aaaah.... isn't this sweet? My wife & my name together at last! 😉
Have you seen the sequel to the Da Vinci code? Well, in the movie the ‘bad guys’ use ambigrams as part of their sinister plot… but I won’t tell you more or I’ll spoil all the fun. What you see isone type of an ambigram. As i have come to learn there are many kinds and styles, but I have provided a link so you can read all about it yourself.
Call it the romantic in me but I thought I would see if Laura and my name could produce a pretty ambigram, so with a little help from a couple of sites, some work on Arcsoft then Giffy animation software … there it is above!
So this is what I did today… hope yours was as fun!
Here it is January and it is starting to feel like spring in San Luis Obispo, California. Personally, I think my apple trees have one major season called ‘flowering’ and the remainder of the year it bares apples. Too bad, more apple pies to make! (click on the above photo for the recipe) It’s also nice to shed some of the rain gear and break out the Harley!
Spring isn’t here yet, but it’s peeking around the corner!
You could say that I have had three lives. I grew up in the ‘middle of the pack’ as a child always a bit wirey priding myself on my ability to sprint and jump. As I got older, I grew to be on the tall side (6-04) and found sports more in sync with my new body type. My third life was a struggle to stop growing out since I already stopped growing up…. this is a constant battle.
Recently, I ran into an old friend I haven’t seen since grad school and he commented typically on how much we had changed and that he jokingly always thought of me as his ‘fat friend.’ He moaned about how much bigger he was than me today. He then pried my secrets of weight reduction(Jenny Craig) but — I confess — I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I actually felt too heavy after the holidays and I was in the process of taking off the excess Christmas cheer.
So, the moral is that I don’t think everyone needs a fat friend to make them feel better, but slim friends ( or ex-fat friends) help make the transition back to normality easier. My guess that the next time I see him he will be as I remembered him… and without all his medication.
During the 70’s, I worked in New York City which was — very frankly — not as nice as it is today. It was during a period of time in which there were a number of women professionals that would search every man’s gesture and speech for clues of his hidden suppression-of-all-women agenda. For a guy like me this was fun times.
I worked as a marketing guy for a very buttoned up straight laced firm just beyond grand central station. Fortunately or unfortunately for me, I was plagued with all the manners of another time and place. I would open doors for women, say ‘yes ma’am’ and add all the pleasantries that symbolize all sorts of monstrous things to very insecure women. Eventually I got used to the change in civility, but I couldn’t resist ‘tweaking’ a few of the more offended. I would usually arrive early to work ( by 7am) and obligingly opened the door for one woman who then refused to cross the threshold… I was amused and this was very dangerous to amuse me. So from then on, I would open the door with a flourish and bow very deeply to everyone’s delight … or maybe, just the men laughed but it was great fun. Today, fun times are still always abundant.
My family and I have all enjoyed the Stargate series on television with space travel, the over-the-top bad guys and the wonderful cliché’s. One scene contained something for me: the bad guy (Ba’al) washed his hands and said to his female slaves, “there is a god standing here with wet hands.” Lovely! Not long ago, when our local coffee shop was filled with what one might like to call ‘tough women’… you know the type: short hair, lots of cats and a perpetual snarl. I stood up and said ‘there is a god standing here with no coffee!’ Laura — on cue — ran ‘obediently’ with my coffee and the reaction of the women present was delightful…. but to the men, I was a god. Laura loves to tell this story with a smile.
Sometimes, I feel that the world is far too filled with a bitterness and too little fun. This is so unnecessary as men and women inescapably need each other. Besides, we all need a good chuckle…. and we all need to laugh a lot more… and — yes — I still open doors, Ma’am.
One . of my favorite desserts is cherry pie and throw on some whipped cream and you have a very simple and nice dessert. Cherry pies have their roots back to colonial times and the best recipes haven’t changed much from then. Call me crazy but whether apple or cherry , I like my fruit sautéed first.
