klatch

ok, so this evening after work, i went to a coffee klatch....without the coffee......a semi-regular gathering that i look forward to attending.....with some of my favorite females.....no that is not the right....or left...term....because i know these ladies as more than females, or gals, or moms.......maybe the term is lacking in the language.......even meanmamma doesn;t quite fit.......but we shared a nice 75 minutes of stories that cannot be repeated/described/noted/exposed.....and that is the nicest part.........the zipped/lipped part......like women have always done in a back-door/over coffee sort of way.........huh.......i miss out living in the country....and not enjoying a college sort of existence......but i will cherish these opportunities to be on the edge of that life.......and though i am sad that the l.o. left early to see wilco....i am glad that i had the mother of the l.o.....and the mother of heathcliff...all to myself...........

le tour.....

ok, so le tour de france starts saturday.....amid much hype in the sporting/cycling world....lance's last season.......with the introduction of lance's new clothing line 10//2........which promises a portion of proceeds go his cancer research through his foundation....10//2 is the date in which his cancer was diagnosed in 1996...the new nike commercial is mostly lance's press conference from 1996...in which he explains why he is leaving cycling....for treatment of cancer that has spread from prostate into his abdomen, lungs and brain......but that he hopes to return to cycling someday....wow.....one almost forgets that he was near dying........but i digress.....the following is the schedule.....

Stage 1 Fromentine - Noirmoutier
Stage 2 Challans to Les Essarts
Stage 3 La Chataigneraie to Tours
Stage 4 Tours to Blois
Stage 5 Chambord to Montargis
Stage 6 Troyes to Nancy
Stage 7 Luneville to Karlsruhe
Stage 8 Pforzheim to Gerardmer
Stage 9 Gerardmer to Mulhouse
Stage 10 Grenoble to Courchevel
Stage 11 Courchevel to Briancon
Stage 12 Briancon - Digne-l-Bains
Stage 13 Miramas to Montpellier
Stage 14 Agde to Ax-3-Domaines
Stage 15 Lezat - St-Lary Soulan
Stage 16 Mourenx to Pau
Stage 17 Pau to Revel
Stage 18 Albi to Mende
Stage 19 Issoire - Puy-en-Velay
Stage 20 St-Etienne to St-Etienne
Stage 21 Paris

always a different route.....i would give my eyeteeth to be in france, traveling along just to gawk and watch in wonder.........but.....instead we will watch taped coverage everynight......and wish we had seen lance ride just once........

sometimes you get what you wish for.....

ok, so this cnn report made me laugh out loud....maybe this little town can bring in a higher tax base with an ex-supreme liberty hotel.....i admire the minds who thought this up........

ellen et al

ok, so I was too sick today to chance work....and amused myself with tennis, dr. phil.and ellen......all watched while knitting.......it was a rerun....rats.....

success

ok,so......I have finally figured out how to blog from my pda......

Fake flowers....

ok,so I pass by irony everyday on my short drive to work.......past houses landscaped with a variety of fake flowers within walking distance of nurseries selling real flora.....one has to wonder about someone who would stick a fake stem into dirt and walk away......did he/she fail to notice just how artificial it looked, or did he/she yell to everyone within earshot.....come lookie at my little garden ........either scenario is painful to consider but each is plausable.....the three nurseries I pass have marked down perrenials.....I have plans to stop and take a look at what is left...to add to my overgrown beds.......so I can yell to all within earshot ......come look at my little garden.......

toast

ok, so i grilled out chicken quarters......and while i read the time issue about lincoln and the civil war and slavery.....and mary todd...i managed to burn them to a cinder........ouch........but i digress from lincoln.....and the op-ed piece by barak obama.....enough to bring any but the conservative right to tears......and mary todd.......bless her lexington heart......was she crazy, or just out of synch......yeah...she was redoing the whitehouse while we were at war......but didn't jackie kennedy do somewhat of the same thing......when you get down to it......except jackie didn't ask to be involved in the decision making stuff....and mary todd did....so was she crazy, or just ahead of her time.......or was she depressed to have buried 3 out of 4 of her children.....leaving that last one to commit her to a mental institution.......yep, mary.....you weren't crazy enough........leaving that last one to do you in, in the end........seems the younger lincoln thought that because his mother was tryin to auction off her clothing to raise money to pay bills she must be crazy.........is that like having a yard sale?.....or did the lincoln's not want anybody to know that they were hard up for cash after abe was assassinated.......maybe she was just eccentric.....i have visited her home in lexington.....and her mental state is never mentioned in the tour, nor is her son's betrayal of her in the end........good thing she was ill before the era of lobotomy, or electric shock.......she would have been toast for certain.....as it is.....i see her as just a feminist, ahead of her time.....and misunderstood by the motley crue........

good for bill.......

ok, so i am so proud of william rehnquist.....who did not retire today as was widely expected.....to the point that most news sources have lists of possibilities......and dubya has his short list kept on cards held close.......but dubya......this 80 year old guy could outlast your presidency........despte treatment for cancer.....and his wheelchair status.....he could just be the wra........weapon of republican angst....the guy who dubya cannot even begin to intimidate, the guy that the right cannot begin to reach with their potential for smear campaigns........this learned man might just be the kind of guy that needs something to wake up to everyday.......like law and justice......and a guy who has little need to scan the newspapers for bargains on cheesecake.......just for something to do now that he is retired.......ironic.....being a republican appointee....but these days republicans are starting to break ranks in the days of reason versus the religious right.......heck...if i were bill rehnquist.....i wouldn't leave until i keeled over.......just to prove my point............lifetime appointment...can't fire me

s.a.t. reading section...the mean mamma version

ok, so it became clear over supper that some who read my blog do not read it clearly........and until said personages are able to verbalize a reasonable comprehension of say....the knitted body-parts section of this blog.....i see no reason to continue.......tosca.......all you have to do is to give me a sign..........or knit a fig leaf...........

supersized......

ok, so i have taken to reading the washington post and the new york times in the mornings if i have time.......cnn is so homogenized.......and certainly less than thought provoking........and not likely to have articles such as the one in this morning's post about the 625 pound man who has been bedbound for 5+ years........such a difficult article to read.....given our personal biases about weight......and such a mystery why he doesn't weight more........as he gained 375 pounds since age 18.......roughly 175 extra calories a day.......not many extra calories considering what one could overeat.........that's like drinking an extra 20-bottle of mountain dew....but i digress.......this article took up 5 internet pages......and it's scope included his spouse, his friends, his disability, his dreams, his eviction,..........not what i wanted to read, but maybe what i needed to read.......and so it is with homogenious versus hard-hitting.........ok, so this article in the nytimes on store airconditioning settings might have just a tuft or two of fluff to it, but at least it was interesting fluff........and then there is this piece from salon.com that i am sure could be found nowhere else.......it is under the heading I Like to Watch.......by heather h-somebody......

Things that go "Trump" in the night

Just think, in a few years we'll all be huffing spray paint just to endure the countless indignities of our crappy jobs as manual laborers!

But we'll still have a little more class than Kathy Hilton. I mean, at least that woman on "Springer" can admit that her daughter is a whoring sea donkey. Hilton acts as if the fact that she can pair a nice chardonnay with her lobster somehow erases the fact that she gave birth to a skanky slut monkey who makes Porcupine Girl look like a nun. Not that I have a personal problem with skeazy slut-sucking tartlets or anything. Paris proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that sluts' dreams really do come true.

But the notion that her mom is going to show us all about taste in an "Apprentice"-alike venue, right before we cut to that commercial of her daughter with her ass crack in the air, shoving a burger the size of her head into her face? I don't know. I have trouble imagining that Kathy Hilton feels all that out of place among the unrefined hayseeds and blabbermouths on her show. But ultimately, just as "I Want to Be a Hilton" (Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC) is a way for Hilton to feel like she's still an arbiter of taste and dignity despite her daughter's status as the poster child for flashy whoredom, inspiring a herd of ambitious, skanky dingbats nationwide (one of whom is on the show), so, too, is the show a way for us classless skeazebags at home to imagine that we're refined and special because we know what merlot is.

Here's the trouble: I usually try to suspend my disbelief as much as humanly possible when watching reality TV, but you can't tell me this show isn't scripted. How about when one of the hayseeds blurts to the camera, "Definitely her shoes cost more than our mobile home!"? That remark is a little bit too good -- and too stereotyped -- to be true.

And then there's Latricia, the big black woman, and Allan, the odd gay foreigner, and Jules, the loud girl from Long Island, N.Y., and Johnny, the guido. Obviously the casting department collaborated with the writers to find exactly those stereotypes for whom the writers could dream up snappy remarks while half-asleep.

wimbledom sw19

ok, so i watch as much match play as i can during the fortnight.......and the tradition goes back many years...beyond my miscarriage/tubal pregnancy surgery what.......16-17 years ago......the last year that chrissie every played.....i remember coming out of anethesia...to chrissie bowing to the royal box......after losing to martina........gosh.....so many years ago.....and so many moments where i have wondered what things would have been like if i had carried to term......and not adopted........such a thing to put out of one's mind.......how things could have been......life is a series of events that shouldn't have been.....yet have been......and when i wake up and night and obsess......well.......it is with the full knowledge that i haven't turned back the hands of time/fate...............and the way things are is the ways things are meant to be............like it or not..................

to know or not to know.....

ok, so...if my child needed/wanted an abortion....and she was too shamed to ask me directly...i would rather she go through with it than wait for a judge to give her permission...

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -- A federal lawsuit argues that a new Florida law requiring physicians to notify parents when their minor daughters seek abortions could endanger the girls by delaying emergency treatment.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America hope to block the law before it takes effect July 1. The law covers girls 17 and under unless they are married or have already had a child.

The measure would require doctors to phone or meet with parents 48 hours before an abortion. If that's not possible, they can use certified mail 72 hours in advance.

In a medical emergency, doctors can bypass those limits to perform an abortion if they conclude there isn't enough time to comply with the notification requirements.

The law could hurt girls suffering from preeclampsia, ectopic pregnancies and other dangerous conditions, said Janet Crepps, an attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.

"The Supreme Court has clearly said that minors, and any woman, should be able to get an immediate abortion, if it's necessary to preserve her life or health," she said, adding that any delay can "increase the health risks associated with the procedures."

Sen. Paula Dockery, one of the bill's sponsors, defended the legislation, saying that the organizations' concerns had already been addressed in the careful wording of the bill.

The measure also lets judges grant a waiver based on a patient's best interests, her level of maturity or if she has been a victim of abuse by her parents.

The suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District court in Tallahassee, Florida, also challenges a provision in the law that Crepps said could prevent young college students and other nonresidents from getting such a judicial waiver. Dockery disputed that claim.

The Supreme Court will hear a related New Hampshire case this fall, considering whether health exceptions are required in abortion laws requiring parental notification.

i say this despite having dreamed about grandchildren last night.......no child should be born un.......you fill in the rest..............

i have said this before....and i will say it again.....my sons are related to a woman who died due to the consequences of an illegal abortion.....no woman in 2005 america deserves to die in such a way again.........

statewide republican hiring scandals hit home.....

ok, so i read with pleasure an article in the local paper about how the republican hiring scandal has reached danville.....seems that the governor had the head of the republican party actually interview state job candidates.......the guy even had a first floor office.......and somehow this head of the local republican party is involved.....couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow, i say with tongue-in-cheek......these were the guys who promised to go to frankfort and clean things up......yeah, right......clean things up to them musy have meant.....clean out everybody hired by the dems, qualified or not, and replace them with our friends/relatives/donors........and though this happens all the time in ky........the promising to change things, and then not to change anything but the donkey to an elephant......well, sometimes you just get strung up by your own rhetoric.........and, as i said....it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of good ole boys......

coingate

ok, so i heard all about a couple of weeks ago, at the ohio wedding......the following was written up on salon.com

Holy Toledo, it's Coingate!
An Ohio government scheme to invest public dollars in rare coins loses millions -- and all scandalous roads lead back to a Bush Pioneer.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Bill Frogameni

June 9, 2005 | Before the 2004 presidential election, northwest Ohio was one of the most hotly contested regions in the most hotly contested of states. At that time, Republican insider, fundraiser and Bush "Pioneer" Tom Noe presided over George W. Bush's reelection campaign in Lucas County, which encompasses the city of Toledo. Noe, a Toledo coin dealer -- and former chair of the Lucas County Republican Party -- now presides over a Byzantine political scandal involving fraud with state money, political cronyism, alleged kickbacks and a federal investigation of illegal contributions to George W. Bush.

The "Coingate" scandal erupted when the Toledo Blade began reporting on Noe's contracts with the state to invest a total of $50 million in coin speculation -- apparently the only public investment fund of its kind in the country. Noe got the money, ostensibly, as an investment for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation, whose chief executive, James Conrad, recently resigned over the affair. In 1998, when Sen. George Voinovich was governor, Noe set up Capital Coin Fund to buy and sell coins on behalf of the state, with 80 percent of the profits supposedly going back to Ohio. Noe was given $25 million for the fund, and in 2001, he launched Capital Coin Fund II with another $25 million from the bureau.

The problem with Capital Coin, as detailed in the Blade's ongoing investigation, is that it operated with little to no oversight from the Bureau of Workers' Compensation or any other state agency. After weeks of media pressure and public records lawsuits, Noe's attorneys recently admitted that Capital Coin cannot account for $10 million to $12 million -- and this after Noe's repeated insistence that the funds were turning a handsome profit for the state.
It turns out Noe used the funds to invest in several subsidiary coin companies, one of which was run by Mark Chrans, previously convicted of laundering drug money through his own, separate coin business. (Capital Coin severed the relationship with Chrans as a result of $850,000 in bad debt Noe had to write off.) Also in the state's portfolio were other collectibles such as artwork, sports cards and autographs. When an auditor for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation flagged the coin deal in 2000 and cited the lack of oversight, he was ignored, the Blade reported.

At present, 121 coins from the funds are unaccounted for. Those coins are valued at nearly $400,000. Among the more egregious losses are two coins valued together at about $300,000: They were "lost" between Noe and one of his subsidiaries after supposedly being sent in the mail. According to an anonymous law enforcement source quoted in the Blade, records also show Noe bought one coin for $100,000 but sold it for $1.

On the heels of Coingate, news reports have revealed that the Bureau of Workers' Compensation lost $225 million by investing heavily in high-risk hedge funds. The executive in charge of this failed fund has also donated widely to political campaigns. The Blade reported on Thursday that the office of Ohio Gov. Bob Taft was alerted to the $225 million loss by the bureau in late October 2004, but Mark Rickel, the governor's spokesman, maintains Taft was not aware of this loss until the recent reports. Rickel is quoted as saying, however, that the governor was told in late September there was a $10 to $20 million shortfall in the bureau's portfolio.

The $225 million was reportedly lost between February and September 2004, months before Ohio tipped the presidential election in Bush's favor. Democrats are asking if Taft's office deliberately kept the losses quiet in order to avoid political fallout in the election. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat who represents northwest Ohio, said, "I find it extraordinarily hard to believe that [Taft] did not know and the Republican leadership of our state did not know. Had this all come out beforehand, I think the election would have been more favorable to the Democrats -- I think it would have tipped the election."

the remainder of the piece goes on to follow the money in terms of campaign contributions.......even to the white house........and while some elected officials have given the money back....george bush has not.............of course.....the public investment in something as volatile as coins makes as much sense as putting retirement funds into the stock market............

buy blue

ok, so in the midst of all that has happened this spring....i will admit to losing focus on many things that matter.....like maintaining a reasonable level of political activism........i am working hard to change this lax behavior......and my buying patterns are a good place to start....




take a few minutes to browse through the exhaustive lists on buyblue.org......i discovered today that all wine in my possession is bottled by major dem supporters......and that, alas, many of my favorite pieces of clothing are not so lucky.......money talks......gentle readers.......if you have choices in how you spend that hard-earned cash.......buy blue.....now, if i could just figure out how to download all this to my pda......

belly laugh......

ok,so the level of my amusement over tom cruise and his vocalizations knows no bounds.....what with his recent stances on ritalin, post-partum depression, brooke sheilds,psychologists being enemies of the state, katie holmes, oprah, scientology, aliens, le tour eiffel, marriage, divorce, children, spirituality, the war of the worlds, spielburg, .........and now......add his argument with matt lauer on the today show.......gosh, tom......can't seem to do anything under the radar these days........can, ya, now?........must be a bit difficult for your sister/manager to spin any of this into something less than jacko-strange........the following was borrowed from a salon piece by lynn harris....she is referring to everybody asking her about when she will have a baby, now that she is married....but the tom cruise part is funny....

It's reassuring to know that if I ever experience postpartum depression, I can just ask Tom Cruise for advice. Because he understands motherhood, because his religious beliefs apply to everyone else, because he is a medical doctor and, most importantly, because it is his business, Cruise -- as you may have heard -- recently criticized Brooke Shields' for revealing in her new book that she took Paxil to cope. (At least I think he did: despite all the hubbub, his remarks to "Access Hollywood" were almost entirely incoherent: Something something "vitamins" something something.) In any event, Shields responded, I hope famously, by inviting him and his new fiancée Katie Holmes to see her in the London production of "Chicago": "I've set aside two tickets. One adult, one child."

of course, shields failed to note which one is cruise...the adult or the child..........either way, i am sufficiently diverted to claim that today is a good day to be alive, and not a)a scientologist b)an alien c)a fiancee of tom cruise d)postpartumly depressed e) on paxil....well.....maybe i could use a hit of paaxil......but i digress........it is a very good day.......hey, if tom doesn't take brooke up on her chicago tickets in london...i could take her up on it......all i need is an adult to use the other ticket..........

knitted nudes......

ok, so i read this online at the washington post.........after i finish this afghan, i may have a higher calling for my newfound knitting passions.......


Crocheted Nudes Cause Brows to Knit
By Jonathan Padget

Nude sculptures, done in crochet. Sound intriguing? Well, you're too late to see them -- at least not in the crocheted altogether.
The 15-artist exhibition "Not the Knitting You Know" opened last week downtown at Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space. But within two days, the crocheted breasts and genitals of the large, colorful figures in two of the four works created by Ming-Yi Sung were covered by crocheted fig leaves -- plus one crocheted codpiece that actually looks like a cod.
A sense of humor helps, after all, when you're being censored.
You see, the gallery is also the lobby of the 14-story office tower leased by the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. When developers renovated the building in 2002, zoning requirements called for an arts component, which Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space fulfills.
Anyone can go the gallery's exhibits, but the most frequent visitors are the law firm employees who traipse through the lobby every day. The firm objected to Sung's work and complained to building management the day the exhibition opened. Shorenstein Realty Services then contacted Binnie Fry, Eleven Eleven's manager and curator, and told her to remove the exhibit. (Shorenstein owns the building and contracts with Fry to run the gallery.)
"In a traditional gallery, a person can choose to go in," says Stan Roualdes, Shorenstein's director of property management. "But people who work there don't have that choice."
John Shenefield, a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, says that when he first saw Sung's work that Monday morning, "I thought instantly that there will be women in this organization who will be offended because of the exposed genitalia and the exaggeration of the female form." His fears were confirmed as soon as he got to his office: People were discussing the exhibition in a "beehive of activity . . . and the initial reaction was quite a lot of unhappiness, particularly among female employees and partners." The firm was also concerned about offending clients and visitors who might assume it sponsors the exhibition.
Fry was told the work had to be removed after the opening reception two days later. She scrambled to come up with an alternative -- aha, fig leaves! -- and everyone agreed to the compromise. Changes were made the next day.
"I'm a very fast crocheter," Sung says.
Shenefield says this is the first time the firm has complained about an exhibition and that the "shock effect" of Sung's art in its original form should have precluded its installation. "Common sense would suggest that perfectly normal human beings would rather not face that," he says.
Fry has managed Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space for a year, and she found Sung's work "playful" enough that she didn't anticipate it would be a problem. "When you have issues of censorship, people get very upset," but Fry says she's sympathetic to the law firm's concerns about offensive content.
Sung, 32, who studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and is an elementary school art teacher in Montgomery County, says she "didn't think twice" about how her work might offend people. "It's just like displaying a marble nude figure," she says. "I'm just expressing my own artistry. I thought it would be interesting for the crowd."
Some in the crowd felt differently. "I'm not an art critic," Shenefield says, "but none of this was the Venus de Milo."
Sung says she was initially angry about the prospect of her work being removed or having to alter it, but she decided that the exposure was worth censoring her work. Ultimately, she says, "I just thought it was really funny that people are bothered by it."
Actually, you can still see a few breasts on display, along with the other alternative knit creations. Fry says that in the rush to respond to the law firm's complaint, there was a miscount on offending body parts in Sung's work: "We ran out of extra fig leaves."
Not the Knitting You Know: Sculptural Knitting and Crochet at Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space, 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, through Sept. 10. Open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Free. Call 703-790-9018 or visit http://eleveneleven.50webs.com

nick weber's haiku

ok, so below are haiku composed by my spouse's eldest brother...


Fly and fisher, one
Stalking water ripe with trout
Fish and fisher, one



Soul searching for peace
Godhead triumphant in death
Will embraces truth



Joy, where hast thou gone?
Searching for souls to embrace?
Haunt my brain again.



Pond once full of life
Now still below Winter?s ice
Born again with Spring

ok, so this is the haiku my brother-in-law tried to remember a few weeks ago....whilst fishing in the rain...... 

typhoid kathy......

ok, so i have been holding back on this embarassing little detail about my work life.........i had gone months and months with only the use of a shared pc in the health departmentlab area, when suddenly the administrator decides that i can use the laptop that was in the storage closet...the one that they use for powerpoint presentations.......all well and good.....but then i waited months and months for the tech guy to come and hook it up to the state system so i could get state email, be connected to the shared printer......as well as to the wwweb.......the day after these hookups were made.....i was googling some of the ingredients on the back of a formula can.....when my phone rang.....the voice identified himself as yet another teck guy from the state, and then instructed me to disconnect from the web immediately......my laptop had a virus....and was beginning to infect the state system.........seems that our tech guy had not thought to update windows 2000 on this laptop.....and thus none of the security patches for known viruses were in play when i was online......oooops........hopefully the situation will be remedied today......while i am away at the thursday health department.......and ready for me to party on friday morning........and luckily i was googling formula ingredients, rather than buying underwear, or some such non-work task........

ok, so congress wants to push forth an amendment that bans the wearing of flag apparrel, as well as flag burning........hmmm.just look who'd be caught in that big net........amusing how cocky he was even back then............ 

oprah in paris......

ok, so i read with a gutteral laugh the web report of oprah's foiled shopping trip to hermes.......the ultra high-end accessories store in paris......the place with the $10,000 handbags.....they still make saddles, by the way.....but the scraves, ties, shoes and handbags are their bread and butter......so oprah and her team arrived 15 minutes after closing, without the courtesy of a call ahead....and were shocked that the store would not open up for them....the staff was in the midst of setting up for a pre-arranged in-store event......and could not accomodate the american queen of daytime television.......although, the french staff of hermes probably did not have instantaneous face recognition with oprah.......she is not widely known outside these shores despite a billion in the bank........hermes has issued an apology........but i beg to differ with this stance........oprah just showed up, unannounced...in a country that doesn't know her....and now oprah is claiming that the store somehow turned her away because 'they had been having trouble with north africans, lately'........all this to-do is wasted on people like me, who can only gaze into hermes windows....and hope that i find a hermes scarf in a parking lot somewhere.....note:....my current favorite scarf was found in lousiville on a snowy evening outside my favorite thai restaurant, beside my front tire......nobody was around.....and i took it as a sign from god......or at least a gift from god.......but i digress........shopping hours are clearly posted, oprah....sometimes being the richest woman in the world isn't enough to turn back the hands of time......

audience.......

ok, so i have neglected to mention that this blog is generally done as a live broadcast.....to an audience of two......of late both my aging dog......newly returned from the vet after his tragic accident.....and the cat......working daily to overcome her ferral instincts.......sit somewhere underneath this swivel chair....on or around my feet........the cat will usually make attempts to sit on or around my neck......with her tail in my face........problematic for a 4-finger typist who requires visual contact with the keyboard at all times......curious that this personal posse find me so attractive when i am not the biggest fan of either.......cayle now talks to oscar in her special dog voice and my middle child....well......he has the cat-talking voice down to a science.......including the essential cat-shaming hand gestures.......yeah, well...these are both inside-jokes........but the audience part of this blog is meant for clarification, enlightenment, and an outright plea for jealosy............

hay fever......

ok, so this evening was one of the annual running events......held on or around the summer solstice......the twinkie run.......which has gone on for nearly 20 years......and no longer involves twinkies........it is a watchless......predict your time and then see how close you can come to your time without a timepiece........i don';t bother to take off my watch, because when one walks 3 miles (half the course) in 85 degree heat at 7:00 pm.......it doesn't really matter what i predicted, now does it....it only counts that i finish before i meltdown.......and so this particular evening.....as i was walking from the cemetary (the turnaround) to the church the start/finish.........i chanced to pass a farm that had newly bailed hay positioned near to the fence.......and the aroma of the mown grass took my breath away.....and took me back 40+ years.......to my grandfather's farm....and the barn full of newly bailed hay....arranged methodically in the mow...a.nd i thought of barn cats....and their kittens born in and amongst the hay bales.....and of my grandfather yelling at us kids to get out of his hay mow......and of my dad......well, that is the point when i started to cry......because my dad would have gone into a great diatribe about hay.....and whether it was alflfa hay, or timothy hay....or whatever combinations fo deliberately grown grasses versus just field growth cut and bundled.........and i missed my dad so terribly i could hardly breathe.......not from allergies......but from the raw emotion that scent cam evoke in the reminded brain.........

transitioning......

ok, so there is a new way to be dying......a kinder, gentler way to think about it, at least......when one has cancer, or something else equally as terminal.......one is simply transitioning to the next phase......our friend the runner/doctor/environmentalist/thinker is currently transitioning by way of constant readmissions to the hospital..followed by going home to make the best the of the time he has left......the home health caretaker quit after 1 week......and so it will go until there are no more readmisions.......we learned yesterday that a dear family member is in much the same boat.......encouraged to go home to make the best of the time she has left......the family has heard all of this before.....a sister with what was considered a terminal brain tumor was sent home to make the best of her time.....but the brain tumor took 30 years to complete the transition........and so there must be some hope that this transition will take longer than what would be expected given the particulars......and reminds us that all of us are transitioning in some respects........and either the unknown hourglass of time that remains, or truly making the remains of the day count for all it is worth.......

song of the woodthrush

ok, so today we went on a hike at the wildlife refuge with the running/centre crowd......just a 2.5 mile loop over hill and dale.......and we got to talking about the bird guy who had been on npr this past week talking about bird songs.......and we got to talking about the woodthrush....and the zen parable that the bird guy told..... “There's this wonderful Zen parable: If you listen to the thrush and hear a thrush, you've not really heard the thrush. But if you listen to a thrush and hear a miracle, then you've heard the thrush.” Don Kroodsma (the bird guy) .......well.....we hadn't walked another 10 foot from the spot when elizabeth stopped dead in her tracks and said....there was a woodthrush......and so we all stopped to listen......and don't you know.....it was a woothrush......i can't say that i heard a miracle......but i was thrilled to have heard the sweet sounds of this bird's song...........

got milk?

ok, so i was unaware of this to-do until i read this in the paper this morning:

Barbara Walters Breast Feeding Bigotry
by Michelle Malkin
Jun 15, 2005

Have pity on Barbara Walters. Barbara Walters is, after all, Barbara Walters. And Barbara Walters should not be made to suffer the gross indignity of flying in first class while a common woman breast-feeds her baby.

Barbara Walters for those few of you left on the remote islands of Fiji who don't know who she is is a world-famous, Very Important Person. She has, according to her official bio, "arguably interviewed more statesmen and stars than any other journalist in history. She is so well known that her name and a brief biography is [sic] listed in the American Heritage Dictionary."

Barbara Walters is the prolific profiler of Hollywood stars. She and she alone possesses the papal-like power to anoint the world's "Most Fascinating" celebrities and render the rest to the basement of dullard-dom. Barbara Walters has interviewed "such world figures as Russia's Boris Yeltsin, China's Premier Jiang Zemin, Great Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Libya's Muammar Qaddafi and Iraq's President Saddam Hussein." And every American president and first lady since Richard Nixon. And Fidel Castro. And, uh, Monica Lewinsky.

So when Barbara Walters gets on an airplane accompanied by her hairdresser -- what world-famous, Very Important Person doesn't? -- you can imagine the distress of being seated next to an ordinary mom who had the nerve to nurse her child in Barbara Walters' presence.

The nerve! [Or, rather, the newve.]

"It made me very nervous," Barbara Walters complained last month on "The View," her ABC morning talk show hosted by a klatch of elitist women posing as your chatty best friends next door. [If, that is, your door happens to be located in Manhattan or the Hamptons or Beverly Hills.]

Barbara Walters attacked the offensive nursing mom further: "She didn't cover the baby with a blanket. It made us uncomfortable."

How dare that hungry baby make Barbara Walters and her hairdresser feel "uncomfortable"? Selfish child. Don't you know who Barbara Walters is?

After being forced to endure the insufferable sight of a woman providing nourishment to her child, the feminist icon Barbara Walters [winner of the International Women's Media Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Women's Project and Productions' Lifetime Achievement Award, and the NY Women in Film and Television's Muse Award] reportedly pronounced it "gross and disgusting."

Alert viewers of "The View" note that Walters' co-hosts have expressed similar disdain for nursing women on prior shows with Star Jones Reynolds making puerile faces when the subject arises.

As you may have heard, 200 women from across the country and from many different backgrounds held a highly-publicized "nurse-in" at "The View's" studios last week to protest Walters' breast-feeding bigotry. I'm not the biggest fan of the radical "lactivists" -- the whole La Leche scene is a bit too much for me -- but having breast-fed both my children [one for 13 months, the other for six], I completely sympathize with their outrage at Walters' remarks. Nursing a child takes time, dedication, and selflessness. No mother should be made to feel ashamed of that.

Which reminds me: When millions of parents complained about the outrageously inappropriate exposure of Janet Jackson's breast during a sexually explicit Super Bowl performance last year, they were immediately branded as "prudes" by elite liberals in the media. Why aren't those same supposedly progressive commentators bashing the ridiculously priggish Barbara Walters and company now?

Barbara Walters, naturally, cannot comprehend what all the fuss is about: "Nobody here is against breast-feeding," she says with condescending bewilderment. It's all a "misunderstanding." She is now reportedly blaming her hairdresser for the mess. And she has comforted herself by retreating into her sycophantic coven. New mother and "View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck was wildly applauded by Walters' coterie when she announced she was giving up nursing her newborn daughter and switching to bottle-feeding.

No doubt seeking approval from her world-famous, critically acclaimed mentor [who are we to argue with a woman who is listed in the American Heritage Dictionary], the young Hasselbeck confessed on the show that she was "uncomfortable breast-feeding in general."

Working around the nose-crinkling Barbara Walters and her squeamish hairdresser, who wouldn't be? ......end of article...now for my own opinion.....


I am surprised about young Hasselbeck, better known for survivor-outback prancing about scantily clad..........in full view of millions.......squeamish about using breast purposefully.....rather than decoratively.........i am seeking the email for the view.....just want to put in my 2cents worth..........here it is.....abc.com...you can link the view....and send barbara an email.....following is the one that i sent.....

I am so disappointed that someone with your celebrity chose to belittle someone who chooses to use her breasts purposefully rather than decoratively. Shame on you, and shame on those who have lavished you with pro-women awards......obviously the only women you care (to be) encouraging/nurturing/uplifting (to)are those who choose to feed their infants artificially produced formulas.....and i am quite surprised that someone like you is not investigating just what is put into these formulas....like dha...a trendy ingredient.....transformed from pond algae into a comfort protein.....my, but Elizabeth's baby must be really lucky to be on the pondscum diet........or at least it would seem when you applauded her first bottle of the stuff.....again, shame on you. Barbara Walters should have known and done better.

ok, so big Barbara doesn't give a hoot what i think.....but tomorrow morning in a clinic, when the television could be tuned to abc....i will make it my personal duty to find a more mother-friendly channel.......maybe that is only 20 or so viewers gone from the show's advertising audience...but every little bit helps......

closest church locator......

ok, so to further amuse myself on this father's day.........sunday mornings for my spouse include a regularly scheduled bike ride......no need to consider a breakfast tribute for somebody who will not be here to enjoy it......but i digress.......i googled the church of scientology.......and was amazed to discover that all of my worries and woes can be explained/taken care of by real solutions found in the teachings of l. ron hubbard......and that there is a church in my vincinity.........i tried to post an enlarged map of danville that shows the location.......it appears to be in the middle of the railroad yards.......somewhere a bit west of the slaughterhouses off of dillehay........not necessarily a neighborhood that would promote confidence in the message as promised.......or maybe the church is a moving location....say on a train running north or south.....carrying the message to the masses as it passes through............through telepathy?........i have already marked my computer as a target of the scientology messages by virtue of my visiting the site in the first place.......now i shall be hounded by tom cruise popups....reminding me that here is still time to change the road that i am on........ cannot worry about that now......i teach sunday school at 9:30.....and i have to finish getting ready......

kathy with a k.....

ok, so i read with amusement about milar of the boston redsox and his newborn twins....kashten and kylie.......and felt heaps of compassion for children who will spend their entire lives correcting the pronunciation and/or spelling of their names.........this from someone who had trouble with the k/c thing...as well as with my full name kathlyn.......which has been spelled and pronounced in so many variations......with the l removed and an r substituted.....for the traditional spelling.....and then there was the subsequent kathleen, katherine, catherine, kathryn,....you get the picture......and my name is not far off of the mainstream........just a little something my parents thought would set me apart from all of the kathryn's of the world......and the kathryn's in their families i should add.......and for me to compound the confusion with a hyphenated last name speaks volumes on my capacity to handle the dual annoyances of misspelling and mispronunciation.......one can only imagine the indignities that will befall these children......spellcheck for this blog suggested the names gaston and kyle and the correct spellings......my......what a tragic gift those parents have bestowed upon their offspring.......it would have been bad enough with the last name milar.......which many will want to change to miller, or millar.....or mylar.......so many options.......

old home week.....

ok, so i neglected to mention the esoterics of the yardsale.....the human connections made.........we learned.....and recorded...the name of our next door sometimes neighbor........he is who is elusive......we met the ex-wife of a sometimes neighbor we have also yet-to-meet.....they have been divorced 20 years.....and remarried and divorced at least once each....and now she has taken back his name rather than her own maiden name.....and she is staying with him for the weekend....her and her cat.......got it?......and we met the fellow who sometimes lives on he other side of the guy with the ex-wife........i say sometimes.....because on the lake there are the people who live here yearround.....and the people who only come on weekends, or when it suits......and this is where the mystery comes in......we cannot quite catch the names of folks we see so irregularly......as opposed to folks that we have lived by for 23 years.......there is a clear delineation between the two......sometimes people and yearround people.....the ex-wife- asked what we thought about her putting a flyer in each mailbox.....offering to buy out the dweller.....she and her cat want to move here permanently.....why not......couldn't be any more strange than others who have come and gone over these many years........or stranger than those of us who have lived here for so long.......

it's greek to me.....

ok, so now that the yardsale scenario is done....i have moved on to my sunday school lesson for tomorrow.....my turn to teach.....and the funniest thing has become clear........the subject is wisdom....god's wisdom versus man's wisdom......versus the foolishness of faith as it may appear to those who consider themslves wise........the greek word for foolishness is moria.......like the mines of moria.......where frodo made the directional decision as opposed to the general wisdom of the gap of rohan.......his choice meant that gandolf fell......but was resurrected as a white wizard......and this foolish choice made all the difference in the end..........gentle readers......be aware that tolkien was a scholar through and through....and this little greek slip of the typewriter was deliberate rather than accidental........and so the question now is....should i bother to bring this up in my lesson......given that i am not speaking to a lotr crowd.........or just keep this nuance to myself..........

clarity

ok, so today was my first....and last yardsale.......and below please finds glimpses of clarity drawn from this experience........for starts....i am not a people person, by any means.....i would rather go on into the house when people stopped by......whereas my spouse is a natural at selling anything to anybody.........we are ying and yang in this and many other regards.........secondly.......i have discovered that the cash in hand earned by such an event pales by comparison to what one draws in tax deductions when the same goods are donated to the goodwill........thus......the 2 vanloads that i trucked on out to south danville made up for the less-than-expected cash.......thirdly......whatever i had on hnd to sell was not what people were looking for.....yet again...i am out of synch with most folks....we actually had someone query in a loud holler out of her car window....did we have a plastic child's play lawnmower?........wow.....in all fo the stuff we saved or gave away before that very moment....who know that it would be the play lawn mower we gave away ages ago that somebody would be willing to pay 50 cents for now.......fourthly........most people out in the real world are not readers.........and will not buy books...even for their children.............so sad..................and lastly......i have so much stuff in my house that i cannot really see where the 2 vanloads of stuff taken to the goodwill left these premises......and that the 8 boxloads of unsold books have barely dented what remains in the house.......granted.....real readers cannot bare to part with books that might be savored at a future date.......and so we have far more books than we have shelving for.......even after a yard sale........we recently visited a home where we noted......later on.....that there were no books in evidence....none on shelves, none on tables......none on counters....not even from a lending library.......these must have been the folks that came our way today.......the nonreading crowd......ah well......at least we are clear on one thing............

there is more to tell......

ok, so there is more to tell.....and the telling is eerie and foreboding.......my spouse ran over our old dog while easing out of the driveway this morning.......ran right over him........and the poor old cuss seemed to have only suffered road rash and no broken bones.....or at least so said the vet....he is resting comfortably on iv fluids at the clinic.......no word on when he will come home......we are not ready to part with this old friend just yet.....and clearly his number was not up.......the parting with pets is an emotional endeavor.....we grow so attached to these creatures.....for better or for worse with neither the cermony nor the spoken promises to cherish them all the days of their lives......but under the best circumstances we do worship the ground they tred lightly upon.....and honor them until their dying day........

meth training......

ok, so i spent the morning in a 4-hour meth training........how to recognize and deal with clients who may be users.......as well as how the stuff is made/sold/used.....what an eyeopener.......and such a sad testimony to an america where parents would sell endanger their own children just to make a little cheap crack.......a volatile process at best........users tend to be quite animated whilst under the influence, with rapid speech, body parts that cannot seem to stay still.......somewhat delusional.........knowledge of such symptoms brought much amusement later on as i watched the nbc tabloid shows at 7:00 and 7:30.....the interview with tom cruise...in which he is agitated, animated, talking a mile a minute...unable to focus his attention on any one subject........markedly delusional about his ability to help both adults and small children get off of psychiatrist-prescribed medications.....cruise went so far as to say that pyschiatrists and psychologists were a major danger to this country....and that women like brooke shields who go on record as saying that such medications helped them get over depression is hurting those who could be helped by......scientology......yes....even i....a southern Baptist could also embrace scientology....or so tom assures me through his connection with me over the airwaves.....he claims to have such powers to help others in his manner.......or so i thought he said as he waved his arms and talked a mile-a-minute........scary...really scary........or maybe i just missed my chance...i could have knelt in front of the tv.....and he would have sensed my presence....and he could have healed all of my failings........just like....well....you know...the guy that tom seems to picture himself as the new version of.........maybe there are no rooms at the funny farm...or maybe he has yet to buy the funny farm......or maybe he has so many people on his payroll as to shelter himself from the realization that is is basically off the deep end..........just in case....i am on my way to our sole family tv set...to do a last ditch laying on of hands.....just to be on the safe side............

ann coulter.....

ok, so it is time that i weighed in on ann coulter.....certainly not ms. coulter....and obviously not mrs.......she has been engaged 4 times but has yet to tie the knot......for her to be so public about her desire for an america where men rule the roost and woman take the backseat.......is laughable.....in that it is her freedoms bought and paid for by sacrifices made on her behalf that allows her to stand up and say such nonsense.........women like susan b anthony.......women like my grandmother crown who did not drive .... had 4 sons involved in wwII.....no income of her own...demured to my grandfather's opinion at every turn.......nothing in her name until my grandpa passed on.......church-going salt of the earth....... and yet she did insist upon voting, as was her right and priviledge....her one single oppportunity to be part of the process........would the chain smoking, chardonnay swigging bleached blonde bimbo that is ann coulter actually have the balls to say that america would be a better place without women like my grandmother crown voting.........if she means what she is quoting as saying.....then she is a pitiable creature....and deserves the life that she may wish for.......a burka-clad existence.......such is the fate of voteless females around the globe........and while she may think herself the icon of the moment.....the woman that republican men wish for in their dreams......she reminds me of the propoganda-swillingblonde aryan-types that broadcast their taunts to american g.i.'s during wwII.....right before the tide turned and hitler suicided out....and the facade of reich strength and power crumbled..........all that is different is her lack of a khaki uniform with medals/stars/bars........or maybe that is how she dresses in private....for a few paid viewers.......i can only dream that her star will not only fall....but crash and burn..............

i should have known

ok, so i should have known that getting organized for tomorrow's yard sale was bound to be complicated.....by my mother arriving to bring a few things.....and to take a look around at what i had already set out on the porch..........omg......she found an armload of things to take away........books on tape that she gave to me to lsiten to before i did something else with them.....books she doesn't think we should part with......a chair that might just match the ones that my brother had/still has....who knows given my sibling......in the midst my friend gail called.......and i now have some real concerns about the motley crew that is gathering on summer evenings at one of the cabins in my neighborhood........hmmm.......maybe we should be keeping 911 in redial.......

custody.....

ok, so i read recently with mixed feelings about the 13 year-old texas girl taken away from her parents so that she could get the cancer treatment that her parents had refused to get for her.......she has hodgkins disease.....and her parents declined to allow the radiation treatment, saying that it might raise her risk of getting breast cancer.....i say mixed feelings because i am torn between the notion that parents are the caretakers of their children until age 18 by law and by custom......and the notion that the state exists to protect the interestd of all, even though one is under 18..... i am against the parental notification laws that require that girls under the age of 18 seeking abortions must first get parental approvals......gentle readers.......i understand that one either believes in the sanctity of parenthood, or not......but i also believe that their are parents who have no idea how to parent, or how and when to protect their children, and those who force their value systems upon their offspring.....and this clearly muddies the waters of my already murky opinions.......and so the girl from texas will have her radiation this week, and her parents will be at her side during the ordeal......and many will be thrilled that the state stepped in to protect the child, and many will be horrified that the state stepped in to take away parental rights......and both sides will be right, and both sides will be wrong.......

patriot act.....

ok, so republicans have banded with dems to block the portion of the patriot act that would have allowed the fbi to search library and bookstore records without a search warrant.......dubya is peaved about this, as he considers this essential in the fight against terror.......frankly, this does little, in that the internet is now the resource of choice for terror.........bookstores and library reocrds show only what one reads for pleasure, or buys for future pleasure......and buying habits for informational stuff is likely down.......i rarely buy nutrition references anymore......why spend the cash albeit tax deductible when i can find enough info online to meet my immediate query....same thing with cookbooks.....i am sheddign numerous cookbooks most haven't been opened in recent memory...because it is so easy to search online recipe books.......if i wanted to use a recipe in the first place.....and so what would the feds find if they had a warrant for my local library......that i check out series of murder mysteries.........does that make me a potential murderer?.......or a potential private investigator........you be the judge.......but not without a warrant....at least for now............

book club......

ok, so book club was this evening......and since book club is usuallyt he highlight of my week i went willingly and without the usual i would rather just stay home......stuff that can come up when one is tired and grumpy......bookclub people are some of my favorite people.....and though the crowd was pared down somewhat...the conversation was direct enough and long enough with regards to the book...a light mystery set in miama.......until we got down to the real discussions....as book clubs often do......this evening we got around to talking about a deceased friend.....one that many have finally gotten beyond.....and this was a good discussion....given that there are those in our midst who are awaiting sugery, or recovering from surgery, or dealing with the decline of loved ones........letting go is always easier when it is not you who has to loosen the grip......i held back a bit from this chatter......i am still a mite hurt from the fallout about a similar conversation that took place at my bookclub meeting....which i thought went so well until i heard that the widow had been offended at things that were said/i said/somebody said........i suppose that is the way things go with friends...and loved ones.....one cannot say much without hurting somebody, or at least hitting a nerve......we will get together one last time this summer.....we picked a book...off the cuff....so that our yet to go back to school scholars can have a go at one last gathering.......hopefully all of our college children can read the kite runner before august 2........should be a nice time.......

crow ala mode......

ok, so as far as i am concerned....sentator frist, m.d...the one who assured us all that terri schiavo was alert and oriented and just needed a bit of therapy....and more time with the feeding tube......he could tell all of this by watching her video, not by actual examination, mind you.......well, he should be eating crow this evening after the release of the autopsy.....her brain a scant 600 grams....about 200 less than your average alzheimer's patient....and technically blind due to the loss of vision centers in the brain...so much for her parent's biased assessment that she followed them around with her eyes.......her spouse made a good call.....end this extended madness and let her die as she would have 15 years ago without a feeding tube....and now he can have some closure.....and peace of mind......as for senator frist......maybe he owes us all an apology, eh?.....

bookclub.....

ok, so bookclub has come around again...and while i didn't especially like the book....a mystery set in miami...the hero writes obits......attending is better than the alternative.......going to an away swim meet....my daughter will be well cared for....the neightbor girl and her mother will be taking her.....and she will be far enough away that i couldn't really see much before i arrived...and they would be ready to come home......that is my story and i am sticking to it.....i have hardly read anything this summer...like i actually have a summer......but i have no book at this moment.....i have an afghan to work on...and so reading anything other than the directions will have to wait.....i am nearly done with panel #1......i thing i shall need at least 4 maybe 6 more to have this thing be wide enough.......so.....if i can make 1 panel a week i shall be right on schedule.......of course....i could get a lot done if i skipped bookclub.......but again...ski[[ing book club means going to a swim meet.......the choices that must be made by adults......not for the squeemish............

yard sale......

ok, so i have never had a yard sale......and this saturday will be the first......and maybe the last if i find the experience too much for my nerves......i like the goodwill experience because of the decided lack of bickering on price.....and i must anneal myself toward those who would take away my treasures for 25 cents rather than $1......i have dragged many things out from many hideyholes......cookbooks, clothes, cooking equipment......i am ready to part with the quart canning jars....these days i only make up things like salsas and chutneys in pints or halfpints.....and chairs.......wow.....i have at least 12 chairs of varying values......such a big to-do...this is why i have always just driven my stuff to the goodwill to get rid of it.....so much less of a hassle.....pray for me, gentle readers....until about 1:00 saturday afternoon.........

thriller.....

ok, so the verdict was foregone in santa maria, california....the longer the jury took, the more likely they were to find reasonable doubt........and so it is humerous that the cnn website had a quickpoll that begged the question.....do you think that this aquittal will do anything to restore jacko's reputation?......ans the overwhelming response was no........mostly because there was no box to check for are you crazy?.....aquittal doesn't mean he didn't do it, and wouldn't do it again.....it only means that there was reasonable doubt.....the boy/man lives in a dream world of overspending and underearning......and sleeping with little boys either shows a lack of basic sense, or a disregard for the intelligence of others ......like we won't know what would/could go on during the sleepovers.........if jacko was smart, he'd sell beverland, and buy a nice condo somewhere,......and start living on his income ......the courts may insist come december, when he has major bank payments due.......even selling the beatles portfolio will not be enough to pull him out of financial disaster.......and as for renewing his singing career.........well, maybe he could put out an acoustic album of songs that help us feel his pain.......but then, such a venue wouldn't lend itself to grabbing his crotch or waering a military uniform........then there is the reality show format........we could follow him about for a season.......wait......haven't we already done that since his indictment?......how soon we forget..............

words to the wise.....

ok,s o i really enjoyed this quotation......borrowed from the friends of the loyal opposition........a viable sentiment for one's anniversary.....

To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you're wrong, admit it; Whenever you're right, shut up. -Ogden Nash, author (1902-1971)

gosh, ogden....you are right on target.....and that i freely admit......

losing my religion......

ok, so i proudly admit that i am a slave to celebrity gossip.......well, maybe an underparlourmaid........but someone who spends far too much time caring about the rich and famous.......my newest chuckle is about katie holmes, a starlet whose show dawson's creek i never saw...who is dating tom cruise....and embracing his religion scientology like it is a new pair of slippers ready to try on for size........hmmm......from all i can surmise....scientology is a fairly new religion...one in which we can actually name the inventor.....l ron hubbard.....so in that sense i find myself taking it all in with a skepticism........maybe what i need to do is to make up my own religion.....i'll have a semi-empty nest next year....maybe i can cook up some sort of empty-nest based religion....one that puts perimenopausal women at the top of the heap......not necessarily in the goddess genre....that has been beaten to death.......but along those lines.........and i would go to great lengths to schedule observances in months like june or october where i usually start to thinking that i could use a three-day weekend........and maybe include cats somehow.....most religions do not have a tent big enough for our furry friends......what is the point of heaven if my cat can't go too........i will keep you posted, gentle readers.....on my new faith as it evolves...........

knit one, purl......

ok, so i have finally started the long planned graduation afghan......i have til september 1 to complete it......cream-colored, done in strips for easier portablitity during the process...gentle readers.......the basic pattern is as follows:

row 1 k2,yo, k2tog, k1 , yo, sl1, k1, psso, k5, k2tog, yo, k1, sl1, k1, psso, yo, k2
row 2 k2, p15, k2
row 3 k2, yo, k2tog, k2, yo, sl1, k1, psso, k3, k2tog, yo, k2, sl1, k1, psso, yo, k2
row 4 k2, p15, k2
row 5 k2, yo, k2tog, k3, yo, sl1, k1, psso, k1, k2tog, yo, k3, sl1, k1, psso, yo, k2
row 6 k2, p15, k2
row 7 k2, yo, k2tog, k4, yo, sl1, k2tog, psso, yo, k4, sl1, k1, psso, yo, k2
row 8 k2, p15, k2

it took me about 36 inches to be able to do the entire 8 row sequence without consulting the directions......which is quite pitiable........but i have the hang of it now, so to speak........and though i occassionally come up with extra stitches.......i am done with strip #1 and on to strip #2........the skeptics might ask.....why?..........when my child going away to college already has an afghan.......a multicolored favorite that has a bit of age to it........this one comes from me.......a last grasp at mothering, nurturing, protecting......and making this has become important to me.....in that spiritual sense.........and when this is done i shall take back up the quilt i started for my eldest when he went off to college.......here's hoping i can finish it as his graduation gift.......

haiku

ok, so last evening we celebrated anniversary, birthday, and the visit of my spouse's eldest brother and his wife.......the rosarian.....who brought a lovely rose called le marne to add to our collection........dinner was outside on the deck......just before it rained again.......my spouse and his brother opted to try their hand at fishing one more time before dark.....stephan went with them to row......while the rest of us gathered on the covered front porch for libations and good conversation......and then the real rains came....the bucketful kind.....the serious kind.....and all we could think about was the three of them....in the boat....soaked to the bone.......but when they finally appeared.......it was in a nearly dry state.....they had found a rock overhang.......and had amused themselves either trying to compose, or trying to remember haiku poems that involved both rain and fishing.......nick has such a framed haiku in his living room.....certainly not what we expected to hear from a boatload of fisherfolks who should have had a miserable time.......back to andrew's 21st........i located the bottle of bordeaux that i purchased years ago...at a grocery in bordeaux.......with a vintage of 1984........a 21 year old wine for a 21 year old child.......if it is no good, i don't want to know........it was truly the thought that counted.....

a wedding debrief.......

ok, so another family wedding has come and gone........they tend to resemble each other in so many ways....to the extent that i felt compelled to explain to my eldest's girlfriend that the wedding style on display was not necessarily the wedding style preferred by well.......me and my spouse.....married 24 years as of tomorrow........i explained that we had a perfectly nice 11:30 am ceremony followed by a cold amish ham and the usual sides at my parent's house......with a violinist......a simple dress made by the bride.....and the money not spent on the event put toward a three week european honeymoon......as late as last evening there are those who find this choice incredible......that we opted out of the dj in a smokey banquethall/bingo parlor with a hot buffet with an over-the-top ivory satin dress with embroidery and multiple attendents........no kegs of beer.....no vegetable tray with ranch dressing dip.........gentle readers....there was a bit of shock and awe that my wedding date actually preceeds the formulation of ranch dressing....imagine?!.........no ranch dip!!!!!!.......i still have my dress....cannot fit in it.....but it is there in case anybody else wants simple nuptuals followed by an elegant but streamlined reception.......

allergies.....

ok, so in the short time i have been at this house in eastern cincinnati, my sinuses have clogged up.....i am sneezing like crazy........and i am basically miserable....must be something in the neighborhood, a tree perhaps that we don't have at home that i am sensitive to......whatever.....it hasdrivenme totakeactualmedications......alas...

don't get out much.......

ok,soiwent grocery shopping this morning with my sisterinlawlisa.......tothebiggest grocery i have ever seen.......asuperkroger to end allsuperkrogers......there was even an aislewith nothing but water.....wow......and an olive bar/mediterannean bar......wherei was compelled tobuy hummus, baba ganoush,couscous andpita bread........by the way, tosca,yours is not theonly computer with a stuck spacekey.......but i digress......i bought wine to to taketothe wedding tonight......at therehearsaldinnerlast night, themotherofthebride....whosehouse was thesetting......had 2bottlesofwine for 40people.....lotsofbeer, but notmuch wine....and we suspect that the wedding willbe moreof thesame.....so,just incase......gentle readers.......i comefromapartially dry county...sothenotionofwine being soldin the krogers is such a thrill........and thedeliint hisstorewasjust wonderful....ialmost took appictureof an eggplantroll-upsoirt of dish with thinly sliced eghgplantrolled aroundmozzareklla andricottaand roasted peppers...topped with more cheeseandmarinera...just so icouldrememberwhat went intothe recipe.......i usually only takepictures in parisiangroceries.......but then i haven't been toone of themin over a year,either.......ijust don'tget out enough..........here orthere......

bing cherries.....

ok, so i am home from work, and rather than tidying up the house in preparation for our trip north i am blogging and eating secret bing cherries......well, they are not quite secret yet......the secret part comes in if i happen to consume them all before anybody else gets home.......this scenario has actually happened with red raspberries purchased at the aldi store.......on more than one occasion......yep...it is mean to keep delectable fruits all to one's self........but today i have had a cupful....and i am already thinking that i have had enough.....so between the nectarines, the kiwis, and apricots.....there is plenty of fruit to go around when we get a bite to eat before driving away..........i also plan to download descriptions of dublin youth hostels.....i need to book one for my eldest for the time between landing in ireland and taking the train to his writer's workshop in sligo......i have to familiarize myself with the lay of the land....as i have no idea at this point where these hostels are located with regards to the train station, the airport, or the places one wants to visit in that city.......this has nothing to do with cherries......but i am now into my james joyce stream of consciousness blogging agenda.....and it is no-holds-barred...........andrew will miss the actual bloomsday in dublin...june 16th is the day that the story in Ulysses takes place........too bad......also too bad that we couldn't hold off on his birth for 2 days...or he would have been a bloomsday baby.......so close........had we only known.........ah well.......better get to work, and build up for another cherry snack..........

sleep.......

ok, so i am back to not sleeping, after a short stretch of restful nights......last night it was the waiting up for the child not yet home.......a restlessness based on basic anxiety rather than any belief that he could be getting himself into trouble somehow........the summer before college is a transitionary period for all involved........the knowledge that when he is in college i will not know when he comes or goes is in my brain......but i cannot seem to get by the present state of wondering where could my baby boy be at this hour......and to imagine that he has driven his car into a ditch and been knocked unconscious.....and nobody will go out hunting for him save his mamma.......i am not saying that i have actually thought these thoughts.....they sound mighty crazy this morning............but sleep-deprived menopausal women rarely make any sense......now do they?.........

yet another family wedding.....

ok, so we leave this evening for cincinnati.....yet another family wedding that happens to fall upon the dates of our local great american brass band festival.....as well as our wedding anniversary....there is some disagreemnt in this household just how many weddings....2....3.....the good news is that we are running out of marriagable children of my spouse's siblings......we are basically down to 7 out of 13.....with 6 if those children being under the age of 21.......and 3 of those 6 being our children....over whom we might have a gnat's amount of influence.......at least over wedding dates.......yeah.....there is the possibility of remarriages....we have been to two of those already....in cincinnati.....but we trust that this time around things look rosey and surely after the 3rd wedding we are no longer obligated to show up.....right?.........i may go so far as to remind folks that next year this weekend falls on our 25th wedding anniversary.....and to schedule such events some other time.......yes, that would be mean....but there you go............you cannot say that you weren't warned............

lightening will strike

ok, so i have been on the phone with my mother...trying to interest her in the neighborhood yardsale ...and she is not sure she has anything to put out for sale...surely lightening has struck her house......and when i get up the nerve to go and look out the front door...i will certainly see a house in flames.......how can someone with so much junk say she has nothing to be gotten rid of...........?

shoeboxes......

ok, so i have heard of many things being stowed away in shoeboxes...but this takes the cake....

300-year-old Bach composition discovered in shoebox

The World Today - Thursday, 9 June , 2005 12:46:00

Now to what's being hailed as a musical miracle – the discovery of a 300-year-old composition from the master of Baroque music, Johann Sebastian Bach. Researchers say the piece was composed by JS Bach in 1713 to commemorate the 52nd birthday of his patron, the Duke of Saxony.

But the manuscript lay unnoticed for hundreds of years in an old shoebox in a German library, along with a collection of poems and letters to the Duke – until chance stepped in.

ok, so i didn't copy and paste the rest fo the story....especially the part about how the piece was written for harpsichord and soprano......hmmm......i don't know anybody offhand who plays the harpsichord......but i do know a stellar soprano.....too bad we didn't come across this piece before anybody else.....i was thinking today about all i would find.....and decide to keep as i get ready for mm's big yeardsale.........imagine one's surprise if the shoebox special for $1 contained a bach original........not likely in my attic......but it could have happened to that german library if their attic sale had gone un-examined prior to things going out to the make-an-offer sale.........but back to our soprano......she does so well singing all languages.......french, italian......and since she looks faintly aryan.......she is perfect for this bach piece.........ah well.......one day we shall see her on the stage in bayreuth.......not as the fat lady with the trident.....but surely as the glamour parts.........

yard sale......

ok, so i have it in my mind that it is time for this family to have a yard sale.......we have never done this........though we regularly donate clothes to the goodwill......there are many things that have accumulated that we could clear out of the house, the basement, the garage, the garage attic, and the cabin.....ah, the cabin.......originally there were 3 cabins on 4 lots, now combined into 1 lot...ours.......the cabin the in best shape has been transformed over the years into a 2-story capecod-looking affair with semiattached 2 story garage.....the cabin in the worst shape was removed in order to build the driveway.......and the last cabin just sits where it always has......census people tend to view it is a residence.......and hang their questionaires on the front door......but mostly it is our private storage area........a storage area of no return.....i cannot remember when i was upstairs int eh cabin last.......or farther in the door than it takes to retrieve pots and lawn chairs.......but back to the yard sale.....the neighbors who live across from my mom are having a yard sale next weekend.......and why not a neighborhood yardsale.......a good incentive for me to get busy and to clean out.......and then take whatever is left to the goodwill.......

sneakiness................

ok, so about that swim meet last evening......there was a bit of comic relief.......a mother that i chatted with.......plumpish, with a plumpish child........disappeared for a bit during a lull in the conversation.......and when i chanced to locate her again......ha! she was over by the picnic tables, hunched behind her cooler, eating what looked like a large candy bar..........gentle readers.......this just tickled me.......as we had just been talking about her summer, and her plans to work on her weight.............i guess discussing such things works up an appetite.........

swim meet

ok, so i have doubtless said this before....and i apologize for saying it again........i would rather take a beating than attend a rec league swim meet........i got there late.....and still had to endure 2 hours of up and down the pool for a combined total of 175 swimmers............their team and ours......omg......one's own child is onlyin the pool for a maybe 6 minutes out of the entire meet......and the remaining time is spent making small talk.....i heard about the divorce of an aquaintance whose daughter may just want to be a dietitian.......that took up a bit of time off the clock......but basically it was an incredibly tedious evening..........more of the same next wednesday..........wait......bookclub is next wednesday......i have a reprieve.......that heavens for bookclub........

ok, so i never said i wouldn't post this picture of the winning small schools team..........don't they look exceptionally bright......? 

illegal smiles.....

ok, so this afternoon.....i dealt with a client and her toddler....and could not get over the characteristic scent of illegal medicinals that clung to them both......and since neither fessed up to glaucoma or chemotherapy.....i can only suppose that the use is recreational and not therapeutic.....no matter where my personal feelings on the use of this herbal may lie......the involvement around toddlers is another thing altogether........what was this woman thinking.....other than she was not thinking clearly.........she must have some sort of sinus problem....to not be aware that the scent clings........but then...most cigarette smokers i meet up with seem surprised when i ask hoew many packs a day they smoke....not if they smoke.....like this is undercover information that nobody else knows about....ha....smoke clings to the fingernails, the clothing.....any paperwork they handle......their hair, their diaper bags.....yech!........but back to my main premise........an arrest would result int eh immediate removal from such a child from the home.......so why did i not raise the alarm?......because i could not be sure.....now could i?.....being that my sinuses have been acting up......and while i have great certainty....there is certainty....and there is taking away your children certainty....and they are two different things.....altogether..........

early to bed.....

ok, so one of the few things that can be said in favor of physical exhaustion is that once one is asleep, one tends to stay asleep all night......none of this pointless awakening mid-dream sequence.......and curiously....none of this waking up sopping wet......at least not last night.....for those just leaping into the mad rush that is my life......i have spent the past 3 days in hard physical labor.....ripping out, digging out, trimming out......yesterday after work.....in 91 degree humidity....i mulched the areas that i cleaned out saturday and sunday........and so this morning....curiously....my feet seem to hurt the most.......like somehow my feet took the brunt of the work.......well....i suppose it can be said that my hands also hurt about as much.....mostly from grasping and pulling.......the gardener's version of carpal tunnel.....and so this morning i feel about 100 years old......almost too old to be really mean......yeah....that may be the best news for the reading public.......a day with less meanness.....maybe i should put up a sign...t-4......temporarily too tired to be testy............

naqt

ok, so i promised that i wouldn't blog about the following, but i cannot promise for naqt...this was on their website........

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Alexandria, VA) went undefeated throughout the tournament and defeated Lakeside School (Seattle, WA) in the final to win the 2005 NAQT High School National Championship. The championship is the third straight national title for Thomas Jefferson and marks the second year in a row that they have finished unbeaten. In the Small School division, Danville (KY) High School used a strong second half surge to defeat White Cloud (MI) High School in the final.

For the record....Ken Jennings...the jeopardy alltime high dollar winner...was the moderator for the final round.....nice way to end a middle school/high school academic team run..........

outofmysystem?

ok, so i drove to town to pick up the middle child about 12:45 am......and now that i am home i cannot seem to go back to sleep......and i have amused myself by reading the online synopses (sp) of desparate housewives.......and recent lj blogs......and still feel much too buzzed with adrenilin to go to sleep.....possibly because of the drive-to-town experience.......i took out the small hand-held wallet insert that holds my driver's license.....and left my purse at home....which meant that i left my cell phone at the house as i drove to town in my pajamas......and as i sat in my parked car in front of the high school....a police cruiser came by......omg.....luckily the car only cruised....and did not stop......omg......luckily...the van with the academic team coach came within minutes....they had been delayed in the dropping off of folks who actually live in the city limits........surely i can fall asleep at some point......can't i?

showers........

ok, so it is debatable at this moment which shower of the day is most refreshing.......the one that wakes one up in the morning ......or the one that removes the grit,grime and sweat of an afternoon of physical labor........of course....the shower is only the appetizer course........physical work actually requires a hot bath to melt the muscles just before bed.........and that will be just wonderful.....except that one of us will have to get out of bed about 11:45 pm to pick up our middle child at the high school after the weekend tournament in chicago.......normally, he would have driven himself to town.....but that is not how things worked out on friday......and so.......but these are minor details........this weekend was a taste of not having him here this fall......and we are not prepared for this reality........not at all......so we may actually draw straws for the honor of driving to town to pick him up...........as long as i don't have to get out of the car.....i plan to show up in my jammies........

harry potter......

ok, so harry potter is back in the news.......2 blokes were arrested this week trying to leak the yet-unreleased book 6 to the press........supposedly the two books in question came from a warehouse that is on camera....and police are investigating how the two men managed to get out these copies.......and supposedly the two books are in a secure place at the police station........ha!.......if these station folks are potter fans.....they are sneaking htose books to the w.c. on their breaks....and reading the newest edition in secret........i would.......i have plans to break my danville walmart non-shop streak (at least 3 years, maybe longer....) to pick up a copy....as they are open all night and are not doing this crazy reserved copy stuff....nor am i ordering a copy on line, because with book 5 the ordered copy didn't arrive for weeks after i could have walked into a store and bought one off the shelf.......i read with interest some of the related stories to the stolen book one....including charlotte church's response to news that the new pope has decried the harry potter series as evil......i was unaware that the new pope would bother with harry at this point........i find it hard ot believe that parents who have purchased and read themselves and/or to their children would refrain from books 6 or 7 just because the guy in the red robe in rome says they shouldn't.......and in all likelihood the new pope hasn't read the books......the nay-sayers always demure when asked that question.....they have just heard that they glorify the devil/evil/allthatisbadwiththeworld.......which is far from the truth.........so far good has triumphed over evil at the end of each installment......a good family values kind of book.......speaking of family values......i read with glee yesterday about the chairman of the republican party in some florida county, who sued a fellow partperson for slander.......the other person accused this guy of being unfit for the job because he has been married 6 times....the plaintiff was able to prove that he had only been married 5 times.......he believes in family values, he was quoted as saying in court.......the judge agreed with him about 5 versus 6.....but declined to give himn any monitary damages........how does one manage to be married 5 let alone 6 times.....well, except for zsazsa gabor.....who is also in the news for a lawsuit...this one filed against her own daughter....who has been getting loans against her future inheritance behind her mother's back.....and while her mother and her 9th husband are still living in the house that she managed to get a second mortgage on.......the daughter claims that the husband is only in it for the money ...which might sound plausible for a 9th husband....except this one has stuck it out for 19 years.....and must be some sort of record for a 9th husband.....and they are both over the age of 80.....so it is not like the husband has any shot at playing playboy with whatever inheritance he could get out of the deal........but i digress.........back to harry potter......the 4th film is in production and will be out later this year.....it was announced that some of the filming will be done out of the u.k..........surely not all of it, as many of the scenes must be filmed where they have always been filmed to the sake of continuity........i confess to being more of a fan of this series than the average mm wouldbe/couldbe/shouldbe........but isn't that one of the basic tenets for any mm.......doing what the heck she pleases, no matter what the rest of the world has to say about it.........

this week in public health

ok, so this was a defining week in my new career.......one in which i truly felt that i was meant to be where i am now.......2 examples......one i shall share, and one i shall keep to myself.........the first involves a first-time pregnant mom a bit older than my eldest.....married.....a smoker trying to 'cut back' to 5-6 cigarettes a day.....and planning to try to breastfeed......her spouse and her breast-feeding sister are supportive, her mother and her inlaws are not........she came in to my office quite agitated because she started leaking...and was convinced that something was wrong.......nope....this is a good sign, i offered.........to which she countered.......well, now my breasts seem so swollen and so red......i think something is wrong...ok so at this point there was nothing else to do but to offer to take a look......gentle readers........had i desired to look upon body parts not my own i would have gone to nursing school........and so this clearly worried mom-to-be stripped off her shirt and displayed her swollen breasts......and i was able to definitively assure her that a) her breasts were not engorged/abnormallyenlarge/swollen/infectedasinmastitis....and b)that her nipples were the best possible kind for successful breastfeeding.........and she left my office so visibly relieved and calmed of most of her fears....one can never calm all of the fears of a first-time mom..........and i felt so affirmed as an expert.......and justified as an underpaid state enployee.........doing what i can do to make other people's lives a bit better.......the other example is much more private....not in the privacy law connection that must be considered......but in my personal privacy......i had a pregnant woman disclose an instance to me that foreshadows all of her fears of pregnancy/motherhood......and i was able to assure her that she would be just fine......one of the few times in my life that i can say with clarity that i was destined to be in that room with that woman on that day discussing that essential issue.....and this was a timely occurance......given that i ran into someone at church who knew me when i made more money....and though she did not say so out loud.......she was clearly thinking that i had come done in the world when she smiled that face-cracking smile as i told her about my new job.......it is weeks such as this that sustain me....

sunburn......

ok, so on top of al that i detailed earlier about my mission today......i also found the strength to tear out most of the lily of the valley....which becomes invasive.......and daylilies.....from the side of the house.......and to replant the bushes that have little red leaves....the name escapes me just now........and to divide the reblooming yellow daylilies........and then to trim the honeysuckle out of the privet hedge..........whooo.......i am so tired that i can barely imagine getting out of bed tommorrow to teach sunday school..........

breaktime.....

ok, so i have been hard at work since 10.........trimming back the jungle that befalls my garden when the rains come and i neglect the weeds for a week or two.....there are so many native shrubs and vines that can easily take over in a short space of time.......i dealt with the poison ivy first...wearing a dispoable glove .......and then on to the major task........the 12 x 12 rose called snowbush.......think bramble....as in the bramble that the prince must fight through to rescue aurora in sleeping beauty......this bush is a beast.....one that could easily grow on up into the overhanging branches of the neighbors tree at some point......i cut away enough branches to fill the back of our truck......and still my spouse will accuse me of being too tentative with this attempt at taming the plant........the bloom was awesome...while it lasted....but like most of my roses.....they are species and once-blooming.......might as well trim back the growth that is getting out of hand......and then on to the quince tree....the pear tree......the trellis rose.......well...this one is still blooming, but i did trim back a few of the spots where it was a menace to passers-by......that particular rose has left an extra life-line on my hand......one of the reasons i am back in the house.......these sort of wounds require antiseptic and a large bandage.........i have also trimmed back the forsythia......and lowhanging branches of 2 redbuds.......the hedge in back of the garage........and after i have fortified myself with a nice hunk of watermelon.....and maybe peeled off these socks and tried to evenout my farmer's tan.....i will get out the digging forl and try to clear out the remaining lamb's ear from the garden section where i attempt to grow annuals like zinnias and cosmos......i hope it is not too late to plant these.......and then on to the back to trim more rosebushes that are closing off the path to the lake.......my brotherinlaw the rosarian is coming down after the wedding next weekend to fish......he has a gardener to help tame his yard....but the least i can do is to tackle the biggest bushes just to look as respectable as possible with the gardening crew that i have available today..........yours truly.........the message light was blinking when i came into the house......a familiar voice calling from a local bank......likely offering competitive rates and free checking......i might save the tape on the machine......so when this young caller actually becomes a senator i can say that i knew him when..........hmmmm....back to work.............

slow but steady.......

ok, so having invested my birthday money into a pda.....i am slowly getting the hang of programming it, modifying it to match my whims.......and most importantly, downloading music onto it...........gentle readers.....the downloaded music part has been the most vexing.......because this devil's device called a pda seems incapable of hanging on to licenses..even with the backup files present.....it will play songs for weeks, and then abruptly come up with an error box that announces that this song cannot be played without access to its license........the error boxes are most likely to pop up when i am out walking the 2 mile circuit at anderson-dean park over my lunch hour.........rendering the electronic contraption capable of playing only those songs that i transferred from albums we physically own.......last tuesday i finished my walk with a long playlist of cat stevens.......and not the songs i especially like.......the songs that wouldn't play were downloaded legally.....actual cash changed hands with the new napster.......which makes me furious and frustrated....so i deleted everything on my storage card and started over......i was able to play music on thursday and friday.....it is an uneasy peace between me and the record industry that appears to have rigged this little hand-held music machine to randomly reject downloaded songs.......only time will tell how long this detente lasts......i am also frustrated by the decided lack of wi-fi hot spots in the areas in which i work........it is not that the populous doesn't know or suspect about wi-fi....there just aren't any hotspots close enough........i am still trying to make workable the program i downloaded for blogging from my pda.......i cannot seem to get beyond certain points.....such as the submission of my password.......it just locks up......so i will keep trying until something works.......which appears to be the key to both portable and desktop pc domination......keep trying until you happen upon the correct combination.........i am so impressed that people actually know how to do this stuff in 2 or 3 quick strokes...rather than 2-3 days (or 2-3 weeks) of willy-nilly guesswork......frankly, i am impressed when anybody manages to use a computer for anything above and beyond solitaire........ but then i am easily amused.......oh yeah....i have been able to transfer a few selected photos to my pda.....and now have my eldest and his girlfriend as my screensaver........i feel so accomplished at this moment........a fleeting feeling that i must try to capture in song at some point.......there is a distinct lack of lyrics that extol the glory of minor computer programming victories......for those who keep score........spellcheck likes to suggest replacing blogging with the word flogging........same difference, eh?