January 22
The joy/curse of my new position is travel. A recent trip took me to MIA via IAH. After arriving at IAH out of DFW, and being sorely hungry, my boss and I grabbed a quick bite at the only real restaurant in the terminal, Chili’s, Too before heading on to MIA. It was a long week.
Cheers.
~KR
January 21
At Scarborough Faire, we have this wonderful shop at the end of the lane near the list called Dragon Wings. One of the many fine products Deborah (the proprietor) produces are these fine marionettes. We have two of them in the house, this one is dressed in the same material we wore in our wedding.
Cheers.
~KR
January 20
This litle guy hangs in our living room as a memorial to our beloved Kiddo–an incredible orange and white, long-haired tabby cat that was part of our lives for most of eighteen years! Our friends got together and provided his photo for the talented lady who makes these, and this was designed specifically for us–to look like him. Dumbest, sweetest cat that ever lived.
~MB for KR
January 19
I’ve no idea what this is. Perhaps I’ll clean it up enough to see the reality of the photo someday. But, right now, in an effort to get caught up from my woefully-behind state of being, I’m just putting it up and damn the consequences. I’m a better photographer than this, but sometimes I get limited by the constraints of time and camera.
Cheers.
~KR
What it is, is a very cool, very bizarre shot taken into the large full-length mirror in our living room. Reflected from across the room is the top of the bookcase, including the beautiful lamp made by Shannon Jane Morgan. Strange angle. Odd lighting. But very cool somehow!
~MB
January 18
Well, somehow, I managed to completely miss taking a photo on this day. Out of batteries, out of ideas, out of time? Probably a combination of the above.
~KR
2 February 2007 — Imbolc
Diffusion was the name of the event. “Feeling Good” was the name of the number these girls danced. Dancing Minds and Bodies is the name of our company. We danced a second piece–the one I danced in tonight, called “Dreaming.” Both numbers went very well. I actually feel pretty good about my own performance–especially since, as I was reminded tonight, I have 12 years on most of the girls I’m dancing with! I’m not doing too bad for an old broad!
It was wonderful that we had a large number of our friends and family members in the audience tonight–that means so much!
I’m posting two entries today–my robins this afternoon were just too cool to ignore! And the dance performance was by far, the highlight of my week, so it had to be the focus of the day. I guess it will be okay, and help make up for a day I’m sure is in my future, when no photo happens!
~MB
2 February 2007
I’ll write another entry later tonight–but I have to make this part of my year’s worth of journalling . . .
As I was making the bed this morning, I realized the birds in the backyard were very loud and very active. I crawled up on the bed to look, and lo and behold, I saw a robin! Now, I know that some say Imbolc is the “real” beginning of spring, but, my gosh, it’s only 36 degrees out there!
Then, a little while later, I was running a quick errand to the bank, and I stepped out onto our front porch and was amazed. There wasn’t one robin in our front yard . . . there were at least fifteen! I guess a whole flock of them decided to head north early, and they stopped in Arlington for a travel break! I was able to grab my camera and get two of them right in the center of this snapshot before somebody nearby closed a car door and they all flew to another street.
~MB
I
1 February 2007
“Candlemas” is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course. The older Pagan name for this “cross-quarter day” is Imbolc, meaning, literally, “in the belly” (of the Mother). For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings. The seed that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows.
The holiday is also called “Brigit’s Day”, in honor of the great Irish Goddess Brigit. Also known elsewhere as Bridget, Brighid, Bride (thus she bestows her patronage on every woman about to be married), or Berecyntia (our border collie’s namesake) the Christians later canonized her, and made up a story to go with it. She is one of the great Celtic triple goddesses–goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry, and healing (especially the healing touch of midwifery). I am reminded of our dear friends Starr and Joe (and big brother, Troy) anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby Alex–due on Brigit’s Day–Imbolc! If he does not join us tomorrow, or throughout the weekend, he’ll be born on Monday! Blessed Be!
Brigit is described as “the flame in the heart of all women.” This relates to the absolute authority of the woman in the house, and as such, the festival of Imbolc, is a fire festival–the household fire, that is. So, it is a hearth festival–the connection to candles being fairly obvious.
So, while much of our society is carefully preparing television cameras to witness the antics of a poor little fellow in Pennsylvania named Phil, we might more appropriately be lighting a candle and rejoicing in the coming of spring. It’s also the last day, according to tradition for the removal of Yuletide decorations.
Appropriately celebrating the feminine, I had a great chat with Anna today, and followed that with a wonderful conversation with Miss Ginger–kiss*kiss! Osculate! Quite possibly my new most favourite word! Snowflakes fell on much of the metroplex today, although here at our house, they didn’t fall for long, and didn’t survive impact with the (not much) warmer ground. It did rain, though, pretty much every minute it didn’t snow!
Tomorrow is the last morning of the week of early rising—Kyle having to be at work at 8 a.m. instead of nine makes for an earlier bedtime in the house. Not a bad idea for me, either, tonight, with the dance performance tomorrow night.
~MB
31 January 2007
We have officially made it through one quarter of the year, making the Daily KRuMB a reality. I am enjoying the heck out of it!
I learned two really wonderful things tonight:
1. Flickr–the site where we have all our photos hosted, has this amazingly fun map feature, that lets you place on a map the location where your photos were taken! It is the coolest thing! It didn’t really know what to do with me, however, when I wanted to place a photo in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico!
2. My husband is even more of a genius than I realized he was. I was playing the role of facilitator, and cheerleader tonight, and encouraging Kyle to use the laptop to upload photos he had taken, from my camera’s card to Flickr. As he should have been finishing the process, he began to act concerned and let fly a couple of “colourful metaphors.” The long version of the story isn’t real pretty, but I’m proud to say I never even cried. The short version of the story is that he was able to find the right tool—knowing that it existed in the first place was impressive enough—and save photos I thought were deleted and gone forever! I have rarely been so impressed! Yay, Kyle! I love being married to a computer guru!
So, after a baby burger and a couple of Corona Lights, I was into this Flickr map thing and forgot to take a photo. As we were getting ready to leave No Frills, I took this silly shot of the trivia screen. So, cabbage, it is.
~MB
30 January 2007
After a day of not getting much accomplished yesterday, today was kind of the opposite. Or at least it feels that way in comparison to how little I’ve gotten done throughout the whole rest of this month. I can hardly believe January is almost over.
I dealt with email, cleaned my desk a bit, prepared packages for mailing, did some sewing and some organization in the workshop, dealt with the a/c/heat repair-guy, ate breakfast and lunch, and even fit in some training time with the dogs. I talked to my mother–a couple of times, actually, and to Rick, and to Kelly–all rather lengthy phone calls. And to top it all off, I was on time for dance class!
I had to be on time, really. It was dress rehearsal night. We have a performance on Friday night–a little dance festival called Diffusion. That’s about all I know, other than that it’s happening in Fort Worth! Great for me, but hard for the other girls in the company. Anyway, tonight was our dress rehearsal for the two numbers we’re doing on Friday. I’m only dancing in one of them, because my schedule has just not allowed me to be at enough classes during the fall and winter, to learn the newest routine. This photo is of the girls in an early moment of that new number. It looks good, and I look forward to learning it.
I have to make a big decision about that, too. The next performance is on the second Saturday of Scarborough. I had already decided NOT to do the show when we thought it was on opening Saturday. Now, it’s a week later, and I have to decide if the stress and unhappiness of last year’s experience came from the fact that it was opening weekend, or if it came from the fact that it’s just darn hard to leave in the middle of a faire day. Kyle is willing to support whatever decision I make. And I have to make that decision before next Tuesday night!<sigh>
~MB
