New Orleans

I'm not much for taking pictures, and find it funny when I get home from a trip and the photos I have are not at all the things that were truly memorable. Because when I'm in the middle of living life, I forget to take a photo. I was in New Orleans last month, right when the river was feared to crest in the city, and before it got disgustingly hot. The first day, all I could do was marvel and how dirty and smelly it was. Seriously, even with my prior job and a dog with a penchant for rolling in small mammal corpses, I never encountered such a grotesque array of smells as I did on Bourbon St. And cockroaches roamed the sidewalks in the good part of town!

But there is something about NOLA. It really gets under your skin, and you can't help but want to return and experience more of it. My friend and I went shopping one afternoon on Magazine St. and stumbled into a movie set - Bruce Willis was in town filming a new movie called Lay the Favorite. He wasn't on site just then, but it was still cool. There's also so many neat old houses and unique sights.

The chimney tops on this house were fascinating. Speaking of beautiful places, we were lucky enough to stay at The Roosevelt Hotel, a newly restored turn of the century hotel. It's the best hotel I've ever stayed in, and had a lot of character that added to its charm. It even had a working brass letterbox. You could drop a letter in the slot on any floor and watch it fall to the lobby letterbox through the glass chute.

So many memories are jumbled - The Sazerac Bar, home of the official cocktail of New Orleans, which changed my view of classic cocktails forever. Riding the trolley, perhaps my favorite way to get around town. People watching was definitely high on the list. The unusual accents from many of the native people. This tree seemed so classic Louisiana to me, I had to stop for a photo.

A childhood dream realized

I remember being a kid and seeing Badge-A-Minit ads on TV. Oh, did I want one! I knew it would be the most awesome thing ever if only I could get one. But they were stupidly expensive for a kid, and I didn't get one. When I was in high school I again thought it would be great fun to have, but even with my own money they were still stupidly expensive and I did without. Now that I'm an adult, I again wished I had a B-A-M, decided to buy one, and went to the website. Wow. They're still stupidly expensive. Sure I'd pay 30 bucks now, but 70?? No wonder I never bought one in all the decades I've wanted it. I was telling a friend about my lifelong Badge-A-Minit dream and she opened the website on a whim. Damn if they weren't having a sale on them - the same price they were in 1988! Finally within my justification price range! I ordered it right then and there.

It's a bunch of rainbow color-coded rings and a hand press made out of a sturdy fiberglass-like plastic that reminds me of these weird chunky alphabet blocks we had as kids. The blocks were about twice as big as the classic wooden letter blocks, and hurt like hell if you threw one at someone. I have a imprinted memory of what it feels like to be clipped on the side of the head by one. I think it was yellow.
Anyway, in honor of the 2010 blizzard, I made a pin using my new B-A-M. It's a snowman sledding and he's completely filled with joy. Arms outstretched, heart lifted, smile literally ringing his face. I'm wearing it to work tomorrow.

Waiting at the crossroads

In my quest to pack up as much as I can, I'm going through all my old stuff sorting it into keep-sell-donate piles. And I find myself spending quite a lot of time playing with all the things I've saved over the years. I still have my sticker album and spent a while looking through all the collected stickers from my childhood. I was amazed how many distinct memories the stickers brought up, and how oddly fun it is to peel them off their backing and stick them down somewhere. Can you still buy stickers? I may need to buy some more.

I also have my favorite kid book that I made my mom read me every single night. Over and over, until I had it memorized and knew if she tried to skip a page to shorten the agony of reading the same book yet again. I can still quote about the first two thirds of the book. Given that it's a progressive repeating book, that's saying a lot. I wonder if my parents still have it seared in their memories too. "Big. big brown. big brown bear. big brown bear blue bull. big brown bear blue bull beautiful baboon..."
I'm willing to bet money they do. Never did figure out why the baboon was dressed in a tutu and pointe shoes.

Wanna guess how long it took me to pack the box containing these items and the rest of that shelf? Good thing I have a month to go.

Woolgathering & Rooing

Ok, this post is only halfway about fiber. Read on.

I know woolgathering as collecting fluff from bushes & fences where animals shed. According to the dictionary the main definition is fanciful daydreaming. Whatever. I know rooing as the long echoing howl our hound makes - aaarrrooorooroo, but knew deep down it has some fibery connotation as well. It's the gathering of fiber by plucking the shed parts from an animal directly.

I always gathered Katie's undercoat for spinning. It's so soft it rivals cashmere and is jet black. I spun the fiber and knit D. a hat and scarf from it. That is our special bow that has been reused on every present we give to each other for years. I still have a small bag of gathered fur to be spun. She was shedding a lot from a recent bath, and the house is currently drenched in dog fur. Normally I'd just vacuum it up and be happy with the clear carpet for a day. But I can't get any more fiber, all we have left is what's on the ground and furniture. So now I'm woolgathering. I'm using a comb and gleaning as much as I can from everywhere I see it. Every tuft is a few more inches of yarn. No, this isn't crazy, it's resourceful.

Year in review - blog style

An idea taken from a friend -- Post the first line from the first post of each month for the past year. Seemed a silly idea, but actually sums up the year pretty well. I made a mistake at first and was clipping the topmost post, which is actually the last from each month. I knew it was going to be good when it started out:

Are you effin' kidding me?

"Applewood smoked bacon, Alder wood smoked salt, 41% cacao".

Then I realized my mistake and started over with the correct posts. Too bad, it was on a good track in my opinion. Here's the corrected version:

What a tumultuous year.

What? Two political-based entries in a row?

Tonight is the first official night of "Man this would be a great night to be out camping" season.

I just flipped through my regular online life -- the series of email accounts, facebook, and friends' blogs that I normally stay current with.

Five years ago while I was in chemo, my oncology nurse suggested I try walking the Huckleberry Trail with the dog for some exercise.

I got my autumn leaf tattoo finished last night.

The wild berries are ripe--I think they're black raspberries, although they're a bit smaller like wineberries

For the locals - does Steppin Out seem a bit disappointing this year compared to prior years?

I know we all agree on the ridiculous nature of gasoline pricing.

I was flying back from a conference and killing time in the airport shops.

Living in a small town really has its advantages.

The weather has been most unusual lately.

See? Isn't that great? Oh sure some important things aren't mentioned, but overall my feeling is "Yep, that was 2008 for me".

Our Beautiful Katie

You know our sweet baby Katie. She just turned 9, and was looking forward to all the treats and present-opening on xmas. (She loved her pearl necklace and the extra attention it garnered). She'd been a little tired this weekend, but nothing concerning. On Wed. morning she didn't feel well, didn't want to eat or really get up. She was worse when I got home and we took her to the vet. She was so lethargic she barely lifted her head. They found splenic cancer with metastases to her liver and possibly lungs. Sitting there seeing the blood counts and xrays, hearing the options was horrifying - too close to home. Clinging to a hope she might be ok like I was.
Coming to terms that it wasn't an option. We spent 8 hours at the emergency vet, and left without our Katie. There really wasn't any hope to even extend her life without suffering. OMG I can't believe this happened. Until the day before she was perfectly healthy and happy. Chasing Windy and loving life. Once we decided, I went home to get Windy, and stopped to get some french fries, Katie's favorite. She ate a couple, then lay back down. Darin snuggled against her, the vet gave her the injection and Darin pet her and whispered in her ear until her last breath. It was really beautiful, she was so happy and peaceful and content. We should all be so lucky. It was so sudden and unexpected. One lousy day took away our Katie, when we should have had so many more with her. We love her so much, and always will.

I think I love you

We all have those songs that are strongly associated with some specific time and place. You may not have heard the song for decades, but when you run across it you find you still know all the lyrics and sing along (and possibly dance) exactly the way you did back then. You still remember your favorite lines and feel the expectation when you unconsciously know they're coming. You remember the friends who also liked it, maybe even the clothes you wore at that time. I was watching TV and I heard one of those songs playing in the background on the show. Hearing it I perfectly remember freshman year of college, standing on my desk chair while my lilliputian friend Susan and I sang along full volume with the door open. My boyfriend (now husband) thought we were freakin idiots and hated the song. It's been a source of teasing since then, and I'm probably opening up a door best kept shut by posting this. But I had to share, so here's the youtube song: I think I love you. Now, I never saw the show, and it was Susan's song to start with. Ah, I should just give up, there's no way to justify it.

So did you listen to it? Is it stuck in your head? I can demolish that with another freshman year song! Ska was overly popular that year, particularly thanks to the guys on my husband's hall. I remember the back wall of the closets were the interior wall of the next room, and a couple guys removed theirs, so you could walk through their closet Narnia-style and end up in the next room for the party. This song really pushed people's tolerances for ska music, and after a while was practically forbidden at any gathering. I just listened to it, and all I can say is Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Go ahead and listen to the first chorus (until the end of the first minute). Mephiskapheles Bumblee Tuna. The lyrics are actually from a vintage commercial, which is even weirder than the ska version.