as seen from I-75 south

ok, so...on my tearful drive back from dropping the middle child off at the airport......i did have a few amusing moments.....the suv with the tag.....crzymom....just love it......also a really big vehicle with the tag.....tuff...which also struck me as funny......i suppose it is the little things that make up for the big things.......

running out of time.....

ok, so our brief visit with the middle child is drawing quickly to a close....we have not come to grips with the reality of this departure...that we will not see this child for 5 months.....must keep in mind that this is an adult we are talking about and no longer a child that needs looked after and worried over.....a capable, thoughtful adult......who will surely keep us up to date on his life so far away.....it is the mundane details that mean most to loving parents, by the way......

the brit's take on public toilets....

ok, so this youtube clip is a spoof on public toilets frequented by public servants.....

also amusing from wonkette

ok, so this is just too funny, from wonkette....British portrait artist Jonathan Yeo is totally our new crush. His latest piece is a portrait of George W. Bush made completely out of graphic images from porno mags. Yeo, 36, was inspired to do the project in retaliation after the Bush Library commissioned him to do a painting, and then later backed out. Naturally, members of the GOP are outraged about this, even though, as Yeo says, "I did it to amuse." Mission accomplished!

as if the white house staffers don't have better things to do....

ok, so this from wonkette

When Karl Rove left his car in the White house parking lot while he went to Texas with the president, some “pranksters” covered it in Saran wrap, stuffed eagles, and an “I Love Barack Obama” bumper sticker. Rove will be getting back to DC tonight, at which point the Secret Service will be dispatched to track down and lock up these jokers.

sick.......

ok, so the mm is thinking about going in late rather than than going in now......up most of the night with abdominal miseries too brutal to describe......going back to bed for a bit.....the only good part about being up really late (really early?) was that i was able to confirm that my middle child was home safely....

dinner plans....

ok so there are people staying with my mother who have known me since i was born.....and so i will have these transplanted texans for supper on wednesday.......my question is...are they texans if they are born in cleveland..or are they texans if they moved to an texas army base oh so many years ago.......regardless, at least one is a west point grad and will be buried in arlington.....

passing up yet another summer movie....

ok, so...i was kinda looking forward to the release of the nanny diaries....the book was so deliciously acerbic.....a preppy-girl nannying for the remaining semester of her college degree (child development)at nyu.....her grandma has the real money- her folks less so.....and she is employed by mr and mrs x.....who are nightmares as parents and employers.....and mrs x is impressed at first that the nanny in question went to a-list schools in the city....and then she is intimidated by this, given that the nanny seems to have more to offer this child than the mamma......of course....the film producers cannot let a good story stay a good story.......by the time the scriptwriters are done, the nanny is from a poor single parent family, has already graduated, but in anthropology...and has no prep school connections of any kind....yeah, the poor child in question is neglected/ignored when there is nobody of importance paying attention.....in both book and movie....as if i would know because i've only read the reviews of the movie, not wasted my cash to see it.....sounds like something one picks up for free at the library to watch on a whim......when one has nothing better to do.....

tea time.......

ok, so in my dreams i was struggling to set up a tea table with sweet tea things......cups/saucers, both sweet and savory treats.....and this process seemed to be in slo-mo.......and i never got to sit down with either my tea or my tartlets.....but such is the nature of dreams, where the theme is generally unreachable in some regard.....somebody or something is unobtainable.....and as i ponder this notion i am nursing a very hot cup of hazelnut coffee with lowfat milk.......i could be having tea...nobody is hear to stop me...but tea is usually not the first thing on my mind in the wee hours......

10 years

ok, so.....i am almost embarrassed to admit that 10 years after the death of diana, i am still saddened...and after a year since the crash and burn of c-air flight 5191 i wish we could just move on....and this from someone who actually knew someone on the plane.....so why do i secretly mourn a woman i never met?......why do i worry that her children make their way in the world without her steadying hand?.....and how is it that i didn't even send a card to a widow that i know well enough to speak to on the street?......if i knew i'd surely record my response....but i have no idea why....none at all.....

tomatoes

ok, so.....the neighbor up the street came by today with a full bushel basket of tomatoes that he wanted/needed to give away.....seems his tomato plants were as prolific as mine were barren.....and so i am left to wonder......was he more attentive...does he have more topsoil, does he do a fertility dance of some sort in the twilight......i have hit just about bottom with regards to my lack of gardening prowess.....she whose yard looks so marvelous in the spring has deteriorated to a vast lunar wasteland during the august heatwave...........yeah, well....we couldn't help ourselves but to accept some plump romas.....and a few betterboys.......

life lists

ok, so.....i have been weeding in the hot sun, and pondering these life lists that one hears so much about..ellen has one....there is a current american express ad series that lists crazy things such as parachuting or helicopter-skiing, or reading moby dick and/or ulysses (read the books;will never bother with the crazy dangerous stuff).....or do a marathon (done that)....or get a master's degree (did that a long, long time ago)....and it wouldn't include learn french....i've been trying to do that for 30 years....and while i have made modest gains, i am not sure that i'll ever be able to say that i have mastered that language...c'est la vie.....i have come to several astute conclusions about such lists....first, there is a difference between things i want to do before i die and things i would do if i knew i was dying.....on the things to do before i die list there would be places to visit......like tuscany....but even sayng visit tuscany is not quite as specific as saying that i would love to rent a villa and take cooking lessons and maybe help with a grape harvest......that would be pretty cool.....and i want to not only visit vienna, but take a hovercraft to budapest for lunch......and see the bust of queen nefertiti in berlin......i not only want to visit new zealand...i want to hike across and see some of the places filmed in lotr........and i'd love to take a sailing vacation around the greek islands.....but life lists are not all about travel.....i'd really like to train my right brain so i can use my left hand more efficiently.....just moments ago...as i weeded dead and dying lilyofthevalley from the front/side bed.....i was reminded that i cannot yank weeds nearly as strongly with my left hand as i can with my right......and this had more to do with fundamentals than mere strength...i do not naturally grasp the weeds with the proper angle....something that one just does with the dominant hand without ever thinking about it.....curious for a person who writes and eats left-handed, and cannot begin to grasp a pencil with the right hand......so....my life list involves such small yet vastly personal accomplishments.....i really do want to sort and catalog all of the old photographs stashed around this house.....that would be an accomplishment worthy of an engraved announcement, eh?......and i want to install drip-hoses around my planting beds so i do not have worry so about watering during these drought conditions......curiously, regaining my girlish weight isn't anywhere near the top of my list.....given that lists are what is important to us personally rather than what seems important to others.....but i digress from point number 2...that my list of what i would do if i knew i was dying would be vastly different from list number 1...'d knit sweaters and afghans for yet to be thought-of grandchildren.....just they could have something i made just for them...because i knew before they were even a glimmer in someone's eyes that they'd be special and i'd wish i'd known them.....i'd make a point to make peace with the handful of folks out there with whom i have yet to make peace.....and i'd be going back to my favorite places.....hopefully with loved ones.......forget italy and new zealand...what if i find that they weren't what i'd dreamed of?.........i'd be renting a nice apartment in paris, hopefully one with an aga stove, with room enough for my favorite people and i'd be shopping at local markets and cooking wonderful meals, and drinking far too much of the wines of many regions......and spending entire mornings or afternoons in single museums, reading about each and every painting.....and i'd sit in cafes with my coffee or wine as if i had no better place to be.....and just watch the world go by......and eventually i'd/we'd have to go home and face the music.....it would be with new memories of old favorite places.....and sometimes old means best.......

feedback on 14 transactions

ok, so......i prefer to buy my books through half.com...which allows for the purchase of used/not necessarily brand-spanking new books.....at far less than the new versions might be on a-zon or b-n......even with shipping.....and one of the requisites with this purchase system is that one must rate the seller....half.com will pester you until you take the time to rate the seller(s)...in this case......i seem to have purchased 14 paperbacks since i last left buyer comments.....9 of these were for bookclub....and therefore i have only read the handmaid's tale our of that crop......and then there were the new (to me) m.f.k. fisher books......those who will live in france should read at least one of her memoir-ish food essays....the piece she wrote about eating lunch at a far-flung multi-star restaurant in the off-season while she was out on a day-long walk is priceless...it is called 'i was really very hungry' in some of her collections.....and then the two carson mcculler novels....i have plowed my way through these last purchases......and will now start reading bookclub books early.....which is problematic...in that when that bookclub meeting comes around, my spouse will be reading the book in question, and my access to it for refreshing my memory will be wanting......ah well.....must get some errnads out of the way this morning before i entertain the luxury of settling in with an unread book......

media overload.....

ok, so....on my drive back to d-ville after an indian buffet lunch with my fellas i turned off the radio......the headline story was about a plea bargain....and i wasn't up for the sorted details on this newscycle.....neither did i care to hear again about a slender starlets 82 minutes in jail for her dui, or was it possession, or both?......it is hard to say......and then there is today's body count....this time from friendly fire.....and so i thought i'd take a little time off from thinking about it all.....until i got home and found my long awaited bookclub book...the handmaid's tale......in which the handmaids are not allowed to read, or write......such is not their role....and the notion of never being able to do either....reading or writing is quite chilling.....if i had to choose i'd go for the overload rather than the drought......

friday.....

ok, so....friday....a few hours in anderson county and i have the rest of the weekend to enjoy.......lunch at kashmir, by the way...with my boys.....and then a bit of solo time as i make my way slowly back to d-ville.....

obama on the daily show.....

ok, so i really like this guy.......ya gotta press play, by the way......

lapse......

ok, so....tonight was my first eku class....and i failed to recognize a student who used to work for me back in the trc days......of course....she is now much thinner and has bleached her hair and gotten contacts....but other than that i should have picked her out of the crowd...right?....occasionally i'll have under-5 clients...and the mamma will ask me if i remember them as students......and sometimes i;ll recall but mostly i won't...the context i suppose........i am not looking for people i know when i look at the client list.....just like i am not looking for past clients when i look at my student list.....and there have been a few of those....and i was slow on that uptake as well.....so let's get on to more positive news of note.....my client that was eating 4 eggs and 4 pieces of bacon and 4 sausage....has turned to a 2-egg spinach omelet with cheese and has dropped several pounds.....she was tickled......only term to describe it.....and as clients go......i hope that i'll not easily forget just how sincere she was when she told me that she was surprised how much she enjoyed spinach for breakfast......

class begins today

ok, so....my eku class begins today.....i may have up to 27 students, as i have authorized 2 over-rides to the class limit of 25 assuming that somebody would drop out...sometimes folks never show up the first day......i will be occupied on thursday evenings until mid-december.....

amen

ok, so....amen, amen and amen

readership down

ok, so this from cnn.com........... There it sits on your nightstand, that book you've meant to read for who knows how long but haven't yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing -- you are not alone. Women are more avid readers than men, a new poll says.


One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.

The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year -- half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.

mm's note: the typical reader read 4 books last year?......how very, very sad that so many watch trash t.v. and so few take advantage of that time slot to read a great piece of prose