The Stars Are Gonna Shine On You

Let me start this Saturday Scavenger Shots post by saying that I really had no idea how to visually portray this week's word. Don't get me wrong...I love the challenge and the word is great!  Chosen by Tara @ Eclectic Spaghetti, this week's word is TURBULENCE. 

I had to think about TURBULENCE as it occurs in my life. As I thought it over, I realized that strong emotions are what cause the TURBULENCE in my heart, mind, and body.  So, please enjoy some photos of the people most likely to get me all agitated and such -

The Trio of Terror, my darling grands, are quite capable of causing TURBULENCE wherever they may go.

My youngest children. The Terrible Twosome. They are growing up fast, but still know how to push my buttons and get the TURBULENCE going for me.

Then there is this one...my own DR. Makes my heart all thumpy...good TURBULENCE.

Thanks for stopping in and risking all the bumps and jolts that go along with TURBULENCE! I hope your weekend and the week ahead are all clear skies and smooth sailing :)

And I Mustn't Give In

Hello Wednesday and hello kind readers stopping by. Looks like it is time for some Choose and Defend Wednesday. I think this one is going to be very tough! It is good to be challenged though, right?  Remember, just make a choice and, if you can, comment on why you made that choice...Choose and Defend. 

Would you rather...

Lose All Your Past Memories

OR

Be Unable to Form New Memories

Honestly? This one is kind of painful to even contemplate. There isn't a GOOD choice is there? But sometimes, that is just how it goes.  Give it some thought and then, please, Choose and Defend!

Half a Weekend

This was my Saturday at work. The patrons were on a library ramage.

This was my Sunday at home. Aaaahhhhh! I'm grateful for Sundays and the rest they very often bring.

Okay week...let's go!

This Musical Message is For All You're Giving Me is Fiction

Yes, You Behind the Bike Shed...

Many thanks to our good blogging friend Jasen @ Swamp Gas & Moonlit Reflections for choosing this week's Saturday Scavenger Shots word. The word? BRICK. 
We all know about using BRICK as a building material. Who didn't learn at an early age that it was far superior to straw or sticks? And we all know that society has made us just another BRICK in the wall. There is an English expression about being "as thick as a BRICK" and an American one about being built like "a BRICK shit house". Neither of which sound very flattering, although one is meant to be.

For my BRICK shot, I stopped this morning on my way to work for this quick BRICK pic :)

This is some kind industrial building. I love BRICK as an accent or for walkways, chimneys, even a little wall...but a whole BRICK building can be sort of....too much. But there is also something pretty about BRICK, especially as it ages.

Thanks for stopping by for my Saturday Scavenger Shot. Hope your weekend is BRICK-tastic! 

And They Print You On Their Shoulder

Choose and Defend Wednesday is here and so are we, apparently :) Hi.  This morning, as I was driving to work, I was having some sort of very specific childhood memory. It actually made me feel a bit weepy...which is not so unusual. I'm a rather emotional person. In any event, it gave me the idea for today's Choose and Defend.

Some of you are parents, as I am, and I know you don't classify your children...I mean, I don't think as a rule people intend to do that to their children. But when you were a child, didn't you ever feel like you were filling some sort of niche or quota? I'm sure it is different in different families...there are probably endless combinations of how kids are characterized. But since this is Choose and Defend we must narrow things down to simple this or that.

So, with that said....which child were you?

The Pretty / Handsome One

OR

The Smart / Capable One

Maybe your parents made you feel that you were all of the above. I'm sure we all aim for that. But did you sometimes feel that compared to your siblings you were more one than the other? If you are an only child it might be harder to parse it out....but you can surely give it a shot! 

Choose and Defend. It's the right thing to do.

Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right, Here I Am...

Happy Birthday to my middliest kid, Cory Social Animal! He's now 23 and that makes me...old :-D
What a great man he's become. He is compassionate, loyal, lives in the moment, acts for the future...what more could a mother ask?

Social Animal, Handsome Lad and Little Prince strike a spiky-haired pose.

This Musical Message is For What You See You Might Not Get

Vinegar Tears, Salt in My Wounds

Hello Mr. CHIPS. And others :) The word for this Saturday Scavenger Shots is, indeed, CHIPS! I choose this word because I thought it could be used in a lot of different ways. CHIPS in your nail polish...CHIPS in your armor (or is that chinks?)...poker CHIPS...and of course many food types of CHIPS! 

Well, the ideas for different types of CHIPS may be myriad, but my photo taking opportunities are not. So you will take what you get and like it! Or um, you know....not.  Okay then.  Here -

Here are my potahtoh CHIPS. They are salt & vinegar flavor because, aside from maybe barbeque, this is the best flavor for CHIPS.  So it is written and so it shall be.

I'm sure I don't even have to tell you that I did not actually take this picture of mint n' CHIP ice cream with chocolate sauce. Way too clear, way too nice.  But when I thought of a CHIPS post without my favorite dessert included I wanted to sob. For reals. So I hunted this down with my own two hands and my own two eyes and put it here on my blog for us all to enjoy.

So, that is my CHIPS post. Would anyone reading like to assign a word for next week? If so, please leave a comment. You don't even have to participate in posting if you don't care to...although of course all are welcome to do so! But if you just want to give us an assignment, that would be great and appreciated. Me and Tara get tired of thinking of words...exhausting....

Have a good rest of the weekend now. Goodbye Mr. CHIPS. And others.

I Will Always Be Weird Inside

Hey there daddy-os and lil mamas. Since Father's Day is this Sunday, I thought I'd do a Choose and Defend Wednesday in their honor. There are lots of polls out there right now about "Favorite TV Dad" so I looked at some of those to see what dads came up a lot. Among the favorites are Cliff Huxtable, Mike Brady, Homer Simpson, and in more recent shows, all the dads on Modern Family. All fine choices. Yet, I want to do something a little different. So....I decided to go with a choice between two vastly different father characters played by one of my favorite actors, Bryan Cranston. And I won't ask you who you'd want for a father...I will ask you to choose which father you'd prefer to be! You don't have to be a father or even a dude to answer this, of course. Just open your mind and Choose and Defend!

Hal from Malcolm in the Middle

OR

Walter White from Breaking Bad

Even if you haven't watched either of these shows, you have probably gotten the gist from cultural osmosis or something, right? So which crazy paterfamilias will you Choose? And how will you Defend yourself? Let's find out....Choose and Defend!

With My Big Foot On the Gas

Hold me and tell me it will be alright. Summer is upon me at work and it gets so, so, so busy that sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Yet given that I've gotten through it for the past 14 years or so I must assume I can make it through another SRP :)

At least I do have days off to look forward to! This past Sunday was a lot of fun. DR and I went to a concert. As I've mentioned, I really love live music. This show was at The Greek, which is a wonderful venue. Not too far, not too large, outdoors...all good. We went to see a band DR likes called Chickenfoot. I don't really know their music very well, althought DR had shown me one of their videos a few weeks ago.

Chickenfoot, left to right - Kenny Aronoff, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, and Joe Santarini

The opening act was called Black Stone Cherry. I also knew nothing about them, but they were younger guys; quite fun and energetic in their set.  The crowd was kind of still milling around and walking in when they played, but I think people enjoyed them.

It was cool to see the kind of people who came out. Lots of people our age, old Van Halen fans and such.  The badass dad crowd...old groupie type girls....and some people brought their kids.  While Chickenfoot played the crowd never sat down. Everyone was on their feet the entire time.  Well, we were in the front row of the last section and their were some people behind us complaining, but that was their problem! Even though I didn't know the songs, I had a good time. There is something about that kind of concert that made me feel like the good girl I once was out on a date with her cute rocker boyfriend. I'm such a dork.

I hope you had a good weekend as well. I also hope that your week is less crazy-making than mine promises to be.

For those interested, this week's Saturday Scavenger Shots word is CHIPS. Come on and show me what you're working with :) Oh, and come by tomorrow for some Choose and Defend! Okay.

This Musical Message is For Can't Shake the Devil's Hand and Say You're Only Kidding

I'll Be Upon You By the Moonlight Side

Either Tara's Saturday Scavenger Shots word fits in great with my Choose and Defend Wednesday or vice versa. Either way, we gots ourselves a mini-theme a cookin'. Yup.  For what is more of a first-to-mind nocturnal animal than the WOLF?  Howling at the moon anyone?

The WOLF is the popular subject of t-shirts, tattoos, and blacklight posters. Somehow he got co-opted as some sort of symbol of badass mystic vibrations or whatever.  Surely each of my kids has owned a mystical Native American/WOLF t-shirt...and my ex has a WOLF tattoo on one arm, glowing green eyes and all.  In spite of this, I have no photographic evidence of any of these things! 

This is what I have instead -

You are looking at 75 purple paper wolves howling at 75 yellow paper moons.

I happened to have this on hand for a storytime craft for this summer.

That is the kind of WOLF you get from laura b. today :)

And there you go! So, now you can spend the weekend howling at the moon and avoiding any fearsome wereWOLF types that may accost you. Sure, theWereWOLF of London's hair was perfect, but he'll rip your lungs out!  Ahhhhoooooo!

Searching in the Darkness

Hello to everyone who has made it to Wednesday. I feel like it should be Friday by now. At least I have Choose and Defend Wednesday to console me.  This week's choice came to me in a dream. Well, that is not quite true. The theme of this year's Summer Reading Program is "Dream Big - Read!" So as we've spent the past months preparing, I have had nocturnal sorts of things on the brain.  This brings me (finally!) to this week's Choose and Defend.

There are lots of nocturnal animals, as it turns out. I didn't even know how many until I did some lazy research.  I thought I'd ask what your favorite is. Since this is Choose and Defend, I had to narrow it down to just a couple...so I chose ones many of us might actually come into contact with sometimes.  So....which of these is your favorite creature of the night...and why?

Bats

OR

Raccoons

Come out and dance in the pale moonlight!  Choose and Defend! And keep on keeping on until there is time for some rest :)

Someone Else to Miss

Just wanted to take a moment to note the passing of one of my collegues. Jackie has worked at this library for the past 28 years. Just recently she was promoted to Director and was doing a very good job in these trying times. Being the Director is a very political position and she handled it beautifully for such a naturally subversive sort of person. She had appeared to be in good health and had even lost weight over the past couple of years. But on Wednesday, May 30, she suffered a massive heart attack while sitting at her desk in her office. Help arrived within five minutes and she was in the best hands. Unfortunately, she never regained consciousness. She died on Saturday morning.

It was quite a shock to everyone here at the library and amongst all of the city staff. Jackie was only 63 and had much to look forward to. Her family will miss her terribly, of course...and so will we, her friends and co-workers.  I have so many memories of her. We started out on the wrong foot, I'd say. She could be a bit sharp and sarcastic, so when I first began working here I felt that she didn't like me. In a rare brave move I went to her office to try and clear things up. She was rather horrified to learn I felt we had a problem and quickly hugged me and assured me that we were great. In the years since then we have worked on several projects together. Most recently, I have been her steady supplier of  posters for the Foreign Film Evenings that she hosted here for the patrons.  After that first misstep we always got along....I'd say a bit of birds of a feather thing, really.

I don't know what happens after people die. But I do know that Jackie lives on in our hearts and minds. She lives in the legacy she left here with her work. Anytime I read a book about zombies or vampires, both of which she loved, I will definitely think of Jackie.

Rest in Peace Jackie. 

This Musical Message is For I Swear I'm Gonna Bite You Hard

Your Life is a Six-Lane Highway to Nowhere

Today's Saturday Scavenger Shots word is ZERO. I am the hero who chose it :) As usual, I clearly didn't have anything in mind when I came up with it. I just thought...well, it's a cool Z word...nothing is nothing...and yet nothing is somewhat mysterious too!  So here we are a week later, pondering ZERO.

Here is what I cobbled together.

I found this little book called "The History of ZERO".  Apparently, the Babylonians invented ZERO when they devised a symbol that was a placeholder. Their ZERO looks more like a pair of little flags standing side by side. But it was still ZERO. You go Babylonians!  ZERO had to be invented a second time around 500 A.D in the Hindu system of mathematics. The history of ZERO is actually pretty interesting. You know, if you're into that sort of thing. It is hard to imagine life without ZERO now. What would life be without nothing? Wait, what?

So, uh, as you can see, this Saturday Scavenger Shots turned out to be more of a little lesson in mathematics than a series of awesome photos (which I very seldom achieve, in any event!)  Just remember...nothing from nothing leaves nothing. You gotta have something, if you wanna be with me. So sayeth Billy Preston and so it shall be. 

Friday 5 - Similes

A Friday afternoon at work is like one of those slo-mo shots of Lee Majors running Six Million Dollar Man style. You are on the way somewhere you really want to be...but it feels like it is taking forever to get there! Thank Friday 5 for my similicious frame of mind. Let's see what I can do with these gems.

1. In what way is Tabasco like love?  Tabasco is like love because it gets your attention, makes things delicious, and sometimes it can hurt.

2. In what way is the beach like school?  The beach is like school because while there is a focus for your attentions, there are plenty of distractions compromising that focus.

3. In what way is the sky like your heart?  The sky is like my heart because no matter whether it is dark and turbulant or clear and bright, it is still the same place, fundamentally.

4.  In what way is your family like a box full of toys?  Some of them are colorful, some of them are cuddly, some of them are educational, some of them are a little dangerous, but they are all loved...my family and that box of toys.

5.  In what way is a cookbook like your ambitions?  In my particular case a cookbook is most like my ambitions in that they are both things that I don't consider all that often.

Okay...Happy Weekend everyone! Hope your weekend is like a....um....fluffy, playful kitten! Or something. I don't know. Hush.