Cupid...

A Happy New Year

Counting the days to the New Year, to new footsteps on new sand, new oceans of peace and the wide open possibilities of the future.


Happy New Year to you, with our heartfelt wishes for the best of your years to come.

Scarlett and Viaggiatore

Letters To The North Pole

 Dear Santa,

In an effort to be more ecologically mindful this year, could you please trade out the coal for a renewable energy source; preferably sunshine.

Thank you!

Merry Christmas!
Love, Scarlett

Oh The Irony Of It All

First and foremost: a hearty thank you to those who served their country whether or not they agreed with politics or war.  Happy Veteran's Day.

Second... I had something shipped from a distant library to my library because I need it desperately and immediately.  I got an email from my library this morning saying that it was in and I could come pick it up when I liked.  So, I drove to the library today, was delighted because the parking meters were free (Veteran's Day) and then completely flummoxed that the library was closed (Veteran's Day).  My urgent request will have to wait until tomorrow. 

Dear, Dear Diary

Dear, Dear Diary,

Let's do this today, because we need to do this today.  Let's come up with 5 Things What Are Good, as our Dearest Jon used to do. 

1. Trying BIG new things which necessitate one jumping feet first into the OMIGOSH-I-HAVEN'T-EVER-NEVER-THOUGHT-I-COULD-DIDN'T-THINK-I-EVER-WOULD-BUT-I'M-GONNA-DO-IT-ANYWAY-OMIGOSH pool.  It's deep in here, and I like it.

2. Very grateful for dear friends & family who are always there to support, love, encourage and believe in me. I cannot imagine where I would be without you. 

 

3. Stash White Christmas White Tea.  O.M.G.  This is my new favorite tea of the season. I don't like peppermint, but I LOVE this tea.  YUM.  If you could put a snowy Christmas morning in a mug and drink it, this is what it would taste like.

4. The last truly warm day of fall on a Monday, following a weekend that could have been stolen out of late June... right before the first snow of the fall.

5. Seeing each new day as an opportunity to grow.

It's The Great Pumpkin!

Mid October a few years ago, I found myself feeling inspired and crafty and standing in the aisle at the supermarket, paging through a holiday magazine looking at those fancy schmancy pumpkins that are carved into amazing Jack O'Lanterns.

I decided that it didn't look that difficult and that I ought to make one. The timing was good, a couple of weeks before Halloween. It would last, I thought. This couldn't be that difficult, I was certain.

I bought a good size pumpkin, parked myself on a large towel on the garage floor on a sunny afternoon with the garage door open and the radio on and went to work. Cleaned it out, carved the lid, and then prepared to make my image.

I pulled out a Peanuts color book and found a great image of Snoopy that would be perfect on a pumpkin.  Snoopy is requisite Halloween subject matter, considering The Great Pumpkin.  I taped it to the pumpkin, took a toothpick and poked dots all along the lines that needed to be carved out; sort of a 'carve along the dotted line' idea.  Dotting done, I removed the color book page and set to work with my special pumpkin carving knife.

At first, things seemed to be going well and I was fairly pleased with the results... but then I overestimated the carve and tried to fix it with extra toothpicks pushed into the inside side of the pumpkin and superglue.  A word to the wise... superglue does not work on pumpkins.  It does, however, work very well on fingers, paper towels, cloth towels and plastic carving knives.  

In the end, I was relegated to carving my usual simple Jack O'Lantern face into a new pumpkin. 

I'll leave the fancy carving to the pros!
  

Have a Happy Halloween!

 

One for Viaggiatore



 

A Snoopy for me

 



Relax~Revitalize~Renew ~101

Viaggiatore and I are ready for the road again.  Nevermind that we just got back from another trip to London; there is a very special trip coming soon... one that we've been looking forward to for a very long time.

This will be the one that truly counts, for the whole year.  This will be the one during which we can relax and let the world go away, revitalize our souls and our bodies, and renew all those things about life that we love, live for, and believe in.  We'll find new things, too, which will only enrich the experience.  Oh the adventures to be had!

Mr. Black has agreed to join us on this excursion as well, so the company will be very good, indeed.  There's much to be said for good company on adventures to be had.  We'll visit friends and family, make new friends along the way, and see so many countless wonderful things and places. 

Here's some preliminary Introspect:

Wordless Wednesday

Bring It ON!

My brackets are done... I am perched at the edge of my seat... waiting...

Bring on the MADNESS!

Get Your Green On ~or~ March Of The Sweet Potato Queens

St. Patrick's Day is almost upon us, and with it come many things; wearin' o' the green, parades and Irish dancing, drinkin' o' the green beer, kisses galore because people are happy to use a complete lie as a reason to plant smackers on everyone they see, corned beef and cabbage and potatoes, whiskey, fashion-questionable attire and green derby hats.

It also brings something I look forward to every year... the holiest of holy days for the Sweet Potato Queens; the Hal and Mal's St. Patrick's Day parade in Jackson, Mississippi.

You don't know about the Sweet Potato Queens? Sit a spell. I'll tell y'all about 'em.

Jill Connor Brown wrote a book called, "The Sweet Potato Queens Book of Love" in 1999. It is 'split your sides laughing' funny. Her gems of wisdom are found all throughout the book, but some of my favorite chapters are:

~The True Magic Words Guaranteed to Get Any Man to Do Your Bidding
~The Five Men You Must Have in Your Life at All Times
~Men Who May Need Killing, Quite Frankly

~Be Prepared On Account Of You Just Never Know
~What to Eat When Tragedy Strikes, or Just for Entertainment

~The Best Advice Ever Given in the Entire History of the World

There are fabulous recipes for Chocolate Stuff and Fat Mama's Knock You Naked Margaritas.

I've tried the True Magic Words Guaranteed to Get Any Man to Do Your Bidding and they work. ;D

So, the book published and almost immediately, there were groups of women forming Sweet Potato Queens clubs, popping up all over the nation, followed almost immediately by several (20+) other countries in the world. Similar to the Red Hat Society; in fact, some women are in both 'ladies only' clubs. The propagation of SPQ's has given women a sisterhood; a place to find camaraderie, adventure, fun, silliness and the chance to not only let their red hair down, but let that strong, wild woman inside them out for some fresh air and shenanigans!

Back to The Parade.

Every year on St. Patricks Day, SPQ's from all over the world descend upon Jackson and take the town over. There are get~togethers, luncheons, dinners, dances, activities and of course; the march in the parade in full regalia; green dresses, crowns, wigs and sparkly things abound. I wish I could be there this year for the Bathrobe Brunch at the Hilton on Sunday morning, which closes the weekend's festivities. I've gone out to a restaurant dining room breakfast with friends, all of us in bathrobes and pajamas, but it's been a long time and none of us were queens.

Jill Connor Brown began a sweet revolution for middle aged, middle class women and it spread so much that there are no limits now. None. The men who join are either 'Spud Studs' or Queens; fair is fair, yes? This is Diva Training at it's finest and funniest. Living large and laughing a LOT.

But it's not all about big curves, huge crowns, red hair and being spoiled sweet. The SPQ's donate enormous amounts of money made from their activities towards charities; in particular, the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital. That's a worthy cause.

Even with the explosive popularity of her book and all the glitz and glamour that are part and parcel, Jill did not stop, thank the Queens. One great book deserves another and if you're lucky, a chain of them to keep your habit satisfied. If you haven't read these yet, get started, you are missing out.

~Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love (1999)
~God Save the Sweet Potato Queens (2001)
~The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner (2003)
~Sweet Potato Queens' Field Guide to Men: Every Man I Love Is Either Married, Gay, or Dead (2004)
~The Sweet Potato Queens' Wedding Planner/Divorce Guide (2005)
~The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel: Stuff We Didn't Actually Do, but Could Have, and May Yet (2007)
~The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Raising Children for Fun and Profit (2008)
~American Thighs: The Sweet Potato Queen's Guide to Preserving Your Assets (2008)

Viaggiatore and I wish you a safe and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

All For Love

For you, with love, on this Valentines Day ~ XO

"Have you never met a woman who inspires you to love? Until your every sense is filled with her? You inhale her. You taste her. You see your unborn children in her eyes and know that your heart has at last found a home. Your life begins with her, and without her it must surely end."

"There are only four questions of value in life. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made of? What is worth living for? What is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love."

~ Don Juan DeMarco

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you." ~ Dracula


"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream


"If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night!"
~ Romeo And Juliet

How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said. ~Victor Hugo

"I want to crawl to her feet, whimper to be forgiven, for loving her, for needing her more than my own life, for belonging to her more than my own soul."

"If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn't love you as much as I do in a single day."

"...he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

"If you ever looked at me once with what I know is in you, I would be your slave."
"Be with me always. Take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this dark alone where I cannot find you." ~ Wuthering Heights

I can no longer think of anything but you. In spite of myself, my imagination carries me to you. I grasp you, I kiss you, I caress you, a thousand of the most amorous caresses take possession of me. ~Honore de Balzac

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach." ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No...not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening. but love that...overthrows life. Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture." ~ Shakespeare In Love

"He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began." ~Leo Tolstoy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...and for Jack, whomever and wherever you might be, I am waiting:

"The man of my dreams has almost faded now. The one I have created in my mind. The sort of man each woman dreams of in the deepest and most secret reaches of her heart. I can almost see him now before me. What would I say to him, if he were really here? Forgive me, I have never known this feeling. I've lived without it all my life. Is it any wonder, then, that I fail to recognize you? You-- who brought it to me for the first time. Is there any way I can tell you how my life has changed? Any way at all to let you know what sweetness you have given me? There is so much to say...I cannot find the words. Except for these-- I love you! Such would I say to him, if he were really here." ~Elise, Somewhere In Time