Kisses and Cookie Butter

 View from the balcony at Montelle Winery near St. Louis.

 They offer free wine tasting before dinner...

 ...which included this creamy Caesar salad. And a creme brulee cheesecake served with orange-flavored whipped cream. (With some scrumptious entrees in between!)

This is my new addiction, peering out from behind a curtain. Don't think I don't know exactly where you are at all times, Mr. Cookie Butter.

My plan for the next several months is to start studying for the GRE. It will be nice to have a goal other than, "someday work someplace doing something I love vagueness vagueness hmmmm coffee roastery." Vocab flashcards are in the mail, thank-you Amazon! 

A poem:

A kiss controls exactly--what?

The future or despair? 

A helpless self-deceiving clone

Of pain it would repair.

Still we imagine lips composed

Of lavendar and peace,

Of chamomile, softest sunbeams,

Childhood, release.

But kiss a single tear away,

Another's buried deep--

Awaiting tossing lonely nights

When love is lost to sleep. 

Pursuing (Para)normal

 I FOUND ALIENS!!! Picture-perfect PROOF! They look zing-y and friendly, no?

 Multi-colored eggs from beautiful, happy chickens! Everyone should be or know someone who owns chickens.

 Backyard-chicken chicken eggs taste better, too! As Daniel put it, "This reminds me of the good ol' days when you really had to WHACK! an egg to crack it. Nowadays, they practically crack themselves...WEAK!" (Well, he put it more or less that way...)

And they're cuter, too! Whoops, just kidding-these are some adorable sunny-side ups that Christi knit for me! They are teensy-weensy and fit in the palm of your hand! One of her friends is an incredible knitter and is working on her...third or fourth?...book of adorable knitted creations. Here's a link to her blog: 

http://mochimochiland.com/blog/

I just signed up for a (free) GRE test prep workshop. WSU has a masters in communication program and, having done some simple maths to figure out tuition, it seemed nearly affordable! Especially if you get a teacher's [space]ship (I can't spell assistance-ship so there ya go), in which case it is free! Hmmmmm.....That's what came of my long morning of silent I'M-WASTING-MY-LIFE freaking out. 

Time to slow down:

Silence-scented autumn afternoons

I'm wishful-thinking libraries on old estates--

One high-backed leather chair, one looking glass,

The scowling portrait of a lord surpassed,

A cat named Lady Gray, a young girl's ghost,

Cold tea forgotten on a silver tray...

But as you gaze, rich volumes fade away

To dust, expected drudgery, disdain--

I wish it soothed, to reason or explain

Why, modern, we make war with yesterday.

Now copper kettles preen but never sing

And each house has a thousand faceless twins

Here would I  rest, but there's no lingering

When every story ends as it begins.

 

Woof!

 Tara the Socker Spaniel! (For exactly five minutes before Dad explained that dogs ate horse meat, I wanted to be our family's cocker spaniel. Skipping school, crawling everywhere, being patted on the head...it sounded like the life. Just couldn't do horse.)

 My beautiful new bike, thank you Daniel! All I need is a puppy to place in the basket!

 This picture is blurry for a reason: I'm in denial that I made a cake that utterly flopped. If it's blurry, that might be a plate of...cornflakes. At least the giant crumb pile tasted purty durn good...

 Out of a pack of sunflower seeds, this is the be-yoo-ti-ful lone survivor! You go, Sunny!

Poor Girl's Tip for Good Eating: Catfish Nibbles! (Er, Nuggets) At just 3.99/lb these are probably the most cost-effective fish you can buy from the fish case at your local Dillons. Daniel beer-battered these babies, yowza! What a man! What a meal!

It's a musical-singing day. At work this morning, all I wanted to do was leave so that I could release all the pent-up vocal-amazingness that was inside me. (Yeah, right!) Would've been content to just break out and give a little show and dance to all the produce customers, but for some reason that isn't a social norm. Bummer.

A poem, "inspired" by the picture above: 

Dog Food

I feed my puppy popsicles,

They dribble down his chin,

And all the high-falutin' ones 

Cry, "Girlie, that's a sin!"

But most dogs make a sloppy mess

When greeting visitors--

Mine gives a rainbow-colored kiss

When he answers the door.

You take your pick of residues:

Dried horse, or cherry freeze?

Since dogs will drool either way,

I say--popsicle, please!

My Favorite Box of Tea

 This tea was produced by the company Blue Q, artwork by Haley Johnson. And it as delicious as it is adorable! (If that's possible...) I only purchased it when I realized it was  marked half-off, making it a steal at $4.99. (Ermmaybe not, but I really just wanted to share it with you!) Also, while this tea is yummy, please note that Constant Comment and Sleepytime still top my Tea Preference Chart.

 Next, lessons in shorthand. I've been told that my handwriting is illegible enough, why try to strip it down any further? My response is: 1) It's inevitable. 2) I'm crossing my fingers that, since my tendencies already lie in this direction, maybe I'll have naturally fabulous shorthand penmanship! A++! But you know, when "a" and "e" look exactly the same, only the "a" loop is larger than the "e" loop, you've got to be pretty precise! Which is a challenge. Who wants to be my shorthand pen pal? :)

For all you old-book lovers out there, here is a link you can thank my friend Christi for (hint: library-scented perfume!): http://www.cbihateperfume.com/in-the-library.html

And finally, I want to dedicate a poem to chickens, since they've been in the news a lot lately for various reasons, and don't even have a clue.

[Which reminds me of an article concerning rescue chickens I read in National Geographic (Aug. 2011) : http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/08/visions-now-next#/visions/4 These are chickens that needed rescuing, not chickens doing rescuing. One is wearing a fuzzy purple sweater.

Also, E.B. White wrote an essay titled "The Hen (An Appreciation)" which I cannot find online, and therefore, having a lazy-girl's relationship with the library, have not read. But I have faith that it would be a wonderful read, particularly for anyone interested in raising chickens...Keep an eye out.]

The poem:

Controversial chickens scritch the dust,
Nick feathers from their neighbors,
Cluck Cluck Cluck
Lay sterile eggs, forget to count the ways
This all could end
(Today, with any luck)
Breasts overgrown, they wonder what's the use--
No proud, parading roosters to seduce--
Go back their monotony of meals
Oblivious that they're the New Big Deal. 
Nobody asks what life they would prefer,
We talk talk talk...and then we eat the bird.