A little bit of this and that .... and bags

Well, the weekend is finally upon us and the heat wave has moved on ... at least for us here in the northeast.  So beautifully crisp and comfortable that I just want to take a blanket outside and take a nap!

But instead ... I should be pruning my azaleas.  So says our local newspaper this morning.  Geez ... a girl can never get a break!

I just want to spend a little time on the patio ... reading ... or doing nothing.

Or watching for visiting birds. 

By the way, where have all the finches gone???  I had dozens of them at my feeder last month and now ... just a few stop in and visit.  What's up with that?

Okay, back to the patio to soak up some rays.

You know ...  we are suppose to get about 30 minutes of sun a day .... fills up our Vitamin D levels.  And it feels so good.  Especially with temps like today.

Although, I can't take too long relaxing.  We leave Monday for Porto and I haven't even begun packing.

Since we only to do carry on ...  I need more time to figure out what to take and what to leave behind.  You see, as a technie nerd, I end up taking more electronics than I do clothes!!  A girl can never have enough electronic toys, I say.  Why should men have all the fun?!

So as a result, my electronic bag ends up being almost as large as my clothes bag.

And speaking of bags .... I must confess, I have a bag addiction.  Not purses.  Not shoes.  Not jewelry.  Not clothes..... But bags.   All kinds of bags that can transport stuff.   I am always on the search for just the right bag with just the right number of pockets and space and texture and lightness ... oh my, how I could go on!

Bag companies should hire me to test out their products and do reviews.

I won't tell you how many bags I own.  The Professor reads this blog.  But I do own enough to start my own realty show, Bag Hoarders!

 In my defense, and I do need one, different occasions call for different bags and different sizes.  Just like purses.

Take my camera equipment for example.  There's a backpack for long-distance travel that can hold all my stuff plus more.  Then there's a mid-size bag for, let's say, spending time at the book store to do some work or time in the city.  And then, there's a small backpack for just a lens or two with the DSLR when you may be in a crowd or need to be light on your feet.

See?  All are necessary.  A girl just needs to be prepared!

Aren't you glad you stopped by today for this unpaid announcement for travel bags.

How about you?  What do you use to cart your stuff around in?

By the way, I didn't even go there with my *clothes* travel bags.  Like I said, The Professor reads this.

Later friends,

Lookin' good

SOOC Straight out of the Camera Sunday 

What is it about people in uniform that makes us all want to turn and look at them?

When The Professor and I headed down to Annapolis Friday, we didn't realize it was the U.S. Naval Academy graduation day for over a 1,000 graduates.  Fortunately, when we arrived in the afternoon, the ceremonies were over but there were still a lot of uniforms walking the streets.

They seemed to capture the spirit of the day.  Youth, confidence, promise.  Lots of good energy!

Needless to say, I couldn't resist my own stares.  Even the woman below has to sneak a peek.  Just something about uniforms.

They just look so damn good!

By the way, I'm lovin' this long weekend .... how about you?

We've come a long way, baby

Lots of weekend news, but more about that later.  It was filled with crowds.  Ugh!

But to break the monotony of faces, I began looking up.

Philly has such beautiful architecture and history. 

Like this building for example.

1904

So long ago.  

Here's a few of 1904 events.

The first underground line of NYC subway opened with over 9 miles of track.

The Great Baltimore Fire destroyed over 1500 buildings over 30 hours.

Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet was born.  (I love Pablo!)

Anton Chekhov died.

Dr. Seuss was born.

The ice cream cone made its debut.

James Joyce met his future wife, Nora.

The stage play Peter Pan premiered in London.

The first New York Eve's celebration is held in Times Square.

A woman is arrested for smoking a cigarette in a car on 5th Ave.

We've come a long way, baby!

Hope you're easin' into your Monday.

Until later ....

: : : :

Ch..ch..ch..changes...

I've been rearranging the place.

I'm exhausted!

Milford Sound, New Zealand  2006

Hope you like the new look.

Change in all things is sweet.

~Aristotle~

: : :

Doomsday

The rain keeps coming.  The sun make an appearance today but ever so briefly.  Since I've been missing it the last several days, I went scrolling through old some photos and came up with these.  No two are ever the same.  Sort of my *go to place* when needing a bit of a lift.

By the way, did you know the world is ending Saturday.

Me neither!

I read it right here in our local paper and then I Googled it!  And you know, Google knows everything.  Right?  We are Kaput!  

Psssstttttt.  I think I will hold off on paying that electric bill.

According to an Oakland pastor, our world, as we know it, will come to an end May 21, 2011.  Fire and brimstone?  Not hardly.  According to news reports, it doesn’t *really* end on Saturday but it *starts* to end.

That's like saying it "may rain today, then again, it may not." 

And if you need to know the exact time, it’s 6pm.  I’m not sure if that is Eastern time or Pacific time.  Seems like a small detail in the general scheme of it all, but it would be helpful to know.

Like ...  will there be time for afternoon wine?

Do I need to pick up some groceries for dinner?

Do I have to return my Netflix movie?

This news has me in a bit of a quandary, however.  According to those Maya calendar people, I thought I had at least until December 2012.  Enough time to lose those 20 pounds so I look smashing come judgement day.

But Saturday!?

Man, I just got my new Mac, still learning how to use my macro lens, don't know who will win on American Idol and will totally miss Mad Men's new season!

On the other hand, if it is Saturday, I guess I won’t have to worry about who I’m leaving all my gazillion dollars, or refilling the bird feeders, or cleaning my closet and doing the laundry.  Those weeds in the garden?  They can wait till Sunday.

And just in case they may be right,  I’ll wait to renew my subscription to The New Yorker.

Personally, I'm betting on THIS guy, Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and author.  He claims that the real earth ending won't arrive for another five billion years from now, when the sun runs out of hydrogen.

I like his way of thinking!

But if you doubt and you are still around come Sunday, you can stick with the Mayan end of the world, slated for 2012.  There's even a countdown calculator to tell you how many days you have left on Earth.

Grab it here!  http://savant7.com/mayan-countdown-clocks.php

So enjoy them while you can!

In the meantime, I think I'll go fill up my feeders.  Still trying to coax some bluebird into my yard.

I think I have some time.

Tomorrow, back to our regular scheduled programming.

: :

reena

My Other Self

Karen at This Old House posted a challenge the other day to do a post on "My Other Self".
How fun to dream of what *my other self* life would be like. 

 : :

MY OTHER SELF

would live up in Maine along the seashore

with a porch like this to watch the sunsets

or to take dreamy naps with the sound of the waves breaking nearby.

My other self would have a writing desk with a view of lush green trees and blue sky

 and she would have so many creative ideas

that each one of her books would end up

 on this list.

My other self would have a large red barn in her back yard

filled with these guys who may have trouble finding homes.

My other self would dress like this

and pull on these 

when cruising down the beach in her wagon.

My other self would have a bike cruiser for afternoon spins

to scour the beach for sea glass caught shimmering by afternoon sun

or to slip away to her other home gently rocking nearby.

My other self would eat these as often as she wanted

as well as pasta every night for dinner

and would still look like this.

My other self would end each evening on her dock

with The Professor

celebrating another day!

Gotta run.  Need to meet up with this Other Self.

She's having way too much fun without me!

Happy Weekend!

: :

reena

In the beginning

Well, that's a fine howdy do ....

Here we are ... 30+ hours and blogger is back up minus a post or two.  But I'm told that if I go back into my RSS feeds and pull up my own posts, I'll be able to repost them.  

I'll leave that for this weekend.

Because right now I am going on my 5th hour ... yes, 5 hours!!! ... sitting in the Apple store working on transferring data from my old Mac to my brand spanking new Mac I purchased yesterday.  These hours don't include the 6 hours last night trying to figure out why *Migration Assistant* did  not "migrate" everything to my new Mac.  

The boys in the Mac store couldn't figure it out either this morning.  So you know what they finally did after 3 hours of tinkering around?  Decided to give me another brand new spanking Mac.  And now were are in the middle of transferring my files.  

Of course, I have to stay here while it takes a zillion hours to transfer.  They want to make sure it all works correctly.

Arrrgggghhhhh!  

Do you know how frickin' hard their little stools become after a while.  I no longer feel my butt.  And I've had no lunch!  Nor fluids.  Fortunately, the young man working with me on this transfer took pity on me and got me a bottle water only if I promised not to spill.   I guess they have some fear of *water* around all their electronic gadgets.  Imagine that.

So here I sit, with my bottle water, careful not to spill, and writing up this blog on one of their computers while I watch the blue progress bar do its countdown.


A strange 24 hours between blogger being down and failure of my new Mac to load properly. 


I expect there to be floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and hail.  But what are the odds of Blogger AND my NEW Mac  to blow up at the same time.


The universe is angry!


: :


reena

Home away from home

Sunday.

In Anna Maria.

Coffee on our dock. 

Involves sharing breakfast with some creature 

who is on the hunt for his own type of food.

Sunday.

In Anna Maria.

May involve lots of labor.

Like removing this old stump from our property.

Sunday.

In Anna Maria.

May require even more labor.

Like removing a second stump as well.

(The Professor got all aggressive on that stump 

until it was pretty much gone.

I was very impressed!)

Sunday.

In Anna Maria.

Requires rest and relaxation.

Especially after all that choppin'.

After all, Sunday is a day of rest.

Sunday.

In Anna Maria.

My home away from home.

A place I hold in my heart
no matter where my travels take me.

~

reena

(aka missing the mom gene)

More

Today

Another chance to be more than I was yesterday

And yet

Still less than what I hope to be tomorrow

Closing my eyes

I will dream of what

can be

~

missing the mom gene


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Blossom by blossom

This is the view from my front window this week.

Trees are beginning to fill in and the winter burned grass is giving way to a lush green carpet. 

Deer  gather off in the distance at dusk and graze.

Sometimes they like to graze over there.

And sometimes they like to graze in my back yard.

Like on my fresh sweet hostas that have finally made an appearance.

And now they have made a disappearance because I forgot to treat them with Deer Off! 

The other night the deer grazed away on all my hostas.  Right down to their small beginnings.  I didn't even bother to provide you a picture because there would be no greenery for you to see.

So sad.

But I went right out and bought some Deer Off! for the season.  If I'm not fighting off the squirrels, I'm fighting off the deer.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love the animals.

This lovely purple burst is the first thing I see these mornings when I raise my bedroom shades.

This is such a beautiful time.

Blossom by blossom, spring begins.

::

missing the mom gene

Firmly grounded

A few years back, after removing our old patio and replacing it, we had a pile of flagstone remaining.  When I was asked if I wanted it hauled away, I said no.  Someday, I will put it to use. 

I love flagstone.  Natural and unpretentious under my feet.  Firmly grounded.

The following spring, I found that use.

Under one of our old tulip trees.  Along the log fence that is visited by our neighbor’s horses, looking for a treat.

Digging and scraping and carving out the land to make a new home for these stones
was exhausting.  Lifting and shifting.  Building a puzzle of stone.

When finished, I sat in silence shaded from the afternoon sun, admiring the handiwork.  Nothing fancy.  Not perfect.  But it was mine.  I had created it.

A place to begin or end a day.  A retreat if only so brief.  Away from beckoning responsibilities. 

Where thoughts are free to soar as far as one allows.  With feet still firmly grounded.

A sanctuary of possibilities.

~

Thanks for stopping by and wishing you a soaring weekend,

missing the mom gene

Guilty!

Monday. 

It seems the weekend blew past with most of my time spent in the office organizing, cleaning up and backing up my photos.  Only to discover I needed to up my Mac's memory.  Which was a simple task.

It's feeling young and perky again. 

More than I can say for my memory!

*sigh*

If only we could run out to the store and pick up a memory chip for our own selves.

So it was a bit chilly in my part of the country this weekend.  Unusual for this time of the year. 

I am so over the cold!  Today, we are barely going to climb into the 40's.  Even the tree buds refuse to open themselves up any more until Mother Nature turns on her Spring charm.

As you are beginning to notice, this post is really about nothing.  Only an excuse for me to ... again ... procrastinate on our taxes.  Our tax man wants everything this Friday.  The Professor has responsibly done as much as he can do.  He has now turned the files over to me.

They are still sitting on the dining room table where he left them several days ago.

For me.

So far, just to avoid picking them up over the last several days, I've managed to reorganize my photos, back up my hard drives, take hundreds of pictures of birds with my new camera, do laundry, pay bills, make doctor appointments, shop Amazon for new camera lenses, search for a new book to read, catch up on my blog feeds and play with Kitty Kitty.

I think I have run out of tasks.

*ugh*

My misery, though, was erased with this great dog video.  If you haven't seen it, you must watch. 

A MUST WATCH!

It'll make your day.

Guaranteed.



Now, I must go get those files.

~
missing the mom gene

12 steps

Today is a beautiful March day with the temperatures teasing me with a steamy 71 degrees.

The view from our home will shortly look like this, with an explosion of purple, lavender, pink and white blooms.

Until then, the yard is a bit beat up and pretty drab from the winter with dozens of twigs and small branches from the large sycamore trees that frame our home.

Yesterday, when I returned from my walk, I noticed one of our tall pines (ponderosa or sugar pine maybe) in our back yard had uprooted itself and was leaning dangerously near our power lines only propped up by a neighboring white pine.

One thing I have discovered in life.  Report a gas leak or power lines down, you get immediate action.  A call yesterday to our power company brought them out within a few hours and assured me we were not in any immediate danger (which I already knew) and that they would send someone out the next day to cut the tree down.

Today, some strong looking young men arrived and assured me they would bring no harm to our power, surrounding trees and house. 

*Holy Camoly!*

It was a bit nerve racking to watch them go to work bringing down an 80 foot tree.  At some point, though, you just have to trust the process.

So I did.  Here's what I learned about cutting down a tree.

Step 1.  Tie a rope around another tree and hope it falls in that direction.

Step 2.  Check to make sure the rope is nicely placed.

Step 3.  Discuss with your partner "Do you think that will do?"

Step 4.  Make a "v" cut on the side in the direction you want the tree to fall.

Step 5.  Take a call from your wife while your partner decides a second rope should be strung around another tree to make sure it doesn't hit the homeowner's house.

Step 6.  Try to explain to your wife why you really can't talk right now.

Step 7.  Now with a second line securing the tree, head back to the first tree to ratchet down the rope to bring the tree down, hopefully missing all obstacles in its path.

Step 8.  If tree is threatening to fall toward house, return to tree to make another *v* cut to help it fall in the intended path.

Step 9.  Hold breath and say three Hail Marys.  (Mr. Ed, the horse next door, decides not to watch.)

Step 10.  Tree Down!  Remember to exhale and say *hot damn!*

Step 11.  Admire your handy work.

Step 12.  Cut up and remove all debris.

 The end.

All that remains now is the lonely stump where once this beautiful pine tree stood.  It makes me a bit sad.

I will miss it.

Maybe a colorful red maple from the nursery could use a new home.

PS. Sorry for the pics and their poor focus. First they were taken from inside the house with my little Canon PS since I did not want to risk life and limb with falling trees and secondly, ... I'm still learning to use my NEW Nikon 7000.  So excited!

Thanks for stopping by on this Friday,  
missing the mom gene