I’m the birthday grinch, resisting mine with all my might.  So bless those close to me who never let that stop them, especially my two sisters.  Look at these beautiful flowers ~ as inspected and perhaps also appreciated by another certain member of our household.

Thank you dearest ones.

a-orchidbox-2

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Woken up a little after 4am this morning by thunder (or rather by dogs unsettled by thunder).

At least one of us gets to sleep in a little.

A stormy week ahead I think – still lots of catching up to do after years of drought!  Love it.

Meet Oliver – the small, strong and silent type – and oldest member of our menagerie at 15 yrs. and some.

Nothing like a little beak trimming and a pedicure to brighten up an Ornate Box Turtle’s day!

I put the boys out together again this weekend, after a looong break – since last time fur flew – and they seemed to have a good time.  A little mutual humping, but no fighting.   Awww :- )

The Ambiguously Gay Duo – for those of us that recall the Saturday Night Live cartoon.

Most solopreneurs are very creative people; they have fabulous ideas and are amazing artists with wonderful passion.  In business, they may still write in streams of consciousness and abstract thought processes. Those writings will undoubtedly be interspersed with great content, and artfully (though usually accidentally) crafted in variegated type fonts and randomized line lengths.

But alas, what gets written down this way is usually not in a structure that allows the full impact to reach the reader.  The most creative proposal in the world can end up ricocheting off a brick wall if it can’t be conveyed in a way other people can comfortably receive.

And there are many who simply struggle with writing, period.

For me, in writing, I love the flow of words and sentence structure and the difference a word taken out here or added in there can make to the meaning.  My art form is to coax and cajole, shaping your piece so that it can glide into the reader’s consciousness. Whether it’s a contract or a proposal or a plain old email, if I know you and I know what your intent is, I can shape it for you in a way that’s clear and impactful and still you.

I do this for people who are so grateful and say things like “you’re amazing” and that makes me happy.

Wow, time is zipping by… shame on me for sliding on my blog posts… tsk, tsk.

So here’s a couple of things to update you on what’s been happening for me this year already.

Participated in a couple of Beta courses with awesome individuals, currently finishing up an eight-week course on some really great foundational business work, got myself a new client, reconnected with my dear and fabulous AssistU Southern Chapter for one of our love-lunches, completely by-passed Valentine’s Day (although did think about and meant to re-post Ted Kooser’s somehow sweet and funny poem The Hog-Nosed Snake from his Valentines book), participated in a weekend Noah’s Wish animal disaster training drill (accompanied in the background by the NHRA Winternationals and the snow covered San Gabriel mountains), slept in my car and woke to ice-covered windows, met some sweet Alpacas, learned how to identify/classify animals for triage (stuffed but with added gore for great effect!), watched my son drive off as a fully licensed California driver, bought his girlfriend flowers for her 18th, applied to the LA County Animal Care & Control Dept. to volunteer at Carson Animal Shelter (3 hr weekly commitment for 9 months), and… finally broke down and bought a big-ass flat screen plasma TV thingy. California water levels are replenished and it’s still raining on and off – yay!

So busy, yes… but it’s all good.

I’m going to try and unravel a couple of these things and share more on them in the near future.

In the meantime here are the mountains and Roscoe (black and white) and his friends from Feb. 26-27 (you’ll have to imagine the roar of top fuel dragsters in the background).

Be well.