HBW - Silver and Gold

HBW - Silver and Gold
Originally uploaded by Lisa-S

With a little help from my friends

From this:

To this:

Davi,

My blogger buddy (who comments every day), book sharer, paper crafter, clutter buddy, Wordscraper pal, good friend, was such an inspiration to me yesterday.  She challenged me to share our clearing piles efforts by the end of the day, via photos.  It was exactly the motivation I needed.

I'm only about half way finished, but what a great start.

Thank you, Davi.

I'm showing my appreciation by directing you to her incredible blogs:

 

PrincessMagpie
2Travelers

Then to top it off, our mutual friend, Willie, reluctant, but coming around blogger, ditto the above, except for clutter buddy (she doesn't have any), CCI incredible mentor, dropped in (I love drop in friends!!!) and was able to admire my beautiful table.
What a great day!

I need you!

It's a long story, but I had a funky Thanksgiving, missing 4/8ths of my family (that includes cousin Mary), so when Friday came I moved right into Christmas, playing Christmas music long before I usually do, thinking of a time when all 8 of us plus will be together. I can only hope that I won't get sick of it before Christmas, but I don't think so because we'll be so blessed to be together.
Anyway I have a burning question for all of you readers (some weeks I get up to 63!). I know there are a lot of lurkers out there, which normally I don't mind, but now I want to know - What's your favorite Christmas album???????
Here's mine for today:


I'm sooo grateful to Davi who comments nearly every day on my blog and Lynne who sometimes jumps in.
What about the rest of you? I'd so love to hear from you. Two of my favorite bloggers, Davi and Jane LaFazio, have both said, "I live for comments." I don't feel that strongly, but just this time couldn't you pleaaassse join in? And if not, maybe you could email me and tell my why because I'm wondering if I have the settings wrong and it's too difficult.

Right up there with Jon Katz

I think this photo Derek took of Lila and Murphy is extraordinary.
Thank you thank you!

A Gifted Man

If you love animals or nature, or, even better, both, please check out this blog:
BedlamFarm
Jon's photos are breathtaking and his words uplifting. He's also a columnist forSlateMagazine . The name of his column is Heavy Petting. Gives you an idea of his wonderful sense of humor.
Here's a sample of a couple of entries:

November 24, 2008 - To those of you who struggle with fear, or sadness, or who are worried, or who need encouragement to live your lives, and don't always get it, take heart. Lenore has a message for you, as do I. Don't take yourself too seriously too often.
It will be okay, the world is filled with joy and sorrow, and but also love and hope. So smile. Lenore, the Hound of Love, has more power than markets or money. If you look at her, you will smile.

I've been looking for the last color in the woods, as the leaves turn and the temperature drops. I found these two far out on the path this afternoon, and a few more behind them. This might be the last color for awhile, until I come across something else.

At Thanksgiving

I'm so thankful all my family and friends who Stand by Me!
You're always in my prayers.

A Blessed Day

A Closer Look

Use # 100, from the chapter, labs as gurus:


This text is from
TheDesiderata

A gift to myself

This 1995 Lucy Rigg calendar was a steal on ebay - 95 cents.
I can envision such lovely envelopes.
Just a reminder - don't throw away old calendars - they make marvelous envelopes. I can show you how if need be.

Unexpected Surprises

Along with the lovely heart from Janet, three more gifts brightened my day:


sweet angel wrapping paper from thoughtful Tracy - more envelopes for sure!

a visit from Mary and Jilly brought this touching book!


Sherry shared this premier issue of Living Crafts - full of great ideas, especially the felted hearts.

God bless all these heroic women, but especially our own Knight Knockers!

what a lovely surprise

My heartfelt friend, Janet, sent this beautiful piece to add to my heartstone collection. It's by far the most colorful!

Argh!

Argh!
Originally uploaded by Sir Nadroj

cute, huh?

Laugh out loud funny

I'd almost forgotten how much I love NPR's This American Life.
I happened to catch a repeat episode on my ipod: How to win friends and influence people.
The intro about Paul Feig and the first segment, by David Sedaris, are both hilarious.
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Stories of people climbing to be number one. How do they do it? What is the fundamental difference between us and them?

Paul Feig is the recent author of the children's book, Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut!.

Prologue.
Host Ira Glass talks with Paul Feig, who as a sixth-grader, at the urging of his father, actually read the Dale Carnegie classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. What he found was that afterwards, he had a bleaker understanding of human nature—and even fewer friends than when he started. (9 minutes)

Act One. To Make a Friend, Be a Friend.

David Sedaris has this instructive tale of how, as a boy, with the help of his dad, he tried to bridge the chasm that divides the popular kid from the unpopular...with the sorts of results that perhaps you might anticipate. (14 minutes).

Act Two. Stay in Touch.

After the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, U.S. diplomats had to start working the phones...to assemble a coalition of nations to combat this new threat. Some of the calls, you get the feeling, were not the easiest to make. Writer and performer Tami Sagher imagines what those calls were like. (6 minutes)


Song: "Calling Countries," Boomtown Rats


Act Three. People Like You If You Put a Lot of Time Into Your Appearance.

To prove this simple point—a familiar one to readers of any women's magazines—we have this true story of moral instruction, told by Luke Burbank in Seattle, about a guy he met on a plane who was dressed in a hand-sewn Superman costume. (13 minutes)

Act Four. Just Be Yourself.

Former TAL producer Jonathan Goldstein with a story about what it's like to date Lois Lane when she's on the rebound from Superman. Jonathan Goldstein is currently the host of CBC's Wiretap, and the author of the novel Lenny Bruce is Dead. (13 minutes)

Song: "Mr. Pleasant," The Kinks

yea, it came!

I metJennifer at the Harvest Festival and loved her art with affirming words!
I special ordered JOY in red and it came yesterday.

A lovely day in second grade

Wyanne was genuinely happy to be back with the kids - and vice versa!

Can't wait to see Lila in this

This little baby shrug is featured on the Christina Skye Romance Novel website, christina skye
The heroine of Christina's new book, "Code Name Blonde", is a knitter as is Christina. The pattern was developed to give the readers a chance to knit and dream of exciting adventures.

Sleep Study Results

I've been delaying posting my results as I wanted to better understand them (requiring extensive internet research) and to be able to mark up my polysomnograph to point out specific results (but that also would require too much learning time) so I'll just do the best I can with what I've got.

These are the numbers doctors use to tell you where you fall in the scheme of things:
Apnea/Hypoxia Index (AHI) is the number of events/hour. 5-15 = mild OSA, 16-30 moderate OSA, >30 severe OSA.
OSA stands for Obstuctive Sleep Apnea.
I'm the the mild area with 13.
I'm also asymptomatic. I get up easily in the morning and am not overly tired during the day.
The little green lines at the bottom show how many apnea events I had and you can see on the right hand side, I had significantly less while wearing the CPAP mask.
I have several choices of treatments:
doing nothing
losing weight
sleeping on my side
wearing a mouth guard
wearing a mask.

The mask would probably guarantee me the best sleep, but I found it quite daunting. I can fully see, though, that it would make all the difference to people who fall in the severe range and if that were my case I wouldn't hesitate.
I'm pretty sure most people have some level of apnea, but many are in denial. There are so many other body parts/functions that need fixing that sleep goes on the back burner, but, in reality, if you fix your sleep, it results in fixing some of those other problems like high blood pressure and acid reflux (which fortunately I'm not bothered by).
I am going to try the mouth guard and see if it makes any difference in my snoring. There was one incidence during the night where my oxygen flow dropped to 70% (shown in the little blue lines across the top), not a good thing.
I'm going to post some links to give you more detailed information and I do urge anyone who thinks they might have apnea to talk to their doctor about it.
All in all, it wasn't quite as fun as I thought it would be, and I was glad I didn't have to go to work the next morning, but I would certainly do it again if it would make a difference in my health.
video from mayo clinic
talk about sleep
sleep

a day with the grands

Easy Way to help

At La Costa Canyon High School, there is a class that is focused on making a difference in the world. The class members are hoping to raise money by collecting books to make education (schools) better in Uganda .. See link for more information schoolsforschools
What they need: BOOKS
Their goal: 250,000 of them (yes- a quarter of a million)
Deadline: December 17th, 2008

What kind of books? ANY kind- kid books, grown up books, fiction, non-fiction, books on tape, books on CD, self help, good books, boring books, school books, etc… The only books they cannot take: phone, moldy or damaged ones.

Here's Rod's contribution:



Let me know if you have any and I'll see that they get delivered to the right place.