It's Cold Outside!

Only TWO days left to Spot the Black Bat and Win!

I don't have much to blog about today other than how cold it is outside. Okay, so for those of you in the North, you would probably be wearing shorts and tank tops in this weather. But for us wimpy Texans, it's been quite chilly! I'm wearing wool socks and a hat in the house!

Opening Night Gala at the Conroe Symphony Orchestra

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Conroe is a small town. You'd probably never guess that the city had a Symphony Orchestra. A rather decent one, at that. Last night was their openining gala. I dragged DH and DD kicking and screaming.

Here is a shot of DD and I before we left. Notice how happy she looks. Not.

The musical line up included Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of Animals. This was my first exposure to the work of Saint-Saens. I was disturbed that the movement entitled "The Tortoise" was just a slowed down version of Offenbach's "Can-Can." During the movement called "The Aquarium" I leaned over to DD and remarked, "Sounds like 'The Little Mermaid.'" To which she replied, "It's 'Sleeping Beauty.'" I stood corrected.

Before each movement, a narrator read verses from the Ogden Nash poem inspired by the Saint-Saens work. I've included my favorite verse here:

Fossils
from Carnival of the Animals by Ogden Nash

At midnight in the museum hall,
The fossils gathered for a ball,
There were no drums or saxophones,
But just the clatter of their bones,
Rolling, rattling, carefree circus,
Of mammoth polkas and mazurkas,
Pterodactyls and brontosauruses
Sang ghostly prehistorice choruses,
Amid the mastodonic wassail
I caught the eye of one small fossil,
"Cheer up sad world," he said and winked,
"It's kind of fun to be extinct."

DH's favorite peice of the evening was Hector Berlioz's "March to the Scaffold." I always knew he was morbid. DD and I both enjoyed the encore performance, "The Storm of the Century." Conductor Dr. Don Hutson, explained he selected this particular peice in response to Hurricane Ike. The storm was just a few weeks ago! Since the encore was not in the program notes, I do not know the composer. I'm going to have to do a little research.

Best Tortilla Soup Ever

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Diane wanted the recipe to my best tortilla soup ever. I do not usually follow recipes but this is what I believe I did:

4 chicken breasts

can of corn with juice

can of olives with juice

can of chili beans

2 celery stalks diced

1 carrot diced

1 garlic bouillon cube

1 tomato bouillon cube

2 chicken bouillon cubes

paprika

chili power

cilantro

mexican oregano

bay leaf

half a small jar of mild salsa

water to fill the pot

I threw it all in a crock pot on low for 9 hours. Garnish with grated cheese, tortilla chips, avocados and sour cream as desired.

What if it's true?

Spot the Black Bat and Win!

I belong to Toastmasters International. Toastmasters promotes public speaking skills. Members take turns practicing the art of speech craft at weekly meetings through short prepared speeches or 2 minute extemporaneous responses to questions (Table Topics).

Recently, one of my fellow toasties presented a speech entitled: "The End: Are you Ready?" He talked a bit about how the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world will be on December 21, 2012. Then he challenged his audience to live the next 1531 days (as of 10/12/2008 at 11:21 am CST) as if they really are our last days; To write our own eulogies and then fulfill our highest expectations of ourselves.

Then, yesterday, a potential client phoned to inquiry about a table. We ended up chatting about the current "economic crisis." This client is a financial advisor who has studied the history of economic depressions. His research has shown that the world suffers a depression every 50 years - in the 30's and 9o's. He says our current recession began in the 90's and that the US would be in a depression if the Feds hadn't played games with Social Security, etc. Those games have caught up with us. He gave me a little free advice: take my money out of the bank and store the cash in a home safe, buy a years supply of groceries, plant fruit bearing trees and a vegetable garden.

So, what if it's true? What if we really are about to have an economic meltdown? Does it really matter since the world is going to end in 2012?

I don't know if it's true.

I do believe that we should set high expectations for ourselves and then do everything in our power to exceed them. We could die at any time. Why not live each and every day as if it were our last?

Fun with Animals

Let's have some fun with animals today. On the 2nd Thursday of each month, I blog over at Design Style Guide. Each month I try to pick an interesting top, or I chat about furniture construction.

This month, in honor of Leonardo, the mummified duck billed dinosaur I blogged about on Monday, I choose Dinosaurs as my theme. The quilt pictured is Raptor by bbusbyarts. Click over to see the other groovy dino art I featured.

My very dear friend Gail, whom I have known for over 15 years, forwarded this photo via email to me last night. It gave me a chuckle, so I am sharing.

The original email read: "So, there I was . . . just relaxing in front of the T.V. and then the kids yelled, 'Hey Daddy, come see the kittens.' " Kittens, indeed! If you can't see what they really are, click on the photo and a bigger photo will magically appear.

And from my dear friend Diane, custom clothing embroiderer extraordinaire, came this beautiful video. See the copy below for the low down. I didn't feel like editing the poor grammar, so just bear in mind that I did not write it:

"The attached video is of dolphins playing with silver colored rings which they have the ability to make under water to play with. It isn't known how they learn this, or if it's an inbred ability. As if by magic the dolphin does a quick flip of its head and a silver ring appears in front of its pointed beak. The ring is a solid, donut shaped bubble about 2-ft across, yet it doesn't rise to the surface of the water! It stands upright in the water like a magic doorway to an unseen dimension. The dolphin then pulls a small silver donut from the larger one. Looking at the twisting ring for one last time a bite is taken from it, causing the small ring to collapse into a thousands of tiny bubbles which head upward towards the water's surface. After a few moments the dolphin creates another ring to play with. There also seems to be a separate mechanism for producing small rings, which a dolphin can accomplish by a quick flip of its head. An explanation of how dolphins make these silver rings is that they are "air-core vortex rings". Invisible, spinning vortices in the water are generated from the tip of a dolphin's dorsal fin when it is moving rapidly and turning. When dolphins break the line, the ends are drawn together into a closed ring. The higher velocity fluid around the core of the vortex is at a lower pressure than the fluid circulating farther away. Air is injected into the rings via bubbles released from the dolphin's blowhole. The energy of the water vortex is enough to keep the bubbles from rising for a reasonably few seconds of play time."

Wednesday Hump Day

If the week was a hill, Wednesday would be the hump.

During my morning walk, I was listening to Ayn Rand's Philosophy and then my phone went dead. I have a T-Mobile Dash. It's nifty. Plays music and audio books. Keeps my address book handy. Email. Camera. Yetta. Yetta. For some reason, the phone just started to spontaneously shut down a few weeks ago. It will be fine for a few days and then BAM. Shut down. I know. I know. I need to call T-Mobile. It goes on the to do list.

My friend Lynn, posts her to do list on her blog almost everyday. I think that's a great idea. I have a to do list in my planner, but posting it on the blog makes it visible to the world. I'd be more likely to "git'er dun" if I knew the whole world was watching! (Okay, so right now I have one follower, but you get the point.) BTW - Lynn is giving away one of her hand-poured hand-painted Piggy Banks at her blog. There isn't much time left to win, so hurry up and go enter!! (Click Here)

Oh - back to the morning walk! So, the city picked up all the hurricane debris in the neighborhood on Monday. Today, the street sweeper was making the street look pretty and kicking up dust in his wake. What struck me, as I walked around looking at the lack of branch and shrub piles, is that they have been replaced by dry patches of dirt surrounded by fresh white and yellowish-green shoots of grass. Only 2 days and the grass is already beginning to shoot up. Mother Nature is so amazing.

I need a better name for this blog. Any suggestions?

And in true copycat fashion. Here is my To Do List:

• Call T-Mobile
• Dispute Freight Invoices (from 3 different carriers, no less)
• Clean Master Bathroom
• Mail Presents
• Library
• Join a Book Club
• Contact FEMA for my aunt (she's out of the country and her home was hit very hard by Ike)

Smooches!

Shaka Studios is giving away $900 in prizes!!

Shaka Studios is sponsoring a contest over at SuperWAHMz. We are one of 7 sponsors. The prizes are very groovy and include a goody from my favorite pillowcase artist. Go to SuperWAHMz and enter.

And don't forget, we are giving away FIVE $150 gift certificates on November 1, 2008. Will you be a winner? Go to ShakaStudios to enter.

I just realized that 6 $150 Gift Certificates is $900 in prizes. I must be feeling generous this month.

Hurricane Ike Debris

I'm so excited! Right now, at this very moment, the city is finally picking up our Hurricane Ike debris! They are working on the larger of the two piles:
And then will move on the smaller pile:
Woo hoo! Our grass will be so happy now that it can breathe and see the sun.

Houston Museums

Sunday is family day. We try to do something together as a family. Usually, we just go to the park and play catch. Yesterday, we went Museum hopping.


Our first stop with the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We have a family membership and go quite often. Dorothy participated in the museum's bookclub this past year and was invited to a special event to celebrate the end of the bookclub year. We watched a special live animal show and Dorothy decorated (and ate) a cookie. We also saw Leonardo, a complete mummified 77 million-year-old adult duckbilled dinosaur. It was very cool. We were able to actually touch a sample of his skin!

Our second stop was the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. This musuem was not on our agenda. We took a different route than normal to the HMNS and as we passed the HMFA, we noticed that it was TARGET FREE SUNDAY. I guess Target sponsors museum entry the first Sunday of the month at MFAH. Very cool of Target. There were lots of children's crafts. Dorothy and I decorated picture frames.

We ended the day with dinner at Buca di Beppo. It was a good day.

A Girl & Her Dog

New Blog

Sometimes I feel like blogging about "stuff" that really isn't appropriate for my business blog, nor the other blogs for which I write. Sometimes I just want to get "stuff" off my chest.

I am a mom, a Girl Scout leader, a business owner, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a student of life, a reader, a crocheter, a Sci Fi fan, a walker, a Toastmaster, an American, a blogger.

I have not decided what to call this blog. Whatever name is thrown up there right now is only temporary. It will probably change half a dozen times before I settle on something.

Today, when I should have been working, I decided to make this penny rug coaster. I am teaching myself the art of penny rug making. I'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly. But, I'm enjoying it. Hopefully, my blanket stitches will improve with practice.

I also finished listening to The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams. It's a collection of essays and short stories that were compiled by his wife and editor after his death. I think my husband would really enjoy listening to it, so I'm going to share it with him. FYI - Adams is the author of The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy series.

Shhhh... don't tell my husband/business partner that I was crafting and listening to Douglas Adams on the job!