River Frost

River frost - "frost" and "frosting"...



A coincidence that they both look the same?
I do not think so.


Frozen Mississippi River, Illinois, December 2007.




(Most) photographs compliments of John -




M

My Favorite Things...

I remember learning this song
for a Christmas Pageant at my tiny grade school;
not really knowing what streudels or schnitzel were,
but they must be pretty good things
to make it onto this list.
Heck, I had never seen "The Sound of Music"
when I was 6 or 7 years old.
Our music teacher/show director
was a Juilliard School graduate,
a pianist, who also happened to
be a concert-level harpist, but who
seemed very happy and proud
to be working with 50-60 school children
ranging in ages from 5-12,
who truly were not very good singers,
but loved to sing loud.
I still remember these lyrics -
Miss Goodwin taught us that well.



Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things






Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things






Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on your nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things






When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

M

A Boa Named Noah...

Luke's last day at work yesterday
and stories about his boa constrictor
named "Noah"
at the pizza joint last night...
I didn't believe you Luke,
so you called your brother
to verify the story...
He even knew the breed of your snake!
Good luck in Texas
Maybe we'll meet again on the road.



Found some funny lyrics by "Hot Snakes",
not sure what's their music sounds like,
but I liked the sentiment:


Your minutiae Your perks Your perspective
My paperwork Your system Your appeal
Your records
My paperwork
Your labor of love
My paperwork
It's pretty clear to me
Any upside I'll ever see Is gonna have to be
Underwritten by you Your place in history
Supposed to be
An incentive to me?
Your arrangements Your score Your standings
Your impropriety Your tenacity Your philanthropy
Your merits
My paperwork
It's piling up

-by Hot Snakes

M

Black-capped Chickadees

Snow dusting wooden steps
Tiny birds waiting for more seed
tip toeing
through fine snow
footprints.




This is my 101st blog!
M

Fa La La...

Yes, that time of year again...
No not the Ho, Ho, Ho stuff, but the resolution stuff!
Just finished my online college class
that started as a classroom stint in September,
(one week late from France),
and ended as an online course
after finding an out-of-town job.

I love to learn.
I look forward to taking
continuing education courses
for my medical license,
enjoy participating in
foreign language adult education,




even have a good time
at the occasional
round table discussion group.




My resolution is and will always be:
Never stop learning new things.
Stretch to learn about
other people and places.
Try to teach what you have learned.
Share.
Be willing to change your mind.
Never stop learning.
Good luck in 2008.
M

Mickey the Cat

Mickey the cat went to be with her friends;
Sully, Shadow, Fuzzibutt, and Beamer
on the morning of November 24, 2007.

She was a very friendly cat who would always
choose whose lap to sit on,
liked playing with her reflection in a full length mirror,
would stand on her hind legs and dance (a little bit),
liked meeting and talking to people,
did "OK" with Mom Chaney's dog, Scooter,
enjoyed couch armrests that were built cat-wide,
kept a close eye on the birds outside the window,
and always came to the front door to greet us
when we came home from work.
She was a barn cat
who was found as a very tiny kitten
abandoned by her mother.
A little bit of a tiger-striped,
matted tail kitten who looked more like
a baby mouse than a cat.
That's why we called her
"Mickey" (mouse).
As she got bigger at the barn,
she was the one of the 13 cats
who would stand in the middle
of the trough of cat food
(long story - just imagine what chickens eat out of,
then imaging how to have
13 cats eat out of one long cat dish...)
- well Mickey would climb
into the trough of food and
play king of the mountain -
shoving the adult cats out of her way
while she ate her food,
growling and puffing up her fur
to look bigger and badder.

She came to our house
and ended up being a
dainty eater.
Go figure.
She spent the summer of 2007 at
summer camp
with her friend Jenny
and Jenny's cat, Reanna;
a special needs cat who
Mickey worked with
to show her how to
play like a cat.
She also had a favorite aunt, Lisa,
who always smelled like other cats,
but had neat drawstrings
on her coat for Mickey to play with.

She was seven years old.
The doctors believe it was probably
a brain tumor
that was taking her favorite things away.
M

Food Stuff

I'll admit it, pumpkin pie is my favorite food during Thanksgiving.
Although pumpkin pie done badly
can make a person swear off it for up to a year;
the nutty, spicy flavor of perfect pumpkin pie filling,
mixed with the highest level of flakiness and buttery taste
of a pastry-chef-quality pie crust,
topped with a finale of light-as-air
whipped cream
allows for heavenly dreams through New Year's Day...
Pumpkin pie will forever remain
my favorite part of November.

How about you?
Favorite food?
Favorite holiday-related food?
Weirdest holiday-related food?
White meat or dark meat?
Sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes?
A food item you would not miss if you never saw it again?

Let me know.
M

And wherever you are...Have a great Thanksgiving.

Go Outside and Play!

Our computers at home have to suffer through a dial-up internet connection. This area of town is scheduled to offer high speed internet soon, but in the mean time with online course requirements, I have been exploring the free wireless network options around town. Originally we enjoyed Wi-Fi at our favorite coffee house, but management changed, and belts need to be tightened. Now I have discovered that Panera Bread offers free wireless. I am cheap, I will NOT use pay-for-internet services at that world wide, monster-sized coffee business that shall remain unnamed, or at any other chain locations that charge for the service - when I can find it for free...





While in Europe we enjoyed free wireless through the art school, and while traveling we had a subscription to Orange-WiFi, which seemed to be the primary server throughout France.





I am hopeful that soon whole cities and towns will allow for quick, efficient, free wireless access, much like what is currently available in most USA hospitals, colleges, and universities. Just a quick question: Where do YOU get your internet; at home (quickly or slowly?), pay-for-service out and about, or at free locations?






Perhaps I am just spoiled, and should go back to my slow, unreliable dial-up - which encourages me to get off my computer more, and go outside an play - where everything is always free, quick and efficient.

Costume for Halloween? Let me know!

Road Trip!

Apologies if the last two months of blogging have been lacking,
but now I can explain why...
Looking for a new job;
after a few offers were declined-
found a wonderful position at an Illinois-based
outpatient aquatic therapy facility,
working full time on contract.





Driving about 75 miles/115 kilometers each way
with interesting scenery every mile along the route.





Also on the lookout at sunrise and sunset
for deer who may decide to try to cross the Interstate,
as well as for state troopers in their ever-changing vehicles
(mustangs, camaros, pick-up trucks, etc.)
not that I ever speed, but...





New jobs are always intimidating the first few weeks
with each side sizing up the competition,
and making sure they follow the stated and unstated
protocols of the office.
As if I am trying out for a school play...
Is my hair OK?, Am I wearing the right clothes?
Do they like me?






The play opened this week
we will see how the reviews turn out.





M

Blueberry Elf

I love costumes.
Always have and always will.

As a child I remember being
somewhat envious of other kids
wearing their store-bought
fancy costumes and masks,
but only until I realized
my Halloween costumes
were always original.
The earliest photograph
of one of my Halloween costumes
is of me; crouched, perching
on an old tree stump
in the front yard,
as a blueberry elf.
Greenish-blue tights, and a sweatshirt
with wire-strung cardboard and fabric
wings, and green tipped fabric ears,
along with a matching acorn-shaped cap
made my imagination fly and play
like the magical fairies of the forest.
I was 5 years old.

I have since learned it must be genetic...
My grandmother and great aunt also
loved to dress up and allow their imaginations
to soar.




Great-Aunt Cleone left me a scrapbook
and I can easily imagine being
part of her group of friends
at a costume party in 1916.
I am not sure who "Lu" is, though.






Remember your most outrageous costume?
I have trouble deciding.
Was it the year I convinced an 11 year-old friend
to be the tail-portion of a two-person
polka-dotted horse costume?
(Designed and build by my parents).

In high school I was in theater...
No further explanations are necessary.

Dating required the young man to plan on
wearing a partner costume
when going on a date in October.

Or perhaps in my early 20's when I
decided to throw a costume party...
Behind a ski boat....
Imagine what skiing
on the muddy Mississippi
does to a white prom dress,
or an old tux,
or a non-washable, fuzzy, leopard-print
"Jane" (without Tarzan) outfit.

Then I got into Civil War Reenacting.




Once again, no further explanations.

Or was it the year a girlfriend and I decided
it would be fun to dress as two
bunch of grapes;
I wore purple, she wore green
with plastic vines and leaves in our hair,
pinning corresponding colored
medium-sized
balloons
all over each other...
And then could not fit into the car...

Around that same time I was teaching water exercise
at various pools in the community.
Let's have another water-based costume party!
I was happy to provide water-proof costumes
to those who tried to forget to bring their own.
After all, fancy HATS, wigs and jewelry
are all you really need when you are
chest-deep in a swimming pool.





I knew John was the one for me:
We met in high school theater.
He loved the rock group KISS.
He was a Civil War reenactor first.
He understands that we have more containers
in the attic filled with costumes
than Christmas decorations.

He gets me.
M

If You Would Not Fail...

More answers for the ongoing question:
What would you do with your life
if you knew you would not fail?


From Timothy;
one of the two instructors
and owners
at Studio Escalier:


Stop sleeping Monday thru FRIDAY,
so I could paint all day, and teach all night.
Then, ask my French bank for 35 million dollars,
to buy and renovate every crusty building
in my town to my standards,
just as a weekend project
(including the old chateau.)
Lastly, elect a suitable friend as mayor,
who'd permanently restore the name of my town
back to Argenton-Chateau,
and build me a train link
from Saumur to HERE to Bressuire!


---Note from Marty:
Michelle -
I need your answer soon...
your comments to the same question are next...

Open Door Policy

Our house was built in 1929,
and John & I are the second owners,
buying this little slice of heaven in 1990.
The previous owner was a mailman in our city,
and we believe the home was built
utilizing mail-order house plans.




Our Craftsman/bungalow style home offers many special touches;
a built-in desk and covered bookcase on one side of the fireplace,
and a glass-fronted bookcase on the other, unusual light fixtures,
sparkly glass doorknobs, and warm, golden wood floors.





Most of the plaster walls had a single layer
of what may be 1930's wallpaper,
and much of the woodwork is in original condition.
We have an open-door policy,
so stop by some time and say hello!

River Views

Yesterday:
Our 20th anniversary.
Photos from LeClaire, Iowa
of a riverboat offering day-cruises,
and an unknown plant-of-the-day...?




Polar bear regatta
Davenport, Iowa.

Living Here...

We have lived in the Quad Cities all our lives.
The Mississippi river divides the four major cities
in our area, and the water draws me like a strong magnet
when I need to think, or relax, or simply remember
my childhood - growing up on its banks.




Today we enjoyed the Mississippi from a local park;
watching the clouds drift past,
the white pelicans soar above the dam nearby,
and just quietly talking
about the next steps in our lives.




More adventures?
Every day.

Happy Stuff at Home

A few happy events since we have been home...

Dinner with friends,
and John using his French Laguiole sommelier tool,
(pocket knife with corkscrew), to open some good wine.






The QC's "Big Fat Greek Festival"
with some potent Greek coffee that stuck to the sides of the cup
and popped your eyes wide open....









And an outdoor wedding at Black Hawk State Park
with wonderful weather
and a beautiful bride.

Jambalaya

United States has been referred to as a "Melting Pot",
(several mixes of ingredients in a soup),
but I believe we are more of a jambalaya -
overall a mix of healthy and spicy ingredients,
fresh from the land, sauteed and simmered
until a perfect mix of flavors are released,
and yet offering distinct and specialized
tastes of the history of all the people.

We enjoy a local ice cream store
with several locations in our town,
lately they have added ice cream flavors;
new tastes reminiscent of other ethnic groups, with excellent results.
And yet our local libraries and schools
struggle for funding to stay open,
and can only offer small amounts of information
easily comprehended by recent immigrants.

This is my next plan of action:
Sweeten the flavors at my local library
to include those who struggle to live here.
Stay tuned on how this travel progresses.
M

Autumn

"All-cheering Plenty,
with her flowering horn,
led yellow Autumn,
Wreath'd with nodding corn".
-Robert Burns




"Many things that grow in the garden that were never sowed there".
-Proverb




"To find out what one is fitted to do
and to secure an opportunity to do it
is the key to happiness".
-John Dewey




"All of the animals,
excepting man,
know that the principal business of life
is to enjoy it".
-Samuel Butler




"The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over the harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then, moves on".
-Carl Sandburg

Enjoyed fresh corn on the cob this evening - Buy Local.
M

Oceans of Truth

To myself I am only a child playing on the beach,
while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.
— Isaac Newton


Yes I want to go see more oceans!
Busy week in Illinois,
trying to keep up with hundreds of choices of;
restaurants, items at grocery stores, commercials on TV, etc.
Going through reverse-culture-shock.

Have finished our scrapbook and our slide show of Europe;
many of those images are now on my "photo album" on this blog.





Enjoying Farmer's Markets every Saturday.