shorty and her angst

He's a nice boy, rent him the apartment

2011-10-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I went to Kingston, NY to take part or observe shows at the O positive festival. The Kid lives there now and interns at a recording studio and lives with a guy who is heavily involved in the O positive festival. Sal played with a group that was covering a song written by Pauline Oliveros for Sonic Youth as well as a couple other improv tunes she was arranging for the festival.

That started at 2 and I left Gfield at 11 in order to get there on time. I found that taking 91 to the Pike to the Thruway was the easy way to get there in just over 2 hours on the lovely sunny Saturday. I even stopped at the thruway stop just north of Kingston to use the restroom and buy the best honey crisp apples I ever had. They were picked very recently and washed by the lady from the farm who was selling them so I bought my $6 bunch of 7 and happily ate one on the way into town. Seriously the best apple of my life because things were just a little magic that day.

I bought my O positive wristband at Dominicks on the corner and found the Kid easily and after starting the conversation which was going to last all day with us, started to observe Pauline Oliveros in action, giving direction to the crowd around her who was ready to perform her piece. "If you find yourself in unison with someone else, change your sound" and things like that were her clues to the group and they dispersed, rocks in hand. I walked a little bit away and bought an ice tea at the farmers market which was happening on Wall Street and began to hear voices calling out names of people. It was the group performance. I followed Pauline as she walked slowly toward BSP calling out, "David! David!" which amused me greatly. They all clanked their rocks together and I guess the general public was somewhat alarmed and annoyed by the noise which also amused me greatly.

In the BSP people applauded and there were announcements in the darkened room and the mood changed from the sunny streets of Kingston as a 6 piece band began to jam, lead by a female vocalist and I was able to enjoy the music and relax. There was another drummer besides the Kid playing and they sounded together with it and I couldn't help but think of when EggEggs has two drummers. Ted and Jack really get a nice beat going with each other and everyone benefits. The two drummers behind the music in this song were good and I was proud of the Kid and glad to hear him do this sort of improv drumming, which is what I hear all the time with EggEggs and I couldn't help but wish he would play with them sometime. Maybe at their Hudson, NY gig in Nov. He said that they screwed up a bunch of times but it wasn't screwing up because it was improv. I just said it sounded nice. Matt, the guy he lives with, played guitar and there was another guitarist and a bass and the woman singing.

Afterwards, he drove my car to New Paltz after swinging by the apartment where he lives. Poor Kid is on a pull out futon couchy thing albeit in a nice little basement spot. It was obv that although Matt and his girlfriend were very nice to put up with him, it was time for him to get his own place. Today (the Saturday I wrote this blog), he told me that he found a place above the record store but he wasn't able to get it as the landlord told him he wanted to rent to someone who "has a job". I told him to tell the landlord to call me, I have a job.

Last Saturday we went to the town where I lived from 1984-1988 so I could to get Italian deli treats. This never happened but the time he and I spent walking around the campus was special and restorative for me in the way only QT with Kid can be. I am driven to write this blog so I can remember that time. I showed him the tripping fields of the college (named by Grace Slick back in the day) and the lame dorm room buildings, the building where I visited my German professor and such like and so on. I may have told him too many stories about my college years as they were mostly full of debachery. I didn't have many stories to tell about the amazing astronomy class, great brunches or woman studies discussions. I guess I could have told him the story about how I restarted the literary magazine and printed "Gnu Pulse" but that seems like a boring story.

We walked around town for a bit after he expressed amazement at the proximity to the campus. He also did a little comparison of the campus vs. the SUNY Purchase campus. I could hear his thought process as he considered attending SUNY New Paltz. I enjoyed the discussion and was okay with him opting out of a future there. We bought music and I showed him where I had lived in town (Broadhead, Main Street and Main Street) and told a story about my nutty roommate who spray painted on the brick outside our apartment window and tried to deny it. We also discussed living out of parents' homes and how it felt.

We drove back to Kingston and parked, getting some coffee, again at Dominicks, where the proprietor recognized us both from previous (and separate) visits. After I took my first sip of the double espresso he brewed for me he asked, "How is it?" and was actually watching me drink it, genuinely interested in, (maybe how impressed I was), if I liked the taste. The taste of the espresso was worth noting and I'm glad he made me slow down and acknowledge and enjoy the flavor. I may not have noticed its silky buttery taste had he not inquired. It was damn fine espresso, he obviously did not let the residual last water flow go into my cup.

The Kid and I leisurely sauntered down Wall Street, toward the old Dutch Church where we lingered outside before the show, enduring the mosquitos and examining the artwork Matthew's girlfriend had designed which he helped her install: A webbing of red yarn/string amongst tall trees in the cemetary which laid right outside the church. The red string was strung in straight lines between the trees and around the trees in a figure eight. It was very cool and I took a few pics of the Kid with the string installation behind him. There is one included here. The Kid's face is blurry but the string is visible as is the setting sun.

Soon we gave up on the mosquito-y outdoors and sat in uncomfortable pews to hear the Lonesome Sisters, who were pleasant with their sad country song harmonies and guitar/banjo switcherup and funny brief patter between songs. Then Ida played with a third person, a woman who played violin and harmonized with the vocals. I would have liked an hour more of their music with a chaise lounge option. After them was Ruthy and Mike, who I had forgotten I enjoyed so much. Ruthy is a powerful singer and wow, her fiddle playing can be so subtle and strong and full of surprise grace notes. I was very startled but quickly realized that was why I loved the Mammals like I did back then. The last band was a very dynamic mess of a group from Brooklyn with about five or six white people playing old timey but cool young hip bluegrass type music which was cool. I'd like to hear them again so I guess that says it all. We both enjoyed the show very much and I was also happy to know he liked that old time bluegrass/etc music that I like. I didn't know that he did. I said to him, "I didn't know you liked that stuff. I really like that." He answered, "I like it when its the right time and place for it and this was the right time and place." Which is a kind of non-answer and I'm intrigued by the Kid's response. Does he like it? Did it just not really bother him at the church? Is he sometimes in the mood for it and tonight worked for him? Does he not really like it but it hadn't bothered him at this show or these folks were good enough to dig? Was it because Ida is so amazing? I'm on the edge of my seat from his ambivalent and diplomatic assessment.

I got back to Gfield by midnight.

hurricane irene

2011-08-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for Husbear to post a blog but he hasn't in a week so I guess I will do.

There is a hurricane on its way. We are not on the coast but there will be a big wind/rain situation around the gfield area. People are nuts about the storm and we did do a little shopping for it and some preparations:

I brought in the this, brought in the thats, worried the wind and water will ruin my lovely flower garden. I hope its just a lot of rain and plants will stay put.
I should probably pick all the tomatoes off the vines.
It's really humid. We just walked the dogs and we were all sweating and panting by the end.

I would like to start on my next zine but not sure I can settle down.
I keep remembering hurricane bob when I was living in a small house in the middle of edgartown, ma. It was a rental with a tiny yard which we never used so we didn't need to really batten down anything. We just eventually feel asleep and woke up to a load of debris strewn about the town/island.

more news later

dog gets stalked

2011-07-03T12:20:00.001-07:00

I've lived in the bricker since 2002 and walked Pickles up Wells street since June, 2003. Pretty much ever since then I've seen this dog hanging around the corner of Wells and Allen Street. I don't know his/her name but I call her Snowball.

Today, when I was walking him, there she was, on the other side of the street, following us, not only on her side of the street but at a distance down the block.

I'm pretty sure its the same dog, but we didn't get close. Pickles was half interested in her but only because I kept pausing to take her photo. I was bemused by her checking us out, as ever. This is not the first time she's watched us. It's kind of cute, probably because there is no chance for them to mix it up.

first time for (almost) everything

2011-04-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I really needed to clean the bathroom at the Bricker. It looks great, except now there are little ants invading but we'll deal with them later. While cleaning the bathroom, other areas nearby suddenly became adjacently cleaned and I found these.

I've had these for years, I'm not even sure where I did get them-- could have it been Hampshire College? I have many odds and ends from doing the end of the semester clean up back when I worked at the school store. Anywho, I've held onto them and just for a giggle, and because I've always intended to, I decided to put them on ebay to see if I can get a dollar or two.

I've purchased from ebay but I've never sold. First, I looked up to see if there were any for sale already, there wasn't. Then I searched for them on google and found an old listing of someone selling them on ebay on March 30 and they got 35 pounds. That seemed like a good deal. So I listed them.

I've gotten 10 views and one question: "How much would it cost to ship these to argentina?" answer $20, but no offers. Is that the way it goes, will I get all the offers at the end of the 7 days? Will I get my 35 pounds sterling? Should I have waited until Paul does something like play at the royal wedding or get married or divorced again before listing these? I would like to get that money and relieve my house of just one thing it doesn't need. Stay tuned.

holiday

2011-04-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

Usually the town of g'field picks up my trash on monday morning but today was a holiday so it was put off until tomorrow. This morning I was driving away from my house around 8:20 and the neighbor's recycling was out and a bag of newspapers had gotten loose in the wind and was blowing across the street where there was a loose pitbull mix (he looked like a cross with a roddy and was a tawny brown) running about within the paper whirlwind. It was a curious sight.

Later, while walking my dog I noticed that the papers were all gathered up and ready for tuesday pick up. it was then I remembered the scene I had witnessed this morning.

no longer a honeymoon..

2011-02-20T09:01:00.000-08:00

David and I have joined his parents and his brother+brother's gf in a small compound inland from kailua bay. Kitchen counterspace is miniscule and the sink is a single. There are only three "glasses" and none very interesting or cocktail-worthy although 2 match and can be tolerated. There is no shotglass nor can i find the black garbage can outside, as is advertised.

However, my bed is comfortable and there are 2 bathrooms. Close by is Kailua Bay which was the best swimming I've had since September at Cape Cod and that vacation had turned out rather dreary at times, for swimming purposes. So yesterday, when David, his parents and I arrived at Kailua Beach Park, after finding no parking at the closer by Kalama Beach Park, I found myself ripping off clothes and tossing possessions aside to thrust my body into the gentle, welcoming and playful waves that folks were already enjoying. The water here covers the most wonderful cream-colored sand and I found only exultation at this swimming location. It was religious. David, Jim and Shirley also were swim-happy.

Afterwards we went to Rai Rai Ramen, a nearby noodle joint and found satisfying bowls of soup, except for Jim who only had shumai. After he and I tasted David's chicken curry soup, we both vowed we would get that next time, although my spicy pork and tofu soup was damn fine.

David fetched his brother and the neighborhood suffered a brown out. This morning the newly arrived Texans woke me while suffering from their jetlag. At 6 am or so they were escorted to a sunrise location by the Russells. I cleaned up the kitchen and cut up the pineapple in anticipation of their return. Also made another pot of coffee for David if he ever emerges from his separate 'snore quarters'. Listening to the new Radiohead, per Sal's tip.

swimming swimming swimming swimming swimming

2011-02-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

here in honolulu, we rent a hotel room just for one night before decamping to the Kailua compound. in front of the new otani Kaimana Beach Hotel is a lovely beach just east of waikiki beach where David loves to swim. it lies just inside a reef and is mildly more private than the city beach. this is good and bad. good because its more mellow and spacious and close to our hotel room. bad because there are no surfers or townies to stare and gawk at rudely.

yesterday after checking in we went immediately to the beach and it was hot and it was lovely and we swam, floated and grinned. later, after dinner, david wanted to swim again and we swam in the darkest twilight before the huge moon honored us with her presence.
this morning after attending the mad and lovely farmers market at diamond head we came back to hotel room and changed, heading straight back down to the beach. the water was lovely and different today at 9:30 am than it was yesterday at 2:30. the low tide showed off the coral reefs we stayed away from, happily floating about in the deep sandy shallows. I saw a large school of fish hanging out with us humans in the same area. These fish were about 4-7 inches long. they were shiny and silvery, psychedelic to behold.

New Best Friend

2011-02-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

Esmerelda, or as Peter calls her, Oggie, as in "Oggie the doggy"

Later that day..

2011-02-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

ate a great buffalo burger at Bullshead and felt like a million bucks afterwards. We hung around Peters freakhouse for a little while then he drove us around San Fran and it was beautiful. Going down Market Street in his vw toward the east side scared me a lot, even when I was sure of his good driving, all I could do is fret and think things like, "what if the brakes go?" I related my nervousness to everyone by recounting the many scenes from the movie "What's up Doc?" when during car chases through San Francisco, large plate glass windows being walked across busy streets get run into incessantly.

But with Esmerelda at attention between me and Tanya in the back seat we cruised happily around, finding Bay Front Park an industrial wasteland and hail on top of Crissy Field. Very pretty as the sun tried to break through during a walk around the beaches of and here we are back at Tanya's looking out on South Ocean Beach pre-pie time and the sun is trying to reassure.

San Francisco, February 2011

2011-02-17T11:24:00.000-08:00

Fun. Yesterday we flew into SF and it was like summer. After this Hard Winter, that was a pleasant paradise. Today is crazy stormy and wet, but maui wowie is a happy treat as is Peter, Teresa and Emerelda. Fun.

new blog

2010-12-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

http://cookiesfromasource.blogspot.com/
I'm inspired by cookies and a book from gourmet. I am going to blog about cookies I am making from this book's recipes. I thought it might be amusing.

Adventuresome Humpday

2010-10-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

Things which have happened to me so far today:
I wore a white shirt and looked really great with a vest but after I got to work and sat with myself quietly for a time I could smell old BO on the shirt which I have had for a while and wash as frequently as any other neatnick like myself. I then sprayed myself a little bit with CVS lemongrass and grapefruit scented body spray and now I cannot stand myself. yuck.

I corrected a co-worker who had sent out a company-wide email with misspellings IN THE SUBJECT LINE, causing her to unsend the lot and write a do-over.

I referred to myself as "small potatoes" and kvetched about a co-worker's arrogance.

I had a nice hotdog and greens plate at Hope and Olive for lunch. Read the police reports aloud to Val and had a good ol' time. Then drank a double espresso which was not at all bitter.

Looking forward to watching some more dvd episodes of West Wing tonight.

This Makes Me Happy

2010-10-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

sunday oct 3

2010-10-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

i cut myself washing dishes and david turned on the heat.
it was a big day.

postscript

2010-09-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

I was able to get a little more beach time in with some friends yesterday.
The water was super great, the swimming buoyant and joyous. I can say goodbye for now.

Meanwhile, Fall goes forth. There is a guy I know as an aquaintance who used to live in Northampton. Since that time (2003 +/-) he got married and moved to G'field. I often see him riding his bike to and from work and around town, sometimes with a tie on which is super cute. I just saw him go up Wells on his bike with his wife on another bike looking fit and futur-istic (if the future is full of green-minded bike riders that is). Just before they went by an older guy rode by the Bricker on his old bike, going considerably slower and on the sidewalk. Funny.

I never get enough

2010-09-19T21:05:00.001-07:00

GOOOD

BETTER

Like a drug, I can't get enough.

Me and the Hood

2010-09-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

I'm on vacation right now and I'm hanging with my family. DbR uploaded this pic which was taken when we were almost on vacation. I really like it.

Pickles is wearing a hood I made for myself last Halloween which didn't fit. It was a throwaway. Recently I cleaned behind the couch and I found it. It is pretty cute.

i like this and i like that

2010-09-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today I did some relaxing in a hammock and although it was hella pleasant, I kept thinking of things that made me a bit sad and regretful. Overall, though, it was a lovely weekend and I don't mind the next week. I really want to get a lot of work done at work this week before I take my birthday week off. I am happy to anticipate the vacation and would like every minute before it commences to drag slowly so I can enjoy the birthday lead up. Soon it will be over and I won't be able to look forward to the birthday vacation for a while. at least until February, when i will be able to happily anticipate DbR's 40th birthday vacation week. whoo hoo.

I saw this and stole it from Cooper's fb page. I really like it, it makes me happy to see my son doing the music recording. He is living the life I am pleased to have him live. He seems to be pleased as well and I think that is all very good.

so, to sum up, life isn't so terrible as we begin to enjoy this, my favorite month.

back in greenfield

2010-08-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

i walked pickles for a long time today. we both enjoyed it.

I miss my buddy, Beaver, from Maine.

Last Day of Vacation

2010-08-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

It always comes, the last day. DbR and I leave Maine tomorrow in the morning early enough to pick up Pickles by 5 pm.

This week has been full of middle class summer adventures including some rental unit problems. We find that there is only one real bed in this place with a bed frame, etc and Husbear found himself on that. I took the kids' room across the hall which had two twins and his parents took the loft, also with two twins. Early in the week when Jim got up and sat on the edge of his bed to put on his shoes and socks he fell past the mattress into the depths of the wooden box which was supposed to hold up his mattress. That was humorous and seemingly a mild silliness.

A day or two later I was lying on one of the beds in my room when I beckoned to DbR to come lay on top of me. He complied and the bed collapsed underneath us. We picked up the thin mattress and saw that the mattress-shaped wooden board underneath had dropped into the wooden frame. We saw that the slat or horizontal twobyfours were thin, just extra wooden pieces and nailed together with, not wood screws or anything sensible, but just common nails. It seemed absurd. Poor motherinlaw fretted for days about calling the landlady about this and we had to coach her on what to say. When she did finally call, she left messages on four different phone lines and when we got home that night the repair had been done with screws.

The thing is, that very night I was eager, very eager for a hot shower and there was nothing but lukewarm water. I suffered through and complained to DbR about how cold I was. He started to look at the breakers and the hot water heater's thermostat and fooled around with it for a long time to no avail. He went to bed without a shower.
This morning we tried the hot water and it came on readily.

What's next, I wonder, before we leave?

vacation on mt desert island

2010-08-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

today i went kayaking. i never seem to kayak anytime besides when i'm on vacation.
i saw this lovely dragonfly. S/he seemed to preen for me.

oh kingstown, from the ocean you're all kinds of ugly

2010-07-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Queasy on theboat, should return diwnstars, still feels wavy. Sign on dock said 2-3 feet andon the way from the pArking lot I asked a kid who just had gotten off the boat, "is it wavy?" he looked at me blankly. Not knowing whether he was foreign or just teenager, I made wave gestures with my hand and asked, "very wavy?" that sort of shook him out of his luggage-pulling stupor. "no,
not so bad." he managed a smile.

Now i know why he was smiling! He thought he was lulling the old lady with the weak stomach into a big queasy surprise later! I seemany people on the millenium with their Friday evening beers but not me until I get to cb's. Toste doesn't want to drive to OB and I don't blame her. I'm happy to take the #13 into tisbury (I had to call & ask Kid what number bus) to please toste and save her aggro. This means I'm the bringer for CB's byob cocktail party. When he called me to ask if I could also tote a $5 nonmerlot red (his request) I didn't feel too guilty sending him to the natural foods sectionof his local stopy's to puck mr up numerous cans of hanson to match my Kentucky whisky.

That doesn't sound so great now, the cocktail, as I sit on the fast ferry enduring oceanicswells and engine fumes. Earlier I went out on deck and the mad breeze exposed my belly to other ferry-goers so I daren't go
back outside. The teens in the row before me lull me with their pc viewing of a "friends" episode

forgive all typos and nonsense phrasing. I am using my iph and will edit later.

just like i would expect

2010-07-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

my fragile friend had a birthday this weekend and i wanted to make it as okay as i could for her. she was planning a gathering at her new house which had a nice yard. i went to visit there when the weather was just getting nice and we both wanted to sit around outside but she didn't have any yard chairs or things like that which allow the sitting of people. she brought out a blanket but i would have none of it. i find that i cannot put my body in a comfortable position without support. im old and weak and need a chair.

a couple of days before her birthday party i went over and hung out with her. she had two very nice green chairs in the yard. they were comfortable and attractive and i oohed and aahed. she told me that she had gotten birthday money from her mom and spent $30 each on the chairs. they were very attractive but i would never spend that much and i realized maybe that was why her house was so much nicer than mine, inside and out, because she would spend $30 on a lawn chair. while we sat in them it occurred to me that she might have more than one guest beside herself at her party. I hoped she would anyway. I wondered where they all would sit. the chairs inside her house were not easily carried out to the yard.

on the day of her party i decided i would try to buy a couple less expensive lawn chairs as a bday gift and bring a couple other less attractive chairs which were my own yard chairs to her house for the guests. i was somewhat proud of my decision and on the day of her party i headed in that direction with four lawn chairs in the car.

Husbear and I had plans to accomplish before her party started. there was another party we were to attend. when we got to this party it became clear that there were only two yard chairs there and already four adults. where was everyone going to sit? we took the chairs out of the car and shared them with this party for a couple hours. at one point the host noticed my white chair was, although dry, somewhat dirty with mold stains and discolorations. he brought out a clorox wipe and tried to clean it. he was able to lighten the seat a bit and i was a little chagrined by the experience. i had planned on cleaning the chair once i had arrived at my friend's party, when i first got there and no one was there but her and me. i had planned on doing it quickly so she wouldn't even notice that it had been dirty. but this guy beat me to it and i was so embarrassed that i made sure to sit in it the rest of the time so no one else would be subjected to the filth.

after we ate the best corn of western mass we gathered our four chairs and went to my friend's house, arriving two hours before she expected others to come. the Husbear left to meet with other people somewhere else, leaving us two, six lawn chairs, a dog and a house full of nice indoor chairs. we enjoyed each others company for hours, relaxing on the green chairs, sitting inside on the couch, occasionally sitting on my birthday gifts (but not often) and sitting on my dirty chair not ever. soon two other ladies showed up and we spent a while inside chatting and then we went outside and sat on her fun kiddie pool and then we played a little badminton. then, as we were all ready to begin the competitive game, Husbear appeared again, with two other fun people and we all milled about until slowly, everyone settled and sat on all the outdoor chairs except me. by the time i had helped everyone get a cocktail and brought some ginger ale out to Husbear all six chairs were spoken for: Husbear and birthday girl, two hot ladies and the cool traveling couple.

i felt a little sorry for myself. i had travelled many a mile carrying about chairs with the idea to help facilitate friends with parties. Not only helping my dear friend, who couldn't buy 6 $10 chairs for her party, but had to buy 2 $30 chairs for the chic factor but also helping some folks who i think are nice but whom i was helping out with the chairs just for the kindness and follow up karmic thank you but when the day was brought to the final sit down i had nothing but the awkward experience of dragging a heavy, falling apart, beat up kitchen chair that was hard to carry through the vestibule so that i could join the party people in their chairs outside.

what's up with that?

David Blames the Dress

2010-07-18T09:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday David and I adventured to New Hampshire to a lake he used to spend days at when was a kid. I was nice albeit I wished I had an innertube to play with in the water. I love the whole playing in waves thing and although I grew up swimming on lake ontario as a kid, I enjoyed swimming in calm water but I really want to play more, have some action. I remember as a kid we would row a boat out deep and throw in something which sinks to the bottom and then jump in and try to find it. I like that game. Or we would swim out to Weber's anchored raft and climb aboard and then enjoy jumping, diving, pushing off of it. That is fun as well.

As David and I drove around the lake, there was many rafts anchored around for play and people waterskiing and jetskiing. I was tempted to jetski even though, yuk, the expenditure of gas and the noise is repellent but seeing them on the lake made me miss boating and that seems fun. More fun perhaps would be riding an inflatable object pulled by a speedboat. then you are in the water and boating as well. yay.

On the way back I was worried about my bedroom windows letting in the rain from a huge storm we were headed into which looked Greenfield bound. Once we got home I saw that it wasn't a problem. I was going to read but I crashed out immediately. I just read David's blog of yesterday and enjoyed it greatly. I laughed out loud at his reference of blaming the dress for the storm. He was referring to a dress I had bought in Hawaii. One day he and I were just walking around Honolulu and were caught in a very dramatic rainstorm which drenched us to the bone, completely. As it waned we saw a very cool second hand clothing store where I was able to buy this dress to relieve me of my very wetness. Now I very rarely wear this dress, I don't think I look as good in it as I do a pair of shorts and a tee but it was nice to just slip it on after our beach day. David blames the dress for the rainstorm.

In other clothing news I bought Kid two pairs of black levis (one jeans, one cords), both as a result of looking for brown or red or rust colored jeans. He picked out 30 length and 32 waist. After buying those I found BBQ color (brown) levis on amazon and mistakenly ordered him 32 length and 30 waist! dumb ol mom. I have to laugh because 30 and 32 are very close in size-does it really make a difference? Of course it does to a 17 yr old guy. I told him that of course I will exchange them (kind of a drag with amazon!) but first would he please put them on and walk around in them to see if they are actually ok? he said he would. I remember seeing him in the 32 waist pants and he pulled the pants quite a bit away from his belly so I don't think he does need a 32 waist. But he is going to be a senior in high school! Every pair of pants needs to be perfect.

Overwatering and How I become attached to plants I've begun to love

2010-07-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

Listen to this while reading this blogpost:

A month or two ago I bought a plant at the Greenfield's Farmers Market. It was a heliotrope and it was lovely. The plant seemed rich with flowers and sturdy. I marvelled at its thick beauty because I have a heliotrope at home which I grew from seed and love with all sorts of pride and delight. The above is a photo of the recently purchased plant with its rich, multi-hued purple flowers and vibrant green leaves about a week or so after I repotted it and put it in sunny company with a varigated lemon thyme.
I loved it so. But just yesterday I came to work and found it sitting in an over- sodden planter. I realized that the water I had supplied it on Friday did not drain out or get evaporated by the sun and soil. The poor plant was drowned. Horrified, I tipped the planter over to let out all the sitting water. I hoped that it would dry out and recover quickly. I went to a work meeting and after the meeting I saw a well-meaning coworker walking about with my watering can. Fearing the worst, I went outside and found that she had watered the heliotrope. I can only imagine that she saw its sickly sight and tried to help by watering, perhaps thinking that it was too dry! I poured out the water again and went in to admonish her.

I really wanted the plant to recover. I cut off the drooping limbs and branches, the grey flowers and swollen but limp stems and brought it home where i put the now-smaller plant in a pot with fresh soil, cutting off all dead items and hoping for the best.

When I was in my twenties and thirties I liked plants and flowers and enjoyed nature but never really understood the love of indoor plants. I thought they were pretty and appreciated them but had a boyf who had them all stacked up next to a window in one area. I have since discovered people have plants placed artfully around a house which I find is nicer. As I have gotten into my thirties I have enjoyed more and more the act of growing things from seed. Many Marches have seen me start flowers I really should wait longer to start and filled spaces inside by windows with seedlings and boxes of dirt. I understand this activity more now and appreciate the plants all clustered together by a window in the wintertime. The same guy from my past started a plant called a heliotrope when I lived with him and I was charmed that he would grow a plant because he heard of it in a ragtime song he taught himself to play on piano. A couple of years ago I saw a pack of heliotrope seeds for sale and just for amusement I bought them and tried to grow the plant. Out of the whole pack of seeds I successfully began a plant and still have it to this day. That plant is the healthier one in the above pic. I went for years not remembering its name and then something reminded me of the name of the purple color. It is rather "leggy" and long-branched. I was tempted to trim it way down to make it more bushy but DbR halted the scissors, pointing out that it was a healthy plant.

I've only seen it flower twice in the two+ years since I've grown it. I hope it will flower more.

ice cream truck

2010-07-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

Kid is here this weekend. Today we went to a rainy park event and were able to catch a nice set by Spouse. Henning played bass in the 3 piece instead of Ken. Afterwards, Sal chatted up the band and came away with Spouse's new album. After some more running around he and I settled down in front of our computers in the dining room and he put the disc in. We were 1/5 through the first song when I heard some other weird music playing.

"What is that?" I asked. Sal heard it too and turned off the album. We heard the distinctive noisesong of an ice cream truck. Excitedly (who doesn't love door delivery of ice cream?) we jumped off our seats and ran outside, carefully not letting the dog out. The truck passed and I couldn't even see it but Kid has a nose for such things and took off down the sidewalk, yelling and waving. A block and a half away the truck finally stopped for us. Sal bought himself a cookies and cream ice cream cone and I bought myself a choco taco. I also got DbR the peanutbutter cup ice cream bar. He liked it.

I saw a funny sign advertising sour cherry italian ice. There was a picture of a cartoon kid's face puckered up with tears squeezing out. It was called "Cry baby". I almost wish I had gotten that instead of the chocotaco.

This was the first time in a couple of years that the truck went by Wells Street. No one else seemed to notice or care. It is a quiet afternoon in Greenfield.

dogs sometimes bark at fireworks

2010-07-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

Since I bought the Bricker in August 2002, I have now lived through eight Greenfield Fireworks events. You can call it nine if you want to count the one the month before the Bricker was mine, because I did endure it that year. Sal and I unknowingly found ourselves at the Peoples Pint during the fireworks and he left his very valuable book about the steamships there and it was an upsetting occasion. Then, driving out of town we were stuck in traffic. It is a yukky memory.

There have been better fireworks years. Sometimes I go to the park where people gather, I have also sat in yards on side streets adjacent to the park. I've enjoyed the fireworks with Karen, Evelyn and Karen's mom, I've experienced the fireworks with Frank and Ken, last year I went to the fireworks with David who likes a small town event. I think the park gets too crowded with people, which I don't find enjoyable and I detest getting caught in traffic. The fireworks park is just a little too far to enjoy the walk but one can park on this side of Federal Street and cut it down to an okay jaunt and if you pick the right side street one can shoot right down to wells, if you are lucky.

This year David went to Eaha for a show, leaving me home. I had just finished packing my bag for an overnight trip tomorrow when the fireworks began. I noticed from my bedroom if I looked just down the hall toward the back of the Bricker, in the direction of the train tracks, I could see some bright lights and exploding gun powder. I pulled my futon over into the position of my room where I could see the fireworks while lying down. It was no panoramic view and there was a bit of a tree in the way but for being in bed with the dog, it was a pretty great show.

Now people and traffic has livened up outside on Wells Street and Peretz is disturbed, barking at the impudence. Pickles is out in the hall outside my bedroom doorway, snoozing on a cushy dog bed. He looks comfortable.

took a shower

2010-06-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

and although Pickles had total access to my bedroom garbage, he did not molest the contents. what a good dog!!

Pickles is a good dog

2010-06-05T12:09:00.001-07:00

Today is hot and humid and yuck. Thankfully it is Saturday so I can just lounge around the house taking showers. Two, so far.

I'm not lounging 100% however. I got up and started laundry. I did some dishes, watered some plants. I found some alaskan daisy starters half dead in their outgrown clay pot so I gave them a lot of water in the sink and then a little while later, stuck them in the ground next to a row of columbine I had planted a couple weeks ago. Out of a whole pack of columbine seeds I have 5-6 plants popping up. I wish there were more. Now they are in a row next to a row of daisies. I'll report back on their progress.

Just now I heard a cat's meow which is weird because I don't have a cat and I'm sitting in my bedroom on the third floor of my house next to a fan. The meow must have come from the ground but that's pretty great projection for a kitty.

Back to today's progress. I did a little weeding after replanting the daisies and then watered a bunch of stuff but I don't have a hose that works so I tired after 2 5 gallon trips. David went to NH and before I took another shower I pushed the couch out from the wall and vacuumed all the horrible hairballs, etc up from behind there. Only found 35c. I did find a rejected piece of my halloween costume that I had sewn and discarded. It was supposed to have been the ewok hood but was a FAIL. Then I was ready for shower #2 so I called and enticed Pickles up to the bathroom with me and got him in and showered. It was great. I took off my clothes so I could get in there too and managed to sit on the edge of the tub with him (somewhat) complacently standing between my knees as i soaped and rinsed him. He was good and now it is obvious that he knows he is a very good boy and he just looks so shiny and lovely freshly washed.

Just as we were getting wet in the shower I heard thunder but this hasn't followed through yet. Will there be hail? Will there be a tornado? Let's watch.

sunset, asparagus-filled, and giggles

2010-05-15T08:44:00.001-07:00

Thursdays can be sweet.

everything is better now

2010-05-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

so after i decided to go to the minnesingers concert i called Sal to tell him and we spoke very briefly, mostly him saying, yeah, ok
then on thursday night, late, he sent me an email saying, don't come, just got back from rehearsal, its not worth coming for, everyone sucks, yadda yadda and then i wrote back, "i don't care, i really want to, email me back that is okay" and i didn't hear from him all day friday which bummed me out because then i didn't know my plan
and then at work weirdness occurred but then DbR+I went to the flywheel and it was a great show with lots of interesting sounds and i had a few laughs with Nick, a few heartfelt talks with Ted, some cuddles and smiles with Husbear, some other nice conversations/interactions with this guy Dave and this woman Jess, nice nice nice Friday night.
Today, I slept really late and felt funky, missed the g'field farmers market which bummed me out (really great plant selections-me no money), still no word from Sal, which fucked me up, i called him at one, "tell me if its okay to come or not, what's up?" went to Iron Man2 (good+fun), had a margarita at hope and olive at 5
(david had a gay boy drink) and we split a italian meats and cheese bread board, then i bought $6 worth of 50% off crappy eleanor roosevelt mysteries, we came home, i made a cake + he made a nice dinner, we walked the dogs and i called sal, "call me back, we won't come if that gets you mad but i am still hoping you call me back and say, come on down" I was feeling a little stressed about it and then finally he called and we had a very light, comical conversation and so the trip is a go for mother's day!

rainy depressed Saturday

2010-05-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

I do not feel on top of the world at all today, regardless of how tall my bedroom is in the sky.
Should do laundry, both pairs of jeans are dirty. dogs are raising a ruckus downstairs.
Feel like things are out of my hands, I hate that. Time to condense and contract.
Maybe going to see Iron Man 2 will be a pleasant distraction.

lovely saturday

2010-04-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

im excited to go to fenway park tonight. it's been a long time.

david sleeps on the couch sometimes which is nice for him and the dogs, whatever, but this morning he was there on the couch on the first floor sleeping and the dogs both came up to my room on the third floor to ask me for morning kibble and to be let out to do their morning business. why come to me? David was right there. Oh, yeah, they can't wake him up as easily as they can wake me up.

So I did get up, it was 10 am anyway, and i let them out and it is a beautiful day-they liked it, i made coffee and turned on the radio and did all the dishes. 45 minutes later, David is still asleep and I'm upstairs doing this and drinking coffee.

the dogs are back. Pickles followed me up immediately and Peretz just stumbled up the stairs himself. I heard him pause and stumble on his way up, poor ol' guy. What is hella cute is that Pickles removed himself from the extra futon (where dogs are welcome to sleep, night and day) so Peretz could lay down on there. and so Peretz has. Pickles looks out the window. I drink coffee.

All the news that is fit to print.

Peretz and his temper tantrum

2010-04-20T05:42:00.000-07:00

Last night, around midnight, I heard Peretz's distinctive barking. I ignored it for the first minute or two because who cares, right? After a while, it had lasted long enough for me to pay attention to it and this is when I discerned that it was just the old dog, all alone, there was no Pickles joining him. This shows to me that there is no bat or other alarm-worthy reason for his barking so I ignored it some more.

After another minute or two I heard him give a howl. Peretz has a mini-howl that I hear only once in a while and it is associated mostly just with his own peevishness. Since I had to visit the bathroom anyway, I decided to check in with Peretz to see what the trouble is. I descended to the first floor where all the lights had been turned off by me a half hour before when I had decided to go to my bedroom for the night. David and Pickles were already asleep in D's room but I was lucky enough to be still awake to hear Sir Peretz's trouble making. I arrived downstairs to find him on a dog bed all alone with his barking discontinued (probably when he heard me coming in his direction he ceased). He looked perfectly healthy, awake and alert and when I questioned him, he gave me a sidelong glance all of us Peretz lovers know very well.

There was no apparent reason for his bark and howl that I could see, or any human would be able to conclude. He was just lying there looking well. I decided he must have just wanted attention and was feeling melancholy and/or dramatic. I encouraged him to come upstairs and join me in my room. "Come on, Peretz, come on." I bade him as I climbed the stairs. A couple more verbal enticements and he did rise and clamored up to the second floor, joining me at the landing. Pickles had heard my admonishments and emerged into the hallway from David's room and he then led Peretz to the comfort of their man's room, crisis over.

better

2010-04-13T19:43:00.001-07:00

went to the doctor, feel better. sore throat was a combo of the common cold sore throat exasperated by allergy sore throat. took a tiny allergy pill, felt better
went to walmart which gave me a migraine. did buy 17 bottles of energy water and 8 quarts of oil for Ramon to keep as a stash in the trunk, feel better
went home and took advil, drank an energy water and crashed. feel better. drooled all over my pillow -why does allergy medicine make me do that?- feel better
david came home and made dinner, feel better
worked on issue 9 of Pawl Bitt, feel better
got encouraging and flattering remarks re: my verbal creativity, feel better
took dogs for walk before twilight, feel better
talked to brother, afterwards felt better. during the convo, i had a passing stomach ache and toward the end of the convo, another headache (not migraine) took another advil, feel better
watched LOST, feel better
brushed and flossed and swished around, feel better
drinking sleepy time tea, feel better
Kid's coming on Friday

can't shake this sore throat

2010-04-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

still queasy, two months later

2010-04-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

saturday-feel too restless to actually go back to sleep, although i did enjoy relaxing in bed with Pickles, taking off his collar, stroking and massaging his neck and soft chest. Peretz paces around expectantly, even though I did let them both out back to pee and whatever about a half hour ago. Does he want kibble or more outdoor time? i half don't care, feeling ambivalent. too lazy to get up and start cleaning, which i'd like to do today, in anticipation of Kid's visit next week. Bricker has piles of dust, dirt and debris, starting with my bedroom which has piles of dirty and clean clothes piled about as well as sticky spots on the floor where vitamin e capsules were squished.

meanwhile, when i am really thinking about things to do i think about my yard, how i should rake up all the dog poo to arrest total back yard stink (and peretz's bad habit snacking) and thatch the front yard to encourage grass growth, plant more ambience in the front yard strip between street and sidewalk -its ugly as hell right now- and pick up all the dead sticks, gathering them for next year's kindling. i get so hung up thinking about the gravel from the neighbor's driveway which was plowed into an ugly pile in my yard and left there over the snow months and the yukky berry vines that have taken over a patch of the backyard that i get stuck in my tracks and cannot actually make a move on any yard project.

besides all this, i just want to sew more clutterables and do another zine. guess i'll just lay down and think about making coffee eventually

Remind me Remind me

2010-02-20T13:18:00.000-08:00

I feel queasy. Why? Because I'm on a boat? It's not windy or wavy. Because of a hangover? I only drank2 beers last night and they were from bottles. Because of what I ate? I guessit must be. I had one crispy chik snack wrap. While at mcdonalds I noticed they had shamrock shakes which excited me and I ordered a small but only drank a quarter of the thing. It was yummy as I remember but last year ihad gotten one after dealing with my mom's funeral, etc. The anniversary looms. Next: 20 hours on the vin.

TV in italian

2010-02-10T14:41:00.000-08:00

Today I was hungry as usual around 11 but I ignored it until 1230 when I talked myself into walking down Federal Street to Wendys. Once there, I somehow got talked into ordering (and then eating) a 10 piece spicy nugget set and two packs of the spicy dipping sauce. Soon after my stomach really hurt. Boo Hoo. I left work a wee bit early.

Last weekend I visited Martha's Vineyard to see Augie and Anthony do a show together. Once at the venue I started talking to my son, their younger brother, and while I was letting him do most the talking, I looked at the collar of his shirt (he was mostly venting anyhow). The shirt was a heavy plaid number with greens and blues of middle hues. The collar was in shreds because the shirt was so old. I remember Sal's father got it while he and I were a couple back in the 90's and I thought it was sweet and amusing when Sal began wearing the shirt and the thing was old then. Now it is very old and beat up. I can't remember who Charlie got the shirt from. I think it was a xmas gift from a family member. As I looked at it I thought Sal should get a new shirt but of course he has. He has lots of other shirts, I think. He just likes this one.

The next morning I was getting dressed and I noticed that I was putting on an old shirt that I own and cherish which years ago I borrowed from a friend back when I first moved to western mass and I've worn it very frequently since then and the cuffs are worn, the collar is beat up, although not as badly as Sal's shirt.

Dear Peretz-

2010-01-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

Hey, you ol' bug-eyed freak. I know David tied you up in the kitchen with Pickles when the cable guy was over. I'm sorry he did that but it wasn't my fault. I'll give you a biscuit later.
Love, Little Lauri

today, after the election...

2010-01-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

I thought this was going to be a lucky year but it has hit a slump. Not only did the Republican take Kennedy's seat, a relative of mine expressed happiness at this happening, which made me feel sick. That is the belly I have now, uneasy seasickness that my relative is of such a different ilk than I. Is she against improved healthcare? I scratch my head over it. I would rather stop having any kind of relationship with her than to discuss it, of course. It fills me with wonder that a woman of my generation would have the same political flavor as my father. Whoa.

After the returns but before reading my cousin's fb reaction to my dismay, Husbear, myself and three friends motored down River Road in Nashville to Norm's River Roadhouse where I read in the paper would be a bluegrass jam. We walked in and there was the circle, upstairs in the restaurant-grille area and we were welcomed by Norm and the bartender who asked if any of us played anything and wanted in on the jam and then told us that it was three dollar special night, some beers were three dollars, hamburgers were three dollars, fries were three dollars. We had already gorged ourselves on DbR's pork and ch0w ch0w-filled steamed buns and drank a round along with dinner so we weren't the most receptive group to the three dollar offerings but we climbed into a booth and Emily and I went to order beers. I asked for a coke for DbR and looked at the beer options. I didn't really like anything they had and told the bartender (who was very tall and lanky like a brunette, less-buff Micah) that what I really wanted was something very hoppy, perhaps and IPA and the only thing I could see they had which was anywhere in the county of what I liked was the Sam Adams which I didn't really want. He agreed that Sam Adams was no where near the hop neighborhood and that maybe I would like a beer he could recommend which was downstairs in the other part of the bar, telling me the name of it. I reacted noncomittally, weighing the worth of really getting into it with this guy about the beers. Meanwhile, Norm brought DbR's coke to the table and Chris grabbed it, thinking it was his (Emily told him she would get him a soda whereas I just ordered it without relaying my plan) causing Mr Russell to have to order his own sodapop. Lanky Barman came up and showed me a bottle that seemed to have potential, based on its packaging but I saw the word, Stout. "I don't really like.." "I know you said IPA not Stout but this stout is the hoppiest you'll ever taste, it is really light." He said something along those lines and against my second judgement, I agreed. He handed me the bottle and I unscrewed it and turned away. Emily asked, "Did you taste it yet?" and I realized I hadn't. I did take a sip and it was exactly like he described and I was pleased I had accepted the beer. I turned to tell him and he was back up at the bar.

A little while after that Lanky came back over to where I was sitting and had a huge mug which was very heavy but not from its contents because there was only an ounce or so of beer on the bottom. "Try this," he offered and showed me the bottle of Fat Tire Amber Ale. "That is good." I said after my swallow and felt pleased he would be interested enough in my beer palate to come over unsolicited. "If you like hoppy beer, you know what you should try? Rogue Brutal Bitter."

We discussed the price of a 6 pack of Brutal Bitter at the different beer stores in town and he suggested one we had gone to and he suggested one we had not. I asked him if he knew of it on tap anywhere and he shook his head with wonder as if seeing a dog play the banjo was more likely. I bought a bottle of the Fat Tire without finishing the first. I noticed that the Stout tasted less hoppy as it warmed.

The music was okay. At one point between songs the musicians talked about a recent report that hunters had killed 555 black bears this season in Tennessee. "If that many were killed, imagine how many are out there." One guy said. The other guy said that bear wasn't that good to eat and a third guy said it depended on how you cooked it. The first guy wondered aloud if he had any bear meat in his freezer.

No one spoke about the Massachusetts election.

What Lauri is thinking about

2010-01-15T23:32:00.000-08:00

more politics, I'm sorry. A couple of days ago it became clear to me that we (Massachusetts residents) are really in peril regarding this senatorial race! I keep hearing that the fascist Scott Brown is ahead, that we may actually end up with a republican filling Ed Kennedy's spot, which is repugnant to me and i say this with no apologies whatsoever. If my state ends up with a republican senator who hates gays, is against women and who wants us to torture and debase the beliefs that I love this state for, then I am going to do something about it.

But what? I left the state today! I will not be back to vote on Tuesday! Filled with this knowledge and horror, I thought long and hard about my options. At the Sierra Grille Thursday night, I forced myself to go from table to table reminding these 30 somethings to vote Tuesday and for all that is holy's sake, vote demo.
-- I don't love Coakley, she's a putz but what can you do? At least she loves the gays and cares about the poor! --
and around the room I went. Don't you hate it when people try to get you to sign a petition or impede your life's natural flow with their needs, beliefs, politics? I do but I became one of them last night!! People were nice, I mean, I was basically preaching to the converted, it was more of a gentle wake up call "You need to go vote if you can on Tuesday" Can, meaning, registered. Someone told me that I should vote absentee ballot which I haven't done since I voted for Walter Mondale in 1984, my first election. I was at college but was registered in Syracuse, NY and I voted absentee ballot. And we did it. I dragged Husbear to the Greenfield Town Hall at 10 am Friday morning, the last day of absentee ballots (because Monday is MLK, jr day and the town hall is closed?) and we voted for Martha.

Then we drove to Wytheville, VA with the dogs. We gave Pickles some benedryl and he looked at me all day with the accusing eyes and we stopped for dinner in Stoughton, meeting up with Conan, who is very nice to see. Now we have the dogs in a king sized bed in a La Quinta and continue our big adventure tomorrow.

I will continue to berate my Massachusetts friends to vote on Tuesday.

Rogue Brutal Bitter

2010-01-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

Today is my last day at work before vacation. I almost don't want to leave Greenfield. There is a part of me that wants to stay home and work on my three zines, all at once. Just take a week and take my 3 ideas and stay at home from Friday Jan 15-Sunday Jan 24 and create all 3 zines at once. Every day at 5 oclock I would leave the house and go down to the Hope and Olive, drink 2 pints of Rogue Brutal Bitter Beer and then come back home to the Bricker and work for another 4-5 hours on the zines, drop to sleep at midnight and then start up again the next morning around 10-11 am.
That would be a perfect vacation.

I think I just realized why I didn't want to leave Greenfield. I'm afraid that I won't be able to find and drink my favorite beer of all time, The Rogue Brutal Bitter. I am seriously obsessed with the flavor of that beer and I don't want to waste my time, the calories or the dough on any other beer. I resent all establishments who do not offer that beer to me. I'm really on a kick.

I am excited to see Shirley, though. She's better than the Rogue. I will work on the zines, too, in my way, while we vacation. It'll be alright.

politics

2010-01-13T07:13:00.000-08:00

I listen to a lot of news on the radio, npr,bbc, etc and I think hard about it. Over the weekend I heard a debate between the three candidates for Edward Kennedy's MA senatorial seat and I was really on overdrive in my brain because I found myself agreeing a little bit with each candidate, the republican, the democrat and the nutty "independent". Each one of them had an argument I agreed with a little bit. Of course when the candidate running "as an independent" made a case for cutting the budget, I knew he was talking about cutting aid to poor and disabled folks and I am strongly against that but then when he was making a case for retracting the USA's fussy tentacles from other country's business, I was completely on board. When the democrat lady spoke about the Health care bill I could agree with what she was saying but then when she was talking about the xmas terrorist being tried by the attorney general as opposed to a military tribunal, I wasn't so supportive. The republican guy supported "interrogating" this terrorist for information about what was next for the US which I don't agree with (who really supports such "interrogation"? and, what would this guy know anyway? He's just a tool) but on the other hand I do agree with not necessarily paying for this guy's legal representation and maybe a military tribunal is the place for him.

I think very hard also about the whole war on Afghanistan, which I've discussed on this blog before. Have we ("we" being the USA) really killed more than 1000 innocent bystanders with our drones, as they sought terrorists and Taliban leaders in that country (and Pakistan)? If so, that is not okay. The only reason I support this war (and I want to write "support" in strong quotation marks) is because of the way women are treated by that political system. If we are killing women, then fuck the whole thing! I rescind my support.

Right now I am listening to the radio and there is an interview about the Tea Party and there are folks on the radio who are teabaggers and I have to say that I haven't heard one thing from them that I do support. I feel pretty firm in my total dislike and repugnance of this organization.

I love this, I love that

2010-01-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

So I watched Neil Patrick Harris doing his thing in that 2 and a half minute musical number during tonight's episode of the best sitcom currently airing on blah blah tv right now. I had no idea that there would be a big song and dance number until it started playing on the tv this monday night.

The song was about suits and there is a huge group of people dancing and doing an elaborate choreographed routine. Toward the end there is a brace of people, all holding suits and swinging them around which tickled my fancy. "Hey, that looks like that scene during the Buffy musical." I pointed out to DbR. He agreed. There is one scene during "Once More, With Feeling" where people out on the street are dancing with their laundry while the lead guy sings, "They got the mustard out!" Those laundry folks are doing the same moves as the suit people did.

I started searching around the internet and found the name of the choreographer was Zach Woodlee who hit the big time. Right now he is doing the dance design for GLEE. I looked him up on IMDB and guess what? Yeah, he choreographed "Once More, With Feeling". I glanced through a few tv blogs and briefly read over them and no one mentioned this interesting fact. Maybe only I find it interesting.

grand ole opry

2010-01-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

We're going to Nashville next week for the wonderful Shirley's Seventieth. I had no idea what we could get Shirley, she has almost everything she needs. If she does need and want something, we would never be able to figure out what it was. I am a little bit obsessed with Nashville in a funny way and did a little research and I find that the Grand Ole Opry is performing at the old Ryman theatre while we are visiting.

I'm not super crazy about country music -I like old time music and bluegrass, generally and whenever we go to Nashville, I try to find fun and interesting places to go and music to see. Last time we saw this hella great band, Aquavelvet, which is a Burt Bacharach cover band. They were great. The time before I found a weird wayside bar where there were people doing that bluegrass jam thing. David was offered some moonshine by the proprietor (He didn't give me any!)

I've always been told about the OLD, original Grand Ole Opry and how the new one doesn't have the history of the old one blah blah blah and sure enough, I don't need to be told which one is in the movie NASHVILLE or COAL MINERS DAUGHTER. I would like to go to the original one and when I saw that the yearly stint in the old Opry was during our visit there I immediately wanted to go and it wasn't hard to convince David that it would be the perfect thing to gift Shirley. No one else would ever take her to a scene like that. I wish I could take her to see Aquavelvet, though. After we went last year I raved about it so hard that she almost wanted to go see them.

Laughing out loud a cheesy Dick Van Dyke Show jokes.
Go get a goo goo-it's gooooooood

boring

2010-01-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

hanging around the couch with DbR and the dogs. No news on the refi yet, working on it. Meanwhile, he is enjoying Dr Who and I am enjoying my laptop. Its amusing to be exposed to this show but not really understanding all of its ins and outs. On this episode people's fat is sloughing off of their frames and becoming little white poptart creatures. Oh, dear, poor Stacy.

A more interesting thing to write about is my date last night with M. We went out to the H+O and drank Brutal Bitter Beer. It was a lively night, Jim and Val were at the bar being friendly. Val mentioned Howard Stern and I expressed my sympathy regarding Artie Shaw and she hadn't known about it. Little Maggie's moms were there and I told them about my new favorite tv show-The Wanda Sykes Show. At one point a crowd came in, Veronica and her two boyfriends and the bar became delightfully filled with the familiar. At one point Ms. Riley came in to greetings of joy them very soon afterwards she wasn't there anymore and someone told me she had lost her phone and was overly distracted. I just texted her on the phone and she didn't respond so I guess it is still lost. As we crawled our way through three beers each, I felt like I couldn't talk to M enough-we both had interesting things to say to each other and although I liked the other people hanging around I almost resented their interference. She told me about some family moments recently and encouraged me to do a comic strip of "Hangover Mom" and she and I came up with two strip plots and then Jim came over and after we told him about "Hangover Mom" he helped come up with an idea for a third strip. funny. He and M spent sometime discussing the Rufus vs. Henry saga which is fairly entertaining. We each were given a sip of Crème de Violette which smelled like an old bath but tasted like sweet yummy but that wasn't as yummy as when Lori and M both agreed that my hair was beautiful and indeed looked lovely at present.

I got some nice news at work today and I am having a nice Friday. I am happy about the whole weekend thing. We will be going on a drive south soon with the dogs. It should be very interesting.

refinance remortgage, etc

2010-01-06T21:06:00.000-08:00

for the last few days, since Monday, I have been exchanging emails and doing online research regarding obtaining a better interest rate for the Bricker's mortgage. I also have a home improvement loan i would love to smush in and just pay less. Of course I have held onto the mindset that paying less per month is what is desired, for a shorter period of time. after a discussion with that smart guy, my husband, i see that a 15 year for only a tad more a month is actually a great option. im getting it through my head. the math, the math hold onto the basics.

i guess i always imagine the eventuality of being alone and how a lower payment is always a better payment. What if we decide we don't want to work any more and figure we can get by with the $789/month mortgage just by collecting returnables? We'll never be able to do that if the mortgage was $989, right? Husbear explained that I would never be alone again to pay that monthly mortgage and it is a given that we are way too mainstream to quit our jobs so, paying more for less time is a good option. Ok, let me at those closing costs!!

Dick Van Dyke and the JFK assassination

2010-01-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

happy new year and such. Opted for an eve in Northampton with friends instead of the planned eve in Greenfield with other friends. It was a nice change. Happy to have Br + Ka all to myself and David. I successfully bullied people once again into a late night game of marticelli. David and I won. Turns out we are a good famous persons game team.

Last night I downloaded new movies, etc into our roku list and after Husbear went to sleep indulged in the documentary made in the late '80s about the Kennedy coup d'etat and sitting alone watching two pieces out of the four got me totally spooked and freaked out. I adjusted my curtains and turned off lights to call less attention to the house and huddled under a blanket with Peretz. I was as scared as a stripper whore who shared a table with Lee and Jack high on phenmetrazine in one of those Dallas "dance clubs". Before I went to bed I had to break the mood by watching an episode of The Dick Van Dyke show.

I really love the DVD show. I always have loved Mary and Rose Marie is a study in alternative womanhood, circa 1961. Fascinating. Another fascinating coincidence is that this show was popular and in its heyday when Kennedy was assassinated! Of course the season I am watching is the first one. The humor is so old and outdated, I smile bemusedly. Even Dick's physical humor isn't as funny as it was back then, I think, and it isn't even as good as Donald O'Connor in Singing in the Rain but all is forgiven, especially when a dose of corn is needed to dispel the fear of my gov't and its evil trappings.

This morning I vacuumed up the pine needles after the ousting of xmas tree. I had named the tree but I forget the name now, unfortunately. After cleaning up as many bits of debris from my living room as possible with David's old shopvac, I rewarded myself by watching the second half of the documentary. I now want to revisit JFK and check out RUBY. I again followed up the viewing with a DVD episode or two. During the episode where Mary and Dick set up Rose Marie and Mary's Lab Technician cousin, well, first of all, Jamie Farr has his first appearance (awesome) and secondly I became interested in the side dish of the meatloaf meal which Mary is serving. It seems to be a poached something or other which they lift carefully from some serving dish unlike any I see these days.

I had the idea that someone could write a book with interesting illustrations (photos) of food served on popular tv shows and the book would feature interviews with prop people who talk about what the characters are supposed to be eating and what the "food" actually ended up consisting of (I'm sure different types of filler and whatnot.) I think that would be fascinating. Has anyone written such a book yet?

I was inspired enough by this white people food to make meatloaf for Husbear and myself tonight with a side dish of macaroni salad and another side dish of garlic'd broccoli-rabe. This vegetable was available and eaten in the early 60's and on Long Island, I know for a fact, but I bet not by the NYC writers and their wives in the whitest neighborhood of New Rochelle.

ooooh, she knows me

2009-12-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

I just noticed that Sarah Riley, yes, the Sarah Riley has a link to my humble, blog on her blog page!
Yesterday i was thinking of many things I wanted to write about on my blog but was more interested in picking up a book and reading it that I overlooked the urge. But now I am inspired because that hella chick reinforced my existence.

Yesterday I realized that all my blogs on myspace are disappeared forever because I deleted my myspace profile without even thinking of the blogs associated with that site. Some of them were written well. Ah, they are gone.

I have three ideas for my next zine and I slowly lumber in their direction. One theme is of Crushes and the quickness or origin of the emotion. I wrote out/planned the 16 pages and roughly wrote it out. The copy is drab and listless but I think once I start drawing the scenes, the wording will be quickly and effectively edited to be more worthy of a piece of art. The second idea is a series of reviews of a double handful of shows I've seen around the area. I know, writing about music is like petting a whirring engine but some people may be interested. I am less inclined to consider that art, though. Interesting. The third idea is my confused feelings regarding the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan. I wanted to write about Obama's nobel piece prize speech and how it made me feel (I guess I have to check it out from start to finish-I've only heard bits), I could write about how even though I hate the Taliban (riling against the taliban and its antiwomen philosophy could def take up many pages) I don't trust the united states military. I remember just after 911 I recalled many news reports leading up to that time period telling of the betrodden and bedeviled women of the taliban governments and I have wanted to kick the taliban's ass for a long time. I would research and write about the drones and how they may kill some taliban men but at what cost? what non-istan assholes get the drop on them because they happen to be in the line of fire.I don't know how close I would get to art with that one.

I want to mention there is a large murder of crows in my neighborhood. It is killing cold outside and for some reason they have decided to batten down in the double trees over in the next yard. Before sunset they were scattering, flying overhead, landing in assorted trees and on houses but then as the sun went down and it became colder, they assembled in those trees. I took Pickles out for a short cold walk and we went by the trees and in the moonlight I could see the large dark clumps of them among the wide branches and we both heard them whirr and berate. Just now, I heard a number of them start to crow and sing. They have returned to quiet now.

After the busy-ness the last two weeks I don't want to do anything really. maybe start a jigsaw puzzle, maybe read Washington, D.C. by Gore Vidal. In Hollywood, he featured his maternal grandfather, the blind senator from Oklahoma, Thomas Gore, which I find amusing.

fuzzy and wuzzy

2009-10-31T17:31:00.001-07:00

I have high hopes

2009-10-13T21:36:00.001-07:00

DbR took this photo.

Vixen says hi

2009-09-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

monday morning

2009-09-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

my three weekends in a row with Kid are now over.
time to put nose to grindstone.
Birthday month is coming to a close.

enjoying the Krakauer book on mormonism. that religion isn't much for women power, is it?

on vacation

2009-09-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

i rented a biggish house on the cape for me, the husband and the dogs and whomever else wants to come hang out-there are 5 bedrooms and more couches as well.
sal came for the first day and 1/2 and it was great. He and I shopped for him at Macys and the Gap and Staples. Perfect birthday for me. Yesterday I found a pair of his socks from way back that he left here at the rental. they have large holes in each of them, above the red tipping where the ankle should sit. i called him to ask if i should bring them to him on friday, when i go to the island to check out his bands' cd release show.

yeah, if its not any trouble. he answered. "really?" i asked, explaining about the two holes and reminding him that i can buy him more pairs, if he wanted. "i want to use them to make a hat for Mr. Pat." i told him. "that's cool," he said, "I'm in sock heaven right now."

Sock Heaven.

dogs in the rain

2009-08-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

So, Sal's other Grandma died. I feel sad because my mom is dead. I liked Millie also, back when I used to hang out with her. She was funny and quirky and a pretty good cook. She sired some sensitive boys and they seem to have done the same. Now the only grandparent Sal has, besides step-types, is my dad. An amusing and annoying fact. I miss my mom, its strange how life goes on without people even though you may not want it to be all regular.

So last night there was a zine/printed works fair over at the Northampton town. Actually, I may have been the only one with "zines". There were people with gorgeous printed art work and one annoying lady with bad teeth who had a "literary quarterly". Whatev. It was kind of neat to see my work all laid out there. I didn't have every single issue of Who Is Johnny Cash? (there were 45 of them spanning from 1995-2000) But a fellow bought every issue I had with turned out to be 36. Then the same fellow (a collector of cool things, I guess) wanted one of all the others. I had all the issues of The Observation Deck with me and he bought the 15 of those (spanning from 02-07) and he wanted all 6 of this year's Pawl Bitt. His request was a little mindblowing and I was perfectly straight when he asked for one of each but I was so flabbergasted at the request that David had to help me put them together for the guy. We gave him a deal, 56 zines for $50.

On Wednesday I finished issue 6 of Pawl Bitt, specifically to have for the event, and I was so happy and excited that I put it up on Etsy with the other five issues and before I was able to push "refresh" so I could see all the issues lined up pretty I noticed that iss 6 was gone! Some nut had purchased it within the 3 minutes I was loading the thing. I had to relist it and then I noticed, 12 hours later, some wacky lady from Cedar Rapids bought the entire catalog of Pawl Bitt. So now I have to mail her the things and relist again! I actually never imagined selling the things on Etsy, truth be told, I only print the things to keep the US postal service in business, ha ha. So it has been a busy and exciting zine week. I took #6 to the H+O to hand out to the stars of the issue and I was amused to overhear Jim say to some employee who works there as he showed it to her, "guess who that person is?" "guess who that is?" I think I am going to do one more bug and restaurant issue to make it a set of three and then do a different type of theme. We'll see.

David bought a butcher block table for the kitchen and I am getting used to it slowly. We've been hanging around drinking coffee on it and it is beautiful. I can't wait to roll out some dough on it. It's almost cool enough to bake today.

so! flowers lovers and plant observers, pay heed:

2009-08-19T20:58:00.001-07:00

Hey!

remember a couple blogs ago when I wrote about those darn morning glories?
well, they are a-bloomin' now! check out the ones on the back porch:
This is today when I counted 13 flowers. There were two clusters of five and then three more scattered along the vine.

This is the vine I began at home and brought to work.

Sometimes the flowers don't pop first thing in the morning, sometimes they need a second cup of coffee,

and sometimes, most of the time, they are just perfectly lovely.

The plants have been very thirsty this year. Maybe we should all water our plants now. Don't forget!!

I love Pickles

2009-08-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

For the last week or so (since Wed Aug 5) I have had something in my eye and went to various eye doctor appt and put loads of drops and unguent in my right eye until yesterday I achieved healthiness. I only felt sorry for myself 2% of the time between Aug 5 and 17th.

Monday I felt worse than ever because my dog Pickles was acting funny. Every day I take him for at least 2 walks and before we go and after we come back I make him sit on the top stair to get his leash put on and taken off. He was very reluctant to do so monday morning and then on monday night when he did the same I pointed it out to DbR who surmised that he was sick, constipated or the like. I immediately feared the worst because that dog eats a lot of crap, pieces of balls, plastic, rubber and the like. Luckily, he has somewhat of a cast iron belly and everything has passed through but he has never acted like he did Monday night after I put his leash on him (without really making him sit) and taking him out.

He walked willingly but with his tail down, tucked between his legs in a most disconcerting way. I realized it was a very uncommon sight and worried very ardently. He did have a bm and picked up his pace a little but not his tail. He continued to haunt the Bricker with his listlessness the next day when I took him out for his morning walk. DbR mentioned he had a morning success in the yard but his tail wasn't too perky and neither was he.

I came home for lunch and he didn't greet me at the door like Peretz did but did get off his bed for an outdoor visit and a treat. I gave him a biscuit with a little peanut butter. I thought about him all afternoon and decided I would give him a treat that night. On the way home I bought a soft serve vanilla ice cream cone from the Pete's Fried Fish Restaurant and when I arrived home Pickles greeted me at the door with a ball in his mouth and his tail up! The three of us went out on the back porch where I ate my third of the treat and gave him the rest. I watched him lick it and thought of the ice cream cone dog and master story shared by DbR's parents and smiled a little at Pickles crunching into the cone. The rest of the night passed with Pickles acting completely normal! He chewed on the bone, loitered in the kitchen while David cooked, begged under the dinner table as we ate our corn on the cob and barked out the window at KiKi the neighborhood calico.

I'm so happy to have a healthy pup!

Three different Groups

2009-07-21T17:51:00.001-07:00

It is interesting, the three different groups of morning glory plants that I have growing right now are all very different. There is bunch I brought to work which is growing profusely. It is in the full sun for most of the day. The leaves and vines are very rich and strong but no flowers.

Then there is another plant in my back yard which is in the full morning sun and it growing very tall. Toward the bottom where it comes out of the planter it is more spindly with stems and branches than full of leaves. There are no flowers or any evidence of oncoming blooms.

The third plant is the shortest and has the least amount of foliage but there have been two to three flowers a day for the past week. This plant is in shade until the middle of the day and has full sun until sunset (around 12-8 pm). Is this plant going to die soon and has to throw out its flowers in an attempt to procreate? Perhaps the other plants are robust and healthy and feel no stress nor need to bloom?

The blooms are lovely on that front porch plant. Deep rich purple.

Dog Day FOUR sure

2009-07-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

Always the entrepeneurs, Pickles and Peretz borrowed Roddy the rotweiler's truck to make a firecracker (and I do
mean "cracker") run into NH this morning. For some reason they felt they needed to go undercover so they referred to each other as "Coldcut" and "Toothpick" during the run. I don't know how they made out financially, they never talk about those affairs to me or DbR, but I noticed they brought back a bicycle horn, a scooter, a shiny MyMelody bracelet and an eyepatch. I guess the Greenfield town kids are equipped for today's holiday. Pickles keeps calling Peretz "Coldcut", still, and they both giggle nervously when he do.

today is thursday

2009-07-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

just a few updates.
Pickles wormed out of his collar today. I was walking him around our backyard after the regular walk and he smelled something he wanted to investigate very badly out in the shrubby overgrowth. I couldn't see what it was and I didn't want him to roll in shit or a dead thing so I resisted him. He did not comply, which is odd. Usually he will resist but easily relent when I make my will known with conviction. We pulled in different directions resulting with him squeezing his head out and he was gone. I followed him around for a while, got sweaty in the humidity. I despaired at catching him because what am I going to grab? No collar. DbR did not run around, he stood in front of the Bricker smoking and keeping watch. I followed Pickles down the block to the weird apartments/crappy condo strip which reaches between Wells and Conway and he led me to the backyard of a family which spoke a slavish language between the children and mother. The father was nearby doing work on their humble sedan while she bbq'd a load of chicken on their hibachi. the chicken wasn't in pieces but a big piece which wasn't actually bbq'd but cooked in a big piece ( i know i repeat ) wrapped in foil. I tell ya, I wasn't staring and investigating this woman's cooking because remember Pickles was loose. They had two boys under 6 or 7 and a little girl younger than that. The little girl stayed on her swingset's teeter totter while her brothers and I tried to trap that dog. It was hard but I showed them my empty collar and they understood. It was the kind of family where the boys spoke English to me but their parents spoke Polish ? to them. They were white. One of the boys offered me a piece of --maybe it was pork, not chicken-- to lure Pickles who had squeezed out into the next yard which was spacious and depressing, given my trial. The three of us also squeezed into the yard and looked over at dog and I despaired continuously. Pickles rounded the big yard and started headed back toward us. I called to him knowing that never worked and held out the meat. He came. He must have been tired enough to be curious about me and the kids. I gave him a morsel of the meat while I leaned over him as securely as possible, still not believing, still expecting him to wiggle away and bolt. I got the collar on him and put it on the tightest setting. I called David who was holding the leash.

When I pulled out my iPhone and started to dial the older kid asked, "Is that your phone?" and I explained about my husband coming with the leash. I said thank you and headed out, leaning uncomfortably over the collared dog away from the back line of the yards, toward the pavement. They didn't ask me to dinner.

I am 71% ready to complete my next Pawl Bitt but I am lured by the second season of Veronica Mars, I love it so.

Last week the washing machine coughed and we had to call a repairman. He came and took out the offending piece of machinery and voila! Because I live in the same town as the Bricker, it was my task to meet repairman and let him in to do his $65 task. After he left, I started a load of DbR's clothes which had been sitting around the cellar since the machine paused. I eagerly started to do my own laundry directly afterwards which created a situation where I was doing everyone's laundry. His shirts have buttons and collars and a very nice cottony broadcloth kind of material which wrinkles. He tries to hang up his shirts directly after the dryer ends. Because I didn't want to throw them haphazardly into the bin, I gave them a little bit of a one two fold to keep them somewhat neat until he could hang them. He was pleased.

Tonight we were in his room talking about Tanya's bro doing computer programming when I noticed the bin of shirts still folded in a pile somewhat neatly but the pile was 66% depleted. "Are those the same shirts I folded?" I asked
"Yeah."
"You never hung them up?"
"No."
"Do you dig through them to find the one you want or are you just using them as they come up in the pile?"
"Just using them."
I think that is so funny.

we went to the Famous Grille's on its opening day. I got us seated in a booth in the bar which was well lit and somewhat pleasant. The bar now wraps all the way around into the next room, dining room. I liked the way that looks, feels in the place. Our waitress seemed nice and eager to tell me about all their beers. I made her tell me the names of all the tap beer and they were all the most dull, dislikeable beers you can imagine. No "hot rod rye" or "hop devil" certainly no "beer of the gods." I asked her about the bottles which I guess were many because she paused. "what kind are you looking for?" she asked. "any IPAs" I plunged in, narrowing her list. "Oh, we have Harpoon IPA." which, if we are ever on the matchgame you can answer "Her least favorite IPA from the United States." when asked. I gave up and got a scotch and soda which was made strong and somewhat interesting in a dull way. We got through the greek-diner sized menu and were ignored by the waitress in favor of the folks sitting in the next booth who came after us. After another 5 minutes she came over and offered to take our menus, "get them out of the way". "Oh, I wanted to refer to it when I ordered." I informed. "Oh, I haven't taken your order." she realized verbally and walked away for another five or more minutes before coming back and taking the order! oy!
I ordered the gargonzola dip/garlic bread app and it was good. While eating it DbR and I realized that the people at the bar nearby were getting drunk and they were being "VERY LOUD" I said loudly. Loud enough for them to hear. They hushed and muttered amongst themselves until one lady (the loud one) said, "we better go, since we're getting so loud." more mutters "we don't want to (something) pipsqueak over there."
yes, I was called "Pipsqueak". I really thought they were being too loud to hear me complain loudly but they did hear me. It was an odd situation. Our food came and we were ignored some more by the waitress and then it seemed like another lady was helping her with busing and other tables and even though we sat there with empty plates and they cleaned off the table right next to us, neither one of them checked in to see if we wanted dessert or the check. They walked away, one even asking the next table over, "Do you have everything?" I was kind of grumpy about it. The lady who wasn't our waitress finally wandered back toward us and I leaned toward her, "Can you get our bill? Our waitress hasn't ..." I forget what I said here. Something more forceful than "checked in with us." and it wasn't "brought it" but it was definitely along the lines of "hasn't cared to ask if we want it." And she hustled away to come back (without the check) to tell us "she'll be right over with it." and she was right behind with it. The bill was $40 for the burger and three apps, two cokes and my drink. We gave at least $20 and decided not to go back any time soon.

The hail yesterday damaged 17% of my zinnias.

oh my

2009-06-30T20:22:00.001-07:00

There was all this hail. I've seen hail before but not so much that I could go up and gather a bunch and take pictures. But today I could go in the backyards wearing my flipflaps and while they soaked up the new standing rain, I could goggle at the nuggets. What a strange weather event. I felt like I was in one of the Little House books. Later, I finished watching the first season of Veronica Mars and we walked dogs in the wet wet world. The rain had eased and lightning still flashed occasionally toward Poets Seat. Looking across the factory yard toward the train tracks there was more light to be seen. A carpet of fireflies had awoken and were flashing their little selves into a storm of their own.

future plans

2009-06-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

its nice to think of taking a vacation in September, nice to think of having a summer. sometimes i think of taking all my blogs and ditching them. when's the last time i even dialed up my livejournal? i remember once i was going to download it all to pieces of paper and then put them in a ring binder, etc etc. but i never did. what's the point? and i think, what's the point of doing a blog anyway? so many times i think of something i want to share but don't because it is too depressing.

i think i'll keep the blog up on the internet because i might fall down and break my neck tomorrow and maybe people will have that morbid curiosity about me, that lady they knew peripherally or however and want to take a peek at my personality as displayed by the blog writing. maybe i'll go back and read my blogs and try to imagine being a stranger who heard i was dead and saw the blog link in the obit and decided to spend some time reading it. what would they think? would they be bored? would they be curious? i'm curious. i wish i would spend more time drawing dogs, like i did today, even though P & P would not pose very well, goofballs. i decided to follow this lady who tweets for Ashmont records and on her background there is a drawing, a really nice comic drawing of the pitbull, Charlie, who is the mascot, i think. i'd like very much to draw such things. i think i've drawn something cool once.

Do I Love You?

2009-05-30T14:47:00.000-07:00

Yes.

Yes

Yes

another Easter pic

2009-04-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

I just looked at DbR's upload from the past week or so and I saw this one of me and the pups on Easter Sunday and I had to include here on my blog. It's Wednesday, 2 am and I still have much I'd like to do in Nashville, we leave Saturday morning. I started reading Team of Rivals which is just an enjoyable history about Lincoln and his cabinet. There is a yukky bug flying around and Peretz is dreaming. David may be too but he's snoring so loudly I can't hear the dream. I had a fun time today making a cake for father in law. It is nice to be on vacation.

Translucent Easter Bonnet

2009-04-12T18:53:00.001-07:00

Leaving him at home with Peretz tonight while we go to the Station Inn.

So, about Pickles

2009-04-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Since my mom died last month DbR and I started planning a trip down to Nashville with the dogs to visit his parents and their dogs on his dad's 70th birthday week. Pickles hasn't had a face to face with Pepper or Berkeley and I was nervous about it. Pickles is generally a big dick and wants to always be the alpha and happily Peretz has come to grips with that from the get go. Meanwhile, Peretz has always known and been accepted into the Russell family of dogs, in fact, he came first and is sort of P + B's foster uncle.
So, in preparation I sent two of Pickles' blankets to Nashville along with a bone and a ball he had chewed and drooled on, believing in the experts who say that the scent of the strange dog will become familiar to the home dogs and he'll be more easily accepted, etc etc.
I was still very nervous the whole drive down from Massachusetts and the overnight in the Wytheville hotel didn't calm me. It didn't seem like either dogs are hotel dogs and they both (mostly Pickles, of course) were crazily preoccupied with the smells out in the hall (Pickles had his nose pasted to the doorcrack and spent most the night lying in the mini-vestibule) and wouldn't calm down. They relaxed for most the drive yesterday, however.
We got to Currywood Drive and let them run around the fenced in yard, without P + B at first. Pickles was in heaven. That dog loves to run run run and in the yard full of tennis balls he was pretty happy. Then we let Berkeley into the yard. Berkeley is a shaggy mutt, about 25 % larger than Pickles, same age. They scrapped pretty hard at first and no amount of yelling ceased that action. I was very upset, almost crying at the violence. The fighting continued and began to ebb. I was reassured by the Russells that that was what usually occurred, alpha was made clear and dog fighting ended. I was still worried, as Pickles still hadn't met Pepper and I was afraid the Peanut Butter gang would gang up on him and although Pickles kind of deserved it, he was definitely the aggressor, I was worried someone would get hurt, even a human when dogs were attempted to be split up.

"What if one dog bites the other dog's eye out?" I fretted, imagining the worst scenario.
"That wouldn't happen." I was reassured.
"I just don't want anyone to get hurt, get taken to the hospital."
"They usually yelp or tell us if they are hurt."

Pepper was introduced and Pickles attacked but when she backed down, peace haphazardly reigned. David wanted to nap after a while and so the four of us hunkered down in the bedroom and although at first the dogs napped for a minute, after a while longer they were anxious to go out and party some more. I grudgingly rose and feeling like showering but needing some product, I let the dogs out in the yard and asked Mr and Mrs if they would watch the four hounds while I went shopping real quick. They assented.

As I was leaving the store with my bag of hair stuff, toothbrush and new bag of balls, I received a call from David.

"You're up!" I declared.
"Yeah, my mom just woke me and told me she wanted to take Pickles to the vet because I guess the dogs got into a fight and his eyelid was tore."

We went to the emergency clinic and $450 and seven stitches later I have a dog on vacation who pushes against stuff with his lampshade hat as if it weren't there.
He definitely needs to be separated from the Peanut Butter gang. He seems happy enough, still chasing balls around the yard like mad. This morning he woke me up at 7 am and we went outside in the most gorgeous pink light and when I saw him running at full tilt I knew he was going to be okay.

Pickles was hurt in a Fight

2009-04-12T09:03:00.001-07:00

Easter Sunday

where is my one day old spotted tiger?

2009-03-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today after work I walked Pickles after getting totally bundled up. It was kind of raw outside. I was happy with the walk, though, after putting on the heavy sweater and heavy LL Bean jacket. Recently I was looking through my mother's pics and there is a pic of me with a less than one year old Sal on my back in one of those baby back packs and I was wearing that ol' green jacket, the same ol' green jacket from LL Bean. The thing works hard and now it's older than 15 yrs old. Good ol' jacket.

After the walk I went upstairs to put on play clothes and take off the stiff school clothes (i.e. brassiere) and after pulling on jeans and my new tee shirt I landed in bed. It was pretty nice and as I drifted off I heard Peretz down on the first floor bark bark barking and I could hear Pickles tearing around the house like a maniac which he often does after coming in from a walk. He'll start in the living room by the wood stove and run across the room to the hallway and run up the three steps to the first stairway landing and pant there for a few beats and then take off, running back the same way, at his top speed for inside the house and I could hear his feet on the floor scratching and scraping and running across the wood floor and it sounded very particular and idiosyncratic and meanwhile Peretz was bark bark bark. If someone was illustrating a dog barking, as a demonstration of the form of dog barking the picture would show Peretz with a word balloon which reads "bark" and that would be exactly him.

I heard all of this so loud and clear from the comfort of my bed and I heard Pickles take off again on his running route and I laughed out loud. I did not LOL but I did lay there in my jeans and comfortable tee shirt on my bed and I laughed out loud at the noise the dogs were making in the Bricker downstairs and at the dependability of them and their antics and their noises. Then I fell asleep.

One Step Forward is all that is expected

2009-03-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Puppies Seem To Have Big Paws

People Make Me Laugh

2009-03-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

Big Pink Pillow
Sunsets with Flower Buds
Dread, Resignations and
Other People's Triple Word Scores

On Facebook I read two comments tonight from women I know-well, one I know well and one I know peripherally. The woman I know well I love but sometimes do not like and the woman I know peripherally I find grotesque -on the inside and on the outside- and their comments I found completely superficial and self important. They dropped names and told stories which does nothing but seem to enhance their coolness- except to people like me who see through the guise keenly and skeptically and now I feel supercilious and resultingly self debasing because I would even have those judgmental thoughts flit through my mind.

"Are there any windows in here?"

2009-03-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

the assessor from my mortgage company came and looked through the house, taking pictures! and making notes so that she can go back and (hopefully) tell the company the house is worth more than 90$ thou so that I can get that pmi (private mortgage insurance) taken off my monthly mortgage payment. it actually adds up to 50$ a month that I pay for that shit!!!
i think my house is well worth more than 90$ at least the other bank thought so when they gave me a home equity loan. i told the (nice) lady that i had all new replacement windows (even in the basement!), a new boiler (well, from 2002 anyway) a new roof, new bathroom tile, etc etc. i forgot to tell her about the new chimney (argh!)

She was nice, thank goodness, because she and i travelled around the Bricker for twenty minutes, her making drawings of the floor plan and hopefully taking pictures which show how lovely the house is, me being charming as can be. She was nonplussed by the room on the second floor which was soundproofed but enthusiastic about the pantry, even in its current state of chaos. "that's ok, though, it's a pantry!" "yeah, but I can't find my muffin pan!" I complained.

There is a cellphone on the Bricker's front lawn, thrown there by some errant knave.

blurb...up to minute news from Greenfield, MA

2009-03-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

there was a cat-a dead cat in front of the elks club, lying on the grass between the sidewalk and the street. I could only see his large furry gray and white legs and some tail because the top 2/3rds of its body was covered with a nice quilted blanket. It was a large cat, at first glance i thought it was a small terrier-type dog but then i realized it was lying still, under the blanket and then I realized it was a dead cat. It was kind of strange.

distraction

2009-03-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

When i was on the vineyard getting over a bad date or whatever, i often watched ww2 movies or that south park movie to distract me from the pain. After I became the only one living in the Bricker, I watched a lot of Buffy to dull that experience. Now I distract myself again with amusing stories up on the screen. This time it is Battlestar Galactica. It's pretty interesting.

My mother
His mother

mother mother blah blah mother

Happy, sad, okay, sad, not bad, sad...

2009-03-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid and I was up and about, doing stuff around the house or whatever, and my mom was in bed sleeping while I was up, always made me feel funny. It was never right when she was sleeping (during the day) and I was awake. Of course this changed as I got into my teens and stayed up late watching tv. That was different. But when I was a kid during the few times she slept in or took a nap not on the couch I was always a little weirded out.

Education Reform

2009-03-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Kid-say, "oh yeah!"

Klingon this.

2009-01-17T18:37:00.001-08:00

'nuff said

new year, new voice

2009-01-05T05:19:00.000-08:00

This morning I am amused at the thought that for this year I will post in my husband's manner:
Woke up hard this morning after long night. Loud snoring downstairs punctuated dripping from roof/ceiling along with throbbing of old wound renewed: bulging disc.
Need more weekend. Fingers are numb.

yay

2008-12-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

yay! got a gyro for lunch from the greek place
yay! sunset is two minutes later tonight

Brunch is good

2008-12-21T15:18:00.000-08:00

Brunch was great today. it was super pleasant and exciting to sit at the bar with regulars and family and watch other regulars, family and neighbors come stomping in from the snowy snow snow, draw up at the bar as well or join x's birthday party and start enjoying spicy bloody marys, risotto, great coffee and tasty everything else. There was at least seven kinds of meat at the party and just as many different cakes and the raucous partygoers (singing was often and gusty) were eagerly (and besottedly) offering platefuls to everyone. Lingering lasted until the cooks were free to amble from the kitchen and goggle at the snow while chatting us all up. Yay for Hope and Olive!

2008-12-17T23:06:00.003-08:00

there were 74 views on my flickr yesterday. many people liked to look at this picture.

It is a picture of my husband in the park next to the Diamond Head park in Waikiki taking a picture of a kite. It was before we were totally swept up in a tropical storm which blew and drenched us. During the storm we were walking around a residential area and there were no businesses to duck into to stay out of the wet so we just slogged along and got totally drenched. Every once in a while a big gust of wind would whoosh us and I would be so surprised and helpless at the rainstorm all around us I would let out a yell or mini-screech. After a while DbR looked at me and joked, "nice bra". Sure enough I was a sight for a fatty wet tshirt convention! What had started as a nice walk around Waikiki in cloudy warm weather had turned into an unfortunate and slightly obscene event! I was embarrassed, to say the least. The bra I was wearing was perfectly serviceable and actually a nice support under a very thin summer shirt. Not to be worn fully drenched!
This is a pic of both of us before the storm:

see the nice light blue shirt? I looked awright. So we got drenched and then found the store we had headed out to find and in that store I bought a ten dollar dress. DbR continued wet. I felt sorry for the guy. This is a pic of us after I had changed. I had taken off my undies but was still wearing the wet bra, socks and vans.

I like my new ten dollar dress. I wonder if I can still wear it, in Massachusetts, in winter. Maybe I'll put on a sassy cardigan and wear the dress with knit thigh highs on new years eve at the hope and olive. It's a thought. I did walk around Waikiki in a wet tshirt. Why not wear an aloha dress in winter? No one tells me what I can do!

Feels like Honeymoon has just begun

2008-12-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

View from Lanai:

We're ensconced in a super lovely hotel in Waikiki, a place I've never been. DbR has stayed in this hotel before and has fond memories which include a Japanese Restaurant and Honolulu marathon, both of which he will get a taste of on this trip as well. Sitting on the hotel room's balcony overlooking park doings and ocean to my left. It is a busy place even though it continues overcast. The sun may be breaking through, though, I am beginning to see people's shadows on the grass. I would like to go swimming, but not in the gloom.

Here is a picture of some of the food we ate at the fancy Japanese restaurant in this hotel. Delicious and beautiful.

Here are some pics I have just taken from where I am sitting right now.

The sun really wants to come out. Everyone concentrate.

lovely Kauai

2008-12-12T17:01:00.000-08:00

THis is where we stayed in Kauai. We've checked out already today and are now just lally-gagging around loafing until our 6 pm flight to Honolulu. It was actually a very lovely cottage even though it had no to little internet. It stood near other cottages owned by a nice family. Also nearby was the Wailua River which became very muddy and full after monstrous rains wedn night/thurs morning. Our sneakers were out on the porch (we werent' allowed to wear shoes inside) during the storm and got wet. They've dried since. The cottage was lovely and we slept much better there than in Hauula.

claustrophobic

2008-12-06T23:33:00.000-08:00

I hate seeing the husband all sweatly and disrupted in his peacefulness. Today was a helluva day. The flight from CT to TX was in someways worse than the twice as long of a one from TX to HI. I felt so hot and aggravated while waiting my turn to squeeze out of the plane -- it seemed to take so long and I had a hard time keeping calm and really felt like crap from the time we landed until I was in the airport, putting down my broken bag which was soon discarded. I expected the worse for the next leg-an eight and a half hour long jaunt to Honolulu airport. But I psyched myself up during the two hour layover in Dallas and I did some walking about, some stretching and really sorted myself out for a long long scene.

And it was long but I handled it okay. There was a hella cute baby boy two seats in front of us, he was about 8-9 months and just watching him cry and smile was a nice distraction. I slept a lot, I read Hollywood by A Burr. I tickled and tortured the husband, and when I was really really bored and grumpy I went to the bathroom and just stayed in the room by myself for a few minutes which was a relief. So I got through it and we got the car and luggage and the sun was setting just as we were figuring out how to go north on 63 and the condo isn't what I hoped but its not terrible and tomorrow should be lovely. hurray! my first honeymoon in hawaii has begun.

We Drove To CT

2008-12-05T20:54:00.000-08:00

Sitting up in the Bricker watching an absurd show on the netflix instant download. Husband snores downstairs alone. Dog aren't home. The old lady in charge of the kennel (spa) where we left the dogs said she'd bring them a blanket. They have adjoining cells which each have a plastic pedestal where the dogs can lie instead of the stall's hard concrete floor. The cells have individual doorways which allow the dogs to go outside into their outdoor stall area from where they can see each other through the chain link fence. They can also look across to the pens of the other dogs which are kennelled there and they can also look up the nearby hill to see goats hanging in the yard and above that, a large fenced in area, also filled with individual kennels, all inhabited with st bernards, one after each gigantic other, all living to breed, all barking their heads off. Behind them is the farmhouse, the barnhouse and the cat=smelly shed room where the mistress of the kennel sells her wares and keeps her books.

This show is so sleazy and horrible great. It is touted by netflix as the Male Sex in the City and Anthony Head is superb, once more with feeling. I want to watch more but I should sleep and there doesn't seem to be more than one episode offered on the streaming netflix. I just heard a loud firetruck-like siren off in the distance of Greenfield.

I was told about this dog spa from my boss who leaves her dogs there. I guess it is fine and it's not super pricey and what I love is that it is five minutes away from the Hartford airport so we can pick them up super quick instead of driving all the way to Greenfield before seeing them. It is weird right now because since I am not on the plane travelling, I have this time to muse about the dogs and what they are doing instead of dealing with airports and airplane neighbors, crying babies and dry skin and rental cars. I am looking forward to picking up the dogs and bringing them home more than I am looking forward to getting on the plane and travelling to Hawaii. Please note: I didn't state "more than I am looking forward to vacationing in Hawaii." But I do have the time to wish we could have brought scraps of carpet to put down under their plastic pedestals and perhaps big fluffy dog beds to put on top of the pedestals and maybe some Indian

tapestries to hang about, I wish we could have tacked some photos up and perhaps we might have plugged in a radio they could listen to, although you know Pickles and Peretz would be arguing about the station choice constantly. Peretz will finally have his dominant will heard and classical or jazz music will waft about the closed in barn with all the empty stalls except those two over on the right, close to the front door, where our dogs from the cozy beds of Greenfield shiver the night away with the paltry heat promised to be bestowed upon the dogs after all the doors have been closed and the lights have been turned off. Cats and kittens will be the sole prowlers and the only sound heard is the very seldom yelp from that one cranky goat who sleeps on a sore buttock.

If our plane crashes, please go pick up the dogs at Meadowrock Kennels, rt 75, Suffield, CT and find them good homes amongst our friends and families.

last day of NOvember

2008-11-30T17:53:00.000-08:00

So the husband and I got into a spat over leftovers. I find it somewhat humorous. We almost didn't have any leftovers and then it seems like there are so many leftovers but then the last of the dark meat, dressing and gravy was all heated up and piled on a plate and it didn't seem like enough for us both. Good thing I was generous with the last big wedge of Rum Cake (oh, that was so good...)!

Penultimate post of November

2008-11-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

I do wish I were eating this right now.

dog threw up

2008-11-28T16:11:00.001-08:00

Poor Peretz. Poor us humans, cleaning that crap up.

ate too much yesterday. halfway through the preparations DbR said that Neil and Fafnir might come over for dinner. He showed me how all of our dishes were vegetarian except the bird itself, the dressing which was now stuffing and gravy. I was wowed. DbR then pointed out the paltry five potatoes I had gotten, more than enough for us two but now we were four, maybe even six because Cooper and Jess were possibly coming as well. I was a little nervous and when we took out the turkey I had misgivings as did he, that it was too dry. He knifed out a bit on top of the white meat and it was actually very good as was the skin which he had rubbed with some nice spicy maple spicy stuff. it was spicy.

so it did become the six of us and Cooper brought over all this fancy scotch which was nice to taste and we downloaded star trek onto the magic netflix box and I fell in love with Bill all over again. I wish he was in the movie which is coming in May. boo hoo.

Did you know that I didn't like racism?

2008-11-27T07:06:00.001-08:00

But I do love a big sweater and a funny winter toque.

I like Alex Baldwin

2008-11-26T17:12:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting down watching Rosie Live and it's schmaltzy but awesome. Alex is on right now and seeing him makes me want to watch Outside Providence again. I'm kind of t'red 'cause when I came home I launched into constant kitchen motion for the last 3 hours. I wasn't even making anything for tomorrow. The last few nights DbR and I have been looking at each other at dinner time and wondering what the heck to eat because all the food in the house is generally earmarked for the thanksgiving meal. Sunday we had frozen pizzas, monday we had...oh, some curry rice thing he whipped up with all the extra stuff he could find and last nght we ate chinese (I had ginger milk bubble tea-yum!) but tonight I knew what was going to happen and I went to Fosters before coming home even though I had promised myself I wouldn't go to the store today. But I went because I wanted to get cake stuff and then while I was there I thought, "I should get dinner stuff." I thought, hamburgers! but since we split a meatloaf club earlier I thought there must be another meat we could enjoy and I contemplated the chicken for a while and while I was I thought "enchiladas" and then forwent the chicken for ground pork. So I came home and while DbR made filling for sweet potato pies and squash stuff I made enchiladas and then baked off the yummy chocolate cookies, pictures to follow.

I really like that Kathy Griffith.

Love is hiding who you are at all times, even when you're asleep

2008-11-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

Watching 50 Rock, it's so great. This one actually stars Tim Conway who is pretty funny. It's a good show. Haven't watched any of the new ones, though. "My genius has come alive, like toys when your back is turned." Tracy Jordan

This evening since it wasn't colder than hell or raining like crazy so I decided I would take Pickles on a longer walk than usual. Since it has been dark before I even get home from work I lack the get up and go to go very far with him so I usually just saunter around the quick block. Now I actually know what I was missing and like I said, since it wasn't torture tonight, Pickles and I walked up to the flashing light and the Husband and Peretz tagged along. Just about at the corner Pickles and I saw a cute and curious shih tzu who crossed the street to see us. Pickles sniffed and didn't get too alarming but acted affronting enough to get Ms. Shih to walk back across. But then Cutie acted upsettingly, going over to the corner and crossing the street at the blinking light and then she wavered about the street as if to cross again and cars starting coming along at a quick rate and DbR and I were both very anxious about her. I left Pickles with his pals and crossed over to check out where Ms. Shih lived which hopefully was on her tags. She saw me coming and trotted away, away from Allen, up Beech and happily on her way home. Why was she allowed to wander about freely? Dangerous.

I miss days/walks like this.

Last night I was watching the third episode of the fifth season of Buffy and Giles was standing next to a bookcase and was looking at a certain book and I saw that on the same shelf as the book he had taken out and was looking at was the book LINCOLN by Gore Vidal. I think that's pretty cool because that book is great. (As is BURR) I also just enjoy episodes which focus on Xander.

Yay, worlds collide

2008-11-24T07:03:00.000-08:00

I know stuff about my neighborhood

2008-11-24T06:13:00.000-08:00

As I write this, I am choking a little on some particles which have been stirred up in my cellar by some blowing/vacuuming device which has been used by the guy from Deerfield Valley Heating and Cooling. We paid to have him come in and give the boiler a once over to make sure it is in adequate shape for this cold winter and he cleaned something or something with some tool which blew all sorts of debris dust smoke particles into the air, which have travelled upstairs to where I and the dogs are and it's making it hard to breathe and smells yukky. I also am disturbed by the cloudy quality of the air in the kitchen. Yuck. I did open the back door for a couple minutes but that action did not take much edge off the infusion. Poor Lauri. I feel sympathy for the slobs who live in Beijing and other polluted towns where poor air quality is an everyday thing. yuck.
The guy just came upstairs with a steaming bucket which I assume is filled with hot water from the boiler. I have the dogs on leashes in the kitchen and they are excited and interested in his comings and goings.

Big week has begun. DbR and I, "the newlyweds" are gearing up for our first Thanksgiving. I have never cooked the grand turkey dinner before, I have only made pies and cleaned up while boyfriends and others have cooked and done the dealio which is fine with me. But this year we have no where else really to go and I would very much like some turkey and stuffing so I've convinced Husband to come along with me on the Thanksgiving ride. He seems up for it. We went to Atkins and bought our 9.7 lb Plainville Farms turkey and some cranberries and potatoes and squash and mushrooms. Last week DbR made a super great spicy maple squash dish so I asked him to repeat that and I asked him if he could make a pumpkin pie and he opted for a sweet potato pie-yum. I think I am going to try to make those cookies again and I am going to follow the directions perfectly this time (see yesterday's blog for reference) and see if they can be moister. Although last night people did eat the cookies with gusto and when I complained that I wished they were more moist one guy said, "so they would be liquid" so who knows, maybe I am hypercritical about my cookies. I used white chocolate chips instead of chocolate chocolate chips and that may have been the trouble.

I have been looking through the November 08 issue of Gourmet and there are two main articles about Thanksgiving. One is the huge deluxe thanksgiving meal and the other is, "thanksgiving in four hours!" In the deluxe article there is a recipe for chipotle meatballs which I'd like to try sometime-not for Thanksgiving-and there is this other fancy recipe for wild mushroom bundles which look hella good and I asked the husband to take them on. We need something green at the table, right? So I'm nervous-I want everything to be yummy and I don't want us to argue and get aggravated in the kitchen together but we'll be okay. Yesterday while I made cookies and he the banana pudding, all was well. I wish we had more counter space though!!

Recipes always crap out

2008-11-23T16:23:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been making cookies and cakes, etc. using recipes I find in Gourmet or on line. They are not Gourmet recipes, they are usually recipes found on the sides of pages, in the butter ad or the Ghirardelli chocolate ad. They've been turning out not exactly right-today I made these chocolate cookies and they don't look like the cookies in the ad, boo hoo, and they are kind of dry-not sweet and gushy, even though they have plenty of butter and choc. chips in them. I did make some alterations in the recipe which may have caused the imperfect result and it is not like the cookies are crap or anything. They are very chocolatey-just not super soup-y and moist. oh well.

DbR made a big batch of banana pudding, I have to laugh, it is pretty huge. DbR makes the pudding as a bunch of layers: cookie, pudding (made from scratch), bananas, cookie, pudding, bananas, etc and then on top a layer of whipped cream, yum. The thing fills up a large turkey roasting pan-it is fairly momentous. I think the cookies will go hella well with the puddin'. I kind of don't really like the cookies all that much. Anyway, we are bringing those desserts to the Hope + Olive tonight along with our Singstar game to celebrate 2 out of 3 of the proprietors of that restaurant and it should be good. I hope people like my cookies even though they are dry and tasteless.

I hope the stuff I make for Thanksgiving turns out tastier.

Saturday

2008-11-22T19:49:00.000-08:00

"notify Agent Zarkov"

watching that Flash Gordon movie from the 80's. Its funny. Seems like Agent Zarkov is a little spaced out in this scene. What's going to happen? Been trying to keep the house warm with the woodstove. It's going okay. I wanted to take the edge off the third floor and warm the kid's room up a little. It just seems so cold cold cold.

wow, it's later than i thought

2008-11-21T20:12:00.000-08:00

lately it has been hard keeping track of time. it's dark, it's light, now it's dark again. ok, it's dark but it's still early. no, it's late.
I did all the dishes and some laundry but there are so many plastic and paper bags strewn about the pantry it's disgusting and i wish i knew where my magic wand was put.

bedroom is also a mess. trying to heat the house with the woodstove. doing okay.

I will survive

2008-11-21T05:42:00.001-08:00

First otter reaches Farne Islands

An otter has survived a "perilous" three-mile sea crossing to the Farne Islands for the first time, the National Trust has said.

The animal, more commonly found in rivers, has swum from the coast of Northumberland despite rough seas.

Head warden David Steel said he was stunned to find 60 yards of otter tracks on Brownsman Island, which is famed for its bird colonies.

The mammal has not yet been sighted, but it is thought to be still there.

Agitated behaviour by the island's gulls and puffins suggest the new predator has settled in.

Force nine gales

While otters in Scotland do live in coastal areas, Mr Steel said it was "a rare event" to see them by the sea in England.

For one to reach an island three miles offshore was, he said, "incredible".

"It is staggering that an otter could survive the perilous journey out to the Farne Islands, especially Brownsman, which is a long way from the mainland," he said.

"We almost had to rub our eyes with disbelief when we discovered the tracks," he told the BBC.

"We've recently had force nine gales and it can be tricky to reach the islands even on a relatively calm day, which makes this otter's journey a little bit special."

Mr Steel said the otter may be a young animal, fresh from leaving the family fold and seeking its own territory.

"It might be a lonely animal, but it will hopefully survive," he said.

"There'll certainly be plenty of food, plenty of crustaceans and fish to feed upon, but unfortunately, unless another animal swims out here, it might have a lonely existence.

"But there's no reason why we can't get a second or third animal. They are obviously exploring this area so, who knows, maybe in the future might have a small breeding population."

The only worry, Mr Steel said, was about the impact the otter might have on nesting birds next summer.

"Unfortunately, otters are carnivores. They will feast upon bird eggs and small chicks so at that moment it may be a slight concern."

In the late 1950s and early 60s, otters underwent a sudden and catastrophic decline throughout much of Britain and Europe, probably due to the combined effects of pollution and habitat destruction.

home with the guys

2008-11-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

I blew off yoga. I'm just lazy. Came home after running a few errands and made a fire while husband made a pretty great dinner-tortellini with gorgonzola and a squashy side dish. Looks like us newlyweds are going to have to put a thanksgiving meal together at home. Might actually be fun, right?

Looking forward to watching an instant download of dirty harry. I used to watch that fairly frequently and I'm psyched to see it again. First, however, a dog walk. Feeling lazy about that as well.

hungry-er than usual

2008-11-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

why does one get more hungry than the usual hungry when one is unable to eat as opposed to just not eating? Today I received the second half of my scraping and planing dental treatment, getting the remaining plaque and calculus taken off my choppers. Again, the yoga breath was very helpful. When the needles came into my mouth and poked poked poked at me, I found myself tensing up. When the laser stream hit my gums and other places, I found my brow was furrowed and my shoulders tensed. What I would do is stare at a corner of the drop ceiling and breath through my nose in that conscious fashion and the brow would unwrap, the shoulders would come down, the dental needle faded off and now I have the clean teeth and firm resolve to brush floss and poke with more intent and better purpose.

The scraping/planing woman would often murmur with concern while working on my wisdom teeth and had to come back to them again and again. I tortured her by saying, "well, it figures that the calculus would be attracted to the wisdom tooth!" oh, I know, I know, poor lady.

Now I'm hella hungry. Just cleaned the bathroom and looking forward to the mount everest of dishes-yay!

arbitrary rulings

2008-11-18T18:53:00.000-08:00

today at work i was told that the cfo wanted to change the way i label some invoices which i enter into an accounting program and there was no real reason except for a whim, as i was told...i plead my case and then some kittens came into the office and i fled home with a migraine Ala nausea.

at home i had some alka seltzer and was yet again amazed at its acuity regarding absolution of all physical ailments. today literally as i drank it (and it went down very easy) i felt it healing as i felt it descend my esophagus. it was miraculous. i went upstairs and lay down with pickles under the blanket and felt better as i sipped my peppermint tea.

later i talked to the kid and a brilliant plan was formed for this weekend. i can't wait.

i did not go to yoga and i missed it. but then i went to dinner at the hope and olive. i had the meatloaf. it was perfect.