Impossible, saving lives and scary clown

I'm headed to my favorite place in the world for the weekend, to recharge my batteries.  I need some river time!  I'll post some pics next week.  Meanwhile - here are some Friday Funnies, featuring three things that make me crazy:  passwords, your vs. you're, and traffic.  :)

I had to change the password for my bank website and it took about half an hour to do it.  We can all relate to this, I think.

I was moving to a new townhouse once and went by to clean it the day before official move-in day.  A neighbor left a note on my windshield that said, "Your in my parking place."  I came close to marking up the note with the correct "You're."  But I always like to take the high road, so didn't.  We never were friends though. :)

And the afternoon commute has been crazy since the collapse of the I-85 bridge last month (the morning commute is better since I leave for work two hours early in the morning).  I am grateful for my traffic app, which navigates the best way home.  I've seen parts of Atlanta that I never knew existed - it's been interesting, but I'll be glad to have I-85 back.  Meanwhile - there are times during my drive home when I've felt like the gal above. 

I hope you have an excellent weekend, my friends!

Wisdom of the door, smile and raising hand

It's been a busy several days, y'all.  Mostly good, but no photos capturing anything good.  Sometimes I question what I'm doing in life, and then I just settle down to the status quo - which is pretty good.  I have no complaints.  But I do love this thought and try to remember this wisdom of the door.

I love that someone actually captured this photo.  And it made me smile.

Ain't that the truth!  Finger pointing at myself.  :)

All images taken from facebook, I think.  I've been collecting for a "rainy" day.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends, full of good things!

Humor in uniform, repurposed and let them eat cake

- You'd have to click to enlarge to see the City of Atlanta police vehicle pulled across the road ahead.  There was also a noisy hovering helicopter overhead.  The reason was a large sinkhole at 14th and State Street (in the intersection behind me.)  I didn't want to bother the workers by taking a photo of it.  :)  I was on my way to my volunteer work housed at nearby Georgia Public Broadcasting in the late afternoon yesterday and was detoured onto a side street to park. On the trip past this police car the first time, I asked the officer inside the car what was going on? (not wanting to walk on into a shoot out or anything):

          He:  Shark attack.

          Me:  What???

          He:  Shark attack.

          Me:  What??? (it had already been a long day)

          He:  Sinkhole.

 

- This bracelet was made by Juliet of the Crafty Green Poet blog.  She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and frequently takes us along with her on nature walks.  I noticed her Etsy shop link and visited.  She creatively "repurposes" materials, making them into one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry.  That's the pretty bracelet I got, above.  Do visit Juliet's blog when you can - especially if you love Edinburgh as much as I do.

- This is what my coworkers and I are counting on.  :)  In a fit of boredom yesterday (we are slow this week at work), Joanne went across the street to the commercial bakery (which also sells by the slice) and brought back cake.  (Image spotted on facebook.)

So funny, recycling and it's my hobby

- Get it???  This cracked me up!  I spotted this cartoon by Bec Hill on facebook - posted by another cat appreciator. 

- Making vegetable soup from the broth I saved when I cooked these greens.  I told coworker Bobby how good that broth smelled when I thawed it out, heated it up and started adding stuff to it.  It's for lunch all week.

- I was having a chat at a cocktail party with a woman I know just a little from church.  She told me about her new hobby since retirement, making pottery.  She clearly loves it.  She asked if I have any hobbies and at first I said I really don't, but then caught myself and said, "blogging."  "Blogging?  What about?"  I told her briefly about my format and as an example, used her as a possible "good thing" - saying I might blog about how "my friend's purplish blue beads sparkle in the lamp light."  So there's my third good thing.  :)

Body double, comfort food and the sweet life

Click to enlarge

- This tapestry was part of the exhibit I visited at The High Museum of Art last weekend.  It depicts French monarchs smiling benignly at servants and pets in the month of October.  :)  Friend Barb thought the monarch on the upper right looked a little like the late comedian Redd Foxx and he kind of does!  Compare photo below.

- Having so many ingredients left over from the lasagna from the weekend that I decided to re-purpose some of them.  So Googling "recipes using half and half" yielded this recipe for Creamy Polenta.  I made it Wednesday night - it's good and made great comfort food in this cold weather.  I had never made polenta before, so it was a fun thing to make and it went well with the never ending sauteed kale.  :)

- Reading an obituary in the online version of the newspaper from my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia.  I have taken over the role of reading obituaries from my dad, who perused them every day.  Since my sisters and I have little connection there anymore, I find this is the only way I have of knowing if any of my parents' friends have passed away.  There was one that caught my eye, simply because of the woman's maiden name, that I associate with a family owned shoe store there (long closed.)  I didn't know her, but she had a great obituary.  After she passed away, her family found a post-it note in her handwriting above her desk at home and included it in her obituary; a quote from Emily Dickinson that read, "That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet."

 Life is indeed sweet - a good thing to remember, I think.  I hope you have sweet things in store for you this weekend, my friends!

written in her elderly handwriting is a quote from Emily Dickenson, “That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” - See more at: http://www.unionrecorder.com/obituaries/x1767985599/Emily-Annette-Trapnell-Manning#sthash.hpUas8AT.dpuf

written in her elderly handwriting is a quote from Emily Dickenson, “That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” - See more at: http://www.unionrecorder.com/obituaries/x1767985599/Emily-Annette-Trapnell-Manning#sthash.hpUas8AT.dpuf

Flowers on Tuesday, Amen to that and the irony

- Buying flowers for myself on a Tuesday. 

- Loving this sign from my late mother's assisted living home in Thomasville, Georgia (this is from their facebook page.)  And I say, "Amen to that!"  I love pouring over the photos they post and spotting friends.

- And this, from niece Amanda (a kindred spirit in many ways), cracked me up! 

Pit stop, cat hotel and caped crusaders

- I have no photo this morning, so am going to the desktop for saved photos.  Somehow this photo of great nephew Monroe makes me fast forward in my head to when he actually is behind that wheel.  (Note the hand on lower left holding on to him - he can't stand on his own yet.)  Love those cheeks!

- Anyone who ever had a cat will get this.  :)

- Caped crusaders wash the windows at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.  (Photo on facebook.)  I can only imagine the excitement of seeing that from the inside.  Lovely that they did that.

A smattering of good things from my desktop.  More good things are sure to come this weekend for all of us.  May it be a good one!

My favorite thing, something fun and translation help

- So true.  I love being absorbed in a book set in places I've never been before.  Jonathan Kellerman has a detective series set in Los Angeles and I had one of them with me when I visited a friend there for the first time a few years ago.  She lived in the same part of town he so often describes - in West Hollywood near Sunset Boulevard, so it was fun seeing street names I had read about so much in those books.  I'm reading two books for the two book groups right now - The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.  Two very different writers, but I am indeed transported to a small Georgia town (OK - not much of a stretch there) and Paris in the 1920s. 

- Guilty.  As charged.  :)

- And does anyone know someone who could translate this for me?  There will be a blog post about this later, but my dad had relics from World War II that included some photos.  He did spend some time in Shanghai, China and I do think this script is Chinese.  **Update**  Friend Leisa works for an international company and asked a colleague about it, who in turn checked with a friend who said this isn't Chinese, but Japanese.  His Japanese is very good.  "He said it was ancient Japanese, he couldn't understand the exact meaning, however, the rough meaning is: The soldier must have the characters of loyalty, courtesy, bravery, faith and high quality." I'll keep you posted about the next steps. 

Lots of signs today.  Have a great middle of the week!

D is for Darth Vader in a Kilt on a Unicycle Playing Bagpipes, Doctor H and Divine

- This one needs no further explanation and is only 46 seconds.  :)

- When I pull into my parking space at home, neighbor Travis is taking an iPhone photo of his beaming sweetheart Jessica on the sidewalk.  "Do y'all want me to take your picture together?" I ask.  Travis (wearing scrubs and off to work) says, "No - I was just getting a photo of the new Dr. H___."  She defended her dissertation yesterday and is a new PhD. 

- Finding something Divinely chocolate finally, when I went to my hometown for family business on Tuesday morning and popped into the best bakery in Georgia (I say) for a German Nut Bar.  OK - I had two.  A chewy bar with a bit of raspberry in the center and topped with chocolate icing.  Yummmm.

Day four of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  Three things that begin with "D" that gave me pleasure.   Happy Wednesday, y'all!

Groundhog Day, the movie and the real deal

- It being Groundhog Day tomorrow, it seems like a good time for Phil's (Bill Murray) Piano Solo from the 1993 film, "Groundhog Day." I love how he riffs into Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" at the sight of Andie McDowell's character Rita.

- Back when the film came out, my mother and sister decided to go to a movie one day and not knowing anything about it, chose that one. And they hated it. I walked into the room at the tail end of a conversation in which they were telling my dad and brother-in-law about the film. I announced, "I LOVED that movie!" Mom and sis looked at each other and burst out laughing and shook their heads. I stand by my original impression of the film and love how Phil took the opportunity to improve his life by learning to play piano, ice sculpt and speak French.

- It was raining last Groundhog Day. How do I know? I looked at last year's post for February 2. But after a couple of really rainy days in Atlanta, we are supposed to be cold today, but sunny. I wonder if that groundhog named Phil will see his shadow?

I'm out of town - mom's in the hospital again.  (She will be OK.)  So appropriately enough for Groundhog Day tomorrow - this was last year's post.  And the third thing refers to 2010.  Cheers and here's hoping for an early Spring!

The wall, Bingo, the hawk and an alien

The following all happened in the space of five minutes:

- Arriving at friend and hairdresser Tim's home for a quick bangs trim, I decide that the mosaic wall they have created in their driveway might make a good blog photo.

- But lovely Bingo shows up and dances around me, remembering that I know where the treats are and am always allowed to give her one.  I was singing B-I-N-G-O and Bingo was her name, OH!  when...

- A voice at my elbow (which almost makes me throw my camera in the air from being startled) says, "There's a baby hawk in the back yard, come see."  It's Tim's ethereal wife Maxie.  Can you see the baby hawk?  It's in some tall trees which are being taken over by the crazy all-consuming vine Kudzu.

- And there was a new sculpture on the way inside - a sexy posing alien.  How 'bout that?  The truth is out there, y'all.  :)

I hope you have a rollicking five minutes in your weekend, my friends.  I hope it's wonderful no matter what. 

Midtown, quirky and Neil Diamond

- The lights of midtown Atlanta looked so beautiful as I was leaving volunteer work last night that I just had to get a "through the windshield" shot.

- Techwood Dr, referenced in the street sign above, leads to the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (aka Georgia Tech.)  My GPS pronounces this street as "Tetchwood Doctor", which never ceases to make me laugh out loud.  It pronounces all streets ending in "Dr" as "Doctor", except in Florida, which I will never understand.

- The director of my volunteer organization has a newspaper ad for an upcoming Neil Diamond concert.  "Do you like him?" I ask.  She answers, "No, I don't like him.  I LOVE him!"  Me, too.  And we agree that "I am...I said" is our favorite Neil song.  We decide we were separated at birth after a discussion about how both our ex-husbands didn't like him at all.  :) 

How to, early weekend morning and generosity

- My coworker was laughing hysterically at this video.  It is pretty funny, but also makes me miss having a kitty!  This cat reminds me of my Cleo, who was fairly placid, but had a little attitude, too.  She would randomly bite me on the ankle sometimes, when I wasn't expecting it, just for fun.  :)

- Walking out into an early cold, dry December morning.  Five wrens sit in a leafless crape myrtle tree chirping and flutter into another when I get too close. 

- Ringing the bell for the Salvation Army on Saturday night at the nearby mall.  Favorite moment:  a family exited the mall and walked toward the parking lot.  Their very little boy lingered with me and held out a round piece of cardboard, saying, "This is money." And offered it to me.  I thanked him and was letting him put it in the kettle, when his father came over and gave him a dollar to put in. 

Delivery, made me laugh and birthday noms

- Personally delivering a small print job during afternoon rush hour and feeling a little beleaguered after the hour it took me to drive it to a woman's home in the outer 'burbs. But the look on her face when she saw her baby's birth announcements made it all worthwhile. She was delighted and he is a fine looking fellow, isn't he?

- A bumper sticker on the car in front of me reads, "I hope God isn't too picky." :)

- It's my sister's birthday and I am traveling to Thomasville, Georgia to celebrate with the family tonight. We are going to a place in which she says the salmon was so good last time, she told the waiter that she wanted to "lick her plate!" I hope they have that this time.

Have a lovely weekend, my friends!

Playing piano, talk louder and perfect weather

- This is a great story - an elderly couple walk into the lobby of the Mayo Clinic for a checkup and spot a piano. They've been married for 62 years and he'll be 90 this year. Check out this impromptu performance - love his bounce and how she keeps smiling toward the camera. We are only as old as we feel, it's all attitude.

- My hairdresser and I have something of a who's on first conversation, causing me to explain my hearing issues (from too many loud concerts, most likely), after he cuts my Justin Bieber-length bangs. How much? He either says $7 or $17; he repeats it a second time, and the third time says "SEVEN!" As I leave he debates having a beer and says, "Because I'm thirsty or it's Thursday - take your pick." Wise guy. :)

- A surprise invitation from friend Lori to see the Atlanta Braves play the New York Mets on Sunday, which promises to be a perfect weather day, with a high of 79 degrees.

I hope you have wonderful weather and good things happen to you this weekend, my friends!

Smile sign, alternative transportation and books

Photo by Jesse P. using Smartphone

- A sign seen by two friends, Jesse and Eric, at lunch yesterday. Jesse presented their two possible interpretations:

1. Don't go up to customers devoid of warm emotion, be full! (Eric)
2. Don't be lazy, carry stuff, pick up stuff off tables. (Jesse)

They asked one of the waiters. It was 2, but I like 1 better.

- Walking up to a building for a meeting and encountering a young lady getting off a little silver scooter. She is wearing a red skirt and matching red helmet and cool glasses. I almost tell her she will be a Good Thing, but decide the explanation is too long and possibly alarming.

- I am supposed to be reading two books for my two different book groups, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. But I am enjoying the delightfully predictable "Folly Beach" by Dorothea Benton Frank. Sometimes a lighthearted book is just what the doctor ordered. :)

Bear Pole Dance, sharing and follow the scent

- This is an awesome video of a bear "pole dancing." It's only 33 seconds. Sometimes you need something silly like a dancing bear to get your morning off to a good start. :)

- One coworker brings in a bucket of okra from his garden, and another brings in Krispy Kreme donuts. They look funny next to each other and the donuts get lots more attention.

- Going to a meeting at 7pm, having already missed dinner, and being welcomed by the scent of cinnamon coffee cake, still warm from Janet's oven. Lovely.

Going greener, food porn and party dress

- Many dignitaries were present for the opening of Atlanta's first public solar-powered charging station for electric vehicles at Atlantic Station. (Photo taken of the dedication from my car window on the way to a client meeting.) I almost cropped out the oil spots, but they are part of the story after all.

- A coworker quickly minimizes an Internet page as I walk up to his desk. He sheepishly shows that he was looking at Denny's newest attempt at cholesterol on a plate - a patty melt that has macaroni and cheese in it. Another coworker walks up and says, "Is there a Denny's around here?" :) It's 1690 calories - oh my!

- A mom and her daughter at the natural foods grocery hot food bar. The wee one announces she wants Spanakopita. I smile at her, impressed that she can pronounce that word and she smiles back and swishes her dress. A purple velvet dress with a grand sash. She says, "This is my special dress up party dress." I tell her it is very pretty and go on my way.

I hope your travels throughout the day and the weekend are fun and uplifting. Have a lovely weekend, my friends!

Potential firewood, puddles and chocolate = good

Photo by TS, taken with iPhone

- Niece's husband posts this picture on facebook of a fallen tree with the caption "Irene comes to Tudor City." Tudor City is the neighborhood in which they live in New York City. An uprooted tree is not really a good thing, but his friend's comment made me laugh, "Dude i hope this was not your favourite tree!"

- The little film posted on facebook of their toddler daughter running around in circles in the rain. Soaking wet and delighted with the puddles.

- All things from the internet today. A headline posted on The Atlantic, "Good News at Last: Chocolate Is Good for You! Maybe" The article by Marion Nestle can be read here. Her conclusion: "a little chocolate is delightful. A lot is not. As in all matters pertaining to diet, everything in moderation." But somehow I still think that is a bit of good news. :)

Empty flower pot, filling it up and needs a name

My sister lives in a gated community in which peacefulness abounds except for one lady who is all about the rules. One day she walked around with a clipboard and cited people for beauty infractions, including one neighbor who had an empty flower pot in her back yard. The photo below shows what happened when neighbors cheerfully pitched in to fill it up. :) And the flower pot lady wrote a poem about it. Delightful.


I am a little green pot living in a corner yard
And you would think that life for me would not be hard.
We were surprised to find out one day, when walking by
A neighbor saw me empty and she was so horrified.
She reported my condition to the powers here that be
And told them that my emptiness was horrible to see!!!

My owner told some neighbors and some friends of my sad plight.
And something almost magical happened in the night.
When she awoke one morning out the window she did see
A bright sunflower flower stake was placed inside of me.
And when she thanked her neighbors, her friends, she was surprised
When other lovely treasures appeared in my inside.

And now when people see me, they smile at me and know
That I'm a very happy pot our neighbors helped to grow.
My owner loves me so much that now she says she'll never
Move my treasures from inside (her neighbors are so clever).
She's sending you a picture to show what I've become
And wants to find a name for me, can you help her think of some?

- by MBG

Surely we can think of something for a name! Any suggestions? :)