where one ends and the other begins.
babies b and j form a bridge
Love is the bridge between two hearts. – Swedish Proverb
Mar4
Tag Archives: life
Mar3
Life is either a great adventure or nothing. Helen Keller
got a message from my good friend’s husband.
seems he’s taking 12 of us on a mystery trip to celebrate her milestone birthday.
he said, ‘pack your bags, and we’ll all meet at the airport.’
he said, ‘you won’t have to worry about a thing, it’s all taken care of.
your part is just to get some days off of work.’
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour. Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up (and that’s an invitation), roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up (to make a reservation), roll up for the mystery tour.
The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away,
Waiting to take you away.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up (we’ve got everything you need), roll up for the mystery tour.
where are we going?, i wondered.
i imagined we might be going to chicago, where i was born, and just a few hours away.
it’s a bit chilly there in the winter, but always so much fun.
“The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon, center, exits the water during the Chicago Polar Plunge, Sunday, March 2, 2014.
A few weeks ago, newly-minted Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon invited Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be a guest on the show. The politician responded on Twitter, agreeing to stop by the Tonight Show if Fallon in turn agreed to participate in Chicago’s Polar Plunge — an annual dip into freezing Lake Michigan to benefit the city’s Special Olympics.
Fallon agreed, and this morning, he made good on his promise. Both Fallon and Emanuel plunged into the slushy 32-degree water — the comedian wearing a suit and tie and the politician sporting some kind of wetsuit. Fallon had asked his fans to wear neckties in solidarity.
he said, ‘and bring your passport.’
imagine my shock and awe when i found out we are going to the dominican republic instead.
it’s a bit warmer there in the winter, and sure to be a lot of fun too.
local dominican celebrity host, exits the water of the caribbean,
no neckties needed.
i see my path, but I don’t know where it leads.
Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it. – Rosalia de Castro
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image credits:
conversationpieces.co.uk,ephemrasociety.org,runawayguide.com,grammarly.com,
washingtonpost.com,andrewnelles/ap,etraveltrips.com,fanshare.com,
songwriters: LENNON, MCCARTNEY, Magical Mystery Tour lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Mar2
what makes a man?
it took a small village of kinders to make a man.
they hiked through the deep snow.
they went in the playhouse to eat some snow and get pumped up about it.
they worked hard to push heavy loads almost a big as they were.
they built. and they built.
and they moved mountains.
and they crowned him with a prized possession.
and we celebrated with a song and a dance around the man they created.
and in the seventh hour, they rested.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
—
image credits: j. kurtz
Mar1
if you ice it, they will skate.
‘Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, I’m going to snow.
If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes,that’s tough. I am going to snow anyway.’ – Maya Angelou
how some of us are getting around this week in ann arbor
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image credit: susannah b.
Feb27
the great zucchini
zucchini joy
i was attending a wedding shower where couples and families had been invited, and the soon-to-be bride and groom each shared true stories about the other growing up. v got up first, and shared a sentimental story about his love, back when she was just a little girl, and it inspired the guests to let out a collective, ‘awwwwww,’ when he was finished.
then c got up and shared her story about him. she told the tale of when v was little, and he desperately wanted a pet. his parents told him that it was absolutely not going to happen. and he cried and he begged and he cried some more, but all to no avail.
he wanted a companion so badly, that one day he adopted a large zucchini that he had found in the garden. he put a rope on it to create a leash, and took it on a walk. he loved his zucchini, took care of it, cleaned the outside of it, and dragged it along with him wherever he went. his mother made him keep it outside to sleep at night, where he left bowls of water for it, and each morning he ran to get it and was reunited with his pet once more. and he was happy.
a couple of re-enactors
before too long, as zucchini are known to do, especially when being dragged around in the dirt, the zucchini began to rot and fall apart. v valiantly tried to patch it up as best he could, but when he took it to walk around with him, little chunks fell off, and then big ones, and then bigger ones, until there was nothing left of it.
he had desperately tried to save his beloved pet, but now all that remained, was a stain on the leash, just hanging limp in his hand with nothing on the other end. and he sat in the dirt and he mourned the loss of his beloved pet zucchini.
and the shower guests responded with a collective silence. and then some laughed until they could not stop laughing, and tears rolled down their faces. and one had tears rolling down his face just remembering his zucchini.
habseligkeiten (German) – things that an adult might find worthless, but that a child regards as treasures.
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image credits: stephiemccarthy.com, flkr.com, zazzle.com
Feb24
making the turn
headed out to the gym yesterday to workout and watch the big game. the university of michigan wolverines were playing basketball against our instate rivals, the michigan state spartans. i figured i’d serve myself up a little pleasure with my pain.
as i got closer to the gym, i noticed that it was surrounded by an astounding number of opposing choices: taco bell, burger king, cottage inn pizza, noodles, mcdonalds, gourmet garden chinese, castle liquor store, subway, zingerman’s roadhouse. i could almost imagine my chalupa and mexican pizza and a cold beer.
or, there was –
the gym.
it would have been so easy to accidentally turn into one of those other driveways, and then the next hour would be spent indulging in food and drink heaven instead of in gym hell.
i made the turn.
and when i found myself in the gym, i was not disappointed, and knew i had made the right choice. there were father/sons, couples, singletons, and people of every shape and size and color imaginable. what we all had in common, was the turn we made to get there.
the familiar maize and blue home team shirts were everywhere, and people cheered while on the elliptical, treadmill, with weights, and bars, and balls, and machines. it was a great first half. and while i can’t say where everyone went for the second half, the wolverines played a magnificent game, and we won in the end. go blue! sometimes, it’s just a matter of choosing the right driveway. and if i happen to turn into the taco bell driveway next time, so be it.
One might as well try to ride two horses moving in different directions,
as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory sets of desires.
Robert Collier
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image credits: michigan daily, oldtowneast.com, sweethorseranch.com
Feb23
and now, for a bit of beautiful news from russia
npr ran a series of photos, taken by russians, immersed in their everyday lives.
in spite of the politics and the games, life goes on as always.
We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon. – Konrad Adenauer
Feb22
when life gives you a pound or so of raw talent, just make meatloaf.
what are the odds? i have crossed paths with meatloaf (the singer, not the food), not once, but twice in my life. this is a brush with fame i never anticipated. and while i can appreciate his theatrical performance style, his passion, and unique voice, i was never musically smitten enough to ever really aspire to come in face-to-face contact with him. or bikini-to-speedo contact with him, for that matter, but fate tiptoed in and had other plans.
our first meeting happened back in the day when i was a cocktail waitress/student. meatloaf stopped by to immortalize his visit to our place by putting his hands into a wet cement block on our sidewalk.
not meatloaf putting his hands in wet cement
what i remember most about this night, was not the hand printing, but the imprint left on me when he grabbed a half-eaten sandwich off of a customer’s plate, took a huge bite out of it, and put it back. that, and i remember he was sweating. a lot.
not meatloaf sweating or the sandwich he took a huge bite of
our second meeting happened when i was in florida and walking down the beach. i was sipping on a tall, cool cocktail, enjoying the slow-setting sun, reflecting on another relaxing vacation day, when who should come walking down the beach, but my old friend meatloaf. and this time he was wearing a speedo, and it was not his best look. and he had a colorful, fruity drink in his hand, and he was still sweating, and his skin was really red, but he was smiling, and he kept on smiling as we passed each other. and we were both happy.
not meatloaf in a speedo on the beach
and i took a big sip of my cocktail with double limes, and thought to myself, how lucky. some things were meant to be, you just have to take what the universe offers up and toast to it. so, here’s to you, meatloaf on the beach.
meatloaf
There’s no explanation for success. Success just comes out of life. – Meat Loaf
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image credits: fabulousfoods.com,tumblr.com, primantibrothers.com, latimes.com,theguardian.com
Feb20
the weather is so crazy they can only forecast it as ‘liquid’
yesterday, it hit the 40+ degree zone. it was the first time in 5 weeks, this has happened. however, we are told not to get too comfortable, for today, and the next 24 hours, we are expected to be hit with a variety of ‘liquid’ weather events.
“We’ll be exchanging one weather headache for another over the next 36 hours,” National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Tilley said. “It’s going to be a very active period.” Most of the Lower Peninsula should get at least one-half inch of liquid. The western Upper Peninsula will have most of the precipitation fall in the form of snow.
The weather service is predicting:
a drop in temperatures to the low 20s overnight
followed by:
an early morning wintery mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
the majority of the mix will be freezing rain
road surfaces should be pretty manageable, just be a matter of how much snow we get
expecting rain throughout the day and maybe even a rumble of thunder or two
with the storm drains clogged with snow we’re going to get some ponding on the roadways that could be difficult
rain is expected to fall on the region between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. as temperatures reach the mid 40s. milder air coming up from the south is bringing the warmer temperatures but will also lead to fog in the afternoon and evening as it sweeps over the snow on ground
we could be looking at some very impacted visibility between the snowfall and the fog. and we haven’t even gotten to the wind yet
the wind is expected to move in along with a cold front Thursday night between 8 p.m. and midnight
gusts up to 50 miles per hour, it’s going to be very substantial
the front will be bringing temperatures back down to where they had been. not quite as bad as when we were getting the polar vortexes, but certainly bringing the highs back below freezing for the weekend
with the drains clogged there could certainly be some risk for ponding on roads and some other flooding problems
not exactly sure how to dress for this series of ‘liquid events’ but it is sure to be one wild ride.
Feb19
even superheroes need their grandmothers
my daughter posted this pic of grand baby j, looking out of the mail slot for me,
calling out, ‘grandma, grandma?’
Once the bear’s hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps. – Harold MacMillan
I didn't have my glasses on.... 