my dog eats kale

my boys

my human boy won a prize! he got wmpg's golden minidisc award for his radio piece about greenwashing and consumerism! i am pretty darn proud of that boy. he's constantly busy with blunt, school, skiing, making stencils, film and music projects... he is kind of amazing, and he's a great dancer besides.

my canine boy just lies around curled in a warm circle. he is basically a big fuzzy pile of staticky fur.

there are times i want to just lie down beside him and be a dog for a day.

i'm still here

totally a hoax.

joaquin acts like an asshole
for two long hours.*





*it's really only 108 minutes, but it SEEMS like at least two hours.

sleep, my love

i have a weakness

for evil husbands who try

to drive their wives nuts.

with our eyes open

View Larger Map

at some point later today (which will be tonight in india - ten and a half hours ahead, to be precise - and yes, that "and a half" is pretty strange), zoë and max will be on an overnight train that will take them from chennai to kochi. they'll be in kochi for two days before they depart for the farm where they'll be working (barring any unforseen change of plan) for six weeks. an email yesterday reported that they'd made it to chennai and eaten some delicious hot curries and were staying in a cheap and clean hotel. if you take our current windchill into consideration, it is nearly one hundred degrees hotter where they are than where i am. there you have it, my mind-blowing fact of the day.

damariscotta day

emily invited me on an outing last week that was a perfect distraction for me (from my constant "what-is-zoë-doing-right-now?" thoughts as well as some stitchery work that i was very happy to put off for a day). i drove to her house in topsham and then she drove us to to alewives fabrics, where i wandered aimlessly, admiring and stroking the beautiful fabric (emily was more purposeful, but she also spent more money than i did!). afterward we browsed at maine coast book shop and had coffee and scones and chatted for a long time. it was such a lovely day.

and below, please join me in admiring emily's crochet skills. this photo doesn't quite accurately capture the gorgeous contrast of her blue scarf against her sweater. i am inspired to learn how to crochet, and i know just the person to teach me!

penny serenade

dubious moral:

marital problems are solved
by having a child.

parking lot crow

gray sky, perfect silhouette of a crow. it's stupid how happy it makes me to see one, even in a parking lot.

un prophète

like the godfather

with corsicans and muslims

in a french prison

my snow shovel collection

usually, if one stands in the mouth of one's driveway looking exhausted or melancholy or damp, holding a shovel, the passing city snowplow will adjust its enormous blade in such a way as to avoid piling a mountain of snow and ice and dirt at one's feet and blocking the driveway one has just labored for an hour to clear. usally, but not always.

is it not meningitis?

(the alleged last words of louisa may alcott.)*

and speaking of illness, my girl has been sick in thailand. she even had an adventure at a thai hospital, where max and tang took her after she was pretty dehydrated. she is feeling much better now, though max got sick last night and is now doing his own recuperating. they are staying at a comfortable guest house in chiang mai where they can just rest and relax until they feel up to more exploration. i am so very thankful for skype, which makes it possible for me to talk to them practically in person, and to see that they really are okay.

back at home, isaac and i have been on our own this weekend while mark works at a trade show in atlanta with a consulting client. yesterday isaac participated on a panel at the great northeast radio rally. he spent the entire weekend working on it with the blunt radio team, and yesterday afternoon he presented his greenwashing piece before an incredibly receptive audience. i watched his panel, and it was really great!

*stitched, by the way, on a piece of an old pair of isaac's pajama pants!

tiny furniture

it's coming-of-age

as told by lena dunham;

i loved the last scene.

fear not for the future

magic: chatting on skype a couple of days ago with zoë and max across a distance of more than 8,000 miles. to them, it was early in the morning and around 75 degrees. they were in a cafe open to the street, and we could hear weird bird noises in the background, and motorbikes going past. where we were, sitting inside at our dining room table, it was dark, cold, evening, with piles of snow on the ground.

she's alive!

(this image stolen from max). they're staying in this charming little hut in sukhothai, thailand. look, there are zoë's shoes on the porch!

for many more details on their adventure, check out max's blog and zoë's blog.

life is either a daring adventure or nothing

i spent an awful lot of time yesterday watching their plane move across the world, coming strangely close to the north pole as it made its way to hong kong, where they had a layover before continuing to bangkok. this route makes more sense when you look at it on a rounded image of the earth, by the way. according to my calculations, they landed in bangkok about five minutes ago, which is actually twelve hours in the future. the whole thing is a little bit mind-blowing.

as for me, i reacted to her departure by furiously organizing odd parts of my house, including a coat closet we hardly ever use and the shelf where we keep tea. oh, and also the tupperware/lid situation is now copacetic.

also, i watched the entire first season of toddlers and tiaras.

thank goodness for the dancer, who fetched me in her car, bought me a chocolate chip cookie, and fed me some delicious lentil and portabella mushroom soup. we also went for a walk in the bright, cold sunshine.

your one wild and precious life*

after goodbyes and celebratory meals and last-minute purchases of various travel necessities, she's off.

*from mary oliver's the summer day.

down the road to the next place

oh, friends with young children, i've been thinking of you a lot this past week. i've been imagining how theoretical it must seem to you that a person would have a child who would be getting ready to don a backpack and get on a plane to thailand, and then to india, and who would be planning to spend six months in a country you have only read about, a place you yourself will very likely never actually see. can i just tell you that you will wake up one day and there will be something to the effect of "(your child) to bangkok" on your calendar, three days hence?

details: first, our dining room table covered in stuff, pre-packing. second, that's max's backpack. third and fourth, zoë in her carry-on pack (her actual backpack is much larger, though the thing weighs about two pounds fully packed). she's wearing her sun hat. after i took these pictures, she dyed her hair dark brown, so i'll be needing to document that in the next three days.

top ten movies

by request, a list of my ten favorite movies from last year. i tried to pick mostly newish films, rather than the classics that might turn up on some kind of life list (like annie hall and breathless). anyway, here, in no particular order, my top ten movies of 2010:

+precious

+up

+best worst movie

+auf der anderen seite

+true grit

+toy story 3

+my heart is an idiot

+good hair

+temple grandin

+frozen river

ugh, it's hard to list just ten. i might change my mind, although i am sure that those are ten great movies.

a forest in which there is a graceful clearing

mark happened upon this blog entry the other day and sent it to me: beautiful photographs of a wedding in acadia this october. he and i wandered past this very wedding as the vows were being said in the field behind the jordan pond house. we had just finished walking around the pond. it was chilly that day, and we noticed the guests had pretty quilts wrapped around them, and the bride was wearing a sweater. it's fun to get this peek at the couple and some of the details of their celebration, and also to learn that the bride owns alewifes fabrics in nobleboro (i've never been, but i'm pretty sure this store has been recommended by emily). and, you know, it was our twentieth anniversary, so it was kind of magical to stroll past such a sweet occasion.

2011, thus far

new year's eve with mom and dad at river gods, my favorite irish pub.

two thums up for 2011! indian cola at shalimar india food & spices in central square.

2011 is the year my girl explores india. she is packing. she is almost ready to go.

happy new year!

we are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous*

scenes from christmas in carolina 2010. there are many more photos over here!

*nathaniel hawthorne, in a letter to his sister, referring specifically to his marriage. the entire quote is: "we are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous, and might be even happier; but, as a matter of taste, we choose to stop short at this point."

movies

here is a list of the movies i watched in 2010. i doubt it will be of the slightest interest to anyone but me - i am really just archiving it here for future reference. but it's kind of impressively long, right?

2010

· 1974: the red riding trilogy part 1

· 1980: the red riding trilogy part 2

· 1983: the red riding trilogy part 3

· alamo: 13 days to glory

· all the president's men

· amreeka

· an education

· annie hall

· auf der anderen seite

· best worst movie

· big sleep

· breathless

· catfish

· charade

· christmas story

· chungking express

· code 46

· crazy heart

· damnationland

· darjeeling limited

· dark corner

· das weisse band

· date night

· dhoom

· dhoom two

· district 9

· elf

· everyone says i love you

· fish tank

· food inc.

· frozen river

· ghost writer

· gigantic

· gilda

· girlfriend experience

· good hair

· greenberg

· harry potter and the chamber of secrets

· harry potter and the philosopher's stone

· herb and dorothy

· i am love

· it happened one night

· it's a wonderful life

· jack goes boating

· kick ass

· kids are all right

· kismat konnection

· lady vanishes

· le temps du loup

· låt den rätte komma in

· man who knew too much

· monty python's the meaning of life

· mulholland drive

· my heart is an idiot

· mystery of the thirteenth guest

· no impact man

· om shanti om

· paper heart

· pianist

· please vote for me

· precious

· quick change

· rab ne bana di jodi

· rated local

· rebel without a cause

· rocket singh: salesman of the year

· room with a view

· runaways

· sabotage

· scott pilgrim vs. the world

· sherlock holmes and the secret weapon

· sherlock holmes: dressed to kill

· sherlock holmes: terror by night

· shining

· single man

· social network

· story of india

· stranger

· streetcar named desire

· sweet and lowdown

· sweetie

· temple grandin

· third man

· thirty-nine steps

· three amigos

· three idiots

· toy story three

· tracey fragments

· true grit

· une femme est une femme

· up

· way we get by

· what ever happened to baby jane?

· what's your raashee?

· white christmas

· wild at heart

· woman in green