betaphilings

My friend Julana and her team at Something Special Bakery outdid themselves on this one.

Jill, Brooke, and me at Mom’s house in Louisiana

Baby Brooke started holding her head up this week.

Every year on my birthday I post a current picture. This is this year’s shot. My friends gave me a party on Sunday with wine and cheese and gumbo and cake and gifts. So much fun. The moon was full, we were full, the weather was beautiful. Someone took this picture.

I get to be a grandmother this year. Grandparents tell me it’s the best feeling they know. All I know for sure is that life is good and love is the best part of life. I am happy to be so loved.

Get your twitter mosaic here.

1952

“We’re all five-year-olds. We don’t know how to do this thing called life. We’re just learning how.” —Byron Katie

This is the picture that came on the Christmas card from my nephew. Abby turned five on December 1st. I feel merry just looking at this! Merry Christmas, kiddos!

Here’s how my friend Travis Wright spends his time. Click on the image to see larger version.  The kid in the chair is Travis.

This is my forty-first digitally drawn face. The other forty faces are all archived on my Deviant Art page. There’s a few in My Gallery here. Click on image for close-up.

of Buildings in Water

of Buildings in Glass

Where moonlight sparkles like sunlight

I found this beauty on John Larroquette’s Twitter page. John lives in New Orleans, where the Mississippi River dumps into the Gulf of Mexico. I grew up on the banks of the Mississippi, about two hours north of New Orleans. This shot is certainly not the Mississippi, which is a mile wide, nor is it clearly a daytime shot. Regardless, I love the light sparkling on the water’s surface. As hot as it is in Southeast Texas today, I’d like to be sitting in a chair right there, day or night, with an iced drink and a cool breeze blowing.

Because thoughtlessness is sometimes pleasant.

One of her staff members gave Oprah a camera recently and told her to take some pictures in her California back yard. This is my favorite, a field of lavender nestled beside a gentle oak. The rest of her pictures can be found here.

“Every year our town has a fair and this guy comes with his lizards…he has trained them to pose on mini lounge chairs. It’s a hoot and the kids go crazy to see him. Makes for great photo ops.” —Caroline, The Zen in You

Today I found 134 of the most beautiful photos I’ve ever seen on the internet. I’m putting this link here so I can revisit these beauties again and again. They come from a site called The Zen in You.

Where I’d like to live

Where I live 

I found this picture on the website of our local bicycle shop. Sadly, the church bearing this sign is located near where I live. It makes me sigh.

Click on the picture for a surprise.

This is the road to the Galveston Island ferry. That’s the Gulf of Mexico on the right. There used to be a massive beach here and homes packed in like sardines. Hurricane Ike washed most of the beach away and all of the houses except this one. I live forty-five minutes east of here towards the top of the picture. Galveston is five minutes to the west. We’ve had four major hurricanes in the last four years.

Here’s all the proof you need that Jenny the Bloggess at TheBloggess.com is totally hilarious. She’s also hilarious on Twitter at Twitter.com/TheBloggess. Jenny, I’m totally using this, okay? Props.

These pictures of the ruins of Detroit City are sad.

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” —Shakespeare

William Shakespeare’s worldly image graces my blog because he’s probably the greatest rock star of all time. Today the Brits unearthed stone seating in North London, which they say is the site of Shakespeare’s earliest plays. Shakespeare’s brilliance has baffled us for almost five hundred years. Anyone whose fame lasts that long is a rock star.

Bush started it. Obama is finishing it. Billions and billions of dollars in bailout money for a failing economy. These are stimulating times.

Rene Descartes called the pineal gland “the seat of the soul.” To read more about the amazing pineal gland, click here.

This is my neighbor David Cargill. His beach house on Bolivar Peninsula got blown away by Hurricane Ike. A lady who once painted a picture of David’s house decided she wanted to find out who owned the house and give the painting to that person. She found David through tax records, and David got an unexpected Christmas gift. Full story here.