A DIY Beauty Bath

Back in the 70s I acquired a book about natural beauty treatments. This was the era of communes and going natural. They call it green and Do It Yourself (DIY) today. I wish I still had that book. It was useful and interesting to read. I didn’t put a lot of the natural methods into frequent use but I tried several of them at the time. The one I remember the best was for a beauty bath. I used for years and recently revived part of it.

It seems that back in the days of Cleopatra she liked to take beauty baths. Being rich she would indulge in a milk bath. She had the milk of asses poured into her sunken tub. I imagine it was the size of a small swimming pool or so the movies showed us. That may be the fancy of some film genius but most of us don’t have tubs that large. The book told me you could recreate this effect by pouring 1 or 2 cups (maybe 3) of powdered milk into your bath. I guess the more water you put in the more powdered milk you use. The milk is soothing and softens the skin. It doesn’t leave you smelling strange and I rather liked the results.

The other part of my remembered beauty bath included the use of salt. Sea Salt was recommended but you could use regular table salt if that was too pricey. So that’s what I would do. You pour a small pile of salt into the palm of your hand. Then you drip a few drops of water on to the dry pile to make it into a paste like consistency. You have to be careful here because too many drops of water and you’ve got salt water which won’t help with the next step. After you’ve dampened the salt, take a little of it and scrub your skin with it. This exfoliates the skin and does not hurt your ph balance. Warning though, if you have any open sores it will sting a bit. After scrubbing to your hearts content rinse and you’ve got inexpensive exfoliated skin that is much smoother.

I did these two things in the same bath. The results were skin that felt like velvet afterwards. I mentioned it to a guy once and upon stroking the skin along my arm he was impressed. The part I’ve revived for the time being is the salt portion. This is so inexpensive that almost anyone can do it. I even used it on my face and am pleased to say that this morning my facial skin feels smoother than it usually does after a nights sleep. So if you want to try this feel free. It doesn’t cost much for salt although powdered milk may seem a little dear. Considering the price of commercial bath exfoliating scrubs and softening soaks I think it’s worthy substitute. Hope you’ll let me know if you try it.

Butterflies are Free and So Are My Evenings!

Thank you so much for your patience with me not posting for 3 weeks. That job took a lot out of me! Now, thankfully, it is finished. Yay! My evenings are my own again!

So are my lunches. Before I started the evening job I could take an hour lunch on days I didn't have evening obligations, like choir practice. When you take an hour lunch you have time to spare. You aren't left with that rushing to eat and then get back to work feeling. Instead you can sit and work a sudoku or read a chapter or two. You can go outside and enjoy the day. Or you can sit and chat with other people at the lunch table and make friends. That's so soothing!

My boys were glad to see me when I got home yesterday. Hyram told me that waiting till 10:00 PM for his supper was not good for his digestion. Hooboo said my absence took away from his night time socializing. They both got spoiled last night. Hyram got extra treats, Hooboo went in and out several times, and I kept the sliding glass door open so that they could sniff the night air and feel at peace. My reward for this was to wake and find both cats on either side of me in bed this morning.

So what are my plans with this new found freedom? Well, I intend to get the desk cleaned off and do some better house keeping than I've had time for. I also plan on treating myself to a morning matinee today. It's been a while since I've gone to a movie and there's the new Star Trek movie out. That's just today though.

Another thing I hope for is renewed time to play scrabble with Sandi online. This is one of my favorite evening activities. We chat up a storm when playing and are often so busy chatting that we made a rule that we wouldn't extend each other's time so that we would get playing done too. (g)

Reading is also a goal. Sandi sent me a bunch of books to read and a work friend lent me another so there are about 7 books on my bed waiting for me to either start or finish them. Do you read more than one book at a time? I seem to lately. Right now I'm working on "Hide and Seek" by James Patterson and "Birsinger" by Christopher Paolini. There's also the short story "A Tiny Feast" by Chris Adrian which I printed off of "The New Yorker" website. My friend Susan gave me the link to that one.

Other things I hope to do with the evenings that are mine again are: update my resume, catch up on Internet TV watching, make it to Wednesday evening choir practices again, and more frequent blogging. Somewhere in there I need to finish my taxes. I was so rushed this tax season that I just filed for an extension and now I have time to look for a couple of documents. Plus I've got some pictures I want to share with you, but that will be another post. Enjoy the puzzle!

Book Tag

JSD, Paschal, and Alt have all done this so I guess it's my turn. Most of my books are ones I just couldn't bear to part with.

How this tag works:

(a) Fiction book
(b) Autobiography
(c) Non-fiction book
(d) A fourth book of your choice, from any genre

Explain why the books are essential reads, in 30 words or less. (For maximum fun, try for 30 words exactly).

Fiction: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
If I hadn't read this I doubt I'd have read the trilogy. An easy stepping stone to the rich tome which some find daunting. LoTR is richer after reading this.

Autobiography: Hate to say it but, I've read biographies but no autobiographies that I can recall.

Non-fiction: In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Most history books are dry. This one isn't. It makes a connection between classic literature and fact. This award winner is now an American History classic. Info and 1st chapter are here.

Any book of your choosing: The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, edited by William S. Baring-Gould
By the time I finished these two volumes I could guess the plot's finish. Pictures and notes in the margins make the stories richer and provide social context on Doyle's popularity.

As Paschal so neatly put it, Tag! You're it!

Update: Paschal suggested I break the rules and list a biography. Great idea! Thanks, Paschal! This turned me to the Public Library page for a search of topics. The related subjects clued me into a book I both like and am still in the process of reading. So here's my biography entry.

Biography: Sex With Kings : 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge by Eleanor Herman
Great behind the scenes stuff! What attracted me were mistresses' pictures and answering the question, "Why would someone want to be a mistress?" It has its own website, here.

Could You Survive in Poverty? - A Perspective Quiz

When I was attending college I went through a workshop designed to give me a better understanding of the conditions people in poverty live under. It was based on the book "A Framework for Understanding Poverty" by Ruby Payne. Life has a way of teaching us some of the things necessary to survive hard times and they are never fun, especially when we have a family to worry about.

Historically, life has always been hard. There have been easier times, but I don't think the world will ever eradicate poverty. I used to see lots of emailed stories about how people were more blessed by simple things than by fancy stuff, things like a night spent lying with your family and friends on a blanket in your back yard observing the stars with your naked eye instead of sitting in front of a TV watching a DVD on a big screen TV or playing a video game on your x-box or computer. I don't see many of those examples in my emails now. Maybe people feel that we are all having to remember simpler lives with less wealth to provide us with entertainment.

Because income levels have an insular effect on society, even those who work with the poor can be immune to how lives really function at the generational poverty level. And, sadly, that is what many parts of our country and others have, life long poverty that you can't escape to give your child a better life. When you live like that your whole perspective changes. Things that you or I might find insupportable are just a fact of life to the poor. For instance, moving in less than a day because you can't make the rent at your present home. When I talked to the associate rector at my church he told me that this kind of workshop was also part of his education. But is education in this enough? My parents and grandparents lived during the great depression. I have lessons in economics they taught me from those times. My father has never paid even so much as a penny of interest on a credit card in his entire life. My church prides itself on being reconciling but we are a pretty affluent church, not wealthy, but no where near poor. Our rector is an ex NY lawyer and his wife is too. Their kid is going to college in Boston. Our whole church does a whole lot to help the poor, but even so, I wonder what any of us would do if we suddenly found ourselves poor?

The most telling thing in the entire workshop was a quiz which we were required to take. It was based on the skills you needed to survive at different levels of income. I've decided to share this quiz because many of us, myself included, need a reminder that just because we live at one level of income doesn't mean things won't change. I think many in our country are experiencing that and if this quiz helps any of you interact with your friends, who may be struggling, in a way that is more reconciling then that's a good thing. But if this quiz doesn't teach you anything, be forewarned, life may do it.

Could you survive in middle class?

Count the number of items you know how to do:
1. I know how to get my children into Little League, piano lessons, etc.
2. I know how to set a table properly.
3. I know which stores carry the clothing brands my family wears.
4. My children know the best name brands in clothing.
5. I know how to order in a nice restaurant.
6. I know how to use a credit card, checking account and savings account—and I understand an annuity. I understand term life insurance, disability insurance and 20/80 medical insurance as well as house, flood and replacement insurances.
7. I talk to my children about going to college.
8. I know how to get one of the best interest rates on my new car loan.
9. I understand the difference among the principal, interest, and escrow statements on my house payment.
10. I know how to help my children with their homework and do not hesitate to call the school if I need additional information.
11. I know how to decorate the house for the different holidays.
12. I know how to get a library card.
13. I know how to use most of the tools in the garage.
14. I repair items in my house almost immediately when they break—or know a repair service and call it.

Could you survive in poverty?

Count the number of items you know how to do:
1. I know which churches and sections of town have the best rummage sales.
2. I know which rummage sales have “bag sales” and when.
3. I know which grocery stores’ garbage bins can be accessed for thrown-away food.
4. I know how to get someone out of jail.
5. I know how to fight and defend myself physically.
6. I know how to get a gun, even if I have a police record.
7. I know how to keep my clothes from being stolen at the Laundromat.
8. I know what problems to look for in a used car.
9. I know how to live without a checking account.
10. I know how to live without electricity and a phone.
11. I know how to use a knife as scissors.
12. I can entertain a group of friends with my personality and my stories.
13. I know what to do when I don’t have money to pay the bills.
14. I know how to move in half a day.
15. I know how to get and use food stamps or an electronic card for benefits.
16. I know where the free medical clinics are.
17. I am very good at trading and bartering
18. I can get by without a car.

Could you survive in wealth?

Count the number of items you know how to do:
1. I can read a menu in French, English and another language.
2. I have several favorite restaurants in different countries of the world.
3. During the holidays, I know how to hire a decorator to identify the appropriate themes and items with which to decorate the house.
4. I know who my preferred financial advisor, legal service, designer, domestic-employment service, and hairdresser are.
5. I have at lest two residences that are staffed and maintained.
6. I know how to ensure confidentiality and loyalty from my domestic staff.
7. I have at least two or three “screens” that keep people whom I do to wish to see away from me.
8. I fly in my own plane or the company plane.
9. I know how to enroll my children in the preferred private schools
10. I know how to host the parties that “key” people attend.
11. I am on the boards of at least two charities.
12. I know the hidden rules of the Junior League.
13. I support or buy the work of a particular artist.
14. I know how to read a corporate financial statement and analyze my own financial statements.

When I took this test I scored all correct on middle class and could do 6 or 7 things in poverty. I attribute that to my post depression upbringing. I could only do one thing in wealth and that was because I lived on the Mexico border and used to dine over there. How did you score?

An Alice in Wonderland Night

First Fridays in the King Williams historical district of San Antonio are a wonderful mix of glorious architecture, live music, and art galleries open till late. Last night my friends Jean and Wilma took me to this street fair. We had a ball and intend to go again.

Dinner was at the Mad Hatter's Tearoom which, as it's name implies, is straight out of "Alice in Wonderland". The food is eclectic, very good, and reasonably priced. My choice was half a turkey sandwich with spinach, tomatoes, chipotle cream cheese, and pickled onion, accompanied by a cup of chicken florentine soup. Once seated I started looking around and brought out the camera. I asked my friends if people in the area were okay with people taking pictures all the time and upon being reassured started taking pictures of everything that caught my eye. And I could have taken more. This is just the bare bones of this fantastic place.

This picture, taken from the inside, shows the window sign and happy hour banner. There are fresh flowers on all the tables and you can tell from the cars parked outside that things are starting to get lively. Finding parking on this night is hard to do, but we were lucky to find one right in front of an old house where the driveway had been moved. I guess the lack of a curb had fooled some folk. Not our Wilma.

This is the hallway to their secondary room. I liked the way this row of windows provides light and a good view of everyone who was walking by outside. Before we finished eating there was a steady stream of folk walking past.

On the front left you see an amplifier being set up for live music later in the evening. The performers were coming in one by one while we dined. Our evening of wandering took in the main street and then came back for refreshments and to sit and listen to the group. The dessert Wilma and I shared was decadent. It looked like some kind of layered cheese cake concoction. There was creamy coconut filling at the top, a lovely cake like chocolate crust and when you bit into the cheese, ohmygosh, it was filled with those dark liqueur like cherries that made you think of cherry cordial candies.

Remember how in Wonderland, every cup at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party was different? And you picked your place to sit at by the type of cup you wanted? The same held true here. Some of these cups are quite nice. It had me wondering how long it took them to collect all these different ones. There was a very large selection of teas to choose from too. Trying some of them will be one of my goals the next time we visit.

Jean pointed out the sign for take out shown here. "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!" the rabbit cried. He kept looking at his pocket watch and running down the trail till he jumped down a rabbit hole. And Alice followed him down the hole. Not here...she got take out and left to wander the streets.

Jean also pointed out these shelves and this very large economy sized cup up at the cash register. She's got a great eye for detail. She is the one who took this picture, and I think she did a good job of it. My view was obstructed by flowers and the place was so crowded that handing her the camera was a better choice than getting up and moving around.

This is the performance area where the quartet was setting up. The pictures on the wall caught my eye and made for an interesting background when they were performing later. There were no for sale signs, so I think these belonged to the restaurant.

Stopping to wash our hands on the way out we encountered the waiting lounge, and the feelings of gracious comfort were extended there as well. The seating room was fitted with several chairs, a table or two, and lots of whimsy. Waiting my turn, I couldn't resist taking pictures of all the bits and pieces that make up the flavor of this place. It's absolutely amazing how much detail went into this lovely little restaurant.

Here's the Mad Hatter himself. I loved the way he's dressed and it is a very child attractive doll, as you can tell from the missing fingers on his left hand and the bandage on his foot. Because it has porcelain hands, I'm guessing this is an antique and hope it wasn't damaged beyond keeping its value.

There was a built in curio cabinet with some fragile items enclosed in wooden cubbyholes and protected by glass. These two cats are shaped teapots.

Above a set of bookshelves I saw this fantastic sight. That cup has to be bigger than my upper torso. "Will you have one lump or two," asked the Hatter?

"Two please," said Alice.

Here's what the well read tea lover would have in their library. Notice the title of the book on the right? All of us chuckled over that one. I'm delighted with the way this picture turned out. You can clearly read every title on the spines and I was thrilled to notice that a Harry Potter book was among the selections.

This other cup was above the curio cabinet in the corner. And there was another one just like it in the opposite corner.

As we were getting ready to head out the door this painting caught my eye. Thanks to some details of her work, which San graciously shared with me, my attention to detail in art has improved and I noticed that this was in 3D. My curiosity peaked I got closer. The colors are varied, dappled, and intense. I like the way the location of the eyes are defined by the the white surrounding the iris.

Trying to get a better defined image showing the three dimensional nature of this painting I took this angled shot. I'm don't think it caught the bas-relief effect of the facial features as I'd hoped, but it does show the window which opens your view to the next room, see that small chair top in the lower corner of the window, and from there out the window behind it into the outdoors. While the front of the restaurant looks business enough like, the layout seems to be more like a Victorian style house with lots of windows looking every which way and into different rooms.

Learning from San, I took a couple of details hoping to show you the amount of work and creativity that went into this painting. Here's the eye because that iris defined by a single curve of white struck me as a very creative way to do them.

And here is the mouth. From a distance the lips look pursed to me, but close up they look puckered. While the overall expression of the face doesn't make me think of romance, more a pensive, sly kind of look, the lips in close up give the image of a mouth getting ready for a kiss.

Then we left. And while I had my camera in my pocket, with every intent of taking tons of pictures, I was just too nervous about dropping it and we were doing almost non stop walking and looking in the middle of a crowd. So I didn't take any more photos. My plan is to try to do better the next time we go, because I fully intend to go back again!

Dibs and Dabs of Stuff

This morning I'm grinning from ear to ear. San awarded me the "Just Plain Fun to Read" award. Yay! Thank you San! It's proudly displayed on the right sidebar.



Thursday evening I rediscovered the public library. Wanted something new to read. Didn't want to face the dangers of walking into Barnes & Noble...or any other bookstore for that matter. So I stopped by on my way home. While there I picked up a copy of the latest book by the late Madeleine L'Engle, The Joys of Love. Apparently this had been in the possession of her family and is published posthumously. At my friend Micheal's suggestion, I'm trying out a book by Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor. Michael and I've been functioning as good personal libraries for each other lately. That's a great way to save and keep in touch with friends. The third book I picked up, and am in the process of reading now, is Maria V. Snyder's, Poison Study.

Getting books at the public library has been added to the lifestyle changes list.

With books I'm like a kid in a candy store. It can be hard to choose. When I have more than one new book I sometimes use a method for choosing which to read first. Two or three of the most interesting looking (it's a mood of the moment thing) get into bed with me and I read a few lines or a page from each. The one I get hooked by at the time is the one I start with and read for the next few days. That's what happened last night with Snyder's book. I was hooked in the first paragraph. Wow! Talk about good writing. You wake from a nightmare caused by experiences you lived through. You're in prison. You're walking towards your own execution thinking "how nice to have it all over," and then boom, you're getting offered one of those jobs which might kill you, but while you do it your still alive. Who couldn't get hooked by a book that does that in 6 short pages?

While at the library, I proudly noticed that Susan's book Shelter was on the shelves. Yay, my friend is known locally too!

Michael is teaching me how to play Dungeons & Dragons. This is apparently going to take some time because the game isn't being played yet. He is in preparation still because he's writing the scenario and needs to gather a team of players to play it. What we've been doing towards my part is design my first character. The story is set in an alternate US history. It has lots of cultures in it and I'm a Half Elf, Asian-American, Female Sorceress. So far we've done the creation dice rolls that tell you what your strength, knowledge, and some other stuff are. Then we added the extra points by race and selected weapons I'm supposed to be good with. Those were longsword, rapier, and short and long bow. Now I'm in the process of reading through a list of feats to choose one which I can have as a starting feat. Why they call these feat I've no idea. They seem sort of like talents to me. But I'm new to this and maybe talent has another meaning in the game.

And on a frustrated but also affectionately amused note, now that my desk top has been cleaned and decluttered (for the most part), Hyram has decided that it is his favorite perch again. So he keeps jumping up in the middle of the desk. And I keep shoving him over to one side. His tail flicks a lot and when it disrupts mouse movements I lift him down. He turns around and jumps right back up. So we're in the battle for computing/cat perch space right now. I love that he wants to be close to me. I love how he purrs when he's up here even while flicking his tail swiftly and roughly. But I don't love to have my mouse, in my hand at the time, flicked by his tail so that my efforts to work are disrupted. Oh well! Maybe someday I'll get a deeper desk and have more room for him. I'd give him the entire side of this one but so much of the back edge is lined with stuff that he'd knock off and I'd then have to crawl under the desk to retrieve them. At least Hooboo hasn't decided he wants the space too so there are no cat fights going on while Hyram rests on his new throne. :)

Minor Changes & Great Explorations!

Wandering through people who commented on David's latest poem I rediscovered Aggie who has a blog which unites music with art. When I first came across Muse2Art I sent San that way. She seemed to think it was interesting. Now that I've been back, I find it a bit on the fascinating side and want to keep track of it. So, I've added a new link section called "Great Explorations". The purpose of that list is to contain links of places I don't visit daily, yet, but want to keep in touch with. Thank you, Blogger, for creating the bit of html that allows me to know when these sites update.

Of course, once I added the first link to Great Explorations, I had to add a couple more. I now have a grand total of 3 that I want to keep track of. They are Aggie's, Jenni's and Merisi's. (Ummm...make that 4, I just added in Raven's Nest, author of the wonderful Wordzzle) How could I not want to stay in touch with these wonderfully creative women? And I'm sure that more explorations are to come.

After adding the new link category, I did a little switching around of things on the sidebars and relabeled a few things. Then I headed over to Sandi's place and perused her blog roll because I knew she had blogs I wanted to gather in. While linking through one blog too many, I discovered Twilight blogs. And that's all the fault of Nancy at SmilnSigh. I hadn't realized the books were becoming that much of a phenomena. Thank you, Nancy! Now I'm going to have to read them. Not just because they are so popular but because they seem to be popular with Harry Potter fans of which I am one. Darn! There goes the reading budget! Thank goodness I discovered that I can get further discounts through an association I have. Yep, Borders doesn't charge you to join their rewards program but I find better discounts at Barnes & Noble. However, because I'm a member of AARP, I can get 10% off at Borders now. Yay!

Slightly Parallel

If you're a Kim Harrison fan, as I am, then you've probably read her books set in the Hollows. The last one I read was, "For A Few Demons More" which is moving her main characters along in fantastic fashion. The picture on the left is the cover of the first book in the series, "Dead Witch Walking".

One of the things about the Hollows series is how the Hollows came to be. In this version of Cincinnati there are fairies, elves, trolls, werewolves, and vampires all living out in the regular world. See, they had to come out of hiding when most of the human population was killed off. Now they live side by side, although in somewhat segregated neighborhoods (a.k.a. the Hollows), and they have their own police force competing with the human one for investigative rights on cases that involve both humans and magical beings.

What killed most of the humans you ask? Well, that's what's interesting...and sort of eerie recently. It was a virus.....in tomatoes. Now nobody in their right minds eats tomatoes in her books. Sounds familiar doesn't it? While I don't believe in parallels between real life and fiction being portents of the future, stranger things have probably happened. And I can't quite kick the similarities out of my head. So today, when I read or hear that 17 states have been taken off the "safe to eat" producers of tomatoes list, it gets kind of "They're here"-ish. What fun! I wonder if Harrison's sales will rise because of this odd similarity. I know Harrison is hoping it will. She's accepting photos of signs about the tomato ban for her website with promises to post them. Guess that means I need to put her latest, "The Outlaw Demon Wails", which is still in hard back on my books to purchase list. Wonder if I can use on of the new Borders coupons I acquired this week. (G)

Postscript to the books and tomato subject:
Paschal reminded me of the nightshades tag that tomatoes have. When I went researching the origin of the label I discovered a fascinating article published in New Life Journal in 2003 titled, "All About Nightshades". It's a fascinating read into the origin of the label, what else is in the nightshade family, and how these plants affect our bodies. Hope you can make time to read it.

Kill the Blues and Your Pocketbook Too

Well I'm back at it again. That age old remedy that women are so fond of using to cure a case of the blues. I went shopping. At Amazon.com!

This past week, along with a lot of the US population, my government rebate hit my bank account. :) Yes, I now have a little extra cash. Part of me wonders how we are going to end up paying for that later, but I loathe political commentary and discussion almost as much as I hate shot needles, so we aren't going there. I promptly put the money in my savings account. Now I've spent about a 3rd of it. On what you ask? Silly question. Books of course!

For a while now I've been wanting a New Zealand Prayerbook. It's all JS's fault. If she hadn't posted that beautiful prayer from it when I needed it so much, I'd never have known the darn book existed. When I realized how cool the book was I went looking around for one. Those things just never go on sale. There seems to be a standard price for them which is about $31. The other day I was telling my friend Susan that I thought an apartment blessing by Robert, my priest, might help me fend off the blues when sitting at home alone. The reason this place gives me the blues is another long story but I got that idea from two sources at once, my PC and my own heart. So I'm planning on having one in the not too distant future. And Susan told me there was a lovely house blessing service in the New Zealand Prayerbook. So now I had another reason to get it. And suddenly I have cash! Oooohh! Google and find the cheapest prices, there were none, so Amazon.com here I come.

Once at the Amazon site I promptly located the much desired book. Yes, I'd checked out the local bookstore too. It had way too many books and not enough info. Amazon offered free shipping. When I looked down the page for shipping details and other stuff (always read the fine print from the editor/publisher), I discovered it was also sold with a celtic book of some sort. Then I remembered when we had that wonderful celtic book sale at Church after the service by Reverend Newell.


There had been a Celtic Daily Prayer book. And if I remembered right, it had Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Eucharist, and communion in it. So with dreams of doing a Celtic version of Morning Prayer I went looking for that one too. Amazon had it and low and behold, it was on sale. At 30% off! Now it's in my shopping cart too. Yay! I can do all kinds of prayers and healing services. It didn't seem to have any Celtic House Blessings but I'm sure something can be adapted. One of the reasons I selected this particular book instead of another one by a well known author is because it is by an entire community and seemed to have some extras in it. By all means go and check out the look inside that Amazon gives.


Then I remembered that good Sir Paschal, had suggested The Artist Way as a book to inspire and help one maintain an air of creativity and spirituality. So I went looking for that too. I found lots of versions but one was The Complete Artists Way. This one had 3 of the books and when I looked inside there were lots of small chapters and exercises too. So, of course that was put into the shopping cart too. It also was on sale. By now my total is well past the $50 mark. I told myself I should pay my bill and leave. But my sensibilities told me I had one more necessary purchase to make.


For the past few weeks I've been carrying my beloved digital camera around in my tote bag taking it to work with me. I'd not been able to find time to wander outside to use it but it was there nonetheless, building the good habit of taking my camera with me at all times(Thank you, David!). The bad thing about that is the tote bag was filled with all sorts of stuff and not a safe place for camera view screens. So I badly needed a camera case. That too is available from the font of all shopping mavens. Searching for a proper camera case for my Canon PowerShot, I found too many extravaganza's with lots of extras I didn't need, and very few real cases until I typed in the model. Then I had 5 choices of which 2 were cases, one of which was out of stock. The instock one was leather and promised to fit my model. But it had no photos. The unavailable one looked exactly the same but in a different color. Oh well, I looked anyway. It had pictures, uploaded by a past customer. And it was the exact same case but in blue. Mine will be gray. It was also available used for about half the price. So of course it is on order too. Now I'll be able to attach the camera to my belt or something suitable and protect it from mishaps while having it available. I feel good about that.

So you think I might be done shopping? Probably not! I need some milk products from the grocery store and I have a really cool 15% coupon for Barnes & Noble, plus a membership, and there is surely a wonderful next book in one of the various werewolf, or vampire series I seem to be so fond of reading these days. That will probably be my next stop. Besides, it's right around the corner from Bath & Body Shop and I just happen to be out of soap. On top of that there are some awesome movies I want to see, among them are Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones 4, and Spiderwick Chronicles.

And I've got still more blogging to do. A while back Terry tagged me for a meme I've not gotten around to. So that's next on my list. You can't say no when it's a friend. Then David suggested that because my dad is writing his memoirs on the web site of the 100th Bomb Group (yep, a genuine first source for you history buffs, just look for posts by Bill Kennedy) and I mentioned that I'd run link trainers when I was in the Navy that perhaps I could write a post on that. So I've said okay to that too. Looks like I'll be busy for a while.

The Life of Hooboo

Trying to keep pace with the exciting lives of Susan's 3 gorgeous felines is tough. See them in action here and here. When I asked him to play with something for the camera, Hooboo yawned and politely informed me he would rather not be a copycat. He then proceeded to do his own thing. Hooboo likes to read.


As you can see in the picture above, he reads in the same sort of places I do. One where he can shove the books aside after he is done with them and then go to sleep. Here he is with a stack of Kim Harrison books behind him having already spent the last 3 nights staying up reading them. As you can clearly see, the next book on his list to read is Susan's Shelter. He wasn't patient about me finishing it either. He said I took way too long and expressed his discontent by lying on top of it. When that didn't hurry me up, he got Hyram to do the same. Now he is jealously guarding his newly gained territory.


In other moments of the day, he does his best to destroy the lovely catnip filled toys that Susan sent the boys for Christmas. Here he is playing with the lamb, bouncing it off the sofa. I don't have a picture of him with the frog, but he did the hind foot strafe till Hyram decided it needed to be his if it was going to survive. Hyram prefers to bath his catnip toys. This picture didn't come out as nice as I'd like it to. The camera was on auto and it focused on the sofa instead of the leaping kitten. Oh well, I'll get better at this with practice...looking longingly at Gary's copy of Photoshop.

All Things Harry Potter

It was surprising how few people were at the 6:30 showing of Harry Potter on Thursday. My friend Marion and I had the entire row we were sitting on to ourselves. The sum of the rest of the folk there didn't exceed 20 I don't think. Perhaps it was the time of day. I liked the movie but not as much as I did the 4th and definitely not as much as the 1st and 2nd. This one has too much thrown into too quick a time frame for all that it runs over two hours. Not enough story development. I hope the next one is better.

Barnes & Nobel, on the other hand, was totally packed. It was standing room only. You couldn't walk without running into someone or stepping over them. The areas where you wanted to stand next to a shelf and look at its contents were filled with groups of young folk sitting on the floor and chatting with friends. Everyone seemed in pretty good spirits. So I got my ticket and stood in line till after 1:00 AM to buy the last Harry Potter book in this series. This has been such a huge success for Ms. Rowling that I suspect her fans will demand another smash hit soon. What she will do for an encore I have no idea but I hope it is as good as the past 7 books have been. I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering if she will do a sequel. The cover picture you see up there is the British cover. I think it looks better than the American one. Wish I knew why publishers put out different covers for different countries.

And now, I'm taking my new book, my cookie (chocolate chip) and heading off to bed where I hope the cat and the sun don't wake me. G'night all.

Personality Types and Spirituality

Psychological profiles seem to be cropping up a lot this month. My Diocese newspaper had an article on personality types and prayer. It tied the Meyer Briggs Types Inventory (MBTI) to different methods of prayer and suggested several for each type. I'm an ESTJ and it was suggested that I would enjoy body prayers in beautiful surroundings. Music was suggested and also incense and candles to create a sensual environment for prayer. This is a very accurate view of how I prefer to pray. When I am in the mood, dancing can be a kind of physical prayer, an exultation of life. Singing can do the same and, for that reason, I'm working hard to bring back some music skills I once had but have sadly let lapse for life style reasons. The Personality and Prayer article came out of a book on the subject, Prayer and Temperament: Different Prayer Forms for Different Personality Types. My PC recognized it when I brought him the article. I may get it someday. In the meantime I have the article to tell me more about something I was already somewhat familiar with...good ways for me to pray.

The other psychological profile came in the form of enneagrams. I'd never heard of them till I had a discussion with my PC on the MBTI. He told me about these and I looked for a page and took a test. The test was free and probably not the entire battery of questions, still I liked the results and learned a little bit more about myself. If you are interested in taking the same test I took go here. There are two different forms of the test on this page. One is the RHETI which may be the oldest version of the enneagram test and someone declared the least accurate (only 65%). I took it anyway. The second form is not labeled except as the New Test by Tal. It has a broader range of answers for you to choose which I thought made the results more personal. It also gives broader ranges of scores in each of the 9 types so it might conceivably be more accurate.

Among the 9 types, I turned out to be a peacemaker. From the page's description, "Peacemakers are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union with others and the world around them." That pretty much describes me. I'm accepting and accommodating. My secondary type is that of artist/romantic. For this one the site declares, "Romantics have sensitive feelings and are warm and perceptive." Well, I'm not sure about that description but the rest of the page told how to get along with a romantic and what was cool and not so cool about being one. Those bits I did find sensible and pretty much accurate.

Being the good client that I am, I took this new info about myself with me to the latest PC session and learned more. It seems that these types can be used to connect to faith functioning as well as life and social functioning. That was more interesting to me since I am trying to see ways to make my faith work better for me in both private and social areas. My PC gave me a web page which described that in some detail. If you are interested in reading more about that go here.

Did all this new info change me? Not really. But it gave me food for thought and plenty to discuss with friends and PC alike. It also gave me something in common with my sister. She too is a peacemaker. That's nice to know. What can come of all this? Well, if you want you can go find your type and look for ways to use it to make your spiritual life better or more conducive to growth. You can also try to use it to avoid the bad side that each personality seems to have. For me it is enough to learn a bit more about myself and how I function. Plus I plan to use the prayer guide a lot. That part of my life definitely could use some improvement. In the meantime, there is lots of cool stuff out there about enneagrams, and personality types that you can learn and connect to whatever suits you. Go ahead, find your personality type, and explore! And in the nature of my type, "Peace!"

Prayer Books

Because Lent is coming our church is doing a group of home studies on prayer again. This time we are reading "Becoming Jesus' Prayer: Transforming your life through the Lord's Prayer." I picked up my copy on the way out of breakfast at the fellowship hall.

Yesterday's poetry workshop was held in the church library. While there I tried to talk about "Genesis Meditations" by Neil Douglas-Klotz. Not remembering his name, I went looking in the card catalog just in case we had a copy. We didn't but we had another book under his name. "Prayers of the Cosmos," which I have sworn to get around to reading, is translated by him and has commentary too. The description of the book on the dust cover says it has body prayers that will, "take us beyond reading and understanding the teachings of Jesus by teaching us to experience the sound and feeling of Christ's words." This sounded so enticing to me that I checked the copy out from the library, not being able to wait through the task of purchasing a copy of my own. Because the material in this book are copyright protected I feel awkward about even typing a sample here. Instead I am sending you off to read the Amazon site where you can "look inside" the book and read the first prayer here.

Because, as I've mentioned, things sometimes come to my attention in threes, I think it is significant that I am now enmeshed in three prayer books. I have the Book of Common Prayer, the Lenten study book "Becoming Jesus' Prayer", and "Prayers of the Cosmos." It seems to me that my prayer life will be taking a step forward. It has been rather sporadic of late even though I know that I need prayer daily to keep my connection to God vibrant. I hope that the upcoming weeks and studies of prayer will encourage better prayer habits in my spiritual life and daily routine. If you are reading this and have any good prayer books or individual prayers you would like to share I hope you will. Peace! Hope! & Joy!

...and still more books!

I thought I was finished with buying books for awhile. It seems I was wrong. In the mail today was a shipment from Quality Paperback Bookclub. This shipment was unexpected. They are supposed to send me an email asking me if I want the current selections. I don't remember any email. So today I had two books in my mailbox.

This club sells better quality literature than the stuff you get from browsing the stacks at most bookstores. That's why I joined. These two books will probably fall in line with the quality of the ones I've ordered from them in the past, but since I didn't know what had been sent I went online to check out the order before I opened it and couldn't send it back. The books that I received are: For One More Day by Mitch Albom and The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis.

I know the name of Mitch Albom. I regret to say, I've never read any of his books. They made a movie out of his Tuesdays With Morrie, and The Five People You Meet In Heaven was on the bestseller lists for a really long time. They apparently made a Teleplay out of it too. With all of that to say about his books I have no doubt I will enjoy reading his latest work.

I've never read any of Kathyrn Davis's books either but the description, on QPB's website, was appealing and on the back of the book are reviews by other authors, usually a good sign. One of the praising descriptions is a little intimidating. Mary Gordon describes it as "metaphysically exploratory, psychologically questioning, and full of suspense." She says the book "combines elements that ought to be unmixable." Wow! After reading the first paragraph of this one I can tell that I will probably not put it down for awhile.

Yes, I opened the package.

Books, books and more books!

It's been way too long since I last posted. If you read this blog regularly I apologize and plead heavy classwork and chaotic workplace situations.

This past week books have been brought to my attention. Fate and my own inclinations made this happen. Book stores are dangerous places for me. Getting lost for hours among the stacks isn't productive and can be very expensive. If you are on a date and he isn't into books as much as you are then the date is pretty much over. Since I have been absent from the public library and the bookstores due to my college studies these two fine establishments seem to have missed me. They are reaching out to me, calling me back. I got a letter from Barnes & Noble telling me that Laurell K Hamilton's latest book can be pre-ordered if I wish. I haven't gotten around to that but I fully intend to. I love her work. My good friend, Susan Palwick, has been posting about her 4th book Shelter and I am eagerly looking forward to that one coming out as well. Being a SciFi/Fantasy fan I put myself on a list and now get updates on the writings of J.K. Rowling from Mugglenet monthly posts. Along with all the other Harry Potter fans I am waiting for the 7th and final book. I am also eagerly looking forward to the next Harry Potter movie which won't be out till July 13th.

Those are just the potential books. I have the fortune or misfortune, depending on your take on the matter, to work at a public school whose library, twice annually, holds Scholastic book fairs. This is an event that goes on for about 2 weeks and is prone to empty my pocketbook. Not only do I love good fiction, I like good children's fiction. So on Friday before last I walked into the school office looking for my cooperating teacher and found a book fair going on. My thoughts ran something like, "Oh! I'm early so I can just take a quick peek!" I looked and got hooked. The teacher and I went back together during her conference period. We put books in bags and stuck our names on them for purchase later. I chose 4 because district staff get one free if they buy 3. Over lunch it was learned that we needed to fill a period of class time in the afternoon because a science lab was canceled. I suggested Sudoku and with encouragement from the teacher went, added a book of those to my bag and purchased $35 worth of books.

That should have been enough, but when I showed up this past Friday, with my paycheck freshly deposited, I found the book fair still going on and this time I purchased 6 books. Another $35 towards public education and the support of authors, publishers and anyone else who gets a fraction of the small price I paid for those wonders of story and imagery. I tell myself that these books are for my future classroom, and they will be. But when I shop I tend to do a classroom library "no no" by purchasing books for MY tastes in literature and not those of my future students. I should really be buying a few books for those kids who are only interested in cars, soldiers or sports. Eventually I will do this. Till then, oh well.

What books did I buy this semester? Here's the list. My descriptions don't do them justice. Click on the links to go to Amazon.com and read the publisher's description.
1) Children of the Lamp by P. B. Kerr - this is about two kids who find out that they are descendants of djinn and end up having all kinds of cool powers.
2) Inkspell by Cornelia Funke - this is book 2 in a series about characters from books coming to life and swapping places with someone in the real world. Book 1 was Inkheart.
3) The Living Rain Forest: An Animal Alphabet by Paul Kratter - lovely artwork and educational.
4) It's happy bunny does SUDOKU by Jim Benton and Rafael Sirkis - I can copy these no end for my classroom to work. My students will learn good problem solving skills and logical strategies while having fun.
5) Storm Thief by Chris Wooding - This is by an award winning author. The story includes probability storms which are violent tempests which change whatever they touch. Definitely SciFi.
6) Peter and the Starchatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson - a pirate adventure in which two children are the heroes and go about having all kinds of great adventures while trying to save the world from evil.
7) Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell - an old book still in publication and a Newberry Medal winner.
8) Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles - this book, written in 2005, is a National Book Award finalist.
9) A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray by Ann M. Martin - The back cover proclaims it to be heartrending and hopeful. I liked that it was written from the animal's perspective.
10) Princess Academy by Shannon Hale - a lowland girl goes to school to learn how to be royal in case the Prince wants to marry her. This book is a Newberry Honor book.
11) Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver - the adventures of a 12 year old boy and his wolf-cub companion in a time six thousand years ago. It's a national bestseller.

Each and every one of the above books will be getting in the way of my finishing the other new book I'm reading, Sex With Kings by Eleanor Herman. And I wonder why I never get any textbook reading done. LOL I doubt I will get to them all during Thanksgiving due to college course work that needs to get finished. Looks like I have my Christmas and summer reading list.