Bird's Nest of Beads

This eye-puzzling pic is brought to you by the bead bird's nest on my desk.

Whoa, I don't know exactly what happened to this pic but it's weird - so I posted it.

I Wanna Go!

This has been a crazy, sad, wonderful day. I've
watched the Bourbon Street revelries on CNN, read all
the comments from New Orleanians on-site and not, sold
more beads here at work for Habitat for Humanity, wore
beads, had beads at my desk and took pics of beads
(see above). Most people in New Orleans appear to be
participating in events and are enjoying themselves -
the nay-sayers that the news channels find appear to
mostly be people that are bitter that they can't be
there. I really, really wish I was there this year.
Read this in a whiny voice: "I want to go to the
parades! I want throws! I want to dress up! I want
throws!"

Acckkk.

Maime and I are going to shoot for going next year.

Beads! Beads! BEADS!

Here's a pic of the beads I was wearing today.

Shopping From The Easy Chair

I didn't have a lot of plans this weekend to keep me
busy. That meant I had way too much time to go
on-line and buy, buy, buy stuff. One of my major
pitfalls.

First, I received an email from Felix's Paydirt (if I
knew how people link without having to type out the
whole address I'd link this because it's a cool site.
Google it and go take a look.) which is run by a man
living near Fairbanks, Alaska who has several gold mining
claims. You can buy bags of his "dirt" for modest
costs, pan them out at home or give them as gifts, and
they all contain some quantities of gold. I've
ordered from him before and I've never been
disappointed. I'm sure he makes more money selling it this way than if he installed an expensive commercial operation - this way I have a chance of getting good gold-bearing dirt also, so it's a "win" all around.

Then I went to Amazon because I haven't been there for
awhile and I wanted to see what new books "my" authors
have come out with lately. I also like to cruise
through the Listmania sites and find new things and
discover new authors. Here's what I ordered this
weekend:

"Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye", by Victoria Laurie (a
re-re-order because I keep loaning it out and not
getting it back, and I want to have it because it's
the first in a series)

"A Vision of Murder: A Psychic Eye Mystery", also by
V. Laurie, the third book in the series. I think this
is actually being released today or tomorrow.

"Micah", by Laurell K. Hamilton, the umpteenth novel in
Hamilton's Anita Blake series.

"Folly", by Laurie R. King, an author I have not read
before, but I saw this listed as #1 on a "My Favorite
Books" list in listmania and thought I'd try it. The
author apparently has a couple of series in print -
this book is a stand-alone and is sort of a
psychological drama mystery. I noticed that one of
the editorial reviewers implied that the book is too
complex for the average reader and may not generate
much in sales or interest because the author's regular
readers will be put off by having to think. I was
then impressed to see over 30 reviews by the author's
readers, giving the book high marks and actually
making sense like they actually understood all the
hard words! Apparently, that editorial reviewer can
go suck an egg.

"Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not", CD
by the Arctic Monkeys. These guys are huge in
Britain; I usually like Brit-pop and will give them a
shot. I've read several reviews (including in our own
home town newspaper) that give them high marks.

"Beachcombing For a Shipwrecked God", by Joe Coomer, a
guy who apparently has good insight into women and the
way they think, because reviewers and readers love
this guy. I've never read him.

"The Loop", also by Joe Coomer, because I couldn't
resist the reviews. And, at 49 cents used plus
shipping, I'm not out a lot of money either.

AND, THEN, I went to Collections Etc.
(collectionsetc.com) which is one of my favorite sites
for yard and garden stuff, and just general doodads
and gizmos for the home. I LOVE this place - nothing
is over $19.99, most of their items are $14.99, and
they have sales where it's even less. I love to buy
patio and yard stuff here - wind chimes, stepping
stones, stained glass, sculpture, bird feeders and
crazy things you'd never have dreamed of.....and some
really hokey stuff I wouldn't have in a million years
but somebody must like it. Something for everyone at
a reasonable cost. Anyway, I bought 2 two-armed
shepherd's hooks to put in the yard - they also have a
solar light at the top that looks like an old
fashioned street light. I plan to hang suet and bird
feeders from these because the darned squirrels won't
be able to climb the skinny metal poles, I hope. They
eat all the bird food from the other feeders.

I also bought a new clock and thermometer for the
patio - these have a lighthouse design on them.

And, a Mosaic Sunflower Birdbath, in turquoise and
yellow, that I just love, which I have seen before and
really wanted to buy, but I thought $19.99 is too much,
and when I went in this weekend, what do you think?
The price was lowered to $13.99 - I had to have it.
Of course.

I think that's it. I think.

It's Monday, Again

Donations to Habitat for Humanity:
Here it is Monday again, the day before Fat Tuesday. Maime and I have decided to
sell some of our many, many beads and trinkets from our trips
to NOLA, here at work. We'll collect all sales and
donations and send them to the Habitat for Humanity - I
haven't checked the website yet but I hope we can
earmark it for New Orleans and/or surrounding area.
I'll find out.

I'll also find out how generous these folks around
here can be. In some ways they're the cheapest
skinflints you can imagine, in other ways they can be
generous. I hope this swings to the generous side
because we'd like to send a big check to Habitat.

Throw Me Something, Mister!
Poppy has gone to about a dozen parades this year.
That's partly because they can't move back into their
house yet (or maybe ever) and the apartment they're living
in is closer to St. Charles Avenue, which is the designated
parade route for most of the parades. The hotel we
stayed at last time we were in NOLA is right on St.
Charles, at about the 2100 block (about 21 blocks from
Canal/French Quarter) and is right on the parade
route. I think it would be so cool to just have to
step out the hotel door and be right at the
parades...so cool. Maybe next year we can swing it.
I bet it's expensive though. And, I can buy new
pieces of luggage at the French Market to haul my
treasures home in! Oh, wait, I've done that everytime
I've been there.

Pet Peeve and Skating

It bugs me when people jump to a conclusion without
knowing all the facts and start broadcasting it to
everyone in hearing range. I know a few people who
just read a headline from the newspaper and think they
can make an informed opinion. That drives me crazy -
we live in an age where information is everywhere, we
just have to look for it beyond the headlines and the
sound bites.

For instance: This morning I overheard someone say
"That Sasha skater should have gotten the bronze
medal, not the silver, because she fell twice. The
Russian skater fell once so she should have the silver
medal." I asked if she had watched the performances
and she said no, she just "heard what happened." I was
pissed off that someone would broadcast such an
ill-informed opinion about something they did not see,
and knew nothing about. I stayed up and watched the
performances. Since I watched them I felt I could
make an opinion, and I said back to her, that "yes,
Sasha fell once and touched the ice once on her first
two jumps, HOWEVER, her grace and artistry are head and
shoulders above Irina's and she completed the
remaining three minutes of her program BRILLIANTLY."
If she was scored on the last three minutes of her
program and they threw the first one minute out, she
might have won gold. Japan's Shizuka's performance
was excellent, though, for four minutes, and she
deserved to win the gold medal. Irina had one fall
(hence, the hastily drawn conclusion above), BUT she
does not have the artistry that Sasha does, she was
very sluggish throughout her program and she looked
tired. She did not perform better than Sasha. And
these top three put together better programs than the
rest of the women and, even though some of them skated
cleanly, they were not of the same caliber. So, in my
opinion, the medal podium looked exactly right.

Plus? I'd like to see Miss Know-It-All get out on the ice and fall on her ass.

Another Baby Blanket

Here's another baby blanket - I made this one for a woman in our office who's having a boy - she just found out last week. The blanket is in green/pink/and multi stripes, edged in a green ruffle. It has pink in it because I already HAD pink yarn, and I made it before she knew what sex her baby would be. I think it'll still be OK.

Jeez, we have a lot of babies coming this spring! I know of at least three more after this one....I will probably not make blankets for all of them. That would be nuts.

Anybody need a scarf?

I made these ruffle scarves this week - they're fun to make so I just kept going. I think there are six of them here. I don't know what I'll do with them - I'd like to have a fund-raiser of some kind for NOLA here at work but I don't know logistically if that'll work out. If we dohave one I'll sell these.

Do You..? I do. Woof Woof.

Here's a strange one:

NEW DELHI - A 7-year-old girl wed a stray dog as part
of a ritual to ward off the "evil eye" on her and her
family in eastern India, a news agency reported
Wednesday.

Shivam Munda's upper teeth appeared before her lower
teeth, considered a bad omen by members of the
Santhal ethnic group to which she belongs, the Press
Trust of India said in a report from Dhanbad, a coal
mining town in the eastern state of Bihar.

Kundan Munda, a coal mine worker, said his daughter
married the dog only to "remove the evil eye," a
superstitious belief that some misfortune could befall
her and the family, and that she would be free to
marry a man later.

Friends and family participated in three days of
traditional ceremonies and estivities that are part
of a Santhal tribal marriage, Munda said, according to
the report.

whatever. Can you imagine? Oh, and the good thing is
that even though she's married to a dog , she is
"free" to marry a man later. Does she need to get a
divorce first?

Sauvie Island Monday

My brother, Ken, and I got bored yesterday so we
decided we had to come up with something to do. We
grabbed Steve (younger brother) and took off for
Linnton to have lunch at the Lighthouse Inn, where
they serve gigantic burgers - these things are at
least 6 inches across. And really good. We sat in their really cool bar area which is crammed full of antique farming and fishing items, ate our burgers and played some video poker and keno for awhile.

From there we went to Sauvie Island, an large, rural
island in the Columbia River which consists basically
of small farms and a large wildlife refuge. We had
thrown in a couple of metal detectors so we headed to
the local nude ("clothing optional") beach and
searched for coins and stuff. We found lots of bottle
caps but nothing else. It was only about 45 degrees
out so we were basically on our own and there was no
bare skin in sight. Actually, no people for
the most part.

However, we did see thousands and thousands of
Canadian Geese (they winter over on the island),
several swans, a golden eagle, a ton of robins (but
it's not spring yet!?!), a big crowd of crows, several
Great Blue Herons, lots of cormorants, loads of ducks,
a couple of hawks of some kind, llamas, horses,
chickens, dogs, deer tracks, a stuffed Sylvester in a
tree, and an asshole who thought he should go 50 on
the bridge when the speed limit is 20 (10 for trucks).
We were behind a truck when this guy came roaring up
behind us and acted all pissed off that he had to slow
down. Some people's kids.

Olympics on TV, Still

Just came off a 4-day holiday OLYMPICS weekend and I
am sleepy this morning! I love the big O (Olympics,
that is) but it can sure put a crimp in my morning
when I stay up late watching it on TV.

Man, I've loved almost everything so far - even the
ice dancing was exciting and terrific and not its
usual stodgy self.

Hockey and curling I can take or leave.

Tonight? Ladies figure skating. Can't wait.

Just. Grow. Up.

Note to just about everyone I've worked with today: Try to lighten up and enjoy yourselves. Stop being so UNHAPPY! Life truly is what you make it and you're making it SUCK for yourself!

Have a laugh from the classic "Hollywood Squares":

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and Laugh

Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?
A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected.

Ooohh, that Paul was a character.

I've said it before...

...I'm a dork.

I bought lottery tickets for the $400 mil Powerball last night because I thought the drawing was last night. I should have this tattooed on my forehead: Powerball drawings are SAT and WED. Oregon Megabucks drawings are SAT, MON and WED.

Last night's Megabucks ticket = dud.

Stuff and Nonsense

I've almost finished a crocheted throw I'm making for
Dad. I found a website that had the thick & quick
chenille on sale for a fantastic price so I bought
bunches of it and just HAD to make something right
away. Does Dad need a new throw? Absolutely not.
But he's getting one anyway. I'll post a pic as soon
as I get it done and can take a pic in daylight. It's
really soft and velvety - it would be cool to have a
whole bedspread or something made out of this stuff.
It's like deep piles of velvet.

Oh, and the colors of the throw are called Peacock and
Seaspray (light and dark greens). It's Lion Brand
Thick and quick Chenille and, if you're fast, you can
still go to Smiley's Yarns and order it for $1.99 per
skein - regularly $8. Color selection is limited and
the sale is only through Feb 15.

Last night I was so impressed with the top Chinese
figure skaing pair (whose names I do not remember)
that I got teary-eyed. After the fall that girl took,
she came back and put on an awesome performance and
won the silver medal. I couldn't believe it - I
thought her knee would give out on her and it never
did, until she was done and she collapsed in her
coach's arms. Man, oh, man. THAT was an Olympics
Moment.

Cross my fingers/Cross my toes

Ok, I can't ignore this. Powerball is at $400 million tonight and Oregon Megabucks is at $4 million. Gotta stop and buy tickets.

Ooh, man, I'd be happy to win either one.

The Olympics TV Addiction

I am addicted to watching the Olympics. Every two
years I tell myself I will not get absorbed into
watching every minute of coverage, but I always
somehow fail. There are so many interesting stories,
absorbing sports, and fascinating athletes. And the
athletes are all so darn cute in the Winter Olympics,
more so than the Summer Olympics I think, even though
they wear more clothes. Who can resist? Not me,
apparently.

So, last night I cheated and looked on-line to see who
won the men's halfpipe because I had to go to bed - it
was almost 11:00 and they were still showing the
different runs and stuff but I needed my beauty sleep.
And I'd watched TV all weekend since the opening
ceremonies on Friday so I decided it was safe to let
it go for a few hours.

Part of me feels very sorry for Michelle Kwan, but
another part of me says she and her coaches should
have known she would either reinjure the groin or
cause another injury elsewhere (which is apparently
what happened) because she has not been able to skate
with a competitive edge for a long time. You can't go
all out when you're coming off of an injury - and this
is the Olympics! You have to be at your absolute peak
or you run the risk of just embarrassing yourself
because there are a lot of athletes from all over the
world all trying to win the same prize.

And, Michelle has never been outstanding at the
Olympics - she had her chance when Tara Lipinski
skated right through everybody (that could have been
Michelle just as easily as Tara but she was not on),
and she had her chance in the last Olympics when she
just couldn't get it together. So, oh well, so swell.
She had her chance. I'm curious to see how Emily
Hughes performs under the world's spotlight.

Laser Turntable!

I am in shock and awe! If this is really true I'm
jumping out and getting one. AWESOME!

OK, what's the big deal? I have lots of LP's (that's
records for you young folks - "vinyl" - 33's)
and don't play them, not because I don't have a
turntable - which I do - but because it's such a
hassle and the needle needs to be replaced.

A LASER turntable - no needle! Cooooooool!

I should probably admit that besides still owning a few hundred LP's I also have around 3,000 or so 45's. But I have an excuse! I have a jukebox - it takes 100 at a time and you have to rotate all your favorite songs, right? hmmmmm.....

BUT, about 2 years ago I sold around 10,000 45's to a local record shop. So there.

Mindy. Rindy. What's in a name?

Did I say Mindy? I meant to say Rindy, I think. I'll have to look it up, I guess.

But I think Quarterflash's singer was Rindy Ross. Anyway, doesn't matter. She had a great voice.

Concerts #8

Stevie Ray Vaughn
Caught him by accident in a club one night - don't know why he was in town or who he was with, but we listened till he left. Duh.

The Knack
Saw these guys this past summer and they were GOOD!!!! I kept thinking, "This is The Knack? The "My Sharona" guys? They can PLAY????" Damn. Yes, they can. Go check them out if you have the chance.

Concerts #7

See? I knew if I kept thinking about it I'd come up with more. I completely forgot some of the local bands-who-made-it-big and a few others. Here they are:

Quarterflash (Seafood Mama)

Before Quarterflash, they were Seafood Mama, which I always thought was a much cooler name for a band. But they didn't ask me. Saw these guys many, many times. They deserved their 15 minutes of fame because they had good writing, a good singer in Mindy and a pretty tight band. Very enjoyable bar band.

Nu Shooz

Again, saw them around town - they were a good bar band. I can't remember the lead singer's name now but she used to live near me. Valerie Something?

Little River Band

When I saw these guys I didn't know it was them, and I asked my friend "why is this band playing a bunch of Little River Band songs? Are they a LRB cover band or something". He looked at me like I was a dork - which I was, apparently.

Starship

No Grace Slick by this time but it was OK, they sang the familiar stuff.

Billy Rancher

You probably have to be local to remember Billy because he was a huge hit in this area and just as he was getting poised to go BIG he got cancer and ended up passing away. The guy was good! Saw him many, many times around town.

Johnny and the Distractions

Another tight, tight local band who made it into the bigs but not very far. I don't know what happened but I saw them lots and lots and they were so good - still have one of their albums.

Lloyd Green Trio

Wow, blues to the max. My cousin was in this band for awhile (or so he says) but I never saw them during that time apparently. Blues, Blues, excellent.

Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos

You used to be able to see these guys around a lot - they made a minor splash nationally and, of course, the legend is that they were the inspiration for Dan Ackroyd and John Bilushi for the Blues Brothers. Who knows? I think these guys are still around. (I don't think I know how to spell Bilushi, Bulishi, John or Jim? - now I'm really mixed up)

Reading

I am a PLEASURE reader. I do not
generally read for some kind of spiritual
enlightenment, I do not read to find out how somebody
"found themselves" through hard times, drugs, alcohol
or whatever, or were horribly abused as children. I
don't like to read books that are written to make you feel sad or
negative about the world or a people. I read for
PLEASURE. And to educate myself in things I'm
interested in, which again is for my PLEASURE.

I make my reading choices based on "if I spend X number of hours of my
life listening to this music or reading this book or
watching this TV show or movie or traveling to this
city, is it worth it?" I am the the only one who can
decide if X number of hours out of my finite life is
worth using in a particular way.

So, I guess this is a roundabout way of saying that most of my preferred reading is of fiction.

Here's a list of the most recent books I've read:

"Red Lily", Nora Roberts (third and final book in a
trilogy)

"Death On The Downs", Simon Brett (a mystery set in
England)

"The Devil You Know", Poppy Z. Brite (a very good
short story collection, including bits related to her
newest "Liquor" series)

"Fires of Eden", Dan Simmons (this one has it all -
lush tropical paradise, 2-mysteries-in-one, Mark Twain
and Victorians, modern luxury resorts, monsters and
folk tales, independent women, liquor, volcanos - the
works)

Currently reading: "Dead Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison (I think) (This is the first in a series, heavy on the witches and vampires but in a pretty unique world - I plan to re-read the series unless something new comes up)

_______________________
Current Music pumping into my head via the headphones:
Gorillaz, "Demon Days"

And My Favorite Albums Are...

Since this blog is all about me, I thought I'd make a
list of my favorite albums of all time. Woohoo!
Doesn't that sound interesting to anyone but me? Not.
Anyway, there are lots of albums that I like, some I
love, but not too many that I don't grow bored with,
at least occasionally. So this list starts with those
albums that I can ALWAYS listen to without cringing,
I may listen to them every day or I may go a year without listening to them, but I never grow tired of them.

Anyway, for my own enjoyment, here's a very short list
of cd's that I never grow tired of.

1. The Stone Roses - Artist: The Stone Roses
2. Screamadelica - Artist: Primal Scream
3. The Joshua Tree - Artist: U2

That's it - the absolute top of the cd's I couldn't
leave behind on my deserted-on-a-desert-island
vacation, if I knew that being deserted was in my
future and I had lots of batteries and my cd player -
or electricity. Or, if I had lots of batteries I
might want to save them for something else I wouldn't
be without if I was by myself and to hell with music.
What are YOU thinking?!?! I was referring to a
FLASHLIGHT!

OK, you're right, it wasn't a flashlight.

Back to the cd list..............I'll probably add to
it, but only from #4 and down.

I Should Explain

The "death knot" is something that has happened to me
several times and it generally precedes the death of
someone close to me. Luckily, even though I stayed
close to the phone last night just in case, I never
received a call that something had happened. So, I
presume that yesterday's stomach knot was somehow
related to the rampant flu that's sweeping through the
building at work. So far, the stomach's OK today; the
other end is something else.

I'm scared to go home.

I'm scared to go home. I've had the death knot in my stomach all day. I hope it's just indigestion.

I wish I may, I wish I might, see Gram Parsons in concert tonight.

I said earlier that I would mention the concerts I missed or artists I love but have never seen in concert. I was thinking about it and only one stands out - Gram Parsons.

I wish, wish, wish Gram had lived so he could have continued to write and grow as an artist, instead of being cut down so soon after he started. He had such an ear for music, for words, for painting pictures of his soul in song. I feel that his work with the Byrds and the Flying Buritto Brothers was like kindergarten. He was just feeling his way around the playground, and it wasn't until he started singing on his own that he started to really mature.

He was a great artist, a huge compliment to Emmylou Harris and got her started on her road to stardom (I'm not saying that she would not have made it on her own, but her work with Gram was just unbelievable and must have given her a huge boost). Not that he was perfect by ANY means. But he had such potential that we never got to see because he died so young. It breaks my heart when I listen to him now because his music is 30 years old and so rich and beautiful. It really makes me wonder what kind of artist and what kind of man he could have become if he had been given those lost 30 years, and another 30 still to come?

Anyway, with tears in my eyes, I say that Gram Parsons is the one artist in the world that I would have loved to have seen in concert, and if wishes came true I would be able to buy a ticket today.

I Made a Shawl

This is a not-very-good-but-the-best-one-I-took pic of the ripple-pattern shawl I made for Maime. (that's her! "Hi, Maime!!") I'll try to get a better pic up.

In case you care, it's crocheted with Red Heart Medium Worsted Weight yarn in black, medium purple, and Monet.

I'm Waiting

My Yahoo! Horoscope for today:

"Being there for other people when they need you -- no
matter how inconvenient that happens to be -- affords
those who do so with certain benefits. First off, the
good feelings that go along with helping someone for
absolutely no personal gain. It's also nice to know
that others trust you enough to ask -- kind of makes
you feel good about just being you. Well, a coworker
is about to say 'thank you' -- another perk, but one
you'd never even considered"

Ok, I had to chuckle at this because my co-workers are
all cranky and grumpy. This week has been terrible,
even the people I like and I think like me are grumpy.
I'm trying to not take it personally.
However, I do not always succeed in not getting grumpy
right back at 'em.

Maime's Scarf

Here's a lovely scarf knitted by Maime and given to me before the holidays. I meant to put a pic up earlier but I never had the scarf and the camera in the same place at the same time. It's in all of my favorite colors (gee, how did she know?), pinks, blues and purples. Love it!