and so it begins

yay!

We are having a nice, rainy day here, the wind isn't so bad, at the moment. We will see what it brings this afternoon, as it makes its way towards us.

Last night we lit our first fire of the season, and it was wonderful. Makes everything so cozily warm inside the house. We had good friends over for dinner, with some good comfort food (meatloaf and mashed potatoes). I was in dire need of comfort food yesterday. MM's jeep liberty died kind of a miserable, oil spewing death on me yesterday. We expected it, because it had turned into a major POS. But, I still felt pretty dang bad about the whole thing. Apparently Chrystler went through a period of time where they made cheap, crappy engines for Jeeps. And poor MM got one.

So a warm fire, comfort food, and friends. And a nice glass of wine, did the trick. Having the nice, rainy day today helps, too. (Maybe it wash down the oil trail of shame going up our road....)

When the Wind Blows

We are apparently going to be getting a good storm later today, and then tomorrow, that is going to have very strong gusts of wind and rain, with possible downed trees and power outages and all that fun stuff. So if you don't see me its because we have had a power outage.

So, without further ado I am going to go stock up on a few groceries, bring in some of the out door stuff, take my hammock down for the winter (boo hoo) and that kind of stuff. Winterize the outside a bit.

One of the joys of home ownership.

I am totally not complaining.

I love our house, and the home we've made it into...

Friday Mieography

Maya Lin was born in Athens, Ohio, to Julia and Henry, recent immigrants from China. Her father was a ceramist, and a dean at the Ohio University of Fine Arts, and her mother was a Professor of Literature at Ohio University. Her aunt is the first female architect in China.

She grew up, surrounded by caucasian people, and has said that she didn't even realize she was Chinese until later in life, and she was in her thirties when she got the desire to understand her cultural background.

After high school Maya was accepted to Yale University, where she earned a BA, and a Masters in Architecture. She also, eventually, was awarded an honorary doctorate.

When she was twenty one, and an undergraduate, she won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, beating 1,420 other applicants. It was completed in October, 1982.

The black cut stone wall, with the names of 58,253 fallen soldiers is V shaped. One side pointing towards the Lincoln Memorial, and the other pointing to the Washington Monument.

Her conception was initially controversial, because it was not traditional, for a War memorial. Some people also opposed it, because of her heritage. Maya believes that had the competition not been a 'blind' competition (the designs were submitted by number, not name) she would never have won. She was harassed after her ethnicity was revealed. Ross Perot even referred to her as an 'egg roll'. She ended up having to defend her design in front of the Congress.

Eventually, a compromise was reached, and a bronze statue of a group of soldiers and an American Flag was placed off to one side of the monument.

(Having been to the monument, I can tell you, it is breath taking, and heart breaking, and I think she was brilliant in her design and the people who protested were idiots).

She now owns and operates Maya Lin Studio in NYC, and has designed many other structures, such as the Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama, and Wave Field, at the University of Michigan. An Academy Award winning documentary has been filmed about her ("Maya Lin, a Strong Clear Vision), and she was written a book. (Boundaries). She is also the architect for the Confluence Project, a series of outdoor installations, and historical points along the Columbia and Snake River's in Washington State.

She is married, and has two daughters, and continues to work on many projects.

Times have changed

And I am getting older.

Sometimes, things boggle my mind. This week, it's technology. And not even anything new.

The things we use computers for. Like, this blog, for instance. Who would have thought the internet would provide me with an online journal I would actually maintain? I would have never have guessed it, ten years ago. Hell, probably not even five years ago.

And, the schools. When I was in school, my parents had NO CLUE what my grades were, usually until the first quarter report cards came out. (and sometimes, not even then). I got the mail, so any pesky "cinch" notes would get pinched, and hidden. If, by any chance, there was trouble, one of my parents would have to go to the school, to physically meet and discuss said problem, and teacher.

Now? Grades at the click of a button. And the teachers even UPDATE the site, frequently! And if you have a question, well, another click sends you to their email. And they even ANSWER me most of the time. Its fantastic.

If you ask MG if SHE thinks its fantastic, well, I am hazarding a guess that her answer to that is going to be no....

Poor kid, growing up in the "parents have access to everything" stage.

I wonder what it's going to be like when SHE has kids....

Wordless Wednesday

my favorite.

Halloween has long been a favorite holiday of mine.

Well, scratch that. Not a holiday, but more, a time of year. Fall. We all know I am a big fan of Fall.

But Halloween. I loved it.

My Mom was pretty good with the decorations. We didn't go all out, for the haunted house look, or anything. But we had some good ones.

My absolute favorite, though, was this skeleton. He was tall, had a good grin on is face, and jeweled eyes. There was just something about him. He even had a name. "Mr. Bones".

Every year I would clamber for Mr. Bones. He MADE Halloween for me. It just wasn't right until Mr. Bones was up.

Sadly, Mr. Bones was paper.

He lasted a lot of years. A lot of them. But, not everything is made to last forever. One year, Mr. Bones wasn't salvageable. And we had had him for so long that we couldn't find another.

I still really miss Mr. Bones.

I think of him every time I hang the skeletons that I use to decorate for Halloween, and wish he could have lasted forever.

Who Knew!

I try really hard not to bore you all with stories of my fish tank. (the people that live with me have no choice in the matter, but you do.)

I've come to realize that the aquarium hobby is really selective. Not everyone gets excited when my Betta eat pieces of pea, and swim around happily. No one probably cares that some asshat sold me an aggressive fish, and told me it was something else entirely, and the bastard fish destroyed my betta.

Or that I have a baby platy that was live born in my tank, named Waldo.

Or that I have three catfish that are see through. You can see their spines and their organs and everything. (its cool. MM picked them out).

BUT,

there are people who do care. I went out, and found some of my own kind.

The Fish Keepers.

There are LOTS of internet fishy people out there! Fish forums run amock!

I've met some really nice people at the fish forum sites. People who specialize in certain fish, beginners, like me. Some saltwater tank people, and some Betta people.

What I wasn't prepared for was the hate.

Y'all,

these fish people cannot get along.

I've joined THREE different forums in the last month, because the "friends" I've met have needed or wanted to leave the forum we were in. I've not quit any of the three forums, because I am still going to them with my questions or looking for information.

(snails in your tank? Get a Golden Dojo Loach)

but rare is the day that goes by, at this point, that I am not getting private messages from one or the other saying "we are leaving this forum"

or

"this one did this"

or

"I got banned from the other forum!"

These are GROWN people.

Keeping an aquarium is supposed to be a peaceful hobby, right?

I met one lady, seems very sweet. She has some medical issues, and her heart doctor told her she had to stop getting tense over a FISH FORUM!!!

Holy hell, what kind of looneyverse did I wander in to!

I pink puffy heart all of you, my bloggy friends.

If I can't find a peaceful fish place to land, be prepared for a lot more fish talk on this blog.....