Cheers for Boran2's Birthday!

I hereby declare this Marmotini Day in honor of Boran2.

Creativity by Andif.

Andif's birthday was the 28th!!

Oh, noes!!! I forgot that Sunday was Andif's birthday!!

Andi, happy happy happy birthday WEEK!!

Monday Cafe

Bonjour, mes amis! Comment allez-vous? I hope Nicola doesn't mind, but we're joining them on their trip today. I think they're in France, before going on to Italy, although I could have my time zones all wrong and they could already be in Sorento. In which case, make mine cappuchino.

After we have breakfast at the sidewalk cafe, what's up for your week?

Leaving

Andif's Impressionist Leaves

Nancyp leaves to make an impression on new writers in Tulsa.

Somehow, it all works out. See you crazy nice people on Sunday.

No head!

Relief! No jinormous head. I'm kind of back, though I still haven't managed to connect email on the new 'puter yet. (Still have email on the old one.) Plus, I leave for the Oklahoma Celebration of the Book in Tulsa on Friday and will be gone until Sunday. I promise to leave you a pretty Andif photo before I go. :)

Janet's Jinormous Hockey Head

No, I don't mean that's Janet's head. I mean that our Janet had the misfortune of sitting behind this guy at the last hockey game she attended. In a mystery novel, guess who'd be the victim? But then we also know who'd be the suspect! :)

TEMPORARY CLOSING: The jinormous head seems to have shut down the blog! Kidding. I have to shut the place down for a couple of days while the wizards at the Mac store have both of my computers and are transferring the blood stream of one into the other. Sorry about this. But we'll be back up before you know it. Of course, you're welcome to talk in the comments, but there won't be a new post for those couple of days and I won't be around. Or it might be three days, while I take my time to learn all the new tricks.

Small dog, big world

Sniff Waits for Something to Emerge

Photo by Andif

Kuan Yin

It's been a while since I posted this photo.

This is my favorite work of art in my favorite room at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo. Kuan Yin, who is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is sculpted in wood and sits in a temple brought over from China many years ago. The light is dim, there is a massive mosaic behind her (some say him), and there are wooden benches on which to sit in stillness.

Yay, Us!!

Bono, the commenter formerly known as Anonymous, discovered that we missed this blog's one-year anniversary, which was last July 4. Thank you, Bono! So I'm declaring this our Dias de la Celebration! Also (whisper) it's somebody's birthday. (Blush) I'm hoping U2 shows up, too.

Testing

Click on photo to read Cloud's message to you.

Powdered sugar on a cinammon brioche

I love this photo by Andif.

If you want to, fill in this blank: "The photo makes me think of_____________."

Majesty

Looks like a Turner painting, doesn't it?

But, no, it's a photo by our own AndiF's JimF.

And this time, it's sooo not Kansas.

Motorcycle country

There are big patches of Kansas that are sublime motorcycle country, and this is one of them. It's an area called the Smokey Hills, which are well named. When I drove through them last week, it was much prettier than the above photo, because everything was green. (I couldn't find a really good photo.) The skies were thick with gray clouds as the rain fell. The roads themselves are two-lane black asphalt that wind up and around and over through gorgeous landscape where you're often the only vehicle on the road. There's even a picturesque town, Marquette, with a motorcycle museum and signs that say, "Watch out! Motorcycles are everywhere!" When I drove through Marquette, I thought, "This is a place where I'd like to come and stay a few months and work on a book." There's a cafe, a little library, friendly people, and gorgeous roads leading out of town from every direction.

Motorcycle Roads in Kansas

And more.

From the sublime to the. . .

. . .ridiculously sublime.

So,after seeing rocks and birds, I went to see birds rock. Some friends invited me to join them at the Kansas City Ring of Fire Women's Roller Derby Championship. None of us had ever been to a roller derby before and we went because, well, shouldn't everybody at least once? It was fun! Man, those girls are amazing! I was always scared on roller skates. I don't think they're scared of anything. My fav was the star of the winning team, a young woman who goes by the game-name, "Snot Rocket." Loved her, loved the games. And guess what? This is one women's athletic event that attracts as many men to the audience as women. Gosh, I wonder why. ::makes innocent face:: And wouldn't you know, the way life presents amusing coincidences, on Sunday I met a woman whose daughter used to be a player. She said, "those girls are tough!" Yeah. That's how they roll. :D

OMG, what I also saw!

Omg, I'm pretty sure I saw a whooping cane!! There's a reservoir just south of where the Mushroom Rocks are and as I drove past that lake on Friday I saw a really big bird that had the shape of a crane and was all white with black at the tips of the wings. It flew off from the shore, circled, and went back again. I got a really clear view of it in flight and from several angles. I had no idea what it was, so I just now typed its description into Google. First, I clicked on a site where other people were baffled by a bird of the same description. One of them suggested whooping crane, so I found a site for that and there it was!! So then I checked to see if that was even possible, and yes, it is!! They go through central Kansas during migration.

Wow, what a thrill. It was really graceful and beautiful.

Something I saw yesterday

This odd creature is one of the strange formations at the Mushroom Rock State Park, the smallest park in Kansas. These "mushrooms" were formed when the softer rock below eroded faster than the harder rock above.

For the full feeling of my visit, insert waist-high wildflowers, drizzly rain, and lots of squishy mud to step in. I was the only person there. It was cool to be alone in that strange world. It's funny, though. These rocks do not call to me at all creatively, as compared to these which do. I had to write a whole new novel around that second set of rocks, but these "mushrooms" don't require me to do the same. Maybe they'll inspire you. :)

And now for something different. . .

The Valley of the Gods, by Andif

Gorgeous

I love, love, love this photo by Andif that she gave us yesterday. I've filed it under the title, "Gorgeous photo." I guess it means no rain, but it's hard to regret the lack of moisture since it revealed such beauty. Editing's like that. :D

The Hollow

By Andif

Every story tells a picture?

Photo by Andif. This is a picture, to me, of the story of when I get overwhelmed by a book--or whatever--and I have to be reminded to take it step by step. Or, bird by bird, as Annie Lamott says in her book of the same name. My porch pal Sally went through that this weekend as she worked like a demon to meet the (impossible) deadline on her novel. At a point at which she thought it was all too much to get done, and she started to panic, she remembered to take it one step at a time, and now she's within hours of finishing, one word and one hour at a time. It sounds so easy, right? What it is, I have found, is easy to forget. Step by step. And then you get to jump into the ice cold water of publishing. :D

It's coming

I thought you might need a scary picture to wake you up.

Red sky at morning. . .

Sailors take warning.

Photo by Andif.

Liquid gold

Photo by Andif needs no words from me.

Happy Birthday, Maria Y Lima!

From all good blood-suckers!

Green Grow the Whatevertheheck This Is

Photo by Andif. She'll explain.

Writer Cat Falls Across Finish Line

Thanks for all the congrats, guys! It helped all summer to know you were cheering me on. And to know that I REALLY didn't want to have to tell you I had not made this latest deadline!

I made it with, oh, hours to spare.