Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
12:17 A.M.

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SEE/SEA


I feel compelled to write: "I see the sea, the sea sees me". But wait!---the little ditty goes I see the MOON, the moon sees me. Darn, can't use it then. So, scratch my thought from your mind!! Wrong ditty. Okay, now that I got that out of my system. Do you wanna see the sea I see?




[SEAgull @ Whitecap Beach - North Padre Island, Texas]
[top right: SEAport *see pelican gliding in to land on the sea?*]
[bottom right: SEE the SEA glow near the SEA wall?]


- - -

A favorite poet of mine once wrote:

Neither Out Far Nor In Deep

The people along the sand
All turn and look one way.
They turn their back on the land.
They look at the sea all day.

* * *

The land may vary more;
But wherever the truth may be--
The water comes ashore,
And the people look at the sea.

- - -


ART BY THE SEA
[our art museum]
This past Saturday--


---and out comes my cellphone for photo taking [ummm, strictly prohibited? Whatever!]



These two photos above are the exterior of the art museum. A rippling 'brook' on the incline that empties into the circular fountain.

Then, the most recent 'new' exhibits in the museum by the sea were quilting art. Hanging, hand made/and machine made...quilt wall hangings. Among the many, many displayed exhibits, I spied this one right away [I recognized the skyline!]...


...and the snow!! Denver, Colorado


I was drawn to this quilt. The intense heat and the figure of a firefighter...reminded me of 911. Quite startling to see the intricate work involved in all the quilting that day.

In a way, this particular piece was quite humbling to me. For some reason. I thought the colors used was intense and I could 'see' the heat and extremes. Each piece covering several walls within the museum was amazing, but these two particularly caught my eye.



Outdoor fountain in the
interior courtyard of the
Art Museum...







Then, onto the "Old West Heritage Room"



...And into an alcove beyond the "West" is art of the glass structures...blown glass, that is! This is colbalt glass...a sea shell [clam & conch] and sea urchins, among the sea weed...




And last, for you to SEE if you can find the objects I post here.

4 Humans
1 boat
A picnic basket.

This particular piece is entitled "Lunch on the Brazos" by William Otton. To me it has a Oaxacan flair. If you've ever seen the carved creatures of Oaxacan art, you'd understand my thoughts in close recognition to the work of art. Can you SEE the aforementioned items? [the original, other than my photo taken, is probably 7 feet x 4 feet in size]



Also...SEE a new blog tip for Firefox browsers below this ---in a separate blog entry. CLICK HERE

FIREFOX BROWSER AD-ON

Monday I was online trying to catchup with visitors visiting me and just all 'round messin' 'round with my browser. Searching for some nifty items. Now, I've told y'all about ABP [Ad Block Plus] add on for the Firefox Browser. If you don't have it, trust me, it's great. It blocks ALL advertisements. Even with Yah**!! Yay!


[Tools= Add ons= Get Add ons=search for Cool Preview add on]


Well, here I am, looking at Firefox's home page and clicked on the add on ---clicked on "view all add ons"....looking for the tried and tested ones that had five stars behind it. I came across this:

COOL PREVIEWS

And, decided to try it. Installed it, rebooted the Firefox Browser and went in to the preferences...after it's installed you will get a small icon that shows in the right hand bottom corner of your browser window. See image below:



Place your cursor on the icon and click...you'll then see the small window open, find "User Preference" and click on it. Click on the "Quick Search" tab. Once it's loaded, you can then go ahead and add or delete uri's/web site address by following my arrow. Type in or copy and paste an address for the site you'd like to have a Cool Preview of the images. Click "Add" and then, "Save"



As you browse the blog/site you then just move your cursor over an image and the icon will show beside the particular one you want to preview...


..and without leaving home! ---see the enlarged image right before your eyes without leaving the site you're viewing. I'd say 5 stars indeed. What a wonderful way to view blogs and see the enlarged images on them right there while you visit the home site blog!! I added my own blog address to test it. Once the address has been saved in your preferences, use the cursor for an image...the same icon appears...click on the IMAGE [not the icon] This is what you'll have if you install the Firefox add on....



If you install, and add my uri to the preference list, you...Click on the icon and you will have an enlarged preview right there in front of you...AWESOME I ♥ Firefox!!!

Monday, March 30th, 2009
12:31 A.M.


Jeanna is hosting Fun Monday this week:

The topic will be Easter Baskets: Share a story, is it better to give or to receive, what would you like in yours?

Other than Easter Sunday Sunrise Services we attended many times if the weather permitted, Easter around our home was mainly for kids. The Easter Baskets and such...toys, egg hunts and plenty of deviled eggs and egg salad for a goodly time afterward are days of yore for us. [We still hard boil eggs for the two of us, but that's about it!]




So, to add a little bit, since we only do Easter baskets now for home decoration, with no purpose other than that...I'll share a thing we did for our kids when they were small and home. Keeping in mind that we were in Colorado when the kids were young...so, most Easters it was cold and wintry outside...a lot!!! The Easter Bunny would leave treats and fun INDOORS!!! Early....WAY early in the morning of Easter Sunday, I'd get up and get out the chalk dust from the canister and dip a crafted rabbit's foot that Bud made of plywood...it was small! I'd pour a little colored chalk [pink for Irene and blue for Erik] on a paper plate then, dip the wooden rabbit's foot in and go around along the inside of the house and 'stamp' footprints all around the house...making sure I didn't run into anything in the dark and wake the kids. The tracks went from their beside to hidden places where I'd hide an Easter egg. Sometimes instead of a colored egg that we colored the day before on Saturday...all of us, including Bud! ---I'd hide a small trinket in the hidden crevice. I'd go back to bed after the job of playing Mr. Bunny, and wait for the kids to wake up. They'd be thrilled that the Easter Bunny had arrived. And at the end of the trail...the kids knew it was the end...when they found their baskets, usually their traditional personalized baskets.

During the daylight hours then, the kids would go outside if the weather permitted and hide the eggs for Mom and Dad to hunt down. A few times they'd forget where they hid them and it'd take hours to find them all. Some were never found...and I'm sure the dogs we had got them before we did. But it was all a very fun day.

We'd go to mom and dad's house for ham and all the fixin's! And there the kids would get more Easter goodies from the Grannie and Gramps Bunny!

- - -

But today, now that we're alone and just the two of us....we only decorate with baskets. And what I'd want in the basket now is just the artificial colored grasses and plastic eggs so I can then pack them away for the following year.


~...End Fun Monday
COMMENT HERE if you'd like to skip photos of the Art Festival we attended, below






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A day at the Art Festival
SATURDAY
[and a side trip around the North Shoreline-with some Art Museum latest exibits]







This year, we had artists from Italy, with chalk art...fascinating!










I enjoyed attending the festival of arts --they had chalk art demonstrations, prints for sale at a bazaar inside the complex [smaller photo with the palm tree - shows the art center in the city]. So much to look at and watch. I love anything that deals with arts and crafts. Outside the complex there were more booths...crafts, paintings, music entertainment [even one segment was belly dancers...oh my. If I were those ladies, I wouldn't be caught DEAD in those revealing outfits...my tummy would start jiggling and never stop - even when the music ended...seriously. BRAVE SOULS!], bead work, jewelry and so much more. Plus food. LOL Some background on the Italian Street [chalk] artists HERE.

After spending most of the morning at the art center, we drove over to the art museum about a mile away, and perused the halls. Each month or so they change exhibits [the temporary ones, on loan]...this month it was quilt art that I wanted to see. I'll post those photos soon!

ALL images above have 'closed captions'....just place your cursor over the images to explain them.

TOMORROW: The Art Museum by the sea!!

Sunday, March 29th, 2009
6:25 A.M.



Play along with your subconscious; Sunday's Word Association.
Join here.

I say ... and you think ... ?

I haven't participated in this Sunday meme for quite some time so I thought I'd give it a go 'round today for the fun of it. Here goes:

1. Road trip :: day trip
2. Pool hall :: billards & beer
3. Extraordinary :: League of ---Gentlemen [movie with Sean Connery]
4. Jackson :: Five
5. Heartfelt :: Condolences
6. Wet :: and soggy
7. Strangle :: choke
8. .com :: website
9. Touched :: by an Angel
10. Insipid :: dull, boring

~....END Unconscious Mutterings
COMMENT HERE if you'd prefer to skip the continued Sunday Blog





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This week, I started on the last 'book' [of four books/short biograhpies within one novel] inside the covers of "The Fountainhead" that Erik got for me for my birthday in February. One amazing book. But he isn't giving me any clues as to how it's going to end ---turd. During our many phone conversations I'm asking him this or that, and he simply says "I don't know. You're going to have to read it to find out." He's no help. Of course he read the very same last winter.

Anyway, Bud and I made our usual weekly jaunt to the bookstores. My favorite store is Half Price Books and his favorite is Barnes and Noble. So, we hit them both in one day. They are close together in the city. Within walking distance of each other. [I found a great historical novel in Barnes and Noble but I didn't have the debit card on me, and I don't carry any more than $20 in cash with me - the price was over that. Next time! I'll get it. It's "Etta". An historical fiction of Etta Place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fame. I read the inside cover while Bud was over in the World War II and War section of the store. Me? I'm always found in the fiction. LOL] Anyway, it sounds a bit far fetched from what I've learned over the years of the real Etta...but still with imagination, this just may be a fun read.

Okay, so then when we were done there, we walked out and put our purchases in the trunk [Bud had some cash] and crossed the street to walk a block to Half Price Books. I have a list with me to check each time we go there. While checking for a Robin Matthews book about the Da Vinci mother...a novel of course, I spied this one on the shelf and pulled it out. I knew the names right off and wondered if it was the one and same couple as history has us know about the Lincoln assassination in Ford's Theater. I saw the cover as I pulled it off the shelf and sure 'nough it IS the same Henry and Clara.

Now I've never heard of this book [and I read book reviews in the newspaper every Sunday!].....I musta missed this one entirely. Of course it's an older publication, but I swear if I'da read the review back in the 1990's I would have remembered and bought it back then.

I immediately went out on Google to do a book search and found it. Hmmmmm. It's a fictionalized account of the couple, an engaged couple in historical fact, Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris....they were the invited guests who sat in the same balcony as President and Mrs. Lincoln the night he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. Now, history tells us that the couple were deeply affected by this turn of events and life for them became trauma after trauma. I'll be excited to delve into this novel and see what it's like. But first, finishing "The Fountainhead". Maybe by this time next week, I can open "Henry and Clara".






From Mary at Mary's Writing Nook.
Thank you. It's adorable.



And from sweet Pea @ Pea's Corner...
Thanks so much!












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Yesterday when we got ready to leave for the day to go to the art festival and then to the art museum, we backed out of the garage and as we did, I noticed a HUGE tree branch had broken from the front yard tree! The wind was blowing very fast and hard Friday night! We had 90+ degree temps that day...then that night a cold front moved in and the Saturday temperature for highs was only in the mid 60's with a windchill in the 50s!! Funny thing tho, we never heard the branch fall! But, there it was in the middle of our sidewalk that goes up to the front porch. Bud got out of the car and tried to move it from the house and to keep it from blowing into the neighbor's yard or driveway. The wind, still blowing, almost took him and the branch away. So, I got out of the car and helped him...we drug it into the garage...it filled the garage!!! When we got back from our day's outing, we had a lot of work to do before Monday...when the city would come by and take it away for us. But, we had to cut it down some, do some trimming, so the trucker can get it loaded onto their refuse truck.

We still went on our merry way like as if nothing happened after the garage door was shut and we were backed out of the driveway for the 2nd time. We made it to the festival and enjoyed our time there...even tho the wind along the shore was nasty there too...[an artist that had a booth -like the circus tents with a canopy and all- had a lot of her oil paintings ruined 'cause her tent blew over in the wind!]. I got several photos of the festival AND some of the recent, new displays of art at the museum -quilt art- that I'll get off the camera and get them uploaded for my blog soon.

We got home late in the afternoon and immediately got busy cutting up the huge branch. What a mess. I love trees and their beauty....but boy can they do damage quickly!! We were pooped out when we got it done. But, IT IS DONE.

Saturday, March 28th, 2009
Posted on Friday


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PHOTO HUNT 2009 THEMES

HAND[s]

Found around our home....
Top Left to Right: A doll's Hands...from movie, Corpse Bride and a clock's Hands of time
Bottom Left to Right: A Cabbage Patch's Hand and a Native American carved Hand

I screwed up. Blond? Ya, baby. Got it fixed tho, now. Geez
I was working on the Wednesday blog for April 1st 'cause I just scanned a photo of Irene for her upcoming birthday,
and clicked publish instead of save. Duh!!
Have you ever done that? It's now back in the 'save as draft'. O.M.G.

Friday, March 27th, 2009
4:55 A.M.

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Meet our newest member of the household. We named her Lily. Appropriate for Easter-time, don't you think? Her fur is a beautiful cream color and she's so soft and cuddly. I want to squeeze her and hug her!! When I laid eyes on her, I couldn't resist...I had to bring her home with me. Bud, of course, just shook his head and smiled a little, knowing all too well my fetish for cute animals....



From her cute rear end and sweet looking, bobbed tail to her rose adorned ear lobe, she's too adorable for words.



Her coal black eyes emblazoned with long black eyelashes and her pink tufted nose down to her sweet, happy Spring Greeting smile...she's our newest Easter "Lily"!!



- - -

Surrounding Lily on the coffee table in our living room I placed her in a pink wire basket stuffed with pink Easter 'Grass', and placed a few plastic pastel Easter eggs and placed a small amount of pink, shiny, curl ribbon atop the turquoise crocheted doilies. I have a miniature green glass bunny and a 'chocolate' ceramic Easter Bunny on either side along with my lavender smoky glass candle holders which I stuffed some yellow Easter 'Grass' in the holder and placed the candles in...[partially seen just to the right of the chocolate bunny]






~End of Show n Tell
COMMENT HERE if you'd like to skip the Friday's 55 Flash Fiction






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It was a gray, sunless day.
The winds howled through the barren trees.
By afternoon the sky turned black
and tornado warnings...next silence.
The darkness was intense,
the ebony clouds rolled!
Then, they burst open and the rains poured.
Within minutes the streets and yards were flooded.
Water, debris...everywhere.
Ten minutes; clouds dissipated.