Feline Feng Shui

Expert sources suggest that cats can help with blood pressure problems. While there is no more serene way of spending an afternoon than with a fuzzy blanket, warm beverage of choice, good book and cat on lap, the jury is still out on their overall effect on blood pressure in this household.
In spite of their selective digestion (read that as "can puke at will"), passive aggressive shedding, and casual disdain for our affections, there is something about them that makes me want to scoop them up and squeeze them until they object, which may or may not involve a blood letting on my part. One minute they are looking at me with an owly expression from the top of the bookcase, tail lashing in a threatening manner; and the next they are burrowing under the covers and curling up around my feet, purring ridiculously.

Truth be told, I'm not really sure that we are the more "evolved" species. Think about it: we wear their hair on our best outfits, feed them better than we eat ourselves, buy them silly jingly toys and even flush their toilets for them. We vacuum twice as often as we'd like and cover our plants (and sometimes our carpet) with aluminum foil to keep them away. And what do they do in return? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Soliloquy

Just because a person can have a blog, does not mean that they should have a blog. This is something that I have pondered at length. I might have something to say each day, but does anyone want to read it?
This isn't like trying to see how many friends you can accumulate on Facebook, or winning a high school popularity contest. Is it worth their time to visit? Do they come willingly? When they leave, have they gained something? Maybe occasionally, I hope.

It was a great encouragement to me this last weekend to find out that there are a lot more people paying attention than I would have imagined. I lost track of how many times someone asked me about my laundry. Maybe I should start carrying a photo of unfolded laundry in my wallet; right next to the pictures of the kids and the dog.
Folks wanted to know if Kirby or the girls were with us. Was I the Mystery Mailer? Many of them had solved (and enjoyed) the recent "evil" clues, or the oddball recipe. They liked the logbook tutorial better than the carving tutorial (mostly because of picture quality, I think). Several of them secretly read "the other blog".

Oh, and my cat's butt is famous.

Uneventful Event

This last weekend Chad and I attended the Boxacon event in Waukesha, WI. Aimlesst put together a great gathering with lots of science fiction themed boxes, tons of great food, a fantastic turn out and weather that cooperated for the most part. I got to see several "old" friends and meet lots of new people as well. Everyone was friendly and gracious to my DH, as I knew they would be. And unless I just haven't found them yet, I didn't come home with a single cootie. In spite of my knee, I managed to walk a short trail and find a few boxes with the help of Shorty, Pitties, and Atomic Beans (thanks for allowing the slack boxing guys!).
All in all, it was fairly ordinary. Don't read that as boring though. I just mean that nobody got set on fire, or arrested, or any such nonsense.

I purposefully left the file size of this photo huge so that you can click on it to enlarge the picture. I thought about trying to identify everyone, but quickly gave that up as too daunting a task for this early in the morning.

I only carved one new stamp for the event. M has been bugging me to carve Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver for months and I finally gave in. It isn't any light saber, but if I had to choose one to have "for real", I'd pick the sonic screwdriver in a double heart beat. There isn't much that little gizmo can't do.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at the Chicken Basket, one of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive ins, and Dives. It has been on our list since February. Yes, the fried chicken and mac n cheese were as good as we expected. Maybe the guy does know what he's talking about after all.



Of course, this begs the question: Could a person, theoretically, put together a road trip that combines the best of both the letterboxing and the foodie worlds and convince said person's family to actually take such a hypothetical journey?

Bookplates

We are continuing our ride in the Way Back Machine today; this time to take a quick look at a couple of personal library stamps that I carved for my two brothers and my niece. I apologize for the quality (or lack thereof) of the images. Since these stamps are not in my possession anymore, I can't do any better.

The image in the center is the Master's Seminary logo, where Paul graduated from several years ago.
Eric just asked for a Celtic knot design. I'd really like to redo all three of these since my ability has improved drastically since then. But we can't recarve all of them, can we?
This last stamp was commissioned by a friend of Eric's and he asked for the Egyptian Ankh symbol, although I'm not really sure why.

Curiously, although we are constantly tripping over piles of books here in our house and the shelves are stacked every which way, I have never carved a book plate for myself. I really should, since I have lost track of all of the books that I have loaned out and then promptly forgotten where they went. With the gazillions of books in the world, I figure that there are only a few that I would take the time to read more than once. However, I think my bookplate would probably read "This book stolen from the library of..."
Books I would read more than once? Watership Down, Count of Monte Cristo, Les Miserables, anything by Robert Frost or Rudyard Kipling, and several theological tomes. Holy Scripture might seem obviously missing, but in my mind, it doesn't even belong in the same list with secular literature.

Outstanding Man

As a child, I remember seeing a bumper sticker that read "A farmer is a man outstanding in his field". It was funny then and still is, but for different reasons. Now I am married to a farmer. And every farm wife quickly realizes that there is a lot of standing around and staring involved in agricultural projects of all kinds.
Whether he likes it or not, I want to take the opportunity to brag a little bit about my "outstanding man".
Chad is a farmer through and through. He is gentle, quiet and patient to the point of being exasperating. He is very good at taking things apart, fixing them, and putting them together better than before; and I'm not just talking about the vintage tractors that he restores. He is better at planning ahead than I am and much more even tempered. "Spontaneous" is not a word I would use to describe him, and most of the time that's a good thing. We balance each other out quite nicely.
He is a hard worker and complains very little compared to the amount of pain and health issues that he has had in the last few years. I am in awe of his self will every time the alarm clock goes off at 4:30 in the morning. Our girls adore him, and so does the dog. I am grateful for the opportunity to live here on the farm where we can all be so close to him when he is "tinkering". When he is not at his 9 to 5 job, that is.
I've mentioned that my husband is a farmer, right? That is to say, he is not a letterboxer, and likely will not ever be a letterboxer. However, he is willingly attending a gathering with me this weekend. See? I told you he was outstanding! To that end, I carved the above logo for him as a pseudo signature stamp. He isn't really interested in a trailname, so I am debating listing him as a Personal Traveler. What do you think? It doesn't get any more personal than that!