Albums for every year I've been alive

First, two notes from the world of d'oh!

1. I realized that yes, PR is starting next week, but it is also starting at 9 pm, which is the time that Ghosthunters is on. Crap.

2. I had great plans Wednesday to follow through with a recipe from Cook's Illustrated for grilling Cornish game hens. The hens were thawed, brined, and ready to be butterflied and rubbed with spices, only then...

I couldn't light the grill.

My Matchlight was a bit damp from the rain (I know...keeping it outside is dumb, but it always dries out a few days later), and my Kingsford, which lives inside, needs lighter fluid, which I didn't know until I called my mother for help. No amount of crumpled puzzle-book pages (since I don't get any newspapers) would get the coals to light, and I went through an entire cheap book of matches before I quit in disgust. I roasted the hens in the oven instead, and they were delicious, but now I'm going to have to do the whole thing all over again to prove that I can.



Anyway, I'm copying this from Carrie, except in some cases to pick albums I had to do the "if I had to take one album from this year to a desert island" game...whether because there were too many albums or, more likely, too few. I really don't have much music knowledge, you know.
I starred the biggest years.
1978 Dream Dancing - Ella Fitzgerald (because I know some of the songs)
1979Greatest Hits Volume 2 - ABBA (for one song)
1980Fame - Original Soundtrack
1981Speak & Spell - Depeche Mode
*1982Thriller – Michael Jackson
1983Madonna - Madonna (couldn't find anything else)
1984Some Great Reward - Depeche Mode
1985Songs from the Big Chair - Tears for Fears (ditto 1983)
1986Licensed to Ill - The Beastie Boys
1987 Heaven on Earth Belinda Carlisle (runner-up is Faith, George Michael, but Joshua Tree, Out of the Blue, Dirty Dancing, and Solitude Standing all came out this year, among others...I must have watched a lot of MTV this year)
*1988Forever Your Girl Paula Abdul

1989Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ Peter Gabriel

*1990The Immaculate Collection Madonna (also a hard year...lots of music appealing to a 12-year-old girl)
*1991Metallica ("The Black Album") Metallica
*1992Little Earthquakes Tori Amos
1993Tuesday Night Music Club Sheryl Crow (runner-up Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Sarah McLachlan)
1994Cracked Rear View Hootie & the Blowfish (runner-up Big Ones, Aerosmith)
*1995Pieces Of You Jewel and Jagged Little Pill Alanis Morissette, and I refuse to choose between them. Garbage and Poe also had albums this year, among others.
*1996 Boys for Pele Tori Amos and Tidal Fiona Apple, straight tie, though Tidal probably has an edge. I have no fewer than 7 albums from this year, including Beck, Cake, Dave Matthews, Marilyn Manson, and Sheryl Crow. So when future kids say, "your music taste is stuck in..." we will know it's 1996.
1997Savage Garden Savage Garden (runner-up Surfacing Sarah McLachlan)
*1998Ray of Light Madonna (lot of albums from female singers I like this year)
*1999When the Pawn... Fiona Apple (close runner-up Affirmation, Savage Garden, especially now)
*2000You Were Here Sarah Harmer (though Poe had an album this year also)
*2001Laundry Service Shakira (close runner-up Exciter, Depeche Mode)
2002Under Rug Swept Alanis Morissette, I guess.
2003 I'm going with No Doubt's singles album here
2004Breakaway Kelly Clarkson
2005 maybe Johnny Cash to represent? Artists put out albums, but I didn't seek them out.
2006Begin to Hope Regina Spektor (though I honestly don't know the album well, I have it)
*2007The Reminder Feist
2008 I got nothing
If I could do trade-ins, I'd let '78, '79, '80, '83, '85, and maybe '02, '03, '05, and pick something more from the heavy years. In all, this wa a difficult task for me because I don't have a whole lot of albums and don't listen to the radio much anymore.

Me too, Me too!

My contribution to the recent camera-in-nature prettiness.

Also, remember Project Runway starts next week, evidently at a new time, 9 pm.

On TV....

"ABC Family salutes America with...
its Harry Potter weekend!"

Um. What?

Is that like, "Ha ha, we're independent of you, England! We'll show you by offering everyone some movies about English kids, starring English actors, based on English books that have us Americans completely bewitched!"?

Today, I'm just posting a picture, because I think it's adorable, and it really shows my niece's genetics:

Throwing Poems and Seeing What Sticks

Hi, y'all.
I'm glad to report that for the moment I look normal. And I'm wearing a bit of lipstick for the third day in a row, over some cooling lip balm. Let us just say that the situation is being monitored closely, especially as I also had the worst face breakout I think I've ever had on Sunday/Monday. That, too, is diminishing, however, and I am guardedly optimistic.
I am also wet, because it is raining. Hard. Don't you hate that feeling when the bottoms of your pantlegs and the top of your socks get wet and you just have to deal with it? Fortunately I have some slippers in the office that are like booties, and they will help me be cozy. I think I might drink a hot chai today, too.

Currently, I am preparing to be productive and send poems to magazines. I figured out what is going where, and all I need is to get packets together...and attachments. Since I last sent work out, a bunch of magazines have gone to online submission systems and email. No doubt they think this is easier, but to be frank it's frustrating, because all of them are different. Some want all poems in one attachment. Some are okay with multiple attachments. Some want poems pasted into the message (which is begging for trouble). Some have their own submission systems. And then you have the ones who still take snail mail. I am a little disappointed in all of this; it shows disorganization and, in an attempt to get more "tech-savvy" it is actually more difficult for submitters. And what about poets who don't have access to the internet on a regular basis, or at all? I like to think of poetry as a democratic institution, but some of these places have become too restrictive simply by their submission process. The best are the ones who will take snail mail or online stuff...that seems more understanding to me.
So, I'll be toeing all of their individual lines, but with more than my usual deflation at how complicated it is when you are uber-detail-oriented and finding it more difficult to make sure records and packets are just so.
The good news is that getting packets together encouraged me to "finish" up a few new pieces so I could send them out. We'll see what happens.

Attack!

For the last month or so, I've felt a little sensitivity around my lips. Couldn't figure it out, and just applied more topcoat or gloss or chapstick to soothe the area, thinking it was too dry. The area particularly under my bottom lip would get red and a little swollen. This happened off and on for a few days at a time. Sometimes the lips would also look chapped, or felt sunburnt. The Whitestrips I was wearing aggravated the feeling, So I quit using them. I worried a little about the wedding I was in, but when I wore chapstick to bed and lipstick the next day you couldn't really tell anything was going on.
This changed dramatically Monday night. That curious itchy, tingly feeling was back, and by the evening I had tiny blisters, of which I will spare you the icky details. My lips were sore and I looked awful.
Fortunately, I got into the doctor the next morning, because my lips were now cracked in the corners and looking like I'd been punched in the mouth. My doctor has a tendency to be sold on one thing, which can be both comforting and disconcerting. He decided within a minute that it was an allergic reaction to something, possibly parabens, because his friend had the exact same appearance once, and that's what she had. He gave me a scrip for oral steroids and a referral to the dermatologist across the hall...only it transpires that they couldn't get me in until August...and the second doctor I tried couldn't until September. They didn't even look at my referral form. I cried most of Tuesday, which was not helped by the two Lifetime movies I watched while I was hiding my hideous face from the world (I know---my melodramatic side was kicking in).
Wednesday, I was angry, sore, and still looked like a victim of violence. When I called the dermatologist (when I was calmer) to ask some questions, and to establish a better appointment time (July 25) she said, "Oh, well the doctor will take a look at the symptoms, and then if he thinks it's called for he'll do the test right away, with a followup Monday or Tuesday.
Excuse me? A-baking powder? You honestly expect me to look like this still in July? I'm so glad I decided to take pictures of this whole process (again, which I will spare you...they're gross) because I do not plan to look like this for another month.
To make a long story short (Too late) it's been a depressing week, and I've spent not a little time frustrated with the medical establishment. The good news is, my lips seem to be healing up, only this involves pretty much all of the skin on them flaking off little by little, and was told not to put anything on them at all. Not even chapstick. It's infuriating. I've stopped jogging because the wind aggravates them. I have to eat little bites of food. I am currently being proactive, printing off lists of ingredients and doing skin tests of a few lipsticks and topcoats for lipsticks on the inside of my arms. It looks silly but I honestly don't care. If this does turn out to be my favorite lipstick I'm going to pitch a fit, so I'm rooting for a reaction in the one I got recently, which has a different formula. When my lips have healed, I'll cautiously try a product or two. Hopefully, I'll have the answer in July. Through all of this, my mother has been a champ, fielding phone calls and emails and looking stuff up for me.
All of this is just to say that I am kind of embarassed about my appearance right now and might not see you for some time over the next month or so, but I'm hoping to look normal next week.

Culinary Adventures: A Terrine Story

I am now quite convinced that my oven needs to have its jets cleaned, which my landlady does for me, but due to circumstances I can't officially relate yet, that is going to have to wait, so this will probably be my last oven-related adventure for a while.

Anyway, the terrine. There was quite a lot of prep involved with this recipe, like cutting and cooking the asparagus (Michigan asparagus, which I get as often as possible, purchased at Meijer on sale) and getting all the ingredients together. I did something I should probably always do with fussy recipes, but which I don't do all the way generally, and got nearly all my chopping and gathering done in advance. For instance, while the asparagus was cooking I had time to chop the dill and chives, separate the eggs, and portion out flour, cream cheese, and the other dairy items. Especially with a gas stove like mine this is a good idea, because when you have butter that pretty much melts on its own from a warm pan, then add flour over a low heat, it's going to turn into "a thick paste" pretty darn quickly. Like, immediately. I think, really for the first time, I appreciated the role of a sous chef in the kitchen. It also gave me a festive cooking show feeling to have my little cups and bowls all arranged with stuff in them.

Things came together fairly well after that. The egg mixture, when completed, was maybe a little thicker than it ought to be, before the egg whites were added, but I think in the end this worked in my favor.

Also as an experiment in willpower, I beat the egg whites by hand. There were only two, and it made me very tired...it took forever, but they came out all right. I still favor my mixer for this job, but I was glad I did it myself this once.

Anyway, the terrine process (you can also use a loaf pan, but I heart my terrine) involves layering asparagus, then egg mixture, asparagus, egg, and asparagus. Then, foil over the top, put the terrine in a roasting pan half full of hot water (mistake 1--water not hot but merely lukewarm), and put in the oven at 350 degrees ("mistake" 2--I actually bumped the temp up to 355, but I'm still pretty sure it didn't keep that temperature long during the ensuing time) for 45 minutes, then ten more, then ten more...because, you see, the terrine wasn't quite done. It's supposed to stay in until it's just firm to the touch. Eventually, the edges seemed firm enough, and it had really been in the oven for a long time, so I took it out.

You're supposed to let the terrine cool, then chill it. I did this and then made the sauce...it's an "orange sauce" which weirded me out, but actually there is very little orange and mostly butter. I'm really bad at making hollandaise sauces usually, or sauces of any kind, but this one went pretty well. I used white cooking wine instead of white wine vinegar because I really do not have that much kitchen room and you have to choose what you keep on hand wisely. The best part about the sauce is that it used up the two extra egg yolks left over from the souffles, which I had under cold water in the fridge.

I wasn't patient enough to chill the terrine all the way, because I wanted to taste it. You're supposed to turn the terrine out and slice it from there, but my terrine dish is very pretty and also convenient for the fridge. I also have my doubts as to whether it would stay in terrine form, because while the first slice never comes out easily, the terrine ended up being almost mousselike around the asparagus. Not as firm as a terrine should be. You can see the messy "slice" I made:

Fortunately, it tastes good. Today, I tried again with the slicing and had little more success. It simply isn't firm enough. But that's okay. As I said, it's a bit like egg mousse, and it's for me to eat, and I know what to improve for next time: Firmer cream cheese (I used tub cheese because the recipe calls for herbed cream cheese and it only comes in tubs), a hotter and less temperamental oven, a tiny bit more egg white whisking, and warmer water in the hot water bath.

Culinary Adventures: Crab Souffle

I've had some cream in my fridge that is a few days shy of going off probably, and have been trying to figure out what to do with it. Likewise, I have a new terrine dish that I got for Christmas and have wanted to play with. So, I pulled a cookbook my aunt gave me off the shelf--it's the one with fancy meal elements that might work particularly for guests, like several types of deviled eggs, a beautiful potato and leek pie with phyllo dough, a whole chapter on brunches and fork lunches...you get the idea.
My notion was that I wanted to do the egg and asparagus terrine, so I looked it up and copied out the ingredients I didn't have onto my shopping list. I'll do it as soon as I have the asparagus and fresh herbs. But, flipping around, I ran straight into crab souffles. And I think for the first time with this book I had every ingredient already in the house, including the cream and crab meat (canned).
So, this afternoon I made some souffles. I only had four ramekins rather than six, but I found two small cake tins and used those for the extra. The mixing and cooking went okay. There was quite a lot of prep involved, but not terrible. I had trouble with burning the scallions, but simply picked them out again. I don't think I put quite enough curry powder in, either. I also think I did not quite whip the egg whites up enough. I used my hand mixer since I suck at whisking eggs (and cream. I use a whisk only for things that won't matter if I don't whisk properly). I got them pretty near, but I suspect maybe not quite, and I overfolded the whites into the sauce a bit. However, it looked all right and smelled awesome.
My oven has been kind of temperamental again lately, not keeping the proper temperature, and after the eight minutes baking time, the souffle tops were not brown. I had to leave them in longer, so the souffles got a bit overdone, I'm sure. Nevertheless, I pulled them out when they were golden and poofy, and they looked exactly like the picture. I know they were overcooked because they fell faster than they ought to have done...my sources tell me that 3-5 minutes is all you can expect from a hot souffle, and I think we made it about 2, maybe 2 and a half. Anyway, the picture above is post-fall. The good news is, I had one for my lunch and it tasted very nice. Obviously you're supposed to eat souffles right away, but the rest had to go in the fridge.
All in all, it was a noble experiment and for my first time making a proper souffle, I think it went rather well. I shall need to practice, but I was pretty pleased. It's sort of like the first time I made crepes...possibly it will never go so well again, but at least I had a good go.
Tomorrow I shall probably do the terrine.

Crash and Burn

I feel special hearts toward this video, and as it's on the mix tape I'm currently rocking out to in the car...

Why TV Sometimes Depresses Me Regarding Our Culture

American Gladiators and Circus of the Stars.

You may remember old-school American Gladiators--big, tan people in red, white, and blue costumes, with fabulously feathered hair and big smiles. They sometimes answered viewer mail and always did so with compassion and encouraging voices. The contenders were generally very earnest people, strong and fast and forever giving messages of love to their families. They had steady jobs and smiled almost as much as the gladiators. The announcers were dressed like ESPN guys, in suits and neat haircuts. They were nice people, and the theme of the show was to do your best, and stay positive. You got the feeling that you should stay in school and work hard, and be nice to people. You should be a good sport.

I find the current American Gladiators completely unwatchable.

Everyone looks so angry. It's all about power and performance, about winning and looking mean. These people look scary, not like people I'd want to hang out with at my local public house. On the old AG, if someone lost his or her temper, that person would take a minute, shake it off, and then shake someone's hand. I get the feeling that if anyone now lost his or her temper, a joke would be made and no effort would erase hard feelings. I could be wrong about that--as I said, I find it unwatchable, but it's just a feeling, and that is more important to me that what actually happens. It's the attitude of meanness and punishment over clean fun that bothers me the most, and I find that change both epidemic in our culture and disheartening. I don't want to watch a show where I'm just being yelled at for an hour.

Then there's Circus of the Stars. I don't know if anyone else will remember this. In the past, it was a two-hour circus made up of celebrities past and present, all learning interesting and artistic or funny circus acts. The fun of it was watching these actors and musicians learn the type of thing you'd see at Barnum and Bailey, watching them adapt and put their own spin on it. The show would often show clips of the stars learning their act, with all the spills and chills and injuries resulting from the process, but they would always work hard and put forth an optimistic effort. And they were glamorous and excited in the show, much like a kid at a dance recital. I will never forget the "listo" (ready) call of Mario Lopez and Jennie Garth on the trapeze, or Karen Black's dynamic elephant act. It was good TV, and I looked forward to it every year.

So, I was excited when I saw ads for what looked like a resurgence of the show. Imagine my irritation and frustration when I found out that it's actually a reality competition. Why must there be judgment involved?Why can't it just be fun to watch people do something fun? I hate the idea of competition leaking into everything we do or enjoy. This is part of the reason I don't watch dance reality shows, and certainly not these God-awful pick-a-Broadway-star competitions. I want to enjoy an art, not have that gnawing feeling of "who will win?" and "someone will feel like less of a person after this" lurking in my gut. There is enough angst and worry in the world without trying to prove you're better than someone else. And I say that as a competitive person, but one who is tired--tired of watching everyone have to get mean or antagonistic before anything gets done.

The Wedding: How it happened version

I haven't posted in a while, and it's unfortunate that I'm having a day full of aggravations and concerns, but I wanted to do a write up of the wedding I was in this weekend.

As many of you know, I'd been worried about the dress fitting. Fortunately, my "diet" leading up to the weekend worked and the dress was fine. Snug during dinner, but fine for dancing. I did unzip it for the drive back to the bride's house after, and changed before eating again. Also, the hemming issue became a non-issue...our dresses all ended up pretty close in length, and I didn't do mine at all, so that worry was gone.

Anyway. Rehearsal was on Friday at the Henry Ford Museum's Lovett Hall Ginger Meyer Sculpture Garden. I was there first, and was able to answer a few questions and names for the coordinator, Carol, and officiant, Fred while we waited for the party to come from the tux place, where the fitting ran late. The rehearsal went really well, though, and we ran through things twice in the hot sun. I got to know my fellow wedding party members, and they are all exceedingly nice people. I was looking forward to hanging out at dinner with them.

Obsessive as I am, I printed out scads of directions for the whole weekend, so I was followed by several cars to Musashi in Southfield. Now, it transpires that in addition to doing the flowers for the wedding, since she has floral experience, the groom's mother also owns a popular restaurant, and since she is Japanese, she knows a heck of a lot about food. Having looked at the menu I wasn't sure if we were having a served dinner or picking stuff ourselves. Then plates started coming. This is what we had, though not completely in order and I might be forgetting some...really, I had no idea what I was eating much of the time:
Asparagus "amuse bouche," with cream and roe
Sashimi, with two slices each of three fish
A tuna cube in a fish broth
Salad of greens and lobster or crab pieces in raspberry vinaigrette
Several pieces of sushi--two lobster/avocado rolls, and two other pieces I couldn't identify
Tenpura--giant shrimp, a slice each of sweet potato, Japanese pumpkin, and Spanish onion (my favorite dish)
A slice of Sable fish wrapped in a banana leaf or something (my least favorite dish, but also one of the prettiest)
A giant cake each...seriously, only three people of thirty-some finished theirs.
There were also a few leftover non-sushi plates that were spread around, like chicken on a stick and some steak, which we shared. There was also sake and beer, though I stuck with water.
Needless to say I was pretty full, and I didn't eat everything in the later part of the meal but did taste everything. Then I drove home to BG.
Saturday, I drove back up, dropped my stuff off at Mila's (Mila is a cousin of the bride's, and all three of us went to Italy in 2001...she invited me to stay with her and her fiance, and better hosts you couldn't find. They are amazing), and headed up to Rochester Hills to a luncheon party/open house that some aunts/cousins were giving. I had some food and hung out with the bridesmaids, groomsman's wife, and bridesmaid's sister for a bit, and then we six went to see Sex & the City. I'll save my commentary about that for another time. After that we went to the bride's parents' house in Sterling Heights area, hung out for a bit, and then snuck upstairs to look at the dress. It was the first time I'd seen it, and it was exactly the kind of gown I thought Jelena would like...strapless satin, no beading or lace, but lots of pickups in the big skirt. It was HEAVY. We girls consulted about jewellry and hair and shoes, just like you'd expect. Then, I left to get back to Mila's, and we stayed up chatting for quite a while, and I finally met her finace.
Sunday, I was running late. I was alone in the house, which is probably good, because I was tearing around in hot rollers and had to do my foundation twice. By the time I got to the venue, I was definitely on time, but later than I wanted to me...and I was still in rollers. I'm afraid a lot of the prep time was me finishing my hair and makeup. Not good for the Maid of Honor. I never did get my hair to where I wanted it, but at least it was acceptable. Fortunately, the lengthy list of things we had to make sure were done were already being done by the excellent staff at the venue, and Dina the aforementioned groomsman's wife was amazing at checking up on things.
At last, we were all ready. And I lost my phone. Show must go on, though, so I put it out of my mind and the wedding began.
It was a short service, but the officiant did a great job, I read a poem, another bridesmaid sang Ave Maria, and it was a beautiful day in the garden. The bride and groom looked perfect. As we proceeded out after the ceremony, the Best Man informed me that we were not required in the receiving line, so he loaned me his phone and I went out to my car to call myself...sure enough, it had fallen under the passenger seat. At that point, I felt amazingly relaxed. Everything was finished! We did pictures, which was fun, especially since I think my smile during the ceremony was ridiculous. I hope the pics turn out and I can get some prints, especially of the "high fashion" one we did...the Best Man and I were clowning around and the photographer said, "When we take the shot in a few minutes, I want you to do that exactly." I don't know if anyone else did it, but the photographers were trying to get them to copy us. It was hilarious. Can't wait to see it.
The pictures took place during the cocktail hour (I had root beer). Then we went up to the ballroom for dinner--a lovely salad, a duet plate of chicken and beef with rolls, and of course some wedding cake, all served. During dinner, the band played, but then some Serbian dancers came out and danced for, like, fifteen minutes. They were all teenagers, and were very fun to watch. Then we had the real dancing, and of course as a member of the wedding party I danced and tried to get others involved. Not too many people danced, but as half the guests were Japanese, and the Best Man informed me that most wouldn't dance, I think we did pretty well.
We closed up the reception early and headed over to the bride's parents' house...I fulfilled my last MOH duty by helping the bride change and zipping her voluminous dress into its bag. Jel's parents had a tent set up in their yard and at the open house offered roast pig and lamb, a groaning table of salads and bread, and another groaning table of desserts, all handmade by the aunts. There was also a Serbian quartet (which Mila's dad is in) playing and singing in blue vests and red bow ties. It was peaceful to sit with the wedding party, chatting to them and the cousins, and when it got dark they turned golden lights on in the tent. It was a beautiful night and, even though I felt like I'd never eat again, I felt really good about life and the state of love.
I ended up back at Mila's sometime between midnight and one, I think. The next day, I had the morning to slowly wake up, again alone in the house, get ready to go, and then head to Somerset mall to go to Lush. I walked the whole mall, bought some fun stuff, and decided to end the adventure.
It was a pretty great weekend. My least favorite part was probably driving around Detroit, especially since there are some parts of 75 closed, but I managed with my directions, and kind of got the hang of it.
Hopefully I'll have some time to post pictures soon, but if you're on Facebook, you can also go there.

Men I Have TV Crushes On

George Stroumboulopoulos
Jesse Spencer
The Winchesters
Andy Hillstrand

Things that turn 30 this year

1. Several friends, and of course myself.
2. Garfield the Cat
3. Arby's Beef n Cheddar (coincidentally my favorite sandwich there, and the thing that inspired this post, since I got a coupon in the mail)
4. Louise Brown, the first IVF, or "test tube" baby

Oh, Indy!

For some reason, this makes me happy. I guess it's that, even though this is a marketing opportunity, it's a marketing opportunity that calls attention to the power of fans, no matter where those fans are or how much money they have in their pockets.

In which she returns from the Badger State.

Well, I'm back in BG after a most successful trip to Wisconsin. The occasion was a celebration of the first birthday of my niece, and since I hadn't seen her or my sister and brother-in-law since December, it was, to say the least, kind of a big deal.

I decided to speed things up this trip by getting an I-Pass for the tolls; I got Illinois' I-Pass rather than an I-Zoom (Indiana's version) because the I-Zoom wouldn't work in Illinois for three days after getting it supposedly, and I'd much rather zip through Illinois tolls than the one in Indiana anyway (although Indiana's toll is huge now, at $6.75 on 80/90). It would have been speedier going out to Wisconsin except that the guy who sold it to me talked to me about poetry for about ten-fifteen minutes, as a result of me saying I was a poet after he complimented my name. Anyway, I made it.

The party was Fairy Princess themed, and on Friday evening and Saturday morning we spent some time getting everything ready and taking pictures. There were festive silver strings hanging from the big pine tree, which sits right over the awesome sandbox my brother-in-law had finished the day before. There were stars hanging from the patio table. There was princessy music playing from a hidden stereo, bouncy balls and bubbles and sidewalk chalk for the kids to play with, and a whole line of party bags along the stone wall. My bro would be at the grill cooking brats, and there were lots of sandwiches, salads, and cookies indoors. And Baby Ruths scattered over the tables, in honor of the Baby's name.

The Baby, I think, had a wonderful time, greeting her guests, smiling, and playing with the kids who helped her open her presents. She also had a great time smashing her piece of cake to crumbs and getting frosting all over herself and her sippy cup, with of course the requisite chorus of flashbulbs from the adults.

As for me, well, I ate too much and enjoyed the merriment.

For the remainder of my stay, I hung out with my family, played with the baby a lot, particularly her new set of musical instruments, and also had the chance to go shopping with my sister a few times, at the mall and at Kohl's. This was particularly enjoyable because we don't get to hang out much as sisters, and it kind of reminded me of when we used to go to the mall ages ago, in high school. We had trouble with jeans, but found some nice tops and skirts in Kohl's, on sale. It was awesome to get that chance to chat and laugh, and thanks to my big brother for supervising the baby's naps so we could slip out.

On the baby's actual birthday, I went with sis, bro, and baby to the NEW Zoo north of Green Bay, and had fun showing her the animals and watching her stare at them. She particularly liked the emus, and waved to the giraffes as they came just feet away from where we stood. My sister even got to pet a giraffe. The zoo is small, but the perfect size for a family with small children, with big animals like lions and a bear and more unusual zoo animals like bobcats and some truly massive bison.

It was hard to leave, especially with my niece smiling away with her four teeth, and crinkling her nose when she laughs. Even Poe, the cat who is my archnemesis, was friendly to me, since I bribed him and Topaz (who loves me) with Pounce treats whenever he was feeling prickly. It was a great trip!

Updates!

Update 1: The dog.
So, here is the plan I formulated, after reading everyone's input (and thanks, by the way. I needed your indignation and facts to spur me on!):
At Meijer the other day, I was intrigued by a sale on an item called Poop Patrol. Poop Patrol is a black and purple plastic pooper scooper, and it was on sale for 9 dollars. After consulting with my neighbors during a lasagna dinner (Laura and Ashley, it was awesome), I purchased said item, dolled it up with a bow (white ribbon with gold trim and purple butterflies, naturally), typed up a letter and put it in a card envelope, and on Sunday placed the gift on my neighbors' porch addressed "M's owner, roommates, and residents of 334." The letter touched on the issue of poop in the yard, this being illegal, and our desire simply to have this cleaned up, rather than getting the law or landlords involved (though I did email my landlady and tell her what I did). I peeped at the porch periodically, and by yesterday it had been taken in. The poop is still in our yard (and fortunately, no fresh piles, only decaying old ones), but I feel that I have done my best, in a classy fashion, to help get our yard cleaned up. I thought it was pretty clever, actually. Fingers crossed. Beyond this, I think the landlady is simply going to have to clean it up, or get Greenbriar to do it.

Update 2: The Mist
So, I wrote a while ago about how I was disappointed by The Mist. I read the trivia on imdb about it, and learned that the ending was made up by the director, and that Stephen King wished he had thought of it. I checked out the ending in an anthology entitled Dark Forces today, and I will say (particularly to Mrs. White) that it is worth reading the last six to ten pages or so to see the original ending, the ambiguity of which I enjoyed much better than the pointlessness of the current ending.

Dog Poop Dilemma

I've been puzzling this over in my mind for a bit, and I've decided I'd like some input.
I mentioned in the Fire post that I had a chance to speak to my neighbors about their dog pooping in our yard. These are the neighbors who have friends in the house on the other side of us, so they are often traipsing through our driveway/yard, are responsible for the demise of the back fence, and are loud from time to time, though not as bad as others who have been next door.
My house's yard is not big, and especially when the grass was not growing it was glaringly obvious that the dog (Maui, I think) NEVER went in her own yard, always in ours. I've seen people waiting on their front porch for her to do our business in our yard, and they see me and don't seem to care a whit that our yard is now the one with little piles all over (for of course they would never think to pick up their dog's poop). I know this has happened to the others that live in my house, too. It's like they think our yard is also theirs, when it clearly is not, and they also do not care that they have essentially destroyed the yard.
Last night, it happened again, around 11 - midnight. Dude in a bathrobe was standing on the front porch, and Maui was squatting in our yard. I went out and called to him and asked him not to let her go in our yard. He said it was his roommate's dog and he would let the guy know (which is exactly what the other guys said last time I asked, at the scene of the Fire). I really have no idea how many people live in that building, but find it annoying that so many people take the dog out so I don't know who the owner is, and that the message has not seemed to filtrate through their collective brain stems.
So...what do I do? Our yard really has too much poop in it. I am afraid to walk out there, which is irritating because come outside season, I like to sit in my skychair, which hangs from a tree on the front lawn. Even if they finally make Maui poop in her own yard, we still have her collective poop from before to deal with. I was going to content myself with the idea that the next time they traipse through our yard, someone is going to step in poop, but I don't think that's enough. If I catch the dog out there yet again, what recourse do I have? And would it be reasonable for me to ask them to clean up the poop that is there? How?
As an addition problem, it would be nice if I could just ask my landlady to talk to their landlord about it, but I'm pretty sure the dog is not supposed to be there at all. I have nothing against the dog, but I am sick of this problem.
I need some suggestions on how to handle this. The hot season is fast approaching, and I cannot deal with a stench in my own yard. I refuse.
Help.

Friday Night Movie

So, I made a mistake last night.
I was tired, and looking to relax, but I also wanted to rent a dvd. Unfortunately, all the movies I have wanted to see recently but haven't yet are depressing or dark: The Mist, Sweeny Todd, and I Am Legend are examples.
I went with The Mist in keeping with my tradition of Friday-night horror. Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb.
I thought, hey, it's a supernatural flick with critters in it. I knew it was a smarter-than-average horror flick, but hoped it wouldn't bum me out. Anyone seen it? Yeah, well you know where I'm going with this.
Imagine my distress when it turns out actually to be intellectual in nature; crittery, certainly, but with the character sketches including a hyper-religious nut (and those terms are mutually exclusive, please don't get me wrong) and the "shocking ending" being hopelessness, well...I wasn't best pleased. Every time Marcia Gay Harden's character was talking, I kept coming up with reasonble and Christian responses to her, like "Why doesn't somebody point out how satanic she's being, with all of her self-pride?" Fight zeal with counter-zeal, you know? Or, "First pull the plank out of your own eye, before you try to help your brother with the speck in his eye," which is a paraphrase of Luke 6. No one even tried that approach.
I was also left sort of wondering what the point was, and after a moment early on in the movie when I said to myself, "There was a transition just now where I was supposed to suspend my disbelief and I didn't" I hoped for a bigger payoff. I don't even remember that moment clearly, just that this is what I thought. I found the crucible compelling, and if I were in the mood for this kind of film I might have been all over it (Crash comes to mind as another example of story-of-human-condition that leaves me deflated, except that it's also offering redemption, which The Mist doesn't. Schindler's List is another example.). I think, anyway--I don't know if "look how awful we all are" is really sufficient justification for a movie. But still, I label this my mistake. Combine that with the fact that I didn't watch it until LATE, after a whole string of Comedy Central Presents and Whose Line Is It Anyway? and you know I went to bed annoyed.
So, The Mist, I was hoping for something else from you, and I'm not sure how I feel about you, but I do know I won't buy you, no matter how cool your creatures were, because I just don't see myself watching you again.

5 Random Friday thoughts

I bought some Moonflower and Morning Glory seeds and a Clematis a week ago. I can't wait to get them in the boxes on my porch, but it's possibly going to be 43 degrees at some point next week and I am thus nervous.

Last night's Supernatural: Hilarious. Ghost--FACERS!
My two favorite shows right now smashed into one. How I love the spooftacular vision of Supernatural.

I went to Beckett's last night post-show. Good times were had by all. I had a beer and a cherry coke, because that's how I roll.

I just bought a plant from the Society of Entrepreneurs. I asked what they entrepreneur and no one answered. I decided against asking them if they knew how to spell entrepreneur. The plant has a butterfly in it.

My niece is going to turn 1 in just over two weeks. I can't wait to see her and give her a big auntie hug. I had lipstick on my teeth today, so I am well on my way to being her crazy aunt Avacious.

Putting out Fires

I'm double-posting this here and on facebook. Enjoy.

As I mentioned the other day, we had a fire next door Friday night/Saturday morning. First, a digression. Last week, this happened:

You can tell we're close to the end of the year when people do dumb things like this; if you can't tell what's happening, it's a car parked straight in front of our driveway. My theory is drunkenness--you'd have to be drunk to be so dumb as to leave your car parked where it is obviously blocking a driveway. As someone pointed out, it's a good thing it got towed, because the owner was not likely to return in a better state than when he left.This weekend, our neighbors were having a party. They are sometimes loud, but at least their parties usually end around 2 or 2:30. It does still irritate me, because there are children living across the street and in other near areas, and a once quietish residential section is kind of ruined, but they're not the worst neighbors I've ever had so I deal as best I can, even with them traipsing across our lawn, knocking down our fence, and smoking in our driveway.

Then, about 5:30 am, I woke up to some strange noises. I thought it was someone who lived in my house at first, then figured out it was outside. Given my paranoia for my car, I got up to investigate, and found this scene in the street:

I came out on my front steps and craned around the side of the house to see this:

The excitement, evidently, was ending with firemen hacking off the siding from the neighbors' outbuilding. I didn't wake up to the trucks, the men, or the hoses. It took the axes. Given that I am a light sleeper, that was pretty stupefying, and when the police and head fireman came to talk to me, I told them the must have been pretty sneaky.

"It's a new program, to get involved with the community," said one. "We were in stealth mode."

They were kidding of course, but I complimented the fire department on its quiet work. The head man asked if I'd seen anyone around in that area, and of course I'd seen guys out smoking around 3 (I woke up to that, but not fire trucks), but then all was quiet. Evidently, the idea of arson was being bandied around.The next morning, I went out to survey the damage, as did my neighbors both in my own house and the houses on either side. A very focused line of charred earth under the fence which held our trumpet vine was the most obvious evidence of the fire:

As you can see, any further one way and it probably would have set their house on fire. Any further the other way and our garage would have been touched. The guys mentioned the i-beam cross (a common formation for vine growth), as being a potential dumbass magnet to set on fire, except the fire was mostly away from the cross. One also said the fire department had mentioned gasoline. In any case, we're all a little baffled and hopeful that nothing else weird is going to happen.

The experience did give me the chance to ask the neighbor guys to quit letting their dog poop in our yard, which was positive, and I met a few of my own house-neighbors I didn't yet know (which seems weird, but there are a bunch of different entrances to our house, so we don't have much interaction). I'm also hoping it gives these guys more reason to monitor their parties more closely and take things more seriously. No one got hurt and the damage was minimal, but it's still pretty scary...and I didn't get much sleep.

Word, Y'all

So, I just gave my workshop on rhythm in poetry, which means there is now one less thing on my plate. It went pretty well; I did that thing where what you're saying is important but you don't treat it quite like that, at first, but I kind of got into my rhythm (ha ha) and started tying loose ends together, and it went better. I worked Rudolf Laban's effort principles in and that always makes me feel better about stuff.
I have to admit, I've been kind of angry this week, and also unfocused. During the faculty meeting yesterday afternoon, while we were being asked how everything was going and (I think) sympathized with that there was so much to do right now and this really is a bad time of the semester, I really almost lost it and walked out. I'm behind. I have a lot to do. And I was sitting in a faculty meeting that repeatedly got off track or that went over things that were really very concisely and completely written up on the agenda. I appreciate the sympathy, I really do, but as Eliza Doolittle says so eloquently, please don't exPLAIN, SHOW me. At literally the busiest point in the semester, let me have my time to do my work. My sense of duty helped me keep it together, but it was really sort of dodgy there for a while.

Anyway, this is just a note to let you know that I'm thinking about you all, that my health is improved quite a bit, and even though it is spitting rain right now, the sun will be out before too long. Hopefully my mood will brighten in direct relation.

Avacious is...

reeling from one of those middle-of-the-night, wake-you-out-of-a-sound-sleep leg cramps that seemed to go on forever. Does anyone else ever think that they're never going to be able to walk again when that's happening?

about 90 % healthy

glad Supernatural is coming back. It may be a rerun Thursday, but I have sorely missed my Sam and Dean.

looking forward to the rest of Sense and Sensibility, but was surprised that it opened with a love scene featuring ragged breathing. I was kind of glad I wasn't watching it with my parents.

contemplating what she would sing if she ever did karaoke. This will be a facebook note shortly.

really enjoying the Lite Brite's presence in her office. Even if it does stay on for only 3 minutes and then shut itself off to conserve batteries. Times have changed!

out of many important staples of life, like milk, Dr. Pepper, lettuce, and Strawberry mini-wheats. And mustard. Who runs out of mustard?

beginning to catch Spring Fever, but is also suffering from hockey withdrawal. Very confusing.

update

Hi, everyone.
Thanks for your comments about my health situation. I hate being that person who is complaining about health, especially because I am normally really healthy. I guess that makes it even more confusing for a person whose body is normally under her control, when everything is out of it.
I'm responding to some of your comments here, because they relate to a few things that the ReadyCare doctor told me when I went in on Saturday.
SECP: Goodness, it is crazy that you say that about vitamins. When I told the doctor about my stomach, he said I might be getting too much iron. Combine this with the fact that my favorite cereal right now, Strawberry Frosted Mini-Wheats, has 90 % of my day's iron already, and....well, that just seems extremely plausible. So you're totally right! Last time I was in the store, I seriously considered getting some of those gummy vitamins they have now, or Flintstones, and I felt like I shouldn't. Now, I think I will, and I thank you for that advice. Honestly, if I take Triaminic instead of "grown-up" cold medicine, you'd think I would have no problem with kids' vitamins!
Can you imagine what would happen if Poe came to live with me? Poor cat. And poor me, while you're at it (For those who don't know, Poe hates me. As in, he once attacked my mother thinking it was me.). Has he been a problem lately, I wonder?
Carrie, et al.,
I'm not familiar with Airborne, but I do superdose the vitamin C and take my allergy medicine for my nose when I think I'm getting sick. Several medical people seem to feel that my allergies could in fact be playing a large role. They say that if your allergies are constantly piqued, then your immune system is shot. The doctor I saw Saturday also suggested I get allergy testing again in case I need shots like I had when I was a kid, and he said absolutely when I asked if I should be using my asthma inhaler more often, not just in the summer when I run. So at least that gave me a few ideas (even including a CT scan to see if there is anything wrong with my sinuses), and I plan to coordinate with my doctor/nurse practitioner and see if they think I should see an allergist or other specialist. It could be that all of this is just a blip, but if it's systemic I want to know.

In sum, I had a fever spike to 101.9 this weekend, but I think I'm more normal now. It just feels like a cold at this point. And I have the hiccups.

Now tell me how you really feel

I'm depressed.
There, I said it.
I feel like I've hit a wall, with almost everything I can conceivably think of.
This is kind of coming to a head right now because I'm getting sick again. For the fifth time since New Year's, fifth time in three and a half months. I don't know if I can handle this again. Nevertheless, I went to bed with a scratchy throat last night and woke up feeling worse, with a 99.1 degree temp. And as I sit here in my very warm office, wearing a turtleneck sweater, I am feeling chills in that completely irrational way that tells you something is wrong. And I really need to close my eyes for a few minutes before I try to go home. It's like I'm functional, but this could go any way and I'm really hoping it won't be bad, that this is a blip.
I feel like I'd been doing everything right; I was drinking more juice and easing up on the soda a little. I was eating balanced meals and, while my lunch is always highly variable, I've been eating 100-calorie snacks and sandwiches. For a time, I was taking daily vitamins along with my allergy medication, but I had stomachache so I quit doing that, but I am very mindful of my vitamin C in particular. I've even tried to reduce my stress at least partly by letting some things go and getting more rest. I haven't been going out, and only on St. Pat's Day did I spend a little bit of time with some friends. I've even been washing my dishes more regularly.
What is happening to me? Why is my body so incapable of being well? It's so exhausting, and I haven't been able to do things I want to do because I always feel like I should be sleeping if I don't have work to do. And this last time I was really hopeful because the thing went away, it honestly did, for a few days, just a little drippy here and there, but I felt so much better. Why? Why? Why?
I don't even feel like I can make plans, which is very upsetting. I want to see my niece and I want to meet my goddaughter, but you can't go see a baby when you are unhealthy. I wasn't even sure I'd make it home during spring break because my folks were headed to see their granddaughter, and I didn't want to make them sick or carry what I had.
I'm tired, and it's so hard to find things to be happy about when so much doesn't seem to be going well. I'm tired and sick and sad and I just want so badly to be healthy and ready for the warm sunshine when it comes.
I guess what I am saying is that I'm not feeling well again, I don't know what's wrong with me, and I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers to get me properly healed.

Oh my gosh, people, I'm sorry I've been absent forever. I'm only just now catching up on a week's worth of blogs I usually read daily, let alone writing my own.
In a way, I haven't felt lately like I have anything valuable to say. I've sort of hit a wall and am looking ahead at consecutive weeks of workworkwork and I haven't had much energy.
On the good side of things, though, my goddaughter was born, and I finally bought a Lite Brite. And I received some pretty sweet pictures of my niece, who has all kinds of personality.
This weekend, I'm going to finish up essays and then work on a quilt. Especially since it snowed again today, I'm feeling a little lazy. Conversely, I also have felt like going out dancing. See? Nothing quite makes sense.

PR: The Finale

A few of my students asked me, "Weren't you so excited that Christian won?"
Regular readers of this blog will already know that my answer was no.
I am in agreement with Tim Gunn that any of the designers could have won. They all had distinctive ideas and directions, and they all have sets of knowledge that would likely do well in the industry--that will likely do well, since I am sure Rami and Jillian will have plenty of offers.
But I'm just not that in to Christian. I did have a moment when my heart softened toward him, when he was suffering a lapse in his confidence, and recognized the brilliance of his peers. It is good to see designers respecting each other's work, and it makes me think of theirs more kindly, as long as they aren't whining. But as I have noted before, I'm bored with silhouette, and with his colors. I liked the merlot in his collection and would have liked a bit more of that...more merlot, and one or two different things besides the skinny pant look, and I would have been more on his side. It was just too much of the same thing. They always complain about designers dressing themselves, yet I don't remember them saying that about Christian...even though it's clear to me that's what he's doing. Also, as a general issue, I can't stand skinny pants. Thus, what was there for me?
I loved the weaving in Rami's garments. I also did not mind the color choices; Tim called them dour in his blog, and I totally disagree. Rami has a very sophisticated color sense, I think, and he's been criticized for it over the course of the show for something that probably comes down to culture. He was born in Jerusalem, and I think those olives and golds and mulberries mesh really well with that. They're a heck of a lot better than that horrid lime/chartreuse and orange that keep popping up in designers' work. I loveloveloved that look with the lace. I was not crazy about the shapes of some of his short dresses. In any case, I think Rami is going to get a lot of business.
I want the short blue dress in Jillian's collection. I want it now! Overall, I liked Jillian's collection the best. There were one or two pieces I didn't like (like the gold babydoll dress), but I thought her collection was the most wearable and it spoke to me the most. There were a lot of different things in it, but you had the sense they could all come out of the same closet for a woman with a lot of different things to do. I also didn't mind the slender leggings look in Jillian's collection because it was offest by boots, which is much more palatable for me, and it was balanced by different silhouettes. The coat Lauren wore was really exciting, and I, like everyone else, loved those knits. I almost wish she'd won just for the knits! I wanted Jillian to win.

So that's my take. Top Chef starts tonight, and I'm not sure how excited I am about it. Not very, actually. I get a little tired of pretention after a while, I guess, and every time I watch Top Chef I think about starving children. It's not the best match ever. I'll probably end up watching it, though; it is right after Ghosthunters.

I will be doing a Project Runway write-up eventually, I promise. I'm sure you can all guess how I feel about it anyway. I have just been concentrating on not going to the office during break (I'm at the town library right now) and also not formulating thoughts in the afternoon.
So, just as a quickie update, my cold is slowly going away (pleasepleaseplease). BG won on Friday and lost on Saturday, necessitating a game 3 of the playoffs tonight. I miss my niece a lot. I'm starting to cut out pieces for a quilt today, which is very nervous-making, especially since there are a lot of fabrics this time to pick from. I just finally watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3 all the way to the snippet after the credits. I'm going to eat a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. I've worn my bathrobe at least 4 hours a day over break.

See what I mean about thoughts?

Mending

So I graded four essays yesterday, in my bed, between napping and watching Project Runway. It wasn't very much, but at least it was some and I got some sleep, so I feel a bit better today. My bloodwork came back with nothing serious indicated, so that was good, too. I just need to work really hard on my immune system, and I consider myself under doctor's orders to reduce stress. BG playing MSU this weekend aside, I think I can at least manage to forget about some of the less important stuff that tends to crowd my life, until I get better.

Thoughts on last night's PR:
Rami and Chris both put forward distinctive ideas. On the whole I think Rami was rewarded for refinement and broad applicability of his designs. Chris would certainly have a big niche market for his work, but I don't think that's what the judges want to support as much with corporate money.
About some of the choices for the mini-show: I was not bothered by the proportions of Rami's coat. They said it looked big, but at the same time it is a fall coat. I have to see it on the actual runway, in motion, but I at least liked its color. Some of the judges had a problem with the sides of his glamour dress, but here's the thing: Yes, the hips look bigger, but the waist looks SMALLER. It's an illusion that used to be created all the time to make the wasp waist. I was surprised no one mentioned that. It is a very Barbie shape, which is pretty popular.
When I first saw Chris's collection online, I totally thought that the hair was monkey fur. It looks almost exactly the same as 20s designs utilizing monkey fur. In all, though, I think Chris will end up being sought after in the way that finalists sometimes are by viewers. I think he'll be successful.
The show itself: I do really love that these designers get along pretty well. There is conflict, but it's not the kind that leaves you with a bad taste, at least not now. Can you imagine what it would be like if, say, Victorya were in the final three?
Did anyone notice the significance of two designers going with a military inspiration, Jillian and Rami, and two with a sort of gothic inspiration, Christian and Chris? That kind of threw me, and I'm surprised nothing was said. The judges thought Rami and Chris were both dark, but Rami isn't really gothic, and he has some very colorful pieces in his collection.
I'm a little worried about Jillian because of what Tim said on color palette...I noticed the same thing looking at her collection online. But then, Christian doesn't have much of a color palette either, so I'm not sure how that will play out.
Yikes! I'm really glad Ghosthunters is new next week, and PR finishing right after. That's good TV right there.

And now, for something completely different, copied off Cornshake:

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry

I felt really unmotivated to do much this weekend. I didn't have any work, and I went to my hockey games and then went straight home. I watched some TV, and on Sunday I cleaned a great deal of my kitchen, including completely flipping my storage system. Pots and pans are now in the bottom cabinets, and most of my food is in the top, and plates and bowls are right above the sink. I also bought a lot of airtight canisters for my flour, sugar, pasta, potato buds, and such, to take care of the bug problem (did I mention that? I can't remember). I have great hopes that everything will be more accessible, though there are some kinks to work out.
My laziness/homebodyness caused me great guilt, since my friends were doing cool things like hearing bands play and eating fancy foods whilst watching the Oscars. Instead of joining them, I spent time in my jammies and watched Pride & Prejudice twice (yes, all 5 1/2 hours or whatever it is). And flipped my kitchen.

Things started coming into focus when on Monday and Tuesday I kept dropping things, and things were falling out of my cabinet as a result of me not fixing them in place when I pulled stuff out. I broke my favorite plastic cereal bowl, but didn't realize it and put milk in it anyway, which ran out all over my counter. Then, on Tuesday, I was inexplicably sleepy at strange times. Monday I had a small cough but didn't think anything of it. By Tuesday night, I had a raging sore throat. Now, I am miserable. I am at school, but I am actually going to the doctor during my office hours. I went to ReadyCare last time I was sick, but this time, with strep going around and the fact that I am sick for the fourth time since New Year's, I want to go to my actual doctor. Or rather, nurse practitioner.

So, please don't think badly of me, my friends, because I have been antisocial. My body has been trying to tell me something, and despite all the rest I was thinking I'd been getting, it's still not ready to roll. I promise I will do my best to get healthy all the way this time, maybe get some antibiotics if it's called for, and beat the daylights out of these stupid germs!

I'm so busy I'm not doing anything.

Oh, saints alive. I just found out I'm going to have to go after work on Tuesday to the place I'm ordering my JUNE bridesmaid dress from, with RUSH on it, in order to get it almost for sure on time. WTF? And that's not including any alteration time, which usually takes 4-6 weeks and which I certainly won't have time for.
IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS HARD. Bridal industry, you piss me off.

Speaking of fashion.
I totally betrayed my plan and watched all my TV so far this week. Because Ghosthunters repeats at 11 and who really wants to grade at that time? And I was home so late Wednesday I had to eat at 10, which is when PR is on, so that took care of that guilt. And then Supernatural. Oh, how I knew the Trickster would be back. I knew it!
PR:
First of all, Roberto Cavalli...how adorable is he? I understood him perfectly without the subtitles...you just have to let yourself be seduced by the rhythm and lilt of his voice.
Chris--Oh, Chris. While I think there is such a thing as over-editing, I, like Tim Gunn, was stunned that Chris chose just to take a nap rather than doing anything else with his garment, even sitting and thinking about it. And he seemed completely unfazed by Tim's commentary, the points of which were obvious to everyone else. I was left wondering how he could be so blind...the dress was exciting, yes, but there was only one judge who hadn't seen it. That being said, I also think the shape of the top of the dress, the torso, wasn't all that great. It looked a little hasty and bulgy, and Chris's nap only confirmed that impression for me.
Christian--Tim Gunn admits his look was costumey, but also editorial and dramatic. I agree with those comments, but at the same time it was editorial because it's what he always does...a black jacket and black pants. Theme and variations is very cool, but it is possible to do that and still re-invent until it's almost unrecognizable but equally fierce; he hasn't. I feel like Christian is good, very talented, and with a successful future, but I really want to see him turn his penchant upside down or do something without it.
Jillian--As usual, I liked Jillian's garment. And, even more, I liked that she was on track with it through the challenge, and didn't have a melt down. It seemed like for the time being that's out of her system. The jacket was adorable. I wasn't crazy about the dress, but I liked the inspiration-to-garment results. Her model remains my favorite model, too. I really want these girls to succeed.
Rami--His dress was lovely, there's no question. I love the side with the draped sleeve, and I love the color. But, as with Christian, I thought this would be a great challenge to take what was expected and twist it, to amaze us by doing something consistent with his taste but also extending outside his comfort zone. That being said, I feel like he was sabotaged a little by being offered the Greek and Roman sculpture wing at the museum. It would be like drugs to him, don't you think?
Sweet P--I didn't hate her dress, and I didn't love it. It looked like Sweet P, but it didn't seem masterfully put together, and I think at this stage the judges were really looking to be amazed by craftsmanship. The dress was wearable, but not stunning. I can't really think of more to say, which says something.
As far as the results go, I am most intrigued by the showdown between Rami and Chris. That excites me and promises me more fashion than I usually get. And now that I know the story, I feel more inclined to go look at the pictures of Bryant Park online again. I should be doing work, but...well...okay, there's no excuse. I should be doing work.
Part 2 of Pride and Prejudice on Saturday!

Abigail is thinking...

she's going to have to record most of her TV shows this week in order to read essay drafts so as to not feel guilty taking many hours out for a bridal shower in Michigan.

of buying a Lite Brite.

it shouldn't be this hard to order a bridesmaid dress.

that receiving a "Romance Party" coupon in her blue ValuPak mail is really both hilarious and mortifying. I love you, friends, but I don't want to get together and look at "romance enhancement products" with you.

she should be dancing more, but...

her knee really needs to be less bursitisy, or whatever it's doing on the 7-year anniversary of being twisted.

'If you want to make it, twinkle while you shake it."

My favorite part of this week's challenge was when all the designers, like children lined up in a row by their mother, dutifully said:
"Thank you, Spandex House."

Designwise, and I know this opinion might be unpopular, but my favorite was Jillian by far. Chris and Christian did a nice job, don't get me wrong, but I loved the bright and cheery design Jillian did, and if I were a Diva wrestler, that's what I'd want to wear. It was also great to see her sort of get her wind back; she worked away with energy and conviction and had a beautiful product. I love that blue with the white; so crisp, so pretty yet fierce.
Chris' outfit was indeed masterful. He listened to his client and gave her something perfect to fit her. I wouldn't wear it, but really, I'm not a Diva wrestler.
Christian's outfit was also good, but (and here comes another unpopular opinion) I think for me he's turning into a one note, too, in a weird way. I mean, how many times is he going to make a fitted jacket and fitted skirt or pant? Seriously, I wish Bravo had a way to see all of one designer's outfits side by side, but I actually just looked at all his clothes on Rate the Runway, and so many of them fall into one box. And I think we had a peek at what he's doing next week, and it was, guess what, a black jacket or blouse with similar details to those of a previous challenge. I'm done watching him make jackets.
Rami...oh, Rami. How quickly the man that seemed like a serious contender is getting buried. I actually did not mind his color; I think Barbie was an acceptable direction. I also liked the ruffles on the top. But the fit of the whole look was kind of crazy. Things seemed to sag.
Sweet P...her outfit looked like jammies. I think dripping with diamonds would have been the way to go, and it didn't happen. I feel like she might have done better with a different client; it wasn't the challenge that derailed her, it seemed like it was her client's gimmick. It was like she wanted "If you want to bump it, bump it with a trumpet" and instead she got "If you want to grind it, wait 'til you've refined it." Ah, Gypsy. I knew I'd get to work you in here somewhere.
Anyway, I loved this challenge. It was weird, it required people to get outside their comfort zones, and it involved sassy "models." And Jillian did well.

Anyway, Carrie tells me there are pictures of the collections up on the web, and while I thought I might last until Tuesday at the least, I feel like I might be headed in that direction, now that I'm on this road. Oh dear. Where has all my willpower gone?
And tonight? Pride and Prejudice!

Alive, after a fashion.

Aside from the physical whatnot, the grossness of which I'll spare you, I know I'm really sick because of two things:
1. Last night, while doing a logic puzzle, I looked down at a name I'd written in a blank about five minutes previously. The name was supposed to be Duncan. I'd written Dunkin.
2. Today, while getting ready to do a little dance workout, I noticed that my right pointe shoe was not feeling as good as it should. About a half hour later, I realized that I'd put my shoes on the wrong feet. (And with this pair, it matters, because they're precurved a bit and they're marked right and left...you can't tell to look necessarily, but, well, I still felt dumb. I didn't even LOOK when I put them on. That's bad.)

Also, I have a hole in my sweater. And I didn't get a Friday hug.

On the good side of things, the weather wasn't as bad today as it could have been, students are standing me up right and left (shouldn't be a good thing, but I'm damn tired), there's hockey on the radio tonight, I got a trip to Michael's planned tomorrow for crafty things, and there was new Supernatural last night. I'm very worried about Dean, and I want to hug Sam immediately.
I believe I shall go to ReadyCare after conferences tonight and investigate whether I need antibiotics, am dying, or need to just suck it up and try not to cough up unpleasant things in the mornings. I asked my Mom if I should get some whisky and she said no, so...there goes that. Did I mention I tasted Laphroaig for the first time when I was in Madison, Wis? I believe I left that out; I noticed it on the bar's shelf and asked Kate about it, and she gave me a snort for free to see what it was like, since I'd never tasted whisky. Good times.

PR: In the Jeans

I shouldn't be doing this because I have a HUGE load of stuff to do, but...
Tim said something interesting in his blog, which was this: "On the show, you hear me say, “It’s stunning,” and it’s true that I did say it, as in, “Fix all of this and make certain that it’s stunning.” That was about Ricky. He says he was baffled by Ricky's win, and that the editors couldn't use much of what he said about the look in the workroom. I like reading Tim's Take because it reminds me that everything we're getting is chopped up into rounded pieces.
Anyway, Rami or Sweet P should have won. However, I was irritated that everyone kept oohing over the zippers on Rami's garment. Uh, hello! Jeffrey? The zipper dress? Rami's was a cute garment, though, with interesting neck draping. I liked Sweet P's fix to her dress, and it looked very wearable. I will note that I wish for fewer strapless dresses from these people (there aren't too many ways to add straps to a denim dress without making it look bad, I mused to myself last night, but all the same...)
Not sorry to see Victorya go. It really looked like the model for Victorya was wearing a jacket over a skirt...they didn't look attached in the front, and the matte of the underside of the fabric which she used as the top was confusing. Concept was good, execution baffling.
Not a fan of Chris's work this week. His work and a few others reminded me how challenging this challenge was...making denim into anything other than its usual pieces is hard to make look good.
Christian...both Tim and the judges rhapsodized about his use of a sleeve for the leg, but I do not believe that to be very innovative. I've seen buttons on the back of skinny jean legs before, and maybe I'm influenced by my interest in making over clothes, but...it just wasn't that genius to me. It just seemed sort of logical.
Jillian's design confused me. I liked the neck design she did. It reminded me of the crazy deconstructed 2050 or whatever challenge from a few years ago, and I bet if she did something like that she could have won. Sort of futuristic denim. Wouldn't that be iconic in a way? As is, the top and bottom didn't mesh and I didn't blame the judges for putting her on the block. But I'm glad she didn't go home.
Guess that's it...the competition is dwindling! So what did you all think?

Weekend's Brief Escape

Aside from hockey overload, here are some things I did at home this weekend:

• Watched the extras on my mother's HP 5 dvd (I got the one with just the movie).
• Ate delicious and balanced meals prepared by my mother (seriously, I never make roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for myself, so I ate kind of a lot).
• Ate lunch at Panera with my Mom.
• Looked at a picture of my niece's first playdate about a thousand times, because it's too cute for words.
• Did a lot of laundry.
• Went to church, and got to see the new baby of one of the pastors.
• Watched the almost incomprehensible but still enjoyable Northanger Abbey on PBS with my folks. At one point my Dad said something to the effect of, "I can't follow this, but it does suck you in!" (Carrie, how did you do with this one?)
• Looked at all seven of my old yearbooks. I was a total geek, you know. But I sure was in good shape in high school. I rediscovered such hilarity as the boys dressed up in the cheerleaders' uniforms to support the Powder Puff football game, the glory of our senior year air band to "Love Shack," and the inane ridiculousness we used to write in each other's middle school books...but also the secret codes we had. I can't remember what they all mean.
• Went to the eye doctor.
• Went to Bottom's Up, the best dance store ev-ah. I bought blue pointe shoes (except my laces are also blue) and some new pointe shoes with thermosomething technology, and some new leotards and warmups, and generally had the time of my life. The store is tiny and packed with dance stuff and lingerie, and there were four helpers there, so I had lots of input. The lady who does the pointe shoe fittings, just by checking sizes for me, could tell that my achilles tendons are as hard as rocks, and she gave me a marble to do exercises with to help loosen them up. I hope it works, because my calves and achilles are indeed always tight, and it would be awesome if they didn't hurt so much. I was jumping up and down when I got home to show my parents my purchases, and when I got back to BG I went straight to the arena to test out the blue pair (ostensibly to see if I needed to do any work on them, like sewing elastic, but really because they're fun).

I got way lucky with weather both directions, and had a great drive. I listened to the radio most of the way back, which I hardly ever do, but the trip seemed short, so that was ok.
In other words, I had an awesome weekend, and I hope yours was groovy too!

Fisticuffs

This weekend, among other things, I watched and listened to a heck of a lot of hockey. The action began on Friday night, when I witnessed one of the, if not the biggest fight of my hockey-watching career. I mean, I've seen lots of dustups, and on TV I've seen some two or four man boxing matches, but this was all 10 players on the ice, and I was right there.
Let me make two things clear:

1. I hate boxing. I can't watch it, and seeing people hit each other makes me upset in a generally awful way I can't really describe or defend.
2. I have officially discovered the drawback to knowing guys on the BG Falcons team.

The fight happened 12 seconds to the end of the game, with BG up on Western 4-1. Western is a chippy team anyway, and BG has had more of a physical presence this year. I have no idea what precipitated this fight; all I know is that for a long time I had no idea who was in a four-man pile, and the other three Falcons became involved in various fracas with some Broncos.

The worst for me was when my favorite successfully tugged a guy away from a Falcon teammate and this Bronco just started maniacally punching anything he could get hold of. He landed some blows to the head, neck, and face area, and I'm just going to admit that I kind of freaked out, quietly and invisibly, but certainly internally, especially since the officials were busy elsewhere. When my guy got up his face was bloody and I couldn't tell from where and as I observed to some friends, when you mess with my favorite, I'm going to get mad. And worried.

Then I finally saw that one of my other former students was at the bottom of the main pile, and that wasn't great either. Another of my acquaintances was stripped of most of his top equipment. The upshot of all this was that all ten players got disqualified for fighting. For Saturday's game, Western was so short that their fourth line had one person on it to rotate in the other lines. BG barely had enough players to make up its lines, and was missing some of its major workhorses, but it was in better shape. Fortunately, BG pulled out an overtime win on Saturday, which I listened to on the radio (along with the Michigan State game, win; the Sabres, in a game I watched on mute while I listened to two games on the radio, sadly did not win).

In any case, I'm anxious to see the guys, maybe pick up some hugs, and reestablish some normality in my brain, making sure they're all right...the first time I've ever felt that anxious about a fight, and certainly due to knowing them personally. I seem to remember a game fight somewhere in which the benches got involved (the people on them, not the benches themselves) but I didn't know the players in that instance. This was much worse. I know it's totally girly, but I worry about my guys, and while I respect that they had to stand together on this, I hope they're not called to do so in quite such a dramatic melee again!

PR Points for the week

• First, Nina mentions in her PR blog that, as she watched the episode on TV, she "anticipated" (even though she knew the outcome) that Rami would be the one to go, based on his conflict with Sweet P. I gotta be honest, while I was worried about them, as soon as I heard Kit say, "It's awesome, it's fine, it's great," while Ricky was fussing worriedly over the ready-to-wear, I was almost positive she'd go. I thought to myself, "She got lazy about this challenge" and sure enough, auf'd.
• I loved the avant garde outfit of team Jillian-Victorya. While the judges passed the ready-to-wear dress, I didn't care for it. It looked kind of little girly to me, and the top part was uninspiring in cut. Sure, they had practically no time, but the taste level seemed off to me. I think, if they hadn't both had time problems (Team Last Minute) they could have knocked out a winner there.
• I was not at all sorry that Chris and Christian (Team Fierce) won. I am an established Christan naysayer (I don't think people with bad attitudes and poor people skills should receive fame and financial success, in the natural order of the world...that's me), but their team spirit was incredible, and from start to finish it felt good to see them joyful about a project together. It was like reveling in fashion playtime, which is really how things could be in the best world and how things should be for avant garde. I loved their interpretation of the romantic hairstyle (which I would love to do with my own hair, in a slightly less exuberant way). The blouse they did for the ready-to-wear is very similar to things I've seen in Victoria's Secret and Kohl's and such. Not sure that's a point in their favor, though it was tidy.
• Add two inches to Sweet P's dress, and I would buy it, to wear with jeans, maybe. Hearts.
• I don't know what the heck Rami was thinking...I expected him to understand avant garde for some reason. Did anyone else have this perception? In the end, I was really confused about what he was doing. I could see a sort of Midsummer Night's faerie queen thing with the hair, but...yikes. It needed to be overdone more, be more dynamic. Instead, it was drab.
• On the model side of things, I was not sorry to see Katie go. If you're looking at models as clothes hangers, fine, but her walk was really not strong. I don't think she really showed anyone's work off well.
• No more team challenges!

Ghost Hunters in the House! Well, Air Force Base.

Pretty geeked this week to find out that Ghost Hunters is filming for an episode in Dayton this week. How beyond cool is that? Can't wait for the episode. I hope they find something ridiculously creepy that makes certain people and I text message each other for reassurance, and that other certain people can only watch in the daytime.

A heartwarming story for you.

Prom and Ghosts

Reality TV...I don't like it, but last night I was grateful that two of my shows are realityesque, because they had new episodes for me last night, which kept me fat and happy (figuratively speaking) on my couch for hours.
So, our weekly PR report: rarely have I disagreed with judges on so many points than I did this week, not the least point of which is Heidi's comment that they only liked two of the dresses...since I disliked Victorya's garment and loved Chris's, this struck me as ridiculous. I will pass over the color comments about Victorya's dress (electric blue is fine by me), but I really cannot stand bejeweled placards like the one she had. Interestingly, Tim Gunn is with me on this point: "Furthermore, the jewel emblazoned panel on the front of the halter made the dress look more appropriate for a hostess at a Vegas cocktail lounge than a teenager attending a suburban prom." So. Not a winner for me.
I was for Sweet P or Chris, and that is that (also the top two favorites of the Rate the Runway on Bravo's website). I would have liked a better look at the back of Chris's dress...I thought it looked interesting, but couldn't commit to it if I couldn't see it clearly. But his dress was tasteful and looked very nice on the model, as did Sweet P's. I was, thus, SO irritated by the judging. I thought Chris's dress was more unusual, but I would love to have worn Sweet P's because it was so sleekly feminine and flattering.
I also disagreed with a lot of the judges' visions on prom. It was increasingly clear to me that they had no idea of what goes on at proms, and that they had a skewed picture of being a 16-18-year-old girl. They kept talking about "teenagers" and what they want, but these girls are about to be adults. They are trying to leave standard clothes behind and take this first step into looking like a woman. Well I remember the search through Gantos in particular, wading through racks and racks of colors and shapes. You can have a similar experience now in the back of Windsor, and find a wide range of garments...and though it's a younger woman's store, many of the popular looks are adult shapes. Furthermore, looking whorish is not about age, and looking adult, even if it's not sophisticated, does not make a girl either matronly or whorish.
Kevin's color, for example. Passing over the lack of finishing on his garment, I have to say that bright red is a popular prom color. My own junior prom dress was red, and I looked fabulous in it, in my own opinion. I loved my dress. Now, the dress Kevin made was a little trampy, but others described it as matronly...I begin to suspect that this is now a byword like "society" that doesn't actually mean anything anymore. Looking older is not looking matronly. Red is not an inappropriate prom color.
I felt similarly about Ricky's color. Sure, they wanted something that popped, but I think with a different garment, that color would have been absolutely ethereal. I've mentioned before my hatred of bubble skirts, so that knocked his dress out for me, but the color, I think, suited his model...and ballet pink is also a popular prom color.
Rami...what to say about Rami? I did not agree that his look was matronly (again that word--it doesn't mean what you think it means!) or that the dress was too adult. The way a lot of proms work, that look would have been perfectly appropriate, and even admired. I didn't love the dress, and I didn't love the color, but I didn't think it was as far out of whack as they seemed to think it was. I firmly believe you could find a shape like that (excepting the front drape) in Windsor. Ladies wear women's dresses to prom. That's the whole point for a lot of girls!
And the rest: I liked the color of Jillian's dress...the camera angles made the bust look weird so I didn't like it on the show; it looks better on the website pictures. I didn't care for Kit's dress much; just didn't add up for me. Christian? Gah. Has there ever been a challenge that that kid didn't complain about from the get-go? What DOES he like doing? I sympathized with his situation, but his people skills are frightening. The dress, to be frank, was ridiculous. It reminded me of a four-year-old flower girl's dress. But his complete lack of will to fix it hurt me, especially when Tim expended so much energy trying to get him motivated, as if he were, indeed, a Parsons student. I feel like he got coddled in the workroom because he's young and was suffering a lack of confidence. I'm kind of done with his whining, I guess.
Ultimately, I was disappointed not just in the judges' decision, but in their attitudes about young women and prom in general. If you're talking about homecoming, fine, but prom is a whole other entity, and I think they seriously missed the mark.

Fortunately, my frustration was mitigated by the two hours of Ghosthunters that preceded it. I about laughed myself off the couch when Kris got stuck (totally saw that coming) and I enjoyed the spooky thermal footage in particular. My jury is still out on International Ghosthunters. I get a kick out of Irish Barry most of the time, but I think the whole group is a little too...harsh? Grant and Jay sort of balance each other out, but I feel like most of the Int'l group is a little too grr. Donna is very nice, but she's not one of the major leaders at this point. Ultimately, I am still geeked, though.

New Supernatural and Pushing Daisies? I miss you heartily.

I'm still sick, with about three quarters of a voice, and I haven't slept well for coughing.
So, please enjoy this hilarious commerical starring former Spartan goalie, Ryan Miller, whom I heart:

PR ep. 6

Righteo, let's get on with it, shall we?
It always seems like right after I say something, PR gets there. So, when I was ready for group collections, bam. When I was ready for the unconventional materials, bam. Maybe a LITTLE late, but close. I probably would have switched the two. This week's candy challenge was fun--it didn't quite force everyone to work outside the comfort zone (witness how many people chose to work with fabric) but it did reveal who was willing to. I give major props to Jillian, but also to Jillian's model, who was open to the experience and participated in the creation of the garment by handsewing Twizzlers. Good on ya, Lauren. She is a model who seems to have a personality, which I appreciate (she was also Jillian's bib model from ep. 4)
Has anyone besides me noticed how much more scared this year's designers are? I think back to the grocery store challenge of season 1 and how everyone just sort of leapt in, some reluctant and some freaking out, but everyone his or her own private tornado. Now so many seem to just be in a corner rocking back and forth mentally.
Anyway. About our winner, Daniel V. in his blog writes: "She looks like [a] perky, little robot that would be stationed at the front of a candy store in the year 2046, handing out free Chiclets and pinching little kids['] cheeks." And I agree with that. In a good way (as Daniel in fact meant it). Rami's dress is pretty adorable, it showed innovation, and it was dangerous, being made mostly of paper. I wouldn't call it super wearable, and I thought it was interesting that the judges disregarded that when they called others out on it, but I had no regrets about it being named the winner. I felt that Chris's dress represented more a personal triumph; it was tasteful, a little undercooked I thought, but for him I think that is a remarkable achievement. Next to others, not as grand, but for him a great job. I've already commented on Jillian--I think she like Rami caught the purpose of the challenge and I admired her guts. Tim, in his blog, indicates that she won for him, and I was definitely torn between her and Rami. I'd really like to see those two in the finale.
Christian...Christian's dress reminded me of Mario's dress in season one...the shower curtain thing. It was pretty, but he himself seemed to point to his unwrapping of hundreds of candies to be his major achievement. I liked that he had a little hat with his garment, and his piece was certainly attractive, but...I really question whether it had enough difficulty to it. I also wondered if those candies had foil wrapping as well...wouldn't an accent of that gold foil somehow have been stunning? Tim Gunn mentions in his blog that he thinks Christian will be very polarizing, and I think he's dead center with that. He has so much to offer, and some gravitate towards his attitude, while others want to punch him. I cannot stand it when people are high on themselves to that degree, and I feel like I probably would not be friends with him. And he wouldn't care.
And the rest of our cavalcade: Not a fan of Victorya (not confectionary enough, or ice princessy), Elisa (good concept, but execution not so much), or Sweet P (who was not really a fan of her own work, either, this challenge). Ricky's garment seemed slick, but I am sick to death of bubble skirts, and frankly I think they're grotesque when used outside of the costume world. I liked Kit's garment more than the judges seemed to, but mostly because I really liked the bustier, and because I love KitKats. Kevin's garment was well put together, but I was disappointed that he didn't select any more challenging materials. It was cute, but safe.
I still don't feel like I know the designers well enough to pick favorites; often I do, and then they do or say something horrible, and I can't stand them anymore. Jillian is my frontrunner on average at this point. I think Rami is skilled, though I don't always like his style. Ditto for Kevin and Kit.
Next three weeks are going to be pretty crucial as we get down to less than half of the original set of designers. I have to count on major mistakes being made, and I think the judges will too, because I believe we have a larger than usual set of talents here.

If you needed any more reasons...

to go and see the new Star Trek film when it comes out, I just found out that Karl Urban will be playing Dr. Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy.
Yes, that's right, Eomer is a doctor, not a bricklayer.
Hearts!
And Scotty? Simon Pegg.
Is this even possible?

She sends her regrets

Yes, it's true; Avacious missed yet another New Year's celebration, this time due to a fever, coughing, and loss of voice.
Good times.