Monday, August 31, 2009

School Daze

School has started again. I feel overwhelmed with paperwork, supplies, due dates, and deadlines. I though that mother were supposed to look forward to the beginning of school? I think that I look forward more to the beginning of summer. Maybe I should home school or not. At least then we wouldn't have to get up so damn early. We, who are not morning people in this house, have the earliest school day imaginable and I just have to say that I don't like it. I am missing summer already. I feel crabby tonight. The crack of dawn does not agree with my system.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Vegetable Love by, Barbara Crooker

Feel a tomato, heft its weight in your palm,
think of buttocks, breasts, this plump pulp.
And carrots, mud clinging to the root,
gold mined from the earth's tight purse.
And asparagus, that push their heads up,
rise to meet the returning sun,
and zucchini, green torpedoes lurking in the Saragasso depths
of their raspy stalks and scratchy leaves.
And peppers, thick walls of cool jade, a green hush.
Secret caves.
Sanctuary.

And beets, the dark blood of the earth.
And all the lettuces: bibb, flame, oak leaf, butter-crunch,
black-seeded Simpson, chicory, cos.
Elizabethan ruffs, crisp verbiage.
And spinach, the dark green
of northern forests, savoyed, ruffled,hidden folds and clefts.
And basil, sweet basil, nuzzledby fumbling bees drunk on the sun.
And cucumbers, crisp, cool white ice
in the heart of August, month of fire.
And peas in their delicate slippers,little green boats,
a string of beads,repeating, repeating.
And sunflowers, nodding at night,
then rising to shout hallelujah! at noon.
All over the garden, the whisper of leaves
passing secrets and gossip, making assignations.
All of the vegetables bask in the sun,languorous as lizards.
Quick, before the frost puts outits green light, praise these vegetables,earth's voluptuaries,
praise what comes from the dirt.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Other Movies









I recently re-watched Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal." My kids and I attended a Jim Henson exhibit at Experience Music Project (EMP) and this got me re-interested in Jim Henson and the kids more interested in him. With that in mind, we rented "Labyrinth" and "The Dark Crystal" this weekend. I watched "The Dark Crystal" late last night when I couldn't sleep, yes I did have a glass or two of wine, but I couldn't help but reflecting on the similarities between the male gelfing and Steven Tyler and the female gelfing and Charlie Watts. Look at the picture comparisons. Maybe it was just late at night or too much wine, but the similarities, with younger rock stars, were there nonetheless. I checked out a couple of other sources on-line. The writers had similar opinions to mine. Was Jim Henson "Rolling Stones" and "Aerosmith" fan, or is this just coincidence???








Saturday, August 22, 2009

The Visitor


I am not really sure how I missed this one when it was in the theaters. It has caught my eye several times, but I haven't ordered it until now. What a timely and poignant sleeper of a hit. This is a must see for all Americans. We think that we understand the "immigration problem," I thought that I was enlightened until I saw this movie. This is a truly great viewing on many levels.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Quotable Quotes

The weather in my nook of the country has been up and down and up and down. Sometimes sunny, sometimes sunny and sticky, sometimes rainy, sometimes cloudy, sometimes cloudy, rainy, and sticky all at once and then the surprise sunny again! I haven't been writing lately or tending to my blog or keeping with any routines at all. We have one scant week until our summer ends and school begins. I am not looking forward to early mornings and crabby risings. I am not even looking all that forward to routines. At least in the summer when I am not on the work day routine, I can sometimes sleep in. That will end when school begins.

Humph! so here I sit, pondering which direction I should take this little blog of mine. I have considered doing book reviews. Love to read, I do, but not enough to make it into a review blog. I am devoted pretty much to reading what I like and I think that in order to do quality reviews I would have to stretch myself more than I am willing.

I could review movies, cook my way through a cookbook, rant and rave, review happy hours and restaurants, or spend the year trying new things...I could just continue how I am, in randomness. It suits me for now. Until I get more creative, I will leave you with the following thought:

"Usually terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things." -Russell Baker

Friday, August 14, 2009

Santana Soul Sacrifice Woodstock 1969

Happy 40th Birthday Woodstock! I just read that the drummer who does this drum solo, Michael Shrieve, plays here locally in Seattle with a group, Spellbinder. I might just have to go and check him out!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Weekending in August



Ladies enjoying the "Tiny Hat Orchestra" show at SoDo Showbox

Here are my fantastic blueberry pickers



Here are the blueberries that we picked


Here is the awesome pie that we made with the blueberries that were picked by the fantastic blueberry pickers


Sunday, August 9, 2009

Julie and Julia

I saw "Julie and Julia" today and I absolutely loved it! So true, everything does taste better with butter, every single time! One review that I heard said that this was only half of a good movie, the "Julia" part, but I didn't think so, I liked the "Julie" part equally as well. If only I had thought of that idea I could be famous for my blog as well. This movie is a great movie if you are a woman and you like to eat and relish the pleasure of seeing scrumtious food being prepared on the big screen. I give this movie a +10, both parts.

Friday, August 7, 2009

A Really Great Short Story

Jeffrey Eugenides, Fiction, “Baster,” The New Yorker, June 17, 1996, p. 82
Read the full text of this article. (Registration required.)

I thought that this was a really great short story. I read it recently in a collection of short stories from the New Yorker about New York. The ending of this one was quite good. It is going to be a movie or is a movie with Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston. The movie version might be quite good as long as they don't alter the story line, it doesn't need any changes.

ABSTRACT: Short story about a forty-year-old unmarried woman named Tomasina who decides to become pregnant by inseminating herself using a turkey baster and the sperm from a married friend named Roland. The story is narrated by Wally Mars, who many years before dated Tomasina and conceived a child with her, which she aborted. . . Tomasina had to give up the idea of meeting someone she could spend her life with. Instead, she had to give birth to someone who would spend life with her. Once she made her decision, she began to see men as walking spermatozoa. Wally suggests that she go to a sperm bank. “I don't just want smart. Brains aren't everything. I want the whole package.” It was becoming clear to me what my status was in the state of nature: it was low. It was somewhere around hyena. . . Tomasina invites him to a party on the day she plans to inseminate herself. There were a lot of people, maybe as many as seventy-five. Nobody was young. The men looked the way men have generally looked: uncomfortable yet agreeable. They looked like me. . . Mars meets the designated sperm donor, Roland, who showed up early and deposited his sperm in a cup hidden in the bathroom. At the party, Mars talks to Tomasina, who says, “This is depressing, Wally. This isn't how I wanted to have a baby. I thought this party would make it fun, but it's just depressing.” “Do you ever think about you and me?” “Wally, don't.” “Do you ever think about our kid?” “That was a long time ago.” Later in the evening, Mars goes into the bathroom and replaces Roland's sperm with his own. Ten months later, when the baby is born, Mars goes to see him and notices his own potato nose and buggy eyes.


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James Surowiecki and Ryan

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Cheese Shop sketch, Monty Python

One of my very favorites. I laught every time I see it!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

On Hair Cuts...

I got my hair cut and styled today. Several people commented on how "great" my hair looked. Well, that's nice, because they will probably never see it look this way again. At least not until I get it cut and styled again. I am rubbish with my hair. I can't even come close to making it look like a professional stylist can make it look no matter how hard I try (O.K., admittedly I don't try all that hard), but if I did, I still do not think that I can pull it off. Tomorrow morning I go to the gym and "goodbye beautiful hairdo."

Monday, August 3, 2009

Tedy Afro Lambadina (Ethiopia Music)

I recently learned about this man. He is now in prison under suspicious circumstances more than likely for saying "too much" in his music. He is popular with Ethiopians worldwide.