Archive for July, 2008
July 30, 2008 at 9:05 pm · Filed under blather
I’m not even sure this will work, but I’m checking email on my Palm TX and thought I’d try to post. Right now I’m in a hotel lobby in beautiful downtown Minneapolis. We’re going to the UM tomorrow for a full-day program about the College of Liberal Arts. Moon already knows she wants to go there, but this is a chance for Pete and Peter to see what the fuss is about.
Peter is a tiny bit fussy because we’ve been walking today (Mall of America — touristy!) and we had a pretty huge dinner. He fell asleep when we were watching So You Think You Can Dance.
SYTYCD was especially outstanding tonight. Moon and I are so glad that Mark had a chance to shine again after being saddled with less-than-stellar partners the past few weeks. Everyone was good, actually.
In other news, a four-hour car trip makes for impressive progress on the latest knitting project. Unless you’re driving, of course. Fortunately for our safety, I rode shotgun.
July 20, 2008 at 7:25 pm · Filed under idol
Here’s the whole photo set. I only uploaded the better pictures. Moon took lots of concert photos, but our seats were not good enough for them to come out very well. I’ve learned not to reserve floor seats unless they’re right in front. Now I know!
July 19, 2008 at 8:37 am · Filed under idol
So, I was going to try to post every day all month, since July’s topic is FOOD. And I love food. But somewhere along the line, I lost my momentum. But I have two announcements today:
1. Dark Knight rocks.
2. American Idol concert tonight. Woo!
That is all.
July 11, 2008 at 10:13 pm · Filed under spiritual
Today was the hottest, most humid day I can remember in a long time. I was So. Crabby. I wasn’t happy with any of my clothes, and my body felt huge to me.
Kirtan made it all better, naturally. The room at Jewel of the Lotus wasn’t any cooler than the outdoors, but I quickly forgot about my discomfort when the chanting began. My bad mood disappeared. Magical!
Moon went mini-golfing with a group of friends in the afternoon. She was outside for about 3 hours during the hottest part of the day. I think she was a tiny bit crabby as well, but after she changed clothes and complained a little, she headed to the movie theater with some different friends. (They saw “Hellboy 2.” Good flick, they said.) At least movies are in air-conditioned comfort.
Me, I’ll take kirtan.
July 10, 2008 at 8:38 pm · Filed under blather
Hey, the party last night ended up being a lot of fun… although I’m scratching several sizable new mosquito bites today. It was BYOGI (bring your own grill item) so I bought two sirloin steaks. They grilled up beautifully, and I ate ALL of mine. Oddly enough, it didn’t make me feel overly full because I didn’t have much else.
The guest of honor was completely surprised, and I snapped a picture right as she realized what was happening.
In other news, the American Idol concert is a week from Saturday. Yowza!
July 9, 2008 at 3:14 pm · Filed under blather
…but we’re going to a surprise birthday party tonight, and I’d really rather just stay home and watch So You Think You Can Dance. I’m sure I’ll have fun once I’m there, and I can just watch the tape after I get home.
This is one of those times I wish we had TiVo, because our VCR doesn’t always give us the best quality. Also, the kids have to remember to press “record.”
July 8, 2008 at 3:54 pm · Filed under moon (rachel)
Today is Moon’s birthday, and to celebrate, Pete and I opened a checking account for her and switched her “kid-friendly” savings account over to a full-fledged statement savings account. With online access, a debit card and everything.
She was happy to see how much she’s accumulated already. For some reason, this whole banking thing really hits home to me that she is almost an adult. Wow.
We also went out for Chinese food at lunch. I think it’s another birthday-cake-for-dinner night.
July 7, 2008 at 5:05 pm · Filed under blather
Salon has an interesting article today about the prominence of bacon in pop culture. Just think, you can buy a bacon bra, wrap it in bacon paper, and festoon it with a squirt of bacon perfume. Sexy!
July 5, 2008 at 5:38 pm · Filed under family
We celebrated July birthdays (me, Moon and Sister #3) today at the homestead. I was gifted with oodles of spending money, and I just made two online orders with some of it: a Knitter’s Block (which I’ll have to wait until August to actually get) and a pair of Toms Shoes.
Moon is upstairs playing Guitar Hero III, and I’m thinking about joining her soon. I’m moving slowly because we ate so much uncharacteristic-for-us food today. Brats. Cheeseburgers. Ice cream cake. Regular cake. Blueberry cobbler (excellent, and probably the most nutritious of the offerings).
Somehow Peter is still mobile despite having eaten 3 brats and 4 burgers (or maybe it was 4 brats, 3 burgers). I have a feeling he might not eat again until tomorrow, but I could be wrong.
I guess the whole bottomless-pit-male-teenager thing isn’t just something the writers of Archie and Jughead made up.
July 4, 2008 at 8:45 am · Filed under friends
My friend Patti’s sister Jeannie died last night after an intense, exhausting battle with cancer. First breast cancer, then several years later, ovarian cancer. She lived 3 hours away but used to come to Madison to do Race for the Cure with us. This was the first year she couldn’t make it. The cancer was back this winter, and she had extensive surgery in January. Then there was nothing more that could be done.
I didn’t mention this earlier, but I saw her last weekend. Patti doesn’t drive, and her husband works long hours, so various friends had been taking Patti to see her family. I volunteered for a turn, because I really wanted to see Jeannie again. It was a humbling experience. I met Patti and Jeannie’s 93-year-old mother, who is robust and witty. Jeannie had a stroke a few months ago, and her vision was affected. She could barely squeak out a few words, and the morphine had her sleeping much of the time. Her skin was stretched over her bones and was yellowed from liver failure. I knew I wouldn’t see her again.
I can’t imagine the loss that her family is feeling right now. The only consolation is that Jeannie is finally free again.
July 3, 2008 at 1:37 pm · Filed under mememe!
What do these foods have in common?
banana
celery
pickle
gizzard
liver
Thousand Island dressing
cucumber
prune
white bread
Tags: nablopomo
July 2, 2008 at 1:53 pm · Filed under fitness
I’ve been more and more enamoured with Twitter lately, and it seems like almost every day I see a nifty new way to use it.
Today I discovered Tweet What You Eat. Basically, it’s a simple way to keep a food diary. Just log into Twitter, follow Twye, visit the Twye site, and you’re good to go. All you do then is to tweet a direct message to Twye every time you want to add something to your day’s intake. (Example: ‘d twye 1 cup almonds’)
Then you can go to your page at Tweet What You Eat and see your full food diary. You can even edit your entries there. Pretty cool!
Tags: noblopomo
July 1, 2008 at 10:30 am · Filed under family
We have a birthday tradition in our family: the birthday person gets to choose a restaurant at which to dine on the special day. I chose India Darbar’s lunch buffet, much to my children’s delight. Rarely do we dine in the restaurant. However, we order carryout often enough that the staff recognizes us.
On Peter’s birthday in April, he chose dinner at India Darbar. When our waiter found out we were celebrating, he brought us complimentary mango ice cream. He gave us some more next time we ordered carryout.
As we were paying for today’s lunch, the subject of my own birthday came up. Our waiter said that if he had known, he’d have brought me a glass of wine. I thanked him and said it was okay since I was headed back to work.
My kids thought it was the coolest thing. And we all loved the buffet. My favorite dish is palaak paneer, but the spinach dish on the line was just as good.
July 1, 2008 at 8:43 am · Filed under mememe!
