New Look

I finally got tired of the dark blue template, which I didn't do right and made for some eye-strain. I'm not going to go back and fix all of the blue text, so if you have a hankering to read the archives, you're just going to have to cope. I'm sure all two of my readers will be very put out.

Not so cold

There appears to be imminent danger of my turning into a boring adult. What's with the weather posts? Well, it's easy to talk about, I guess, when you're busy.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. This morning we awoke to 37F and a dusting of snow. OK, a slushing of slush, because at that temp you don't exactly get powder. Looking at the forecast for the next few days, I think it's going to degenerate to a whole lotta rain. Yes, this is the PNW, but enough already! This is one of the wettest winters ever. I think we've met our averages for the next few years already. I'm so glad we have a huge pasture so the horses don't have to stand in mud.

Cold!

It was about 17F this morning. Yikes! The chickens don't even want to go out, and I can't blame them. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't windy, which makes it really rough. I usually just let the fire go out at night: last night I got up at 0400 to check the chickens and put more logs on. This is crazy weather for this part of the world. How about that global warming, eh?

No Time to Blog

Danger!

Funny and cool article on ideas for up-to-the-minute warning lables.

Speaking of Memetic Hazards, here's my latest romance novel "review".

Kitty Alert!

Oh my goodness. I was looking through some archived digital snaps for something else, when I stumbled on Gimli's baby pics. He's just turning 3 next month...and these pics show why I decided to keep the little monkey instead of adopt him out...

Here he is with "big momma" Eric, just after he arrived.

...and here he is several weeks later, really starting to show his true character (all boy, all the time).

...and nobody died!

We had another great weekend of Renaissance horseplay (and other play) this last weekend. Probably the largest turnout we've had yet, but nobody went away disappointed or hungry!

The Horror of Lovecraft

For various reasons, I've started slogging my way through the H.P. Lovecraft ouvre. The word "hyperbole" comes to mind for some reason. Each tale starts like an entry in the Bulwer Litton competition...but overall they're lots of fun. One of the reasons I'm interested in them is the fact that my husband, his brother, his brother's best friend, and his dad, all read them in the 70s and had a good time with them, and they are a part of their little circle's micro-culture. Some of the more laborously sinister and nihilistic passages explain some of the mock dialogue Gordon and a friend of his recite when impersonating Gordon's older brother. Coincidence? I think not.

Vini vidi vici!

The Faire is over! It kicked our butts, but we learned a lot, tightened up a good little show, and had a great time.

John Rhys-Davies Speaks out (again)

What can I say, but that Jeff Overstreet has yet again gobsmacked me with a blog entry that made appreciate even more an actor I love and made me think at the same time!

Signs?

What's the deal with this circular contrail? It appeared in the sky SW of Tilbury yesterday, just before Gordon arrived home from work. He called me outside and I decided to grab a shot. Did somebody do some high-altitude doughnuts? Mt. Rainier blowing smoke rings? Hm...

Same tune, different day

One more weekend to go! I'm still sewing! Gotta fix the armpit on that dang shirt (see photo), amongst other things.

Faire to middlin'

We're in the final few days of prep for our little WA "Renaissance (ahem)" festival. I'm in sewing hell, because I'm the only person within 100 miles who actually sews, apparently. I hope this goes well, because we want them to pay us a realistic fee next year instead of the chicken scratch they're paying this time. In the meanwhile, I have no life and I'm worrying about who will take care of the cats/chickens/other horses when we're down near Gig Harbor over the next three weekends...

The Frugal Gourmet

When does frugality become painful? Here's a clue: that Pure Mint Extract that you inherited from your mother-in-law, which she bought sometime before 1990 (and probably more like in the late 70s...)? ...throw it out NOW! The shelf life isn't infinite, apparantly.

I made a super yummy white cake from scratch the other day, and thought, "Hm, it's hot...I'll make mint buttercream frosting!" Gordon, who will eat anything, took one bite and started scraping off the innocuous looking stuff. OK, I know he's not a big mint fan, but after I sampled it, I came up with the perfect name for this dessert: Nyquil Cake! Yes, the frosting tastes like cold medicine. Bleh.

All of those little bottles I've been saving are empty and in the recycle bin...

Young Eager Space Cadet

I've reached a new pinnacle of geekiness. I've joined Starfleet. Well, in Second Life I've joined Starfleet. I'm looking forward to many hours of tactical excercises and wacky role-play adventures. It's heaven...

Here's a little documentary, filmed on "location" in Second Life, that gives a kind of virtual tour.

Yo Ho Ho!!!

I haven't been this psyched to see a movie in...I can't remember. Our real estate agent sent us some comp tickets months ago, but there hasn't been anything I wanted to use them on until now.

Monday matinee, here we come!

Goofy Fun Quiz

Got this from virtual pal Aurora's blog...kinda fun!

Have you had sex in the past 24 hours? Nope...better work on that...
Are you gay? No.
Do you have hairy legs? I try not to.
Do you smoke anything? Salmon!
Do you like monkeys? I like my sock monkey...does that count?
How many fillings do you have? One.
Would you rather swim in the ocean or a lake? OCEAN!
Have you ever licked one of those square batteries? No...is this a common practice?
Have you ever read the Bible? Often, though not as much as I should.
Did you ever go to Sunday School? All through my childhood.
Do you wear a lot of black? In the Winter, yes.
Did you ever bring a weapon to high school? Does my Swiss Army knife count?
Have you ever hugged a tree? Yes, but it was a platonic hug. I've also punched a tree. It hurt.
Do you know what a sphincter actually is? Yes...and it's not just an anatomical reference, thank you.
Describe your hair? Long and brown (with extra zip from the henna plant)
Are you a wildbeast? If I were, I wouldn't be typing, would I?
Do you like to have fun? Yes
Do you like drama? Only on the stage and screen, please.
Have you ever taken a bong hit? Nope.
Do you like mayonnaise? A little bit on a sandwich is fine.
Are you afraid to die? No, I rather look forward to it.
Do you like playing in leaves? Don't know about playing in them, but I love the scent.
Do you like lyme tics? Only good one is a dead one.
Have you ever peed your pants as an adult? I hope not!
Have you ever thrown up on somebody as an adult? No!
Are you an adult? Not a very good one.
Ever won a spelling bee? I think so...a loooooong time ago.
Do you ever eat because your depressed? No, I stop eating when I'm depressed. I eat when I'm nervous.
Are you a television addict? No, we don't get cable or have an antenna because there is NOTHING on worth watching. We have a lot of DVDs. Unfortunately, I'm a computer addict.
Do you think OJ is guilty? Yes.
Do you enjoy spending time with your mother? Yes!
Have you ever had sex in a hot tub? No.
On a swing? No!
Do you like Elvis? Never met him.
Do you enjoy watching animals “do it” on the Discovery channel? Not on the Discovery channel or anywhere else...yeesh.
Ever been hit on at a zoo? Not that I am aware of.
Have you ever had sex with a total stranger? No way, not even a partial stranger.
Do you enjoy the calming effects of turkeys? Haven't noticed.
Does your mom think someone is hot? I don't think so.
Are you a sugar freak? No...it's evil.
Ever been arrested? Nope.
Ever commit a crime and get away with it? Nope.
Do you like orange juice? Yes, but it doesn't like me.
What sign are you? I don't participate in Astrological pursuits.
Ever do the party boy dance in front of the elderly? What in the world is that?
Where do you wish you were right now? Heaven.
Did you enjoy this? It was diverting.

Independence Day Blast

For the first time in my life I participated in a parade as something other than a uniformed color guard! Yay! Not that I don't LOVE being in a color guard, but Sea Scouts was a long time ago...

Claudine, my dance teacher buddy, roped me into doing the Bainbridge Is. 4th of July parade with her students, and it was a hoot. Left is my picture from the local paper: mouth wide open, of course. A rare photo of me NOT eating!

On another note, one of the aspects of the 4th that used to amuse me has lost its luster: fireworks. We live in an area where unsafe & insane pyro is rampant. It's not that I'm against going "boom", mind you, I just think there's a time and place for everything. The middle of the night, when I'd like to be asleep and NOT worried about the horses going crazy and crashing through fences, is not the time, thankyouverymuch. We ended up giving our old horse, Taxi, some light meds to calm him down. The dog we're "babysitting" ended up in the house with us. Thanks to SCIENCE! there are air freshening substances to deal with puppy pong (poor old guy).

Horsing Around Again

While Gordon was away at his Western Desert Society get together, I helped with the local Medieval Faire by providing a couple of horses and myself for the equestrian events. Gordon's jousting buddy Bevin supervised and did the enormous favor of trailering said horses back and forth from the fair. She also let me ride her big boy, Jaran (see photo), after Taxi had had enough (poor old guy).

Woody only broke two of my toes by jumping stepping out of the trailer and onto my foot last night. I guess I should get out of the way in the future.

Wake up, it's time to dye!

(A little obscure sci-fi humour, there). A few months ago we attended a "rummage sale" held by a couple of SCA costumers and picked up, among other things, a nice Medieval wool hood. Unfortunately, the color was sort of "My Little Pony Violet": gag. Today I finally bit the bullet and tried the Kool-Aid dye method, with 50% Lemon Lime (green) and 50% Black Cherry (raspberry red), hoping for a muddy ochre color. The cherry totally overpowered the lime! I ended up with a dark, rusty raspberry color...not quite medium burgundy. Ick. I added coffee and tea and onion skins, then had a sanity attack and dumped the dye bath.

A little research on local plants turned up the fact that the noxious weed that grows in our pasture (and the horses refuse to eat) is "curly dock" and that its root makes a great brown to greenish brown (depending on the mordant) dye. A bit of digging, washing, and chopping later, and I now have a big batch of dye going on the stove. The hood is sitting in an alum/cream of tartar mordant, and I think I'll do some touch up henna on my hair while I wait for it all to percolate. Might as well make a big mess as a little one (especially since I JUST cleaned the bathroom...o well).

Willamette Valley Warning

Haven't been posting here lately because my computer's been on the fritz. However, this just crossed my desk and, whatever your opinion on prophecy or dream interpretation, I think this bears looking into.

The pastor of Beth Tefilah Messianic Congregation in Salem, OR is oncerned enough about a dream he had last Fall that he's placed it and his interpretation of it on their web site.

Just so you know, I am convinced that God speaks to us through dreams. However...I am usually very skeptical of so-called prophecies that show up in my in-box. Usually they are about as pertinent and pithy as fortune cookies or newspaper horoscopes, and as helpful. Often they are just attention-grabbing devices of self-proclaimed prophets and televangelists looking for lucrative speaking engagements, and I toss them in the round file where they belong. This one feels different to me, and here's the response I sent to the close friend who brought it to my attention:

Well, my initial take on this is that, whether or not this is a direct precognitive prophecy, this guy really had this dream and it had a huge impact on him. The plot and details of the dream are so non-surreal that I'm leaning toward his interpretation.

I will not be surprised at all if this actually does happen. Some of my reasons for agreeing with this warning:

1. The linear, non-surreal aspect of especially the first dream.
2. The matter of fact style of his "warning" (no hyper-religious mumbo jumbo or randomly quoted, out of context scripture.)
3. The symbolism of the second dream backs up his interpretation of the first dream.

4. The non-sensationalist style of this congregation's web page.
5. The fact that we're hearing about this before the fact, and not *after* (like so many popular "prophets" out there).

All five of those points are usually violated by guys like, say, KimClement, who really raises my hackles. I think folks in the Willamette valley should be warned. Like he says, if he's wrong, then it's a nice day out. If he's right, then you're in good shape!

It will be interesting to see what happens. If this is a case of misinterpretation of a dream meant to have only a personal meaning/message for the dreamer, then that's fine. I just as soon NOT see Portland dumped on. However, if I lived down there, I think I'd find somewhere else to be on June 18.

Decompression

The big belly dance show opened and closed on Sunday, after months of agonizing pre-production and production and agony. I knew I would crash and burn imediately, and right on schedule I have a raging head cold (my first in over a year!).

Now, on with our regularly scheduled life.

My Knight is Home

The School of the Renaissance Soldier is over: yay! Never again is Gordon going to head this shindig up...in California. From now on we're doing events a little closer to home. Two days driving each way, with horses, is nuts, not to mention the months of prep ahead of time. All long distance. He was putting in an average of four hours a day on this thing in addition to working full-time. Now it's a happy memory!

It's Always Something

...and then, the night before Gordon headed out for his two-day (each way) haul (with horses) to do his Renaissance Cavalry weekend thing in California, the pump for the pressure tank in the well house fried itself. We knew it was coming, because that pump was old and sounded like the bearings were about to burst into flames, but... TIMING, people! To make a looooong story short: after buying a new pump and watching three people try to hook it up (of course our neighbor Frank is the one who finally made it all come together) I now have running water again.

Water tower. That's what I want for Christmas. Gravity is free and doesn't take a break when the electricity is out.

Happy news: my wounded chicken, a week and three days after being mauled, is doing great. She's living in a wire dog crate on the kitchen table and is mending nicely. She has a broken toe, but I don't know what I can do about it since it's been over a week (I didn't notice it until I had her in the crate where I could really watch her move around) and she'd just pick off a splint, anyway. Her bites are healing up with no perceptible infection, and new feathers are coming out to the tune of about 1/4 to 1/2" already! Amazing.

Hail Hath No Fury

Sun! Darkness and torrential rain. Blinding sun! Sheets of hail.
This has been our weather today. We're in the rinse cycle again as I type this. Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes.

On another note, after yet another attack on my animals by rampaging stupid dogs, I'm finally putting up fencing. Granted it's not "pretty" fencing, but t-posts and field fence will keep out the varmints until we get something nicer up.

Our neighbor to the north (who's dogs are not a problem at all) offered this sage commentary yesterday, "Well, those chickens run loose." Well, duh! That's why I'm putting up a fence. His unruly grandkids run loose, too, and now I won't have to worry about them stumbling into my yard, hurting themselves, and their mother having conniptions and suing us (yes, she's that unstable). Yes, I was a bit cheesed.

Irregardless of whether I have animals "running loose" in my yard, I shouldn't have to put up with rampaging dogs tearing it up on my property.

It will save on bullets, too.

First Event of the Season

What are Ghy, Mistress Frye, and Eric watching?


Jousting, of course!

Life in the Fast Lane

Truck back online: check!

VW waiting to be registered: in progress...

Sand in tilt yard for tomorrow's jousting practice: check!

Running around like headless chicken prepping for tomorrow and the Cav School and the dance show in April and...: check!

A Year at the Movies

Great read, especially if you love movies and the film-going experience! Kevin Murphy can write up a storm. Two thumbs way up. More when I'm done fixing my stupid car...grrrrr....

When I was in high school and college I used to work on my own car. I liked to work on my own car/boat/etc. While I still like to fool around with a boat (when I have one), I have lost the joy of working on my car. I don't have the urge to spend a day cracking my knuckles against a cold engine block and fighting with stuck bolts and crawling around in the dirt under a very greasy mini-Borg-like glob of mechanical mess. I don't need to feel cool, impress "the guys", and otherwise prove my self-sufficiency anymore.

There are so many things I'd rather be doing. Digging in my garden, for instance, or sewing, or putting up fences, or building a henhouse, or doing bookish researchy things. Anything! I just want the car to work. I want to get in, depress the clutch, turn the key, and zoom off to the library/nursery/fabric store like Batman on a mission. Did Batman spend his afternoons under the Batmobile? No! I don't think even Alfred did, come to think of it. Where's my VFX Dept.?!

Why this litany of rage? My truck has, to be technical, busted a gasket (or something) in the power steering area. I think the seal around the shaft to the impeller thingy is fritzed, because the fluid just runs right out along it, and I kind of need that steering concept to function. Of course it's a "take it to the shop" thing, because I guess you need a special tool to pull the pulley. $$$$$ Gack. So....I'm stranded while The Man is at work every day, unless I can get the VW running. The VW that sat for two years in California (another long story). The VW that coughed and sputtered all the way up here from CA because it sat for two years and I'm guessing has a totally gummed up fuel filter. So I'm replacing the plugs and filter...as soon as I can find the filter. Those clever Germans have hidden it somewhere, which is amazing since it's the size of an oil filter! So I'm digging out my coveralls and looking for my tools, and I'm not particularly enthused. I know I'll feel great about it when I'm done, but right now I'm just annoyed.

Oh, and my computer mouse died, perhaps in sympathy for the rodents the cats have been eliminating, so I'm reduced to the carpal tunnel horror of the trackpad on my laptop. The agony.

OK, I know, there are children in Ethiopia who don't even have a laptop, so... I'll shut up now and go out to the garage. I'm very thankful for my lovely garage, by the way. It has lights, a concrete floor, a fancy door, window, and two power roll-up doors. It's very swanky. If you have to work on your car, you should have a garage this nice. Just wanted to end on a positive note.

Oscar Oscar Oscar...

As you all know by now, this is the 51st annual Academy Awards. Two hours of sparkling entertainment, spread out over a four-hour show.~~Johnny Carson

Does a film being nominated for or winning an Academy Award (Oscar) affect whether or not you want to see it? Not really.

Have you ever watched a movie based solely on the fact that it was nominated for or won an Oscar? Nope.

How many of this year's nominees have you seen? 1 Which ones? Howl's Moving Castle

Do you think the film and/or actor deserved the nomination? YES

Are there any you wanted to see but have not managed to do so yet? Yes: Capote, Narnia, Harry Potter, War of the Worlds, King Kong, Good Night and Good Luck, Walk the Line, Munich, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Pride & Prejudice, The Corpse Bride, and Wallace & Grommit. No, we don't get out much. I will see them all eventually.

(Courtesy "Musing on Movies")

As far as a detailed commentary on the nominations, I'll leave it to Jeffrey Overstreet since I pretty much agree with him across the board.

CGI Captain

I've decided to remove the sidebar "What I'm Watching at Home" list, because it's a pain to update, manually, in my cheapo freebie blog courtesy of the wonderfull folks at Blogger. Henceforward I'll just comment on films in a brief entry if watchable, link to a lengthier entry if warranted, or refrain from posting at all if the thing is a bust. If it's very lucky, the offending awful film might get mention over at my Romance Novel Roundup.

Anyhoo: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. As a film: watchable diversion. As a CGI extravaganza: WOW!!! Very light on plot and with pretty much no character development, it's not exactly a masterpiece of storytelling...but it does have Jude Law, Angelina Jolie (all too briefly), and Gwyneth Paltrow, who opted for the frugal "three facial expressions only" (ernest observer, disarming cheerfulness, angry girl) acting style in this one. By the time the credit crawl showed up, I was pretty much convinced that the film really exists as promotional material for Computer Generated Effects shops. The whole thing was shot on a blue screen set, and even the Evil Genius bad guy was stock footage. Very well integrated stock footage, but still, just more of the "see what we can do these days!" kind of thing. The net result was that I felt I had just watched one of those films you see at a World Expo that is really advertising or educating in a very entertaining way.

Surprise!...not

Serenity (from Firefly) 100% Moya (from Farscape) 81% Millennium Falcon (from Star Wars) 81% SG-1 (from Stargate) 75% Nebuchadnezzar (from The Matrix) 75% Galactica (from Battlestar: Galactica) 69% Enterprise D (from Star Trek) 69% Bebop (from Cowboy Bebop) 63% You scored as Serenity (from Firefly). You like to live your own way and do not enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you that you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? v1.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Thanks to alert reader JT in Quebec for this spiffy quiz!

(Also: Is it just me, or are these folks just the best-looking darn crew ever? Am I right?!)

Update: JT does it again! Here's another great review of the show at Spiderman's Web.

Archie McPhee does it again

Are you as tired of all of those chirpy bright wristbands as I am? Well, if you're not, then bully for you. The rest of us are grateful for Archie McPhee, purveyors of fine rubber chickens and other pop sundries. Need a Skull & Crossbones shower curtain? Punching Nun puppet? Brain-shaped jello mold? You don't? Well, that's ok, you can spend your hard-earned cash at the mall, but I'll choose St. Archie every time. I particularly like the yellow wristband, because by the end of the day that's usually about where I stand.

Blog Watch: Faux Herzog

What if Werner Herzog kept a diary? OK, he may very well keep a diary, but it's probably not as funny as this. This should also serve as a warning to us bloggers: beware of pompous, self-absorbed, obtuse entries. They're only good reading if they're meant to be amusing...

It's the Little Things

Why am I so happy that, just now, as I was putting the insulator on the outdoor spigot (going to be in the 20s tonight)I looked down and saw a rat head at my feet? Because it means that one of my on-duty cats finally got one of the rodents that have been tunneling around the barn! Go team!

Yet Another V Day post...

So there was no way we were going out for dinner last night, for many reasons. I made pot roast (#1 fave of #1 man around here), and planned to make a heart cake for dessert...but I didn't budget my time very well so it didn't get finished until this morning. Anyway, there it is! For once I didn't use pink...I decided lavendar icing would be a nice change. Carrot cake: yum.

One of the reasons I didn't get it done last night was that my folks came by for coffee. When mom called and said they were coming over, I knew the reason. Every year since I was old enough to stand unaided, my dad has given his us kids a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day. When we were little, it would be left outside our bedroom door to be the first thing we saw on emerging. I thought maybe he would stop as we got older. Nope; this is one of the ways my very unsentimental, Norwegian, Engineer dad shows us he loves us. No matter where in the world I've lived, something would show up in the mail around this time of the year...and now that I live only a few miles away he can once again hand deliver. Thanks Dad!

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Beany Cat thinks the red roses look charming next to her white coat. Also, this photo was taken yesterday, because this morning the view behind Miss Chublina looked like this:
Seasons, shmeasons...who needs them in any particular order? Not us, apparently. We were sneaking into spring, with things popping up everywhere, now it's downright chilly! That's ok, by this afternoon it will be gone, but it's really picturesque while it lasts.

A Valentine's Bouquet

Since I'll forget to do this tomorrow, here's a Valentine's Day Bucket!*
*(it's pronounced "bouquet")!

The Da Vinci Hype

Apparently some pastors* are encouraging Christians to see The Da Vinci Code so they can debate it with non-believers who buy into all the "Jesus was a fraud" hoo-ha. Sorry, I refuse to throw my hard-earned dollars at this film...it might be interpreted as a show of support. Barbara Nicolosi agrees.

I already read the book (borrowed from a friend...glad I didn't support Dan Brown that way, either). It was a real page turner, but not what I would call literature for the ages, and so full of crackpot spurious scholarship in the second half of the book as to render the serious tone of the first half null.

Says Amy Wellborn:

Me, I hope I can steer clear of The Da Vinci Code debate. The writing is nothing to shout about. Dan Brown treats a long-buried (albeit imaginative) heresy like hot stuff. And the movie's being directed by Ron Howard, who has yet to make a movie that I really enjoy. I can't wait for all of this to become ancient history, so we can look back and shrug and see how trivial all of the hoopla really was.

* The "challenge" website is functioning just fine.

Critters

Just got an email from my sister in Kona. Right after New Years they lost one of their cats to poisoning (grrrrrrr)...and came home from the vet with this little guy! His name is Billabong. He is cute. Great photo!

And now, for something completely different...

What is it?! This came in the same email. If I were a biologist and I'd just found this in the jungle, I'd call it the Jungle Camo moth. Wow! Big boy, too...must be a Marine. Any entomologists out there?

Nummymuffincoocolsweater

I must have this sweater. In a "large", of course (the model shown is for a wittle bebbee). Sarah over at SewGeeky is a knitting goddess and deserves special praise for this pop art confection.

On another note, the aforementioned "headache" situation has taken a turn for the surreal. My husband, who is more personally involved than I, has had some very bizarre communications from somebody whom he wishes would remain firmly in the past. Joel and the 'bots of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame did a wacky fun spoof/PSA about the joys of alcoholism several years ago (#402 - The Giant Gila Monster), and one of the segments was "the guy who gets blind drunk and calls you in the middle of the night to tell you 'what a great friend you are, man. Like, you're the greatest...you are sooooo cool. I love ya', man....' etc.". Now, just imagine that this lampshade chapeau person, say (the following is hypothetical), wrecked your brand new Lagonda ten years ago, and ran over your dog and took out the corner of your house while he was at it. And not only never paid for the damage but never apologized...and is now coming over all chummy and nostalgic. How do you say to this person, "I miss our friendship, but it's gone, and just wanting it back isn't going to make it magically happen."

Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.

Needless to say, there have been some raised eyebrows around here. I think it's possible to wish somebody well and yet not want them in your life, especially if "welcoming back" would imply absolution from all past infractions when no attempts at restitution or reconciliation have been forthcoming. Nowhere is it written that we have to be doormats in order to be compassionate.

The Weekly Blog

Boy, I'm slow posting, lately. First, I've been getting busy working in the yard. Yes, this is one of the wimpiest Januaries on record (temp wise), and stuff is bustin' out all over. If I don't get the "Winter" pruning done it ain't never gonna happen. Put in a bunch more primroses in shady spots, and have continued to divide bulbs that obviously haven't had attention since the Bush Administration. Papa Bush.

Second, we had a big momma of a storm Friday/Saturday. Gusts up to 50 mph and 13' tides on the coast. We lost power at the stroke of midnight Friday...just as I was putting the conditioner in my hair. It was the quickest rinse in the history of the world, as I didn't want to run the pressure tank in the pumphouse down. Whew! I put on rain gear over my nightshirt and staggered down to the barn to nab the phone from the tack room (a nice luddite model) and let Woody in with Taxi to get out of the weather. Power came back on Sunday around 0700. Luckily we have a wood stove for heat and cooking, and I'd set up a rain barrel so we had plenty of water.

Back on the gardening theme, Mom finally decided to end the war with Bambi and simply take away the targets. All rose bushes (except the one climber that they never seem to notice) have been re-located here. I put two more in the ground today, and will do the rest tomorrow. This Spring and Summer should be 1000% more colorful and vegetative around here. What's the opposite of horror vacui? Affinito vacui? Horror baroqui? Well, that's what the previous owners of this place had. Their idea of landscaping was a big flat plane/plain of lawn. With a couple of tentative trees and the odd shrub. And a couple of wads of dwarf iris. Yawwwwn. I'm more of a "country (English) garden" type. Sam Gamgee all the way. Give me a riot of shrubs, perennial flowers, fruit trees, and indigenous stuff. And a huge veggie/herb patch. Got to get a rototiller...soon.

Anyway, sometimes life just gets wacky and you're so busy living it you don't have time to journal (a neo-verb that's since been replaced by "blog" in the computo-geek world).

Sometimes a demon is just a demon

The sermon at church this morning was given by a deacon. I get the impression that the deacons at this church are given a chance every year to "go to bat" as it were. It was...ok. She (yes, a woman...that's another issue) did an adequate job, but a) she read the whole thing like she was recording for Books on Tape, and b) she activated one of my hobby horse alerts: allegorizing (metaphorizing?) things in Scripture that...are you ready for this?...are meant to be taken literally. This is the converse of another bugaboo, which is literalizing everything.

It was the thing in Mark 1, where the guy in the synagogue has a demon and this demon starts heckling Jesus. Jesus evicts the demon from the guy. The demon does not go quietly. It's pretty cut and dried: the spirit world knew who Jesus was and wasn't happy about it, and Jesus was starting to show the humans around Him Who was Who. This could have evolved into a nice discussion of anything from spiritual warfare to the deity of Jesus to...well, lots of things. What did we get? Demons as a metaphor for hangups, addictions, and various other sins. "Are you struggling with your "demons"? I do. There are lots of demons: alcoholism, fornication, workaholicism, anger..." You get the picture. It was a warm fuzzy, bland, tepid, Hallmark sort of thing. Nice, but not really satisfying.

And what's the deal with Anglicans (Catholics, etc.) being assigned the scripture for the sermon/homily each week? I was raised in the Lutheran church, and apparently one of Luther's 95 Theses involved freedom of scripture choice for sermon material.

Headache

Ever watch somebody repeatedly bang their head against a rock, the same rock, over and over again (this is metaphorical, of course) and think, "Ow, when is she/he going to feel enough pain to stop?" It's like watching one of those little wind-up toys that trundles around on the floor, runs into something, backs up a bit and changes course ever so slightly...and then slams into something again.

I've been one of the concussed, and I know the pain, but I've developed a pretty hightened awareness of when it's time to stop bashing into the same tree/rock/whatever and turn around and leave that obstacle in the dust. Sometimes the best way forward is back way up and pick another trail.

Unfortunately, some folks just don't seem to get it.

Firefly...2? Yes, please!

Go forth. Fill out the survey. Let the Firefly goodness happen again...

Update 01-28: It may not be as shiny as it first seemed. I'm not going to get all excited about this until El Whedon is actually at the table.

The Wind

What's with it being so windy around here, lately? Man, solar panels aren't really workable here, but I'm ready to build a wind tower to run our water pump! I'm afraid to let the chickens out for fear they'll be rolling across the yard like fluffy tumbleweeds. I don't think I'm about to lose my mind like poor Lillian Gish in "The Wind", but it's mighty atmospheric (pun!), nonetheless.

At least it's drying up the mud a bit.

Generic Post

I've been kinda busy lately and haven't bothered to post anything new. It was sunny this morning, now, at 10:30, the clouds are rolling in. It's still windy, so even with the clouds the mud in the paddocks/pasture is drying up.

All the cats but one slept on top of Gordon last night, preventing him from moving around in his sleep, so he was a bit creaky upon waking.

There. I think I've covered the required topics.

Dance Babes

The gig was a success! A good time was had by all, including my friend (right), for whom this was her first pro dance gig. I just wish somebody had shot a pic of me in my second set with my killer gold/silver costume. Next time...