Signs o' the Season

Some folks look forward to carved pumpkins, witches smashed into doorways, children dressed up as their favorite superhero. I look forward to pumpkin pancakes at IHOP. When I first learned of this concoction, I turned my nose up at them. But then I smelled the cinnamon and nutmeg, saw the beautiful burnt orange color and decided that I had to at least taste them before rejecting them. And I'm so glad that I did! Such a wonderful experience for the mouth.

Thanks G for introducing me to them.

Luminosity

So we spent a weekend in Laguna a couple weeks back. We went to the Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters on Friday night. Then followed it up with Coldplay at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, on Saturday night.

The Pageant was amazing as usual. I realize that it's all lighting and makeup but WOW!!!! They really do look like the paintings. And how they manage to stay still for that long is a mystery to me.

But the big excitement for us was the art festival. Local artists, from Laguna Beach, are showcased in the the area outside of the amphitheatre where the have the Pageant of the Masters. When we went a couple of years ago, there was one artist that we really admired but were just too poor to afford. In the back of my head, I was hoping that maybe we could afford something this year. But now, the guy is untouchable to peons like me. One painting was going for $20,000 and the other was going for $30,000! Just for comparison, his paintings two years ago were going for $5,000.

So this year when we found a painting we loved, we bought it! The artist's name is Carolyn Reynolds. The painting we chose is just luminous. She applied gold leaf to canvas and then used oil paints over the gold leaf. Stunning, isn't it? But the picture doesn't do it much justice so you'll just have to come and see for yourselves.

Coldplay was good. The show was too short but they got most of the songs that I like. They closed with "Fix You". And I was near to tears. Even Craig enjoyed the show and he's not one for loud music. I'm dragging him to U2 with me in the fall. But I'm sure he'll be loving that show too.

Alaska!

We cruised Alaska to celebrate our 10th. We left Seattle on July 9th and sailed to Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria on the Diamond Princess. While it was beautiful and worth the money we spent, I will never again go cruising. Turns out, I get seasick! Well, we knew that already, but I had thought that Dramamine and Scopalamine would help me. Oh well. Here are some photos for your enjoyment. Here's a picture of a pretty glacier we saw on the way into Juneau. Here we are all done up for a float trip down the Mendenhall River. That's Mendenhall Glacier in the background. Don't we look great in yellow!?!

Roses, Roses, Roses!!!

Here are some roses from my garden. Aren't they gorgeous!?! And they smell as good as they look too. They keep growing despite my best efforts to ignore them. I go out every couple of weeks and clip away at the bushes. I'll bring up about 2 dozen blooms after throwing away about as many. I keep cutting, and they keep growing!

X&Y

I love Coldplay! I've been listening to the new album for a couple days now and I pretty much love every song. Some more than others of course but man! All the songs rock! I can't wait to see them in August. I convinced my husband that we needed to make a weekend of it in Irvine. So we'll go down on Friday and take in the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts and Pagent of the Masters. Then on Saturday night, we'll go to see Coldplay and come home on Sunday. I'm so stoked!

Annoying People

So, thanks to the technology known as Caller ID, I finally realized that we have a crank caller. Her name is Pamela Norris. At least that's what the caller ID says. I don't know why she has chosen to bother us. And she does it in such a seemingly innocuous way. She calls in the dead of night and upon answering the phone, she will quickly apologize, say she has the wrong number and hang up. It seems that all she wants to do is have a little fun, by making you get up in the dead of night, none of the really obnoxious stuff like heavy breathing or bad jokes. To be honest, I'd almost prefer that.

The little research we've done has shown us that she's calling from a cell phone. When I tried calling her back she answers, "United Airlines." Then she gave me a ton of attitude talking about how I'm harassing her, and hung up on me again. Can we say, "Bee-atch?" I know I can...

I called the police and they are hoping that since I've called her on it now, she'll stop calling. I hope so. I get to tell her the police will be looking for her if she calls again. Oooohhh, fun.

My latest music choices

So my dear friend, SS, asked me the other day to let her know the name of a song she had heard while shopping. She sent me a snippet of the lyrics and I googled and came up with Ben Lee's, "Catch My Disease". It's a catchy little ditty and my daughter begs to hear it every time we get in the car. She's trying to get all her friends into it too. As Bridget Jones would write, "v.v.cute".

I had to see if it was on iTunes and that got me shopping some more. So, $20 later, I am now the proud owner of digital tracks by Howard Jones, Gorillaz, Powerman 5000, and Queen!

It turns out that my 4-year-old loves, "We Will Rock You". I don't know where he learned that from but when I played the Ben Lee tune, he thought it was "WWRY" because of the beginning and was very disappointed when it didn't prove to be what he thought. He's such a quirky boy. His favorite CD to listen to is Eric Clapton's Greatest Hits. He loves listening to "Cocaine". I don't even want to THINK about what that might mean.

The Howard Jones is such a pleasant sound. It's fairly upbeat lyrically and musically. It makes me remember tortured teenage years in a more rosy light.

That's all I can say right now. I really need some water.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to me! I have three beautiful kids that seem to be growing well despite me. Isn't it wonderful?!? All I can hope for is that they know how much I love them and want them to be all that they can be. I sound like a bad army commercial.

Late Night

I'm sitting here, listening to my husband snore away. Oh wait, he just turned his head, he's just breathing heavy now...hubba, hubba.

How do the things around us interact with the genetic material within us, to make us into who we are? I wish it were easy and we could say definitively that it's one or the other that really makes us into who we are but nothing in life is that simple. I'm not good with nuance and it makes it very hard to live my life sometimes. I have this amazing gift/ability/curse, to insult people when I'm trying to give them a compliment. I'm slowly learning that I should stay away from comparative sentences and just stick to the basic, "Wow, that's really nice."

I would really like to be able not put my foot in my mouth all the time.

I'm tired and whiney so I'll say good night now.
"Good night now."

This Night Has Opened My Eyes

I can see! I went and took the plunge today. I got LASIK done to my horribly nearsighted eyes. Aside from some light sensitivity and feeling like I have something in my eye, I'm feeling mighty fine. I have to say that when I took off my eyeshields after 5 hours of mandated rest, I felt like Paul (the one in the bible) when he had the scales fall off his eyes and he became a new man. Except that I'm a new woman and I'll be keeping my name but I do love God.

So they gave me valium before the procedure to soothe my nerves. But it really didn't do much for me. I got more out of my yoga breathing exercies than I did from that pill. I honestly wonder if it was some sort of placebo. They gave me two more to take at home so that I could sleep the 5 hours of eye shields away and it really didn't do anything for me then. I did sleep for maybe 2 hours but not because I felt that I had to. Maybe the valium has a much more subtle effect than I thought. But when the nurse tells you that you'll be feeling a little "drunk" after taking one, you gotta be thinking that two would really throw you for a loop. It was a major diappointment in that sense. I think a percocet would have worked better. Now I'm supposed to sleep all night and I'M NOT TIRED!!! Maybe I'll try some Nyquil tonight and see how that works.

Final thoughts, if you've been thinking about LASIK, DO IT!!! I have great doctor to recommend, Dr. Alan Berg in Sherman Oaks. He's kind, gentle, and his staff is great! WOOHOO, no more glasses or contacts!

Fun in the Sun

I love my backyard. It has a swing set for the kids to fool around on and soft grass and lots of other plants to enjoy. We were able to share our little slice of green with my sister and some other friends today. It was so cool to look out the window of my bedroom and see my 4 y.o. son having a water gun fight with his dad and baby brother. They were having such a blast! This was definitely one of those days that reminded me why I wanted to have kids.

More Guilty Pleasures

So my dear friend reminded me that I had a fondness for Rick Astley back in the day. I guess he would fall into that 80's realm. And boy did I LOVE him. Sophomore in college and I had a big poster of him on my closet door. I said it was to bug my roommate at the time, but some folks knew the truth. I had a thing for the puny English man with red hair and a big voice!

"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna runaround and desert you!"

But I guess I did since I married my baby, CCM.

Childrens

It's spring break for the kids and I'm stuck at home. Playdates bring me some respite but otherwise I'm trying to fill 6 hours of the day that I didn't have to before. I find that the music that suits my mood most on these days is the Smiths. There's something about Morrisey's mopey lyrics that brings a lightness to my heart. Sick, no? Then of course there is the lovely music that Johnny Marr would write. I love the tune of, "Golden Lights".

"Sheila, take a bow. Punt the grime of this world in the crotch dear..."

I guess I'm just happy that no matter how pathetic I feel, there seems to be someone worse off than I.

Guilty Pleasures of an 80's Mod Wannabe

Janet Jackson, Kenny Loggins, Dixie Chicks, Fleetwood Mac, Indigo Girls, Randy Travis; Earth, Wind and Fire; The Gap Band, ABBA, Avril Levigne, J.Lo, Santana, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Run-DMC, Backstreet Boys, InSync, Justin Timberlake, James Taylor, Britney Spears...can't believe she's breeding, Hall & Oates, Celine Dion...I really want to see her show in Vegas, Eminem, Kylie Minogue...

I could go on but I'm dying of shame. But why can't we like all kinds of music and still be cool or hip?

Paul Hester

Paul is dead! The drummer for one of my all time favorite bands apparently committed suicide. To do something like that when you have two kids is just unimaginable. To what depths had his depression taken him? What things were so pressing on his mind that they would lead him to such a drastic response?

Death is...what do I say? Final? Obviously, but what if you're a Christian? That it would be the beginning of something greater, is easy to say but hard to believe. If I have a strong faith in God, why does death scare me? Maybe it's the process of death that I fear. Folks always say they want to go in their sleep, no suffering. I agree with the no suffering, who would want to lie in pain for days or be like Terry Schiavo, trapped in a body that will no longer respond to your commands? But on the same token, wouldn't it be nice to have some notice, like that afforded by notice of a terminal condition, so that I could get all my shit together? Say goodbye to friends, arrange for my kids to be cared for, etc. But who's to say I would use my time wisely?

I don't know what I'm trying to work out here. I just don't want to die right now.

Here goes...

So my blogging life begins. I have no agenda, no grand scheme or idea to hoist upon the world at large. Just thoughts that travel through the caverns of my mind.