ok, so madame gibson dined at trc at lunch, along with lou cheese, who said she knew me, but whom i swear i have never met........she said she also knew of both my sons from subbing at bate and/or dhs......anyway....it is always a pleasure to see madame gibson.......she requested and received certain email info so she can be supportive of our exchange student......speaking of which, i am trying to arrange 2 sunday/monday trips out of town.....the first to mammoth cave/corvette museum/graceland......the other to wash. dc via southwest through louisville.........the flight is the cheapest, as well as the most direct.......if i could convince aunt roseanne to pick us up at bwi and drop us off at the nearest metro stop, then we could see lots on both sunday and monday before going back monday night.....plus, maybe we could stay with nick and roseanne...and see their roses still in bloom........there is a gem exhibit at the natural history museum that i would like to see, along with the usual stuff like the white house/capital hill/monuments/declaration of independence.... etc....... I am unsure which day jon goes back.........

ok, so the big news this mornng is katherine hepburn's passing at age 96..........she won 4 oscars....but never had children, possibly because the love of her life was married to someone else the whole time he lived with her......that is so hollywood, i suppose.......i do appreciate hepburn's fashion influence...she wore on and off-screen trouser suits, which caused them to not only catch on but to take on a life of their own.........i liked her best as eleanor of aquaitaine in the lion in winter.....the library has this film...........it is best viewed by people expecting history rather than entertainment...yet hepburn is so entertaining playing a bold and forceful woman trying to beat her manipulative spouse and sons and rival at their own game.........

ok, so we are bummed out that we missed scw's call........he may just have to give us his phone number there so we can call at will.........we really miss him......i suspect even his brother misses him at his point.......today is low-key......if you don't count the breakfast at church that i catered for all of the baptist governor's scholars.....50 or so........i fell asleep on the couch whilst watching the replay of andre agassi's wimbledon match from saturday......lovely to fall asleep in broad daylight .........then i sat on the back porch with a book and enjoyed the sunshine, good prose, and 2 coronas.....i did use sunscreen.......and now that i am completely overheated/dehydrated......i may just (just may?) lay down again for a proper nap.......the gossip at church had to do with the hospital....the new ceo has swept away an entire level of upper management positions, stating that the organization was too top-heavy.....they are now moving on to middle management, and the scuttle-but is that my nemesis may meet her waterloo in this houseclean.........

ok, so the boat has been resurrected.......it was standing on end, completely submerged, like an anchor was holding it down...........ecw carefully dragged it arond the dock, then used a winch to pull it out of the water.......it is already slimey and artifact-looking.......

ok, so i found this bit from the new yorker from the shouts and murmurs department to be hysterically funny......

SUMMER RECIPES
by HENRY ALFORD
Issue of 2003-06-30
Posted 2003-06-23
Seasonal cooking is anyway better suited to those who live in sunnier climates. The rest of us need to make the most of what warmth is offered, and much of the time this has to emanate from the kitchen rather than from the skies outside. Summer, then, is an idea, a memory, a hopeful projection.
—Nigella Lawson, “Forever Summer.”





Sun-Dried Tomatoes

8 tomatoes
6 c. olive oil


Unscrew a 100-watt light bulb while it is still gorgeously warm. With a rubbing motion, thrill the skins of the tomatoes until they start to pucker and tumesce. Uncork the oil; drizzle onto tomatoes until lubricious.




Skinny-Dipping at Dusk

8 c. water
25 lbs. cocoa


Store the water in a cool place, allowing it to bio-ripen for a period lasting months or even years. Meanwhile, fill your largest roasting pan with cocoa. Roll in cocoa.




Gone Fishin’

1 telephone
1 couch


Unplug the telephone and assume a position on your couch which suggests an odalisque or any late-career Ingres portrait. Should people or problems present themselves, bite into a nougatty chocolate and say teasingly, “I can’t help you. I’m very Ingres-y with you.” Let the slipcovers puddle around you like a light vinaigrette.




Summery Chinese Toboggan Salad

1 can bamboo shoots
1/2 c. sesame oil
4 stalks celery, chopped
Juice and zest of 3 lemons
1 wooden toboggan


Put the toboggan in a food processor and pulse for ten seconds on Eviscerate. Remove the splinters from the processor and toss with other ingredients. Arrange on a plate with your bare hands, letting your fingers burrow into the mixture as they do when encountering the rich loam of the earth. Strike your gong.




August Romance

2 c. high-quality vinegar
10 toffee caramels


Unsheath the caramels laughingly, unconcerned of outcome. Fork-prick to soften. Using the soft pads of your thumb and index finger to palpate the caramels, tease them into the vinegar, saying, “Mummy knows what’s best.” Put the whole concoction away someplace dark. Have a glass of Prosecco with a friend, displaying blitheness and a tendency, when food has been dropped on the floor, to plop it back onto your plate with a soulful, sensuous expression.

Can you leave the vinegar alone for between three days and three weeks? Try to, darling—what you’re doing here is tempering yourself as well as the candy. Enjoy this. Because when you return to the vinegar the caramels will be gone.

ok, so it is saturday, and i have to go to work.......maybe i will get lucky and win the lottery so that i will not HAVE to go to work next saturday........i fully realize that i have a better chance of getting struck by lightening than winning $110 million dollars.......

ok, so the new yorker had a frightening short story by stephen king....no idea if it is by THE stephen king.......but it was scarey just the same.....about an aging couple, the husband has a dream and the wife can only look at him in his skivvies, as she listens to his dream, and wonder if this is all there is to life...........

Ok, so the data-line is being used by another c-w, so I am typing on word with the intent to cut and paste…….atop my blogging agenda today is the issue of blogging…..the herald-leader ran a canned article today on the ‘dangers of tell-all web logging’ which mainly focused on people who disclosed extremely personal stuff like gender-identity and pregnancy-test results and/or anti-familial religious tendencies on-line………I have had my fill of this sort of thing…..my oldest child refuses to read any family blog on general principle……even though his sibling is blogging from belgium………he sees only the underbelly of blogging………I, on the other hand, can say confidently, that since I have started blogging I have not once felt hopeless or depressed………the catharsis of blogging has a tremendous healing power…….just like a written/private diary might have in another age……..i discovered on my vacation that writing in a journal with pen and paper is now quite difficult and foreign……… on to better humours…..the new yorker reviewed a set of biographies of Ben Franklin…so many tidbits to quote……..’there are no bad biographies of Franklin for the same reason there are no bad three stooges films….’ The gist of this article is about how we will ever know what Franklin did or did not do…Did he really discover electricity? Or does it really matter?………. The last paragraph is classic……..’The moral of the kite is not that truth is relative. It is that nothing is self-evident. Scientific truths, like political beliefs, , are guesses and arguments, not certainties. Dr.. Johnson’s great, comforting gloss on the Christian funeral service comes to mind: “In the sure and certain hope of a resurrection” did not mean that the resurrection was certain, only that the hope was certain. “We hold these truths to be self-evident” similarly, means that we hold them to be so. We hold these truths as we hold the twine, believing that, without being sure, that the tugs and shocks are what we think they are (referring to electricity felt whilst holding the kite). We hold the string, and hope for the best. Often there is no lightening. Sometimes, there is no kite.

It is Friday afternoon, and that statement sounds so-Zen-line for a Friday………..

For what it is worth, Princess was here when I got home………….

ok, so last night i made a quick delivery to the danville doyenne, through her back door, of course..........she was ensconced on a chair/ottoman wrapped in a wool, plaid blanket......it was 90 degrees outside but her air cond. was turned down low.....she was listening to both npr and the television at full volume, and she was wearing sunglasses.........her first words to me were ...'where is jerry?' well, obviously he suckered me into bringing your supper....was what i thought to myself, but i did not say this..........when i amold, i will be doubly cranky and unusual.......if that is possible to be that mean...........

ok, so we have had a canine crisis.......i made a quick trip home in late afternoon before i was due to do a supper delivery to a local factory.....we rarely do suppers, by the way.........i wanted to check on the pup that grandma left here til tuesday..........i parked outside the gate so she would not get out while i carried my stuff into the house.......the first thing i see is that our dog has made a bed out of the planter with the calladiums and coleus.........he had completely flattened/uprooted them all so that he can squeeze his mangy, good-for-nothing self inside.....while i was dealing with our dog's carnage, princess disappeared...........i saw her for only a fleeting moment and then she was gone.......i looked everywhere inside the fence...nowhere....i checked all the gates...the one under the deck was not locked......she could have gotten out.....so i walked every yard int he neighborhood in 90 degree swamp-like heat....yelling for that dog.....no princess............i went back to our house....looked under every bush and behind every plant.....there was that dog.....behind a rosebush...shaking like a leaf.......hiding from me..........she had seen me yell at oscar about ruining my plants, and she was afraid of mm............so now she is sitting on andrew's lap....chilling out....and trying to figure out who this crazy woman is that yells at dogs..........

ok, so cayle's first swim meet was last night......i was somewhat surprised by the absense of the williams family...........i was soon brought up to speed......they have joined the country club, and will swim for that team for this summer and all summers to come.........they never struck me as clubbers.......but i suppose the level of competition for that team would be greater than for the dart sharks.........we wish them luck.....

afterwards, i got a wild hair to clean out my 'files'....boxes of stuff in a corner of our bedroom that have threatened to take over.....i threw away a substantial trash bag full of stuff, and reshelved books, restowed stuff that used to be under the loveseat before it was taken away to be recovered, and finally put away the stuff left in the vacation suitcase....and now the bedroom looks nearly picture perfect, with the newly recovered loveseat.........look quick, because my cleaning modes tend to be brief........

ok, so my alma mater is one game closer to winning a national championship. Ohio State beat Michigan 14-9 in a nail-biter game yesterday afternoon in its signature horseshoe stadium. so sweet. of course, i did not see the actual ending, as i had to go to work- that is probably why they won- because i wasn't watching. i hadn't watched a game all season (mostly because osu games aren't aired around here......) i musn't jinx the team by watching jan 3- regardless, a national title would be abittersweet memorial for my dad, the ultimate osu fan. i have many fond memories of attending osu games with him- stopping for mcdonalds lunch on the way, which was a treat then- we NEVER stopped for fast food unless we were on vacation or going to a football game. we would proceed from the parking 'field' to st john's arena where we would listen to the band warm-up- then on to the game. i remember seeing the osu-michigan game with my dad when woody hayes was still coaching, and the stadium was going to astroturf- after the game (osu won...) the students took down the goalposts and carried them down high street- and the alums took out shovels and trash bags and literally scooped up the playing field as souveniers(sp)...........everybody wanted a little bit of osu turf for their own yards......remarkable. i did get to see osu beat michigan in ann arbor- when i was in grad school and dating a boy who went to grad school at michigan.....michigan has a bottle law- so after the game- people got out trash bags and started picking up cans and bottles to get back the deposits- it was a remarkable thing to see........

ok, so i thought this was interesting......plus i still can't figure out how to link..........

Gibson's Jesus film called anti-Semitic
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 Posted: 8:57 AM EDT (1257 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Continuing to raise concerns over "The Passion," the Mel Gibson-directed film about the last days of Jesus Christ, the Anti-Defamation League of America (ADL) charged Tuesday that, based on a study of an early version of the screenplay, the project could be "replete with objectionable elements that would promote anti-Semitism."

The ADL embraced the findings of an interfaith committee of scholars that has raised objections to the unreleased film -- even though the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has distanced itself from the same group.

In its statement, the ADL contended that Gibson and his collaborators "must complement their artistic vision with sound scholarship, which includes knowledge of how the passion accounts have been used historically to disparage and attack Jews and Judaism. Absent such scholarly and theological understanding, productions such as 'The Passion' could likely falsify history and fuel the animus of those who hate Jews."

"To be certain, neither I nor my film are anti-Semitic," Gibson said in a previously released statement, which his spokesman provided in response to the latest allegation.

"Nor do I hate anybody -- certainly not the Jews," continued Gibson, who is a devout Catholic. "They are my friends and associates, both in my work and social life. Thankfully, treasured friendships forged over decades are not easily shaken by nasty innuendo. Anti-Semitism is not only contrary to my personal beliefs, it is also contrary to the core message of my movie."

Gibson directed "The Passion," which he also co-wrote and produced through his Icon Entertainment banner, in Italy earlier this year. Filmed in Aramaic and Latin, the project stars James Caviezel as Christ and has not yet been shown to potential distributors.

The ADL first began to raise concerns about the film in March, in both a letter to the New York Times and a letter addressed to Gibson that the organization posted on its Web site.

The controversy erupted again earlier this month when a report was leaked to the media that had been prepared by scholars, associated with both the ADL and the USCCB, based on a study of an early version of the script and containing a long list of objections.

The USCCB, however, quickly dissociated itself from the report, with Mark Chopko, general counsel for the USCCB, saying: "We regret the situation has occurred and offer our apologies. ... When the film is released, the USCCB will review it at the time."

In its current statement, the ADL says it "fully stands behind" the scholars' report and raises a series of questions such as, "Will the final version of 'The Passion' continue to portray Jews as bloodthirsty, sadistic and money-hungry enemies of Jesus?"

Myrna Shinbaum, a spokesperson for the ADL, said the group issued its first official public statement on the subject Tuesday in response to repeated press inquiries.

"When these kind of issues are raised and we feel concern, we speak out even before the film has been made," she said, acknowledging that the concerns are based on an early version of the screenplay. "We haven't seen it yet, so we can't speak to the film itself.

"In expressing our concerns," Shinbaum added, "we hope we can have a dialogue with Gibson and Icon to allay the fears of the Jewish community."

ok, so mm and md are both relieved that our boy made it safely to charleroi/gilly. it never crossed my mind that he would be traveling into the heart of famous vodka ads....hopefully he will find numerous new ones while is is away.......a group from centre came in for lunch, including some from the admissions/recrutiment office....the comment was made that it was a shame that a certain someone was not going to be coming to centre this fall as a freshman with his good friend, l.o....well, they called her by name, as the speaker is probably unaware of her many pseudonyms.........

anyway, we have had a busy lunch today.......people are still asking if scw and ecw are back from biking..............let's keep up, people..........

ok, so mm is starting what will certainly become second nature over the next four weeks.......if it is 7:30, what time is it in belgium.....or rather copenhagen, as scw should be in denmark as we speak awaiting his flight to brussels......i starting missing him this morning when i walked out to ge the newspaper........he loves to peruse the paper almost as much as i.........it will be a long 4 weeks.........luckily for him, both the lexherald and danadvocate are available online.........

ok, so i got to watch keen eddie tonight....a show on fox that i like almost as much as monk........which is the kiss of death for both....shows that i like tend to cancelled.......shows that i like are few and far between...which is why we don't get cable...i would watch just about anything to be sure i got my money's worth........

andrew is out, and scw is on a plane somewhere over the atlantic, and cayle is asleep.......at somepoint the nest will be empty.....i am not ready for this prospect..........

i am reading a book called on rue tatin, about a food writer who buys a house in normandy...you know the formula...she and her sculptor husband spend loads of time and effort, and experience mapcap adventures turning their delapidated former nunnery into a wonderland.......... with a professional kitchen so she can test all of her recipes at home......of course, i am so envious, as i would love to have a professional kitchen in which i can just dabble with recipes.........my own personal professional kitchen is a mishmash of equipment bought secondhand...i would love to have a kitchen decked out the an aga........and a double clearglass doored reachin.....and a really cool copper sink, and a wine cooler......and a real woodburning stove in the corner......what else....maybe i am not dreaming large enough.........oh yea,,,,,copper pots hanging from the beams.......except copper never looks good for long........but in dreams it will gleam..........i suppose i could ive in normandy....close enough to paris for short trips to town but with a country feel.....well, not really live.....just visit several times a year and rent it out the rest fo the time........

ok, so for those of you who lkeep track, scw made it to the plane, with his hat, which i presume he will wear on the plane just to be on the safe side....there was at least 1 other exchange student on his flight to chicago, wearing the telltale logo shirt.......

ok, so my mom fixed dessert in honor of scw's departure for belgium..using black raspberries from the bushes she put in last summer....it used to be a crown family standard.......graham cracker crust, cream cheese middle, and black raspberrys in a gel on top...luscious........we don't seem to make dessert very often these days.........

ok, so mean mamma is back to work........begrudgingly....i could have just stayed home with my newspaper and coffee...........i am also dreading the departure of #2 son to belgium...he has already been gone too long, and will now be gone longer........

ok, so i am really into my hand cream......lavender beeswax-based stuff that i bought at the herb festival......it smells wonderful, and it really softens all of the hard to soften places.........it costs only about $6, which is a bargain when one considers value.............that's it....a week away, and i am down to discussing handcream...........i fell jaded about western vacations, i guess.........i have been west nearly as many times as i have been to paris....my parent's best friends from college live in boulder, co,...........so we visited many times growing up........they have entertained my children when i attended workshops in denver.......and entertained my spouse and my middle child whilst biking through colorado............they are good people...speaking of my dad.....i really missed him in grand tetons.....he was the family photographer....and there have always been so many good shots to take in that park........or watercolors to buy......one visit years ago my father disallowed my mother permission to buy a watercolor of jenny lake....and she mourns the loss of this painting to this day..............it cost only $50 at the time.......and they came back with more than $50 to spare.........i brought her a signed book of yellowstone photos (the author was in the lobby of the yellowstone inn.........) and a photo-print of jenny lake....suitable for framing.......the watercolor incident was before charge cards...if it happened today she would have given forth the plastic without hesitation.........

ok, so in the past 24 hours i have read an exceptionally long book, highly touted,,,,,and now others may read it before getting on a plane for foreign lands...........there are nuances that i may have missed in my haste,,,,,but basically i read that book even though i get no credit, no points, no ffmiles........nothing but the knowledge that i know the plot.....................

ok, so this is my last day off before going back to work.......i plan to use it wisely...weeding...and finishing the new harry potter book that i bought at the airport.........i was halfway through by the time we landed in lex.......it is so much better than the last book...less macabre.....and wittier......yes, i will have to weed, as the undesirable vegetation has gotten out of hand..........

ok, so we are home, sweet home...........my spouse kept a written journal during his 21 days away.........just like he kept on the last 5 installments of this bike journey......i didn't even consider writing things down.....i have been spoiled by computer diarying..... so here is what i have had on my mind during the 6 days that i have been away..... i will be adding to this, so keep checking back.......

high points:

1. being at the welcome to rawlins, wyoming sign when my guys finished their 6 year...cross-america ride..........taking the requisite photos..........

2. driving 75 mph legally for 6 straight days on extra wide wyoming highways in a ford expedition......i felt like quite the yupster........

3. the smells.........warm pine forest, cool,moist pine forest, extra-warm sulphur hot springs

4. the wildflowers........gentian, cinquefoile, yarrow, indian paintbrush, wild mint, saxefrage (sp) lupins, larkspur, harebells, just lovely..........

5. the thai noodle dish carryout from jackson hole.......with fried tofu

6. the geothermal features.......geysers....old faithful, anemone, the grotto.......the hot springs...... the chromatic spring, especially......the bubbly paint pots.............

7. cable tv..........the newest monk, al tv on vh1 with his pretend interviews with avril and eminem and his weird al videos/lyrics....the spoof he does of dylan is so funny...........

8. the beauty of the tetons...........just breathtaking

9. the hike to taggert lake...............

10. yellowstone canyon....especially the hike down to the lower falls overlook

11. people watching.....the couples in matching outfits, the couple's in catalog gear- straight outof orvis/llbean/eddiebauer...........the overdressed women out for hikes....in wedges, etc.........the overweight couple who were still hiking up out of yellowstone canyon as we went down, and came back up........


the low points:

1. cayle's fit at the yellowstone canyon lookout about taking guides without paying for them......

2. cayle's fit about not wanting anything on the kids meal.at the restaurant in jackson.........she announced that she no longer ate the following.......cheeseburgers, hamburgers, corndogs, grilled cheese, pasta and sauce, chicken strips, or macaroni and cheese.........just so she could order an adult meal which she proceeded to dislike as soon as it arrived.......

3. seeing 47 out of 50 state liscense plates.........never saw new hampshire, south carolina or delaware.........

4. poor radio reception except for gospel stations and country..............luckily i brought along children's books on tape, which i enjoyed more than the intended audience

5. not being able to blog daily.....we never saw an internet cafe.....like we thougth we would see one.........

6. cayle's bag being searched by armed guards at lex airport...they found scissors....why she brought scissors we will never know..........

ok, o i am blogging from denver, aboutto fly to detroit then to lex........had a good trip...ready to come home..............will blog more athome......peace......

ok, so i am off work for the next 7 days......blessedly, we fly out of lex at 6:40 am, so i have a few more minutes to sleep in the morning than expected.........life is good.....i celebrated early quitting time today by completing the porch paint job and by weeding......the garden is overrun due to rain....i do not feel like i made a dent....they will still be there next week........

ok, so i am totally exhausted.........mostly because i cannot sleep for worrying about all i have to do....if i could cook in my sleep i would have this weekend licked......though i know that lying awake at 5:30 am will do nothing toward feeding the 5000, i could not seem to get back to sleep.......alas, tomorrow morning we must get up at 4:15 am to make it to a 6:00 am plane to denver.......and we may find scw and ecw already in rawlings......they cruised into jackson yesterday, and will travel on to dubois today, and could rawlings by monday evening......this is good news, as we will reach rawlings by about 6:00 pm monday, as it is at least 2 hours closer to denver.......

ok, so we lived through band festival saturday, and the herb festival, and every sort of chaos in between......we served 150 lunches at the herb festival......and over 200 carryout boxes at the band festival, not counting people who ate in, including a tour bus that arrived 1 hour late, as the rain drove many extras in to find a dry place to hang out and get a bite to eat.........about 7:30 i was so frustrated, i called ecw on his cell phone just to hear a pleasant voice......he and scw were walking their bike up the last mile on grand teton pass....at 7000 feet.........no word yet on the long downhill that followed.......they should be in jackson hole 2 days early........we will meet up with them on monday night, see yellowstone together on tuesday, then proceed to rawlings by friday.........fly back on saturday from denver........cannot wait.......

ok, so i have to get dressed and get to work, but there is always time to blog, even if briefly..........this morning was perfect for sitting on the deck with coffee and the newspaper.......quite pleasant........especially bucolic with the mamma duck and her 8 ducklings taking an early morning cruise around the neighborhood........(that mamma is presumably mean, as well).........it is moments such as those that sustain me during the craziness that is my working life.......just 2 working days left before i fly to denver.........cannot imagine how i will get out of the bed monday morning to make a 6:00 am plane flight.....

ok, so scw tried to blog from bozeman, montana today, and found that atomic-muffins has been 'suspended/not found'.......he did read all 2 weeks of my blogs, and expressed concern that i worry.........he also explained that i have misheard most of the place names along their route.......i am just so old and addled..........ah well........my guys rented a pickup truck, and drove themsleves and the bike to bozeman to visit our friend mary riddlemoser...about 130 miles........so appropriate....ecw driving a pickup truck to montana............we will see them monday....i cannot wait.........

ok, so today is our 22 wedding anniversary, and we are not together again til monday...........so sad to be alone on an anniversary...........

ok, so this band festival/herb festival catering both at once thing is craziness...............

ok, so my guys are nearing the tetons, from the other side than we have ever seen them.........ecw says that the tetons loom ahead...great word....loom.........he is trying to figure out how we can hook up with our friend mary, who lives in bozeman, mt.......she may be able to meet up with us on our day in yellowstone.......just 3 days of non-stop work until i fly west.......today we made 12 tons of potato salad (it seemed like it), grilled and baked 120 pounds of chicken.........lots more to do tomorrow........i just hope it doesn't rain..........

ok, so i have figured out that the two different versions of blogger have to do with the kind of computor being used....at home i get a different version due to the age of this machine.........

ok, so the blogger page is different again from this morning........i did go through the help page, and still cannot figure out how to do links......i really like how l.o. does links to favorite sites.......

ok, so blogger changed overnight, and i am verry confused..........

for the record, my guys are in avis, idaho, and have traveled over 800 miles thus far......they plan to bypass yellowstone and tetons due to crazy vacationers in rv's and other distracted visitors looking for bears that clog the park roads, and meet up with me in jackson on monday night.......we can then drive back up to yellowstone in the rented van......this plan is but 4 days away......i have many things to do before then.............yesterday i made 9 gallons of gazpacho, and made dough for 24 dozen lavender shortbreads.......today i have to clean and cook 80 pounds of chicken breast (it will be marinated in lemn basil then grilled)......bake cookies, and make both seafood pasta salad and a rice salad........

ok, so today the mormon missionaries stopped to chat with my wait staff as they smoked outside the restaurant.........'do you want to learn more about the book of mormon?', they asked....'no.' replied the group...........and they kept on trying to engage these smokers in conversation, until finally they turned and said...'we have got to get back to work'......i only know this because i was resetting a table on the other side of the window, and could not help overhearing........i guess i could have gone out and 'saved' the staff from the mormons....but it was too much fun watching them squirm...........it kind of remeinds me of the foolishness of christians trying to convert muslims....the leap is too farfetched.......

ok, so i have been alone since may 30, and i am tired of this madness..........i miss my husband and my child, and cannot imagine another 4 weeks without him while he is in belgium.....at least he will blog on a reg.basis while he is away...........the good news is that i have had a fairly good stretch with the 2 children that remained at home......just the business of the sunken boat and the dock as blotches on our permanent record...........i have 4 full days til i leave for denver.......so many things to do...today i made 9 gallons of gazpacho...and will make 10 dz. lavender shortbread cookies before i leave tonight........tomorrow has a whole list of it's own...........

ok, so my guys rode down the salmon river valley yesterday 113 miles, bypassing sun valley and avoiding climbs........scw came up with the route that varried greatly from the one that daddy had originally planned........they had a tailwind, and the 113 miles took less effort than one might think........thus, they are a full day ahead of schedule, which might mean that they will be this side of yellowstone on monday..........alas, the joy of their success was soon dampened by our news that the dock is still in the tree due to the high water and that the boat is still sunk and that the rain continues...........

ok, so mm has entertained herself today by taking free iq tests on-line.........with varying results..........the lowest was 116, with two 145's and a 151.............now, we all know that mm does not really have a 151, nor hopefully a 116, so she will simply be happy with a 130......i did learn from this bizarre experience that one can learn how to take these tests....know what questions are likely and what the likely answer is even if i don't know the answer...........

ok, so there were two rather good letters to the editor in the paper tonight........one in which a guy named goodlett talks about being a good witch having to deal with all of the christian psychopaths in what should be a free america....the other is from a woman who lambasted bush for being a semi-illiterate idiot........great stuff.........i hope to save them for those who are riding out west...those who are merely out of town can look them up on amnews.com.............

ok, so no applause is necessary................mm has gone from being just plain mean, to a bonafide mean genius.........last night fox did a 2-hour special program called testing america. or something like that.....they had a studio audience divided into groups......scientists, teachers, blondes, bodybuilders, students, construction workers, and celebrities........and these folks, along with those of us at home, and those on-line....took a 60 question IQ test.......there were sections on memory, logic, reasoning, math, etc.....with analogies, word meaning, number sequences, addition of strings of numbers, and stuff like which pattern folds up into what shape.......the celebrities were pretty lame.........talk show hosts i had never heard of, an olympic athlete, and yes.....heidi fleiss, the ex-madame turned author.......the computor kept tabs on how each group was doing in relation to other groups........the scientists pretty much kept op top the whole way......in fact, the host randomly picked one to talk to...and he turned out to be a rocket scientist.........he joked that he thought about being a brain surgeon..........anyway...........in the end, they averaged scores from all who particpated on line and in the audience.........and the results were as follows......the state of washington topped the list as smartest state.....boston as smartest big city, chantilly, vs as smartest town overall (averaged 134.......).........men averaged 113, women 111.........one of the scientists had an IQ of 138...the highest in the audience, so they gave him a trophy....no word on who, other than the bodybuilders, had the lowest.........ok, so mm had a score of 130...........just barely enough for mean mamma to join the mean mensa society............obviously, this test is no measure of sense........scw asked me on the phone last night when fox was going to have the test for 'lick of sense'.........., asserting that i had little of that......now that is in itself a rather mean comment......that's my boy, a chip off the old block..............

ok, so mm and company here at home have a fresh problem......there has been so much rain in the past 2 days that our rowboat has sunk, and somehow gotten itself under the dock, which is up so high as to be in the sycamore tree............ecw could not believe (on the phone) that acw and i could not manage to undo this situation.......frankly, i do not want to risk life and limb to rescue either the dock or the boat.....as it is, acw gave a valiant effort.........on the other hand, i did manage to repaint the front porch, and redo the upstairs bathroom curtains, and take a wonderful 2 hour nap....all on sunday...........i still have shortlist of home projects i want to complete before i leave for wyming.........

speaking of wyoming, i woke up in the middle of the night with a fresh worry.......our plan for meeting our guys calls for us to drive up through tetons and yellowstone after it probably closes...................when the road will be blocked off.........i may have to book a room in jackson hole for monday night and plan on meeting them on tuesday...........

ok, so my guys are in idaho......mark one more state off the list.....they are heading toward the sawtooth mountains......

the following article was online this morning...makes me want to go back to barcelona.....

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- More than 7,000 people gathered at daybreak Sunday and shed their clothes in the morning chill to take part in artist Spencer Tunick's largest work yet -- an installation featuring a sea of nude bodies covering a central Barcelona avenue.

The New York native has achieved worldwide renown for his work, which often features large numbers of nude people posing in urban settings. Though he refers to his art as "temporary site-related installations," he is best known for the photographs he takes of these events.

"I want people to feel uncomfortable that they've demonized the body," Tunick said in an interview with The Associated Press shortly before staging his Barcelona installation. "I want them to feel uncomfortable at first and then realize it's just skin. Yes, the body can be a shape."

He called the Barcelona installation a great visual success. "I created a river of bodies like I've never made before. It was an amazing pink and tan carpet."

At 4 a.m. (0200 GMT) people began arriving at Avenida de la Reina Maria Cristina, a broad thoroughfare lined with fountains. They undressed in a nearby building and were naked for more than an hour as Tunick had them pose four ways: standing, lying down, curled up in balls and hugging each other.

"For me this represents the fragility of the body," said Joan Alexandre Betriu, 53, a participant who called it a "vital, aesthetic and moral" event.

Irene Mohedano, 34, posed with her 5-month old daughter Irene. "This is a work of art," she said. "It may be my only chance to pose for something like this, so I have to take advantage of it."

Tunick said he uses people as raw materials to change perception of space. "I'm using the body as a substance, an abstraction. If the body is nude in front of a background, it creates a new meaning for the background. It makes you think about the background in a different way."

Barcelona joins London, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Santiago and many other European and South American cities in hosting Tunick.

Sunday's spectacle was his largest yet. Until now his grandest project of this type was an installation involving 4,500 nude people in Melbourne, Australia in 2001.

"In the U.S. they consider the body a crime," said the artist, who has been arrested five times in New York City for working with nudes in public. "In other countries it's celebrated as something special."

Barcelona was particularly accepting of his work, Tunick said, citing praise from Mayor Joan Clos.

Though Tunick insists his work is far removed from commercial nude photography, he recognizes that the fact that he works with nude bodies is a major factor in his success.

"My work is about form, the shape of the body. I'm not creating a provocative photo, I'm saying this is the body you shower with, the body you go to sleep with," he said.

"I've gotten a lot of global recognition because I'm making compelling work that's doing something new with the body. I'm bringing the bodies closer together as substance."

ok, so mm brought her portable tv to work, and watched the women's final of the french open.........i was pleased to see justine henin-hardenne win, because she beat serena, and because she is so small, and because she hyphenated her name......she dedicated her win to her mother, now deceased, who took her to see the open 11 years ago, and said she thought she could win it some day........quite sweet......i enyoyed listening to justine accept her prize in french.........we have seen serena accept so many time sin english that we often forget that the world does not speak english as the first choice....... the opponent kim clysters, spoke in flemish............

ok, so they did not call last night.....a fact that i did not realize thoroughly until i woke up with the rain and cold at 3:00 am...........and then i cold not go back to sleep for all of the worry about every worst case scenario........i went to a party after work with the running community.......everybody wanted to know how they are doing.........gentle readers, be aware that most of these folks see my husband as much or more than me when you add up his running and biking time........they miss him as much as i do..........at the party there were people who had not heard about the grapes of wrath testing debacle, and ecw's refusal tolet scw take along the 2 full-size books in the bike bags, and the buying of the cliff notes.......one friend looked incredulous that we had failed to simply download both books on our palmpilot.........and then even more incredulous that we have no palm pilot..............having the internet is a big step for the c-w's....lets not be too hasty about technology.........

ok, so my guys are tired and they are taking a day off.......they rode 82 miles yesterday, including 3 climbs.......they are somewhere in eastern oregon...when they call after i go to bed, i kind of blank out on just where they are..........ecw spoke of renting a car, and sightseeing for the day........

ok, so my guys visited the john day fossil beds national monument, near john day, oregon......they rode 75 miles yesterday, and are beginning to sound weary....i would not have gotten past eugene............i am so proud of their effort.......

ok, so my guys are in mitchell, oregon, which looks to be halfway to idahol.......they say it is hot, with a steep climb ahead today.....they have mailed back their dirty laundry, so that i can bring it back to them all washed and ready to go the third week.......

ok, so this bit fo news was on cnn.com this morning......doesn't it make you proud to be an american?

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Talk about what you can do for your country!

In an unusual act of patriotism, a Nevada brothel is offering free sex to troops returning from the U.S.-Iraq war.

The Moonlite BunnyRanch in Nevada, a legal brothel, also plans to extend 50 percent discounts to the military for the next few weeks, proprietor Dennis Hof told Reuters in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Hof hit on his unique gesture for honoring U.S. troops when BunnyRanch star and former Playboy magazine centerfold Sunset Thomas was flooded with letters from the front lines.

"We were receiving about 20 letters a day," Hof said. "We thought, when these guys are done we'll do something special for them."

Thirteen men and three women in uniform have shown up so far to claim their gifts. All told, the free and discounted sex will cost Hof about $50,000 -- a worthy sacrifice, he said.

"We want to feel patriotic and feel we are doing something for our servicemen," he said. "If we owned a Dairy Queen we would be giving away free ice cream, but ... we own the sex capital of the world. What better way is there to give back?"

ok, so ......i am home absolutely alone.......acw is at work, ccw is at swim practice.....to which kind neighbors gave her a lift......and my guys are abike.........i got to read the new time cover to cover without anyone trying to steal it........i might just take a nap.......

ok, so my guys rode in to sisters, oregon a little ahead of schedule, and opted to ride on to redmond (sp)...for an 80 or so mile day.....they are making good time, which should give them some leeway in case of bad weather.........food was their main issue today......there were no restaurants/gas stations/groceries for the first large chunk of their ride, so they were forced to survive on powerbars and water for much of the day......

ok, so let the madness begin......scw received his first bit of bizarrely addressed mail today...to stephan crow-web..........like the computer couldn't handle either end of the hyphenated name, yet retained the hyphen........we in the c-w family are well-versed in hyphenated-maladies.............we go to pick up film ,and are told that no film exists...so we must remind the clerk that c-w begins with a C.......not a W.........and..lo, the film is found and all is well..............there are times, when callers ask for mrs. w,....or worse, mrs. webb.....that i briefly wish i had a name like smith......but even that name can be smith or smythe...so there......but even crown should have been an easy name...one syllable...........so why not keep the n...why does it end up as crow..............counting crows,...black crows.........such a shame that a name gets such little respect..........

ok, so today we catered a funeral wake........which turned into a lot of fun after the family left and the funeral director stuck around to help finish off the buffet.....seems that the family, who ironically insisted on a lavish spread, balked at the cost of an urn........and showed up at the funeral home with a teapot from the deceased's china cabinet...........the funeral director could only fit half of the ashes in the teapot, and told the fiuneral director to dispose of what did not fit........so friends of the deceased turned up with yet another teapot (one that the deceased had admired) , and presumably the deceased is now literally...in two places at once.........as the friends are not sharing their half of the ashes with the family...........whooooo.......one of the daughters of the deceased alledgedly accused one of the friends of stealing the deceased's mink coat, which is laughable, as the friends outweighed the deceased by at least 100 pounds and could not have fit her arm in the coat........so the friends did not come to the lavish wake at our resaurant, and are instead, mourning in private.......and then there is the story the funeral director told about the booking of our restaurant in the first place.......one of the daughter-in-law's had called us, at the suggestion of the mother of the deceased.....and ordered an extensive array of food......then the church holding the memorial let it be known that they had already taken care of booking a buffet at another downtown caterer's dining room......so a daughter called back to cancel......until she saw the room....... then she called us back to reinstate the previous buffet order.....ouch........the mother of the deceased left several large flower arrangements in our lobby....asking us to make use of them somehow........while we were talking to the funeral director, a latecomer breezed in the lobby, grabbed up one of the arrangements, then walked back out.....it was quite bizarre........and then there is the story the friends tell about the mother of the deceased, who, within hours of the actual death, was seen in the deceased's yard attempting to pull down her wrought iron fencing.......'because she would have wanted me to have it' the mother said when questioned about the taking of the fence.......she ended up calling in workman to do the deed....... presumably before the deceased's children arrived in town...........posession IS 95% of the law, is it not?

ok, so my guys rode about 80 miles yesterday, along the mckenzie river. they phoned last night from a phone booth in front of their 'log cabin', part of a rustic 'motel'.....you used to see those places, with clusters of tiny cabins that didn't look big enough to have bathrooms.....i forgot to ask if my assumption was correct.......today they ride over mckenzie pass, their first big climb.......they have to take an alternative route that is longer but with a gentler rise is elevation....as their original choice is snowed in.......they seem in good spirits.........scw was most concerned that i remember to water his bonzai...............

ok, so mm will come clean with the sanitized gossip........last night, at a graduation dinner for an unnamed dhs senior, mm was hugged more than once by someone she believes now to have had her breasts 'done' ......mm has never before been so certain of something so unexpected as this.........and she is further convinced thatr it is pure stupidity for women to have their breasts 'done' if they feel like that in a hugging situation.........further irony......mm plans to have her breasts 'reduced' whenever her ship comes in.......why women desire bigger breasts is beyond me......fir at least 1 week a month, you cannot sleep comfortably on your stomach..........blouses gap annoyingly.......why would anyone in their right mind desire this misery? clearly, this woman did.......i hope they will not burst on her any time soon........

ok, so we have clear signs of the coming of the apocalypse.......mm has spent the morning cleaning........not just picking up...i mean the cleaning the baseboards beneath the supper table and scrubbing out the showers kind of cleaning.........i am soaking the little pans that go under the stove burners as we speak.......because i was born without a cleaning gene, this behavior is frightening, even as i discover that the tub and tile spray removes the water stains on the dish drainer.............maybe this is just guilt from having skipped church................regardless, i am on my 3rd load of wash and will soon begin to recover the deck-table bench cushions...........

ok, so mm has added another m....for miserable........mm has either a summer cold or a sinus infection...either way, she may just go back to bed rather than to church.......having just peeked in on the l.o.'s new format, i guess that if jesus is coming soon, i had better rest up............