Full Moon Tonight

Wolf moon, it's called. First full moon of the year. Bright and pretty. And man ohhh man is it cold out there. Brrrrrr.

Hammy Delivers

Never much liked cartoons when I was a kid but mornings when Betty Lou would tell Katrina to open the curtains, shut off the lights and say a "tahh-dahhhh"..........well, I loved those trips to the riverbank.

Before you: perfect box-lunch dessert. You can unwrap your Twinkie and freeze it, deep-fry it, slice it, smash it or just stuff the whole thing in your mouth at once. It is golden-caked perfection with a ooey-gooey creamy filling. Nummers!!!!!!



More than just the perfect packaged lunch-box dessert, the spongy cream-filled Twinkie is versatile, too! It's a mass-produced pastry of great historical stature with many important credits to it's name..............

Knocking Tyson on his butt in the 2nd round.
(What???!!! You missed that on the sports page????)

TwinkieHenge, a popular tourist attraction and ancient pagan burial ground where many-a-Gumby was sacrificed to the Claymation gods.

Gaining in popularity, the Twinkie baby bag which provides a nice, warm snuggly place for the wee ones to rest....not to mention a really groovy experience for their widdy biddy toes in all that creamy filling in there.

So you might think there couldn't possibly be another use for a Twinkie, might'nt you?? You would be wrong. Behold, yet another practical application for the gold and spongy, cream-filled Twinkie.....today I opened my mailbox to find a cardboard box, shipped from the East as a belated holiday wish. The box was pretty much smashed. When I cut past the layers of packing tape, here is what I found inside........


Cute, huh? Little chocolate snowmen marched straight out of the box to melt in my mouth and remind me why I love the holidays. And a big stack of Twinkies all taped together. Taped to the top and sides of the Twinkie bundle were Little Debbie cut-outs, clipped from a pastry box......get it, I'm Debbie......they say Little Debbie........I don't have freckles but you get the ideer......anyway, I thought now how FUN is this!!! Chocolate and Twinkies, what a fun gift!!!

So I picked up the bundle of Twinkies and yknow what????

The Twinkies were actually PACKING. That's why they were all taped together. When I picked up the little bundle, I realized they were packed around a neat little gift box wrapped up inside them. The Twinkies were pretty much smashed...........but the little gift box was safe and sound, arriving without so much as a scratch. And inside??

These awesomely cool, artsy, hugging salt and pepper shakers. Hugging........get it? My very dear friend was sending me a Christmas hug along with my favorite treats.

I feel nice and hugged, that's for sure.
Thanks JB.

The Continuing Assualt

Winter continues to have her way with us. Can't say that I am complaining, though. I'm really not. The cold air, snow and ice make me feel all homey and snuggly. I cook. I bake. I light the candles, sip a little whatever........this is what four-seasons is all about. I love it.

Ohhhhh, I'll be darn glad to see the sun whenever it decides to shine again. But for now....well, even as I'm teetering along on the sidewalk just trying to make my way into the grocery store for that critical gallon of milk I find the artistry of this winter to be absolutely exquisite. I couldn't get out of my car to photograph the amazing two days of giant frost we enjoyed last week without risking life and limb with all the drifted snow that remains piled everywhere but the ice storm that followed glazed the ordinary objects of my little daily world into a fine gallery of icy art.

Waffle ice, now how cool is that??

Smart birdies having packed off to warmer climes many long months ago......

My favorite drive-thru is frozen solid........

but the Grande Vanilla Hot Chocolate extra-hot is still steamy and perfect.

Favorite Quotes of the Day

Sshhhhhhh!!!!

I'm 50-some years old, plenty old enough to have learned. Still I have to admit it's devastated me a bit to find out people don't keep confidences. I guess my buddy was right when he suggested I take off my rose-colored glasses and start living in the real world like everyone else. Yeahhh, I guess it's time, huh.

Favorite quote to help me remember next time I get a wild idea to trust someone.....anyone.......with a confidence:

Three can keep a secret if two are dead.

Benjamin Franklin

Love Mongolia

If you've been around me for any time at all you know I love Mongolia, love reading about the nomadic tribes and their way of life. They have an amazing and ancient kinship with nature and animals. This is one of my favorite videos, a five-minute glimpse into the art of Mongolian falconry.




So cool.

On the Road Again

To complicate last weeks travel plans I have some kinda weird inner-ear / sinus thing going on. When I roll over in bed my head sort of spins and it feels like my brain is siphoning over into the other half of my head. Decongestants help but for the past couple of weeks I feel just a little wobbly most of the time, like I just got off a merry-go-round, like I might tip over to the left....or right....at any moment when I'm walking around.

In a tippy world where my head is spinning like that sad little Exorcist chickie it further complicates matters when everything around me is...slightly askew. I'll show you what I mean, but first consider this.......I come from a land where everything is pretty much blocked off in nice little squares. The streets in my city are laid out in a grid, like a neat and tidy checkerboard. The buildings are pretty much up and down............this side of this building is perfectly up-and-down-parallel with that side of that building. Even way out in the country all the farm fields are neat and tidy, laid out in mile-by-mile squares making our 99 counties look like a perfectly stitched patchwork quilt from the window of an airplane at 30,000 feet.

I'm an artist, it's not that everything has to be squared-up ordinary to appeal to me. I'm just sayin' my world lines up pretty nice in front of my eyes most days in a way that makes proportional sense.

Take one tippy-head chick with an overstuffed suitcase, point her in the direction of an airport with a ticket for Atlanta and you've got a recipe for complete, mind-numbing vertigo.

The terminal.
I try not to look up.

Moving sidewalk.
Moving walls.

Moving neon.

Hold. On. With. Both. Hands.

Don't look down.
Or sideways.

And that was just the airport.


The hotel is 50 floors.
For a girl that doesn't like heights those are just
50 opportunities for one to go plummeting to an untimely death
while rummaging in ones purse for the room key.

Wasn't kidding.
Not a square corner in the place.

245 steps and two elevator rides from the front desk to
my room at the verry end of this hallway.

One entire wall of my room was glass and I swear to you the floor was slightly tilted toward those windows ~ untimely death via a middle-of-the-night stumble in the wrong direction. Tough to sleep when you're worried you're going to end up 50-floors down on the pavement in your nightie if you need to get up and pee.

So I didn't. I just took my decongestants, slipped under these covers with the remote control, kept the curtains closed the whole time and pretended my room was on the first floor.

Even when I'm feeling a little dizzy in the head, I recognize a good thing when I see it.
A six-pillow week is generally gonna be a pretty great week.