looking toward feb 1

ok, so...i spent part/most/all of my day wrapped up in the drama of my ex-boss's last day....despite the fact that i don't even work at home base on thursdays.....and i am ready to put all that behind me and not mention it again.....in fact, i may declare a moratorium on discussion of work in this blog.....just like i might just not use the cell phone they will give me tomorrow for personal use...because it will all be public record....this will not be much of an issue because i am not fond of talking on the phone....and i do not speak of much of my personal life at work as it is....let alone the blog.....must keep a few precious things to myself...what i have done to celebrate my first day on my interim job is to make my workmates ham biscuits and fruits trays.....seemed like a good way to observe the eve of groundhog day......

scramble

ok, so....reese has won 2 out of 2 rounds....reese IS awesome.....note to self: must practice

spiders from mars.....

ok, so.....i was able to sleep from 9:30 til 3:30, and i woke up thirsty, and that is where things got out of hand....i dropped my water bottle and though i caught it between the bed and the bedside table, it did splash on the sheets, and when i tried to put the cap back on, i dropped the cap beside the bed, and though i found the cap if was after i had splashed more water on the sheets....and i had to go to fill the bottle back up at the bathroom sink.....and despite being warm and cozy under the covers as long as i avoided the wet spots by the edge, i could not get ziggy stardust out of my mind.......not that i had visions of spiders from mars...mostly david bowie in a silvery get-up and a made-up face.....singing about spiders from mars like in a music video.....and i am pretty sure this was not a dream, because i tried to change the song in my mind till at least 4:30.....songs in ones brain are hard to dislodge.....

a pillow from avon

ok, so....the pinnacle moment of my day happened late in the game.....when i was wrapping things up with a client....and i asked my client if she might reconsider her physician's suggestion that she take a mild anti-anxiety medication....i asked because she made me a nervous wreck watching her jump up and down out of my client chair, and wring her hands, and break into tears, and try to hug me.....and she replied...in all sincerity....that she did not need medication because she had ordered a pillow from avon that would take care of things.....and i ask you, gentle readers...who may actually look at avon books...what kind of anti-anxiety pillows they are selling these days.....i might just want to invest in one for myself......

more sleeplessness.....

ok, so.....the wind howled last night, all night it seemed...but there was more than just the weather waking me up.....for starts, my spouse woke me up to tell me that the power had been off...and that a second alarm had been set just in case it did not come back on.....and that would explain the phone call at 3:07 am...it was the electric company....an automated voice requesting that i call the given number if i had no power......i must have slept because i dreamed that i sat on the sofa of a friend, chatting with the friend's college room-mates, who were in town to help her with a yardsale...and i was eating macadamia nuts that had come loose from fudge left over from said sale.....a curious detail for a dream that must have lasted only moments in a restless night.....the good news is that i did not work all night....just ate nuts.....

an observation

ok, so...facebook scramble matches against female geniuses should not be attempted while spouses are trying to tune in portable televisions in the background and 14 year old daughters are vocally displeased that bedtime is nigh.....i'm just saying.....

bested....

ok, so....reese is awesome has bested me at our first round of scramble on facebook......ouch....this is only the beginning.....let the games begin......

oh, oh, oh....

ok, so...mamma's on a roll......or at least she will be on friday when all this interimness becomes official.....lots of plans.......curiously, lots of hugs......one of my co-workers told me today that the announcement was like a breath of fresh air to her......that may be laying it on a bit thick.....but i see this as a sign that life is good.....

up all night.....

ok, so i slept restlessly last night....and was awake enough to see the time at most hourly intervals.....and for no good reason.....the worst is over as far as i see things...the board approved my interimship....and most everybody i work with seemed positive...so why the anxiety?......and the curious musical background for my sleeplessness was the hymn...oh god our help in ages past.....i could not get the tune out of my head......

an announcement

ok, so.....as my middle child would say it......oh,oh,oh,...mamma runs the show.......or at least in an interim capacity for the next 3-6 months

work

ok, so....i worked all night in my sleep, and even while i couldn't sleep in the wee hours i was thinking about work.....the board meets at noon....or is supposed to do so......i'd live-blog if only the site was not blocked.....

taking on grandma

ok, so....the eldest of my offspring decided to carry on with the brief discussion i had with my mother at dinner about caroline kennedy's endorsement of obama....i handed her the nytimes printout, and she read it politely, and then changed the subject to how she could see him being elected before hilary..as a republican she believes hilary to sit at the devil's right hand........and she believes that hilary and bill are running this campaign so as to increase their govt retirement income.....a sentiment i am sure she heard from my forwarded email aunt in cleveland.....and my child made credible arguments that nobody runs for president to increase their retirement income...they do so because they are power junkies....and the extra cash from their s.s. checks is nothing compared to what riches await ex-presidents on the lecture series....retirement income.....that is a laugh.....

caroline kennedy endorses obama in op-ed piece

ok, so.....as a child of the 60's i was moved to tears by this touching endorsement in today's nytimes.....

stuff....

ok, so...i have spent the past few hours going through stuff...looking for something specific, but keeping in mind many items known to be lost.....my bin in the kitchen for starts....and then several baskets behind the sofa in our bedroom....and then more bins positioned amongst the books on the shelves that flank the window.....and while i did find goodwill receipts to be put with the tax stuff..........i failed to find exactly what i was looking for...but i did find several items of interest.....like a touching note sent by chiara as thanks for a photo i took of her in amboise, when my current group of 8th graders ran into a former group abroad on a high school french class trip.....i must have mentioned her college connection, as she wrote that she would be sure to think of me when osu played michigan...and i found a sweet note from the mother of a local artist, written on one of his own art-cards...thanking me for letting her visit my garden on her last visit to d-ville......and i found scores of unsent postcards from far-flung spots...and my scores from my first dietetic registration exam back in 1980 (86%, not great but enough to pass)......as i type the cat has just skidded around the corner batting about a beaded necklace she has found somewhere in the back room, and when she noticed me she bolted up the steps, leaving the necklace for.....an after-nap romp perhaps?.....quite a humorous aside for this chilly day......the cat likely knows the exact location of each thing i search for, but she is keeping her own counsel

early to bed....

ok, so.....our entire household was not only in bed by 9:30 last night, but asleep......we must have collective malaise.....

almost friday....

ok,so.....this has been quite the week.....for reasons that may be blogged and for reasons that may not be blogged.....i had just a few minutes to update my resume this week before it was put in essential hands.......and after that was done i did what any reasonable person would do...i did a google search on my self...under my given and usual names......and my facebook account, complete with caped cat avatar came up on the first page.....and while i doubt that the folks who might interview me would think to do a google search, i am prepared to speak of my scramble play with far flung friends on facebook......i was relieved to find that this blog does not come up.....under any rendition of my name.....this blog is amongst the many topics not discussed at work.....my summer reading project, ulysses, was never a hot topic despite the fact that i consider it an ellen life-list kind of thing...i do not talk religion, nor politics.....nor bodily function......which only leaves......the water leaking through the light fixture in the kitchen on monday.....and nearly sliding off the road on my way to work on tuesday.....my regrettable eggplant casserole...you get the idea.....i edit the way i portray myself so seamlessly that it is sometimes sad.....that i am not entirely honest with most folks on just who i am when i am not around them.....i suppose that is the human condition in a nutshell.......and so tomorrow is friday, and i will go to work hoping to hear some news, and i will be fine if......my resume was not viewed favorably....after all....it is but a patched up reflection of the me i chose to highlight.....

cold front....

ok, so....i have taken to wearing mittens when i go out to get the newspaper while the coffee perks....as well as a sweatshirt or a robe......it is just too cold out for anything less....and i have taken to leaving on the mittens while i go through my web-site list....just until my body gets used to being back inside.....the expected low this evening is single-digit.....

cat flies to dallas in suitcase.....

ok, so....this story was the best part of my day.... A shy 10-month-old tabby has quite a story to tell after traveling across the country inside a suitcase, according to CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas.

Gracie Mae's owner, Kelly Levy, was worried the morning her husband, Seth, left Florida for a flight to North Texas. They hadn't seen their cat since the early evening. Levy searched the usual places a fearful cat would hide - including a crawl space in the bathroom wall. Levy even had some of the tiles removed to make sure the recently spayed and still-recovering kitten wasn't stuck.

"I started to tear the house apart. I was frantic. I couldn't find her," the 24-year-old told The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.She even posted "lost cat" signs in her neighborhood. As Kelly Levy searched for the kitten, her husband couldn't find his suitcase when he arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport baggage claim.

Someone else picked up the suitcase and found the lost pet tucked in Seth Levy's clothes. As Kelly told the newspaper, the man who retrieved her husband's bag called to tell her of his surprise find. The man agreed to hold onto Gracie Mae until Seth could pick her up later Saturday, Mrs. Levy said. Gracie Mae returned safely home Sunday night on an $80 plane ticket, the newspaper reported.

got to stop......

ok, so....the hilary-obama war of words must stop if the dems want to get through this political season as a unified voting block with any hope of winning in november....their open war is troubling in that they are ripping apart their own party rather than focusing on the pitiable job done by the current (republican) administration......i am embarrassed for them both....

bold moves

ok, so......i had my updated resume ready at the appropriate time today......and my middle child added this sentiment to the matter....Seneca says that "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity".......so rather than wish me luck.....gentle readers, just be proud that i am still ready to rise to the occasion at this stage in my career....

school's out.....

ok, so......there was not enough snow to cover the soles of my shoes going to get the paper at the road...but yet there i no school locally....yes, it is still snowing....just enough to be visible.....i have a diabetes class this afternoon.....and the snow will likely keep the two 65+ ladies home....ah well....

erica jong weighs in on roevwade

ok, so this from the huffingtonpost

plumbing problems.....

ok, so...yesterday a gasket on the hot water faucet in the back bathroom burst....and though easily fixed did alarm us, as we had planned on going away for the long weekend, but never got around to making plans.....had we left we would have returned to a flooded basement and a huge eater/electric bill...it WAS the hot water.....and today...yet another plumbing problem....the pipes to the sink and bathtub appear to be frozen.....a problem discovered when i was trying to fill up my watering jug to tend to our numerous plants.....no water....and i must have left the faucet where it was, because all of a sudden the cold water came rushing out.....and while i was able to turn it off...the drain would not drain....which happens on occasion in very cold weather......and so i am waiting for the drain to thaw in the afternoon sum......the hot water has not yet come back on....no idea why the hot would freeze......

power ballads?

ok, so the nytimes reviewed a concert by rascal flatts....a group made up partly of folks from ohio....when we went back to mid-ohio one summer they were playing the morrow county fair.....that is just how far these folks have come...but how far can one say they have come with a review that starts like this?.......Wholesomeness reigned when Rascal Flatts headlined Madison Square Garden on Friday night. The top band in 21st-century country music, with four multimillion-selling albums and a fifth that has sold a million copies since September, Rascal Flatts is fearlessly contented and relentlessly inoffensive.....ouch...to be called relentlessly contented and inoffensive is a sign of just how far some bands will slide to the middle so as to not be upsetting to anybody......no cause except to send everybody home happy afterwards?.....we watched a video about jackson browne a few nights ago....and this is a man unafraid to stand up and be counted....against nuclear power, against pointless wars/bloodshed.......for the past 30 years........the kind of person that the dixie chicks would do well to emulate......my workmates just love rascal flatts...and that is fine...but if i am going to go to the trouble to actually buy a song collection.....i am looking for more than white bread and fluffy cotton candy......

more dreams.....

ok, so i have been up for hours...and a dream sequence still with me is worth recording.....so.....i was a guest at a centre home....filled with centre folks....at some sort of holiday gathering.....and most of the guests were on the phone...on the same phone call...either with an actual headset or on bluetooth earpieces.....no idea who they were all talking to as one...but i was amusing myself trying to figure out who had brought the treats on the buffet table.....notions based mostly on the type of serving pieces and trays/dishes/platters in use.....and someone was gathering up wooden spools from a sack, and trying to make a centerpiece from them.....an odd choice in that spools are not the stuff that invoke christmas visions....curious dream....cheese balls, wooden spools, bluetooth....or would that be blueteeth?

football....

ok, so the closest i was to watching football playoffs this weekend was last night when we drove up to lexington to bring a few things to the eldest and to take him out to supper.....there are tv's everywhere one looks at joe bologna's....and for a few moments i was up on the score....i will admit to being a bit sorry that greenbay lost, if only because they had the home field and they should have been more used to the cold.....of course, it was mighty cold here in ky last night as well.....we were unable to get the old desk in the back of the honda.....must bring grandma's van next time.......how's that for a transition...my discussion of non-osu football lasted for a few seconds at best....?......on this holiday off we had hoped to drive to columbia to look at a used prius......but it was already sold...rats...we really want to move on to hybrids.....

cut-off.....

ok, so i opted to walk on the treadmill rather than to go on a hike in 15 degree weather....and just after my walk was over, and i was settled into the rest of harry potter 5 on video.....i heard this semi-explosion....and i ran outside thinking that something like a helicopter was close-by and in dire straits...but there was no sound outside....and so i followed the sound back inside...to the whirlpool bathroom...where-upon the hot water was rushing madly out of the tub faucet.....and i tried to turn it off, and when the faucet did not diminish the flow....i ran downstairs to the cut-off valve......by the hot water heater.......and then went to thew middle child's room assuming that the pipes had again burst...but there was no water running anywhere.....go figure.....when my astute spouse returned home he dismantled the tub faucet and found that it had literally burst a gasket......a part quickly replaced.......gentle readers.....we had thought about taking an overnight trip given the monday holiday...but had never gotten around to calling either kin in cincinnati or tennessee.....had we left home we would have had quite a mess.....as the water was running into the tub faster than the drain could remove it....wow......good thing some of us dislike cold weather outings....

post #4939

ok, so....i am closing in on 5000 posts (posted over the past 6 years)......quite a feat considering.......considering that there are those who feel this a waste of time better spent writing something less fleeting, like short stories or a novel......and considering that there are those who are embarrassed by my lack of complete sentences.....and lack of correct spelling...though i have resolved of late to use spell-check......so...exactly what do i get out of all this?.......certainly not catharsis......because the things that cause me the most angst cannot be blogged like so much dirty laundry......and while i may allude to such issues.....well...i'll leave it at that......so mostly i blog to remember the mundane at a later date......what happened when is getting pretty fuzzy these days.....and it is convenient to do internal searches for recipes, knitting patterns, and when folks last visited.....as well as to relive travels blogged abroad.....looking at one's photos is not nearly so detailed as the blogs done the very same day from some pay-for-internet lair on some back street......keeping half-an-eye one one's purse is quite difficult when one is unfamiliar with the keyboard......just another layer of amusement to get me through another random sunday morning......speaking of amusements.....i am now thinking like a scramble board....and spelling out words as i try to get to sleep.....i amazed in every 3 minute game just how many words that i do not know, and i have started keeping a short-list of words that i want to incorporate into my arsenal......must keep this mind on edge lest it peter out completely.....

you win some.....

ok, so....yesterday i spent tying up many small loose ends.....and still had time on my hands after i got done walking on the treadmill.....so....i decided that i would create a casserole that used the eggplant i bought at the aldi....and that i would make bread.....the bread has garlic and rosemary and is just marvelous....but the casserole turned out to be a bit on the soggy side as i did not drain the frozen spinach enough, and the ricotta filling that i extended with soft tofu was not a hit with my home crowd.....but....the eggplant part was quite good.....and that is the part i will choose to remember......my spouse recalls his mother as an experimental cook, though he also remembers his dad at the table saying something to the effect of.....'you kids don't have to eat this if you don't want to'......i came pretty close to saying this myself last night at supper, but luckily the lentil salad was mighty tasty and the bread was perfect......

the cat....

ok, so the cat was playing with my mind this morning.......i awoke the first time when my spouse got up to run 18 miles at 5:45 am.....and promptly went back to sleep...but the first awakening is important to the story...because not long afterwards i woke up again.....this time to the distant mewing of a cat.....and the sound seemed to go away....and then it became louder...and it occurred to me that the cat may have followed my spouse out the door, thinking she could get right back in when she discovered that it was very cold.....and i though i was quite cozy under the flannel layers and down topper...and then i started envision the poor pitable feline, all alone int he dark and the cold..so weak with the chill that she could barely cry out....i decided on the third round of faint meows that i would get up and let that cat inside so that i could get on back to sleep.....and she was not outside.....no...she was sitting in front of her full food dish crying for someone to watch her eat......and as soon as i showed up at her side, she started in eating......and i turned around and went back to bed......no idea what she did after i left......

the week that was.....

ok, so....my week was marked by pockets of drama....both at home and at work....and both episodes were a reminder that people sometimes act like fools in public......of course, a reasonable person should realize that if one kisses a random boy at the corner of 4th and main in a small town somebody might just call your parents.......and the grounding that has resulted from this public show of affection has put a damper on our three-day weekend.....ah well.....i am mostly over this business....but not over the continuing drama at my workplace.....the details of which have reached newspapers in 2 counties, and both published accounts make it all sound worse than it is..... as this week draws to a close, i am trying to find a silver lining of some sort...something positive to focus my attention.....i have purchased a plane ticket that will bring the middle child home for spring break.....and i have downloaded what sounds like a marvelous recipe for potato, shitake and brie gratin for his homecoming supper......that sounds just yummy......food and travel planning are always appropriate distractions for whatever else ails.....

colbert's portrait at nat. gallery....

ok, so this from the nytimes........

new room

ok, so....my eku classroom moved from the roof-falling-in room to the refurbished high tech room with the built in computer and projector....all i need do is to plug in my jump-drive......life is good.....

spring 08

ok, so my class begins again at 6....i have perused the roster, and there appear to be more than the max number of students, which is curious in that i have had to request over-rides for students wanting to get into the closed class....go figure....there will surely be folks who fail to show and i will again have less than the max number. The last time i was in the classroom the ceiling had fallen in from a roof leak, and there were plasterboard bits everywhere that had not been totally cleaned up. That was a month ago, and i have hopes that the room will look good as new. I had forgotten that blackboard always resets with a new semester, so i am having to copy/paste from last semester into this semester's folders. Today there is a snow advisory......which kinda puts a damper on things.....i'll be wanting to get home early like everyone of my students.....

chocolate and orange

ok, so.....i made a huge mistake today....one that i will not repeat....i dressed hurriedly today...and neglected lotion on dry limbs......and at some point during the morning my dry limbs started to itch......and all of my lotion samples are tiny and mostly played out.....and i thought about the large unused bottle of lotion int he staff bathroom....it has been there forever, but i always have lotion of my own and have never really paid it much heed......and so i lotioned up my dry parts......and to my horror...the aroma was one of chocolate covered orange peel.....heinous at best.....and having slathered it on my limbs...there was no escape......other than pretend that it was not me that smelled like a christmas gift gone bad.......

19 degrees.....

ok, so....we are in for yet another coldish day........maybe a bit of snow....and though i woke up early i'd would rather climb back into bed and finish the book i have started call magic kingdom, where in a father whose posterchild for some disease has died, leaving him with no reason to live....and he is cooking up some scheme to fundraise to take dying children to disneyworld.....my eldest left it at home....and i figure i'd best read it before he retrieves it.....

cleaning out the pond

ok, so....in my dreams i had an indoor fish pond....quite deep and surrounded by a stone shelf....and lined with bits of broken dishes and other ceramic-glazed pieces like platters....and plants in pots were set upon these platters even though they were underwater.....which seams a rather silly system, as no one can appreciate the colorful pots or platters underwater.....and while i was out someone has been piling up junk on the side of the pond....and the pile had fallen in....and i spent valuable sleep time trying to get stuff back out.....cardboard boxes now soggy....and an office chair....and i kept looking at my watch wondering why people were still at work(this pond must have been at a workplace).....and i kept asking people why they had not yet gone home

the onion

ok, so....let me remind you, gentle readers, that i am a jimmy carter democrat......but this piece from the onion was just too precious to pass up.....

I Got What America Needs Right Here

chai latte

ok, so....yet another food dream....or in this case....a beverage dream.....i spent my dream last evening trying to find and then to actually drink a chai latte.....at a gas station/convenience store curiously located next door to my aunt lola's mother's house in dresden, ohio.....this huge victorian home is on the top of the largest hill in the area......and while it does now boast several cell towers there is no gas station.....and a nurse who i used to know at the hospital was running this business, along with a son named noah, who is not a real person by my recollection.....ah well......and there was much discussion of why i would want hot milk added to this drink.....and when it was finally made i don't recall ever being able to drink the stuff....

cheez-its

ok, so one of my favorite co-workers came back from lunch with a box of cheez-its....we had discussed both the salad dream this week and the pork loin dream last week and she concluded that i must need salty crunchy junk food.....quite the intuition.....there was a bowl of soup still sitting on top of the downstairs microwave during this conversation.....likely forgotten by my co-worker who decided to 'clean out' the break room while she waited for her soup to heat.....she emptied a box that contained a hundred bags of outdated fiber one cereal into a drawer....and then threw away the box they were in......and i had to go behind her and actually empty out the 100 bags of outdated fiber one into zip locks so a coworker could take the grain product to her horses...we had meant to do this during the holidays but had never gotten around to it.....and so this poor woman never did eat her soup....and she wasted her time transferring outdated samples from a box to a drawer....a drawer of no-return...who would look for these things in a drawer......?

gilmore girls

ok, so.....i gave my youngest seasons 1-4 of the gilmore girls on cd......and we are on season 2 somewhere around episode 7......and i must admit that their banter is intoxicating...and tiring......who can quip back and forth so rapdily in the real world?.......but at this rate we will not run out of episodes before the february birthday, when i plan to present seasons 5-7...and that is a good thing.....

rumors du jour.....

ok, so....rumors of the best kind in cyberspace today......not only is harry potter 7 likely to be split into 2 installments so as to not dilute the many subplots....but steven spielberg is being considered by warner to direct....seems he actually turned down the chance to direct the sorcerer's stone......wow...that would be fabulous if true.....

a taste for good wine?

ok,so this from the wweb......The best-tasting wines require perfect weather, seasoned vines, oak barrels and, according to a new study, high price tags.

Volunteers in California who were given sips of wines with fake prices said they preferred the cabernets they thought were more expensive to the ones they thought were cheaper about 80 percent of the time, according to the study published tomorrow in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers scanning the volunteers' brains while they drank confirmed they enjoyed the pricier wines more. The experiment helps explain how marketing practices can influence both the preferences of consumers and the enjoyment registered by their brains, said Antonio Rengel, one of the study's authors.

``The lesson is a very deep one, not only about marketing but about the human experience,'' said Rangel, an associate professor of economics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. ``This study shows that the expectations that we bring to the experience affect the experience itself.''

salad dreams

ok, so....i dreamed about salad last evening.......not your usual bagged salad....this bag has spinach, and red peppers, and mushrooms, and red onions, and slivered carrots and red cabbage.....and the bag was peaking out of my purse as i walked into the eldest's apartment for lunch....and i was holding the bottle of dressing, but the lid had come loose as i was getting out of my car and the balsamic vinaigrette was all over my hands...if one can smell pungent aromas in one's dreams then i could swear this dream had that extra dimension....and we arranged salad on plates, and my child happened to have crab and shrimp in his fridge to go with the salads.....and we had a debate over which wine...white to go with seafood or red to go with balsamic vinegar.......and my spouse was also there, but there was talk about going back home to have lunch with grandma later......it was not the actual and current apartment....much larger and with enough rooms as to require a tour.....and i am nor certain that it was in lexington....but that is how dreams play out.......uncertainty along with vivid details....

making pie....

ok, so while lunch was still in the oven....my spouse decided that the time was right to clean out the pantry....and so we started at the top...which seems to be where all of the tea and non-categorical foodstuffs end up.....and worked out way down.....and we found foods not made in this millennium....and loose tea of dubious variety and age......and partial bags of pasta.....and by the time we were done and lunch was on the table....my spouse discovered that he had all of the ingredients to make impossible pumpkin pie.....and while he was leaning up against the counter pouring the pumpkin and condensed milk into the blender....there came a racket from the garage.....he had triggered the anti-theft alarm to the honda.....the keys were in his pocket....and he could not get the noise to stop standing there by the kitchen window and was forced to go out to the garage.......it was terribly funny at the time....but i digress from our cupboards.....it has been suggested that i might want to further organize the canned goods....all on the same shelf now.....but somehow it seems a tad o.c.d. to...what.....alphabetize them?.......divide them up by color?........nope...i say this project is done and i am now on to other things.....

juno

ok, so...it was cold and rainy after we got lunch cleaned up and the dishes done......and so all three of us went to see juno.....and while i found ellen page's repartee just a tad too witty......i did find the movie....moving......even though my experience as an adoptive parent doesn't include a newborn viewing area....the soundtrack is quite good.....something i could see my oldster friend putting together......

small pleasures....

ok, so....i went out to get the mail about 2:30...after a morning in town helping my spouse at the store and shopping at the aldi.....and i glanced over at a clump of wild onions...and gave it a pull....and when it came out of the ground in its entirety i tossed the mail in the front door, changed my shoes, put on gloves....and proceeded to pull out clumps of wild onions from the quince bush to the hydrangea......nearly the frontage of this fenced-in yard.....the wet and warmish weather brought out the onions, but also allowed for easy removal.....there are few activities so pleasurable that one can do in one's own yard in broad daylight quite as special as pulling up entire rooted clumps of wild onions......i must add that at times i caught deep inhales of cool boxwood....which is one of my favorite smells...at the exact moment i encountered this aroma it seemed that the fragrance had been trapped into that very pocket as some sort of reward for my endeavors.....i did spend mental energy calculating just how many courses of soaker hose it will take to cover my planting area.....and i did figure out how to seamlessly take the water to the other side of the trellis.......life is good.....

conflicted....

ok, so.....i have spent the past 3 days doing little but read kavalier and clay by michael chabon......a tremendous work of fiction....and the timing of this next bookclub assignment made for an unsettling experience as i read.......our family has re-established ties with 2 separate branches of our aryan kin.....through both letters and visits....and while i am pleased about this, it is with the complete understanding that i am related to people that have made hard choices.....i am thinking at this moment of standing inside the family house in lambsheim, and edwin showing us the photo of he and his father, who happened to be wearing a uniform that looked vaguely like the s.s......cannot recall if there was a swastika involved......i may have blocked out that part.....and is that not how we live our lives, to a great extent......remembering the best parts of our collective experience (ourselves and our kin), and trying to forget our collective faults.....i was pondering this last night...in the middle of the night...after i woke up and had trouble falling back asleep......pondering all of the family faults i would try to forget...in addition to being related to people who might have been nazis... i am related to at least one person known to be in the kkk....the white robe getup found after his death was destroyed, though it probably should have been donated anonymously to a museum.....i am related to republicans.....to women who have chosen to terminate pregnancies......to people who have been unfaithful in marriage.....to people who shot guns during wartime......and at some point before i fell back asleep, i tried to focus on the positives of this little game...i am related to missionaries....and ministers, including one minister unafraid to intermarry......and i am related by blood to a woman who never learned to drive but had the courage to get herself to the polls to vote democrat.....i am related to someone who has parachuted into alaska......to a man who has has been to all 50 states and 14 foreign countries, to folks who rode their bikes across america, to a man who has more than one novel in him, to folks who can speak more than one language with ease, to folks who know 100 point scrabble words, to folks who make diapers for aids babies.....curious how a book about superheroes inspired such an inner dialog.....but i digress from the book itself, and its crisp prose.......here is one of my favorite lines: The natural fragrance of her body was a spicy, angry smell, like that of fresh pencil shavings. wow......imagine an entire book of such musings........this book will be on my mind for quite some time.....

improv in nyc

ok, so this from jossip.com......makes one want to be young and live in nyc....

All are invited to participate in the 7th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride. The event will take place at 3:00 PM on Saturday, January 12. Everything you need to know is in this email. Please read it carefully!

REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION

1) Willing to take pants off on subway
2) Able to keep a straight face about it

**THIS IS A PARTICIPATORY EVENT. DO NOT SHOW UP UNLESS YOU PLAN TO TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF. THIS INCLUDES NEWS MEDIA**

DETAILS

When: Saturday, January 12 at 3:00 PM, Sharp! (Over by around 5:30)
Where: Meet at Foley Square at the black sculpture/fountain. It’s near the Brooklyn Bridge 6 train stop, between Centre and Lafayette, just north of Duane. (Google Map)
Bring: A backpack and a metro card.
Do not bring: A camera (don’t worry we are taking pictures)
Wear: Normal winter clothes (hat, gloves, etc)

Complete logistics below:

HOW IT WORKS

We will assemble in Foley Square at 3 PM. Please be on time. Feel free to be early.

When we’re organized, we will all head down to the Brooklyn Bridge 6 Train stop together. Do not talk to others once you enter the subway system. No one knows each other. We will wait for a train to arrive on the uptown side of the tracks and all board our assigned cars (follow your team leader). A man with a megaphone will confirm that it is time to board the train. We may let one train go before entering to make sure everyone is ready.

Sit in the car as you normally would. Read a magazine or whatever you would normally do. Your team leader will have already divided you into smaller groups, assigning your group a specific stop where you will depants. Sit near your group.

As soon as the doors shut at the stop before yours, stand up and take your pants off and put them in your backpack. If you’d like to use a briefcase, purse, grocery bag, or whatever instead of a backpack that’s fine too. You are responsible for your own pants and they should be with you at all times. If anyone asks you why you’ve removed your pants, tell them that they were “getting uncomfortable” (or something along those lines.)

Exit the train at your assigned stop and stand on the platform, pantless. This is a new change for No Pants 2k7. You will wait on the platform for the next 6 train to arrive. Stay in the exact same place on the platform so you enter the next train in the same car as you exited the last train.

When you enter , act as you normally would. You do not know any of the other pantless riders. If questioned, tell folks that you “forgot to wear pants” and yes you are “a little cold”. Insist that it is a coincidence that others also forgot their pants. Be nice and friendly and normal.

We will exit the train at 125th street. Pay attention so you don’t miss this stop. We will then repeat the mission back down to Union Square.

the friday after the monday night...

ok, so....i only have to work an hour this morning....so it will almost be like a three day weekend......life is good.....

plotting about my plot......

ok, so.....i am seriously planning a water conservation system for my garden .....involving both entrapment of run-off water, and drip-line watering of my planting beds.....there is much to read about such set-ups online.....and i have come up with a few goals....none of which can be achieved solo......1) re-install a spicket on the pond-side of the house....there used to be one....and at some point it was sided over....this would allow for drip systems to beds on both sides of the property.....2)install rainbarrel(s) to store rain water...or make use of the unused cistern under the whirlpool bathroom....and it is empty and idle......would make a great storage place for rainwater to be used in the 3) drip system of surface hoses that allow water to slowly seep into roots....as spraying beds is a poor way to apply moisture......the drought last summer was devastating to my roses.......and i believe that with thought we can prevent a repeat......

juno

ok, so.....so i am taking my 14 year old daughter to see juno tomorrow afternoon......partly because it also stars jennifer garner, who we loved from alias....but mostly because the film deals with teen pregnancy and adoption...and because roger ebert called it the best film of 2007....from what i read the depiction of sex so casual as to be for lack of anything better to do should spawn some useful and constructive dialog.......i'll let you know

northern carpetbaggers.....

ok, so...the two from ohio present at book club tonight took a great deal of grief over osu's pitiable showing against an SEC team.......a team that UK beat....which begged the question......could UK beat OSU?.......and thankfully there were enough interrupts t avoid an answer......they may be a bunch of bums...but they remain MY bunch of bums.......

book club..

ok, so.....the book of the evening was water for elephants a surprising tale of the circus life in the 30's and nursing home life....mostly everyday......a bit of trivia for my sons....the woman whose room was right inside the nursing home door...the one who had the hat and was going downtown....seems she was the ex-mother-in-law of jan the ex-english teacher at dhs......she brought up the story and i burst out laughing.....because i had heard the story so many times.....jan also mentioned that over the xmas break donda the librarian's husband dropped dead at 35....how very tragic.....i missed it because i did not recognize her married name.....but i digress from the book.....the part about circus life that was most surprising was the way they did away with people they owed money to, or were seen as a liability to the circus.....they were literally thrown off the train in the middle of the night...either into a ditch by a red light....or off of a bridge if they didn't want any evidence....how awful.....most folks had a childhood circus story to share.....or a nursing home story......and we ended up not discussing the prose as much as we should have.......i have not yet started the next book cavalier and clay even though it is on my bedside table....just lazy these days.....

pork roast

ok, so.....in my dreams i was handed a kroger bag filled with plastic wrapped pork loin cuts....and i was to deliver it to the 2nd of 3 sons.....who lived in a fraternity house.....and this son would take the pork to germany where he would join his brothers......no idea why one would have to schlep meat to a meat-crazy country.....but dreams rarely make any sense....the fraternity house was having some big to do.....and i ended up trying to get the caterer to point out the brother in question.....as if the caterer would know......must get my mind off of pork.....

bourbon balls

ok, so.....my eldest promised the 18 or so folks who gathered in lassee, austria to meet him and his brother that his mamma would send bourbon balls.....and so today he emailed to ask where i was on this task.....ok, so....i asked my workmates about bourbon balls....and the response was priceless.......one person remarked that she had already given me her source for bourbon balls....wtf?......another directed me to the maker's mark website...and another related the recent tale of how she drove her barely breathing spouse to the er...and how he was gargling with 4 roses to help him get his breath....and how he would direct her to pull over so he could spit......she bought the booze to make bourbon balls and it mostly ended up on the side of the road (he has since given up his 3 pack per day habit with the help of powerful drugs)......for the record.... mmark wants 25$ for a pound of their signature confection......i am willing to try to make better for less.....

paris....

ok, so...it seems that my blood kin are split on yet another subject...one that is for now and forever off-limits as a discussion worthy topic at gatherings......there is of course.....politics.....and then global warming....and now paris......my brother, my mother, and now my nephew....have all weighed in as anti-paris.......my nephew, in his recent travel monologue.....recited over dinner about the rude reception he had at his hotel ( at cdg-airport as well as in town).....a sentiment that my mother heartily endorsed as the rest of sat agape..........who doesn't love paris?......i ventured aloud that i had been to this marvelous city 13 times with only a few bad experience...and those being unsuccessful pickpockets.....hardly worth mentioning......but my nephew being my brother's son was not to be proved wrong.....and so we moved on to discussion about his i-phone.....a much safer topic......sadly...it is not quite intuitive enough for me...as i could not manage to add my personal information to his database......yet another schism between kin.......

support group....

ok, so i was late getting home lats night because of the regular support group i lead in a distant county.....which is often marred by the attendance of 2 sisters who are not diabetic......the most outrageous of the two interrupted a fellow telling us about how he walked 4 miles a day last year and dropped his average blood sugar by asking if shoe insoles for sale locally can remove impurities from one's blood......no was the reply of several others at once.....they must be lonely and need to talk.....and i was pleased to discover that is is not just me that finds them annoying.......

yeah, ohio

k, so.....the osu fight song has a section that goes like this...'yeah, ohio...we're not a bunch of bums'......there are a lot of folks out there who watched the championship game who think just that this morning...what a bunch of bums.......congrats to lsu for playing up to your potential.....

impeachment potential...

ok, so this from cnn.com....George McGovern, the Democratic Party's 1972 nominee for president, is calling on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

And in an editorial in Sunday's Washington Post, McGovern writes the case for impeaching the current president is "far stronger" than the case made against former President Richard Nixon — the man who soundly defeated McGovern in the general election match up.

"Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses," McGovern writes. "They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time."

life in the slow lane

ok, so i deleted the post that was here...to find it you must know how to locate my secret blog....if you see me soon ask me why...

sunday school

ok, so......only 2 of us showed up for sunday school, me...and the only other person i know with a difficult adoptive situation...and so we commiserated for our alloted 45 minutes....and i felt better...if for no other reason than i discovered that we have the better of the possible scenarios....and therefore i felt hope that we can resolve all of the issues pending.....

dreaming in the new year....

ok, so......i remember sitting up in a hospital bed...set up in my old bedroom in mt. g., ohio....and there was a nurse getting ready to start an i.v....to give me chemotherapy.....and sitting on the edge of my bed was my late sister-in-law...the one who died of multiple cancers....but she did not speak to me.....she was just there.....and also in the room was t. smith....who was my boss for years and years when i worked at the hospital....and he was sitting on a stool, with a felt dress-hat in his hands.......and he did not speak, either......the only person who spoke was the nurse, who told me that the medicine would go through the i.v. first, and then i would take a 30 minute nap...because the sleeping medicine would last only that long...and then i would wake up and i would feel refreshed.....and i had on a bracelet that listed the 30 minute nap...and the time for it, just like the nurse said......and later on in the dream i was on a train......in israel....on our way to bethlehem...with the i.v. catheter still in my wrist, held on by tape....and my family bolted from the train...so i was in the market place in bethlehem by myself trying to take pictures of street food vendors.....only i had my mother's camera which is very sensitive to shaking hands.....and every picture was fuzzy......and i was worried i would not be able to find the address of our hotel because the streets peeling off the market area were unmarked......

gentle readers.....this dream was weird beyond my usual dreamscapes....no idea what was wrong with my health, and why i was back on in my old bedroom, or why i was in israel and my family chose to abandon me.....but i write this down in case it all becomes clear to me later on.......but i do know this....if i really thought i was dying i'd be in paris, not in the middle east.......

scramble.....

ok, so...i am enjoying a series of far-flung scramble games via facebook with some dear outlaws spread out over 3 states and new zealand.....i should point out that at this point it is 3 brilliant siblings against the lesser of the c-dubs.......but given that my own kin have blocked me from their facebook pages......i have opted into the dubya side of the family for entertainment....my high score thus far is 41.......which is pitiable when one plays open web games......i am hopeful that i can hold my own against the howards......who, i must add....are older and wiser than myself......

back to baking....

ok, so...with one son home i am back to baking a few tidbits for his enjoyment.....a quiche....and pineapple kuchen.....and maybe some butterscotch brownies.....just because.....i have also entertained myself by pricing plane tickets....in march during spring break.....one could fly from Newark to l-vile for $258 dollars...not bad.....a bit easier for one to fly home than for 3 to drive up.....just a thought........still have not seen the first picture from the Viennese adventure.......from either camera that was present at the time......i take that back...i have just seen that the eldest has changed his desktop to a nyeve shot of the Eiffel tower.....quite surreal.....enjoyed a rousing game of scrabble last evening......i came from behind to place second on the last play with vox on a double word score......not as great as the eldest performance, but we all cannot be brilliant....and most days i believe that he got his smarts from his dad...... and so back to baking....and cooking......a bit of homemade chicken noodle soup sounds good on this cold rainy day in january

spring mix and onions.....

ok, so....i stopped at 2 groceries, filled up the car's gas tank, filled my prescriptions for both hormones and sinus medication.....which now cost only $30 a piece with my new coverage, rather than $121 for both......but i digress.....from the getting home and unloading the trunk.....i brought in more than i bought this afternoon.....seems the last time i went to the grocery...last friday...i bought spring greens (organic) and green onions at the krogers......and the bag slipped behind the cooler i keep in the back for lunchtime shopping......and i am embarrassed to admit that i never thought once about that lettuce or those onions until i saw them on the counter.....good thing the weather was so cold.....because they look like i purchased them today......

heating issues.....

ok, so....our furnace and/or thermostat has chosen the worst possible time to have issues....i knew something was wrong when i came home wednesday from work to a warm house......we keep our house at 65 degrees when not at home...figuring that we can always throw on a sweater....and for the temp to be in the 70's was a sign....and for the temp to rise when i turned down the temp on the thermostat panel.....oops.....the guy from the heating and air group has been here twice......something about the heat pump....all i know is that the bill for all of this short-sleeve indoor balminess will be outrageous....

lost luggage

ok, so...i spent enough time at bluegrass field this evening in the baggage claim area as to count the number of left luggage bags cordoned off by red tape......47.....which means that there were a lot of problems industry-wide with regards to flights/connections....i watched a plane load of folks grab up their bags from a flight originating in cincinnati....and saw over a dozen bags left on the carousel when the crowd dispersed.....so....where were those folks?.....stuck in some distant tarmac hoping for the best?.....i also saw many folks unprepared for the frigid lexington temps......folks getting off the plane from atlanta in flip-flops and short sleeves.....don't they check weather.com?.......i also saw a cadre of folks from a local horse farm picking up a group from...ireland?....by the sound of them......and each had on barn jackets with names like galway girl, or scat daddy emblazoned on the back......or world games johannesburg....and they were all very small spare folks......which made sense in thinking about folks who ride expensive horses......and i suppose if i owned an expensive horse i would name it scat daddy........

the traveler returns...

ok, so...after numerous delays and snags our eldest has returned home......barely making it out of paris on an oversold flight as a standby passenger despite the fact that i paid for his ticket at the delta counter months ago.....

corned beef and cabbage

ok, so....i waited to fix the corned beef and cabbage until our nephew arrived for dinner this evening......and at the appointed time only my mother showed up...with news that the nephew wouldn't be here until sunday night.....which makes one wonder many different scenarios of what went wrong in the communication.....thankfully we have enough of each for supper tomorrow night....as i am out of the mood to cook for anybody......

no school.....

ok, so....no school in the central ky area....despite the fact that the snow failed to cover neither the grass nor the soles of my shoes as i ventured out for the paper....by contrast, my brotherinlaw in upstate new york reported that his area saw 31 inches in december alone....none of this whisper of snow and call off school stuff........

amen

ok, so....amen, amen, and amen.....that is all i am saying.....

flashback

ok, so.....this photo from the nytimes brought tears to my eyes.....not because of any affinity for tortellini....but because of the sight of a well of flour filled with beat eggs......my grandmother crown (my dad's mamma) made noodles early on sunday mornings just this way...on the counter.....hand-kneaded, rolled, and cut.....and left to dry while we were at church.......they would be dropped into the boiling chicken broth and served with a chicken cut up in ....parts....i also have saturday morning memories of grandma in her chicken yard with a hatchet..... but i will leave these to another day....or a connecting article in the nytimes.....

i'll say this just once.....

ok, so...i was delighted that michigan beat florida today in whatever bowl they were playing in.....after the rough going that florida gace osu last year....i will forever root for who-ever plays florida in any sport....even it that means pulling for michigan.......the big game is january 7.......i might require sedation for that occasion.....surely the odds favor my alma mater.....

politics.....

ok, so one of the highlights of the walk/run was the chatter about politics afterwards....with folks who have risen above their conservative kin, so to speak.......and i was intrigued by the discussion about a quiz on the washington post website that helps a voter match up with a candidate.....washingtonpost.com > Politics > Choose Your Candidate......i tried to get the link, but the page wouldn't cooperate.....curiously, i matched right up with a candidate i consider unelectable..... who shall remain nameless......worth your time if you are at all inclined to vote this november.....

for the record....

ok, so......i failed to mention that yellowtail makes a respectable sparkling white wine......nice tiny bubbles, very smooth, and without the bite that some sparkling wines have on the end......i wish that i had another bottle for a toast about 8:30pm ....when the visit will be over

ok, so this from crooks and liars....

yet another walk/run event....

ok, so two of us ventured out on this extra cold nyday to another walk/run event.....which included breakfast afterwards this time......i cut my walk short because i was under-dressed for the wind.....a small but vital crowd.....including our friend who lives in brooklyn, who was delighted to tell me that she had seen our pictures of paris from november, and that dehillerin also happens to be one of her favorite spots.......and she and her partner have done the enviable.....they have pointed and purchased and had everything shipped back to nycity......wow.....as for me...my fantasy is to point and purchase and have everything delivered to my paris apt.....but i digress.......i am still cold...even after a hot bath, a cup of hot tea.....and turning up the house heat to 67 from 63.......i may just have to crawl into bed and take a nap...now that we have finally put the flannel sheets on the bed......as we accomplished this task this morning we were enthralled by a flock of wild turkeys across the creek.....at least a dozen birds......all gobbling loudly......they looked warm enough, i suppose.......as i sit and type a am catching a glimpse of snow flurries through the big window in andrew's room.....spitting, really.....not anything likely to build up.....but just seeing snow makes me colder......

ringing in the new year....

ok, so ......we stayed up til midnight playing scrabble and watching ratatouille with the semi-houseguest who will be leaving in a tad over 24 hours.....we switched over to times square just in time to see a rather unsteady dick clark counting down.....i was taken aback by the aftermath of his stroke, and that he was willing to be on television in such a state.....but he owns the television rights to that event....and can do whatever he wants.....