Oh great. Here goes blogger again. This is a pain.

Got a spare couple of grand to buy Final 4 tickets?

Hmmm. Got the blog to publish once. Once out of 10 attempts isn't too bad, eh?

All right, it's a contest. First person who correctly identifies the play in the statue wins a prize.

Prize will fit the winner. *grin*

Survivors Ready!

Back to Thursday night this week. Pick your bootee.

Gail says her post on The Schiavo Case took a long time to put together. I'm glad she took the time, as this post resonated so well with me. Thanks, Gail!

From Spartan Country:

It's all basketball all the time up here in mid-Michigan. It's not just the Michigan State University's Men's Basetkball team going to the Final Four of the NCAA Basketball tournament. Nope. The Women's Basketball team is going to the Final Four also!

Everything is green up here. (Except the grass.)

Monday Madness. It was a fairly decent Monday. *smile*

Let's have some fun! More fill-in-the-blanks! =)

1. ___________ is more fun to celebrate than any other holiday. Easter
2. The last vacation I took was to __________. Silver Lake Sand Dunes
3. The next vacation I plan to take will be to ___________. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan. (Montana has to wait until 2006.)
4. I'd really like to be more _________. aware
5. I can't remember the last time I __________. hmm. Tough question. I can remember all the last times, and if I can't remember, then I wouldn't remember what it was?
6. The book I last read (or am currently reading) is ________.Anne Lamott's Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
7. The last program I installed on my computer was ________. Photoshop Elements
8. When it comes to food, my weakness is _________. Chocolate
9. I really look forward to spending time _________. scrapbooking.

The last one is not a fill-in-the-blank, but a challenge........(completely optional, my friends!)
10. Choose a person's blog in the comment section, and welcome others to visit it, by leaving a link to their blog in your entry today. Random click from The Madness' comments sends us here.

Note: Blogger wouldn't let me post last night, so I'm Monday Mad on Tuesday!

Found at that Werewolf Roscoe's:


The Scottish selkie was a being who appeared to be a seal, but had the ability to shed their skin and roam the land in human form. If a human were to happen upon the discarded seal skin, he or she could hide it and force the selkie to marry him or her. However, if the selkie were to ever find the skin, he or she would immediately reassume seal form and return to the sea from whence they came, leaving their spouse and offspring on land to forever mourn their loss.

As a selkie, you are a very withdrawn, secretive and somewhat sad person, and those around you find you alluring and mystifying. People who come into your life find it difficult to find the inner you. You are also curious, but you enjoy the comforts of home most of all.


Who is your inner Shapeshifter?
brought to you by Quizilla

Oh my goodness!! How do you top off a lovely family dinner and Easter egg hunt? Why, with the double over-time win of Michigan State University over Kentucky in the NCAA basketball March Madness. Madness, I say! We're still hyperventilating!!!!! It's on to the Final Four, and no one saw it coming!!!!

We'll be gathering at 2:00 today at Mom's for Easter dinner. Projections are for nineteen people to be there: boy, am I glad she has her garage available for the dinner.

I'm taking a layered salad. Usually I'm the "Salad in the bag" type of shopper, but for holidays I get head lettuce and tear it up. I try to think good thoughts about the people that are going to eat it (while I dearly love my family there are a couple that try my patience). And today I thought about childhood Easters.

We must have been poor, or maybe everyone was poor back then. We didn't have Easter baskets, well, not store-bought ones. We would make baskets out of construction paper. When my brother J.R. and I hit double digits, we were allowed to help the Easter Bunny fill the baskets. We would hide in my parents' bedroom with our "baskets" and five bags of candy; jelly beans, larger Easter Eggs that were filled with a cream type base, bunnies and chicks made out of a marshmallowy substance, flavored bunnies and chicks made out of a candy-corn like substance, and for chocolate the malted milk speckled robins eggs.

J.R. and I would carefully divvy up the bootee. Two jelly beans to a basket might be where we would start. Then one bunny or chick per basket. And on we would go. The little kids would try to peek in the windows, but we had drawn the shades. Occasionally we'd thump on the floor. "Oh Mr. Bunny," we would say, and we could hear the little kids giggle.

The big advantage for J.R. and me? Well, of course the bags wouldn't come out even. After all, we were making six baskets. Somebody had to take care of the overage, didn't they? We were ready volunteers.

Why is it that the good-old-days so seldom involved expensive things?

Happy Easter!!

Just sneaking around at 3:00 a.m, looking for the Easter Bunny. As I haven't found him (or her), I'll do the Unconscious Mutterings instead.

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

1. I’m waiting::for an answer
2. Speak::your mind
3. Roger...::Dodger
4. Knock knock::Who's There
5. Hybrid::Floral
6. Can’t believe my eyes::or my ears
7. Hooked on::Love
8. Pontificate::Hold Forth
9. Slime::A weird substance the kids love to make at the Science Museum
10. Unwelcome::Intruder

If the sun appears, the teachers have planned an appropriate activity at a park near the school. If the sun does not appear, the children will sprawl out on the floor and colour. The chairman of the teachers says, "Generally, it looks like we'll spend most days colouring."

LDH has challenged us to use the following words in a post. I think I just did.

chairman
generally
teachers
floor
colour
looks
sun
activity
appropriate
park

How Incredible!

The Michigan State Spartans just beat the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA
basketball tournament. Susan, this is Coach Izzo's first win over
your team. What a game!

What You Lookin' At?

The Centurions wore Sneakers and Work Boots.

The church I usually attend is holding their Good Friday services this evening instead of at noon, and I have a slight conflict: there's an MSU-DUKE NCAA match-up that starts around seven tonight. Go Green! We're on, miz Susan! The paper showed a downtown church holding services between 12 and 2. I thought maybe I would try to go there.

As I pulled onto Michigan Avenue I ran into police cars and motorcycles blocking traffic. A crowd of people was coming down the north side of Michigan Avenue, led by a man in purple carrying a cross. It was Cristo Rey's annual Way of the Cross trek through Lansing, starting at the Capitol and ending at the Community Center.

I've always been curious about this walk, and decided this would be my Good Friday service. I ditched the car down by Impressions 5 and made my way back to Michigan. The crowd had moved down to the Lugnut Stadium parking lot, about two blocks away. I headed that way. By the time I reached the corner the crowd was a block north on Larch. Jesus sure was moving quickly.

I felt a little odd trailing the Hispanic group. Was it proper to crash their event? One of our install trucks passed me. Did I feel a little nervous that I had been found out following this group? What would I have done if this were 2000 years ago? Where would my heart have been? What courage would I have exhibited? Or would I have pulled a Peter?

I heard the end of the 6th Station, and tagged along at the back of the group, with the baby carriages and a little boy that had his hoody pulled up with a knit cap atop it. I was able to hear the 7th Station perfectly, and it made me smile. In it there was a remembrance for those with disabilities, and a reading from Hebrews 12. (Note to self: look that up.)

I followed along to the 8th Station, but wasn't able to hear very well. (It was held in the parking lot of an American Eagle store. The sign said: Pepper Spray, $5.29.) I was also a mile away from my car by then. The Cristo Rey Center was about another mile. I could make it there, but I didn't know anyone in the group to ask for a ride, and I knew I wasn't good for a full four miles. Reluctantly I turned onto Oakland to make the walk back. I was alone, yet felt in touch.

And your day?

Books Books Books.

Another book I just finished was THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB, by Louise Erdrich. Erdrich has created a world in the town of Argus, North Dakota. (Raise your hand if you've ever been in North Dakota. I have; spent a night at the KOA in Minot (rhymes with Whynot) North Dakota.) The state is a vast emptiness that is often called "fly-over land", but Erdrich uses the landscape to create her world.

I have read many articles about the author through the years, and even had a copy of LOVE MEDICINE in my stacks of book, but had not read her. THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB was impossible to put down, the characters written so poetically and intertwined as real-life intertwines people. I'm dusting off LOVE MEDICINE now.

Sheryl sent me this link on intertextuality. (Not near as naughty as it sounds, Rune. *grin*)

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

--The Velveteen Rabbit

Mandarin meg is talking about blockquotes today, so I just edited mine to have a green background. At least I hope that's what will happen.

Oh Joy! Today is my Friday!

I took tomorrow off as a vacation day. Today is my Friday! Yay!

I just finished reading Anita Diamont's GOOD HARBOR. The storyline was a bit contrived, but the characters, 59-year-old Kate and 42-year-old Joyce, came alive as they walked the beach.

Here in Michigan you can walk either the sunrise side (Lake Huron) or the sunset side (Lake Michigan). I was always a sunset side walker.

Survivors Ready?

It's tonight again. Pick your bootee!

Here in mid-Michigan EVERYTHING is green. Not outside, no, that will take another month or so. It's the spirit of green, as both the men's and women's basketball teams at Michigan State University are in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Basketball tournament. It's a good day to be a Spartan.

Well, now you know. Thanks, LDH.

You are a sock. You are a cozy, fuzzy, warm-hearted person. A lot of your friends describe you as a hopeless romantic. You fall for the opposite sex very easily. But be careful, because usually you don't know what you are getting into, and because you are very sensitive, you can get hurt... especially in early relationships. Also, don't exclude the cold-hearted from your "want-list", because they just might be looking for a kind person to warm up their heart.... or a sock to warm up their feet. Most compatible with: Toilet Paper. Click here -- What Random Object Represents Your Inner Self?

It's official now, Susan! Michigan State and Duke are going to meet again!

For those who are watching the NCAA Basketball March Madness: hasn't it been something?

N E E D

Movie seen this weekend: Diary of a Mad Black Woman, by Tyler Perry. Fascinating flick.

Unconscious Mutterings time.

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

1. Stink::Skunk
2. Renewal::Library Card, Rejuvenation
3. I remember...::Yesterday
4. Loneliness::gray
5. Ooooh::Aaaahh, Fireworks
6. For real::Velveteen Rabbit
7. Titanium::Strong
8. Get down::Boogie
9. Rupture::Spleen
10. Dramatic::my nieces

Spring in Michigan. We have to make our own, as our true spring will be in late April/early May. Elsie, at work, brought tulips yesterday for everyone. These bright spots of color were nice, as we had awakened to two inches of snow. It was a pretty snow, the kind that looks like a giant hand had taken powdered sugar and sifted it over the trees and houses, but it is much prettier in December. *grin*

Another way we make spring is by having Home Shows, exhibitions of new home products. Our HVAC company is exhibiting at another one this weekend, and I'm working from 10-12.

Make me envious. How's your weather?

The things we learn from quizzes.

You are Julia Kristeva! You were a student of
Roland Barthes, and came up with such important
notions as intertextuality and abjection. You
are a semiotician, psychoanalyst, scholar of
literature, and dozens more things. You are not
dead.


What 20th Century Theorist are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
This one again from LDH.

Go Green!!

1One way to play with CSS is to use the drop cap code to make a big number. One way to make Shirl happy would be for Michigan State to beat Old Dominion in the next two hours. Please???

As always, playing with stuff from Mandarin.

Gorgeous Montana pictures here. (I'm trying to distract myself from the game. I think I'm bad luck for the Spartans. Yikes!)

Whew! Michigan State continues in the NCAA MARCH MADNESS!

Well, today started a little calmer. I spent Tuesday night at my mother's house. (I've been spending every other night there since I was sick in December and she had foot troubles in January. Kind of helped each other through the winter.) Anyway, I was going to take a night picture of her house with all the lights on to go on a poster at work for whole house generators. I forgot. I was in the shower yesterday morning when it dawned on me I hadn't taken the picture. So I hopped out of the shower, grabbed some clothes, and went charging out into the freezing weather to grab some shots before the sun came up. At about 6:17 a.m. Sheesh.

Much calmer start today.

Jane Eyre from Charlotte Bronte's novel of the same
name.


Which Heroine of Victorian Fiction Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Swiped from LDH.

This one swiped from Diane, who is riffing off Mandarin meg:

☼☼☼

☼

Waiting for Spring

My OWN Garden. What do you see?

P I L L O W

Survivors Ready?

Double Tribal Council tonight. What's that all about?

A couple of places I've been playing:

Surname distribution. It's fun to see how the surnames move from 1820 to 1990.

Sheryl pointed to Placing the States. It's become addictive. Thanks, S!

You can make your own word here. Spotted at White Pebble and Crossing the Rubicon. Thanks!

Oh shoot! It's almost over and I just found out (again) that it's Pi day. My bad.

Ah, someone was very busy this weekend. Congratulations to Rune who was married yesterday!

5 +teams

ToWin

THAT DESERVE

The joy of CSS. Mandarin meg has given us some more CSS with which to play. I've taken her copy and paste and messed it up with what's on my mind right now, the NCAA March Madness. Which teams are you rooting for?

Cyber-bro Jeeem, in Thailand, reports on another day-in-the-life.

NCAA Men's brackets here.

NCAA Women's brackets here.

I'm back, and it's time for the Unconscious Mutterings.

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

1. Shape up::or ship out
2. New Orleans::French Quarter
3. In the bedroom::*smile*
4. All the time::All News
5. Philosophy::Belief
6. Tyler::Mary Tyler Moore
7. Disturbed::Upset
8. French kiss::Tongue
9. Solidify::Strengthen
10. Furtive::Sneaky

I changed the colors to green, but it didn't help. Michigan State lost to Iowa in the Big 10 Conference Game. Shoot!

Brief posting this morning. Heading up north to see Niece #3 as the lead in her school musical. It's Annie Get Your Gun, and Niece #6 plays her little sister. Type-casting!

Impossible.

I have not had a Pepsi or any other caffeinated cola since December 18. I would never have thought it possible to go that long without my favorite beverage.

This has been the year of living differently.

Today (well, I mean, right this very moment wrong again, they're not working now, oh yes they are!) my comments are working, but blogger comments on some of my friends blogs aren't working. Hugs to y'all!

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Picked up at LDH's. He's a D20

• Joan of Arc or Joan of Arcadia?
• John Lennon or John Denver?
• Emily Dickinson or Emily Bronte?
• Paul McCartney or Paul Anka?
• Katherine Hepburn or Catherine Zeta-Jones?
• George Harrison or George Clooney?
• Harriett Tubman or Harriett Beecher Stowe?
• Mick Jagger or Mickey Dolenz?
• Margaret Mitchell or Martha Mitchell?
• Orlando Bloom or Orlando, Florida?

W A I T I N G

oh yum. Bobbi is finding spring in Kansas.

Survivors Ready?

Who will get booted off tonight?
Who is your favorite player?

I may be watching Survivor too much.

The other night I dreamed that my brother Grizzl, a big old 48-year-old dude, was a contestant on Survivor. My mother and I decided we would go check on him. We flew to the island where the contest was being held. My mother stayed with the plane, and I sneakily followed a path. The path led directly to a hut. No on was around. Aha! I went into the hut and then out the other side, and THERE was a room that had a sink with running water, a refrigerator, and some lockers and stuff. I heard someone coming, so hid on a cot (sheesh) with some clothes over me. As luck would have it, it was my brother Grizzl. He was getting into the fridge for a Mountain Dew. He realized someone was in the room and walked over to the cot. I couldn't see him (I was under all those clothes) but I could hear him laugh and say "oh great". Well, of course he had to tell Mark Burnett I was there. Burnett made me attend Tribal Council where he told me that I had NO MORALS and then let the other contestants decide if Grizzl could stay or not. (They did.)
I may be watching Survivor too much.

blogger is being hinky again.

Aphrodite/Eros


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

Swiped from Roscoe!

• Tom Cruise or Tom Selleck?
• Barbara Walters or Barbara Bush?
• Steven Spielberg or Stephen King?
• Elizabeth Taylor or Elizabeth Barrett Browning?
• Isaac Asimov or Isaac?
• Jennifer Aniston or Jennifer Lopez?
• Tom McGuane or Tom Wolfe?
• Chris Rock or Chris Locke?
• Susan Sarandon or Susan B. Anthony?
• Kevin Costner or Kevin Kline?

cat's got my fingers.

Sheryl has an Accessible photo series here. Well done.

Starting the week with a little Monday Madness. And questions are courtesy of our good friend susan!

1. What's on your refrigerator? (Please feel free to use a picture to answer.) On top of the refrigerator we have: Shredded Mini-Wheats/bread/Easter Egg dyes. On the face of the refrigerator we have about 600 magnetic words. As I look at that I'm thinking I really might be a little OCD. Who buys 4 sets of magnetic words? Huh???
2. What color is your refrigerator? White
3. Is the freezer on the top, bottom or side? Top
4. How old is your fridge? Does it match your stove? About ten years old and it does match the stove
5. How regularly do you clean the inside of your fridge? Regularly? Oops.

Blue Snow

Green Snow

Brown Snow

Oh no! The dreaded Yellow Snow.


As always, blame it on Mandarin meg.

Swiped from Sheryl:


You're a Dialogue/Character Writer!


What kind of writer are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

We wake up on Sunday and we Mutter.

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

1. Usher::Church, Wedding
2. Cherish::Tender Love
3. Mistreat::Abuse
4. Forum::Symposium
5. Systematic::Methodical
6. Warning::Siren
7. Wash::Car
8. I wish::upon a star, you were here
9. Candles::Birthday
10. Metallic::Silver

Another Saturday discussion of words. Today the word is chock-full.

Brrr!

This has been a most wintry winter up here in mid-Michigan. We've had more snow than usual, and we're waking up to temperatures of 7F/-14C. In March!

I work for a heating and air conditioning company, and we have booths in Spring Home Shows in March. The first is this weekend. So much for showcasing air conditioning!

Make me envious. How's the weather in your area?

This is one of those "everyone is doing it" things, so here goes:

oh, and I write my dates Month/Day/Year, so today is: 03/04/05. Cool, eh?

Sheryl gives us a visual for accessibility.
Thanks!

Edit: Yeah yeah, I accidentally double posted. Blogger was hinky last night. But I'm leaving both posts up. It's a great picture. Really.

Sheryl gives us a visual for accessibility.
Thanks!

OtherSide

OtherSide

Okay, meg started this here, and I couldn't get it to work. Gary at TFS Reluctant got it to work, so I swiped his code. Yay for the internet!

Accessible Art.

Our local art gallery recently moved to a site in the downtown area. They moved into a vacant store that had been designed by the architect George Nelson. The building contains a mezzanine. There is an exhibit on the mezzanine. The second level is reached by climbing stairs.

BARRIER FREE DESIGN

Barrier Free Design, a special part of the building codes, has been public policy in Michigan since 1966. It is intended to assure that public facilities and facilities used by the public are accessible to and usable by all citizens, including elderly persons, wheelchair users and individuals with permanent or temporary conditions that reduce coordination or mobility or make walking difficult or insecure.

Hmmm.

I asked about the accessibility issue when the Gallery moved into the building in December. (I was quite amazed that they would put an exhibit on the mezzanine. The store that had been there before had blocked that area off to the public.) I was assured that they were working on getting the funding for an elevator.

Today I stopped by to browse, and one of the volunteers asked if I had seen the exhibit on the second floor. I had to be truthful (didn't I?) and said, "I'm sorry, I'm boycotting the mezzanine until the elevator is installed."

That volunteer seemed to understand, but another volunteer had to pipe in. "Would you rather we hadn't opened here at all?"

*sigh* "No, I would prefer that the exhibits were held on the first floor. Art should be accessible to everyone." Obviously I wasn't boycotting the first floor, as I was strolling around viewing the works. If I had really wanted to make an issue, I would have been picketing outside the front door.

Oh wait, maybe that's what I should do next.

So Happy It's Thursday!*

And Survivor tonight . . . pick your bootee, please!

*E.B.C.

The elusive buck.

Good Wednesday Evening!

So are we having fun yet? I'll bet Karen is. Going to go check on her Wednesday hunk now.

Oh my! Karen is having a good day *evil grin* and also sends us over to Cassie-B's, where she has March's Bizarre and unique holidays posted. I'm going to celebrate March 14. Can anyone guess what day that is? (Hint. 3/14)

P I E C E