Halloween Cat Costumes By Birk: Happy Halloween?

Ever wonder what your cat can morph into for Halloween? Birk can help you. Perhaps, give these a try:

Ghost Kitty

Cool Cat

Pioneer Kitty

Yay! It's Monday! Marvelous Monday!

I've written many posts about depressing Monday mornings. However, today, I'm quite glad it's Monday. I have the house to myself (along with a construction crew pouring cement and using some kind of saw) and there is a strange peace in knowing what I'll be doing for the rest of the day.

On the weekends, there is no real schedule. It shifts and changes all of the time. I plan nothing, because if I plan something, it doesn't happen anyway. We go with the flow, which might sound both difficult and nice, but this also means that we get nothing accomplished.

Yes, I have hopes and dreams on the weekend. Maybe we'll visit that museum exhibit that I want to see--and do it as a family and impart fabulous culture and knowledge upon our children. Maybe we will sort the last lot of boxes, take the donations to Good Will, or actually cook a nice Sunday dinner?

Those are my dreams, but none of those dreams ever really come true. I am a little water plant in a quick moving stream. If the wind blows in one direction, my fronds go that way. I have no power against the tide.

However, on Monday, I am once again mistress of my own destiny--to a certain point. I am in charge of myself. I can only blame me if nothing gets ticked off my list and I get ticked off. Marvelous Monday. What do you think of that? Is a certain place freezing over?

Thinking about Halloween: Life, Death and the First Day of 3rd Grade

It was the first day of school for Birk today. We were making eggs over easy on the stove together, cooking and chatting.

BIRK: Mom, when you're reincarnated, what would you like to come back as?

MOM: Reincarnated?

BIRK: You know, after you die, you come back as something else. I'd like to be a bunny or a Pegasus.

MOM: The thing is...

BIRK: Do you get to come back to the same family? Can I be in this family when I'm reincarnated?

You have to wonder where these ideas come from. I know we've discussed Heaven, so this reincarnation thing side swiped me.

Over coffee with my friend, she said her son created his own idea of Heaven after his grandmother passed away. In his idea of 6-year-old Heaven, people lay on their backs in the grass and stare up at clouds. He was also insistent that his cremated grandmother have a "stone" somewhere with her name.

It must be like being a little explorer in this vast world. Ideas and images fly around and you have to grasp and grapple. His mother wondered where he got the idea of a tombstone.

I guess we drive by cemeteries in the car and we put all kinds of freakish decorations out for Halloween. TV and movies probably add to the it and there is a bevy of information about religions and beliefs that is discussed at school.

I'm quietly thinking about a conversation that I can have with Birk later. We live in a world where ideas are colors blending on the palette. Time to paint a masterpiece.

Computerless, Artless, and Landlineless

Dear Friends,

It's been about 3 months since I've had a steady functioning computer of my own. I'm developing a permanent squint from gazing at the small, rectangular screen of my iphone. I pretty much can do anything with my phone now. It's not a skill I want to really keep honing, though.

I'm also, once again, living among the boxes. I'm tired of boxes. I'm tired of packing. I'm tired of unpacking. I'm tired of lugging. We've decided that we are not hanging any art until all of the boxes are sorted and put away. It's very weird to be living with bare walls. We have a lot of art and a lot of it created was by our kids. It feels dull and lifeless and very boxed in.

We also have no landline telephone. This is really no biggie. However, have you ever had to make every dentist, doctor and school visit appointment while squinting at your smart phone screen calendar and yelling into the speaker phone? It does not make one feel very together and organized, I can tell ya that.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we have no tv. I probably miss this the least. It would be nice to see the fall line up, though. We did find the stereo, though.

I've gone both back and forward in time these last few months. I'm ready for good old down time.

Sign Me,
Don't Box Me In Again Until I Get My Sleeping Vacation

Greetings from Banff

Dear Friends,

Here we are in Banff. George is at a conference, and I'm the tagalong. This is good considering our house is a wreck and my computer is broken...again!

Yes, the computer. I guess it's time to visit the Apple Genius people again. Oh, it must be nice to have a job where you are called a genius. Everyone looks up to you and wants and needs your attention. Nice. My job usually doesn't go in that direction, considering that I have two teenagers. (btw RIP Steve Jobs).

Banff is a beautiful place. Have to complain a little about the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel. For the second year in a row we ended up in the parking lot view room. We made such a scene last time, we figured that this could not happen again. AND...this was after George called 3 times to make sure that we were not in a parking lot view room. Not even if we were really looking at cars, we are looking at concrete walls. What is the point when you are in beautiful wilderness???

Now, we have been upgraded in room and price to the "best view in the house." It is truly spectacular. It is also because we have been in the "best view in the house" before that we whine so much about the parking lot view. My goodness!

House. Disaster. The renovation looks great. All of our crap? Looks bad. Need I go further? I think not.

We are celebrating 18 years of marriage. Still no one I'd rather spend my time with even after all of this time. He wants me to give up my land ownership and become a full time water girl. Love will always make you a fool. That is all I can say.

I'm going to run and watch The Help. Hope you are having a good week.

TTFN,
Deb