The singing has finished, now what?

Unfortunately, more talking heads, spouting off their own opinions of who should be in the new cabinet or a staff member. But, with all the positive and negatives floating around, accompanied by images they think supports what they're saying, I thought this simple drawing was more interesting.



Okay, confession time. I used to talk through my US History classes and one teacher's method to get me to stop was a bit unorthodox. He would take the pictures of the presidents and toss them at me, demanding their names. It worked, not me knowing who they were, but stopping my chatter. Now you understand why I don't have an appreciation for the individual presidential portraits. A group one is much more to my liking. Click on the image to see the faces more clearly and see how many you can name.

Anyway, if you know who did this drawing, please let me know, I'd love to give them credit.

What's for dinner?

Okay, playing corporate wife right now and tonight the cutie pulled me out for dinner. Lovely to meet up with a couple of the other wives, but trouble was brewing.

We went to a seafood restaurant and I eat nothing from the sea.

So what did I have?

Well, I made a minimal pretense at the meatloaf, but this was what held all of my attention: the chocolate bag filled with whipped white chocolate and fresh berries.

LOVELY!

No, I didn't finish it, not even close, so they boxed it up and I brought it back with me. In fact, I even knicked a fork to help finish it off :-)

This will be shocking to some of you, but...

I have only one thing to say...

For the Leaf Peepers...

it's going to be a fabulous year of color!

We have the first tree on the street to change and it will drop its leaves before the one next to it even starts to change. The mulberry in back is one of the lasts. What does that mean? We'll be doing the leaf thing well into December when the snowblowing begins.

Oh joy.

A bit of random ridiculousness...

This weekend I'd like to eat chocolate, drink Coca Cola, go see Rock-n-Rolla and Body of Lies, sleep in, watch some footie [both British and American], work on "Call Me Lucifer" and enjoy the lovely weather.

However, I have a new eating regime to stick to, laundry to do, Birthday and Christmas shopping to get started, more filing [a years worth] to do, bills to write, blah-blah-blah.

Which side will win out...or will it be a mix? Hmmm.

A bit of random ridiculousness...

I was reading my Bloglines this morning and Philly Transplant had a picture of Olympian Ryan Lochte. My sleepy brain realized something, do you see it?



Ryan Lochte looks like Alexander the Great!

What a hoot!

The cutie wasn't feeling well on Friday so we went to the video rental shop, picked a handful each and then let the other pick one they wanted to watch. Yeah, our taste in flicks can vary that much.

Anyway, last night we watched mine: Death at a Funeral. What a hoot! There's a great twists in this one and some good laughs as well. Even the opening credits were fun. Perfect :-)

A bit of random ridiculousness...

All is going well this month of pure writing and a booksigning [on the 21st] but there's been one hiccup - September. Why? Simple really, there's too much I want to do and they are all at roughly the same time!

1. the Moveable Book Society's conference is going to be held in Washington D.C. and will be full of unexpected treasures - since I missed both San Diego and Chicago, I promised myself I'd go to this one but something else came along that was both pleasure and work,

2. the West Hollywood Book Fair - I even said yes I'd go until I remembered,

3. a friend's wedding in Cork, Ireland.

Yup, going to the latter and it's on my birthday as well.

Energy levels are flickering

Friday the cutie and I decided what to do about the holidays, whether to stay or go, and then went shopping. When we got home, some friends came over and, I confess, the cocktails flowed and I partook plenty of champagne and Baileys. Hence, Saturday started off a little slow, but we got going, shopped some more and stopped off another set of friends to do a little computer T.L.C. and partook some lovely Port from Australia [will have to remember this one for later]. We headed home to make it an early not and ended up have another Baileys next door.

Slept in and am slow to make a move - except the cutie has shown me how to make his chocolate surprise. If it works, then I'll write it up and submit it for "Coming Together: In the Kitchen", a cookbook whose proceeds will be going to 'Action Against Hunger'.

Thursday 13 - 25!

Last week I mentioned having spent some time at one of my favorite places, The Getty Villa. If you didn't know, this museum is a duplicate of the Villa deo Papiri in Herculaneum and houses JP Getty's collection of antiquities. The building has recently undergone almost 10 years of renovations. For a couple of years I spent at least a day a week up here, rifling through their old reading room. It's gone now, and so are many other things, but it is still worth a visit. They now both an indoor and outdoor theater, great lecture series, as well as visiting exhibitions. The one we saw was glass and it spanned ancient, historical, and modern examples of various pieces. I honestly wouldn't have picked this one as being interesting, but it was.

Enough, here are 13 highlights and a couple of low lights.

The Structure
1.
The outside peristyle is still the same - there's something rather relaxing about the Drunken Satyr, and his copatriot in debauchery at the other end. I could spend hours out here in the sun, listening to the water falls.

2.
The east garden is the same as well, small, enclosed and totally peaceful. There are benches running along the path for sitting.

3.
Okay, what's exciting about the roof of a parking garage? Nothing, other than it's a reclamation zone. That's right, despite being in an area prone to earthquakes, landslides, and wildfires, they still made an effort at conservation - kudos!

4.
The inside of the museum circles around the inner peristyle. Nothing changed here, although walls have been put up so there's no more immediate view of the Lansdowne Herakles in his special marble alcove.

Infamous Pieces
5.
The Lansdown Herakles is a key piece to the collection and I think a real stunner. This is one the articles I studied in depth, and let me tell you, having to take pictures of a larger than life cock with a guard standing nearby laughing is no easy task.

6.
There's been a problem with museums around the world and how they obtain some of their work. The Getty is caught up in this area, and the Italian government has asked for the return of this bronze. The Victorious Youth now has his own room, sealed so he doesn't fall apart so I guess he's staying for a long time.

7.
This gentleman, the Getty Kouros [male] was accompanied by notes for the viewers to know of his dubious status - rather ingenious of the curators. He is either a pristine very early archaic [530 BC] statue, or a flawed forgery.

Interesting Pieces
8.
The Dionysus Herm, an odd gentleman with one eye watching you check out his cock and balls. It's hard not to.

9.
The way this goddess is dressed makes the experts believes it's Aphrodite. If you can imagine this, her garments were red, pink, and blue, some paint still remains. What never fails to hold my interest is this lady's marble face. It's amazing how her hair, and most likely a veil, fell, but the face remained intact.

10.
Folds, it's all about how the sculptors were able to make such perfect folds, while still remaining true to the body beneath. Later, came the wet fabric look, where the body is show with a thin piece of wet fabric over it [another incredible approach to stone] but in 475 BC, this was HOT!

Missing Pieces
11.
The boys. I miss them so.

12. This centaur used to be the greeter at the old entrance, overlooking the outer peristyle. He is simply stunning.

13. Ahhh, Marsyas, used to rest just inside the inner peristyle, in the room of smaller greek objects. He isn't large, but he definitely packed a punch.

It's interesting how in contemporary times viewers think these pieces are stunning, but their original state is much more garish, gawdy, and scary looking. Maybe I'll do another list on what the gorgeous marble and bronze sculptures would have looked like all tarted up.

Thursday 13 - 24!

The cutie and I spent most of November to the left of us, enjoying ourselves. Friday was spent doing laundry so the cutie had something to take on his trip, and I prepared for the book fair on Saturday. Well, I'm feeling overwhelmed with the to-do's and need to calm it all down so I'm going to share the trip with you all.

1. Our flight was delayed by 2 1/2 hours. This left us with a bunch of drunks who were loud and obnoxious, but that was the worst thing they did. About half way through someone behind us collapsed and there was a dash of oxygen tanks and what not, and the drunks all stared with their mouths opened. Sorry, I'm not a crash viewer, at the worst moment in someone's life, the last thing they need is to be stared at.

2. Because we were to the left, I was the driver - for the entire time. We had our first Prius and it was great. Quiet, faster than I thought - apparently the optimum speed is 65, or so the cutie kept telling me, but I drive 10 over the speed limit minus a couple to make it not worth a policeman's time to pull me over. Okay, I hit the 80's a couple of times.

3. There's a different mindset where I was brought up compared to where I am or to the right of us. People to the left of us don't talk about miles, they talk in terms of how long it takes to get someplace. The drive from the big airport takes about 1 hour 15 to my Mom's, 2 hours with traffic. At one time during this visit we used Google Maps for directions and there it was time with and without traffic! Anyway, this time it took a shocking 45 minutes and there were miles where there wasn't a car to be seen. I kid you not, this has never happened to me, there's always cars on the road.

4. First morning, it was all about settling into the usual. We hit Jean Paul's for coffee/chocolate milk and croissants and sat in the sun relaxing. The jeweler who made my ring [an old family friend] came in for his morning constitution and joined us for a bit - this is what we do when we're there. Next we walked into town and hit Friends of the Library for a couple of books, and last, to the beach to read until someone came to feed the birds - ahhh! Went back to mom's and then dashed across the road to sit at our favorite spot overlooking Rockpile. No surfers, they're working on the hillside so the beach is closed.

5. We made it to my nephew's soccer game on Saturday - he's a speed demon! Anyway, they were winning so we felt comfortable in leaving early to make the local theaters showing of American Gangster - didn't want to have to drive to one of those metroplex things. Wow, what a flick!

6. Big sis took us on her errands day - cutie didn't believe me it was an exhausting endeavor. I've since been told by niece 1 and 2 separately that she tones it down for me. Anyway, we lunched, shopped and found our Christmas tree. If we're here for the holidays we head over to a local farmer and chop one down - but after seeing this gem, we figure a little more fun is in order. What is it? A 7' pre-lit palm tree :-) The tree's been ordered because the cutie worried they'd sell out of them...kid you not...so there will be a pic [maybe I'll set it up outside in the snow - yeah, that's part of why we did it, a palm tree in the snow suits us just fine].

7. Mom was being honored at her work with a special dinner and we weren't sure we were going. Well, once we found out we were going, it was a mad dash out to get the cutie a tie, coat and pants. I wore the dress with inappropriate cleavage with my leather jacket - give us a break, we were on holiday! Nephew was fantastic, dressed up in a coat, tie and real shoes - that's a big deal, and ontime!

8. We did a wine and cheese night up at big sisters house. It was lovely, although I couldn't drink any [an adamant no drink and drive, lost far too many classmates back in high school to this practice and don't need to see it as an adult], although it certainly smelt delicious. They also gave me my b-day pressie - it was back in September - and I LOVE it!

9. Sitting out catching some serious Vitamin D, the brother-in-law and nephew phoned and asked if we wanted to meet down at the cutie's favorite haunt for beers and nachos. We put on some shoes and walked down to join them. After the third round we went across the street to the beach and watched brother in law and niece #3 surf, and nephew swim. Then a school of dolphins came by and we watched them for a while. It was simply divine.

10. Thanksgiving came and we all went up to the big sisters. They hosted a fabulous feast for 13 of us. We watched a little football, chatted with the nieces and nephew, helped a smidgen, ate plenty, and were home in bed for 8:00pm.

11. There was a visit to Fatburger, Ruby's, Husky Boys for cheeseburgers - yummy in my tummy! We also hit the Royal Hawaiian for ribs and lapu lapu's - delicious! Went out to Thai Bros with the big sister and BIL, our anniversaries are within five days of each other, so it was all about celebrations and trying to talk them in to a trip to the right of us so we could show them where all their kids have been. We also visited a new Thai place so I had plenty of tofu to gnaw on.

12. Throughout our time there, and every time we go, Jean Paul's is where everyone met up with us at some point - even my big sister came [JP bothers her but if someone else will order, it's all good]. It's lovely when family and friends come and go from the table. We set something up or just natter for ages while sitting in the sun.

13. The cutie and I did only one organized thing and it was because I hadn't made it up there yet and really [really] wanted to go. The Getty Villa has reopened. This is someplace I spent months of my life at and I wanted to see what they'd done to it and some of my favorite pieces. I think I'll save all the details on this one for another TT. Now, to share with you how the cutie thinks, he was all excited to go because there was a big fire going on at the time and had hopes of seeing flames or something - nope, there wasn't a black cloud to be seen, it was simply lovely!

So, I'm sure you picked up on the trend for our trip...basically we did sod all except sit out in the sun and vegetate. Nice! Now I'm back and it's flippin' frigid! No, this isn't my usual it's 65 and I need a jacket, it's like 30 and to the left of us will be in the 80's tomorrow! It snowed on Sunday, on top of all the leaves that fell the day after we left - ahhh, the joy of Autumn. So beautiful and done in a few weeks, now we're left with copious amounts of leaf blowing. Bring on the hot chocolate!

A bit of random ridiculousness...

I think the cutie has worked our travel plans to be in the US for today and the opening of The Simpsons! We've been gone, but he dashed in to the office to submit his expenses, go out to lunch with the gang and be back in time to take me to the 3:05 show.

Doh!

I wonder if I'll get a donut instead of my usual Rasinettes...hmmm, I don't think I'd fuss much over that.

A bit of random ridiculousness...

Oh, this one is good...it's Friday the 13th and I'm off to the doctors!

I'm going with the concept that all the bad luck assigned to the day will have an opposite effect on me today - told you, I'm a positive thinker :-)

UPDATE: They lost my appointment so I try again on Tuesday unless it hits emergency stage - positive thinking has taken a solid hit to the gut today :-(

Thursday 13 - #12!

Yeah, it is officially the first day of Summer! What does this mean to me?

1. Sun!
2. Sand!
3. Surf!
4. Sunscreen!
5. watermelon
6. bikinis
7. fruity cocktails like Lapu Lapus
8. sunglasses
9. shorts, t-shirts and thongs
10. umbrella
11. bbq's
12. tan lines - blech!
13. BOOKS!

There are others like Beach Boys, Gidget, the smell of zinc oxide [childhood memory, sunscreen has moved on], bonfires, oh and roasting marshmallows. Actually they are all obvious for me, but what about you? What says summer to you?

A bit of random ridiculousness...

As a child, the start of summer came around Memorial Day when my Mom would take us to the shoe store and pick up a new pair of Bernardo sandals [Mistral's in white]. When I was older, and could walk in thongs without making an obnoxious noise, then those were bought. It usually meant a few nasty stubbed big toes but the tootsies were free so I was happy.






Yesterday I went out and bought two pairs of cheap and cheerful thongs - light pink and soft blue. Like books I have thongs dotted all over the place.

I've been tagged!

Yup, returned from a break and found my backside had a tag on it...thank you Miss. Sherrill!

So let's get to it! 8 random things about me:

1. I start every day with a half pint of chocolate soy milk.

2. I'm terrified of birds.

3. I love to travel, see new places and try new things, but also love sleeping in my own bed.

4. I wear glasses - blind as a bat without them and can't handle anything coming near or touching my eyes so no surgery or contacts.

5. I enjoy foreign films - especially ones from China.

6. I'm happy being lost in a museum.

7. I like white food - potatoe, corn, cheese, twinkies, sugar, etc.

8. At times my granola upbringing comes out, like: I think the Yankees are suffering from a karmic backlash for how they treated the cutie when he was hurt.


Who am I pressing the tag badges on to?

1. Michelle Pillow
2. Ali
3. Dionne Galace [oops, she did it already so go here to read :-)
4. Aurora Black
5. Stella and Audra Price
6. Yvette Hines
7. Melissa Schroeder
8. Brenda Williamson


For those I've tagged, here are the details:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Thursday 13 - #9!

Hiya Everyone!

I'm back from the land of sand...kind of. Yesterday I took a nap so I could stay awake long enough to attend a friends American Idol party [don't watch it but my Mom does so knew a little something last night] and today is all about laundry, oh yeah. Since my mind isn't up to snuff, I thought I'd give you 13 things I did while I was gone.

1. Yes, sat on the beach and edited a few stories - but mainly sat there and enjoyed the zen state while wave watching.

2. Ate at Husky Boys 4 times - 2 for burgers and 2 for grilled cheese.

3. Went to Jean Pauls even though I don't drink coffee [sipped on chocolate milk and nibbled on lovely buttery croissants].

4. Read Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone [US it's something else, sorry I'm still tired and can't think] and have the next on my bedside table. Said I'd start the series when she announced the release date for the last and I am :-) It was good but the amount of [...] when not necessary are driving me nuts!

5. Shopped and ran errands with my sister - ahhh! These days are always a shock to the system.

6. Was really frustrated with the quality of mobile service between the cutie [in the Swedish Arctic Circle] and myself...but still had a good laugh when his hosts treated him to a play: Amadeus in Swedish [no, he doesn't speak the language], the texts coming out of there were priceless!

7. Saw more progress in Mom's cat toward socialization - although I still think Tashie is confused about whether she is a cat or a seal.

8. Feasted on Mom's poor man taco's [the recipe is now available in Lori Foster's 'The Write Ingredients']

9. Drove 8 hours with 7 other family members, and yes, I was given the hump seat [grrr!].

10. Attended my eldest nieces college graduation [sniffle sniffle] - she's off to law school in the fall, yup proud as a peacock auntie here.

11. Bought a dress without trying it on for the event and when I saw the picture taken at the ceremony I see why the cutie really liked it and made us late.

12. Went to a bar at 7am to watch the FA cup final [Man U was robbed!] and started the day with 3 Newkie Brown's then went with the entire family to eat breakfast at the Pork Shop [nice name].

13. After everyone else left, spent the day with the two oldest nieces - took them for fish & chips and then parked ourselves in the Lush Lounge for a nice send off. Bad Auntie, the second oldest niece isn't of age yet.

Sigh, so back for a bit and time for laundry.

Thursday 13 - #8!

Hmmm, the cutie took me to see Hot Fuzz last weekend and we were trying to figure out where it was filmed. We never thought of Wells, Somerset. Anyway, here are 13 words the English say others may, or may not, know:

1. Tosser = an insult, and refers to someone who masturbates
What a tosser!

2. Faff = fuss
Don't faff with it, everythings fine.

3. Nosh = food
Let's get some nosh.

4. Kit = clothes
Get your kit off!

5. Whinger = constant complainer
You are such a whinger.

6. Welly = put some force behind a kick
Come on, put some welly in it.

7. Slash = go to the bathroom
I'm going for a slash.

8. Hols = vacation
How were your hols?

9. Muggins = fool
Muggins here fell for it.

10. Plonk = cheap wine
Let's go get some plonk for later.

11. Nowt = nothing
I know nowt about that.

12. Knackered = tired
Tommy's not going, he's knackered.

13. Lurgy = indeterminate illness
We both have the lurgy.

Oh what a glorious day...

1. It's beautiful been a stunningly beautiful weekend and we're home to enjoy it.

2. Yesterday Man U. drew with Boro so the household is at peace [even though the cutie has a call for "we've been robbed" missed penalty.

3. Last night we went to friends and the cutie played with his birthday present - copious amounts of sticks, twigs, bottles and cans to burn in a barrel while drinking copious amounts of beer. [Yup, this is how combustion scientists party, and yes, there is an element of safety involved, not that it is obvious to us laymen].

4. The cutie is bbq'ing burgers - mmmm.

5. The Devil's WON bring on Ottawa!

Oh what a glorious day today is :-)

A bit of random ridiculousness...

The cutie picked up the kettle, ready to clean his prized possession [an electric speedy kettle for those quick cups of tea], right there next to my mini frother and a jar of mini-marshmallows.



When he took the kettle over to the sink, better light, uh-oh, he discovered I make a mess when making a cup of hot chocolate. In my defense, the mini frother works best if the blade is hovering around the top of the liquid, hence the fine splatter. I thought I'd be honest here and change the contrast on the pic - show the evidence in all it's glory.



Get over it cutie, I'm not going to stop making the good stuff :-)