The Mosher Pit

VNV wasn’t very different from any of the other times I’ve seen them. I don’t regret missing them on their last trip through. What I missed, though, was having a conversation with Ronan.

I’m out of shape and yes, my hair can bite me. I did take pictures this morning so you can see what a mop it is. I hate all these pictures, though. we’ll take more tonight.

We will not be attending any parties, most likely, because we have Sprog D today and Sprog K tonight, the former being something I became aware of at about three this morning and the latter being something that was arranged at about noon today. Not to mention the host of furry things expecting our attention this weekend–we are housesitting at THREE different places right now in Alexandria.

Can I just mention how much I love the fact that I can make spontaneous plans with K. again?

I just took 50 pictures of Cody because she cooperated and posed in a well lit corner. Much to my surprise, she didn’t blink when the flash went off the few times it went off–this has been the biggest bane in getting good pictures of her.

Last night was a wild adventure because we somehow misplaced the house key of the place we were staying at, and all the other keys to all the other houses were inside that house. Fortunately we found where it had fallen in the car, but that was only a panicked half hour later.

Making plans with the sprogs has brought back really awesome memories of my childhood, which was rich and wonderful up until about 1980. We used to have these special occasion trips to Pizza Inn, a Richmond chain at the time, but my brother didn’t dig pizza and so we’d usually sneak in McD’s cheeseburgers for him to eat.

Posted in Family, Memories, Music by: Helen
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Rather than forego celebrating Christmas (or whatever winter holiday corresponds with it that aligns with your belief system) because it’s become a consumeristic orgy (I agree), why not take it back?

Posted in Grrr! by: Helen
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Jerry Orbach is getting a lot of tribute-play on my f-list, so add mine to the list. He was one of those faces who showed up in all manner of shows, but he really was a fixture on Law and Order, one of the few television shows (along with its sister show, SVU) that I genuinely enjoyed watching before I shut off the tube to all but what Netflix sends me about five months ago. He played hardboiled for the new millennium, with his dry delivery of trenchant one-liners. It’s odd getting to know the characters of the L&O series, because the storylines don’t revolve around them the way they do in NYPD Blue or other crime dramas. I seldom watch networks other than NBC, so I know there are others out there, but it’s hard to imagine L&O without him. The revolving door of the assistant district attorney position tells me that these series can go on without their supporting actors, but he was one of the leads, and I’ll miss him.

Another death that’s got me in frowny mode today is that of Susan Sontag. She was one of those names always on the periphery of my studies, so I never read her novels, but I’ve read several of her essays, and think of her as a kindred spirit.

Posted in Deaths by: Helen
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This is the third year in a row that I haven’t had a tree. It was okay in past years because I helped my aunt decorate hers. Next year I’m having a tree. I like the tree thing. I do want to make the shift towards a smaller, live tree that we can plant out at Moody Mountain or something like that, though.

But at any rate, I tend to look at the entire period between the solstice and New Year’s as a holiday. Today I made sugar cookie dough and I’m hoping we’ll have time to bake them before K. goes back. I don’t want him to go. He adores D., too, and watching the two of them interact has really floored me.

Posted in Family by: Helen
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This is what matters: There’s two guys in here that I absolutely adore: my boyfriend and my son. And I’m so delighted that I got to share this holiday season with them. That, to me, is what Christmas is all about. If I could unwrap more days off to spend with both of them, that would be the loveliest gift of them all.

And now, for today’s badly timed quote of the day:

Ki: “That’s about the most horrible way to die.”
Me, listening to NPR talk about the international earthquake disaster: “What, drowning?”
Ki, staring into his gameboy: “Nah, getting mauled by a shell-less Koopa.”

Disconnect. Sigh.

Yay for good chili and cornbread to end the day. And all in all, it’s been a very good day. A good weekend, and … for all my kvetching in this post… a blessed Christmas, spent with D.’s family and my son, and I couldn’t be happier.

Posted in Family, LOLZ!, Quotations by: Helen
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Bleary-eyed, I was listening to a report on Arizona’s denying of welfare benefits to undocumented folks, when a name caught my ear: Johnette Napolitano.

Listen to the clip and tell me if you agree that there’s thin odds on that many female tenors running around with that name.

Ok, so it’s Janet. But still, LOL.

Posted in LOLZ! by: Helen
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Don’t mess with me! I have a large knife at my desk!!!

Posted in Random by: Helen
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I haven’t posted pictures in eons because I lost Photoshop in the crash and that’s the one backup I haven’t been able to find (I did find my photoshop 4 for PC, though. har.) but i figured out how to export to a smaller file size, even though I can’t adjust levels (which sucks, because I often don’t use flash and correct the color in “processing.)

But beneath the cut, you’ll find the first evidence of my knitting (my third attempt at a swatch, and not bad, if I might say so myself), a little something for the rosemaries on my friends list, and a picture of K. and me from thanksgiving. I am not standing up straight, but that’s no excuse for the fact that he is almost as tall as I am now.

Posted in Random by: Helen
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I bought this car specifically because I was tired of plopping down $1500 a year on fixing cars. Guess how much I’ve spent this year fixing this car.

Thus concludes the grand experiment; prior to this I paid cash for my cars, and I think I’m going to go back to that policy.

Posted in Fail! by: Helen
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The solstice is tomorrow, ’cause it’s leap year.

Update: I have a bum calendar, it would seem. I have been completely confused because I had it in my head that Max’s birthday was the day before the solstice, and the calendar didn’t seem to agree with that. Of course, it may just be that I have Max’s birthday wrong.

Update #2: (Whee. I’m learning something new. I didn’t realize that solstice wasn’t so much “longest night” or “shortest day”. But more importantly, I’m learning that what time and date the solstice happens is very dependent on your geography. In New Zealand, the solstice happened at 12:22 a.m. on the 22d, but that’s long past there now.

Of course, it’s the summer solstice in those parts…)

Posted in Random by: Helen
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