Sniglet for the Week:  Airdirt:  A hanging plant that's been ignored for 3 weeks or more.
(sniglets are works that aren't in the dictionary, but should be!)

It's November 1st. Halloween is over. I was disappointed not to have a single trick or treater!   Though, I made good progress on crocheting that baby blanket while waiting around!

Today was "update the website" day, too! I added some nice photos of Jean Grey in her Phoenix costume from X3. And the writers challenge for this month is related to discovering the real meaning of Christmas. (I work about a month ahead of holidays on those--need time to edit.)

I have a 20-page limit on story submissions, but that doesn't mean they have to be 20-pages It just means not more than that--mostly because the editing takes a good deal of time considering it's a hobby and I do have a real life.

20-pages does equal about 14,000 words. That's alot. DG Davis's challenge story "Afflicted" is a good example that, if you want to see what 20-pages looks like.

The average submission, though, is usually between 3 & 10 pages. I've discovered I really like offering flash fiction challenges (500 words) or challenges with other word limits because it makes editing them a breeze.

I have a combo WierdJob/Holiday Christmas Challenge I was working on last year I may work on again for this year. I got stumped on the ending. It concerns an odd Christmas event which happens to Logan while he's working one time as a cab driver.   (The Weird Job Challenge was to write about an interesting work experience Logan might've considered "weird."  In fifteen years, I figure he did more than fight cages or pool hall hustling to earn a buck. My next story chapter will have him re-visit another "past job", in fact. Ice road driving. It's  called "Encounters" though the ice road driving only serves as a story back-drop. (It creates the situation for certain "encounters") Seeing it on history channel once gave me the idea.

A personal photo card I designed using just a close-up photo of someone's porch decoration that I "reconceived" using Picnik.
Have a safe and fun Halloween!

My search for "Heroes" show sponsors with which to lodge my protest continues...I located Nissan as a major sponsor and emailed them today. We'll be in the car market for a vehicle within the next couple years (really) so I suggested action on their part could "go long ways toward influencing us in considering their product."    (always good to touch upon the ol' pocket book.)

I've pulled out my crochet baby blanket pattern book today to  look through which one I want to make for my nephew. He's in the Air Force and he and his wife are expecting their first child around March. I'd like to send it as a Christmas gift. It's a tradition for me. I made each sister one and now I'm moving on to their children. (Time certainly does fly!)  I only make one per family, so I usually pick a neutral color scheme so it can be used for every new future arrival as well. My sisters still have theirs and use them as throws now. So, it's a worthwhile gift. We're going to stop at Joann Fabric on the way back from the movies today.

Which brings me to the lunch-date. We're going to see Astro Boy and eat lunch at Panara Bread. (Love their tomato soup!)  Last weekend the local theatre in the nearby plaza had a FREE 1:00 pm movie showing of "Aliens in the Attic."  Of all the kids movies we've been to this summer, that one was the most entertaining. I'd say "Shorts" was the most blah.  The week before that we saw the double-feature 3-D Toy Story, which was fun.

As for the website, I've been working on updating old chapters as well as my new chapter. I also put up a new front page photo of Wolverine. It looks really nice--all thanks to Picnik, which is the in-site photo editor. I used one of it's effects to darken the outer edge so it blends into the black background. InTheZone won't be updated until after Halloween. My favorite Picnik photo effect, however, is their b/w focal point, which makes the photo all b/w except for one spot you can adjust the size of for a focal emphasis.  I really enjoy the photo manipulation Picnik offers!

So many visitors!  Thanks everyone for stopping by! 
If you stay and read---even better!

Today was a long day at the flower shop, where I work---several huge funeral pieces had to be done this afternoon. However, I had fun in the morning making several nice Halloween arrangements for the display cooler. We have these nice ceramic pumpkins with stick-on Jack o' Lantern faces and I did one of those up with fall flowers, sticks and "spiderwebs."  (We have some of that neat silky stuff you can spread out so it looks like a fake spiderweb.)  I also made a pumpkin with just flowers. (They poke out around the edge of the lid.)  And I made a vase of flowers with hickory sticks in the middle with spiderwebs on the sticks.  It gave the display cooler a nice Halloween look. 

I hope I'll have a few visitors to my door this Halloween. I enjoy wearing a costume for them as I hand out the treats! ( I just enjoy wearing costumes! I love Murder Party games where you get to dress up as characters!) I have different costumes I wear different years. I have a Musketeer cape and hat I've worn before. (I made it based on the blue/silver ones they wore on the "The 3 Musketeers" by Disney with Chris O'Donnell.)  I also have an M&M costume I purchased, which I think will be this years choice. However, my best costume by far was the year I sewed up a "Riddler" style green Question-mark suit for myself, just like the one Jim Carry wore in Batman Forever. It looked good enough for one ity-bity 4 year old kid to look at me wide-eyed and ask, "Are you really the Riddler?" 

That was, by far, my best Halloween costume!!

I noticed at Joann Fabrics that the sewing books are FULL of fabulous costume patterns now, so I think perhaps I should pick out one and get some fabric in the post-Halloween sales for next year for something new!
(I didn't have a pattern for the Riddler outfit: I just used existing patterns I had with slight modifications, like the upright collar, and just used iron-on adhesive to attach the question marks. It was a cool outfit, though!)

Normally I enjoy the television show "Heroes." Of late, however, I've found their drift toward an unsavory trend between the Cheerleader, Claire, and her new college room-mate over the last two episodes.  So unsavory, in fact, I've lodged protest  with both of the show's primary sponsors, Sprint and Liberty Mutual Insurance, about it.

I reminded them that "Heroes" is on during "family viewing hours" (7-8 pm) and asked whether they were aware the show was airing this particular topic?  I also reminded them I will stop watching if the show continues to explore this topic. (I think Claire should firmly refuse, but, as it stands, she waffling on the topic.) 

I also emailed NBC, though I think sponsors are more receptive to such things.

If you watch the show, you know what I'm talking about. (I'm not going to be more specific because the search engine bots will key on such terms.)

If you don't like it either, then please email Sprint, Liberty Mutual Insurance and NBC likewise and complain.
(Use their "contact us" links) Nissan is another sponsor you can put on the contact list.

The more voices, the better. 

As I recall, it only took a few people throwing some tea over-board to start an entire revolution.

When I was a kid I was in love with horses. At least the idea of them, since we didnt have any. The neighbors had one, which I got to ride bareback around the field once. I consistently wished for one on every birthday and asked my parents for one. I think, if it had been feasible, they might've gotten me one. It would've become a 4-H project. However, they never did. The care and feeding of one and all it's equipage is quite expensive. Short of that, I read every thing I could about them, every horse story, every Black Stallion book.

Later, after I was grown, I understood owning a horse was a huge investment not only of money, but of time and energy. They need constant attention, grooming, exercise, vet care. They need a life poured into them.

In hindsight, I'm glad my family never gave me that horse, because I realized horses weren't something I wanted to give my life to. I only have so much time & energy and I can't give it to everything.

I think Jesus addressed this question in the Parable of Talents. Basically, it's a story about a man who man who gives his 3 servants each a certain amount of money, then leaves. Each servant does a different thing with it. Later, the man returns to evaluate their decisions--meaning we've each been given a life and everything in that life by God and, eventually, He's going evaluate what we've done with what He's given.

So, what are you doing with yours?

I've spent the Mon and Tues of this week sewing like crazy!  We had an event to go on Wednesday night and I'd decided I wanted a new outfit to wear. I already had the fabric and pattern on hand. It was an "easy" pattern for a sleeveless top and a long, drapey jacket with three-quarter sleeves. "Easy" in the pattern-world means all the sewing can be on the machine and not many pieces are involved. Even so, all the cutting out, pinning together and getting up and down to iron seams takes time.  It took all of Monday afternoon to do the blouse, which had some quirks I'll have to figure out how to adjust if I use it again, but it came out wearable enough. It was a peach-toned crepe fabric. The jacket took all of Tuesday afternoon. It took the whole "Mummy" movie on DVD just to cut it out because each front, back and sleeve had to be cut out individually. (That was the layout for 60" width fabric.) It was a sheer fabric with orangish-peach/burgandy roses on black. The roses were edged with gold glitter.

I wore this outfit with a pair of satiny black pants I already had to a graduation event at the Officers club on Eglin with my husband. One of young men from our Bible Study has spent the last 6 weeks in Airmen Leadership School and invited us to his graduation ceremony-dinner. This is an important first school in an enlisted person's life as it trains them in being a supervisor. It's a semi-formal affair. All the officer and senior enlisted guests are in formal dress blues (blues worn with a white shirt and black tie) or mess-dress (short dress blue jackets with cumberbunds at waist and white shirt with bowtie). For civilian guests, it's jacket/tie for men and dressy attire for ladies. It's probably the biggest tadoo we have opportunity to attend and usually get invited at least once a year by young men and ladies in our Bible Study. So the outfit will get plenty of wear!

While people in Pennsylvannia and upstate New York are shoveling snow, here in northern Florida I was putting the finishing touches on mulching my winter garden and mowing my lawn. (probably last mow of season.)  I also put out Mr. Electric Jack o' Lantern today!

In the garden I have a row of brussel sprouts (from seed), a row of red cabbage, a row of broccoli (greenhouse starts) and a row of beets. (just planted the seed today!)I'll post a photo when everything is a little bigger. Right now, with all the pine straw mulch the plants don't stand out that much and it'd just look like a brown square.

Megan is coming over tonight. She's a civilain who works on Eglin, a mechanical engineer. She came from a college Navigator goup and immediately looked us up when she arrived and she and I have been meeting ever since.

      We're Navigators here at Eglin AFB. Not the kind on planes. The kind helping people know Jesus. It's a missonary organization that's been around since WW2. It grew out of ministering to Navy sailors, helping them grow in Christ and their knowledge of the Bible during the war. As years passed, the Navigators expanded, developing branches to colleges,ethnic groups, inner-cities and countries all over the world. 
     My husband and I are part of the Military Branch, ministering to young Air Force kids here at Eglin AFB in Florida. (It's a non-denominational organization.)
      In summary: what it is we do is we help any who are interested enter a relationship with Jesus, then help them learn how to live their lives and daily decisions in faith in Him using the Bible as a guiding light.
     Primarily we do this individually, person to person, though we have a couple different Bible studies for groups as well. But, in our experience, the most significant spiritual growth occurs on the individual basis where specific questions can be answered and deeper accountability can be offered. There's no substitute for personal attention. And it's the model Jesus used: He spent personal teaching time with 12 guys.
     Even so,  He had one who turned away. The parable of the seeds is a true reflection of how things go in ministry of any kind, however. Sometimes the seed is received with joy, but in the face of adversity, the person drops the interest.  Sometimes the thorny cares, worries, ambitions and riches of this world entangle people and keep them too preoccupied to be fruitful spiritually.
     Then there's seed that falls in rich, good soil that produces a crop. One young military man Dave lead to Christ while stationed in Turkey in 1989 became a pastor, served as an Air Force Chaplain 4 years and is presently pastoring a civilian church again. Another young man, who's wedding we hope to attend in December, was an Air Force X-ray tech assigned here temporarily for intern training. He initially had ambitions for pursuing nuclear medicine, because of the money in it. From here, he was assigned to Wright-Pat AFB in Ohio and immediately got involved in the Navigator ministry there. As he grew in Christ, he perceived a call away from medicine into full time ministry and, when he got out of the Air Force, he began attending a seminary in Kentucky.

     That's just two stories from our 24 years of ministry to Air Force kids. To the right, under "Our mission organization" I've added 2 links:
     * One to the "about" page of the Navigators official website; 
     * One to our official ministry "website" there. (Photo of us) Or use this direct link: 
http://www.navigators.org/us/staff/nickerson

     Perhaps, you're someone seeking a unique opportunity for giving to a Christian work. If so, you'll find a link is available on the website specifically for that.    Completely official and tax deductible.