I have got to have this

Isn't this the neatest thing you've ever seen?

Nothing like a writer and her coffee cup

I am a writer and being a writer there is a must have that comes along with the package.  My cherished coffee cup. For without coffee, how else can we stay up until the wee hours of the morning cranking out our masterpieces? 

Another thing about writers and their coffee cups is that we all have our special one.  My special one broke its handle the other day and I was devastated that I had to call on my back up coffee cup.  It wasn't the same.  I tried not looking at it while I was sipping and the momentum and inspiration wasn't happening. 

Yesterday, I was shopping with my daughter and coffee cups certainly wasn't on the list as I had forgotten I really needed another one.  A unique one.  She went one way and I went another and when I was finished, I called her to meet up so we could leave.

"I'm done.  Where are you?" she says.

I was really in the shoe department but I knew she would find me better in the kitchen department so that's what I told her and off to the kitchen department I went.

It was taking incredibly long for her to get up with me so I started browsing.  And something caught my eye.  THE PERFECT COFFEE CUP.  It was called a "tea party" coffee cup and reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, one of my all time favorite children's classics.  I grabbed it.

And this morning had the best cup of coffee in all the world.

Isn't that the most fun thing you've ever seen?  It's perfect!  I fully expect to crank out masterpieces now for sure. It's perfect, perfect, perfect and I dare anyone to touch it.

And being as I'm great at procrastinating when it comes to writing my masterpieces, my mind wandered.  Could be the cup making my mind think of fun things and not work things but it made me wonder what other unusual coffee cups there are out there that you might have never known about had I not discovered them myself so I'm posting a few below.

 This first one is quite unusual and not one I would pick up myself but to each his own. I'm not sure what kind of a person would think this was the perfect coffee cup for them?

Now here's one if you're expecting your in-laws anytime.  I'm just wondering if a Margarita would be the better beverage of the moment.

This is probably a cup for seniors - we all know it's a day to remember when you finally poop and why not let the world know it?

For those fishermen in your life....

 Coffee cup art - just thought I'd throw this one in.  You can never have too many of these around.

When loving others just isn't enough.

Well I have procrastinated enough.  Time to reheat the coffee and join civilization.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Nature says hello

Went for a little walk today.  The real first not so cold sunshiny and beautiful day.  In the 50s but gorgeous.  Grabbed my cup of coffee and took off to the refuge.  Something about nature that really wakes up your insides. ;o)

Sick dog

Got another sick doggie on my hands.  I just posted him not eating out of a bowl and I'm back again with sad news.  Actually I should be being optimistic so let me try.  My Malese, Cody, is almost eight years old and I know he's not going to be around forever and all that but when he's not his normal bouncing self, it makes me sad and it makes me sadder when he's in pain.  I don't know what's wrong with him.  The vet mentioned something about pancreatitis (I know I have misspelled that terribly) the last time we were in there and suggested blood tests but I wanted to see if the reason why he all of a sudden goes into pain was because of the burr they pulled from his foot.  He's wimpy so that made sense but the pain isn't going away.  Here's what he looked like last night:



Well tonight he's worse.  I gave him a pain killer but this whatever it is isn't going away.  So tomorrow it's off to the vet to get those blood tests.  Wish us luck?

Silly dog

Am I the only one with a dog who won't eat anything from a bowl?  I have to put it on his bed for him to eat.  I've tried everything. He'd rather let it sit in the bowl for days than not eat it from the comfort of his bed.  It takes eating in bed to a new level you think?

How to Create a Fixed Format eBook if You Dare

Sorry I'm not going to be the one to tell you because I have no idea how to do it and don't have the time to study this, but Sabrina Ricci has written a great series of articles about doing this. 

I can't decide whether I have the full mental capacity to handle this and I may just pay someone to do it for me, but this is one of the things - probably the only thing - that self-publishing your own books scares the bejeebies out of me.  My brain is working on tour overload so I really can't sit down and study this but for crimey's sakes it can't be rocket science.  You know how you can do things so much better than anyone else and yet some things your brain just won't comprehend?

Reminds me of school.  I could spell anything you threw at me.  Write a short story.  Five minutes and it's there.  But get me to solve an algebra problem and my brain literally shuts down.  What causes your brain to do that?

They say people either are left or right brained and I believe this is the reason.  When they start talking a language I can't understand even though it's supposed to be English, my eyes glaze over.  I may look like I'm in a trance but it's actually my body's break down mechanism when things get too overwhelming for me. 

In one ear and out the other.

Anyway, check out the article if you're braver than me. ;o)

My Thoughts on Ferguson Missouri, Racial Tension and Police Brutality

I've been watching a lot of media lately, mostly about Ferguson, Missouri.  A black teenager was gunned down by a white cop which probably isn't that extraordinary as it happens most any day in the U.S. but this case was different.  And the reason I believe it was different is that people didn't stand by and accept it.  They protested.  And protested and protested until justice is served.

Robin Williams had just died and that's why I was glued to CNN the last week or so but right after that, we hear about Michael Brown being shot by police and the whole town of Ferguson went on a rampage for revenge claiming he had his hands up in surrender and the cop still plummeted him with six bullets.  I'd be pissed too.  But then it became a race thing turning violent against the police mainly because the blacks were sick of not being respected and they were also sick of the police using physical force in dealing with them when they got arrested.  Now...here's my thought on that.  I grew up during the sixties so I'm a child of protest.  I'm also very much against police brutality.  Of course.  Isn't anyone but Facebook has been bombarded (this is even before Ferguson) with police beating up people when arresting them.  And I'm wondering if there is lots of this out there and we just never heard about it.

We need police.  Without police, there would be chaos. And I know they are in the line of harm themselves but I'm thinking a lot of this is that they let their adrenalin get to the best of them and before you know it bam an unarmed teenager is gunned down in broad daylight.  There were extenuating circumstances.  The cop had just gotten a report of a local robbery and the teenager and his friend matched the description.  So the cop is already on an adrenalin high.  Add to that the teenager is combative, punches the cop in the face and tries to take the gun.  Then flees.  The teenager is ordered to freeze and according to the cop's account, the teenager charges toward him despite the fact he has been shot several times.  For anyone to remain standing even after one shot to me signifies this teenager is pretty darn strong.  There are so many accounts on what happened I can't judge right now.  On one side you have the officer acting in self-defense and the other side the kid was trying to surrender and the cop shot him regardless.

Let me back up.  When I was a young child, the first encounter with someone not of my own color was Rosie Zimmerman.  Rosie was my mother and aunt's best friend and back in the early sixties, having a black woman as your best friend was kinda hushed.  There was incredible racial tension back then.  If you were friends with someone not of your color, you were automatically labeled.  That's what whites have been fighting against and are still fighting against all these years.  Blacks don't understand that.  They just think that white people don't like them because of their color but it's not about the color of the skin; it's about society. 

Fast forward to the present time and there's still racial tension going on which to me is incredible to believe.

But I think we can all deal with that.  It just might take more time but my point is that - now this is my perspective and probably isn't the same perspective some others might have - but for one thing, police brutality has to stop.  Just because they wear a badge, they have to have some decency.  If a person is combative, okay I can understand using some kind of force, but don't display big bad boy crap when it only makes people like you less and of course the people at the other end are going to be combative themselves.  On the other hand, Afro-Americans think whites are always out to get them and the reason why they think that is that they have gone through having their family or friends shot by white policemen and there are other incidences which makes them believe the only way they can change that it to let their voices heard which they have been doing the last 11 days since the Michael Brown shooting.  But here's something else going on here which we have been battling for decades.  While there has been improvement I feel, they still feel they have to prove themselves.  A black teenager walking down your street at night, what are you going to think?  If that black teenager was dressed in a suit, would you not think he was out to start trouble?  So is it a matter of how you carry yourself?  Yes.  I'm not saying all black men should wear suits but that's the general attitude.  If I were on the street at night, if I didn't get raped or killed being a woman, but I was dressed say in a mini skirt and high heels, the cops would pull me over in a minute.  So is it the way you carry yourself?  Sure.

The bottom line is these people want justice.  I don't want to see the guy go to jail for self-defense but I have a funny feeling that if he's not convicted or charged with something that meets the expectations of the other side, something is going to go down and it won't be good.