Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Where do I belong?




You Belong in 1968



You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Cross Stitch Update

It's still too cold to do much besides shiver, so I keep warm by keeping that needle moving. I hate winter but this is the winter that just doesn't want to end! I've put a few more stitched in the Historic Mystery Sampler. Unfortunately you can't see the sparkly gold fibers in the girl's dress. I really like this sampler and love working with Dinky Dyes. And the Merry Cox piece is coming along nicely. I still have to figure out the personalization, but that shouldn't take long. So much of this piece is over one on 36 ct so it sometimes goes very slow.
This is the Fair and Square package I received from Marie P. Anyone who knows me knows I love me my coffee so I was quite excited to open this package and find a coffee themed square along with fibers (can we ever have too many fibers?), fabric and, COFFEE! This square is so cute and I am going to have to figure out a way to finish it appropriatedly. So many decisions!
And here is the scissor fob I received from Lily in Malaysia. Yes, she too picked up on my coffee addition. Isn't the fob cute? And she too sent a variety of coffee and tea from Malaysia. I've tried them all and loved each of them!
Now, back to adding layers before I head out the door. BRRRRRRRRRRR!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Beautiful Granddaughers




Yesterday I took my granddaughters to Mall of America and had their photos taken at Sadie's. I was blown away by the photographer and how she was able to capture the beauty of Ellie and Sophie. They are the loves of my life. Can it get any better than this?!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Where Have All The Leaders Gone?

The following is from Lee Iacocca's New Book... Maybe he should be running for president.

Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from it's death throes? He has a new book, and here are some excerpts.

Lee Iacocca Says:'Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course' Stay the course?

You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned'Titanic.' I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the bums out!'

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom-poms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the ' America ' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

The Biggest 'C' is Crisis!

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A Hell of a Mess

So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gasprices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle classis being squeezed every which way These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: 'Where have all the leaders gone?' Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.

Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when 'The Big Three' referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: the 'Great Depression', 'World War II', the 'Korean War', the 'Kennedy Assassination', the 'Vietnam War', the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.

If I've learned one thing, it's this: 'You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to 'Action' for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the crap and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had 'enough.

'Excerpted from 'Where Have All the Leaders Gone?'.

Copyright (c) 2007 by Lee Iacocca. All rights reserved.

Things Experienced While Flying...

There was the woman sitting behind me who would not put her purse under the seat in front of her in preparation for landing. She continued to tell the flight attendant she would do it and the flight attendant informed her that she had to see her put it under the seat. The woman wouldn’t do it and the flight attendant kept insisting that she do it while she was watching. The flight attendant said that she didn’t make the rules, but those were the rules and the rules were in place for the safety of everyone. Grudingly the woman put her purse under the seat. When we landed, she was still complaining to her husband about the flight attendant forcing her to put her purse under the seat. She was absolutely livid! She was going to stay on the plane to give the flight attendant a piece of her mind and her husband kept saying, “If it will make you feel better...” Can we say pussy whipped?? Finally she decided that she wouldn’t change the flight attendant’s mind so she might as well get off the plane. Oy......

Then there was the mid-20 something guy who sat across from me in the terminal in Phoenix. He opened his salad, poured the dressing on it, put the dressing container on the seat next to him (getting dressing all over the seat), and literally hunched over his salad. He reminded me of a caveman hunched over his meal with eyes flashing around in case someone was going to steal his food. I almost had to get up and move. This guy shoveled the salad into his mouth and ate with his mouth wide open. My 6-year-old granddaughter has better manners! He’d shovel in a forkfull, lift his head and look around with food literally falling out of his mouth. I so love “see food”!

On my flight from Burbank to Phoenix, Gene Simmons of Kiss sat 3 rows in front of me. When we got off the plane, I kind of walked behind him a ways because it was amusing to see the reactions of people. We met one girl who got on her cell phone and was telling someone, “I’m walking past Gene Simmons now!” Other people would just pause and look. He had his sunglasses on (how uber cool!) and was very SLOWLY sauntering through the terminal. He’s quite tall and very thin. He was wearing black cowboy boots with fancy silver toes and heels. I couldn’t tell if he was walking so slowly and as far to the right as he could because he was trying to be cool and say “look at me, I’m a celebrity” or for some other reason. So now I’ve been on planes with Gene Simmons, Ruth Buzzi and Eddie Izzard. Who’s next?

Sunday, February 10, 2008

What's Your Aura, Man

Today Aimee, her friend Erin, and I went to the Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles. I don't think any of us were quite sure what to expect, but that didn't stop us. Aimee and I first went to a workshop on UFO Retrievals which basically turned out to be about Roswell, NM and how our government isn't telling the public anything because they don't want to cause panic until they have all the answers. (Reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode where everyone was climbing on a spaceship to travel to the home planet of the visiting aliens when the people who were working on translating a book the aliens brought yelled, "Don't go! It's a cookbook! Don't tell the public anything until they are about to become dinner.) Kind of a boring workshop with not a lot of new information but it was interesting to see the age range of people in the workshop and the fact that there were probably more men than women who were very passionate about the subject.

The second workshop was on Reincarnation and, when the guy was speaking in terms I could understand, it was interesting. I did have to chuckle to myself at one point because he was talking about being a Conquistador and killing Incas for their gold in one of his prior lives and all I could think about was Bush killing Iraqis for their oil.....history being reincarnated, but that's a whole other story!

Then it was on to a workshop on Past Life Regression. I believe that we've all lived several lives and the lessons we learn or need to learn carry forward with us. I'm just not sure that this woman could actually determine past lives by merely looking at us. Some readings seemed plausible, some not so much. In my case, she said I'd lived in England (which I've always believed) and that I lived to be a very old woman (I've always said I would live to be 100) and that I had many children and many many grandchildren. I supposedly loved to tell my children stories and she suggested that I write the stories down and they would be published. I have been told in other astrological readings that I would be published so that didn't surprise me. And I do love telling my family the stories I am uncovering doing genealogy work. Now, telling Aimee that she lived in Jersalem at the time of Jesus and was a friend and comfort to Mary after the death of Jesus stretched the imagination.

But the best part of the day for me was when we were walking through the exhibitions and came upon a booth where you could have your aura photographed and interpreted. We each decided we wanted to see our auras. We sat in a chair and put our hands on 2 metal boxes which read the pressure points in our hands and transmitted the readings electronically a computer in the camera which read it. (Don't ask me how it works; I only sat there and smiled!) After each of us had our photos taken, the women have people all around guess what color our auras would be. Most people guessed mine would be pink. Well....here's my aura in all it's glory! Yes...to my surprise my aura is pink/lavender and blue! The reading was amazing! She told me that I "see the total picture". I know how to get what I want and don't have to push to get it. She asked if I'd had a cold recently (I had) and that she saw problems with a shoulder (I have lots of problems with my right shoulder). She said a man who has passed was protecting me. That totally made sense to me because I've always believed that my uncle Duane, who was my godfather and who was killed in the Korean War, has always been there to protect me. What blew me away was when she asked me, "Who is Roger?" I was momentarily totally speechless! Roger was my stepfather who killed himself when I was 17. I didn't want to believe he was the person protecting me and I also didn't want to pursue it. There are too many painful memories surrounding Roger. More positively, she said music makes me feel good which is so spot on. My health is good, there is no cancer, but I am a worry wart. NO DUH!! The funniest parts were (1) that I should check the wires behind the TV in my bedroom because they are frayed and need to be fixed, and (2) there is a smell in the kitchen under the sink, possibly mildew...and that is true.

Aimee's aura was a chaos of colors and Erin's was......well, we're sworn to secrecy! You'll have to check out Aimee's aura on her blog.

We did attend a couple other workshops where, during one, we learned that we are what we love and we love what we are focusing on at the time. So, since I'm focusing on this blog and telling you about my day, all I can say is that I love you all!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

I Need to be Committed!

I read today that Delta Burke checked into a psychiatric ward for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and hoarding. She said in an interview that hoarding (being a pack rat) ruined her life. I do believe I may need to be committed to a psychiatric ward if hoarding is a mental illness! Have you seen my stash lately? Here I thought I was merely a collector. Who knew???