Very cool commentary on schooling alternatives

Its nice to hear something sensible for a change :-D

Thanks Emily!

Song fancies

Ever had songs bring mini stories to mind other than the one they meant to share?

Happens to me quite often.

Listening to "All Around My Hat" by Steeleye Span brought to mind a grown Tiffany Aching handling a forward young man with her usual - intense - commonsense.

"Saucy Sailor" (also Steeleye Span) makes me think of Captain Jack Sparrow - not entirely down on his luck (for a change) in a Colonial gulf port town. He sees a pretty lass, but his burnt features and ragged coat do not appeal to this brazen social climber, so he entertains the whole pub at her expense.

"Northern Skyline" (by Clannad) might mark the end of trials for a missionary explorer. At last the shadows flee, the truths are heard, and all is peace in the world as he wends his way back home.

"Bard's Dance" (Enya) suggests to my imagination a simple minstrel dancing by light of the festival's bonfire, with bells on his boots, before the sour-faced chieftain and his court. He starts off slowly and simply, gradually the tempo increases as he wins them over with his grace and melodies..until bed and dinner are assured. :)

& "Journey's End" ( Clannad) would be perfect for Yeesha after she'd made a few friends with her quest ^_^

Five on Friday

How about... five sets of five?

A - The last five books I've read:

1. Left Behind: Soul Harvest
2. Left Behind: Apollyon
3. Reaper Man
4. Elijah & Jezebel
5. C. Lewis' letters postwar period


(1-3 are rereads. I've been working on Lewis' letters awhile. Finally finished it. Yay!)

B - Five magazines I've read lately:

1. Wired
2. Maximum PC
3. Country
4. Blue Ridge Country
5. Popular Science

C - Five albums I've listened to lately:

1. Come to the Quiet by JMT
2. Long Distance Voyager by the Moody Blues
3. Below the Salt by Steeleye Span
4. Soul Anchor by Michael Card
5. Dancing in Jerusalem by Lamb

D - Five things I would love to have (but probably won't see from my family) this Christmas:

1. Spiced Green Tea perfume
2. Aspen perfume (for women)
3. Babylon Rising: Secret of Ararat #2
4. The Studio Ghibli collection on dvd
5. the Mikado on dvd

Why? Because 1 & 2 & 4 & 5 are only available online. As for # 3 - My family can never seem to remember which Babylon Rising book is next.

E- My five new Christmas decorations:


1. Noah's Ark windmill/candle thingy
2. William's 3ft tall nutcracker guy
3. The fiber optic dancing penguin and polar bear
4. the big flashing blue & white snowflake for the window
5. a silver/blue wreath with tiny lights that is on the door.

(Yes, The new stuff is already up - but we haven't gotten out the the tree and all yet. )

=======================================

edit: hhmm since I finished early Saturday I guess it ought to be six for Sat, soI'll do a bonus listing for each catagory

a - Hollyood vs America by Medved (another reread)
b - Consumer Reports
c - Book of Secrets by Loreena McKennit
d - a new cartridge fountain pen (because they think I already have all I could ever need ;)
e- pearl ornaments

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope yours was wonderful!

After a few emails & letters of the 'where'd you go?" and 'what ever happened after?' variety, I know its time to make a reappearance

Let's see.. I'll start with Thanksgiving. Tom wasn't quite up to going round and seeing his other family on the day, but at least he was able to enjoy dinner this year!

The Nor'easter in the area didn't mess with us much. We had a lovely quiet day at home with homemade quiche for breakfast, homemade bread for lunch, and a roast lamb dinner with cous-cous & organic baked yams on the side. YUM!

& After you feed everybody like that, they just curl up with a good book (or game) for awhile.

and a cuppa

Actually, this was our third big meal of the week because we wanted Tom to have all of the Thanksgiving choices he mentioned as nice -- after 3 years of being unable to enjoy much in the way of edibles on the day - due to his health problems. We had a big roast bird with stuffing a few nights ago, and a blade roast with fresh bread & sautéed veggies another time.

Its the upside of his having married a cook

We got smaller roasts with this plan in mind, but we'll still be plowing through leftovers for a bit after this.

In general we are doing better this fall than we have in awhile. Tom is healing, albeit rather slower than his surgeon would like. He will still have to have a hernia repaired on one of the surgery sites, but they are hoping to put that off until spring. Still, the major surgery seems to have held. He is definitely better than he was last year at this time..or the year before that....maybe even the year before that. Some relief in our situation came through as well. As a result, we are now out of debt and in possession of several upgrades that have been long desired - compy bits, tools, and other happiness. I have a better sewing machine too!

No, Mom hasn't had any serious repercussions from this summer's adventure, though she is still moving a bit slower than is usual for her. She is still recovering her interest in crafts and such. Probably this is due to the shots, and having a tougher time with the annual fall flu attack afterward - though actually, we haven't done nearly as badly as some families we know around here with this year's bug. Its been pretty bad in places. A school closed in an neighboring city because of a flu bug one week & a lot of kids have been visiting doctors & ERs incounty. Thankfully, nobody here has needed a doctor because of it, let alone a hospital.

Anyway, her big thing at the moment is Sudoku.


Nope, I've mostly been gone because this year's setup meant I was shopping and fixing things earlier than later. Both of my kids birthdays are in the fall. So we had those to plan - as well as Christmas to consider while we were in good enough shape to deal with it. And then we got our hands on a set of new-to-us captain's beds for the kids (in wonderful shape!) and this meant moving around all sorts of things in the house & garage while we sorted out the technical details of this blessing. We had to disassemble & reassemble the new beds because they wouldn't go up the stairs in one piece --while falling over interim arrangements until it was all done. So that's where I was THAT week. We also worked on a website for a friend & had to concentrate on schoolwork some days -this being fall and all. I've been one busy sheepy!

and then too - I was determined to finish the third part of Mizpah on here before posting anything else - even though my notes went permanently missing after a too enthusiastic cleanup of my office area. Reconstructing them took time that was hard to find for awhile.

...especially since I was redoing my computer at around the same time. (Why does it always take so long to get everything set up the way you want it?)

Happily, I am at last getting toward the end of my MUST DEAL WITH NEXT list. So then I'll be able to tackle the stuff I postponed while I was taking care of that


So... I am trying to be good.

I just have had a lot to keep up with again.

At least its happier stuff!