Hang on, Voltaire

Yummiest lunch ever, aka not exactly crucial post except for procrastination purposes

2011-12-16T13:18:00.000-05:00

Or at least in recent memory...

Spanish rice and tofu = Better Homes Spanish Rice recipe + 1 package extra firm tofu:

1 clove garlic, minced
1 med. onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped

Sautée those with in big skillet olive oil (recipe says 1T, I used a bit more, ahem). When onions turning clear, add and stir in:

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes with liquid (i.e. do not drain)
1 c. water
3/4 c. rice (uncooked)
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. pepper
several shakes Tabasco or sim.
1 whole package extra firm tofu (crumble or use the already-cut-into-cubes kind)

Bring all to boil. Cover and simmer 20-25 minutes til rice done and liquid absorbed.

Caveat... My rice wasn't done after 30 minutes so I added another 1/2 c. water and turned it up to boil again. I let it boil a good 7 or 8 minutes, then turned down to Strong Simmer (left it at about 1/3 heat, couple steps above actual simmer) for another 20 minutes.

So so so yummy. Interestingly it called for no salt and tastes great (normally I'm not a huge salter so you wouldn't be able to take this at face value if you love salt but I'm going thru a particularly salty phase for some reason and it still tasted yummy to me!) Lots of other veggies could be added as well and of course fresh tomatoes would really make it yummy but this was great and fairly easy. The veggies do end up a bit overcooked but the rice and tofu had plenty of time to soak up spices this way - in future I will cook the rice beforehand and add early, then stick in oven or let Low Simmer for extra long time so rice can absorb flavors hopefully. Of course the tofu could be marinated beforehand if you like to do that; I almost never have luck with getting tofu to soak up any flavor whether I marinate it beforehand or not, but in this case it did (possibly it couldn't really ignore the Tabasco).

One of the best parts was using my big paella pan that I hardly ever get to use. :)

settler giver, aka the most rambly post in a good long while, and another that probably should just have gone straight into my journal, but it took on a life of its own and now I'm too pooped to copy/paste

2011-12-16T09:24:00.001-05:00

So without the gory details, I had cause to use the term "indian giver" yesterday (just to myself) about someone I used to know, but didn't of course b/c it's not PC, plus it's completely erroneous - if anything we should say Settler Giver or something because it was the incoming settlers, pioneers, US government, etc., who REALLY kept giving things and then wanting them back.

All that aside, personally it's just further proof that if you don't feel right about a relationship/person/whatever, you should listen to your instincts and end it.

We always come back to the same thing: Shakespeare (by way of Polonius) had it right - "...To thine own self be true... thou canst not then be false to any man..." I truly hope that's the last relationship I look back on and regret not listening to my heart. There could well be others which entail other regrets, many which can't be helped and therefore for which one shouldn't blame oneself, but that is the worst one. If you don't pay attention to yourself, to what you know in your Soul is right, then who the hell ARE you going to listen to, Susan?!

On the bright side I probably won't ever be involved with anyone ever again so I've got that going for me... At least as long as I stay in the dry socket of love known as the Upstate.

Not that I'm ready at this point, so I guess the reverse side of that coin is perhaps I will finally have got fed up with being here and will end up somewhere else where I am not the only fun single person my age (because you KNOW there's no way we're picking anyone very much younger ever again). Of course then it will be a question of finding someone who doesn't own anything so we can just use all of my (incredibly fun) housewares, etc. Altho I'd let him bring his furniture if it was fun (read: antique/retro) and assuming we were going to share a house that was big enough so that I could keep my favorite pieces - and of course his furniture WOULD be completely fun because if I saw anything not fun the first time I was at his house I'd have to end it right there.

Kidding!

Mostly... anything animal print or naugahyde (or real leather if not an antique),

with cupholders, or that entails attaching more than one reclining apparatus together,

and I'm out the door, seriously. (And honestly anything too Laura Ashley or Shabby Chic,

i.e. left by an ex, and I'll react pretty much the same way...

Altho someone like that either has no taste or just hasn't had time to replace things,

so probably that would bode well for my keeping all of mine :)

I am not sure when I became so materialistic. Not that I am overall, but still. Probably partly stemming from giving all my stuff up when Scott and I got married (good decisions all 'round! har.) and then giving a bunch more up when I moved from AZ, plus giving up all the family antiques I was supposed to get because I didn't have money/space to store them anywhere when Dad was downsizing (this batch is probably particularly key since a lot of the stuff I have now I specifically got b/c it reminded me of family pieces and has since become surrogate heirloom material)... all of that plus the very lack of a relationship I think. That is I think I'm much more attached to My Things now, the more time I spend on my own. Maybe that's completely normal. Maybe it's even as it should be...

Sometimes I'm nostalgic for the cycling trips - that glorious feeling each morning leaving a hostel or campsite and going thru the checklist of stuff I/we Really Needed:

money
passport
journal
some fruit to last til the first market
a handful of layerable garments*

*no Susanhyperbole there, promise -

I still remember when Dean came to meet me

in Boulogne and I showed up with my little duffle

(about as big as two basketballs tied together)

and my handlebar bag

(about the volume of a smallish shoebox)

and he couldn't believe that was all my stuff.

That feeling resurfaces during backpacking or each summer in France with my downsized stuff... I always think "when I get home I'm going to get rid of a bunch of stuff. Look - I'm fine with two pairs of pants!..."

Hmph.

Grading now...

Reaching ever new heights

2011-12-13T03:00:00.001-05:00

in procrastination.

sometimes the universe gives you exactly the words you need exactly when you need them

2011-12-11T20:36:00.001-05:00

Alex cited this in his sermon today; I had noted it down but forgot about it til now.

Messenger

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird -
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

-Mary Oliver, from Thirst

melancholy mac-less mitraillette which is basically just journaling out loud so y'all should probably skip it, srsly

2011-12-11T19:34:00.001-05:00

For no particular reason. That is, I could be bummed about computer issues, etc., but honestly it doesn't feel like it's because of that, nor does it feel like it's because of all the work I still have to do tonight, or of how fat I feel today. So anyway...

Good news is computer woke up today.
Bad news is for some reason it won't charge and no combo of any of my Mac cords works to charge it so it must be the connection on the machine itself that is sick.
Good news is I was able to copy my exams onto a thumb drive AND (super good) just barely had enough juice still in there to do a backup on my exterior drive. It is at 12% power left now - hopefully that's enough for diagnostics at the Mac store.
Also good: we practiced the Kore again tonight and it is sounding phenomenal. We're doing it next Sunday as well as doing "Song of the Angels" again (from last year) so I'll have links to share if all goes well.
More good news is the Apple people think my warranty will probably cover whatever needs fixing as long as it's not the battery. I can't believe it would be the battery b/c there hasn't been any problems holding a charge, etc.
More good news is there is an Apple store in Gr**nville - way closer than I was thinking. (I was expecting to have to trek to Atl or Charl*tte.)
Bad news is if anything isn't warranty-covered I'm in trouble because this paycheck was destined for two extra things already, which is why my envelopes for this week and next only have $30 each (I always go ahead and do a bigger grocery trip before I get my envelope money out thank goodness so honestly that is probably plenty - since I have no life - also that $30 is after taking out $36 for two weeks' of Open Studio fees and a bag of clay [which should last me 4-5 weeks] so really the weekly amount is ~$45, only some of it is already allotted - I was good and even put it in the car so I wouldn't forget to have it with me at the studio Weds. night AND - especially crucial - wouldn't forget and spend it).
Good news is the old Dell is able to go online after all. I'm not sure why I remembered it as having wifi problems but it's fine - and since I emptied it of all personal files, music, photos, etc., when I got the Mac, it is running really fast, especially for its age. So far it's not driving me too crazy typing on it, altho I have yet to do anything in French and my fingers do not remember the MSWord accent strokes anymore at all so that will be Really Fun I'm sure when I go to do the final edits on the exams. Luckily they are mostly done.
Not so bad news is the Dell's battery is shot (I knew this already of course) so I'm tied to the power cord... If they end up having to keep the Mac very long I am REALLY going to be bored during my finals, unless I lug this and all its wires to the classroom. Actually towards the end of the week I'll have grading to keep me busy but I'm not sure what I'll do during Tuesday's. Actually I should probably work on syllabi... No idea if the Dell will read from the hard drive backup since it was done on the Mac and don't want to use up the last Mac juice copying more files... altho it wouldn't take but a minute...hmmmm.
Not terribly bad news is for some reason I can't get the current anti-virus version from CC*IT to install right on here. So hopefully I'll get the bulk of my work done tonight before I catch some huge virus; after that I could just use an ofc computer if nec. tomorrow. Meanwhile the gigantic stupid red "YOU ARE NO LONGER PROTECTED..." message will not fricking get the hell out of my way on the desktop, but oh well.
Being able to copy the exams was probably the bestest part of it all; I could have pretty much just retyped the 2nd yr one since I'm changing almost nothing from my summer exam and have the hard copy handy. The 1st year one, tho, I had created from three entire other exams, one of which was from Aub*rn and therefore not accessible except electronically, so it would have been a lot of work to redo without Friday's files.
Good news also is Tully gets great mileage so even with the trip to Gville tomorrow I'll be fine with Friday's fill-up til next payday.
Bad news is (and this is probably part of my malaise) I am just feeling so negative and bitchy - I swear I can't say a single positive thing - well not only positive anyway - for some reason everything has to have some little snide add-on right now (and really not just right now...)
Good news is Sammers is completely cuddly tonight.
Bad news is we are both out of luck - too much work for the lap or the hands to be taken up with kit activities for very long.
Probably should name the Mac - I think I've been tempting fate all this time having it go without one. It might have finally got fed up with being the only major inanimate object in my life that didn't have a name. Also I recalled that even this Dell had one so the Mac definitely merits it, no?
Good news is Sam & Lucy rock, Sh* Sings rocks, it was a beautiful sunny day, I got a fair amount done on Leah's throw at UU (esp. since we had a congregational mtg afterwards today), the kitchen is clean, I ate well today, I remembered to take the recycling out this evening, the extra checking account is entailing a few changes in money management that are having multiple unexpected good effects, Sherri and I are going to do a duet on Christmas Eve, and old Buffy episodes are still great to work to - not too distracting, yet action-y accompaniment to doldrum-inducing (or at least blah) work, which I will dig back into now, having subjected everyone to a way too journally post.

crappy but not too unhappy

2011-12-11T00:28:00.001-05:00

My mac died tonight. I am surprising myself by not panicking yet. Am charging my old Dell which I for whatever reason still have around so at least I can rewrite my exams - even tho it means typing them all out from hard copy if I can't get my storage drives to work with the pc. It will probly take me about as long to type stuff on the pc as it does on here. :(
Anyway so far I'm mostly not freaking out, just keeping my fingers crossed that IT will not have too bad of news when I take it in there Monday. Meanwhile I'll spend most of tomorrow at the office doing online grading on the extra desktop since the Dell can't go online. Joy.
Sigh.
Envoyé de mon iPod.

Pots

2011-12-10T11:06:00.001-05:00

Picked up the latest batch of glazed pieces yesterday - one I had picked up last week but hadn't got it posted yet. This batch is the most successful of mine so far here. Finally no glaze running and every combo looked good. The one piece I'm not super happy with was mostly a test and I still like it for me at any rate, and learning from a piece is far superior to not having any idea what went wrong or what to try next (which is how I had been feeling glaze-wise here so far for the most part).

This black glaze is my new fave.

When it's thin, the black glaze makes a beautiful green.

Inspection.

Lucy found the one that looks prettiest with her.

Probably my favorite piece - very reminiscent of Breton cider pitchers.

The black glaze does wondrous things when layered on top of amber - the amber did a super fun thing there inside, too - that will be something to play with on future pieces.

This is the one that is kind of a fail but I still like it. I'm going to make a set I think but not rub off the glaze.

The black will turn green nicely on its own where there is texture. I'll let you know how it goes.

Decent pot but almost certainly going to be reglazed.

I'm going to do lots more closed-form lidded pots like this one and the little round tan one from earlier in the fall.

Fairly fun little pitcher.

It says "Ceci n'est pas un pichet." (cf. Magritte :)

Decent little mug and great glazing combo for gifts.

Flashback Friday in Touraine

2011-12-09T08:45:00.000-05:00

Allons à Tours ensemble!!

fiber fun

2011-12-08T12:46:00.001-05:00

First a dishrag of course, in my new favorite self-striping yarn... pink but not sickening pink.

and my new favorite stitch...

Lucy always knows what things she'll look best with.

Yarn cake anyone?

A scarf Christmas present using Lion Brand chenille multicolor black plus Fun Fur - it is lusciously soft and thick, as you can see from the cake photo (folded to four thicknesses). It is also super stretchy.

This yarn is kind of what Lucy would look like as yarn. And obviously here it is passing the softness test. She had to be shooed off for me to put it away.

Yarn cake is yummy in the daytime, too! Plus you can see the furriness.

It is not quite as long as standard scarf.

Here are better detailed shots...

This might be another idea for a debit card... or a blog background? Hmmmm.

We'll see if it is a hit next week sometime.

Doodle poll laws according to SDC

2011-12-07T10:26:00.001-05:00

We haven't had a nice fun rant on here for far too long... They were habitual in A*burn but Clems*n rants have been more in the Pity Party category, and not chuckle-worthy in the least. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come (back)...

Event planners:

If you are trying to schedule something but are just going to ignore the doodle results, do not use doodle
If you are just going to email people after the fact asking them when they are available, do not use doodle
If you cannot copy a link correctly to send to people, do not use doodle

Potential event attendees (savvy doodlers please excuse redundancies here which are necessary for the, um, less savvy):

If someone sends you a doodle link:

Basics...

click the link
put your name in the next empty blank on the form which pops up
click "Show all options" (if applicable)
click all squares corresponding to times you are available
click "save"

Reiteration of certain basics...

when you've opened the poll read and follow the instructions (usually "Click all times you can come" or similar)
for best results oval-shaped things which change color when you take your cursor over them and have instructions written on them should be CLICKED, especially "Show all options" and "Save"

If someone includes you in a doodle poll, have your calendar beside you so you don't forget to allow for any commitments in your doodle clicks
If someone includes you in a doodle poll and you are of the generation which mistrusts "Save" buttons, after you click "Save" simply look at the poll again to check that your name and times are saved; do NOT write the person to let them know that you don't know if your times were saved or not
If someone includes you in a doodle poll and writes the group after the close of the doodle poll announcing the chosen day/time, do not bombard them with emails later about whether some other night might work instead - if you MUST change the day, go look at the doodle yourself to help find a new time!
If you violate the advice directly above, and the person writes you back saying "The times I set are the only possible times for the whole group according to the poll," likewise do NOT keep writing them with other ideas based on YOUR schedule
If someone sends you a doodle poll link and you keep having trouble, do NOT write the doodle person saying you couldn't get the doodle to work or "it keeps arguing with me" (my personal favorite), simply:

get help in person, OR
sell your computer and/or swear an oath never to use one again in situations which might impact other people in any way

He dicho.

mitraillette of getting herself to dig back into work

2011-12-06T14:27:00.000-05:00

Fun! just heard from my brother that we are doing a gift exchange (him, Kare, the girls and I) which eliminates about 50% of my Christmas puzzlement. I had started a kinda big (in size not super elaborate or difficult technically) project that had Leah's name all over it. This even tho I couldn't think of anything comparable to make for Dyan (even if I had the time to do both, which... yeah right), much less any ideas yet for P&K. But in the exchange I got Leah! woo hoo! Here's a picture of the project in progress (I'm relatively sure Leah doesn't read here and tho Paul does sometimes I am trusting him to keep the secret), a couch throw:

This is part of one swatch - it will consist of four of these sewn together. I love the colors. I decided to do random switchbacks stitch-wise to make it more interesting but I'm not crazy about the idea now. I think when all the pieces are together it will look fine but it doesn't necessarily add much.

As usual the colors aren't true except in the natural light shots (the 1st and 3rd). It is delightfully light and fluffy, tho, and you can kind of tell that here.

I'm also playing a bit with the sequence of the stripe sizes. The pattern has you do two panels each of a certain sequence but this one is going to have each of the four panels slightly different.

Have about 2 hours now to get another chunk of work done before our departmental meeting, which of course I am SO looking forward to.
Back on my plant-based victuals, having finally finished all the Thanksgiving fare. I never got my pumpkin pie made tho so I will be having some dairy and egg intake one of these days here...
Tonight a few pieces should be out of the glaze fire and two more should be ready to glaze. Thursday is our last official class but after that I'll start attending Wed. eve open studio instead of doing classes. Erin is leaving the center for another job plus in spring I really can't have two whole evenings per week tied up (even for fun) and I need to save money anyway. (For OS we buy our own clay from the center and pay $12 per studio session; glazes and equipment all at our disposal.)
Sad I won't have time to make anything to snack on (we usually have a mini party on finished-item retrieval night).
I really hate doing recs.
I especially hate doing recs for people who are not rave-worthy. Nothing harder than making someone who is pretty intelligent, pretty diligent and/or pretty motivated sound like someone with whom no qualifiers would be necessary, much less someone for whom you could replace "pretty" with anything stronger...
End-Sem whining has already begun and I don't even have all their grades up yet. Braced for more.
TC is going to pop, I swear. I don't want to stop putting extra food out for whenever Beau happens by, but she seems to get up and have a few more mouthfuls almost every time she changes position as she naps and lolls around all day. She is quite the Tub at present. I still think there are worse things for a quasi-feral than to be too fat, but it's kind of worrying me. There's pretty much nothing for it tho.
Have been more or less productive all day til now. (Most of you know that "more or less" productive is pretty danged good with my easily distractible brain.) That's even factoring in 20 minutes of Christmas cookie recipe internet surfing.
We sounded great with our extra little group piece last night after our normal SSAA rehearsal. It actually sounds way better - I think - than the piece the group at large is doing this Sunday at UU, but oh well.
For some reason I'm only scheduled for 4 classes in spring. Of course the paranoid side of me thinks it must be because I'm not doing a good job. Hopefully it's b/c there are less sections. And in truth it is probably good for me to have a slightly lighter schedule for once, even tho it means lighter paychecks, too, which I'm not happy about, especially leading up to Paris which I always have to save and scrounge for beforehand even just for day-to-day expenses...
Oh I know, standard eyeroller applies: poor you having to go to Paris!
Whatever. Perspective matters.
This is what I got my grand-nephew for Christmas, been saving it since summer. Of course I think it is incredibly cool (sure, in general due to its Frenchness and traditionalness, but also did you know that Sophie has -and always has had- completely non-toxic materials, including plant-based dyes?) but I'm a little nervous that it is so little/simple compared to (a) the piles and piles of other toys he has and (b) all the bells&whistle&otherwise tech-y stuff that is out there for kids these days, even little ones. There's also the fact that tho we do have some French genes in our family they are pretty sparse, and might not be enough to make Andrew instantly bond to Sophie the way French kids seem to even nowadays. Hmmm.

Image purloined from this site where you can read about Sophie, si vous voulez.

Double Whammy Flashback Friday

2011-12-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

We're approaching break of course and it is much more pleasant waxing nostalgic about really fun previous breaks than concentrating on stressful pre-break work.

So here are two posts from my 12/07 trip to DC and MD over Christmas.
Un.
Deux.

(Click us.)

thanks 11/11

2011-12-01T00:27:00.000-05:00

le 1^er.xi.11 - unexpected productivity
le 2.xi.11 - 2/3 done with class visits, all of Eric's done, no meetings or anything tonight, and last but not least Flight of the Conchords
le 3.xi.11 - done wtih class visits for fall, Frasier once again making me laugh til I'm crying, and new La Croix bottles
le 4.xi.11 - really cool students
le 5.xi.11 - really really fun stewardship soirée at UU
le 6.xi.11 - new knitting patterns, clean kitchen, sleeping in, cuddling with the fuzzbuckets, and especially: DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!
le 7.xi.11 - my fun rayon skirt & the fact that I didn't toss it in the move like I started to
le 8.xi.11 - talking myself into going to the studio and throwing 3 nice pieces which helped my mood considerably
le 9.xi.11 - yay no crêpe production at my house tonight - whew!
le 10.xi.11 - fun student talk re Tours, and being mostly successful today at not getting myself all upset about French Club slackers
le 11.xi.11 - no-fuss hair
le 12.xi.11 - red wool yarn
le 13.xi.11 - fairly low stress World B*zaar crêpe stand
le 14.xi.11 - fun reminiscing and dinner with les filles et Justin!!
le 15.xi.11 - last crunch day busy-ness/event-wise for a while :)
le 16.xi.11 - 8am's turned my mood around & Meredith's Paris perspective
le 17.xi.11 - catch-up day, covenant group, and studio
le 18.xi.11 - caroling plans, & feeling nostalgic about scraping car windows
le 19.xi.11 - really cool quartet rehearsal, and Lynn Cohen & Tovah Feldshuh in the same L&O rerun!
le 20.xi.11 - bamboo stitch
le 21.xi.11 - 102 at Java City & an appointment-less day on the calendar!
le 22.xi.11 - steadfast friends, specifically Tracy, Candace, Kate & Jessica
le 23.xi.11 - 14 hours' sleep & Jack McCoy
le 24.xi.11 - understanding & thoughtful friends
le 25.xi.11 - Kathy Burke, Kathy Baker & Kathy Bates
le 26.xi.11 - feline lap blanket, pie itch, italics
le 27.xi.11 - last minute reprieves & low-key hospitality partners
le 28.xi.11 - The English Patient is finally on Netflix streaming (why oh why did I sell that DVD back in my pre-move purge?!) Of course this means I need to reread the book as well, the late wondrous Anthony Minghella's sublime adaptation talents notwithstanding.
le 29.xi.11 - Susan Ch's intuitive and inspiring perspective on our piece last night which made us sound instantly wonderful singing it
le 30.xi.11 - sock needles!

apples and oranges and millennials

2011-11-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

Happened across an article positing a shiny new (I think) opinion of the Gen-Y/Millennials (which, for the record, I don't think are exactly the same generation but oh well).

Does anyone else see these as incongruous?

Typical (so far, in both my reading and teaching experience) take on GY/Ms

Another (ahem) view

Am I the only one to whom the latter take is surprising and new and/or seems utterly, indescribably erroneous?! Who knew the GY/Ms are to be our next Greatest Generation? Has anyone really caught sight of one of these creatures? Here in the academic portions of the Upstate finding them is something akin to a snipe hunt.

Granted we should consider the source; the second article is written by a self-professed GY/M'er, and I admit I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout and the tenacity of the Occupy attendees, which would seem to support the social activist bit (tho of course it wasn't solely made up of GY/Ms and I have to say the 2 or 3 political genes that I got from [my Republican] Dad make me wonder how many of them were truly justified counting themselves among the disenfranchised 1% [the rest of my genes just turned and looked at those 2 or 3 with frowns of consternation]).

Yes, they want a life... but in my experience the majority of them want a life that is pretty thin on responsibilities or accountability and certainly doesn't entail a whole lot of regard for others. Note that I said "the majority" - there have been exceptions to the rule, shining lights of hope and conscience without whom many of us would never have made it this long.

I would sincerely love to be proven wrong about the rest.

Serendipity and more about Oskar, and Really Cool People (of which there are indeed lots and lots and lots in the world)

2011-11-29T10:50:00.001-05:00

Who knew I actually saw something as it was taking off instead of after everyone else had already been talking about it for a gazillion years, online and on media...

Read some more about Oskar - have your kleenex handy (in a good way).

He already seemed pretty amazing to me but the added info re his acclimation is even moreso.

Plus how cool is it that his people were looking for an autoharp!? And of course refer to his front legs as arms. I get laughed at for this occasionally but I think it's almost a litmus test for people's attachment to their animals...

ps if it looks to you like Klaus is slightly different too (ear) here is confirmation plus another fun video - plus (before knowing about the video) this has become our new signal (the litter bury motion) at She Sings for when something sucks (re a story from Sherri).

Enterprise computer voice: "Serendipity Enhancement Activated."

Mitraillette of forced positivity which of course then meanders away from its premise of having a theme...

2011-11-28T09:07:00.001-05:00

First, did I mention it's the next-to-last Monday of the semester?
It was only half raining for my walk to the car and then from car to office.
My iTunes playlist got to B.W. Stevenson's (i.e. the best) version of "My Maria" just before I parked.
First class is over.
I turned my anger at student lameness around pretty well by the end of the period.
I have one of my funnest student/cheapo French fountain pens with me today.
I caught the fraudulent charge on my checking account Tuesday and was able to cancel it and change my debit card number before the evildoer was able to charge anything else. (This is obiously a biggie, as positivity lists go. I'll spare you the gory details - suffice to say that my last couple of hours Tuesday afternoon were Quite Fun Indeed, as well as quantities of time online since then changing various auto-pay items.)
New debit card will have Sam&Lucy on it (but in a non-cutesy, non-sickening way of course):
New credit card (which didn't need changing but I didn't know we could personalize our cards so of course I have to do the credit card too) will have a very fun pic as well but I can't decide which (please vote in your comments):
A
B

Stupid uncooperative Blogger bullets.
Here is the format/color setup on the card.
The grey bar on the right and the WF graphic of course are non-negotiable but at least they're not obnoxious (altho the blue and green of the old Wachovia graphics would look better - meow - which is really my only problem with WF's having taken over, the color scheme :)
I think C will probably win. It is a wall near Prévert's house in Normandy from my weekend with Lydie and Pierre this summer. I should probably post some of the France stuff I neglected - as you can see there are some very nice photos and occasions to share.
TMI alert for this one: My innards are dealing surprisingly well with the low-roughage Thanksgiving food binge I've been on for the last 3 days. Of course a couple of glasses of grape juice each day have helped. I got a bunch of juice fixings to temper all the not-super-healthy intake the next few days as I finish my Tgvg leftovers. I was too lazy to make any over the weekend tho.
Except for procrastination activity that is - made a pie last night. (I'll have to add the pic later.) It rocks. Yet another pie crust miraculously turning out perfect. Honestly, either they just aren't as hard as everyone has always made them out to be, or I have some magic fool proof recipe (just the standard Better Homes cookbook one is what I use tho), or my pie crust mojo is making up for all the other less-than-stellar mojo in my life :) Almost certainly it's the first thing.
This one was apple. I only put in 2/3 as much sugar and it's still fine. I think next time I can halve it, altho this time I used apples that are slightly sweeter than the ones I usually use...
I still have the pumpkin pie fixings but have yet to do it... if I take a bunch of work home tonight then it will happen tonight, obviously.

Next-to-last Monday of the semester.

2011-11-28T09:05:00.001-05:00

Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester.Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday of the semester. Next-to-last Monday,,.

Flashback Friday - reject pots

2011-11-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's age... I seem to be spending a lot of time reading back in the blog these days... of course it's also b/c it's that time in the semester when procrastination has finally completely taken over (even tho this sem. has been much better - still it is time to be Pooped and ready for a break - a bigger break than a measly 3 days for Thanksgiving that is...)

Anyway, here.

what might become the yearly Thanksgiving re-post

2011-11-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Qu'est-ce que c'est Thanksgiving?

swatches, or: Thanksgiving-Break-Eve Mitraillette with knitting and other pics mixed in

2011-11-22T13:54:00.000-05:00

Why oh why did I, not having had a bagel in ages, get a yucky dry one at the library coffee shop instead of walking the extra 5 minutes to Einstein's in the union? The more lamentable since this is my first gluteny food in a while (altho this week of course I'll be tossing various dietary habits out the window, yummy Thanksgiving food is worth a few days of Templeton-the-Rat Syndrome).

Blocking my old stitch-sampl-y scarf that I made in Cleveland winter of 2001 (I think?)

After 202 this a.m. my other two Tuesday classes are just labs and I told them attendance was optional today. We're watching Holy Grail, ostensibly for the French châteaufort scene, mostly because it keeps coming up in the 003 section for some reason and two of them had never seen it. The other section (the one person who attended) opted to watch it, too... even tho I gave him the choice of leaving early instead (I think he didn't realize today was optional anyway). Says something about the Pythons' lasting popularity, I think.

I get more compliments on this thing and really I think of it as kind of a crap piece that happens to be fun colors and warm. It was just a series of stitch samples with self-striping yarn - maybe one evening's work?

I really am going to work today, too. Am almost done grading the latest 202 test, then will just see what else I can get done before 4 or so, which is my mental quitting time. Ha ha of course I meant the time I had in mind for heading home but it probably really will be my mental quitting time in many ways.

My favorite stitch sampling/practice thing now is the same as most people's: dishcloths. Get your Christmas stockings ready!

Love having the office to myself (Susie Antisocial) altho someone must have been here working during my first lab. I came back to find the thermostat set on SEVENTY-FIVE.This happens regularly actually, I just hadn't shared my flabbergastedness about it here yet. Also I know for a fact that it's more than one officemate who puts it there. I'm glad I don't have their electric bill if they keep their homes that hot; possibly they keep them cooler and so want to soak up heat here at school. Energy saving, schmenergy saving!

As usual my photography lighting skills are outdone by knitpics but you still get the idea.

Will take the turkey breast out of the freezer tonight; since it's just for home it doesn't have to be cooked a certain day. Tomorrow I'll focus on the cranberry sauce and whatever else I take, which I have yet to decide. The problem with lots of UU stuff is even tho we're all easy going about whatever people want to believe religion-wise, we are pretty picky in other ways, so I was - shall we say - strongly encouraged last night to bring an appetizer, "perhaps something cheese-oriented." Um... OK... I know they're thinking something like a cheeseball which I simply cannot bring myself to make, mostly because I really don't like them and whatever I make I want to be happy about its being a part of the dinner... Then I was thinking about my favorite entrées in France (we use that word for the main dish now in American but it really is what it says, the door into the meal). My absolute favorite is cantaloupe and prosciutto, but (a) I'm still feeling iffy about canteloupe consumption and (b) prosciutto is way more expensive here. Runners-up are grated carrots and raisins in vinaigrette, or possibly a cucumber and onion salad with crême fraîche... I love these but others will not see them as "appetizers." Hmmm. I'm seriously considering ignoring the whole appetizer "suggestion" and just bringing something else... which takes me back to the original question...

Last day of wet clay tonight at the studio (in the current class calendar). I kind of want to do either a big slab-work oven dish or possibly a coil bowl, since I haven't done one in so long. On the other hand I should probably throw since I probably won't be back on the wheel for a while. (It's the end of our class in another few sessions and I doubt I'll be very regular at Open Studio until after finals.) I have quite a few very decent pieces this time that are waiting on either trimming/bisque fire or glazing; of course can't count on anything until after the glaze-firing so cross your fingers...

I am bound and determined to get the long-dreamt-of couch cover made over winter break. Extra motivation is the fact that I'm hosting our circle dinner in January, plus I'm Sick To Death of how it looks now. Cover it as I may, some of the black original cover always shows somewhere and since it's both black and super-cat-hair-attract-y, it is guaranteed whatever bit of it that's visible will look awful. If the couch cover turns out as I'm planning it will cover all the black no problem and I think I'm going to include a few inches on each side that would go down to the floor, with strategically (for the cats) and aesthetically (for me) placed slits... The fabric is a glorious medium sheen-y green with some gold and some sea-green threads in the pattern. Doubtless HOV will be hosting some pics.

Jessica made me a washcloth of this stitch ages ago and I had been itching to try it, so above is my first ballband dishcloth, and below is my second. I do not know why that is its name. Someone else will have to google it.

Wondrously long email from Tracy-chan today - I might scare her mailbox and reply in kind via snail... Stranger things have happened...

So four of us are working on this solstice piece that we had been planning to do with the whole women's ensemble but we decided there wasn't time to polish it - at least not with our once-a-week practices and people's different learning curves as to music notation and/or just plain paying attention to dynamics and cutoffs, etc. Anyway we practiced it at my house last Friday and are going to do some more to it this Friday - we sang it for Elaine (our director) last night and it is sounding Really Good. There is a danger of offending other ensemble members tho if we actually sing it for a service so that is up in the air for the moment. Either way we are rocking it. I was going to link an online example of the piece but all the YouTube recordings of it are waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy too slow.

And then we have... ENTRELAC! Above is the start of the second row of a piece.

I wish I could just sing and knit and cook and watch movies and play with the cats and write letters and read books and paddle and quilt and collage and hike and play piano and ride horses and travel and cycle and rescue strays and drink wine or margaritas all the time. Anyone have any ideas yet of how to do any or all of these things and make a living, too?

End of the second row. This stuff is so addicting - you just keep talking yourself into one more swatch. Knitting is like that anyway, you always want to "just do one more row." But entrelac is built on these little patches, so it's especially hard to make yourself quit mid-swatch, and at the end of each one the compulsion to do another is almost always much stronger than I.

I am already starting to stress about the summer cat/housecare situation. At this point I don't even know if the program is a go - 6 of the last 10 students to talk to me about it have since decided to do the Belgium program. It used to be Paris was the default for minors or students who just wanted to take some more French (short summer term as you know and only 6 credits), and majors did Belgium (spring semester-long program, way more FR credits). But now they are offering more non-FR courses in the Belgium program so there are even minors doing it. Whatever students I do end up with will likely be a majority of people just finishing their FR requirements with the program - more interest in FR and France than the average student but the group will not have as high a French level overall - something I've found is pretty detrimental at times. So there.

All this notwithstanding the fact that even tho I wouldn't be able to visit friends, etc., a big piece of me would not be very disappointed to stay here in the summer. More broke but at least somewhat rested doesn't sound half bad. And no need for the cat/housesitter...

I REALLY hate working ends of yarn into a piece. Anytime I'm doing something with more than one color I far prefer it if I can just work the new color in along with the old but I decided it would make the edges of the patches look too muddy. Consequently this particular dishcloth still has all its tails.

The 003s have talked me into making crêpes for them for next Monday. I have no idea how they did this.

All creations must have the feline stamp of approval - the yarn itself is almost always subjected to numerous strength tests by Miss Lucy. Not sure what Sammers is testing here.

I might take the rest of the grading to Moe Joe's. Blogging aside (since it's tantamount to the prime directive or something) I am way too distracted here at the office today. Plus unless I have busy work to do like this morning, it's too distracting to be here by myself. When there are others here I'm better at sticking to work; a worker bee vibe of sorts gets in the air when we're all sitting around being industrious. Used to be I could work best in here alone, but no more. I really don't want to have all that crap home with me over break tho even if it's all completed and sitting in a corner... Also there is a chance MJ's is closed since they often forget they have non-student customers and so frequently are closed during school breaks. Someday maybe I'll live somewhere again that is more than just a college town.

I like it in a single color just as much (more if you factor in that it entails only one yarn). I need to figure out why my edge row stitches are so big and loose, but otherwise it isn't bad. You can't zone out as much on this as you can on other stitch patterns, but with practice you don't have to concentrate quite so hard or keep checking your directions. I started a really pretty self-striping scarf for myself in entrelac as a practice piece so it can become a little more automatic. I'll have to post it later; it's on hiatus while I work on Christmas stuff.

I told the students as I was cuing the video about how Sammers used to be really interested in the menu of this particular DVD. Otherwise he has never paid attention to the TV (altho many times was drawn in by things on the computer monitor, strangely). Anyway here is 2/3-grown Sam from Fall '04 trying to catch Grail menu graphics. This is probably on the blog somewhere else but whatever.

Dang it, as I look I see my old Skyflakes cracker tin and realize I haven't seen it in ages. It might have been a victim of the moving/packing purge. I really hope not. Guess we know what I'm going to be looking for when I get home...

Composition grading is the bane of my existence. Truly.

Fun comparison... full grown Sam sometime later with the same TV.

Once in a while my jadedness goes away long enough to come up with a good idea in the classroom. Although whether or not the students run with it and fulfill its potential is out of my control. Of course it helps when Real Life gives you inspiration. This time it was because of the 1400-year-old fallen sequoia out west that is crossing a park trail. I had heard a news report about it and supposedly the park service was taking online suggestions as to what to do (tunnel through it for the visitor path, cut it up and sell it, slice out a piece so the path could continue that way, etc.) Our current 202 chapter is about the environment. The students had watched a film about someone planting trees in France and were supposed to discuss it. As a followup I had them split into groups and pretend they were the committee in charge of deciding about the redwood. One group out of 8 (i.e. all the groups in all three classes) actually had good ideas and backed them up. The others phoned it in as usual. I surprised myself by remaining steadfast in my opinion of its being a good idea.

So as not to neglect the Boo. I'm too lazy to undo the eye reflections but isn't this a beautiful picture of her? From last week. Not to mention the fact that she's actually holding still. Sparklebug extraordinaire.

cat wonder, concern, gratitude & some pics

2011-11-21T21:52:00.001-05:00

Some of the commenters found this sad but I think it is incredibly uplifting. The cat's amazing either way, not surprising since almost all of them rock.

Give him a minute; I think he must be sleepy at the beginning.

BTW, thanks Blogger:

video posting is more nonintuitive and glitchy

than ever AND produces the worst results. Huff.

29nov11 - That is probably not working so try opening the vid separately instead here. See above, Blogger's far more difficult and less effective vid-embedding protocols since all the new changes happened! gah!

I can talk about something less uplifting and cat related tho. Just got home from the feral cat mgmt meeting. There is a lady in one tiny town a few miles east who is keeping 42 cats, mostly ferals. Apparently 13 of them are fixed. She also has 5 dogs. She only eats once a day in order to feed all the animals. We are going to go do kind of a check and talk to her a bit; best case scenario we can get her to give up the numerous kittens for adoption (kittens are super adoptable) and get her to take neuter certificates for the adults that still need to be fixed. She seems pretty amenable, according to someone who already talked to her a little bit, to taking them for neutering herself to the vets who accept our certificates. If all this works out we could be saving hundreds of unwanted feral kittens from lots of suffering.

Worst case scenario is she's a cat hoarder. People like that aren't usually that interested in controlling their population, regardless of how friendly they might seem when first approached. Also they will keep taking in more and more cats until the cats' and their own safety and health is in jeopardy. Supposedly people in the area know of her and call her all the time when they find out about kittens, etc., and she has continued taking more in. So part of what we'll try to gauge is whether it seems like she recognizes limits of her money, space and energy... This part doesn't bode well re the hoarding possibility. If she's not a hoarder she might be kind of doing her own version of a shelter. In this case we'll look at the conditions (she has a lot of them penned in big kennels according to the info we got) and try to suggest/urge her to make any changes that might be necessary. Hopefully she'll be as amenable to that as she supposedly is to the neutering... So we'll see.

On the homefront, here's a recent shot of TC and Gris-Gris (thru the sliding glass door) in the sun on the deck a couple of weekends ago. I am very happy to say (knocking wood) that Griz's head sore is slowly getting better after all - he still rips it open regularly but the actual sore part is getting progressively smaller, and he doesn't seem to be digging at it to the same extent as before.

I have renewed my resolve to get TC TNR'd. I really need to get Beau taken care of too but he is going to be really hard to catch; I never really know when he's going to come around and I have no idea how to get him without getting either of the others, if I put something really tempting in the cage... Another member of our group is a champion cat trapper tho and said she might be able to help. I hope as soon as finals are over. I'll try TC between now and then. I still think she is fixed or just not viable but she could use a checkup and a rabies shot of course. She could use a diet, too, but oh well.

Beau is definitely not fixed, ahem. You can't see evidence of that in these shots but you can see the hard-livin' aspect I've alluded to before. For whatever reason he is not looking quite so bedraggled as he does here. I honestly think it's partly because of Griz's being fixed now - I think they were each other's prime daily opponents. I'm pretty sure Beau is top cat in the neighborhood now (but I never say that aloud when Griz is around of course).

As always thoughts of all the strays and ferals everywhere lead to ponderings of the two pretty cool cats in here with me who had their own hard times on the streets when they were little. Wondrous universe to have brought them to me.

Pre-Thanksgiving Monday Mitraillette

2011-11-21T11:02:00.001-05:00

This is by far the least painful school Monday all year - the Monday of Thanksgiving week where only 1/2 of the students bother to show up and even tho it's basically the same amount of work as all other Mondays, it doesn't press down on you like on other Mondays since you know there's only one more day in the week to have to work. Anyway I am totally basking in it.

We're doing a potluck for Thanksgiving at UU - lots of single people like me of course but lots of other people, too. I can't decide what to make besides cranberry sauce... either pie or maybe dressing balls... or green beans... or...

Of course I'll still make the other stuff on the list just to have leftovers for a while. And really, the essential aspect here is not that I have leftovers necessarily but that I have at least a little of each item that tastes and is made like it should be, i.e. the way Mom would have done (OK except for the aforementioned sweet potato protocol). It's just not Thanksgiving without accurate tastebud nostalgia.

Absolutely no work done this weekend so I am really determined to get all caught up today and tomorrow so I don't have anything hanging over my head for the break - well I might let online grade inputting be leftover for break if necessary but it is easier and less painful than the actual grading plus I can do it and still watch movies... altho not, unfortunately, knit or make holiday cards or start piecing my couch cover...

Lee just brought in a ton of cookies and had the cruelty to leave them on one of the desks in the middle... hmmm.

PUTAINDEMERDE the fricking bullets in the Blogger post boxes are so completely scrogged in the head nowadays!!!! gahhhhh!!!!!

OK part of the reason I got no work done last night in particular is I was bad and started a new knitting pattern - extra bad b/c of course it was just a play swatch - destined for dishrag land - when I have two active gift projects in progress which really needed work... altho I did do a chunk on each of them earlier...

Indoor and outdoor kits got extra food this morning because after my last class I have SSAA practice and then a feral cat meeting til 9pm. It feels long already, but not nearly as long as it would on a normal Monday. yay.

All of my favorite French news sites seem to have stopped doing endless streaming or at least moved it to non-intuitive places. Very sad. I hate relearning site organization on things which used to work Just Fine almost as much as I hate looking for new ones... Quandary.

I know I used to gripe pretty much nonstop about drivers in Aub•rn but I would take their guileless ignorance of 4-way stops and left-turn protocols hands down over the (I swear) palpable mean-spiritedness of drivers here. Nuf said. (Look at me, not dwelling!)

I think I uploaded some pics this weekend (I'm not sure why but this weekend is slightly blurry - and I wasn't even drinking wine or anything...) so I'll have to post them and brighten things up on here.

Which reminds me that the dark background of the blog is getting old fast... or at least the photo... Subbing a new one of course would entail numerous color choice changes... which take a million years since Blogger is even more unfriendly than it used to be to people who want to do their own thing and are self-taught html'ers. I rather like the photo on the French blog - I might switch the two or at least just recreate a similar color scheme over here - there are several other cycling pics from France which would make just as good a background tho (that one is from the 1988 trip I'm pretty sure - I think on the way to Beauvais...)

Nice thought to end on. Bai.

Flashback Friday

2011-11-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

I've been at it again, reading old blogposts - sure sign of my heading 'round the bend.

Today's selection: Sam & Susan in the Theater of the Absurd

Proposed S&S&L Thanksgiving Menu, 2011 - because y'all got me thinking about food, and I'm still pooped and don't want to work

2011-11-15T14:48:00.001-05:00

Amply buttered turkey breast, roasted atop and surrounded by plenty of homemade sage dressing.
Extra pan of dressing balls.
Little batch of oyster dressing balls.
Mashed potatoes (yes, from scratch - that question deserves an eyeroll and a HUFF).
Mom's cheaty cream of chicken soup gravy, but with drippings and broth quand-même.
Green beans, probably. (If so then possibly cooked with a couple of pieces of bacon, but not cooked to mush and not a sodium fest.)
Baked sweet potatoes (main difference from Clay family Tgvg fare, chopped in big chunks and tossed in a little olive oil and fresh cracked pepper, then baked, instead of Mom's candied ones).
Fried parsnips. Maybe.
Apple pie (this will be a nod to Aunt Hazel rather than to Mom, since Mom normally did not do pies from scratch and Aunt Hazel was known far and wide for her pie crusts, so obviously that's where I got the gene).
Pumpkin pie. Maybe but just a little one to satisfy the craving.
Jamison-Core-Booth-Clay cranberry relish.
Yeast rolls (store bought - I'm not a maniac, after all).

We'll dispense with the Waldorf salad, thank you very much.

Mitraillette of exhaustion, aka journaling disguised as blogging b/c I'm pooped and don't want to work any more

2011-11-15T14:13:00.001-05:00

Stupid Blogger. Half the time when I open the blog the fricking fonts don't kick in even after the page is fully loaded. I'm still pondering something fun to do with this anyway but the way they have the interface now it's considerably harder to play with and personalize. I mean Come ON! At LEAST give us a complete array of color code possibilities instead of 30 really weird hues, none of which match ANYTHING.
Not that I have the energy to do anything about it just now anyway - possibly over Thanksgiving or Christmas?
I have come to a screeching halt here in the office - first few hours in nearly a week that weren't spoken for with Fr*nch Club stuff or Paris stuff or preparation for either of those... Tonight is the second and final Paris info meeting of the semester, then a full week of class til Thanksgiving break. Anyway I had been working quite diligently all morning during office hours catching up on work that had been sidelined because of these Event-y things but after my second lab class all my gumption went missing.
Meeting isn't until 19h30 which means I should go to the Fr•nch Club meeting (since I had to miss pottery anyway) and whether I do that or not, I should try to work really hard until the Paris thing and get caught up so I don't have to drag work home tonight.
Student came up to get a bunch of French music from me today and surprise! not the pop/rock/other modern... wanted all my Yves Montand, Charles Trenet, Edith Piaf, Josephine Baker, Aznavour, etc. You never know when one of them will surprise you, just goes to show.
I am going to get another LaCroix out of the fridge.
There is a cooler of crêpes next to me for tonight's Paris mtg. I have the one-woman crêpe production down to a science, as long as they aren't for sale and can therefore be a little smaller than normal: four burners, two crêpe pans and two big skillets, all going at the same time. It takes about 8 crêpes for me to get the timing down and then they all jibe perfectly with each other. I made 47 crêpes yesterday morning in just under an hour, not including batter-mixing but still...
Plus it's good for my left bicep. :)
Three alums came to last night's meeting - that's more fun than anything, just yacking with them.
Good thing since only one interested student came.
I have to not get bummed b/c honestly every year there is no telling how many people are really interested until the last couple of weeks before the application deadline (end Feb.) Last year a total of 4 people had attended the three info mtgs - two in fall and one in January. Off to France with 10 students, then. So whatever.
And honestly if it fell thru one of these years, it would be sad but a big part of me would not be that disappointed except for the wee bit of money it earns me and the obvious stuff like getting to be in France a while and see friends.
Plus I'm already starting to stress about the cat/housesitter sitch.
All the most responsible former students I can think of are allergic to cats of course or are leaving for internships, etc.
Hmph.
I think I will buy a turkey breast and make my standard mini-Thanksgiving dinner so I can have (a) nostalgia smells and (b) yummy leftovers. I might have to go ahead with fried parsnips this year due to various conversations here and in Real Life about how yummy they are. I'll definitely make cranberry relish and at least an apple pie...
Hmmm. Seems the plant-based diet will have a little hiatus over the holiday...
I did find time to watch Torchwood: Miracle Day over the weekend, tho (so good and they left themselves open for further series... hopefully for a reason???) and started two more knitting projects for Christmas. Oh I see your knowing smile but you must trust me that at least two really have every chance of coming to fruition, being very reasonable in size and scope, for me anyway...
REALLY hoping to get another quilt going over Christmas break as further create-y fodder for when the spring semester starts... on verra quoi.
Obviously this mitraillette should be called "Mitraillette of procrastination" or "Mitraillette of Journaling Out Loud."
OH! I almost forgot! I just got my $150 check for reviewing the "Sitôt dit, sitôt fait" textbook. Part of the money will go to a very fun and weather-protecty abode for Griz and TC on the deck. I'm so excited.

Nostalgia re-post

2011-11-10T13:52:00.002-05:00

I happened to be reading some stuff from the first few months of this tome and so here's a kinda fun tidbit from pre-Thanksgiving 2005.

porch cat update

2011-11-10T13:26:00.002-05:00

Griz is doing really really well these days. Well, he still has the bee-yew-tee-full sore on the side of his head b/c he won't leave it alone, but he has gained lots of weight the last several weeks so I think his FIV isn't as far along as I had feared. I have been buying him canned food but just giving him a couple of tablespoons' worth every couple nights (after dinner and after TC leaves for her evening constitutional), which I think has helped. Last night I really gave him a pretty thorough once-over and he is feeling nice and filled out and very solid except his hips are a little bony still.

He still seems just as cantankerous towards other cats as before being snipped but does stay around the porch a lot more and never shows up with new battle wounds anymore, so he apparently doesn't follow through at least. He smacks TC on the head once in a while when she pushes into his bowl one too many times, and he still puts up quite a fuss when Richard "Beau" Harris tries to come get food, but just a vocal one with lots of puffed-up-ness and stiff-leg walking. Beau obviously doesn't know Griz is snipped because about half the time he decides it's not worth persisting; I think it mostly depends on how hungry he is.

He is more loving and attention-wanting every day. Well the canned food helps but very often even after I put it down he stays at the sliding glass door to try to get in contact with my hand. He doesn't really care how - he likes being petted but he likes just as much if I hold my hand still and he just pushes his head against it and holds it there. If anyone ever turned up who wouldn't mind trying to socialize him and didn't have any other cats or who had other FIV cats I am certain that with time he would be the lovy-est cat ever.

Mind you, if I'm standing or if I have anything a little different in my hands, he is wary. If I just step out a little to put stuff in the recycle bin, he runs to the other side of the porch. If I come on out to go to the garbage can out back or something, he normally jumps down off the porch completely but then within seconds of my going back in, he's back on the deck.

Beau (his real name is Richard Harris because he's huge and white and lanky and looks like he had some hard-drinking days - or the cat version of same - for all I know he really is the reincarnation of RH) is looking far less beat-up now that Griz is no longer in pugilist mode, proof that most of the wounds were probably coming from Gris-Gris. He is also filling out a little in time for winter, which I'm very glad about. It helps that he is bolder not only about G. but about seeing movement inside the house - it used to be if he even saw slight movement way way inside (like my moving to sip coffee on the couch at the other side of the living room - about 8 yards in) he would take off but now he's decided he can get away in time even if I'm walking around as long as I'm several feet away from the sliding door. I really should have got him TNRed by now but he is so incredibly wary, with time he will be even less suspicious hopefully and I can get him trapped.

TC is TC. Her yearly summer habit of licking all the hair off her legs was in full force again this year but they're almost OK again now. I was lazy and didn't try catching her very much. I'm convinced she can't have kittens, either from being spayed or from some physiological issue, since she has been hanging out with the toms now for 3 years to no effect. Still she could use a rabies shot and possibly some testing. It's a given she's FIV positive since most feral/strays are, and since she has shared bowls with Griz so long and they lick each other now and then, but she's holding her own.

She is super fat right now b/c I've been putting extra food out so there is plenty for Beau even after she and Griz finish breakfast (nighttime food is just as much as they will eat in one sitting so as not to attract the skunk or the possum, both of whom decided the deck was their smorgasbord as well) but I've decided her obesity is kind of OK if it's what has to happen to get the other two ready for colder weather. Well, and "super fat" for her, or any backyard stray, is about even with most people's housecats' normal weight so...

She still will come up really close as long as you don't touch her and gives a yelp and glares at you if you have the audacity to try, unless she's super hungry. However: about a week ago I think her other personality had taken over or something because she actually rubbed up against my hand a couple of times, and then she jumped back in surprise, with the token yelp, as if I had been the one to violate protocol. Since then she is back to normal. I'm still kind of dumbfounded.

I've been feeling bad about not being able to stay as active as I had planned with our feral cat management group but my standard rationalization is still in place - at least I'm helping these guys hopefully. I'm supposed to re-establish and renovate our Feral Cat Program webpage now so that will be good for redeeming myself a bit since I can do that on my own schedule and I almost never can make meetings, and haven't been very diligent about TNRing.

Sam and Lucy (EVEN Lucy!) think the porch cat situation is OK nowadays. Lucy was always the worst - throwing herself at the sliding glass door on occasion - especially with Beau - but now they are both downright blasé (I'm resisting the temptation to put an "s" on that). And they have learned that my moments with Griz will sometimes afford them a teensy bit of canned food (they're weird - they actually aren't crazy about canned food in general but they think they're starving these days so it's the extra snack factor rather than its being anything special that they get excited about - and we're talking about a little bit approximately the same size as a Hershey's kiss, slightly more for Sammers since his metabolism handles it better, and that about twice a week).

two glasses of wine, a huge bowl of curry rice and veggies, and about 15 grapes later...

2011-11-07T21:27:00.000-05:00

Weird day, as all Mondays... I dread them and then once I'm at school and things are falling into place I feel stupid for having dreaded it so badly, then I have a few hours of something in between being terrified I won't have time to get all my work done and just wanting the time to pass faster so my classes and Monday will be over, then once my afternoon classes (three in a row) start in I'm OK and the momentum carries me, then choir, which is generally a pretty good way to end the day before coming home. Since then... refer to the title plus add to that (for this evening anyway): petting the kits, wrestling with Sammers, and watching the David Tennant Hamlet.

But all that is completely irrelevant. Here are the two latest pots (as I write this Sammers is in the kitchen playing with the pictures on the wall - never a dull moment...) one of which I love, the other I'm fairly indifferent to (and no that's not any kind of false modesty)...

Here's the indifferent one. Same goes here as with what I said before - I'm glad Erin had us do the stuff she had us do but I'm not ecstatic about the pieces. Our required work for the class:
1 pitcher
1 closed form pot
1 lidded pot
1 teapot

Of those, one was required to have a pulled handle and one was required to show at least some slab-building. When we got to the teapot I had yet to do any slab building and for some reason the night I started this I was feeling weirdly self-conscious on the wheel plus was just kind of pooped and a little less-than-social so I decided to start my teapot with slabs (slab building takes one into a slightly different area of the studio than where the wheels are). It kind of snowballed from there and the pot ended up entirely slab-built. I hardly ever do slabs so I'm really proud of it from a technical standpoint - I did a really good job with all the joins, etc. (altho the joins between the spout and the rest of the pot had a couple of iffy spots but ended up fine) - even tho this pot is decidedly not Me.

The glaze just made it even weirder - we all tried this glaze on a few things this time but it did a really strange thing in this firing and ended up basically Baby Shit Brown with a few flecks of green when it usually fires much darker (deep deep almost black brown) with a green iridescence to it all over. But so much for that.

It holds one large mug's worth or two medium cups' worth. I didn't do the strainer treatment inside in the clay but went ahead and cut a hole in the body that is the same size and shape as the base of the spout. In general I think those strainy openings for teapots are pointless. You have to make the holes pretty big so that glaze won't plug them up, which makes them too big to do any real straining. I'd much rather just use a tea strainer.

I do love the handle - every single thing about it - I love the join of the horizontal part to the vertical part and I love how I split the slab to join it to the pot in both places. I also really think my little triangle on top is Quite Inspired. It gives a nice thumb rest for pouring stability but also if you look closely you'll see that the one point extends over the back of the lid - which keeps the lid from tipping out as you pour. It works quite well.

Below is my closed form from the class. I really love this pot and keep imagining it with some harissa (hot sauce for couscous etc.) in it or something. The glazing is a reenactment of the glazing from the lidded pot from before which ran like crazy and basically messed up the entire piece, but this time I was careful to glaze pretty thin plus someone had watered down the glaze a bit.

I'm kind of addicted to closed forms now - anytime something starts going wonky you can almost always make it into a closed form, then cut a lid out and it's the easiest lid to make, too, altho you have to be pretty careful when you cut and the pot always ends up quite thick-walled due to having closed it in on itself and compressed a lot. I trimmed tons off of this one.

This is my new favorite kind of lid handle - it's particularly good for closed form lids b/c they are so thick there is plenty of clay to dig the handle out of, but also I really hate making handles for lids.

So there. I have one more closed form that should be out of the bisque fire by tomorrow night and I'll be back on the wheel tomorrow so we'll see what develops.

I have the hiccups.

thanks 10/11

2011-11-01T12:23:00.002-04:00

le 1^er.x.11 - Stieg Larsson movies
le 2.x.11 - kitchen fun & Airborne
le 3.x.11 - leftover couscous supper
le 4.x.11 - pretty glazes
le 5.x.11 - wonderful dinner and catchup time with Steve & Marty
le 6.x.11 - Pill-chan (one day does not do her justice tho of course - much love my friend and rest in peace)
le 7.x.11 - Steve Jobs - another incredible person - and how he changed how we think and live
le 8.x.11 - our new thrift store duvet cover
le 9.x.11 - 2nd batch of yummy couscous
le 10.x.11 - compo day
le 11.x.11 - relatively pleasant crêpe-production session with students, and how fun everyone always thinks Sam & Lucy are (especially since they are every bit that fun)
le 12.x.11 - how tremendous our dept. staff & chair was at Aub*rn
le 13.x.11 - perspective au vin blanc
le 14.x.11 - Desiree and Anna and having an extremely fun class over at the library coffee shop
le 15.x.11 - first day of a 4-day break, aka ecstasy
le 16.x.11 - Merlin
le 17.x.11 - all of Frasier on Netflix!
le 18.x.11 - super tidy office!
le 19.x.11 - apathy
le 20.x.11 - start of fun weekend visit with my brother!
le 21.x.11 - potato soup
le 22.x.11 - John Denver
le 23.x.11 - fun drives in the Upstate
le 24.x.11 - fun 4pm class
le 25.x.11 - haircut! & decent closed form on the wheel
le 26.x.11 - 102003's & getting compos graded on time
le 27.x.11 - clean kitchen & being mostly caught up on work
le 28.x.11 - good night o' glazing
le 29.x.11 - curry
le 30.x.11 - advil
le 31.x.11 - talking myself out of blowing off school

pots!

2011-10-28T10:42:00.000-04:00

As promised and as forewarned... recent pottery fun...

This one was one of my leftover pieces of bisqueware from Aub*rn - I love making handle-less pitchers. This one is perfect for one dinner's worth of salad dressing or something. Might use it for the harissa in January when Circle Dinner is at my house and I plan to make couscous. I'm not crazy about this red (we call the glaze "burgundy" - hmph) but it's OK.

Another leftover from Aub*rn. Probably my most symmetrical bowl ever. Some glaze ran but little enough that I could grind off the drips without too much trouble.

You can see below a little piece of kiln shelf wash fell into the bowl and fused with the glaze - this happens on occasion. Thank goodness it's a pretty little piece - bowl is still usable and after lots of years throwing and being ready for funky things like that to happen on occasion it's not a big deal.

I wasn't in love with this pitcher thank goodness b/c the glaze ran DREADFULLY. The towel is covering it up. I like the colors but the glaze is too thick in general (partly why it ran altho the blue glaze you see here runs like crazy anyway). It has since been crunched with a hammer and a piece of it went into the latest pot of transplanted catnip (curved shards make really good little guards in the bottom of planters to keep the soil from going thru the hole in the bottom so water can drain better).

Arguably my best pot ever from a technical standpoint. Only drawback was the walls were a little too thick for my tastes. But really consistent, super symmetrical, very well built and perfectly-fitting lid, which itself was really symmetrical and consistent. I think the glaze is one of my best jobs ever, too, but the darker glaze here (applied a little thick but not too much) ran worse than any I've ever seen. Drips were so bad that the base of the pot chipped off when taken out of the kiln (hence the towel). The lid is now a paperweight in the office and the base, which I was going to hammer or just throw away, is holding the aforementioned catnip planter. I just used this glaze combo again on something last night - much thinner - hopefully it will work out.

I would rather...

2011-10-11T22:00:00.003-04:00

play on ah than work on the test I have to write for tomorrow
watch the "Tower of London" documentary than finish cleaning up all the crêpe fallout in the kitchen
knit than wade through the overflow of emails from today
do almost anything than help at the crêpe stand Thursday
think about how bad my attitude is than fix all the stuff on the French Club website that needs fixing
go to bed than think about all the letters I'm behind on
play with S&L than finish the oral presentation info
read my current Val McDermid than finish the Auralog announcements for my classes
do almost anything else than be here if I could make enough money for S&L&me to live on and somehow move and change jobs without any damage done to my already abysmal financial situation
pet Griz than work on the Paris budget
have gone to pottery tonight than make crêpes
go to pottery on 10/25 than attend the FC mtg.
clean my office than try to get thru my gmail backlog
have someone here sometimes than not
take a shower than finish the pkg for Andrew
post pottery pics on here than get up and start any of the million productive things that need doing

Alack I had forgot...

2011-10-07T15:11:00.002-04:00

...that when throwing pots there is one cardinal rule. One must think of ceramics the way one thinks of child rearing. You can mold and form and affect various things and try to create something like what you had in mind but in fact pots, like children (I've heard), will turn out as they will. You can't control other outside influences nor can you really control what they themselves do or decide to be, down deep inside.

And so, you probably already grasped the gist here: I am not over happy with my finished pots so far from ceramics class. Most of it was because of something that even our instructor didn't know; someone had mixed the glazes wrong so most of them ran like crazy. My lidded pot (probably my best work ever, from a technical perspective, even tho it wouldn't have necessarily been my favorite) was the worst victim: glaze ran so badly that in chiseling it off the kiln shelf, the pot itself broke - just the foot but still.

In fact the only one that didn't run at all was a little handle-less pitcher I had brought from Aub*rn (there were three pieces left over from studio work there that never got glazed that last spring b/c the glazes ran out and no one made more in time for me to use them). I used the side grinder on another piece from Aub*rn (probably my most consistently thin, and most symmetrical bowl ever, plus with a really fun shape) which luckily only had two drips. But it takes forever to grind that crap off and with the side (aka hand-held) grinder it is kind of a gigantic pain in the cul just due to logistics and having to hold onto the pot and the grinder and still work effectively (I seriously can't believe we don't have a bench grinder in this studio), so I didn't bother with my pitcher, which ran almost as bad as my lidded pot and had several huge clay boogers (drips). I wasn't super attached to it anyway (oh think "sour grapes" if you must but honestly I'm feeling pretty complacent about it all and about that piece in particular).

The Aub*rn bowl was really the one I was most excited to glaze - so so so thankful it was salvageable. If THAT one had messed up I WOULD have been upset indeed.

As for the pitcher and the lidded pot, I'll take pics but in a way so the drips don't show, more as a record of what glazes I used than for any other reason, and then probably toss the pitcher and the pot but save the lid as a paperweight or something. It didn't run at all and it is really Way Too Cool to throw away. (Even tho the handle wasn't entirely my idea, as I said before. :)

There are still two pieces to fire - one that I'm not crazy about but is kind of whimsical and one that I'm fairly happy with but which wouldn't be hard to duplicate... so we'll avoid glazes we know are runny and see what happens.

Photos to come! I'm at school but will try to remem. to give you a little glimpse sometime this weekend.

thanks, 09/2011 - 2nd half anyway (grrr Blogger) :)

2011-09-30T23:53:00.000-04:00

le 16.ix.11 - fun Northland phone support people
le 17.ix.11 - Lucycuddles & Bruce McGill
le 18.ix.11 - Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate
le 19.ix.11 - the 202002s
le 20.ix.11 - handbuilding teapot fairies
le 21.ix.11 - fun time at Study Abroad Fair
le 22.ix.11 - our vet rocks
le 23.ix.11 - fun with the 102s
le 24.ix.11 - impromptu free time
le 25.ix.11 - yummy TVP tacos
le 26.ix.11 - nice sound at She Sings
le 27.ix.11 - Griz headbutts
le 28.ix.11 - good student meeting
le 29.ix.11 - almost caught up on work
le 30.ix.11 - cuddlebugs

Supper

2011-09-28T19:00:00.000-04:00

Vegan taco salad:

TVP taco meat
red peppers
baby romaine
onion
tomatoes
tofu cheese
taco sauce
corn tortillas

Yum.

downslide & clay play

2011-09-28T10:54:00.001-04:00

Had been doing lots better - now it has slipped a bit. Of course I need not to dwell on that. ha! Completely overwhelmed with work, stupid class observation today of my worst section of course, exhausted, headache the last two days for some reason, and the household cat hair/general dirt situation has reached critical mass which always depresses/stresses me until I have time to do another big cleaning session (i.e. more than the tidying and spot-cleaning that is of course carried out regularly, mind you). Dropped the ball on a couple of crucial things today - for me mostly so at least not work-related but still. One would have afforded me $100.

DIHS going strong.

On the bright side I trimmed my teapot last night at pottery class. I'm not super happy with the pieces I've made in there but mostly it was just so I would be authorized to have access to the studio. (There are two Open Studio periods each week at The ARTS Cent*r but you have to have taken a pottery class there in order to be eligible.) It was good to have structure and someone overseeing/advising as I jumped back in anyway. I took the intermediate/advanced class and was pleasantly surprised at how little I seem to have forgot re throwing, etc. The first night there was some trouble centering my clay but after that way less - almost back to normal of 3.5 years ago. I still need lots of studio time in order to feel really comfortable again but lots of yays nonetheless.

The class was good also in forcing me to push the envelope a bit - we had required pieces to do, none of which would I probably have made on my own. As I said I'm not super happy with any of them but I'm really glad I had to do them - somehow having someone say it was required resulted in perseverance about the new/different formats. When you're on your own if you're trying to make something specific and it goes wonky you can just turn it into another bowl or something, but I didn't allow that tactic as an option in the class.

So some day soon you'll have pics of my:

pitcher (requirement was to do something that would need a pulled handle)
lidded pot (probably the most fun piece but I don't like the handle because it was slightly forced on me by the instructor and wasn't my own idea - quintessential Susanness raising its head there)
teapot (all slab-built and kind of wacky and not, I don't feel, very Me, but good experience)
closed form pot (with lid cut out - this one is not great but is probably my favorite - I loved doing a closed form - so fun! also easiest way to make a lidded pot)

I glazed the pitcher last night - nothing special, just a blue-green solid glaze, no stripes or overlaps, etc., as used to be my wont. I trimmed the teapot and the little lidded pot, and the big lidded pot went into the bisque firing, hopefully ready to glaze tomorrow night.

As of next week I can start attending Open Studio on Weds. nights. There's also one on Tuesdays but too early in the day. You buy your clay directly from the Center, and your glaze is provided out of your Studio fee: $12/wk for Center members like me. If that seems steep it actually is far less than a class, per week anyway. And at any rate it's the only option til I have money and space for my own equipment, etc. (More money and a different abode are the necessary steps FAR in the distant future for lots of things my imagination has decided will be necessary for me to really be happy here - if the money situation solidifies substantially before the contentment does, then new career path - almost certainly somewhere else - will move in as the next priority rather than permanent SC residence.)

Oh one other good thing I guess which I have actually been able to be happy about a lot but for some reason this morning slipped my mind: eating SUPER well now for 1.5 weeks straight and pretty good for a few weeks before that (lost another couple pounds altho - shockingly - I'm not dwelling on that part so it's just a nice fringe benefit, even tho *whispered with delight* 2.5 more pounds and I will be seeing a number on the scale [in the tens spot] which I have not seen since 2004 :)

Fringe benefit of the fringe benefit helps too: lots of "new" clothes I for some reason had saved but haven't fit into for, in some cases, as much as 4 years. It's nice to have more than 3 outfits to wear, especially when it's fun duds (and lots of old faves even) not Fat Clothes.

More on food later - that would take a mondo post.

I miss

2011-09-17T11:21:00.002-04:00

not having anyone with whom I can coin fun things like "drivecrazyable"ness. I mean sure, Sam and Lucy, understand my jargon but they refuse to DELIGHT in it so there's just not as much satisfaction.

One of those days where I think there will not be anyone like that again.

What...

2011-09-12T12:21:00.002-04:00

...is in my juice today?!
sweet potatoes
broccoli
cucumbers
carrots
oranges
lemon
pineapple
red peppers
purple cabbage

...is in the soup-y thing I made last night?!
lentils
celery
cumin
coriander
white pepper
onion
garlic
quinoa
a touch of olive oil

...was in my stomach for breakfast?!
a banana
soy milk and Crunchy Flax (I am addicted to this - it is alarmingly yummy)
coffee with Silk creamer

Probably a good thing you didn't have to answer these questions in order to cross the Bridge of Death, huh?

she said, grudgingly...

2011-09-08T05:00:00.000-04:00

OK at least it's not as butt-ugly as it was when I signed on the other day to find LIGHT BLUE everywhere. For the moment I'm taking the path of least resistance: embellishing this one a bit b/c I don't have the time/patience to try to resolve the whole getting-the-old-template-back situation. And yes, I admit, this is kind of a nice change of pace, mostly since I could still play with colors a bit and could use my own photo for the background.

Sprained my ankle tonight. Er... last night. Then fell asleep while icing it. Slept a long time and woke up at 11 (I wonder why?!) just in time (coincidence!) for S&L's bedtime snack (crazy!) and then proceeded to be WIDE AWAKE the rest of the night.

I'm going to go for another hour now even tho I still don't feel sleepy; long day ahead tho.

Starting CERAMICS again!!!!! After a French Club thing I'm not looking forward to... bof.

it's official, blogger has finally completely utterly entirely thoroughly etc'ly let me down

2011-09-06T17:09:00.003-04:00

Now I really mean it. I edited my template this morning with my thank you list as usual. I clicked "save edits" as usual. It said "changes saved" as usual. Yes, the interface looked slightly different but there was still a "Template" button on my dashboard as usual (i.e. NOT a stupid "monetize" button like there is now in the spot where the "template" button used to be) and the html window was basically the same as before. So now everything is gone. Too bad Wordpress is so pretentious and moody or I would just fucking get over there and close everything here. I'm writing the help people but one of the reasons I taught myself to do so much stuff to the blog on my own in the first place was because they're hard to get ahold of - at least in my experience.

I am absolutely heartbroken... well as much as one can be for an online tool that one has neglected sorely the last few months. But still.

At least I have all the posts still... knocking wood.

I guess I'm going to have to go ahead and try to find a Ready Made Idiot Template that doesn't make me gag b/c the fucking default one HOV got stuck with is too awful for words and I can't bear for it to be on poor HOV even for the briefest of moments. (Hopefully upon this reading you don't see it anymore..... HOPEfully upon this reading this whole entry is moot and they've helped me get my old template back... hmph.)

Putain de merde. Les salauds.

wow mitraillette #399

2011-08-02T08:26:00.002-04:00

I kinda can't believe I haven't posted in so long and yet at the same time of course I totally can.

What can I say, funk/time warp/space out/veg out etc.... whatever. Probably time for a machine gun post...

Griz is doing awful. His wound from spring which I assumed would be healed by the time I got home is still there and even bigger due to his scratching it all the time. I got a Hav*hart trap and am trying to catch him for TNR/doctoring of the wound. Of course the TNR is way late; I'm sure he's fathered umpteen litters of kittens... but I'm trying not to feel guilty for not getting it together enough before to try to help more.
Of course my head being my head I'm freaking about the risk of catching either TC or Beau (big white tom who recently deposed Griz as King of the Porch and another reason I finally got the trap) instead of Griz. They both need TNR/vetting too but Griz is in more need plus I don't have money for all three right now.
Plan with Griz is - assuming the vet thinks there's any way to get him healed (i.e. to leave it alone and let it heal) and assuming he doesn't have FIV or feline leuk already (miracle if he doesn't have either or both) is to bring him in and doctor him in the den and try to either get him to an adoptable state or adopt him ourselves (Sam & Lucy do not yet know that they are part of the "we" there). But as I said, his not being infected would be the miracle of all miracles.
Ideally I would be able to get him first and then the others little by little.
Beyond all this cat stuff is school of course - I'm pretty caught up on the course I'm teaching currently but still finishing Paris grades (one month after re-entry) of course. This year things went mostly better during the program itself but I won't see it as real progress until I'm able to keep up on grading DURING the program. At this rate I think that will be another couple of years but I hope I'm wrong.
I got great pics from the plane window on my way out of France which I'll post for you soon. Even fun aerial view of the point of Brittany where Lydie & Pierre & I were just a week prior to that. We flew right over it. :)
S&L are great - Lucy gained a little weight in my absence; Sam is looking nice and trim. Various weirdnesses in the house but I keep telling myself the essential thing was the cats were good so I'm slowly getting better at letting the other stuff go (missing salad fork, missing cat brush, the fact that for various reasons I'm pretty sure she didn't spend as much time there as she was supposed to, etc.) Nothing broken or destroyed this year at least (first year you got the gory details here in HOV, last year one of my favorite tin serving trays inexplicably set out on the deck in the sun and rain for the duration of my absence - hard to decide which was worse, the rust or the fading)...
Mostly just watching TV a lot and reading but almost nothing done around the house - neither regular things I should do like cleaning, nor project-y things I had in mind for the return - and no emails or letters outgoing (as some of you can attest). Same old same old - it's hard to write people when you have nothing to talk about that isn't depressing or at best blah.

I guess this was more of a small artillery barrage than a machine gun post. Eh ben... 400-year-late grading calls...

Please cross your fingers for me re the porch cats and send some mental offerings to the animal gods or to St. Francis of Assisi.

there's no place like...

2011-07-03T19:04:00.000-04:00

Writing this in the plane - to be copier/coller'd later (full disclosure, quoi).

What is it with transports and having really icky flaky heads on seats in front of me this trip? I never told you guys about the guy in front of me on the way to Caen that first weekend. It's pretty hard to gross me out but after one glance at this guy's head (le pauvre - he must have had eczema or something - c'est pitoyable) and I have to close my eyes and turn the iPod on extra loud and force myself to sing along to distract myself. Anyway the guy here in the plane is not that bad but still...

Definitely on my way back to the U.S. The nice Air France/Delta flight that usually can be counted on to be almost luxurious, even in economy, BOTH ways, has let me down this year. Obviously AF decided just to let Delta deal with this particular flight - we have the smallest plane I've flown overseas since 1985 or so (2 seats on the sides, THREE in the middle [had to spell that out for effect] - it's pretty ridiculous).

The next part shows both how spoiled and addicted I've become re: visual media/stimuli. Since it's an older and smaller plane we don't get our little personal movie screens with the individualized channels; we have the (not-so-)old school big screen in front with the little ones hanging from the ceiling every so often. (On the bright side there were technical difficulties 15 minutes into a Paul Giamatti movie whose characters mumbled too much for me to be able to hear all the nitty gritty and now we're watching that Matt Damon/Emily Blunt movie - I missed the very beginning plus I'm old so I'm blanking on the title - which is turning out to be much better than the previews ever made me suspect; aside from being pretty good it has Terence Stamp and John Slattery, who has yet to realize he needs to marry me.)

Sidenote: a girl up ahead is wearing a purple béret.

Air France apparently did give Delta some food because the chicken dish we just had was ultra yummy (for airplane fare anyway). The things served with it were various degrees of icky-passable-ness, and nationalities. English cheddar (c-a-d almost white but so yummy - why do Americans make cheddar so orange? and don't get me started on Kraft mac and cheese), dreadful fruit salad (definitely American - when fruit has absolutely no flavor what does that mean nutrients-wise??) I seriously regret eating it... and ordering coffee when I KNEW it would be American-style, i.e. brown water and what little flavor was present was somewhere in between insupportably bitter and downright rancid.

So there. I'm going to pay attention to the movie now; promised myself I wouldn't sleep so that I can be on US time faster - the transition to FR time this year was much more work than usual and normally my US time change upon re-entry is even rougher.

Marché aux Puces, Day 2

2011-06-21T16:15:00.000-04:00

More good stuff. I still have a few people to buy for so I'm probably going back out July 2, plus there are a couple of other places I'll get one or two things.

Antique terrine.

I can taste the paté already...

Watercolor of Azay-le-Rideau - this one is something of a panic gift.

For KT - she and I share a love of antique silhouettes - this one is different but I think she'll still like it.

I neglected to put the pen with this; it's about 7 inches long.

Every year I see old pencil boxes and never get them.

This one has an added comparment inside; most have one big trough or two, not the little section.

And the lady gave me the fun old rickety dip pen as a bonus; she said it was sad to not have something inside the box. :)

Two more bistrot cordial glasses.

Very fun.

The lady at the stand where I got the glasses was super fun to talk to. First she thought I was French :) which is always fun, but when she found out I was American she said she used to work for a company that had lots of American employees who would come to France for training (kind of like Michelin). She was in charge of getting them housing and helping them get set up with utilities and all the practicalities.

Especially fun was next... After she retired, she kept in contact with her boss from there who was also retired. One day he called her to give her new contact info because he was going back to work and was starting a new business which would call for his traveling back and forth between Australia and the U.S. She was 65 when she got the call and the boss was 83!! She said she had always wanted to get into brocante (selling antiques/bric-a-brac) and she thought if he could start a new business at his age she might as well start her brocante business! I think she was nearing 80 or maybe a tad over so apparently she stuck with it.

Not entirely rosy Mitraillette #37099

2011-06-21T15:32:00.002-04:00

Fun money issues harshing my oh-so-hard-to-hold-onto-anyway mellow.
Stupid program debit card has been refused a handful of times so now I just get cash out all the time which means we are paying astronomical international transaction fees but it can't be helped; I refuse to run the risk of being at a museum or somewhere owing a couple of hundred dollars and have the card be refused. It's been absolute dumb luck that I had enough cash on me the other times.
Additional fun money issues are partly my fault and really are OK but just another thing on my mind.
As usual pretty lonely over here and this time since I'm broke* things are even more fun. I'm pretty sure I already talked about this so whatever, plus you all know it already. I thought this year would be the year when it would just rock the whole time. Well not really but I figured all my hard work and having so much done ahead of time would pay off in contentment... Um, not so much.
Usual disclaimer of how ridiculous and of course ungrateful this sounds to other people but the bottom line is the same as before: Paris program really is just barely worth all the hassle on my part.
On the other hand it is my favorite time of the whole year where students are concerned.
*In truth I'm no more broke than previous years, but this year I'm not charging ANYTHING. After bills that means I JUST have enough money to eat. That's good but everyone knows it's more fun to travel when you can spend on some special stuff once in a while. I did squeeze money out of somewhere for my train trips to Caen, so that's good. My strategy of getting gifts for people at the Puces is good, too. Fair amount cheaper than all the tourist crap and of course much more fun, both to look for and to give (and hopefully to receive).
Let's end on something good: Musée d'Orsay tomorrow, which I was not able to go to the last two years due to program errands and ankle woes (2009 and 2010, respectively). I haven't been in the Orsay since at least '89, I think earlier.
Oh, and Flashdance is on (music movies tonight all eve on France 4 because today is Fête de la Musique :)

Marché aux Puces, Day 1

2011-06-18T18:06:00.000-04:00

Heading back tomorrow b/c I barely have half of my list of gifts bought... many will not get gifts this year unfortunately, but the things I got so far are pretty fun...

Little antique porcelain ink/watercolor basins.

Little antique bistrot apéritif/cordial/remontant glasses.

Certainly today's pièce de résistance: 1930's porcelain pot à moutarde. This is not French but (as you may be able to guess) from Holland; still incredibly fun.

Tomorrow I'm heading back out; I made a list of a bunch of ideas that I didn't want to just go ahead and buy so hopefully by the time I get there I'll have figured out which ones to act on and who they'll be for... One of the students wants to go in the morning; this is very good as it will make me get going faster (today I got out there around 14h30 - so much for having a productive day). I especially have my eye on an antique terrine baking dish. It's actually quite nicely priced but heavy... Think I'm going to go for it tho - haven't quite decided if it's going to be a gift or not actually... you know my addiction to antique bakeware...

Mitraillette #319: Good Stuff

2011-06-17T19:57:00.000-04:00

OK, I'll make an effort...

Went to St. Germain l'Auxerrois today and I think it's the first time I've ever been in it. Pretty cool and extremely fun porch, which you don't see that much on Paris churches.
Fun very light spitting rain that lasted the better part of an hour before increasing in intensity timed perfectly for my 30 minutes that I was killing in the park before meeting one of the students at 15h.
Bus!
Nice lunch with CVK.
Didn't get lost on the way home from lunch even tho I had to go thru la Place des Victoires, which seems to be sort of a black hole for me normally. It's like a mini-Luxembourg - I almost can't go thru it without getting lost.
Controlled myself admirably at THREE different potentially spendy moments.
Got a good deal on the train tickets to see Lydie et Pierre in Caen next weekend - saved about 18€!
The afternoon guy au Lutèce was really nice as usual.
My mosquito bites are letting up a bit.
Extremely fun Japan style dog in the park. Inu desu!
Remarkably free-of-pee-odor stretch of the park where usually it's strictly hold-your-breathville.
My favorite guy at the FranPrix cash register.
Finding out that the laundry detergent I'm almost out of and will definitely have to buy a new box of will only be 5€ instead of the 8-9€ I was expecting it to be.
Remembered to buy more Toilet Duck.
Giggled as I grabbed it because it always reminds me of Smack the Pony.
My so fun and quiet bedroom with the great breeze (nothing, nothing, NOTHING like French air coming thru wide open windows on summer nights - so nostalgic too) and the nice hard mattress, where I'm heading now... :)

Mitraillette #1067, or: lots of tidbits that mostly point to the current funk

2011-06-17T19:44:00.000-04:00

It's that time again - hodgepodge of tidbits to catch you up since I've been exceedingly ~~lame~~ busy as usual.

So Adrienne had mentioned googling herself today on FB and it sparked me to google myself since I hadn't in a while. Top thing is from stupid Rate My Professor (which I never thought was that stupid til I came to Clems*n since at Auburn it was a nice mix of positive and negative) and even tho I didn't go onto the site, the stupid Google blurb quoted enough to send me into a teaching ego nosedive, or at the very least helped my utter fed-up-ness with my job to resurface.
So I've got THAT going for me.
No work done tonight. Double yay.
Supposed to go to the flea market tomorrow; I have no gifts for anyone yet and it is starting to look like I will only be able to afford stuff for a small handful of people. Hopefully some fun trinkets will shout out to me at the marché.
So missing the kits tonight. Two weeks and two days. Ridiculous to be anything but ecstatic here but I forget every year how hard it is going to be without any social life here and mostly broke. Two conditions which do not exactly enhance five weeks' time in Paris.
Major stupidass program bank account problem this week which really made the last few days extra fun.
Nice rains lately (as in mostly avoiding the times I was out and about :) France really needs it so even if it poured on me I honestly wouldn't mind that much (especially as most of our outdoor promenade excursions are overwith).
Good lunch with Christina today; same place as last year, a little resto called Dédé la Frite. Maybe we should make it a tradition. Very yummy altho I have apparently completely forgotten how to eat a non-deboned fish.
That was pretty much it for the restaurant budget; I started with enough for about 1.5 smallish restaurant dinners per week, used up too many of them at the beginning while Natalie was here, and it looks like the last two weeks I'll be reining back on café stops. Probably no meals at all there and definitely just coffee au Lutèce a few times a week instead of daily (or more) like I'd really like. (Le Lutèce has the cheapest coffee I've found so far: 2€10... $1.41 to a euro today so you do the math - too depressing for me.)
I think I've lost a little weight. Weird since I usually either gain or stay the same here. I've been walking considerably more than normal even tho we have our metro cards; it helps too that virtually every place I would need to go I have to change metro lines at Chatelet, which I hate, so I almost always talk myself into walking rather than dealing with that.
Today tho I took the bus about 3 times, which is always kind of fun. Still, will not make it too much of a habit.
Thinking of the next couple weeks makes me tired, but thinking of teaching again right away when I get back makes me tired, too.
I just need to hold on another two years I think to be in a place financially where if I'm still no more content with the job and Clems*n I'll be able to afford moving and finding something else to do with my life... assuming the economy is a little better by then so there are jobs...
What an uplifting post! My mood is mostly better than last year but still not exactly 24/7 rosy-ness, and I usually think if I don't have some positive stuff to remark on I just shouldn't even write.
On the bright side I am journaling WAY more again, which feels really good and is probably at least partly due to not blogging so much (it feels like there's a lot more to it than that tho which bodes well for my continuing - also a fair amount more postcards outgoing and lots more letterwriting the last few weeks before my flight over, so hopefully once I'm back there and not having to worry about paying 5€/pound for apples and get into kind of a routine for Summer II maybe whatever little contentment path I was on in the spring will reveal itself again.

Salut.

05/11 thanks

2011-05-31T17:21:00.010-04:00

2.v.11 - quite productive day
3.v.11 - being caught up on work... during finals!!... with Paris coming up!!...
4.v.11 - Alessi thin breadsticks
5.v.11 - all the attentive, engaged students in my life
6.v.11 - caffeine
7.v.11 - sleeping in (til 14h30! omg!)
8.v.11 - grading buddies & Moe Joe's
9.v.11 - surprise new grading buddy & Moe Joe's & being all finished w/exam grading & seeing the light at the end of the tunnel
10.v.11 - people who understand you
11.v.11 - Lucy in the mood for fetch
12.v.11 - French commercials
13.v.11 - surprise chocolate bday cupcake
14.v.11 - birds-eye maple
15.v.11 - Paris dogs
16.v.11 - sleep
17.v.11 - really great haircut
18.v.11 - smooth flight day
19.v.11 - Paris clouds
20.v.11 - really fun but sober hallway dog
21.v.11 - cool day
22.v.11 - Une femme d'honneur
23.v.11 - Sunday in the Luxembourg
24.v.11 - houseguests
25.v.11 - smoothish airport day
26.v.11 - savvy new metro users
27.v.11 - Mont Saint Michel winds clearing worries away
28.v.11 - Touraine Touraine Touraine
29.v.11 - Patrick et Monsieur Jarry
30.v.11 - Cluny and last minute housing solutions
31.v.11 - nice Bateaux Mouches lady

This is how much I am addicted to coffee tables...

2011-05-20T19:25:00.003-04:00

I never knew that if I am sitting on a couch I absolutely HAVE to have something in front of me upon which to put all my crap! That's a plastic drawer organizer thingy if you can't tell. I don't have nearly enough clothes to fill the two other dressers in the bedroom let alone that thing, luckily. It's actually doing a pretty fair job as coffee table stand-in.

This doesn't have anything to do with the coffee table, I just think my toilet paper rocks. Unfortunately it comes in a six pack of rolls of which three are this, and three are FLOWERY :( plus it cost: 2,77€ ($3.92 by today's rate). The rolls are downsized, like everything over here except the cathedrals :) , about 2/3 as big as our rolls (1/2 if you like those jumbo rolls the sell in the U.S.)

Then again I'm drinking a very respectable red wine from Ardèche which only cost 2,30€ but came in a normal-sized bottle so it all evens out :)

The apartment is not as charming as last year or the year before but it is quaint and has lots of fun quirky French aspects. I'll probably do a vid this weekend sometime.

Ma nouvelle pub préférée

2011-05-20T16:17:00.000-04:00

C'est trop marrant et c'est parfait avec le bouledogue français.

spotted in an email...

2011-05-09T21:52:00.002-04:00

exactly about how much is 300 words??

Um, yeah. :)

Mitraillette #713

2011-05-04T21:38:00.002-04:00

Because she can.

Grading parties at Moe Joe's with Jay (and Sherri when she's not under the weather) are making me almost as productive as I used to be in A*burn!
Laura the cat/housesitter came over today for her Frontline tutorial with Sam & Lucy - it went pretty well altho both of them looked at me like, "No fair changing the rules of the game. Everyone knows you're supposed to do that at night so that we know when to hide."
Still unseasonably cool in the Upst*te - might have a rather seamless climate re-acclimation (kee) this year when I get to France.
Jay has been showing me his graphic communications students' final projects - how wonderful it must be to have students really keen on what you're teaching and the majority eager to do a great job, and THAT for more than just their GPA. Hmmm.
I really want to sing the Mendelssohn "Ich wollt meine lieb" aka "I would that my love" as a duet with Susan Ch*ndler after I get back, either as a potential piece for UU (Elaine suggested for Valentine's Day service) or just for fun. Sent her a YouTube sample the other day, don't yet know if it's piqued her interest. I think we would sound great.
My dream of being skinny before Paris did not come to fruition. Spring break totally messed up my workout momentum (and my schoolwork momentum for a long while too actually). Crap.
Not that it matters; I'll be so broke this time that I won't have money for any fun French clothes anyway (the biggest reason for being skinny there).
Way to look at the bright side, Susan!
Oh, I'm all over silver linings, y'all.
Already missing the kits; must stop thinking about that. What's that quote about regret being the most wasted emotion? Dread should probably be #2.
Sammers has decided he likes those Alessi thin breadsticks as much as I do. He is a much bigger pest when I'm eating those than with anything else. Ice cream is a distant second, and beyond that he really doesn't pay attention. Get those breadsticks tho and you'll have a certain tawny cat climbing all over you.
Do you feel caught up on Susanfixes?
I'll keep trying. There's REAL hope that the blogging is on the upswing again; I've been writing letters and journaling the last few weeks almost as much as before the great Clemson Funk set in. As I told my cousin Beth in an email this eve, the Susan-in-France postcard machine might even be back in business (systematically sent regular pc's to all and sundry every single overseas trip prior to 2009 - rather spoiled everyone actually).
On verra.

Bai.

4/11 thanks

2011-04-30T23:51:00.002-04:00

1^er.iv.11 - bed
2.iv.11 - cocoa
3.iv.11 - polyester, for some things :)
4.iv.11 - no Monday anxiety attack
5.iv.11 - leaving school early
6.iv.11 - eggs & milk & flour, mixed together and spread really thin in a pan, slightly browned and topped with lemon & sugar
7.iv.11 - good meeting with the Paris gang
8.iv.11 - really great crêpe chefs
9.iv.11 - people who appreciate fun cats
10.iv.11 - smooth International Festival day, & having it behind me for another year
11.iv.11 - fun stalwart letter writers
12.iv.11 - potentially decent Paris landlord
13.iv.11 - ♪ happy one-month-from-now-bday-to-me ♫
14.iv.11 - cool UK booksellers w/fun editions of A Moveable Feast
15.iv.11 - whoever's idea it was to create the Paris poems book & the Paris letters book I found at the last minute for the Paris course
16.iv.11 - fleece blankets
17.iv.11 - comforting friends
18.iv.11 - SSAA, saving our lives every single week
19.iv.11 - efficiency
20.iv.11 - deciding I don't have to go to tomorrow's meeting
21.iv.11 - repaired home interwebs
22.iv.11 - WordReference forums
23.iv.11 - Peter Boyd
24.iv.11 - butter
25.iv.11 - homemade tostadas
26.iv.11 - evenings with no meetings
27.iv.11 - the 104002s
28.iv.11 - grading buddies
29.iv.11 - last day of class
30.iv.11 - fun social time

L8R G8R

2011-04-20T07:39:00.000-04:00

Last night on the way to Anders*n, funnest license plate in a good long while:

HUMRH8R

Except... well this person's extendo-cab truck/car-I-can't-decide-what-I-am was almost as big as a Hummer anyway.

Then as we proceeded down the highway he showed himself to be worthy of a different moniker instead:

HUMRH8RTAILG8R

altho luckily he was in front of me not behind me.

Still I was, if but for a while, a staunch

HUMRH8RTALG8RH8R

What do you expect? Cut me open these days and pure caffeine and cold medicine would run out. Maybe there will be wonderful full meaty articulate posts once I get to France (since this year I'll actually have all my prep work done before arrival).

Fish Fetch Fun

2011-04-15T16:26:00.002-04:00

Beveraged-challenged Sam

2011-04-03T22:49:00.002-04:00

I just posted this on FB but then it dawned on me I don't think very many people know this about Sammers so might as well put it here as well. :)

Au petit coin

2011-04-03T21:18:00.004-04:00

We got a new shower curtain, which of course means that I am going to post about it, not because it's particularly interesting (altho it is a pretty fun shower curtain) but because I do not want to grade papers, of course.

Also it is an excuse to show you the new Andy Warhol cats bathroom décor. Of course you never saw the previous décor but imagine something very hodge podge tho colorful and you'll have it. Now we almost have a theme - on the walls anyway. Not sure how all my weird tins and tin toys fit in but whatever. We don't like to do TOO much cat stuff anyway, so it's just as well it be tempered with whimsical tin items and a completely wacky shower curtain.

Old shower curtain...

New shower curtain...

I actually kind of prefer the stripes, the bathroom is pretty small for all the movement the dots create. But the old one was getting super mildew-stainy on the bottom (only visible when you're in the tub but still it was getting quite gooby and no amount of washing undoes that shit) and this is the first new one I've found in MONTHS that was high enough on the fun scale. I do like that this one is white-white instead of off-white, it helps brighten up our icky cream-colored bathroom and makes up for all the dots. I surprised myself by not minding that this one is part polyester; I usually go cotton all the way for shower curtains, but the poly makes it lighter weight and I think it probably won't hold onto mildew stains so badly.

This mildew issue has only been since coming to SC. We go thru about one shower curtain every year or so (makes me feel really wasteful b/c the fabric is always still fine, just the stains are unbelievable - this one had that plastic reinforcement on top where the buttonholes for the curtain rings go and the reinforcement was starting to disintegrate so that helped me feel less guilty this time). In Auburn our fabric curtain was going on 4 years when we moved and still looked pretty much brand new every time we washed it (it would have lasted another year I guess, here, before being stained beyond acceptability but it was accidentally thrown away in the packing frenzy, along with my really fun periwinkle toilet lid cover... Ah well... :)

Without further ado... Andy Warhol cat wall (please disregard weird stains and spots on wall... if I'm here much longer I'm going to ask Sh*nnon and Alis*n if I can repaint the bathroom... for now it is pretty far down on the priority list)...

I keep debating if I should put the green one on that wall; a piece of me wants all the full cat body portraits on the same wall. But the weird baby-shit-brown one that is just the cat face (closest to orange bath mat hanging on shower rod here) looks even weirder on its own above the toilet... Then again I don't really... um... look that way when I'm spending any amount of time right there, so... :)

Interesting Wheaties box - almost - cat perspectives...

3/11 thanks

2011-03-31T23:46:00.000-04:00

1^er.iii.11 - Jennifer Jones & huge victory with the Paris budget
2.iii.11 - Brendan Coyle
3.iii.11 - Hugh Bonneville
4.iii.11 - cat collision
5.iii.11 - good hike
6.iii.11 - not having offended anyone when inside my head I was yelling at everyone at the top of my lungs
7.iii.11 - Bosco mugs
8.iii.11 - one less session left with the dud class
9.iii.11 - great workout
10.iii.11 - making it to class after oversleeping
11.iii.11 - 3 pounds less of me in the world :)
12.iii.11 - hearing back from friends on Kyushu that all is well
13.iii.11 - happy 2 months from now bday to me
14.iii.11 - nice walk/chat in from the parking lot with one of my fave Paris alums
15.iii.11 - w(h)ine time with KD & Paris apt success!!!!!!!!
16.iii.11 - no more 202002 for 1.5 weeks, and l'Opéra Comique
17.iii.11 - fun spinach dip & Paris Productivity Fairies
18.iii.11 - John Denver
19.iii.11 - Denzel
20.iii.11 - making scones
21.iii.11 - Ben Foster
22.iii.11 - green eggs
23.iii.11 - Paris opera miracles, and Jack Davenport & Idris Elba in the same show
24.iii.11 - fun new backpack
25.iii.11 - last Paris expenditure: super cool squishable-into-its-own-pocket-and-only-cost-$17 messenger bag
26.iii.11 - having plenty of online bloggy & webpage stuff to play with and avoid grading
27.iii.11 - the heater
28.iii.11 - amazingly organized students
29.iii.11 - full night's sleep
30.iii.11 - productive hooky day
31.iii.11 - really cool hawk out the window at choir practice

Buying Local = perty eggs (and interesting-smelling)

2011-03-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

Just picked up rosemary, honey and cagefree eggs at the Clems*n Area Food Exchange pickup spot. Normally this is the kind of thing which I laud from afar but either don't have time to deal with or can't use the stuff that's available, etc. These guys have whatever is available each week on their site, then you order and pay by PayPal, then pick it up between 3h30-6pm every Tuesday fairly close to my house. I logged on the other day thinking this would be another case where there wasn't anything that I could use but they had cagefree local eggs for the same amount I pay at BiLo anyway, plus local honey (I happened to be out), and I got some fresh rosemary to round it out even tho I don't really have any ideas what to do with it at the moment... might do some kind of rosemary bread or something since it's spring break and I might actually get it accomplished...

I specifically chose the farm that mentioned having multicolored eggs and they are beautiful! I'm kind of dreading breaking some of them.

Sam and Lucy of course found them very interesting too... (Some are actually green - hopefully the piece of paper makes it more clear.)

I did break a couple of the less fun brown ones (two of the brown ones are a really fun caramel color but the others were standard brown) and they were really yummy. They really did taste richer and were super yellow. I had had my doubts that they would taste any different than grocery ones but they really were way yummier.

Clems*n Rice Salad

2011-03-20T14:11:00.002-04:00

Latest cold salad creation. It would be a better representation of Clems*n colors if I had put in more red onion or some purple cabbage. And of course it would make a great BGSU Rice Salad if one subbed white or yellow onion for the red onion and put in more carrots. Go Falcons!

Mix together:

~2c. cold cooked rice
~1c. cold cooked lentils
~1/2 c. grated carrots
2 small cans white tuna
~1/2 med. red onion
~1/4 c. capers, drained
1-2 T. olive oil

Add to taste:

lemon juice
balsamic vinegar
pepper

Yum.

We are 7!

2011-03-20T13:55:00.001-04:00

It's true, the kits are getting up there. According to the cat year calculators that make the most sense to me (i.e. the ones like this one which recognize that it can't just work like 5 human years to one cat year all the way thru), next year we'll be the same age. This is probably true mentally as well as physically since we all seem to be stuck in certain adolescent behaviors.

Started to pick up this comforter to get it in the wash and it was surprisingly heavy.

Disclaimer: this is only a thrift store comforter I keep around as car blanket, floor protector for bike work, etc. Sammers has always loved it; so much for the theory that cats will always gravitate to natural fiber snuggle spots.

Checking out some mysterious stuff I brought in during the snow in early December.

Sparklebug in her favorite sunny morning spot.

Lucy loves it when the coat closet is open. That toolbox perch is one of her faves and as soon as she hears the sliding door she comes straight there to sit a while.

Of course we will always need to do periodic dryer checks no matter how old we are.

Really their official bday is 3/15 but I didn't get around to posting until now. And their actual bday is almost certainly a different day - the March birthmonth was a guestimation by me and the vet when they first came to live with me at ~6 mos.

Funny File Find

2011-03-18T23:44:00.004-04:00

So I have all these html how-to reminder text files on my computer. One of them is to remind me how to do anchors, which I use on the Paris white pages (which need a better name, btw). Anchors do that fun thing you see on FAQs pages where you can click a topic on one part of the page and it takes you to a whole other portion of the page for the answer or for the list of stuff dealing with that topic, or whatever.

Anyway one time last year Kelly wanted help with anchors and so I made her a sample anchored list. I just found it and was about to take all the extra stuff out of the file and just leave the html samples for the two different anchor syntaxes. It seemed a shame for this not to be saved somewhere; I mean, it still makes me giggle after all.

Unnecessary side note: we both like Alias.

Do you like "Alias"?
Who is Sydney?
Who is Vaughn?
Who is Michael Vartan?
Who is Victor Garber?

Back to top

...

Do you like "Alias"? "Alias" rocks! Back to top

Who is Sydney? Sydney is the main character; she is a CIA agent. Back to top

Who is Vaughn? Vaughn is another CIA agent; he is really cute but not as cool as he was before he broke Sydney's heart by not pining away for her forever, and instead marrying a stupid I-can't-decide-on-an-accent NSC bimbo.Back to top

Who is Michael Vartan? Michael Vartan is the actor who plays Vaughn. He is Sylvie Vartan's nephew and is fluent in French. Back to top

Who is Victor Garber? Victor Garber is the actor who plays Jack Bristow, Sydney's father; he is a CIA agent, too. Victor Garber secretly wants to marry Susan Clay but he doesn't know it yet, plus he might be gay, in which case they will just live together platonically. Back to top