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Beatrix Potter:  A Journal, 2006, is a book that is a treasure of self discovery, the heart of a child and self reflection.  Playful, every page is strewn with imagination unparalleled and 3-D surprises such as a love letter you can open that was sealed, blue prints of a few books, a pendant you can open as one would open a locket to a necklace, and  just when you felt the journey is sure to be up-the biggest surprise in the back of the book! But do not peak until you are done reading her journal.  The last surprise of great value in and of itself.  Clue, it can also be used right away! No, I will not tell you what it is.  I cannot even say 3-D is the correct word as some items are actual letters and such-you can open and read.  The book is under $20 USD and I recommend it as a great keepsake as well as the obvious item to read to children.  If you are a scrap booker, THIS BOOK should be your blue print on how to tastefully lay out, and make curious,  your own life or story.

Beatrix was the author and illustrator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  Beatrix is a story in and of herself, as the Journal outlines her entire fascinating life, or at times, lack of.  An Illustrator, writer, well published botanist, mycologist, and later respected farmer, Beatrix was ultimately able to live life by her own rules-but not until after she was 30 years of age.  Click here for the charming and inspirational home site or here for Amazon.  [The journal can be purchased on either site.]

Raised secluded from other children but having pets such as ferrets, frogs, newts, a few rabbits, and even a bat, she learned to entertain and amuse herself by necessity.  At age 15 her parents appointed her their housekeeper until her age of 30 and discouraged any creativity of any merit.  During that time she recorded journals of her every day life using her own secret code, that was so complex it was not de-coded until 20 years after her passing.  Born in 1866 she passed in 1943. 

Beatrix learned to live a life within those lonely confines-but truly lived! 

In her 30's The Tale of Peter Rabbit  would also be the fantasy that financed her freedom from some thirty years of being controlled as to what to think, say and do by her parents. When Illustrators would not accept The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor's Garden due to the illustration color preference of the time, Beatrix did not amend or fold.  She started her own publishing company instead and in 1901 issued the first 25 copies of the book. Due to the tales success, Beatrix was able to do whatever she pleased.  Beatrix literally wrote herself out of the parent situation and into another novel of her own.  At age 47, take note, Beatrix married the man she loved and lived happily ever after until her death in 1943.  So, anything is still possible at "forty something...." 

 

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My Vacation

I took an un-expected trip to FL and had a great time seeing my three daughters. 

Ringo had a total ball, and the girls spoiled him more, naturally.  They all want a puppy from him so that may be on the future aspirations list-a mate for Ringo.  Her name will of course be "Star." I am aiming for white-blonde Golden Retriever to see if we get "pink" puppies!

Back to my journey, I learned a few things I did not know!  My oldest, a Pharmacist, taught me "wrinkle release" works really great so she does not have to iron her lab coat.  I never knew anything came in a bottle these days-so I am here to report, it shore does!  I have not used my bottle yet, and not sure what is in it.  Needless to say if you are "PRESSED" for time-there is a bottle of spray that can help with that.   It is under $5 and seems to last at least 10 uses...  Anyway, the trip was more about bonding and staying close to the positive people in life. 

And that would be a photo of me to the left.  No one has seen a new photo of me in quite a while.  So there you have it.  I did loose a bunch a weight the healthy way and very committed to not making food a focus-as much as I love to cook.  So, I am back to filming.  I made this commitment in October of 2008, so it took a while.  I lost 40 pounds....as I wrote about "how" in previous writings.  Bottom line:  Rejuvenating to see my girls.

Read about Ringo a dog flown in from Katrina.  Official Bio of his owner and short Bio.  RSS Syndicated Feeds on the environment.  How Twitter is best used.  Deborah Dolen Books on Amazon.   Review of her books on Open Library,  Paperback Swap, Good Reads and ReviewScout.  You can also read Google Profile.    Deborah Dolen on MySpace Facebook, and Flickr.  This is our favorite blogspot.   See Deborah Dolen on YouTube and her last book written London Apothecary and book.  For more environmental articles on water and oil.

 

Visit Deborah on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/deborah.dolen MySpace   http://www.myspace.com/deborah_dolen Twitter http://twitter.com/DeborahDolen or BlogSpot http://deborahdolen.blogspot.com/   Buy Natural Liquid Soap!  It is much safer than commercial brands.  Natural Liquid Soap for People or Natural Liquid Soap for pets.

 

Before I left I incurred a virus by simply surfing the net.  I was looking for lyrics and BAM a virus known as AV360 was on my PC not allowing me to do ANYTHING BUT buy their product.  They try to mimic the friendly AVG program.  So, my PC was effectively frozen unless I bought this "thing" warning me I had one billion issues in my PC it would repair.  Ticked, I avoided opening that and figured out I could still get into the web via Firefox-just not Explorer.  [Great to have both browsers BTW for this kind of issue.]  On FireFox I studied the virus and then bought another program to "get rid of the AV360."  Later I found they are probably owned by the same company and AV360 was still blocking me from doing much.

$400 later and still "frozen" I was getting really mad-and 48 hours into "the problem."  No tech is coming at 2:00 AM anyway, when I write!  Then I figured it is day time in India at that hour here, and so I researched if anyone has a "remote" fix product. 

They SURE do!  I spent $83 for some year of tech support and allowed them in-where they remotely got rid of the entire AV360 deal and cleaned up my PC as well within 30 minutes. I ADORE iYogi.    the product is worth a LOT more, so prices may change.  I was calling for one fix at the time.....and sick I was already $400 "into it."  And they speak clear English-we must forget the days of telephonic support being sent to a third world country who insists their name is "Eric" or "John" and we got no where.  Most of my readers are Boomers who recall those long term memories as I still do.

This is NOT like that and they are very professional.  Also, a total relief to not haul my PC off either to some "day clinic" who would BS me right into a new PC as you can imagine.  So, although I am VERY PRO American business, this is a critical exception and a welcome solution compared to all of my other options. Easy to Google iYogi and just go to them for tuff tasks.  I signed up for a year KNOWING I am a "habitual offender" and always in some mix on the net.  So, it is like having my personal PC man right there, any time of day or night, and I am insuring my costs are FIXED.  Meaning, and I am not going to dump another $400 later in the year on junk sites I hit and cannot back out of.   Chances are great I will.  When iYogi comes up with remote PC back up, I WILL be the first on board.  Lax, I hate taking time to back up a lot of gig.  They are working on offering this product in a secure manner.   If you are really screwed...you would not be reading this, but here is their phone number anyway....1-800-237-3901.  They can pretty much go into any PC and isolate anything going on-even some hard ware issues.  Since they do not sell hardware, you get an objective answer.

If anyone says iYogi is not top-consider the source.  Probably a local yokel who cannot convince you to buy a whole new PC.  In this economy there is no shortage of people of envy and boredom.  If you cannot stay away from them-[people of envy] walk over their heads to get to the other side!