The Best Moments From Last Week...

Red And White Fleet Sunset Cruise
San Francisco Bay
October 17th 2013

"Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation."

~Unknown

Did I mention that Alan and I are on vacation? Yeah, I think I did at the beginning of the month. As of right now we about half way through, and I am finding myself conflicted. I am tired because of all the activity, and yet I am mourning the fact that it's half over! LOL. I guess there is no pleasing me! Anyway, as I said there has been a lot of activity, so I thought it would be nice to share my comings and goings once a week, rather than every single day, because, after all, there is other stuff going on in the world, besides my vacation. And besides, even I know how boring it is to be stuck looking at someone else's vacation photos, especially when one hasn't had one for a while.

I get that! So, if you would rather not view my "Monday Vacation Updates" feel free to run now, but don't forget to comeback on Tuesday. :)

Fun At Pier 39...
Alan and I spent last Tuesday at Pier 39. We found a wonderful deal from Free/Cheap San Francisco/Facebook for 3 Free Play days at the 7 D Experience. So, we spent the better part of those days laser shooting 7-D zombies, robots and pirates! We had a BLAST... pardon the pun! It's fun to spend a little time acting like a kid once in a while, especially when you still feel like you are dating your husband after 23 years of marriage! After the zombies, we did a little walking around Pier 39, sightseeing and playing tourist. God I love this city!


 
 
 
 

I had To Pause To Play In The Autumn Leaves...

 

On Thursday night Alan and I took a romantic Sunset Cruise on the Red And White Fleet! The provided appetizers, a lovely array of sandwiches and salads, and cookies for dessert! YUM!





And finally, Saturday was spent at the beach!



I may need a vacation soon... from the vacation! Life Is Good!

Stay Tuned, There's More To Come!

:)

Mood: Tired But Happy

~Me :)

The Full Hunter's Moon...

"We love the night and its quiet; and there is no night that we love so well as that on which the moon is coffined in clouds."

~Fitz-James O;Brian, Classic Ghots Stories by Wilkie Collins, M.R. James, Charles Dickens and Others

 





Beautiful, lovely, mysterious, romantic October!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Round Robin Challenge: Spooky Effects!

"A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night."

~J. M. Barrie

RRC: Spooky Effects

I love Halloween, it's my favorite holiday! So, I was thrilled when Karen chose this topic for the challenge! The photos below are some of my favorite ones from my archives, and a few new ones I took this month! Like the one at the top!

Enjoy!

Clearly A Witch Has Been Busy!



Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty...



A Haunting We Shall Go...







"As spirits roam the neighborhoods at night, let loose upon the Earth till it be light..."

~Nicholas Gordon

Okay, are you ready for the spooks and hobgoblins later this month? Do you hear chains rattling or disembodied voices? I did, just today in fact! Then I realized... I had left the TV on! LOL. Halloween is just around the corner, isn't it exciting!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Now that you have read my Spooky Effects post, be sure to visit all the participating the Robins to see what they have haunting their blogs! Simply click the link at the beginning of the post to be redirected to the official Round Robin blog!

Mood: Happy! :)

~Me :)

Do I Spy With My Little Eye, Sky Ghosts Or Jellyfish?

"We pledge to fight blue-sky thinking wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at at cloudless monotony day after day."

~Gavin Pretir-Pinney, The Cloudspotter's Guide

The sky was filled with beautiful clouds the other day, but I couldn't make up my mind if they looked more like ghosts or jellyfish!

What do you think? 

Ghosts?

"Maybe all the people who say ghosts don't exist are just afraid to admit that they do."

~Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

Or Jellyfish?

Jellyfish are 97% water or something, so how much are they doing? Just give them another 3% and make them water. It's more useful."

~Karl Pilkington

Please, if you like, share your thoughts in the comment thread. Tell me all about it!

Mood: Inquisitive

~Me :)

Such Days Of Autumnal Decline

"Such days of autumnal decline hold a strange mystery which adds to the gravity of all our moods."

~Charles Nodier, Smarra: &Trilby

Leaves As Flowers

I always feel a bit melancholy when I see a tree begin to go bare. I swear, just a week ago that tree was glowing with bright yellow leaves, so bright and delicious, you almost could imagine the leaves were actually lemon drops. But now it is only reminding me that autumn will once again end, and take the colors with it. And really, almost nothing makes me sadder.

Mood: Quiet

~Me :)

Brains... BRAINS Err RRR... Or How The Republican Party Ate Itself!

 "Okay, it's pretty obvious what we're doing here, people. If it's dead... fucking KILL IT!"

~Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead, Vol. 14: No Way Out

 

Brains, brains, brains, BRAINS, BRAINS... BRAINS

The United States Congress... You gotta love 'um!

We have very little time left, the Republican Zombies are at the door, and it seems we are out of brains. What to do, what to do? I guess some brave soul... (cough Boehner) could act selflessly and do the right thing, by offering up his substantial brain in order to save the world economy, but somehow I doubt that's going to happen. What to do? What to do?

"... they come to us, these restless dead,
shrouds woven from the words of men,
With trumpets sounding over head
The walls of hope have grown so thin.
And all our vaunted innocence
Has withered in this endless frost
That promise little recompense
For all we risk, for all we've lost..."

~Mira Grant, Feed

And Now A Joke...

Q. What's the difference between a starving zombie on his own, and the Tea Party?

A. No matter how hungry for brains the zombie becomes, he won't eat his own!

"There is nothing so patient, in this world or any other, as a virus searching for a host."

~Mira Grant, Countdown

Senator John McCain (R- Arizona) unleashed a virus upon the earth back in 2008, and her name is Sarah Palin. She is the genuine article, a zombie of the truest form, but she is also a carrier of the zombie ideology of selfishness, ruthless ambition, and inability to learn. She looks all crazy and stupid, but make no mistake she is the Zombie Queen that created the Tea Party. Zombie Tea Party zombies are no ordinary breed, they have special powers to simultaneously rule the world, and at the same time bring about complete Armageddon. But don't fear the reaper boys and girls, these zombies feed on their own, and without enough brains between them to sustain even one single of their brethren, they will become extinct.

The End.

"Little old ladies speed away in their wheel chairs, frightened meals on wheels."

~Ryan Mecum, Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry For Your... Brains

Mood: Irritated, But Hardly Surprised!

~Me :)

Slurpppppp...

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."

~Ernest Hemingway

I am exhausted tonight. You see, some people who engage in the domestically traditional self abuse that is called Spring Cleaning, do it in, oh, say... April, perhaps May. But I am a nonconformist, so I engage in that form of self abuse in October. Every October! Without fail! And in the case of this year, that day was yesterday, so I am exhausted today, which is how Fibromyalgia works... it gets you 24 hours after you spend the day cleaning. I am okay mind you, sometimes being exhausted is a very good thing! This Friday... Spring Cleaning In Autumn Part 2! So until tomorrow, I will leave you with this...

I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I am under the table,
After four I'm under my host.

~Dorothy Parker, The Collected Dorothy Parker

Mood: Really Tired/Happy

~Me :)

Life As Fine Wine...

"Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle."

~Paulo Coelho, Brida

As Alan and I sat at dinner last night, on our 23rd anniversary, we did a lot of reflecting on how our marriage has taken twists and turns over the years. A lot can happen in 23 years! Thankfully, we have done a lot more laughing than crying. But don't get me wrong, we have had some dark days among all the joy. But that's just life. We are the lucky ones, we have held onto each other at all costs, and at all curves in the road. I suppose we needed some of those low points, to realize just how amazingly wonderful our love story really is! We have similar sense's of humor, and we share the same values, so that makes us great partners when things get rough! I am thankful for him... and for us. And I know, he feels the same.

 How you ask?

He tells me, and shows me, every single day!

Like he did yesterday, on a very long drive from vineyard to vineyard in Sonoma and Napa.

 

Life is a fine wine, and it's good to have the right person to share it with!

"I would pour you a glass of wine, but wouldn't it be more romantic if you sipped it from my armpit?"
~Jarod Kintz, A Story That Talks About Talking Is Like Chatter To Chattering Teeth, And Every Set Of Dentures Can Attest To The Fact That No...

~

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Happy Anniversary Alan :)

"Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end."

~Author Unknown

Where has the time gone? It doesn't seem possible that I have been married to my best friend for 23 years! I am a very lucky woman!


"Infatuation is when you think he's as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Conners.  Love is when you realize that he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Connors, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger and nothing like Robert Redford - but you'll take him anyway."

~Judith Viorst, Redbook, 1975

Happy Anniversary Alan! I love you!

By The Way, The 23rd Anniversary Is The Silver Plate Anniversary!

Mood: Very Happy

~Me :)

A Face In The Crowd: A Sad Face In Half Moon Bay

"The secret to modeling is not being perfect. What one needs is a face that people can identify in a second. You have to be given what's needed by nature, and what's needed is to bring something new."

~Karl Lagerfeld

How about that! I have spotted two new faces this month! Last week I showed you Mr. Walnut, who lived in Apple Hill, and now we have a very sad Mr. Rock who resides along the shore in Half Moon Bay, California! Do you see him? Mr. Rock looks a little more sad than most of the faces I come across, perhaps he is lonely, or maybe he doesn't enjoy the waves when they were crashing high against the shoreline, or maybe he is actually happy, but he just has a sad face! Who knows? All I know is now that I know where that particular face is, I will probably always wave hello as I pass by! I am kind of odd that way!

:)

And yes, the Valium is helping my mood greatly, thanks for asking!

:)

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae)

Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae
Conservatory Of Flowers
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
October 8th 2013

 "We are all butterflies. Earth Is Our chrysalis."

~LeeAnn Taylor

It's so nice visiting the Conservatory Of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Just a couple hours away from the cares of the world, makes up for a lot of things that can leave one weary. I love butterflies, their beauty truly is unrivaled.

Mood: Happy/Content

~Me :)

The Buffet In Half Moon Bay

"Such days of autumnal decline hold a strange mystery which adds to the gravity of all our moods. Every step that Time takes imprints upon the fields as they grow bare and brown."

~Charles Nodier, Trilby, ou le lutin d'Argail/Trilby: The Fairy of Argyle, 1822

 

The birds were amazing in Half Moon Bay yesterday. There was an estimated 600 birds, and I counted at least 5 different species, maybe more! They were flying about in all kinds of mania, feeding on anchovies I think. All I could see was a million tiny sparkles in the water. It was a bit spooky, and a bit magical all at the same time!

 

Is it possible for something to be magical and spooky at the same time?

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Landlording The Ghost

"If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost."

~Lloyd C. Douglas



Isn't it funny how many times the scariest appearing things, are in actuality, NOT scary when you take the time to see where shadows, and scary sounds are actually coming from? When I think about what the nation is facing right now, the possibility of defaulting on it's debt, I realize that it's a situation mostly built on fear, shadows and hateful chain rattling, it scares me! But not because of shadows, but rather because of proven economical fact! If the worst happens after October 17th, we will be in world wide dark, uncharted waters. Truly the unknown, minute by minute, with no guarantees for recovery in what's left of my lifetime. It bugs the SHIT out of me, that all that's needed to exercise the ghost is to finally find a way to stop the chain of lies perpetrated by the republican party! Unfortunately, the only thing that is going to wake up the average republican/FoxNews watcher, is to give them exactly what they want, the default of America! They will never understand until all the ghosts visit their door... and never leave. Ever.

And boy are those specters coming!

Until then, they are content to live in shadows, listen to the chains rattling, and landlord the ghost!

Mood: Quiet

~Me 

Hey Look... A Sun Devil!

Sun Devil
San Francisco East Bay
October 7th, 2013

"Creativity is a lot like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. You look at a set of elements, the same ones everyone else sees, but then reassemble those floating bits and pieces into an enticing new possibility. Effective leaders are able to."

~Elizabeth Moss Kanter

 Politicians Lacking Creativity, Is Why We Are In A Mess...

Politicians lacking creativity is why we are facing the mess we are in. Oh that and... oh say... STUPIDITY! John Boehner has his nuts in a knots of his own twisting. He decided to listen to the Tea Party, people who can't even spell their own angry signs correctly, and now he is stuck between crazy and CRAZY EVER MORE!

Don't get me wrong, Obama is acting kind of creepy to!

If Obama hadn't unrealistically tried to negotiate with the GOP, we wouldn't constantly be kicking the can down the road! And now, as I write this, he is making that noise again by saying he would be open to another temporary deal! What exactly would that do? Just give the rest of us yet another date to worry about on the calendar, yet again, a few months from now, just before the holidays!

I have had it!

President Obama... STOP NEGOTIATING! THAT'S WHY WE ARE HERE! SHOW THE GOP WHAT "STANDING YOUR GROUND IS."  The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is LAW. ACT LIKE IT! And if they GOP continues to try to force a default, treat it like the treason that it is, and use the power of the 14th Amendment (See Section 4) to do your job!

“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion,” the critical sentence says, “shall not be questioned.”14th Amendment, Section 4

Speaker Boehner, do you really want to go down in history as the NUT JOB, CRY BABY, SHORT PANTS, WUSSY, BED WETTER "Speaker Of The House." STAND UP. BE A MAN. And if you have any little whisper of a moral pull in the opposite direction of the most radical of the GOP, listen to the whisper, and GO THE OTHER WAY!

In fact, don't stop there! If you happen to find yourself expectantly thinking rational one day, don't fear it, come on over to the democrats, there's plenty of room for one more!

There. I am done. How about some leaves... :)



There, I feel better now!

Mood: Frustrated, But Happy Because Of The Leaves

~Me :)

Pretty Dancing Flames

"October is crisp days and cool nights, a time to curl up around dancing flames and into a good book."

~Unknown

 

The leaves are turning, but slowly. The summer flowers are still showing off their summer pride! As far as my photography goes, I couldn't be happier! I like spending days at the beach and the gardens around San Francisco, and still be able to get excited by the leaves, as they turn from green to a kaleidoscope of autumn color! It's the best of all possible worlds! When the reddest of leaves move about in the wind, they kind of look like dancing flames. It's beautiful!

Bees Love Autumn...



Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The Brush Strokes Of Claude Monet And My Most Asked Question On AOL Journals

Claude Monet's "Water Lilies"
Legion Of Honor
San Francisco, California
October 2nd 2013

Every day I discover, more and more beautiful things. It's enough to drive one mad! I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it."

~Claude Monet



#1.
The question I used to get asked the most, regarding my blog in the old AOL Journal days was not really about my blog, so much as my screen name... OndineMonet. It's simple really, it's a combination of my favorite mythical creature, the mermaid, specifically, Ondine, and my favorite artist Claude Monet. I have been in love with Impressionist art since I was a small child, and one of my favorite teachers gave me some art books to look at and read. I love the soft pastel colors, and how almost all of the paintings looked just like places I would want to live.

 As a grown up I know that, in reality, nowhere looks like a Claude Monet painting, although sometimes we have sunsets here in the Bay Area that take my breath away, for the same reasons his paintings do. Monet is always on my mind when I take a photograph of a sunset, or of a beautiful garden or moving water.

 It is a real treat, and it fascinates me to think of what kind of photographer he might have been! But if he had been a photographer, instead of a painter, I wouldn't get to see his actual brush strokes. It's the one thing missing from photography, that small sense of the person on a different, more relate able level. By the way, the second most asked question about my blog was... What does Ellipsis mean?

#2.
Ellipsis
1 a: the omission of one or more words that are obviously understood but that must be supplied to make construction grammatically complete.

b: a sudden leap from one topic to another.

2 a: marks or a mar ( as ... ) indicating an omission (as of words) or a pause.

It would have been just about perfect if Monet had painted mermaids. LOL But not to worry, I still continue to look for them whenever I am out on the San Francisco Bay! :) And by the way, Ondine isn't just a mermaid, shes also a curse, oh and a medical condition! See, Ondine's Curse.



Mood: Inspired :)

~Me :)