ok, so andrew came home today, and brought with him a copy of amelie on dvd that belongs to his new roommate. i really like this guy, sight unseen, because i so enjoyed the movie- in french with english subtitles- i absolutley loved the quirky plot, and the unexpectedness of it all. of course, i want to go to montmartre and try to find every liitle nook and cranny filmed- i especially found humor in the scene where nino is helping the assistant price 'merchandise' in the peep show store,,,,,i laughed so hard my children were somewhat embarassed.........alas, without the subtitles i would have understood few of the many priceless moments.....i will be buying a copy soon........

ok, so mean mamma has never actually heard an eminem vocalization- i feel very tipper gore-like in saying that i have no interest in what he has to say just because i think he might be offensive. i just read the newspaper account of the mtv awards- pish=-posh, i say to all that- the only artist who won anything that i would actually BUY is the white stripes, because i heard about them on npr and they sounded quite eclectic- ok so stephan says that i am being quite rude for not liking something i have not heard- not rude- just mean........get it right- ok?

ok, so i am marching through my new collection of john grisham novels- each seem to be about 1 or more brilliant lawyers- usually one. i am now curious which of the many protaganist brilliant lawyers that grisham actually identifies with, or really resembles under the veneer of fiction. i just read 'the partner' which was somewhat disappointing aside from the fact that the female lawyer had the last laugh. i suppose that even jane austin had a bad day writing about her millieu- i didn't like northanger abbey, for example........but then grisham is no jane austin........

ok, so i am going through loyal opposition withdrawal, now that her site has been inaccessible for several days...i admit it, i like to read the lyrics to songs i would not normally download, i like to read about her cat, and i value her opinions on life in general...come back, little dodo, come back-in your absence i have been forced to read a gardening blog from houston, texas that is not nearly so entertaining............

ok, as i was driving to work after dropping children off at school, i saw a woman walking with her cat. the cat was walking right along with her like she had a leash- right on pace- it was a sight to see. cats just don't do that as a matter of course. we once had a mother and daughter pair that would 'walk' with us on occassion- around the circle. fluff and tootsie would actually walk with us, rather they would follow us, about 10-15 feet behind, like secret agents on a survelience mission. it was a hoot...i really miss those cats. fluff was not the fluffiest of the two- tootsie was bushy and wild looking, but she somehow got the name tootsie when she showed up one day with her 2 kittens. one of the kittens died soon after, leaving us with fluff. gosh, i miss those cats.

ok, so mean mamma just wants to say.....thanks...to acw and scw for all of those years that i did not have to monitor your homework progress, worry about spelling words, or math drills, or spend 45 minutes cajoling either one of you to write more than 1 sentence on what labor day means to you that did not come straight out of the dictionary........ tonight, i have spent the last 2 hours working through the spelling word thing- trying to get from 'i already know my words' to 'i don't want to do the words' to 'i will never have to know these words ' to numerous time outs, an almost missed supper, and finally an effeciently spent 10 minutes actually writing down words that mean mamma said aloud (yes, aloud was a word tonight, as well as allowed, as in cayle is not allowed to drive a car....) so frustrating when your daughter cannot be just like your sons....again, guys, thanks so very much........

ok, so the new gourmet magazine came yesterday, and i sat outside after swimming laps to savor the pictures, articles, and recipes. alas, many articles about how to use tomatoes, herbs, etc- as i look at my deck plants- a cherry tomato, 2 basils, parsley, chives, oregano, marjarom (sp) and lemon thyme- a glory in being able to pop a cherry tomato or 2 in my mouth daily, and have little hope of ever having enough to actually make a recipe calling for said tomatos.........the aforementioned produce is actually a bumper crop by my standards- still alive by labor day. i did use some basil and lemon thyme and parsley in a marinated tomato (boughten) salad, with rice vinegar and olive oil- stephan has had multiple helpings........the magazine people will not be by anytime soon...........

ok, so i enjoyed the npr interview with david bowie this morning - he has a new album out called heathen, which is produced by his ziggy stardust producer. now ziggy played guitar, and the spiders from mars.............all this was 30 years ago- if that doesn;'t make me feel old, i don't know what does.......david has gone through more transformations than madonna ever thought of- and yet, both he and madonna have children under the age of 2- bowie has to be over 50, with a toddler at home. in his second family, of course, because he has an older child from a previous life who went to and graduated from the college of wooster a few years back- and his presence at graduation caused quite a stir........he spoke of his downer/comptemplative lyrics, and spoke of his lyrics as such rather than poetry set to music. my favorite bowie song is changes........i wish i had it as a download mp3 file.........

ok, so i went with mark and mel to see mr. rowland this morning. we were quite eloquent and restrained, i believe. i really enjoyed mark's comment about coming to see mr rowland rather than ms. johnson- 'if i was really worked up i would have gone straight to the aclu...' i paraphrase but you get the gist........i believe that mr rowland heard our main concerns- the inappropriate use of a single religion in a classroom setting and the possible lack of competence of the teacher to teach the class without use of a textbook, syllabus, etc. i do feel confident that mr rowland will followup on our concerns.

ok, so cayle walked part of the way to the bike shop today with peter silver tapley. she described him as the older boy from montessori named peter........he went in the shop with her, got a drink from the fountain and went on home. ernst said he hardly recognized him he had grown so much. when andrew was in preschool, the 5th graders seemed so big, when he was in james' room, the 5th graders still seemed so big, when andrew was in the 5th grade, he seemed so small, and unready to go on to bate. it is hard to believe that cayle is 2 years out of middle school.

.i had told cayle that we would put up one wall of wallpaper in her new room (stephan's old room) and a border. alas, it has now occured to ernst and i that we putup the shelving over stephan's wallpapered wall- and that taking down said wallpaper may be more than we are prepared to do right now- taking down every single metal track/screw/board.........oh my........this child has her hopes set on a treeline border with a sky background onm the accent wall- which is infinitely better than the wolfpack border she chose originally...because she likes wolves... because she is reading call of the wild in silent reading at school.......ernst decided to try to talk her into liking stephan's old wallpaper......i wish him luck.........

ok, so i have this new favorite show- for the record, i can only handle watching one or two shows a week on a regular basis, not counting pbs mystery or masterpiece theatre, of course.......but only if the offering is good.......anyway, i enjoy this borrowed abc show called monk- it is about an obsessive-compulsive police consultant who has solved murders two weeks running now. it is a stitch to watch the ocd stuff in addition to figuring out who-dun-it. he straightens stuff, he keeps his laundry in cellophane bags to keep everything fresh, he boils his toothbrushes between uses....that sort of thing. he is everything that i am not. anyway, i enjoy this show, as well as the show alias (also on abc?) which is kind of like the old mission impossible show- only with a young, extremely fit female lead. i know that i would watch more tv if i got cable, but i have drawn the line on cable, and will not pay the price for the luxury of hundreds of channels that will lure me into watching more television and reading less.

ok, so andrew was home for supper tonight when i got home from class- eventually he will stay up in lexington because all of his belongings will finally be there instead of here. he already looks very grown up to me, even from yesterday. there must be a hormonal change that happens when you feel confident and accomplished in doing things for yourself, like buying books getting your internet account lined up. ah well......

ok, so i really miss andrew- the summer has been so idyllic, and everyone has basically gotten along cordially- and now the house seems vaguely empty even though there are still 4 of us here. we have rearranged the supper table, and reassigned bathrooms, and reassigned other minor housekeeping stuff like who cleans out the catbox. yet and still, andrew is not here, he is there- hopefully he IS there and not somewhere else- hopefully today he will buy his books, skim through the first chapters of each, look up on the map the location of his classes, and make plans to actually attend these classes, introduce himself to professors, etc. maybe he will come home for the 3 day weekend............

ok, so i swam laps, came back up to the house after drying off, and got right on the computer........just like i said, i got right on the computer. gentle readers, this phenomena is quite curious- i might take days to get used to the novetly....kind of like people unused to running water who keep turning on the faucet just to see the water running out. stephan is occupied with moving his stuff into his new room- which is twice the size of his old room, with a double bed and a double sleeper sofa and room for several sleeping bags- it is a veritable party palace compared to his old room and the room he had before that. alas, we have not yet put up the bookcases to house his personal library- we think it will take at least 7-8 shelves to accomodate his collection- even after he gave up his collection of eyewitness books to his sister.......this family has an obsene(obcene, obscene?) number of books- for which i am unapologetic....which is why our favorite family destination is j.beth and my favorite web site is half.com (i can buy used hardbacks for less than new paperbacks....) i am now rushing through the elizabeth george mysteries, alongside pbs new series of dramatised george mysteries. the second partof a 2-parter is on tonight, and i do not yet know who-done-it.........many thanks to mona wyatt who suggested that i might like her work- english but not traditionally stodgy or trite. in the novel i finished last night, one of the murder victims liked to wax her entire body so that there would be no hair whatsoever----quite curious....speaking of england, virgin atlantic has ultra cheap fares to london this fall.....i am not in the mood for london- i would rather go to paris if i must go somewhere.......

ok, so andrew has an actual dorm room- haggin hall, and an actual roommate- named......andrew. we are so relieved that this detail has been taken care of. ernst went up with him to uk today to make sure that everything was all worked out- meal card, room, key, parking pass, etc, they drove up together, and then they drove back to danville to drop off ernst, then andrew went back up to uk to get settled in. ok ,so i know that none of this is headline news.........but he is still my boy leaving home to a school that i would not have chosen for him if it had been up to me to decide. but, should he make the best of it, it may work out just fine.......

ok, so i picked up the phone this morning and called ms. johnson about my concerns re: world studies. i told her that i was, of course, concerned about her bias toward christianity, but assumed that she had already spoken to ms bennett about this issue. i told her that i was equally concerned about ms. bennett lack of knowledge on the subject she is teaching, and the concerns that i have about the text books that aren't being used. ms johnson told me that ms bennett believes the text to be above the heads of the class.........and thus she plans to use them only as reference. ms johnson already knew that stephan had corrected ms bennet on the king tut pyramid thing (king tut has no pyramid......) and that she had apologized to the class that she was wrong. of course she has not apologized for the business of noah being the father of all mankind, or the shell fossils on top of mt ararat as proof of the great flood, nor for asking for a show of hands on who was christian. she may be enthusiastic to teach this class, and the may be the only person available to teach it, but she is clearly in over her head with all but the most basic of students.......

ok, so i started laughing in church yesterday. the lyrics to the first hymn spoke of jesus being the God of both 'the wise and the simple' the notion of being simple struck me as quite ironic- as simple people tend to not catch on that they are simple(tons)- occassionally they are under the illusion that they are actually clever.

ok, so i am having food flashbacks from college- there was a deli on my walk home from the home ec building. when i was feeling especially wealthy i would order an onion bagel sandwich- toasted- with turkey, mustard, provolone and mayo. it would be just as good without the turkey- as the onion and provolone flavors are the highlights. i was thinking of this sandwich as a tried to recreate it with an onion bun, shredded mozzarella, turkey and mayo- ok but not quite as magical as the real thing.

after all of my cleaning yesterday, i filled a box of stuff to sort through and 'file' away. now martha stewart would be proud- because the box is actually a lined basket- but martha would have gone on and finished the sorting job right then and there- my box is sitting on the floor where i will ignore it until i cannot recall what sorts of things are in there and other stuff like clothes for the goodwill will get piled on top. there are so many things that i cannot throw away- school things belonging to my children- i have every drawing ever made by my children- every piece of their poetry- every craft brought home from camp or school- every ribbon or computer-printed 'certificate' - every trophy. each child has a big plastic lidded tub (or two) filled with stuff. i suspect that the basket is filled with my stuff- i cannot tthrow away stuff like tickets from trips, brochures from places visited- i know in the basket there is a ticket stubb from the art musuem in brussels- now a ticket stub is not much use once one leaves the museum, and i am not going back to brussels any time soon- but i know that i willnot throw away that ticket. if i had a lick of sense i would go upstairs right now, get that ticket, and tape it inside my travel notebook from that trip- and get it all over with........of course, that would still leave a basket filled with other stuff.....maybe tomorrow........

ok, so i am so angry today that i have resorted to terroristic housecleaning to channel this angst lest i do physical damage on my loved ones. i have cleaned out 3 towel and linen closets, and gone so far as to take at least 3 semi-ratty mattress covers and assorted bedding dating at least to my pre-marriage years to the goodwill. the peach colored comfortor i could have found a good home for- but today was the day that catharis is key. i took a load of recycling as well, including 2 boxes of old magazines that iloaded up from every cubby hole i could find- even new yorkers- that is how much i needed to find busywork. i rearranged books on the 'new' shelves in our bedroom- the ones that were supposed to give us leaway in terms of book storage- they are now hopelessly full, with stacks in front of shelved books to the point that one cannot see them.. in all of this semi-rage, i came across a book i had not noticed- called 'a wonderful son' printed on some sort of recycled paper with flowers and seeds imbedded in the fly paper, with poems and drawings and essays- the book was dedicated to 'a wonderful' son from his mother on 1/1/02. (just 3 months before she died.) of course i had not seen this book, because i was flying to europe on 1/1/02- only ernst went on from the airport into cincinnati- to see his mother. on this particular day i cannot see past my frustration at my own wonderful son to comtemplate such a tender gift-

ok, so sara wilson's mom called yesterday to tell me that sara had pledged chi omega sorority. i had written a recommendation for her, and mailed it up to uk just before rush started. i am truly pleased for her, because she is such a precious girl- has been so since i first met her in montressori preschool oh so many years ago. she will probably fit right in. i do not keep up with my chi omega 'sisters' , which is not surprising in that i was once voted the sister least likely to pay a visit. i am still proud of that.........

ok, so i have just been informed that i get to take cayle to her soccer practice at 8:30 am tomorrow- on my only real day off this week- when i imagined that i would be sleeping in all cozy in my soft covers.......

ok, so i should have seen this coming- andrew, at the age of two, once refused the offer of a parental hand while crossing the street- instead he clasped his own hand- saying 'i hold my own hand....' he has been a 'hold-my-own-hand kind of guy all along, so i cannot be too surprised that he left for college with such minimal fanfare- no tearful goodbyes, no hugs, no promises to call...honestly- i wouldn't be surprised if he never really moves back home. he might like the freedom of living on his own so much that he just continues to do so between semesters. of course, we never said that we wouldn/t change the locks.......

ok, so my oldest child has left the nest- he packed up his car and drove to lexington to a friend's apt- and we do not know when we will see or hear from him again. i feel so old and helpless at the same time......a bit more optimistic than barbara bush- at least i need not fear that my boy will somehow devise to destroy the free world..........

ok ,so when i grow up i will dye my hair purple.......

ok, so YOU- YOU will get over this= quicker than you should.......you are so special- too special for high school romances- by the way....believe in yourself for a few more years and some one WORTHY will come forth.....trust me one on this one.......

ok, so i dismissed someone today- without a thought. she asked how to get into the restaurant as i was leaving- i asked her if i could help- she said she needed to know how to get in so she could fil out an application i said we were not hiring, and so she left, and then i said to myself that we are not hiring women without teeth. i feel that i am letting down many women- with my personal bias, but i cannot hire women without teeth. granted, we are not hiring anybody, with or without teeth, but i cannot hire people missing teeth. there is a point to which i cannot save the world, and it comes when people are missing teeth. enough said......

i had the interesting sensation yesterday- of meeting up with someone i know- not well- but respectfully- and realizing that she reads my blog. it was a sensation that races through- very electric- like seeing a ghost i suppose. the immediacy of knowing that someone knows more about you than they would under normal circumstances. a curious feeling- not in a taudry brittney spears way- but curious nonetheless.......and if she is reading......hello- fellow hyphan....................there are so few of us we should be bonded anyway......

ok, so ernst and cayle are upstairs in a screaming hysteric, and i am upset, in my blog, because andrew is leaving sometime today or tomorrow, but will not tell us when- he has also told me that i do not have to come to the parents programs on saturday at uk- i feel like male breasts- so un-needed and dismissed......so many issues so little time---i cannot deal with cayle's issues until i deal with andrew leaving home.......he wants money, of course.................just not my presence..........i may need sedation before this parting is over..........

ok, so anne williams is my new hero(ine)- she called dhs today to complain about ms bennet and her religious agenda- running the prince of egypt at the 10th grade level is a sign that things have gotten out of hand.....now, if she had invited a muslim to come and speak on islam, and a jew to come and speak about judiaism, i wouldn't be so upset. but her agenda is so narrow. though i profess to christianity, i take much of it 'with a grain of salt' i do not believe that i, as a woman, sprung from adam's rib- or that noah is the ancestor that connects us all- now that my father- the most devout christian i have ever known is in a hopelessly senile limbo, i even doubt the existence of gods or goddesses- the 'why do bad things happen to good people' thing. frankly, i would like to have one day, as a parent, without a 'ms. bennet said this' story........

ok, so today is wednesday, and wednesday is the day that my friend gail and i play the lottery- i call her my millionaire friend, by the way, because i am convinced that we will win one day. we will, by the way, establish a scholarship fund at dhs for students who graduate with a 3.5 or higher- . with the rest.....i will buy a paris apartment- something at la muette metro stop which is near the bois de bologne in passy. i have been there several times visiting marmatton museum- it is quite peaceful. in my mind i have decorated it over and over- while i cook or swim laps, both with finds from the flea markets or from a decorator (pierre frey) . this is probably the most personal thing i have disclosed in this blog- my dream paris apt.- of course in my dreams i can actually speak french- not just mumble catch phrases. i suppose i am thinner in my dreams as well, and order bolder wines- but i certainly do not wear foolish heels or plunging necklines..........

ok, so this lbrary book sale is getting out of hand......everyday i pick up cayle at the library i see yet another book on the sale table- i am now nearing 25 books that lay unread on my steps because i lack the space to put 25 new books. it has been suggested that i 'retire' 25 books from active duty, and/or donate them to the library. to me, my relationship with books is the 'til death do us part' variety. we will simply have to build more shelves, somewhere. speaking of building, i am thinking about building drawers and shelves into the sides of our bedroom, into the crawlspace under the eaves, and moving out our too-small dressers. this move would make our bedroom much larger and give us more drawer space- i would move my dresser down to the guest room when i move my sewing cabinet up to cayle's room when cayle moves into stephan's room when stephan moves into andrew's room- got it? musical chairs was never this complicated. ernst says that stephan cannot move into andrew's room until the carpets have been cleaned, so it all may wait til that chore is arranged........

ok, so at my class last night, i looked down to check off names from the roster of students- and i cannot focus on the paper- i can barely make out the letters- and in order to not look totally incompetent to new students, i blunder on for a few names until i just whip off the glasses to see if they are just smudged (which would be better than me going blind in a matter of minutes....) i wiped them off, and then noticed, to my horror, that they were NOT MY GLASSES. they were stephan's glasses which i must have picked up by mistake when i washed my face in the upstairs bathroom before leaving the house. not only could i not read the fine print in the text to do the lecture, i knew that stephan could not do his homework for not being able to read his text. i gave my lecture from memory- and felt grateful that i can still well enough to drive without glasses.........ok, so this story is not as good as losing stephan in the nyc subway, but it is still amusing.......

ok, so i entertain myself while cooking by imagining trip scenarios. the following is le voyage de jour:

day 1- fly to paris
day 2 arrive in paris; lunch in a recommended place- something nice like la bookiniste on the left bank; dash into ste, chapelle for a quick look at windows if it is sunny; maybe go to a museum i haven't vitied before like cognac-jay(sp!) or another one of the house museums; nice supper and to bed early.
day 3- sleep in very late; lunch at a cute place; visit louvre with emphasis on newer wing that i haven't fully seen even in 2 visits....; supper and to bed early
day 4 early tgv to bordeaux (about 3 hours); lunch then visit to regional museum with replica of lasceaux (sp) Or rather lacrosse caves maybe a wine tasting at wine institute;
supper then to bed early (this will be winter and we really got tired in europe the last cold weather trip.....)
day 5 train to san sebastian- tapas lunch then on to see the new opera house and sculpture museum; tapas supper
day 6- bilbao- lunch at museum; supper in the pelli shopping area
day 7- bilbao?
day 8- train back to biarritz? to back to bordeaux to catch tgv to paris
day 9- paris- maybe train to melun to see vaux-le-vicomte, a spectacular chateaux built before versailles- by the same craftsmen and architect
day 10- paris- maybe trip to malmaison, josephine's chateaux
day 11- home

i don't speak spanish, so a brief dash into spain may be the best for my first visit. i understand that ms. bennet has included barcelona on her dream trip for spring break.......i would not want my dream trip to be similar to her trip in any way........

i could, at this very moment be preparing for my 6:00 class at eku-danville, but i am not doing so.........

ok, so dubya looks to be on track to drag the united states into another vietnam- based on nothing more than that saddam hussein is a bully. there are many bullies in this world- including dubya himself- using his logic the rest of the world would be coming after us.....

i understand that the bible lessons continue, with jacob, isaac, etc. this woman's prosletizing knows no shame, it seems. now ernst is also upset- because learning time is being taken up with bible lessons. however, our child actually in the class has asked us not be make his life miserable by making a fuss.........maybe when she gets out of mesoptamia she will find fewer reasons to bring up the bible. better idea- students could bring up a good quote- eccliastes (sp) (the teacher) said for everything there is a season......a time to plant and a time to reap.......etc well- there is a time for the bible and a time for the actual textbook.......

ok, so this morning, after i left off my middle child at the wrong door at the wrong time, npr ran a piece about the poet ogden nash, who was born 100 years ago today, and in whose honor a new stamp is being released, complete with tiny poems on each stamp that require a magnifying glass to read. i cannot remember poetry well, but the one read this morning that i CAN remember went like this:

the lord above he made the fly,
and then forgot to tell us why.

nash was famous for short snappy little bits of poetry rather than intensive or long tomes.

i have pondered my blog about friends who went to college to find husbands, and feel quite grateful that i didn't fall madly for ernst until the very week i finished graduate school. how is that for 'meant to be.........?'

ok, so mean mamma has a soft spot in her heart for cats- even inky cats who loved their henna-haired friends. i am so sorry for your loss, silver-tapley's.........

ok, so i am having dorm flashbacks- to t\really silly people i met in smith dorm at ohio state, and an even sillier person that i actually knew before i roomed with her. i was under no illusions that she was going to set the world on fire academically, but i was surprised to discover that she enrolled in college to find a husband- who (whom?)she found after 2 quarters. she never finished college, married him, and was later dumped and divorced by him when he discovered that she was not as helpful as climbing the corporate ladder as his girlfirend turned out to be...........she is working as a private detective somewhere in the midwest. incidentally, my own cousin debbie stayed only 1 quarter to osu- after she met her husband to be. she has finished college, however, which redeems this husband-finding practice somewhat, i suppose.......anyway, back to silly dorm people- most in my recollection were at college to party rather than to attend class or read books.........maybe time in a quiet space- without cable tv or internet connection will promote good study habits. mean mamma can only dream......

ok, so andrew got a letter friday from uk explaining that he probably would not get any on-campus housing this semester, and suggested that he look off-campus for the time-being. he is on a waiting list, the length of which was not disclosed. this afternoon we went up to lexington to look at an apartment kept by a friend who lives in danville (she needed a lexington address to keep her health insurance coverage.....). it is 6 miles from campus, which is better than the distance from danville if he were to commute from home. she is willing to let him stay there short-term- until something turns up on campus after the first few weeks when people decide to chuck it all and go back home. i would so rather move andrew into a dorm his first time away from home, and i have got to get used to the fact that he may have to live totally on his own from the get-go. locking his own door, taking out his own garbage, buying his own groceries........i do believe that he can do all of these things, but i hate to see him miss the dorm thing. i only stayed in a dorm 1 year before moving on to a series of roommates and a series of apartments- mostly run-down places near campus. this place is almost too nice and pristine--i hope he takes very good care of it since it belongs to a good friend and i want to stay good friends with her.........

ok, so some people do not understand (1) the concept of recycling (2) the reality that beer bottles, once the beer is consumed, are truly empty. at the wedding we catered yesterday, the groom bought ten or so cases of beer, and one bottle of white zinfandel (in case there was someone who didn't drink beer......) all but one case was consumed, and was presented to one of the groomsmen as the reception was clearing out. he sat in the lobby waiting for a ride with another guy, and continued to drink fromt he fullbottles in the case while he waited. at this point, i figured the place was empty enough to justify dragging all of the cases of empty bottles to our truck so that i could run them by the recycling center on my way home. (i didn't want there to be 9 cases of beer bottles in the back of the truck if i had to drive it to church.....) so when i was carrying the last case out through the lobby toward the truck, this wiseguy finally notices and says .....yerhhhhhhhh what are you doing with our beer. i tried to explain that these were empties, but he insisted on looking in the case just to be sure i wasn't going to be drinking any beer that he could drink himself. what a jerk.......he really did say something that sounded like yerhhhhhhh- a slightly drunken yerhhhhhhh...........

ok, so last night after we closed, i waited outside the service door with one of the waitresses, whose husband had not yet arrived to take her home. such a motley crew of humanity goes by toward the dq or the b-r or pj- at one point an old caddy with all the windows rolled down and the rap blasting cruised by, and this kind-of ugly punk mutters- 'hey, mamma.' i started laughing- he was half right, wasn't he?..........

ok, so this morning i went through all of the template options for blogger- being so thoroughly impressed by the loyal opposition's revolving series of clever set-ups. i couldn't find one that just screamed 'mean mamma' so i kept the one i chose originally. which is not surprising, in that the fabric that is laying around the house to cover worn-out furniture looks remarkedly like the old fabric. when i grow up i will be bold and brazen..........or at least tall and thin with purple spikey hair.......

ok, so i went back to the library and bought $23 worth of books(14 in fact)- i believe i own all of john grisham except the pelican brief -in hardback, no less- as well as several other thrillers. i am thrilled, of course........

ok, so i have bought all of my book club books, but rather than actually finish any of them, i am now reading a book i bought off a table at the library for $1.50. procrastination lives on in so many ways......even in our pleasure activities.

ok, so today i heard that at danville high school-the center of higher learning in our fair town- that in the world history class it was taught that mankind sprung forth from the garden of eden. ms bennet declined to discuss all that science stuff, and attempted to locate the garden of eden on the middle eastern map. despite my being a baptist, and a sunday school teacher at that, i am terribly embarassed for ms bennet, beyond the fact that she cannot pronounce any words from the text book after several years teaching the course........separation of church and state, as decreed in our constitution was meant for this very purpose- to keep religious dogma from the ears of our children at the taxpayers expense...i may not raise a fuss now- but if the garden of eden shows up on a test, and i have proof rather than hearsay of her prostletising (sp) i will raise heck over this issue......

ok, so today we had this really horrific scene happen at the restaurant, and i wasn't there because i went o get my hair cut. a woman and her teenage daughter came in through the service entrance, and then proceeded to look around like they were expecting to find someone they knew- and they did- her husband with his girlfriend. a scene ensued, with the wife screaming unrepeatable things to the girlfriend before the husband escorted her outside- without paying the bill of course........then everybody started to peak out the front windows to see if they could catch a glimpse of the scene on the street. ah well.........it had to happen sometime- the clandestine meeting thing, but somehow it is hard to imagine two-timing your partner over soup and sandwich..............

ok, so a former nutrition education intern stopped by yesterday. she was in town doing training at krogers- she is a nutrition educator for kroger company with a huge territory (the nashville and louisville divisions). it was great to see her- especially since she says the is doing all the things i used to do in danville- grocery store tours, cooking classes, workshops, and getting paid well for it. she spent 6 months with me working through all of the requirement necessary to qualify to take the dietetic registration exam- i am thrilled that she passed. the very last student that i had failed to pass..........though i didn't get the impression that she actually reviewed for the exam. my recertification test for diabetes education comes up the end of october- i have yet to start the review process.........

ok, so today the client i saw in a doctor's office after work was born within 5 days of me- in 1956. i find these things fascinating- i have met at least 5 people born the same day (february 25) and have actually met someone born the same day and year (she was having her 8th baby on welfare and looked about 10 years older than i felt at the time........) yet and still, meeting people very near to your own exact age is intriguing- this guy had a new baby with his girlfriend (his oldest child is 24) whoa- i cannot imagine getting up and changing diapers at my age. maybe i am really hoping to find a mirror image of myself, someone about my age who made similar choices that would somehow validate the path that i have taken. maybe she will also be mean and her children will accuse her of hiding their personal belongings when they have in fact misplaced them without her interference.............

ok, so the c-w's are back on the big screen....big computer screen that is. no we did not invest in flat screen, but we did move up a size or two with our new monitor. the pc is ever so much faster than the laptop, so now i feel quite zippy as i polish off this blog before i get every body up to get dressed and go to school.....

ok ,so my eku class starts 1 week from tonight at 6:00- i have 30 students- most are nursing students, and none that i know personally, at least from the roster i downloaded yesterday. the last class is december 7- such a long time from now to review 14 chapters and take 4 tests. this is the third version fo the text that i have taught from- it appears to have been thoroughly updated this time. could be reviewing the newest version of the textbook right now, and adjusting the syllabus rather than blogging, but hey- isnt that what one does on the night before the class starts?

ok, so everybody is back in school except andrew- who does not yet have a dorm room. surely u of k has one bed left in the honors dorms of boyd or patterson. just a place to lay his head at night is all his family asks. then stephan will move into andrew's room and cayle will move into stephan's room and we will of course have to re-wallpaper cayle's new room because she has never gotten to decorate a room before. i am hopeful that no kittens or puppies will be involved on borders.....that is right up there with thomas kincaid houses that glow in my personal book of what passes for tacky......

ok, so i am almost done with the back-to-school casseroles. i have a tradition of taking lasagna (this year its ravioli) to my favorite people who teach school. they can come home from the first day of school and not have to cook. its also a nice way to catch up with busy people that i don't see often enough. of course, now that i fixed ravioli rather than lasagnas, my children have expressed concern that maybe these friends of mine don't like raviolis. ah well..........

ok, so my sisterinlaw lisa spent a curious amount of time over the weekend telling me about the kind of hair rinse she uses- the name, the number of shampoos it is good for before it fades, the colors that turn out darker than promised, etc. curious, because i cannot yet detect grey in my hair, and because i am not yet sure that i want to mess with keeping up with hair rinses, let alonr permanent hair color changes. i sat yesterday in church gazing at the back of heads (we always sit in the balcony and with renovation we now sit in the very back...) so many women fail to keep up with their roots, and sometimes this can have embarrassing results. there was a dhs cheerleader there yesterday with her boyfriend who was there with his grandmother (how is that for vague....) and her blond and brown phases met in a stripe somewhere down the middle of her back- at this point she could either bleach the whole mess blonde again, or get her hair cut short so that the distinct blond ends were gone. sadly, she probably sees only the front, rahter than the striped back, but surely the sides have the same skunk-like look. maybe there is a third choice- that she likes it all this way and plans to keep it up. ah well, she wasn't alone in the roots growing out visibly category- most women i noticed had grey roots peeking out from either blonde, golden brown, or auburn tresses- nobody seemed to have chosen darker shades for covering grey. unless this coloring thing is done at home it could be expensive- many of thesre women seem to be the kind who have weekly hair appointments and do not wash or style their own hair in between. how does this habit happen- the weekly appointment and the trusting of someone else to wash ones hair but once a week? i cannot go one day without washing my hair, let alone 7 days. i would rather have a bad hair day with clean hair than a good hair day with an unwashed head. something to ponder as one ages........

ok, so my leisurely morning habits of getting up at 7, reading the paper over coffee on the deck til 7:30 then checking email and blogwriting til 8 end today. frankly the reality of school-year mornings is not appealing- the dragging of reluctant bodies out of bed, and cojoling to come on downstairs and eat something before the car leaves, the finding of half-eaten bagels under seats.....the forgetting of lunch money, pencils, books, entire backpacks.......the getting of children to school before the tardy bell rings.......all of this means that i get to work 40 minutes earlier than i have done so this summer. in terms of work this is not all bad, but in terms of personal quiet time this is tragic.

speaking of quiet time, i have taken to swimming laps between our dock and the neighbors dock. the water is getting just a hint of chill, especially yesterday when the day was cloudy with a few scattered clouds. i hope to swim through september before starting to walk with books on tape again. nothing compares to swimming- however. i believe that this horiscope thing has some base in human nature- both i and my daughter (pisces and aquarius) find much joy in the water. the chill goes away when the laps start, but not before i imagine such endeavors such as swimming the english channel- i am not near enough of a real swimmer to undetake such a thing- but the cool water makes me think of heading toward france across the choppy waves.........

ok, so i enjoyed the bridal shower i catered today, for the wrong reasons. after it was over, i ran by the kroger store to get what i need to make my annual back-to-school lasagnas for friends who teach. there were so many humorous folks at the store during that random time slot- i am still laughing. i was looking for the frozen ravioli when i came upon an aquaintance from a 'prior workplace' munching down on a free ice cream sample, and turned the corner and came upon yet another prior aquaintance doing the same thing. they both looked guilty as hell to be caught in the midst of eating ice cream- like it was a sin or something. finally i saw the actual ice cream sample lady- and she offered me a sample- which i refused. she got kind of indignant, with me refusing her ice cream- but i don'[t like ice cream all that much, i attempted to explain. not like ice cream? she exclaimed as if disliking icecream is akin to being a communist. no, i do not care particularly for ice cream, i do like graeter's raspberry chocolate chip, but that is about it. there are 2 cartons in my freezer right now, and i will not have one bowl from either container because ice cream simply doesn't appeal to any of my taste buds nor sensory cells. not like salty, crunchy foods- i particularly like salt and vinegar potato chips, especially the special onion flavor salt and vinegar potato chips. i believe that this particular food is a gift from God directly to me. and with a glass of good beer, there may be no finer taste combination. gos bless america i wish i had a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips............

ok, so i heard upseting newsd about mrs. floyd (kay) of bate math- she is currently at emrmc and just had a biopsy of a cancerous place in her shoulder- probably in her shoulder bone. this is not good in that she is still recovering from breast and colon cancers. she insists that she will start school tuesday as planned, and has said that she will not repeat the experimental surgury she had in december as the doctors in cincinnati have suggested. i do not know what i would do if i were her- kay has been dealing with cancer for as long as i have known her, and i suspect that she is wanting her last days to be with some dignity rather than all sliced up and drugged up. do keep her in your prayers........

ernst's sister lisa came for a brief visit with her middle child and a friend- they came to danville by way of the extreme sports park in louisville where they spent the morning on skateboards. alex and his friend are 14- he is going to be a freshman in a catholic school in cincinnati- we had avery nice supper out on the deck, and caught up on all of the estate-settling gossip- lisa is the executrix of her mother's estate- which could be resolved in the next month or two. i will believe it when i see it. we had a nice chat about how we miss her mother (my motherinlaw), but did both share in some memories of awful, thoughtless things she said to us and about us. i guess all families have these sort of memories- which are basically unresolved issues now that we cannot tell the person how much these comments hurt. one of my favorite lines from my motherinlaw was the time she was looking at vacation pictures of ours, with pictures of each of us, and groups of us c-w's and stated 'kathy, you don't photograph well, do you' there is not much one can say after your motherinlaw says something like that to you- of course, she could have said something nice to soften that blow- like kathy you always look better in person than you do in photos- but no- she left it with the insult. ah well, unresolved issues.....maybe that is why i am so mean today...........

ok, so the salmon with cucumber sauce went quickly, as did the three-color tomato and cucumber salad. we fed over 60 people last night- it was mayhem. happily there were game hens left over, so i don't have to cook supper tonight on my day off.......life is good. on the other hand i have decided that the brits probably don't serve beef wellington hot, as it falls apart when sliced. it does slice nicely when cold but it doesn't taste near as good that way. i will have to figure out how to solve this dilemna the next time i am foolish enough to fix this dish- i had one pretty slice out of 12- those are terrible stats.....

ok, so it is friday, and that means that i won't get home til at least 10 tonight- we have 47 reservations for people wanting our dinner/playhouse combo, which tonight is murder at the vicarage. i am fixing cornish game hens in an apricot glaze, my version of beef wellington, and baked salmon with a cucumber sauce. yummmmm. i need to think up a vegetarian dish, of course........

i started undaunted courage- a book about merriweather lewis and the expedition. i am also reading as i lay dying, but the lewis book was on the front table when i was in the mood to pick up a book. lewis really loved his mother, according to the frist 2 chapters about his early life. there is an excerpt from a letter he wrote to her somewhere along the upper missouri river pledging his undying support for her in her old age. now that is my kind of boy.........this woman was some sort of herbalist, and lived well into her 80's helping to heal the sick in her neighberhood. she did marry the man her husband suggested to her on his death bed- now that is a concept that i found a bit disturbing. but that was a different time- when women alone had a rough go of it when it came to protection, financial management, etc. so the widow lewis married her 1st husband's hand chosen successor within 6 months of his death- and she outlived that guy, too- but without another death bed pick she remained an unmarried widow the rest of her days.......the book is just getting to the part where lewis meets jefferson.........

OK, SO stephan and i heard a mortefying piece on npr on the way home from work today- it was about how the drug companies used propaganda to promote menopausal hormone use - since the 50's.........the one spot we heard was an older woman who said that she took hormone pills because she feared that her husband would leave her for an younger woman if she didn't.......i was so appalled that i almost wrecked the car- of course- the woman in the spot was complaining of her symptoms- hot flashes, lack of shortterm memory, and meannness.........but the part about her fears of her husband leaving her really upset me- this woman sounded like she lived only for her husband to come home from work- that was her first mistake....... she sounded very republican in that regard.... why didn't she have a life of her own, for gracious sakes. i can recall meeting a woman at work when i first moved to town- who i asked to get together with sometime after work for a glass of wine- and she said she would have to ask her husband- same difference- she would probably ask her husband before taking hormones......in this regard i have to give kudos to ecw- he knew from the get-go that i was not likely to consult him on many issues at all- maybe financial ones- but then he wasn;t looking for an appendage, either.......young ones- beware of those males who are looking for unpaid personal slaves rather than full partners.........they are the kind who probably will leave you for a younger woman......

ok, so i have always suspected that clients whitewash their personal accounts of foods eaten at any given meal to make their weight problem seem less like their fault. today, i was understandingly shocked when a client admitted to the following lunch: big mac at mcdonalds, which she consumed while driving to arby's where she ordered a chicken cordon bleu and a regular arby's roast beef, which she consumed before she got home so her husband wouldn't find out. whoa............if that eating scenario is one that she will own up to, i wonder what she actually eats in any given day- and it is not like her husband doesn't really know that she overeats..........i used to know this woman- who appears to have gained 100 pounds over the past 2 years- now that is a real feat- to gain 50 pounds a year 2 years running. notice, by the eway that no identifying info has been provided, as not to violate patient/therapist trust- but really- how does one gain 100 pounds in 2 years without noticing until now that eating has gotten out of hand. my extra pound or two makes me just a bit more mean than usual........imagine how mean that mean mamma would be with 100 extra.........yerhhhhh

i broke down yesterday and bought the dvd of lotr- even though the version coming out in november has lots of unseen footage and will be much cooler. i cannot wait til november- i could probably wear out this disk by november. many parts still surprise me ,even after seeing it on the big screen, and having read the books twice over in anticipation of the films. i do like the scenery and the special effects like the giant statues guarding the lake at the end, and the whole of rivendell- which looks like a thomas kincaid painting with its own special glow.

okay, so i fear that my blog about dewey dell in as i lay dying was interpreted as an anti-abortion crack on my part, and i apologize for the confusion and misunderstanding. i should have put 'evil' theme in quotes to assure that the satirical intention was heard clearly. i merely speculated that the abortion sub-plot may have caused this book to be banned. it is unfortunate that dewey dell is such a wretched creature- faulkner may have been pro-life or anti-women for all i know- certainly he viewed some women as unromantic, fickle, thoughtless beings- dewey dell has sex with another cotton picker based on her basket being full when she reaches the end of the row and can take her earned 'work break' in the woods before starting another basket.

i am half-way into the book- it reads quickly because faulkner uses no extra words of any kind- his diction is quite pared down and sparse. one feels the tragedy more intensely this way, i believe.

ok, so i received the first of 4 books i ordered online from half.com for bookclub this year- as i lay dying, by faulkner. it came with cliff notes- of all things unexpected!!!!! i have never had need of cliff notes, so i found the format fascinating. character scetches, plot lines, scene setting information, info about faulkner (like the u in faulkner was added by mistake by a printer and he decided to keep it....) i did start to read the actual book, and have decided that it reminded me of thomas hardy in many ways- return of the native, or the mayor of casterbridge- so many tragic characters, so little time.....i have yet to figure out why so many libraries and schools banned this book- the cliff notes mentioned that one character is seeking an abortion- maybe that is the evil theme that led this book to be on banned lists- like reading about this wretched girl will inspire other girls to do the same......so far i have not embraced faulkner's style- at least not in the way that i am drawn to reread hardy- maybe it is because hardy's books take place in wessex and faulkner is merely in the hot and humid south.......

ok, so i listened to part of becks' new album on-line and it reminds me of a james bond soundtrack..............

ok, so i cannot find my paperback copy of tender is the night by fscottfitzgerald- it is so annoying to have books that cannot be located. i have tried all of the usual locations for truant books- under my bed, the stack beside the loveseat in our bedroom, the basket in the big bathroom, in addition to allof the bookshelves/ i even looked in the cookbook shelves hoping that i had placed it there in some sort of senior moment. i cannot find the great gatsby either -they may be together. book club is coming up in mid-september and i want to be prepared even though i have read this book at least 5 times. i just finished a reread of persuasion- i am struck with some of the similarities of storyline- with regard to the worship of beauty in this world, and the personal faults that people will overlook just be in the company of beautiful people. and the personal value that others will overlook if one lacks physical beauty. tender is the night really doesn't address the second theme- as fscott was personally beautiful and he would have no clue about being undervalued because of a lack of personal beauty..............

ok, so i almost blogged on stephan's blog because he failed to sign out before getting up from the computer, but then that would be mean, and even mean mamma has her standards..............................

i overheard a workmate yesterday talking about her name with another co-worker- she cited her last name as her slave name- and noted that she didn't know what her real family name was- that her family had taken the name of the master long ago and kept it. it occured to me that marriage is sort of like that- by tradition women take the name of their '7 day lord and master' and give up their own family names. except that they remember what that name is.......of course, 21 years after kind of keeping my birth name i still have people comment on it- like there was something worng with my husband's name rather than i was proud of my famiy name and was loathe to give it up.......

ok, so i was going to report on the alumni game, but decided against it. ask stephan why if you must know.

ok, so our computer monitor has bit the dust, so i am forced to hook up our laptop to the modem to access the internet. i have many things to report- one being that i talked again to mardi montgomery, ryan montgomery's mother, at the danville soccer alumni game- she quit her position as english teacher at bchs on thursday, and she will be working for danville schools as the gifted and talented coordinator- for those who don't know mardi- she was the best thing that bchs had to offer, and now she is working for danville. life is good.

stephan attended the preservation conference held this week at centre- and learned about historical buildings that can be saved, how one goes about saving them, etc. this conference was an interesting juxtaposition to the destruction of the fourplex next to stith funeral home on broadway across from the library. that fourplex was owned by henry j. ernst-ernst c-w's namesake- we call him h.j- now hj moved to danville from newport, ky to set up the sewing machines at palm beach in the 30's- he married his third wife in danville, and lived in the lake house- now our house. when 'aunt ginny' died, he moved to a vacant apartment in his fourplex- he was living there when i started going out with ernst- the first i ever heard of danville was when billy barnet the lawyer called kathyrn (ernst's mother) to tell her that she had to come get hj out of jail- he had thought that someone was breaking into his car, and when the police came he got confused and thought they were 'the damn kids' breaking into his car and started shooting his rifle at them. the first time i came to danville was to help clean out the apartment at the fourplex and the lakehouse. the job at the hospital came up soon after, and we moved to town. we managed the apartment building for a time- i can remember a little old lady calling us up in the middle of the night to tell us that a mouse had bitten through her hose on her washing machine and what were we going to do about it. grandpa moved home with kathryn for awhile, and then to an assisted lving home, and then back to friendship/fellowship on north third street. the building on broadway was sold to the orthodontist to pay for the nursing home- the orthodontist then sold it to stith. and now it is gone. kathryn is also gone- which is a blessing, because she would have been upset about the bulldozing of the building. not a historical building, not one of architectural merit, but one that had meaning in the small c-w circle of memories.

ok, so i surfed a bit this afternoon to relax and found an offensive site called curmudgeonry, or something liek that- for people who have many gripes and need to be heard- i may be mean, but i try very hard not to be banal when it comes to my griping- the first gripe was about britney spears- who is not even on my radar screen when it comes to sounding off- so much for 'reading around'.

i did see on the net that an architect has been chosen for princess di's memorial- to be in london near the serpentine wall. it will be a shallow water feature where children can play, yet can be lit up and landscaped elegantly. di would have liked it, i am sure. i happen to be a di-hard dianaphile-, and still mourn her passing. despite the many faults she may have had, she married less than a month after i did, had two sons about the same time- and had a flair for fashion that i coveted. the world is a sadder place without her......

ok, so i continue with travel fantasies- i would rather take the first trip scenario- the one that involved a rental car and a flight to barcelona with a loop through the dordogne, bordeaux and bilbao. one would think that one rental car exerience was enough for mean mamma- but that is just it- mamma is simply too mean to let a few unfortunate instances keep her from having a good time.

ok, so i stand corrected on this sophomore/world civ thing- ryan montgomery assured me this very evening that as of this week he is teaching american studies with jan scott now that miss sanders has moved on to a job in frankfort. he said that who is teaching what has been in a kind of flux, as dhs has hired at least 10 new teachers, he being one of them,. he was at the preservation conference event that we catered at constitution square this evening, along with chris harmon, the bchs swimmer, who went through the buffet line at least 3 times.

having had no vacation this summer, i have begun to fantasize about travel as i work. an alternation travel scenaro follows:

day 1- fly to paris; sightsee in afternoon; to bed early
day 2- paris
day 3- tgv to bordeaux- afternoon wine tasting, museum, and good lunch and supper; sleep in bordeaux
day 4- train to bilbao; museum in afternoon
day 5- bilbao
day 6- train to madrid
day 7- madrid
day 8 train to barcelona
day 9- barcelona
day 10- train to paris
day 11- paris
day 12- fly home

imagining travel plans always makes me happy.