The Day Silas Was Born

                                Astronomy Picture of the Day, NASA

What's Not To Love?

Yoko crochets!!!!

And she manages that lefthanded finger business perfectly.

Oh, and some damn fine music.

Bonus!

Turned Around

Big Box trip today took waaaaaaaay longer than usual; and so I was done IN by the time I got home.  Cranked up the fan and stretched my achin' self down on the shabby bed.  No need for AC for once thank god!  Read some Alther for awhile and then had to doze.

Please note:  I had not freezer-ized of fridge-ized any of those items because my intention was to DOZE (as in 15 minutes of energizing snoozing) and then pop up all refreshed.  OK that didn't quite happen.  I slept for three hours!!!  Which is SO not me.

Luckily everything had been double bagged and was still chilled enough so that I didn't have any unsightly drips to clean up (which is nigh onto impossible for moi') and I felt safe and comfortable that my yoghurt wasn't spoiled.  BB doesn't always have the thick cherry version I crave.  I probably would have eaten it even if I had found it boiling on my kitchen counter.  Nyet!  All was well.

So, I get up and stash almost everythin' and settle down for a smidge of trolling before serious paperwork I should have finished earlier this afternoon.  And on an interior design site I find the following:

Okay, OK even I recognised Amy Winehouse and I know a bit of her back story and all that, but I never really listened to much of her stuff.  Shame on me.  And, OK I admit I can only decipher about a third of the words to this song; but I tells ya' IT DON'T MATTER!!!  Clearly the girl had great musical chops and I apparently missed it.

Now I've got to stay awake and spend the night with the late Ms. Winehouse on YouTube.

Do you realize what this is going to do to my tomorrow???!!!  Sheez.

Whatever Happened To...

It helps that I know almost nothing about soccer.  And so I come to this video with the eyes of the beginner.  I have no idea what it means and I do not care to learn.  I see no google fest in my future. (OK I did watch the "She Wolf" video a time or two. How can anyone bend that way?)  But I got to thinking, whatever happened to Shakira?

If she's not young and gorgeous anymore I hope that she is fat and still sexy as hell and having a marvelous time.  She can always look back on videos like this one.  Hopefully she knows what all the words mean.  To me, 'waka waka' will always belong to Fozzie bear and my father.  Two of the world's funniest creatures.

Love the bracelets.  Love all the cute sweaty soccer boys.  Love that she's got pom poms in her hair.  And the clothes on the dancers are sensational, too.

Get Out Of My Way

This week I have been sleeping scandalously late.  And for me, that means 8:30 to about 9ish in the morning.  I've been an early starter since my children were teensy.  Never minded it and never needed or used an alarm clock.  And I realize that 9:00 am isn't that late; but here at Elder House there are folks who are up and around at four!  No, no, no.  That can't be good for a person.

This week I've been stretching and snicking the eye gunk out of my eyes and reading book after book.  My load this week from Library Guy has been especially good.  Nora's last, The Language of Flowers, and the second Stieg Larsson.  Yummy.

So why the snark?

Beats me.  I , like Snoopy, "feel every now and then that I wanta' bite someone."

Let's see.  The property manager still hasn't responded to an email question I sent on Saturday.  But I didn't really expect her to and it's not a big issue anyway.  That's not the reason.  Neither is the third day in a row of 100+ temperatures.  Nor is it the fact that I heard on the news that grasshoppers are going to reproduce THREE times due to the weird weather this year and they will eat all the grass and grain and humans will starve to death and die of bread withdrawal.  Nope not it.  A loaf of good bread, expensive at $2.78 a loaf now, will cost over $5.00 by fall.  Close, but not.

Well, what the hell is pissing me off then?

Yup, that's it.  I want my 20 year old body wrapped around my this year's brain.  I'd be freaking unstoppable.  And I bet Mick wishes the same thing sometime.

For Baby Sis

This is corny, but I know she will get it.
Can't wait, Honey!!!!!

Thanks for listening as always!

Depends Upon Your Point Of View

In the past few days I have been watching all the Star Wars episodes via YouTube clips.

Fun, because I can pick and choose scenes, "rewind" what I especially like and skip the interminable battle scenes.

Let's face it, if you've watched once you know who is going to live or not.  All the duelling seems phony baloney; those twisting jumps are snazzy but would a real dueller have time to think about snazziness?  And the flying battle scenes?  Yawn.  Bang, bang, zoom, zoom.  Where does all the sound come from in the vacuum of space, eh?

Nah.

I like the plot and I adore the characters.  Even the Bad Guys.  Maybe especially the Bad Guys.

And I relish the memories these films evoke for me.

I was a young married lady when the original Star Wars was released.

My brother Frankie got my husband and I balcony seats and, well... we were instantly enthralled.

Those majestic credits daringly rolling backwards and that triumphant John Williams score.

By the time Empire was released we had a baby daughter and you can bet we brought her; perched in her white bucket car seat turned toward the screen.

Her eyes became saucers as the rebels zipped by on the planet Hoth.  Good times.

So, I have been enjoying this blast from the past.

If you don't have the time or luxury I strongly recommend the following.

SATC

In the poverty stricken boredom of my Golden Years I have plenty of time on my hands.  Recently I have been strolling down the virtual memory lane provided by YouTube and old Sex and the City videos.

I never watched the program while it was airing on prime time.  I didn't ever have cable or a satellite.  Once at Baby Sister's she showed me a few episodes she had taped (remember that?) and asked me to guess which character I thought she'd be.  I got it wrong.  Anyway.  The women all seemed self-absorbed with boring, improbable problems;  and the men weren't all that interesting either.  I took a  pass.

Then a few years later Angry Sister, who was a dear friend at the time, loaned me her fuzzy pink slip cased collection of every single SATC episode.  Well!  This show was a bit of a hoot.  Yes, the women were all shallow and self-absorbed;  but the story line was a bit more intriguing than I had originally thought.  And the friendship the main characters shared was something I wanted to learn more about.  I confess.  I watched a lot.  Over and over.

More than anything I fell in love with Carrie's apartment.  The teenyness.  The apparent style choices made over time. If I lived anywhere at anytime I'd want that apartment.  If it was real of course.  Now where I live bears no resemblance to Casa Carrie.  I do have a white chair that I use as a nightstand.  And I do not own a television either.  And I have WAY more plants.

Least favorite girl:  Samantha.  Sorry.  I hated all the huge earrings.  Her sexual bluntness in conversation just seemed rude to me.  And I refuse to believe that so very many 19-25 year old boy/men could be so powerfully attracted to a 45-50+ woman.  Even one as stylish and well cared for as Ms. Jones.  However her sweaty breast cancer speech makes up for a lot of her objectionable stuff.  When the gal in the audience takes her wig off and points...that is a POWA FULL moment.

What, then is the point?  Nothing really.  I like the show in the little YouTube snatches (Oh, there is a bad joke waiting to happen.) And I like that such a successful program showcased women almost exclusively.  Don't go there for realism.  New York is only affordable for the imaginary.  These ladies do not take public transportation, do much laundry, gain weight, or show much concern for issues outside their immediate realm.  Shoes?  Seriously?  It's fantasy.  I'm really old and I finally figured that out.

But, hey!  Do NOT  make another movie!  It will suck.  That is all.  Oh, and I NEVER liked Big!

Every Day Should Be Women's Day!

We SO rock!

This is excellent, of course, and in my usual curmudgeony fashion I am compelled to add:

Where are the women of color?

Where are the elder ladies?

and

Please, may we have a link to the artists?

Thank you.

Now, do it again.

Please.

A Gift

Twenty nine years ago I was granted one of my most special wishes.

To bless my Daughter Megan today and always.

I love you.

I am so glad you got your wish.

xoxo,

Mommy

This Is So Creepy

I have not gone to a movie in years.  If I wanted the crap scared out of me I would go see this all alone.

And then I would probably sleep with the lights on for the rest of my life.

Just Another Reason I Am Losing What Is Left Of My Mind, Or Thank God This Hideous Month Is Over

I've written before about how I am having a love affair with google images.  Not so much with you tube and their search-ability stuff.  Somehow their links seem designed to humiliate and creep one out.  Allow me to explain.

I heard some music I really liked and googled the writer's name and learned that she had been inspired by really old cartoons.  So, of course, I went straight to youtube (It's the video capital still, right?) and found this:

Okey Dokey.  Quaint propaganda that reminded me an awful lot of the "science" movies we watched back in grade school days.  Nuclear Power is our friend!  Blood should match your own skin!  How to know if your parents are commies!  Okay, I made those titles up.  But I bet if you youtube or google video search them a reasonable facsimile will come up.  Maybe I'll do it later.

One of the reasons I didn't was because I got waylaid by the links to the right of the cartoon I was actually watching.  Yikes!  Rhino sex!  Horse mating!  Dog humping old woman!  Gorillas doing what gorillas do!  Need I say:  YIKES!  Where did this come from when all I was looking at was a 50year old animation?! 

Did I peek?  Well, yeah, sure.  Who wouldn't?  Then I looked at some of the comments left by previous surprised viewers and learned that I should "clean out my history."  ANOTHER thing to worry about!  Actually, I had heard about this before, but since I am a comparatively dull person with interweb interests that are also pretty dull, I'd never bothered to clean my history before.  I don't have time for this!

I just finished reading a book called "Pornland" because the wife of one of my instructors had an article about the book published in a serious academic journal.  Quite an honor for her.  I wanted to read the book first and THEN read her article to see if our opinions synced up at all.  What I really wanted was to see if I was as smart as I am sure she is, and thus gain some unsolicited validation for myself.

(And just to show how brave and fearless I am; I just googled an image of the book's cover!  Take that!)

But I DID search the book's author's name.  And I DID carry the book with me to read while I was doing my laundry.  And it DID create quite the stir here at Elder House.  Now!  How the hell do I clean THAT out of my history?!?!?!