Saturday, April 30, 2016

Z is for ...


FIN!  Blogging A-to-Z has come to an end ... **phew**
I hope you had lots of fun visiting a variety of blogs ...

So, What is Today?

Well ... (besides being a video-intensive day) ...

Today is ...

* International Jazz Day


* International Table Top Day




* National Go Birding Day



* National Herb Day

* National Sense of Smell Day


* Save The Frogs Day



* Walpurgis Night


http://www.britannica.com/topic/Walpurgis-Night


* World Healing Day




* World Tai Chi & Qigong Day




Baker's Dozen Plus ...

Zoo
Zebra
Zipper
Zigzag
Zepolli
Zinnia
Zeppelin
Zydeco


Zap
Zing
Zip
Zone
Zirconia
Zenith
Zebeck
Zephyr
Zodiac
Zealot
Zero
Zilch
Zinc
Zest
Ziti

Call to Action
There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...

Friday, April 29, 2016

Y is for ...

Another of my "title graphics" -- "Yellow" ... **sigh**

Today is ...
* International Dance Day
* National Hairball Awareness Day 
* "Peace" Rose Day (The flower)
* World Wish Day
* Zipper Day


There is a Family Story of my grandparents walking along a path in the Park ... and a bear and her cub coming up behind them, then passing between them and continuing on down the path ...

Should probably save these for "Z" but it is Zipper Day -- so ...


Baker's Dozen Plus ...
Yip
Yap
Young
Yellow
Yuppy
Yupo
Yelp
Youngster
Yawn
Yawl
Yegg
Yar
Yacht
Yogurt
Year
Yes
Yard
Yum
Yak
Yolk
Yarn
Yikes
Yeti
Yule
Yore
You
Your
You're
Yam



Call to Action

There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...


Thursday, April 28, 2016

X is for ...

(Unfortunately, couldn't find anything interesting to put into a
"title graphic" today, so you are"stuck" with this one by me ... sorry ...)




Today is ...
*  Biological Clock Day
*  Poem In Your Pocket Day



Baker's Dozen Plus ...
Well, "X" has just about driven me nuts!  My frustration tolerance level is not high enough to deal with this ... so I decided to go with "Words ending in X" instead of the one obvious x-ray and more words beginning with X ...


1.  Aviatrix
2.  Appendix
3. 

(Right now I hate all things Microsoft (Word in particular) and Blogger ...
At Word, I removed all the spacing and formatting from the list of words ... copied / pasted that list here and get a right mess of excess spacing and an inability to put the 3rd word next to the number 3 ... I am so glad the A-to-Z is almost finished!  And that I started early and figured out the "schedule a post" feature -- or there would not be an entry for X at all ... However, I had lots of problems with "U" behaving in terms of excess spacing all over the page and lost patience with Blogger completely at that point ... almost quit then and there.  **sigh** so -- today is short and boring -- some words (not sure how many) and a couple of "today is" and one not-related-to-X YouTube ...)












Snuffbox












Has absolutely nothing to do with "X" or today's "Today is ..."
but over at FB there was a post about making a making a Classic Rock Mix Tape and asked for a favorite song to be added ...
Well, when my brother headed off to college, somehow I ended up with quite a few of his LPs and 45s ... "rock" of the 60s -- I think this "hand-me-down" collection of vinyl may have included some stuff from one of my sisters too, but I'm not really sure which stuff came from which one ...) including Santana, Chicago, Moody Blues and Emerson, Lake & Palmer ... and one LP of King Crimson ... I think I may have almost run the grooves for this song right on through the LP.  Probably good it was made of vinyl and not the old wax or it would have given up its ghost far too soon ... (Yes, I am far too young to have lived in the age of "wax" records except Mom had a collection of wax classical music LPs that I loved too -- I was a weird little kid with a 45 of Snoopy and the Red Baron and another pile of hand-me-down 75s in orange vinyl of things like the "Riders in the Sky" with the Sons of the Pioneers and some Disney stuff (I think) ... Later, my 45 collection included awful stuff of my own High School years like "Muskrat Love" **shudder** oh the horrors!  But to this day, I love King Crimson's "Prelude:  Song of the Gulls."



ARRRRRRGGGHHH!!!!  I did say that Blogger is driving me nuts?  Well, now it won't let me change the justification of the text ...

THANKS for visiting today ...


Here is the Call to Action ...
There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...


Wednesday, April 27, 2016

W is for ...


(another of my "title graphics")




I took Ceramics Courses at the University of Minnesota, but Warren MacKenzie had retired by the time I had moved from NJ to MN in 1996 -- one of the teachers in the department had been his student, though ... I never did get "good" at the wheel -- had a hard time "centering" the clay (and one teacher kept telling us that 2 pounds of clay mud should not be able to have so much power over us but ...) so I kept hand building and slab building.  **sigh** wishing I had a mud space still and I think hubby would love to get his mitts into the mud;  he would make that stuff behave itself on the wheel ... (apparently one of the videos posted by a MacKenzie student has in the "about" section that MacKenzie told them that centering wasn't as important as many other teachers claimed ... hmmm ... if only I had known that then ... what is it "They" say about hindsight??  LOL)
Before moving to MN, I had taken art classes at a community college in NJ.  In one project we collaborated -- my friend threw the pots (which she loved to do on the electric wheel) and I did the trimming on a -- you know, I forget what the type of wheel is called -- not a "kick wheel" but it had a lever on the side that you pushed on to throw -- similar to what Warren is using here but our trim wheel was one you stood by not sit at ... And, I loved trimming!  I've often wondered if it would have been possible to set up a pottery partnership each doing the part we loved best ... (but only after I had moved -- DUH!  LOL!)
I did eventually get almost "good" at "throwing off the hump" -- that is, centering just a small bit of the clay up off the larger lump on the wheel, and making miniature bowls and vases.  Should have stuck with that maybe ... but oh so much mess and mud on my pants when I got done for the day!  LOL!  And then go get on a public city bus, walk through the really nice part of downtown Minneapolis?  Embarrassing!  **sigh**

Today is ...
*  Administrative Professionals Day or Secretary's Day
*  Babe Ruth Day
*  Morse Code Day

*  National Little Pampered Dog Day
Baker's Dozen Plus ...
waffle     *  whale     *  wicked     *  wicker     *  won't
write     *  willowy     *  when     *  wind    *  weather
wipe     *  worry     *  wonderful    *  western 
*  window     *  words

This is almost half an hour long but ...
oops, this next one too is 25 minutes long -- was looking for a short but ... :D
Check out the selection of Winnie-the-Pooh books here ...
If you are interested in the book on creativity mentioned in this video -- please use MY affiliate link -- I really need to pay off some huge medical bills and every penny helps!  You can get the book in hardback, paperback, ebook, audio, etc.  Click on "see all formats" for the audio and Audible versions, too.  Or get the Kindle ebook first and add on the "whispersync" Audible book at a reduced price at the same time ... Next "credit" in my Audible account is probably going to get Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

V is for ...


Today is ...
Thank you to http://www.brownielocks.com/april.html for today's info:
*  Audubon Day
*  Hug An Australian Day
*  National Pretzel Day

(There is nothing quite so good as a Hot Pretzel -- YUM!  So glad I can get a very good variety in the frozen foods section of the grocery store ... but here is some info on the "Philly Tradition" ...)

Baker's Dozen Plus ...
* valve    * velvet     * vowel     * vow     * vengeful     * vengeance     *  violet
* vole     * volume     * vegetarian     * vegan     * volunteer     * volute
* valiant     * velour     * valence     * victrola     * Victoria     * vinegar
vote     * vim     * vigor     * vitality     * voon!     * verse     * verve

Call to Action
There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...

Monday, April 25, 2016

U is for

(one of my "title art" graphics using items from pixabay.com)
Today is ...
*  Eeyore's Birthday Day
*  World Penguin Day
*  Red Hat Society Day
 
Baker's Dozen Plus ...
 1  umpire
 2  under
 3 umber
 4 uncle
 5 undo
 6 uh
 7 unicorn
 8 unique
 9 uppish
10 upward
11 urban
12 urbane
13 use
14 union
15 updo
16 upon
17 urn
18 ugh
19 us




In Neil Gaiman's Fortunately, The Milk, you may get the impression that the book is set in England ... but I suspect that may not be true ... you see ... Neil lived in Menomonie, Wisconsin, for many years.  Menomonie is, in galactic terms, less than the width of an eyelash away from Elmwood, WI. 

Elmwood is known as the UFO Capital due to a series of UFO sightings in the 1970s and journalists coined the phrase to describe the town.  And Elmwood hosts and annual festival celebrating this bit of town trivia.  It is now held the last full weekend of July.  And I think the aliens Neil describes in Fortunately, The Milk made a minor coordinate error and arrived in Menomonie instead of Elmwood ... Just my thoughts on it ...

Dealing with UFOs



This video is almost 10 minutes long ... sorry ...

I love the title and description of this blog -- http://ufoadministration.blogspot.com/

(the entire description of the blog does not show up in my browser unless I highlight it -- I hope this is okay, but I think I will share it here with you and suggest you replace "knit" with any and all projects you may have lingering in similar situations ...)

"Across the world, hidden in cupboards are accumulations of half knitted works. On conception, the ideas were fueled with love and contemplation. For various reasons, sometimes funny, occasionally sad, the projects have stalled. With hours of skilled effort these pieces are rarely thrown away. Hidden in drawers, they harbour unexplained feelings. UFO Project Administration Service is here to help. Send one in or take one on. Knitting is not dead."

I would love to set up a "UFO Swap Meet" in the gym at Elmwood during the UFO Days but maybe I could figure out how to make a Facebook UFO Group ... Hmmm ... That sounds like a great idea ... LOL WOO HOO! 

Coming Soon!  A Facebook UFO Swap Meet ... :D  Announcement will be made here (at the blog not in this post) once the Group is set up and ready to go ...

Call to Action ...
There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...

Saturday, April 23, 2016

T is for ...

Things to Think About
or Things that might keep me awake at night if I let them ... LOL!
*  If Light and Sound are wave forms, can Space really be a Vacuum?
*  If a Surd is an Irrational number, what is Absurd?
Toilet Paper Roll
Tiny ...
**SHUDDER**
But I cannot use the term "Tiny" without including this ... **shudder all over again**

Twiddle Your Thumbs
... and Wave "Harmonics" and String Theory ...
Out of curiosity more than anything I watched a few videos from a "summit" series on healing ... and I ended up watching / listening to more than I expected.  At first, I was just curious.  Then I was even more curious, though skeptical, because I did not understand it.  Not sure I do understand it yet, and I am highly skeptical but I found out a couple of useful things -- and those little tidbits really helped me get through a tough time.  One was "All we are left with is Love" ... that really helped me dump the anger I was feeling and move forward.
So, what I also realized about this "healing" method is that it is sort of based on String Theory and Wave Harmonics.  One of the speakers in the series supposedly healed herself by creating a different set of "energy waves" around herself by a variety of hand movements -- especially with movements that create a twisting motion (or so it seemed to me as it was described ... sorry I said it was videos -- it was MP3 audios not visuals ...) ...
So, here is my "take" on things -- want to change your life?  Change the wave energies in your life.  TWIDDLE YOUR THUMBS!
Today is ...
*National Dance Day
*Movie Theatre Day
*Talk Like Shakespeare Day
(thanks to http://www.brownielocks.com/april.html)
Baker's Dozen Plus ...
tomato
toe
tine
tune
taco
toast
toss
tiger
timber
talent
total
twine
twist
take
tike
tricycle
tender
tend
till
tall
tale
tail
tingle
tattered
Call to Action
There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...
 


Friday, April 22, 2016

S is for ...







The Longest Word in English?








Hubby does not like guacamole but ... this process for making "Stuffed Onion Rings" looks like a fun idea.  When I re-shared this on Facebook, my one sister who does use Facebook (the other can't be bothered (probably not a bad decision since Facebok can be a major Time Vampire) ...) said she thought it looked good but all those calories from deep frying,"ugh!" ... but another friend suggested "could you bake them?"  I think that is a definite possibility ... **eyebrows up and down like Groucho**


Today is ...
Thank you to http://www.brownielocks.com/april.html for the following info: 
*National Jelly Bean Day
*Earth Day


Baker's Dozen Plus for S ...
  1. salamander
  2. salad
  3. sensible
  4. sound
  5. soothe
  6. salmon
  7. scissors
  8. salami
  9. sizzle
  10. snake
  11. snood
  12. senile
  13. sentence
  14. serve
  15. slather
  16. sink
  17. soap
  18. soup
  19. stew
  20. sausage
  21. save
  22. scarlet
  23. shoe
  24. snazzy
  25. snoop
Scan N Cut
There's lots of info about this machine on YouTube.  I normally would not run what is basically an ad for something, but compared to the other electronic cutters out there -- this is the one that seems to make the most sense to me ... one day, one day I may even have one for myself. LOL!

Hubby, who is a mix of German and Scandinavian backgrounds wanted me to have "Scandinavian" as one of my topics under "S" ... hmmm ... this video if over 20minutes long but it is instrumental so it can keep playing while you do something else LOL!  "Scandinavian" is such a huge theme that I decided on some music ... I may find something else to share but this is the "official Scandinavian" share:
Scandinavian ...
^YUM!
(Believe it or not, it is the Swedish Potato Sausage that smells worse!)
Oh, Lutefisk is the ultimate "Oximoron" -- signs outside grocery stores and small local food shops often read "Fresh Lutefisk is here!"  **shudder**
Okay, one video said that Lutefisk is a salt cod that has been soaked and then lye added ... that may be how it is made these days but the original was cod preserved with lye when salt was not available ... **shudder** here is MN and western WI, far too many Lutheran churches have an annual Lutefisk Dinner with either Swedish Meatballs  and / or Swedish Potato Sausage as an alternative.  I dunno, if you can't "convert" people in a normal fashion, do you threaten them with Lutefisk as a preview of Hell?
Hubby says that if you properly soak the lutefisk for 3 to 4 days and drain off and change the water often enough, then serve it baked with a ratio of 1 Tbs of fish to 20 Tbs of butter -- then maybe, just maybe, you can get it to slide down your throat without needing to chew (sort of how I approach raw clams back in NJ ...)
EESH!  How can I forget the "real" Vikings -- the Danes!  I have Danish blood in me somewhere (almost 100 years ago, though ... oops, 200 -- early 1800s my ancestor shows up in US Census records as a crew member on a ship in the port of Philadelphia ...) ... so ...
Well, not so easy to find YouTubes I would like to share about the Danes (since I honestly don't know enough to know what to look for that would be interesting ...) -- however, I recently listened to Salt by Mark Kurlansky and there is a section in there about how the Scandinavians like both Salt & Sugar together ... so, I did find some videos about Black Licorice and Salt ... if you really are interested, search YouTube for Danish Salt & Licorice.




One More --
I cannot resist sharing this.  I am so happy to have found it at YouTube and I remember watching this as a child on PBS.  And I was appalled ... she is the "professional"?  And I was a youngster in 4H learning all about safe knife work in the kitchen ... (this is a long video if you watch the whole thing but the part I remember is around 5 minutes in sort of ...)



Call to Action:
There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...