A Helping Hand

I took this photo a few days ago. Does anyone know what it is? It's some kind of large pink lily and I put it in a larger bowl of water. Wanna know the story behind it?

I was down in my back during flower planting time and didn't get to tend to Robin's (my dear sister who's passed on) flower garden the way I wanted to. And after an early frost, the tulips AND the daffodils died and nothing else came up in that bed. I also had those huge orange flowers and those humongous blue alliums that never showed their face at all this year. So the flower bed was looking gloomy and I took some hand clippers and clipped the stray stuff leaving one healthy unrecognizable stalk just for the hell of it.

Lo and behold, that one healthy unrecognizable stalk bloomed into a sassy, pink lily-looking display. And the fragrance... oh my.

Out of the blue this lone flower decided to put on a show in that dreary patch of grass. It was as if Robin had seen no flowers in her flower patch and lovingly lent me a hand. And I kid you not, right at this very moment I can smell that lily. Magic!

**UPDATE: I believe I've found the flower online. It looks very much like an Oriental Lily called "Muscadet". You can see this link for comparison.

Very Strict Schedule

If my dear sweet Mother couldn't follow a schedule, I hate to think of what might happen. While her dog was at the groomer's today, Mother automatically opened a can of dog food at 2:00 and put it down for Sugar to eat.

Sugar is AT the groomer's but she normally eats at 2:00pm PROMPTLY every day. Evidentially whether she's here or not. Would you say that is following the schedule to a T? (Does this help you understand my rebellious nature growing up a little better?)

Mother's still sharp and bright and maintains her sarcastic wit so she's not losing her mind or anything. She just always sticks to her self-imposed schedule that's even more strict as she gets older. Maybe it helps her try to keep control of her life a little easier this way.

Bless her heart. Thanks for listening.

Field Of Nightmares

I am shucking some corn like a good appalachian gal for dinner and I'm always reminded of feed corn when I see ears of corn. Feed corn is tough and is what you feed your livestock.

When I lived at PeaceTree, a commune, we picked corn by the moonlight one evening. Our homegrown potatos were in abundance and we had them and tomatos for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every single day. One night we saw a nice large corn field beside the road and thought that surely no one would mind if we snagged a few ears.

Back home and hungry, mouths watering, we cooked our corn over a fire and soon realized that indeed we had gotten feed corn. Damn. Hard, dark corn kernels welded into a corncob that a pig would refuse. Pass me another baked potato.

5 Posts in 24 Hours?

Which random phallic object are you?
Quiz by Andrea.

pinched from Julie who is also a Banana!

Slumber Party

Skye and I spent the past four days together and we just had a blast. On the 3rd day I began calling it a slumber party. We cut and styled each others hair. We gave ourselves beautiful hot pink (me) and deep rose (Skyler) pedicures and fire-engine red (me) and black (Skyler) manicures.

We talked about boys-- "baby daddy" included-- and we went out to eat, went shopping and ran errands. I wanted to take her to the lake but she's sleeping weird hours and was tiring easily.

Yesterday she had her 7 month checkup which is primarily a diabetes check. You drink something and wait for them to draw blood an hour later. Her belly is really out there now but oddly enough she hasn't gained any weight!! She gained a lb and lost a lb, she gained 3 lbs and this month she lost 3 lbs, so there's a net weight gain of ZERO. But she's just 28 weeks... JUST? She's 28 weeks.

Together we thought of a name that came to us driving down the road... we were dumb struck with it's perfection. But it's a little different so we're still mentally trying it on for size.

Ok, I'm done, (as Father Luke says at the end of his blog posts.)

Nessun Dorma Opera

AMAZING!! Take a moment out of your busy day to listen to this man sing. Magically glorious.

Honku - The Zen Anecdote To Road Rage

Honku - The Zen Anecdote To Road Rage
or Honk if you like Haiku

Alaska's melting -
hope your Yukon Denali
doubles as a boat.

Atlanta traffic
easy to see why Sherman
burned this city down.

I read in the news
it's another "bad air" day
so try not to breathe.

LAX pick up
Danté never mentioned this
tenth circle of hell.

link

Just For Laughs

Two friends, a blonde and a redhead, are walking down the street and pass a flower shop where the redhead sees her boyfriend buying her flowers.

The Redhead sighs and says: "Oh crap, my boyfriend is buying me flowers again."

The blonde looks quizzically at her and says: "You don't like getting flowers from your boyfriend?"

The redhead replies: "I love getting flowers, but he always has expectations after giving me flowers, and I just don't feel like spending the next three days on my back with my legs in the air."

The blonde says: ......."Don't you have a vase?"

VisualDNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

TRUE CONFESSIONS

"My name is Susan and I am a post-a-holic."

The chorus of post-it addicts rings out, "Hi, Susan!"

So you find yourself using lots of post-it notes. That's normal, right? You can have several around your work space or at the home message center or even in your car.

Many people enjoy the helpful post-it notes and use them quite frequently, but, dare I say, no one has every slapped one across their breast before. Until today.

I just slapped a post-it note onto my shirt with a written reminder on it. I can't deny it any longer. I am a bonefide post-it addict.

The Art of Zen Habits

Zen Habits is a good lifehack or web 2.0 weblog about achieving goals and simple productivity through daily habits. They recently addressed the benefits of being an early riser, how to cultivate compassion in your life,

"Now, let me first say that if you are a night owl, and that works for you, I think that’s great. There’s no reason to change, especially if you’re happy with it. But for me, switching from being a night owl to an early riser (and yes, it is possible) has been a godsend. It has helped me in so many ways that I’d never go back. Here are just a few":

1. Greet the day. I love being able to get up, and greet a wonderful new day. I suggest creating a morning ritual that includes saying thanks for your blessings. I’m inspired by the Dalai Lama, who said, "Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can. "

Read More...

I still want it both ways! I want to stay up late and get up early, too.

I'm Going With Virgin

You've probably heard me rave about Virgin Mobile cellphone company or Virgin anything before. Let me suggest to you that if you are considering switching your cellphone company, consider Virgin Mobile. The best reason? NO CONTRACT! And they donate lots of money to charity. What about those 2 year contracts? And if you want to change your plan-- they'll start that 2 year plan all over again.

I came to Virgin after trying out two previous companies that are all pretty much the same but Virgin is the only one that doesn't have contracts. You just set up a monthly plan or pay by the minute. If you decide another plan is better suited to your needs, that's just fine. Skyler first used them and then I switched over after a contract ran out with Cingular and then yesterday I took the first step in porting Mother's landline over to Virgin Mobile.

To "port" a phone from one company to another takes 30 to 45 days. It's all FCC regulated and has to go through all that, I suppose. Mother wanted to keep the same phone number that she's had all these years and switching over her home line to a cellphone will also save her at least $50 a month. It's not that easy to introduce electronic gizmos to the elderly but I'm hoping she'll soon be comfortable with using her new cellphone.

Think Pink

Think Pink
Originally uploaded by laylamajnoon.

Bee-yoo-ti-ful!