Why the Dragon Dotr?

Hi, Everyone,

Wednesday, weather variable, sometimes cool and windy, sometimes still and hot, hard to know how to dress.  Sweater on, sweater off, on, off.

It was a busy day today. Heather sent me some of her photos from the cruise, so I thought I'd share them here. This is Heather in the spa as we were leaving the San Diego harbor.


Me in full vacation regalia.


Heather and Ron posing in the artwork. Heather attached the two photos as if they were one.


The model of the ship in the dining room.

Arriving at Catalina, a couple of shots stitched together.


We went shopping for new dining room chairs this afternoon, and well, we figured out what we don't want.

Then we went to dinner with Dan's family visiting from Germany.  Pizza Nova on the yacht basin.  Fun place.



When I got home, my friend, Dee, asked me why Dragon Dotr for my blog.  Well, the spelling came from the number of characters Live Journal allowed me, LOL.  The meaning is from the Lotus Sutra.  You know I am a Buddhist.  I have been one 32 years.  I am a member of the SGI-USA.  There is lots of good info at   www.sgi-usa.org  if you are curious.  I chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo every day.  This school of Buddhism is based on the Lotus Sutra.  In the 12th chapter of the Lotus Sutra lies the explaination for the equal treatment of women in the SGI. 

The Buddha is greeting various Buddhas visiting from distant places and asking them how the progression of Buddhism is doing at their home.  Manjushri comes from out of the sea and  tells him how wonderful it is that so many of the folks under the sea are attaining their enlightenment under the Lotus Sutra, and how quickly.  Bodhisattva Wisdom Accumulated objects, saying that the Buddha himself struggled for a long time to attain his enlightenment, so how could any teaching cause folks to get there fast. (You can tell I'm telling this in my own words, right?)  

A young, female sea serpent comes out of the water and bows to the Buddha.  She is the eight year old daughter of the Dragon King of the Sea, Sagara.  She praises her teacher and tells the Buddha her vow, "I unfold the doctrines of the Great Vehicle to rescue living beings from suffering."   This is the vow of a great Buddha.
Wisdom Accumulated objects again, he can't quite get his head around her gender, nevermind that she is a child and a dragon.  She shows them by way of explaination how quickly she takes a jewel from the folds of ther robe, a jewel worth as much as a major world system of stars and planets, and quickly hands it to the Buddha, who quickly accepts it.  Then in an instant, she transforms herself into all the different kinds of beings she needs to be and in a flash attains her enlightenment.  Then they understand.

The story in the Lotus Sutra is the foundation of the gender equality in the SGI, so that's why the name has meaning for me. 

BTW, my friend Dee sells Avon. Go here to see her web store.  http://youravon.com/dbaldus  I just got some yummy new perfumes from her and a very sexy lounge set.  In My size...

I'm very tired so I'd better stop here and go to bed.

Lilo sez "Bye" as she heads out the window for her nightly walk on the wild side. 


Love,
Julie

• Location:at home in San Diego
• Mood: tired
• Music:Chris Botti, Italia

Lilo's secret

Hi,
Memorial Day Monday, cool and overcast most of the day, but got sunny in the afternoon.  Usually San Diego is warmer than this by Memorial Day.

When I got back from my recent cruise my in/outdoor  kitty, Lilo, was missing for 24 hours.  The food we left for her to eat while we were away was relatively untouched.  I was really worried something had happened to her.  So, after a day...  she shows up....  very surprised to see us and my first thought was that she was out in the canyon and would be skinny and dirty.  But, no. She was sleek and clean and had gained weight.   Now Lilo has a sensitive digestion and it's hard to put weight on her.  She throws up if she eats too much.  So, she is usually skinny.  But here she is fat and happy.  Sounds like one of the neighbors adopted her for the duration of the cruise.  Here she is admiring herself in the mirror.

  

 

 Here is a picture of my purse, taken by hitting the shutter by accident. I thought you might like to see the crazy gold sequin purse I took on the cruise.   Hey, we have to look the part.

Dan, about to disembark the cruise. 
I had my grandson for the weekend.  I'm always so glad to see him. We had fun is our usual ways, like lunch at Mickey D. I visited friends with 3 little boys.  He always likes that. 

This is Nathan helping me wash dishes and only a 5 year old can do it.


Always fun to play in the water at Grandma's, huh?  We always have a great time together. 

We went to Balboa Park to ride the kiddie train and the carousel.


We met his parents at Tip Top Meats  www.tiptopmeats.com/ for dinner to hand him back to them. It's half way between us.  Fun place with great German food, and inexpensive.  Also a butcher shop and a German grocery store, and a wine shop with the best European wines.


See ya!
Julie

• Location:home in San Diego
• Mood: happy
• Music:Sergio Mendes

Back from the cruise

• May. 24th, 2009 at 5:19 PM

Hello,
It's Sunday, warm and sunny with cool nights.  Memorial day weekend.

I'm back from my Pacific coast cruise, well rested and cheerful.  My #2 sister and her husband Ron took us on a 4 day Carnival cruise.  Thank  you, Sis!

 We left San Diego, went to Catalina, spent a day there, and then fooled around in the ocean for the rest of the cruise, returning to San Diego.  It was great.  I just love sea days.  Lots of goofing off on the ship, watching shows, eating lobster and taking naps.



Here's Catalina in the early foggy morning over the rail of the ship.


Hard working tenders taking folks to the island in the morning.


Dan on deck.



The cabin surfaces were all orange, so this pic of the cabin interior came out all orange no matter what I did, LOL.


We liked to sit in the piano bar with Lady Liberty and have drinks or high tea...
.

Another Piano bar in the atrium getting set up.

My monkey face drink in the Lido buffet.


Dinner in the main dining room.




 Dancing at dinner



This is a bad pic taken in a dark bar of Bobby Ray Whavers.  His Crescent City blues band was great!  New Orleans style blues. 


The magician was also great, Bobby Borgia.  The dancers and singers tried hard, but the show is so scaled down, it's hard to make an impact. Comics not so good.  We noticed several recession cut backs, for example, no midnight buffet.

Me just before leaving on the last morning.  I didn't want to go home.


Since folks are concerned about swine flu, there are not enough people cruising, so the cruise companies are offering deep discounts.  My brother-in-law said we went on a cruise so he could save some money.  Less than what he might spend around town.  Now is the time to go!  Call your cruise agent!

On the knitting front I made a pair of socks for my father-in-law for father's day.  I'll post pics when I gift them. Colors of the sea.

Tata, 

Julie

• Location:home in San Diego
• Mood: cheerful
• Music:Elvis, gotta have the king, you know

A scarf for Zee, back story, beads

Hi,
My friend Zee was in the hospital, so I knit her a silly lime green scarf in an easy lace stitch.  Hope it cheers her up.

Here's the free pattern.

Easy lacy scarf
Cast on an even number of stitches and knit 1 row.  (I used 22)
Row 1: K2, *K2tog, YO. Repeat from * to last 2 stitches,  K2. Don't forget the last YO before the final K2.
Repeat Row 1 to desired length.  If you work loosely, it will go faster.
Knit 1 row and bind off in knit.

Then I made a couple more since they are fun to make, like potato chips, you can't make just one.  Here's a picture of one of them, a skinny one made with 12 stitches. 



Can you see the pink miniature roses blooming behind?  They are just starting this year.
I strung a necklace to wear on the cruise this afternoon.







I had a massage the other day and my massage therapist, Wendy, was talking about my back issues.  I told her this story.

Around 2000 there was a weekend Buddhist study conference in the San Francisco Bay area.  Dan and I signed up and bought our airline tickets using some coupons we got when an earlier flight messed up.  The week before the trip, I hurt my back by reaching deep into the bottom shelf of the refrigerator to pull out a big bowl of homemade ravioli for a party.  As I dropped the ravioli into boiling water to finish them, my back was popping and extreeeemely painful.  I went to the Chiro twice before the trip and he did his best, but my back was really messed up.  I was walking so funny everyone was asking me what happened.  I got tired of the ravioli story, so I started telling them it was the work of my new 26 year old Brazilian lover.  Ha!

We packed for the trip and were waiting for the taxi to take us to the airport when I figured out I had forgotten to cook the salmon I bought for dinner the night before.  So, I quickly seared the salmon on the grill pan and put it into buns with lettuce and tartar sauce.  I zippy bagged them, dropped them into my carry on and dashed out to catch the cab. 

The bay area was fogged in and our flight was delayed.  I knitted and did not mind the wait, as we would not be late for the conference.  We were traveling the day before to allow us time to enjoy the trip.   We ate the salmon for lunch and everyone asked us where to get one like it.  Better than airport food.   We finally were put on a flight to LA, with the idea we would transfer to a flight to Oakland from LA.  Sorry, homemade.  But SAn Francisco was still fogged in.  A couple flights were going thru to Oakland and the airlines offered me a bunch of freeebie coupons if I would give up my seat for some folks who just had to be there today.  Ok, we're in no hurry.  After an hour they did the same with the next flight, more coupons.   Dinner time came and the airline sent us to Wolfgang Puck's on their dime.  We eventually got to Oakland later that evening, on time for our conference the next day.

Meanwhile, my back is still out.  It was difficult attending the conference and sitting on the hard chairs for an hour at a time.  So another attendee, a Chinese lady named Ellen, asked me if she could help.  She did some kind of body work for a living, I did not recognize the name of the practice.  She asked me to lie down on the carpeted floor of the lobby.  I feared the hotel would object, but she said we would be done before they noticed.  She chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo three times in unison with me to get us synched up.  Then she walked around me looking intently.  From time to time she would stop and poke my shoulder, or hip, or back.  Not a big movement like a chiro adjustment, just a nudge.  Then she said I could get up.  I was astounded.  My back was fine.  I enjoyed the rest of the conference.  I asked her for her card, since I wanted to see her again.  It would be worth the flight.  She refused.  She said if she gave me her card, I would be her client and she would have to charge me.  Since this was a freeebie she could not give me her card.  She had some strange logic.  She had a big problem with spiders in her house.  She was constantly being bit by spiders, but she would not spray.  She had decided they were her reincarnated ancestors who had done such bad things they had to come back as spiders, so she could not kill them.  This is not standard Buddhist doctrine.  Her Buddhist leaders tried to convince her to do something about them, but she was adamant.

When I got back to San Diego, I kept my Monday appointment with my chiro and he was amazed.  My back was perfect.   He wanted her card so he could fly to Oakland and take a master class from her.  He was astounded that she had refused to give it to me.  A couple of years later I heard from a mutual friend that she had died of cancer.  I will always remember her body work. 

Good night,

Julie

• Location:home
• Mood: hungry
• Music:SGI Video

Cruise coming up

Cruise coming up

• May. 12th, 2009 at 3:44 AM

 Hi,

I went swimming with my sister and brother in law today.  Arthritis swim exercises, they're really good for me.  Then we went out to lunch at Zocalo in Old Town.  We sat outside on the patio. It was so beautiful there, lovely day.  This is why we live in San Diego.  This is where Dan and had our wedding reception 3 years ago.  The bouganvillas are so very bright colored this year.  I don't have one in my garden because Dan hates to prune them, they are full of thorns.  But very beautiful.



My sister is cooking up a plan to take a couple day cruise to Catalina next week for her husband's birthday.  Dan and I are going along.   Sounds like a lot of  fun. 

I started a new version of the red Tango Shawl.  It was so pretty after it was blocked out that I just had to have another one.  I bought 3 balls of bright red Misty Alpaca lace weight yarn, as I had no idea how much it would take.  I used about 1 ounce, so I have 2 and a half balls left!  So I can create a redo if I want. 

I'm also working on a lacey linen baby blankie for a summer baby.  The gender is not specified, so the blankie is yellow and green.  This is working up very heavy, moose lace.  I will wash it twice before giving it to the new mom in the hope of softening up the linen. I'll post pics when I get  some.

 

Later, 

Julie

• Location:home
• Mood:awake
• Music:Metropolis

Happy Mothers' Day

Hi,
We went to Dan's Mom for brunch. She loved her red lace Tango Shawl.  They tangoed off to the theater to see Old Wicked Songs at the North County Rep with a couple of friends.  We saw it last week.  It's good, very thought provoking.

Then, this afternoon we went to lunch with the other side of the family and had Cambodian food at Ly's Garden on 54th, just south of El Cajon Boulevard.  It was great.  The jellyfish and shrimp appetizer was great.  The fried scallops were good. The Manila clams tasted phenomenal.   The salted crab was over the top.  These boys know their way around seafood.

Remember the blue lace shawl  I was working on in the Vietnamese restaurant? 



Well now it's done.



I am especially fond of the buttons.



Having pigged out twice today, I'm headed for a nap. Groan! 
Lilo wants to go, too.  She loves nothing more than a nap on my lap when I'm napping, too.



See ya...  (Notice the new haircut.)



Julie

• Location:home
• Mood: full
• Music:Julian Bream