Neil Gaiman--my hero

“The storm came up out of the southwest like a fiend, stalking its prey on legs of lightning.” From Clive Barker’s Abarat.

Good morning my freaky darlings--Rather than go grocery shopping (which I must do) I decide to have a second cup o' java and see where the Rowling vs Vander Ark trial is at. I was pleased to see rational adults having conversations about interesting topics. I could use some of that right now.
I think I have a crush on Gaiman. I want to follow him around like the fangirl I am. Actually what would be a better fantasy is just to sit quietly, watching while he writes. I have admired him ever since E. tipped me off to the Sandman Series. His hero status was clinched with Abarat and American Gods.I wonder if other people put off working/writing with housework? I should either be finding scholarly support for my Snape argument or re working Fealty. But nope--I am sipping that coffee.

Oh!! look!! the puppy wants to play, how cute!! I should get a bigger zip zap leash for her. She is gonna demolish the old one. Her "heel" lessons are coming along nicely. She ate the butter this morning. About a half a cup was left in the crock on the counter. Post toast residue if you will--and I can't say that I blame her. I would eat butter like that if I could. I usually hide popcorn under it when I am that desperate. So far her her tally of things destructed (which one kinda expects with a teething toddler-puppy) is small. One coaster. One jump rope handle. Not bad! I like this dog. Even if she is afraid of the dark!! (Maybe she shouldn't read so much Gaiman!!)

Pisces untie!!

According to google horrorscopes our planetary ruler Neptune is zapped by chatty Mercury today, enabling us to think that we are communicating clearly. Unfortunately, this may not be the truth,(can I get an amen sisters and brothers??) for the more we talk, the less others will understand us. (Ain't that the truth!) It's a really good day to pay special attention to your secret dreams without trying to involve others in your process. (God thing today is a minimal social contact day!)

An Inconvenient Truth

So full of artless jealousy is guilt
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. --Hamlet

yeah! What she said!!!

You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brainsickly of things.
-Taken from: Macbeth

childish gossip

Iago:
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss,
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger:
But O, what damnèd minutes tells he o'er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!

Othello:
O misery!

Othello Act 3, scene 3, 165–171

Not one of my favorite things

Getting stood up...

One of the things I did on Friday was prepare this beautiful new recipe for Saturday. Veggie enchiladas. The corn tortillas were filled with a mix of Roasted potato, black beans, green onions, cilanto and queso. Then drenched in enchilada sauce and smothered in more queso. Baked till bubbly & lovely. (Thank you Melanie!! you are a genius--first squash gnocchi and now veggie enchiladas!)

(Vegetarians do not read the next paragraph) I also marinated round steak in lime juice, honey and ancho pepper sauce. Said steaks were grilled and sliced and served with caramelized onions & warm flour tortillas. FAAA HEEET Azzz! They were delish. In fact there is a whole steak left.

I have been told that I show love by cooking. Too bad the guests of honor weren't interested. My feelings are officially hurt.

Checklists

Despite the Stones' tune "satisfaction" humming in my hindbrain-- I do love getting things checked off.
Grades submitted. CHECK
Snow boots moved from entry way to basement shelf. CHECK
water seedlings.CHECK
Reservations for hotel rooms for Harry Potter Conference Terminus CHECK
(ooh should prly make sure we have a place for Crown Tournament...and I wonder if the ferry is running yet?)
dash off a snailmail to HP Conference "penpal" CHECK

buy stamps?? ooh two reasons to go out, dog food and stamps

Garden

Currently 67 degrees and fair skies. Laundry is on the line and I am chilling with a glass of ice tea. Not really enough time to figure grades.


Remember last fall when I was trying to identify all the shrubs & trees? Well the hedge by the patio is forsythia. No doubt about that eh? There are also two huge magnolia trees, which I thought were tulip trees--but Brooke corrected me. I'll wait till they actually bloom before I put a pic of them.

I have found some actual tulips around the base of some of the bigger trees but they look like a LOT of leaf and not so much bud. I have no idea what color they will be. The forget me nots Iz planted are beautiful, and the daffs we planted did not get eaten by squirrels but they did get a little frostbite. Meanwhile the 300 some daffs I planted at Wallace three years ago are down to about 50, but they look great. The chives and oregano are just asking to get moved. I feel kinda weird--like I am stealing my own plants!


On other yard/garden news...
there are now strawberry seeds
planted up by the old rose bushes
AND the veggie garden boxes have been constructed (cedar) and filled w/ half compost half topsoil. Four kinds of lettuce, carrots and broccoli babies ARE IN DA GROUND!! EEEP! Must wait to put in the basil and tomato seedlings...sigh. After seeing the Dali Lama speak yesterday you would think I would be calmer, but no-- I am still a spaz.



I am not sure how Pete did it but he accomplished this wonderful thing and still helped with Isabel's 10th b-day party! Pics of Izzy and her friends are here

YAY! Z!!!

At the beginning of the school year Z thought he was gonna skate along like he did at West. Hmm, not so much. He had to
reassess both his study habits and his time management skills. That first report card resulted in grounded for the next term. 2nd term he did well enough to get his privileges back, and today I am happy to report a very NON embarrassing report card. All A's & B's !! (except for math which was C+ and that was the result of a missing homework.) In case you missed the article in the Ann Arbor News yesterday about his school. Scarlett's laptop program, here is the link:
http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/04/ann_arbor_school_board_debates.html

Pupdate

OMIGAWD!

She is so good! The contrast between Bree (aka Stoopiddawg) and Luna is beyond remarkable. Some basic observations from the first three days

1. Luna comes when she is called.
2. Luna "sits" when asked.
3. Despite her Tarrach like fondness for hoarding shoes, she has not chewed a single inappropriate thing.
4. She waits at the door/stairs/edge of patio, and proceeds after me.
5. She whines twice, very quietly to ask to go out. Bree whines (seemingly) non-stop as many of you know--and it means NOTHING.
6. She does not try to eat out of the other doggies dishes. (Bree does)
7. She even wants the cranky kitty to play. She rolls over in submissive mode wagging her tail and the cat just sits there with its eyes closed.
8. She sits beside me if I stop. (She does shadow me pretty constantly. I have an entourage.)
9. She sleeps on the floor by the bed--not ON the bed.
10. She does not jump on people when they come in the house! And yet has the baritone "woof" that house alarms should.

I am soo happy!

The HP Class

Today was the last regular day of class. (Their Final is Tuesday.) I really felt sad as they all packed up their bookbags. I am gonna miss these students. We had fun, especially today. The lecture (ooh I shouldn't even use that word!!) topic was "fandom". We had a massive discussion ranging from Potter Puppet Pals tap here through cosplay and right on into a discussion of Book 7 and Neville's character arc; but dear one now is the time of the reckoning. I must start adding up their scores so I can get their grades in right after reading the exams. They were a great bunch of kids. I haven't ever been this sad at the end of a course.

I wonder if I'll feel this somber at the end of Fall term when I have this same course back to back?

I'd like to introduce Luna

Is she not the most perfect beastie you have ever seen? She is so well behaved. She adores Pete; when I was chucking laundry down the chute we got to the stinky running clothes layer of the hamper and she was all whimpery. She whined when he left this morning. Oi! If she was a humanpeople (as opposed to a doggypeople) we would have to have a chat!

She gets along great with Jarvis & Bree. Happily she is modeling her behavior on Jarvis waaay more than Bree so she can be off leash too. The kids love her. She brings me my shoes? Maybe a hint to go for ANOTHER walk? This morning was the first jaunt with just me and all three doggies. She ups the workout quite a bit lemme tell ya! She wants to hustle. Jarvis of course heeled nicely and Bree was her usual pain in the ass, but Luna couldn't quite decide where she was s'posed to be so she kept trying to duck around. A couple of times she tried to walk between my feet. She'll get it soon enough.
What is funny is watching her puppy enthusiasm outside. She wants to chase and play tag and run and fetch like she did with her daddy and sibs. But alas--this new pack is...sedentary at best! I toss the ball--she runs to get it and then looks at the other two like.."WELL?? Come get it!!" She is a breathe of fresh air and just blows Bree's crappy attitude right out the door!

updates

prayer service was lovely.
today is the funeral.

thanks for your thoughts and prayers they mean a lot to Pete. Ray is going to move into the Wallace house soon.

tonight we bring home Luna our newest family member. She is a 16 week old GSD.

Playing in the dirt/seed sharing

I am so eager to plant my garden. I want to start NOW! I do not want to continue sitting in my cinderblock cell of an office. The window just taunts me. There is currently some sort of politcal art on the quad right now. A couple thousand little plastic flags fluttering colorfully against the freshly green grass.

I know-- The soil temp is not where it needs to be just yet. And frankly we haven't even built the square foot gardening boxes. buy this book!! I have laid out the footprint with string and stakes. C. has been setting her seedlings out in the sunshine, but I am just letting mine stay warm in the library window. That way I won't accidentally leave them out when it cools down at night. I did that once. Lost the whole menagerie. Had to buy all seedlings. I was sad. The huge Southern Exposure Bay window is full of basil, three heirloom tomatoes and three broccoli plants, also heirloom and organic. I have been watering them with Frank's leftover turtle poop water. Seems pretty effing awesome so far.

I want to plant the lettuce.

I want my bees.

Eric may have found us a puppy.

Garbage Warrior

Here is his home page

I DVR-ed this program back a couple of weeks ago. Wow. Talk about inspirational. This guy, this renegade architect Michael Reynolds, is so pure--so idealistic. He is in there packing mud into tires and presenting legislation to Congress. I am so proud of him. I want to be this cool. I want to do something this worthwhile. I wondered when I read the title on the cable menu--is he fighting garbage? That would be cool. Taking up arms against those massive island of trash in the ocean?? Nope--I was wrong. He uses beer cans, car tires and water bottles to form bricks. I am still flabbergasted at the almost reverse thinking where the mud/mortar is more important to a structure's integrity than the bricks. These half bottles are pushed together--butt to butt to become tools of choice for producing thermal mass and energy. This once de-barred (Arianna is that the right term? They took away his license) and his uber crunchy disciples have devoted themselves entirely to advancing their art. They call the structures "Earthships" and the technique is "Biotecture". I wish the 'burbs surrounding my land were self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities "where design and function converge in eco-harmony". Instead I'll just keep on doing my small bit.Like supporting Earthday

I hate how the call themselves "villages" and "estates" BULLSHIT. Villages have commons and grocery stores. Estates have sales and mournful offspring.

Festifool's '08

Tap this link to see What I saw on Main Street!!

what *IS* a Venus-Pluto square???

I like to read my horrorscope. It is funny.
Today's google version reads thusly--

Negotiating multiple realities can be exciting for you, but it can also create extra stress. Today's Venus-Pluto square might require you to live out one set of emotions while burying another. You are being called to do powerful work within while keeping up external appearances. Keeping one foot in each world can help you face your feelings now, even if you cannot yet integrate them into your current life.


Well-- hmm..maybe not so funny more like terrifyingly accurate.

Inspiration

This is the inspiration for Z's cake. The layers are cooling to be frosted and fondant-ed tomorrow. I am only doing two layers so just cover up the bottom two bits when you look at this pic. The "horns" of the hat are made of rice crispy treat cones and are chilling in the fridge.
I will of course post a pic of it when it is frosted.

This dessert will top off an old school/home made Korean dinner of bulgolgi, kimchee, rice noodles and a tasty looking radish leaf and fish sauce salad from the Korean deli.

Something's fishy

It's not that Z doesn't like sushi. He does prefer Bulgolgi (which he will get homemade on Saturday) or maybe yakatori, but he would prly not pack it for his lunch--ya know? A boy who walks in the carnivore like footsteps of his brother, his dad, his heros Tinn & Tarrach--sushi sometimes has..you know..veggies...enh not his favorite dish. And YET! My darling boy is now an official "teen"-ager and I have a long standing tradition of psyching him out on his April Fool's birthday meals. It is generally breakfast (the old yogurt & half an tinned apricot or peach w/ chocolate sprinkles as "fried egg: or sometimes dinner-- one was the meat loaf frosted w/ mashed taters to look like a birthday cake-- so he thought he got cake first!! You get the idea. So this year his dad pranked him by providing a string from the tiny empty gift box through the obstacle course of house and yard and garage to get to his new trampoline in all of its 200 lb glory. So by the time he had torn through his sister's gift and and oogled the un assembled tramp--He was running kinda late for school. I was all --"It's okay I packed yer lunch." Little did he know it was FAKE SUSHI! A handroll, squids and a full "spicy tuna" roll. AH! they looked great! A miracle what one can mimic with rice krispies and gummy worms!! They actually tasted okay if you are into sickeningly sweet marshmellow candy overload. He said his friends at lunch raved.