Tattoo Tuesdays: I'm Not A Reject

Pirates are in my blood. I'm fully convinced that in one of my past lives I was a hellion of the sea. The movies, books, sea worthy tokens, symbols, etc., you name it I'm gonna plunder the heart out of everything pirates. Who doesn't want to be a pirate and what girl doesn't dream of a pirate sweeping her off her feet? Pirates are the ultimate badass bad 'boys'.

This may come as no surprise to you, as in the past I have featured numerous tattoos with a nautical flavor, but The Goonies was (and is) one of my favorite films growing up. My cousins, siblings, and I could quote the movie in its entirety; we watched it so many times. I'm a certified Goonie with my very own "Goonies Never Say Die" t-shirt even. It is a club we all want to be a part of after all. The Goonies are all about adventure, trouble, heroics, booty, and always up for a laugh. What pirate wouldn't be proud to call a Goonie one of their own?!?

Goonies live by it and this tattoo pays awesome tribute to it, "Goonies Never Say Die!" I love the shading and colors of this tattoo. The skull is perfect with a gold-ish tone (very pirate) and the lettering of course is stunning. I especially like how the lettering is not constrained to the banner and it spills over onto the other parts of the tattoo. I wish I knew the artist.

Do you have a favorite Goonies quote?

Mouth: Mikey! Come here and make me feel like a woman. Come on, give me a nice, wet, lickery kiss.


Other Features for today:

Let's be matches! I'm a sucker for matching tattoos. It is extremely sweet, romantic, and these matching tattoos speak to me of a declaration "Be my Anchor!"

Sink or Swim tattoo by Deanna Wardin

This tattoo has a very watercolor, simple clipart feel to it, but I like that, it is not a bad thing. I like the simplicity and the color of the water is anything but boring. Deanna Wardin is a tattoo artist at Tattoo Boogaloo in San Fransico, CA. I follow her on Flickr and love her inking.

 

Anchor me up! Hello! It is an anchor . . . plain and simple.

 

“To the Hesitating Purchaser:

"If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
 Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons
 And Buccaneers and buried Gold
And all the old romance, retold,
 Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
 The wiser youngsters of to-day:

-So be it, and fall on! If not,
 If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
 Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
 So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave,
 Where these and their creations lie!”

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Bookstore Snob

I had planned for my next post to be about patriotism, after the politics post I thought it appropriate. However, books are what is gnawing at the brain right now. (A funny picture)
I woke up this morning in my normal Saturday mood. It is time to be a hermit! Let’s face it. After an entire work week where you are forced to wake up and drive 20 miles into the ‘big city’ you’re ready to be a home body for the weekend. The rest of my family, dad excluded, feels differently. They’ve been home the entire week. Thus, they’re scourged with cabin fever. This most often puts me in a grumpy mood that I have to be drug out of the house to traipse around running errands. Today was no different.
My sister saw an ad in a small local newsletter we get about a bookstore in North Manchester and called to find out their hours. We had planned to go there in the morning, but we didn’t get around soon enough. The bookstore owner said he was open until noon and then goes to lunch. I’ll be honest, the owner closing up shop to go out for lunch, red flags go up right away. At least for me. What kind of bookstore closes up during a Saturday? What kind of bookstore in a small town can afford to close up to go get lunch? As my dad put it, you better go get lunch and bring it back with you. Red flags went up because I thought, "Oh great this is going to be some whole in the wall bookstore. The kind that has three bookshelves with the most obscure titles you’ll ever see in your life. Each priced astronomically high and you can’t figure out why." Are you catching onto my lack of enthusiasm for this bookstore yet?
Of course I stand corrected. I’ve been proved wrong. The bookstore was small, but nice. My only complaint would be he needed more shelves to spread out better. Many of the books were hard to get a good close up view of. Finds for the day included:

- The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
- Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
- Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon
- Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff



The Magnificent Ambersons because I loved the movie* and have wanted to read the book forever. I’m stingy about the copies I purchase. This copy was an old, in very good condition, hardback edition for a great price. Booth Tarkington is an Indiana author. I need a good biography about him to read, still searching. I would like one reminiscent of the style of biography I read about Beatrix Potter.
Twelfth Night because it is a great play and the copy I found was this small endearing** edition.
Anna and the King of Siam because the actual account has always made me curious to know more. I wasn’t really in search of a copy, but I just happened upon it. Don’t you just love happening upon books?
Sword at Sunset because I collect Rosemary Sutcliff books. This copy is an old hardback edition with its dust jacket still in great condition.

All in all the bookstore was a success, although I do have one question to pose to you. Why does it seem when you find a bookstore run by a man (an elderly man to be specific), he is the kind of man who is grumpy and you’re too scared to approach him with a question for fear he’ll bite you? This was what happened today at the bookstore and this isn’t the first time it has happened to me. My mother believes it is because men who own bookstores are very intellectual, spend most of their time reading, and this causes them to be introverts’***. Therefore not good with people. Excuse my language, but why ever the bloody hell not?! You’re running a bookstore. Your soul purpose in life is to sell books to people. That is, if you are good at what you do. For those of you men or women who experience such occurrences, please know that when I have my bookstore, you’ll be begging me to settle down and help someone else. :) Oh and by the way note to my future husband wherever you may be, if you like books (and you had better) please don’t be unapproachable.


* You can't help liking a movie that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is in even if he does play a spoilt brat.
** Some books it is just a must that they be endearing copies.
*** I like my computer’s definition for an introvert - Psychology a person predominantly concerned with their own thoughts and feelings.

Poem/Quote of the Day:

Curse On A Book Thief

(or for modern times Book Borrower)

For him that stealeth a Book from this Library,let it change to a serpent in his hands and rend him.Let him be struck with Palsy, and all his Membersblasted. Let him languish in Pain, crying aloud forMercy and let there be no surcease to his Agony tillhe sink to Dissolution. Let Book-worms gnaw hisEntrails in token of the Worm that dieth not, andwhen at last he goeth to his final Punishment letthe Flames of Hell consume him for ever and aye.

P.S. After hours and I mean hours this post is finally going to be posted. I don't care if it has mistakes. I'm so sick of my computer right now. Sorry.

Goals, Sharing, and Spiders

One of my favorite parts of my posts is coming up with corky titles. I guess I’m just weird that way.

I believe in my last post I mentioned a goal of reading 15 books by the end of the month. While I may still have 5 more reading days (including today) I think I’ll post what I have finished for the month. I’m still crossing my fingers that I can finish 15 for the month. However, unless my parents are willing not to see me for the entire weekend I doubt this is a goal I can accomplish. I know what you’re thinking; I need to be a positive thinker. I tend to be the person that is less positive; it helps in not being disappointment with the outcome. My mother hates this. (I’m chuckling to myself. I can just picture what she would be saying.) Anyways below is the list of books finished for September that I might be able to add to.

1. Legacy by Cayla Kluver
2. The Crimson Thread by Suzanne Weyn
3. Snow by Tracy Lynn
4. The Storyteller’s Daughter by Cameron Dokey
5. Midnight Pearls by Debbie Viguie
6. Scarlet Moon by Debbie Viguie
7. Sunlight and Shadow by Cameron Dokey
8. The Rose Bride by Nancy Holder (I only have pages left of this to read.)

As you noticed 2 through 8 are from the Once Upon A Time series. My sister loves these books and said I should read them. I’ve liked all of them except Sunlight and Shadow. It didn’t really grip my attention like the others. I know you might consider it cheating that I read all these books. I should have read books more my style. The truth is I was motivated to read these books because I figured they’d be quick reads. Guilty as charged.

I will post if I manage to read more books.

What do dust and spiders have in common? They both love my house. Especially since I live in an old house, it was built around 1860. Why am I mentioning spiders? I have 2 cool pictures to share with you. While I don’t love spiders I think they’re cool to look at, as long as they are outside. The picture below is a picture of a wolf spider; at least my mother thinks it is a wolf spider. However, when I googled wolf spider none of the pictures that came up looked quite like this spider. It lives on one of our windows . . . on the outside. The second picture (above) is a beautiful picture my sister had me take of a web that just outside our door last night.

Cool, huh?


A friend at work shared an article with me. I thought I would post for you to take a look at. The article is called 10 Books Not To Read Before You Die. While I don’t agree with some things said in the article it made for a good chuckle.
Another long post sorry.

No quote of the day today, but I do have a poem for you. I receive a poem everyday in my email by a different classic poet. Last week I received one by William Blake. The poem doesn't seem to want to leave my head and he is my favorite poet so below is the poem.

Poem of the day:

A Poison Tree

By William Blake

I was angry with my friend:

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe;

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I water'd it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears;

And I sunned it with my smiles

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright;

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole

When the night had veil'd the pole:

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree

Blue Flu and The Blue Book

Today I didn’t want to come to work. Oh wait, it is that way everyday! I wish I had a profession that would allow me to work from home, but no such option has arisen yet. I opted for a blue flu day, but I couldn’t come up with a good excuse. My brother played on my conscience that I really needed to be honest about it and not come up with some nickel novel excuse for not going to work today. Ok little brother since when do you act as my conscience J? Although, I abandoned the idea of a blue flu day this morning, I am still contemplating leaving work early. We’ll see.
The past few weeks my free time at home has been spent canning. When I tell most people this they say luck you. However, I love preserving our gardens harvest. It makes me homey and old-fashion (is homey a word?). Monday night a friend of our family stopped at our house with presents for my mom, sister, and I. She purchased for each us the sacred canning book, which is a must for all canners (according to my grandmother), The Blue Book. I was browsing its pages last night and it does have many recipes, canning tips, a trouble-shooting section, and more. I see why it is consider very important to canners.
I finally finished Fitcher’s Brides by Gregory Frost. Thank goodness it is over. I’ve also finished 2 historical fiction books by Katherine Sturtevant, At The Sign of the Star and A True and Faithful Narrative. I enjoyed reading them. I hope to purchase both in the future. I felt the author had a good gripe on her facts and an understanding of the time period, 17th-century London.
I managed to finish another book recently, The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. I thought I had struck out again in choosing an author unknown to me to read, but I stuck with it. In the end I came to really like the book, it just took a while for it to build up. Once it did I couldn’t put it down. After reading her book, I think I would like to visit the desert.
I’m currently reading Legacy by Cayla Kluver. I don’t have a general opinion of it yet. I’ll have to let you know though as soon as I’m finished.
My goal for the month is to finish a total of 15 more books. I think if I put my brain into a comma in the process I should be able to do this. Of course my goal for next month is 15 books as well. I hope I can do it!

No quote of the day this time. However, take the time to read the poem, The Spires of Oxford by Winifred M. Letts. She is one of my favorite poets.

A last note: I think I need to learn to write shorter blogs.