fun with friends at DeBordieu, 2007

So Pretty and I are having dinner with our friends Nekki and Francie after the South Carolina women’s basketball game last night, and the conversation turned to our anniversary which is this Saturday, February 9th. I had invited them to go to dinner with us on our anniversary but that wasn’t working out so we opted to eat after the game.

Nekki asked what everyone always asks about anniversaries – how many years are you celebrating?

Nineteen, I answered quickly because I am the numbers person in our family who keeps up with birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, etc. Every family has a designated scorekeeper, and in our family I am known as the go-to person for important dates. Pretty is generally unreliable in these areas.

Oh, Nekki said, nineteen years is really great. Pretty and I both nodded, although I noticed Pretty displayed a hint of eyes rolling at…

Well the Aquarius sign holds a special place in my heart. It’s traits include: true bohemian, logic combined with creativeness, a concern for the underdog and human rights. They are also gifted communicators, team players and full of great humor. But full of contradictions (like most people.) So I tried to pick the recommendations that most played into those.

I do like that one of the “issues” is flashes of unexpected rage. Um, yeah. I got that…

For a daily or monthly chart check out the Elle Daily Horoscopes.

When I was a kid we had an old fashioned radio. It wasn’t old-fashioned then though, it was the height of elegance.

It stood taller than me at the time, and was a solid hardwood box, stained a rich burgundy color with interesting art deco curves. It was brought alive by a mysterious array of vacuum tubes that had to warm up before any radio magic happened. Reception was iffy and dependant on equally mysterious ‘signals’ that emanated from somewhere ‘in town’. Being way out in the boonies this was our source of information about the world beyond our valley, and our main source of ‘live entertainment’.

I didn’t understand much of the information side of things, apart from getting out of the adults way if they heard anything that might’ve upset them, but I did enjoy the music. Both the classical music and the ‘top of the pops’ stations…

There is a beauty to winter, however much I dislike the cold – and this past week has been brutally cold! Yet, seeing the sun rise on my way to work is a sight I am blessed to see, and I would battle the cold for such a view. The evening sunsets are also beautiful as the sun turns the snow on the hills a delicious shade of pink. These are a couple of photos I took with my phone trying to capture the magic, the majesty, and the wonder….

One of the things I’ve been doing of late in order to save my sanity, whilst I joust with all things formatting to get Prelude up and running, has been watching Youtube videos.

I have a couple of favourite channels, one of which is The Narrowboat Experience, which chronicles the experiences of two young women, (and their cats, Munchie – the grey lad at the beginning of the video, and Alice, who is black and has black cat ‘tude) as they live full-time on their narrowboat, and traverse the canal system of Britain.

They usually post once a week-ish, (sometimes more, occasionally less) and I settle back with a pot of tea and indulge their adventures, or if I have the time I go back through their archives to where it all began, to their very first video.

Today they posted about their…

Double Dragons from World Journal

     The most important of all Chinese festivals occurs over 15 days and coincides with the new moon between January 21 and February 20 each year. The Lunar New Year is celebrated by over 1 billion people worldwide including one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in New York, Flushing, Queens. Chinese astrology designates 2019 as the Year of the Pig. Even with the frigid weather and stiff wind, the parade route along Main St. was filled with revelers looking to rub the dragons head for good luck.

Dancing Lions Getting Ready to Greet the Crowd

Koreans in Traditional Attire

Dancing Lions

     As usual the mounted police signals the start of the parade soon followed by the NYPD marching band. Parade dignitaries and VIPs made their way to the reviewing stand near the Queens Public Library on Main St. A diverse group…