Celticangel.org

The Pacifica Pier

I’ll bet that you’ve heard of Google Earth, but did you know about…Google Mars?

There’s a place called Dull in Perthshire, Scotland…that is anything but.

Twilight fans, did you know that there is really a place called Forks? It’s true. They even have an online tourist shop. I’m so tempted to get one of the t-shirts.

I’ve been busy cleaning my office, now that it is cool enough to move back upstairs. (Good thing, too, as I seem to think better in my office.) As I’ve been working my way through my usual mess I’ve been running across those little fortunes you get in fortune cookies. I tend to keep the ones that I find interesting.

Question: Do you all add “in bed’ or “between the sheets” to the end of your fortunes? It does tend to add to the amusement value in my experience. But then, as I recently discovered while enjoying the film “Mamma Mia” I’m sort of fifty at the same time that I’m sort of ten. (You know that thing where someone says “shhh” and someone else adds “it”? Yeah? I still think that’s funny. My sense of humor seems to be still in fifth grade.) Anyway, whether you add endings to amuse yourself or not, here are the fortunes that I’ve come across.

Look into the crystal ball…
* Any impatience you show will only create more stress.

* He that seeks will find.

* An enjoyable vacation is awaiting you.

* Never let an opportunity pass you by.

* Share yourself and your possessions with close friends.

* Forge ahead with your new ideas.

* Assert yourself, your ideas are worthwhile. (From a couple of days ago at Panda Express.)

The Scottish Falsetto Puppets sing Robin’s tribute to their stairs. I teared up a bit…but then, I love that song.

My First Radish!

An Update…and stuff.

Where to begin?

* It looks like the other guy’s insurance agency has admitted 100% liability for the accident. (As I discovered when I called my company to talk to them today.) Yay!

* My car is currently estimated to be ready either Tuesday or Wednesday. Yay!

* I have produce in my garden. Now…I just need to think of what to do with all of that basil. (I have to harvest it this weekend. See picture below.) I have honest to goodness radishes. Yay!

* My week-long vacation starts tomorrow at 5:15pm. Yay!

* My friend D. from my old job stopped by my new work on Thursday on his way down to see his brother during his vacation. It was great to see him. (We chatted. He popped over to check out the children’s section…and answered a reference question. He ran away before he could accidentally work some more.) Yay!

* And I have a cold! Booo! Hiss! Sigh. That’s right. To add insult to injury, I have a cold. I also have no more sick leave. Add to this the fact that my shoulder, neck, and back are still not one would call…happy, and you can see how I might be annoyed. The other insurance company called, by the way. I left a message today, but they haven’t return the call yet. Before you ask, I am planning to see how my shoulder feels next week. If it hasn’t gotten better, I’m going to have it looked at. I will also not be signing anything until I am fully recovered. (So, don’t worry M. & L. I *was* listening to your excellent advice.)

I intend to ignore the cold as much as possible and enjoy my vacation. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

My bountiful harvest.

Here, in the first of two illustrations, we see Christina and her piano. Interesting that the piano should appear in this drawing, when the text refers to the time she went looking for her piano and it was gone. *shrug* In any case, we can see that Christina still has her fancy tail. Quite the fashion plate, isn’t she? I’ll bet that if I had a tail, it wouldn’t be anywhere as nice. I’m a bit too lazy, you know. I like her piano. It’s small and orange. Also…it seems to be hovering. No wonder she was so upset when it went missing!

Speaking of pianos, have I mentioned that I can almost get to mine? That’s right! My lovely husband has been digging it out for me. Just like Christina, I want to play my piano, and I’ll get to do that soon.

Standby for the last illustration tomorrow.

When we last left Christina she was going to answer the door. Who could it be? Join me as we now we return to our story…

Further transcription of childhood scrawl:

They opened the door! They did not see any thing! They looked again! They did not see anything! Then they heard a noise! They looked in the attic! Then right in the middle of the room there was a bat! Everybody shouted Christina”! That is a vampire bat! Everybody began to run! Then Christina said, that is was not a real bat, it was a paper bat. Then everybody went down the stairs, and went to their room! They saw everything was stolen! But the person that had stolen their things had dropped a name card! The name was Mystery Max! And Christina knew Max! She went to school the next morning, and captured Max! And found her piano back!

The End
———
There, you see? A happy ending. I’ve always loved those. Apparently I used to love overusing exclamation points as well. Is anyone else amused that the thief just “happened” to drop a calling card? And that Christina knew him from school? I hope that everyone else (whoever they are) got their stuff back, too. Also…do we want to know how a paper bat was making noise in the attic? It would seem that Mystery Max was a mouse of many talents, including doorbell ditching (or door knock ditching.)

Stay tuned tomorrow for one of the illustrations that comes with this story. That’s right. This story is illustrated. No plain boring text here.

For the purposes of thoroughness I will tell you that page two of my little book is a title page, and page three is the author page. Truth to tell, they are quite boring when compared to the rest of my little novel. No pictures are involved, and really you already have everything you need from the cover. So, I have skipped them and moved straight on to the first page of text. I wonder when the page got a little bit ripped. Not that long after it was written, I imagine.

To assist you in reading my scrawl, I have included a transcription below. Please note my love of exclamation points, my character’s sudden leaps of intuition that are mysterious and unexplained, and my early love of the cliffhanger. Who is at the door? You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

A Transcription of My Childhood Printing Skills:

The Mystery of the Mouse that Lost her Piano
Once there was a mouse named Christina, and she lived with her mother and father. One time Christina wanted to play her piano, and when she got to the place that the piano was supposed to be, there the piano was not there! Christina was so terrified that she looked everywhere, even under the kitchen sink! Then she looked behind the sofa and saw something. It was only a bug. Then Christina knew, and in a minute, some thing zoomed across the room. One day a mouse called Andy came to town and was holding the person that had stolen her piano! But they had not yet found the piano! And then there was a knock at the door!

I’ve been going through my files again. That shouldn’t be too surprising at this point. What might be a bit surprising is that I have actually been using the scanner!

No. Don’t faint with shock. Not only is it working…but I’ve also been using it. (For those of you who are not familiar with our set-up here, the scanner is attached to the computer most often used by Koshvader. In other words…I have limited access to it.)

Anyway, one of the things that I have encountered in my searches through my huge file cabinet is a “book” that I did as an assignment in Elementary School sometime. I’m not really sure what grade it comes from, but it must have been early on, as you will no doubt be able to tell for yourself. Today we will be looking at the front cover.

The title of my little book is: “The Mystery of the Mouse that Lost Her Piano.” Please note the mouse on the front cover. She has quite the fancy tail, does she not? It sort of looks like a kite tail, with all of the bows on it. On the front cover her piano is already missing, one must assume. Either that, or it was just out of shot, as it were. The thing which amuses me the most is the color of the construction paper used for the cover. You see, I hated pink with a passion until I about five or so years ago.

I will be slowly working my way through the book this week at the rate of a page a day. Please join me as I journey into the past. (and make snarky comments on the way.)

This last weekend, Koshvader and I ventured forth in our rental car to try and take some more pictures. Our results varied, but Koshvader managed to get three good shots that he wanted me to share with you all. (All Rights Reserved, etc.)

This bird was lurking on top of the Taco Bell on the beach in Pacifica. I’ll bet he had a great view of any and all dropped food.

Here we see the reason I want a camera with great night photography capabilities. My attempts at photos at the same time were very grainy.

This trip to the Golden Gate Bridge was the clearest night in a very long time. Isn’t it lovely?