Thursday's thirteen: scary critters

Thirteen scary things from horror movies.

1. Werewolves

2. Vampires

3. Zombies

4. Ghosts

5. Ghouls

6. Flesh eating anything

7. Living brains

8. Headless horsemen

9. Over sized lizards

10. Living Dinosaurs

11. Giant squids

12. Aliens

13. Lots of small things we can’t really see too well in the dark; ie vampire bats, piranhas, critters of all types with sharp teeth that want to bite you or eat you. That what really gives me the creeps.

Thursday's Thirteen: nerve racking descriptions

Writers like me sometimes add horror or suspense elements into their Romance story line. And in honor of Halloween, which is just around the corner, here are thirteen nerve racking descriptions off the top of my head.

1. The wind howled.

2. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

3. A chill went down her back.

4. Footsteps echoed in the dusty hallway.

5. A door squeaked loudly.

6. Not for the first time did she regret letting her boyfriend talk her into going to the cemetery at midnight.

7. Just for a moment his eyes glowed yellow.

8. It was pitch black in the house. She flipped on the light, and it didn’t come on.

9. Then she heard a loud noise, and she knew no one was home at this hour.

10. A loud screech made her jump.

11. Lightning crackled over the old empty house, and just briefly lit a face in the window.

12. Her sight finally adjusted to the dim light, and focused on a pair of eyes
staring back at her.

13. Behind her something scuttled across the floor, she spun around but saw nothing.

Columbus Day

Its Columbus day, I got to sleep in and so did my daughter.

Until I heard a noise like a car trying to turn over, and I looked out to see my nephew Bobby kicking his car. His friend Micheal was laughing at him.

Oh righty then, time to get up.

I ended up going to Little Caesar's for Pizza.

My hubby had a look at his car, a belt was loose.

Bobby and his friend went home full of pizza and drove themselves home.

Thursday's Thirteen: What says Halloween?

Halloween: as my daughter drapes my house in its Halloween splendor, I thought what really says Halloween?

1. Jack-o-lanterns?

2. Scarecrows?
3. Black cats?

4. Fake webbing?

5. Little bitty chocolate bars?

6. Horror movies?

7. Costumes?

8. Sculls?

9. The colors black and orange?

10. Ghosts?

11. Bowls and bags filled with cheep candy?

12. The smell of warm (or burning) pumpkins mixed with candle wax on

Halloween night?

13. Little kids screaming tick-or-treat!

What says Halloween to you?

Thursday's Thirteen: October's to do list

Since its October first or nearly at this posting, here are thirteen things for October in no particular order.

I would have posted some photos but my internet service is acting funny.



1. Setting out the autumn decorations.



2. Getting out and decorating for Halloween. It’s not the same decorations as the autumn ones.



3. Raking fall leaves. I really hate this chore. We have sycamore trees, they have big leaves. Lots and lots of them.



4. Dusting the house and getting it ready, so I can shut all the windows for the cold season.



5. Picking out a pumpkin. I don’t do this quite so much now that my daughter is older.



6. Pulling out the spent spring flowers and planting fall bulbs or more mums.



7. Cleaning out my planters and planting some fall flowers.



8. Putting away all the shorts and summer clothes. Then digging out of the back of my closet for my long sleeve blouses and long pants. Cool weather clothes, oh how I miss thee.



9. Costume making time. My daughter has taken over this chore. She’s too old for trick-or-treating, but there’s an Ani-jam on Halloween that’s she’ll be attending. She won third place in the last one for her costume she had made.



10. Buying Halloween candy. We don’t get trick-or-treaters, we live too far out of town but I buy them for my small family. We like candy. :)



11. This year it’s on us for my daughter’s senior year school picture. It all has to be done by October 15th.



12. Get sign up for the Nanowritmo (National Novel Writer’s Month). It’s always a crazy month for me, but for the last three years I have finished in time with a 50,000 word novel.



13. Celebrate my hubby’s Birthday. His B-day is on the 29th.

Confucius's birthday

Birthday of Confucius – Eighth Moon, Day 27
(September/October) Click for western date >> One of China's most influential philosophers who lived 2,500 years ago, Confucius still has a strong following in Hong Kong, where his birthday is celebrated with great reverence.Confucius' left a legacy of teachings and ethics that stress self-enlightenment through the Five Virtues of charity, justice, propriety, wisdom and loyalty. Filial devotion and ancestral worship, observed during the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung festivals, continue to be a cornerstone of Confucian practice today, in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia.

Confucius's quotes:

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
Confucius
- More quotations on: [Mistakes]
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
Confucius
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
Confucius
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
Confucius
- More quotations on: [Kindness]
He who will not economize will have to agonize.
Confucius
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Confucius
Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.
Confucius
- More quotations on: [Ignorance]
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius
Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.
Confucius
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
Confucius
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
Confucius
- More quotations on: [Respect]
Study the past if you would define the future.
Confucius
The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.
Confucius
- More quotations on: [Security]
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
Confucius
To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.
Confucius
To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.
Confucius
What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
Confucius
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius
- More quotations on: [Anger]
When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
Confucius
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.
Confucius
They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
Confucius, Analects
By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects
- More quotations on: [Friendship]
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects
- More quotations on: [Humility]
He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects
- More quotations on: [Faith]
I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects

Thursday's Thirteen: the colors of Fall

Thirteen colors of Fall.

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1. Grass-Green.

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2. Light green of faded sycamore leaves.

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3. Olive green of dry leaves.

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4. Red of maple leaves.
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5. Gold of a fully mature Sunflower just ready to pick.
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6. Burgundy of mock cherry leaves.
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7. Light Brown of baked earth after the harvest.
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8. Dark brown of the earth when the first rains come.
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9. Tan of dried corn husks.
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10. Dried Wheat Yellow.
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11. Pumpkin-Orange.
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12. Deep Orange-red of fall decorations.
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13. With October just around the corner what is fall without Halloween-black?

Fall

It Fall! One of our fall leaves we'll have to rake up.

The good news raking uses up a lot of calories.

Its the official first day of Autumn.

But you can't go by us here in sunny California it was a hundred degrees today. Hot, hot and will be hot again tomorrow.

According to the forecasts we will have more fall like weather next week, with temps in the eightiesAt Lest I still have some color in my garden.

9-11-01 Remembrance

Today for us the US it will be the eighth year anniversary of that terrible day 9-11-01.
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We should never forget the ones who died, or the heroism that was born on that day.
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Some people found courage, and some people patriotism.
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The old red white and blue still carried a lot of weight in this country, and it blossomed and flowed turned our sorrow into our national colors.

Thursday's Thirteen: Animals that I have seen around my home.

Thirteen Animals that we’ve seen around our country home:

1. Mice. The darn things keep getting into the house.

2. Rats. That’s something you don’t want to see in the house, but they’ve been here living in the walls and attic.

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3. Possums. Don't let anyone fool you these guys are ugly they look like big rats, as far as I'm concerned they are marsupial rats. And they've been eating the cats food, bit our chickens on the leg which killed the poor chicken from an infection later. Ugh, I hate possums. Two young ones somehow got into the house too. Scared me half to death.
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4. Coyotes. We hear their eerie cries almost every night. They’ve eaten my chickens, ducks and my cats too believe it or not.

5. Ring tailed cat. I saw one on the porch eating the cat’s food. It tore off when I turned the light on and looked out. They’re ingenious to California and it’s rare to see one. And here I had one eating on my front porch.

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6. Raccoon. I saw one dead by the side of the road. Sad.

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7. Skunk. They too like the taste of our cat’s food. I hate when one gets into the habit of visiting our house, they smell up the house something awful. Frabreeze can only do so much.

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8. Peacock. A few years ago I heard a weird call and went outside, and there it was a male peacock with beautiful plumage. It took one look at me and ran back into the vineyard that used to be here.

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9. Boar. It was a white male pig. Big sucker but lean like it wasn’t being fed much. It was running around slurping up the grapes that my landlord was paying to have laid out to turn into raisins back when there were raisin grapes here. My landlord even asked me if the damn thing was mine. Nope. I’m not sure what happened to it, but it disappeared.

10. Goat. I was coming home after I had dropped off my daughter at school and thought I saw a dog with a gummy sack on it head. I stopped the car and got out, but it turned out to be a male goat that had pulled out his chain. It took one look at me and ran hell bent for home. Gee, I sure scare the animals don’t I?

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11. Pheasant. There use to be a lot that ran around here making an odd coughing sound, but I don’t see them very much anymore.

12. Horned and Barn Owl. The barn owl nests on our pine tree out front and I've seen the horned owl roosting on a telephone pole dawn or dusk. I hear them screech or who. One was trying to catch a rat and kept flying into my daughter’s bedroom window. She said, she didn’t get much sleep that night because of the crazy owl and the rat.

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13. Hawk. There are a lot of birds of prey both small and large that hunt around here. One time when I was taking a bike ride I heard a hawk scream and I look up in time to see it dive on it prey. Last year while I was taking my daughter home from school we saw one flying with a snake gripped in its talon.

Bone Dry Monday

The worst thing about living out in the country is being on a well, especially in a dry arid place like Madera California. We're been in a drought for the last three years and with all the newbies and of course the farmers have to pump the water out of the ground their crops our water table has dropped.

Saturday I noticed our water didn't have much pressure. Hubby went and checked the well, the pump was working fine but there was no pressure. He asked me to turn off my drip lines to my garden which I did. We all manage to get one quick shower before the water stopped.

Yesterday we all made a trip to my mom's house to have a bath. Today hubby took a shower at work and my daughter is already at my mom's I'll be leaving shortly to have another shower at her house.

I hate this, and it would have to happen over a holiday weekend. My landlord when called got right on it, but the repair men said they couldn't do anything until at least Tuesday. And I suppose that means they will have to dig the well deeper.

On the bright side that is tomorrow, if they can make it out anyway.

Thursday's Thirteen: Funny Movie Quotes

Thirteen famous movie quotes, the funny ones of course.
And in no particular order:

1. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
If I'm not back in five minutes... wait longer!

2. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Lois: How would you like me to make your life a living hell?
Ace Ventura: Well, I'm not really ready for a relationship, Lois, but thank you for asking. Hey, maybe I'll give you a call sometime. Your number's still 911? All righty then.

3. The Addams Family:
Pugsley: We're not shy!
Wednesday: We're contagious.

4. Addams Family Values:
(Gomez refers to the girl popping out of the cake at a bachelor party)
Was she in there before you baked it?

5. Addams Family Values:
Gomez: Children, why do you hate the baby?
Pugsley: We don't hate him. We just wanna play with him.
Wednesday: Especially his head.

6. Addams Family Values:
Little Girl: ...and then Mommy kissed Daddy, and the angel told the stork, and the stork flew down from heaven, and put the diamond in the cabbage patch, and the diamond turned into a baby!
Pugsley: Our parents are having a baby too.
Wednesday: They had sex.

7. Airplane:
There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

8. Animal Crackers:
Spaulding: (to two ladies) Let's get married!
Mrs. Rittenhouse: The three of us? Why, that's bigamy!
Spaulding: Yes! And it's big of me, too!

9. Arthur:
I'm so rich, I wish I had a dime for every dime I have.

10. Gun:

“Your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash”, Captain Tom “Stinger” Jordan (James Tolkan)

11. The Empire Strikes Back:

“I’d rather kiss a wookie”, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher)

12. Crocodile Dundee :

“You call that a knife? That’s not a knife. This is a knife”, Michael “Crocodile” Dundee (Paul Hogan)

13. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:

“You can’t respect someone who kisses your ass. I just doesn’t work”, Ferris Bueller (Mathew Broderick)

September first

The first of September.

This month we have Labor day (US) to look forward too, so that's a three day weekend for my daughter and maybe my hubby. If they let him off.

Then there is Fall back.

Yeah, I really look forward to daylight saving time. I just checked it not until November 1, so my clocks can wait. Woot!

The first day of Fall is this month, while I enjoy the cooler weather what I don't like is having to rake leaves.
And my sycamore trees are already dropping their leaves. Dang them!

Thinking of you

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Click on the link, its really cool.

Thursday's thirteen: back to school list

Here we go again! It back to school. Our daughter’s school starts next week.
Thirteen things we have to get for back to school.

1. New Clothes, ya got to have new clothes when you go back to school. Can’t be seen in the old stuff from last year. If your child can fit in them anyway.

2. New shoes. I don’t know any child that does not go through several pairs a year.

3. New Backpack. Can’t use the old one from last year, if you can find it.

4. New binder.

5. New folders.

6. New lined papers to fill up the binders and folders.

7. New pencils. My daughter likes the mechanical pencils.

8. New pens. I wasn’t allowed to use them, but some the classes say they need them.

9. New color pens or pencils.

10. Calculator. I didn’t get to use one when I went to school, but I guess some things have changed.

11. New gym clothes for P.E.

12. New cell phone or at least repair the old one. This is the second time we’re going in to have her old phone repaired. And yeah, I didn’t have one of these either when I was a kid.

13. Lunch money! Can’t forget that or the daughter won’t forgive me.

Senior Year

This morning we got my daughter register for her senior year at high school, in spite of the fact that they forgot to send us her registration package.

Luckily they had extras and she just had to sign for it. I wrote fast and furious in the car filling it out for her, and handed it over so she could run it in and get her locater card and student ID for this year.

Done!

This is it! The last year (I hope).

Can you do me a favor and wish my little girl good luck with her Senior year at high school?

Thursday’s thirteen: how to save money.

In these hard economic times it nice to know that there are ways to save money. Some of my advice is probably stuff you already know, but I hope some of it will surprise or encourage you to figure out ways to save on your household budget.

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1. Shop at dollar tree. This is what I do, but I leave hubby behind. He gets in there and he’s over whelmed. “Look at this and it’s only a dollar.” Yes dear, I know. Take deep breaths and calm down. He comes and the bill goes from $20-40 dollars to $80-90 dollars. Yeah, leave hubby at home and save $40 dollars.
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2. Buy an economical car. If you’re paying bukoo bucks at the tank, to fill your oversized tank it’s time to down size. We traded in our Cad for a Camry. Savings at fill-up was about half what it cost to fill-up the old car with premium unleaded. And the Camry uses regular. Another plus when the Cadillac broke down it usually cost us @ $400 to fix the darn thing. The Camry we still don’t know, we’re been driving with the “service soon” light on for four or five months now.

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3. Dump the gas powered mower and get electric. I did. Its lighter and no annoying trips to the gas station, and no argument with hubby about who got that smelly job. Cost: Priceless.

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4. Hire the neighbor kid to mow. The advantage here is you’re saving not only a trip to the gas station, but using the kid’s parent’s gas. .
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5. Experiment with off brands, you might find one you like. I’m a diehard Producers customer for all my dairy products, but found Lucerne taste exactly the same and cost about a dollar or so less. That’s a dollar that I can spend at dollar tree, lol.

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6. Recycle. This should go without saying, but so many people ignore the obvious so I’ll spell it out in dollar signs. Cha-ching $$. Recycling helps the environment and puts money in your pocket. Yes it does. Have you ever taken in your recyclables to sell? You get paid to recycle, isn’t that fabulous? More dollar for dollar tree.

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7. Buy second hand clothes. I shop Salvation Army mostly, but don’t ignore the smaller places. I sometimes find stuff with the original tags still on them. That’s brand new never worn clothes a third to a quarter of the original cost. Mostly I get jeans for four to eight dollars, and that same pair at a department store can cost up to thirty and forty dollars, that’s up to a thirty dollar savings right there. You think your teen won’t go for it? I’ve taught my teenage daughter to shop at thrift stores, and she’s proud of the clothes she gets that doesn’t look like everyone else’s.

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8. Shop at Wal-mart. I know a lot of people do, but some still don’t. Yes, the customer service sucks and the lines are long, but you save money when you go there.
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9. Use coupons. I stopped a while back because when I got around to using them they were expired. But I found coupons in the flyers that come free to my house for some local restaurants, and they're good for a couple of months. A coupon that pays for one full meal is worth its weight in gold. Well, its paper it isn’t going to weight much.

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10. Learn to cook bulk rice. San Francisco treat or not, pound for pound white or brown rice is cheaper than rice-a-ronie. If you want more flavor drop in a bullion cube.

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11. Join the shopping clubs. They are popping up everywhere, and I don’t mean Costco and Sam’s club. Though I heard you can save a lot of money, but you have to buy in to be a member. Sorry but I’m cheap. I mean the free ones, the ones that cost you nothing to join. I’m a proud member of Safeway, Office depot, Petco, Boarders and longs drugs.

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12. Say no to pets. I know Fido and fluffy are adorable and you can’t live without them, but how many pets do you really need? How about thinning the herd? Or how about downsizing your pets. Smaller dogs eat less, a lot less. I use to have a Cocker spaniel it took her a month or longer to eat a fifty pound bag of dog food. Small breeds eat less than that. Cats are cheaper to keep especially if they are outside, they can catch their own food.

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13. Say no to exotic pets. Yes, they are interesting, but they can cost you with frequent runs to the pet store for their equally exotic tastes in food. Exotic also mean delicate as in if they sneeze they die, and there goes the wad you just spend on buying and feeding them. And what are you going to do with fifty live crickets or whatever? Release them into the neighborhood? Yeah, your neighbors are going to love you.

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How do you save money? Do you have any tricks you’d like to share?

Thursday's thriteen: What I hate about new pets

Thirteen things I hate about having new pets.

*Sigh* Hubby insisted we get two new kitten at the pet store, when all I went in for was bird seed. His reasoning was my old cat was too old to be a good mouser (Pookey turned eighteen last month), and we just lost two cats recently.

Then he brought home a baby bird.

No more pets! We already have two older cats, two new kittens and a pet pigeon, I thought that was enough.

1. The kitten aren’t quite litter box trained, it seems to be hit or miss. They either go in it or where ever they happen to be at the moment.

2. Buying cat litter. That right there is a loosing proposition, they go through litter like no tomorrow. How can two small cats poop that much?

3. Buying kitten food. We have two kittens, and they eat a bag a week. Don’t they make big bags of kitten chow?

4. Scratching. Their claws are everywhere. I have new scars.

5. Fleas. We got them at a pet store, but apparently there was some hitch-hikers going home with us.

6. Deworming. Have you ever dewarmed a cat? You have to poke a pill down its gullet past some very sharp teeth.

7. Vet bills. Here we go again I have to have shots for the new kittens.

8. Bathing. These two little flea bearing monsters have to be bathed often because they live inside with us, and they stink. I know cats bathe themselves, but kittens . . . not so much. How you ever bathed a cat? Remember the claws and teeth I was complaining about?

9. Fur. I have cat hair on all my clothes now.

10. The baby bird has to have baby bird formula. Yes, they do sell it and if you want a baby to live that’s what you get. We’re had a lot of success with it too. Well, mostly my daughter she’s the one who takes care of the little baby birds, but I help.

11. Baby birds poop an awful lot, and without warning. Nuff said.

12. Having a stinking bird cage in the house. Yes they smell. Babies poop a lot.

13. The noise. Meow-meow, I’m hungry. Meow-meow, I want attention. Then the baby bird starts cheep-cheep-cheep, feed me. First thing in the morning, ugh.

Thursday's Thirteen: Dreamers

I was on How to Avoid Writer's hell yahoo group, and I was having a discussion about dreamers.

I wrote something spontaneous about how "being a dreamer wasn't such a bad thing, in spite of what I was told in school."

And here is the result.
1. A dreamer went on vacation in Spain and dreamed about the speed of light, his name was Albert Einstein.

2. A dreamer dreamed about having a bulb that made light, his name was Thomas Edison.
3. A dreamer dream the last movements of The Messiah, his name was Frederic Handel.

4. A dreamer dreamed about a mocking crow, and wrote a poem. His name was Edger Allen Poe.

5. Two brothers dreamed about flying, their names were Orville and Wilbur Wright.

6. A dreamer dreamed of being a kid again and floating down the mighty Mississippi on a raft, or being lost in a cave, or any number of things with a sense of humor. His name was Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain.

7. A bored socialite dreamed of being in the South before and during the civil war. Her name was Margaret Mitchell and her book (maybe you've heard of it) Gone with the Wind.
8. The popular Beatles tune Yesterday performed over seven million times in the 20th century, came to Paul McCartney in a dream. McCartney one morning, awoke to the memory of a classical string ensemble playing the melody.

9. A dreamer dreamed that he "saw" the basic elements of the physical universe arrange themselves in an orderly and beautiful pattern like repeating phrases of music. He woke up and outlined from his dream every element in its correct order - what is now known in chemistry texts as the Periodic Table of Elements. His name was Dmitri Mendeleyev

10. A dreamer dreamed about “little people” or “Brownies” who populated his dreams and assisted him with the creative process: “They share plainly in (my) training. They have learned like (me) to build the scene of a considerate story and to arrange emotions in progressive order, only I think they have more talent.” His name Robert Louis Stevenson, his book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

11. A dreamer dreamed of sitting on the sun with all the planets hissing around on tiny cords. He won the Nobel Prize for that dream. His name was Niels Bohr, he developed the model of the atom.

12. Carl Jung wrote of his early dream journals, " All my works, all my creative activity, has come from those initial dreams which began in 1912, almost fifty years ago. Everything that I accomplished in later life was already contained in them, although at first only in the form of emotions and images. "

13. A Baptist minister went to Washington and gave a speech called “I have a Dream,” which prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. His name was Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where would we be without our dreamers?

Comments

Comments

I love getting comments, what blogger doesn't?

And I'm pretty consistent in commenting back to those who post here.

But here's a little FYI.

If you have a bottom placed comment box, I will not be able to leave a comment on your blog.

I've changed all of mine to the separate window variety because even I was getting complaints, and then I couldn't comment either. That really sucks when you can't comment on your own blog.

Janice~

My Mom the Writer

My mom just called with some good news, a recipe that she sent in will be published in a newspaper. And here it is, she just a couple of minutes ago walked in to my house to show me.

It doesn't sound like much? Well . . .

Let me tell you a little bit about my mother:

she grew-up working in the fruit since she was three. Yes, white folk do that too, and we're not all from Oklahoma. My mom was born in Roswell NM. She grew-up during the depression and the recovery period afterwords, so work was hard to come by. Graduated from HS in 1958 and lost her mom that same year.

She meet and married my dad in 1960 when she was 20, and became a mom just before mother's day less than a year later with me *grin*.

Her jobs have been working in fruit, cannery (Oberti Olives of Madera), and sold Avon (a few among many jobs she had). She went back to school when I was in the seventh grade and got further education to work in an office, then she did filing and typed over a hundred words a minute without a mistake, and did that eventually working at a grade school until my father illness from cancer in 1981. He died in 1982. Then she worked in the mail room at our local newspaper, and then did house cleaning until she married my step-dad who was a retired/widowed/school teacher.

He told me he retired her, lol.

My mom traveled with my step-dad until she developed a problem with her neck, she soon found out she had a very ugly disease called Spasmodic torticollis that made her a semi invalid for years.

A few years ago she had brain surgery. The doctors put stimulators into her brain, and it helped control the head twisting/turning and some of the tremers assosiated with her illness. This worked really well for a long time, until her batteries ran out. For some reason the new batteries or maybe the programing on the stimulaters were not enough anymore, and she had to have shots again. But they do seem to be working.

Last May my mom turned 70 and recently bought her very first laptop computer and has been trying to learn to use it. I've worked with her a few times trying to teacher her.

But the best news is the newspaper wanting to publish something she wrote. I'm just so thrilled for her. It is a triumph of my mom spirit to keep trying, and here she is a published author!

Yay, mom! Woot!!!

Thursday's thirteen: the original thirteen colonies of the U.S.

For this Thursday's thirteen I thought I would post the original thirteen colonies of the United States of America. After all it's almost my countries birthday, the Fourth of July.

The Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of the original thirteen United States of America in 1783. These British colonies in North America rebelled against British rule in 1775, largely due to the taxation that Great Britain was imposing on the colonies. A provisional government was formed which proclaimed their independence, which is now celebrated as having occurred on July 4, 1776, and subsequently became the original thirteen United States of America. The colonies were founded between 1607 (Virginia), and 1733 (Georgia), although Great Britain held several other colonies in North America and the West Indies which did not join the rebellion in 1775.
The Thirteen Colonies gave rise to eighteen present-day states: the original thirteen states (in chronological order:

1. Delaware

2.Pennsylvania

3. New Jersey

4. Georgia

5. Connecticut
6. Massachusetts
7. Maryland

8. South Carolina

9. New Hampshire

10. Virginia

11. New York
12. North Carolina

13. Rhode Island

Bonus: Vermont (which had been disputed between New Hampshire and New York and which was an independent republic from 1777 to 1791), Kentucky (formerly part of Virginia until 1792), Tennessee (formerly part of North Carolina until 1796), Maine (formerly part of Massachusetts until 1820), and West Virginia (also formerly part of Virginia until 1863).

Happy Birthday Pooky

This potted cat is named Pooky.
Today is her Birthday, she's eighteen and roughly a month older than my daughter.

Yes, I and the mother cat were briefly pregnant together.

Thursday's Thirteen: Patriotic songs

Since it is so close to the fourth of July, the U.S.'s birthday, that I thought I show my colors and my Thursday's thirteen will be Patriotic songs.

1. America the Beautiful

2. Battle Hymn of the Republic

3. God Bless the USA

4. God Bless America

5. My Country 'Tis of Thee

6. Stars and Stripes Forever

7. Star Spangled Banner

8. Yankee Doodle

9. This Land is Your Land

10. What the Flag Means

11. A New Wind a Blowin' by Langston Hughes

12. America (My country, 'tis of Thee) by Samuel F. Smith
13. The Marines Hymn

Thursday's Thirteen: Dealing with life's Burdens

Thirteen; Dealing with Life's Burdens.

I got these from Merle and she got them from her cousin Bill.
Thank you Merle and Bill

1. Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

2. Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

3. Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

4. If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

5. If you lend a friend $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

6. Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because you won't have a leg to stand on.

7. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

8. Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

9. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

10. Birthdays are good for you. The more you have the longer you live.

11. You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

12. Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

13. A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Thursday's thirteen: follow your dreams

I thought I would post something uplifting this week and post the following. Several are from Barbara Sher whom I just love, she inspired me to start writing seriously-- at age 38 and I have a learning disability. Which I'm not going to let stop me from doing what I want to do, and don't let anything stop you either. :)

Thirteen follow your dream quotes:

1. "In your first life, you served your job and your family. In your second life, you get to discover your own genius and pursue your passions." Barbara Sher: Creating Your Second Life After 40

2. When you get near people who are pursuing their heart's desire, you can see the intensity on their face. Life is just too short to live without that kind of focus. ~ Barbara Sher

3. ~"You must go after your wish. As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning." -Barbara Sher

4. ~Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so. - Belva Davis

5. ~"Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible." -Doug Larson

6. "The era you're entering is so different from your first forty years it's completely justifiable to call it your second life." Barbara Sher

7. "The universe is not going to see someone like you again in the entire history of creation." Vartan Gregorian

8. “Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my discharge.” From The Tempest by William Shakespeare

9. Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. ~Goethe

10. Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom while discouragement often nips it at the bud. ~Osborn, Alex

11. The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Proust, Marcel~

12. But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling, like dew, upon a thought produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions think.
Lord Byron~

13. Water which is too pure has no fish
Ts'ai Ken T'an~

Here's a bonus from me:

"Remember that everything before this spot in time--is prologue."
Janice Seagraves~

Thursday's thirteen: Never

Today's Thursday's thirteen is a list of "Never" quotes:

1. Never say anything on the phone that you wouldn't want your mother to hear at your trial. - Sydney Biddle Barrows, the "Mayflower Madam"

2. Never say "Oops" in the operating room. - Dr. Leo Troy

3. Never comment on a woman's rear end. Never use the words "large" or "size" with "rear end". Never. Avoid the area altogether. Trust me. -Tim Allen

4. Never kick a fresh cow dropping on a hot day. - Harry S. Truman

5. Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much. - G.K.Chesterton


6. Never use while sleeping. - Instruction on Conair hair dryer

7. Never play peekaboo with a child on a long plane trip. There's no end to the game. Finally I grabbed him by the bib and said, "Look, it's always gonna be me!" - Rita Rudner

8. Never murder a man when he's busy committing suicide. - Woodrow Wilson

9. Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room. - Winston Churchill

10. Never stand between a dog and the hydrant. - John Peers

11. Never take a job where winter winds can blow up your pants. - Geraldo Rivera

12. Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts. - Ruth Gordon

13. Never pick a fight with anyone who buys ink by the barrel. - American adage about antagonizing newspaper editors.

Thursday’s thirteen: hardware shopping with a teen

Thursday’s thirteen: hardware shopping with our teenager daughter.

Life is interesting with a teenager. She has a real different mindset. We went to the hardware store and looked at tools.

Her dad asked her, “Help me find some nuts and bolts. I just need a couple; they’ll be loose in one of these drawers."

This is her take on tools and hardware.

1. “Why is everything named after a man’s body part, or sound like sex?”

2. “I mean it’s all called ‘hard-ware,’ right? Think about that.”

3. “And dad wants me to find his nuts for him?”

4. “Screws.”

5. “Bolts”

6. “Rod”
7. “Then there are names like Ham-her.”

8. “Screw-drive-her.”

9. “Joint-her.”
10. “Compress-her.”
11. “Fasten-her”

12. “And don’t get me started on power tools,” she warned. Gulp, at this point I was afraid to ask.
13. Next we went to the checkout line, and it was one of those places where you check yourself out. Then she yells, “Dad, don’t go in there your nuts are too small.”
I hate to admit it but I just lost it, I was laughing so hard I was crying. My husband, blushing badly, had to lead me out to the car.

Change of weather change of shoes

We went to Fresno today and picked up my resoled Birkenstock sandals.
I have new soles and they even cleaned them for me too.
*sigh* Now, I'm ready for the summer.

My Birthday

My Birthday is tomorrow.

It seems to come around faster and faster the older I get.

Tomorrow I may let the lol cats throw me a shindig, we'll see what I feel up too.

The lesson from a sesame seed

The lesson from a sesame seed

Don’t worry it isn’t a parable or anything.

My family and I went to Fresno, and ate at the food court at fashion fair mall. We had Japanese and I had sushi. I love sushi, but they were rolled in sesame seed, which like. But like always one seed got stuck in this space I have between two of my teeth.

I tried everything I could think of to get it out. My finger nail, a straw from my soda, sucking liquid in and out between my teeth, and nothing worked.

We stopped at a couple of stores, and soon I forgot about the seed.

Then while I was distracted the seed came out.

How did I get it out?

I did nothing.

The harder I tried the more stubborn the seed got, but when I did nothing it came out on its own.

It seems to me that people (and that includes me) try too hard.

I don’t mean not to give it your all, or even try.

But when you try too hard for too long, doesn’t it seem like you spinning your wheels and get nowhere?

Not only that but you wear yourself out, and don’t want to do the thing; writing, art, whatever your passion is—anymore.

So my reasoning is; you still have to work at your goals, just not so hard that you’re defeating your own purpose.

Have fun.

If your write, write for the pure joy it gives you. If you’re an artist draw, paint or sculpt what pleases you.

Your joy will shine through.

Just remember that sesame seed. 

Bouncing along

* Bounce
This Along! *
The US Postal service sent out a message to all letter carriers to put a
sheet of Bounce in their uniform pockets to keep yellow-jackets away.

Use them all the time when playing baseball and soccer. I use it when I am
working outside. It really works. The insects just veer around you.

All this time you've just been putting Bounce in the dryer!

1. It will chase ants away when you lay a sheet near them. It also repels
mice.

2. Spread sheets around foundation areas, or in trailers, or cars *that are
sitting and it **keeps mice* *from *entering your vehicle.

3. It takes the odor out of books and photo albums that don't get opened too
often.

4. It repels mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when
outdoors during mosquito season.

5. *Eliminate static* electricity from your television (or computer)
screen. Since
Bounce is designed to help eliminate static cling, wipe your television
screen with a used sheet of Bounce to keep dust from resettling.

6. Dissolve soap scum from shower doors. Clean with a sheet of Bounce.

7. To freshen the air in your home - Place an individual sheet of Bounce in
a drawer or hang in the closet.

8. Put Bounce sheet in vacuum cleaner.

9. *Prevent thread* from tangling. Run a threaded needle through a sheet of
Bounce before beginning to sew.

10. Prevent musty suitcases. Place an individual sheet of Bounce inside
empty luggage before storing.

11. To *freshen the air in your car* - Place a sheet of Bounce under the
front seat.

12. Clean baked-on foods from a cooking pan. Put a sheet in a pan, fill with
water, let sit overnight, and sponge clean. The anti-static agent apparently
weakens the bond between the food and the pan.

13. Eliminate odors in wastebaskets. Place a sheet of Bounce at the bottom
of the wastebasket.

14. Collect cat hair. Rubbing the area with a sheet of Bounce will
magnetically attract all the lose hairs.

15. Eliminate static electricity from Venetian blinds. Wipe the blinds with
a sheet of Bounce to prevent dust from resettling.

16. Wipe up sawdust from drilling or sand papering. A used sheet of Bounce
will collect sawdust like a tack cloth.

17. Eliminate odors in dirty laundry. Place an individual sheet of Bounce at
the bottom of a laundry bag or hamper.

18. Deodorize shoes or sneakers. Place a sheet of Bounce in your shoes or
sneakers overnight.

19. Golfers put a Bounce sheet in their back pocket to keep the bees away.

20. Put a Bounce sheet in your sleeping bag and tent before folding and
storing them. It will keep them smelling fresh.
21.
Wet a Bounce sheet, hose down your car, and wipe love bugs off easily with
the wet Bounce.

Quick! bounce this along!
Nothing will happen if you don't, but your friends will be glad to hear
these hints!

Thursday's Thirteen: Men

My family and I worked in the yard today. I got some weeding done in the garden, but not enough.

I'm pooped so I'm posting another quick and dirty Thursday's Thirteen, this one for the men. I got it off of Merle's blog.

Top Twenty International Rules of Manhood. From an Australian newspaper.

1. Under no circumstances may 2 men share an umbrella.

2. Any man who brings a camera to a bachelor party may be legally killed and eaten.

3. Unless he murdered someone in your family, you must bail a friend out of jail within 12 hours.

4. If you've known a guy for more than 24 hours, his sister is off limits forever unless you actually marry her.

5. Moaning about the brand of free beer in a buddy's fridge is forbidden, however complain at will if the temperature is unsuitable.

6. No man shall ever be required to buy a birthday present for another man. In fact, even remembering your buddy's birthday is entirely optional.

7. On a road trip, the strongest bladder determines pit stops, not the weakest.

8. When stumbling upon other guys watching a sporting event, you may ask the score
but you may never ask who's playing.

9. It is permissible to drink a fruity alcohol drink only when you're sunning on a tropical beach... and it's delivered by a topless model and only when it's free.

10. If a man's fly is down, that's his problem, you didn't see anything.

11. Friends don't let friends wear Speedos. Ever. Issue closed.

12. Women who claim they "love to watch sports" must be treated as spies until they demonstrate knowledge of the game and the ability to drink as much as the other sports watchers.

13. A man in the company of a hot suggestively dressed woman must remain sober enough to fight.

And here's the bonus, the rest of the list, enjoy.

14. Never hesitate to reach for the last beer or the last piece if pizza, but not both, that's just greedy.

15. Unless you're in prison, never fight naked.

16. If you compliment a guy on his six-pack, you'd better be talking about his choice of beer.

17. Never talk to a man in a bathroom unless you are on an equal footing, ie., both urinating, both waiting in line etc. For all other situations, an almost imperceptible nod is all the conversation you need.

18. It is acceptable for you to drive her car, but it is not acceptable for her to drive yours.

19. Thou should not buy a car in the colors of brown, pink, lime green, orange or sky blue

20. The girl who replies to the question "What do you want for Christmas?" with "If you loved me, you would know what" gets an Xbox. End of story.