Art!

I bought art.
I am happy :-)

This past weekend we went to a thing called the Indiana Artisan Marketplace. It was pretty cool. Definitely not your typical arts & craft show. I know I've talked about this before, how I can pretty much breeze through one of those shows because it's mostly the same kind of thing. My husband actually said it perfectly, "Some people are very talented and some people are very industrious." THAT'S IT!  Of course I can appreciate the technique and/or skill involved in making pottery or quilts. And I concede that it takes a bit of creativity to design something. But true artistic talent is simply, extraordinary! Only occasionally do I walk past a booth and stop in my tracks because I LOVE or am moved by what I see. This happened to me several times on Sunday! There were a couple different wood workers, a gal who made leather moccasins and boots and a chap who did watercolors. His art was AWESOME! He has a real gift. So I bought one of his paintings;

I would have peed my pants to have this one;

but it was $1200! 

This one here, I could afford :-)

The artists name is Terry Armstrong. He was a delightful human. You can find him at http://www.terryarmstrong.net/

I have art.

I am happy.

Honey

The honey bee has been around for millions of years.

It's the only insect that produces food eaten by humans.

Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water. AND it's the only food that contains an antioxidant associated with improve brain functioning!

The average honey bee produces about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

Bee pollen is considered by some scientist to be the perfect food.

Bee pollen is enormously rich in proteins, vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, at least 20 amino acids, more than 100 active enzymes, Lecithin-which helps dissolve and flush fat from the body,  and bioflavonoids which are anti-viral and helpful in lowering cholesterol. It is a natural appetite suppressant as well. Pollen is the only plant source of B12.

Bee pollen has also been shown to reduce allergies!

I'm gonna give it try!

Oh good grief

You know I'm not a fan of the religious freedom bill that our Governor just singed today. 
But I'm less of fan of all the freakin' bullshit the media is saying about it. It's NOT an anti-gay bill. 
I really just hate the media these days. And it's almost unbelievable how stupid people are these days. 

That's all. I just had to get that off my chest.

Religious freedom and the government

In my home state, there's a controversial bill being heard this session that's prompted several protests.
It's Senate Bill 101 and it's called, the religious freedom restoration act.

This is a minor point but...what happened to the separation between church and state?

OK, on to the bill. It states that a business has the right to refuse service(s) to anyone, based on their religious beliefs, without having to worry about that person suing them if it's going to be a "substantial burden" to the business. For instance, remember the story about the bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for the gay couple? The bakery owner said that homosexuality was against their religion and they would not do anything that supported gay marriage including making them a wedding cake. So the customer got pissed off and sued them. Ultimately the bakery lost the case because they could not prove that it was a substantial burden to their faith, to bake the damn cake. Their business closed due to financial reasons. SB 101 says that if the suit is going to cause a substantial burden to the religious beliefs of the owner, then the customer doesn't get to sue them for discrimination and it's ok for the bakery to refuse service to them. But the government gets to decide what the "substantial burden" is. Rut roh.

In my opinion, this is a very dangerous bill. First of all, if you're in business to supply a product or service to the public, then that's what you better do. As long as it's not breaking a law-don't be silly now. By all means, you can still be a good Christian - or whatever-  and practice your faith in your life and home and church and still serve people who are different from you. A good Christian wouldn't judge someone based on their differences anyway, would they? Jesus didn't. Are you going to deny service to a member of the military because they may have killed someone in war? That's murder, isn't it? Oh, I see, that's different? Hmmmm. I happen to be pro-life but that's my choice. I certainly don't expect everyone to have the same notion and if you're pro-choice, that's ok, for you. But if you're pro-choice, can you be discriminated against under this bill? Yes, yes you can. 

Oh sure, I understand the intent of the bill. And if I were a business owner I would like to be able to refuse service to anyone I didn't like for any reason I felt like. But in reality, I would know that I won't get to do that, and if I did, then I would be willing to suffer the consequences - because that would be discrimination and that's against the law. Since there are already laws against discrimination, why do we need this one? It's a little like having a special law for hate crimes. Aren't ALL crimes committed in hate?

I think this bill just opens up a BIG ol' can o' worms!

My life as a student

I know it was a loooooong time ago, when I was a student. But I was thinking about it this week. I'm reading a book called Strengths Finder 2.0, by Tom Rath. Like the title suggests, it's all about finding what your real strengths are. It's really kind of fascinating. Anyway...it talks about how we are always trying to get people to improve on their weaknesses instead making their strengths a priority. What an interesting concept!

For instance, I SUCK at math. I always have. I don't get it. I knew at a young age that I didn't get it and never was. In high school I had to take algebra THREE times just to pass it. Why did I have to take algebra? Also, once I got to high school and I could "choose" the classes I wanted to take, I found out I couldn't, really. I wanted to learn how to draw portraits. But I had to take 4 prerequisite art classes first. I took one. It was boring as hell because I already knew how to do everything. I got a C because I didn't do 1/2 the assignments. I never took another art class. I still don't know how to draw people. I still am not good with flow and movement and putting colors together. 

Who knows what I might have become if someone had played to my strengths instead?

So, what are my top 5 strengths? I'm so glad you were wondering! After an extensive question and answer test, on line, my results are;

1. Developer
People who are especially talented in the Developer theme recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these improvements.
2. Positivity
People who are especially talented in the Positivity theme have an enthusiasm that is contagious. They are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do. Sometimes people comment on your cheerful, easygoing, or hopeful attitude. Instinctively, you likely have fun whether you win or lose a contest. Being the champion is hardly your goal.
3. Adaptability
People who are especially talented in the Adaptability theme prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time. You sometimes resist being restricted by predetermined plans or standardized systems.
4. Belief
People who are especially talented in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.
5. Intelect
People who are especially talented in the Intellectual theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

I wouldn't have picked all of those for myself because I believe something different about my capabilities. Hmmmm, curious. I remember having a really great school counselor. I wanted to grow up to be like her, to be a counselor too. Looking at my results now, I bet I would have been an excellent school counselor!

I can't wait to read the rest of it!

sexy beast

woooweee this cracked me up;

I'm listening to Amazon music at work today. Today's catagory is, James Taylor and More. Pretty much all the same style of James Taylor's music. It's nice at work. Just now I looked down at my phone to see what the new song was and this sexy picture on my screen.

I laughed right out loud!!! I even snorted!!! This is too much!!

yum

Tomorrow is National Potato Chip Day...just sayin'

I thought it would be nice to celebrate at work today, so I brought chips! Do you have any idea how many different kinds and flavors of potato chips there are?? A LOT! 

I've saved the best for last...

adjustments

So I've been thinking about all the upcoming adjustments in our lives. My fella was given his "end date" at work. He will officially be retired the first week of April. 

Emotionally, he's all over the map! Sometimes he's happy and sometimes he's pissed off and sometimes he's really bummed. I think it's mostly normal things. Except that he keeps talking about all the things he's going to do around the house. I'm super happy he wants to do those things but honey!....cha ching!! Come on now! But even so, what's he going to do when he's done with those things? I think about alllll that stuff.

The one thing I hadn't considered, until yesterday, was ME! How is his retirement going to affect ME? OMG! He's going to be alone all day. When I get home he's gonna want to talk. I have days where I'm just sick to death of people talking to me. Uh oh. And what about the cleaning and cooking? OK, so I'm totally OK with him cleaning. He's actually better at it than me. But he doesn't cook, ever. I like cooking. I don't know if I want to give that to him! Maybe sometimes but...
Then I had another thought. I REALLY enjoy those days off that I get that he doesn't. I like having a day to myself every once in awhile. I'm never going to be alone again. (stop laughing Mom, it's not funny!) I'm never going to have a day that I can just sit and read, quietly. I'm never going to have a day that I can watch whatever chick flick I want, happily. I'm never going to be alone again. OMG!!!!
I am sad!

sigh

Oh, it'll all work out...but whew, change is tough sometimes!

time changed

In 1895, some nut in New Zealand who collected bugs, proposed a 2 hour daylight saving shift, so he could have more time after work to collect bugs. He followed up in 1898 but still, nobody thought it was a stellar idea. Then, in 1905, an Englishman who liked to play golf, proposed advancing the clocks in the summer. A bill was created and introduced to Parliament in 1898, but again....no takers. 

In 1916/WW1, Germany and Austria started using daylight savings time as a way to conserve coal. The U.S. followed suit in 1918. After the war though, it was abandoned until WW2 and abandoned again after that. It wasn't until the 70's and the energy crisis that daylight savings time was adopted in North America and Europe.

Now, in my home state, we didn't start using daylight savings time until 2006. Which was fine by me.
Wiki says that a study done in 2008, shows that residential electricity consumption increased by 4% with an annual cost to Indiana households estimated to be 9 MILLION dollars! That's a good reason right there to get rid of it.

DST has never made any sense to me. Just because you change your clock, doesn't mean the sun is visible in the sky longer!! And frankly, I hate going to work in the dark. And I don't really like it, at the peak of summer, that the sunset is at 9:30. Which means it doesn't get dark until 10ish. It's not Alaska for heavens sake. Ugh. It's disrupted my sleep pattern and I don't get enough sleep as it is dammit!

I love lists

I love to read lists.
I love to make lists. I make lists all the time.

Remember this list? It's about the worst things in every state.

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/what-every-state-in-the-u-s-is-worst-at-105417305752.html

Now there's a new list, what is the best thing about every state;

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/what-every-u-s-state-is-best-at-113184438892.html

I almost peed I laughed so hard at some of them.

Thanks Chuck's daughter!! This really made my day!!!

Oh oh oh! I forgot...

I forgot this wacky story...

did you see the one whith the website that will tell you when you are going to die????
Mwahahahahaha! 

Yes, of course I did it! Silly. I'm going to die on December 20th, 2044.  I've got 30 years to finish some kind of needlework kit!

I didn't tell my fella about it though. He would get freaked out for sure! 

What I found most interesting about it that it told me I'm older than 83% of the people in the world and older than 75% of the people in the U.S. 

Anyway, it's fun if you're not a nut :-)

http://www.population.io/

some stuff in the news

First, did you see the story about Ringling Bros Circus getting rid of their elephants in performances?
I know a lot has been made about cruelty to elephants in general but this news was kind of a bummer. But what really bugged me when I read the article was this;

But Feld acknowledged that because so many cities and counties have passed "anti-circus" and "anti-elephant" ordinances, it's difficult to organize tours of three traveling circuses to 115 cities each year. Fighting legislation in each jurisdiction is expensive, he said.

I didn't know there were anti-circus ordinances! What? My goodness people go so overboard with things sometimes!

Which brings me to the next crazy story. This one is about the couple in Maryland who let their 6 and 10 year old walk home from the park, by themselves, a mile away. Child Protective Services is threatening to remove the children from their parents on the grounds of neglect and child endangerment. I LOVE the term they're using...free range kids. Free range. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OMG that cracked me up! I was a free range kid. I'm ok. Here's the link to story if you want to read it;

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/04/free-range-kids-movement-maryland-meitivs-child-neglect

I saw this next story just this morning in the LA Times. It's AWESOME! I laughed and laughed! You really have read it yourself, it's pretty fun.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-weight-loss-females-20150305-story.html

I've saved the best for last...This video is from a campaign called, Love Has No Labels. I swear, it will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside if you watch it. It made me feel good. I like it.

Check it out;

http://youtu.be/PnDgZuGIhHs

Happy Friday everybody!!

Happy Anniversary Mom!!!!