The Guardian for this meeting was stevenaia Michinaga. The comments are by stevenaia Michinaga.

Raffila Millgrove, Lucinda Lavender and Paradise Tennant joined me tonight to touch on numerous topics. Food, cats, books, reading

Paradise Tennant: smiles evening stev :0
stevenaia Michinaga: waves, you have been spring shopping?
Paradise Tennant: ;)
stevenaia Michinaga: can you see me?
Paradise Tennant: hmm no you are a red cloud
stevenaia Michinaga: nods
stevenaia Michinaga: says my clothes are downloading
stevenaia Michinaga: now?
Paradise Tennant: ahh there you are
stevenaia Michinaga: I appear to me to be waring just my coat and boots, do you see more?
Paradise Tennant: happly yes !
Paradise Tennant: you are fully clad on my screen
stevenaia Michinaga: for the both of us
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
Paradise Tennant: lol
Paradise Tennant: how are you tonite
stevenaia Michinaga: I am good, busy day
stevenaia Michinaga: lots of rain
stevenaia Michinaga: you?
stevenaia Michinaga: brb, have to transfer the wash
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Paradise Tennant: always a good nite when there are clean sheets :0
stevenaia Michinaga: back
Paradise Tennant: just trying to get my frogg and jaycatt url to stream and it is not working
stevenaia Michinaga: how did your dog's bath go? seems like that would be no short event
stevenaia Michinaga: Hi Raffila
Paradise Tennant: smiles no was pretty regular the normal yowling gruffing .. wuffing then whee a general mad round about the place rendering the bed a soppy shambles and strewing couch cushions far and sunder
Raffila Millgrove: hi Paradise, Stevenaia
stevenaia Michinaga: you are a pretty green cloud tonight
Raffila Millgrove: really?
Paradise Tennant: hiya raffila
Raffila Millgrove: what's with that?
Raffila Millgrove: everyone else is seeing me ok.
stevenaia Michinaga: and you do ths to him every other day?
Paradise Tennant: depends on the weather a lot .can be more than once a day if it is mucky out or at the minimum once a week
Paradise Tennant: lemongrass organic vegan shampoo he smells nice at the end of it
stevenaia Michinaga: mmm, sounds delicious
stevenaia Michinaga: my cat's bath is going out and playing in the rain
Paradise Tennant: use to bath our cats
Paradise Tennant: get less fur balls that way
Paradise Tennant: have to start gradually and gently
Paradise Tennant: wet facecloth
stevenaia Michinaga: so did I with thick leather gloves
Paradise Tennant: then a bit of splashing the paws

--BELL--

Paradise Tennant: lol have a friend who cannot leave the house without making sure all the sink stoppers are not in .. cat loves to turn on the taps and play :)
Paradise Tennant: had another friend who had to forward her all her calls to her office before she left the house her poodle would knock the phone receiver off its cradle and bark into the receiver :)
Raffila Millgrove: Hi Luci
stevenaia Michinaga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KswnjMa-MQ
Lucinda Lavender: Hi everyone:)
stevenaia Michinaga: hi Luci
Paradise Tennant: smiles what shall we talk of tonight
stevenaia Michinaga: ponders
stevenaia Michinaga: waits for topic to arise,
stevenaia Michinaga: unfortunately a sense of tiredness is what is arrising
Raffila Millgrove: oh i have question.. has anyone heard it Bruce is doing ok?
stevenaia Michinaga: wonders if ice cream will help....
Paradise Tennant: hmmm I think better yes .. he was able to make the happiness session a good sign
Paradise Tennant: ice cream always helps
stevenaia Michinaga: wakes you up and makes you smile
Paradise Tennant: yes
stevenaia Michinaga: smiles are very contagious
Raffila Millgrove: oh you declined this nice ice cream cone steve
stevenaia Michinaga: wonders what the speed of happiness is
stevenaia Michinaga: hi, WB luci
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Lucinda Lavender: sorry we keep losing signal;
Paradise Tennant: m & m makes rasberry popsicles that are 40 % rasberries very addictive
Paradise Tennant: wb luci
Lucinda Lavender: sounds lovely
Raffila Millgrove: wb luci
Raffila Millgrove licks her cone quietly and tries not to spill.
Paradise Tennant: 100 cal even lovelier

--BELL--

Lucinda Lavender: am waiting for a slice of fudge...will passi this out to you all
Raffila Millgrove sent steve a chocolate dipped strawberry. anyone else like one?
Lucinda Lavender: yum...yes...
Paradise Tennant: lol food is always a good topic
stevenaia Michinaga: good food seems is an easy path to happyness, yes
Paradise Tennant: wakes up your senses
stevenaia Michinaga: and the brain
Paradise Tennant: thanks raffila
Lucinda Lavender: this is similar to the fudge I am eating inthat it has fruit in it...chrries
Raffila Millgrove: yw
Lucinda Lavender: cherries
Lucinda Lavender: and nuts
stevenaia Michinaga: ben and jerry's makes good company
Lucinda Lavender: brb
Paradise Tennant: popsicles is giving me brain freeze lol only downside :)
Paradise Tennant: *popsicle
Paradise Tennant: well we could explore what is on everyone's bedside table i.e. what books we are reading :)
Raffila Millgrove likes the New Yorker and just finish article about Chinese publishing world. didn't know that best selling author in China makes nearly nothing.
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
Paradise Tennant: hmm sad
stevenaia Michinaga: sad books?
Raffila Millgrove: article was about niche genre of business-world novels. how to succeed in business. very bizarre. surreal even scary.
Paradise Tennant: sad that they make next to nothing in china even when they write popular books
Lucinda Lavender: :))Luci has just finished a mystery by Christopher Fowler called SEventy Seven Clocks
Paradise Tennant: love mysteries
Paradise Tennant: was it good ?
Lucinda Lavender: it was good
Raffila Millgrove: me too. don't know this author.
Lucinda Lavender: All that I have read by him as set in London
stevenaia Michinaga: spouse reads by author, orders books from EU Amazon to get new ones right away
Paradise Tennant: I have a big stack the buddism of tibet by the dalai lama dreaming water by gail tsukiyam .. anam cara by john O'Donohue which I just finished superb! ..when god was a rabbit by sarah winman which I just picked up today
Raffila Millgrove: my city choses a book.. and everyone who likes to read. invited to read it together and discuss.
Paradise Tennant: *tsukiyama
Raffila Millgrove: oh. i saw your.. excerpts of the John O Donohue book in the chat logs.. amazing!
Lucinda Lavender: reading together with others sounds interesting
stevenaia Michinaga: I have new yorker magazines and books on Daoism
Paradise Tennant: smiles :) bet she gets impatient waiting for the next sequel
Paradise Tennant: yes he is excellent going to buy eternal echos next
stevenaia Michinaga: haven't read a book as a group since college
Paradise Tennant: yes use to go to a book club
Raffila Millgrove: i like book clubs. been in a lot of them. quality depends on who is in group. .which books they recommend.. how the dynamics work in discussions.
Lucinda Lavender: nodding can imagine
Raffila Millgrove: my husband got jealous. he says. i want a Men's book club. i say.. here's how to do it. They are still going strong eight years later.

--BELL--

Paradise Tennant: there is a wonderful book store near me called nicholas hoare ...they run great book club chose wonderful books then you opt to do a trip together to explore the country in the theme :)

Raffila Millgrove: oh wow how neat.
Paradise Tennant: he must really enjoy that having a men's book club
Lucinda Lavender: great way to extend the experience
stevenaia Michinaga: nice
Paradise Tennant: what kinds of books on daoism stev ?
Raffila Millgrove: you want to see the Great Divide between male/female.. this all male book club provide examples. They wont' read novels, won't explore relationships or emotions drown themselves in facts/non fiction. bring briefcases, notes, act like it's a summit meet. very off putting to me.
Paradise Tennant: lol
Paradise Tennant: oh that is perfect
Paradise Tennant: such a great mental image
Lucinda Lavender: :)) maybe it would take years of trust...go go to another level...
Lucinda Lavender: to go to...
Paradise Tennant: yes I think you are right luci .. there is such oppressive conditioning placed on men .. that are sort of boxed in in a way
Raffila Millgrove: eh. they have no interest to do it. stay in safe territory. but.. i also see how they cater and pamper members who become feeble, sick. amazing care to each other.
Paradise Tennant: *they
stevenaia Michinaga: titles escape me atm, one was a more book on the religion itself, and its history, less on the Dao teChing itself
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Paradise Tennant: I guess at the end of the day we are sort of the sum of our caring :)
stevenaia Michinaga: not particularly readable as a book
Raffila Millgrove: they show in action--their deep feeling to each other. won't talk it.. but they show incredible sweetness--literally carry each other up stairs if needed.
stevenaia Michinaga: but interesting asepcts of the phlosophy were touch on
Lucinda Lavender: so that caring is there...in a demonstration ...in action...
stevenaia Michinaga: one of the reason;s have just pick it up a bit at a time
Raffila Millgrove: yes.
Raffila Millgrove: isn't Tao considered more of a philsophy than a religion and was the basis for much of Shinto religion?
stevenaia Michinaga: not so much , luci
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
Lucinda Lavender: what do you mean Stevenaia?
Lucinda Lavender: not sure I understand...
stevenaia Michinaga: more on the historical evolution of the daoism and how it was practiced
Lucinda Lavender: ah.. I was responding more to Raffila and the men of her husbands book club...
stevenaia Michinaga: those aspect, the prook struck me as a different focus than my Taoist Study group in Rl, which is more like a book club on the Dao teChing, reading a chapter every month and discussing it
stevenaia Michinaga: oh
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
Lucinda Lavender: :)
Lucinda Lavender: Glad you have a study group...that is a special thing...
Paradise Tennant: yes we have a deep need to belong
stevenaia Michinaga: I love when there is a convergence of like thinking people at the same time
Paradise Tennant: yes you feel a tingle in the air
Paradise Tennant: like there is a little electric wave of recognition ..
stevenaia Michinaga: timing and place are critical to their success
stevenaia Michinaga: like us here
Lucinda Lavender: maybe openess of mind
Paradise Tennant: smiles at stev
--BELL--
Paradise Tennant: sigh I have to scoot ..still have chores to do and it is getting late :) thank you stev luci raffila for the company and the conversation
Lucinda Lavender: sweet dreams Para:)
stevenaia Michinaga: night Paradise, thanks for joining us
Raffila Millgrove: have a good one Paradise.
Paradise Tennant: namaste
Lucinda Lavender: I should go too...we have this movie to watch about Harlan County about coal miners there...and the unions
stevenaia Michinaga: enjoy
Raffila Millgrove: oh gosh me. too i see Survivor start already. we like this season.
Lucinda Lavender: Thanks for the lovely conversation:)
Raffila Millgrove: bye LUci and steve.
Lucinda Lavender: bye to you both and seet dreams:)
Lucinda Lavender: sweet
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
stevenaia Michinaga: nice of you to join is RAffila