Vacation Attempt

Pizza at Sam's in East Hampton, NY.

My right arm is weak from playing wii boxing. This wouldn't have happened if I'd been playing it correctly. But hey, I got some exercise. I guess. I still don't really understand how to play it. Surprisingly, I like the golf game. It's pretty.

Uuuhm...

I can't decide which crazy golf lady photo is best. I don't have the right shirt on either which makes it harder. I need something sleeveless and low-cut and I need a push-up bra, a marabou-trimmed cleavage cooler, a skort and a cocktail. And a photographer.

Here's a start though:





I should probably look into a fake tan too.

Oh Yeah, And I Did This Too

These are the hideous golf sandals I got from Lady Golf. I kind of forgot about my awesome plan to get myself up as a crazy margarita-soused golf woman with cleavage coolers, a visor, a blonde do and a pedicure that matches my kilties. I took care of the blonde do in New Orleans back in June (thanks Fifi Mahony's) With all the sewage management I've been doing this summer the rest of the plan kind of fell by the wayside. I should probably go back to Lady Golf.com and see what other costume elements I can scrounge up.

Nope. Even at 50% off that stuff's too expensive. Hello T.J. Maxx.

There's always Halloween.

Two Week Overview

I guess I kinda dropped the blogging ball, huh? Probably because I seem to be brainless these days. So here's some of what I've been doing in list form:

Developed a mania for anything Japanese
- cute beer bottle from last post
- Manga (Sugar Sugar Rune and xxxHolic mostly but I'm not even that picky. I even like the tripey romantic vampire ones)
- learned to make age dashi dofu (one of my favorite dishes) and onigiri
- got some "teach yourself Japanese" cds. I've listened to the first ten minutes about twenty times.
- tried some sparkling sake a couple of days ago. It's a little too sweet for me.

Knitting
- some cabled fingerless mitts that I'm making up as I go along
- a new sculptural plate project (more on that much later)

Waiting for my brain to return to work

Playing video games
- Izuna 2 (fun!)
- wii (just the games that come with the machine and the second controller)
- making mii's (the most fun thing to do with the wii so far. I should probably branch out)
- wishing they had a "My Japanese Coach" on DS - wait - I'll just look on Amazon... There's one coming out on September 23! Yay!

Bought these fa-reakin' awesome boots:

They're very Sugar Sugar Rune.

Became obsessed with nail decals (made in Japan!) and how to use them in my artwork

Made Cookies and Cream cupcakes:


Tried Miracle Berry Fruit Tablets made of the fruit that makes sour things taste sweet. They really do work. It works best with fruit though. Limes taste sweet and delicious but they still make your mouth go all squinchy. I guess your body knows something your brain missed. Vinegar tastes sweet and gross. Some things just shouldn't be sweet.

Pete and I went to see the Radiohead show back on August 13 at the Comcast center. It had been six years since I'd been to a giant show like that. Now I remember why. Radiohead were very good of course and the light show was really impressive, but by golly if you want to feel like a faceless nothing then go to one of those giant shows. I may be a faceless nothing but I don't like to feel like it. I think I'll stick to the smaller venues from now on.

The weather has been gorgeous so I can't complain about that. Fay's digestion has mostly settled down too so there's some progress in that area.

I had girls' night with my friend Michaela last night. She told me she thinks I should start a "Factory" like Andy Warhol because I have too many ideas for one person to execute by herself. I think that would be great. I'm not sure how I'd pay for it. I guess I'd have to work on my mystique too so I could attract acolytes who are willing to do as I say for cheap. And I'd probably have to move back to the city where there are people.

Look At This Cute Beer Bottle!

So adorable! I'm in love with it. The beer inside is pretty good too. It tastes best when glugged. The labels on all of this company's beers are so pretty I want to collect them all. They only had this one at Trader Joe's though. I'll keep looking.

It's BAAAAACK

And we were doing so well this past week.

Another Puzzler and Fay's Feeling Better

So, John Edwards had an affair. Everybody's having affairs. Maybe they shouldn't be such a big deal if most people can't seem to not do it. Know what I mean?

Uh, how about "If affairs are inevitable for most people then why do we give them so much weight and power in our society?"

Maybe it's the lying? The whole "unfaithful" thing? What if you don't lie about it? People should be able to sleep around if their partner doesn't object (Obviously I'm not a practicing Catholic even though I mentioned confession in my last post)

Who doesn't want to be appreciated by as many people as possible? I can understand that. I can definitely understand many of the appeals of having an affair. But I don't want to hurt Pete and he doesn't want to hurt me. So we're not going to have any. Mainly we're scared to ruin what we have. Also, at least for me, the opportunity has never presented itself.

Maybe everything would be easier if affairs didn't seem like such a big deal. They're no biggie in parts of Europe and in certain New York social circles. No doubt in L.A. and plenty of other cultures and places too. An affair doesn't have to mean the end of a primary relationship. It would probably necessarily complicate the lives of everyone involved but that doesn't have to be bad.

None the less, I'm saving myself the trouble and avoiding that circumstance in my own life. I can't possibly know what I'm talking about since I have no experience with them. I haven't even discussed the effects with people I know who have had affairs touch their lives. Of course I'm curious since I'm on The Quest For All Knowledge. Since I'm way too chicken to find out for myself I probably don't deserve any more information. Besides, that's pretty personal stuff to discuss with the likes of me, the emotional tourist.

Now for a complete change of topic: Fay's health.

I don't want to jinx myself but Fay's been doing really well for the last few days. I was so happy about her latest non-diarrhea that I considered photographing and posting it so I could share Fay's good work with others. I'm not going to do that. Who cares besides me? I will settle with my own sense of pleasure, pride and satisfaction.

Not only is her digestion improved but she's been acting more like her old self than she has in months. She's even been standing up a few times a day. She can't maintain it or walk on her back legs but she is achieving more vertical hight than she has in quite some time. Her neurologist was very pleased. She said that it's not typical to see such improvement when you take a patient off the meds but who would complain? I hope the improvement lasts.

If Fay keeps feeling this well I might actually be able to leave her with a sitter and visit my dad again or go see my friend Alex and her twin two-year-olds like I was supposed to earlier this summer.

Thinking About Vice

The other day I Twittered that I was indulging in vices. (That particular tweet got me a new follower: porn_website10) I've blogged about my vices and how pathetic they are once before. They are listed as speed, bacon and shoes.

The vice I referred to obliquely in my tweet was buying things I don't need. In this case some cheap perfume that I'm crazy about.

I checked the definition of vice on my dictionary widget. It defines vice as "Immoral or wicked behavior, criminal activities involving prostitution, pornography or drugs, a weakness of character or behavior; a bad habit."

But what am I talking about when I use the word? What's really so bad about speeding, bacon, shoes, drinking too much coffee, staying up late entertaining myself, playing video games for too long, reading manga for hours, knitting? Are those really my vices? How does it break down?

Those things look like mere irresponsibility. Except for speeding which can get people killed and wastes fuel. Oh yeah, and is against the law.

The Seven Deadly Sins: pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia.

If I go by the information in the wikipedia entry I'd say my vices boil down to gluttony (Over-consumption of anything to the point of waste, "excessive desire for food or its witholding from the needy") and sloth (failure to appreciate God and His works/failure to live up to one's full potential). Especially sloth.

Maybe I should go to confession. Except I'm going to do all those things again.

Still, they're not very glamorous. Vice should have some glamour to it, don't you think?

Come to think of it, me dressing up these petty transgressions as "vice" could be construed as pride: "a desire to be more important or attractive than others" (among other things)

I'm not sure why I'm thinking about all this, especially since I don't have any intention of trying to improve myself.

Stormy Seas, Choppy Waters, Or Maybe a Whirlpool

You know how there's that time in your life when everybody's getting married? Well I seem to have entered the time in life where peoples' problems are coming to a head. You know, like the folks I know with alcoholic tendencies are ratcheting up the drinking and the damage, stable couples are proving to be otherwise, peoples' demons are biting extra hard now.

Looking back at my childhood it seems like the grown-ups all started whacking out when I was getting to be around eight or nine years old. Before that they were able to contain themselves to some extent. My theory is grown-ups get to a certain age and then hell starts breaking loose. I think I'm that age now. The age where you really do have to GROW THE HELL UP!

In attempting to explain the apparent mid-life crises my contemporaries are encountering my friend Jill put it this way: "maybe we start to focus on what is really going to make us happy and we're freaked out that we've just awakened from our deep childhood/young adult sleep to see that no one has really been driving the van!"

That would explain a lot. When you're young you think there's still time for things to fix themselves. You let unfavorable conditions continue because it's easier than doing something about it. Then suddenly you realize you're in a deep, deep hole and that in fact, nobody's going to fix it but you. It's pretty funny how sudden it is too. All at once you can see you've been a completely incompetent idiot.

I certainly haven't been driving my personal van. I definitely feel that I handled the years between 1991 and 2002 really badly. It didn't seem that way at the time of course. I suppose I did the best I could imagine. I can't say that I pursued my goals with aggressive determination. Mostly I tried out some wishy-washy plan or other that I thought might work. I think that somewhere inside I still thought someone was going to come along and hand me whatever I wanted out of life.

What's more I'm still not sure how to do the things I want to do. All the same I've got it better than a lot of people I know. I don't think my hole's that deep. At least I'm not planning any major life shake-ups. Not that you always get to plan them.

When I was a kid and my parents and their friends hit this stretch it seemed to last forever. With my parents, by golly, it lasted at least until I was 31 or 32. That's a good long hunk of time!

All those years of trouble and work and trying and failing finally paid off and they're really happy and satisfied now.

But then I think about what happened to me and my brother and all the kids we grew up with while our parents were sorting themselves out. Here it comes around again. Fortunately most of my friends with these problems are childless.

So now are we all due for twenty years of tribulation followed by surgery, radiation therapy and retirement someplace warm?

You know, that's a kettle of fish I'll let the future open.

A Concession to Summer for Today

Okay, today was gorgeous. A beautiful, perfect day weather wise.

I discovered this because I had to go to the grocery store: we were out of paper towels. That doesn't fly when you live with a urine fountain.

So off I went to the Walpole Shaw's. I tend to dread going there because they don't have much that's good and the people in there can be a bit depressing. That said, there aren't usually many people there and there's never any trouble parking unlike in Brookline.

The marketing started off as usual. The first things you see when you go in the door are extremely unappetizing so-called "baked goods" in unnatural colors. Then you go past the shrink-wrapped lettuce into the fruit section which is okay. Since it's summer I'm going to the farm stand on route 5 so I didn't need any produce. I picked up some tofu, some pasta, some coffee and headed for the refrigerator area. There was a bit of a log jam due to restocking and a couple of men chatting. I stood aside with my cart to let one of them go by and he said "You just come on through you gorgeous creature!"

Someone made room for me and called me a gorgeous creature in the Walpole Shaw's! What is the word coming to? I was so shocked I'm not even sure I said thank you.

Eventually I got to the ice cream section. I was looking for a flavor of Haagen Dazs that my mom told me about yesterday but I couldn't remember what it was. So I was standing there staring in through the glass doors when one of the freezer section guys said "Get the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle!"

Do people talk to you in your market? This is not normal for me. I didn't want to insult him so I took a pint. He said "White chocolate ice cream and the truffles are really the texture of truffles." I told him I was looking a flavor but I couldn't remember which one. He started running down all the flavors. After about five flavors he got it: Fleur De Sel Caramel. Then he helped me find it in the case.

When I got back home I noticed that it was a nice day while I took the groceries out of the car. Once I got them stowed and made sure that Fay wasn't sitting in a pile I set us up outside. I got a yoga mat for Fay to sit on on the patio and I got myself a snifter of whiskey and volume 3 of xxxHolic to read. No, it's not porno - look at the link. We had a lovely time. I read and smelled the flowers and listened to the birds and Fay got comfy and barked at passing cars. Sometimes I barked at them with her. She seems to like that.

Not a bad day even when you consider that I've had to hose Fay down five times today and wash her with soap twice. I think it's safe to hope that today's poopalanche is over and we can both relax for the rest of the evening.

A Decent Day

Vermont is a lovely place to spend the summer if you can't be at the beach.

Here are some lilies that the deer and the lily-leaf beetles didn't find.

Some Stuff

The weather in Brookline has been vile. Humid and disgusting. I was going to say "putrid" but then I remembered the hellish heat wave we had maybe six years ago when it was something like 102 degrees and 95% humidity and there were power failures. We had houseguests at the time and all four of us spent the days and nights in the one bedroom where the window air-conditioner is. Now that was putrid.

I was thinking yesterday about how summer was where I grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, literally steps from the Washington D.C. border. Talk about disgusting weather! Much worse than anywhere in New England. We had central A.C. though so that kept my complaints down.

I will give yesterday afternoon some slack. Pete's band, the Weisstronauts, played an outdoor party at Harvard Law School. The party was held in the shade of a Gropius building and there was a pleasant breeze. It was a rare summer afternoon that I actually enjoyed. Their music goes well with a relaxed outdoor party. This summer has been so deeply sucky that it was a lovely change to actually sit back and enjoy for a bit.

Now for Fay. Sometimes she feels fine, sometimes not so much. She still has a bit of bloody diarrhea but she's eating her cat food with gusto and she's off all her meds except for a little bit of prednisone, another week of antibiotics and her monthly injections. The vet thinks that will resolve the issue though it might take a couple more weeks.

I'm liking the reduced medication schedule. Now I don't have to worry about getting home by 9 or 10 every night (unless it's to make sure she hasn't been sitting in a pile for hours)

In my last post I mentioned having new ideas. Well mainly I have an idea for a video game. It's a really big idea so it could end up being several ideas for several video games. It's a big enough idea that I'm going to need help with it. Fortunately I have a development team in mind.

When the thought first came to me it was a brain storm. It really was a torrent of ideas complete with battering winds. Gusts of thoughts from every direction. It was so strong and sudden that I thought it might be a delusion and that maybe I was having my first manic episode or something.

I wrote an e-mail about it to some people I thought might be interested in helping. I could only hope it made sense. I keep re-reading it to make sure that it still doesn't sound insane. I'm very relieved to say I still think it could work. It will need a lot of work though. Lots of figuring out, editing and planning. It could be really really fun to work on though.

It has been such a gift to have something exciting to think about during all the crap that's been going down lately.

One fun thing about it is that now I have an excuse to try video games. Well, video games besides Yourself!fitness, Big Brain Academy, Harry Potter and My Spanish Coach.

This week I started playing "Izuna 2" on my Nintendo DS light. In "Izuna 2" you get to be a cute, badass Ninja chick and fight with monsters and stuff. It's so much more fun than I expected. Plus it counts as research! However I've played it so much that I cut myself off yesterday. No Izuna 2 all day. I may have to apply that rule to today too.

In fact, I have a lot to do today so I'd better stop blogging and get going.