Brilliant

http://www.dooce.com/2007/12/13/because-i-couldnt-say-it-phone

Something I Feel Strongly About

If you have curly hair LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FLY!

I hate reading about celebrities who claim to have "very curly hair" and who you never see with curly hair. Are they ashamed of it?

How annoying is it that in the movie, " The Princess Diaries," they straightened the main character's hair to make her acceptable? Tedious!

Straight haired people are always telling me "Oh I wish I had your hair!" And yet there's all this cultural pressure on curly haired people to be "normal" and iron their hair straight.

Curly hair needs a higher profile so those of us who aren't famous can feel less freakish and more beautiful. To this day the only person in the media that I vaguely resemble is Johnny Whitaker. Sure, he's adorable, but he's a guy!

Okay, no one should look to popular media as a source of self-esteem. But we all do one way or another. Everybody's always talking about positive role models in the media. Where's the curly hair?

And yes, it builds character to be thwarted at every turn and to base your sense of self-worth on hard-won truths regardless of the opinions of others and not on the fact that you look like someone who is rich and famous and therefore presumably successful. But how much character does a person really need?

It's too late for me - hell, I've got tons of character - but, ironically enough, I'd like the way to be smoother for other curlies making their way through life.

Curly haired people of all walks of life - come out!
Shed your shame!
Flaunt your curls!
Stick it to The Straight Haired Man!
He's keeping us down in the bathroom with a blow-dryer for hours!
We don't need this!
Reclaim hours out of your week!

WILD IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!

P.S. - World News Comment

I'm really bummed about Benazir Bhutto.

Complainy Gutteral Noises

I shouldn't be blogging. I have responsibilities!

Up theirs!

In case you're wondering, Fay's doing crappily. Her legs are weaker and her new medication gave her the dreaded bloody D. Of course this happened the day her neurologist went on Christmas break. By sheer luck I got to talk to her anyway (the neurologist) so we were able to get a prescription for the antidote med.

The antidote med is another med that is used in humans, this time to reduce cholesterol. It is an orange flavored powder and Fay HATES it.

I have tried everything I can think of to get her to take it. First we tried a banana shake. Then tuna, yogurt, hot dogs, Spaghettios, chicken, hamburger and now finally liver. I have spent most of today boiling chicken, hamburger and rice and frying chicken livers.

In the shot above you can see Fay driven to distraction by the smell of frying chicken livers to the point at which she will touch her peanut butter-filled kong (she's been off the kong all week too) Beside her is a bowl of the dreaded medicine mixed in with Spaghettios, tuna and hot dog chunks. She's also wearing the harness to her wheelchair.

Everything we've tried has worked a bit in the beginning. But she has to take so much of it! I don't think I've managed to get her to swallow a whole dose.

It's been worrisome. Why wasn't I a pharmacist? Then I'd know how this med works and what happens if she doesn't take the whole dose. As it is I just do my best. That rotten side-effect has minimized (I hesitate to say it's gone) so I guess it's going okay.

But also bad is the loss of use of her back legs. Let's just say it can be messy and she needs frequent baths.

She's kind of off her feed a bit too. I don't know if she feels bad from medication or from being asked to eat all this weird food or if she would rather just eat the weird food without the medicine than eat her regular food.

Tomorrow's the last day of the antidote med, thank heaven. I'm hoping that when that's over she'll start feeling normal again and just get back to her regular eating habits. Then I wouldn't mind the back leg thing as much.

The travel, the time changes, the bizarre diet - it would throw anyone off.

Ugh! Grunt! Urg!

More Differences Between Us And Them

Back in Brookline.

Pete and I went to The Washington Square Tavern for dinner last night. We sat in the front window and watched people come and go. Everyone was all excited that it was 35 degrees out (and therefore not freezing) You could tell because they'd all taken out their leather jackets and were wearing them instead of true cold weather gear.


The artsy shots are of the frost on the windshield and the roof of my car.

Sunny CA

Southern California weather update:

IT'S FA-REAKING GORGEOUS HERE.

You know, just f.y.i.

A First Class Blog Entry (Ugh. Sorry)

Ah yes, kicking back in sunny San Diego!  Woo!  So relaxing!  Yeah! 

Tell it to the dog who is still on eastern time and wants to be fed and medicated at 3 AM Pacific time.  That's all I'll say about her.

Here's something exciting:  our flight out to CA.  We flew out of Boston on Dec. 20th, a day when three inches of snow was predicted for the area.  We got about eight inches instead.  Our flight was delayed three hours.  Pete and I have been through worse.  At least they kept us in the terminal for most of that time.  I unzipped the top of Fay's carrier so she could have her head out of the bag.  She sat there and made a lot of friends.  

But here's the exciting part (to me at least) I got bumped. Up.  The beautiful, darling, super-kind gate agent put me and Fay in first class!  Woo for real!!!

Part of me felt guilty:  there were others who could have used a shot at first class like Jim and Dina and their three kids.  Every time I saw Jim he had another plastic child seat hanging off of him like a giant, unsightly Christmas ornament.  But there was only one #1 seat available.  Or Pete could have used it since he hates sitting in the center seat and that's where he was headed.  I took it though and with gratitude.  I wished I'd brought a nice bottle of scotch or an expensive smelly candle to give the woman.  All I had was heartfelt thanks.

So first class... It's nice.  I always smirk when they come over the loudspeaker and say "sit back and enjoy the flight."  You can enjoy the flight in first class.  The benefits start right away while you're sitting in your spacious, comfortable chair as other people board.  There's enough space between you and them that you don't have to worry about getting bashed by someone's carry-on.  You can ignore the sea of humanity as it passes by.  The flight attendants take your coat and hang it up for you (unless you're me and you've already balled it up and stuffed it under your chair - how uncouth!)  You get a drink right away - any kind boozy or non.  Not only do you get mixed nuts, you get warmed mixed nuts in a ceramic ramekin (my brother says to say "ceramekin")  

As I sat there in my cushy leather chair, listening to my music, sipping from my glass of red wine, I did enjoy the flight.  The food was even high quality airplane food.  There was food.  They offer and offer and offer refills of whatever you want until they run out and then they offer you an alternative.  But the booze does hit harder at altitude.  My only regret was saying yes to a refill of my wine. 

Don't worry, I didn't go berserk, hop on the service cart and do a loud, self-accompanied striptease, throwing my clothes and mini alcohol bottles at everyone.  I just got a little head-achy.

You know what else? Towards the end of the flight they bake chocolate chip cookies for the first classer's.  No lie.  You can smell them and then you can eat a hot, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie.  Sick.

It's still a six-hour plus flight and therefore boring.  But it's definitely better in first class.

Fay travelled well, doing her usual imitation of an ordinary carry-on bag.  I think that was a relief to my seat-mate.

So now we're in California.  They all think it's cold here.  It's funny to see them in their flip-flops and down jackets.  Okay, I only saw that once but once is enough to get a good laugh at.  It is in the forties sometimes at night.  I'll admit that's cold.  Yesterday it was in the seventies though.  Nice!

Mom and I hit the mall and manifested our shoe mania.  More on that in another post.

California is as different from the East Coast as another country.  The landscape, while beautiful, is almost like that of another planet.  The hummingbirds are noisy and aggressive.  The people wear really different clothes than they do in the East.  Some of the men here are really tall and good-looking.  A significant number of them.  Of course the women are good-looking too.  It's all really interesting.  And I never noticed when we'd come here when I was a kid.  All I noticed then was that people had really different hairdos.

I always feel weird when I come here.  Northern California, Southern California - it's all strange.  Whenever we come I feel like I ought to think about moving here.  Everyone we know who has moved here LOVES it and urges us to move out too.  Maybe someday.  It would be a huge adjustment but I'm not against new experiences.

So Glad To Be Able Bodied

The feet of snow we got in VT was light and fluffy and beautiful. City snow is a different matter.

I'm back in Brookline now and the snow here is piled high high high since there's nowhere else to put it but up. It's also rock hard.

At our place we've hired a neighbor kid to shovel for us when we're not home. I think he's twelve years old and I'm pretty sure he gets help. I hope so - our driveway is huge. He did a really good job. The sidewalk and driveway are clear and he cleared a path around the side of the house that the driveway's not on. Nonetheless there was some fine tuning to do when I got in from VT - a bit of chipping to be able to both get the car into its parking spot and to open the door. I still had to climb over a few feet of ice that I couldn't remove to get at my stuff in the back of the car.

In addition, it's trash night. Our trash can is very full. While it has wheels, the shoveled path is too narrow for me to use them so I just dragged the thing sideways down to the sidewalk. Then I hauled the it two or three feet up and balanced it on top of the snow barrier that the plows left. I hope to GOD it doesn't fall over. I'd lay it on its side but then the lid won't stay on.

Today and yesterday have involved a large amount of snow-related exertion: digging, chipping, chopping, climbing, hauling, heaving. I'm really glad I'm fit and healthy and can do these things but the day will come when I'm not and I can't.

I hope I'll be rich when I retire and can hire somebody else to shovel the snow and take out the trash. Maybe I'll live in a ritzy apartment building. Or maybe global warming will take care of it one way or another. Cataclysm anyone? Just call me Miss Winter Sunshine!

In any case someone's going to have to do it for me someday since I can't imagine retiring anywhere that doesn't have cold weather sometimes.

Make-y Day Concluded

So I had these intentions of posting about what I did in my studio today. I had a lot of intentions today. Like I was going to make Jenn's molasses cookies and I was going to hang the new curtain rod in the guest bedroom and I was going to start working on my album in addition to working in my studio.

What really happened was I shovelled mountains of snow and then cranked away in my studio while my camera battery recharged.

I didn't get my camera into my studio today so instead I'm posting some photos of Fay in a sweater I made for her a while back. So silly looking. You can see her shaved leg in the top photo. She's not wearing her leg warmer. The sweater is kind of like a dress with a ruffly skirt. It looked really good on the Yorkie it was shown on in the pattern book. However while Fay is close to the length of a Yorkie, she's the girth of a beagle. Kind of a different figure. What a cute little wad she is!

So today was, in fact, a make-y day but I have no photographic proof of it other than the muffin shot in the last post. I've also been working on the vest I mentioned back in September. I've got the back done and I'm about four inches up on the left front. Judging by the picture online mine appears to be coming out small. I don't know... We'll see.

And now, can I go to bed yet? I'm looking forward to eating more muffins tomorrow. So ends a make-y day. Goodnight all...

Intro to Make-y Day

We've got over a foot of snow so far and it's still falling. It makes me so bakey!

So this morning I made these pumpkin muffins. Since I didn't have the unsalted sunflower seeds you're supposed to sprinkle on top I used candied ginger chunks instead. Next time I might just mix a bunch of them into the batter and maybe cut the sugar some.

I'm off for a big day of making now. I intend to post more about it later.

See ya!

Beware the Stinger!

To make a Stinger:

ice
2 oz. Cognac
1 oz. white (not green) Creme de Menthe
lemon twist

Fill a mixing glass two-thirds full with ice. Add the cognac and white creme de menthe. Shake well, then strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with three or four ice cubes (not crushed ice). Garnish with a lemon twist.

I got the recipe from Washington Post Spirits columnist Jason Wilson. Can you believe there's such thing as a spirits columnist?

So tasty but beware - have too many and you could end up in bed 'til noon the next day!

Nothing Much

We're having another snow storm here and it's got me crazed to bake something. I have to figure out what I can make with what I've got here though. I have less than one stick of butter. I'm sure I'll think of something.

In the mean time there's always dinner.

My "In Rainbows" disk box came today before the snow got too deep. That's exciting.

Maybe I can make something with booze in it. Like a baba au rhum or something. Hmmm...

Things in the studio are still going well. I spent part of today drawing little boobies and little penises. And thinking about what my Mom and Pete's Mom would say when/if they saw them. By the way, anatomy is not my typical subject matter. I was in some kind of mood.

Some Things I've Been Wanting to Blog About But I Haven't Had The Time

1. Mayhem, Lust, Greed
2. Don't Be a Punk Rock Casualty
3. Vine Strength
4. Things I Love
5. Things I Learned in November
6. When Your Palette is Better Than Your Painting

Knitting Trouble

The only thing that prevents artfibers.com from being BIG TROUBLE to me is that I can't decide what I like best here. Normally I'm a wool gal but even the cotton /nylon and nylon/viscose blends are intriguing. And the prices tend to be really right.

Peppermint Bark

I bought a tin of peppermint bark the other day.

Guess what I found out? Pete doesn't like peppermint bark!

What a shame. I'll have to eat it all.

Apparently I Buy Things Too

I wish I'd bought five of those lip shirts.

I also got these gloves which I can't recommend highly enough. They're convertible and fleece lined so they're also really toasty.

Who shops at Urban Outfitters in their forties? I'll tell you who - goofballs.

My Awesome Outfit

Voila mon awesome outfit! I am wearing it to perform my rendition of "Santa Baby" at the Weisstronauts' annual Christmas party gig. This year's party was at Toad in Cambridge and it was a particularly good one. Those of you who couldn't make it were missed but those of us who were there had a really good time anyway.

Now back to my awesome outfit. It all started with the sneakers which I couldn't resist.


From there I spun off into some 1979 seventh-grade fantasy of what would be great festive attire. Have I mentioned that I'll be forty-two in a few weeks? Thank God I've arranged my life so that I can do stuff like this and not get locked up.

I wasn't 100% sure about the wisdom of the shorts but then I decided that this outfit isn't about wisdom. So I went for it and I was really glad. I'm still glad! I LOVE this outfit. Can you tell? The odd thing is that I can't stand wearing shorts in the summer. Blech.

Back in about 1981 I bought myself some high tops kind of like this from Commander Salamander, the punk rock supply store in Georgetown in Washington, D.C.. The original pair has aged beyond wear-ability. How could I pass up this replacement pair?

As for the rest of it, I believe I'm genetically part clown.

Mmmmmeme!

Good old Jenn - she memed me. I'm supposed to fill in the blanks with things that start with the first letter of my name.

1. Famous Singer: Michael Jackson
2. Four Letter Word: Meal
3. Street: Massachusetts Avenue
4. Color: Magenta
5. Gifts/Presents: Myrrh
6. Vehicles: Maserati
7. Things In A Souvenir Shop: Maps
8. Boy Name: Maxwell
9. Girl Name: Marjorie
10. Movie Title: Men In Black
11. Drink: Manhattan
12. Occupation: Mechanic
13. Celebrity: Matthew Modine
14. Magazine: Mad
15. U.S. City: Minneapolis
16. Pro Sports: Moxing
17. Fruit: Mango
18. Reason For Being Late For Work: Major congestion
19. Something You Throw Away: Mushy lettuce
20. Something You Shout: Moron!

And now, to pass on the meme... Marilyn, you're it! Sorry about the M thing and how I've already done it.

Luckiest Girl In America

This is why I can never leave Vermont. These are the views from my studio windows:








The view below is actually the view from my deck which the lovely folks at Single Speed Design threw in for me when they designed Pete's studio. Taken in front of one of the windows, it's the same view only no window screen or flies.


Finally, less scenic but somehow still compelling to me:

Beautiful

I just took Fay out for her last business before bed and I saw something I've never seen before: infinitesimal ice flakes glittering all through the sky. So pretty! I tried to take a picture. The top of my head is in there for scale but it doesn't really help. I turn the outdoor lights on when I take Fay out at night so I can see that nothing is waiting there to eat her. Tonight it illuminated these tiny ice crystals. Beautiful.

An Ordinary Post

I guess it's become a habit. You'd think I'd hold off on a dull, ordinary post after the last month. But I have time. Lucky you.

I had roasted delicata squash for dinner. It's very easy to make and delicious. You just clean out a delicata squash, no need to peel it, and cut it into half-inch slices. Toss the slices in a roasting/baking pan with some olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme (or whatever herb you have) and roast them at 450 degrees in the oven, flipping the slices around in the pan once in a while. The slices will brown around the edges and become nice and toasty tasting. It can take a while though. You wouldn't think so at 450 degrees but there it is.

I also toasted the seeds with olive oil and salt in the toaster oven. It's my new favorite thing to do when I make squash. That only takes a couple of minutes. I don't rinse them or dry them or anything. Just plop them on some foil in the toaster oven pan right out of the squash. Toast, stir, toast again, EAT!!!! Rewarding.

Not exactly a square meal but big deal.

We're looking at our first winter storm of the season tonight. So far not much is going on. It is dang cold though. Fay's fur hasn't grown back from her surgeries back in July (or was it June?) Her right rear leg is bald! I'm going to go upstairs and knit her a legwarmer after this post.

Oh yeah, the vet actually upped her new medication dosage. And I found out that Walgreens totally ripped us off on the price of the medication. It's WAY WAY WAY overpriced there. I can get a month's worth from the vet for $14. I won't even tell you what Walgreens charged me - it's too embarrassing. I'll just say that it was probably more than you're thinking. I called them to see if there had been some mistake and they told me that if I could find it cheaper elsewhere I should do that. Hmph!

I had another good studio day today. I'm working on a concept. Maybe I'll post photos of what I'm doing tomorrow.

Ooh, I'm hearing the pitter-patter of little snowflakes - or sleet pellets, I can't really tell which. I'm thinking it sounds more like sleet. I hope the power stays on. Ice storms can be rough on those power lines. No power means no modem and no posting. Oh, and no furnace going on.

Ugh, and it's trash night. Nice.

Also, I had some time to look around the NaBloPoMo website today, now that NaBloPoMo is over. I joined a few groups: Redheads Who Blog, Feminist Bloggers, New England Bloggahs, and Ravelry Bloggers. Yes, I'm a Ravelry member and I haven't blogged about it yet. Possibly because if I'm blogging I'm not Ravelling and vice-versa.

I should maybe take a few days off of blogging. Maybe more than a few days. I feel like the last month has really watered down my blog quality. I'll blog about any old thing now. And I just went to my Ravelry page and it's looking really sad. I only have four projects up.

On the other hand I was checking the blogs I normally read today and really hoping somebody had posted something new. Jenn did. Lotus did. They were the only two who posted today. I love living vicariously.

Strange Love Affair

Our thermometer says it's nine degrees out.

I love the night, I love the stars, I love the moon and I LOVE THE COLD!!!!!

Love Love Love!!!!!!!

I am, of course, wearing long johns, a hat and a down jacket. I'm dressed appropriately. I still love the cold.