Coming to a post office near you

It's been a while since my last stamp post, but here's another. The USPS will be issuing these beauties, with artwork by Robert Giusti, on 20 January 2012 (which just happens to be my birthday). Click to embiggen.

Okay, the peregrine looks a bit hobby-ish to my eyes, and the depiction of the osprey could have been a bit more flattering, but I suspect most falconers and hawkwatchers won't complain too much.

Christmas Eve

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grownups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

—Winston Churchill, 1941

Tea ceremony

She might think it's laziness,
Or another manifestation of eccentricity,
But to her credit she says nothing
As the tags from teabags accumulate on the counter.
Lemon tea when her throat was sore,
Orange and spice with Chinese takeout;
Masala chai to get to work in the morning,
Earl Grey to unwind at night.
Irish Breakfast to celebrate her heritage,
English Breakfast for mine;
Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling.
Freed from their strings,
The little squares of coloured paper are like tickets,
Bringing the world to this little kitchen—
A world of sunny hillsides
& warm rain
& dark hands
& green leaves.
It might look like laziness,
But the tags are purpose-saved,
And one day I let them fly.
She doesn't like confetti
For the way it lingers,
Still turning up days or weeks or months later,
But her eyes sparkle as the tea tags flutter down about her head,
And she laughs in exasperated delight.
Of such small blessings

And such brief moments

Is a marriage in friendship made.

photoblogging: NSOC meet, December 2011

For my friend, currently in California, who had to miss the snow-and-gravel cruise:

Vinyl makes them faster:

• Rick's RS 2.5
• Jesse's lifted WRX
• Jon's swapped Impreza
  

Action shots:

• Trevor's Alcyone SVX
• Rick's RS 2.5 and Tank's Forester
• Tank again
• Not sure who this is, but that's not a mismatched bumper, it's masking tape
  

Going to the dogs:

• Harper D.
• Bayard wants to drive
• Harp again, just because she's awesome
  

Saying goodbye to a friend:

• Rick Schumacher, #186, who is moving to northern California
• Just about everyone in the Nebraska Subaru Owners' Club has signed Rick's fender
  

Miscellaneous shots:

• Nice wheels
• Three Subarus in their natural habitat
• One more of Harper, again because she's such an awesome dog