The Zelena Chronicles

So Tired of Banks

2012-02-16T12:28:00.001-08:00

I just spent 30 minutes arguing with Wells Fargo over the monthly service charge they promised not to charge me 2 months ago. Then they transferred my call to another service rep that dropped my call and then I had to call again and start all over again. They refunded half the bogus fee as a courtesy. @wellsfargo #fail

I switched from Bank of America to Wamu to get free checking. Wamu got bought out by Chase. Then Chase got rid of free checking so I switched to Wells Fargo. Then Wells Fargo told me I no longer qualify for free checking. I'm about to start keeping my money under the mattress.

Hang In There and Fix Those Holes

2012-01-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

I looked up from my own personal problems and thought 'Egads, we need to repair some of these holes in the bottom of the ship.' That is to say, all my family is in some pretty dire straits. If as a collective we are all in the same boat, then that boat is full of holes and taking on water. If your family is only as strong as it's weakest link, we better weld some new chains together. It's hard to keep caring about a family that continually lets you down. But the alternative is the whole shebang falls apart and you just hope there are enough life jackets around when everyone jumps ship. I'm just trying to figure out how to help when I'm drowning in my own problems. It's not like I'm standing on a dry beach while everyone else is out in the surf. I'm up to my neck in waves. It's not like our family has any rich uncles or sugar daddies. It's sink or swim baby, and none of us are lifeguards.

Blog Frog

2011-11-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

I just signed up for BlogFrog, as you can see from my new widget to the right. It was super easy signing in with my Facebook ID, but they have other options as well. I joined a few of their communities but they didn't have one for belly dancing or archery. I could make one I guess but I'm a little swamped what with National Blog Writing Month (Nanowrimo) and National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). Plus I'm getting reading for Thanksgiving, doing a painting a day, and various other projects with deadlines.

I'm testing the theory that the more you do, the more you can do.

Yesterday's Painting. A semi-abstract series of four paintings.

Veteran's Day USA

2011-11-11T10:11:00.001-08:00

Although I have very conflicted feelings about Veteran's Day I do want to acknowledge all those that served so that I still have a USA to come home to.
Both my father and my deceased father-in-law had military careers. My father is retired air force and my father-in-law kept it a secret that he was in the Army. I only found out at his graveside.

I have many many friends that I know are vets and I'm sure there are others that never mention it. So a toast to you all.

Time to Sign Up For NaBloPoMo.

2011-10-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

National Blog Posting Month is about to start. So if you are going to participate get on over to my new blog at http://www.blogher.com/getting-ready-nablopomo and click on blog roll and see how to sign up your blog. The official site just left NING for blogher, even if you've participated in the past you'll have to register again. I don't mine a fresh start though. I'm not doing Nanowrimo this year, which is why I didn't join in with NaBloPoMo before now. I guess I signed up for it, figured it was pointless since I blog daily anyway, and never did much with it. But it turns out there are a lot of other benefits, like prizes to be one, and it will drive traffic to your blog.

Trying to Stay Motivated

2011-09-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

So much to do today and the only motivation I have is fear. I'd rather be motivated by the carrot than the stick. How can I make this more fun so I'll want to do it. Some of them are intrinsically fun things, like making a belly dancing costume or reading fiction. But I think my depression and repressed anger are taking the joy out of doing things that I normally love. That and having projects dumped on me by other people and also by living in a constant state of poverty and clutter. That I can scrape together any motivation at all is somewhat of a miracle. I'm a hypnotist. I should be the queen of motivation, right? I need to be my own role model. Then again maybe I just need an hour in someone's jacuzzi.

Time Flies Once You Turn the Internet On

2011-09-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

I realized my computer addiction was keeping me from getting stuff done, so I made myself turn it off for five hours. In those five hours I took a series of photos for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, put a load of laundry in, made lunch, watered the back yard, trimmed some vines, straightened up my desk, read some fiction, cut out some pattern tissue pieces for a dress, picked up the living room and took a catnap.

If you want to see the pirate photos they are here: ITLAPD

I should turn off my computer more often.

Another Paleoplanet Meeting Tomorrow

2011-09-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is our monthly archery meeting. I always look forward to gathering under the old trees and working on crafts related to archery all day. They vary from making bows out of wood boards or staves or branches, to learning to make arrowheads out of stone (knapping) or making beadwork for quivers, or things like drinking vessels out of gourds. Many skills are required. Everyone is at different skill levels so we all help each other.
Some of them love to make atlatls and darts (a primitive spear chucker). We all started out knowing very little but some of the guys now make bows and atlatls and arrows for a living. You get out of it what you put into it.
I've picked up some of these skills at the gatherings including spoon carving, bamboo straightening, fire starting, knapping, basketry, and gourd art. The best part is it's free and we all share our materials and supplies.

It's in Pasadena CA by the casting pond.

Fire starting demo

Longbow practice

Darts for the Atlatl by Chris Henry of Paleoarts.

Slo Space Gallery

2011-08-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying some Coconut Body Butter from the Body Shop that my daughter gave to me. Fragrance sure can get the day off to a good start.
I'm packing all my goodies for 2 days of photography and painting on a ranch. They apologized that they couldn't pay me for house sitting and I said, "I'd almost pay you to be here just so I could have 3 peaceful days in the country and get out of Anaheim for a while."
I'm also taking a good book or 4 and my journal, and other projects. I still had my project bag packed from my trip to my daughter's art gallery last weekend so packing was a breeze. However I still have some library books due on Monday and a prescription to pick up before I can head on my mini vacation. So I'd best get cracking.

Here are some photos of my daughter's art show from last weekend and me with my grandson. Enjoy.

I Miss Camping

2011-03-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

It is hard to focus on reaching goals when I'm not in good health. I'm going back to the Dr. on Wed. for my monthly check-up. He never seems to be able to help me much though.

Despite it all, I'm still taking a stab at making each day matter. I'm continuing on with art projects, making a little progress each day. It's humbling to have big dreams and have no chance at making them come true. I'm going to miss my favorite archery event for the second year in a row because my body doesn't do well camping. I wake up so many times during the night, that I'm too tired in the daytime to even enjoy the camping event. Most of the time I end up sleeping sitting up in the truck before the night is through. An archery event isn't much fun when you can't go hiking and shooting. My friends are going to be there and I feel really sad that I'm missing out. After the Gene Foster shoot I pretty much decided that my camping days are behind me unless we can get a camper some day. And with current finances, that's not going to be any day soon.

Right now I'm updating my online articles. Google Adsense changed their algorithms again and Hubpages took a big hit in traffic. I think my views were down 20%. Everyone keeps saying we'll bounce back as Adsense works on eliminating content farms. The problem is this go around they threw the baby out with the bath water. Just in the nick of time Hubpages implemented their own ad servers, and I was selected as one of the writers to test out the beta program. As is typical in my life whenever I gain an income source I lose an income source so it's hard to get anywhere.

Fencers at an SCA event I was at on Saturday.

I'd best get back to work. I can't complain that I have no income if I'm not even trying to earn any, now can I?

The Sunshine is Back

2011-02-28T00:48:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling much better today. Yesterday's cabin fever has passed. The weather was better today so we got to go deliver some arrows, and I got to do some retail therapy and go to the craft store for the parts I needed. We got some yummy things at Trader Joe's too. When we got home Guy made a strawberry pie. It's the first time he's done that and he used real whipped cream. It was supposed to chill for 4 hours but we couldn't wait. So it didn't hold it's shape but who cares? It was fantastic.

Taking Time to Be Patient and Kind

2010-12-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I was pondering how much better life would be if people just slowed down a bit to be more patient and kind.
Then in the afternoon I pulled into a gas station for fuel. Normally I would drive on through to the second pump, so it would be easy for someone to use the first pump, but as I got closer I could see that the second pump was out of order, so I stopped at the first one.

An older woman was behind my pick-up in a little car. She started laying on the horn trying to get me to pull forward. As I was getting out she tried to cut around me. I gestured for her to open her window, so she rolled it down on my side. Before I could even explain she remarked, "Well, you are not very bright, are you?" I just smiled and said, "The other pump is out of order." She looked crestfallen. Realizing that it was her that was none too bright, not me, just took the wind out of her sails. No point making her feel any worse so I just said, "You couldn't see it from where you were."

She looked embarrassed and went on about her business.

Pulling My Three Bank Accounts Out of Chase Bank

2010-12-11T17:01:00.000-08:00

Today I got a notice from my bank I've long been expecting. I had two free checking accounts at Wamu and a savings account that got bought out when Wamu folded. Chase assured me nothing would change and my accounts would be free. But every time I go in there they hammer me to set up a direct deposit. Even if I wanted to I couldn't. If I get ten checks a month they come from ten different places. That is the nature of the beast when you do freelance work for a living. So I wasn't really surprised when I got a booklet from the bank today explaining how they are going to start charging a monthly service charge of $10 (per account). There are a few ways to get around it, all which demand $500 per month lump sum of a monthly deposit, or a large minimum daily balance, or some other things that don't apply to me. I have until Feb. to decide before I start getting dinged with fees.

The reason I left Bank of America in the first place is that I was sick of paying $120 a year in monthly account fees.

Right now I'm leaning towards Wells Fargo bank. But they also charge a $5. monthly fee. It's half of Chase so I may go in that direction, and their daily minimum if I want the fee waived is half what Chase requires.

As I was researching banks, I came across something called 'move your money'. That lead to the video embedded here. It truly is scary to see how big banks have us in their clutches. I wonder if there is a small community bank I can trust in the Anaheim area. I've never had a lot of trust in big banks anyway, but I have even less now. I'm about to start sticking my money under the mattress and hope the building never catches on fire.

One thing is for certain, there is no way I'm staying with Chase.

Thanksgiving Wrap Up Rant

2010-11-25T21:04:00.000-08:00

It seems like Thanksgiving has been going on for ten days. Will it never end? At least I begged off spending the day with relatives. But it kind of backfired because I was too depressed to do anything I had planned. I just stayed home, felt disgusted at the news reporting that even Black Friday wasn't soon enough, and that stores were staying open on Thanksgiving too. Now I've worked retail, and those poor drones need a holiday just like the rest of you, but now they are stuck in the stores Thursday too. Is no one else disgusted by this? Like they can't drain our wallets of money fast enough.

I'm protesting Black Friday. Instead I'm going to sponsor a woman in Africa through the Women For Women organization. They teach job skills to women in war torn areas so they can better support their families. I used to sponser someone but then the economy took a dump and I had to back off. But now I want to get back to contributing to the welfare of others, even if it's a personal sacrifice to do so. There's more to life than buying a new sofa.

Random Thoughts About My Life

2010-11-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

The crickets are partying tonight. One confused fellow was chirping about 5 PM. We are having a mini heat wave driven by the Santa Ana winds. After the rain last weekend, the heat wave is just rather confusing. I had to come back inside and change into a halter top.

The main noticible thing today is not what is there, but what is not there. Namely, all the political ads are gone from the TV, Facebook, radio, and other media. I had about worn out my mute button.

My Dr. read me the riot act about gaining more weight. It seems the harder I try the more I gain. It makes me feel like not trying at all. What's the point? It just stresses me and everyone else out. On top of that my boyfriend's mom is losing weight so it's all she talks about. Points this and points that and on and on. I'm glad she's feeling better but I just don't want to hear it anymore. It's rather like a man who has been blind but can now see sitting in a room full of blind people and going on and on about how great vision is. My Dr. is convinced that exercise has nothing to do with weight loss; that only cutting calories will change your weight. I think he's daft. The science museum in San Francisco has an excellent display showing how fast you can lose weight if you combine diet and exercise, compared to either diet or exercise alone.

At any rate, people are bored to death about hearing how bad obesity is. I'm bored. I'd rather have a different problem, instead of this one all my life.

GMAIL is Really Starting to Bug Me

2010-09-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

GMAIL is really ticking me off lately. First they disable my account because of 'suspicious activity.' They won't turn it back on without a text or voice message sent to the cell phone I don't have. I tried to contact them directly but they didn't respond in 24 hours like their instructions say they will.

So I dug out my old cell phone, and couldn't remember the number. So I
tried to log in to Virgin Mobile to find out my phone number, only I can't log in without my phone number! Ugh. Twenty minutes later I finally find the number. So I ask Gmail to send the new code. In the middle of the voice message with
the new number code, my phone battery dies.

(Bangs head on keyboard). So now I have to charge the phone to try again.

Why does Gmail assume every person on the planet has a cell phone?

I know a few months ago they tried to make is so you couldn't even start a Gmail account without a cell phone verification. They may have dropped this though because my boyfriend just started a new Gmail account and didn't have a problem.

I just hope when I finally get the code it works.

This was the original gmail message: 'Because we detected unusual activity on your account, we've disabled it for the time being. In most cases, accounts are disabled because of a perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service'.

Just the Way I Feel Today

2010-08-31T11:52:00.000-07:00

I hate to say it but there are so many areas of my life I've just given up on. After years and years of plugging away and not getting anywhere, it's hard to get up any sort of enthusiasm. Pep talks only go so far. After a while you don't even believe your own words. If you lose every game, eventually you don't show up at the ballpark anymore.

Libraries Make Me Happy

2010-08-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

Today I drove the 10 extra miles round trip to go to the big library. Usually I go to one of the branches, where they rarely have everything I need. Then I have to order books from the inter-library system, wait another week, and then go back to pick them up. I dropped off 14 books and came home with 24! If this keeps up I'll need to take a shopping cart to the library. Part of the problem is I'm getting books for 2 people. My boyfriend is a voracious reader but refuses to set foot in a library. So to sooth the savage beast, I bring home books for him too. He also reads about twice as fast as I do. And he's out of work, so he has a lot of hours to read. I feel I'm saving us money by going to the library. If he bought all those books, we'd be homeless.

My choice of books leans heavily to arts and crafts and biographies of famous artists. I was thrilled to find a book on Matisse.

Let's Get Organized

2010-08-16T11:36:00.001-07:00

caption: Silverado Car Show
I just had an organizational epiphany. I used to keep a Daily Planner, but it was so heavy and costly. And people thought I was a bible thumper. And I'm not sure why it never occurred to me before, but I can make a daily blog and set it to private to use as my daily planner. Genius! So I'm going to go do that right now.

The Computer Saga or Things That Make You Want to Scream

2010-07-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

Some time ago my best computer took a nose dive. So my boyfriend takes it to a friend to fix it. Turns out the motherboard is fried and it needs a new power source. It takes a few weeks to find that out and get the parts and all. So we keep emailing the guy trying to arrange for a pick up. He's evidentally fallen off the face of the earth and is returning neither phone calls or messages. Meanwhile I'm limping along with the loaner. So weeks pass, and then months. I won't go into detail about how not having that computer is costimg me both friendships and money. I kept trying to get my boyfriend to talk to his friend, but he didn't want to bug the guy or lose his friend. So a year passes. Still no word. Then about 8 months later, my boyfriend's computer goes belly up. And mine is out of memory. So we were really close to not having a computer at all, and since we both earn our livings on the Internet, things were not looking good.

So he emails the very same guy. And the guy responds and says, "Let's get together Sunday."

Fast forward to Sunday. My boyfriend takes his hard drive over there and is gone all day. Turns out it was dead, and the guy hooks him up with a new one. So in one afternoon he gets a computer again, and I've been waiting almost 2 years. In that time the man and his wife have bought a house and moved to another city.

So finally we discuss my computer. He says, "I told him about your computer and he said he gave it back ages ago." NOT. "He said he'd look around for it". I'm thinking this guy has moved, so who knows if he sold it, trashed it, gave it away or stuck it in storage.
I'm out the computer, the money we gave him for parts, and I'm none too happy about the whole slipshod ordeal.

A Sinister Dream

2010-06-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Dream

Sometimes when I oversleep I have these sinister dreams.
This morning my dream started out pleasantly, as they often do.
I was out in my backyard tending to my garden. I was in a good mood and feeling quite lovely. Then I heard someone coming through the house. A voice inside me said, “That’s not who you think it is, hide.” And I mentally argued back, “That’s ridiculous, who else could it be.”

Next thing I know this short Hispanic woman dragging a young child bursts into my back yard. I’m startled so I yell out, “Who are you? What are you doing in my yard? How did you get in?”

She says in broken English that the front door was unlocked. I say it wasn’t unlocked. I’m angry. In real life I have brick walls surrounding my yard, but in the dream there is just a redwood fence between me and the next house. Somehow she gets behind me and manages to pull some boards loose and squeeze into the next yard pulling the kid behind her. But for now they are trapped by the neighbor’s fence. So I figure I’ll call the police.
So I run into the house and grab the phone but it’s dead. So I grab my cell phone.

I dial 911 and I hear two voices on the line. One is the faint voice of my mother (who is dead in real life) and the voice of a man. With everyone talking at once I can’t understand anyone. I’m not even sure they can hear me. So I hang up and try again. Again I hear two voices. My mom’s is even fainter, but the man’s voice sounds like a sinister person, not like the police at all, so I hang up.

Part 2
In the next part of the dream I am on the front porch with my 10 year old daughter. We are leaving to find a safe place. I am locking the door. Then I notice a bag of belongings on the porch. Thinking they must belong to the woman that broke in, I unlock the door again to toss the bag inside and save it for the police. But when I swing the door inward, I can see a hole where someone broke through to undo the dead bolt and door lock, and then a wooden panel from the center of the door falls out, leaving a big hole, as if someone had sawn around it. Uncertain as to how to cover the hole before we leave, I step back inside while my daughter waits on the porch. I glance around for some wood to cover the hole. Realizing my mistake I yank open the front door and yell at my daughter to get inside. But she is already gone.

Frantically I glance around and spot that woman again. I grab her by the fabric of her neckline. I am yelling in her face, ‘Where is my daughter.” She said , “_______ had her.” (Unfortunately I can’t remember the name now.So I yell, “Show me where he is.”
She takes me to a nearby back yard that looks like someone has been camping in it. Right when we get there, two men come around the corner of the house. One of the men is tied or handcuffed by the wrist to my daughter. I am livid.

We are yelling back and forth. Somehow I grab this cutting tool out of the guy’s hand. I am trying to cut the ties that hold my daughter to the man. I get her free and we start to run. I glance back and see one of them has found a gun. But we run on anyway.

Part 3
I’m in a motel room. I have my daughter with me, but now I have my other daughter too. And she’s just a toddler. We are holed up in this room without any money or food and my youngest daughter asks for a cookie. I see one in our little bag of stuff. A round white cookie so I give it to her.

Then it is night and we are in a yard. I see a police car cruising the neighborhood. We yell and wave until it stops. I’m telling the policewoman the whole story. I show her the weapon. She takes it to study it and puts it in her pocket. “We need that”, I say, “It’s our only protection.” She is clearly not going to give it back. She drives off without doing anything.

Part 4
I am inside my apartment again. I am by the front door. I see someone has pinned a bunch of photos and drawings to it. One says, “Thanks for the chocolate milk.” But the rest are just ugly drawings of me. I can’t remember much of those. And then I finally wake up.

Social Networking Sites

2010-06-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

Marianne working on a bow at a Paleoplanet gathering.

Here is it Friday morning already. This week just flew by. I've been busy honing my social networking skills. I'm now on Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr, Linkedin, Hubpages, and half a dozen other ones. A person with no life could literally spend every waking moment doing online networking. I have to pry myself away from the computer with a tire iron.

Yesterday I heard a random blurb on TV that the average person sits for over 8 hours a day. I probably sit even more than that between the Internet, creating arts and crafts, eating, watching TV, and riding in a car/bus/train. I totally wish I had a treadmill hooked to my computer monitor. 'No walkie, no talkie.'

So every day I do gardening, hooping, juggling, and some dancing. The dancing is more like stretching because I have so little space to move in where someone isn't gawking at me. I've just started another monthly archery gathering, so now we'll have two a month and that should help with the physical end of things. If nothing else I get exercise walking to and from the truck to the archery range. Then if I shoot arrows I get a lot more walking in retrieving all those arrows. Most of them land on the hay bales nowadays, so I don't have to hunt and fetch quite as much as I used to.

Library Hour Cutbacks

2010-06-23T09:25:00.000-07:00

I was off to the library this morning at 9 AM when I remembered they don't open until 11 AM on Mon. through Thurs. and noon on Friday and Sat. With all the California budget woes, I'm amazed we have libraries at all. It just seems wrong to cut something that increases the education of the populace. Libraries don't just have books, but computers for those that can't afford their own, videos, community meetings, unemployment resources, tax forms, and many other things that keep a city working smoothly. I'm sure the staff at libraries fights all the time to keep their branches open.

I've always loved libraries. It was one of the more pleasant things I got to do with my father. Did you know military bases have libraries? In high school I worked at my library. Years later after I had children, I volunteered at the Cal Poly SLO library for a while. If you want your kids to frequent libaries, set a good example by going to libraries.

Dinner and a Sick Cat

2010-06-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

Since I'm doing my best to dance each day or at least stretch so I can dance, I just did a round of stretching and footwork. I am very stiff from a weekend of hiking, juggling, altatl dart throwing, and hauling bins, chairs, tables, and food. Basically I was useless today. I did have to run to the post office to mail an Etsy order to a customer. And later we went to the woodworking store and a grocery store. But once I got home I sat at my computer, too stiff and tired to move. I made myself get up and stretch. I should have cleaned the aquarium filter. Ah well. It's after 9 and dinner still isn't ready. I asked my boyfriend if we'd be eating soon and all he said was, "I just made meat." But he didn't get up to cut the meat or get plates or anything. I don't want to offend him by getting my own dinner. I ate some honey roasted peanuts to tide me over. He's tired too. For all I know he fell asleep on the couch.

Our cat has been sick today too. He doesn't want to eat. He just lays about looking lethargic. We may have to go to the vet if he's not perky by morning.

Caption: The fish I made in the crochet contest.

Seek the Light

2010-06-21T09:42:00.001-07:00

I just had a very strange and epic dream this morning. I won't tell the whole dream, because it was quite long, but rather the ending.

At the end of the dream, I was wearing brown robes. My hair was long. I was younger and thinner than I am now. I was carrying a stave made of wood. The top had a carved wooden ornament with four lathed spiral finials. The staff was taller than me by about 2 feet. I'll post a photo of a drawing of it. I think inside the ornate top there was a mirror, or a light, or stained glass. As I was holding the staff I was also clutching 3 long sticks of incense.
The world was a crowded place. Many people were meandering around, so I joined the first parade of people that went by. They were shouting out random things to the crowd. They were all dressed in brown too. When no one else was yelling anything I would yell out "Seek the Light."

There was a man marching with us with medium long curly brown hair and kind eyes, so we took to standing somewhat near each other and watching each other. At one point every time I spoke something out loud, he would say the very same thing at the very same time. We both seemed quite amused at this.

Eventually we lost site of each other and the parade meandered away from me and after walking alone a bit I wound up in another parade. It was still light out. I'm still randomly calling out 'Seek the light'. Then I realize the new parade is wandering into a building. Too late I realize they are all funneling into a church service. Knowing that is wrong somehow, I turn to go. In the entryway there are all kinds of rusty statues. One is of Jesus on the cross. That seems really creepy to me, but there was also a sculpture of a bunch of giant forks all welded together at the base. I wondered what that could possibly mean.

As I left the building I soon passed a group of people preaching to the crowd. One man shouted out, "Don't spend money on root canals, spend it on feeding the poor."

I thought what an odd thing to say, for what good is it if you feed the poor only to die of a tooth infection. I could see forgoing pleasure to feed the poor, but you have to take care of your own health first, otherwise you won't live long to help others.

So I walked on. I passed this older man who was standing there in black or dark robes. As I walked up to him my skirt elastic gave out and it fell down. Quite mortified I was trying to pull it back up, though I still had a slip on under it. This man is watching me and says, "What is that you are holding." So I look at the staff and the incense I am clutching.
With the other hand I'm still trying to fix my clothes. At that point I woke up and realized I was trying to pull my blanket back up though I was still covered with the sheet.

Today's Highligts

2010-06-20T23:25:00.001-07:00

So much happened at the archery range today I can't cover it all. So I'll just do the highlights.

1. Found part of a dead snake.
2. Saw a gopher nibbling on the end of Ken's bow stave.
3. Hula hooped with a pregnant lady and a 10 year old boy.
4. Missed all but 2 altalt shots.
5. Watched Alex start a primitive fire.
6. Saw a man walking 3 beautiful whippets.
7. Attempted to juggle five balls while filming a video of myself.
8. Saw Alex shatter an atlatl dart which then flew in two directions.
9. Saw Mike's new bow bench and David's new chainmail.
10. Saw Ken building some sort of forge for knives.

I have photos to upload but that's a job for another day.

And The Archery Field Was Overrun

2010-06-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

I was right about ready to turn off my computer and crawl into bed when I remember my committment to do this daily journaling. Granted it's almost 1 AM it's close enough.

Today when we got to the archery range, there was a huge archery tournament going on. There were more cars than parking spaces and they were parked all over the grass. The grass is the area our organizer had paid the city a fee to reserve for us for our knitting, juggling,& archery event. She got there around 9 AM to set up and there was just no way we'd be able to use the area and move all those cars. And even if we could get them to leave the grass, there'd be no parking spaces for all the knitters, jugglers and so forth to park from our group.

And the only reason I got my boyfriend to drive me there was so he could do archery. The archery that wasn't going to happen now. Because the club of archers had rented the entire range.

Our leader had driven down the horseshoe shaped narrow road and found us a spot in another part of the park near restrooms. She did the best she could but there was only parallel parking and some of the spinners had to lug their spinning wheels a very far way.

But once we got all settled we managed to have a very good time anyway. We had contests, and a raffle and lots of eating and hooping. I juggled but no one else did. I guess the jugglers took their party elsewhere, maybe to the park in Irvine.

I won some yarn and stitch markers in the raffle.

My friend is going to try to get a refund for the reserved spot we got kicked out of. No way she should have to pay if she couldn't use that spot.

About Dance, Juggling, Atlatls, Knitting and Hooping

2010-06-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

My newest project is taking a photo of myself dancing every day. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think most of the photos are just going to be me in my backyard, because it's been years since I danced in public anymore, mostly because it's just not that fun to dance when I'm overweight and self-concious.

I'm getting ready for 2 events this weekend. The first is at El Dorado Regional Park. It's a combination of World Juggling Day and World Knit in Public Day. It's at an archery range so I'll take my bow too. If we have to pay $8.00 to park inside the park, I want to get my money's worth.

Then on Sunday is our monthly Paleoplanet bowmaker's gathering. And it's an atlatl competition as well, so I'm going to take my archery stuff, my crating gear and my newly finished darts. I haven't made an atlatl yet but I'm pretty sure someone there will let me borrow one. I just hope I have enough energy to make it through the weekend. I was so tired today I had to lay down and take a nap, and I hate napping because it makes me feel like a little old lady.

I guess we are going to try to be there at 9 AM tomorrow, even though it starts at 10. But we have heavy gear and need a good parking space. We are taking watermelon and snacks too. And my hula hoops. One way or another I'm getting some exercise tomorrow.

Under the Weather

2010-02-26T08:48:00.000-08:00

I just realized I hadn't made a post here in a long time. Life got complicated and typing is difficult. I'm seeing a Dr. to find out why my hands hurt all the time. But I won't know for another week what's going on. So I've been trying to lay off the typing.

I've had some sort of 24 hour flu thing, but the good side is I was too sick to be on the Internet, so essentially didn't type for 2 days. I've had tons of sewing, knitting and crocheting projects that I've had to put on hold until I find out what's going on with my hands. The Dr. already ruled out arthritus and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Stolen License Plate Sticker

2009-10-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes this neighborhood grates on my nerves. I've had more things stolen since I've moved to west Anaheim than I ever had stolen in my life. And now I have a new one to add to the list. My boyfriend and I were loading crafts into our truck for a craft fair tomorrow. We shut the tailgate. And I noticed his license plate registration sticker was gone. All that was left was two corners and a part of the '0' in 2010.

You'd think the DMV would just give you another sticker. After all, you are the victim. But noooooooo it's going to cost something. They aren't open on weekends, so I nosed around on the Internet. As far as I can tell, it will be $20. to replace it. Just what he needed, another bill while he's between jobs. I'm more upset than he is. I wish I knew the numbers on it, because I'm really curious to see if it's stuck on one of our neighbor's cars.

Happy Birthday Rose Sylvia

2009-10-17T00:42:00.000-07:00

I just realized that today is my oldest sister's birthday. She's been missing almost two years. I don't think she's among the living anymore. Here name is Rose Sylvia and she was last seen in TX where she had a horse ranch. After she went missing she lost the ranch and everything and her horses were her life in many ways. She was an international speaker on the specifics of horse pedigrees and breeding. She was also very active on the Internet and was well known for her social networking under the name FlyingRose. I believe that was the name of her ranch as well. She owned a very useful website at one point called EquineInfo.com.

So I just wanted to make note of her birthday, Oct. 17, 1957. And ask that if anyone has seen or heard from her or about her please let me know. Thanks.

Peacemakers?

2009-09-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

I was about to start a blog on Peace, to in a tiny way counteract all the publicity that War is getting. So I remembered a bible verse about blessing the peacemakers. So I googled that up and this was the first quote I came across, that to me in a nutshell shows how out of context the bible can be taken.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God...
God Bless America and all of our soldiers fighting for our freedom and protection"

That was on a Christian site. In what crazy demented universe have we been taught that a person who kills for a living is a peacemaker? I guess in a sense that if you kill all your enemies you get peace by default. Sick.

Changing Backgrounds

2009-09-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

I've been changing all my blog backgrounds to better reflect the real me, and not some mass produced blogger template. That took some study and reading lots of tutorials before I got it right. So to save you time, this is where I got the directions that made sense to me and finally worked. http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2007/10/how-to-use-background-image-for-your.html I realize a lot of men are more comfortable with bland boring backgrounds. But I am a complex person and those just didn't suit me. This isn't an accounting site after all.

Why I'm Ready to Live in a Yurt in the Middle of Five Acres

2009-09-12T01:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know what the neighbors in the front house are doing. About every fifteen or 20 minutes they throw their back door open, throw something out on the patio that sounds like a pile of shoes and then they slam the door shut. This is about the fifth time already. It's dark over there...for all I know it's burglars. But why would burglars throw things in the back yard where they'd have to toss them over the fence to get them out? Strange. I'd really like to get some sleep.

Japanese Dishes

2009-08-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

I'm been through a lot lately and although the timing wasn't the best and I have more bills than I know what to do with, I finally broke down and bought some Japanese dishes. I've wanted some for years and I was tired of waiting. There never is the perfect time really. Now I can't wait to make some rice or miso soup or something so I can use them. And I've decided every time I go to that Japanese market I'm going to buy a dish or two. I only go there about two or three times a year so I'll just slowly add to my collection.

Midnight Woes

2009-08-13T00:53:00.000-07:00

Most of the time I'm in my apartment. It is only rarely that the apartment is empty and neither of us are home. So why is it, when home issues arise, it happens when we are not here to fix them immediately?

We left to visit friends at 4:30 and got home at midnight. I'm walking down the hall barefooted and my feet are getting wet. Major portions of the rug are a soggy mess. Also, the bathroom off the master bedroom is flooded, as well as a section of bedroom carpeting.

After a bit of investigating, we notice the living room ceiling is wet. Therefore, we are guessing maybe the issue is in the apt. over us. So I go to knock on their door hoping they don't shoot me since it's after midnight.

Well, evidentally their toilet overflowed. And judging by the volume of water it must have overflowed for hours. Usually when a toilet overflows it's right after flushing, so how could they not know their toilet was overflowing and turn off the water? I don't get it.

So we've spent the last hour picking up anything on the floor that might wick up water, like stacks of art supplies and paintings and boxes of books and paperwork. Even my guitar case was wet so I had to take my guitar out of it. And if it happened hours ago, why didn't they call the landlord? If he has to replace the carpet, where will we put all the furniture and stuff so they can rip out the old carpet? I mean how sanitary is it to have water overflowed from a toilet soaked into all our rugs and the padding under it? Eww.

Meteor Shower

2009-08-12T02:29:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of light pollution in Anaheim, but even so I was able to see five shooting stars tonight. They were all between the moon and the brightest planet. After half an hour I was too chilly to sit outside and the motion detector lights kept going on and off, which was annoying. But at least I got to experience the earth passing through the tail of a comet.

Harry Potter Half Blood Prince Movie Review

2009-07-16T16:59:00.001-07:00

This includes spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to go elsewhere.

I re-read the Half Blood Prince a few months ago so it's still pretty fresh in my mind. I went to see the movie today with high hopes. The special effects were certainly spectacular. But the telling of the story got lost somewhere along the way. Many parts were rushed through to the point that I'm not sure how someone who hadn't read the books already could have followed the plot at all.

Also, they made Professor Slughorn such a nice guy when in the book he was an arrogant buffoon that Harry Potter tried to avoid.

But perhaps the biggest disappointment was the final battle. In the book the whole school gets involved with the Death Eaters as Tonks and Bill and the rest of the adults on the side of good get into an epic battle inside Hogwarts. I couldn't wait to see how the movie would handle that battle. Well, they handled it by omitting it completely.

They went from Dumbledor falling from the tower, to the Death Eaters escaping from the grounds. I suppose they did that to simplify things and keep the movie the right length. But seriously, if I was the writer, I would have cried. We can only hope that the epic battle is in the director's cut but I'm kind of doubting it.

Complicated Potato Salad

2009-07-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

This has been the trickiest potato salad I ever made. One night I boiled the potatoes but before they were done, my bf decided to make something else for dinner. So I cubed the cooked potatoes and put them in the fridge.

The next night we were both too tired to make it, but he wanted eggs in his. To me a potato salad is about the potatoes, and at most I would have put four or five in there. So after I was in bed last night he tells me he boiled some eggs for the salad tomorrow.

So today I go to make this potato salad finally, and he boiled 11 eggs. Eleven! I guess he wants a few potatoes in his egg salad. Now he hates peeling eggs, so I'm more than happy to do it. So I go to peel the eggs. I notice ice in the bottom of the bowl. So I start peeling and in 7 out of 11 eggs, there is a sheet of ice under the shell. I'm guessing you can't use frozen eggs in potato salad. So he's either going to have to live with 4 eggs in his potato salad or I'm going to have to boil more eggs. I've grown weary of the whole potato salad drama.

Blogging is Getting So Complicated

2009-07-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

I am missing the days when you could just set up a blog and start posting away.

A few months ago Project Wonderful killed all my ads because they didn't want to be on the blog if I had Kontera, so I removed Kontera and reapplied. Then they turned me down again on my busiest blog. When I got to the nuts and bolts of why, it's because of the disclosure statement at the bottom of my blogs that I added a few days ago because Google Adsense kept asking us (I thought) to add some kind of disclosure statement. The PW people said it looks like I'm accepting paid sponsorship so that's incompatible with their program, but now I'm really confused because Project Wonderful is a form of paid compensation, so wouldn't they want the disclaimer on here? I've written to them for the fourth time this morning trying to clarify. Google said it would affect how my blogs show up in search engines if I don't add a disclaimer. I'm not a lawyer. Are the rest of you as confused as I am?

Tricky Situation

2009-06-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Something I saw tonight gave me flashbacks to my miserable childhood.

I was eating at a fast food place on a busy street. A white car pulls in. A man and boy get out. The boy looks to be about 13 so I'm guessing father and son. I can't hear them but I can tell the man is yelling at the boy. He makes him go in to get food. The boy looks anxious.

It takes a long time for him to get waited on because the drive-thru is busy. At that point I went to the counter thinking to make sure he got waited on so the man in the car didn't get any madder. But the boy was holding a receipt so I figured he's doing okay.

I finished eating and went out to my truck. There was a single spot between me and the next vehicle. The white car was parked a few spaces down opposite from me.
Now I can see there is a woman (the mom?) and another boy in the car. Family of four out for dinner? The boy comes out with the food. Instead of waiting for him the man jumps out. Now he's all smiles and opens his arms wide and yells out, "What a good boy come give daddy a big hug." I find this mood swing very disturbing. The boy doesn't want to do it, but he's afraid not to. He inches towards the man. The man throws his arms around the boy, who looks miserable, and covers the side of the boy's face with kisses. I sit there to see what happens next. The boy gets in and the man is now laughing a maniacle laugh. He gets in and revs the engine. Instead of backing up like a normal person to pull out, he comes flying right at my truck, swerves suddenly and dives through the small space between me and the next vehicle. I thought for sure he was going to hit me. At this point I think the guy is off his rocker or flippin' drunk. By the time I get turned around I can't see the car so I don't know which way it went on the busy street.

Minutes later I was so mad I had left my cellphone at home. I was also mad that I hadn't thought to jot down his license plate. At least in CA you can call 911 and report drunk drivers. I hesitated because I didn't have enough info for the police until the guy almost took the mirror off the side of my truck and then it was too late.

All along I could have been jotting down descriptions of the people, the car, the license number and so on.

The other problem I have is I don't trust the govt. much. Say they arrest the guy. Suddenly the family had no bread winner, and the kids end up in foster care where they get abused even more. It's hard to know what to do. But I'm pretty sure I failed.

Blog TV Experiment

2009-05-11T17:46:00.000-07:00

I just signed up for Blogtv. So I'm going to see how this URL thing works.
Supposedly you can watch me while you are parked on my blog. If you can, or if you see me, leave me a comment if you please so I know it's working. Thanks.

My Computer is Sick

2009-05-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

One of my Etsy chatroom acquaintances introduced me to blogtv.com. So I made my own broadcast that worked great the first night. The next night I was tweaking my profile and clicked on a button to put my broadcast in the proper category.

At that moment, my firewall exploded. I've got a doozy of a computer virus. Can't surf the Internet at all. If I open a page, the virus immediately hijacks it and tries to get me to buy some superpro antivirus program. Is that like a tire store slashing your tires to get you to buy new ones from them? I've run over 6 hours of virus scanners, which do find the threats and remove them, yet still when I reboot the pop-ups come back insisted my computer's been infected and I must try their program.

Now tons of people on are blogtv.com, so I have to think and hope mine is an isolated incident. I'm on a borrowed computer at the moment and he's forbidden me to go on that blogtv.com site because the last thing we need is another computer with a virus.

So if any of you know a fix, or have that issue, or know how to reach tech support for that company, please share the info in the comment. Thanks.

Trojan Fakespypro

2009-05-10T00:56:00.000-07:00

Today was challenging to say the least. I just spent most of the evening trying to get rid of a trojan I picked up called trojan:win32/FakeSpypro. When I try to go to an URL a warning page comes up telling me to buy their product. It blocks me from opening the webpage.
This blogger page is the first page I've gotten to open all night. When I restarted my computer after a scan and deleting malicious files, the problem recurred so I didn't get it all off my computer. But it's 1 AM and I can't keep my eyes open so I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Kontera Vs Project Wonderful

2009-05-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

I was quite content with my Kontera keywords existing hand in hand with my Project Wonderful ad squares. Until today when Project Wonderful deleted all my ads. Evidentally they take issue with having to compete with Kontera. I love the Project Wonderful format because I feel like I'm helping other small businesses have affordable advertising on blogs and websites. And it's definitely prettier and more creative in the way it displays on some of my blogs.

On the downside, I make more money (I think) from Kontera. I just got my first $100 check from Kontera a month ago. Right now my Project Wonderful account has about $20. in it. Granted half of that goes into the ads I run on other people's blogs. The advertising program pays for itself.

So my choice now is to take Kontera off some or all of my blogs and reapply to Project Wonderful. I'm still thinking about it. Eventually my Project Wonderful account will be empty as my paid ads will eat it up with no new revenue from people buying ads on my blog. What are the rest of you in this dilemma doing? I have a feeling PW just did a big sweep of blogs and a lot of people are in the same boat I am in.

New Dawn, Eclipse, and Spirits White As Lightning

2009-04-25T13:17:00.001-07:00

I’m behind on this goal but haven’t given up. A few days ago I finished New Dawn, the second book in the Twilight Series.
I’m just about to finish Spirits White As Lightning by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. I’ve started on Eclipse, the 3rd book in the Twilight Series. I’m also reading Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman. No matter how many concurrent books I may be reading, I can still only read one page at a time. It’s frustrating.

See more progress on: read 100 books in 2009

Library Snafu

2009-04-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I went to the library looking for the last 2 books in the Twilight series. Being popular books, they were already checked out so I put them on hold. A few days later I get an automated call from the library that both books are in. Usually it costs .50 per hold but if you go in right away and do the self check-out they don't charge you. Less work for them I guess.

So there the two books were with a white paper with my name on it rubberbanded around them like a sleeve. I took off the wrapper to make sure it was the right titles, then I grabbed some other books, and headed to the self check-out monitor.

I did the other books first, which went through just fine. So I put up the first hold book and the screen says, "Too many objects on the console, please remove and re-scan." So I did. This time the screen came up telling me to have the librarian check it out.

I tried the other book. Same deal.

So I waited until the librarian was free. She was young as librarians go. She takes my card and the books and tries to check them out. Then she tells me they are not on hold for me, and I have no holds on my account, and she personally put one of those books over on the hold shelf for someone else and did I have another person in my family with a different card that the hold was on.
Then when I said no, both by words and by facial expressions she implied I was lying about the whole thing. I could see this was getting nowhere. And that if I wanted the books, I had to go put a new hold on them and wait my turn.

Now I can understand library snafus and problems with computers. What I can't tolerate is when someone screws up and then their staff tries to make me out to be the villain. So I ask to see her supervisor. On the way I take the paper out of the trash that had my name on it to prove the books were indeed on hold with my name.

The supervisor is a young man and he in at another section of the library. So he goes over to the back counter, picks up the books she took away from me and goes to check them out for me. She jumps in and tells him I can't have them.

Non-plussed, he tells me he is going to take them to the back room and research the history of the holds and try to figure out what is going on. Meanwhile I'm standing at the counter where Ms. Snooty is helping others and glaring at me in spare moments.

Eventually the supervisor does give me the books. What he thinks happened is that the first time I scanned them, it checked them out to me, and when the error message told me to scan again, the machine checked the books back in, and the automated system erased my hold and notified the next person in line that their book was in. He said it was some kind of a glitch they'd have to look into.

Why on earth the first librarian would jump to the conclusion that I was trying to 'steal' the books placed on hold for another person is beyond me. Think of the logic of it? How would I know the books were even in if someone hadn't told me? Or if one book was for me, why would I look for the second book, remove the hold sleeve, and put it in the sleeve with my other book? She did go check the shelf and found both the name that she thought she's reserved it for under another person's label, and also one of the Twilight books under someone else's name. What a mess.
What really miffs me is she never apologized.

Weird Night in West Anaheim

2009-03-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

After the neighbors woke me up at 3:15 AM with their pounding last night, I was in the Etsy chatroom. It was about 5:15 AM and the Etsy treasury was about to open up so I got all ready to make a new treasury for the first time in a month. Then my power flickers, I hear a popping noise on the street, and my computer loses it's ISP connection. I try to restart twice to no avail. I notice the house lights are now a strange yellowish color. So I go into the living room and the fish filter is making an awful grinding noise so I had to unplug that. My guess is a transformer on the street blew out. When I stepped outside the air had an odd smell to it like burning paper. Other apartments also had an odd yellow glow to their lights which were kind of flickering and yellowish. So were the safety lights over the driveway. So I came back in and woke my boyfriend up turning off his computer. I didn't want the power to suddenly come back on and fry everything. My phone kept trying to restart so I unplugged that too. A few of the apartment lights still worked so I took a book to bed and finally fell asleep about 6 AM. Then I slept until 11:30 AM when the neighbors once again woke me up pounding on something.

Why I Am Up at 3 AM

2009-03-19T04:14:00.001-07:00

As you might expect, I was sound asleep at 3 AM. I was having some sort of a dream that I don't remember now when something woke me up. It sounded for all the world like the people in the apartment I share a wall with were hanging photos. The pounding seemed like it went on for half an hour. At least 3 times a week they wake us up with banging noises or loud talking or music playing. This time I had had enough so once I was lucid I wrote a letter, got dressed, and walked around to their front door. Just as I was turning the corner a man came out of that apartment I think and crossed the street. He didn't see me. And I wasn't entirely sure he came out of the apartment or was just on the sidewalk stepping out into the street. At any rate I shoved the letter through their mail slot and if anyone in there was awake they would have heard the metal slat bang shut.

I have no way to know if they read the letter. But now about fifteen minutes later I can hear them talking again loudly on their patio and they cranked up some kind of music. So either they haven't read the letter and it's just business as usual, or they have read it and are just being belligerent. They are from India so I don't even know if they read English.

I do know my boyfriend has an 8:30 AM dental appointment and I'm guessing the pounding woke him up too. But unlike me, he's pretty good at rolling over and going back to sleep. My problem is I can't sleep because I expect them to begin pounding again at any moment (and sometimes they do usually just when I've nodded off again). I'm beginning to think it would be better to live in a tepee on five acres than to put up with this anymore. Oh how I miss having my own house where none of my walls touched anyone elses.

Twittermania

2009-02-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

When it comes to Twitter I have multiple personality disorder. First I made a name just to talk about my daily life. Then I had to have one just for crafts. Then I had to have one for when I'm feeling naughty and I don't want my every day followers to know how kinky I am. Then I needed a metaphysical one for those zen moments. Then I made a few names for random moods. I had to have one for poetry, just poetry. And now I feel like I need one for comedy...would that be sit-down comedy? Oh, and my finger puppet has her own twitter. Almost forgot about that one.

Am I Acting Weird?

2009-02-03T22:03:00.000-08:00

My boyfriend is jealous that my daughter can make me laugh more than he does. It's really starting to bug him. He's getting competitive about it. He shouldn't feel like he's failing. I'm just not that jovial of a person. I don't sit around cracking up at sit-coms. And shows like America's Funniest Videos often make me cringe when people get hurt. I start to wonder if they had to go to the hospital afterwards or if there were any long term effects from falling into the pool after being hit by a drunk swinging at a pinata.

I'm never really sure what I will laugh at. If I knew what would make me laugh, I suppose I would seek out more of it.

My boyfriend often says I'm in an odd mood or a weird mood. I can't tell when I'm in these so called weird moods and I have no idea how to stop acting weird and just act normal, whatever normal is. He's uncomfortable around me and I'm uncomfortable around him. It hasn't always been that way but I can't see it changing anytime soon.

Ranting About Youtube Comments

2009-01-16T17:58:00.001-08:00

Today I had to remind myself that we can't get our self-worth or our self-esteem or our sense of accomplishment from the Internet. I don't want to be on such a mood swing rollercoaster because one person gives my youtube video five stars and the next one calls me insane and gives me a one. Then there are the people that watch a tutorial, and instead of checking for other tutorials on the same topic until they find one that meets their needs or answers their questions, give me a low ranking because I didn't answer every question directly addressing their problem. Ditto for those complaining about video quality. I don't get paid to do videos. I don't have professional equipment. If they want to buy me a new better video camera, then I'd be happy to make better quality videos. I think people expect a lot for free. You can't learn everything on youtube. You actually have to go to a real class and pay a living instructor from time to time. Otherwise your learning is just going to be a mishmash of techniques. If a tutorial is for a complicated crocheted hat, don't chew out the person who made it because they didn't cover beginning crochet techniques. Look for a tutorial labeled 'beginning to crochet' or something. I see that a lot, not just on my stream but on many. One lady said, "Can you slow down. I just learned yesterday." If a person just learned yesterday they need a lot of practice. I think people want to learn instantly. No one wants to put in the time to really master anything anymore. They give up knitting after an hour because they can't make a sweater yet. I think videos make things look quick and easy because there is a lot of fast forwarding involved. It literally looks like they made the hat in 10 minutes, when in real time it may have taken 10 hours or 10 days even.

Then there are the people that are just haters. They hate women, they hate fat people, they hate black people or they just get off on being mean. Usually I just block those people.

My Sunday

2009-01-05T00:44:00.000-08:00

I'm suddenly getting more followers to some of my blogs, which makes blogging even more fun. I tend to post more to certain blogs if I know someone is following them. Then I don't feel like I'm a voice crying out in the wilderness.

I have a goal of reading 100 books this year, so today I started with book one, Ender's Game, a Sci Fi novel my daughter recommended. And I like it so far. I got up to chapter 8 today and will try to read a bit more when I lay down. I fall asleep pretty quickly when I do that but at least it's an effort.

I was using an ATM machine to deposit a check and I accidentally hit the number one button on the keypad instead of the deposit button on the screen and $40 came out of the ATM machine and out of my checking account. Good thing I had $50 in there, but what a weird glitch.

It's almost 1 AM and my brain is turning to mush so I'm going to scoot off to read. Tomorrow is the day '9 to 5 ers' go to work after the holidays. I'm grateful that I work in my home office. No fighting the traffic to get to a cubicle. No timeclocks. But sadly, on many a day, no income. But I hang in there.

Charles De Lint books

2008-12-29T20:41:00.000-08:00

One of my goals is to read all the Charles De Lint books. It took me forever and a day to finish Moonheart, which had so many characters and plot lines I'm sure I missed the nuances.

Now I'm reading I'll Be Watching You which is about abusive men. It's depressing as hell. And it lacks the magical elements of his other books. He wrote it under an alias Samuel M Key. I'm about halfway done. It's going a lot faster than Moonheart so if I hang in there I'll finish it fairly quickly. So for New Year's I should reinact my goal to read 100 books in a year. Anyone else want to join me? Even though it's kinda cheating because it's still 2008 for a few more days, I'm going to make this number one.
So:
1. I'll Be Watching You

What are you reading?

Raisin Bread and Rainy Days

2008-12-25T13:54:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to say I've got raisin bread cooking in my bread machine.

I got an mini article written on Steampunk Neovictorian costuming, I got the dishes done, and I'm working on a hat crocheting tutorial.

It's been raining on and off, so I try to run outside and do a few things whenever the rain stops.

My boyfriend's dad called from Oregon to say they were snowed in. I feel a little guilty running in and out of the house in a sleeveless tank top and skirt.

For dinner I'm going to cook 2 chickens in the rotisserie, but that won't be for hours. I want to take the raisin bread out first so I can move the bread machine to make counter space for the rotisserie. Small apartments equal minimal counter space. I have a tiny kitchen but I don't let it slow me down much.

Talk About Lazy

2008-12-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

While I was standing out in the alley working on getting a stain out of some pants by our garage door, I see something sail over the fence and land in the alley. It was a dirty diaper the neighbors threw off their balcony aiming for the dumpster and missed. I have a feeling that is also how the diapers end up on top of the closed dumpster. I was out there another 10 minutes and no one came down to pick it up. Can we say ewwww? I've even found dirty diapers in my garden. Unacceptable.

Zenchantress Today

2008-12-21T22:11:00.000-08:00

Today someone invited me to a new blogging site where at least for the first 30 days they will pay me $1. a day to blog. http://zenchantress.today.com/ So I got approved in one day even though it says it will take much longer. And I've already made my first two posts. I think bloggers should be paid and I am gradually dropping the sites that don't pay anything so I don't spread myself too thin on the non-paying sites. For example I almost never blog on Yahoo360 anymore. I think I'm also going to start striving to make each blog post 100 words or more in length so that people coming to my site feel like they haven't wasted their time. That is about 10 lines with 10 words per line.

And by the way, Wondrous Winter Solstice everyone. I hope you got to make a snow angel or throw a snowball or at least light a green candle today.

51 Things

2008-12-21T01:25:00.001-08:00

Now that my computer is working again I want to start vlogging again. I want to make a response to this video thread http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_yzVK6JaB8&NR=1 where you show 51 things in your room. Seems like fun. A whole bunch of them are linked together on youtube. I watched the one by freakishlemon first and went from there. I love his stuff. He knits, he crochets, he goes to Ren Faires. What's not to like.
Anyway, it's 1:27 AM and the batteries in my video camera are dead, so it will have to wait until another day.

I'm not sure what to think about Yousaytoo

2008-12-19T14:39:00.001-08:00

I joined a site called YOUSAYTOO hoping to get more readers for my blogs and more revenue as well. But some of my blog posts are very short. They are short for 2 reasons. One is I only have so much time in the day. The other is that a daily blog is more or less a project report such as 'I am knitting a sweater' or 'I finally got that yarn I needed in the mail.' But I'm getting marked down in the ratings on yousaytoo. Maybe people have different views of what a blog post should be. People complain both when they are too long and when they are too short. Then I get a thumbs down. I'm not sure if I like yousaytoo enough to stay on it or not. If I keep getting negative ratings I'll probably leave, because who needs that? I only give negative ratings if the person either spells a lot of words wrong, or says something racist or demeaning in some way. I prefer giving positive ratings if its a particularly helpful blog post, or no rating if it's just a little blurb. Some people just get off on judging others I guess.

I've added this particular blog today because I tend to write longer posts here, though they are much more infrequent. Normally if I'm going to spill my guts its in long hand in a notebook style journal. And no one reads it but me.

Sideways Photos

2008-12-16T20:19:00.000-08:00

How come when I put photos on my computer and use thumbs plus to turn them right side up, then upload them to blogger, they are sideways again? Sorry about the sideways photos. There must be a way to fix this. Does anyone know? I hate sideways photos.

Intent, chatrooms and pointlessness

2008-12-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

All day today I've been lapsing in and out of depression. Typical the commercialism of Christmas depresses me, but that's not what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about the power of intention. How our thoughts change our lives either for the better or for the worse. How once again for the millionth time I have to remind myself that negative thoughts lead to negative outcomes. But you can't just say 'now I'm going to be positive' and just do it anymore than you can tell a pot of boiling water 'now you are going to be an ice cube'. It's true they are both made of water, but some other processes have to be involved first. For one thing, it takes time. And it takes intent. You have to ask yourself why you are boiling the water in the first place if you are supposed to be making ice cubes. But that's how we are, doing one set of actions but expecting different end results.

I've been wasting a lot of time in chatrooms. Which isn't to say you can't meet interesting people and have some good conversations in chatrooms. But at least in the chatrooms where I've been there is a lot of down time when people are either not talking at all, not talking to me in particular, or talking about depressing things or topics I have no interest in. So for maybe 20 minutes of useful chatroom time spent, there may be 2 hours of time wasted. Or I bump into Paul for example, and Paul and I have had pretty much the same conversation the last 20 times we've talked. Do you know what I mean? It's just chit chat and goes nowhere.

And when I'm depressed the conversations go downhill. The person starts offering advice on how to fix my business, and they are all things I've tried twenty times before and I just end up more hopeless and helpless than ever.

I thought this blog was going to have some epiphany at the end, but so far I just feel more blah than ever.

Up in a Hot Air Balloon

2008-12-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

For those of you living in OC California, you may have noticed a giant hot air balloon that looks like an orange floating within view of the 5 freeway. Well, Toys for Tots is offering a tethered ride in the hot air balloon with the donation of an unwrapped toy. I may have to take them up on that. The info is here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/orange-county-great-park-teams-up-with-toys-for-tots,636180.shtml

Family Photos

2008-11-29T19:20:00.001-08:00

Photos I took on my last trip to San Luis Obispo CA to visit my kids. The tiger is my grandson. The blond is my older daughter and the nun is my younger daughter.

Countries I'd Like to Visit

2008-11-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of the top 10 countries I'd like to visit.

1. Scotland
2. Italy
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Turkey
6. India
7. China
8. France
9. Greece
10. Ireland

The sad part is I'm 50 and the only country I've been to other than the one I live in is Mexico. And I'm living with someone who has zero interest in traveling.

Local Fires

2008-11-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

The air is full of ash today. We have the Corona fire on one side of us and the Sylmar fire on the other and in both cases it's been a disaster for the people living in those areas. I've been watching the news on channel 11 for updates. I have all the windows closed in my apt. Unfortunately we went to the swap meet this morning in the blustery winds and ash filled air so my sinuses and throat are not happy. Many of the freeways have closures today so I'm glad we had no plans to go out of town. First time in over a month we haven't had to go to Arcardia on the weekends. I'm more than happy to stay home the rest of the weekend and work on archery equipment.

Pumpkins on the Pier

2008-10-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

On Oct 25, 2008 I'm going to be up at Pismo Pier doing facepainting for Pumpkins on the Pier. I've never gotten to do it before because it always conflicted with another event, so I'm looking forward to it.

Family Tales

2008-09-20T10:06:00.001-07:00

I totally enjoyed International Talk Like A Pirate Day yesterday even though I was all alone. It's always a good day to be a pirate.
Today we have errands to run, grocery shopping and all. My bf wants to go to four different grocery stores. I'm more of a 'one stop shopping' person. I get tired being dragged around from place to place. So much for the stereotype that women like to shop more than men.
I still haven't gotten up to Central CA to see my first grandchild. I'm trying to save the money for the trip, so of course I just got my business license bill for another $100. Ugh. I'm going up there anyway for a gig on Oct. 25, but it's hard to wait. I feel like everyone is seeing my grandson before I get too. I had planned to just catch the very next train up there, but then my bf and I had a fight about it and it sucked all my enthusiasm right out of me. He doesn't have children so he doesn't see what the big hubbub is all about.
Then a few days after I would have gone was that big train head-on collision in Chatsworth, so that made me feel a little funny about riding on the train. I guess the whole situation with my truck not being safe for long trips and family stuff and money stuff all just wears me out so I stick my head in the sand.
Speaking of which my truck was vandalized again. I got in it to drive to KFC last night and someone had written 'fukyou' on the driver's mirror. I think the poor spelling bothered me more than the act itself. Luckily it wasn't permanent marker like I thought. It rubbed off with a wet paper towel. But still. This neighborhood sucks.

Trains Collide in Chatsworth CA today

2008-09-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

Local news is reporting a head on collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train in Chatsworth today. I haven't been able to find any website entries on it yet so I'm just going to blog about it. At least 3 confirmed dead and many ambulances on scene. One of the passenger cars is laying on it's side as they rescue victims. At this point, the cause has yet to be determined. Weather is perfect today. Check your local news if you are in the area and have friends or family that might be involved.

Update. The news is now reporting 6 casualties. More news here: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local&id=6388256

My heartfelt wishes go out to the families of all involved.

Join Tagfoot While its still in BETA

2008-09-09T11:15:00.001-07:00

Tagfoot is still in Beta Mode. I'm trying to figure out how to get you, my friend, onto the site. I think this link will do it. http://tagfoot.com/sign_up_wizard.moonmaiden But I can't test it myself because I'm already a member. So if you are so inclined and want to get in on the ground floor, let me know if this does it. The site is free. And so far I'm having a blast.

YAY! My first grandson

2008-09-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

I just called the hospital and my new and first grandson was born at 12:45 AM. 8lb. 14 oz. and 21". Sounds like everyone was too tired to call me and I woke up at 4 AM because no one had called me and finally gave in and called the hospital at 6 AM. I talked to my daughter. She was happy to tell me all about it, and was feeling lonely since all her helpers left after the delivery. She named the baby Hudson Hideo. I'm glad she didn't pick a boring name! Dad is Japanese so the middle name is also Japanese.

Still waiting

2008-09-09T04:52:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 4 AM, still anxious to hear if my daughter has given birth yet. The problem is, everyone else who could call me probably doesn't want to wake me up. And I don't want to call them in case they are either in the middle of the delivery situation, or trying to catch a bit of shut eye so as to be rested when they are needed. So instead I've been watching youtube videos.

One thing that fascinates me at youtube is people can subcribe to you or just randomly comment on your videos, and they develop a certain expectation of you and can be even a bit demanding of what you should be doing with your own life and time. If they decide to unsubscribe they might even send you a poison pen 'email' telling you just why you are no longer worthy of their viewership. I think that's hysterical. Seriously, we don't owe them anything, either content wise, or production wise.

It is almost 5 AM and my tummy is growling at me. It's confused and doesn't know breakfast is still 3 hours away. If I lived alone I would just go cook breakfast. But I don't want to wake anyone up. I might just eat some cold leftovers.

If I do manage to go back to sleep, the phone will ring, because that's the way it goes.

Here Comes the Baby

2008-09-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

My daughter's water just broke a week early so they will most likely induce labor. I haven't talked to her directly. She's a little busy.

2008-09-08T11:55:00.001-07:00

I just signed up for Tagfoot. http://ping.fm/lfV6m Come see all my links and comments and my wishlist.

Allergic to Mosquito Bites

2008-09-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

The humidity has been so miserable all week. Last night about 9 PM I decided to sit on the cool front porch and read my Harry Potter book 'Phoenix'. Well, suddenly my right shoulder started to itch and I knew a nasty pesky mosquito had bitten me. But then behind my left heel began to itch, and then behind my right heel. So I started reading faster and faster trying to finish the last bit of the chapter. Suddenly I could take the itchiness no more and ran into the house. I had at least 7 mosquito bites by the time I sat on the couch. Two behind each heel, one on my back, one on my shoulder and one on my ankle. I immediately put topical Benadryl on them. Then I started breaking out in hives. So I grabbed another Benadryl pill and took that too.

It took the edge off and then the drowsiness of the Benadryl hit me. I remember laying down. At some point my boyfriend turned off the light and shut my door. I didn't wake up at all. Today I'm still drowsy. It won't be until about 6 PM that the effects of the Benadryl will wear off.
I hate that feeling. But it beats being covered in hives.

The Bun is Almost Done

2008-09-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

As you can see on the baby ticker, my daughter's baby is due in about 2 weeks and the Dr. is already saying over 8 lbs! My first daughter was 10 lbs. 1 oz. The one having the baby was about 8 lbs. (don't remember exactly). It's going to be a boy. I was joking that she should call me Grandmama like on the Addam's Family. I do wish we didn't live 300 miles apart though.

2008-08-31T22:35:00.001-07:00

Want to join ping.fm too? Go to http://www.ping.fm.Use the code 'legendofping' and you could have the luxury of posting to all your blogs in one fell swoop like I do. Way more efficient than doing it one by one.

2008-08-31T22:33:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what 'ping my default' means but I guess I'll find out when I hit send.

2008-08-28T13:38:00.001-07:00

The week sure went by quick. I had a lot more planned but didn't have the energy to do it. My hands are still sore from woodcarving, and so I've had to lay off the knitting and crocheting. I'm looking forward to the weekend. My daughter may visit. We'll see.

Not everyone loves the hula I guess

2008-08-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

Around the corner from me there is a Hawaiian dance studio and about 4 times a year they are getting ready for some big production and have too many people to fit into the studio, so they practice in the alleyway behind the studio. So tonight I heard the drums and curiousity got the better of me so I went over to have a look. They had just started their routine with maybe 100 members when a clear glass bottle came sailing over the wall from the apartment complex behind them. It shattered about four feet away from the group. Momentarily everyone froze, then suddenly a bunch of the men went running around to the other side of the brick wall. A few minutes later I heard a van peeling out.

That was a little more excitement than I was expecting.

Blue eye self portrait

2008-08-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

2008-08-27T10:07:00.001-07:00

Come view my Flickr photo stream. Over 3000 photos I've taken are waiting there for your pleasure. http://ping.fm/3TTAi

2008-08-27T09:52:00.001-07:00

I just signed up for Ping.fm to make social networking more effiecient.

The Wild Hunt

2008-08-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

I ran across an interesting pagan blog called "The Wild Hunt'. It's a news blog of how paganism interfaces with the rest of the world including politics, health issues, and media icons. I will definitely go back to read more of that.

4 am is too early for me

2008-08-25T05:06:00.000-07:00

I was so overstimulated from learning new skills with a Laguna artist that I literally woke up at 4 AM because my dreams were so intrusive and I kept dreaming I was still at the shop carving away. It's like my mind was still carving while my body was supposed to be sleeping. Then I woke up and realized my hand was really sore from spending 2 days straight carving. I'm glad I quit when I did yesterday. I told the teacher I had to stop as I was getting blisters and he said 'put tape over them'. Which I didn't do. I kinda know my limits and clearly I should have stopped sooner. So I took some Ibuprophen and now it's 5 AM and I'm heading back to bed. I'm exhausted.

Then no doubt my boyfriend will wake me up at 8:30 AM thinking I'm just a lazy bum sleeping in late.

I hopped into Etsy chat waiting for the Ibuprophen to work and a lady in there had gotten up at 3 AM just because she loves morning. But she has to go to bed at 8 PM to pull that off. I'd rather be shot than get up at 3 AM each morning. Plus those early risers seem to be on an intravenous coffee drip and that can't be good for you.

Horse sculpture by David Brunetta.

the Artists of Paleo Planet

2008-08-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday we got to talking about just how talented the archers of Paleoplanet.net are. What originally started out as a few people with a desire to make bows and arrows has grown to become a family. And so many of us are artists. So I was talking to Aimee saying it would be great if we could have a gallery show somewhere featuring the members. Because between us we make not just bows and arrows, but carved spoons, reed flutes, drums, woven baskets,sculpture, forged knives, gourd art, paintings, drawings, beaded jewelry, chainmaile and a plethora of other things. One guy has even made 4 kayaks. Pretty amazing stuff.

Making money on line

2008-08-18T09:29:00.001-07:00

Yay I just made my first .78 with Kontera. Small successes lead to bigger things.

blogging like a maniac

2008-08-14T21:55:00.001-07:00

Blogger has changed their formatting a little and I was surprised to find I have 51 blogs on here and I have others on different email addresses as well. No wonder I feel like I'm never caught up on my blogging! Have mercy.

A New Family-Oh No

2008-08-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

I got home last night and was too tired to do much of anything.

While I was out of town a new family moved into the front duplex. Logistically speaking, my computer/office is in the back bedroom and the only thing between me and the the patio of the house in front is a brick wall. So I literally hear every footstep in their backyard. And it sounds like the new family has a lot of kids who have spent the entire day screaming in the backyard. I sure hope some of them are school age because I'm not going to be able to work with all that noise.

Last night they were hammering on the wall opposite my bedroom until late in the night...like maybe 2 AM. Why are people so inconsiderate?

The last family had chihuahuas that barked around the clock. I was hoping to get a nice quiet elderly couple with fish.

The Witch Dream

2008-08-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

I had the most amazing dream last night. I was my ideal and perfect self.
I lived in a college town and artistic community. I was dressed in a floor length black lace Victorian gown. And I was a witch. I rarely walked on the ground; I pretty much floated everywhere. And I danced a lot. I would fly up into the air and spin and twirl around. A group of goth college students wandered by and I tried to blend in with them, but they were all younger than me and doing role-playing so I didn't really fit in so I slowed down and they wandered off without me.

I was about 30 years old, and I wasn't overweight. And I was a very happy person.
I didn't have a wand but I carried a magic paintbrush. It was always full of clear liquid and I used it to repair fabric. I wonder if I could have used it to repair cuts and scars.

At one point I ran across a bunch of Christians having a revival of some kind, and one of them, who was a Native American came running over to me to try to convert me. I told him he needed to go back to the teachings of his peoples before Christianity poisoned his mind.

After that I was sitting at a table with friends and I was reading this little boys palms. His hands were black as ebony. He had a very strong head line and heart line and I asked him if he was considering psychology or psychiatry as a career. Because you have to use your head and your heart in a career like that.

And there was a lady in yellow lace that accused me of ripping her dress so I used my magic paintbrush to fix the tear. Only she said she didn't want it fixed with magic and she huffed away.

And there was a group of girls all dressed in fancy clothes and they had a headmistress teaching them manners and they were reciting some essay or something and this one girl just floated into the air. She got yelled at by the headmistress and told to come down and act normal at once, but I just smiled and clapped for her and shouted out,'Well done.'

Much like in real life I was a complete loner and though I kept trying to find an equal or a peer to hang out with, I never did. I helped people where I could, but in the end I was still alone. But I was happy because I was true to myself.

Idealism V Perfection

2008-07-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

Pause for a moment to ponder the difference between idealism and perfectionism, because the first opens up the world to amazing possibilities, and the second is a coffin on a dead end street.

I am perhaps the queen of imperfection. I read all the Nancy Drew books as a child too and some of them as an adult.I feel like all the books have the underlying thread that Nancy is the thin hot chick and Bess is somehow the fat frumpy and none too bright one. What a horrid message to send to girls everywhere.

When I see a mistake in my paintings, I deliberately make it bigger and bolder. It adds so much life to what could have been an overly thought out perfectionist bit of blandness.

Better to dance an imperfect dance than never dance at all.

In my idealistic world, women love each other even if some of us are fat and lumpy. Kinkaid paintings get collaged over by Picasso's and Dali's. Hand puppets do politically incorrect things. I'd be bored to tears in a perfect world.

Ghandi was an Idealist. Martha Stewart is a perfectionist.

I predicted today's Quake

2008-07-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

About 30 minutes ago I heard that warning Emergency broadcast tv thing beeping in the living room and my first thought was LA area earthquake. So I ran in there. But it was just one of those stupid practice warnings.

Then we really did have a quake. I dove next to my bed, and both cats were right with me. Rocky made it under the bed first, and I tucked wallop in my arms and we waited it out.

When I went in the living room the water was sloshing in the aquarium. I checked on the neighbors and they had run outside.
5.8 in Chino Hills CA.

Just heard from my boyfriend. His office building in Santa Ana was evacuated. All okay now.

Damage reports from the epicenter are sure to follow. Tune in to your local news stations if you are in the LA area.

Map of Chino Hills, CA.

Update: My dad always said that people act like idiots during earthquakes. Sure enough the only injury report I heard so far was when some people running out of a building trampled each other.

Also, everyone they interviewed said they dove under a desk, or ran outside, two things you are NOT supposed to do. Don't people watch those 'triangle zone' info shows? http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=91315&sid=a52616a0c79bde445eab9a6cf8d80d4f
See #1 and #6. People who rely on antiquated information will die. Memorize this, it could save your life.

Stop Reading and Go Do

2008-07-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was chatting to a person in the Etsy chatroom. And it became obvious that he's very enamored with new age self-help books. So he kept telling me, "You should go read this book and you should go read that book." I kept saying I already read that (most of them I read years ago). Finally I told him don't be a baby bird sitting in the nest all your life, go out and fly. He didn't understand what I meant at all. I meant that though reading can be a wonderful thing, it is no substitute for living your life. You come of an age where you need to switch roles and become the mentor and the teacher and the writer.
Case in point I asked him if he wanted to see my psycho telekinesis video where I'm doing fork bending. So he starts going on and on about Uri Geller and how he's a psychic who now works for the FBI. The other person in the room asked what we were talking about and he says, "She's talking about Uri Geller." And I said, "No, I'm talking about me and my fork bending video." Evidently I don't exist because I haven't written a book on it and I don't work for the FBI. Shrugs. I think we forget that authors are people too and while books are important, at some point we have to put them down and go apply the knowledge. Otherwise we become like the guy in the chatroom that has a booklist as long as his arm and no life experience.

Surprise

2008-07-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

I woke up to the romantic phrase," You might want to get up. A swat team in full attire just went to the apartment upstairs."

Did I mention I hate this neighborhood?

Zenchantress and Pigglewiggins

2008-07-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

My life is so multileveled and complex it drives me half crazy. I built a youtube account for my hypnosis clients called Zenchantress, and proceeded to fill it, not with hypnosis videos, but with arts and craft videos, which really should be under my ETSY shop name pigglewiggins. So today I made a new youtube account called Pigglewiggins so once again I could keep my art life seperate from my hypnosis life. But it's not so easy because I have my craft videos on various art sites so I can't just delete the craft videos from Zenchantress. Nothing is ever easy is it?

Things I've written.

2008-07-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

I just found out my Hubs on hubpages.com are viewed about 600 times a day. That amazes me. Maybe I really should write a book. Here's my profile: http://hubpages.com/profile/Moonmaiden

I write on all kinds of topics from metaphysics to feminism to craft tutorials. I'm sure you can find something in my over 200 articles that interests you. Plus it's not just writing. Most of them also have video links, RSS feeds, photos, comments and videos that enhance the content.

I ain't your mama

2008-07-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

I am sooooooooooo feeling this video. Love the pink tools too. Every man needs to watch this to save their relationships.

Spirit has been telling me

2008-07-10T23:20:00.000-07:00

In fact spirit has been rubbing my nose in this to the point where I finally had to look it up on Google. What is Steampunk and why does that term keep crossing my path. Well, boys and girls, it turns out I've always loved Steampunk, I just never knew there was a name for it. So read this if you don't know either http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk. It's like wandering into a strange village and then realizing you belonged there all along. Like the ugly duckling that finally realized it was a swan after all.

Its All Good

2008-07-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

Its All Good

Manifest IT

2008-07-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday I was down to two whole dollars in my paypal account. I manifested 3 desires in a random way. One was that I needed money to get a train ticket for my daughter's baby shower. Two was that I wanted to go to the SLO Ren faire and connect with old friends. Three was that I needed 'not just enough money to get by on, but enough to really enjoy a fruitful life'. So this morning I rolled out of bed all groggy like, and the phone rings. It's my ex offering me a face painting gig by my daughter's house, a day before the Ren faire, and with enough pay to cover the trip, a place to stay and transportation to the event. Wow! Thank you Goddess!

Good News on the Psychic Front

2008-07-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

An internet friend told me his wife lost her glasses. So I told him I could see them under a bed. Well, no glasses. Now, months later he tells me they are moving furniture to make a guest room, and voila, under the bed in the spare room are her glasses. She never looked under THAT bed. Haha. Glad he let me know I was right. It's good for the ole ego.

The Zelena Chronicles

So Tired of Banks

Hang In There and Fix Those Holes

Blog Frog

Veteran's Day USA

Time to Sign Up For NaBloPoMo.

Trying to Stay Motivated

Time Flies Once You Turn the Internet On

Another Paleoplanet Meeting Tomorrow

Slo Space Gallery

I Miss Camping

The Sunshine is Back

Taking Time to Be Patient and Kind

Pulling My Three Bank Accounts Out of Chase Bank

Thanksgiving Wrap Up Rant

Random Thoughts About My Life

GMAIL is Really Starting to Bug Me

(Bangs head on keyboard). So now I have to charge the phone to try again.Why does Gmail assume every person on the planet has a cell phone?

I know a few months ago they tried to make is so you couldn't even start a Gmail account without a cell phone verification. They may have dropped this though because my boyfriend just started a new Gmail account and didn't have a problem.

I just hope when I finally get the code it works.

This was the original gmail message: 'Because we detected unusual activity on your account, we've disabled it for the time being. In most cases, accounts are disabled because of a perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service'.

Just the Way I Feel Today

Libraries Make Me Happy

Let's Get Organized

The Computer Saga or Things That Make You Want to Scream

A Sinister Dream

Social Networking Sites

Library Hour Cutbacks

Dinner and a Sick Cat

Seek the Light

Today's Highligts

And The Archery Field Was Overrun

About Dance, Juggling, Atlatls, Knitting and Hooping

Under the Weather

Stolen License Plate Sticker

Happy Birthday Rose Sylvia

Peacemakers?

Changing Backgrounds

Why I'm Ready to Live in a Yurt in the Middle of Five Acres

Japanese Dishes

Midnight Woes

Meteor Shower

Harry Potter Half Blood Prince Movie Review

Complicated Potato Salad

Blogging is Getting So Complicated

Tricky Situation

Blog TV Experiment

My Computer is Sick

Trojan Fakespypro

Kontera Vs Project Wonderful

New Dawn, Eclipse, and Spirits White As Lightning

Library Snafu

Weird Night in West Anaheim

Why I Am Up at 3 AM

Twittermania

Am I Acting Weird?

Ranting About Youtube Comments

My Sunday

Charles De Lint books

Raisin Bread and Rainy Days

Talk About Lazy

Zenchantress Today

51 Things

I'm not sure what to think about Yousaytoo

Sideways Photos

Intent, chatrooms and pointlessness

Up in a Hot Air Balloon

Family Photos

Countries I'd Like to Visit

Local Fires

Pumpkins on the Pier

Family Tales

Trains Collide in Chatsworth CA today

Join Tagfoot While its still in BETA

YAY! My first grandson

Still waiting

Here Comes the Baby

Allergic to Mosquito Bites

The Bun is Almost Done

Not everyone loves the hula I guess

(Bangs head on keyboard). So now I have to charge the phone to try again.

Why does Gmail assume every person on the planet has a cell phone?