Desperately Unrehearsed

Problem Solving

2012-01-24T19:57:00.000-08:00

Over the years I've noticed that people at work can generally be divided into three groups when it comes to solving maintenance problems at work.

Group One - People who consciously or unconsciously never actually notice a problem. I can't prove whether the cluelessness is deliberate or not. But if you point out the problem to these people, they will say - wow, yes, there is a problem, but I did not notice it.

Group Two - People who notice the problem but choose to do absolutely nothing. Sometimes it's because of ignorance - yes, there's a problem, but I don't know who to contact about it. Sometimes, I attribute it to laziness - why should they do anything? If they ignore it long enough someone else will take care of it.

Group Three - People who see a problem and actually take action to correct said problem.

Me, I tend to fall into Group Three. It may not be my property, but there's no reason to let things deteriorate. If I let something get to a point that it takes a LOT of money to fix, the company may decide to pay the money to fix it and then cut back in another area which could possibly cause me some annoyance. Why chance it?

Example: one day I'm walking to the break room shortly after getting to work to put something in the refrigerator. No problems. After lunch I walk to the break room to get my item out of the fridge. On my way there, I have to walk by the soft drink machine. On the first trip, no problems. Second trip, there's a big damp spot in front of said vending machine. Not good. I get a piece of paper and a pen and write down the number of the company that owns the vending machine. I give them a call. They immediately know what is causing the damp spot. They come out promptly, fix the problem and use a water-extracting machine on the carpet.

Note: when I called the vending machine company, they reacted as though I was the first person to call. It was never mentioned - oh, yes, that has already been reported. Nope.

Now, I do not know the exact number of people working in the building. But, between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM, I was NOT the only person to walk past that machine. Yet, nobody else called. The number of the vending company was prominently displayed on the front of the machine. Yet, nobody else called. Writing down the number, walking to my desk and calling the company took less than five minutes. Yet, nobody else made the effort.

Sheesh!

Papillon

Champagne on New Year's Eve

2012-01-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

A bit of history (historical history, not my history): In 1772 Philippe Clicquot-Muiron founded the company that would eventually become Veuve Clicquot (pronounced vuv klee-KOH). In 1798, Philippe's son, Francois Clicquot, married Barb-Nicole Ponsardin. Francois died in 1805. His widow (veuve is French for widow) was left in control of a company that handled banking, wool trading and Champagne production. Barbe-Nicole decided to concentrate on the Champagne production. As part of that, she is credited with the breakthrough allowing for the mass production of wine. When Barbe-Nicole died in 1866, Veuve Clicquot was a substantial Champagne house and respected brand enjoyed by, among others, many of the royal houses of Europe, including Imperial Russia and England.

I had heard of Veuve Clicquot and had read a biography of Barbe-Nicole a couple of years ago. So, when I found Veuve Clicquot Champagne for sale at, of all places, Costco at a reasonable price, I bought a bottle planning on having it on New Year's Eve. Although it is a very pleasant wine to drink, sadly it did not blow me away. I was expecting WOW! Or even wow! Instead, I got an OK. Sigh.

Oh, well. I celebrated New Year's Eve as I like to - quietly and at home. I definitely don't like going to New Year's Eve parties. I went once (with friends) during grad school and hated it. I don't like crowds. I especially don't like noisy crowds. I even more especially don't like drunk, noisy crowds. So, staying home is just what I like. No noise. No crowds. No standing in line to use a public restroom.

I just wish the Champagne had lived up to my hopes and had blown my socks off. I guess if that's the worse thing that happens in 2012, I should have a pretty good year.

Bonne Annee,

Papillon

Winter Solstice

2011-12-22T19:16:00.000-08:00

Today is the Winter Solstice and already I am so very tired of winter. Or at least with its byproducts. All we've been hearing is that La Nina will be giving us a very dry winter. So far we've had three winter storms in two weeks with the latest one hitting today.

In a theoretical sense, I like snow. I like to stay indoors and watch it snow. I don't particularly like to be out in it.

What's most annoying is the timing of this latest storm. It was originally forecast to hit us starting late yesterday and continue on into today with it clearing out tomorrow. Instead it started tonight and is continuing on into tomorrow. I'm hoping we don't get a lot of snow or I may not be able to make it to the airport on Saturday so I can visit with my family on Christmas. Sigh.

Oh, well, will deal with things as they happen.

On a related note, things were VERY foggy in the way to work on Wednesday. Normally when you look at this tree, you can see buildings behind it. I thought it looked cool with standing there all alone.

Papillon

It Takes All Kinds

2011-12-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

I like to read the etiquette column written by Miss Manners. I may not always agree, but I find it to be an interesting read.

Sometime back, a reader wrote in saying they like to read obituaries. (Not my cup of tea, but it takes all kinds to make the world go around.) The reader said they had noticed the beginning of an annoying trend. In most obits, it says something to the effect of "in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the charity of your choice". Or something similar.

However, the annoying trend spotted by the reader involved relatives of the deceased asking for cash contributions to be made to them instead. (The relatives, not the deceased.) The reader thought this was just another cash-grab on the par of people asking for cash instead of wedding gifts, birthday presents, etc. and thought it was tacky.

Miss Manners agreed, although in a much more refined fashion.

Since then, I've taken to occasionally scanning the obit section of the local paper. It doesn't happen often, but I spotted an example in today's (12/10/11) paper. Specifically for an 85-year-old named Marian W. Payden. She's described as beloved wife of (her husband), loving stepmother of Scott and Kristin Payden.

The obit goes on to say, "In lieu of flowers, donations can be mailed to Scott and Kristin Payden, (street address), Medina, Ohio...."

In the past I've seen verbiage that asked for cash to help with funeral expenses. I can sort of understand that. In these tough economic times, not everyone has insurance or savings to help pay for funeral costs. But today's example left me with a dropped jaw. For all we know, good old Scott and Kristin are going to take the 'donations' and head for a Caribbean cruise. Or Las Vegas. So much for honoring their 'loving stepmother'.

Sheesh!

Papillon

Snowed In

2011-12-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

In yesterday's post, I spent a fair amount of time kvetching about the small amount of snow we had gotten. I should be careful about what I kvetch about.

The forecasters all said we would be getting more snow. Maybe 1-2 inches overnight with the possibility of more snow today. Sure enough, it started to snow last night. I was hoping it would blow through leaving a minimum of snow behind.

No such luck. I got up this morning and found a good 4-6 inches on the ground and more falling. Work's start time was delayed by 2 hours.

One problem - I drive a PT Cruiser. The front end only clears the ground by about 4 inches. (I've confirmed this the hard way by scraping the curb if I pull too far forward in a parking space.) With 4 to 6 inches of snow on the ground, I'm no longer driving a car, instead I'm driving a cute red snow plow.

So I called work and said that I'm taking a vacation day since I'm not able to get out of the subdivision. Fortunately, I didn't have anything critical work-wise on my plate. I did miss a holiday luncheon that sounded as though it was going to be yummy. (Rats!)

I really didn't want to see the snow. I'm saving up my vacation time for some stuff I'm planning on doing next year. The snow just shot 9 hours of that. Sigh. Plus, since I took the above pictures, I've been shoveling snow. Apparently I overdid it with my right arm because it's feeling really tight. Oh, well. After I get done here, I get to go out and move more snow. I may spread some sand as well. No point in walking out tomorrow morning and hitting ice. I've never been fond of falling down. Nope, no thanks.

Papillon

P.S. I actually measured the snow on top of my car. I officially got 6 1/4 inches. Sheesh. One of the forecasters said there are parts of the metro area that only got a few flakes. Salt in the wound.
P.S.2 The forecasters are saying we will be getting down into double digits over night. Oh, really. If I wanted winter time temps in the single digits I'd move to some place like Minnesota or North Dakota. (And yes, I do realize their single digits are usually negative numbers.)
P.S.3 I am SO glad I had my house re-piped earlier this year. Now my pipes are all properly insulated (unlike those installed by the builder) and much less likely to be affected by really cold temperatures.

Not Everyone Dislikes the Snow

2011-12-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I ranted about how I'm not the world's biggest fan of snow. This feeling obviously does not apply to everyone and that includes some of the area's critters.

I have a large fir tree in my front yard. Several years ago I noticed that one or more of the local rabbits likes to hang out at the base of the trunk of said tree. To a certain extent, it makes sense. With its butt up against the trunk, the rabbit is fairly safe from larger predators sneaking up on it from behind. This is bolstered by the branches around the base of the tree. The possibility of being stabbed in the face by a branch deters coyotes, et. al. from just rushing in. On the other hand, the branches aren't packed too close so as to hinder the rabbit's field of vision. (Note: I don't know if it's always the same rabbit I see or if a number of rabbits have figured out the niceness of napping under my tree.)

After all my anti-snow rantings, I was surprised to walk out around mid-morning and see the rabbit snuggled under the tree. Here's a wide shot of the rabbit - he's the small mound of brown fur at the base of the trunk.

Here's more of a close-up.

I was hoping to get a shot from an angle that didn't have a branch across him/her. But Rabbit was camera-shy (or people-shy) and hopped off after just a couple of shots.

I'm not sure why Rabbit wasn't freezing its butt off sitting directly on the snow. But it seems to like where it's at because its been there for several hours.

To each, their own.

Papillon (who's staying inside and out of the snow)

Extremes

2011-12-03T17:23:00.000-08:00

I like moderation in all things. I am NOT a fan of extremes.

This applies to food - not too bland and not too spicy.
And to clothing - not too much, not too skimpy.
I especially dislike poltical and religious extremism.

All of this also applies to weather. I love spring and autumn. The weather (usually) is not too hot and not too cold. It is normally just right.

I am not a big fan of summer. However, air conditioning is a big mitigating factor.

I am the smallest fan ever of winter. I don't like cold. I don't like windy and cold. I especially don't like to have to personally experience snow. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to look at snow. I don't mind looking at photos at snow. Or, looking at snow from indoors is OK. As long as I don't have to actually go out into it.

What brings all of this up is the current weather. It snowed very lightly last night. It melted off rapidly this morning.
It's snowing again tonight. I'm willing to be fine with it since tomorrow is Sunday and I don't HAVE to go anywhere tomorrow.

The forecasts say there may be more snow on Sunday night. NOOOOOO!! I hate driving in snow. I can do it, I just hate it while I'm there. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the forecasters are wrong. But I'm suspecting they're not since the chance for snow tomorrow night is 90%. (Forceful expletive deleted) On one positive note, they're only expecting about an inch. If they've got to be right, let's hope they're right about that.

Papillon

Life Imitating...Life?

2011-11-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

I like to watch those 'caught on camera'-type shows. Some of the shows I've watched have shown dash-cam footage caught by police cameras as they're in high-speed chases, etc.

In one of the programs, the announcer noted that during a traffic stop, as the patrol officer approached the stopped car, he put his hand on the left rear corner of the car. The announcer said this was an identification technique. If, for some reason, the person being stopped decided not to deal with the police officer but drove off instead, there is always a possibility that at some point, the suspect could lose the pursuing officer. That police might later find the vehicle with no one in it. It's possible that the vehicle might be similar in appearance to the one the police had been chasing, but not the exact same one.

This is where the officer's hand print comes in. If police technicians check the fingerprints on the left rear corner of the car and they match the officer's fingerprints, then they have proof positive that, yes, this was the original car involved in the police pursuit.

I bring this up because I actually saw this happen this morning. No, not a high speed police chase. Not even a low speed police chase.

As I was exiting my subdivision today, I passed by a white pickup truck that had been stopped by a local police officer. (I don't know the reason for the stop. It could have been for something totally innocuous.) In any case, as the police officer walked up to the driver's window, the officer paused for a moment and put his hand on the left rear corner of the pickup. Then he continued walking.

I had to smile slightly as I drove on by. Police procedure in action, in the flesh. A small thing, but kinda fun to actually see - as opposed to secondhand on tape.

I hope everyone had the Thanksgiving they were hoping for.

Papillon

A Fun Little Cocktail

2011-11-08T19:51:00.000-08:00

Here in the Albuquerque area we have a number of free newspapers. One is a weekly, another is published every couple of weeks or so and several others are monthly.

The one that comes out every couple of weeks has a column that features a different cocktail in each issue. In the most recent issue, the spiritologist (is that even a word?) was discussing a very 'old' cocktail. I can't remember what he called it, but I found the recipe on line and it was called a Kentucky colonel.

The reason it's an 'old' cocktail is that its origins date back to around the 1920's and 1930's when cocktails were becoming very popular.

It is so very simple - 1.5 ounces of bourbon and 1/2 ounce of Benedictine. The Benedictine has a very nice effect on the bourbon - taking the edge off and making it a smooth little drink. Just combine the two ingredients and pour over ice. Simple, yet effective.

Papillon

Halloween 'Toys'

2011-10-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if this is new - but so far today, I've seen two cars so adorned. This one was parked next to me at work.

I must admit I was startled for a couple of seconds.

Papillon

Chocolat Pour Vous

2011-10-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago I was browsing the used books at Goodwill. I spotted a nice copy of Chocolat by Joanne Harris. Although I have not seen the movie, I had heard good things about it. I decided to buy the book.

I found it to be a fun read. When I was done I took it to work and asked a coworker if she'd like to read it. She said she had seen the movie and liked it. She thought it would be fun to read the book.

Today she brought it back and said she had enjoyed it very much. She said it had taken her the better part of the week to read it because she doesn't have a lot of time to read at home (family concerns). Her only current chance to read is when she's riding the bus to work.

The even-more-fun part of this? Because the bus she takes to work is used by other coworkers, there's a consistent group of people who ride the same bus every day. Several other women saw what she was reading. Two of the women - one had a copy of the movie and brought it in for the other to watch. A third woman asked my coworker if she (third woman) could read Chocolat now that my coworker was done. Since the book is mine my coworker said she did not feel comfortable loaning out my property.

Me? I said what the heck. It's not like I bought the book brand new especially for me. Let's get folks reading! I told my coworker to let the third woman read the book. All I ask is that she use a bookmark and not fold the pages to mark her spot.

Unleash the books!

Papillon

An Odd, Yet Readable, Book

2011-10-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

I recently finished reading a rather unusual and slightly odd book. The title is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. It's a novel by Ransom Riggs.

It starts out with a family tragedy which severely affects 16-year-old Jacob. He ends up journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales. There he discovers the ruins of the aforementioned. home. He begins to learn more about the home and 'peculiar' children.

One interesting part of the book concerns the photos used as illustrations. According to the chart at the end of the book, the photos were not created for the book. Instead they are odd and weird and unusual photos that have been found at flea markets and antiques malls and yard sales.

I'm not sure if the author found out about the photos and created the story to fit the photos or if he started creating the story and found about the photos and used them as additional themes. In any case, it's a very effective device.

Papillon

Snow in October

2011-10-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's rain, which washed out both the morning and evening events at Balloon Fiesta, had another impact. This time on the Sandia Mountains east of town.

It's not unusual to have snow on the Sandias at this time of year. What I found out of the ordinary was how far down it is on the mountains. Normally the 1st or 2nd snows of the season hover right around the top. Maybe this is a hopeful sign that this drier-than-usual year is becoming less dry?

Another positive note, this morning it was sunny and not too breezy so the morning's mass ascension was able to take off. I didn't see a whole lot of special shapes, it may have been just a bit too breezy for them. I suspect they inflated but didn't take off.

Hoping for a good day tomorrow.

Papillon

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

2011-10-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

I feel sad for this year's participants in this year's Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. It started out nicely with lovely weather last weekend.

Unfortunately, the weather has gone downhill since late on Tuesday. It's been rainy or windy or both windy and rainy.

An aside -- I had to laugh at myself. I woke up this morning around 6:00 AM and thought, 'What is making that odd noise?" I almost got up to go check and then realized the noise I was hearing was rain on the roof. Oh, right. THAT'S what that sounds like.

Because of this morning's rain, the mass ascension was canceled.

I do have one more photo taken last weekend. Here's a balloon coming in for a landing.

I'm hoping the weather's better tomorrow and Sunday. I'm hoping I can get some more photos.

Ya gotta love those balloons.

Papillon

Balloons

2011-10-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

There are a couple of ways to tell it's autumn in the Albuquerque area. One is the smell of roasting green chiles. I'd explain, but it's a New Mexico thing. You really need to experience it at least once.

The second autumnal indication is the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Lots and lots of gorgeous hot air balloons. Today is the first day of the 9 day event.

A number of balloons drifted over to the west side of town.

Here's a patriotic balloon seen in the area of the Rio Rancho Post Office.

This next photo is a shot of the Smokey Bear balloon coming in for a landing near the Target in Rio Rancho. The fans of the 'caught on video' type of TV show will know this is a replacement balloon. The original Smokey Bear was blown into a radio tower several years ago. It was ripped beyond repair. Fortunately the pilot and two passengers were able to climb down the tower's ladder to safety.

I'll be trying to get more photos of the next eight days. I actually got at least one more balloon today, but I haven't developed the film yet (my digital camera's batteries decided to die at a critical moment so I had to go 'old school').

Papillon

Thoughts on Aging (not original to me)

2011-09-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

Bennett Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. He also liked to put together compilations of humor. Granted, since these were published in the 1950's, some of the humor and jokes are very dated. However, now and again, you find something worth pondering. (Note: I'm not sure if I'm repeating a former entry, but if I am -- so what! It's my blog after all. Plus, it's worth repeating.)

So here's the good thought on aging:

"Feeling old and discouraged? The snap of youth gone from your stride? Look over these statistics compiled by an agency pushing old-age annuity policies and take heart: Between the ages of 75 and 83 Commodore Vanderbilt added 100 million dollars to his fortune. Kant wrote his philosophical masterpiece at 74. Tintoretto painted his biggest and most famous canvas when he was 75. Verdi was 85 when he wrote Ave Maria. Cato decided to study Greek when he was 80. Goethe was also 80 when he finished Faust. And -- listen to this! -- Titian painted his historic 'The Battle of Lepanto' when he was exactly 98!

Sun shining a bit brighter?"

Papillon

Play Ball!

2011-08-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

For decades Albuquerque had a semi-pro baseball team called the Albuquerque Dukes. So named because this area was originally part of a Spanish land grant involving the Duke of Alburquerque. (Yes, the extra 'r' is correct in the Spanish spelling of the word.) The Dukes were a farm team for the LA Dodgers.

About 10 years ago (or more), the franchise was sold to a group up in the Northwest (Oregon, I think) and subsequently was moved there. Albuquerque went without semi-pro baseball for a few years. Then another group formed a team which was named (with a distinct nod towards The Simpsons TV show) the Isotopes. As before, they are a farm team for the LA Dodgers.

Back when they were still the Dukes I went to a couple of games over the years. I remember the old stadium had the concessions on a lower level that always seemed dark and closed in.

After an extended period of unemployment, I have signed on with a new employer. I started my employment just in time to take advantage of a group night at the Isotopes. This happened last night (8/27).

When I got to the stadium, I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the renovations done to the stadium for the Isotopes. The walk-up to the stadium is lovely. The concessions are up on an open-air mid-level concourse that is user-friendly. I found my seat and then went to got a beer and some popcorn and finally settled in to watch the game.

My seat was located way down the first base line. Here's a photo of my section taken from behind third base. Locate the long white sign on the left side of the photo. You'll notice a large blue circular logo on the right side of the sign. My section was under that circular logo.

The Isotopes were playing the Round Rock (TX) Express and the evening went well for the 'Topes who won by a score of 8 to 3.

It was a fun evening. It was rather hot when I first got to the stadium - in the mid 90's and initially my section was in the sun. It was better when the sun went behind a cloud and then eventually set. After it got dark, the temperature dropped into the upper 80's and a nice breeze sprang up so it was quite nice.

Here's a photo of what the game looked like from where I was sitting.

See that expanse of nighttime sky on the right side of the photo? We kept seeing lightning off in the distance (the northwest section of the Albuquerque metro area). Not a lot. Plus, it was far enough away that we never heard any thunder. Still. it made me nervous to be sitting near large light poles knowing there was lightning in the area. I don't know if the lightning meant somebody was getting rain. While driving home, I didn't see any spots that looked like they'd gotten rain.

I took a closeup shot of the game. This is while Round Rock was at bat in the top of the 8th. They're in the gray uniforms. The 'Topes players were in blue shirts.

All in all, I'm glad I went.

Papillon

Silly Rabbit

2011-08-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know why, but the wild rabbits that live in the neighborhood like to occasionally hang out in the middle of the street. It has absolutely no cover against predators. In the summertime it has to be HOT.

In any case, yesterday morning when I went to get the newspaper, there was a rabbit. Sitting in the road. Washing its face. And giving me the hairy eyeball in case I turned out to be a rabbit killer. (I'm not, but I did have some homicidal thoughts when I found out they were eating my thyme plants.)

Here's a long shot of the rabbit - in the middle of the lower part of the photo.

And here's a cropped version of the same photo.

The rabbit let me take a few photos before deciding it was time to leave.

Papillon

Things That Make You Go H-m-m-m

2011-08-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my younger sister (A2) decided to make a quick day trip to visit my mom. On the way home, she sees a pickup truck headed pulling a horse trailer. She also sees the horse inside the trailer sticking its head out - just like dogs do when they're riding in cars. She said she had never seen this before and was highly amused.

My older sister (A1) then related this story. Earlier in the summer, she and my BIL were on their way either to or from an annual reunion of his family in Nebraska. What did they see? A pickup truck pulling a horse trailer. And the horse is sticking its head out - just like dogs do when they're riding in cars. She was highly amused.

Today I'm on my way home from work. While heading westbound on I-40 I come up behind a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer. There were 3 or 4 horses inside. One of them, a very nice looking dark brown horse, was (you guessed it) sticking its head out of the trailer. As I pulled alongside the trailer, the horse looked me in the eye & nodded its head. It certainly seemed to be enjoying the wind in its hair.

Here my sisters and I have gone multiple decades (each) and have never seen this before. And in less than 4 months, each of us have seen a horse acting like a dog.

Go figure!
Papillon

General Topics

2011-07-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

Today as I was running some errands I noticed that the large cloud of smoke was once again in evidence. The last time I saw it, I wasn't sure which wildfire it was. It turns out that it is from the Las Conchas fire up near Alamogordo. Today, there was more smoke around the base of the fire which the local news said was due to some back burns being done by the firefighters. All in all, it's an impressive site considering it's more than an hour's drive from Albuquerque.

On another topic, I just started reading a fun new book, The Wilder Life, by Wendy McClure. The author, as did many of us, read the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder while growing up. She enjoyed it then. Later on, she was reacquainted with the books. She started re-reading them and liked them as much as when she was a kid. Over time, she developed a mild obsession for reading as much as possible about the family and the actual time line of their lives. Going to the places where they lived. Trying things they had done in real life - like churning butter. (It turns out that finding an actual dash churn to use was much harder than the actual churning.) I'm only about a third of the way through it but am enjoying it so far. It reminds me a bit of Julie & Julia from a few years ago. Relatively normal person becomes mildly obsessed with famous author (yes, Julia Child wrote a book, albeit a cookbook, and thus could be considered an author). Ends up writing a light-hearted book about their obsession.

I'm rather annoyed with myself. Lately I've been feeling frumpy, lumpy and dumpy. (The three cornerstones of a marked lack of self-confidence.) I should be feeling good since I recently landed a job after an extended period of unemployment. I start in about a week. A large part of my problem results from my decision to buy some new tops. It's been a while since I've done so and I've put on several pounds (OK, more than just several). I tried on some tops in women's size Large. All were too tight. Some across the shoulders, some in the belly area and one weird top where the sleeves were too tight. I then moved to Extra-Large. The tops fit a bit better but some were still slightly tight. Only one looked reasonably decent and it just wasn't what I wanted. Sigh. So I walked into the store feeling OK. I walked out of the store feeling - lumpy, frumpy and dumpy. I know I'll get over it and I'll find some clothes that will work. But in the meantime, I'm feeling rather down.

Papillon

Smoke Column

2011-07-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

I was north of Albuquerque in the Bernalillo area today. We finally have enough humidity to make clouds and possibly even some rain.

However, I noticed this. It's WAY north of Bernalillo and I'm wondering if it's a column of smoke from the Las Conchas fire (near Los Alamos). Or possibly it's from another one of the wildfires in northern New Mexico.

Granted, at the top of the photo, those are obviously clouds. But that column has got to be smoke. I had not seen anything like this before.

Papillon

Rain!

2011-07-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

It rained last night. Just barely. It lasted slightly longer than the extremely brief shower we had a week or two ago. I even got a chance to go outside and stand in it. The cat thought I was nuts, but that's his problem.

I knew we had a shot at some rain when I noticed I had moisture on the outside of my bottle of ice water. Lately our humidity has been so low (4 per cent at one point) that even when my bottle held mostly ice versus water, there was no moisture on it. So, knowing it had bumped up into at least the teens made me hopeful.

Oooh, I just switched over to The Weather Channel and the radar is showing showers in the area. Hooray!

I'd be enjoying it more if I didn't feel slightly puny. I had a medical exam the other day. During the exam, they asked when I'd had my last tetanus vaccination. I couldn't remember, but knew it'd been longer than 5 years. So the decision was made to give me one.

Anyone who's ever gotten a tetanus shot knows it makes your arm hurt and slightly swollen and red for several days. In addition, there's the diphtheria vaccine that's part of the shot. Plus, about 5 years ago, the decision was made to include whooping cough to the vaccine. AFTER I got the shot, the doctor mentioned that adding whooping cough to the vaccine has been known to make you feel crappier than you would have if it wasn't in the shot.

I got the shot on Thursday and, other than my left shoulder, felt OK. Ditto for Friday morning. Things started to slide gradually downhill on Friday afternoon. I practiced my tai chi chih around noon. However, instead of feeling relaxed afterward, I felt kinda sore and slightly stiff. Weird. Then sometime around 11 PM it felt like all my energy had disappeared. I toughed it out for a while and then gave up the fight and went to bed.

Saturday morning, I felt like the Queen of Lethargy. Oh my goodness! I supposed I could have just gone back to bed, but the cat was demanding to be fed and I had a couple of errands to run, so I just kept on plugging. After I got home I took an OTC flu pill (because it felt like I had a mild case of the flu) and took a long nap. That helped because I at least felt slightly more human and slightly less zombie. I did my very best couch potato for the rest of the day.

Today I'm feeling a bit better. Less ache-y. A bit more energy. My arm still hurts, but it's also improving. A bit less red around the injection site. It's also itching a little which is a bit problematic what with the achiness still present.

In any case, I hope you have a great Fourth of July.

Papillon

Hot Air Balloon Overhead

2011-06-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

Several Saturdays ago, I was awakened by the propane 'whoosh' of a hot air balloon going overhead. The first camera I grabbed was my 35mm so I had to wait until I got the film developed before I could show the photos.

Here's the sequence of photos from directly overhead to setting down in the municipal park behind the neighborhood.

I hope you liked them.

Papillon

Hazy Yet Again

2011-06-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

After several days with no smoke haze hanging over us, it's B-A-A-A-C-K!

Normally the Sandia Mountains east of town are easy to see. After all, they're close and, of course, HUGE. Here is a photo I took a couple of years ago right around sunset. This photo shows why there are so many references to Watermelon Mountains in and around Albuquerque.

However, thanks to all the smoke haze this is what the Sandias looked like today at around 1:00 PM.

It's a little disorienting to have them so obscured. We can only hope they get all the wildfires under control and the smoke goes away.

Papillon

Classes

2011-06-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

This week has been an informative one.

On Tuesday I started an eight week Tai Chi Chih class. I'm practicing the moves we learned in the first class. One requires a bit more balance. I'm still having a slightly problem with the rocking back movement. Otherwise, so far so good.

This morning I started a class on herbs. It's not a cooking-with-herbs class, but more of a how to use herbs for a healthy life. So far it's been interesting and fun.

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming classes.

Papillon

Smoky Times

2011-06-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday (6/1/11) I headed out of the house and noticed a distinct haze. I didn't think much about it until I exited my subdivision and headed east. Normally at that point I have a lovely view of the Sandia mountains. However, the haze was so heavy that it totally obscured said Sandias.

It was better the next day, but right about sundown there was a distinct smell of smoke. According to the local news media, a whole lotta people were worried there was some sort of large fire in the metro area and 9-1-1 was rather inundated with calls. Local fire departments checked and could find no local cause for the smoky smell.

The cause of the haze and smell turned out to be the Wallow wildfire in eastern Arizona. The winds were just right/wrong and brought it all our way. Things got a bit better over the weekend but people with respiratory problems were told to stay indoors.

Today started out better, but as the afternoon wore on it got hazier and hazier and around 6:30 PM there was once again a distinct smell of smoke. I looked out and noticed it was a whole lot darker than it normally is as the sun is going down. It looks as though someone inverted a large smoke-color bowl over the entire area.

I took this picture of the sun through a neighbor's tree. My camera was not up to capturing the totally unusual hot pink color of the sun. But it's still kinda cool nevertheless.

Papillon

Fiber Arts Festival

2011-05-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

There are a number of arts & crafts guilds in the Albuquerque area. Every other year they band together and put on a Fiber Arts Festival.

I decided to go today and had a thoroughly good time. Lots of lovely fiber/textile items to look at. I bought some fat quarters and saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while.

Here are some of the fun items that were at the show. We start with a lovely hooked rug.

Then there were some kooky and fabulous dolls. This first doll was made by a member of the local doll makers guild.

This next doll is a stunner made by a man named Arley Berryhill who makes dolls professionally.

Of course there were quilts and quilted wallhangings galore. Some were traditional.

Others were more whimsical.

All in all - a fun way to spend some time at the Fairgrounds.

Papillon

Sundays at Tiffany's

2011-05-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I went to see the current exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum. The exhibit is called 'A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls'.

Charles Lewis Tiffany founded Tiffany & Co. (Yes, as in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.) Later on his son Louis Comfort Tiffany inherited the company. While C.L. Tiffany concentrated on such things as jewelry, flatware and home accessories, his son was very interested in stained glass.

Several years ago two researchers independently discovered a series of letters and sketches by a woman named Clara Driscoll. It turns out she was integrally involved in the designing of many iconic Tiffany pieces - including many of the lamps. So much so that when she married in 1909 and left the company for good, the company's output declined markedly.

The Tiffany Girls refers to the group of 27 women who were responsible for the color selection, cutting and lead foiling of the glass pieces used in the lamps and other decoratives. The pieces were assembled and soldered together by a group of men at another location.

Here is one of the lamps believed to have been designed by Clara Driscoll. It's one of a series of lamps using dragonflies as a motif.

Other motifs attributed to Clara Driscoll include a series of poppies (both red and yellow), wisteria, and an interesting cobweb design, among many others.

The exhibit was very interesting and also very beautiful. All the lamps were lighted to show the glass. Plus, many/all of the bases were also created by the crafters at Tiffany's.

My one and only complaint was the display of about half a dozen pieces. There were several lamps that stood on pedestals that were just high enough to make the top side of the lamp shades visible. I'm 5'8" and had a slight problem seeing the top side. Also there were several hanging lamps that were high enough to make the top side, once again, hard to see. If they would have lowered the pieces in question by about 4 to 6 inches, it would have made viewing of the pieces easier.

Otherwise it was a lovely exhibit. It runs through August 21st and I plan on going back for another viewing.

Papillon

Feeling Good

2011-05-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

A week or so I was making my weekly trip to Goodwill to see if I could find any good books to read. One of the books I found was a copy of Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick. It's been a couple of decades since I last read any of Alger's books so I thought 'what the heck' and bought the book.

When I bought the book I noticed it had markings indicating it was a part of the Albuquerque library system. I didn't think much about it because libraries periodically cull their files and sell the books they know longer want to keep. I figure this was one such book.

However, when I got home I noticed there was nothing on the book to show it had been pulled from the stacks by the library. So I went out on the official city website and checked the library's catalog. They had the book listed, but also said there were no available copies. Normally if a book has been checked out, the catalog will show this. So their notes meant they had no copies in the system.

So I read the book and then took it to the closest branch library and put it in the book drop-off. Tonight when I checked, voila! They now have one copy of the book listed in their records - ready to be checked out.

I'm not sure how the book ended up at Goodwill. So I did Good will a favor by buying the book and supporting their efforts. I helped out the library by returning the book so they don't have to buy another copy - saving them money.

I'm feeling good. Two good deeds in one fell swoop!

Papillon

Books and the Occasional Scammer

2011-05-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

Twice a year the Albuquerque Main Library holds a 'clearance sale'. You can buy as many books as you can stuff into a brown grocery bag - no limit on the number of books or the number of bags. It's a great deal, especially if you're buying hard covers. Heck, it's a good deal even if you're buying paperbacks. This year I managed to fill 4 bags. Woohoo! Lots of good reading in my future.

For about elebenty-seven years, the price has been $3 per bag. However, I guess as the result of inflation and budget cuts, the Friends of the Library decided that, starting with today's sale, the price per bag would be raised to $5 per bag. They've had this information on their website since the last sale in November 2010. It was also on signs all over the sale area.

Everything went fine until I went to check out. There was a nice short line with only one woman ahead of me. As I get into line, the woman's total comes up on the cash register - 8 bags for $40. The woman immediately recoils in horror. Why such a high total?! The cashier (a small elderly woman) explained the change in price. The customer immediately went into Evil Cheapskate Customer mode. She had checked the price on the Internet and therefore the library had 'no legal leg to stand on'. (I'm not making this up, she actually said those exact words.) The cashier asked what website Evil Cheapskate Customer (hereafter referred to as ECC) had gotten the information from. As expected ECC was unable to give her a name. Instead she kept ranting about how she should be charged only $3 because that's what it said on the Internet.

She was so busy ranting and making life miserable for the very polite cashier that she didn't hear the disparaging comments that the lady in line behind me and I were making (under our breath) concerning ECC's conduct. I was also running several very pleasant revenge fantasies in my head.

I did comment to ECC that the Internet is full of erroneous information and is not an infallible source, especially in light of the fact that she'd gotten the information from a website NOT run by the Friends of the Library. ECC dismissed me with an imperious wave of her hand.

Finally, the woman responsible for the content on the Friends' website walked over and said that their website has had the accurate information since November 2010. That the Friends are responsible for the information on their website and NOT for any information on a website over which they have no control. ECC eventually backed off and allowed them to finish the transaction.

We all breathed a sigh of relief as ECC walked away. The funniest part - apparently ECC is either incredibly cheap or an incredibly slow learner or is a persistent scammer trying to rip off the Friencs of the Library. Because the library lady said ECC pulls the same or a similar stunt every single year at every single sale for the past 10 years. It makes my head ache just to think about it.

Anyway, all's well that ends well. I got my four bags of books home without giving myself a hernia. The cat worked his nose overtime smelling all the interesting smells. There is lots of yummy reading in my future. Life is good.

Papillon

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

This photo is courtesy of http://www.dailysquee.com/.

Since my mom lives over 500 miles away, I didn't get to spend the day with her. I called, though, and we had a nice chat.

Earlier in the day, I decided to go to the Rio Grande Nature Center. They were holding their annual Herb Fest. It's a pleasant way to spend an hour or so. The weather was warm, but not too hot with a bit of a breeze.

Lots of animals enjoying the weather. I got to see a mother Canada goose and her gosling. I first noticed the mom. She was on the bank and was bouncing her neck up and down, obviously checking out all of us humans who were checking her out. It was a few minutes later that I noticed the gosling. You have to look closely to see the goose - she's in the center of the bottom of the photo in the middle of a bunch of branches.

There were also turtles sunning themselves on a large branch plus some hummingbirds bickering over a feeder. Here are the turtles:

It was fun listening to a four-person band playing some folk music. They were good.

A local wildlife refuge had some raptors available to look at - injured birds who have healed but can no longer live in the wild. The birds were gorgeous - a peregrine falcon, barn owl, burrowing owl and a crow.

All in all, a nice time was had. I took some photos but all I had was my 35mm camera so will have to wait until I get the film processed before I can post anything.

Papillon

Tea and Roses

2011-04-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

Today one of the local nurseries (Osuna Nursery for the curious) partnered with a local tea room (St James Tearoom) to put on an event combining tea and roses.

I decided to brave the high winds and airborne dust that are so prevalent in Albuquerque in April and see what was to be seen.

As to be expected, there were lots of lovely roses - such as

And then there was

The tea was as yummy as the roses. They served tea (of course) and a number of food items. Two that I tasted were cucumber sandwiches and lavender shortbread. I LOVED the lavender shortbread. It was not only yummy but fun as well.

After having tea and admiring the roses, I wandered through the rest of the nursery since I love to see all the blooming plants.

I have long been a fan of dahlias. Here's a pretty yellow one.

And I loved the color of this little pansy.

I'm glad I didn't let the weather deter me from having a fun and colorful time this afternoon.

Papillon

Continuing My Efforts

2011-04-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Since April 24th is normally the last day of the season where we might possible have a late freeze, I decided this is the weekend to continue my idea of having a thyme lawn.

So far, the first plant, a wooly thyme, seems to be hanging in there. Always a good thing with my iffy green thumb.

On Friday I went by a couple of locally owned nurseries to check out their supplies of thyme. At the first one I went to, no luck. I couldn't find any thyme in their herb section. I asked one young man who worked there. He did not know and said he would find out. Thirty seconds later, he had obviously not asked and was back to what he'd been doing before I asked - straightening up the tomato plant display. I then located another employee and asked her. She informed me they had just planted the seeds for their thyme plants and I should come back in a week or so. Umm, no thanks.

I went to another nursery right down the street. They had some larger time plants, but the tag said they would grow slightly higher than I wanted them to. Their smaller plants were the same variety as the larger plants, except for one tiny pot containg an Elfin variety that looked rather sad. No thanks, again.

I finally went to the nursery I had gone to a couple of weeks ago. They had a MUCH better variety including 2 types that only get about 2-3 inches tall. I got 2 pots of each variety and came home. I need to think about exactly where I want to put them and then it's transplant time.

It should not be such a hassle to find a common herb like thyme.

On the other hand, it's kinda fun to walk up to a complete stranger (at a nursery) and ask them, "Do you have thyme?" It has such a nice existential/metaphysical feel to it.

Papillon

Hooray!

2011-04-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

I think the final, final, final period has been put on my water leak.

I think the leak had gone on for several hours, possibly days, before it finally bubbled up in my bathroom and headed down the hallway. That's because my water bill (received this week) was about half again higher than my normal water bill. Payable, but still .... Yikes!

Yesterday I called the water utility and politely asked if there was any possible way of having the bill reduced. The nice young woman on the other end of the phone said certainly! All I had to do was drop off a copy of the bill from the plumber to prove that the repair work was done. Off I went to city hall and dropped of said copy.

The powers-that-be then looked over the bill to make sure everything was OK. This morning I got a phone call letting me know that my bill was reduced by about 40%. Woohoo! It just goes to show it never hurts to ask.

Feeling good!
Papillon

Ah, Yes...

2011-04-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well, another bit of the great 2011 water leak has come up. I got my monthly water bill. It looks like the leak most likely started in late March because there was a slight up-tick in usage. It wasn't enough of a change to make me really sit up and take notice. I'm sure when I got March's bill, I just put it down to my taking longer showers or something similar.

However, April's bill is when the monthly usage really goes off the charts. I'll bet the leak was fairly active for a while before it finally got around to leaking through into the house. Ah, well.

I can't be too unhappy because the leak kicked me out of my rut of hoping there wouldn't be any more leaks and got me started in the right direction of fixing the problem and stopping the opportunities for future leaks. Giving me much needed peace of mind.

Onto related thoughts - here in New Mexico, rock lawns are very popular due to the lack of moisture. (After all, Albuquerque is located in a high desert area - low rain and high altitude.) For those who are not familiar with rock lawns, instead of grass lawns we have front and back yards where black plastic is laid over the bare soil and then several tons of pea-sized gravel are poured on top and smoothed down into a thin, uniform layer.

I have never been fond of rock lawns, although it has meant I didn't have to mow the lawn. Several years ago I heard of an idea for a thyme lawn. So I've decided to start one of my own. Where the plumbers had to dig the trench to lay the new main water line from the meter to the house, they had to remove the plastic from that area. I've decided to start my new thyme lawn along that trench and then expand it slowly across the rest of the yard. It should ultimately be pleasing to the eye and also pleasant to smell. And I'll never have to mow it!

So far I've just got one plant put in - a small woolly thyme. It's listed as a ground cover and is a nice green grey. I'm not sure if I'll use more than one type of thyme or just bung in several varieties. I'll have to think on that a bit. Now that warm weather's here, I do need to remember to water it regularly. If I recall correctly, it should help the effort by spreading out a bit on its own.

Papillon

Random Things

2011-04-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

My plumbing project came to an official end this past Monday (4/4). When the plumbers were working on my house, they had to go into the attic crawlspace. The panel giving access to that area is made of drywall. The original panel was original to the house and due to its age was rather fragile. A corner was accidentally broken off and the plumbers said they'd replace it. Unfortunately, they were busy with other people's leaks during the last week of March so we scheduled for panel replacement on Monday the 4th. The plumber showed up a bit late (he called and let me know) due to yet more leaks elsewhere, but I now have a new attic access panel. As the plumber was leaving, I said, "you guys did a great job and I really appreciate it, but I hope I don't see you for a very long time." The plumber smiled and agreed with me.

Since then things have gotten back to normal.

For those who don't know, I belong to an informal quilt group that meets once a month. Sometimes we quilt, sometimes we don't. We've known each other for the better part of 20 years and always have a good time when we get together. This year we decided to have a group project. For that, each of us brought in a yard of 'mystery' fabric whose identity was hidden in a brown paper sack. We each drew a sack and now have to make a project of our choosing using the fabric and employing a log cabin block of our choice for the pattern. I've been working away on my project and have now gotten the top about 95% done. The design is done and now I just need to decided on what to do for the borders. I think I'll use my mystery fabric (turquoise background with a brown vine design) as a narrow inner border. I'll put a wider border on the outside. I've been looking for something in a nice chocolate brown on brown. I found one that was close but didn't really quite make the cut (pun intended). I've seen some lovely tone on tone fabrics, but not a lot in a nice deep brown. Rats!

Anyway, here's a picture of the top as it stands so far.

I call it 'A Cheerful Heart'. It's based on a pattern in an older quilt book that I have. I'm not doing the pattern exactly as shown in the book since it involves doing applique flowers on the bottom point of the heart. One, I think the flowers make it look fussy. Two, I hate, hate, HATE doing applique. It makes my neck muscles tense up just to think about doing applique. So, I won't, I won't, I WON'T!

Now that I've got that little tantrum out of my system, I'm off to surf the net.

Papillon

Putting a Period on It

2011-04-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

The plumber came by for the (hopefully) final time today. It really wasn't a truly plumbing related visit. During the 're-pipe the house' project, at one point the access panel to the attic crawl space had a large corner broken off. It was a piece of wall board cut to fit the opening. Since it was original to the house, it had gotten rather fragile with age.

I really didn't expect it, but the plumber offered to fix it. I, of course, said OK. Originally, the plumber said he'd bring the replacement sometime late last week. He got busy and couldn't make it.

We scheduled him to come by this morning. Shortly before the scheduled time, he called and say he was running late. He arrived and I now have a new access panel for my attic crawl space. Plus, the plumber got to pick up the tape measure that one of the workers had left behind.

Win-win all the way around.

As the plumber was leaving, I said, "Don't take this the wrong way because you've been very nice and very professional, but I hope I don't see you again for a VERY LONG TIME!" He smiled and agreed with me.

All in all, it's nice to have everything back to normal.

Papillon

Bummer - An Update

2011-03-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

The plumbing in my home is now fixed and well insulated and working. Hooray!

It's nice to know that the next time the temperatures drop below freezing, I don't have to worry that the pipes leading to my bathroom fixtures will freeze as well.

I also can stop worrying that a new leak could pop up at any time, especially in light of having 25+ year-old poly-butylene (sp?) pipes.

Plus I have several small projects that had been needing to be done that were taken care of as part of the re-piping project - like new water connections for the washer/dryer.

All in all, a good ending to a bad episode. Now I get to spend the weekend with an open trench in the front yard and several openings in the walls where the new pipes were threaded in. They can't be closed up until the City of Rio Rancho sends somebody out to inspect the work. But it's OK, I can live with that.

Papillon

Less Bummed

2011-03-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

Well, the plumbers showed up today. The work is about 90% finished and I am now back to having water available. So VERY nice!

I called the insurance company and they might pay for a portion of the work. Because what I'm doing is considered preventative, the insurance company is not willing to pay for everything. I got an estimate from the plumber showing what would have been the costs if I had chosen to just repair the leak and then held my breath for the next umpteen years waiting for the next leak to bust loose.

I'll be sending the estimate to the insurance company and then we'll see what they decide to pay. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Papillon

Bummer!

2011-03-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here at 11:30 PM and feeling rather bummed out.

I'd been having a fairly normal day. No big deals. No problems.

I was in the bathroom around 6:30 PM & it was dry as a bone. Then, around 7:15 PM I walked into the bathroom and started splashing as I walked. PROBLEM! By the time I noticed it, the water was about 1/8th inch deep in the bathroom and was headed down the hallway.

I put a bunch of sponges down to try & stem the flow & sprinted over to my neighbor (a handyman kind of guy) to ask if he could help me shut off the main valve at the meter. Believe it or not, he actually has one of those wand tools that is designed to shut off the valve with a minimum of fuss. Which he did. I then went back inside to start mopping things up and also to call a plumber.

I tried calling the plumber I'd used on the past 2 plumbing problems. I discovered they don't have 24 hour emergency service. Since I didn't notice the leak until well after 5:00 PM, they were out of the equation. Having seen a RotoRooter truck doing work at a couple of houses down the street after February's freeze, I called them. The supervisor said all their work crews were booked for the evening and suggested I call someone else. I then called a plumbing firm that I'd used several years ago for a small leak at the T-joint behind the kitchen sink. They'd done good work then, so decided to use them again.

They had a crews out on several jobs but said they could get someone out if I didn't mind waiting. I said OK. A tech called around 9:15 PM and said he was finishing up a job and could be at my house in 45 minutes. I said OK and then sprinted down the hill to Walmart to use their bathroom. Thank goodness for stores that are open 24 hours a day!

Side note: when you ask people a question, why do they give you an answer and then say - oh, but you might want to disregard what I just told you? When I walked into Walmart I asked the employee near the door where their restrooms were. He pointed to one near the front of the store. Then he said - but you probably won't want to use THAT bathroom since they called for housekeeping to clean it and nobody's been in in yet. Sigh. He then said there were bathrooms at the back of the store. Why not just say - the bathrooms at the front of the store are out of commission so you should just head to the back?

In any case, the plumber showed up around 10:00 PM. I was hoping it was something small. It wasn't. It was coming from under the slab. Sigh. The plumber gave me two options. He could fix the leak which would involve jackhammering through the slab. Unfortunately, I could expect more leaks in the future since I have that poly-whatever piping which has been discredited in recent years. This is also the fourth leak I've had to fix in the past however many years - including one several years ago which did require jackhammering through the slab.

I decided to go for Plan B. This would be re-piping the house. (Although the price is about what I expected, I do have room on my credit card - thank goodness.) The plumber did a whole lot of explaining what would be involved. Interestingly - there will be no jackhammering. What they will do is replace the water line from the meter to the house. They will then run a pipe inside the wall up to the crawl space and then run the pipe over to the area of the house where my pipes are located. (Note: I have one bathroom. It and the laundry area and the kitchen area are all located in one area of the house. This makes it easier to do the work). They will then replace all poly-whatever pipes in the work area. In addition, they're replacing all the turn-on/turn off fittings. Plus they will put a main turn-off valve inside the house so in case of future leaks I can sprint into my bedroom and turn things off instead of sprinting out into the front yard. Much nicer. Plus, I've had a few turn on/turn off fittings that really need to be replaced. These will be replaced as part of the work. Oh, and they will also be putting some insulation in so I won't have to worry as much in the future. (The builder put NO, absolutely NONE, insulation in the area where the pipes are located. Was this stupid or what. Cheap jerks.) I decided to go with this plan since I'm still 'between jobs' and I might as well take the time to do it now instead of worrying that when I get a job - I'd come home one day to a flooded home due to yet another leak.

The plumber said he could have someone out to start the work tomorrow morning - around 9:00 AM or so. The job should take about 1 1/2 days. The plumber said he'd guarantee that by the end of day one I will have toilet use. Day two should be involved with insulating the pipe area. (Another good note - the price I was quoted is the final price - the plumber guaranteed I would not be hit with any surprise 'extras'.)

After the plumber left, I went back down the hill to Walmart. I bought three 24-packs of bottled water. This way I have water to brush teeth. Fortunately I washed my hair last night and should be able to stretch things until the water's back on. If I really need to pee - I can use a bunch of the bottled water to fill the toilet tank. Otherwise, there's always Walmart.

In the meantime, I'm curtailing my fluid intake.

Papillon

A Day Late (or Thereabouts)

2011-03-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I didn't post this sooner - just laziness, I guess.

Last Friday was a lovely day. I'd heard there was a display of tulips being held at the Botanic Garden as a follow-up to the display of cyclamens (mentioned in an earlier post). I like tulips so I thought I'd head on down and enjoy the weather.

I got to the Botanic Garden and decided that the first thing I would do is ride the train. Now, this is not a full-sized train. This is a smaller version that is designed to chug its way around a route that encompasses parts of the Botanic Garden, Tingley Beach and the zoo. Here's a photo of the engine:

There are actually 2 different trains, usually heading in opposite directions from each other. Each train has 4 cars, 2 that are open and 2 that are partly enclosed. I chose to ride in one of the semi-enclosed cars, here's a photo from the inside looking towards the engine.

It's a pleasant ride, if a little noisy - some banging and clanging as the train rolls along. It's definitely not some sort of high-speed amusement park ride. Gauging by the people we encountered along the ride it was faster than a walker, about the same speed as a jogger and slightly slower than someone on a bicycle. All in all, it takes about an hour to make the full ride, not a bad way to enjoy a lovely spring day.

When I got done with the train ride, I went to see if I could find the tulip display I'd read about. I discovered nary a tulip bloom in sight. I'm thinking there may be a display in the near future, but someone gave the wrong dates to the newspaper.

It wasn't a total waste. There was a magnificently blooming amaryllis.

Plus, here are some photos of some of the local duck population. First of all, a male wood duck.

I have a fond place in my heart for wood ducks. For years I entered my needlepoint in the Texas State Fair. And for years, the best I could do was several second place finishes. Then, one year I entered 3 items and they ALL won first place ribbons. One of the entries was a picture of a male wood duck. Gotta love 'em!

Next we have a male mallard. He's just coming out of the pond and is giving me a hard look to make sure of the following: 1) that I'm not a dangerous carnivore preying on mallard ducks, and 2) that I don't have any food to share.

I like mallards because they were one of the first ducks I could identify when I was very much younger.

Have a lovely spring! And love to all the folks trying to survive following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Papillon

Minor Annoyances

2011-03-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

Minor Annoyance #1 - I'm not sure why, but lately somebody has sporadically been stealing my newspapers. It's not a huge problem, but I don't know what has caused this minor 'spree'. My personal opinion is that it's some cheapskate who is checking the Powerball results. That's because it's happened on two successive Mondays and once on a Thursday. These are the days after the Powerball drawings. The dumb thing is - the thief doesn't have to steal my paper to find the results. They could go online and check. Or they could go to the library and read the free copy of the paper. Or they could watch the actual live drawing on Sundays and Wednesdays. In the meantime, I have to go through the annoyance of calling the paper and asking for another copy. Which means some poor person has to drive out to my house and deliver another paper. Not to mention the annoyance for the poor carrier who has done their job and then has to pony up the cost of the missing paper.

Minor Annoyance #2 - This morning I got up and walked into the bathroom. At some point I 'woke up' enough to notice what looked like an odd little shadow on the floor by the vanity. I looked closer and realized it wasn't a shadow, it was the remains of a damp spot. Not good. I thought about giving it a couple of days and seeing if it went any further. Then it occurred to me that plumbing problems NEVER heal themselves. They only get worse. So I called a plumber that I've used in the past with good results. I was expecting to be worked into their schedule in a day or two. So I was pleasantly surprised when they said they could get somebody out today. (Thereby saving me 24 to 48 hours of worrying.) A nice young man showed up shortly after lunch and started looking around. At first he couldn't find anything wrong. The damp spot had mostly dried up and evidence of any other stray water wasn't to be found. At first. After looking at all the obvious places, he pulled the grate off the crawl space under the closet that holds my water heater and furnace and crawled on in. Shortly thereafter, he found the problem. At one of the points on a T-connection, the seal was beginning to give up the ghost. There are a couple of possible reasons for this. One could just be old age. The other was the freezing of my pipes during February's cold weather. (They froze but didn't burst.) I'm thinking that water swells a bit when it freezes. Maybe the slight swelling inside the pipe was just enough to loosen the seal at the joint. In any case, the plumber was able to fix the problem and I should now be leak-free. And the cat got some free entertainment by sneaking into the crawl space when I had my back turned and got to spend about 20 minutes investigating areas he's normally not able to access.

The good news is - since I am (to employ a euphemism) currently between jobs, I was free to meet with the plumber. No hassles of taking off from work. No scheduling pressures. I could just wait for the plumber and keep track of the leak.

Papillon

Wascally Wabbit

2011-02-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

Although Albuquerque is NM's largest metropolitan area, there is enough open space in and around the area to support local wildlife. In my neighborhood I've seen coyotes, roadrunners, and quail.

We also have a couple of wild rabbits. During our last significant snow, I saw tracks that looked like one of the rabbits had done a couple of laps around my house.

In my front yard, I have a large pine tree. It's taller than the house and is fairly full-bodied. One of the local rabbits has discovered that the tree makes a relatively safe place to hang out and chill.

<--
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It's actually a pretty good place when you think about it. The rabbit's got its butt up against the trunk of the tree so nothing can nab it from behind. The tree's branches go all the way to the ground so they offer a modicum of camouflage and protection without obstructing the view. I've got several tall and thick shrubs nearby so if something gets too close, the rabbit has just a short sprint to even better concealment.

The rabbit doesn't spend every day under the tree. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen it lately, but I just figured it was hanging out in a nice warm burrow due to all the very cold and/or windy weather we've had lately.

In any case, it's always fun to check out the tree on my way to or from the car or mailbox. If the rabbit's there, I say hello.

Papillon

Winter Color

2011-02-25T16:29:00.000-08:00

The Albuquerque Botanic Garden has been having a display of cyclamens in January and February to help bring some color to winter. It occurred to me the other day that if I wanted to see the color, I'd better get myself down there because, after all, the exhibit ends in just a couple of days.

Today seemed as good as any, so off I went. Here are some of the pictures I took.

Red-pink cyclamens

Pink cyclamens

Red cyclamens

And - for a nice bit of contrast, a peace lily

All the color made a nice contrast to the greys and browns of the winter landscape.

Papillon

Book Recommendations

2011-02-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

The first lists itself as a true-life novel. It's Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. It describes her grandmother's life growing up in the early 1900's in west Texas, southern New Mexico, and Arizona (with a brief sojourn in Chicago). Her grandmother was Lily Casey Smith and she was a real person and a distinct character. Walls calls it a true-life novel because her grandmother died when Walls was 8 years old and therefore she couldn't confirm conversations. However, most of the novel is based on stories told by her grandmother to her mother. An entertaining read.

Another recommendation is 365 Thank You's by John Kralik. At the time he wrote the book Kralik had his own law firm and was having problems both professionally and personally. One day while hiking, it came to him that he needed to use gratitude to turn his life around. He resolved that he would hand write 365 thank you notes over the next year (yes, and mail them also). It actually took him 15 months, but he completed all the notes. Although he kept track of how many notes and to whom they were written, this is not a diary but rather a recap of what happened to his life and attitude over the course of the note writing. It's an interesting twist on the Law of Attraction.

Papillon

Photo Exhibit

2011-02-13T14:17:00.000-08:00

I had a fun time today checking out a bunch of Polaroids.

The Albuquerque Museum is currently running an exhibit (through April 10) that features Polaroid pictures taken over about 30 years by artist H. Joe Waldrum. Waldrum was born in Texas in 1934 and was widely known for his photographs, paintings and prints of northern New Mexico churches.

According to the information from the museum, Waldrum was in New Mexico in the early 1970's. He wanted to paint a certain church (San Jose de Gracia?), but didn't have enough time before he needed to catch a flight back to the east coast. So he went to a local grocery store and bought one of those Polaroid cameras where you snap a picture, it pops out the front of the camera and then develops over the course of a few minutes. This way he could have photos as references to work from to complete the sketching/painting. Later he realized that the photos were artistic in and of themselves.

Over the years, he took over 8,000 Polaroids. This collection was later donated to Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe. They are collaborating with the Albuquerque Museum.

It's an interesting look at how an artist sees form and light.

I did have to laugh at myself. Normally when you walk into an art exhibit, the art is easily visible. When I first looked down the length of the gallery, I thought, "so where's all the art?" Then I realized the narrow ribbon running the length of all the walls was the art. After that I had an enjoyable time.

Papillon

A New Allergy?

2011-01-31T17:53:00.000-08:00

I think I'm becoming allergic to winter. We had a pleasant time until right after Christmas when things turned colder. About the same time my sinuses started acting out their displeasure. I'll spare you all the symptoms, but suffice it to say there have been a couple of days where I've taken OTC medication and then put a warm, dry compress on said sinuses.

Now we've got a cold front moving through. It's been lightly snowing for a portion of this afternoon and this is projected to continue through Wednesday morning. I'm not too worried about that, I don't have to be anyplace this week so can stay home if need be. What does worry me are the temperatures for the next several days. The Weather Channel is predicting that on Thursday our high temperature will only be 17 degrees and that we'll get down to -2 that night. Yikes! In the 20 years I've lived in the Albuquerque area, it's never gotten into minus numbers. You can bet I'll be leaving several faucets dripping so I don't end up with frozen pipes. And my outdoor faucets have insulated covers on them. Now I can just think positive thoughts about everything coming through OK. (And hope for nicer weather soon.)

Note: I do realize anyone living on the east coast of the US is sneering. You have my sympathy for having to endure this winter's weather.

Stay warm!
Papillon

Laura Ingalls Wilder

2011-01-14T17:54:00.000-08:00

I grew up reading the 'Little House' books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I even progressed to the series of books written by Roger Lea MacBride which takes up the story after Laura's last book and tells about the years the Wilders spent on Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri.

As mentioned in previous blog entries, I love looking through secondhand books. There's the $3-a-bag sales that the Albuquerque main library holds twice a year. About once a week I cruise the book section at Goodwill - which can sometimes prove to be a gold mine. I have found several books signed by the auther, including an autobiography by Hollywood gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper.

My most recent find (not signed) is called Little House in the Ozarks. Laura Ingalls Wilder starting writing her 'Little House' books when she was 65. However, that was not her first attempt. About twenty years before she started these books, she was writing articles for regional newspapers and magazines. The articles were written between 1911 and 1925 and covered topics ranging from everyday life on Rocky Ridge Farm to concerns about World War I to visiting the San Francisco Exhibition (around 1915).

Finding this book was a very pleasant surprise and an interesting read. (FYI: the book was edited by Stephen W. Hines, a lifelong fan of Wilder's.) It doesn't include all of her articles, but it does contain a majority. Fun to see the woman behind the author.

Papillon

Incorrect Attribution

2011-01-04T19:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a quote that is usually attributed to John Lennon:
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

While Lennon probably said this at some point - it turns out he was not the first to have done so.

I love books. Love 'em. Have them all over my house.

Twice a year, the Albuquerque main library has a $3-a-bag book sale. You take a bag

and stuff as many books into it as you can. You can buy as many bags of books as you want. Love it! One of the books I bought in November 2010's sale was Bennett Cerf's Laugh Day. It bills itself as a "treasury of over 1000 humorous stories, anecdotes...."

At one point in the book, Cerf mentions that he loves to collect quotes. (Me, too!) One of the quotes is:
"Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans." Cerf attributes the quote to a Robert Balzer. (I haven't looked him up so am not sure who he is.) As you can see, other than Lennon's use of the word 'busy', the quotes are identical.

Cerf was not ignoring Lennon since the book was published in 1965, right about the time that Lennon was rising to enough prominence to be quoted. Cerf does not say when he first noted the quote from Balzer, but considering the amount of time it takes to compile and publish a book, it had to have been at least several years before 1965.

It's likely that Lennon (who was NOT a stupid man) saw or heard the quote someplace and used it. People who didn't know about Balzer then gave Lennon all the credit.

It was just interesting to be reading a 45-year-old book and run across the quote.
-------------------------
Also seen in this book is a list of words that are now obsolete. (Note: the list is from another book, Your English Words by John Moore.)
Example:
Quockerwodger - it's a puppet.
Skilligolete - a soup served sometimes to prisoners or sailors (now there's an odd combination).
Calibogus - a mixture of spruce beer and rum (eew?).
Jobbernowl - a blockhead.
Rumblegumption - a Scottish word for common sense.

All for now.
Papillon

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/

I think somebody needs to cut back on the catnip!

Papillon

Christmas trip

2010-12-29T18:30:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, my sisters, brother-in-law and I all met up in San Angelo to spend time with my mom. As mentioned in my Thanksgiving post, the drive for me is long and, at times, rather boring.

The trip to San Angelo was rather unusual this time. I called ahead and checked on the condition of the roads. The recording said they were fine. The recording did not mention the foggy conditions that were pretty much in place until I got to Roswell, NM. Sometimes you could see several hundred yards to a mile. That's unusual for the country I was driving through where you can normally see for several miles in all directions. In Lincoln County, NM the fog was especially heavy. Not much fun to drive in. Here's a picture of when conditions were foggy but not too bad.

Normally you could see for at least 5 to 10 miles -- at least.

All the fog plus temperatures around freezing put a frost on the vegetation. Just north of Vaughn, NM, I spotted a couple of trees. I pulled over to take a photo. When I rolled down my car window, it sounded like there was a light rain. It turns out I had stopped about the time that the temps got just above freezing and it was the sound of frost sliding off branches and plopping on the ground. Here's one of the trees.

Just north of Vaughn is a very small town called Encino. Here's a sad little house. I always wonder what it's history was and why it looks like this now.

On the trip to San Angelo I was very glad I had finished all my shopping. One of the towns I went through was LaMesa, TX and the strip center with WalMart was PACKED. Ditto in Big Spring, TX.

Between LaMesa and Big Spring I almost ran off the road when I spotted what I thought was a full-grown, real, live reindeer. I checked again on the way home and decided (due to the other animals in the pasture) that it was probably an elk instead. I think the ranch it was located on hosts hunters for a living.

Christmas was nice and so was the drive home. It was sunny and windy and a bit chilly. As I got to Brownfield I noticed several long ribbons of geese headed in an easterly direction. Not sure why and where they were going, but they were pretty to look at. Also spotted on the drive home was a solitary hawk perched in the only tree for several miles.

It's good to be home.

Papillon

Make It Stop

2010-12-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

I suddenly like political ads better than Christmas ads. Why? Because the day after the election, the political ads stop.

Apparently this is no longer true of either Christmas ads or Christmas music. After having both start up before Thanksgiving, it looks like folks are trying to wring every last bit of sentiment out of them. Especially annoying is the incessant Christmas music. Yesterday I was hoping area merchants were just letting the music linger through the weekend.

Then I was in a local restaurant today and what do my ears behold? More Christmas music. Fortunately the restaurant was a bit noisy and I could tune most of it out.

All I can say is - make it STOP!
Papillon

A Snow Day

2010-12-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a long dry autumn here in New Mexico. So we felt some relief when the weather forecasters said we'd be getting some precipitation starting yesterday.

The forecasters were right. I woke up yesterday to cloudy and rainy skies. Hooray! I ran some errands and then headed home since the forecast was for the rain to turn to snow. Sure enough, it did shortly after I got home. I was expecting an inch or two. That expectation was dashed when it kept snowing and snowing and snowing.

Here's what it looked like out my front door around 10 PM last night.

This morning I woke up to approximately 4-5 inches of snow. We rarely get this much snow here on the west side of Albuquerque. Needless to say, I'm going to spend most of the day here at home.

It's supposed to warm up to 40 degrees. However, as of noon, we are still in the low to mid 30's. Some melting has occurred, but there's still a whole lot of snow hanging around.

Papillon

Feeling Good

2010-12-12T15:17:00.000-08:00

After having spent some time as one of the countless unemployed persons and having my resumes ignored by all and sundry, I suddenly am having much better 'luck'.

Around mid-week I was contacted about my interest in a position at a local entity which runs/owns two of the local TV stations. Since then, I've had my first interview.

Then, at about the same time, I was contacted by Sandia National Lab about my interest in a position there. Friday morning I went in for testing - they want to make sure you can read and do math and follow instructions and have more than a passing familiarity with Microsoft Office. I did well on all of the tests except for Excel. Even though I use Excel on a regular basis, they were using 2007. I have not had a chance to use it and with the 24 hour notice I did not have a chance to track down a tutorial to run. So, for a while I was pulling out my hair, but eventually got through it with a passing score. Hooray!

I go in for an initial interview on Monday for Sandia. I'm waiting to hear if the TV stations want to do a second interview.

Woohoo! It sure feels nice to be popular.

Papillon

More Recuperation - At Home

2010-11-29T19:51:00.000-08:00

I'm back from San Angelo. It turns out my trip timing was excellent. I left the Albuquerque area on Wednesday and had lovely, albeit windy weather for the drive to San Angelo. In reading the local newspaper after I got back, it turns out the Albuquerque area had just enough moisture plus freezin temperatures to turn a major highway interchange into a skating rink. About 20 cars ended up wrecking, including several police cruisers who were responding to the accidents. Nobody was badly hurt so that was a good thing.

I came back on Saturday and had lovely weather for long distance driving. On Sunday, a cold front moved through with resulting high winds. Today, portions of the state got snow - including areas that I drove through on Saturday. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, driving through eastern New Mexico and western Texas can be mind numbingly boring at times. For example, large parts of west Texas (north and west of Big Spring) are devoted to cotton... as seen here.

The brown parts of the photos are fields of harvested cotton. For fans of the movie Places in the Heart, cotton is no longer harvested using crews of field hands. Instead farmers have large (and hugely expensive) machines that have one person sitting up in a cab and driving down the rows. Much more efficient. As you can see, the fields go on for MILES. In the right-hand photo, the small area on the extreme right hand side of the picture are mature trees surrounding a farm house.

After the cotton is harvested, it is pressed into large rectangular shape generally the size of a large travel trailer. These are later loaded onto trucks and moved to communal cotton gins located around the area. Usually the gins are just called things like Co-op Gin of (insert nearest community). One of the better named gins is the one located at Punkin Center. Note: to my knowledge there are no pumpkins/punkins at Punkin Center. Just lots more cotton - the field just behind the sign looks like it's waiting to be harvested. That's not snow on the ground, just open cotton bolls.

In addition to cotton and cattle, there are numerous places in both west Texas and eastern New Mexico where there's lots of drilling for natural gas. So you see lots of these devices, they're called pumpjacks (I think). All day long they go up and they go down. Rather hypnotic in their own way.

Also, as mentioned before, there are some weird place names in west Texas. On the south side of Sterling City is Bodcaw Draw. (Reminder to self, must remember to do some research on what the heck is a bodcaw?)

Trips can be fun. But it's also good to be home, especially knowing that the Sandia Mountains east of town got snow today. Hooray for not having to drive through it!

Papillon

Thanksgiving Visit

2010-11-25T08:34:00.000-08:00

I'm spending Thanksgiving with my mom. She used to come & visit me, but thanks to a number of things including increasing frailty as she gets older, I've been visiting her for the past several years.

The problem is that there is no easy way to get from the Albuquerque area to San Angelo, TX. You can fly to San Angelo, if you don't mind spending hours & hours in airports during various layovers in Houston or Dallas. Or you can fly to Midland, rent a car & drive for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, what used to be a late afternoon flight was moved by Southwest to a mid-evening flight - leaving the traveler to drive the couple of hours in the dark (literally and sometimes figuratively).

Thanks to my getting a new(er) car earlier this year to replace my 20 year old truck, I've been driving over the hills and through the prairies - for about 9 to 10 hours. Which is what I did yesterday.

At first it's fun to see the scenery change. The evergreen trees in the Sandias changing to the evergreen shrubs changing to the grass punctuated at first by lots of cholla (cactus) to occasional cholla to very little cholla and mostly grass. However, after about 5 hours, it starts to get VERY old. This photo was taken in Lincoln County, NM - looking west from the highway.

I was glad I was doing the speed limit when I drove through Vaughn. By the side of the road sat the police. In a pickup truck. And not just ANY pickup truck. Imagine said pickup with a kick-ass paint scheme of blue and black. Plus the fact it was a pickup that apparently had been taking steroids for a considerable period of time because it was very big and very intimidating. The windows were tinted so I couldn't see if the occupant matched the truck for size & intimidation.

I keep meaning to stop in Vaughn. As I've driven through I've noticed a diner - one of those old-fashioned kind with lots of chrome on the outside. It looks very 1950's. I may stop on the way back to Albuquerque for a snack. I'll keep you posted if I do.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Papillon

Recuperation

2010-11-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

No, I've not been sick. I've been recuperating from the November edition of the Albuquerque Main Library's $3-a-bag book sale.

Don't get me wrong. I love books. I love getting books for $3 a bag. It 's just VERY tiring schlepping all those books around. There are times I wish I'd gotten a lighter weight hobby. But no.

On a positive note, the best way to recuperate from the book sale is to lay on the couch and read one of the books. So tough to do (tongue firmly in cheek)! The cat likes it too, since my lap is handy for naps for him.

Note: some time ago I mentioned this book sale to a coworker. She looked at me and said in all seriousness, "I hope you got some good books in your bags." I looked at her stunned when I realized she thought that a '$3-a-bag book sale' meant you went to the library, paid $3 and the library staff handed you a random bag of books. Um, in a word, no. I explained to her that this was not a literary version of buying a pig in a poke. You either bring your own bag or use one of the brown paper, grocery-style bags they provide and then you look through the thousands of books they have out on tables. You get to select any books that take your fancy and then pay the nice ladies at the cash registers.

Happy reading!
Papillon

Fall Color

2010-11-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, most of the fall color we get in New Mexico is yellow. Here's a lovely leaf that landed in my front yard.

When I bought my house, I decided to enliven things by planting several red leaf plum (fruit-less) trees. Their leaves don't change colors. I'm always amused when they drop off the trees. Initially they don't seem to do it one or two or three leaves at a time. Instead, it seems they have all their leaves one day and the next - 50% of them are on the ground. The rest then do the one or two at a time.

So far we've had mild fall weather. I hope that stays true for the rest of the season!

Papillon

Autumn is Here

2010-11-10T16:42:00.000-08:00

I realize that the official start of autumn was not quite a month ago. But here in New Mexico, we've had a two month run of very nice weather. Warm but not hot days. Cool but not cold nights. That all ended this week. There's definitely now a chill in the air.

A couple of streets over one of the houses has a row of Lombardy poplars in their backyard. In late September, those poplars participated in an encounter with a hot air balloon. (Note: the balloon hung up for only about a minute and then pulled free. It pendulum-ed once or twice but then went on for a safe landing. The tree suffered a minor bit of damage in the form of a small amount of branch coming loose.)

However, the trees are definitely turning. Unlike some parts of the USA, most of the native trees here turn yellow. So, instead of the smorgasboard of colors you'd see in the Northeast, here it's like looking at a wide stretch of bright gold. Not quite the variety, but very pretty nevertheless.

Here are the neighbors trees in all their autumnal glory.

Papillon

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

A very appropriate photo found at http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/.

Papillon

Hats Off!

2010-10-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm still a bit fixated with 1950's etiquette (per Amy Vanderbilt).

Today, it's hats, especially for women. I'm not sure exactly when women stopped routinely wearing hats in public. It may be about the time that the Kennedy family left the White House. I remember women trying to emulate Jackie and her pillbox hats. Men stopped wearing hats because John Kennedy went bareheaded so often. And I don't remember Lady Bird Johnson wearing a lot of hats.

However, in the 1950's, women had all sorts of rules about when and where to wear hats (and gloves for that matter).

Sample question from M.M. in Oakland, CA: "Do you feel that a woman public speaker must always wear a hat?" Amy Vanderbilt: "Not necessarily. She doesn't wear one if she is in evening clothes. In many urban communities, where hatlessness is a matter of choice, I've seen many distinguished women speakers without hats. In very small communities, which tend to be conservative in this matter, it is probably well for the speaker to wear a hat in order to avoid criticism..."

Another woman (Mrs. J.A.F, Monroe City, MO) wrote in to say "I am confused as to when to wear a hat and gloves..."
Vanderbilt replies, "When in doubt, wear a hat -- and gloves..." She goes on to make a list of hat rules, such as:
"1. Wear a hat and gloves to church and to any religious ceremony...
2. Wear a hat to any formal reception...
3. Wear a hat when making a formal call on an important person, such as a governor or a bishop.
4. Wear a hat - or be prepared to do so - if you are a professional speaker before any group..."

There is an ongoing nostalgia for all things 1950-ish. The thought being that it was a lovely time of peace and quiet following World War II. While reading Vanderbilt's etiquette book, it looks to be just one more era of fairly rigid rules on what to where and how to act - lest one receive criticism for the simple act of not wearing a hat while giving a public speech.

Papillon

More 1950's etiquette

2010-10-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

Today - we look at 1950's restaurant etiquette.

A woman from Texas wrote to Amy Vanderbilt asking how to order dinner when at a restaurant with her boyfriend.

Amy's reply:
"You do not pick up the menu yourself, but you wait until it is presented to you by your escort or by the waiter. You give your order to the escort rather than to the waiter.....you give your order to your escort, for it is his masculine duty to scan the (menu) card and suggest things that might appeal to your palate. It is also he who suggests the wine, if any. A girl may know all about food herself, but, as a guest of a man in a restaurant, she defers politely to his suggestions, although, of course, she's not required to eat anything that she doesn't like."

I do so love the fact of how women's liberation has changed things. Now we don't have to play this silly game of women deferring to men simply because they're men. I love the proviso at the end about how a girl doesn't have to eat anything she doesn't like. Wow, that's nice.

So ladies, give a big shout-out of thanks to all the women who firmly set themselves forward and said - we are self-sufficient adults and should be able to do those adult things like voting and not being considered chattel and - on a lesser note - being competent to order our own food when dining out with a man. Because, after all, we are, in fact, adults.

Let the games cease!

Hip, hip, hooray!
Papillon

2010 Balloon Fiesta

2010-10-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

Taking a break from etiquette rules from the 1950's - today (10/10/10) is the final day of the annual Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque. This year was no different from other years in that there were a couple events (primarily in the evenings) that had to be cancelled due to unfavorable conditions. However, most events went off as planned and most folks were thankful for slightly warmer than normal morning temperatures.

For the first time in I can't remember when, I actually didn't have to work this week and so got to do some laid back balloon chasing, hoping to get photos to use for my needlework patterns.

Here are some photos that most likely will not be used for patterns, but are kinda fun nevertheless.

A good takeoff -

The two faces of a jester (special shape) balloon -

Two balloons looking for a good place to land -

A balloon that's made a safe landing -

And here's a balloon that made a rather 'sloppy' landing. You'll be happy to know that nobody was hurt, not even the balloon. OK, the balloon may have had some minimal damage, but looked to have survived enough to fly another day.

Thanks to the efforts of the fine folks at PNM (local utility) and the equally fine folks with the Albuquerque Fire Department, the balloon's envelope was un-draped from the power line.

And that's it for this year.

Papillon

More fleeing from the 1950's

2010-10-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

Another amusing bit of etiquette practiced during the 1950's - bows. (No, not something involving a shoe laces or ribbons.) From what I can gather from the Amy Vanderbilt etiquette book - people (at least in the USA) didn't always shake hands when greeting each other.

One question asks about the differences between a man's bow and a woman's. According to Ms. Vanderbilt, a man's bow is a modification of the deep bow he learned as a boy in dancing class. After the bow, the woman might offer to shake hands. Or not. A lady's bow is a slight inclination of the head, usually accompanied by a smile. She might then offer to shake hands.

Please bear in mind, according to Ms. Vanderbilt - no one properly refuses to return a bow.

In a related question, a woman asked if ladies are already seated at a luncheon table are introduced to each other, do they shake hands? Ms. Vanderbilt said, "No, they bow. In this country there is very little shaking hands between women."

Oh, my.

Papillon

Fleeing the 1950's

2010-09-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

As usual, I've been browsing through the book section at Goodwill looking for interesting books. I found a couple including one from the early/mid 1950's. It's Amy Vanderbilt's Everyday Etiquette. I bought it chiefly for the entertainment value.

I must admit, I was grew up in the 1950's (partly). In reading the etiquette book, I am so glad I'm no longer living there. The book is written based on questions asked of Ms. Vanderbilt by her readers.

Here's an example of why I'm glad we're no longer living in the 1950's.

A person (identified as G.H. of La Jolla, California) asks what is suitable attire for a secretary to wear to work. Ms. Vanderbilt's reply is as follows:
"It depends on the community in which she works. If she works in a large city, she wears tailored, conservative clothes, low or medium, not high, heels, stockings (even in the hottest weather), minimum of jewelry and none of it clanking, conservative make-up and nails, and a simple coiffeur. If she works under country conditions, she wears simple country clothes, which again should be on the conservative side. In the country, for example, sweaters and skirts worn with or without jackets are acceptable, but sweaters in a city are often not permitted."

What the heck are 'country conditions'? And the thought of having to wear nylons everyday (even in the hottest weather) makes my blood run cold.

I will admit that several years after moving to the Albuquerque area 20 years ago, I was working with a temp agency. One of the jobs they sent me on was working in the front office of an apartment complex. I showed up wearing a nice blazer, shirt and slacks. They refused to let me work because 'corporate' refused to have women wearing slacks in their front office. I was dumbfounded, after all this was the early 1990's, not the 1950's. Needless to say, I notified the temp agency and headed for home.

I'll be passing along more 'tips' for your amusement.

Papillon

I Love A Rainy Night!

2010-09-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

The Albuquerque area is designated as high desert. One, because we're a mile high. Second, we don't get a whole lotta rain. (Note: desert doesn't necessarily mean really hot, although lots of deserts are. It usually refers to the rainfall, or lack thereof, in an area.)

Anyway, we don't get a lot of rain on average and rarely do we get a whole day of it. So it's very lovely when a day like today happens.

I'm just sitting back and enjoying all the lovely rain.

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

Papillon

State Fair

2010-09-15T18:52:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the NM State Fair. I almost didn't go because it's still slightly hot outside. But I saw a notice in the paper that they were discounting the entrance fee by $2. So what the heck, I was on my way. When I arrived, it turns out the entrance fee was $2, not $2 off the regular amount of $7. Yippee!

As usual when I go to the State Fair, I never go to the midway. I have a very low threshold for nausea and so I try to avoid things like midway rides.

Instead I headed for the contest venues. Among other things I entered two photos I took a number of months ago at the fountain in front of the Albuquerque Museum. They didn't win anything, but I really like the way they turned out.

I also entered a couple pieces of my needlepoint. I designed the patterns for both - they're based on photos I've taken. The first one won a second place ribbon.

Finally, I entered a pillow with pansies. It won a third place.

Granted first place on everything would have been nice, but I'm always glad to win something! It's better than a poke in the eye with a stick. Plus, I took a good look at the winning photos and will now know how to do things next year. Practice, practice, practice!

Papillon

Eek!

2010-09-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started out well. My dentist's office agreed with me that a bill I'd gotten from them was in error and I didn't owe them money. Yippee!

Then I ran some errands and found most of what I wanted.

On the way home I decided to stop by the Walgreens near my home and pick up a bottle of booze. I do like to have a drink each evening as a way to wind down. Some time ago (a year or so?) the Walgreens chain decided to card everyone buying products like booze and cigarettes. I don't have a problem with that - normally.

However, yesterday I got to the counter and showed the clerk my driver's license. He looked at it, then looked at it again. It had expired on Sunday. Eeek!

Needless to say, they wouldn't sell the booze to me. And I hot-footed it off to the Motor Vehicle Division. The trip there was mildly funny. Before realizing my license had expired, I had been driving around without a care in the world. Afterwards, I was constantly looking for police officers lurking behind any and all large objects.

I made it to the MVD and settled in for a LONG wait. They were on number 99 when I entered and my number was 47 (they roll over and start at 00 when done with 99). Fortunately I had a book of mystery short stories in my car. I completed it. I went out and got a magazine. Finished it. Finally after a bit over 90 minutes, my number was called. I answered a number of questions - no, I don't have a disease that might cause problems while driving, and no, I've never had a DWI, and yes, I do still want to be an organ donor.

Then it was off to have my picture taken. On my recently expired licensed, my photo made me look like a middle-aged felon. My current photo makes me look like a slightly older, somewhat surprised middle-aged felon.

Oh, well. I'm now back to being a legal driver. I took the 8 year option so am spared the whole process for a while yet.

Papillon

Another Recommendation (Actually Two)

2010-09-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the book The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan. It's about how her mom raised 10 kids (with very little help from her alcoholic husband) using 25 words or less in corporate contests. For those who don't remember, after World War II a lot of companies helped drum up product sales by sponsoring contests where consumers bought their products and then sent in proofs of purchase along with entry forms. The consumers would dream up catch phrases or advertising slogans for the companies as an integral part of the contest. If the judges liked your entry - you could win big prizes (trips, cars, cash, etc).

Evelyn Ryan (the prize winner mentioned in the title) won a large number of these contests. Not only did she win, but quite often did so in a very timely fashion. Her son's bicycle was irreparably damaged in an accident. A short time later, a bike arrived from a contest Evelyn had entered. Ditto for the family toaster.

I recommend this book, it's an interesting read about a woman who found a way to rise above all adversity in her life.

I also recommend the movie based on this book (it stars Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson). I saw the movie first. Usually I prefer one treatment or the other - in some cases I really like a movies, but not the book and vice versa. In this case - I really liked both the movie and the book, just about equally.

Papillon

Summer

2010-08-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. -- Russel Baker

Deep summer is when laziness finds respecability. -- Sam Keen

Summer has set in with its usual severity. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Heat, ma'am! It was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones. -- Sydney Smith

A bit of hyperbole perhaps, but I've gotten to that point in the summer when all I want to do is recline on the couch and read an easy-to-read book. Or take a nap. Or read a book followed by a nap.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Unfortunately, this heat-induced lethargy is having an adverse effect on my needlepoint efforts. I'm feeling far too lazy to do even background.

Fortunately, the summer looks like it's winding down. We've still got warmer temperatures, but they're not as hot as they were earlier in the summer - mid to upper 80's instead of mid to upper 90's.

So, I think I'll just get a cold glass of something and relax.

Papillon

Life at This Moment

2010-08-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take up exercise, get up early, or be respectable. -- Oscar Wilde

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right? -- Charles Schulz

At this point, the above two quotes pretty much sum up how I feel at the moment. It'd be nice to be a bit younger. But I know that's not going to happen. So, I know that no matter how much 'work' I do, getting my youth back is an exercise in futility. Hence, I agree with Oscar Wilde - I'm not going to exercise (much), get up early (never again if I have anything to say about it), or be 'more' respectable (let's face it, I'm moderately respectable - a failing of mine, I'm afraid).

I also agree with Charles Schulz. Before I got out of college and into the workaday world, I had my life pretty much plotted out. Then I got out and found out how much nonsense goes on in the business world. Not backstabbing per se. I'm referring to the office politics (good/bad/indifferent). I always hated playing that game.

I also loathe committee meetings of any kind. Which explains why I also hate jury duty. I'm not one to endlessly discuss the minutiae behind any decision. Any committee ever formed has always had one or more person who does want to talk everything to DEATH. Which always makes me want to pick up a heavy blunt object and strike them repeatedly about the head and shoulders.

Plus, I won't discuss the bosses I've had over the years for reasons of possible defamation charges. No, not every boss was weird/hateful/incompetent. But enough of them have been and I've become a bit gunshy.

After enough weird/bad jobs with weird/incompetent bosses, I find I have no ambition left. I don't want a career. I don't want to climb the corporate ladder. I don't want to supervise people. Essentially, I just want to be left alone. (Note: Greta Garbo did not say "I want to be alone". She said, "I want to be LEFT alone." Hear! Hear!)

Of course, all of this could just be my annual bout with late summer lethargy. It's like the heat has sapped all the energy from my bones.

Papillon

Me vs The Tree

2010-08-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

When I became a homeowner about 18 years ago, my house did not come with a whole lot of shade trees. Previous owners had planted trees, most of which were along the back fence, so they didn't provide much in the way of shade for the west-facing side of the house. So I planted some trees.

One of those trees is a purple robe locust. It's a nice enough tree that has lovely purple bloom clusters in the spring (they look rather like wisteria blooms). I'd seen examples around town & thought it would be nice to have in the yard.

What I didn't know is that locust trees have a bad habit of sending up little offshoots - all over the place. Most of the time I just prune them down to the ground until they give up. However, there's one that's insinuated itself into part of the fence. Which makes it very hard to get it cut back down to ground level. I'm trying, but so far that particular shoot seems to be gaining on me.

I do feel sorry for my neighbors, they've had any number of shoots come up on their side of the fence. I did notice a while back that they seemed to have cut down all that were readily noticed. And I say, go for it!

I did do some rather severe pruning of the 'fence shoot' today. I'll need to keep on top of it, if I let it get out of control it could turn into another 'Audrey' (feed me).

The things you learn when you're no longer a renter!

Papillon

Edward Abbey

2010-08-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

Recently I ran across a quote by Edward Abbey:

"There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California."

This quote got me thinking about Abbey. For those who are unfamiliar with him (including me) - Wikipedia says that Abbey was born in 1927and died in 1989. He was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues and criticism of public land policies. Larry McMurtry referred to Abbey as the 'Thoreau of the American West'.

I'm not sure of the dates but Abbey received a Master's degree from the University of New Mexico. This is where he took part in one of the great practical jokes of all time. (Note: I'm not normally a fan of practical jokes, I'm making an exception for this one.)

A few miles west of Albuquerque are the remnants of several volcanoes which have been dormant for a VERY, VERY long time. One night while Abbey was at UNM, he and several acquaintances took a number of old truck/auto tires out to one of the dormant volcanoes. There they set the tires on fire, then headed back to Albuquerque. Needless to say, there were some panicky people the next morning when everyone woke up and saw thick black smoke coming from a 'dormant' volcano. It was checked on and found to be just burning tires and not actually a volcano waking up.

I just love this practical joke. Nobody was hurt (emotionally or physically) or humiliated and everyone ultimately was able to laugh.

Papillon

Internet Acronyms

2010-08-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

Last year I saw a story about tourism in Wisconsin. It seems for years there was an organization called the Wisconsin Tourism Federation. Of course, if you're a fan of Internet/text/Twitter acronyms - you will have already noticed their initials spell out WTF. After much thought, they have changed it to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin. A number of folks on BoingBoing.com said they should have left it as it was - they could have made a fortune on T-shirts and other souvenir items.

Today, I saw another organization whose initials have been overtaken by the same acronym. In large letters on a pickup truck was NWTF. My initial reaction (pun intended) was WTF? It turns out the initials belong to the National Wild Turkey Federation. I didn't get a chance to ask if they plan on changing their organization's name or if they will leave it as is.

Papillon

Another Book Recommendation

2010-08-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

I just got done reading another book. It's called Just a Couple of Chickens (Raising Poultry and a Family in Hard Times) by Corinne Tippett.

The book covers a 5 year time span where the family moves to a 2-acre parcel of land east of Santa Fe - the author's husband is an entrepeneur in construction and she stays at home and takes care of the house, the 2 children and well over 100 assorted fowl, including chickens, geese, ducks, pheasant, and quail.

The book is both humorous and straightforward about the 'hazards' of dealing with Mother Nature on an up-close and personal basis. Plus the hazards of being an entrepeneur during the economic crash of 2008 and 2009.

I recommend this book as an interesting read.

Papillon

Malfunctions

2010-08-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

I had been planning on writing about my recent trip to the Albuquerque Museum. They've had a traveling exhibit from the National Museum of Wales - artwork collected by two Welsh sisters - 'From Turner to Cezanne'.

However, all of that had to be put on hold because my computer decided to become difficult. It would allow me to connect to the Internet, but then my browser would not allow me to actually doing anything on the Internet. OK, I take that back, I could do stuff on the Internet but only after jumping through hoops to get my browser to work with me.

After spending a great deal of time thinking murderous thoughts about my browser on Wednesday night, I disconnected everything and schlepped my computer to the repair shop. They promised it back in 3 to 5 business days. So I am now at one of the local libraries, using one of their computers. It's a workable situation, but not especially convenient.

So, things may be a bit sporadic for the next 3 to 5 business days.

Papillon

Life's Too Short...

2010-07-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

I bought another book today. (Yes. Another. One.) It was an impulse buy and easy to make since I was at the local Dollar Tree and therefore, it was only one whole dollar.

It's by a lady named Pat Lorenz and is called Life's Too Short to Fold Your Underwear. The title amused me (no, I don't fold my underwear) so I got it.

In the chapter entitled 'Life's Too Short to Worry about Getting Old'. In this chapter she talks about how, after entering her 50's, she entered a whole new world and sums up her new basic philosophies concerning cooking and cleaning. The summary follows:

- Help keep the kitchen clean - eat out.
- My next house will have no kitchen, just vending machines.
- A messy house is a sign of a misspent life.
- A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen and this kitchen is delirious.
- Countless numbers of people have eaten in this kitchen and gone on to lead normal lives.
- Housework done properly can kill you.
- A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

As long as at least one of those cookies contains white chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts, I entirely agree with all of the above.

Now I've got the munchies. I think I'll go to my deliriously happy kitchen and see if I can find something fun to eat.

Papillon

Endless Horizons

2010-07-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in yesterday's posting, I've been visiting my mom who lives in west Texas. There's no easy way to get from where I live to where my mom lives. It's not easy to fly there and it's equally not easy to drive there.

On the most recent visit I drove. This is not brain surgery. And there are parts of the drive that can be very interesting.

That said - there are parts of western Texas and eastern New Mexico that should bottle and sell a cure for insomniacs. Initially when you see the endless vistas, it can be very interesting especially if it's your first time in this part of the country. However, after several hours it can become, well, the equivalent of a giant geographical sleeping pill.

Granted, there are some very cool things to look at. Since there's so much available space, there are a number of wind farms in and around Big Spring and Sterling City. Up close they're rather hypnotic (in a good way). Rather stately.

Please don't get me wrong - I'm not dissing west Texas and east New Mexico. There's some gorgeous scenery and the people have always been uniformly pleasant. It's just -- there's a whole lot of flat going on in some places.

Papillon

The End of an Era

2010-07-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, it's been a week since my last blog posting.

Earlier this year, my mom had several episodes where she fell, one especially bad fall in early March. Since then my mom has gone into a nice assisted living place (researched by my older sister). Since then both of my sisters and I have been working on getting my mom's house cleaned out and put up for sale.

Over this past weekend we held an estate sale. A very lovely and talented woman (Kay) and her team of lovely and talented workers conducted the sale. (We are very grateful for their professionalism!) My sisters and my brother-in-law and I helped by being watchers and runners and generally doing what we could to make things run as smoothly as possible.

All in all it was an exhausting weekend and I just really didn't have the mental energy to blog.

The title of this posting mentions the end of an era. When my dad retired, he and my mom moved into the house that is currently my mom's home (my dad died in the early 1980's). So the house has been in my family for over 30 years. Needless to say, there are lots of memories connected to the house and its furnishings.

I find myself becoming sentimental over any number of things that could be considered small or silly. But they'll trigger a memory or two or three. As to be expected, some of the memories are happy, some sad.

Was it C.S. Lewis who said that memories are what give us roses in December?

Anyway, my mom seems to be doing well at the assisted living home. It was definitely the right move. She seems to be making new friends to go with all her former friends who've been very good about visiting her.

Prior to the estate sale, my sisters and I very amicably decided on what we wanted to keep. It was still tough seeing some things being sold. I kept having memories of 'remember when'. I just kept telling myself that the items being sold would now be giving good memories to their new owners.

Papillon

Drip Drip Drop

2010-07-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

It is no use to grumble and complain; It's just as cheap and easy to rejoice; When God sorts out the weather and sends rain - Why, rain's my choice. - James Whitcomb Riley

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
-Langston Hughes

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you. - Langston Hughes

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger. - Saint Basil
-----------------------------------------
We got a very lovely rain storm a short while ago. Such a pleasantly blowing diversion.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love the weather here in New Mexico. I could never, ever live someplace like Seattle. All that rain would have me putting my head in a gas stove.

I do love sunshine.

That said, it has been a very dry rainy season so far.

People who don't live in New Mexico tend to laugh when we say that we have a rainy season. After all, this is a high desert. But we do have two months (July and August) where we are supposed to get a large portion of our annual moisture.

We tend to worry when the moisure heads north or stays to the east. This has been the case so far thanks to a high pressure system in the northeast corner of the state. That has moved off to the east, allowing more moisture to head in. Which lead to this evening's storm. Lots of wind and a significant amount of rain.

My car now looks cleaner. Up until now, all we'd had were a couple of quick bursts of moisture followed by blowing dust. Which made my car look grubby. The dirt is now mostly gone. Hooray!

All in all, a very good result was had.

Papillon

Friends and Fun

2010-07-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

Several friends and I got together yesterday for a quick field trip to a quilt shop on the (far) east side of town. OK, to be truthful, it's just a weensy bit out of town. But that was all OK, too, because it was a lovely day, if a tiny bit hot. But that's to be expected in mid-July. And, it IS a 'dry' heat after all!

We got to the quilt store, found out they were having their 2nd anniversary sale and promptly ran amok. The store owners and staff were a tough bunch, entirely capable of dealing with quilters and their amok-ness. They were rewarded for their efforts and we walked away with more projects for the future.

I say 'more projects' because most/all quilters have way more projects in mind than they will ever have time to do. That is because all creative types live in fear that they will wake up some morning and find themselves with nothing to work on/look forward to.

I feel this way, not only with my craft projects, but also with books. Which is why my house is generally decorated with books, books and even more books. Not to mention needlepoint and quilts. I obviously wear my creative endeavors on my sleeve (and on the wall plus various bookcases).
-------------------------------------
I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome. ~William Ewart Gladstone
-------------------------------------

Afterwards we all went to lunch (being famished after all that running amok). Fortunately there was a pleasant little restaurant right across the parking lot. We got our aerobic exercise in the walk there. While perusing the menu, I noticed they had a burger that was stuffed with chiles and cheese and then deep fried. We were tempted to order but figured that our stomachs and arteries would kill us. Literally.

Later we got together at our host's house (thanks!) and admired the views and each other's purchases and the key lime pie we had for dessert (yum!).

All in all, a fun day was had. Good friends, a quilt store having a sale, good food, lovely views and key lime pie. Can a day get any better?

Papillon

Minor Annoyances

2010-07-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

Because I live just outside of Albuquerque, I have access to both my town's library and the libraries in Albuquerque. This is fun because it significantly widens the pool of book possibilities.

The closest Albuquerque branch library is in the Taylor Ranch neighborhood. Sometimes I think the library staff is psychic in a slightly annoying sort of way.

This is because I had requested several books. They left me a voice mail message the other day saying I had a book ready to be picked up. I got busy and waited a couple of days before picking it up today. After I got home, I found another message - another book is ready to be picked up. Grrr! The second book was NOT on the hold shelf when I picked up the first book.

Oh, well. In the grand scheme of things, this is a petty annoyance indeed. It could be worse. And if this is the worst thing that happens to me this year, it'll be a pretty good year.

Another annoyance? The weather. Mother Nature is being a great big tease. For most of the afternoon, there've have been lovely dark clouds all around my house. Have I seen a drop of rain? Why no. To rub salt in the wound, the local news showed that the east side of town had gotten a very lovely shower.

Ah, well.

Keeping my

Driving Around

2010-07-11T17:04:00.000-07:00

I was driving around today and for a while was behind a car that had a sign on its back windown that said "Singing Lessons - All Age." Let's put aside the nitpicking about whether it should have read "All Ages" - perhaps the 'S' had come loose and the lack was not noticed by the vehicle's owner.

I bring this up because it got me thinking about the audition process for the show 'American Idol' and specifically for the 2010 season. I don't watch the bulk of the show, but I do like to watch the auditions. I do this with the same morbid fascination that I usually reserve for train wrecks. There are just so many people who are so very eager to display their complete and utter lack of talent on national TV. They quite often do so with the complete and utter ignorance of what very little talent they have.

In the auditions for the 2010 season, one young woman was turned down by the panel. She did have a modicum of singing ability. She wasn't as horribly bad as William Hung. But she definitely did not have anywhere near enough talent to be considered as a viable contestant.

She took umbrage at the panel's opinions and very irately told them that she DID have talent and that she's got the singing teachers to prove it. Yes, teachers, plural. You could see it on everyone's face - perhaps she needed to go back to her teachers and ask for a partial refund of fees paid. Because if she's had YEARS of lessons from multiple teachers, then she either should have a better singing voice or her teachers should have been more straightforward with her concerning her potential as a singer. I would guess the teachers were more interested in receiving the fees than in telling the young woman the truth.

Oh, the places my thoughts go when I'm behind a car at a stoplight.

Papillon

Random Thoughts

2010-07-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

One last entry from Bennett Cerf's The Sound of Laughter:

A few interesting revelations made by David Ewen in his American Popular Songs..."Take Me Out to the Ball Game," the song classic about America's favorite sport, was written by Albert von Tilzer, who didn't see a baseball game until twenty years after he wrote the lyrics; "My Blue Heaven," one of the most successful songs about marital bliss, was written by Walter Donaldson, a bachelor; the most celebrated songs about the Southland were the work of Stephen Foster, who never set foot below the Mason-Dixon line; and Van Alstyne's "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" was inspired by the composer's visit to New York's Central Park, which has no apple trees.
-------------------------------
Otherwise, I don't have much in the way of thoughts, random or otherwise.

We had some fairly ferocious looking clouds earlier in the afternoon and I was really hoping for some rain. But they were all tease and no action, at least not at my house.

I hope you're having a great weekend.

Papillon

Oh, My

2010-07-08T19:31:00.000-07:00

Another excerpt from the previously mentioned book Bennett Cerf's The Sound of Laughter:
-------------
Well-brought-up young ladies in the 1870's learned their good manners from the pages of a book that is unbelievable by present-day standards. It was called Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms and it has just been republished under the slightly updated title of Never Give a Lady a Restive Horse.

Professor Hill gave strict orders to young ladies just climbing out of bed in the morning. "Take a complete bath at once," he commanded, adding, "A simple washing out of the eyes will not do at all." In the chapter headed "Errors to be avoided," Professor Hill brooked no nonsense from male readers, either. "NEVER," he ordered, "allow butter, soup, or other food to remain on your whiskers." There are forty-one other "nevers" listed by Professor Hill, including things not to be done in hansom cabs and other horse-drawn vehicles.
-------------------------
OK, I'm now kinda grossed out at the thought of what bearded men are allowing to remain in and on their whiskers. Ick! At least he was trying to get people to bathe regularly. It certainly helps to reduce the 'funk' in a room full of mostly unwashed people.

Hmmmm, I may go over to Amazon and see if I can locate a copy of this book. It sounds like it could be a fun read. Perhaps similar to a list I read a while back from perhaps the 1940's or 1950's with rules for wives and how they should maintain their households and keep their husbands happy. It's a good thing I wasn't a housewife back then or my head would have been inside that gas oven hoping for a quick end.

Papillon

A Glitter of Unicorns?

2010-07-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

As has already been mentioned, I love going to places like Goodwill & looking through their used books. Most recently (yesterday to be precise), I found a book edited by Bennett Cerf. (For those too young to remember him, he was a publisher, lecturer, columnist, toastmaster, and TV personality.)

The book is Bennett Cerf's The Sound of Laughter. It was published in 1970 and there is a fair amount of humor in it that is rather dated or is what would now be considered politically incorrect.

However, I have run across some items that I like. Here's one:

"Almost everybody knows that lions travel in prides, that pups come in litters, that elephants en masse are referred to as herds, and that fish navigate in schools. But you'll have to dig into James Lipton's unique book An Exaltation of Larks to find that in their time and fashion, good folks have referred to an ostentation of peacocks, an impatience of wives, an unction of undertakers, a sneer of butlers, a twinge of dentists, a tantrum of decorators, an indifference of waiters, a descent of relatives, a no-no of nannies, and a babble of barbers. If the game appeals to you, you might strike out on your own."

I may just have to see if I can find a copy of Lipton's book. It sounds rather a hoot (of owls?).

So what sorts of things can you come up with?

Papillon

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

- Benjamin Franklin
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We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

- Declaration of Independence of United States of America
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Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

- John F. Kennedy
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To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.

- Theodore H. White
---------------------------

Several years ago I read an interesting bit of information concerning the phrase 'the pursuit of happiness'. (I don't the title of the book/article where the information was.) In the 1700's the use of the word 'pursuit' was not confined to meaning 'to chase or hunt after'. Instead, it was also used to mean the study of a subject. So Jefferson most likely did not mean that we should chase after happiness as if it were a butterfly flying just out of our reach. Rather, we should study happiness and find out how to make happiness work for our particular situation.

By the way, did you know that in 1777 Mary Katherine Goddard was picked by the Continental Congress to do the first official printing of the Declaration of Independence with the names of all the signers? Mary Katherine was one of a family of printers doing business in and around Rhode Island and Maryland. The family business was headed by her mother, Sarah Updike Goddard, and also included Sarah's son/Mary Katherine's brother, William.

Have a great day!

Papillon

July Thoughts

2010-07-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”

Erma Bombeck
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One of the things I like about summer is the ability to go out at night and just stand and look at the stars. Let's face it, it's just too cold in the wintertime to be outside for any length of time. But sometimes on a summer's evening I like to walk outside and just look up and wonder who else is out there in the great beyond. I find it to be a very nice way to relax.

I live in a generally quiet neighborhood where most folks don't stay up really late. So when I walk outside it feels peaceful, as if I have the whole place just to myself. Once in a while I can hear traffic on the nearest major street, but generally it's just me and Mother Nature.

I do have to laugh at myself sometimes. I'll be standing outside and the wind will pick up a little bit. Occasionally something will be blown by the wind and consequently will make an odd noise (usually it's just a leaf scraping across the pavement). It'll startle me and I'll then begin wondering if it isn't actually a member of the local coyote population. Or some other kind of critter. I'll then hot foot it back into the house. Silly me.

Thinking of the local critters, there was the cutest little bunny sitting in my driveway earlier. He wasn't a baby but wasn't big enough to be full grown. I guess the bunny equivalent of a tween. I almost OD'ed on the cuteness of that bunny. I would have loved to pick him (her?) up and just snuggle the heck out of him/her. But I didn't just because I knew I couldn't get anywhere close enough. No point in trying. But it did sit there awhile and let me admire.

Otherwise, I'm just sitting here thinking about how the year's already half gone. When I was a chld, the grownups would tell me that time goes by faster as you become an adult. They didn't warn me that sometimes it feels like I'm in a speeding car or a bullet train.

Papillon

More Random Musings

2010-06-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm still feeling rather laid back after my lovely day yesterday at the Botanical Park.

I'm glad I went when I did. Later in the afternoon a thunderstorm moved through. Lots of wind & rain. I was glad I was home. I did worry about a young man who came to my door wanting to give me a religious brochure. As always I politely said no, thank you. I hope he was able to find shelter from the storm.

Earlier in the summer I visited my mom who lives in west Texas. There are a number of odd place names on the way to & from Albuquerque. For example: there is Cannibal Draw (near Big Spring, TX). I wonder what happened there to give it that name. I keep telling myself I'm going to do some research on it. However, I've been a bit lazy in that regard.

One of the routes I've taken over the years goes through Lincoln County - where Billy the Kid earned his notoriety. Lincoln NM has a small cemetery. Some gravestones are old. Some are newer. Some don't even have a formal headstone - just a large stone (about the size of a bowling ball) at the head and foot of the grave. Kinda sad when you think about it.

There is one headstone that amuses me. It's for a husband and wife. His claim to fame is that he was a 'pal of Billy the Kid'. I guess if that's your 15 minutes of fame, then you might as well run with it.

Papillon

A Lovely Summer's Day

2010-06-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

I spent part of the day at the Rio Grande Botanic Park. One of the reasons I went was to see the Butterfly Pavilion. As to be expected, there were lots of lovely butterflies fluttering by. (Oh, there was also the cutest family of ducks outside of the pavilion. A mama & about a half dozen babies who acted like they owned the joint.)

After the Butterfly Pavilion, it was fun & rather soothing to wander through the rest of the Botanic Park. Lots of flowers - begonias & roses & daylilies among others.

My favorite spot in the whole park is the Japanese garden tucked all the way at the back. Extremely soothing. Lots of shady spots to sit & reflect & relax & just commune with nature. A couple of dragonflies seemed to be posing for me. (Let's hope those photos come out OK!) A few people walked through but for the most part I was all by myself.

I did swing by the Heritage Farm area of the park. I was minding my own business taking photos of daylilies when something in the foliage STARTLED me. It obviously wasn't some small critter or a lizard, but was of significant size. I backed up a bit & at first thought it was a cat. Nope, it was a fairly hefty chicken. During the day, the farm area lets the chickens go free-range. (They're put in their coop at night - no reason to provide hot snacks for the local coyote population.) It obviously agrees with them because they're of good size & have a rather carefree attitude. It was fun to see them doing their thing.

Papillon

Hitting the Bottom Line

2010-06-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

I have yet to figure out why people crank up the bass to its maximum when playing their music. A couple of days ago I was driving around town & a man drove by. The bass was cranked up so loudly that it sounded like his speakers were going to explode. I made sure to give him plenty of room just in case they did.

A similar incident happened several years ago. I was stopped at a red light. All of a sudden my vehicle started to vibrate. I was worried that I was looking at some pretty pricey repairs until I realized it was a car behind me with the bass cranked up. I wouldn't be surprised if local seismographs were registering that car.

What brings all this to mind? I live several blocks from a local city-run swimming pool. (I moved into the house before the city put in the pool.) Occasionally during the summer they will host evening pool parties. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with (sometimes) is their music. When tonight's party started they had the music & the bass line cranked up so high that it felt like my heart was beating in time with the music. You could feel the windows vibrating in sympathy.

Someone (not me!) must have complained because for a while there was silence. When the music started back up, it was at a much quieter level. I can still hear it, but now it's in the background (for me) instead of feeling like they're situated smack dab in the middle of my living room.

Party on!
Papillon

Bunnies & War

2010-06-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Gee, ain't I a stinker! - Bugs Bunny

Of course you realize this means war! - Bugs Bunny
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There's a fair amount of wildlife in my neighborhood. Coyotes, quail, squirrels, and, of course, rabbits.
Up until now, I've had a pretty good relationship with all of them. I don't bother them & normally they don't bother me.

Recently I bought some bedding plants. So far the rabbits have ignored the sage & rosemary. But they zeroed right in on the peppermint. I noticed the plant was looking a bit nibbled on. However, I draw the line at them stripping it right down to the stems. If those wascally wabbits are too proud to eat the weeds growing in my yard, then I'm not going to enable them by provide them peppermint to cleanse their little palates.

Fortunately, I caught it in time so there's still some greenery left & the plant looks perky enough. What's left of it.

Thinking of Bugs Bunny, I once used one of his quotes while at work. I think I'd gotten to the office & was commenting on someone's driving during the morning commute. I concluded by saying "what a maroon!" A coworker then corrected me saying, "It's pronounced moron." All I could do was stare at her & then turn & walk away. I've never been quite sure if she'd been so culturally deprived as to never have seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon or if she was, in fact, a maroon herself.

Off to water the plants,
Papillon

Summertime

2010-06-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

-- Henry James

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Days like today always remind me of my favorite summertime sound - the quiet 'chink' of ice against the side of a glass full of lemonade. Note: it's gotta be a glass glass, not a plastic glass.

We actually got a bit of rain today. A teeny tiny bit of rain. After supper, I went out to water some plants & there was a very fine spray of rain. It has since passed on.

I think my brain is feeling the summertime heat effect - as in it's too hot to think.
Either that or my blood donation from earlier today is resulting in not enough blood to carry oxygen to my brain. (Just kidding, all you phlebotomists!)

People always tell me they can't understand how I can be a regular blood donor. They HATE needles. Well, duh! So do I! But it's only one needle during a time period that's a minimum of 8 weeks. I'm especially amused when people who have tattoos make this statement. Unless that's a temporary tattoo, you've had WAY more needle pricks than I've ever had.

Plus, it's the ultimately lazy way to help the community where you live. You do it once every 8 weeks, you do it lying down, you're giving a resource that's regenerated in a very short period of time, and when you're done they give you juice & cookies.

Today, they were earmarking some donations (including mine) for babies (& probably other folks with immune system problems). It got me to wondering - does blood donation affect the recipient the way organ donation sometimes does? I've read where people who have received donated organs have later exhibited some characteristics of the donor. Liking spicy food when the donor didn't like it before. Craving candy when the donor didn't crave it before.

I'm hoping my blood's recipients turn into voracious readers. Reading anything & everything. Broadening their minds & horizons. Delving into the past. Speculating about the future.

Read on!
Papillon

Cat Weirdness

2010-06-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." - Unknown
--------------------------------
Dogs are essentially omnivores. With certain exceptions like onions & grapes, they can eat most anything.

Cats need lots more protein. I once saw a documentary where a British expert said that the perfect meal for a cat is a mouse.

That being the case, why do cats like to eat the strangest things?
Examples:
- A friend used to have a cat who liked broccoli with cheese.
- My family used to own a Siamese who LOVED graham crackers. And champagne.

The champagne leads to a funny story. The cat didn't originally love champagne. But one New Year's Eve I put a drop of champagne on my finger & offered it to him. He acted like I'd just offered him a drop of liquid arsenic. I dab the drop on his nose. He licked it off. You could see him thinking about it - 'hmm, not bad. Better than I thought.' So I offered him another drop. He licked that up. Next thing you know, he's trying to drink out of my glass.

My current cat is carrying on the family tradition.
He likes:
- croissants
- wine (but not hard liquor)
- butterscotch pudding
- Wheat Thins
- and the list goes on.

Interestingly, he's not overly fond of Thanksgiving turkey.

Papillon

Eating an Elephant

2010-06-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

There's an old, old joke - how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

The latest book I've read is One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer, PhD. It's an interesting book based on the premise of Kaizen.

Kaizen is the Japanese term for 'eating an elephant one bite at a time'. The premise is - no problem is so very big that it can't be solved one very small step at a time.

Overweight & don't have time to exercise? Start by marching in front of your TV for one minute per day. Just one minute. Per day.

Doesn't sound like much & it's not. But if you get used to doing one minute per day for a week, then you get your brain used to exercising for one minute. So the alarm bells & red flags & other warnings don't go off in your brain that you're exercising for crying out loud.

Then you can bump things up to marching in place for a whole commercial break. Then for a whole show. And the next thing you know, you're exercising & you haven't freaked out once.

So this is my homage to solving BIG problems one very small step at a time.

Try it, you just might like it.

Papillon

Gullibility

2010-06-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

I always love to see ads for stupid products knowing that there is going to be someone out there who is gullible enough to buy said product.

Product #1 - a dispenser of liquid hand soap that you don't actually have to touch. You put your hand underneath & the dispenser senses your hand & drops a dollop of soap in your hand.

The theory behind this soap dispenser is that people have dirty hands when they press the pump on your average low-tech liquid soap dispenser bottle. Over time, these dirty hands leave lots & lots of germs on the pump. If you buy the high priced, high-tech soap dispenser your hands don't leave their germs & don't pick up somebody else's.

My thought on this product? Ummm - why don't you just wash the low-tech soap dispenser's pump once in a while? You don't even have to use antibacterial soap. Just regular soap will kill most/all of the germs. Much cheaper & at least as efficient.

Product #2 - a new towel dispenser by Kleenex.

The theory is - people have fabric hand towels in their bathrooms. Family members & guests use the hand towel & it gets dirty. Therefore you should use the new Kleenex individual towel dispenser & you're not having to use the same fabric towel as everyone else.

My thought on this product? Aren't these just a different take on the same paper towels you use in the kitchen? If you don't want to use the same fabric hand towel as everyone else, why not just put a paper towel dispenser & a roll of said paper towels in your bathroom? Cheaper, easier. Or just put a clean hand towel in the bathroom every day. They're not that big & so shouldn't add a huge amount to your weekly laundry efforts.

My, my, my. I don't know how we've survive all these centuries without these products to make our lives 'better' and 'easier'.

Cleanly yours,
Papillon

Book Junkie

2010-06-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

"People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." Logan Pearsall Smith

"No furniture so charming as books." Sydney Smith

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all." Oscar Wilde
--------------------------------

Hello, my name is Papillon & I'm addicted to books.

There's no getting around it. I am. And I enjoy it to the hilt. The name of my latest fix is The Devil's Boarding House by M. William Phelps.

Interestingly enough, it's about America's deadliest female serial killer. Someone I had never heard of before - a woman named Amy Archer-Gilligan. (It's rather ironic that her first name is based upon 'ami', the French word for friend.) She & her first husband (the Mr. Archer portion of her last name) started a small nursing home in the early 1900's, at a time when those sorts of facilities were not entirely common. (The author says they may not have been the first to open a nursing home as a privately run business, but they were certainly early innovators in the field.) The problem was, they eventually needed a fairly consistent number of incoming patients. And the only way to ensure that & to have the space available was to regularly get rid of the old patients. Attrition due to normal old age wasn't fast enough. Mrs. Archer-Gilligan decided that the easiest & fastest way to do this was to feed arsenic to the patients she wanted to get rid of. She also decided this was the best route to inheriting from her husbands (yes, both of them) as well.

It was an interesting read. Also, given the subject material, kinda creepy & a bit morbid.

In a rather ironic twist, several decades after all this took place, the storyline was used as the general basis for first the Broadway play Arsenic & Old Lace, and later the movie starring Cary Grant. In the play & movie, the method used to poison the victims was elderberry wine. Mrs. Archer-Gilligan preferred plain old-fashioned lemonade - with a real kick to it.

One interesting side note - at about the same time as people started to get suspicious concerning the deadly Mrs. Archer-Gilligan, the east coast was going through one of the worst heat waves ever (to that date anyway). People were actually going mad from the heat. (Mrs. Archer-Gilligan could not claim that as an excuse for her actions. She just wanted the money.)

Papillon

Random Thoughts

2010-06-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

There's no specific theme today...just some random thoughts.

First off, the 2nd family of finches has flown the coop. I wrote about them earlier, the ones who've been nesting in the tummy area of my cat-shaped wind chime.

It always seems to work that way. I see them day after day - the babies getting bigger & bigger & then one day I go out & they're all gone. I suppose there's a metaphor in there somewhere. It's interesting that I never see them practicing flying. One day there are three babies in the nest & the next day - none.
-----------------------------

I see on the calendar that Friday, June 25th is Take Your Dog to Work Day. Trust me, do this only if the dog is well & truly housebroken. There are some 'presents' that are never meant to be shared. Dog poop & piss rank right near the top of that category. Your coworkers will be truly appreciative.
-----------------------------

I love buying books. It's even better if they're on sale. And I don't just mean at the chain bookstores. Some of my best 'scores' have been at secondhand bookstores. Example: I've found some autographed copies. Books signed by Hedda Hopper (oh, go look her up), the Horse Whisperer (whose name has just flown out of my head), and several others.

Equally fun are autobiographies by people I've never heard of but who turn out to be delightful to read about. Example: Anna Russell - she was originally training to be a classical musician. However that didn't work out & she became very popular in the 1950's & 60's as 'the queen of musical parody'. She spoofed classical music - sort of doing what Weird Al did with pop & rock music. It's a very funny read. She did a summary of Wagner's 'The Ring Cycle' - taking several days worth of opera & condensing it down to 20 minutes. It was totally accurate & showed how absurd the plot of 'The Ring Cycle' is. Opera lovers adored it.

I'm currently reading an autobiography by Catherine Drinker Bowen - Adventures of a Biographer. It's a series of essays on what she loved about being a biographer of such people as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr & Tchaikowsky, among others. A couple of things make this book fun -- it's a first edition. It also looks like it was a reviewers copy because there's a card inside that says not to release any reviews prior to the book's release date.'

For me, looking through secondhand book sales is rather like searching for treasure. Sometimes I find treasure & sometimes I find nothing much. It's fun & ultimately serves to help stretch my mind. Keep the little grey cells active & well fed.

Oh, and let's not forget the large softback copy of the entire Chronicles of Narnia that I snagged for just $1.00! Woohoo!

Papillon

The State of the World

2010-06-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.
- Mark Twain
-------------------------------
I've been trying to come up with a post on the state of the world. Something pithy & humorous & totally on point.

Essentially I came up with nada. However, the above quote from Mark Twain pretty much sums up how I feel about the state of things past & present.

It seems I'm in the mood for quotes today. Another interesting one is:

"There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life."

- Frank Zappa

I never thought I'd be quoting Frank Zappa, but here he is. His quote reminds me of the one by Albert Einstein (and I'm paraprasing) where he says there are only 2 infinite things - the universe & stupidity & he wasn't sure about the former.

It looks like I'm in 'cynical mode' today. I'm not sure why. All in all it was a fairly good day. Weatherwise, sunny & not too hot - which pretty much sums up how the day went.

Oh, well. Some days are like that, I suppose.

Papillon

Knit Wit

2010-06-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

"Knitting is a boon for those of us who are easily bored. I take my knitting everywhere to take the edge off of moments that would otherwise drive me stark raving mad." Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, author of Yarn Harlot and At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much.
---------------------------------

I'm just curious, but what is it about knitters & humor? It seems as though you can't throw a rock without having it hit some form of knitting humor. A quick search of the web found the following blogs:
               yarnharlot.ca (run by the lady whose quote is above)
               crazyknittinglady.wordpress.com
               wendyknits.net

Just to name a few. Ms. Pearl-McPhee has also published 3 books of her humorous knitting adventures. In perusing the Arts & Crafts section of a nearby bookstore, I spotted several books of knitting humor by other authors. I don't recall any such books by people who do stained glass or needlepoint or woodworking. All books on those subjects tend to be straightforward how-to books.

The only other hobby category that seems to have people willing to mock their obsessions is quilting. As a part-time quilter myself, while reading Ms. Pearl-McPhee's first book, Yarn Harlot, I noticed there are any number of parallels between her knitting experiences & those of most quilters I know. Her observations about her knitting stash almost exactly matched those I've had about my fabric stash. Example: buying yarn or fabric simply because it was on sale & later realizing it was on sale because it was absolutely too hideous to use in any project. Ever.

Which leads me to my next question. What is it with pets & projects? Every quilt project I've ever worked on has instantly magnetized every pet I've ever owned - causing them to become inseparable. Able to defy that rule of physics that says 2 separate objects cannot occupy the same space. It doesn't matter if the pet is a cat or a dog. If the project is on an available horizontal space, your pet will be on top of the project. Said pet will become annoyed with you when you try to separate the two. My cats have been known to sulk, loudly, when shooed away from sitting in the exact middle of a quilt.

Just wondering.
Papillon