and now for something completely different

Jaan Pehechaan Ho

happy birthday

groovy's hands
Originally uploaded by misslissa13

to my sweet love.

as things go to seed

As the parsley and cilantro start going to seed, change is in the air. (So is the humidity, but that's another story. A horror story for us curly girls.)

I tweaked my work schedule to a more conducive pattern where exhaustion shall decrease. Groovy changed his age (Happy Birthday, Sweetie). My perspective and view of the World is changing daily.

Change is something in which I have always found joy. Stagnation dulls my mind, but change is refreshing.

Those parsley and cilantro seeds are embedding themselves into Mother Earth to begin next years harvest. The seeds of though plant deep in my mind. What change is coming next? What adventure is pending? What newness will spark flames of joy?

I will sit with the anticipation.

this makes me happy

alec's first gig

My nephew, Alec, makes his debut. Click the image for the actual commercial.

weekend fun

lawn chairs
Originally uploaded by misslissa13

We went to Bethel Woods and saw the Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Melloncamp concert this weekend.

Amazing!

flo's moment of zen

My Austrian grad school friend Flo, now living in Japan with his lovely wife Kyoko, shared this little moment of Zen. And now I share it with you for your amusement:

Flo: "I just don't understand why there are no dishwashers in Japan."

Father in law: "We have junken (rock-paper-scissor)...so there is always a dishwasher!"

And there you have it!

google search

New search that brought someone to my blog:

"chaos fuels me"

This tickles my chaotic funny bone.

i love being the newbie

"Gotta take the first step"

I love trying new things. There is something about the energy that gets sparked in my soul and keeps life from getting stagnant that makes me want to seek out the next thing in which I can be a newbie. I like to keep a list of things to try. In general, this list is quite long. The time has come once again to create and examine my options.

Some previous goals can be revisited:
Taking a new art class
Training for a 10K (this time not concurrent with writing a thesis)
Taking violin lessons
Relearning Yang style short form tai chi
Getting back out on both the skateboard and inline skates to learn new tricks

Some new things to try:
Learning wood working/furniture building
Learning a new form of martial arts
Writing an academic journal article
Trying rock climbing
Learning how to fly on a trapeze (there's a local school. for real)
Learning some BMX tricks

Some goals are minor:
Learning recipes that use coconut oil (yum!)
Adding weekly weight training to my fitness regime
Getting to bed an hour earlier on most nights

Some goals are lofty:
Get my PhD
Restore a car myself

This list is not all inclusive and I am always open to suggestions. Please leave a comment with some ideas, no matter how minor, offbeat, practical or outlandish. What new things have you tried?

inxs...is just the right amount

Monday morning music.
I love the way music affects the mood.
It can conjure feelings of nostalgia, joy, sadness, pure energy, etc. For me, listening to bands from my youth and beyond always makes me happy, even if the song is gut-wrenchingly depressing.

blood bummer

First time ever I was rejected from donating blood. My darn blood iron was 0.2 below the allowed level. Time to eat lots of lentils and spinach and try again in a few days. On a good note, Groovy donated for the first time! I'm so proud of him.

one-third life crisis

I think I am having a one-third life crisis.

Lately, I have been obsessing over changing my hair color (okay, I've been doing this since 16 years old, but, whatever), working a job strictly for a kick-ass salary so I can live a lavish life, getting tattoos, getting a boob job and buying a motorcycle.

Or perhaps it is just the food coloring in the Italian ices affecting my noggin.

i always kind of thought...

...Micheal Jackson was recreating himself as a Gelfling.

Just a thought. I'm just saying.

dictionary.com...

...had the name of my car today:

Word of the Day for Thursday, July 9, 2009

fervid \FUR-vid\, adjective:

1. Heated or vehement in spirit, enthusiasm, etc.
2. Burning; glowing; intensely hot.

frightening

I was just considering... ...watching Jerry Springer in order to NOT hear about Michael Jackson.

casualty of teen boredom

casualty of teen boredom
Originally uploaded by misslissa13

It's probably been about twenty years since my parents' mailbox became a victim of teen boredom.

Their luck ran out.

Senseless violence, innocent victim.

too good not to share

From The Writer's Almanac, July 5, 2009:

It was on this day in 1937 that SPAM came onto the market. The canned meat product from Hormel Foods Corporation was given its name by a contest winner; the prize for his ingenuity was $100. On one occasion, a Hormel spokesperson said the name was short for "Shoulder of Pork and Ham"; on another, a company official said it was a conflation of the words "spice and ham." All sorts of parodic acronyms have circulated over the years, including "Something Posing As Meat." The original recipe, still sold as the "Classic" flavor, contains pork shoulder and ham meat, salt, water, sugar, and sodium nitrate. There's a gelatinous glaze on top, which forms like that after the broth cools down.

Spam sold in the Americas is mostly produced in Austin, Minnesota — "Spam Town USA" and home of the SPAM museum. Hawaii's residents consume more Spam per capita than the residents of any other state, and the canned meat has been nicknamed "The Hawaiian Steak." Spam is the main course in the Israeli Defense Force's combat meal kits, but the pork is replaced by beef so that it's kosher.

There's a Monty Python sketch that came out in 1970 where the actors go into a café and try to order breakfast, but almost everything on the menu contains Spam. One woman doesn't want Spam in her breakfast and gets into an argument with the waitress, who tells her that the menu consists of "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam, and Spam." It's from this Monty Python sketch that "spam" acquired the use so familiar today: unwanted or unsolicited e-mail. The first recorded use of the word in this way is in 1993. It's also become a verb in the English language, for the action of sending out spam.

And the word "spam" itself, untranslated, is now a noun in French, Portuguese, and Vietnamese. The verb "to spam" in German is "spammen"; in Czech the verb is "spamovat"; and in Italian it's "spammare." There's a new Monty Python's musical, SPAMALOT, currently playing in San Francisco.