posted on Bobbi's site at visionarysuccess.zaadz.com

So nice to be back online. Bobbie just emailed me and asked to connect, because she liked my icon picture, said it reminded her of her own pictures. Of course, I don't know if she actually took this picture or if it is just a part of her collection, but there are many amazing photos there... Including the blue iceburg picture below. That is really just a wild coincidence, because I only "met" Bobbie today!

Wow, just noticed the cool pencil icon that allows you to edit from the page, instead of navigating back to the dashboard.

Ain't that sweet!

mnp

I am back, I am back, I am back!

Kaloo, Kalay oh Frabjous day!

mnp

Here it is: a duplex, three bedrooms (two up, one down) no garage, 1-1/2 miles from Northern Arizona University. Vern will see it tomorrow. There is a Franklin stove in the living room. Tall conifers in the back. Love to all. Hurriedly -- Superpacker.

And how is this beautiful, happy baby. Mary, when new -- that's who. And baby, look at her now!

Chicago! yea!

pigtails, a thanksgiving tradition

looks even better in person...if you can believe it

no... thank you alliance bakery

now i'm just rubbing it in

marcus, hank, and dear sweet robbie

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm very happy about this one. fun. fun.
No tofurkey for us! We were keepin it real with pasta! I made the salad. pretty standard. then i was gonna make sweet potato fries but the turned into curried sweet potato mashers. yum. and i made this garlic spread with toast points. hank made two kinds of pasta. one being really good and one being really meaty. he also "borrowed" a strawberryrhubarb pie from the bakery where he works and made some homemade whipped cream. Dinner was served on the coffee table since, let's be honest, we're all more comfortable in front of a tv. We watched the program, Deal Or No Deal, or Vas y No Vas, as hank likes to call it. which obviously translates to Deal AND No Deal but he won't listen. Robbie took care of the dishes (he is an angel) without throwing any of them away, and marcus showed up in time for pie. ok, glad everyone had a great thanksgiving. i like this one too. the holiday that is. even though nobody bought me a present. thanks anyway.
(love you!!)
maya

That photo was in Durango Fall 2005. Maya, I saw Chihuly's work several years ago in Omaha and was blown (no pun intended) away. I understand that he was blinded in one eye many years ago in an accident and cannot actually see to blow his own art forms but sketches what he wants and then somehow instructs his helpers how to create them. He has a huge studio on the waterfront in Seattle that I would love to visit. His glass is amazing. I love a ship load of it floating, floating.

Maya, Maya, what did you and Hank have for Thanksgiving Day dinner? Please tell me no tofurkey. After all, a thing is what it is, or it's not. Sorry about the iPod. I know how much you loved it. I looked at the new ones in California, but somehow it doesn't fit into my life. I'm still trying to learn cellphone.

Here is a definition of eternity: two people and a roast turkey.

Picture of a Beautiful Iceburg from a site with no credits to relay... Too bad.
Much to ponder...

For Void is Mind Itself, and Mind Itself is Void
Wei Wu Wei

Mom what an awesome turkey! Michael cooked ours. We got a "natural" turkey from the co-op. There's something sad about that. But it was really good. Firm, mild-flavored. And moist! Perfect, actually. Kudos to my husband.

Who is sleeping. Ayla too. And the cat. Every tummy is full.

Persephone, our new kitty, she lives in an alternate universe. No, for real! She carries the nylon horse crop around, lays on it, shadows Michael and meows until he will play with her. He gets her going every which way, up and down and over furniture, in circles... Hilarious. But then she always claims it when he drops it, lays on it whipping her tail for a while, then drags it round like a lioness would an impala.

She's a nut.

Maya, those pictures are great! Looks like you, and the bear, had so much fun. Tell me, did you get singled out by any of the zoo animals this time?

And color me stupid, but I am missing the connection between the boat of blown glass objects and the artist looking like a pirate... Maybe it's a generation thing? Blush...

I love that you don't care as much about stuff as you do about people. It is a wonder that people like you can survive in this world! But the world needs lots and lots of people like you. Even if it hurts sometimes. We heal, and like whales, wear our stories carved in our skins...

But I am sorry about the i-pod. They are really nice. Not something you can run right out to replace. Hopefully it is being appreciated by somebody innocent, like maybe a kid or it got sold to a really cool person for cheap or they never never never would have been able to get one for a million zillion years.

Would that be cool?

Wish I could kiss it make it better! (oh, mother! she says...)

Speaking of whom... Mom, where was that picture of Vern taken? Lots of green...

Hugs.... mary

This was our feast today. Vern and I together ate perhaps a tenth of what you see here. Oh be thankful for leftovers. Pounds and pounds of leftovers. Mary my pet, your tree is lovely. It reminds me of a Walt Whitman poem which I will send to you once I look it up. When Vern returns from his walk in the desert, we will have pumpkin pie, made from a pumpkin I grew in my back yard this year. Then we will watch "Trains, Planes and Automobiles," an annual tradition with us at Thanksgiving.

We just finished watching "The Blues Brothers," one of my favorite movies of all time. I've seen it many times, and still I laugh, and laugh, and laugh. We bought the DVD as an anniversary present for both of us this year.

Mary is right about the Thanksgiving Day holiday. May it long be preserved as a pretty-much-non-commercial-holiday. I like the myths that have grown up around the first "Harvest Home" celebration in Plimouth colony with our Native American friends joining in. Actually, it was the food provided by our red brothers that kept the Plimouth colony afloat. (And boy, are their descendants sorry now!) I haven't looked at the gp entry today but I will, I will.

Love and gratitude to all my near and dear. From Virginia

My Favorite Tree, with wires

Happy Thanksgiving one and all! I just woke up from a nap. There is an infomercial on. On Thanksgiving? On Thanksgiving! Last night tv was all about the day after Thanksgiving.

This makes Thanksgiving the invisible holiday, the one that is a failed market. After all, not even Hallmark has figured out a way to capitalize on it.

Maybe even they cannot top the slaughter of millions of innocent turkeys!

Hey. I ate one. Well, almost one. I let everybody else have a little. And grrr, the gizzard and bones are mine!

But not to be too cynical. What I realized is that this non-commercialized holiday is a vestige of a simpler time, and remains unsullied, truly a celebration of giving thanks, of opening to and honoring the values of giving and thanks.

Wouldn't you know that it would be a holiday of heart that is least admired and most enjoyed! Except by our feathered kin... So giving thanks becomes antidisestablishmentarianism. I think. Celebrating a non-commercial act of generosity is an act of civil disobediance.

I like that!

And I like turkey. And I like that I did not stuff myself to oblivian. See my gp blog for more about that. Link is that way>>>>>>>>>

And I like that I can get on the computer and read posts and see pictures from my family. That truly makes my day!

Love to all of you! Blessings! I am off to watch a beautiful sunset and enjoy a really tasty beer!

mary

Dear Family Members:

To all and sundry, near and far, no matter where the heck you are: Happy Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for have we not? The usual home, family, pets, warmth, food, security.
Peace (for us at any rate) and freedom from want.

{mvn: I'm glad you're feeling better.} Jack the Cat is trying to get at the turkey thawing in the sink, Vern is reading National Geo, I am cooking up the usual excessive feast and wondering why on earth I'm doing it.

I learned a new phrase this week: "Eschew Sunk Costs." It has become my byword and is posted on the fridge.

Love to you all (and you know who you are) from Virginia

Hi everybody. Just wanted to make sure everyone is happy and well. I'm feeling better than I have in a while. I'm getting things in order and whatnot.

I was pretty bummed when i wrote that last post. I thought I had just gotten this guy fired because we thought he had stolen my ipod from smoke daddy. It turns out it was most likely him, but gosh, no reason to get the guy fired right before the holidays, right? i've been contemplating my sense (or lack) of justice lately and, in fact, i'm a bit embarrassed that i don't want to "catch" the guy who did it, but i don't. and when think about it, stealing has never bothered me as much as it probably should. anyway, my boss told me the next day that he told the guy's company not to fire him because of me and that he just couldn't come around smoke daddy anymore. i felt much better about that.

oh and i'm knitting and i'll be in some beautiful place next week.

hank and i are doing thanksgiving just the two of us. we're trying to figure out wat to eat. Hank wants to make some kind of pasta dish. I told him pasta on thanksgiving was like crackers in meatloaf but i don't think he's buying it. i just don't love pasta. oh well. he works at a bakery so i think he's going to bring home a couple of pies. Maybe we'll just have pie. That would be fine with me. Can't wait!

Oh, I love you all. Talk soon. Love, maya.

Trip to New Jersey turns into trip to Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Gardens

This guy looks about as happy as everyone else who's great idea it was to visit the Bronx Zoo on what turned out to be the last beautiful sunday of the year.

Boatfull of really pretty blown glass by a this guy Chihuly. I saw a picture of him. He looks like a pirate. ah...i just made the connection...

Oh, will you please take a picture of me in front of the art? please? thanks.

Waiting for the tram.

hi everyone,
sorry i've been absent. i've had a spell of bad luck lately and don't have a lot of motivation for anything. hope all is well. i'll be in florida for the week after thanksgiving. for thanksgiving, i will be spending it in chicago as it seems that i will be working at my new job on wednesday. we dont have any plans or money so it looks like it will be just another day. i thought about buying a train ticket to southern but i kinda bet they are sold out or pretty expensive at this point. sorry, i'll miss you all (and the food). ok love, maya

Hey people,

It is ridiculously wet outside and my nose has been cold for daaays. Sun broke through for a gorgeous sunset last night. Thursday morning I saw a bald eagle in the rain. Yesterday morning I saw two of them in the sky. Also saw what I think may be the damage they can do to a fresh roadkill deer... Impressive.

Maya said she may be almost certainly going to Florida for Thanksgiving to visit Grandma Barbara. Hello, Grandma Barbara! We will miss her, maybe a little...

My sister joined zaadz! Halloooo Fran! Very cool. If you are curious, follow the gardenplanetproject link in the links section to the right, then hit "home" to find out more about it. It is a plentiful mix of amazing dialogue to drivel. Very stimulating. I am using it to work out my 'gardenplanetproject' thing, which is "my mission of one to create a garden planet," via metaphor and tongue-in-cheek in song and spoken word.

I've been observing this digi-world, the blogosphere or whatever they call it. It's very exciting and very strange. How easily we are drawn into the mirror... It is difficult enough with real-time-space people, with all that body-language to provide context. But the projective-reflective properties of the mind appear exponentially accelerated on the web. Almost like the mind has been immersed in a vacuum, or a frictionless field of some sort. Slippery. Very slippery...

But surprisingly, lots of people seem very open and it is not a terribly dangerous environment, at least not on zaadz. There are the insane and the competitively challenged, the hyper-intellects and all the silly-little-hominids we are, but that's just like everywhere else. A little more slippery is all...

Today, this afternoon, I am going to jam at a music store I just discovered, where the old-timer blugrass folk gather on most afternoons, officially Saturdays. I can generally hold my own, but I don't know many of the songs. That's what happens when you're not very good. You have to stand outside the circle where you can't see what anybody is doing. So you learn to hear, but to be able to follow intantaneously, you never learn or remember what you are actually playing. Hmmm. Some sort of gate-keeping mechanism, maybe?

Well, Mom and Vern, keep thinking Flagstaff for Christmas. That is a pretty picture. I hope the packing and moving is not too fraught. Adventures can be dangerous in the Rockies in the winter. I hope you can keep us all posted as to progress.

Last I heard from Mom, she was looking at a picture of their new duplex cabin they are leasing in the pines. Computer-wise, she was unable to post it at that time, deficient bandwidth or something woowoo like that. Computer-woowoo.

Woowoo is my new term for any emerging field that does not quite fall into the purveyance of ordinary perception. A domain belonging to the fringe-folk whose practices are difficult to describe. Who can charge lots of money because you can't understand their lexicon, which you suspect may be nothing but a scaffolding of euphemisms, but without getting a degree in it you can't know for sure...

Well. Another gatekeeping mechanism? A woo-woo gate.

It is obviously too early and way before my first cup of coffee. My clock says four forty six a.m., just to forestall any mistakes on the blogger clock. It is measuring from an unknown geographic location. I suppose if I wanted I could do the math, but it's too damn early.

I have no idea what is happening in the world.

I learned a lot last week about complex trauma. I may have developed a crush on the presenter. He was powerfully reminiscent of brilliant Patch Adams as played by Robin Williams. Yes. Right down to the dimples...

Oh, but I really did learn a lot!

And St. Louis was very cool in the storm that rolled through. The one that continued on to develop tornadoes and other heinous cloudforms to the east. Just like you said, Maya. Nothing like a storm in the city...

And I learned something about Sealy Posturpedics: Yes.

Michael is up, coffee is brewing, Persephone is making lots of kitty noises. It is Saturday!

Comments are welcome, and are actually a signal of acceptance by the tribe...

Love you guys! mary

The photos are of McCoon (my name for him), Michael's new cat. He is classic for Maine Coon Cat and a very high on cute. Or was, when I was there -- by now he could be thirty pounds and mean as a wild hog but-I-don't-think-so. Mike and Amanda are wonderful with their pets.

Hi people. I am still househunting. We will stay here for at least a month; however, I'd like to be moved in to have Christmas in a new location. Flagstaff may have snow, but certainly there will be church services, and music, and perhaps a bell choir concert. (I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.) I have placed several applications with property managers. We need to find just exactly the right place for our pets -- a major consideration and a major hurdle. I keep threatening Vern with living in a yurt on national forest land. Can't you just picture it? When we get an address ... and a phone and an internet hookup ... you will be the first to know. I can buy a wireless hookup membership at Barnes & Noble, so I won't be offline for long. Ain't modern technology wunnerful? Bear with me, folks. I'm sorting, boxing, taping and labelling like a mad fiend.

Yeah, Michael!

our sweet old Annabelle Leigh

Maya and Michael, fixing her window just last week! And yes, she almost made it home....
~~~see post below somewhere for details~~~

This is the left member of a pair of eagles. Lost, or desperate maybe, they were across the county road from a man-made lilly-choked pond of questionable value, at least to eagles... Michael went back with more film for better pictures. Hmmph. We'll see....

Great to hear from you BroMike! And of course your new kitty is going to be large. You have had the largest cats I've ever known. And you are large!

Sounds like you get a lot of windshield time. You must be some kind of guru-sage by now! With one thousand masteries... How in the world do you do it?

I am so happy you are happy. I think I am still in avoidance-mode. It hasn't sunk in yet. I am in the bleachers with soda and a popcorn, way up there so I don't get messy when the show starts...

In the center ring, the Democrats, milling about in their week-old party gowns and tux's, sniffing around for more champaigne and peanuts. Hear them speak about the need to redeploy the troops in Iraq in spite of having no plan. Feal the fear!

In the left ring, watch as clusters of overstuffed, grey-suited, slightly balding and bespectacled men conversate in hushed tones in huddles. What are they whispering? Nobody knows. Some fall to their knees and cry for horses. Horses? What is that about?

In the third ring, bottles of wine cobble the carpet like stars between white-ribboned banquet tables and heaps of bodies draped in red satin, comatose and hung-over for the past week. Hear the muted weeping and count the many tears, see the poor souls pull themselves forward with the last of their strength to arrange themselves in loose lines for the confession booth, which bears a hastily scribbled sign: "Gone Fishing."

Darn, I'm out of popcorn, again!

Actually, I feel sad any time there is a victory, because victory is really just another tired old link in the chain of stupid violence. Stupid! Just one more excuse to disembowel and to be disembowelled during the next rootin' tootin' election-cycle. As if it is a game. It is not a game! People are dying out here. Suffering. Crying real tears... And I am so tired of fighting.

So I enjoy the recess, this pause between the out-breath and the in.

I would love to see some sober and sincere bipartison dialogue. Maybe there is enough humility to go around. I think Daddy's B's back in town, with Jim Baker heading a bipartison evaluation and strategy-formation committee of some sort. Kind of makes me wonder if Daddy hasn't been pushing for a while, and Baby B finally caved, firing Rumsfeldt after losing the election because he lost the bet and couldn't hold Daddy off anymore...

Me, always the conspiricist, trying to solve the movie before the end...

Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome! Enjoy the show!

Don't worry. I am fine. Really. No, really! It's really just a ceaseless narrative. Obviously an anxiety-mediation strategy to block out reality. And hey, I'm good at it! So why not...

So another monday. Off to work soon. Husband-Mike is already putting his phone on and heading for the door. News-du-jour drones in the living room. My feet are a little cold, but my fingers are better now I have a hot coffee-cup to wrap them around. Okay. Around which to wrap them. The satellite connection is sporadic, so the fate of this post concerns me. I definitely have to pay my bills before I leave. Definitely.

Discovered young singer Sara Harmer cd. I bought it at Border's in Chicago last July for Michael for Christmas, then stashed it. Then found it and puzzled over it, decided it was probably something that got stashed for xmas last year, but then forgotten in the traditional, rain-or-shine losing-of-the-gifts at the last minute kind of way. So I gave it to him. He really liked it. Then I remembered it was for this coming Christmas. I was then rather inconveniently flooded with memories: the where, when, how, the lighting, the color of the carpet, the smell of coffee, Maya already peeled off and lost in the stacks, what credit card I used... What a great birthday that was! (Oops, don't tell my husband!) Maya, I still haven't finished even half those books. I keep them on my back seat, my mobile library. Remember those?

This is one wacky circus.

Hey, Fran emailed me! She is alive and has no complaints. I will beckon her to this space. Or maybe call in the troops...

Anyway, so good to hear from you Bro. Drive safe and hug all relevants, especially Amanda!

Mom and Vern. Wow. Changes happen fast around you. Don't you just love a good wheel-yanking?

I just know you will land well. You always have before!

More later! mary

Hey there! Sacramental Michael here...

Jes' wanna say that after Wednesday morn I am in the best mood I've been in in six years. Sis, any ideas why I've been so personally glum for that long? It's like I've poked my head outta my shell and seen a whole new world. Some of my anger is gone, too. WOOHOO!

Mom's not posted pics of our new beastie as yet - A Maine-coonish Tabby that is intent on eating humans one at a time. He's going to be Huge.

School is, well, loonie, but that is the way of community colleges I think;
Next Semester I teach Drafting Technique for 12 weeks, two days a week, commuting Tuesdays and Wednesdays to SF for a 6pm-9pm class (It's 107 miles), then THursdays for a 6p-10p class for the entire 17wk semester. AND I'm going to be teaching some sort of 'process control and instrumentation' to a whopping 3 students on the first 9 Fridays, 8a-4p at Solano community College - for Budweiser...and who knows how much dinero. Solano CC is about half the distance.
I guess what that all means is I work alot, then after spring break I work a one-day week. Kinda wierd.

Movie Review: Babel: Gritty. Intense and Long. They've tried to cram two or three years of comparative social-studies into a 2-hour movie. I don't think the average american will like it. It was good, just eye-opening if you let it be an educational experience instead of a sensational experience we've become accostomed to in our movies.

Chuck and Nan Front: busy. log onto www.artistsloft.com fer pics of the new place and a look at the rental schedule -they work alot.
Dad's had aheart procedure of some sorts - great but crappy medical care - end result from my listening is very good - he's cheerier than he's been in years, I think the minor flutter was making him tire easy, which all of us can relate to - being tired all the time makes one pretty grumpy...

The Chill has come to 'northern' CA, the leaves are fallin', the sun is settin' early.

Last tidbit - look to the skies evenings to see the space-station pass by early eves, since the new panels it's about as bright as Venus! Search "ISS viewing" and weed through 'til you find the path and times somewhere.

Readya later, OtherMike

Hi again. Yes Maya we are moving. Very briefly, Vern has resigned effective the end of December. We will be moving to Flagstaff (as soon as I find a house) so that he can enroll at Northern Arizona University to acquire another credential -- special education. He did not want to undergo another five months of being witchhunt here while the admin looks for reasons to fire him. S-o-o-o here we go again, into the wild blue yonder. We leave this morning to go to Flag to check out some rentals.
All this is fine with me: I was wearying under the stress here. More details later. Love from (Gramma) V irginia

Hi people. This is a link to some interesting articles I picked up on msnbc.com. There are some stunning pictures of Orion from the Hubble plus some links to other stuff. I am in the process of packing up, finding a new dwelling in Flagstaff, and preparing to move -- maybe three weeks? four? Love to all. Virginia

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/

Hey all. It's the big day. They are lining up outside the polls. I am going to "vote."

If you detect sarcasm, you are astute. I am sort of dripping with it this morning. Like the fog off the eaves. They are already, at 712 this morning, predicting the dems will take the house. And I still haven't been able to come up with a sample ballot for Williamson County, so that I can actually research the candidates' records and make up my mind in an intelligent sort of way.

Stupid Democracy. That's what we've got. And we are derided for our apathy! When even an intelligent, interested person such as myself, who tries for daaaays and daaays to get even a puny list of names of who is running for what, is discouraged from finding any real information, upon which depends a decision, upon which rests a democracy.

Ha! Bah Humbug!

As I bundle up in my frog-suit to wade out to do my civic duty, which appears to be to wield as little actual power as I am privy to as stupidly as possible. So stupidly, I will not even stoop to correct the grammar of the last sentence. I am willfully stupid.

This is me trudging....

mary-the-cloaked-in-ignorance, a true American!

Enjoying the pix, Maya.

Hey, where was "Fall" taken? It gives me a weird feeling, cause I think I should know it or something. I keep comparing it to pictures in my head that it resembles. But no matter how I turn it about, nothing matches... Is that a sign of doddering? Love it that you got them up so quick!

How is the battery?

Made it to Saturday again. Jeff Talmadge and Jaime Michaels were awesome last night at Cousin Andy's. The turnout was poor, and they were very very tired from the road, which makes their effort even more heroic. I was invited over to Vern's to jam afterwards, the second time since I started volunteering. My gut said no, cause it was late and they were so tired, but I went anyway. I had to go get my guitar from the office, which wasn't too far away but irritating nonetheless, because my gut had told me to bring it with me to begin with. So I had a glass of wine, fended off the dogs, one of whom was a bassett-dalmation mix with all the dominant features of each, and a pretty border-collieish with the biggest sharpest nose and no discrimination, if you know the type.

So one glass of wine and a few songs with Dan and Mary while Jeff and Jaime hugged the soup and the laptops around the dining room table. They were so tired, I probably stayed too long. Anything may have been too long....

I advocate for heeding the gut. I just haven't a clue how to learn how! Seems that if you heed it you never get the feedback about whether it worked or not. So I would have taken my guitar to Cousin Andy's and wondered why because I came home instead of going out to jam, which may have been a kick-ass jam and how would I know? You only get solid feedback when you don't follow your gut: cause then you can see what happens and how you should have followed your gut. How many times has that happened! That's inside-out and backwards in a paradoxical kind of way. Universe? A legitimate question, or two, I think.

Hope Mo-- Virginia and Vern are afloat on the Rez. I hear it's getting a little deep out there... Bet it will be nice to be out of there! We're all rooting for you.

Just developed a very old roll of film. Turns out it was taken mostly by kids at Ayla's birthday when she was maybe ten or so...

She hasn't changed at all!

Later... Michael just put breakfast under my nose! Yum.

mary

Visit to So. IL

Fall

The Mix Cafe

rest area

Impressive Highway Structure

Feather

-Maya

"One Heckuva Dog" or maybe "DownTown Drool" (yuck!)
or "Pink Shoes and Tongue"
Streetshot: Chicago

Hey all. Just sitting, early, winnowing the "news" from some sort of drivel that oozes from my media portal. Yikes! I sound cynical, don't I?

Paying my bills, googling, preparing for class today, blogging, noodling and practicing good posture, in a multi-tasking sort of way. I caught that from Ayla, the multi-tasking thing. Good lord, nobody does it like her!

Maya, it was so good to see you! And I am stunned that the van made it all the way here, passed its physical, made it all the way back, to die, die, die on the last stop before home. I think you have a legitimate question for the universe. Unfortunately, griping loads the dice or I would recommend that...

Persephone is looking for you.

I want a big happy picture of Hank and his new guitar. That guitar loves Marcus too! And maybe it misses me...

We miss you too. And as far as the van goes, you won't even remember this after a year or two, except as maybe an amusing anecdote. So worry? Nah.

Halloween was uneventful, except the clock on the wall in the group-room started spinning really fast during my class yesterday, which was almost Halloween in a spooky sort of way. Kind of awesome: it wound itself for exactly twelve "hours" and stopped. One of my students noted that it was absolutely unnecessary because it is a twelve-hour clock, after all. Very astute.

I just saw a "news" feature on interactive dolls for the elderly, like Wilson from Cast Away only cute. I want one, and I am almost old enough....

Mom, hope you and Vern are ok. Rough ride, out there on the rez.

Thinking of all you's. mary