I asses in seconds whether the dress in my paw will work, or not.
I really want a new dress too. I found it about five minutes before I was supposed to be dressed and ready for the office holiday party, having lost all track of time. My husband called wondering where I was. I dropped the dress and ran out of the store, went home to don what-I-always-wear, and made it to the party a half hour late.

Did I mention I was hosting?

I've since been back to the store, but "my" dress was gone. Maybe next year.

"...I asses in seconds..." Me, too. I often feel like I have more than one ass so my New Year's Resolution is to narrow it down to just one ass. I bought those goofy walking shoes - the kind that have soles shaped like boat hulls - and will try to get out to walk every day.

This may not seem like such an accomplishment where you are but it's dark and wet here so I'm giving myself points for adding the requirement that my walking must be done outside. There's really no need for this requirement as I own a very expensive and equally dusty treadmill. Even in the rain I'd rather be outside so that's the plan.

To my friend, Laura, congrats on the new dress. Sorry about the asses.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Windy





That's not shrubbery. That's the top of the neighbor's tree in our yard. Missed the house by about a foot.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Gold To Go

http://www.gold-to-go.com/en/

In case you haven't finished your shopping.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Dancing


Contributed by Phil (messing around with the fire pics)

The Institution

Found this on Facebook. I don't know if my friend Teja wrote it or if she got it from somewhere else....

So let me get this straight... Larry King is on his 8th divorce, Elizabeth Taylor is possibly getting married for a 9th time, Britney Spears had a 55-hour marriage, Jesse James and Tiger Woods, while married, were having sex with everyone; and yet the idea of same-sex marriage is still going to destroy the institution of marriage? Really?

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Let It Rain

Frank & Ernest

We've had 5.68 inches of rain so far in December. At least it's not snow.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Humbug



One of the problems of goofing off all week is having to make up for it on the weekend and you can see how well that's going so far. Further, a downside of belonging to social clubs is the expectation that you will be social. It's been an exhausting week of holiday parties and holiday bazaars and now I'm paying the price.

To be truthful, I was only involved in one holiday bazaar but it seemed like several and it was a partial disaster. I agreed to bring red and green sugar-coated butter cookies made from a recipe that has been in the family since forever. I decided that for the freshest cookies, I should wait until the day before the bazaar to make the cookies which is exactly when I realized I couldn't find the recipe. It was there the day before, I promise. I obtained another copy of the recipe just in time to discover the sugar in my pantry was really flour. This necessitated a late night trip to the grocery store and frantic mixing of dough the following morning. I found that red and green sugar crystals were hard to come by but, fortunately, I only had to go to two stores to complete the shopping list.

I made five dozen cookies before I tried even one and when I finally tested for quality I found them wholly unacceptable. The only way I would sell these cookies would be anonymously. Still, I couldn't bring myself to share them. My stepson pronounced them fit for human consumption and so he got them all. Sucking up to the cook never hurts.

The other project for the bazaar was to produce cards (of the greeting variety) from some of my photos. I printed a total of sixty on card stock and sold some as a collection of six for five dollars, with smaller cards sold individually for one dollar. I sold twenty-one (with envelopes).

When printing the cards, I had some expectations of what would sell and selected my images accordingly. I favored winter themed photos and boating related photos and was completely surprised when I sold none in those categories. The images above were selected for the winter cards. There were fifteen of the first image, and five of the second, all of which came home with me (which is to say if you receive one of these from me in the mail, you are receiving a reject).

All of the boating-related cards had captions on the reverse side indicating where the photo was taken and I thought that would interest the boating-related audience that made up the shoppers at the bazaar. They were smaller cards, sold individually for one-dollar. I only sold one of these but I didn't keep track of how many copies of each image I printed so I'm not entirely sure which image sold. I thought these would have sold better considering the bazaar was at the yacht club.

I thought wrong. The images that sold best were from my Fallen collection (on the Photos page). I selected five images, printed four of each, and sold them all. These were, in fact, some of my favorite images but ones that I thought wouldn't sell because we are beyond Fall and I printed them on a darker card stock which (I thought) did not enhance the image. Who knew?

Live and learn and better luck next time. It was a fun experiment and I look forward to trying it again. In the meantime, I should probably get to work.

(I've published the rejected photos are on the Photos page.)