done

Wizard of Oz Monkey, originally uploaded by Jenyca.

No more of these in 2008!!

tutu

tutu, originally uploaded by heyjupiter21.

I would so wear this.

Russian Winter

Russian Winter, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

Now, this is a winter you can sink your teeth into...

You can run...

but you can't hide.

Tao te Ching on words

Nature says only a few words:
High wind does not last long,
Nor does heavy rain.
If nature's words do not last
Why should those of man?

Who accepts harmony, becomes harmonious.
Who accepts loss, becomes lost.
For who accepts harmony, the Way harmonizes with him,
And who accepts loss, the Way cannot find.

Childhood trauma No. 12

Childhood trauma No. 12, originally uploaded by Uh … Bob.

Holy sh*t! Just when I think they're not real I see this! EGADS! I pray these devils do not follow me into 2008!! I have seen quite enough of them in the past 12 months!!!

Jake~ the graduate!

Jake~ the graduate!, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

My oldest son Jake just graduated! Here he is celebrating at Joe's Crab Shack. This is our gift to him... toy Craftsman tools... but look at the handles. They are wrapped in real $10s and $20s and there are more in the bottom of the toolbox.

Shawshank revisited

Jailbreak sparks N.J. manhunt
Men placed dummies in beds; magazine photos over holes in walls
The Associated Press
updated 5:52 p.m. CT, Mon., Dec. 17, 2007
ELIZABETH, N.J. - Two inmates escaped from a county jail, hiding the holes they made in the walls by putting up photos of bikini-clad women, officials said.

Authorities searched over the weekend for Jose Espinosa, who was awaiting sentencing for manslaughter, and Otis Blunt, who was facing robbery and other charges. They also launched a review of jail security.

The two got out of the Union County jail Saturday evening. The county prosecutor's office said the two apparently removed cement blocks from two walls, squeezed through the openings, jumped to a rooftop below and then made it over a 25-foot-high fence. The section they escaped from was supposed to be the most secure area of the facility.

"I'm extremely disturbed that a jail with the capability of security it has would foster a breach of this nature," County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's editions.

Espinosa, 20, an alleged gang member, was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to manslaughter in a 2005 drive-by shooting in Elizabeth. Blunt, 32, was awaiting trial on charges of robbery and weapons offenses.

The men helped cover up the break by placing dummies under their bed blankets, and hiding the wall holes with magazine photos of women in bikinis, authorities said.

Authorities launched a review of security measures and barred inmates from pinning up pictures from magazines on their cell walls.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22300706/

Still dreaming of a Russian winter... Kiev, perhaps.

first derivative

Then came a season of treaties.
The water froze and thawed,
settled to near clarity, clean enough
to wash wounds and dilute indigo ink
to sapphire, so that when you made
your cursive tallies they cut
like winding rivers

through the first snow. I could read
your choler in their steep banks.
Felted flakes the size of demitasse
dashed against our northern windows.
Winter was weeks away and I saw
what was required of me.
The refractory oak held on

to her dead leaves even as her roots
became fists beneath the soil.
I could snap your wrist, you said,
like a twig. The world was hushed
and brittle. I placed my hand in yours.
It was marrow, in the end,
that tasted most like justice.

winter

So maybe it is not winter I hate, but the half-assed winters we have here in north Texas. I think I could use a white, purging Russian winter... a long season of snow and silence. I do appreciate the beauty of a true winter landscape, the starkness, the sharp contrasts of bare trees against a low, grey sky.

Over the weekend it was in the upper 80s here, following by a swift plunge into the 30s. Such a tease...

Off to mail Christmas packages today with my sis. I confess a bit of the holiday spirit has come over me. Could it be all the sequins? The box from Hickory Farms? Hell, I don't know, but I glad for it.

Maybe it will snow...

So I'm thinking...

Yes, the world harbors some bad stuff... lots of it. BUT NOT THESE! They aren't real, so I should sleep better at night just knowing they were a Hollywood concoction, right?
Well, there's that war and Darfur and well... maybe the monkeys aren't so bad. Perhaps a trade...

facing my fears

... hmmm, I'd rather not.