the disingenuious filmmaker......

ok, so i did not see michael moore's brave and solo appearance at the rnconvention.....because i am on a total boycott of everything republican this week........i dropped a lincoln-head penny today picking up my takeout hot and sour soup......and i left it on the floor for some other person who holds lower political standards..............you have to applaud the balls of the man who would attend the rnc....alone..........to make a point.......but in this land of free speech, somebody has to take that right (no pun intended....) to the max.................

mean mamma mix #2

ok, so i popped my new cd into the player as i left work yesterday......i could not begin to listen to any coverage of the rnconvention, even npr's take on it......and the cd was just long enough to get to danville, pick up cayle at basketball, go to stephan's cross country meet, go home, take her to school this morning....and it finished the last song was i was pulling in the parking lot this morning.......how is that was well-timed musical choices?!!!!!!and i even cranked up the volume for the csn&y section.....i just love suite judy blue eyes...............i am working on my next mix cd.............what i really need is the original version of aerosmith's dream on circa 1974.......

maria montessori

ok, so it is the birthday of maria montessori, that rebel of educational circles who had these crazy idea that children cannot learn if they are forced to sit still.................i credit a montessori backround (age 3 through 5th grade) for the marvelous learning ethic that my sons maintain to this day.......... She said, "[In most classrooms] children, like butterflies mounted on pins, are fastened each to his place." She believed that if children were allowed to move around and interact with things, they would discover new ideas on their own. and let's not forget the loyal opposition, whose brave educational notion was fostered, in part, by her montessori past...........i have had it put to me that it is not the montessori method, but rather natural talents of basically brilliant children sent to montessori by parents interested in developing their potential.........i cnanot deny that the (3) children aforementioned are brilliant.........., but the montessori principles were certainly applied in the right place at the right time.............thanks, maria.......

my democratic grandma......

ok, so i had a really vivid dream about my grandma crown last night......we were at the farm......and the lights went out.....and she asked me to go downstairs and reset the fuse box...........which is really curious.....in that i never ever went down in her cellar..............i do not know why i never did.......it wasn't like i remember her telling me NOT to go down into her cellar................i can remember kittens hanging around the cellar door that opened up onto the yard....................and can recall my grandma coming out of that door.......but i never went in.......nor down the steps hidden behind the door in the hall that led to the 'front room'..............what a thing to dream about....a place that i have never been but that was within reach.......................it must mean something................but the revelation hasn't made itself clear............yet.......

so old........

ok, so i spent yesterday in a frenzied cleaning tear.....next saturday is the annual pound-and-pedal event......now in it's 20th+ year...........a run/bike event that really has no winners nor losers........and that starts and ends at our house.........it started as a run/bike 'pilgrimage' of sorts between our friend mark's law office in town...to his house in the 'knobs'....each entrant runs while his/her partner rides.....then at 5 mile intervals they switch off.....and the runner bikes and the biker rides........got it?..........some clever teams did it as a tandem thing....with 2 runners and 2 bikers at a time......and some just rode and some just ran (wow...a tough 20-miler prior to a marathon......).....the route went over at least 2 knobs.......and a potluck always followed....in those pre-children some stayed on in the hottub....and partied well into the evening.......but in these harried times most people have gone off to some other labor-day weekend event by 1:00 in the afternoon........ah well.....we are getting old, aren't we?........so back to cleaning..............my yard never looks as bad as it does just before the pound-and-pedal......somehow.....the indiginous plants try to take over...........weeds get to be the size of a corn crop...............and invasive perrenials go crazy and take over entire beds............so yesterday.......after i scrubbed down the porch...............i weeded planting beds.............and trimmed hedges........and pruned rose bushes................i made it 1/2 way around the perimeter of the fence.......and then it became too hot, so i took the truck to town to buy mulch ( the nursery is not open on sundays on a reliable basis)...............and planned to finish up later in the day when the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees..................alas, that was when the thunderstorm started.....so i stowed the truck in the garage................wet mulch is no fun to spread..........and decided to lounge away the rest of my saturday evening................which brings us to this morning.................my back is achey from bending down, my fingers and hands are in pain from pulling weeds...............and i feel about 95 years old..............AND i have to finish up this afternoon because i do not plan to drive a truck filled with mulch to work........i do not normally drive the truck...but i believe that is how it would pan out if i failed to empty it out today................ha!...pray for me..............

deja vu....all over again.............

ok, so the rnc is beginning to remind me of the dnc of 1968...............the one in chicago.....the one that steven still memorialized in the song of the same name.......i am listening to 'ohio' from the mmmix #2....i did not think to download 'chicago' from csn&y's 4-way street album......ah well another day... the summer was the same...and the war protest was the same...and the political uproar was the same..........of course, i was not politically active in 1968.....i may have been in the 4th or 5th grade...........but the sentiment remains the same..................young, fearless, passionate folks of all backrounds gathered to protest an ill-conceived war.....................this time it is the republicans who made the major mistake in judgement.......and they have become silly far too soon.............surely.......5000 cyclists riding on a course that had been established as a monthly event..........could not pose a threat to dubya and his posse........................wonder if they will tape their mouthes shut and tie them to chairs when they go to trial.........................

strange dream...........

ok, so last night, sometime after 2:00 am........we were awakened by the most comforting voice imaginable.......hey mom and day, i am home......................and getting back to sleep under those circumstances is easy...or relatively so.......but it must have been that wakeup message that set the stage for the dream that followed....................our oldest arrived....in the middle of the night......with a really cute girl......and her baby.....and we set them up in the bedroom upstairs....after we put away the sewing machine.....and our eldest proceeded to bed down on the sofa in our room............rather than going downstairs to the guest room that we now refer to as his room................and he told us that 'she' would be going to the swimming pool first thing in the morning.....no mention of what the baby would be doing.....or whose baby it was..................but the baby was cute, though she didn't want us to hold her..................gentle readers...............please do not surmise that this dream is a veiled wish for grandchildren.............frankly, i would like to have an empty nest for awhile before i settle into my greasygranny years..........sounds like a promising notion.....to go from meanmamma to greasygranny..............ha!

coping with withdrawal..........

ok, so i no longer have access to fully stocked refrigerators for 10-15 hour stretches at a time...........and this loss becomes problematic for me at curious times during the day...........to the point of distraction.....i realize about 9:30 am that my breakfast is comepletely gone, and that i must eat very soon or i will just.............well, i won't die, but the angst that hunger creates gets in the way of all reasonable thought processes........i go ahead and eat one of my pieces of fruit from home........and by 10:30 am........i am hungry again............this morning i became so single-minded on food that i ate part of the tabouli salad i brought from home.....................and was able to make it til noon without a minor breakdown.......................so what is the deal?................partly......it is bacon withdrawal............i used to have a blt for breakfast, once i got to work............and that lasted until i started tasting pots for seasoning................well, you all know why i have gained about 3-4 pounds per year since buying the restaurant..............and now i have pulled the rug out from under my manic eating habits.............and it is not pretty.....going from no-holds-barred highfat to lowfat is quite a transition.................pray for me..................lest i turn to shoe leather in desparation...............

the home of the brave........

ok, so the only part of the women's soccer finals was the medal ceremony.........and i gotta tell you.....their personal rendition of the star spangled banner tops any that i have heard for sheer enthusiasm, pride, and team effort..................and one could almost hear the crowd singing as well...........a memorable moment...........such was rulon gardiner's last greco-roman wrestling match.....when he won the bronze.......and he kept with tradition in his desire to retire after the games.......by taking off his shoes and leaving them in the middle of the mat...........he was so overwhelmed with emotion that one couldn't help but to tear-up with him..............george w. may have given us a black eye in the opinion of the world....what with his dirty little war.............but these fine athletes deserve respect for their accomplishments regardless of what else may be said about the u.s. of a...........................

the new new yorker.............

ok, so i enjoyed the new yorker more than usual today....starting with the ad for max mara, a clothing designer......in the front 1/4 of the magazine....................the outfit was so laughingly retro...................if you took off the fur collar.....it is stylistically identical to my 4-h project the summer of 1973....................right down to the wide legged and cuffed wool pants....and the coat that was right between a car coat and an overcoat................oh my.....................some things really do come around again.........i might even have the pants in a box somewhere...............and i certainly could not wear them..........the summer of '73 was the beginning of my 'too upset to eat' phase...when i was plain that the 1st ever love-of-my-life was straying..............with my best friend.................who was in my 4-h club..............ain't love grand................of course.....had it not been for their little romance behind my back...i might have married him...........which would have been a huge mistake....and thanks to them i am here, at this very moment......in my preferred scenario for a happy ending.............all those emotions, just from an ad for a coat that matches wide legged, cuffed wool pants.........................that only really look good on tall thin women, by the way.........................

happy anniversary.......

ok, so happy anniversary....18th?........to the l.o.'s parents.............how could i possibly know this inside information.................why, i had a lovely conversation with the l.o.'s grandmother, who was hoping to make arrangements for a non-flowers gift.............she was quite disappointed that i am no longer in the restaurant business...........ah well..........a reminder message to the l.o.......i think the traditional gift for 18 years is.....earrings...................

phone home..............

ok, so there was a mysterious and lengthy message on the answering machine when i got home.................that required an adolescent interpretation of the garble and beeps and faint voices.......................it seems that a member of this household had his cellphone turned on in his pocket during lunch.......and it somehow managed to call home.............and our answering machine picked up such conversations as a junior soccer player saying something considered to be an ethnic slur......and another student taking umbrage at this comment.............granted, i could hardly understand the recording.....but the concept of a recorded conversation of a lunchtime debacle was downright entertaining.................though it did not make up for the news that a member of the senior class has been or will expelled for attending a soccer game under the influence..............my first thought was for his mother.....who is a dear person and undeserving of such an error on the part of her child...........and then for the student himself.....who has many talents and could have done well with scholarships......all this may be for naught because of poor choices.........so very sad..................

hurdles

ok, so i am looking forward to the end of the olympics, because the drama is getting to me..........even when i know who wins........the starts...watching the hurdles makes me a nervous wreck...like somehow i should be able to will those folks over each frame......and keep them from getting tangled up.............and the rowing...........i want to help those poor folks to inch that boat just enough ahead to win, surely they can hear me yell to stroke from this distance...........and the diving.........i can barely breathe while the athletes springs from up to down in an absolutely vertical position...........ah well.......just a few more days.....until the men's marathon...........i hope the coverage is good.......because it will be a sight to see...the end, inside the stadium........as one of the last moments of competition...........will the winner be a kenyan. or an ethiopian?...........or some other subsaharan athlete?..................that's one i might not look up prior to watching...just to allow myself that one surprise....................

california dreaming........again.....

ok, so i had thought i could manage to go the annual meeting of the american dietetics association meeting in anaheim in october....and take along my daughter.......but for a variety of reasons this will not happen.........mostly because the meeting agenda is so lame as to be only 4 hours of continuing education worth hearing...............and it is hard to justify 3 nights in an expensive hotel that my new job will not pay for...etc....etc.........despite my potentially free frequent flyer ticket............and so i am looking forward to spring break.....and most of us flying to san francisco and driving to yosemite..................i have never been there.....and would enjoy the excursion as a worthy use of financial resources............and my friend beth lives in sf......or rather the greater sf area......and there is the great dim sum place she took us to by the airport.....with the ribbon-like tofu simmered in mushroom broth....................divine................food is always a reason to plan travel................and then there is the lure of the upcoming trip......i always function best when i have a trip in the offing...........though i am sad that my offing trip to anaheim was not a workable adventure........................ah well..................

beach volleyball.....

ok, so we watched the finals of beach volleyball.......usa against brazil.....and yes.....i was tearful...not because the united states won.............but because the crowd could be heard to be singing the stars spangled banner...........loudly and raucously.........so many awards ceremonies have been shown.................all sedate...........it was a joyous occassion to witness/listen to a fired-up crowd of proud americans.................. and one doesn't see swimsuit-clad woman rolling around in the sand often enough....................ha!....must be somebody's fantasy come true................frankly, most of the olympic competition-type clothing is functional rather than comely.................if was queen, the television-coverage would exclude shots of people....both men and women........'adjusting' their garments after competition...................some things are best left un-recorded....................

outsourced...................

ok, so on thursdays, i travel to l.county, where the health department has 'contracted' for my services on that single day................in other words.....they have outsourced their nutrition services to another health department...................outsourced.....................and on that day they are free to pile on every task that is vaguely nutrition related............in as many time slots that can be entered into a computerized schedule...............and i will take it from there...............outsourced.................it could be worse...........i suppose.....................i could be taking nutrition calls from the entire subcontinent of india.............

who?......

ok, so my new boss, who goes by mr.___________rather than by his first name.......has taken to calling me by my full, and therefore underused name.....kathlyn............this name is so unfamiliar that i did a double take the first time he used it........who?...............and i was too shocked to correct him when he asked if that was the name i preferred................gentlre readers.....this name was a compromise...........i had an aunt kathryn kreager.....and my parents did not want her to think that i was a namesake....so they changed one little letter.............for the record....the emphasis is on the 2nd syllable, not the first.................though i do not answer to either..................there are now 4 kathy's in our office.........so i suppose this is his way of making a natural distinction.............4 kathy's.............maybe 1 is with a c................poor thing..........

una cervasa, por favor.......

ok, so that is the extent of my spanish.......give or take a few food words.........today i had 3 clients who came with an interpretor...........i have done the interpretor thing with the deaf....but it is not as difficult because many can read lips to some extent.......but spanish is something else alltogether..............i have spent a lifetime learning and forgetting french.........but maybe i can pick up enough spanish to come across as reasonably empathic......rather than just mean..............speaking of which, on our way home from the cross country meet.....cayle and listened to the bbc news.......which gave it's sign-on as gmt............greenwich mean time..........i started laughing, because time is so very mean...................which reminds me of one of my spanish-speaking clients today.............she was so very tiny and thin.....and looked so very fragile...............and vulnerable............and she had only been in this country since november, according to the interpretor...................it is customary for migrant workers to save up to bring family members to live with them in america..............and she looked so old.............until i checked her birthday..............she was a full 6 months younger than me..............oh my..............that is no reflection on me.....just a window to the world...............most people are not so lucky as i am................and in so many ways.............the talk at the meet was about the murder in danville.....across the street from my children's babysitter (we are talking many years ago....) and across from a woman in my sunday school class who lost her husband to a freak heart thing.........his next door neighbor shot him with a rifle while he was mowing the yard.............3-5 times depending on who you talk to...............in broad daylight...........over a property line dispute............the man had not been retired for long.................and now he is dead and his wife is a widow...........in idyllic little danville these things just do not happen..............which brings me back to my original sentiment................una cervasa, por favor..........life is too short not to.................

baseball

ok, so over the weekend, cleveland.......my hereditary home team......continued to fade....while boston continued a 6-game winning streak and is now a paltry 5.5 games behind the nyy......who are on a 3-game losing streak.............oh my.................those are the facts.............any discussion could jinx the outcome.......so just read between the lines.............

staying up late...........

ok, so this week has been tiring, not because of work.....but because of the staying up late...........gentle readers, be aware that i consider late any bedtime after 10:15 or so..............however, my ideal bedtime is before 9:30......because i can feel smug about reading a little and still get lights out before 10:15......so this week of watching both men and women's gymnastics, swimming, diving.......well.....some of the allaround coverage wasn't complete until after 11:30.......who can feel refreshed after such a short night?................i stayed up last night to watch the 4x100 men's relay....the one where m. phelps gave his spot to a teammate......even though i had already read the result online.............that is the other irony.....i am staying up to watch events for which i know the results ahead......just because i want to see the performances that merited the medals...............and such performances................such talent paired with hard work and determination..........so what if they cash in after............they earned their 15 minutes of fame................and so the abyss looms......what will i do with my time now that the tour-de-france has given way to the democratic convention, which gave way to the olympics..........which will give way to the republican convention......but i will not bother with that coverage.....nor with fall's primetime lineup..........i'll probably go back to reading in the evening..............and biding my time until alias comes back on this winter.............my past t.v. watching pattern is to dedicate all of my viewing time to just one perfect program.........and foresaking all others.............

random observations............

ok, so today....on my first actual day off from my new job......i took my youngest to the bus at 8:15 am........in my pajamas.........because i was in no mood to get dressed yet............i missed most of her 9:30 am game.........which was contested at the 'city' middle school in harrodsburg, my new 'community'...............scw went with me to both her morning and afternoon games.......and we drove different routes to and from.....for the record.........there is no route that will take me from our house to my new office without crossing railroad tracks...............friday, i had to turn around in the middle of the road to escape a slowly moving train that was between me and my new job..............luckily, the train was going so slow i crossed the tracks in burgin before the train arrived.............trains could make me late on some ill-timed day...............there were numerous schools at this tournament...........the last team we played...the cross-town rival......was the only team not 'diverse'.............i was not surprised to see this..............the cross-town school is the haven for those who wish to escape the 'diversity' of the danville school system...........and those parents seem to not notice that this makes their system appear 'white-flight'........but enough of that.............as we were leaving.....a little girl called out to my child........'c.c.....have a nice weekend....see you monday'...................c.c. who?......i didn't need to ask.....my child has reinvented herself as c.c..........her incomplete initials.......... and why not?...........when she is so abused as to have no cable tv, no personal cell phone......no country club membership, and no address in town within walking distance of her friends............such a pitiful existence..........just ask her.....she will tell you all..........

baseball..................

ok, so despite boston being 7.5 games behind the yankees..............they are tied with texas for the wildcard berth in the playoffs........and there remain 41 games............that is a lot of games..............anything can happen with 41 games..................cleveland could overtake minnesota........chicago cubs could climb out of the cellar..........and the yankee momentum could settle to a dead hang.........(that is a gymnastics term, not a baseball term......i have been watching too much olympic coverage...............)...............it could happen.......................i suppose that is why baseball fans are so optimistic.....there always seems to be enough time......i did enjoy the boston headline this morning...from their teamwebsite............manny's granny lifts team............manny ramirez hit a grand slam last night to help the team to a 10-1 win over white sox...........manny's granny.....you gotta love a sport with such a witty way with words...........

my limited spanish......

ok, so i sat in on a counseling session with a new mother....who only spoke spanish.......the interpretor was awespme.....which was good, because my spanish is limited to ola, adios, la leche, and una cervasa, por favor....................i learned a lot about latin-american culture......that there is great pressure on new mothers to add honey to formula.................which is a potential disaster.....as honey is a current source of botulinum spores...............miel non leche................or words to that effect...............i have 2 clients with this interpretor on monday..............pray for me.............. i have worked 30 years on my limited french......and i can barely speak english................oy vey............

and i was looking forward to her new clothing line.....

ok, so i was touched by jane pauley's admission that she has been treated for bi-polar disorder since 2001..................her husband (garry trudeau) knew that something was wrong when she was making 'big' plans for her own clothing line.....................and what is so wrong about that?.......................if jlo can have her uptown tart line of clothing, why can't someone sedate and refined like jane pauley?.....................i have been channeling martha for these past few weeks...........i am ready to move on to somebody else.....and why not someone beautiful and articulate..................and well-kept for someone 50+.....................ah well...................i suppose i can wait on oprah's new line........................

honey, how was YOUR day?

ok, so today was the 1st day i spent at the 20% offsite part of my job......l.county health department........in a newly rennovated building..........without a dietitian since june..........when i walked in this morning i was directed to an office...with furniture......not even a chair......just a sink set into a counter...and a lowered shelf that could be used as a desk......and a cupboard above too narrow to place 3-ring binders.................no filing cabinets............no phone...............let alone a computer..............i was directed to the storage room where i found 6 rubbermaid tubs.................which i had to drag around from the basement door uphill to to the front door because there was no elevator.................after i accomplished that task.....i drove to the walmart and treated myself, using my spouses charge card......to plastic baskets/bins so that i could organize what was in the tubs before seeing actual clients...............that done.........i actually saw a client.............pregnant with a pierced tongue................one client out of seven showed up.................and in my boredom.......i brought nothing to read as i knew i had 7 clients.................i emailed myself using my cell phone............just to see that it could be done.............................ha! my cell phone 'address' is my cell number@mobile.mycingular.com...............isn't that exciting................not that i would know how to retreive any messages.........but it is nice to know that i have some form of amusement when sitting in a nearly empty exam room in stanford, ky.....................................

cheese....................glorious cheese...

ok, so i have been reminded just how much i adore cheeses of all kinds...by an article in the new yorker about a cheese store in nyc called murray's.......i tried to link it up, but it is not linkable............i salivated over the descriptions of each of the 5 types of cheese...........i love them all..........the author touched on the trend toward cheese courses at finer eateries.........i enjoyed nibbles of an exotic cheese offered on a boston menu back over spring break........in both the appetizer and dessert sections........one fabulous cheese...or somesuch.............it was wonderful.........i don't think i have ever tasted a cheese i did not like......including limburger...................it must be a taste thing......i can live without sweet....but not without savory (a newly discovered taste) or salty or sour...............go figure....................cheese somehow fits into all of my taste preferences...............the liquour barn in lexington used to stock the aged goat cheese log....with rind....by coach farms in vermont...that made wonderful warm goat cheese salad when tooasted on baguette slices.................but no more.......i should try to find out if coach still makes cheese................maybe it can be obtained by mail.........................now that i have a job...shouldn't mamma's first paycheck go to buy mailorder chevre?.......................

a walk on the voyeur side...................

ok, so i have been walking during my lunch hour........at the newish public park down the road from my office.............today i walked 30 minutes.....just for the record.................but that is not the blog-worthy part of the story............the voyeuristic side to this exercise interlude i have vowed to take.........is the people one sees at the park..................parking at the park........each day i have seen at least 1 set of 2 cars------parked side by side.......with a man and a woman in the front seat............and at some point during my walk, somebody gets back in the other car, and they both drive away.....not at the same time-mind you.....thank heavens they have been complete strangers to me................how awkward would that be?.................and so far everybody has been in the front seat..................how awkward would THAT be?.................

worst fears................

ok, so today i trained with the dietitian at the boyle county (local) health department.....who used to have the job i have now before transferring over to our home county............we decided that she has known me for 17 years.........when i had long hair and a new baby (stephan....) granted.......as she saw clients.......4 out of 7 knew me from somewhere...........one remembered caring for my children as little ones in montessori preschool.................another remembered when i spoke to her high school health careers...................another asked for the restaurant's recipe for baked salmon with a mayonnaise/parmesan crust...................and yet another knew my name from when i wrote for the newspaper................that is not the big news..................i discovered what happened to the dietitian who had the boyle county nutrition job for as long as i remember.........who just up and disapppeared....on the surface from that job..........from my church and even from my sunday school class...............she had early-onset alzheimer's disease..............oh my..............in whispered tones i was told about how they still find charts with blank nutrition notes, or with notes that repeat the same few words over and over................and the story goes that she would sometimes stand in the office area with a chart....and ask just what she was to do with it................because she honestly could not remember...............and this went on until my neighbor around the corner was hired to take over...........and he figured out from the first day that something was wrong.....and he called in her spouse (or so the story goes......) and he retired from his job quickly...and they moved back to their hometown..................gentle readers......she could not be over 55............i can remember her heart-wrenching stories about her father's bout with the same condition...and her support of my mother and myself during my dad's senility and ultimate decline..................i cannot recall anything she ever said or did during the sunday school hour that would have led any of us to think that something was wrong........in fact there is a duo (mother/daughter) who come occassionally who i think may be simply crazy...................) but that is different than senile...............and this is my worry......................with a father whose senility came on prior to age 65.....and a maternal grandmother who was senile from late 60's on................i make it my business to do everything....see everything......and eat/drink everything (ha!) now because i might not get a chance to do so later...or at least to enjoy it later....................for the record.....my dad was a happy senile guy (mostly....) and my grandma was a mean senile person..............i could go either way...................our favorite grandma story was when my cousin....the one who inherited her house.....came by on a saturday to find out what they needed so she could go to the grocery.... my grandpa complained that they ran out of grapefruits since she shopped last...............my cousin was in disbelief.....as she had purchased ample numbers.................'where did they all go?'......she asked..................at this point my grandma piped up.......i know where they are..................and she produced them......from their hiding place under the covers at the foot of her bed.............................under c-w standards.............senility is defined as the point at which one hides the grapefruits.......................hopefully i still have a few years..................

commercials......

ok, so i am enjoying the commercials between olympic venues......the trojan horse one.......the ronald mcdonald one.......the high school girl who loves history......the company (?dhl?) that supports olympians by supplying bubble wrap the the high jump.........of course....i cannot remember most of the products or services...............just the commercials..................ah well.....................

luxuriating.........

ok, so on my second day at work i will be shadowing a nutritionist at the local health department.....and she won't be in til 9.......so i was instructed to not bother to go all the way to harrodsburg at 8......(all the way sounds so much farther than it is......)....and so i am back to vacation mode for just one day...........coffee in hand.....nice omelet......children already off to school...........and not quite time to get dressed.............i was given the option of wearing scrubs today, or dressing in my usual casual chic.......frankly, i am not much of a scrubs person.....so i am resisting this notion until given clear directives...like....'you will wear scrubs, or else....'....anything short of that....well.....i will just wear what i want for the time being............i am have been instructed to bring my walking shoes and my lunch........this virtuous dietitian walks daily ..................mostly today i will see how the health department system works with regards to clients, treatment protocols, etc.........and paperwork, of course............

dreams

ok, so last night i dreamed that we had dinner with our next-door neighbors.....which never happens.....except in the dream our neighbors were replaced by the fruit and vegetable guy that i used to talk to every day up until 2 weeks ago..............and the guests included a colorful couple who recently divorced so she could date other women..........except they had gotten back together in the dream so she could bear him twins......they were moving to portland oregon........and they had a 3 part chocolate dessert.....a chocolate cupcake of sorts filled with melted chocolate, that was then topped with a chocolate kind of pudding that had a traditional meringue on top of it.....and it was icy when i started to walk back home....and the steps into the house were icy....which is odder still in that we have no steps....................steps would be hard to come by when you live downhill on the way to the lake....................anyway...................this dream is memorable because i happened to remember it............most dreams are so fleeting....................with fragments that linger for a moment or two unto they dissolve like sugar in tea.................. i have no idea what it all meant...................and thankfully i can see nothing freudian about it.................

meanmamma's new job

ok, so my first day at work went well.........as well as can be had on a first day, i suppose.......the entire morning was spent signing forms........a task delayed because the person in charge of said forms was delayed because a kitten had crawled up into her engine and she couldn't get it out..................an excuse for tardiness not be to mimicked, i was informed........... we get an hour for lunch......at which time i piously walked for 20 minutes at the public park down the road...............and still had time for a bite to eat............which i had to purchase because the lunch i brought got locked into the clinic area.....for which i did not yet have a key when the time came for lunch.......and i declined to search out someone with a key when i knew that i had money in the car, car keys in my pocket, and places nearby to go.................the afternoon was devoted to moving..............the stuff out of the larger office of the 2 offered to me........hey.....when offered a choice i chose wisely................i have worked with at least 2 of the nurses on staff before, both at the hospital in danville.........and both repeated those words one loves to hear......'we could not believe that you would come over here to work...................we feel so lucky to have you.'...........gentle readers................this job is as lowkey as they come...........my supervisor came by at 4:30, as i was attempting to sort through stuff i had moved from the smaller office.....to make sure i knew to go on and leave..............frankly, i do not recall ever having a job where they make you leave on time at the end of the day................i will try very hard to get used to this...............

television coverage.....

ok, so i appreciate nbc's television coverage..................because i have gotten out the sewing machine.....and have completed some long-standing projects while watching the swimming prelims.......beach volleyball..........indoor volleyball........8-man rowing.................hey, whatever is on i can watch with half an eye while i put together needlepoint pillows..............i am also working on that needlepoint stool.....that is a bit tricky........even with a staple gun...........i will keep you posted........

road race......

ok, so the olympic road race was a real disappointment after the 22 days of drama at the tour de france.......the race was done as a criterium....17 laps around a course 8.3 miles long...through downtown athens.....very narrow....very up-and-down.......lots of twists and turns.......curiously...when paola bettini made his move to go out ahead of the pack.......only an unknown portuguese fellow followed him..........and then unknown guy could have won had he just gone ahead and done it rather than spend his time looking back to see if bettini was going to make a move........duh......axel merxx...son of lendendary eddie merxx of belgium...won the bronze simply because he bolted ahead of the pack at the right moment.........the rest of those guys didn't even try to sprint to catch bettini at the end....maybe they lost track of the laps....................or maybe they were just so tired and fed up with riding after the tour that they lacked the killer instinct..................for whatever reason.......only the top three seemed to have any interest in medaling........we watched the tape-delay coverage last night....despite the fact that i knew who won.........knowing who won and knowing how it happened are two different things........i didn't expect the race to have turned out the way i saw it play out..........ah well....................enough of cycling til next july...................

the games in greece..........

ok, so i had best admit that i have watched exhaustive coverage of the olympiad, including the opening ceremony.................past midnight.....including the interviews with the nba guys who condescended to show up for the umpteenth dream team........they are only a dream team if they win, buy the way...........and so many other guys are playing for their home turf......like the chinese guy......who carried their flag because he was the tallest...........and there are others, from the 200+ countries represented...........i sit and weep,....because i am a sentimental fool on a good day........the koreans marching with clasped hands......the iraqis......the chinese from taipei.......and United States........with fellows like alan iverson marching with his video camera recording it all.........lousy choice for costumes, by the way..........i liked the vibrant green jackets of some less than memorable team........and then when the greek team entered the stadium................so emotionally moving for a woman with no known greek heritage................just the thought of the history.......................i even wept when bjork sang her strange oceania tune....and her gown was drawn out over the athletes to represent unity............i had tears falling as if by remote control.................and the lighting of the flame.....yep...i know that it was origianlly hitler's idea for the flame relay...................well......the guy wasn't stupid....he knew what moved and motivated people.....................and so we are inspired by the flame so many years later....................today i planned my projects for maximum television exposure..............beach volleyball, swimming....michael phelps.......will not every mother in america wish her son were so talented/dedicated.............i do understand that he is going to michigan in the fall.......too bad............, cycling, men's gymnastics.......it is not procrastination if you produce whilst watching tv...................only 2 weeks to go..................

the insanity continues........

ok, so i have continued this home project rampage.......and i am scaring even myself........i dyed lots of mismatched and faded tableclothes and napkins today..............they look kind of tone-on-tone tie-dyed.......somewhat like damask if you don't look too closely............but i can live with that..........i also recovered the 5 chairs we use at the supper table...the seats........to match the valance above the window.........i have been meaning to do that since we put up the valance...........i also have individual ramekins of bread pudding in the oven....and i just took out corn and red pepper breadsticks............i am grilling turkey breast 'loins'......and i have decided that i really need to scrub the front porch floor and repaint....................scary....just too scary....................of course.....i have neither written nor sorted photographs..................gentle readers............you already knew that.................

making the team.......

ok, so wednesday, our 11-year old announced plans to try out for middle school girl's basketball.......asserting that playing basketball was her dream.......quite s surprise for us, to whom she has never shared this dream, nor demonstrated any interest in it by, say, agreeing to sign up for rec league basketball during grades 1-5......................and so she tried out after chool on thursday and friday......and somehow made the team despite no knowledge of the game other than it requires shooting a round ball................we have a basketball hoop, and she did alot 12-13 minutes of her valuable time shooting baskets before she left for school thursday and friday morning............hardly a commitment to skill development................so....the only thing worse than not making a team.....is making the team....practice every day after school....and the first game next friday evening.............we have no idea how the team is split up.....6th separate from 7/8 is my best guess...............we shall now see if she actually plays, or if she sits the bench.........

julia.................

ok, so i was saddened yesterday by the news that julia child had died peacefully in her sleep at nearly 93..........like most other americans, i have fond memories of watching her pbs cooking show........of seeing her enthusiastically chop up meat, poultry or fish..........mince scads of garlic and saute it up in a pan perfectly sized for the task..........carefully place baking pans in the oven.....only to whisk out a finished pan with a flourish.......and after arranging the dish lovingly on a plate....she would raise her glass of wine with a hearty 'bon appetit'.......she made us all want to cook, and to cook well.................last summer, when belgian boy was staying with us..........we took a flying trip to washington dc........my best memory of that excursion was the smithsonian's reconstructed installation of julia child's kitchen.................in it's entirety........it was a sight to relish.................just to take it all in, scan the contents from open cupboards to brimming shelves...........she will live on through video, published works, and through her inspired followers..............we discussed her passing briefly as we were getting ready for dinner.........a passable thai concoction, and the comment was made that with julia gone, and martha headed for jail......what would happen to domesticity in america...............who would be there to fill their shoes, cajole us to cook, organize, beautify for ourselves rather to pay others to do it..................sad days indead.....................

channeling martha stewart..........

ok, so on my bonus week off.....i have completed the following projects......martha would have done more, but martha doesn't live here................

-back to school casseroles for my friends who teach.........along with foccacia bread
-recovered lounge chair pad.....made matching tablecloth for deck table
-made and canned pear/pineapple jam, pear/peach chutney.....and sweet onion confit......
-made custom labels for each jar using publisher
-printed up postcards with our family digital photo from up at the farm...thanks to fred....to tuck
in with jane's hostess gift yesterday....alas...the printer is nearly out of ink so we are a curiously
green version of sepia..................
-dyed all of our older/mismatched towels a lovely dark green......now they look nearly new....
-sorted through 12 months of magazines.........ripped out interesting articles missed the first
go-around and recycled the rest
-cleaned out 5 kitchen cupboards.........sent an entire bag of mismatched tupperware to the
recycling bin
-cleaned out 2 drawers....................
-found time to read jane austin fan fiction/porn....................
-planned ahead for last night's dinner........roast herbed chicken in the crockpot.....my family said
it was lovely..........


i still have 2 days.......................i am thinking about doing mulch in the morning, before it gets hot.......or rainy..............i will keep you posted..............sunday afternoon......my schedule says....nap.....................but then, you saw that coming..................

mm's trip to visit her friend jane......

ok, so i am back from a shopping/lunch outing with my mother....we drove to lexington.......and had lunch at her favorite place...red lobster.........i had a bowl of soup.......crab bisque.....because i am so very tired from yesterday.....and really not all that hungry.....having gone out to breakfast with my spouse and the running crowd.......i have not done this in 4 years, by the way....they gather at the red rooster.....and occupy at least 3 tables shoved toegether........i had my favorite breakfast....blt with pickles on the side........most of the others have pancakes, or omelets.....or oatmeal.......i prefer my starch with bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo......and the pickles are just because the blt tastes so much better that way..................so i was not yet hungry at lunchtime......... we then went to tuesday morning, another of her favorite places.......i bought a stool that i can take apart and recover with a piece of needlepoint that has been laying in wait on the secret shelf in back of the sofa in our room.............i bought the kit at liberty in london......which means that it dates from andrew in the 6th grade, maybe......that was the year that we went to london, then chunneled to paris.........so i guess it is time that i finish the project.............so back to cincinnati, having had a day to think about it..........my friend jane is doing pretty well...............considering.............considering that her house was not built to accomodate an electric wheelchair........she gets around and does for herself exceptionally well.............we talked straight from 1:15 pm to 6:30 or so when her sister maris had to leave and i realized that i had to get on the road as well.............and drank more than we should have consumed.......over 5 hours....i guess we could have done worse..........we dined on steamed artichokes stuffed with chicken and walnut salad.......with penne/grape tomato/black olives on the side..............first with champagne and then on a bottle of mondavi sauvingnon blanc.....the same such bottle that i blogged about a while back for making up a grape varietal name to add cachet to plain old s. blanc...................ah well.........by the time maris came we had moved onto frescati.....but only a taste at that point......................maris' divorce continues.......i did enjoy having the chance to tell her that she was too good for him and that he will regret losing her.............which is true.....it is disconcerting for women my age, and with children roughly in the same age range as mine......to get divorces from spouses who strayed............talk turned to her plans for her 50th birthday......2 years away............i appreciate women with survival/coping plans that involve travel........... she intends to spend here 50th in paris, whether she is alone or in company of a significant other...............yep, paris is always a good idea...................i have never seen fit to wait for milestone moments to go to paris......................so for something big like turing 50.......i am leaning more toward this new zealand windjammer cruise/backpacking scenario that i read about in outside magazine.............and timing is right....as a february birthday doesn't lend itself to paris...........i have been to paris in january, march april, june, october and november...............i see no need to add february to my list..........considering how miserable january can be................new zealand should be lovely then...................but i digress..................maris looked marvelous, considering she is in such flux....and plucky as ever...............i wish i could have had more time to catch up with her, but i really needed to start on home........of course, when i got in the car there was a missed call message on my phone, with no #...just the time of the missed call......gentle readers........i consider cell phones to be a safety tool/convenience item...........few people have my number because i rarely have it on except when it suits me to do so.....so to whomever (whoever?) called..........i am so sorry that i missed the opportunity to chat....................

more from mcsweeney's

ok, so i really enjoy the humor, both subtle and outright.......from this site....here is an entry from just today........

Whitney HoustonSong Titles With "Love" Replaced by "Drug(s)."
BY KEVIN C. SMITH
- - - -
You Give Good Drugs
Saving All My Drugs for You
Nobody Drugs Me Like You Do
Greatest Drug of All
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Drugs Me)
Drugs Will Save the Day
For the Drug of You
Drugger for Life
Who Do You Drug?
After We Make Drugs
My Drug Is Your Drug
I Was Made to Drug Him
My Drug (with Bobby Brown)
Drug That Man

longer way back home....

ok, so why does the drive back home always seem longer than the drive to one's destination.............i did not get home last night until 10:00....mostly because i drive slowly at night when i am tired........and i went straight to bed...............i will deconstruct my visit later on.......maybe after i have had a little nap.......today is the last day of little vacation.....not literally, but figuratively....after the weekend i go back to work.......i have been gone from the restaurant 2 weeks.....and have seen no signs of any paperwork......so there is really no closure....just the promise of such......i found myself awake in the night worrying about those details.....and that is why i feel especially worn out this morning rather than refreshed.......i simply need for the new partners/investers to sign on their dotted line so that i can sign on mine............gentle readers....kindly direct your prayers to this end.............

still hope for redsox/cubs series.....

ok, so there is a still a shred of hope that the redsox could make the playoffs as a wildcard....and the cubs could so the same......and prevail aginst the heavier hitters of the season......and make it to the fantasy series of all time............and why not........stranger things have happened..........like last night's redsox game against tampa bay with kevin millar's 4 for 4 at-bats..............what a great comeback 14-4 final score....the sox had 2 innings with 5 runs each.......wow..........the new guys may have just upped the ante and brought everybody else along for the ride........again, there is still hope............... a late addition to this blog....an article about the wildcard races.....

meanmammamix...............

ok, so i 'mixed' a cd of my own last night.................who knew it would be so fun....and that the cd could have held many more songs than i had planned............i am tempted to make a random cd from unfamiliar selections that appear to be on our hard drive....from groups with equally unfamiliar names.........portishead, brian eno, biosphere, aphex twin, boards of canada................then there are the ones i have heard of, like flaming lips....................wheezer.....i like the sweater song, by the way.................the record industry had me believin that only 10-11 songs could fit on a cd...................what a scam........i have 53 on mine and there was room for at least that many more....................alas......no devil's haircut..............that original cd is in lexington.................i went to all of this trouble because i am driving to cincinnati for a late lunch and for 'tea'.......with my friend jane, and later her sister maris and our friend cynthia............who i have not seen in forever.........she is a sorority sister, fellow osu dietetics alum, fellow u.c./cincinnati center for developmental disorders nutrition graduate program alum....... ex-roommate, partner in sillyness and.........she stood up with me at our wedding..........i met jane through yet another u.c./ccdd nutrition program student...beth.......she lives in san francisco and i enjoy traveling out to visit with her........anyway........we, collectively, gathered each and every friday night at the blind lemon bar....in mount adams area of cincinnati....for backgammon and a few beers...............along with our friend diane, who we have lost track of (sorry, l.o. for the bad grammer.............especially the dangling 'of'.......)anyway.......i am bringing a bottle of nice champagne to share with jane, because we always drink champagne when we get together........i was going to being a bottle if italian sparkling wine called principessa.......we had several along with her parents when they last visited danville....but that bottle has mysteriously disappeared from my garage 'stash' .................ah well..........i am looking forward to the drive (to listen to my new mix cd..) and the visit with dear friends.....who all knew me before i even met my spouse.................

scissors.............

ok, so my re-covered lounge cushion is ready to go.....except for the buttonholes.....i have made them.....but i cannot find scissors that can cut them open.....gentle readers.....buttonholes, especially small ones....require pointy, sharp tipped scissors.................long shears cannot get the necessary leverage...even if they are pointed..........and for a family with children so recently past childhood....i can only come up with blunt scissors....safe, but so sorry for the task at hand............i have also located a pair of pinking shears.....popular for finishing seams prior to zig-zag stitch on a sewing machine....................i have even come up with a copy of 'running with scissors'.......a book that some of us embraced and others did not.................i know that i have 2 pairs of appropriate scissors somewhere.....one is a pair of scissors that resemble a swan. purchased on our honeymoon...........the other is a small pair of sharp-point scissors made for 'handwork'................like needlepoint, embroidery,......and buttonholes........i have searched every drawer in this abode.......and they have been 'put up' so cleverly that they may not surface until our yet-to-be-conceived grandchildren grow up........in a pinch i could scare up a razor blade, and cut through the fabric using the litchen cutting board as a backdrop................this is last resort......because the search for the right scissors has become personal............this is my vacation......and i should be able to find what i need without all of this runaround....................

sidetracked.............

ok, so i really am going to get out the sewing machine....and recover the lounge chair cushion....................after i finish reading just about every entry on mcsweeneys.net..........which is one fine site to get lost in......i especially like the fantasy baseball section.....and mcsweeneys recommends.....and open letters......and daily reasons to dispatch bush.................and lists.............i could really be all day getting a single lounge chair cover under construction....................

dreams..............

ok, so i had vivid dreams last night............at least colorful by my standards...............in that i can still recall details this long after waking...............i was in an office by an elevator......and nutrition clients were waiting for me.....and there were more people than chairs.....and i took notes on an original form with whited out spots......i can recall running my finger over the whiteout...in my dream, mind you......and the client was telling me that her stomach gets easily upset......and she cannot eat much these days.........yet she listed pork barbeque as a tolerable food............and i kept coming back to this, as barbeque tends to really disrupt queasy g.i. tracts.........and the client had an irish wolfhound with her that i was asked not to pet.......as well as a 'man not her husband'..................the client is someone i used to work with, by the way......and why i would feature her in a dream is a mystery, as i did not really think much of her/about her much at the time...............the conversation turned to how she and her employer planned to make money off of the war................ha!......let's recap.........upset stomachs, whiteout, dogs, lovers, war...................a motely crue of issues..........does it mean anything..................i certainly hope not................

oy vey...........

ok, so i am borrowing straight from the l.o........though i am sure that the term sprung from the lips of jewish mothers as they watched their sixth grade daughters leave for school in curious costumes..............ones that not only don't match, but don't fit physically and don't even make sense fashionwise.......she wanted to wear alternatively boots......bluejean jacket with short-shorts (it is august, we reminded......) but she insisted on bluejeans with lower leg adornment that remind me (at least me) of woodstock gone crazy...............this on top of the fact that our daughter has told her new homeroom teacher to call her by her initials....c.c...........because there is another cayle in the 6th grade, and she doesn't want the teachers to be confused..............i repeat....oy vey............and then there is the boy who calls..........the boy she will not be going 'out' with..........no eleven-year-old girl needs to go 'out' with anybody........she thinks i am being mean.......hey....i lead with my mean card.....no deception here.............she did condescend to spend yesterday trying to remind herslef of the multiplication tables......we insisted that her 6th grade teacher would expect her to know these the first day....that this was a skill that she was expected to master in the 5th grade, and that there would not be a grace period on this subject................but of course, we were just being mean............i believe the term used for math is evil, not just mean.................oh vey........................

unexpected porn.......

ok, so it has been well established that i am a fervent fan of all things jane austin......i try to reread her 6 novels as regularly as i can manage.......i enjoy her literary style which is humerous, satirical and romantic.....with strong-willed female characters......prefeminist characters if you will.........i sometimes go to the jane-ite websites that offer fan fiction................little bits of fiction continuing the story-lines of favorite characters after jane herself ended her tales................the library has several full-length versions of this genre...of varying quality and sensibility.........i actually own a cleverly written series of novels that pose jane austin herself as a sleuth...............imagine my surprise when i started to read the novel i checked out from the library just yesterday.....................a sequel to pride and prejudice.........that takes up on the honeymoon just after elizabeth bennett marries mr darcy.....................imagine my shock and dismay to read the term 'throbbing member' in a jane austin related book.....in the 2nd chapter no less.............ha!this stuff goes beyond trashy romance into the throes of 1807-style porn..............of course, i am not so disgusted that i have put it down......it is like slowing the car down to watch the remnants of a wreck.....you just cannot avert your eyes...............so far the female author has quite substantiated what we already suspected.....that underneath mr. darcy's self-control and proper demeanor dwells a hot-blooded romantic ready to commit himself body and soul to the woman he adores..............and it just doesn't get any better than that.................

peach crop....who knew?.......

ok, so i was coming up from the dock.....along the path...just before the stone steps that are fitted between two large stone outcrops.....when i looked up and saw.....peaches hanging from a tree..............4 peaches...........from a tree that no doubt sprung from a flung peach pit some years back........i have added said peaches to our batch of chutney.....currently in the hot water bath canner........on a timer, ....can you believe it.........i am actually following directions...............but i digress......................ernst and stephan went out with the video camera to film the plucking of the peaches from the tree.....a momentous occassion as well as a surprise........not as much of a surprise as bringing home the baby when you did not know you were expecting nor in labor.......but ranking up there close.................earlier today i made a lovely bourbon/balsamic onion confit.......5 jars worth................and tommorrow i will make the spiced pear/pineapple jam......................so frighteningly domestic..................

pear crop.............

ok, so i was able to pick a basket of pears off of our tree......they are not especially ripe......but they will be usable in chutney and pear/pineapple butter recipes........which i am determined to make this week, and can in the canning jars i pulled out of the back of a cupboard yesterday..........i have not canned anything in years.....might as well do something domestic on my week off.......i also plan to recover the lounge chair pad.......as well as a few other outdoor 'pillows' that we use when we eat on the deck........and maybe...just maybe...i might turn to the holy grail of waiting projects......photo albums........but let's not get too ambitious......i really do want to do some writing....and take lots of naps.................and maybe weed the garden..........ah...vacation....................

poems about doom and gloom......

ok, so this poem, sadly, speaks to me......

Poem: "Afraid So" by Jeanne Marie Beaumont from Curious Conduct © BOA Editions, Ltd., 2004.

Afraid So

Is it starting to rain?
Did the check bounce?
Are we out of coffee?
Is this going to hurt?
Could you lose your job?
Did the glass break?
Was the baggage misrouted?
Will this go on my record?
Are you missing much money?
Was anyone injured?
Is the traffic heavy?
Do I have to remove my clothes?
Will it leave a scar?
Must you go?
Will this be in the papers?
Is my time up already?
Are we seeing the understudy?
Will it affect my eyesight?
Did all the books burn?
Are you still smoking?
Is the bone broken?
Will I have to put him to sleep?
Was the car totaled?
Am I responsible for these charges?
Are you contagious?
Will we have to wait long?
Is the runway icy?
Was the gun loaded?
Could this cause side effects?
Do you know who betrayed you?
Is the wound infected?
Are we lost?
Can it get any worse?

frankly, of the woes listed, being out of coffee is right up there in terms of personal distasters.........i might have ended with that

as predicted......

ok, so i have spent the past 4 or so hours rearranging the kitchen cabinets, shelves, drawers.......even to the point of cleaning off the top of the refrigerator........this is so scary............even for me..........is stepford far behind........luckily i own no frilly aprons..........

what i didn't do on this trip.........

ok, so i did bring along my voluminous notes for my novel......and i did actually write 2 very clever paragraphs...........and then i never got the portfolio back out.........i was either driving....or reading usa today or outside magazine............or the life of pi.............and the words that came forth so freely with paragraphs 1 &2 stopped abruptly..............the good news is.....i have the whole week off to either work on it.....or procrastinate......i do my best cleaning/straightening/sorting/organizing when i have something i should be doing......this could be a stellar week for personal productivity......just not on my novel.............

more about the trip back.......

ok, so the ny thruway is not a place for regrets.....about the music you wish you had thought to bring along..................i DID have some of my favorites.......tapestry by carole king.....sweet baby james by james taylor.......elvis costello's hits.........the inigo girls.......dwight yocum...........some old tom petty.......bonnie raitt.....beatles......radiohead (they are growing on me.....)...........joni mitchell.....old david bowie.....neil young's harvest album................all good for singing along (silently............as we wouldn't want to wake the sleeping...........)....but there are those albums that i neglected to bring....either because they belong to children who did not know to bring them....or because said children who own them no longer live at home..............here is my short list of music that would have made the journey more enjoyable.................beck's odelay album.......with devil's haircut...............there is just something about that album/song that complements road trips............u-2's joshua tree album........led zeppelin IV.............especially ramble on...........csn&y........especially the 4-way street album with cowgirl in the sand.......the clash............i especially like london calling.............and classic joe walsh......for driving in the cleveland area................there is always the next time...................

back to baseball.....

ok, so in my absense, the redsox have traded nomar.....lost a bunch of games, and really raised a ruckus........because supposedly nomar did not really want to leave boston..............this article in usa today basically blames boston for their own misfortunes, not just with the selling of babe ruth, but also with the mishandling of carlton fisk, wade boggs, roger clemmons, and some guy named mo..................so we really should not be surprised that they traded nomar........or so the commentator writes................looking at the wildcard race, boston had better belly up tot he plate with some serious baseball, or their season will end sooner than expected............

the flashing message light..........

ok, so we made it home in record time.......possibly because we broke all land speed limits in 4 states..................and the phone was flashing messages...and the cat was hungry.......and the mail and papers piled on the front table......and i have consumed so much caffeine in the past 15 hours of driving/riding that i may never get to sleep...............the new york thruway is sooooooooooo long.......just getting past buffalo seemed a major accomplishment.........and then past the corner of pennsulvania....and into ohio, and from there on in the drive was no-big-deal.......as nearly every exit holds some sort of memory.......relatives, past homes/apartments, i can tell you the exit we took to get to my senior prom, the exits i could take to get to apartments/dorms in both college and grad school..............even the exit where my friend cynthia's boyfriend locked his keys in his trunk as we were driving up to her parent's summer home in the fingerlakes..........this is also the exit to my mother's sister's house.....and i can recall the temptation to call her for help...........but i did not as i was traveling with a boy i did not want to explain.....ah well.....such are memories, but to keep us awake on long trips................an entire state of memories it would seem..............all past now that i have lived in kentucky longer than i have lived anywhere.................so here i sit checking email...past midnight............only to find that some mail gets returned from that void that is cyberspace.....as undeliverable.............quite ironic...for words supposedly transferred at so many blips per minute..........i could have driven the message there myself, considering how far i have traveled in this day alone...........ah well...............i am hoping that god himself does not know i am home yet, as i plan to sleep in on sunday morning..................

on the road again.....

ok,so this morning, after french toast, we will load up and drive back to ky..........at least 17 hours worth of driving..............oh my...........

the farewell dinner....

ok, so last night, after we stopped at a farm stand for sweet corn......our nephews brought over their families for a little farewell dinner...........ecw's sister has two sons, both a shade over 30 at this point.......with a total of 6 children under the age of 7...and another on the way..........for our little group.......myself at nearly 50, my spouse, a nearly grown son of 17 and a pre-teen of 11....we were taken by surprise at the level of chaos that ensues with so many little ones.........and the attention that must be paid by their parents..........3 in high chairs, plus another three at the little people's table.......and everybody wanting up for some reason or another...........how soon i have forgotten all of that..........the cutting up food so it can be eaten with hands, or a tiny fork.......the sippy cups......the food on the floor............on the other hand....my inlaws looked so absolutly delighted with their grandchildren...so that was special to see..............one of my children announced that he may just have dogs and no children just to spite me.........when i mentioned that i was also looking forward to little ones around some day........makes sense that the meanmamma would bring up a meanoffspring............so i should not be surprised................

keeneland this ain't......

ok, so saratoga springs racecourse is no keeneland......the racetrack nearest us in the bluegrass state...........granted, keeneland only runs in april (spring meet) and october (fall meet)...so people tend to be a bit more grateful for the opportunity to be there at all..........and tend to dress up accordingly.....there are limited places to 'be' at keeneland.....the paddock, the rail, the clubhouse (exclusive...) and the grandstands ...the atmosphere is subdued, and refined.........but at saratoga.......where grandstand and clubhouse seating appears to be limited...there is a veritable circus.....with acres of picnic tables on the grounds, with tv's visible under canopies..........and lots of places for people to set up lawn chairs......and bringing a picnic and a cooler and byob is perfectly ok....but if you prefer there are numerous stands for sausage sandwiches, french fries, beer.......and everybody is dressed at the ends of the spectrum......come-as-you are...or raceday finery...with high heels and hats.........we had a good time despite the fct that it rained off and on...and we cashed no tickets........ah well......this was somehow good for ky's horsebreeding economy..........

the refrigerator magnet....

ok, so i bought a refrigerator magnet yesterday.....that in itself is not the big news......just the sentiment on it.........a 40's style photo of a woman with the caption...'she had not yet decided whether to use her power for good or evil....'so appropriate, i'd say, for mm............i think that it is a quotation from the fountainhead.....but i could not find proof last night on google........which doesn't mean much...as other quotes i have read were not there either......for example.......one year the centre women's cross country team shirts had on the back......'and she did not consider pain a good enough reason to stop....'therefore i will have to reread the book to find that quotation.........either way....i thought it worth $4.50.................

the very last college visit......

ok, so we have seen enough...........or at least, if scw wants to visit more schools he will have to find an alternative family to take him there...............the three of us most interested in visiting williams got into the car and drove the 22 miles across the ny/mass border...just in time for the 11:15 am tour....the tour guide, a russian/something political double major from chicago........entertained us thoroughly with williams lore and enticing differences between williams and other schools.....the entry system of dorms....the tutorial classes available in the oxford style......you gotta love a tour guide who tells you up front that she was active in the pro-choice consortium during the past school year..........anyway...the campus is marvelous...the berkshire/taconic mouintains are breathtaking.....we were impressed.......if they would admit aging feminists i would apply..............we then visited the clark institute, where we saw an exhibit of french paintings collected by some guy named bruyas.....who commisioned fellows like courbet, delacroix, etc to paint his portait......he had no fewer than 8 portraits of himself, either alone or with others.....like baudelaire.........i vow, right now...that when i win the lottery, i will commission artists to paint my portrait in at least 8 settings........like doing laundry, doing dishes.......all of thoese things that i avoid doing....just for the irony/absurdity of it all........surely this guy bruyas wasn't really in all of those situations portrayed on canvas as he paid others to paint for posterity................ah well.........we then dined on fine thai......not my spouse's favorite cuisine.....stephan and i enjoyed curry dishes, which we made over greatly, knowing that ernst despises curry...............this, on williamstown's 2 block downtown........and then on to north adams.....to mass moca...the museum of comtemporary art that is housed in a converted mill.........we saw at least 2 variations of exhibits we have seen elsewhere......the one we saw in bilbao......the one with the iron worm-like things on the floor around some larger iron-masses...with a wheeled thing...........the l.o. will recall this one....................the other was by an ohioan, just my age, named anne hamilton...who does these installations that involve a large room, with paper-dropping machines.....voices from speakers.........and masses of crumpled papers on the floor................the hirschorn in washington dc has a smaller less-elaborate version.....we saw that with belgian boy last summer...............he did not get it, but that is another story................we enjoyed watching scw enjoy this installation.................and then, there was the requisite stop at the local bike shop.........gentle readers......we stop at most bike shops........i particularly enjoyed one in downtown london on a previous vacation............but i opted to sit this one out..........we have vowed to honor our son with a cloak of secrecy with regards to his choice for early admission, and the choices for open season/back-up applications......so don't go asking me...............ok? tomorrow, weather permitting, we are going to saratoga springs to watch the ponies......and maybe start on paying for this high-end college education through sheer dumb luck...............it will take luck for us to win at playing the ponies...........

on the trail again....

ok, so yesterday we drove up the 'northway' and then cross country several hours to blue mountain lake, a lovely place in the adirondacs where we have taken our boys several times before.....the adirondacs museum located there has gone through some wonderful updates since the last visit (?10 + years ago....)..........i especially enjoyed seeing the beautiful wooden canoe with the sail decked out as a back-country camping rig.........and the ladies 'outdoors' dress circa 1876 made of brown taffeta trimmed in brown serge......long sleeved, buttoned up to the chin, and reaching to the boot-tops........somehow my current ideas about outdoor gear for women doesn't include brown taffeta.............i did marvel at the workmanship (workwomanship....)....including the perfectly made-by-hand buttonholes........after we dragged cayle from the giftshop we drove 1/2 mile UP the road to the blue mountain lake trailhead...........for our planned family hike...........gentle readers........we have done this hike carrying andrew in a snuggly.....and with our boys in varying stages of toddler/youngster/preadolescence...................and they have always done well........but i swear to you that this trail has to have become eroded.....and therefore much more rocky........because despite my memories to the contrary.......the trail was not only straight up (well, you know this is an exageration.......but you can feel my pain...right?) but also strewn liberally with rocks from baby-bear size past papa-bear and on up to grizzly king of the forest........every step we took required judgement about where to put the next one to avoid stumbling and breaking out ones teeth............all this for 2.25 miles up and 2.25 miles back.............granted......the day was lovely, the scenery was idyllic,.....and the aroma.........a mixture of earthiness, hemlock and spruce reminded me of christmas.......only with a warmth to it.............something that i have never smelled in say...a yankee workshop candle which appear to be sold at every other 'outlet' in this area...........we were the last up and the last down.......in the semi-twilight.....we were afforded a sighting of a deer and fawn on the way down...for a brief moment until they turned their white tails to us and bolted.....our children seemed to scamper up.......and i am sure that my spouse would have done so as well.....but i took my time.....which is to say that i made many momentary stops..........and listened to many comments about how this would have been easier if i was several pounds lighter and in better shape...............had i the strength for the appropriate hand-gesture.........but no- i kept that retort for another day............3 hours from bottom to top and back.........and of course...it goes without saying that this morning i can barely walk.............and yet must rally in time to leave for our planned tour of williams college....and lunch in north adams and possibly the art museums there............and maybe a sidetrip on the way home to the pottery outlet in bennington, vt.............some reflections on our tour of amherst are in order at this point.....now that i have had time to remember that i failed to mention them before......first......there were a mother/daughter pair on our tour.......tall,thin, and tanned.......who at some point during the hour.....changed shoes with each other.................i tried to point this out to stephan for his amusement...but he does not notice shoes, it seems.........gentle readers.......i cannot even begin to imagine the ruckus that would insue if i asked my daughter who wears my size shoes...to change with me............so the fact that these women switched off so silently...........hmmm...............i am both amused and amazed.........i also had a real lightbulb moment on the amherst tour.........i noticed that an unusual number of people, both students and parents..were wearing boston redsox gear......a number 7 trot nixon jersey.....hats, etc.............and i remember marveling at this until it occurred to me that we were within 100 miles of boston......and though we were also within driving distance of nyc............well, these would be naturally boston fans...........we also got a good laugh as we left williamstown (we drove through on the way home but did not stop because we were late for supper....) there was a sign posted at an intersection......'blind man in area'.....and as we looked up...there was the blindman.......with his white cane......heading right for his sign....right on cue................it seemed funnier at the time than it does right now.......

on the road again...

ok, so after lounging about in our jammies drinking coffee and sitting serenely by the water.........scw and i decided to make haste to amherst and try to catch the last tour...........the campus was like many others....lots of brick.....and seemed to lack focus......we did like its relationship with the 4 other schools in the neighborhood.....smith, mt holyoke, hampshire and umass.......and the open curriculum.......we were more impressed by what we saw in north adams/williamstown on the way back.......such a marvelous area.....we will be back to tour williams before the week is out.............

the farm

ok, so after a side trip to niagra falls (the gatlinburg of the east, by the way....) and a particularly unpleasant trek across the whole of new york state...the new york turnpike is a miserable place to drive, but the most direct route.............lots of construction...and delays.........we finally made it to ecw's sister's farm.......which is hard enough to locate in daylight hours.....let alone in pitch black conditions..............i was driving at the time....and basically had a chorus of backseat drivers giving directional tips as we counted side roads, and scanned mailboxes until we found the correct hidden drive............this morning has been glorious thus far.............our nephew, a landscape designer, installed an extensive water feature in their side yard....which takes up their entire side yard............it has 5 pools, in descending fashion, with several waterfalls....ending in a pond that is large enough for those huge koi...the kind that are almost 2 feet long.............there are bluestone and brick walkways.......incredible plantings....a bridge to the gazebo.......truckoads of granite boulders lining the pools/ponds..............it is something one would see in an arboritum............just the place to bring one's coffee....to just sit and take it all in.............it was both gift to his mother....and investment.....as his business is just down the road, and he sends potential clients by to witness it's grandeur.................and sign up to have one just like it installed..................omg.......over the top.......................we are trying to organize our time here.............middlebury and dartmouth are out, but we have added amherst to the williams visit.......which will probably happen with just scw and myself.................as the rest of my family has no interest in driving much more..............we will also have a day at the races in saratoga........and a day at blue mountain in the adirondacs........and maybe an evening at the outdoor theatre in albany...............i could just sit out by the ponds................

on the road.......

ok, so we arrived in cleveland at 9:00 pm, at my aunt's home...surprised that they waited supper..............we sat down to all of my favorites....lima beans, mashed potatoes, sliced homegrown tomatoes, and baked chicken.............and a cold beer..............the drive was absolutely flat after we left kentucky.........the route following the glacier line............so sad when we passed my old hometown's exit north of columbus......nobody i am related to lives there anymore................we were reminded immediately of all that my mother's sister has in common with my own madre...............there is much conversation, and very little need for any words on our part...............my aunt can talk without drawing breath on a variety of topics.................and that is ok, because my aunt and uncle were completely informed (and up-to-date....) on my every move of the past..............day,week,month......because my mom and my aunt talk frequently..............today we set off for upstate ny.....within spitting distance of the vermont/mass corner...........with niagra falls on the way.................for the record.....we may visit a few schools while in the vicinity...williams........maybe darmouth, middlebury (again) and potentially cornell on the way home...................so no decision has been made....and that is ok.........

4:00 est trading deadline........

ok, so i was highly amused yesterday, watching the reds play the astros...that the commentators were keeping half-an-eye on the clock...........because at 4:00 est (edt?) trading between ballclubs was over for any player wanting to be elligible for postseason play................would the big unit stay put, or go to nyy?....................that was the big question..................this morning there was a little chart in the paper outlining trades that happened and an entire article discussing trades that did not happen, and why they did not happen, and what all that means for the substance of the game..............for the record, randy johnson stays in arizona, for now............but nomar g. from the redsox goes to the cubs............no word on whether any of the lousy redsox pitchers went elsewhere....and this funny aside.......a player who is going tot he redsox....from minnesota....played his last game with the twins friday........then changed uniforms and played aginst the twins saturday as a redsox...................watching baseball yesterday, and thinking about trading brought to mind the possibility for trading family members...............but wait......fox has already thought of that with their reality show....trading mommy....or some similarly silly name................ha!..........i may be mean, but it is for the private enjoyment/torment of this family, and this family only..............if i was traded out, even for a fantasy weekend, i could behave for the alloted time, baking cookies in high heels and a frilly apron......and tidy up a strangers house with a seriously sappy look on my face................the previews for ther fox show basically show the traded mommy raising all kinds of hell.................gentle readers...........yelling gets us nowhere...............whether it is fans screaming at the ump or their pitcher at a baseball game, the manager at his players, the owner berating the manager................i don't scream at home, so why scream elsewhere...................of course, if traded, my family may just come up with a screamer..................ha....that would give a whole new meaning to mean mamma..................