days with Frog & Toad

this is my current desktop pic.

It pretty aptly illustrates why I so love Frog & Toad. Their books are so simple, but are really touching too. They are such well matched compadres. I relate more to Toad who has kind of funny ways about him and doesn't really have his shit together. And luckily I have these nurturing, Froggish friends who patiently put up with that.



I can envision this whole college course-- Seemingly Simple Childrens Books and Their Complex Psychological/Philosophical Subtexts.



Here are some essay questions from the semi-final (it's open book, by the way)-



1. Describe Grover's journey to self-consciousness in The Monster At The End of this Book



2. Explain how Frog and Toad personify the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang...



3. How does Responsible Rabbit's behavior color his interpersonal relations with his Sweet Pickles neighbors?

diamond Davey

of all the important news in the news nowadays, and I zero in on THIS

Why bring the Dave back? Why now? Don't get me wrong-- Dave's always been my favorite lead singer of VH, but his relations with the band have been pretty volatile for the past 20 or so years. Maybe Van Halen are trying to set an example for the rest of the world, trying to put the message out there to "give peace a chance". Or possibly, since the original bassist is being replaced by Eddie's son Wolfgang , the thinking is that with 3 Van Halens vs 1 Diamond Dave odds, Dave might take it down a notch or two (behaviorally speaking)

New to my 'Net Faves List..

This site is pretty rad. Although I feel like many of these projects are above my skill level. I may have to start out with something like, how to make a pirate hat out of newspaper (which I already know how to do, but if I crafted one while consulting extensive step-by-step instructions with photo tutorial, then maybe I would make the BEST PIRATE HAT EVERRRRR.)

Pondering whether I want to add this one to my blog sidebar.. .

Beach baby, beach baby there on the sand, from July to the end of September...

I have a sorta sun-kissed glow leftover from yesterday. Incredibly, I have an actual real tan (and not a burn) and, if I'm not mistaken, my hair is a smidge lighter too.



Saturday I drove down to Medway, MA with Roxanne for some dinner/birthday party for her friend Charlene. We crashed at the aforementioned Charlene's abode and then yesterday the three of us did a day trip to Narraganset RI (Scarborough State Beach). It was a beautiful beach...clean..and most wondrous of all, I saw a grand total of 3 seagulls while there and they were perched high atop a building (blessedly far away from yours truly...in case you did not know..I LOATHE the gulls) I "swam" in the ocean quite a bit --I say "swam" with the quote marks like that, because I am NOT a strong swimmer and really what I mostly did was float on my back like driftwood. I am a whiz at the back float. But GAWWW-- I have a new appreciation for those that can & do swim in the ocean!! I nearly got knocked on my arse a few times!! It's not the final scenes of Point Break or anything, but Narragansett has some decent waves!! Oh, and I saw some skywriting. I'm used to seeing planes towing banners while at the beach, but this was the first time I'd ever seen skywriting. It sure woulda made for a more charming anecdote if I'd read "Louise, Will You Marry Me??" (And I suppose I would've also been charmed by "Sandra Will You Marry Me??" but let it be known that really I am wanting my grand marriage proposal written out in FIREWORKS across the night sky) but that 'twas not the case. No , instead I was informed that,apparently, there is "Hot Summer Fun at Mohegan Sun". Yippy skippy.

Dots and ginger ale

is my late Friday afternoon snack. The Dots box proclaims them to be "Assorted Fruit Flavored Gumdrops"but I do not think of Dots as gumdrops. Structurally, I realize, they ARE very similar but I don't think I can accede to calling Dots gumdrops. Aesthetically gumdrops are damn adorable but how deceptive is that because truly they are vile tasting drops of grodiness. But DOTS ARE DELICIOUS!! And I don't think they're doing themselves any favors by lumpin' themselves in with that lot.

Speaking of lumpin' and lumps for that matter...I don't think "Dots" is a name that aptly conveys the nature of these delish confections. I even think LUMPS would be a better name. Ohhh if only they'd had the foresight, back in 1945 when Dots were trademarked, to know that a candy named "Lumps" or "Humps" or "Bumps" (probably even "Wumps" really) had a good chance of getting that dirty harlot Fergie to shill them on TV. Ehhh...on second thought.."Dots " is fine.

Whatcha gonna do with all them Dots? All them Dots inside that box??

I know what you're thinking-- satirical rhetorical question--right? Well, I'm going to answer it because I have a Dots trick. Of course, I ingest them orally as your average Dots consumer would, but before I do so, I MUST honor my longstanding (and HILARIOUS) tradition of making Dots chompers. I impale 3-4 Dots (ideally of all different colors) onto my top front teeth--flat side down (this is important). Often this is followed by a couple minutes of me talking in a doofy Southern accent. I did this this afternoon...poking my head into my boss's office door with a "Huhhyyuck uh hi-ya Maggie!!" She was probably wondering why the hell she hired such a huge fool. I couldn't help it, I get so punchy on Fridays and I just can't not do the Dots teeth.

recent recasts

So...BIG TV news...Whoopi Goldberg is the latest recruit on "The View". I have never been a Whoopi fan at all, so I'm not okay with this pick (well, actually I'm fine with it, because I have never been a fan of "The View" either. But if, hypothetically, I even liked the show a smidgeon, I would be miffed by this casting call) But on the bright side..this may be our chance to finally get some answers to one of the most baffling mysteries of our time. Indeed, I am going to blitz "The View " with emails and postcards until Ms Whoopi makes with the backstory on her eyebrows...or lack thereof, rather.

At one point, I'd heard Kathy Griffin's name bandied about as a possible replacement, but I knew that would never happen. It wouldn't matter if Kath was on the D list , the Q list or the negative Zlist, she is WAY too rad for that shit heap of a show.Oh but if she had been cast, I probably woulda started watching it. I also heard that Roseanne was considered. She woulda been a good choice too. Now, to the untrained eye, Roseanne wouldn't seem like much of a departure from Rosie O'Donnell, but I beg to differ. I can't stand Rosie but I like Roseanne alright. I guess the key differentiating factor for me is that Roseanne seems to be pretty mellow and laid-back in her fat crabbiness, whereas Rosie is all GRRR! and in your face.

As for recasts done right-- I'm eager to see how Drew Carey does with The Price is Right. I suspect he's going to be a good fit for that show (which I'm really glad is not going off the air)

I heat up. I CAN'T COOL DOWN...

. . .. when I hear "Abracadabra". I know many music snobs consider it The Steve Miller Band's weakest song (a "sell out" song). But I LOOOVE it. It came on Accuradio this afternoon and I had to replay it 4 times to sufficiently get my fix.



Perhaps I just have an affinity for "sell out " songs. I love KISS 's foray into disco "I Was Made For Lovin' You" a song which is none too popular amongst the legions of the KISS army. On the other hand, I DETEST the song "Oh What A Night" and I happen to consider that a huge sell out for Frankie Valli & co. Well, I guess the original 1975 version wouldn't irk me too badly if it weren't for the utterly insipid 1994 remix (which sounds to me like they played the song over a backbeat from a circa 1986 Casio toy keyboard ) that remix makes me just hate the song in any incarnation. And I otherwise adore Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons ("Who Loves You?" being their absolute best in my estimation..with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" as a close 2nd & "Sherry" rounding out the top 3)
So maybe I like all forays into disco in general (and not just "sell out" songs) For instance "Shakedown Street" is my #1 favorite Grateful Dead song (remind me to download that one by the way). I love me some disco anyways. I don't why the whole genre is so sneered at. Disco is the Rodney Dangerfield of popular music. In fact, if Dangerfield had timed his foray into pop music just 4 or 5 yrs earlier then he could have had a very apropos disco single.

Defenestration

I thought for sure I'd posted before on how much I adore the word Defenestration. But, I searched my blog and that word is nowhere to be found. I know that I've jabbered on about it before (musta been aloud...to any officemates who'd listen to me. )

Anyways my prior omission of this word was a giant oversight. I love DEFENESTRATION. I shall leave the defining to Merriam Webster. . .

It's really definition #1 that I'm smitten with. I love that there's a word--and such a formal-sounding word-- for throwing something/body out the window. If someone were to really frustrate you, you could simply say "Uuuugh, I could just DEFENESTRATE that bastard!" and those listeners clever enough to have the 411 on defenestration will know just what you mean, and even better, to those who have never heard the word it sounds HARSH, and kinda implies all the nasty means of retribution you would've come up with...were you not so frustrated in the 1st place.

In Europe , it seems that defenestration is not only "a throwing of a person or a thing out a window" but it also seems to be an established form of political protest. I had read before about The Defenestrations of Prague and then today, when reviewing my July 30th famous b-days & historical events I read that July 30 ,1419 was the date of the First Defenestration of Prague (hence this post).

Holy Pierogi!!

Interesting...

If my French-Canadian ancestors came to me in a dream and said "Sandra, you are to cook the WORLD'S BIGGEST CREPE!!" Dream Sandra would be all "You want me to whaaa? For real? Do you mean an actual real crepe? This is not a symbolic crepe? "Crepe " is not being used euphemistically here?? WTF great great Pepere? A giant crepe??" Dream Sandra does not take directions very well.

more fuzzy memories

I had this album when I was a wee moppet...


One of the Lolliwinks had this ballad "If There Were No Colors" that was a real weeper.

Oh, and here are the Lolliwinks' arses...ch-ch-check it out--

fuzzy far-off distant memories

Robin was just remarking about some caller she had....name was Jaimie pronounced HIMEY. It made me chortle. I vaaaaaguely recall, back in grade school, we watched some documentary (on vid, it was not a filmstrip, though we did watch some of those) about a teacher--I think specifically a MATH teacher--and he had the name Jaimie (pronounced that same way) And it back then the name just amused me to no end. Well, presumably to no end, because it still amuses me at present. Let us just say that I see no end, in the immediate future, to my being amused by Jaimie prononunced HIMEY (you gotta put your throat into that H sound though). I shall be amused indefinitely.

When I try to think of this teacher that may or may not have ever existed (it's one of those memories so fuzzy it seems I mighta dreamed it--though why on Earth would I ever dream about a documentary on a math teacher??) the last name "Esperanto" springs to mind. But I know that's not his last name, it couldn't be his last name , Esperanto is a made up language, dreamt up in a fog of pot smoke in 1887 by some yahoo named Ludwik Zamenhoff. Ok , I don't know much about Esperanto (isn't that a line in some old song?? Hmm?) so I shouldn't knock it. As I often preach-- don't knock it 'til ya try it. I bet you ol' Zamenhoff would be down with that. And it would be cool to learn Esperanto, I mean I could think of 50 or so languages that would be more useful to know, but yeah Esperanto would be cool. I think I'm just going to add that to my resume "fluent in Esperanto". Because it may impress & intrigue potential employers and what are the chances any of them are gonna be truly fluent in Esperanto (& thereby able to uncover my lie)?? Yep, definitely adding that on there. And if a job interviewer says "Oh really?? Say something in Esperanto!!" I intend to just bust out my Jodi Foster as Nell impersonation.

Anyways, probably HIMEY'S last name sounds kinda like the word "Esperanto". I will probably never know...

Eric Roberts Update...

In my last post, I posited the question "What will Eric Roberts do now??" At the time, I was just sorta lamenting his exit from Heroes, but a while later , I seriously began to wonder about it. What will he do?? Is he just going to hope the whole Nancy Drew dealie blossoms into a lucrative franchise so he can retire and sponge off his daughter for the rest of his days?? I wouldn't think Er would go that route either, but even if he wanted to his lousy li'l sister would probably butt in and prevent it. Just WHAT is the story behind that rift anyways?? Does ANYONE know??

But I digress... I went to the mighty IMDB for answers& was NOT disappointed. That's goes without saying (even though I said it) 'cause it's IMDB , right?? Absolutely indispensible...
Anyways, seems I need not be worried about Er's career proverbially shitting the proverbial bed post- Heroes . He has got himself a role in the next Batman flick (The Dark Knight ...due out next summer) If that's not a primo project, I dunno what is. He'll be playing some character named Salvatore Maroni and I feel if I were a true comics nerd (and not merely a comics nerd dabbler-poser) then I would know just who that was. But anyways...great
job E-Rob.

I wonder what kind of a Joker Heath Ledger will make??? I believe that casting decision was pretty widely praised, but I'm a smidge skeptical. The most interesting thing I dug up about this movie was that Anthony Michael Hall is going to be in it. So yeah, guess he's been toiling away for 5 or 6 or I dunno how many seasons on some USA show that nobody watches, except that sporadically I will catch a snippet of it (the DEAD ZONE... woooh) while flipping through the channels and it will make me pause for a half-sec and think "Hmm. I do like that Tony Mikey Hall fellah" and then keep on a-flippin'. So I'm pleased he'll finally be in something I want to watch. I don't know why that excites me but it does.

ODD

The other day I was visiting the NBC website (checking for the 900th time to see if they'd posted up part I of the Last Comic Standing semis for viewing yet) I noticed they had a banner ad for PRIMATECH PAPER that proclaimed: " Management Position Now Available!" Hey-- why don't I do one better and show you the very banner...

Hardy, har, har...I watch Heroes , I get the joke. But I was curious as to what exactly I'd find if I visited http://www.primatechpaper.com/ I thought maybe there would be some "Easter Egg" type goodies (maybe an exclusive Season 2 preview where 'tis revealed that Eric Roberts wasn't killed after all!! As much as I applaud HRG's heroics, I love me some Eric Roberts!! What is he going to do now anyways?? God help him if he goes from Heroes to cameos in more Mariah Carey videos!) But when I got on the site it was very generic, straight forward...asks for your name, email address, DOB, etc . After that there were a few questions that totally reminded me of the replicant test from Blade Runner. I filled out the thing, I used a fake address & phone # but I did use one of my actual email addresses. So I was expecting, since there was really no goodies to be had on the site, maybe I would get some novelty email or something. Nope...doesn't seem to be the case. Nothing in my inbox thus far. So, I suppose the site is just mirroring Primatech Paper on the show...sphinxlike in a generic & blah way. I comprende. It's just kinda disappointing. Maybe they started up that site to play to the legions of boob tube conspiracy theorists out there....you know the type...them that think Lost is some kinda reenactment of actual events. THOSE nutjobs....

I know I'm a total bourgeois cliche but...

...after shopping at Target on Sunday I ate at the Olive Garden.

If you ever deign to dine at the OG, I recommend ordering the Chicken Gnocchi Veronese. It's a new menu item and it is MAGNIFICO.

Oh, in other artist birthday news... Alphonse Mucha's birthday was yesterday. And I nearly posted something yesterday but then remembered that I wrote a big schpiel on it last year.

But in the interest of a be-yooooo-tiful blog (since I have nothin' much to say these days) I will belatedly throw a Mucha pic in here too. . .

Maxfield Parrish

would turn 137 years old today . . . had he not died in 1966. Happy Birthday Max!!

I've long loved his work, although I think I'm probably predisposed to like him, being from Windsor, VT. Parrish and others of his posse established an artist's colony in Cornish NH and consequently "put Cornish on the map" as they say. Well, Windsor VT is sort of a sister town to Cornish NH...more than just a sister town really, because of the famed Windsor-Cornish covered bridge we are like conjoined twin towns (even though many Cornish folk would likely be fine with disowning Windsor) The whole area has been proud of Parrish..long as I can recall...Windsor even has this museum.

Stranded at the drive-in....branded a fooooool

I cleaned out my car on Sat afternoon-- a looooong overdue chore. I did a total half-ass job of it, crammed the trunk to capacity, didn't vacuum, but that said, my car is still in 100X better shape than it was.
I had to take it easy, laboring on a Saturday. It's rather a foreign practice to me, and coulda been a tremendous shock to my system had I not paced myself so carefully. I would clean out 1/4 of the car, then read 2 chapters of The Gun Seller , clean out another 1/4 of the car , have a beer and read another chapter...you see the pattern. Though I went about it pretty damn leisurely-like, I did finish up.

So I was so pleased with my work that I decided to go out on a congratulatory date, just my tidy Taurus and me. So we went to the drive-in, my car and I. Ok, if you want the absolute truth, I had been wanting to go to the drive-in already, but wound up unable to russle up anybody to go with. So I am a smidge peeved at my local pool of friends re: their lackadaisacalness to cater to my whims. I mean, it should be of such tremendous importance to them to make ME happy that I should just straight propose the plan and--BLAMMO-- they're on board. I shouldn't have to do any cajoling, knowwhatimeanvern? This failure might also be contributed to bad karma I racked up this weekend. No, I didn't do anything NAUGHTY.....rather, 'tis something I didn't do. Come to think of it, that's how I rack up ALL my bad karma. Pisser, that. Anyways, my sin was skipping my great Aunt Rose's 90th b-day that afternoon. It was way down in Framingham, MA and Friday evening I was feeling ucky and crampish and I made a snap decision and told my Dad that if he didn't need me to go then I was gonna pass. And when I do, on occasion, make an actual decision, I like to stick with 'em, and so I did NOT go on Saturday. Which was pretty crummy & selfish of me, 'cause you only get one 90th b-day (if you're lucky) and 90 is a BIG DEAL and I really have got to pick up a b-day card to mail her.

Anyways, serves me right that I couldn't round up any pals to hit the drive-in on Sat night. And I almost didn't go. But then I reflected. . . . the real pathetic people are those that DON'T go to the drive-in alone, who refrain from doing what they had their little heart set on, simply because it would require "flying solo". We ("we"=society...the societal "we") are more apt to scorn people all alone at the drive-in because (for obvious reasons) it can be tricky to spot the people who chickened out of attending. So anyways-- I went. And nobody scorned me (that I could tell). And I actually had a good time. Quit your sniggering--- I did!! The first feature was Evan Almighty, followed by Knocked Up. Both were very good. Seth Rogen is just as adorable as one suspects he might be. In fact, I think it would behoove Katherine Heigl to dump her real-life fiance for Seth Rogen and make real-life babies with him. I mean, I've seen pictures of her & said fiance and they just don't have the Awwww factor that she & Seth do. And he (the fiance) is some musician guy--they met shooting his music video (bleccch! Sooo NOT a "meet-cute"). So, yeeaah, just a suggestion...seemed to have worked out well for Brangelina, right???

You know what I love about the drive-in? EVERYTHING. Ok, but I especially love the intermission cartoon. The drive-in I go to plays this one----


And I was delighted, this past weekend, to learn that others appreciate this ol' gem as much as I do. Y'see there's this part --twice in the cartoon, actually-- where a hot dog bun has got a hot dog doing flips on a pedestal (like a trained circus DOG--get it? See, the whole cartoon has this circus motif...just watch it NOW if you've not already, 'kay??) and then at the end of the "act" the bun does odd torso spread-apart and the doggie obligingly jumps in. I dig the whole cartoon (sucker for all things retro that I am) but that part in particular always gave me a sort of sophomoric chortle. Saturday night during intermission, a slew of cars honked their horns and all these moviegoers started hooting and cat-calling when the dog-bun union transpired. I thought it was just yours truly that liked that part!! So I was amused and also... sort of validated, I guess.

And Sunday was just a big consumerist orgy-porgy. Not too eventful. Although perhaps, if I'm lacking for crap to write about tomorrow, I will itemize my purchases. Ta-ta till then, all....

boob tubage

I am seriously miffed about missing this week's Last Comic Standing. I've been tuning in religiously and this week, at long last, was part 1 of the semi-finals. Now, I know last week's episode was at 10pm...I clearly recall the 2 hrs of aimless channel surfing before LCS came on. So this week I was planning on tuning in at the same time. But NOOOOO. No siree Bob!! They'd bumped it up to 9pm so they could run the 700th installment of "Dateline: To Catch a Cyberperv" ( We GET IT already--ewww!). And even though NBC very niftily features full episodes of LCS online, they take for-freaking-ever to post 'em. I reiterate that I am seriously miffed. And vexed as well. Grrr.

So I have been watching some of the summer TV flotsam. . . .


There's no way to determine for sure, but I suspect that the geniuses behind "Don't Forget the Lyrics!" stole the idea from "The Singing Bee" crew and not vice versa. It's sort of your classic "which came first--the chicken or the egg?" puzzler (except with cheezy karaoke game shows). But it seems like "Don't Forget the Lyrics!" is the duplicate. First off, I feel that if they had worked to cultivate a fresh idea, (rather than half-assed a carbon copy of another network's offering) then surely they would have put a little more effort into the show name. And then they have tacked on all these Who Wants to be a Millionaire-esque lifeliney gewgaws to their version--seemingly in an effort to differentiate themselves?? Also the facial hair Wayne Brady (host of Don't Forget the Lyrics) is sportin' these days makes me think of Schneider from One Day at a Time. That last fact is not really evidence of any idea theft but I just wanted it to be duly noted.



Speaking of Wayne Brady... I woulda liked to see him back on my telly hosting a second season of Celebrity Duets. I suppose I understand why that's not possible though. Any champ of subsequent Celeb Duets seasons is going to be a feeble follow up act to the Season 1 champ...the fabulous Mr Alfonso Ribiero. So perhaps they sabotaged themselves by showcasing their bestest contenders the first season on air. But still...it was a damned entertaining show...I probably woulda watched a season 2 even if it was a sadly Alfonso-free season 2.



One thing I am NOT watching this summer (or next summer, or any season of any year) is anything on TLC after 5pm. I think the whole aim of their primetime programming is to give ME bad cartoons ("bad cartoons"= nightmares....in case you did not know. It's what I used to call them as a wee moppet and I've always found that to be SOOO adorable that I never quit the phrase) The other night I spied on the TV Guide channel that, at that moment, TLC was airing "The Boy with the New Head" and during later channel surfing I sort of sped by Ch 49( TLC ) thinking "If I linger there, I surely will see something that will spook me and/or cause me to wet my pants" But then I scolded meself for being such a big wuss, and on my next run through the channels, I did linger on Ch 49. Yyyyikes. I did not piss myself but BLLLLAAARGH!!! I saw a dude that looked quite similar to (& only marginally better than)

the fellow below---



Uhhhh, not Beetlejuice either. The dude on the right.
And then last night, they had on "World's Fattest Man" and I think they have a show on the world's tallest man too1 (I've successfully abstained from viewing either...while not as overtly BOOGLA-BOOGLA scary as Beetlej's amigo there, both are still definite bad cartoon fodder)
Now I realize that it is both wuss-ish and juvenile of me to make such a big to do of a boy who has a legitimate head issue. And I'm not saying his story ought not be told. I am only saying that I am decidedly NOT a fan of the TLC network. In fact, if I had fancy satellite service (rather than old school cable) then I would actually have that channel BLOCKED just to protect my delicate sensibilities.

1. I am also blaming these people for an awful sounding show called "When Surgical Tools Get Left Behind". I've been astounded & horrified to read such a show title on the perpetual TV Guide Channel scroll, and I'd thought it was on TLC. I've since learned that that was a Discovery Health show, but both channels are part of the same co./run by the same brain trust

Purveyors of the Practical & Hard to Find...

I had to pay for my Taco Bell lunch with my debit card today. Which strikes me as lame...not having $5.62 in cash on my person. But I suppose the lamer payment possibility would be 5 rolls of pennies, a quarter, 3dimes, a nickel and 2 pennies. On their part, it was lame that I had to sign for it. You don't have to sign anything using your debit at the McDonald's drivethru. WTF?? And then, when trying to hand the signed slip, pen & mini clipboard back to her, I sorta stabbed her in the hand with the pen a li'l bit, in my haste to get my elegant signature out of the rain. It was the cap end of the pen, and I didn't wound her, so I am NOT banned from Taco Bell. Although that might not be such a bad thing...


I watched 2 1/2 hrs of Kathy Griffin on Bravo last night. I adore her. I like how she's single this season and she can just command her people ("Team Kathy") to arrange dates for her. That's probably pretty run-of-the-mill in that town, but it rather amuses a regular schmoe like yours truly.I was thinking she should’ve pounced on that good-looking QVC director guy. As far as I could ascertain, he was single.



While watching the UK visit episode of D-List , I noticed again this icky new practice of referring to the paparazzi as the "paps". I'd read that before on a coupla gossip blogs. This bit o' slang is just NOT ok by me. "Paps" puts me in the mind of a whole other stirrupy experience. And while I realize that the paparazzi can be a nuisance to celebs, I can't imagine that they're truly *THAT* unpleasant.



I went to the VT Country Store in Rockingham recently and lemme tell you, it was a MAGNIFICO shopping experience!! I realize that my native cred plummets by my liking it so much, but I cannot lie. It was awesome. I managed to spend just short of $100. which is more than I shoulda but waaay less than I coulda. I went with the folks, and they mostly liked the food section of the store where practically every item was proferred as a free sample. So while I tore around the premises in a shopping frenzy, they pretty much stuck to that area, grazing leisurely. I did very much like the "candy counter" in the food section. They had all sorts of old timey confections. (I really wanted to somehow use the word "sundry" in that sentence, but I couldn't make it work!!) I bought myself a variety of these ... about a 1/3 of a paper sack full. I love licorice & clove. And HOREHOUND. I like saying it more than I like the actual flavor, but they really ain't bad, so I got a 1/2 scooper of HOREHOUND in there too. Horehound (huh huh huh huh huh). Did I mention HOREHOUND? Ok, ok, I'm over it, it's passed...
Also, I bought my Aunt 'Rainey a SkyBar (I recalled that she had been griping that you can't find 'em anywhere). Ain't I so nice??

Lemme see, what else...

I bought myself an old fashioned half-face paper mask. It's this flapper girl w/ a peuce feathered turban, and the other day Lisa got the funniest pic on her camera phone of this jerk Mark wearing it. I bought another mask for my niece Chloe..it's a different flapper (darker hair, more vampy)

So of course, I bought a li'l something for all the kiddos. In addition to the mask I got Chloe a vintage style Nancy Drew book (The Hidden Staircase). I got Sadie a book of jump rope rhymes. I could never jump rope worth a damn, maybe a good rhyme (and resultant rhythm) is key to becoming a double Dutch superstar. Although, I knew "Teddy bear, teddy bear turn around/ teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.." down cold and it didn't help my case. Anyways..I got Seth one of those fake switchblade combs. Nothing he'd asked for but it amused me to buy him that...I always thought those were the coolest. I later thought that maybe it wasn't the most well thought out gift. I mean, nowadays, if he were to bring that into school, he'd likely be suspended (at least). I forget how times have changed...plus, I went to kind of a rough grade school. An actual switchblade might've gotten you suspended, but you woulda had to have been caught holding it to someone's throat. For li'l Lucy-booey, I got a tin kaleidoscope, which she seemed to dig very much.

Oh and I got some b-day gifts for my Aunt Deb and a grill thingy and this perfume (I got the Sandalwood-Amberwood-Patchouli scent combo...what they call "wood scents"...it's really the hippy compact).

I wanted to post a more substantial post, but it seems I've gone from image-heavy posting (yesterday) to link overkill today. I can't win for losing, I guess (ya ever hear people say that? How ASININE is that expression??) So fuck it, I'm gonna post a picture. It's quite possible the most adorable thing in the billion year history of adorability...check it homeys...

ZZzzzzz

Kind of a dullsville Tuesday, I gotsta say. Although I post the fact half-reluctantly.... I feel like complaining of boredom, quietude, and/or uneventfulness may have the power to invoke calamity through jinx-magic. I don't want that. Let the record show that I DO NOT want calamity.

I am trying to come up with a new desktop scheme. I am really stuck on this new opera CD I just got and I want something with that sort of vibe. So, I have been poring over Pre-Raphaelite paintings & literary illustrations...I'm looking for something beautiful & dramatic, y'know??

I'm digging the works of Emma Florence Harrison , but am having a tough time finding a large, hi-res image to snag. Here are two that I think are neat-o...(just two of MANY)



generally I much prefer stuff in color, but some of her B&W illustrations of Rosetti poems are terrific. This one, for example--



Yeah, that's kind of SEVERELY BLEAK but I like it anyways.


Also neat is the work of Katherine Cameron but I can find next to nothing on her... She has a rather sizable section on nocloo (where I stole the below pic from) but she seems to be utterly obscure otherwise..






And I just today stumbled onto the work of Heinrich Lefler, whose stuff is amazing. I'll toss one of his pics here, but I also recommend checking out his stuff on allposters (and I further recommend you buy me some, 'kay??)

Derek Collard was an interesting new discovery too.

Sorry for this posting being so pic-filled and lacking in any info/ news/ wit/wisdom etc. etc. Please forgive me!! If I conjured up calamity earlier with my "What a DULL Tuesday" whining, then surely I will have stuff to post about tomorrow!! But let's hope not... anyways, I shall post tomorrow--calamity or no, and will try to come up with something substantial-ish to say!!