Team Texeira

I signed up today to do a 6! mile walk on October 12th. This is part of the Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes walkathon. It will be in San Jose on Sunday, October 12th. Oh I already said the date. Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know about this. We have a team called, appropriately enough, Team Texeira and as befits a blog mistress, we even have a blog!

Anyone reading this who lives around here (or wants to travel!) is welcome to join our team. Just follow the above link or the one on the blog & click on join a team. There are a couple of things I should point out. 1) I didn't name this blog. The official team captain did. 2) I'm not the official team captain, Stephen is. He says that it was accidental but I'm a little suspicious. Anyway I'm the unofficial captain & the one whose good side you want to get on (don't ask me why, I just thought it sounded good). There are only 3 people on our team so far: Me (the REAL captain), Stephen (the FAKE captain), and Cindy (who doesn't care who is captain). Please join us!

If you can't join us, certainly feel free to sponsor a walker or the team! Follow the same link & click on sponsor a walker.

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Silent Sunday

This is one of Jill's plants. Bilsbergia Newtans. Honestly that is what she told me. For the rest of us, it is called Queen's Tears. It's on my deck & I really like it.

My Secret Fetish

Ok, fetish may be a strong word for it but I got your attention, didn't I? Since no one else has posted! I had to come up with another subject so I thought I'd share my secret fetish with you. I love the smell of tomato plants. As fetish may have been too strong a word, love may be to weak. I think I could sit all day & smell tomato plants. I'm trying to convince Jill to make a perfume that smells like tomato plants but she is to busy in her yard now. At this time of year, when all the nurseries are full of tomato plants, she won't even go to a nursery with me. She says it is embarrassing trying to explain to people why I'm standing at the display sticking my nose into all the plants. If Jill is embarrased, it must be pretty bad.

In an effort to keep my vice safely at home, Jill has kindly planted some tomatoes and put them in a pot on my deck. Now I can go out every day and sniff all I want. I get kind of high from the scent, so future blog posts may be significantly more interesting.

I'm sure that you would all like to learn more about tomatoes and probably go out and buy your own plants to sniff. Just don't come over here & try and sniff my plants - I'm very territorial. To save you the trouble of looking up tomato information online! I'm including some links for your edification. The California Tomato Growers Association has a nice site that includes a lot of information and recipes. Here is a Britannica article on tomatoes also. You will be tested.

Did you know:

• Tomatoes are in the nightshade family, whose plants are poisonous and the American colonists were afraid to eat them.
• The roots and leaves of the tomato plant are in fact poisonous; they contain the neurotoxin solanine.
• Most of the vitamin C in tomatoes is in the pulp.
• Its name is derived from the Náhuatl (Aztec) word tomatl.
• The tomato is by definition a fruit, but in 1893 the U.S. Supreme Court declared them to be vegetables. (I thought I was being very clever & asked Jill if a tomato was a fruit or vegetable. She told me exactly this. I told her she was a smart-ass. You're wondering what possessed me to think she wouldn't know. No idea, periodically I hope to be able to say aha, you're wrong.)

So there you have your little lesson on tomatoes. As you probably figured out, I'm not yet blind as I'm still posting. My eye still hurts though (see previous post for why). Last night I was looking things up online and decided I had Hyphema (bleeding in the eye), which is a medical emergency. I considered going to the ER then but it was late & I was really tired. I decided to wait until this morning & now my eye looks better so I guess it is ok. Although as I am typing this things are looking a little blurry. Anyway, the point of this is to give you all some advice - don't poke yourself in the eye with a pencil!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

National DNA Day

Today, April 25th, is National DNA Day. This is an annual celebration commemorating the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003. This is a really cool site to browse and you can learn a lot about DNA and stuff (being unscientific I used stuff). Here are a few facts from the site:

• A genome is the complete set of DNA instructions in your cells.
• The genomes of any two people are more than 99% the same.
• The 1% accounts for variations among humans thus making us different.
• You have 75-100 trillion cells in your body.

You can check the site if you'd like more information!

Just because I can do it, here is a link to an article on DNA fingerprinting from the Encyclopedia Britannica. I can do this because I'm an official web publisher and signed up for their free service. This allows me to link to articles for your edification. Aren't you glad you are reading this blog?

I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that yesterday the Senate passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act by a vote of 95-0. This protects you from discrimination based on your genetic information. What I find most interesting is that this has been debated in Congress for 13 years. It took them 13 years to decide non-discrimination was a good thing? Your tax dollars at work.

I would have posted more information from the site but my sight has deteriorated due to a freak accident. Well, deteriorated may be overstating it. I bent over to pick up my purse last night and a pencil that was in a cup on the end table poked me in the eye. It hurt quite a bit! I really can see but my eye still hurts and is a little red. Since I'm injured hopefully someone else will POST something!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

One Final Poem

One final poem for you in honor of National Poetry Month. This one I didn't have to copy & paste because I know it by heart! Why do we say we know something by heart? That is kind of an odd phrase isn't it? Oh well

All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

From the Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Written by Bilbo Baggins for Aragorn

An interesting note. I went to Amazon to get a link for the book and when I searched, the first thing that came up in the search results was the movie. Mind you (I used to have a boss that said that & I always liked it), I loved the movie but the book is far, far better (read it if you haven't already done so). I don't know if the search result is a sign of popularity or price - since the book costs less than the movie - or just a fluke. I found it interesting though.

By the way, speaking of hobbits. Did you know that a hobbit comes of age at 33? Next year, 2009, Jill will be 33. Jill is a hobbit - furry, distrustful of technology, loving the land. Consequently, there will be a huge birthday party planned for her 33rd birthday to celebrate her coming of age. Everyone is invited so be sure and hold that date. Well I'm not sure what the date will be yet but hold it anyway. Just as an incentive, hobbits do not receive presents on their birthday, they give them away to their guests. I think Jill is a bit worried about that part.

I've only seen one person, aside from myself, post. Where are you people? Let's get busy - I want to see posts from other people. I have so many boring subjects in my head that I could write about - I'm sure some of you can come up with something more interesting. And as an additional threat, remember that I have Jill. Now that the IRS audit is off her mind, all I have to do is suggest pretty much any topic, sit her in front of the computer and you'll be reading some esoteric treatise on plants or language or worse. POST!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress
(who wouldn't be lonely if more people posted!)

The Duke is Back

Okay, just a few words about the election today in Pennsylvania. Senator Clinton won the state by either nine or 10 percentage points. Two months ago she was up by close to 20 points. At that point she was saying that she would win by a landslide. In reality, she won by a squeaker that in some people's estimation was really a victory for Senator Obama in that he won back a significant portion of those who were at one point committed to Senator Clinton. I leave it for you folks to decide.

A few other things about tonight. Hillary's out of money and Barack's money is rolling in like a tsunami. Hillary is taking more and more of a hit for her negative campaigning and it's hurting her throughout the country. And last but not least, Hillary came out today and said should Iran launch an attack on Israel that we would "obliterate them." I assume that she meant she would find some way, if she were elected president, to eliminate the leaders of that country who initiated the attack. I assume that she did not mean that she would literally use the military might of the United States of America to destroy the people of Iran. I know that she (I'm sorry, her campaign), can be something of a hate monger and a dirty dealer, but threatening to destroy an entire people? An entire civilization? At a time when our country is losing credibility throughout the world (which is contributing in no small measure to the declining dollar), we need a foreign policy that is focused on resolving regional and global conflict through diplomacy with our allies, not some John Wayne rhetoric that sounds all too familiar to those of us who had the misfortune to be paying attention for the past eight years.

I will weep for our future should Senator Clinton find some way to get elected.

Flowers

I like flowers. They make me smile which I'm pretty sure is a good thing. Rarely do I not have a vase or two of flowers in the house. You all wonder why I'm telling you this don't you? I have to do a post about something because NO ONE else has posted yet! Actually there is a point. I read a posting on the Cognitive Daily blog about a study done that shows flowers produce positive emotions. I've known this for a long time but it is nice that there is a scientific study to back me up.

According to the study, there is more positive emotion involved when someone receives flowers then in just looking at them. Since I can't send everyone flowers you'll have to get by with looking at the picture. These are the flowers I currently have in my living room. Hope they produce positive emotions in everyone!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Charles Darwin

This is an interesting site: The Complete Works of Charles Darwin. Just added are his private papers that were formerly only available to scholars at Cambridge University. Also available are the complete texts of the Beagle notebooks, the 1st-6th editions of the Origin of the Species, research journals, and articles. The site contains 43,000+ pages of searchable text and 150,000 electronic images. Pretty much anything you're interested in finding out about Darwin you could probably find here.

If you have a spare hour or two, take a look - it is pretty fascinating!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Silent Sunday (sort of)

Friday I made a long, long journey out to Stockton so that I could watch my nieces & nephew attend their horseback riding lesson. Aside from the slight odor (the animals, not the kids), it was a pleasant experience. I thought that all the kids did really well riding. I found the horses to be kind of scary, I'm pretty sure one wanted to bite me. I was also nearly attacked by chickens. Fortunately Alex was around to protect me.








I took a bunch of pictures & thought I'd share them today. Note that there were four riders, however, you'll only see three. One asked me not to put her picture on the blog. I'm telling you this so that she won't look and say, "how come she left me off?" It is my desire to respect her wishes (ok, a little fear also), that prompted me not to post her picture. If this individual would like to give me permission to share, I'm happy to add her!


Robin, the lonely blog mistress
(I'm quite taken with this appellation)

Updates

I received more info for the 100th posting and decided to go ahead and add it. This brings our total items up to 83. If you scroll down to the original post you'll see the additions in orange. I really wanted to get 100 things so if anyone would like to add anything else, feel free to send it to me: texeiratimes@gmail.com or rtex57@comcast.net and I'll be happy to add your items.

Thanks for all the contributions! Remember: I want to see posts from other people!

Robin, the somewhat lonely blog mistress

100th Post!

This is it folks. The 100th post for the Texeira Life blog. I wanted to post 100 things about people in our family but only managed to get 77. However, they are 77 fascinating, interesting facts and I really appreciate everyone sending me stuff! Before you read the 77 exciting things about family members, let me say a couple of things. First, don't ask who did what. If you can't figure it out, you're stuck not knowing. Note number 27 - that's me, trust me it's true.

The other thing is that I've been doing this blog (with sporadic help which I do appreciate!) since November of last year. A 100th post seems like a good point to evaluate why I'm doing it & whether to continue. I love blogging and I really enjoy contributing to this blog but that is what I want to be - a contributor. Which means I really need other people to contribute!! My idea when I started this was that everyone related to me, or related to anyone related to me, or friends with anyone related to me, or complete strangers, would post interesting, fascinating things about their lives and we could all make comments. I really didn't want to start a Robin blog. Let me have some feedback, ideally via post or comment, but email is ok also. Do you want to continue doing this? Do you want to contribute on a regular basis?

Without further ado here you go, 77 things about various people in the Texeira family!

1. Sometimes I feel like drinking candles because they smell so good.
2. I’ve visited all 21 California Missions.
3. I’m a snob when it comes to literature.
4. I’m a Blazer scout.
5. I’ve painted yachts and fixed cars.
6. I’m obsessive about cutting my fingernails — though I don’t save them like the crazy rich guy did.
7. I call my cats silly, lovey names.
8. I hate going to the doctor...or the dentist...or the eye doctor...or the haircutter.
9. I’ve been on a battleship.
10. I like farm animals.
11. I routinely think about ways to murder people.
12. I like my dog Einstein.
13. I’m mad because I had to pay $24 in taxes.
14. Sometimes I stay up late at night doing math problems in my head.
15. I love the ocean.
16. Once I gave a speech in front of 200+ people. I was so scared my toes were shaking.
17. I can’t remember many details from my childhood; I usually can’t remember what I had for breakfast on any given day. Remembering things is not my strong point.
18. I grow plants.
19. I like diving into our pool.
20. I once broke a guy’s arm when he and a friend tried to mug me.
21. I love fall in Vermont.
22. Sometimes I think I might start leafing out.
23. I don't ever tell anyone anything about myself.
24. I am often astonished that I gave birth to such an amazing person.
25. I take a train to work every day.
26. I was in a submarine when I was young.
27. I’m really good at keeping secrets.
28. I once walked up 16 flights of stairs because I was afraid to use the elevator.
29. I like my cat princess.
30. I like reading about parasitical diseases from central Africa.
31. I like riding my bike.
32. With only a handful of exceptions, I have eaten the same thing for breakfast every day for the past five years.
33. Two of my children went to the dentist yesterday and had no cavities.
34. I like Webkins.
35. Sometimes when I’m working I’ll also be watching the news and reading a book or magazine article.
36. I like to read mysteries.
37. I like Miss Kitty & Peaches best.
38. I love the ocean.
39. I hitchhiked to San Francisco once.
40. I completed the world’s hardest Sudoku puzzle in less than 12 minutes.
41. I took a journalism class in high school.
42. I don’t really like puzzles, I just have a compulsion to do them.
43. I picked the lock on a filing cabinet once.
44. I like windsurfing, motorcycles and mountain climbing.
45. I love my husband.
46. Generally when people tell me things I completely forget what they’ve said within a few minutes.
47. I rarely forget what people say although I often pretend that I have.
48. I procrastinate.
49. I enjoy dessert but believe it should be saved for after dinner.
50. I’ve been living under an assumed name since I was 12 years old.
51. I wanted to grow up and marry Superman.
52. I’d say that about a fifth of the time when people say things to me I’m just guessing at what they are saying, because I wasn’t paying attention.
53. I like to write poetry.
54. By the end of this year I will have visited 17 different countries.
55. I lived in Ishpeming, Michigan when I was a small child. (An adorably cute small child.)
56. I speak Latin (latinum possum loquare).
57. I have seen a picture of me as a child with a Pebbles doll, I don’t know who it belonged to.
58. I like to bake.
59. I always wanted to be a secret agent.
60. I sent someone to the store to buy pumpernickel for bread.
61. People say that I’m a very nice person.
62. I once had 14 cats.
63. I like to swim.
64. My husband thinks I’m crazy because I like Webkins.
65. I truly believe that my cats understand what I say to them.
66. I love olives and dark chocolate.
67. I lived in South America.
68. I love blogging.
69. I’m the café lead at work (like an assistant manager!).
70. In Mexico my name conjures up images of a popular TV show character.
71. I think it would be really cool if humans had prehensile tails.
72. I have an alternate identity as Morgan’s brother.
73. As a child I was swept down the Russian River and nearly drowned.
74. I like cats.
75. I have more than 25 pairs of Christmas earrings. That way I can wear a different pair every day in December.
76. I’m convinced that I am related to one of the smartest people in the world.
77. I'm glad that I didn't have an IRS audit.
78. I’m a prominent city council member in an obscure state.
79. I used to work in the former Pixar Studios building.
80. I bounced a check to the IRS.
81. I’ve ridden on a horse about 600 times.
82. I had a 4.0 gpa in college.
83. I wouldn’t let my aunt buy books with my discount.

Jill & the IRS

Addendum: Here is a picture of Jill happy now that her IRS ordeal is over.

I know you've all been waiting anxiously to hear about Jill's IRS audit. She had originally been scheduled for April 8 but was rescheduled to today, April 15th. Her appointment was at 1:00 pm today, if you note the post time for this you'll see that it did not last the 3 hours it was scheduled for. But on to the story.

Her appointment was at the Federal building in Oakland. We left in plenty of time to get to the appointment at 1pm. Unfortunately once we arrived there was a huge line to go through the scanner to get into the building. Now bear in mind people, this is where your tax dollars are going. There is one scanner, you have to empty your pockets, show ID and go through one at a time. The guy (who had a gun, a big mistake in my opinion) who was shepherding people through had apparently taken slow motion pills this morning. It took approximately 30 minutes for us to get through the line. The average time for each person to go through the scanner seemed to be about 2 minutes. Jill & I took about 30 seconds because we had our ID out and were prepared. Something that apparently the rest of the people in line were incapable of doing. By the time we got upstairs we were 20 minutes late. Ok, that's the end of my ranting about inefficiency.

On to the actual audit. The auditor was very nice and wasn't concerned about us being late. She explained that Jill was part of a random audit study and had not been singled out (which we'd all been telling her). I kindly gave her the copies I had made of Jill's returns for the last three years. Note that by doing this I saved the government the cost of photocopying three pages.

After this preliminary stuff, the auditor explained that she had some questions she had to ask about income. These were questions like: did you receive any tips, any compensation from hobbies, etc. You would think this would be pretty straightforward, right? Not if you know Jill. One of the questions was about bonuses. So Jill says, "I got a bonus for my certification. I think it was in my paycheck." I explained that it was. The auditor, sensing a big cover-up, asked about mileage. Jill says, "They reimbursed me for mileage, it might have been in my paycheck but I'm not sure." I was trying not to laugh while at the same time getting a little worried. Jill is extremely honest and very, very literal.

The next question was about gifts and I thought - great she's going to tell her every gift she received that year. Fortunately she didn't. The next question was about income from e-commerce. Jill hesitates and I knew she was thinking that she had bought stuff on ebay. Fortunately she went with saying nothing, but when we left she said she had thought about ebay. Anyway she did ok until the auditor asked if she had prepared her taxes. Jill says no and doesn't say anything else. So then she asked who did them and she points at me. Then she asked me if I was paid to do them & when I said no, said if I got paid I had to sign the form. The auditor didn't seem real concerned about any of this - I think by that time she had caught on that Jill had no real clue as to what the whole tax thing was about.

After the questions the auditor said she would be back, that she needed to research something. I admit that did worry me a little. She was gone maybe five minutes and came back and said she was recommending no change, that nothing was owed. Shocking conclusion right? She gave us a nice paper saying this & said a final letter would be received in a few weeks. All together we were there about 30 minutes. I had been worried at one point that we'd be there all day when she asked Jill what her certification was for. Jill explained it was for plants and told her about the test and how she had to identify plants. Once the word plants leaves Jill's mouth it can be difficult to get her to stop talking.

It was, aside from going through the scanner thing, a pretty painless experience. The worst part was that it cost me $8 to park. I couldn't find a place at a meter & had to go into the garage. I'm saving the receipt to deduct on my taxes next year. I figure the IRS owes me something.

Note: This is it folks, post #99. The next one will be 100. If you haven't sent me something, do it fast!!!!

Robin, the still lonely blog mistress

Everybody Blogs!

I thought this was pretty cool (thanks Dad for sending it to me!). The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has a blog for the Pope's visit. The Pope really isn't writing blog posts but this is pretty close!

So what do we learn from this? If you aren't blogging you are behind the times, you missed the train, you're --- I don't know, other platitudes. You get the idea. Don't think you need to start a blog and do all the hard work associated with maintaining it. Someone (Me) has already done that for you! All you need to do is write a post. See how simple life is.

Reminder: This is post #98. 98 is very close to 100. If you haven't sent me anything, I'll be making up something about you to put in the 100th post. Please, please, please send me something!

Robin - the lonely blog mistress

Another Poem

This is one of my favorite poems. I used to have it memorized but I get mixed up toward the end now. Old age I guess.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Silent Sunday

I'm not sure what these are. This is a picture Jill took at one of the gardens she visits. She's asleep now so I can't ask. I really liked the picture though.

Update: Jill said it is Dogwood with Aspen in the background.

Note: This is post 95, we are fast approaching 100! Have you sent me your informational tidbit?

My cats are indoor cats but we periodically let them out on the back patio. They like to wander around and so long as there are two of us out to watch them it seems safe enough. Since they are both kind of big babies, they scare pretty easily so if we want them in it is easy to get them to run back in the house. Anyway, they were out today & I took a short video which is really cute. It is a little jumpy, my video skills aren't that great.

Robert Hass

Robert Hass, former US Poet Laureate & UC Berkeley professor won the 2008 Pulitzer prize for Poetry for his latest book, Time and Materials.

You may be wondering why I am telling you this. There are a couple of reasons. First, if you recall, this is National Poetry Month so it seems appropriate. Second, many years ago when Jill was attending Berkeley she took a poetry class he taught. She said he is a nice guy & offered to buy her a drink in the cafeteria. She wasn't overly impressed when I told her he had won a Pulitzer prize, but I thought it was pretty cool.

While I didn't get to take a class w/a former Poet Laureate and future Pulitzer prize winner, I did work with his son. His son is a doctor who used to (actually for all I know he still does), work at LMC, the clinic where I worked. He was a pretty nice guy also, although a little odd. Anyway I thought you'd all like to know about these connections to an actual poet.

Not to overwhelm you with poems, but it seems appropriate that I put one on by Robert Hass, so here you go!

Ezra Pound's Proposition

Beauty is sexual, and sexuality
Is the fertility of the earth and the fertility
Of the earth is economics. Though he is no recommendation
For poets on the subject of finance,
I thought of him in the thick heat
Of the Bangkok night. Not more than fourteen, she saunters up to you
Outside the Shangri-la Hotel
And says, in plausible English,
'How about a party, big guy?"

Here is more or less how it works:
The World Bank arranges the credit and the dam
Floods three hundred villages, and the villagers find their way
To the city where their daughters melt into the teeming streets,
And the dam's great turbines, beautifully tooled
in Lund or Dresden or Detroit, financed
by Lazard Frères in Paris or the Morgan Bank in New York,
enabled by judicious gifts from Bechtel of San Francisco
or Halliburton of Houston to the local political elite,
Spun by the force of rushing water,
Have become hives of shimmering silver
And, down river, they throw that bluish throb of light
Across her cheekbones and her lovely skin.

Another Poem & A Reminder!

FYI: This is post #93 - we are getting close to 100!!

It is still National Poetry Month so here is another poem for you. I found this on a blog today & really liked it.

History
by Stephen Dunn

It’s like this, the king marries
a commoner, and the populace cheers.
She doesn’t even know how to curtsy,
but he loves her manners in bed.
Why doesn’t the king do what his father did,
the king’s mother wonders—
those peasant girls brought in
through that secret entrance, that’s how
a kingdom works best. But marriage!
The king’s mother won’t come out
of her room, and a strange democracy
radiates throughout the land,
which causes widespread dreaming,
a general hopefulness. This is,
of course, how people get hurt,
how history gets its ziggy shape.
The king locks his wife in the tower
because she’s begun to ride
her horse far into the woods.
How unqueenly to come back
to the castle like that,
so sweaty and flushed. The only answer,
his mother decides, is stricter rules—
no whispering in the corridors,
no gaiety in the fields.
The king announces his wife is very tired
and has decided to lie down,
and issues an edict that all things yours
are once again his.
This is the kind of law
history loves, which contains
its own demise. The villagers conspire
for years, waiting for the right time,
which never arrives. There’s only
that one person, not exactly brave,
but too unhappy to be reasonable,
who crosses the moat, scales the walls.

Potato Museum

This is either interesting or weird, I'm not sure which. It is a site called The Potato Museum. The actual museum was started in Brussels in 1975. In 1993 it moved to Albuquerque, NM. The museum includes pictures, pins, books, potato artifacts - apparently anything related to the potato.

On the website you can read about the museum, see some of the exhibits, purchase potato museum apparel (seriously!), listen to spud songs, and look at the potato blog. Yes, Virginia, there is a potato blog.

As some of you may know, I have a small problem with magazines. Ok, it is sort of a large problem but to get to the point, I have a theory that there is a magazine for every interest. I've extended this theory to blogs. No matter how weird your interest I'm betting we can find a blog on it. If anyone wants to test this theory, feel free to send me your weird interest & I'll find you a blog. Just as a warning, I'll probably add your interest to my 100th posting list (which is fairly short still).

As proof of my magazine/blog theory I just found a link on the potato museum site to a site called Spudman Magazine (yes, online magazines count), the voice of the potato industry. I really love the Web!

If you have nothing better to do, or even if you do, check out the potato museum. In thinking about potatoes I'm wondering something. In Gone With The Wind, Scarlett is working in the field and digging something up. Was it potatoes? Does anyone know? Ok, answered my own question - it was a turnip. This is the scene where she says, "As God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again." Sorry about that - just a small detour!

Robin

Silent Sunday

I'm instituting a Silent Sunday. This means that every Sunday I'll post a picture for you all to admire. This is a "day off" for me from writing a post (admittedly I haven't done that much lately) and a way to give you all nice pictures to look at! If anyone else wants to post a picture, please do so. If you don't feel silent on Sunday, certainly post something else!

Here is your picture for today. This is Traitor's Gate at the Tower of London. With my own two little hands I took this picture. Admire it and be thankful that you are not entering the Tower through this gate. If you did, the odds are high that your body and head would be going separate ways soon after.

Happiness

Someone once told me that most people they know are unhappy. This got me thinking about what it means to be happy. As usual, I looked online for definitions but didn't find much I liked. I did find some interesting quotes that I thought I'd share.

• When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. ~Helen Keller
• Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open. ~John Barrymore
• The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven. ~John Milton
• Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~Abraham Lincoln
• Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
• Unquestionably, it is possible to do without happiness; it is done involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind. ~John Stuart Mill
• There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.
  --Freya Stark
• Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. --Robert Brault
• Most of us believe in trying to make other people happy only if they can be happy in ways which we approve. ~Robert S. Lynd

This final quote really makes me think. Apparently this guy had everything we would assume necessary for happiness. Yet he only counts 14 days of genuine happiness. How many days of happiness would you count in your own life?

I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen.
--Abd Er-Rahman III of Spain, (960 C.E.)

Robin

somewhere i have never travelled

I don't know if I have a favorite poem, or a favorite poet for that matter. Usually I say Emily Dickinson, and I would probably say that now if pressed, but there are others that I hold in as high esteem: Pablo Neruda, Nikki Giovanni, Edna Millay, ee cummings. It is this last whose poem comes to mind at this moment, and so, here it is.

somewhere i have never travelled

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

any experience,your eyes have their silence:

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me,i and

my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,

as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals

the power of your intense fragility: whose texture

compels me with the color of its countries,

rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes

and opens; only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands

Poetry

As you'll have noted in the side-bar, April is National Poetry Month. I thought I'd share a poem with you and then, this is how it works folks, you'll all share a poem! Not in a comment, please do a separate post and indicate who you are. Thank you!!!

This has been one of my favorite poems for years & is still one that I remember. Quite a feat actually - I used to memorize poems but I'm getting old & senile and have forgotten quite a lot that I used to know. This is short though & easily remembered.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

Robin