retreat update #4

ok, so i have breakfast followed by 3 more hours of meetings before i head home....planningf to get out the atlas and drive back by way of frankfort so i can shop the tuesday morning and goodwill while i am getting mileage paid,,,,,we need a can opener, and i just know there will be a nice chrome easy-turn model at tuesday morning.....i opted out of baseball last night after the 4th inning....and slept soundly until my neighbor started in whistling....sometime around 6 am.....no desire to know which if my colleagues is so blasted cheerful in the morning hours.....

retreat update #3

ok, so....i have been meeting since breakfast at 7:30 am (a powerpoint program on adult vaccinations).....thankfully hashbrowns were on the buffet...i can manage to listen to just about anybody if potatoes are involved......lunch involved a speaker on adolescent immunizations (yet another powerpoint but as mashed potatoes and gravy were on the buffet, i was attentive......supper was powerpoint-free....the lieutenant governor spoke on his health care reform vision for ky.....the red skinned potatoes were nearly raw but the prime rib was just perfect.......yeah....and we had sessions between all of these lecture/meals.....so much for rest and relaxation....

retreat update #2

ok, so should have slept soundly, being on retreat and all....but i woke up at 4:00 am....coughing and carrying on.....and cvould not get back to sleep.....i have meetings today....all day......maybe i can sneak off to take a little nap if things get too boring....or if i feel to exhausted from lack of sleep to stay awake.....

retreat update #1

ok, so.....i am on a work retreat.....so far not relaxing as we mostly traded vaccine tales of woe over a heartburn-quality supper of ribs and baked beans....my current book on cd finished well before i arrived, and i struggled to get npr in this neck of the woods....we have a working breakfast, lunch and supper tomorrow...and while this is the only way that sponsors can pay for meals, i am not looking forward to a 7:30 am breakfast speaker....go figure.....

retreat

ok, so...i am heading out after work for a retreat at general butler state park.....with others who direct health departements.....we will mostly sit about and kvetch about the flu.....which is not my idea of retreat, by the way.....but we cannot help ourselves...the flu IS all we think, talk, and dream about.....i am looking forward to a nice vacation(with family not workmates....)once the flu has subsided and the vaccine has been delivered, injected, and forgotten.....

parental controls

ok, so.....this new-fangled computer has a fancy toolbox available to the administrator.....wow.....wish we had been able to place such limits on activity on-line before now.....

sunday afternoon hike

ok, so we gathered at the refuge for the annual members meeting....a small but intrepid group......and we gazed in awer at the trees cut down by the beaver who has taken up residence on the island in the pond...there was a bit of lively debate over whether it is better to import a mate for the beaver, or deport the beaver to somebody else's refuge.....or to simply give refuge to the beaver who found its way to the property.....for as long as it chooses to stay......we also walked down to the far corner of the property where a new trail has been proposede...one that has creek access and a lovely propect......a nice place to put a bench.......and a narrow lockable gate to keep out the 4-wheelers......the leaves were at their fall peak and the sun shown brightly....and the refuge could not have been more beautiful on this october afternoon....

the one-hour opera

ok, so my husband and i ventured out last night to the final performance of an opera by henry purcell......nicely staged and accompanied by a 5-piece ensemble that included a harpsichord and several stringed instruments.......a student performance, which we watched along with scores fo students....who seemed adequately appreciative that their peers could sing opera as opposed to choral works in general......the tallest of the females in the chorus sings with our church choir.....and it was fun to see her enjoying a secular performance.....our middle child was credited as a co-stagemanager.....so we never actually saw him while we were at the theatre, but given that bthe event went off without a hitch.....must have been the exceptional stage-management.......

working in my dreams

ok, so i have worked the last three nights...in my dreams.......the first shift was back at the hospital, in the kitchen, though i was not doing any actual cooking......just shuffling between the offices in search of somebody.....the next night i divvied up h1n1 vaccine all night...debating with physician offices over who needed it most...and last night i made cookies...for the annual meeting of the members of the refuge.....rather, i kept burning cookies because i failed to get them out of the oven on time.....this has happened before...the dreaming about work as well as the burning of cookies.....maddening that both have interrupted my sleep...i am far too old to work all day and all night....

belated bosses day

ok, so.....my staff did remember me on bosses day last friday with a card and a candle.....but the real treats come today.....as they are staging a snack day in my honor......for the uninitiated, snack day involves a day-long array of high calorie delectables that are either kept cold on ice, or kept hot in crockpots or refrigerated with large notes on the fridge door reminding folks that they are there for the taking.....i have already indulged in a bite or two of cheese ball, and a pimento cheese sandwich......i find the notion of a day-long cheese course just about perfect......

mulch mania

ok, so i am in the systematic mode.....i am moving slowly from bed to bed clearing out the overgrown plants....mostly daylilies but i find that daylilies are only one of many plants that were planted innocently in my garden only to become weeds by definition......at the same time i am terracing with the stones i once carried to create the pre-brick garden path network.....these stones allow the beds to have greater soil-depth as well as keep the mulch in place......and give the illusion of extra areas of flat space.....flat!.....one of my favorite four-letter words......i truly envy those lucky enough to garden in flat places.....and so as winter approaches i am finaly whipping my yard into shape.....better late than never.....

pasta with zucchini and mint

ok, so.....i was perusing the nytimes this morning, and there was a lovely photo of a pasta dish that can be made out of waning summer ingredients......which in my case are long-gone ingredients....the zucchini shriveled and died a while back, and i ripped out the leggy mint which was out-of-control in the bed where i have moved many roses in my latest re-terracing project.....i have no doubt that this mint is not gone forever......mint is a faustian bargain of culinary proportions.....but at this very minute i have no edible mint.....what i do have is a major case of the saturday morning lazies.....while i know deep down that i really need to get dressed and drive the truck to lowes to buy mulch to finish all of the plant rotations that i started last weekend.....that and run by the aldi store for juice and a few sundries.....i continue to surf away on-line rather than do my saturday chores.....which will not include a nice lunch of zucchini and mint...unless of course the aldi has zucchini and i can substitute lemonbalm or basil.......

more on the numbers dream

ok, so one of my workmates likes to look up dream meanings on-line...and she contends that my enclosed porch dream indicates that i am feeling trapped......i suppose this is true in that i have no trips any time soon and the h1n1 vaccination frenzy is looming.....i do have my terrace/patio project underway.....hope to make substantial progress on it this weekend.....

2553

ok, so numbers rarely play a front-and-center role in my dream life....but i am still comtemplating the meaning of last night's dream as the i ease into bedtime...i was on the porch of a brick home......the enclosed porch of a brick home...and the address 2553 was in red metal numerals that stuck out a tad from the brick rather than laying flush.....and they were framed to accentuate the address......but given that the porch had been enclosed, the framed 2553 could not actually be seen from the road.....i have no lcue if there was another 2553 on the outside of the enclosed porch....and i have no clue as to why i was at that very place at the very moment.....red 2553......hmmmm.......

ham and cheese sandwiches

ok, so H1N1 vaccine is in my dreams.....i worked all night with madcap schemes to distribute the vaccine as quickly as possible.....the most unworkable scenario involved ham and cheese sandwiches.....no recollection how that one was supposed to help the cause...unless the sandwiches were lowcost incentives to those giving or taking the injection...i recall reading somewhere about a program in africa that rewarded men who got vasectomies with radios......not sure how that relates to my dream but the notion does make me smile.....

the nearly forgotten blog....

ok, so.....this poor forgotten blog came into my mind this morning as i was playing wordtwist on facebook......and i felt a tinge of guilt......so many diversions and so little time beyond my day job and my night class.....and grocery shopping/cooking/dishes........and gardening chores.......and facebook word games......these days my spouse has the browser set to forget websites- he thinks that the cookies slows everything down....so i no longer have blogger on my dropdown frequently visited menu......out of sight-out of mind......hopefully i can do better this week......

sand animation from ukraine's got talent......

ok, so so this piece is quite moving...i cried and i do not even speak russian.....

waiting on the rain.....

ok, so....i had big plans to load up the last of the bricks from my secret source....and begin the next phase of gardening expansion.....which includes digging up a bit more of the lawn (such as it is...) transferring plants from poorly lit areas into the new sunnier spot...and then leveling out the shady spot to pasve with the bricks......sounds easy, right?.....i could go on out to start digging, a task made easier by hours of rain....but i really should get dressed and do some grocery shopping before i transform myself into a muddy mess in the name of progress.......

up for auction?

ok, so this still-life by edward burra is up for auction in the uk.....i judge a painting by the simplest of criteria....whether i would hang it over my sofa......i think the artist did a fine job on the soup terrine, and i would display it proudly.....too bad the asking price is above the $15 i paid for the cezanne print currently holding court above my sofa.....

estrogen withdrawal

ok, so in studying for yet another semester of lecturing on all issues sexual....i came across the term estrogen withdrawal as a nicer way to describe menopause......the term fits just fine for my purposes......by the way....talking about sex is far more enjoyable than talking about swine flu......who knew it would come to this?

ok, so in a perfect world this would link you to Susan Boyle covering Wild Horses......by the Rolling Stones.....her version is addicting...

too much sun....

ok, so i was on duty at 7:30 am yesterday morning at the water and snack station at the burgin run....the morning was chilly and i was delighted to find a jacket in the trunk of my car.....at some point the race organizer sent her elderly mother over to sit with me 'in the sun'......yes, the sun was shining but i still felt a bit cold even with my outerwear.....fast forward to 10 am when i dashed home to drive my youngest child to her cross country meet at the stadium......the jacket stayed in teh car because the sun really was shining a bit brighter....but at no point during the 11-1:30 timeslot did i feel the least bit overheated.....granted, i was kept occupied during in between races with earnest updates with friends i rarely see in between sports seasons.....especially now that we follow the gold and black schedule rather than the blue one.......imagine my surprise later when my spouse came home and exclaimed 'honey, did you forget to use suncreen?'.......sunscreen never occurs to me when i am cold, BTW.......i had somehow managed to miss all mirrors as i caught up on chores before supper..... red raccoon eyes where my glasses shieled part of my face....and brilliantly burnt shoulders and neck.....yikes.....it is not as if i have been living in a cave all summer....i do sit and read the paper on the back deck when ever i get the chance.....hopefully this will fade by monday......one hates to flaunt one's disregard for the self-care in a public health workplace.....

a glass half-full.....

ok, so....blogging has taken a backseat to facebook, mostly because facebook features wordgames, but i still find blogging not only pleasurable, but priceless for its reliable access to details about my past.....when i cannot recall a recipe i search for it.....voila....same for trips taken, movies seens, opinions voices, etc....as i review this short holiday week, i am grateful to recall more good things than bad...a visa that will likely come through, the (sizable) medical bill that is being covered at long last, the usual pound and pedal crowd on labor day saturday, the shakertown lunch bikeride, the sunny day cd that my eldest child gave to me to lift my spirits on non-sunny days...yeah, the week had its low points, but i simply cannot recall any of those moments just now...my glass is at least half full rather than half-empty....the glass will be completely full when 4:30 comes, by the way.....

al franken draws map of usa from memory at minnesota state fair

ok, so.....wow!,,,,,

the wedding with too many printed purses

ok, so......i dreamed that our friend the l.o. got married last night......with a slightly russian flavor....it was in a big tent out at the restored shaker village....and at one point the friends of the bride and groom were dressed as russian peasants and did russian folk dances in lieu of an orchestral entrance......kinda like the wedding dance youtube clip only cozier.....and then i reached for my purse to get out my camera, and i could not find my purse.....and even though the wedding was not yet over, i started in searching for it....and there were many styles of sizes of this maker of cloth purses.....and i must have touched every one before i eventually found my own under my own chair.....and then i opted to sit inside the stone building rather than under the tent for the reception....at a table with scholarly friends of the family....and there was a department head who was admonishing teaching staff about the number of parties held by the department versusd actual seminars......and i moved my stuff, and my husband's stuff- i was saving him a seat....and it was then that i realized that i had not told him that i had found my purse, and he came in with the cosmetic bag that matches my purse only for me to tell him to take it back where he found it because it wasn't mine......sadly, my dream scenario failed to cover essentials such as cake and reception savories...the important details....ah well......

pink and green jammies....

ok, so my dream sequences were quite vivid last evening despite a fitful tennis-like sleep...hot-cold-hot-cold......the greens were brilliant, including the grass as perfect as befitting a putting green that was in my face as i tripped and fell under a very low-growing tree.....very green, very short, straight to the point of looking fake...grass.....i was wearing pink striped pajamas with a green and pink paisley robe- both in cotton....and i had just left a movie theatre rest room- a dwarf and his normal sized children were coming in as i was leaving...and i did not actually see a movie...just stopped by to use the facilities.....at some point i was in a waiting room, with a mother-in-law like person telling me something profound about her son...and then i was back in the last bedroom i used before going off to college, except that the bed was in an impossible position for the room in question.....and i was very cold.....which must have corresponded to the time i woke up very cold and pulled up all of the covers i have previously thrown off.....ah well......i can remember asking the owner of the green grassy yard with the low growing tree about the exquisite lawn.....and he showed me his chickens, and how he liquifies the droppings to spray on his yard, and trees.....maybe this is a sign that i need to buy chickens........and pink-striped pajamas with green and pink paisley robe....

a good night's sleep....

ok, so the cool evenings added onto my evening walking schedule and well.....i wish i knew what contributed to my nearly perfect sleeping session......but i woke up only when my spouse croawled out at 5:14 am to run....and i do not remember anything else til the alarm went off at 6:30........i did allow myself a few minutes to adjust to the reality of having to actually get out of the cocoon....and then a few minutes more to listen to the piece on sheila lukins, the co-author of the silver palate cookbook series that i have worn out since the early eighties......if ever i were to cook myself through a book....i suppose that should be the one, as there are stillr recipes that i have every intention of preparing but have not yet found the time....like a 3 layer vegetable terrine......i own the correct pan......own not being the same thing as knowing where it has been stashed.....maybe the enxt meatless monday i can manage to pull it off......here's to you, sheila....

the green, green grass of home....

ok, so the summer is almost at an end...which means that the c-dub obsession with keeping the grass green and the perennial beds flowering until labor day is winding down.....we host an annual running and biking event the last saturday of summer.....and despite our efforts we have shamefully allowed out guests to stand on a moonscape of dead grass and gaze upon the sun-dried remaining of planting beds.....i thought we had this issue licked this year, what with twice a day watering and the use of actual fertilizer...but this morning as i held the hose in one hand and coffee in the other, i was shocked to see patches of dying grass......and rose bushes that dropped their browning leaves overnight......how is this possible? i freely admit that the yard still looks better than most years, but i expected a bigger bang for my better efforts....

a waking dream....

ok, so iw orked last night until 7 (H1N1, of course) and opted to go in late this morning as compensation....and i went back up to bed after letting the dog out and feeding the cat and making coffee......i could not get comfortable, given the minor back pain from overdoing yardwork on monday, when i took the entire day off to recoup from the 20 hours of driving to virginia and back......but that is another story.....and so i tossed and turned, and while i contend that i did not actually fall asleep, i did have a curious dream.....my pupils were dilated as i came out into the sunshine, and though i had on sunglasses i could not see clearly enough to walk to my car....and a woman took my arm and led me to my car....and as i was getting inside she handed me a bag and told me it was a chicken sandwich for my lunch......i sat inside the car, waiting for my sight to return, but i did not eat the sandwich, because i am leary of anyone who hands chicken sandwiches to strangers.....and so i sat in the car plotting on how i could throw away the sandwich that must surely be poisoned....i did not want to toss it in the trash for fear some homeless person would eat it and die......i do not remember if the dream progressed beyond the internal dialogue about the sandwich.....

ok, so....

ok, so.... i travel to williamsburg, virginia tomorrow after lunch...looks to be a 10 hour drive...the kind of journey one only makes for family or dear friends....i will miss the final leg of the ride for reading....which is acceptable as i was not at the beginning......and only in the middle for a few hours.....we plan on driving back on saturday...which means i will have driven/ridden 1000 miles in 36 hours.....thankfully i have my bookd on cd lined up.....

ok, so.....Julie and Julia was a throroughly enjoyable movie.....Meryl Streep was marvelous as Julia.....though her Oscars have been earned from her dramatic roles, i continue to be impressed by her comic flair......and to be treated to Meryl as Julia in Paris......at Cordon Bleu.....and in darling bistros drinking fine wines and nibbling perfectly prepared fish in beurre blanc.....oh my......yeah, i did enjoy the Julie part as well....and I did feel her pain when she slept through the timer for the beef dish.....and the lobster boiling sequence was hilarious.....i am inspired to try braised cucumbers.....but given that i do not own Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I have had to look up a recipe on-line.....thankfully, several generous bloggers were also moved to try the recipe:

Braised Cucumber

1 huge cucumber (or 2 regular sized)
1 tablespoon butter
1 dash salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 pinch dried mint

Peel cucumber. Cut into quarters and remove seeds. Cut into 1 inch pieces.

Melt butter in a pan and add cucumber. Cover and cook about 5 minutes on medium heat.

Stir in salt, lemon, and mint. Cover and cook another 2 minutes.

I cannot wait til supper!

Three Irish musicians who were sent to the service by Bono led the group in singing Bob Dylan's "Forever Young."

ok, so.....i had heard of the passing of eunice kennedy shriver earlier in the week.....and i only clicked on the huffingtonpost writeup because the tickler photo showed of a woman (a shriver grandchild) as a pall bearer....and i did take the time to read about her funeral.....but it was not until the part about bono sending over irish musicians to play forever young that i teared up......i love that song....and i would be so honored for 3 musicians of any nationality to show up at my funeral to sing it.....

ok, so...this bit of the daily show was right on target.....

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operation
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

playing for change

ok, so this from the world-wide web.....

ok, so this from the daily kos...

Best Deep Thought ever? From DougJ over at Balloon Juice:
When someone talks back to a cop in his own house, that’s disorderly conduct.

When people make death threats and start fights in public, that’s exercising their First Amendment rights

fairy garden....

ok, so our little 8-year old neighbor from around the circle stopped by to chat for a meoment while iw as grilling supper last evening....and this sweet child took one look at the mass of blooms in the 'new' bed and said..'a fairy must have snapped her fingers and made this garden'.......and she snapped her fingers to add to the charm of her words.....made my day....

red cadillac with the windows down...

ok, so in my dreams i was in my aunt and uncle's original house near cleveland...the one on carpenter road....and i set my purse and keys down on the floor just inside their front door.....and i was with a woman who is taking my class....and we walked down the hall to tell those gathered watching televison in a very small bedroom that we were leaving to go to class....and my purse was gone- but the keys were there...and we saw 2 small small children running across the lawn with the purse, and one child dove into the open window of a red cadillac driven by another child..and i was able to grab the second child by the arm..and hold on tight.....and my aunt announced that those were neighborhood kids.....and i marched over to the neighbor's house with my 'hostage' child...and demanded that the mother hand over my purse for the child......and i kept looking at my watch because i was supposed to start my class in 20 minutes.....and that is all i remember, except for worrying that i would be charged with kidnapping the accomplice to the theft of my purse....

a new question.....

ok, so....i gave blood on my way home from work yesterday...mostly because my daughter was keen on giving blood and i was not going to be the one who did not having gone to the trouble to show up at the location....i have not given blood in years- not since leaving a job where the blood mobile showed up regularly onsite and all i had to do to donate was to walk a few hundred yards.....i was therefore way out of the loop on questions now asked of donors to determine fitness to donate.....the nurse in the pre-donation interview did not break a smile when she asked me 'were you born a woman?'......i laughed out loud.....having never before been asked that question......hopefully the enxt time i can keep a straight face....

some forged documents are more fun than others....

ok, so this from a huffington post piece about how easy it is to obtain forged documents.....

ok, so i just loved this bill maher birther bit.......

william shatner reads palin as poetry

ok, so....

god mend thine every flaw.....

ok, so.....despite carryover exhaustion from a 12+ hour drive from the middle of kansas and a full day's work......i dragged myself out the door to attend the summer singers concert.....mostly because our friend sarah was singing, but also because i love the sound of a large well-directed choir.....the selections were part of a tribute to america.....given the size of the ensemble i'd have preferred the chorale portion of beethoven's 9th......a lusty interpretation of germanic joy could would have erased many of my frustrations....but instead we were treated to spirituals, folk songs, stephen foster selections, a medley of fiddler on the roof tunes, and patriotic standby's......i was struck by the lyrics to america the beautiful....having just passed by amber waves of grain on my way home.....and witnessed first-hand the many flaws that need healing.....lonely conservative men who dine in plains state kfc's who see things so very differently from me......the conversation comes back to be every couple of hours....i suppose because i dwell on things i should have said that were wittier/bolder/wiser than my actual retorts....i am hopeful that should america (the beautiful) even be under real threat we could put aside our differences long enough to steady ourselves on what we share.....it may take me awhile to recall just what those things are.......i will get back to you....

conspiracy theory(s)

ok, so i am somewhere in kansas, heading toward home as early in the morning as possible......dropped my eldest off at a lovely community park in newton that featured a walking path along a brick-lined river, a huge play area, and tennis courts......not just run-of-the-mill tennis courts....tonight must have been mennonite women's league.....i grew up in an amish/mennonite community, but the sight of so many women in long cotton dresses playing any sport gave me pause.....but i digress from the park.....the community allows cross country bikers to camp overnight and use the round brick restroom facility complete with lighted men and women signs.....while we were searching for the park we traveled on several brick side-streets....wow.....there were brick streets remaining in my original home town.....we passed by the first mennonite church......also with a lighted brick sign out front...and this made me wonder if there was a second or a third mennonite church.....i mention the mennonites not only because the community was founded years ago by mennonite immigrants from germany.....but because the man sitting beside us in the kfc( it was this or a truck-stop diner that likely lacked a nonsmoking section....) at supper just down the road opened up his conversation with us with a sally about immigrants taking over america......or maybe the immigrant thing was after he announced to anybody who would listen that the democrats were looking to replace obama....i turned from my overly dry chicken to proclaim that i was quite proud about all the obama had done to bring the country back from the brink that dubya had taken us to .....he seemed taken aback by my reply and countered that he hears it differently on focus on family or from his cousin who knows about these things.....we really did try to disengage from the confrontation,,,,,but we could not help ourselves when he started in about how we will all be paid in merrils now that the govt runs wallstreet....or was it going to be c-am-euros that would be issued when the usa joined with mexico and canada......but that wouldn't happen until the secret american union voted on it.....my eldest was quick to recognize this as a string of conspiracy theories...and said as much.....and then tis guy had the audacity to say that obama was having an affair, to which i laughed loudly and reminded this graying guy with the tractor supply hat that this was a foolish notion, but if he wanted real scandal he should look no further than republican stanford of s.c. who so publically slept with a woman not his wife, and traveled to these trysts on the taxpayer's dime...al the while spouting about just how deep was his christian faith........seems wingnut radio shows failed to cover that scandal.....because he seemed clueless to the story that captured headlines for so many weeks...next he ranted about taxes and how family farms were going under.....but then he strayed into a line of (dis)reasoning that showed just how clueless he was.....he stated that young girls wouldn't get pregnant if schools stopped giving poor children free meals at school...wtf?....i skipped the pregnancy part and dove right into the free lunch program...which was created as an outlet for commodities such as milk, cheese, wheat, corn, soy, etc.....these are produced (under price-support circumstances)) by family farms, and discontinuing these programs would......cause family farms to go under.....he just stared at me .....the good news about the encounter is that i both failed to finish a regrettable meal, and succeeded in avoiding seconds....we did manage to avoid the birther busines.....if only because i got up, tossed out my plate, and headed out to the car....hoping that i could remember enough of the banter to record it later on.......i have never met such a specimen close-up......and i suppose i should not be surprised that he fails to see the contradictions in so many of his positions....then again.....maybe is just a lonely cuss who drives in to town for all-you-can-eat fried chicken and pretend mashed potatoes, and a bit of conversation with the randon public.....bless his sunflower-pickin heart.....

on the road again

ok, so...i left home around 2:00 pm yesterday, heading toward st. louis....i had forgotten thaqt this drive is a straight shot on i-64...long but straight.....i had come upon eureka as a destination when i was trying to find trader joe's in the st louis area......there are 5 locations.....a few off of the interstate though off of my projectary....and so i figured that if i could find a motel nearby i could justify the off-route stop.....but the st louis motels were at least twice of those on down i-44......eureka's other claim to fame is a 6-flags park, which meant ample crowds and dining choices as opposed to a lonely stop along the highway.....my motel is family-run and 3 doors down from an applebee's......which was rocking last night when i was tired and starving, and somewhat cranky from getting lost trying to find the access road where the services promised by the interstate signs were located.....ah well.....i ate quickly and made it back to my motel in time to watch mystery in pbs.....a miss marple that was a tad too confusing for a weary traveler to follow.....i may have to find the original story to figure out why the siblings masquarading as other people tried to kill the lady of the house with snake venom.....yikes.....so now i am plotting my route on mapquest.....i could turnback a bit and take i-70 to the kansas city area, and then head southwest toward wichita (7 hours).....the city nearest to the cycling route i hope to locate...this option cuts several hours off of my day.......my planned route is on locally accesses roads and i could expect at least 9 hours as my cyclist expected to be beyond wichita at the end of the day's ride.....ah well.....i am enjoying the extra hour that i gained by going west.....and because i am considering this trip an adventure rather than a chore i am in no hurry....especially because there is at least 1 trader joe's between me and the interstate leading to kansas......

getting ready....

ok, so i am getting ready to drive to kansas....a trip that could take 10, or 12 or 14 hours depending where i will meet up with my eldest child along his transamerica bike route.....yeah, i would drive that far just to give him a big hug.....but there is more at stake here than maternal urges.....he has to apply for his austrian visa by the end of july, and kansas city is the nearest consulate.....and as this location is well off his route......it seemed easier to ferry him there than worry over his other options (hitch-hiking, etc)....and so i have several books on cd from the library, and a few snacks...and a borrowed gps unit in addition to mapquest driving directions....and i am good to go.....well not quite yet.....probably tomorrow after lunch....

birds, bunnies and squirrels....

ok, so my morning commute was more like driving through an obstacle course than a simple morning drive to work.....between the bunnies in the road thinking about crossing over completely, or the squirrels nosing something flattened on the pavement, or worse...the indigo bunting that flitted a bit close to my bumper from it's roadside perch......i am pleased to say that i managed to avoid all of these furry/feathered friends.....leaving raod kill in my wake would certainly put a damper on my day......

ok, so heaven help me remember to show this condom ad when my class syllabus cover such things.....

harry potter 6

ok, so our tickets said harry potter 6, rather than harry potter and the half blood prince...i suppose at this late date there is no question as to the movie i came to see......i wasn't going to confuse this movie with any other shown at a similar time slot......i must say that i consider this the best 6th movie in any genre.....or at least the best movie that anticipates 2 sequels before all threads must be thoroughly tied off.....i have picked up deathly hallows to re-read......while i am in the mood.....not sure i can wait until 2010 for harry potter 7.....or 2011 for harry potter 8......even though i know that it all ends (exceptionally) well.......

on its last legs.....

ok, so we are NOT going to pay another $75 to figure out why my desktop on the family pc will not sustain an internet browser.....i was able to download firefox onto my spouse's desktop.....and i am back in business until we replace this ancient computer.....ancient by modern standards...in that this pc is less than 10 years old......our refrigerator, and washer/dryer combo are each far older......the internet is only the tip of the iceberg in this scenario.....my mother is recording the tour de france on her new dvd-player/recorder....and the disks will not play on any equipment we currently possess....our own dvd player, our pc......nada......it is one thing to refuse the cable service that could allow us to watch the tour directly, but when we cannot watch the taped replay.....a speedy resolution is in order.......by the way, our ancient stereo system components will not play a ripped cd.....but we can play those cd's on our current dvd player....go figure......

ok so this from jezebel.....Marine One pilot Major Jennifer Grieves lands Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on her last day in her rotation as pilot of Marine One, on July 16, 2009 in Washington, DC. She is the first female Marine One pilot, and today�s Marine One crew is made up entirely of all women in honor of her achievement. She was designated the helicopter aircraft commander of Marine One in May, 2008. AFP PHOTO / Tim Sloan (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)

gum shaped like raspberries....

ok, so a large open bag of gum balls shaped like red raspberries figured into my dream sequences last night.....a uniting theme if you will.....hard to imagine i had a dream sequence given that i looked at the clock several times last night when i woke up either hot or cold.....

bastille day.....

ok, so.....today is bastille day in france.....a day on which french cyclists riding in the tour try extra hard to win the stage out of national pride.....when one gets down to it, bastille day is about revolution, and while both the usa and france are where they are today because of revolution, i am of the opinion that there are far less violent ways of making change.....

agonizing in my sleep.....

ok, so i worked the night shift in my sleep......mostly over the menu for dinner guests this evening and over the option of preparing the tortilla espanol ahead of time so it could set up or just in time for dinner in hopes it would slice well and come out of the pan easily......of all the world's problems i could try to solve in my dreams.....i worry over a dinner entree......curiously, i woke up several times in either a hot sweat or a cold chill.....and went right back to the same potato casserole lamentation.....go figure.....

whiney-baby

ok, so i am back from book club selection thursday....and given that not one of the three books i put forward were selected....i am feeling small and petty....in that i have been asked to go ahead and provide dinner with next july's selection thursday......gentle readers.....i have put together a 'theme' dinner with a book selection for a decade at this point.....and for the life of me i cannot think of a suitable theme for selection thursday.....for 'to the lighthouse' i made boeuf en daube....naturally....lentils and mussels for lord of the rings.....baked onion soup for colette.......ah well.....i did not vote for any of the selected books.....same as last year's tally.....am i so off-kilter in my reading preferences that i could completely miss 8 selections out of 27?.......pouting doesn't get one anywhere....so i am moving on.....

mashed potatoes....

ok, so......my dream life got a tad curiouser last evening, when monday night's dream of mashed potatoes decided to replay into tuesday nights dream about buying silverware in a department store.....the mashed potatoes i was making were not from scratch,,,,,and there was an authority figure in the background who was directing the mixing of the dehydrated potato granules with the milk and margarine.....and this faceless person insisted that there needed to be more milk...which made the mixture too runny, at which point i would have to add more potato granules.....during last night's potato reprise, the faceless figure directed me to go into the silverware store immediately, because the ralph lauren patterns had been deeply discounted.....gentle readers, i have no idea if ralphie makes silverware, and no notion of what preppy silverware would be distinguished from the rest of the stock.......having never shopped for silverware......my mother gave me our silver(plate) as a wedding gift...and the everyday came through the savings of betty crocker boxtops.....it is serviceable as silverware goes....no clue why i would dream about selecting more....... and sadly, at no time during these mashed potato dreams did i ever get to taste-test while i cooked....

ok, so.....i was prepared to let the whole spectacle pass without comment.....until i chanced to watch a very short clip of the finale.....and i saw mj's daughter onstage...singing along with the throng of gathered friends and family to 'we are the world'.....she clearly knew the words......and i was touched with the sweet notion that mj sang to his children.....much as i sang to my own before bedtime....i do admit that this was not the song that brought tears to my eyes as i have briefly reviewed the coverage of the service.....my favorite part was (little) stevie wonder singing 'i never dreamed you'd leave in summer'.....oh, my.....that brought back memories.....

4th of july.....

ok, so.....i spend time yesterday reading a piece by a colonial historian about how nothing much actually happened on the 4th of july, 1776, depending on whose letters one reads....the writing, voting, and signing on the declaration may well have taken place over a stretch of time....but i suppose what really matters is that the deeds (writing, voting, and signing) were done by true patriots and that is how we got to this very moment in time.......

amen, amen, and amen....

ok, so the hard-drive that appeared to have been wiped clean by a virus has been restored ($75) by an expert....and i purchased and installed a portable hard-drive this evening (250 gig for $79 at office depot) and i am elated at the data that has been saved from oblivion.....like our collection of the intro music for darkwing duck and goof troop in numerous languages (priceless).....yeah...and there were all of those pictures i had neglected to upload to flickr(double priceless)......

how many of you could there be?

ok, so.....i have fielded more questions about our family name in the past few weeks than i have done in the past 28 years.....mostly over my eldest's ride for reading.....which has been covered in both the lex and d-ville papers.....and the typical conversation goes something like this...' i saw the article about your boy in the paper (name one of two), and i figured he was your son, because how many of you (plural of the family name) could there be?......for the record, there are five of us......which in epidemiological expression is beyond the definition of an outbreak but less than an epidemic.......alas, there is the distinct possibility that the name will die out for lack of interest......but that potential end is not for lack of effort on my part......

in the cool of the morning.....

ok, so....a truly refreshing stroll out to get the paper at 6:30 am.......should have taken my coffee back outside to read the paper.....ah well......maybe tomorrow

clean slate

ok, so......my section of the hard-drive may have been wiped clean by a program called RegCure that somehow installed itself and proceeded to clear out my registry......oh my.....i seem to have no documents, no pictures, and no music .....whereas there does appear to be data in the folders of remaining family members.....hmmm......to be honest, i have not been especially upset about this reality when it occurred to me that the photo sets on the hard-drive have been uploaded to Flickr, that my school documents like exams, study guides, etc are on my jump-drive as are family christmas letters, and that i do have a load of favorite tunes on my ipod shuffle/my palm pilot...and my playlists had mostly been burned to cd's.......and music is replaceable.....so what was there that is now lost?......hmmm......i had taken the time to download the first few years of this blog....happily i also copied those word documents to my palm pilot.....and if need be i could download them again......we had someone come out to look at the pc yesterday, with no success other than the identification of the culprit.....i appear to have lost nothing priceless.....or unique......though i have great plans for backing up future documents/photos/music......so as to not find myself in this position again....

let he or she who is without sin cast the first stone....

ok, so this is a cautionary tale...to all of those who might feel compelled to protest too much the sins of this man......remember back to bill clinton's troubles?........the apologetic fellow pictured here was frontline with the stones....even called/voted for clinton's resignation because of his sins to his family......must seem like a longtime ago this this poor fellow now....by the way...fox news mis-identified him as a democrat for several hours.....seems they have done the same thing for all the recent republican blunders....i suppose the first sin/stone throwing adage goes for fox news as well....

following the blog....

ok, so i am following this riding for reading blog on google reader......

return of the (semi) native

ok, so.....there was a time when i wished on a regular basis that some interesting/active/progressive family would move out from town to our little lake neighborhood so that my children would have playmates.....that family never did show up until our daughter came along....and while these children are not the exact age.....they do have enough in common to give our child someone to hang out with.......now that i have another child back at home i have been wishing for some interesting/active/progressive young people known to my child to move back to the area...or if they are already living here to come out of the woodwork......and over the weekend my prayers were answered......an interesting/active/progressive native has returned, and for this i am grateful......

conserving resources....

ok, so this from jezebel......Duct tape prom dresses have been all the rage for a while now, but Aimee Kick of Missouri decided to step it up a bit and create an entire prom dress out of coffee filters. The results: gorgeous!

facebook

ok, so.....between facebook games like lexulous and scrabble and wordtwist.....and basic facebook meanderings.....i have really slacked off on my blogging......just saying....

Bloom's Day

ok, so today is Bloom's Day....THE day to remember Leopold Bloom as he wandered through Dublin on June 16, 1904, as written by James Joyce in Ulysses.......folks congregate from all over the world on this day in London to follow the convoluted route taken by Bloom in the 24 hours of the novel......the NYTimes had a nice op-ed piece about the book today.....written by a woman who had the chance to read the book cover-to-cover while she was hospitalized for a bone infection.....she felt she knew her long-gone irish grandfather as she read about Bloom's full and very detailed day......I admit to requiring a great deal of support when i read this tome.....downloaded audio lectures, weekly discussions with Joyce scholars....to help me to understand just what i was reading.....ah well......must get on with my day....which is unlikely to be as complicated as Bloom's......

relief

ok, so......many mothers worry about many things....this mother of three worries about threefold things....including the cross country touring bike held hostage over the weekend in a fedex warehouse in portland, oregon.....thankfully....the bike has been liberated...and the rider is on track to dip his wheel in the pacific tuesday morning before heading east.....amen, amen, and amen......

a bike in limbo

ok, so....my eldest child was to begin his cross-country bike trip yesterday.....the glitch came when his riding partner showed up at the fedex location to pick up the bike he shipped out to oregon.....seems the location rejected the box because it was bigger than this location is sanctioned to accept......a detail that the fedex here at home did not know up front.....and so on this first business day of the week our boy must somehow convince the folks at the warehouse where it was sent to release it to its owner rather than ...gasp....return it to ky......gentle readers......please put positive thoughts toward the emancipation of the bike......

an anniversary freudian quotation....

ok, so today is our 28th anniversary.....and as usual we are either working, getting things ready for band festival guests...or both.....and since i got my chores done early i am enjoying a few minutes on the deck with a glass of wine and a good book.....1000 Places to See Before You Die.... by Patricia Schultz.....and atop the page that begins the Paris section is this quote from Sigmund Freud....."if one of us dies", the husband told his wife, "I shall move to Paris".......enough said.....

a day off.....

ok, so.....i took off monday and tuesday, and have taken off this day as well...to enjoy some down time with my clan while they are still at home.....no special plans other than to just be at home....i am tempted to stay in my jammies til noon at least......isn't that what days off are for?

ok, so i also made this vegan banana bread, while the oven was hot....

Banana Bread
Submitted by Isa
prep time: 15 minutes | cooking time: 1 hour | makes 12 slices
A simple, no frills banana bread. Perfect for, um, eating.

Equipment:
8 x 4 bread pan

Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup margarine, at room temp
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 8x4 bread pan with non stick cooking spray, or lightly coat with margarine.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Cream together the margarine and sugars. Add bananas, soy milk and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well. Pour batter into pan. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes.

vegan cupcakes

ok, so this is my first attempt at vegan baked goods

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup soy milk
* 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup canola oil
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Fluffy Frosting:
INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening
* 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine, we use Earth Balance
* 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluff

uneven hedges

ok, so....our family of five ate out on the side deck this evening.....and i was humiliated...because the euonymous hedge that flourishes against the back of the garage had been poorly trimmed.....i had trimmed it poorly....this afternoon.....gentle readers.....hedges look much better up close than they do from the deck ....i was NOT moved to get up from the table and take up the shearers....which means that my shame took a back seat to the comfort of a lovely evening with good company......but tomorrow i will get the clippers back out and even out the selvages.....

dreams in 3-d......

ok, so.....i slept relatively soundly last evening.....and as it is afternoon and i can still recall bits and pieces of my dreams...i consider this a good sign .....can recall climbing the steep dark wood steps to the inside-upstairs in my late sister-in-law marilynn's house.....and rather than the 'hired man's room'...there was a spacious apartment...with a dining room that featured a large japanese-style flower arrangement on the table...and this flower arrangement was so brilliant to behold that i put on 3-d glasses to better enjoy the effect.....or is that affect?.......what the dream was missing...i see clearly as an afterthought to unconscious musings....was a hummingbird with its wings thrashing in slo-mo......

the clothesline....

ok, so....i started into the collected family laundry this morning after i helped with the beef festival race.....and i decided that the clothes really needed to dry outside in the lovely summer sunshine...but to set up the clothesline i had to trim the overgrown euonymous hedge that hides the concrete foundations of the house.....and there was such a chopped up mess of greenery in my wake that i had to rake up the trimmings and haul them in small loads to the compost....and then i had to dust off the clothesline that winters over in miss lulu's cabin....and then...only then...could i hang up the first laundry of the season......whew......i hung up the second load as well...but the third i tossed into the dryer because the line was full...and my urge to be green had passed......wonder how much it will cost me to pay one of my offspring to bring in those clothes that are still hanging out to dry......

minature lavender soaps

ok, so...in my dreams there was a large gathering at my house, and a mother of a school-aged child came to me quite upset because i had lavender soaps in my bathroom, and they smelled so good that her son ate one, and she was scolded me for having such tempting little soaps....i recall clearly walking into the bathroom and picking up one of the little soaps (flower-shaped) and smelling it....and the soap only smelled of soap and not of lavender.....andi recall turning to the mother and telling her that it was not my fault that her child ate a lavender-colored soap that didn't even smell of lavender.....

check order

ok, so....i am down to less than 5 checks, and i was moved yesterday to order them on-line while i was thinking about it- before i actually ran out.....and i ordered the same palin green checks as usual.....nothing fancy or iconic or silly......and at some point in my dreams last night i recieved the checks in the mail....only the checks i recieved were pink instead of green, and they were warm- like they has just come off the copier.....this dream was a curious progression in my dream life...the memory of something warm in a dream as opposed to a smell or a color sequence or a sound......if my checks do come in pink rather than green i will laugh out loud.....

the murder

ok, so...the first 30 minutes of worktime this morning was devoted, by necessity, to the discussion of the friday afternoon murder of an area physician's wife, possibly by her own physician husband, on their wedding anniversary on what may or may have not been their pontoon on lake herrington, just around a few bends from where i live....a few more details than previously reported in the media...that the spouse did do cpr on his wife...i found this detail comforting...as the press report made it sound like he just sat there with her tied up to the boat until the ambulance arrived.....very troubling.....almost as troubling as the knowledge that 2 of the witnesses to the 'crime' were prisoners fishing behind the prison......what is up with that?......how many prisoners are fishing behind the prison on any given day? are they traveling about in boats up side creeks....like the one i live on?......a one-time act of anger (murder) is one thing...but prisoners regularly at large in my neighborhood is another.....

can of catfood.....

ok, so.....i followed a state trooper car with full sirens/lights in the main road, and off to the right down my little circle as i headed home this afternoon.....thankfully the car kept going.....oy!...i have enough drama in my life right now without inviting more.....and when i got into the house, those present had not bothered to feed the cat or dog......and i proceeded to slice open my thumb on the catfood can lid......and the blood loss from such a cut is horrifying and persistent.....the bandaid did not hold back the tide...which i discovered as strolled out to the curb to get the mail and paper that had not been brought in.....my dripping thumb left a bit of a trail that i saw only after i turned to walk back to the house.....thankfully my clothing was spared from the carnage.....if i had a lick of sense i would go to bed right now....perchance to sleep more soundly than i have for a few days.....i ran out of hormones a few days ago....and wrongly assumed that i could handle the withdrawal...gentle readers....there are few things more annoying than waking up in a pool of sweat and knowing full well that hormone withdrawal was to blame......not ready to part with the little white pills just yet.....so...to wrap up this rant.....i have catfood can cut and hormone withdrawal to blame for my current state....

amen to all of that.....

ok, so...the best thing that can be said about today is that it is friday......there is so much going on that i briefly considered going back to bed and pretending that i have no further obligations on this day....but tomorrow promises a trip to the food coop in lexington....and that is something to look forward to.....

songs in drag.....

ok, so....in my dreams i was at some sort of festival..one that required a costume.....and mine was white and billowy to the point that i could barely get around....my flowing robes would get caught up and or snagged and i would stumble .....but this mobility issue did not dampen my desire to sing out loud......i made an effort to tell myself in my sleep to remember the lyrics.....ah well.....i do remember coming by the caterers van as a giant bowl of plain marinated beets was being unloaded....and i recall asking myself why there was no crumbled goat cheese and minced spring onions and/or chopped walnuts as a garnish.......

a tear-jerker photo op....

ok, so for my money, this photo of mama sotomayor said it all......what a glorious day for free-thinking americans....

stunned...

ok, so...i went to an end-of-term party this afternoon....and met an instructor who plans to teach the break of day in the fall..... gentle readers....this is a novel that i have read...and read...and..read....more times than i have been to paris...and that adds on to more than 12 times......ah....the part that stills my beating heart is when she mentions that her mother waits the blooming of a plant that blooms infrequently......i remember being awakening to see the bloom of cup of gold in 1976.....assured that this plant would never bloom again....maybe it did and maybe it did not,,,,,ah well....

hard work ain't what it used to be...

ok, so...there was a time when a spurt of hard work could take my mind off of just about anything....seems those days are gone....

yippee....

ok, so the only thing better than making it til the friday before a 3-day weekend would have been taking the day off......sadly, had i taken the day off i'd have had to drag myself on into work anyway.....given the circumstances.....the best i can hope for is not having to work the weekend....

spearmint

ok, so......during the summers of my youth it was customary to spend a week with each grandmother....on such an occasion i doubled up with my cousin john down on my crown grandparent's farm.....the upstairs bedroom had 2 doubled beds...and room for 2 more.....we entertained ourselves before bed with stories.....i clearly recall john retelling a story he had already told our cousin janet.....a story he had named spearment...i have no recollection what the story had to do with mint, or the mint family.....just that the story was named after a natural flavor......

cold feet.....

ok, so the overnight temperature dipped for a second day in a row......we closed the window but neglected to put on that extra blanket.....and so i woke up at some ungodly hour ....and it took me awhile to figure out that my discomfort was due to the chill and even longer to get my brain wrapped around the notion of the blanket at the foot of the bed.....

Ghandi's Diet

ok, so for the record.....

Diet and brahmacharya

Brahmacharya is also observed to contain one's sensual desires for food and taste, as well as materialism. Most brahmacharis prescribe to avoiding the consumption of meat, spices and cooked foods, said to cultivate the taste buds and pleasure senses of the mind. Gandhi, one of the most known brahmacharis, besides being an adherent of simple living and nonresistance, also devoted himself trying to create what he believed to be a perfect diet. The diet, later named the "Gandhi-diet" meant a diet which was environmentally acceptable, based on economical (low-cost) products and healthy (allowing the body to perform at its best capabilities; thus keeping digestion in mind). The diet, on which he worked for 35 years, constantly re-evaluating and improving it for himself, consisted of [1] [2] :

* 1 litre of goat's or cow's milk
* 170 g cereals
* 85 g leafy vegetables
* 140 g other vegetables
* 30 g raw vegetables
* 40 g ghee
* 60 g butter
* and 40 g jaggery or sugar
* fruits according to one's taste and purse
* 2 sour limes (juice taken with vegetables or in water, cold or hot)
* salt according to taste

Gandhi also kept his weight low, with a Body Mass Index of 17.7. Today, the Gandhi diet is again becoming more popular, and experts as Dr. P.P. Bose [1] state the diet to be very healthy and to fit perfectly with the (USDA) food-pyramid.[3]

red and taupe curtains...

ok, so in my dreams i was in my old bedroom.....i almost said my bedroom at home, but that house is no longer in the family and therefore it is a home to somebody else...but i digress.....i pulled down the covers to get into my side and there was a woman there......a woman i know....and my husband escorted her out of the house....and we discovered that she had gotten into the house through one of the bedroom windows....one of the arts had been put in backwards so it could not be locked....and we had to take down the red and taupe window treatments in order to fix the problem....curtains as a descriptive doesn't quite cover a combination of 4 different rods and over/under panels.....that was the most fascinating part of this dream...not the woman on my side of the bed, but the cleverly crafted window treatment...in colors i have never used for room decor up to this point......maybe next time i take a wild notion to redecorate.....at my current pace that could happen sometime in the next 20 years....

the loveliest hour of sleep....

ok, so alarm went off at 6:30 am...as per usual....not exactly an alarm.....basically npr interrupts my sleep with local and global news....but on the weekends i quickly shut off the radio and turn back over for an extra bit of shuteye.....assuming that my spouse responds to the cat, who comes rushing in from her overnight sleeping location with her feed-me-now meow...meow....meow's....which wake the dog.....who starts to whine in his crate......he wants out to stretch and to dash out the front door in search of a perfect spot to raise his leg before he also wants to be fed......i deal with these antics m-f......so on s-su i kinda pretend that i hear none of this clamor....and if i am very, very lucky i will doze back into where my dreams left off...at least for an hour give or take a few minutes....ah.....life is good.....

princess cruise lines

ok, so.....in my dreams i was looking through the titles in a bookshelf i presume to be in my cousin's house in cleveland.....in a room i used when my grandmother lived there.....and several of the volumes on the shelf were binders, stuffed full of papers and pamphlets...for princess cruise lines.....someone in the family had recently taken a job with the company and was studying the official manuals.....for the record...the manuals in my dream were pink and white and black graphics...have not bothered to check this color scheme out for accuracy....i am amused to dream of cruises....as i have no desire to be stuck on a very large boat with the kind of people i imagine to value cruises......i could be persuaded onto a sailboat that is big enough to accommodate a book-club sized group....i suppose....

snowbilly grifter

ok, so...wonkette used that term to describe the governor of alaska this morning in reference to news that she may have gotten a huge advance on her soon-to-be written memoirs which could be published just in time for the 2012 race.......i wish i had thought of that.....

mix tape....

ok, so yesterday i downloaded a mix tape created by one i love dearly.....which sounds like a far simpler task than it turned out to be.....my pc lacked the previously downloaded program necessary to unzip the downloaded collection of music.....and my attempts to download something compatible were complicated by the assumption that i would actually pay for software i would use once.....and when i finally figured out all of those details, i was able to place the music in a folder.....and then to burn them onto a disc......here is where i screwed up.....i failed to place the songs in the original order.....tainting the intention of the mixer...who knew?!.....i did enjoy listening to the songs.....but i now understand the difference between a mix and a random collection of tunes.....and i hereby promise that when the novel is published i will read it front to back......

cold front.....

ok, so.....i got really cold in the night......with the just the sheet and the duvet cover......and not the blanket that for some reason my spouse deemed too much for the warming temperatures we must have had when he decided to remove the blanket....and so i made every attempt to curl up small enough to conserve some body heat....but finally gave up just before dawn and hunted up that blanket.......the final hour or so of my sleep was marvelously cozy...

in honor of mother's day

ok, so this from mcsweeney...

RESPECTFUL
YO MAMA
JOKES.
BY LUCAS KLAUSS

- - - -

Yo mama is so healthy her BMI is probably exactly within the ideal range for a woman her age.

- - - -

Yo mama is so well respected within her profession that I bet she'll get another raise and promotion this year despite the downward trajectory of the economy.

- - - -

Yo mama is so good at cooking she should open her own restaurant. I'd be the first customer.

- - - -

Yo mama is so attractive she could be on the cover of Prevention.

- - - -

Yo mama is so Internet-savvy she should start her own social-networking site designed specifically for moms. It would be really popular.

- - - -

Yo mama is so well read she could teach a course on literature at an accredited university.

- - - -

Yo mama is so good at listening she makes you feel like she's put everything aside to focus all her attention on you. That's a really great trait to have.

- - - -

Yo mama is so skilled at coaching basketball she should apply for a job in the WNBA.

- - - -

Yo mama is so generous she just paid for everyone's meal at Applebee's.

- - - -

Yo mama is so supportive of you and your efforts that I wouldn't be surprised if you were incredibly successful as a result.

tales of woe....

ok, so....my eku final was this evening.....and 4 hours after the whining began...only 1 of 5 students has emailed the promised goods (assignments dating back to january).....so i will feel no guilt for the unsavory scores that follow failure to turn in required projects......

spicy mustard?

ok, so the president dashed out across the potomac to a virginia burger place, and ordered spicy mustard rather than ketchup...as is the chicago tradition.....and the right wing-nuts made a huge deal of this uppity food choice....for the record...my spouse always orders mustard rather than ketchup on any sandwich offered.....so sean hannity is now attacking across the board middle-america sandwich preferences......must be a really slow news day for this to make national news.....

GOP clowns

ok, so wonkette has been offering a humerous series of GOP clowns in clown makeup.....just too funny...