well...whattayaknow

You are an Atheist

When it comes to religion, you're a non-believer (simple as that).You prefer to think about what's known and proven.You don't need religion to solve life's problems.Instead, you tend to work things out with logic and philosophy.

What's" Your Religious Philosophy?

home sweet home

I live in a great city. It is the city that is credited with starting the Industrial Revolution. It was pretty trashy in the 70s when the manufacturers started to close/move overseas, and when workers' jobs started being given to new technology. However, now there's a major revitalization effort taking place, turning this city into a fantastic place to live. Here are some photos!

This is a picture of one of the canals and the surrounding mill buildings. Most of the old mills have been turned or are turning into artist lofts and condos. Some are being turned into shopping centers. There's also a National Park here, and so some of the mill buildings have been restored to be part of the park. I think they're all fascinating and strangely beautiful.

The city also tries to remember it's roots as an industrial center. This is a statue that is downtown to honor the 'mill girls,' who made the whole Industrial Revolution possible by providing cheap, efficient labor. Of course this isn't ideal, but they played a major role in the labor movement and women's rights, too.

Here's another picture of a mill, it's smokestack (my favorite part) and one of the canals.

Here's a gate house. The building behind it is a community college. The building on the side you can see is the newspaper. On the side the picture is taken from is a hotel.

The end! Happy Photo Sunday!
xoxo

photo sunday

and now, for no particular reason....

Jellyfish!!

And some penguins...

These are from the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. You all should go there if you haven't gone - even if you have to take a trip to California JUST for that!

The only weird thing about it was that the restaurant in the aquarium is a seafood restaurant. Sort of disturbing, really, but if you're as big a fan of seafood as I am, you can look past the unpleasantries and enjoy the food...I'm sure the seafood you eat is not the cousin of the fish in the aquarium...and they do hand out little cards about what sort of fish you should and shouldn't eat based on the sustainability of the type of fish...

Have a great week!

And, by the way, thanks to my wonderful blogging friends, I raised just enough money to pay for my Habitat for Humanity trip and part of my plane ticket! Yippee!! Thank you ALL for your help and support - it means the world to me. Some statistics - 25% of my donations came from my blogfriends...none of whom I've ever met face-to-face.

xoxo

on my mind

Nikki's partner Sarah passed away last summer during her battle with cancer. Sarah was a blogger, and her sisters and Nikki created a blog to support her, and then kept it up. Since, they've shown more love to the blogosphere, more kindness, than words can describe. They supported other bloggers with cancer ferociously. In particular, Deb. They've been blogfriends to so many. I feel honored to have 'known' them.

Nikki went to Cambodia a couple of weeks ago to participate in the Doctor's Without Borders program.

Last Thursday, she was killed in a jeep accident.

There should be a limit to the amount of devastation one group of people has to face at a time.

It just doesn't seem possible.

Send your love to the sisters.

There are no words.

Thank you, Nikki, for your support and kindness. Thank you swlf sisters. I am so sorry.

Habitat trip update and final plea

Thank you again to all of you for your support, emotionally and financially! I'm just putting this out there one more time, and I promise I won't bother you anymore.

The deadline for fundraising for the Habitat trip mentioned on the left there is Friday. I am SO close. SO close! Thank you all for your help! The support from my blogging friends has been amazing!

If you want to donate just a little bit, please do so now. The best way, at this point is either through paypal or through Habitat directly. I'll be rolling the paypal donations over to Habitat on Thursday. Any extra will be used to buy my plane ticket. Any extra after that will be donated to Habitat, too.

I don't want to be a pain, but I'm pretty broke, so every little bit helps!

Thanks again!!