for british eyes only

i got the PostSecret book from the library today.
this entry made me laugh really, really, really hard.

farewell, again

i packed them all away in a tub marked "normal" & emptied the others out, hanging up my old favorites & going down a threaded memory lane.

worn to the low concert at sokol we saw with brad. worn to the kathleen edwards show seen with darci, daphne, & kate. worn to jolie holland's "i'm f---ing tired" show at mick's with ali. worn every other christmas eve for the past 4 years. worn every sunday before violet was born. worn the night of her birth. first pair of elastic waisted pants i purchased on my own. the hoodie i wore to the ER, both times, when the kidney stone was moving. the old nursing bras, the big t-shirts, the iowa state sweatshirt, & the post-pregnancy WEAR ME EVERYDAY green skirt...they are all in my closet now & i'm slowly warming up to them.

papel

there are a bunch of great articles on slate.com today. my top favorite is "why ventriloquism is creepy". there's also something on arianna huffington that seems to celebrate her changing political opinions. and one to make you laugh: josh levin's "why i hate zach braff", which, if cut to one memorable sentence, is:

He might not have anything original to say, but Braff does offer this insight on our generation: We are inclined to mistake stuff for substance.

Go here to see Levin's point about Garden State's soundtrack carrying the load.

an appetizer

an ep to pass the time until oct. 10. you can get it on itunes.

5 years ago

vacate

we went to a wedding near cincinnati over the weekend & did all sorts of fun stuff. how nice it is to be somewhere else. to see landscape contoured with hips & valleys. to watch morning fog rest on the river town until 11am. to smell the seagram's distillery first thing in the morning. to get whooped at mini golf & have a bad attitude about it. mm ah.

sing like a pirate

tonight i heard something on npr worth posting about. a new recording of traditional tunes sung by pirates/drunks/ne'er-do-wells called "rogues gallery". in honor of talk like a pirate day, check out the link (above). listen to the program and savor the clip called "bully in the alley."

happy talk like a pirate day

http://loadingreadyrun.com/showmovie.php?x=480&y=360&url=talklikepirate.mov

apple orchard

today was annabelle's first field trip--the chatham apple barn. we walked for 45 minutes through the orchard, garden, & pumpkin patch. we smooshed fallen apples into the long grass & made a neat little trail with the stroller wheels. i met a few moms & their kids. we tried some apple cider and violet ate her first apple solo. i think professionals recommend against this...but it WAS a "baby apple".

afterward i stopped into the bake shop for a autumn morning treat to take home--a cinnamon roll. what better to pair with a cup of coffee, the kitchen sheers waving in the cool breeze, & some melancholy music. i'm cutting fabric & thinking about the many turns we have taken in the past years & months. strangely, most of them seemed like gradual hairpin turns. at the time, i hardly felt the wheel turn. cinnamon roll, oh cinnamon roll, you are making this moment so much sweeter than it could have been.

Recovery

I mentioned a few days ago in the 'comments' section that our hard drive crashed again. We are in the process of trying to recover as much info as possible. I guess that if you stick the drive in the freezer for 7 hours, pull it out and quickly try to pull info off, it enables you to pull more stuff off than if you were trying with an 'room-temp' drive. Who knew.

Anyway. We've recoved 8 pictures so far (with hope of getting more.) Kyle showed me this morning one of the ones that the computer gave up last night. It was this picture of Paul Revere's headstone. Whew. I was so worried that we might have lost the picture of Paul Revere's headstone. Infact, I was up all last night pondering the possibility of life without our vacation picture of Paul Revere's headstone. Now I can sleep in peace.

Who's trippin' down the streets of the city...

...everyone knows it's Windy. (Sorry for putting that silly song in your head.)

Windy was what it was this weekend. Alicia and I set up shop on Sat morning at Village Pointe and spent most of the day trying to hold down our tent, our art and our heart-rates. After an exhausting day with few sales (at one point an art-fair goer ran out of our tent for fear the thing would fall on her), we attempted to set up again on Sunday. I decided I couldn't do it again and we just left. So, if anyone was looking for us on Sunday, I apologize!

It was a very interesting first outdoor art fair experience. I think we've decided not to do outdoor fairs again. But, I did hand out cards and ended up getting a great contact for future work. It was not a loss, just not what we expected!

Thank you all WhoCare-ers for your support!

playlist for sept 18

the corn is being harvested, it is a very cool, sunny morning, & this is what i feel like listening to.

happy

happy birthday, darby.

happy

happy birthday, cheryl.

some of that bubbly

we are in a hotel in champaign, illinois. intoxicating! liberating! time away is precious, rejuvenating, delicious.

happy

happy birthday, ali.

A Hint of Collaboration

Cheryl and I have been cookin' up some stuff together for her booth at the Village Pointe sale this weekend. Hope to see some familiar faces while we are out there :-)

more u-tube recommendations

you have to check these videos out. if you're at work, at home, or sippin some joe at a wi-fi spot: you need a good laugh today.

1. i wanna cover this one, sans leather pants/freaky hair, big earrings.
2. seriously, i love this song. but the humor: cobblestone street + ghost hair + nake man statues. and let's laugh at the black body suit! let's laugh loud & hearty!
3. why hasn't he won any musical awards? infatuation! (with himself)
4. judith light: the first fraggle.
5. queens of mullet
6. bananarama "cruel summer" music video. but i know which movie you're thinking of. "you think she sprained her wrist doing her nails?"

tear my stillhouse down

if you're not going to see gillian welch & conor oberst this friday night at the scottish rite hall in omaha, you oughtta be ashamed of yourself.

ja & i saw her perform with emmylou harris & patty griffin...and she really did steal the show.

more info here.

For all you Democrat mothers out there:

here is a book for you! (link in title)

So, maybe this is what 30 is...

So many people have told me that the 30 decade is all about finally being comfortable in your own skin.

Today, I decided to put my exercise fast to an end. The CB 'Y' was holding a "strollercize" class. I packed up my kids and my double stroller into the car and drove to Iowa. I unloaded us all at a Y I've never been to before, walked up the the front desk and registered us. I was the only one in the class. It was me with my huge-o stroller following the instructor all over the streets of CB and pausing to do aerobics in public. And I didn't care. Infact, I was glad I was doing it.

are you trying to...

Target has a sweet deal: the popcorn combo. $1 for a bag of popcorn & a fountain drink. We were on our way out of the store this morning & Annabelle said, "Mom! Let's just get a little popcorn and have a special treat together." Her persuasiveness worked that time and we sat in the crowded snack area, all three of us, sharing some salty popcorn & gatorade. Apparently the popcorn combo is popular in this part of the country.

Anyhow, Violet started grunting a little, making some uncomfortable sounding noises, & very loudly AB said, "Vi, Vi, are you trying to go poopy?" The women next to our table were laughing, I was laughing, Annabelle was laughing, & Violet was grunting, with a smile on her face.

funny + terrible = my speciality

i thought these were horrible (funny).

What a wonderful day!

A few pix of my 30th b-day celebration. I felt honored that so many friends turned out in the pouring rain.

b.s.

you all should come to beggars society sometime. 7pm second sunday of the month. i am sitting in that quiet before everyone arrives and actually have some time! i got here at 3.30 so i guess i'd better be ready. anyway, we have a ton of candles out and low lighting. it's dark and rainy outside and jason upton and ray lamontonge are on the odd choice of a playlist i have going. jason is overly whiney and i know caron doesn't like the new ray. but i do. it feels like worshipful space here tonight. most of the time it just feels like an office to me -- it IS my place of employment after all. but tonight it feels different. we have red cozy chairs up front where michael and laura alley are going to sit and share. i love those people -- they follow jesus like crazy and love people like crazy. it's gonna be a good night. i need a good one, so that statement is a prayer not a premonition.

getting over edwards

it was my senior (5th) year of university study & i found myself in a required 200-level early american literature course. i was cruising through my creative writing courses, was succeeding academically & socially, and my arrogance told me that any old literature was not pertinent to my study of contemporary creative fiction writing. i was completely unaware of the whole picture & ultra-focused on the present.

i can't remember the professor's name and am not sure if i'd recognize her in a crowd (but her perfume, oh yes, i would know. cough, cough). what i most remember about her: her tone. her tone in critiquing the puritans, their lifestyle, & their devotion to god (which she would always use those annoying finger-quotation marks when mentioning "devotion to god") was full of disgust & self-righteousness. and as much as i despised the professor's approach to the literature, i adopted her disdain for the puritans.

shortly thereafter we started attending a church that praised the puritan devotion & devotion to god. over the years since, my knee-jerk GASP! when "sinners in the hands of an angry god" is mentioned has mellowed, but i've always hoped for more clarity on these brothers & sisters. some sort of peace. and, in many ways, i have been drawn to their unwavering devotion. a hope to connect the nearer past with the present: to integrate & mature. leland ryken's worldly saints is the footbridge.

the view review

i know, i know, we aren't usually into this kind of thing...but follow the link to read a review. couldn't help myself.

if you're not partying

with ali, cheryl, or darby for their birthdays....you should check out the omaha litfest schedule & think about attending a session. it looks good.

the arrival

was celebrated almost immediately with this beautiful photo.
I heart Mac.

library thing

i was reading megan's blog & was inspired by this site. got some great reading recommendations.

higher educ8

posted some new pictures this morning.

oldest kiddo started preskool this morning. i dropped her off, picked up a coffee to celebrate, & am home, ready to clean the kitchen! we are all having a great day.

TV

top TV on DVD that we've enjoyed watching together this past year:
1. 24
2. Lost
3. Arrested Development (seasons I & II. season III isn't that great)
4. Freaks & Geeks
5. The Office

guess who's coming to omaha this year

it's not david sedaris. although he is coming to omaha and that is exciting. it's anne murray!



Tuesday, December 12. 7:30 pm. Orpheum Theater. Don't miss it.

NFL

There is something about the NFL theme song that makes me feel all warm and cozy inside. It is just another reminder that fall and winter are around the corner, like the leaves turning color.

I like it. And it is in my head. And I don't mind.

to the knights of labor

thank you for your idea: the first monday in september is the right time for a little break.

and, my dear friends, i hope you are having BBQs, picnics, getting your last sunburn of the year, tossing a frisbee, watching the earlier sunset with the people you love.

gone

o grasshopper

yesterday was quite a day for grasshoppers all around the globe.

i was in gretna running an errand... out on gravel roads... in the middle of nowhere.
as i was driving away, a grasshopper landed on my car, on my windshield wiper. this was no ordinary grasshopper, as i would soon find out.

i didn't think a whole lot about that small little insect, until i was on I-80, traveling at 75 MPH, nearing the millard area. and there he was, still hanging on, antennaes blowing in the wind.

i though to myself, there is no way he can last much longer, not a chance.

as we approached the 680 interchange, he was still hanging on, and i began to hope against all odds that he would make it all the way back to our house... o, o no! he started slipping, "please grasshopper, hang on, we are so close now! to jump now would be suicide! you would never make it... just a little bit longer!!"

i started exiting on the 24th street exit, and he fell, he fell down to the part where the windshield and hood meet, where there is just the tiniest crevice... he managed, with some unknown amount of grasshopper strength and agility, to climb back onto the wiper within seconds of falling.

the car came to a stop at the stoplight, and i decided to drive by the park, thinking that that would make a good home for a grasshopper. and as we drove by the park, even though his little hoppers were probably exhausted from such a journey, he hopped off the car, and right into our neighborhood park.

he made it. he traveled all the way from gretna... mileage that could have taken him days to hop. cars help insects too.

it was a whirlwind of a journey, but we all made it safely.

laid up

so i fell down the stairs at work yesteday. it was actually pretty funny -- as caron said there should have been security footage. i don't think there is or i'd show you. i was reading while walking down the stairs and somehow thought i was done with the stairs and started walking, but then there it was -- another step! next thing i knew, i was on the ground, sprawled out across the stairs in my skirt. the boys came running from the other side, but stayed about 20 feet back. jara ran for ice, and by the time she returned they had high tailed it out of there. was it my being a baby that kept them back? or an awkwardly adjusted skirt? who cares.

so now my ankle is bruised and swollen and i'm limping around enough to cash in a personal day -- or would this classify as a sick day -- and put ice on and sit with it propped up. well, i iced it earlier. now i am just propping at blueline. bootleg internet was unavailable at the glen arlo this morn. so i drove on over. and hobbled to a table. if anyone is in the neighborhood, come say and hi! i am working a little from here, but some company would be nice.

p.s. click the title link to see a pic of not my ankle.