IBOL / ABOL

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Iraqi Bundles of Love / Afghani Bundles of Love

Started by Art LaFlamme who is serving our country overseas, inspired by his talented quilting wife, Kristin.  From Art's IBOL blog:

I am the son of a quilter, who also made Halloween costumes for us kids.  I am the brother of quilters, who give generously in everything they do.  I am the husband of a quilter, who inspires me every day.  And, apparently, I am helping to raise a quilter, who happens to be the cutest girl in the world.

IBOL / ABOL allows you to clean out your stash (Lysa - I'm talking to you!!) and feel good about it at the same time.  You can pack as much fabric, yarn, sewing supplies as you can into the large international flat rate box and even though it's going somewhere "over there" IT ONLY COSTS $14.95 - because it ships to an APO box (Air/Army Post Office) which is considered a domestic rate.  Over the last two years, I think I've shipped out a total of 20 boxes. An example of a packed box from IBOL website:

And look at the great results from the first drive:

Here's a great description from Art's blog:

I love being involved in IBOL.  I really do.

Yesterday morning, in the skies over Afghanistan, someone pushed a rig out of a perfectly good airplane, and used an airborne delivery to put some IBOL / ABOL bundles on the ground in a remote part of Afghanistan.

Just think about that one for a second.  A guy in Baghdad, on a website in America, working with volunteers from all over the place (and not just in America), sending sewing, knitting and quilting supplies to an air base in Afghanistan, to be loaded onto and dropped out of an airplane.

And here's what happens:

And (unexpectedly) I received this cool certificate in the mail a couple of weeks ago:

Thank you for the recognition, MSG. Lita Fraley!  Thank you Art and Kristin for realizing that it's possible to make a significant difference for women and children through this inspired donation mechanism.  All you have to do is going to the IBOL blog and leave a comment and Art will send you the APO address to send your Love to.

 

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Washingtonian Truck Nuts

And no, I'm not posting a picture of original Truck Nuts as it would be seared into your memory for all eternity and you might sue me.  So if you don't know what they are, you are on your own.

In Washington this is how we roll:

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More Vogue eye candy

Besides absolutely iconic, arresting images such as these...

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...did you know that Dali did several Vogue covers?  Nupe, me neither.

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Norman Parkinson of course is well known for his exquisite photos.  <<<swoon>>>

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Breakfast

Trader Joe's Oatmeal with blackberries I picked myself.  Near my Thinking Spot.

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Why don't all buildings do this?

www.themacula.com

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I don't even know what this is

But it just looks WRONG in so many ways.  I think this was outside a Taco Hell in Aberdeen WA.

I'm all for public art, but sometimes maybe it's just a bad idea.

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...on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

"...one sees well only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes."  

Le Petit Prince (1943) by Antoine de Saint Exupéry.

Every time I look at photos of you guys, I am stunned by your beauty and grace.  I'm astounded daily with the fact that I helped bring you into this world and you have become such wonderful and amazing people.

L,
mImZiE

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Washington ants

Did they not get the memo?

They're supposed to walk THROUGH the Ant Bait Trap of Death, not walk around it.

Grrr.

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Have you ever had that dream?

Where you show up for a final exam and you look down the list of questions and realize that this is the one class you bagged all semester and missed all the classes?  And you break out in a cold flunk sweat when you realize how hosed you are?

~ photo source ~

I had one of those dreams this morning.  I was up until almost midnight last night fiddling around with some recalcitrant equipment (cough - BlackBerry) that I had to bring to a customer meeting today and demo and I simply wasn't have a very sucessful time in making all the bits work together in synchrony so that it was all smooth and fabulous and I would look like I knew what I was doing.  Several calls to the helpdesk, googling stuff online etc. I went to bed pissed off that it was all so complicated and didn't work.  Not my fault, of course.

So my dream happened at that right-before-waking time where I was sort of aware that I was awake, but still delta waving away.  Flailing around in my brain pan, looking for answers.

Here's the best part:  this is the first non-academic "that kind of dream" I've ever had!  Hence, it was probably far more useful to me.  This dream put me back in my first career as an architect (which I was for 16 years... I KNOW, right?!?) and I was competing against a much younger man (why are my dreams so realistic?) for a basic CAD drawing job on a computer.  We interviewed separately, we interviewed together.  The male architect who was hiring was aware that I had absolutely no experience using the computer for drawing as I had grown up in the pen, pencil and mylar era, whereas the young man was an experienced computer jockey.

The architect selected me, and could tell that I was shocked.  He told me:  "I'm giving you a chance to prove yourself - don't disappoint me."  It was at that point I sat straight up in bed and literally shouted out "NO!!" and got immediately out of bed.  I ended up in the bathroom, looking in the mirror and laughing at myself. 

This is the first time I've ever stopped a dream and flung myself out of bed to prevent carrying on being miserable.  Progress, no?

Oh, and the (cough - BlackBerry) thing?  The thing that was not my fault and all messed up?  Pilot error.  It was ALL me.

'nuff said.

 

 

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Three people, two time zones, one conversation....oh, and two kitties

iChat rocks. 

It's a rare thing when we get to do this with a nine hour time difference between us.  Ali captured the moment when we were having a cute attack with French kitties.  And no, Lina didn't get kitties.  They are just at the place where she was visiting.

Lina also educated us on this new thing called "email" and how to do "attachments."  (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

Coincidentally, one of Peter Sagal's quiz questions this week on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me was:

4) A significant part of American life might disappear if nothing is done ... what?

A) The U.S. Post Office
B) Florida
C) Free television
D) Pop-rocks candy

and the answer was:

4) A. The Post Office: It's running billions of dollars in deficits, and may not be able to service its debts. For readers under 30, the Post Office is a massive bureaucracy that takes printed out emails and hand delivers them to their recipient in four or five days.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Love you guys!

 

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A bit of Friday happiness v.2

Attempt #2.  There were some complaints about the video not loading.  So you can either go to this linkie:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/09/beach-creatures.html

Or I'll attempt to be snazzy again and see if that works.

~~~~~~~

How delightful is this?  I'm not a huge fan of performance art, but Theo is obviously as much of an engineer as he is an artist.

 

How delightful is this?  I'm not a huge fan of performance art, but Theo is obviously as much of an engineer as he is an artist.

A summary of the article here.

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A bit of Friday happiness

How delightful is this?  I'm not a huge fan of performance art, but Theo is obviously as much of an engineer as he is an artist.

A summary of the article here.

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A bit of Friday happiness

How delightful is this?  I'm not a huge fan of performance art, but Theo is obviously as much of an engineer as he is an artist.

A summary of the article here.

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First responders

I just watched an episode of "The Daily Show" and Jon Stewart interviewed Dr. Sanjay Gupta about his special "Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Terror in the Dust" airing on CNN.  Although I haven't seen it yet, the punchline is that the collapse of the twin towers created a toxic pile of smoldering crap that the first responders unselfishly waded through, looking for survivors and bits of survivors and many of them are either now dead or dying and our slimy, weasly insurance oligarchy is refusing to cover their expenses.

How low have we sunk as a country where this is okay?  Why is there not a shred of human decency in these large corporate bodies who are so concerned about their own welfare and shareholders?  As Dr. Gupta said (and I'm paraphrasing)  "So what if we treat one undeserving, ineligible person if a hundred other deserving people are taken care of?"

I am disgusted and overwhelmed with shame at the collapse of our country's lack of compassion.  After ten years, is this all that we are left with? 

Watch this Frontline episode and tell me how you feel about how your tax dollars are being spent. 

"...FRONTLINE reveals 9/11's unprecedented yet largely invisible legacy: the creation of a vast maze of clandestine government and private agencies designed to hunt terrorists and prevent future attacks on the U.S....." 

"Top Secret America:  FRONTLINE reveals 9/11's unprecedented yet largely invisible legacy."

<p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #808080; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 512px;">Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.</p>

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Happy 90th, Pops!

Belated, of course.  But I know you don't like to celebrate them.  However, it does look like you had a wonderful meal at your favorite restaurant, Cafe Provence.  Photos courtesy of my brother Peter and his wife Margie. 

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I can guess what you had:  mussels and lamb.  Your favorites.  Mom's too.

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Love you!

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Guest photographer, Lori Austin

Ali spent a lot of time with the Austin family during his latter years in high school, and Keelin and Tony are part of the close group of skateboarders in KC that he hangs with.  Lori and Brad were always so welcoming to all the boys and there was a lot of meals served, bonfires lit, and just general hanging around that happened at their house.  Good times. 

Lori and Brad were also part of the Heroic Team That Helped Clear Out My House Last Summer and supported Lina through the traumatic event.  Keelin was Ali's co-pilot driving my car west and edited the video that they shot: Ali & KeeKee, 3 cats, and my car awash in fast food wrappers and cat litter.

Brad and Lori are moving to North Carolina, and the boys are remaining behind, entrenched in jobs and the local skateboarding scene.  Safe travels!

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Skate Lesson

An impromptu sesh outside the restaurant "Stink" in Tacoma.

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What a crazy name for a restaurant!  I think it comes from the idea that a lot of cheese is considered stinky, and they serve a lot of cheese.  A photo of my salad, and Ali making fun of me taking a photo of it.  Lina is the main food stylist - she loves to document all the attractive meals she has, just like my mother did.  In going through some of the memorabilia, I've discovered many photos of past repasts.  Evidently it's a genetic trait.

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