On the homefront

The Deck!



Its Friday! Two weeks have flown by and I've had little chance, or haven't found a spare moment at least, to sit down and write about it all. Finally.... here's what's been happening:

On the homefront, the deck and door are completed, hooray! Except for some sanding and painting around the door, and on the in-side ... still trying to marry sheet rock to old lath and plaster which isn't turning out as nicely as I'd hoped (wish we'd hired a carpenter but best keep mouth shut about that!) ... a little paint and molding might neaten things up nicely, however... I am hopeful, that is.



Here's our fluffy little Eskie Mr. E ... admiring the fancy new umbrella but wondering why his mother is photographing this strange inanimate object .... in other words, why not him!



The "man-child" with his new 80's rocker style is out of school for the moment ... busying himself with bothering me immensely these days. You'd think at 16 this wouldn't be the case. Other mothers out there will nod vigorously with me when I say .... It doesn't seem to ever end no matter what age they are! We are, in fact, mother's 'til we die! And all that goes with it. Which is worrying ourselves sick, most of the time!



Luckily, the birthday will arrive with the old Toyota insured and keys passed over. (He can hardly wait!) He's been mowing lawns and attempting t be as responsible as an almost 17 year old can be when desiring his freedom!





The Red Chair!


Here's more of deck ... which I am obviously very excited about! It has been quite an event! Shopping for furniture took me to World Market ... aren't they great? I've been drooling over their cute little adirondack chairs for weeks ... waiting to complete the deck! Here it is! Perfect!




The story was a bit more in depth, however, as I went to WM with all intents to purchase the darkish blue chair, but they were out. So I thought, the lime green was awfully cute, so I lugged out two boxes ... actually two teenage boys lugged out two boxes and an umbrella for me ... and when we got home, opened them and found the lime green chair was actually red. Okay, I like the red chair, I decided. But the box with the little foot stool which also said "green" ... turns out ... it was actually green. So now I had a red chair and a green foot stool. I thought, it is cute. But ...not exactly the look I'm going for.


I sent the boys on a mission to return the stool. They came back saying the store was out and I'd have to go back tomorrow. Hmmm ... do you mean to say you got so caught up looking at guitars and skateboards you forgot to return the stool. Ummmm ... yeah.

Two days later, I returned to the store and got my red stool. Isn't it nice? Mrs. E ... lying on the mat here, and in fact unable to remove herself from the deck since the day it went up, and which she considers her very own tree house, thinks it is nice as well. So glad she approves.


Believe it or not ... the web site is still not done. I approved a proof yesterday, and now am having second thoughts. You know how that is! Little things that stand out in my mind that just don't feel right? The project has been expensive and I really want to love it! I'm hoping I do. I'm really having close to a nervous breakdown about the whole thing! I will let you now when it is finally complete! Hopefully ... it will be wonderful! The biggest problem is my photography, which leaves much to be desired. I may have to take a class to gain some ability there. So, I go on chewing my fingernails and hoping it turns out to my satisfaction.


Potted Plants!



I've been having the most fun potting flowers for the deck ... since I love little pots of plants more than just about anything!

I had so much fun finding little miniture roses and setting their little roots free from those terrible teeny grocery store plastic pots where they've been wrapped with foil (the kind they sell as little gifts that usually die in a month from being indoors on the kitchen table!) ... now they are free! They stretch their little toes and seem so happy! Within one day they are blooming like crazed moon goddesses in their finest!

One very cheeky squirrel visits the deck quite frequently and likes to take the new buds off th roses and eat them in front of me. He doesn't really eat them, I realize, he just pulls them apart... chews a bit, spits it out and leaves a mess. Then he seems to look at me and say... well, what are you going to do about it? Let the fluff ball out? I'm afraid that's what he calls Mr E., unbeknownst to Mr. E, who would be very upset at being called a fluff ball. So we won't tell him. So, Mr. Squirrel, I just laugh in the face of rose destruction. Soon, I hope, he will get bored, and go back to stealing peanuts.

Fondly,
~L

much ado about gas grills and other sordid tales

Well, friends, since my last post, so much has happened I can't begin to recount the lot of it, therefore I will merely pick up where I left off and that, I believe, was having found my earring and being duly elated. This prompted me to purchase a large bag of very small and insignificant seeming rubber tips to slide on the backs of all LoraKellyDesigns earrings, so that none of my good customers ever have the same harrowing experience of losing a perfectly beloved earring. So.... it seems in the case of the lost and found earring, experience taught a valuable lesson.


Following that particular incident, I also co-purchased a very first gas grill and also co-put said-grill together after much cursing and gnashing of teeth (on the part of the "co" part... as you may have imagined) and eventually cooked for the first time on said-grill (as in "I" cooked on said-grill and "co" part watched from window between "innings" ...it being baseball season as you probably know... because, as you will recall, we have no door cut in yet). Are you still with me?

The fact that my only previous grilling experience included a small two burner hibachi that was truly not much of a comparison, considering it required I squat while cooking. Later I had the good sense to move it to a table where at least I was able to stretch my legs (the hibachi, not the grill, in case I've already confused you). The hibachi experience was twenty years ago and my legs were still quite able to bend easily and noislessly into a squat sposition for lengthy periods without getting stuck in place .... so it was no big deal, really.


Let me also note here... the putting together of said-gas grill by the co-part and the me-part required two moderately intelligent people (not so far a stretch) with complete use of all moving parts, limbs, digits, etc... the ability to lift heavy objects without dropping them on feet or through deck floor, a power screwdriver and drill lest arms twist out of sockets within the first 5 minutes, the ability to read abstract instructions that only make sense three pages later (as in ... ohhhh ... that's what that was... oopsie....), good ability to "visualize" ... so a student of the New Age would be well equipt in that sense, and about two and a half hours of spare time. Keep this in mind should you decide you too must have the experience of cooking on a newfangled gas grill. Or ... go to Home Depot where... I've since learned... they will assemble it for you. Thank you very much!

Note: The end result of all that (being the meal) was worth every minute, I think, of blood, sweat and tears. Our grilled 8pm dinner was heavenly. Three glasses of wine and one magnificently balmy evening later, at least, that's how I remember it.

Thanks for listening... lora

on flower pots, an amethyst earring, a cold day and a full bladder

Now that the deck is done, sans a door to get out onto it, soon to come ... I decided to go purchase some gorgeous pots to plant flowers in to set out on said deck.

SO ... I went to the lovely Clear Creek Nursery in Silverdale that has grown so much in the last several years I walked around in a daze, took numerous wrong turns, and finally was retrieved by a very nice person who asked me if I was lost. Yes. Totally. But not in a bad way. Just ... you see....She raised an eyebrow and said, follow me. Problem was, she only knew where the cash register was. What I needed was the parking lot.... fast ... please!

Here's why I ended up not buying one single thing because ...for one... it was too cold. Yes ... freezing in fact ... after the heat wave from the previous week the temperature had plummeted to something like ... 50 degrees! That's Washington, however. Have you ever tried to shop in your shirtsleeves in 50 degrees? Not fun.

So, I'm freezing to death, AND, here's the bigger and more important reason why I didn't buy one single thing, I have a powerful need to relieve my bladder in a bad way ... sorry, I suppose I could've said go to the loo in Irish fashion, but ... you, my friends, might not understand the whole loo thing ... so best I just explain the biological function. AND on top of all that, I was lost in a maze of flowering trees and statuary and pots and row upon row of bedding plants and ... just get me out of here ... I prayed silently... nearest exit, please... I cajoled ... sortie!....and I promise I will never again eat peanut M&M's on the first day of my diet and then just throw in the towel because I've ruined it after all so why even try! That's about when the "angel" showed up and led me to my car, in a round about fashion, after an embarrassing moment at the cash register when I didn't have anything to buy.

Now that I really think about that promise ... dang! Anyway...

I sped home and felt much better in no time, except ...when I looked in the mirror and realized ONE OF MY EARRINGS WAS GONE! My most favorite earrings in the whole world and ONE OF THEM WAS GONE! Somehow, in the midst of getting a Starbucks, shuffling in and out of my seat belt, walking through the parking lot, wandering in a daze among the annuals, driving home like a madwoman etc., etc., ... I LOST MY MOST FAVORITE EARRING IN THE WORLD!

The Irishman rolled his eyes up to heaven and said, that's not a good sign. Now, just what was THAT supposed to mean? Are you insinuating.... he hands me the phone at that moment, just before I get myself into trouble, grabs the phone book, flips the pages, and all but dials the nursery for me ... they've probably found it. Who'd find that delicate, dear, helpless little earring in the midst of billowing perennials ... and gardener types mucking about in their big ol' mud-logged wellies? Are you kidding? I sobbed... But a rather nice lady answered the phone just then ... Loreli... was her name. Hi Loreli, ummm, my name's Lora, well, I suppose that doesn't really matter... but ... the reason I'm calling is ...I was just there about an hour ago and I lost my... well... my earring and ... you'll probably never find it, this is probably very silly, I know I'm being an idiot, but I just thought in case someone does and ....

It's gorgeous, she says, I'm keeping it! I was stunned into silence ... whaaa? Then Loreli starts to laugh. Just kidding! Hello? Yes. I've got your earring. Someone found it in the parking lot. I'll have it at the desk for you.

Oh ... bless you. And your children. And your unborn grandchildren ... and their descendants for thousands of years to come and beyond. click.....

She's got it! I exclaimed, (one doesn't often get a chance to exclaim, do they) racing out the front door and jumping in the car again, shuffling in the seat belt, driving madly across town, shuffling out of the seat belt, sprinting across the tarmac...one earring swinging from my right ear, leaping through the front doors and up to the desk... where I stood quietly in line for 10 minutes while a very ancient man purchased ten English roses, checked each one thoroughly for bugs and rust spots, carefully wrote out a check, was told they no longer accepted personal checks, voided it, used his credit card, couldn't find his glasses, fiddled in every pocket of his bib overalls for said glasses, asked to fill out a credit account, did they have a pen, wondered if he could call his wife to get his social security number for said credit account, thought better of it, do they accept cash? ... laughed... told story about a time back in 1942 when he couldn't cash a 100 bill because back in those days ... it was more than a month's wages ... found said glasses on the top of his head... I peeked out around him during the 1942 story and waved my hand slightly and smiled brightly as if to say ... ahhh... I just have one teeny, tiny thing to ask?

Loreli looked at my good ear, immediately recognized it, and held out the matching earring. I just love these weighty glass earrings, she said, handing me my beloved. GLASS? ...Did she just say GLASS?

These, my dear, are not mere GLASS .. . they are semi-precious gemstones, mined from the earth, finely cut and polished! Amethyst! Lemon quartz! Need I say more? Honestly? I didn't say any of that. I just grinned from ear to ear, thanked her from the bottom of my heart, and left happy as any pig in mud.

Actually, it was at that point that I was very much ready to buy a blue glazed pot for the deck and in the perfect mood for spending money, having earlier, in my moment of panic when I'd decided my earring was gone forever, both relieved my bladder and donned a sweater. But ... in the rush from there to here ...I'd forgotten my wallet at home.

Wouldn't you know it.

Tomorrow ... being another day.

~lora

more on the deck, Irishmen and .... ta dah....pizza Tuesdays!

despite the loosening of my teeth and other sundry bones and organs due to the (mutters under breath) tree slayers, I did manage to have a really nice evening because it was the illustrious ... pizza Tuesday at my house! That means.... We get to eat pizza on Tuesdays because it's 2 fer 1 day. About 3 o'clock in the after noon I get really excited because I realize I don't have to stop whatever I'm doing and make dinner! Because usually whatever I'm doing is always much more fun and interesting than cooking. It's the little things that make us smile, isn't it?

also, there's the little matter of ... the deck, which, as you can see ... there have been a few "setbacks" ... shall we say? and so, the rails are still not up but should be tonight... honest ... says the Irish husband. But, it's gorgeous, isn't it? That's my chair there ... where I sit to watch progress.

Oh, speaking of whom ... the poor thing ... he finally consented to go to the doctor because he's had this terrible, awful, dreadful coughing thing going on for weeks and it just won't stop and sometimes he can't even sleep and ... well that means that no one gets to sleep. So ... I made him an appointment with a very nice doctor (well, his receptionist seemed fairly nice, at the very least) in Tacoma who specializes in allergies ... because I'm thinking, he's got an allergy to concrete .... because the whole thing started when we laid the nice landing for the deck stairs to rest on. (it's really neat, by the way, in which ...I put a sweet little design using river rock ... oh, we're talking about the doctor aren't we?)

So ... anyway ... he (the poor love who faints at the sight of blood ... his own mind you) got poked and prodded with teeny needles on every freckle (and let me tell you, there's lots of them), because that's what those allergy people do, good thing I didn't warn him or he wouldn't have gone. AND .... drum roll please..... guess what he's allergic too!!!

DOGS...CATS...AND.... PARROTS

My first reaction was: ... oopsie! My second reaction was: Gosh, sweetie, does that mean you have to move out?

Luckily he truly LOVES our brood and opted instead for the medication that he must take the rest of his life and which will probably destroy his liver in the long run, but ... that's life...

Pictures to come of neat concrete landing thingy!

Later....

sewer line replaces 100 year old tree ... how nice

Is she still on her soap box? ahhh... sort of? ... well, she did go snoop into other people's business to see why they were chopping down their lovely pine trees. And this is what she found out ... she being me ... of course. We're not takin' 'em all down, ma'am (since when did I become a ma'am!) ... just the big ones, makin' room for the sewer line. Well ... isn't that nice... people certainly need to go poop... thank you very much. Mr. E, I said to my most annoying little white dog, in a whisper, you go right ahead and bark at the nice ... tree murderer!

see ... two lots over used to be a lovely two acrea site engulfed in a quiet little wood, roosted in by some crows an owl, a couple of woodpeckers and myriad little teeny birdies and lots and lots of frogs and garder snakes (very sweet little snakes who live on bugs, frogs and small rodents). A horse and a bantum chicken lived their once, too, but ... that's another story. but the old lady died ... as they have a habit of doing, darn them anyway ... and whoever she left her lovely land to sold it... because ... well ... that's what they do... and then that person, who didn't like owls and such, or didn't actually consider their existence being important ... because ... well... that's what THEY do ...decided to build 18 new homes and get rid of that godawful quiet little wood. Goodbye nightly frog serenade!

Now, since summer began, my house has been shaking and vibrating like armageddon all because said builder has had any number of bull dozers, steam rollers, diggers and shovers and mess makers and majorly oversized trucks of every make and color and obsession...over there turning what was once a little wooded ecosystem into a baren waste-land. But he didn't stop there ... no ... now he's got to tear up just a few more trees on other people's property because his 18 houses need sewer lines. The rest of us in this "used to be" rural neighborhood are on septic and ... we don't have a say in the matter because... well... that's progress. And in fact, we'll all probably be charged for the new sewer line running down our road.

Speaking of owls, there used to be a little wetland area down, past the $350K new houses in the other direction (we're being hemmed in I'm afraid) and across from the church where I walked my dogs at night and sat on a knoll to watch an owl hunt at dusk. If you've never seen such a thing, it is awesome... a word I don't use for fear my teenage man-child would think I was slipping. That owl no longer hunts there since they bull dozed the land and built a farm "feed" store. But he can no longer feed there.

She steps down now....

I made a very nice necklace yesterday with those lovely lumps of coral I found last week, amid all the shaking of rafters and clanging of dishes, and despite my teeth vibrating right out of my jaw, and the ungodly noise of saws and of mammoth trees falling around me ... yeah, exactly!

Thanks for listening, dear friends. I will make an attempt at more levity in days to come, in my usual manner when I've recovered all my teeth. We'll chat later....

~lora

my unsung hero of the day

today is a magnificent, true-blue, overcast, pacific northwest day. Just why do you think we have these holy rain forests anyway? (One good reason to appreciate the rain!) I say holy in the truest sense, becuause that's how I feel about forests, their canopies are the only cathedrals. I love trees ...silent, monstrous plant beings who luckily stay put or else step on our heads and squish us ... although they sometimes lean over to far to snif a flower, I suspect, and fall flat on their faces. Woe be to anyone or any house in their path on that day! Let us be reminded that trees are the lungs of the earth, lest we forget their importance to our very survival on this planet! I'm waxing poetic, aren't I. Somedays bring it out in me!

I suppose one might call me a tree hugger in that sense. Why the tree thing today? Well, because down the road from my house, they are taking down a magnificent, giant pine tree. Yesterday, they removed her limbs., leaving a stoic, staggering sight on the roadside! Today, they are taking her down all together. I say her, because perhaps she should've been named, like Luna. But I will not name her now, because she won't exist by the end of the day. I think I will go hug one of my own giant cedars in silent reverence and rememberence that in our world, nothing lasts forever. Sigh...

Although I love trees, I can't say that I've ever lived in a tree like the amazing young woman who lived in one for more than two years to protect it from being logged off the face of the earth forever. An unsung hero in my book! How difficult it must've been to use a mere bucket for those "certain bodily functions." And what about water? One thing, she could peek into the nests of birds and see the little peepers! That would be fun. The rest though? It doesn't bare thinking! So ... before I go off to work in the shack and make beautiful things for women who don't currently live in trees, I've decided to add a new element to my blog. Unsung heroes. So, if you can think of any goddess heroes of the earth ... I'm not talking war heroes here, but peace heroes. I'd love to hear about them. Today, mine is ... Julia Hill. Her book is, The Story of Luna. The Legacy of a Tree. The beautiful Luna is a thousand year old redwood in Humboldt County that still stands for the rest of us to admire and be astounded by, all because of Julia. I love you, Julia, wherever you are. Bless you!

miss lilly earn's her keep

I'm so enjoying working with my new model, the ever beautiful and talented, miss Lilly. Here she is modeling one of my new/old "vintage earth goddess" necklaces ... plenty of shiny objects to delight any raven or maven.

This necklace is actually on a 26 inch chain and hangs down to accentuate any cleavage one might have very nicely ... and no cleavage looks quite nice as well. Wait ... that didn't sound right. I meant ... well, nevermind. Anyway ... (I have plenty that I'd like to donate to a worthy cause should you know anyone.) ....

Now then, where were we? Oh ... Here, I wrapped it up snug at the base of her neck so I could get a good look at all the charms. I just love having someone else other than me to look at!

Lilly ... you are worth you're weight in gold, deary!

And of course, irreplaceable! ~ Later...... Lora

the oriental poppy

If you've seen my storefront on Etsy, or heard me go on, you know I adore flowers. Because practically every jewelry photograph I take also includes a flower. I love them. And I have a huge, out of control, cottage garden to prove it, which, as you can imagine, the Irishman just thrives on mowing around... tee hee.... (she giggles with hand covering mouth)

So, Just for you, dear friends, I padded barefooted out onto the lawn this morning and took this picture of my favorite flower on the planet, since I was gushing over it and going on about it last night and you were probably thinking... what in the devil is she babbling about! Well, maybe you didn't say quite that. In fact, I'm sure you didn't. You instead were probably saying...

so what's it look like?

As I learned (or should've learned) in all my writing classes that I failed in miserably: show the reader! Don't tell them! So.... just for you... here's my beloved poppy. Second only to the tulip,of course, in my favorite things on momma earth. Problem is, they don't stay around long enough, do they? Just a week or so every June.

Not nearly long enough I should think.

They have no fragrance to speak of either, but what they lack in scent, they make up for in sheer, unequivocal drama! Though, they are NOT the drama queens of the garden at all! That lofty title, my dear friends, goes to the one and only rose ... who must be fiddled with constantly; fed, weeded around, watered, bug-picked and pruned and prodded like a high class hooker ... I should think, never having known a high class hooker, you know. Okay, let's dis that sentence and say rather ... pruned and prodded like a Hollywood starlet.

Better?

No, the poppy is absolutely gorgeous and comes back gorgeous every year without one single solitary lifting of a pinky by me ever. In fact, she hates to be fiddled with. Hates to have her soil mucked about in, hates to be touched even! Yes, she's a tad persnickety in the absolute opposite way the rose is ... but ... flowers are just like us I suppose, aren't they? All their own unique personalities and styles. Well, girls will be girls.

This photo does not do this queen of flowers justice at all! Because I'm no photographer, for one, that certainly accounts for something. And two, it's been misting all night in true Northwest fashion, and then the sun came out just long enough to burn the whetted petals

off all my little beauties!

You see, in all her beauty and glory, the rain and sun fade miss poppy's edges to a flimsy grey, just another one of her little touchy idiosyncrasies that drives the ordinary gardener to madness. (I, however, am no ordinary gardener. Being mad already!) When I say "mad" here, of course you know I refer to a certain state of insanity ... being married to an Irishman, I've picked up some terminology that is strictly un-American, if you know what I mean.

So, yes, getting back to my point, she turns an ugly shade of putrid, to put it bluntly, eventually. As if she doesn't have enough reasons to hate her! I can just hear her in her Lauren Bacallish voice croon softly ... "don't hate me because I'm beautiful!" Honey, we say, there's plenty of other reasons to hate you, so don't flatter yourself! But now I never actually say that.

You KNOW I don't say that!

I just say, why would I hate you for being beautiful and making my garden look beautiful!

I love beauty! Momma earth loves beauty. It's all good!

So, sorry I got a little side tracked up there, what I mean to say is, enjoy miss poppy the minute she is in bloom, that's my motto (okay, one of many motto's I'll be happy to go into more detail about another time). Which translates to; once they drop their fuzzy green grey little casings (which are too cute for words!), their wrinkly paper mache petals will be the purest orange you've ever seen in your entire life and you'll want to go eat them! But don't eat them, no, not good to do that. Go touch them! And even (shhhhhhhhh!).... cut them ...and bring them inside to enjoy without momma nature butting her nose into your business.

Before miss poppy has a hissy fit and turns some ungodly shade

of gross and looks like hell in a hand basket.

So ... now ... getting back to the purpose of all this flowerography-babble ... being a bead goddess, my question to you my friends is, any ideas about what sort of beads will capture the beauty of my poppies? I'm thinking coral and amethyst, but the coral will have to have an orangey sort of feel to it ... the amethyst the deepest purple ever, since the center of the poppy is nearly black! Hmmmmm.... I feel a bout of shopping coming on!

James! Fire up the caddy...

(there really is no James, nor is there a caddy, there's a Subaru, actually, but if I had a chauffeur I'd like his name to be James)

Later my friends, ~Lora

the trials and tribulations of motherhood and stuff

Sunday night and the heat has finally dissipated to a nice comfy temperature outside. The clouds have rolled in and the winds picked up and this dreary heatwave is on its way out the door ... I only wish for good, but alas Summertime is just around the corner here in the Pacific Northwest.

Despite the heat, the summer has already brightened up my garden with so many blooms and the colors of the Oriental poppies are inspiring me in regard to a necklace that keeps popping in my head. Hmmmm ... I'm wondering where I will find beads as red-orange as a poppy? What about Jasper?

Then of course there were the usual things a mother of a teenager must attend to. Which things are those? ... for one, the young man-child is now one teeny bit closer to "man" period... or so he will tell you! Though I don't promote this line of thinking ... certainly not! Still ... Saturday morning he cajoled me into accompanying him for the second time to take his written driver's test, and me thinking, well, he'll probably fail it again since he refuses to study so no big deal ... then ... I had this idea! I told him if he failed, he had to pay me back the $20. That'd stop him in his tracks. Only fair, right? But... shockingly... he agreed with little more than pursed lips. He went off to the little computer cubical to take his test and I went for coffee and as I was stepping out of the coffee shop, latte in hand, I had a small epiphany ... he's going to ace the test a voice said. You'd think if God was going to talk with you She'd tell you about something that didn't cost money!

When I got back to the DMV or is it DOT now ... whatever they call themselves these days, latte in hand, there he stood all by himself up at the counter chatting to one of the wonderful federal employees and she (the federal employee) was smiling and looking as if she were quite happy to be in that conversation instead of looking at her computer screen and frowning, which seemed very, very STRANGE. I raced up to the desk, "I'm back! I'm the mother! Oh my god! What happened?" I panted. The federal employee frowned and looked back at her computer screen (did I just miss something?) ... guess what, he said, I can take the drive test in 20 minutes! Someone just cancelled! Can you believe my luck? No ... I can't believe MY luck (I only thought this last bit, while I smiled encouragingly, realizing I was out a minimum of twenty bucks! I was also wondering what the maximum might be.)

Waiting for the nice lady (we hoped) who would judge his abilities to join the ranks of the safe and careful American driver, he decided he would practice his parallel park. Like a true champ, he executed every step perfectly except for turning on the windshield wipers instead of the indicator light ... heh, heh... oops! I burst out laughing... feeling as though I'd just stepped inside a Monty Python skit, and he in turn giggled hysterically! Not good. Hysterical laughter is, as I'm sure you are aware, unbearably infectious and I immediately realized I must pick myself up off the floor boards and maintain a serious demeanor, which meant getting as far away from him as possible because my sympathetic nervous energy (its hard being a mother!) was pushing him over the edge of sanity which is not a good condition to be in when taking a driving test. Maybe I should just go wait inside, I said. Good idea.

In the end, the nice lady passed him. First try! And him grinning from ear to ear with a thumbs up as he swaggered in the door. That'll be $25 the lady behind the counter said, and I planted two bills down and smiled. Before I put my pocket book away, will you folks be wanting any more of my money, I asked. This new Federal employee had no sense of humor and merely considered me as if she hadn't noticed me before nor planned to ever again. Her hand smacked down on the $25 as if it had been hers all along.

When can I get insured? He asked on the way home, happy as a clam in muck.

Help?

~Lora

the end of another week and the terrible, awful, dreadful heatwave

this week has been unbearably hot and filled with terrible tasks. The kinds of things I don't really like to do. Like fiddle with bank accounts, filing, website stuff and paperwork. Unfortunately, it must be done but I would much rather dump it all in that $2 wicker basket I found at the thrift store and let the gods worry about it. I've found they don't like worrying about such things and so yours truly must bite the bullet and do the dirty work despite the sheer drudgery of it all.... sigh....

But, good news ...we're all going to the mall this evening, doesn't that sound fun? Buying clothes for the man-child who continues to outgrow everything at a terrible rate. I'm wondering if he has that incurable bone disease that causes people to grow and grow and grow and never stop growing until the day they die. I'm hoping that's not the case, because I'm counting on him leaving home in a year and buying his own clothes from that day forward and, should he have that disease, I don't think he'll like that too much. In fact, he probably wouldn't like that at all considering he doesn't like to spend his own money on necessities ... and will probably end up back in his room upstairs asking what's for dinner. It doesn't bare thinking about, does it?

I hope you noticed, I finally took a picture of myself that apparently does me improved justice, but I won't know until my sister has viewed it and given it her stamp of approval, of course. She didn't like the other one because it was just too serious, she said. I sort of liked the eyes up in the air thing because I thought it looked like I was thinking about what I would say next ... which is often the case. But since I just had my hair chopped off yesterday, I suppose it really was time and the new one is more up to date and the little blue glasses are a nice touch ... or are they? I don't really need the glasses to see, unless I'm working, in which case, I can't find the little wholes in the beads and its cause for endless bouts of foul cursing like a fishwife while the dogs cover their eyes and ears respectfully, and Elcifer the cat just winces.

At the bottom of the page you'll see a vintage photograph I found of a Goddess, Earth Mother ... Strange Person? Not really sure... but she is so lovely, and her jewelry and adornments are wonderful! I had to have her and thought she would be a wonderful addition to the family. She reminds me of Isadora Duncan! And she certainly signifies the first rule for all goddesses ... never ever compromise (or skimp) when it comes to accessorising! She looks as though she might go dancing about under the moonlight in her get-up! And who could resist the hair-do!

Well, I mustn't forget I'm very busy... there are forms to be filed out and multitudes of things I don't like to do, but must be done.

later... lora