March of Dimes - Sudoku

do you soduku? so do i--most times i consider doing it a headstart on serving my time in purgatory. anyhow, i am using it as a hook to grab your interest.
march of dimes, now known as march for babies, is my personal charity of choice.
after seeing first hand for 13 years the impact of prematurity on infants, their families, and society, i can think of no cause more worthy of our support.
how bout joining my walking team? the march is saturday may 17, a 3 or 6 mile route.
if you can't join me how bout making a pledge?
and i just this instant thought of a team name......"the baby strollers"......get it?

where've ya been?

just got back from a lil' vacation

here's a lil' picture

sand, sun, surf

february 29, 2008

what are you cooking this weekend?

i know tonite is fish fry nite when we all do penance by going out and spending 10 bucks for a fish fry. it is lent, the time of sacrifice, after all. how did fish on friday ever get to this?

i remember tomato soup and grilled cheese as a kid, not lemon-pepper whitefish a la oscar.

sometimes smoked chubs, and of course, fried smelt by the garbage can full. now cleaning and cooking those little things was a penance!

the temp is supposed to plummet tonite. another winter wonderland weekend.

my garden catalogs are all dog-eared and marked up with wishes. sigh......

"to shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring."

--wj vogel

the view from the big red couch, part two

why i love aldi's.....for $2.99 i get several days worth of head therapy....

can't afford not to buy 'em!

ps, i actually took this picture. these are next to the couch on an end table.

the view from the big red couch, part one

ok, this is a quiz. i know some of you already know who this is, and the story behind this oil painting.

but for those of you who don't, i.e. young nieces and nephews, etc., take a while to study, let your eyes blur, whatever, and see what you can come up with.

the answer, and of course the story, shall be revealed when i feel better.

today is "imodium monday"

today i am not really on the couch under the down comforter with brodie keeping my feet warm, but here, pictured above, convalescing on a wicker chaise, under a parasol, a wan invalid...........

yeah, right.
oh crap. repeatedly. it started saturday when i couldn't finish my veggie omelette at the serving spoon. it was monthly 'girls-only club' breakfast and i felt punky, headachy, not really able to enjoy the conversation because i was preoccupied with feeling off. the weekend went on, and i intermittently felt normal. fell asleep before the end of masterpiece theatre. that worried me. got ready for work with suspicion that something south of the esophagus was going awry.


and was i right?? oh, yes, and in a big way.


but this, too, shall pass. quite literally.


imodium, gut rest but for clear fluids, and i'll be right as rain.

"thin places"

today at church i learned the name of something i've experienced many times in my life but could never describe well in words.

father bill's sermon was about "thin places".

he explained that the irish and the celts before them believed in holy sites in the natural world, or thin places, where the veil between the physical world and the spiritual one is very thin.

and when you happen upon a thin place, you are a part of the meeting of these two worlds as they are united for a moment in time.

and for that moment, you experience the divine.

when i've experienced a thin place, my chest filled with an overwhelming, physical sensation of perfect peace.

it felt like my heart literally swelled up inside my chest.

and i was full of this sense of intense well-being.

have you experienced thin places? mine always involve water in some form, be it seagull bar on the bayshore, the river, a silent snowfall , or noisy waterfall.

i am so happy that i learned the name for these intensely spiritual moments in life!

where are your thin places? when you call them to mind, do you feel the same rush of emotion in the memory of them?

Deep peace of the running wave.

Deep peace of the flowing air.

Deep peace of the quiet earth.

Deep peace of the shining stars.

---from a celtic blessing