the day after the night before

and now, dragging my sorry behind around the house wondering how the hell i'm going to get myself together for our inthedamndarkmorning departure sunday morning. the MITM, bless his heart, made a real greasy spoon/hangover cure/get you walking upright breakfast and i think it might work...or not, we'll see, it's still early.


so, there it is. i'm thinking clean underwear in my suitcase, something to wear after a quick cleanup after the flight...and i am hitting the labor day sales on monday. yes, it's true, i shall labor in the retail fields and do my bit for the cali economy! and besides, if i have to try and pack today, i'll make poor choices and end up with a stuffed suitcase filled with mismatched clothes totally inappropriate for socal living...or my daughter's fashion sense!



we're on our way for a week with the people who call us, mom and dad! because it really is. . .

a meme of sorts from expat@large

i nicked this from e@l who in turn got it:

From People's Republic of Tung Chung:


"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.”

And so here’s the list, complete with the following instructions:

* Look at the list and embolden those you have read.
* Italicise those you intend to read.
* Underline the books you LOVE.
* Reprint this list in your own blog.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
6. The Bible (catholic school what do you expect)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (saw the movie on dvd)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (saw the movie)
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (and everything else he's written!)
75. Ulysses - James Joyce (i've started this a gazillion times, so i've probably read the entire thing)
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (in french! and english)
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

now, if i knew how to underline text, i could have let you know the books i absolutely loved but, i don't and anyway, does it matter? what were your favorites? let me know if you copy the list on your blog.

speaking of books, i picked up a couple of airplane reads....(like i couldn't have gone to my own bookshelf and found 2 books i haven't read yet *remember my retail therapy this past summer?*...) patricia cornwell's book of the dead - her character, kay scarpetta has set up her private pathology practice in charleston, south carolina and james lee burke's swan peak - another dave robicheaux novel, this time set far and away from new iberia, louisana in montana. can you tell my favorite genre?

almost the weekend

friday starts the long weekend for most americans - labor day marks the end of summer and the beginning of the countdown to my birthday or the end of the year aka new years eve/december 31st. so, in the spirit of all things slacker...i'm probably done blogging until i get back on september 8th.

or not

y'all know me well enough to know i could post every day, never miss a beat and still have fun times with the chillun's.


we'll soon see.

mid week update

1. #2 son aka not fredo, and his lovely dancing wife will be back in the states 30sept! their madridnik days are over and life begins again for them out in cali. *point of clarification: #2 son & the dancing lady will be arriving in tampa to see her parents and then driving here to see us, then driving across country.*

2. the MITM & i are taking off for a week long vacation starting this sunday. we'll be back in our little town on 08sept. not sure if i'll blog while i'm away, but the MITM did say he'd do a guest post documenting the trip when we return.

3. we're going out to supper with our BFF tonight. we have resos for friday night and a party to attend saturday night, soooooo, all we need is someone to feed us on thursday and my kitchen can stay going away lovely until we return. (i hate leaving a messy house because i hate coming home to one!)

4. i'm still having weird dreams.

5. i did not watch the dnc last night.

what's going on in your world? sometimes a list keeps everything in some sort of warped perspective for me. because, yes, right now, today, this moment...it is all about ME!

magical realism & i are thisclose

jack cafferty is one of my favorite curmudgeons, probably because he's outspoken and as a political commentator has never been afraid to ask the tough question. he is one of the few who will and has admitted to drinking the koolaid on issues (iraq) and when he's found out the truth of the matter (there were no wmd's), admitted his mistake and revised his thinking. there's a great bit of his commentary under his name about the clintons and the convention, or as he calls it, "the beverly hillary-billies come to denver."

so, back to magical realism and politics...if you accept magical realism as ...the interweaving, in an ever-shifting pattern, a sharply etched realism in representing ordinary events and descriptive details together with fantastic and dreamlike elements, as well as with materials derived from myth and fairy tales (definition courtesy of M.H. Abrams' A Glossary of Literary Terms), then you have a marginally clear understanding of my approach to the political arena. i am the worse kind of cynic - underneath it all, i believe in the goodness of humanity, even though i doubt that goodness will prevail most of the time.

which is probably why my dreams of late have been of death.


a musical interlude:

let's start the week off . . .

thanks to cap'n chaos, here's a link to a real cool online site and store ropeadope!

i'll be back!

things i've read today

digging ourselves a black hole a nyt op-ed piece by gail collins

too much of a bad thing another nyt op-ed piece by maureen dowd

the ongoing story of the war against northern aggression from the atlanta journal constitution, a q&a by jim auchmutey with historian david williams.

an l.a. story one of the lat's columnists that super nana turned me on to.

there was more, but i've been awake for hours (i had the strangest dream that i think i'll share with y'all later) and now i need more coffee.

we will get the government we deserve...

i could not pass this up. shortly after i heard about this, i watched a report on cnn about the top 10 ceo salaries in the united states. the disparity between the the oracle ceo and an average tech in the same company 82+ MILLION v. 75 THOUSAND is obscene! multiply this scenario across this country and you understand the title of this post. greed is NOT good. we are better than this.

have a great weekend!

~~~~~~

2 things happened recently, i got dropped from a blogroll and someone asked "who the heck are you?" humbling, darlings, absolutely, burst your bubble humbling. i'm jes sayin

today is a washout already

i have a cold.
i feel miserable.
it's cloudy outside.
a truly miserable day.

BUT, all things considered, we dodged a bullet; the drought index is lowering; no lives lost in the area, property damage in florida, but stuff is replaceable. people aren't. we're catching the outer bands of rain here with high winds, but nothing to worry about. (as i type this, i can see rain coming down at 45 degree angle...)

BUT, all things considered, the MITM is watching emeril live which means we'll probably have salmon for supper tonight. there's a lovely bottle of prosecco chilling. and i'm going to have leftover enchiladas for lunch!

so, while i may have a cold, i may feel miserable, it is cloudy/rainy/miserable outside, i am safe in my home, my family is safe, my city is safe and i have no reason to complain about anything. and i'm not, i'm jes sayin...

this has been a week to consider mortality and be grateful for what one has been given.


~~~~
here's a great idea: no regrets

In Memory of LeRoi Moore 1961-2008

new things

thought i'd share some new stuff/people i've found. bock also has a list up, so go check his out, too!

the yummy list

tina

leon

all the places we've been...

~~~~~~~~
afternoon/evening update:

we're making enchiladas. i was hoping the the MITM would take some pics so that i could post the recipe for dive since he's been so kind as to blog his experiences learning to cook pinoy cuisine and also, because he asked that folks who wanted to post old favorite recipes do so and let him know. so there it is. it also helped that the MITM had a serious jones for enchiladas today and did all the prep work, including making the sauce from scratch....so, back to cooking...maybe we'll take a pic of the final product.

update

hurricane fay is heading towards the florida keys. there is a possibility of it coming it this way. we're all watching the weather station.

so, there it is. another wait and see week here in the southeast!

i've been asking the MITM to do a guest blog here, but he's hesitant.

my brain has turned to mush!

(did anyone see the mccain/obama inquisition this weekend? am i the only one bothered by faith based questioning in a secular society? aren't american values supposed mean acceptance and defense of differences, not imposition of will or religion. freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.)

a milestone, of sorts

this is my 600th published post!

i wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the fact that i had to log in to blogger today.

damn sure wish i had something a bit more meaningful to say!

thank you for reading anyway!

memories are made of this

the MITM is fixing lunch as i type. today is grilled talapia fillets served with 3 cheese tortelli with sliced roma tomatoes drizzled with olive oil.

one of the great things about having him home is the fact that he loves to cook and never has a chance to do that in deepestdarkesthottest africa. one of the things he does while he's away is concoct favorite meals to prepare when he's home. yesterday it was seafood risotto - followed by a small field greens salad. the aperitif was a fume blanc, the main wine a sauvignon blanc, followed by dessert - new york cheesecake and champagne. we were 4 at supper, so all of that wine was not consumed by just the 2 of us although, we could have done it easily. anyway, all i have to do is set the table and clean up. fair trade agreement as far as i'm concerned!

what can i say? these moments almost make me forget the long periods of time we spend apart. i guess that's part of the reason i'm writing about all of this, to remind myself of better times when i'm all alone and eating take away out of the box.

anyway, we're going to see the dark knight this afternoon and then meeting friends for tapas and drinks later tonight.

*sigh* he's in the kitchen making jokes and fixing lunch and having a grand old time....

we're drinking a dry white wine...
dessert is fresh raspberries drenched in freshly squeezed lemon juice and sprinkled with sugar.

it's the simple everyday things we do together i miss when he's away.

i'm stuck

i've written three different posts for today and not finished one.

damn good thing i don't get paid for this.

and away we go

ok, so here's the lowdown on the weekend

first, the MITM took pictures which are still on his camera or maybe on his macbook, but they aren't here. the bride was lovely and the groom suitably hip and well attired.

secondly, there was drama! are we surprised? every wedding has some drama and this one was no exception...BUT, one thing i've learned... no names and very few details in this small cyber world should be publicized....so, let's just say...3 sisters - need i go on? think of every wedding you've ever attended, been part of, heard of or seen...yeah, the back story was DEEP and yet, as my daughter-in-law said to her cousin: one day your little sister will realize just how foolish she was today! and it's really true, #1 sister held her head high, was gracious and absolutely stunning the entire time...the 2 younger sister were just that young & foolish. now, culturally, there are differences, but those are superficial, the human story is the same: bridezillas!

outside of the wedding festivities, we had a chance to drive the 86 year old traveling diva around atlanta. she's only changed planes in atl and never visited the city. lest she sound like the country mouse visiting the big city, the diva mad the move to savannah from los angeles, so she is definitely a city gal! anyway, a fantastic dinner at Oceanaire restaurant, brunch the next morning at the flying biscuit near marietta. if you're ever in atl, head over to the original near candler park! great fun at any of the locations, but the original is too divine for words, darlings!

so, what about the apple store, savannah? talk about a major letdown, sugar! someone didn't do their market analysis correctly because that store in lenox mall should have been a stand alone 2 story deal like the one at the grove in west los angeles. it was insanely crowded and understocked and i was ready to buy some merch, baby! we only bought some software ( boring)... of course, now that i'm home, my ipod (which really is old) decided to die!!!!! talk about mistimed planned obsolescence. i did find all the other things on my shopping list - refills for my fountain pens, some kitchen stuff from williams-sonoma and product from lush. i am consoling myself with the idea that this was not a "make savannah happy" trip, but a "do the right thing & celebrate a wedding" trip. anyway, i'm not complaining, the best part was seeing mr moose and ms. nancy for a few days! the traveling diva had a blast and in the end any excuse for a party is aces with me!

yeah, that's it. sorta like every other wedding post...we laughed, we cried and then we ate.

oh yeah, i forgot to mention...it was a dry wedding!!!!!

in lieu of. . .

i have a post i've been working on about the wedding, BUT. . .we've been messing around with the macs and new software and dumb techno junk allthedamnrainyday.

tomorrow will be better.





i hope.

there's no place like home

speed limit 55, i drove 65

speed limt 65, i drove 75

speed limit 70, i was hot rodding at 80 and above.

minimum 4 hour drive was done with no stops and in 3.30 hours.

who says women can't drive?

great weekend, more tomorrow.



the MITM celebrating!

fasten your seatbelts it's going to be a bumpy ride

we are leaving savannah at 5.30 in the damndarkmorning! i haven't been awake at that hour on purpose since ghostfacekillah was here! now, i have to admit, i have gone to bed at that hour since then, but that's slightly different. (and no, i'll not give any further explanation of my actions.)

anyway, it's a 4 hour drive up to atl, give or take a few stops along the way. we'll hit the hotel, drop the 86 year old traveling diva off and then hit the apple store! yeah, baby, we are doing some serious commando shopping there and the lenox plaza. i have a list!

there will be more later.

(have a great weekend, darlins!)

i'll not watch...

the beijing games.

not that it will matter in the grand scheme of things, but it is my own story, as momo said and knowing what i know and seeing the effects of the chinese incursion/colonization of africa, i can not and will not watch.

i wish the athletes well in their quest for personal achievement.


perhaps it is time, as captain chaos suggests, for the ioc to consider a return to holding the games in greece in a much simpler and certainly, less economically insane manner.

~~~~~~~~~
to hell with it all!
my copy of waiter rant: thanks for the tip - confessions of a cynical waiter by the blogger known only as "the waiter" has arrived! i am going to read this afternoon....and then pack tonight. or maybe i'll just buy something to wear to the wedding in atlanta and not bother packing a bag!

let's just not mention that to the MITM.

This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.

no relation to anything going on ovah heah, i just like the movie! although, it is getting crazy mad busy for the MITM since we're taking off for the weekend and he'd like to not have work looming over him. of course, we'll both have mobiles and laptops with us. the hotel does have internet access and we're never really out of contact - even though i wish it could happen for sustained periods of time and not just short dead zones on the highway or my living room (thank you t-mobile, my living room only has sporadic reception).

~~~~
once again, our little town and the deep south is under a severe heat and storm alert. we even made the national news! i have only 1 thing to do today that will have me out, but after that...it is home, sweet air-conditioned home for me.

i'll be back later.

as an aside: how many of you are planning to watch the opening ceremonies for the olympics?

it is HOT, HOT, HOT!

98F

if you factor in the humidity, it FEELS LIKE 109F.

that's right, deep south, hotter than georgia asphalt hot.

we're under a heat advisory - which means stay inside, if you do have to go out dress in light clothing, drink lots of fluids and generally, move slower than the breeze.

thank goodness for central air.

i had a meeting at 9.30 in the morning. i was not happy. i am only marginally happy now.

BUT. . .

it was business, not personal, so it will pass by the end of this writing.

and it has.

blogging after being outside in the georgia heat, is akin to blogging while drunk - something to be avoided.

i'll be back later.

later, oh yeah, it's even hotter now! but tomorrow it should cool down to the low 90's and might even rain.

and y'all wonder why

we're such strange people



down here in the south. . .

and even later, amazon delivered to my door v for vendetta and coping mechanisims by si schroeder this afternoon. i can't remember who turned me on to si, but i am really glad y'all did! and wonder of wonders, netflix also delivered 3 dvd's: vantage point, romance & cigarettes and you kill me. we're so not leaving home tonight or tomorrow!

i should skip today

here it is after 4pm and i'm just thinking about an entry.

so, we'll leave it at that and i'll do better tomorrow.

i promise.

~~~~~~~
hitch

yeah, it's one of the MITM's favorites!

and just when you thought it was safe

when you've decided to quit smoking and have been successful for any length of time, whatever you do (and trust me on this one key thing) do not, repeat, do not even think about...do not watch blue in the face wayne wang's tribute to brooklyn and tobacco. the actors are all stellar, but i swear, all i could think of was every gorgeous, slender cigarette that i've lovingly held between my lips...the wisps of grey smoke drifting up and away....and then...another ..leaning into the light, feeling that first rush of heat again...(but only in my mind, of course)...i am lauren bacall for a moment...

*sigh*

it all seemed so appropriate after dinner tonight...

i miss smoking!!!!


(i think i'm going to amend my rules and turn them into guidelines...you know, like the pirate code.)

another sunday in savannah

playing flated blues notes on wine glasses...and watching movies.

what a great day!

saturday in savannah and not oxford, mississippi

errands to run today:

wine shop
bookstore
going out of business sale at a local cookshop

and seeing that it's noon...i think brunch is in order first.

yes, it's true, i am as shallow and vapid as the next southern belle today, but only because...ok, i can't think of a reason, just bear with me, ok?

i'll be back.

afternoon update:

so, there i was stuck in traffic here in our little town...parents taking advantage of a tax free weekend to buy clothes and school supplies for their lovely little darlings. my lord, it was downright UGLY! the parking lots were jammed packed, the roads overrun with cars and all i wanted was a couple of bottles (ok, half a case) of wine and a collection of short stories. oh yeah, the close out sale was a total bust. i should have taken that as a sign that nothing was going to go well, but, hey, i caught up with our BFF couple...anyway, i did get the wine, i did find my book and i tried to do the right thing at every opportunity. you know, let a car cut in front, waved thanks when someone let me over, let a woman with children go ahead of me in line...my own sort of retail/driver's karma. in fact, i spent today in my own sort of southern expiation of fault/sin/self-indulgence...and i feel cleansed.

a bit sticky, but it is the south.

la di dah. . .

totally caught out! and delightfully so! the MITM will be home late tonight! so, now i'm cleaning house and tossing out take out/take away containers.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

earlier this week or maybe it was yesterday, dive, posted a cover of "old 55" done back in the day by his group, the blind willies and it was the right tune for a feeling that was simmering in my personal coffeepot.

anyway, back to the why of this

the last few days or day or maybe, it's just the beginning of the end of summer scent of decay (note to self: time to read faulkner again) old tom's '73 voice, the image of the record player and being closer to the end than the beginning is sending this ole gal around the bend...or on a bender. thinking of moments lost, words unsaid and things i'll never see. . .

it's difficult being the one who hears the sadness.


jaysus, i need to go see momma mia. i need a joke!