Some of you may know who Frank Lloyd Wright was. I had heard of him but only recently have begun to appreciate his work. He was one of the world's most famous architects. His most famous "public building"
may be the GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM in New York City. I have been there and it is really a treat. From the outside it looks like a giant bee hive. When you go inside, you go to the top and wind down and around the aisles. His homes and estates that he built for himself or others are incredible as well. I didn't know about his life until a few days ago though. He was born Frank Lincoln Wright in 1867 in Wisconsin. He would change his middle name when his parents divorced. He died in 1959 in Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 92. In all,he married three times, had a tragic affair with a mistress and fathered 7 children. He was considered reckless, unpredictable and arrogant by his peers. In 1889 he was at a church social and met 17 year old Catherine ( KItty) Lee. Frank had six children with Kitty. Thier son John,was the inventor of LINCOLN LOGS. Years into the marriage Frank began an affair with a married woman named Mamah Cheney that would have a tragic ending. Catherine found out about the affair but believed that Frank would return to her and thier children. Catherine called Mamah a "vampire" and believed that Frank was a victim. During 1909-1910, she ( Catherine) held on to the hope that "her love, her lonely vigil and her faithfullness would bring him home". Catherine didn't grant Frank a divorce until 1922 and he was required to pay $250 dollars a month in alimony. Frank had met Mamah years before when her husband commissioned him to build thier family home. Having left his wife and children even before the divorce, Frank continued his relationship with Mamah. When Mamah's husband was in Europe on
business, she and her two children moved in with Frank into his Estate called Taliesin. ( one of his most famous and beautiful private homes) near Spring Green, Wisconsin. On August 15, 1914,
Manah and her children sat down to lunch. In another room, six of Wright's staff were eating lunch as well. A servant, Julian Carleton, bolted the doors and windows, poured gasoline around the outside of the house and lit it. As the house began to burn, he took a hatchet and murdered Mamah and her children. He then went after the workmen. Two survived by smashing through a window. At his office, Wright recieved a phone call telling him about the fire, but when he got to the train station he was told the entire story by waiting reporters. In spite of his grief over Mamah, Frank became involved with Miriam Noel. Miriam had written frank a letter of condolence. They met, started seeing each other and married. They married in 1923 in a midnight ceremony in the middle of a bridge that crosses the Wisconsin River. Miriam accused Frank of cruelty and they fought often. She was addicted to Morphine which helped lead to the failure of thier marriage. They divorced in 1927. Olga Milanoff was 33 years younger than Frank when they met. They met at The Petrograd Ballet in Chicago in 1924 while she was seperated from her husband.( it probably didn't help Franks marriages, that he got involved with other women before he was divorced). There were legal problems between Olga and her husband concerning custody of thier daughter. Olga and Frank were married In 1928 and stayed married until his death in 1959. Frank was originally buried but Olga had him exhumed and cremated. Thier ashes are together On the grounds of Taliesin, his tragic estate....... it struck me as I read about his life how I would have never assumed any of this by looking at his work. His work brings out a sense of peace to me. You just never know. I hope that I didn't bore ya'll to death with this. Have a good weekend.

Have you ever started thinking about something that happened to you or something that you did and just started laughing? That happened to me today. Dixie's post on rescued animals made me think about it. I hope that the statute of limitations is up on this so I don't get in trouble. I have rescued sooo many animals in my lifetime. My mom says that when I was just a little girl, that I would always drag home stray cats or dogs. ( I remember most of thier names even). Anyway, I had this friend named Karen that would come to the States to visit me from England several times. She is a huge animal lover as well. She came to visit once and had been here for a few days. We went to get some fried chicken, bring it home and have a DVD fest. On the way home, we saw this skinny dog walking down the middle of the road, so OF COURSE, we stopped to get him. He wasn't very happy about approaching us, so we lured him into the car with chicken. He was so cute and sweet and we named him Bingo. I already had five dogs at the time ( or was it four?) and knew that I just could NOT keep another one, so we were going to try and find him a good home. About two days later, ALL of the dogs started fighting and at that time I didn't know how to separate them. Now I know, that if there are two people around, each person can grab hind legs and pull and the dogs will seperate. BUT, I didn't know that then, and Karen and I started trying to pull these dogs apart with our bare hands. Needless to say, we got bit. Several times. Badly. Really, really smart of us. The dogs were just scared. They weren't trying to hurt US. They eventually just got tired and stopped fighting. After we cleaned up all the blood and fur ( it looked like a homicide scene) we decided that Karen's leg was bitten pretty badly and so was my arm. We went to the hospital ER. Here, if you get dog bitten, they take the dogs and quarantine them for 10 days. It wasn't the new dog that bit us, he ran and hid. We knew that my dogs had thier Rabies shots and weren't rabid and we didn't want them picked up. SO.... when the animal control man came to the hospital to take the report he asked where the dog was that bit us? We of course told him "that it was this little black dog about this big" and pointed to our knees. Told him that we didn't even know the dog. That was so brillant of us because...BOOM.. we had to start the rabies series. Six rabies injections over a period of time. Not fun. We joked for months about that "little black dog". Animal lovers will go to any length for animals. WE did anyway. AND.... if anyone reports me..This is fiction.

I was thinking about people last night. Just thinking. Wondering how you are ever sure that you KNOW someone. I have had a few people in my life that I trusted never to hurt me. Never, but they did. One person had been my friend for over 30 years. Thirty years is a long time. You grow together in that time, you raise your kids together. We worked together and I quit. Things were just not right. This person was taking a LOT of pain medicine then. She would come into the office at about 10AM, put her head down on her desk and go to sleep. She would wake up, wander around for a few minutes and leave to go get her grandaughter. Sometimes, she would come back and sometimes she wouldn't. Anyway, something happened and she denied being responsible and I quit. I have to say that she was the messiest, laziest person that I had ever met, but I loved her anyway. To make a long story short, she blamed a LOT of stuff of me and things got bad. About this time, I was in love with a man. He was THE love of my life. He got in touch with her to ask her some things.( he could have driven down her and found out.) Another person told me that ex friend laughed about lying to him about me. I believe that because she lied so badly about me. Because he WANTED to believe her, he and I have never really spoken again and another friendship was ended. He wanted to believe her because it's convenient for him. I realize that this is cryptic but I think that I am just talking to myself. trying to figure out how I could have loved two people SO much and not really have known them. I realized last night that there are only two people in my immediate life that I trust. That is tragic OR maybe I am lucky. Some folks don't even have TWO people. One is a man named Guy and the other is Sharon. Two people that have had the chance to betray me and didn't. Two people that I KNOW are standing beside me. Sometimes it takes pain to make you realize how blessed that you are. I haven't lost much. My ex love has, and one day he will know it. My ex friend will get back what she gave out. Of that, I have no doubt.

You all know how much I love lists. I love to read them and either agree or disagree with them. I'm not sure what age the people are that have been making these lists. Certainly not my generation. Like my earlier lists of songs, I haven't even heard of some of these and certainly don't consider any of them the BEST opening lyrics. I am really showing my age but here goes....

25. " You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar"
Human League- DON'T YOU WANT ME"?
24. " I've been a bad, bad girl".
Fiona Apple- CRIMINAL
23. " You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips".
The Rightous Brothers- YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVIN FEELIN
* The most played song in radio history*
22. " Go, Shorty. It's your Birthday".
50 Cent - IN DA CLUB
* come on now...one of the BEST? *
21. " Hello Darkness, my old friend".
Simon and Garfunkel- THE SOUND OF SILENCE
* I almost agree with this one *
20. " I am an AntiChrist".
Sex Pistols- ANARCHY IN THE UK.
* Who makes these lists?*
19. " Well, I guess it would be nice if I could touch your body".
George Michael - FAITH
* said in a public bathroom*
18. " We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee".
Merle Haggard- OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE
17. " I was dreaming when I wrote this".
Prince- 1999
16. " pigs, they tend to wiggle when they walk".
Pavement- STEREO
* No, really. Who makes these lists? Unbelievable*
15. " She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene."
Michael Jackson- BILLIE JEAN
14. " There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker
to the thief".
Jimi Hendrix- ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
* written by Bob Dylan*
13. " What's with these homies dissin my girl"?
Weezer- BUDDY HOLLY
12. " A candy- colored clown they call the sandman tiptoes to
my room every night".
Roy Orbison- IN DREAMS
* creepy....*
11. " Oh, I just don't know where to begin".
Elvis Costello - ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN
10. " Tommy used to work on the docks".
Bon Jovi- LIVIN ON A PRAYER
9. " Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine".
Patti Smith- GLORIA
8. " Well, it's one for the money, two for the show, three to
get ready, Now go, Cats, Go ! "
Carl Perkins - BLUE SUEDE SHOES
* Perkins was in the hospital following a car accident and got to
watch Elvis belt out HIS words on TV.The rest is history....*
7. " In the time of Chimpanzees, I was a monkey".
Beck- LOSER
* oh....Ok..*
6. " Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near?"
The Carpenters- CLOSE TO YOU
5. " Don't call it a comeback".
LL Cool J- MAMMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT.
4. " Well, she was just 17- You know what I mean"?
The Beatles- I SAW HER STANDING THERE.
3. " Hey Ho, let's go".
The Ramones- BLITZKRIEG BOP
2. " I was born in a cross fire hurricane".
The Rolling Stones - JUMPIN JACK FLASH
1. " She's a very kinky girl"
Rick James- SUPERFREAK

Like I said, whoever makes these lists has a differant idea of BEST opening lines than I do. MY favorite opening line will always be;
" Someday, when I'm awfully low, when the world is cold, I will feel
a glow just thinking of you..and the way you look tonight".
Frank Sinatra- THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT.. THAT to me...is music. How about it? What is your favorite opening line from a song?

I am in love with Dexter. This infatuation started last year and has grown stronger this year.It may be a good thing that Dexter doesn't even know that I exist although I am not a serial killer so I should be fine. HUH???? DEXTER is a series on Showtime. It is quirky, it is gory and it is funny. DEXTER is a serial killer that only kills serial killers. He was a foster child whose foster father was a policeman. The father recognized "something" in Dexter when he was growing up and taught him to use his urges for "something good, something that would benefit people". DEXTER is incapable of feeling love but he seems to be falling in love with Rita and he doesn't know how to handle it. Rita is a divorcee with two kids and she is as damaged as Dexter is because of an abusive ex husband. I started reading the books about Dexter By Jeff Lindsay, long before it became a TV series. Before you think that I am evil, I urge you to watch it. The writing is funny and brilliant with lots of word play. There are graphic scenes and the language is sometimes foul but having worked around law enforcement for years, I find it to be very true to life. Have you seen DEXTER? What did you think?