Peace Joy Hope

Cookies, candles, bells and stars, friends and family, light and love this winter season. See you in 2008.

Daemons and tigers and bears!

Oh my!

Hmmm ... I couldn't resist "meeting my daemon" at the Golden Compass movie site, and look! It turns out my daemon and I have multiple personality disorder. We are solitary, modest, leaders, softly spoken and assertive. I feel mildly dizzy from attempting to reconcile of some of those traits. But, what the heck, I love my osprey daemon, Archeleron! Maybe he will share his fish. Yum, fish.

So, anyhow, watch out bad guys or Archeleron will show you what the word "predator" means!

Deck the humbug with boughs of jolly

I've had a change of heart. That's right, MizMagee is overflowing with holiday spirit, humming Christmas carols and, with gay abandon, is flinging brightly colored wrapping paper over thoughtfully chosen gifts. Who'd have guessed?

Such was not the case back on the day after Halloween, when the best that could be said was that I was merrily snarling at the sight of the seasonal aisles at Fred Meyers which glittered in red, white and green tacky plastic Christmas kitsch, and I was left wondering whatever happened to Thanksgiving. Nor was it the case when I discovered that groups of Fairbanksans were wearing pins that said, "You may wish me a Merry Christmas." I had a sudden, deep desire to wear a pin that said, "You may wish me a Happy Holiday, but don't expect me to get all giggly about it."

But that's all changed since I attended the Tanana Valley Farmer's Market Christmas Bazaar. While ecumenical holiday music, played at a tasteful volume, floated overhead (a subliminal message I fall for every time), smiling people, clutching giant bags of carrots, bent over to inspect the handicrafts or gathered in small herds to chat with friends. There were booths of shiny beaded jewelry and warm, fuzzy hats and scarves. There were glistening baked goods studded with cranberries! And, invisible to me, there was a slight mist of holiday spirit drifting about in the air and - I breathed it! Plus, I scored a dozen local eggs, a nice fat winter squash, a big jar of honey and a bag of purple potatoes. Ho-ho-ho!

P.S. Title for the photo above is "Advent Colander." You may groan now. And did I mention I wish you a Merry Happy Holiday Solstice Kwanza Christmas Hanukka, whatever makes you dance, season? I hope its full of joy and possibly even purple potatoes!

It's all about meme

Is there such a thing as blogger's block? 'Cause I think I have it. So, anyway, since I can't think of anything brilliant to write (as opposed to the previous, dazzling 50+ posts), I decided to perpetrate yet another annoying blog meme by listing The Ten Things Most People Don't Know About Me and then tagging three unfortunate victims and hoping they'll share the love. So here goes:

1. I have experience inoculating oranges.
2. Both of my thumbs are double jointed.
3. I know what kiln furniture is and how to us it.
4. My first paid job was spending an interminable evening inventorying cosmetics at Macy's.
5. On a road trip from South Dakota to Colorado, I got lost and ended up in Nebraska.
6. My music collection includes performances by Vladimir Horowitz, the Sons of the Pioneers, Elton John and Kermit the Frog.
7. I can't see the eye chart without my glasses, but I can count fingers at 6 feet.
8. If there's reincarnation, I want to come back as a dolphin.
9. I can read a sphygmomanometer, measure your depth of field and irrigate a surgical site.
10. I wasn't always a geezerette (see photo for documentation of this preposterous fact.)

Okay, got that out of my system! Now I'm tagging Robyn, Roger, and Paul. Well, and just to make it more obnoxious, I'm tagging anybody else who reads this (in the unlikely event anyone else actually does that). Go forth and write blog entries listing 10 secret things about yourself, then tag 3 more victims. Yes, it's almost like a chain letter! Now send up heartfelt prayers that I get my writing groove back, so you can merely be bored instead of bored and irritated.