Be mine...

Show and Tell: A Valentine: new or old

Flowers from my parents. The card reads, "Happy Valentine's Week. Love, Mom and Dad."

Cards from two girlfriends. So that's why she wanted my address!

I also got a few fun e-cards. Hope you got choc'lit...oh, and Happy Birthday to Marian the Librarian, who is again celebrating her 29th birthday. (tee hee!) Tomorrow (the today of you reading this--Thursday the 15th) is Sally's oldest's birthday. I held Zack when he was two days old and living in the neo-natal unit at AGH*. I talked to Sally briefly today (to see what the roads were like in our neighborhood) and to let her know I'd bring something by for Zack soon.

*Allegheny General Hospital, on the Nor' Side.

I'm glad to be home again...

Weather update...

So it took me ten more minutes travel time to get here. Total, more, because I had to stop in Oakland to drop something up and at Northway Mall to pick something up.

The library is closing at 5 and I have not one but two offers for a place to stay tonight!!

My goal today: to finish the Superman DVDs.

TTFN!

Oh, show and tell (Thursday) is a Valentine. Old or new.

What, are you chicken?

This chicken is also a kitchen timer.

This makes me happy. So I had to take a picture, naturally. Happy Thursday.

Show and Tell: A chicken

And I found some more gifts I bought for the sibs--one is a chicken for Sis!! (Which will not be shown here until after I see her which will be Feb 28, my mama's birthday!!!)

Oh, and in case you were keeping track, it's 4 degrees out there. Ugh.

"Nice brain"

Show and tell: bumper stickers

I didn't say it had to be on your car!! This was a gift from my boss. If you can read the small print, it says, "In books we trust." Apparently I at one time mentioned that I liked hers (on her bulliten board at work) and so when she was at ALA's Midwinter Conference, she got me one.

If it weren't really cold outside and I didn't have a touch of the sniffles, I'd take a picture of my own car bumper. On it are four bumper stickers. They are: Lemonjello's, Sunoco, Union Project, and "Love Falls Church."

Lemonjello's is this coffee house in Holland, Michigan. My brother's band played there. My brother's band was called The Nixon Administration. Isn't that a cool name for a band? (Stay tuned for corrections: I may have gotten the wrong president.) Sufian Steven's best friend owns Lemonjello's, stay tuned for a Hope College post.

Sunoco? No, I do not care that they sponsor NASCAR, (sorry Paula) but they were sponsoring a contest a few years back where if they spotted a sticker on your car, you got free gas. Um, I drive at least an hour each day (to and from my workplace), so that sounded cool. You'll see some trucks with four and five Sunoco stickers.

Union Project? The building where my church, The Open Door, meets. Plus, it's a cool logo.

"Love Falls Church"? It's a play on words, sort of. Falls Church (Episcopal) is the church for which the town where my parents live was named. George Washington, our first President, was a vestryman there. The bumper sticker is vague: are you supposed to love the church or the town? Well, I love the town, I hope my parents never move, (unless they move to Pittsburgh).

My father is against bumper stickers. On your car, at least. So my brother had at least ten on the minivan that he drove in college.

My dad and I have been talking about third world debt and the IMF. I am so grateful to have him to talk to about these things. I invited him to come speak at the OD, which he had already considered...he was at a book signing yesterday for Tony Campolo ('s new book, I assume) and since there were only eight people there, he got to ask TC a question. So he asked him about the IMF. My dad is the greatest.

(IMF=International Monetary Fund. Our church recently had a speaker from Jubilee and a bunch of us are wondering if Jubilee is the best way to go in terms of social justice. From my dad's considerable research, it seems not. It seems that Jubilee would be one of the organizations rioting at the IMF meetings.)

The IMF has conditionalities (like balanced budgets) and from what my dad could see on the Jubilee website, Jubilee doesn't like that. I have more info in emails from my dad if anyone's interested. (And wouldn't it be great to have my dad speak at the OD????)

And this just in: HP #7 will be out on 7.21.07. Read up on Book Seven, thanks to Gina (who is writing again at BTS, woo hoo!)

Show and tell: Bumper Stickers!

Thursday's assignment: a picture of a bumper sticker. Or more than one. See you then!

Show and Tell: a drink

See two posts down: the one of the hot chocolate is my s&t for the week! Enjoy!

FYI

The pictures post (below) is my S&T for this week, so feel free to post yours when you like, attaching coments to it.

I'll probably be posting less in the next little bit. I wish I could say because I'm going to Africa, like my friend Nan and fellow blogger Adrian. I wish I could say, well, we're going to Florida, like MsCell.

Meanwhile, I urge you all to read Eat Cake. (Apparently many of you have read it at my suggestion, but have you ALL read it?)

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. (Show and Tell: Weather)

(NOT Mark Twain), who did say this about New England but it could easily apply to Pittsburgh:


"If you don't like the weather in New England, wait a few minutes."

Snow is interesting. And some pictures are more fun to take than to look at. So this is the only one that I'm posting. I took it Tuesday after Women's Bible Study, because it was snowing off and on and I wanted to make sure I got some evidence of the snow. Now that I'm not at the chiropractor's 3x week, I can actually resume my morning walks and take more pictures.

Show and Tell: Weather

And the Golden Globe for best speech goes to...

Meryl Streep.

(Peering out into the crowd with her glasses on) "I've worked with all of you...(peers) yes, I've worked with everyone in this room." (not the actual quote...I'm doing this while watching the rehash on Today)

She is such a class act. Such a class act. Devil Wears Prada was not the best flick this side of, say, The Holiday, or Monster House, or... but what a service it did to the viewing public when it allowed Meryl to win a(nother?) Golden Globe. LOVE MERYL!!

And they introduced a new category...animation! Cars won, of course. (I mean, c'mon, did you really think Happy Feet was going to win?) (Don't answer that, sis, you know I was rooting for Monster House!!) I haven't seen Cars, although I think I'm 253 on the holds list at the library...

This is a rough post, which I'll clean up later, but I wanted to get this out to announce this week's Show and Tell.

WEATHER. Everyone's got it, and everyone has been talking about it on their blogs. Well, not everyone, but most folks. So show me some weather!!

And in other news, there are now three candidates for Steelers Head Coach.

And, no, I didn't think Clint Eastwood was very funny. I'm sorry, I just don't get him.

That chick from Ugly Betty won, America Ferrara, and my sister could not be torn from the new episode of 24...whatever!! (Yes, I called her when it happened...)

Now, to make my list of movies I haven't seen that I want to...top of the list is that Kate Winslet flick...oh, like you weren't expecting that...

Yeah, so a better post on the Globes later. Right now, I'm still catching Today as they look at the red carpet (at least three times, with three different perspectives...c'mon!), give clips of the speeches, give clips of before the awards, after the awards...

And I missed a large chunk of the awards, as I ferried my car to Sally's (see post on gas spill) and then got her car to my house, realizing that when I gave her my car keys I had also given her my house keys. (When she already actually had a copy of both...) So I got to drive by the UP at least twice and by the looks of things, the MLK event was a hit.

An actual quote from someone from InStyle, "the dresses were so va-va-voom."

I can spend hours in a grocery store. I get so excited when I see food, I go crazy.

I spend hours arranging my baskets so that everything fits in and nothing gets squashed. (Cameron Diaz)

For years, I have been wondering why no one has ever thought of this:

The Giant Eagle at Shakespeare Street!

I mean, as a singleton, I often go in thinking I'm just going to pick up a carton of milk and then I decide midway to pick up some yogurt, and there happens to be a sale and then I'm stuck with a carton of milk and six cups of yogurt, with no cart. Someone was thinking here--it's multi-functional, because not only do you have carts near the tiny cups of yogurt I couldn't carry in my arms alone, you also have a sign reminding you that milk is now around the corner. I remember when this GE had an Iggle Video. Sigh.

And, not being one to usually take pictures in stores, this made me think of Blackbird, who is forever showing us pictures of stores.

Show and Tell: A very useful thing.

Memo to me: What's Show and Tell this week?

Ooops! Sarah Louise had a bad hair day yesterday. (It was not pretty) In the midst of all the teasing and hairspray, I forgot to post a show and tell topic!!

So, multiple choice, since you have no real lead time.

a) a very useful thing -- in or outside of your house
b) a very un-useful thing -- in or outside of your house
c) free for all -- I mean, I gave you no lead time!

Rules of engagement: post "I'm up" after I post mine tomorrow morning. I'll visit them by the weekend, and we'll all have fun!

Oh, and it snowed today. Not so as you could tell now, but my car sort of looked like this (well, okay, not really, this is an old picture from December (I think).

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me.... (Show and Tell)

well, sorry, no drummers drumming. But I do have a few other Christmas-y pictures.


My parent's tree. Which I had no part in decorating. Breaks my heart...

My parent's creche. The barn is German, some of the sheep and shepherds are Honduran, and not in this picture is a water buffalo my father bought for my grandmother's creche, but since my grandmother's death a few years ago, the water buffalo has joined my parent's creche.

A decorated window in Ligonier, PA.


Christmas lights in the parking garage at the new Borders Eastside (I mean 'Sliberty).

Show and tell: leftover Christmas pictures. Now your turn!

Show and tell returns, woo hoo!

So your assignment, should you choose to accept it: leftover Christmas picture(s). I downloaded pix to my computer from my camera yesterday and found pictures of my parent's tree, creche, etc. I bet you have pix like that too, esp. since we didn't have the whole Christmas show and tell frenzy. Besides, it's still Christmas until Saturday, when the [three] wise men show up. Yes, I'm fully aware that we don't know how many wise men it was!

Post them on Thursday and leave a comment when you're up so I (and others) can go a visiting. I will not promise I'll visit everyone on Thursday, but I'll try to get to y'all by Sunday. (Which gives you a grace period in posting...)

Be creative! So you know how the game is played, I'm posting a few of my posts and some of my favorites from other bloggers.

• Your garden.
• A graduation party.
• Your keys.
• Your street.
• A Chicken. More chickens. And more chickens.
• A collection.
• Your sugarbowl. Or your collection of many sugarbowls.
  

You get the idea. Most items are domestic, but we have been known to S&T our cars, too. I'm open to suggestions. See you Thursday, and thanks again to Blackbird, for starting this wonderful tradition!

Tomorrow is now. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Stay tuned for my end of the year wrap-up (I spent hours on it yesterday, in between helping the hoardes of children at the library.) (Kidding--we were so quiet, not a creature was stirring, except for the fish.)

But for your laughter and mine, I give you the last laugh of 2006. Thanks to Babelbabe, over there at Behind the Stove.

Since her post is a clear "Show and Tell" (a picture with a story), it gives me the opportunity to announce that Show and Tell has returned! Blackbird dubbed me the Queen of Show and Tell (it was my Christmas wish) and we'll be starting back up...this Thursday. I don't have a topic yet, so if you have a picture you are dying to share with the Internets, drop a line in the comments or email me. We'll have a topic by Tuesday, I promise!

Happy New Year, n'at!

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum...the Christmas song meme

From Days Go By...

1. I wonder as I wander: this breaks my heart every time I hear it.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

It's featured in Jacob Have I loved, which is the book from whence Sara Louise comes. (Yes, I added the h at the end of Sara, to differentiate us.)

2. Do You Hear What I hear?: I love all the parts of this one, how it goes from the night wind all the way through the ranks to the king.

3. Silver Bells (I'm a city girl, through and through...you knew that!) Plus, it's on the Bing Crosby White Christmas album, which is heavily played in the Louise household.

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks.
Dressed in holiday style
In the air
There's a feeling of Christmas

4. A la nanita nana (who knew the Cheetah girls did this?) from a Columbian Christmas album--this song is hardwired into my brain and it's not Christmas if I don't hear it at least once.

5. Pacabel Canon (which isn't really a Christmas song, but at Fox Books it was always on the Christmas music cds that we played over and over and over.)

And one that I haven't heard this year, that is sort of a wild card, not a favorite, per se, but it makes me laugh:

Dominick the Donkey. Apparently not many folks know this one but in da Burgh, it gets a lot of airplay. I just haven't been listening to the all Christmas all the time stations so much this year. It's about Santa's Italian helper.

Others I like: Grandma Got Run over by a reindeer, Trees on Fire (a parody on Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire), and the entire Chieftains Bells of Dublin album.

Too many to name.

Oh, and It came upon the midnight clear is a really nice one to sing corporately at church, which we did last Sunday (can you tell I'm into the whole ragamuffin thing?)

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

This just in: Blackbird has handed me the keys to do Show and Tell! (it was my bloggy Christmas wish.) So we'll start up with the New Year, and it will be on Thursdays. Send me your ideas via email.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Show and tell--hats!

(Didn't we do this in January?) (That's a rhetorical question, because I have the proof!)

So I'm posting an old picture.



It's one of my favorite hats, my souvenir Union Project hard hat.

Show and Tell, courtesy of that fabulous babe Blackbird at Say-La-Vee.

And now I feel like a heel, because it was the fabulous Vickee that asked for hats. Check the archives, it's around January 19 or 20.

He sent me plastic roses, the kind that never fade...

(The Chenille Sisters)

My garden is an indoor one. And made of silk flowers. I used to save dead roses, but now I just have a few dried rose petals.

Sally actually used silk flowers for the floral arrangements in her wedding. I used to have the bouquet that was mine, but at some point it, too, went to Goodwill.

I have picked these up over the years, mainly at Goodwill, for 50 cents or a dollar.

My favorite are the red tulips with faux dew drops, mainly because they were a gift from Sally, who knows I love red tulips.
The ones in the window can be seen from the street if you look up to my third floor apartment.

I also love those pens that have silk flowers at the ends and are wrapped in green tape. I am *such* a girl.

Show and tell, courtesy of Blackbird.

Every mind is a room packed with archaic furniture. (Dee Hock)

Poppy wants to see our most hideous piece of furniture. (Or was it least favorite?)

I am a bachlorette. Every piece in my apartment was purchased by or given to me. For better or worse. And they are all functional. I cram them into my garret until my mother says, "You fit anther bookcase in there?"

And what? I don't have the cash to upgrade, and even if I did, did I mention I live in a third floor WALK-UP? Most of my furniture is IKEA, handed down from my Aunt Margaret, picked up on the side of the road, Goodwill, or yard sale.

So. I took a picture of my hideous sofa. Which I adore. Which I have spent many memorable and not-so-memorable and oh-I-wish-I-could forget moments and nights. I generally have it covered, but that blanket is MIA at the moment, so you get to see its absolute plaid hideousnesss. When I leave this garret, it will stay, as it took two men at least a half hour to maneuver it up to the last flight of stairs. And they were engineers! It's a hide-a-bed that I inherited from my old roommate's fiance, now husband. It was free. All I had to do was borrow my girlfriend's boyfriend and his truck. I know it's butt-ugly, but I love it.

A tour? From bottom left, my newest pillow. I think I got it at Burlington Coat Factory. Bottom middle, if you squint, you can see the blue and white comforter my mother made for me when I was a girl. Bottom right, the comforter that used to belong to my grandmother. Moving up, top right, a collage that needs to be pinned up. And a Barbie dream car, with Barbie inside. A purse, a magazine ad I liked, and top left, the certificate that says a sea turtle has been adopted in my name. He's probably ten now!

A little trick, now that I've resigned myself to "small" pictures so as to not screw up my template, if you want a closer look, click on the photo and you get a larger size. The things you learn...

Show and tell, courtesy of Blackbird.

The one about memes (for Memorial Day)

Now, who can see the mistake in that title? Raise your hand...yes, Babs? Meme rhymes with cream? Thank you! I can see you use your dictionary. Six? Well, that's wonderful. No, I only have two, plus a paperback Roget's.

Meme is a word that was coined by Richard Dawkins, who writes about genes. He coined it in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, shortening the Greek work mimeme, "something imitated."

Traveling hither and yon on the World Wide Web, (triple dub never quite caught on), I've found the word meme defined as innocuously as:

"A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another." (from the American Heritage Dictionary, linked on Answers.com.)

and as viciously as:

"a mind virus that lives in the minds of people and is spread through proselytization and other means. " (from The Christianity Meme Web Site)

Holy Toledo, Batman! I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!

So all this time, I thought a meme was something bloggers created. Turns out, memes are big!

But now that I've gotten all that research out of the way, I'd like to talk about memes in the blogging sense. A meme on a blog could be "13 on Thursday" where people list (how clever!) thirteen things on Thursday. Um. Or it could be "Show and Tell," where people post pictures on a theme (But don't tell Blackbird, she doesn't like to think she does memes.) Another popular meme at Pink Sneakers N'at is Loretta's List Friday.

Some of my favorite memes:

My own, which I made when I played fast and loose with Loretta's first List Friday.

Joke's first Meme. It's the "things you'd have to -- to understand me better) Joke's, Gina's, and Badger's and Babelbabe's.

Joke's second Meme. (He often has a lot of free time.) Go to his March archives. Scroll down to March 12. I can't find a direct link. But here are Babelbabe's and Gina's.

Memes are everywhere--it's the attack of the meme! (And I still can't make it pronounce right in my brain...) Before we looked it up on the 'net, Babs and I conjectured on what it could mean: Me-me (as in ME!). If you pronounce it wrong, it sounds like the beginning of "memory." (And a lot of memes are about reminiscing...)

So go be creative! Make up your own meme! Or find one at The Daily Meme.

Now you know.

I like to go rock scrambling.

(Moira Kelly)

Also-rans for the enviable "rock quote" were the Google Finance page on the Buffalo firm, Gibraltor and a Tad Hunter quote about Rock Hudson. The title is clickable. Still working on getting the underline-y thing so that you KNOW the title is clickable.

I saw this rock outside one of my favorite galleries in Fort Ligonier. Isn't it lovely?

This rock is imbedded in the walls of the National Cathedral in Washington. It is a rock from Mt. Sinai. There are a lot of foriegn rocks imbedded in the walls of the National Cathedral. Did you know that's where Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan are buried? Downstairs in the crypt!


Show and Tell, courtesy of the lovely Blackbird.

Waiting for the images to download...

My parents are in town, on their way to a wedding in Michigan of folks they went to college with.

Ach! Downloaded one wrong picture!

We went to dinner at a former Catholic Church that is now a Brewery and Restaurant. It's called The Church Brew Works and is on Liberty Avenue. When I worked downtown, the bus passed it daily, so I saw it being transformed from vacant church to thriving restaurant. Their logos are a little tongue in cheek: on the water glasses, "And on the eighth day, man made beer." The food was fabulous!! I did not have beer, since I imbibed two Coronas this afternoon due to blinding cramps. (Tylenol is my only pain recourse and it doesn't really work for cramps.)

So, luckily, my parents have a key to my apartment and let themselves in, since I was sound asleep when they arrived. I hope to return to that state in the next half hour.

Oh, and if the text at the top is doing that disappearing thing, just run your mouse over the area and it's like magic. Because there *is* text above the first photo. Gotta love Blogger.

And I do!