I don't know how it is that I've never seen this film before tonight. Totally hilarious, with just the right bit of touching. This will definitely be taking a place in my top 10 movies of all time, which are (in no particular order):
Harold and Maude
Barbarella
The Ice Storm
Brokeback Mountain
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Lilo and Stitch
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
LOTR Trilogy Director's Cut (I totally get a 3-fer here...)
Scent of Green Papaya
Like Water for Chocolate
Recent Flicks I've really enjoyed:
Children of Men
Little Children
Pan's Labyrinth
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
My Perfect Day
My perfect day starts bright and early on a late spring morning. Bunny and I wake up at the same time and when Lola feels us shifting around she starts snorting up from the foot of the bed. Manny climbs up for a big love fest before we start the day. After 15 minutes or so we make a break for it and I head straight for the garden. Bunny brings me tea and joins me there. He does the weeding and I do some pruning and planting. On our perfect day we spend an hour or two in the garden before we do anything else.
By 8 or 8:30 we're starving, so we jump on our bikes and ride down to the Hartford Coffee Company for bagels and lox - and another cup of tea for me, of course. After breakfast we relax on the patio for a little while. Bunny's reading and I'm knitting the softest, lovliest thing I can think of. We get restless pretty quickly - we don't want to waste one second of our perfect day, after all, so we ride over to the farmers' market in Tower Grove park. There we get tons of local, organic produce to get us through the week - just until our own little garden is in fuller swing. We also pick up some yummy things for the grill later.
On the way home from the market, we notice a couple fantastic estate sales in the neighborhood, so we drop off the groceries and grab the truck - never know what we'll find on our perfect day! Turns out we find 2 gorgeous, antique, hand-knotted, Afghan or Turkish rugs - just like we've been looking for, and they're dirt cheap! We rush home to roll them out in the living room and library and then just lay on them and relax for a while.
On our perfect day we visit Star Clipper Comics and get something we haven't seen by Joe Sacco and another R. Crumb sketchbook for Bunny - and some toys, of course! After we go to Star Clipper we're starving again, so we go to our most absolute favoritist falafel shack, Al Tarboush market. After falafel we high-tail it out of the loop, cameras in hand, and head for the most blown-out abandoned stretches of Old North we can find. When we've shot 'til our hearts are content, we head home to spend some time with the pups, perhaps we'll have a walk.
Late in the afternoon of our perfect day, we head for my parents' house. It's a hot spring day and the water in the pool has just gotten to the perfect temperature. We hang out with my family in the pool, splashing around with Finn and having a good time. When we all start to get hungry Bunny will go get the grill started and we'll make a fabulous dinner for everyone. On our perfect day everyone's in a great mood and making jokes. After dinner we might play some poker with my family.
On the way home from my folks' house, some of our friends call and insist that we join them at Mangia for a drink. On our perfect day, our regular table at Mangia is filled with all our friends drinking and being silly and having a good time. We stop in for a drink or two, then steal away home to spend the last, precious moments of our perfect day right where it started.
By 8 or 8:30 we're starving, so we jump on our bikes and ride down to the Hartford Coffee Company for bagels and lox - and another cup of tea for me, of course. After breakfast we relax on the patio for a little while. Bunny's reading and I'm knitting the softest, lovliest thing I can think of. We get restless pretty quickly - we don't want to waste one second of our perfect day, after all, so we ride over to the farmers' market in Tower Grove park. There we get tons of local, organic produce to get us through the week - just until our own little garden is in fuller swing. We also pick up some yummy things for the grill later.
On the way home from the market, we notice a couple fantastic estate sales in the neighborhood, so we drop off the groceries and grab the truck - never know what we'll find on our perfect day! Turns out we find 2 gorgeous, antique, hand-knotted, Afghan or Turkish rugs - just like we've been looking for, and they're dirt cheap! We rush home to roll them out in the living room and library and then just lay on them and relax for a while.
On our perfect day we visit Star Clipper Comics and get something we haven't seen by Joe Sacco and another R. Crumb sketchbook for Bunny - and some toys, of course! After we go to Star Clipper we're starving again, so we go to our most absolute favoritist falafel shack, Al Tarboush market. After falafel we high-tail it out of the loop, cameras in hand, and head for the most blown-out abandoned stretches of Old North we can find. When we've shot 'til our hearts are content, we head home to spend some time with the pups, perhaps we'll have a walk.
Late in the afternoon of our perfect day, we head for my parents' house. It's a hot spring day and the water in the pool has just gotten to the perfect temperature. We hang out with my family in the pool, splashing around with Finn and having a good time. When we all start to get hungry Bunny will go get the grill started and we'll make a fabulous dinner for everyone. On our perfect day everyone's in a great mood and making jokes. After dinner we might play some poker with my family.
On the way home from my folks' house, some of our friends call and insist that we join them at Mangia for a drink. On our perfect day, our regular table at Mangia is filled with all our friends drinking and being silly and having a good time. We stop in for a drink or two, then steal away home to spend the last, precious moments of our perfect day right where it started.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
A dirty, dangerous, slippery slope
I have the sinking feeling that I've taken my first step down a very slippery slope. You see, as the result of my genetic makeup,I have an innate (obsessive? dangerous?) attraction to a certain type of substance. This is a deeply addictive and potentially dangerous type of substance, which might best be described in general terms as mastic, and includes things like Duct tape, JB Weld, hot glue, spray adhesive, glue impregnated twine, drywall mud, etc. In my youth I (rightly!) thought my elders were fucking weird, largely as a result of their (over)zealous DIYishness. It turns out, though, that purchasing a house activates latent Macgyverity to whatever degree with which one is genetically predisposed. In my case, that is a large degree.
Thus far, in my tenure as a homeowner, I have studiously (and frequently at great personal angst) avoided any contact with quick setting concrete products, based on the certain knowledge that I am not a girl who knows when to say when. In recent weeks, however, several unfortunate situations have colluded in the service of weakening my resistance. It all began on our most recent trip to Mexico. My brother, whom we shall call NASCARDAD, Jr., is absolutely correct in his assertion that that parched brown land south of the border is a Deeply Dangerous Place...more dangerous than he knows, I'll venture, but he's entirely off the mark in his reasoning. You see, NASCARDAD, Jr. believes that at any given moment, while traveling in MX, one is about as likely to be kidnapped by ARMED COMMUNIST BANDITOS, as one is to be, say, harangued by a half-naked child pimping Chicklets. I submit to you, gentle reader, however, that kidnapping may well be a fate preferable to the intoxication with that most Mexican of substances - Quikrete. Ohsure, call it development, or improvement or beautification - you call it whatever you damned like - I know better. It seems harmless and innocent at first. The nice hombre is expressing his pride of place - filling in a few cracks with that sticky ambrosia-for-the-abode, just touching up a patio, is all...look here, amigo, we can pour ourselves a fountain...down the slope we go.
Upon our return from those cactus-infested hinterlands that we call our abode-away-from-the-ghetto, our dear drunken friend nearly killed himself when he had the audacity to lose his balance on our porch and grab for the iron railing. This fucking inebriate knows good and goddamned well that that railing is purely ornamental and held on only by duct tape and zip ties, the inconsiderate bastard! Bunny was forced to show his superheroism and drag the drunk from the depths of the abyss at the very last moment. I was forced to reckon with nightmares about personal injury litigation. Neither of us care for these activities, so I had to develop a plan to repair the railing. After considerable gnashing of teeth, I concluded that there was no way to re-set iron into concrete without using the dreaded Quick Setting Concrete Product. This can not end well...
Happily, the repair of the railing is going along quite well and I've finished the parts requiring the use of The Substance. However, it should be noted that there are 59 pounds of Quick Setting Concrete Product remaining in the bag, and I just noticed a few places on the patio that could use a touch up, and wouldn't a fountain look nice in that corner near the garage...
Garden Update (WARNING: Snoozer post for non-gardeners!)
Woke up this morning and we dove right into productivity mode. Bunny completely weeded the garden and made it look as though some of the things growing there are intentional. I generally stick more with the "Let it all grow and harvest what you want" method. This is not the result of a philosophical approach to gardening, rather a deep distaste for weeding. After he finished weeding, I tackled my very favorite garden chore of the year - the first pruning of the tomatoes. My poor husband can hardly stand to watch me do it. Truth be told, I think it makes him weep a little bit. I have a rather militaristic approach to pruning, and for the first of the year, I generally believe you must remove at least much as you leave. Their denuded appearance is slightly shocking when I've completed this most zen of tasks, but I know they'll thank me later with many a bushel of lovely, lovely 'maters.
The Nasturtiums are about 6 inches high now and I'm tickled to see them growing. They will be so tasty in our salads this summer and lovely to behold along the garden fence.
B procured many pounds of favas this week at a location which shall remain nameless (as we will probably go back and buy everything else they have today...). We made a simple and lovely succotash of some of them this week, and he set out a few pods to see if we couldn't get them to sprout. I have my fingers AND toes crossed for this, as a ready supply of favas from our own garden would make me, quite possibly, the happiest girl on the whole block.
In the clem garden, the Dr. Ruppel continues to put on vigorous growth on both vines and I believe there are a few tiny buds emerging. I'd love to see a big show from him this year, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm slightly concerned about the Nelly Moser. She's still putting on growth from both vines, but her lower leaves appear to be slightly starved. Could just be aging from the false start to spring and subsequent arctic blast that we incurred. I don't think I've ever mentioned here how much I despise, in a deep and fundamental way, the cold. No, really - this can not be overstated.
There are positively ten million lady bugs in the garden. I saw at least half of them today while barbering. This delights me endlessly. B's being followed around by the spirit of Praying Mantis lately. He sees them everywhere, and when he finds them around the yard, he's been moving them to the garden. I hope they'll colonize. I also need to go put out some little spider houses so they can move in and set up housekeeping. Oh, and I need to put the bird feeder back out. All of our friends in the garden will keep away the nasties - we hope. For good measure, I wrapped the pumpkin vine in foil this morning. I so despise the vine borers.
Zombie Squad crawfish boil this afternoon - have to run and make polenta...
The Nasturtiums are about 6 inches high now and I'm tickled to see them growing. They will be so tasty in our salads this summer and lovely to behold along the garden fence.
B procured many pounds of favas this week at a location which shall remain nameless (as we will probably go back and buy everything else they have today...). We made a simple and lovely succotash of some of them this week, and he set out a few pods to see if we couldn't get them to sprout. I have my fingers AND toes crossed for this, as a ready supply of favas from our own garden would make me, quite possibly, the happiest girl on the whole block.
In the clem garden, the Dr. Ruppel continues to put on vigorous growth on both vines and I believe there are a few tiny buds emerging. I'd love to see a big show from him this year, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm slightly concerned about the Nelly Moser. She's still putting on growth from both vines, but her lower leaves appear to be slightly starved. Could just be aging from the false start to spring and subsequent arctic blast that we incurred. I don't think I've ever mentioned here how much I despise, in a deep and fundamental way, the cold. No, really - this can not be overstated.
There are positively ten million lady bugs in the garden. I saw at least half of them today while barbering. This delights me endlessly. B's being followed around by the spirit of Praying Mantis lately. He sees them everywhere, and when he finds them around the yard, he's been moving them to the garden. I hope they'll colonize. I also need to go put out some little spider houses so they can move in and set up housekeeping. Oh, and I need to put the bird feeder back out. All of our friends in the garden will keep away the nasties - we hope. For good measure, I wrapped the pumpkin vine in foil this morning. I so despise the vine borers.
Zombie Squad crawfish boil this afternoon - have to run and make polenta...
Monday, May 28, 2007
The starting of it...
The starting of a thing is the hardest part. Whether a new friendship, a marriage, the spring garden or a summer novel, after that first ten minutes it's all manageable. The starting of a thing suggests that one should find a beginning and set forth from that point. Being somewhat OCD, it pains me intensely to pick up a thing or put it down midway through. Midway, or something like it, however, is exactly where I'm starting things here...so I'm just going to have to roll up my sleeves, ignore the messy-ness, and jump in.
I have a job that I rather like. I am a technology analyst for a major U.S. financial institution. It is quite regimented and conservative, and it provides a lovely structural counterpoint to the rest of my life. My job is very anchoring and perfectly stimulating. I have absurdly liberal benefits and, by and large, like my co-workers and management.
I am quite happily married. If I'm the academic braun of this outfit, my husband is undoubtedly the creative brain that keeps us in orbit. He is a bean sprout farmer by day (no shit, seriously, he's a bean sprout farmer...) and a designer/blogger/visual artist by night. He's my greatest source of inspiration.
I have a pretty tight knit family with whom I am in neurotically frequent contact. I talk to my mom at least once a day, usually more often. I also have a brother who has a lovely wife and a newborn that consumes most of the capacity my brain has for cuteness. I have about forty-two million cousins with whom I'm in variously close contact. I am the contingent legal guardian (AKA, godless mother) to Lauren, one of my cousins' children. It's the most honorific, gratifying thing anyone's ever asked of me. My mother has 3 sisters. The Four of them are collectively referred to as the "yadda yadda sisterhood" among our family. They are utterly inspirational to me.
I have two dogs that serve as the foils for whatever marginal parental urges I have. They do not wear clothing, but they do sleep in our bed. Manny is a Johnson type American Bulldog acquired from Stray Rescue in October of '03. He is a svelt 120 lbs of jowly-drooly lapdoggy goodness. Lola was also a rescue, adopted right after we got married in October of '04. She's (oh, the horror of it) a Jack Russel/Pit Bull mix. Think Spuds MacKenzie on crank. Oh, and she's even more OCD than I and has to lick everything...constantly. She is pushy and opinionated and insists on sleeping sideways between the husband and I most nights. I adore her ceaselessly.
We like gardening. In the vegetable garden we currenty have: 36 tomatoes-12 Romas, 12, Juliette Romas, 6 Early Girls, 1 Jetstar, 1 BeefMaster, 1 Better Boy, 1 Yellow Rose (or some yellow variety?), 1 Cherokee Purple, and 1 Brandywine. Japanese Eggplant, Catnip, German Chamomile, Carrots, 18 Basil plants of various hybridization, cucumbers and pumpkin. In the flower garden I have something of an obsession with Clematis. I currently have 1 Dr. Ruppel, 1 Nelly Moser, 3 Sweet Autumn, and 1 Jackmanii; I plan to add a bush variety this year. I also have a very lovely lavendar and yellow colored Columbine, a native wildflower garden, a newly planted row of Nasturtium, a stand of Yellow Groove Bamboo, a bed of Ravena grass, various bulbs, a small bed of tiger lillies, a very old and fragrant rose bush, and a Meyer's Lilac bush. I also have a variety of houseplants that seem to thrive on being ignored. This collection consists mainly of 2 strains of Aloe occupying a dozen or so pots, a large Jade, 3 or 4 cacti, a couple Ficus, a large umbrella plant, a large-ish Dracena, an increasingly impressive Plumeria and some spider plants and Diefenbachia I have at the office. So, um, yeah...I like the plants. This year I would like to remember how to graft roses. My maternal grandfather showed me how to do this as a child and it seems like a usefull thing with which to re-acquaint myself.
I am a part-time graduate student at Fontbonne University. I study Elementary Curriculum and Instruction. When I grow up I'd like to be a Waldorf Teacher. I am not a theosophist.
I am interested in and involved in various modes of fiber art including knitting, weaving, crocheting and spinning. I'd also like to learn various modes of rug making including locker hooking and navajo weaving. I build my own looms and am working on plans to build a spinning wheel. I currently spin on a Hitchhiker and I love it to pieces.
I used to live in San Francisco. Now I live in St. Louis. It gets very cold and very hot here.
I have a lot of ambivalence about religion and any sort of "organized" spirituality. My parents are self-proclaimed hedonists (well, at least, my mom is...). I was raised with a pointed lack of religion, but with a fairly balanced education about various modes of spiritual practice. Many of my friends and family are Jewish and that has a stronger appeal to me than most anything else, but I am not Jewish and am rather on the fence about whether or not to formally convert. There are a small but notable number of Born Again Christians in my family, my brother among them. I'm frankly rather uncomfortable with this because of the political implications that religion carries these days...but I have a not-dissimilar issue with Judaism at the moment. In all liklihood I'll continue to be something of a wishy-washy judeo-pagan seeker (without too much seeking...). I had a brief rebellious flirtation with Catholicism with I was 16, however, it didn't seem to take.
I ride the bus to work. This is a source of endless fascination/amusement/annoyance for me. I would like to write more about the characters in BusWorld.
Things I would like to do (in no particular order): Ride a century, keep a clean house, save enough money to coast for a year, hike the apalachain trail, travel in India, lose 20 lbs, grow most of my own food, live in Mexico, drink more water, knit a dress, weave a rug, have more time for fiber arts, blog consistently.
I think the thing is started. Let's see where it goes.
I have a job that I rather like. I am a technology analyst for a major U.S. financial institution. It is quite regimented and conservative, and it provides a lovely structural counterpoint to the rest of my life. My job is very anchoring and perfectly stimulating. I have absurdly liberal benefits and, by and large, like my co-workers and management.
I am quite happily married. If I'm the academic braun of this outfit, my husband is undoubtedly the creative brain that keeps us in orbit. He is a bean sprout farmer by day (no shit, seriously, he's a bean sprout farmer...) and a designer/blogger/visual artist by night. He's my greatest source of inspiration.
I have a pretty tight knit family with whom I am in neurotically frequent contact. I talk to my mom at least once a day, usually more often. I also have a brother who has a lovely wife and a newborn that consumes most of the capacity my brain has for cuteness. I have about forty-two million cousins with whom I'm in variously close contact. I am the contingent legal guardian (AKA, godless mother) to Lauren, one of my cousins' children. It's the most honorific, gratifying thing anyone's ever asked of me. My mother has 3 sisters. The Four of them are collectively referred to as the "yadda yadda sisterhood" among our family. They are utterly inspirational to me.
I have two dogs that serve as the foils for whatever marginal parental urges I have. They do not wear clothing, but they do sleep in our bed. Manny is a Johnson type American Bulldog acquired from Stray Rescue in October of '03. He is a svelt 120 lbs of jowly-drooly lapdoggy goodness. Lola was also a rescue, adopted right after we got married in October of '04. She's (oh, the horror of it) a Jack Russel/Pit Bull mix. Think Spuds MacKenzie on crank. Oh, and she's even more OCD than I and has to lick everything...constantly. She is pushy and opinionated and insists on sleeping sideways between the husband and I most nights. I adore her ceaselessly.
We like gardening. In the vegetable garden we currenty have: 36 tomatoes-12 Romas, 12, Juliette Romas, 6 Early Girls, 1 Jetstar, 1 BeefMaster, 1 Better Boy, 1 Yellow Rose (or some yellow variety?), 1 Cherokee Purple, and 1 Brandywine. Japanese Eggplant, Catnip, German Chamomile, Carrots, 18 Basil plants of various hybridization, cucumbers and pumpkin. In the flower garden I have something of an obsession with Clematis. I currently have 1 Dr. Ruppel, 1 Nelly Moser, 3 Sweet Autumn, and 1 Jackmanii; I plan to add a bush variety this year. I also have a very lovely lavendar and yellow colored Columbine, a native wildflower garden, a newly planted row of Nasturtium, a stand of Yellow Groove Bamboo, a bed of Ravena grass, various bulbs, a small bed of tiger lillies, a very old and fragrant rose bush, and a Meyer's Lilac bush. I also have a variety of houseplants that seem to thrive on being ignored. This collection consists mainly of 2 strains of Aloe occupying a dozen or so pots, a large Jade, 3 or 4 cacti, a couple Ficus, a large umbrella plant, a large-ish Dracena, an increasingly impressive Plumeria and some spider plants and Diefenbachia I have at the office. So, um, yeah...I like the plants. This year I would like to remember how to graft roses. My maternal grandfather showed me how to do this as a child and it seems like a usefull thing with which to re-acquaint myself.
I am a part-time graduate student at Fontbonne University. I study Elementary Curriculum and Instruction. When I grow up I'd like to be a Waldorf Teacher. I am not a theosophist.
I am interested in and involved in various modes of fiber art including knitting, weaving, crocheting and spinning. I'd also like to learn various modes of rug making including locker hooking and navajo weaving. I build my own looms and am working on plans to build a spinning wheel. I currently spin on a Hitchhiker and I love it to pieces.
I used to live in San Francisco. Now I live in St. Louis. It gets very cold and very hot here.
I have a lot of ambivalence about religion and any sort of "organized" spirituality. My parents are self-proclaimed hedonists (well, at least, my mom is...). I was raised with a pointed lack of religion, but with a fairly balanced education about various modes of spiritual practice. Many of my friends and family are Jewish and that has a stronger appeal to me than most anything else, but I am not Jewish and am rather on the fence about whether or not to formally convert. There are a small but notable number of Born Again Christians in my family, my brother among them. I'm frankly rather uncomfortable with this because of the political implications that religion carries these days...but I have a not-dissimilar issue with Judaism at the moment. In all liklihood I'll continue to be something of a wishy-washy judeo-pagan seeker (without too much seeking...). I had a brief rebellious flirtation with Catholicism with I was 16, however, it didn't seem to take.
I ride the bus to work. This is a source of endless fascination/amusement/annoyance for me. I would like to write more about the characters in BusWorld.
Things I would like to do (in no particular order): Ride a century, keep a clean house, save enough money to coast for a year, hike the apalachain trail, travel in India, lose 20 lbs, grow most of my own food, live in Mexico, drink more water, knit a dress, weave a rug, have more time for fiber arts, blog consistently.
I think the thing is started. Let's see where it goes.
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