To Quote Elvis (ELVIS???!!!???)

"The only thing worse than watching a bad movie is being in one."
--Elvis Presley

I Graduate to Level One Yoga Class

My yoga teacher, Constance, said yesterday that I am capable of doing the Level 1 class. So far I have only been in the Over-50 class, so that is a graduation of sorts. YIPPEEEEE!!!

Volcano!

In the darkness of pre-dawn I observed the lava flow from Pomponio Volcano in Second Life.

Mont St. Michel

Osprey visited YadNi's builds and said this one was spectacular, and I have to agree. It is a beautiful place to visit, live or have a shop or gallery.

Second Life Photo Essay: SKATING

Enjah takes a skating expedition in the new neighborhood.

Recruitment of Avas and Tabs

Last night, Osprey organized a recruiting event at the Nova Albion Anniversary Celebration. There was a lot of enthusiasm. Osprey's Photography Studio is in the background on the left, and my Wearable Art shop on the left. From left to right the avatars in their boxes are:
Sarah Balderdash
Osprey Therian
Enjah Mysterio
Garnet Psaltery
Salazar Jack

Ed Manray is Tab

Edward Manray is posing in his "Tab" box, inside his Detective Agency office in Grignano, Second Life.

Salazar, Archaeologist Extraordinaire

Salazar Jack, another fascinating resident of Second Life, at the Seaside Village lighthouse in Cowell. Salazar has uncovered some amazing ruins of an ancient civilization here, and plans to discover more.

Osprey's Shrine to Andrew

Osprey Therian, resident genius of Second Life, at her shrine to Andrew Linden, who is working on something called Havok3, a new physics engine for Second Life. It would make driving land vehicles a real pleasure.

I can skate to Osprey's gallery now!

Here I am on the roof of Osprey's gallery in Bodega, pointing to my gallery in Palomarian.

This evening I found I could skate down the road, right to Osprey's shop and gallery, and not very far at that! Osprey was surprised I did not already know this, but I think she can see much farther than I can in Second Life. My computer is not nearly as powerful as hers (hardly anyone's is!), so for me this was a welcome and happy surprise!

She is claiming to be cranky, but I just hear strain and over-commitment.

New Paintings

These are my three new paintings. I did not paint much last year; life was hectic!

Flatley Girls Blog is No More

I created a blog called Flatley Girls for all my sisters to join me in the blogging madness. Robyn was really the only one who responded, and created her wonderful new blog, RobynDogStar. I am thrilled with that! Now she has created a blog named after the house we grew up in, 918. It seems as though we are the only ones who will be posting on it, as Anne, Sherry, and Betsy never even responded to my emails! So I deleted Flatley Girls and will post on 918 (when I become a team member, that is!). I will put up the same sorts of posts I had on Flatley Girls. BYE BYE Flatley Girls BLOG!

Nancy Bennett Elliott, Genius

Nancy was a computer whiz, an artist, a sewing machine repairwoman; she was and did whatever she decided to be and do. She lived only 42 years, but she packed in a lot of livin! She was in a wheelchair from the age of (if I remember correctly) 18 on. She would cheerfully throw her wheelchair into the back seat and charge off into the wild blue yonder. She was one of the most amazingly blazingly brilliant people I have ever known. She had a wicked wit and a sang little songs all day long at work, cheering everyone's day. I am SO grateful for having known her.

Steve the Courageous

Steve, my eldest son, had two open-heart surgeries in the fall of 2005. He went through it with almost NO complaints! He stayed with us while he recovered from the second surgery, and helped with the cooking. He is a GREAT barbecuer and a very good father to his children, Kirk and Valari.

Patrick the Rebel

This is Patrick, a wonderful self-taught artist, and a great craftsman. He can fix pretty much anything, and he does it with a lot of care. He never cared for rules, but he is learning a lot in his life.

Laura the Beautiful

Here she is in her splendor! Laura is a wonderful soprano singer, the mother of the twins Leila and Jasmine, and works as an EEG Tech at a local hospital. She is a wonderful mother, and I only wish I had half her energy!

Jonathan Borofsky

Am I the only one who never heard of Jonathan Borofsky before?

Anne Frank Quotation

In the cap of my bottle of tea it says:
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
--Anne Frank

RobynDogstar!

Robyn now has her own blog called RobynDogstar. We used to see the beautiful star Sirius out of her bedroom window in the summer. It seems to me it changes color and it is sooooooooooo beautiful. It is a doppleganger, or twin star. The smaller star (Sirius 2) is hidden but to the naked eye it causes the apparent color changes (I think). It is called the Dog Star, and the Dog Days of August are named after its rising at that time of year. In the ancient past, I used to say to Robyn, "you are my little dog star and I'm Sirius (serious, play on words, get it, get it?)".

Osprey advises

Osprey Therian: I believe we need to model the kind of behaviour we want to see, and we must stand up and speak against things we come up against.

Jona as I knew him

In 1979, I was a struggling painter in Brooklyn, and I spent a lot of time with Dick Lethem and his family. This is a portrait of Jonathan at the age of 15 or so. He seemed an adult to me at the time, but judging by his writings, he was in the throes of a painful adolescence. You can visit his glove compartment.

Body Parts

Rock Salt Lamp

OOH! OOH! OOH! I got this new Tibetan rock salt lamp today. It supposedly gives off negative ions (which is what makes us feel good at Niagara Falls), and purifies the air. I don't know about all that, but I love the way it looks! The other ones were natural crystal shapes, and I liked them too, but this one cried out to go home with me. I guess because one of its tiny feet is missing (on the right--see how it is tilted?).

Lunar Eclipse Day

Today's astrological chart. Tell me what you see here!

Strangely Lit Cone

This frozen custard stand at my dock looked this way at sunset and I wondered why the coloration changed for different parts of it!!! No answer I am sure.

Second Life Art News

You can go to Second Life Art News and see the latest photography contest winners!

Bride and Prejudice

Last night we watched "Bride and Prejudice", a Bollywood musical based on Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice". It was filled with colorful costumes and sets. I would post a pic but I think they are copyrighted. You can see the trailer at this site:

http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2004/0-9ABC/Bride-and-Prejudice/trailer-page.html

The family was supposedly so poor they could not afford dowries for their four daughters, but man, those girls were dressed to the eyeteeth!

Of course, no one EVER kissed! That is a definite no-no in Indian filmmaking, it being terribly immoral for actors and actresses to kiss one another (they are NOT married to one another). Perhaps Hollywood should adopt that method--I think the divorce rate among stars would decline!

Patrick's Mermaid

I hope this does not violate any standards on Blogger. Of course, I never read user agreements, so it could ===8()

Patrick is clearly able to cope with:
1. the human figure (er, at least the top of it)
2. the fish figure (at least the bottom of it)
3. dolphins from a distance

AFK Making Atomic Muffins

This photo from Second Life was taken at Osprey's escape build. She was being pursued by a mad newbie and fled upwards. At the time I took this pic she was afk making muffins. There is a funnier version of this pic on Snapzilla.

Flatley Girls, a new blog

I have created a blog for my four sisters and me. My hope is that each sister will create her own blog.

My Altar

This is my Qabalah Altar.

I Stand Corrected!

It has come to my attention that the creation I called "Osprey's FAB Tent" is actually a tent pavilion. I apologize and blush to the roots of my hair!

The Bottling Plant

When Jasmine and Leila saw me making my own bottles of iced tea, they were amazed and curious. Of course, it was Gordon . . .

[Wait, wait, let me tell you the background on this! Gordon drinks between six and twelve cans of diet cola EVERY DAY(?? yes, every day !!).]

. . . Gordon who, seeing me purchasing bottles of organic iced tea, complained that I was spending an awful lot on the stuff. Yes, I admit, he did not realize at the time that I had begun buying it at the supermarket. The last he had heard I was buying it for over $3 a pop at La Madeleine, with my fancy old-lady-go-to-lunch lunch.

*sigh* OK now I will continue with my story. Leila and Jasmine were TOTALLY amazed I could and would make my own bottled iced tea. So of course, they wanted some. Although I was reluctant to give up one of my precious products, I gave them each a bottle. I later saw them in the kitchen putting sugar into the bottles (which were already sweetened with sucralose).

THEN GRRRRR they left the abandoned half bottles of ruined tea in the living room. (The child in me spits at the child in you!)

Maas Nursery

Although there was an argument in the Target store over what style of underpants Jasmine should buy, we mostly had a good day. Leila did yoga with me in the morning, both girls rode their bikes and played tennis, we took Jasmine's bike to the bike shop and got it worked on, and had turkey ham and cheese rollups and cracker sandwiches for lunch.

Then we went to Maas Nursery in Seabrook. The place goes on for EVER it seems, and has all sorts of odd sculptures and geodes, and fountains and exotic animals and trees and wind chimes and . . . well I never feel I see it all!

HI ROBYN!

HI ROBYN!!! It is so nice to have you leaving comments on my shiny new blog! I hope you will make a blog of your own and then I can link to it.

Notice Osprey is also leaving comments. She is my bestest friend. Her blog and websites (I think there are 432,127 of them), start at http://www.atomic-raygun.com/.

That Sinking Feeling

I came to Mysterio Gallery dock last night and the boat was sinking!

I am not sure why this happened, but it may be that I had not used it for a while. Who knows?

Osprey's New FAB Tent

Osprey made a new and voluptuous tent texture and created this haven in Bodega Hills. She deleted Art's build (OMG!!!). We had a brief concert with my Senong and her Tibetan horn. Then the twins and Gordon summoned me for popcorn and a movie.

2006 minus 1946 is 50!!!

I am SO relieved! I thought I was going to be 60 in May, but it turns out I was wrong!

Leila and Jasmine said their favorite class is math, so Gordon began asking them math questions, and they did not know many answers. They could work things out on paper, but these days, it appears, they have to do a table on the side in order to work out a division problem, comme ca:

1/5
2/10
3/15
4/20
5/25

and so forth. Well, we said, that is a Multiplication Table! so right now they are industriously drawing out their own multiplication tables (and they are QUIET for the first time in hours!). Thank you Gordon!!!

Osprey suggests

Osprey suggests I have my granddaughters write a play (with mandatory dragon), make sets and costumes, and perform it with me as the audience. I think we may do this if other activities are not possible (i.e. if the weather continues to be rainy and grey).

They are bringing their bikes, swimsuits and various other accoutrements. I am hopeful this means they will keep busy while they are here.

I missed a lot of my children's growing up time, and I guess this is my opportunity to learn about these stages.

Robyn's phone call and Leila and Jasmine's visit

We started out talking about astrology and the upcoming lunar eclipse, with her telling me about Susan Miller's astrological web site :
http://www.astrologyzone.com

We then moved on to Robyn's relationship with our youngest sister, Betsy, and Robyn's new assistant being almost a clone of Betsy (!!).

. . . and went from there to the Gherkin, a new and extraordinary building in London, designed by Norman Foster:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/30_St_Mary_Axe.html/cid_1107570533_London8690f.gbi

Tomorrow my twin ten-year-old granddaughters are coming to stay for two days. I have cleared out the things I do not want to share with them, and I am feeling relatively prepared. It is like knowing a double tornado is on its way, and putting up shutters, but knowing that there could still be damage LOL.

Leaves are falling

We have three live oaks in our yard and they are starting to shed leaves in preparation for blooming. They are always green but now they will have these tiny yellow-green flowers and then small chartreuse leaves. Now they have sorta forest green leaves that are turning brown and falling all over our yard.

Patrick's drawing

Today my son Pat called me and asked me to send him photos of wolves for him to draw. Osprey said he is cool. He already sent me a self-portrait, which was very good, especially considering he has had ZERO art education.


The azaleas in the back yard are in riotous bloom, as is the orange tree next door which hangs over the fence. There are so many blossoms; I keep hoping they will all be oranges. Usually by November, when the oranges ripen, there are only about three or four of them on our side of the fence. Oh well.

Yesterday in yoga class the teacher had us doing all sorts of chest opening and back straightening exercises. Now my shoulders feel like they have been on the rack or something. I have a cold, so I did yoga postures from the Iyengar book that are supposed to help it. I felt great. Then I ate cheese and sausage for dinner, and got all stuffed up again! Maybe there IS something to that "dairy creates mucus" crap.