Sunday, August 29, 2010

Sunday-2:30pm

Was a hot weekend! I spent it inside with the AC and Miss Karma...
...lolled about in the heat on the porch.
Her cat grass is now overflowing the planter! Cat life is good!!
What have I been up to?
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Daniel Smith yellow and purple ink bookmark sheet.
Crazy dots made with pink and burgundy inks.
And started figuring out what I want to do for a set of Christmas cards. I'm thinking a circle cut with the Cuttlebug on the front and using this tree stamp. But I wanted to see what would work well to represent snow on the tree. Tried the three liquids I had close at hand...


...and I like them all! (Tulip "snow" and Stickles icicles & diamonds.) So they will hopefully have enough left in them to cover over a hundred trees. May need to buy another bottle of something if I run out.
Hard to see, but they all three do sparkle.
So--now that I like the tree snows--I'm in the process of figuring out what color to stamp the tree (have a few more greens) that will go best with the background green paper I have the most of? If I want the greeting stamped along with the tree on the front and where? (Have two curved Christmas sayings.) What should I put inside--if anything? And so it goes...hehe! ;)
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I want to have at least one good sample made up before Tuesday that Leah can look at and see if she likes them, too. If not, she can make her own style, of course (she sends way less cards than I do and I have sometimes fallen in love with a card that she doesn't like and made mine separately). Or we could come up with something else we both like. We'll see. Getting ahead of myself, eh? I have to come up with a card first--hehe! Oh--and I can email pictures to Leah and ask her opinion, too. What a world, eh?
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I am planning on going over to Dagan and Leah's on Tuesdays for a while. Leah and I are going to buckle down and focus on the etsy shop--now that the weeks of computerTVsystem tweaking is over and done with--TADA!! *big happy face!* Seems like things have just gotten sidetracked and time is slipping away. It's the end of August already!! Goodness!
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I've been thinking of skipping days here and there on the blog--like I did yesterday. Not sick or feeling terrible, but just to free up some time in my "either/or" life--hehe! Yesterday--"instead"--I got caught up on blog comments and finally did a 5-month catch-up post on my art blog--tada! Plus I had time to play with the card stuff, too. So I got a little more done, you know?
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But I am such a creature of habit--been blogging almost daily for over four years now....?? Well, I'll see how it goes. So--don't worry that I'm not feeling well if you don't see a blog here and there--or maybe even for a couple of days, who knows? Now it should mean the opposite--that I am feeling good and getting stuff done, right? Even if it is catching up online--hehe!
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I've just got to thinking a lot about how much time I do spend on the computer ever since John/Spruce in Canada said he may go offline altogether! I do spend probably at least half my "good" hours each day (if not all) at the computer. I only have a few--(3-5 one hour sessions)--and I spend one or more just on the blog every day. (Talk about dedication--or, as most people would probably say, wasting my time--ROFL!) And then there's all the other things to do on the computer--places to go, people to see--hehe! And I just joined a couple of online writers groups--and have no time to actually get there. I haven't made a new video for youtube in over six months...the list just goes on and on.
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I'd miss all the connections I've made online (my peeps), so I won't give them up. So maybe I have to give up the blogging every day and cut back on some other online activities. I already got rid of Twitter a while ago. I'm going to think on it. And be around a little bit less right here, I think. So--don't worry about me, okay? Toodles for now!! I'll leave you with a quote that is definitely good for days!! ;)
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"Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length."
Robert Frost

Friday, August 27, 2010

Friday-1:30pm

Karma disappeared last night. Found her in the dark bedroom...
...where she had tried to crunch herself under the plastic stool (I need to stand on to feed the fish).
Figures. It's right next to the TV--which had been pulled out and disconnected. Wasn't in its proper place, so that made it interesting, of course.
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Speaking of...Caroline said she'd take the TV for some new clients who were going to be arriving in September with basically nothing. So the TV and stand will have a new home!
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And Caroline said the client that fell on Tuesday didn't break his hip, which they were afraid of, but put a hairline fracture in his leg bone. Much easier to heal. Even the doctor couldn't figure out how he had fallen to fracture the leg bone so high up and not break his hip. Anyways, it was a better outcome than expected. :)
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Sadly, I am going to have to go close up and put the AC on already today. It's a hot one up here on third floor.
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Made another bookmark sheet last night.
Used some Daniel Smith watercolors. They are really vibrant! I may have to play with those some more! But I'm having the same troubles with the Dr. Martin's calligraphy gold as I did with the other Dr. Martin's liquid watercolors--they don't move. Oh well, I'll use up the rest of this bottle. They were all old to begin with, I suppose--on sale at Hobby Lobby. I guess I am just not a fan of liquid watercolors. I should get out some of my colored inks again....hummm? ;)
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The quote today...well, I kept thinking about this video I watched on wimp.com yesterday.
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http://wimp.com/homeroomteacher/
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The teacher talked about empathy.
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"Let people live in your heart."
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How if you truly listen to another person they will live in your heart forever.
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Have a great day!! :):)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Thursday-12:15pm

Karma paid no attention to me as I took her picture.
She was glued to all the activity outside.
Trucks and workmen and crane lifts...could just manage a shot pressing against the screen so that you can see they've started on the roof on the far end of the other building. The two buildings make a kind of "U" shape. I see the mail truck was delivering to the office, too--which is a separate building right in the center between the two buildings. The little playground is right in front of the office.
Looks like they completely stripped it down to the wood and are starting from scratch on the shingling.
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The huge packages of shingles have been slowly disappearing.
Karma didn't notice the workmen the first day they were here. Yesterday she was glued to the chair by the window. Today, so far, she is apparently bored with them and has had no desire to watch them at all. True. She has probably seen anything and everything interesting they might do--hehe! But if they make their way over to this building...she will definitely have to pay attention to them. Me, too.
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Another gorgeous day. Supposed to get a bit warmer and it is a little windier, but still--a delicious day! :)
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Caroline comes this afternoon and I am going to ask her if she can vacuum the porch. There's a lot of Karma's dead grass out there. Could use a little spiffin' up--hehe!
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And me--I am headed out there right now. I keep sleeping later in the day and I want to get some reading in before Caroline arrives...and before it heats up--hehe! Have a great rest of your day. Mine is just getting going. ;)
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Was reading about the dispersed oil yesterday and how small critters think it is food. :(
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"When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world."
John Muir

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wednesday-11 :30am

Perfect day yesterday!
And another windows-wide-open day today!! Low 70s during the day and 50s at night--ahhh! Best sleeping weather. :)
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Caroline called and had to reschedule, tho. There was a client who fell and was being taken to the hospital by ambulance and she had to go because her boss wasn't available. She'll come on Thursday instead. Said she had more books for me. I asked her if she wanted the TV and stand from the bedroom. Caroline asked if she could check and see if any of the clients would be able to use it. Sure!! They're mostly disabled, seniors, etc. That would be nice if someone could use it. She said most of them aren't even able to use freecycle. She'll let me know on Thursday. If she doesn't find anyone, then I'll put it up on freecycle.
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Dagan emailed me to tell me Leah wasn't coming (had to work late and was hitting the gym). He came over and we had spaghetti (have lots of leftovers so don't have to cook for days--nice!). He unhooked the TV and VCR in the bedroom for me. The DVD player was being nice and working just fine--hehe! So let's hope it was just a fluke of some kind because it has been working now.
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We started watching the new Clash of The Titans. Not very good. Dagan left. I half-watched the rest and worked on letters. But then I watched Repo Men and that sure got my attention! This movie is, also, violent and gory, but it didn't upset me like Unthinkable did. Can't put my finger on what it was that bothered me so much--maybe because there was nothing redeemable? Repo Men did have something to say and think about--even tho it was very dark, too.
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1053424/
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In the world of this sci-fi thriller set in the not-too-distant future, artificial organs are readily available to anybody with a credit card. But what happens if a buyer falls delinquent on his payments? Jude Law stars as an organ repo man who's now fleeing his ex-partner after failing to keep up the payments on his own recently installed ticker. Miguel Sapochnik directs; Forest Whitaker and Liev Schreiber co-star.
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Why I preferred one and not the other? I guess I have a mysterious mind like Miss Karma--ROFL!
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Well, I am heading for the porch. Started World Without End yesterday--the sequel to Pillars. Time has jumped 150 years, so I am still struggling to get my bearings here in the very beginning. I want to enjoy the porch while I can. They've started on the roof of the other building first. It was shingles! ;)
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Hope you're having a perfect day, too!! :):)
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"Laughter is carbonated holiness."
Anne Lamott

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Tuesday-11:30am

Once that cat grass starts to sprout it really goes to town. This was yesterday. I had been keeping it up on the little metal table to help it get more light.
It was a beautiful cooler night last night so I left the porch door and my bedroom window open. (One of the advantages of living on third floor.) This morning I noticed Miss Karma must have felt the grass was ripe and ready, because she had been up on the table pulling some of the grass out by the roots--hehe! Probably a little awkward trying to chew it up there. So I moved it down into the sunshine. This is what it looked like this morning--less than 24 hours later (took the other shot in the afternoon). Wow! No wonder it is hard to keep up with mowing the yard--hehe!
Karma immediately started chowing down.
Well, the DVD player decided to work yesterday. I swear that I didn't do anything different. Just must be temperamental, right? Certainly couldn't be anything I am doing wrong--hehe! ;)
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The movie I watched was called Unthinkable.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0914863/
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I have no idea why copying and pasting links doesn't seem to always work anymore since I changed the look of my blog--so this is what Netflix says about it.
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When the government gets wind of a plot to destroy America involving a trio of nuclear weapons, locations unknown, it's up to a seasoned interrogator (Samuel L. Jackson) and an FBI agent (Carrie-Anne Moss) to find out exactly where they are. A suspected terrorist who's already in custody is their only chance for a timely answer. But what will it take to get him to talk? Michael Sheen, Brandon Routh and Martin Donovan co-star.
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Very violent and depressing movie. I like Samuel L. Jackson, but this movie was hard to take. Showed the very darkest side of both sides of the terrorist issue. I'm not sure if they were trying to promote violent, inhumane torture of terrorists or not. Just proved to me that nobody wins if we become like them--and you can't tell them apart. Innocent people are always hurt in the crossfire. Let me just say, I was glad I had watched it earlier in the day so I could get me in some comedies last night. If that makes me an ostrich, so be it.
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Made me think about love, tho. How we need more movies and promotion about loving humanity and less violence. I've always thought that if there ever was a nuclear war (we grew up trained to hide under our desks, so we did think about it in grade school) I hoped I'd be killed outright. But I always figured that, with my luck, I'd survive--and have to deal with all the insanity and fear of a crazed populace. *sigh*
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I've never had a fear of death, I guess. 98% of the time all my days I have been ready to go without regret. Had my near death experiences when I was a kid, my one out-of-body experience when Dagan was an infant...no fear of death. Pain, yes--hehe! But not death. So, I have no fear of being killed in the crossfire of wars or fanatics. The greater fear for me would be surviving...and my soul being put to the test. Because we all have that earth-animal inside of us who wants to survive, to protect our young/loved ones...and I pray that I wouldn't burden my soul, you know? The true tests of our soul do not come when times are easy.
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That's why that movie made me so sad. To see what those people, both sides, were taking onto their souls, you know? And knowing that people are choosing to do this--for real--every day--all over the earth. We can make our excuses...tell ourselves we have reason...believe we are in the right...that our vengeance is righteous...God is on our side.....
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I wish humanity was as dedicated to love as they so often are to hate. We can hate so broadly, but love so narrowly.
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I wanted a quote about love for today. This one made me think of the old saying--use it or lose it--hehe!
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May you love broadly!! :):)
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"The more you love, the more you can love - and the more intensely you love."
Robert A. Heinlein

Monday, August 23, 2010

Monday-9:30am

Karma's favorite place to snooze now is on or near her wooden pillow--hehe!
I wonder how long this will last? :)
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Yesterday I washed clothes and then started in on emptying the TV stand in the bedroom. This packed bag is full of VHS movies that Dagan and Leah gave me a couple years ago...
...and these are a bag of taped painting shows (oils, acrylics, and watercolors) and a bag of taped craft shows. I figured I'd see if somebody on freecycle wanted them. But first I want to go thru them again and watch whatever I decide I'd like to see just one more time. ;)
Here's the empty, dusty inside of the TV stand. I forgot to get a before picture but, shall we say, it was packed!
Here's some more VHS tapes and the DVDs that were inside that I had piled on the art table.
This is the drawer I have in the living room to keep tapes and DVDs...
...that I temporarily reorganized. There are a few VHS tapes I know I am keeping out of this batch. I have some art tapes, old home movies that were transferred to tape by my brother, class reunion tape, and such. But a lot of them are just ones I am sure I want to look at again, but am not sure I want to keep or get rid of.
I have more DVDs that won't fit right now and eventually I'd like to be able to have all the DVDs and VHS tapes in this drawer by the TV. It just all feels chaotic right now. I'll slowly sort thru it all--but I wanted to empty out the TV stand. I plan to save the extra VCR from the bedroom because pretty soon you aren't even going to be able to buy them, I suppose, and I am still going to still have a few things on tape. :) But if Dagan and Leah can disconnect everything for me tomorrow, I can put the TV and stand up on freecycle. In fact, I haven't done it myself for so long that I'm going to have to ask Leah to show me how to get started. (She put the last stuff up for me--she's even one of the freecycle site monitors.)
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Let's see--oh! I ordered Lovejoy on Netflix! Ian McShane is sooo young! I watched the first DVD and enjoyed the program, so I'll sign up for the rest of them. I had never heard of this British series and it went on for years! So now I have another series to rent off and on and make my way thru the years of episodes--along with Northern Exposure and Upstairs, Downstairs right now. :)
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Caroline comes tomorrow and Dagan & Leah come after work. I suppose I should try the DVD player again today and see if I can get it to work--hehe! I am always so happy to see them! :):)
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Stay cool! Or warm, depending on where you live. ;)
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"Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly."
George MacDonald
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...or two. ;)

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Sunday-11am

Was a year ago today that Leah opened the etsy shop! My, how time flies. :)
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Thought I'd show you another of Karma's recent compulsions. She happily rolls about...
...purrring...
...and scratching her head all over...
...the leg of my reader's table that holds the McLap, etc.
She's been doing this for the last couple of weeks. Apparently I am not giving her enough head scratching? hehe! And Karma is a problem solver, I guess--ROFL!
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To be honest, I am totally shocked that it took her until yesterday to start chewing thru the string handle looped thru Iggy's Karma pillow.
And she only chewed thru one of the three loops. She usually loves to chew string of any kind? The pillow attributes must have blinded her--hehe! (She's sleeping on her wooden pillow as I am typing this.)
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SPOILER ALERT for The Pillars of The Earth Mini-series!! Don't read any further if you don't want to know anything about it.
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Okay, I finished rereading Pillars and then started watching the mini-series on Netflix instant movies. There were six episodes, so I thought that was it. Nope. I had to google Starz network to find out. There's one more--the finale--which apparently hasn't aired yet and is scheduled to be shown on August 28th.
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What did I think of it so far? As a lover of the book, I was greatly disappointed.
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Not that the acting wasn't good. They had just altered (or shall we say butchered) the plot to such a degree that it changed characters, motivation, and relationships so much that a lot of it was almost unrecognizable. What I loved about the book wasn't really there. All the layers and complexity disappeared. The subtlety of the political maneuvering in the church, the depth of the villainy, the emotional complexity of the various relationships, the impact of the building up and tearing down of the church...
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You expect that in making a mini-series they were going to have to leave things out, right? But they added so many new facts and altered characters so drastically...it wasn't quite the same story. "Based on" the book is an vast understatement!
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For example: They had Ellen as a novice nun who found the lone survivor of the shipwreck on the shore and also added a ring that he wore--that she gave to her son Jack--that is going to tie in somehow in the finale. Ellen--a nun!? And Jack's father was a jongleur! What would any ring a jongleur wore have anything to do with the plot to sink the ship on purpose (so the king lost his male heir)? He was a storyteller, an entertainer? [BTW--they never used the word jongleur--and they never explained that was a profession back then and why he was on the ship in the first place. Jack just told Aliena his father was a storyteller--it was not how Jack slowly wooed her.]
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Anyways, if I hadn't read the book, maybe I could have liked it for its own sake--as a separate entity, you know? I tried to watch it and forget about the actual storyline and characters, but that was impossible to do, having just read the book, you know? They altered sooooo much that I just couldn't wrap my mind around it.
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Like that Jack and Aliena were attracted to each other on sight. William and his mother had an incestuous relationship! Tom and Ellen were not attracted to each other on sight and Ellen and Jack were only traveling with him so Tom could teach Jack a trade. Jack was already carving faces on the walls of the cave and they made him basically only a statue carver. Alfred wasn't as horrible, was a bit smarter, and they had him fall in love with Aliena on sight, too, same as Jack. They didn't have Ellen leave town because the church wanted them to live apart for a year (because they had been living in sin) before they could get married--but because she was accused of being witch, there would have been a trial, and Alfred was going to testify to that effect. They had Waleran doing constant self-flagellation and penance--and had Ellen stab him before she left town! Had Waleran blackmailing Remigius to do his bidding apparently because Remigius had "confessed" to something homosexual in nature that Waleran was holding over his head. Philip's brother Francis wasn't even the one who found the baby in the woods. They had one of those pig thieves find the baby and take it to the priory and then become a monk just so he could take care of the infant. Even had Eliena's vow to her father in prison be all HER idea. They had William's man, Walter, crush Jack's hand with a hammer (which was bad because he was a sculptor in this version). They had this whole thing about Philip lying! That St. Adolphus' scull was crushed in the first fire and he lied and substituted another skull so they wouldn't lose the pilgrims. And they had Philip captured and tortured and on the verge of being hung...and Jack strangled and thrown on a death heap, but he comes to or back to life...it just goes on and on and on with the wild stuff they made up--none of which was in the book.
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It was like they used the very, very basic skeleton of the original plot--removed all the major bones--and added new meat. And they decided to try to turn the book into a sort of action movie. Not that there wasn't action in the book, but it wasn't just a string of unrelenting violence, you know?
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I think if HBO had gotten ahold of it and made it into a series (like they have done with Henry VIII in The Tudors) that could move at a slower pace and stay true to the plot and characters--it would have been absolutely awesome! I just don't understand why they changed it so much? It was obviously a good enough story to begin with if it was on the bestseller list for so long and everybody you talk to couldn't put it down. Why slice and dice and pad and add and switch?
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My advice to any true lovers of the book--don't watch this mini-series or be forewarned to expect something VERY different from the actual book. I realize I haven't seen the final episode, but it can't possibly redeem itself to me in one hour out of seven. Not that I won't watch it to see what they have come up with for an ending--hehe! Maybe if I hadn't read the book for years and years I may have been able to accept it easier on its own as a quite different entity, you know? It has good actors and lots of action, I'll give it that. I saw on imdb that it has a 9 star rating! Maybe a lot of those people haven't read the book?
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Anyways, that's what I was up to. Spent the last couple days with The Pillars of The Earth and it's deformed clone--ROFL! That's it from me this weekend. Back to the real world--hehe! :):)
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"I've never felt a pain that didn't bear a blessing."
Gene Knudsen Hoffman

Friday, August 20, 2010

Friday-12:30pm

Karma says hi.
I think she looks like a big old teardrop in this "aerial" photo--hehe!
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I spent ALL my good hours yesterday finally going thru all my peep's blogs for the last couple of weeks and catching up in blogland! That was really, really fun!! The only other thing I got done was to replant Miss Karma's dying cat grass.
Next planting I'll have to go to the storage area and get some more dirt, I guess, but for this time--it will do.
I used the packet of fancy cat grass seed that Ruby sent me.
Funny--it's called Renee's cat grass. Renee is my sister's name. ;)
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The maintenance man came! Only took two days. The bathtub is draining and there is light in the kitchen again. And I cancelled CableOne--tada!
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Nobody came to start with the shingles, if that is what they are. I'm sure the noise will start next week--weather permitting. Today--low 80's, cloudy, and the humidity must have leapt up because I had to close the apartment up and put the AC on because it was so sticky in here, even tho it wasn't all that hot yet. Supposed to be heading back up to the 90s by tomorrow--so will probably be closed up again for a while.
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It was just glorious to have those several fall-like days on the porch. Ahhh! I should have spent more of it on the porch reading and less at the craft table, I suppose--but it felt soooo dang good to feel back to my normal that I was a little too restless to sit and read--hehe! I still have over 100 pages left in Pillars. Today will probably be a reading day, as I am too sore to sit at the computer or the craft table (from overdoing it lately--hehe!)--so it's a Pillars and TV day, I think. Moving so slowly today that it is already afternoon--ha!
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Well, have a wonderful, wonderful weekend!! :):)
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"Making a mistake and then judging ourselves harshly is like paying compound interest on a bad investment."
Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Thursday-9:30am

Karma says thank you, Iggy! (Me, too--daily giggles!)
Well, right before the storm hit yesterday morning this huge truck pulled up in the parking lot.
The man unloaded the big stacks of packages that look like building material...
...and stored them like this in the parking lot.
Why he took up two parking spaces is beyond me. Unless they plan to deliver more? Are they shingles...or siding...? Whatever they are, looks like it isn't going to be quiet around here this fall. Sure have been a lot of repairs around here for a building that is only around 7-8 years old. We have had rain dripping down into the elevator again this summer, so I'm guessing shingles/roofing materials.
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The man was just putting the truck back together when it started to sprinkle. As he drove away, the thunderstorm finally released the brief, noisy deluge that I talked about yesterday. (Little did you know I was up and down snapping pictures--hehe!) He had perfect timing, I'll give him that. ;)
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These are the extra birthday cards from this year.
I stamped the backs...
...and let them dry.
Did the same for the brand new extra red "wishes" ones...
...and the purple ones.
All safe and sound in a ziplock bag for Leah to take with her last night along with the rest of the bookmarks--tada!
I couldn't resist showing you what the stacks of building materials (whatever they are) looked like after the storm raced thru. Good thing they are on wooden palettes! The guy picked the exact spot that doesn't drain and always looks like a pond after it rains--hehe!
Anyways, Dagan and Leah came after work. Leah brought fresh corn on the cob! Delicious! We tried Garden Burgers made with portabella mushrooms. Don't like those any better than the original Garden Burgers. We all three vastly prefer the Boca Burgers. No more Garden Burgers for me! ;)
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Dagan strung a new cord around the living room so there's no cord across the floor again--tada! Leah helped me with rearranging my automatic computer tabs that stay open. (She and I love using them and Dagan can't stand them--hehe!)
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Dagan got the DVD player working. But after they left, I tried it and--lo and behold--didn't work again for me--ROFL! When they come back next time, he'll have to let me try it and he can watch to see what I am doing wrong or out of sequence or something? No problem. I always have the McLap in the meantime. :)
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Supposed to be warmer today and hit low 80s. It's been soooo nice to have the place opened up day and night, but the heat is slowly returning, I guess. Sunny today, tho.
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It feels just wonderful that I can check off something else on my goal list for 2010. One set of birthday cards--done! And I am calling CableOne today and cancelling!! Which means, next, I can clean out the TV stand in the bedroom so that I can give away that TV (and stand) on freecycle, too! Wow! I'll be chuckling at Karma resting on her wooden pillow. And waiting to see when the maintenance man will come to replace the kitchen bulbs (was hard cooking in there last night) and unplug my bathtub drain. What else the day holds? Who knows!
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"Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is the true prosperity."
Eckhart Tolle