These are a Few of My Favorite Things....

I thought it was time to switch things up and create a fun blog.  So here it goes, these are a few of my favorite things, in no particular order:

• I absolutely love music and try to listen to it whenever I can.  Right now, I have tunes on my computer and tunes in the living room.  I have different types of music for my different moods.  I've seen countless concerts and will probably lose my hearing at an early age because of it.  When faced with a hard task, I feel like I can accomplish just about anything with the right play list.
• I adore dogs and consider them to be my favorite type of pet.  I love most every kind of dog, but yellow labs are dearest to my heart.  I think that I have a sense to tell what dogs think & need.  I feel that I will always have a dog, even till the day I die.  As I write this, I am missing my dog like crazy.
• I  love to travel, as most of you already know.  Planning a trip to discover new places is one of my most favorite past times.  I think that there are so many wonderful eye-opening places in this world and I wish that everyone could have these same worldly experiences.  There are hundreds of places that I still want to see and experience before I get too old to travel.

• I love my friends.  I have learned numerous life lessons from them and think that I am a better person because of their love.  Proudly, I have friends all over the world and I miss all of them.
• I love my family even more, especially my nieces and nephews.  I miss them dearly and think of them everyday.  I know that I wouldn't be the same person without their love and support.
• I am in love with Michael Cameron Foote and consider this time in my life to be some the happiest times I've ever experienced.
• I love my home state of Florida and for this, I consider myself to be a.........

• I love the form of the written word and hope to be an author of my very own book one day.  I'm hoping that this blog will give me the confidence to pursue this dream.
• I really love good food and enjoy a delicious dinner out at a fancy restaurant.  I especially miss all of the food choices of the US.  I'll include into the food category my love for milk and nearly any type of vegetable.
• Some of my most favorite quotes include:  

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you have imagined."
"Follow your heart and you will never be lead astray."
"You are not old until regret replaces your dreams."

• And finally, some words I live by:

Letting the Days Go By....

Do you ever hear a song and know that it just "speaks" to you?  Whether it be your current life situation or mood, music has a way of helping process emotions and feelings...at least it does for me.  I recently read a novel by Ian Rankin in which he used the technique of incorporating song titles throughout the book to express a character's current state of mind.  I thought it was a good idea therefore, I'm borrowing this technique for some of my blogs, beginning now!

Click on the above picture to watch & listen to "Once in a Lifetime"

Here are some lyrics from The Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime" song that I thought were relevant for this post:

..........You may find yourself living in another part of the world..........

..........You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here..........

..........Letting the days go by, water flowing underground..........

..........Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground..........

I'm finding myself quite bored during these long summer days, living here in Australia and not being able to work.  I do have a job prospect on the horizon that would allow me to stay in Australia for as long as I am employed, however, it is at the mercy of whether the government will grant the visa.  Until that time, this is how I am letting the days go by:

Reading novels, where at home I was not the avid reader that I am now.  Recently, I have read authors such as Kathy Reichs, Ian Rankin and Jeffery Deaver.  These are mostly murder mystery novels, the kind that I find very intriguing.

Doing jigsaw puzzles.  Michael and I have completed two 500 piece puzzles and have started a third one that admittedly looks very difficult.  We will finish this off with the a 748 piece puzzle of The Twelve Apostles, the giant rock stacks that rise out of the Southern Ocean on the shore of Victoria, AUS.

This is the puzzle that we started with....it even glows in the dark!

Puzzle #2, ain't it pretty?

I must admit that I also spend a good portion of my time watching my "fishpuppies".  You may be asking yourself what in the heck are "fishpuppies"?  This name is purely the invention of a girl who misses her dog really bad.  The current pet that we have, ie a cat, doesn't even show me the love and excitement that these fish do.  Whenever I go to the tank, they swim up and actually seem happy to see me like a dog would be.   And hence, the name "fishpuppies" was born. 

Presenting The Fishpuppies!

By the way, if the water appears to be green there is no need to adjust your screen because it is.  We've had one fish that brought in some bacteria to the tank and the medicine to treat it turns everything green.  Can you find the fish I've nicknamed Sicko?  The yellowish-gray guy in the bottom left hand corner.  What about the orange one just above and to the right of him, I will nickname him Lover since it looks like he is blowing me a kiss.  And I can't leave out the bluish-gray one at the top the is screaming "Feed ME!", we'll give him the name of Chubbo.

Can you tell just how bored I am?