Envirocycle

My birthday gift from Mom, Dad, and Marilyn is EXACTLY what I wanted - a composter!! This is the first one I saw a year ago, and after much research, it is the one I ended up going with. I placed the order tonight, so it should arrive next week. I have been wanting to live more green for years, but didn't have the space to do it until we moved into the house. We sent our first HUGE load of recycling last week, and we actually had more recycling than trash. I was shocked and a little ashamed that we didn't start sooner. Now we will be composting as much of our kitchen and yard waste as we can stuff into this thing. Next year I want to get rain gutters that drain into rain barrels. After that, who knows...I wish we could hook up a windmill, but I am pretty sure there is a deed restriction that prohibits it.

I thank you all for my wonderful gift - and so does Mother Earth (am I making you want to puke?).

Storm on the Horizon

I found this landscape at a Value Village store - picture Goodwill, but skeevier. I really like the composition, but I almost passed it up because it was in a big lime green frame. The frame itself is pretty nice, but the color is so godawful, it obscured the painting. I like the shape of the tree and the storm on the horizon. It's pretty, but a little ominous, too. I'm not sure, but I think it is tempera on canvas.

Kathy Griffin

Marilyn and I were treated to tickets to the Kathy Griffin show last night. Caryn and Matt got us tickets for our birthdays, and we both agree that it was a GREAT gift. Kathy was on fire! I think I actually laughed the last of that nasty cold I had last week out of my system. It's true, laughter is the best medicine. Thank you Caryn and Matt (and Kathy) - I'm healed!

I am currently reading the Lenny Bruce bio that was done in the early 70's, and it occurred to me that there are similarities between their acts. Obviously, they are both foul mouthed and piss people off, but the author described how Lenny Bruce seemed to take the audience into his confidence, like they were good friends chatting in his living room. Kathy Griffin has the female equivalent of that style, like she's talking to her girlfriend/gayfriend while she's getting a pedicure.

We sat in the front row of the balcony at the Verizon Theater, which meant that we had great seats, and we got to see Mike and Bill in their floor seats. The theater was packed, and the audience was wall to wall gay - VERY fun/electric atmosphere. Kathy was so funny that I couldn't imagine how she could top herself and end the set. Suffice it to say, she ended the show with a story about Barbara Walters and the last word she said was Astroglide! FABULOUS!

Latest ACEO's

This one of two new ACEO's (see post dated 03/01/07) we've purchased. Just like with the other ACEO's I found, I really liked it. It just seems so hopeful to me. The artist is Bob Kimball of rk-studio-fine-art, and medium is oil.

This one is a piece of outsider art by Tracy Reinhardt, an artist who has bipolar disorder and lives in New Jersey. She calls it "Locked Out" and it's part of a mixed media series she did based on her "Ticket to Work" photographs, which depict a series of door locks. This work appealed to me because I have had to deal the Ticket To Work program as a part of my last job and I agree with Ms. Reinhardt that it is not what it promises to be. I was saddened when the realization came to me that the program was a hollow, meaningless waste of tax payer dollars, and it probably does more harm than good.

Time On Earth

I spent today at work listening to my new Crowded House CD, Time on Earth. As I scanned the liner notes, I noticed that the CD was dedicated to Paul Hester, the long-time drummer from Crowded House. I checked on-line and found that he hung himself in a park in 2005. I cannot believe that I missed the news. It was so odd to think that he was dead for two years before I even knew, but I still spent the day listening to the new CD and mourning the loss. I saw them live in 1991 and I remember how funny/zany/manic Paul Hester was during the show.

The new music is great. The overall sound of the CD is more melancholy than past albums, but it suited my mood today. There is a song that is the most political I have heard by Crowded House, Pour Le Monde.

Pour le monde pas pour la guerre
and I wake up blind
like my dreams were too bright
and I lost my regard
for the good things I had
and the radio was sad.
When you listen for good
in a hope that comes to nothing
cos the liars have moved in
and they believe
their own dark medicine

I still believe that Crowded House lyrics are some of the most poetic words ever to be uttered.

A whisper that can blow a chasm wide
It took us all. It took us all.
Pushed apart the mountains & the tide.
It took us all.

Gorgeous.

Last Piece of the Puzzle

The picture I am posting is of an extra piece of puzzle that I found in a jigsaw I have been working. The puzzle was a gift to Connor years ago. It depicts a large, white, fluffy cat lounging across a giant teddy bear. It isn't my taste, but a puzzle is a puzzle, and it was in the house when I was in the mood to put one together. The puzzle contains 1000 (and one) pieces, and the extra piece is strange to say the least. It's not shaped like any of the other pieces, which are the traditional type you'd expect. The print on the piece almost looks like a fractal or something from a cartoon about space. Hardly the furry, pink and white monstrosity I have been working on. There should be a name for an extra piece of puzzle in a jigsaw puzzle box.

I spent my birthday at home and sick. Being sick sucks, but it gave me the chance to start and finish Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. I felt like I was in a race against all of the people who love to publish and broadcast spoilers. I've waited ten years for the ending to the story, and did not want to have it ruined for me. Rowling did a great job of making all of the pieces fit (so to speak), and I was not disappointed. That is to say, I am not disappointed in how the story ended, but I am very disappointed that there will not be another book. It is the end of an era in our home...

Progress

For all who have been telling me to update my blog...

Tonight I am on my own and working on restoring my blog. Marilyn is out at a pub and Connor is at Borders with David waiting for the midnight release of the last (sigh) Harry Potter Book. I realized that I have to either restore my blog to something I can live with (since it had to be stripped down after Blogger revamped their system some time ago), or I will have to start journaling (hard copy) again. I need the outlet that the blog provides, but I think I avoided doing either thing for a long time, because every time I started to write, I just felt like spewing vitriol about Marilyn's ex (He Who Shall Not Be Named). I never wanted my blog (or my journal) to be sour or bitter, so I guess it became a case of, "If you don't have anything nice to say..."

I can't believe that this is actually the last of the Harry Potter books. I'm going to miss waiting for the next one, and I'm pretty sure I will cry at the end of the story. I cried at the end of the last one when I realized that there was only one book left. I'm sorry that Grandma did not live long enough to get to the end of the story. We took her a copy of the first book for her 90th birthday. She took a look at it and was a little dismissive that we brought her a children's book. A couple of months later, I asked her if she had read it and was surprised to hear that she finished that one and had checked out and read the next two books from the library. She was hooked, but I think that is as far as she got. I think Connor was three or four when we got The Sorcerer's Stone, and now at 13, he's out at the midnight release for the The Deathly Hallows with a couple of teenagers - Thanks for taking him Dave.