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Since I last wrote life has been busy and fun. Marty and I went to a production of West Side Story a couple of weeks ago, which got me listening to soundtracks again. I've been playing that one and The Music Man a lot. Those are two of my favorites of all time!

Last weekend Maria came for a visit and we had a blast. We spent a day in Northampton, Massachusetts. Another day we went to a party and played croquet. And one day we drove into New Haven and got lost. We also upheld the Outback Steakhouse tradition, which was begun way back in November 1997. Mostly we cruised around in my car and listened to music, and talked and talked. That's always my favorite part!

While Maria was here we went to see Ricky Martin in concert!!! He puts on an amazing show! The thing I like best about Ricky Martin is that he really wants people to have a good time without worrying about what other people think. Yes, that really is my favorite thing about him. Of course there are some other things I like about him, too. Hee hee.

Other than that, things have been about like usual. Marty and I are building the bookcases (yes, still!) and we've both been busy at work. We're going to a cookout tomorrow and on Sunday we're hosting a dinner with our monthly potluck group. So it's going to be a busy weekend!

Updated:
I'm not going to list RW Redux every time I update it. I think I'll be updating it more frequently than the Today page.

Nails:
24K Frosted Ice (fingers)
CocoLoco Pride (toes)

Speaking of exercise, a friend at work convinced me to join the gym with her and we are supposed to start going together this week. I don't know how I'll like it. I've never belonged to a gym before. It's one of our benefits -- the company pays most of the membership. That means you see people you know from work all the time there.

I was out in the sun all afternoon and it seems to have raised a rash on my upper arms. I'm not burnt, I was careful to put on sunblock, but I'm just kinda bumpy. Very odd.

I'm getting used to the new graphics on Raspberry World. As you can tell, it wasn't a major redesign by any means, but it's nice to have a slightly different look after all that time. There is still at least one of the old title images on the site, though. It's in a very out-of-the-way location. Can you find it? I'll be very shocked if anyone does. Hee hee.

Updated:
RW Redux
Site graphics

The weblogs on Blogger tend to fall somewhere between journals and personal guides to the web. But one thing that most of them have in common is that they are damn attractive. Some of those people really know what they're doing when it comes to web design. So when I went to make a title graphic for RW Redux I started fooling around a little bit and decided maybe it was time for some new graphics around here. So that's what the update is today; the graphics on the site. If you see anything funky with the new stuff, like if it's not showing up or something, please let me know.

I like the weblog thing because it seems a little more interactive than journals and personal sites. I've been feeling that silo effect again around here, so I'm hoping the log can get me out of that rut. That doesn't mean the Today page and the Journal are now totally obsolete, though. I'll still be working on them too. But I think Redux is going to be the most frequently updated part of RW for the next little while.

Super Duper Space Saver
I saw this ice cream in the freezer at the grocery store this week, and it said "New Space Saver Package!" on the box. And the cartons did look a little more compact than the normal ones. I asked myself, "how did they get a half gallon of ice cream into a smaller package?" Of course, the answer is, it's not a half gallon. It's 1.75 quarts. But of course it costs the same as the half gallon. I guess you have to pay extra for the space-saving package. Now that's what I call creative marketing.

The day did improve after that, thank goodness.

Marty and I are still building these bookcases in the living room. We're actually doing some of the painting now (before we assemble them completely) so that was what we worked on today.

This evening I watched Being John Malkovich on video. What a cool movie! Since childhood, I have been fascinated by the idea of waking up in someone else's body and looking out of their eyes.

It's been a busy month. I traveled for business and so did Marty. I had some job interviews and was offered a job (which was not the job I want, so I didn't take it). I started a new campaign to clear up the clutter in this house. Lots going on. But tonight I am just working on a birthday CD and trying to type with a cat sleeping on my hand (he likes to put his chin on my hand like a pillow). At least he's not leaning his shoulder on the escape key. That makes things extra difficult.

That Glenn Miller concert we went to at Yale last night was really good.

During the first part of WWII, Glenn Miller was stationed in New Haven to train and command the army bands that went out to entertain the troops. The concert last night was a re-enactment of the performances from the 1940s, complete with military uniforms and the original musical arrangements. Here's an article about the concert from when it was performed in February.

And Yale's Woolsey Hall, where the concert was held, is really beautiful. It's an old auditorium with two balconies, shiny varnished wooden seats, a painted and gilded ceiling, and this gorgeous old organ with art-deco painted pipes over the stage. I want to go back there for more events, just to take in the atmosphere.

But I haven't seen them in years, because somehow I lost my copy of The Color Kittens. So I finally thought, well, I'll look for a copy on eBay. After all, I've found all kinds of things I missed from my childhood on eBay, including a Dazey ice crusher. Sure enough, I found the color kittens listed on eBay -- but can you imagine my shock and dismay when I discovered that the 1949 kittens had been updated in the mid-90s? Oh, noooooooo!

the REAL color kittens

the imposters

The story, apparently, is the same, but the illustrations are new. Of course, the original illustrations were my favorite part! Well, the good news is, my color kittens are still around. The bad news is, they're collector's items. Still, I should be able to find a copy of the real color kittens somewhere for not too much money. But I'm so glad I discovered this travesty before I bid on a book and it turned out to be the wrong one.

As an aside, I recently discovered a much more recent book with similar themes, called Mouse Paint. It's about three mice who like to paint, and they discover the same thing as the color kittens -- that yellow and red paint combine to make orange, yellow and blue make green, and red and blue make purple. No, mice can never take the place of kittens, but they're pretty cute, too.

Updated:
Gallery
(again)

Listening to:
The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks
(Soooo many good songs on this two-disc set: Ruby Tuesday, Under My Thumb, Mother's Little Helper, Sympathy for the Devil, Satisfaction, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Paint It Black, etc, etc, etc . . . )

Eating:
Purple Pez
(I don't think you can actually
call it "grape")

Have you seen the new Chrysler PT Cruiser? It's quite a car. Someone around here has a deep red one and I see it out on the street every now and again. Makes me want to head out to the strip with my Dion and Beach Boys tapes.

Tomorrow night Marty and I are going to a concert of Glenn Miller music at Yale's Woolsey Hall. I have loved Glenn Miller since I was 11 years old and saw The Glenn Miller Story starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson. Soon after that, my grandmother gave me a tape of his music that I played for years and years. This concert at Yale should be interesting -- it's a re-enactment of actual radio broadcasts that Glenn Miller made from Woolsey Hall in 1943.

Besides the Rolling Stones album mentioned at the left, I'm also listening to several home-baked CDs this week:

• Time of Your Life is a CD I made for Maria's birthday (which is today) and I really like how it turned out. I worked on it for a couple of months, although the song list and cover art were only finalized in the last two weeks. This compilation isn't really built around a theme, it's just a bunch of songs I think are beautiful and I thought Maria would enjoy.

• Dancing in the Moonlight is a great compilation by Laura featuring the music she's currently listening to the most: Neil Young, Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M., Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, among others. The music on this CD is very romantic in a rough and slashy kind of way, and the cover art is stylish and exquisite. A very interesting combination of delicacy and darkness.

• Child's Play is a compilation of Desmond Child songs that Maria made for me. You may never have heard this guy's name, but I would bet money that you can sing every word of some of his songs that were recorded by other people. Anyway, the CD is great, and it has some of my all-time favorite pop songs on it as well as some I didn't know before that are also proving to be addictive. I think he may be the true pop god of the last three decades.

• Finally, This One's for Me is my personal soundtrack, made by me for me. I love making CDs as gifts for other people and I do it all the time, but I hadn't really put the same kind of energy into one that was just for me. So I made this CD as a present to myself, and surprisingly enough it turned out just like I wanted. ;-) I get really good feelings from listening to this.

Well, this has been a week of ups and downs. I'm glad it's over. I'm looking forward to building some bookcases this weekend. Oh, yeah, and I updated the gallery with a few more pictures of the living room, if you want to see the final results of the painting. And I also added a few pictures of the house in spring.

Updated:
Gallery
Links

Check out these
Happy Easter Bunnies

Marty's new truck is a Ford Ranger. He's going to sell his car and drive this instead. It's great -- we hauled a bunch of stuff in it yesterday. It's pretty, too. Green, like my car.

I spent much of today organizing my craft room. It was so stuffed with shipping supplies (bubble wrap, boxes, etc) that I could hardly get to my rubber stamps or any of my fabric or paints. It took hours to get things under control. But I got some big boxes out of there at last, and made some headway on organizing all my art supplies and stationery. I also took a bunch of stuff up to the attic. And the best thing of all, I started pinning up a bunch of cards and pictures on the wall in front of where I work in there. Just any kind of graphic that catches my eye. I find that jumble of images very inspiring.

Then I updated the gallery with the latest pictures. It's not completely up to date because some of the pictures are still in the camera. But you can get an idea of what we've been up to.

Listening to:
Pink, "There You Go"
Dick Dale, "Death Tube"
Big Star, "Out in the Street"
Dar Williams, "What Do You Hear in these Sounds?"

And when I talk about therapy,
I know what people think,
That it only makes you selfish
And in love with your shrink,
But oh how I found
I loved everybody else,
When I finally got to talk
So much about myself . . .

~Dar Williams

The "Habitat for Marty" insulation project isn't going to happen this weekend after all. Just like everything else in this house, the walls are not what they seem. It only looked and felt like there was no insulation in the exterior walls -- when Marty actually started drilling holes in the walls we found that there was insulation. But not in the part we looked at first. So there's some insulation somewhere, but we can't tell exactly how much, or exactly where it is. And I don't think we can find out without either x-ray eyes or taking the walls down. No thanks. So instead of insulating tomorrow, we're going to skip right to the painting.

I have been haunting eBay lately. I bought some CDs for 89 cents, 99 cents, $1 each . . . even with postage, that's dirt cheap. Some of them were things I had been looking for, but others were just things I'd read about and thought I might like. There's something thrilling about ordering a CD I've never heard before. I'm finding some great stuff. My "Items I'm Watching" list today is full of Big Star, David Bowie, Velvet Crush, and Victoria Williams.

Oh! Dick Dale is playing at Toad's in New Haven next Thursday. He is the coolest. I may have to go, and make Marty go with me. Tonight I read something online about that Dick Dale song, "Mister Lou." (I'm pretty sure they meant "Misirlou.") I thought that was too funny. It reminds me of Lou, my pal who works at the pharmacy.

Joy oh joy . . . a four day weekend. I am taking a vacation day on Monday. I feel like I have the world at my fingertips!

The Latin Fest was lots of fun. There was food, dancing, a DJ, and two live acts. Oro Sólido is a merengue orchestra with four young guys up front who danced and sang and made the girls scream. Really high-energy music, with dancing to match. Jerry Rivera is a salsa artist, very suave and smooth.

What's the difference between merengue and salsa? Merengue is from the Dominican Republic, and salsa is influenced by music from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia and other places. You can get the details from All Music.

Or, the easier answer: salsa is made with tomatoes, peppers, and onions, and merengue is made with beaten egg whites. "I'll have a slice of lemon salsa pie and a cup of coffee, please."

First I found two purple purses, which I desperately needed. (C'mon, you know I needed a purple purse.) One is purple suede and the other is a sort of metallic purple like those purple gel pens. But then I managed to top the purple purses. I also found this:

It's deep blue vinyl with glittery flecks in it, not exactly disco queen but still festive. And that pocket on the front speaks for itself. Did that purse have my name on it or what? It was meant to be!

Updated:
Links

Tomorrow we are going to Latin Fest at UConn with some friends. The woman of this couple can talk more than anyone I have ever met. She is legendary for the time we met them at a Chinese restaurant and she talked for three hours straight. It was exhausting (to me, I mean). I finally excused myself after dinner, planning to go to the ladies room and rest for a minute. And she followed me in! And talked the entire time we were in there!

Speaking of talking, I talked to about 35 sales representatives on the telephone this week (don't ask). I feel like I've been talked to death already. But I'm looking forward to the Latin food and music.

Now, the way you put in this insulation is knock a hole in the wall, then use a machine that blows non-flammable shredded up newspaper through a nozzle to blow the wall full of insulation. But you have to do it in several places, because inside the wall there are supports that break the wall up into sections, and you can't blow insulation into the entire wall at once. You have to put it in each section separately (knocking a hole for each one). So you can see why we need to do this before we patch up the walls and paint them. Because after we paint we're not going to want to put holes in the walls. Fair enough. But then came, "As long as we're insulating the exterior walls in the living room, we might as well do the entire house." (Those of you who know Marty and me will know whose idea this was.)

Okay, now we're getting into a major project. All so we can build bookcases and unpack the rest of the boxes in the study! This is the point when you ask for help. So I called some friends, and Marty sent out an e-mail inviting folks to come and spend next Friday (a holiday) with us and help us blow insulation into all the exterior walls of our house. My favorite reply was from the guy who called it Habitat for Marty. Lots of people are busy (or just don't want to spend their holiday doing this, understandably). But it looks like some people are going to help. So we are feeling very lucky to have friends who are willing to help us with this.

And all you people who live in other states can be really, really grateful right now. :-)

So hold me
Love me
Tie me up and drug me
I'm not gonna beg you for my life

Someone to Pull the Trigger,
Matthew Sweet

In my opinion, Matthew Sweet raises power pop to a level that not many other artists do these days. I can't think of anyone whose guitar goes from sweet to blistering and back again as easily as his does. I think he is a musical genius. I also think he's not nearly as popular as he should be. I'm always amazed at how many people have never even heard his music. And doubly amazed at how many people have heard it and just don't like it. Even some people who otherwise have very good taste in music feel this way.

Well, you know, it takes all kinds. ;-)

Don't question why she needs to be so free
She'll tell you it's the only way to be
She just can't be chained
To a life where nothing's gained
And nothing's lost
At such a cost

Ruby Tuesday,
Jagger/Richards

Today at the post office I was right behind two women in line who got into a loud argument about who was there first and whose turn it was to go to the counter. I am always surprised at how stressed out I get when people around me are arguing or angry. It doesn't matter whether I'm involved in the situation or not. Have I mentioned how I loathe conflict? It's one of my defining characteristics. It's also something I've tried hard to learn to deal with. I no longer avoid conflict at any cost, but it still takes me a long time to work up the nerve to face it, whether in my personal life or at work.

On a totally different topic, I have long been aware of some nebulous connection between the Indigo Girls and Matthew Sweet. They don't play on each others' albums or mention each other in liner notes, but I finally realized a few days ago that they have the same manager -- Russell Carter in Atlanta. I don't know what it means, I just think it's interesting.  :-)

Winter's Last Hurrah
It's snowing here today. Snowing! Yesterday when we were painting the living room ceiling I changed into shorts because the sun was so hot in the front of the house. I don't know what to make of this weather. The ground is too warm for much accumulation but there is snow in all the trees and bushes and it's still coming down.

Inspiration
I was away from Raspberry World for a few weeks in the last month. I wasn't feeling inspired, true, but it was worse than that. Working on the page was making me feel sad and isolated. I don't know exactly why. It was becoming lonely and tiresome, and it didn't feel like something I was doing for myself anymore. But in the last week or so I've found inspiration from several sources. Spring weather, contact with old friends, good music. And I've also been inspired by the existence of this: KissTheRain. One of my dearest friends has started a new site, and I can't wait to see how it grows. :-)

I've been working on a CD for a few months and the track list is just about finalized, so I'm ready to begin the design. It's a birthday present, so I want it to be really special. But this design is coming on the heels of two long-term, complex projects and I'm feeling a little dry right now. So I just thought I'd write about the things I do to overcome that feeling and get things moving again.

One of the best ways I know to overcome writer's block is to read. When I can't seem to find anything to say, it helps to read something new, or something I love, and just enjoy the flow of words over the page. I'm not looking for an idea to borrow, I'm just letting someone else's creativity wash over me for awhile. It feels good. And in my opinion, reading really good writing is one of the most effective ways to enrich my own expression, because it makes me think. For design problems, I do the same thing. I have some books of art and photographs that I look through to remind myself of what I like to look at. I also look through my cards and postcards -- the ones people have made me or sent me as well as the ones I've bought. I spend some time looking through those things and thinking about the images and how they're being used, and how they make me feel.

Sometimes it also helps if I get out of my usual space. I'll take a trip to the museum or the library, or a walk out of doors. Even going to the grocery store will do, if I'm not in a rush and it's not too crowded. I find the produce department very inspiring, with all those fruits and vegetables, hundreds of colors and shapes and textures lined up in perfect displays. Or I'll look at the sky, or a tree, and just try to think of a way to describe it in words, or a way to duplicate some part of it in a design or an image. I have a few rocks from the beach that work great for this.

Even in design, I am more likely to be inspired by text than by images, so I'll also hit some of my favorite font sites, like the Font Foundry, Font Addict, or the Dingbat Pages. Sometimes a single character from a font or dingbat set will set me on a path toward an entirely new design concept. (New to me, I mean.)

And finally, I just take a break from working on it and let myself play. I'll scan in a photograph and use different Photoshop filters to see how distorted I can make it. Or I'll take a random image and change the color table to turn it into something strange and new. When I stop pressuring myself and just have some fun, I can feel my imagination start to work again. And sometimes I'll even come up with something I can use -- some of my favorite design elements are the products of idle hours spend fooling around in Photoshop.

Updated:
links

Just having the ceiling painted seems to open up the room a little. I guess it's brighter in there, so it seems a little bigger to me now. I am really looking forward to painting the walls, but first we have more patching to do. We should be able to paint the walls by next weekend though.

While I was painting, a few drops splattered off the roller onto Ziggy's tail. He is an all black cat, so he looked funny with white spots. I cleaned him up, of course.

Yesterday after work I called Lexmark about a problem I had been having with my printer (a Lexmark 5700). Sometimes the black ink cartridge would just release ink in places it wasn't supposed to, and it had become really difficult to get a clean print. I changed the cartridges but it wasn't any better. So I finally called. Turns out the black ink had made a big mess inside the printer, and the woman I talked to at Lexmark told me how to clean it -- paper towels and warm water. It took 45 minutes and a whole roll of paper towels, but it's printing like a dream today.

The tech support at Lexmark is very good. They are always friendly and helpful when I call. Once we had an ongoing problem and the Lexmark guy researched it and called me back the next night to help me fix it. They seem really thorough and accessible, which is a lot more than I can say about some companies' customer service.  (Such as UPS.)

This was a productive day. Now I am exhausted, so it's time for bed.

Songs found recently
on Napster:
Blood of Eden remix,
Peter Gabriel
Ziggy Stardust acoustic demo,
David Bowie
Velvet Goldmine,
David Bowie
Lime in the Coconut,
Harry Nilsson
Sixty Minute Man,
Rockapella
Kiss the Rain,
Billie Myers
The Bad Touch,
The Bloodhound Gang
No Better,
Jonatha Brooke & The Story

After work today I stopped by the drugstore to pick up a prescription, and I was waited on by Lou. Who's Lou? Hee hee. When we first moved to Hamden, the very first night we were here, we went out to dinner at a little diner nearby. It was just convenient, you know? One of those little diners where retirees hang out. Anyway, while we were eating, in walked this young guy dressed in goth from head to toe. He had long, dyed black hair, black eyemakeup, black lipstick, black fingernail polish, a long black skirt, black boots, the whole works. And a nose ring. Even better, he was carrying something that looked like a whip and a little tackle box (though I don't think he was going fishing). So you could say he stood out from the crowd, especially the crowd at the Acropolis Diner on a Thursday night. He looked like he'd arrived to terrorize the old folks. But the waitress knew him -- she said, "Hey, Lou!"

Now, maybe it's because of the years I spent in Athens, Georgia, or maybe it's because I'm related to Dixie, but I love people dressed like this. Some of my favorite students dressed like this guy. So I can't help myself. I get all bouncy when they come on the scene. So I was smiling when I saw this guy walk in. I was happy to see someone dressed like that in my new town. And I guess he thought I was laughing at him, because he turned around and sneered at me, "Wanna take a picture?"  And of course at that I almost giggled aloud. Not just a goth boy, but a surly goth boy. Even better.

The next time I was in the drugstore, who should be working behind the pharmacy counter but Lou? He was wearing a white lab coat, and his hair was pulled back tight, but I recognized him right off. And what do you think? He's the most polite, well-tempered worker you can imagine. He's very patient with the old people who come to the pharmacy, and he gets along with all his coworkers. Anyway, I see him there all the time. And today he waited on me at the pharmacy. So I wished him a good weekend. I wonder what he's wearing tonight.

It was still light when I got home, so I took a little walk around the neighborhood and looked at everyone's daffodils and hyacinths. A couple of houses already have some tulips showing, even. And the buds on the trees are getting greener and greener. That is very good news.

My sinus infection has reached the point when it's hard for me to lay down because I keep coughing. I hate this part, because the coughing always gives me a headache. I was in bed and couldn't get to sleep, so I thought I'd come and update here. Aren't you glad you got to read about Lou? Maybe tomorrow I'll write about the nice people at the Lexmark tech support line. They are awesome. :-)

You give us a tantrum,
and a know-it-all grin
Just when we need one,
when the evening's thin
You're a beautiful,
a beautiful, fucked-up man

~ Sarah McLachlan,
Building a Mystery

(Do you think she knew it was a song about David Duchovny?)

It's starting to be spring here in Connecticut. Daffodils are out all over town, and the bushes in my yard are turning green. The forsythia are blooming. There are some green willows down the hill from us, too.  I am looking forward to the warmer weather and the longer days. Spring makes me very happy. It's such a relief to have the winter just about behind us.

Katynka wrote me an interesting message today about my entry from yesterday.  Here's part of what she said:

Hmm.  Funny that you thought they needed to make Mr. Darcy more human and appealing.  I fell in love with him the first time I read it. . . . Do you mean that other people don't find cold and emotionally distant to be appealing qualities?

The thing is, I remember feeling just the same about Darcy the first time I read it.  To my 11-year-old mind, he was the ideal man.  I dreamed about him for months after I read this novel.   On closer reflection, I think they changed his character in this production not to make him less distant, but to make him seem more of a man to watchers in the 1990s.  I really liked the details they added about his life, the fishing and shooting and especially the fencing, yet they were details that I wouldn't have expected Jane Austen to include or even think about.  But this screen Darcy, more than any other I'd seen, was clearly a man living in a man's world.   And I liked that about him.  It makes him even more sexy.   Especially when you add it to the cold and emotionally distant thing.  :-)

Listening to
Eddi Reader
Matthew Sweet
R.E.M.
Homemade CDs
(what a surprise, right?)

I got a nice note from someone about my slash stories tonight. It was good to hear that someone is still enjoying them. I forget they're over there sometimes.

Unfortunately we haven't made a lot of progress on the painting this week -- I have been sick with a bad cold.   I missed work today and yesterday because of it.  Yesterday I slept a lot.   But today I decided to do something productive, and watched the 5-hour A&E production of Pride and Prejudice.  (Hey, productive is completely relative, okay?)  I have the Pride and Prejudice taped from when it was on A&E in 1996 or whenever.  It's funny to see all those old commercials now.   I remember how crazy my friend Shannon was for Colin Firth after it aired.  We ended up watching a bunch of his other movies.  Not that he had all that many, back then.

I also own the professional tapes of the BBC version from 1980 or so.  But this A&E one is my favorite, even though it's an updated version of the story, in my opinion.  Two things really stand out for me about this one.   First, Mr. Darcy has become a sportsman.  In the book he rarely appears outside the drawing room, but in this version we see him riding, shooting, fencing, playing billiards, and even swimming.  Oh, yeah, and we also see him bathing.   Ahem.  My hunch is that they added all these sports to make him seem more human, less priggish.  In other words, to make it more understandable why Eliza would come to love him at all.  The other thing I notice about this one is that they changed some of the dialogue quite a lot.  I didn't notice this so much until I watched it today with the novel in one hand and the remote control in the other.  I think the language was updated to make it more appealing to a modern audience.  But it wasn't done in an intrusive way.

The only problem I have with this production is the way Mr. Darcy's letter has been altered.  I consider this letter the central moment in the story, because it's the point when Elizabeth's feelings for him begin to change.   In the novel, he discusses his part in separating Jane and Mr. Bingley, then moves on to discuss his sister and Mr. Wickham.  In this production of the story, these two topics are reversed -- he discusses Wickham first, then Jane.  But the whole point of the letter is that he starts off by seeming very high-handed and righteous, and ends up looking very sympathetic when Wickham's true nature is revealed.  So I think it was a mistake to reverse the two topics of the letter.  It doesn't make as much sense to the narrative like this.  But then again, if this is the only problem I can point to, I think that says it's a pretty good production.

Well, did I come back to Raspberry World just to write an English paper?  Who knows.  I guess maybe I did.

Quotes of the Day:

"I just hope one of these things never falls into the hands of someone desperate enough to use it . . . "

~ James Taylor

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

~ Strictly Ballroom

This morning was no different. I woke up too early and tried to read for a little, but the headache was too much to deal with. I wonder if this is about allergies or something. It was so gray and yucky outside that I didn't even get dressed until halfway through the day.

It was horrible and rainy this afternoon so I took Marty to the grocery store with me. I certainly appreciated the company. Super Stop & Shop on the weekends is not my idea of a good time. Anyway even though the store was as crowded as ever, we had a good time. Of course we ended up spending 15 minutes in the easter candy aisle, but I guess there are worse things that could have happened. And while we were there they played two of my favorite songs on the PA system: R.E.M.'s At My Most Beautiful and Dave Matthews Band's Satellite. And they weren't even Muzak versions, they were the real songs! How cool is that?

So I came home and cooked a good dinner (Katy's pot roast, Laura's mac & cheese, and Marty made brownies from a box) and we had a friend over to eat with us. Then we all watched the movie Strictly Ballroom, which never fails to make me smile. And after the movie was over, I caught a rerun of James Taylor's induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame from earlier this week. God, he is just so funny and cool. And he still has the voice of an angel. You can't say that for every musician of his generation.

And now I'm feeling much better, actually a lot better than I have all week. Looking back over this entry, it seems that food and music and nice people have a lot to do with that. The weekend weather continues to be icky, but the forecast for activities is good -- tomorrow we are going to the museum in Hartford to spend the afternoon. I've been feeling visually deprived (no, not depraved) and I think a trip to the Wadsworth Athenaeum is just what I need.

Off to bed now, with a soundtrack of thunder, and rain on the windows.

Updated:
Recommended Reading

Yes, I finally updated the book page. And you thought it was just an empty threat! Maybe next I'll do the recipes. But don't hold your breath.

We are off to Pennsylvania this weekend. What do we have planned? Besides seeing Katynka and meeting Odin (aka the Orange Wonder), Value City awaits.  And we need to hit W. R. Hickey's and pick up a few cases of Yuengling lager. And don't forget Mario & Luigi's, the true home of the vodka sauce.

I just realized recently that I am homesick for Central PA. This is going to make anyone who knew me in grad school laugh really hard. But it's true. I can't wait to get back to Pleasant Gap and my old stompin' grounds . . . stomp, stomp, stomp.

Book:
Fire from Heaven, Mary Renault

Plans:
Sleep.  Much sleep.

I just finished reading Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault, a book about Alexander the Great's life up to the age of 20. This is the book that precedes The Persian Boy, which I fell in love with last summer. I can't say enough good things about these books. I'll write about Fire from Heaven when I update my book page. Someday soon!

Now I am interested in finding a book about the Sacred Band of Thebes, but I'm not having any luck. If anyone knows of a good book about the Theban Band, I'd certainly appreciate a recommendation.

Music:
Dar Williams
Melissa Ferrick
Bree Sharp
Counting Crows
R.E.M.
Indigo Girls

Toenails:
Seaweed
(it's kinda . . . green)

So I get on the Web for the first time all day, and in 15 minutes I run through my usual sites. Here's what I check: the weather, FPP, Thoughts of an Egotist, Raspberry World guestbook and music guestbook, Jan and June stats, and my two hotmail accounts. Now I feel connected again.

Just recently I've been doing some writing on my lunch hour and I'm finding it's a nice break during the day. Nothing groundshaking, but a good way to get some focus and get my brain moving. I have a book with journal prompts that I use if I don't have anything I just really need to write about. The prompts are anything from serious to silly. Today I wrote a couple of pages on Ziggy's deep, dark secret: he actually understands English.

I drank two glasses of iced tea at dinner and now my system is jitterbugging on caffiene. It's strange how you can be dead tired and all pumped up at the same time.

I actually got almost everything on my to-do list done this weekend, except for updating the Web site and answering the e-mail. Not too bad! I have the book reviews written longhand in my Hello Kitty notebook, I just need to find the time and energy to type them in and load them up . . . but I can't make any promises about the e-mail.

Updated:
Links

Weekend "to do" list:
laundry
clean bathrooms
make CD
read book
update book page
start packing for trip
use ground beef/chicken
copy videos
answer e-mail

but first I gotta go eat breakfast . . .

Thursday night I went with Marty and 2 friends to see the Indigo Girls in concert up in Storrs. Michelle Malone opened for them and played on several songs with them. It was like Atlanta night in Connecticut. :-) The concert was great. It was at the Jorgensen Auditorium at UConn, so it was a pretty small space with fixed seats and everything. It was such fun to see them again. And the music was great. I'm still feeling happy from it.

This morning Ziggy was complaining in that way he has, and usually I take it to mean that he's ready for breakfast. But when I got downstairs I discovered that he was complaining because his catnip dog, Spike, had jumped in the water dish and soaked up all the water. Eeeew. Poor Ziggy. Poor Spike.

Speaking of cats and their pets, this was forwarded to me from rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

QUESTION
I adopted a stray (guessed at 2 years of age) recently. I had him neutered about 8 weeks ago. I awakened early this morning to find him in the hallway-"making love" to a Beanie Baby! Is this normal?? The male cats I've owned in the past were all neutered as kittens, so I've never seen this behavior. Is it possibly still hormones? Should I discourage the behavior (i.e. divert his attention), or just let him "have at it"?

ANSWER
It's quite possible that some residual hormones are at work here given that the neutering was fairly recent..... If your cat is merely taking a trip down memory lane that isn't damaging to your household contents, why not let him enjoy the fantasy? If he's really active, could I send over some of my wife's Beanies for a good sound buggering?

This is just too funny . . . and anyone who knows the saga of Ziggy and the late, great Mr. Bunn (may he rest in peace) will know why.

Updated:
Black Monday

I am deep into MP3s these days, thanks to Napster, which makes getting them much easier than it is on the Web. My hard drive is filling up with all kinds of stuff, from Counting Crows to Cat Stevens; from the Rolling Stones to the theme from Shaft. It's just too much fun to download these things -- no wonder it's illegal. ;-)

So now I'm making a list of stuff I want to download using Napster. It looks something like this:

Guns 'N' Roses, Sweet Child of Mine & Paradise City
Salt 'n' Pepa, Push It & Let's Talk About Sex
Matthew Sweet, Speed Racer Theme
Jane's Addiction, Been Caught Stealing
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Give It Away
Marvin Gaye, Sexual Healing

And that's just the beginning. The list goes on and on . . .

It's a Monday, but hey, it's Valentine's day too. I like this holiday. But then, I like candy. Heh heh.

Necco
There's no fancy code on this page but I was struck by how effective the design is. I especially like their use of Necco wafers for buttons, and the titles they've made for the interior pages.

In the sunshine Ziggy's fur is shiny blue-black, and if you catch him at the right angle you can just see the deep brown stripes in his undercoat. He likes to soak up the sun until his body temperature goes up a couple of notches.

I read that cats are much more susceptible to skin cancer than many other animals, because they are such sun worshipers. It's true that although Ziggy's coat is dark, his skin is very fair. Almost paper white.

Speaking of cats, here's a postcard site with some of the funniest cat postcards I've ever seen. Katynka (a relatively new "cat person") gets credit for finding this one.  Be sure to check out the pictures on these Star Trek ones. Now that's a good use for Photoshop!

Updated:
Journal

Tomorrow I'm taking a Photoshop class all day.  It'll be great to be away from the office.  Plus I hope I'll learn all kinds of neat stuff I can use on my CD covers and web sites.

That Emperors of Chocolate book is great.  Somehow I started on it rather than the Vreeland novel, and I'm really enjoying it.  :-)

Book:
E. L. Konigsberg,
The View from Saturday

Music:
Too Much To Feel
Black Monday
More Music
(mixes, natch)

I just finished reading the 1996 Newbery award winner, The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsberg. I picked it up on my foray into the children's book section on Saturday. Her first Newbery book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, has been one of my favorites for years. I was very psyched that this one turned out to be just as good. I have always loved her characters.

Next up on my reading list: Girl in Hyacinth Blue, a new novel by Susan Vreeland. I read part of the first chapter online, and it was so interesting that I went out and bought it. In hard cover, no less. Oh, and to return to the subject of Pez, I also got The Emperors of Chocolate, that history/expose of the candy industry. There's a whole section on Pez and how secretive they are at that company. They're guarding a secret formula, I guess.

We're six weeks into 2000, you know that? I'm already ready for a vacation. I don't mean that in a bad way, I guess I'm just saying I'm worn out. I am making time for self-enrichment activities and all, like reading, cooking, writing, and listening to music, but I just feel stretched very thin. I need a break. Thank goodness, in a couple of weeks I'm taking a long weekend and going to visit Maria in lovely Detroit, Michigan. I hear it's a very popular vacation destination for late February. I certainly can't wait. :-)

Updated:
Gallery

Today I put up some new pictures of the house from the fall. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see the new ones. How I wish I had a digital camera . . . one of the things I like best about Viv's page is her use of current photos.

I also changed the Gallery. I know it's a terrible mess because I have the pictures located all over the site, but I haven't really decided how I want to organize this yet. I hope the next time I make a Web site I'm more aware of stuff like organization.

The clock is ticking and the weekend is almost up. Another Monday tomorrow. We have a newsletter launching tomorrow, so we'll spend most of the day finishing up last-minute editing and getting approvals for the articles. This is an electronic newsletter, not print, so "publishing" it is more of an upload than anything else.

I went by Barnes & Noble yesterday to pick up a book I've been wanting to read, and after I found it I ended up in the children's section. I wanted to get a new copy of Harriet the Spy to send to a friend . . . but all the copies these days have a picture of a most un-Harriet-like child on the front of them. The drawings inside are still the same familiar ones, but the covers are enough to put me off. I am sorry, but Harriet doesn't have long, curly, blonde hair. She just doesn't. I'll wait until a different edition comes out.

So, how did I find out about the burnt rice? Well I was on the phone, see, and I was cooking dinner at the same time (I often do this). I went to turn the rice off so it could finish cooking off the heat, except instead of turning it off, I turned it to high. It didn't take long before the whole house stank like the inside of a Lincoln Town Car driven from New York to Miami by four cigar-smoking old men. When I realized what I'd done, right before the smoke alarm started screaming, I ran and yanked the pot off the heat and stuck it outside the back door in the snow.

Despite all that, dinner turned out pretty good. I made the rice again in a different pot and we had a yummy roast chicken.

Toenails:
Glam
(purple and gold shimmery stuff)

Movies:
American Pie
So I Married an Axe Murderer
Groundhog Day
(comedies are the only kind of movies I can watch when the weather is this bad . . .)

I've been in a strange place the last week or so. I'm thinking a lot, but somehow Raspberry World hasn't seemed like the right outlet for what I've been thinking and writing. A couple of days ago I almost decided to start a new page. But then I thought, well, I love RW and I'm not tired of it yet. I guess whatever I want to put here will be right. That's what Celeste would tell me. :-)

I guess I just feel sometimes like I've painted myself into a corner. The graphics here are shiny happy graphics, and most of the time I feel pretty upbeat. I think that probably shows in my page and the things I write here. But when I'm feeling bitchy or pissy I think I tend to avoid updating the site. That's a lot different from how it used to be, I know. I used to vent a lot of my angst here. It's just . . . that takes energy that sometimes I don't have. Well, this is something I just have to think about for awhile.

It was an interesting weekend musically. I've been listening to a bunch of stuff I never heard before. Forces have converged to bring a lot of new music into my reach lately. I started checking CDs out of the library a few weeks ago, and got several things I'd normally never listen to. Maria sent me a cool new mix as well as some CDs she'd copied for me, like Tal Bachman and Hole (which are both great!). Then Rebekah made me a really great mix tape, with some stuff I knew and more stuff I didn't. I also got a couple of promotional CDs free with all different artists on them.  And today Sonal sent me a bunch of mixes with all kinds of music! I feel like I'm floating away on a wave of new music.

Updated:
Links
Who I Am

This morning we had snow, so I cleared my car and set off for work. The roads were so bad and people were driving so crazy that it took me over an hour to get there (it usually takes about 30 minutes). When I came out at noon to leave, the snow had turned to freezing rain (my nemesis) and I had to scrape a thick layer of ice off my windows and windshield. I actually had to use the claw on the back of my ice scraper! Later, when I went back out to go to dinner, I scraped off another layer of that ice on my car. And when I finished dinner, yet another.

So all day I kept thinking to myself, why do I live in New England? It's constantly dark, it's freezing cold, and I have to scrape my car four times in one day. I swear, if my husband and cat and house and job weren't in Connecticut, I'd be off to Georgia like a shot.  ;-)

But I had a delightful time at dinner. So I figure all that scraping was worth it, in the end.

Movies:
Analyze This
Pleasantville

Music:
NIN, The Fragile

Books:
Inside Picture Books,
Ellen Handler Spitz
James Joyce,
Edna O'Brien

I've been unpacking and organizing my art supplies, fabric, and craft stuff. I have just one shelf full of fabric, unlike Katynka, who has a whole room full. But I've got an awful lot of other stuff. I have all these special kinds of glue and paint for different projects I've done in the past. And my polymer clays (I wonder if they're still good?) and of course all my beads and rubber stamps.

Today was one of those days where I worked on one project all day long, and it was so engrossing that I hardly even realized when it was lunchtime, and then almost missed leaving at 5. It was a very productive day.

Tomorrow night I'm having dinner with a woman I met at a party during the holidays. She is an editor at a nearby company. I am psyched because she's one of the first people I've met around here who doesn't work where I do!

Akk, I just realized tomorrow's a new Buffy episode, and I haven't watched the one from last week yet. I hate it when I do this. Now I don't have time to see it before the next one. But of course, since I won't be here tomorrow night I guess I can just tape that one too . . . okay, disaster averted. WHEW. ;-)

Up bright and early on a Saturday morning . . . 6:30, thanks to my impatient cat.

Last night the moon was so gorgeous. The night before last there was a lunar eclipse, but it was snowing here so I couldn't see it. But as I was driving home last night I kept catching glimpses of this beautiful big silverwhite moon. It was amazing.

I have a lot of mundane things to do this weekend like go to the library, buy new underclothes, organize my craft (not kraft) supplies . . . but it's nice to have some plans that aren't too complex. Sometimes that's the best thing.

I feel stupid
And contagious
Here we are now
Entertain us

~ Nirvana

It doesn't help that two weeks ago I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing in my job, and now everything seems to be up in the air. We're supposed to be setting our objectives for this year at the moment and it's hard because every time it seems like we understand our role, we find out that we're actually supposed to be doing something else. That's very unsettling to me.

You know, with all the mixed messages we've been getting in the past two weeks I really want to stand up for myself and my department (even though we're dwindling), but I'm also afraid to piss people off because of what they might do to us. Already we've been passed around like a sack of potatoes. We were given a new manager and then told not to report in to that person. We keep getting put onto projects and taken off again.

This kind of reorganization makes you feel like a paper doll, like someone's picking you up and snipping off the edges so you'll fit into a new slot. And when you don't fit, they snip and snip until you do.

Anyway, I spent all day cannibalizing my pretty intranet site that I spent a month creating at this time last year. Now it reflects the new focus and makeup of our department.

Today at lunchtime I went to the Body Shop and Bath & Body Works and bought a bunch of lotion. The weather has turned unbearably cold, and suddenly I seemed to be out of everything. My skin was getting really dry and itchy. So I got my favorite, Body Shop vanilla, and my second favorite, B&BW raspberry. Now I can smell like dessert. And not be so itchy.

Well, I'm cold. I think I'll go to bed. :-) Just wanted to let the world know I was still breathing.

Updated:
Music

The stars are the greatest thing you've ever seen
And they're there for you
For you alone
You are the everything . . .

~ R.E.M.

I did an update to my music page a week or so ago but didn't upload it until today, because one of the CDs on the page was a birthday present for someone whose birthday was today, and I didn't want her to see the CD before she opened her present. But by now she should have opened it, so I went ahead and updated. You can see some examples of my home-cooked CDs over there now.

Cornershop is really cool. I got their album When I Was Born for the 7th Time at the end of December, and I really like it. I think it's kind of like a mixture of They Might Be Giants, Dee-Lite, and Semisonic.

Believe it or not . . . it's now the 13th of January and I have not yet bought a single CD in 2000. That's a pretty big accomplishment, for me.

Wonderful Music:
Cowboy Junkies,
The Trinity Session

Take it from me, this CD will take your mind off the Chicken Soup. Margo Timmins' vocals are ethereal and dark all at once.  I could (and did) play this CD all day and never get tired of it.

These saccharine inspirational books are everywhere I look these days.  I'm not even sure how many different ones are in existence. Some of the Chicken Soup (CS) books have spent over 60 weeks on the NYT bestseller lists. Here's a typical description of a CS book:

After you’ve read Chicken Soup for the Dental Soul, you’ll never think of the dental office and the professionals who work there in the same way again. Eavesdrop on kids at the dentist as they make you laugh and cry; delight in the hilarious Tooth Fairy adventures; share in the heart-warming experiences of service to the poor and dental missions to third-world countires; see people’s self-esteem soar and their lives turn around -- all thanks to the help of a caring dental team.

I find it difficult to believe how popular these books are.   But I suppose there has always been an audience for sentimental schlock, and there always will be.  Maybe this is just the modern-day equivalent of those sentimental poetry albums published in the 19th century.

Maybe you haven't encountered the full range of Chicken Soup products yet. Not only are there books (and books and books and books) but there are games and CDs too. You can check it all out for yourself at www.chickensoup.com (isn't that URL cute?). You can also submit your own stories to be included in the next CS book. They even have a co-promotion thing going on with Campbell's, it seems.

Aren't these books supposed to be uplifting?   Why am I getting so depressed? (Bring on Chicken Soup for the Skeptic's Soul . . . )

I am currently experiencing an emerging interest in the relationship of Violet Trefusis and Vita Sackville-West.  I think they're simply fascinating.  If anyone knows a good book, whether a biography or a collection of letters, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

It's unseasonably warm here these days.  Temperatures up in the 50s, even pushing 60 I heard.  It's making my allergies act up!

I have a huge bunch of 19 purple balloons in my kitchen. My department decorated my office before I came to work today and these balloons were tied all over. I brought them home in my car tonight, and it was so funny to try to stuff all of them into the back of my little Subaru! They just didn't want to be contained at all. But we made it. And still, not a single one has turned to the dark side. Hee hee.

I wrote down my birthday resolutions tonight, in my journal. I had a teacher recently who kept telling us that when we wrote our goals down we were much more likely to achieve them.  I've had that same experience in the past. It's almost kind of scary, how well it works.

Updated:
Links

Check out:
William Poutinen

On my fingernails right now I have sparkly silver stars. It's a special kind of nail polish (I got it for my birthday) and it's very fancy. Wow!

We had a lovely, low-key new year's eve up in Glastonbury with friends, and a nice day at home today watching football games.  I cooked hoppin' john (black-eyed peas and rice) for good luck in the new year.  I might just have to put that recipe up on my page.

The rest of the weekend promises to be somewhat less entertaining.  Tomorrow I think I need to take down the xmas tree (agh) and do a pile of laundry.  All in preparation for Monday, when Marty and I both head back to work.

I ran across this really cool new book that I want to get a copy of, but I think I'm going to wait until it comes out in paperback (if it does): Inside Picture Books by Ellen Handler Spitz. I read the first chapter online recently and it looks like just my kind of thing. It also got me thinking of some of my favorite children's picture books: The Grouchy Ladybug, The Little Engine that Could, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (by A. Wolf), and Goodnight, Moon.  Anyway I really want to read this book by Ellen Handler Spitz.

I got so many new notebooks for xmas and my birthday, I'm just in heaven. I could write every day for a year and not fill all these notebooks.  That's just the way I like it.  Because then I have a notebook for every mood.  And certain notebooks are used only for certain things!  It's a rule!

1999 Today Archive
1998 Today Archive