being the second meme from the Queen

You are a guest on the space shuttle. You just arrived on the moon and realize you forgot something back home that you can't live without. What is it and how do you convince them to go back and fetch it?
My knitting! Alas, I can not convince anyone to go back for it because without nice, sharp needles, no one will respect my authorita. Not until we get back to earth, that is, because I will hunt each and every one of them and stab him until he has more dimples than a golf ball.

Pretend you are a teacher in a rough public school for one day. You have been assigned to teach Manners 101. You have the "challenging bad butt kids" class (remember this is a pretend school and anyway I can't say ass on my blog 'cause it's so unQueenly and I might get fined or something).
They are jumping up and down, cursing, and throwing things at you.

What is the first thing you would write on the board?
Don't hurt me.

Someone in your family or a friend has started a blog. They think it is anonymous but you have figured it out. They are saying derogatory things about you. Do you tell them or do you read it for awhile?
How would you handle it?
I would leave many comments. MANY, MANY comments. Limericks, even.

If you had one dollar left in your pocket, what would you spend it on?
A little packet of extra-strength Tylenol.

President Obama and the First Lady are coming over for dinner. What do you serve?
Lemonade and bread pudding. I'm sure they're sick of people who try to impress them with fancy food.


You walk in on your lover. They are trying on your clothes. What do you do?
Cry, because they look better in them than I do.

Every astronaut must have shots! Choose your vaccination: You only get one and you can't enjoy any of the attributes of the other choices. You choose either: (1) The fountain of eternal youth and sexual vigor but only for 10 years (2) perfect health for a lifetime (3) eternal mind-numbing nirvana and peace of mind (4) unlimited hedonism for one year with no negative consequences.
#2, because it would enable numbers 3 and 4. Mustn't be greedy and expect #1 as well.

Friday fill-ins

1. Discovering true flaws in myself is not the end of the world unless it's too late to ask for forgiveness from people I have hurt.

2. Sitting here, listening to the sound of rain falling, I hope "my" little tribe of wild bunnies is someplace warm and dry.

3. Hot buttered toast and tea taste so good, especially if I'm listening to Debussy and the sound of rain falling, and I'm knitting something soft. (Assuming, of course, that the butter doesn't get on the knitting.)

4. Sometimes, putting others first is the only way I can make a decision. At least someone is going to be happy.

5. A spiderweb is breathtaking, really.

6. Well, maybe there is a good book to live in - if I could find a real good book, I'd never have to come and look at - what they've done to my song.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to an Aimee Mann concert, tomorrow my plans include a serious search for shoes that actually fit my bizarro feet, and Sunday, I want to knit with my peeps. (Human peeps, not the sticky marshmallow kind - Unless, of course, my peeps are the sticky marshmallow kind.)

if only -

July 24, 2009
Tricycle's Daily Dharma

Rest in Natural Great Peace

When I meditate, I am always inspired by this poem by Nyoshul Khenpo:

Rest in natural great peace
This exhausted mind
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought,
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.

Rest in natural great peace.

Above all, be at ease, be as natural and spacious as possible. Slip quietly out of the noose of your habitual anxious self, release all grasping, and relax into your true nature. Think of your ordinary emotional, thought-ridden self as a block of ice or a slab of butter left out in the sun. If you are feeling hard and cold, let this aggression melt away in the sunlight of your meditation. Let peace work on you and enable you to gather your scattered mind into the mindfulness of Calm Abiding, and awaken in you the awareness and insight of Clear Seeing. And you will find all your negativity disarmed, your aggression dissolved, and your confusion evaporating slowly like mist into the vast and stainless sky of your absolute nature.

–Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (HarperSanFrancisco)

finished object and - I'm a winner!

First, thank you - I won these books!

• Jean Plaidy - The Heart of the Lion from Historical Tapestry, a collection of book bloggers whose reviews and recommendations always are exemplary! (Kailana is reading the Maisie Dobbs novels right now, and so am I - do go and read her reviews!)
• Jeffrey Eugenides - The Virgin Suicides from the Biblio Brat at Biblio Blogazine.
• Heather Gudenkauf - The Weight of Silence from Mira Books .(Kristi's review at Books and Needlepoint sent me scurrying for it!)

The green background is my finished object: a blanket for baby Houston in Idaho, a certified cutie. Trust me.

I also won The Heartfelt Award from Rebecca, Lost in Books.

• Do you reach for a cup of cocoa or tea when you're relaxing, seeking comfort, sharing a plate of cookies with family and freinds? You know the feeling you get when you drink a yummy cup of cocoa, tea, or a hot toddy? That is what the Hearthfelt Award is all about, feeling warm inside. Rules: Put the logo on your blog/post. Nominate up to to 9 blogs which make you feel comfy or warm inside. Be sure to link your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

I'd like to nominate all of the blogs I've mentioned today, plus one more - A Pass Through the Moonlight Garden, created by friends whose site soothes and delights this teabird. I do, after all, worship the moon.

• Let's take a walk together and share our season's glowing gifts of night, we will spend a moment imagining what will come after the twilight's air.