C is for Cat Cartoons

 

When I was a child, I was afraid of cats.  I didn't know what I was missing.  Fast forward to the day my daughter found a lost kitten and I became a cat lover...or maybe a cat addict.  Now I am owned by two wonderful cats, Toby, who got his name because we adopted him in October, and Tiki, a hyperactive tabby.  They would be crushed if I didn't post about cats at least once during the A to Z Challenge, so here are some cat cartoons.  Enjoy.

And while I have your attention, felllow A to Zers, here is the cover of my recently released memoir.  Check it out on

http://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Through-Dark-Husband-Together/dp/1936778580/

 

 

 

Z is for ZZZZ...and my 26 favorite blogs

I can't believe it:  A to Z Blogging Challenge month has come to an end.  And hooray for me!  I visited every single blog on the list. 

Here are my 26 favorite, not in any special order.  These are blogs that made me think, made me laugh, made me cry, taught me something new, inspired me.  Take a look at them:

A       http://www.writercize.blogspot.com/    Writing exercises, tips.

B.      www.hunteremkay.com/blog2/   Crime information.  I loved this blog!

C      http://www.didyoueverkissafrog.typepad.com/   This blogger muses on mmany topic of interest.

D      http://www.bardsandprophets.blogspot.com/   Her theme this month was travel to England,  Scotland
         and Wales.  Quotes, interesting sites.  Fun.

E      http://www.clarissadraper.blogspot.com/  Death by-----   She gives a description, you guess the event.

F       http://www.oaklawnimages.blogspot.com/   Photos, cards.  Lovely.

G      http://www.its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.com/.  This is the blog of a Texan, like me.  And of course
        everyone should learn about Texas.

H      http://www.lauramarcella.blogspot.com/  Writing quotes, facts, tips.

I      http://www.margoberendsen.blogspot.com/  For each letter, a top ten.  Fun.

J      http://www.dmlsexton.blogspot.com/   Miscellaneous.  Interesting.

K      http://www.bubblegumonmyshoe.com/  Another miscellaneous one.  Interesting.

L      http://www.bloggitwriter-a-z.blogspot.com/  Haikus for each letter.

M      http://www.wordsandmusic365.blogspot.com/   Fun and interesting posts about various topics.



N      http://www.siobhanminty.blogspot.com/  Writer/editor/jack of all trades.  Blog for writers.

O      http://www.cinemachallengecavalcade.blogspot.com/  Movie favorites in 26 categories.

P      http://www.queenofenglish.wordpress.com/  Hasn't finished all the letters but what she has is great.
        Anything you want to know about English grammar and vocabulary is here.

Q      http://www.myfivemen.blogspot.com/  Marvelous pictures.

R      http://www.dazedreflection.blogspot.com/   Tips for bloggers.

S      http://www.kathiswritingnook.blogspot.com/  Various topics.

T      http://www.leavingcairo.blogspot.com/  Posts about Cairo, Greece.  Fascinating information.

U      http://www.thedeathwriter.blogspot.com/  A whole blog about death!  I think this was my favorite
        (Okay, I'm strange)

V      http://www.artisan-denizen.blogspot.com/  Various topics.  Very good!

W      http://www.parentingaaah2zzz.blogspot.com/  Mom posts.

X      http://www.theprimlanikitchen.com/   Recipes, pictures.  Yum !

Y      http://www.incomingbytes.blogspot.com/  Various topics.

Z      http://www.rossandrawhite.com/   Animals


Thanks to all the committed bloggers who posted all through April.  Thanks to those who visited me and especially those who signed up to follow.  Thanks to the great A to Z group who puts this together every year.  And now, after a month of nothing but blog-related activities, I'm nodding off......



Y is for Yellow

Hailstones and Halibut Bones:  Adventures in Color by Mary O'Neill is a book I've had for many years.  She's written a poem about each color.  Here's yellow:

Yellow is the color of the sun,

The feeling of fun,

The yolk of an egg,

A duck's bill,

A canary bird

And a daffodil

Yellow's sweet corn,

Ripe oats,

Hummingbirds'

Little throats

Summer squash and

Chinese silk,

The cream on top

Of Jersey milk,

Dandelions and

Daisy hearts,

Custard pies and

Lemon tarts

Yellow blinks

On summer nights

In the off and on

Of firefly lights

Yellow's a topaz,

A candle flame.

Felicity is a

Yellow name.

Yellow's mimosa,

And I guess

Yellow's the color of

Happiness

X is for X-Rated Words

It's official.  The New York City Department of Education has sent book publishers a list of objectionable words that should not be included in their books.  You're guessing 4-letter words, aren't you?  Wrong.  Apparently the Department trusts publishers to omit these kinds of words on their own.  There are other words which should be deleted, words that would make children uncomfortable, or, some would say, words which are politically incorrect.  You're guessing racist words, sexist words, ethnic slurs.  Wrong again.

Here's a partial list and the reasons why each word was censored:

Dinosaur:  Not everyone believes in the theory of evolution.  We don't want a classroom religious war.

Birthday:   Another religiously unacceptable word.  Not celebrated by Jehovah's Witnesses. 

Pepperoni:  Are you kidding?  It's junk food.  Let's not reinforce that.  Also insensitive to vegans.

Divorce:  Too upsetting for kids whose parents have split.

Home computers:  Not every family can afford one.

Disease:  Scary

Terrorism:  Also scary.

I'm sure the list contains other words, equally dangerous, that were not mentioned in the article I read.  Isn't it comforting to know that children in New York are being shielded from such subversive concepts?  Perhaps you have suggestions for additonal words for the list.  If so, mention them in the comment section.  Or just send them to the New York City Board of Education.  I'm sure they'll appreciate your concern.

W is for What I Read in April

This month I read three books. 

Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmations wrote this charming story of a slightly quirky English family living in an old castle.  Written in the voice of 17-year-old Cassandra, it's a coming-of-age-and-falling-in-love story.  Fun to read.

A best-seller in its day, this story of a serial killer with an enhanced sense of smell absolutely grossed me out.  I finished it because it was a book club read but I don't recommend it.

This fairly new release was a page-turner.  The story of an assistant DA whose son is accused of murdering his classmate has all the ingredients of a best seller--a crime, a trial, twists and turns.  Highly recommended.

If you've read any books you'd like to recommend, please add them in the Comment section.  I'm always on the lookout for new reads.

V is for Vegetables

I love vegetables.  I eat raw veggies for lunch along with cheese and crackers and at least one serving, sometimes two, of vegetables for dinner.  Today I'm sharing 2 of my favorite veggie recipes.

Warning: These aren't heart healthy. More on the order of "guilty pleasures."

Minted Glazed Carrots

12 fresh carrots

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

2 T. chopped mint or dried mint flakes

 

Peel and cook carrots in boiling water.  Drain, and while hot, pour sugar and butter over them.  Cook slowly until carrots are glazed but not browned.  When ready to serve, sprinkle with mint.

 

 

Spinach Casserole

 

2 pkgs. frozen chopped spinach

1/2 pint sour cream

1 medium can mushrooms stems and pieces

1 can artichoke hearts

 

Cook and drain spinach.  Add sour cream and mushrooms.  Put half of mixture into a buttered casserole.  Slice artichoke hearts and layer on top of spinach mixture.  Top with rest of spinach mixture.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

U is for Urban Dictionary

Want to understand street slang, current pop terms?  Check out http://www.urbandictionary.com/  to learn the meanings of words and phrases you don't know (or may not want to know).  Anyway, here's a sample:


Apple Year:  The amount of time it takes an Apple product to get old, from the day it is purchased. An Apple Year is usually less than one month, although it depends based on the product


I can't believe this! I bought the iPad just an Apple Year ago, and now they're coming out with a new one!

 
Google tic:  The uncontrollable urge to conduct a Google search on any and every question, thought, concept, word or name that comes to mind, including new acquaintances, products and companies.


You haven't Googled him, but you went out with him?! I could never get in someone's car without Googling their name, but then again, I have a Google tic.

 
Phone-yawn:  The act of taking out a cell phone from one's pocket or purse, resulting in other people in the vicinity taking out and checking their phones as well.


As Harriet pulled her cell from her pocket to check for new text messages, her circle of friends phone-yawned, pulling out and checking their phones too. Not Becky; she lost her phone at the club the night before.

 
IJS:  I'm Just Saying: Used to add emphasis, or express irony. Can also be used to express sarcasm. Can be used on the back of almost any sentence, IJS.


 
Egg Salad Monday:  The day after Easter Sunday when everyone has a surplus of hardboiled eggs. These eggs are often used up by making egg salad.


"I'm suffering the adverse effects of Egg Salad Monday".

"I'm out of town on Easter Weekend, but I think I can come by on Egg Salad Monday.

 
Airport Effect:  The temporary increase in self importance that individuals assign to themselves while waiting at airports.  Future passengers suffering from the airport effect often portray more serious facial expressions, increase their cell phone speaking volume if discussing business matters, and perform fake work on their laptop near heavily populated areas.

 
totes:  (abbreviation) stands for totally.


-Do you agree with me?

-totes.

Q is for Quilt

I fell in love with this beautiful quilt when I saw an exhibit of the work of Israeli artist Maya Chaimovich. I knew I had to have it. Here it is in my living room, hanging above two chairs I inherited from my mother. Leave a comment if you're interested in contacting Maya and I'll send you her email.

M is for Misplaced Modifiers

Woe to the writer who has a misplaced modifier. My critique group will find it. In fact, that's one of our favorite things to do.

So what are misplaced modifiers? They are clauses and phrases placed so they modify the wrong noun in the sentence.

Here are some examples: Can you fix them?
For sale: antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.

Wanted: man to take care of cow that does not smoke or drink.

Three-year-old teacher needed for preschool.

The patient was referred to a psychologist with severe emotional problems.

She died in the home where she was born at the age of 88.

Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope.

Sitting up and begging, I gave my dog a dog biscuit.

Laughing uncontrollably, my panties got wet.

J is for Jokes and What You Can Learn from Them

Are you into philosphy? Me neither. Too obscure. Yawn.

But...

Ever thought that jokes could clarify philosophy? I didn't either until I picked up Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes.
Makes it sound more interesting and fun, doesn't it?



Here are some examples:

Here's a joke to explain essentialism. What attributes make things what they are, or as philosophers put it, what attributes make things not what they aren't (Whew!)
"Why is an elephant big, gray and wrinkled?"
"Because if he were small, white and round, he'd be an aspirin."


Philosophers struggle with the concepts of eternity and infinity. Also relativity.
Here's a joke that explains two of them:
A woman is told by her doctor that she has six months to live. "Is there anything I can do?" she asks.
"Yes." says the doctor. "You could marry a tax accountant."
"How will that help my illness?" she asks.
"Oh, it won't help your illness," says the doctor,"but it will make that six months seem like an eternity."
(Sorry, tax accountants.)

Deductive logic is reasoning from the general to the particular. for example, using the famous syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; Socrates is mortal. That's fine, unless you screw up the logic as in: All men are mortal; my kid's hamster is mortal; therefore my kid's hamster is a man.
Or you could srgue from a false premise:
An old cowboy goes into a bar. A young lady sits down next to him and asks, "Are you a real cowboy?"
He says, "Well, I've spent my whole life on a ranch, herding horses, mending fences and branding cattle, so I guess I am."
She says, "I'm a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about women. When I go to work or watch TV, everything makes me think about women."
She wanders off, and a couple sits down. They turn to the old guy and ask, "Are you a real cowboy?"
He replies, "I always thought I was, but I just found out I'm a lesbian."


Analogies are often used in arguments, but sometimes they just don't work. Here are a few that failed:
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
Or:
The little boat drifted gently across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

Stoicism involved emotional disengagement from life, acting from reason, never from passion. Here is a modern Stoic-by-proxy:
Mr. Cooper told the dentist he was in a big hurry. "No fancy stuff," he ordered. "No gas or needles or any of that stuff. Just pull the tooth and get it over with."
"I wish more of my patients were as stoic as you," said the dentist. "Which tooth is it?"
Mr. Cooper turned to his wife. "Open your mouth, honey."

The philosophy of language addresses the concept of "fuzziness," or vagueness in language as in the joke that follows:
A woman bursts into the men's day-room at the retirement home. Holding her clenched fist in the air, she announces, "Anyone who can guess what I have in my hand cam have sex with me tonight."
An old man shouts, "An elephant."
The woman things for a moment and says, "Close enough."

Check on Amazon for Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar. By the way, when it was published in 2008, it became a best seller. It's still #18,153 on Amazon's list. And remember, they have over a million books for sale.

I is for Interview with Author Susan Lieberman

Today I'm interviewing Susan Lieberman, author of Getting Old is a Full Time Job.



I've known Susan for several years and admire her very much. She's one of the founders of the Houston chapter of The Transition Network. She leads most of our monthly "conversations", makes us think with her provocative questions, and also leads our subgroup, Death, Dying and Dessert. So when Susan's latest book came out, I bought one immediately (after all, I'm getting older every minute). Here is my interview with Susan:


In Getting Old is a Full Time Job, you broke retirement into 12 jobs. What inspired you to do that (and by the way, I loved it) Would you list the jobs so readers will get an idea of how the book is structured.


You are right...I talk about 12 "jobs" in this book, but, in fact, they are all part of the same JOB or challenge, which is using this stage of our lives to grow into our still-better-selves. I use the language of work for a couple reasons. First, Freud suggested that love and work are the two central tenants of our adult lives, And I wanted this book to appeal to both men and women. As Dick Goldberg, National Director of Coming of Age, noted, "We men like jobs."

Many of us worry about what will replace our work when we retire. The point of the book is that there is plenty of "work" waiting for us when we have the time to take it on. However, it is different from most of the work we do in our mainstream years. This time, we are working just for us, on our own time frame. Here are the 12 jobs I discuss, each in a chapter of the book:


Strategist
Script Writer/Editor
Director of Physical Planning
Training and Development Manager
Residential Relocation Expert
Office Manager
Money Manager
Relationship Coach
Demolition Expert
Purveyor of Pleasure
Soul Searcher
By the way, I am not suggesting we do all twelve of these jobs, certainly not at once. Pick and choose as you wish.


What was the hardest job for you personally to take on? The easiest?

The hardest job for me is Purveyor of Pleasure. I know how to work. I'm really good at it and before I retired, I did it 50 or 60 hours a week for money and another bunch of hours running the enterprise called Lieberman. I wasn't so good at playing. I'm better now, but I'm still learning.

Director of Physical Planning is also hard. I do go to the gym and work out with a trainer three times a week and walk with a walking buddy...but I don't like it, and it is still a struggle to make myself show up consistently. I give myself stars for doing it even if I don't want to.

My easiest job will, I suspect, sound strange to many. It is Demolition Expert. I started a business, Y Collaborative, to talk with healthy people about end-of-life issues as a result of my mother's failing health and then death. I have been immersed in learning about death and dying for over three years. There is so much to learn and none of it strikes me as morbid . It seems to me much more morbid to live in denial and find myself suddenly in circumstances I don't understand and don't have a clue how to manage or to leave my family without guidance and support. Another Freud quote: If you want peace, prepare for war. If you want life, prepare for death. I know many of us know we will die but hope it doesn't happen in our lifetime. A diet of delusion is not so healthy, I think.




I feel these "jobs"apply to everyone at this stage in life, retired or not. Do you agree?

I do agree. It doesn't matter if we are retired or not. What we need is time in our lives to focus on these issues, many of them more internal than external. If our external work so absorbs us all the time, then it is hard to take on this challenge. If we keep working but find that we have shifted the importance of that work in our lives, which does not mean doing shoddy work, then we can take on some of these jobs.


In our Transition Network group we talked about attachments and detaching from things, activities, etc. that are no longer meaningful. I'd like to hear your comments on that.

Really, retirement is about detaching from work as we generally knew it. If we detach, either wholly or partially, it leaves a gap. Sometimes, leaving a job means we also detach from people--or they detach from us--, from habits, from patterns. So many of the jobs in this book are about deciding how/when/where and to whom we might want new attachments. This also raises for us the question of whether our old attachments are still working and providing satisfaction. For example. we may live in a house we loved when our kids were young but now, if we look closely, we find it more burden than pleasure. Our brains are a bit like tracks. We slip into behavior tracks and just keep driving in those familiar synaptic tracks.

I had to learn to engage in conscious reflection about what old tracks I really liked and where I wanted to lay down some new tracks. I also found it challenging to think about the tracks others told me I should put down, but in fact, in truth, I really had no interest in.

Work as we know it in our middle years can be hard, but there is a kind of comfort in having others decide how we should spend our time and energy. It is a different kind of work when we get decide anew for ourselves...every day.




Would you share your writing process with readers?

I love writing. It is my therapy. This is how I clarify my own thinking and figure out what I really think. I am not a scheduled person so sometimes, I can work ten hours a day for several days and then get distracted by other things in my life and not work on the book for days. When I try to work, and I don't make any progress, it is usually because my thinking is not clear. I believe good writing grows out of good thinking. Sometimes, even if I don't want it to be this way, I have to germinate, gestate, muddle around until I get clear. That may involve lots of pages that get deleted and lots of grumbling, but I have learned that, in time I find my way to a place that makes sense for me. If it doesn't make sense for me, I don't expect it to make sense for anyone else.

I am an extrovert so talking helps my thinking. I love to interview people. Every book I have written, and this is the seventh, has involved interviewing. I am always smarter as a team than alone. And over the years, I have found that I have become a better writer because I have become a better editor. After I wrote dozens of drafts of this book and thought I was finished, I went through it and removed 9,000 words. I am interesting, perhaps, but I am not endlessly interesting.

One thought: it doesn't matter how, when, where you write. There is no RIGHT way. But if you want to be a writer, you do have to write!





Where is the book available?

Ah, great question. It's on Amazon, in print and on kindle. And it can be bought on the www.Ycollaborative.com website. I doubt it can be found in a bookstore.

H is for Houston

<<
Houston, my home town, is a hard city to love. Unless you enjoy clogged freeways, brutally hot and humid summers, springs and falls that last about 3 days, cockroaches, no scenery, miles of strip malls, and professional sports teams that habitually lose. Last year the Astros set a record by losing 106 games; this year they lost their opener so apparently they're on track for another record breaking season.



On the other hand...we have

The Texas Medical Center, the world's largest, which includes the #1 cancer hospital in the country;


The Houston Museum of Natural Science, which in recent years has brought us Lucy, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Lois the corpse flower which brought such huge crowds that you sometimes had to wait in line half the night to get a whiff of her;


The Astrodome, which opened in 1963, and in its day was touted as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Now, sadly, it stands empty and decrepit, but we still love the memories. I gave birth to my son on the day it opened and saw the last baseball game played there.

Where else could you visit these off-beat spots?
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU4fMX_b1B2IL8-c6ANx1cPXLo6v4OmAY6TrBcRgXLDejOWAYfAS3bT9yjF9yVLxn47YMPhFzGNtfUM-0zsIJphoZvOZKDmFHy8VCrb5WYsq92B1nn5TK2gIxFeQ6d52tyDkuh9u0ORQ5W/s1600/beer+can+house.jpg">
A house decorated all over with beer cans;

a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-G4e2Bbma344ldA71_2mnkPlCt8iwtgkzgZU_03Ci_qLlqiWsiJUVtvha23TDbXHH3GE_rjHrg8eDXVa0Jgu-wOiZkSeys1MU37aDDs7jDRW7351JQlsxp1ULmw5S3dYa2bdtmxzki7aP/s1600/orange+show.jpg">
A museum dedicated to the orange;


One of the nation's busiest ports...located 50 miles from the coast.

Yes, despite it's drawbacks, Houston is a great city to live and to visit. Come on down.

G is for Glasses

I started wearing glasses when I was four. Little round gold-rimmed glasses with thick, thick lenses. I was far-sighted and had severe astigmatism. My left eye was worse, so I tended to use my right for sighting, which was a problem because I am left-handed. Years later, I realized that was why I was probably so lousy at sports like baseball and kickball.



I grew up and wore glasses with plastic frames. Still thick though, but by then, so much a part of me, I rarely thought about them. In fact, I even wore them in the shower. I tried contacts several times but could never adjust to them. They hurt, they itched, I couldn't get them in. I threw them away and went on with my life.



Marriage, motherhood, divorce, grad school, work--the glasses accompanied me through every crisis and every triumph. When I was 36, they became bifocals.



As I got older, cataracts appeared. For years, they didn't intefere with my vision, but finally in the winter of 2008, my eye doctor said it was time to remove them. I had the two surgeries over winter break. Surprise! Colors were so much brighter than I had thought. Another surprise! I could see without my glasses. Wouldn't people be amazed to see me without my coke bottle glasses! In early January I strode into the school I consult with. I expected people to stop me in the hall and exlaim about the new glassesless Me. Not a word. The only person who noticed was the janitor.

The other day my daughter remarked that she has had trouble getting used to me without the glasses. "You don't look like my mother without them," she said.
On the other hand, I am thoroughly used to Life Without Glasses. At first I felt undressed. For months after the surgery I reached up to take them off at night, groped for them in the morning when I woke up. But now I'm completely comfortable without them, my vision is great, and someone even told me recently I have pretty eyes. For me, that's the ultimate compliment.