kristinsdóttir

I’ve been very visually oriented lately. I’ve made a couple of little collages inspired by Hundertwasser, Molas, Australian Aboriginal Art, and Klimt.

What I particularly feel like doing is making pictures of women wearing really cool artistic clothes paired with sort of abstract, busy backgrounds. Yup, like Klimt. It’d be nice if I could think of something truly revolutionary to create, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Yes, it’s payday, and what would payday be without Kristin purchasing something lovely that she really doesn’t need? Exactly. So. I am buying another copy of the gorgeous book The World of Donald Evans. Evans spent his tragically short life working only with the postage stamp as a format for his very beautiful art. Here’s a link to a page of his wonderful stamps. During his career he created some 4000 stamps and covers for over 50 imaginary countries. Anyway, this book about Donald Evans is to your eyes what a lobster dinner with all the trimmings is to your mouth.

Another copy, you ask? Yup. I used to own it. Every now and then, I miss something I used to own.

That ever happen to you?

I’m fighting a sore throat and a Certain Someone (hint: I’m married to him, and he is *not* Orthodox) suggested that the shared communion cup at church might be a factor in infection.

After I finished rolling my eyes (I am not yet the spouse I hope to become), I thought I should find some solid information that would refute this theory.

So. Is there really a threat? The short answer to this question is that there is no proven connection between Communion cups and the spread of illness.

There you have it. I’m not sure he’ll be convinced, but there you have it.

This is very much how it looked in my neighborhood this morning…and looking at my calendar from this day last year: the temperature was about 70 degrees! Yikes.

(The snowflake image is from Wilson A. Bentley, who photographed more than 5000 snowflakes during his lifetime; he never copyrighted his images and they are in the public domain)

I’ve had, uhm, this little problem with vainglory, which inspired me to surf the web a little to find out just how bad I am. And I am bad indeed.

Here’s just some of what St. John Climacus has to say about vainglory:

“A vainglorious man is a believing idolater. Apparently honoring God, he actually is out to please not God but men. To be a showoff is to be vainglorious…”

“Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation. What I mean is this. I fast, and turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk or I hold my peace, and each time I am defeated. No matter how I shed this prickly thing, a spike remains to stand up against me.”

“Talkativeness is the throne of vainglory on which it loves to show itself and make a display. Talkativeness is a sign of ignorance, a door to slander, a guide to jesting, a servant of falsehood, the ruin of compunction, a creator and summoner of despondency, a precursor of sleep, the dissipation of recollection, the abolition of watchfulness, the cooling of ardour, the darkening of prayer.”

And while we’re looking at St. John Climacus, did you know that with the exception of the Bible and the service books, there is no work in the Orthodox Church that has been more studied, copied or translated than the Ladder of Divine Ascent by Saint John Climacus?

These spinach pancakes, though on the expensive side, are really tasty and low in calories/Weight Watchers points. 1 point per pancake. I got mine at New Seasons, where potato and brocolli pancakes were also available. And yes, I’ve tried those, too. Not bad, but the spinach are terrific.

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve increased my girth so that I am now rectangular, nicely filling out my rectangular michiyuki. I am now just one pound shy of my all-time heaviest weight.

So. Back to Weight Watchers. I lost 17 pounds a couple of years ago using their Flex plan . Yes, I’ve gained nearly all of it back again. Sheesh. You’d think, at my advanced age, that I’d have learned a bit about exercising and moderation in eating. Alas, no.

I am doing the online program again, rather than attend meetings. I will again do the Flex plan. I will again lose 17 pounds. Hey, maybe twenty.

I have in the past tried Weight Watchers’ CORE plan, but I can’t seem to keep within its very sensible boundaries.

Why tell you this? Accountability. Now I’ll feel like Everyone Knows. And, alas, that helps.

(avoid hearing more about this topic by eschewing any ‘Kristin Again’ post that starts with the initials ‘WW’)