The Poodle Bites

My Summer Vacation

2006-10-04T17:39:00.000-04:00

Obviously my blog has languished, but if Cardinal O'Malley can do a blog, doggone it so can I!

We did not actually get a summer vacation, but we did get three nice weekends on Martha's Vineyard, where we overlapped the vacations of other people, such as my brother and his family, and my cousin (whom I invited to share my vacation with me before it turned into a not-vacation).

Despite the vacation being compressed into brief bursts, we have some good memories that are blog-worthy:

Ctenaphores
These translucent, phosphorescent jellyfish appeared in vast drifts this summer. I went out onto the dock with my brother and his family after dark and swished a fishing net through them, making swirls of light. My kindergarten-age niece danced along the water's edge and everywhere she stepped were bursts of brightness.

Yacht Magic Carpet
This was my second trip on this boat. It's a 1959 Alden yawl that spends the summers in Edgartown Harbor in Martha's Vineyard taking passengers out for day sails three times a day. This time we went on the afternoon sail with my cousin. The conditions were perfect and I got to steer a lot!
http://www.sailmagiccarpet.com/

Photos of Squid
The Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown is very near the Chappaquiddick Ferry and we go by it all the time. This year they had a fine photography exhibit featuring the work of Benjamin McCormick, a guy who takes underwater pictures that you immediately think, "How did he do that?" In particular we were struck by the pictures that showcased the beauty of the squid, magnified many times.
www.benjaminmccormick.com

Avocet
One interest my cousin and I share is an interest in birds. We went walking on the beach one afternoon on the thin strip of sand that separates Martha's Vineyard from Chappaquiddick at the bottom of Katama Bay and saw a bunch of long-legged wading birds. The ones with the yellow legs were Yellowlegs (we are beginning birdwatchers), but what about the one with the distinctive upturned bill? Wasn't that the one in the book....my cousin affirmed that it was an Avocet as they get lots of them in California. Turns out it was a rare appearance on the island for the bird!
http://www.mvgazette.com/features/bird_news/?document=20060728_bird_news

Ali Toure
No, he did not visit the island and in fact, is deceased, but we did get to introduce my cousin to his music. Our favorite album remains Talking Timbuktu. Great soundtrack for a vacation!

Italian Charms

2006-08-07T16:18:00.000-04:00

This is another kind of embarrassing fetish. I was completely unaware of Italian charms until I saw a bracelet on the wrist of a fellow competitor at a dog show. She had a bracelet of interlocked metal links, each one with a tiny colorful enamel panel listing each of her dog's many titles. There was a CH (champion), UD (utility dog), a tiny little poodle head, a birthstone, a jump to signify agility, and so on. For about three seconds I thought it was really stupid, and then I wanted one for myself.

At the next show I was at one of the vendors was selling the bracelets and charms displayed in rows in a large flat glass case. Each little square has a springy hook on one side and a bar on the other side. With a little fiddling you can hook them together to form a bracelet. You can also get watches and keychains. I decided to start with a poodle charm, a CH charm, a CD charm, and a RN (rally novice) charm. Then I had to get the rest of the links to complete my bracelet.

I fell right into their trap and had to get more charms right away. Dog's birthstone? Symbols for his activities? What about a little sheep to commemorate his herding experiences?

Truth to tell, Italian charms are a fad that is on the wane. Dog people are rarely on the cutting edge of real world fashion. I found a great site that had a big sale on. Since I was saving so much, of course that enabled me to order more! I only wanted the enamel charms, not the rather nasty looking laser charms or the cheesy looking photo charms. And what could be more fun than to build a bracelet that commemorated each of my interests? So I snapped up a little dragonfly for my Gabaldon addiction, another poodle, this time a dog in profile...

I wear my bracelet to shows and other dog-related events. So far no one has really noticed it, but I notice other people wearing theirs even though I haven't said anything. The metal links pinch my skin when I put it on, and when it tugs on things, making it hard to forget I'm wearing it.

Just recently the Ladies of Lallybroch had a fundraiser for "Desi's Kids". I admit I was not attentive to Desi's Kids for the first year or so I was involved with Lallybroch. I knew it was our queen Judie's pet charity, but I thought it was sponsored by some lame celebrity or something. Turns out Desi's Kids is a micro-charity in honor of Judie's son Desmond who was killed in his early twenties in Thailand. Funds from Desi's Kids are channeled to larger charities that help women and children in the developing world. And of course I'm all about that. And this is a unique, exclusive Lallybroch charm featuring the charming painting of Lallybroch that is the gateway to the LOL website.

That got me to thinking about Firefly/Serenity and how I haven't found a satisfactory charm for that. I was looking for Chinese character for Serenity, or a little rocket ship, but to no avail. This week I did some creative Googling and found a Firefly charm on eBay, for a reasonable price. Did I mention that I'm a cheapskate, which is why, for example, I don't have a licensed MLB Boston Red Sox charm.

What I like about the charms is their talismanic nature. Even though I love words and love streams of words and long descriptive flows of words, I also love symbols and icons. On the Weight Watchers website users choose up to three little icons as part of their signature. I remember choosing the key, for Lifetime Member (seems a lifetime ago, but there it is), the yoga symbol (because I was practicing yoga regularly at that time) and the dog symbol. I loved the idea of choosing the little tiles to represent me, and I still do. I like the idea of a sequence of little tiles better than one "avatar".

Here are some of my favorite Italian charms links:
www.pugster.com
www.charmingdogs.com
www.myjewelthief.com

Kilt Rippers

2006-07-25T22:10:00.000-04:00

I suppose it's not a coincidence that I'm writing this while I am in the beginning chapters of a Real Book with Literary Merit (Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe). I was going to preface this entry with an explanation of how I turn to "kilt rippers" as a diversion from the serious literature I read. Then I thought back to the books I've been reading over the past year and I was hard pressed to think of one that was "serious". Nick Hornby? Definitely not the Dresden Files or the other zillion mysteries I've been reading. But still, I do get tired of dead bodies and the standard detective formula and a nice formulaic romance can be just the thing. It's kind of like turning from potato chips to cupcakes.

It's definitely a side effect of having read Diana Gabaldon that the kilt ripper has become an appealing (sub)genre to me. My consumption of general romance books is low, but I am much more likely to pick up a book entitled "Taming the Highland Princess" or "Charming the Highland Warrior" - not at full price, honest, but at Goodwill or in the revolving mass market paperback racks at the library. "Winning the Highland Lass" has only a superficial resemblance to Gabaldon in having a brawny Highland idealized male and an initially unwilling heroine, often a sassenach, in a Scottish setting. But y'know, it's a little bit of Jamie we can call our very own without any of the thinking required by Gabaldon's work. Oooh, Laird Malcolm, you can do the thinking for both of us!

Here are some favorite series:

Karen Marie Moning -Beyond the Highland Mist; To Tame a Highland Warrior; The Highlander's Touch; Kiss of the Highlander; The Dark Highlander; The Immortal Highlander (see, I am not making these names up!)
Lynn Kurland- A Dance Through Time; The Very Thought of You; Veils of Time; A Knight's Vow; Opposites Attract; Christmas Spirits; My Heart Stood Still; A Garden in the Rain (in this case I've only read the last one)
Janet Chapman - Charming the Highlander, Loving the Highlander, Wedding the Highlander, Tempting the Highlander, Only With a Highlander.

What I'm Singing

2006-05-22T22:43:00.000-04:00

The Cambridge Community Chorus is embarking into uncharted waters. We have commissioned a piece from Luis Bacalov, the composer of Misa Tango, one of our best concerts ever. To reminisce for a moment, that was the concert that we performed to a sold-out Sanders Theatre. We had a fantastic bandoneon soloist from New York, we flew Maestro Bacalov in from Italy, and we had tango dancers on stage during intermission.

So our chorus struck a deal with Bacalov to compose a new piece just for us. I guess we must not have sung that badly. The "piece" turned out to be settings of four psalms plus a Finale.

The psalms Bacalov selected are:

10: a rant against the Lord hoping for some smiting of the wicked, whose wickedness is much dwelt upon
22: another psalm of disappointment and despair with some optimism
23: very famous; we are the happy sheep
92: upbeat; forseeing a happy ending even though the wicked flourish

The text is sung in six - count 'em - six languages: English (our vernacular), Spanish (Bacalov's mother tongue), Latin (the language associated with Christian ritual), Italian (Bacalov's home tongue), Hebrew (Bacalov's language of faith) and Aramaic (for one phrase, the words Jesus spoke from the cross). The chorus has had a little trouble adapting to all those different sounds in our mouths.

More difficult than the languages has been the tempi. The piece switches from 3/4, to 2/4, to 4/4, to 7/16! Or, as we call it in Cambridge, 1-2-3,1-2,1-2).

It's been very exciting charting new musical territory, preparing a piece that no one has ever heard before. Usually with these famous classical pieces people have sung or played or heard them before. I usually buy a recording to practice with so I can learn my part in the context of the whole composition. Here, we are sailing undiscovered seas and neither the director or the orchestra knows how it is "supposed" to sound. When we first rehearsed with the orchestra last week I was completely blown away and missed lots of entrances.

Here's the Wikipedia article on time signatures. Note what is probably the most famous song to use an offbeat time: Dave Brubeck's Take Five. There are some other popular songs with unexpected time signatures: Pink Floyd's Money, for one. Peter Gabriel's Solsbury Hill also uses an odd one: 7/4.

Knitting Update

2006-05-19T18:26:00.000-04:00

So far I have made: 2 hats, 1 tea cozy, and a short scarf. Here's the link for Jessie's hat. Now I am working on a sweater. I have the back and most of the front done.

Knitting seems to be a very effective pastime for me when I can't do anything else. It works well at family gatherings, when I don't have sparkling new conversations to initiate, and on car trips (when I'm not driving). I love reading, but there are times when either my reading is constantly interrupted so it's pointless, or it's a rude time to read (see "family gathering" above). I'll post pictures when done,

Boids...filthy, stinkin' boids

2006-05-13T18:06:00.000-04:00

For the last few years Walter and I have become increasingly interested in birds. Both of us have always been interested in the natural world. Because we work in wind energy, we hear about bird and animal life at wind sites and get to learn weird trivia like that prairie chickens won't nest if there are any structures casting shadows within a half a mile, so their habitat is right out for windfarms. Our official birding career was triggered by a wind energy seminar in Vermont. The consulting biologist was explaining to the attendees how the wind site was deemed out of the path of migratory flyways. He showed a slide of the established flyways overlaid on a map of the site. The migratory map was of the entire east coast, and showed the bird highways converging into bird interstates. Three bird interstates merged into one on the coast on the border of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania: Cape May.

Like most universities, Cornell sends out a brochure of exotic tours to entice affluent alumni. You can tour the pyramids with a Cornell archaeologist, go to the theatre in London with a theater arts professor or a dozen other destinations. Some of cheapest trips in the brochure are the birding weekends, with Cornell ornithology professors from the world-famous Lab of Ornithology (or as the insiders racily term it, the "Lab of O"). It was a wonderful coincidence that not long after learning about the bird freeways, I saw that Cornell was planning a fall migration trip to Cape May. So I signed us up. We were so novice that we brought one pair of compact binoculars between us. I spent most of day one completely miserable about not seeing any birds, between sharing the binoculars and not doing very well with the compact ones. Then we made a stop at an Audubon center where they sold binoculars, and with the guidance of an actual ornithology professor I bought some fantastic binoculars. They are waterproof, relatively lightweight, and very light-gathering. Suddenly the trip was wonderful and I was seeing yellow-rumped warblers (actually very common, but our first recognizable warbler), kinglets, and all kinds of other cool birds. The now canon Sibley's Guide had just come out, and the trip leaders were very enthusiastic about it, to the point of quoting from the foreward in the field. So when we got home I ordered it, and we were equipped. On our next trip to Martha's Vineyard, a winter trip, we were pumped, driving around in our "portable heated bird blind" and discovering the overwintering birds of the Island. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Since that first trip we have been on two others - a migration season trip to Chincoteague and Assateague (always wanted to see those ponies anyway) and a longer trip to San Diego (turns out they make you sing the Alma Mater at the conclusion of longer trips). We have also started bringing our binoculars everywhere we go, which has led to some very gratifying sightings, especially far from home. One of the most magical places we ever did independent birdwatching (or "looking at birds" as I stubbornly call it, do distinguish us from the khaki-clad lifelisters) was Balmorhea Texas, an artesian spring/Civilian Conservation Corps project in West Texas. In this oasis, we saw the vermilion flycatcher, the pyrrhuloxia, and also a very cool watersnake/fish encounter.

I've been working on this post on and off for over a month (blush). But what inspired me to finish was another trip to Texas where we saw two cool new birds. One was the scissor-tailed flycatcher. Actually Walter's seen them at bit at wind sites in Oklahoma. The most remarkable thing to me about this fairly rare bird is that we spotted it on the grounds of DFW airport. We saw an American redstart within the Dallas city limits too, so it just goes to show it pays to keep your eyes open.

Flylady is my master now

2006-04-05T15:45:00.000-04:00

Walter was in California last week, and when he came back I naturally went into a last minute frenzy cleaning the house. Strangely I had been keeping pretty tidy while he was away, and for some reason I decided to shine my sink as the final touch in the kitchen. This was very strange, because normally I don't really clean the sink. I clean things that are in it, I wash down the chunky bits, but I really don't clean the sink itself. Years ago I heard about Flylady via some Internet group I was in and shining your sink is the cornerstone of the Flylady system - no kidding.

My interest in shining the sink (and we have a lovely stainless steel sink that I sent away for special because I just had to have it) got me thinking about the other parts of the Flylady program, and I started reading her website, and signed up after three days of flirting with the idea of joining the Flylady cult.

It doesn't cost anything (although I am sure she would be pleased if I bought some of her products).

So far I have been sneaking around doing my sink shining, bed making, and bathroom swiping. It's a little embarrassing.

Lallybroch community

2006-03-31T14:32:00.000-05:00

My current shameless Internet addiction is the Ladies of Lallybroch online community. The Ladies of Lallybroch is a fan community for the writings of Diana Gabaldon. Ms Gabaldon (we call her "Herself", "Diana" or "DG")'s most popular work is the series of six big thick novels beginning with Outlander that tells the story of Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser, a 20th century time traveler in the 18th century, and James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser, the man she falls in love with and, somewhat bigamously, married.

I visit the LOL message boards several times a day. I check in first thing in the morning for the Quote of the Day and to see what's going on. I drop by a couple of times during the work day for developments on the Social Board and to check the Kirk in case someone I know has a problem, or I can provide support to someone. Then I check again before bedtime in case the quote has been posted early, and to check for new developments on some of the other boards. I don't post much, maybe weekly or less, but that doesn't make my involvement any less satisfying.

I've also been involved with some offline activities, such as the massive meetup at the Fergus Scottish Festival in Fergus Ontario, a Boston get-together and the sending of gifts and cards to Herself.

I first discovered the Books two years ago, I think mostly because of their heft - I love a big juicy book, and historical time travel can be big fun. I was immediately hooked and spent every spare and stolen moment devouring Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, and The Fiery Cross. Then I found the Outlandish Companion and a related book, Lord John and the Private Matter.

Now it seems only logical that the Books would work on me in this way, and it's hard to think back and explain exactly what extraordinary effect they had on me and why.

The main characters are strong and well-developed. Claire is a few years older than the man, married, sexually experienced, smart but still capable of making dumb decisions. The man is handsome, sexy, strong, etc. but very much a man of his time, without being cruel or brutish. The situations they find themselves in don't exist only to further/hinder the relationship between them. Family and community loom larger than they do in a "romance novel".

The other thing that makes these books different from the usual historical romance is that after Outlander (boy meets girl, boy gets girl, trials and tribulations, boy keeps girl), the books diverge even from this formula. Dragonfly in Amber is an immediate sequel, with little time for happily ever after. The later books take place twenty years later with a middle aged Jamie and Claire trying to make their way in the world under challenging circumstances. Over the course of the thousands of pages there are elements of farce, thriller, and mystery as well as the "historical adventure" that the author states that the books are.

Once I discovered the books and devoured them in the kind of frenzy I hadn't enjoyed since my adolescent years, I was completely immersed in all things Jamie, Claire, 18th C, you name it, and I had to find an outlet for my obsession. Thank heavens for the Internet! There are a number of online communities for Gabaldon fans, but the most active and accessible is the Ladies of Lallybroch. LOL is run as a benevolent dictatorship by its owner Judie. It's the smoothest-running online community I have ever encountered, despite not requiring membership or passwords.

The rules are simple: Only positive remarks about the books and author; no religion or politics; be nice to each other; no under-18s. Because of the relatively high amount of traffic, posts are segregated by topic on separate message boards: one for open discussion of the books (with a quote of the day by a volunteer), one for structured book group-like discussion of the books, one for social chat, and the "kirk", for people in need of support or advice. There are also some ancillary boards for book reviews and the like.

I came for the books and stayed for the people. The membership of LOL spans continents and ages, providing an interesting cross-section of experiences and perspectives. This year I participated in a Christmas card exchange where I sent out a couple of dozen cards to complete strangers and received as many back. This fed my child desire to get lots of colorful mail and hang it on the wall. For two years I've also participated in the Secret Santa, involving a name draw, a dedicated Santa board for clues and gift suggestions, and of course presents! The first year my giftee was in New Zealand (should have bought a lighter gift as the postage was a killer!) and my Santa was from Germany. She made me these beautiful hand-decorated personalized ceramic mugs with themes from the books (thistle and Fraser crest). This year my giftee was a single mom in Texas and I sent gifts for her and her young son. My Santa forgot me but the elves made sure I was well taken care of.

My friends are getting used to my sharing information I learned from my "online book group", whether it be about pagan holidays or Brazilian waxing (ouch!).

My Lallypals have also influenced my selections in music, introducing me to the genre known as "Celtic Rock". One favorite that plays at a lot of Scottish festivals is Clan An Drumma. Lately I've been listening to Carbon Leaf, and I hope to get tickets to a local show by the Lally-favorite Great Big Sea.

Firefly Fandom

2006-02-25T17:44:00.000-05:00

About three years ago Walter's sister Sherry started telling us about a new TV show they were watching. Not being as enthusiastic about TV in general as Sherry and her family, we kind of tuned her out. Sherry started increasing the pressure to view this show, and her high school-aged daughter started taping the show to share with us. No sooner did Sherry become a fan of this show, it seemed, than it was cancelled. We thought no more of it than mild regret. But it wasn't over yet. Sherry sent us three battered home-recorded videotapes of the show. They were out of order, some were missing, some incomplete that would jump into episodes of Whose Line is it Anyway?

After some procrastination, we popped what seemed to be the first tape (they were accompanied by our niece's handwritten notes on looseleaf paper) into the VCR. We heard these words: "Here's how it is. The Earth got used up, so, we moved out, and terraformed a whole new galaxy of earths. Some, rich and flush with the new technologies, some, not so much." . That's how simple it was. In one hour, we were totally and completely hooked on Firefly.

In the beginning, not much was asked of us. It was a cancelled show, we were wistful, it was known to but a few, and there was really no way to share it.

Then, the complete series was released on DVD. That changed everything. There were more episodes, the richly detailed pilot to kick off the series, and suddenly this obscure thing was available at Target.

Watching the whole thing (fifteen hours in about four days) converted me into a Fan. I loved every character, savored every bit of witty dialogue, and, as always these days, went online to see what the fan community was like.

The fan community was already well developed, with enthusiastic folk dissecting every aspect of the show. There were websites to translate the Chinese exclamations in the show, websites discussing Firefly costumes and games. Still, at that point, I hung back and checked Firefly news every now and again to see if there were any new developments in the fate of the show.

My fandom progressed to another level once the movie was announced. How could it not? With Star Trek, the fans waited so long for a movie that even the magic of Hollywood could pretend that time stood still for the characters and actors (translation: old and fat). With Firefly, we hoped for the same kind of edgy storytelling that made us fall in love with it in the first place. I started checking Jewel Staite's blog - sharing her pleasure at her reunion with the rest of the cast. Nathan Fillion would post on the various fan boards, and Adam Baldwin too. Hints of the story started emerging, and the most fanatical fans were invited to be extras in the film. How cool is that? I don't remember George Lucas inviting me to play a bit part in The Empire Strikes Back.

Obviously I fell into a bit of a fan stupor, because I was completely taken unawares when the previews began in May 2005. Honestly I never cared for the Serenity movie official site - too much annoying Flash, and too hard to move between the Browncoat part and the public part. So I found out about the first preview screenings after the fact. But when I did find out, I was galvanized! With the objective of getting tickets for us to the next preview, I joined the New England Browncoats.

That was my initiation into the Browncoat community. It's hard to generalize about the Browncoats (and I hate the name too - it reminds me of Mussolini's Brown Shirts; the Fascist in the film 1900 left a huge impression on me). Once I was in the group, I was front and center for local Firefly happenings. The June preview? There. The September sneak preview? The premiere and opening weekend? There, with my Jayne hat on. I have been too shy to go to a Shindig (informal fan gathering) so far.

Through the NE Browncoats, I've kept on top of all kinds of fan developments. The one I have the most connection to is the Signal podcast. The Signal was launched in the summer of 2005 to promote the upcoming movie and keep Firefly/Serenity alive. Listeners were assigned guerilla marketing tasks to benefit both the podcast and the film. For example, we were told to register at IMDB, then review a lot of movies, so that when we reviewed Serenity and gave it the maximum number of stars, our review would carry more weight. The Signal is both charmingly amateurish and impressively produced. The voices are unschooled and sound just like the nerd next door, but the audio montages that mix clips from the show and other sound effects can be quite stirring.

At this point my zeal is banked and in a sort of maintenance mode. I still continue to introduce new people to Firefly when I can, I'm listening to the Signal, and following the Browncoat discussion on the list. Who knows, maybe I'll take a look at Joss Whedon's biggest hit, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Knitting

2006-02-23T23:06:00.000-05:00

Knitting is a relatively new enthusiasm for me. My mother taught (or tried to teach) me to knit when I was a girl, maybe 10 or 11 years old. I was terrible at it and my work seemed to arbitrarily add and subtract stitches. Now, of course, knitting is very "in"; actually it's probably waning. I had some passing interest in it but didn't know how to plug in. Then this summer when I was at the height of my Firefly/Serenity zeal, someone on the New England Browncoats board (a Yahoo group for fans of the show) offered to give knitting lessons to anyone interested in making a Peruvian-style hat as worn in the show by the mercenary Jayne.

I found myself in a Harvard-area Starbucks having a rondezvous with a petite twentysomething and her knitting. She was patience and kindness itself (and nothing at all like my mother, very useful in laying to rest those pesky demons of the past). I had purchased the yarns and needles in Ontario since that was my only free time near a yarn shop. It turned out the friendly Canadian yarn lady had somewhat misconstrued the instructions, and sold me a yarn so rustic there were flecks of straw embedded in it. But luckily my instructor was of the "winging it" school of knitting and adapted everything for me.

My friend Trish, a very skilled knitter, provided the additional instruction I needed to finish the hat, and for the projects that followed.

The first part of the Jayne hat looked like the product of dogged determination, but I fell into the groove by the second color, and when the time came to add the earflaps, I was gleefully embellishing. I got extra mileage out of the experience by knitting the hat at a preview for the film Serenity. Further cachet was gained by turning some other fans onto the hat pattern so they too could have hats for the Serenity premiere. My rather misshapen hat got a lot of positive attention from fellow fans during the opening weekend of the film.

After the Jayne hat, I pondered my next project. I had a lot of orange and red yarn with those rustic straw flecks left over. I'm allergic to wool, so I wouldn't be using it for myself. The Jayne hat hardly counted as extended wear.

A tea cozy seemed like the perfect thing - the teapot wouldn't complain and no one need ever see it. I did an online survey of patterns and came up with (this one). Again, Trish helped me figure out what stitch to use, after experimenting with several test swatches. However, I did the work adapting the pattern to my small teapot and yarn gauge.

By this point I'd found a role for knitting in my life. It's a great thing to do when you can't do anything else. I enjoy knitting on long car trips (thank you Walter for driving). I enjoy knitting during family gatherings (gives me something to do with my hands besides pick my fingers). I enjoy knitting during long conversations with Walter. This realization made me feel a connection with Colonial women who really didn't have the luxury of doing nothing. If they weren't producing or preparing food, they were working on clothing. Spinning, weaving and knitting could be done in their "downtime".

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

2006-02-14T22:13:00.000-05:00

I attended Westminster for the first time in the 70s while still in high school. I've been a dog nut since elementary school - I think I consciously redirected my horse-craziness into something more attainable. I joined a dog 4-H club in high school and finally had like-minded friends. With them I ventured via bus or train to New York from suburban New Jersey to Madison Square Garden. We had tickets so humble that I don't even think they came with seats. They definitely didn't have re-entry privileges. When it came time for the groups, we sat on the floor close to the ropes (which you can't do any more).

"Back in the day", as they say, Westminster was a different show. There were less people and you could actually walk around on the floor between the rings. TV didn't dominate the event and the dogs were actually on the benches for the viewing. They had "benching chains" to fasten the dogs to the benches without crates.

The show's really outgrown the venue. I don't know what's so prestigious about Madison Square Garden. If the show weren't so TV driven they could move it to a bigger venue, make it more days, increase the entry, have more vendors, and sell more tickets (I think).

The benching area is mostly a joke - exhibitors spend their time trying to avoid leaving their dogs there. It's scary crowded past the point of safety. Exhibitors can't easily move between the grooming, benching and exercise areas. Shopping is almost impossible because of the crowds and there are less and less vendors every year.

I attended Crufts, the other massively prestigious dog show (in England) a few years back, and they have a completely different formula. It's held in a giant exhibition facility and takes up three or four halls. There is no entry limit, the dog needs one championship certificate to qualify (roughly equivalent to a major in American terms) and they have something like 25,000 dogs. The number of vendors is massive - halls and halls of them - and it's a much more visitor-friendly show.

I've been very fortunate to have a friend in the poodle club who shares her Westminster tickets with me. She has the kind of tickets you can't buy - someone has to die before you can get them. They are reputedly Mrs. Putnam's former tickets. They are in the front row for poodle viewing although a little off center for watching the Groups and Best in Show. I go most years - I stayed home to care for Eva and ultimately have her put to sleep on the day of the show. This year I was supposed to go but because of the snowstorm our flight was cancelled, rescheduled, and cancelled. So I'm watching from the couch. No crowds, anyway.

Book - Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

2006-02-02T17:25:00.000-05:00

Growing up, I read pretty much every "coming of age" book for girls in the canon (Little Women, Five Little Peppers, All of A Kind Family, etc.) with few exceptions. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was one such exception. I picked it up at Goodwill a while ago and when I was looking for a break from trashy detective thriller reading I decided to give it a try. I obviously had it confused with one or more other books, because I thought it was some kind of Jewish growing up book from the Depression. Wrong on all counts, which leaves me wondering, who is Marjorie Morningstar?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a fictionalized memoir (I hear those are trendy right now!) set in pre-World War I Brooklyn. It has more in common with Angela's Ashes than with All-of-a-Kind Family. The family is poor, poorer than many in their tenement neighborhood. There is no safety net, and if it weren't for Francie's mother being a striver, this story could have been Angela's Ashes. The book is set a generation before most of the 20th century growing up stories we read. And, of the pre-WWI stories, most are set in an idealized small town America, not in the big scary city.

This story is amazing for several reasons:

It's a window into the past, to a historical America that is usually painted for us in broad strokes. It personalizes these people and their struggles to make a life for themselves.
It reads as very much true - the pains and humiliations feel too fresh to be fiction. Francie's voice comes loud and clear over a hundred year distance. I never felt this with Little House on the Prairie.
Her little-girl stories are fascinating, but so are the stories of her young adulthood, of a fifteen-year old navigating the adult working world.

The quality of this book shines brightly beside the rest of the crap I've been reading lately.

Book - Critical Conditions by Stephen White

2006-01-31T12:18:00.000-05:00

Critical Conditions features a crime-solving shrink as the gimmick, actually a psychologist, not a psychiatrist. This book has the same sensational kind of cover as all the others I read, the crime-solving shrink has a convenient buddy on the force and a (strangely offstage for the entire book) wife with a disease-of-the-month. Oh yes, and an embattled TV personality. You would think that would result in a formulaic book, since these elements seem to have been drawn from the detective thriller plot element hat. Yet it seemed to be head-and-shoulders, or at least a head, above the dreck I have been reading lately. The shrink and his officemate seemed more personable, the ickiness of details of the crime memorably icky but in a personal way. It also is one of the rare books that attempts to deal with the emotional impact of the improbably high number of tragedies that afflict the friends and family of fictional detectives. This is a book of which I might actually look for others by the same author.

Movie - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (IMAX)

2006-01-20T14:11:00.000-05:00

This one is definitely better than the last Harry Potter movie. I had a chance to watch that one on HBO a couple of weeks before seeing this one, and the overwrought time symbolism just about crushed me underneath. In this movie, the darker Hogwarts introduced in the prior film has become more homey. It still seems more like a cavernous special effect than a school where kids spend six years of their lives (or is it seven?), but it seems very fitting that a teacher would be at her most intimidating partnering students in a dance lesson. Watching the film on IMAX wasn't as life transforming as I was expecting, but it was as good as seeing it in the very best theater, with ideal sight lines, a great print, and a bitchin' sound system. It showed the CGI effects (like the dragon duel) off to advantage. Harry isn't a very handsome adolescent (as opposed to Hermione or Ron) but he might yet grow into himself, and anyway, having him be pre-accident Mark Hamill isn't the point. He's got his burden of talents and tragedy which makes him interesting enough as long as he's not a complete toad. (drafted 12/19/05)

Dunkin Donuts Lite Latte

2006-01-17T16:22:00.000-05:00

This blog has become too freakin' highbrow lately. It thinks it's the book and movie review blog. Well, sure I love to read, it's a top enthusiasm, but the purpose of this blog is to record enthusiasms, and they are a lot more diverse than recent material might suggest.

Herewith a lowbrow enthusiasm: I have just had my first Dunkin Donuts light latte, and it's really tasty! It's DD espresso coffee plus skim milk (I'm not confident to say that it's steamed in the traditional fashion) and Splenda sweetener - 3 packets for my medium size. The brochure at the register informed me it has 100 calories. And, the cashier added, the flavor syrups have no sugar in them. How do they do that?

Well, yum! I will be doing this again for sure. Unfortunately it demanded some cookies to go with it, but I did get the Snackwells.

Book - The Scottish Bride by Catherine Coulter

2006-01-10T23:20:00.000-05:00

In which we ring in the New Year with a trashy novel...I wrapped up 2005 reading what felt like a slew of "airport books", plus a bona fide work of literature, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. In my first visit to the library of the New Year (overdue books hanging over my head), I picked up three cat behavior books (still trying to understand the non-dog I am sharing my space with), an anticipatory Caribbean tour guide, and The Scottish Bride by Catherine Coulter. I think I was craving a satisfying trashy novel, the kind that would make me feel happy instead of slimed. Scottish Bride did the trick. It's the Regency-set story of an English vicar of noble family who inherits a castle in Scotland from a distant cousin. I think his brothers all have prior books written about them, but I didn't feel encumbered by my ignorance of them. Anyway, early in his initial visit he rescues a woman who says she's being assaulted by a suitor. Turns out the vicar's a widower and the woman is a bastard, which apparently puts her in the goods and chattel category. Naturally the forces of good triumph over the forces of evil, and sex turns out to be great for both of them, including new horizons in pleasure for the widower vicar. See, that's satisfying! No nasty trail of bodies needed for reader happiness.

Movie - Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley)

2006-01-08T22:49:00.000-05:00

How is it that Pride and Prejudice has entered the canon? This one is the Spunky Pride and Prejudice. It manages to be loudly authentic (pigs in the yard) yet gratingly anachronistic (Donald Sutherland's teeth). To me its main contribution to the P&P oeuvre is the milieu in which the Bennetts live (ooh - 5 points off for two French words in one sentence). I have not studied the period, but I am always curious about daily life in historical times. So, would the laundry have been drying right there or would it have been out of sight. Even if their living came from farming, would the barns and animals have been right there? Did they really do nothing all day as in past versions of P&P, except swan around reading and listening to untalented Mary play the pianoforte? Or did they do needlework and other homely tasks most of the time. I loved the ball - it was so countrified and crowded. You could imagine Darcy and Bingley thinking that his event was one step up from the peasantry and no more. Yet the couple keeps having rendezvous on the moors, in the ha-ha, when you wouldn't imagine such a thing would be possible or thinkable. The scene where Miss Bingley asks Elizabeth to "take a turn" around a large but not cavernous room seems more to the point - that Jane Austen characters struggle to find privacy in family and social crowds. This movie keeps shooting itself in the foot - it does the "take a turn" scene so well, yet by showing a cinematic alternative devalues attempts at authenticity. Keira Knightley is a lovely young woman, but she seems to be the only one in the film allowed to wear makeup. Even beautiful Jane looks drab, as does every other woman in the film, even the sophisticated Miss Bingley. Are we supposed to believe that everyone is au naturel and that it's just Elizabeth's bloom? And the teeth! Elizabeth has radioactive $10,000 radioactive teeth. Most people over 19 in that period wouldn't even smile with their lips open their teeth would be so bad. So when Mr. Bennett agrees to allow Elizabeth and Darcy to wed and shows those mega fake, mega white 21st century choppers, they jump out of his low-hygiene 19th century visage like a lightning bolt. What were they thinking?

Last week we rented Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood take on the story. It was startlingly faithful to the book, including the challenge of dowering four daughters for a man of modest means. I felt like Austen's audience would have approved, possibly even the singing and dancing numbers. Whereas this version skimmed some issues important to the period (like the value of a woman's reputation). Because the story is really about assessing a potential partners values (as much as his or her financial worth), it's a bit wobbly without those issues.

The definitive Pride and Prejudice experience: Colin Firth! 1995 BBC miniseries
Less in the heavy breathing way but with a good British ensemble cast, a previous BBC miniseries (1980).

P&P is so classic that is has been parodied many times many ways I'm sure, but the one that comes to my mind is Red Dwarf season 7 where Kochanski makes the others take a turn at her idea of a virtual reality game: Jane Austen world. Of course because the male crew members are playing too, everything ends up exploding anyway.

Book - Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich

2006-01-06T12:43:00.000-05:00

We are all going through the motions here. Even Ranger, not sexy. Though that may be because I tried his shower gel. For some reason I forgot that RANGER IS FROM NEW JERSEY. His shower gel smells like...a guy from New Jersey who is trying to smell sophisticated. Stephanie - how fat is she, really? What size pants does she wear? Is she someone who is whining because their size 8's don't fit anymore, or is she in the 12-14 size range? In this book, Stephanie quits her bounty hunter job. But that doesn't keep her from being trapped in a cycle with her cop boyfriend, or going through the same motions with Ranger (her cars blow up, he replaces them). Just to show she can't break with the past, the bad guy is a bad guy from an earlier book (maybe the first one?). I think we all need to move on here - Janet Evanovich, Stephanie, Joe, and me. I waited until someone offered to loan me this book because I was already losing faith - after investing in hardcovers for Eight, Nine, and Ten.

When I first started reading her books I laughed so much! Mostly I block that I spent four formative years living in New Jersey. But joining Stephanie Plum as she cruised around the Burg, it came flooding back to me. I started to get in touch with my inner Jersey Girl. Stephanie was earthy and funny and vain and imperfect. I will take a look at the early books to see if Stephanie has changed or if I have.

What I'm Watching Now - West Wing

2005-12-28T14:10:00.000-05:00

For the past few years we have been loyal viewers of the alternate reality known as The West Wing. I first became clued into the show when I read an article stating that West Wing shared viewers with Star Trek because they both depicted an idealized captain and crew, one leading a starship and the other steering the ship of state. We started tuning in, and after catching up on the various characters and histories, were addicted. During the first term of the Bush administration we would sit rapt in front of the TV, our packed suitcases beside us, crying "Take us now!". It never happened, and despite some flailing during the immediate post-Aaron Sorkin era, the show has regained its footing and is now our favorite alternate reality on TV. Just like with a real presidential candidate, I gradually warmed to Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), and now am a huge fan. Where do I send my Santos for President donation? I was never convinced that Leo McGarry (John Spencer) was the ideal VP candidate. It seemed like too tidy a solution during the frenzy of the Democratic Convention. I could see where the show's creators were inviting parallels to real-world VP Dick Cheney, but I never got it. Maybe I didn't know Leo's backstory well enough, but he seemed frail after his heart attack. Sadly alternate reality and reality merged before Christmas when John Spencer died of a heart attack (only 58 in real life to Cheney's 64). I'm sad that John Spencer died, and also very concerned for the Santos campaign so close to the election. West Wing has that confusing effect on me.

Second Sight - Philip R. Craig & William G. Tapply

2005-12-21T14:11:00.000-05:00

Two mediocre detective novelists! One mediocre detective novel! Two quirky loner investigators! One bland story!

Writers never seem to be able to synthesize modern celebrities. This book features the imaginary pop diva Evangeline who has a castle in Scotland and a daughter-puppet. Other than her beauty and charisma, she really doesn't have any, you know, qualities. Oh, and her Eye of Horus tattoo indicating her past participation in a cult. You could give Dougal McKenzie a microphone and he'd be a more believable pop star. Actually, a lot more believable.

There's a lot that's thin in this book (besides Evangeline and the two investigators' main squeezes). It's got the fictitious celebrity and the fictitious giant celebration ("for Humanity") which has no believable reason for being. It's got the fictitious cult-leader/guru, ditto, no believable reason for being popular. He drugs his followers? All of them?

I feel compelled to give the business-person's analysis: follow the money. So: who would profit from the Celebration For Humanity? No answer - therefore, not believable. What is the supply chain for the drugs that the cult leader uses on his followers? Is he running a drugs factory? Is he importing them from New Zealand? No one has noticed despite Big Brother computer systems that report the salaries of his bodyguards (I'm picturing them all getting W-2s from ADP)? Not believable.

Worth reading if you are stuck in an airport with only a gift shop and not a proper book store.

Jeffrey Deaver - The Vanished Man

2005-12-19T14:10:00.000-05:00

In case anybody cares, I am putting the title of the work in the title of the blog rather than what the media is. This work is a book. It's a hardcover book that was lent to me. Jeffrey Deaver is a writer of airport books, the kind that fill the paperback racks in airport shops. This is my first Deaver book, and I think I will save any future ones for airport desperation. It's a detective thriller with a stage magic theme. The main detective is a quadripilegic with a taste for high-tech and single malt. His girlfriend is a NYPD aspiring detective. The book is full of what I suppose is authentic NYPD procedure but which only comes across as jargon: ten codes and the like. I guessed that the perp was not the perp, but I didn't guess who.

What I'm Watching Now

2005-12-08T10:46:00.000-05:00

Our ritual Christmas movie is Scrooged with Bill Murray. Last night we sat down and watched it with our niece. It's got Christmas sentiments without religion and it doesn't take itself too seriously. And it makes fun of TV. I realized it's become a bit of a period piece, as you might have to explain to a younger person how a VCR could be such a luxury gift. But even if someone doesn't know who Mary Lou Retton is, the irony of her playing Tiny Tim is evident. I admit, I'm crying at the end.

We adore Bill Murray. He has tremendous range as a comedian and actor. He can come across as sweet, menacing, a jerk, or vulnerable.

So you can keep "It's A Wonderful Life", we're "Scrooged".

Welcome Tuvok!

2005-12-05T12:47:00.000-05:00

Our kitten surely is an enthusiasm at the moment. He is charming, affectionate, tidy, and amusing. Even his flaws are cute. He bites me in the face, which logically should be alarming but in some way is cute. I think it's because he sniffs delicately at length before making a slow, restrained nip. If it were sudden I wouldn't be so disarmed. He was instantly housebroken. He wakes us up at night, but not as much as a puppy would. He greets us at the door when we come home and follows me up and downstairs in the house. He spurns the toys I bought him and prefers to play with string. He's fascinated with the moving cursor on my laptop and especially enjoys those animated pop-ups (he must be the only one!). I am hopeful that my allergies will stay at bay and allow us to keep this little charmer as we are quite infatuated.

Messiah Versions I Own

2005-11-16T12:18:00.000-05:00

Christopher Hogwood, Academy of Ancient Music (1980)
“Authentic” though at least not burdened by sackbuts. Small choir, boy soprani. Gift from Mom.
Sir Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony & Chorus (1987) (Choruses only) More classic version – some tempi just too fast and missing the mystery. Good for practicing my choral part without interruption by the soloists.
Colin Davis, London Symphony & Chorus (1966) I came of age listening to this version and it’s definitive to my ear. Davis has a good feeling for the piece and the baroque sensibilities. I don’t have the CD of this, I have tapes made from LPs.
Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Symphony, Mormon Tabernacle Choir (1959) This is the version that WQXR used to play on the radio every year when I was a high school student and first discovered the piece, the version that I painstakingly taped off of the radio and carried around in my car for years before a college boyfriend gave me Colin Davis. And when he proudly presented me with the LP box set I thought ungratefully, "Why didn’t you give me the one I like?". It may be a chestnut, but it’s got grandeur and that “thing” that makes us listen to the Messiah over and over again in it’s various versions.
Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration
A shock to the ear after the original, but actually quite creative, recapitulating the history of black music over the course of the piece. It grows on me with repeated listening, but the narrative is overwhelmed by the stylings.

We're gonna get a kitty!

2005-11-15T12:22:00.000-05:00

The prospect of adding a cat to our home has caused some excitement around here. Naturally this was not an impulse decision. As our senior standard poodle Eva was in her waning years, we talked about the possibility of a cat, if one could be found that didn't trigger my allergies. Eva had a very strong prey drive and she would never have been able to relax around a cat. Last fall we attended a family wedding and met a distant relative of Walter's who, it turned out, lives two blocks from us. He and his spouse have a Devon Rex cat, which is a breed I was aware of as being "hypoallergenic". Indeed, this cat did not trigger the woman's allergies after the first couple of weeks. Through her I was connected to the Devon Rex Yahoo group (silly me, I should have known there was a Yahoo group!), and by happy coincidence the annual Devon Heaven (what we dog people would call their national specialty) was to be held in the Boston area that year. So I joined the group, I went to the show, I met breeders, I met cats, and generally became introduced to the Devon Rex.

Here's what I learned: Devon Rex are friendly people-oriented cats (dare I say dog-like?). Because they don't have much hair, they are on the chilly side so they like to sleep under the covers with you if they can. They are hearty eaters but are lightly built, on the small side, and have huge ears, big eyes, and a short muzzle. Owners tend to give them names like Yoda and ET. They come in every cat color although the dilute colors predominate.

Walter and I discussed the pros and cons of cat ownership extensively. Would Corvo our standard poodle get along with the cat? Would I be allergic? Do I need more responsibilities in my life? Was this mutant-looking cat catlike enough to please Walter?

Eva died in February, and once we had absorbed the fact of her loss, we began to consider a companion for Corvo. Surely if a cat was to be added, now was the right time so that any future dog would come into a household ruled by a cat, and hopefully adjust smoothly. We did not move fast. We decided, then re-examined our decision.

Walter planned a visit to his cousin's apartment for an allergy test. Their apartment is elegant and spare, with leather furniture. I mention this not to shed light on their character, but because that's a minimum allergy environment. I was perfectly comfortable hanging around on their couch. I progressed to playing with the cat, then petting the cat. Finally, I picked up the cat, exhaled deeply, held him up to my face, and breathed in. Unbelievably, there was no reaction! I did have itching in the open areas of my cuticles, but other than that, no asthma, no other itching. The idea that I could have a cat safely was quite stunning.

Finally as the possibility of adding a dog became more real, I decided to take action and contacted the local breeder I had met at Devon Heaven.

The breeder had a few available kittens. Among them was a six-month old tabby male that she had hoped to keep for herself but who developed to be less than show quality. The breeder herself has two small dogs, so this kitten knew dogs, and was more robust than a baby kitten.

Walter and I drove up there on a recent weekend to meet the breeder and the kittens that were available. We were greeted at the door of her modest home first by her two dogs and then by a handful of curious cats. First we were introduced to the young male and the breeding females of the cattery. I say cattery, but her modest two-story home was immaculate, without a cage in sight. All flooring was ceramic tile, but there was normal furniture and accessories. The only concession to having a group of intact cats living together was traditional wooden screen doors isolating the stud males in her study and the kittens in her bedroom.

We spent time appreciating the charms of three generations of the breeder's cats. Their temperaments were great - they were solicitous and friendly without being annoying. Walter was momentarily concerned when one cat showed up in a terrycloth pink piggy outfit. Did these cats have abnormal clothing requirements? But no, we had interrupted some animal fashion show of gifts for a third party's pets.

Then the breeder ushered us upstairs to meet the kittens. Once in the kitten room, we were lost. There were nearly a dozen kittens in the room from three litters, ranging in age from nearly four months to nearly six months. What seemed to be the cutest kittens were reserved by the breeder for her show and breeding program. None the less Walter got up onto her bed and was immediately claimed by all the kittens. Meanwhile our friend and I were also immediately popular. Time stood still as it does with a newborn baby or a litter of new puppies as we were overwhelmed by their cuteness. A picture of a kitten really is in the dictionary as the definition of cute. They were snuggly, they were playful, they were trusting, they were kittenish. But, victims of reverse psychology, the ones that came to us most faithfully, that snuggled against us most affectionately, were the not-for-sale kittens. The tiniest one, a red female, was darned cute and appealing, but still not as cute as her unavailable brothers/cousins. Reluctantly we pulled away from the kitten den to review the six month old male that I had originally expected to get. He was running with the adults and although he had been friendly we hadn't given him more attention than the breeding cats.

The minute Walter picked him up I knew it was a sale. He got that gushy expression on the face that some people get when you hand them a human baby. The tabby kitten nestled in his arms like a pro. After that, the deal was done in about five minutes. The only detail that remained was pickup date, which I hope is next week.

Food Glorious Food

2005-11-09T16:40:00.000-05:00

Portuguese meets Italian: Clams, Kale, and Chorizo over Pasta Recipe

1 tb extra virgin olive oil
4 oz chorizo (that’s spicy linguica), sliced
1 small onion, sliced
2 tsp pre-chopped garlic
½ tsp thyme
½ tsp oregano
1 c diced tomatoes
12 small clams
½ c white wine
1 bunch chopped kale
2 tb chopped parsley
4 oz pasta

Saute onion, garlic and sausage in a heavy deep pan until sausage weeps and onion is soft. Add thyme, oregano, and tomato. Bring to a simmer. Add kale, salt and pepper.

Start pasta water in separate pot.

Cover kale pot and cook for about 10 minutes.

Once pasta water is boiling, kale should be cooked down.

Add clams to kale (hinge down) and re-cover.

Add pasta to water.

Watch both, but they should converge.

Serves 2 happy people.

What I'm Singing Now

2005-11-08T11:03:00.000-05:00

Handel's Messiah. Every December the Cambridge Community Chorus performs most of Handel's Messiah. I've been joining them most years for the last ten or so. Before joining the chorus I had performed a couple of choruses from the Messiah in high school and done the rest of it in sing-ins and open readings hither and yon. Since joining this chorus I have achieved a satisfactory familiarity with the piece. I won't say I'm very good, but I do know it pretty well and do enjoy myself. What is it about this oratorio that has kept my attention for thirty years despite me having no religion? First, the music is beautiful. The recordings sound nice and all, but I assure you that it is nothing like a) being there and b) being surrounded by the choral sound and feeling it resonate in your body. Secondly, the music is complex. Singing it all these years, different insights open up to me. For example, right now we are learning number 39, Their Sound Has Gone Out. What is the correct tempo for that piece? The correct tempo should reflect the imagery the composer is using. First I thought that the metaphor was that of an echo in the mountains. But unlike "their sound", an echo diminishes with time. So I reimagined the metaphor to be that of ripples in a pond, where the ripples get bigger as the circle spreads. What kind of tempo would that require? And, more importantly, how can this chorus with its repeating motifs not be boring? It's all about the tempo, that dramatizes the sound growing stronger as it spreads to the ends of the world.

Handel's Messiah is like a stained glass window in a cathedral. It's beautiful to look at, and the amount of detail invested in it allows it to be appreciated anew even by those who don't share the faith it celebrates.

Friday Night at the Movies

2005-11-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

We managed to catch The Aristocrats at the Coolidge Corner Theater about ten seconds before it went to video. In fact, I think it was a DVD that they showed it in the theater and I had to pay $9.50 to see (Coolidge Corner: nonprofit foundation). This film managed to set my mind firmly in the gutter for about 72 hours. Considering that many films I forget altogether after 72 hours, I guess the filmmakers have accomplished something. The Aristocrats is a documentary about a joke which is as vulgar as you can imagine (or the teller can imagine), with a dead-simple setup, and a punch line which has so little to do with the effectiveness of the joke that it’s the title of the movie. The subjects of the documentary are comedians, some I had heard of and some not. Half of the movie is the story of the joke, or rather the comedians telling their story of the joke, and the other half is the telling of the joke itself. You could easily make a parody of this movie using the joke about the chicken crossing the road, but that would be missing the point. The point is exploring the jaw-dropping awfulness of the subject matter of the joke, and the relationship of the teller to the joke. This movie is highly recommended for anyone with a sense of humor who is not overly sensitive.

What I'm Reading Now

2005-11-07T14:22:00.000-05:00

Trace, by Patricia Cornwell. OK, I think Patricia Cornwell and Kay Scarpetta have lost their way. I admit that I am in the beginning part of this book, but I would have appreciated being captivated by this point. Perhaps she should have quit the series when Scarpetta left Virginia. One impossible to believe thing gets added in each book and finally the sum of the unbelievability has become too much. OK, I should have thrown in the towel when it turned out Benton Wesley was alive. That was too much like Bobby in Dallas. No wonder Scarpetta isn't able to get back together with him. Talk about lack of trust in a relationship! Lucy in this book is even more fabulously wealthy doing vaguely defined security stuff. I hate it when people are described as fabulously wealthy and I can't understand their businesses. I guess it's the business person in me. And yet, despite her ability to run a zillion dollar business and write fantastic computer code, she has a suicidally disastrous love life. Fine that she's a lesbian, whatever, but couldn't she just be unhappy like her Aunt Kay, or pathetically needy like her mother? And everyone loves Lucy and wants to help her, despite her prickly personality and keeping everyone at arm's length, even though Scarpetta has the same issues but ends up alone too much. Popular fiction doesn't have to be like this.

What I'm Watching Now

2005-10-31T14:36:00.000-05:00

Coupling, Series 4. We are too cheap to get expanded digital cable with BBC America, but our friends have been sharing this hysterically funny series with us. This is the only thing on TV that has made me laugh until a) my face was sore and b) I had to concentrate hard on not wetting my pants.
Coupling is about three women and three men, involved serially with each other. Like Seinfeld, they are friends, but not the kind of friends I’d want for myself. The relationship/gender comedy is dead on. It’s a British series, which probably gives the writers more freedom in explicit insults and sex talk, but the appeal wouldn’t be the same.

What I'm Reading Now

2005-10-27T13:10:00.000-04:00

My mother lent me Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains about Dr. Paul Farmer. It's good, but depressing. As what Farmer calls a "WL" (white liberal), I am supposed to, and do, feel bad about the suffering of the Haitian people (and other suffering groups that come up during the course of the book). And then I feel bad that I am not giving him all my money, or quitting my job to minister to the needs of the downtrodden. He's doing good work, not only helping people but showing that people can be effectively helped; he's not shoveling shit against the tide. Read this book, but be ready to send money. We should keep our eyes open to the incredible poverty in the world.

Catching Up

2005-10-27T13:07:00.000-04:00

I have been on the road a lot and neglecting my blog.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes: read.
Serenity: seen.

Condition: tired and headachy.

More to come.

What I'm Reading Now

2005-10-04T16:07:00.000-04:00

Let's start with what I'm not reading now: A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon. Which I ordered months ago in a special signed edition from her pet bookstore. Which was possibly sent from Arizona via Pony Express, because it has not reached me yet, one week later. I ordered, as a backup plan, the unabridged audio book with the goal of slowing down my consumption of the book (since it will be years before the next one), but that hasn't shipped yet.

So I had to pick some reading that is interesting, but not too engrossing. Not sensational in any way, so as not to dull my senses, but something to keep my brain tone.

While at the doctor's office last month I picked up a battered paperback called Lives of a Bengal Lancer by Francis Yeats-Brown. It's a memoir by a guy who served the British in India and became seduced by Indian philosophy (I think - I'm midway through). It's very Kipling-esque, although I believe Yeats-Brown is about 50 years after Kipling. First hand accounts of places and events that are the stuff of fiction can be fascinating.

About a million times a day I wonder when ABOSAA is going to arrive.

What I'm Listening To Now

2005-09-30T16:31:00.000-04:00

I enjoy trying new music from the library. This week I’m listening to a soundtrack from a PBS series called Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (actually I put the colon in myself because it looks so highbrow). It’s a three CD set masterminded by Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of the singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock. The sound track must have been very effective in the series because it is lush and creates an enveloping mood. Appropriately, the overall tone is bittersweet. There are many beautiful multilayered a capella songs. Some draw from the gospel and spiritual traditions. An interesting leavening to this is music from the settings where the Africans found themselves: Scottish, Irish, and what we’d call classical music. This ties in nicely with the rereading of Diana Gabaldon’s Fiery Cross I just finished. In that book, the Africans learn “American” culture from their emigrant Highland masters. They speak Scots and curse in Gaelic, and merge Scottish songs and stories with their own. The music on these CDs is really too poignant to listen to all the time – it’s primary purpose is to illuminate a story of slavery after all – but listening to it you just want to wrap yourself up in it and float away on a gentle ocean of tears.

The hunt for RED October

2005-09-30T13:57:00.000-04:00

I love that phrase. The Boston Globe uses it to describe the Red Sox' progress to the playoffs and beyond. This is my dog Corvo begging for a winning streak. Last night I went to watch our friend and graphic designer Naomi's band play at a local bar. Of course the game was on and I got totally sucked into the last exciting innings. The players really pulled it together and did what they were supposed to. Manny hit, Johnny caught, and of course Papi won the game for us. David Ortiz is so great! He's so professional and into his job. Earlier in the season I got a Red Sox bandana for Corvo. Yesterday I decided that now was the time for him to wear it. If we lost yesterday's game we would be virtually shut out for a chance at the playoffs. Even now we have to win all three of the next games in order to win our division cleanly. Similarly, in order for the Sox to get the wild card (or whatever the correct terminology is), Cleveland will have to start an immediate losing streak. The nail biting begins.

Today is Serenity Anticipation Day

2005-09-28T11:26:00.000-04:00

What is Serenity? Serenity is, in short, the Firefly movie. Firefly was a short-lived science-fiction western TV series from a few years ago which unfortunately developed its huge fan base after cancellation. Fourteen cherished episodes of the original series are available on DVD (only 11 of which were aired).

In the Serenity “’verse”, a strongarm Alliance rules the central planets. Independent-minded rebels, AKA Browncoats, and other luckless misfits inhabit the fringe planets. Serenity of the title is a transport ship which plies its trade in the outer belt of inhabited space. Serenity’s crew/ensemble cast of nine is a makeshift family led by her owner/captain Malcolm Reynolds. His second in command is his fellow veteran Zoe, who is married to the pilot Wash. Kaylee keeps the engines humming, and Jayne (“Jayne ain’t no girls name!”) Cobb provides the muscle. Permanent passengers are the courtesan Inara, the preacher Shepherd Book, and the brother and sister Simon and River Tam, who are on the run from the Alliance.

I first learned about this show from our 16 year old niece in Arizona. She and her parents loved this show so much that they videotaped episodes for us when we never got around to watching it. From the first crummy homemade videotape I was hooked. By the end of the first episode, I cared about these people and their world and wanted to know more. Justine was only able to tape eight of the aired episodes. As I tend to do when something interests me, I jumped online to find out more. I quickly learned that there was a well-developed fan community on line and that the fate of the show was in limbo. Would it be revived on Fox? Would another network pick it up? Maybe they could make episodes that would go direct to DVD? Release of the series to DVD was inevitable and Walter’s sister gave us the boxed set as a gift, to complete our conversion. Walter and I sat down and watched every episode in sequence. When we heard the series was going to the big screen, it was a bittersweet moment. As Star Trek fans, we know that the TV series format offers opportunities for more complex story lines and greater character development than a movie. On the other hand, we were looking forward to seeing our “friends” again, wherever they might appear.

Somehow this whole Firefly/Serenity phenomenon has just sucked me in. I heard rumors that sneak previews of the film were showing in the spring. In my quest for tickets, I got plugged into the local Browncoat (hardcore fan) community. Once that happened, I just got in deeper and deeper. I ordered a shirt like one that Jayne wears in the TV series. I started knitting a hat like Jayne’s mother sent him in one episode (hopefully it will be done by the premiere). I got passes to another screening this summer. And Friday I will be gathering with my fellow Browncoats at a theater downtown to celebrate the opening of what we call the Big Damn Movie.

So, having seen the movie, there’s not much anticipation plotwise. But there is a big thrill in seeing a moment long awaited arrive, when the whole world will know about Firefly/Serenity and appreciate how great it is. Because of the ensemble cast, there’s a character for everyone to identify with, lust after and so forth. And the whole roller coaster ride has made me feel like a tiny part in getting to this day, with the hope of more films to come.

Here's a litany of my Firefly/Serenity craziness:

Devoted listener of "The Signal" podcast
Signed up as Browncoat on official site
Downloaded Serenity wallpaper for my work PC
Received knitting lessons so I could make the hat
Attended preview in Manchester CT on 6/23/05
Prominently displaying Serenity placard in cubicle
Attached Serenity keychains to handbag to promote film
Attended preview in Boston MA on 8/30/05
Bought replacement set of DVDs because ours are loaned out
Signed up for IMDB so I could rate the BDM highly
Voted for The Signal on Podcast Pickle & Podcast Alley
Bought Blue Sun t-shirt

Migraines Suck

2005-09-27T16:19:00.000-04:00

I had a rather migraineous week last week. I was first stricken on Monday night, following a strenuous day and a lot of close work at the computer. It’s very important to blame something I did, so I attributed it to eyestrain from not wearing my glasses enough, and not drinking enough water. The medications (Relpax to abort the headache plus Nabumetone for the pain) worked a charm and I awoke full of good cheer. By Wednesday, though, the demon headache was back, but this time it just wouldn’t quit. Another Relpax, double Nabumetone, and a Reglan (a “helper drug”) produced no major improvement. I was supposed to go to a dog show on Thursday and I had to cancel. Instead I dragged my sorry carcass into work and stared into space for a few hours. Then I ran some errands in the car, of dubious benefit to the company and went home to bed. Friday didn’t dawn much brighter and again dragged myself into work. I was becoming apprehensive because we were planning to go to Martha’s Vineyard that weekend and I didn’t know if I’d have the wherewithal to pack. Fortunately the fog began to lift enough to do that, and I spent the trip to the Falmouth-Edgartown ferry reclining in the car with a baseball cap and wraparound sunglasses on, listening to soothing music, sipping Coca-Cola. Gradually over the course of the afternoon the headache faded and by Saturday morning I was basically normal.

A New Chorus Season Begins

2005-09-20T10:28:00.000-04:00

I've been a member of the Cambridge Community Chorus for over ten years. Why not the Somerville Community Chorus (since that's where I live?) Because the SCC does a lot of pop and after singing Christmas carols in every mall in Bergen County during high school, I have a lot of respect for the classical repertory. Performing with the SCC has had some highs and lows over the years. High: Bacalov's Misa Tango a few years ago. Also: Mozart's Requiem (Robert Levin completion - we got to meet Prof.. Levin and he gave us a little talk). Lows: Last spring's Exodus program (Handel's Israel in Egypt plus other slavery/freedom themed works and interpretive dance). The cycle of the CCC is that in the early fall we get a head start on the spring program. Then in October we switch to the December program - mostly Handel's Messiah. We get off to a late start in the new year and prepare the spring program in earnest, with a concert before Memorial Day. This year we are doing something unique: we have commissioned a new work by Luis Bacalov. It's not ready yet, and it won't fill a whole concert, so we are also learning Mozart's Missa Brevis in B. My first look at it last night was favorable. We don't have our practice CDs yet (fabulous innovation - CDs where a piano picks out your part over a recording of the piece).

A Homely Weekend

2005-09-19T15:00:00.000-04:00

I'm a little disturbed because this blog is turning into the diary of the "woman who lives life more beautifully than you". That wasn't my original intention. It's tempting to create posts to things that can be linked, which means that it's either stuff I bought or events I went to. I have to use actual writing skills to create multidimensionality when something doesn't have its own website.

Herewith, my weekend.

Friday night is reserved for watching Firefly on the Sci-Fi channel. Yes, we have the DVDs (or some of them, having sent the balance to a cousin in hopes of converting her and her family), but there's something illogically appealing about "live" Firefly. So we got some pizza delivered, our friends showed up, and we had a moderately festive evening watching one of my favorite episodes, "Out of Gas".

Saturday, I had some unrealistic intentions of getting up early to go to a faraway dog training class, but instead I was able to be up and out of the house before noon. First stop was the post office, where I picked up this week's Poodle Rescue mail. My volunteer job for Poodle Rescue is to get the applications and checks from the mailbox and send them to the other volunteers. This is a weekly job, but I've been slipping lately. I used to do it Monday, then it was Wednesday, and this week it was Saturday. From my home base at Second Wind I sent all the applications on their way, and paid bills (boring but necessary). As a little treat for myself, the Somerville Garden Club was having their annual plant sale in the square, and I got two plants: an ornamental blue fescue grass and a very cool tovara. Walter and I made a run to Trader Joe's and the MicroCenter because my printer at home died. Then off to the library to donate another round of books and CDs. I have been successfully clearing stuff out and this was my third round of donations to the upcoming library book sale. Then I just couldn't resist stopping by Target for a few domestic necessities. I checked in with Walter from there and he suggested I get the groceries while out. Market Basket was a madhouse! However I did get the critical supplies. I returned home to find Walter completely prostrate. He hasn't been doing well adjusting to his progressive lenses. I meant to be energetic upon returning home, but instead I lay around trying to finish Diana Gabaldon's second-to-last book Drums of Autumn in preparation for A Breath of Snow and Ashes coming out in two weeks. Somehow I will squeeze in the 1000 or so pages of Fiery Cross before the 27th. Then we lay around and watched the second half of My Cousin Vinny. Marisa Tomei was brilliant as the New Yorker auto mechanic fiancee. After a while I got up and made dinner (thawed pesto from last year with leftover corn on the cob shaved into it over pasta shapes).

Sunday dawned sunny and bright. Mind you we were supposed to go to the Vineyard this weekend but were put off by the imminent hurricane. Hurrumph. Our standard poodle Corvo was quite restless because he'd had a boring day on Saturday. So the first order of business was to take him to what Walter refers to as the Quackadero (from the animated film), but is really a rather gritty deserted area by the Mystic River called Draw Seven Park. It was a popular day for fishermen by the Amelia Earhart Dam there, all with their lines in the water with no particular faith that fish would actually show up. Corvo had a nice romp and ate some disgusting unidentifiable things by the water's edge. Since it's so close to the river there, Home Depot exerted its irresistible pull on Walter and we dropped in to look at snowblowers. Walter always enjoys taking Corvo to Home Depot. We had a lovely lunch at home of some wild mushroom quesadillas from Trader Joe's, and I was able to plant the plants from Saturday as well as some others that have been on my back steps for about a month. The coreopsis didn't make it, but the others proved their mettle. The quest for snowblowers continued and ended at Sears in Burlington with acquisition! Nuff said there. Then we met up with friends Trish & Dave at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington (actually a Masonic institution) to see Blue Monday, the laundry exhibit. I was a little disappointed they didn't have more about rubbing clothes on rocks, but the 50s TV commercials were very cool. Dinner was back at our house: grilled bluefish with a mysterious red Armenian sauce from Watertown, corn on the cob, tomato salad (basil & basalmic vinaigrette), and zucchini with mint. It turns out I have an old family recipe! It's from my grandmother and comes from Campania in Italy.

5 small zucchini (approx 1.25" diameter), sliced thin
olive oil
wine vinegar
1/2 c fresh mint
salt, pepper

Heat a griddle over medium heat. Brush with olive oil and brown the zucchini slices on both sides. Remove to a paper towel-covered plate. When the towel is covered with one layer of zucchini, add another towel and repeat.

Make a vinaigrette with olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Chop up the mint and put it in a mortar & pestle to bring out the mint oils. Add half the mint to the dressing.

When the zucchini is cooked, place it in a shallow dish and mix with the dressing. Sprinkle the remaining mint on top. Chill one hour or until serving.

After dinner (and some divine leftover desserts from Thursday night's party), Trish showed me how to "pick up" so I can add earflaps to the Jayne Cobb hat I'm making for the Serenity premiere. Between preparing for the new Gabaldon book and Serenity, I'm one busy fangirl!

Happy Anniversary Second Wind!

2005-09-17T16:01:00.000-04:00

This past Thursday evening we organized a party at work to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our company, Second Wind Inc.. Naturally it was pulled together with much less thought than I had originally envisioned. The main way this was evident was in the spottiness of the guest list. I really wanted to have everyone: town officials, vendors, local entrepreneurs. Instead it was pretty much driven off of the Christmas card list, and because we (lazily and cheaply) used email rather than paper invitations, many invitations were not received, perhaps blocked by spam filters. The thing I did right was get the caterers Something Savory. The chef at Something Savory is Johnny Levins, formerly of the Green Street Grill. The prodcuction staff cleared out the whole central area to prepare for the party. Jen and Sue decorated the production space with streamers and balloons. Clusters of balloons (inflated by Quoc) were anchored by hard hats. Matt and Jen some trade show graphics and and I put up some old pictures. Margaret provided and arranged flowers. Niels brought in some gorgeous glass vases he made, and a platter. Walter and Margaret had bought a couple of cases of wine at the Wine Press, one of our favorite wine stores. Jen, Matt, and I picked up three cases of beer at Downtown Wine & Spirits, a very local place that has a dizzying beer selection. Walter set up our stereo from home so I could hook up the iPod to it for music. Despite the snag with the invitations (and just plain forgetting to invite some worthy people), we had a good turnout, over 50 people. The guests mixed surprisingly well, including some bona fide networking right under our noses. We also never had a toast - I was reluctant to interrrupt the flow of the party. Since this blog seems largely to be about food, I'll list the menu:

Roasted tropical vegetable salad a medley of tropical vegetables including plantains, sweet potatoes, calabaza, breadfruit, portobello mushrooms and chayote with an extra virgin olive oil, black pepper dressing
Mozzarella, fresh basil, and tomato salad with a cracked black peppercorn, aged balsamic and extra virgin olive oil drizzle
Fried Sweet Plantains with Johnny’s own smoked tomato, chipotle ketchup
Maine Crab Cakes with a roasted red pepper, lime and scallion remoulade
Jerk Chicken Saté
Wild Mushroom Tartlets
Cod and Conch Fritters with a sun-dried tomato aioli
Key Lime Tartlets
Dessert Bars from Rosie's, including Chocolate Orgasms, Lemon Squares and Congo Bars

Weekend at Little Dove Farm

2005-09-13T23:55:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Corvo and I went with my friend Cynthia from the Poodle Club and her two poodles to make another attempt at herding sheep in Maine. This was our second time, the first having been back in June. Cynthia and her dogs are old hands at herding and had last been to the farm about three weeks ago. Corvo is not exactly a natural, but has flashes of interest. The weather on the weekend was was flawless both night and day. Even though I did't have high expectations for Corvo turning into "Babe", I was looking forward to a weekend outdoors with Corvo and an opportunity to develop our relationship. Suzanne White, the trainer, is also a tracking instructor, so that possibility was open to us as well. Cynthia and her older dog Hugo went first. They had made great strides since our last lesson in Hugo's self control, which meant he was able to do more precise tasks. They had a lengthy and gratifying lesson. Then went Corvo and me. Although Corvo did not have his nose to the ground scarfing sheep poop as he did last time, he was not that into it. I made some modifications to his kit: I had a very light collar with no tags, and a very light lead that I hoped he would drag without concern. None the less, I ended up basically towing him around the perimiter of the pen. He really did not want to engage the sheep. Suzanne tried holding him while I led the sheep around, trying to make the sheep interesting by waving their tails in front of his nose. He did have one good rampage, but not really enthusiastic. Then it was Zola's turn, Cynthia's younger dog. He too had made strides in the area of manageability, though far more wild than gentlemanly Hugo. In order to better understand what we were asking of our dogs, Suzanne had Cynthia be the shepherd, and me be the sheepdog. Then we switched. It turns out that even when the dog understands English, the job is not easy! The shepherd and sheepdog are a team, each one compensating for the other. At the close of the lessons, I stayed up in the pasture while Suzanne and Cynthia went to get the grain for the sheep. They took longer than expected (Suzanne's puppy got loose and started chasing the guinea fowl), so Corvo and I amused ourselved by playing Stick. He was certainly animated for that! Whatever it was about being in the pen with the sheep wasn't turning him on. Playing Stick in the adjacent field was completely different. He was engaged, he was practically hanging from the stick, he didn't want to quit. It made me feel better because it showed he was able to have fun with me. We just need to find the right outlet for him. At the conclusion of the day, Corvo got to be the "farm dog", managing the sheep as Suzanne moved them from the pens to the pasture, and from the pasture from the barn. Corvo's presence kept the sheep from crowding Suzanne at the gates, and from trampling her at the trough. I actually think he enjoyed that part more because he was able to be part of a human team.

Cynthia had booked cabins for us at Moody's in Waldoboro. It's a classic cottage colony consisting of a dozen or so tiny white houses raised up on blocks. Each little house has a small screen porch facing the woods. There's a small bedroom with vinyl sheet flooring, and a small bathroom with a small sink and stall shower and small towels. However it was charming in a just-for-one-night way, and serviceable. Modest furnishings, no phone, but TV. We had a surprisingly upscale dinner at the Salt Bay Cafe in Damariscotta. Breakfast was, of course, at Moody's Diner, and featured a cinnamon roll the size of my head.

Lessons on Sunday followed the same pattern. Cynthia's dogs did great, and Corvo really couldn't be bothered. Suzanne thought he did better, but I wasn't sure. Rather than persist with the herding, Suzanne suggested we try tracking. She set up three beginner tracks for him, featuring food tidbits placed every few feed along her track. It took him a little while to understand that his job was to follow the trail of food (or maybe Suzanne's trail, I'm not sure). There was an amazing epiphany for him when I heard him start scenting audibly, circulating the indrawn air through his mouth and nasal cavity. Once he started doing that, he was on the job. The three trails were straight lines, but pointing in different directions. He didn't race along the trail, but he earnestly worked it and reached the end without delay each time. I think I am going to pursue this activity as it might be a better fit for him.

In which we get some culture

2005-09-11T21:13:00.000-04:00

Our friends invited us to an opening at the DeCordova museum in Lincoln of a career retrospective of the work of their neighbor, photographer Arno Minkkinen. I had been aware of Arno's work for some time, but never really knew the scope. To see it filling most of the new part of the DeCordova was very impressive. The curators from the museum had access to the photographer's entire collection, and on their own decided to organize it according to chapters from the Finnish epic the Kalevala. Arno's photography mostly features his own naked body in landscape. Having seen an overview of his entire body of work, it's hard to generalize, but it's mostly uses the human form in an architectural way. Despite the theme being his naked body, the work is not about how gorgeous Arno's body is (although it does have a certain yogic elegance), nor is there a strong sexual theme. When the pictures are sexy, it's usually silly, like in "Little Compton" where the town is seen through an arch formed by photographer's legs, with his chilly penis ("Little Compton"?) dangling at the exact top center. I hope to have time to go back and have a more leisurely tour.

Following the reception, our friends joined us back at the house for takeout from Redbones in Davis Square.

This just trumps all!

2005-09-09T16:36:00.000-04:00

Wasn't sure what my subject would be today, but I just came back from the Poodle Rescue PO Box with a mysterious lumpy package in a padded envelope, addressed to Evelyn, our newsletter editor. I was feeling cranky about having to send it on to her, grumbling that if it was anything good I might just keep it. So when I got back to the office, I zipped it open and out popped a beautiful white baseball. It was a pristine big-league hardball. I rolled it around and in wonderment, I saw the signature: "Mike Timlin". My hat is off to these guys that after signing irregular object after irregular object that their signature is still recognizable. The ball was accompanied by a letter on Red Sox letterhead with a nice letter explaining how the Red Sox support community organizations like Poodle Rescue, and that they hope the enclosed ball, signed by Trot Nixon (oops!) would be helpful at our upcoming fundraiser. Ain't that sweet! So I bounced all around the office showing off "my" new prize, starting in the production area where the real fans are, and going around the office. Monday I'll show it to Jen and some of the other people are not in today. Maybe I'll take it home over the weekend for safekeeping...

2005-09-08T11:57:00.000-04:00

Woo hoo! My Blue Sun shirt arrived today! I can't wait to wear it! I am wondering if I should cut the neck band out to be more authentic...

Last night niece Margaret came over for dinner. We had quite the feast: aged cheeses from Whole Foods (once I realized that well-aged cheeses don't trigger my lactose intolerance, it opened a world of fun), lobsters, corn on the cob from the Farmer's Market, sliced heirloom tomatoes with basil, oil & basalmic vinegar from the Farmer's market, and a no-bake peach pie. Margaret brought some ice cream from Nantasket; the ginger flavor went especially well with the peach pie.

I gave her my copy of Nights of Rain and Stars because she spent a while in Greece and it might resonate for her. I think the book is more appropriate for an audience that vacations regularly in Greece (e.g. British/Irish).

2005-09-07T23:31:00.000-04:00

Last night the board of the Poodle Club of Massachusetts met at Performance Plus Dog Training in Taunton to look the facility over as a possible show site. The meeting then continued at a nearby Ruby Tuesday's (crab cake burger, quite tasty with whole wheat bun and remoulade sauce). I took the opportunity to present the Poodle Health Registry to the group. They voted to include a link to the PHR on the PCM website.

The PHR is a great project because it is a centralized source for verified, broad-ranging health information for poodles. I'm planning a newsletter article to introduce the PHR to the club.

Oh yes, and while I was at Performance Plus I signed up for an agility class.

When the Vineyard is Good, it's Very Very Good

2005-09-06T14:25:00.000-04:00

Walter and I turned to each other last Friday afternoon and asked the question, "Why are we here?" Everyone we knew who could leave town had left town. That left Somerville populated with confused 19 year olds mishandling U-Hauls, and us. The weather was forecast to be consistently beautiful. So we decided to head to Martha's Vineyard for the long weekend. Day 1: Migraine, relaxation and dinner at The Square-Rigger (grilled lobsters, mmm). Day 2: Kayaking, swimming, and strolling. Day 3: Kayaking, long beach walk and home.