05

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I kind of miss the "quote of the day" because it was fun to find them every day.
So I'm starting it again. In keeping with today's theme, how about this one?

Down deep we really know our worth, but we don't have easy access to that knowledge. We need to hear praise coming from outside ourselves or we won't remember that we deserve it.

-Barbara Sher

and an exortation:

Every day, tell at least one person something you like, admire or appreciate about them.

-Richard Carlson

WHAT I'M READING

"Portrait of a Killer--Jack the Ripper Case Closed" by Patricia Cornwell.

This is a much more riveting story than her last book, "Blow Fly" and she makes a believable case for the true identity of Jack the Ripper--who can deny DNA evidence?

also (since I can't just read one book at at time):

"Virtual Mutts," a compilation of vignettes by Karen Derrico

This is a "keep by your chair" book for reading when commercials come on...a feel good book.

TODAY'S NETFLICK

The Sopranos, Season 1, Disk 1.

I've never seen "The Sopranos" before, so am working my way thru the DVDs and am sorry that I am coming late to this series. All those Italians make me feel like I'm back home, growing up in San Francisco's North Beach (and it makes me wonder about our neighbor, who was a garbage man...did he beat people up at night? hmmmm....)

TODAY'S CD

Manheim Steamroller's Christmas CD (#1). Might as well get a head start on the season.

TODAY's FOOD

Breakfast: Cereal with toast

Lunch: Lean Cuisine Pizza

Dinner: Lamb chops and acorn squash stuffed with apples, pecans and nutmeg (this last was quite yummy)

TODAY's EXERCISE

20 minutes on the exercise bike while watching The Sopranos.

GOOD FOR ME

6 December, 2003

It’s my second "Self Esteem Saturday" and I’m supposed to come up with five things I feel good about me. I may have set myself a difficult task in choosing five. I may drop down to ONE thing I feel good about each week after awhile, but for now I’ll stick with five things.

1. I can take the day off! My usual Saturday is spent sitting here at the computer, either futzing around or working, and feeling guilty when I hear Walt either cleaning up in the house or the yard. I don’t feel guilty enough to get up and go DO something, but I feel guilty knowing that I’ve done nothing. Well, I have no guilt today. The house is clean, and though the sidewalk looks worse than when I worked on it yesterday, I did do my bit for the yard, and I’ve earned a lazier week end day. It’s a nice feeling.

2. I feel good that my Christmas letter is written and posted on the internet and the link sent to most people I know with Internet connection who might be interested in reading it. I have also started mailing out cards to those who either don’t have an internet connection or whose e-mail address I don’t know.

I have been writing a Christmas letter since 1965 and have gone through years of guilt about them–"those horrible Christmas letters" (especially each time Ann Landers or Dear Abby wrote their yearly diatribe against them), but I like my Christmas letter. Before this journal started, it was my way to remember what had happened in our year, my kind of mini-journal, a history of this family. And people told me they also like getting it. I finally, years ago, decided that getting a printed Christmas letter was better than getting a letter with a pre-printed signature and no personal note whatsoever.

Everybody has to do his/her own thing, and my "thing" each Christmas has been this letter. In the early years, I had to really work to get it all to fit and to include a family photo. Now I do two versions–one which is straight text which gets mailed out, and one with all the photos and links for those who want to follow them for the Internet. I can be as wordy as I want and the Internet doesn’t care.

So I feel good that my Christmas preparations are well on their way, and I like my annual letter.

3. Not to be vain or anything, but I love my hair. I have been blessed with curly hair, hair which my mother is fond of grabbing, grimacing and telling me how much it makes her angry that I have such great hair and she has to work so hard at it (though her hair usually looks great, testifying to how much attention she gives to it!). I can’t remember a time when I went to a new hairdresser when they didn’t talk about what wonderful, thick, curly hair I have. If I have any vanity at all about my appearance, it’s that I have hair that I rarely have to do anything with, other than keeping it the right length and running a brush through it from time to time. It’s one reason why rain doesn’t bother me. I don’t have to worry about it ruining any hard-achieved look with my hair.

4. I feel good that I got on the exercise bike yesterday and rode for 20 minutes. I had recently received a DVD of The Sopranos (which I've never watched before) from NetFlix and I really wanted to watch it, but it felt slothful to just sit down in the middle of the day and watch TV, so I climbed on the exercise bike and rode while I watched. I discovered that The Sopranos is a great DVD to exercise to because when things get tense...or when there is action...I tended to ride faster. I should probably start renting a lot more action films. I’ll probably lose weight just from the exercise!

5. I feel good that I’m learning how to use PhotoShop. I have always used some sort of photo manipulation software, but never really did much more than resize, reshape, or work with the color of things. But Peggy gave me some tutorials on CD when I left Australia and so I’ve been playing a lesson a day and really learning great new techniques.

(I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you check the Christmas letter, look at the photo of Walt on the canal boat in England. In fact, that’s a composed photo. Since he traveled to England alone, there were no photos of him for most of the trip. In fact, there was only one photo of him, taken by Cousin Nora in Ireland. But the background of that photo wasn’t really very colorful, so I cut him out of the photo, resized it, and positioned him on the canal boat. I’m so tickled with how it came out. It even looks like he has one foot on the deck, and one on the bow of the boat. It’s great to feel that I’m actually learning how to do all this stuff!)

Yeah, I think that 5 things a week is gonna get real old real fast. I think from now on I’m going to do ONE thing a week, but really think seriously about one thing that I feel good about myself for, and to continue this exercise indefinitely. It’s always good to start your day thinking good things about yourself, instead of thinking of all the things that you have left undone or that you could do better.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

falltree.jpg (80506 bytes)

There is a carpet of yellow all over town today;
this tree fairly shimmered.

For more photos, please visit My Fotolog and My FoodLog