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I read that word, decoct, recently and had no idea what it meant. So I looked it up. It means to boil away the excess to get down to the essence of something.

That’s what Lego kits seem to do now. With just a few bricks they make you see something complicated. Your mind does its best to make sense of those few things with what I consider remarkable results.

A few days ago I got they urge to make something from scratch with the the odds and ends of Lego bricks from my latest constructions. I decided to make a diner.

We’ve all been to diners, right? We know what they look like. But figuring out how to get the most detail from the fewest bricks was a challenge I enjoyed.

On the left we have two barstools at the counter, the cook at the stove and sink with upper and lower cabinets and a clock above his head to tell him when to switch from the breakfast to the lunch menu, mugs hanging on the wall by the coffee maker, and the trash bin by the door as the server brings out a sandwich passing by the cash register and condiments on her way.

Not as much detail on the right but we do have a couple booths for customers who prefer not to sit at the counter.

How do you think I did? Did I get the essence of a diner with just a few bricks?

TTYL,

Linda

My dad, age 94, passed away from lung cancer last night. It was rapid and he was not in pain as of my phone conversation with him Sunday. I wish he hadn’t led me to believe it would be longer than that. My oldest brother made it home in time to say goodby but I was waiting for an update from my brother to help us decide when to go.

Maybe we’ll hand out links at Dad’s memorial service next week.

TTYL,

Linda

The other night I had another one of those detailed dreams I sometimes have.

In this one, I was attending a funeral of a man named Sam.

I have no idea who Sam was.

The important part of this funeral was that each attendee was handed one link from a chain as we arrived.

During the service we were encouraged to put that link in our pocket or somewhere we would run across it occasionally. Then we were told, “As you go through your day, and however many days you decide to do this, every time you come in touch with that link, please, think about your link to Sam and your link to one another.”

The message I got from this dream is that we are all linked together. And we are better for it.

You could, you know, put a link in your own pocket to help you remember this.

TTYL,

Linda

[I just discovered I never actually posted this even though I wrote it nearly a month ago.]

 

Our nephew, Ben, said on Jan 10, 2017, “Eleven months and 4 days ago, I started filming a series of animated videos for one of my bands, Mojo Kamikaze, initially using nothing but Lego [blocks and people] to recreate an imaginary gig on a large outdoor stage.”

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

TTYL,

Linda

The trick to having a varied wardrobe with few pieces is to buy pieces you can mix and match. I have three main colors and most of those are solid colored pieces so they have no patterns to clash with one another. Fortunately, I live in Minnesota where you can layer pieces most of the year.

Here are pictures of four pieces, two black and two persimmon, layered in various ways. The pictures themselves are terrible because I took them with my phone and because I didn’t spend a lot of time styling the clothes but they are enough to give you and idea of how I mix them.

      

That’s seven looks from those four pieces. If I wear them with black slacks one time then persimmon slacks the next time that makes enough variety for two weeks.

Before I add any of the four pieces of sapphire blue.

Or any of the five cardigans, hoodies, or blazers I also own in these colors.

And one more persimmon shirt I didn’t show you plus duplicates of the shawl collared black shirt.

I haven’t done the math to see how many outfits I can actually assemble from these fifteen pieces but I’m pretty sure I could wear something different every day for a month or more.

Before I add scarves.

TTYL,

Linda