Spam A Lot

Yes, I'm getting it.  Alot. 

After almost three years of blogging, I'm suddenly receiving spam, some of it creepy with weird, non- sensical sentences; some of it in a foreign language with suspicious links and some of it friendly comments ending with links to sex sites and escort services. 

We've all received the odd looking comments in an Arabic appearing alphabet.  It may very well be Arabic but I don't know how to translate that! 

Now I'm receiving daily crap which I have to moderate.  I'm wondering if this is because I removed the word verification? 

Advice anyone? 

Tina Fey Thanks Sarah Palin (in part) for Mark Twain Prize for Humor

Watch the full episode. See more Mark Twain Prize.

Monday Funny

Why Dinosaurs are Extinct or the First Senior Moment



Theme Thursday Relax

Beach Chairs by Laura Trevey

 re·lax   /rɪˈlæks/

–verb (used without object)

6. to become less tense, rigid, or firm.

7. to become less strict or severe; grow milder.

8. to reduce or stop work, effort, application, etc., esp. for the sake of rest or recreation.

9. to release oneself from inhibition, worry, tension, etc.

Man!  I am the last person you want to hear from regarding "relax" because I do not know how.  I have been a hyper, worried, skitzy, thinks too much, glass-is-half-empty person my entire life.  I have spent years and dollars and time seeking ways to relax, from physical therapy to yoga to psychological counseling to drugs to exercise to drinking and now, back to yoga/exercise.  Do I have a magic answer?  Hell no!

I have been a nail biter, teeth grinder, stomach churning mess whose primary saving grace is to constantly seek ways to help myself.  Otherwise, I'd be an alcoholic with a drug problem and no teeth. 

"Relax" you say?  I'll try.  Belly breathing, inversion poses, cardio vascular exercise, meditation are the preferred methods.  Of course, I like double gin martinis, an extra dose of Cymbalta, half a pack of cigarettes and a great big meal.  If I don't calm down after that, I'm just not gonna.

So there you have it.  Don't take advice from me as it will be all the wrong suggestions, liquor, pills, cigarettes, sex...did I leave that out?  Sex always relaxes you but you have to have it.  I'm uptight every night ...

"Honey!

  

Theme Thursday: Sand

My earliest memories of sand are from Laguna Beach, Ca.  It is there my family spent each summer for twenty three summers of my life.  It is there I built sand castles with my father who took great delight in teaching us the easiest way to create water & sand designs by letting the sand drip from the index and thumb into a lovely magical shape, helping us move on to more sophisticated creations when we could wield a bucket, shovel and other paraphanalia.


 

Above & right:

Holmes Beach, Anna Maria Island 2009 

Sand was part of my life as a child.  Summers were spent going to the beach with our folks or our friends, on church outings or school field trips.  Sand would get in our clothes, our socks, our shoes, our hair, under our nails.  We tracked it everywhere:  the car, the house, the beach house we'd rent.  Our parents fruitlessly tried to eliminate as much sand from our bodies as possible before allowing us in the house.  Outside showers, hoses, towel wipe downs, stamping of feet were typical presumptive sand terminators.  It never worked well because if we'd been swimming in the sea, our bathing suits were invariably full to the brim with sand and it was always in the crotch.  I remember getting in the shower and taking off  my bathing suit and tons of sand would come pouring out of the crotch.  This may have been caused by the excessive amounts of sand in the Pacific Ocean or from rafting the waves, later body surfing and/or sitting in the sand to make castles, dig a hole, bury someone, etc.  I have never really found out.

The greatest feeling in the world is that first step onto a beach, when you remove your shoes and let your toes wiggle in the sand or let the water wash over your feet, leaving sand in its stead.  Ahhhhh.

Sand is a great exfoliator, is a forgiving jogging surface, and cleans the feet up as it downsizes callouses. 

Sand is one of my favorite, most looked forward to substances.  It always means the beach.  I am not a desert person!