going green

Happy St. Patrick's Day, especially to my Irish friends!

In honor of the holiday, I thought I'd share just a few scenes from our trip to Ireland in July 2007. Sal attended a chemistry conference in Dublin, and then we spent a couple of weeks exploring the country. And we loved it! So memorable.

I'd love to share a glimpse of The Emerald Isle with you ... enjoy!

Sal & I in Killarney National Park (southwest Ireland):EVERYTHING is green in Ireland (including our passport stamps), even their mailboxes!

We took a boat out to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, off the west coast of Ireland. We toured the island with Thomas, an island local. Sal enjoyed trying to speak Gaelic (he had studied a little before we went); this is the part of Ireland where the language is still spoken: One of our favorite things to do during our visit was listening to live music in the Irish pubs, the sound is intoxicating (no pun intended!). Some of the best traditional musicians were in the small town of Dingle, on the southwest coast:Although I totally disagree with their fate, I loved seeing sheep grazing peacefully at every turn in the Irish countryside, and hearing their gentle "baahhs" in the distance ... they're such sweet creatures:

Here's what we toured the country in, a tiny Nissan Micra ... Sal loved the whole driving-on-the-left thing, and he did a great job! (btw, gas was the equivalent of about $5 a gallon there at the time, plus add 40% for the USD-euro exchange rate! ... hence the high-mileage cars):

Have a LUCKY day! :-)

a great weekend

Hello and happy Monday ... I hope you enjoyed the weekend. Mine was busy, but great!

The fun started Friday night, Sal and I attended a performance by KODO, a group of Japanese taiko drummers. Wow, some of those drums are HUGE, and the intense sound penetrated the whole auditorium! And it was obvious that a ton of endurance is required to play them (and ladies ... there weren't only men on stage, there were some gals playing too and they were amazing!) The largest one, The Great Drum called o-daiko, is about 800 pounds and 4 feet in diameter (pictured below), and is carved from a single, massive tree trunk:And these giant drums aren't played with typical little drumsticks, no way ... they're pounding on them with baseball bat-sized sticks of wood! The drums were accompanied by cymbals, a flute, and a banjo-type instrument, and a bit of Japanese song and dance; all of it enhanced the percussion sounds so nicely. The group put on an awesome show ... here's a sample video clip. They're on tour around North America right now, and will be touring in Europe (starting in Italy) in May. Check out their show schedule.

On Saturday I drove over to St. Petersburg, had a quick visit with my parents, and then attended my long-awaited National Geographic Traveler travel photography seminar all day Sunday. It was called "A Passion For Travel: Photos That Tell The Story" and I've been signed-up for months. I couldn't wait to attend, and it didn't disappoint! The 2 travel photo journalists who taught were very experienced NGT contributors, and shared their knowledge well. I also loved mingling during lunch and the breaks, chatting with others who love to travel too. It was an enriching day, and I'll have a chance to put the concepts into practice real soon ... in Utah! ... quite a photogenic place!

I got home late (and tired) on Sunday night, but it was worth it! :-)

Have a great week ahead,

it's Angie's special day!

Happy 13th birthday today to our niece, Angie! She lives in Gulfport, Florida.

Wow, this is a big occasion --- you're a teenager now, Angie!

Have a FUN & FABULOUS day! :-)

Love,
Aunt Susan, Uncle Sal, Buddy & Aruba

oh, Canada!

Please, help me!

I'm terrified. It's that time of year again.

I live in Canada on the ice and at the end of March, some people with clubs will come here and brutally beat me and my baby harp seal friends. Most of us are too young to move quickly enough to get away from these attackers, there's no escape. They take advantage of us. Some of us will even be skinned alive right here on the ice! Yes, that's what happens!

Every year they do this to nearly 300,000 of us, all because our fur is soft and pretty and humans want it for coats and other things.

I'm so scared! Like every living thing, I don't want to die a cruel and painful death. Won't you please take action to speak up for me? I cannot defend myself. I only can hope that one day the Canadian government will put an end to the suffering that this industry causes.

Thank you,

the baby harp seals

exotic beauty

Hey there ... hope your weekend was terrific, even though it was an hour shorter.

We spent Sunday out with friends ... first a visit to the American Orchid Society Gardens here in Delray Beach, and then we enjoyed a relaxing dinner at LemonGrass, an Asian bistro ... love their red curry dish, made with coconut milk, bamboo shoots & peppers, YUM! But before that, we walked the lush, 3.5-acre gardens and toured the 4,000 sq.ft. greenhouse at the AOS, all the while amazed at the exotic beauty of wild orchids. They're such incredibly complex and intricate flowers!

Ordinarily, I would give you a glimpse of it in photographs here, but ... when I tried to upload the photos from my camera's digi memory card to my laptop, it didn't work. Thumbnails of the photos flashed on the screen, and then it went blank. {gulp} I tried again ... nothing. Tried using Sal's laptop ... again, nothing. UGH !!! My photos are gone? Oh no! I'll try again at a photo store, but I'm not holding my breath. I also had photos on there of Buddy from last week, so cute ... we have a tradition: I bring home groceries, put the bags on the kitchen floor, and he runs over and investigates what I bought (beagles LOVE food). He has such fun with it! I guess I'll have to do another photo shoot with Buddy the next time I get groceries, but if I can ever recover my MIA orchid photos, I'll post them here. They were so pretty too! So, a gentle reminder --- if you have photos sitting on your camera's memory card, upload them soon ... and back 'em up!

It was our first time visiting the orchid gardens, and unfortunately it'll probably be our last. :-( I recently read in the newspaper that they'll be closing in May due to, what else?, the economy. Oh what a shame! I had always meant for us to visit, but never got around to it, so we decided that we'd better hurry and enjoy it before it's no longer open to the public. They claim that they'll be maintaining the gardens (with the help of volunteers), and they hope to re-open when the economy improves, but who knows?

Have a great week ahead,

scrapbooking fun in Orlando

Just a couple of event updates for my scrapbooking pals ...

The info is up for the Orlando Scrapbook Expo, including the workshop schedule. I'll be there and plan to enroll in 2 workshops ... Kelly Goree's swatchbook album class on Friday morning (Kelly taught at Creative Escape 08 and I just loved her sb'ing style!). Footnote: the gorgeous scrapbook page that's featured on the cover of the April issue of Creating Keepsakes was done by Kelly!
I also want to take the SEI acrylic album class that'll be on Friday afternoon. So I'll see you there in May! :-)

And in other scrapbooking event news ... I just recently heard about these great scrapbooking retreat weekends put on by Quick Quotes called Private Reserve '09. They sound awesome! Even better, they plan to hold one in Orlando (the only Florida location on the 09 schedule). If you've ever taken one of QQ's many workshops at an expo or convention, then you know how fun and creative their designs are! Here's a delightful project I made in one of their expo classes (I haven't added photos to it yet, I need to get going on that because Sal wants to display it in his office!):

Cute, huh? Their designs incorporate unique signature touches like gingham ribbons, giant photo turns, & canvas-textured elements.

The registration fee is very reasonable, too. So I've signed up for the Orlando Private Reserve '09 that'll be held in mid-September. Yippee! I just can't get enough of these fun sb weekends!!! ... great projects, new friends ... love it!

Please touch base with me if you'll be in Orlando for either, or both, of these events in May and/or September.

the sky's (not) the limit

Hey everyone, hope your weekend is off to a great start. Today we're buying new tires for Sal's car, yuck. It's one of those not-very-exciting-but-very-necessary purchases, *sigh*. We can all think of more fun things to buy, right?

Anyway...

I read such a wonderful story on a travel blog recently that I just had to share it here.

These 4 women recently flew into the history books aboard Flight 5202 from Atlanta to Nashville. They're the first all female African-American flight crew to staff a domestic US flight! And how perfect that this is National Women's History Month, too!

Great story!

And Atlantic Southeastern Airlines has set up a dedicated webpage where you can leave your own personalized message of congratulations for this crew.

You go girls!

Enjoy the weekend,

hungry for good advertising

I love clever advertising, don't you? It's an art form.

Have you seen one of the new commercials for Weight Watchers' Momentum program? They feature "Hungry", an oh-so-adorable fuzzy orange muppet that takes on the persona of hunger. He proceeds to taunt everyone with a variety of junk food, from donuts to all those vending machine no-no's, it cracks me up!

I especially like the "Hungry At The Office" spot:



Kudos to the agency that came up with this ad campaign! I think Hungry will become the Tickle-Me-Elmo of the dieting ad world!

I've read that WW might even sell a "Hungry" doll in the future. Marketing genius!

Time for a snack. {kidding}

spring break

This is Spring Break week at FAU, so Sal is off (from teaching, that is). He's still burning the midnight oil to meet his research grant deadlines. That never ends!

But I was able to tear him away from all of that this morning to put some of the "break" back into spring break. We had breakfast al fresco at a cafe we like near the beach (Sal's favorite pancakes) and then ... OK, I must interrupt here and ask that my readers in northern climes not resent us! ... we sat on the beach for a while. Yes, the beach in early March. There's no denying that it's in the 70s and sunny here in SoFla today. This is something I try not to mention during the winter months out of respect for others who are, well, shivering. After spending 7 winters in Indiana, I really do understand cold. Instead of culture shock, I had "climate shock" when we moved up there.

Sending sunshine,

a new month...

Hey everyone and happy March! Did you know that this is National Craft Month and National Women's History Month? Two things that are so important to me ... scrapbooking and women's issues.

To celebrate NWHM, I have a little women's history lesson to share ... here are some wonderful items that you may not have known were invented by women, but that have no doubt improved your life (or maybe even saved it!): contact lenses, Liquid Paper, the dishwasher, Scotchgard, Kevlar (the polymer that's inside bullet-proof vests), windshield wipers. And I'm SURE there are many more...

Ah, it's a new month, feels like a fresh start doesn't it? I have some good stuff on my March calendar ... Sal and I will be going to a really unique musical performance next week, stay tuned for details on that. And I'll be attending my much-anticipated travel photography seminar in a couple of weeks. And the lottery drawing for Creative Escape 2009 begins that same day! ... I've put my name in the hat, but I'm still crunching my budget numbers. And then we're off to Utah later in the month!

On Saturday I attended the anniversary party of one of my local scrapbook stores, Everything Scrapbook in Lake Worth, FL. It was a fun time ... product demonstrations, mini-projects, prizes, special sales, yummy snacks, and of course some shopping!

After the party, I went to one of my fave stores, Pier 1 Imports. I love to decorate, but haven't been there in a while because of the, ya know, economy. Too many temptations! Anyway, since I'm a "Platinum Customer" (Sal - don't trouble yourself wondering how I earned that status! *tee hee*), they sent me a giftcard, so I figured it was "safe" to go. It was a treat to be back there, I love the colors, textures, scents in the store. I almost feel like I'm in a market or bazaar in an exotic locale. So what did I get? A gorgeous glass candle holder (it's technically a "hurricane", but us Floridians have an aversion toward that word!).

Have a great week (and month) ahead,

a special manatee release

Oh, how it makes my heart so happy to hear uplifting stories about animals!

You may be aware that SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida has a manatee rehabilitation program. They rescue injured and ill manatees in the wild, rehabilitate them and, if possible and safe for the manatees, return them to the wild. It's a fabulous program! When you visit SeaWorld's manatee exhibit, the manatees you see there are all in some phase of rehabilitation, so the exhibit is ever-changing.

And this week, there was quite a success story there! SeaWorld released Rita, a manatee rescued 26 years ago (!!!), back into the wild at Blue Springs State Park (north of Orlando), which is a haven for manatees during the winter ... at left, that's her being lowered into the water.

Rita was rescued after her right pectoral flipper was caught in a crab trap and, unfortunately, it needed to be amputated (look closely in the photo, you'll see that it's missing). Here's the press release with all the details, including how they had to use a crane to lift her because she's a whopping 3,000 pounds and 12 feet long! Whoa!

And what fun is this? SeaWorld has set up a website where you can follow Rita's movements, courtesy of the tracking device she's wearing. You'll see that she has already been on the move A LOT, wow! You go girl!

Now I'm off to a fun event at a scrapbook store ... more on that later! :-)

Enjoy the weekend,

it's Angela's special day!

Happy birthday today to my mother-in-law, Angela! She lives in Gulfport, Florida.

We wish you a day full of sunshine & smiles, Mom! :-)

Love,

Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

Saturday scrapbooking

Hey everyone, hope you're enjoying the weekend...

In-between chores, I've indulged in some scrapbooking fun today. Sal's buried by work deadlines this whole entire weekend. {sigh} So I'm trying not to interrupt him. He should know better than to leave me unattended with my credit card. On a weekend. With scrapbook stores and Crate & Barrel nearby. {chuckle}

Anyway ... have you seen the just-released line by BasicGrey called Marrakech? Oh my! Gorgeous Moroccan-inspired patterns and bold colors. And with names like Vanilla Chai, Calming Moon, African Nectar, Green Tea ... how can I not love it all?!? Check out some of the sample layouts from the BG Design Team ... my favorites are "Chinese Dance" and "Taj Mahal". These papers make me want to book a trip to somewhere exotic, right now! And I'm thinking this collection would go wonderfully with BG's Lotus album, which seems like the perfect shape for this theme.

I've also signed-up for this unique scrapbooking class with Debby Schuh. She's super-creative! She's coming to teach a few classes at one of my local sb stores here in SoFla, but not until July. It may seem early to sign-up, but there are only 40 seats in this workshop and I don't want to miss out!

Later,

a sad day for SoFla scrapbookers

Last night, my fave scrapbook store, Scrapbook Your Art Out in Boca Raton, sent out an e-mail announcement that they would be closing their doors. Oh no! My heart sank. I'll miss the fun and friendship of that pleasant (and cute) shop.

The e-mail said that they were putting their entire inventory on sale at 75% off immediately, and ordinarily a sale like that would excite me. But, not under these circumstances. I'm saddened to lose this great place to shop, scrap, and socialize. Their bingo crops were especially fun.

I stopped by the store in the early afternoon today and already many of the shelves were emptied. I picked up a few ribbons and paints, but really wasn't in the mood to shop (that's saying something!). Instead, I sat in the store's cafe, sipping a Pepsi while visiting and reminiscing with my fellow scrappers and the SBYAO owners.

I left the store with a heavy heart. I'll miss it! :-(

that "other" Where In The World

Pretty soon Matt Lauer will be wandering the world again for his Where In The World is Matt Lauer? segment on The Today Show. I love it, it's such fun! (except that I get the WITW jingle stuck in my head for days!)

This year marks his 10th anniversary of globetrotting, and viewers are being given the chance to suggest destinations for Matt. You can click HERE to choose a place on the world map, and can tell them why you picked it. I chose Tahiti ... because I dream of going there, and I rarely see any travel shows about it. Why is that anyway? I'm curious where you'd like him to visit?

Matt's 5-locales-in-5-days trek usually begins sometime in April. Of course, I'll have all the updates right here. Stay tuned!

tropical punch

Hey everyone ... hope you enjoyed the weekend, and Valentine's Day too! Would love to hear how you celebrated.

Sal and I spent a quiet V-day together. He surprised me with some beautiful flowers on Friday night. We ate a Valentine dinner at home, some take-out from one of our fave restaurants, an Asian fusion bistro called PF Chang's. We LOVE their vegetarian lettuce wraps appetizer so much that we order three of them and split them as our entree! YUM.

And we did some landscaping in the front yard on Sunday. It was time to improve our curb appeal. After deliberating for quite some time about what to plant, I decided on a bougainvillea tree ... gosh, they have gorgeous blooms! And they love warmth and sun (just like me! *wink*). I wanted something that would add a punch of tropical color to our front yard. Ideally, I would've liked to get a larger tree, but geez bougainvilleas are pricey {gasp!} ... with every little bit taller they are, the cost goes up exponentially. But we found this nice purplish-pink (magenta perhaps?) tree at a nursery around the corner from us that just happens to specialize in bougainvilleas. I did a double-take as we entered the nursery and saw that the owner had the abbreviation "BS" on his sign ... huh? ... it later occurred to me that it stood for Bougainvillea Specialist! Oh, of course! Since he's not originally from the U.S., perhaps he didn't realize that the acronym has "another" meaning in our culture? I thought it was kind of cute. :-)

Around the base of the tree, you can see Sal beginning to plant Golden Mounds (sometimes also called Golden Dewdrops or Derantas). I love, love, love these bushes! The foliage has a lime green + yellow color combo, it's so fresh. They won't "compete" with all the bougainvillea color. They too thrive in the sub-tropical climate, need lots of sun, so it's a great spot for them. We finished off the circle with red mulch and it's looking a lot more spiffy out there now. Next project: trimming some of our palm trees ... yardwork has to be done year-round here in SoFla, but I love that!

Have a great week,

be mine.

Happy Valentine's Day! (or, in my case, I celebrate Salentine's Day)

So how about this for a romantic getaway? ... a heart-shaped island! (well, technically, it's a tiny islet) Yes, one does exist! Check out this Google Earth image of the island of Galešnjak in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Croatia:

It has become known as Lover's Island. Although it's uninhabited, the island's owner has been swamped with requests from couples who want to go there for a romantic getaway. A true deserted island ... sounds good to me!

Have a fun V-day,

look what I won!

A popular scrapbooking paper company, Die Cuts With A View (DCWV), was having a contest today. The first 1,000 people to watch an online video, premiering their new 2009 paper collections, would win a whole pack (known among DCWV fans as a "stack") of 8"x8" paper (48 sheets) from any of their new collections!

And I was viewer # 646 !!! So, I won ... and I chose the Tahiti Beach stack. It even has some glittered papers! Bling and the beach? I'm in!My other favorites among their new releases are the Taj Mahal and Safari Chic stacks, but I already bought those in the 12"x12" versions! And they're gorgeous ... Taj has lots of glitter and foiled papers, with intricate Middle Eastern patterns. The safari papers are all textured, with fun animal prints and tribal motifs. Makes me want to travel somewhere exotic! I also have DCWV's Glitter Cardstock stack, and I'm eyeing their Metallic stack.

P.S. ~ attn scrapbookers: Joann.com has all the new DCWV stacks on sale at 1/2 price right now!

What fun! :-)

animal love, down under

In the midst of the tragic wildfires in Australia, my heart was touched by this precious photo of a koala being rescued from her burning habitat:

She's expected to make a full recovery, and she'll be released back into the wild after her burned paws heal. You can read all the details of her rescue story here.

To my friends and fellow scrapbookers in Australia ... I'm thinking of you!

taxes = done!

Whew! I e-filed our tax return today. Love that feeling every year at this time!

It's great to get that task off my mind. I mean, I always think we're getting a refund, but until you go through all the forms, you're never 100% sure, right? It always nags at me that we might owe. EEEK! That fear might be based on another year, before we bought our home, when we got hit with a big tax bill, and it wiped out part of what we had saved for a down payment! Horrible! So, once bitten...

And don't forget about this fun little page on the IRS's website: Where's My Refund? In this economy, I'm sure it'll get lots of hits.

Have a great week ...

it's Deborah's special day!

Happy birthday today to my sister-in-law, Deborah! She lives in Gulfport, Florida.

We wish you a fun and fabulous day, Deborah! :-)

Love,

Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

it's Sal's special day!

Happy birthday today to Sal, my sweetheart!

I hope you enjoy your day, and I look forward to celebrating with you! :-)

Love you,

Buddy update

Let me begin by thanking everyone for your kind comments here and in e-mails about Buddy, they were much appreciated. They really helped me through these difficult days of uncertainty.

Thankfully, I heard back from the vet today, and didn't have to wait through the weekend until Monday.

The report from the veterinary cardiologist states that Buddy indeed has a one-inch "mass" in one of his lungs. {sadness & tears}

The "good" news is that it's in the same location as the previous one, which seemed to be coming-and-going a year ago. The question is this ... is the mass benign or malignant? That's a tough one to answer, because the only way to find out is via "fine needle aspiration". That involves putting Buddy under anesthesia while a fine needle is guided by ultrasound into the mass in his lung. The needle withdraws a sample of the liquid and/or cells, which would then be analyzed in a lab.

Of course, this is a very invasive procedure and would put Buddy through a lot. And, in our eyes, it presents too much risk. This needle needs to be expertly guided such that no blood vessels, arteries, etc, are punctured, all while the heart is beating nearby and the lungs are moving up and down. The procedure could lead to huge problems if something went wrong ... blood build-up in the lung, etc. So, we've been weighing it all out.

But so far, we're leaning toward NOT doing the aspiration. What gives us comfort in this decision is that we think, and the specialist who does aspirations agrees with us to some degree, that if the mass were a malignant tumor, it would've created health issues for Buddy a while ago.

So, in a nutshell, I think at this point we're not comfortable with the aspiration procedure, and will take a "wait-and-see" approach. Buddy is not symptomatic, his cough is even more slight than it was a couple weeks ago. He coughs slightly once or twice a day now, and some days not at all.

We might have a consultation with another specialist who does these aspirations. And we'll set up an appt for more chest X-rays in 3 or 4 months, monitoring Buddy in the interim.

For now, although we're not sure what exactly is in Buddy's lung, it doesn't appear to be of immediate concern. Of course, there's never 100% certainty (and that's true even of aspiration results!), and that's what makes this all so difficult.

We just hope that we're doing the right thing for Buddy. He's our furry angel!

Thanks again, and enjoy the weekend ...

Buddy

Hi everyone ... I'm sad to say that our little Buddy had a hard day at the veterinarian's office today.

He has been coughing a bit lately, but only in the morning after waking up, and only for a little while. He's fine the rest of the day and night. Kind of odd, no? Although it seemed to be improving, I took him to the vet to be checked anyway, given his age (11) and that he has a history of cancer.

A chest X-ray revealed a growth either in or near his lung. My heart sank.

And there just happened to be an ultrasonagrapher in the vet's office today, so we opted to have her do an ultrasound of his heart and lungs. The images and X-rays were sent to a veterinary cardiologist, who will report back to our vet with a diagnosis. That could be as early as Friday. Oh, but it's so hard to wait!

Buddy had another growth in 2007 in the same location, and it subsided on its own. According to the vet, sometimes growths come and go, just like in humans. We're hoping that this new growth is also harmless, and that our little Buddy won't need any invasive treatments, surgery, etc. He has been through enough, the poor angel!

But for now, we have no choice but to wait ...

congratulations, Sal !!!

Sal's week is off to a great start ... he has been nominated for the 2009 Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award at Florida Atlantic University!!! WOO HOO, way to go Sal!

This is a very prestigious award, only one is given out per year, university-wide. So, it's an honor to be a nominee among the hundreds of faculty on campus. In 2006, Sal was named FAU's Researcher of the Year, so this teaching award would be another well-deserved accolade.

So proud of you, sweetheart!

Love,

it's Maria's special day!

Happy birthday today to Sal's cousin, Maria! She lives in Croydon, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia).

We wish you a fun and memorable day! :-)

Love,
Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

it's Jen's special day!

Happy birthday today to my sister-in-law, Jen, in Gulfport, Florida!

We wish you a fun and memorable day! :-)

Love,
Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

it's Rosemary's special day!

Happy 87th birthday today to my Grandma, Rosemary, in Leamington, Ontario, Canada!

We wish you a fun and memorable day! :-)

Love,
Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

President Obama

A bright future has begun today for America ...

Like many of you I'm sure, I watched Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th U.S. President earlier today. What a proud moment! I sincerely hope that this will usher in a new era of inclusion for our country, leaving behind a dark past of racial injustice and hatred. And the pain and suffering that so many endured because of it.

Today a man of African heritage became the American President on the steps of the U.S. Capitol that was so inhumanely built by slaves. How incredible is that?

weekend fun

Hey everyone, how was your weekend?

Sal and I packed a lot of fun into ours. :-)

Spent some time browsing at the bookstore, all while sipping on an iced chai tea from their cafe. Makes for a nice evening.

We enjoyed Sunday brunch with friends at an outdoor eatery in downtown Delray Beach. Almost as a bonus, an art fair was in full swing in downtown DB too, so we browsed through some cool exhibits. Afterwards, we strolled along the boardwalk in Green Cay Nature Center. What a spectacular way to enjoy the "natural Florida", with egrets and herons flying around us, and alligators and turtles sunning themselves. I love spending time there.

On Saturday night, we had gone to the movie theater hoping to see Slumdog Millionaire. It has won 4 Golden Globes and countless accolades, and although I knew all that, it didn't occur to me to buy our tickets ahead of time, and of course it was SOLD OUT. No duh Susan! Note To Self: buy tix for popular movies online, not at the box office! So I did buy them online for Sunday night to make sure we'd get to see it. I'm trying to think of the best words to describe the film ... excellent ... riveting ... moving ... energetic ... raw. And at times, difficult to watch. The story is presented as a series of flashbacks, which gave it more depth. I recommend it. Loved the music too!

Have a great week,

dreams do come true

"....I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character...."
MLK, 1963

Please take a moment on this holiday, Martin Luther King Jr Day, to reflect on Dr. King's message of equality and nonviolence.

Perhaps read the full, exact text of Dr. King's moving I Have A Dream speech. Or go HERE for a free audio lecture, Martin Luther King Jr: Stride Toward Freedom. To listen, you can download it to your computer, transfer it to your iPod or MP3 player, or burn it to a CD.

How amazing is it that we have all witnessed the historic election and (tomorrow) the inauguration of President Obama, when only 45 years ago Dr. King could only dream about such possibilities?

another sign of the times

Hey everyone & happy Friday!

Well, actually ... it's not totally happy for me ... I found out this morning that one of my fave magazines, Simple Scrapbooks, will be shutting down this summer. Ugh! They cited the economy, it's of course impacting every industry. They will publish only 2 more issues. You can read the SS official announcement on their blog. I'll miss it arriving in my mailbox.

P.S. ~ Wow, what a miracle yesterday on the Hudson River in NYC! Kudos to the pilots for saving all 155 lives onboard, and who knows how many on the ground?, by executing such a skilled water landing. I think all of us who travel, which almost always involves flying, think "what if?" now and then. May we all be fortunate enough to fly with a crew like that one.

Enjoy the weekend ...

it's Tricia's special day!

Happy birthday today to my sister-in-law, Tricia, in Gulfport, Florida!

We wish you a fun and memorable day!

Love,

Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

the winner!

Congratulations to Claudia, Sal's cousin in Bensalem, Pennsylvania! (that's near Philadelphia) She was the first to contact me about my "blog-a-versary" (see my previous post).

Her "prize" is my $25 donation to her charity of choice, Samaritan's Purse. This organization is run by Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, and provides international relief. Claudia told me how she and a group of other moms have participated many times in the Samaritan's Purse project called "Operation Christmas Child", which delivers shoeboxes filled with goodies to children in need. Each child gets his/her own shoebox ... and a bit of joy. What a wonderful concept!

If you would like to learn how to pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child (they're accepted year-round!), please click HERE.

Thanks Claudia, and everyone, for celebrating with me today! :-)