Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
I’ve bought a bunch of books for all the airplane riding I’ll be doing soon. I couldn’t wait to dive into the best-looking one, “Conversational Style” by Deborah Tannen. She spends the entire book analyzing a two-hour Thanksgiving Dinner conversation between people with different cultural backgrounds and personalities to bring insight to the way people relate.
I think most people would rather be having the conversation than reading about it. But me, I had the pencil out and started underlining by page 4. I find it fascinating why I gravitate towards certain kinds of people and certain situations, which make me “flower” in ways that are remarkably rare. It feels like a miracle when it happens. But maybe it isn’t such a magical mystery as it seems. If I understand it better, maybe I can figure out how to help it happen more often.
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
I’ve been heavy-handed with the quotes lately, but I just can’t help it. I keep running into good ones that won’t let me leave them alone. I can’t believe I haven’t posted this one here before. This is the thing that made me want to see Garden State.
“You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn’t really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone. You’ll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day one day and it’s just gone. And you can never get it back. It’s like you get homesick for a place that doesn’t exist. I mean it’s like this rite of passage, you know. You won’t have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it’s like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that’s all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place.”
This, and the song “A Place Called Home” by Kim Ritchey. They understand.
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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There Denmark goes, bein’ all awesome again… :)
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“We live in a society that ostensibly honors families but won’t provide any social support to back up those values.” Article makes me want to scream.
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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So the newest Indiana Jones movie is based on a real Aztec legend. But the crystal skulls proudly on display in Paris, London and D.C. museums? … Not so real.
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Oh BOY does this ring true. It’s about the non-stop voices that begin to ring in women’s heads, louder and louder the closer we get to the big 3-0. (I don’t know what happens after that).
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
Well, there’s been a lot of down time after Paris, but that is soon to change. 2 weeks from now I start an avalanche of traveling. First I’m off to San Jose to see my sisters. We will go bridesmaid dress shopping and who knows what else. Then I’m off to Long Beach vicinity for my cousin’s wedding. Then, I’m going to Leipzig, Germany! It was either that or Seattle which was not an easy choice. But in the end international + place I’ve never been before won out. I just think there will be better stories :).
So that’s what I have to look forward to in the near future. What about the rest of us?
Well, it appears reservatrol is back in the news. This is the stuff that you may have heard makes “drinking red wine good for you.” Before, what I understood is that it helps prevent cardiovascular disease. Which didn’t elicit more than a passing interest. But NOW I hear that in addition to that, in large doses, it’s a fountain of youth.
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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More precisely: neophobic rats die young. This may not apply to me since I wouldn’t say I’m afraid of new things. In fact, I rather crave them. I am instead afraid of being judged negatively. Also, I’m not a rat.
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
Josh took out a book of Nietzsche aphorisms the other night. He said they are way easier to handle than his dense rambling prose. I said, “I love quotations so let’s have at them” and thoroughly enjoyed the moments that followed.
I’d like to share a few that struck me. Some of these are from that night (out of the book “Beyond Good & Evil”) and others I found around online afterwords. Most are cynical, but there’s a place for that. The place is a dark drafty room with a single candle flickering inside and rain pouring down outside, while the author paces the floor muttering to himself. That’s the scene I imagine while reading…
He doesn’t replace Oscar Wilde as my favorite quotationist. I like Wilde’s light and playful style better. Nietzsche takes himself so seriously that it is harder to overlook the places where I disagree with him. But he leaves an impression, that’s for sure.
Onward —>
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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FREE wedding dress / supply shop in MD. I don’t qualify to use them, but what a great idea!! I would love to do something like this wherever I end up.
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This sounded cooler than it is. It may have actually made me more stressed. All those flying faces! You might like it though :).
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I LOVED the speech referenced in this article wherein Obama discusses the role of religion in politics. Dobson HATED it.
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
It’s been a long time since I planned dinner for Josh and I. I haven’t done it since I switched jobs. My schedule changed and the grocery stores along my route changed. Wegmans is now way out of the way…boohoo. The only grocery store actually on the route is a Bloom. Which I liked more before I learned they’re just renamed Food Loins :(. Anyhow, I mended my ways last night. And I did it in a way that particularly impressed Josh because instead of simply following a recipe, I blended the best of two recipes together into a unique creation I can call my own. Plus, it turned out super tasty.
Many moons ago I fell in love with a chicken mushroom crepe dish at O’Tooles. I tried to recreate it but was thwarted by the non-availability of crème fraîche. This is no longer the case because of the aforementioned wonderful Wegmans. So, I now present to you, Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Crepes “Worth Going Out of the Way For”
( Read the rest of this entry » )Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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“Nearly all physicists agree that on relatively small scales the distribution [of matter] is fractal-like… The point of contention is what happens at even larger scales.”
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“The replacement of traditional fuels with biofuels has dragged more than 30 million people worldwide into poverty.”
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Funny response to the miracle shyness drug #1: The nerds are all gonna start breeding now!!
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Funny response to the miracle shyness drug #2: We don’t wanna “fix” the shy people! Shyness is a beneficial trait. Shy people rule. (I like her) :).
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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Would love to try this.
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“Eager to identify other candidate Gaias, astronomers have high hopes for the Kepler spacecraft to be launched in February.”
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
The ladybugs like my aerogarden! Especially the basil. They’ve been racing around all over it. This afternoon I saw what sure looked like two of them mating on it. Which must been they’re super happy with their environs :). It has everything they need. Fake sunlight, pools of water, lots of food. Loving it is exactly what they should do. But last time I tried this they floundered around in the dirt or spent all their time trying to get out the window. I think I got higher-IQ ones this time ;)*.
Did cake-tasting this weekend. We are going to go with Virginia Cakery. They have rave reviews, and the samples lived up to it. This will be tasty cake! Not sure how fancily-decorated, yet. But taste is what the guests really want, I know.
I wanted to show off some of my spore creature creations. I made an awesome unicorn and a still-needs-some-work fairy. But the program hosed Josh’s laptop so that will not be happening anytime soon. Oh, Spore. I still love you though you hurt me so.
RIP George Carlin :’(.
*Well, except the two I found on the soda cans this morning. They’re gonna have a hard time getting in there. But with just a little guidance they mended their ways and have not attempted to fall to a sweet watery grave again.
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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I’ve been playing with this and it’s super fun!!
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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“The world is panicking over birthrates. Again.”
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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I think this is overblown, and that it overlooks major mays philosophies of the religious right encourage adherents to behave terribly, often against their better judgment. However, it is scarily correct in some aspects.
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
Wednesday - Met with our wedding coordinator. Yeah, we’ve got one of those now :). One of Josh’s coworkers has volunteered this service and I have to say it’s the best present ever! He has some great ideas. I feel far less overwhelmed by things now. This will help free me up to focus on the aspects I’m most interested in and better at. Like, the flowers…
Thursday - First installment of my floral design for weddings class. We made corsages and boutonnieres from red roses.
Making the boutonnieres is pretty simple. So I’m now thinking of ordering some loose Star of Bethlehem and making my own. Corsages I will probably leave to the pros. I couldn’t figure out that bow.
Saturday - Was watering my hanging flower baskets before heading out to spend the day with my dad in Baltimore. One of them that had been doing very well looked all tousled with wilting edges. Weird. I figured it was the heavy storms. I went over to survey the damage and discovered to my delight… it wasn’t a storm at all. It was a little bird who had decided to build a nest!
She was totally indiscriminate to the health of my flowers, just mashing them out of the way. But I’m tickled pink she thought they’d make a good home for her babies. The daisies curl around the nest in a particularly charming way so I can see the attraction.
Dad and I had reservations at Tir Na Nog in the inner harbor. But because of confusion about having to enter on the second story, we ended up at McCormick & Schmick. They set us out on the balcony. It got very warm but was cool to be sitting right in front of the USS Constellation.
After that we went to Body Worlds 2 at the Maryland Science Center. Real bodies, preserved in plastic, opened up for you to see inside. Modern mummification. For science! It was both creepy and fascinating. My favorite part was the smoker’s vs. non-smoker’s lung, black vs. white. Really sends the message home when you know they came from real people. Around the corner at the end of the exhibit was a box for people to dump their packs of cigarettes if they had decided to quit smoking as a result of the display. There was lots of cigarettes in there.
Sunday - I checked back on the nest, and this time I saw an egg!
Josh says it is a robin egg, and he thinks the robin that was watching attentively when I brought him outside to look at it, is the mother. I hope so. I’ve not seen a bird sitting on the nest or flying over to it at all. I hope the egg has not been abandoned for territory less full of gawkers. It seems a little strange that there’s only one. But perhaps there’ll be a bird family soon!
Then we headed out to spend the day with Josh’s father. We got him an AeroGarden and I had fun helping them set it up. I like spreading the joy. I’m a little down on mine at the moment, though, because it has become infested with aphids. They loooove my cilantro almost as much as I do. I’ve been having to spend 10 minutes every morning squishing them, only to keep the situation from getting any worse. Today I gave in and purchased some ladybugs. I tried this once before on a houseplant without success but I am wiser now so am hopeful. I hope this doesn’t happen to Josh’s dad. It is apparently not very common.
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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Analyzes the upsides and downsides to waiting until older to have children. More focus on the upsides, many of which I hadn’t considered.
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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“legalized friendship” = super good idea in my book.
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Nicely written advice about not bothering with regret over irreversible decisions.
Originally published at my real blog. Please leave any comments there.
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Article makes me have all sorts of conflicting feelings… none of them good.
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