I'm Baaaaaccckk!!!

I know, I know, it's been a while but honestly I've got a good excuse....
well maybe not a good excuse, maybe just an excuse....
ok, ok here is my awful reason for not blogging...Hopefully you will forgive me...
My egreeous error my sin was/is are you ready.....???

Ok enough! ok here it is......I got a job! I know it's unforgivable, but bare with me cuz it's really cool!
Here's the Skinny....
Last September, I took a job as an engineer/board op for the local radio station,when we would broadcast for the local sports teams, and their events I would make certain that the ad spots ran correctly. I didn't mention it before because I didn't know how long it would last.
Well about a month ago that part of my job ended. However, shortly after Christmas-time, I started my very own radio show on Sunday Mornings 9-12. OnOLDIES 101.5 WMTE.

In addition I was made Director of Community Relations Marketing which is a very fancy title for the fact that I am now the Telemarketing Department .
So, in short(the only way I can be)

That is why I have not been in touch!!!

Now, having said that, my plan is to blog a couple times a week-or at least once a week.
My goal is to blog on day that I journal. I recently got a new (well new for me) laptop and once I get a wifi card, I'm good to go (I hope)
So until we meet again,
see ya!

Hi Folks

I have had quite a busy past few months.
I've ignored my loyal readers, and for that I apologize.
But to tell you what I have been up to ...well, where should I start
Ok I'll start with the most exciting news first
My Guy Donovan and I are now "married"

Please allow me to explain... on October 1st, we stood in a circle of
family and friends and stated vows of love to eachother in a Commitment Ceremoney
It was a beautiful day and I hope everyone had a lovely time!
Following the ceremoney, we traveled to my friends house and had a very nice reception.

It was a beautiful day all around, thank you to everyone who attended and those who could not make it but sent heartfelt wishes.

Prior to the Event, I was planning the thing!!!!!

More later.....Thanks for visiting!!!

Well Hello again!!!!

I'm baaaaack!!!
Let me just tell you, planning a wedding is tough(or in my case a Commitment Ceremoney)
I'll let you know all the gorey details very soon
I miss this place.

It's amazing what people CAN accomplish!!!

***please note***
This post at one time had a YOU TUBE video attached to it. That video was removed by the user at YOU TUBE. Then subsequently removed by me on this post. Sorry for any inconvience.
Kirsten

This Father does it all just for the purpose of seeing the smile on his son's face. If you want to see the most profound reflection of the Father's love for us that you've ever seen....watch.

Time taken to watch this is well worth it. Read this and then watch the video (the website link is at the end) Strongest Dad in the World [From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly] I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck. Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons.

Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life. This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.'' But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told.

``There's nothing going on in his brain.'' "Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried.

``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.'' That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. ``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor.

For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think? Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own?

``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time. ``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every > weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. ``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once.''

I honestly can't believe that it's the first week in August! This year seems to be flying by!
I'm currently working on a show at the local community theater Leader of the Pack. It's going great and I'm sure our opening (tomorrow night) will be wonderful!!!

So now you know why I haven't written lately. But it is late and I should head to bed.

A little something and my secret obsession

Here is a little blast from the past.....

And guess what????

Project Runway is running the new season starting tomorrow!!!!

I'm so jazzed!!!!

My idea of Heaven

Today, I shall be dicussing my idea of heaven. As I have experienced it reciently, I thought I would share. ...

First let me start by saying that I'm sorry that I have not been keeping up with my blogging commitment as of late...My move and my so called job had kept me very busy, since I am no longer working and have settled (some what) into my new home. I am now prepared to take up the mantel and resume blogging once more.

Now back to my idea of heaven... Reciently, my bestest girlfriend Ashley and I had a "girls day" First we went to the movies We saw THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA- (I had listened to this book on tape as I traveled home from UT last Christmas and laughed through NE) Then, we went to a fine arts show, where they had lots of beautiful handmade jewelry and paintings and pottery and all kinds of things. Man it was great to just hang with her and look at fun stuff!!!!

Here is a little look at what went on in my little community this 4th of July !!!

A Warning!!!

The Following is a letter I wrote describing what we(and the people above us) went through for a month:

Here is the letter:

Greetings-

We regret to inform you that we will be moving out of the apartment on 231 2nd Ave. This letter shall serve as our 30 day notice.

We arrived at this decision due primarily to the problems associated with our bathroom. A brief history, over a year ago we had a major flood in our bathroom, it was said to have been caused by a broken pipe. We were forced to throw out countless personal hygiene products as well as bandages and first aid supplies that were ruined and now unsanitary. The pipe was fixed and we assumed that was the end of it.
About 6 months later, it happened again. After both of these instances a service was sent in to suck up the water in our carpet.

The larger problems and the events that precipitate our decision, stared on May 6th 2006(Saturday). We awoke to find wet, soaked carpeting in the bathroom. We phoned Ed (the matinance person assigned to our property.) early that morning around 7am. No answer. We phoned again around noon. No answer. We phoned WSRM left a message. We phoned Ed a third time that afternoon. No answer, no callback. Finally, around 10pm, water started “raining” down in one corner of our bathroom ceiling. We phoned Ed, WSRM, then the emergency numbers and the emergency cell numbers.
Eighteen (18) hours after our original call, we received a call back; it was WSRM stating that they were sending someone over to see what was going on. He arrived around 11pm or so, looked at our ceiling, went upstairs and examined their bathroom and then stated “looks like a leak”.

The next day, we received a call stating that they would contact Ed and send him over on Monday. Ed did arrive and assessed the damage to our floor, then went upstairs to “fix” the problem. Later that day he stated that he had reset the toilet and if that didn’t work that WSRM would need to call some plumbers. That evening, it happened again around 10pm.

In the morning I phoned Ed and got no answer, no callback. We phoned him 3 times throughout the day; finally calling WSRM we were told that they had calls into several “professional plumbers”. No one called the next day. We phoned and were told that they were still looking.

On Thursday May 11th, WSRM entered our home stating that they had attempted to phone. Upon entering Kirsten was told that the apartment was in an unacceptable state and unless it was “taken care of” they would not be able to renew our lease.
Admittedly, there was an abundance of ‘clutter’ around the apartment; in addition, there were a number of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. However, there were no bags of open garbage, or open food boxes (what Ginny assumed was cereal was indivualy wrapped meal replacement bars in open boxes). Just as stated before, a lot of clutter.
We went over to WSRM upset and angry. We were told they were doing all they could. After Forbes and the plumbers had been in, it seemed the problem had been solved.

We were told to contact Ed the following week to see about repair to the ceiling and carpet (now having been wet 13 days and has developed a musty odor) He came and put up sheet-rock and replastered the ceiling the 18th-20th. Halfway through this process, Kirsten noticed some leaking from the pipe behind the toilet. Ed stated that he had noticed that too and placed some calking.
The following Monday the 22nd, after all this work had been completed, there was a “rain-storm” in our bathroom worse than all the others save the original flood more than a year ago. After some investigation with our neighbors upstairs, we discovered that the problem was coming from their bathtub. We phoned Ed, WSRM, and all the emergency numbers.

The next few days, contractors started on the repairs. Our neighbors upstairs moved out, and it was at this point we decided to leave. As of the 27th of May, we still had wet carpeting! This was a month after we reported the problem on the 6th of May.

In doing the “new” repair work, they had to remove the walls around the toilet. One can witness black mold growing on the wood and mortar. They also had to remove some of the sub-flooring under the toilet due to water damage. We were also told that the sewer line had a crack and was leaking fumes from top to bottom.

In conclusion, we have attempted to be patient, however, at this point, or patience has worn thin and we are moving out.

Just a little something to celebrate summer

Happy Summer!!!!!

I love this picture!!!

Moving-An addendum to May 13th post "Rain"

Wow, canI just tell you about the lack of customer service offered by my rental Co.

It is now 3 weeks into the whole "flooding incident" in our bathroom and our carpet has yet to dry. In point of fact, we had another "flood" the other day, after they had replaced the ceiling and painted. Now they are just going to have to do it again!!!

In the meantime, we have decited to move. The new place is much smaller, so a yard sale in on the agenda for this weekend.

Then next weekend we will be out of here!!!!YAY!!!!
I dunno, you tell me, is 3 weeks an excessive time to have these problems??? Or is it just me???
Would love to hear your opinion.

Thanks for letting me vent....again

An Artistic Dream

More Magnetic poetry

I like to paint with passion, imagination and color.

Why?

I have to make a surreal smear of psychedelic grace through fiery aesthetic and abstract movement

My art will scream of pain no more.

You suffer a stroke and then (try not to) think of my life as a mad miasma!

(For I am a) wild woman and shimmer in (this) world!!!

The bracketed words were not in the 'magnet box'

If you didn't like my stuff check this out-->

Rain

You know the old saying "Rain, Rain go away, come again another day."
Well this whole week I have been plagued by the stuff. It started in my bathroom last Saturday morning, happened again that night, then a final time on Monday night. (After maintance had been here to "fix" the problem). It's now early Sat morning a week later and we still have wet carpeting and gigantic holes in the ceiling. Don't ya just love renting. Come to find out only yesterday, that there was a clog in the upstairs neighbors plumbing!!!! UGH!!! How frustrating!!!!

But it really has been raining here the past few days cold, wet, stuff. However, it does make the flowers grow!!!
Ok I'll stop bitching now ...thanks for letting me vent

More Magnetic Poetry

Death is bold for recall,
feelings of a bygone yesteryear
cluttered with days written to use.
I was best alive!!!
Thinking love will be fair,
makes me muse on the impeccable mess
I know as you.

I have no idea what this means, it just happened.

A Feirdos Thoughts: My cats are my 'children'

A Feirdos Thoughts: My cats are my 'children'

http://kbish007.blogspot.com/2006/03/kitty-hammertime.html

My cats are my 'children'

Of which I have 2 Grover my boy kitty a very large and active black cat.
And Dezzie (short for Desdemona) my girl, who has adopted my boyfriend/fiance’ as her one true love. Forgetting that she spent 6 years with me before he ever arrived on the scene.

They get along pretty good. Several times a day they start out grooming eachother and end up chasing one another from one room to the next

See more progress on: create a team of 43 crazy cat lovers

IT'S MAY!!!

Goodness, it's been a week and I didn't tell you how the Mary Free Bed show went.
It went very well, all the art ladies and Ash and her folks came to support me. I did win a Guild Award (I sold 2 pieces to the hospital.) Then I sold another piece to Ash's Folks!
Not too bad for a days work!!!
Now that it's over I'm a little let down- I worked so hard for the show, that now I need to get it in gear and start producing for the Gallery.
I'm currently working on painting rocks to look like animals
See...

E-bay is of the Devil

While I love my computer, I am stunned at the opportunities on eBay these days
While searching for art supplies, I did a search for "doll eyes"
and what was my response???!!!
1319 items found for
doll eyes
OVER 1000 ITEMS?!?!
While it is good to know that I have a choice, 1000 choices are a bit much.
So ok, lets go for something a little off the wall how about a search on "teeth"
3709 items found for
teeth
Not at all what I was expecting! Everything from tooth whitening kits to 'vampire pacifier' to ' Antique Jade Lucky Elephant Teeth Pendant Necklace' which looks plastic to me ( people wouldn't lie on eBay now- would they???)
I dunno perhaps I'm just off on a tanget
It just seems to me that maybe eBay while a wonderful resource is also a horrible temptation!!
Good thing I've got someone to watch over me....

What is MFB? & SPRING!!!!!

The above piece is entitled Penguin dreams (and it's in the show)

Hi Again-

Sorry I haven't written lately. I've been finishing my projects for MFB. What is MFB you ask. Well, every year I am involved in an art show at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Center . Well I was first introduced to this place by my friend Verlie 4 years ago. The Art Show is a wonderful event that I am honored to be involved with as well as humbled to be included in.


Now a few words about spring.........................YaY it's here!!!!!!!!
In point of fact, this weekend is Easter. While this is a non-event for this buddist, the mere fact that there are robins about (And not just the one I see every week *wink*) as well as lilies in the grocery store, and stuffed bunnies all about makes me smile very much.
So today, while I was out, I stopped in at my local coffee joint, "Goodies", ordered a marshmellow latte' and it came with a yellow peep on top. See.........

I just searched on Google
Check this out:
Results 1 - 10 of about 16,100,000 for peeps

One Flaw in Women

I got this in an e-mail and thought it would be good to post. As it so happends it speaks the truth

Enjoy! Fierdo

One Flaw In Women

Women have strengths that amaze men.

They bear hardships and they carry burdens,

but they hold happiness, love and joy.

They smile when they want to scream.

They sing when they want to cry.

They cry when they are happy

and laugh when they are nervous.

They fight for what they believe in.

They stand up to injustice.

They don't take "no" for an answer

when they believe there is a better solution.

They go without so their family can have.

They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.

They love unconditionally.

They cry when their children excel

and cheer when their friends get awards.

They are happy when they hear about

a birth or a wedding.

Their hearts break when a friend dies.

They grieve at the loss of a family member,

yet they are strong when they

think there is no strength left.

They know that a hug and a kiss

can heal a broken heart.

Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.

They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you

to show how much they care about you.

The heart of a woman is what

makes the world keep turning.

They bring joy, hope and love.

They have compassion and ideas.

They give moral support to their

family and friends.

Women have vital things to say

and everything to give.

HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,

IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

A Surreal Experience

Reciently, I took a job as an artist model, for a figure drawing class being held here in my little town in Northwestern Michigan.

I've never done anything like this before and honestly, it is totally unlike me. But that being the very reason to do this I did.

Let me just set up the scene...
This class is being held in the basement of our local community theater. Now this is a place that I am very familiar with. I do a lot of community theater and have been all over that theater. It is a wonderful big old place with, in addition to the theater, fly space, and dressing rooms, a ballroom, and a hall where they have art exibitions as well as Studio Theater productions. In addition, there is also a classroom and a basement-where another classroom is as well as where props and costumes are stored.

As stated we, the class and I, were in the basement. Now when there is an overflow of events, sometimes there is rehersal in the hall which happens to be right above the basement classroom. Well let me just tell you, it was a very surreal experiance to be modeling naked while up above you a group of overworked business owners reherse "Popeye the Sailor Man" and "Day-o" for the local Jaycees Talent Night.

I had to laugh, one of the guys in class said "If this were happening at home it wouldn't be surreal you would think it perfectly normal"......to which I have to say "What?????"