If you like my blog and would like to donate a dollar. :-)
Mi vida es un bolsillo lleno de arco iris.
My life is a pocketful of rainbows.
- Andi
- So, here I am...
***This blog was Established 2005***
And I am slowly reestablishing it.
I love English Lit! I have a fascination with puns, satire and tropes. I relish sharing the latest logic puzzle I've found. I advocate for education reform. I read Spanish much more fluently than I speak it. I know a lot of German. I dabble in SEVERAL languages .... including writing, history and knowledge of cultures. I am very interested in urban farming and self-sufficiency. Huge Douglas Adams, Roger Zelazny and Piers Anthony fan. I like reading Stephen King/Richard Bachman. I could spend hours with Terry Brooks and Shannara. T.S. Garp and I would get along famously. Avid Armchair Traveler ... especially Italy and Mongolia. Miicroadventures rock! I homeroast green coffee beans ... my fave are those from Chiapas, Mexico. I try new teas and those from Scotland make me smile. Friends and family are AWESOME!
I hope that something made you smile today!.
Non-spammers can contact me: coffeehobby AT yahoo.com
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Coming ro 2023 ...
Without going into it, much of my 2022 has been heartbreaking. So, I want to start anew and introspect ... from small to large.
Some things for 2023:
1. People have "giftings" and, to truly share them, the actions have to be freely given. Think of that what you will and think deeply (it has multiple layers of meaning for me).
2. I want to remember that I value vibrance,strestrength, determination and PEACE!
Sunday, December 04, 2022
Spirtual Writing
From Inspiration to Publication
2nd Edition
Inspiration & Personal Growth, Publishers & Publishing Industry
Date Published: 12.05.2022
Publisher: Micro Publishing Media
iSpiritual Writing from Inspiration to Publication 2nd Edition is an inspiring, motivating, and captivating look at the spiritual life and the falling to write. It is based on the premise that there are writers who write because they want to and those who write because they have to. Spiritual writers are drawn to the process by a sense of mission. However, the spiritual writer’s mission and the realities of publishing are often at odds. This unique book provides the nuts and bolts and dos and don’ts of how to get published in this often-misunderstood arena. The author updated this second edition to include the digital world and the expanded opportunities this brings for nontraditional publishing.
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Tomorrow Seemed Impossible
Self-help - Memoirs
Date Published: 10-25-2022
Publisher: Rope Swing Publishing
From childhood well into her adult life, Keeley Brooks struggled quietly with trauma and the very dangerous effects it took on her physical, mental, and emotional health. In her late teens, Keeley was diagnosed with four mental health challenges and an eating disorder after suffering extreme panic and anxiety at a young age.
Struggling with crippling feelings of isolation, unworthiness, desperation, and fear, as well as the inherent urge to heal, she turned to writing. Now offering her human truths and personal experiences on how she navigated them, survived them, then healed and has grown from them, Keeley shares in graphic detail her deeply personal perspective on trauma, mental health, and side effects while bravely giving readers an intimate peek behind the curtain at the functioning of a mind rooted in trauma and riddled with fear, anxiety, panic, depression, shame, and silence.
About the Author
Keeley Brooks is an author, writer, poet, and editor. She's a contributing author to the #1 bestseller My Labor Pains Were Worse Than Yours and in May 2022 released her first poetry collection Poetry from an Isolated Soul. With a decade's experience in entertainment journalism, she currently writes health & lifestyle articles for Modern Grace Magazine and is an arts & entertainment writer and managing editor at Mixed Alternative Magazine.
Keeley has just published her first creative nonfiction book, which details her deeply personal struggle with trauma and mental illness, as well as their effects on her mind, body, and spirit. She also offers an intimate peek behind the curtain at the functioning of a mind riddled with fear, anxiety, panic, and depression, then she shares how she has healed and grown from it all and has found the balance needed to reclaim her life.
Keeley is currently focused on several literary projects, including a collaborative fiction novel with three additional authors and a women's self-care book with her integrative health practitioner.
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The Flygirl Trilogy
Fiction
Date Published: 02-21-2023
Publisher: Acorn Publishing LLC
Never forget…
In September 2001, Tris Miles faces difficult choices. As Chief Pilot of Westin Charter Company, she’s mentoring Jannat, a brash young captain with limitless potential and a shocking secret. An offer to summit the peak of the pilot pyramid entices Tris to quit her job, but an old nemesis stands in her way.
Meanwhile, Tris juggles the men in her personal life. A friend-with-benefits pushes for commitment. An ex-boyfriend returns, still in love with her. Unexpectedly, Tris develops new feelings for someone who is already dear to her.
On September 11th, Tris and her crew depart Edinburgh for the United States. Just feet off the ground, they are mysteriously ordered back to the airport where they learn of a deadly terrorist attack on U.S. soil—using airplanes as bombs.
When Tris discovers that her best friend was a passenger on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, her world is shattered.
With a broken heart and her entire life up in the air, Tris doesn’t know where to turn. Can she find the courage to navigate her way home?
About the Author
Robin D. “R.D.” Kardon is a native New Yorker, educated in the New York City Public school system. She attended New York University where she earned a B.A. in Journalism and Sociology, magna cum laude, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Robin graduated with a J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law.
After ten years as a litigator, Robin began her professional flying career. She holds an FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate with three captain qualifications and has flown all over the world in everything from single-engine Cessnas to the Boeing 737.
She currently resides in San Diego where she volunteers with local animal rescue organizations and dotes on her beloved rescue pets.
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A Natalie McMasters Mystery, Book 7
Crime Fiction
Date to be Published: Dec 5, 2022
Publisher: Tekrighter, LLC
What do you do when you find out your twin sister is a stone-cold killer? Love her anyway!
Twentysomething detective Natalie McMasters comes face-to-face with the awesome power of money and privilege in her latest adventure. After she finds out that she has a twin sister who’s committed a heinous crime, her son Eduardo falls into the clutches of a perverted billionaire who plays with peoples lives for sport. Getting into his futuristic walled estate is a piece of cake, but getting out again is another matter entirely. While her friends and fam battle endless frustrations trying to convince the cops and the courts that Nattie and Eduardo are in deadly danger, she plays a risky game with a malignant narcissist, his venomous consort, and some unexpected houseguests, fighting for the souls of her sister and her son. How can she ever succeed against such impossible odds? The twisted ending packs a punch you won’t soon forget!
Sister! is the perfect read for fans of Karin Slaughter, Ruth Ware and Mary Kubica.
About the Author
Thomas A. Burns Jr. writes the Natalie McMasters Mysteries from the small town of Wendell, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and son, four cats and a Cardigan Welsh Corgi. He was born and grew up in New Jersey, attended Xavier High School in Manhattan, earned B.S degrees in Zoology and Microbiology at Michigan State University and a M.S. in Microbiology at North Carolina State University. As a kid, Tom started reading boys’ mystery series with the Hardy Boys, Ken Holt and Rick Brant, then graduated to the classic stories by authors such as A. Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout, to name a few. Tom has written fiction as a hobby all of his life, beginning with Man from U.N.C.L.E. stories in marble-backed copybooks in grade school. He built a career as technical, science and medical writer and editor for nearly thirty years in industry and government. Now that he’s a full-time novelist, he’s excited to publish his own mystery series, as well as writing stories about his second most favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes. Tom’s Holmes story, The Camberwell Poisoner, appeared in the March–June issue of The Strand Magazine in 2021. The sixth book in the Natalie McMasters Mysteries, Killers!, was released in September, 2021, and won the Silver Falchion award for best action/adventure book of 2021 at the Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference. Tom has also written a Lovecraftian horror novel, The Legacy of the Unborn, under the pen name of Silas K. Henderson‒a sequel to H.P. Lovecraft’s masterpiece At the Mountains of Madness. In addition to publishing the seventh Natalie McMasters Mystery, Sister!, he is currently working on a book of Sherlock Holmes stories.
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Middle Grade Christmas Adventure
Date Published: 11-01-2021
Publisher: HEROmation
Someone has stolen all the nuts from the Oak Creek bank, and George the squirrel must catch the thief before Christmas. He learns what forest life would be like without him and gains the courage to lead his friends on the adventure of a lifetime. It’s a nutty spin on the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, great for kids ages 7+
About the Author
JP Cawood is an author who has also worked in live-action TV and film, animation, and comics. The screen adaptation of her novel, Love from Mars, was a recent Semi-finalist in both Screencraft and Stage32 screenplay competitions. She was also named Top 50 Screenwriter by the International Screenwriters' Association in 2021.
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Friday, June 03, 2022
I am in a lot of emotional pain but here and viably online ... if you want to call this that. So, I have resolved to write again. Yep, I am always resolving that but I am more equipped to do it now. I have motivation- my reading adventures, inspiring my children and educating others about mental health issues. There is LITTLE mental health help where I live, by the way. I have gotten about half way through applying for going to school as a psychology major for the Spring ... two years of that and then aiming for a four year tuition waiver ... and then helping with the mental health (lack of)scene here in MY TOWN.
The library closes in 20 minutes but maybe I can wake up tomorrow and get in for something more meaningful here. :-) Welcome back, ME!
Monday, April 18, 2022
-----Lemongrass Coconut Sorbet
-----Several hours of something really exciting today ... but that news will have to wait a few months, I suppose. I am so not good at sitting on top of good news.
Sunday, April 17, 2022
-----I am going to put together a Carne Caldo soon. I loved this beef stew as a child!
Saturday, April 16, 2022
(I am seeing a lot of sites not crediting this photo. I am pretty sure it is Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times.)
-----The town she was coming from is generally known as more well-off and with a lot less violence. Douglas, Arizona is a "gateway" to Mexico and probably, from its history, has some architecture from the early 1900s. Maybe this lady still had some family history in the area and wanted to return or be reunited with people??
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Maybe, if boarding schools are something you look at?
Established in 1976, the Delphian School is rated as one of the best Boarding and Private High Schools in Oregon. Located in Sheridan, OR USA, Delphian is traditionally considered as an International boarding school, but we also receive day students K-12.
Bonus: I noticed that masking didn't seem to be required back when everyone was and they weren't shut down ... a special exemption because it was a closed environment. :-)
From FB: You can see Orion’s Belt on a clear night here on the Delphian Hill (and the new lighting features too!).
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
The article has to do with changing cognition.
"One of the more overlooked aspects of bipolar disorder is the potential for developing a degree of cognitive deficit as part of the illness." Dr. Federman goes on to say the media largely focuses on stereotypes of bipolar.
I have been reading about cognitive distortions in bipolar and other illnesses, not just mental illnesses ... the distortion is basically where a person jumps to conclusions.
Sunday, April 10, 2022
In My Life ...
-----I enjoyed going to Easter dinner with a friend yesterday. Apparently, there was also another Easter event here that featured a donkey walking through town (like on Palm Sunday).
-----‘’Today, instead of carrying these mountains on your shoulders; big boulders of sadness, anxiety, disappointment, and sorrow try being the mountain yourself. A mountain remains rooted and grounded in the face of changing seasons, storms and other weather. Exhale old perception of being and seeing things, inhale the power of choice, transformation and witness your life bloom and blossom’’-Madalina Coman
-----Today I am pondering the question ... What do I truly love about my life?
Thursday, April 07, 2022
My house lot size is average size ... for 1978. So, I always identify with trying to make thngs self-sufficient for urban farming in a small-ish space.
Monday, April 04, 2022
I used to love this with hash browns or two or three french fries dipped at the same time!
She also had the unique suggestion to pair the Hot Mustard with McDonald’s seasonal Filet-O-Fish.
“The mix of crunchy breading, tasty tartar sauce and tangy spicy mustard” makes it a favorite, she says. “I use it on fish sticks at home too!”
Sunday, April 03, 2022
This week:
-----I saw a restoration of a 1900 fire wagon wheel for our small town. I keep an eye out for intersting things on walks!
-----I found a women's retreat/camping I will likely go on next year. :-)
-----I am also looking into the details for a long overdue trip to Moount McKingley(Denali). I don't know if various health problems will let me climb or even belicipter tour ... but I can adjust and take photos, I suppose. Alaska Helicopter Tours has a good safety rating and looks awesome (not sure if they cover what is, for me, one of THE MOUNTAINS). The other place, Alyeska, teaches you to fly the helicopter yourself!
Rereading:
I did this as a buddy read many years ago! It has so many great parts ... humorous in many places. The book profoundly touches on the mistakes humans make and how they touch lives for years to come. I was reading parts to a loved one recently but will have to find a group or something if I want to buddy read now ... in my blogging experience, someone out there is always reading Wuthering Heights.
Also reading:
In the news:
-----FAA delays SpaceX Starship environmental review another month to April 29.
This post is a work in progress. :-)
Friday, April 01, 2022
-----Finished writing out my notes for some support groups and went to turn them in. I'm a self-imposed homework type of gal. :-)
-----Getting new ID. I suppose it is a good thing I happened to wear makeup and curl my hair like Marilyn Monroe(but dark hair with reds and purples still showing a bit).
-----Fitness walk, pizza and a movie with good friend.
-----So glad I haven't been coming down with another friend's cold ... looks like I won't get it ... and hope she feels much better soon!
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Later ...
I went to Church with friends and there was a guest speaker. He talked about having a relationship WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT as a personage of the Trinity. This is a topic most Christians are either afraid to talk of or, I think, just don't come around to thinking about. I took several pages of notes.
Monday, March 28, 2022
-----I went to a goal-setting support group for people with mental issues. A lot of people were my age(oldish) and in college. I learned about being able to call "warm lines" that let you ask for resources (not a crisis line) ... that's a cool thing that a lot of states and smoe groups have.
-----Creamy Jalapeño Stuffed Burgers with Raspberry Chipotle Sauce. The sauce has creamed cheese in it and there is chopped bacon.
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Sunday Post
So, stuff that is happening with me.
-----I refound a stream(my small town really has NO natural water). I was so excited. The stream makes little wooshy sounds for some reason.I walked four miles on my Stream Finding Day. I should get back to the Miracle Mile Workout which I did for many days recently!
-----I partly got my latest college app filled out. Education is my passion! And I've recently been diagnosed Bipolar I. So, come Summer, I have my second Associate of Science with an emphasiis in Psychology ... I haven't decided on the transfer university.. I am taking two night courses and a shorter course now. :-) I'll have to share some of the interesting things I learn.
-----READING: The partially The Univesity of Sydney course has me reading the whole abridged history of psyychology in America this week! That's some reading! If you are interested in Psychology textbooks of the more complex nature, the type with modules but breaking it down to understand, I get mine from Noba.
-----I helped 7 o my friends with a clothing giveaway yesterday ... that really helped get my mind off things. And I made two baskets ... basketball. I am working up to being able to play a game again (I used to play a lot of basketball and am not that rusty). The dribble and run has always been the hard part for me. A friend told me she also gets right in there with the boys and young men and plays ... yay. I am old-ish.
-----Purple must be in. I talked to a younger woman and an older woman with light purple hair yesterday. Mine is a darker purple with a ruby red ... and natural black and a huge silver streak. The dyed part is called Midnight Ruby. I feel in fashion! :-) No, just needed a change and a friend took me out for a Girl's Day haircut/outfit/lunch. I did the dye myself and my new hairstylist was impresssed. The next day I still looked prettier than I've looked in twenty-some years! Things that are cool.
I have a lot of old religioous books and started reading this one today. I am not sure what exactly a "Daughter of Zion" is. Anyone?
The character's name is Liddy and I think she is struggling between actually getting to the heart of issues and avoiding them. Liddy can definitely talk A LOT. I am waiting for one of the medicines I am taking to be "therapeautic" and it seems getting there ... don't like the stream of anxiety that comes out when talking with Bipolar. Feeling more and more like me every day ... I hope Liddy gets there, too.
A pretty song that the Robert Palmer Facebook had up:
Misc.:
-----Salmon Stack with Spicy Mayo looks really yummy right this second.
I am aiming to eat salmon and other fatty fish a few times a week because it may help with brain health.
Things for me to study more: Omega-3s(of course), DHA, EPA.
From the National September 11th Memorial and Museum:
Maryland native Daniel Walker McNeal lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. In high school, he wore three-piece suits to class. In 2000, he earned a master’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University, graduating with honors. He then joined Sandler O'Neill & Partners. On 9/11, Daniel, a vice president, was at work on the South Tower’s 104th floor. Today, we placed a white rose at his name in honor of his 50th birthday.
Blogs I visited:
Lady in Read Writes
Saturday, March 26, 2022
-----On my To-Buy list ... Becoming Fluent: HOW COGNITIVE SCIENCE CAN HELP ADULTS LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE by Richard Roberts and Roger Kreuz. Linguistics and recognizing accents is a hobby of mine.
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Sunday, March 20, 2022
The shallots were a beautiful color.
I often take a picture of the aftermath of meals ... it's a complement to the cook.
I don't know if these are still made but it was desert, along with some soft cherry-filled cookies.
____________________________________
-----Pan-Seared Steak with Red Wine Sauce. From the New York Times
-----Pan-Seared Bistro Steak with Simple Pan Sauce
Thursday, February 10, 2022
Tuesday, February 01, 2022
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Thursday, January 13, 2022
Creamy Turkey, Mushroom and Rice Soup.
---It's actually dairy-free. I have people with various degrees of lactose intolerance, so this excites me!
---Plus, I love being able to say things like "You don't see them but there are actually cashews in your soup."
---No nut allergies here. I wouldn't have thought of using sunflower seeds! I wonder what my thoughts will be upon actually noticing sunflower seeds are in a pureed state ... hmmm.
---Three soaking times for the cashews are given. Allot at least an hour ... up to overnight.
---"... use additional turkey stock or water when reheating it for the best consistency!"
---If you don't have leftover turkey, there are helpful instructions for poaching a turkey breast. :-)