It's so late in the day, it's almost tomorrow! I guess the bloom is off the blog, but I will try to add a little something every day.

I just watched the latest episode of HBO's "Big Love". I've been following the ups and downs of this polygamist family for over a year. Who knew that three wives and one husband could be so entertaining. A prime-time soap opera, the main characters are good-natured, and the show puts a love-centered spin on multiple marriages. But, of course, there are complications. Like one to one relationships aren't complicated enough! 

It's late in the day for me to be posting, but I suppose I can make up my own blog rules as I go along. My breakfast movie turned into a lunch movie -- not the same movie, but a variation on a theme, as it turned out. Both movies I had seen before, and enjoyed enough for another viewing. First there was "Sense and Sensibility". Any period movie with Emma Thompson is worth seeing again. Or any movie, period? The internet site I just checked says she was the one who turned Jane Austen's novel into a screenplay. Must have had my eyes on my oatmeal during that part of the credits. 

Later came another English countryside drama, "Gosford Park". This one has Helen Mirren in it, another classy actress whose movies captivate. It's set about 100 years after "Sense" but remarkable are the similarities in how they portray the upper-class / lower-class dynamics. The often idle rich stew about keeping their money and position, because heaven forbid they should tumble and become one of the background people. At least the main family in "Sense" is amiable, not haughty -- maybe because they do get a taste of an economic tumble.

Both movies speak to the powerlessness of women in either century. Louder still is the book "Sense and Sensibility" itself, published in 1811. It was Austen's first published novel, which she wrote under the pseudonym "A Lady". Shocking it was for women to be writing books! And yet both movies, though focusing on women with limited choices, show ladies living as dynamically as they can within their prescribed worlds. Yeah, ok, they're both chick flicks.

Her ladyship Sandie of Bloggingdom currently seeks a nap. A dynamic nap.

Here's a recipe for a hard-to-fall-asleep night. Watched "Mega-Disasters" on the History International channel, the episode on Ice Ages past and future. The so-called Little Ice Age lasted from the late 1300's till 1900. This is little? It was instrumental in the devastation caused by the plague, favoring the creatures who could breed quickly -- and I say "Rats!" to that. Fast forward to New York at the end of the 19th century, when people could walk from Long Island to Staten Island. Well, maybe they skated.

An earlier Ice Age may have played a role in the demise of the Mayan civilization. Which doesn't make any sense to me -- they had hot chocolate to drink. Actually their part of the world had a long lasting drought, the flip side of glacier advancement in the northern hemisphere. Next came scenes of projected calamity, global warming leading to global cooling. In my corner of the globe, that plus multiple bowls of ice cream lead to body cooling. And blanket huddling. And a propensity toward penguin graphics.

Today it is really, really snowing. Really. And this kind of reality I can fully appreciate indoors. I shall make soup. I shall make merry. But I can't make hay because the sun is not shining. That's ok -- don't have much of a hankering for hay anyway.

Watching the President's State of the Union address last night was interesting. The audience stood up and sat down, stood up and sat down... like it was a Lutheran church service. Except for the clapping. Of course, the standing/clapping part came mostly from the democrat side. The left side (go figure) as one looks at the podium. 

I believe the republican side did do more standing and clapping than at previous State of the Unions, though. The President did some careful crafting of phrases. You can't help but stand up for "jobs", the tenacity of the American people, America leading the global market, etc. Well, I didn't stand up, but you get the idea. 

Came home from the casino with money, more than what I started with. Still a little behind for the month of January. (I'd be lucky if I had a little behind, but I digress...)

This morning I lounged in bed and read more of my current library find (soon to be overdue, like all the books I check out), Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (2009). It's full of, well, wisdom. She quotes Louis Pasteur who said "chance favors the prepared mind" -- applying it to the benefits of studying the wealth of written resources about a particular subject you are trying to observe in the wild. The more you read up on crows, the more crows you will see, for example. The more you will see them do interesting things. She cites researchers who state that crow intelligence ranks right up there with that of primates.

So, how can I prepare my mind for favoring my chances at the casino? This is a question that not even Pasteur may have hit upon. A question that may rank my intelligence below crow.

Recently I saw my first tumbleweed of 2010. Not sure if that's a sign of an early spring, like a robin in other parts of the county. 

Speaking of robin -- make that robbin', as in "I've been robbed" -- today is Casino Day. Tuesdays the buffet is half price ($5, including a beverage) for the elite Gold Card members. Such as I... 

My destination, Sandia Casino, has tasteful decor, a maneuverable layout, and new penguin theme slots that are my current favorites. We shall see if all I get to take home is a cold fish. Holy Mackerel!

It is 20-something degrees this morning. And I am going out? A question for myself. I did -- and do -- have a plan to take a sandwich over to the church office (internship site) and eat lunch with my friend the secretary. Monday is Pastor's day off so... The coast is clear? (Another question?) The sun is shining. That seems to counteract temperatures that ordinarily would keep me indoors. 

Yesterday's free slideshow/lecture cost me $42.50. I bought the book. Well, it was at a bookstore that I like, independently owned, and the lecturer, a PhD guy from the University of New Mexico, was a character who had things to say that caught my imagination. Structured settlements in the Southwest as early as 1250 BCE. I want to feel rooted in my new world of New Mexico, and these are some pretty ancient roots.

Let's revisit yesterday. By the time I left my apartment, 11:30 am, the snow had disappeared. All except for that which fell on the Sandia Mountains. And I'm all for snow on the mountains.

My friend with the soup has an interest in all things outdoors. She and her mule are frequent visitors to Sandia. Her new wrinkle is getting Tilly the mule to pull a cart, which involves a special harness -- a new purchase that requires a lot of my friend's time. The leather needs vigorous treatment with saddle soap and beeswax before it can be used effectively. 

So after soup she got out the soap. Rubbing and rubbing, she explained that the leather soaks up the suds, no rinsing involved. The moisture is absorbed making the leather more pliable and supple. It's followed by a coat of beeswax. The process is repeated again and again to make the harness comfortable to wear. That harness is heavy -- it can at least be comfortable. Besides, the metal parts (the rings and such) don't line up well unless the leather strapping is softly bendable.

It sounds like life to me, and the process of learning. New experiences and knowledge gets rubbed into our minds and we absorb and become more pliable. More supple. Subtle changes. I am going to a slide show lecture at a book store this afternoon about the ancient history of the Southwest... beeswax for the brain.

Day whatever. There's snow outside. Not the Dubuque kind of snow, the kind that starts falling on Thanksgiving and the very same snow is still there on Easter, under lots of other snow. I am going to be brave and get out of my apartment, into my car, and go over to a friend's house for lunch. She's got a pot of soup on the stove. I have a box of snack crackers and a package of cookies which I discovered last night -- both bought for the Christmas holidays and both put in a place that I had been overlooking. And, as of last night, both gotten into because, let's face it, the season of snacking never really ends.

Day 4. My political savvy only slightly exceeds my technological savvy, mainly because I tune into MSNBC on occasion. Weeks ago I heard Keith Olbermann's (his show Countdown comes on in the evenings) impassioned plea about health care reform, and I was moved. Last night he treated his audience to a foretaste of democracy's demise due to the Supreme Court's new ruling about corporations funding political campaigns. And I was depressed.  

Afterwards I watched Nova on PBS about the Sphinx. In spite of over 4000 years worth of sand blasted erosion, with many features worn away, it still persists. Not by magic, coincidence, or by the undoubted prowess of its creators. Subsequent civilizations saw the value of it and sought its preservation. After a thousand years of neglect, a king in Egypt's 18th dynasty revamped it. Later Greeks and Romans added stone blocks to negate the crumbling effects of time. The work goes on.

So to lull my throbbing head to sleep, I consoled myself with the thought that life continues. Our way of life may change (it always does anyway, doesn't it?). Likewise our form of government. Maybe the torch (or flicker) of democracy will be carried into the future by even-tempered Scandinavians. Back home in America, attempts to shore up a crumbling democracy will be made. The result will be something different than what it used to be. But it still may be something special to see. 

Day 3. Weather: cloudy. Breakfast: oatmeal. I'm off to a great start, eh? The day is full of possibilities. Such as... Lunch: ?

I learned something interesting last night from a show on PBS. Educational television, indeed. This was the last of the three part series titled "The Human Spark", hosted by Alan Alda. One of the experts used the term elsewhen, a play off of the word elsewhere. 

Consider those so-called idle moments we experience when doing mundane things, like driving (not in heavy traffic, let's hope) or mowing the lawn (can't say for sure but it doesn't look like a mental strain). When you think your mind is a blank, that is when brain studies show it is in its most active state. We engage in time travel, placing ourselves in situations past or future or in some other reference than where we are at the moment. We are being active in our heads. We are elsewhen. 

My conclusion to the prevailing question "What are you doing out there in Albuquerque, Sandie?" is that I have been very busy while misleadingly appearing idle. 

Day 2 of new adventure. Still navigating (fiddling with) the ins and outs of blogspot. Once I figure out how to use my digital camera -- once I find my digital camera -- I shall be uploading photographic evidence of my life in the Land of Enchantment. Meanwhile I am playing with free web images.

Welcome, Sandie Fans, to my new experimental blog. I really don't know what I am doing -- and that can be taken on so many levels...

I do know that I am wanting my voice to be heard, or my text to be read. This is a prototype of things to come. Here is my first venue onto a world-wide stage with my creativity in the spotlight, as well as my out-of-the-loop computer skills.

If you have received an email notice of this new blog, how lucky are you! You must be one of the handful (yes, I can count them on one hand) who might be interested in my musings.

I think Rule Number 1 of effective blogging is: keep it short. So ends today's installment.