I Could Seriously Watch This Guy All Day

This guy was on Leno last Thursday and I just about died watching him. I've been waiting with baited breath for this clip to reach youtube so that I could share it with the world (meaning the 5 people who actually read this thing) ever since.

I'll Do Anything You Want... Just Don't Take Away My Solitaire

I have rediscovered an old obsession of mine, Solitaire.

Back in the day, I played it all the time at school, at home, on the computer, and with actual cards, but then we updated our computers at home and our Hoyle Card Games game was no longer my computer happy. Bummer. So, I sort of got over it.

Then I went to college. Just think, an entire school filled to the brim with solitaire equipped Windows computers (the built in game package is probs the only positive thing Windows computers have going for them). I was in card game heaven.

I didn't let it take my life away, but there may or may not have been several mornings or afternoons spent in the libs or the amazing computer lab in Hoover, when I found myself straying to a quick game of good ol' Solitaire, for a "break" from that paper I was writing or the website I was making. Of course, I always lost. So, that one quick game, turned into two quick games, and then three quick games, and then four, and so on, until I was completely absorbed in my inability to actually win. Each time, I would tell myself that as soon as I won, I'd stop. And then, each time, I would inevitably lose.

I guess this was a problem for more students (and faculty?) than just me because upon returning to campus for my senior year, to my dismay I discovered a horrible fact. The school had removed all the games from all of the computers on campus. No more Solitaire, no more Spider Solitaire (another game I had recently become enraptured with), and no more minesweeper (a game I was absolutely horrible at but still liked to play occasionally). And so I spent my senior year of college in a Solitaireless state of sadness.

Now, six months later, that wonderfully frustrating and annoyingly amazing game is back in my life. Ahh, the joys of working in a newspaper office. Now in my free time at work, in between waiting for coaches to call in their scores so I can write about them and searching the AP wire for fun and interesting sports, international, and business stories and laying all that info out on its respective pages, I get to play the occasional game of Solitaire once again. Sometimes... sometimes life is good.

Lines and Squares

For some reason I got to reminicing about my childhood today and I remembered all of the times that my Papa and Grandaddy read A.A. Milne's poems to me and my brother. It was years and years ago, but I can still remember those times like they were yesterday. Most of them were from When We Were Very Young. My favorites were Lines and Squares, Buckingham Palace, Happiness, The Four Friends, Disobedience, Rice Pudding, The King's Breakfast, The Dormouse and the Doctor, and Vespers.

Lines and Squares

by A.A. Milne

Whenever I walk in a London street

I'm every so careful to watch my feet;

And I keep in the squares,

And the masses of bears,

Who wait at the corners all ready to eat

The sillies who tread on the lines of the street,

Go back to their lairs

And I say to them, "Bears,

Just look how I'm walking in all of the squares!"

And the little bears growl to each other, "He's mine,

As soon as he's silly and steps on a line."

And some of the bigger bears try to pretend

That they came round the corner to look for a friend;

And they try to pretend that nobody cares

Whether you walk on the lines or squares.

But only the sillies believe their talk;

It's ever so portant how you walk.

And it's ever so jolly to call out, "Bears,

Just watch me walking in all the squares!"

Years are Getting Shorter, Lines on Your Face are Getting Longer...

Happy Birthday mamma! This card describes you perfectly!

The title, on the other hand, doesn't really... :) It's from the opening lines of a great birthdayesque song called 30/90 by Jonathan Larson (the guy who wrote Rent). This song usually has a place on the Birthday CDs I give to my friends.

Daffodils are the Friendliest Flowers

My spontaneous daffodil celebration in the Queen's Gardens in London

Thanks for capturing it Lisa!

You know that scene in You've Got Mail when Tom Hank's character brings Meg Ryan's character daisies because she has a cold and she says that she thinks daisies are the friendliest flower? Well, I have to disagree.

Daffodils, not daisies, are the friendliest flower. I mean first off, it's way more fun to say daffodil than daisy. Go on, say it (by which I mean say daffodil, not it). Doesn't that just make you giggle? I do. Daisy, on the other hand, does not.

Then, there's the issue of color. Daffodils are pretty and yellow or yellow and white or yellow and orange or yellow and darker yellow. But usually mostly yellow, which is a cheerful, friendly color. In some cultures, it's even the color of good luck. Daisies are only white. Lame.

Daffodils are also so varied in shape and size. There are double flowered ones and single flowered ones and big ones and small ones. And the miniature ones are just so dang cute. Daisies are all one size (none of which are very cute).

And the smell! Daffodils smell amazing. I wish I could bottle it up in a jar so I could have a whiff every now and then, even in the fall or winter when they no longer grace my front lawn and back yard and table tops.

Daffodils (not daisies) are the friendliest flower. End of story.

I'm Yours

Thanks for sharing this with me Roni! Probably my favorite version of I'm yours ever.

Little Orange Tabby Cat

For the past two and a half months, every time I drove to ballet or to work or just in to town, I met a friend along the way.

My friend was this little orange tabby cat that was lying peacefully by the side of the road.

I first noticed him when we got home from spending New Years with my friend. I have no idea how long he'd been napping there before then, but I'm pretty sure he didn't spend Christmas there. He looked so comfortable lying there, it almost made me want to join him. Almost.

Then it snowed. My friend disappeared under more than 18 inches of snow. But each time I drove by, I still hoped he was still there, sleeping away, keeping me from getting lonely on that quiet bend in the road.

Several weeks later, he finally reappeared from beneath the snow, looking just as pretty and orange as he had before being buried.

Then one day, he just wasn't there any more. No longer gracing the grassy green bend with his pretty orange fur. He just disappeared.

It was crazy. I swear that little cat toed the line of frozen immortality for those two and a half months. He never showed any signs of decomposition or decay, never gave any indication of becoming animal fodder. He was untouchable.

I miss him.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

I do both! In honor of all the rain we've been getting lately I thought I'd keep the water theme I had last post going.

Ever Wonder What A Drop of Water Looks Like?

Thank you TimeWarp guys!

Alice I Have Been

Alice I Have Been

by Melanie Benjamin

I just finished reading an incredible book about the girl behind the mirror, behind the tea party, behind the magic, the girl behind wonderland.

Alice I Have Been is a fictional story based on the life of Alice Pleasance Liddell Hargreaves. In her book, Melanie Benjamin paints a picture of Alice Liddell's life as she grows from an innocent 7-year-old girl posing as a gypsy girl for her friend Mr. Dodgson to an 80-year-old woman, haunted by her past.

Alice's story is filled with questions, what if's, and could have beens. It is not a happy one, although it started out as such. But as I read it, I found myself becoming deeply attached to Alice, a girl so different, yet strikingly similar to the one I remembered from my own adventures in Wonderland (while reading the book of course). I found myself hoping beyond hope that Alice would be able to find true happiness, happiness that always seemed just beyond her grasp, happiness that was, perhaps, stuck on the other side of the looking glass.

Alice I Have Been weaves fact with fiction so closely that it is hard to know where the truth ends and the story begins. It was a book I was sorry to put down and even sorrier to finish.

For more on this book, including excerpts from the book and interviews with the author, check out this website!

Can't Get Enough?
Read the book that started it all!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is one of the most celebrated children's books of all time. Full of nonsensical rhymes and crazy characters, this is definitely one you should read over and over again.

"there is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "i dare say you haven't had much practice," said the queen. "when I was your age, i always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes i've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

It's A Hat! With Earflaps!

It's a little big for Big Dolly, but I think she managed the modeling gig pretty darn well!

Isn't this the absolute cutest earflap hat ever??? I'm trying to decide if I should add a pompom to the top. What do you think?

Crazy!

Yesterday was March 3.

For those of you who are numerically inclined that makes it 03-03-10

For the purposes of this post, please ignore the 10.

That makes yesterday 03-03 or 0303.

If you remove that pesky unnecessary first zero that makes it 303.

As of yesterday there were 303 days left in the year.

Crazy!

Just Call Me The Girl With Four Jobs...

I got a job today. Another one.

As of 4 pm this afternoon I officially became an employee at a newspaper office. Professor Fields would probably die from happiness if she knew. She always said I'd make a great reporter. Unfortunately for good ol' Raylena (but fortunately for my own sanity), I'm not going be doing any reporting. I get to be the next great layout, design, and copy editing girl. Pretty cool huh?

The only downside would have to be the 3:30-10:30p Wed-Fri schedule, which makes for four days in a row of work or work + ballet from 9:30a-9:30p or even 11p. Am I crazy? Quite possibly! But it sure will be an exciting ride...

My only qualm is that I don't quite know when I'm going to fit in my treadmilling, tv watching, party pants wearing, fan blowing chill time! I guess I'll just have to start getting up earlier... bummer!

So, if you can't find me one day, just look for me in the nearest children's clothing shop or publishing house or college or newsroom or crazy house or hospital because I'm either wearing one of my many different hats or I've gone crazy, although, I think crazy is a hat I wear pretty well already...

Wise Words to Live By

I do this sometimes and I have to say, Robert's right... it's a bad idea!