down but not out

ok,so.....our p.c. flashed a major blue error screen this morning.....rather than booting up as usual......couldn't locate boot disk......no blogs until it is ack from repair limbo....

summer

ok, so......aside from a wedding in upstate new york, i appear to have no summer plans other than that of showing up at work.....i am going to st louis for a diabetes conference, but that is work.....and not my idea of a prime vacation locale.....most of my travel schemes involve off-season jaunts.....times when i suspect that the destinations will be less crowded.......granted, paris on spring break was far from idyllic in terms of long lines and hordes of bodies milling about......but paris in december should be decidedly less teeming with visitors......if i have a potential trip lined up for december, i can manage to make it through a summer of staying home....

biathalon.....

ok, so i rode on the back of the tandem for 28 miles......on a lovely ride that included family and friends......out almost to shakertown, then doubling back to h-burg to eat mexican....then bellow mills road to home.......and the mental image that sustained me on that last leg of the journey was of jumping off our dock into the lake.....which i did in my clothing-already soaked with sweat......no use chanmging clothes only to get wet again.......pontooners from yesterday had left one of those foam noodles behind...caught under a branch across the creek.....i managed to swim over to retrieve it.......with my last ounce of strength before i dragged my sorry body up to the whirlpool bathtub......maybe later on if i catch a second wind i'll walk around the circle, and call it my triathalon day.......right about now i do believe i am going to rest a bit.......

ulysses (2)

ok, so......while my close kin went hiking...i walked 2 miles ont eh treadmill, then settled down by the waterfall to read ulysses....i am to the part where leopold bloom eats a cheese sandwich with a glass of red wine in a pub.....wikipedia claims that the cheese was gorgonzola...but the reference to the variety of cheese was so very vague......someone who can infer with such conviction clearly has nothing better to do......i am nearing the 200 page mark.......not even a quarter of the way through......i very much appreciate reading companion pieces....like wikipedia...that give overviews as to wtf is happening so that i can see more of what i am supposed to see as bloom makes his way through june 16 in dublin......might be a reasonable goal.....to complete this book by bloomsday.......

unlikely......

ok, so the collective we got into a friendly debate over sunday night pizza over the probability of there being another c-dub family somewhere.......given that google searches do not show any signs of such a family......one child surmised that there could be another family with the same hyphenated surname...but that they are luddites and not on the grid......yeah, well...hyphenated luddites not on the grid sounds pretty unlikely.......but then...there is a professor at the middle child's college that has a name quite similar to mine.....and there is an eve-so-slight chance that she will leave her spouse and marry inot the last name of the hyphen.......it could happen....wouldn't want someone's marriage to go bad just to set up the scene, though.......there were alternative debates about even more improbabilities....like a kentuckian who moves to the benelux countries to sell cars.......i believe it has actually happened......maybe a gay couple currently in the car business who seek a more lifestyle-embracing community in amsterdam........it sounds possible to me.......

page 93

ok, so i am to page 93 of ulysses....and i can honestly recount the cliff note-version of what has happened this far......happily, pages 65-93 were much more interesting than what happened earlier......the scene where leopold bloom makes breakfast-in-bed for his wife molly was intimate and sweet........and so detailed as to be palpable..... a concrete memory for joyce...such things cannot be made up

sweet

ok, so....all three of my children are frolicking in the creek, my spouse is mowing the front yard listening to npr on his headphones..the roses and boxwood and lavender and honeysuckle scents are wafting as one.....and i almost have supper ready to bring out to the deck......as kurt v. would quip...if this isn't sweet, i don't know what is......

saturday.....

ok, so...i am 7 minutes from my goal of 'jammies til noon'.....at which point i really do intend to shower and get dressed...so far i have walked 2 miles on the treadmill, made latkes and omelets for those who are not even out of bed yet.....sat by my pond, strolled through my flowers sipping coffee......and read the newspaper...the actual paper copy.......what a great start to three days off......

t.g.i.f.(2)

ok, so i have used this headline before....the computer tried to fill in the blank automatically as i typed......but the sentiment is genuine and fresh.....the week has been harried and i so look forward to a bit of down time......or at least.....a nice lie-in tomorrow morning.....maybe lounge in the pajamas til noon......i have gardening projects that could be initiated: expanding the side-yard bed up-the-hill....and use the grass to fill in dead-spots in the lawn...can't really start that until the yard gets mowed....a chore not in my job description.....i am sad to admit that i cannot turn on the mower......not that i haven't tried...but those pull-cord starts are ever-so tricksy......might just have to read a few more tedious pages of ulyssess and hope for simpler prose to come....

right ring finger......

ok, so i accidentally smacked my right ring finger earlier today...causing it to swell.....and when i decided that it was prudent to take off my gold signet ring....the one i have worn for 30 years since my college friend/grad school roommate/maidofhonor gave it to me on my 21st birthday....and i could not get it over the swelling...and my finger was starting to turn blue....and the nurse i know best in my thursday county called her brotherinlaw and asked him to come by with wirecutters......relief....but now i have a plastic bag with a 30 year old signet ring to be fixed.....and valid qualms about my wedding band......which feels a bit looser, but an accident could render it as un-removable......

back to work....

ok, so.....having been off for 5 days......i suppose it is time to go back to work.......not much to stay home for today.....my boy takes an on-line exam this morning til noon, then has a doctor's appointment til its time to pick up the youngest and bring her home.....by the time i get home 5-ish......all that will be over and i can sit in my garden and relax.....i do have a graduation gift to deliver...running out of time with it, actually.....maybe while we are in town friday afternoon getting eyes checked and glasses ordered.....

ulysses

ok, so i started to read ulysses, on this my sick day off....back strain from 3 days of driving and lifting.....and my first session with this classic novel lasted a full....fifteen minutes.....i got through the part where the guy from a portrait of the artist as a young man is watching his friend shave.....in some locale that included a living space in a tower accessible by a ladder.....and the portrait guy is feeling guilty about his mother's death......it took pages and pages to get that bit of background across.....and i only knew about portrait guy because i listened to a lecture on joyce this morning......a summer of ulysses could be long and arduous.....

aromatherapy

ok, so......back home again.....and even at this hour have made the circuit to see my garden.....the scent of moist boxwood in the early morning is therapeutic for the fatigue and general physical pain that comes from extra-long car trips.....scents are curiously tied to locales and to memories......standing outside of forbes college waiting/attending my stickerless vehicle......the smell of warm pine soothed and amused me...the scent was more intense because of the workmen feverishly raking up needles in anticipation of alumni coming by for graduation.....the luxury of having a workcrew crosses my mind from time to time, but i can not imagine trusting my little piece of paradise to anybody else.......back at my brother-in-law's house the roses were breathtaking.....at supper on monday night there was an impromptu smelling of the numerous aroma possibilities for roses....at the table were no fewer than 12 varities....each with a notable variation on the scent we call rose: rose to the peach or cherry, rose to the lemon or vanilla..rose to the apple...rose aromas that lingers with peppery notes....a rose that smells like oriental tea.....that one, mrs. b.r. cant...is one of the original tea roses...named after their actual scents....the roses now called tea-roses have little in common with real teas....there are light scents, heavy scents.....back home i was struck by the variety of scents with my own roses.....i do have the peppery, the lemon, the sweet, the apple......and roses that smell lovely without identifiable influences......i suppose these latter roses simply smell of home.....and while i live to travel elsewhere, at the end of the day i am so very happy to be home again....

almost heaven

ok,so.....my broherinlaw's garden with it's 1000- plus roses is twenty percent in bloom....wow.....driving to princeton and back today-hopefully more will blloom while i am traveling

the first day of my vacation.....

ok, so technically i am on vacation.....and will not return to work until wednesday...or maybe thursday if i am feeling poorly after my trip......i can feel something coming on......haven't narrowed down the symptoms just yet...but then i do have time for this illness to...gel.....but since today is glorious....i spent as much of it outside as possible......i cut down the trash greenery that block the view of the lake from my new terrace.....wow.....this is square-footage that i am un-used to seeing....and there are many opportunities now that the underbrush is gone.......i also tilled and planted my vegetable garden...such as it is...behind the hedge.....i am thrilled to glean a few squash, tomatoes, green beans, and lettuces from this area....curiously, there are three cosmos plants that came up from last year's seeds......which didn't germinate at all last year...go figure......i planted numerous nasteriums....a plant that promises to be easy grow....which seems to imply easy for anybody but me................the rambler rose that has grown to enormous proportions behind the hedge is in bloom, and the aroma is intoxicating.......no idea what it is called.......tuesday night i plan to get out the rose bible and re-identify plants.......the deal is....sometime after we adopted our third child.....she helpfully gathered up all the tags from most of the roses....and presented them to me much as a cat presents a dead mouse......and i was so stunned that i made no attempt to put any of those tags back.....and so....the older roses i know well, and the newer roses i know...but those midling roses are a complete mystery.......lovely, but without names......we are leaving for cincinnati around 5.......and tomorrow i will venture out alone to d.c....to see the mother lode of rose gardens at the home of my bother-in-law nick...he has acres and acres of 'rooms' in the gertrude jeckyl style....and 2 substantial ponds.......and boxwood taller than most humans......it is one of my favorite places on earth, besides my own house...and i am thrilled at the opportunity to visit 'in season'......catch y'all tuesday night......

bike rack 101

ok, so the lion's share of my morning has been spent in tutorial...bike rack tutorial.....at some point on monday i will be called upon to set up the rack on the back of my car to transport a bike from new jersey......while i have been around bikes for all these years...there has been no knowledge transferred by osmosis.....yikes!.......my spouse assures me that i can manage to do this, especially if i break out the directions.......

ok, so the rose in the foreground is belladonna, an 18th century old-fashioned rose from my grandfather's house in cleveland ; the rose in the background is rosa mundi, a rose from the 15th century

ok, so the mm had to buy gas today...gosh darn, but the prices have gone up........

book club.....

ok, so...i spent weeks grooming my yard for my very best friends to stand on my deck and drink wine and move no further........i suppose that this is how book clubs go......but i thought that the discussion would extend beyond my introduction....about growing up in mt gilead, ohio or even beyond the biblical meaning of gilead or mizpah.....or to fathers and sons ..no such luck....

not cut out for this.....

ok, so it would seem that the parenting of daughters does not come naturally to me......there is much more i could add to this sentiment, but i will keep the rest of the sorry and sorted details to myself.....

ok, so this from the worldwideweb...isn't he sweet?

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- There's a new chirp in the forest but it may be choked by the slashing and burning of trees by coca farmers, researchers said.

The Gorgeted Puffleg, a rare hummingbird that boasts a plumage of violet blue and iridescent green on its throat, has been discovered living in the cloud forests of southwestern Colombia, researchers announced.

The species belongs to the Puffleg genus, which appear to have "little cotton balls above their legs," said Luis Mazariegos-Hurtado, who has spent 30 years documenting hummingbirds and founded the Colombian Hummingbird Conservancy.

The species -- known by its scientific name Eriocnemis isabellae -- was confirmed by two of the world's leading specialists on the puffleg, Karl L. Schuchmann, curator of ornithology at Zoological Research Museum A. Koenig in Germany, and F. Gary Stiles of the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales at Colombia's Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

"The description of the species has been published in Ornitologica Neotropical, a well respected peer-reviewed journal," said Greg Butcher, Director of Bird Conservation for the Washington-based National Audubon Society. "The description of the bird in that journal leaves no doubt that it is a very distinctive species, and will be accepted as such by the ornithological community."

Investigators caught their first glimpse of the bird while surveying a mountain ridge in the Cauca province in 2005. Braving the zone's leftist rebels and drug traffickers, they returned to confirm the sighting, researchers said Sunday.

the passing of a politician

ok, so this from salon.com about the passing of jerry (moral majority?) falwell.....

One never wants to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Jerry Falwell, how can one not? Falwell will always be remembered for his "700 Club" comment in the wake of Sept. 11: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" Even though Falwell later apologized, the damage had been done: A sacred moment had been used for profane purpose.

And that, really, is Falwell's legacy. To the religious life of the United States he made no significant contribution. But to the political life of the country, he made one: He founded the Moral Majority. In so doing, Falwell managed to take something holy -- one does not have to be a Christian to admire the life and teachings of Jesus Christ -- and turned it into something partisan and divisive. Falwell, the quintessential conservative Christian, was always more conservative than Christian. To the extent that history will remember him, it will be as a politician, not as a preacher.

and i say amen to that

hair falling out......

ok, so this morning a client a bit older than me grasped her rather long grey hair, pulled out a startling hank.....and said....'should i be worried about this?...'.....omg....when someone is not taking chemo their hair should not be falling out to quite that extent.....i mentioned that she might want to get her thyroid checked...to which she replied that she is taking iodine supplements because her husband heard they would help her lose weight...omg.....if there is a mineral that americans get plenty of it is iodine....because it is added to table salt.....and is naturally in tuna (and all sea-fish) as well as foods grown near the sea (from rain that comes from moisture lifted off of the oceans)......taking extra iodine can actually cause your thyroid to produce less rather than more of thyroid hormones....omg.....the poor woman wasn't eating near enough of vitamins a,c, or the minerals calcium and iron...and she chose to supplement with iodine.....omg.......i truly hope that she goes to the doctor and mentions the supplements....i kinda doubt that she would stop taking them on my rec.......

a hollowed-out turnip....

ok, so sometime between 5:30 am when my spouse leaves for his run in town.....and 6:30 am when i must get up to make coffee.....i dreamed that i was in somesort of lotr land, and i found utility/amusement by hollowing out turnips to make baskets to hold berries......and as i was making these baskets there was a guitar solo in the background....the long one at the end of stairway to heaven...except that 2 guys were playing it together-plugged into the same amp...which means it wouldn't exactly be a solo.....and there was no actual action in this dream snippet, save for the hollowing out of turnips.....wouldn't freud have a good time with this dream?......

quicktime taking over......

ok, so.....i made time after work and before going out to water the garden and/or do yardwork....to see what fabulous downloads are available for me to embrace and adore....and at my favorite sites....quicktime played these songs...but would not let me download......wtf?.....what happened to winamp, which always asks politely if i want this file opened or saved...to desktop.....i couldn't quite recall how one changes a media default....and so 20-30 minutes later i was changing the defaults on every conceivable media-type......i have no clue how quicktime infiltrated my little world here on the lake......could have been someone who lives here....all it would take on a myspace popup would be the question- do you want quicktime to be your favorite media program.....and a yes could have done all this......let's hope that i can remember the magic words the next time that quicktime takes over...for the record, david byrne of the talking heads has a nice piece out......

and the ref didn't even call it.....

ok, so....the countdown continues.....i actually got out the picnic silver and polished all 14 mismatched place settings....i think this silver plate collection came from my mother's side of the family.....the knives match the forks, but there are 2 styles of spoons, neither match anything else......but when buffed and folded in a cloth napkin they seem adequately festive......i also hauled out( of my mother's garage) an antique copper container suitable to hold ice....and beer and wine.....the front has been cleaned off...and i did labor quite awhile trying to bring the copper through the grime on the back...with vinegar and salt....and elbow grease....will continue that tomorrow.....in the midst of all thus my youngest child arrived home from a tournament game in lexington....they won but she didn't play....from my lengthy experience with team sports, the ref never calls it.......and if he does happen to notice, the call is against your team......in the real world, the ref never calls it.....people who do next to nothing seem to continue in their merry paths of under-utilization with no regrets nor ramifications...and that is the way things are......i came close to telling the youngest child that the ref never calls it right.....but this is a lesson she must learn on her own......

homestretch

ok, so.........with bookclub looming on thursday......my yard and garden projects are in the homestretch......the porch has been painted....though i did not paint the steps.....cannot decide whether to let the existing paint completely flake off to scrape them and paint as if the rain will not cause the same problem again.....i also painted the porch furniture.....mulched the remaining beds.....and weeded a bit....i have not yet gone around and picked up the remains of several weeding attempts....that is on my yet-to-do list.....but that list is getting smaller and smaller.....at some point i will declare this garden finished....and hang up my soiled gloves......and then move on to the food prep part of this soiree......aside from grilling pork chops and salmon.....the remaining memu is yet a mystery.....best get moving on that part, eh?

a sweet bit of immigration trivia....

ok, so this from the www....... Here they call him O'Bama.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Democratic candidate for president, is the talk of this village because recently unearthed records indicate that he is a son of Moneygall.
"I've got pieces of everybody in me," Obama has acknowledged. (Orlin Wagner - AP)
Stephen Neill, a local Anglican rector, said church documents he has found, along with census, immigration and other records tracked down by U.S. genealogists, appear to show that Obama's great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmuth Kearney, was reared in Moneygall, then left for America in 1850, when he was 19.

this bit of immigration trivia thrills me to my very soul......as there was a time when such things would have been left unsaid......

road trip

ok, so...during church it occurred to me that i could go to washington dc on sunday from cincinnati as easily as i can from d-ville...my spouse and daughter are going to cincy on saturday night to be johnny-on-the-spot for a triatholon in sunday morning just down the hill from my sister-in-law's house.....i figure that i'd rather be with them all on saturday night for dinner than home alone.....and so my trip will be as follows...saturday...d-ville to cincy; sunday cincy to washington...monday...washington to princeton and back....tuesday washington to d-ville.......at this point i have an entire lecture series on the english novel for my driving entertainment, and hope to receive in the mail slaughterhouse-five and the great gatsby on cd by saturday midday..........interesting vocal performances are the best part of a long trip, by the way...whether sung or spoken.....and at some point i need to prepare for our arrival home, as we will be celebrating my spouse's birthday on tuesday.....he will be performing the parental role at the soccer banquet on monday while i am gone rather than enjoying his birthday.......

a shout out

ok, so this is a shout out to all my favorite people who happen to also be mothers....you know who you are.......have a great day.....

the black slip...

ok, so the past several sunday mornings have followed the same pattern...i choose something to wear to church, and then spend fruitless snatches of time searching for an elusive black slip....no idea where i could have lost this slip....cannot recall when last i wore it....go figure.....seems the only way i will find the conundrum garment will be to buy another....it will certainly show up then....

that pesky porch.....

ok, so after buying mulch and switching to the car, i ran by ace hardware to buy floor paint, then headed back to h-burg for the rest of the first game.....the score was 3-0 bate when i arrived, but quickly became 3-2.....at one point it appeared that lincoln middle would score again....but time ran out.....this win necessitated a 60 minute break before my daughter had to be back for the next tournament game.....luckily subway opens early.....and my daughter was ok with being dropped off early...because i drove back home and painted 3/4 of the porch....the clear and hot day was too perfect a painting day to pass up.......i changed back into my soccer mom clothing and drove back to h-burg yet again to watch the rest of what was to be their last game.....ah well....they do have another tournament in lexington this week........the afternoon was spent taking wheelbarrows full of mulch around back and down the steps to mulch the area around the pond and by the boxwoods......this is an area that hasn't been mulched much-given its relative inaccessibility.....it took about 10 loads to do the job justice.......at the time i decided that i had had enough physical labor for a single day, i had returned to the front beds....i will start in mulching this afternoon in the corner where the boxwoods head down the hill.....the daylilies have filled in so much of the spaces that there isn't much to mulch until one gets to the bed in front of the hedge....i should have plenty of mulch to do this...and hopefully some left over for when the hydrangea i ordered shows up......of course, i must finish painting the porch at some point today......and weed the vegetable garden behind the hedge- such as it is filled in with prairie primrose and lambs ear......maybe i can declare my gardening chores done this evening......and simply come home from work tomorrow to.....clean the house before book club.....i suppose that there is always some chore that needs to be done......and that we working mothers must make time to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labors.......

mulch

ok, so....we left the house before 8 am...in the truck so that i could buy the final 2 scoops of mulch after dropping my daughter off at her soccer tournament.....my plan was to get the mulch, then drive the truck home and switch out vehicles so that the remaining errands of the day could be in the more comfortable car.....i was at the nursery when it opened, and received the first 2 scoops of the day.....so far nothing out of the ordinary from any other mulch purchase this or any other season.....i got out of the truck when the front-loader vehicle pulled away, to sweep the mulch from the edges of the truck bed inside....and sweep up any that had fallen to the ground....and as i was putting on my seatbelt, i was startled to see that one of the hispanic men, gathering as in some sort of work crew by the barn, had jogged over to my truck and was gently evening out the load .......first with a rake, and then lovingly and gently with his hands.....this caught me off guard.....the woman who filled my order never touched the actual earthy product....but this man clearly found pleasure in making sure that the job was done well and that all the mulch made it;s way to my flower beds........he seemed the sort of person i would want taking care of my garden should i cease to be able to do the job myself......i suppose that there are those who see flowers as a spring necessity, and when the job is done, they move on to something else....and then there are those who find such connection to the ground that they use any excuse to touch it, to luxuriate in it.....to smell its rich complexity......but enough of all this...i have to get back to h-burg for a soccer game......

the table

ok, so my table-top mosaic project is done.....and the table positioned on the back deck in the exact spot where i like to sit and read the paper and watch for birds......when i say positioned on the deck, what i really mean is lugged single-handedly from the front porh around the side and up the steps......which was no easy feat for one person.....the table sat for quite a while on the side deck.....waiting for someone to come home to help....but i finally decided that if i were alone here eventually i'd have to do these things myself, and so i muscled it up the final steps by holding it up over my head.......the table had been a disappointment to me at first, because it seemed dull and dusty...but i glanced upon a bottle of linseed oil in the basement...and a little dab rubbed into each tile has made all the difference in terms of color and contrast.....wow!....martha would be proud....

gently remind me of this blog in a few years.....

ok, so...i spent the bulk of my almost-day-off in lexington...taking my mother shopping and to lunch......and i had an epiphany somewhere between here and there and back......that i resolve not grow up to be just like my mother.....i had very little to say or do in this outing......a nod here and there was all that was expected...for the following talking points 1) the d-ville gardening club is against all species of honeysuckle 2) she hates the holly bushes in her front planting space 3) she wishes that the canada geese would just go back to canada 4) we should take down the dead tree just in back of our deck 5) whoever owns the empty warehouse just outside of burgin should tear it down 6)i should move her empty fish pond to the back, drill holes in it and plant flowers 7) they should put a red lobster in danville 8) i should not bother to come up tomorrow to mulch and weed her flower beds because she is paying somebody's children to do it 8) nobody should eat in o'charley's because it is too noisy 9) uncle ronald went to aunt dorothy's funeral but not to dad's funeral (aunt naomi went to neither) 10)maybe my middle child needs summer suits for his internship...i should start looking for these 11) i should consider a vaccine against shingles 12) there must have been another point, but at that point i was a bit blurry-eyed.......i did come home and scrub down the porch, woodwork and all so that i can paint it over the weekend......and i planted over a dozen black-eyed susan plants from a workmate whose home must be the b/e/susan epicenter of mercer county.......tomorrow is a tournment soccer game in mercer county...i hope to buy mulch and groceries sometime in the morning hours.....and paint in the afternoon......maybe on sunday i will rest up....:)

no mention of the piece being played.....

ok, so i was amused to read about the fight that broke out monday night between symphony patrons in the balcony of the boston pops......the conductor did look up to see what was all the fuss, but kept the orchestra playing......none of the news outlets mentioned just what the band kept playing.....cannot imagine just which piece could spark such a reaction, though

a single hour....

ok, so tomorrow i work for a single hour.....given that i worked monday evening....and i hope to accomplish a lot in that single hour...then go on to mail a birthday gift to my only sibling, try to vote absentee, take my mother out to lunch for her birthday, buy wine for book club, and start figuring out how to get the porch painted....these figuring out tasks involved going through all paint cans in the garage to see if there is actual paint on hand.....and then determining if it will rain or not....floor paint doesn;t do well in moist weather......theoretically, if a truly ideal day came up...say 85 degrees no humidity- i could/should call in sick to get this job done in one single flurry of painting......this evening i was able to plant most of my containers on the deck....and water the recent installations...for the record.....ginny is blooming, as is shailor's pink provence, snowbush, stanwell perpetual, my grandmother's pink rose that is maybe called belladonna.......the garden will be lovely for the next few weeks...life is good......

soccer season running out.....

ok, so.....soccer is a game that i would not be on my radar were it not for a child who could possibly come onto the field to play......and those opportunities will run out next week......with a tournament in lexington that is scheduled to conflict with those of us who work.......and so the game today and the game(s) saturday may be the last i'll see for the season.....and i will admit that i kinda hope that they lose in the first round saturday so that i can buy my last load of mulch on the way home and be done with that chore...given that this team hasn't won many games, this could be reality without too much wishful thinking on my part.....what i really need to do this weekend is to rest up......frankly, i do not think my body has yet recovered from laying brick last weekend.....but i can still rally enough to paint the porch before i totally collapse.......

nytimes book reviews

ok, so i will admit to wasting time today reading book reviews...this isone i might just buy in hardback.....mostly because this style of writing seems so close to blogging......

the digging fork.....

ok, so once upon a time, an intrepid gardener asked her adoring spouse for a digging fork, such that she had seen martha use in her gardening book....and she had a smith/hawkins catalog on hand to pinpoint the exact english-forged steel digging fork she might want for mother's day...guarenteed for life.......but lo, the m-in-law who hapened to be visiting that weekend thought that such an expenditure was outrageous and certainly too much money to spend on gardening tools.......and so it came to pass the the generic digging fork was gifted.....and not too many years later that fork bit the dust because it was cheaply made.....and the intrepid gardener was regifted with yet another generic digging fork.....sunday afternoon said second digging fork bit the dust.....literally......it's fiberglass handle dissolving.....leaving tiny fiberglass wounds on the gardener's arm.......and yet a third generic digging fork was regifted that very afternoon......so the point of this rant....?.....yes, the intrepid gardener has a point.....had the chosen digging fork been purchased at the get go...the forged steel with wooden handle attached to the fork by replaceable connections.....the cost of that fork would have been less than the combined purchase price of the 3 forks bought instead.....and should the chosen fork been purchased, and it broke...it probably could have been fixed....in this neck of the woods, shovels are just too brutal...too many roots, and rocks, and roughage.....but a digging fork works wonders at getting delicate plants out of impossible places.......thank you, gentle readers, for following this rant to its conclusion.......i feel much better....and will certainly keep you apprised of just how long fork number three stays in commision......

no mention of who got the money....

ok, so this from cnn.com (the snapshot version).....Dog's owner died January 1, leaving $2 million estate but no will. Owner's parents, fiancee, and ex-girlfriend wanted custody of Alex the dog. Judge decided to split custody between owner's divorced parents. They'll trade Alex back and forth every two weeks.

dinner menu....

ok, so this was on the menu at the white house......The menu and entertainment were designed as a showcase of America's best: spring pea soup with U.S. caviar, Dover sole almondine, spring lamb with chanterelle sauce and local vegetables and an arugula, mustard greens and romaine salad, said executive chef Cristeta Comerford.......and this lovely meal was consumed by a woman wearing white gloves and a tiarra.....gosh, but women are amazing at what they can manage to do when duty calls.....

silver palate

ok, so salon.com posted a story about the 25th anniversary edition of the silver palate cookbook out just now.....wow...hard to believe that i have used this cookbook for nearly as long as i have been married.....it is dog-eared, and food-stained....and actually on the crusty side in places.....but certainly my go-to book when i am stumped for a recipe...the review of the anniversary issue mentioned recipes that i have never tried...such as a pound of brie marinated with chopped tomatoes, garlic, etc for several hours....with hot cooked pasta dumped over it...the recipe is called summer pasta, and the review loved it......i might just have to try this with my visiting vegetarian...just because......there are recipes that i have intended to make but never got around to assembling the numerous ingredients.....the 3 layered vegetable terrine sounded marvelous...but with over 2 pages of directions....i never got around to it......one day.......and the caviar-stuffed appetizer potatoes.....they are also on my list of to-do recipes......gosh...salt and starch together again...a combo that cannot go wrong!!!!!!!but caviar is not on my list of staples....and this recipe waits in the back of my sub-conscious....or stomach...whichever......i am also amused by the reality of the silver palate itself.....started as a catering business that grew into as sorefront, then into packaged products and cook books, then the partners had a very public falling-out...and produced cookbooks on their own....some better than others.....i have actually dragged out the cookbook in question in prep for my bookclub...which i look so forward to hosting as a dinner party......must find the perfect combination of book-related elements....in this case the book takes place in iowa...i chose grilled pork loin.....which will be in contrast to the biblical themes...those who actually lived in gilead would never have eaten pork......ooops......the side dishes are as yet unclear......maybe dessert tarts with the individual tart pans i just bought in paris......sounds yummy.......

when you wake up feeling old....

ok, so the 6 hours of physical labor from yesterday has me laid low this morning....but i have too much to do at work to waste my day at home laying about feeling sorry for my poor aching self......the brick terrace really does looke lovely....though my back and wrists still feel every brick picked up and moved into place......

traveling fools.....

ok, so...i will be back home with my middle child on may 22.......which is after some folks graduate and before he leaves to go to d.c. for the summer the first weekend in june......not much time to squeeze in much.......

nothing but hard work

ok, so.....i completely reworked the brick terrace beside the recently reworked pond......nearly doubled in size.....wow......i also dispersed a truckload of mulch this weekend ......and at this very moment i am sitting on my laurels, so to speak, and taking a break........i still have the porch to paint before bookclub, and several large pots to fill.....and i could still use another scoop of mulch to finish up the planting on the miss lulu's cabin side of the house.....there are poppies in bloom....these came from my grandparents in cleveland.......and the miss ginny rose is about to burst forth.......life is very, very good....

if melville had an editor.....

ok, so.....this week's new yorker has an ad inside the cover featuring elvis costello....maybe visa or somesuch....and he is in the background playing guitar...and in the foreground is a list of things that he (presumably) wants to do before he dies.....and on the list was 'read moby dick'....which i pointed out to the only one of my offspring present to whom i have read moby dick aloud......and he surprised me with his response.....that he hopes to read that book one day.....what?.. we read that book aloud, chapter after tedious chapter...when he was in the 5th grade...maybe the last book we ever read aloud at bedtime.......but the child in question contends that it only counts if one reads it oneself.....and that books read aloud in the 5th grade don't count.....i disagree emphatically....given that i enjoy listening to books on cd/tape.....i consider these books as 'read' as any i have breezed through to get to the end.......and i remember enough about this book read 11-12 years ago to assert that one could pull out the chapters that seem to be melville's version of a documentary on whaler's craft...and end up with actual fiction that might resemble the old man and the sea in length.....i see no reason to reread this tome.......and for my vote, it counts on the permanent record......

radon.....

ok, so we (the collective we) were a-twitter last evening when we happened upon the daily princetonian story about the radon crisis in a particular dorm on the princeton campus.......it is much too coincidental for a child to move from one radon-questionable home to another 12 hours away......

the queen

ok, so......i should have gone to bluegrass airport today to get a glimpse of the queen.....she is staying the night at land's end farm.....with the ex-ambassador to britain......maybe i'll get a glimpse of her sipping juleps in the paddock when i watch the derby.......or is that the darby?........

deja vu

ok, so this afternoon i made a double batch of roasted vegetables: sweet onions, sweet red pepper, zucchini, eggplant and portabella mushrooms.....just so my eldest could make himself a roasted vegetable pita, and i could have roasted vegetable pasta salad with our grilled turkey break......and the flavors really take me back.....maybe it was thoughts of nancy that brought this rarely-made recipe to mind......i am not even certain that the recipe is exact.....and part of the feta is tomato-basil......no matter- for it is devine......and well worth the time it takes to roast vegetables in olive oil......

nancy passes on.....

ok, so danville doyenne nancy alcock passed away yesterday, at the age of 88......she was one complicated piece of work....i can say this because i have catered for her, slogged over to her house in thunderstorms to bring her her carryout supper, and even had to find a gentle way to answer her concerns way back when i was still in the food business: 'i saw your son walking with the daughter of the toy box people- if they were to get married, who would cater the wedding?.....only nancy would have worried about something so less likely to happen......may she rest in peace......

the louisiana iris

ok, so as i was making coffee this morning, i looked out to see that the yellow louisiana iris in the pond is blooming.....just lovely

more in bloom....

ok, so the mystery of the blue wildflowers out back has been solved....the folwer was not on the ky wildflower database because....it is not a wildflower......the same flower is now blooming in a shaded area inside the boxwoods....around the place where the solomon's seals are popping up....seems it is a plant that my middle child once bought and planted there....about the same time he planted the oak-leafed hydrangea in the corner of that section of yard......i have no idea what it is called, but it is introduced rather than wild....still lovely.....also in bloom are siberian iris planted by this same child, lily-of-the-valley, jacob's ladder, clematis, bath's pinks, iberis, verbena, the three kinds of columbine, yellow and purple iris, dame's rocket, moneyplant, blue salvia, and a blue plant that i cannot recall...yeah, well i did plant it, but i cannot name it on this day.....i stopped at the hospice plant sale on my way back from lincoln, and bought many wonderful things....cosmos about to bloom, a different type of iberis, purple salvia,......many more lovely perennials that i will gush over when i go to plant them......i have a plant stop to make tommorrow, and another next friday when i go to the place i like in lexington- pemberton's and sons.....yes, i do realize that money spent on plants cannot be spent on travel...but allow this one indulgence......

csi-lincoln county- episode 2

ok, so...remember a few weeks ago when i blogged about my thursday workmates playing amateur sleuthes.....peeking in the windows of the car illegally parked behind the building, discovering that the person in question lived just up over the hill within eyesight of the parking lot......and that there was a baby seat in the back that must not be needed just then.....well...the plot thickened today.....the car arrived this afternoon, in broad daylight.....and by the time the woman driving had unloaded her toddler and the carseat into the silver car that arrived in the lot right behind her, every eye in the building was upon them all......and when the fella she was meeting tried to make a quick getaway, he backed right into the wooden trash dumpster.....(and when i say backed into it....he literally left a top-to-bottom gash.....)...and without bothering to stop to survey the damage to our dumpster or his car...he peeled out.....squealing tires and all....the director had his tag number by this time, and was calling the police......rats....i had to leave before the cops had come in to interview witnesses....should be an interesting story to tell next thursday.....

plane tickets

ok, so i bought a plane ticket today......for a diabetes related seminar in st louis.......a southwest flight from louisville that shaves several hours off of a drive and was cheaper than the drive....go figure.....the event is not until august...but when one has to pay up front for reimbursement later....one naturally goes for the lowest price possible......i will admit to an obsession with plane ticket pricing......figuring out when one must leave and return to get the best deal.....which is not necessarily the most convenient...i am a big fan of 1 stop or less.....these days i am fantasizing about a trip to vienna then venice then home.......maybe a second honeymoon......and only because we talked about going to vienna on our honeymoon, but innsbruck was cold, and st tropez sounded so warm (it was not)....and we headed south......i figure that venice is close enough to vienna to make it an ideal dual destination........at some point....maybe the year after next?......but then florence is so close to venice...and i cannot imagine NOT seeing florence...this from the person who has seen mona/nike/venus nearly a dozen times.......i should have been figuring out how to include italy on any and all of these trips.......the good news is that with goodwill shopping and moonlighting as a college professor my bank account has grown to the point that i can realistically envision this trip.....life is good......

good night, irene.....

ok, so i was saddened yesterday to read about the death of a longtime member of my church, irene humelsine.....i did not know her other than to speak to her.....but what i knew and heard of her was what counted.....she played piano...and once on a weekend visit to joseph-beth she and our church pianist were playing duets as a backdrop to holiday bookbuying...their version of 'in the deep midwinter' was soulful and satisfying......but what i will remember most about this talented woman was her speaking voice.....she read scripture with more feeling and power than many recite shakespeare......her oratory was memorable.......she was often asked to read on christmas eve......and i can think of no one who could step up to the podium like irene......

in bloom

ok, so......my yard is coming alive.....3 varieties of columbine, yellow iris, dark purple iris, pinks, a few coreopsis, iberis, verbena, and prairie primrose....just lovely........

"i was totally attacked by this crazy unit yesterday...god he was hot"

ok, so this line was disclosed rather loudly by a giggly girl standing behind the bleachers at my child's middle school soccer game....i am so out of touch that i have no idea if i should be worried or envious.............