The Trees

So I know I mentioned that I'd write more about the trees.

Hey, Mom, I'm hoping you are getting all this for the scrap book, right?  :)

We had put our deposit down, and went to look at the house, and this HUGE tree had fallen in the yard. In this photo, Husband was saying, "What if it had hit the house?  What would we have done then?"

But it didn't hit the house.  It DID make us realize, though, that some of these trees are less than stable.  And one tree, the one in the deck, really needed to go.

Really close call!

By the time we'd closed on the house, the neighbors had kindly cleaned up all of the debris from this fallen tree.  (They need the firewood, anyway, because they use firewood for heat, every day.  I don't begrudge them the tree.  They've also been watching over the house for a while, so I guess it's payment.)

This tree, the one in the deck, was tricky to take out.  For one thing, it is surrounded by deck.  For another thing, it hovers over the closest neighbor's electric wires.  (They lose electric all the time, apparently, from branches down on wires.)  It was too big of a job for us to take on, so we paid to have it dropped.

And I do mean DROPPED.  I told the guys to feel free to take out that side of the deck.  It's rotted out anyway, and I didn't really like that side of the deck much.  The whole deck/porch thing has to be reconfigured.

You can see in this photo how close our one neighbor is.  I wasn't sure I'd like that, but they are a very nice family, and I actually feel a lot more secure knowing SOMEONE is around, especially when I'm up there by myself.  And he's been great, taking care of mowing our lawn until we get our tractor running.  Even so, that isn't really the side of the house I prefer to have the deck on.  I'll feel like I'm sitting outside staring at their house!

And today, Husband and Nick are up there chopping wood.  I'm jealous.  I won't get there until tomorrow.

And we don't have a wood stove yet.  Soon, though.  It's starting to get cool in the evenings.

What we DID get this weekend is a new sliding glass door in the kitchen.  Considering that the old one was boarded up, I figured it was a priority.  Now I have to replace one more window before winter.

And get a woodstove, and electric would be nice.  I think I'm prepared to give in on the water.  We don't really NEED water, and the pipes would just freeze again anyway.  Maybe in the spring we can get our plumbing fixed.

So I know probably no one is reading this and really interested in any of it, except me.  Well, Stevie, my nephew in the Marines, may like reading this one day - he is as excited as I am about the whole camp.  He had a chance to visit it just once before he went off to training at Parris Island.   And I think my family is very happy - right, Mom? - that we picked something generally near them.  I'm hoping that they come visit me.  The fact that it's an extremely rough dirt road to get in doesn't seem to bode well for visitors.  I hope I get some visitors, though!  We'll see.

Yeah, I know no one is really interested besides me.  But I am SOOOO happy, you have no idea.  This is my home now.  It really feels that way.

Of course, it's only been about a month :)  so we'll see what I say when the honeymoon is over!

I'll write more soon, after my visit there tomorrow!

My new life, continued and continuing.

So, where was I? I have quite a bit to write about.

So, the way the story goes is this: we have wanted to buy property for ever, and we've been thinking about it for a long time. And we looked at property several times, but there was always something not quite right about it, and that made us help figure out what it was that we really want.

And recently, THIS property came up on a real estate listing. And I was about to go look at it, but I got cold feet. "What could I be thinking of! I lost my job just a little while ago, it could happen again! Or, Husband could lose HIS job, and then what? We'd lose everthing!" So, I cancelled the appointment and let it go.

 At the time I cancelled the appointment, I thought to myself - and said to my husband - "If it's meant to be, it will be." And the property sold really quickly, and it was off the listings.

 I was a little sad, but not too sad, because I was nervous anyway.

 But then, about a month later, the property came BACK on the market. The people who had put an offer on it had let the deal fall through. And who knows for sure why? because they may have seen something very bad that we didn't see, or something.

But anyway, it was even cheaper than I remembered. So we went to look at it, and we really liked it. Even though the description says it's just a shell, and that the land is the real value, the fact is that it's a really great house. It just needs a lot of work.

 So we put an offer on it - and a deposit - and we went back to look at it again, and a HUGE tree had fallen in the yard, just missing the house. It was close for comfort, but it didn't actually hit the house, so we're good! And now, we've closed, and we have started working on it. But we are working
V E R Y   S L O W L Y...
because we really don't have any more money to spare, anyway!

I'll write more tomorrow. Right now, I've gotta go pay the bills :p

This is the back of the house.  And this is NOT the tree that fell... actually, we knocked this one over.  More about that soon.

My new life :)

Hi all!!!  I've missed writing on here... and it was so nice to have people comment my last post, as brief (and cranky) as I was.

This is what has been going on with me:

I lost my job.

I started a new blog - about our town; kinda like a news blog.  I was trying to maybe write as a career, maybe make money with my blog.  Plus, I love my home town, and a lot of people talk bad about it, so I wanted to give it some good PR.  But after a few years of doing that, it's really boring me.  Plus, I'm not making any money anyway.

I got another job - I like it.  It's similar to the one I used to have.

My kids grew up.  They haven't completely left, but pretty close to it.  Sometimes I have a hard time adjusting to that.  Sometimes I have an even HARDER time adjusting to it.  I always defined myself as a mother first and foremost, and now I can't define myself that way.  I need to find a new definition.

And, most importantly of all - I bought a new home!!!  And I'm SOOO excited about it!!!  This is it.  It's 26.75 acres out in the country - and I LOVE being there.  It was a foreclosure, sold as-is, with lots of things wrong with it - but lots of things right with it as well.  My husband and I are in the process of re-building, updating, fixing, etc etc etc... and I'm totally in love with it.

We've been looking at property for a lot of years, and thinking about what we want. We came to the conclusion that we wanted at least 5 acres, but preferably more, and we wanted a bit of a mountain, near the Appalachian Trail, and we wanted a bit of some kind of water - pond, stream, lake or something; and we didn't really care if we had a house or not, because we planned on camping there anyway. And we found every single thing that we wanted, plus more.  It is honestly a dream come true.

I've hesitated saying too much about it to too many people.  I haven't really put it out on Facebook.  I don't know how many people will be happy for us, and how many people will be jealous.  But, I am so excited, and I have so many things I want to share - so I'm going to blog it here.  I hope you find it as interesting as I do.  If you don't, well, I haven't been blogging much before this anyway, so you won't have to read it if you don't want to.  If you are interested, I hope you will comment.  I'd really like to know who is reading, and what you have to say. 

I'm looking forward to getting back to writing here again, especially now.  I am looking forward to spending hours in the woods, to taking some amazing photos (I hope!) and to really having space to think.  I'm ready for my new life, and I'm really happy.

Hi peeps!

I was brought back to this blog today by a comment on the Woodpecker poem I'd posted ages ago.  Made me miss the old blog. 

The good thing about this blog was always that I could really express myself.  The bad thing was that I couldn't come out and really say EVERYTHING I wanted to, because it isn't really anonymous.  Family and friends used to read it.  I wonder if they read it now?   Because I'm in a really cranky mood, and I'd love to vent!!!

But I won't.  Wouldn't be ... prudent.

Anyway, maybe I'll find my way back here tonight, when I have more time to post.  But for now, it's time to make dinner for me and my husband and my empty nest.  :(

The woodpeckers have flown from the telephone pole. 

Working on another new blog!

I love to blog and help other people blog too....

Iselin Times: Eric LeGrand signed by Tampa Bay

Iselin Times: Eric LeGrand signed by Tampa Bay: From Jaffe Communications, which you can find HERE : TAMPA BAY - In a symbolic gesture, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced the signing ...

Lunch Time

I'm at work, on lunch.  So I have a minute to post again.

I think the last I told y'all, I'd lost my job, right?  Well, lucky for me, I got called back to the School System again... so once again, I'm gainfully employed full time.  Makes me happy.  It's not the same school, but it's an even better job in some respects, because it is one of the few secretarial jobs with a teacher's schedule.  So what that means, is I have off this summer!  How exciting!  Of course, I'm paid less.  But I can live with that, because at least I'm getting paid again.  Less is better than nothing!

So this summer I have the benefit of a summer off without worrying about having a job.  An unusual and exciting situation.

Where previously, I made the (unemployed) summers all about art, I'm looking forward to making this summer all about words. 

I mentioned that I have two books in mind, right?  I want to write.  I've dabbled with writing before, with stories for Nanowrimo.  But November really isn't a good time to Nanowrimo.  On the other hand, the summer should be great! 

(And I'll probably mix some art in as well...)

Story one - my family history story.  I've done research on my family tree for years.  I have a lot of anecdotes collected.  And I have a pretty good imagination for filling in the details.  So I'm thinking of a semi-fictional family biography.  How 'bout that idea?  And... I'm actually probably going to include recipes in it as well.

This story is really for ME, more than for anyone else.  I know what I want to record, and how I want to record it.  I hope it's interesting enough for anyone to want to read - but I'm not sure that it will be, and I really don't care.

Story two - a fictional story.  I want to take a stab at writing an e-book, purely fictional entertainment, purely to see if I can write a book purely to entertain other people (and maybe to make a profit at the same time?  One can only hope!)  After all, Rowling was not an author when she started Harry Potter - and I'm pretty sure neither was the chick who wrote about Bella and Edward and Jacob, that vampire book - what was that called again?  I forget.

I've always wanted to paint.  I've painted - and I find that as much as I enjoy it, I'm really not that good at it yet. 

I also always thought that I could write a book.  But I also felt (as a child and as a young adult) that I would need to be old in order to have the perspective and experiences to make it interesting.  So I feel like I've hit a good age; I'm old enough, I think.  I might not get any more interesting than I am at this exact moment. 

So it's time to try. 

And, now, lunch is over.  So, it's back to work...

Hi!

Hey there... it's another day... another dollar...

Remember me?

Ummm... Hi! Long time, no see, right?

 Especially for a blog named Keep in Touch, I haven't been. I just looked at this blog for the first time in MONTHS yesterday. I kinda miss it.

 I've been pretty busy over at my other blog, the Iselin Times. Sometimes it's all I can do to make sure I get new stuff put up over there. I'm trying to make that one pay -- well, it's starting to generate a little bit of money, but not much of course. But I keep trying :) Plus, the purpose of the Iselin Times, which is to show the good side of Iselin - well, that's working to a degree.

But that's not why I'm blogging here right now. I was looking at old posts, and I do really miss it. I'm thinking about coming back and blogging here again. I hope I do. I am not making any promises, though.

Having two blogs is difficult, especially considering everything else going on. Like Facebook and Twitter and now Pinterest too. And a few TV shows I like.... and several projects I'm really into right now. Projects? Well, I'm still painting. Plus the garden is getting ready for the season. And I'm trying to make a quilt. And I'm working on some things for my parents and my in-laws for their anniversary. Plus, I really want to try to write a book - I have another germ of an idea, so that's actually TWO books. Not to mention - I am working again! Yay! and the usual cooking and cleaning. WEll, I hope to be back. We'll see.

What's new with you? Feel free to comment. I see the comments in my email, so I will definitely know when you write, and I'll try to write back and keep in touch.

I am testing my mobile communication system

In a Financial Fog

I'm having trouble really understanding finance and politics, and I'm tired of not being able to argue my point of view very well.  One thought I had is that I should study the whole topic, economics and politics and tax and finance, so that I can understand it better.  I've been avoiding studying it for a few reasons.  One reason, because every time I start reading more about it, I get depressed or aggravated.  Another reason - because it's such a huge topic, and I always assume that there are more than two sides to any given story, and nothing is black and white, but everything is a hazy shade of gray.  And finally - because I'm afraid that I'm not really smart enough to understand what is going on with the whole economy, because if all of these smart people out there have so many different opinions, how can I possibly understand?

But I've decided to start trying to keep track of things I read, in order to be able to go back to them and make sense out of them.  So, in that vein, here are a few interesting thoughts/quotes/articles/points/ whatever ya wanna call them.

Warren Buffett wrote an editorial on why we should stop coddling the super rich: HERE

"...from 1980 to 2005, more than 80 percent of total increase in Americans’ income went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers...." Jill Schlesinger, from MoneyWatch.com (CBS)  read more HERE

Read more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/blog/financial-decoder/buffett-on-taxes-rich-should-pay-more/4830/#ixzz1V7jW5Sqk

The Pay at the Top:  from the New York Times... you can read it HERE...
The compensation research firm Equilar compiled data reflecting pay for 200 chief executives at 199 public companies that filed their annual proxies by April 1 and had revenue of at least $7 billion.
The number one guy - 

Viacom Philippe P. Dauman - 

well, he didn't get a raise in 2009, because his company had laid off about 850 people.  I'm pretty sure they weren't hired back.  So obviously, he deserved to make about 149% more in compensation from 2009 to 2010, because after all he'd missed a year, and they probably showed a pretty good bottom line that year.  So he went from $34 Million to $89.5 Million.

My goal in this exercise is NOT to only be one sided, although so far my links are one sided.  My goal is to really learn the truth.  The hard part about that is that I already have an opinion, and my opinion is so far left I'm practically a socialist or communist or something.  BUT... please... I am a VERY PATRIOTIC AMERICAN, before you get any ideas!  So, I'm planning on doing more research, including on tea party ideals and tenets.  I want to have the whole story, or as close as I can get to it.

And then, I guess, my goal is to fix it.

The Story of Then and Now, Chapter 1.

Once upon a time, (because that is how all good fairy tales start,)
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was an old woman.

She wasn’t a particularly striking old woman. She was small, and a bit stout. She had thick white hair that curled up from her forehead in waves. She had cool, white, powdery skin. Her warm hazel eyes sparkled from behind silver framed bifocals.

The old woman was my Gram.

Gram wasn’t particularly noticeable to most people, I don’t suppose. I’ve been noticing myself how easily ignored you are when you get to be a woman of a certain age, and I suppose that she had found the same thing to be true. And while Gram never wanted to be the center of attention in a crowd, I know that she DID like it when people paid attention to her.

She was a little bright bird sitting in the trees in a deep shady forest. You might not notice her, at first, but when you learned to sit quietly and pay attention, she would peek out of the brush and chirp a bit, and make you feel glad deep in your heart.

I learned a lot of things from my Gram, and she helped form the person in my mind that I aspire to become. Well… it wasn’t ONLY Gram that helped form that person… it was also other people in the recipe for the “super me” I wish I was. But I guess I’ll get to that later. Right now, I’m talking about Gram.

Gram told the BEST stories. She started off with the babies, right off the bat, cooing at them and talking to them and reciting nursery rhymes. There is a nursery rhyme for every occasion; I bet you didn’t know that, did you?

When the babies got a little older – but before they could talk – she would take out her teeth at them.

Yup, that’s what I said. Gram had a lovely smile, but it was fake. She had gotten dentures at a very young age, and she was embarrassed about them. She slept with them in, and never took them out; no one EVER saw her without her teeth and told the tale… but babies, now that was different. They couldn’t tell. They would laugh, and coo, and reach for her face – but they didn’t have the words to tell anyone what they saw. Only once in a while did I catch her, when she didn’t see me looking, in the middle of her funny face no teeth act for a baby. She would have been embarrassed if she knew I’d seen her.

After a while, as a child got older, Gram told stories that were longer and more complicated. She told fairy tales with a relish, changing her voice for each of the parts. She could recite long poems from memory, thanks to her education in a one room school house in the hills. And, at times… especially times when family gathered around the kitchen table for tea and coffee after dinner… she told family stories.

The family stories were the best. They were funny and tender and slightly mature, which really kept a young child – me – enthralled. After an amazing meal – maybe a pot roast, with a thick rich brown gravy, sweet carrots and onions and potatoes sprinkled with black pepper, bread and butter, and apple sauce, and always – always – a green vegetable too! – everyone sat back and talked. It was the era right after smoking became unpopular, but it wasn’t yet looked down on like it is now. So a cigarette was lit, and coffee and tea was made for those who wanted it. My uncle Pete asked me if I wanted some ice cream to go with the gravy left over from dinner. It was dark and glossy brown and maybe could have been chocolate sauce, if it wasn’t actually beef gravy. Besides, who could eat another bite? And the conversation flowed around the table. “Remember when Momma run off the peddler with a shot gun? Hey, how ‘bout that time that Lewis came home with that poor boy from the railroad?”

And so, that is how it all started. It started with a story. Once upon a time.

But, of course, there was a before that time, and there is also an after that time. And that is the story I would like to try to tell.

I wanna find this again later

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2tUPzw/manvsdebt.com/24-quick-action-you-can-do-today

Stumble upon - my newest time wasting web site to visit - had this article that I want to go back to, so I'm putting it here so I can find it again :)

www.stanprokopenko.com/blog/2009/07/draw-lips/
This one too - how to draw lips!

Good morning!

I just had the urge to check in and write on here this morning, and I have no idea why. If you had the sudden urge to look at this blog, maybe you are the person I'm supposed to be talking to... Maybe? Like, a fate kind of thing? ...Or, maybe not. Anyway, I haven't been here in a while. You may have noticed. You may not have noticed. And maybe I'm just writing because I need to work out some stuff in my head.

I get really "into" something for a while, but the thing that I'm "into" changes periodically. I love to write on this blog, but other things came up that became MORE of an addiction. Like sometimes, I get really addicted to a game. A few years ago, when the kids were younger, it was the video game Animal Crossing. I loved to play that game. Then, more recently, it was Pop it or Bubble shooter, Farmville, or Bejeweled blitz. I play whatever game it is obsessively for what ever reason until I suddenly get bored with it. Then I won't go back, or if I do it's only occasionally. Sometimes, I get really addicted to a web site. I think the first time I felt that way, it was a message board that I was addicted to. It was about scouting, and I posted frequently and read all the posts that went up, and that was years ago. I felt that way about my email in the beginning, too; I couldn't wait to see if someone emailed me, and when I got an email I was so excited! I felt that way about Myspace. I had a great time designing and redesigning my space, finding graphics, and making comments. I scrolled through pages of music groups. I also really loved looking at all the other people's myspaces, and how they would evolve from day to day. Some would change from minute to minute. I would click through the myspaces of everyone I knew obsessively to see what was going on. And the same thing happened with the beginning of Facebook. (Although, for some reason, I haven't felt that way about Twitter yet. BUT Maybe I'll grow into it.)

The same thing with the blog. I love this blog, just like I loved writing on The Frankie Report before it. Right now, I tend to write on the Iselin Times blog most often. You can read it if you click HERE. The Frankie Report was great because I felt like I had a real story to tell, and I wanted to tell it, and I got some great feedback. I stopped writing it when the main subject - Frankie - stopped wanting me to report on him. This blog has been great too, but in a different way; I was more self-expressive, and more free-flowing. Sometimes this blog feels too self-indulgent, though. And sometimes I just don't have anything to say that I haven't said a million times before. The days change, but the opinions remain the same. For the most part.

The Iselin Times blog has been fun because I've been trying to write for a wider audience, in a more impersonal manner. I've tried to be a bit more of a reporter - although I am the first person to admit that I don't really have reporter tendencies, because I like everything to be happy-happy, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or intrude where I don't feel comfortable. Reporters can't really be like that. But it's been fun to watch the counts rise on the Iselin Times. Currently I have something like 1000 readers a month, and it's been rising steadily every single month. I keep wondering, how long can this last? And what can I write about... people MUST be sick of reading about the weather and seeing a photo from my window. But I guess they aren't, at least not yet. I get SOME feedback, but not a lot. I would like to get more comments, but I've been having trouble doing that. But people are definitely clicking. The most frustrating thing about THAT is that the Adsense people won't reinstate my ads, since I messed up the first time. Hmph.

So recently, one of the web sites that fed traffic to the Iselin Times lost it's editor. I don't know what's going to happen with that. I am a little worried that I'm not going to see my clicks continue to rise. Maybe ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift will become less fun to write. Maybe it will be more of a challenge. Time will tell.

Right now, the main concern I have is that I don't have the time for everything I want to do. I'm trying to do so much, and I have so little time. I want to write, and paint, and hike, and garden, and dance around the living room, and get the laundry done, and cook something marvelous, and have tea with my friend, and go to the city. I have such a marvelous life, to have such an embarrassment of riches of experience.

Well, don't feel bad that I don't get to write on here too often lately. I still like to blog here, when the mood strikes. Check the Iselin Times blog if you want to read my stuff more often. Or the Susyluwho blog - which hasn't hit it's stride yet ... which you can find HERE. That one's sort of a rolling list of what I've created lately. I thought it would be good to have one place with all my projects on it. But I don't update it all that often either. Maybe that will be the one I work on most, after the Iselin Times ceases to excite me. I'll have to see.

Oh yeah, one more thought! Ya know how last summer was my "summer of art and flowers"? Well, for some reason, this is my "Alice in Wonderland" summer. Unfortunately, I'm not Alice, I'm the mad Hatter. I was Alice about 25 years ago.

See ya again soon!

Magnolia

I took this photo this morning, and I haven't used my new tablet on it. Just plain old camera and picasa. The tablet came with Adobe photoshop, in addition to Corel, but I haven't downloaded that program yet. That's next week's project.

I've been looking at a lot of art lately and getting depressed because there are some phenomenally talented people out there, and I'm not in their league. But I do enjoy creating anyway, and taking photos.

Spring is surely here. The allergies have really started. The tree is blooming and leaves are sprouting. The lawn looks like it needs mowing already. I'm going to put out some plants pretty soon. Then, summer will be here and it will be blazing hot, before you know it. Time just keeps cycling around.

My new toy

Wacom bamboo craft

My new toy

This is the first picture I did on my brand new toy!!! I'm so excited!!! It's a tablet thingy you can draw and paint on. LOVELOVE LOVE it!

Silent and gray

It is very quiet here in my house. I hear two clocks ticking, and the hum of the refrigerator and a soft whirring sound from my lap top. I hear the clicking of my keyboard keys as I write this. Sometimes it gets a little spooky to hear so much silence. But I usually leave the music on, day and night, and that drowns it out. I know a lot of people leave the TV on a lot to drown out that silence, but TV drives me crazy. Too much fake laughter and ads.

It's getting warmer but it rains pretty often. On those sunny days, life is beautiful. I have a ton of energy and get lots of things done. But who wants to be inside on a gorgeous day? On a cloudy, rainy day, my mood is duller. I know I've written about this before, but it amazes me how much difference is made by the weather. I think about people who move to Florida - Annie, are you reading this? Are you in a good mood every day? That can't be true, can it? If it is true, then I guess we're all crazy for living anywhere else.

Today? Today is warm but not bright. And I feel comfortable but not energetic. I can look outside and see a bright spot of color in my backyard, a forsythia bush. It's a bright wild tangle of yellow and today it's the only color I can see outside from this seat on the couch. There is a reason I keep that bush, and today is the reason. I keep a wild tangled mess for 365 days so that for one day when it is gray outside and I am glum, I can see some bright color.

From this spot on the couch I can also see some chickadees trying to build a nest in a bird house that has gone beyond seeing better days... it's just plain shot. It's hanging lopsided and cracked, and the roof is practically coming off. I'm sure it's stuffed full of dirty old nesting fluff, and it can't be pleasant. But for some reason they keep coming back to it. I guess in nature, no one would clean out the hollow of the tree they would nest in? So maybe they like it this way. I'm a little worried about them, though, because it doesn't really look safe. And I can't reach it to fix it. I'll have to ask Frank.

I read an article this morning about how the Great Recession has had an effect on how people decorate their houses now. I forget exactly how they worded it, and I forget the catchy phrases that they used. But the gist of it was that people are not as into reading magazines about how they should decorate their house. They are just doing what ever they feel like doing, and there is no right or wrong. That's pretty much what that bird is doing out there. I'm pretty happy about that, because that means I finally have a chance at being in style, lol. (Not that I'm really worried about that. I never decorated my house like this for anyone else but me, and that is very true, as true as can be.)

My house is comfy and reflects my interests and my history and my personality. I don't change things much. For example, the lamps in my living room are the same lamps my mother made in ceramics about 35 years ago. It's not that I love them - although I do like them - but it's something my mother made, and it works, and why should I change it? The same as my kitchen. My mother redid the kitchen in the 70's or 80's, and it still looks great to me. Sure, I get new appliances when I need to, and when we added on our addition, we redid the floor and wall paper. But I see no reason to replace the dark wood cabinets she had put in, because they still work fine. They'll be back in style eventually.

Oh dear, this is turning out to be a very rambling post. Sorry. I don't write for ages, and then in one day I write a book.

Anyway, back to my point. I decorate my house for me, and I only barely care who else likes it. And I guess the same thing applies to cleaning it. If I know I'm going to have company, I try to clean up. Which is a good reason to have company. But if you just drop in, expect to see a mess. And at some point, when I know you pretty well, I won't even really try to clean up much.

So that's getting back to the reason for why I'm rambling on my blog. I have decided that today I'm going to work on the laundry room. That's a spot that NEVER gets clean, because company never goes up and looks in there. (Usually.) That is something I really need to straighten up, because I can't walk into the room without tripping over something. And so, obviously, I'm sitting on my couch, listening to the clocks tick, and rambling on my blog. What else would you expect me to be doing?

Gotta Love a Ukulele

Click here for Rock 101.9 RXP // New on RXP: a new solo Ukulele song by Eddie Vedder! :)

Beware the Ides of March

Today is March 15th, or "the Ides" of March. In Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar (Act 1, scene 2), it is the day that a soothsayer or fortuneteller tells Caesar to beware; turns out to be the day that Caesar is assassinated.

With everything going on in the world today, it feels like a good day to beware. If I was a superstitious sort... which, of course, I am... I would be wondering what to make of all of the tragedy we've been seeing lately. Especially since I stayed up late last night, watching coverage of Japan's triple disaster: earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear threat.

I read on The Huffington Post the other day that a few Christian groups have calculated and come up with the idea that May 21 will be the day the Christ returns... Judgement day. (If you are interested in reading the story for yourself, you can go HERE. (I always thought that the second coming was supposed to be a surprise! I don't suppose He's going to be happy with them if they've ruined it!)

I believe that May 21 will be a Saturday. And I'm pretty sure my whole family will be home. So I've decided that it will be a good day to have a nice family dinner. I'm not sure what I'm going to cook yet; maybe it will be warm enough by then to have a barbecue. And if it isn't raining, I think we'll have a little campfire in the back yard that night.

And I'm pretty sure that on May 22 we'll be having leftovers, and cleaning up, and relaxing. Hope so, anyway. :)