I was tagged

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts. 2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts. 2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

I. I had to look up the word Meme before I started this reply. I'm not certain this would be called a Meme. More likely blogs on the Internet are.. these tidbits of personal information may be evolving into a form of Meme.. but I digress.

II. I like to make things.. sculptures, drawings, whatever. I enjoy combining digital and traditional processes but I really prefer making art without the use of a computer. I learned how to weld a few years ago and have made a steel & paper sculpture, and a table, both of which reside in my living room.

III. I have a sense of humor. I make fun of myself, tease others but at the same time I'm sensitive. Waaa poor me!

IV. I am mechanically inclined and have always wanted to learn how to fix motorcycles. I once found an abandoned motorcycle in the woods and then schemed for days about how to bring it home, and repair it. I still wish I had done it!!

V. I am friendly but only have a few close friends.

VI. I bought a second set of wheels and tires for my mountain bike so I can swap out the road tires for dirt tires. I enjoy tinkering with my bike and have a repair stand.. see #4.

VII. I enjoy reading blogs about art and cooking. I especially enjoy looking at photographs of tasty food and checking out the recipes even though I don't cook much.

VIII. I own one horse who is now 22 years old. I don't know where I would be today if I didn't have my horse. He has been one constant source happiness in my life that I thank God for. With him I have traveled to places I would not normally have gone. We have competed in endurance rides together and have seen the most beautiful countryside. Studying Parelli Natural Horsemanship has changed our relationship in the best way imaginable.

for my new profile pic.

Look here for yummy recipes

I found the Desert Candy blog and discovered a bunch of tasty recipes.


Photo used without permission from desertcandy.blogspot.com -- I hope she doesn't mind. :^)

Hey you sitting at the computer...

Do you own any implements that make marks on paper or canvas? Even that charred stick laying at your feet, where you roasted last night's pigeon in your cave will do.

Visit the website of Mail Me Art and send them something creative. You know it's cool. You know you want to. No lame excuses, like "I can't draw".. If you even dare to think that you can't draw create, then SHAME ON YOU- YOU SHOULD BE MADE TO FEEL GUILTY BY CLICKING HERE.

Here's a little something to get you started.


Painting elephant photo was grabbed here

Oh the nerve

What should I see this afternoon as I pull out onto my street but a brand new orange and black 1200 N! Tell me this.. is fate so cruel and heartless that it would repeatedly place forbidden objects of my desire before me? I think not. Probably the universe heard me thinking about going to the H-D dealership and looking at these bikes in person and decided to save me a trip ( at least for today).
Maybe I should compose a request: Dear Universe, I would still like to have a full color brochure of the 1200 Nightster, so that I can plaster the walls of my bedroom, office and refrigerator with its bad-ass likeness. Thank you.

Continuing on...
If I'd had the opportunity to make a safe U turn I would have done so and followed stalked this lucky WOMAN rider down the road until she got to her destination, then I would have asked a hundred questions about her new hawg, afterwords I would have gotten all sad looking, like those waif children with huge, tear filled eyes you see on cheap velvet paintings. Perhaps she would have taken pity on me and let me sit on her new motorcycle, or offered me a glass of lemon-aid or something. You never know, it could have happened.



Now before I get railed on by friends, family, husband and mother for daydreaming about owning a moto.. because it is apparently suicidally unsafe to ride one -let me just remind all of you that I spent an entire year riding around on this, unbalanced, underpowered, neither bike nor mo-ped contraption called a SOLEX. Yes, a year on a Solex in the South of France. I was 26 years less mature or responsible than I am today, and I was riding through traffic rotaries, in the dark, in the rain on cobblestone streets, during the Mistral, and in good weather. I didn't have a helmet, I didn't have any protective clothing other than a parka and long pants. I'm not even going to go into the other riding events where I wore ridiculously little clothing -not a shred of it protective.

So. Don't. Start.


Solex Photo from Velocruz.com / Harley pic from H.D.

Harley-Davidson 1200 Nightster

*update December 10,2007 If you have come here seeking information on this particular bike check out the link to the review below.

Photographs courtesy of: This review

People of the kowtow

There are those among us who wish to fly. They bide their time until their flight feathers grow in, and then they take off. They live their life on their own terms. They make their life what they want it to be. I don't think this is a selfish way to live.

There are those among us who think too much of what others think of them. These people do what they think will make the other person happy. These people, lets call them the "kowtow".. defer to those others who's will it is they wish to make happy. Don't worry, they will forget about what they want.. for a short while.. a year or two maybe. Then their desire to do what they wanted will resurface and they will have the same inner conflicts again.

Suppress the feelings again.. and they surface again. It makes them angry doesn't it? It makes them resentful also. It is a vicious circle. It can bring up years of memories of things NOT DONE because someone- someone who's opinion they valued- said NO. One little word. One look. One time too many where a dream- no matter how stupid sounding at the time, no matter how shallow or superficial it may have been, got squelched.

When you are a kowtow person the WHY takes second place to the individual they are trying to please. When will we learn to make choices that will please and enrich our own lives instead of always trying to please and enrich someone else's?

Ooops!

The other morning as I drove home from work several idiot lights lit up my dashboard. I thought I would be safe to drive 10 minutes more till I got home but my car had other ideas. Just after turning right onto a major parkway my car died. Splat. Nothing. I looked at the battery monitor and I had NO JUICE. Since I was in the right lane I coasted over to the curb and got out of traffic. I couldn't figure out what the heck would cause such a meltdown of my year old car.. check engine light, check brake, and vehicle stability control lights were all on. What the heck!?

So I called the AAA to bail my poor little car out and tow it to the dealer. I had to wait 40 minutes for the tow truck to arrive.. good thing I had bought some pomegranate juice and cookies before leaving the store. M came out to sit with me so I had company too- although I had to listen to him bitch about how lousy he thought the car was now, and how disappointed he was in the brand, etc. Like I wasn't already feeling bad enough having broken down like that. He sure has a way of putting the icing on the cake in situations like these. One of these days I'm going to explode with a string of profanities telling him to keep his $#@&! opinions to himself and to SHUT THE FCUK UP!! At least defer your rants for another time when we are home, and it's the next day or something... not at 2 AM on the side of the road while waiting for the tow.

The next morning I get a phone call from the dealer. Apparently I don't have a major mechanical problem with the car at all. What a relief! In my embarrassment and dismay I wonder how many Toyota Prius owners let their cars run out of gas?

I love this horse!

Desperado!! My sweet horse buddy who doesn't belong to me, but lives in Aristoitle's pasture. Desperado has been featured in past blog posts here, and here, as well as a cameo appearance here.

He comes over and tries to see if he can move me around. When this fails and I gently porcupine him away he tries to initiate grooming and play by rubbing his muzzle on my hair or my shoulders, or by trying to mouth my savvy string if he sees it sticking out of my pocket. He is always in my space which I correct, but today since I was sitting on the tree stump I let him come closer. When he stands this close to me I can feel his warmth radiating from him... tonight that was a nice thing since it got cool after sunset.

A beautiful blogsite

Go visit Farmgirl Fare for beautiful photographs, stories, and more.

Photos from Sunday

squirrel water bomb

A squirrel and two ring neck doves were monopolizing the bird feeder this morning. When I went to shoo them off they all sat there staring at me with unblinking eyes, like ... what? who me? Basically giving me the finger. The doves throw the seed off the feeder and the squirrel sits on the ground vacuuming everything up. They have a nice relationship.

When the squirrel wouldn't budge in spite of my noise I came up with an attack plan. The very low tech, but effective squirrel water bomb is made of an empty, plastic bottle filled 1/2 way with water. The lid is left off so that there is a nice stream of water flying out when you launch it at your target from off the deck. Everyone scattered in 3 different directions when I threw my first bomb. Success!

Lucky for us we don't recycle regularly, so there is a large supply of ammo in the kitchen. One has to remember to go out and pick up used water bombs so that the yard doesn't end up looking like Billy Jo-Bob's landfill.

eat

Lunch. Tasty goodness in spite of bad photo. And Px is still better looking than other dude. Now I'm off to make more sycophantic slurpings on other blogs. Shmuuack!!