** BIG sigh ** my little non-bloggity friends.

To access my new blog, click this link: PENSIEVE

That's all there is to it......now save it to your "favorites" or bookmark it or whatever you have to do to find me the next time........:/.

Love y'all/mean it/even when I mock you;).

Hey Blogger bloggers! Looking for my "Front Door" shots? They're over at my TypePad Blog, so I hope you'll click the link and knock real loud!

(FYI, I still use my Blogger log-in when posting to blogs on Blogger...because I LIKE posting with my foot avatar...SOME THINGS are just hard to let go!)

Have you not noticed that I haven't updated "here" in over a week?? Of course there are multiple reasons for that (the past week of TypePad posts explain....:/), but for those of you who check in on Pensieve, it's PAST time to update your Bloglines or bookmarks or whatever reader you use with my new TypePad website, Pensieve. The site is still under construction...now THAT will be a s l o w work in progress, I'd rather write than play techie. But I do miss my custom template, so expect some design changes, not nearly as fast as I'd like 'em. That's where I'll be writing from now on (until in about a year, I probably decide to try the newest "latest and greatest").

I'm kind of bummed about losing my stellar rating in Technorati....I remember when I was one in about 2 million, and then that went down to somewhere in the 5,000s....and, hmmmmm, I guess I need to let Michele over at Blogging Chicks know I've moved.

For those of you who recently "googled" or "yahooed" or "dogpiled" or whatever-searched me and found me using keywords like "caramel machiatto breve calories, cute coffee mug, Dunkin' Donuts, words of encouragement, becoming a minimalist, uvula stuck to your tonsils (thanks, Susan), really disgusting things, Le Cruset, when the cat's away the mice will play, ladybug infestation, unzipped pants, pretty feet, polished toenails, sweet hot mama, pink leopard suitcases, Robin likes to dance, alligators in Kiawah, mintless toothpaste, alanis morissette, Jackie Kennedy, lyrics for Casting Crowns, Eleventyseven or Underoath songs, snorting from laughing so hard, disinfect your kitchen drawer after a mouse, death is not the worst thing, best piecrust, tiny shower remodels, barbie tampons (?????), what fun gag gift can be made from Maxi-Pads, or the meaning of PENSIEVE", you may or may not find what you're looking for here or at the new place. But you sure made me smile trying with keywords like those (I wish I would've saved ALL the bizarre searches over the past eight months or so...bloggers are FREAKS!).

Soooo, theorhetically, this is my "last" Blogger post, but I'm not deleting the site. 1) I still haven't been able to transfer my old posts, and 2) I don't want someone else to capture the URL! and 3) I'm still partial to Susie's design :).

Ciao for now, see you over at TypePad!

Don't be.

If you had read this little dittie, you would know I'm posting over at TypePad for now, and it will feel a LOT more permanent once I figure out how to move at least part of my Blogger design and become proficient at TypeLists and all the JUNK they say makes life easier (but for me, it does little more than make me feel like an OLD DAWG). I STILL haven't been able to transport my Blogger archives...but then again, I haven't fooled with THAT in weeks!

I have to mention my trusty Sunbeam, pictured above. She's been my faithful friend for over 19 years. I'm afraid she's about at the end of her small appliance life, the beaters no longer remain locked when mixing batter. I wonder how many extra pounds she is responsible for on me...on Tad? Cookie dough was mixed so much easier with her...pound cakes, a breeze...and oh, my, word, I could not have made an angel food cake without her! She's been as sweet as pie.

I've thought about replacing her with a Kitchenaid Mixer--the array of color is yumma-wonderfully-Easter-egg-a-licious!! Doesn't it just make you wanna put on an apron, coif your hair and call yourself Betty Crocker? A mixer with style AND substance BEGS to be bought! In spite of the fact it weighs in at 28 pounds, which if you think about it, is a good thing since you'd get a work out every time you use it (unless you leave it out on your counter as "kitchen art", a culinary sculpture I guess).

But...BUT...somehow that seems downright disloyal. Kind of like plopping down the big bucks to replace your slobbering-but-faithful mutt with some highbrow Cavalier King Charles Spaniel or Welsh Corgi pup or something.

So I'll probably just get another Sunbeam, and if it lasts for 19 years...WAIT A SECOND, HOLD THE PRESSES!!! lawd chile, I'll be in my 60s! And since my brain can't even wrap itself around THAT thought, I think I'll stop writing RIGHT.HERE!

Whatever you do, do not, I repeat more loudly and emphatically, DO NOT click this link!

It is what I look like when I KEEP the first resolution on my New Year's list (and no, no matter how bad you want to see them, posting Marnie's nekkid pics did not even make my list this year...I respect her...I do not want to violate her privacy). My own personal nekkid pics are a different story, however, and if you click that link, I'm afraid there is a public display of sorts awaiting.

I know, I know, I'm rather pedestrian...New Year's resolutions are soooo beneath bloggers, you've told me so again and again and again (while simultaneously telling me about your goals...and hopes...and dreams for the new year). Of course, I say that with all affection.

You have been warned. It's not pretty.

Or maybe...just maybe, it is ;).

UPDATE: I changed my mind. Click the link. I'm a woman and it's my ever-lovin' prerogative to change my mind. Because I said so.

This is what TAD has been up to on his days off. Cleaning out our attic space. I think he actually enjoyed himself.

In this pile of STUFF, there is both a printer that we don't use because the toner cartridges are $100 and a printer we don't use simply because we don't like it; computers that have been upgraded (but still kinda sorta work) and their big ol' honking monitors; a fish tank that needs to be cleaned, but Stephen was given a new one, so who needs the hassle?; a NEW-but-slightly-used toaster oven that was given to us, but we don't have the counter space, so we're getting rid of it; a mini food processor (I have its big brother, so again, it's superfluous); a tv that works but we don't use because it pre-dates remotes; a tv that doesn't work; a broken VCR; a marginal coffee maker...

Is it any wonder that good stewardship of resources is on my brain?! More on that when I don't have a headache. I gotta check out that free-cycle thingy I think Erin told me about....

One thing I know...........we have too much crap. I'm becoming a minimalist in my old middle age :/.

It's a new day.

A new year.

Anything is possible.

I begin 2007 the way I begin every new year--with open arms, expectant, eager to celebrate both the ordinary and the spectacular. Savoring simplicity, delighting in the ones I love and who love me. Amazed by g r a c e, grateful for my wealth--and that it's not measured in dollars and cents, but by people, relationships, that matter. Imagining what lies ahead, knowing all will not be "good", which is okay, because that's life, and I'm thankful for it. Hopeful for continued transformation...a life of balance and generosity and compassion and love, that sounds pretty good to me.

I wish you so much more than happiness in the New Year--I wish you contentment and joy and peace and laughter, to me as vital as oxygen.

As an afterthought, this familiar prayer of St. Francis expresses beautifully the essence of what I was trying to convey, only much more eloquently and succinctly:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Let it be.