PENSIEVE

Handy Pantry

This is what my kitchen looked like this morning:

This is what it looks like now:

When I visited the cabinet showroom, our plan was to replace the existing cabinetry with a traditional pantry.  But when I accidentally discovered a "chef's pantry", I HAD to have one!  And by "HAD to", I mean HAD.TO.!!!

Poor cabinet designer girl, I kinda felt sorry for her having a customer like me.  When I saw it, it was one of those times I spoke before I thought (NEVER a good thing when I'm transfixed by kitchen wares)...the words were spilling over my lips like a soda that had been shaken, then dropped, then run through the spin cycle of a dryer--

Me, over the top with enthusiasm:  "I LOVE THAT!  I want, no I NEED one of those!  It's as good as SEX...no, BETTER, because it never stops!  It's like a gift that keeps and giving...!"

Cara the cabinet designer:   Hesitates then blinks.  Blinks again.  "Y e a h."

Of course, then and only then did I hear myself, and with no way to retract what was already bloviated, I simply said, "Sorry...I like kitchen stuff...and I forget everybody doesn't know me well enough to know how to take me..."  If I were canine, my head would've been dropped and my tail would've been threaded through my legs.

Look at the inside?  Can you blame me??

The interior shelves are hinged with a whole 'nother set of shelves behind them...

Guess that means I've got a job to do :).

The Pensieve Chat Room is Open for Business

While it doesn't compare to this (could you believe the record number of guesses??), the record has definitely been set for most comments EVAH in a Pensieve post.  Thing is, it's not by a record number of blog visitors, lol, it's a party between two of the nuttiest professors I've ever had the pleasure of not meeting.

I felt a bit selfish keeping it all to myself (my blog email has never giggled more while totally NOT having any idea what they're talking about!), so I thought I'd give you opportunity to join in the conversation.  Speak...Min and Steve will welcome you with open arms (then run and get the heck outta there!).  I'm not linkin' to them here, you can find them by following their comments.

Don't worry if you don't understand what they're talking about, I haven't since comment 38. 

Go ahead, jump in, head first, feet first, it really doesn't matter.

But no lifeguard is on duty...enter at your own risk ;).

Don't believe anything you read or hear and only half of what you see...

The post title is attributed to my grandfather, a man dead before I was conceived but whose advice has lived for generations.  With all the insanity on the internet, these words come to mind often; real life seems to prove them true as well. 

Yesterday afternoon, Tad and I were in our room when we heard Stephen call out, "Mom!  Quick!  Look in the front yard!"  The insistent tone of his voice compelled me to rush to the nearest window as I yelled in his general direction, "What is it?" while in the same movement, scan the yard.  His disconcerting answer?  "I don't know."  He's ten...surely if he didn't know, it had to be dangerous...teenage mutant ninja turtle-ish...something freak show worthy...s u r e l y.

We had heard Aussie barking just prior to Stephen's frantic exclamation which can mean just about anything...a neighbor jogging, another dog on the prowl, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, a UPS delivery (with my bi-monthly Dunkin' Donut stash!), an axe murderer walking up the driveway, you name it.  She's indiscriminate in her bark, and although she's woofed "wolf" often enough for us to barely give her notice, it does serve as a sort of ambient "intruder alert" (we fully understand there is no bite attached to her bark, just don't mention that to the serial killers).  Just what it meant this time was yet to be seen.

As I looked at the yard closest to our house, nothing.  With a gradual outward sweeping glance from left to right, then right to left, I searched for whatever it was that had caused Stephen (and Aussie) concern. 

Maybe 50 yards? 75? from our house, the yard begins a steep decline; from my second-floor window, it looks like it simply drops off (although it's not actually that steep).  Out of the corner of my eye, I finally saw "it"...

...and what did I "see"? 

A cobra...upright, with it's hood flattened and extended. 

Tennessee is home to 32 species of snakes, four of them venomous. Cobras are not one of them (idiot).  I concluded rather quickly it wasn't a snake, but obviously not thinking clearly, my next thought was ostrich.  At this point, all indications are that I need a tune up on my seven-year-old lasik treatment.

I grabbed our digital camera, flew down the stairs, ran outside, eager to catch a glimpse of whatever it was fleeing our yard; Aussie had not stopped barking so I had to move fast (other creatures don't know she's scared of her shadow).

I got to the edge of our driveway, and "it" was gone.  I couldn't have been more disappointed not to have discovered the cobritch?  ostra? that minutes earlier had teased and taunted me, terrified (and confused) my son, spun my dog into a canine frenzy....  Until I noticed our new neighbors standing in their front yard, clearly entertained by the very thing I was seeking. 

I walked over, introduced myself, and in the same breath, asked if they knew what Aussie had been barking at.  They did...they even took pictures.  And God bless their neighborly soul, they remembered my email and sent pictures to us.

 

Thing is, I'm not sure who's the bigger turkey...these guys...or ME!

What can I say? I'm a freak...

DC Talk, Jesus Freak Lyrics here

Explaining, stalling and admitting an addiction

1)  Now that Fun Monday is done for the week, I've got "naked blogging" to catch up on (and NO, scarypeople, that isn't about sitting--undressed--at your computer...or standing, for that matter).  The thing is, I'm also wrist deep into finishing our Western Adventure series.  Why can't I finish it?  Is it because I have a.d.d. when it comes to writing?  Is it because I'm meeting my husband for lunch and having a very-necessary pedicure before my feet start looking like THIS?   (click that link ONLY if you're very, very b.r.a.v.e.)?  Is it because of on-going technical difficulties?  Or because we took so many pictures I slip into a dreamy, ethereal state when I look at them and I'm instanta- neously mentally (where it counts) teleported back to the Grand Tetons or meandering through the 2,000,000+ acres of Yellowstone instead of writing about it ...? 

That would be a reverberating "y e s! thankyewverymuch!"

2)  The addiction spoken of in the title can be explained with this:

What is it you ask?  A spice jar-sized creamer and sugar set, much like the similarly-packaged picnic-ready salt and pepper shakers you might find on aisle 7 at your local grocer's.

What it is, is not relevant.  That I bought it in the first place, is.  A)  I certainly didn't need it; and B) the singular reason I bought it was it cost 10¢...one thin dime.  Originally $1.75, for some inexplicable reason, I HAD to have it!  One of the BEST bargains I've ever found!  I wanted to buy several of them to give away as enviable prizes in some kind of spectacular blog giveaway... hmmm, or maybe Ree will want a few for her photo caption contest, yes? .  WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THAT???  IT MAKES NO SENSE, EVEN TO ME!      

See?  a true addiction...I'm so ashamed...my need to buy something just because it's 95% off.  Sick, I tell ya, sick!

[3]  Here's a sursee I bought myself recently.  Seems like I'm developing "plaque", too...and not just the kind a little dab of Crest will take care of.

This joins the other plaque I featured in a previous Fun Monday.  Gosh, if you super-size the picture and read the baby cercie I bought myself at the same time, you're gonna think I NEVAH clean my house.

Would that be the worst thing in the world?  Tad, you are NOT allowed to comment! ;)

Fun Monday - Why do YOU blog?

Lisa (Lisa's Chaos) is hosting this week's Fun Monday.  Her challenge? 

I’d like to know more about you, what makes you tick. I’d like to know how you started blogging. Did you keep a diary under lock and key safely hidden as a child? Do you still? Do you share the same things on your blog that you would have, or do, in your diary? Why did you start blogging and why do you continue? May as well throw in any roadblocks you have run into while blogging. If you still have your old diaries we’d love to see them.

This is actually something I wrote about a long time ago and had forgotten til I had reason to stumble across it today.  It still holds true, but as I read my previous words--and barely remember writing them!--it was like visiting someone I used to know...a bit surreal.

It seemed like cheating simply to re-post something from the past, so here's a somewhat lame attempt for this week's Fun Monday.  Believe it or not, I'm feeling brevity-ish right now.  So...I'll go with either a short poem or Top Ten list. 

What, me....make a decision?  Why start now??  Just to make it fun, I'll do both!

Why Blog?  A Limerick

"All the world's a stage" Shakespeare said.
(Oft quoted, though the playwright's now dead.)
Well, my blog IS my stage,
Where I rant and I rage,
And pen thoughts that were once in my head.

Top Ten List to Explain Why I Blog

10.  I started blogging because a friend asked me to read hers,
9.  and I thought it was neat, so I began my own (although hers is parked for now).
8.  I blogged completely anonymously for six months before giving ANYONE a link to it
7.  then joined Blogging Chicks in May '06 and was their 100th blog added!
6.  and I remember this blanger (blog + stranger) named Karmyn commenting, and I discovered the crack-like addictive nature of receiving comments.
5.  My blog is my only current journal although I've begun countless other hand-written versions in the past.  Sometimes I write for you, but mostly I write to remember those things I don't want to forget (entirely too many posts to link to...I'm sparing you...and me!).
4.  I appreciate the diversity of my readers and those whom I read; IRL my friends are much more "like me"...it's a breath of fresh air to have a community of sorts of people who in some instances, think like me, and in others, are my polar opposites.
3.  It's been fun to give away sursees, receive sursees, and have milestone posts!
2.  I never fear running out of things to write about watch immediate writer's block enter after a statement like that!; my difficulty is in completing the posts I've started...and remembering those FABULOUS ones that hit me at 2:00 in the morning when I'm too lazy to get up and at least record the thought.
1.  My blog fantasy?  Not to meet all of you IRL, lol (although each and every one of you is invited to a Southern home-cooked dinner if you're ever in the Tennessee Valley), but to write those things that I'm not willing to publish...but have probably shaped who I am more than anything else.  Now THAT would make some good bloggin'!

Be sure to visit Lisa for the rest of Fun Monday bloggers!  And if you have time, scroll down and take the Personality Test, then let me know you posted it, and I'll link back to you in the post.  I'm reeaal curious what makes some of y'all tick! :)

Last but not least, the Blogging Chicks are having a Carnival...I linked the above Personality Do-Dah...first time I've remembered to post a submission in forevah (because I never remember!).  (Maybe I should blog about forgetting to do that, huh?)

Personality...plus!

Although I've seen this floating around the blogosphere, I've been curious to take it myself since seeing it first at Grace's site.

 

For personality type, I'm an ENPF, an Advocate.  According to this test, "ENFPs are introspective, values-oriented, inspiring, social and extremely expressive. They actively send their thoughts and ideas out into the world as a way to bring attention to what they feel to be important, which often has to do with ethics and current events. ENFPs are natural advocates, attracting people to themselves and their cause with excellent people skills, warmth, energy and positivity. ENFPs are described as creative, resourceful, assertive, spontaneous, life-loving, charismatic, passionate and experimental." 

Without taking time to read through all the other types, this seems about right for me; obviously, with exception, but not too far off, either.

Probably the funniest thing to me, though, is the apparent company I "keep"--other famous ENFPs include (among others) Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, Sandra Bullock, Lewis Grizzard, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Bob Dylan and.........James Dobson.  Interesting and somewhat amusing list, yes?

For the Multiple Intelligences side, it's not a surprise (to me) to score high in Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal; it is a bit odd that the next highest category is InTRApersonal.  Extroverted AND introverted?  Comparing the characteristics of those two lists, no wonder my husband calls me "complex" (please note: complex is NOT the same thing as high maintenance...).

Verbal/Linguistic Common Characteristics

• Notices grammatical mistakes (yep)
  
• Often speaks of what they have read (yep)
  
• Likes to use "fancy" words (weeelll...if the shoe fits...)
  
• Loves word games (Scrabble, anyone?)
  
• Cherishes their book collection (they are "little trophies", aren't they?)
  
• Easily remembers quotes and famous sayings (maybe not easily, but I like 'em)
• Likes puns and rhymes (Reigning Limerick Queen, aren't I?)
  
• Enjoys writing (check)
  
• Enjoys foreign language (can't speak 'em, love to listen even though I no not what they say)
• Always enjoyed English class (A's in every one.  Maybe.)

Interpersonal Common Characteristics:  Empathetic, Extraverted, Enjoy social events, Love groups and crowds, Enjoying teaching others, Have many friends, Enjoy team sports, Like to counsel others, Love meeting new people, Cooperative in groups, Sensitive to others' moods

Interpersonal Common Characteristics:  Introverted, Prefers working alone, Philosophical, Self-aware, Perfectionistic, Often thinks of self-employment, Enjoys journaling, Intuitive, Independent, Spends time thinking and reflecting, Likes learning about self

If you decide to take these, let me know...I'd love to know entirely too much more about you. :)  Make sure to include your blog URL and I'll link back to you here.

Karen (Praise the Lord and Pass the Prozac)
Debbie  (at her Melon Patch)
Michelle (Just a Minute)
Karmyn (Dreaming What Ifs)
Kris (On Foreign Soil)
Tiger Lamb Girl

Shhh....secret contest...

You win a prize if you can guess what the contest is for...and the only clue I'll give is you have to have been reading this week to "know" what it is...

...and if you scroll down and read one of my more "active" posts, you can figure it out...

...because I am NOT about to let Min and Steve "win"...but I can't either.

Geezaree, that's THREE clues!

Is this cryptic enough for ya or totally obvious?

Hey...TypePad aficionados out there...TWO things...

1)  Because Willowtree is a snarky son of a gun celebrating his birthday even the day after it's over, he doesn't have time to explain to me how you do a strike-through in typepad comments...Can anyone tell me how? (shhhh, it's still his birthday in the States, so pop over and tell him happyhappy....just don't tell him where you came from.)

a)  Actually, I meant LINK...how do you LINK to another page in comments?  But while I'm at it, I don't know how to strike through either.  So, an answer to both would be ever-so-nice.

2)  In keeping with #1, can anyone tell me how to strike through in the post title?  I searched Typepad Help, gave up really fast couldn't find it, and figured this was the easiest, fastest way to find out.  Because y'all are reeeallly smart.

Thank you for your help.

p.s.  I couldn't enumerate this with three numbers because then it wouldn't match the post title, and we can't have that, can we?

The (not so) Wild West

Last summer, in honor of Rachel’s transition into her teenage years and squeezing it in before she turned 14, Tad took her on a father-daughter trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. From the time they stepped foot off the plane, Tad longed for the rest of us to see…experience…live...all the things they were seeing and experiencing and living. Yes, they took a million  934 pictures; yes, they called us frequently to paint verbally the masterpiece their daily steps were brushing…but it’s just not the same as being there.

 

I was perfectly happy to stay home with the boys (we made a few memories of our own); to say I.DO.NOT.LIKE.TO.FLY is an understatement of monumental proportion, hehe, Tetonic proportion. When Tad began talking out loud about taking the WHOLE family back this summer, I listened politely and nodded my head. I gotta tell ya, the “carpe diem” girl in me has a hard time with the “terrified-of-flying-and-all-things-height-related” girl. They go together about as well as oil and vinegar—sure you can mix them and the end result is delicious, but left to their own devices, they just don’t have anything to do with each other.

 

Well, Tad persisted, and I relented, and before I had time to think about it, plane tickets were purchased, reservations were made and our fate was sealed. The good thing is I’ve lived to tell about it, I didn’t have cardiac arrest 32,000 feet in the air…and I’m pretty sure no one has ever died by hyperventilation (turns out the requisite airline-supplied barf bags are good for more than vomit)...and, even though I got a prescription for some happy pills just for the flight, I didn't even take one (unless you consider that pounder of M&Ms...).

(Doesn't Rachel look "happy" to you?  It's 7:00 a.m. for goodness sakes!)

 

Since it helps me re-live the fun, I thought I’d summarize our trip with a Western Top Ten list.  Kiawah is coming when I need a shot of "beach", I temporarily lost the pictures while my laptop was getting a tune up and I've just been otherwise sidetracked.

These are in no particular order, other than what first comes to mind.

10. The plane, the plane!

This is Captain Thomas with our kids--he looked like Hollywood's version of a pilot (thank GOD he was no Frank Abagnale!)  You've just GOT to love a pilot, though, who sniffs out first-time flyers and accepted my bribe offers to have his picture taken with them.  My boys’ first flight couldn’t have been smoother, literally and figuratively. Little turbulence, on time, no lost luggage, totally uneventful, the way all flights should be. And it was the first time I’ve ever used a plane bathroom…not once, but twice. Note to self—watch those liquids prior to take off, there’s only one place for them to go.

 

9.  Wide open spaces

Once we landed in Salt Lake City, we clocked over 1,000 rental car miles before returning our van. Our route took us first to Jackson Hole, WY, through the Grand Tetons, meandering the trails of Yellowstone, which in and of itself covers three states. We headed back to Salt Lake City by way of first Montana, then Idaho. The never-ending breath-taking scenery held me captive—it is SO different from the Carolina/Georgia mountains to which I’m accustomed. Closer to home, trees line the roadways and interstates, hemming you into a kind of forested claustrophobia. Out West, I learned the definition of Big Valley. Most interstates seemed perfectly centered between vast mountain ranges, miles away on either side, but near enough to offer spectacular views. My delight in the topography took me by surprise. I like surprises, especially when they’re thrown in for free.

 

 

8.  Chipmunks and Bison and Elk, Oh, My!

If the planets had been in perfect alignment, this section would’ve been titled “Mooses and Eagles and Bears, Oh, My”. To my chagrin, however, we didn’t see any of those (not alive, anyway). The cool thing is, it didn’t matter. If you visit Teton or
Yellowstone National Parks, it’s not IF you’re going to see wildlife, it’s WHEN.  Regrettably, we didn't seem to have battery-charged cameras handy when we DID see all manner of beasts...or for the most part, pictures were too far away to include here.

Although I was on a relentless bear hunt (Rachel said, “Mom, you’re going to die by a wild animal attack, between chasing alligators and baiting bears…”), we were treated to a few spectacular sights. A herd of buffalo crossed the road directly in front of us (I guess to get to the other side), swimming across a stream in the process.  A bit later, we got up close and personal with one.  This video is a bit blurry because of the deluge that had begun, and you can hear my husband "protecting his woman" towards the end of the video (lol)...I think that was me at the beginning saying "hey"...trying to get him to mug for the camera.

Two velvet-antlered bull elks grazed right in front of us, indifferent to our presence. And for some reason, although we have them back home, the chipmunks were in rare form—Stephen counted at least 10, almost close enough to catch (but then what would he do with them?). We saw osprey nesting with their young in The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, geese and other water fowl, wolves, deer and pronghorns...although I don't really know the difference between those last two.

And this guy?  Tad was outside of earshot, but the kids and I were marveling at him being the largest crow we had ever seen (I'm cracking up in advance of admitting this to you, but...)...a school age boy overheard us and politely said, "Ma'am...I think it's a raven."  Bratty know-it-all, game-show-winning fifth grader, I bet ;) he really was a nice kid.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I think I'll stop this post for now...it's getting long and let's just say I've had some technical difficulties today...little derails me like techie problems that are BEYOND MY CONTROL!!!  >:(  At least I'm moving beyond my most-commented-to posts EVAH (here and here) and I will be forever grateful to Min and Steve for keeping things going in my stead.  I'm sure they're just gunning for more prizes...they must've liked the homemade buttermints ;).