I found this on postsecret today and it made me think about the time my ex-husband (boyfriend at the time) told me my Christmas present was out in the car. I thought it was going to be a ring and instead it was a giant stuffed animal. Of course I told him thank you, but then I put it in the corner of my bedroom and kicked it occasionally. It might have been an omen.

How long is your political memory?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

A coworker and I were talking this morning and he brought up an interesting point. After three months our capacity to remember current events, names, and faces begins to fade, and politicians count on that. I thank Rachel Maddow for reminding us just what sort of person republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana is. In my personal opinion, it can be summed up in just one word, HYPOCRITE!

Bill Maher: New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit

Bill Maher: New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit

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Two new wildflowers

I'm still learning to identify the wildflowers and here's two that I found at Bicentennial Woods and have just learned their names. The yellow is Fringed Loosestrife and the lavender is Heal-All. To read about the medicinal properties of these two wildflowers, check out these sites.

http://www.altnature.com/gallery/healall.htm

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/l/looyel41.html

Lazy weekend

I took a long solo hike at Bicentennial Woods and at the Robert C and Rosella C Johnson Nature Preserve. I wish I'd had my Acres Preserve Guide with me. It would have allowed me to see that when the trail dumped out on the road at the Johnson Preserve it picked up again further down at the Whitehurst which doubles the trail length. Now that I've examined the map I see I'll need to go back and explore further. I've always enjoyed the Cedar Canyons area, so much so that back in 1985 Mark and I had our wedding reception at the Izaak Walton Chapter house on Hollopeter. Here's some of the photos of wildflowers I found on the hike. It's rather melancholy to see the Tall Bellflower, Creeping Trumpet Vine, and Bladder Campion in bloom since it means that summer is at its zenith.

I thought all the green foliage in the last photo made for a lovely photo, but don't let it fool you. Those are stinging nettles. In fact some of the healthiest looking plants in the woods right now are the nettles and the poison ivy.

First Kelly and Sean, and then Daryl tried to roust us out to see the finish of Three Rivers Festival and the fireworks, but we were enjoying our own little world; and then when it started to rain and we were tucked in all cosy watching a movie, we even felt a trifle smug. I love Sunday afternoons, hanging out with J at Hydes; reading and watching him hunt and peck on the computer (amazing that such a talented, intelligent, and dexterous man would use the 2 finger method on the keyboard- he's quite fast at it too!) and interact with his customers. A lot of people don't understand the constant state of flux that is a used bookstore. They're so used to having a clerk check a computer database to determine stock that they can't even comprehend that Hyde Brothers is like a huge undiscovered hoard of treasure just waiting to be explored and discovered. No one knows exactly what is there, you just have to be willing to spend the time browsing.

Invisible chocolate fingerprints

Sometimes I have trouble remembering,
but here are a few things that I'll never forget;

invisible chocolate fingerprints
pirate look
watery embraces

Plum line

palms trace sylvan planes

that dip into sweet concavity
breathing in sighs of warm summer rain
lover's eyes melt like chocolate above quicksilver elfin grin
sighting along plum tips to dusky root
as words polished to the cool smoothness of river rocks
drip like honey on expectant lips .

One of my favorite features

One of my favorite features from Blogger was the ability to follow the links for interests from my profile to find other bloggers with the same interests. That feature hasn't been working for about a week or so. At first I thought it was because of some changes made to the server at work, then I discovered that it no longer works from my home computer either. When I went to the help section, I found other people have discovered the problem, but no one has posted a solution yet. I hope Google gets their act together and gets one of my favorite features back in operation.

And the answer from blogger (click the title for link)


It's broke!

Only three more weeks, then five more years...

After this week, they're only be three more weeks of summer reading program. Some of it is very enjoyable, and some, well, not so much...

I've adopted a new strategy. Now, when some dissatisfied parent starts complaining about the selection in prize books for the children's reading program, I just walk away and stop listening to them. In the past, I've really allowed them to get under my skin, but not anymore. I recognize them as someone who is dissatisfied with their life and is incapable of spontaneously enjoying goodness. They don't understand that the gifts are just an incentive to entice the children and that their child has already received the reward of a summer of reading practice and enjoyment.

I know from personal experience how much easier it makes your child's school career if you instill a love of books and reading from an early age.

I took a facebook quiz

I took a facebook quiz and found that I'm 15% bitchy and I guess it's coming out now. You can hardly have missed the news of South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford's recent debacle, and I don't usually make too much fun of other's misery, but when you're a possible Republican Presidential candidate for 2012 and your main political platform is preservation and protection of the American family.... Well, who could resist a few good yucks when you find out that urbandictionary lists hiking the Appalachian trail as being synonymous with extra-marital affairs?! He chose to make himself fodder for the late night comics for a very long time!

Great Googley Moogley!

Great Googley Moogley! J has two days off in a row! This is the first time that's happened since we've been together! Wheee! We are going to have pure unadulterated fun!