I think the MP3 Experiment was an interesting thing to be a part of though. I wish I was the sort of person who could be like "yeah! it rained and it was still awesome!!! life rocks!!" but truthfully I was annoyed that I got wet and was wearing jeans that I just washed and got my favorite loafers soaked and now my feets were cold. Personally I like the other less involved performances that ImprovEverywhere creates like the one in Grand Central Station where everyone froze for a minute, or where they have sets of twins on the subway.

…Even bigger news, Jean Claude (my boss at VSO) has just this very moment delivered my motorbike!!!  It’s chucking it down here, and he looked a bit bedraggled to say the least.  But now I have my tools, I can properly commence my work!

The end of year exams start next week.  That means I’ve got 6 days to visit 20 schools (I’ve already visited 2 in town)  Bearing in mind that the furthest one is a 3 hour drive away this could be a logistical nightmare.  But, come hell or high water (high water being the likelier option given then amount of rain falling from the sky at the moment) I'll get around somehow!

I have a big meeting on Wednesday with all the directeurs and chargés of my schools, plus some bigwigs from the district.  It’s to introduce myself and the PHARE work plan for the forthcoming year.  The room has been booked, the Fantas are ready (Fanta deserve a post of there own, but suffice to say, they’re mandatory here!) and the invites have been posted (whether they’ve been read, or even received for the matter!).  So, 50 people invited, no-one but me and my boss has confirmed.  That’s only 25 Fantas each…

P.S.  I have lots of little stories to tell, but rather than post them all in one big chunk, I think I’ll try and write them up over the next few days then post them up as and when, just to keep you checking back for more.

Sunday was a weird day.  It was your typical Portland rainy crapfest, and I just didn't feel like doing anything.  I did put on my fancy pink burberry print galoshes splashed through a few puddles, hopped in my car and went to the store.  I didn't really need anything, buying random crap just makes me feel better and baking stuff can't get me into too much financial trouble when I'm down.  So I bought all the supplies to bake a buncha stuff, but only got motivated enough to bake one crappy batch of cookies, which is sad because baking is usually therapeutic for me, then again so is vodka, perhaps I should stick to that. I was kinda down in general, unmotivated to do anything at all, I didn't want to be alone, but wasn't feeling social.  If R were here, it woulda been a come-over-in-your-PJ's-and-drink-vodka-lemonades-watching-crappy-movies-targeted-to-teens kinda day.

The City of Columbus in association with the Central Ohio Rain Garden Initiative is conducting a Workshop and Training at the Department of Transportation, 1980 W. Broad Street this month. The homeowner training will be Tuesday, October 21, 2008. Go to Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District website for more information.  

http://tinyurl.com/raingarden 

A rain garden will keep your plants and trees healthier, return rainwater to the local aquifer instead of carrying it off miles away from you, reduce the need for sprinkling, and as a bonus provide new visual appeal in your yard as well as a nice natural area that will attract wildlife-the good kind.

There are two sessions for homeowners. The morning session (8:00 am - 12:00 pm) will introduce you to the purpose, design, function and implementation of rain gardens. Breakfast and lunch are both included. Cost: $30. 

The afternoon session (1:00 pm - 4:30 pm) is a hands-on workshop participating in an installation at the ODOT site. Cost $20.

In other news: I got a B+ on my first college paper! =]

<3

I have been working at it for 24 years mostly in security. And my husband has for 26 years.  We worked it again this year. 

This year my husband and I worked together and were lucky enough to be near our truck.  I say lucky because I was able to have a 'tailgate sale'.  I set up my pendants, earrings and other polymer clay items on our tailgate.  I also ran a fair week 1/2 off special on my buttons.  It turned out pretty good.  I made a few sales, got a few orders and got paid for being there. haha

I could not have afforded to rent a booth and probably would not have gotten one anyway as most if not all are already spoken for, years ahead of time.

We had beautiful weather, in the mid to upper 70's all week during the day, upper 50's at night and not a drop of rain.  Here in lower Michigan at this time of year you never know what kind of weather you will have.  The week after we had upper 50's and lower 60's and 2 nights we had frost already. The leaves are turning such beautiful colors.

On top of all that I got to see my oldest son, daughter-in-law, grandsons and granddaughter, that week.  Not as much as I would have liked but that was the only time they were able to come up from Kentucky (granddaughter is from Michigan).  I don't get to see them often, so any time I get to is nice.

Do any of you go to the County Fair?  When is yours? Now did you spend that week?

I hope everyone had as good of a week as I did.  See ya tomorrow.  I will be talking about Etsy.

One day off is lame;
two days off would be better.
Thank God it’s Friday.

Cocoa on the couch,
Snuggled up with my Pippin
in my sweats. Oh Bliss!

-Essaytch

It's a grey, rainy, overcast and generally fairly miserable Saturday afternoon in October, so what do you do?  Do you curl up in a blanket in front of the tv with a big steaming mug of tea and watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?  No, of course you don't, you go to Codona's! [lazy clickers:  Codona's is Scaberdeen's cheap and nasty version of Blackpool Pleasure Beach.  It's tacky, outdated and just a whole load of fun!]

Codona's really is the ultimate retro experience in Scaberdeen, it's the perfect recreation of every holiday you ever had as a child.  It's freezing cold with a permanent mist of drizzle just in front of your face, everything is a bit rusty and the cartoon characters are all knock-offs of your Disney/Looney Tunes favourites.  It even has a Wimpy for crying out loud!  A Wimpy!  [Although, to be honest we tried to eat there but after waiting half an hour for "fast food" we complained and got our money back to spend on even junkier junk food.  Candy Floss!]

The best thing about going to an outdoor Amusement Park on the beach in the rain in October is that there's no one else there; there was us, a few hardcore emo-goths-types [isn't that breaking every stereotype going?] and the very, very miserable attendants.  And did we care?  Did we bollocks!  We went on every ride we could [okay, they only had about six that were actually open that we were allowed on, apparently we're too big for the Apple Family Coaster and Safari Kiddies' Train and the Log Flume doesn't operate in the rain - hello?!  We're already wet] and we squeezed every last drop of excitement out of every one of them.  [Apart from Calamity Jane obviously, as he's just a little girl and too afraid to go on the Ghost Train or The Rollercoaster On The Roof as it's too high.  If he had his own way we would've spent the whole day on the Waltzers.]

Scream if you wanna go faster?  We screamed, did we go faster?  No, because it's set at a specific speed due to Health and Safety regulations and the chair-o-planes don't really go any faster. 

Oh, and we're probably all banned for life from the Dodgems.  It's their own fault, they didn't breathalyse us before we got on [I was the only one not drinking because I've not been well for weeks now*] and no one said that we shouldn't all gang up on The Wine Guzzler and aim to give him whiplash within the two minutes or so of ride time.  He was being dickish so deserved it, don't feel sorry for him.  He later redeemed himself by being so freakin' amazing at the Coconut Climb that he must be part simian [but then lost all bonus points for re-running the wine bottle shenanigans a couple of hours later once we had slightly politer company around].

*I think I have consumption, I've been exposed to people who have been exposed to TB and after consulting my medical expert Dr Wikipedia I do have most of the symptoms.  Okay, I also have most the symptoms of the common cold; but if I'm going to be ill, it's going to be a real illness and not a freakin' common cold.

Ah Saturdays, never know what's gonna happen.  You know, I long for one when I don't have to do anything more energetic than roll over in my bed.

We walked more miles and climbed more hills this week than I would normally do in a month.  It was undoubtedly very good for me and character forming to boot.  I thank the heavens for good boots!

I will tell you about it while I wait to see if any of my hasty, windblown, wobbly shots came out :)

We arrived in Cumbria of the English lakes, clutching our Wainright* book, on a sunny Sunday morning.  We wandered Ambleside and bought a pair of matching gilet fleece thingies in a sale.  We decided to do a short easy walk up a very small mountain.  The view was splendiferous and there was a jackdaw touting his bright silver stare and gleaming feathers in hopes of getting a bit of left over tourist lunch.  After a while, and after a few photos, my legs agreed that it was worth attempting to walk the longer way back.  Near the lower end of the walk back, the road went down steeply and one of my knees suddenly hurt a lot.  I walked the rest of the way down crabwise.

Next morning, the sun did not shine but rain fell steadily from stormy skies so we went to Keswick and walked wetly around it.  Also we went to a pencil museum (which was actually very interesting indeed).  Then the skies cleared, just enough that we thought we might do another, even easier, walk up to see Aire Force - a beautiful waterfall in the woods.  Up being the operative part.  And we were wrong about the rain, it returned and lent the woods and boulders a splendidly gloomy and doomladen air.

After passing a number of cateracts, plunging into dark ravines we decided that we might just possibly have missed the hole in the wall through which we had intended to walk round the fells above to get the most impressive views of Ullswater, shrouded in mist.

We made our way back down through the twisty forest and had a wonderful cream tea in the cafe.  Then returned, as the evening sun came out and gleamed brightly on all the wet leaves and rocks and crags, to our B&B and our enormous bed.  I love extra large beds!  Where we lay stranded like wet fish until we had enough energy to shower and go out for dinner.

Oddly enough, it was raining the next morning so we went to Kendal where we didn't find the famous Kendal mint cake shop but where I did buy a little raincoat for my camera.  There's something inhibiting about exposing expensive digital stuff to the elements.  I said to Barney (now being equipped to take wet photos and keen to try it out) let's go to Coniston and look at the view through the mist and rain and eat pies.  So we bought pies (crappies, I seem to have written in my notepad but that must be an error surely?) and wonderfully, as we arrived at the lake, the sun came out and clouds and sunshine competed for being the most dramatic and beautiful.  And the pies were hot and the water sparkled :)

As it wasn't yet time to collapse completely, we went on to Tarn Hows to view the picture book lake and I got to wander off in the sun and take pictures all by myself while Barney sat in the car and read Wainright.  (Plotting my next near downfall!)  Rain swept in white gusts across the distant Fells and the sun illuminated it.

I found a small crag of my very own (a very small one, about ten feet high) with a puddle in the middle of it.

The next day, the sun and rain alternated but as we drove fellwards, the skies ahead suggested that it might be worth attempting our first real, serious climb, up Catbells with views over Derwent Water and a pleasant walk back along the lakeside through Manesty Woods.  Wainright said this walk would be enjoyed by children and grandmothers as well as more serious walkers.

As I expected, the climb was steep.  So after a few feet I was impressively out of breath and my legs were completely jelly.  But it was all just a question of taking a bit longer, I thought, remembering the children and Grannies who had enjoyed this 'walk'.  Until I got halfway up a steep, rocky outcrop and realised that I was poised above a drop on either side of a narrow selection of footholds - all of which the jellyness of my legs wouldn't allow me to reach.  The moment of acute panic wasn't so much about the immediate fear of inadvertant flying (bad enough I assure you) but about the realisation that I had already gone too far to turn back.  There was absolutely no way in a million years that I could ever ever ever do this bit in reverse.  They would just have to send the helicopters in to lift me off.  And what the hell kind of grannies and children enjoyed this walk, I wondered furiously? The thought of the grannies spurred me on (and the five minutes of frozen panic gave my legs a rest and me time to get my breath back) so I made it over the rest of the rocky bit to the first 'little' peak.  And got the first eyeful of the main peak which was not at all near but very very high above and very very thin!!!  Oh No.  Oh dear me no!!!!  There's no way I can go all the way up there I decided.  There has to be an easy way down from here where I can sit by the roadside and wait for Barney to get the car and rescue me.  For some reason I didn't say any of this apart from a sort of breathlessly feeble squeak.  This caused Barney to say kindly, no hurry, take your time, have some coffee.  It's not far now, the views will be even better up there.  Which reminded me that I ought to be taking photos.  This revived me a bit (it's amazing how taking a photo does revive me) and we staggered onward and upward.  Quite a lot (of staggering and upwardsness).  The thin bit was wider than it looked from a long way down and the top was wide enough to walk about on in a wobbly sort of way and  - Oh, I forgot the gusts of wind and sudden sidewayspours of rain and occasional bursts of blinding, full frontal sunlight that accompanied us up, like teasing, mischievious and not altogether friendly goblins (or boggarts as they used to be called in the North) - anyway, the view was worth all of the climb, every bit of it, and distant rain marched across the peaks and valleys and the sun and the clouds all did their thing again.

(If you can see the very tiny little bristle-like things on top of the peak, you might be surprised to learn that they are full sized people - just to give you an idea of the scale)

So after eating lunch, seated on a rock overlooking Derwent Water, we took our wet backsides down the fell.  Down a steep zigzag path. After about twenty feet, my knee let me know that this kind of gradient was actually not an option.  I descended the rest of the Fell crabwise.  (Getting the hang of the crabwise thing after a while.  It's quite simple, you do a swoop down to the next foothold with the right foot while balanced on the left leg and then bring the left leg down to join it.  Then you repeat the movement a lot - for the next half hour in fact. Tremendously good exercise for the left thigh but a bit hard on the right foot and left hip.  On smooth bits, you do a kind of rocking hobble.  It must look very interesting from any other perspective than mine.)  I blessed my walking stick on this bit as, without it, the only way down would have been to lie down and let Barney roll me down the hillside.  (Which would have been a lot faster but I didn't trust him to keep me under control.)

Right.  So on to the next bit of the walk, along the lakeshore through pleasant woodlands.  Very nice woodlands and lakeshore but very wet as the rain had now settled to downpour mode (no doubt up on Catbells it was still doing sidewayspour in gusts).  The lake was dramatically lashed by the wind and the trees sang a deep windy song above our heads.  Occasionally we spied a distant sunny peak.  My feet hurt. It was a mere mile and a half to the road and then just a short vertical walk up to where we parked the car.  Amazingly, the car hadn't rolled away down the hill and would you believe it, the sun came out :)

I shall leave you here, wet, aching and simply dying to know what heroic feats we next achieved, though, in fact, Catbells, at four and a half miles, nearly finished this Granny off completely and I refused to even contemplate Haystacks and Buttermere (seven and a half miles).  Frustrating for Barney of course but I think he realised that the only way we'd both get up Haystacks would be with me riding piggyback :)  I did encourage him to do it without me but he didn't seem keen.  I don't know why.

*For those of you who don't know of him, AW Wainwright, wrote wonderful walkers guides for the Lake District fells, illustrated with maps and sketches and full of marvellous detailed information.  They may have been the first pocket sized walkers guides.

و قد تم الكشف عن أن MBC ستقوم ببرنامج خاص بعنوان "Myself, Rain, Dance" في السابع عشر من هذا الشهر الذي سيطرح فيه الألبوم .

سيتم عرض البرنامج في مكان مغلق ل 1000 معجب محظوظ  اللذين سيكونون مسجلين على التاسعة في مركز MBC Dream ..

لكن قبل كل هذه الأحداث ستقوم MBC بعرض وثائقي خاص عن Rain بعنوان "Rain’s Coming" هذا الأسبوع وسيركز على حياته الشخصية , إلخ .

ألبوم Rain سيصدر في الثامن من أكتوبر ..

المصدر : Asian Fanatics

So I can surmise, we don't like rain, I should have been a famous Chef, I drink to much and I am a popular bath seller, sometimes.

That is line is so forced.

Anyway, the weather today is so odd. First, it was scalding hot. Like, I could almost see the steam from the cement. And then, it was super humid. Afterwards, the rain came. It was a slow patter to start and then there was lightning and the wind was howling for like two minutes. And now, after the rain subsided, the sun is starting to show. Uhm, global warming? That is way too weird. I am sure that I'll get a pneumonia soon. Hopefully after finals week.

I cannot get anything done! I am never the hardworking one. Unless I am totally interested in a topic, I do not give 100 percent. And do you think I'm interested in math? Hell effing no. Which reminds me, I have way too much work to be doing this blog. And I need a smoke.

I woke up on Saturday morning and it was really dark and cloudy. Looked out the window, it was wet. When the weather is like that, I like staying home. But we had plans to go out. As we were getting ready to leave, these darker clouds rolled in and it started drizzling. We let the kids out before we grabbed last minute things from the house, and they were having so much fun. Too bad I didn't take any pictures. Princess was just hilarious. The faces she was making, the hood from her sweatshirt that she was trying to put on, the way she was standing and telling me that it's raining, it's wet, it was just all too funny!

Then on the way to the car she had to step in to every little puddle she passed. And I'm talking about little tiny puddles, like her foot was bigger then a puddle. There was barely any water in there, but she had fun splashing. The reason I was letting her splash, because there was barely any water in there.

We were off to Los Angeles. On the way there we had some really strong rain storms. Not sure if I would call them storms as they were only lasting for about 5-10 minutes. It was more like someone was pouring water out of their bucket.

We made it to LA where they had Lithuanian Fair. You won't believe this. This year was the first year in 15 year that we didn't go. 1. the weather was cloudy and didn't want to be stuck there in case it rained; 2. it's just not the same going there without my parents. Even though we went there last year and the year before without them, we just weren't really up for it this year. Maybe next year.

Instead we drove around my old hood, drove by my old apartment, my high school (sniff sniff), the stores where I used to go all the time. It was kind of sad.

Then we decided to stop by the LA Zoo. I know I know, in a cloudy and almost rainy weather. We are crazy. Since we have the passes we thought we'll just walk around, see some animals and if it starts raining, leave. We saw quiet a few animals, but the best were gorillas. I've never seen them be so active and walk all over the place. The baby one was playing, jumping on the branches, eating them. It was really cute to see and the kids loved it.

And there are a few others:

It did start to rain after a while. Kids again had fun walking in the rain, until we had to go up one of the little hills. THey decided that they were too tired and wanted to be carried. Kapitonas loves sitting on Daddy's sholders, and the Princess just likes to be carried. So yeah, we both were carrying them.

After the zoo we decided to go by Burbank NBC Studios and Ikea. Which I will blog about those later.

Our brother's renter met us there a little after 9 o'clock, and after my brother prayed, "Thanks for the chicken," we finished our meal.  The employees swept and stacked chairs on tables around us, even though they close at ten.  Anyway, we were ready to leave and the rain had let up so my sister and I thought we could jump the smaller river.  We stood on the edge, and judged.  I teased that my good brother might carry us over, or lay down his hoodie for us.  There was no jumping.  We would splash water all over our poor feet.  So we moved upstream to search for a ford.    

Looking south-east.

Looking south-west.

I really should wipe my feet after being outside on the soaking wet ground before going inside.

Rain's 5th album jacket image marks the start of his comeback. His 5th album "Rainism" jacket image and comeback showcase schedule has now been released to the public.

Rain's 5th album shows his charm and sophistication, and the main image and expression of the album is shown as a mature production. Because of the male dancers in line (in the second picture above), one of his charms revealed in the image is one of being strong.

His J.Tune Entertainment agent said, "On October 17, Rain will comeback with 'Rain Comeback Showcase "Me, Rain, Dance."'" Invited fans will also get the chance to see this showcase performance on October 9 at the MBC Dream Concert.

On October 10, MBC will air its special "It's Raining" and on the 17th the "Rain Comeback Showcase 'Me, Rain, Dance,'" providing two weeks in a row of Rain special shows.

Meanwhile, Rain's second teaser video will be released through online portal sites on October 8.

Source: Review Star
Credit: http://seoulfull.wordpress.com
Please take out only with credit and do not add any credits.

More comebacks! Wow, it looks like the style now is to make up your own word for album titles (ex. "Hyorish," "Mirotic," and now "Rainism"). What do you think of Rain's image? Are you excited for his comeback?

Today is a public holiday in NSW (eat your heart out, Victorians and Queenslanders!). Still, I couldn't really go anywhere for the day. This picture should tell you why. As should the next one...

I looked up from my desk this lunch-time to a view of the sun beaming away like nobody's business. So, I slipped into my running apparel, scooted off downstairs and beetled along in the direction of the tan.

Sadly, by the time I reach the 'G it was raining. I've had showers that were less wet. Baths too.

So I shuffled off back to work. 7km run - the shortest I've done in a long time.

Running
Yep - 7km today. Also 14.5km yesterday - from Warrandyte back to Ringwood East, via Croydon and that path alongside the train tracks.