joy and jubilee

cornfields and harry potter

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:37:00 +0000

another odd dream:

i was on vacation with my family, and we were renting some house at the beach. i woke up in the middle of the night and i was really hungry, so i got up to get a snack. i went outside and walked down the road to a bunch of huge cornfields, of course, and started eating field corn off the stalks. i heard someone coming through the field, and i got really scared so i crouched down to hide... and it was one of my sister's high school friends - amber beathard! it turns out i had wandered onto their farm. she sat there while i ate corn, then we started to see headlights in the field. then a car drove through the field RIGHT beside us! the engine was completely quiet, so it was a miracle it didn't run us over. a bunch of people were drive around the fields searching for me. so i dodged them and got out of the field. then i remembered that i had stashed my quidditch broom in the beathard's barn, so i hightailed it over there and found it. then flew back to the beach house. and i think i might have actually been harry potter at some point in the dream.

wackadoo dreams

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:19:00 +0000

okay, i dream a lot. and usually my dreams are a little strange. so since a) i have been neglecting this blog and need content, and 2) i can't think of anything to say... i think i'll just list a few of my recent dreams. i'd like to remember them in the future. i might just make this a regular feature.

last week - friday night, maybe? i dreamt that i was neda ulaby (whose voice, let it be documented here, drives me up a wall), or maybe i wasn't her but i could see through her eyeballs as if i was her. in any case, her father was a terrorist, and she killed him as he slept - by dropping BBs into his ear, one by one, until his ear canal collapsed and the BBs flooded his brain.

there were some screwy dreams the other night, but i JUST NOW forgot them as i tried to type.

last night i dreamt that i busted scott for taking peni$ enlargement pills that he bought on the internet. the way i found out was that i saw a text message on his phone that he sent to someone, saying "the pills work! just waiting for the last couple of inches!" ??

i think i like this new feature. you? feel free to share in the comments.

austin, TX, here i come!

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:54:00 +0000

i'm heading to austin next week, for the annual meeting of the society of american archivists. i am jazzed because i've always heard such great things about austin... but not so jazzed because it is supposed to be several ticks above ONE HUNDRED DEGREES all next week.

just kill me now.

it was hot enough when it was in DC a few years back. but this. this.... i just can't imagine slogging around in that.

i've also been advised to bring my bathing suit because there is a pool at the hotel, and because of the always-62-degree water at barton springs. but what about running into my boss whilst wearing a bathing suit? what about averting my eyes from speedo-sporting colleagues? that makes my stomach hurt, just thinking about it. archivists, including me, are not generally known for their ripped and trim physiques.

in other news, the garden is thriving! photographic evidence here. and my parents were here for a nice visit last weekend - we hit the mid-city dog days of summer sidewalk sale (we stumbled upon it by accident last summer and made a point to go again this year) and the national aboretum, out on new york ave/US50. i got an early-early birthday present! a chiminea! i can't WAIT to have cozy fires in the backyard this fall. and winter. and next spring! and always.

due to my travel craziness, i've had to cancel my appearance at the MPHS class of '94 reunion this weekend. i was actually looking forward to it, but alas. not this time. i'll have to hook up with my homies when i am home in october instead....

and that's all i've got. now i'm off to wish it wasn't too late to mail-order a full-body victorian swim dress in time for next week...

hot or not

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:15:00 +0000

we've been awfully spoiled this summer. well, at least all of us in the DC area. we've hardly had any re-e-e-e-a-lly hot days at all. at all! as in, i can't even remember the last time it was in the 90s. and i sincerely doubt we've broken 100. for the most part, we've drifted around in the upper 70s and lower 80s. lows in the 60s at night. it was even TOO CHILLY to go swimming the other day. in july!

which sounds nice.

sounds awful nice.

sounds like a cool lake in canada, without the black flies in your nose.

but instead, it has made me a HUGE WIMP. i just went on a walk outside with a co-worker. not long, maybe 20 minutes tops. and i have sweat through my shirt, my ass is damp and my hair is dripping sweat into my eyes. it's only 88 out there, people! i should be ashamed of myself.

fun weekend, and other stuff to report

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:39:00 +0000

i had a pretty fun weekend, how about you?

Friday was spent by myself at home - which might sound boring, unless you are a homebody like me who likes some extended periods of alone time. sometime during the course of the evening, i also snacked on some pine nuts left over from making pesto, and had some of that pesto for dinner. somewhere in that mix lurked a rancid nut that had been sitting around too long - because i now have pine mouth! i had just bought the nuts from the bulk section of Yes! organic market, only days prior. i should have known better, because as much as i like Yes! - you really have to watch them on expired food and the bulk bins can often be kind of dodgy (i found what appeared to be rodent turds in the bulk popcorn bin once, and all their chicken was DAYS past due and still in the meat case, and their beets often sit in the produce section until they turn to liquid blobs. and god knows there aren't enough pine-nut-eaters in brookland to make sure the bulk bin has a good rate of turnover. i'm sure those nuts had bin in that bin for months... but i digress. i have PINE MOUTH, dammit! it was the worst on saturday. everything tasted like gasoline/crushed aspirin/bug spray - especially coffee or anything bready, and my mouth would occasionally suffer a pine-nut aftertaste at random times. sunday was still bad, but getting better. today is much better, but still not all gone. lessons learned - if pine nuts are cheap, it's probably for a good reason; only buy pine nuts from italy, as the ones from other countries (especially china, for some reason) sometimes contain cheaper quality, they are more lax about refrigerating in the warehouses, and are riskier for pine mouth. great. that is, unless you like teh taste of gasoline or sharpie markers - then by all means, go to the brookland Yes! and gorge yourself.

Saturday, we went to Bengie's Drive In, up near Baltimore - which boasts the largest screen in the U.S! As usual, it was a fun time. but insanely late, so i didn't shamble into bed until after 3:30 am. AM! that is basically unforgiveable. before the show, we went to toys-r-us and i got the re-released Mastermind game. which SUXX for many reasons that i won't go into, and i will now be stalking old versions on ebay.

Therefore, i slept late on Sunday before heading over to Courtney's to paint trim in her bedroom.... which killed my back, and i knew it was killing my back even as i did it... but i am obsessive when it comes to trim work and couldn't stop myself. sick, i know. but then i went swimming! in a pool! for the first time this summer! and it was so so good. i wish i could have a pool in my yard. but alas, that would be a terrible idea. too small, and would be filled with urine and syringes and dead squirrels within the hour of installation. *sigh*

i have a busy several weeks approaching. i hate busy.

makes me wanna hoop

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:17:00 +0000

So I made a hula hoop.

For myself.

Scott asked me what in the heck I was going to do with the PVC tubing I bought from the home despot – when I said I was going to make myself a hula hoop, he laughed. I told him I was serious, and he laughed some more. So I said, “no really, I’m making a hula hoop.” And then he chuckled merrily and shook his head.

He came home from work yesterday and there was a hula hoop in the living room. He said, “oh! So you were serious about that hula hoop thing!” and he wonders why I say he doesn’t listen to me...

I hooped my ass off yesterday afternoon (well, not really, I’m more aiming to hoop my gut off) while I was home early from work. I hooped through Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and part of an episode of Clean House. Which, looking back, might have been too much for my first time of hooping since elementary school. My back was k-i-l-l-i-n-g me last night and I have little bruises all over my waist. But it was worth it! It is supposed to be a good workout for gut and lower back. Lord knows my flabby gut and weak back could use some work. and it's really pretty fun.

You can buy exercise hoops online for $20-$30+tax+shipping, but I got the supplies at the store for less than $10. And that is good enough for me. it was put together and ready to go in under 10 minutes flat.

The first couple of tries at the hoop resulted in the hoop crashing dramatically and immediately to the floor. I knocked a candle off of the coffee table a few times. Scared the hell out of the cats more than once. The first, oh, say, 300 times it fell to the floor it smashed into the pointy part of my ankle bone on the way down. God, you know how that hurts. I said curses (motherFUCKERohgoddamnSHITballspleasegodhelpmeohfuck) so loud and convincingly that i’m certain my pleas were heard at the gates of heaven. i was afraid to look, because it hurt so sharply that i thought the skin over the pointy bone had been cleaved open and that my ankle guts would be exposed. And just like when you bite your lip once, and proceed to chomp down on the same place over and over and over…. Well, it’s the same with pointy ankle bones, apparently. I smashed the bejeezums out of my ankles, then with tears in my eyes I tied dishtowels around my ankles like bulky, super-short leg warmers resumed hoopin’ the night away.

to make a hula hoop of your very own, all you need is some PVC tubing (not the pipes - it has to be flexible enough to bend into a stiff circle), a connector (from the same aisle at lowes depot), and some jazzy colored electrical tape to cover it. and that's it! i think there are calculations for how big around your hoop should be, based on your height. but i wasn't that technical. the tubing came precut in lengths of 10 feet, so that's what i got. i am just under 5'8" and the finished hoop comes just to my belly button when i stand it in front of me. that seems about right to me. go make one. you won't regret it.

Spring!

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:48:00 +0000

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

[Today, Billy Collins]

Wow, so spring is here. Finally. (i've been away for quite some time, but we won't talk about that. let's just pretend otherwise for now.) here in DC, the weather has been skipping back and forth between spring and crap for a while now - mostly springy, though. daffodils have come and are almost gone, packing their little hatboxes and heading up north where spring is still sleeping. forsythia was a flash in the pan and the flame is gone. cherry blossoms have peaked and their confetti is sprinkling all down the river. next up will be azaelas and lilacs and other bloomy sisters. i was in ohio last weekend and spring was just arriving there. it was nice! i got to see spring twice.

wedding stuff is chugging right along. right now the pace is pleasant, if not a little skippy. soon it will be a freight train, bordering on derailment, so i'd better enjoy the semi-relaxation while i've got it.

this would be a good time to make a list of things i still need to do. but i'm afraid i would throw up once i saw it all written down. so let's think of other things!

like the vegetarian meatloaf i made the other day! it was DANG good. i didn't do the vegan route - i used the egg that the original recipe called for. and i didn't have hazelnuts so i used a mix of walnuts and cashews. also i used less nuts and more lentils, because the thought of 2 cups of nuts scared me badly. and i slathered it with ketchup for the last 15 minutes of baking. it was so. good. i just had leftovers for lunch. my only thought was that it was a little crumbly - i might add a second egg next time. and i might add a little minced green pepper, since i like that in my regular meatloaf. try it! i'm serious. it is very delicious. i think scott ate 3 slices.

in other news:

- i've been watching american idol. it's a little embarrassing, but hey. we have a DVR now, so it's a lot less painful when you can fast-forward through the crap. and i hope adam wins.

- my seedlings are doing....well, they're doing okay. they were great a few days ago, but a few have mysteriously died or disappeared. i believe the cats are to blame. nilsson must have developed a taste for seedlings last year.

- i'm going to be an aunt AGAIN! well, an aunt still, anyway. or is it again? i'm not sure. but either way, jessie and david are having another baby!

- i think the Death March is out this year. we didn't register in time, and all the spots are filled. refresh your memory on last years' walk here.

- and that's it for now.

ta ta.

just like my dreams

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:53:00 +0000

to find me gone

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:27:00 +0000

Oh it's been so long, been so long
The sound of my heart stopping, a surprising sound

wow! people, i've been away from here so long. i suppose no one even reads me anymore. anyone? anyone? i didn't think so.

i won't bother recapping what's been going on here to keep me away. that would be boring, even to me who lived it. but i will say this: i worship a new idol now.

well, maybe two idols.

they compete for my time and space in my heart. they are Wii Fit, and Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility. I curse the mueller clan for bringing this foolishness into my life. i haven't been so obsessed with a video game since the days of laying with my brother and sister, three in a row, on a soiled old mattress on the bare concrete floor of the basement rec room, taking turns at the paddle wheel of Atari Kaboom! until our eyes bled from the sockets, the primitive buckets a blurry whir on the screen, napping a little between turns. or, i suppose in college it would count when my roommate carrie and i would crouch behind our friend kiwi as she played Legend of Kyrandia on her PC. we wouldn't even play! we would sit for hours (hours!) after dinner in the dining hall, watching as the little elf Brandon (odd name for an elf) would try and save the kingdom.

scott go Wii Fit for me as a birthday present. i didn't ask for it, and i didn't necessarily think it would be much fun. but MAN! was i ever wrong. in the weeks following my birthday, i played it every day. and when i wasn't playing, i looking forward to the next time. but it wasn't a total obsession. not really. i couldn't play it endlessly, hours at a time. it is a very finite game - there are set amounts of yoga poses, excercises, and goofy games. once you unlock them all, that's it. and once you play them all, there's really a limit to how many times you can play "super hula hoop" or "hey, i'm a penguin, watch me catch fish!" before you either collapse from exhaustion or just get bored for the moment.

but not Tree of Tranquility. oh no. not that.

scott's sisters got it for me for my birthday. i thought, gee, that's nice, sounds neat. and tara said it was awesome. so hey, nice present! i waited a while to try it out, mostly because i didn't know a thing about the game and honestly, the cover of the game looked a little childish and dull. even the first time i played was only so-so - lots of weird legend that i only half payed attention to... lots of talking... preferences... set up. and even when i got to the game itself, i was annoyed by the long loading-up time as the game paused between scenes. but i stuck it out. AND NOW I CAN'T STOP, so help me. we got home from ohio on saturday. i started playing it sometime around 6:00pm. with a break for dinner, and a short break for a shower, i played NONSTOP until 2:00 in the morning. then i got up at 9:30 and played until 11:00. if scott hadn't been around, i would have surely played all day, eventually rotting into the cushions of the couch. even now, at work, i wish i were home playing that DAMN GAME.

but it is so fun.

it sounds reeeeaaaally dumb. here's how it goes: you are this anime-type character (see? i can't even speak the lingo) who gets sent to this island for some reason (again, i didn't really pay attention), presumably to set up a ranch/farm and also to possibly solve a mystery about a goddess and a rainbow, and save the island. you mess about fixing up your little house and exploring the towns, and buying seeds and planting gardens and harvesting and.... man, this sounds lame. but it's friggin addictive. maybe it is because i love to garden, but i am very impatient? in the game, plants take only a few days to start producing. maybe it's because i like having chores to do? on the island, i have to water my fields every day and harvest produce every morning, before i can do anything fun.

i'm going to stop talking about the damn game because by now you likely think i am crazy. plus, it is making me want to go home and play more. instead of making dinner. doing laundry. playing with my other christmas presents. i am an addict. i said it, OKAY??! are you HAPPY??!

geesh.

i hope you all had a lovely holiday. someday soon i'll remember to post some pictures of what i've been up to.

Fall is here!

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:01:00 +0000

blue sky, chilly breeze, golden-y leaves. this is my favorite time of year! the end of sweating! the end of upper-arm-baring tops! the beginning of blazers and cozy sweaters. pumpkins and craft projects.

but this time of year also brings 'round the dreaded Switching Out Seasonal Clothes. admittedly, it's an easier chore now than in years past. i used to have to stack a small dresser on top of my larger dresser, then drag over a rickety desk chair to stand on... then climb onto dresser number one, then way, way up onto dresser number 2... then sling one leg and part of my torso up into the loft of the bedroom... drag over a hugeass tupperware under-the-bed-storage bin with a cracked side and an ill-fitting lid, full of heavy jeans and sweaters.... then somehow crawl back down the whole mess, feeling for direction with my feet, while carrying the heavy wobbly half-broken bin. and i have TWO bins, so even though my nerves would be thoroughly shot after the first trip - i'd have to get right back on the saddle and do it all again. it's not much better now, but at least i have a real ladder instead of stacked-up furniture.

it is safer (marginally) but still a monumental pain in the rear. usually half my clothes are either missing or too small or eaten my moths, so a temper tantrum/crying jag ensues. i can't have scott witnessing any of this, because i am usually attempting these feats of acrobatic balance and emotional distress while wearing only torn-up granny panties and half a too-small bathing suit (or some similarly awful getup). it's not something i look forward too. but it's gonna happen soon, because i can't keep wearing the same 3 long-sleeved shirts to work over and over and over.

in other news, joe and dana are starting a blog! i'll add a link when they send it.

i had a great weekend of fall fun. on saturday scott and i, and cliff, courtney, ian and angel went to the "life and death on the C&O canal" - a spooky, fun, awesome, kind of hokey, great program run by the national park service at the great falls park in maryland. the canal runs parallel to the potomac at that section, and the tour reinacts various grim and gruesome acts along the canal and river over the last hundred or so years. civil war field hospitals, mine collapses, booleggers getting shot in the night, drunken canal workers robbing folks on the path, rival irish gangs who dug the canal brawling and killing each other, kids drowning in the canal... i can't even explain how fun it was.

on sunday, the october meeting of Sew Watts Cookin' was a spectacular hit! we focused on fabric printing (paper printing was also on the docket, but we didn't get to it). we had two methods - freezer paper stencils and making a cheater silk-screen with mod-podge painted right onto the silk. i embellished a canvas pea coat with the paper stencils - it looks SO good. i want to paint on everthing in the house now! someone else used the other method and made a set of six fabric coasters, and they look terrific. i can't wait to do it all again. pictures on the Sew Watts blog will appear in a day or two. here is a link to the freezer paper method, in case you want to give it a try: http://www.neitherhipnorfunky.com/?p=106

what did you guys do over the weekend?

oh, but it's friday

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:35:00 +0000

i used the word "awesome" in a conversation with my boss the other day.

i am still mortified.

hurricanes in ohio? and other news.

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:52:00 +0000

so i've been out of touch with the news that past few days. i was in NC for my brother's MBA graduation, then had a crap-busy day at work on Monday. i didn't hear about the "hurricane" in ohio until late last night! yikes! i called mom and dad this morning, and they are fine. they have a generator, which they are using to power the fridge and freezers... and they are living in the camper, since it uses much less power than the whole house. fun! still no power, but they are thinking of it as extended camping. wow. i still can't get over it. hurricane in ohio.

anyway!

so today is day three of a self-imposed "no refined sugar, no refined flour" diet. i did it a few years ago, in the month leading up to halloween. i lost about 7 pounds, then went on a tootsie-roll-dorito-pizza extravaganza for a week and never looked back. the fridge and cupboards were bare, and i needed to stock up on essentials - what better time to clean the slate and try again? i can't do no-carbs, because i like a little starch. and i can't do it forever, because i love bread. but for a short while, it's a good challenge.

monday:
breakfast - oatmeal with skim milk, coffee
lunch - seaweed salad, miso soup, futo maki roll
dinner - turkey sausage and potato pancake with cabbage, peas

tuesday:
breakfast - puffed rice cereal with skim, apple, coffee
lunch - green salad with feta, green beans, 1/2 grilled chicken breast, fresh fruit (catered at work!)
dinner - zucchini cut into long strands like pasta, steamed; sauce of fresh tomatoes and red peppers, with ground turkey, olives

for snacks and guilty-pleasures, i can have popcorn (whole grain)... potato chips (hey, they're just potatoes, right?)... cheese... apples... and other assorted, more boring stuff.

last time i did this, i cut out all artificial sweeteners. and coffee and all caffeine. i think that was a swell idea, but sometimes i just want something sweet and that became a deal-breaker. so this time i am allowing sugar-free hot chocolate and sugar free pudding, if i reeeeeaaally need it. and coffee. last night i had sugar free cook-n-serve tapioca pudding, with a cinnamon stick boiled in. it was worth the chemicals, let me tell you. i can only find sugar-free cook-n-serve in two kinds - chocolate and tapioca. the cook-n-serve taste (i.e. slightly toasty) hides most of the sugar-free taste. try it. you'll like it.

we are going to a Nationals game tonight. let's see if i can find anything to eat there.... yikes! i suppose a hotdog, sans bun? some chili? this could prove to be interesting.

it's too bad all i can think about are pancakes like these - jess, i think these look right up your alley. sort of like those nifty breakfast muffin thingies you make and then freeze. make some, then mail them to me in approximately one month. :)

oh yeah.

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:03:00 +0000

and a friend of mine, ellen, just got a new tattoo while we were all in san francisco. it has awakened my desire to get another tattoo. maybe a post-wedding celebration? my first tattoo was chosen to be added on to at a later date. i think the time has come!

back from the dead.

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:58:00 +0000

whew! i've been gone a long time! i blame work. and traveling for work. and general laziness.

i warn you now - this is going to be a reeeeal boring post. no pictures.

in recent past:

- i went to san francisco for work! a whole week on the company dime! i was in a workshop on a new-fangled archives tool for a few days, followed by several days of a big archives conference - the society of american archivists big annual meeting - so it's not like i was lounging around having fancy cocktails. i was sitting in meeting rooms most of the daylight hours, but i still saw some sights around town. i haven't dealt with my pictures yet, but i did manage to take a few before my camera battery conked out. i'll just say for now that san francisco was a strange place, and not as pretty as i thought it was going to be. i'll go more into that when i put up some pictures. oh wait! here is a picture i stole from one of my co-worker's flickr - from the closing party of saa, and the sign from the bar we ended up at later:

i look like a dullard with bad posture and schlumpy hair. where did my good posture go? and my hair needs help. help!

- scott and i are ramping up the wedding planning business, and have chosen a caterer (awesome!) and are narrowing down our location choices - which will allow us to announce a date REAL REAL SOON. i promise. likely in the next week or so. then i can start thinking about even more fun stuff like decorations! cakes! invitations! oh yeah, and getting back to the gym. :)

- the kitties are getting along great! they chase each other all over the house all day. and all night long they hold Extreme Wrestling matches under our bed. how two cats can be so clumsy and loud, i have no idea. although i think nilsson's one-eyeball-ness factors quite a bit into the random clunks and crashes that we hear through the night. he ran smack into the bedframe so hard the other night that i was afraid to look. i thought for sure i'd see his little grey body, lifeless on the floor with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. vashti was shy with him for a day or two, them scared and combative for a day or two. now they take turns being the bully and i think they are doing just fine.

that's all for now.

new style of compliment - use it on your friends!

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:40:00 +0000

i almost forgot about this - it happened on saturday evening, as i was on my way home from dinner with scott and his brother, kevin. it was kevin's birthday, so i was making a secret stop at the safeway up near Piney Branch road to pick up a Carvel ice cream cake for desert...

there was a drunk/high older woman serenading everyone in the checkout area with her homemade song - which went something like “oh, my beeeeeaaauuutiful blue balloon, my shiny blue balloon….” she was twirling around, looking up at the ceiling, so i suppose the song was inspired by the mylar birthday balloons hanging around the florist/plant section. Everyone was cracking up, but giving her a wide berth. I got my ice cream cake and started to leave, but as I headed for the doors, I passed by the aisle where she was now buying some stuff. I overheard her tell this odd compliment to the poor little teenaged kid who was ringing her up:

“you are cute, yes you are. i could just crawl up inside your BEHIND. right up in there. yes i could.”

i almost peed my pants laughing all the way home. that poor kid will probably never recover from that.

cozy places.

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:32:00 +0000

why can't i have one of these? to escape to for weekend and vacations?

http://www.simondale.net/house/gallery.htm

lumberjacking, crafting and kitties

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:53:00 +0000

i chopped down a tree on saturday! all by myself! my back is punishing me now, of course, but it was very satisfying work. we had a mulberry tree growing in the front yard, pretty close to the house. i've been meaning to do something about it for years, but mostly i just hack the top of it off a few times during the summer and ignore it. i like to eat the berries in the spring, but the thing was getting dangerous... i ignored it too much this year, and with all the cool weather and the rain the silly tree was getting really top-heavy and huge. and threatening to topple over into the neighbor's front window. and probably ripping out our foundation at the same time. so! i chopped it down. well, i SAWED it down using a little hand-held saw from el Depot. then i had a huge pile of brushy stuff in the middle of the yard. and i wanted to run away or sell the house and move. instead i dragged a chair outside, along with a can of coke and an array of saws and clippers, and set to work. i now have 4 big logs, about 93 smaller logs/sticks, and a bajillion skinny branches - all drying behind the front bushes. once they are dry, we'll be set for camping firewood for a weekend or two. i'm pretty sure the neighbor's think i'm crazy. in fact, i know they do. and dad? if you're reading this, i'm pretty sure you would have had a thing or two to say about Safety With Saws. (standing on the tippy-top "this is not a step" step of a ladder while wielding a hand saw above my head; sitting down, sawing through a branch that is braced against my fleshy bare leg; sawing towards my own hand; scratching mosquito bites with the sharp edge of the serrated saw; doing all this while wearing flip-flops instead of real shoes; you get the picture. i'm very sorry.)

second meeting of Sew Watts Cookin' on sunday - 4 new people showed up! yay for that. i embroidered a cute little dogger onto a boring thrift store handkerchief. some folks knitted and some cut fabric. all was well in the world. next month we are meeting in rock creek park to do camp skillz (fire making, cooking, whittling maybe) and knitting scarves.

and..... we got another cat! a kitty sister for nilsson! a co-worker of mine knew of an abandoned kitty that needed a home, so i said i would take her. i picked her up on sunday morning. she is peachy-pale-orange tiger stripey, very very lovey and kissy, probably a little younger than nilsson - maybe 7 or 9 months? right now she has an efficiency apartment set up in our bathroom and bedroom. she'll meet her anxious grey brother tomorrow... yikes! i hope he doesn't stay mad forever. and that they have fun playing together.

pictures to come.

fondling the collections

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:14:00 +0000

as an archivist in the united states, i deal with collections of materials. i use the word "collection" all the time. about a billion times a day. if i worked in canada, say, or the UK or France, or pretty much any other place... i would use the word fonds instead.

Fonds.

i hate that word. it looks like it should mean another word for someone's private parts. it gives me the heebie-jeebies to see it on paper. and even worse, most American archivists pronounce it just like it looks - "fon(d)z." it just sounds like a dirty, leering word.

it's a french word, so it should be pronounced something like "fahn" or "fawn." archivists in canada/france/UK/etc. use it to mean a body of work created by someone and kept in its natural, meaningful order. or something along those lines. (this is where i should do some fact-checking, but i am too lazy and will therefore rely on knowledge gained in grad school... but that was 3 years ago.) even in the US, if i recall my SAA glossary of terminology correctly, archivists claim that "fonds" is the correct word, and that "collection" implies something false or not genuine. a collection meaning a bunch of stuff not naturally accumulated but instead "collected" on purpose and with a false/unnatural order. but we all say "collection" anyway. maybe i'm not the only one skeeved out by the word after all.

i won't even go into the phrase "respect des fonds."

sounds like something a mangy-looking prostitute would yell at someone on the street: "Respect des fonds, bitch!"

olympic death.

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:24:00 +0000

for FOUR nights in a row i have stayed up WELL PAST MIDNIGHT, watching the f-ing olympics. it's got to stop. now.

i haven't been this consistently tired since high school when i would regularly stay up reading until 3:00, only to get back up at 6:45... there were times i can remember starting to fall asleep standing up in the shower, as i closed my eyes to shampoo my hair. not even in college was i ever that tired. if i stayed up late, then i would just sleep late in the morning to make up for it! it never even crossed my do-gooder's mind to skip school in high school. i just drank lots and lots of Mt. Dew.

that's how i felt this morning. but without the tangy promise of Mt. Dew to get me going. but tonight! oh ho ho. tonight is going to be different. i plan to watch to sun set from my bed and hit the sack before it even gets dark. (maybe not that early, but close...)

in other news, scott and i tore out our old garbage disposal and installed a new one - all by ourselves! it was a fun teamwork project - scott spent most of the time crouched under the sink in awkward, hunching positions, his saggy pants stereotypically showing some crack, while i read the badly written instruction manual and scurried about fetching tools. i stood w-a-y back when we reconnected the power and flipped the switch - i have paranoid visions about the chopping mechanism levitating out of the hole, then flying around the kitchen before chopping my face off. i was also worried that the metal sink would electrocute me when i touched it, due to improper grounding. it's true! and that worry is actually founded in experience: in my old apartment in raleigh, there was something amiss with the kitchen wiring - if you touched the shiny chrome toaster at the same time as you touched the water heater and the sink, you would get a thrilling little shock. it sounds like an impossible combination, but due to a ridiculously small kitchen, a water heater located under the counter, and a shortage of outlets... it happened often enough. (rest gut against the counter/water heater... lean way over to the corner to put the toast in... grab the sink for leverage... ZZZZZT!)

i miss that apartment sometimes. it had a nice little yard, and a really great deck. big enough for a hammock. and a cool swinging door in the kitchen. then i remember that i now have central air conditioning. and more than one heat vent in my whole house. and no black mold growing under my bed and behind the couch. and no cold, wet sheets in my drafty winter bedroom. and that i live in a really neat city, near my old friends. in a really neat house. with a really neat person who i love very much.

avoidance.

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:02:00 +0000

okay, so i am supposed to be making lots of plans. but each time i start looking stuff up online, i get confused and i stop. i can't keep doing this! i have decisions to make, darn it!

in college, i had a friend who showed us her notebook of "ideas" that she kept as a teenager - wedding ideas and baby names, and house ideas. !!!! of course, we all mercilessly made fun of her, but now i wish i had been that girl. cutting out pictures in magazines, dreaming of the wedding i would have one day, making lists and pasting things into a notebook. because then i could have pulled that dusty old notebook out last week, clapped my hands together and declared it "Done!"

now i have to get busy - a lot of dreaming and imagining to be done in the next few months.

in any stressful situation, i normally adopt the attitude of "oh, it'll all work itself out in the end - for good or for bad." but i hesitate to do that with a wedding. i'd hate to show up to my own wedding, crying, and think "hey, this isn't what i wanted at all!"

or have a bunch of people fly in and wonder "um, where are the flowers? and wasn't there supposed to be some kind of dinner? and you know what, where's the bride?"

and i'll be the one hiding under the bed because i forgot something Major.

King Tramadol

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:15:00 +0000

For those of you out there who get horrifying cramps during your "lady time," you might want to look into a wonderful, glorious drug called Tramadol. It'll change your life. I swear it.

Mom gave me some last year, when I strained my back during a visit home. I wasn't looking forward to a 7-hour car ride with a painful back, and mom offered me one of her painkillers. Now, I refused at first. Even just looking at most prescription pain killers usually makes me woozy, sleepy, dizzy, you name it. I didn't think taking a random pain pill from my mom was a good idea, especially if i had to drive back to DC. plus, i always have nightmarish and paranoid misgivings about taking prescription painkillers. i picture myself as the next oxycontin addict, creeping around alleyways... stealing from my childrens' piggy banks, slavering for my next hit...

But! she assured me that there were basically NO side effects and it's not addictive - plus i took it in the morning, and i wasn't planning on leaving until dinner time. there was plenty of time to wait out a sleepy reaction. i took one, and all my pain magically disappeared and i was fine! no dizziness, sleepiness. nothing. just as if i took an aspirin, only much much much more effective.

it's so great. without it, i would have had to leave work this morning to go home and thrash and moan on the couch for several hours. instead, i got to go about my business as if nothing was wrong.

when my little "sample" bottle from my mom runs out, i am sooo getting some more from el doctor. and you should too.

Pictures. It's about damn time, I'd say.

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:09:00 +0000

okay, so i finally dumped a bunch of pictures off the camera today:

beach vacation

caribbean parade

camping trip/love fest, 2008!

a fun new hike: Old Rag Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:30:00 +0000

i hate the name (bess: "this smells like sour rag!"), but i am intrigued. i love the Billy Goat Trail (photo at right) at Great Falls - it's one of my all-time favorite hikes, especially the rock-scramble part up the cliff. a friend of mine recommended Old Rag, because there is a whole mile of rock-scramble-cliff-area! a whole mile! i can't do straight up rock/cliff climbing because i don't have the upper body strength, but the less-sloped areas like the cliff on the Billy Goat trail are nothing but fun.

Now that i read the description of Old Rag a leetle more closely, it sounds like something that i might want to hold off on - at least until i've been working out a little more. i'd hate to get my flubbery buns stuck in a crack somewhere and have some ranger air-lift me out. yeeesh. what a thought.

search statistics

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:58:00 +0000

every once in a while, i check to see how people end up at this site. it never fails to amuse me. the top Google search that results in a hasty visit in the middle of the night is "Norwegian porn stars"! i'd love to see the disappointment on the sweaty, leering face of the person who that typed those search terms.

just this morning, a new strange search was born:

"we've been so damn obsessed with the times, picking the scabs that grow from our minds..."

oddly enough, my website is the second-ranked result from that bizarro search. oh, the teeth-gnashing that must have ensued after visiting my little ole self-absorption.

old posts from myspace

noreply@blogger.com (mel) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:52:00 +0000

I copied these old posts from my myspace profile. i never use that thing, and i expect i will delete it eventually. but i wanted to keep the few "blog" posts i had there, because those days don't exist anywhere but in my head - and we all know that is a dangerous place. no backup memory there, people. so these are old. take a trip down memory lane with me.

Friday, December 01, 2006

birthday hatchlings!
Current mood: excited

well my birthday has come and gone, and i'd say it was a good one. in addition to other wonderful and generous gifts (grand bookcase, my morning jacket show, kitchen gadgets galore, etc.), i acquired some wildlife for the house: last night, scott and i went on a hunt for the elusive and wiley gerbil. yes, gerbil!

scott got me two gerbils for my birthday, and all the toys and habitats that come along... once they hold still long enough, I'll take some pictures and post them. for now, it will suffice to say that they are darn cute and cuddly. one is stripey-ish brown with a white belly and the other is black with white hands and a white stripe on her neck. the brown and white one is very bossy and feisty with big black eyes; and the black one bites a little, and is shy with chubby cheeks and a overbite. I haven't named them yet. i think i need to get to know them a bit more first.

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Wednesday, November 29, 2006

new shelves!

those of you who haven't been to the house lately, we have some new additions. that weird, crappy fence-like railing is gone - replaced with new LP shelves, built by my dad!

here's a link to some pictures: shelves!

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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

boys, i've got to work on my strut...
Current mood: drained

well, I don't have to work on my strut.... more like the guy at College Park Metro Auto has to work on my strut. Both front struts, to be specific. once again, i've been avoiding car repairs. once again, nearly tossing myself into the willing embrace of Vehicular Manslaughter before taking my car to the shop. it all started a few months ago, with the occassional squeal of brakes. not too worrisome, as it didn't happen consistently or often... and my dad just fixed my brakes not long ago.

then the "crazy wheel" started to appear. if you've never had your car diagnosed with "crazy wheel", it feels sort of like you are driving down a steep incline in a shopping cart with one trick-wheel. the steering wheel feels all skittery and the driving isn't very safe. sudden jerks side-to-side and all. this also didn't happen all the time, so i just put it out of my mind.

a few weeks ago my dad came to visit and, like always, he proceeded to give my car the visual inspection shortly after saying hello. his eyes nearly googled out of his head when he saw how bald my tires were. the metal mesh parts of the tire were visible. the tread was not. then scott cleverly remarked, "jesus christ! those are like telly savalas bald!!" who knew?

then i had the pleasure of driving several days in the rain on shiny bald tires. if i thought "crazy wheel" was unsafe, i had no idea how bad it could get. so i took my car to the shop yesterday, and today i am $600 lighter in the region of my pocket.

as it turns out, i needed new struts - that's why my tires went bald in a matter of months. here's a little lesson on struts (i've highlighted my favorite passage):

"Another common dampening structure is the strut; basically a shock absorber mounted inside a coil spring. Because struts have so much to do with the handling of a car, they can be considered critical safety features. Worn shocks and struts can allow excessive weight shift from side to side and front to back (read: crazy wheel!!). This reduces the tire's ability to grip the road, as well as handling and braking performance." -- Howstuffworks.com

so i guess it needed to be done. but my god! do these things a) need to be so goddamn expensive and b) happen right before i need to go christmas shopping?

i'll try to send out evites to my pity-party soon. real soon.

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Monday, November 13, 2006

salt lake city
Current mood: nervous

Well I'm back from my trip to the great salt flats of the old west. I was weary and missing home by Saturday, but scott fixed all that when he picked me up at BWI early Sunday morning. The mountains were beautiful, and especially touching as they were laid out behind the bleak stretches of neon and cinderblock that make up SLC's sprawl. So I'm home, but my thoughts are still turned to utah. Maybe because everyone keeps asking me about my trip… but maybe because I can't seem to describe the missing-ness there.

Good part #1: so through some magical intervention, I listened to my gut and I skipped the ramada inn that was recommended by the workshop organizers. Instead, for a mere $20 more per night, I languished in the lush and dimpled arms of the peery hotel. For a marble bathroom, well-informed concierge, free long-distance calls, fluffy white robes, canopy bed, and endless supplies of tazo tea and extra-smelly bath-and-body-works goo…I'd say that was money well spent. Even if it was company money.

Good part #2: sam weller's zion bookstore. I walked past this place on the first day, as it was on my path from the UTA light-rail station to my hotel (stay tuned for more about "TRAX"). I was drawn by the "zion," which from my rural ohio childhood conjures up back-country religion with names like "temple zions of the howling dog"… you know, the kind of church that is a pizza shop and video store Monday thru Friday, and church on the weekends. a drum set, moaning in the aisles. I thought I might at least find some weird religious tracts or an unsettling bumper sticker to bring home to scott. But instead, I walked through the shining doors of a really really great bookstore. Started just before the depression as a mormon bookstore, it is now nearly a block long – a hodge-podge building of winding paths, crooked doors and ups and downs – but faultlessly organized. With an even mix of brand-new and old books. Plus a great café in front! Great find. I managed to get a first edition gene Stratton-porter that I'd never read – "the harvester"

Bad part, er, strange part… well, damn I guess they're all good parts! So good part #3: the sconecutter! Okay, close your eyes… picture a scone… dense, crumbly, maybe a few currants and a buttery/milky taste. Okay, now erase that picture! In utah, evidently, a scone is more like a rectangular unfrosted doughnut (or maybe an elephant ear?) about the size of your shoe. So, doughy, deep fried… and that's about it. The folks at stonecutter then cut them (hence the name) and stuff them with all sorts of things: turkey, hot dogs, burgers, apple pie filling, sloppy joes, taco filling… all sorts of stuff. I walked past this place for a couple of days, saving it for breakfast on Friday. I ordered a wheat scone, with 'honey butter.' I got a large brown shoe, filled with about an inch of foamy margarine and slathered in honey. I choked down a few bites, but the sweetness made my jaw lock up and I could go no further. Although, if I had known what these things were, I would have gone there for a lunch of the "sloppy scone." A doughnut filled with sloppy joes??? Mama, I'm comin' home. i'm sure that's like heaven around 3:00am after a long night at squatters. Oh yeah, and the best part is their slogan: let's go get sconed!

#4: "TRAX" : utah's answer to the public transportation needs of the winter Olympics (or so I was told on Wednesday, by a friendly little elf with crippling acne and flaming red hair). Fitting with the do-gooder, no-nonsense mormon approach, the fare system is run on the honor system. You buy a ticket good for 2 hours, and get on the train. Or, you just get on the train. There's an announcement informing you that you may be required to provide proof of fare purchase, but out of the 10 times I rode the train I was only asked once. Therefore, the trains are filled to capacity with hobos and shifty-eyed cowboy types with chewing-tobacco-teeth (read: none).

There were many other good things and weird things and bad things about the city, but I am tired of typing and I can't think of anything else. I'll post picture of the mormon temple soon.So in all, salt lake city was interesting. Stores closed early, and the people and cars deserted the streets by 6 or 7:00. It felt like a ghost-town, or a modern version of the streets of the old west gold towns in movies. Wide, wide streets with a few clusters of hard-skinned pioneers trudging along, minding their own business. Big mountains covered in snow, towering over people scrabbling out a life in the town.

Currently listening :
The Covers Record
By Cat Power
Release date: 21 March, 2000

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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

ladylike
Current mood: jubilant

a ladybug lives in my office! me so lucky.

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melly feel sicky.
Current mood: uncomfortable

so my month-long deprivation of flour, sugar and caffeinne ended today with a sickening extravaganza of candy, cookies, cake and nacho cheesier doritos. in other words, today was the halloween party here at work.

i knew i wouldn't be able to resist halloween treats, so i purposely ended my "fast" a day early. but i am now regretting every move i've made today. oh you sweet strawberry laffy taffy, lumpy chewy baby ruth. my wonky friends the bottle caps. you've all turned against me. or maybe it was the lunch catered by chik-fil-a. in any case, i am riding a high queasy wave of sugary bready goodness that can only end in grumpiness and disaster.

oh help me.

one good thing has come of this day - my friend laffy taffy taught me a new joke:

Q: what green and sings?
A: elvis parsley

Currently listening :
Coles Corner
By Richard Hawley
Release date: 06 September, 2005

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

crime map
Current mood: have to pee

so i am off to check the crime map of my neighborhood. ?? i heard someone talking about this on npr this morning: there's a new feature to the DC police department website, where you can see a google-style map of the neighborhoods of DC that shows what kinds of crimes are being committed and where. hey! that's neat! so i should bait my car with some new release DVDs and some prescription meds and see what happens. maybe i could listen to my car getting broken into, while simultaneously watching the "car burglary" icon pop up on the map.

well, maybe it's not that interactive yet. but a girl can dream, can't she?

Currently listening :
I See a Darkness
By Bonnie Prince Billy
Release date: 09 July, 2002

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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

why am i so lazy?
Current mood: lazy

okay, so i am already losing this battle of the blog. i just can't keep up. the very last thing i want to do when i get home from work is get on the computer... to make things worse, i am too paranoid to stay on myspace at work for very long. i imagine these panic-sirens going off down in some basement control room of my building. calls being made to my boss... pink slips... irrational and kind of vain, i realize. (am i really that important that there would be a team of IT professionals monitoring my every online move?) but still, the fear is real.

aside from being afraid of myspace, i am also just too damn fixated on my current "detox" diet. for those of you who aren't aware, i gave up the following vices for the month of october: caffeine, sugar, flour. it was way fun at first. i felt very smug and superior over all those sugar-laden treats lining my path. it was a fun challenge, and not too hard once i got over the candy-bowl at the reference desk here at work. i mean, i can still eat tons of things. i jsut can't have pasta, or bread or candy? i can still have honey, if i want it. and potatoes, rice. all good things, and i've only cheated a few times! before the renaissance festival on sunday, i accidentally had a ginormous cup of coffee. not a good idea when you've abstained for 3 weeks. or maybe it was the chocolate-mousse-in-waffle-cup? either way, i turned into a crazy person for a while. i think i blacked out.

but now my thoughts keep circling around to the devil. i call him Sandwich. thick chewy slices of bread. chomp chomp. this devil haunts my dreams.

only a few days to go until the end of my initial challenge - but i think i might try to extend until the end of the year. ..

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Friday, October 20, 2006

I'm falling for autumn
Current mood: chipper and skippy

so we have an action-packed weekend of autumnal celebration coming up - starting tonight!

friday night: scott and i (and probably other last-minute attenders) are heading to georgetown to see one of my favorite movies - the nightmare before christmas - in 3D, no less!! yee-haw. i can't wait.

saturday night: several of us revelers are going to the corn maze out in frederick, MD... give me winding paths in a spooky dark cornfield, give me pumpkin cannons and corn rockets, give me cold mud to my knees and flirty country teenagers, but above all give me..... PIT BEEF! actually the beef last year was kind of chewy and mysterious. but the best part was sitting around a giant campfire eating handfuls of greasy meat. this year the maze is a civil war theme, which doesn't quite top last year's NASCAR theme. i wonder how they decide? next year, let's all cross our fingers for "these colors don't run - pride of america." i'd like to picture myself wandering around inside an eagle holding a flag in his beak and a dead soldier in his talons, with a tear running down his little birdie cheek.

sunday: the maryland renaissance festival! i can't even talk about that part yet. i am too excited. well okay, i will say a little about our visit there last year. the steak-on-a-stick is a gristly rip-off. and by the end of the day, i was starting to think that ankle-length velvet capes were lovely and that dream-catcher earrings were tasteful. i'll report this year's findings on monday.