Some info and prayers needed

I know I don't come in nearly as often as I should, however this one is of some utmost importance. I've heard from iggy and he's in really rough shape right now.

Copied and pasted from my email:



It has been a struggle to get on-line lately.

My right shoulder, previously badly damaged, was dislocated when I fell off the houseboat about a month ago now.  It isn't hurting too much, only when I try to extend it some - I've about 20% of normal range of motion - so it doesn't take much to extend it. I have to use my left arm to lift the right arm onto the desk surface so I can type. The incision where they did some emergency repair surgery is still oozing where it was (or is) infected - and it sticks to the bedsheets and my shirt when it dries - and hurts like unholy heck when the fabric is torn away.  I'm now waiting for it to heal up a little and the next doctor visit on December 12th, when they (the doctors) are to decide what to do - they really think a shoulder joint replacement will be the only thing that works - and if they do that, I might be out of work (and possibly off-line) for a month or three.

Other wise, I'm doing just fine.  I've not been able to do much of anything lately.




Anyone that has his snail mail... he could use some hugs and well wishes as soon as they can be sent. Looks like it's going to be a long painful road for him and he's gonna need as much sunshine as we can send him.




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Mike's newest

I'll be getting this one, that's for sure.

From the info area on this video:

BUY the song on Itunes: Stand Up

100% of the proceeds will go to BULLY BUST! I wrote and self-produced this song "Stand Up" to empower young people to overcome challenges tied with bullying. I ultimately would like to raise awareness and encourage young people to "Stand Up" and confront the challenges we are currently or may have in the past experienced as a young teenager.

Special thanks to TRABUCO HILLS HIGH SCHOOL for letting us shoot on their campus! Principal CRAIG COLLINS + Film Teacher TODD SAUTNER made it possible.


 
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The story of The Ring

A boy fell deeply in love with a girl. It didn't matter too much that he'd never met her. He just knew within his heart that this was the girl for him. After talking to her for a few months, they arranged to meet. When she came to town, he visited her as often as his work schedule would permit and by the week's end, he was very very sure that this was the woman he wanted to marry; even if she was an emotional disaster zone. She had a couple of prior engagements because she was visiting family, but since she felt the same she made a promise to return to him within 3 weeks time. He in turn promised to shelter and protect her while she healed from her troubles.

Three weeks later, true to her promise, she arrived back to his waiting arms. He was so in love and she returned his love with everything she had. While out shopping a few weeks after her return, she spied a ring. It was very lovely even for costume jewelry. The boy never thought twice and bought her the little trinket.  She realized she wouldn't be able to wear it long because it was plated gold, but it was her first piece of jewelry from the boy who loved her so and she wore it proudly every single day.

A time came that they decided that this really was working out well for them and that maybe it was time to take the next big step. Oh no, not marriage. They'd decided that before she'd left him the first time. It didn't matter that there were ummm circumstances that needed clearing up first. He'd finally met The One and she felt the same. The next step? He bought her a house. She'd been looking for weeks and weeks for a place because their present accommodations were totally unsatisfactory. She swore the neighbors were from farther south than the Land Down Under, if you catch my drift. Everything she looked at was so very out of price range, or in absolutely deplorable condition. Again, she was getting discouraged. A friend of his at work told the boy that he had a lead if he wanted to grab the girl and check it out. It was perfect, or at least more perfect than all the others they'd seen. They bought it.

Sadly, there came a day after their move when she could no longer wear her little trinket because it was turning her finger green. She showed the boy what was happening and they agreed to at least keep it in a little shot glass on the window sill near the kitchen sink so she could still see it daily as she did her chores. There the ring stayed for months until it was decided that since the loved that ring so well, the boy would go and see how much it would cost to have it custom made. There was a jeweler that show up once to twice a week at his work so he brought it in for an estimate. Unfortunately, the timing always seemed to be off and he kept missing the jeweler for one reason or another and the ring ended up back in the shot glass. He tried a few weeks later and somehow the ring turned up missing. The girl was devastated.

Since the ring was no longer around for him to use for price checking, it was decided that the girl would look online and see if she found one she liked.... and she did... sorta.

Blue sapphire heart stone? Check. Three "diamond" round cut  stacked  two stones close to the heart and one more on the outside kinda like a flat pyramid? Check.
There was only one problem with it. It was shown in silver and the girl simply didn't look good in silver. The boy suggested to write the company and see if maybe they could make one to her specs. Surprisingly they would, but it would be $100 extra because gold is more expensive than silver. She was happy with this news and he was happy that she was happy. Although it wasn't a terribly expensive ring, he decided the purchase would have to wait a bit so he was sure they had money to put down on it (he was a firm believer in budgets and although he was prone to spending anyhow, was rather thrifty when he could be).

Time got away from him and several months passed before he realized he had enough to get his beloved the ring that would make her most happy. So he contacted the company. Disaster. The company no longer sold that particular ring and had no clue where to go to get one just like it. He scoured EBay, Amazon, and any other place he could think of. He even went back to talk to the jeweler that had been going to where the boy worked. That jeweler had stopped coming around a month or so prior. He was unhappy but not quite as much as the girl. She sighed and started scouring the internet again to see if there was something out there that she liked quite so well. After a few days, she gave up.

Their second or third Christmas together came around and she still had nothing on that all important finger to show that she was taken. So he racked his brain and decided to visit Kohl's and see if there was ~something~ that could be used and he found one he could live with. So when he got home that night, he knew he'd find her a little put out that he hadn't called saying he'd be late and she'd be worried... and he was right. Thing is, he wanted this to be a surprise and so hadn't called her. She came running out to the kitchen the minute she'd heard the door open and sure enough there were the beginnings of tears in her eyes. Another few minutes and she would have been in full melt-down mode. As she opened her mouth to reprimand him for making her worry, he pulled the ringbox out from his pocket.
A beautiful gold band with 10 diamonds embedded in it!
Her jaw just dropped and tears fell for another reason. She finally had a ring (albeit not the one she wanted and he knew it) on that finger. ~SQUEEE!~ By this point, she'd just been considering the house her engagement ring, but to have something a bit more portable made her very happy.

Come February, an ad arrived at the house for JC Penneys. Naturally, all sorts of heart rings were featured and the girl sighed. Considering it was the month of love, all the heart rings were either garnet or rubies (lab created) and not at all what she wanted. However, she found one that just might do and maybe later she could get the main stone replaced with a real one of the kind she wanted. So they packed up in the car and headed to Penneys. Unfortunately, the one in the ad that she kinda liked was no longer in stock. However, the boy saw one that was pretty and maybe could see how it looked on his girl's hand? The rings in any of these stores are always stocked in size 7, a bit too small for his girl, but it fit on her pinky so she could get a good idea how it looked and she acquiesced. Marriage was about compromise after all , and she got her way many more times than he did usually anyhow.
Not quite what it looked like but very close. The heart stones actually looked a bit more hot pink in the sun light.


The ring was sent out for re-sizing and when it came back, the girl and guy liked it. However, the idea was to use the band he'd gotten her for Christmas as the wedding band and  very obviously it wasn't going to stack nicely because of the points in the hearts. They were going to definitely want a chevron  shaped band so they would stack neatly. She didn't much care if it wasn't a matched set so long as it stacked as it should. Within weeks they found one that would suffice nicely.

Another close but not quite what was bought. A gold chevron ring with diamonds embedded in the band.
On their wedding day. Those two rings stacked so nicely.

For the first few years of their marriage, this was just fine. By the time their 5th year wedding anniversary rolled around, however, one of the heart stones got lost. Just popped right out of its setting and vanished. They looked high and low and couldn't find it. The boy even took apart the vacuum cleaner and dug through the catch bag. When that didn't work, he went through the 2 trash cans that it could have possibly fell into. Nothing. The girl cried. A week later, the boy found it glittering on the rug next to where the girl exercised daily. They were both relieved to find the stone and placed it in a Ziploc baggy with the ring for safe keeping. The girl looked up a shop that could repair the ring. They were happy that the shop was just in town. The decision was made to get it fixed in a couple weeks when his next paycheck came through.

The week came to get it fixed and damned if that baggy was missing. She was upset and they both went digging through everything again. This time, it couldn't be found. They looked for weeks. So it was decided that maybe the girl should find another ring to replace it and maybe see if there wasn't one out there that she really wanted in the first place. She found one really close at JC Penneys that was really close (sorry for the link but Penneys doesn't seem to carry the ring anymore.... thankfully someone had clicked the +1 for Google when they saw it). The ring was really close but still not quite right. However, that main stone could easily be replaced later with one of the correct color. Plans were made to get this ring until she found one even closer . She decided then and there that although the one was more expensive than the one from Penneys, that it would be the better deal because the one from the store would definitely need resizing (therefore costing more money in the long run) and this one wouldn't because it could be ordered in the proper size right off.

Sapphire heart stone? Check. Yellow gold band in her size? Check.  Three accent diamonds on each side? Not so much, but close enough. Stacks with wedding band? Check.

The only problem with it? It rides a bit higher out from the hand than she's used to. I think she'll get used to it !




^_~



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Catchin up

I started this one originally as a post called Brighter Days, because at the time they were. Things have taken a bit of a left turn and I suddenly find myself sitting upon the fence without a clue which direction life's going to take me. I seem to be facing some of the same situation as before, with the twist of dealing with it with someone I really love who loves me in return. It doesn't make me feel any less on edge though.  I've already told darling that we need to start weeding and boxing in preparation. Anymore than this I cannot say, only that there will be a change coming and more than likely by the year's end. No, NYBro, I won't be able to discuss it when you call this week so please don't ask. Know that you're welcome in October as planned, but it just might not be in the same location as the last visits.

I've still been on my reading kick. Although, it's slowed down just a bit. Mostly because I'm antsy, but also because I tackled a couple really large reads. You'll notice that I started an account over at Good Reads and I can be found there under this pseudonym with Dharma's picture attached to my profile. I loaded all the books I've recently read into the account, but couldn't remember exactly when I read them so they're kinda mish-moshed right now. The 2 most recent are in proper order though. Each of those two bigger books (The Mists of Avalon and The Lord of the Rings) took 4 weeks to read.  Once I have a few more read, I'll be shrinking that bookshelf widget on the right down to the recent 5 or 6. Here's what I've read since my last decent posting:

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & The Olympians series (5 book series)
Cornelia Funke's Dragon Rider
B.E. Maxwell's The Faerie Door
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon and The Forest House (the prequel)
New total (counting TLotR as one because it's in one volume and not split up like they did when the movies came out) : 34 books since September

Half way through all I planned on reading... another 33 or so to go. Haven't decided if I want to keep going with MZB or not. There are 2 sequel books to The Forest House that fall as prequels to The Mists of Avalon. Part of me wants to keep up with the story but I don't have the last 2 books yet and I'm starting to get burnt out on the genre, so I may jump to something else tonight when I pick my Nook back up.

Other than reading, I've been painting a bit and almost have the one project one. Not sure where it's supposed to be headed but I know it's not meant to stay here. Although I ended up choosing the colors I used in my wedding for it,  I suspect it's actually headed to a friend in Michigan, but I'm not 100%. I'll be painting its twin afterwards. This one WILL be for me and I'll be using blues and silver on the trim.

I have a couple other projects lined up. The one is nearly done, I just need to do a final sort and then get it all bindered. After that one I need to start going through my trip bin and sorting what's what, pick out some pictures from my Flickr that I really like, and start putting the albums together. I'd like to thank my NYBro for the starter album, that was much appreciated! I'd also like to thank iggy. He'd taken a few of his favorite pix of mine and had them made into a calendar for me for Christmas. Seeing my work in print, as opposed to online all the time, really gave the the drive to dig out the bin of stuff and at least queue the project up.

Other than that, not much is going on here. SSDD and all that rot, ya know?

I know, I know... I owe everyone an entry in that medical blog too....


Oh and before I forget again (although I remembered it where it counts)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NYBRO!!!

It's Just a Number...Really


It's Just a Number...Really <3

The Number on this scale will NOT tell you:

*What a great person you are.
*How much your friends & family love you.
*That you are kind, smart, funny & amazing in ways numbers cannot define.
*That you have the power to choose happiness.
*Your own self-worth.


I found this one on my Facebook Newsfeed last night and thought I'd share it here as well. 

squwee!




If this song is indicative of the rest of the album, it's gonna be a good one!

This kinda reminded me of someone....

You know who you are ;)

The Michael Jackson Squirrel Dance

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