Happy St Patrick’s Day! I’m prepared. Recently, I was at Notre Dame University and picked up this shirt. Go Irish! Got to wear some green this weekend.
Then in yearly tradition, the Chicago Plumbers Union will dye the Chicago River green on Saturday. I always think of the “The Wizard of Oz” and their Emerald City when I see how green the river gets. It’s BEAUTIFUL!
We really get excited to see them dye the river. YouTube has some videos, you can see the process. There are a lot of Irish folks in Chicago, so it’s a lot of fun. I can’t say that corned beef and cabbage is my favorite meal, but once a year, OK. Lots of Irish beer. Don’t forget to wear some green.
My daughter lived in Ireland for six years. She said that St Patrick’s Day is their biggest holiday.
It’s time to watch “The Quiet Man.” Love that movie.
Do you remember your dreams? They say we all dream, but I “rarely” remember anything. Although, every once in a while, I wake up humming / singing a song. So, I must have dreamt something, right.
This AM, I woke up singing Johnny Cash’s song, “Ring of Fire.” NOW, what was that about? I have been in a country music mood lately. I guess it’s time to listen to his music. My Dad used to blast “A Girl Named Sue” when he was in the Johnny Cash mood.
Well… I was going to share these two songs with you, but today YouTube and WP are not cooperating. When I do a paste for the song, I get a “not supported” message from WP. Trying to sort that out…
If you haven’t listened to Johnny Cash, visit his videos on YouTube.
This might make you chuckle. A few months ago, I woke up singing, “Santa Lucia.” Now, who knows what my mind was thinking THAT night!!
Love can be found. I saw this telephone booth in Nashville. Yes, you can try to find a cowboy! I didn’t try to call the number. I wonder if it worked. I’m sure they’d say something amusing, right.
A lady was dressed all in pink. She was with her husband, I saw her by the booth. I asked if she wanted a picture with her husband. She said, “YES,” it was her birthday. So, I took the picture. THEN she pulled me aside. She whispered, “You take picture of me alone, no husband.”
Laughing, “Ok,” I said.
She was hamming it up for the camera. This pose, that pose. She must have been in her 50s. As I was taking photos, I told her it would be fun if she pretended she was making a phone call. She picked up the phone, more poses. It was fun being the photographer.
Whether you have someone or not, you can still have a heartfelt day! 💕
I was looking for a show to watch on Netflix. I felt like a little kid, so many choices, but everything seemed BORING. Until I clicked on this show called, “FISK.” It’s an Australia comedy TV show. The show takes place in a small solicitors office focused on probate law.
Remember The Office? FISK has similar humor in an office setting. However, this show is focused on clients and their wills. The show has great characters, amusing story lines, and lovely Australian accents. It’s a bit slower paced, which might have you yawning from time to time. Still, the chuckles over the clients are worth sticking it out. They really do come up with some comical skits. I don’t want to give it away…
Right now, there are two seasons, hoping for a third.
Have you watched the show? Would love to hear what YOU thought about it.
Have you heard of the Eclipse Hot Springs Hair Freezing Contest in Yukon? It’s been taking place yearly since 2011. They have different categories you can win, ie best female, best male, most creative, best group, etc. Each winning category receives $2,000, not bad for sitting in warm water, dunking your head, pulling head out, sculpting hair and having photo taken. Done!
Visit the site and you’ll see so many fabulous frozen hair styles. Don’t worry, as soon as you dunk your head back into the water, the freezing hair melts. So your hair does not break into a million tiny pieces.
The site doesn’t have details on timing for this. However, I was reading in past articles that photo taking takes place in February. Last year they said with warming temperatures, it was becoming hard to find the right cold days for hair to set. Maybe that’s why the website doesn’t have contest dates.
Well, right now, Chicago has been having freezing temps. We could certainly do a Freezing Hair day here.
What do you do when your weather hits -1 degrees? The weatherman says if we are out for more than 10 minutes, we can get frost bitten. We don’t believe him/her. So, we bundle up (just in case, they’re right) and head outside. We don’t last more than five minutes and we are back in the house.
As I was house bound, I wondered what to do. Ok, read a book, watch TV, call a friend, clean the house, writer extra blog posts (LOL)… you get the idea. I needed something different. The light bulb went off.
Where was all my extra yarn?
I found it after a good search. I decided I’d make a lap blanket. So, I’ve been happily knitting in the evenings. Inside a knitter’s mind.
Knit, knit, knit…REPEAT. Next row. Knit, knit, knit… REPEAT.
It’s like we are in a trance. I’m using an Alpaca yarn, it’s very lush and warm. Perfect for cold weather.
While I’ve been knitting, I started listening to The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown. The movie is out now, but usually the book is better. Isn’t the recommendation to always read the book first?
Has anyone seen the movie yet? Would love to hear your review.
If you have an IPhone, you probably have the feature where Apple shares a daily “memory” from your photos. Sometimes the photos are endearing, other times, I think, “WHAT, why haven’t I deleted that!”
Today, the memory was of New Year’s Eve. I’ve moved on from 2023, so why did Apple choose THAT memory. At the same time, I felt I needed to be respectful, as it was the Virgin Mary or my Guardian Angel who might have wanted me to have this nice memory.
On New Year’s Eve, I was visiting a friend. We needed exercise, went walking. At a long stop light, I happened to look up and I saw this gold dome with the Virgin Mary. Of course, I had to walk over.
I thought I would have a view of the golden dome in front of the church. Instead, I saw this Manger scene on the top of the building. This church had no grassy area, so they got creative.
I walked to the side of the building, again, I could not get a clear look of the Virgin Mary on the dome. Even on the back side, NOPE. Interesting design for this building. The Virgin Mary looks down into the church.
So, I’ll admit, I am smiling. Signs from Heaven come when we least expect them. Like today.
I have a 94 year old friend who is not doing well. I take this as a sign, a reminder, check in with her.
Have a wonderful day! I’m off to make that phone call! 💕
It’s a NEW YEAR, I’m excited. Time to Make Things Happen!
This photo is how my brain works. A vision board full of sticky notes, depicting all the exciting, creative and crazy ideas going on in my brain. What I like about sticky notes is that I can move my ideas/goals around. If a goal is not going to meet a particular date/time, no problem, move it to bottom of the board. Focus on what I will accomplish by deadline, then circle back to the goal I moved to the bottom of board.
Years ago, I worked for a man who thought like I did. He was big on white boards. Every office had huge white boards. Whenever we had a meeting, everything went on the white board. Discussing root cause analysis on a product failure was great. One person wrote on the board, everyone chimed in, it was easy to erase, move text over, etc. When we filled up board, someone took a photo. THEN we erased and continued. Later someone wrote up the notes and sent to all the attendees. My type of meeting!
Walking in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, they had so many beautiful Xmas scenes in the windows. Look at this one of the Angel orchestra, how clever.
Another nice touch, they decorate with small Christmas trees outside their homes. They have electric candles on the trees. In the old days, they actually used real lit candles.
Here you have stuffed bears in the windows. This was a Teddy Bear shop.
This was such a simple tree. I’ve always liked hearts, what a great idea! The red felt hearts stand out because of the light wood. I would do this.
This was interesting, so earthy the way they decorated their window with wood, etc. The cakes, I didn’t touch them, but they look like hardened sand, clay or concrete?
I fell in love with their door stops. I haven’t seen these in America, but I don’t think we have as heavy doors as they have. Where we stayed, in a charming old home, they had different door stops on each door. This HOME was on ours, but there was a cat that I liked.
As I walked the neighborhood, I came across a sewing store. She had patterns of a reindeer door stop. Of course, I had to buy it and a pattern for a cute bear, I bought that too.
So, there you have it. Another quick visit around Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
I have to say, it did get me in the mood to decorate, make Christmas fun in a NEW way!
Last year, I found a Bavarian puzzle. I fell in love with this Bavarian city, but the puzzle box did not mention where this city was. I sent the photo to different people asking and asking, “Does this city exist?”
Finally, someone told me, it’s a medieval town in Germany called, “Rothenburg ob der Tauber” north of Munich. So, I started to formulate a plan to visit Bavaria. First Munich, then Rothenburg ob der Tauber for the Christmas Markets. Then fulfill another dream of seeing Andre Rieu in concert.
My daughters were on board and we started our pre-Christmas journey to Germany a week ago. Munich was lovely, so fun and festive to be there this time of year. We had plenty of sausages!
In Munich, we saw the Haribo store. Of course, we stopped in.
Then we headed to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. They had a Teddy Bear store, you can see in the photo that there was a Teddy Bear blowing bubbles from the window. What a great idea! It did catch our attention.
This was a lovely Advent Calendar. Each door we opened would play music and surprisingly there was enough space behind each door to put a chocolate or a small ornament as a surprise.
In Rothenburg, this was the main market where they had a lot of shops. It was wonderful to see the people out with their families enjoying the Christmas Markets, the food, the wine, etc.
Finally, after our visit in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, we headed to Maastricht in The Netherlands to attend the Andre Rieu concert. I’ve watched Andre Rieu on PBS for over 20 years. Always with a goal to see him in person. Realizing that he is now around 74 years old, it was time to go. Perfect for Christmas.
The music and his orchestra were fabulous. We had good seats, row 7 to the left of the stage. He had dancers on two ice rinks on either side of the stage and dancers also came in between the isles where we sat. So, it was extremely festive.
I wish all my Blogging friends a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! If don’t celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very HAPPY HOLIDAY!
Brilliant Viewpoint 