The exercise:
Your word today is: manicured.
We've got a pretty full house over here now - Kat's brother and his fiancee showed up last night, and a couple of aunts and an uncle arrived tonight. Along with a heck of an impressive thunder and lightning display.
I gave up trying to get a picture of a bolt and took a video of it instead - I'll have to figure out how to edit it and put it up here. But for now a picture of the sky over the lake will have to do:
Mine:
As a final treat before the big day, and to get us both out of the house for a little bit, I took Kat for a surprise visit to a nearby spa this afternoon. With all the work we've been doing in the garden, and the upcoming focus on our fingers, I thought it might be an idea to get us both a manicure.
I've never had one done before (neither had Kat, but I only learned this while we were there) and it was pretty nice. My hands are nice and smooth, the lady managed to get almost all of the dirt out from underneath my fingernails, and I successfully escaped the spa without getting polish put on my nails.
Now to just do a bit more garden work tomorrow without ruining the great job they did on both of us and we're all good...
5 comments:
I think lightning is one of those things you have to be lucky to get, or in the middle of a lot of it. But the picture you've posted is spectacular! I really like the colours and its depth. You could easily use that as a prompt in its own right.
The manicure sounds like a great idea given all the farming you've been doing, you'll have to make sure the weddings photos have your hands clearly visible in them now!
My take on the prompt:
Book review of "The Art of Manicure" by Sun Tzu
Following the success of "The Art of War" Sun Tzu was moved to write another book on a topic dear to his heart: manicure. The success of his previous effort is clearly visible, as there are slightly more than 3,000 pages in The Art of Manicure, compared with fewer than 200 in the Art of War. It is obvious that none of his contemporaries dared suggest a copy-editor to him.
The book is successful in parts and less so in others. Tzu's early insistence that manicurists should practise on the hands of condemned criminals is practical, especially in today's climate of burgeoning prison populations, but his demand that they first be severed from the criminal is still considered ahead of its time.
The manual includes a lengthy (1,000 page) section on pedicures as well, but this is considered to be less useful as it focuses mostly on the feet of horses and those of women who have undergone foot-binding.
Finally his list of tools and their uses includes a number of hard-to-obtain items for today's modern manicurist, and the Carpathian scimitars for nail-trimming, while undoubtedly a spectacle worth paying to see, would definitely require condemned criminals for the necessary practise. And, perhaps, a death-wish.
On the whole, I rate this book three glitter-stars out of five and will be posting videos on YouTube to show how pedicuring my hamster turns out.
Wow, that's a beautiful natural phenomenon. The colors are so vivid that i could feel that the sun is just right before me. It certainly looked like thunderstorms are on it's way.
***
Mine:
This idea never did come across my mind, not even once. But i'd like to give it a try if i had a chance.
Two weeks ago, i went out with my friend as usual. Then we met at our usual spot, one of the temple in bugis. That place is always very crowded. Because it is a common place for reliegoeus gatherings for the buddhist, hindu and christian fellow.
While i'm in the temple, i saw a girl, possibly in her early twenties i think. She was chanting with her brown coloured mala in her knees, while looking calm and peaceful. It's beautiful and she's beautiful, just like an angel. I wonder if does manicure like any other girl.
He dipped his manicured hands in the blood and lifted them out, dripping. He smiled. Just the right consistency. Time to get started on this year's batch of blood sausages.
-------
This feels incomplete to me, but I'm not sure where it should go next. For example, why does a chef bother with a manicure?
Marc- Gardening with a fresh manicure? You are a braver soul than most. I would have waited until the morning of the ceremony. Unless I was getting married at dawn. You're not making promises at dawn are you? Anyway, very sweet of you. If I give you my husband's phone number, could you give him a few tips?
-----
We drove from the cramped conditions of the downtown streets. Concrete and glass reached up and touched the sky. Tourists often thought the city was unusually cloudy, but we veterans of the city understood that it was smog; heavy and thick and descending lower each year. Before my children reached their fifteenth birthdays, the city would be swallowed whole by it. The inhabitants would take on owl-like characteristics in order to function. These thoughts crossed my mind as the bus rambled over the railroad tracks and past the factories that remained on the outskirts of town. I smiled at the roughness of the ride, closing my eyes and bringing the long manicured lawns of the suburbs vividly to my consciousness.
I hadn't seen them since I was a child myself. My parents had moved to the city in hopes of a better life, one filled with opportunities the distant suburbs simply couldn't provide. A new insight settled over my heart and brain. Their intentions had been good, just not well received. My son tapped my shoulder. "Momma, what is that?" I looked where he was pointing, hope and desire rising in my consciousness.
"Those, my dears, are a sight more welcome than any other. The green stuff on the ground is grass. The tall brown things waving their heavily laden branches in the wind are trees. Just like in the fairy tales I read to you as children." They sat silently, starring out the window. "And that is not the best part. In another hour or two, we will enter the country and you will see rolling hills, golden stalks of wheat, and cool blue lakes and streams."
Greg - the bit about practicing on condemned criminals was my favorite :)
Zhongming - that's a lovely scene you've captured :)
Morganna - I don't know, but I'd certainly like to find out!
Heather - it was one of those things where it was the last good time to get it done; plus she was going for a pedicure on Friday with her maid of honor.
I liked the bit about the owlish features, and highly enjoyed the overall theme of it :)
Post a Comment