Happy Cinco de Mayo - Plans, Schedules and Some Deer

I'm just doing a really quick post today, and I promise I'll get to your comments and questions later in the day. I have to go into the shop today for a couple of hours while Chickie is at a doctor's appointment. Her doctor is located in a southern suburb of Minneapolis, and even though it's an early time, she'll get caught up in traffic for her way back to the shop. So I'll get there early and make sure everything is ready to open on time, unlock if she's not there yet, and generally be useful until she arrives. Then I can get to the grocery store. 

Happy Cinco de Mayo to all. It's time for a 
celebration (and maybe some Tequila - LOL). 

Happy Cinco de Mayo to all. We're not celebrating, per se, but I might make myself something more Mexican in flavor for my dinner. Maybe some deconstructed tacos or something similar to that. I do have some lovely Siete brand almond flour tortillas in my fridge. I eat them regularly. I might stir fry some ground beef and spices and shred some lettuce for a lovely dinner. 

Siete brands has fabulous gluten-free options. I adore 
their Almond Flour tortillas, they have several 
other varieties as well. My local store doesn't 
carry them (although they do carry other products 
from the brand), so I have to buy my tortillas at 
Whole Foods. I make sure I have a few packs in 
my freezer at all times. 

DH worked REALLY hard on the yard yesterday. If the compost had been open (they're closed on Tuesday and Thursday from April through October), he would have taken two loads over there. We have our brunch on Sunday and he wants me to have a day of rest and relaxation, so he'll spend Saturday loading the truck a couple of times to take things to the compost on his own. He's perfectly capable, but it's a lot harder to get the plastic tarps properly fixed over the truck bed without two people. But ... the front yard looks great. He's asked me to sweep the sidewalks around the house today, so I've written myself a BIG note so that I don't forget. 

I was looking for photos of the Arden Hills composting site, 
and came across this one. I couldn't resist sharing it with 
you. This was either late last year or earlier this year. I'd 
say, probably late last Fall. It's not the compost yard, but it 
is in my suburb. 

So ... that's about it on my end. I'll be back tomorrow, maybe with something more thought provoking ... or not - LOL. Whichever way it goes, be kind, stay safe and Slava Ukraini. 

It's Cinco de Mayo - Celebrate Your Own Personal Achievements Today

Happy Cinco de Mayo and pass me that Margarita - LOL. Well, it's WAY too early to be drinking a Margarita, but I'll stash the thought and maybe have one on Sunday. A later celebration. Of course, "Cinco" is one of those holidays that actually didn't mean much when it happened, but it became a symbol and celebration in later years. Actual Mexican Independence Day is September 16th, but people around the world celebrate "Cinco". I'm raising a virtual glass for the victory of the Battle of Puebla. 

The problem with 'Cinco' is that it plays into the sterotypes of 
the "Mexican Peasant" or "drunken Mexican" all too often. 
It's a celebration worth celebrating and a nation well worth 
it as well, but having the celebration be a drunken haze 
isn't necessary at all. 

Today's Tarot lesson quickly went through the suit of Wands - a suit of creativity and achievement, a positive suit leading to accomplishment. Although I had an easy time with yesterday's suit of Swords, I had a much more difficult time with Wands. I'll have to listen to the lesson once more and see if I can push them a bit more into my intuitive base instead of my conscious base. 

Today we reviewed the suit of Wands. Wands are creativity, 
a bright spark, positive aspects in many cases, as well 
as positive outcomes. It's a hopeful suit, but will require 
some work to get into my head and hands. 

Today is the last swimming day for the week. It's been a really good week so far, so I'm hoping to end it on a high note. Of course there are no guarantees. In my writing, our newest prompt was announced yesterday morning and although I started a tale, I'm probably going to trash it and try again. It's due on Tuesday, so it's not a major rush, but I'm finding this one a bit more challenging. What is it? We're supposed to write a story based on the prompt "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." It's a quote that's attributed to Teddy Roosevelt, although he merely quoted the words of a different author. 

Although the quote is ascribed to Teddy Roosevelt, it 
didn't originate with him. He said it though, and it took 
off from there. Every photo I looked at for this quote 
named him as the author. He had a large personality, 
so I guess it's OK for him to say this - it's a good one 
for all of us to live by. 

I did spend quite a lot of time re-taking photographs of my Swarovski crystals yesterday. It's quite a bit more intensive now - a total of ten photos for each page on Etsy. I got three pages done yesterday, and have a LOT more to go. I also changed my photo setup and I think I'm getting better photos. I'll see. I'd be delighted to show you one, but they're not loaded onto my computer yet, I'll be moving them from my phone to my computer while at work today. 

So, I'm out of here. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. In the meanwhile, please be kind, celebrate the small victories, help those who need help, and Slava Ukraini. 

A Sunday of Food, Cleaning and Celebration

Sunday was Cinco de Mayo - celebrated by Mexicans and others throughout the world with dance, music and great food. Since we were working on the house, we didn't do the dancing and music, but DH definitely made sure we did the food, starting with a wonderful breakfast burrito. I ended up saving part of it for another day - it was HUGE, but really excellent. 

Breakfast was a wonderful breakfast burrito with
chorizo sausage, eggs, diced peppers, black beans,
with Spanish rice on the side. Yummy! 

After the kitchen was cleaned up, we tackled our various assigned chores for the day. I dug into two more boxes of LIFE magazines that DH had found. I had a few of the missing issues from 1969 that I had hoped for (unfortunately, not the missing Woodstock issue - I probably read that one to death as a teenager). I also had most of 1968, as well as 1970, 1971 and 1972. I had a single issue of LOOK magazine too - the one that featured my high school after we had been shut down for race riots. Memories - some good, some not so good, but all valid and now, all organized. I'll probably sell the magazines. I'll have to look into the best way to do that. 

Among the 1968 LIFE magazines I had was this
one from August, 1968, on the Czech Freedom
Fighters. This was always close to my heart and
a part of family discussions since my father and
aunt were originally from Czechoslovakia. 

After the magazines, I got to work on boxes of hardcover books. I need to review them, and make decisions about whether they should be shown, stored or sold. I'm trying to cull heavily here - I really need to reduce them dramatically. When I did a similar thing with my paperbacks, I managed to reduce my books by almost 80%. I'm trying for a similar ratio here. DH will have to review too - he might want to retrieve a few - but I made a good start on them. 

I have a single issue of LOOK magazine from March 9,
1971. This was the issue that featured my high school,
which had been closed because of race riots. The
article "Toughest Job in Education" focused on the riots
as well as our school principal. 

One box was entirely filled with copies of my Dad's books - his Doctoral thesis as well as three different German Language books he wrote for two different publishers. They were really good sellers for a while there - helped Mom out with royalty payments in the thousands of dollars a year for a few years. They're pretty worthless now, though. Time goes on and languages change. Still, it was interesting. I might keep one copy of each book, but I'm really on the fence with it. 

Dinner was chicken enchiladas with rice and black
beans. Very tasty. Of course, all of these wonderful
food and beverage offerings did put three pounds
on me, but they'll be off by mid-week, just in time
to get regained as DH and I celebrate my birthday
later in the week. Argh - LOL!

After working on the books and magazines for several hours, we settled down at the patio table for margaritas and finally had dinner and watched TV for a while. All in all, a really pleasant day. I hope each of you had a wonderful weekend too, and that you have a great Monday. I start today with a checkup from my dentist, but I'm not expecting anything dramatic there. So, I'll return tomorrow with clean teeth and a slightly more organized house - LOL. Enjoy your day! 

Moving, Shredding, Packing and Helping - A Busy Saturday

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU! 

Yesterday morning DH arrived to remove a four-drawer filing cabinet and a large wooden bookshelf. These were going to be taken home and put into new locations in our house. It was a serious CHORE in every sense of the word. By the time Chickie arrived for work, she wasn't allowed to put anything into her little cubbyhole because the space was already occupied by two file cabinets, full and empty file cabinet drawers, and lots of boxes. 

We have several four-drawer and a few
stacked two-drawer file cabinets at
the shop. We keep a lot of paperwork
in them - sales records, artist biographies,
and financial/tax records. We needed
a new empty one for home, so
consolidated so we could bring the
best one from the shop to the
house instead. 

We moved things from File Cabinet #1 to File Cabinet #2, shifted the location of #2 to where #1 had been, culled through the paperwork in the drawers to shred some, boxed financial stuff for the commercial shredding company we'll hire later this year, and boxed up a bunch for our own recycling bin at the shop (gets emptied late on Fridays, so I was able to grab some of the newly opened space late in the day). Generally, it was a mess - and it wrapped up DH and myself pretty tightly, so Chickie had the sales floor. 

I've been in business since the late 1980's, and DH's business
was originally his father's, so we have some records dating
back into the 1950's. All of that has to be culled through and
stacked into "throw out", "destroy on-site", or "pack for
commercial shredding". It's a serious chore. 

In the early afternoon, DH and I loaded the chosen file cabinet into his truck bed along with the four file cabinet drawers, the bookcase and the shelves. After securing the load, he was on his way and my life settled down enough for me to eat my oranges for lunch. Then we got busy - a group of bead knitters needing beads for a project they were all doing, a long-time customer who was seeking beads to help her through a difficult pregnancy, a new beader wanting beads to start a new project and practice a stitch she had recently learned, and others. We were flooded with people for a while - no rest at all. 

We have a large bin like this for garbage, shared by the four stores
in our little strip. We also have a large recycling bin and several
additional smaller recycling bins for our use. The garbage is
picked up every two days or so. The recycling only is picked
up once a week. We really need it more often. The bin is
usually filled by two-three days after pick-up. 

But, at the end of the day, as I brought the last of the recycling out to the newly emptied bin, I was pretty happy. It had been a good day - busy, but everyone had been respectful and helpful, interacting and offering suggestions. Even though we were stretched to make sure everyone was helped and got exactly what they needed, there were no frayed tempers and people were happy. That's what I want in my store - happy people. 

The four bead knitters we were helping were all going to knit this
"Celestarium" pattern that they had purchased from Ravelry. I'm
not sure they were changing the yarn colors, but the beads they
each ended up with will be lovely in it. Each of the women
had chosen very different colors of yarn, so each shawl will
be distinctly different. Fun! Want the pattern for
yourself? I've attached a link for you here. 

It's Saturday, and I have to get photos into the blog and head out to the gym. One more full week of exercise on the machines and then, finally, I can get back into the pool again. All of my fellow swimmers, male and female, have told me that they missed me in the water, and I absolutely miss it too. May 13th can't come soon enough - LOL. Enjoy your day and your weekend (Happy Cinco de Mayo!) and I'll be back on Monday! 

Not A Lazy Sunday!

My Sunday was both wonderful and annoying, at the same time. What a day! We headed out to the Art Museum on time, plenty of time to get there. Then things started to go South a bit. The exit we had been told to take was blocked, pushing me way to the South and West through massive roadblocks and traffic jams. Still, we finally got to the "right" part of town. Then I turned West instead of East and we wasted a half-hour going the wrong direction, then turning back around to get headed correctly. After one way streets and blocked roadways, we finally ended up at the museum on time - 15 minutes before they opened. It was a mess. 

As an example of our frustration, these five robes. They supposedly
are from five courtiers, all of different rank. We are told they are
displayed in order and that only the emperor could wear yellow
and have nine dragons. But all of them had eight dragons. The
changing spotlights could have indicated their order, but the lights
were random, not in a pattern. It was annoying. 

The exhibition I had been longing to see was plainly - "meh". The items displayed were wonderful, but the "sensory experience" aspect of the exhibit actually took away from the items, instead of enhancing them by emphasizing the thousand years of history that occurred before their construction. In many ways it was quite disappointing. Fortunately we had the rest of the museum to go through afterward, and we spent several hours exploring. I took a lot of photos, so that was fun. 

Lake Street is extremely multi-cultural. It'l been "Little Mexico" for
more than two decades, but it's also Native American and
Somali. It's ever changing, and the traffic is horrendous since
it's one of the few East/West streets that isn't closed by
construction. 

After leaving the museum, heading back East was a bit easier ... except we were driving down a street that is always a bit of a nightmare to get down, and a portion of it was blocked off for a weekend street party celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Yet another detour, more one-way streets, and some more guessing games about whether or not we would end up where we wanted to go. Finally we got back to our side of the Mississippi River, and we felt as if we could breathe once more. What a nightmare! I suspect I'll be using the southern route to get to and from Renaissance Festival in a few months. My usual route is completely torn apart! 

I ended up with Chili's grilled chicken and grilled steak
fajitas along with a lovely Patron margarita for dinner.
DH had cheese enchiladas. We figured we'd just
celebrate Cinco de Seis instead of Cinco de Mayo. 

DH took me out for a lovely dinner to celebrate my birthday (early) and Cinco (a day late), and we declared ourselves exhausted. Sunday turned into such a positive/negative kind of a day, but I had a great time spending a day in a museum with DH, so it was a good day all around, despite the traffic issues. So, I declare the weekend a win! Here's hoping yours was good too. 

Happy Monday. I'm back on normal schedule and dealing with road construction that's not as directly impacting. Huzzah! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow. 

A Discussion of Music

Every year, to celebrate my birthday, I give myself permission to buy one thing that I would never ask for - something that is frivolous but that hits my soul. This year's gift for myself was a gift for my ears - four albums by "Tool". I'm listening to them one by one to determine which songs I'll digitize and add to my play list, but there are a lot of songs that I love. I'm really happy to finally have them in my possession.

I purchased four Tool albums as my gift to myself this year.
One of them was this one - actually this is the one I'll
be listening to this morning before I unlock the doors to the shop. 

Is there one group, singer, or composition that you would go out of your way to listen to, to own, or to attend a concert from/of? There are some classical pieces that send me over the moon - Beethoven, Saint Saens, Rachmaninoff to name a few from the top of the pile. What kind(s) of music do you find yourself listening to day after day? What puts a smile on your face?

Many years ago, DH and I had season tickets to the St Paul
Chamber Orchestra. We really enjoyed them, but then my schedule
got horrific at work and DH's hearing got very bad, so we let the
tickets go. 

I have a very eclectic musical taste. I was raised with Classical music and show tunes, continuing on with Classical music to this day (sometimes listening daily, other times much less, but always there in the background). For a few years I listened to Country, but the genre that I loved and kept coming back to time and time again was Rock - more specifically Heavy Metal.

For classic rock, it doesn't get much better than Aerosmith. Steven Tyler,
Joe Perry and the boys put on a great show. I've seem them several times
in concert and it's always been great fun! 

Although I enjoy classic Rock, I really wanted to know who was putting out today's "blow your mind" music. When I got my Mazda several years ago, it had a trial for Sirius radio so I started listening to their Rock stations and Sirius' "Octane" has been on daily ever since. There's some wonderful music being released these days. Rock most certainly ISN'T dead.

One of the groups I really love in the newer Rock genre is "Halestorm". Lizzie
Hals and her brother are amazing musicians and Lizzie's voice is so powerful!
I have quite a few of her songs on my swimming rotation. Great stuff! 

It's Friday. Today should be sunny, and we'll probably be slow at the shop because everyone will be out buying their plants for their gardens and mowing their lawns for the first time this season. But it's all good. The customer count may be down because of the nice weather, but we get to enjoy that sunshine too, and we're not huddling in our sweaters whenever the shop door opens. Have a great Friday, and Happy Cinco de Mayo!

What A Busy Two Days

It's a busy week. Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo - celebrated as a remembrance of Mexican history and culture (and the drinking of Margaritas) throughout the USA. On a more world-wide basis, yesterday was also Holocaust Remembrance Day. Having both of these days on the same date scrambled my mind a bit. Should I celebrate the joy of one of my favorite nations, a place where I spent a lot of time while growing up? Or should I spend the day in more quiet reflection trying to wrap my head around how truly vicious mankind can be toward each other? I didn't come up with any resolution to the opposing calendrical notations, but I did share a couple of margaritas with DH.

The best part about having Cinco de Mayo on a weekday, is
that the celebration can continue on for a few more days.
West Side will be officially celebrating on Saturday, but
a lot of other areas in town will celebrate today or just
continue celebrating throughout the weekend ahead. 

Last night was the final episode of Project Runway All Stars Season Five and we now have a winner. If you didn't see the final episode and want to catch up a bit later, I'll put the final winner under a cut in my DW and LJ postings. Sorry that my Blogspot post isn't as easily accommodated.

Ken, Dom and Kini (l to r) were the final three designers in
Project Runway All Stars 2016. They had four days to make
a collection of eight outfits, one of which was for a male model.
LOTS of work!!! I looked for fashion photos to share, but they're
not posted yet. Maybe later this weekend. 

The season came down to Ken - who once again just didn't push himself out of his comfort zone with the exception of allowing a single color - yellow - to enter his usual black/white no prints allowed palette.

Kini couldn't seem to settle. He wanted a progression of grey to color, but it didn't flow and he had two total duds in the eight-piece collection.

Then there was Dom, who soared. When confronted with the safe, she chose the edgy. She allowed her artistic tendency to shine by once again painting her fabric, and what she painted was stunning and abstract. She paired that with a gentle black and white stripe, did great styling, and won the prize. It was well deserved. Although she had a few clunks during the season's challenges, she has a style of her own that comes through in every piece and when she was allowed to do her own thing, her voice was strong and unmistakable.

Psychoanalysis isn't for me, although I've tried it on and off over the
years, but I know people who have been helped by it a great deal.
Here's to you, Sigmund! 

Finally, to add one more thing to the 48 hours, today is Sigmund Freud's 160th birthday. It's hard to imagine a world where psychoanalysis isn't an option for people who need that help, but that was the case for most of humanity's history. I've tried working with a "shrink" a few times, but didn't find it worked for me. Others have been helped by their therapists, though, so perhaps it was just the person I was seeing or my particular reticent nature when it comes to personal issues.

Have a great Friday! We'll be in sunshine and the beginning of a few days of 80 degree and sunny! I might even have to turn on the air conditioning at the shop. What a change from a few months ago.

Travelin' Times Ahead

The clock is ticking. My friend Poo has her plane tickets and she'll arrive on the 30th. We'll take off early on the 31st to drive to Milwaukee and I have a class that evening. But what I'm really happy about is my Monday schedule. I'm back to the train, and going back to Chicago for another day at the museum.

This time I'm going to the Science and Industry Museum to attend the "Harry Potter Exhibition". I can't wait! I also purchased tickets to their omni theatre for an oceans film. I think I'll have a thoroughly enjoyable day immersed in Hogwart's and water. Then I'll catch the train back to Milwaukee that evening. I'm hoping that the weather will be decent. Last year when I took the train to attend an exhibit at the Field Museum, it was raining on my trip back and I ended up trying to avoid raindrops and puddles. But I'm looking forward to my excursion this year and the tickets have been purchased and put into my B&B 2009 folder.

Today is Cinco de Mayo. A day which celebrates the victory of the Battle of Puebla in Mexico, and a day which has become a day to drink Tequila in the US. I think I'll avoid the drinking aspects and stay with my nightly glass of wine instead. But I do wish a safe and enjoyable Cinco to those of my friends who may want to celebrate in a more immersive fashion. If I didn't have to be functional the next day, I might also indulge. But...work and studio time calls and I can't afford to waste any studio time right now - the clock is a'tickin', tempus fugit, etc, etc. Aaaccckk!!!!