Chancedance Chronicles

'Perhaps the poet whose verses gladden us was sad and solitary, and the musician a melancholic dreamer...What they give us is no longer their darkness, their suffering or fears, but a drop of pure light, eternal cheerfulness...'

--Herman Hesse, Magister Ludi

Welcome to Chancedance Chronicles!

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Visit Berlin with me
2005
2007

5/8/12 Checking in tonight after a busy couple of months all leading up to our departure for Germany tomorrow to visit my mom and brother. In the last 3 months I've gotten a new client and set up 3 books for him. After we get back from Berlin, there will be 6 more books coming. They are all about financial planning so have gotten me thinking about better managing my retirement funds. Our dream is to retire somewhere like Mexico, or at least spend a lot of time travelling there. What is your happy place dream? Have you ever thought about what it would take to make it a reality? What is the first step? Take it!
In the words of German poet Johann von Goethe:
"Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

2/16/12 Funny to look down at the last post and see what has changed since then. The trip to Mazatlan was fun and Troy realized one of his lifelong dreams and caught both a sailfish and a marlin on that trip. The photo does not do justice to the magnificent glowing blue and purple in these fishes' back fins when they were first brought onto the boat. Absolutely beautiful animals! Sadly, my mom's remission did not last so we will be going to visit her for Mother's Day with heavy hearts. My sister-in-law continues to thrive though, and since her kidney transplant went so well, she is now on the list for a pancreas to get rid of her diabetes too. Mandarin Gallery was as good as their word and notified me that they were going to have a mosaic class starting next week so I signed up a couple days ago but then they called me today to say the class was cancelled because there weren't enough participants. I'm very disappointed because I was really looking forward to that class. Troy's work has been slow and mine has been busy but we're both ready for a little R&R in Newport, Oregon this weekend. Troy is hoping to repeat last year's fishing success and I'm hoping to get artistically inspired despite the cancellation of my class. There are other kinds of art, like putting to work that watercolor class I took, and Newport's many galleries are always muse-awakening. On my way home from work today I heard the song that had this update's lyrics. Hope you enjoy them.

11/25/11 Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope your Holiday went well and that you all have much to be thankful for. This Thanksgiving I'm thankful that my mom was recently declared cancer-free, my dear sister-in-law had a successful kidney transplant and that hubby and I have good jobs as we head into the Christmas season and New Year. We are looking forward to an upcoming vacation to Mazatlan in less than 2 weeks and then planning to visit my mom in the spring or early summer. I'm also about to take a mosaic class, something I've wanted to do for a long time but couldn't find locally. Now my request to the universe has been answered by the Mandarin Gallery in Lakewood, WA. I'm very excited to see what the next few weeks and the new year bring! Also, I have a very important birthday to note:
Happy Birthday Roger! I love you so much more than words can say.

10/2/11 Looks like my visits here are getting further and further apart. Summer arrived so late it was barely here and now it is already gone and Halloween decorations have replaced flowers in my yard. We managed to get a lot of riding in on the sunny days we had but the Harley is now stowed again, probably until December when we'll ride for kids on the various Toy Runs around here every year. Last year we did a big one in Olympia with one of the BFC kids riding in front. BFC stands for Bikers Fighting Cancer, and sadly, that precious young lady who rode so proudly at the front of the line won't be there this year. She did not live through the summer. Her short life was well-lived however, and she left a legacy behind in hopes that future kids wouldn't have to suffer as she did. Her name is Rhema Butler and she co-founded an organization called Rhema's Reality that raises money for Children's Cancer Research. Please take a moment to donate if you can at Rhema's Reality Facebook page. Life is shifting around our house now as we plan for hunting season, pumpkin carving and a Halloween Party. It was a busy summer, but fall brings a different kind of busy with time flying by in a different way. Over the summer I took a watercolor painting class. Now I'm trying to use what I learned and get together enough paintings for a show while also painting headstones for 2 Halloween parties. The current play at Lakewood Playhouse is Something Wicked This Way Comes and the title seems fitting for an October show. We're seeing it next weekend. I also got a Kindle this summer, a gift from my sweet and thoughtful husband. I am liking it a lot more than I thought I would so want to share two links to free books with you. One is at Amazon Kindle's site, the Top 100 Free Books and the other is the Project Gutenberg site. Happy reading!

6/16/11 Holy crap! I can't believe it's been almost 3 months since I updated here. I assure you it's not due to laziness but to the opposite. I've been working my tail off between work, the theater, painting class and running around. New Orleans was awesome and we can't wait to go back! Click here for the report and photos. The watercolor painting class was fun and I learned a lot. I've given most of the pictures away so there's none for me to post but I will paint more so keep watching. My most recent project was to paint a bunch of signs for Lakewood Playhouse's current production of Sweeney Todd. The show is absolutely amazing so don't miss it!. Click here for details or to buy tickets. This update's Lyric is a lost classic that I happened to hear drift in from the TV last night where it was used in the sound track of a movie. I'm glad for that because it's a real gem! Anybody remember Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson?

3/30/11 Added a few more poems and stories in the Rhymes, Dreamscapes and Prose sections.

3/24/11 My first clump of daffs is finally blooming and my tulips are setting buds despite the slower than usual arrival of spring. I did have one day last weekend nice enough for some weeding and garden-prepping and have about a dozen little seedlings in my office window waiting to be placed outside in their new homes soon. The tricky part this time of year is not to do it too soon. I've still had to scrape some pretty nasty ice off my car windows this week. Meanwhile, a check on the weather.com temperature map shows me that it's already 80 in New Orleans so I am getting very excited for our trip there next month over Easter weekend. That's right, Troy and I are scratching one thing off our bucket list and going to eat hardy and laissez les bon temps roulez in New Orleans! We're staying in the French Quarter a block away from Bourbon Street and plan to visit Voodoo Harley, the cemetery and as many eating establishments as we can fit in. We hope to squeeze in a boat ride through the bayous but not sure if it fits as we only have 4 days. We got a good deal on the trip too, air and hotel for both of us for a little over $800. Somewhere in all this I'm also trying to fit a watercolor painting class into my budget, but the conflict with the vacation and needing to replace my cell phone before we go is a little challenging. Still, these are great problems to have considering how much worse so many others have it and indeed, we were way worse off this time last year so I can't complain if I have to take the class later instead of starting in 3 weeks.

Updated 5/8/12
 

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