Mourning A Legend

Well, I'm sure by now most of you have heard the sad news. The legendary Paul Newman has passed away. I have been and will always be a huge fan of his and I'm heartbroken. I love so many of his films and I admire his charity work and his desire to keep his private life private. If you have not seen any of his films some of my favorites include: Somebody Up There Likes Me, Cool Hand Luke, The Long Hot Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Nobody's Fool, From the Terrace, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting. Be sure to watch one or all of them some time in your life.

It's Autumn!!

Today is the first day of Autumn/Fall/The Best Time of the Year. I'm so excited to see the leaves change, to feel the crisp cool air, and to prepare for all the festivities like Halloween and Thanksgiving and festivals and fairs. There are few things I enjoy as much as Fall.

I've had a new visitor at the Palace over the past week. I was waiting for a friend to stop by the house when I saw a Pomeranian on my porch. It's extremely cute and not at all interested in getting to know me. It will let me take a couple pictures from inside the house but once I open the door it scurries off to the woods behind my house. I was traipsing around in said woods this weekend and the little Pomeranian (which I've named little Pom Pom, or Aslan--depending on my mood) was hanging out and promptly scurried further into the woods out of sight.

I'm not supposed to have pets while I'm renting this house but if the animal is already on the property then I don't see any harm in feeding it. The little darling hasn't been back on the porch since last Thursday but I'm hopeful.

Work was very busy last week. I had another faculty presentation on Friday night at a lovely little restaurant in Madison and then a brief demonstration in one of the PoliSci Saturday classes. I think they both went fairly well. I may have some orientation classes to teach this week and next and I'm working on a library guide that's all inclusive with most things students will need for research and writing.

In other news, I finally saw No Country for Old Men. It was pretty good but the ending left me hanging. Now I'm gonna have to read the dang book. Other than that I'm still watching Northern Exposure. It looks like the later seasons have more episodes per disc, hooray! I'm also reading some chick lit and Women in Battle at work. It's the second non-fiction book I've read while working there. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf.

Twenty-Eight

It's that time again. Today is my 28th birthday. I've had a good day so far and a good 28 years, all things considered. I'm at home looking at my lovely plants through the window and the birds are attacking the house. I'm not kidding. No less than six birds have been flying frantically around my windows. This has never happened before. Something must be in the air---or they are setting the stage for The Birds especially for my birthday. I have no major plans for my big day today, which can make for the best birthdays. I might even take a nap! When my parents return from their Mediterranean cruise (yes, they went without me) later next week we will probably have a big celebration. My brother's birthday is in six days so we will celebrate together. A friend sent this comic to me awhile back and I just love it so I thought I'd share the humor.

Cute, isn't it? In other news...I'm boiling my silverware at the moment. A roach decided to take up residence in my silverware drawer. He died of course but now I'm disinfecting everything in the drawer. No, I did not take a picture--even I have standards. I'm still enjoying Northern Exposure but I do not like the fact that each disc only has two episodes. At this rate I'll visit Alaska before I actually finish the series. I tried to watch Shoot 'Em Up with Clive Owen this weekend. It was one of the worst movies I've ever seen; I turned it off before it was over. I also saw The House Bunny over the weekend. It was kind of dumb and not that funny. However, there were some great songs played during the movie including New Soul by Yael Naim.

Here's the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tezx03k8W4s
It's another song that just kind of makes me smile.

Well, that's all for now from the birthday girl.

Bread Fishing

Earlier this week I had some leftover bread and I thought I might try to "catch" some fish in my pond. I threw out about 20 chunks and waited very patiently, for about 90 seconds. Nothing happened so I went inside to clean up my dinner dishes. A few minutes later I noticed large water rings in the pond. I knew it was fish so I ran outside to see if my awesome deductive reasoning skills were correct. I saw about eight huge fish eating the bread chunks. I ran back in the house to get more bread but when I got back to the pond the fish were gone. In the bread went anyway and I waited again. Another 90 seconds went by and I ran back in the house to get my camera. Here are the two best shots I got (and they are pretty bad).



I stayed on the deck for a while just watching these huge fish--at least 12 inches long. The water is black and the fish are black (I've been informed that they are probably carp) and it was getting late in the day so the pictures aren't really post-worthy but they're all I have to work with. I stood there sweating in the humidity until the last morsel of bread was eaten. Then, as I was leaving the house to run an errand, I saw three cats lazily walking down my driveway. I didn't have my camera with me then but I assure you they were cute.

'Shroom Garden

We've had a lot of rain here in Middle GA over the last week or so. Water poured out of the kitchen ceiling one night but I was ready with many large bowls and pots. The grass in my yard has gotten pretty thick again and something new grew as well.


This is my 'shroom garden from late last week




This is my 'shroom garden today. It's grown a good deal in just a few days. It looks like we'll get more rain today but we need it. My house has a tin roof so rainy weather is always a nice experience; the house becomes musical.

I'm enjoying the holiday; watching TV, getting things done around the house, trying not to think about my presentations later this week, and taking odd photos to place on my blog. All in all it's been a well rounded day.