Because Idea Theft Is Something I'm Good At

I like ideas.

Even better than liking ideas, I like taking ideas and refining them. Which gives me license to be a little sneaky.

Sometimes I just like to borrow ideas outright. For that, I always give credit where credit is due.

For example, my idea of borrowing ideas comes from some of my fav female poets: Mary Ann Samyn, Alice Fulton, Brenda Hillman.

I said I give credit.

Yes, so I "borrow" a lot for my writing. Which now includes my blogging.

I was reading Clamhead's blog and came across this post called "Life Cloud."

I like tag clouds. Which basically are word clouds.

Clouds are awesome.

Seriously how much more awesome can a cloud be if it's made up of words?

So I checked my Twitter Stats and made my own Word Cloud. Cool, huh?

Now I've just got to think of something original to do with it...

Of course, I could words from Word Cloud in the poems I intend to write very soon...

But there must be something beyond that...

One Fish, Two Fish...

We've been swimming Bleu.

He's a natural in the water. When we first get to the pond, he always jumps in to get the feel of the water.

He cracks me up.

And when he swims I think he looks like a little gator, with his nose in the air and his retrieve in his mouth.

Obviously I know Bleu's a dog, but I think of him as a pig-gator-bear-wolf-frog-fish dog.

Speaking of fish, we're fish-sitting Sheba the Beta this summer for our friend and yoga teacher Megan.

Having a fourth member in the McRz family (even though she's just our summer guest) makes our house feel a bit more symmetrical.

Plus, it's relaxing to watch her regally swim around her little bowl. An added bonus: her off-handed comments about how crazy Bleu is are hilarious!

~

Tomorrow is the Findlay Farmer's Market at the Hancock Fairgrounds from 4:30-6:30. Saturday is the BG Farmer's Market at the Woodland Mall 9-1.

I heard there's a Farmer's Market in downtown Perrysburg on Thursday, too, from 4-8.

The weekend holds in store freshly farm foods, sunshine, and lots of reading. In addition to the live entertainment provided by my two little fishies!

In Need of Some Help

Meet my new button man friend.

Sad thing is he doesn't have a name.

Can you help me think of one for him?










Also, Nameless-As-Of-Yet Mr. Button Man has a request for you too:

If you're an artist or vendor, Alicia's Voice is looking for items for its silent auction on June 18th at our annual benefit golf outing. If you're interested in donating an item, gift card, or service, please leave a comment with contact info and I'll get in touch with you. All proceeds go to Alicia's Voice and The Center.

Together We Can!!!

So Close

My pick to win since the Top 24 was David A.

So close.

David Cook earned it. Seriously, every week he just got better and better. And I really like his music style. I just hope that in winning he can put out an album he wants to do, not some over-produced crap that doesn't showcase his talent.

Sometimes it's better to lose.

Sometimes.

~

It occurred to me today that I've been blogging over a year now. May 1st was the official anniversary.

At this point the only birthday I absolutely remember is my own and the only anniversary I remember is our wedding. That sounds greedy...

Anyways, with its ups and downs, I've realized blogging has actually kept me sane and introduced to an overall supportive community of "writers." Good times.

~

One last thing: After our meal at Revolver Restaurant in Findlay, OH this past weekend all other food just tastes OK.

Ugh.

So FD & I have agreed to dine out even less and save up for a trip to Revolver every month.

Seriously, if we can control ourselves from lushing it up there, it's not that expensive--no more than a couple of pizzas, mexican meals, take-out burritos, and a "nice" meal out combined--and it's WAY MORE worthwhile. Plus, having a goal like eating at Revolver every month will help me see the food we have and use it more creatively. I get lazy sometimes and don't "feel" like eating what's in the fridge. Revolver will only make me hold out longer and see that eating eggs twice in one day is very OK.

The Busier You Are The Better You Sleep

With pulling together the Alicia's Voice Poetry Reading and Yoga Event as well as helping out our families, I totally forgot to pay homage to a little black dog & his 6 month bday!

My bad!

Here's Bleu in his birthday collar from The Black Dog.

I really wanted to get him a super preppy navy collar from Vineyard Vines, one of my new favs, (and I still want it!!! My bday is coming up!!! If you need any ideas: hint, hint!!!) but it only went to 15" & I wanted him to grow into it rather than having to buy him a new collar once he was full grown.

But I keep thinking every dog should have two collars--a fancy one and an every day one; just blame the label whore in me.

Anyways, today we went to the dog park in Bowling Green. It was fun.

I mean the park could use a good mowing and clean up. (Seriously if anyone out there wants to help me clean it up, let me know in the comments section!) However, it was a really neat park in terms of its space and agility equipment.

Of course BooBoo had to run through the tunnel 18 million times. Without treats!

That dog has no fear!

Then he tried new equipment with treats, which he seemed to like really well.

I was really proud of how well behaved he was while exploring and running around like a mad man.

The whole time, though, I was worried about him "getting hurt" or "eating poo" or whatever else moms worry about.

Thankfully, FD told me to relax, that I sounded like a mom on the first day of kindergarten and it wasn't necessary--that Bleu is a dog.

Sometimes I have a hard time remembering he's a dog and not my baby...Weird, I know, but until I have a baby he's my baby...
And he even communicates like a kid. We knew he was ready to go home when he kept laying down after walking a few steps.

My little angel...

He's really growing up and starting to learn how to behave himself...at times that is.




Thinking I need to blog every day now that summer is here. I going to try.

Feeling Blessed

First of all, thank you to all who supported The Why & Later Poetry Reading and Benefit Yoga Classes for Alicia's Voice this past weekend! Even though the turnout was small, everyone's hearts were big. Thank you so much! And thank you to those who were there in spirit too--those that are far away but sent their well-wishes!

I'm excited to continue working with Carly on The Why & Later readings and working as a board member for Alicia's Voice. Both of these causes are very dear to my heart, and it's such an honor for me to be part of them.

Another great part of this weekend was spending time reconnecting with Carly--the sweetheart with a fresh flower in her hair. In two short days, we accomplished a lot: reading poetry together, doing yoga together, and sharing many meals together--literally! The best meal was the one we shared at Revolver Restaurant in Findlay, OH! The Silver Fox (aka Kenny Rogers) played quietly in the background as we ate some of the most delicious food EVER: asparagus soup




shrimp and sweetbreads















walleye brandade












veggie surprise trio for Car









braised short rib meatloaf with asparagus and potato puree



Desserts were delectable too! The pictures say it all!

Thank you, Debi, for your hospitality and for the champagne toast!

And thank you, Megan, for two AWESOME yoga classes that allowed me to feel justified in eating all this great food!

Coming down from a food/activism/friend high is a bit disorienting, hence, my cold. But I'm carrying my happiness with me through this week and beyond.

My only regret is not getting pics of me and Car together, especially at our reading...

Please Join Us This Weekend! Together, We Can!

Join us to support The Why & Later: an anthology of rape and sexual assault poems AND to support The Center, a one-stop location for survivors of domestic violence. All proceeds go to Alicia's Voice and The Center.

♫ While My Puppy Gently Sleeps...♫

Right now a puppy is sleeping on the couch in my office, and I'm quite content.

We attended our first puppy play-date, and BooBoo is wiped out. Perfect. Now I can get some much needed blogging in.

While I didn't win the 6word Twitter contest, I did win a different Twitter Zappos contest, which yielded a higher reward: a $150 gift card to Zappos.com! Yippeeee! The Twitter contest from @zappos_alfred was "Best advice I've gotten is from my Mom. What's best advice your mom gave u? I'll pick 2 replies for free shoes." Here's the winning advice I got from Hons: " Winners are: @HelloKittyAMR-mom told her marry your best friend and @katgil-mom told her to always think positive. I will direct msg you."

(Being a part of Twitter pays off, dear friends!)

Because I did marry my best friend, I gave him the gift card for a new pair of shoes. Ahhhh! Cute--I know.

I must admit, though, I bought myself a new pair of shoes too...I'm addicted...And I blame my no new clothes and shoes resolution for it. I will NEVER make that resolution evereverever again.

Still feeling run-down lately and pretty emotional. After Lemon Cadet's comment that I should take a pregnancy test, I must let all of you know I'm not preggars. I'm just crazy, which apparently is one pink line. Speaking of Lemon Cadet, Baby Lemon is here, and she's precious! Congrats Lemon Family!

I've been feeling a lot better over the past few days. Finishing my book review for Literary Review Magazine helped and being home again helped a lot too. I'm finding the older I get the less I like traveling. Perhaps I'm becoming a crotchety hermit. Or perhaps I'm just tired of traveling almost every weekend. It's exhausting and expensive. And as much as I love our families sometimes I just want to be home doing nothing but reading, blogging, and walking the dog. It's hard to be so close to our families and so far away in terms of distance, but it's life so I must try to handle traveling better. Somehow.

The highlights of seeing our families this past weekend was that my sister visited us for two nights and one day, which was really nice, and we had really nice Mother's Day celebrations with all of our moms, and I got to see the Cortes' fam pics with them and Flat Stan visiting the free stamp and Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame as well as Flat Stan sitting on a kid potty. Good times! (Suz, send me those pics ASAP!)

Speaking of Flat Stan, I'm willing host him if anyone out there needs a Flat Stan host...I adore him.

Just a two more things real quick before my sleepy head wakes up:

There's a dog park right here in Bowling Green! Does anyone take their dog there? It looks a little deserted...More on the dog park situation soon when it's not raining and I can investigate more.

And this weekend come on out for the Poetry and Yoga Alicia's Voice Event. We'd love to see you!

Obsessed Yet Again

If you're on Twitter, you might have seen this RAD contest.

But if you're not, let me explain.

Patrick Sullivan Jr. won a VanHalen towel from a Twitter Zappos contest, and with the towel the very kind Tony included an a surprise, a $100 Zappos gift card.

Well, now the very kind Patrick Sullivan Jr. is paying it forward. He's giving the $100 Zappos gift card to the lucky Twitterer who tweet the best 6 word story.

Upon logging into Twitter this morning, my first thought was: "$100 in Zappos! Campers, darlings, here I come."

But now the contest has been become muchmuch more; it's become an obsession.

As some of you may know, I've been writing one to two line poems for quite some time. As it is, poetry is compressed language, and I'm in search of even-more compressed language that tells a story. The thing is I forgot about this quest over the past nine months b/c of, well, honestly, my job. But now that I'm home for summer I have all the time in the world, as they say.

And I have a sweet-ass Twitter contest to motivate me. Or now to help me realize my goal once again.

Though I want to win so I can get a new pair of Campers (or Vans...) b/c shoes mean the world to me (cliche yet again), I'm thinking I might not. My tweets are little out there.

But why don't you decide for yourself? Hell, which would you pick to win? We'll make our own contest...Well, that doesn't make sense, but I'll send some Hello Kitty stickers to the best (that's subjective) comments regarding this blog post.

My 6 word stories:

She outgrew her wood baby coffin.

He saw only the television reflection.

Loss, a you-never-know away.

Her desire is the snow's reflection.

I welcomed a fistful of mums.

This world full of opened scissors.

She left before the paint dried.

Poolside her toes shattered the water.

Her heavy hand frozen in reach.

My house: it's only one story.

Elated she frosted the chocolate cake.

The dog snores as I vacillate.

Fragile dishes clink in the sink.

The crack in the china is unrepairable.

Body: a shelf lined with bowls.

My dreams are hollow button holes.

Click of keyboard, but no words.

Her voice was garbled with longing.

The boy transferred to another school.

I know this story too well.

Don't make yourself sick over fish.

My palm around the bath’s knob—

My voice lost in a vacuum.

The beauty of it isn't mine.

~

Told you I was obsessed. That's 20 so far...

Most of the "stories" are from some of my poems. Others were on the spot.

I'm still thinking of some and probably will add a few to my list here...I have until midnight. How am I going to sleep tonight?!

OMG, 8:20 and I'm babbling about 6 word stories. American Idol is on. WTF?!

I am obsessed.

The Partial Summer To Do List

Schedule Dentist Appointments -- Check.

Clean Lawn Furniture -- Check.

Yoga every morning -- Check.

Twitter & convince everyone to join Twitter -- 1/2 Check.

Why and Later Poetry Reading/ Alicia’s Voice Benefit Yoga Classes Promo -- 1/2 Check.

Two Review review -- 1/2 Check.

Puppy Playdates.

Puppy Classes & Training.

CheeBurger CheeBurger date w/ FD.

Shop for Mother’s Day, Father's Day, and birthday cards.

Why and Later Poetry Reading/ Alicia’s Voice Benefit Yoga Classes.

Revolver din-din with Car, FD, me, and a special guest.

Rilo Kiely w/ Stokey!

CTLT Clicker Training Sessions.

Cedar Point for my bday! Yay!

June 18 Alicia’s Voice Golf Outing – JOIN US!

Harbor Grand meet-up with KA. Yay!

Visit families and friends!

ENG 110 syllabus and lesson plans.

READ (about 150 books / 1 down) & post book reviews.

WRITE (as many essays or poems as possible.)

WATCH TV.

WATCH MOVIES.

Catch Up on Gossip Blogs & FAFA.

Nap.

Do “things” not on any to-do list (i.e. be adventurous and spontaneous!)

My Pic Says It All

More blog action to come soon and more often...