The Beauty of Volcanoes

I have two weeks without major deadlines, projects, moving things from one house to another, etc. In two weeks I leave for my annual one-week convention in Milwaukee to immerse myself in the aura of creativity and speak with phenomenal people for a week. I can't believe how quickly time is compressing upon me, but I'd probably better start focusing.

I really loved this pic, but wanted a bit grittier look to it. So I pulled out some
of the standard orange color and increased some levels. The lightning and
cloud nearby is so fun. 

Even given the fact I have to focus, I still post. I'm into photographs of volcanic proportions for today. My life is rebuilding yet again and volcanoes are one way that Gaea rebuilds herself. So - Mother Earth today, my own silly life tomorrow. Enjoy the pics.

This is a magnificent picture of a volcanic plume. This
particular volcano is in Japan. So pretty! 

American volcanoes focus on the glories of Kilauea on the island of Hawaii.
This spectacular daytime shot has a great flare and a river of lava. So pretty! 

Look at the various lightning strikes happening in this volcanic
eruption. So fantastic, so beautiful - so deadly. 

As always, today is the first day of the rest of my life. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday.

We Now Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Program...

CELEBRATION (in five hours). The paperwork will be signed, the house will be GONE!

It's Party Time. Set up the pretty drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic,
and get ready to get down! Ding Dong.....

So join my parade, party on, and remember - it's also Friday so what
better excuse to Party? 

So, afterward, the following will happen....

Are you old enough to remember the TV Test Screens? 

Friday is another excuse to party. Do I have to go to work today? 

Thanks for riding this long never-ending wave along with me :-)

80% Should be Good - Right?

Eighty percent accomplished should be a positive thing, right? But 80% accomplished on my day off means some things just didn't happen and that's actually a problem. I had a long list of things that I had to get done on my day off - lots of fiction to write, a diary entry to fill in and post, and some beta work for a friend. I got the fiction written, edited, edited again and finally fine tuned and posted. So "Yeah Me!", one thing went well. But those two items - a drabble and a 550 word smippet, ended up taking most of the day. I didn't get to the monthly diary entry, and I didn't get to my beta work for my friend. I guess I'm a poor friend after all!

Perhaps I should have shifted my schedule around and done the
beta work first. But then the two fics wouldn't have happened. I have
to grab the writing muse by the tail as she whips past me. 

Tonight I'm determined to get that beta work done. The diary can wait until this weekend - it's already late anyway. But I hate to let a friend down and I know that I won't be able to get another chapter done for her until after I've returned from Milwaukee next month. So I owe her some of my time. "Tonight, tonight." as Maria sings in "West Side Story".

West Wide Story is NOT my favorite musical play of all time. It doesn't
even crack my top ten. But the song seemed appropriate here...

On the home front, the sale of my FIL's house is scheduled for tomorrow morning. I'm thrilled that we'll finally be rid of it. I brought the cleaning supplies and a card table home from there yesterday late, and that's the end of it. We'll take meter readings of the gas and electric as we go home from work tonight, and sign a bunch of papers tomorrow (actually, DH will be signing, I will only be the chauffeur and witness to all of the hoopla). Then our lives will be our own once more and I'll never have to see the inside of that house again! Happy, happy me!

Not only our house sold, but my sister-in-law's home directly across
the street has also been sold within the past two weeks. The family
is leaving their long-time neighborhood. 

I'm telling all of you this because I'm not sure how much of a blog post I'll be able to do tomorrow. I'll do something, but it may very well be stressed out animals or something similar because I'll have too many things to think about and a very tight time schedule.

The Mayo Clinic is now a huge complex of hospitals, labs and testing
centers. Quite the step up for two doctors who started their practice in
a small Midwestern town out of a house. 

So, today Chickie is at Mayo Clinic for her annual checkout. She's got this chronic, rare disease thing that gets her entered into the hallowed halls of the Clinic and affords her the opportunity to see lots of Department Heads who look at her records and try to look wise. Since she's been suffering more than usual distress with her sinuses and has had a lot of balance issues as a result, I'm sure that will be one more thing they will "Hmmmm" about as they look at her this year.

Chickie is gallivanting around the Mayo Clinic today. She usually treats
herself and Chickiemama to a steak for lunch at a nearby cafe. Good
luck with all of the tests, etc and I'll see you on Friday, Chickie! 

So while Chickie and Chickiemama are gallivanting through the clinics and labs of Mayo, I'll be holding down the fort with my Manager at the shop. That means I'll be working my tail off today since he usually is more effective working in the back on purchase orders or in the warehouse checking stock. I only call him out to the sales floor if I get flooded with too many customers and can't keep up easily. Days spent working with him always wear me out.

Have a totally fabulous Thursday!

Productivity - What I Need to Do & Nature's Wonders

It's Wednesday, it's my "day off" and I will be sitting at my computer keyboard for the day because I'm SO far behind. Because I need to be super productive, I'm looking for pics of productive critters... Here we go!

This is a picture of a large field of termite mounds. I looked to find out if
the pic was from Australia or from Africa, but unfortunately the specific
designation was missing. Still - these little critters all gather together to
make large, sometimes twenty-foot-high, mounds in which they live and
work. Rather like a miniature New York City, insect-style. 

I have a drabble to do and even though it isn't a firm deadline, I would like to have it completed by Monday.

I almost missed out on the LOTR Monthly Challenge due to my funk a week or two ago. I now have five days to pound a story into shape, when normally I have at least two weeks *sigh*. I hear the clock ticking.

Speaking of small critters, just look at this small section of Australia's
Great Barrier Reef. How truly spectacular! Coral is a bunch of small organisms
who gather together and form large colonies. Many coral reefs around the
world are dying because of ocean pollution and UV devastation. NEVER break
off a piece of coral, and make sure that any coral jewelry you wear is
either appropriately harvested or antique. 

I have to compose a bio for my B2MeM story and my B2MeM artwork for the e-compilation. I also have to send the revised story to the editor since there were two small, but important, changes to the text and I want the proper one to be published, not the one with such silly errors.

I have to write my monthly diary submission for Monday - just didn't get to it yesterday.

And I promised my dear friend in Germany to get some beta work completed on her latest chapter.

I'm allergic to bees, so this gives me a bit of a shiver, but I can't deny that
honeybees are productive. Bees are tremendously important
in agriculture and their honey tastes pretty darned good, too. 

So instead of getting exercise, yadda-yadda-yadda ..., I'll be sitting at a keyboard and typing, typing, typing. I will, however, still do laundry and grocery shopping, as well as banking stuff and a quick run with a package for a friend to the post office. So I guess I'll have some opportunities to get out and smell some fresh air today, but not many. *sigh*

Finally, productivity can be measured in many ways, including
the above. This little pug was very productive indeed! 

Hopefully, by tomorrow, a great deal of the list above will be into revision process or completed and sent off. That's the real mark of an accomplished day off for me. I wish all of you a productive day. Happy Wednesday!

Wrapping Things Up - A Photo Blog

I'm wrapping up the house sale this week, and I'm also running late today. That means a photo blog today, and I think I'm working on "Wrapping Things Up" for my subject matter. Let's see what I can find for view today...

I'm going to try and make today's blog wrapped up in pretty string,
just like this package wrapped in satin cording. 

What kinds of things are wrapped? Hmmm - time for a hunt....

I'm a firm believer that everything is better with bacon, and I adore corn. So
I'll have to grill me some bacon-wrapped-corn this summer when I'm
cooking on the outdoor grill. Yummy! 

I tried to find out where and when this Saran Wrapped spider web art
installation had been displayed, but the pic was on Tumblr without
any information. A different install that was similar was at the Duomo, but
I don't think the picture here is the same exhibit. It's fun, though. 

This wonderful spiderweb-wrapped bridge is in Melbourne, Australia and
is part of a project rehabilitating the former Webb Rail Bridge. It's
really stunning and the play of light and shadows through the wrapped
webbing must be so fun to experience. 

Clothing wraps people up and aren't these artistic stockings too fun? I love
the leaves and flowers climbing up the legs. So pretty! Want some? They're
designed by Sweet Marcel. 

And as my final offering for today, we wrap ourselves away from the outside world
in our houses and apartments. This wonderful Amsterdam houseboat was
designed for a competition requiring a maximum 3-metre height. It is the
+31Architects "Watervilla de Omval" and I read that it's quite spacious on
the interior. Wouldn't this just be fun? 

So there you have it. I'm calling this a wrap!

Thanks to One and All

Despite the fact that I spent most of my birthday doing the final clean-up of my father-in-law's house, I still had a terrific day. After we were finished with the house, DH took me to our local burger restaurant for dinner and a couple of Guinness, and then it was home again for a nap. Guess we were tired for some odd reason - LOL. But we perked up again to finish the night watching Amazing Race. He then swung into watching the hockey game and I called it a night. 

Grumpy's isn't inexpensive, but the food is good. Generous portions and
a great lineup of craft beers on tap. Of course, they also have Guinness
and for me there's nothing else I want in my glass. 

So many people were kind and sent cards and emails and posts. I'm going to try to list here and I think I kept track :-)

Thank you one and all!

First, my BFF Sharon sent a super-funny card and she's absolutely right - I can't possibly get older because she refuses to age. We'll be young chicks into our 90's. Hugs to you, GF!!!!

Chickie gave me an angel puff pastry from Wuollete's (so freakin' good!) and a gift card for Barnes & Noble which was spent on some ebooks this morning. Gift cards to Barnes usually get used up quickly in my land of ebooks and are always among my most beloved gifts. 

Now a list of my LJ friends and blog followers. You're all magnificent and I was humbled by your taking the time from your day to wish me a happy birthday. 

Shirebound - A picture of minions and flowers - how absolutely perfect!

silver_trails - A fic just for me with Maglor, Daeron, an enamelwork leaf and lily-of-the-valley flowers. I smiled for an hour, it was so perfect! 

just_ann_now - A stunning pic of a variety of flowers in vases. So pretty!

chaotic_binky - Colorful balloons - who can resist balloons? 

cairistiona7 - A wonderful Aragorn pic which resulted in several fun comments. Including a wonderful comment by mikononyte re velcro and Aragorn's body. 

minuial_nuwing - confetti and nekkid elves, who could wish for more? 

elfscribe - An LJ friend for many years and such a talented author who took time from her day to give me a lovely chocolate birthday cake pic. Yummy! 

ellynn_ithilwen - a great pic of a bouquet of red roses. So sweet and colorful. 

the_winterwitch - A rather amazing pic of borage in bloom. I've never seen this plant before and it was a stunning pic - very artistic and beady. 

binkaslibrary - If calories could be sent via the internet, I'd be in trouble here. Her pic of an ooey-gooey cake with caramel and bananas was outstanding! 

lindahoyland - a fabulous ecard with flying birds and growing flowers and plants. So pretty and so thoughtful. 

And I received messages and happy birthday wishes from so many other friends including: 

  samtyr

  huinare

  mikononyte

  ladyelleth

  cmcmck  and

  hhimring

Thanks to one and all for making my traumatic 60th birthday a wonderful success. Now to start aging backwards once again....