Two notes:

The days are getting longer which makes me happy.
Also, polite cherries (cordial) are really rather vile, and handing them to unsuspecting people who are expecting a nice truffle is rather unkind.

Thank you,
that is all.

If I were a rich man

Sooo,
you know how sometimes I link my old posts?
I've decided to go one better and just repost a whole one. It's really long and a pal who was looking through my archive single it out for a compliment so I thought I'd share it again (and update the song and phone referenced).
Here it is, from October of 2007, a really freaking long meme...

----
Jocelyn did a Jedi mind trick on me and made me do this. It took DAYS to finish so I think it only fair to give you days to read it. I'll be back next week. Feel free to pace yourself.


If I were a beginning, I would be…. "It was a dark and stormy night..." Name that book?

If I were a month, I would be…September, while learning is still something to be excited about and the fall colors are showing. It's not cold but a cozy polar fleece is perfect.

If I were a time of day, I would be… 11:11 Auspicious but in a useless way.

If I were a planet, I would be…orbiting Sirius. Don’t want to get toooo close though.

If I were a season, I would be…..Fall, bring some shorts, sandals, a warm jacket and an umbrella, who knows what you are going get!

If I were a sea animal, I would be….salty, wanna lick?

If I were a direction, I would be….west.

If I were a piece of furniture, I would be….a cozy chair; versatile and comfortable.

If I were a sin, I would be…mortal, you do know what you are getting yourself into, right?

If I were a liquid, I would be…mercury, because liquid metal is awesome and gallium just doesn't sound as cool.

If I were a scare, I would be…the one that haunts your nightmares and gives you a chill down your spine. Ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light?

If I were a gem, I would be…semi-precious.

If I were a flower/plant, I would be…some sort of scrubby little flowering shrub.

If I were a kind of weather, I would be….capricious.

If I were a musical instrument, I would be…a cello.

If I were an animal, I would be…wild.

If I were an emotion, I would be….swinging.

If I were a vegetable, I would be…delicious.

If I were a sound, I would be…water, sometimes soothing, sometimes overpowering.

If I were an element, I would be…plutonium. Can’t touch this!

If I were a car, I would be…a hybrid; a little of this, and a little of that.

If I were a song, I would be... catchy but hard to understand in spots.

If I were a food, I would be...Thai; salty, sweet, spicy, sour and sometimes bitter, but always in balance.

If I were a place, I would be…a magnetic pole, prone to wandering.

If I were a material, I would be…plaid silk.

If I were a taste, I would be…fleeting but worth repeating.

If I were a scent, I would be…floating in the air.

If I were a religion, I would be…misunderstood and misused.

If I were a sentence, I would be…compound (with plenty of parenthetical phrases thrown in for good measure).

If I were a facial expression, I would be…transparent.

If I were a subject in school, I would be…self paced.

If I were a colour, I would be...vibrant.

If I were a thing, I would be…a noun.

If I were a book, I would be…library bound.

If I were an artist, I would be…messy.

If I were a collection of poems, I would be…eclectic, an anthology type of deal.

If I were a landmass, I would be…Europe, separate but attached.

If I were a watch, I would be…superfluous. Who needs a watch?

If I were God, I would be…a goddess.

If I were a vowel, I would be...rounded.

If I were a consonant, I would be…an alveolar trill, or a sibilant s.

If I were a theory, I would be…more than mere hypothesis.

If I were a famous person, I would be…mocked for my fashion choices.

If I were an item of electronic equipment, I would be…a Droid.

 If I were a sport, I would be…a contact sport.

If I were a movie, I would be…a comedy.

If I were a cartoon, I would be…the Animaniacs.

If I were an explorer, I would be…intrepid, it only seems suitable.

If I were a scientist, I would be…mad.

If I were a relation, I would be…tenuous.

If I were a river, I would be…relentless.

If I were intoxication, I would be…all-consuming, enslaving, freeing, euphoric gratification. I am the new drug.

If I were alone, I would be…relaxing.

If I were a question, I would be…leading.

If I were a habit, I would be…addictive.

If I were in an atom, I would be… possessed of charm or maybe topness.

If I were you, I would be…tired of reading this.

"I thought of love with its head ripped off still trying to sing..."

the hookers, the madmen and the doomed


by Charles Bukowski



today at the track

2 or 3 days after

the death of the

jock

came this voice

over the speaker

asking us all to stand

and observe

a few moments

of silence. well,

that's a tired

formula and

I don't like it

but I do like

silence. so we

all stood: the

hookers and the

madmen and the

doomed. I was

set to be dis-

pleased but then

I looked up at the

TV screen

and there

standing silently

in the paddock

waiting to mount

up

stood the other jocks

along with

the officials and

the trainers:

quiet and thinking

of death and the

one gone,

they stood

in a semi-circle

the brave little

men in boots and

silks,

the legions of death

appeared and

vanished, the sun

blinked once

I thought of love

with its head ripped

off

still trying to

sing and

then the announcer

said, thank you

and we all went on about

our business.



"the hookers, the madmen and the doomed" by Charles Bukowski, from What Matters Most is How Well You Work Through the Fire.
------------------------------
I know I've mentioned The Writer's Almanac before it must be linked again because
Since the 1st, when this was the poem of the day, the phrase I used as a title has been dancing around in my head. Sometimes a poem or song phrase will stick in my head... for YEARS!
Like this line in Lovers in a Dangerous Time,
"...gotta kick at the darkness til it bleeds daylight."

It just speaks to me.

Show and Tell

 I got some new shoes. That is them up there.
They make me taller than Thing One.
:D
Mama like.
It isn't going to be long until there won't be shoes capable of acheiving that feat for me, so I plan to enjoy it while I can. Plus, these shoes are actually pretty comfortable. 
I needed new shoes.
See, there is the community Christmas thing and since there is a pretty strong Scandinavian influence here, one of the productions being performed is a stage play about early northern European immigrants.
There are some Sven and Ole sketches, among other things. The full cast, including chorus (that would be me), is about 40 people.
Mr. Logo is reprising his role of last year as Ole. 
Thing One  is reappearing as one of the youth leads, and Thing Two sings AND dances, although he didn't want to try out for a speaking role. 
We'll be performing every Sunday night in December. 


Also,
I got a new-to-me monitor. My last monitor was roughly the same size as a small island nation, or, well, anyway, it was BIG! I don't mean the screen size either, I mean the rear side of that thing stuck out about a foot and a half (and no one needs a computer monitor with back, ok, that is NOT sexeh).
So a pal gave me the monitor below when we started having a little monitor issue.

Turns out, it may not have been a monitor problem so much as a computer issue. I got this computer almost 4 years ago. I'm a little worried this might be the beginning of the end for it.

Oh, and the car won't start again.

Fricking, fracking, frugging...

Copied from my Facebook note

 because I haven't uploaded the pics I want to show you.
:-p

Once you've been tagged.... (1) Turn on your MP3 player or music player on your computer. (2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode. (3) Write down the first 25 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please....

 

Alrighty then, you asked for it, but it's an odd list!

1. Candy - Presidents of the United States of America
2. I Feel It All - Feist
3. Song of the Cenury- Green Day
4. Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon
5. Stormy Weather - Etta James
6. Mr. Bad Man - Tori Amos
7. 3 AM - Matchbox 20
8. Add It Up - Violent Femmes
9. Commissioning a Symphony in C - Cake
10. Back to Black - Amy Winehouse
11. Life Less Ordinary - Carbon Leaf
12. Long, Long Time - Guy Forsyth
13. Black - Pearl Jam
14. I Want to Break Free - Queen
15. It's a Beautiful Day - Sarah Brightman
16. Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
17. Mummer's Dance - Lorena McKennit
18. Don't stop Believing - Journey
19. Thanks That Was Fun - Barenaked Ladies
20.  Barracuda - Heart
21. Creep - Radiohead
22. With or Without You - U2
23. Pork and Beans - Weezer
24. Better - Regina Spektor
25. Dreams - Cranberries

 

What can I say? It's what I like!

I tend to be a very utilitarian book owner. I don't typically buy or hold onto books just because I really enjoyed them. If I don't plan to read or refer to a book again in the future it will not take up residence with me. Consequently, my collection is heavily weighted in favor of reference books.

My public library serves most of my pleasure reading needs and I usually stop by at least once a week.

My personal book collection is small-ish.

I have one narrow bookcase in my living room,

a storage box in the corner of my bedroom closet,

oh, and a big wicker trunk,

 and, um... a smaller wicker box.

I've attempted to teach my children the importance of having good books to read available but not to be hoarders. They each have a bookshelves in their rooms (which are packed to nearly overflowing, but we sort them from time to time and pass on anything they don't read if they don't love it too much to part with it). 

Anyway, my point is, homeschooling requires books, lots of books. If one surrenders one's very cool schoolroom to be remodelled into a guestroom it only stands to reason that the books will have to find new homes. So Mr. Logo built this, but it only gets partial credit because the books have to share space with the printer and all the photo albums and whatnot.



Of course a few of the books can fit in the twin cabinets from the school room, but mostly they are full of other critical homeschooling supplies.

So, the far end of my breakfast room was stacked high with boxes of books and the overflow was taking up the windowsills, to which Mr. Logo objected. A clever solution was found and so this new cabinet found its way into our home.

Oooooo, shiny.

 It goes really well the black table and chairs in the breakfast room and it holds a metric buttload of books (that is more than the US standard buttload, but the British buttload is larger).
Not to mention, I can store stuff on top of it!

 Now, if someone with too much time and lots of spare mental energy were look at that picture closely they might wonder about why I have a cash register (I'm assuming the globe, test tubes, and balance are self-explanatory). That cash register features a fully-functioning calculator and it turns out, given the choice between a boring old calculator and the cash register version, most children and lots of adults will opt for the ulta-cool cash register model. Also, it hold full-sized coins and bills and is therefore awesome for garage sales, bake sales, etc.

I also think that learning to make (or check) change is a critical life skill and obviously the cash register makes that WAY more entertaining.

Anyway, the cabinet has cleared the boxes out and gotten the books out of the window sills. This is the drawer that looks sort of well-organized.

 Soooo, now I have another big box of books arriving this week and we get to start the hunt for more book storage again, but

I really NEEDED these books, for school, and references, and important stuff like that.



Sometimes there are just no words

photo credit

The weather of late had been unbelievably good. Warm, gorgeous fall days have featured crisp, cool mornings that heat up to glorious afternoons and then chilling off to clear, beautifully-starred nights.

My yard is covered in leaves and the colors on the trees are unbelievable. Western Washington often has soggy, insignificant autumns with the turning of the leaves lasting for only days.

This year we are having a bonafide FALL, and it is lovely.