Potted Frog

click photo to enlarge

For My World Tuesday I put up a Cottonwood photo that was not yet in full autumn regalia, so I thought it might be a good time to post a yellow one–against our blue sky.

Our “monsoon season” appears to be over for real, so our skies look like this pretty much every day. The sunrises and sunsets are very pretty, but they are exactly the same every day. So my choices are to find something interesting to put in front of the sky or go into the archives. Today I thought this was interesting enough.

Below is a not-so-good picture of the “green mile” which is now the  “yellow” mile–the river valley filled with Cottonwood trees. I took it by holding my camera in the appropriate direction while I was driving, thus the bit of askew-ness.

click photo to enlarge

For those last week who expressed concern over my camera lens–I am still without an 18-55 mm lens. I am trying to decide if I want to replace it or get an 18-200 mm lens. I need to do something soon because shooting sky pictures only with my 55-200 lens is a bit of a challenge at times!

To see LOTS more terrific sky pictures,  head to the SkyWatch blog hosted by  Sandy , Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Klaus.

This was SO. MUCH. FUN for me!!!

Why? Because it let me see what some of you like and what some of you think about me.

But first, let me tell you about something else that has affected this contest.

Last Sunday was my daughter’s Fall Festival. (This is a mini carnival of sorts.) It is an annual fundraiser, and I was in charge of it this year. One of the activities was a Silent Auction. When we decided there would be a Silent Auction, all people involved were supposed to bring 3-5 items to be auctioned. These items would come from businesses that the people themselves do business with–hair dressers, oil change places, etc. There were also supposed to be quite a few items left over from the last silent auction. I personally drummed up 6 items, but guess what! No one else drummed up ANYTHING! I thought it would be OK because of the previous stuff, but when I was putting it all together on Friday, I realized there were only five items from the previous auction. What should I do?

I do not like asking anyone for anything, so the fact that I had six contributions myself was enormous. It was too late to have Prince Charming do my work for me. So I decided to make a couple of things and donate something else I had already made.

But THEN guess what! NO ONE BOUGHT THOSE THINGS. I am not even offended by this because I realize the type of crowd I am apparently dealing with (starting with sad lack of volunteers and continuing with kids who came to do my activities on Sunday without tickets of any kind with their parents looking at me like I was crazy for expecting them to have tickets). So what this means is that I am including two of the three auction items in this giveaway! (I selfishly kept one of them that I REALLY liked and cannot duplicate because it was made out of retired items that I entirely used in the process of its creation.)

Here are the new items that are now included in the giveaway:

Thanksgiving Shadow Box--click to enlarge

"JOY" Pennant Banner--click to enlarge--the letters are in chunky clear/white glitter

So instead of one winner, there are three! I am so excited by this I can hardly stand it!

The first winner is the only person who correctly guessed my favorite card. Here is the favorite:

I mentioned that this is quite unlike me, but I have to say I love the color combination here. They are not even the colors to which I am normally drawn, but I just like it. I also like the layout. This card makes me happy.

And here is the winner:

(NOT my handwriting!)

Painted Maypole gets first pick of what she wants.

The thing about your responses that made them so interesting is that lots of you guessed what my favorite SHOULD have been. Here are three that could have easily been my favorites, and people who know me well would have chosen one of these.

Because I love trees and leaves.

I love the sparkle as well as the subtle coloring on this one.

Everyone loves this; why wouldn't I?

So the next drawing was from the people who guessed the customer favorite correctly. There were seven of you who correctly identified that card which was Pretty Amazing (the one with the butterfly above). Those seven are Chrome 3D, Jeri, Shimmy Mom, Stacy, Lynn, Jessica, Stephany and Christopher. (Apologies to Stacy and Christopher for whom I had no readily available URL’s.)

Here is the winner of that drawing:

(Prince Charming did the drawings.)

The cute thing about this is she sent me an e-mail before her trip telling me to just leave her prize on the doorstep because she knew she would win.

Well, Jeri, YOU MIGHT get a choice. I’ll have to get back to you. If Painted Maypole chooses the Shadow Box, you get your choice of the remaining items. But I regret to inform you that if she does not, you get a paper item because I cannot afford to ship the shadow box to you. Unless POSSIBLY it is somewhat reasonable to a base and I can ship it there, but the US Postal Service has started shipping based on distance which is not pleasant even within the “lower 48.” We’ll talk.

So the last drawing was from everyone who entered. And I do not really apologize that you will get whatever is left because in theory you would not have gotten ANYTHING. So I hope you love what is left, because I do. The winner of the drawing from everyone is:

I just have to say that Jan leaves me the nicest comments, and I KNOW that even if she hates what I am sending her, she will say something lovely about it. She is just a wonderful lady!

One final note. Whomever gets the Shadow Box will have to wait until after November 6 for shipment because I am having a class for making it on that date and need it for an example. It will hopefully ship right away on the 7th. (Prince Charming is my shipper, so I am somewhat limited by his work schedule which has apparently been extra crazy lately. I believe him because I have not been getting lots of e-mails from him with articles to read–for which I never had time–and cartoons.)

This was so much fun for me that I think I might start stock-piling things to do it again in the future. I am not sure if it will always be a contest, but I will think of something.

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments and especially to the ones who entered!

Note: I wrote this to post yesterday, but forgot about the My World meme. (Scroll down if that is why you are here.) So it’s today. But I was too tired too lazy did not feel like changing all the references about “yesterday, etc.” to make sense. If something does not make sense, then think about it a day earlier… or just get over it! (I am certain many things I write/say do not make sense!)

You just might be a redneck if… you are a mom.

Since I have been a mom, it has been a rare day that I can remember to put sunscreen on all exposed parts of my body. My children are always slathered in sunscreen. Chic has red hair and Chicklet has somewhat strawberry blonde hair (definitely reddish), and they have the skin to match. Neither has ever been really sunburned in her life. I never forget to put sunscreen on every exposed inch of THEM. But since they came along, their mother gets one or two good sunburns a year. Sometimes I forget to put it on entirely. However, I usually remember to put it on; I just miss an area. Yesterday it was my neck and chest. This is the result:

no photo enhancement; this is real

It was the annual Fall Fesitval for Chic’s school. It was a PERFECT day. It was hot, even for me. (I had two snow cones.) I wore several layers and was down to the sleeveless shirt before it even started. (I was in charge of the event and was there early to set up my own portion and direct everyone else.) My arms are not burned. My face is not burned. But I completely forgot my chest and neck when I was applying sunscreen.  Those children suck out brain cells when they are inside of us, and somehow there must be an invisible umbilical cord remaining to suck out more after they leave us.

If you knew the lengths I go to with what I wear to avoid a “farmer tan” or red neck, you would understand why this is so irritating to me.

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Card Giveaway

I will schedule a post of the results from the giveaway to go up on Wednesday when I am not here. This has been a lot of fun for me, and I hope it has for you, too!

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Why I am So Far Behind with Blogging

In my very short time blogging, I will be the first to tell anyone that it is OK to get behind, to not post, to not visit, to not do any blogging at all because we blog about life, life is not blogging. However, I for some reason feel the need to explain why I am so far behind, and some of you have not “seen” me in 3 or 4 weeks.

Do you know that in Google Reader, when you have more than 1000 new posts to read, it just says “1000+?” Well it does. This morning it said that. I quickly skimmed enough things that I just “look at” to get it to a number I could figure out, and there were 1066 in my reader this morning. A month ago this would have made me CRAZY, but 1-1/2 weeks ago, there were 1356 in there. In the past 1-1/2 weeks, I have gotten it into the low 600’s, but more keep coming, and there is just too much going on here. This is what it is…

First, I was on a trip to Missouri. (Oh yes, before that I had guests here.) I do this twice a year for business reasons and to spend time with my family. While there, I have computer access most of the time, but the time to do anything more than check important e-mails (which is not even the e-mail address for my blogging) is quite limited. While there, we play and visit.

Chicklet and "Boots"

So I came back and put a little effort into trying to catch up, but my life is a busy one. No, I do not work outside of my home, but I have a home business. Although it is not as on fire as it was a couple of years ago, it is at the limit of what I can handle these days. Last week I had three events relating to it. THREE! I usually try to limit it to one, but things just happened that way.

In addition to the business, I teach art weekly at Chic’s school. This is all day on Wednesdays. It is my third year doing this (Chic was not even a student there when I started), and it is a volunteer position. I really like doing it most of the time, but it is an entire day every week that nothing in my private life gets accomplished. This year is better than last because I have one less class (which means most of the time I actually have time between classes to tear down and set up for the next one), and I give students art grades rather than their teachers giving them grades for my class. (Which means that I have more leverage in class for their sometimes unruly behavior. But the Kindergarten teacher has shared with me that after parent-teacher conferences, one parent is quite angry with me and wants a meeting because his child got an A- in art. I will not elaborate on this other than to say that I grade on attendance, behavior and following instructions. I do not grade on ability–which I would like to do sometimes, but I am sure the parents would really flip out over that.)

On Wednesday nights Chic and Chicklet have a program at church called Pathfinders. It is similar to Boy Scouts/Girls  Scouts, but it is co-ed. In addition to this, in order for the kids to not get home at unreasonable hours on a school night, they start early–too early for some to go home after work, so there is food at this event. Who do you think makes the food? I trade off with one other person, and last week was “my” week. (It was not really my week, but it seems I get a few more than the other. I think it is because I “don’t work.”) So last week I was entirely tied up Monday-Thursday with my business, art, and Pathfinders. I forgot to mention we have to go to gymnastics after school on Tuesdays (it is a school program, but not at the school), and do not get home until 6. You can imagine when I made the food for Wednesday night. (I didn’t. Prince Charming did it this time.)

Friday I spent the day tying up loose ends for Fall Festival. My problem with THIS part of my life is that volunteers are scarce. At the last minute we had plenty food for the event, but we never had QUITE enough activities because we just did not have enough volunteers. I personally “manned” three separate activities. Prince Charming was in charge of two. (Which meant our kids were largely unattended, so we just spent a fortune buying them tickets so they would be entertained. Now we have PILES of loot that they won… PILES. (We could do our own carnival with their winnings.)

Saturday is a rest day for us. But Saturday night, we had a Pathfinder function to attend. It is not normal for those things to happen on Saturday night–maybe once or twice a year, but wouldn’t you know it would be the day before Fall Festival?

The Fall Festival was good. I do not know the money intake yet, but it seemed to be well-attended. It is only my second year of involvement with it, so I do not have a lot to which to compare it.

The point is, I had a LOOOONG week.

But the good news is that this week is much better. NO business events. NO Pathfinders. (I do not know why it is canceled, but I will never complain about that.) Nothing other than some Halloween activities. So after I catch up with bill paying and my Church treasurer job and some organizing stuff I need to do, I will attack the blogging thing. But the best thing about getting so far behind is that I can handle numbers in the hundreds on my reader.  I can go to bed without a second thought with an overflowing reader. So I guess all this activity has had its benefits.  But I am EXTRA glad it is over (for now–I have lots of projects coming up-but I have a week “off”… sort of.)

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The Dress

One last note. I got the dress. It IS pretty.  The color is nice, and it does not look horrible on me, and it actually fits in the hips (surprise), BUT, I cannot zip it up. I have always had a large rib cage, but after children, it expanded. It just will not zip. They are going to exchange it for a larger size, which IF it zips up will likely mean I have to alter the rest to be smaller. I will keep you posted. And that reminds me. Your comments on that were SO funny! I did not have time to reply (see above), but I am replying today within the comments, so check it out if you would like. (There are comments about SkyWatch in there because I do not know how to move the comments from the top to the bottom, so you will just have to skip over those.)

And check back tomorrow to see the results of the Giveaway! I’ll be posting 4 days in a row this week. How crazy am I? (Don’t get used to it!)

I wrote a whole post for today explaining my blogging absence and catching you up on some things, then I remembered that My World Tuesday is really on Monday for me.

So there will be another post tomorrow. It is already finished!

Last week I showed you a picture of our mountain which is one of the defining things about where I live. Another is Cottonwood trees. They are not everywhere; they are mostly in the river valley. But they are big and impressive and have so much “personality.” (I love trees.) There are all kinds of things around named for them (even a mall). In the Spring, it seems like it is snowing from the “cotton” that comes from them.

click photo to enlarge

Right now, since we got frost last week, the river valley is yellow from the mile-wide section of Cottonwood trees that stretch as far north and south as the eye can see.

The above tree is on the edge of a pond at a local trout farm. We had a field trip there about 3 weeks ago, so the tree has just the first hints of yellow on it.

I hope to show you more Cottonwood trees in the future. In the winter, without leaves, they are amazing things.

My World is a brand new meme put on by the same people who do SkyWatch Friday. Go check it out and see the worlds of other people!

click photo to enlarge

This was taken on Monday, which started out with an amazing sunrise (for a later post), then had these clouds in the early part of the day, then some really interesting other clouds later, then an amazing thunderstorm cloud at sunset (at which point my damaged camera lens completely quit working). It was an incredible day!

To see LOTS more terrific sky pictures,  head to the SkyWatch blog hosted by Tom, Sandy , Imac , Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Klaus.

I am 43 years old. My age is not something I am afraid to tell people. My weight, on the other hand, is a giant secret (one which at the moment I do not even know).

I have been gone all day–about 14 hours. Well, I was  home for about 45 minutes in the afternoon. Anyway, I was just checking my e-mail to see if there was anything pressing because I am tired and want to go to bed. But I got an e-mail that made me laugh so hard, it just seemed “blog-worthy” to me.

This was the attachment (taken with a camera phone, I assume):

You don't WANT to click to enlarge!!

This is a dress like one I am supposed to wear in a wedding in March. Are you laughing, too? It is strapless. Please, people! I am in relatively good shape, but I am no Supermodel or even non-Supermodel! I have NEVER worn strapless dresses–even in my young, willowy days. My dress has already been purchased. (The bride, by the way, saw this for the first time just a few hours before I did–also after the dresses had been purchased. Another wearer of said dress was on a trip where inexpensive clothing could be obtained. Am I crazy to think it is a little too fitted to be purchased without my trying it on?)

My weightlifting routine has been sadly neglected since last winter. Apparently it is time to kick it back into high gear.

OH NO!!! I just, as I was typing, realized something else. In March, every shred of my desert tan will be GONE! I am of Irish descent, and my skin is a clear indicator of that. What am I going to look like in March in a celery strapless dress? (Mind you everyone else but one in the wedding is of Hispanic descent. Their beautiful skin will look lovely next to this color. Mine will look hideous potentially a little pasty hideous.)

I just quit laughing. Now I am crying.

I may as well add here that I was doing a pretty fair job of catching up on blogs after my trip. But I will not be home a whole lot until Monday without a major project going on. I WILL get there. It is just taking a very long time a while.

On a happier note, if you have not done so already, please check out my card giveaway post here. You have until October 27 to enter.

click photo to enlarge

This is a picture at sunset of the Sandia Mountains. This mountain is one of the most defining things about where I live. It is always there. People know what direction they are going by looking at it. It can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the sprawling city. It creates weather from time to time and usually looks good in pictures. Even though I am used to it and sometimes take it for granted, it still has a massive beauty of its own.

My World is a brand new meme put on by the same people who do SkyWatch Friday. Go check it out and see the worlds of other people!

For my regular readers, if you haven’t checked the post below, please do so if you have a moment!

World Cardmaking Day was October 4. I am only posting about it now because I want to show you what I did. At the time, I did not have time to post. We had guests in town. It was a special event weekend at church. It was Balloon Fiesta. There was too much going on.

For this annual event (this is the second year I have been aware of it), I have a Pajama Party. I invite all my customers to come to my house in their pajamas from 8 p.m. to midnight where they will find piles of supplies and tools to make cards. I try to have 8-10 different cards. This year I had 10, and I found a few leftovers from a workshop I had done earlier, so I put the stuff out for that.

The rules are they can make as many as they want of any card (there is enough stuff in each pile for 10-20 cards, depending on my supplies and whims) for $1/card, until supplies for that card run out. If one person wants to use up everything for one card and there is nothing left for anyone else, that is fine. No one has done that, but those are the rules. Some people come and make 4 or 5 cards. Some people make 20. Some people make one of everything. Some people only make the ones they really love or know they need.

So what about the giveaway? Well, I have wanted to do a giveaway for a long time because I LOVE giving things away.  I love giving away the produce from my garden, things I bake, things I make, just about anything. I have been hesitant to do so here because I do not want it to seem like I am just trying to get extra traffic or comments or whatever. (Not that I think that is what is going on with every blog giveaway, but I know it can be perceived that way, so I have avoided it.)

But then The Farmer’s Wife gave me an idea by not having people “sign up” through comments, but through an e-mail. So that is what I decided to do. Below I will show you all the cards that my customers made at the World Cardmaking Day Pajama Party (none of which were my original ideas, but I do not think any of them were EXACTLY like the ones I used as inspiration), and if you would like to win one of each card, you can e-mail me (louisestamps at aol dot com)… but there is a catch! To be eligible to win, you have to guess which one was my favorite! (Hint. If I were guessing, and I know ME quite well, I probably would guess incorrectly.) I will choose a winner from the people who guess my favorite correctly.

BUT, since I am not sure how many people will even want these cards enough to guess, and how many of those will guess correctly, you must guess also which was the most popular with the customers. (It is a different one than my favorite.)

If no one guesses either of those correctly, then I will just draw a name from everyone who entered.

Before I show you the cards, let me say that I am not discouraging comments, but in order to enter this contest, you must send an e-mail. I will not take entries from the comments. Back to commenting, I always love your comments, so please do not hesitate to do so if you wish, and if you think I this is cheap way to try to get traffic or comments (though I am trying for it NOT to be), you can let me know that as well. (But please be polite. I am a big girl and can take criticism, but prefer if it is done politely.) I have in mind some other giveaways I would like to do periodically (more cards and also other stuff), but will refrain if it seems to be a negative thing.

So here are the cards!

1 - Die-Cut Pumpkin

2 - Fresh Cuts

3 - Harvest Home

4 - Owl Together Now

5 - Pretty Amazing

6 - Simply Sent Holiday

7 - Stitched Exotics

8 - It's a Sign

9 - With Gratitude (Leaves)

10 - Snowburst

11 - Die-Cut Frankenstein

If you would like a set of these (one of each), e-mail me at: louisestamps at aol dot com with:

1) Which one you think is my favorite.

2) Which one you think was the most popular with my customers.

And, it is OK if you want to enter but do not live in the U.S. This will not be terribly heavy so should not cost a fortune to send, but do not expect me to send it the fastest method if you should win!

Since I have a completely insane 7 days ahead of me, I will leave this open through Monday, October 27.

Edited: If you would like to leave a comment, please tell me YOUR favorite. I always like to know what things other people like.

click photo to enlarge

Just back from Missouri. It was a quick, but fun trip. Although southwest Missouri skies are not always as spectacular as New Mexico skies (probably a lot to do with humidity and trees that hide the skies from view), October is a terrific month for the sky there. These are not the most remarkable pictures in my sky files, but they are not bad, and it was what I saw this week.

click on photo to enlarge

The first photo was taken five minutes before the second photo. I could not believe this myself and had to look at the information on the photos to be sure. The first was from my dad’s driveway. He lives on a hill and has a pretty decent view of the sunrise as well as the sunset. The second was taken while I was driving, and I cannot 100% determine the direction. The road in it makes me think it is toward the southwest, but I think there should be more color in it if that were the case. I am just not sure.

If you are a regular reader and have not seen the last post, you might enjoy it. Prince Charming wrote it and reveals some of my finer “qualities.”

I am gradually catching up on visiting all of you, but Sky Watch will make the progress a little slower. It will happen, eventually. I have been immensely enjoying immersing myself in your photography and writing as I catch up!

Have a lovely weekend! My skies now are deep, deep blue and clear.

To see LOTS more terrific sky pictures,  head to the SkyWatch blog hosted by Tom, Sandy , Imac , Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Klaus.

Edited:  I finally figured out which road was in the second picture. The direction it was taken is northwest–with a little more slant toward the west. That explains the lighter color a little better!

Louise is in another state right now, with the girls, doing some business and visiting family.  I thought I might take this opportunity to put up a post of my own, a “guest post,” as it were.  Not too surprising, I get to read most of Louise’s posts before they get published, and if any typos sneak through, those are obviously my fault (duh).  So this is MY chance…

But this post is about something other than stamping, or food, or bicycling, or SkyWatch, or any of that stuff.  This is about Louise herself — and how she attempts to control certain aspects of her life.  Like most of us, Louise likes to be comfortable (and Louise would insist on me ensuring that we pronounce all four syllables: com-for-ta-ble.  No sloppy speech allowed.)  Anyway, as I said, Louise likes to be com-for-ta-ble.  Unfortunately, the celestial forces that have to align for this to happen are the stuff that Nostradamus might try to write about (not that I buy his scribblings — I do not).  I am just trying to point out how remote, and somewhat cloudy, the exact requirements are for Louise to indeed get comfortable. 

Let’s start with the temperature — in the car, in the house, wherever.  Sure, we all want to be not too hot, not too cold.  Like Goldilocks, we like it “just right.”  And so most of us have a temperature range within which we can be comfortable (say it with me…).  This is true of Louise, but in my experience, the cooler limit is actually above the warmer limit.  In other words, while some of us have a temperature range this wide:

Others have a range like this:

Louise is more like this:

And whether she is hot or cold, air (hopefully of the opposite temperature) CANNOT be blowing on her.  Room fans, in general, are for other people.  Now, this might not be too bad, but I am almost always warm.  I prefer a cooler temperature and sort of like cool air blowing — if nothing else just to move the air around in the house.  Needless to say, this is diametrically opposed to conflicts slightly with Louise’s desires for her immediate environment.  To further complicate this situation and despite her aversion to blowing air, Louise likes to have windows open for fresh air (which I do not mind, if it’s not hot outside).  To be fair, though, Louise is adamant about keeping a freezing South-pole-like fairly cool house — in the winter.  She is “cheap” in this area.   It saves money on heating.

You all know Louise likes to cook and eat.  I am truly blessed to enjoy healthy, delicious food on a daily basis (just check out my waistline).  However, Mexican food is one of Louise’s favorites.  But it can’t be too hot.  Wait, let me rephrase that, it is probably already too hot.  No matter how “not hot” you might think that salsa is, it’s too hot for Louise.  Her palate is hyper-sensitive.  I often have to try some food item, and always the salsa, to determine the level of discomfort it might bring to Louise’s delicate mouth.  Honestly, I can try something in which I can detect no heat at all (none; zilch; zip; nada), and she practicaly has to spit it out because it burns her mouth so badly.  And she loves Mexican food — really, she does.  I’m just not sure how.

And we live in the Southwest now, so you’d think she’d be in gastronomic heaven — somewhere, someone must have mild food, right?  But we live in New Mexico, which has its own style of food, where everything is almost always smothered in red or green chile sauce.  And is too hot.  All of it — trust me, we’ve tried them.  Still, she finds ways to accommodate, and she does OK.  But, whenever she leaves the state, a “real” Mexican restaurant is likely on the list of places to stop.

And Louise also likes to travel.  She’s always up for an adventure — the more off the beaten path, the better.  On top of this, Louise is always going to new addresses in our home town as she shares her passion for stamping with others.  And as much as she likes to go to new places, locally or around the world, Louise does NOT ask for directions.  Ever.  That’s my job.  [N.B.: I think this is one of the reasons she married me.  I’ll give the complete list of reasons in my next guest post.]  She does not like to plan routes (again, my job), check weather/traffic (me, too), or make hotel arrangements (even if she is traveling alone).  It sometimes gets to nearly absurd extremes.  If she’s out headed for a stamping event, running out of time, Louise will call ME to look on some online map service to find her destination and route, rather than stopping to ask directions.  It’s a little kooky, but it does allow me to “come to the rescue” on occasion.  So I don’t mind so much.

And I think most of you are aware of how friendly and genuinely compassionate Louise is.  You’d think she would thrive on interactions with people.  Think again.  (Yes, that would be my job.)  Whether it is having to call anyone for anything, or perhaps having to go in to some establishment (store, office, pharmacy, etc.) to actually talk to a person, Louise will exert every effort to find another way to resolve the situation. This means online ordering and paying, self-checkout (one or her favorite inventions) or sending ME to take care of it.  And the simple explanation for my involvement in this?  Because I am the designated “people person.”  You see, in real life (not blog life) Louise is abysmally quiet and shy quite reserved and very much an introvert.  I, on the other hand, am a fully functional human being, able to move comfortably (com-for-ta-bly) among and through society.  People are generally a source of great amusement for me, and so they do not weigh me down much at all.  As a result, the cost is much lower for me to interact with the rest of the idiots in the world humanity, and so (most of the time) I am forced to glad to step in and remove this burden from my spouse.

So, you see, Louise is in many ways a walking contradiction.  She loves people, but deplores interacting with them in real life.  She always wants the temperature to be comfortable (you can pronounce it properly now), but it never seems quite right and no matter what, no air can be blowing on her.  Louise is one of the most adventurous people I know, yet the actual mechanics of figuring out where one is and how to get to the next destination seems to be beneath her.  (Don’t get me wrong. She has a marvelous sense of direction and can read a map quite well. Which she has been known to purchase rather than asking directions, but…) And Mexican food is her favorite; she just can’t eat most of it. 

But despite these potential areas of friction between us, I love how we complement each other (that’s complement with an “e” — we do say nice things to each other, but that’s not what I’m getting at).  Living with Louise is never dull.  I can’t imagine anyone better. 

Unless she looked more like Angelina Jolie.  And were rich.  And really liked football. 

But that’s another post.

by Prince Charming