PeacefulkT’s Pursuits

It’s just too bad he can’t relax a little more.  Hmmm….where could he have picked up this habit from?

Ah hah!  Aunt Jude!  She’s the culprit in the dog bed!  Oh but wait…..

Oh Mom taught him how to relax!  Huh.

By the way, this used to be a flower bed.  Thanks to seven puppies, it has now been converted into a DOG bed.  Oh well, maybe next year we’ll have flowers out in front.  I really shouldn’t encourage such deviant dog behavior.  And I will chastize Maggie for such bad parenting.  As soon as it stops being so darn cute.

Oh, and speaking of lazy dogs around here…..

ARGGGGHHH!!!!! j Well, he could have chosen the porch, so the gravel is better I guess.  It’s a good thing he’s cute, I tell ya!

Well, I almost forgot to be thankful for last week.  Oops…better late than never.

Last week, I floated the Meramec on Monday - all by my lonesome.  That was pretty darn cool.  Yes!  I can lift a kayak all by myself, I can navigate the sedate waters of the upper Meramec all by myself, and - discovery of all discoveries - I can survive a 5 hour float with only 1 beer.  GASP!  Who woulda thunk it? 

It was gorgeous too…..hot and sunny with a few fluffy clouds.  Lots of turtles sunning themselves.  Refreshingly cold water.  Even got to see two different crane species while I was out…very cool!  Heaven.  And NO CHIIGGER BITES.  Oh man, am I thankful for that.  Anyone who has ever experienced the horror of a chigger bite will know what I mean on that one!

And Happy Birthday to my Mother-in-law, Maxine!  Hope she has a nice day.

….weekends are for chocolate.  So I just ate some.  Great idea!  Actually, Friday is supposed to be for forgiveness.  Please forgive me for eating my chocolate early.  It was delicious. 

While on vacation last week, I read the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Randy was a computer science prof at Carnegie Mellon Unv. when he was diagnosed with Liver Cancer. Apparently CMU has a lecture series called the ‘last lecture’ where profs are given the normally hypothetical question of “if you only had one last lecture to give before you die, what would you say?”. In Randy’s case, the question was no longer hypothetical, and he gave a wonderful lecture about achieving your childhood dreams. The lecture was filmed and is available for free on the internet…you can find links to the lecture on the page I just linked you too.

The book was an expansion on his lecture, and a pretty easy read. I read it in about two days (vacations are great for solid blocks of concentrated reading!). When we got back, I looked up the lecture and watched that….very interesting also. It got me to thinking; just what were my childhood dreams? I was impressed he could remember them. I know my teenager dreams, but childhood ones? Do the teen years count as childhood? I hope so because quite frankly, being a fairy princess with her own white and purple unicorn seems a bit out of reach these days. Although I’m sure at age 6 you couldn’t convince me otherwise!

So I’m asking my brain this week to remember my childhood dreams.  So far it isn’t cooperating overly much though!  Feel free to share yours if you wish.

Oh, the other neat site I found this week is TED. This site features a whole bunch of cool talks and entertainment by different brilliant people. Each one I watched was about 20 minutes long (3 so far….I gave up on TV last night for an hour’s worth of internet instead!), and very thought-provoking. I highly recommend a visit, but you’ll also need a high speed internet connection, I believe, to see any of the talks.

The ideas I’m taking away (business-wise) to think about from last night’s talks were:

1. how to be remarkable (worthy of remarks),
   
2. that the ’safe’ way is the riskiest way to do things these days and finally,
   
3. the idea that diversity of product brings happiness, however people aren’t necessarily able to communicate directly their wants/needs so you can diversify.

So, a little inspiration and a little brain work.  It always seems to stick more with me if I write it down, so I hope I haven’t bored you too much with my ramblings today. Cheers.

Well, last week was a vacation for me, so I’m pretty much all about being thankful for the break. It’s definitely refreshing to totally break from the normal routine and get away. I was ready to come home on Friday….I had new ideas to think about, actions I want to take, and am ready to be social again. Thank you vacation and thank you Andy for helping it to happen!

AND thank you to my Aunt Saundra….if you have a chance, check out her comment on Gratitude week 27.

That’s it for today….I’m trying to get household chores done this morning so I can float later this afternoon. Cheers!