but i am a woman on a mission. i will stand back up now. and i will snowshoe downtown if need be. i have a hair appointment.
The Harvard Law states: Under controlled conditions of light, temperature, humidity, and nutrition,
the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
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image credit: funnyordie.com
today, it is national chocolate cake day in the united states. as i am never one to pass up a holiday, or chocolate, for that matter, i will fully embrace the day. stop on by and join in the celebration. and please bring some milk if you would be so kind.
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile. – Regina Brett
with yet another day of below zero temps and flying snow, i have warm memories of baby v and lewis the cat, as they crossed paths last summer at my favorite garden store, just a beautiful walk away from the cottage.
i’m just going to stop over for a minute and tell lewis something.
okay, we are good.
lewis is a well-respected and incredibly tolerant employee. and a very good listener.
What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. ~John Steinbeck
found this old book of love that my daughters had given me for my birthday more than a decade ago. i laughed out loud all over again, at their kind and loving and humorous approach to life. no one had much money, but this book was worth everything. they spoiled me with offers of flowers and treats and reluctant shared experiences and pampering (even though they signed up their third sister who was out of the country for this task). here are some of the coupons found within:
Children make your life important. –Erma Bombeck
my daughter and her aussie family, having decided to take on an easy pet, went the “cute little guinea pigs” route. my grandsons enjoyed playing with them, they were cuddly, and loved to run around in the yard, (grandkids and pigs, both). living in the southern hemisphere, and with a very warm climate, it was not unusual and worked out well for everyone.
until one day, when it got just too hot for them, and the little guys, (the pigs, not the grand babies), decided to make a run for it and head for a cooler location, under the house. they haven’t really seen them since, (the pigs not the babies). i suggested to my daughter that she send the littlest guy, (baby, not pig), under the house on a hunting expedition, with a headlamp and a net. he is the only one who would fit under there, has a huge love of hands-on adventure, and would probably find the mission quite exciting.
my daughter and i discussed the possibilities if they didn’t find them:
‘are they vegetarians?’
‘oh they won’t go hungry, they can eat as much grass as they like out there and always be full.’
‘but isn’t everything massive there, you have super races of every animal, who have adapted and are highly developed survivors?’
‘what if they run out of grass? what if they have to eat a bug or something to survive?’
‘yeh, once they have a taste for blood, they could go after bigger things. the neighbor’s cat, a kangaroo, and even us.’
‘we could come home one day and find them to be giants, roaming the yard, looking menacing, making eye-contact with us and hungry!’
‘yes.’
‘it would be like a bad b-movie, with us as the running, shrieking victims.’
‘could you possibly videotape it for me and i could make a fun family movie out of it?’
soon after, i noticed that she had put up an offer to local friends on Facebook – “looking for a good home for cute guinea pigs, our yard will just not accommodate them since we’ve moved.” following is a very real part of that exchange:
a: Are they child friendly??
h: Not really lap guineas, need more handling. I have a leash and everything but don’t think they are quite there yet.
j: be warned everyone !! they are the guinea pigs from hell !!! they would be perfect extras as pets for the dudes of Sons of Anarchy !!!
apparently, people have different perspectives about them, clearly divided between those who’ve met them, and those who haven’t. but really, leashes?!
You can’t create a monster, then whine when it stomps on a few buildings. Yeardley Smith (voice of lisa simpson)
image credits: freeamigurumipatterns, news.bbc.co.uk, theguardian.com
it was a morning spent with the kindergarten on an ice skating adventure. filled with tip-toeing on skates, scooting on boots, giving rides on cones, running on ice, holding hands, tumbling, crashing, laughing, noses running.
and all this, as our little hockey playing and figure skating kinders skate on by.
when it’s time to warm up with hot cocoa and donuts, they find themselves on equal ground, and they are all exhausted and so happy. and then, even our hockey players cry when it is time for moms and dads to leave, and for us to return to the cozy comfort of the circle rug in our classroom once more. and some of us feel newly discovered muscles in their legs the next day, that are apparently never used in this way, and take it real slow when going down the stairs.
I would say my sense of adventure outweighs my grace – Kathy Ireland
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image credits: freshcardsgifts.co.uk, partylistyles.com
The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.
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image credits: oldprint.com, it’s a lovely life, economist. com
image credit: wwll vintage gas ration ad
i love my carpool. there are only two of us, but any more than one living thing in a car at the same time, and i consider it a pool. on most days, we drive together to and from school, in our cars with character – mine is ‘diablo rojo,’ and m’s is ‘sharfonda.’ driving together has many benefits: not only do we save money on gas, and help preserve a smidgen of the world’s energy supply, but the company is wonderful.
we are very much alike, and talk about everything. and make up poetry and tell stories and laugh and go off on tangents and share philosophies and cry and sing. and get lost occasionally, as neither of us has an innate sense of direction. we compare our students, ‘m’ teaches english and poetry at our high school and i, on the opposite end of the spectrum, teach kindergarten in our lower school. even so, we find that many of our student and family and teaching issues are very similar, and we listen and support each other and offer advice. our drive usually takes us about 45 minutes, if all is well along the way, and we don’t end up in some place we hadn’t planned on.
but – on some days, things happen. life may be challenging, we are worrying about someone or something, there are issues on the road, there is a tornado watch, a blizzard, a rain squall, or construction events, or we feel like we are driving through a video game, and we have had it, and need some extra support.
we discovered our cure one day, when it had been a particularly challenging drive. and m suddenly yelled out, ‘quick, turn in! it’s a tim horton’s and we need to go there now!’ i was behind the wheel, and diablo rojo did as requested. as we entered the drive-through we decided that we needed (and deserved), a few ‘tim-bits’ (delicious tiny donut holes), to help us make it the rest of the way and to instantly give us a pick me up. we quickly scanned the menu options:
Timbits:
10 pack – 1.50
20 pack – 2.50
40 pack – 4.75
we decided it was a 40 timbits kind of day.
and we were soon on our way, making up timbit haiku and laughing once again.
image credit: http://www.newswire.ca
Chef Andrea Nicholson, of Top Chef Canada, with the Tim Hortons Timbits cake she created.
Nearly four feet tall, the cake contains more than 1,500 Timbits.
for chef andrea, it was a 1,500 timbits kind of day, must have been a tough one.
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But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
image credit: metro.co.com
today, they are back. we are all to be reunited at school once more. we have survived the holiday vortex, the polar vortex.
i feel sure we will create our own vortex in no time. i smell adventure in the air.
Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty – Jacob Bronowski
Slip sliding away, slip sliding away – You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away – paul simon
and yes, it’s another polar vortex day at home, and yes, i have yet another personal tale of slip sliding away.
this one involved a first date. it was back when i was a cocktail waitress, working at a hotel, putting myself through school, a single mother, not sleeping a lot, and without much of a nightlife other than work. he was one of our regular customers, friendly, quiet, always alone, polite, settled in his life. a one-beer kind of man.
on our big night out, we went to dinner and then to my hotel’s employee holiday party. he knew all of the staff and so it was relaxed and easy for both of us. after some socializing, and one or three cocktails, we left for the night,.
i didn’t know that while we were busy being social inside, the temperature had dropped, and it had gotten icy outside. i was all dressed up in heels and pearls and big hair and skirt, and feeling quite happy and pretty. as we got to the parking lot, i slid on a patch of black ice near the passenger side, and somehow ended up partially beneath his car. he quickly jumped in to help me out from under it, and back up on my feet, and i was absolutely beside myself in tears, not from any injury, but from laughing so hard. and i could not stop laughing, as the only thing hurt was my pride.
after looking up at his face, and seeing that he was not laughing along with me, i said, ‘i was just checking your muffler,’ thinking it might help him to relax into the situation a bit. he just looked back at me with a poker face, asked me if i was okay, quietly opened my door, and helped me into his car. he never even cracked a smile, or made a comment, and instead, acted as if nothing unusual had just happened. he was a ‘perfect gentleman’ by some standards.
i instantly realized this had been an unexpected gift from the universe, a sort of litmus test of his approach to life and relationships. i knew that we were not a good match. i knew that we lived life differently. i knew that i would smile and say, ‘hi’ when he came in to the hotel the next time, and we would speak nothing of it. i knew why he felt more comfortable being there alone. i knew it was to be our first and last date.
“Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.” – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
I didn't have my glasses on.... 