Thursday Thunks on Friday Night

Always At Least A Day Late is my new motto when it comes to completing writing prompts, but I really couldn't step away from my family on Christmas Day to write, so being late this week was inevitable.

As inevitable as taxes, the passage of time, and not being able to find your keys when you're in a hurry.

That kind of inevitable.

I didn't want to miss a single moment of our lovely Christmas. So I simply didn't.

Christmas Day was a quiet, slow sort of day. We didn't start opening presents till almost noon; later we had a wonderful dinner (turkey, pumpkin and apples, delicious homemade stuffing, cranberries, with a crust-less pumpkin pie for dessert). The in-between time was spent playing with the SuperCat and enjoying each other's company. It took SuperCat hours to open her gifts; she needed to play with each thing extensively before she could consider moving on to the next thing. It was great watching her play, showing us how things worked.

The last several Christmases have been difficult. My Dad's health was going downhill around Christmas of 2003, he died a month and a half after that. Because of that, and for other reasons, Christmas has been difficult to celebrate for a long time; some years I've had to force myself to do anything at all.

This year, for the first time in a long time, mostly in response to the unbridled joy that the SuperCat has brought to us and continues to bring us every single day, I did quite a bit more, felt quite a lot better, and have been pretty happy the whole season.

Life goes on, as they say. So...

From the Thursday Thunks(^).

This week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Berleen, the color white and the number 78.

1. Have you ever started your Christmas tree on fire?

No. And how scary is it that that even happens? Can you imagine sitting there, watching the lights twinkle, and all of a sudden, whooosh?

2. How many rings do you wear?

Always the first two, and in various combinations the next three:
* my wedding bands, which started out as two rings, but were connected by the jeweler after our wedding. I'll count those as one.
* a tanzanite and diamond ring given to me by my husband the Christmas after we were married.
* a silver ring with feathers on it that I wear on my thumb.
* a silver poesy ring that my husband gave me.
* a silver ring with a Greek meander (aka key) pattern which looks like this:

3. I say "dog barking", you say _________ ?

He doesn't. My dog almost never barks. He just stands there and looks at you. He growls at people in this really low voice if he doesn't know them at the door, but almost never barks.

4. How many pictures are in the room that you are in.

Two on the wall; old Chinese paintings of birds. Too many to count elsewhere, on shelves, etc.

5. Do you decorate the outside of your house for Christmas?

Some years, yes. Three or four inflatables, lights around the front of the house and in the bushes, a retro plastic Santa...

plus mechanical deer illuminated with white lights, blue and white flowers in the flower boxes, and a winter-themed flag. It's a regular Winter Wonderland.

6. What's your favorite Christmas song?

Carol of the Bells, Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych, 1916.



7. What do you fill your Christmas stockings with?

I don't. My husband fills mine, and I fill his. Dan grew up in Holland, so I fill his stocking with candy from there like salted licorice (yuck yuck yuck) and marzipan (yummy).

8. How many times a week do you charge your cell phone?

Every night and I usually top it off during the day. I have the G1 Android, and the battery life isn't great, but the phone is beyond spiffy, so it's worth it.

9. Do you own any exercise equipment? What are they?

A treadmill, an elliptical, and those plastic stair stepper thingies used in aerobics class. Plus two of those rubber balance balls, a yoga mat, and some small weights. A bicycle I almost never ride, too, but I'm not sure that counts since (as I said) I almost never ride it.

10. What's your cookie jar look like?

I have 30 or so. Which one would you like to know about?

This is what my favorite cookie jar looks like

Namaste.

currently listening to: Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, the theme from Casino Royale:

current mood: contemplative

The Buddhist Cow Says Mu

How can you possibly go wrong with a quiz that contains an awesome question like Do you like waffles? From the Thursday Thunks meme, on Friday morning (of course).



1. Do you like waffles?
I love waffles! There are really great gluten-free waffles on the market, made by Van's(^). Sometimes we make it using GF baking mix. I haven't made them from scratch yet. When I was still eating wheat I have to admit that the best waffles I ever made were made with Jiffy Mix(^) and the worst I ever made were made totally from scratch using the recipe in The Joy Of Cooking. They were way too greasy. Yuck.

The ones from Vans are great because they're, well, great - they taste like waffles, not too sweet or funky due to the lack of flour. And because they are in the grocery store, vs going to the health food store. And because they aren't expensive. A lot of gluten-free food is pretty expensive. There are several factors involved - testing, cleaning equipment, smaller batches, costly ingredients.

It's spiffy to find things that aren't expensive, taste good and are easy to find.

We like Waffles so much that we have a cat named Waffles. Our Waffles was actually named after Fern's cat Waffles, though. Fern doesn't have an accessible blog at the moment, but when he does, I'll link to it. He's one of the most important people in my life; the brother I now have, a best friend, and a confidant. As wonderful as Fern is, and while his cat is no doubt awesome, scientifically speaking, our Waffles has been determined to be the best cat on the planet.

Waffles:

• is incredibly empathetic and always comes and lays with us if we're not feeling well or could use some cheering up.
  
• sleeps with us, and is never too warm.
  
• lets the other kitties eat first.
  
• roars when he purrs.
  
• is huge, really long and muscular.
  
• defends other kitties against the scourge that is the dog.
• loves his mommy.
• has his own following on MySpace.
  

Waffles on the bed


More Waffles. Doesn't he have the sweetest face?

2. Name 3 things that is within your reach right now, excluding anything to do with your computer/laptop.

A water bottle, a lamp shaped like the Eiffel Tower, and my camera.

3. Do you hang laundry out on a line outside?

Rarely. I often hang it in the laundry room to dry. In Colorado, the air is so dry that even inside, clothes dry in a just few hours.

4. Loss of vision, ability to speak or hearing - which do you choose? (you have to choose one....)

I've already lost some hearing in my right ear due to a childhood injury, and I'd be ok with losing the rest. Well, not ok, but it would bother me less than the other two. I watch closed captioned TV and can read lips, so it wouldn't be much of a shock to lose my hearing, whereas I can't fathom losing my vision or the ability to speak.

5. On a scale from 1 - 10, how are your computer skills?

Well, compared to my husband, pretty poor. His skills go to eleven, as Nigel Tufnel(^) would say. But compared to your average user, probably about an 8 with PCs; a 6 with Macs; and maybe a 4 with Linux.

Tux, the Linux Mascot

This is the place where I tell you I intend to become more adept at Linux, like I always do. The truth is, it isn't Linux's fault - it's mine. Linux is not hard to learn at the user level, I'm just really busy with the SuperCat. I am at a point where I could use Linix 24/7 at the user level, but I would like to know a lot more and not have to rely on Dan for technical support.

On the plus side, I did dump Windows off my desktop machine, and my laptop now dual boots, so I am making measurable progress. Yay, progress.

6. Do you volunteer or donate to anything around the holidays?

I used to volunteer a lot, but haven't for a while, and am ok with that for the time being. My time is best utilized at home and probably will be for the foreseeable future. I will return to volunteering, eventually though, as I do miss it. We do donate to the ARC(^), which does a lot of good work.

7. If a person receives a DUI while in government office, should he lose his/her position?

I don't have enough information to make a decision.
Was the person elected, appointed or hired?
Does their job involve passing legislation involving drunk driving? Are they otherwise in a decision-making position?
Without more information, I can't answer.

Which totally brings us to MU!!!!! My friend Ben shared the concept of Mu a couple of weeks ago, and I was delighted to read about it.

Mu, where have you been all my life?

Mu (in Japan and Korea) or Wu (in Chinese) means "none", "without", and "no meaning". Mu is the answer to give when there is no correct answer possible or when there isn't enough information to give any answer at all. When "yes" and "no" are both wrong, "Mu" may be the answer.

Mu has a place in Buddhist philosophy as a kōan. A kōan is an often paradoxical question, story, riddle or statement that makes you think about things intuitively that may not be thinkable any other way.

These are kōans:

• what is the sound of one hand clapping?
• when you can do nothing, what can you do?
• what is the color of wind?
• If you have ice cream, I will give you some.
  If you don't have ice cream, I will take it away.
  That, of course, is the famous ice cream kōan by Jack Kerouac
  

Kōans may not have a obvious or single correct answer, which is where Mu comes in.

This is Mu:

marvel at the awesomeness of Mu

8. Do you take vitamins?

I administer vitamins in the form of Flintstones Chewables (now with Betty), and I take one occasionally, but generally no.

9. Do you wear fingernail polish?

My hands are too often in and around craft materials and water to have polished nails. I keep my nails clean but not polished since they'd chips too frequently to look neat for very long. My toenails are polished, though. Bright pink at the moment.

10. If every flower in the world only grew into one color, which color would you want?

The color of blue hydrangeas in the shade on a late summer afternoon. How's that for specific? I love hydrangeas and everything they represent - the bounty and beauty of summer flowers, and the languid warmth of late afternoons as the shadows grow. Hydrangeas made up the bulk of my bridal bouquet and I can't wait to grow them again.

Beautiful blue hydrangeas
Stock Photo from the morgueFile, image information found here(^)

I have a busy day of sewing ahead of me, and will try to post some pictures f my work later this evening.

Until then,

Namaste.
Current mood: (busy)

A Basic Human Right

This is from a blog meme I ran across today called BlogDriveInsanity(^):

Wednesday Mind Hump

Welcome to another Mind Hump. Today is Human Rights Day.
What human right are you most passionate about?

My answer would be... Well, I would start with the fact that I've never heard of the United Nations' Human Rights Day(^) before now, even though this is the 60th anniversary of the first one.

Yay, learning new stuff!

And second, to answer the question, I guess I would say that I am most passionate about the right to self defense. Without the right to protect yourself, all other rights immediately cease to matter. If you aren't walking the Earth anymore, the right to vote; to property; to clean air and water; to food, the right to anything becomes meaningless.

I'm not talking about the dubious "right" to be an aggressor, or the ability to go to war. Simply put - I mean the innate right to stop aggression against yourself or those you care for. To feel safe and secure to the best of your ability without harming others who are innocent in the process.

I was a long time in becoming convinced that I could protect myself. And that even if I could, that I should. One thing that prompted me toward action was seeing other women taking the steps to defend themselves or others.

Women like Jeanne Assam(^), from my own neck of the woods, who saved untold lives at New Life Church last year.

Women like Stephanie Nielson, author of The NieNie Dialogues, who decided earlier this year to take firearms training and get her concealed carry permit because of crime in her neighborhood. She wrote about it eloquently in a post entitled NieNie get your gun(^).

And women like an unfortunate neighbor of mine whose home was invaded over the summer, and who was beat mercilessly. She didn't have the means to protect herself or her family.

So, I made the decision, took the classes, and did the most important thing: practice, practice, practice.


range practice

I made some interesting discoveries along the way:

• Women are most certainly welcome at firearm ranges. I'm never the only one there. Women made up exactly 25% of my training class, and there are often knowledgeable women working in sporting goods stores that sell firearms.
  
• People in the know are willing to answer questions, make suggestions, and offer explanations. There are no stupid questions, and all of my questions have been answered with respect and patience.
• Everyone involved with firearms that I've met takes safety and competence very seriously.
• It feels good to become competent at something that had previously seemed so scary and once I did become competent, the scare factor went away.

So, the right I am most passionate about is the one I consider to be most basic right of all, the one that all others flow from.

Finally, I mentioned Stephanie Nielson above, a blogger I've very much enjoyed reading for some time. Stephanie and her husband, "Mr Nielson" were in a terrible airplane accident in August, 2008, and they both sustained life threatening critical burns.

While they recover, their loved ones are reposting previous NieNie posts. To read her blog, click on the link above. If you'd like to learn more about these two wonderful people, or if you would like to help, click the icon below.

Namaste.

Current mood: