My home is in Old Forth Ward in Atlanta, just outside of downtown,and I get miraculous, amazing sunsets over the skyline.
It’s always so wonderful to come home to my windows bathed in light and color and to stop my crazy day and just appreciate the glorious view of my city.
~My theme for this month’s Nano Poblano challenge is Motion~
Hey! So good to see you again! Thank you for dropping by!
I made it through this week. That is cause for celebration.
Let’s grab a cup and head out to the front porch – the weather is finally lovely and fall-like and it’s so nice sitting out their on the porch swing.
You are catching me on the end of a crazy busy seven-ish days. Yesterday, I helped out a friend of mine, who is a private chef, produce a rehearsal dinner for 50+ people. Today, my husband and I hosted a book club meeting for my women’s organization.
Yes, we are a wine club who likes to read.
About 10 lovely ladies showed up for wine and snacks this afternoon to discuss our quarterly book selection, The Widow. I thought the book was pretty good – the last few chapters were very suspenseful. It’s not something I would have picked out on my own to read – most of our book group selections aren’t, so it’s nice to read a little out-0f-the-box every now and again.
Of course, Jeeves our alligator butler, met them at the door with a book and a drink.
Otherwise, my work week was insane. I had two full complex buyouts with super-complicated logistics which meant my life hinged on the organizers’ daily whims. I am so very grateful that they are over and done.
Done and successful. ::whew:: Actually, I can pour you another cup of coffee or you can join me in a shot of tequila if you’re interested. (Just kidding, but tempting after this week.)
So please tell me about your week…what did you do? Did you accomplish a lot or just find time to relax and enjoy the change in Season? Are you writing for NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo or Nano Poblano? If so, how’s that going?
Do be sure to stop by next week for coffee again: big announcements are coming!
And thanks to Miss Emily’s Home for Full Grown Nerds for turning me on to Diane at Part-Time Monster’s #weekendcoffeeshare. Please stop by her page to enjoy coffee and time with the rest of the crew!
~My theme for this month’s Nano Poblano challenge is Motion~
Photo by Christopher T. Martin source art.beltline.org
Back in September, I participated in my second Beltline Lantern Parade, which just celebrated its seventh year in Atlanta. The Beltline Lantern Parade is part of the Art on the Beltline program and the brainchild Chantelle Rytter and the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons, who host the cavalcade of lights, music and dance transiting the Eastside Trail the first Saturday after Labor Day each year.
Last year, my bestie and I concocted our own Krewe of paraders (based on the idea of a Mardi Gras Krewe) called the Krewe of the Sultry Sirens.
This year, we took it up a notch.
This year, we got a banner.
Unlike most of the other 60,000-odd revelers, content to simply flourish their home-made lantern creations, the “Sirens” add an “Under-the-Sea Theme” costume component, dressing up as “mermaids,” “fish” and a “crustacean,” and bearing jellyfish lanterns.
me and my bestie, L
The Krewe of the Sultry Sirens
We also tossed beads and candy this year, very a la Mardi Gras, as we made our way down the trail.
That’s the back of our sign, btw. It’s the actually the Krewe of the Sultry Sirens and One Cranky Crab
the Cranky Crab
Because we are completely over the top (and quite happy to be so), next year, we’re setting up a Facebook page for the Krewe and taking pledges for the Surfrider Foundation, a group dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s ocean, waves and beaches.
That way at least our desperate need to attract attention to ourselves will contribute to a good cause.
Which is certainly worth parading about.
And I resolve to never stay down.
~My theme for this month’s Nano Poblano challenge is Motion~
Therefore I motion, since I have a twelve-hour day and an insanely complicated event stretching ahead of me at work, to give you a picture post, in lieu of words.
If I could get a second?
Photos from our recent week in Florida, on a hugely needed vacation.
sea oats at sunset
dolphins swimming alongside our sailboat
pelicans at the channel marker
birdie buddies
one of many amazing sunsets
and another
digging in – I didn’t want to leave
beautiful skies
I’m smiling, remembering. It’s a good start to a long day.
~My theme for this month’s Nano Poblano challenge is Motion~
It’s the oddest thing.
For people who, as a rule, talk pretty slow and sometimes move even slower, Southerners seem to pack a lot of action into their vernacular.
You see, I don’t just up and go to the store, I’m fixin’ to go to the store – by adding the helpful phrase “to fix,” I imply that I somehow prepare myself mentally, physically and spiritually to journey to Publix verses you Yanks just getting in your car and driving over. Way more descriptive action = same result.
As Southerners, we may drawl our responses, but action bristles through our patois: dogs hunt, cousins kiss, possums are treed, biscuits are buttered. There are frequent calls to action: “Smile before your face freezes and you’re stuck like that forever,” “Do be a love and fetch my pocketbook,” “Eat that chicken! Folk are starvin’ clear around the world,” “Reach that there glass of wine and bring it to your momma.”
And then there are the idioms; truly enough literary motion to exhaust any listener:
“He’s so confused he don’t know whether to wind his butt or scratch his watch.”
“That room’s so small you couldn’t cuss a cat without getting hair in your teeth.”
“I’m feelin’ fine as frog’s hair, split three ways and sandpapered down the middle.”
“Run with the big dogs or stay on the porch.”
“Hon, you are barkin’ up the wrong tree.”
“He’s busier than a cat covering poop on a marble floor.”
“That skeeter’s so big he could stand flat-footed and screw a cow.”
A Southerner could be all relaxed and chillin’ on the porch swing, sipping some sweet tea or a coldbeer, but their conversation might as well be benchin’ a hundred in the gym.
“Afterwhile, we’ll mosey over.”
“Scamper off, littl’un.”
“Stop diddlepoopin’ around.”
“She is havin a hissy.”
“He was sweatin’ like a whore in church.”
While you surely hear about all this activity, you actually very rarely see it.
Which is, I suppose, one of the things us folks down South do best, and that’s talkin’ the talk.
Just giving you some ponderin’ for your Monday.
I’m headin’ out now, seeing as I got more goin’ on than a one-eyed cat watchin’ two mouse holes, but you be sure and have yourself a nice day.
~My theme for this month’s Nano Poblano challenge is Motion~
As we all know (at least those of us with fur kids), breakfast is THE most important meal of the day (followed closely by dinner. And snacks.)
Normally, I feed my two kitties once I’m up, vaguely functional and have had my coffee. Umm, that’s 7 a.m.- ish. Maybe 7:30. Sometimes 8. Not any earlier.
My husband and I were out of town all last week and their caregiver fed them breakfast…umm, around 5:30 a.m. every day.
My first night back, I’m woken from a really cool dream by, “Mrowww-chirp?” I try to ignore this – OMG, it’s the middle of the night. I am sleeping.
“Meow?”
“Rowr?”
And there is made my crucial mistake.
I moved.
That was the signal that Mom was alive, and therefore, capable of making breakfast.
Immediately, two little hairy bodies burrowed under the toasty blankets like maddened gophers, chirping and fussing and complaining and sticking cold noses into warm places.
I checked the clock – Yep. 5:36 a.m.
Aaarrgghhh.
Now we have to re-train each other. It’s going to be a rough (and early) week.
Photography101’s challenge today: The Natural World
Capture a moment, big or small, and pay attention to the lines and curves produced by nature.
A sudden moment, walking around a bend in the road near my Mom-in-Law’s house in Augusta, spellbound as magical flights of clouds and colors cloaked the sunset with twilight, as the chill of evening settled in.
A sky-flung veil of heliotrope brocade mirrored cloth of gold in the narrow lake, trimmed by the black lace of trees and buttoned by a diamond moon.
Drunk on Life 