Slice of DD

The very first color image of Mercury from orbit. On March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011, UTC), MESSENGER became the first spacecraft ever to orbit the planet Mercury. It’s not every day that we get to witness this kind of event, so I think it’s worth noting. 

Reading the little book I wrote and had published for my grandkids tonight was pretty awesome. It’s a little holiday story, personalized so that my grandkids’ are the stars of the story. It’s called “A Christmas Eve Adventure”. You can see a photo of the front cover above. It was pretty easy to turn the pdf file I created into a real, live book at lulu.com. The kids really enjoyed the reading, and I hope one day, when they are older, they’ll think of me when they look at it. I gave one to each. Good times. :) You can personalize your own and print it out at Christmas Corner. While you’re there, you can also download Christmas wallpaper, print out gift tags, and a lot more cool stuff.

I love it when I start the day off with a giggle, a chuckle, or a big ol’ belly laugh. I got all three when I saw this, this morning. I highly recommend you start your day off the same way. :D

Winter sunsets are the best. It’s not winter yet, but this proves that it won’t be long. View from our deck. Not the best photo, but that’s ok. Just have to share a little of the beauty here even if you have to use your imagination to get past the blur. :)

This is the Halloween wallpaper I created (of many) that I like the best. I’ve got quite a few more to choose from on that site so now’s a good time to check ‘em out. Halloween is just a couple weeks away.

Once Halloween is over, it seems like the rest of the holiday season just flies by. If I forget to share my Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff later, I’ll throw a few things in here, in case anyone is interested.  Here are a few links:

Use my turkey calculator to not only know how long to cook your Thanksgiving turkey, but also to find out when to start defrosting a frozen turkey, how much turkey and stuffing you’ll need based on how many people you’re feeding, and other cool info to make sure you do it right.

Once Christmas rolls around, check out all of my Christmas wallpaper, but especially my new Santa Tweets wallpaper. He’s staying up with the times, ya know. :)  I’ve also got our family’s fave Christmas holiday recipes there, Christmas gift ideas, Christmas ecards you can send, and tons more.  Oh, and one of my favorite things is the Christmas story I wrote that you can personalize with a kid’s name and print out for free. I did this for my grandkids last year, and they thought some magic must have been performed to have their own names in a Christmas story. I thought that was pretty awesome. :D

I know this particular post sounds like hype and promotion, and don’t get me wrong, I’m a marketer, so yeah, there’s that part of it. But the reality is that these particular links are close to my heart for various reasons, and they are a pretty big part of my life, so it only makes sense to chronicle them here on my personal slice of life.  I’ve put a fair amount of my soul into some of these things, so it seems like I should let people see that part of me too. 

via upload.wikimedia.org

The simple quesadilla. My favorite food. I could live on quesadillas. Give me some flour tortillas, some cheese, and some jalapeno peppers, and I’m all good. Forever. And a day.

Photo by and (c)2007 Jina Lee

I love this photo. It speaks to me for several reasons. Of course, there’s the obvious point of the one yellow tulip amidst all the thousands of red tulips. I like to think of myself that way. I know I’m a tulip just like all the thousands of tulips around me. But I’m not exactly like all those other tulips either.  And of course, each tulip is really the yellow one, as each is different from all the rest. But when looked at from a personal perspective, I only see my own yellow tulip. As you only see your own yellow tulip. And so it goes…

Another reason this photo speaks to me is because I’m simply entranced by fields of flowers. Actually, I’m entranced by fields of color in general. Flowers - and colors - cause a reaction in me. It’s not one I can really describe very well. And frankly, I don’t need to see “real” flowers to have the reaction. A simple photograph or painting causes the same reaction. So, it’s not so much the “thing” of flowers, as it is the visual image of flowers - and colors - that puts me in a place far away from my every day place. 

So today, when I’ve got a headcold, and the air conditioner has frozen up once again, so the heat is near unbearable… I look at this photo and I smile.

via www.reichassociates.net

This is Bogue Chitto State Park. Taking the grandkids there this weekend if all goes well. I wish we had a camp that the kids could go to, like we grew up with, but for now, taking short little trips to beautiful state parks will have to do. Maybe, if I can remember to pick up some cream at the store, I’ll give them cream-and-sugar sandwiches to take with them, like my Daddy used to do for me when he took me fishing every weekend. :)

habry feet (by Drumeros & Marfeeta)

A friend reminded me today of the need to eat, play, love more. Since my day was one of disappointment, I decided to pay special attention to her words. One of the photos she shared reminds me of this one that I saw on flickr. This is where my mind is going … right now.

Antonio Canova - Perseus and Medusa back wide view detail, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (by ketrin1407)

So, on the way home this afternoon, I saw this standing in a ditch just about a mile down the road from my house.

Without the sword. Or the cape. Or the helmet. Or Medusa’s head.

Oh, and it wasn’t a statue either.

There was a “nekkid” person standing in the ditch just about a mile down the road from my house today.

No idea why. Or who.

Just think of me as your friendly neighborhood reporter.