Bamboo 2
Symbol: Duck
The Duck tile symbolizes a long lasting relationship with the strength to overcome all obstacles. It suggests fidelity and trustworthiness as well. Regardless of the type of partnership in question, the 2 Bamboo tile indicates a strong, healthy relationship.
The Open Door signifies the presence of new opportunities. However, to reap the benefits of these prospects you will have to move beyond where you are now–forsake the comforts and safety of your current life and head out in new directions. Moves like those symbolized by The Open Door require courage, because fresh opportunities signify the chance of gain, but do not guarantee they will be realized. Regardless of the benefits that may be reaped, with the transitions like those required to explore these new found opportunities, something is always lost. Before launching on a voyage down new paths it is a good idea to objectively assess your current state of being and decide whether what you have now is worth jeopardizing.
As a daily card, The Open Door indicates a time that is primed for you to pursue new goals and dreams. For you opportunity exists, but there are no assurances that they will lead to a richer life. Weigh your current circumstances carefully, and if you feel there is a more fulfilling path for you, then this is the moment for you to begin your walk down that path–the moment for you to walk through The Open Door before you.
Alexandrite is a centering stone. Use this stone for stress or in other situations requiring you to be calm. This stone will allow you to become centered and balanced and will bring together the important aspects of your life. For healing, use this stone for the brain and central nervous system. It can also help when in a rut for it provides higher self-esteem and gives a feeling of purpose. In conjunction, it will help you achieve your goals.
Goooood Monday Morning, my dears! How are you doing? I just wanted to drop you a quick note. Didn’t want you to think I had run off, lol! I am going to put today’s morning dailies on real quick. Then this afternoon (I hope earlier) I will finish out. I have to take hubby to the doctor this morning. Nothing serious, just a check-up after the wreck he had. In case you don’t know he had a man hit him in the driver’s side doing 70 mph. He was going to work, stopped at a stop sign and the man went off the road and hit him. It threw my husband out of my Explorer and he bounced 50 foot down the road. The door hinges on my Explorer busted off the frame that is how hard he was hit. Then the S.O.B. had the nerve to say he was only doing 25 mph, yeah right! That didn’t wash with the State Troopers.
But anyway, enough tragedy! I am going to get busy. I will see you later on this morning (keep your fingers crossed, lol!).
Have a fantastic Monday,
Luv & Hugs,
Lady A
More Monday Comments
by Chaya, selected from Networx
Since we’re now into summer, and it may well be a hot one this year, it’s a good time to look at home improvements that can help save energy and make your house more comfortable in those hot, sticky months coming up. Air conditioning installers in Miami and other hot, humid climates are going to get a lot of work this summer. How can you get the most from your investment in air conditioning?
The first thing that homeowners and contractors need to understand is that air sealing is really important. The most common insulation, fiberglass, doesn’t work very well when air leaks through it. It’s actually a pretty good filter for dirt (you may have noticed that it’s used for those cheap furnace filters), when you cut open an old insulated wall you usually see big streaks of dirt where air has been blowing through the insulation for years. Not only do air leaks keep the insulation from working, they let lots of humid air into the house, making your air conditioner work harder. Tightening up those leaks keeps the house more comfortable, keeps the humidity lower, and saves a lot of energy in the process.
So where do we need to air seal, you might ask? Pretty much everywhere, but let’s start at the bottom. For now, I’ll assume that you have a wood framed floor with a vented crawlspace below it, and probably fiberglass batt insulation installed between the floor joists. Carefully pull out the batts around any big holes like tub drains, pipes, big wires, and any other place where there are holes in the floor decking. Plug those holes with foam boards, spray foam, or anything else that won’t let air pass through. Don’t jam fiberglass insulation in the holes – it won’t air seal anything. Then carefully caulk all the small holes where wires and pipes pass through the floor.
Finally, make sure that all the insulation is pushed up tight against the subfloor and held in place with skinny metal bars called tiger teeth. If you’re really ambitious you could seal and insulate your crawlspace, but that’s a little too involved for this post.
Then you need to go inside and caulk all the cracks between the walls and the floor. If you’re replacing carpet or refinishing wood floors, put a good bead of caulk or spray foam between the baseboard and the subfloor. Next, start moving up the walls, filling in all the gaps in the drywall – around receptacles, pipes, wires, window and door trim, and anything else that makes a hole in the wall finish. You can buy foam gaskets to put behind electrical plates that will help seal them from more air leaks. If you have any knee walls – walls between interior space and attics, make sure that they are well insulated and have a solid air barrier on the attic side – something like drywall or foam board, carefully caulked at all joints and edges. If your house is missing this, all the heat from the attic will flow right through the insulation into the room, making it really uncomfortable.
Finally, we need to fix up the ceiling. This is where we usually get the most air leakage, particularly in the summer. Go up in your attic and start pulling the insulation away from the walls, pipes, wires, and any other openings in the ceiling. Seal those holes the same way you did the ones in the floor, making sure that you get all of them. You should also seal the crack between drywall and the wood wall at the top – that’s a big air leak in most houses. But the biggest ceiling leak is the attic stair or access hatch. You can build or buy a nice foam box to seal over the top of them, but you have to be careful about putting them back every time you go into the attic.
If you’re not interested in taking on this project yourself, think about hiring a weatherization contractor to inspect the house and make the repairs for you. If you’re lucky, your local utility may offer rebates for doing improvements like these – you can be more comfortable, save energy, and get a little money back in your pocket.
A STONE-BANISHING SPELL
Opening the Gateways Simultaneously
After a suitable meditation time with the tattwas, when you feel you are ready, stand and face the north. Visualize the northern gate with the tattwa of earth carved upon it. The entry can be a golden gateway or a monolithic stone structure, or even a simple wooden gate. Stare into the tattwa until its aura begins to become visible, then shift your focus to the gateway. You should begin to see the fog lift, and the portal will be clear. It may look like a swirling vortex at first, but it will eventually take on a form that represents that element. Turn east and repeat the process. Continue with all four of the elements if you wish, or you may choose to open only one gateway at a time. If you wish, you may protect yourself with a personal bubble and enter into the realm of the elements. Be sure to ask that the gate remain open. Explore and commune as long as you like. When you are done, make sure to close each gateway by allowing your vision to blur as you look at it. The vortex should become active again, and the fog will settle.
By Philip Schmidt, Hometalk
Surely there’s nothing funny about an explosion in a home, but in a kid-science sort of way it’s fun to think about all the everyday things around you that can blow up. Without even counting obvious hazards, like fuel cans and leaky gas pipes, any household has at least 30 things that can go BOOM under the right conditions. In fact, you might even live with some whose temper can be described as ignitable or explosive; if so, you should certainly add this person to the list.
Note: While all of the items listed here are potentially explosive and therefore potentially hazardous, the explanations for why these things blow up are not comprehensive (not by a long shot). In other words, DO NOT use this list as a guide for how to prevent explosions.
1. Hot water heater
That valve thingee with an open pipe on your water heater is called a temperature and pressure relief valve, or TPR valve. If the TPR valve and the heater’s thermostat fail at the same time, your water heater has the potential to take off like a space shuttle.
2. Food storage containers with spoiled food
If you leave your leftovers in a sealed container long enough, gasses from the decomposing food can build up and blow off the lid. Mold spores, anyone?
3. Baked potatoes
We all know this is true because it happened to Pa on Little House on the Prairie. You really do have to pierce a potato’s skin before baking it.
4. Sausages
Hot dog aficionados (such as myself) refer to a blown-up hot dog affectionately as a “splitter,” but sausage explosions can be painful, as boiling-hot juice squirts out of the casing toward the unsuspecting griller. Maybe this should be called a “spitter.”
5. Light bulb
A light bulb is like a vacuum tube and actually implodes rather than explodes when it breaks, but the difference is essentially semantic to the observer. A drop of water landing on a hot light bulb can cause it to “explode,” in addition to the usual causes.
6. Beer bottle left in the freezer
There’s no sadder way of ruining a perfectly good beer.
7. Opening sealed containers in high altitudes
Alpine residents learn to open sealed packages carefully, especially those full of powders.
8. Aerosol cans in sunlight or heat
Anything from cooking spray to WD-40 really can explode if the can gets too hot.
9. Pumpkins (and other thick-skinned vegetables)
If left outside, your uncarved Halloween pumpkin can freeze and turn into a boo-bomb.
10. Electrical explosion
These are more common on power poles than houses, but a large service panel (breaker box) can have an explosion due to a short circuit overwhelming the breakers.
11. Natural gas
It’s worth noting that anything, including your house, that uses natural gas can potentially become a bomb.
12. Soda bottles
Explode when shaken too much, particularly when dropped during excessive shaking.
13. Wood stove
Numerous homeowners have blamed backdrafting (which provides oxygen) and unburned gasses (which newer stoves are designed to prevent) as the causes of minor explosions that can fill the room with dust and ash.
14. Non-oven-safe glass containers used in the oven or microwave
Looks like you’re eating out after all.
15. Boilers
Hot water boilers have TPR valves just like water heaters. Good thing to test periodically.
16. Portable propane tank (for barbecue grill)
Carelessness can turn your meal of seared tuna into a summer on a seared patio.
17. Flour
Boring, old baking flour is highly flammable and has the potential for explosive flare-ups.
18. Botulism-tainted canned food
A bloated can (or jar) is bad. An exploded can is much, much worse.
19. Carpenter ants
The next time you’re at a dinner party in Southeast Asia, you can wow the other guests with your knowledge of nine species of local carpenter ants that can literally blow themselves up to kill their rivals.
20. Water and hot oil
You never see this on TV cooking shows, but many a home chef knows the sting (and sound) of water droplets hitting a pan of hot oil.
21. Espresso machines
The words, “Do not remove filter unit when under pressure,” are good advice. You know this if you’ve ever had to clean up the aftermath of a coffee bomb.
22. Boiling salted water
The scientific jury is still out on this one, but I personally witnessed a panful of salty water explode upward and outward about 2 feet, with very serious results. Current theory points to overly salinated softened water as the cause.
23. Ice cubes dropped in hot liquid
Exploding ice can actually break the glass or mug.
24. Hot/cold glass filled with cold/hot liquid
Seems like you can do this a hundred times with no problem, but sometimes the glass shatters, even violently.
25. Firewood
The familiar popping of a real wood-burning fireplace is actually little explosions of trapped pitch, sap or water. Cozy, no?
26. TV tube
An old fashioned TV tube is much harder to break than a light bulb, but it implodes just like one. A very good reason not to buy a real tool set for your two-year-old.
27. Batteries
Many household batteries are theoretically explosive, while car battery explosions are by far the most common.
28. Septic tank
Problems with a system can lead to methane buildup. Not the best place for plumbers to take a smoke break.
29. Trees
Trees can explode due to fire or a lightning strike, both of which heat the water in the wood. Extreme cold can freeze the sap inside maple trees, causing it to expand.
30. Mentos and Diet Coke
If you haven’t tried this awesome kid experiment, suffice it to say that you should never wash down 11 Mentos candies with a half-liter of Diet Coke.
Good day, my luvs! I am going to make it short and sweet today. I hope everyone is having a very relaxing and enjoyable Saturday. Thanks for stopping by and spending some of your day with me.
Have a great one, sweeties!
“I turn my attention inward to sense the tug of hidden desires. Clear in my self-awareness, I am now free to make my choice.”
“The significance of a man is not in what he attains but rather in what he longs to attain.”
Kahlil Gibran
(1883-1913)
Focus On A Pebble
You can use a pebble as a talisman to act as a focus for your ambitions and goals. Hold the pebble in your hand and focus your attention on it. Look at the smooth grain of its surface and the variations in hue, and feel the cool hardness of th pebble against your skin. Now close your eyes and squeezing the pebble tightly in one hand, wish for the fulfilment of an important dream or goal. As you do so imagine that the stone is glowing in your hand, charged with the energy of your wish. Put the stone in a place where you will see it on a daily basis to remind you of your goal. Whenever you are about to take a step toward achieving your goal and require an extra boost, squeeze the stone in your hand to summon your energies and focus your mind.
As well as pebbles, there are many other things that you can use as talisman – for example a semi-precious stone or crystal, a pendant, or a small toy or doll.
Bornite is known as Peacock Ore in the gemstone trade, because this stone produces a rainbow of blues, turquoises, gold and greens in its copper red colour. Bornite aids the flow of adrenaline in the body and protects against cerebral haemorrhage and heart attacks. This stone may also be used to lower fevers and diminish swelling. Its healing powers spread out to the female reproductive organs, and protect pregnant women and their unborn children, and it also harmonises menstruation. Bornite protects its wearer against negative energy and can be an incredible help during the re-birthing process. This stone stimulates happiness and communication as well.
Celestite (also known as celestine) can be found in clear, white, gray, blue, green, yellow, orange or reddish brown. It offers a gentle uplifting energy that will raise one’s awareness. It is an effective stone to use in order to establish and maintain communication with the angelic realm.
This cluster is ideal for placement in the bedroom, or meditation space as an environmental cleanser. Celestite is a soft stone (both physically and metaphysically) and its vibrations radiate in all directions.
Celestite is an elevating crystal that makes one feel as though floating on a cloud.
A STONE BANISHING SPELL
To be rid of diseases, unhealthy habits, hurt feelings and any other disturbing manifestations
of life, hold any stone in your projective hand and visualize the problem in detail.
Visualize the part of you that is to be banished as entering the stone. See the problem and its
causes leaving you and infusing the stone.
When you can send no more energy into it, throw the stone onto a hot fire, throwing with it the
causes and manifestations of your problem. Stand back the stone may explode.
If you have no fire or don’t wish to have rocks exploding, throw the stone into the air or into water,
thereby releasing the problem causing energy from your body. It is done.
Alexandrite heals the central nervous system. Harmonises the co-operation of the organs, especially the spleen, stomach and pancreas. Also works especially well in leukaemia cases. Alexandrite attracts good luck. Also used in love spells.
Note: Alexandrite is a very rare stone and therefore an extremely expensive one. However it is one of the most exquisite stones I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing, because of one of its wonderful property of changing colours: in daylight this stone appears to be green and in artificial lighting this stone appears to be red.
Witches Of The Craft® 