Manic Monday with new computer(sort of)

Hard to believe I am even posting a new blog entry here today, considering that Saturday morning(when I went to turn on the computer to write about my evening with Jonathan Richman)I discovered our ailing home PC had finally bitten the dust. It wouldn't even turn on. Figured I would have to cease writing for some time until later in the summer...and was kind of okay with that. But, late Sunday afternoon, I discovered my action-oriented husband had found a used Dell for sale right up the road and had it installed and up and running. Somewhat. It has a few glitches and I don't feel quite comfortable with it yet. But I think if I get into a habit of not blogging on a regular basis, I'll most likely stop. So...must...keep...writing...blog.

A Manic Monday, therefore.
I haven't done one of these in a while. Usually my Monday is truly manic enough to not have any time to blog. But today was dull and easy-going. This spooky limbo of gloom and low pressure weather is part of the reason I feel so blah. Lack of sun and below 70*F temps for weeks on end has sucked some of the joy of living out of me, I'll tell ya.

Anyway, I am babbling (if fingers on a keypad can babble, that is..)
Here's my Manic Monday:

Do you usually wear perfume/cologne? If so, what's your current favorite?
I usually do try to spritz or splash on something nice smelling in the morning(or after a shower or before bed...)and my current favorite scent is L 'Eau de Monteil--a beautiful, soft floral that smells like carnation mixed with jasmine. Very nice for summer(not that it is remotely like summer here, with it being a third straight week of low pressure grey skies and rain and wind) and surprising to me as I don't usually think I am the type to like floral perfume--it always makes me think it is something that would give me a headache. And this one certainly does not do that. It makes me feel pretty and girlish and want to keep sniffing my wrist.

What's the last book you've read that you thought was really good? If you don't have one, what looks promising on your to-be-read list?
Northern Borders by Harold Frank Mosher. I felt I "knew" the characters in the book as I read it and would even dream about them. So real. So true. Just a great book from start to finish.

Fill in the blank: I wouldn't be caught dead _________wearing tie-dyed anything.

That's it for now. The computer froze up now a second time. I feel agitated by that and the second time, Blogger didn't save the photo and further text I had typed. Maybe tomorrow I'll have more patience and the right thought processes to write about Friday night at the Richman show.
For now, all I want to say is that I was shocked earlier this evening--SHOCKED--that Alex Trebek shaved off his moustache. When did that happen? Obviously, I haven't watched Jeopardy in some time. He seemed older and wearier and just-not-right, without the 'stache.

Fill-In Time again....

This was one hellava l-o-n-g week for me (the dreary weather hasn't helped), so I am relieved it is Friday at last. And time for a "fill-in", once again. If you want to play along, just sign in here.

1. All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting_____them to remain innocent.
2. Show me a good loser and I will show you a _____ someone with good character.
3. Watching three "What Not To Wear's" in a row_____ is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one time.
4. Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy _____ trying to deal with the ones who insist on resisting their ideas and _____trying to clean up the mess made by the previous administration.
5. I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine _____leather and _____lace.
6. It is impossible to think of any good meal, no matter how plain or elegant, without _____onions or _____garlic in it.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _____ Jonathan Richman (!)

and tomorrow my plans include _____the dreaded grocery store, I suppose... and Sunday, I want to _____see some sun(please...? It's been nothing but gloom for close to three weeks around here and I feel like I am going to start sprouting mushrooms)!

Another Wordless Wednesday

Geranium 'Rozanne" with mini-bee, in my garden.....

Foxy Mama

This story caught my fancy when I read it today on Yahoo news--about a shoe stealin' fox in Germany who made off with over 100 shoes, apparently for her fox cubs to play with. Clever as ... a fox!

Fox steals more than 100 shoes
Fri Jun 12, 10:39 am ET

BERLIN (Reuters) – A fox has been unmasked as the mystery thief of more than 100 shoes in the small western German town of Foehren, authorities said Friday.
A forest worker stumbled upon shoes strewn near the fox's den and found a trove of footwear down the hole which had recently been stolen overnight from outside locals' front doors.
"There was everything from ladies' shoes to trainers," said a local police spokesman. "We've found between 110 and 120 so far. It seems a vixen stole them for her cubs to play with."
Although many were missing laces, the shoes were in good condition and their owners were delighted to reclaim them, he said, adding that no reprisals were planned against the culprit.
(Reporting by Dave Graham; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Bumpah Stickahs

** Even though I don't have much of a commute to work--ten minutes either way if I don't get stuck behind any school buses-- and in less than two weeks I won't have to worry about those for a few months, and try to combine errands so I don't keep driving back and forth to town,
I still feel like I spend a good portion of my waking life behind the steering wheel of my car.
I usually enjoy the ride, with the tunes playing loud(most of the time) like my current fave Cage The Elephant and now that it's summer, I have Bob Marley's "Lively Up Yourself" downloaded onto my MP3 player(have one of those devices that plug into the car's lighter so it plays out of the stereo).
**I also love gazing at the changing scenery as I drive by--maybe spotting a turkey trotting across the road,
an osprey in it's nest(there are a couple of osprey nests up on poles along the route in to town),
the wildflowers alongside the road(June is the month of wildflowers, I think!),
the man I see sometimes with the purple(!) walking stick,
the joggers,
the dog walkers,
that one particular El Camino that is parked in the beach lot most mornings
and the beach goers (can almost smell the coconut oil when I see them).

**One thing I notice , too, is bumper stickers on cars.

Actually, not too many people seem to put them on their cars as much as I remember(aside from the magnetic "ribbon" ones and the Obama/Biden '08 ones)--I get the feeling that most people like to keep their cars looking as new as possible and maybe a bumper sticker is too much of a commitment (I kind of think those magnetic ones are a cop out). So whenever I see a bumper sticker --a REAL one--on a car, I take notice(kind of hard not to when you are directly behind, so I guess they do the intended job). The other day, when I was in the car with R, she told me to hurry up and catch up with a car that had at least 15 to twenty stickers all over the back, so she could read them all.
For for someone like me with an older, no longer new and shiny , beige Ford Escort, bumper stickers are one way to give my set of wheels a little more personality. (And lately, my car never looks bright and clean for long because where I park at home, it sits directly under a certain tree that covers it with pollen and these little seedling thingies,
and the birds who sit in the tree also like to poop on my car. I can wash my car, and the next day it'll be covered all over again. I just can't win).

** I have my Guster sticker, my Boston Red Sox "B"(both of these have faded, so I need to replace those), my "Local" sticker ( to let the other locals know that I am not an outsider during the summer tourist season) and also my Salvador Dali bumper sticker(purchased a few years ago at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida and still as vibrantly yellow as the day I slapped it on).

Today was a great bumper sticker-spotting day, for some reason. I had the pleasure of noticing three good bumper stickers in my travels:


* My boss is a Jewish Carpenter
Best Jesus sticker I have seen in a while, especially since all I usually see are those W.W.J.D.? and Fish symbol stickers.


* Hurricane Ellie in big letters.
This one looked homemade. Was the driver of the big SUV named Ellie and why was she a Hurricane? I'm still thinking about it.....

* I Miss Jerry
At first I thought this was about missing Seinfeld , and only later when I got home and wrote it down did I realise it was probably a Deadhead driving that truck. Duh...

Here are some other favorite bumper stickers I have spotted in the past:

*Your Hummer Is A Bummer

* Dyslexics of the World, Untie!*


*Visualise Whirled Peas*

*Dog is my co-pilot* ( I really need to get one of these someday)


*What if the Hokey-Pokey IS what it's all about?*

Seen any good bumper stickers, lately????