REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Happy Valenswine's Day a la Mark's Musings

Kay Dennison of Kay's Thinking Cap is the queen of the groaners, but thanks to Mark’s Musings: A daily joke, a daily link, a daily thought for you to think, I’m passing on a few valentine's day groaners to you. Mark’s blog is absolutely amazing!

By the way, this is one of my Red Lion amaryllis blossoms up close. They’ve been slowing growing since late November and I am considering them my valentine to myself today as well as to you.

VALENTINE GROANERS

If you give someone a really small Valentine's Day card, that's called a "Valentiny."

I told you about the painter who was in love, didn't I? He loved a girl with all his art.

So what's a good gift for the man who loves his car this time of year? A Valenshine!

Two boat oars went out on a date. They dined and wined and were very row-mantic.

I saw a pig give a box of chocolates to another pig. Apparently it was Valenswine's Day.

What did one pickle say to the other on Valentine's Day? "You mean a great dill to me."

Why do valentine's come in the shape of a heart?
Because a spleen would be pretty gross!

Knock, knock!
Who's there?
Jimmy.
Jimmy who?
Jimmy a kiss?

Anyhow, happy valentine's day to you all! I'm settling in with a schmaltzy movie, my tuna casserole dinner, a bunch of old magazines to chop up for SoulCollage--and Cookie at my feet. Sounds like my kind of day! 

Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Darwin

Happy 200th birthday, Mr. Lincoln. As John Oates, part of the duo of Hall and Oates once said, "If you look over the years, the styles have changed - the clothes, the hair, the production, the approach to the songs. The icing to the cake has changed flavors. But if you really look at the cake itself, it's really the same."

When it comes to politics and presidencies, however, I'm not sure that quote works. What do you think? We all know Lincoln was called "Honest Abe" and my cynical self wonders if the words honest and politician are oxymorons. All I know is all the focus on Lincoln's bicentennial has grabbed my attention, the attention of every teacher in the nation using this event as a teachable moment--and certainly our own president Barack Obama who will speak in Springfield tonight at the Abraham Lincoln Association's annual Lincoln birthday banquet. How I would have loved, as an archivist, to have laid my own hands on the Lincoln swearing-in bible Obama used at his own inauguration.

This cake was served on February 1 when the Palos Verdes Peninsula Library District celebrated the birthday at the Malaga Cove Library. Dr. Larry Burgess, the archivist of the A.K. Smiley Public Library's Lincoln Memorial Shrine came to speak about "Why Lincoln Matters."    

I do know that I was awestruck when I visited Washington, DC long ago and saw the Ford Theater where Lincoln was shot and the nearby William Peterson home where Lincoln was taken and where he died the following morning. The man I was traveling with was 6'5" tall and very lanky and there was a place where you could measure yourself against Lincoln himself. They were similar in height. But it's the Lincoln Memorial itself that brought tears to my eyes. I've been listening to a lot of radio clips about Lincoln's life lately and watching specials about him including the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation. As a kid learning about him, I didn't have the life experience to appreciate his profound contributions to our country. I do understand that now although within the context of those times.

If you would like to follow the year-long Lincoln bicenentennial celebration at the official site, go to Lincoln 200.

When he spoke at the PV Library, Dr. Burgess also invited the entire community to visit the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands, which is a memorial not only to the Lincoln and the Civil War period, but is a research center and a respository museum, library and archives. During the summer I'll make it a point to get there for an outing.

Also, happy 200th birthday to Charles Darwin, the evolutionary biologist. You can check out all his celebrations at Darwin Day. All I know is that I believe in evolution and also in some kind of Higher Power as first cause, but I'll be the first to admit that I am not that familiar with science--or with politics, for that matter.

I do know this. No one will be celebrating my bicentennial and probably not yours either. Just the facts, mam.

Plastic Tape Figure Casting for Your Average Joe or Joanne

Personally, I have never seen clear plastic tape figure casting as an art project, but I’ve seen it now—and I’m utterly fascinated.

 On the wall in the main entrance to the library of my school, are four knock-your-socks off plastic figures on display this month. They were created in the Art I classes as group projects. The teacher explained the process to me but it seemed so easy I wondered why I had never seen this art form before. 

One student becomes the model in whatever posture the team decides upon and one layer of plastic wrap is adhered all around—leaving nostril hole space. The rest of the students quickly wrap the plastic tape several times around so the cast will keep its shape. Finally, the tape is carefully slit down the back so the model is free of the cast and the piece is retaped to cover the slit. 

Several Internet sites explain this art form, a site called Tape Sculpture has a four step tutorial with pictures, as well as a video of how it is done. Another site, the Incredible Art Department, lays out the art form as a lesson plan.

This much I know. My body is considerably larger than it was when I was a girl. Maybe if someone made a plastic figure cast of me and I saw it, I would finally “get it” and do what I have to do get smaller and healthier. Maybe is the operative word.

I currently have two mannequins and one life-size cardboard cutout of James Dean in my home. Maybe I'll make one of each family member. In a Steve Martin-ish move, I won't be a lonely gal anymore. 

 

 

25 Things About Me

Now that I'm using Facebook occasionally, I quickly got tagged for the 25 things meme recently. Here is what I answered. 

Where is your cell phone? -- purse

Your hair? -- short

Your father? -- dead

Your favorite thing? -- reading

Your dream last night? -- can't remember

Your favorite drink? -- lemonade with splashes of TJ's peach juice and 7-up.

Your dream/goal? --staying alive at least 30 more years.

The room you are in? -- studio/office

Your fear? -- Debilitating illness

Where do you want to be in 6 years? -- here

Muffins? -- raisin bran.

One of your wish list items? -- health

Where you grew up? -- Sunland, Tujunga, CA

The last thing you did? -- Combined PDFs of my Mac Users Group newsletters in prep for the printer.

What are you wearing? - Work clothes--skirt, sweater, jacket, boots

Your TV? - Which one? I have five but only two on cable. 

Your pets? -- Cookie, love of my life.

Your computer? -- iMac G5 (work), MacBook, Mac Mini (at home)

Your life? -- contented

Your mood? -- Optimistic, at least today.

Missing someone? -- My mom who has been dead since 1968.

Your car? -- 2001 Honda Civic Ex

Favorite store? -- Coldwater Creek

Your summer? -- I no longer work in the summers, yippee.

Your favorite color? -- blue

When is the last time you laughed? -- A few minutes ago when Cookie gave me her woeful more food look.

Last time you cried? -- During President Obama's inauguration speech.

Three of my favorite foods? -- Mexican, Chinese, tuna casserole

Three places I would rather be right now? -- I'm happy right here.

Three people I think will respond? -- Probably nobody. I know I rarely respond when tagged.

I can't believe that I've become an Internet social networker: blogs, Facebook, Twitter. I'm counting on you to tell me how to waste more time. I was once resistant to having an answering machine in my more "liberal" days and now I have a cell phone and I'm strongly considering an iPhone, an iPod and a blue tooth. I sure won't be walking around the mall with the thing in my ear, however. So tacky! Fortunately, my friend Lorna at Lorna in Wonderland, recently explained a Wii to me. Will that be next? The world is moving so fast! 

 

 

 

 

Every Photo Tells a Story

I'm a photo nut; I admit it. Macs have an application called iPhoto and I'm forever downloading photos I take, often in my daily life, doing the stuff I do. The photos then rotate as a screen saver and I am flooded with memories as they magically appear on the screen. I manipulate my photos in PhotoShop and keep planning to practice more of the artistic techniques I've learned, but I never quite dedicate the time to practice. One of these days-----Educated as a journalist, most of my photos are of people and they are designed to tell a story. I'm not a particularly good photographer, but I absolutely love taking photos and often use them on the blog or in my handwritten journal.  

Leah, who moderates Creative Every Day, recently linked to Nancy at Every Photo Tells a Story. The purpose of Nancy's blog is to provide photography or artwork as a prompt for writing or other creative explorations. Check it out. 

And here's a photo among hundreds I took in Portland last summer that is enigmatic for me. It was taken in the back yard of a garage sale that we went to. 

Just click to enlarge it. For several months I have been personally writing about the meaning of home and the home I live in specifically. It is the main focus of the vision board I am continuing to create. 

This is actually a playhouse and how I longed for a playhouse when I was a kid. Instead, my dad took the frame he built for the back of his truck and put it under a tree for me one summer. We put tarps over it--and voila. I had a play house. 

But, my favorite "house" was actually in an adjoining field that had lots of old trees that went all the way down to the ground--and lots of bearing orange trees. My friend Dannie reads here and I wonder if you remember how you and Claudia and I would tuck away under a tree and pretend we were cow girls? And we built a fort up on a hillside off the fire trail, again with wood my dad gave us. The Polly Pigtail Club met there and one time a bunch of boys pretended they were coyotes and scared us half to death. 

Anyhow, there's something about this photo that brings the child out in me. 

Does it evoke anything in you?

 

 

Somewhere Over the Rainbow in Redondo Beach

I It rained yesterday, most of today, and rain is predicted for tomorrow. We need the rain badly and (knock on wood) so far this year my house has held tight without leaks. It should after all the fixes and upgrades I've done every time a leak would spring up. 

At sunset, the rain stopped for a while and I literally ran outside with the camera because I could see a rainbow out my bedroom window. When I was younger, it seemed like I saw rainbows often, but never as often in the city as I did out in the boonies. When you see all the phone and electric lines (we are not underground yet in my eclectic neighborhood), it takes a little (but only a little) of the rainbow magic away. 

I did manage to duck out to a close estate sale today  which had gotten hit so hard with the rain as they had about half of everything out on the back lawn and couldn't tarp it fast enough. I saw one lady buy a totally soaking wet 12 x 12' berber carpet, which it took two men to carry to her car. Such a deal! I got some arts and crafts odds and ends and felt my usual sadness knowing that his woman's life had ended or narrowed down. 

The rest of the day and evening I have spent researching and creating the February issue of my Macintosh user's group newsletter. 

Cookie, who is still perky, does not like rain and has had two accidents in the house today. And wouldn't you know that I'm hosting my Mac group's core group in the morning. After I hit post, I'm off to prepare the living room for company. It will be a good day to have a fire, however. As for Cookie, she will go out shortly for a walk, like it or not. 

So, above is my version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." And below is Doris Day's version at YouTube. I could have placed Judy Garland's really famous version, but I loved this one because of all the nostalgia photos. How in the heck does time pass so quickly?

os.

Caption This Teddy Bear Photo

This photo, which I took at the Malaga Cove Library a few weeks ago, has continued to intrigue me because it evokes a lot of philosophical questions. 

If there are no children in the children's library, does the teddy bear and her progeny really exist?

And those empty chairs? Do they long for human butts when there are none to sit in them?

And the books themselves. Do they rearrange themselves when the librarians aren't there just so they don't get bored when no one is reading them? 

• It rained a lot today and though I love the rain, it alters my mood to whacky.
• I worked today but I also attended a very long meeting at the library and did some photography afterwards.  
• Tonight I watched Vicki Cristina Barcelona from Netflix. I never met a Woody Allen film I didn't like, but I have to think about them for a while. It always amazes me how natural all the dialogue is.  

  

Now, make the photo larger by double clicking and then put your caption cap on and help me name this photo depending on your own mood.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

My friend Elaine at Five Acres With a View had this up at her blog. These are my results and I'd like to know yours. I have a friend who actually has a separate house for his books, although I'll admit that he also uses that house to sell books from. As for me, I get extremely anxious if I don't have a pile of books ready to read. When I move someday the Friends of the Library will be getting thousands of books, many obscure, but having books and/or bookcases in every room of the house, literally, brings me comfort. 

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader   You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Literate Good Citizen
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

The Advent Before Valentine's Day

There is a magical, untainted-with-cynicism child deep inside who finds Valentine's Day a mystical experience, but the adult in me has long loathed this holiday because it oozes artificiality and commercialism. But, that child me has a valentine's box (written about a few years ago) and now I've dressed my mannequin for the holiday. We are in the advent before valentine's day and I've agreed to table my cynicism and remember that love comes in three flavors--eros, filial and agape. The eros part long ago dropped by the wayside (but don't ever think I've forgotten the peaks and valleys of those experiences) but the filial and agape are alive and well. By the way, when I looked back at my valentines entry at this blog, I ragged on this holiday all five years--which I had totally forgotten.) 

So, here is Sophia dressed for valentine's day. (Both my car and my mannequin are named Sophia.)

She is wearing a really lovely deep red taffeta dress with a hem I adore. Those of you who sew or know fashion can fill me in on the hem. The bottom of the skirt is attached to the lining inside making the skirt hang in a poofy way. The dress was $5.99 at the Salvation Army. Her felt hat trimmed with velvet and netting is vintage, something I've owned since those good old days when we had to go to Mass covering our heads. 

Her top is gossamer, see-through black trimmed with rhinestones (Salvation Army, $3.99). Around her neck she wears a beautiful set of red beads that my aunt brought me from Hong Kong, probably 35 years ago at least. Each bead is etched. The red bracelet I purchased from Bead for Life. 

The heart around Sophia's neck is my creation, made in layers and dotted with emphemera. Have I ever told you that my very favorite clothing color combination is red and black? 

When my friend Kathy came to visit this morning, I made a disparaging remark about older women who feel compelled to dress mannequins, but she said it was a great idea. Though, at our age, we rarely "dress" anymore, we can continue to enjoy dress-up clothing if we display it. My close friends "get me," that me who creates something out of nothing on a daily basis.

Here is a close up scan of the heart I made. 

If you click it, you can see it larger. 

As I've been saying, though, wait until you see Sophia dressed for Mardi Gras in a few weeks. 

So, this was one of my Creative Every Day creations for this month.