Magnetic Musings

I received a set of magnetic words from a friend for Christmas and put them on my filing cabinet at work. So far most of the musings have been mine but this morning I saw a new one. Thinking it might be fun or at least moderately amusing to share the random and anonymous musings of myself and my co-workers I have decided to post them on ocassion.

What do you get the person who has everything?

These days of instant gratification ensure that when shopping for your loved ones you will be certain to get them something that they went out and bought for themselves on Black Friday or Cyber Monday because the sales were just too good to pass up. Then there are the post Christmas long return lines to wait in if you can even find the receipt that you carefully stored somewhere you would be sure not to forget.

No longer! I can guarantee that they won't have this! The solution is right in your own home, sleeping on your pillow, sitting on a windowsill or possibly coughing up a hairball for you to find later, in the dark, in your bare feet.

Your cat!





Crafting with Cat Hair: Cute Handicrafts to Make with Your Cat by Kaori Tsutaya is no joke and they don’t use hairball hair. These crafts are made by first brushing your feline friend and storing the hair until you have enough to felt. Then you use the felt as you would any other felted animal hair such as sheep’s wool, alpaca, and etc. It’s very clever and very eco-friendly.

The projects are small gift type things because, well, cats are small so you don’t get as much fur. There are finger puppets and scarf embellishments, pins, and a little felted cat to cover that hole in your favorite sweater because you didn’t want it to smell like moth balls. (Really, who could blame you?)

In between projects are tidbits of information such as suggestions for grooming a reluctant cat, keeping cats happy and healthy, and the origin of the author’s using cat hair in the first place. If you are a true cat lover your favorite part will undoubtedly be the bios or all the “contributors.”

If you want more check out her blog, http://nekoke.com/ (The Cat Hair Craft Room) but remember that unless you can read Japanese you’ll simply have to enjoy the pictures but there are some really cute projects in those pictures.

Useless Knowledge: Christmas Edition

Love your articficial Christmas tree?

The first artificial trees were made in Germany in the late 1800s using goose or other feathers sometimes dyed green to resemble pine needles.

But the real innovation came in the early 1900s in America when the Addis Brush Company decided they had a better more permanent solution to making artificial trees. One crazy employee must have been looking at the brush he was making and said, "Hey, this would make a good tree!"

It makes more sense when you know that the Addis Brush Company manufactured toilet brushes.

See the resemblance?


They obtained the patent for the "Silver Pine" in 1950. I think someone in my family had one of these. It was designed to have the rotating light underneath changing the color of the tree.

Thus the modern day artificial Christmas tree was born. Only now-a-days we call them permanent life-like. I guess it sounds more positive. I say it's fake tree and doesn't shed needles on my carpet so I love it!

Best thing is now I know what to do if the toilet desperatly needs cleaned and I run out of those handy dandy wand thingies.

Useless Knowledge:

A Polar bear's skin is black.


Their fur is actually colorless and hollow. The limited heat from the sun is collected in the hollow hairs and transmitted down to the bear's skin which, due to it's dark color absorbs the heat keeping them nice and toasty even in frigid waters.



Also, compared to other bears their ears are small and close to the head so they won't freeze.






And they have bumps on their feet to keep them from slipping on the ice and snow.


I wonder if that where they got the idea to put little non-slip bumps on socks?



I love how God made them perfectly suited for their climate.

I have saved a lot of animals in my life. Let's see there was (were):

*a baby robin that had fallen out of it's nest

*turtles crossing the street and a huge one in a parking lot

*a baby flying squirrel (Sooo CUTE!!!)

*a big dog running around in a parking lot

*stray cats (my sweet Madeleine, and an orange tabby kitten from under a car now named Hans)

*many toads from being squished in the street

*even a spider or two that I made my Dad put outside so they at least had a fighting chance (it was winter...

...I was little)

But I had to laugh at myself the other day when I went into a school and noticed a pretty large slug on the sidewalk slimming in squggly circles and felt bad for it. See it was going to be a pretty hot day, the concrete was a very light color and the slug was going to dry out and die a horrible death. So I picked it up (eww I might add, they are not slimy but sticky) and placed it in the grass so it could wriggle down under the grass and stay cool.

You want empathy, I'm your gal.

The BMV and me

At the beginning of summer this year I was pulled over by the police while leaving the bank. Didn't rob the bank. Not going the speed limit yet so not speeding. What in the world?

I have been pulled over a total of three times in my many years of driving so it's safe to say I'm not usually doing anything to warrant a ticket. I even joked with the officer that I couldn't have been speeding because I had, as I mentioned, just pulled out of a parking lot. He said, "No, not speeding yet." Why exactly did he feel he needed to add the "yet" to that statement. I felt like he might follow me home just to be sure that I didn't start. Anyhow...

Turns out that my plates were expired and had been since the previous October. In the past I have always gotten a friendly reminder in the mail or more recently in e-mail telling me that renewal was coming up so I could stay on top of things but it seems these notifications are a courtesy of the BMV (Let me restate, I have ALWAYS gotten them) and they are under no obligation to remind me of anything. Fair enough. Not happy about it but okay.

I paid the $116.00 ticket. Yikes! Wrote the renewal date in this year's calendar, added a reminder to my phone and just for good measure stuck post-it notes in my car and on my computer screen.

About a month later I received mail informing me of the new renewal changes. Another month and I received an e-mail reminding me that my plates would expire in October. Then I received one telling me that my license would expire this year and that I could renew any time after July. A  whole year ahead of time. Just last week I received yet another e-mail reminding me about the plates.

Sheesh...

No warning. No bodies. Just gone.

How do you react when the people you love disappear without warning? How does the world react when millions have suddenly vanished into thin air? What do you do with the fact that you are still here?

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta is not a book about the rapture. The disappearances may or may not have been the rapture it doesn't really matter. It is more a book about the ways in which people deal with grief and loss and the things turned to in order to fill the empty space. It's about trying to comprehend the incomprehensible.

I enjoyed this book although I felt there was very little positive about the ways Perrotta portrayed his characters and their grief processes. Some of his characters turn to religious fanaticism but not one of them turns to true faith. Even the evangelical preacher becomes a fanatic turning on his own in his efforts to justify his being left behind. Others fill the void with rebellious acts or wander aimlessly latching onto anything that can give their life meaning. It is a long wait for one bright ray of hope.

The characters are well flushed out and I did care what happened to them. I was saddened by the choices they made. The book is fast paced and easy to read but if you are looking for a spiritual journey then this may not be the book for you.