Archive for January 2011

Accepting and passing on the challenge

You have a band. You need a band name, a title for your first album and an album cover design.
Here’s how to do it:

1 – Go to Wikipedia and hit random. The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 – Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 – Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”. Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 – Use Photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together.
5 – Post it on your blog along with these instructions, and trackback or link to your post in these comments.

Here is mine:

Photo ©Copyright All rights reserved by Blue Mitchell

I say “mine” when the 3rd photo is copyrighted, so if I have to take it down or get sued, I’m gonna get you Mel. :dlstrike:

Why I won’t be able to move tomorrow

I saw a coffee table at Kmart a few weeks ago that I really liked, but not enough to pay that price knowing it was either pressed board, or plastic. So, I decided to make one like it.

The lumber:

The base frame:

The frame with slats:

Functionally finished:

It’s oak, so it is solid and heavy. Still have some final finishing work to do before turning it over to the hubby for sanding, sealing, and staining. I am already sore, so I can only imagine how bad I will be hurting tomorrow.

“Doe, a deer, a female deer…”

So there I was, on my way to work, minding my own business, listening to some music, when out of nowhere, there she was. I was southbound, and she was in the northbound lane moving west…fast. Alas, she wasn’t fast enough.

I had always hoped that I would have my first deer kill while out hunting with a gun. But, it was not to be, and I took her out with the Caravan. She went flying, bounced a couple of times, and rolled to a stop well across the ditch. By the time I finished the initial inspection of the damage to the front-end of the van (which is hard to do when it is still more dark than light and my flashlight sucks), she had stopped twitching and only stared at me with wide, lifeless eyes. Those eyes got to me, and bothered me a bit.

What a way to start off a Monday, huh?

“I am new…”

I got an email from a friend Christmas Eve that contained one of those loaded questions, and so I decided to turn it into a blog post, given it’s length.

If you had to summarize this year by significant events, what would it be?

Let’s see, I started a new job. I finished my master’s. I got Security+ certified. Got both vehicle loans, and all the credit cards paid off. But, as I spent the week trying to prepare to write this, I couldn’t come up with anything specific. Today, however, I put it all together.

My best friend called me today. Actually, she called yesterday and I wasn’t here and forgot to check the machine. Anyway, we discussed a couple of things or so, and then she asked, “So what else is going on?” I replied, “Not really anything. I sang today.” She replied with, “In front of people?” After I laughed and confirmed, she said, “You have changed so much.”

Last week, the hubby got mad over something, and was throwing out a bunch of “colorful metaphors.” Now, we’ve known each other for 25 years, and been a couple for around 19 years (married for 17 years), so needless to say, that wasn’t the first time I have heard him cussing a blue streak. In fact, I have been known to match him with my potty mouth. But it was different. It bothered me pretty bad, and I have noticed over the past few months that it bothers me when other people cuss, and I used to not even notice it.

New Year’s Day. Yesterday as I am writing this. I took the kids to see Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1 before it quits showing in theaters. (By the way, when you wait long enough, you have to go farther to see it.) So as we sat through 20 minutes of previews, I noticed that I was appalled by all but one of the previews because of blatant sexual references. Me, the queen of the dirty jokes, appalled.

A few weeks ago, I was thinking back to my friend’s wedding that I attended Labor Day weekend 2009. The evening before the wedding, we went to her parent’s house where I had access to an ample supply of Strongbow. I think about halfway through the 3rd pint (or maybe the 4th), the best man’s wife (who is Irish) said something to the effect that she had never seen anyone drink more than 3 Strongbow’s and be able to walk. Simultaneously, my 3 friends (bride, and 2 others) whom I had been stationed with in the UK said, “You’ve never met Martha.” Now that was funny at the time, but it hit me a few weeks ago that I don’t want to be known for being able to consume large quantities of alcohol, or, to be blunt, I don’t want to be known for being a drunk. This from the same DragonLady who used to get drunk every Friday night making and posting videos of myself playing guitar along my Fleetwood Mac cds.

So to summarize the year just ended, God has done a mighty work in my life, and there is much work yet to do. I have finally started to realize fully what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and how to have a real relationship with Him. It took a lot of trials, a lot of tears, a lot of prayer, and a lot of study. It took a lot of people discipling me – some I’ve never met, some I haven’t seen or talked to in years, and some I see and talk to all the time – to teach me how to get back on the path I started down when I was 12, and strayed off of many times since.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (New American Standard Bible)
17Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.