1000th Card Sent

Postcard US-3972061 to Germany was the 1000th card sent from my PostCrossing account twimbk. It shows a pair of swans forming a heart symbol with love. Swans (天鵝) are birds of the family Anatidae (鴨科) within the genus Cygnus. The geese and ducks are swans' friends close relatives. A previous copy was sent to Russia as US-3284982 under another account.

USPS issued the Quilled Paper Heart Forever stamp at Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas on January 12, 2016, as the 44th stamp in its Love stamp series. The heart on the stamp was created using the ancient art of quilling by rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper, laying them on their edges, and gluing them in place to form intricate designs.

America Loves Wills and Kate

The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, and Prince William are celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary today on April 29, 2015. The royal couple are waiting the birth of their second child who is reportedly due in the second half of April; and now it's almost May.

Postcard US-3014303 to Singapore shows William and Kate shared their first public kiss as husband and wife on the Buckingham Palace’s balcony after their wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011.

Five Unusual Places to Get Married in Las Vegas

Love is in the air on this Valentine's Day. The high temperature reached 78°C today, the highest in Las Vegas since 1957, creating a sense as if we are already in spring. As the marriage capital of the world, Las Vegas sees more than 120,000 couples who come to tie the knot every year. The Clark County Marriage License Bureau expected to issue around 1,500 marriage licenses during the Valentine’s Day/Presidents' Day weekend. Outgoing postcard US-3224035 to Finland was made of an inverted photo used on Postcard US-2722698, showing a wedding decoration in a store front on the Las Vegas Strip. The stamp was one of the two Love Hearts Forever Stamps issued by USPS on January 22, 2015, depicting the ancient association between eternal love and the heart.

Because it is Las Vegas, you can get get married without getting out of your car via drive-thru or having an Elvis impersonator officiating your wedding. In addition, there are some unusually spots to have your wedding to make it truly memorable. Here are my top five choices.

1. The Las Vegas Springs Preserve, one of the richest and most unique cultural and biological resources in Southern Nevada, offers "green" wedding services at both indoor and outdoor locations in the 180-acre botanical garden including an outdoor amphitheater that can host more than 1,000 guests.
2. Flamingo Las Vegas offers wedding packages at five areas among its 15-acre garden, with waterfalls, date palm trees, exotic waterfowl, or a collage of pools as backdrop. It is known for the Wildlife Habitat that features Chilean flamingos, Ring Tealed ducks, Sacred Ibis, swans, ducks, pelicans, koi fish and turtles.
3. The High Roller Observation Wheel offered free wedding ceremonies on 12/13/14. If you missed that opportunity, you can still book one of their packages for a fee. Since it's predominate in the Las Vegas skyline, you can use it as backdrop from various locations for free.
4. Stratosphere has Chapel in the Clouds where you can say "Yes, I do" 1,149 feet or 350 meters above ground with a panorama view of the city that never sleeps.
5. Only in Las Vegas, you can get married while you are running a marathon. However, that opportunity comes just once a year. The next Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon & Half Marathon Race will be November 15, 2015.

True Love is Born from Understanding

Postcard CZ-561866 from Czech shows "Buddha Moon" produced by Tushita, a Germany based calendar and card publishers of ethnic and spiritual editions in the last 30 years, as a Sangha Edition. In Buddhism, Sangha (僧伽) means the monastic community of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns.

At the beginning of the New Year, I found one of the Budda quotes especially telling: "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."

The Bridge of Sighs

Postcard US-3064047 to India shows the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri in Italian) in Venice, northern Italy. Designed by Antonio Contino and built of white limestone in 1600, it is an enclosed bridge with windows that have stone bars. Over the Rio di Palazzo, it connects the New Prison (Prigioni Nuove) to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace.

Legend says that the bridge's name was given by Lord Byron in the 1800s because the view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicted criminals saw before their long imprisonment. However, in reality, when the bridge was built, only small-time criminals were imprisoned in the cells under the palace roof. Also, there wasn't much to see from inside the bridge as those stone bars covered the windows.

According to Wikipedia, another legend says that lovers will be granted eternal love and bliss if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the bridge while the bells of St Mark's Campanile ring. The 1979 movie A Little Romance, featuring Laurence Olivier and Diane Lane, adopted this legend as its plot line.

I bought this vintage card at a stamp show.

Love Locks and the Pont des Arts

Postcard SG-157009 from Singapore shows a loving couple at the Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge which crosses the River Seine in Paris, France. It was first built between 1802 and 1804, under the reign of Napoleon I, at the present location as the first metal bridge in Paris. Listed as a National Historic Monument on March 17, 1975, the Pont des Arts is also part of the World Heritage Site "Banks of the Seine" in Paris, recognized by UNESCO in 1991.

The bridge has been known for those love locks attached to the railing since 2008. Couples engrave their names on the padlocks and throw the keys into the Seine river after locking them in place as a gesture of committed love. However, as the number of locks became overwhelming, city officials in Paris started to remove some lock-laden railings and replace them with special glass panels in September, 2014. The Mayor's Office in Paris launched a #lovewithoutlocks campaign to encourage people to take "selfies" instead of leaving love locks.

Yes, I DO

It is the 26th Anniversary of National Come Out Day (NCOD) on October, 11, 2014. An annual celebration for being who you are in the LGBT community, and in support of those who are coming out, NCOD this year coincides with a turning point when marriage is open to all  in Nevada for the first time. Seven same-sex couples were married at the NCOD Family Festival in Alexis Park All Suite Resort tonight.

The High Roller Ferris Wheel in the background, sporting rainbow-colored lights, looked like a giant wedding ring.

Postcard US-2722698 to Michigan shows a wedding decoration in a store front on the Las Vegas Strip.

A Street Cat in Dallas

Postcard US-2882828 to the Netherlands shows a street cat that I met in Dallas, Texas in 2010. She had just given birth to several kittens and shown up at the balcony of my friend's house where I was staying. Being a street cat, she looked healthy and clean, alert and guarded yet full of energy and curiosity.

The summer 2010 in Dallas was hot and the high temperature in early July was between 90°F or 32°C and 95°F or 35°C. I put out some food and water and a litter box but otherwise kept distance. However, she was friendly and let me to take her picture up close. For the next couple of weeks, we kept each other company and I enjoyed to watch her kitten grow by day. I named her Misty because of her misty eyes. She brought breeze to me in a brutal summer and showed me how to survive on the tough street and yet not to lose hope and trust in people.

When the time came for me to leave town, I wish I could have taken her and her kittens with me. I bought some more can food and asked my friend to keep feeding them. However, my friend reported that they no longer showed up once I left.

I have been wondering how she has been ever since. With her positive impact on me, she can be proud of herself as a street cat. The photo was taken on July 8, 2010.

You can purchase the postcard and personalized postage stamps featuring Misty from Zazzle.

Maxi Card with a 2014 Love Stamp and a Digital Color Postmark

Postcard US-2813946 to the Netherlands features a sketch of a heart-shaped sculpture in San Francisco, with a 2014 USPS limited-edition Love Stamp and a first-day-of-issue digital color postmark. The sketch was made out of a photo I took on June 24, 2012. The Cut Paper Heart Forever Stamp, according to a USPS news release, "depicts a large white heart enclosing a smaller pink heart with a saw-toothed edge along its left-hand side. Surrounding the central hearts are pink swirls with smaller hearts imbedded in the design, and a ragged-edge motif that echoes the edging on the small pink heart. The hearts and swirls are contained within a red square that has "pinked" edges, as if cut with pinking shears. A white border frames the entire design."

Only select stamp issues offer a digital color postmark. To order a digital color postmark, customers will have to use envelopes or postcards made of “laser safe” paper, with no glue on the flap of envelops and no coating on the postcards. The maximum size of all digital color postmarks is 2" high x 4" long. Allow sufficient space on the envelope to accommodate the postmark. Do not use self-adhesive labels for addresses on the envelope or postcard. Two extra items must be included for testing. A minimum of 10 envelopes or postcards at 50 cents per digital color postmark is required, paid by a check, money order, or credit card.

USPS may reject hand-painted and other cachet envelopes that are not compatible with their digital color postmark equipment, and substitute traditional black rubber postmarks if use of non-specified envelopes or postcards results in poor image quality or damage to equipment.

The rest of procedure is similar to requesting traditional black rubber postmarks: "customers should affix the stamps to the envelopes and address them to themselves or others for return through the mail. Or, they may include an additional self-addressed return envelope, large enough to accommodate their canceled items, with sufficient postage affixed for return of their postmarked items. Mail the request for a first-day-of-issue digital color postmark to the corresponding city of issuance. Post Offices will then forward all customer requests for digital color postmarks to Cancellation Services, Stamp Fulfillment Services, PO Box 449992, Kansas City, MO 64144-9992. After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes to the customer by U.S. Mail."

Happy Postcrossing from Belarus

I am really fond of heart-shaped themed postcards. So, postcard BY-1267018 from Belarus really struck a chord with me.

With an excessive heat warning issued for this week and the temperature hit 41°C or 106°F today, I found some cherry smoothie photos and recipes on Pinterest refreshing. There are some tips on where to go and what to do to keep cool during hot summer months in Las Vegas. For the less fortunate, the City of Las Vegas has opened several cooling shelters.

Moonlight Serenade

Postcard US-2574042 is traveling to Russia, showing cute frogs in love under a full moon. "Two froggy sweethearts spoon under the smiling June moon. Turtle and Snail look on as the fragrance of water lilies and soft sounds of waving cattails fill the evening air." You can purchase a copy from Zazzle.

"To Those Who We Used to Love"

Mirabella Postcards

Postcard UA-574176 arrived today from Ukraine after traveling for 110 days. It is interesting because, according to the sender, the card was from a set named "Postcards for those who we used to love". So, if you were to send a postcard to an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, what kind of card are you going to pick and what will you write on the card?

The author of the card is on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mirabella.postcards

The Latter Days

Thirty five years ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) opens its priesthood to "all worthy men" on June 9, 1978, ending a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men. A line in the lyrics of "the Book of Mormon" alluded above event: "I believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people..."

I realized that I still had a couple of the advertising cards of the movie "Latter Days" from its screening at the Gateway Theatre in Fort Lauderdale on February 20, 2004. According to IMDB, the movie is about a promiscuous gay party animal who falls for a young Mormon missionary, leading to crisis, cliché, and catastrophe. You can watch Latter Days' official trailer on Youtube.

So, I hope some day the LDS church will recognize LGBT members are belong to "all worthy men", not someones who have mental diseases to be cured. Indeed, changes are in the air. Stephanie Mencimer from MotherJones had a pair articles on Mormon Church Abandons Its Crusade Against Gay Marriage, and How the Mormons Ensured Victory for Gay Marriage. Recently, LDS Church accepted new Boy Scout policy on gay members.

I bought a copy of the Latter Days movie when it was out in DVDs. I feel It still resonate with anyone who has ever fallen in love when I watched it again after all these years. Now you can own a copy in Blu-ray from Amazon. 

Love and Green for Earth Day

April 22nd

Let's mark the Earth Day with some love and green. This postcard was a private swap. It reads: Love means your heart is the end of the World as I couldn't go any further. Born with the color of cactus green, you are a  hard worker full of determination. I happened to find this song on Youtube; I think it's sweet.

There is actually an "Earth" in Texas, a small town with population of 1,109 people as of the 2000 Census. It even has a post office!

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