Nothin' Much

I was the honoured recipient of a gift from His Holiness the Dalai Lama yesterday. I got a letter in the mail purporting to hold a gift from His Holiness himself. Sure enough, inside was a darling little string of miniature Tibetan prayer flags. The kind I actually PAID for last year for part of my sister's birthday gift. I feel special.

The letter from His Holiness was heartfelt, I'm sure, and moving, but the stuff that accompanied it was, I'm sad to say, lame, and I have to wonder if he really is aware of what's being sent out with his letter. It was a letter to Condoleeza Rice that I was supposed to sign and send to her which basically stated that I was not OK with the Chinese oppression of Tibet. OK, well that's true. But honestly, is anyone? I mean, isn't that kind of a no-brainer? Like Hitler or Stalin? I don't think anyone who's aware of it is OK with what China has done/is still doing to Tibet. So why the letter? Why not a call to action? Not that anything would result from that, but I have to wonder what the senders of this letter expect to result from a massive letter campaign to Ms. Rice stating that a bunch of us are unhappy about China's presence in Tibet. I mean, if you're going to do something, aim high, right? Then again, I'm not sure what His Holiness would have us do about it either, since standing up to China - aside from being something the US won't do - would eventually involve violence and bloodshed. So what do you think the point of this group's campaign was? I could be cynical and say money (let me point out that this wasn't from the office of the Dalai Lama or anything, but from a private group) but I honestly don't remember whether they were soliciting donations or not, and I'm not going out to dig through the trash to find out.

**crickets**

OK, no more politics.

We optimistically bought a TON of seeds at Walmart today. Most were 10 cents a package. We're going to actually try to get a jump on the garden planning this year instead of being late like we are every year. Since we haven't moved in over 2 years now (a new record for the last 7 years!) there's no excuse. And I've been drooling over the Spring Hill catalog. Sigh. I'll take 3 of everything, please.

We also hit the clearance racks and got stuff for the girls for less than I could have made it. Gotta love those clearance racks. I also love how more and more clothing now has printed labels inside instad of tags.

The children were lobbying for an "electric blue lobster" for our fish tank. Maybe next time. They're pretty neat.

I found my Dragostea Din Tea CD (which goes missing more than any of my other CDs) so we've been playing that in the car. It still amazes me how my 4 year-old can sing along in Romanian, LOL! They are truly little sponges. Today while John and I had class, Mollusc taught her how to write "Nabi" (butterfly) in Korean. It looks like this: 나비

And now, for your stress releasal (new word!):


Sleeping Cats

Observing sleeping cats has been proven to lower blood pressure. Of course, if you fear or loathe cats it prolly won't help. And I'm not exactly sure whether it has to be a real cat, or if a picture will work. So are you feeling mellow now?