Poem of the Day: Travelers

These naked breasts wait eagerly
For soft mouths, for your return
My Love
The moon is full,
Shall we dance beneath her shine?
I am yours, as you are mine.

We are explorers of this well-trod ground yet
Still travelers upon a path
An end we cannot see...
I, a part of you, you a part of me

We travel toward some sacred space
Make our tabernacle, our shrine
I shall ready the sacraments,
My Love
With blood, and breath, and wine.

6/29/07 5:19pm

Shopping Alert: Silk Road Trading Company

If you've been looking for soap that is hand-crafted, luxurious, moisturizing, smells fantastic and is environmentally-friendly, look no further than the products from Silk Road Trading Company.

This new business venture created by Jennifer Williamson, artist extraordinaire, and Mike Lyons, IT guy/game guru/le' soapmaker, will surely blow your socks off. This duo has created soaps utilizing the fabulously "famous" perfumes from Mistress Beth at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. The soaps are sold over at Black Phoenix Trading Post, the authorized retailer of all things BPAL-related. With the very finest in fair-trade and eco-friendly oils, these soaps make an impact on more than just your nose and your shower.

Reviews have been rave. Customers can't seem to get enough of these decadent soaps. Some have even said they have become addicted to the luxurious bars.

The first chapter of offerings from Silk Road Trading Company takes us traveling upon the Silk Road. Inhale deeply as our sensory journey takes us to:

Bezeklik, a famous prayer-stops of underground river-fed cave grottoes (a Rhassoul clay base, the scent of underground rivers, damp earth, and pilgrim incense offerings.)

Golkonda, famous mines, west of Hyderabad in India (pure - no perfumes, no colorings, no artificial ingredients whatsoever)

Odalisque, hareems of the Ottoman Empire (blend of two chocolates, rose and lavendar waters, layered over a wicked cocoa butter soap sprinkled with dark chocolate.)

Pearls and Jade, precious gems of the Asian world (sugared white tea, vanilla cream, two kinds of mint, chamomile flowers and a swirl of freshly crushed herbs.)

Seres, mysterious silk-makers of the East (embedded with silk, and scented with Chinese amber, Arabian sadalwood, and silky iris.)

Singapore, gateway of commerce between East & West (green and white teas layered over sweet coconut, ambergris, and the golden opium of the East India Company's infamous trade.)

Taklamakan, the Desert of Death (rough, pumice-laced soap scented with the dry, scouring winds of sandstorms so vast they can be seen from outer space.)

Temujin, better known to the world by the title he won - Genghis Khan (red ginger, cinnamon, clary sage, patchouli, and exotic spices.)

Turfan, oasis of the desert (bursting with deep red wine, pomegranate, juicy fig and the garden flowers of this exotic and lovely oasis.)

Too Fat to Adopt?

Directly from Big Fat Blog:
A couple from Australia have been deemed too fat to adopt a child.

You have got to check this crazy shit out! I am outraged over it. Seeing as how my husband and I might be in exactly the same boat, I am just floored.

Now, I weigh more than this lady. I also suffer from PCOS. If I even so much as smell a calorie, my body is grabbing a hold of it and turning it into a fat cell before I can blink. Losing weight won't fix everything.

Who has the right to say you are too fat, therefore you are unfit to parent a child?
I just really do not know what to say other than, "Fuck you, you ignorant, backwards, judgmental, prejudice, discriminating assholes!"

Friends Don't Let Friends Drink & Blog

Okay...I will admit it. I have been drinking. Maybe just a itsy bitsy little bit.

Normally, I would probably caution anyone that's been drinking with a bit of advice:
1) stay away from the phone in case the urge to call up old boy friends or random strangers overwhelms your normal intelligence and good sense
2) don't blog drunk and
3) don't fall asleep first

But seeing as how I am a) not drunk and b) still have some of my facilities left I have obviously disregarded my #2 piece of advice. Then again, I am home all alone and have been left to my own devices. Anyone that reeeaalllly knows me understands that leaving me to my own devices is probably not the smartest thing to do. So what's a girl to do?

It's Friday night and I am bored. I'm bored, therefore I blog. And when I see this post at some point in the future, I delete?!?

For the Memory of Our Heroes

From our vantage points, behind our desks or safe in our comfortable homes, it is all too easy to forget that there are men and women out in the world today facing horrific situations and risking their lives for our safety, our freedom, our way of life. For the soliders, the policemen, and the firemen facing dangerous situations every hour of every day so that we can continue on, I thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I salute your brave courage and promise never to take for granted what you offer each moment you spend on the job. You offer up your lives. You sacrifice going home to your own families so that I can go home to mine.

In Memoriam "The Brave Nine" -- 9 Firefighters killed in the line of duty fighting a massive furniture warehouse fire in Charleston, SC on June 18, 2007.

Louis Mulkey was 34 years old. He was a Captain with 11.5 years service.
Brandon Thompson was 27 years old. He was a Fire Fighter with 4 years service.
William "Billy" Hutchinson was 48 years old. He was a Captain with 30 years service.
Mark Kelsey was 40 years old. He was an Engineer with 12.5 years service.
James "Earl" Drayton was 56 years old. He was a Fire Fighter with 32 years service.
Michael French was 27 years old. He was an Asst. Engineer with 1.5 years service.
Melvin Champaign was 46 years old. He was a Fire Fighter with 2 years service.
Mike Benke was 49 years old. He was a Captain with 20 years service.
Bradford "Brad" Baity was 37 years old, an Engineer with 9 years service.

Because I'm a Girl that Likes Stupid Jokes...

I figured I'd inflict one on you:

Three Little Pigs

There were three little pigs that went out to dinner together one night. When the waiter came to take their drink order… the first little pig said “I would like a Sprite.” “I would like a Coke.” said the second little piggy. “I want water. Lots and lots of water.” said the third little piggy.

The waiter brings their drinks and then takes their orders for dinner. “I want a nice big steak.” said the first piggy. “I would like the salad plate.” said the second piggy. “I want water. Lots and lots of water.” said the third little piggy.

The meals were brought out and a while later the waiter approaches the table and asks if the piggies would like any dessert.

“I want a banana split.” said the first piggy. “I would like a root beer float.” said the second piggy. “I want water. Lots and lots of water.” exclaimed the third little piggy.

“Pardon me for asking,” said the waiter, “but why have the other pigs ordered dinner and dessert and you only ordered water?”

“Well,” the third little piggy answered “Somebody has to go WEE…WEE…WEE… all the way home!”

Interesting Artwork

I saw this image today and just had to share. I think that it's beautiful. Very simple and elegant, yet oddly strange.

I like surreal art. I have always been a fan of Salvador Dali's paintings.

For more artwork like this, check out this collection of surreal artwork images from the Best of the Web blog.

Incredible Sexy Nature

Nature is sexy...or else she just has a very twisted sense of humor.

You can check out some other pics at Nature is Sexy.

I thought the "dancing tree" was very graceful and pretty.

And to really see what kind of sick mind you have, check out the suggestive pics in the It's Just Your Mind section. Some of these are friggin' hilarious. Enjoy!

My very first LOLCat

I saw this pic and just had to create my very own lolcat. It's not as cute as some I've seen, but I think it still rocks.

Sometimes Life Give You Lemons....

Life has been a whirlwind lately. I guess I should update everyone as to what's going on in my little cosmos.

1) House situation resolved...not
We did manage to get the premises vacated in late November. Of course, that meant packing up and removing all belongings to a temporary storage unit that we paid for for 2.5 months. That has caused more headaches than it's been worth. Been constantly accused of stealing items from the home. Noone took anything from that house. If anything was missing it was missing before we set foot in it. Besides, the house had been left totally open for more than a week. Anybody could have walked in off the street to take whatever they wanted. The neighbors even tried to take the pots that were outside the front door and broke one of them in the process. Those pots had been there for nearly 8 years - unmolested in wind, rain, hail, snow, heat - and their dumbasses come along and ruin them.

We telecommuted for two months between December and February, but work took up so much of our time, and provided constant harrassment, that we were unable to get anything done on the house. We did manage to get a few things off the very looonnnggg list.

First thing, all the locks had to be changed. We had to replace all the mising light bulbs and the shower head that had been taken. All carpeting was ripped up due to damage and smell from the dog. We also started tearing out some sheetrock in the back bedroom in order to fix some serious wall issues. All the windows were also replaced.

We played at painting the kitchen & dining areas. Personally, I hate the color. It's too pale, flat, and looks a little dirty for those fubared walls. We also had a kitchen consultation with Home Depot. The cabinets and appliances that I would like have a price tag of about $8,000. They weren't even remotely top-of-the-line either. Oh well. Finding that out pretty much sucked.

The heating/air unit is also pretty much dead. It is stuck in "heat" mode, which was fine for the winter, but has now become a problem. The system is almost 20 years old. So replacing parts doesn't make as much sense as just redoing the whole system. Of course, that costs a pretty penny. And speaking of pretty pennies.....

2) Financially, we have just been fucked....
Oh yeah...totally and royally fucked. We put a large portion of our available cash assets into purchasing the house. We didn't have a whole lot of time nor choice in the matter. More than half of our cash went in, as did several loans from our home equity and a new loan on the car to pay the purchase price. That left about half of our cash.

We had our remaining funds invested with an economist in Charleston named Al Parish. He has involved with our business since the beginning. We have known him and been acquainted with others that have invested with him for the past 10 years. We decided two years ago to invest some cash with his investment pools. We put a big chunk of money in and also had $150 a week deducted from our paychecks as well over the course of the last two years.

Well, he has been arrested for fraud and it now looks like we are SOL on getting any of our cash back. That money was going to fund an adoption so that we could finally start our family. We have already had to put those plans on hold due to problems with our job and finances before. We were finally in a place to start the ball rolling. Now...we may never recover and we may never be able to have a family.

I am devastated. I am angry. This all makes me sick beyond belief. I have thought some really nasty evil thoughts lately. Because there just isn't any money there, it looks like we won't get anything back either. Five years of savings gone in an instant. To go from one day having a cushion so that if we did lose our jobs, we'd be okay to the next having nothing really is distressing. I don't know what we're going to do.

Read all about the case here: Al Parish News Archive

3) Job is still iffy
Although we have weathered the firing of the CEO, there were some personnel cuts. I cannot say that I didn't agree with most of them, however. Now, there are 6 total employees. I think we're more streamlined and more effective for the most part. The biggest issues is cash flow. We were linked to the Al Parish fiasco when a young inexperienced reporter took some half-assed information and drew some pretty damaging conclusions (ie. that we were out of business and that all employees were terminated as of March 31st!!!). As you can imagine, that has had a detrimental effect on our business.

Plus, the top brass of the company also were investors. So, they have been hit hard by having their money wisked away as well. Which means, we're on our own. They no longer have deep pockets in order to bail us out of any sticky financial situations. Things are very tenuous.

So, without money we're more of less stuck. We have a house that is not in saleable condition, and no money to get it to that point. We have jobs for now, but we're haivng to scramble to build some bank just in case things go south really soon.

Well...life certainly has been giving us lemons lately. Bushels and bushels of them. But we can't exaclty make lemonade because we can't afford the sugar. ;-)

So, for now - we've been forced to drink down this cold sour brew and pretend to enjoy it. Although, all I want to do is give the world (and all these damn "lemons") the big fat finger.