John & kids met a bunch of new folks at Friend D’s birthday party this afternoon. When John was introduced to them he learned that said folks had already been to our house…at a party when we were out of town and our Friends were cat-sitting for us!
Me, I’m glad to know that our Friends took me seriously when I said mi casa et su casa. And I’m just hoping that I remembered to clean the bathroom well before we left town!
🙂
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
May your day and dinner be filled with good food and much joy!
I’ve been chopping squash to make this delicious-sounding recipe from “Food on the Food.”
Momentarily I’ll begin cooking my lumpy-bumpy Halloween pumpkin (the one I bought from my alma mater at the Farmer’s Market) for pumpkin pie! It’s been awhile since I’ve done pie and I’m looking forward to it. Yum!!
PS: Is there anyone else out there who likes to eat pie for breakfast on the day after? IMO, that’s truly the best part of Thanksgiving weekend!
🙂
A few days ago, a bright red envelope arrived in the mail from Sara (lucky me!). Inside was her contribution to my emergency tea stash (oh my, and delicious French tea, too–the very best kind!).
So I couldn’t snap a photo of her gift until this morning because I haven’t had good light this weekend. I prepped the ‘shoot’ by setting the tea on a saucer along with my favorite teacup. But after just a few seconds, this happened along:
And then just a few seconds after EllyCat hopped down off the shelf, look who had to investigate:
So I guess what I’m saying is, that between me, Elly and Toby, I doubt Sara’s tea will last long around here!
🙂
Several of my sisters from the Exponent II Blog.
From L-R: me, Caroline, Deborah, Dora. Brooke is in front.
Photo by Brooke
A quotation shared by Maddie:
“We have bigger houses but smaller families,
more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees, but less sense
more knowledge, but less judgment
more experts, but more problems
more medicines, but less healthiness.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back
but have trouble crossing the street to meet the neighbor.
We built more computers to hold more information
to produce more copies than ever…
but have less communication.
We have become long on quantity but short on quality.
These are fast times of fast foods but slow digestion.
Tall man but short character.
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It is a time where there is much in the window
but nothing in the room.”
~the Dalai Lama
Our family is thoroughly enjoying our new neighborhood with friendly new neighbors who are totally willing to ‘cross the street’ (or rather cross the grassy path) to meet us and share their homemade goodies. Lucky us and such a refreshing change from our former neighborhood! In addition, I recently made friends with a woman who opened her gorgeous beachhouse to me twice this week for time to rejuvenate, receive a massage, and enjoy crafting scrumptious dark chocolate (if you stop by I will share one of my rich truffle creations with you!). Then tonite, we made some new friends and reconnected with some old ones.
All joy. I am feeling so very blessed.
Eating well, living slow, receiving abundance. 🙂
A fellow blogger, Jonathan, photoshopped one of my flower pics and sent it over so I could see what a bit of digital massage could do to brighten up my pics.
I love what he did with this picture (compare it to the original).
For me right now, however, I’m eschewing photoshop for my daily flowers. Why? Among the reasons: I don’t have a lot of time for ‘photoshopping’, I like the challenge of taking pics ‘just as they are’ (I don’t even crop them), and I’m sharing with you just what I saw (although I will admit that the colors are a bit less vibrant then they are in ‘real life.’)
When I was in SLC I met many people who enjoy my photos. Several asked me about my camera, lenses, etc. When I pulled out my teeny little Canon, more than one laughed a bit. Because it’s “not a real camera.” I even borrowed a ‘real camera’ from a friend for a few minutes to try my hand at some ‘real photography’ (thinking that someone beautiful would result). And it was so hard to use–too many bells and whistles and just too heavy to do what I do with mine.
I guess I’m trying to justify the fact that I am lowtech and lowbrow when it comes to photography. Or maybe I just like the instant gratification that comes from using a simple tool (my Canon) in my own simple way. I will probably never be a pro photographer. And I have little aspiration to become such. Because as soon as I become too preoccupied with my ‘technique,’ I lose the intimacy of my garden experience.
So for now it’s just me and my little Canon. Doing what we enjoy most as we spend time in our garden. 🙂
Hey, but ya’ll are always welcome to improve upon my humble efforts!
Perhaps it isn’t at all ironic that Sara’s meme tag came after nearly 24 hours straight of moaning and complaining as I had to prepare our home for termite fumigation (I only slept a few hours last night and just grabbed the last few belongings as they were posting the DO NOT ENTER signs on our door….). So I am now sitting cross-leg on the questionably clean carpet in a temporary apartment and watching “The Belle of Amherst” on DVD as I try to calm the kitties down a bit. They have never lived anywhere besides our place and (poor things) Toby won’t even come out from under one of the beds for tuna. Ellycat has glued herself to my side as if to let me know that she knows no vet will come after her in the place of strange smells & sounds as long as I am nearby. Once the kitties calm down a bit they will be delighted to learn that there is a nest on the eaves of the backporch here with the sweetest little orange-throated finch-looking birdies chirping up a storm.
The Moaning Meme
5 people who will be annoyed you tagged them.
-John & Miko
-CatBonny
-Brooke
-TanyaSue
-Caroline
But to everyone else, consider yourself tagged and please play along!
4 things that should go into room 101 and be removed from the face of the earth.
-Packing for moving.
We had to to a mini-packing this week (all food, toiletries, and catstuff and anything we needed to survive in a bare-bones apartment) to prepare for the tenting & termite fumigation. Pain.
-War.
Really. And any activity done with the intent to harm another person or creature.
-Rodents.
‘Nuff said.
-Body Odor
There are good body smells and bad body smells. I’m talking about the bad ones.
-Cancer.
Yah, duh. And while we’re at it we can just eliminate disease in general. (Note: I know this is #5 on my list of 4 things, but I’m not much of a rule-follower…)
3 things people do that make you want to shake them violently. (Ok, really I can’t think of wanting to shake anyone badly, so I’m playing along in the spirit of the meme if not literally)
-parents or teachers talking smack to little kids
-praise for our current presidential regime
-folks who voluntarily join the military (and the corrupt gov’t who sends them on fighting missions)
2 things you find yourself moaning about.
-dictatorial community garden members
-health insurance woes
1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself.
-I’m quite sure that my opinions are correct and that everyone else should acknowledge my wisdom.
Went to the WACK feminist art exhibit this afternoon with friends, including four of the X2 bloggers and some AROOM participants. So fun! As we toured the exhibit that showcased feminist art from the 1970s and 80s I couldn’t help but think of our collective sisterhood that’s grown out of our affinity for the work started by the feminist foremothers of Exponent II in the 80s. The early X2’ers, like the WACK women, had a growing consciousness of oppression based on sex and gender. They organized themselves and produced books and a newspaper. They wrote poetry, fiction, and personal essays, created art, and aimed to change the world.
An important legacy that we now carry on as Exponent bloggers and blogreaders.
And while I recognize the significance of this legacy, I’m also just thrilled to have this bright and beautiful bunch of women to call my friends. 🙂
So at the exhibit there were numerous provocative pieces of art. Many challenged gender stereotypes or highlighted the social violence directed towards women. My favorite art piece was a small closet-sized room where all of the walls were painted black. Suspended from the ceiling and from each of the walls was an irregularly woven web of white crocheted yarn. I stood in that room for quite awhile alone. Feeling the warmth and security of being wrapped in a cocoon. But also feeling the connectedness of each of the fibers that composed the web that surrounded me. That experience was, for me, symbolic of the relationships that I have with the world. Yes, there are many patterns and textures to my ties to the people around me–as there were in this particular art installation–but it’s the variety and strength of those relationships that make my life so meaningful, that give my days their joy and purpose.
The following youtube clip shows a group of LARPers (Live Action Role Players) and their devotion to “acting out” the fantasy worlds of games like D&D and World of Warcraft. From this trailer I get the sense that the director of this film is poking fun at the LARPers. I’m particularly uncomfortable with the depiction of the woman using a wheelchair who discusses how role-playing allows her to to be free from the restrictions of her disability.
I know people who LARP and people who play D&D and people who very intensely play fantasy games. They are smart and articulate and fun to be with, perhaps even more so than some of my friends who are involved in more ‘mainstream’ types of hobbies.
So much of life is a fantasy–from dressing up to go ‘clubbing’ to driving an SUV to participating in esoteric religious rituals. I see no reason to ridicule or pity folks who participate in fantasy play. Not even those who have disabilities.
Playing along with this meme from BiV and JourneyGal:
1) I have difficulty with auditory discrimination. Meaning that if I have several incoming sounds my brain can’t prioritize the sounds very well and I don’t end up hearing much of anything. So chatting in crowded restaurants is tough and I usually sit at the front of classrooms. It also means that I have a really hard time “hearing” the words of songs or movie dialog. If I like a song I search out the words and I watch movies with the subtitles on.
2) I rarely wear nail polish although I like the idea of wearing it. My favorite color of polish is pale pink. I have strong fingernails that I can easily grow out very long.
3) Like most other people in my family, my second toe is longer than my big toe.
4) Until about 5 years ago I hated cats. I thought they were whiny, annoying, and they made me sick (quite literally, because of severe allergies). I resented my friends (and my sister) who liked cats. Now I am a zealous cat lover and the allergies are gone. Nearly every day I cuddle my kitties, sing them songs, and feed them their favorite treats. I find them an endless source of joy and delight.
5) Until about 5 years ago I hated chocolate. I liked chocolate-flavored things like cake, but hated the taste and texture of chocolate itself (PayDay was my fav candy bar because of its lack of chocolate). Yet at some point I got some very fine dark chocolate and fell head over heels. Now I don’t do milk chocolate and I only eat fine (as in 73% or above) organic dark chocolate. I almost always have a bar in my cupboard and nibble away at a few squares of chocolate per week.
6) I can touch my tongue to the tip of my nose. And I can do “the wave” with my eyebrows. I can also wiggle my ears–even one at a time.
7) Vanilla is one of my favorite smells. I am particularly fond of The Body Shop’s vanilla body spray and of Yankee Candle’s French Vanilla scent.
8) In the spirit of BiV’s “famous-people” list, I’ll add a few of my own. I’ve already written about my relationships with the Broncos. During my cancer treatments I had a few other brushes with famous folks, including Kenny Loggins. At a summer camp for cancer patients I took a drama class from an actress on the then-popular show “Hill Street Blues.” When I was a college student I dated a Japanese Chippendales dancer a few times (my roommate was dating his best buddy so we frequently went out together or hung out at our apartment). That was an ‘interesting’ experience–the hubris of someone who carried 8×10 glossies of his (mostly naked) self at all times. Yah.
