Quilt Raffle

The First Parish Church in Dover, New Hampshire is fund raising to replace the original 1829 slate roof on the church. Learn more about the church history here.

This beautiful quilt, created by Diane Fiske, is being raffled to help raise funds. Tickets are $1 each or books of 6 tickets for $5. Email me for information on how to buy tickets.

Drawing will be held on June 15th, 2014. 

(insert descriptor) Life

What is the ratio of original thought to copy cat thought? 1:10? 1:100? More?

On holiday (vacation - which word, which word?), in Florida, I noticed there was a new car sticker on the market with the phrase "Salt Life". Living in the cold, arctic north and surrounded on all sides by land and "fresh" water, this hasn't made it to us yet. Meanwhile in Florida... every 10th car or truck had a Salt Life sticker and a few were emblazoned with "Swamp Life". What was this all about? As I don't own a television, I wondered if there is a TV show that promotes the Salt Life - whatever that may be.

Upon returning home it continued to niggle at my mind. What is Salt Life? Google being close at hand, I ran a search and found: www.saltlife.com. Okay, pretty cool, they took their passion and made it into a business with clothing, stickers, cafes, skincare, surf gear, etc. Great! What about Swamp Life? A similar search turns up images, a youtube link to a reality TV show, and other random items but no website. Copy cat or original thought? Who came first. I could swear there was another "Life" out there in car stickers but can't recall what it was. "Forest Life" maybe? Google is silent on that one.

Where am I going with this? I'm wondering what is happening to original ideas as more and more people seem to be jumping on whichever band wagon happens to be ahead of the crowd at the moment. I believe it started with "Live Strong" and the yellow bracelets. Remember them - the rubberized bracelets imprinted with a phrase? Of course, at first, they were all yellow and they were all imprinted with "Live Strong". And then... EVERYONE started making, selling, wearing rubber bracelets. They came in every color, they came in several sizes. They were branded, they were used for fundraisers, memorials, etc. They were everywhere. In fact, walk into Cheesie's Restaurant in Chicago and ask for Matt. He's sure to be sporting at least 1, a hold over from his days of collecting rubber bracelets.

And then, they were gone. A fad. We've seen fads before. But I digress from my original thought (pun probably intended): Everything seems to have a copy cat these days. Look at how the "Car Family Stickers" took off. First they were stick figures, then they were: zombies, star wars, athletes, Disney, Indiana Jones, animals,... you get the idea. I'll concede that the person who conceived of the above 3 examples had an original thought but then, how many copy cats came out of it?

What got this all started? I read an article the other day about the newest Milk ad campaign. The supporters of drinking more milk, who brought us the original idea of "Got Milk?" (which was copied by everyone as well) are now jumping on the bandwagon of "(insert descriptor) Life" with "Milk Life"...

Where are we heading as a humanity if we are better at copying than creating new?

I'd Rather be Here

Ever have one of those days? You know the kind. You wake up and realize that it all started going wrong before you even woke up and there is no right side of the bed to get up on? Yeah, THAT kind of day. This is one of them.

So far today I have:

1. Woke up 2 hours late due to not setting the alarm the night before. Here is the "going wrong before you even wake up part".

2. Got fired. The conversation went like this:

NOTE: I love my job and have the best boss in the world. The above certainly helped to bring a spot of sunshine to my otherwise bleak morning. :P

3. Couldn't get out of my own way while getting ready for work. Probably a symptom of the weird time warp due to waking up late.

4. Dropped my keys in a snowbank, somewhere, while moving my trash barrel out of the way. One minute they were in my hand, the next they were gone, gone, gone... Most likely sucked into the weird time warp space void I created by getting up late this morning. A HUGE thank you out to my neighbor Shawn for helping me to locate them. "I just saw a small hole in the snow!" says he.

5. Nearly ran out of gas on the way to work. Perhaps I exaggerate a bit. Quite possibly I was just under an 1/8th of a tank and would have made it to work and back just fine. But hey, my mom said never to go under 1/4 in cold weather and it was 1 out. ONE, I tell you! (Fahrenheit, Becky, Fahrenheit). I think the gas in my truck was sucked out while I was sleeping late. Gas Siphoning Gremlins broke into my garage and drank my tank dry. Uh huh...

6. Left my work sweatshirt at home. Fresh out of the dryer this morning and ready to go. I can see it now, curled up happily in a patch of sun on my kitchen table... sleeping. I'm sure it's much happier there than here in the cold. cold, COLD office.

7. I left my "Shop Shoes" at home. In Canada, you have 2 pairs of shoes for work (and home) - You have the shoes that you wear to get to work (known as "Outside Shoes") and the shoes that you wear inside the building at work (home, Dr. Offices, friends houses, etc) known at our workplace as "Shop Shoes". My Shop Shoes are enjoying a day of leisure, at home, while I am wandering around in my stocking feet waiting for my Outside Shoes to dry...

Interesting how quickly a day can roll downhill, like a giant snowball. For now, I'll dream of being here instead:

Another Fiesta!

Very pretty and made by my sister! Check it out! Another Fiesta!

Compassion

com·pas·sion

[kuhm-pash-uhn]

noun

1. a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

 

I had a difficult time in Florida with the "animal trade". Alligators in tanks, dried seahorses and blow-fish for sale, animal parts for sale...

 

Once upon a time I was the proud owner of several rabbits' feet. While I couldn't imagine having a foot from one of my own pet rabbits, I loved all things rabbit and didn't think twice about having a preserved, colored paw in my pocket at all times (I was 14). 

 

Today, it feels like buying death. Preserved Alligator feet hanging from jars of hot sauce & Jellies, dead animal parts topping pencils, alligator heads for sale, dead sharks floating in some blue preserving liquid... UGH! 

 

At least this guy is alive.

 

 

Happy Valentines' Day

To all my friends, near and far, Happy Valentines' Day,

May your hearts be filled with warmth and love. 

I love you.

Coffee, Duck Face, & Horses

What happens after traveling all day, arriving at your destination after 10pm, getting limited sleep, and missing your morning cup of coffee the next day?

Adventures & silliness ensue!

2014 - Goal #2

Pay Attention!

No, not you, me. :D I've gotten away from paying attention to what I am eating. This goal fits with resolution #3 - Nutrition. For me, certain foods make me feel gross. But they are quick & easy so I eat them anyway. And then I feel... gross!

How can I pay better attention to what I am eating? http://www.caloriecount.com is one solution. I find that when I am tracking what I am eating, I am paying attention to what I am actually consuming. Not only how much but what the actual food is. This network of people who are all working towards similar goals is a great way to stay on track. I mean, who wants to admit they ate a box of crackers for dinner?

More tasty recipes coming very soon - anyone up for a delicious veggie lasagna, gluten free?

2014 - Goal #1

Park and walk.

This is a reinstituted goal. It's an easy one, actually, as long as I remember to do it. Whenever I go to a store, bank, etc., I park as far from the door as possible (still in the parking lot) and walk.

Throughout 2013, I made a point of this - even going as far as parking in the "second" lot at Superstore and walking down to the store. However, as the cold weather came back around, I let myself get lazy about this one and I've been parking in whatever spot I can find. Not anymore. Time to park & walk again.

See you all at the far end of the lot!

Ghiry

Ghiry is The Dog. He's been The Dog since May 12, 2005 when I first held his tiny little self, 6 hours after he was born.

 "Who me? Are you talking about me?" Ghiry would ask. He's a rather curious dog with a wonderful personality. So who is Ghiry?

Ghiry is a big, floppy, goofy, Great Dane with a quick wit and fantastic sense of humor though he can be a bit of a curmudgeon at times. Ghiry loves going for car rides (Unless it is a multi-day trip, he informs me), playing with his stuffed toys, napping in the sun, bounding around the yard, hiking at Chickakoo, getting pats & scratches, and being a dog in general. 

Ghiry's long name is Ghirlandaio Gabriel Garcia - "Triple G"is what his cousins; Ashly, Hope, and Rebekah call him. He also goes by The Hund, The Dog, & Ghirdog. As long as you say it nice, he'll answer to anything, really.

When Ghiry was born in 2005, he was a mere 1 pound 13 oz. Such a tiny little speck of puppy that fit in the palm of my hand. How he has grown! He now weighs in at 120 pounds and, standing on his hind feet, is taller than me. In fact, he fits several of my sweatshirts and has been known to borrow them from time to time when the weather turns chilly.

So why am I introducing you to Ghiry? Because Ghiry has some stories to tell and he would prefer that you know who he is when you settle in to listen to his tales.

Stay tuned.

Books & Their Covers

Don't judge a book by its cover.

or

You can't judge a book by its cover.

or

You shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

What is all this about books and covers, you ask? It's something to think about. Something I've been thinking a lot about for the past several months (maybe even for the past couple of years).

Let me ask - would you walk into a book store, pick up a book, look at the cover (not read the synopsis, just look at the cover), guess how much the book weighs, note the color(s) on the cover and of the pages and then make a decision on whether to read the book based solely on the physical attributes of the book? How can you when you don't know what the book is about? Or what the book is capable of teaching you? Or where the book will lead you?

You can't.

2014 - Resolution #5

Slow down.

How many times have you said "I don't have time to..."?

But when we take the time to slow down (and sometimes stop) we find that we actually do have the time. In the past couple of months I've found myself rushing downhill, out of control, while I've missed out on some of the things that I really enjoy - cooking, hiking, writing, exploring, reading, painting... The list goes on. 

In 2014 I resolve to slow down. To take the time to dream, to plan, to scheme, to adventure.