There are battles being fought in my sister’s kitchen. There’s constant combat,  and heavy weaponry. Military strategy abounds. I never know what to expect when I visit – except some interesting new tableau on her counter.

My sister loves to decorate for holidays. To the insurgents, of course, this merely creates advantageous cover.  Meanwhile, I have become a domestic wartime journalist documenting guerilla attacks in the midst of all this cheery decor.

War is never simple, but there is a mastermind behind all this – my youngest nephew. The photo above is a counter tableau created by me explaining how to turn the coffeemaker on in the morning since he is always the first one up. After all, you know how it is during wartime. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to get your early morning brew.

Not surprisingly, I see a lot of churches here in Texas, but I found this one quite intriguing. Did you notice the barely legible ‘no trespassing’ sign on it? Inside there were folding chairs in rows, a lot of cardboard boxes, and a chainsaw sitting on a crate. It smelled like a garage.

Across from the church was a little place called The Diner where we grabbed some fried chicken. We got it to go because the tiny place was packed. There were 7 men in total, and 5 of them were wearing cowboy hats as they ate. Guess it’s not considered rude to keep them on.

Of the 5 cowboy-hatted men, 4 of them also wore Bluetooth headsets. This put the phrase “Bluetooth cowboy” in my head, which somehow morphed into the song “Rhinestone Cowboy,” which flitted through my brain for much of the day. I was too chicken to whip out my camera and snap a photo in the diner, but I wish I had now. I’ve gotta get better at that.

The tiny parking lot was jammed, too. I’m not sure who was driving what, but there was an interesting assortment of vehicles. The Hummer seemed nearly as big as the interior of the restaurant.

Across from The Diner, and just around the corner from the church, was this porch, which – if I’m counting correctly – has enough chairs on it for at least 8 people to sit and rock simultaneously. I wonder if there is ever a sunny afternoon during which this porch experiences full rocking capacity. That’s something I’d like to see.

We eventually made it to Possum Kingdom, even though our British-voiced GPS lady made sure we took the long way. Must be how she gets her kicks. I did not see any mink-robed rodents on thrones in PK, alas. I did spot a black helicopter on our way back. Turns out there’s a Vietnam War museum/Meditation Garden somewhere along the way.

I have since found a song titled ‘Possum Kingdom,’ which was released in 1995 by a Fort Worth band called The Toadies. You can watch their eerie video for it here. According to an interview with the lead singer, the lyrics were inspired by the tall tales he’d hear around campfires and at bbq’s growing up about vampires and other creepy goings on around Possum Kingdom.

Overall, it wasn’t the best day for taking photos. The sky mostly glowered and spat, keeping the best light to itself. Even so, I am still curious about Possum Kingdom, and hope to return when it’s sunny.

The other day, a little bird recommended an interesting article to me. It’s a take on creativity written by Scott Bourne over at the Photofocus blog.

In it, Scott mentions how low self esteem stunts creativity, and how freeing it is to let yourself fail. While I’m familiar with those ideas (although I seem to need constant reminders) what was new to me, were his ideas on being authentic:

“I learned this concept best by listening to John Paul Caponigro. He was talking about other art forms and mentioned that in Asia for instance, artists don’t worry about coming up with something new, they work within an existing form and try to expand it.”

I especially like what Scott wrote at the end of his article:

“Don’t focus on NEW – focus on authentic. Being original isn’t being new – it’s being you.”

What do you think about these ideas? What holds you back – or spurs you on – creatively? Who inspires you? What inspires you? Inquiring minds (that is to say, me and the inquisitive grackle in the photo above) want to know.

2010 may be the year of the Tiger, but for Dru Johnston, it’s The Year of the Blog. Actually, he started back in April of 2009, but his goal is to create an entirely new blog each day for a year. I didn’t say blog post, mind you, I said blog. It’s like NaBloPoMo on steroids, folks.

He’s got some real gems, too:

• Fifth Grade Book Reports , which he describes as: ‘100 word book reports for books I didn’t read but have seen the cover. Written in the fifth grade.’

• The Cuban Revolution as told through Word Clouds , or as he puts it: ‘The major players, battles and events of the Cuban Revolution as told through the most web 2.0 way possible.’

• Kanye ruins teenagers treasured moments, which is all about, ‘Manuscripts of Kanye West shitting on important moments of various teenager’s lives. But he’s just being real.’

I could go on, but there are a LOT of them, since he’s been doing this for months now. The full list can be found here. Check it out.

As for the photo, I feel a little like this lady today, all bundled up and waiting. There’s no bus coming for me, though; I’m mostly just impatient with myself.

I can honestly say that I make the best espresso in town. Why am I so confident in this boast? Because I make the only espresso in town. Our little home machine is the closest thing to a real one in these parts. The nearest thing to espresso in this burg is spewed out by automated machines at the gas station. It’s actually pretty tasty, but it’s not a cappuccino.

It’s not just the brew itself that I miss, but the coffee shops. A friendly coffeehouse offers a nice alternative to donut shops, bars, strip clubs, and churches, all of which are in abundance in north Texas. Coffeehouses are fun for people-watching (albeit clothed), playful conversations, learning (they were once known as Penny Universities) and making friends.

So this lack of quality java creates serious culture shock (or lack thereof) for me. After growing up in college towns, living in the Seattle area, owning a coffeehouse, and living in Europe, can you blame me? I have so many fond memories revolving around coffeehouses.

I guess I’m just a bit homesick today.

p.s. I don’t know how I created this mouse with the foamed milk, but I thought it looked kinda cool, so here you go.

Back in my barista days, when I had an interesting idea, I’d quickly jot it down on a scrap of paper, then toss it in my tip jar. On days off, I’d sort through all this flotsam and see what I had. Yeah, that’s my idea of fun. At any rate, sometimes my shorthand is too cryptic. The first time this happened, the paper simply said, “Hypothetical Pie.” Sure, It was my handwriting, but I had no clue what I’d originally meant by that. Made me feel a little startled – and senile – actually. I still don’t know what I meant by that phrase!

Even now, I’ve always carry a little notebook with me. Along with to-do lists, I write down ideas, things I overhear, and interesting things my friends say. Let’s flip through one of these little notebooks, shall we? Let’s see if there’s any hypothetical pie:

Overheard in Wal-Mart: “I didn’t slap you. I just hi-fived your face.”

“What happens in Vegas, stays on Youtube.” – said by LL

“After all, people are only human.” – said by AH

Vultures remind us of each other.

New word: squandertunity

Sparky:There’s too much glare in here.
Woofmutt: It’s from my brilliance. I can’t tone it down.

So far it’s all making sense to me. Aha! I’ve found a slice of hypothetical pie. It says, “carbon dating in high school.” Wonder what I meant by that? Guess it made sense at the time.

As for today’s photo, this shot of the Piazza Plebiscito in Naples, Italy has absolutely nothing to do with anything in this post, although I have spent many an hour sitting on the shady side of the steps there, writing in my journal.

If you’ve read my blog much, you’ve probably noticed that I like to take pix of some of amusing billboards and post them here.

So far, I’ve blogged about the mysterious Hardcore Training Facility, the fact that in Ft. Worth Big Grandma is Watching You, and whether or not you’ve Got Gun?. I even lamented about the ‘ones that got away’ in my Bubbly Clouds post.

I’ve seen these donut ads for a while now, but have been holding out because there is a particular one I wanted a photo of. It shows this donut ad side by side with an ad for the human body exhibit, you know, the one where they have real cadavers on display? Talk about an appetizing juxtaposition!

This billboard reminds me of a conversation Tex and I had a while ago. To kill time while waiting for an order of chicken fried steak with chicken fried grits over at Ginger Brown’s, we drew up a Texan Food Pyramid on a napkin. As I recall, the pyramid’s many layers included chicken fried stuff, steak, bbq, things smothered in gravy, and queso. Oh yeah, I think we had bacon on there – twice – kinda sandwiched in between Ro Tel tomatoes and okra. Makes me feel bloated just writing about it all!

Back to the billboard, though, whatever happened to the “4 Basic Food Groups”? What’s the 5th one, soda? I do notice a lot more donut shops here in Texas. In fact, there are nearly as many donut shops as their are churches. Maybe folks need a good refined sugar buzz to carry them through lengthy sermons.

When I tell people I’m going to London, they inevitably rattle off a list of the top 10 tourist attractions – the Tower, Big Ben, London Eye – and ask which ones I’ll be seeing there. I always laugh and tell them I haven’t a clue. What people don’t realize is that for me, London means visiting my step-daughter. She’s the main dish, and everything else is gravy. (Actually, everything else is usually cheese or chocolate when we’re together!)

The bottom line is that I fly to London to see Naomi. Like any parent, I want to make sure that he is happy, healthy and getting the most out of her life. After that, I yearn for heart to heart conversations, belly laughs and simply enjoying her companionship. She’s one of those people I can have fun doing nothing in particular with. You don’t live on a tiny island with someone for 5 years without learning how to entertain yourself (but that’s another story.)

Naomi and her husband always ask if there’s anything in particular I’d like to see in London, and while I’d love to do all sorts of touristy stuff, I tend to go blank when they say this. As I mentioned in a previous post, we usually have a picnic in Richmond Park when I’m there. (Tasty meals are always on the agenda when I visit them.)

This time, aside from fox sightings, excellent cheese and trousered turkeys, we went window-shopping (or window-licking, as they say in France) through Bricklane. Naomi shares my goofy sensibilities and love of the absurd, so the sight of this chipmunk wearing a beret stopped both of us in our tracks. We both whipped out our cameras and started snapping away. I haven’t seen her photos yet, but I’m sure they came out great. She’s quite an accomplished photographer.

I recently bought a Fodor’s guide to London, however, as well as Frommer’s, Irreverent Guide to London,so the next time I visit my son-in-law and Naomi, I will be prepared!