DEFINARY DICTION

Those of us who must sign onto blogs have routinely typed in the computer generated anti-spammer word so we can happily post to our favorite blogs.

I have noticed that lately these made up words are starting to make a weird kind of sense.

The one I typed today was BUMPYRE. So in the tradition of Definary Diction:

Submit your definition of Bumpyre.

Spring and Antiques Sale

I found these two ceramic kittens on separate tables. I found the one with the open arms first and thought that was an odd posture and something was meant to go inside the kittens arms. I spotted the next kitten because it had similar coloring and then I decided to see if they fit together.



Well whattya know!?

It was a fun day, found lots of things I would have loved to drag home but after my three dollar tarot reading I decided to save the money. Yep, three dollars, the woman doing the reading asked me to hold the cards, concentrate on my one question and cut the cards. She offered to do a cold reading but I told her that I was contemplating retirement and did not say anything else. The first card was an upside down dark figure meaning loss, the second figure was the Queen of cups and the third figure was also a figure meaning loss. So basically the message from the Tarot reader was that while retirement would be comfortable there would not be any around the world trips and I should expect loss of money if I were to be foolish with expenses. Duh... She was actually doing a pretty brisk business.

Maps and Minerals...oh my...

I woke from a very colorful and informative dream this morning. I was attending a small lecture (small in that we were all seated around a large conference table). The person speaking was a tweedy jacket professor type and his assistant was turning pages on a big book that held colorful intricately paged fold out maps.

The lecture was on certain kinds of minerals (and where they were commonly found) that displayed ultra-violet properties and he showed a picture of those and explained that the best source were a series of purple stones.

Then we were in a reception of some sort being served small portions of assorted veggies.

This dream was colorful and in full stereophonic sound. I rarely dream in sound.

I went to the dream interpretation web site and found the two main themes.

Map
To see or study a map in your dream, suggests that the path you are currently on will lead to fulfillment of your needs and realization of your goals. It could also indicate that you are set on the path to self-knowledge and self-discovery. If you have difficulties understanding or reading the map, then it means that you are feeling lost. You are still trying to find yourself and don't know who you are anymore.

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION: Apparently I am not having difficulties understanding or reading maps and today when I drive to Roseburg to attend the Spring Festival and the Antique show at Douglas County Fairgrounds, I will 1) find it and 2) be fulfilled. Ah, bliss.

Mineral
To see minerals in your dream signifies that your current bleak outlook looks more promising in the future.

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION: Hmmm, see above. Bleak outlook in the short term could mean that I get lost finding my co-workers house where I am to pick her up before we run away for the day to go Roseburg. I have directions so that shouldn't’t prove to be so bleak.

I will take pictures of anything I purchase or if I see something unusual. Bye!

ANOTHER BOOK REPORT

My sister Gale told me about these books. This is book 1 about Temeraire and Captain Laurance of His Majesty's Navy and how they meet. The Author is Naomi Novik.

The story is set in the Napoleonic era roughly 1805 to 1815. In this alternate universe there be dragons. And all the worlds great powers (France, Spain and England) possess aviator corps of these dragons. And if you remember your history at all, those powers are at war.

Our hero, Laurance is captain of a ship sailing from the south Atlantic to England. They encounter a French ship of 36 guns and after an extensive chase, the French ship surrenders being almost out of water. They board the ship and discover a dragon egg in the ships hold. The physician knows a little about dragons but he says that since the shell is quite hard it is very close to hatching.

This is not good news to Laurance as he knows he must sacrifice one of his crewmen to partner with the dragon and this means a lifetime of dedication to the aviator corps and there is a deep rivalry between the Navy and the Aviators. Laurance advises his men of the situation and asks for a volunteer. One young man does so knowing that life as he knows it is ruined, Aviators are not very high in the social structure within Regency England and he will likely suffer much as a result.

The egg hatches and a little black dragon tumbles out and promptly wanders about silently looking things over. The dragon wanders back and suddenly speaks. He asked Laurance why he was frowning. Laurance was surprised to be spoken to so intelligently by this dragon and his heart sinks to his boots. This is the method that dragons choose their partners. Laurance very politely responds, the conversation develops and he asks if he may name the dragon Temeraire, after a French ship he once admired.

The adventure begins. Right away the Aviator corp wants to reassign someone to Temeraire and that attempt fails so it is off to dragon boot camp in Scotland.
Eventually they both learn that Temerarie is a Chinese dragon the most intelligent of all dragons.

During their training Laurance learns that some dragons require females as partners so there is a mixture of women captains and cadets. The Aviator corp is much kinder to its youth than the Navy ever was.

Laurance is initially befriended by an Aviator Courier named Rankin, who treats his dragon partner with a rather remote disdain. His dragon of course cannot think of anything but his captain. Ultimately Laurance learns that this is not acceptable behavior of a captain towards his dragon. During a later battle scene the little dragon is severely wounded and Rankin goes off to celebrate the victory. Laurance grabs the guy and forces him to tell his dragon that he had been very brave in the battle. The dragon died and I bawled my eyes out at 3 in the morning.

I highly recommend this book, it is dragon born swashbuckling, Laurance learns some things from the Aviators and the Aviators learn some things from Laurance.

Very satisfying read. I can hardly wait to read the next book in this series.

At one point Temeraire muses that he certainly would enjoy flying to China to meet another dragon like himself. He is so going to China in one of these books.

I BEEN DREAMING AGAIN....JEEZ...

DREAM INTERPRETATION SITE SAYS: To dream that you are good friends with a celebrity, represents your idealized version of someone you know in your life. Perhaps you hope that a real-life friend can act more like a particular celebrity. Consider the qualities that you see in this celebrity and how you want your friends to have those qualities.

I woke up from a very odd dream. For some weird reason, Martha Stewart and her FOUR daughters had come to visit me. The VERY odd thing about it was that Martha was missing her left arm from the elbow down.

Boy dream interpretation site was not all that helpful. I think perhaps the absence of the appendage might represent the imperfect world yet all of the those four daughters perhaps make up for the imperfect world? I can't think of any friend that I would wish to have all of the qualities of this celebrity.

Although I did learn a different way to fold towels from Martha many years ago. I grew up in a household with lots of kids and lots of skinny see through towels. I was taught to fold them in half length wise seam to seam,then fold them in a triple fold so they would look "fluffy" on the shelf. Hah, I sez.

In Martha's towel folding world, the very large fluffy turkish towels (large enough to upholster a medium sized chair) are triple folded length wise, then folded in half for either shelving or draping on the heated towel bar.

I am working on the heated towel bar thing. It's on my to do list.

WARNING! BOOK REPORT! The illiterati may wish to skip this one.

"Kidnapped" etc etc by Nicola Cornick. The author explained that she enjoyed Robert Lewis Stevenson's book of the same title, so she decided that her theme would be that of Scotland, a kidnapping, adventures pertaining to and the format somewhat complimentary to Mr. Stevenson.

Chapter One: In which I meet the hero, as all good heroines should.
Chapter Two: In which I hear of my long-lost family.
Chapter Three: In which I set out upon my journey to the house of Glen Clair, and Mr. Sinclair behaves as no gentleman should.
Chapter Four: In which I meet with strange travellers on the road and see Mr. Sinclair again sooner than I expected.
Chapter Five: In which I meet my family and receive a less than warm welcome from my uncle.
Chapter Six: In which a great many visitors come to the Old House at Glen Clair.
Chapter Seven: In which I give Mr. Sinclair a piece of my mind.
Chapter Eight: In which I should have been more suspicious and more careful than I was.
Chapter Nine: In which I am kidnapped.
Chapter Ten: In which I meet Captain Hoseason and hatch a plan for escape.
Chapter Eleven: In which we are shipwrecked.
Chapter Twelve: In which my heart is broken.
Chapter Thirteen: In which I attempt to fall out of love and fail miserably.
Chapter Fourteen: In which my stubbornness and pride prompt me to make a bad decision.
Chapter Fifteen: In which Neil and I are married despite the opposition of his family.
Chapter Sixteen: In which I run away and Neil runs after me.
Chapter Seventeen: In which I feel monstrously neglected by my husband.
Chapter Eighteen: In which Lady Strathconan shows her true colors and Neil makes an unexpected entrance.
Chapter Nineteen: In which love conquers all.

Your basic Boy meets Girl, Girl meets Evil Uncle. Boy is not really a rake hell bent on seducing Girl (oh wait that comes later). Evil Uncle kidnaps girl AND boy, puts them on a ship with orders to the captain to drown Boy, sell Girl after suitable degradations have occurred. It gets very very foggy along the Scottish coast. Crewmen break into grog supplies and get blind drunk. Boy and Girl break out of ships hold. Storm brews up, the tiny ship is tossed onto some breakers, all hands lost except BOY and GIRL. Survivor Scottish Islands. Boy and Girl scrounge up bits of ship wrecked stores and live there a couple of months playing chess and um NOT giving into baser urges. Ship of the Line rescues them. Boy introduces Girl to Military as his fiance. Girl is surprised. They marry against wishes of the Boy's family. Family schemes to get rid of Girl when Boy has to report to duty. Much mail to each other is destroyed by family. Boy shows up in Girls room and she takes a knife to him. Oops Girl discovers Boy is not her appointed debauchee. Boy takes on his family, keeps girl, tells family to mind their own bidness. Nice.

New window! Much better....

The appointment was for between 11 and 3,the guy showed up at 11 after calling to confirm the address. He was looking for a car without a window on our block,not a nasty blue tarp held down by kitty litter jugs. These kind of jobs are usually scheduled to take between 45 and 90 minutes. Ours, of course, took 90 minutes. The technician had some difficulty, there were extra bolts and stuff inside the door and some tape. He thought someone had been there before for a repair or something. At any rate he had it done by 12:30 pm. The repair cost $252.00 and I highly recommend Cascade Auto Glass. Guaranteed.

To celebrate husband picked me up at work and we went to Coos Bay, mentally tip toeing past the Coaledo weigh station and went straight to Freddy's for some shopping and thence to Bennetti's for dinner.

OMG! I ordered veal picatta and Husband ordered New York steak with Gorgonzola sauce. Yowza is that ever good. I had NO idea Gorgonzola tasted so good especially on top of a 10 ounce choice grade New York strip! We ordered one Marion Berry cheesecake and two spoons and then groaned all the way home. I need a nap....gnzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Fixing the AIG bonuses.......

Here's my idea about the AIG bonues to the 400 employees who managed to completely screw up the economy with the belief that housing prices would continue to go UP.

Hello? IRS? This is President Obama speaking, yeah! Me, too! I have a list of all of the AIG bonus recipients. I want you fella's to garnish 100 per cent of those bonuses and hold them in trust. If anyone squawks about it, tell them that the money will be held in trust indefinitely until all the lawyers get through arguing or die..Thank you, Love doing business with you. Buh bye....

Slow week, well except for the snow and the exploding window...

Poor sad Bravada... husband called up at work and said, "How about going out to dinner tonight?" Okay! Fought my way out of the parking lot, dashed home and we drove towards Coos Bay thinking that we would eat at The Hill Top House. They have yummy early bird specials for 16 bucks including dessert! Yay!

Got just east of the truck weigh station and HUGE EXPLOSION went off in my left ear! Huband shouted, "Slow down!". I ducked a little and slowed, glanced quickly to my left and saw window completely shattered into little safety glass sized bits. I slowed down and made a U-turn at the weigh station.

We went back to the house, parked the Bravada, got in the rust bucket and went to dinner at the Broiler...because we were hungry and the clean up process could just wait. Besides eating is a good way to treat shock, right?

Then we went back to the house to very carefully pick up what looked like hundreds of green glass bits. It almost looks good all cleaned up until you slam the car door and hear the musical tingle of glass bits inside the door.

We must now look for a dealer who will replace the driver side window. Lordy, I hope Oldsmobile people still have some driver side windows in stock for a 2000 Bravada. I think a rock or something hit the window. Husband theorizes that it might have been a bullet. Well anyway a fairly high speed projectile of some sort.


I guess I better notify both the police and the insurance company. I am sure the police will politely round file my report and the insurance people will say, not covered. We are mentally estimating between 300 and 500 bucks for get some glass back in the vehicle. And no idea how long this will take. Oy!

Oh and the picture of bushes with light dusting of snow are the rhodies just outside the back door at he hospital, it snowed rather heavily that morning and melted then later on it hailed a bit in the afternoon.

I almost forgot, this is THURSDAY, the twelfth!!