>Every day, when it is time for my puppy to go into her crate, I simply toss a treat into it. She follows the snack right in then I close the door. Once she finishes eating and realizes what has happened, she cries and rustles around unhappily. EVERY DAY. I take this to mean that…
>Last night, I looked up from carving the leftovers of the chicken I had roasted for dinner while listening to my JJ Heller station on Pandora.com after coming home from my first full day of work and smiled. The chicken turned out really good; I am so excited to have a job in general; and…
>From my favorite bay window of my favorite coffee shop, I noticed a jamboree hoppin in the long shadow of Market Square’s church. Four motley men strummed, plucked, and tapped facing a horseshoe of bouncing spectators. I rushed to join. The group made a sort of raspy sound. They sounded like a cross between The…
Chris brought up an interesting point tonight when I almost fell in the toilet (ya slightly personal, but it supports my metaphor). He left the seat up again and I just sat down expecting to land on the seat. Since I am “very small (in his french accent),” I really did almost fall right in….
>Sitting in a park in Boston.left: old brick wharfright: extension of soft grass under mestraight ahead: rows of Easter-colored tulipsbeyond tulips: teenage boy drumming on plastic pales, a kitchen pot, an iron skillet, and the concreteagainst my back: the trunk of a cherry blossom treeoverhead: 3-dimensional piece of art- pink clusters like densely packed bouquets…
>I drove down Storrow Drive during the part of the day when the sun is so big that it can barely be eclipsed by a beach ball. Across the Charles River, the MIT dome reflected the shade of orange that usually precedes the shade of pink. On the river, the boats’ sails shone like triangles…
Did you know that Volkswagens have locks on their hub cabs so that tires cannot be removed with standard tools? Well, after the auto shop could not find our key (prob bc the last auto shop accidentally kept it), I had to purchase a new one for a whopping $27.00 (we’re talking about a 3″x3″…
Most would leave Manhattan to see the spring, but I wanted to go to Manhattan. The contrast of the lively cherry blossoms against the steel and concrete intrigues me. So, Chris and I ventured to the city to enjoy. My favorite part comes in a week or two when the blossoms begin to fall- when…
>I rode the Fung Wah bus into Chinatown and stayed with Brian Stout in his “cozy little money-sucking fire hazard” (Manhattan Apt.). Every tree-lined sidewalk in the city was bursting with bright white. Whenever a wind blew, tiny petals fell into my hair and fallen petals swirled upward into my skirt. Chris’ ship pulled into…
> We found out this week that Chris’ next job is at sector New York. Fort Wadsworth is on Staten Island (the orange burough) A toll bridge away from Brookly and a free ferry ride from Manhattan. Believe it or not, the south side of Staten Island has trees and grass! So we sought rental…
>The sun came out. Finally. So I opened the window to let the shine in. As I ate my homemade italian sausage and brocolli pasta lunch, I admired the contrast between Dick’s white fence and the green green grass. As I admired the greeness, I noticed that the bush acorss the street had yellow buds…
Oh wow. What gifts friends are. And how loving my lovely gifts happen to be. Rachel, Dana, and Laura all flew up here at the same time! I picked them up in Boston where we did some shopping and bookstoring then drove to my cute house in Kittery, Maine. In the mornin, we woke up…
>Today, the snow stopped falling heavily from the sky and started falling heavily from the trees. This morning, I sat behind my storm door while I ate my cereal and watched the heavy chunks plummet and splatter. The falls were so frequent that there was rarely only one splattering at one time.
>I have had multiple conversations lately with Christians who struggle with the lie that they are not good enough for ministry. They feel like someone else must be better equipped to do the job that they are being called to do. College students directing summer camps, young women mentoring youth, and youth leading younger youth…
>Chris, I’m suddenly crazy about sweet Italian sausage. So for dinner tonight, I had penne pasta with sausage and green peppers with sea salt and a touch of Parmesan cheese. I made it up. I ate it on a red plate because things taste better off of red plates. Oh and I got a Fish…
>No, I don’t know Betty Botter; I just wanted to combine two tongue twisters. Today, a woman-friend taught me the art of mixing, kneading, braiding, baking, and glazing homemade wheat & sesame seed bread. I felt like a 1940s housewife. Her whole adorable house smelled of firewood and bread dough. During rising and baking intervals,the…
>interesting, huh? AND Little John does the exact same dance with Clucky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YineYdEwTAQ&NR=1 that Balu does with the orangutan in Jungle Book http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9cWkUhZ8n4&feature=related. BTW, the same actor plays both bear character’s voices. And in this same scene, a the band members are taken directly from Aristacats! Don’t tell me the love scene doesn’t remind you…
>My sister-in-law wrote this. I love it :). “The Father’s Love” A Father gently strokes the head of his young child, her eyes gazing up into his. “All the world is for you”, he tells her. “Every mountain is so that you may be close to the heavens, every brook to reflect your beauty, every…
>Big eyes in baby beds Bandwagon bobble heads Base drum, humdrum, clones on parade Saturdays in shopping malls Phone calls from bathroom stalls Pitter patter, bitter batter, bottled renegade Despondent fools on bar stools Buoyant boys on red bull Bad habits, “dag nabit”, old hopes delayed Sing along with Spinal Tap Hypocrisy’s a booby trap…
>My husband is helping in Haiti with the Coast Guard.
>Luke 17:5-6 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. Sometimes, I forget just how limitless Jesus is. He has calmed storms, healed…
Three are three kinds of snow: 1) Clustered chunks of snowflakes fall steadily like powdered sugar from a shaker. Gravity pulls these more slowly than it would salt. They are in no particular hurry, but they know where they are going and how to get there. 2) Smaller more compact pellets of snow plummet like…
My Jetta and I drove from Florida to Maine two wks ago. I would call it a life-experience. I entered the Appalachian Mntns the 2nd morning. I appropriately turned on Edvard Grieg’s “Morning” as I wound up my first mount. The music seemed to meander and dip and climb with my road. Then, with amazing…
It’s 6AM. When I woke to the site out the window, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” came on immediately, like a needle had been lifted and set on the Bing Crosby record in my head. It looked as though Ledyard, Connecticut was being sprinkled with sugar: yards, trees, roofs, cars, and roads- all were…
> The history of the colony is layered upon layer and the beauty of the historic district is unrivaled! The town has 23 grassy squares. Most feature a monument or fountain and are surrounded by antebellum buildings. All of which are veiled by Spanish moss. (Did you know that it is called Spanish moss because…
Chris and I ran up and down a beach throwing the rugby ball back and forth. After tiring ourselves out, we collapsed on the sand and I took a semi-nap on his tummy while he read about Andrew Jackson. I got bored and went to dip my toes in the waves and sing to…
> We drove down a barrier island to a place that really didn’t feel like America. St. Augustine, founded in 1565, is the oldest port in the U.S. Spanish architecture and mosaics dominate the city’s buildings and squares. We walked through ornate stone arches below embellished bell towers near carp-filled fountains. We gawked at the hotel ponce…
The days of my pumpkin spiced lattes are dwindling. The plump pumpkins that lined the grocers’ windows have been replaced with poignant poinsettias and will soon be joined by mistletoe and fraser firs. In September, I wrote, “If it weren’t for Thanksgiving, Christmas would start November 15.” Ha! Okay okay I take it back. I must have forgotten…
What a welcoming sign What an interesting area. As I drove through Seminole Park, I felt like Christopher Reeves felt in “Somewhere in Time” when he crossed from 1989 to 1912 and his surroundings flickered and faded from modern to Victorian. My surroundings seem to flicker and fade between Hawaiian and Georgian as I crossed…
Morning sun beams snuck between illuminated clouds and made the water and the mist bright white. I could not see more than 200 yards down the stretch because of the white film around me. Early bird surfers did a disappearing act as they bobbed up and down with each wave and the figures of joggers…