things you may not know about me

*i have more blogs than maybe you think i do.

*when i'm meditating for a long time, i am filled with the urge to mentally redecorate my house (this may or may not be genetic).

*there are certain songs or parts of songs that fill me with a physical sensation that is nearly full-blown nausea. for example, the part in "sweet home alabama" that goes, "in birmingham they love the governor, ooo ooo ooo." this changes, though: there was a period of time when i couldn't bear to hear any music from the eighties because it too vividly invoked the eighties in my mind. my memory has since dimmed, and now i like a lot of eighties music.

*i shave my legs with a product called beard buster (the cheapest shaving cream money can buy), and it makes me laugh a little every time. also, it makes me think of chaucer, the miller's tale to be specific. no, really. check out line 634.

scott pilgrim vs. the world

i loved this movie.
specially seeing it with
my friend emily.

your sudden adventures, or strange, or sweet

ah, the last dreamy summery days. summer has dropped back in for a visit after a couple of cool weeks, which included chilly nights and cold rain and an earlier and earlier sunset. so now it's hot again, but the light is different, and so is the traffic -- usm is back in session (zoë starts auditing a philosophy class there tomorrow, and isaac starts at the learning shack a week from tomorrow).


in this end-of-summer frame of mind, i've been


reading: mysteries, everything by ruth rendell i can get my hands on
drinking: iced coffee with maple syrup and soy cream
watching: treme, david simon's latest series for hbo, about post-katrina new orleans
listening to: modern-old timey new orleans jazz, like this. also, zoë playing her banjo with isaac on harmonica
eating: sandwiches, of all sorts. i'm especially loving spelt right bagels piled with veggies and tofurkey.
smelling: you know what? i LOVE the smell of fresh, hot tar, and i have had the opportunity to smell a lot of it lately
craving: a trip to the middle of nowhere for a while. or just somewhere other than home, you know? mark and i have a big anniversary coming up, and i think we're going to get to go to mount desert island, finally!


also, i've been sewing (including some things for my own amusement, which maybe i'll show you some day), painting (the front and back porches), sighting celebrities (julie!), staying up too late and sleeping in like crazy, listening to bbc radio (including gardening shows and shows about birds, anything just to hear adorable accents), taking long walks, videotaping my dog doing boring things, getting together with friends (emily, i wish you had a blog to link to right here, because it would be such an awesome blog) and meditating.

ladies and serial killers

it was just that kind of day yesterday: strolling through town with the checkout girl and ms. a in the morning, and then watching our house get transformed into a movie set at night.

the ladies and i met up at picnic, where we visited meg and jen at their gorgeous table and wandered around appreciating (but in my case, not purchasing) the crafty wares.

annabelle found a cute brown corduroy hat that suited her perfectly.





















and on the way home we dipped our feet in the icy cold water at the deering oaks wading pool.





















later, allen came over with his crew and equipment and filmed some scary scenes, including isaac getting murdered in zoë's bed by jackie. spooky!








































our bloody makeup skills came in handy on kristina's head, too.





















a serial killer in the living room.





















at the end of the night, isaac got a chance to play with the steadicam!

did i mention

she's learning to play the banjo?

dhoom two

how to describe dhoom?
it's bollywood awesomeness
and it's really long.

work

some days, work for me means t-shirts piled all over my dining room table and several trips to the post office. i am completely in love with this new crow print, but i'm also pretty fond of the "state of maine" print, which is from an antique map.

quick change

some days you just want
a dumb and funny movie.
also, bill murray.

part one, a short film

isaac makes beautiful, funny, frightening movies.


Part One from Isaac Woodbury High on Vimeo.

blue and glowing days

lucky lucky me: i had a morning tea party yesterday with two magical girls, plus this magical lady.
















with iced jasmine tea and german poppyseed cake.

lunch at the lake

jason spent a few days at his friends' camp* on tripp pond with his mom and his brother, and they kindly invited our family (including cousin-uncle meiklejohn) to join them there yesterday. jason made us delicious avocado, tempeh, tomato, and lettuce sandwiches (eaten way too fast to capture on film).

on the way home, we stopped at a little market so isaac could buy this fabulous hat and a huge bottle of moxie. we also drove through the land of nod, which was pretty much a disappointment.























jason's grandfather built this canoe!




*in maine, "camp" doesn't mean "tent," or "campground." it means "rustic house" or "cottage."

friday the thirteenth

unlucky, or lucky? consider the following:

*zoë's bike got tuned up and rode like a dream.

*i came upon a human person sprawled on the bathroom floor in the portland public library, surrounded by bloody cotton balls and drug paraphernalia.

*my dad came to visit and we went to see twelfth night (it was my third time).

*there was a horrible-looking accident at the corner of park and state, right down by deering oaks, that involved two cars and a tree.

*zoë got a new job at a place that's closer to home, pays more, and is less of a fast food black hole than her current place of employment.



so. friday the thirteenth: lucky for zoë, unlucky for unknown strangers?

pastiche

i've already mentioned this on the twitter and the book of faces, but i had such a fabulous dream last night that i just have to describe it again. in the dream, i came across a great blog called dismal pastiche.* i then proceeded to email a link to myself via my brain. it was like there was a built-in iphone. in my brain.**


*yes, dismalpastiche.com is available. and it's MINE!

**just to be a little more meta about it, i then woke up, grabbed my iphone from beside the bed, and emailed myself a description of this dream.

happy birthday, minnow!

minnow's turning eight today: i am thinking some frosty paws might be in order!

i am love

everything's perfect
'til the soup give her away:
then it all goes wrong.

chard bouquet

one of the ways zoë's keeping herself sane during this fast food interval in her life is by volunteering once a week at green spark farm in cape elizabeth. she gets to the farm at seven a.m. and works until twelve thirty, all before starting her eight hour shift at work. i am so inspired by this girl.

the second best thing about it is that she brings home gorgeous produce for us to try (last week, fabulous striped beets and heirloom potatoes, and this week incredible chard that she picked, washed, cooked, and ate all in the space of about an hour). the best thing about it, though, is seeing her come through the door covered in dirt and smiling.

the kids are all right

this movie's all right --
rich white san franciscans try
to figure life out.

stitchery

it's fun, every once in a while, to use the sewing machine for a non-work-related project. zoë and i treated ourselves recently to some gorgeous fabric from z fabrics in portland which we then craftily stitched up into the cutest aprons you ever saw.

we both agreed that we should get right to work baking something equally adorable. like cupcakes, or tiny tarts. or maybe this, which isn't so much adorable as delicious-looking.





















next up on our project list: ruffle tees.

woof. woof. woof.

invincible summer

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zoë and i took advantage of the gorgeous, perfect weather on monday (and the fact that it was her day off) to drive up to camden and rockland. we spent the day strolling, drinking iced coffee, sharing a burrito, doing the new york times crossword puzzle together, window shopping, and people watching. i have a big crush on rockland, actually. they have an excellent bookstore cafe, and there's art all over the place -- check out these birds on one of the farnsworth buildings.

back at home, things are blooming sparsely in the yard. but they're blooming! japanese anemones don't seem to mind benign neglect.





















 and thanks to the dancer, we've got some black eyed susans too.





















august is funny. it's still the heart of summer, but there's already that "back to school" theme going on in stores, and i've noticed it's getting dark earlier. there's an entire month before school really does start, but the fall still feels imminent. i'm trying to squeeze all that i can out of summer while i can. for me that basically means walking around barefoot and drinking lots of iced coffee; opening all the windows and wearing tank tops; walking downtown in my flipflops and eating dinner at nine p.m.; staying up late reading mystery novels and waking up late feeling a little guilty.

rabbit rabbit

august is here!