Hi Crystal.
I wrote you a couple years ago and you posted my message on your email page. The smokey bar email… Thx for putting it on there- very cool… I still enjoy listening to your music. I have played guitar for 25 or so years and appreciate all good music. For some reason, your version of house of the rising sun really moves me. I have it on my computer at work. I work nights and sometimes play it over and over. I really think your voice has an amazing quality to it. It relaxes me -and puts things in perspective -just when i need it. Your version of Simple man is also great. I love shinedowns version. Here is my request- I was hoping you could try to record a version of “save me” by shinedown. It is absolutely one of my fav tunes. Not sure why it did not get rock record of the year. I have a special copy of their cd and they do an acoustic version which is incredible. But I would really like to hear you do it. Please think about it. It is pretty easy to play. Bm is a great key, but it would work well in Am….. If you could record an mp3 of “save me”, that would make my day. Listen to that song and let me know if you can try it for me. I think the song has everything- good melody, chords, and lyrics. I really like how shinedown rocks on it, but when I heard them do it acoustically, I immediately thought of you…. Must be a cool feeling to know you have a positive effect on many people, all over the internet and in different parts of the world. Kind of neat… I enjoy your website- you did a nice job on it. Keep up the good work. Thanks for being an inspiration to me. Doug - chandler, az

Wow…

My Birthday Calendar

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My father is very proud of his flowers. We get little old ladies that stop by all the time to ask if they can get some seeds and ask how my dad can grow such beautiful flowers. It just comes natural to him, and he works very hard to take care of all of them. I don’t know whether I have the green thumb that he does, because the portion of our garden that I take care of is miniscule compared to his.

Anyway, he asked that I take some pictures of our tall sunflowers to submit to Birds and Bloom magazine (one of his favorites). I’m not a photographer, but I think they turned out alright. Keep in mind that my father is 6 foot tall.

Sunflowers

Cannon Lilies

I also got tackled by My Son at some point today. I was going to give him a bath yesterday, but I’m glad I didn’t, because this is what he got into today:

My muddy dog

And yes, he jumped on me

I really liked this one, my dad wants me to get it on paper

These are some random July 4th fireworks that I took. I don’t go out with anyone to see fireworks anymore, but we can see some over the trees from our house.

Night fireworks

Night fireworks

If you ever wanted to see a panorama view of Paris at night, now you can.

If you want to see a representation of the casualties during the war on Iraq over a course of the last 3 years, take a gander.

Want to find generic information fast? Now you can.

Want to set up a call for yourself as a reminder, or to a friend? wtf now apparently you can.

This weeks Witches Weekly:

Do you consider yourself a political pagan? If so, what topics are most important to you and why? If you are not a political pagan, why?

I don’t consider myself political about much of anything, really. I suppose if there was something to be political about, the freedom of religion and environmental awareness would be on the top of my list.

Honestly I try to avoid politics as much as possible. Perhaps that is bad for me to do as an American, since people should always fight for their rights, etc. But I think I’m just a big cynnic who cares little about what happens to society as a whole unless it directly affects me. Does that make me a bitch? Probably.

Maybe I grew tired of fighting and explaining within my own family about my beliefs and how they couldn’t take them away from me, that it just lost its luster to want to fight something as big as our government. I applaud those that do, and perhaps one day I will find the desire to be on that line right along with them. Since my fathers stroke in 2001, I’ve just been pouring all of my energy into making sure he’s taken care of.

I’m going to be a mother, did you know? Rather, I’m going to be a stepmother. (It sounds so evil…).

The mysterious guy I’ve been seeing, who I purposefully do not talk about much in my journal (since he reads it), has a little girl. I believe she just turned 4 years old, and she’s the most adorable thing.

This particular long distance relationship is very hard, not only from the normal reasons of being lonely, several hundred miles distance, and money for visitations. But because Mr. Right is leaving behind his little girl. Not by choice, but because his ex-wife will be fighting fo full custody, and she’s a good mother, so she most likely will win.

I feel bad for Mr. Right, it’s not easy for me to watch him move far away from his little girl. His ex-wife will be moving far away from where he is now anyway, so he will be an equal distance apart either way, whether he moves up here or not.

But I feel worse because I will also be missing his little girl growing up. I want her to be a part of his life, which means being a part of mine. And in situations like this, it’s inevitable that there will be emotions and energies that, voluntarily or not, will paint us in a bad picture in the little girls eyes. She’s living with her mother, that’s just the way it is. I’ve lived through the situation twice on my own, and a mothers influence is very strong.

I wonder if it’s silly to feel somewhat of a loss knowing that I’m not going to really be able to see his little girl grow up. I hope that she’ll realize when she’s older, that I really do want to give us a chance.

In one of the green magazines I subscribe to, 15 ways to help save on gas this summer:

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There’s a sculpture in Liverpool England called: Another Place which consists of 100 cast iron figures that stare out at the Irish Sea and the majority of which get submerged underwater at high tide.

That has to be an interesting site to see.