I am a Hippie. LDH is a Hacker. What are you?

Six Deer Day. Yay!

Ack! My blogroll didn't load. I hate when that happens. (I know, I know, there's a lot to be said for hand-coding.) Whew. It just came back.

Before I left work, I turned all my calendar pages (I have three this year, bryn) (one a lovely Montana one, thank you very much Rune!) and changed the timeclock to February. That's right, you have to manually change months with our timeclock. Silly machine. You also have to fix the dates. It thinks every month has 31 days. Argh!

This and that.

Have you looked at the Artist Trading Card site? Interesting premise.

Susan-Jayne gives us a heads-up on some coming mergers. *grin*

My project this morning is finally putting photos in my Memory Maker bracelet that I've had for more than a year. Procrastination, thy name is Shirl.

It appears that the Iraqis voted in larger percentages than we do here in the U.S. Hmmmm.

Roark Johnson photographs a stranger a day. What a fascinating premise. (And hard to see all the pictures if you're on dial-up. Oh well. Some day I'll change.)

Let's start the day with a little Unconscious Muttering:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Coroner:: Murder
2. Mystify:: Wonder
3. Corroborate:: Verify
4. Misinterpret:: Misunderstand
5. Humorless:: Dour
6. Calculus:: Newton
7. Eye for an eye:: Old Testament
8. CPR:: Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation
9. Stitched:: Sewn
10. Facility:: Ease

Comic Strips

We have a new comic-strip coming to our local paper February 14. It's Frazz, and . . . the cartoonist is from right here in mid-Michigan. Don't you think that Frazz looks a bit like Calvin grown up?

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PRETTY

Swiped from Mandarin. Of course.

Okay, bryn made me do it:

For all you warm weather folks:

Let's not Forget.

This and That.

Today was a fifteen-deer day. It doesn't get much better than that!

Sheryl has the best bird pics. Here's one of a Great Blue Heron.

It was -6F this morning. It's going to be that cold tomorrow morning. Brrr.

Stu Savory has a post on Lewis Carroll, as today is the writer's birthday. (btw Stu, who the heck is Brad and Janet?)

Do you believe in magic?

Claude from Blogging In Paris stopped by, picked up the Poetic Meme, and then posted a lovely tree to go with the Joyce Kilmer poem. Absolutely lovely. (And I'm sure she's using some goodies from Mandarin Meg.)

Speaking of Trees

Well, we weren't really, but in the poetic meme there is the "I think that I shall never see" line so I was thinking about trees. Anyway, my mother has lived in the same home for 44 years. When she moved in there were two trees on the lot. Now there are, oh let me count . . . 17. The woman loves trees. Watching them grow, knowing their history, makes them kind of special. Take this tree, for instance. It's a maple, and it is 40 years old this year. It was just a little thing when my brother Boo was born in 1965. Grandma and Grandpa P. stayed with us when Boo was born. Grandpa mowed the lawn. He didn't see the tree, and mowed over it. But the tree wanted to grow, and came back with multiple trunks.

Do you have a favorite tree?

I am the Ideal Lover Most people have dreams in their youth that get shattered or worn down with age. They find themselves disappointed by people, events, reality, which cannot match their youthful ideals. Ideal Lovers thrive on people's broken dreams which become lifelong fantasies. You long for romance? Adventure? Lofty spiritual communion? The Ideal Lover reflects your fantasy. He or she is an artist creating the illusion you require. In a world of disenchantment and baseness, there is limitliess seductive power in following the path of the Ideal Lover. Symbol: The Portrait Painter. Under his eye, all of your physical imperfections disappear. He brings out noble qualities in you, frames you in a myth, makes you godlike, immortalises you. For his ability to create such fantasies, he is rewarded with great power.

What Type of Seducer are You?
created by polite_society

Poetic Meme

Swiped from LDH:


A little poetry game for bloggers: Copy this list of first lines. Replace the ones you are not familiar with the first line of a poem that you are familiar with and bold your changes. And of course link to the post where you first saw the list.

1. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
2. I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree
3. Let me not to the marriage of true minds
4. Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
5. Do not go gentle into that good night,
6. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree
7. How do I love thee, let me count the ways
8. THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
9. Listen my children and you shall hear
10. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Who are you?

On Oliveburgers:

They're a hamburger with chopped green olives and mayo and sometimes a tomato. They're very good, and supposedly originated here in Lansing, Michigan. Sheryl says she's seem them down in Florida. I'm thinking those must be transplanted snowbirds.

Carry on!!!

Winter is warmer with ladybug gloves!

Starting the week with a little Monday Madness:

What do you think of when you see the following colors? (You may write as many words as you like.)

1. White: Snow
2. Yellow: Snow
3. Blue: Sky
4. Black: Grief
5. Green: Michigan State, Money
6. Red: Passion
7. Purple: Royalty
8. Pink: Girl
9. Brown: Eyes
10. Gray: Depression

Around the 'net.

Owls are moving into Minnesota in record numbers this winter.

Together Rx is a program that provides savings on prescription drugs to people without insurance. Check here for details.

Want to go on a Treasure Hunt? I'm tempted.

We topped out at 12.6 inches, -6 degrees this morning. Sounds like the east coast of the country is still battling the weather!

A Little Unconscious Mutterings.

I say ... and you think ... ?

Material world:: Passing
Satin sheets:: Sensual
Blizzard: outside
Real estate:: Sales
Dress up:: High Heels
Wesley:: Snipes
Robber:: Thief
Saliva:: Drool
Slave:: Master
Shift:: Type

I'm heading over to Mom's in a few minutes. That is, if I can find my car. It's under there somewhere!

S N O W

I am really slipping. I let Kevin Costner turn 50 on January 18 without making any mention of it. Yikes!

Woohoo! Diane has pictures from the North American Auto Show. Interesting vehicles!

I taste like Peanut Butter. I am one of the most blendable flavours; I go with sweet, I go with sour, I go with bland, I go with anything. I am practical and good company, but have something of a tendency to hang around when I'm not wanted, unaware that my presence is not welcome. What Flavour Are You?

50 books in 2005.

Traced back to here.

The goal: Read 50 books in 2004.

The prize: A feeling of true literary esteem.

The bonus: Record the books here, and let us know what you thought of them. This way we're all receiving recommendations for reading in later months!

The books can be of any genre, but let's keep the length over 100 pages. (In other words, short stories wouldn't count, but an anthology of them is lovely.)

Encourage everyone you know to get involved! Who's in? And what's your first pick?

Weird dream.

I dreamt that I was Brad and Jennifer's roommate last night. Now what's that all about?

Good Friday Evening!

This must be the week of the new computer. Rune and susan are both pickled tink over their new machines.

Oh cool! Mz has an idea for people wanting to write: pay yourself! This might work!

CBS's Wickedly Perfect site has interesting info on the perfectionist's projects.

Back to the eggs on the pizza thoughts. Can we get a little more detail on them, susan? Like what type of sauce would be used on them? Sheryl wants to know. And speaking of Sheryl, she's back from a camping trip with her Girl Scouts. What a busy lady!

Ali saw Phantom of the Opera and highly recommends it, and I would like to second that recommendation. It was my great good fortune to see it with my mother and my niece Glory. Glory is 14, besotted with theater, and the movie became her instant favorite, even more so than The Lord of The Rings with Orlando Bloom. What a treat.

So Happy It's Thursday*

New question: Do you use the spray-on cheese toppings on crackers?

Have a great day!

*E.B.C.

Wonderful Wednesday!

Susan confirms the egg on pizza this way:

i have not often had egg on pizza, but they are usually in a combination of egg and bacon or ham. the few times i've had it, the raw egg was placed on top of a slice of ham, so it was like a fried egg when cooked. try it, it's good :) honest!!

It makes sense to me. One of my favorite pizzas has pepperoni, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella and cheddar cheese and ranch dressing. If I like pizza with chicken, well . . . why not with eggs?

Hope your Wednesday was wonderful!

Good Tuesday morning!

I just woke up to a fine even 0 degree day. Brrr!

A couple of gustatory questions:

1. What do you top your pizza with? This was inspired from a radio question yesterday that said that the #1 topping in Australia was . . . eggs? Can this be true, susan?

2. Do you have oliveburgers in your area?

Oops. It's Monday Madness time!

Name your favorite...

1. Family Game :: Monopoly
2. Piece of Jewelry :: My Garnet earrings
3. Winter Activity :: Chasing Deer
4. Hot Beverage :: Hot Cocoa
5. Quote :: Life without confetti is only an existance
6. Color on You :: Red
7. Summer Activity :: Swimming
8. Topping on Pancakes :: Maple Syrup
9. Musician :: Josh Groban

Happy Birthday!

To my good Texas friend Roscoe! I'm trying to figure out how to send him a snowball for his birthday.

2004 Revisited.

Saw this first at Roscoe's.
Here's another meme I've been seeing all over the place recently. To play, find the very first sentence of your very first blog post for each month of the year gone by.

January: There is a moment.

February: Turn the Calendar Page . . . It's February!

March: Good golly, miz meg . . . it works!

April: APRIL Fool!

May: Great punctuation game here.

June: June. Such a lovely month.

July: Happy July 1st!

I hope this month finds you relaxing, just like this feller:




August: It'a a little Unconscious Mutterings:

September: Happy Hump Day.
Today is the dreaded "inventory" day as well as "statement" day.

October: I am thankful this is Friday and hopefully I can stumble through it without totally falling apart.

November: The adventure has begun. 223 words. I'm going to bed now.

December: Please stop by at Kat's to see her Art Every Day for November.

Rune has a variation on her blog.

Sunday Morning, so it's time for the Unconscious Mutterings.

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Yoda:: Ziggy. (A long story.)
2. Mensa:: Brains
3. Pink:: Healthy
4. Text message:: Teenagers
5. Galactic:: Enterprise
6. Chicks:: Hens
7. Quesadilla:: Yummy
8. Backpack:: Hiking
9. Socked:: Punched
10. Compromise:: Give a little

Still addictive.

Swiped from Michelle at Mandarin who pointed us to Montage-a-Google . These pictures were selected from dreamwest.com dreamwest.org.

Brrr! 11F here in Michigan.

The big problem on Friday morning for everyone in the area was: unlocking cars and getting the doors open!

We had had so much moisture on Wednesday and Thursday with the rain/fog/snow that as the temperatures plummeted ice seals were formed on vehicles. It didn't seem to matter whether the cars were outside or in garages: most people had at least one door stick. And one of the guys at work had trouble with his garage door being frozen shut!

Oh well, at least it's not as bad as Great Falls, Montana where David reports that: Our high temperature today in Great Falls: -17 degrees. On the way down now as the sun sets…brrrrr…as of 5:42 pm, it’s -24F.

And a Happy Belated birthday to . . .

Kane! January 14th was my father's birthday also. Good people are born on that day. If you stop by Kane's, be sure to click on the visuals. Beautiful beautiful pictures!

Well, good Friday morning! Kind of quiet over here. The weather is getting colder, and I think I might just hibernate for the weekend.

And you?

Oh that weather!

Some of you mentioned in comments that you heard about our big accident up here in Michigan. Yesterday was a warm, rainy day in the 50's, raining on snow. That's a set-up for massive, shifting fog. There was a huge 200 vehicle pile-up just east of us. The highway was shut for hours both during the accident and today as the wreckage was removed. And now . . . it's snowing and the temperature should hit 10 sometime tonight. This is Michigan.

Wacky Weather here.

I'm in mid-Michigan. Temperatures in the thirties yesterday, the fifties and thunderstorms today and tomorrow, five degrees on Friday.

How's your weather?

L O N E L Y

Pictures, they've got pictures.

Hmmm. I love Sheryl's pelican pictures, and I'm envious of meg's garden.

Rune asks an interesting question:

Do you remember what your after school snack was in elementary school?

These things are getting addictive.

Michelle at Mandarin did Sacramento in the Montage-a-Google creator, so I thought it appropriate for me to do Lansing. The directions for the triple border are also from meg.

A little Monday Madness to get the week started:

I thought we'd do some 'fill in the blanks' questions again; have fun! =)

1. My lucky number is _____. 13
2. My favorite day of the week is _____ because _____. Thursday because that means the weekend is coming!
3. I spend about ____ hours/minutes on the phone a week, and _____ of those are long distance. two hours, none
4. My favorite cereal is _____. Frosted Mini-Wheats
5. One hobby of mine is _____. Photography
6. I wish I could spend more time _____. Playing
7. I wish I could spend less time _____. Working.
8. I am really proud of my _____. Nieces and Nephews

Swiped from Crossing the Rubicon.

Yikes! Laura turned 31 yesterday, and I missed it. I thought it was today. Happy Birthday, kiddo!!

Mandarin Design is featuring the Montage-A-Google. Above is a slice of one created with "Lake Michigan Lighthouses". Michigan has the most lighthouses of any state in the U.S.

Sunday, so it's time for the Unconscious Mutterings:
I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Pistol::Gun
2. Rick::Lundgren
3. Full circle::360 degrees
4. I wish::on the first star
5. Frame::Picture
6. Adult::Child
7. Photography::Hobby
8. Stew::Beef
9. Cheat::Lie
10. Brad::Pitt, of course.

Good Saturday Morning.

It was a five-deer morning as I drove through the Arboretum. Unfortunately, I really really really had to go to the bathroom, so I couldn't get out and get a picture. Drat!

Yeah. mmmhmm. Right.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Swiped from Patti:

The idea is this: to copy over the list, removing from it the names of any authors not in your home library, and replacing them with names of authors you have. Boldface the ones you’ve added.

1. C. S. Lewis
2. Norman Maclean
3. Christopher Locke
4. James Welch
5. James Joyce
6. Iris Murdoch
7. John Irving
8. Vladimir Nabokov
9. Margaret Atwood
10. William Shakespeare

For Elvis fans:

Roscoe's taking us to Graceland via his Journal. He'll be there for Elvis' birthday. Too cool!

Everyone's Human, unless they're a robot.

Six Inches of Snow!

This should be a fun trip to work.

In other thoughts: Can you see your eyelashes?

You're Lili St. Cyr!


What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Random Acts of Kindness.

I got nailed by one today. I was getting out of my car, reaching into my pocket for some change, when a young man leaned over from the sidewalk and slipped two quarters into the meter. It's amazing how much joy those two quarters brought me throughout the day.

A day late, the Monday Madness.

Name...
1. The most exciting thing that happened in your life this past year. Seeing my niece get married.
2. Three resolutions that you've thought about making. Simplify. Get healthy. Write.
3. Your biggest accomplishment this past year. Climbing to the top of Silver Lake Dunes.
4. Your biggest challenge this past year. Confronting loneliness.
5. Something you tried for the first time (whether it be food, a sport, a hobby, etc.) Umm.
...and this next one comes from Andrea...
6. Name 3 (or however many) things that happened this year that you did not anticipate happening. And on the flip side, name 3 (or however many) things that didn't happen this year that you expected to happen. These could be personal things, professional things, national things, things in the news; anything really. I didn't anticipate getting sick at the end of the year, the outcome of the elections, or the tsunami disaster. I expected . . . little, and I guess that's what I got. Hmmm.
...and this one comes from Storyteller...
7. Where do you (or WOULD you) go for inspiration when you run out of questions for a meme? Around the web.
8. Something you'd like to accomplish (or do) this coming year that you didn't get a chance to do last year. I would like to send my novel out, and get a few rejections.

Eep! I'm remiss. January 3 is also J.R.R.Tolkien's birthday.

So here's another question:

C. S. Lewis or
J.R.R.Tolkien or
other?

2005.

Do you say two thousand five or
twenty-oh-five?

Wishing a Happy Birthday to . . .

Mel Gibson. He's 49 today.

We love the internet. It even helps us with our resolutions.

Your New Years Resolution Should Be: Get rid of your "computer butt"

You've got more than "back" - you've got a big, fat ass. And it's probably because you count multiple IM sessions as exercise So, get yourself on the Hacker's Diet, stat... And then you can stop pretending that you're a hot chick in chat rooms.

What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be?

The Adventure Journalist reminds us that we have meteors coming tomorrow.

Another Blog Awards is up. Vote for Best-of-Blogs here. Sensitive Light is in the running, as well as Filegirl, so I'll vote for them and see who else is on the lists.

TIME

2005

???


MORE...

And now it's time for Sunday's Unconscious Mutterings.

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Newspaper::Headline
2. DVD::Player. I don't have one yet. I'm always behind.
3. Resolution::To simplify.
4. Intimate::Close
5. Song::Christmas Carol
6. Essential::Basic, Mere
7. Whistle::While You Work
8. Glass::Half Full
9. Countdown::to the New Year, to blast-off
10. Child::Innocence

How is everyone doing today?

My mother always has a New Years Eve party for the non-alcoholic bunch. She's had as few as five people . . . last night she had seventeen. NINE of her ten grandchildren were there, ranging in age from 11 to 22. The woman is an amazing blessing.

Sleep finally came about 1:00 a.m. this morning, and then back up at 9:00. A major run to Best Buys to spend gift cards, and then folks began to depart.

I know I should root for University of Michigan, but I just can't. *sigh*

And you?