Parrot love

Moon Report: 65% full. The moon is waxing gibbous today. [I secretly like to say the word gibbous.]

So the parrots are screeching like banshees in the living room because I turned on Sesame Street for them. They love the songs and all the odd noises and are doing well by imitation. However, Linus has picked up this very weird metallic twirrr and he sounds like Wall-E and I don't know where he learned it.

Linus is in love with my sister. He says "Hi, Erin" over and over even when she is not here. Then he'll say "Come give me kisses" and makes a smooching sound. He has also taken to humping Erin's arm when she is around unless we keep him very distracted.

Gabbi is singing songs of her own invention. Sometimes I can hear fragments of Led Zeppelin and "Row, row, row your boat" and "E-I-E-I-O" as well as the theme from Oklahoma. What is nice is that she yells at the dog for me and I don't even have to bother much anymore. She tells Dobby when to sit, to go lie down, to knock it off, and to go outside.

Max is being much more sociable now that he is able to run from one couch to the other without much effort. Unfortunately he is also able to stalk you for food when wheedling and flirting isn't getting the job done. And if I have anything with cheese he'll fling himself like a velociraptor without waiting to be invited. And after nineteen years, he's learning new words too.

mystery

It's almost 11:30pm and I was dead asleep. Someone knocked at the front door. Even the dog woke up and he doesn't wake up for much after ten.

However, I am now very confused because not only was there no one at the door, but the motion detection lights were not on and all the neighboring houses were also dark. There is only one possible way for someone to get to the front door without triggering motion lights and no one was there. Believe me I went to check. There weren't even giggling kids anywhere around the street--the night is cold and clear enough to be able to hear them anywhere around.

I thought it might have been a neighbor in an emergency...but no. No one was there.

Saturday...in the dark (no, it's not the 4th of July)

Terribly sorry for that sad-sack reference to "Saturday in the Park" by Chicago...it just popped into my head. I was looking out the office window at almost 7:30am on a Saturday morning and it was pitch black outside. I couldn't even see the maple tree in the front yard. Of course this could have more to do with my lack of glasses than darkness...


Moon Report: 40% of full. waxing crescent.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

--Dorothy Parker

On a Saturday! What a pity in midwinter dark that I should be up and around before 7am. Isn't there some law of Midwestern hibernation? But no. I was wide awake. So I have been snerting around on the web. Here's what I found:

1. A funny brainworm...

2. Today's Poem from the Writer's Almanac

3. My friend Melissa's blog: Whimsy. [Hiya M!]

4. My secret science addiction

That's as far as I got before I posted here. I'm sure I'll get on to Ravelry soon...but that place is a mammoth zone for eye candy. Once you're in, you lose track of space and time. I was sucked in for four hours yesterday without even realizing it.

Would you look at that...pink sunlight through all the grey gloom of cloud. Morning is here!

Lazy Friday...

Moon Report: 33% of full. waxing crescent.

I know that the language of my passion

and the language of my art are not the same thing.

--Jeanette Winterson, Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery

So, again I am back to writing. Not writing as blog, but writing as actual pen on paper writing. I forgot how much I loved it. I forgot how much I love the story, the characters. It has been a homecoming--scratching pen on paper and inky fingers with doodles for figuring out how things work.

It's nearing three and I have yet to eat lunch (or breakfast for that matter). My tummy is rumbling. However, I think I am going to pack it down to the local grocery store where they have an enormous salad bar. Something green and leafy is what my body is screaming for. I think I've overdone it with all the squash I've eaten lately. The green beans I had yesterday just didn't cut the craving. Every once in a while I just need a gigantor salad filled with spinach and endive and garbanzos and peppers and carrots and celery and sunflower seeds and mandarin oranges and cottage cheese. Yum. [I'll be able to get most of this out of my own garden this summer!]

*****

Although I'd heard of it before, I stumbled on to this site a few days ago and joined: Ravelry. This is a knitting/crochet community where you get to see what patterns people have developed on their own or the projects they created with found/purchased patterns. Believe me, there is TONS of inspiration and lots of cool people to meet! It does take them a few days to add people so join the queue. I think they add a set number of people at a time as to not crash their system.

Ok, so my sweater has been postponed for a bit. I found a toe-up sock tutorial on WetCanvas! by BeeBlueFern. This is a great lesson and I'm half done with my first sock...meaning I'm about at the heel. We'll see how we get on... [Sorry about slipping into a first person plural. I may have had a Queen Elizabeth I moment.]

I've been trying to work my sweater in moss stitch, but it isn't looking right. I think I am pulling my thread too tight and it isn't leaving the "seed" visible. Although better than my first attempts at a granny square (which, by the way, looked like it was chewed by weasels), it still leaves much to be desired. I'll see if loosening my stitches will ease the problem. Or maybe it will come back after being blocked? I don't know...

At the Beginning

Welcome to 2009.

May your visit be extraordinary.

*****************************

Moon Report: 24% of full. waxing crescent.

One's real life is so often the life

that one does not lead.

--Oscar Wilde

Although not earth shattering, my goals for the upcoming year will bring me great joy.

1. To write 1000+ words a day.

Although I may not always hit the word goal, it will be important to at least meet the words at the page.

2. To plan and execute a garden.

I will plant a garden this spring filled with greens, beans, squash, and other goodies. I'm even going to grow a passel of sunflowers. So, come late July and into October, I'll be sweating and canning and eating and freezing and cooking until I drop. I'll have my own grocery store by the end of it all...

3. To read through (at least part) of my "To Read" book stack.

These books have been piling up for years and I don't read as often as I should. I put a kibosh on buying new books last year and have yet to catch up. So as I read one, I'll review it and cross it off the list.

and now, enjoy...