ok, so this clever cartoon is from this week's new yorker......a subscription that i enjoy weekly

hip hip hooray for new hampshire

ok so this from cnn.com.....New Hampshire is first state to repeal parental-notice legislation• Law was passed in 2003 but never took effect due to legal challenge
• 44 states have laws requiring parental notice or consent for minors' abortions

The court ruled that though parental notification is the ideal, it is not always possible......good for new hampshire....parental notification for an abortion is absurd considering that there is no parental notification for underage sex......

animation for adults.....

ok, so i dragged my 14 year od to see the 4:20 showing of ratatouille ......and i must say...that it exceeded my expectations...that were already heightened by glowing reviews in the nytimes, wpost, salon and slate...this is animation....and that would explain the numerous 2-5 year olds in the theatre......and while they were amused by the action...this was no kiddie flick...this was foodie entertainment beyond my wildest dreams...wondrous.....there is a slow-mo scene where the food critic is so taken back to his childhood by the chef's surprise dish that he drops his mont blanc.....and we see the pen drop in such detail that.....time stood still.....gentle readers, should you risk public scrutiny by attending this film without a youngster in tow....bring along pen and paper...to write down the exact preparation of the film's signature dish...ratatouille, naturally....the visual splendour of this dish on the plate, with the sauce.....and the fork spearing the first bite.....was a monumental step in animation...in my humble opinion.......i'd go again......and can already visualize my pre-order for the dvd on amazon.......of course, one must be able to get past the rats part...kind of like indiana jones...why does it always have to be rats?......

middle of the night worries....

ok, so i woke up about 4:30 am....thirsty...and really, really hot.....and couldn't quickly go back to sleep because my brain's revolving worry list was on hyperdrive......had my eldest who left d.c. in his repaired car at 6:30 pm make it home?......if he did why didn't he call?....surely her knew I'd be up and worrying about it......my other worries are less blog-worthy....just suffice it to know that the list is lengthy.....not necessarily rational, but lengthy.....

oxen of the sun

ok, so i came home from work and did read some in the next chapter of ulysses..the part where leopold is in the maternity hospital with stephen dedalus and his drunken friends...and the issues surround procreation and contraception...issues i did not expect in a book published in the twenties.....these are issues are and dear......especially given the highlighted case of the women named mina who has labored with her 8th (9nth?) child for 3 days.......and james joyce recorded the episode as if the papa was the hero for siring a baby that took three days to deliver.....and there was the insinuation that leopold who may or may not have masturbated on the beach was spilling his seed in sin......oh my.....and this line of conversation gets no nearer the actual task of birth and death of literature/language.....creation and creativity...

deluge...

ok, so our rain came down today...not in a gentle soak...but in a deluge...the kind that has the power to wash away cars and bridges if the water is contained in too small a space......thankfully...i had brought my lunch, and had just returned from buying laundry detergent at the grocery....wow.....not something to get caught in......it must have been bad here at home, because the porch broom was out, and it was wet and muddy...i suspect that the rain came down so quickly that the water came down onto the porch and htreatened to come in the door.....thankfully my youngest cleaned off the worst of the muddy mess......

notes

ok, so...i really need to write thank you notes...to the kind friends of my late sisterinlaw who gave the rehearsal dinner....and a note to our nephew and niece who live down the road from the newly married couple.........i am not sure what i should say so i have written nothing...but all of these dear folks need to know that they are not alone in their mixed feeling about the nuptuals....i am still upset....but the feelings are fading...and that is why i must write soon...before apathy sets in and i blow off the notes altogether.....i really like to get notes, and so to get notes i must send notes......maybe by the weekend i can compose something that is a suggestion but not a shout....and then...i must send thanks to my beloved d.c. inlaws for hosting my eldest and his friend...and managing the repair of the taurus......such wonderful and dear kinfolk...i will write them first, because this thanks is immediate, untinged, and from the heart......

brighter in the corners.....

ok, so a music/folder icon appeared on my desktop this day.......brighter in the corners......and i am doubting my short-term memories over this.....as i spent lots of time last evening clearing misfit songs off of the desktop..i swear that i did not put it where it was.........go figure...the music fairies must have been passing my my way this day........

nirvana baby/boy

ok, so this from crooks and liars.....When Nirvana was putting together Nevermind, an album that set the tone for the rock music of the 90s, they weren’t all that famous. They couldn’t make their album art budget stretch far enough to use a stock photo of a baby swimming so the photographer they hired, Kirk Weddle paid $200 to some friends of his, Renata and Rick Elden, for their use of their 4 month old son, Spencer, for the shot. In 2001, in honor of Nevermind’s tenth anniversary (and his own tenth birthday) Spencer did the shot again for Rolling Stone.Last year Spencer, a Nirvana fan, told the NME that at 15 Nevermind still rocks his world. “You still hear the singles being played on the radio and it just doesn’t sound dated. Most bands around today can’t even get near to what Nirvana did on that album, and I’ll always be happy to be a part of it.”

fan(atic)s

ok, so i chanced to meet up with the centre ulysses scholar at the swim meet, and this may have been the highlight of the hot and steamy and drawnout event.....i was most proud to mention that i am at about 8:00 pm on bloomsday...when gertie is seen by leopold bloom on the beach....and not stuck on chapter 1 (8 am)....i also chanced to meet up with another harry potter fan, who admitted that her 14 year old son has requested that they read book 7 aloud, just like they read aloud the previous installments...i disclosed my personal predictions: that neville will be the chosen one who kills voldemort/harry has been a major red herring....that aunt petunia will save harry's life at some point at the beginning.....and that dumbledore is not really dead.....oh yeah, and snape will be redeemed in some fashion....truly, all that was missing from this evening were an austen fan and a colette fan.......austen fans are out there in droves....even salon.com had a piece today on the austen sequel (romance/selfhelp) industry....but colette fans are fewer and farther between....making the likelihood that i'll meet up with one less likely in these parts....

swim meet

ok, so......tonight is the first home swim meet.....and it will take ay least 3 hours to complete all events.....and that is too long for those who are not in the water to be out in the heat.....and then there is the potluck afterwards....for which i have made no plans because i forgot all about such things on our quick trip up north.....oy

just too funny/disgusting......

ok, so this from the new york times.....TOKYO - Japanese eating champion Takeru Kobayashi is being treated for an arthritic jaw that could douse his hopes for taking a seventh straight title at the annual Independence Day hot dog eating competition on Coney Island.

Last year, the 165-pound champion won his sixth straight Yellow Mustard Belt at the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest by devouring a then-world record 53 3/4 frankfurters in 12 minutes.

clarity....

ok, so i did have glimpses of clarity this miserable/depressing wedding weekend......i do NOT over indulge when i am depressed/upset/stifled/angry.......it seems to be only when i am having a really good time does my wine consumption follow along.......go figure.....one would think that it would be the other way around.....but i am quite pleased that those who made fools of themselves, for whatever reason, this past weekend...were not blood kin to me....or me....i might add...i was in bed and asleep before anybody else on both evenings...........so.......i must evade gregarious gatherings...or drink lots of water ahead so i am not really thirsty.....

moving on

ok, so while the emails were fast and furious this day....i will no longer entertain the subject matter herein....because i have moved on....i cannot resolve any or all of the (weekend wedding) issues disclosed to me...i must have been so distressed over the weekend as to miss the really good scenes.....but this is no matter....because i have moved on....and all i want to think about is the albino ibex seen in the alps near the confluence of france/italy/switzerland.....wow...what a wonder to hike up into the mountains and see such a sight!

home at last

ok, so......after a round trip drive of over 28 hours....we are back from this wedding.....and though i will confess to spending enjoyable moments with extended kin i do not see often enough.......ii cannot say that i had a good time this weekend......i suppose it all comes down to the ulimate burning question...just how fast would one's spouse get remarried under the circumstances......i was surprised last evening when the younger brother-in-law called me over to where he was sitting......gentle readers...this was after the bride and groom had left...at which time the new bride's family gathered in their clan.....on the deck and in the gazebo, and we were gathered in ours (on the lawn in the rented tent)......and my brother-in-law who says very little in general.....said......take a good look, because none of us will likely be together in this place ever again.......which was a sentiment that i has thought to myself, but not said aloud......this is the last of my thoughts on this matter, by the way.......now that i am home, i will pretend that there is closure, and that i have moved on........

heading home

ok, so we are packing up and heading back to ky.......the reality of the long drive is softened only by thoughts of our own beds at the end

it is not well with my soul...

ok,so.....the wedding was more difficult than anticipated...i found that i could not take communion with a clear and steady heart.....and was relieved when the hymn peace like a river was not sung....the refrain 'it is well with my soul'.....was not a song i could sing on this sad occassion....at the reception....at the family farm...all but one photo of my late sisterinlaw had disappeared......and the house had been usurped by the newcomer's kin......a reality that i was unprepared to handle...i have no desire to return to that house.......and i said my goodbyes in my own fashion..

burning questions

ok, so.......we are finally in troy, where the forecast is rain and cold....and none of us brought jackets.....one of us brought a sleeveless dress...ooops.....we amused our selves with books on cd, mix cd's.....and on compiling a list of burning questions....such as were there ever buffalos in buffalo....and what's up with a church called infant of prague.....are there more than one holy babies out there....

out of control

ok, so i laughed aloud this morning as i perused an article in the nytimes about a garden near puget sound...the gardener stated that she likes a very tidy garden.....and herein lies the great divide between anything she's got going on in her yard...and my own garden......there is not a tidy spot on my property.....in fact, my trellis rose is so out of control with new growth that i must be careful when i go out each morning to get the newspaper because it can grab ahold of me....and the daylilies....well...those that i pulled out are back with a vengeance...as if to double dare me to try it agian....i am mostly pleased that my plants have survived the hot dry weather...though i worry about the 4 days we will be gone.....i intend to water heavily before we leave this morning.....and hope for the best......

hysteria......

ok, so the night before we leave for this wedding, a journey of many hours and 2 days of driving that involves leaving off my mom at her sister's house in cleveland.....my mom is near to hysteria that we cannot leave earlier.....mapquest claims a trip of 5 hours 48 minutes, while my mother claims at least a 9 hour trip...with stops......she is threatening to not go if we do not leave earlier...which we cannot as my spouse's vacation coverage doesn't come until a certain hours and cayle has soccer camp to finish......but then there are my blood kin, who have threatened to leave for a meeting if my mother is 15 minutes late of their designated arrival time for her......frankly, they are all being ridiculous......and i pray that i will make it through this weekend without losing my temper....and may god remind me that in my own life i am simply living out the hand that i have been dealt.....

may lightening not strike....

ok, so my church asked me to write a piece for next week's newsletter....about stewardship......and this request has caused me great anxiety....as i am as far from a gungho southern baptist as one can possibly be.....this is what i submitted:

Clay Pots

I find myself still thinking about Dr. Turner’s sermon from a few weeks back. He mused philosophically upon 2 Corinthians 4: about the treasures that God stores in jars of clay as signs that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us mere mortals. And as I recall, he went on to compare those jars of clay to us as Christians. He reminded us that while there are fancier jars out there, even the most basic and plain vessel has the potential to do great things in the name of God. I suppose he could have expanded his thoughts into a full blown stewardship message if he had felt so moved. Come to think of it, he might have, but my thoughts were wandering to a clay pot of my own.

I came across it when I was dragging out from storage the assortment of planters, pots and tubs that I plant with annuals for the front porch and the back deck. This oval-shaped terra cotta pot, handmade from Bennington, Vermont was a gift from my late sister-in-law. It was now broken horizontally in 2 places. This pot was much too precious to discard without careful thought as to how it could be repaired. I impulsively placed it in a spot where it could sit without being moved, fitted the broken pieces back into place, filled it with soil, and planted a pink geranium. As long as I remember what is special about this pot and respect that flaw, it can continue to be used for years to come.

There are many days, weeks and months when I feel just like that broken pot. And I have to remind myself that God can work through my brokenness only as long as I am willing to make myself useful to my family, my church and my community. I must remind myself that God remembers what is special about me, and respects those flaws by only asking me to use the gifts he has already given to me. I haven’t figured out how the pink geranium fits into this analogy. I am still working on that.

May God use the treasures stored in your jars of clay to further his kingdom on earth.

quicktime is a takin' over.....

ok, so..when i went to dowmload a few of this weeks selections from salon.com......there was no downloading....as the winamp download box had been usurped by the quicktime play icon.....gentle readers....we have been through this before......my daughter does not quite understand that the answer to the query...do you want quicktime ot be your default media player?........is no.....and sometime between last evening and 10:00 pm she allowed quicktime to totally infiltrate.....which takes me time to undo...as i do not know the failsafe/backdoor easy way.....ah well.....this evening was ther annual twinkie run...which takes place aty the church on faulkner station, with the actual run on north buster...a great crowd considering the downpour that preceded it......my spouse estimated my time at 49 minutes, which is quite ambitious for a woman who has just worked 9 hours.....i didn't come anywhere close to that...but did manage to have a good time.....

crack baby

ok, so let's debrief about my day in public health......i witnessed a client having a heart attack....and the rescue squad clamoring in the back door to wheel her away......thankfully she was not MY client.....just someone who wandered in desiring a blood pressure check because she didn't feel right and lacks health insurance......this woman was grey and sweaty and clearly in distress....and i am impressed that my colleagues acted so quickly......and then there was my client.....a 2 month old baby that just got out of the hospital...into one then another foster care placement (the first couldn't handle all of the particulars...)...this infant has already had one major surgery related to a premature birth...and will likely have more...mamma tested positive for illegal substances....so very sad......i have a hard enough time with pregnant women who smoke (minimum cost to the baby by age 18 is $19,000 in lost quality of life)...not counting the impact on health......i had one of those mothers in today as well........and this one dropped out of high school before the baby was born.....so we are talking major loss for this child in terms of mamma's earning power.......so very sad.....

the check is in the mail.....

ok so i received a check in the mail this day from delta.......$137 to cover the cost of the crappy street vendor clothing i was forced to buy on rue st andre des arts in order to maintain a reasonable state of cleanliness after the airline lost our luggage (failed to send our luggage to paris....they knew where it was when i reported it missing...).....apparently delta does not reimburse for the pain and suffering of wearing a t-shirt with a glitter eiffel tower.....quel domage.....

soccer camp

ok, so soccer camp started yesterday......and my spouse is already concerned.....not about the actual field play....but about the body language......when he arrived our child was sitting apart from the team....a strange place to be when your team is playing a game......and during dinner she spoke of spending her break with an 8th grade player rather than anyone on her current team...she is the sort of person who takes younger children under her wing.....we have seen this over and over with swimming and with cross country...but now that she is the youngest,,,,,,there seems to be no older version of herself to look out for her....no idea how/when/why these dynamics got started....all we know is that the point of team sport is to be part of a team.....

the pond.....

ok, so.....while shopping for a father's day gift ( a copper firepit for the pond terrace...)i chanced to see some water plants at lowes.......and no we have some bloody dock, a water hyacinth, a mazus, and a a plant that i cannot recall that blooms purple......i also topped off the pond with the hose, as there is either a small leak or evaporation of water at the waterfall.....either way... 100 degree heat doesn't help.......2 frogs pretended they were not visible as i sprayed water.....the last time i refilled the pond, a snake slithered out from between the rocks and the liner......just to the water's edge, where he (or she?) seemed to drink......and then retreat back from whence he (she?) came.....

the lecture series....

ok, so my eldest downloaded on our p.c. a lecture series on ulysses that he has been listening to of late......1 lecture for each of the 18 'chapters'.....as titled by their relationship to the greek poem...he never used them in the actual published novel, but did have them in his notes.....i listened to the chapter (i say chapter, but joyce uses no such deliniations) i just finished....and have started at the beginning in hopes of catching myself up to all i missed...and there is a lot that one can miss with a book so detailed and exhaustive...oy!......hearing each chapter thus described is a marvelous gift....especially the commentary on chapter three (proteus on sandymount strand)...in which the lecturer relates that this is the chapter that stops most readers....mucks them down, discourages them into reading no further...the lecturer goes so far as to advise that one simply skip this chapter and come back to it once momentum has resumed.....that option is quite freeing to hear....

return to my dream world.....

ok, so ti seems like its been awhile since i had interesting or reportable dreams.......this morning i woke up with a clear recollection of being at a house, and being interviewed to babysit this couple's 5 toddlers......who were clearly not related to each other, but who were never referred to as adopted.....and curiously didn't share the same last name......and these folks were impressed that i was familiar with cloth diapers.....and i recall explaining that i was considering this babysitting gig to make extra money to finance my children's travel plans...and after i left i stopped by a coffeeshop in this little town...not d-ville....it felt very french....and i couldn't figure out how to use the cell phone in my purse.....it had 3 flipping parts, and neither had a keypad....and i was supposed to get a call to orchestrate a rendevous, but i couldn't figure out how to answer the phone when it rang.....for the record, this week of phone-related frustrations has been.......frustrating.....so it makes complete sense to me that phones figure into my dreams.....no idea if i ever made it out of the coffeeshop......maybe the sequel will follow through on another night....

incoherent

ok, so at precisely 1:18 am our phone rang......keep in mind, gentle readers, that with our new dual-hand set kitchen phone a received call will sound somewhat like an air raid siren until we figure out volume and ringtone issues.....and so i was so startled by the noise that i knocked the phone off the bedside table and then struggled to retrieve it to at least make the racket stop...let alone answer it.....parents fear the worst when phones ring after hours.....one takes careful inventory of children not currently at home in bed....and so it was with great surprise that i heard a female voice ask for my middle child.....i was still somewhat incoherant/asleep....because i answered....who?...followed by a babbling string of he's not here......he's in d.c....he won't be back for months.....at which point the caller actually acknowledged that she already knew that.....and it became clear that she thought she had his cell number rather than his home number.....and then she gave her name, apologized and hung up.....which left me even more confused, because she sounded like someone who has been to dinner at our house a few times, despite identifying herself as someone i believe to be a friend of will's from richmond......gentle readers.....one does not just drift back off to sleep after such an episode......my spouse was awake by then, and wanted a first and then second replay of the conversation.....at which point there was a sleepy conversation about just who would call somebody after...say....10:00 pm let alone 1:18 am......unless death or dying or potentially fatal injury is involved......i'd get on up to go fetch someone in a pinch, or heaven forbid- bail someone out of jail....well maybe the first time......a repeat performance merits a night in the lockup.....but i digress.......

a nice gathering.....

ok, so we went to a nice gathering this evening...a going away for a couple who we expect to move back one day......hard to imagine them living anywhere but d-ville.....and most of our bookclub and running and biking and meditation and extended folks from these groups were also there.....a few francophiles for good measure.....and luckily we were able to stay inside despite the invitation specifying a backyard bbq........much too hot for that...we did meet an around the corner neighbor who is dating someone we know........someone i have never laid eyes on...that is typical of folks who live out on the lake.....they tend to keep to themselves.....ah well.....

page 374

ok, so i have managed to slog through to page 374 of ulysses......bloom is watching a woman on the beach with a physical defect that makes her walk oddly.....this is the first passages where the subject matter and word usage explained to me the hesitancy of virginia woolf and her spouse to publish thie book......gentle readers.....i am in awe that woolf made it to the 370's......this is the single most difficult book i have ever read, and i cannot say that i have read every single word, nor understood much past the first page.....i am considering a quick reread of the last harry potter book, so preapre my brain for the last installment due out the end of july.....it is also a mighty long tome......but a quick read for those who desire information and enlightenment.....i am disappointed that i did not manage to finish ulysses by bloomsday....june 16....the actual 24-hour day featured so wordily by joyce....no thought had by anybody on that day goes un-recorded......

from slate.com

ok, so this piece from slate.com about harry potter's (potential)last scene, modeled after the soprano's last scene made me giggle....

Harry walked into the Three Broomsticks and took a seat in a booth near the back. Who were all the people in here tonight? They looked familiar, but Harry didn't know any of them. Was that Dolores Umbridge? No, just some woman in a hideous cardigan.

None of these diners knew yet that Voldemort was dead—not by Harry's hand, but killed instead by Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan, who'd happened upon He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named outside of London. They'd cursed him from behind and watched as the Knight Bus ran over his head with a horrible crunching sound.

Harry flipped through the channels on the wizarding wireless until he found a song that reminded him of the old days, "Do the Hippogriff" by the Weird Sisters. He remembered the crowds dancing to this song at the Yule Ball, years before; so many of those friends were long gone now, dead or in Azkaban. As the song began, Harry heard the tinkle of the bell above the front door as Ginny came in. She hurried to his booth and sat down.

"It's Percy," he told her, taking a swig of butterbeer. "He's testifying."

Each time the bell rang and another wizard walked into the pub, Harry looked up warily. Voldemort may have been dead, but there were still plenty of people who'd be thrilled if Harry was the victim of a Bat-Bogey Hex, or worse. Was that man in the corner booth, stirring sugar into his tea, from the Ministry of Magic? Or a Death Eater, burning for revenge? Or was he just some bystander who couldn't help noticing the famous scar on Harry's forehead?

Ron, his red hair cut short and a thin beard running along his jaw, came through the door and sat down. Harry took his hand for a second, a little overwhelmed. After the depression, and the suicide attempt in the fifth-floor prefects' bathroom, it was good to see Ron happy again; his new office job with the Chudley Cannons quidditch club—and the German-made sports broom Harry had bought him—seemed to be improving his spirits.

Someone approached the table. Harry looked up, hoping it might be Hermione, but instead it was a pale, sneering young man who for a moment reminded Harry of Draco Malfoy. The man walked past Harry's booth and entered the bathroom. Across the pub, a man with dark eyes laughed with a woman who reminded Harry of Bellatrix Lestrange.

Outside, a frustrated Hermione tried to tether Buckbeak the hippogriff to a street lamp, but Buckbeak was having none of it. He shook his eagle head angrily and pawed at the ground. Hermione sighed; she'd have to start with the bowing all over again.

An order of Pumpkin Pasties arrived at the table, and Harry popped one in his mouth. Where was Hermione? She'd told him earlier in the week that she was giving up her plans to be a Healer in favor of a career as an advocate, defending wizards in Ministry hearings. He'd flushed with pride. Maybe having the whole gang here would ease the sense of dread he couldn't shake.

He remembered what Hagrid had told him. "Aye, Harry," poor Hagrid had said. "You probably don't even hear it when it happens." Was that true? Had Hagrid heard the words, or seen the flash of green, when those two Death Eater thugs killed him in the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley?

Outside, Hermione finally managed to settle Buckbeak in one place along the curb. She ran across the lane, heading for the entrance to the Three Broomsticks.

Harry heard the jingle of the door. He looked up. He felt his scar

.

friday evening cannot come soon enough....

ok, so i am mentally fast-forwarding to not only time to go home for the day, but til after the party we've been invited to attend......to when i can take off my shoes and sit by my pond and listen to the sound of calm......

space shuttle story

ok, so i really enjoyed this story from the world wide web.....PALATINE, Illinois (AP) -- An elementary school science teacher in this Chicago suburb doesn't have to turn on the news for an update on NASA's space mission. She just turns on her video baby monitor.

Since Sunday, one of the two channels on Natalie Meilinger's baby monitor has been picking up black-and-white video from inside the space shuttle Atlantis. The other still lets her keep an eye on her baby.

"Whoever has a baby monitor knows what you'll usually see," Meilinger said. "No one would ever expect this."

Live video of the mission is available on NASA's Web site, so it's possible the monitor is picking up a signal from somewhere.

"It's not coming straight from the shuttle," NASA spokeswoman Brandi Dean said. "People here think this is very interesting and you don't hear of it often -- if at all."

Meilinger silenced disbelieving co-workers by bringing in a video of the monitor to show her class on Tuesday, her students' last day of school. At home, 3-month-old Jack and 2-year-old Rachel don't quite understand what their parents are watching.

"I've been addicted to it and keep waiting to see what's next," Meilinger said.

Summer Infant, the monitor's manufacturer, is investigating what could be causing the transmission, communications director Cindy Barlow said. She said she's never heard of anything similar happening.

"Not even close," she said. "Gotta love technology."

new phone blues.....

ok, so we have gifted ourselves with a kitchen phone that has not been fallen to the ground one too many times......and now we must figure out how to use it.....we have added speed dial numbers...only to lack the where-with-all to actually connect.....yeah, we are not early adopters...but we should be able to figure this out....it could be a long summer.....

birthday blues

ok, so the young man that used to be my baby boy celebrates a birthday today.....and the older he gets the older i must be getting....

22.3 mile ride.....

ok, so i am blogging whilst cooking dinner...opted out of anniversary dinner out after 22.3 mile bike ride left me.....a bit wilted......couldn't think of any local places that would let me take off myshoes and socks......so home it is with a nice glass of white and shrimp scampi on the back deck.......lovely way to celebrate.....

lucky thirteen times two....

ok, so today is our 26th wedding anniversary, proving for yet another year that getting married on the 13th wasn't such a bad idea.....yeah, well...beyond the rain and tornado that ripped through.....and seeing as how ihis day comes bundled with our eldest's birthday on the 14th.....we celebrate them together......and seeing as how he cannot come down til the weekend....we will be having our cake and ice cream on saturday night.....so today?.......i am making my spouse deliriously happy by agreeing to go on the regular wedndesday night bike ride...from the front fo the bike shop.....for as many miles as can be ridden before somebody has the nerve to suggest they turn around......our plan is to go to freddies afterwards....but i suspect that after such a ride i will want to just come on home.....

17 trips......

ok, so i have continued to leave my bath water in the tub......and to carry it out gallon by gallon to specific and very thirsty plants.......i suppose i could glean more than 17 trips out of a bathtub...but by the time the water level gets below the mouth of the plastic jug....it is not worth the trouble......i am leaving out the bath salts...focusing on tub tea...aromatic and potentially less toxic to my plants.......this evening, waering my pedometer....17 trips added up to a little more than a mile of walking....which, added ot my lunchtime mileage....was a pretty active day.....to me...not to my skeptical spouse.......but that is another blog entirely.........

more about jane's mamma

ok,s o i had a lovely chat with my friend jane on the phone this evening, and we were both thinking about a conversation we had 30 years ago.....at one of her cincinnati apartments......about what we'd like to have at our last meal.......i can recall raspberries being part of the dessert course...and maybe asparagus en croute ...but the rest was a mystery until jane reminded me that we both wanted filet mignon......we both agreed that we would choose differently now....as white wine doesn't go with filet, and neither of has fully embraced reds......maybe when we grow up..... and so i would opt for smoked salmon appetizer of some sort.....and maybe scallops in garlic cream...with asparagus en croute.....and a cheese plate....and a raspberry tart......but i digress from jane's MM....who lived her life as she wanted to live it, and left no trip untaken, and no bottle of wine left untasted....and no story left untold......could i but do the same......

brown plaid shirt

ok, so....i spent my dream time last evening looking for and then ironing a brown plaid shirt that i gave away years ago......for good reason.....the sleeves were a bit too short.....in this dream i was going to wear it with the sleeves rolled up......over a tank top.....no earthly idea why i would discard any more relevant dream sequences for this one......

people who like people

ok, so this morning at the band festival's community worship service, i chanced to share cursory greetings with a number of folks i know from church, past lives, and my own neighborhood.....and i am reminded that there are those people who really like everybody they meet, let alone people they already know......there are no living breathing humans that they cannot find something to like or a connection to make.......but i am not one of those people.....in fact, last night there was a brief but memorable non-encounter with the mother of a classmate of my eldest child.....who was pretending she didn't see me just about as much as i was pretending i didn't see her.......which makes me laugh again just thinking about it.....i just do not happen to like everyone i know.....let alone everyone i meet.....and though this sounds mean...it is certainly not without a warning shot......(reflect once again upon the name of this blog).......i suppose that i have ceased to feel the need to pretend......a reflex essential to the restaurant trade......where i saw that there are those who do not just pretend, but actually grovel in hopes of getting ahead in some shape or form.....i am certain that those who groveled in the past, to little avail, are groveling still...as if time or tenacity will pay off in the long haul.......i almost laughed aloud during the earlier-mentioned church service, when a local pastor was praying with such a forced jubilation to his voice that he sounded like one of those pay-for-view television preachers......life is much too short to be false in one's associations, whether at work or play...or worship for that matter.....and so, gentle readers, if you think that i like you, i probably do, because if i didn't....you'd have already figured that out.......

band festival

ok, so.....the annual band festival ends this evening......this installment has been exceptional for tie-in events.....the wine tasting, the gallery hop (db&f hosted a jewelry maker and a painter in the glowing-gourd genre....), a 5K run, in addition to the bands themselves.....we arrived last evening about 7:30....and stayed til after 10- heard just three bands....but three brass bands is enough...it is the seeing friends that matters most- and so we sat in our usual spot with the usual friends and drank wine from plastic water bottles so as not to be too obvious....and enjoyed a perfectly lovely evening out.....getting ready to go to the community church service.....which is thankfully casual....and will likely skip the balloon race....as i said, three brass bands is about enough for me....

ladies first.....

ok, so a filly won the belmont stakes for the first time in 105 years......the race was a sight to see, with rags to riches winning by a nose after stumbling at the gate......with such events, there was 55 minutes of babbling commentary prior to and after the actual 1.5 mile trot......with a small field the network was forced to dredge up every possible bit of trivia about each and every jockey, owner, trainer, and horse entered.......ah well.....it was a monumental occassion....and as could be expected, was front page news in the bluegrass......

french open...

ok, so....i thoroughly enjoyed a morning of tennis viewing.....nobody else home to fuss about when a switch to cartoons could be expected.....granted...the justine henin of belgium managed to win the match is just over an hour......and so now i had best get down to the business of watering my flowers......

mamma's friend jane's mamma

ok, so...my friend jane's mamma died suddenly this morning.......i haven;t been able to catch jane on the phone....she was a good woman and i shall miss her....

romp

ok, so.....i had a few glitches in my leisure day...seems that the gallery hop was this evening, and i had promised to provide munchies for those who stopped by our place of business......and sometime before picking up our daughter at practice and seeing the ocean's 13 movie i managed to put together a respectable spread...but i digress from the movie....which was ever so much more enjoyable than the pirate sequel......and an hour less of my time to boot.....some critics have called it a romp, a fluff piece, a caper....as if that were a bad thing......for my $9.00 for 2.....i enjoyed myself thoroughly, and wish the dvd was already out for purchase......yeah, well...it was fluff, and a romp, and a caper.......but that is what i pay people for in my summer leisure time.....i have enough tragedy and drama at work to balance out this purported fluff piece.......the nicest detail that clooney and pitt put into what they call their last ocean's sequel is the humanitarian aspect......there are wrongs righted, underpaid workers rewarded, and charitable donations made...in a sense it was a modern-day robin hood tale, rather than a 3rd movie in a franchised agreement.......and if i be a sucker for the sob story....so be it...........

home

ok, so.....as a reward for working monday night and traveling to lexington wednesday i get to stay home today.....and though i had fantasies about sleeping late....i was up and drinking coffee with the newspaper well before 8......thinking that i might want to get out and water the plants.......this is a new form of exercise, by the way.....as i have started to leave my bathwater in the tub....and i make 15-20 trips with a gallon-size plastic jug....this sortof watering makes sense, because the carefully placed water goes in deep, while spraying water just gets into the surface of the area around a plant.......ideally i'll get this done before i fix my smoked salmon omelet, and before i go the grocery store to fill up these bare shelves.......also on the agenda for my leisure day: pick up cayle at soccer, take her (us) to see ocean's 13.....and then......maybe get in some more of ulysses....still have plenty of hours to cover before leopold bloom's day is over.....

ky blue versus rose of cabernet franc.....

ok, so....my spouse and i enjoyed a hairdryer-grade evening under a tent in an historic front yard...at the first annual wine festival....wow....what a great turnout and what a lovely event......i found a few wines that i could drink more than a cursory taste.....and that wasn't the Gewurztraminer that the owner/vintner proudly poured for me, gushing that i could pronounce the word.....they made theirs dry, rather than the traditional sweet edge....and it was undrinkable.....i especially enjoyed a Provencal-style rose.....just wonderful......as well as a dry white chardonnay blend called ky blue....in a blue bottle......better than one would expect in a gimmick production.....much better....got there late, left early becauseof the oppressive heat....but truly an event worth repeating......

deep and intrinisc.....

ok, so i spent the day in lexington at a breastfeeding workshop.......somewhat of a work requirement but made more tolerable by entertaining presenters.....i was impressed by the 2 speakers.......for their witty repartee as well as for their passion for the art and promotion of breastfeeding.....a personal reflection told by the lady who spoke on three of the four topics of the day is worth repeating, as it spoke to me on many levels.......seems when she was younger and still nursing one of her children, she happened to drive several of her older relatives to visit yet another relative at a nursing home. After a cursory visit in the room, she opted to leave the rest to chat in private, and she retreated to the lobby/gathering area with her child. A resident soon sat down beside her, and cooed and waved at her baby.......when she did speak, the woman pointed at the younger person seated nearby, and said...'this person comes to visit me...i don't know her, but she seems nice'......at which the younger person waved and said....' i am her daughter margaret......mom, you remember, don't you- i am margaret'.......the reference to the person she didn't know happened a few more times.....at which point the workshop speaker had started to nurse her baby (discreetly) and asked the resident if she had breastfed her children.....'oh, yes, i nursed all three of my children......the youngest margaret didn't want to give it up.....even when she was 4...if she saw me milking the cows she would pull up in my lap and want me to stop with the milking and to let her nurse.....it took me forever to get her to quit nursing.....'......our speaker was audibly moved when she noted that margaret, sitting near her mother was in tears at a memory so essential, so deep and intrinsic......a mother who nurses forms a bond with her baby that even time and senility cannot completely erase.......yeah, y'all know that i was in tears, as well...at the notion that senility cannot completely triumph over those memories that are basic and true.....

stormy weather....

ok, so.....the temperature dropped with a vengeance.....and the wind has picked up....and there are thunderstorm watches all around....a good evening to stay at home with ulysses....who is still in the library and at some point he will want to move on with his day.....i intend to finish this time by june 16, which happens to be bloomsday...the day this novel takes place....lots going on between now and then....the brass band festival, our 26th wedding anniversary, the birthday of my eldest child....another child off to camp.....a going away party.....but i don't want to give the impression that there is a LOT going on....my life is quite sedate compared to the whirlwind driving about of the older actively involved offspring in year's past.......these days i feel like i am in semi-retirement: a low stress job.....multiple transportation options for the last child standing, the luxury of take-out for the occassional days i don't feel like cooking......if i had any less to do i'd fall asleep where i stood.....which is nothing to brag about, but i feel most emotional vibrant and less prone to the doldrums when i have LOTS going on......

the replacement cell phone.....

ok, so a major source of anxiety this week has been the connection with the cell phone insurance folks regarding cell phone damage, and the arrival of the replacement phone.......with a saturday departure to d.c.......there was great anticipation of the phone arriving in time......nothing came on tuesday, wendesday, thursday....and so friday i opted to actually look at the emails sent by cingular/dhl....to my horror, the dhl folks reported the phone as delivered on wednesday at 1:00 pm......which couldn't be true because there were people in and out of the house/up to grandma's yard on wednesday afternoon and a delivery truck would be noticed......and so the phone calls to cingular/dhl began...with assurances that the wayward package would be retrieved from the hinterland and delivered unto our door.....yeah, right......and so the cell phone's owner drove away on saturday with a broken handset...and no idea where the replacement could be.....until this afternoon....when my mother called me to report that the folks on the main road who found the package on their doorstep had delivered it to our house.....no numbers similar in our addresses...only the road versus circle......these folks have their name on the mailbox and it is certainly not ours.....omg....

hot and cold.....

ok, so i slept with the window open last night, because the evening seemed pleasantly cooler than it had been for awhile......but woke up with a chill sometime in the small hours.......but with the top cover pulled up, i ended up waking up hot and sweaty not long after.........temperature regulation is a design flaw i had heard about for women my age, but this has become ridiculous.....

the fill-in preacher.....

ok, so during the month of june we will be treated to the sermons of one of the finest theologians i have ever chanced to hear preach.......the kind of scholar who is still on track with the original baptist tenets...rather than some convenient self-serving agenda......a baptist who still believes in the separation of church and state.....because he remembers just how far astray a church in power can go......and so i sat back and just soaked in the finest 17 minutes of oratory our church has heard in some time.......

bummed.....

ok, so my daughter and i went out for mexican after church and then to see the lengthy and latest installment in the pirates of the Caribbean saga......and i say...why make a trilogy only to have it end like that.......i am disappointed at best......and angry at worst......that these moviemakers squandered the chance to make a really great lovestory and ended up making a really bad pirate movie.......keith richards is likely embarrassed, which must be hard for someone like keith richards.....and it wasn't as if i did not know it was bad going in...the reviews have all been scathing.....but it is like a train wreck, in that one simply cannot turn one's head away from the horror........and to think i could have come home from church and taken a nap instead.......

calling all pets.....

ok, so i lazed in the bed, snoozingm off and on, from the time the alarm went off at 6:30 am until 8...when the hour-long npr radio call-in show finished up.......couldn't tell you much about the advice given, other than the vet on the show advised a caller with a hesitant cat to count to three each time she opens the door for the cat to go in or out...and if the cat has not moved by the count of three the door is to be shut.....the cat will (theoretically) learn to go out before three is called.....which shortens the pet owners wait time......may have to try this with our hesitant feline.....i did have a good night sleep...despite staying up til midnight watching lotr/the two towers......with my daughter up way past her bedtime......i suppose we stayed up because there was nobody else at home to tell us not to do so......an eerie insight into what life could/would be like without a counterpoint presence in our lives......the movie took so long because i wanted to watch the end of the nyy-bosredsox game on fox....which took 3.5 hours because the 7th inning lasted so very long........the nyy are falling apart, and even though they are not my favorite team i did feel sorry for them in the 7th inning......especially when their 1st baseman was injured in a quirky accident......the only constructive thing i did with my day off was to walk twice on the treadmill and to water my plants........no thoughts yet to any constructive activities for today......

wireless woes...

ok, so at some point after the p.c. was repaired, the wireless keyboard stopped working......i got out the instructions, and went through the reset procedures 1-5 several times over...to no avail........we ended up attaching an old keyboard......which miraculously caused the wireless keyboard to work again.......no idea why that happened...but for the time being i am leaving both keyboards where they are...piggybacked......at least until tomorrow morning......i cannot face sunday morning without perusal of the nytimes and the wpost.....this week was frustration on several levels......the replacement phone ordered for the child leaving for his summer internship didn't arrive, despite an on-line affirmation that the delivery truck left it at our doorstep......and so began the modern-day layers of hell known as automated phone systems...for both the dhl delivery folks and the cingular insurance people......i would rather take a beating than to deal with this sort of debacle......i use the term frustration, but at some moments the frustration became worry....and worry is a trap that i sink into.....one that yields no positive rewards.... and one to be avoided......so why would one fret over a cell phone that didn't arrive on time....especially since it can be forwarded to the summer living quarters.....i have no idea......most of the things i worry about mean next to nothing in the greater scheme........thankfully, i need not worry about the wireless keyboard...at least until tomorrow.....

still down

ok,so the pc is fixed but the wireless keyboard will not work....have actually hauled out manual......go figure