Tag Archives: Featured

100 Words, Art, books, home, Stories, Uncategorized

The Order of Things

19 Comments

Last week when I was in Madison, my friend and I spent a couple of hours yakking in her bedroom. At one point she had to take a phone call so I was left to let my mind wander.  That was when I noticed that all her books are sorted first by fiction/non-fiction and then alphabetically by author and THEN alphabetically by title.

Except for putting titles by the same author together (mostly), my books are not categorized at all. My fiction and non-fiction are wantonly cavorting together and nothing is alphabetized at all.  I feel so inadequate.

Do you have your books organized? Tell me how?

Art, Business, Fantasy, Media, Uncategorized

Saving Me From Myself

22 Comments

I have always had a penchant for t-shirts with slogans. When I was 13, I discovered a Northern Sun Alliance catalog while babysitting and was smitten by the huge number of t-shirts with not just slogans, but left-wing, liberal slogans.  (Imagine my excitement when after five years of living in Minneapolis, I discovered that Northern Sun Alliance is actually located here!)  I saved up my money, filled out the order form (yep, a paper order form) and sent off for my very first slogan t-shirt.

(FYI, Northern Sun doesn’t sell this t-shirt any longer but you can still get this slogan on a poster or bumper sticker!)

I have a hard time staying away from t-shirts with sayings that I think are relevant or funny or geeky or all of the above. I also have trouble staying away from State t-shirts and those cheap t-shirts that the DNR sells.  This means that I occasionally have to go through and purge my t-shirt drawer as I have WAY TOO MANY.  Right now I have t-shirts w/ dragons and reindeer, Pluto, Mongols, Gravity: It’s the Law, Pizza John, cats with books, more dragons, State Fair themes (at least 5), Stihl lumberjacks and Rocket Sheep.So you wouldn’t think I’d be in the market for any more…. well, you’d be wrong. Now I’m trying to figure out how to keep myself from getting a t-shirt that says “If the earth were really flat, cats would have knocked everything off the edge by now.”

How do you justify getting something you want when you really don’t need it?

100 Words, Gatherings, Kids, Media, The Future, Travel, Uncategorized

Branded For Life

26 Comments

I read with a great deal of amusement about the redheaded two year old who drove his electric John Deere tractor to the Chisago County Fair.  He made the national news and it was a relief to see something fun in the media for a change.

He is certainly an enterprising youngster, and I am glad his adventure was a safe one. I only hope this isn’t something that people bring up  for the rest of his life.

I hope there are other, more edifying things that will define him.  It would be terrible to be branded as a wild man at age two.

Tell about your experiences at the fair.

Automotive, Fantasy, Media, Movies, Nature, TV, Uncategorized

Real Life

37 Comments

In a TV murder mystery I watched over the weekend, the heroine is trailing some bad guy at a hotel. He leaves the hotel and gets into his car right outside.   She comes out and gets into her car which is parked right behind his.  That’s when I realized that Aristotle was wrong about art imitating life.  When, in any movie or TV show does the hero or heroine have to circle the block to find a parking spot?  Or park 3 blocks away and hoof it to where they are going?  Or stop to pay a parking meter?  Never.

It made me think about other things that never happen on screen. Nobody ever scoops poop when walking their dogs, nobody ever seems to put groceries away (although every now and then there is actually time spent in a grocery store) and nobody EVER stops to worry about birth control.

I think it would be nice to have a world in which I could always find a convenient parking spot and have my groceries put away magically.

What daily task would you love to have disappear from your life?

100 Words, gardening, home, Nature, pets, The Future, Uncategorized, Weather

Strange Portents

19 Comments

The cats and I noticed something alarming in the garden this morning-a large flock of Chipping Sparrows fluttering around the pea fences.  (Well, I was alarmed. The cats were merely curious.)

I usually see birds flocking around the time school starts in mid to late August. It is only mid to late July, and I certainly hope that this isn’t a portent for an early winter. Our garden is a couple of weeks behind as it is, and we will need as many frost-free days as we can get for a good harvest.

How good are you at predicting things?

Business, holidays, home, Movies, Nature, Seasons, TV, Uncategorized, Weather

Too Hot to Shop?

44 Comments

Wowser! Over lunch I decided to run a couple of errands so I wouldn’t have to do them after work.  (I hate doing errands on a Friday after work – I just want to get home!)  And, of course, the heat and humidity is in the “you’ve got to be kidding me” range.   As I walked through the doors at Joann’s, the first big display is all about fall.  Pumpkins, dried vine wreaths, autumn wall hangings, the works.  Nothing specific to Halloween that I saw, but I was making a beeline to the fabric section.  I’m guessing that if I’d wandered past the initial display I would have seen stuff for little ghosts and ghouls.  It was so incongruous to me that they are selling items for the fall when it’s mid-July and 94° outside.  If I weren’t already overheated from Mother Nature, it would make my temperature go up!

I’m not sure why this drives me so crazy, but when retail jumps the gun on holidays and seasons, I just dig in a little more. I just want to celebrate the season I’m in, thank you very much- no need to start stocking up on pumpkin-themed items just yet.  And of course I’ve ranted here before about the Hallmark Channel running Christmas movies for weeks at a time during the summer months.  I adore holiday movies (well maybe not all the Hallmark ones) but they definitely have their place in my world.  And that place begins the day after Thanksgiving and not before.

So I guess I’ll just have to stubbornly keep ignoring the fall displays and the holiday movies until I’m ready. Sorry retail America.

What gets your temperature heated up?  What do you do to cool off?

100 Words, books, Family, Kids, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

There Must Be a Rainbow

77 Comments

On Tuesday afternoon I stopped at the library and it started to rain a bit right then. As I was leaving, I was behind a young mom and her daughter, who was maybe 7 or 8.  As they reached the end of the covered portico, the mom said “It’s sprinkling a little.  There must be a rainbow somewhere.”

Most people would say “run quick to the car” or “let’s get home before it really starts”, perfectly acceptable. But I was struck by this mother’s wonderful way of looking at life.  It there is rain, there must be a rainbow.

What adage would you like to live by?

Family, Fantasy, holidays, Media, Music, Travel, Uncategorized

Strange Performance Opportunities

44 Comments

In November, Husband and I and four other members of our handbell choir are going to New York City to play in a massed handbell choir of 300 ringers at Carnegie Hall.  We have been invited to play a separate concert in Central Park, and last week, the silliest ringing opportunity thus far came from the Carnegie staff, who have arranged for us to play at Radio City Music Hall with the Rockettes.  We can sign up to perform in  one of three shows on November 29 and 30.

I just don’t know if I am up for the Rockettes. We don’t have to dress like the Rockettes, which is a blessing.  Husband  would look pretty silly in tights and high heels!  This trip is getting stranger and stranger!

If you could perform anywhere doing anything, where would it be and with whom?  

Business, Media, News, Travel, Uncategorized

World Record

63 Comments

In the weird world that is Guinness, the news this week is what was the steepest street on the planet has been overtaken. For many years, the official steepest street has been (no, nothing in San Francisco) Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, coming at a gradient of 34.97 percent.

The upstart steepest street is Ffordd Pen Llech (say that three times quickly!) in the seafront town of Harlech in North Wales, which is about 240 miles northwest of London.  Ffordd Pen Llech has a gradient of 37.45.  Apparently there was a concerted effort by the town of Harlech to win the coveted “steepest” title; tourism is expected to rise with the influx of folks wanting to see it and have their picture taken on the street.

Dunedin City Council has already met to discuss their loss and have decided they will market themselves as having the steepest street in the southern hemisphere!

Who’s the tallest in your family?

Business, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Heat!

19 Comments

It’s nice and cool this morning. Last night’s storm pushed the hot air away temporarily, plus I have two fans going in my room!  I have yet to drag my little window air conditioner out of the attic to install it.

Growing up in St. Louis, air conditioning was everywhere. You’d leave your arctic house and get hot and sweaty.  Then you’d crank up the ac in your car to cool down.  Then you’d get out of your car and get hot and sweaty.  Then you’d go into the grocery store where the ac was set to a temperature that would make penguins happy.  I swear, I used to think that I would get internal temperature schizophrenia from the constant hot/cold/hot/cold.

This means that as an adult, I have an aversion to putting in my window unit. I can get through a couple of 90+ degree days but after 2 days, the house has heated up pretty thoroughly and my bedroom can’t cool down enough at night for comfort. But if it’s only a couple of days and then the heat subsides, then I can continue on my merry way, air-condition free.  Two summers ago I made it through the whole summer.  Last summer, no so luck.

It’s mid-July, so I think if I can get through the next couples of weeks, I might make it. Fingers crossed.

What are you are irrationally averse to?