At the risk of hearing a chorus of groans and raspberries I will confess that today was a holiday for me. It is one of the nine holidays that we observe at the community mental health center where I work. That period from Thanksgiving through President’s Day is always a good one as there is at least one long weekend in each of the four consecutive months. And now begins the dry spell.

I don’t know if you do anything special in observance of President’s Day (a question obviously directed at U.S. citizens 🙂 ). We don’t do anything particular, nonetheless it is nice to have holidays like this that call to mind our history, especially during times where there is chaos, turmoil and unrest in various areas of our day to day lives. It is nice to be reminded of what this country has stood for in the past and can still stand for now. It is nice to take a moment to think of the patriots past and present who have given their lives in service to this country. Even if those observances are brief in nature, I am grateful for these holidays which make me stop and think on things that might not otherwise penetrate through the noise of a day at work.

Allow me to say “thank you” to those men and women serving and who have served in our armed forces and also those who have or are serving in the political arena. Though either career choice isn’t always appreciated and can bring with it lots of criticism, the fact of the matter is that you are making a sacrifice for our country and I am thankful for all that you do. I am grateful and need to do a better job of keeping you in my thoughts and prayers on a regular basis.

Beyond those thoughts, we have had a really nice day:

Continue reading President’s Day →

Everyone has their own style and if you are like me, making your house into a home is a process that takes time and undergoes many changes. Our home style is fairly eclectic, mixing antiques and faux antiques with found objects, art prints, contemporary items with a dab of shabby chic, liberally sprinkled with books. I tend to grow very attached to the things that decorate our home and over the last decade those things have been added to and yet much has remained the same. This year we are wanting to change things around a bit. We aren’t planning a radical shift in style so much as an expansion on some things that we’ve grown to love over the last few years (my wife’s adoration for 60’s drinking glasses, for example).

And so we took our first trek of the year on the antique/flea market road with a trip down to Springfield, Missouri with my parents and my aunt and uncle this past Saturday. It was a sunny yet bitterly cold day and we had a lot of fun reminiscing about our childhood (my aunt and uncle’s kids are the same age as my brother, sister and me) and digging through others’ trash to find treasure. That is probably a bit unfair as all the places we went to were more in the antique vein and less in the flea market arena, but we still had a lot of fun. I got some really good ideas, found a few fun things, and didn’t spend much money at all.

It was a win-win!

Continue reading Do you Flea? →

New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

~Mark Twain

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.

~Benjamin Franklin

Glasses have been raised, lips have been kissed, the ball has dropped and the confetti of the past year lies desolate on the floor, waiting to be swept out with the old. Ask not for whom the bells tolls, 2011, it tolls for thee. With fanfare or without we have all passed together into the year 2012.

Some would have us believe that this is it for us, that our scheduled 366 day year will be cut short by a few days when the world ends. Piffle.

Stranger things have happened, to be sure, but my suspicions–and my hopes–lean towards those predictions being false and I predict we will find ourselves wishing one another a “Happy New Year” at this same Bat-time on this same Bat-channel* in 2013. In many ways I believe 2012 will be a rough year the world over. But I also believe that 2012 has the potential to deliver little joys and profound wonders if we resolve to lay hold of them.

Continue reading With Firm Resolve →

(Image credit)

One of the reasons that the Christmas season is filled with warmth and comfort is because of the presence of traditions. Whether they be societal traditions, ones handed down from generation to generation, or those we’ve created for ourselves, traditions enrich our lives by tying present events to past, allowing us the dual pleasures of living in the moment while embracing feelings of nostalgia.

For the past several years Kailana has been hosting the Virtual Advent, a holiday themed blogging event where various bloggers sign up to post about the season beginning December 1st up through Christmas Eve. And every year Kailana and I share the final day (her post is here), often posting something necessitating a visit to each of our sites.

This year I came up with the idea of posting that traditional seasonal poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas, accompanied by images we would find online. Time has gotten away from me and while I had a much more elaborate plan of finding pictures that actually synched up with the stanzas of the poem, I’ve had to abandon that plan for something a little different. Between the poem’s lines you’ll find various science fiction and fantasy related images that give me a holiday feeling. Some images match the words in my own warped imagination, others do not. I apologize ahead of time.

Continue reading Twas the Night →