glass half-full

ok, so....we are in paris, without luggage(and therefore without our coats)......making the best of 40 degree rainy weather.....got bumped from atlanta flight; taxied to cincinnati with an ethiopian grad student named gal; almost missed that flight because they couldn't pull our luggage off the atlanta plane and the drive was delayed......despite all of this.....we had a marvelous lunch at musee d'orsay, have seen the newly remodeled l'orngerie, and spent a fst 45 minutes in the louvre antiquities section....it was warm and dry at that point....my daughter seems excited to recognize movie set sights....and that is just fine.....gives us something other than the weather to talk about......tomorrow, the louvre again and versailles.....so far, so good.....it may be miserable and cold, but it is still paris.....

books......

ok, so after several phone calls to the local library....working closely with another longtime montessori parent...we have chosen the books that our family will contribute in memory of chiara, who loved all things french.....a precious photo book called french dreams.....and a trio of colette's best: the vagabond, break of day, and cheri/julie de carnilhan/chance acquaintances......

bon voyage....

ok, so my daughter brought home a sweet note and gift from my favorite french teacher/traveling companion...by rights we should be going together, with a swarm of middle schoolers.....but in these semi-dangerous times i am taking the smallest of swarms.....a ying/yang combo if ever there was one......i am almost packed.....down to the obsessive looking around for.....can't tell you exactly...but when i find it i'll toss it in the bag.....my bag is far from full....which tempts me to take along my feather pillow that i tried to discard last year but resurrected when it became clear that i could not sleep well without it.....the forecast calls for rain.....at least for saturday.....and cloudly on sunday and monday....i can handle a few clouds.....i cannot recall actually being in paris in sunshine anyway....it might be such a shock as to cause physical damage.....i have a new book to read on the plane...anne lamott's new book about grace.....cannot wait....she is refreshingly irreverent and inclusive for a christian....and that is my kind of woman...a perfect book for visiting my kind of town.......hope to upload pictures on the trip.....this is the digital age, ya know.......

regrets.....

ok, so as i strolled my garden after work.....waiting for the dryer to finish my packable clothing list.....and i regret that i did not make time to do more in my beds before my trip........there are the lewis and clark double daisies that i need to thin out and move to the other side of the trellis for symmetry......and roses from below the deck (shailors pink provence....) that i want to move......and i did mean to raise up the back side of the pond that that i will hold more...but these things must wait til i get back........lots in bloom, mostly wildflowers......toad trillium, wild phlox, moneyplant (lunaria), wood hyacinth, dutchman breeches, lady mantle, shooting star, and some sort of white wood violet (not dogtooth violet....)many of these have been moved from our wood lot into my beds so that i can appreciate them closer to my path......curiously, there is a lovely red tulip blooming out on a rock ledge......maybe one planted by my only homegrown gardener?.......if so please tell me, lest i start to think i planted it myself and simply forgot......there is a nytimes piece today about an alzheimer support group that focused on a 55 year old woman who has early alzheimers......these are not stories i want to hear or read about.....losing my memory is my biggest fear.......would rather go out in a blaze of glory, confident that i had lived a decent little life, than to slowly lose my mind and memory.......

misc.....

ok, so....for all my sorrows i have neglected the most humorous blog fodder in ages....the guy who was discovered to have 89 sheep living in his house....most of which were euthanized because he didn't feed the sheep living in his house......and the guy who found his dentures that disappeared from his nightstand in the mousehole beside the bed......these tales pale in comparison to the woman smuggling live crocs.....no question there.......

ok, so......i have not had the urge to blog for days......but when i came home from my class this evening the aroma of the grape hyacinth was so heady due to today's rain and humidity as to be intoxicating........i made my rounds to look for signs that plants on my worry list are budding....and was moved to rush back in the house to try out the new camera.....keep in mind that this picture was taken at nearly 8:00 pm.....such sites are comforting to me, especially after the doings of this week, and particularly after the freshair interview from my drivetime home......terry gross interviewed somebody who believes completely in science rather than religion, and who started out his interview with this sentiment.....'the world does not owe us meaning...'that there is no meaning intrinsically and any meaning we assign was just that...assigned....and he went on to say that the notion that there is beauty has to do with darwinism not with a godly hand at design.......yes, i can see his point....but i have a hard time believing that there is no meaning whatsoever in the beauty that is spring bloom.....i am trying my best to focus on this blog, rather than on my child's weekly conversation with her birth mother.....the topic is likely to be the application for a pseudo-beauty pageant....think littlemisssunshine at its bluegrass worst......and i got the distinct impression that though she scoffed at the entire affair, she considered my lack of support in her participation as mutinous......for the record, i abhor such events...the sexing-up of young impressionable girls to believe that the barbie look is desirable......i will admit that this blog from start to finish is pure procrastination.....i have not packed the first thing....i have a list but nothing on that list has broken the plane of the suitcase.....curious.....in years past i'd have filled the baggage weeks ahead....and kept it like a shrine to the travel-god until just before departure.....but then i have never traveled before on a day when i felt like i'd rather be at a wake......i hope that spring has erupted in the bright renewable colors of hope just in time for this visit....this visit especially.....

tour?

ok, so a very sweet person asked me this morning if i was taking a tour on my trip to paris, and was i worried about getting around........well...the short answer is no and no...though when pressed for prior parisian travel experiences all i would admit to was a fair few ...how lame is that?.......there seemed no reason to admit to 12 prior trips.......not that one would be embarrassed to admit to 12 trips to chicago......or st louis, or nashville, or gatlinburg....but 12 trips to paris seems overthetop......even by my own standards.......and when i mentioned that rain was forecast for saturday, there was not one lick of sympathy.................

signs of life.......

ok, so...after my drive back from my last meeting before my trip....i wandered my brick paths looking for signs of life since yesterday when i made the same rounds.......the purple coneflowers have come up.....and the jacob's ladder that i dug up from joni's old place on elk cave rd years ago on a trek with my dad.....one of the roses i transplanted last year that i had given up for dead is not dead.....there is one more in the iffy category, but with roses they are not dead until everything else is leafed out and blooming...then i will dig the blessed plant up...not until then......the meeting in question was lowkey enough to provide me cover to write out my to-do list.....like put the camera-connector into my purse so i can upload photos en france.....check!.......i have decided on my ensembles.....maybe not the most chic but the most comfortable.....i have already told my child that i will pack for her....and she seemed relieved by this offer......she has had a cold and is not feeling quite up to par.....hopefully this will pass before our plane takes off friday afternoon......i am trying to think of a fitting place to light a candle for chiara........she was with me on my first trip to chartres....but i don't see my daughter making that sidetrip....there is always notre dame...but that seems too big and impersonal...maybe st eustache....she was with me there....and that is an underappreciated paris monument...our group had quite a time holding the hand of the statues outside.....i am not catholic....but i find the lighting of candles in cathedrals very satisfying spiritually......yes, that sounds like a very good place to light a candle in her memory

a girdle of crocs?

ok, so this from cnn.com.....JERUSALEM (AP) -- A woman was caught with three crocodiles strapped to her waist at the Gaza-Egypt border crossing after guards noticed that she looked "strangely fat," officials said.

The woman's odd shape raised suspicions at the Rafah terminal in southern Gaza, and a body search by a female border guard turned up the animals, each about 50 centimeters (20 inches) long, concealed underneath her loose robe, according to Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for the European observers who run the crossing.

"The woman looked strangely fat. Even though she was veiled and covered, even with so many clothes on there was something strange," Telleria said.

The incident, which took place on Thursday, sparked panic at the crossing.

writer's almanac

ok, so this piece by robert frost was featured in today's writer's almanac...

Poem: "Away" by Robert Frost, from Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays. © Library of America.

Away

Now I out walking
The world desert,
And my shoe and my stocking
Do me no hurt.

I leave behind
Good friends in town.
Let them get well-wined
And go lie down.

Don't think I leave
For the outer dark
Like Adam and Eve
Put out of the Park.

Forget the myth.
There is no one I
Am put out with
Or put out by.

Unless I'm wrong
I but obey
The urge of a song:
I'm—bound—away!

And I may return
If dissatisfied
With what I learn
From having died.

tragic

ok, so the headlines this morning were about the tragic death of a child who we have known as long as we can remember.....we have few memories of our boys at montessori that do not include this precious child....from preschool through 5th grade, and then in more exotic locales....i accompanied her class to paris their 8th grade year, then ran into her again in amboise on the loire 3 years later.....i have a lovely photo of her, standing in the street with shops in the background.....and then there was graduation- her speech was articulate and spoke to just how far we all knew she could go.......but neither of these memories is as poignant as the time i ran into her, home from college, and she asked me about my child, who at the time was not applying himself...she told me that she worried about him, because she knew he was capable of doing great things.....these were my thoughts, exactly, and to hear them coming from a cohort still brings tears to my eyes...because he has since turned his academic life around, and is doing great things...........she was everything a young woman ought to be if she possibly can- talented, cultured, gracious, and caring.....the world is a sadder place today without such a knowing soul

space.......

ok, so this photo was from the top 9 hubble photos of...well...all hubble photos......wow.......

just doing my part....

ok, so the last time my alma mater won a national championship was in football, the year i took stephan and rachel to spain.....i figure that leaving the country for the final four weekend is just doing my part for the home team...go bucks!

dragging out the suitcase....

ok, so between loads of laundry i sorted through the pile of suitcases that dwell below the basement steps...and found one that still has a retractable handle and wheels that seem to roll freely......i must now drag out the vacuum cleaner, as this particular model was at the bottom of the pile and is covered with flotsam of unknown origin......and now i must sort through my current favorite tops and bottoms.....and decide upon a coat (the black or the orange....?)....these are heady decisions indeed.....i will likely live in the same outfit for days anyway.....and must keep my extra clothing to a minimum so that i have room in my suitcase for bottles of mustard.....or whatever....note to self- still have plenty of lavender honey, so leave that on the store shelves.....i have the newest anne lamott book grace: eventually, further thoughts on faith...ms lamott is a particularly progressive church-goer....and i greatly appreciate her perspective as i struggle to attend a church that gets more conservative every day....i stay because i believe that these folks need to see liberal faces and hear reasonably liberal voices......as opposed to reading the fear-mongering that comes from that evil bleached-blond columnist ann.....ah well.....as i type i have foccacia bread rising....a real flash from the pastt....i am taking some suppers to people tomorrow, and that bread just seemed the thing to take along......i must say that there are elements of my former life that i miss.....kneading bread ranks up there.....i also miss the interaction with people....but i digress from this trip.....i bought memory cards at office depot....2 gigs for $24...such a deal i bought 2......might start over with my music collection and maybe include a broader range of genres.....at the very least i can take a few more pictures than the 16 meg card held.....so much more to do this week.....make copies of our passports.....clean out my purse and my wallet......figure out where to stash the euros i bought at farmer's bank.....finish putting together my moleskine reference book/diary...i did find a nice metro map to paste in.....despite the weeks of french-on-cd i feel much less prepared for this trip than trips past......i can work on that book on the plane if i can remember to put my gluestick and kiddie scissors in my quart-size ziplock.....1 week from today i will be in paris, eating supper at some lovely location, savoring a carafe du vin blanc a la maison.....it is that vision that will sustain me through the week to come.....

ok, so this was from crooks and liars.....and it is just too funny.....

international phonetics alphabet

ok, so......i ate lunch today at a little korean place on limestone with my eldest boy today....absolutely marvelous meal.....i had a ceramic pot sizzling with rice, vegetables and an egg on top that cooked as it was being brought to the table, with sides of kim chee and a fresh cucumber pickle made with the skinniest cucumbers i have ever seen....and a bowl of soup (miso?) that was superb......andrew had a clear sweet potato noodle dish with vegetables that was luscious.....according to the menu, the clear noodles were made from sweet potatoes......i could have eaten all of his meal, but was so distracted by conversation that i made do with my own food.....the best story told was about the russian feast being planned by the gaines folks....and how the girl whose sole job was to obtain vodka toasts in russian couldn't meet with the professor who knew such toasts....and how andrew went for her....and the professor did not have then written down....intended to simply teach them verbally....seems andrew knows the IPA....and simply wrote down each phonetic sound in this curious shorthand.....wow......who knew that such a thing existed let alone that my precious boy knows it...i am doubly impressed......cannot wait to go back to the korean place....just down from the indian place and right by cd central.....in the same building as the head shop.......

daily dose of jane austen news....

ok, so this from the web.......

eggs and frozen corn.....

ok, so in keeping with my series of curious dream sequences.......in last night's intallment, i was trying to tidy up the kitchen of a cottage-like home.....a bit different from my own house....don't recall thinking i was at home.....i had raised the windows to get out some smoke from burning too-wet wood in the fireplace (not our woodstove...) and i came upon a grocery bag containing a carton of eggs and a bag of frozen corn.....and the corn was cold enough that i put it in the freezer....and i seemed to spend the entire rest of the night trying to close the freezer door...couldn't quite figure out what was blocking the hinge......hmmm....these dreams are getting curiouser and curiouser......

colors......

ok, so my day was filled with curious colors....for starts, there is yellow...for the forsythia bush that appears to be blooming only on its southern side......i have never seen the like......and rose...for the quince bush that is blooming only from about 4 foot down...where the fence protected it......and there is tangerine....for the mother of one of cayle's soccer teammates, who must be preparing for a beach vacation with a little pre-vacation tanning action out of a bottle...omg......orange is not the new golden.......and there is red....the color of the face of the mother of one of our daughter's oldest friends.....who sat next to me...and answered her phone cordially, and spoke sweetly, up until the point where her ex-husband calling from iraq asked to speak to his daughter, who was on the field at the time.....and this fellow seemed dissatisfied that she could not be called off the field to talk to him.....yes, this sounds harsh.....but i do not know many mothers who would interrupt a school sporing event to call a child to a phone call......especially when he can call back in 30 minutes......ah well.......i neglected to mention scarlet....as i will not be staying up to watch my alma mater play the vols of tenn wearing orange......but these fine fellows will know that as i sleep, i will be screaming in my dreams the buckeye battle cry......

cameraphones....

ok, so i dreamed last night that my phone took pictures of stuff from inside my purse....like the corner of a chair and a persian rug......which would be funny except that my phone is too old to take pictures...my phone doesn't flip, either....why would i dream that?.....wonder if the rug angle happened because my purse fell over.........

new music....

ok, so i have sifted through new music for days..it would seem.....from the big happening in austin, tx...south by southwest......some of the tracks are precious and some i delete after 1-2 bars......i have gotten mean that way......at this moment i am enjoying a track by cara luft.......black water slide....very bluesy with being too bluesy.....i only downloaded singer-songwriters or alt-country...because these folks don't seem to know about slow-core.......by the weekend i'll transfer the best to my pda for my trip

gehry

ok, so i can't wait to see it, but at the same time it's no guggenheim bilbao.......

40 mil?

ok, so....this is a pleasing image, but is it worth 40 mil at auction?

timeline.....

ok, so......i dreamed last night that in order to lead the discussion at bookclub in may......my bookclub....i made a timeline of the book gilead think posterboard with a red string and people cut out of magazines.....now that i am awake the notion doesn't sound half-bad.....the story line was a father's attempt to explain the past and to mitigate the future......hmmm....

freshened....

ok, so the middle child's room has been repaired, repainted, and basically refrshed since the waterpipe leak last week.....and now we will begin moving everything back in...starting with the bed.....which avoided damage thanks to the vinyl-coated mattress ocvers......may have to spring for new pillows.....they were directly under the leak, and they didn't do well in the dryer.....might be transformed into pet beds or something similar......as previously mentioned, none of the papers and books were touched, and so none of them need to be moved, thankfully....there are a lot of books......it will be good to get this behind us......note to self- check on this room more often.....

$1.99 for 4 ounces

ok, so this is the price of lox-style smoked salmon in the freezer section of the H-Burg save-A-Lot...i was in disbelief, so i only bought the single package.....I'll stop for many more tomorrow......

practice makes perfect

ok, so...i have been practicing with photo uploading onto picassa's newest version so that i can upload photos in france.....a la l.o.......we shall see......this is a recent photo of mm's friend jane.....toasting with a wickedly dry champagne.....i have not yet begun to pack...too soon tell if the weather will be brutal or bright.....i pick up my introducotry batch of euros at the bank tomorrow...plenty to get into town on the rer and to keep an eye out for an a.t.m. that has a reasonable keypad.....for those of you who were not privy to my last bate excursion.....the keypads were different, and my password is a word, not necessarily a number...and it took great pains to decipher the word into number so i could get my cash......my recollection fo paris airports is that atms are well hidden so that travelers will use the lucrative bank-du-changes......i am about to pass on my french cd's to a couple who will be in paris in june......bon chance......i think i'll do ok with what i know so far......

the sun doesn't shine so bright.....

ok, so the big news at work today will be kentucky's loss to kansas......not that kentucky was ever in the game....they just kinda muscled about and made stupid errors......we turned off the set before the final minutes were over because there seemed no point to delay dinner any longer......i am looking forward to a few days without basketball....and with the extra daylight i should make real progress getting the garden beds ready for spring.....

ok, so...over the weekend i was able to weed this entire wheelbarrow full of wild onions....yeah, well...there are also a few redbud sticks and phlox stalks, but mostly this is organic mass gleened from my personal ecosystem....next up is the initial rose pruning....which must be done with great patience, as dead for roses is not the same for dead in other species....sometimes the deadest looking branch can burst forth.....i must add that this work with duct-tape repaired gardening shoes.....my trusty red rubber shoes have split, and it took several rounds of tape, held firm by a few rubber bands to be able to wear these faithful soles a few last times.....

overload.....

ok, so......i did manage to weed a large bed before my spouse had to leave and i took over waiting for the phone call from our middle child letting us know he is ok.....and so i settled in on the sofa with an afghan and watched.... basketball games ......am so very sorry that purdue couldn't manage the upset of florida....they came so very close.....uk is getting ready to play....and i think i have basketball overload.....may just skip the first half and do something more outside....well....only if the phone call comes....

warming up slowly...

ok, so i am finally starting to warm up after yesterday.....one usually feels a bit toastier after a hot bath, a good night's sleep, and a mug of hazelnut coffee.....and the dinner last evening was pure comfort food.....a variation on a belgian carbonade...this time with pork, and lots of onions, and a bottle of dark beer, and some dried cherries and a bit of tomato paste.....simmered for hours in my copper lidded pot....so very tender and lusciously flavored...shoulda taken a picture, it looked better than some magazine recipes i've seen......leftovers for lunch.....hope this recipe microwaves well.......but i digress from the chill....the weather has turned cold, and the chill persists...there was frost on the grass when i walked out to get the papers....i have had it with this belated winter weather, what with spring upon us.......and the daffodils already in bloom......i could use a bit of warming sunshine right about now......

hot soup.....

ok, so i have spent the last 2 hours of my life at a middle school soccer field...in wind-chill conditions....and soon this mug of leek and spinach soup will have thawed out my stiffened joints...the soup is not what it could have been....i should have taken the time to have added peeled and diced potatoes.....so that it would be thicker.....and a bit of half&half would improve its watery mouth-feel.....but i shan't complain because a mug of hot soup in the hand is worth.....lots right this second.....

more march madness

ok, so i made the mistake of staying up to watch the last of the florida/jackson state game...past midnight....i am sure i saw some of the game, though my spouse did have to wake me up to tell me it was time to go to bed.....clearly, the madness part of march is the staying up past one's bedtime....for the record, i do recall u.k. winning their game....

march madness.....

ok, so i stayed up last night to watch vcu beat up on duke....and i listened intently for this tournament season's secret term.....ally oop......my very first (secret favorite collegiate team- that school that i currently ignore)basketball memory involves the little black and white television set in my grandmother crown's dining room.....seems the only times that my grandparents watched television during meals was when basketball was covered......and in this particular memory a play was made...and the commentator referred to said play as an alley oop.....at the time there was a cartoon series called...alley oop....some sort of prehistoric theme....and i recall asking what this caveman had to do with basketball.....the wikipedia coverage doesn't quite explain the exact nature of this goal-scoring play....and so i(and then we) waited for somebody to call it during the games we watched (instead of grey's anatomy, i might add)...there was a fleeting moment during the duke game when we thought we heard the words....and we looked at each other pensively......but the moment passed......went to bed before eku was blown out...was sad that davidson was eliminated, if for no other reason that because david, one of my favorite people attends that school....so sorry, david.......today's games were a mixed bag.....georgia tech almost beat unlv.....and winthrop did eliminate notre dame....poor charlotte......i will stay up and watch uk's big dance steps....and hope for the best.......my secret team is involved in tourney play this weekend, but since i am ignoring them in hopes of boosting their chances, i'll forget we had this conversation......

second and third place?.....

ok, so i have perused the on-line tabloids while i wait for the oven to heat up...and i am saddened by the also-rans in the photo that includes a. jolie's newly adopted vietnamese toddler.....the entire group was adorable....and it was difficult to understand what was so very wrong with the boys who stood to pax thien's left....the runner-ups in this sort of competition don't get prizes.....i do hope that someone who longs for parenthood will adopt the rest of the sweet boys in this group photo...maybe stage a reunion gathering in 15-20 years just so they can meet angie......the notion did cross my mind...ever so briefly.....at this point i must focus on raising the bird-in-the-hand.......

dodged a bullet....

ok, so....sometime in the recent past a tiny leak sprang in a pipe that happens to reside behind the bed in the downstairs bedroom.....and given that the usual occupant of said bedroom is rarely in residence these days.....we simply don't go in there unless we are looking for something specific......and so it was as a last resort that my spouse entered this room late last evening...trying to locate the musty smell that had met us at the door after work....and....the spritzing leak had saturated the bedclothes, which then dripped onto the carpet, and traversed the carpet to the lowest point......under the television.....the water was 2 inches deep there.....happily, the water's path completely missed any and all paperwork, books, and other valuables.....at this point the conundrum plumbing has been completely overhauled, there are 2 (each) rented dehumidifiers and fans to run til monday.....and the fact that nothing was lost other than our pride is a blessing.....the plumber thinks that the basic and bottom-line plumbing problems (the recirculating hot water from the heat pump) has been solved......and we (cross our fingers) will not have to deal with this ever again (knock on wood)......

has it come to this?

ok, so this from the www..... One of the nation’s leading Southern Baptists has called for a policy that would support medical treatment, if it were to become available, to change the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother’s womb from homosexual to heterosexual. This latest assault on our dignity and existence comes from no less a personage than Rev. R. Albert Mohler, the president of the prominent and influential Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world.

Acknowledging the strides that genetic science is making in identifying and isolating genetic abnormalities, defects and diseases, Mohler embraces this advance in medical science as yet another tool in the war to root out and cleanse sin. The good reverend explains that “Given the consequences of the Fall and the effects of human sin, we should not be surprised that such a causation or link is found. After all, the human genetic structure, along with every other aspect of creation, shows the pernicious effects of the Fall and of God’s judgment.”

pi-day?

ok, so i am late to the reality that today, being 3.14.07 is pi day......and that it is not only einstein's birthday, but also the day that m.i.t. sends out acceptance letters....ok, so all of this is just stuff i have read online in the past 3.14 minutes...but some of it must be true, eh?

10-minute limit.....

ok, so i arrived home early after a torturous training day of back-to-back powerpoint lectures......including my own.....omg.....and the prospect of rain-soaked ground drew me to the place i stopped weeding on sunday......i did, however, limit myself to 10 minutes of pulling onions.....the memory of back and wrist pain still fresh......i then moved on to path-strolling mode.....whereupon i slowly examined each rose for signs of new growth, and checked out the pond liner for signs of......water retention.......the water level had not risen to the patch.....so either there was not enough rain to fill the pond...or there is a tear at the water-level that i couldn't find by a cursory look on this day......ah well......i am going at this very moment to sit on the deck and read a bit......eku has their spring break this week....and i am off their clock......

wheat berries

ok, so i decided it was time to finally cook the wheat berries that i bought when my middle child came home from russia...somewhere along the line we enjoyed a wheat berry salad on the wild oats sald bar....yummmmm..and i foolishly thought that this unrefined grain would cook up in a way similar to bulgur.....just soak in boiling liquid and wait a bit......omg......i ended up microwaving the little buggers for 30 minutes, in 5-6 minute installments until they were soft enough to be chewy but not near tender......the flavor was just fine...i had used part orange juice and olive oil for the liquid....and dressed them up with green onions, celery and thinly sliced baby carrots....i probably ate more than i should have given their general characteristics.....fiber that soaks up fluid and increases in volume.....all this came back to me in the middle of the night when my belly was rumbling.....and i realized that fiber overload might be to blame.....i packed the rest for my lunch.....and i will approach the remainder with caution.....

new camera.....

ok, so i have a new camera, and the following picture is from said camera....and if you can see this picture it means that i figured out how to upload......do not hold your breathe.......

home......

ok, so after 2 days of yard work i opted to see my sore and aging body as unfit for work and literally slept til 10:00 am......unprecedented.....i take this as a sign that i really was unfit to go to work...nobody whose body was agile could have slept quite that late.....i hesitate to use the term sick in this case, i am not sick so much as i am feeling so very old....100 years old......my back/my thighs, my wrists.....i don't remember feeling quite this miserable after cleaning out flowerbeds last year.....speaking of yard work...one could ask how a yard that has yielded so many handfuls of wild onions over the years could still have wild onions that need to be pulled.....i pinpoint my misery to said wild onions....the bending over to grasp them...the yanking motions.....all explain fully my current pain centers.....the moment this blog is complete i will take a nice long and very hot bath, which will soothe and revitalize my aging muscles.....i just know i'll be good-to-go after a bath.....i really do have things i want to get done today now that i am home.....and they won't get done until i feel better........note to self: next time the yard work beckons...take time to stretch......

out-there......

ok, so this from crooks and liars.....It hasn't gotten widespread play yet, but former U.S. Sen. Zell Miller made a little news this week in Macon when he declared that abortion has contributed to the military's manpower shortage, the Social Security crisis, and the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States.

"How could this great land of plenty produce too few people in the last 30 years? Here is the brutal truth that no one dares to mention: We're too few because too many of our babies have been killed," Miller said.

"Over 45 million since Roe v. Wade in 1973. If those 45 million children had lived, today they would be defending our country, they would be filling our jobs, they would be paying into Social Security," the former Georgia governor said. "Still, we watch as 3,700 babies are killed every single day in America. It is unbelievable that a nation under God would allow this."

mm notes: the notion that we would have 45 million bodies available for military service or to man the slaughter houses or the sweat shops or pick cotton making army backpacks had roe-v-wade never happened is absurd...is laughable......especially when one considers some of the demographics of those who can afford the luxury of choice.....and considers the demographics of those who opt to carry an unintended pregnancy to term.....they would be.....public health clients....who likely consume from the list of substances generally considered to have long-lasting effects on the offspring......in terms of intelligence, attention span, and general impulse control......quite a workforce to have on the battlefield, eh?...on the other hand....the folks that i knew in college who opted out of unintended parenthood were basically liberals.....well-educated liberals.... the folks least likely to raise a child to join the military, cut up beef carcasses, or sew anything........no.....those missing folks miller spoke of are more likely to be the ones who would have voted out the damned republicans in 2004.....yeah......45 million liberals ......if any body whould regret roe v wade it should be the blue states.....not the red......because zell miller's cronies wouldn't have any political voice if those 45 million folks had voted

more on my precious missing hour.....

ok, so i am in mourning for my missing hour...it must have been the hour of transition for my sunday morning....the pleasant time when i sipped coffee, read the papers at a leisurely pace.....checked up on internet doings..maybe out a few thoughts on the ole blog.....but not this shortened morning.....no...i automatically turned off my usual 6:30 am alarm....assuming that i would awaken naturally at about 7 or 7:30 at the least....and was shocked to see when i finally gained my senses that it was nearly 8:30.....on a morning when i had promised to get cayle to church my 9 to practice a song with the choir director......barely enough time for coffee and the headlines...let alone any semblance of leisure......about the time i finally catch up with my lost time...it will be time to set the clocks back...this much i understand about the give and take of the precious hour.....

just got back.....

ok, so we just got back from a belated/joint february birthday .....i suppose it is never too late to celebrate one's birthday with other folks born the same week, though not the same year.....and there was a mad rush to change over all thr clocks...and now that i have just seen my hour spring ahead i am incredibly tired.....and a bit older......

progress....

ok, so i went on outside around 10 to begin my spring chores.....and was able to accomplish the following before the rain started in earnest.....1) locate first my new gardening gloves, then an old pair when it dawned on me that i didn't want to use the new gloves to 2) dredge out the muck from the pond 3)locate the hole in the pond liner 4) locate the new wheelbarrow (hidden in miss lulu's cabin rather than in the garage where i first looked 5) cleaned out the beds to the right of the cabin door.....this alone is precedent-setting....as i traditionally drag the wheelbarrow from beside the garage....and start in counter-clockwise from the garage around the beds til i get back to where i began.....starting somewhere else is too small to be called freeing, but it was a pleasant change nevertheless.....alas, i was not able to locate a patching kit.....one would think that such things are on hand, as pondliners are made of roughly the same material as bike tubes......if my spouse doesn't have the necessary patch and glue i will stop at lowe's on my way to pick up my daughter at the animal shelter.....maybe the rain will stop and i can at least put the weed-and-feed on the wet lawn......

no shame.....

ok,so the republican right has no shame.....as evidenced by this from yesterday's boston globe.....Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.

"The honest answer is yes," Gingrich, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson to be aired Friday, according to a transcript provided to The Associated Press. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards."

mm note: so let me get this straight...newt is thinking of running for rpesident, and is outing his own extramaritals as part of his campaign strategy.....huh?

sometimes a good laugh is what one needs most

ok, so i like to look in the single-m mm and this link was on her site recently.......dylan hears a who......the cat in the hat as bob himself would ahve sung it...just precious.....

cinq heurs

ok, so i listened to five hours of french on cd during my up-and-back trip to cincinnati.....had a marvelous visit with my friend jane, as always, and was savvy enough to stop with the traditional champagne well before the drive home......for the record...the sound of the woman counting in french while the semis are crowding the car is not especially conducive to learning.......

on y va.....

ok, so on this day the mm and her french cd's travel to cincinnati to see mommy's-friend-jane...i anticipate a leisurely lunch, then back to d-ville for supper......thankfully the weather is cooperative.......

the sound and the fury.....

ok, so my rose trellis has gone faulkner on me over the past few weeks....the slats on the south-side have basically fallen off....to the point that i am not sure that i can put them back in place....while the north-side slats are comepltely intact and original as the day my daddy put them there.....(i'd say my meandaddy, but the man didn't have a mean bone in his body....)...and so what am i to do.....continue with the decay, as visible from the road....no- i cannot say that the sight of disarray adds to our aura...mostly, it just makes one of us/all of us look lazy and no account......so what do i do?.....should i remove the slats on the south, and leave the slats on the north?.....should I measure and attempt to place new slats on the south?......i cannot say.....what i can say is that the daffodils are blooming on the banks that face the creek....and numerous croci.....and snowdrops...and the tulips have started to pop out of the ground.....and some of the roses have new growth......at the very least i need to feed the roses on saturday, and apply weed and feed to the green-ness that passes for our lawn......

the other mm....

ok, so i happen to enjoy reading the blog of the single-m...mm....she seems to live in maine...and the following linked -story was on her newest post......Hannah Levinson, left, Megan Reback, center, and Elan Stahl each received one-day suspensions from John Jay High School for saying the word "vagina" during a reading of "The Vagina Monologues" at an open mic session at the school last week.

has it come to this, gentle readers, that our nation's students cannot quote the names of body parts that are in the very same anatomy texts they will study in college?....isn't freshman year a bit late to discover that there is a descriptive word beyond...privates?........omg

greasy great-grandaddys

ok, so this from the nytimes......LEWISTON, Maine (AP) -- All of that Florida sun must be getting to Maine snowbird Roland Fortin. The 91-year-old has laid down a challenge to box fitness guru Jack LaLanne, who's 92. Fortin, former ''cut man'' for retired boxing champ Joey Gamache, said the idea for the four-round bout was hatched at the Tropical Gym in Pompano Beach, where Fortin works out during the winter in Florida.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale ran the challenge in a half-page ad that gym owner Troy Eckonen took out for Super Bowl Sunday. The purpose, he said, was to let seniors know it's not too late to get in great shape like Fortin.

''Florida is like the waiting room to the casket,'' Ecknonen said.

jaw teeth.....

ok, so the air pressure has shifted, and my clogged sinuses have responded with excrutiating pain.....between my eyes and at the roots of my jaw teeth...omg....maybe i will feel better after a shower.....have to give a test after work....so must actually go to work......would rather stay home and feel sorry for myself......

ted leo

ok, so salon.com has an arcade fire download as well as ted leo and his pharmacists...bottle of buckie......curious song but engaging sound......

soapbox.....

ok, so i got up on my soapbox today...for mere moments...but long enough to make my point.....i had a client who spoke no english, and her 5th grader aged brother had come along to interpret.....this scenario was already charged, as the mother-to-be was of the age of one of my children.....i notice this detail without fail......the interpreter did just fine...but after she left one of my colleagues made a tired comment about why these people cannot learn english.....i could not help but to inquire how many languages the complainer spoke....and then to explain that i have been trying for 30 years to learn that elusive second language....the exchange lasted just moments...but at this particular point in my life....listening to language cd's and writing out sentences and practicing my accent...i have no patience for those who think it must be easy......

the debate within

ok, so i am close enough to my trip to start planning wardrobe options.....and at the heart of the internal debate are two vital questions: which shoes and which coat?......i have ruled out running-type shoes because they look so very touristy....but that doesn't answer my question.....and at some point i have to choose between an orange coat with a belt, and a black quilted snapup number.....everything else falls into place once the initial decisions have been reached.....sounds shallow, unless you have ever been to paris with nothing to wear.......

the queen

ok, so i drove up to lexington to see the queen...finally, with my mom......i'd rather have seen pan's labrynth...but there was no way i could have gotten anybody to go with me to that.....and since she jumped at the chance to see helen mirren......it ended up being a good idea.....and a good film....i truly believed we were all eavesdropping in scotland on her 40,000 acre estate.....and at buckingham....cathartically it was good to wipe a few more tears away for diana......a woman that i never had to live with......this point was so subtley made.....that there were two dianas...the public and the private one....and i cannot blame the poor dear for not handling her spouse's infidelity gracefully...oh yeah... the fellow who played prince phillip turns out to be the same guy who plays farmer in babe......who knew he could be such a cold sonofagun?...ah well.....so good to finally see this film and to see helen mirren's performance..........and to sigh in relief that this woman was neither my mother nor my mother-in-law.....

so very cold.....

ok, so the electric bill came on friday.....the largest single utility bill ever received in this household.....impressive when one considers that this house is kept at a toasty 65 degrees.....the electric company people wisely included stats along with the monetary request....seems that the average temperature was 20 degrees colder this year than last.....but still.....these chumps must surely have raised their rates to achieve such a dramatic increase in the final tally......but we are managing to stay warm in our own ways.....i have taken a cue from my spouse and am wearing a hat along with my down vest as i sip coffee and type away......and i check to make sure that there are no open doors or windows......i have arrived home to find the storm door actually open.....seems our youngest was unaware that it doesn't close itself.....i can only imagine what sort of bill arrived at the large older homes on lexington or maple avenues.....in comparison, we are fully insulated and have newish windows......go figure.......i do draw the line at wearing mittens in my own home.....things are not so dire that we cnanot pay the bill.....at work last week a workmmate got a call from her spouse about their electric bill which was double the one we got..turns out they had taken to smoking out the back door...and when one adds up how many times one opens the back door to smoke after work and into the night, and then before work....it could easily add up to significant heat loss....not even counting the cost of the cigarettes...i suppose i add that last detail because it is usually smokers who ask me how i can afford to travel...as if they had no clue that their habits adds up to a fairly sizable vacation ..and in their income bracket and by the tears in her eyes it was clear that sacrifice was necessary for them to pay-up......yikes....

40 minutes

ok, so....i recieved a new flight itinerary in the mail today.....listing our arrival as 40 minutes earlier than expected...wow...this is such huge news.....we will be able to get into town in time for lunch at musee d'orsay...my favorite welcome to paris lunch spot......i am so happy......i hardly notice the spitting snow

bonne anniversaire......

ok, so.....i take great risks putting out un peux de francais sur l'internet......ah well......does a female's birthday warrant the bonne.....or should it be bon regardless of the gender of she who has 20 years?......

those crazy christians

ok,so this from the w.post.....Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson and other conservative Christian leaders are calling for the National Association of Evangelicals to silence or fire an official who has urged evangelicals to take global warming seriously.

In a letter this week to the board of the NAE, which claims 30 million members, Dobson and his two dozen co-signers said the Rev. Richard Cizik, the NAE's vice president for government relations, has waged a "relentless campaign" that is "dividing and demoralizing" evangelicals.

Cizik has been a leader in efforts to broaden evangelicals' political agenda beyond abortion and same-sex marriage. He says Christians have a biblical imperative to protect the environment, which he calls "creation care."

"I speak with a voice that is authentically evangelical on all the issues, from religious freedom around the world, to compassion for the poor, ending oppression in Darfur -- and yes, creation care is one of those issues," Cizik said yesterday.

the library.....

ok, so....i finished early in anderson, and did not have to go back to mercer....and so i went on home to eat leftovers rather than stopping anywhere...a triumph of fiscal will......and then walked on the treadmill, and then....opted to go on into town rather than take a nap before picking my child up at soccer.....and i ended up at the library...where i sat in the reading room ......going through the march collection of...magazines.....i have in my past been a magazine junkie, especially in the years when my children had to sell magazines as school fundraising schemes..... now i get only 1 single magazine a week...the new yorker....and it takes me about a week to get through it....but i digress from the library collection.....i thumbed my way through town and country, oprah, people, bon appetit, martha stewart, and a gardening magazine i'd never heard of.....and still had time to drive out to big lots to look for easter basket stuff before 5.....good thing i don't get any or all of those magazine anymore....lots of wasted paper for a 10 minute look-see.....i did happen to peruse the shelves looking for something to read....i could be reading my bookclub book, but my spouse is working through...that is my excuse...en francais.....je ne dois pas lire le livre.....i am ready to move on to disc 4......not because i am ready, but because i am tired of hearing this woman count to 100......

windy.......

ok, so we missed the brunt of the storms that swung south of here.....but the wind is still a player this morning.....i am driving to anderson county acorss basically flat terrain....and wind does become trecherous across such stretches of highway.....not looking forward to the drive there or back......would rather fastforward to maybe a nap this afternoon....i get off work at 12 noon....and might could squeeze in some shut-eye before i pick up the youngest at soccer practice...or i could exercise......decisions, decisions.....

re-up

ok, so my new new yorker came today....the 1st of the re-upped subscription...and it appears that the only issue i missed in the transition was the one that came out the week of my birthday...or 2 weeks of my birthday....the one with the traditional guy in edwardian garb and with a butterfly somewhere on the page.......quelle domage.....

secret fascinations....

ok, so.....today at salon.com....there was a lack of links....i had to remember that i liked 3hive.com.......but in the space that used to house links....was a plethora of classic literature excerpts......the first i listened to was sylvia plath reading from the bell jar.......omg.....this is a volume of prose that i have devoured cover to cover over the years......kind of like a secret favorite band...i was once asked about my secret favorite band...but i couldn't think fast enough to make up a secret so personal.....but sylvia......oh my.....to hear her read from her own horror was moving......details about what she remembered after her electric shock therapy.....yeah, i'd have prefered memories about her boyfriend she visited in the tb hospital...or the internship with the fashion magazine.....but this part was too painful to follow.....especially the part about her mother growing smaller and smaller.....and then larger and larger.........poor, poor sylvia.....

paris shopping......

ok, so today i came across this article on shopping in paris with a bit of horror......what if i have things scheduled too tight to allow for browsing in gorcery stores, or stationary stores...or even gift shops.......i do recall that there is a large poster shop on rue st-andres-des-arts......which always seemed to be open late, as i recall......there are goods that i love to bring back, if only for my own enjoyment...the tarragon mustard from provence...lavender honey.....the little herbed goat cheeses in a jar preserved in olive oil, an especially tasty smoked salmon pate......with our global groceries it is possible to procure some of these niceties in lexington...but there is nothing so marvelous as toting them home and doling them out as one sees fit.....the same thing goes for prints and posters and the like....i like to buy ahead for gifts.....my original intent was to purchase livres en francais for certain of my favorite folks....but at least one may spend the summer in paris.....and he may not want to be burdened with french literature selected by his mm......ah well.......for those not going to france any time soon, i would love to seek out favorite items only available in france.......