Monday-11am

Monday morning confession.  

You see how things are still set up for gluing paper on the journal covers...sitting there untouched?

 Truth.  

I have been immersed in the 21 Secrets workshops since Friday.  Have made up a 3-ring binder, as you can see...

...highlighted the workshops that I have read through and watched every video for so far. 

I am having just waaay too much fun!  ;)

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You know how I was kind of searching for another workshop or two that I could incorporate into my critter journal...well, I already discovered that it is difficult to tell exactly what is involved in a particular workshop until you dive in and watch the videos.  

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Then on Friday night I attended an hour with the first teacher in the 21 Secrets chat room and noticed several people had been apparently perusing the classes first...and I thought--Great Idea!!

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The next five scheduled chat room sessions (April and May) are with the next five teachers--in sequence--so it would be nice to at least know what people are talking about in the chat room and to be able to ask any questions I might have.  Plus, just in case I have anything else come up this year where I can't get to the workshops for a while I will have all the information printed off, videos watched, and notes taken so that I can finish up whenever, you know? 

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So, I have made it through nine of the workshops so far!  What fun!

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Miss Karma, though, has been suffering with a serious dilemma.  I had to wash her cat beds again after she was finally well, right?  Her favorite blue bed had gotten fairly lumpy after the first washing--and after the second one...well, there was this huge mound in the middle of the bed.  Karma was finally so frustrated trying to get comfortable in there that she started sleeping on the ottoman rather than in her formerly favorite blue bed when it was on her chair.  Was a much bigger issue than the princess and the pea, I assure you.

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  So yesterday I finally decided to cut open the side...

...dig out the huge mound (you can see how far beyond a pea problem this was!), laid her self-heating mat in the now flat bottom... 

...and Karma is a happy camper once again.

The new brown bed has washed like a charm, BTW.  A tiny bit lumpier, but nothing like the blue bed mound disaster.

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So, that's what's happening up here.  We actually had sun on Saturday most of the day, not much precipitation, and hit 40 yesterday, I think.  Lots of melting going on up here.

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I thought I should clarify more on the movie Django Unchained.  I really liked it, but it is rough to watch--with racist language and cruel treatment--lots of splattery shooting.  But it has dark humor and a separated lovers story, too.  If you liked Pulp Fiction or Fargo then you would probably like it.  Well, Fargo is pretty tame and heavier on humor now that I think about it...let's say a lot more like Pulp Fiction.  There are good and bad people on both sides--and lots of bad people get shot or killed--sometimes quite dramatically.  But I thought you should be prepared for something along the violent, dark humor lines of Pulp Fiction.  I loved it.  But it might not be your cup of tea.

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This weekend I also watched the new musical version of Les Miserables.  It was okay.  I know people are raving about it but, personally, if I hadn't seen a few other versions I might have liked it better.  Compared to all the story detail and character development in my favorite version so far with Gerard Depardieu (2000) or even another good version with Liam Neeson (1998)...but then they were not musicals.  It's not that I don't like musicals.  But most musicals have breaks in-between the songs, you know?  They don't sing almost every single line--even when it's not part of a song.  Or maybe it's just that the musicals I like have more regular conversation breaks in them--like Sound of Music or The King and I or Singing In The Rain or countless others.  

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With this version--it was a noticeable relief to me the few times people spoke naturally and weren't singing.  I felt the story was rushed (with holes) and the characters weren't as developed--but, because I knew the story (which is a great one) I still shed a few tears in the appropriate places.  I may be one of the few people who wasn't blown away by this version, I guess.  It was worth seeing, though.

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And now...

a new week lies before us.  

Choices will be made.  

Fun will be had.

Life will unfold.

See you again soon! 

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"In the measurement world, we set a goal and strive to achieve it.  In the universe of possibility, we set a context and let life unfold."

B. Zander