Happy Belated Independence Day!

Anzac Day: Remember

It's Anzac Day today, and Radio Riel is presenting a special musical program hosted by my online pal and Aussie, "Edward Pearse". Tune in and remember the brave ones from the Southern Hemisphere who gave their all in World War 1.

Happy Easter...!

...and a blessed (belated) Passover!

Yes, that's me, the bunny, in Second Life. Went to a Bunny Hop last night in Steelhead.

CakeWrecks: Easter edition

The Easter wreckiness continues!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, a giddy romantic holiday for some, a depressing reminder of lost (or not yet found) love for others, an annoying additional gift-giving day for non-gifty spouses and SOs everywhere. I've always liked this "holiday", even when I was single and sad. My dad always gave us heart-shaped boxes full of chocolates on V-Day, so I guess I was programmed to like it.

What? You're grumpy today (like the irritated bikkie above left)? Why? Did somebody give you one of these heart-bum cakes?

Or maybe one of these, um, it's a, hm. Sorry, having an Eraserhead moment...



My favorite is this little Emo number here. Nicely rendered, but a tad pessimistic, don't you think? Suddenly I have that "nobody loves me, everybody hates me" ditty running through my head. Can't imagine why. Nothing says "Be mine" like whining!

Of course, these lovely confections are courtesy of Cake Wrecks. See more, erm, creative efforts here and here.

V-Day Wrecks!

I love to bake and decorate cakes. They don't always turn out super great, but they always taste good! OK, except for that one Valentine's Day cake a couple of years ago, when I decided to make mint buttercream using some apparently ancient mint flavoring left over from the Hoover administration (hubby's mom never threw anything away, and it was from her kitchen). Can we say "cough medicine cream"? after we scraped off the pretty but awful-tasting frosting, the cake was great.

Anyhoo.... Here are some early offerings from the Cake Wrecks site, which made me laugh out loud today!

Happy Valentenis Day, everybody!


Here's one for the guys (they wish):

Happy Independence Day!

Hope you're having an alien-free, indigestion-free, bug-free day! I myself am enjoying peace and quiet at the moment, bearing in mind that I may be tranquilizing a horse and/or calling 911 before the day is through. Anybody who might be thinking about driving down the main road near our property and hurling unnecessarily loud incendiaries out your window? Don't do it, k? last year two horses had to be put down* in this part of Washington State because of catastrophic injuries resulting from spooking over loud fireworks. My tolerance for loud noise after hours is zero already, do please don't make me call The Man. I've only had to do so twice so far this year. Do we really need artillery practice after 10:00 PM? No, we do not. Last year I'd already called five or six times by the 4th. I think the local fuzz have perhaps made it clear to the Tribe Next Door (literally) that annoying the curmudgeonly white settlers across the road is bad PR, so things have been a lot quieter this year.

I don't care what they do all day, as long as it's not ridiculously loud. On the 4th and New Years, I expect some hubub...just don't push it too far after midnight, please. The rest of June/July/December? Knock it off! Some of us moved to the country for actual peace and quiet.

* That's a euphemism for "killed humanely", in case you haven't run into the term before.

Easter hot on St. Paddy's coat tails...

What's with the holidays stacking up so close together this year? I'm a bigger fan of Passover these days, anyway. I think a celebration of the resurrection of Christ is much needed, but Easter started out as a co-opted pagan celebration, and then the Victorians cuted it up so terribly that it's all bunnies and chickies and eggs anymore. Feh. What happened to Jesus busting out of his tomb and knocking down over a hundred Roman soldiers?! The marshmallow peeps people seem to have forgotten that part.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

There's something equally likable and yet odd about this card. What has he been smoking and or drinking? He seems to be having a vision of Ireland personified...or is this tailcoated gentleman enamored with an inanimate object? We may never know, poor sot.

Bill Corbett has something to say about St. Patrick himself, and sets us all straight.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I picked up a fancy suit just for the occasion....in my virtual life, anyway. Oh, and, yes, that's Gimli on my shoulder.

Happy New Year!

Hope you're all having a nice, relaxing day today, and are not sickly and hung-over from over-indulgence last night. We had a relaxing celebration at home, with a little champagne and a lot of other stuff. The neighbors didn't go crazy with the fireworks, so the horses were delightfully non-agitated: yay!

To kick off 2008, I give you a summation of last year's trends and predictions of this year's, by one of my favorite writers, critics, and pundits, Kevin Murphy.

The Lurking Jingle

Oh, yes, pity those who work in retail. Especially at this time of year...

Cavalcade of Bad Nativities 2: Electric Boobaloo!

I've been remiss in posting the link to this. Bad me. I'm getting a lump of coal now, I just know it.

Just so everybody is on the same page, and before I get irate comments from a well-meaning Christian: I am a Christian. I am not anti-Jesus or anti-Christmas or anti-creche, k? What I am, is anti-schlock, anti-dreck, anti-cheesy quasi Christian trash "art". I applaud this documentation of bad "art" and pass the savings on to you.

Oh, and, yes, that is an aggressively Irishy leprechaun-y nativity scene. The mind reels (pun intended).

It's Christmas! Christmas, I tell you!!!!

Tired of all of the bland, generic "holiday" nonsense? This gentlemen has a nice response to emulate. He calls it "Merry Tossmas". Thanks to Will for the heads up!

Happy (belated) Columbo Day!

OK, so I'm late. I was belatedly celebrating my 44th birthday yesterday and besides Wondermark doesn't come out until Tuesday, so there!

Memorial Day

Take some time today to remember those who have gone before us, fighting to preserve our peace and security. Yes, peace and security suffer entropy just like anything else in this fallen world: if you don't put energy in, it degrades.

Side note: You know how Google almost always modifies its logo to reflect the holiday or historical happening of the day, no matter how obscure? Events like, say Leonardo da Vinci's birthday or compost awareness day are cleverly noted, so what's the deal with there being no clever logo for Memorial Day?! Exceedingly, embarassingly lame, folks.