Ready!

I have checked my stock of Halloween staples: glitter & duct tape.  I have plenty of both.  I am a go for Halloween!

Pre-Z Post

I have finished the book, finished looking at fonts, finished the editing, finished the proofreading, finished the taking of the photographs for the cover, finished the cover design, finished approving the proofs.  Fini!  

Next order of business- trying to catch up on sleep!  Before I start in with the zzzzzzzzs I thought I'd share this.

As the homestretch of the book stretched on I told one of my aunts that I kept thinking I was done & then it turned out I was not done.  I commented on the labor intensity & brain wavery required to do everything.  My aunt emailed me back: 

When Beatrix Potter first wrote her story Peter Rabbit she tried to make it into a little book for little hands.  The publisher wouldn't do it so she had to publish it herself.  The printer didn't want to make it so small but she insisted.   She sold the first copies to her friends and relatives.  It finally took off and she wrote many many stories as you know.

Happy thoughts 

I found that such a sweet thing to say that I wanted to tell you about it too.

And now I am off to have sweet dreams about bunnies wearing cute little jackets....

Nothing 2 Sneeze At

I was just getting a new box of tissues out of the cupboard when I happened to notice that this was somewhat surprisingly printed in small type on the bottom of the box:

Kiss calm, cool, collected goodbye!

Don't be bashful.  Don't be shy.  It's time

to unabashedly let it out!  So be messy.

Be imperfect.  Be liberated and free.

Be what you are.  Be human.

Blow it out and blow it proud.

With KLEENEX Tissue.

It is also printed on the box in french:

Au revoir les bonnes manieres!

Fini la timidite et la retune.

C'est le temps de vous liberer!

N'ayez pas peur du riducule.  Soyez

vous-meme.  Soyez authentique

Dites-le haut et fort.

Avec les mouchoirs KLEENEX

KLEENEX let it out/KLEENEX liberez-vous

What an encouraging reassuring supportive tissue!  

Homestretch

Sorry, I've been MIA from the blog...  etc! 

I've been working very hard on getting everything finished for my book.  Yesterday someone said to me, "Well, if you don't get it finished in time for this holiday season you can always wait til next year."

Here's a video clip of my response:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw9oX-kZ_9k&NR=1

Whoopsy Daisy

Someone told me that they had read that the Museum of Modern Art in New York (aka the MoMA) had a Matisse painting hanging upside down for 47 years.  Well, I thought that was really something! However, this person added that he had previously told someone else this, and when that other person looked it up online to see if it was really true it said it was only upside down for 47 days.  Well, I wanted to know, and this is what I found:

The work, Le Bateau by Matisse, hung upside down for 47 days in the Museum of Modern Art Exhibition The Last Works of Henri Matisse.  It was uprighted after Genevieve Habert, a Wall Street stockbroker, noticed the mistake.  At first she notified a museum guard (this is soooo the best part) who responded, "You don't know what's up and you don't know what's down and neither do we."  (an absolutely perfect New Yorker response if ever there was one)  After trying to get someone to listen, Habert gave up and called the New York Times about the mistake.  The next day, after the director of exhibitions, Monroe Wheeler, was notified, the work was rehung properly.

(Purple) Rain Dance?

Whether it's cold,

or whether it's hot

we'll have weather,

whether or not.

My old boss (who was from Seattle which means he actually had an immunity to weather) used to recite those lines to me every single time I brought up the weather.

I know that talking about the weather is the stereotype for a boring conversation, but I have a love of weather, weather watching, and weather talk.  And so does my father!  Genetics?!

Several years ago I bought myself a Home Weather Station & rarely have I been more pleased with a purchase.  You ever wanna know the temperature, humidity, or barometric pressure inside or outside of my house- just ask!  Phase of the moon?  I got that too!  Built in Atomic Clock keeps it all right on schedule.  I have a rain gauge in my yard in case it ever rains here again I will be able to tell you how much.  Though, I do not have an anemometer to measure the wind speed I did order, read, and enjoy an entire book written about The Beaufort Scale.  Sundials, tide charts, tide clocks, windsocks, weather websites, The Weather Channel, the counting of seconds in between cricket chirps, and the counting of seconds between lightning flashes & thunder claps- yes indeedy!

I have long harbored an interest in reporting the weather on the tele.  The Weather Gal, I fancied myself.  Motioning to those smiling sunshines, giving the sweeping arm gestures to indicate a high pressure system following the jet stream, delivering the forecast in galoshes & a drooping yellow sea captain's rain hat.  The raining of cats & dogs!  I could go on & on!!!

With all that said, imagine my pure delight at having just received this link from a dear friend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o38xEDbdQ-0

Bird is the Word

I have just asked someone if I could meet their chickens.  I don't think that I've ever really met a chicken before- I have met a turkey, but he was a bit aloof.  I also met a barn owl once, and I must say that the owl did not look nearly as excited to make my acquaintance as I was to make his.  Chickens seem like they could be friendlier.  Was Big Bird a chicken?  I just don't know that you can get any friendlier than Big Bird.

Thick as Thieves

Roscoe & Suryia yukin it up

They're best friends!  How freaking cute is that?!!!

You can check them out here on You Tube: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QByHat2BJLs&feature=PlayList&p=910AA613A4DC6E0E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2 

Or they also have their own website:
http://www.suryiaandroscoe.com/ 

They even have a book coming out at the end of the month!  Hmmm...  I wonder if it was Suryia or Roscoe that did the formatting for their book, maybe, they'd help me with mine.  Bean was just reading over my shoulder- she says that it had to have been the orangutan.