There are many obsolete technologies since mobile phones began taking over the world. I miss the elegance of watches in particular. However, some vintage technology is just misplaced and not obsolete. Frogs are one of those.

Not frogs of the living kind, but these frogs which were used in floral arrangements. The frogs usually came with a vase (or flower holder of some kind) which they fit inside. So the frogs were made to fit the vase.

Sadly the frogs were easily lost or misplaced. So not every vase still has the frog it came with originally.

We recently lost the frog to one of our own vintage vases. It was a silver frog, one of those which had to be polished. I hope we find it again, before it gets heavily tarnished. I can clean it but I can't do much if the silver gets pits in it from being tarnished. I'm sure this is why silver has lost it's popularity. As lovely as it still looks, stainless steel is much easier to look after.

Have you seen any frogs lately?

Vintage flower frogs...what are they? How many 'frogs' do you have?  How many did your Mom or Grandma have?   Frogs were used in the bottom of vases to hold the flower stems just right. They are usually metal basket weave grid, or fine textured metal spikes or made of clear or colored glass disk with holes....

Source: Flea Market flower frogs

I don't agree with the part about independent women. There are women who can be described as too alone, but there are women who are independent and who are not so guarded and do not push people away.

The woman who is too clingy holds on to a man for dear life in fear that he will reject her and leave her like the first man in her life—her dad. The man who she is clinging to perceives her as being too much of a responsibility, so he leaves.

The woman who is afraid of commitment is very defensive and guards her heart—she doesn’t let herself get too close. This woman usually calls herself the “independent woman.” The title is something she believes will shield her from dealing with a greater reality, the reality of having the “syndrome.” She may believe that being in a relationship with a man is a sign of weakness—not realizing that it can be a sign of strength, because that mate is there to compliment the person she is. Men want nothing more then to feel wanted by their woman. It makes a man feel good to be our “knights in shining armor,” so if he feels unappreciated he will eventually get tired of it, and leave.

In both instances, it leaves a woman in precisely the predicament she fears—alone.

Fatherless women have to be more conscious in their actions while in a relationship. Many times, we feel as if we are at war trying to fight off the symptoms of the syndrome in order to have a healthy relationship.

via Fatherless Woman Syndrome » The Liberator Magazine.

I still don't really understand ambigrams. I've tried.

Ambigrams seem to have been invented independently by a few people around the 1970s. Their first public appearance was in Scott Kim 'Inversions' (1981), followed by a walk-on part in Douglas Hofstadter's 'Metamagical Themas' (1985).

So how do you do them? Well the above is a rotational symmetry one, though you can also do them with various kinds of mirror symmetry, and even translational symmetry sometimes. This entry will concentrate on the rotational symmetry type.

Henry Segerman - Ambigrams

Can you buy and then read the last book in a series, knowing there will not be another. Once you read the final page all the adventures will be over. When you close the cover all those characters will become just memories.

This is The End for Rachel Morgan and the Hollows series of books by Kim Harrison

Letting go of a great book is hard. But, knowing this is the last book in what has been such a wonderful, readable adventure... that's really hard. Kim Harrison's series of books with Rachel, Ivy, Jenks and the rest of the group living at the old church in the Hollows has become my complete favourite in the urban fantasy/ horror genre.

Multi genre series: urban fantasy, alternate history or horror? Not always easy to find in a bookstore.

The Hollows is a location just outside of Cincinnati. Our current time line all changed when the existence of Others came to light. Tomatoes became deadly, for awhile. The people divided themselves into Others and humans/ everyone else. Rachel Morgan doesn't know it but she's a demon witch or witch demon depending on how you look at it. Long ago Rachel was saved from death due to her demon blood and this becomes an important part of her life as the adventure moves along from the world of paranormal bounty hunter, vampire culture bystander, a witch shunned and a demon who can perform dark magic but at the cost of collecting smut on her aura. The story covers 13 books so you don't need to know it all before you even begin, at the beginning.

The Misadventures of Rachel Morgan...

There are a lot of great characters in the Hollows

My favourite character (other than Rachel) is Ivy. Kim Harrison herself once wrote that Ivy scared her as she wrote the character even. That always stuck in my mind. The vampire culture and history was given a lot of focus as the Hollows series goes along. I liked the backstory evolving for Ivy and her vampire kin. I hope her story gets more attention, maybe a book of her own.

My other favourite is Algaliarept, most often known by the short form, Al. Rachel dated a few men (and Ivy) during the series but this was never the focus. It is all about the story, the adventure. But, of all the men in Rachel's adventures: Nick, Kisten, Glenn, Pierce, Trent, David and a couple others on the fringes, Al is the only one I really wanted her to care about and keep around. Al is more than just the character in the pages of a series of books. I really will miss Al because what other story could you find a demon who can be self serving, almost romantic, sometimes gentlemanly and old fashioned and yet kind of sweet in his own odd way. Al doesn't seem likely to be the guy who gets the girl at the end of the last book - but he is the one who has stuck by Rachel and been a faithful companion even in the beginning when he cursed her for his own reasons. Al is just complex and misunderstood.

How I Started as a Fan of Kim Harrison and The Hollows

I was so lucky! By luck and good fortune I found a blog the publisher was running to promote more of their books. All I had to do was request the book I wanted to read and the publisher sent it to me. Within a week or two I had a fresh, new hardcover book sent to my door. It had that great smell which only a newly minted hardcover book gets. I was so impressed, I even wrote about it in my blog before reading the book at all.

Then I did read the book. Great story. Not muddled by romance and dating and the endless drivel of boy/ girl stuff. Characters I loved and wanted to know more about. A real storyline which grew as each book came out. Every book could be read on it's own but... how could you read just one and not want to know what happened before and what happened next?

From the start I was a fan of Kim Harrison's writing, her story and her character, Rachel Morgan.