SNOW DAY!!

Howdy! Another SNOW DAY here in the Frozen North. Funny, because my daughter has missed two days of school and today she wakes up FEVER FREE and ready to rumble. AND Friday is a half day. She could have phoned it in this week. Our trip to the doctor yesterday did point out that, had we not gotten flu shots earlier in the season, her flu would have hit her much harder. Thanks goodness for modern medicine, eh?

I am just reading a collection of diaries from women crossing this country in the 1800's when the West was settled. What they had to endure! Just being a chick was hard enough. Throw in child birth and long skirts.....ouch! A cholera epidemic swept through the trail as well as dysentery, etc. The women noted the graves they passed every day. In one three day period they passed over 40 graves, hastily dug. Never being completely dry, having to cook over an open flame in a treeless landscape, never having a chance to completely wash.... It was said that the absence of women were hard on the ones travelling. That three women could use their shirts to offer privacy to each other. Not to mention the comfort of someone understanding your personal hardships.

The more I read about the settlement of this country it is AMAZING to me that people live west of the Mississippi. Ya know??

Hats off to hard working women. The men may have made the decision to push West but it was the women who insured they would make it in one (nearly) piece!

Wine List

This is just for me although feel free to copy off the list. These were the wines we sampled at the party.

2008 WINE TASTING LIST

Hook and Ladder
Cabernet California (CA) 2005 REALLY YUMMY

Lindemans Bin 45
Cab Australia (AU) 2006

Alexander Valley Vineyards -LIKED IT LOTS
Cab CA 2005

Cavit – Pinot Noir - YUM
Italy 2005

Cotes de Bourg /Chateau Guirand-Cheval-Blanc
Bordeaux France 2003

Arrow Creek
Merlot CA 2005

Piping Shrike
Shiraz AU 2006

Wild Horse
Cab CA 2005

Waterbrook
Melange Washington State 2005 THIS WAS THE ONE I GOT. LIKED IT LOTS

Ortman
Sangiovese CA 2005

Mirassou
Pinot Noir CA 2006 LOVED THIS ONE AND IT'S THE WINE OF THE WEEK @ MEIJERS

Aureus/Santa Helena
Cab Chile 2004

Marques de Casa Concha/Concha y Toro
Merlot Chile 2005 WINNER LOVE THIS LINE (Winner won $127!)

McManis
Sirah CA 2005

Cambria /Julia Vineyards
Pinot Noir CA 2005

Rancho Zabaco
Zinfandel CA 2004

Toasted Head
Cab CA 2005

Marques de Caceres
Rioja Spain 2004

Renwood
Zin CA 2005

Rosenblum
Zin CA 2005

And yes, there was one Charles Shaw Cab in there as well.

ENJOY

Feelin' spacey?

Hi All!

WOW! It's been some time since I posted here. Lots has happened! I've had a birthday - a moment of silence for one more year lost...... LOL!

Had a super party! Approximately 40 people crowded into our house for a wine tasting. We tried TWENTY different reds and wow! Blurry vision! Everyone puts $5 per bottle in the kitty - some must have put in more. The take -for the winner - was $127! A Spanish wine took the lead. We had a super fire ritual - although we didn't get all the way through all the things I had written. This is a treat for me to fashion -0ut of different readings/books/ ideas that I have - to put together a ritual that takes place outside, in the snowy evening, in front of a fire. Great! There are always those who are more "into it" than others. For those I guess I should plan a smaller, more intimate party and another fire. I am a PYRO I admit it!

All went well though and thanks to all that attended. It was a great mix of folks!!

This shot is a composit that my brother-in-law made of some photos we took at the NASA John Glenn Center in Cleveland. Cool museum - free admission - if you are into space and all that surrounds the subject. It is a bit weird to get on the base as it is well guarded and you go through a bit of an elaborate check in process as you are on federal ground. Well worth it though!!

My daughter is home today with a fever/cold deal. It's going around and I am grateful she has been so healthy, up till now.

This weekend - my bday was Sunday - was filled with friends, good food, wine, cake and some great intimate time with my honey. All told - a VERY GOOD TIME. Thanks everyone for thinking of me. I do not take for granted that there are people in this world who love me and keep me in their thoughts. Thank you so much! I love you right back!

Only 17 more shopping days (daze)

Your Birthdate: March 2
You're so intuitive, it's like you have a sixth, seventh, and eighth sense.You connect with others freely and easily - and you tend to have many best friends.Warm and caring, it's hard for you to close your heart to anyone.Affection is like air for you - you need to give and receive it to survive.

Your strength: Your universal compassion

Your weakness: Your unpredictable mood swings

Your power color: Mauve

Your power symbol: Butterfly

Your power month: February

That is (supposedly) me, in a nutshell according to this silly website.

www.blogthings.com

Sigh. Never really been drawn to butterflies....hmmmm.

And MAUVE?

WOW!

Here's another amazing photo from the Jolli Lodge website. That's the Lake in all it's glory. It snowed rather heavily last night and I was out in it helping a friend get out of a drift she had driven/slid into. Although it was a pain in the ass to get her out it was lovely to be out in the snow. Really beautiful. I passsed on an email questionnaire to friends yesterday and it was really fun to read the responses. I wouldn't ordinarily send one of these things on but it was a cold day and I was in for the duration. It reminded me of those questionnaries we used to give to friends in boring clasees, remember? Or take out of a magazine and pass around to our friends, right? How fun.

David Cassidy was on Oprah yesterday. Did you see him? I was so excited!! I had a mad crush on him as a kid. He still looked great, sounded great and looked so much like his dad! Wow! He had alot to say and I wish Oprah could have given him more time. I'd like to see him on the Actors Studio with Mr. Lipton firing off questions to him.

David has lived a lot of wild times and has struggled with the good, the bad and the ugly and he sounded pretty level headed. I did see David in concert about ten years ago. His opening act was Danny Bonaduce - who promptly made a bee line to my friend to flirt with her. He was married at the time - so was my friend. I had an interesting conversation with David's bass player. Cool guy and great musician.

David was super good. Danny was funny but a bit sad. Is he still married, I wonder? (My friend is not.) After all the rehab tv crap I wonder how he is. Anyone know?

Looking silly

Here are my cherished ones looking silly. Great, isn't it? As a teacher/performer I often talk about vulnerabilty that makes what we do compelling. Controlled vulnerabilty.

Great story in a book by the amazing soprano, Renee Fleming. She was going through a divorce and her heart was broken. She used all the emotion she had in a opera performace where she played a woman in a very similar situation. Feeling that she has really done a great "acting job" that evening she asked a friend what her thoughts were on the performance. She said..."Renee, I think you'll need to pump up the emotion in that scene. It really didn't play tonight."

WOW! She was so into her pain that she internalized it all. On stage, emotions need to be turned outward and made just a bit bigger than life. No one wants to see ordinary people onstage, you know?

In life, it's being okay with not really knowing what's coming down the pike. Just riding the wave.

You don't always have the time to fine tune the "coolness" factor.

Sometimes being on stage is alot easier!

Every year I give a party where people come togther and get to meet everyone. (Hate those wall flower parties!) Then, we all go outside and do a fire circle - this is always in the winter. What makes it cool is when people open up and say what's in their hearts around the fire. They drop the cool facade and connect. The ones that roll their eyes.....I hate that.

Go take your coolness somewhere else.

This party are for those with hot blood in their veins.

GO AHEAD AND HOWL!!!

Class Cow

I took this picture when my daughter was in kindergarten and we went to the "Real Life Farm". Way cool place. The teacher is the lady next to the cow, in the slides. Here it was late fall, at a farm and she was wearing her Candies! Love it! Right on, Mrs. W.! This brings me to my point of the day..... When do we feel "grown up"? I mean, when do we stop feeling 25 or 12 or 8? I had lunch with some friends recently and as I sat there and listened I thought...."they are so much older than me"! In truth, I think I was the oldest one there. Funny, eh?

Why do some people get "old" and some people stay connected to their youth? Maybe it's the way we can embrace new ideas and aren't afraid to look silly or get messy. These ladies were all about looking good and having nice things. Now don't get me wrong, I do like nice things. We all do. But ...and I don't want to appear superior at all, really...I don't really go for the new, shininess of things. I love that I found a bag at my favorite store in Ann Arbor (Orchid Lane) that was made in a co-op in Nepal. Love it! Cool looking and I love that it's from a region I so love and people who really need to make a living. I'd love it more if I could have bought it from them direct but I have to be content with overpaying for the product to pay for others who took the time and energy to travel there. I love to find clothing that makes me feel unique and not "ooh you got those boots?" "WOW COOL!" The same boots that 15 other friends have.

The danger here is to start feeling like my #$% doesn't stink... and it does. But I do wonder sometimes if all this materialism isn't going to catch up with us someday? Or maybe with our kids? Sigh. The best I can do is take my kid to the Salvation Army once in a while to find cool pieces that will keep us warm, look nice AND that give us the chance to recycle and donate to a charity. Now THAT'S COOL!