It just dawned on me that Robert Pattinson who was born on May 13, 1986 in London, England played Cedric Diggory. In December he is playing Edward Cullen in the new movie based on the Stephanie Meyers TWILIGHT series (which has the fourth book coming out Aug 2. It is kinda sick for me that this hunk is the same age as Matthew.
TWO WHOLE HOURS OF NEW FOOTAGE!!
So the pushers came over for dinner. We had spinach pies (actually they were more like spinach tiles--they were kinda flat. Delicious but thin) and olives, and beers of course. Rollo may have started a thing, BLUE MOON beer with a slice of orange. I am not normally a fruit in my beer kinda girl but these were tasty. Then we had a huge pile of roasted asparagus (my pee smells funny! ...snort... rofltm) and lamb burgers.
So I am explaining (making excuses) to Carol how Lisa & her Mom (Trini the most amazing adopted gramma in the world--she & Gramma Terry could have a contest and see who was the best adopted grandma) made these kick ASS burgers. They scored a 12 outta ten ya know? Ground lamb with the stuff inside the burger. Feta (see digression momentarily), oregano, diced tomato, black pepper. But the thing is when Clan Costello cooked-- the burgers were on an outside grill. The patties were seared crispy on the outside and tender juicy pink on the inside. I am thinking I should have gone with charcoal outdoors. I did them inside and I cooked them toooo low and slow. They were tasty but I missed the crispy outside. Also Trini's grocery store had these beautiful buns (snert). NOTE TO SELF: Hofoods maybe cool but they have a lame selection of burger buns. So ours were like a 7 outta 10.
Actually maybe a 6.5 cuz I effed up with the feta (here my darling reader is our preplanned digression). I thought I had two containers of feta--not so much. By the time I had the spinach pies in the oven I realized there was no feta for the burgers. Damn it. Luckily C&R already love me so we just rolled with it.
The carrot cake made up for it. Oh baby did the carrot cake make up for it. That is the best damn carrot cake recipe IN THE WORLD!!
If you haven't watched the finale of LOST yet you may want to leave now. Here is your *SPOILER ALERT* & a complete lack of a transitional statement.
Guess who was in the coffin?? LOCKE!! HE is Jeremy Bentham how sick is that? You know the story about how they roll Bentham's mummified corpse our for department meetings right? --EWWW--So we are all sitting there staring at the idiot box and I am all like--remember??? Bentham is one of Kate's old lovers--so we bust out LOSTPedia SYNOPSIS HERE and yeah ...I am full of shit--too much cake I think...or maybe beer...whatever... this was a great two episodes.
At the end of the first hour I was praising the DVR. God I hate commercials. I cannot WAIT till this Season is on DVD. ActionSayid was in another amazing fight, eyeliner boy and his mysterious ways appeared and (somehow I thought he was a pacifist) popped off a round just in time. Juliet gets to drink Rum with half nakey Sawyer (anybody else see the Pirates of the C. reference...NOT THE RUM!) The baby is still alive, but not Jin so much. Claire is a ghostie (yes I just coined that term), Mr. Ecko is playing chess with big H. and best of all DESMOND AND PENNY ARE TOGETHER!!! YAY!!
So we were trying to reassemble rosters after the death knells stopped ringing--Rose & Bernard, Juliet & Sawyer, Charlotte are all for sure on the island. Daniel & co are a mystery-- did their raft go w/ the island?? Ben is in the desert with his parka, Keamy is a Zombie. Kate keeps a gun in her closet (big surprise there eh?)--Jack is crazy. Sun is on a vendetta. Hurly/Hamlet is not crazy he is just skeered of the bad guy in the parking lot. Lapidis is with Des & Penny--remember Frank crying? WHEN was that? was it a flash FWD? or a flashback?? How many others are there? Will Sun get to kill Ben? Will Ben kill Penny? Tune in in February for the sands through the hourglass--
Less than 24 hours apart-- two of my dearest are getting their boobs squished. The reason I writing about this today is not that I am overly worried about either of them--they are both perfectly healthy (and they both have great racks!) But the last time I wrote about boobs I got about 500 more hits than I normally do. That was fun for me. So, I can legitimately take this opportunity to say BOOBS a lot and get the message out that baseline mammograms are good but this is the most stressful--and painful procedure. It makes being a girl pretty damn sucky, like getting a monthly week of mess and headache isn't enough punishment.
I hate mammograms! Almost as much as beets.
Aren't you glad you tuned in today??
Okay if you haven't got a facebook yet (LISA!!!) you need one. They have the coolest stoopid shit with which to waste time. I just spent 15 minutes looking at "Flair" which is an application that allows you to send little icons of buttons to your friends. It is like shopping without spending money. I stopped after 42 pages of "MORE--->" cuz well I can't just sit on my ass and eat bon bons while I watch Ellen and Oprah. (actually i haven't watched either of them. I used to watch Oprah when Zoli was little. but not so much. IT's inside joke you see. Pete teases me that when I'm not teaching that all I do is "eat bon bons and watch Ellen". He is so funny. ANYWAY-- There is so much Harry Potter crap on FB. I love the LOST trivia too, but at least I am smart enough to realize that I can only do one drug at a time. SOMEBODY has to go to the grocery store.
Looking at all the HP buttons made it pretty clear I need to save my pennies for swag at the conference.
We were so chill we didn't even "roll"--we sorta "st-rolled" through the weekend. In fact if Matt's friend "Fish" (aka Morgan) hadn't bounced around us in little circles Saturday night we might not have even managed the energy average required to rank "stroll". Melllllllow.
Chris & Gretchen helped "decorate"the penguin but couldn't stay through Friday night. ): 
Eua came for a bye-bye dinner (which you are prly sick of hearing about by now!) and we watched the Wings win. She wasn't necessarily familiar with the Wings or even the NHL in general but we had fun. We were all kinda revved about the results of the Middle Kingdom adventures but eventually Arianna and Faillen pointed out that we were 24 hours early!!
Over the course of the weekend we introduced Roxy to Hippie Hash at the Fleetwood but the highlight for the evening was "No Country for Old Men." Wow. That was pretty violent even for the Cohen Bros. She & Pete loved it. Matt went bar hopping with friends. I read my book, (Micheal Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road) it was also violent but less graphically so-ironic how much energy we spent watching other people beat the crap out of each other.
On Monday Pete cleaned up a big windfall mess. We finally dragged that broken Maple tree crown over to the woodlot. We really need a chainsaw. We soaked in the sunshine and in tub. We napped. We played BloingBall and then last night watched the Wings win again!!! YES!!!
So there was really nothing too special just calm and quiet, Pete played his guitar (and actually plugged it in for once so it didn't sound like tinfoil strings.
The video below is what we missed at the MK Crown Faillen described the craziness at the end of the clip as " A massive Middle Kingdom pep rally."
Everybody yelling "Draco Invictus" and feeling all proud. With good reason!
One could choose to look at preparing a meal as a strategic maneuver. One must take into account not only the likes and dislikes of the diners ( the weaknesses and strengths of one's enemy--not that I would cook for enemies--that would be dumb. OOH UNLESS you were gonna pull a Titus Andronicus and feed The goth queen's sons to her in a tasty pie!--ah as usual--I digress.
The planning of a successful dinner party includes precise menu planning and a well thought out schedule. OH yes! a tight schedule. For example today dinner is at 6. In fact dinner is pretty much always at 6 around here. and frankly sometimes getting everything on the table at the right temp is about all I can handle. But today I am in a groove.
The wee beasties (ie eight cornish hens) have been introduced to their orange sesame marinade and snuggled into appropriate roasting pans. That got briefly interesting when I had them all in one big pan looking oh so picture perfect--but the pan wouldn't fit in the oven. good thing I have two ovens!!
In the space of time from the last post I have also gotten the trifle assembled. Coconut custard smothering strawberries which are nestled in bright red layers among giant hunks of angel food cake. It is gonna ROCK! mmm.
"How do you do it?"
"Can you teach me?"
"What is the recipe?"
Okay--constant readers--heads up! festive food occuring! The occasion? Eua is leaving for Africa and I want to cook for her. We both like Blood sports--neither of us will be attending the MK Crown so I invited her to watch the hockey (Wings vs Penguins game one of the Stanley cup Finals!!) game with us. Matt & Roxy are bringing her in from MSU. A large "family dinner"
OI!! So yesterday afternoon I started marinating hot wings for during the game (to be served with cold beer and salty snacks of course).
Three and a half pounds of chicken wings turned into drummiesticks ( a slimy but necessary procedure) and soaking in Marinade. Which consisted of about 3/4 cup Frank's hot sauce, 1/2 c. red pepper infused olive oil, 1/4 c. brown sugar dissolved in 1/2 c apple cider vinegar. Sealed in airtight tupperware and refriderpateted till about 45 minutes before game time. At which point they will be Baked on foil lined cookie sheets at 375F till they get the right cripsy chewy texture we like. We like'em dry round here--not all sloppy and saucy.
THIS MORNING: Started sourdough bread for Zoli's famous dinner rolls. Baked an angel food cake for RED&WHITE (Detroit's colors) Trifle. The red and white will be symbolized by white coconut custard and fresh strawberries.
I have thus far Hulled and quartered the strawberries set them to soak in brandy and sugar. This morning I have blanched green beans and put them in a lemon juice garlic olive oil mariande. Green beans are for Salad Nicoise which will be served with ROASTED PENGUINS!! More on that later.
It is time for that fourth cup o' coffee.
DETROIT
May 20
The Opera House
He was hilarious! and Those denim clad legs!! my god! *sigh* Seriously what ws the most important thing? What did he wear??
Cowboy boots, skin tight jeans a red gingham shirt and tuxedo tails. I had hoped for more swish, but I'm not bitchin!
I dunno about a month ago Pete lifts up the Sunday NYT to show me the full page ad. I was sad because lately, the more excited I am about a trip or event the more likely it is to fall thru. I didn't even want to wish we cold see him live. THEN a couple weeks later during Scrabble Richard calls to say "guess what??" I eep-ed for about an hour! MAJOR EEPAGE!! I may have even Squealed! So what started out as dinner and a date with the old BFF(s) ended up cursing multiple municipalities and their systems of good citizenship. Timmy got stuck with jury duty in Ingham county and that pushed the envelope of time right to the very edge. I think we ended up with plan "D". THEN Petey got a hand slap for the taillights on the truck being out-BUT we made it! and ta da! R. had gotten box seats!! SWEEEET. After the prerequisite Abraham Lincoln jokes we settled in for a grand evening. The theme for the evening was ironically enough--civilization. Lots of language gags including two Roman soldiers trying to have a "alarum" type conversation wherein they had to communicate danger. I about wet myself. It was great fun. I heart the Izman. Thanks guys it was awesome!!
It seems that brother director teams make for some good stuff. (ahem...Gareth..Trev??) I do love the Cohen Brothers, they are consistently entertaining-- as are the team of Andy and Larry Wachowski. And baby?-- the Wachowski brothers' live action take on the Japanese Speed Racer cartoons is freaking awesome! How many exclamation points can I use without looking like a 12 year old fangirl? The film is like is like being inside a pinball machine, you ARE the pinball!! The racing sequences are pulse poundingly frenetic.
The race tracks themselves are these fantastic roller coaster rides of adrenaline and power. The Mach 5 and of course her new baby sister the Mach 6 are easily considered characters themselves, anybody else thinking Roller Derby girls? I would argue the speedways are also viable personalities, especially the ice caves that supposedly killed my mysterious badboy Rex!
I have been told that I have the attention span of a kitten and that my magpie (oooh look shiny thing!) like tendencies will be the death of me-- but frankly I just don't care. That movie was so fast and so incredibly perfect. There are tons of allusions to the original cartoon (which I grew up with and adore) from Speed's lucky red socks to the one dimensional panel of race announcers from every country.
The costumes were brilliant (sooo.. much patent leather--did you see Trixie's boots! I want them!!) The actors were perfect. Roger Allam is the baddie who fixes races to boost corporate profits. My childhood crush--Racer X (Matthew Fox sigh...) and Inspector Detector have to save the integrity of automobile racing and of course the reputation of the Racer family becomes embroiled in the headlines.
I was really worried about the monkey but it was all good. John Goodman was the perfect Pops. The kid who played Spritel? Paulie Litt --has such malleable facial schtick that I was wondering if the Matrix boys had rigged a little CGI on his forehead. But no--their slick cinematography meshed anime and reality from the very beginning-- a cartoon within a cartoon that just completely blows Roger Rabbit's weak ass shit off the screen. It was like a jello parfait with layers of color saturated visuals alternating with the mandatory melodramatic dialog, "HO! Speed!". The color palette was like the Brady Bunch on electric koolaid.
THE GIRLS? Happily my feminist sensibilities were relieved because Susan Sarandon's acting was spot on. Her portrayal was a fantastically surreal blend of June Cleaver and a checkered flag girl that Pops would have fallen for! Christian Ricci was magnificent, much better than that pablum in Sleepy Hollow she gave us. I want a helicopter. How did she make a welding mask look sexxy? She completely OWNED Trixie!!
I really wish I could have seen it with my dad (he used to race stock cars) and my brother in law who is addicted to racing games. I am sure Papa and Big A will both LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie.
Constant readers may not know that I used to drag race a little in HS and I swear after I left the theatre all I wanted to do was get on a motorcycle or a snowmobile or SOMETHING. Sadly--I was stuck in the backseat with Rox and Iz and despite our singing and dancing to the soundtrack (which was happily complete with the Mach 5 sound effects from the cartoon). I really wanted to go back in and see it again. Yeah-- it is THAT good!
After five long years of trying to make a square dog fit into a round hole...I gave Bree back to the Planned Pethood people. After her most recent arrest and $250 bail...well that was the straw that broke the camel's back. So, she came home for a couple of days till we could get all the arrangements settled. Her passport on the Doggie Underground Railroad if you will. A relay that started with our driving her down to Maumee this morning and will end up with her joining two other JRTs on a 500 acre dairy farm sometime tomorrow night.
--and would you believe, when we got to the adoption event she actually escaped??? She was promptly cornered and crated and we split.
I clearly remember my dad describing pretty girls as 'maters. Like Sally Field, My dad really likes Sally Field. Prly cuz my mom looks alot like her.
ANYWAY...I planted my tomatoes today. Four heirloom beefstakes and nine Roma, plus six cherry. I still have about eight "square foots" left. I know green beans and peppers are still on the list. I have eggplant seeds started but they aren't doing much yet. Luna keeps stepping on the baby cukes. They are gonna need their trellis just to protect them from Miss Nosy Paws. Gad that dog has big feet! 
OH! I saw a toad today! How cool is that? Isn't it early for toads? Xanni wasn't quite sure whether or not he wanted to touch it. Then it peed on me. Aren't I cursed now? Of course after the toad pee induced giggle fit-- THEN he wanted to touch it!
In strictly decorative gardening news; the ferns are going NUTS. They are huge and beautiful. I think tomorrow I will start weeding the bed around the flagpole. I actually think I am going to rearrange the border and work *with* the past three years of grass creeping into what I am sure was once a lovely rock garden.
TECHNOLOGY:
Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer? A picture of Matt & Roxy on the trampoline
Q. How many televisions do you have in your house? 1
BIOLOGY:
Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed? right
Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body? a deer tick
Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted? a stump log thing
Q. Have you ever been knocked out? yes. In what way? I road my bike up a tree.
BULLSHITOLOGY:
Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? nah--I like surprises.
Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I have. I like Daye; it suits me.
Q. What color do you think looks best on you? ummm..I have no idea? black?
Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item? Yes...snicker
DAREOLOGY:
Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100? hell yes
Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000? We discussed this already didn't we?
Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000? Hell yeah! (checking the mailbox for my checks!)
Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000? ewww nobody would pay me for a centerfold..ewww
Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? prly
Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000? I don't think so, no.
DUMBOLOGY:
Q: What is in your left pocket? no pockets
Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie? um..techincally??...no not so much
Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house? Both. Hardwood downstairs, carpet upstairs.
Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower? Stand
Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own? four
LASTOLOGY:
Q: Last person who texted you? Matt
Q: Last person who called you? the dog rescue lady
Q: Last person you hugged? Isabel (she needs a lot of hugs lately)
I really didn't know I had big boobs till Ia's photo shoot. I'm serious! I mean I know they got bigger when I was nursing the kids but I was usually far too interested in OTHER people's boobs to pay much attention to mine. Pete was happy and that was about the extent of my concern. I did (do??-- I don't get that drunk anymore) have a bad habit of flashing people. It was (is?) my deviant super power. But over the weekend I was far far far too self conscious. I thought about the girls so much I am still thinking about them and it seems they are doomed to be the warm up exercise for today's writing. This rambling tirade is all the purple cote's fault. When I first started playing in the SCA I inherited a beeeutiful lavender cotehardie from my evil twin Paula. It fits as if it were painted on; s'got tippets and a train-- the whole schmeer, and I love it.
So Saturday morning, we are suiting up and I decide to opt for full mundainties (bra and panties). I am generally "skin out" (which means all garments are authentic to the period I am trying to portray) but it was chilly and the modern understuff seemed to be the right choice...nobody wants to be all nipply in front of daKing--EXCEPT and oh dear reader this is where the intro ends and I begin to share three booby anecdotes.
The purple cote is constructed to support things that need support without modern undergarments--yeah like you care--SO I have an underwire bra and this stripe of armor like buttons all converging in the same spot, that is the apex of the cleavage. I figure I am gonna be lit on Scotch soon enough and disregard the slight annoyance this could cause. I struggle with which belt to wear (cuz ya need a belt cuz there ain't no pocketses) give up on the belt entirely (all it did was accent the pudge roll--not pretty. and I figured seems how I am already wearing rayon stockings, mundainties and NO VEIL... well I won't be getting a Laurel for Costuming anytime soon ya know? feh..I am here to watch people beat each other up and drink with my girls..LET'S GO!
We parade through the foyer of the hotel and only one guy took a picture with his cell phone of the 14th century freaks. I get all the skirts and tippets tucked into the truck and we depart. About ten minutes down the road I realize that no amount of Scotch is gonna numb me to the annoyance that is trying to reverse alien itself into my chest. The seatbelt is now forcing the buttons to press the underwires directly into my tender skin. OWIE. Fidget. Squirm. I ask Pete to reach down the back of the gown and unclasp the bra. (Yes we are driving.) The damn cote is too tight and he can't get his arm down my back. So I sit there entangled in the seat belt, the tippets, & the sleeve of my chemise. I am wrestling around like there is a bee in my bonnet when I look into the review mirror of the guy in the pick up truck in front of us. Well, doesn't he have a nice smile. GRRRRR!! Eyes on the road dude. FINALLY I get one bra strap down below my elbow and I can complete the maneuver any woman out of high school can master. I remove the bra without removing the clothes. INSTANT RELIEF.
We get to the event and go thru Troll at which point the lack of a belt is now a bigger concern. I now have a spiffy girdle book for a site token! But no belt! Think outside the box girl! I tied it to a tippet. Success! It is my lucky day. I start skipping around and hugging people I haven't seen in months and I see Hrodir. I leap into his chest and he hugs me hard! YAY!
Happy greetings of kissy cheeks!! and we start to pull back and Hrodir's scale armor has wedged in between my buttons. Um--this is bad. His cuirass and my cote had plans they didn't inform us of! So I am basically velcro-ed to Hrodir's chest and he is laughing like the brat he is! Finally, he lifts me back up and off the armor and I try to assess damage. I had envisioned the individual metal scales slicing the already straining button threads--happily damage was non-existent. WHEW.
Astute readers may recall I mentioned THREE boob stories, we covered the bra removal incident, then the Velcro Saga and now it is time for the Almond Wars. There is another boob related anecdote--but "Muddling" deserves it's own entry.
A certain Duke I know and love was snacking on cherry tomatoes Friday night. I'm not sure why or how but some how I ended up trying to catch the tomatoes in my cleavage. It was funny. All was well. Saturday afternoon, same Duke different ammo. We had a dish of almonds that everybody was munching on and suddenly there was an Almond trying to go down my top. Are they really that distracting? My boobs--not the Almonds.
I was surprised and laughed nervously (where was daKing anyway?) but then it seemed as if I had stumbled into a swarm of flying Almonds and the mom frowny face did not evoke the cease and desist I had hoped for, in fact now all three guys (including the first two I should have been able to call upon for aide!!) standing there had Almonds. EEP! I lobbed a couple back and immediately realizing I was out numbered I glanced about for reinforcements. AH! Thomas!! and Hrodir!!. I retreated. I skipped up to my potential saviours and said. "Look Fierce!" They both scowled over my head back at the Almond chuckers. "I need back up in the Almond wars." Both noble knights stepped in front of me, we hustled back into the fray at which point my lord husband realizing I no longer wanted to be the back board CLAIMS to have settled the issue of my assault with a victorious thumb war. Sensing that I was Not satisfied with that meager revenge, Thomas insisted that I be able to have a couple free throws at the mischievous Duke, I plunked an Almond right on his nose and felt vindicated. END of the ALMOND WAR. We jokingly trash talked that Feast would have more potential for food fight-y ness, but we never did get there...Too bad--the brie stuffed eggs had potential.
WOW! What a great event! We travelled "home" to Northshield this weekend. Weds night I was kicking myself for not going to WMU Medieval Congress tap here; especially after Mistress M phoned to flaunt the catalog at me... BUT we hadn't seen Fina & T-rex in forever, Thomas was gonna be there... G had her boytoy The OTHER duke! (and we *needed* to hang out w/John)...I was so happy to see Jane and Corydon. SURPRISE Alexandre was there! So many friends! I was happy all day (even during the Almond Wars) mmmmmm Scotchy scotch!
PLUS two very good friends (Raito and Hrodir) were fighting and one other admired associate, the "old" War General Lief who is "generally" a good guy ;) was also on the list of Combatants. I needed to see who was going to be HRM Lars' heir.
So Pete & I drove to Millywalkay. The tourney was quick and clean and VERY entertaining. AND RAITO WON!!!! EEEEP!! It was kinda tough for me watching the final bout. I hold dear both Count Kitakaze Tatsu Raito and Count Hrodir Vigageirr Toreson. There is something very invigorating about watching tournaments. Don't get me wrong, I get just as big a buzz watching big melee battles, but the passion and prowess of one on one...*shiver* LOVE IT!! Then when Raito victoriously lifted Aesa up in the air ??? Yeah..I like this game.
My smart girl Eua took this picture.
It wasn't just the exciting fighting, the effort put into the site tokens (really cool girdle books) and the beautiful backdrops for the thrones was stunning. The feast was plentiful and interesting, especially the fanciful pigbird at the end. Excellent work was done by the Barony of Caer Anterth Mawr. I really had a good time. It was one of those events where the cold rainy drive home is such an abrupt let down. Whimpery lame ass tears and despondent sighs of knowing it is gonna be MONTHS before we see each other again. Ya spend the whole day running around in fantasyland, drinking and flirting and being wowed by amazing people, laughing with friends who make you feel treasured just by smiling across the room (Hrodir!) and then...ya go home. Monday sucks.
Planned Pethood has posted the Dawg. She is down near the bottom of all these poor creatures. I am a foster parent for my own dog! How bizarre is that? She still isn't done doing her time. Cross your fingers that somebody wants her when her prison term is up.
There is a dogfood ad in YOGA JOURNAL that sez, "Judge a man's soul by the way he treats his dog."
Pete finally got a dosage for prozac.
sigh.
Um...Petunia effing GREW UP in Godric's Hollow!! How could she shut such vital force so completely out of her life? Godric's Hollow was a wizarding village. I want to think that Lily's folks weren't clueless. I think Petunia took her Squib-y-ness far far too personally.
Well it is about time! I finally got the mystery plants all identified. Jim from Great Outdoors what a sweetie brought out the landscape designer and we covered the whole 3.6 acres. I have honeysuckle EVERYWHERE!! Wanna help pull it out? The most mysterious was the Variegated Solomon's Seal. He said he was actually jealous of that patch. I also have some extra wistera and Virginia creeper. We discussed PRARIE not MEADOW and he is gonna find how much the seed is gonna set us back; but he thinks we can have a green effect by Fall. Which wil be nice cuz right now it looks like the Sahara. I gotta go weed.
The peas showed me their cute little green heads near the end of last week and this morning when I was "watering my dirt" (That is how Zoli explained my inability to come to the phone to speak w/the plumber.--OH! You didn't hear?? The downstairs bathroom requires professional plumbing AGAIN. It seems that when someone screwed a board into the floor upstairs (in an ancient repair WAAAAY before we got here) the screw stopped just short of actually piercing the coper water line but over the years corroded enough to make a tiny pinhole which of course, sprung a leak last week. Honestly? Whatever!! I am writing about HAPPY things...LIKE MY NEW WATER BARREL!! It is a recycled soy sauce barrel that we got from the Matthai Plant Sale Friday. I love it!! We also started getting some plants (about 1/1000th of what we are gonna need!!) in the meadow. We got four kinds of native grass and coreopsis and Joe Pye weed. Back in the garden the lettuce appeared this morning and the transplanted herbs from Wallace are doing GREAT!
The land is showing me where we have a few tulip bulbs here and there. The peonies are up. The sedum is doing great. I don't think the one big rose bush made the winter uprooting the furnace caused. It is looking pretty doomed. BUT HAPPY THOUGHTS--I have SEVEN LILAC TREES and they are all healthy and getting ready to pop.
Ladies and Gents,
May I present (in the largest .gif I could make) Mr. Bill Watterson's infamous and most dearly missed.....CALVIN & HOBBES!
Just in case you can't quite make out the tiny print they are trying to steal a bulldozer to plants trees in a subdivision. mmm ...poignant.
One of the lit crit terms on the HP final was "Romantic"--like the opposite of realism. But there is of course the other more common definition. Then one everybody thinks of--all drama and kissy-ing. That's the one we found on TMC; last night Izzy and I were both feeling a little soggy so we plopped on the sofa and surfed around till we found the middle half of (right when Cathy is insisting she has a brain despite her wardrobe) Wuthering Heights. That was a lovely surprise. Her responses to both Cathy and Isabella were refreshing. She decided that Heathcliff/Larry was "a little scary" and that he "looked like Matt D". This coming from a girl whose current obsession is Sweeny Todd*? Odd little bird. I don't think Matt D is scary at all, nor for that matter does he even resemble Olivier! So, we talked about romance/romantic and that led right into discussion of how fashion (of course--with her what isn't a direct lead to costume design?) can show a character's mood or what one wears projects about a person. We talked about ruffles and hoop skirts and how Nell wore very severe dark clothes while the "misses" were all taffeta and glowing light to project their youth and naiveté. The layers of ruffles and ribbons led us down path to thinking about a Maypole. I have always wanted to be in one of those ribbon twining circle dances, a VERY romanticized procedure--at least in my head. I found a piece by Nancy Sherer that has a couple of well crafted paragraphs that I would share.
She says:
"The May-pole is the most familiar feature of May festivities, but it has three distinct interpretations. In some cultures, the May-pole represented the world center, or alternately, the hub of the Wheel of heaven. In ancient times, the intricate dance of weaving cords around the pole was a magical attempt to direct Nature, which had become topsy-turvy over the course of time, back in order. Today the dance is performed by any who wish to participate in weaving the magic.
In other cultures, the May-pole was the Tree of Life, or a symbol of it. And this tree-- to borrow a phrase from Billy Holiday-- bore strange fruit. This is where the Savior was sacrificed in order to cleanse the earth. Holy Communion, eating his flesh and drinking his blood was possibly restricted to the priest class, but symbolic May Wine was liberally imbibed by the whole community. Hundreds of years later, the Christian lunar festival of Easter would replace the ancient solar festival as the time of renewal and rebirth."
Stacy said she was making Maywine for Scrabble tonight. COOL!! I'm gonna make VWbug cookies cuz..well my car is paid for!!!
If they turn out cute I'll take a picture.
I also have to think of a dish to pass for Saturday--some kind of birthday Derby Day kinda gig...hmmmm think think think.
*
Later after dinner she watched the Daily Show DVR w/ John Waters. She also LOVES "Hairspray". It was quite a night for her.
