toilet update

brand new toilet, successfully installed. m is my hero.

i feel a yearning to know its story

some things i noticed today:

*a brilliant red cardinal - i heard him before i saw him.

*these pretty lines from the story "ilk" in dressing up for the carnival, by carol shields:

"There is only one shrimp left on the plate. It lies curled on its side, paler than a shrimp should be, and misshapen. I feel a yearning to know its story."

*there is nothing in this world that will make you have to pee more frequently than having the plumber in your family (m, in this case) remove the toilet (yes, we have only one), in preparation for installing a new one. and having this take most of the day. i have used the facilities at hannaford, target, and home depot. so far.

*there is this thing they call sunshine. it appears in the sky and is bright and golden, and it actually warms you. amazing!

how to make people love you

bake them this cake.

goofus and gallant

"goofus pees a little bit on his friend's dog bed. gallant politely ignores it."


guess who's goofus and who's gallant in this photograph?

everything's amazing and nobody's happy

i love this -- louis c.k. on conan.


(via mikelightman by way of swissmiss)

if you don't mind, it doesn't matter

we went to a multicultural potluck event at boo's school last night, which was incredibly well attended -- packed with parents and kids and food. strangely, i had conversations with two different parents about age. as in aging. the first was with a friend who was musing about being old enough and having acquaintances you've known long enough that you can see them turn some kind of corner, almost suddenly, around which they abruptly appear...older. the other conversation, with my nice neighbor, involved her telling me i look much younger than my age and my telling her that she also looks much younger than her age (it's true, she does). she said something about how having a youthful attitude is important, and i said, "yeah, and good genes." she thought i meant "good jeans," and then she and m had a long conversation about where to buy good jeans in new york, cheap.

who pissed in the lasagna?

Pizza Hut in Italy - watch more funny videos

if you're like me, and you find those pizza hut commercials (wherein diners expecting an excellent italian meal are instead fed crap from pizza hut) intensely irritating, you will be amused by this funny or die video.

weather report

i love this weather site. the image above goes with today's boston weather, 31 degrees, mostly cloudy. boston is as close as you can get to portland, though, since they only offer 28 cities worldwide. munich is as close as you can get to bean's more westerly german weather. but the pictures are adorable! check out my bruddy's san franciscan weather.

when a girl loves a chicken

i think i forgot to report to you out-of-towners that the chicken ordinance did pass -- chickens are now legal in portland! i don't know if that means i'll ever have my own flock or not. it's so tempting, although this article put me off a little bit. just a little bit, though. when we can afford to fix our backyard fence, and if i can find a reliable chicken sitter... i'll keep you posted.

topless coffee shop

yes, really. in vassalboro, maine, pop. 4,500. the weirdest things to me are

1. hot coffee, naked skin

2. naked skin, cold breezes coming in through the jingling coffee shop door

3. three topless waitresses, one topless waiter

o february

i am ready for march now. thank you very much.

it's been a docu-film festival over here at my house: yesterday, man on wire (i liked it, mom! i didn't think of roberto benigni at all until you said that). tonight, harlan county, u.s.a. both are well worth seeing if you haven't already. unless perky french wirewalkers make you think of roberto benigni, and you can't stand roberto benigni. but never fear, there are no perky french wirewalkers in harlan county, u.s.a.

and my recommendation for escapism-with-dignity, as always, is the amazing race. episode number two was almost as good as the first one. if you don't care about dignity, but only want to be glad you're not rich and stupid with huge fake breasts and a wrinkly old sun-damaged neck, i recommend the real housewives of (wherever).

good evening.

yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over portland

boo got himself one last day of respite before going back to school, and m and i got to shovel some more heavy, damp snow. i'm not complaining. really. but look at it, would you?

good thing there was a snow day, too, because we stayed up til midnight watching the oscars. there were so many great moments: tina fey and steve martin; ben stiller's joaquin phoenix impression; hugh jackman's opening number; sean penn's win and his speech; adorable indian children; phillipe petit's magic trick after man on wire won; and many, many more. there were of course some low points, namely the inscrutable song-n-dance routine thrown together by baz luhrman (supposedly - he didn't look ready to take the blame for it when they showed him in the audience). i was also disturbed to note the matching smooth-as-molded-plastic foreheads of angelina jolie and nicole kidman. boo won our family oscar pool by one point. we were all very happy about slumdog's eight awards. even though i'd imagined a soiree with samosas and cups of chai, we feasted instead on chili and cornbread with the dancer family, who departed early due to the frightening weather.

today i scored some cheap snow boots at goodwill for boo, who, i'll now confess, has made it thus far throughout the winter sans boots. now he can help with the snow shoveling! we took minnow back to the beach, where he tried hard to befriend this small flock of geese a few times:
























they kept honking rudely and turning their backs, though.

mean mama has a posse

we went to cambridge this weekend to hang out with mom and dad and see the shepard fairey exhibit at the boston ica. above, mom obeys. below, andre the giant looms.
























it was really a fun show to see, and a cool museum in general. i'd love to go back and take a longer look at things i might have missed on this trip.

we came home saturday night, scared off early because of impending weather. it looks like the weather might be coming tonight instead. before we left, i got a luxurious massage from my mom, and boo got some white jeans at h&m:
























m bought a classic monopoly game on ebay (circa 1963). as usual, i lost early on and left the game to the serious capitalists in the family.























(boo the banker)

marketing manager, donuts

doesn't it sound like a job for homer simpson?!

happy anniversary, portland. got you on my mind.

i was mulling over the fact that we've lived in portland for just about exactly ten years this month. in fact, we moved here at the very beginning of the public schools' winter break. bean was six, in first grade (she made a sign which she hung in our living room window that said "THERE IS A KID IN HERE! i like planets and sea creatures."), and boo was not-quite-three. we moved from baltimore to maine in february and promptly got sick, all four of us, with some new england-style flu which knocked us out for more than a week. it was a different decade! a different century! anyway, i was thinking about it today and realizing that it's sort of strange to have been here long enough to feel nostalgic for portland things that aren't around anymore. and i started making this mental list of portland stuff that is no more:

*the barking squirrel cafe in deering oaks (what a great place for a restaurant - the one time i ate there, the cook quit mid-breakfast)
*the keystone theater/cafe (so weird and so wonderful!)
*the movies on exchange (sad and recent)
*bookland of maine (m's first employer, moved us to maine and promptly went out of business)
*casco bay books (sniff)
*milo (ditto)
*java joe's (still there in the form of the embarrassingly named morning in paris cafe)
*breaking new grounds (see above)
*american pie pizza (it was as good as flatbread, really)
*monroe salt works
*amaryllis
*dunne roman
*granny's burritos
*terra firma
*sip tea house
*the center for cultural exchange
*stone coast brewing co.
*acoustic coffee

i know i'm forgetting many, many more. oh, and remember how portland used to have a daytime and a nighttime new year's eve event? with fireworks on congress street?

coffee shop holdup

aha, so this is what was going on in monument square with all those police cars when i went to the library yesterday. good thing this guy is moving here to be our new police chief.

why i love my dog, part seventy-three

(photograph by boo)

he has these big fabulous fuzzy paws. he is 3/4 muppet.

back to the beach

the sun came out today, so we went back to the beach.

minnow got mail!

it's true -- minnow got a valentine in the mail from one of his best, best friends in the world, pink. boo helped him put the little paper doggie together.

the amazing race

i almost forgot to mention that the amazing race season fourteen started last night, and it was fabulous.* it's off to such a great start; not only are there several potentially sympathetic teams to root for, the challenges on this first episode included a horrifying bungee-plunge off a bridge and a hysterically funny cheese-toting episode. i think i understand now how some people (not me) feel when they're watching america's funniest home videos, or those online fail videos with people getting hurt on trampolines or whatever. m, boo, and i were laughing so hard as the racers' badly-designed wooden backpack-style cheese carriers broke into pieces, people slipped and slid down a steep, muddy, animal-poop-covered hillside in picturesque switzerland, and their 50-pound wheels of cheese went rolling and bouncing down the hill. down below, swiss cheese makers (i guess) clutched their stomachs with laughter. also, one of the annoying couples (jennifer and preston, dating, as the caption says) got kicked off at the end. so here's who i am rooting for:


margie and luke, a devoted mother and her deaf son (they won the first leg, and it was pretty poignant when phil signed "you are team number one" to luke, who can't read lips).


mark and michael, brothers and stuntmen, both very short people (i think they said 4 feet 9 inches). they may turn out to be jerks, but i like them so far.


linda and steve, married "hicks from the sticks." steve is seriously the real life version of this simpsons character. they'll be eliminated soon, i'm sure, since linda can't run fast and cries a lot, and they both tend to wander in the wrong direction. but i like them!


but most of all, with all my heart, i have my fingers crossed for


mike white and his gay dad!!!!! my favorite moment of the show was probably when mike white said to his dad, "i can't believe we're on the amazing race!"


*although i'm tempted to apologize for my love of (some) reality television, i won't. je ne regrette rien, as they say.

presidents day

turns out, today is a federal holiday. no new netflix for us, and we can't mail the packages we were planning to mail (one for bean, one an etsy sale). however, it provided the perfect opportunity for a cold and windy walk on willard beach with minnow.
























beach shacks
























mer-dog

brunch in topsham

we had brunch on sunday with my wonderful friend of many years, emily, and her family.


including ginger, seen below as a cat:
























and here as more of a live fur stole:
























she will only ride around on emily's shoulders. behind emily is ella, who is amazingly grown up and lovely since the last time we saw her (so long ago that i'm deeply ashamed and vow once again to never let so much time pass between visits with true friends).

i'm so jealous -- emily and matt bought this cute little aristocrat camper. it's nearly perfect, only in need of paint, cushions, curtains, and then they can 1. camp with it, 2. use it for a summertime guest residence, and 3. just hang out in it. they also plan to build a small patio in front of it.
























did i mention that emily is my own personal martha stewart? i can't even begin to describe how pretty and delicious her brunch was. and i'm not just saying that because she reads this blog! which reminds me, emily, i want your spinach pie recipe!

i don't see what anyone could see in anyone else

look what my valentime gave me for valentime's day!! if you're my facebook friend, you've no doubt gotten sick and tired of my status repeatedly involving me smelling myself...all as a result of a tiny sample of this lotion m acquired a while back and which i promptly fell in thrall to. it is blood orange and vanilla body milk, and it just smells so good. but it's all pricey and fancy, so i never expected to get a whole big bottle of the stuff (i've been making that little foil packet last, squeezing out tiny drops of lotion each day). mmmm, now i can smell myself all day long.

sweet

happy valentine's day from your very favorite

revolutionary road

(above: hello old port, old friend! we hardly ever see each other any more...)



i took myself out on a date tonight to see revolutionary road. i was truly prepared to be moved by its basic theme, the poignancy of finding yourself stuck in suburbia, adulthood, a conventional way of life -- not what you might have imagined your life to be. it may not be universal, but it's a good, solid, verging-on-tragic idea to center a movie around. also, pitch-perfect illustrations of marital love can be utterly sweet and true (an example that comes to mind is away from her). something was so wooden and awkward, though; probably the writing, and very possibly leonardo dicaprio's acting. maybe the directing? plus, this is one of those movies where the couple's two children are mostly conveniently absent, unless they're running through a sprinkler in the backround. that drives me crazy. i can hardly say a word against kate winslet, who manages to do quite a lot with the roles she's given, even in crappy films like titanic. plus she's completely interesting to look at. even the period details (of the 1950's), costumes, set design, all left me wishing i were watching an episode of mad men.

so: leonardo in a hat, in grand central station. kate winslet's pretty mouth. one certifiably insane character who seemed arranged just to shake things up or lurch the plot along. kathy bates, who i love. as did the older gentleman sitting behind me, which was evident in this conversation he had with his companion during the closing credits:

him: "...aaand...kathy bates!"
her: "haven't seen her in a while."
him: "and she's looking good!"

spooky

for your friday the 13th enjoyment, some images from my creepy house:


upstairs
























chandelier

stump

(Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times)


this was the first time in years that i didn't watch the westminster kennel club dog show (and somehow i only remembered to record the first night). it has in the past been our family equivalent of the super bowl, but it just sort of slipped by this year. i'll always enjoy admiring purebred showdogs (and some of my favorite dogs are and have been all fancy and deliberately bred), but any dogs in my future will be shelter hounds. anyway, having said that, look at this spanielly guy who won! he looks like he could be minnow's distant cousin. plus, he's the oldest dog ever to win at westminster. plus, his name is stump.

homemade trader joe's commercial

this video perfectly captures the essence of trader joe's. i think lisa will particularly enjoy this. by the way, it came from my bruddy, who found it on boingboing.

le popotame était allergique à la magie

remember capucine, the cutest little girl in france? well, now she's collaborating on these t-shirts, the sales of which will benefit "edurelief, in order to help kids in mongolia to buy books for school." i want one, don't you?!

nathan clifford

minnow and i came upon this strange scene during a dog walk yesterday: colorful snow art in front of an eerily lit elementary school entryway. i really like the surreal colors in the midst of so much february gray. also, during this same walk, a large orange cat came strutting up behind minnow (who was dreamily peeing on a a snow bank), and stood about a foot away from him, as if daring minnow to try and start something. minnow, however, never even noticed the cat, who eventually turned and walked away.

like a dream of weight

happy birthday to joy williams:
























my favorite contemporary short story is still 'shepherd,' from the collection taking care, first published in 1982.

"The shepherd was brown and black with a blunt, fabulous face. He had a famous trick. When the girl said, 'Do you love me?' he would leap up, all fours, into her arms. And he was light, so light, containing his great weight deep within himself, like a dream of weight."

courage campaign

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

okay, tears are pouring down my face now after boo made me watch this video (he knew that would happen). please go check out the courage campaign site and sign the petition to invalidate prop 8.

shapes from maine

this exhibition at the friedrich petzel gallery in new york looks kind of interesting -- the idea behind it interests me, anyway, as well as the vaguely industrial/patterned look of dozens of copper cookie cutters lined up in rows.

the artist, allan mccollum, had only been to maine once, but

"He became attracted to the pride Maine's inhabitants take in the traditions of homecraft, and decided to research artists and artisans of the state who offer custom creations to the public through maintaining their own websites, and who run small businesses out of their homes."

besides the cookie cutters, the exhibit includes wooden scrollsaw ornaments, rubber stamps, and hand-cut silhouettes.

burned paws

(AP Photo/Mark Pardew)


the fires raging across australia right now are the latest sad news item that i'm trying not to think about. this story about a koala with burned paws caught my attention despite my attempts to ignore the whole tragedy. this particular story has a happy ending, by the way.

when a man loves a chicken

i think someone should play this song during that aforementioned city council meeting re: chickens.

i never thought this day would come

it's my very first nigerian scam email!

Dearest,
I am 24 years old and a 3rd year Business Admin student of London Global University. My father was in the Precious Stone industry and owned mines in Tanzania, He also used to deal (buy and sell) in diamonds from Angola, Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire).It is sad to say that he died of the deadly Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome - AIDS on the 15th Feb, 2007.Two days after my father was pronounced HIV positive, my mother Committed suicide. Now I can no longer walk freely on the streets, at School or even in the church without being pointed at or gossiped about. This development has affected me academically, physically and Psychologically and I have decided to come over to your country where I Would have peace to live and further my education and have contacted you to assist me to transfer out the sum of $US4.5M which my father deposited with Safe Place, my upkeep when it became Obvious he was going to die. I intend to invest this money in your business or any other business you deem healthy. However, my uncle do not know about this money and my father on his sick bed, warned me not to let him know
About it so I'll appreciate if you keep my letter confidential or delete if you do not accept my proposal. You'll be rewarded with 30% of the total Funds for your effort.

Send your reply at my private email address:susandudu2318@yahoo.com

i wait your urgent reply

Sussan Dudu

i just had to share.

blossom dearie

she died this weekend at age 82. my meandering train of thought leads me from blossom dearie to cal ripkin thusly: i really love dearie's funny little voice, and she always makes me think of my wonderful writing teacher, carolyn, who was a fan. dearie was a jazz chanteuse for sure, but my favorite is the oddly melancholy song figure eight, from schoolhouse rock. which also makes me think of my bean, who had a curious passion for the number eight when she was very young (at baltimore orioles baseball games, she would yell, "NUMBER EIGHT!" when cal ripken came up to bat). see? and isn't "blossom dearie" the best name, ever?

chickens

the portland city council is voting on the chicken ordinance next week, and i for one will be calling and emailing the councilors to make sure they do the right thing. i haven't decided yet if i would seriously consider keeping chickens in my yard, but i'd kind of love to have to option. wouldn't it be fun to have them clucking around back there? wouldn't it be nice to have cruelty-free eggs to eat most days? i've been reading books about chickens (this one and this one too, both christmas gifts). what i'm wondering is, who would chickensit for me when we wanted to be somewhere other than home? maybe the animal lover would do it? or the animal kisser, perhaps?

sunshine

believe it or not, this is a picture of a warm (well, 40* degrees) and sunny sunday morning in portland, maine. the dancer and i had coffee at hilltop and walked near the water, dodging slush and defrosting dog poop, soaking in the sunshine. it felt so good.


*weather update: it actually got up to 50 degrees! no wonder it felt so lovely.

news from the recession

524 applications for 15 jobs. this puts me in mind of a job that m applied for recently (he was one of 150 applicants). it was down to him and one other person, and the company decided in the end not to fill the position.

smashed potatoes with kale

(potatoes, kale)


may i share a "recipe" with you? we have been eating lots of smashed potatoes lately, and by that i mean:

take some potatoes
boil them til tender
line them up on a greased baking sheet
smash them, somewhat, with a potato masher, but leave them kind of together, you know?
sprinkle them with any of the following: sea salt, pepper, chopped garlic, smoked paprika, fresh chopped herbs, etc.
and drizzle olive oil over the top
bake at around 450 degrees for about 25 minutes.

they are so delicious, all crispy and browned on the top. in this case, to up the healthy factor, i stir-fried some kale with garlic and topped it with the smashed potatoes. if you're in an un-vegan frame of mind, top this with an over-easy fried egg. if you're m, smother the whole thing in ketchup.

save the words

save the words, despite its annoying interface, is a really fabulous collection of words in danger of dying off through lack of use. i adopted jobler (n. one who does small jobs), as i am a bit of a jobler myself and feel that we are, particularly here in portland, maine, firmly entrenched in a jobler economy. okay, enough blateration.

i think this is the best costume for today.

i finally watched grey gardens last night, after years of intending to. i was positive i'd love it, and i did. i completely understand why people become a little obsessed with it. i could listen to little edie talk forever. please go watch it if you haven't already and tell me what you think. i'm uncomfortable with the idea of drew barrymore playing little edie in the upcoming dramatized film version.

jellyfish redux

more jellyfish for your jellyfish enjoyment!

tools of my trade

we just got a bunch of jellyfish shirts back from the screen printer, including cream and silver jellyfish on our newest shirt color, berry. they're so pretty! the color in this photo is not quite accurate, but almost. i am tagging a pile of them for whole foods. i've been having some sewing machine trouble the past couple of days, so i think it's time for a tune up.

happy birthday, sooze!!!

blair lent, r.i.p.

blair lent was the illustrator of tikki tikki tembo, one of my all-time favorite books when i was a kid. i loved it for the text, which i pretty much knew by heart, but the illustrations also stand out so vividly in my memory, especially the surrounding kites and flowers and the kind of dark wash of the background colors. he was 80 and lived in cambridge, mass.

happy groundhog day

from april.
























she's the closest thing we have to a groundhog, at least inside the house (although i haven't spotted our groundhog friend who lives under the playhouse since the weather was quite a bit balmier). i learned today via the writer's almanac that groundhog day was invented by germans -- german-americans in pennsylvania, to be precise. it's a spin-off of various pagan and religious holidays which all essentially celebrate the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. that's pretty hopeful...unless you're in a glass-half-empty frame of mind, i suppose.

punxsutawney phil did see his shadow, as it seems he always does. it seems a little ridiculous, actually, to imagine that there wouldn't be six more weeks of winter at this point. right?!

best superbowl commercial

i already have a favorite, even though the superbowl hasn't started yet. i got a sneak preview watching, um, the puppybowl. mom, i think you will especially enjoy this.

the reader. the bathtub.

m and i went to see the reader last night. i liked it more than he did, being somewhat more willing to forgive the movie's poetic license in several spots (i won't go into that too much, for fear of giving the entire plot away). what i liked about it was the first half, in particular the lovely and revealing (and not just cause they're quite naked a lot of the time) performances by both kate winslet and the young german actor david kross. i just liked watching them, even if i had to ignore some plot points i didn't quite believe. i think this salon review gets much of it exactly right.

also, i was ridiculously distracted by the dirty state of the kate winslet character's bathtub.

rabbit rabbit!

happy first day of it's-not-january-anymore!