Tonight's chosen destination for National Night Out was the potluck at our Community Garden. I cooked up a panful of cornbread and large batch of vegetarian chili (made quite flavorful by the addition of my homemade berbere sauce) and carted this bounty down the path to join friends and acquaintances. People came, stayed, ate. The Crime Watch floated by. I talked with friends and my children laughed at river's edge blowing large bubbles with a couple policemen - adorable! Robin took photos. I hope she posts them. I like it when policemen do stuff.

I fell in love, absolutely in love, with Hoquiam's K-9 dog, a German Shepherd by the name of Enno. Of course, if I tried to abscond with that dog (and I briefly considered it) I would get bit badly by both dog and partner; it was clear this officer loved his canine companion very, very much. And my husband would probably demand I choose between himself and the dog. Honestly, though, it might be a hard choice. That dog was amazing.

My parents were there. My mother brought a beautiful batch of fresh-squeezed lemonade. We all watered our plots. My mom and I talked food and joked about flashing the Coast Guard boat that motored by. She is great company. My dad coughed and coughed and coughed. While my mom flitted about and tried to fetch things my father would eat I sat with him on a bench overlooking our muddy, lush riverfront. We talked for a while, then we didn't talk that much. I try to live in the moment. When I do, I feel the most acute sadness that our ways will be parted. This sadness is always fresh, always deeply felt. I don't want him to go. But I also feel so deeply satisfied he's here now. Even if we're not saying anything.

We left just before nine o'clock. My kids had spent a good solid half hour playing in a dirt pile so they were filthy. Horribly, horribly dirty. The bathroom, bathtub was muddy, I mean even the walls.

It was actually quite impressive.

Labels: community, geekery, HQX

Nels slept in today and woke up under a blanket in between my parents on the living room couch while we enjoyed a morning coffee date. My son's temperament was sweet made all the more hapless since he has his last day of preschool today and was sporting a black eye, cutting a rather pathetic figure.

Chores today: cleaning rat cage, dishes, making beds, cleaning bathroom, starting two loaves of sourdough for tomorrow's Stone Soup cooking at Suse's kindergarten. At lunchtime on a whim I felt hungry for sushi. Easily accomplished: I made up the rice and while it was cooling blanched carrot matchsticks, cut cucumber, battered and lightly fried tofu, and toasted and crushed macadamian nuts. Of course this all makes several rolls so I assembled a bento each for my friend Shannon and my mother.

At 3 PM while Nels was at school I picked Sophie up early so we could go to a Smithsonian traveling exhibit hosted at our own Polson Museum. The volunteer was thrilled to see museum attendance double - well, more than double as when we entered the museum went from 0 visitors to 2. It was a great exhibit and a lot of fun to attend with my daughter. She listened politely to the volunteer, asked questions, read the exhibits, and seemed to enjoy most of all racing around the model train set.

Labels: food, friends, geekery, Sophie

It wasn't for eco-smugness or personal virtue that I biked to Aberdeen and back today; it was simply because my mind has been over-active and I thought some intense physical exercise might help alleviate that (it did). Only a small part of the reason I was keyed up was an invitation to the Hoquiam Business Association meeting to speak on the zine; it was a short and pleasant meeting as well as extremely informative. Everyone was dressed nice (suits and pumps); my "nice" was a flannel shirt covering the skull t-shirt underneath. Whoops!

8.7 miles and counting; the distance I biked today. I had Nels in the trailer about half that time. On the highway I got a wave from M. and J. (I later found out they'd gone around the block to re-wave so's I'd see them) and was treated nicely by not one but two log trucks; it kind of made my day. Getting off the bike at Swansons for groceries (tofu, carrots, broccoli with my dwindling week's cash allowance) the post-physical afterglow made me feel like smiling and making conversations at everyone; many shuffled out of their cars in sweats and did not make eye contact going into the store.

From there I hit our idiosyncratic bike shop to negotiate the ordering and installation of my longtail bike mod and to get Nels' helmet refitted. The rain finally started coming down and the last leg of the trip was a little damp. Home to cats waiting for the fire to be turned up.

Labels: bike, geekery, rain

I'm working up a new recipe.* Listening to Dean Martin's "Forever Cool". You know, he has me at Track 01 ("Ain't That A Kick In The Head"). Damn, that man packed some sex appeal in his crooning.

Tonight Cyn sends me a link. I kind of laughed, then I started looking around. And it turns out this is the loneliest, and I mean the loneliest thing I have ever seen. More lonely than the geekiest D&D nerds with their 12-sided die, drinking Mountain Dew all night. More lonely than that dog turd half-squished on the lawn. More lonely than the stale half-donut in the bottom of the box after the Insurance Benefit Primer Workshop at a Community College.

* ETA: we had it for dinner; 'twas amazing!

Labels: food, friends, geekery, inter-tron, music

Last night our foursome worked at the 7th Street Theatre for the movie (Young Frankenstein). Sophie and I handed out programs (which I design for the films) and Ralph and Skels - I mean Nels - worked concessions.


Let me out my family as huge dorks. Because these aren't the "real" Halloween costumes, these are the ones for the movie nights. I pondered and pondered a way to frizz out Suse's hair. It would have taken lots of product and forever; plus we have two nights of working and I didn't want to go through whatever horrific process that would be twice. So I settled for a haircolor and white spray-in streaks. The dress is sewn from two tablecloths and the ribbon is sewn on to her neck (the ribbon sewn to itself, not my girl). I also tore more of the tablecloth into bandage handwraps and painted her nails a lovely blackish green. She was so into it. P.S. more than one boy / guy checked her out. It's kind of weird.

Nels liked his costume too. Um. A lot. He and I shopped for the costume earlier in the day - black LS shirt, sweats (I cut and hemmed the bottom of them b/c I hate the gathered sweatpant look), furnished with medical tape "bones" - plus a skull mask (not shown) he found all by himself for $1. He was extremely invested in the process. As we travelled to checkout he howled, "Where are the bones!?" having no understanding Ralph was going to fashion them from tape. That night he made a big fuss until we allowed him to sleep in the costume and he clutched his skele-mask in his sleep - all night.


Our friend S. took quite a few of these screenshots; they look great.

Labels: film, geekery, halloween, Nels, Ralph, sewing, Sophie

We're watching a lot of "He-Man" on YouTube around these parts. Guess what? It's really shitty. Ralph and I were appalled because as children TV viewers* He-Man was heavy, dramatic grist for our idealogical mill.

If He-Man can't entertain Ralph and I with compelling storyline and rich explorations of the dichotomy of good and evil, he sure can deliver an excellent PSA:



Do you think anyone ever had the gall to touch He-Man on his bathing suit area? Perhaps when he was merely a shy, awkward Boy Adam. And I can't help but think the last qualifier is made all the more awkward when it's your rabbi or minister who's doing the inappropriate touching.

* I grew up without a TV; I can only imagine my He-Man viewing was either at the grandparents' or with friends - but I do remember my brother and I watched some. Billy? Do you remember? Was it in the back of that van where that man touched us in the way He-Man is talking about?

Labels: geekery, hilarity, random

Last night for about forty minutes I had the odd circumstance of having "the neighbor girl" over. Where we lived before there were very few children in our neighborhood and even fewer children our own children's ages. Having Sophie invite our next-door neighbor's child, and having the kids run around in our fenced yard and the childrens' bedrooms, with little interaction between the actual adults of the two households... honestly, it was pretty cool.

Also:
HAWT.

"Macaroni - let me finish - salad."

Labels: geekery, HQX

Today as my son slept the last bit of his nap, and my daughter decidedly did not nap, I - on the computer, as I often do during their naps, am attempting to get some peace and my daughter talks to me from the bed mere feet away. I open a Word document, font Times size 112, turn my screen to her, and type:

GO TO SLEEP

My daughter is reading very well for her age; she is intrigued by my game and reads each word. "Me?" she asks. I nod my head, type:

OR I WILL SPANK YOU

She is officially delighted. A few more phrases, "Mama loves you", etc. Type a word, pause. She goes back and reads them in series. Soon:

MAMA NEEDS A KISS
ON THE CHEEK

Amping it up a bit:

DINNER TONIGHT IS ENCHILADAS
Sophie continues to amaze me by reading every word, slowly, but gets stuck on the last on this particular missive, of course. I allow her a few times of sounding it out and once she gets what it says, she wrinkles her nose: "I don't want enchiladas! I want a quesadilla!"

NO DINNER FOR YOU THEN

And so on. I feel kind of sinister. She loves it. Communicating without speaking - by sign language, reading, drawing pictures, or making animal sounds - is a thrill for her.

Labels: geekery, Sophie

For the second time I find FM transmitter technology just isn't cutting it for the enjoyment of my iPod. Oh sure, sure - it's lame I'm even buying something so chintzy with a weird, cock-like appendage and an even weirder, cock-with-elbow-like secondary extender. After all, there are classier, more expensive ways to put your massive iPod music library in your vehicle. However, the well is not bottomless, and even though my iPod was this year's sole Kelly expendeture from the Hogaboom coffers - well, I am looking for a more reasonable solution. After returning original FM doohickey (and vowing to hate radio technology, despite the lovely and informative article on the cellular phone I read in last edition of Invention & Technology magazine, P.S. I am not kidding, I really do read that magazine) today I find out from an IM conversation, innocently enough, that a simpler and more mechanically-based adapter is available in town. I rush my daughter and I out early for our date so I can hit the store in question and grab it up (and a quarter the price of FM device).

Inside the car I begin tearing at the packaging like a monkey ("That's a little bit awful," observes my biscotti-eating child-date watching me scratch at the vacuum-sealed sarcophagi), finally breaking the seal thanks to my keychain swiss army knife (yes! I'm a dork. But who's laughing now?!?), plug the "cassette" in, mash everything on the face of my iPod (Sophie requests Starsky & Hutch's "Two Dragons" for our maiden listen), only to have the stereo readout tell me in its fuckspeak: "c | n " - a code meaning either, "Please clean your tape deck" or, "I will never work again". Don't know which yet and get to find out.

Once again, no instant gratification for yours truly.

Oh, tonight's movie; Eragon. Don't see it. Billed as "Lord of the Rings Light", I'd phrase it "Lord of the Rings LITE (TM) with 'artificial meat flavors' and Miracle Whip". Why do I watch this crap? Oh yeah: because I have a daughter, and we go on dates, and I refuse to watch kiddy films. This movie works for her because she has a huge affinity for anything scaly (and an even huger affinity for anything huge and scaly). And even SHE was bored by the end. Your average crap fantasy film: a young boy's turn to manhood and the loss of loved ones (you can predict exactly when they'll go); evil badguy (with repetitive idle threats toward his minions that remind me of so many parents on the playground and their errant toddlers, and John Malkovitch enough already and retire please), his really evil-henchman (whose makeup inexplicably gets re-creepified 2/3 of the way through the film, but I still find Robert Carlyle cute only when he's playing a psycho); token buff warrior dude with obligatory horrific mulletude (P.S. Hollywood, I want my Djimon Hounsou served up in a loincloth, gladiator toga, ass-cheeked thong, or half-nude in a period drama, thank you!), blah blah. It actually started to get better by the end, especially when I realized they were going to save some of the typical storyline for, yes! another film. P.S. I think something sexy was going on between the boy dragonrider and his dragon. Or maybe it was just my feverish, bored mind casting for something to enjoy. I gotta admit, it was kind of hot.

So in looking up links for the last paragraph I stumbled upon the fact I have seen two movies in one week with a main character named "King Hrothgar".

Um... look. I've watched a lot of movies in the last few days, people. No really... I've been sick and had nothing else to do. Wait, don't leave ...

I'm going to go hang my head in shame now.

Labels: film, geekery, iBeak, Mac, music, random, Sophie

I had the strangest dream. I was making a really slutty dance mix CD. And you were there, and you were there, and you were there, and you were there..."

Labels: friends, geekery, music

I am feeling duty-bound to report occasionally following up my grocery opus from the other day (thanks to those four people who actually trudged their way through that one, by the way!). So far we are well-fed, our fridge is tidy, and I have bought nothing - not even a cup of coffee or one roll - from a store since Sunday.

I am devoting less time mentally (and yes, emotionally), physically, and financially to food, without sacrificing the quality of what we eat. Yet, I have to reorient myself in small ways. Today in my two-hour break between being home from playschool and leaving on a trip with a friend, I had to cook a lunch (broccoli from Sunday night's dinner with homemade ceasar dressing, hardboiled egg, and cheese cubes), then rinse and soak beans for tonight. I also made up fresh biscuits, slathered mustard and stuffed with corned beef, and prepared carrot sticks (for Sophie and I on our trip). These food errands while juggling kids, doing dishes, washing and folding laundry, helping my children clean their room, serving lunch, cleaning up after lunch and putting my son to bed, and assimilating freshly-washed hand-me-downs into their closets while winnowing out the grow-out for other families. I ain't saying it wasn't fun; it was. But the food preparation and cleanup this entailed when I normally would have grabbed a sandwich from a deli (and while I was there, bought a Vietnamese coffee. and some spicy pepperoni. and...) required an adjustment.

There have been only a few hiccups in our meal plan. Tonight my husband does not succeed in cooking the beans for dinner long enough (I had left instructions but somehow he didn't get it) so at 7 PM they still needed another hour and we were already late for dinnertime (read: kids were gnawing on the table legs and, occaisonally, each other). Normally we have canned refried beans so to graduate to dried-and-soaked ones is still new. However! I had one large can in the pantry (as he pointed out) so those were heated while the whole ones were cooked and preserved in the freezer for a dinner next week.

Tomorrow we have enough dinner to invite a friend; I do. She's bringing fresh, delicious beer from our favorite brewery. For now: a cuddle with my daughter and Season 2 Disc 2 of NBC's "The Office".

Labels: food, geekery, grocery opus, homesteading

Today after a breakfast out (I begged Ralph and he only begrudgingly agreed) we took the family to Slobberdale so I could buy fabric. Because I am a huge frakin' sewing dork. This year for Halloween my daughter is going to be a Corpse Bride so I have to get crackin' (Nels' "Ice Bat" is all done). I just got home with my fabrics and pattern, threw the kids in bed, washed the fabric while cutting out the pattern:


(Butterick 4887) for her gown. I'm doing a lace overlay and a tulle peplum and currently cutting out tulle and it's really, really weird stuff. Oh, should this be going on my sewing blog? Too fucken bad!

In other news, ever since Girls' Movie Night (v. October '06) I can't stop thinking about Patrick Swayze. And not in a pervy way, either. More an intrigued way. Why doesn't he work much these days? Why has he aged less like a person and more like a sleek rock formation? How did he get away with his hair for so long? Why doesn't he have a better ass? I just told Ralph to go rent me another Swayze film - I gave him a trifecta of choices in order of my preference. "And," I said, "If those three are all out, then someone in this town loves Swayze more than us - and we should just back off."

Labels: geekery, homesteading, sewing, swayze

"Nice man, nice!"

Neil, this is for you. And no, I haven't seen Episode III yet, because I still maintain I and II sucked too hard.

Labels: film, friends, geekery