Rain

Today was the first day of real rain that we have had in months. I wish I could have stayed inside all day to enjoy it.

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Egypt Museum

The 6th graders at B's school put together an Egypt Museum in their gym today. I couldn't believe all the hard work that went into it. All of the projects were very impressive.

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity.
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Worth the Wait

This is where I am most days at 2:10pm - waiting for B after school. You can see the line of cars in the rear view mirror.

How much of human life is lost in waiting.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Alone

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
~ Henry David Thoreau

The Joy of the Season

Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall.
We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space.
~ Dave Barry

Mystery

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
~ Oscar Wilde

Order

The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.
~ Willem de Kooning

The Fog

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.
~ Henri Matisse

Thanksgiving

I went to my mom's for Thanksgiving today and saw this roadrunner outside their house.

This is the kids' table... and, yes, that's my daughter with the bottle of cider.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
~ Thornton Wilder

Jewelry

Let us not be too particular. It is better to have old second-hand diamonds than none at all.
~ Mark Twain

The Hidden Heart

The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.
~ Charlotte Bronte

Mandarins

I got addicted to these in Morocco so whenever they go on sale I have to buy them. They were called Mandarins there but here they are Clementines. Seedless, juicy, and delicious...

Orange is the happiest color.
~ Frank Sinatra

Kitsch

Kitsch ... is one of the major categories of the modern object. Knick-knacks, rustic odds-and-ends, souvenirs, lampshades, and African masks: the kitsch-object is collectively this whole plethora of “trashy,” sham or faked objects, this whole museum of junk which proliferates everywhere.... Kitsch is the equivalent to the “cliché” in discourse.
~ Jean Baudrillard

Running with a Phone

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must out run the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It does not matter whether you are a lion or gazelle. When the sun comes up you had better be running.
~ Herb Caen

Love of Reading

As I subbed today for a class of middle schoolers who have some learning problems I had to listen to them read parts in a play. Each one struggled not only with simple words but with correct phrasing as well. I saw in every one of them how much they seemed to despise reading and knew why. How can you love something that is so difficult. How can you enjoy something when you can't understand it. I walked away hurting for each of them. How much I know they will miss out on because of their struggle and wishing I could do more. Wishing they would someday have the joy in reading that I do, but realizing that it will forever be a struggle for them and after high school I doubt they will pick up a single book. What a loss.

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.
~ Frederick Douglass

Workspace

I need some motivation to start working again. Here is the space I have carved out.

You're sitting there with your muse and your muse is telling you something and you’re following it, and you end up the next day looking at it and thinking "what the hell was the muse saying to me?"
~ Nathan Oliveira

The Wall

We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control.
~ Pink Floyd

Sitting in the Pool

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
~ Oscar Wilde

The Blanket

This was what greeted my on my run this morning. It was much prettier at dawn but I didn't have my camera with me.

Down comforters just float on top of you. Other types aren't as warm and are heavy enough that they hurt your feet.
~ Lisa Payne

California Winters

Even though I really don't like the weather in Southern California very much there is something to be said for sitting in a jacuzzi in November.

Still in bloom--
California flowers dance
to winter song.
~ Victor P. Gendrano

Shopping

This is where I was all day so I figured it deserved a picture.

All things are cheap to the saving, dear to the wasteful.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Bathtime

We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?
~ Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy

Is It Really That Time?

With nothing hot to buy in decorations this Christmas, many stores started selling two weeks earlier than ever before, beginning in mid-September. Many stores skipped Thanksgiving altogether and went from Halloween to Christmas.
~ Britt Beemer

Science Blues

I subbed today and this quote seemed to fit since I subbed for 8th grade science. They would definitely be surprised to find they are not the center.

When science finally locates the center of the universe, some people will be surprised to learn they're not it.
~ Bernard Bailey

Night Leaves

I realize this is a bit noisy, but I loved the colors so much and I didn't have a tripod with me so this is what I got.

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
~ George Eliot

Reading...

I didn't realize I needed these until I tried a pair on and found I could read better with them. :-P I like them though because when I do read I find it is just me and the book now. The rest of the world is just a tad blurry so it shuts me off from anything else around me.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
~ Oscar Wilde

The Road to Nowhere

I had to post two today. I was able to get a few decent shots of another deer so I had to put one up. It was a great walk.


Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.
~ Frank Herbert

Comfort

It is comforting when one has a sorrow to lie in the warmth of one's bed and there, abandoning all effort and all resistance, to bury even one's head under the cover, giving one's self up to it completely, moaning like branches in the autumn wind. But there is still a better bed, full of divine odors. It is our sweet, our profound, our impenetrable friendship.
~ Marcel Proust

Corn

Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together.
~ Jonathan Swift

Camping Hair

B is going camping this weekend with my parents so I had to do her hair in the traditional "camping" style. This means fixing it so it won't have to be dealt with the whole weekend.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
~ Kahlil