I took those foam things (there were many in a hallway) and hoarded them into someone else's office. All day I've been saying "don't throw those away! I HAVE A PLAN!!!!"

This is, apparently, what I get for being crazy having a plan. (They also work as pants, shirts and furniture in addition to hats).

Posted by talkingcrow at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Alexander Key wrote children's books. I became entranced with his writing when I was introduced to him via The Forgotten Door in fourth grade. I just loved it. It has the same sort of lost in the story feeling as the Madeleine L'Engle books for me.

So, because I'm that kind of person, and was certainly that kind of kid (it wasn't the last time I did this) - I wrote him a letter. He wrote me back, and very sweetly kept up a bit of a sporadic correspondence for a few years. It meant the world to me.

I just looked him up in Wikipedia, because something else reminded me of his writing, and see that he passed away in 1979. Our correspondence was in the few years preceding that. And all I can think is how thankful I am that I was able to have a moment of his time, before email, before there were no more paper letters. It still means a lot to me.

I also have a paper letter from Tom Robbins, on stationary from the Screaming Voodoo Ranch. That was a nice thing as well. I made Tom Robbins a present at the time, being that I was of that age, seeing myself in his characters, taking on the world. It never made it to him. It still sits on the kitchen ledge. I was smitten with Jitterbug Perfume. I started eating beets again. And because I was doing ceramics at the time, I made a beet bowl. It's just a shallow footed bowl with beets on it. Kind of cool in it's way. I don't precisely regret not sending it. But it's a reminder. It's good to be engaged with what you read, and to let people know that you appreciate their efforts. It's good to reach out and feed the karma network.

Posted by talkingcrow at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

that's what I'm dreaming of.

but it's summer, which means chores and activities every minute of every day. going to work is when i get to relax. this weekend was no exception. b. worked very late on friday. so, i had the evening to myself. self, said i in the middle of a row (probably the socks i'm working on for mom) - let's go DO something in the other room. in fact, it's going to be move big heavy stuff around night. and it was. saturday was yardwork, painty stuff, throwing things away, and sunday was more of the same, throwing in "decomissioning the rock pile". what a pain in the ass, it looks so benign, rocks, on the ground, in a place where there should be something more stable so someone won't launch themself into the concrete stairwell to the basement. it took forever to get all those damned rocks out.

in any case. i'm boring, but the house is looking better!!!

oh, and i love our ISP. love. love. it's dreamhost.com, and i set up a new blog, soup to nuts, in about 20 minutes. no, i don't have permission to tell yet. i can't even manage to post on this one, let alone another one. but the other one might end up being more motivating.

jeeeeeebus i'm sorry this is so boring. i'll come back with a good story or something.

Posted by talkingcrow at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Among other things, we watched Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus over the weekend. It's a bit of a crazy ride through the south. It's the stuff that you think of when you imagine Faulkner's south, or McCuller's south, or any version of the south unavailable to outsiders. Beautifully filmed, great music. If you like the stuff on the website, it's worth watching. The perpetual presence of both Jim White and Johnny Dowd work to sew it together.

And slowly the painting of the house trim is coming along. That's pretty exciting. Except now we also need a carpenter to fix the problems under the old paint.

We also took a bit of a bike ride. It was as long as I could manage (meaning not very) until I get back into some sort of shape. One of the stops was the Fremont Sunday market where I found an old Irish guy selling wool socks from a small town in Ireland. Apparently it's local fiber and local production. Of course I had to get a pair. In particular because in the back of my head, after reading various histories of knitting, I've been wanting to go to Ireland just so I could go to the local markets to buy handknit socks from the sock knitting ladies. I know, welcome to my daydreaming, but I was happy to get part-way there this weekend.

Posted by talkingcrow at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i had the most lovely birthday weekend. So nice that there's always a holiday for my birthday. mostly pretty low key, but some visiting (with n8w and his lovely wife), some yard work, some lounging. took a little road trip (the photo was on the ferry), which of course involved yarn (yay! i've finally been to churchmouse on bainbridge), on the day itself, and went to fabulous soul food with the ever most fabulous and wonderful man that i get to live with, and ms. masie plum drinkwater and her hubbo.

lately just crazy busy and haven't managed to be witty here.

more wit soon.

Posted by talkingcrow at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)