Celebrating our colorful world

Dragon Mood? -- loving this colorful world!



I love Flickr.

Runned voer

Dragon Mood? -- bleary-eyed and weary-scaled

Yippee, it's Friday. Too bad I feel like I've been "runned voer" (as I initially typed it) by a Mack truck this morning. Five-and-a-half hours of sleep is NOT ENOUGH!

After I got home from work last night, I DOWNloaded the photos that S and others took of the baby, reduced and cropped them in Photoshop and then UPloaded them to Flickr for Caroline Marie and the rest of the world TO SEE!

It felt good and fun and creative to do -- even at four in the morning!

But now? Aye-yaye-yaye! Don't ask.

September 21, 2006 -- A beautiful world

Madison probably is still catching up on her sleep from her speedy arrival into the world yesterday.

But when she wakes up, she's got a WHOLE WIDE WORLD out there to spend a lifetime exploring. And Flickr is a great tool for expanding your ideas about just how big that world is ... never mind how BEAUTIFUL it is!

Thanks to Flickrleech (whose name I detest) for the ability to capture a WHOLE page of thumbnails. As Flickrleech puts it so succintly, "Paging sucks!" See the original collage here.


Brought to you by all the talented and generous people who use Flickr.

Celebrating Madison's imminent arrival

So ... Sarah and Matt are at the hospital trying to have a baby. Caroline and I are both at work, pretending to be engaged in our tasks, but really thinking about Sarah, about the baby and simply enjoying chatting with each other on Gmail's messaging tool. As part of the fun and excitement of Madison's imminent arrival, we had an informal "pool" going on the time of her about-to-be birth.

3:35 PM Caroline: I said 4:55, you've got 5:55, Hope's got 6:24 and Steph's making Sarah suffer all the way to 7:32.
So, how are we doing this -- just whomever is closest to the time, regardless of whether you go over or not? So, if she goes anywhere up until 5:24:59, I win? And what do I win, exactly?
3:36 PM Caroline: Do I get to be the baby's God Dragon Mother? I WANT TO BE A GOD DRAGON MOTHER! Speaking of which, do we know what this kid's Chinese sign will be?
I'll go check...
3:38 PM me : I don't know .... I think we're talking about a drink or a shot of tah-kill-yah or something like that!
3:39 PM As for being the baby's God Dragon Mother .... sheesh, I dunno! Sounds like a little pagan and piratical to me!
3:40 PM Caroline: And, your point is???
3:41 PM me: Ha-ha-ha ....
3:43 PM Caroline: Whooo-hoo! She's gonna be a FIRE DOG!
me: ... Oooh, a FIRE DOG!
Cool!
3:44 PM Caroline:I think a fire dog sounds WAY cool!
Not quite as cool as a fire dragon, but we can't all be perfect...
3:45 PM :D
me: ha-ha-ha
Or cool like a WATER dragon!
Caroline: Or ANY kind of dragon!
Dragons are the best
3:46 PM Caroline: Bestest dragonestest!
3:49 PM me: Did you ever text-message Matt?
4:05 PM Caroline: You know, I wonder if cell phones are even allowed to be on in the rooms? Matt might not have even gotten my text message.
me: Oh, that's probably the case ... but EVENTUALLY he'll get it, tell Sarah and they'll have a good laugh about it ... after she's done PUSHING THAT BABY OUT!
4:06 PM Caroline : Yep!
4:14 PM me: Sarah is in quite a bit of pain/discomfort, so the doc gave her another epidural. He said to expect that things will probably move right along now.

Later
Caroline: I'm bugging on outta here -- give me a call on my cell when you have any more info on the Fire Puppy. Love you!

Later still
Caroline: Hello-hello! Are you there? I'm home from my dinner. Any news on Madison's first few hours?

Well, Madison was born at 4:36 p.m., an arrival so unexpectedly early even the doctor didn't make her delivery! She arrived healthy and well, with all ten fingers and toes, 7 lbs. 6 oz., all 19-3/4 inches of her beautiful and perfect. Mommy and Daddy (I hear) were ecstatic and emotional.

As for me, I'm giddily celebrating for Matt and Sarah and their new baby daughter. I'm ALSO celebrating (once again) MY wonderful daughter, the delightfully deranged Lina, the Fire Dragon, the wenchiest wench and piratical Wendish princess this side of the Mississippi! I love you, Lina!

the end of WHAT?

Some new websites I'm checking out:

• http://absolutemichigan.com/dig/
  
  
• http://michpics.wordpress.com/
  
  
• Greenstone Media -- an all new, women-owned and operated internet radio station, founded by Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda.  Check it out!
  
  
• https://zyb.com/  -- sadly, my phone won't work with Zyb
  
  
• and last, but certainly not least:  http://www.spartanedge.com/
  subtitled "THE END OF PUSSY JOURNALISM"
  

Wow!

waxing ..er I mean, soaping rhapsodic about Mistral!

My daughter, the ever-so-good writer writes about the Soap Opera in Madison.  It's a wonderful, sensuous, full of knooks and crannies kind of place that you can easily spend an hour or three in.  

When I visit Lina, I usually request a stop in at  the Soap Opera and I head straight for the Mistral soaps.  They are beautifully crafted, heavenly scented, slightly expensive and totally worth every penny.   I too put them in our linen closet to make all the linens smell fragrant.

Ohh, yes ... I especially like their Linden Lettuce and the Wild Blackberry (I think that's the name -- I'll have to run down downstairs and check in the linen closet).

Talk radio by, for and about women

Dragon Mood? -- energized

Gloria Steinem was a guest on Bill Maher's Real Time on Friday night. She spoke of a new venture, Greenstone Media, launched by Jane Fonda and herself. Their home page describes themselves this way:

We’re giving women the radio they want but can’t currently find: entertaining, informative, and inspiring talk delivered in an engaging, inclusive way.

As I write this, I'm listening to an interview of Gloria by a group of women bloggers, collectively known as the "mommybloggers." It's interesting and thought-provoking. Have a listen.

We have lift off

I usually don't 'ooh' and 'ahh' over old cars ... but this one is an exception.

Look at the chrome, look at the detailing, look at the color of this vintage Caddy. Wow!

Kudos to Today is a good day!

... just how I'm feeling

... it's 1:30 a.m., I'm tired and I wanna go home.

Word of the Day

tetchy \TECH-ee\, adjective: Peevish; testy; irritable.

Flying time, layoffs and family crazies

Dragon Mood? -- tired, bewildered and muddling along

I can't believe it's been a WEEK since I last posted. Whew, where has the time gone?

I worked Tuesday through Thursday. I was supposed to work a ten-hour day on Friday, but Thursday evening, it was cancelled. I was ticked off to say the least. The reasons given seemed rather lame to me. Things continued to happen at work that gave me cause for worry that they might be laying us off ... as we completed our fourth week on the job.

S and I had a pretty busy weekend. I'll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday, I went into work at the usual time, fired up my computer and prepared to begin working. Steve, one of the other guys on the night shift came to me and said, "They're having a meeting in the conference room." I thought to myself, "Here we go." When I got back to the door into the conference room, Hany (pronounced Hah-nee), our night lead was there. He frowned lightly at me, waved his hands and shook his head. I took my cue, turned around and went back to my desk.

Sure enough, four people were laid off -- three from the night shift, one from the day shift. My coworkers, Steve and Mike, were laid off, as well as a Lansing guy who had only been there a week. Mike was the fellow teaching us how to swear in Romanian. They were told this may only be temporary, but I don't think I'll see those guys again.

Seeing people laid off cast quite a pall over our little, now even littler group. I started to get a headache just from the sheer tension of it all. Hany came and talked to me, trying to reassure me. He encouraged me to keep working, focus on accuracy and getting the drawings as "perfect" as possible. Talking to me about 'perfectionist' goals is like taking the proverbial coals to Newcastle ... but thankfully, Hany has a light and optimistic "touch" in his manner of speaking. I just buckled down and tried to get through as many of these machining operation drawings as possible.

Later, that evening, I called S as well as my sister, Ruth. I shared the job update with them. (big sigh)

As for this weekend, Ruth and I managed to eke out about an hour-and-a-half to meet up with each other. We sat over coffee (well, I had coffee) and jabber and catch up on each other's news. It was balm for my soul to have a chance to visit with Ruth. I believe she felt the same way. We have said countless times to one another what a blessing it is to have one another for talking, sharing and simply unburdening ourselves when life's events feel too heavy.

After I got back home, I changed into grubby clothes and S and I proceeded to unload a landscape trailer full of pine boughs that were originally headed for the dump, now euphemistically called a "transfer station?" When did that happen? Because of concerns about spreading the emerald ash borer, the dump/transfer station won't take tree debris anymore. So, now we've got a big pile of pine boughs and debris to deal with. ArrrghhH!

We finally got on the road, S in the truck pulling the landscape trailer and me in my little car, caravaning behind her. I felt more than a little annoyed with her because she doesn't take care of problems ahead of time, and then, the problems are inflated (by her) sometimes to crisis level and she turns to me to 'share' the inconvenience/annoyance/worry of them with her. More old family dynamics!

Thankfully, the trip was uneventful. I managed to listen to virtually the entire MSU/Eastern Michigan football game, first on a local Lansing station and then, further north, WJR, in its first season broadcasting MSU football. That was fun!

We pulled into Grayling and S peeled off to head with her brother-in-law, Jim, to load up the trailer at the storage unit where Sally has more of her too-many-belongings stored. I hit the local Rite-Aid and bought beer and a huge bottle of Piesporter. When I got to Sally and Grandma's house, I immediately unscrewed that bottle, poured us all a glass and started drinking. Nothing like alcohol to lubricate the machinations of family communication, eh!

Sally actually fixed us all a nice, sumptuous dinner that evening. Never mind that we didn't eat until after 10 o'clock. (And so much for observing Oprah's rule about never eating after seven!) I was starved and the food tasted good. We finally got to bed around 2:30 in the morning.

The next morning we were up by 9:00. I made us some single cups of coffee with our little coffee filter cup and some ground Alterra coffee I had brought. Jim and Michelle showed up and S and Jim began working on the running lights on the trailer. Again, her not attending to this problem earlier was an annoyance, but I'll let go of that (for now). They dinked around with those darn running lights for over two hours and were never able to get them to work. By now, it was after noon, so we all jumped in our various vehicles and headed the 30 miles north to Gaylord to work on another storage unit, an old pole barn that Sally's now deceased husband, Bob, had built over 15 years ago and filled with the flotsam and jetsam of his building trade, loads and loads of old lumber, some of it worth keeping, much of it not worth any thing.

To make a too-long story shorter, we made two trips to Gaylord, filling the landscape trailer four feet high with lumber and wood of every description, driving it back to Sally's house to pile and stack next to another pole barn she build two years ago. The goal is to cover it with a tarp and either use it or sell it. Hah! We'll see if that ever happens. We all joked (out of Sally's earshot) that when she's dead and gone, that pile of lumber will still be sitting there, old and rotting ... and we'll have a giant bonfire in her memory. I can see it now.

The other thing we 'rescused' from the Gaylord pole barn was an old aluminum fishing boat that belongs to S, along with a boat trailer. The boat looks in great shape (because it's aluminum -- what's to go wrong?) but the trailer was in pretty rough shape. The tires were both flat and totally decrepit. The winching mechanism needs some work. The last Michigan license on the boat was dated '92. That's how long that boat has been sitting there. Hmm.

We didn't leave Grayling until 9:30 Sunday evening. That's after only six hours of sleep, physical labor outside in the fresh air all day and I'll tell you -- I was pooped. S caravaned with me (this time) south on I-75, as I was heading for the pied-a-terre here in Detroit and she peeled off at Flint back towards the pine forest. After 190 miles and three hours, I pulled in the driveway. Mission accomplished!

Labor Day weekend recap

Dragon Mood? -- subdued

It's Tuesday evening -- I'm back at work. Unlike some of my coworkers who made the usual comments about the weekend not being long enough ... I'm feeling like I did have a weekend. It was relaxing, it was long enough and I'm still feeling extremely thankful to have a job right now. Which I'm glad to be working at right now (actually I'm on my lunch break).

S and I did have a pretty low-key weekend. We putzed around the house a bit. We re-installed the fountain on the deck after she waterproofed it two weekends ago. We visited and shared a spicy rib dinner with our eager-to-entertain neighbor and young-78-year-old lawnboy, Bill. I threw some cole slaw together and we took a store-bought apple pie as a thank-you for Bill. We watched an absolute wasteland of TV on Saturday night and I was bummed that we hadn't rented some DVDs for the evening. Just how many commercials can the broadcasters jam into one hour's worth of TV ... while re-airing tired and/or violent old movies? Yecch!

Sunday, J & J invited us over for a pontoon ride and dinner. Geez, did we have fun! At least I did! I think S was tired and feeling a bit under the weather from her ongoing thryoid problems. The weather was gorgeous. We spent at least a couple of hours toodling (is "toodling" a word?) around the lake, watching other boaters, picnickers, houses around the lakeshore and drunken partyers in the middle of the lake.

The highlight of the pontoon ride (for me) was at dusk as we watched the whooping cranes return to their lake "safe harbor" for the night. Their yodel-y warbles, calling and replying, never fail to enthrall me with nature's primeval beauty. And, of course, the sunset on the lake was lovely, with Mother Nature putting on a spectacular watercolor show. I wish I could paint like that!

Monday was another beautiful late-summer Michigan day. The temperatures were in the low 70s and the humidity was low, as well -- in a word, perfect! I sat out on the deck in the morning, did a few sudoku puzzles, and called my Uncle George. It was great to hear his voice after these many months of not talking. My cousin, Brenda, was there too so I got to talk briefly with her also.

Late in the afternoon, we took a ride into south Lansing to deliver numerous boxes of children's books to Matt and Sarah, in anticipation of their little girl, Madison, making her appearance in the world ... 17 more days to go! Bless her heart, Sarah was very gracious about having four boxes of books rather unceremoniously dumped in her living room. S was happy to get them out of the back of the truck and delivered for Sarah and Lindsey to divide.

I complained to S that I couldn't remember the last time that I had had a hot meal (not including burgers and/or ribs). She responded by driving us to an all-night diner for a mashed-potatoes-gravy-peas-and-pork-chop dinner! It was heavenly! We got home, packed up our stuff and headed down here to the pied-a-terre. A nice long weekend!

Learning my Romanian

Dragon Mood? -- not tongue-tied

I work with a fellow at this new job who is Romanian ... or who at least can speak Romanian. A couple of us have been bugging him to teach us how to swear in Romanian. As a polite and rather gentle gentleman, he has refused so far.

But today, Steve and I did learn this:

• "Buna zuia" (pronounced boon-ah zoo-ah) which means "Good day!"

And then later, we did manage to strong-arm him into this one also ...

• "Rahat" (pronounced ruh-hot) which means "Shit" as in bad stuff OR manure.

Stay tuned, Girls and Boys, for MORE Romanian language lessons!

the road less traveled because it's a hard road!

Dragon Mood? -- yeah, I *get* that embattled feeling this thing talks about

From Astrodienst, here is one of this Sagittarian's longer term forecasts:

Solid and real
Valid during many months: At this time in your life you will be able to get along with very little if necessary, and you will be able to keep plugging away at tasks with tremendous discipline. As a result this is a good time for getting your life ready for hard times, even if this is not an especially difficult period.

However, even if this is a difficult time, you can be sure that this influence will help you make it through. It gives you tremendous tenacity and toughness and the ability to apply constant pressure on a situation until it gradually changes. Patience is the watchword of this influence - not that you need patience, but that you have it.

Whatever your objectives, you will keep working at them until you achieve them. In a slow but powerful way, this influence helps you realize your goals, and because you work so slowly, the results you obtain are very lasting indeed.

You will also probably discover that you are changing during this period, not drastically and suddenly, but slowly and at a very profound level of your being. And these changes will make your life more solid and dependable. In general your life is moving from the less solid and abstract to the more solid and real.

You may work alone for the most part now. You will probably prefer it that way, at least until you have come somewhere near achieving your goals. This is a very good time for researching alone, especially when painstaking work is required. Your ability to discipline yourself is extremely high.

Transit selected for today
Pluto Sextile Saturn
activity period from beginning of February 2005 until beginning of December 2006.

Thursday morning with my coffee

Dragon Mood? -- surprised and delighted!

Sitting here, drinking my morning coffee, I noticed the first hints of autumn in the air.

But, wait a minute. I feel like blogging so I'll check to see if our computer has emerged from its coma? Yes? Yes! YES!!!! Don't ask me, but it decided to turn on this morning. Hurray!

Anyway ... back to my morning coffee thoughts. Ahem.

Our sadly unhealthy tree out front here at the pied-a-terre has already begun dropping leaves. S mowed and mulched them up last night, not only to make the lawn look better, but to hold autumn, which is NOT SUMMER, at bay, I'm sure.

The air this morning is cool, cool, cool -- refreshingly cool after so much heat and humidity this summer. The temperature and dryness of the air ENERGIZES me! I keep reining myself in -- hold on, you just woke up -- take it easy, enjoy the moment. But it puts me in mind to paint, to ride my bicycle, to make hearty, yummy soups -- oh, so many things! And then, I think of other fall-ish things like football games, bonfires, pumpkins, gourds and all other manner of orange-y goodness! Yup, I LOVE autumn!

A tired blogger

Dragon Mood? -- pooped

Just a quick posting while I'm at work.

I interviewed for another job today. It was with a "foreign" automaker, not one of the Big Three. I was one of nine people out of 30 to make the first interview. I will be most surprised if I'm called back for a second interview. Just a hunch, an intuition. I could be wrong. I feel curiously indifferent about this prospective job.

I got way too little sleep last night. Partly that was my fault. I didn't remember that I was supposed to print out and fill out four lengthy documents prior to the interview. I realized that last night while sitting here at work. ArrrghHH! Googled, found the nearest 24-hour Kinkos, accessed my trustworthy gmail account and forwarded the four docs to Kinkos. I picked them up this morning about 2:30 a.m. Sheesh! Talk about unprepared!

Part of my general discombobulation is that our computer appears to have died ... or is in a light coma. S and I suspect that the electrical switch that fires it up has conked out. Whether that's an easy repair or not remains to be seen. But the timing is just downright lousy!

I'll post this now .... before I fall asleep sitting up here at work.

Blogging by email?

Hi  .... the ol' calypso Dragon herself here, reporting LIVE from my gmail account.

Will Blogger know what to do with this email/blog posting?

And now ... a quote to ponder:
 
"Today was good. / Today was fun. / Tomorrow is another one." 
-- Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss (1904-1991)




[UPDATE] Whoo-hoo! It WORKED! Dang, this computer stuff is COOL!!

Pssst!

Dragon Mood? -- ???

Can you keep a secret? I've got another interview for another job next week, Tuesday.

I don't know about this job -- whether I'd like it or not. But, it promises more security. A foreign automaker. That's why I'm investigating.

Wish me well!

Old dogs CAN learn new tricks

Dragon Mood? -- mind balloons and connecting the dots

Doing Sudoku puzzle this morning
I always date them
Reminded me of VISA payment due today
Eeek! -- then I remembered -- no balance on my VISA anymore
Huge sense of relief!
A little history
I've always been able to pay it down before
Couldn't do it this time
Ignored the evidence and reality based on prior experience
Is that the sign of an "old dog?"
Way back -- Josh said, "Mom, pay it off." I didn't listen.
Recently, S said, "Mary, pay it off." I finally listened.
Liquidated a stock market fund, paid it off. Whew! Good, GOOD feeling!

The MORAL of the story:
Sometimes, it pays to listen to others even when your previous experience tells you otherwise.
This old dog CAN LEARN new tricks! *SMILE*

Monday, week TWO

Dragon Mood? -- antsy

Starting my second week of work today. And Thursday is PAY DAY! Hurray!

Here's what's happened since my last posting:

• Finished up my first week of four ten-hour days. Whew!
  
• Friday felt weird. S called in sick for a mental health day. I think we both felt disoriented by my new schedule. I just felt plain old tired.
• Picked up medication office samples from my doc's office. Her providing those for me these past months has been a financial lifesaver. Literally!
  
• I couldn't and didn't sleep in Saturday morning. ArrrghhHH! So darn fatigued!
• S and I shopped until I almost dropped Saturday afternoon for the big, upcoming baby shower. S spent an obscene amount of money. I'll save my soapbox on that subject for offline.
• We hit Buddies again (second Saturday in a row!) for nachos and a mug of beer. S got on a talking jag until I almost fell asleep sitting up.
• Thankfully, she noticed how truly tired I was. We went home, got horizontal, I crashed. I slept for over two-and-a-half hours. You think I was maybe a little tired?
• S and I watched three DVDs this weekend:
  
  • Eight Below which made my heart hurt. Those dogs have such soulful eyes! Reminded me of how much I wanted to and yet hated watching Lassie as a kid. Anxiety, nervousness, sadness! Oh, the angst!
  • Failure to Launch which never got off the ground for me -- what a dumb premise for a movie!
  • And finally, TransAmerica, which I was all set to really like; again, it just didn't work for me. We listened to some of the director's commentary before watching the movie; he said the movie was really about parenting. Then why make said parent a transsexual? Bree's coming to terms with her sexuality completely overshadowed her coming to terms with being a parent, IMHO. Oh well!
• Sunday I slept until 11 o'clock. Yup, ELEVEN! It's the first day that I truly felt rested since starting these crazy hours.
• S finally got to waterproof the deck. All the interruptions over the past several weeks had made her cranky about the slow progress. I was very happy she was finally able to finish it.
• I made banana/oatmeal/blueberry bread. Turned out yummy!
• I deskunked the dog. Damn dog -- she acts like SUCH a dog sometimes! Here's the recipe:
  
  ---
  Vet-approved Deskunking Recipe
  
  1 tsp. dishsoap (preferably a degreasing one like Dawn)
  1/4 - 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  1 qt. hydrogen peroxide
  Mix all together and apply to the dog's fur. Rinse thoroughly.
  ---
  
  After applying the deskunking stuff to her face, ruff and shoulders, I drug her inside into the bathroom and thoroughly bathed her, with two latherings and two rinses. We can still smell eau d' skunk right around her skunk-sniffing nose. I couldn't scrub on that too much, unfortunately.
• Sat out on the deck and visited with our pushing-eighty neighbor, Bill. The old guy, I'm coming to conclude, is overly preoccupied with sex. He keeps bringing it up and S and I comment politely or clam up with no further conversation. (sigh) Geez, you'd think he'd take a clue!
  
• Chased dust bunnies and cleaned the floors in anticipation of a house-full of people again next weekend. Grandma and Sally are coming down for the big baby shower. Yosh is taking the ferry over from Cheeseland just to visit. I'm looking forward to his visit.
• Had a nice long telephone conversation with our friend, Joanne. Joanne has had quite a tumultuous summer selling her mom's house and moving her out of her residence of many, many years. In a family of many, it sounds like much of the work and decision-making fell to one, just Joanne. It sounds like a marathon of exhaustion and stress to me!
• Also had a late-night telephone conversation with Dad and Evelyn while I drove to the pied-a-terre. It's become quite the routine for them and me, a good routine, and something to which I believe we both look forward.
  

That's ALL, folks!

Hump day update

Dragon Mood? -- fatigued

It's Wednesday, early afternoon. I've finished the first half of my first work week at the little design shop. I think I'm gonna like it. And -- we're working four 10-hour days this week, with hopes to make it permanent. Wouldn't that be nice to have a three-day weekend plus half of Monday off? I think SO!

The biggest adjustment so far is just trying to not-so-gently bump my circadian rhythms towards the afternoon and evening. My body is protesting. It wants to wake up at 7:30 a.m. no matter what time I went to bed (2:30 last night). The first night I only got five hours of sleep. I just absolutely could NOT sleep yesterday (Tuesday) during the day. Last night I got more like seven or eight hours. I feel better today than yesterday but still fatigued and a little disoriented. I must remember to drive the twelve-minute drive to work with EXTRA caution.

Right now I'm multitasking. Posting on this blog, frying up some barbecue-flavored turkey burgers for S's dinner and my dinner (sadly apart), thinking about what I'm gonna wear to work and hoping to still grab 30 minutes of shuteye. Do you think I can do it???

Later, alligator.