J: Emit 2002, Time.
While Gina drank grapefruit I went to a total of five parties, sick to my lungs. Good times, though. In order (I think) of attendance, there was Dad's Boxing Day Party, The Jomsviking Holiday Reunion, Dave & Diane's Christmas Ball, Bill & Marin's New Year's Eve Eve, and Greykell's Palindromic New Year's Eve Party. During the Jomsvikings' party I found that not only does Jägermeister taste like cough medicine, it actually works! Before that even the codeine stuff failed.
On
New Year's Day I went on a two hour plus hike with Booda, through woods
and fields and abandoned roads. We returned home cold, tired, and very
very happy. Later that night Gina and Grant returned, also tired and happy
after a fifteen hour drive. We had a late night dinner. It feels great
to be reunited with Gina! And we're both feeling much better thanks, though
with lingering coughs.
1/9/2 Surprise! - Winter's Really Here
This week we hosted another First Friday Party, which was crowded with many good friends and food. Thanks for coming everybody! Koralleen brought along her new baby Victoria, and Sue brought a picture of her poochy (I forgot his name but he sure was cute). Gina made some vegan chocolate cake, yummy.
On Saturday we visited Mom and David; I fixed some little computer problems and they gave us tea, ale, dinner, and pleasant conversation.
G: After that we got Jenny and Kevin over here and then went to Duncan's surprise 40th birthday party. We weren't early enough to be there when he came home, but yelled "Surprise!" as we walked in the door. Then I went and found him and yelled "Surprise!" right to him. He didn't seem too surprised though. I was surprised that Ronda was there - she's recently started dating a friend of Duncan's and was surprised to find people she knew at the party as well. But that happens a lot to me, it seems to be a College Park area thing. You meet different groups of people, and then later find out the groups are connected by people you know. Everybody knows everybody around here. That's kinda nice. Anyway I had fun at the party talking to people I haven't seen in a while, and dancing with Jenny while John became obsessed with DJ-ing via Morpheus.
J: Here's an extra HMR donated by Eric Zuckerman. It's for Trainspotting, which we have our own HMR for as well. Eric's may be funnier.
TRAINSPOTTING :)
Should have seen sooner;
All through, looked at lead and said,
"Kenobi on smack?!?"
1/16/2 Playing Games (of course)
Gina and I (and a different cast of others) also saw Amélie again this week. Most enjoyable, sweet and funny and touching, even twice around.
Chris & Bruce have been subjecting themselves to once-a-month "Gruelathons". That means walking 35 miles through the New Jersey Pine Barrens in sometimes sub-zero weather, without stopping for a nap or hot meal or anything sensible like that. I've manage to turn down invitations to join them on the next trek, using my almost foolproof excuse: "You guys are nuts." Multi-pitch all-day climbing with these two is great fun (and often adventurous), but I think I have to draw the line at hikes that last two days sans sleep. I'll let you know when they talk me into it...
G: While John was off gallivanting around Delaware, I hung around the house most of the day, then went over to Renee's for a little game night. I picked up Janet and brought her; Petra and Alex were there, too. We played Cranium, which has some fun things about it but almost all of the questions and challenges were much too easy - for this group anyway - and left us dissatisfied. Alex impressed us by guessing drawings and clay formations in their very early stages.
Then
we played a couple of rounds of Shaufenster, and then I brought out this
silly little party game called Squirm. There are two decks of cards - one
that has physical things to do and one that has vocal tricks. You draw
one card from each deck, and have to perform both at the same time. Once
I had to do the twist while opera singing my grocery list. Everyone had
equally ridiculous performances, and hilarity ensued. We ended the evening
with a mostly nonalcoholic game of Wheel of Intoxication. It was fun!
1/23/2 A Short Snow for Leo
Gina and I have the Ping Pong Cold. I give it to her, she spikes it back to me, and so on. The intensity of the cold dwindles the more it volleys back and forth, though. We're mostly finished with that game, I hope.
On Sunday Gina and I attended a rockin' drum jam down at the New Deal, and we forgot to tell some friends we'd be there. Sorry folks! Anyway, we pretty much took over the cafe with our loud, sometimes invigorating rhythms. Deborah treated us to some excellent belly dancing, too.
Meg
birthed another baby! His name's Leo. Here's a picture of the whole Naab
Family -- Daddy Joe, Mommy Meg, Billy Joe, and little Leo. Click on the
picture to see a bigger one.
A final
note and apology regarding our Haiku Movie Reviews: We are slowly converting
pre-2000 reviews to the new emoticon/color system, and in doing so, several
reviews have changed ratings, because the newer ratings system has a finer
resolution (four colors instead of three). This week we re-rated all of
the reviews from 1999. We'll be updating
1998 and 1997 later. My apology has to do with the rating for The
Phantom Menace, which jumped from yellow to red. What the Hell was
I thinking? I'm sorry. The movie really was awful. My review itself remains
unchanged, but the Dark Side is very cunning, and compelled me long, long
ago to actually indicate I liked the sad, sad movie.
1/30/2 Summerish Winter, Droolish Booda
Booda had a rough Tuesday. He was drooling uncontrollably like a trickling faucet, and wobbling a bit when he walked, and just generally looking low and logy. Gina took him to the vet. They poked and prodded him, decided he hadn't been poisoned, and finally announced that he might have had a seizure.
After Gina took him home, Booda continued to drool the rest of the day and into night, which makes us think he was nauseated (as opposed to seizurized), either from a disagreeable food, or from a flu. He's better today, drooling less and playing more.
G:
We found out from Brick
that our Haiku Movie Review page was mentioned on USA Today's website,
on a page called Hip
Clicks (in the LIFE
section), on Friday. By Monday it was gone, and as of this writing, it
hasn't been archived yet, but we suspect it will be soon (we'll link to
the archived
page once
it is up). Under the heading "reel love" it said, "Can't decide what
to see this weekend? Check out these haiku
movie reviews — recent reviews include haikus for Amélie, The
Royal Tenenbaums and Lord of the Rings." Many of you know that I was pretty
excited and proud. We got a lot of hits that day, and a lot of congratulations
from our friends. Warning: We've found many USA Today pages are sometimes
reluctant to load.
2/6/2 Now We Know What "Freak Blizzard" Means
Nothing for me to report regarding the weekend. I went to work, so I had no time for other (good) kinds of tomfoolery.
We experienced some weird weather on Monday. Most of the day was sunny and cool, and then around noon a blizzard hit our area. It lasted about 15 minutes -- blinding horizontal snow, fierce freezing winds, the works -- and then left as rapidly as it hit. The blizzard coincidentally hit both Gina and me while we were outside in separate locations: she was walking Booda and I was walking back to my building from the cafeteria. We both agreed it was an odd, eerie storm, with strange sounding thunder, too.
USA Today online finally archived the Hipclicks page with the mention of our Haiku Movie Reviews on it. Their website is horribly unreliable; pages randomly crash, and they might have discontinued the Hipclicks page anyway. Strange for such a megabuck company to put up such a sketchy site. Actually now that I think of it, their site is a good match for their newspaper. No wonder those geniuses at The Onion seems to have no problem parodying them. The USA Today just oozes material.
G: This weekend I attended a clay teapot workshop (similar to this one), missing the first couple of hours of First Friday to attend the (mandatory for the workshop leader, Malcolm Davis, who loves food) pot luck and slide show. After the food we heard about Malcolm's interesting life, then there was a slide presentation of his pottery. Saturday and Sunday there were demonstrations and teapot making. I participated in a cool exercise - everyone made several components of teapots (bodies, spouts, lids), and then everyone put teapots together from random components that they didn't make. The one I put together came out really cute, but alas, we weren't making them for keeps and it is destined for the slop bucket. Since then I threw more teapot components that are still waiting for me to put them together.
2/13/2 Programming for Fun and Profit
Not
much else is going on. I'm enjoying programming a nifty machine at work,
a sphere aperture mapper. It's a big contraption that'll eventually characterize
the (non)uniformity of a light source, by rastering across the aperture.
So you know nothing's really going on this week if I start talking about
work. Here, look at some pretty pictures.
What's that? What's a pirate feast? Well it's this annual party that Chort throws at the Old Mill in Adelphi. Everyone dresses up as pirates. There is much eating, singing, drinking, debauchery, and bellydancing. You know, the usual pirate stuff.
Not that? Oh, you want to know about the Drum Jam! That's the monthly gig we throw at the New Deal Cafe, or sometimes we take it to the woods if it's nice outside. Lots of didjing, drumming, and of course bellydancing. This time I played my dij into a microphone, so customers could actually hear it while the drums played.
Oh,
the Vagina Party! That's what you want to hear about. Well,
Amethyst
(and Dorian) saw this one-person
show called the Vagina Monologues
and liked it so much that she decided to host a party and show a tape of
the show from HBO. She didn't pull any punches; the doorway from their
foyer was decorated with curtains to suggest a large vagina. Inside the
livingwomb the party featured hors d'oeuvres shaped like vaginas. Some
of the partygoers even brought their own vaginas, under their clothes.
The show was quite good, funny at times, horrifying at others, but very
instructive and worthwhile for me, as a higher order primate who would
like to know more about his fellow primates. We enjoyed the rest of the
party as well.
Other
than that, we both took sick again, along with half the neighborhood it
seems. Could have to do with this roller coaster weather in our area --
20 degrees one day, 70 the next. I think the worst of my bout is over;
I'm hoping to get some sleep tonight.
J:
*Kaff* *Kaff*
On Sunday I went down to the studio again to help out with our weekly pottery sale (1 to 4pm in the Greenbelt Community Center). That evening we went over to Trog and Maren's house for Maren's Birthday. It was a very nice gathering which we left a little early to go over to Jill's house to watch Six Feet Under (more links) and eat her homemade pie.
J: I spent a good chunk of Sunday wandering through our woods with Booda, and later with Gina too. It rained most of the day before, so the forest was clean smelling and prettier than usual. We picked over two pounds of fresh oyster mushrooms, and found some witch's butter (translucent shiny brain-jelly-like bright yellow mushrooms). On Monday I cooked my own version of vegan cream chipped mushrooms on toast. Then tonight Gina outdid me with her Thai noodle coconut/peanut butter/curry dish, featuring shitake mushrooms (found on our other eats page). Yum!
Tuesday
the Looneys' had a gaming day at the New Deal Cafe, so I went to help out
and teach games to people. Turned out to be mostly little people, but Margit's
daughter Alex brought a couple friends who weren't so little (14 years
old or so). I taught them how to play Gnostica,
and in the midst of a game I came up with a new strategy. It worked, too!
But now I'm wondering if it'll work against extremely skilled opponents.
3/13/2 Sold Out, Buying a House, and Not Buying the Farm
The next morning, I got up very early to go to MCI Center to try to be among the first to buy tickets to the Paul McCartney concert, and sweetie John got up to come with me, even tho he wasn't going to the concert. I had decided, after much internal debate, that I would indeed buy the most expensive seat they offered, even tho I couldn't find anyone else who would be so crazy as to join me. I was also buying the least expensive seats for my brother, his girlfriend, Charles, and Lisa.
We ran into some Greenbelters there, who we made an agreement with before we got our "line numbers" (to get in line for ticketmaster) that whoever was closest to the front of the line would buy all the tickets. Well, one of them got number 16, our best was 65. Even though there was a limit, we had it all worked out. They were going to buy 4 tix of the best seats (and some others for other folks), two of them for me and John - who decided to go at the last minute. And I was going to buy the 4 "cheap" tix with another one of their lottery numbers - 43. We figured we were good as gold with some of the best seats in the house.
I think the show sold out in about 20 minutes. Matt, the guy with the 16, even tho he was one of the first in line, wasn't able to get the high priced awesome seats I thought they would happily take my money for. He couldn't even get the second best seats. We all ended up with tix in the third best category.
The rest were sold out already! Of course Ticketmaster was selling tix over the phone at the same time. I don't think I would have been able to buy any tickets with number 65. I felt bad for people behind me in line. I also realize I was probably lucky to get tickets *at all,* but I had this dream of being close enough to Paul to actually see him. The whole thing was so flabbergasting, it took me a couple of days to get over it.
Anyway, if you want to see where we'll be sitting, Ginohn's seats are in section 107.
Here is the chart: http://www.mcicenter.com/mci_subpages/endstagemap.jpg
After all that, we went home and I went off to a baby shower for a Greenbelt Pottery colleague of mine. It was a lovely party, and I had some fun with Jill, the hostess, injecting a tiny bit of cynicism into the affair. When I got home John was gone off to Delaware to play games, so I went to Deb and Eryq's place to practice making stained glass pieces. First I stopped off at the glass store where I bought a really neato piece of glass to use. You'll just have to wait to see it.
Sunday
we relaxed around the house until it was time for a meeting with the folks
who own the GHI townhouse we are interested in buying. We agreed to their
price, and should be signing contracts soon!
If
you have ever been to our current house, you know it is pretty small, with
a nice yard - and right on the woods and a large, lovely open area. Our
next place is much bigger, with a great yard that backs to a wooded area
(which backs to BARC sheep fields), and is pretty close to the woods. We'll
miss being right on the woods, and all the open space here, but I think
we will be pretty happy there. Closing should be around the first of May.
J: My friend Khaled sent me an email:
John, why do I get the awful feeling, everytime I visit your website, that sooner than I'd like, I'll be discussing mushrooms at your funeral? Ignorance?I realized that Khaled may not be the only one who's worried, so here is my reply, edited ever so slightly. Some names were changed because I spelled them completely wrong the first time.Khaled
I keep forgetting that I'm scaring people. Let me try to comfort you. In the words of Johnny from Mad Max, "I know what I'm doing."Hey! Good news -- the couple who ate Death Caps survived! Here's to modern medicine!
I have six books and a microscope. I obtain multiple cross-references and spore prints to identify species, and usually identify them and watch them grow and wither a few times. I don't eat anything unless I am 100% sure I know what species it is, and that it is edible. I have talked extensively with a few good friends who have hunted and grown mushrooms, including Maren (Trog's wife) and her sister Linnea, who is a professor of mycology. All of these people were enthusiastic when I told them what I was doing, and none of them balked at my methods. Even if I was picking and eating randomly, which I'm not, my chances of killing myself would be about 1 in 400 (each meal). I've been studying mushrooms for a couple years, and feel that my chances are better than that, more like one in 400 million, which is better than motorcycling, skiing, or driving a car. And we won't even touch the tobacco issue.
I appreciate the article you sent from Berkeley, about the "mushroom experts" who ate a whole pot of Death Caps. My immediate suspicion after reading it was that the two people must have been Asian, because no real mushroom expert mistakes a Death Cap for an edible mushroom. Many Asians, however, poison themselves with Death Caps because there is a similar looking common edible species in Asia, that does not grow here. Likewise, the Death Cap does not grow in Asia.
[Note: couldn't find the article, but this one refers to the same people.]
The article said that the victims were from "out of town." In a follow-up article, an interviewed hospital employee said that they were "not from around here" and that this mushroom did not grow in "their part of the world." No hard evidence there, but I still wish that journalists would give people more information and less propaganda. Both articles finished by saying that mushroom hunting is extremely dangerous, and that nobody should do it. Instead, they should warn Asians (and other out of towners who are from countries where mushrooming is practically as common as lawn mowing is here)
that there are deadly poisonous look-alikes.If you can track down their country of origin, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's an Asian one. I hope they didn't die, but if they did, this year's U.S. death toll for mushroom eaters would be higher than the previous five years, where the death toll was zero or one person each year.
Thanks for your concern, and I'll be sure to continue to be very cautious.
--
john
Well, that about drove me crazy all day, after all I went through, mentally anyway. I was so unhealthily obsessed that John wrote this parody of "Yesterday":
Concert Day, Paul McCartney seems so far awayThe next day, out of curiosity, I decided to check out ticketmaster's website. I went to their list of Paul McCartney concerts. I figured once you started searching for tickets it would indicate that they were sold out. But all the shows said tickets were "on sale now." I started looking for a single seat for the second show. To my surprise, there were seats available! I still thought one could go through all sorts of rigmarole before finding out that, in actuality, it was sold out. Anyway, I looked at the best seats at all prices, but didn't see anything worth my while or money, compared to what I already had.
For all my trouble I should see him play
Six feet away, at my cafeSuddenly, there's a mortgage hanging over me
I'm so broke and I can barely see
McCartney on that big TVWhy we had to go to the show, I couldn't say
Ten bucks for each song, selling stronger on ebayConcert day -- scalping's such an easy game to play
I could make some cash to hide away
But I believe in Concert Day
Then I decided to check the first show, even though I knew THAT was sold out. Search one ticket, best possible seat. I couldn't believe it was true - but there was a ticket available on the floor - near the back of one of the front sections! I tried to call John to see what I should do. Should I buy it, even though I already have a seat to this show? I didn't get a hold of him, but I couldn't hesitate. I bought it. I don't think I will really believe it until the ticket gets here. I will be close enough to Paul to actually see him. I am really happy.
Before all that nonsense, on Saturday, we joined a slew of people who were helping Charles and Lisa move, after they had packed up most of their belongings and loaded them on their big red bus. We drove over to their new house, and it was quite lovely. They had done a lot of work on it, and so had the contractors who had it before them, so it was all new looking with nice pastel walls and wallpaper and a lavender/purple kitchen and a big basement and a cool attic room, with a pretty big yard that backs to some fields.
Then on Sunday was Cooperdad's annual St. Patty's Day party. Kit, Laura, and Katarina came up for it, so all the Cooper kids except Karl, Eric, and Fwanky were there. All but one of Cooperdad's grand kids were there, too. So it was a wild party, with lots of Irish songs sung near the end.
Tonight
we went over to what will be our new place and signed contracts! The closing
date is still flexible but it should be around May 1st. Yay!
Renee had people over to her house on Sunday night for some Oscar bashing, something I had no real desire to attend, but I heard she had pecan sandy shortbread cookies (my favorite! Thanks Renee), so I decided to go. I didn't see much of the Oscars though, because I sat around the corner playing games with Alex (Margit's daughter), Kory, and sometimes Sam. From that vantage point I was out of line-of-sight from the TV, but still heard enough to heckle from a safe distance. I managed to sneak a peek at the highlight of the ceremony: that's right, Cirque du Soliel made a grand appearance. Here are our own awards:
THE 2002 HAIKU MOVIE AWARDS :)Our house loan application is in the works, being chewed up by a mortgage breaker and awaiting the blessing from some almighty bureaucrat. We're still waiting for Jennifer to sign a contract on our place, but in general everything is moving along toward an expected move to the next old house in May.
From Mulholland Drive,
best actress: Naomi Watts.
That's it. No more left.
Since
I worked on Saturday and Sunday, I played hooky from part of work on Monday.
Gina and I met Dale in DC to see this year's fabulous display of Japanese
cherry blossom trees. We also had great fun walking and climbing through
The F.D.R. memorial, which has excellent rock walls, water falls, and fountains.
Great traverses and short bouldering problems. Sometimes I wonder why architects
design such climbable structures. They're so tempting; they might as well
put signs on them (e.g., "Hey, look at all these bricks that jut out, and
the holes in the outside wall. You think these were put here for looks?
Get climbing!"). For veteran buildering aficionados like myself, we might
as well be junkies walking past a big bag of smack that somebody just happened
to leave on the sidewalk. Sure it might be dangerous, but it's a bag
of smack! Anyhow. Where was I? Oh, yeah, those cherry trees -- very
pretty. We took some pictures
of them, too.
Saturday night Dorian and Amethyst had a birthday party at their place. It was an excellent party that I wasn't quite awake enough to enjoy as much as I could have. Excellent food, and tasty fresh brewed beer from Franklin's (a new local brewery/restaurant where Jenny will buy me a beer soon because I won a bet with her but that's another story). There was a fire outside, and music inside. We jammed a bit with drums and didj, and towards the end of the evening Izolda played some great Irish tunes on her violin, and many people danced jigs together.
My
back feels much better now, and I'm back to my regular bicycle rides to
work. Yesterday I was absolutely soaked riding home because I forgot to
check the weather report -- wind and rain. Even that was better than driving
a car.
We set a real date for closing on the next house - April 30th. Well, OK, the date's still "penciled in" but it's one that all parties agree on.
We also tried Quorn! Here's a little more about it in an answer to a friend's email from England:
>they have Quorn in the US now?It has just started the invasion; not too many people know about it here. I'm amused that it is called a "mushroom" based product. It's made from a fermented fungus, with the final product being a form of single cell protein, processed further to take out nucleic acids (I wonder how do they do that?) and then flavored and formed into nifty little nuggets (in this case) that sort of chew like fish sticks and taste a little like peppery chicken. I hear it's pretty popular over your way.
G: The second concert in DC is going on right now. Sigh, I wish I could be there. Here is what I wrote to the Paul McCartney website, where they ask you to send in reviews of the concert:
It was even better than I thought it would be. I've waited almost my whole life to see Paul, and it was worth the wait. My seat was pretty good, I was close enough to see his face, and on the floor so I could take a walk now and then to get closer. Paul, you looked so sweet, so nice, I wish I could hug you. You sang so beautifully, I was amazed. And you picked a fabulous set list. Thank you so much for your music. I wish I could give something back (besides the loads of dough I spent). Lovies, GinaSince we didn't end up selling our extra ticket, we decided to treat Andy, since I thought he would appreciate it the most - and I think I was right. He and John liked their seats. I don't think I would have been happy where they were - on the floor, I was able to take a stroll every now and then up the aisle to get 6 or so rows from the stage, and get a good look at Paul. My neighbors at my seat (whom I introduced myself to as soon as I got there, so I could have some friends to enjoy it with, and warn them that I might be a little crazy) would ask if Paul saw me, and joke about me catching his eye and getting rid of his fiancee. I had to tell them no, he never looked at me, and besides, I'd promised my husband that I wouldn't leave him for Paul.
Unfortunately for my bother Grant, his girlfriend Lynn, and Charles and Lisa, their seats pretty much sucked, although Grant says he really enjoyed it anyway. (I haven't heard from Charles and Lisa.) They were way to the side and really high up in the nosebleed section, and couldn't really see the screens or Paul very well, and sometimes not at all. But Grant had binoculars and amused himself by watching me from time to time - when Paul first came out he saw me covering my mouth in awe, and most of the rest of the time jumping up and down. I have always loved Paul, and now I do even more. He was just utterly amazing. Here is the set list if you are interested. And here's a bunch of attendee reviews that say more of what I think and feel.
To
top it off, John bought me a fabulous concert shirt. They had a very wide
variety of shirts and other merchandise. The T-shirts started at $35! I
wasn't going to buy one at first, we'd spent enough money as it was. Then
John handed me $40 and told me to go ahead and get one. I was going to
buy this cool brightly colored psychedelic design of Paul's head and a
car on black T-shirt, but then John handed me another $40 for the REALLY
COOL long sleeve. It was pretty ridiculous, but it is high quality, thick
cotton, and super groovy. You must check it out!
J: In addition to going to a concert, Gina and I played in one too! I forgot about it till the last minute, but we were invited to play in a gig as part of Drake's Mojo, a kind of staged drum jam hosted by Drake, who plays a stunning array of gongs, bells, cymbals, and drums. I was placed front and center with my dijeridu on the stage down at our town center, and Gina and about six other drummers sat right and left of me. We were all on microphones, and Jeff played sound engineer. I'm sure we were heard well outside of the square. Dorian was very good at pretending we were a real band; he'd lean into the mic before one of our many purely improvised pieces and say something like, "This is the first time we've played this piece outside of rehearsal. It's called 'Vanilla Chai'." For some reason, I had so much fun playing that I didn't succumb to any stage fright. We actually received applause! I heard that there were people asking for CDs of our songs. A guy came up to me while we were dismantling for the next band. He shook my hand and said, "Thanks, you sounded great."
After playing we listened to another improvisational band that played real, toy, and constructed instruments. They had a more cacaphonous sound than Drake's Mojo, but every now and then I found myself swimming happily in their industrial jam. Then we watched a bit of the GAC Reflex Improv acting group as they played improv games in front of the audience. After that we saw Izolda sing and play violin, guitar, and indian flute. She didn't need to improv, like the rest of us. She had a set list and sang originals and covers, and sounded great. Other bands played after Izolda but we missed them; we were pretty wiped out by then and had to get home.
Our house is on its way to settlement! The buyer signed a contract, and we targetted the end of May for our settlement date. Meanwhile we go to settlement for our new house this coming Tuesday. I'm pretty nervous about moving and especially about getting our old place shipshape for the next owner.
I just
can't keep up with our agenda file, so I'm tossing it. Sorry folks.
We did other things this week too, but we're too worn out to write about 'em. Sorry.
Here,
look at some pictures of my Brother's kites
!
We
met a few of our courtside neighbors, who, like many Greenbelters, show
great variety (I love variety!). Among the assortment, there's a bi-racial
couple, an old grizzly guy with really long hair, and (perhaps most interesting)
Joe and Renada, who practice primitive
technology as a hobby. They've already invited us to a large hidden
fire hut in the woods! Joe has worked for Tom
Brown , the author of a nice autobiography I once read called Tracker
.
5/15/2 Living in the Big House!
J: Well, it's official: moving sucks. Luckily we had many friends help us move the big stuff and plenty other junk. Thanks, everybody! Mango and Booda are quickly acclimating to the new house, which is beautiful, by the by.Big thanks to my three best moving heroes: Constantia, who packed the entire kitchen and wrote a paragraph on each box; Craig, who brought his pickup truck and single-handedly carried big things, like couches, to and from it; and Todd, who didn't need a truck, but brought a hand truck anyway. Which reminds me Todd, we still have your hand truck.
Shortly
after moving 98% of our things into the new place, we were resting around
our picnic table (also moved) and chatting with Maugorn, Stacy, and Kevin.
I glanced up at a huge colorful balloon moving just above the treetops
just behind our yard and looked down again at whomever was talking -- then
performed a classic double take, and stammered until I managed to say "A,
uh, balloon!" Everybody turned to wave at the aeronauts, who were perilously
close to smashing into trees. They flared the flames and continued quickly
toward the sheep fields. I grabbed a six-pack of Guinness and Booda and
headed toward the fields, too, just in case they crashed
landed there. But they didn't! Probably after seeing the multiple fences
and cows they'd run into at about twenty miles per hour, they punched the
propane and headed out toward Somewhere Else.
G:
We can't thank those who came by to help enough. Thank you so much everybody!
By the time we quit, I was so happy and amazed by all that got done. Unfortunately,
by Saturday evening I wasn't feeling well, and I've been majorly slowed
by a mild cold ever since. I tire quickly which has been quite annoying
with all the work there is to do. But I've managed to do some cleaning
at the old place. It was incredibly dirty, which I am hoping to avoid with
the new place. The furniture is much more spread out so hopefully is easier
to clean around.
Last Saturday night we went to a late night party in our woods -- lots of friends, doggies, drinks, a little fire, and smores! We stayed until after three AM.
On Sunday we went to a cookout at Thom's and Kathy's. Thom is buying a tank. It's called a British Ferret . I don't think his yard is big enough, even for a little tank.
Booda
hasn't escaped in a week! Woo hoo!
6/12/2 Just Dazed from the Haze
I started out yesterday with some sinus problems. I took one of a coworker's sinus pills, and almost immediately dove into a crazy head trip. Once I recovered enough to drive home from work at ~15:00, I fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up much until ~18:00, sweating and thirsty. But the good news is that my sinuses cleared up! Hell of a trade-off, though. Say no to drugs.
On Friday our housewarming party at our new place went off without a hitch! The party eventually branched into four sub-parties: one outside around the picnic table, one inside around the food and drinks, one in the game room upstairs, and another in the mufraj (that's the pillowed section of our bedroom). It felt so goood to have a crowd of people at our house without feeling crowded.
We
just came back from a little late night bicycle ride around our town! For
the first time in three days, I felt cool outside.
6/19/2 Ginohn Split in Two :(
John also hasn't sent me a little write up of what he hs been up to, since his computer time is limited, but I know that he has been working hard, having lots of trouble with it (which is typical of these trips), and doing the town with John Marketon at night. He plans on seeing Khaled and his wife Suzy (tonight?) and maybe getting in touch with some other friends in the area too.
I haven't
been up to anything special, mostly wasting my time. I sleep late, take
long walks with Booda, and wonder what I will have for lunch. I did finally
get the last things out of the outside closet at the old house, and prepared
the yard for the inspection that we have to pass before closing at the
end of the month. So, I think I'm all done with the old place, unless the
inspector finds more for me to do.
The old place passed inspection, so we're cleared to close this Friday! So, I've been busy having fun. Besides Dale's party on Friday, on Saturday I went shopping and had lunch in Rockville with Izolda, and that night I went to Jenny's. She had made a dish of brown rice mixed with tofu, mint, cilantro, lime juice, cucumbers, and raw red onions. It didn't look like something I would like, but I did. She didn't, didn't like the mint and it wasn't spicy enough (at all really. She put in some peppers but we couldn't taste them). After eating we walked downtown, watched a street performer for quite a while, a fiddler doing mostly Irish stuff with another guy accompanying him on guitar or drum or spoons. Very enjoyable. We took a free bus back to the metro and walked back to her place. I was really tired so I went home.
After going to bed, with Booda up there with me, Mango started going after something in the bedroom. Booda got very excited and jumped off the bed to help her. They were concentrating on this one spot between boxes and shelves... every once in a while I would hear a little squeak. I had to tell Booda not to dig on the rug. I looked for it but didn't see anything. I moved stuff around but didn't see anything. So I went back to bed. I didn't sleep well. Then Booda woke me up before 10 trying to get at it again. This time behind the armoire. This time I could see it; a chipmunk.
I wasn't sure how I was going to ever get him, because it was right next to the closet - if he went in there I'd never get him. Plus Booda was all in the way. So I blocked off the closet with some boxes, took all the stuff off the armoire and the drawers out. I started to move it. I saw the little guy run straight under the bed, Booda didn't see him. While Booda was still trying to get behind the armoire, I looked for where the chipmunk went. I was thrilled to see he'd gone in the bathroom! I ran in there and closed the door. Small space, no where to hide, no dog or cat bothering me.
So
he ran around and I tried to catch him with a towel. Every time I got it
over him and tried to grab he slithered out. He climbed the plunger handle
and got himself in the tub. Still couldn't get a hold of him so I went
to get the plastic cage. As I was trying to get him in it he crawled up
my robe. He didn't seem afraid of me, just of being held. I was afraid
he'd bite me if I grabbed him with my bare hands, even though it seemed
like I could have got him that way, he wasn't afraid of my hands. He even
sniffed me. I stayed calm as he got to my shoulder. From there he jumped
to the towel rack, then on to the things on the hook on the door. As I
tried to get him to fall into the cage, he climbed the textured wall to
the ceiling and then fell to the floor.
He
did a little ouchy thing - I just can't describe it. He was calmer (stunned?)
after that. I kept trying to get him to go into the cage. He was hiding
behind the toilet, looking at me. He let me pet him, then he let me pick
him up and put him in the cage, where he started being frantic again. I
had to show Booda and Mango that I had him and was putting him outside,
else Booda would have never given up trying to get behind the armoire.
I took the cage out and they came with me. I put it over the fence open on it's side, but the little guy wouldn't get out. I thought he'd figure it out eventually, but then, duh, Mango jumped over the fence. Through the fence I turned the cage lid down so she couldn't get him, then I went over the damn fence in my bathrobe. I dumped the little guy on a big log. He stayed where he was until Mango started looking for him again. Neither of them were going very fast but he got to a tree and went up. I don't know if he was full grown or an adolescent but he sure was beautiful.
Today,
I went to visit the Naabs; and Joe, Billy, Booda and I went to a secret
swimming hole. It was just perfect for it, a little breeze and not too
hot, the water warm up top with coolness lower, not many bugs. I'd been
hankerin' for a non-chlorinated swim so this was just wonderful. Booda
had a great time chasing frogs. He didn't want to leave. Joe was constantly
nibbled on by the little fish, who mostly left me alone but I was moving
around a lot more than he. When Billy woke up Joe eventually got him in
the water too and he loved it.
I accomplished three modest objectives -- I attended Dr. Reiner Knizia's lecture on game design (he's a nice guy and well spoken, too); played Go with Ryan McGuire (he crushed me); and played a few games of Gnostica, one of which was a tournament game (crushed again).
I also refereed a large Icehouse tournament, played an epic game of Happy fun die, and put forth a possibly successful (trying hard not to count my chickens here) attempt to sell one of my game designs to another honest-to-goodness game company. Now that I've passed through their seventh circle I have to get my ass in gear and send them a cheap mockup of my design.
In general I had a great time and saw several friends and fans I hadn't seen since last Origins. Mike Sugarbaker, of ogrecave, was especially entertaining this year -- his timing, for some reason, was impeccable, and we had a few fascinating conversations as well as many funny ones. One of my favorite moments: while I sat very seriously playing a seriously frustrating game of Go (BTW Go is a serious game of territorial conquest which presents the players with complex and very serious patterns of stones), Mike quietly watched a few turns over my shoulder, and then enthusiastically announced, "I see a bunny!"
Some interesting games I ran into at Origins were De Profundis (a pure role-playing game if ever I saw one), ElchFest (we call it Moose Quest) and a two player Stratego-on-steroids game by Knizia called Lord of The Rings - The Confrontation (Now I know how Gnostica players feel when they're learning the game).
A couple
weeks ago I went to California on Business, and managed to see several
friends in my copious spare time. Khaled and Suzy fed me amazing brunches
and Khaled took me on a scary motorcycle ride through some fog-filled mountains,
and also to a party where I taught everyone Werewolf.
Marlene and Rash took me to the Stanford Theater and we watched a 3+ hour
silent movie called Intolerance, with a real live organ providing the soundtrack.
I also visited Eric and Beth during their game night (Sugarbaker was there
too), who have a very nice house -- with a lemon tree!. Beth gave me whiskey
and beat me at Zendo.
I won once too. We're a good Zendo match, Beth and I. I also met a slew
of new people, all interesting in their own ways, of course. Thanks for
making my trip an enjoyable one, everybody!
7/17/2 Frankenmango
J: I spent a good couple hours at the kitty hospital with Mango tonight. I'm tired and have a cold. Lots of cool stuff happened this week. Here, have some bullets:
We
threw a party. It landed well.Later, we decided to go down to the New Deal Cafe for dinner and to see Big Blow And The Bushwhackers. We ordered food then sat down next to Drake to find that he had his drum with him and would be accompanying the band a bit. He didn't play very loudly, but since we were sitting next to him we could hear him and he sounded really good. Dorian, Ronda, Paul, Susan, Greg, and Elena all showed up there as the night wore on, and once people found out it was my birthday, I got lots of "Happy Birthday!"s, Ronda told John to make me a crown and half of us ended up with newspaper hats on, the band sang Happy Birthday to me and the whole place joined in, and Dorian bought a slice of cake for a bunch of us to share (I'd already had a slice to myself). Ronda's birthday was coming up so we made a point of being celebratory and dancing around. The Bushwackers played Ana Ng, and it was fun to hear them do a song I knew (I sang along). The evening put me in a good mood.
When the cafe was closing, I found out that some people were going for a late night bike ride, and that sounded like fun. Dorian, Ronda, Paul, and Susan came by the house and Rich and I joined them. We rode down Research to Beaver Dam Rd., which is closed to through traffic so we had it to ourselves. Not far into the ride, Dorian and Paul pointed out a mysterious light off in the woods. At first we were all certain there was someone there with the light, perhaps an entomologist collecting bugs. But Dorian and Paul preferred to have a spooky interpretation (goat man, anyone?) and we spent a while looking at it, speculating, and getting bit by mosquitos. We rode off for a long way, past Soil Conservation Rd., before we turned back. When we got back to where the light was, we started in again with looking and speculating, and found a trail that went that way, and then finally Rich just started trudging down it. We all followed and found it to be an unmanned mosquito trap. Oh, well. It was a nice ride and I got home around 1 am.
J:
We finally received rain! Woo hoo! Just in time to feed the next influx
of mushrooms. Speaking of which, We've stumbled on some nice batches of
cauliflower mushrooms, or "brains" as I like to call them, because they
look a helluva lot like big (and little) brains growing out of the ground,
when they are fairly young. Later on they develop a mutated Elizabethan
collar appearance. Absolutely deelish, too.
G: What a long fun week we've had! There is way too much to report here, John, I'm thinking of just giving good captions for the pictures. Each picture can inspire a short paragraph of related fun.
J:
[A few days later] Alright, it's not exactly tomorrow, but at least they're
uploaded. Now if I could only get to the rest of the site before next
Wednesday...
J: I'm experimenting with my self. I've quit caffeine and alcohol, to see if my allergic symptoms (runny nose, itchy eyes) decrease in strength. So far it seems to be working; whether it's because of no caffeine, no alcohol, or something else like the weather, I dunno yet, but I feel much clearer and experience fewer sneezing attacks. So the experiment will continue for a few more months, I suppose. To compensate for the loss of dopamine in my head, I'm riding my bicycle again. I love my bike.
Hints
of angel wing mushrooms in the woods, but I fear we'll need a good steady
rain before we can harvest anything substantial.
G: An old college friend, Sabrina Weld, sent me an email. Seems she finally found her name on the web when she googled herself - it was where I posted it on the Wunderland Milk Carton Page. I'm so glad we found each other after all these years!
When Lori and I went to IKEA (ventured down to Woodbridge, hadn't ever been to that one), she had a similar experience to the one I had when I was shopping for some furniture for our new place: They have an amazing array of stuff, but nothing fitting the dimensions or descriptions of what she was looking for. The one thing in their catalog that she knew she wanted was out of stock! So, we both ended up just picking up a few small things.
On the weekend we wore ourselves out. Saturday we went to my brother Bill's wife Dee's Parents' house (figure that one out) for a family pool party. That was hilariously enjoyable; we ended up playing the "compulsory diving" game of the diving board, which consists of lining up and imitating the dive of the person who just went before you. We came up with a lot of funny new dives, like "Jackie Chan," "Tumbling Cannonball," and "Ow! My Back Hurts!" By the end of the party I had what looked like a sunburn, but really it was the result of too many flops.
That evening we went to a going away party for a neighbor, Kristen, who is going to Ireland to attend graduate school. There was lots of good food and margaritas and live music, but we could only stay till 1:00 or so before we wore out.
The next day we drove to Carderock and climbed a couple routes with our friends Leah and Gary, and another guy we met on the rocks named Frank. Every time we go climbing we say, "That was fun; we should climb more often," and then we don't. We really should though, it's one of those activities where you can talk as you're doing it, and still get plenty of exercise and fresh air.
Monday night we were driving back from the movies with Kory. I went the wrong way on Route 100, east instead of west. We saw signs that said "Gibson Island" was in the direction we were going, so, being the curious people we are, we decided to find out all we could about this Gibson Island by going there. Roughly ten miles later, the road had narrowed from a multi-lane highway to a small road, and ended at a little guard house. Gibson Island turns out to be a gated community. When I asked the guard why there were signs over ten miles away pointing to an inaccessible island, he responded that the people who live on Gibson Island pay more taxes than any county in Maryland. Interesting answer. So now we have a new goal: Infiltrate the island by hook or by crook, wearing pirate outfits. Further research showed us Gibson Island is a little over one square mile, and that they have coastal submerged vegetation. Here's one of Gina's top secret messages to us:
The only other important item to report this week that I can think of is the spider incident. The other night I sat down on the sofa, put my glass of water on a nearby small table, and started to read a magazine. I felt a tickle, looked down and saw a spider on my arm. The spider left my arm and started making its way across a thread. I watched and wondered what the other end of the webbing was connected to. Yep, the spider was building its web between my arm and my glass of water! Next week I'll try to grow some moss on my other arm. Sheez, I'm getting old.Gibson Island Historical Society
Gibson Island, MD 21056
(410) 437-5270Maybe we can find out more from them.
Seems to be a tiny community, pop. 355 or so.
The bastards.
g
J:
Ah, the Labor Day Weekend -- that extra big weekend where we celebrate
work... by not working. Excellent holiday, isn't it? You'd think
that whoever invented a holiday called Labor Day had no humor, but look
underneath the bland exterior. It's definitely there: subtle, a little
cynical, and ready for a few chuckles. I hope you enjoyed not working during
Labor Day.
This weekend while Gina finished up a rather intensive ceramics workshop, I bummed around, went on long walks with Booda, and read some great stories from Theodore Sturgeon's A Touch of Strange. On Sunday, I saw Peter Tork's band, Shoe Suede Blues, play good rhythm and blues at our community center. That night Gina and I attended yet another family gathering at my bro' Bill's place, this time to see bro' Kit, Laura, and their daughter Katerina. On Monday we took Booda to see our town's parade, then later we played drums and dijeridoo outside the Woodland Committee's booth at the Greenbelt fair.
On Monday night I had a dream. I was in some woods just outside the back yard of a white house with a large picture window. It was dark out, with dim moonlight, and there were about five cats there, all different. One looked like a miniature leopard. I was petting them and watching them with some other guy, who was sitting on the ground and not saying much while the cats crawled around. Then I realized Gina wasn't there, that she was in the house. I walked up hill and entered the house; I saw Gina in various rooms, looking distraught, worried, scared. Then she was in a bed, with the covers pulled up to her neck. She looked afraid and weak, so I said, "What's wrong?" She shivered and said, "I'm so cold!" "What can I do?" I asked, and she only whispered, "Help me!" I leaned up close to her and said, "I'll try."
Then I woke up. Gina was asleep beside me, obviously having a nightmare, making whimpering noises and slight, jerky movements. I gently woke her up with kisses.
G: I had a nightmare the other night. I was walking around a house with John, and even though it looked like my parent's old house (the one I grew up in), it was our new place. I was getting very bad feelings from the house, like there was an evil presence, and I was remembering that our old place was like that too. We were in the kitchen, I was telling John how I was getting the chills from it. He led me to bed (in what would be my brother's old room), and it was pretty dark. But as I looked around from bed, I could sorta see Booda, but next to him, on a clothes covered clothes hamper, I could also see two of our cat Mango, sitting identically (with their tails out in front of them, as if to clean the belly, but looking over toward Booda), and I knew that wasn't right. I looked the other way and saw my sister, maybe dressed all in black, facing away from my side of the bed and looking up and out a window. That didn't seem right either. I kept asking John to take care of me or help me or something. Then I woke up, making that scared-when-I'm-waking-up sound, to John kissing me...
Thursday
through Sunday I attended an intense wheel throwing (clay) workshop,
where the techniques and methods are pretty different from what I normally
do. I've been trying to practice ever since, and I may just take another
class from the same teacher, Joyce
Michaud, at Hood College next week - another four days, building on
the first workshop. I don't know if I will survive, I was pretty exhausted
by the end of this one, and I didn't even have to drive anywhere, since
it was right here at the Greenbelt Community Center. But I think I just
might give it a shot.
9/11/2
Puffballs, Jomsvikings, and Chicken Shrooms!
J:
Giant Puffball season came and went this week; if you weren't quick enough
they'd grow and puff while your back was turned. They grow to maturity
in a day or two. In our area giant puffballs aren't that big, but they're 
tasty,
sliced and sautéed with a little salt. They taste sort of like a
fluffy omelet or french toast with a tofu texture. I fried some plain and
ate them, yum, then as an 
experiment
dusted some of them with flour then fried them up ala our oyster
recipe. I put a bunch of the cooked ones in the fridge, then in the
morning heated some up in the microwave with some margarine, plopped them
on a plate and slathered them with jam. Yummy! I know, it sounds weird,
but if you think
floppy french toast while you're eating it (instead
of alien pod with jam for breakfast?) it tastes great! Gina had
some with maple syrup. I don't think I need to remind you: don't pick mushrooms
and eat them unless you can identify them without doubt.
This weekend we attended the First Jomsviking Reunion Party Ever at Joe and Meg's house. The Joms were a group my brother Thom and I used to hang around with many years ago. Members of the Joms were into mediaeval reenactment, strange chemicals, snake hunting, motorcycling, art, and fireworks, among other things. We were at times a very close group of up to 30 people or so. This weekend Jeff Pringle came into town from California, Skia and daughter Gwen came down from Boston, and 30 or so random other folk came through too, some Joms, some not. We had a great big bonfire, fireworks and various other ordnance. Booda hated the noise and watched TV inside for a while. Joe showed me some more puffballs soon after we arrived, so I cooked them up. I also grilled some huge shiitake sammitches, and Joe made the usual fare of hot-dogs and hamburgers. Jeff looks the same as he did so many years ago, I figure he made a deal with the Devil. We all sat and clambered around the fire, laughing and chatting until after 4:00 in the morning. Somehow a bottle of Jaegermeister appeared in my hand, so I finished that off...
In the morning after we all woke up, Joe cooked waffles and pancakes and other stuff, and those of us who survived the night ate breakfast. Then we said our good-byes, and little by little took off for our homes. I had a great time and I hope we have another Jomsviking reunion next year. Thanks a hell of a lot, Joe and Meg, for being such wonderful hosts!
So
Sunday I was tired and a little hung over, but I managed to make it to
Renee's and Alex's celebratory engagement dinner. They reserved a room
in a Bennigans restaurant, and about 20 friends showed up. I wasn't expecting
it, because I haven't been to a Bennigans in a long time, but vegetarian
fare actually existed! I ate a lot but couldn't stay long because I was
ready to collapse. Congrats, Renee and Alex! You make a great couple.
Today I was walking with three dogs - Booda, Sandy, and Trixie - and two Humans - Joe (not Joe Naab, different Joe) and Renata - through our woods. Joe pointed out some nice oyster shrooms, then I discovered a huge chicken mushroom! It's fresh and young and delicious. We split it with Joe and Renata, and gave some to Dorian as well. Once we cooked it, everyone loved the flavor. Dorian called back to say it is the best he and Amethyst ever had. Gina and I made chicken sammitches; Joe declared he had never tasted a better chicken sandwich. And he eats chicken. When you catch a ten pounder, that's a good hunt.
This just in -- I got a very nice thank-you letter from Bryan Bullock. Here it is:
I just read your FAQ about how you own everything, and I'd like to say: thanks for letting me use your stuff. I'm especially grateful for the townhouse, cal-king bed and CD collection.Well, thank you, Bryan! I do believe that's the first time anyone ever expressed their appreciation of my things.
I did notice you said that you don't own anything living. This is true. The Masai tribe, in Africa, own all the cattle in the world. They are just letting other people use them. Dam' decent of them, I think.
9/18/2
Make Shroom! Make Shroom!
other
friends who hunt and eat chickens, so we gave away a lot. Amethyst perfected
her delicious fried chicken shroom recipe, and we've experimented with
other cooking methods. One of my favorites is still a simple grilled chicken
sammitch with lettuce, mustard, and a little pepper. We've been cooking
practically every day; the freezer is filled and we still have plenty left
in the fridge to prepare more meals. As an example of how much chicken
we have to deal with: about a third of the mushroom you see with Booda
filled our large skillet to the top. That's a little over three quarts,
and barely a dent in our total catch.
I forgot to mention that the weekend before last I also barely visited the DC Pow Wow to celebrate the new American Indian Museum. There was a big crowd, lots of colorful costumes from many tribes, and an announcer who introduced each tribe as they danced by under a great big tent. My favorite line from the announcer went something like "If Custer could see us now, he'd die all over again." In an ironic twist of fate, soon afterwards one of the dancers, a sixty year old guy, collapsed on the dance floor. The dancing halted while people performed CPR on him. I felt uncomfortable watching a guy die, and there wasn't going to be any dancing for a while, so Kory, Jenny, and I left the Pow Wow. We took the Metro to a restaurant and I drank some Rogue Dead Guy Ale in honor of the dancer. The next day, I heard it took the ambulance 13 minutes to get there, and the dancer had died of a heart attack. So that's a sad tale but I had to tell it.
The
Geezers' weekly rides to Franklin's Brew Pub have continued. It turns out
to be a longer ride than I had originally estimated -- round trip, it's
about 16 miles. You can see some of the route on the Anacostia map (North
East branch) at the Washington Area Bikers
Association web site. We ride from North of Cherry Hill along
bike paths and trails to Decatur Street and Route 1. Then we have a pint
or so, lose our appetites on lots of appetizers, have a pint of water and
good conversation, and make it back home after dark.
That was on Saturday. On Sunday Gina and I took another bicycle ride to Franklin's Brew Pub, this time with Alice and her new boyfriend Chris. We had some excellent food and beer, then rummaged through the old store next door.
Ugh. I can't write anymore. Today hasn't been a great day, what with various goings ons. To cap it all off, I got stung on my finger a little while ago, and Gina, attempting to blank out for a while, is watching TV, which is a perfect instrument for blanking out, usually. Unless you're watching a tortuous show like The Bachelor. Here's another "reality" show based on anything but; in this case 25 insane women are conned into fighting to marry a deranged man. These people should be in therapy, not put up before millions of viewers while their minds continue to fall apart, all under the guise of TV's social "normalcy". Ugh.
Oh,
good, Gina switched the channel. Whew. I'd rather watch commercials. Anyway,
we're fine, it's just been a bad day. See you next week.
This weekend we went to the Takoma Park Street Festival for a couple hours with Kory and Jenny. We really didn't stay long enough to see much. It was very crowded; we ran into several friends (many from Greenbelt), heard a couple bands, and ate some delicious food from Mark's Kitchen, one of the best little diners in Maryland.
Last night we celebrated Izolda's birthday at a nearby Greek restaurant. She reserved a long table for about 30 guests, mostly from Greenbelt. We had a great time joking and toasting various toastables.
Other than that I'm actually working on a game design that had me stumped for a while. I'm also walking Booda, learning identities of trees, and messing up the house. Mango has been helping too. She was quite sick for a couple days, with nausea and diarrhea, poor kitty, but she's fine now.
Our area's making national news again, this time because some idiot is sneaking around with a rifle and killing people. I figure when the brain tumor grows a little bigger, say about the size of a cherry pit, he or she will calm down and stop shooting.
The
bad news last week: Gina's mom had to get a mastectomy.
The
good news this week: Biopsies show she's all clear! No Cancer. She's in
great spirits, very happy, and a real trooper, too.
10/16/2 ... Everyone to Get from Street!
J:
This week included the longest celebration of a birthday I've ever encountered.
It started at midnight on Thursday, where I was pretending to be a villager
in a game of Werewolf at Wunderland. Gina gave me a balloon and said, "It's
midnight, happy birthday!" She had written "I love you" on the balloon.
I followed her into the kitchen. It was filled with balloons (probably
39 or so), many of which said "John's 3rd Annual 39th Anniversary of His
Birth!" or somesuch. Then Gina lit a candle on a cake and everyone sang
Happy Birthday, then we finished the Werewolf game (side note: I must take
a Werewolf hiatus; it is too stressful a game for me), ate cake, and played
Rambots and Shaufenster until 4:00 AM. Then Gina and I went home for a
nap. I went to work and returned home to eat more cake and watch a movie
called Go with Kory and Gina. On Saturday Kory and Jenny gave me a big
box of Walker's shortbread, yum. I finished that whole box in about three
days. That evening Gina and I went to a "Librafest" party at Dorian and
Amethyst's place. That was a nice party, very crowded with hippy folk,
a fire, great food, and lots of people who really knew how to play instruments.
I heard they jammed until 5:30 the next morning but we had to leave around
3:00, very tired.
On Sunday Gina and I took our bicycles down to the National Arboretum and rode through the park with Alice and Chris. It was a lovely day, cool with a few sprinkles, and the trees had that deep, after-rain green color I like so much.
By
Monday I was pretty fatigued from a weekend of revelry, and luckily I had
the day off, thanks to the dread pirate Columbus. Even so I managed to
unpack some boxes of books that have been waiting ever since we moved in
June. And I washed clothes. That's an accomplishment.
The next day the dentist took x-rays and poked around a bit, then declared that the source of the pain was not my molar, but a wisdom tooth. "Way back there?" I asked. "What about my experiment?"
"Nerves are weird that way," he said. "Anyhow, as I told you a year ago, your wisdom tooth has a big cavity. It should come out."
"Oh, yeah, that wisdom tooth." I have mental trouble with people working on my teeth. I think I'm slowly working through the problem, but I've ignored my dentist for years regarding wisdom teeth. All teeth, really. And before a few years ago, I hadn't gone to the dentist for fifteen years. So I think I've made some progress.
He sent me to an orthodontist, who made some more x-rays, pointed out that only my top wisdom teeth ever grew in, and then asked me when I wanted the nasty cavity riddled one extracted. "As soon as possible," I said, and, "You might as well take them both out." Meanwhile the reptilian part of my brain was shouting, "Run! Hide! They're going to pull you apart!" We scheduled the extraction for the next day, Saturday.
It wasn't so bad, really. They put an IV on me and gave me this really humorous time compaction drug. I had a few strange dreams about somebody playfully yanking my head from side to side, then I remember following an assistant to another room, with my hands on her shoulders, and thinking to myself, I have no idea how hard I'm gripping her shoulders. That was funny. Then I woke up, the assistant changed some gauze in my mouth, Gina talked with the assistant for a while about post-operative procedures (luckily for me she remembered the details) and we went home. Then I took a long nap.
For the next several days I drank lots of liquids, ate soup, and rinsed with salt water. I chilled the sides of my face with bags of frozen peas for the first day. I've experienced no swelling and no pain whatsoever. I'm kinda glad I waited 18 years (yes, the dentist was hinting extraction that long ago), because medical science, especially anesthesia, has come a long way since then.
G: Friday night Renee planned an outing to a Karaoke bar. The first place she tried had gone out of business, but I was still home looking up other possibilities on the web. We picked a place called Remingtons in Laurel, because that was the only place that answered the phone when I called. I asked if they had vegetarian food, and the person on the phone "wasn't sure," because they just changed the menu, but that the food was "really good." I thought Remingtons sounded enough like Bennigans that we'd be able to find something decent, at least pasta with marinara. So John, Jenny, Kory, and I picked up Liam and met Renee, Alex, Petra, and Janet there. It was a big Karaoke place, with two separate Karaoke stages. We went to the upstairs one which was pretty empty when we got there.
Although I had a lot of fun, we probably won't ever go back there. Janet, who got up and sang for us several times, felt the DJ didn't do a good job handling the requests. We put in to sing some songs as groups, but they put them aside for some reason and we didn't get to even one of them until we were ready to leave. Meanwhile, besides Janet doing at least 3 or 4 songs, Alex did one by himself and so did Renee. I was in on LOVE SHACK at the end.
The menu left quite a lot to be desired for the vegetarians. Everything was meat except the side dishes - which makes me wonder why I was told when I asked for vegetarian food that the food was "really good" when they didn't have any. Kory and I ended up ordering big salads, hold the ham, cheese, and eggs. We should have said to hold the onions too, they were covered with onions, otherwise they were normal for restaurants who don't have good salads. Others ordered side dishes of mashed potatoes and such. The biggest problem was water. A couple of us ordered water with the food, and the waitress brought (small and $2.50) bottled water. We asked for glasses of tap water, but they refused. You had to buy water, and she said something about a two drink minimum. I was also having drinks, so I thought that once I had bought my two drink minimum I could probably get some free water. Later there was a misunderstanding when Janet wanted some water. She asked if I wanted some, and I said, yes, if you can get a free glass of tap water. I guess she didn't know about earlier so she just ordered 3 waters, the bottles came, and two were sent back.
So when I went up to the bar and said, "I've paid for two drinks, is there any way I can just get a glass of tap water?" the bartender went off on me. She complained that we'd sent back five bottles of water (it was really 4) and that if she had to scratch anything else off our tab she was going to charge us for them anyway. When I suggested that I might get some water out of the bathroom tap, she said if I did that she would ask us all to leave. She went on and on about how she is just trying to make money for her boss and that we should pay for drinks because we are being entertained (John finds this ironic as we were mostly entertaining ourselves) and blah blah blah. I guess it just took me a while to understand, since I don't believe I've ever been in a bar that wouldn't give you tap water, especially if you are having food, but she was really pissed off at us. Silly.
J:
Yeah, the karaoke and dancing were lots of fun, the smoke filled two drink
minimum atmosphere (reminiscent of certain strip joints I've never been
in) wasn't.
On Saturday I went to the peace rally in DC with many friends. Gina couldn't go, she was at a ceramics workshop all day. The rally was quite invigorating for me, because I saw first hand how so many people are, like me, fervently against attacking Iraq. Most of my large family is in the "kick Saddam's butt" camp, so up till now I've felt a bit outnumbered.
I'm guessing that between 50,000 and 100,000 people attended in DC, from a wonderfully wide spectrum of cultures, races, and age groups. There were more crowds in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and other cities too, from what I heard. So I felt good about that. I hope more people start speaking up, and that the mainstream media lets them be heard.
I'm not one for chanting or yelling, but I did hold one of the Wunderland "PEACE" signs, listen to some of the speeches, and march with many thousands past the White House. The best part of the whole shindig was watching all the beautiful people. (Marches are great for people watching.) The worst part was walking past rows of policemen on horseback, and hoping somebody didn't make them angry.
We
made good with the foraging this week. Gina found a huge batch of
giant oyster mushrooms on Saturday. On Sunday I picked ten pounds. I almost
filled a big grocery bag with them. Needless to say we've been feasting
on lots of oysters, and giving lots away to fellow foragers.
The Woodlands Committee of Greenbelt puts on something called a Pumpkin Walk or Woods Walk once a year. In all the seven or eight years we lived in this town, we never went. This year I attended the pumpkin carving the day before, where townspeople carved about 60 pumpkins. I carved a smiling one-eyed Jack-O-Lantern. (Gina was at clay class. We carved pumpkins together at Wunderland last night, though.)
The next evening I didn't feel up to going on the Woods Walk because I had been walking all day at a peace rally, but Gina went, and came back to report that it was wonderful and convinced me to go. So Stacy, Gina, and I hopped in the car and drove down to the end of Northway Road, which is surrounded by our beautiful woods. We parked and walked toward the entrance path of the Walk. A pickup truck was parked near the entrance, with free hot chocolate, hot cider, and donuts. We had some cider and I ate a donut.
Then we entered the woods. The path was dark but covered with straw so we could sort of see where we were going. The pumpkins, all alight, were scattered along the path, some nearby and some well into the woods. It was an excellent display. Eerie chaotic music played somewhere in the woods, along with clinking chains and occasional screams. Gina declared that she would find my pumpkin out of the sixty that were there, and lo and behold, she did! First try, too.
A few teenage girls ahead of us had a great time getting scared by various spirits dressed in black who jumped out at them and made them scream very loudly. I saw them walk past a pumpkin; the pumpkin suddenly moved toward them and a voice said, "What d'ya think of this pumpkin?" They screamed in unison and then laughed with the guy who had spent all that time holding the pumpkin so still before surprising them. Later they asked if we would walk with them because they were scared, but we casually strayed behind.
We met up with the "musicians" who happened to include Dorian, Izolda, and Rich (on chains). They were in ghastly face makeup, sitting and standing around a fire. I helped play the tambourine, a penny whistle, and the chains, all badly, but luckily they were supposed to be played badly. Then we said good-bye, finished the walk and went out to dinner. Next year I'm planning to participate all night.
From Saturday until last night our phone line was dead, so we've been mostly without phone and internet this week. I'd like to say that we got a lot done while incommunicado, but in reality we just switched to TV. Dippy, our Ford Escort, broke down too. Bad fuel pump. We were switching Gimmik, our Toyota, back and forth, and taking turns waiting for phone repairmen for a few days.
G:
I went to another clay workshop this weekend at the Greenbelt Community
Center, and had a great time. The visiting artist, BillVan
Gilder, was a humorous and soft spoken man who demonstrated lots of
great projects that got everyone excited. He's a production potter, has
his own pottery school in Frederick, teaches there and at the Torpedo Factory,
is about to be featured in a public television special about clay, and
may soon have his own show about all things clay on cable (DIY, the Do
It Yourself network).
J:
This Hallows Eve turned out to be my favorite in many a year, mostly because
the celebrations seemed to last so long. Last week we went on a pumpkin
walk (see last week's news). This week, on Thursday, we went to Dorian
and Amethyst's house. They really know how to throw a party. They had a
fog machine on outside their house, and many scary creatures inside. A
lot of the costumes involved some long cloak with an unknown animal skull
where a person's mask or head might be. Gina went as a very pretty evil
elf, which seems to be her favorite Halloween persona lately, and I wore
a simple jacket with tails, made up a slightly scary face, and carried
a lot of unfilled contracts. Nobody
wanted to sign, though, making me think next year I should bring the briefcase
full of treats.
While
at the party Gina and Ronda began Ouija
Dancing, because, after all, it was Halloween, and besides the strange
spirit music was right for it. Izolda and I joined in next. Soon another
person joined us, and then another, until we had a big circle of ouija
dancers, sometimes in a tight knot, sometimes weaving, and sometimes (to
the surprise and cheers of everyone) untying into a big circle again. We
kept it up for quite a while. Dancers would leave the circle when they
got tired, linking the hands of the dancers to their left and right. If
a person wanted to join, he or she would simply break the hold of two dancers
and join in, holding their hands to continue the circle. The dance would
change its rhythm and style for each song. There was plenty of giggling
and excuse me's as dancers were forced by unseen puppet masters into awkward
positions or bumped body parts, arms into noses, etc. We had a great and
sweaty time at Doriamethyst's place. I think five dancers is just right
for a ouija dance; it makes nice patterns. We stayed fairly late, then
after that party we visited Wunderland and played a few games until late
at night.
Our First Friday costume party was nice too. Gina the evil elf grew wings, and Skip surprised me with my costume of the night -- a Ghostbusters outfit, complete with goggles, even. (Thankfully, Alex and Renee showed up in their Keymaster and Gatekeeper outfits too - G)
On Saturday I attended Yet Another Rally in DC. I think I'm developing a bad habit. Anyhow, this one, the Godless Americans' March on Washington, was at least an order of magnitude smaller. True to my apatheist leanings, I missed the march to the capitol, but arrived just in time to catch a hilarious sermon by Landover Baptist's Pastor Deacon Fred (see the full text of the sermon). Afterwards, Joe and Meg found me, and we listened to a few more speeches and read some signs (like "Religious People Scare Me" and "Al Qaeda Is A Faith-Based Initiative"), while I played with my little unklings Billy and Leo. I hope my next rally is as sunny and nice as the last two.
Dippy
had another problem, right after the fuel pump was replaced. To make it
worse it was intermittent. Sometimes when I turned the key nothing happened,
I'd hear a click from the solenoid and the car wouldn't start. I found
a loose connection to the battery and tightened it, and the car started
fine, but after I drove it to work it refused to start again. My work mate
John Marketon and I tried further diagnosis with a volt meter; the battery
and solenoid were fine, so it seemed that the starter motor had problems.
Thinking it might have a "dead spot", I selected reverse gear and we started
pushing the front, rocking Dippy to maybe turn the starter to a new position.
But I forgot that I had left the key in the ignition, and Dippy suddenly
sprang to life and accelerated away from us, toward other cars in the parking
lot. Before I knew what I was doing, I was inside the car with my foot
planted firmly on the brake pedal. Dippy conked out and stopped about five
feet from two other cars. I put the car in neutral, and to the startled
stares of a few onlookers, we pushed Dippy back into its space. Then
once everyone left we cracked up laughing and John said, "Don't tell anyone
about this." I told him I'd do better than that, I'd put it on my website.
It took about half an hour for me to stop shaking, and I still can't remember
making any decisions, I just remember seeing the car running away and then
I was inside jamming the brake. The adrenaline must've really kicked in
hard and fast. I'm pretty sure the starter motor is having problems, because
the car starts easily when I push it.
UPDATE: Here's the Post Article! EEEK! The print version has a pic of my pots! Sorry for the late notice.
My Mom called me Friday morning to tell me that my Uncle Joe had just passed away. He was 78 years old and hadn't been in good health. Fortunately we saw him on our trip to NY last summer, and had a good time. When I was small he used to dress up as Santa Claus and I always called him that - and he always called me his little girl. Good bye, Santa Claus.
J: My Uncle Dennis is back in town, for good this time. He's buying a house and moving from New Hampshire. We saw him, a few of his friends, his son Alex (who is 13 now), and a few more familia, on Friday night at a video game arcade and restaurant called Dave & Busters. After Dennis treated us to dinner (thanks Dennis!) I wandered around the arcade section, bathing in the sensory overload of the crowds, screens, music, and sound effects. I enjoyed watching experts take on a Dance Dance Revolution style video game; I remember playing that at a Baycon (I think it was a Baycon). It's a video game that sort of makes you dance. It looks best, from a spectator's view, when two players are dancing in sync, battling for the best points. Other than that Dave and Busters gave me this icky at-the-mall feeling (malls repel me), so I was glad when we left. It was great to see Dennis though, and I'm glad he's back home.
Games I'm into lately: Knitzia's Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation, Hoax by Eberle et al, and Kramer's Daytona 500.
I updated a bunch of links in the Hero of the Month page. Sorry they were so broken!
G:
Friday night we went to the opening reception for the "Seeing Red" exhibition.
They didn't have any vegan food except grapes. We liked most of the pieces.
We stayed about an hour, taking some pictures with the digital camera.
Two ladies who work in the studio in Greenbelt made the trek out to the
opening. It was nice to see them. They gushed about the picture of my pieces
in the (print version only) Post. After we got home John stayed up really
late playing games with Kory and Leo.
Saturday
we arrived at Noah Gitlis's bar mitzvah just in time for the food. We hadn't
had much sleep, so after coming home and working together in the kitchen
organizing for a while, we took a nap. Got up later and went to the Gitlis's
for dinner, which was fun with great food, and from there went to toK and
Todd's for more games.
On Sunday I helped out Kristin Looney's parents by being videographer of their church's production of Fiddler on the Roof. John, Kristin, and Alison came, and we all enjoyed the show. I hope the video comes out well...
From
there we went straight to the New Deal Cafe for Joyce Abel's birthday party.
We saw lots of friends and had a good time. I had their cold sesame noodles
for the first time, not something I would normally choose but something
I will definitely order again. We almost went to hang out with some of
the people at someone's house after we came home and John walked Booda,
but we were just too tired and went to bed.
G:
Friday night we went to Franklin's Brew Pub and surprised Drew Eisenhauer
for his birthday. His girlfriend Erin invited us and we met several nice
people there. Drew was very surprised and seemed quite pleased. It was
fun.
After we got home, Kory and Jenny came over and we played Full Contact Twister. A while back Jenny was talking about Twister and John and I both complained that we didn't like the way the colors on the Twister mat are aligned, one color per row. We felt they should be mixed up all over the board. Lo and behold, a few weeks later Jenny and Kory presented us with a brand new (special anniversary edition) Twister that they had cut a bunch of the circles out of and moved around. We finally got around to playing. We all like the new color arrangement. In an early round, Jenny got worried about not getting to a blue circle (even though it was only the second spin call) and dove across the board at one, accidentally eliminating herself with her enthusiasm. The games quickly turned into full contact; as you reached for your next color with whichever body part, you would lean on your opponents as much as possible in an attempt to knock them over. I lost every game I played.
On Saturday night we ended up at the New Deal Cafe, where Izolda was playing. They sell beer and wine now, so we bought several and some desserts and stuff. We saw lots of people we know and I had a good time hanging out there.
Sunday, Jonathan Kruger came in from Seattle to spend ThanksIndians with us. Last night he had dinner with Michael and Cynthia, and afterwards Michael stopped by for a visit and to see our house.
Today, Jon and I went downtown to Artomatic. We spent nearly three hours looking at art, lots of which was quite good, with very little amateurish looking stuff, even though there were hundreds of artists represented. The last days of the show are Friday and Saturday, and I think it's worth the trip down there. I saw work by three artists I know from Greenbelt, too: Nicole DeWald, Elizabeth Morrisette, and Alice Sims.
I read
the entire Things
My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About last night. I couldn't stop reading
it once I started, it was VERY funny.
Jonathan Kruger, one of our surrogate orphans, actually survived our family get together, with no discernible injuries. He spent most of the day chatting with my Dad about politics and religion. Chris Welsh, another orphan, also visited us for the holiday, but he opted for Thanks-Indians Dinner with Leo's family.
We made a very large veggie pot pie and stuffed ourselves with it on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and I ate the rest on Sunday. Somewhere in there I made a huge skillet of five different kinds of wild mushrooms, which Chris declared "exactly what I wanted." (They were delicious, too.)
Somewhen
during the holidays a bunch of us went to the New Deal to see a two person
band called Midge play. The place was packed and a lot of our neighborhood
friends were there. After the New Deal closed we had an improvised party
at our house, with coffee, beer, and humorous conversation about, well,
mostly men's nipples. But later after everybody else left, Leo, Lucy, Chris,
Gina and myself had a heated discussion about the purpose of, and one's
purpose in, Life. I had a very frustrating time understanding Leo's concept
of one's "real self," but I think I'm beginning to understand it the more
I contemplate it. I think it's something like those parts of yourself that
you are most comfortable with. Or something like that.
12/11/2
Booda's Boots
Last night we went to Constantia and Sean's place for a tree decorating party. She made what looked to be delicious chicken and salmon pot pies, and yummy pasta for the veggie eaters. Her house is very nice, and the room that the tree sat in was perfect for a christmas tree. Our friend Neva entertained a little kid with this song that for some reason I never heard before. It's sung to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider:
Alien face hugger clamps upon your faceOf course, while she sang it her hand crawled up to the kid's face, then her finger traced a wiggly path down to the kid's belly, the hand crawled away, then returned quickly to "burst out" of the belly. I like that song. I think the kid did, too. I folded some origami stuff and even decorated the tree a little.
Sticks a tentacle down your throat and lays an egg in place
Crawls off to die and leaves the egg to hatch
which spurts right out of your belly with a great big splash
On Sunday night we went to Dave and Diane's last dance night (except for their upcoming Xmash bash). I geeked out with Greykell and swapped palm stuff. I also danced half a dance, while Kory played piano. It was a triple swing with Gina and Jenny. Lots of folks are going to miss that ballroom, and the house. The house that D&D are moving to sounds very interesting though. It's sort of a J shaped thing with a frog pond in the courtyard within the hook of the J. Parts of the house were built in the 1850s, if I heard correctly.
On Saturday, and Sunday, Gina sold pottery at a craft fair at the community center. Apparently her guild sold a lot of pottery. She took some pictures of some of her stuff, and I actually managed to get them uploaded. Woo hoo!
On
Thursday we got a nice snowfall; I skipped work and tromped around in the
woods until my feet were soaked. Booda loved the snow, but had the usual
problem with ice building up in between his toes. He'd stop every fifty
feet or so and chew on his paws. Some neighbors happened to have some doggy
booties that their dog wouldn't use. We put them on Booda and he loved
them! He ran all over, and then took off through the woods, and we tracked
his footprints. Unfortunately, he lost two of the booties. Later we tried
to use squares of fabric kept on with rubber bands, which seemed to work
well at first. Again Booda loved them and seemed to know that they were
helpful items, but the makeshift booties didn't stay on. We'll probably
keep working on boot designs though, because he likes them so much.
Afterwards we went to Alexandria to eat at an Indian restaurant there that Jenny and Kory have been frequenting. It was really cold out, and raining, so Jenny wanted to take a cab there from the metro and offered to pay. Of course it ended up costing more than she guessed, with traffic and extra people in the cab and all. The restaurant wasn't quite open for dinner yet, so we bade our time in a newsstand next door. I read an article in Guitar magazine about George Harrison's new album Brainwashed, and an interview with his son, Dhani. If I don't get that album for Xmash, I'm a gonna buy it.
I enjoyed the meal at the restaurant, but I didn't think it was particularly great, and I tried a lot of their dishes with a sampler platter type thing. I told the others that I probably wouldn't go out of my way to go back there, but I changed my story later when I tasted the eggplant dish I brought home for John. That was so good I hope we can go there again soon.
Saturday night we had a Scrabble game with Kory and Jenny. We don't remember why now, but we decided whoever won would get to decide what we did next. That seemed like a good plan, and it was an exciting game, in which Kory came from pretty far behind to suddenly make a 70-some-odd point move and win. But then, of course, it was 2 and 1/2 hours later and dinner time. Kory tried to decide on something to do, but Jenny was down for the count by the time we got back from dinner. Kory gets to torture us another day.
On
Sunday I went to the University of MD to help move a bunch of stuff out
of the pottery studio since it will be closed and the new one won't reopen
until sometime in 2004. We brought a whole bunch of stuff over to the Greenbelt
studio. John came by to help after running other errands. As we were moving
stuff he warned me not to hurt my back. I turned around and warned him
not to hurt HIS back. Guess who hurt his back?
The night before Gina left we took Stacy and Chrissy out to the Cheesecake Factory for Stacy's birthday dinner. After that we all went with Booda to the fire pit in the woods and had a little fire, drumming, happy conversation and fire-popped pop corn (yum!) with many Greenbeltians. Some of them stayed the night but we opted to go back home and sleep in the warm bed.
The next day, Sunday, I took Gina to the airport for her flight to Florida. Then some other stuff happened but I only have half a Ginohn brain now that Gina's gone.
Oh yeah, I remember some of it. The day after I waved goodbye to Gina, Gimmik broke down in the middle of an intersection. I waited a couple hours for a tow and finally got it to a mechanic and walked home. I find myself semi-seriously thinking about getting a new car under these conditions. The mechanic replaced the alternator.
Chris Welsh came to visit; he might go on another one of his "gruel-a-thons" (hiking for two or three days straight) with friend Bruce Beard, before returning here for New Year's Eve. I picked up Chris on Tuesday night amid unforeseen snow, and we drove directly to Doriamethyst's place for a little X-eve party. They had the usual amazing food and drink there, as well as some X-mash music and uncharacteristic (for Doriamethyst) disco music.
The next day Chris, Booda, and I participated in the X-mash woods walk, where along with 10 or so Greenbelters and five dogs we hiked through a very wet snowy woods to the fire pit, which had transformed into a slushy water pool. Needless to say we didn't have a fire, but we still had a good time standing around the pool, eating crackers, cheese, wine, leftover ravioli, rum, and chocolate for our "X-mash high tea". Then we continued the hike and Chris, Booda and I split off to home while the rest of the group wandered toward Izolda's house for pecan pie, I think.
After returning home I fed the pets, changed my wet socks and Chris and I hopped in the car and drove off to Leo's sister Kathy's house for X-mash dinner. Leo had invited us to the family thing, and I was thinking of opting out, not feeling in much of a X-mash party mood, but Chris managed to catch me at the right moment and I said I'd take him there, so I was stuck. But in the end I had a great time. I hadn't seen Leo's mom in a long long while. she used to be called Margaret but now calls herself Megan, but just her name has changed -- she still has a wonderful, bubbly, catching personality. She and Leo kept us laughing and incited great conversation, just as they always have. Kathy's dinner tasted great. Then we had pumpkin pie; delish. Leo's mom surprised us with gifts; she gave me a lovely brass incense bowl along with incense, even, and a horoscope book for Libras.
Almost forgot: Eric Zuckerman sent this HMR for LOTR2. We haven't seen it yet. Thanks Eric!
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS :)
J.R.R. wrote not
The wacky chick-flick subplot --
Plus, Gimli's no clown!
