Miscellaneous Missives

Today was the perfect summer day... golf, lunch with friends, reading in the sun, the gym, a gift of cherry jam, enough calories left for ice cream, Olympics... Unfortunately, tomorrow is Sunday.  A friend refers to summer as the weekend.  June is Friday since we work the first half.  July is Saturday, perhaps the best day of the week.  August, therefore, is Sunday.  Tomorrow is August 1, Sunday.  Sunday is the day I usually use to prepare for school.  Instead of waiting for Sunday, I did some today by purchasing 60 glue sticks, 60 mechanical pencils, and six boxes of tissues (all for $25... savings of $59).  During the month of August, I will peruse the ads searching for deals.  I'm not happy about tomorrow being Sunday, but Saturday was awesome. 

My window is soooo clean that one can see the reflection of the inside plant. Testimonial- someone will testify that the advertised product did help them or is a good one to buy because they tried it, and it worked Miscellaneous Missives may turn into one testimonial after another.  For the second testimonial in July, I would like to introduce Norwex products. When I moved into my condo (07.08.08), I cleaned everything including the windows.  The truth is I'm not someone who likes to clean (no one does).  I'm good at picking stuff up and keeping my mess behind doors, but I don't dust or do windows.  Perhaps this has changed.  Recently, I bought the window cloths (enviro cloth and window cloth) from Norwex .  My windows have never been cleaner.  Since I hadn't cleaned them in the last four years, they were filthy, but I didn't realize how filthy until I actually cleaned them.  First, I wet the enviro cloth and rung it out....

"Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce."  ~anonymous "Pay attention.  Be astonished.  Tell about it."  ~Mary Oliver "Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building."  ~Jim Hightower "If you don't speak out when it matters, when would it matter for you to speak out?  ~Jim Hightower As I walked up the steps to the Sacred Journey service, I remembered (the music helped) that it was " Blue Grass Sunday".  Immediately I wished I had stayed in bed listening to the rain.  My plan was to leave after the blessing of the space.  Each time I tried to leave, I noticed the joy in the faces of those around me.  Even the kids were tapping their feet and bouncing in their chairs.  What was I missing?  After each song we were given more of the message which came in snippets and quotes from "regular folks", and they did indeed carry the message.  Even the music began to g...

4.5 hours!!!  Are you kidding me?  Although I think London did a great job, Matt Lauer and his co-anchor were boring.  I appreciated what London did with the history of the United Kingdom and even became teary eyed when the kids were singing songs from each country, especially the hymn from Wales.  The music section was fun although Sir Paul McCartney should give it up.  And... Where was Sir Elton John?  The bicycle butterflies were also kinda cool, but 4.5 hours?  The good news is that my time was not completely wasted.  Twitter updates and GoogleReader feeds were followed while  I used my time to go over the materials from the various workshops I attended this summer.  Plus, I went through my schedules from each unit I taught last year and tried to figure out the chronological order of what I taught last year.  Although it doesn't necessarily prepare me for this year, it gave me something to do and think about. I also though...

I've been helping with a friend's house while they are out of town (easy explanation).  The house is for sale, and tomorrow there are two showings.  When I went over today to water their beautiful backyard flower gardens, I noticed weeds popping up all over in the brick patio (?).  Although I know nothing about weeding flowers (or weeding in general really), I decided to pull the weeds of the patio.  It seemed impossible to do it incorrectly since I didn't have to distinguish between the flowers and weeds.  Many say that gardening and weeding is therapeutic.  My guess is it is more of an addiction than therapy although I'm not really sure how to explain this belief.  After my weeding experience, I decided to get a manicure and pedicure.  Speaking of addictions, even though I brought my own polish from home, I decided I wanted a new color.  Since I chip my nails frequently, I tend to purchase the color they're using if I don't bring my own....

Creating a shorter playlist for my biking/jogging for July was helpful, so today I made a new playlist for August.  It seems jogging is out, but I am spending at least thirty minutes a day on my bike and/or the elliptical.  I am trying to figure the best mix, but it seems to be a difficult progress. Here's the list for August: *Raise your Glass-  P!nk *More- Usher *Enter Sandman- Metallica *Welcome to the Jungle- Guns n' Roses *Makes me Wonder- Maroon 5 *Dream On- Aerosmith *Firework- Katy Perry *Disarm- Smashing Pumpkins *Should I Stay or Should I Go- Clash *You Really Got Me- Van Halen *Til the World Ends- Britney Spears *She's so Mean- Matchbox Twenty *Where Have You Been- Rihanna *Starships- Nicki Minaj *Good Feeling- Flo Rida *Girlfriend- Avril Lavigne *How Far We've Come-Matchbox Twenty *Feel So Close- Calvin Harris *If Today was your Last Day- Nickelback *Til I Collapse- Eminem

As I mentioned, I went canoeing while at the Praying with the Earth Retreat.  When we were putting the canoe back, my canoe helper asked me to sit on the bow/stern/??? to steady and even the vessel.  Sitting on the bow/stern/??? I remembered a picture from when I was little.  It seems we went in a canoe sometime although I don't remember it.  To my recollection my total times canoeing is two and kayaking is three.  Perhaps it happened more as a child, but I'm guessing this was a rare photo.  Anyway, I'm contemplating buying a kayak, so I can kayak during the summer.  It is probably a silly idea, but I need silly ideas to keep my mind going.