Tuesday...

It's a beautiful sunny day today! What a change from yesterday's rainy face. I'm glad...it makes me happy =)

I'm feeling really good. I went to the gym Sunday, yesterday and I'm planning on it again today. I was a little off track betwen school, intern site visits and bbq's, but I'm back...and I'm glad...I feel better.

As for life...life is good =)
*in no particular order*
1) I'm almost finished with school this semester. Finalize my final project, do a podcast and my last 2 case studies...and I'm done!
2) I have a wonderful boyfriend...we love hanging out and being with one another. Pennsic is coming soon...that should be interesting...I've never "been" with someone at Pennsic before.
3) Work is work, but I'm just putting it in my head that everyone is exactly where they are meant to be at that moment...and if not...move your a$$ out of there! In my case, I'm here...I'm learning...it's all good.
4) I have scrolls due...I won't stress (I WON'T stress)...and I'll be ok...*I've gotta keep telling myself that!* Check out my scribal blog for the last scroll I worked on...just posted it!
5) henna business is good...no real complaints on that end either...but check out my Karmic Henna blog for updates!

Anyway...that's it for now...

Happy Tuesday...

Happy Wednesday!

It has been a really long week...just wanted to let you'll know I'm alive and kicking...just really busy with homework, work and everything else.

I just updated my LJ so check there for details from the weekend.

Stay cool!

Stay hydrated! It's suppose to be 110 today =(

ooh...just a heads up...I'm going to teach a workshop on henna at a library in NJ =)

Wish me luck!

7/7/07

I forgot to mention that this weekend ROCKED!!!!

My sweetie came over on Friday and we drove down to Jenness' parent's house on Saturday...chilled in the pool and ATE out bellies to the brim!

You can see some pics here.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with friends, seeing Michel!!, playing majong, eating roast pig, my sweetie's coconut shrimp with tamarind butter!, mom's baked beans, dad's stuffed peppers, cream puffs, cheesecake, etc., drumming with Khatifie!

It was AWESOME!!!!

We crashed at Joe and Jenness' Saturday night and went to lunch for Tina's birthday at a Chinese/Japanese place...YUMMY!!!

I'm still recuperating!!!

Off to the gym with me!

Padme update!!!

The water was kinda murky and smelly...not sure how that happened with the filter in there, BUT...



She doesn't look diseased anymore!!!



And I hope that she does better again!

All the most recent pics are here...look at the last 4.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a lovely day yesterday. Despite the rain (in the late afternoon) it was a really fun day!

The day started with my sweetie making ham, cheese, mushroom & red bell pepper eggs. Yummy!

We then ventured out to my friend Marguerite's house in Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY. I've know Marguerite for about 6 years now through various Renaissance faires. She's a fabulous person, herbalist and kindred soul.

At her house, we met some of her friends (it was really nice to Russ and Jan) and neighbors and had a really nice time chatting, eating, and drinking Marguerite's coconut daiquiris! Those were really yummy! (I think I had at least 4 or 5 =P) Then we went into town and saw the parade! I wish I had brought my camera, but it's just as well because it started to pour!!! Jaji and I got wet, but had fun watching the various bands, fire trucks, vintage cars and school and local groups march in the rain and throw candy!

My feet got soaked in the rain when I was down at the parade and Marguerite hooked me up with some cool socks (which she gave me)...how cool are they?



They have shoes on them!!!



Nice pic of Russ and Jan (READ Russ' shirt =P)

The rest of the pics I took are here. Marguerite has some nice books on herbs. There are a couple of shots here of some pages from a books from the 1600s!

All in all, it was a really nice day!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Interesting to know...

Some of you may already know most of this, but some of it was new for me too.

Borrowed from a post by Michel.

Part A:
In today's continuing education class, we shall discuss the Middle Finger. Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking
the yew" ( or "pluck yew").Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle finger at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW! "Over the years some "folk etymologies" have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since "pluck yew" is rather difficult to say like "peasant mother pheasant plucker", (which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows of the longbow), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative "F", and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter..It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows, that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird".

And yew thought yew knew everything.

Part B:
Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it-hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs -
thick straw - piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in
the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof - hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs." There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts And a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt.
Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway - hence, a "thresh hold." In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while - hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl.
Often trenchers were made from stale bread which was so old and hard that they could be used for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust." Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up - hence the custom of holding a "wake."

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house"
and reuse the grave. When re-opening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people
alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would
have to sit out in the graveyard all nigh(the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer". And that's the truth... (and whoever said that History was boring?!)

Awesome...em...Holy Shit!

LOL! I got reprimanded by Hal this weekend..."Gina, you have some words you use entirely too much on your blog! Cool! Aw...Awesome! Get some new ones"

ok...so here goes...

Holy Shit!! Did I have a great weekend =)

*thanks Hal*

Chris & Amy's party was a blast...like every year! Jaji came and picked me up Friday evening...we took the scenic route...up the Saw Mill to the Taconic...over the Newberg Beacon Bridge...all the way up 9W. It was a really lovely ride. We had dinner with the crew in Catskill.

Saturday...we partied our buts off...

Some highlights...

little JD with Rave (who has one gold eye and one blue one!)

The band Foxy Moon Baby...

It was nice catching up with Cheryl, Carol & Bob, Hal...


"Why are you taking a picture of an old fart!"

And a really nice weekend spent with my sweetie =)

Pics can be found here.

On the way home...we took the scenic route back...here's where we stopped off for a picnic =)



How sweet is that?