mountainmelody

and now Prague—I dashed off the plane just in time for our opening dinner.

The dinner was wonderful—like a family reunion! These “emerging leaders” from around the world are remarkable people from whom I learn so much. I can already tell the week’s going to be full and rich!

And now, to end my adventures, I think I just may go here!

I'm sitting in the airport, waiting to travel to Prague via Detroit and Amsterdam.

When I'm not busy in meetings, I hope to have some adventures throughout the Czech Republic and Germany, thanks to Lonely Planet and travel websites.

This will be one of my longest trips recently--16 days (17 if you count the 2 days it takes to get there, with the time change).

Wish me luck!

The American South is the most air-conditioned place in the world.

Last night I dreamed that someone hacked into my blog and changed all my entries.

But when I woke up and checked, everything looked fine.

Maybe I should change my password...

Predictions I found from 1968 for "the next century":

• Most transportation will be by air, with every family having an aircraft.
• Weekend vacations on Mars and lunar spas may be almost ordinary.
• With machines replacing most of the manual workers, leaving only about 10 percent of the population working, the importance of leisure time will soar.
• Meal planning will be computerized by the week or month, with robot help in cooking, serving, housecleaning, and lawn care.
• Color TV sets will become commonplace; new sizes ranging from billfold size to huge wall screens will be produced.
• Picturephones (seeing the other party) will be in use.
• It will be possible to talk to inanimate objects: phone home and turn off the oven, close the window, turn on the heat, leave a message, turn off the lights.
• Libraries of knowledge will be stored in computers and will be available on instant call.

http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/
http://www.apostropheabuse.com/

Instead of reading the Bible to assure ourselves that we are right, we would do better to read it to discover where we have not been listening.

-Raymond Brown

Blackberry Eating
I love to go out in late June
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late June.

-Galway Kinnell
(with very slight editing by me)

I'll post more from my trip tomorrow. But first, here's an excerpt I found from an "Inventory of Bottlenecks" to being a successful wife, mother, and neighbor--from 1966:

• Does husband find a clean house and good meal waiting?
• Is your appearance neat and attractive at all times?
• Is all clothing for the family ready, with shoes polished?
• Or must you iron a shirt and search for clothing that is still waiting at the cleaners?

Feel free to answer as suggested, with always, usually, sometimes, or seldom.
;)

My undying admiration will go to the person who can name the state in which the county with the largest percent of Southern Baptists (among all religious adherents) is located. Bonus points for the actual county name.

(Hey, why do you think they call it trivia?)

Guess away!

Then I went to the China exhibit at the zoo for my high school reunion.

(No laughing, please. I'm not THAT old...or maybe I am. Please keep in mind that I was young for my grade!)

I'm having lots of problems with my computer right now. If I can't get it fixed, it may be awhile before I update.

Try not to be too upset about this. I know my posts have been really amazing lately--

Yesterday I rode more than 60 miles in a boat.

Pictures later.

The past is never dead. In fact, it’s not even past.
-William Faulkner

last fact: The colder the temperature, the more people tend to eat.

fact seven: The United States has five percent of the world's people, but uses twenty-three percent of the world's energy.

(See? Don't you feel like you're getting smarter and smarter every day with these facts?)

fact six: On average, Americans live in their homes for nine years.

interesting

fact five: Twelve percent of Americans think Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.