Blue in a Red State

2008-12-30T23:07:00.012-05:00

2008 in Review

2008?

Hello friends! Well I can’t say 2008 was uneventful. We traveled to Florida twice and Ohio three times.

I got to see all my siblings this year, most of my cousins and my parents several times.

Fresh starts…

My nephew Bobby (Craig’s oldest) has graduated from high school and has started at Ohio State as a sophomore. He is still trying to choose which type of engineering he will specialize in. See the attached video to see him play the marimba. Talent, brains and just turned 19—I’m so proud (and a little jealous)!

Also, Diane and Jeff bought a computer store near Melbourne, Florida. Di is doing the accounting for her business and has got a second new, ocean-front accounting job. They and their two girls are staying with Jeff’s parents until I sell their house here. What a change!!

I took singing “lessons” for the first time in early 2008. It was an improv/ harmonizing class. I believe I was the most conventional and most conservative person there! (For those of you who know me, that’s saying something!) I’m happy to know I have a lot of room to grow in to the true hippie that I feel I am deep inside. (I’m already hippy—that’s a start!)

I kind-of redecorated Reese’s room—I really just replaced her baby furniture, but Will was very jealous, so… I totally redecorated Will’s room. The only things that remained of his old room were his mattresses and carpet. He now has an L-shaped glass desk, gorgeous black bed, dresser (which Travis refinished) and floor-to-ceiling black shelving unit. Marc (Grandpa) painted the room for Will and we topped it off with three, life-sized clone trooper stand-up posters mounted on the walls. (To be honest, I could have left out the rest and just put in the posters and he would have been happy.) I know this is uncharacteristically domestic of me—that’s why I’m so excited that I pulled it off. Now I don’t have to decorate anything for another ten years. We take turns going into Will’s room and wishing it were ours.

What was old is new again…

I started teaching again after taking a twelve-year break. I teach seventh grade English language arts and it’s great! It’s a fun age (really) and the school is as good as a private school. It’s like winning the teaching lottery.

I also got to see about two dozen old friends that I went to school with in Ohio. This outgoing trombone player/ mathematical genius hosted a big outdoor bash for dozens of former band members and their families. The West M folks spanned five or six graduating years. Even our old band director was there! (He was a very young band director—I never even realized that until this shindig!) What poetic justice that the band folks turned out to be so successful and cool.

Oh yeah, and legging are coming back in style. (Blah—see hippy comment above.)

Sad things…

I lost my 98 year-old grandmother. She was the last remaining child of the eleven. (This is why I’m related to half of Hopewell, Ohio). She lived a long life and had her wits until the end. She was even in her own house (thanks to a great deal of dedication and sacrifice from my mom and her two sisters, Carol and Rhea). As sad as I am about her death, I have to appreciate what an extraordinarily full life she led.

My best friend moved to Florida to open a computer store. (See “Fresh Starts”.)

Real estate has tanked. I had planned on going back into teaching in 2009 anyway (I had kept-up my certs for when Reese started kindergarten) but had to rearrange my plans a little. Luckily I love the teaching position I’m in!

The status quo…

Reese and Will are doing well in school.

Will is a patrol this year. He gets to school early and protects the citizens of Evansdale Elementary. He has also taken at least five field trips this year and has several more planned. Fifth grade has been good to him! He got his Halloween costume early and was a clone trooper for Dragoncon. He has an uncanny ability to look right past the half-naked alien ladies and focus instead on the robots!

Reese is either in a “phase” where she irritates her preschool teacher about three times a week or she’s starting a career as a class clown. She is ridiculously happy, open and a lot of fun to be around. I think we’re in for a rough 15 years or so.

Adonis (AKA Travis) is doing well. He travels a lot for his job. In 2008, he traveled to: New Port News, Virginia; Raleigh and Salisbury, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Jacksonville and Lake Mary Florida; Greenville, South Carolina and Salt Lake City, Utah. Most of that took place in the first six months! He hasn’t played much pool or golf this year. I’m hoping he’ll get back on a pool league in 2009. He wants to get back into cycling.

Travis is still working from home. Despite all the travel listed above, his company has had a slow few months; however, he will be travelling for three weeks in January so it seems to be finally picking-up. Talk about a mixed blessing…

We still love living so close to Travis’s parents. It’s great to have them as a part of our everyday lives. I also have the distinction of being in book club with both of my mothers-in-law and Travis’s aunt.

Christi still has her Aldabran Tortoise farm. In case you didn’t know, my sister raises rare giant tortoises in South Florida. (These tortoises are the largest species of land tortoise in the world and are native to the Aldabra Islands in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa.) She has finally hatched a baby one this year-- with the help of a surrogate mother tortoise, of course. I’ll have to devote a later entry to her and her shelled clan.

Kim is in the high desert of San Diego. In April of 2008 she got a new bird (an Umbrella Cockatoo). Since Joe and Kim plan to move when they retire in a couple years, they’ve been enjoying the beach and their beautiful house while they still have it. She has an incredible garden and grows herbs, avocados, and dozens of vegetables—she was obviously adopted.

My Fabulous 40th and the wrap-up…

I was sick with a cold-like malady for the entire month of October. I spent most days looking forward to my 8:30pm bedtime honey-lemon-whiskey toddy with Benadryl chaser. My fortieth birthday was, therefore, understated. I plan to remedy that on Travis’s 40th in June of 09.

To wrap-up my year, I have finally learned to hula hoop and still play a ridiculous amount of on-line Scrabble. I think I’m improving, however, every time I get a little cocky, I go down to the Tucker Rec Center and let the septuagenarian tournament players beat a little sense into me. I would like to start a Scrabble club at school this year or next.

I've done my best to make this entry sound like a "Holiday Form Letter" since most of you didn’t get Christmas cards (sorry!) I hope this will be a sufficient alternative. Please feel free to comment or leave a message on Facebook about your 2008 and your upcoming plans for 2009.

Happy New Year!

2008-02-11T22:38:00.000-05:00

I have finally found a disadvantage to having a female presidential candidate— the mandatory interview with Katie Couric. In Katie’s quiz on 60 Minutes last night, she asked Hillary Clinton about boys (Barack and Bill) and diet. She lobbed softballs like “do you like Barack Obama?” and “how do you stay healthy on the campaign trail?” In the same 60 Minutes episode, Steve Kroft asked Barack Obama questions like, "how do you plan to beat John McCain?" And "how can you call yourself an underdog when you are leading in delegates?" Recently Hillary Clinton replaced her campaign manager; I’m guessing it’s because she arranged that televised People magazine interview.

2008-02-09T15:19:00.000-05:00

Not English Idiom

OK, the hard part about English grammar is the many verb tenses, right? It is stressful if you ever actually have to think about verb tense. (Was that last sentence in the present, present perfect or present progressive?)
I have found some even more nefarious villains in our language, however. They have been billing themselves as innocent little helpers; so insignificant, in fact, that they are not capitalized in a title. I am talking about prepositions. Their job? Explaining how a noun or pronoun relates to another word.

As we huddled around the woodstove at the schoolhouse back in Gratiot, Teacher used to tell us that a preposition was “anywhere a squirrel could go.” (Sorry—I keep forgetting I’m not Laura Ingalls Wilder.) What would that squirrel think if it knew that the part of speech that made it famous was robbing non-native English speakers of precious points on the SAT? Probably nothing—squirrels are pretty stupid.

I realized prepositions were a problem when I recently taught SAT Writing and Grammar to a class of Korean-American students. I was having trouble explaining why some of their answers were incorrect. About two-thirds of the time, prepositions can be taken literally—just visualize that squirrel on the rail, going through the woods or riding in a Ferrari. The other ones are problematic, however. They just sound right to a native speaker, which means they just have to be memorized by one who is not. The answer key simply says “not English idiom”—how helpful.

English is rife with idiomatic phrases that way-lay ESL speakers. Margarita, a woman in my book club, says that her husband thought she had been calling him a pig for years. Every time she made a new dish, she would ask him to be her guinea pig. Imagine his relief to find out that he was just an experimental subject instead!

Back to prepositions…
Does one work “in” or “at” a factory? Why do we say in the morning, in the afternoon and at night? If one were to say “I have trouble sleeping in the night” an English speaker born in America would notice that it was an unusual phrase or not an English idiom. (Best to take some Ambien and avoid the whole scenario; what’s more American than taking a highly advertised prescription drug?)

OK, so which is right? I work in my father’s factory or I work at my father’s factory? It’s the latter. The word in usually means "within a geographical place or enclosed area”; in this sentence, the preposition refers a location that involves a specific activity, so at is correct. Damn you, squirrel!

2008-01-08T19:44:00.000-05:00

New Year’s Resolution: Resume this Blog.

Here are some things (and people and places) I discovered in 2007:
The Atlanta Botanical Garden
The movie Waitress
Writer, director and actress Adrienne Shelly and her tragic demise
The shortest and smartest 3-year-old in Atlanta (and she happens to be mine!)
The Shakespeare Tavern
The music of the 70's (I have rediscovered the music of my youth as I’ve been faking a lot of seventies songs on the piano)
Universal Healthcare as practiced in other countries (via the movie Sicko, not 1st hand experience)
La Madeleine
Showtime (Weeds, Dexter, Californication)
The ridiculous number of Transformer toys
Key Cinema Sunday
The I-Pod Nano
Khaled Hosseini
Facials
People either love or hate Christmas carols
Café Bombay (I can put away some goat!)
Vegas, Baby!(For our 10th Anniversary)
Marilyn Manson had a terrible childhood
There are bad movies made in England too—they just don’t make it over here very often
Adrien Brody is sexy
So is Richard Roeper (and to think I squandered my time on the cruise with him back in 2003)
Northside Tavern
Baba Ghanoush
Third and fourth graders are given too much homework
Colorado Springs
Manitou Springs
You need at least a week for a decent beach getaway
The closest hospital to Edisto Beach is 40 miles away in Charleston, SC.
Nine-years-old must be a growth milestone for boys
I’ve taken my last trip on a Greyhound.
Some airlines are better than others. (All are better than Greyhounds!)
The Georgia Aquarium
I hate housework (OK—I knew that before 2007)
I can now French braid someone else’s hair

What did you discover in 2007?

2007-08-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

Hi there. I’m sorry it’s been so long. I have written a couple of drafts and never posted them, so in my mind I have submitted something. One of them was a list of everything we’ve read so far in book club. I’ll post that eventually.

Today I’m a little ticked that one of my favorite Vietnam protest songs “Sunshine” by Jonathan Edwards (not to be confused with the 18th century theologian or the North Carolina Senator) is being used to peddle Jeeps. The commercial cuts it down to a chipper beach ditty to which the Jeep travels through time. The version below is the real song though the video is probably not what Mr. Edwards envisioned either. There’s also live version on youtube, but Reese really liked this one. (Between Will and Reese, we have at least half of these toys!) The dirty laundry and the homework lend authenticity too. To be honest, this is the video I would have made when I was 12. (If I had been born 25 years later, that is.)

Sunshine Stuffed Animal Video

I've always though it was a good song for the feminist movement.

2007-05-24T19:57:00.000-05:00

My mother-in-law e-mailed this to me...

Subject: Bogus tick warning

If someone comes to your front door saying they are checking for ticks due to the warm weather and asks you to take your clothes off and dance
around with your arms up, DO NOT DO IT!! THIS IS A SCAM!! They only
want to see you naked.
I wish I'd gotten this yesterday. I feel so stupid.

2007-02-14T19:59:00.000-05:00

Hey-- I ranked second in Mig's limerick contest!
Click on the link to see all the entries.
(I rated for quantity rather than quality.)

Can't wait 'til next Valentine's Day? Challenge
your inner-Shakespeare (or inner-Calvin Trillin)
on Quickmuse. If you get inspired let me know,
I'd love to read it.

2007-01-27T10:04:00.000-05:00

Random pics from the last 6 months.

2007-01-09T15:54:00.000-05:00

What happens in Vegas...

I just love this picture! Here's the story.

2006-12-31T02:03:00.000-05:00

I take movies personally…

I just spent two hours watching movie reviews on the internet. After finding out that the movie I wanted to see was a trite chick flick (even by a trite chick’s standards) I decided to catch-up on the movies I’ve missed instead. I love to fill up my Netflix queue with movies that haven’t been released. A year from now I’ll have forgotten why I ordered it and be pleasantly surprised with a good movie.

I have a 20-year history with movie reviews; nothing tops At the Movies with Siskel and Ebert. In years past I searched for Siskel and Ebert on late night network TV (and usually fell asleep before it came on at 2 am.) I had been conditioned to side with Siskel and was truly heartbroken when he so selfishly left me in 1999.

As I know how my tastes stack-up relative to Roger Ebert’s, I have since been reading Ebert’s reviews on the Chicago Sun Times website. Many times I’d disagree and ask myself what Gene would say. I even went on a film festival cruise with Ebert and his new partner, Richard Roeper back in 2003. (Ok, there were a few other people on the cruise—including Tim Blake Nelson and Roger Ebert’s wife.) We got to see Owning Mahoney, Bend It Like Beckham and Spellbound a few months early. (Nelson’s film The Grey Zone was screened too, but I had to put in some beach time). There was a cocktail party where Rog and I spoke about Netflix (he said he usually agreed with their recommendations) and a book signing where I bought a signed book from each reviewer. I have yet to read them. On the cruise Ebert had recently recovered from throat surgery but seemed to be doing really well.

I don’t know when I came to love Roger, but I sure have missed him since his health problems reoccurred this past summer. His editor has been doing an admirable job writing reviews but no one else can be the Movie Answer Man (Ebert’s version of movie “Dear Abby”—both witty and informative.) To fill the void, I have turned to the other man on the cruise: Richard Roeper. Due to my review marathon I have come to appreciate his POV. He has continued the Ebert and Roeper show with guests sitting in for Roger. Anne Thompson from The Hollywood Reporter, Jay Leno-- car enthusiast; Mario Van Peebles, Director ; A.O. Scott New York Times film critic were a few of the stand-ins. My favorites were Peter Sagal- host of NPR’s Wait, Wait….. Don’t Tell Me and Aisha Tyler --actress? (I know she’s going to be in next year’s Balls of Fury). Both of them were smart, had good banter with Roeper but kept their individuality too.

I know it’s arrogant of me to be reviewing the reviewers, but I can see the writing on the wall. Before choosing Richard Roeper, Ebert had guest reviewers on his program too. I hope I’ll get to have years more of The Movie Answer Man; regardless, Richard Roeper seems have an interesting alternative perspective.

Oh yeah, add Pan’s Labyrinth, A Scanner Darkly, Breaking and Entering, The Dead Girl, Sweet Land, Come Early Morning and Balls of Fury to your Netflix queue. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised at least once.

2006-12-18T11:15:00.000-05:00

Home from school

Reese-Santa-Will

Yoda and Trooper
Diane, Lauren, Brooke and Popcorn Crazed Reese

Darth Family

2006-12-18T10:18:00.000-05:00

THREE MONTHS!

OK, I haven’t written in a while. Here’s what’s happened in the last couple of months:

Halloween—Is geekiness hereditary? Will was a clone trooper, Trav was Darth Vader, Reese was Yoda and I was Princess Leia (using my own hair, I might add!). We went to a party at Trav’s dad’s house (as well as trick or treating, of course).

Will turned 9. He had a couple friends from Greenville spend the weekend and a low key party with a few neighborhood kids too.

The election. Had a very jaded statement prepared about the Republicans "allowing" the Dems to win, but I don't want anyone to think I'm cynical.

Will is learning his times tables. He understands the concept—now its time for rote memorization. We’re wearing out the school house rock DVD and walking around spitting out facts and products all the time. I never realized the sevens were so hard! (I used pneumonic devices which apparently only had meaning to me.) In addition to flashcards we also have http://www.multiplication.com/ . Don’t you just love the internet?

Reese is actually a parrot instead of a human. She’s learning her times tables right along with Will.

Beautiful Christmas tree but a mere 7 feet (our house in Greenville had high ceilings and we had a 10’ tree.) We have lots of extra lights and ornaments due to the difference. To compensate we have a circus in our front yard.

Work is picking up. I have inadvertently become a condo specialist but don’t worry; I’ll still help you find a house in Atlanta whenever you want to move here.

Kitten (did you know we had a new kitten?) is hell on paws. He attacks the dog, can jump 6 feet in any direction from complete stand still and he thinks our fake cranberry garland is delicious. (He'll settle for a toilet paper snack in a pinch.)

Diane and I went to a rockin’ concert—The Wiggles! We took Reese, Lauren and Brooke and got caught in a typhoon afterwards. I wanted to throw a pair of tiny panties on the stage, but thought better of it as the time grew near.

We’ve definitely been enjoying the grandparents and hanging out with Di and Jeff. (Reese and Diane’s oldest daughter Brooke look like they could be sisters). I do miss my Greenville neighbors and buddies and the proximity to the mountains.

I know this is dry, but I’ll work on being charming and witty after my Christmas cards are done (cards that I’m trying to complete with a sick two-year-old helping)! Pictures coming soon, too.

2006-09-18T14:16:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh...the bliss of a short attention span!

It’s that time of year, a chill in the air, fresh apples, open windows and lower gas prices (just in time for the mid-term elections).

2006-07-28T20:19:00.000-05:00

We’re in Atlanta! (It’s really Tucker for all intents and purposes, but we have an Atlanta zip). Now that we’re no longer homeless, I’m excited about reacquainting myself with my adopted hometown. I am disappointed that Jeopardy! is only on once a week! (It was on 6X a week in South Cacalacky).

The house is charming though full of boxes and everyone seems to be adjusting well. Reese is as bubbly as ever; Will misses his buddies, but has been to the neighbor’s to play three times already. Since Angel had reduced the chipmunk and mole population of Greenville—she’s thrilled to have freshly stocked hunting grounds. Travis startled two deer in the woods behind our house—I keep waiting for Angel to catch one and leave it on the deck for us.

2006-06-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Moving complaint with lots of hyphens.

No matter the motivation, moving is a bitch. Travis is out of town (on his birthday, no less). My 17-year-old brother-in-law (NICK!) visited from Atlanta to hang-out with my 8-year-old son and to help me pack. Before he left on Wednesday, he helped me unload both attics. My dining room is full of boxes to go through. I’ve managed to peak in them and scatter them around the house (I’m supposed to be going through them, getting rid of 75% and packing the remaining 25% neatly and logically--I would just throw it all out, but I have a tendency to stash birth certificates and savings bonds with 5-year-old junk mail.) Three hours ago, I got a call saying the appraiser will be here tomorrow at 10:00am. Anyone want to come help me put this shit back in the attic?

2006-05-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

As many of you may already know, we’re probably moving to Atlanta this summer. Greenville has a lot going for it—close proximity to mountains, relatively little traffic, a cool downtown, lots of festivals, an unbeatable neighborhood and some good friends (you know who you are!) I do feel like I need to answer some of my perplexed acquaintances as to why I would voluntarily go back to smog and traffic that has doubled since I left -- over ten years ago.

Here are some reasons why:

1. Grandparents—I love my in-laws and they really dig the kids! They actually want to stay with them while we go do something totally non-kid related—go figure.

2. Movies—good ones, not “when they come to DVD” but when they’re released. The two Megaplexes in Greenville play the same sanitized line-up. (I know the Carmike has been reinvented as Camelot, but their line-up only differs from the big guys by one movie. It IS a start.)

3. Small neighborhood schools— The trend in our part of SC is high school-sized malls. Will does go to a shiny new school, but it is also the biggest in the state and already over capacity (1100 kids, give or take). The entire school cannot meet simultaneously. (The holiday program is divided by grades over two evenings.) The largest school we're considering in GA is less than half the size of Mauldin Elementary.

4. Diane—My best friend from high school and college lives near the Mall of Georgia—just think of the possibilities! And I just can’t quit her…

5. Agatha’s Mystery Theatre. www.agathas.com We’ve gone there a couple of times for anniversaries. I’m a giant ham and at Agatha’s I can be myself.

6. A slightly bluer state than South Carolina. (But let's face it how much redder could ya get?)

7. My dad hates Atlanta.

8. Cousins—Reese will have 2 cousins her age to grow up with, plus Diane's two daughters and her neice--all under 3! (Will has to settle for his 16 year-old uncle.)

9. Sorry Dad, just a joke. If you visit me there, I’ll know you really love me!

10. Cinema draft-houses. (See #2 above, plus beer!)

11. Eddie’s Attic plus dozens of other cool live music places I haven’t even heard of!

12. The Georgia Aquarium!! (My mom-in-law is a volunteer there.)

13. Stone Mountain!!!

14. Felini’s!!!!

I do want to join a book club, take dance lessons (and maybe kick-boxing?) I could do those thinks in Greenville but there are no grandparents to spoil the kids while I’m gone!

2006-05-04T21:47:00.000-05:00

“Pants-off / Dance-off”
I stumbled onto this entertainment gem on Fuse TV. It’s kind of like karaoke stripping in front of music videos. There are quite a few gay guys and an inordinate number of dances “dedicated to mom.” It’s a silly as it is addicting; I keep expecting Graham Norton to pop out and expose it as one of his practical jokes ! Here’s a link: http://fuse.tv/upload/pantsoff.php ( I think Dede on 5-04 is representative.) It's better on TV as the videos behind them are real. Don’t judge me until you’ve checked it out.

We went on a cruise in April-- I just need to muster the energy to sum it up. (Perhaps I need to stop watching basic cable...)

2006-03-24T10:44:00.000-05:00

Get ready to Wiggle!

If you can't beat 'em... The Wiggles appeared at Reese's 2nd birthday party last weekend! They do look a bit different in person. Can you believe that Jeff (the purple Wiggle) is 51 years old? And Vietnamese!

Travis (yellow), our neighbor Daryl (blue), Marc (Travis's Dad-- red) and Will (purple) graciously agreed to become Wiggles for the day. Will even fell asleep all the time like his consciousness-challenged counterpart on the show. In case you don’t know her, Reese is the delighted 2-year-old in Travis’s arms.

Marc plays guitar and led the Southern Fried Wiggles in “You are my Sunshine” and then sang a song he wrote for her called “Pea Pie.” Pea Pie (peep-eye?) is Southern vernacular for “Peek-a-boo.” Reese and Marc play it so much it’s her name for him! The song is great—it makes me want to learn to play guitar – again.

2006-02-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

They just don't make them like the Bay-City Rollers anymore.

I hope that someday my children’s entertainment choices will enrich my hokey, middle-aged tastes. I already get to catch-up on children’s lit that I missed growing-up. I really enjoyed reading the Lloyd Alexander series to my son and we’re reading Madeline L’Engle now. The TV I could live without. I didn’t think anything could be more obnoxious than the Japanamation my son enjoys, but now that Reese can voice her opinion, I’m learning otherwise.

I share a home with the world’s youngest groupie. Her first demand upon waking is” Wiggles!” Once we put them on, she’s content to play and carry on with them in the background, but don’t try to change the program or turn it off—they’ll be hell to pay. I know more about Murray, Greg, Anthony and Jeff than I really care to. Most recently we watched a “behind the scenes” feature about their Australian tour. You wouldn’t believe the man-power and infrastructure that goes into such a mind-numbing show. And what huge crowds—I’m surprised that they aren’t throwing bibs on the stage!

My theory on Wiggle popularity is that they are goofy father figures. Captain Feather-Sword? Your guess is as good as mine.
http://www.thewiggles.com.au/index2.html

2006-02-14T10:12:00.000-05:00

Dead-Eyed Dick
If you missed it, The Daily Show devoted its whole first segment on February 13th to Dick Cheney's hunting accident.
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/headlines/index.jhtml
Since Dick believes that semi-automatic weapons are appropriate for hunting, his friend was lucky their quarry was only quail. Perhaps it was something more sinister-- maybe they were hunting Quayle!!

Happy Valentine's Day!
I'm RICH IN LOVE!!! Of course, by the end of the day I'll be poor in a more mundane way. I'm off to get some last minute tokens for my loves. For Will: a lava lamp; Reese: something aerodynamic (she likes to throw); for Trav another wine-barrel chair http://mcleodchairs.com/, unless something else strikes my fancy http://www.newmorninggallerync.com/. If you ever make it to Asheville, you must check out this gallery! (Oh yeah, there's also some big house around there too...)

The chairs are very cool for a sporting event or concert or even to put in a sunroom. I highly recommend getting one (or two-- they fold and stack so nicely). I have the chair now-- maybe I'll get to a concert some time this year :)

2005-12-29T18:03:00.000-05:00

The whole fam damily!

2005-12-29T17:26:00.000-05:00

I know its been a while. I think I've found my Star Wars-- I've been going to the every theatre in town to experience Pride and Prejudice on different screens. Who has time to blog when Mr. Darcy is on a screen in town? (I've actually only seen it 2 1/2 times.)

Christmas was good-- quiet at home with grandparents visiting our kids in turn. Reese has enjoyed alternately tearing the tree apart and lobbing things at it. The above picture is from the farm in North Carolina where we cut our Christmas tree http://www.tylynplantation.com/. You get to go up to the fields in that cool 1950's truck singing carols and drinking hot cider. ( It rained this year so we need to add "huddling under umbrellas" and "sliding down a muddy hill with one-year-old child in arms" to that list of charming activities.) Don't go on Sundays. The tree farm is open, but no restaurant (or any other business for that matter) is open in the nearby town of Cashiers. Thanks to blue laws, you also can't get liquored up and go careening down the icy mountain with a tree strapped to your SUV. (You can avoid this pitfall by researching where to pick up moonshine ahead of time.)

I've also added a profile to http://www.friendster.com -- see if you can find me! If you join, add me as a friend using my yahoo address. I'm under "finding friends" --sorry no female seeking female action. (I must admit, the people in Upstate SC seeking friends look a little scary-- I hope I can fit in.)

Happy New Year!

2005-11-29T12:54:00.000-05:00

Another Critter Story or The Farm of Inappropriate Pet Names

When I was 8 or 9, an outdoor cat used to hunt in the field behind our house. I had convinced myself it was homeless and had begged my mother to let me keep him. Not only did she refuse, but she would laugh every time I mentioned the name I had chosen for my midnight black cat-- Rainbow.

Flash forward to the same farm in Ohio three decades later. During a visit to my parents, my 7-year-old son begs me to keep a raggedy farm cat that had been hanging out and begging for food. Though I try to oblige, the cat is hell incarnate. She's friendly enough when you pour a bowl of kibble, but pet her more than twice or god forbid, pick her up and feel the exquisite agony normally reserved for a mole or bird's last moments.

Undeterred by his mother's pain, my son convinces his grandparents to catch the hellcat and bring her down south when they trek to Florida for the winter. He also chooses the appropriate name for such a beast—Angel. Is it the age or rebellion against his mother that inspired such an inappropriate moniker? (I firmly believe in the separation of church and cat.) Perhaps its positive thinking—a self “fulfeline” prophecy. She has gotten a little better. (She no longer has to be sedated to put flea medicine on her back.)

My son is 8 now and Angel is fluffy and beautiful – a Maine Coon mix according to the vet. She is the first indoor/outdoor cat I’ve ever owned. There are hidden advantages-- she has single-pawedly taken care of the vole population in the three yards adjoining ours, and little surprises (namely in the children’s sandbox). She prefers to leave paw prints on my car instead of my husband’s older truck and can sweet-talk her way in and out of the house 40 times a day. She likes to sleep and play with our dog and hiss at our other cat Chloe (a shy chub who is surprisingly the alpha cat in this instance!) She softened a bit—she now reminds me of her euphemistic epithet only about once a week—when I don’t let her out quickly enough or I pet her one time too many. She'll never be the lover Jasmine was, but she has redefined “angelic” for me.

2005-09-30T14:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Girl!

2005-09-29T21:39:00.000-05:00

I had dinner with five strangers tonight.

I was supposed to meet a friend I used to work with for “girls’ night out.” Arriving about 15 minutes late, I was surprised not to see her in the restaurant. I did notice a table full of women watching me search the place. When I made my second round, they asked if I was looking for Christina. I got to meet her friends from her current job and was quietly pleased that I had been more punctual than her for once. That pleasure would soon turn to guilt when I found out she was home with strep throat (and a sick two-year-old, and sick twin babies.)

Luckily for me, Christina’s buddies were delightful. They shared baby and mommy stories and patiently listened to mine. They shared a lot of gossip over network TV shows. They apparently have TiVo but not HBO (“the OC” is nothing to “Rome,” baby). In comparing some new shows to old ones, Christi, the baby at the table, let slip that people her age didn’t watch Seinfeld (“we were busy ‘going out’ in college, not watching TV”). We gave her a hard time all night. People like to say that women secretly (or sometimes not-so-secretly) hate each other; I felt so at ease with these women, I would never believe that to be true—not that the Japanese beer and rum cake didn’t help…

At home, my husband practiced the “I’ve-been-alone-with-the-kids-all-night-so-you-owe-me” mating ritual:
(it goes like this…)

“How was dinner with the girls… did you have anything to drink?”