Meandering Ponderings, Raving Reveries

chip off the old block

2008-03-27T03:12:55Z

Those of you who knew 1cmf in his college days will likely find this picture of Dragonboy (in the user icon here), particularly endearing. One day at rehearal, he just happened to put on this hat, and discovered that it was rather suprisingly comfortable.

flylady feather dusters

2008-03-11T18:43:39Z

I have the large and small Flylady feather dusters. They've just never worked for me. Maybe they work better for folks who have forced air and air-conditioning.

Anyway, they've become clutter. Anybody want them? I suppose they are worth money, but I'm open to various options. Make me a low carb soup? Or give me some healthy treats my kids would like?

The feather dusters *are* in fact as gorgeous as advertised, ostrich feather with purple highlights.

Cool!

2008-03-02T12:35:07Z

A nature photographer I know spotted a harbor seal in South Bound Brook, along the canal.

link to pics

what I learned in school today

2008-02-22T01:31:24Z

Eddie Izzard's Cake or Death in Legos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZVjKlBCvhg

dreams and snow

2008-02-13T17:56:15Z

The anxiety dreams continue, although last night they were interspersed with vivid wonderful dreams. One of walking silently through the snow, watching various animals, and then eventually flying over the snowy landscape. Very vivid, very enjoyable.

I also dreamt a happy dream of someone who prefers I not be in their life, and then that was followed by an awful anxiety dream of trying to figure out whether the first part had really been a dream or had really happened (harder to do from within a dream). Of course, I was very sad to realize it had only been a dream.

And another vivid dream in which I was attacked and defended myself, but then had to deal with all the repercussions of it.

And another wonderful dream, of meeting total strangers on a bus, and winding up spontaneously singing with them. It was a magical feeling of immediate kinship.
......................

It is snowing, and I want to bake and eat yummy things. I suppose I could make soup. I've been having tea.

interesting person

2008-02-05T18:06:24Z

I saw a really interesting person at Dunkin Donuts this morning. He walked in, and I thought, "oh, there's a Tibetan." I mean, I've lived in China, I've traveled in central China. This guy looked like you could have dropped him in Tibet and he would have fit right in. Except, he also looked really comfortable here. In my imagination, he's maybe been living in the USA for a few years. Maybe he's in exile. He had a broad, flat face, wrinkled and weatherworn. He wasn't very old, but maybe 65 or so. He was wearing baggy pants. They were just thick looking sweatpants, with some sort of writing on the side, something one might buy at a sports shop, but they fit exactly like Tibetan garments. He also wore a thigh length long leather jacket, possibly of sheepskin. It had that sort of trim, sensible workboots and a warm hat. He was very unassuming, got his small hot drink, sat down at a table nearby. We made eye contact briefly, and I gave him what I hope was a respectful smile, and he gave a slightly shy smile back, which broadened to a brief smile and slight nod of approval as he took in the observation of my family sitting together having breakfast, or perhaps simply smiling at the presence of children.

What a fascinating person. I would love to know more about him.

South Beach Day Two

2008-02-05T16:57:07Z

I managed to resist the urge to weigh myself today, but I feel like I must have lost about 5 pounds of water weight, just yesterday.

Last night, I had a series of vivid dreams, many involving various kinds of tension --- poor communication, people inconveniencing me, trying to buy airline tickets... and then I also had one in which I kept accidentally eating Newman's chocolate-chocolate-chip cookies. I would hand all the cookies away, and then find that I had more, or that I was eating more. I just couldn't get rid of them. The taste was very vivid. It was similar to dreams I have, every once in a while, when I suddenly realize I've been drinking mead, or vodka and coke, like I just forgot to abstain, and then I freak out.

Today, I'm finding that food preparation takes too long. But I made it through a significant challenge. My family always, always, goes out to Dunkin Donuts on Election Day. I ate some low-fat cheese* before heading out, and then had a skim milk sugar free latte, as a treat. The kids were very helpful. They chose m-n-m donuts, which frankly, just looked gross.

*Historically, I hate low-fat cheese. It is from the evil. Lo and behold my commitment, as I eat the low-fat cheese.

Dischord, or balance?

2007-12-12T20:40:07Z

When Horseboy put a Barbie sticker over my left breast a few minutes ago, I just thought, "OK, I can indulge you, I can wear the Barbie sticker you got at the doctors office if you want me to."

I've just noticed. I am wearing my Righteous Babe sweatshirt, and the sticker is directly, artfully placed slightly inside and below the babe logo. So, um, yeah. Weird.

More or less weird than the Righteous NRA Babe stickers on the Schizophrenic Saturn, I'm not sure.

Thought for the day

2007-12-12T13:56:57Z

right then. so can we take all our garbage, and put it in non-porous containers, and float it up to the north pole, so the walruses have a place to rest when the arctic ice has all melted?

cake!

2007-12-10T21:11:26Z

This is for n_decisive's cookie swap, and also for the ladies who lunched the other day, and enjoyed it. Someone asked what the secret ingredient is. It's coffee.

From the awesome cookbook, Moosewood Restaurant New Classics: deep chocolate vegan cake.

this is so good, I plan to make it for Christmas, even though we're not vegan.

--- But wait, hey! How awesome is this? I realized that the cookie swap doesn't work if the post isn't public, and I really do try to avoid blatent copyright infringement, especially in public posts, so I was going to go email the nice folks at Moosewood and ask permission (people *love* it when you ask permission, and it really suprises them), and I found the recipe online already, on their own website How awesome, there's a free Moosewood cookbook right on line! I just love Moosewood.

mission statement

2007-11-30T14:42:24Z

I had some time to kill yesterday (really! rare!), so I was flipping through my planner, and looked at my previous mission statement, that I've been using some very similar form of for years. I decided it's too darned long. So, here's a more concise form.

My life's purpose
Love people.
Be useful.
Learn stuff.
Eat good cake.

Eating good cake is a self-encompassing metaphor.

new cartoon avatar

2007-11-26T05:19:16Z

Dragonboy selected this for me. he was disappointed he couldn't find a simple black t-shirt for me to wear. I don't think my hair is really anywhere near that dark.

contentment

2007-11-26T02:06:59Z

Oh, I so, so needed that. Five women, many kinds of chocolate, two kinds of yummy hearty soup, board games, Johnny Depp, raunchy conversation.... Oh, needed, needed, needed that.

And the three days of family weekend was excellent, too.

My spanish sucks

2007-11-11T16:04:35Z

Yesterday we took my mother-in-law to get a new computer, and 1cmf got it all set up for her. (I'm so, so happy that she is doing better, and is home!)

I offered to test drive her internet connection, and so was hanging out online at her computer. Didn't feel like reading LJ from her computer, so I was reading google news. (I normally get my news as a feed, here on LJ.) I noticed I could choose to read it in Spanish, and did so, muddling through the articles, attempting to understand.

I thought the King of Spain had asked the President of Venezuela to call him more often. Er, he apparently told him to Shut Up. I get a big F on my translation project this weekend.

linkity-link

2007-11-09T16:08:43Z

I thought this was amusing, but then I'm in a crummy mood still. Take w/ grain o' salt, to taste.

The bitter homeschooler's wish list

grumpy day

2007-11-06T13:10:50Z

internet use is being a pain in the butt lately. I can't cancel my at&t account, because I haven't been able to tie up loose ends. People keep emailing me there, and it seems like chasing down every loose end will take 30 minutes each. I owe email to this one person, and every single time I try to deal with it, my family suddenly needs me. She keeps emailing me, at the wrong account.

And I set up my main email account, originally, to have multiple aliases, but now I don't seem able to control that. I think that sorting that out would take about an hour, maybe two. Or about 20 hours to start a new email account altogether and abandon this one. I am trying to keep things *organized*, and have different ways of dealing with some of the different groups in my life, but it is not working.

scheduling is a pain in the butt too. I'm in an "I don't want to go anywhere, or do anything, or see anyone, ever again" mood.

and every time I get one thing sorted out, I find 5 new things have come up while I was doing that.

growl.

Glad I tried it.

2007-11-06T02:29:00Z

After a good six months, I had my eyebrow piercing taken out. It was cute, but annoying, and I just couldn't deal with the relationship with it any longer.

resisting

2007-11-03T13:59:09Z

I wake up Nov. 3rd with from a dream. With a rich background, 3 or 4 interesting characters, plot, intrigue...all set in another land, another time.

NO. No. I am not doing NaNoWriMo. I have other stuff on my plate.

--------

Also, Happy late birthday to dcdragon67. Considering I just sent her older daughter her birthday box last week, she'll be lucky to get hers before thaw. But she's an awesome sister.

Hey, why's there no Halloween meme yet?

2007-10-31T18:35:32Z

"Trick or Treat!"

Give me something in my comment section. Then post this, if you like, and I'll give you something in yours.

I'll be a zombie. If it were Monday, I wouldn't even need a costume.

Mostly for 1cmf

2007-10-26T12:57:39Z

hey sweetie,

LJ seems like a useful format for discussion of that not-windows-office free software you were telling me about. What was that? Can we get it? Sometimes I get stuff sent to me, and I can't open it, and I get a message telling me to do something to see if I can open it...it might say "go to systems applications" to do something like select how to deal with this file. I haven't tried following those instructions yet.

(If anyone else feels like chiming in, feel free. If I didn't want you to, I could have put this on our just-us filter.)

-1cm

Day two of home with a sick kid.

2007-10-23T16:09:59Z

There are brownies baking in the oven.

Bake brownies, bake! Bake brownies, bake!

Nothing like having friends to help ya move.

2007-10-19T19:44:33Z

tactisle rocks!

I have email set up (that bit I did myself...*preen*). And, thanks to a bit o' tech support, I have my address book. And I have access, for better or worse, to my thousands of old archived emails. I have my favorites. I have IM.

Triple decker *WOOT!* with a cherry on top!

still poking at it.

2007-10-15T23:44:21Z

this computer recovery process is frustrating.

luckily, I have recovered my writing. that was priority number one. I'll probably start looking for things like my email archives and address book next. currently, I can only email people if they email me first, or I happen to have their email address written somewhere. and even that, I'm missing a lot because it

and sometime, I'll get around to some other things I was intending to write about.

experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by...

2007-10-11T22:10:05Z

gah.

my old computer died. I think the official diagnosis was, "the motherboard is fried." In theory, we are going to use an external hard drive to get our data off of our old computer, and onto this one. (Yes, we have bought a new computer...yay homeowner's rebate tax relief check.) I'm not sure what that will be like when we do it...and due to the likelihood of weirdness, I'm wanting to wait for 1cmf, so we can work on it together, so if we blunder, at least we're being companionable. I'm trying to get used to windows vista, but I don't want to start customizing it and reconfiguring things until after I find out what happens with the data transfer. So for the meantime, I'm treating this, largely, as someone else's computer. I'm checking email infrequently, so if you need me, call me.

It's done!

2007-09-21T15:58:03Z

I've been working on the same project for 4.5 years, and now it's done!

**holds back deluge of stuff that's been hiding behind the "No new projects until I finish the saining sash" rule**