NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are over until next year! Did you participate in either? If so, how did it go for you?

Aside from learning to just go ahead and post something when it’s ‘close enough for jazz,’ I made some new friends (Elizabeth, Prof. J, Mad Goat Lady) got a reader who has been lurking to finally post a comment (you know who you are!) and had a lot of fun. Plus, I’ve got a folder full of book-marked blogs to keep reading.

I’m grateful to Eden Marriott Kennedy for starting NaBloPoMo; what a great idea! and to Sognatrice for pointing me in her direction to begin with. Today Sognatrice even mentioned something called NaNoFiMo, which is “National Novel Finishing Month” if you can believe it, but I haven’t checked it out yet, in detail. Read more »

I was looking up a street name today for work when I stumbled onto this amazing place. While the street I was looking for is in Arizona, the place I accidentally discovered is in northern Italy, near Turin, where an insurance broker has spent years secretly creating an elaborate temple complex beneath his house.

Scroll down the page of the article, and you can see how unassuming the house is from the outside. Beneath it, however, are nine distinct temples connected by a vast network of tunnels that extend 100 feet underground. The man who built all this is named Falco, and he calls his project the ‘Temples of Damanhur.’ Read more »

I’ve gained a new appreciation for advertising since spending time in Italy. For one thing, commercials are a great way to learn new Italian words and phrases, because they are repetitive, focused on one subject, and often have their slogans printed out so you can read along with the announcer. So today I’d like to share a few of my favorite Italian ads with you: Read more »

The title of this post is a double entendre, because although I have some creative ideas for using up Thanksgiving leftovers, I also have some leftover feelings about the holiday menu itself. Judging from the responses to this post, I’m not the only one who has strong feelings about the Thanksgiving menu.

First off, here are some creative ideas for using up those Thanksgiving leftovers:

The turkey: While turkey sandwiches will always be one of my favorites, Farfallina recently posted a recipe for turkey risotto that sounds delicious.

Don’t just toss the leftover carcass, either. Read more »

It sounds like a bad joke, but it’s true: this holiday season, Australian Santas are being urged to say, ‘ha, ha, ha’ instead of ‘ho, ho, ho.’ Why? Because ‘ho, ho, ho’ might offend women and scare kids. I think Don Ho should do a benefit on their behalf, don’t you? Maybe he could team up with Snoop Dogg to really drive the point ho-ho-home.

I love taking photos, and although I can appreciate folks like Ansel Adams who literally see the big picture (then take it, ‘cuz it lasts longer!) I’m the type of person who, as much as I love a big sweeping landscape, can look down and enjoy the beauty at my feet. I am fascinated by close-ups and all the simple, over-looked beauty in the world.

For the same reason, I adore listening to (and playing) chamber music. Sure, grand symphonic pieces can give me shivers, but what touches me most are small ensembles, pieces where you can hear the scrape of an individual bow, or the flute player’s breath between phrases.

And I love older jazz. Of course, with jazz there