Jared and I officially got the keys to our newly owned house. As of 11:00 yesterday morning, we own our house! It’s very exciting. I already moved a load of stuff over to the new place. I’ll be moving the rest today.
Be patient if I’m not posting right now. We’re losing our internet connection for a while. I promise more updates later…
Hello!
Here is an excerpt recently from Jenna Elfman’s website. Looks like our lives are parallel. Check her out, she’s awesome!
Hi all! Jenna here. I hope your new year is going as well as mine. I thought it was time to fill you in on all the good news. First of all, I am coming back to TV! I’m creating a brand new TV show and I can’t tell you much more than that. I want to tell you…but I can’t. It’s very hush hush. But I can say it’s going to be hilarious. I’ll let you know more soon…
I also starred in and produced my first film! “Touched”. A really beautiful film. I will let you know how and when you can see it… be prepared to bring tissue. I also moved into my dream house at the beginning of this year…finally! It took forever to remodel but it was worth it…I love it! I’m also about to celebrate my 10-year anniversary with Bodhi. 10 Years! I wrote a piece for Glamour Magazine in the “couples sectionâ€. It’s in this month’s edition on newsstands now! Check it out… On the humanitarian side, I’m working very closely with Criminon, a non- profit criminal rehabilitation program that actually works, it gives these men and women the tools and life skills to become contributing members of society. I have been tutoring an inmate through the program and he’s on his third course. His success stories have been fantastic and I’m incredibly proud of him. Here’s some more amazing news. Some of you may know how rampant the legal drugging of kids is in this country. “He talks too much and won’t sit still… give him Ritalin!†Well, you may not know that school teachers and psychologists could force and threaten the parent to put the kid on drugs and if the parent refuses, the school could call Child Protective Services who could charge the parents with neglect and could actually TAKE THE CHILD AWAY! (For not giving your kid drugs!). So, I went to Washington D.C. with a few other dedicated people and we pushed and supported a bill that put the choice and decision into the hands of the parents, where it belongs. Well, I’m thrilled to say the bill passed on December 3rd, 2004. It’s called the Prohibition on Mandatory Medication. No more forcing kids to take drugs, no more threats! It’s up to the parents. Yeah!!! Okay! That’s good for now. A new TV show. A new film. A new house. A new criminal rehabilitation program. A new law passed in congress that protects every child in America. Phew! Okay, I’m gonna sit by my new swimming pool, eat brownies and laugh at my pugs. Stay tuned for more details…
Life As Art
You see that’s a matter of viewpoint. Beauty has something to do with beingness then doesn’t it? It’s way up there.
But do you know at the same time that the fellow says, I’m no artist.†He says, I’m not an artist.†He means by that, “I don’t paint; I don’t write; I don’t compose music.†What is he doing that might throw this into question?
He might be living a very beautiful life. Because the biggest and widest canvas that you could paint would be the canvas of a life. A man could actually achieve the level of being a professional beautiful liver. He could. There are some people you are glad to know simply because they seem to lead a beautiful life. It’s interesting, isn’t it?
So people say we have to go hungering after art through painting, writing and so forth, and what are these people doing? They’re writing about, they’re painting about, composing about life. You’re sitting there with this enormous canvas and all the raw materials to put together into what is actually a piece of art… You’re overlooking the primary field of art, which would be to live beautifully.
Jared has decided that he isn’t going to eat wheat anymore, so rather than pay tons of dollars for wheat-free bread, I’ve decided to try making bread myself. The first objective was to get a breadmaker. Someone on Ebay outbid me on a really reasonable one, so I went to Good will and got the same thing for much cheaper ~ $5.00. I was excited.
I tried to make a loaf of Rye bread and it was really really bad. Does anyone know how to make bread at all? I’ve done some research. I’m trying to figure out how to make wheat-free, gluten-free, yeast-free bread. Yummy!
The Internet has been no help. I’m going to keep trying, but don’t be surprised when I make the best damn bread in the whole country.
Check out this letter from a Marine that was once a farm kid.
Dear Ma and Pa:
I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before maybe all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m., but am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there’s warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till noon when you get fed again. It’s no wonder these city boys can’t walk much. We go on “route marches”, which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it’s not my place to tell him different. A “route march” is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The country is nice but awful flat. The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Capt. is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don’t bother you none. This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don’t know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don’t move, and it ain’t shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don’t even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes. Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain’t like fighting with that ole bull at home. I’m about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I’m only 5’6″ and 130 pounds, and he’s 6’8″ and weighs near 300 pounds dry. Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving daughter,
Gail.
I was thinking the other day was a good team artists and scientists are. Artists are the people in this society that have enough guts to take a look at the status quo and be willing to make a change or venture something different. It must take a lot of good. There are many times that they are called cooky and weird, but in hindsight, we see how much they can change.
Take Leonardo Da Vinci for example. He was an incredible artist and a scientist. He used his artistic mind to change the way that the world was. He was the first to think of several things, including the flying machine. People thought he was weird, but her persisted! Look at how much we adore him now. Also, look at how much he changed the world.
Hug an artist today. I sure hope I get lots of hugs.
Greg and Half-Pint have officially moved. They are now hanging out on 5 acres in a the very beautiful countryside of western Oregon. They are actually living on one of my favorite streets in the world. It’s not TOO far away from where I am going to live, so I think it will all work out to be fine.
It’s a little hard to get up on the morning and look out the window only to find that they’re not there eating all the hay.
I also almost drove home yesterday to let them out to play at lunch…
It’s going to be hard to get over no longer being a farmer, but I think that I may be able to. I’m sure I’ll find a goat or a mule to take care of in Greece!!!