* Some Comments Still Missing *

I just discovered that some of the comments I thought were only temporarily missing, appear to be completely Lost in Blogger Space. While this is annoying in itself....you know...all those grand compliments I receive from time to time ☺.... I'm worried that some might be missing from the 200th Follower Contest comments.

Which means, I hope everyone goes back to here  to double check and make sure your comment is there! I don't want anyone to be left out. So, please check it and if you don't see yours, go ahead and leave a new one!!

"If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone."-- Jack Handey

Books Like You've Never Seen Before

I watched the most amazing story last night on the CBS Sunday Evening News. It was about an artist who is so extremely talented, I can't possibly come up with enough words to describe him. I would say he is also a sculptor. A sculptor of books! 

His name is Brian Dettmer, he lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and he makes magnificent art out of old books. (Actually, I'd describe his work "inside" old books.) I contacted Mr. Dettmer last night via e-mail, requesting permission to share some of his beautiful creations on my blog. He replied and graciously agreed, as long as I credit it properly.

Get ready for some jaw-dropping moments!



(The above three photos were borrowed, with permission, from Brian Dettmer's web site.)

Toward the beginning of his interview, Brian stated that he understands some book lovers will only see mutilated books, but he only uses vintage non-fiction: old medical books, old encyclopedias, old history books. Books that would otherwise be headed to trash dumps.

Click on Brian's link to learn more about him and see many more of these fabulous works of art. You can also see the entire interview on CBS News.

Thank you again, Brian, for allowing me to showcase a minuscule amount of your heart-filled work.

And, Hello & Welcome to Anita, Sophie Li, M, and Mdkline, my newest followers! I hope you'll stop by often and always enjoy what you read and see! Thank you!

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” -- Thomas Merton

* This 'n That on a Saturday Night *

I posted a gadget on the top right side bar, to remind everyone of my contest celebrating 200 Followers! Don't forget to enter and tell all your blog buddies, because there are No Rules! Just leave a comment on the May 9th post. That's it. Contest ends at midnight on May 23rd.

Someone left a comment the other day that one of the things she likes about my blog is the music in my Play List. That made me so happy, because I really love all kinds of music! I've had a lot of fun putting together my play lists, too. Since it doesn't automatically start anymore, I'd like to point out how diverse the songs are. When you're in the mood to listen, just click on a song. It's set on Shuffle, so you could experience many genres in just a few short minutes. Here are just a few: Perry Como, Cold Play, Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Jackie Wilson, Super Tramp, Glenn Miller, Patsy Cline, and The Temptations!

Have you ever cleaned out an old purse and found a few loose coins in the bottom? Well...I cleaned out one the other day and found a Five Dollar Bill. It was inside an old beat up envelope and was almost tossed in the trash! Just a reminder....look really well before you throw things away! ☺

"Wonderful friends, all kinds of music, and a few dollars in my purse.....what more could I possibly want?" --  Becky Povich 
P.S. Doh! After posting my newest post on May 16, I realized I forgot to add BOOKS!! I also need and want books!!

* I WONDER *

Well, hasn't the past 24 hours been unusual, strange and just plain aggravating?! How many of us are just a little addicted to our blog(s) and those of our friends? After my initial panic, I found some information about Blogger's problem and shared it with everyone I have e-mail addresses for. Enough about that.

At the end of Wednesday's post, I announced my idea about having a weekly post called "I Wonder."  I'm not totally sure what I'll post on those days, but for now I'll try to have it on Fridays.

I Wonder: If our country has the man-power and knowledge to build a massive space program, wouldn't you think they could figure out a way to transfer flood waters to the drought areas?

I Wonder : I can't imagine what the execs on Two and a Half Men were thinking when they chose Ashton Kutcher to "replace" Charlie Sheen. Say it ain't so!

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom." -- Greek Proverb

MORE INFO FROM BLOGGER

I just read this online. Their entire statement is below.  Hopefully, they will have everything fixed soon!!

Blogger is Back!!


What a frustrating day. We’re very sorry that you’ve been unable to publish to Blogger for the past 20.5 hours. We’re nearly back to normal — you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored. Thank you for your patience while we fix this situation. We use Blogger for our own blogs, so we’ve also felt your pain.


Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that’s why you haven’t been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring.


Again, we are very sorry for the impact to our authors and readers. We try hard to ensure Blogger is always available for you to share your thoughts and opinions with the world, and we’ll do our best to prevent this from happening again.


Posted by Eddie Kessler, Tech Lead/Manager, Blogger

* Blogger is Finally Working...BUT

Quick Post! I just checked again to see if Blogger was working....and it appears to be....BUT, it is not up-to-date!! No new posts!! Eeeeek!

* Thank You Give-Away *

In honor of reaching a couple of personal blog milestones: over 500 Posts and 200 Followers, (which I just noticed is 201 Followers) I'm having a give-away. I'd like to thank everyone who reads my blog, whether you're a follower or not, and whether you leave comments or not. It's an honor and pleasure just having visitors, especially the ones that come back from time to time. That means I'm doing something right, I guess!

(200!! art courtesy of: http://freshieandzero.blogspot.com/)

In order to be entered in this give-away, I ask that you just leave a comment, stating what you like about my blog....not about me personally...but about my blog. It would be really nice if you'd also be a follower, but that's not a requirement this time. You may certainly mention it on your blog, but again, not a requirement.

 Mary Engelbreit tote bag approx 9" x 9" - THANK A TEACHER.

Behind the bookmark is a striped 4" x 3" note pad with pen (not a ME product)

 Chicken Soup for the Soul; Love Stories (I have a story in it)

one pair of soft and warm Chicken Soup for the Soul socks

 a set of 3 decorative pens, and a set of 2 matchbook style note pads

 Wall Word Kit that spells FAMILY

 information about kit

showing the finished product

Thin Threads; More Real Stories of Life Changing Moments (I have a story in it)

And a Mary Engelbreit journal, 5" x 7"



Yes, YOU could be the winner of all these goodies, (I apologize for the inferior photos. One of these days, I'm going to get a new camera. How many months have I been saying that!?) if you just leave a comment between tonight, May 9th and May 23rd at midnight CDT. I'll announce the winner sometime on May 24th. I hope many of you will leave a comment to help me celebrate!  Thanks again!

*Added note 5/10/11: I inadvertantly forgot to welcome my newest followers! Duh! Boy, do I feel bad!  Hello Kristine, Marydon & Buttercup! I hope you'll stop by often and always enjoy what you read and see!

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." ~Albert Schweitzer

* Happy Mother's Day *

This is a Rerun from last year's Mother's Day post. I decided to share it again today.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! Although some of our own mothers are deceased, they are still a part of us, aren't they?

This is one of my favorite pictures. It's my mom, my dad, brother Mike and me. It was taken around 1957-1958 in Fort Morgan, Colorado. We were on one of our summer vacation trips visiting relatives. My two much-older sisters were both in college at that time, so they didn't come along with us.

My mother and I are wearing the ever-so-popular "Mother/Daughter Dresses" which were very "in" at that time. My mother sewed them herself and I thought they were quite special.

We look like the All American Happy Family, don't we? It's hard to believe that just about five years later, my parents divorced. Dad pretty much abandoned us. Mom did the best she could, being thrown into an entirely different life than she wanted, or ever envisioned. Holidays were dismal, though, and life in general was gloomy.

There's much more to the story, and some of it will be included in my book.

(Mother's name was Ruby. Below is one of her much spouted quotes, which I despised and swore I would never say to MY kids! The meaning of it was: You have to suffer in life and the only time you get what you really want is when you get to Heaven! I don't think I have to tell you that I didn't buy that one bit. I believe life is about happiness and joy and love and laughter....and going out there and finding your bliss!!


"You don't always get everything you want in this life." -- Rubyism