just a jot

MOON REPORT: waning gibbous. 69% full.



Factoids about today. I share this because I have little else to patter on about.

On February 26, 1919, the Grand Canyon was declared a national park.

On February 26, 1929, Grand Teton National Park was created.

almost done

MOON REPORT: waning gibbous. 87% full.

Well the business will be officially closed at this location in one week. We still have another month to go on the lease so I don't have to kill myself to get the place emptied of furniture and whatnots. Yay. I am THRILLED to bits to be out of a town that can't tell its head from its tail.

Now on to the new venue. We've teamed up with LifeSpaces to provide decor and funky gifts for them. I'm hoping this will be just the miracle we've prayed for. Besides, I've always wanted to do interior decorating! And we'll also offer personal shopping (for gift and decor related items) for those who are seeking something special.

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Notable Passing

Johnnie Carr
Civil Rights Activist and Amazing Woman
May your family and friends find peace.

today

MOON REPORT: full moon. 100% full.

my moon news: When I first saw the moon yesterday evening it had lifted itself beyond the horizon and held a pale gold glow. It really looked more like a harvest moon--I imagine blood red as it rose. I like moons that rise with enormity and look about to swallow the world. But the eclipse happened on a moon that was so high it looked like a dime. The shadow passed leaving the moon a greyed burnt orange as it went.

Eclipses, whether you attach meaning to them or not, are amazing. They remind us that we are a part of a much larger living system which we should not take for granted. As Neil deGrasse Tyson reminds us, the universe is trying to kill us. Best to pay attention.

See the entire interview by Mark Molaro.

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Well, the moon has been used for centuries by creative minds and idiots alike to express all sorts of notions. And the Writer's Almanac lists four writers born today: poet W. H. Auden, novelist David Foster Wallace, diarist Anais Nin, and the poet Ha Jin.

of frogs and fish

MOON REPORT: full moon. 100% full.


MOON NEWS: Eclipse tonight...don't forget! Last chance for full lunar eclipse until December 21, 2010--not quite three years. All you lunar lovers and pagani, dance naked (or in thermal undies for those in a non-conducive climate)!

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So I have been perusing the internet after hearing about this "devil frog" called the Beelzebufo. Quite a find.

The National Geographic article discusses the fossil discovery in Madagascar and the temperment of living frog descendants in South America.

I'm still trying to imagine a frog the size of a beach ball...

On to other NG news...there have been several new deep sea species discovered in Antarctica. Which, being ass cold and not the most hospitable place on earth, is no surprise. However, one of the fish is an eelpout. Technical name: Pachycara cousinsi. As a lovely overture, the marine biologist named it after her fiance...

I am not sure whether to classify this as "romantic" or not. This fish is not a looker to be sure. But maybe the excitement of a new fish is like being in love?

I wish the happy couple and their little fish all the best.

yip yip yip...uh huh yip yip yip

MOON REPORT: waxing gibbous. 99% full. (So unless you are picky, it is mostly full)

MOON NEWS: Tomorrow (February 20, 2008) is the last full lunar eclipse until the Winter Solstice 2010. Get outside and enjoy it--pray for good (if bitter) viewing weather.

Viewing

Total time: 8:43pm EST Feb 20 to 12:09am EST Feb 21

Full eclipse mode: 10pm to 10:51pm EST

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Speaking of the moon...

I adored these aliens growing up. And, well, space brings them to mind. Enjoy!

sleeeeeeeeepy

MOON REPORT: waxing gibbous. 82% full.

Even though I can barely keep my eyes open, I had to write something before the moon is full. Why? So I can write the word gibbous. I just wanted to write it. After all, how many times in your life do you utter the word (let alone type the word) gibbous?

If I cared to prop my eyelids on toothpicks instead of typing at a tortoise pace, I might be handy enough to do a bit of a word history. To find the Cliff Clavin factoids about the word gibbous. But, since I can't even see straight and am currently typing with my eyes closed, I think I'll settle for using the word gibbous whenever I can.

Ok. I can't stand it anymore.

You go watch the gibbous moon. I'm going to bed.

just because

Neil Cicierega's Potter Puppet Pals

This little clip amuses me. It reminds me of saying words over and over and over until they have no meaning. Also, the repetition gets in your head and you find yourself singing this when you should be concentrating on other things.

I hope you enjoy!

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Oh, and because I think I forgot to post the moon report this morning:

MOON REPORT: waxing crescent. 39% full.

good things i stumbled upon today

Sometimes I am amazed at the joy and positive feelings found online.

One World One Heart

A creativity swap designed to introduce bloggers to one another and showcase arts and crafts. The winners are announced on Valentine's Day.

Buy Shoes, Save Lives

This is a small organization that sells handmade Iraqi shoes called "Klash" and then uses the proceeds to fund medical interventions for seriously ill Iraqi children. And the shoes look very comfy.

the dead creep in anyway

MOON REPORT: waxing crescent. 29% full.


Ok. I need to stop watching funky shows and doing genealogy. I should only do one or the other--but not both in the same cycles.

My dreams are always odd. I can pick out (while dreaming) what is dream, what is a replay of daytime events that are regurgitated in strange ways, what is an image or idea from a recent television show, what is none of the above, etc. But today, I had a lot of disjointed dreams from TV--from Bones, A Haunting (over-sensationalized ghost stories), the History Channel, and E! None of it made sense.

Visiting a farm. I'm in Jimmy Choo shoes and a skirt. I'm walking down a fenceline in a field (in heels!) with a guy who brought me there--I've been there before. I play with the trained piglets and scoot them down a walkway between two barn buildings so we can feed them. Then there's a dead body I saw from Bones with eewy maggots.//Then I am in some industrial loft and joining the business. I get hired to re-decorate several famous residences. Then some guy comes and gives me $2.5 million to decorate his place and whatever I don't spend I can keep. Woohoo. The loft is ok. People are nice enough.//Don't go into creepy houses.//Check out markets and architecture in Paris and go to Las Vegas. Something about a giant flea market outside of LA.//Why am I on a farm?

Anyway, I thought I'd forget about the dream...but I am not sure why. Usually I write them down in a notebook I have next to the bed. I've been a dream keeper for about fifteen years. After keeping them for so long, perhaps I have learned to analyze while sleeping?

But speaking of bad ghost stories (not that I was), I came across a post by Dean Radin from the Institue of Noetic Sciences. Here's the whole post. But I was most interested in this paragraph:

One might think that purely out of curiosity the DoD might allocate

say, 0.1% of their annual budget to study what happens after

death, vs. the hundreds of billions a year spent each year on technologies

designed to produce death: 99.9% devoted to the death machine,

0.1% to the follow-up question, then what? Seems reasonable to me.

Entangled Minds post from 21 January 2008

It isn't that I have much to say about psychic phenomena and the study thereof, but I do think that the DoD funding should also do more than find new ways to produce destruction. [Sorry for the soapbox from nowhere.]

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So the genealogy thing.

I discovered I hate typing information into the computer. It is annoying and tedious. But researching databases online is a frustration of a different kind. Say you are looking up person X. Sometimes you find squat. Sometimes you find partial information. But sometimes, you get sixty listings for the same person: 1) posted multiple times; 2) with alternate spelling/name; 3) with completely WRONG information; 4) only one spouse entered (if multiple); 5) terrible legiblity/spelling ability of census information; 6) a name with no information at all.

I'm surprised I've gotten anywhere.

a foodie moment: cheese and PSAs

Moon: waxing crescent. 8% full

I love cheese--not Velveeta or processed American cheese-food, but real cheese. I don't get to eat good cheese all the time, but every once in a while a splurge is in order.

Places to splurge: Zingerman's and iGourmet

No one on earth bakes better breads than Zingerman's! I highly recommend the Pain de Montagne--and get the giant loaf...it is perfect. Oh, and the chocolate sourdough and the chocolate cherry breads are wonderful too!

Zingerman's has cheeses and gift baskets and brownies as well as all kinds of "foodie" items. I can recommend their pomegranate molasses for pork roasts and turkey!

Oh, and if you happen to zoom through Ann Arbor, Michigan, stop by the store or the restaurant. Sometimes you could get lucky and happen upon their homemade chocolate marshmallows!

iGourmet is an online foodie store where hard-to-find items are in one place. I've been looking all over to find someone who actually carried Mimolette--and they've got it! Yay.

Cheeses I want to try:

Saxonshire--a five layer cheese alternating yellow/white cheeses: double gloucester, caerphilly, cheshire, leicester, cheddar
Mimolette--a round cheese resembling a cantaloupe inside and out with a nutty flavor. This cheese can come aged just a few months to about 18 months or so. Most people seem to enjoy them aged over a year.
Chimay Vieux--a Trappist Monk cheese with a hazelnut taste (I like Chimay beer, so I thought this might be interesting too.)

My favorite 80s Saturday Morning PSA

a small diversion for the day

To make up for my "holier than thou" crack in the last post, I thought I'd bring a bit of levity to everyone's day.

more Father Ted fun

rats and saints

Moon: waxing crescent. 3% full

Today the dogs were a hit at the bank drive through and the gas station. I should say two Great Danes in a Thunderbird. Doesn't leave much room for me, the driver. But, Dobby and Filch were happy with the attention--they even got dog treats and waves from the teller and the bank customers.

Yesterday marked the Chinese New Year. We are now in the Year of the Rat. Hmm...how unpleasant that sounds. Although I read somewhere that the Chinese symbol for "rat" can also stand for "mouse". So maybe it is the Year of the Mouse?

Either way it makes me want to go to Disney World. I like visiting Disney--it's expensive as all get out, but staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge is wonderful. I've stayed in some gorgeous hotels, but this one is beyond spectacular. They have a fire pit in the lobby and the African art and materials are amazing. [As a poet, you think I'd be able to describe it better.] The whole place is surrounded by a game preserve--giraffes, zebras, funky African longhorns, antelopes, and oodles of crazy birds. The best views are from the Savannah rooms. Oh, and there are three places to eat: The Mara-a grab and go food court (good for grabbing water, munchies to keep bellies happy when walking around); Boma-a sit down casual restaurant (they also do the spectacular room service); and Jiko-the fancy restaurant.

And although I like visiting Disney, my uncle calls it the "land of the rat" because he insists that Disney destroyed central Florida. He remembers how quiet and peaceful it was when he was growing up. Me, I remember living there and watching them erect the geodesic dome at Epcot--it looked like a giant eagle nest for the longest time. I also remember all the orange fields around Orlando and Cleremont--most of which are now paved with concrete as Orlando sprawls. That I'll give my uncle. I, too, prefer places without people living directly on top of each other and with a lot of green space.

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Family Tree Progress

I discovered I am a great (x many generations) niece of a Saint. So now if anyone ever says I am acting "holier than thou" I can say DUH.

Several generations on, another Catholic member of that same branch was burned at the stake during the Protestant Reformation in England. And not too long after, my direct line hopped over to America and remained Protestant.

If you are religious and reading this, I apologize if I have offended you. I have been doing my genealogy and am discovering the odd habits of my ancestors. They were either very religious or anti religious and few seem to be on the fence.

These two seem to be the most interesting so far--just due to open documentation. Not that the rest of my family is inherently boring, but there are a lot of quiet lives. On goes the quest...

wrap ups and possibilities

Moon: new moon. 0% full. Every end is a beginning.
Solar Eclipse: not seen here. See articles: TimesOnline, The Age, ABC News Australia.

Also, the odd weather continues. Tornadoes in Tennesee, Arkansas, Alabama and Kentucky yesterday did huge damage--killed some fifty (maybe more?) people. In FEBRUARY. Now, after the almost fifty degree weather for the last two days we are being slapped with a nasty snow storm. However, I think Wisconsin and Chicago will get hit much harder. We expect only two to four inches...I heard Milwaukee was expecting something like fifteen.

I've been doing geneological research lately. Most of it is on my dad's side--my aunts got us traced back on their father's side to 1792 and their mother's side to 1698. Doing my own research, I've gotten us back to 1499 in Tintern, Wales (see Wordsworth). [This could have explained my English major to my parents.] It is amazing the information on the web--especially old information--some from archives, some from others searching the same geneological lines. Now that I've got the dates, I am going to try to put together lives--especially of family members that made the journey from England, Wales, and Germany. Hmm...perhaps I have found a new obsession?

I also stumbled across a dating site for scientists or the scientifically inclined. Brainy men are sexy. I love science--I like the stories: where we come from and where we could go. So many possibilites.

thick as pea soup

Moon: waning crescent. 4% full.

You know, I have always heard (and used) the phrase "thick as pea soup". However, I should say I am completely ignorant of pea soup in general--never had the stuff. Is it chowdery and filled with thickeners like corn starch and heavy creams? Is it just overloaded with peas and possibly ham chunks? These are things about which I am unaware.

I should mention I am NOT the cook in the family. (But I do make killer oatmeal rasin cookies!)

Back to the pea soup: we are surrounded with thick fog. It is 10:30ish and about 45 degrees out--and we've got about six inches of snow on the ground. Warm air+cold ground=uber fog. I couldn't even see ten feet in front of my car on the back roads...it wasn't much better in streetlamped areas either.

I adore fog (as long as I don't have to drive in it). It curls and wheedles around objects playing peekaboo with us. It is especially lovely with the emptiness of it--the deadness of sound, the isolation, the creep factor. Who could resist?

I remember one of the first Stephen King stories I read was about fog--I don't remember much except people being stuck in a grocery store(?) and needing to get home through very scary unseen monsters. I also remember Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon--and how certain people could become lost from Glastonbury and stumble through the mists and end up in Avalon. At thirteen, those story details make their way into the psyche--and now when fog is so thick you can't see your own hand I think about ghosts and monsters and wonder how lost I could get.

So tonight is a night to be insulated with one's own thoughts, one's own ghosts. It is a good night for journaling. It is a good night for blankets and a good book. It is a good time for silence and listening to all the sounds we never pay attention to during our busy lives. Fog slows everything down--take advantage of it.

whacko weather

Ok...for the last few weeks we've been seeing some funky weather. The weather people say it is due to a "la Nina" system. Come on, folks...this is odd weather even for that.


Imagine a normal winter day, cloudy and about 25ish degrees. Not bad--easy to get through. Usually we get a few bitter patches--0 degrees with negative windchill, sometimes worse. But we are fluctuating in 7 to 10 day-long courses from bitter single digits to 50+, getting tons of lake effect snow in between. We are currently in our fourth go round.


Today is a lake effect snow day. Really the snow wouldn't be so terrible if it would quit drifting. It makes roads and sidewalks impossible to keep clear. I'm about to go shovel the sidewalk for the second time this morning before I open the store.

Moon: waning crescent.