I've Gone Vanilla

I’ve had a positively insatiable need for ice cream lately. I like ice cream well enough, but I’ve never had an intense desire for it like this. I can only figure I’ve tapped into some etheric frozen treat vibe. Is global warming causing ice cream sales to go up?

Mint chocolate chip is historically my favorite, but this craving has been strictly black and white. The unfortunate part of this story is my body has a zero tolerance policy for dairy and sugar. Put them together and it’s a real devil’s cocktail that gets written on my skin. :(

Last night I finally waved the vanilla flag and inhaled a Julie’s Organic ice cream bar (vanilla with the chocolate coating – heaven) for dinner, then ended up taking Kaytee and Jazz to DQ later in the evening for a vanilla cone with chocolate ants (some call them sprinkles) on it. Ice cream for dinner, followed by ice cream for dessert. I really don’t know what came over me.

Jazz was one happy pooch though, hanging out the back of the Jeep with us, licking away at her very own cup o’ soft serve. My only regret is not having my camera to capture the image of her doggie smile trying to cope with the unnatural cold on her big pink tongue. My night of illicit indulgence was even worth the three ugly devil kisses on my cheek this morning. I’m continually amazed at the light-speed at which my body processes things. The silver lining is never having to say “diet.”

The Terrible Twos

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/17/MNISSQUAE.DTL

This article made me laugh. It makes China sound like some kind of spoiled brat stamping its feet because its brother got a reward and it didn’t get anything. If China didn’t have a considerable military, I’d think eventually they will just fade into the background like a bully after high school. Unfortunately, China is more like the psycho that comes back later with a machine gun and blows away all kinds of innocent people because the insanity has been building for years and the screw that was holding it together finally fell out. If there was ever a chance for history to repeat the Hitler drama, I’d say China has a good shot at that role (with North Korea as the understudy).

Seriously tho... We’re talking about a world leader being upset about what ONE GUY is doing for lunch on a Tuesday. And the One Guy is a man whose whole existence is about peace and happiness and let’s all be friends and get along. He’s getting a medal, not exclusive information on the location of all nuclear warheads in Russia. If I were going to be worried about someone in that Lunch Duet, I’d be worried about George Bush – the decorative finial on top of the biggest superpower nation on the planet who could quite possibly go to turn on the lamp and blow up the planet by mistake. Doesn’t Hu Jintao have an audition for Geisha and the Geek* or something more important to occupy his thoughts? :shakes head:

*Yes, I know geishas are Japanese, not Chinese. It sounded good, so chalk it up to literary license.

Poetic Mystery

Ironically, as much as I love finding meaning in song lyrics, I don't enjoy reading regular poetry much. However, once in awhile there will be a verse that silently slips across my path, stirs up my chi, and flits away giggling while I'm left to figure out where that came from. Maybe there are fairies in charge of such things. As Ralph is also famous for quoting: "Some things have to be believed to be seen."

The Mystery by Ralph Hodgson

He came and took me by the hand
Up to a red rose tree,
He kept His meaning to Himself
But gave a rose to me.

I did not pray Him to lay bare
The Mystery to me,
Enough the rose was Heaven to smell,
And His own face to see.

Quote

Thanks to Sera Beak for finding this awesome quote.

"Don’t accept any statement because I made it. Even if it is true a hundred times over, it still is not your truth, it still is not your experience, and it will not belong to you. Bring truth into being, and then it will belong to you. Regard the lives of those who have achieved truth only as proof that the goal can be reached."

Written by Selvarajan Yeshudian about his teacher, Elizabeth Haich in the Foreword to Haich’s book Initiation

Hey Maurice

Jess sent me this picture in email this morning and I had to go look up the word that means assigning human characteristics to animals or objects because I couldn’t remember it – it’s anthropomorphism. I knew it was long and complicated, but an excellent word nonetheless. What family does the lemur belong to anyway? Cats? Monkeys? I seem to remember something about bears, but I could be thinking of red pandas. Survey says: monkeys. (God bless Google.) Well, they definitely create comedic prosimian pictures. (Wow, spellcheck doesn’t know prosimian. How sad.)

This guy reminds me of King Julien XIII, the Lemur King in the movie Madagascar, which is one of my favoritest animated flicks (Woo DreamWorks! I remember when they first got together and I told the advertising agency I was working for that we should be trying to get them as a client and they waved me off and said it would never last. :), which reminds me that I still haven’t seen Surf’s Up so I’ll have to rent that this weekend. Damn, I gotta switch to unleaded coffee in the morning. Focus, focus!

In other news, Al Gore won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). CNN’s article on it is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/12/nobel.gore/index.html

There aren’t too many politicians I think are cool, but I absolutely admire what Al Gore has accomplished for the environment so far. He and his team have managed to put Earth’s distress into words and pictures that a surprisingly large percentage of the population seems to understand. Communication on that level is no small feat, especially for a politician.

I think you have to sell at least a small part of your soul just to be in the political arena (some just sell out entirely) so I don’t often trust people that can play that venue, but Gore seems to have a real interest in improving our Earthly practices. Makes me wonder what it’s like on October 12, 2007 in the dimension of the universe where evil was defeated, Florida knew how to count, and Gore won the 2000 election. I think I’d like to jump over to that reality please!

Politics is too much drama for me. I don’t even like dealing with office politics, much less national politics (yes, I do vote). I’ve been involved in my share of after-school-special-worthy family/friend bullshit, but as I look back I see that a lot of the time (not all) I was wading in to pull someone else out of the river and drowning myself in the process. I finally learned that you can’t save everyone and I’ll gladly throw you a rope, but I’m gonna stand here on the banks and stay dry. My daughter is the exception of course. She can still drag me in unwillingly, but I try not to flounder around for long.

It was really windy today, but turned out nice with the sun shining and great cloud formations scooting along the heavens. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high of 63. Fall has finally arrived. Sweater weather is cool with me tho. I like the long sleeves and the cozy hot drinks and a good fire to sit by. I love summer too but I guess I’m ready for fall this year. New moon was on Thursday too. Too bad it was cloudy that night cuz that’s always the best time to see as many stars as possible. Okay, I’m just babbling now. I have such great thoughts in the car all the time but I can never remember what I wanted to write down by the time I get somewhere that I have the option. :sigh: Maybe I need one of those hand-held recorder things.

Today I'm thankful for beautiful days and starry nights, the flavor of organic oranges, DreamWorks, imagination, and dog treats that make our pooch hop around in happiness.