Who's Crabby??

My friend and co-worker Angie is a very talented photographer. At our office each year we have a silent auction to benefit United Way. Employees donate items to be auctioned, many of them made by the donor.

This year's auction was on Friday. I purchased several things including a set of notecards which Angie made from photographs she took at Pike Place Market. There were many beautiful pictures in the set of cards from flowers to fruits and vegetables. But for some reason this one caught my eye.

Can you say Yumm!!

Fun Stuff

Once in a while it's good to stop and enjoy the fun stuff. I received a couple links recently which were well worth a couple minutes of playtime each.

Check out Cursor Theft. After you play it a couple times watch what happens if you move your cursor below the picture and leave it there. You won't be able to resist moving your mouse. Cute!

And if you ever wished you could carve a pumpkin without all the mess, this Happy Halloween site is for you.

Enjoy!

Florida Update

There's great news from our Florida relatives. While the vast majority of the area remains without power, Rusty and Cathy's electricity was restored on Thursday. We're not sure why they got so lucky. Could it have something to do with having an executive from Florida Power & Light Company as a nearby neighbor? We may never know. In the meantime I think they are just counting their blessings. Now they just have to get the roof repaired...

Hurricane Wilma

Our hearts go out to Clay's brother and family who live in West Palm Beach, Florida. Like most in the county their home suffered some damage from Hurricane Wilma. According to preliminary estimates they may not have electricity restored until as late as mid-November.

New Postcards

In the last week I received cards from Hamm, Germany; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Lithuania and this one from Paris. I was particularly thrilled to get a card from Paris because I took several years of French in middle school and high school. I remember lessons on French history, architecture, art and culture. Of course I dreamed of going to Paris. Maybe someday...

City Girl

Check out my new art! My brother-in-law is very talented with wood carving. He takes old pieces of wood (various types), and carves on them until they are smooth and beautiful and express something unusual. He has done a lot of tall walking sticks, each with its own personality. A few months ago I was at his home admiring some of his work. He told me he would make me a carved walking stick for my balcony garden. Instead, he made me this cool abstract wood sculpture from an old piece of wood that was lying around my parents' property.

I love the big red lips which I am sure he incorporated because he knows I like to wear red lipstick. And the blue dot on the side is a mole - just like I used to have (except mine was black, not blue). You can't quite tell from the picture, but she also has smooth black hair. I asked my brother-in-law what we should call her. He came up with a long version of a name which I cannot entirely remember. But I remember the first part - "City Girl". You see, my family are mostly small-town folks and I was the only one to move to the big city of Seattle. Hence the name. As you can see I found a great place in the corner of my living room for City Girl where she can watch everything that goes on.

Clay Scheduled for Eye Surgery

I think the biggest thing coming up in our lives is Clay's eye surgery. We have been talking to his doctors about the possibility for quite some time. If you know us, you are aware that my husband is legally blind. He has effectively no sight in his left eye. He has some sight in the right eye, but that has been deteriorating over the last 20 years.

He decided to have the surgery because of the decline in his eyesight. He feels that if the decline continues he would eventually not be able to see well enough to get around without a dog or cane and may eventually lose his sight altogether. I think the clincher that helped him decide to do this was back in February when he got his eye cut on a display stand at Hallmark because he didn't see it. That injury could have been bad, but we were lucky the cut didn't go into the seeing part of his eye.

The surgery is scheduled for Thursday, November 3rd at 1:15 p.m. They will give him a transplanted cornea and also replace the lens of his eye with an artificial one. The procedure is expected to take about an hour and a half. He will have general anesthesia and will be asleep for the surgery. As long as he comes out of the anesthesia well he will be able to come home with me that evening. He will wear an eye patch overnight and that will probably come off the next morning when he sees the doctor for follow-up.

It may take a few days or even as long as 3 months before we will know for sure if the surgery helped. The odds they gave us are as follows: 50 percent chance of improved eyesight. That would mean he could possibly recover as much eyesight as he had 20 years ago. It would be easier to get around and he would feel safer to walk around the neighborhood alone. Then 40 percent chance of no change in his sight. And 10 percent chance that his eyesight would be worse. Within that 10 percent is 1-2 percent chance that he could lose his sight. I think that would be in case of something going wrong like hemorrhage or infection. Those kinds of risks are always present when you have surgery. Needless to say we are optimistic that he will fall in the 50 percent good result.

I will take some time off work during the first few days following Clay's surgery to help him get around and take him to follow-up doctor appointments. With luck all will go well and he will soon be recovered and seeing better than he has in a long time. Many thanks to those of you who have already expressed your good wishes and are sending up prayers on Clay's behalf.

Picture of My Office Building

The building where I work is a pretty one. I have photographed it on numerous occasions, but usually without the photo turning out quite as nice as it looks to my eye. A few days ago I was standing at a bus stop waiting to go home, looked up, and decided to take this picture. I think it's my most successful photo of the building.

Postcard Update

Last week I received postcards from: A Coruna, Spain; Dillenburg, Germany and this one from São Paulo, Brazil.

With each card I learn a little something about the place where it came from. The card pictured shows the Statue of the Bandeirantes. The Bandeirantes were early explorers who travelled West and North to the Amazon River. They are responsible for "establishing" Brazil's vast borders in South America. By planting the Portuguese flag far away from the Atlantic Coast the Spanish Crown had to recognize their marked territory as part of the Portuguese Empire. They were courageous, but often brutal killing thousands of the indigenous population. They searched for gold, emeralds, and other precious stones. São Paulo was their primary staging area.

Postcard Trading

This summer I took up a new hobby - trading postcards with people across the country and around the world. I use two web sites as a source for addresses. Postcrossing.com is an international and structured postcard trading project. I like that the site tracks the cards sent and received and will also display a history map for you. As you can see from my map below there are many users in Europe (especially Germany and Portugal) although there are more countries participating every week and the site is becoming increasingly diverse. The person who created Postcrossing is from Portugal and that's where it originated.

The other web site I use is PostcardX. There you click a link to receive a randomly selected address for sending. The PostcardX site is about 70 percent United States users, so if you want postcards from around the U.S. that would be a good place to start.

Each week I send a couple random postcards plus responses to cards that were sent to me. I receive an average of 3 cards per week between users from the two sites. It's a great way to learn about different places around the world. If you would like to see my postcard collection you can click on the Flickr badge in the sidebar.

New Blog

So many people are blogging these days. I have a goal on 43 Things to "Keep a journal." It occurs to me that starting a blog is one way to do that. I like that I can add links and pictures, and unlike a paper journal I am unlikely to lose it (although anything is possible). My goal is to add random bits from my life here and there - nothing too structured. Your comments are welcome.