Birthdays and lesser events

I've got a ton of things to do but here I sit, fiddling around with flickr and blogging about what I should be doing instead of doing it. Really annoying. The most important thing, second only to breathing, is wrap and mail my daughter's birthday box. Mus'n't be late. No no. That would never do. Today, my sweet. Today I mail the rest of the gifts.


Birthday Girl (with floppy, gray ears)

I already mailed the main one straight from Amazon. Couldn't resist the free shipping. Always the cheapskate. All the more for my little darlings, I say. Anyway, the rest of the goodies have to get in the mail, tomorrow at the latest. Notice the little shift in the deadline? And this in only one paragraph. I am poison to myself.

But, as long as we're on the subject, I want to mention the website I'm working on for Ash Canyon Poets. I started working on it here but I'll move it to it's own address, ashcanyon.com, once everything is set up. With the second Juniper Creek Writer's Conference coming up this summer, Cowee agreed it's now or never. He is completely jazzed about it.

Also....he, Susan and I met yesterday to start working on the Ash Canyon Review, which we will publishing this summer. Now or never. It's not like I'm looking for more things to do but it's just time. The conference is going to be very good and Ash Canyon needs a journal and a website to go along with it. Simple.

So back to the schedule. Birthday box... oh and vote for your favorite blog (Deconstructionist) in the Hellman's Hottest Blogger Award contest.

Open wall

Open wall
Originally uploaded by a..

I've been using Hello for posting photos and will keep that account, but I just signed up for flickr as well. If one is good, two is better, right? Flickr's nice because using it doesn't require installing any software. I will be able to upload photos via email. The downside is that when you enlarge the photo, it takes you to the flicker page instead of just showing a larger image. Oh well, it's one for the road.

Paperwhite Gallery

My beautiful daughter gave me paper white bulbs for Christmas and I planted them just after the new year. They are now in full bloom and extremely fragrant and lovely. Sorry I can't share their perfume, but you can enjoy their delicate beauty.

Goldie and the mustangs

Goldie

Goldie has been staying with us this week because her humans are out of town. As you can see, she's a sweetheart. Also, she would make a much better president that George Bush who recently approved a bill rider making it legal to sell wild horses and burros to slaughterhouses. Until now, the BLM at least gave lip service to protecting them via their so-called adoption program although they "adopted" many of the animals out to slaughterhouses.

Now, the shit bag Republicans have made slaughterhouse sales legal. As their front man, Bush works the down home bit every chance he gets, but when it comes to actually protecting this country's wild lands and wild life, he shows his true nature . . . a dirty, rotten poacher in a business suit.

Nevada Mustangs, further victims
of Republican cruelty and  greed.

Florida Review

"The Florida Review" is accepting entries for its 2005 Editor's Prize in three categories: fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Winners in each category receive a $1,000 award and publication.

Entries must be postmarked by February 15, 2005. All submissions will be considered for publication and all entrants will receive a year's subscription to the journal. For more information, visit them here.

Slow motion adventures

One morning, we drove to a tiny village



on Mexico's west coast. Just behind us


a mother pig and her baby came sauntering down the hill.


It was a good day for a walk, a little snooze


and some exploring


but not too much.

Zacatacas, MX

hostel

view of the street

along the street

The Great Divide

533 Russian sable coats: 40 mil
26,000 Kevlar vests: 40 mil
One Bush lame duck inauguration: 60 mil
One life: ?

The lavish, second inauguration of George Walker Bush cost over $60 million dollars, when you count the $20,000 for yellow roses and the $20 million or so that taxpayers had to pony up to protect our War(monger) President. Wait. Not president. That's too twentieth century. Bush and company like to think of themselves as leaders of the New Empire.

Besides being ostentatious, the event was the height of irony. To people waiting hours in the snow to see him, our Kevlar-poster boy-Leader of the Free World, was nothing more than a distant dot, gliding by in a bomb-proof limo or waving from behind a rocket-proof shield. Once he got that out of the way, he and his cronies enjoyed the most expensive inauguration in American history. Beyond being another example of the guy's colossal ego and incredible bad judgment, the event offered a candid peak at his true values: power and prestige.

As many have already said, it should have been a simple event. But no. Apparently nothing is too good for Bush who, in his beaver fur cowboy hat, and accompanied by his glittering, fur-swaddled wife, flitted through the string of coronation style parties like pampered royalty. His tip of the Stetson to American soldiers rummaging in Iraqi garbage pits for makeshift body armor was a "Military Ball", topped off, of course, with a few prayers. Praise the Lord and pass tin cans. Naturally, Bush himself, is very fond of his Kevlar underwear, but I say forget about getting some for the troops. Just bring them home, NOW! We never had any business in Iraq in the first place. Be a man, Mr. President. Admit and correct your tragic mistake.

Having had enough of the brain drain, we tossed our TV out a few years ago. These days, I get my news almost exclusively from the internet, but here's a rare clip from the FOX PROPAGANDA CHANNEL (of all places) that is actually worth watching. Judy Bachrach from Vanity Fair gets in a few, very refreshing words about the pompous sham before being cut off by the interviewer. Unless you have a subscription, you have to watch a quick ad but, if you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch. But if you don't want to bother with a that, there's a transcript here. We all know what King George and his smirking toadies have to say about all this grumbling. Get over it. Right!

Humming bird in Oaxaca

This picture will eventually be included in my photofiles with other ones I took in Mexico last spring but tonight I'm just experimenting with Picasa2. Wow! Does it ever make things easy. I highly recommend you try it, if you haven't already.

Juniper Creek Writer's Conference '05

The second annual Juniper Creek Writer's Conference scheduled for the weekend of July 15th is going to be terrific. So far, thanks to the efforts of Ellen Hopkins and Bill Cowee, we have two outstanding writers lined up to lead the faculty. Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry Magazine will keynote, conduct workshops and judge the national poetry contest. Gayle Brandeis, novelist (The Book of Dead Birds) short story writer, poet, community and environmental activist, will do workshops and judge the national short story contest. Richard Eloyan, songwriter and poet, will do a workshop on songwriting, plus, we're expecting an editor from Simon and Schuster New York, a children's book editor, an agent, a screenwriter and many literary magazine editors to commit soon. It is going to be fun!

We're holding the conference at the Western Nevada Community College campus in Carson City. The cost for the weekend will be $150 although we'll be giving a scholarship to some student at each high school in Northern Nevada. The event will include a poetry reading on Friday night, a Western BBQ and musical performance on Saturday night (it looks like I may be in charge of the vegetarian part), and a literary magazine editors round table.